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Muslim worshippers prayed on Mount Arafat during the high point of the hajj pilgrimage Thursday, as authorities urged them to avoid the hottest hours of the day after tragedy struck last year.Thousands of white-robed pilgrims recited Koranic verses from dawn on the 70-metre (230 feet) rocky rise near Mecca, where the Prophet Mohammed is believed to have given his last sermon.But numbers thinned by midday following official warnings for pilgrims to stay inside between 10:00 am and 4:00 pm.”I came here early to (avoid) the sun and later I will pray inside my tent,” said 54-year-old Adel Ismail, from Syria.Saudi authorities have taken several steps to reduce the risk from heat at the hajj, which has drawn more than 1.6 million pilgrims to one of the world’s hottest regions, according to fresh figures published Thursday.Barring a few years of Covid restrictions from 2020-2022, this hajj season has recorded the lowest number of pilgrims in over three decades.The dip comes after 1,301 people died in temperatures that hit 51.8 degrees Celsius (125 degrees Fahrenheit) last year — most of them illegal pilgrims according to Saudi authorities, who implemented stringent measures to reduce their numbers this season.Unregistered, non-fee paying pilgrims, lack access to the full amenities offered during the hajj including air conditioned tents, making them particularly vulnerable to heat-related health risks.On Thursday, icepacks were handed to people walking towards Mount Arafat, with some placing the small bags on their heads.With temperatures reaching 42C (107.6F), officials ushered people away if they spent too long in one place near the bouldered hill, which had fans spraying mist and cool air at its foot.- ‘I don’t think about the sun’ -Late Thursday afternoon, pilgrims began making their way to Muzdalifah, halfway between Arafat and the sprawling tent city of Mina, where they will gather pebbles for Friday’s symbolic “stoning of the devil”.Despite the heat, they were generally delighted to be performing the hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam that must be completed at least once by all Muslims with the means.”I don’t think about the sun or the temperature or anything like that,” said Ahmed, a 44-year-old from Egypt.”Because standing in Arafat is a great thing and a beautiful day, and as you can see, all the pilgrims” are doing it.Ali, 33, from Pakistan, said he felt “blessed” to take part.”This is something that I used to see every year on the TV screen during hajj and I always thought: ‘I wish I could be here’,” he said.Through tears of joy, Iman Abdel Khaleq said she had wanted to perform the hajj for 10 years and was overwhelmed with emotion as she arrived at Arafat.”It’s a big dream for me that I had almost given up hope of realising,” the Egyptian woman in her 50s told AFP from the foot of the mount.- High-tech hajj -Saudi officials said the heat-mitigation measures implemented this hajj had largely been successful in preventing a repeat of last year.”We are encountering a limited number of heat related illnesses cases this year and this is evidence of the effectiveness of all the organisation measures as well as preventive measures,” said Mohammed Al-Abd Al-Aali, Saudi Arabia’s assistant minister of health.Ahead of this year’s hajj, shaded areas have been expanded by 50,000 square metres (12 acres), thousands more medics are on standby and more than 400 cooling units have been deployed, the hajj minister told AFP last week.Along with the anti-heat measures and thousands of extra personnel, Saudi Arabia is also using an arsenal of high-tech tools to help better manage crowds.More than 15,000 cameras run through artificial intelligence software are monitoring the holy sites and walkways during an event that has a history of deadly stampedes.This year, officials have also clamped down hard on unregistered pilgrims looking to sneak into Mecca, using raids, drone surveillance and a barrage of text alerts.Late Thursday, a hajj ministry source said the moves had helped stave off overcrowding at the holy sites so far. Hajj permits are allocated to countries on a quota basis and distributed to individuals by a lottery.But even for those who can obtain them, the steep costs prompt many to attempt the hajj without a permit, even though they risk arrest and deportation if caught.Saudi Arabia earns billions of dollars a year from the hajj, and the lesser pilgrimage known as umrah, undertaken at other times of the year.

