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A Stockholm court on Thursday handed down a life term to Swedish jihadist Osama Krayem over the 2015 murder of a Jordanian pilot burned alive by the Islamic State group in Syria.The Swedish court was the first to try a person over the killing that sparked outrage around the world.Judge Anna Liljenberg Gullesjo said “the investigation has shown that the defendant was at the execution site, uniformed and armed, and allowed himself to be filmed.”Although video evidence showed that another man lit the fire, the judge said the “defendant’s actions contributed so significantly to the death of the victim that he should be considered a perpetrator”.Krayem, who is serving long prison sentences for his role in the Paris and Brussels attacks in 2015 and 2016, was given a life sentence for “serious war crimes and terrorist crimes”On December 24, 2014, an aircraft belonging to the Royal Jordanian Air Force crashed in Syria.The pilot, Maaz al-Kassasbeh, was captured the same day by IS fighters near the central city of Raqqa and was burned alive in a cage sometime before February 3, 2015, when a slickly-produced video of the gruesome killing was published, according to the prosecution.Gullesjo said Krayem’s actions consisted of “guarding the victim both before and during the execution and taking him to the cage where he was set alight while still alive”.The court also awarded compensation to the parents and siblings of the Jordanian pilot, amounting to 80,000 Swedish kronor ($8,200) each.- ‘Comfort’ for family -Prosecutors have been unable to determine the exact date of the murder, but the investigation has identified the location.The 32-year-old jihadist remained silent throughout the hearings, which lasted between June 4 and June 26, though segments from interrogations with Krayem conducted during the investigation were read out and played during the trial.The fact that the defendent did not speak did not “significantly impact the ruling, as the prosecution presented solid evidence, and the investigation was thorough,” Gullesjo told AFP.According to his lawyer, Krayem insisted he had spent only 15 to 20 minutes on-site, unaware of what was going to happen until he saw the cameras.”This verdict somewhat comforts the family,” the pilot’s brother Jawdat al-Kassasbeh, who was a civil party to the case, told AFP.”We thank Sweden and the impartial Swedish judiciary for their efforts in pursuing this case,” the brother added.He travelled from Jordan for the trial to testify to the pain, still raw, that he shares with his loved ones.- No remorse -The family’s lawyer lamented in court that Krayem showed no empathy or remorse for his actions.”Most people who witnessed what Maaz went through would undoubtedly need lifelong, or at least long-term, treatment to overcome the trauma that this causes in a normal individual,” Mikael Westerlund told the court.”Krayem, on the other hand, does not seem to have been traumatised, but inspired. Inspired to continue his terrorist activities, which led him to participate in and then be convicted of terrorist acts in Europe,” Westerlund added.Krayem, who is from Malmo in southern Sweden, was sentenced to 30 years in prison in France for helping plan the November 2015 Paris attacks and to life imprisonment in Belgium for the 2016 attacks at Brussels’ main airport and metro station.On March 12, France agreed to hand him over to Sweden for nine months, the time needed for the investigation and trial. He must be returned to France by December 27 at the latest, the Stockholm court said Thursday.”Jordanians will always remember this horrible crime,” Jordanian government spokesman Mohammed Momani told AFP.”This decision is a significant step towards achieving justice.”

