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Senior EU Official Says Israel’s War in Gaza Is Genocide

Teresa Ribera, the European Union's competition commissioner, looks on during an interview with Reuters in London, Britain, February 17, 2025. (Reuters)
Teresa Ribera, the European Union's competition commissioner, looks on during an interview with Reuters in London, Britain, February 17, 2025. (Reuters)
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Senior EU Official Says Israel’s War in Gaza Is Genocide

Teresa Ribera, the European Union's competition commissioner, looks on during an interview with Reuters in London, Britain, February 17, 2025. (Reuters)
Teresa Ribera, the European Union's competition commissioner, looks on during an interview with Reuters in London, Britain, February 17, 2025. (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 UN 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.

Israel has repeatedly rejected accusations of carrying out genocide in its war in Gaza. Israel's mission to the EU did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Ribera is the European Commission's Executive Vice President, second only in seniority to President Ursula von der Leyen. The Spanish socialist, whose portfolio includes climate and anti-trust issues, is not responsible for EU foreign policy.

The comments were stronger than a statement she gave last month when she said the displacement and killing in Gaza looked "very much like" genocide.

The European Commission has accused Israel of violating human rights in Gaza, but stopped short of accusing it of genocide.

South Africa has brought a case at the International Court of Justice in the Hague accusing Israel of genocide. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has condemned that as "outrageous".

On Monday, the president of the world's largest academic association of genocide scholars announced that the association had passed a resolution affirming that the legal criteria have been met to determine that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

Israel's Foreign Ministry called that statement disgraceful.

The current war began on October 7, 2023, when gunmen led by Hamas attacked southern Israeli communities near the border, killing some 1,200 people, mainly civilians, and taking 251 hostages, including children, into Gaza, according to Israeli figures.

More than 62,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's air and ground war in Gaza since then, according to Gaza health officials, who do not say how many were fighters but have said most of those killed have been women and children.

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World

Germany, Australia Deepen Defense Ties

26 March 2026, Australia, Canberra: German Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius (R) and his Australian counterpart Richard Marles speak during press conference following their meeting at the Australian Parliament. Photo: Peter Kneffel/dpa
26 March 2026, Australia, Canberra: German Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius (R) and his Australian counterpart Richard Marles speak during press conference following their meeting at the Australian Parliament. Photo: Peter Kneffel/dpa
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Germany, Australia Deepen Defense Ties

26 March 2026, Australia, Canberra: German Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius (R) and his Australian counterpart Richard Marles speak during press conference following their meeting at the Australian Parliament. Photo: Peter Kneffel/dpa
26 March 2026, Australia, Canberra: German Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius (R) and his Australian counterpart Richard Marles speak during press conference following their meeting at the Australian Parliament. Photo: Peter Kneffel/dpa

Australia and Germany agreed Thursday to simplify hosting each other's troops and cooperate on space defense during a visit by German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius to Canberra.

Australia's Defense Minister Richard Marles said the two countries would sign a status of forces agreement making it "much easier for our defense forces to operate from each other's countries".

Australia will join Germany's plan to build an "early warning system for space", which Pistorius said was a response to Russia and China's growing capability to blind and destroy satellites, AFP reported.

Germany intends to deploy an "independent global network of surveillance sensors" to defend its systems, he added.

Australia will also add missiles from German company TDW to its expanding domestic manufacture of guided weapons, designed to hedge against shortages in the Indo Pacific as the Ukraine and Middle East conflicts strain global supply.

Pistorius has emphasised shared interests among mid-sized countries in Europe and the Indo Pacific to "uphold international rules", and protect trade routes, energy supplies and security, while visiting Japan, Singapore and Australia this week.

"Security in Europe and security in the Indo Pacific are two sides of the same coin," he said in a speech at the National Press Club in Canberra, where he highlighted Beijing's support of Russia's war in Ukraine.

The US and Israel's war with Iran is an example of how international rules have come into question, he said, adding the immediate focus must be how to end the war.

"We don't want to get sucked into that war," he said.

"What concerns me the most about that war is there was no consultation, there is no strategy, there is no clear objective and the worst thing from my perspective is there is no exit strategy," he said.

Germany would potentially be willing to join an operation to secure navigation in the Strait of Hormuz after a ceasefire, he said.

World

G7 Meets in France to Narrow Transatlantic Iran Split

France's foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot acknowledges the world is going through a period of 'tension and rivalry'. Thomas SAMSON / AFP
France's foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot acknowledges the world is going through a period of 'tension and rivalry'. Thomas SAMSON / AFP
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G7 Meets in France to Narrow Transatlantic Iran Split

France's foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot acknowledges the world is going through a period of 'tension and rivalry'. Thomas SAMSON / AFP
France's foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot acknowledges the world is going through a period of 'tension and rivalry'. Thomas SAMSON / AFP

Foreign ministers from the G7 meet outside Paris from Thursday with European nations and allies seeking to narrow differences with the US on the Middle East war while keeping other crises like Ukraine and Gaza high on the agenda.

The two-day meeting of seven leading industrialized democracies at the Vaux-de-Cernay Abbey in the countryside outside Paris comes as the White House said President Donald Trump is ready to "unleash hell" if Iran does not accept a deal to end the US-Israeli war against the Iranian republic.

Making his first trip abroad since the war started, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will join fellow top diplomats from Canada, Germany, Italy, France, Japan and the UK, but only on the second day.

One of the objectives of France, which holds the rotating G7 presidency this year, is "to address the major global imbalances which explain in many respects the level of tension and rivalry we are witnessing with very concrete consequences for our fellow citizens," French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told AFP on Tuesday.

