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US President Donald Trump said he spoke to Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin Wednesday about Ukraine and Iran, warning that the Kremlin leader had “very strongly” pledged to respond to Kyiv’s stunning drone attack on Russian bombers.Trump said that there was no “immediate peace” on the horizon in Ukraine — which Russia invaded in 2022 — following what he described as a one hour and 15 minute call with the Russian president.On Iran, Trump said that Putin had offered to “participate” in talks on Tehran’s nuclear program, as Trump accused the Islamic republic of “slowwalking” its response to Washington’s offer of a deal.The call came three days after Ukraine conducted a massive, daring drone attack against Russian military airbases, saying it had destroyed several Russian nuclear-capable bombers worth billions of dollars.Trump said that he and Putin had “discussed the attack on Russia’s docked airplanes, by Ukraine and also various other attacks that have been taking place by both sides.” “It was a good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate Peace. President Putin did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields,” Trump said in his post.Trump did not say whether he had warned Putin off any such retaliation against Ukraine, which Washington has supported to the tune of billions of dollars in its fight against Russia.- ‘Definitive answer’ -The Republican has repeatedly alarmed Kyiv and Western allies by appearing to side with Putin over the war, and had a blazing Oval Office row with visiting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.But Trump has also showed growing frustration with Putin as Russia has so far derailed the US president’s efforts to honor a campaign pledge to end the war within 24 hours — even if he never explained how this could be achieved.The call between Trump and Putin did however show that Washington and Moscow may be eying cooperation on another key global issue — Iran.Trump said he believed they were both “in agreement” that Iran could not have a nuclear weapon, and that time was running out for Tehran to respond to US offers of a deal.”President Putin suggested that he will participate in the discussions with Iran and that he could, perhaps, be helpful in getting this brought to a rapid conclusion,” Trump said.The US president added: “It is my opinion that Iran has been slowwalking their decision on this very important matter, and we will need a definitive answer in a very short period of time!”Putin told his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian that Moscow was ready to help advance talks on a nuclear deal, the Kremlin said on Tuesday.But Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said earlier Wednesday that Washington’s proposal was against Tehran’s national interest, amid sharp differences over whether Tehran can continue to enrich uranium.

Ireland’s prestigious Trinity College Dublin said on Wednesday that it would cut all links with Israel in protest at “ongoing violations of international and humanitarian law”.The university’s board informed students by email that it had accepted the recommendations of a taskforce to sever “institutional links with the State of Israel, Israeli universities and companies headquartered in Israel”.The recommendations would be “enacted for the duration of the ongoing violations of international and humanitarian law”, said the email sent by the board’s chairman Paul Farrell, and seen by AFP. The taskforce was set up after part of the university’s campus in central Dublin was blockaded by students for five days last year in protest at Israel’s actions in Gaza.Among the taskforce’s recommendations approved by the board were pledges to divest “from all companies headquartered in Israel” and to “enter into no future supply contracts with Israeli firms” and “no new commercial relationships with Israeli entities”.The university also said that it would “enter into no further mobility agreements with Israeli universities”. Trinity has two current Erasmus+ exchange agreements with Israeli universities: Bar Ilan University, an agreement that ends in July 2026, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which ends in July 2025, the university told AFP in an email.The board also said that the university “should not submit for approval or agree to participate in any new institutional research agreements involving Israeli participation”.It “should seek to align itself with like-minded universities and bodies in an effort to influence EU policy concerning Israel’s participation in such collaborations,” it added.Ireland has been among the most outspoken critics of Israel’s response to the October 7, 2023 attacks on southern Israel by Hamas militants that sparked the war in Gaza. Polls since the start of the war have shown overwhelming pro-Palestinian sympathy in Ireland.In May 2024, Dublin joined several other European countries in recognising Palestine as a “sovereign and independent state”.It then joined South Africa in bringing a case before the International Court of Justice in The Hague accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza — charges angrily denied by Israeli leaders.In December, Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar ordered the closure of the country’s embassy in Dublin, blaming Ireland’s “extreme anti-Israel policies”.The University of Geneva also announced Wednesday that it has ended its partnership with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem following student protests, saying it no longer reflected the institution’s “strategic priorities”.