French dock workers at a southern port were Thursday blocking the shipment of military material bound for Israel in protest at Israeli actions against Palestinians in Gaza, their union said.The stevedores at the port in Fos-sur-Mer outside Marseille have refused to load crates of links used to assist the rapid fire of bullets aboard the cargo vessel, the CGT trade union said.Links are small metal pieces, used to connect machine gun bullets and allow rapid bursts of fire. There has been concern in media and among rights groups that they have likely been used against civilians in the Gaza Strip.Christophe Claret, leader of the dock workers in the port, said they had been notified that the ship was due to be loaded on Thursday with the material.”We managed to identify it and set it aside,” he told AFP, emphasising that once dockers refuse to load a shipment, no one else can do it for them. The other containers for the ship will all be loaded.According to the union, the cargo is 19 pallets of links manufactured by the Marseille-based company Eurolinks.The CGT said the move made clear its refusal to “participate in the ongoing genocide orchestrated by the Israeli government.” Leading rights groups, including Amnesty International, have accused Israel of committing genocide in its military campaign, a charge vehemently rejected by the Israeli government.- ‘Humanism is not for sale’ -Anne Savinel-Barras, president of Amnesty International France, said such deliveries were taking place “in opacity and in total contradiction” with the recent statements by French President Emmanuel Macron who had expressed horror over the humanitarian situation in Gaza. “These weapons could be used to commit serious crimes under international law in Gaza and the West Bank,” she said, urging France to end its “double standards” and impose a total embargo on all arms destined for Israel.”If France continues to authorise the delivery of war material to Israel, it is fuelling this genocide,” she said in a statement.Amnesty said it hailed the actions of the stevedores and warned that French authorities “risked making France complicit in the ongoing genocide” if such deliveries were continued.Contacted by AFP, Eurolinks did not respond to a request for comment. The Port of Marseille-Fos had no comment.”We are very proud of this action led by our comrades and which is part of the CGT’s long internationalist tradition for peace,” CGT secretary general Sophie Binet told reporters in the eastern city of Strasbourg on Thursday. “It is unacceptable that CGT dockers should be the ones forced to uphold the fundamental principles of international law and French values. The government must immediately block all arms deliveries to the State of Israel,” she added.The move was also welcomed by hard-left and left-wing leaders in France.”Humanism is not for sale,” said Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure.According to the investigative website Disclose, which had access to maritime data, two other such shipments between Fos-sur-Mer and the Israeli port of Haifa took place on April 3 and May 22.French Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu had stated at the time that these parts exported by the Marseille company would be “re-exported” through Israel and not used by the Israeli army.The latest war started after Hamas fighters attacked Israel on October 7, 2023. The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. Of the 251 hostages seized during the attack, 55 remain in Gaza, including 32 the Israeli military says are dead.Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since October 2023 has killed 54,677 people, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the occupied Palestinian territory, while the United Nations said on May 30 the territory’s entire population of more than two million people was at risk of famine.

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said Thursday that recognising a Palestinian state now would send “the wrong signal”, despite moves by other European countries in that direction.Speaking at a Berlin press conference with his Israeli counterpart Gideon Saar, Wadephul stressed German support for a two-state solution but said “negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians must be concluded” first.Spain, Ireland and Norway a year ago recognised a Palestinian state and President Emmanuel Macron has said France could do so by June, leading Israel to accuse him of a “crusade against the Jewish state”.Germany, as it has sought to atone for the Holocaust, has long been one of Israel’s most steadfast supporters, but has recently sharpened its criticism of its ally over the Gaza war.Wadephul said “too little” aid was reaching civilians in the war-battered territory, where the United Nations warned last month that the entire population was at risk of famine. Germany’s top diplomat added that he had renewed to Saar his “urgent request to allow humanitarian aid to Gaza” as required by international law.He stressed that Israel has a right to defend itself against Hamas and other enemies, and that “therefore Germany will of course continue to support Israel with arms deliveries, that was never in doubt”.Last week, Wadephul had said Germany was assessing “whether what is happening in Gaza is in line with international law” and that arms sales to Israel would be evaluated on this basis.This brought criticism from some within Wadephul’s own CDU/CSU conservative alliance, who accused him of insufficient support for Israel.- ‘Difficult hours’ -Wadephul also said he was “concerned about the extremely tense situation in the West Bank” and that Berlin rejects the creation of new Israeli settlements there.”This settlement policy in this form is contrary to international law, it literally blocks the possibility of a two-state solution,” said Wadephul.Last week Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz vowed to build a “Jewish Israeli state” in the occupied West Bank after the government announced the creation of 22 new settlements there.Saar, speaking earlier Thursday at Berlin’s Holocaust memorial, said that Israel is “surrounded by enemies seeking its elimination” and that “the only difference between Hamas and the Nazis was their capabilities”.He said a Palestinian state would mean “the biggest prize is being offered to the murderers, establishing a new terrorist state in the heart of our homeland”.Israel has faced growing international pressure to end its war in Gaza, which was triggered by the unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas on Israeli soil. The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says at least 54,607 people have been killed by Israel’s offensive in the territory, mostly civilians.Hamas’s 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, also mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.Saar charged that “only Hamas is responsible for the suffering on both sides” and said that “we need Germany’s support today in these difficult hours”.

