BRUSSELS (Reuters) -A senior European Union official said on Thursday that Israel's operations in Gaza constitute genocide, the first member of the bloc's commission to make that charge.

"The genocide in Gaza exposes Europe's failure to act and speak with one voice, even as protests spread across European cities and 14 U.N. Security Council members call for an immediate ceasefire," Teresa Ribera said at the opening ceremony of the academic year at the Sciences Po university in Paris.

QUITO (Reuters) -The United States has told other counties that recognition of a Palestinian state will cause more problems, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday.

"We told all these countries, we told them all, we said if you guys do this recognition stuff it's all fake, it's not even real, if you do it you're going to create problems," Rubio said from Quito, where he met with President Daniel Noboa and his Ecuadorean counterpart.

Rescuers have recovered 370 bodies from a landslide that wiped out a remote mountain village in Sudan's Darfur region, a local civilian leader said on Thursday.

The disaster struck the village of Tarasin, located high in the Jebel Marra range, on Sunday following one of the worst downpours of Sudan's rainy season, which peaks in August.

Up to 1,000 people may have been killed, according to the United Nations, but the full scale of the disaster in the isolated mountain region is unknown.

By Emma Farge

GENEVA (Reuters) -A U.N. body has found that the United States and the United Arab Emirates are jointly responsible for holding an Afghan man in arbitrary detention in Abu Dhabi for over two years in a case rights groups say is emblematic of thousands of others.

The man, a former police force colonel who had worked with U.S. forces and received threats from the Islamist Taliban movement, was evacuated with his family during the hurried U.S. exit from Afghanistan in 2021 under former President Joe Biden.

Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli forces killed at least 44 people on Thursday, including 25 in Gaza City where the military has increased bombardments ahead of a planned offensive.

Nearly two years into the devastating conflict, Israel has built up its forces in recent days, with troops operating on the outskirts of Gaza City, the Palestinian territory's largest urban centre.

The United Nations estimates that nearly one million people live in and around Gaza City in the territory's north, where it has declared famine.

By Maya Gebeily and Laila Bassam

BEIRUT (Reuters) -Lebanon's government is set to discuss a plan on Friday for disarming Hezbollah, a critical juncture in a standoff between the Iran-backed group which is refusing to give up its weapons and rivals who want it to disarm in line with U.S. demands.

Calls for Hezbollah's disarmament have taken centre stage in Lebanon since last year's devastating war with Israel, which upended a power balance long dominated by the Shi'ite Muslim group.

By Hanna Rantala

VENICE (Reuters) -Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania said on Thursday she hopes the rapturous reception given to her new film "The Voice of Hind Rajab" at the Venice Film Festival would help carry its harrowing story to audiences worldwide.

Recounting the final hours of a 5-year-old girl from Gaza who died in 2024 after she was trapped in a car under Israeli fire, the movie drew a 24-minute standing ovation at its premiere on Wednesday - by far the longest so far this year.

By Joshua McElwee

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) -Pope Leo discussed the "tragic situation in Gaza" during a meeting on Thursday with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and called for a permanent ceasefire in the Palestinian enclave, the Vatican said.

The pontiff also called for the release of the remaining hostages held by the Palestinian militant group Hamas, the statement said, and reiterated the Vatican's support for a two-state solution to the decades-long Israel-Palestinian conflict.

(Reuters) -Major European powers have said they could recognise an independent Palestinian state in coming weeks. What would that mean for the Palestinians and Israel?

WHAT IS THE STATUS OF PALESTINIAN STATEHOOD NOW?

The Palestine Liberation Organization declared the independence of a Palestinian state in 1988, and most countries in the global South quickly recognised it. Today, 147 of the 193 member states of the United Nations have recognised a Palestinian state, most recently Mexico in January 2025.

DUBAI (Reuters) -Iran has downgraded diplomatic ties with Australia, its foreign ministry said on Thursday, a week after Australia expelled the Iranian ambassador over accusations that Tehran directed two antisemitic arson attacks in the cities of Sydney and Melbourne.

"According to diplomatic law and in response to Australia's action, the Islamic Republic has also reciprocally reduced the level of Australia's diplomatic presence in Iran," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said, adding that Canberra's ambassador had left Iran.