Much of western Europe has been baking under a "heat dome" this week, with temperatures soaring above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in many places.

The extreme conditions have come in June, earlier in the summer than is usual. Records are tumbling by day and by night. Add in the humidity and it's more tropical than temperate.

A series of tankers made their way out of the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday despite threats to shipping from Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, using a new route close to Oman's shore that has been promoted by a U.N. maritime agency.

The development comes as Iran and the United States are increasingly debating the terms of the interim deal signed last week aimed at permanently ending the Iran war — from getting ships through the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf to the future of Iran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

A powerful earthquake struck off the northern coast of Japan during rush hour on Thursday morning, but the country's meteorological agency said there was no danger of a tsunami and no serious injuries were reported.

The temblor shook dozens of towns across northeastern Japan and was even mildly felt in the capital, Tokyo. It hit in an area where strong earthquakes have repeatedly been reported in recent months, including one that triggered a weeklong mega-quake caution advisory in December.

It's halftime at the World Cup. Take a break, everyone.

Wednesday marked the midpoint of the 104-match tournament — technically, just past the midpoint, with 54 matches now in the books and 50 remaining before a World Cup champion is crowned in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on July 19.

The European Union has disbursed the first 3 billion-euro ($3.4 billion) tranche of a 90 billion-euro ($101 billion) loan to Ukraine, the country's prime minister announced Thursday at the opening of a conference on Ukraine's post-war recovery in Poland.

The conference, attended by key European leaders including German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, is both a fundraising forum and a message to Russia that Ukraine's Western supporters are in it for a long haul.

Switzerland put a damper on Canada's World Cup party.

The Swiss got goals from Rubén Vargas and Johan Manzambi to beat Canada 2-1 on Wednesday and win Group B. Switzerland will get a week of rest before returning to Vancouver to face one of the eight best third-place finishers on July 2.

Ashoura comes as many of the more than one million displaced Lebanese people are trying to return to their villages in southern Lebanon. Cities and towns had held sermons and events in the buildup to the holy day surrounded by buildings reduced to rubble and ruins.

Ashoura, a holy day symbolizing sacrifice and martyrdom, holds special significance for many this year in Iran and Lebanon.

Looking out from a friend's balcony, Milia el-Cheikh struggled to find her own home in the ruins of her now-deserted village, its entrances strung with barbed wire.

Her village of Dibbine is one of several Shiite-majority communities across southern Lebanon destroyed by Israeli forces battling Iran-backed Hezbollah. Israel has occupied vast areas and fighting has raged through declared ceasefires. The latest truce — part of the interim peace deal between the United States and Iran — appears to be holding.

The U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution Tuesday authorizing new steps to ensure that perpetrators of crimes against peacekeepers face justice.

Nearly 1,100 peacekeepers from countries around the world have lost their lives in the line of duty and thousands of others have been injured since 1948, according to U.N. peacekeeping department figures. Yet the resolution says the rate of prosecution for killings and other criminal acts against peacekeepers "has remained very low."

Global shares mostly declined on Tuesday as recent enthusiasm cooled and markets faced uncertainty about efforts to end the war in Iran.

France's CAC 40 dipped 1.0% in early trading to 8,313.86, while the German DAX fell 1.6% to 24,746.63. Britain's FTSE 100 declined 0.6% to 10,379.26. U.S. shares were set to drift lower with Dow futures down 0.7% at 51,774.00. S&P 500 futures fell 1.5% to 7,429.25.