Rights groups, lawyers and some governments are describing the Gaza war as “genocide” and calling for a ceasefire but Israel, created in the aftermath of the Nazi Holocaust of Jews, vehemently rejects the explosive term.Israel says it is seeking to wipe out Gaza’s Islamist rulers and free its hostages still held in the occupied Palestinian coastal strip since the Hamas militant attack in Israel on October 7, 2023.But Israel’s devastating war on Gaza — largely populated by descendants of Palestinian refugees who were expelled from or fled what became Israeli land in 1948 — has killed tens of thousands of civilians and sparked growing global outrage.The accusation against Israel of genocide has been made with increasing force from quarters ranging from “Schindler’s List” star Ralph Fiennes to Amnesty International and some Israeli historians.What does the legal term really mean and who can decide whether it applies?What is ‘genocide’?The word genocide — derived from the Greek word “genos”, for race or tribe, and “cide”, from the Latin for “to kill” — was coined in 1944 by Raphael Lemkin. Lemkin, a Polish Jew who had fled to the United States, used it to describe the crimes committed by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust.It was used for the first time within a legal framework by an international military tribunal at Nuremberg to try Nazi leaders for their crimes in 1945. However, those accused were eventually convicted on charges of crimes against humanity.It has been recognised within international law since 1948 and the advent of the UN Genocide Convention.That text defines genocide as any of five “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group”. These five acts include killing members of the group, causing them serious bodily or mental harm, imposing living conditions intended to destroy the group, preventing births and forcibly transferring children out of the group.Regardless of the definition, the qualification of “genocide” has been hugely sensitive over the decades.What is happening in Gaza?Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since October 2023 has killed 54,677 people, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the occupied Palestinian territory.The United Nations has said the territory’s entire population of more than two million people is at risk of famine, even if Israel said last month it was partially easing the complete blockade on aid it imposed on Gaza on March 2.Despite international calls for an end to the war, a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas remains elusive.The latest war started after Hamas fighters attacked Israel on October 7, 2023. The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.Of the 251 hostages seized, 55 remain in Gaza, including 32 the Israeli military says are dead.Who speaks of ‘genocide’ in Gaza?In December 2023, South Africa brought a case to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the United Nations’ highest judicial organ, alleging that Israel’s Gaza offensive breached the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Israel denies the accusation.In rulings in January, March and May 2024, the ICJ told Israel to do everything possible to “prevent” acts of genocide during its military operations in Gaza, including by providing urgently needed humanitarian aid to prevent famine.While no court has so far ruled the ongoing conflict is a genocide, human rights groups and international law experts — including several who are Israeli — have used the term to describe it.Amnesty International has accused Israel of carrying out a “live-streamed genocide” in Gaza, while Human Rights Watch has alleged it is responsible for “acts of genocide”.A UN committee in November found Israel’s warfare in Gaza was “consistent with the characteristics of genocide”.And a UN investigation concluded in March that Israel carried out “genocidal acts” in Gaza through the destruction of the strip’s main IVF clinic and other reproductive healthcare facilities.Omer Bartov, an Israeli scholar of the Holocaust, wrote in August last year that “Israel was engaged in systematic war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocidal actions”.Fellow Israeli historians Amos Goldberg and Daniel Blatman in January co-wrote an article in which they said: “Israel is indeed committing genocide in Gaza.”Western governments have largely refrained from using the word, with France’s President Emmanuel Macron saying it was not up to a “political leader to use to term but up to historians to do so when the time comes”.But Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has used it, while Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has accused Israel of “premeditated genocide”.What does Israel say?Israel alleges it is exercising its right to security and “self defence”, an argument echoed by its staunch ally the United States.Israel has dismissed accusations of genocide as “blatant lies” and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused the UN Human Rights Council of being “an antisemitic, corrupt, terror-supporting and irrelevant body”.He has said UN experts should instead focus on “crimes against humanity and the war crimes committed by the Hamas terrorist organisation in the worst massacre against the Jewish people since the Holocaust”, referring to October 7.The International Criminal Court (ICC) in November issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant over alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in Israel’s war in Gaza — including starvation as a method of warfare.It also issued an arrest warrant for Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif over allegations of crimes against humanity and war crimes in the October 7 attack, but the case against him was dropped in February after confirmation Israel had killed him.ICC prosecutor Karim Khan also initially sought warrants against Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh, but dropped those applications after their deaths in Israeli attacks.Who decides and when?Thijs Bouwknegt, a genocide expert, said the Israeli policy in Gaza seemed to be “designed to make a civilian population either perish or leave” but a court would have to decide if it was genocide.”It bears the hallmarks of it but we still have to wait and see whether it actually was,” said the historian, who has conducted research for the ICC and observed trials over genocide in Rwanda and former Yugoslavia.In the case of Rwanda, in which the United Nations said extremist Hutus killed some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in 