The world needs to phase out fossil fuels if it wants to curb global warming, the United Nations climate chief said in an interview with The Associated Press. But he said the idea might not make it on to the agenda of "make-or-break" international climate negotiations this fall, run in and by an oil haven.

A phase out of heat-trapping fossil fuels "is something that is at top of every discussion or most discussions that are taking place," U.N. climate Executive Secretary Simon Stiell said. "It is an issue that has global attention. How that translates into an agenda item and a (climate talks) outcome we will see."

The U.S. Navy said Monday its sailors and the United Kingdom Royal Navy came to the aid of a ship in the crucial Strait of Hormuz after Iran's Revolutionary Guard "harassed" it.

Three fast-attack Guard vessels with armed troops aboard approached the merchant ship at a close distance Sunday afternoon, the U.S. Navy said in a statement. It offered black-and-white images it said came from a U.S. Navy Boeing P-8 Poseidon overhead, which showed three small ships close to the commercial ship.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has appointed a new media advisor who has tweeted critically against President Joe Biden, the daily Haaretz reported.

The appointment comes at a time when U.S.-Israel relations are strained.

Saudi Arabia has welcomed Venzuelan President Nicolas Maduro on an official visit, reaching out to yet another U.S. foe as the oil-rich kingdom engages in a flurry of diplomacy.

Maduro arrived late Sunday in the Red Sea city of Jeddah, where he was greeted by Saudi officials, according to the state-run Saudi Press Agency.

Karim Benzema will not stay with Real Madrid next season, the club said.

Real Madrid said it reached an agreement with the French striker to "to bring his brilliant and unforgettable time as a player at our club to a close."

Russian officials said their forces thwarted large Ukrainian attacks in two provinces of Ukraine illegally annexed by Moscow. The Ukrainian military suggested the Russian reports were part of a misinformation campaign as Kyiv prepares for an anticipated counteroffensive.

Russia's Defense Ministry said in a rare early morning video released Monday that its forces pushed back a "large scale" assault Sunday at five points in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk province, one of four regions that President Vladimir Putin claimed as Russian territory last fall but is only partially controlled by Moscow.

Saudi Arabia will reduce how much oil it sends to the global economy, taking a unilateral step to prop up the sagging price of crude after two previous cuts to supply by major producing countries in the OPEC+ alliance failed to push oil higher.

The Saudi cut of 1 million barrels per day, to start in July, comes as the other OPEC+ producers agreed in a meeting in Vienna to extend earlier production cuts through next year.

A son of Libya's late leader Moammar Gadhafi, who has been held in Lebanon for more than seven years, began a hunger strike Saturday to protest his detention without trial, his lawyer said.

Hannibal Gadhafi has been held in Lebanon since 2015 after he was kidnapped from neighboring Syria where he had been living as a political refugee. He was abducted by Lebanese militants demanding information about the fate of prominent Lebanese Shiite cleric Imam Moussa al-Sadr who went missing in Libya 45 years ago.

China's defense minister defended sailing a warship across the path of an American destroyer and Canadian frigate transiting the Taiwan Strait, telling a gathering of some of the world's top defense officials in Singapore on Sunday that such so-called "freedom of navigation" patrols are a provocation to China.

In his first international public address since becoming defense minister in March, Gen. Li Shangfu told the Shangri-La Dialogue that China doesn't have any problems with "innocent passage" but that "we must prevent attempts that try to use those freedom of navigation (patrols), that innocent passage, to exercise hegemony of navigation."

A gunbattle along Israel's southern border with Egypt left three Israeli soldiers and an Egyptian officer dead, officials said. It was a rare instance of deadly violence along the frontier.

Israel said the Egyptian border guard crossed into Israel and killed the three soldiers before he was fatally shot by troops. Egypt said he had been chasing drug smugglers when he entered Israel.