The European Union's executive commission cut its growth outlook and predicted higher inflation due to sharply higher energy prices from the war in Iran — but said the economy will avoid an outright recession.

"As a net energy importer, the EU's economy is highly susceptible to the energy shock caused by the conflict in the Middle East," the commission said in a statement Thursday. The rising cost of fuel "means higher household bills and surging business costs that reduce profits for many industries."

Once a year, large numbers of Muslim pilgrims converge in Saudi Arabia, uniting in religious rituals and acts of worship as they perform the Hajj. While fulfilling a religious obligation, they immerse themselves in what can be a spiritual experience of a lifetime for them and a chance to seek God's forgiveness and the erasure of past sins.

This year, the Hajj has been approaching against the backdrop of a tenuous ceasefire in the Iran war and related tensions and uncertainty in the Middle East.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is on his latest mission to assuage nervous U.S. allies in Europe about the Trump administration's intentions with NATO or at least put a friendlier face on whipsawing changes and uncertainty about American troop reductions.

Rubio will attend a NATO foreign ministers' meeting in Sweden on Friday — the same day senior Pentagon officials are expected to brief the 32-nation alliance on plans for the U.S. military's commitment to European defense at the alliance's headquarters in Brussels.

Trucks carrying intercontinental ballistic missiles rumbled over forest roads, atomic-powered submarines set sail from Arctic and Pacific ports, and crews scrambled into warplanes as Russia and neighboring Belarus held the final stage of their joint nuclear drills Thursday.

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko inspected Russian short-range nuclear-capable Iskander ballistic missiles at a military unit involved in the drills, declaring: "I dreamed about this machine a long time ago."

Ukrainian drones smashed into another Russian refinery overnight, starting a fire that produced huge clouds of black smoke, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday, in what appeared to be the latest long-range attack on Moscow's vital oil industry.

The drones targeted the Syzran oil refinery, located more than 800 kilometers (500 miles) inside Russia, Zelensky said on social media, where he posted a video of the aftermath.

India and the African Union have postponed the India-Africa Forum Summit scheduled to held next week in New Delhi, due to the "evolving health situation in parts of Africa."

The announcement on Thursday by India's Ministry of External Affairs comes as health officials in Congo are tackling an Ebola virus outbreak.

Veteran goalkeeper Manuel Neuer has been coaxed out of retirement for the World Cup by Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann.

The 40-year-old Neuer retired after the 2024 European Championship but was included in Nagelsmann's 26-man squad on Thursday for the upcoming tournament in Canada, Mexico and the United States.

Even months after she was displaced by war, Soubhiye Zeiter starts every morning the same way: with a large cup of coffee and a few quiet moments beside a small table decorated with flowers outside her tent in Beirut.

But once the coffee is poured, the quiet disappears quickly.

The Premier League will say goodbye to West Ham or Tottenham on Sunday.

Mohamed Salah and Bernardo Silva, too.

Israel has released hundreds of activists who attempted to breach Israel's naval blockade of Gaza and are in the process of deporting them, according to a legal organization working with the flotilla.

The Israel-based legal advocacy group, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, or Adalah, said Thursday that most of the international activists are in transit to a civilian airport near the southern Israeli city of Eilat for deportation.