President Donald Trump’s envoy met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday ahead of a visit to inspect aid distribution in Gaza, as a deadly food crisis drove mounting international pressure for a ceasefire.Steve Witkoff, who has been involved in months of stalled negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage release deal, met Netanyahu shortly after his arrival, the Israeli leader’s office said. On Friday, he is to visit Gaza, the White House announced.Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Witkoff, who visited Gaza in January, would inspect “distribution sites and secure a plan to deliver more food and meet with local Gazans to hear firsthand about this dire situation on the ground”.German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul also met Netanyahu in Jerusalem, and afterwards declared: “The humanitarian disaster in Gaza is beyond imagination.”Here, the Israeli government must act quickly, safely and effectively to provide humanitarian and medical aid to prevent mass starvation from becoming a reality,” he said.”I have the impression that this has been understood today.”In an example of the deadly problems facing aid efforts in Gaza, the territory’s civil defence agency said that at least 58 Palestinians were killed late Wednesday when Israeli forces opened fire on a crowd attempting to block an aid convoy.- Hostage video -The armed wing of Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad meanwhile released a video showing German-Israeli hostage Rom Braslavski. In the six-minute video, Braslavski, speaking in Hebrew, is seen watching recent news footage of the crisis in Gaza. He identifies himself and pleads with the Israeli government to secure his release.Braslavski was a security guard at the Nova music festival, one of the sites targeted by Hamas and other Palestinian fighters in the October 2023 attack that sparked the Gaza war.”They managed to break Rom. Even the strongest person has a breaking point,” his family said in a statement released by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum in Israel.”Rom is an example of all the hostages. They must all be brought home now.”- Hungry crowd -The Israeli military said troops had fired “warning shots” as Gazans gathered around the aid trucks. An AFP correspondent saw stacks of bullet-riddled corpses in Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital.Jameel Ashour, who lost a relative in the shooting, told AFP at the overflowing morgue that Israeli troops opened fire after “people saw thieves stealing and dropping food and the hungry crowd rushed in hopes of getting some”.Witkoff has been the top US representative in indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas but talks in Doha broke down last week and Israel and the United States recalled their delegations.Israel is under mounting international pressure to agree a ceasefire and allow the world to flood Gaza with food, with Canada and Portugal the latest Western governments to announce plans to recognise a Palestinian state.- International pressure -Trump criticised Canada’s decision and, in a post on his Truth Social network, placed the blame for the crisis squarely on Palestinian militant group Hamas.”The fastest way to end the Humanitarian Crises in Gaza is for Hamas to SURRENDER AND RELEASE THE HOSTAGES!!!” declared Trump, one of Israel’s staunchest international supporters.Earlier this week, however, the US president contradicted Netanyahu’s insistence that reports of hunger in Gaza were exaggerated, warning that the territory faces “real starvation”.UN-backed experts have reported “famine is now unfolding” in Gaza, with images of sick and emaciated children drawing international outrage.The US State Department said it would deny visas to officials from the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank — the core of any future Palestinian state.- ‘This is what death looks like’ -The October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to a tally based on official figures.Of the 251 people seized, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 declared dead by the Israeli military.The Israeli offensive, nearing its 23rd month, has killed at least 60,249 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to Hamas-run Gaza’s health ministry.This week UN aid agencies said deaths from starvation had begun.The civil defence agency said Israeli attacks across Gaza on Thursday killed at least 32 people.”Enough!” cried Najah Aish Umm Fadi, who lost relatives in a strike on a camp for the displaced in central Gaza.”We put up with being hungry, but now the death of children who had just been born?”Further north, Amir Zaqot told AFP after getting his hands on some of the aid parachuted from planes, that “this is what death looks like. People are fighting each other with knives.””If the crossings were opened… food could reach us. But this is nonsense,” Zaqot said of the airdrops.Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties accessing many areas mean AFP cannot independently verify tolls and details provided by the civil defence and other parties.burs-dc/rlp/sla

Global stocks mostly fell Thursday despite strong earnings from US tech giants Microsoft and Meta as markets girded for a key US tariff deadline.US President Donald Trump has set August 1 as the date when trading partners need to reach agreement with the United States in order to avert major tariffs. While Washington has reached tentative …

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President Donald Trump’s dream of a new world trade order faced a crucial test Thursday, with dozens of economies –- including key commercial partners like Canada — yet to secure US tariff deals ahead of a midnight deadline.The last-gasp scramble to strike bilateral accords came as an appeals court in Washington considered the legality behind …

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President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff held talks in Israel on Thursday ahead of a rare US visit to aid distribution sites in Gaza, where nearly 22 months of grinding war and dire food shortages have sparked an international outcry.Witkoff, who has been involved in months of stalled negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage release deal, met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shortly after his arrival, the Israeli leader’s office said. On Friday he is to visit Gaza, the White House announced.Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Witkoff, who previously visited Gaza in January, would “inspect the current distribution sites and secure a plan to deliver more food and meet with local Gazans to hear firsthand about this dire situation on the ground”. Gaza’s civil defence agency reported at least 58 Palestinians killed late Wednesday when Israeli forces opened fire on a crowd attempting to block an aid convoy — the latest in a spate of near-daily shootings of desperate aid seekers.The Israeli military said troops had fired “warning shots” as Gazans gathered around the aid trucks.An AFP correspondent saw stacks of bullet-riddled corpses in Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital.Jameel Ashour, who lost a relative in the shooting, told AFP at the overflowing morgue that Israeli troops opened fire after “people saw thieves stealing and dropping food and the hungry crowd rushed in hopes of getting some”.Witkoff has been the top US representative in indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas but the discussions broke down last week when Israel and the United States recalled their delegations from Doha.Israel is under mounting international pressure to agree a ceasefire and allow the world to flood Gaza with food, with Canada and Portugal the latest Western governments to announce plans to recognise a Palestinian state.