Iran says no Hormuz deal with US unless 'demads' met, Israel rejects Trump Gaza plan

US President Donald Trump announced Sunday that his new White House counsel will be Will Scharf, the staff secretary who as the Trump-appointed head of the National Capital Planning Commission helped secure approval for the $400 million ballroom project.

Trump said that, beginning Sept. 1, Scharf will be replacing David Warrington, who will be leaving the administration to join the private sector. Trump noted that Scharf previously served as a federal prosecutor and represented him in a number of cases, including at the Supreme Court.

“Will is Tough, Strong, and Smart! He also loves our Country, and respects the Law,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Will Scharf will do a great job as White House Counsel!”

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A rockfall at Egypt's largest gold mine killed one worker and injured five others, officials said on Sunday, with operations in the affected area suspended pending an investigation.

The accident occurred "inside a tunnel at an underground working section" of the Sukari gold mine in Egypt's eastern desert region, according to a statement released by the petroleum ministry.

The injured workers were taken to a hospital in the Red Sea resort town of Marsa Alam. The ministry said initial medical assessments indicated their conditions were stable.

Israel's military on Sunday closed the occupied West Bank village of Taybeh to nonresidents, saying it aimed to prevent growing attacks on Palestinians by Israeli settlers across the West Bank.

The order, the military said, only applies to Israelis and not Palestinians. A spokesperson said turning Taybeh into a closed military zone was "due to some violent attacks by Israelis in the region."

"Upon receiving any report of violations of the order, IDF soldiers are dispatched to the area and operate to disperse the gatherings and detain suspects in order to protect the citizens of the area and to maintain order," the military said in a statement.

Taybeh is one of the only Christian villages remaining in the West Bank and was visited last year by the Greek Orthodox patriarch and the Roman Catholic cardinal of Jerusalem.

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Israeli military vehicles have opened fire on homes near a mosque in the al-Tuffah neighbourhood of eastern Gaza City, according to local media, injuring multiple people.

Houthi forces are reportedly renewing their attacks on residential areas of Mocha inYemen, military officials said on Sunday, with air defenses intercepting drones.

The former commander in chief of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Mohsen Rezaei, has been named head of the country's highest national security body, the Iranian presidency announced on Sunday.

"In light of the resignation of Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr from his position as secretary of the Supreme National Security Council and his appointment to new functions, President Masoud Pezeshkian has named Mohsen Rezaei as the head of this body," presidency spokesman Mehdi Tabatabaei said on X.

Rezaei, 71, led the Guards from 1981 to 1997 -- a tenure that included almost all of the Iran-Iraq war -- before going on to occupy several high-ranking political posts. He then served as military adviser to supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei.

Rezaei declared in July that control of the Strait of Hormuz, now at the centre of the ongoing conflict between Iran and the United States, was "more important than dozens of atomic bombs".

His predecessor, Zolghadr, was also a former Guards commander and took up leadership of the council in March.

He will now become a political adviser to Khamenei, according to a statement released by the supreme leader's office on Sunday.

 Irish prosecutors charged alleged Irish crime gang boss Daniel Kinahan with directing a criminal organisation at a special court sitting late on Sunday following his extradition from the United Arab Emirates.

Kinahan was remanded in custody.

The US-backed plan for Gaza rejected on Sunday by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains the "only way forward" to prevent a repeat of Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack, the head of President Donald Trump's implementation board said.

"The option we are offering today is the only way forward that ensures this tragedy does not happen again," Nickolay Mladenov, the Board of Peace's high representative for Gaza, said in an interview with Israel's Channel 12 television.

Algeria has given the Niger army a military donation to support its logistical capabilities in the fight against "terrorism" and to strengthen defense and security cooperation between the two countries, amid a remarkable development in relations between the two countries.

The Algerian Ministry of Defense announced that the military donation includes four military helicopters, two attack helicopters of the type (Mi-171) and two type (Mi-24F), and the four helicopters took off from the military base in In Gazam in the far south of Algeria, towards Niamey airport to be handed over to the Nigerien army.