1994, it took a decade for the International Criminal Tribunal to conclude genocide had happened.It was not until 2007 that the ICJ recognised as genocide the murder by Bosnian Serb forces of almost 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995 during the Bosnian war.”The threshold for genocide is nearly impossible to meet,” Bouwknegt explained.”You have to prove that there was an intent and that there was the only possible explanation for what happened.”Has there been intent?French-Israeli lawyer Omer Shatz said “there is no doubt that war crimes, crimes against humanity are being committed” in Gaza.But the international law expert agreed intent was more difficult to prove.That is why, after the ICC issued an arrest warrant against Netanyahu and Gallant, he filed a report with the court in December arguing they were among eight Israeli officials responsible for “incitement to genocide in Gaza”.”If incitement is established, that establishes intent,” he told AFP.His 170-page report lists such alleged incitements, including Gallant at the start of the war saying Israel was fighting “human animals” in Gaza and far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich urging “total extermination” in the Palestinian territory.It cites President Isaac Herzog failing to differentiate between Palestinian militants and civilians when he spoke of “an entire nation out there that is responsible” for the October 7 attack.Mathilde Philip-Gay, an international law expert, said it was ultimately up to a judge to decide on whether the genocide label applied.But, she warned: “International law cannot stop a war.””The judiciary will intervene after the war. The qualification (of genocide) is very important for victims but it will come later,” she said.What now?The 1948 Genocide Convention says signatories can call on UN organs “to take such action… for the prevention and suppression of acts of genocide”.But while it implies they should act to stop any such crime from occurring, it does not detail how.Activists have called for an arms embargo and sanctions against Israel.The European Union last month ordered a review of its cooperation deal with Israel and Britain halted trade talks with the government.But the United States and Germany, two major weapons suppliers, are not likely to want to review their relationship with Israel.

Gamers finally got their hands on Nintendo’s new Switch 2 on Thursday, the console that could score record early sales for the Japanese “Super Mario” creator.The device, which features a bigger screen and more processing power, is an upgrade to the Switch that became a global phenomenon with hit games such as “Animal Crossing”.The original …

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Residents of the Libyan capital were preparing for the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha in relative peace after deadly clashes last month, but they were unconvinced it would outlast the festivities.With celebrations set for Friday, Randa al-Mahmoudi, a schoolteacher in her thirties, said she was trying to keep life steady for her three children.”We try, at least for the children, to do things as usual, without thinking about what might happen,” she said, shopping in a supermarket in Siyahiya, a western district of Tripoli. “Otherwise, we can’t live.”Despite “everything looking normal in Tripoli with traffic jams, open shops and schools, and flights operating,” Mahmoudi said, she “can feel something is off”.Nureddin al-Shaouesh, a 48-year-old radio technician, said his children would “tremble when they hear wedding fireworks”, thinking they were gunshots in the capital.Another local, Hamza al-Ahmar, 39, wondered: “What will happen after Eid? That’s the question on everyone’s mind.”The Libyan capital was rocked in May by several days of fighting between rival armed groups. The 444 Brigade, aligned with the Tripoli-based government, fought several powerful rival factions in control of various areas of the city.Libya is split between the UN-recognised government in Tripoli, led by Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah, and a rival administration in the east.The North African country has remained deeply divided since the 2011 NATO-backed revolt that toppled and killed longtime leader Moamer Kadhafi.- Fragile truce -The clashes were sparked by the killing of Abdelghani al-Kikli, the leader of the SSA armed group, by the 444 Brigade, which later took on another rival faction, Radaa.The fighting came after Dbeibah announced a string of executive orders seeking to dismantle armed groups that he later said had “become stronger than the state”.A fragile truce ensued, but many Tripolitans remained on edge after the clashes, which killed at least eight people, according to the United Nations.”On the surface, things are calm,” said Fathi Shibli, a 64-year-old retired teacher. “But I wouldn’t say it’s a return to normal. People are afraid of new fights because the root of the problem is yet to be resolved.”The area once under SSA control has since been taken over by the 444 Brigade, which claimed to have discovered a mass grave there containing dozens of bodies.On Wednesday, UN Human Rights Commissioner Volker Turk raised alarm over “gross human rights violations uncovered at official and unofficial detention facilities run by the Stabilisation Support Apparatus (SSA) force in Tripoli”.- ‘We’ll see what happens’ -The UN support mission in Libya said “10 charred bodies” were found at the SSA headquarters in Abu Salim, its former stronghold in the capital, while “a total of 67 bodies in refrigerators” were discovered at two local hospitals.A burial site was also reportedly found in Tripoli’s zoo, formerly managed by the SSA.”We’ll see what happens,” said Mahmoudi. “There’s a new reality in Tripoli after Gheniwa’s death and the tensions with Radaa.”Hundreds of people — mostly from the Radaa-controlled Souq al-Joumaa district — have protested for the past three Fridays in the capital to demand Dbeibah’s resignation.”I want him gone, but with the current chaos and a rival government in the East watching closely, toppling this government would be a mistake,” said Ahmar.Shibli said the issue was beyond the UN-backed premier, citing inefficiencies across the board: “Dbeibah’s departure won’t fix the crisis. He’s just one part of the problem.”Presidential and parliamentary elections under UN supervision were scheduled for December 2021, but they were indefinitely postponed due to unresolved disputes between the country’s eastern and western powers.