With Lebanon pulled into the war as Iran-backed Shia militant group Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel, Barrot also urged Israel to "refrain" from sending in forces to take control of a zone in south Lebanon.

In a bid to broaden the scope of the elite G7 club -- whose origins go back to the first G6 summit held in the nearby Chateau de Rambouillet in 1975 -- France has also invited foreign ministers from key emerging markets Brazil and India as well as Ukraine, Saudi Arabia and South Korea.

France will also on Monday host a separate G7 meeting bringing together finance ministers, energy ministers and central bank governors, Finance Minister Roland Lescure told RTL radio on Thursday.

The meeting, to be held via video call, will address what Lescure described as a "convergence of energy issues, economic issues and inflation issues".

-'Misguided policies'-

While all G7 nations are close US allies, none have unambiguously offered support for the assault on Iran, angering Trump.

German Finance Minister and Vice Chancellor Lars Klingbeil even complained Trump's "misguided policies" in the Middle East were hitting Germany's economy.

Trump has claimed the US is speaking to a "top person" within Iran's clerical system in talks to end the conflict. But Iranian state TV said on Wednesday Tehran had rejected a peace plan conveyed through Pakistan.

Trump's threat to hit Iranian energy facilities -- which he is now holding back on amid the purported talks -- troubled European allies who have all called for de-escalation and not engaged militarily in the conflict.

British foreign minister Yvette Cooper on Tuesday voiced unease that the war had shifted focus away from the Gaza peace plan and violence in the occupied West Bank.

Over four years into Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Barrot told AFP that support "for the Ukrainian resistance" and pressure on Russia would continue

World

Myanmar's Rebuild Stutters Year after Deadly Quake

Myanmar's ancient capital Mandalay bore the brunt of damage in the 7.7-magnitude quake. Sai Aung MAIN / AFP
Myanmar's ancient capital Mandalay bore the brunt of damage in the 7.7-magnitude quake. Sai Aung MAIN / AFP
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Myanmar's Rebuild Stutters Year after Deadly Quake

Myanmar's ancient capital Mandalay bore the brunt of damage in the 7.7-magnitude quake. Sai Aung MAIN / AFP
Myanmar's ancient capital Mandalay bore the brunt of damage in the 7.7-magnitude quake. Sai Aung MAIN / AFP

The gaping holes torn in a road to Mandalay by last year's devastating earthquake have been filled in, and the route in northern Myanmar partly resurfaced.

But only a few of the broken spans of the historic Ava Bridge have been removed, while the others still droop into the river where hundreds of newly homeless people bathed in the aftermath of the disaster.

More than 3,800 people in Myanmar -- and around 90 more in neighboring Thailand -- were killed when the 7.7-magnitude tremor struck on March 28, 2025.

AFP was the only international news agency on the ground in Myanmar's capital Naypyidaw when the quake hit, with its team the first international journalists to reach the city of Mandalay.

A year on, reporters returning to the affected areas found a mixed picture of reconstruction work.

In Naypyidaw, the collapsed concrete awning of the main hospital's emergency department -- which crushed a car when it came down -- has been replaced with a new, lighter structure, with a plastic roof.

A rare unguarded photo of junta chief Min Aung Hlaing, looking flustered as he sought to direct rescue efforts at the hospital, was one of many by AFP that captured the destruction after the quake, which came during a years-long civil war.

Mandalay, an ancient royal capital hemmed by jungle-clad mountains and the snaking Irrawaddy river, bore the brunt of the damage.

At a pagoda in the suburb of Amarapura, a statue of a reclining Buddha emerges from a carefully arranged pile of brick rubble, its face respectfully cleaned.

"Some are rebuilding their houses, while others are just now getting the support they need to work and live," said board secretary Hsan Tun, 70.

Four people died at the pagoda, he added, including a girl who was meditating. "It's only by the Buddha's protection that we survived."

Almost all of Mandalay's flattened or toppled residential buildings have been cleared away, some of them already rebuilt and others remaining as fenced-off empty lots dotting the city.

The tilted-over towers overlooking the palace moat have all been brought back upright, and workers are building new brick castellations for their supporting ramparts.

After the quake, thousands of people whose homes had been made uninhabitable or who feared aftershocks slept out for weeks by the moat, but it is once again the preserve of morning joggers and sightseers.

- 'When the sky falls' -

Some of the buildings at the Thahtay Kyaung monastery, where saffron-clad monks cleared rubble from the wreckage by hand in the days after the quake, have been razed.

"People are facing many economic hardships," said the abbot, U Thudassa. "Like the saying, 'When the sky falls, it falls on everyone'."

"We build as much as we can with what we have," added the 70-year-old. "We cannot just stand still; natural disasters will always be a part of life."

At Amarapura's Nagayon Pagoda, a Buddha statue reduced to just two legs and hands on a pedestal has been fully restored, looking out with a serene gaze.

In nearby Bon Oe village, the quake caused a mosque to collapse onto worshippers gathered for the noon prayer on the last Friday of Ramadan, killing many.

A permanent replacement has yet to be erected -- government approval is needed for religious buildings, and it has not yet been granted.

Instead, men gather for evening prayers in a temporary structure covered in green tarpaulins and with palm leaves for a roof.

"Yesterday marked one year" since disaster struck, said mosque leader Khin Maung Naing, counting by the Islamic calendar.

"Everyone still trembles at any loud noise," he added.

"Even after a year, the tremor, the scenes and the feelings from that earthquake feel as if they happened only yesterday or the day before. To this day, it remains in my heart."