- International pressure -Trump criticised Canada’s decision and, in a post on his Truth Social network, placed the blame for the crisis squarely on Palestinian militant group Hamas, whose October 7, 2023 attack on Israel triggered the war.”The fastest way to end the Humanitarian Crises in Gaza is for Hamas to SURRENDER AND RELEASE THE HOSTAGES!!!” declared Trump, one of Israel’s staunchest international supporters.Earlier this week, however, the US president contradicted Netanyahu’s insistence that reports of hunger in Gaza were exaggerated, warning that the territory faces “real starvation”.UN-backed experts have reported “famine is now unfolding” in Gaza, with images of sick and emaciated children drawing international outrage.Israel is also under pressure to resolve the crisis from other traditional supporters.Germany’s top diplomat Johann Wadephul, who met Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar and Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Thursday, warned before setting off that: “Israel is finding itself increasingly in the minority”.Wadephul noted that Germany’s European allies increasingly favour recognising Palestinian statehood, which Israel opposes.After the meeting, Saar’s office said he had told his German guest that countries queueing to recognise Palestinian statehood were merely rewarding Hamas.And he insisted “a Palestinian state will not be established for the simple reason that Israel will not be able to forfeit its own security.”The US State Department said it would deny visas to officials from the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank — the core of any future Palestinian state.- ‘This is what death looks like’ -The Hamas attack that triggered that war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to a tally based on official figures.Of the 251 people seized in the attack, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 declared dead by the Israeli military.The Israeli offensive, nearing its 23rd month, has killed at least 60,249 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to Hamas-run Gaza’s health ministry.This week UN aid agencies said deaths from starvation had begun.The civil defence agency said Israeli attacks across Gaza on Thursday killed at least 32 people.”Enough!” cried Najah Aish Umm Fadi, who lost relatives in a strike on a camp for the displaced in central Gaza.”We put up with being hungry, but now the death of children who had just been born?”Further north, Amir Zaqot told AFP after getting his hands on some of the aid parachuted from planes, that “this is what death looks like. People are fighting each other with knives”.”If the crossings were opened… food could reach us. But this is nonsense,” Zaqot said of the airdrops.Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties accessing many areas mean AFP cannot independently verify tolls and details provided by the civil defence and other parties.burs-dc/kir

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said Thursday that he was determined to disarm Hezbollah, a step it has come under heavy US pressure to take, despite the group’s protests that doing so would serve Israeli goals.Hezbollah and Israel fought a two-month war last year that left the militant group badly weakened, though it retains part of its arsenal.Israel has kept up its air strikes on Hezbollah targets despite a November ceasefire, and has threatened to continue them until the group has been disarmed.In a speech on Thursday, Aoun said Beirut was demanding “the extension of the Lebanese state’s authority over all its territory, the removal of weapons from all armed groups including Hezbollah and their handover to the Lebanese army”.He added it was every politician’s duty “to seize this historic opportunity and push without hesitation towards affirming the army and security forces’ monopoly on weapons over all Lebanese territory… in order to regain the world’s confidence”.Under the November ceasefire, Hezbollah was to withdraw its fighters north of the Litani river, about 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the Israeli border.Israel was meant to withdraw all its troops from Lebanon, but has kept them in five areas it deems strategic.The truce was based on a two-decade-old UN Security Council resolution that said only the Lebanese military and UN peacekeepers should possess weapons in the country’s south, and that all non-state groups should be disarmed.However, that resolution went unfulfilled for years, with Hezbollah’s arsenal before the latest war seen as far superior to the army’s, and the group wielding extensive political influence.Aoun took over the presidency in January ending a two-year vacancy — his election by lawmakers made possible in part by the shifting balance of power in the wake of the conflict.On Wednesday, Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said that “anyone calling today for the surrender of weapons, whether internally or externally, on the Arab or the international stage, is serving the Israeli project”.He accused US envoy Tom Barrack, who has visited Lebanon several times in recent months, of using “intimidation and threats” in his talks with senior officials with the aim of “aiding Israel”.- Collapse or stability -Israel has carried out near daily strikes in Lebanon in recent months, targeting what it says are Hezbollah militants and infrastructure, but the group has refrained from striking back.Israel launched several strikes on Hezbollah strongholds in the south and east on Thursday, targeting what it said were sites used by Hezbollah to manufacture and store missiles.Defence Minister Israel Katz said the targets included “Hezbollah’s biggest precision missile manufacturing site”, and the military said it had hit “infrastructure that was used for producing and storing strategic weapons” in south Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley.In his speech, Aoun said Lebanon was at “a crucial stage that does not tolerate any sort of provocation from any side”.”For the thousandth time, I assure you that my concern in having a (state) weapons monopoly comes from my concern to defend Lebanon’s sovereignty and borders, to liberate the occupied Lebanese territories and build a state that welcomes all its citizens,” he said, addressing Hezbollah’s supporters as an “essential pillar” of society. Lebanon has proposed modifications to “ideas” submitted by the United States on Hezbollah’s disarmament, Aoun added, and a plan would be discussed at a cabinet meeting next week to “establish a timetable for implementation”.Aoun also demanded the withdrawal of Israeli troops, the release of Lebanese prisoners and “an immediate cessation of Israeli hostilities”.”Today, we must choose between collapse and stability,” he said.Hezbollah is the only group that held on to its weapons after Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war, doing so in the name of “resistance” against Israel, which occupied south Lebanon until 2000.Lebanon has also committed to disarming Palestinian militant groups that control the country’s refugee camps.

