Record heatwaves hit Europe’s already expensive summer

Hello, this is Anniek Bao writing to you from Singapore. Welcome to another edition of CNBC’s Daily Open.

It was a weekend of stalled diplomacy, and Europe wakes up to the bill — a stalemate priced in oil.

Iran’s foreign minister ruled out any restart of talks with Washington while the U.S. blockade — now 55 redirected ships and counting — stays in place. Israel rejected a Gaza plan Hamas had accepted, refusing to withdraw military until Hamas is fully disarmed.

For a continent importing the bulk of its oil and gas, the returning war premium on crude is a tax on households and industry.

German inflation figures and U.K. GDP due this week will show just how deeply months of elevated energy costs have seeped into prices — and how much growth they have already taken off the table.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran is not in direct negotiations with the U.S. to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, saying that “messages are being exchanged through intermediaries.”

In a Sunday interview with Axios, U.S. President Donald Trump said that Washington is “low keying it” in negotiations with Iran. “We are only semi-negotiating with them. We are just watching Iran with its huge inflation and the fact that they have no money,” the president said.

The U.S. military redirected 20 more commercial vessels away from Iranian ports last week, bringing the tally to 55 as of Sunday, up from 35 on Aug. 2 — with two ships disabled and two boarded, according to U.S. Central Command.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin ⁠Netanyahu restated his rejection of Trump’s latest Gaza plan in televised remarks to his right-wing government on Sunday, even as Israel’s military has effectively halted attacks in the territory under pressure from ​Trump.

Trump announced last month that there had been a breakthrough in his plan to end the war, with Israeli forces withdrawing as Hamas disarms and an International Stabilization Force working with a new Palestinian police force to secure the enclave.

“Israel does not accept the 15-point document,” Netanyahu said at the start of a meeting ​with his cabinet ministers, saying the Israeli military will not withdraw until Hamas is disarmed.

Axios’ Barak Ravid reported that a senior U.S. official said the White House is “not bothered” by Netanyahu’s statement and sees it as part of the election season in Israel.

Western Europe just logged its hottest June-July on record. The Copernicus Climate Change Service put the two-month average at 21.62°C, beating the 2022 benchmark.

Prolonged hot and dry conditions in western Europe led to the spread and…