Iran has executed over 500 people so far this year after a new surge in hangings in recent days, despite President Donald Trump urging the Islamic republic to halt executions, a rights group said on Thursday.

At least 511 people have been executed so far in 2026, according to Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights, including at least 29 people in connection with anti-government protests in January.

At least 16 women are among those executed and at least 13 "political prisoners" affiliated with banned opposition groups, it said.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, will go on trial before a US military court in June 2028, an official said Thursday.

The long-awaited trial of Mohammed and three other accused 9/11 plotters is scheduled to begin on June 5, 2028 at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a court spokesman said.

Iran's top diplomat met his Qatari counterpart on Thursday in Tehran for talks on the strategic Strait of Hormuz, as a US naval blockade squeezes oil supplies to Iran amid a domestic shortfall. 

The visit by Qatar's Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani follows a week of intense diplomacy in Iran involving separate meetings with Oman's top diplomat and senior Pakistani officials seeking ways to end the Middle East war and reopen Hormuz.

Ziva Sharp said her Jewish faith motivated her to travel from Jerusalem to the West Bank to stand up for Palestinians -- a commitment that led to her being set upon by fellow Israelis also professing to be driven by Judaism.

Sharp and around 30 other activists are part of a small movement of Israelis, many of them religious Jews, who periodically go to the occupied West Bank with a mission to protect Palestinians under growing assault by violent settlers.

SINGAPORE, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Shipping traffic at the Strait of Hormuz rose slightly even as a standoff persisted between the United States and Iran, data showed on Thursday, while the market monitored Iran-Oman talks about the waterway.

Visible commodity vessel transits at Hormuz totalled 10 on Wednesday, up slightly from eight on Tuesday, data from Kpler showed. This was below a 10-day moving average of about 15 vessels.

By Phil Stewart

WASHINGTON, Aug 27 (Reuters) - A Pentagon review of U.S. troop deployments in Europe will create at least four sets of options for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth by November 6, well ahead of a December deadline for the review's completion, according to a document seen by Reuters.

NATO allies worry that the six-month review, announced in June, will lead to large-scale cuts to the roughly 80,000 U.S. forces across Europe and punish countries that President Donald Trump believes failed to support the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran.

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

CAIRO, Aug 25 (Reuters) - Gaza parents have been warned to stop their children flying kites in the war-ravaged enclave, after Israel threatened a forceful response if the Hamas militant group revives a tactic of launching incendiary kites over the border.

The popular committees, comprising representatives of local non-governmental organizations and charities that run Gaza displacement camps and shelters, issued the warning in a statement late on Monday.

The announcement was coordinated with Hamas authorities, a source in the militant group said.

By Parisa Hafezi and Jana Choukeir

DUBAI, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Iran and Oman are still working on the details of an agreement on the Strait of Hormuz, a senior Iranian source said on Wednesday, after Iran's Revolutionary Guards said the two countries had agreed how to share the waterway and its revenues.

By Daphne Psaledakis

WASHINGTON, Aug 26 (Reuters) - The United States designated Palestine Action on Wednesday as a terrorist group, as President Donald Trump's administration seeks to crack down on left-wing groupsin its counterterrorism efforts.

The United States on Wednesday named the UK-based Palestine Action group, which has been banned by the British government, as a "terrorist" organization, as the Trump administration intensifies its campaign against left-wing movements.

Set up in 2020, Palestine Action is appealing against the UK government ban, which has led to thousands of arrests. Rights groups have decried the ban, saying it was aimed at criminalizing dissent.