Delegations from European Union member states and Middle Eastern and north African countries are meeting Monday in Barcelona, Spain, to discuss the crisis in Gaza, where a fragile pause in fighting is set to expire. Forty-two delegations are scheduled to gather at the event hosted by the Union for the Mediterranean, with many represented by their foreign ministers. The meeting is chaired by the EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, and Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi. Israel is not attending the meeting, which in past years has largely become a forum for cooperation between the EU and the Arab world. Monday’s gathering was supposed to focus on the role of the union 15 years after its founding, but it has taken on new significance since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel and Israel’s ensuing war in the Gaza Strip. Borrell said he “regretted” the absence of Israel. He repeated his condemnation of the Hamas attack, while calling on Israel to permanently end its assault, which he said has claimed the lives of over 5,000 children. “One horror cannot justify another horror,” Borrell said. “Peace between Israel and Palestine has become a strategic imperative for the entire Euro-Mediterranean community and beyond." Jordan’s Safadi, who told The Associated Press on the eve of the event that he hopes the talks will help “bridge a gap” between Arab and European countries, urged the officials attending the meeting to back a two-state solution that would recognize a Palestinian state. “My friends, Europe has a crucial role to play,” Safadi said. “The two-state solution cannot remain a talking point.” Saudi Arabia’s Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud has also been invited to the event. A small pro-Palestinian group rallied before the gathering at the art nouveau building that once housed Barcelona's Sant Pau Hospital. The pause in hostilities between Israel and Hamas continued Sunday with a third day of releases of hostages and Palestinian prisoners. It was scheduled for four days and neither side has made fully clear what comes after Monday. Spain is one of the EU countries that has called for Israel to cease its assault, while also condemning the Hamas attack. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said the time has come for the international community and the EU to recognize a Palestinian state during a trip with his Belgian counterpart to Israel, the Palestinian territories and Egypt last week. That prompted Israel to summon the Belgian and Spanish ambassadors. The Union for the Mediterranean is an intergovernmental organization formed by the 27 members of the EU and 16 from the southern and eastern Mediterranean including Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan. The EU is the world’s biggest provider of assistance to the Palestinians. Almost 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion) has been earmarked for 2021-2024. ___ This story has been corrected to show that Israel summoned the ambassadors of Spain and Belgium, not that it recalled its ambassadors to those countries. Read More Jordan's top diplomat wants to align Europeans behind a call for a permanent cease-fire in Gaza Israel summons Irish ambassador over tweet it alleges doesn't adequately condemn Hamas Why Finland is blaming Russia for a sudden influx of migrants on its eastern border Israel summons Spanish, Belgian ambassadors following criticism during visit to Rafah Slovak leader calls the war between Russia and Ukraine a frozen conflict Activists call on France to endorse a consent-based rape definition across the entire European Union

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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday the “time is now” for Turkey to drop its objections to Sweden joining NATO but said the Biden administration also believed that Turkey should be provided with upgraded F-16 fighters “as soon as possible.” Blinken maintained that the administration had not linked the two issues but acknowledged that some U.S. lawmakers had. President Joe Biden implicitly linked the two issues in a phone call to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday. “I spoke to Erdogan and he still wants to work on something on the F-16s. I told him we wanted a deal with Sweden. So let’s get that done," Biden said. Still, Blinken insisted the two issues were distinct. However, he stressed that the completion of both would dramatically strengthen European security. “Both of these are vital, in our judgement, to European security,” Blinken told reporters at a joint news conference in the northern Swedish city of Lulea with Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson. “We believe that both should go forward as quickly as possible; that is to say Sweden’s accession and moving forward on the F-16 package more broadly.” “We believe the time is now,” Blinken said. He declined to predict when Turkey and Hungary, the only other NATO member not yet to have ratified Sweden’s membership, would grant their approval. But, he said, “we have no doubt that it can be, it should be, and we expect it to be” completed by the time alliance leaders meet in Vilnius, Lithuania in July at an annual summit. Fresh from a strong re-election victory over the weekend, Erdogan may be willing to ease his objections to Sweden’s membership. Erdogan accuses Sweden of being too soft on groups Ankara considers to be terrorists, and a series of Quran-burning protests in Stockholm angered his religious support base — making his tough stance even more popular. Kristersson said the two sides had been in contact since Sunday’s vote and voiced no hesitancy in speaking about the benefits Sweden would bring to NATO “when we join the alliance.” Blinken is in Sweden attending a meeting of the U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council and will travel to Oslo, Norway on Wednesday for a gathering of NATO foreign ministers, before going on to newly admitted alliance member Finland on Friday. Speaking in Oslo ahead of the foreign ministers' meeting, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the goal was to have Sweden inside the grouping before the leaders' summit in July. "There are no guarantees, but it’s absolutely possible to reach a solution and enable the decision on full membership for Sweden by the Vilnius summit,” Stoltenberg said. Read More Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide

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Singer Dua Lipa is known for pop hits such as 'Levitating' and 'IDGAF', but it turns out the English-Albanian musician does ‘GAF’ about the UK government’s rhetoric around immigrants – including around Albanians. Speaking to The Sunday Times, the 27-year-old, whose parents are Kosovo Albanians, said “of course it hurt” when Home Secretary Suella Braverman spoke of an “invasion” of immigrants and “Albanian criminals” in the Commons back in November. The artist said: “All those words thrown around about immigrants? I always felt London was an amalgamation of cultures. It is integral to the city. “So when you hear the government talk about Albanians, for example, it hurts. It’s short-sighted and small-minded, but it’s the way a lot of people think. “No matter how we try and change the rhetoric, there will always be those who think, ‘immigrants are coming into the country and taking jobs!’ “However, immigrants who have come here have earned their keep by working incredibly hard. There needs to be empathy, because people don’t leave their country unless they have to out of necessity, out of fear for their family.” Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Last year, Braverman told MPs: “[2022] has seen a surge in the number of Albanian arrivals – many of them, I am afraid to say, abusing our modern slavery laws. “Albania is not a war-torn country, and it is very difficult to see how claims for asylum really can be legitimate claims for asylum. I would also note that we see a large number of Albanian migrants arriving here and claiming to be victims of modern slavery. “Again, I really am circumspect about those claims, because Albania is, of course, a signatory to the European convention against trafficking - the original convention that underlies our modern slavery laws - and if those people are genuinely victims of modern slavery, they should be claiming that protection in Albania.” At the time when Braverman made the remarks, the prime minister of Albania, Edi Rama, slammed the comments for “fuelling xenophobia”. While Lipa said she likes “being vocal about politics all over the world”, she added she would “stay away from politicians”. Nevertheless, the 'Physical' singer has been praised online for her intervention: And it’s not the first time Braverman has been called out for her choice of language around immigrants, as at the start of the year she was confronted on her use of terms such as “invasion” by a child survivor of the Holocaust. After the woman – 83-year-old Joan Salter – asked Braverman why she feels the need “to use that kind of language”, the home secretary replied to say she “won’t apologise for the language that I’ve used” to “demonstrate the scale of the problem” around immigration. “We mustn’t shy away from saying there’s a problem. I will not shy away from saying we have a problem with people exploiting our generosity, breaking our laws and undermining our system,” she said. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

MIAMI (AP) — Jake Burger hit a go-ahead two-run homer and Jazz Chisholm Jr. added a grand slam in the eighth inning to help the Miami Marlins beat the Atlanta Braves 11-5 on Saturday.

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The owner of a clothing store in southern California was killed after an argument about a rainbow Pride flag hanging outside the business, deputies said.