By Laila Bassam

BEIRUT, May 14 (Reuters) - Lebanon will demand Israel cease fire at face-to-face talks in Washington on Thursday, a senior Lebanese official said, as Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel continued to trade blows despite a U.S.-backed truce declared last month.

The talks between Lebanese and Israeli envoys will mark the sides' third meeting since hostilities reignited between Hezbollah and Israel on March 2. Beirut is attendingdespite strong objections from Shi'ite Muslim Hezbollah.

By Joshua McElwee

ROME, May 14 (Reuters) - Pope Leo on Thursday decried rising European military spending, which grew last year by the highest amount since the end of the Cold War amid pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump, saying it was a betrayal of diplomacy.

Leo, who has drawn Trump's ire in recent weeks after criticizing the Iran war, told university students in Rome that they should not refer to such rearmament as defence spending, adding that the world was being "maimed by wars".

MOSCOW, May 14 (Reuters) - Russia is establishing a "full-fledged partnership" with Afghanistan's ruling Taliban and is encouraging other countries in the region to expand cooperation with Kabul, a senior Russian security official was quoted on Thursday as saying.

Russia last year became the first country to formally recognise the Islamist Taliban government that seized power in August 2021 as U.S.-led forces staged a chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan after 20 years of war.

Eurovision performers from 25 countries on Friday went through a full dress rehearsal for the grand final, while Spain's prime minister defended the country's boycott of this year's event over Israel's participation.

This year in Vienna marks the 70th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, which despite the razzmatazz rarely escapes the politics in the background.

Eurovision is the world's biggest live televised music spectacle, typically reaching more than 150 million viewers, and Saturday's final at the Wiener Stadthalle is set to be no exception.

NEW DELHI, May 14 (Reuters) - Peace underpins global order and recent conflicts highlight the need for dialogue, India’s Foreign Minister SubrahmanyamJaishankar said on Thursday as the BRICS group began a two-day meeting overshadowed by tension between members Iran and the United Arab Emirates.

"Peace and security remain central to the global order. Recent conflicts only underline the importance of dialogue and diplomacy," Jaishankar said in New Delhi.

NEW DELHI, May 14 (Reuters) - Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said on Thursday that "safe, unimpeded maritime flows" through international waters, including the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea, are vital for global economic well-being.

"We must also address the increasing resort to unilateral coercive measures and sanctions inconsistent with international law and the UN Charter," Jaishankar said in his speech at the meeting of BRICS foreign ministers in New Delhi.

By Trevor Hunnicutt and Andrea Shalal

BEIJING/WASHINGTON, May 14 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to ask China to help end the costly and unpopular Iran war in discussions with President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Thursday, with peace talks stalled and the global economic cost of the conflict increasing.

The U.S.-Israeli war with Iran looms large over Trump's visit to China, the first by a U.S. president since his last trip there in 2017, although analysts say he is unlikely to get the support he wants.

The United States on Thursday sought to extend a shaky ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon as President Donald Trump voiced optimism at China's efforts on Iran.

A ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel -- considered to still be in place despite hundreds of deaths in Israeli strikes -- ends on Sunday and violence again flared as the two governments met in Washington.

Israel has pounded Lebanon and invaded its south in response to retaliatory fire from Shia movement Hezbollah following Israel's killing of Iran's supreme leader at the start of the war on February 28.

SEOUL, May 14 (Reuters) - The possibility that an entity other than Iran was responsible for the attack against a South Korean cargo vessel near the Strait of Hormuz is low, a senior official in Seoul was quoted as saying by the Yonhap news agency on Thursday.

South Korea is analysing intelligence shared by the U.S. on the May 4 attack against South Korean shipper HMM's Namu vessel, which caused a fire and damaged the lower stern hull, Yonhap quoted a senior foreign ministry official as telling reporters.

From her home in an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank, Anna Sloutskin yearns to expand her country's borders and one day move to southern Lebanon. And she is not alone.

With fighting between Israel and Hezbollah displacing more than a million Lebanese, a far-right fringe of Israel's settler movement is turning its gaze northwards.

Uri Tzafon, or "Awake, North Wind", comprises dozens of families, according to Sloutskin, a 37-year-old research biologist who says the movement has seen growing traction since she co-founded it in 2024.