By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON, May 21 (Reuters) - Republican leaders of the U.S. House of Representatives unexpectedly canceled a vote on Thursday on a resolution seeking to end the Iran war unless President Donald Trump obtains Congress' authorization, two days after a similar measure advanced in the U.S. Senate.

The vote had been scheduled to take place late Thursday afternoon, just before lawmakers left Washington for their Memorial Day recess.

More than six months after the United Nations endorsed a peace plan in Gaza, the humanitarian situation there remains catastrophic, three global NGOs said Thursday, calling on Israel to respect its obligations.

Major gaps remain between Israel's commitments and the reality facing Palestinians, representatives for Oxfam, Save the Children and Refugees International told reporters at UN headquarters in New York.

By Sabine Siebold, Stine Jacobsen and Michael Martina

HELSINGBORG, Sweden May 22 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet NATO allies on Friday for the first time since President Donald Trump called the alliance into question due to divisions over the Iran war and Washington announced plans to pull 5,000 troops from Europe.

Before leaving for a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Sweden, Rubio said Trump was "very disappointed" in alliance members who had not allowed the U.S. to use bases on their territory for the war, singling out Spain in particular.

Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice as Al Nassr clinched the Saudi Pro League title with a 4-1 win over Damac on Thursday, ending his long wait for domestic silverware.

A trademark free-kick and a close-range finish, both in the final half-hour, sealed the win Al Nassr needed on the last night of the season, with Al Hilal finishing just two points behind.

Ronaldo, 41, who was without a major club trophy since winning Serie A with Juventus in 2020, arrived in the oil-rich desert kingdom to great acclaim in 2023, wept as he watched the final minutes from the bench.

Julien Cabral has just completed his first voyage with the "Flotilla for Gaza". One of his eyes is ringed with purple, he has a wound on his left temple and an injured shoulder blade.

The 57-year-old Belgian originally from the port of Antwerp was on board a small boat that left Turkey with six other people -- an Italian, another Belgian, a Malaysian, a Finn, a Canadian-Palestinian and a South African.

May 21 (Reuters) - The U.S. decision to remove Francesca ​Albanese, a U.N. expert on the ‌Palestinian territories, from a list of sanctioned individuals is temporary and does not reflect a policy change, the State Department said on Thursday.

The U.S. imposed sanctions on Albanese in July 2025 over what it said were her efforts to prompt the International Criminal Court to take action against U.S. and Israeli officials, companies, and executives.

Israel said on Thursday it had deported all the foreign activists seized by its forces from a Gaza-bound flotilla, as the first group arrived in Turkey following global outcry over their treatment in custody.

Hundreds of activists from countries around the world were placed in detention in Israel after they were intercepted at sea Monday while making the latest in a string of attempts to break the blockade of the Palestinian territory.

By Emma Farge

May 21 (Reuters) - The Board of Peace's lead envoy for Gaza warned the U.N. Security Council on Thursday that the enclave's current division could become permanent, leaving more than 2 million people crowded into less than half its territory, unless a ceasefire takes hold.

U.S. President Donald Trump set up the Board of Peace to oversee his ambitious plan to end Israel's two-year war in Gaza and rebuild the shattered territory.

WASHINGTON, May 21 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump vowed on Thursday that the United States will eventually recover Iran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium despite comments from Iran that it will not hand over the material.

"We will get it. We don't need it, we don't want it. We'll probably destroy it after we get it, but we're not going to let them have it," Trump told reporters at the White House.

Iran is believed to possess about 900 pounds of highly enriched uranium, which Trump says was buried by U.S. and Israeli airstrikes nearly a year ago.

LONDON, May 21 (Reuters) - A Chinese-operated container ship was among the few to cross the Strait of Hormuz in the past 24 hours, data showed on Thursday, as uncertainty grows around reopening the critical waterway with talks over a deal between the U.S. and Iran deadlocked.

Before the war on Iran began on February 28, shipping traffic through the strait averaged 125 to 140 daily passages. Due to the conflict, 20,000 seafarers remain stranded inside the Gulf on board hundreds of ships.