A year out from kick-off, Iranian football fans are watching their World Cup dream slip away after a US travel ban barred them from entering the land of “Great Satan” to cheer on their team.The 2026 tournament will be co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico, but most matches, including the final, are scheduled to be played on American soil.Many in Iran had clung to hopes of cheering from the stands until Wednesday when US President Donald Trump rolled out a new travel ban on 12 countries including Iran, which will take effect from Monday. “My friends and I have been waiting for years to watch Team Melli (a nickname for the national team) play in a World Cup on US soil, and when they qualified, it felt like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Sohrab Naderi, a real estate agent in Tehran, told AFP.”Now with the new travel ban, that dream is shattered because of politics that we don’t care about and have no control over,” said the 46-year-old who attended the 2022 World Cup in Qatar which saw the US side defeat Iran 1-0 in the group stage.The prospect of Iran competing in a US-hosted tournament comes against the backdrop of a decades-long enmity, with diplomatic ties broken since the 1979 Islamic revolution.The two sides are currently engaged in high-stakes talks over Iran’s nuclear programme, with the United States threatening military action if no deal can be reached.- ‘Degrading to all Iranians’ -Trump said the new travel ban was prompted by a makeshift flamethrower attack on a Jewish protest in Colorado that US authorities blamed on a man they said was in the country illegally.The ban will not apply to athletes competing in either the 2026 World Cup or the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, the order said. Nonetheless, supporters who had dreamed of crossing the Atlantic to cheer on their team will no longer be able to make the trip.”Every Iranian has the right to support their team, just as much as any other country, whether the game is in America or in any other country,” said Hasti Teymourpour, a 16-year-old football fan.Since his return to office in January, Trump has reinstated his “maximum pressure” policy of sanctions against Iran and vowed that “something bad” would happen unless the Iranians “move quickly” towards a nuclear deal.Naderi, who called the ban “inhumane” and “degrading to all Iranians”, still hopes the Iran-US nuclear talks will yield a deal that might persuade Trump to reconsider. The outcome of the US-Iran talks that began in April remains unclear, and many fans worry that even if they result in a deal, it may be too late for them.Some Iranians have refused to give up hope, however, seeing in the World Cup an opportunity to thaw relations.”Sports diplomacy can act as a strong catalyst and bring the efforts of political diplomats to fruition sooner,” said political commentator Mohammad Reza Manafi.It could be “a great opportunity to help advance diplomacy between the two countries”.- Friendly? -In a memorable 1998 World Cup clash, Iranian players handed flowers to their American adversaries and posed together for photos — a rare public gesture of goodwill between the nations.Iran won 2–1, a victory celebrated in Tehran as a source of both sporting and political pride.With the 2026 draw expected in December, it remains unclear whether Iran and the United States will face off again, but anticipation is building.”The two countries are not hostile to each other, this political discussion is for the governments,” said 44-year-old day labourer Siamak Kalantari.Another fan, Mahdieh Olfati, said: “If we face the US again, we’ll definitely win.””Ours are real players,” the 18-year-old added.Manafi, the commentator, said a friendly before the tournament, possibly hosted by a third country, could help ease tensions.Such a game, he said, could help “achieve what politicians from both sides have not managed to do for years”.