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Saudi authorities briefly warn of 'aerial threat' in Riyadh

Saudi authorities briefly warned Riyadh's residents of an aerial threat on Monday, a day after an attack on a skyscraper belonging to oil giant Aramco rattled the capital's business district.

Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, has faced near-daily strikes from Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis for weeks, after a truce in their long-running conflict unraveled in July.

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Trump says Iran war 'highly unlikely' to resume

U.S. President Donald Trump cast doubt on renewed fighting with Iran, telling CNN it was "highly unlikely," ahead of a meeting with mediator Qatar's prime minister on Monday.

Trump has threatened to resume strikes in recent weeks, with U.S. media reports suggesting that hostilities could restart after last Tuesday's midterm elections.

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Tens of thousands march in Amsterdam, pressing govt on Gaza and Israel

Tens of thousands of people, many of them dressed in red, marched through Amsterdam on Sunday in a mass demonstration aimed at pressing the Dutch government to take more decisive action against Israel over Gaza.

The organizers of "Red Line" demonstrations in the Netherlands called for measures including stricter trade sanctions on Israel, officially declaring that Israel's actions in Gaza amount to genocide and halting all arms sales to Israel.

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Collision between 2 trains in Egypt kills 7 and injures at least 125

Two trains collided Sunday south of the Egyptian capital of Cairo, killing seven people and injuring at least 125, authorities said. The train's conductor was among those killed.

The Health Ministry gave the casualty toll, saying in a statement that over 70 of the injured were discharged after receiving treatment.

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Israel's president gives Eisenkot the first chance to form the next government

Israeli President Isaac Herzog formally gave opposition politician Gadi Eisenkot the first chance to form the next government Sunday evening.

Complex coalition negotiations still lie ahead, but it marked a significant step in the former military chief's effort to oust Israel's longest-serving prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, after elections held in a deeply divided country. Israel remains scarred by the Hamas-led attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, and the multifront wars they triggered.

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Rubio says Trump's war on Iran not 'necessarily popular' but 'necessary'

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday that President Donald Trump launched the war against Iran even if it was not "necessarily popular" to safeguard the world from the country's nuclear ambitions.

He would not comment directly about the Republican wipeout in Tuesday's elections, which delivered a resounding rebuke to Trump. The unpopularity of the Iran war and its impact on gasoline prices and other parts of the economy helped Democrats seize control of Congress.

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Saudi Arabia turns to Syria for help as fighting with Houthis escalates

Syria is preparing to send fighters to Saudi Arabia to deploy along its border and potentially help it fight Iranian-backed rebels in neighboring Yemen, three officials with knowledge of the plans told The Associated Press.

Syrian military advisers have already deployed to Saudi Arabia, but no fighters have been sent to Yemen, according to a regional official and two Syrian officials, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.

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US launches task force to disrupt land transit routes into Iran

The U.S. military has announced it will create a 20-member task force to find ways to disrupt land routes into Iran that it says are used for shipments of weapons and illicit materials.

The restrictions would expand on a U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports during the two countries' eight-month war, in which Tehran has also restricted passage through the critical Strait of Hormuz trade route, choking global energy supplies.

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Israel defense minister says 'mission not complete' on Iran

Israel is not finished with Iran, its defense minister said Sunday, as he renewed charges that Tehran is pursuing nuclear weapons, which the Islamic republic has long denied.

"With regard to Iran, the mission is still not complete. Iran is trying to renew its efforts to obtain nuclear weapons -- alongside other grave efforts that place the State of Israel in real danger," Defense Minister Israel Katz said at a ceremony.

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Israel president taps Eisenkot to form new governmet

Israel's president announced he would task Gadi Eisenkot with forming the next government following last week's election, in what Netanyahu's rivals see as a first step to remove the country's longest-serving prime minister.

The opposition bloc led by Eisenkot, a former military chief and political newcomer who has tried to appeal to secular and liberal Israelis, has opened the door to a once improbable alliance with ultra-Orthodox Jews, which could give it the numbers to form a coalition.

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