More than a million pilgrims joined Islam’s most important rite under a beating sun on Wednesday, as the hajj kicked off with the Saudi hosts scrambling to avoid last year’s 1,000-plus deaths in sweltering heat.With temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit), robed pilgrims slowly circled the Kaaba, the black cube at the heart of Mecca’s Grand Mosque which is Islam’s holiest site.Others have arrived en masse in the sprawling tent city of Mina on Mecca’s outskirts, where they will stay overnight before the hajj’s high-point Thursday — prayers on Mount Arafat, where the Prophet Mohammed is believed to have delivered his final sermon.”You feel like you’re not in this world,” Khitam, a 63-year-old pilgrim, told AFP by phone, saying that “before hajj, I used to watch the Grand Mosque on TV all day.”Authorities said about 1.5 million pilgrims had arrived in Saudi Arabia for the hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam that must be performed at least once by all Muslims with the means.Authorities have ratcheted up heat protection measures such as extra shade to avoid a repeat of last year, when 1,301 people died as temperatures hit 51.8C.On Wednesday, pilgrims will perform the tawaf — walking seven times around the Kaaba, which Muslims pray towards each day.Before entering Mecca, pilgrims must first enter a state of purity, called ihram, which requires special dress and behaviour.Men don a seamless shroud-like white garment that emphasises unity among believers, regardless of their social status or nationality.Women, in turn, wear loose dresses exposing just their faces and hands.Pilgrims arriving on buses had already begun trickling into Mina on Tuesday afternoon, greeted by staff offering them coffee and dates.”I am so happy, it’s such an amazing feeling,” said Reem al-Shogre, a 35-year-old Saudi performing the pilgrimage for the first time.- Artificial intelligence -Following last year’s lethal heatwave, authorities have mobilised more than 40 government agencies and 250,000 officials to improve protection.Shaded areas have been enlarged by 50,000 square metres (12 acres), thousands of additional medics will be on standby and more than 400 cooling units will be deployed, Hajj Minister Tawfiq al-Rabiah told AFP last week.Artificial intelligence technology will help process the deluge of data, including video from a new fleet of drones, to better manage the massive crowds.Authorities said most of the deaths last year were among unregistered pilgrims who lacked access to air-conditioned tents and buses.This year, they have cracked down on the unregistered, using frequent raids, drone surveillance and a barrage of text alerts.A billboard reading “No hajj without permit” greeted pilgrims as they arrived in Mecca.Hajj permits are allocated to countries on a quota basis and distributed to individuals by 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.Large crowds at the hajj have proved hazardous in the past, most notably in 2015 when a stampede during the “stoning the devil” ritual in Mina killed up to 2,300 people in the deadliest hajj disaster.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.

A convicted Swedish jihadist went on trial in Stockholm on Wednesday accused of war crimes for his role in the 2014 killing of a Jordanian pilot who was burned alive in Syria.The case is considered unique as the other jihadists involved in the brutal killing, which sparked international outrage at the time, are presumed dead, according to prosecutors.Osama Krayem, a 32-year-old Swede, is already serving long prison sentences for his role in the Paris and Brussels attacks in 2015 and 2016.He now faces charges of “serious war crimes and terrorist crimes” for his alleged participation in the killing of the Jordanian pilot.The charges can carry up to a life sentence, according to the Swedish Prosecution Authority.On December 24, 2014, an aircraft belonging to the Royal Jordanian Air Force crashed in Syria.The pilot was captured the same day by fighters from the Islamic State (IS) group near the central city of Raqqa and he was burned alive in a cage sometime before February 3, 2015, when a video of the gruesome killing was published, according to the prosecution.Prosecutors have been unable to determine the exact date of the murder but the investigation has identified the location.- Shocking killing -The killing shocked Jordan, which was participating in the US-led coalition’s strikes against IS positions in Syria.”Osama Krayem has, together and in agreement with other perpetrators belonging to IS, killed Maaz al-Kassasbeh,” prosecutor Reena Devgun told the court on Wednesday.”Osama Krayem, in uniform and armed, guarded and led the victim Maaz al-Kassasbeh to a metal cage, where the latter was then locked up. One of the co-perpetrators then set fire to Maaz al-Kassasbeh, who had no possibility to defend himself or call for help,” Devgun said.Krayem, wearing a dark blue shirt and with a thick beard and loose dark hair, had his back to the handful of journalists and spectators who followed Wednesday’s proceedings behind a glass wall in the high security courtroom in Stockholm’s district court.He appeared calm as the prosecution laid out the charges, which could result in a life sentence if Krayem were convicted.In the 22-minute video of the killing, the victim is seen walking past several masked IS fighters, including Krayem, according to prosecutors.The pilot is then seen being locked in the cage and praying as he is set on fire.The pilot’s father, Safi al-Kassasbeh, told AFP on Wednesday that the family hoped Krayem would “receive the harshest penalty according to the magnitude of the crime”.”This is what we expect from a respected and fair law,” he said.