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Iran president says $6B in frozen assets in Qatar to be released as US talks challenged

Iran's president said Monday that $6 billion in frozen Iranian assets would be released by Qatar as negotiations with the United States were challenged by attacks across the Persian Gulf this weekend.

Masoud Pezeshkian's mention of the funds appear aimed at selling the Iranian public on the interim deal, particularly as its grip on the Strait of Hormuz has been challenged by efforts to open Oman's territorial waters to both inbound and outbound traffic from the Persian Gulf. Iran's attacks and threats stopped cargo ships and tankers from moving though the strait, in which about a fifth of all traded oil and natural gas passed in peacetime, creating a global energy crisis.

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3, including child, killed in Israeli drone strike on Gaza tent

An Israeli airstrike killed at least three Palestinians, including a child, in the Gaza Strip on Monday, after hitting a tent sheltering displaced people that Israel said housed a militant.

Health authorities in the coastal enclave said the strike hit a neighborhood in Deir al-Balah, one of the least damaged towns in central Gaza. Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said the fatalities were two men and an 8-year-old while a third man was wounded.

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Trump presses Syria to take on Hezbollah, raising alarm in Lebanon and Israel

As the White House has soured on Israel's war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, U.S. President Donald Trump has shocked many in the region by pushing an alternative: Let Syria fight the Iran-backed militant group instead.

He has suggested that the battle-hardened and Islamist-led insurgents who overthrew Syria's autocratic President Bashar Assad a year and a half ago and formed a new government would do a better job of rooting out Hezbollah than the Israeli army.

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Iran attacks Bahrain and Kuwait following US strikes and threatens to halt talks

Iran again launched drone and missile attacks targeting Bahrain and Kuwait on Sunday following new U.S. airstrikes against the Islamic Republic, and threatened a "complete halt" in negotiations to end the war if Washington continues its attacks.

Efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz without Iran's oversight has sparked days of crossfire. A multinational maritime body overseen by the U.S. Navy said Saturday it would expand a route near Oman for inbound and outbound traffic.

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Europe's record heat overwhelms Paris mortuaries, leaves families in distress

Every few minutes, the mortuary owner's phone rings. Since a record-smashing heat wave started taking lives and storage space for bodies in Paris and beyond, the funeral directors and mourning families calling him mostly have the same question: Do you have room for one more?

With all 32 places in his cold room taken, Zouhaeir Hertelli reluctantly has to gently say "Non," over and over and over again.

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Lebanon's deal with Israel requires Hezbollah to disarm. That might be difficult

Hezbollah's leader has criticized a framework agreement that Israel and Lebanon have signed to end months of conflict between the Iran-backed group and Israel, raising concerns about its effectiveness.

The agreement signed Friday in Washington links Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon to Hezbollah's disarmament, something the group rejects.

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Cargo ship hit while moving through Strait of Hormuz

A cargo ship moving through the Strait of Hormuz on a route backed by the United Nations was hit by a projectile Thursday, the British military said, as several tankers made their way out of the channel using the same path.

It was unclear who launched the projectile or the type of vessel that was targeted. The report of a strike came hours after Iran threatened vessels to stop using the route through the strait without Tehran's permission.

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Trump frustrated gasoline prices don't mirror oil's decline. Experts say it's not that simple

U.S. gasoline prices decreased an average of 49 cents a gallon in the last month as expectations rose for an end to the war with Iran. But they're not falling fast enough for President Donald Trump.

Trump, who wants to stave off the economic fallout of the war ahead of midterm elections, is now pointing at oil companies as the culprit. The president said on social media early Wednesday that he had tasked the Justice Department with investigating whether "customers are being 'gouged."

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By the numbers: What to know about Europe's heat wave

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.

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Oil tankers navigate Strait of Hormuz despite threats from Iran's Revolutionary Guard

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.

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