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Hajj pilgrims gather at Mount Arafat under scorching desert sun

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Temperatures near 44C test worshippers’ endurance as the annual pilgrimage unfolds under the shadow of war.

Huge numbers of Muslims prayed on Mount Arafat at the most important ritual of the Hajj pilgrimage, as a punishing desert sun sent temperatures soaring towards 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).

From daybreak on Tuesday, thousands of white-robed worshippers recited Quranic verses on the 70-metre (230-foot) rocky hill near Mecca, where the Prophet Muhammad is believed to have delivered his final sermon.

Volunteers lined the route, handing out bottles of water, parasols and food packages to the tens of thousands of pilgrims making their way towards the mount.

“It is an indescribable feeling,” said Ahmoud Abou Elezz, a 35-year-old Egyptian engineer, as he approached Mount Arafat for the first time.

More than 1.5 million people have joined the Hajj this year, even as a war pitting the United States and Israel against Iran casts a long shadow across the Middle East.

During the fighting, Tehran retaliated with waves of drone and ballistic missile strikes, hitting major infrastructure and energy installations across the Gulf, including in Saudi Arabia.

More than 30,000 Iranians have made the journey, about a third of the 86,000 originally expected. Iran’s IRNA state news agency said the “wartime situation” explained the drop.

Despite the conflict, Saudi officials said over the weekend that more pilgrims have travelled from abroad this year than in 2024.

The Hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam, is obligatory at least once in a lifetime for all Muslims who are physically and financially able to perform it.

With temperatures reaching 44C (111F) in Mecca in recent days, Saudi authorities have urged pilgrims to drink plenty of water and protect themselves from the sun during the mostly outdoor rituals, which can stretch over five days or more.

Because men are prohibited from wearing hats, many carry umbrellas to shield themselves from the blistering heat.

After the day on Mount Arafat, pilgrims will spend the night in Muzdalifah, where they collect pebbles for the symbolic “stoning of the devil” ritual in Mina, set to begin on Wednesday.

The Hajj is said to trace the route of the Prophet Muhammad’s final pilgrimage about 1,400 years ago, and has long been a crucial source of legitimacy for the Al Saud dynasty, whose monarch bears the title “Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques” in Mecca and Medina.

📰 மூல செய்தி (Source): https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2026/5/26/hajj-pilgrims-gather-at-mount-arafat-under-scorching-desert-sun?traffic_source=rss

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Do we owe the world children?

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Is having children a choice or responsibility?

📰 மூல செய்தி (Source): https://www.aljazeera.com/video/doha-debates/2026/5/26/do-we-owe-the-world-children?traffic_source=rss

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US Supreme court rejects NFL attempt to move racism case to arbitration

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The league, plus New York Giants, Denver Broncos and Houston Texans, to move case to proceedings controlled by the NFL.

The US Supreme Court has turned away a ⁠bid by the National Football League to move a Black coach’s racial discrimination claims out of federal court and into arbitration proceedings controlled by the NFL.

The justices declined to hear an ⁠appeal by the league and three of its teams filed after a lower court ruled that the NFL cannot force Brian Flores, the former Miami Dolphins head coach and current Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator, to arbitrate workplace bias ⁠claims through a process overseen by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

The teams involved in the appeal were the New York Giants, Denver Broncos and Houston Texans.

Flores, 45, has accused the NFL, the most popular professional sport league in the United States, of systematic discrimination against Black coaches.

According to his 2022 lawsuit, the NFL and several teams discriminated against Black candidates for ‌coaching and management jobs in violation of federal and state laws. Flores filed the suit after being fired as head coach of the Miami Dolphins despite the team having a winning record for two consecutive seasons.

Flores alleged that during his career, he was asked to have “sham interviews” with the Giants and Broncos merely to satisfy a 2003 NFL policy called the Rooney Rule requiring that minorities be interviewed for coaching jobs. The NFL adopted the Rooney Rule in 2003 in light of the historically low number of minorities in NFL ⁠head coaching positions.

Two more Black coaches, former Arizona Cardinals head coach Steve Wilks and ⁠former longtime NFL assistant coach Ray Horton, later joined Flores as plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit seeks to force the NFL to make a series of changes, incentivise teams to hire Black coaches and general managers, and require teams to explain hiring and termination decisions in ⁠writing.

The NFL, which has denied claims of racial discrimination, responded to the lawsuit by arguing it should either be dismissed as lacking legal merit, or else sent to ⁠arbitration.

A New York-based federal judge in 2023 ruled that the NFL and ⁠the Giants, Broncos and Texans must face Flores’s claims of systematic discrimination against Black coaches in the league, while sending other aspects of the case to private arbitration.

On appeal, the New York-based 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in 2025 agreed that some of Flores’s claims belonged in ‌federal court. The 2nd Circuit ruled that a provision in the NFL constitution granting Goodell unilateral authority to arbitrate was “plainly unenforceable” because it would deny Flores arbitration “in any meaningful sense of the word”.

An arbitration agreement that “compels one ‌party ‌to submit its disputes to the substantive and procedural authority of the principal executive officer of one of their adverse parties, is an agreement for arbitration in name only,” Judge Jose Cabranes wrote for the 2nd Circuit.

📰 மூல செய்தி (Source): https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2026/5/26/us-supreme-court-rejects-nfl-attempt-to-move-racism-case-to-arbitration?traffic_source=rss

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Twitch to politics: Hasan Piker on Gaza and the US right-wing

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Twitch streamer Hasan Piker tackles politics, Gaza, and culture for nearly 3M viewers.

With nearly three million Twitch followers, Hasan Piker is one of the internet’s biggest political streamers. He blends humor, culture, and masculinity talk with sharp political commentary, drawing young men away from the US alt-right. And on Gaza, he has become one of the loudest US voices for Palestine.

This is a story from the archives. This originally aired on August 19, 2025. None of the dates, titles or other references from that time have been changed. 

📰 மூல செய்தி (Source): https://www.aljazeera.com/video/the-take-2/2026/5/26/aje-onl-tt_rr_usa_piker_av_v1-250526?traffic_source=rss

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