- Eyebrow scar -It was thanks to a scar on the suspect’s eyebrow, visible in the video and spotted by Belgian police, that Krayem was identified and the investigation was opened, Devgun told the court. Other evidence in the case includes conversations on social media, including one where Krayem asks a person if he has seen a new video “where a man gets fried”, according to the investigation, a copy of which has been viewed by AFP.”I’m in the video,” Krayem said, pointing out the moment when the camera zooms in on his face.The other person replies: “Hahaha, yes, I saw the eyebrow.”When questioned by police, Krayem insisted he had spent only 15 to 20 minutes on-site, unaware of what was going to happen, according to the preliminary investigation.His lawyer, Petra Eklund, told AFP before the start of the trial that her client admitted to being present at the scene but disputed the prosecution’s version.”He denies the acts for which he is prosecuted,” she said.”He acknowledges having been present at that place during the event, but claims not to have acted in the manner described by the prosecutors in the account of the facts,” she added.Krayem, who is from Malmo in southern Sweden, joined the IS group in Syria in 2014 before returning to Europe in September 2015.He was arrested in Belgium in April 2016.In June 2022, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison in France for helping plan the November 2015 Paris attacks in which 130 people were killed.The following year, he was given a life sentence in Belgium for participating in the March 2016 bombings at Brussels’s main airport and on the metro system, in which 32 people were killed.Krayem has been temporarily handed over to Sweden for the Stockholm trial, which is scheduled to last until June 26.

Working day and night in front of maps, screens and seemingly endless data, Saudi officials have harnessed artificial intelligence to help manage the million-strong sea of pilgrims during the hajj.The technology has proven pivotal to track the overwhelming amount of footage from more than 15,000 cameras in and around the holy city of Mecca.The systems are tuned to spot abnormal crowd movements or predict bottlenecks in foot traffic — a potential life-saver at a packed event with a history of deadly stampedes.Software is also used to help guide more than 20,000 buses deployed to transport pilgrims between holy sites during one of the world’s biggest annual religious gatherings.It is all part of the tech arsenal that Saudi Arabia is deploying as 1.4 million faithful from across the globe descend on Mecca and its surrounds.”In our traffic control room, we use specialised cameras that have AI layers to analyse movements, crowded areas” and predict behaviours, said Mohamed Nazier, chief executive officer for the General Transport Centre at the Royal Commission for Mecca.The centre has a main control room in Mecca filled with screens and maps, where staff use high-tech tools including AI for round-the-clock monitoring.About a dozen staff members sit in rows before desktop computers with a large display at the front, zooming in on crowd movements around the holy sites.On hillsides nearby, cameras that resemble little white robots film buildings, roads and pathways along the hajj route, which winds more than 20 kilometres (12 miles) between Mecca and Mount Arafat.Nazier said the constant monitoring is aimed at averting traffic collisions with pedestrians on crowded routes while also making sure there are buses available to minimise walking time in the desert heat.- ‘Our eye on the ground’ -It is a decade since the hajj suffered its worst disaster, a stampede that killed up to 2,300 people during the “stoning of the devil” ritual.Hundreds also died in stampedes in 2006, 1998 and 1994.In 1990, 1,426 pilgrims were trampled to death or asphyxiated when a tunnel ventilation system failed.With its cutting-edge technology, “the control room is our eye on the ground,” said Mohammed al-Qarni, who oversees the hajj and the year-round umrah pilgrimage at the transport centre.Artificial intelligence helps to determine “the flow on the (roads to the holy sites), and detects emergency situations even before they occur”, he told AFP, adding that the technology can help assess the number of people in a single place.Cameras and AI can estimate if a site has reached maximum capacity, allowing authorities to divert the flow of pilgrims, Qarni said.During the holy month of Ramadan this year, the system spotted when the Grand Mosque had reached full capacity.”The flow to the Haram (Grand Mosque) was stopped and the process controlled,” he said.