The Syrian Ministry of Interior announced on Sunday that the Internal Security Forces, in cooperation with the General Intelligence Service, managed to dismantle a cell affiliated with the Islamic State group in the city of Khan Arnabeh in the Quneitra province of southern Syria and arrested nine people.

US President Donald Trump signaled Sunday he is prepared to let economic pressure mount against Iran, apparently backing away from ordering more military strikes even as Tehran issues tough demands.

"We are low-keying it," Trump said, according to the news outlet Axios, which said it spoke to him in a brief phone call.

Only a week ago Trump made the latest of his series of threats to hit Iran hard, only to back off, as he presses for a deal to end the war he started along with Israel on February 28.

Axios said Trump did not express any frustration Sunday with Iran's delaying an agreement to open up the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has demanded that the US first end its blockade of Iranian ports and lift oil sanctions, as per the memorandum of understanding the two countries signed in June.

The strait's blockage by Iran since the war started has sent fuel prices soaring and rattled the world economy, putting pressure on the Trump administration as midterm elections in November grow nearer.

"We are only semi-negotiating with them. We are just watching Iran with its huge inflation and the fact they have no money," Trump was quoted as saying.

Trump also said oil prices are falling so American consumers are feeling less pain from the war.

"It will work out. It always works out. It's like a chess game," Trump said of US dealings with Iran.

Suspected Irish crime boss Daniel Kinahan lands in Dublin after being extradited from Dubai.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian recently met with supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not appeared in public since assuming the post early in the Middle East war, Khamenei's office said Sunday.

"Dr. Masoud Pezeshkian met Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei and spoke with him at the start of his third year in the presidency," the supreme leader's office said in a statement, without indicating the date of the meeting.

Pezeshkian, who took office in July 2024, had said in early May that he met with Khamenei, also without specifying the date, but the supreme leader's office did not issue any statements at the time.

The president had said on Wednesday that communication with Khamenei was "very difficult at the moment", and speculation has swirled about the supreme leader's health after he was reportedly wounded in strikes that killed his father.

Khamenei's office said the two "discussed in detail the country's issues and problems", including the "current military situation and future prospects".

Iran had been engaged in negotiations with Washington on ending the war launched by the US and Israel in February, but a preliminary deal fell apart, and its top diplomat has said talks are now limited to exchanging messages through mediators.

On Sunday, Tasnim news agency cited a general in the Revolutionary Guards as saying that images showing Khamenei among the people and during meetings would be "published in the future", without offering a timeline.

Israel’s army says it has completed nearly 80% of excavation work on a major military fortification project along the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, according to an Israeli media report, as Israel continues military incursions and attacks inside Syrian territory.

The project, known in Hebrew as Mizrah Hadash or "New East", consists of deep anti-vehicle trenches and earth berms running along the frontier with Syria. Ynet reported on Friday that the works began around two years ago and that the excavations are close to completion, citing the Israeli military during a field visit to the area.

According to the report, the trenches are around four metres deep and four metres wide, designed to obstruct armed groups from entering Israeli-controlled territory by car or motorcycle. The Israeli army has said the project is intended to delay any attempted cross-border incursion and give forces time to respond.

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Prominent Kurdish leader Selahattin Demirtas, jailed in Turkey since 2016, on Sunday backed a bill that would grant limited and conditional amnesty to PKK Kurdish militants ahead of a parliamentary vote on Monday.

"We hope that you will take another crucial step forward in this historic peace effort," the former co-chair of Turkey's main pro-Kurdish party said in a statement.

He said the law would "radically transform the fate of our country and our region" after more than four decades of armed conflict that has claimed at least 50,000 lives.

The bill, which cleared parliament's committee stage on Friday, would allow PKK fighters to return to civilian life under certain conditions, following the group's announcement last year that it was disbanding at the request of its jailed founder and longtime leader Abdullah Ocalan.

The bill, backed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the pro-Kurdish DEM opposition party, would suspend prosecutions and sentences for perpetrators of certain offences for a period of between five and ten years.

If those covered by the measure do not reoffend during that period, investigations would be dropped and sentences considered served.

However, some serious crimes such as intentional homicide would be excluded from the scheme.

The text does not say what will happen to Ocalan, 77, who has been in jail since 1999 but has backed a peace process launched in late 2024.