After five months of fighting in Gaza and tens of thousands of casualties, the 27 European Union countries have overcome their differences and agreed to call for a cease-fire.

In a statement overnight, EU leaders called “for an immediate humanitarian pause leading to a sustainable ceasefire, the unconditional release of all hostages and the provision of humanitarian assistance.”

The Kremlin on Friday warned the European Union against plans to impose tariffs on its grain exports and use profits from frozen Russian assets to arm Ukraine.

"Consumers in Europe would definitely suffer," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, when asked about the proposed EU duty on grain. He added that the bloc faced "very serious consequences" over its plans to use frozen Russian assets.

Judicial officials in Lebanon said an investigative judge has issued arrest warrants for two people on suspicion of giving information to Israel including the digital mapping of a Beirut southern suburb street where a top official with the Palestinian Hamas group was killed in January.

The officials said Thursday that Fadi Sawwan, the investigative judge at the military tribunal, issued the arrest warrants earlier this week for the two Lebanese citizens weeks after they were detained while using sophisticated digital mapping equipment.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office says the head of the Mossad spy agency will return to Qatar on Friday to meet with the head of the CIA and other key mediators as part of ongoing cease-fire talks.

The office said Thursday that Qatar’s prime minister and Egypt’s intelligence chief would also join the talks.

The United Nations Security Council is set to vote on a United States-sponsored resolution declaring that "an immediate and sustained cease-fire" in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza is "imperative" to protect civilians and enable humanitarian aid to be delivered to more than 2 million hungry Palestinians.

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said she was optimistic that the new, tougher draft resolution would be approved Friday by the 15-member council.

United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken has arrived in Israel for what are expected to be fractious talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the war in Gaza as public differences over the conflict have intensified.

It's the final stop in Blinken's sixth urgent diplomatic mission to the Middle East, in which he's expected to hold meetings with Netanyahu and his war cabinet aimed at convincing them not to proceed with plans for a large-scale military offensive in the southern city of Rafah that many fear could make an already disastrous humanitarian crisis in Gaza even worse.

A senior official with Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group made a rare visit to the United Arab Emirates to discuss the cases of a dozen Lebanese citizens detained in the oil-rich nation over alleged links to the Lebanese group, Hezbollah said Thursday.

The United Arab Emirates, like other Arab gulf countries, considers Hezbollah a terrorist organization and over the years has detained and deported dozens of Lebanese citizens over alleged links to the group.

A British privacy watchdog said Wednesday it was investigating a report that staff at a private London hospital tried to snoop on the Princess of Wales ' medical records while she was a patient for abdominal surgery.

The Information Commissioner's Office said: "We can confirm that we have received a breach report and are assessing the information provided."

Prince Harry's lawyer leveled explosive new allegations Wednesday that Rupert Murdoch was aware of cover-ups at his British tabloids that used unlawful techniques to spy on the Duke of Sussex and others.

Attorney David Sherborne said Murdoch was among the executives who were aware that public statements made about phone hacking and other unlawful information gathering at News Group Newspapers were untrue.

Days after Beyoncé releases her highly anticipated eighth studio album, she'll make an appearance at the 2024 iHeartRadio Music Awards to receive its innovator award.

Beyoncé will appear at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles to accept the honor during the April 1 ceremony hosted by Ludacris. She's being recognized for her pioneering career: for decades of creative risks and influencing pop culture on a mass scale, as well as last year's groundbreaking Renaissance World Tour.