- Thermal imaging -The use of advanced technology extends beyond logistics, also tracking unregistered pilgrims, who accounted for most of the 1,301 deaths in sweltering conditions last year.As temperatures soared to 51.8 degrees Celsius (125.2 Fahrenheit) last year, unauthorised worshippers who lack access to air-conditioned tents and buses bore the brunt. Temperatures are forecast to top 40C this week.The hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam, must be completed by all Muslims with the means at least once.Yet not everyone is able to secure or afford one of the official permits, which are allocated to countries by quota and awarded to individuals by lottery.To try to stop anyone sneaking in this year, a fleet of camera-equipped drones is monitoring entrances into Mecca.”We use artificial intelligence and other tools like drones and thermal imaging cameras,” the director general of public security, Lieutenant General Mohammed bin Abdullah Al-Bassami, told reporters.Meanwhile, the Saudi Special Forces for Roads Security said it was using “smart thermal imaging” to monitor the perimeter of Mecca and the holy sites.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Wednesday a US proposal for a nuclear agreement was against the national interest, amid sharp differences over whether Tehran can continue to enrich uranium.The longtime foes have held five rounds of talks since April to thrash out a new accord to replace the deal with major powers that US President Donald Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018.On Saturday, Iran said it had received “elements” of the US proposal through Omani mediators, the details of which have not been publicly disclosed.”The proposal presented by the Americans is 100 percent against” notions of independence and self-reliance, Khamenei said in a televised speech, invoking ideals of the 1979 Islamic revolution.”Independence means not waiting for the green light from America and the likes of America.”Iran’s enrichment of uranium has emerged as a major point of contention.Trump said on Monday his administration would not allow “any” enrichment, despite Tehran’s insistence it is its right under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.Khamenei said enrichment is “key” to Iran’s nuclear programme and that the United States “cannot have a say” on the issue.”If we have 100 nuclear power plants but don’t have enrichment, they will be of no use to us,” because “nuclear power plants need fuel” to operate, he said.”If we cannot produce this fuel domestically, we have to reach out to the United States, which may have dozens of conditions.”The New York Times reported Tuesday that the US proposal includes “an arrangement that would allow Iran to continue enriching uranium at low levels” as the US and other countries “work out a more detailed plan intended to block Iran’s path to a nuclear weapon”. It said the proposal would see the United States facilitating “the building of nuclear power plants for Iran and negotiate the construction of enrichment facilities managed by a consortium of regional countries”.Iran has previously said it is open to temporary limits on its enrichment of uranium, and is willing to consider the establishment of a regional nuclear fuel consortium.But it has stressed that such a consortium is “in no way intended to replace Iran’s own uranium enrichment programme”.Iran’s chief negotiator, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, said in a Wednesday post on X: No enrichment, no deal. No nuclear weapons, we have a deal.”- ‘Less than satisfactory’ -On Monday, Araghchi held talks in Cairo with Rafael Grossi, head of the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.In its latest quarterly report last week, the IAEA said Iran had further stepped up its production of highly enriched uranium.In a separate report, it also criticised “less than satisfactory” cooperation from Tehran, particularly in explaining past cases of nuclear material found at undeclared sites.Iran currently enriches uranium to 60 percent, far above the 3.67-percent limit set in the 2015 deal but still short of the 90 percent threshold needed for a nuclear warhead.The reports came ahead of a planned IAEA Board of Governors meeting in Vienna later this month which will review Iran’s nuclear activities.Washington and other Western governments have continued to accuse Iran of seeking a nuclear weapons capability. Iran insists its programme is for peaceful purposes only.The 2015 deal provided Iran with relief from international sanctions in return for UN-monitored restrictions on its nuclear activities.Trump reimposed US sanctions when he quit the agreement in 2018 and has since tightened them with secondary sanctions against third parties who violate them.Britain, France and Germany, the three European countries who were party to the 2015 deal, are currently weighing whether to trigger the sanctions “snapback” mechanism in the accord. The mechanism would reinstate UN sanctions in response to Iranian non-compliance — an option that expires in October.Iran has criticised the IAEA report as unbalanced, saying it relied on “forged documents” provided by its arch foe Israel.