US President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff held talks in Israel on Thursday on ways to end the crisis in Gaza, where nearly 22 months of grinding war and dire shortages of food have drawn mounting international criticism.Witkoff, who has been involved in months of stalled negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage release deal, met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shortly after his arrival, the Israeli leader’s office said.The envoy may also visit a US-backed group distributing food in Gaza, according to Israeli reports.Gaza’s civil defence agency reported at least 58 Palestinians killed late Wednesday when Israeli forces opened fire on a crowd attempting to block an aid convoy — the latest in a spate of near-daily incidents of desperate aid seekers being shot.The Israeli military said troops had fired “warning shots” as Gazans gathered around the aid trucks.An AFP correspondent saw bullet-riddled corpses in Gaza City’s Al-Shifa hospital.Jameel Ashour, who lost a relative in the shooting, told AFP at the overflowing morgue that Israeli troops opened fire after “people saw thieves stealing and dropping food (and) the hungry crowd rushed in hopes of getting some”.Witkoff has been the top US representative in indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas but the discussions broke down last week when Israel and the United States recalled their delegations from Doha.Israel is under mounting international pressure to agree a ceasefire and allow the world to flood a hungry Gaza with food, with Canada the latest Western government to announce plans to recognise a Palestinian state.Prime Minister Mark Carney said the worsening suffering of civilians in Gaza left “no room for delay in coordinated international action to support peace”.- International pressure -Trump criticised Canada’s decision and, in a post on his Truth Social network, placed the blame for the crisis squarely on Palestinian militant group Hamas, whose October 7, 2023 attack on Israel triggered the war.”The fastest way to end the Humanitarian Crises in Gaza is for Hamas to SURRENDER AND RELEASE THE HOSTAGES!!!” declared Trump, one of Israel’s staunchest international supporters.Earlier this week, however, the US president contradicted Netanyahu’s insistence that reports of hunger in Gaza were exaggerated, warning that the territory faces “real starvation”.UN-backed experts have reported “famine is now unfolding” in Gaza, with images of sick and emaciated children drawing outrage and prompting first France, then Britain and now Canada to line up in support of Palestinian statehood.Portugal on Thursday said it was “considering recognition of the Palestinian state”.Israel is also under pressure to resolve the crisis from other traditional supporters.Germany’s top diplomat Johann Wadephul, who met Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar in Jerusalem on Thursday, warned before setting off that “Israel is finding itself increasingly in the minority”.Wadephul noted that Germany’s European allies increasingly favour recognising Palestinian statehood, which Israeli leaders generally oppose.Reacting to Canada’s announcement, Israel decried a “distorted campaign of international pressure”.The US State Department said it would deny visas to officials from the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank — the core of any future Palestinian state.- ‘This is what death looks like’ -The Hamas attack that triggered that war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to a tally based on official figures.Of the 251 people seized in the attack, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 declared dead by the Israeli military.The Israeli offensive, nearing its 23rd month, has killed at least 60,249 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to Hamas-run Gaza’s health ministry.This week UN aid agencies said deaths from starvation had begun.The civil defence agency said Israeli attacks across Gaza on Thursday killed at least 32 people.”Enough!” cried Najah Aish Umm Fadi, who lost relatives in a strike on a camp for the displaced in central Gaza.”We put up with being hungry, but now the death of children who had just been born?”Further north, Amir Zaqot told AFP after getting his hands on some of the aid parachuted from planes, that “this is what death looks like. People are fighting each other with knives”.”If the crossings were opened… food could reach us. But this is nonsense,” Zaqot said of the airdrops.Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties accessing many areas mean AFP cannot independently verify tolls and details provided by the civil defence and other parties.burs-dc/ami/kir