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JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Less spending, higher prices and fewer animal sacrifices subdued the usual festive mood as the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha was celebrated around the world.

Eid al-Adha, known as the “Feast of Sacrifice,” coincides with the final rites of the annual Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.

It’s a joyous occasion, for which food is a hallmark, with devout Muslims buying and slaughtering animals and sharing two-thirds of the meat with the poor.

‘No flour, no shelter, no mosques’

Palestinians across the war-ravaged Gaza Strip marked the start of the three-day feast early Friday with prayers outside destroyed mosques and homes.

For the second year since the war with Israel broke out, no Muslims in Gaza were able to travel to Saudi Arabia to perform the traditional pilgrimage. With much of Gaza in rubble, men and children were forced to hold Eid al-Adha prayers in the open air, and with food supplies dwindling, families were having to make do with what they could scrape together.

“This is the worst feast that the Palestinian people have experienced because of the unjust war against the Palestinian people,” said Kamel Emran after attending prayers in the southern city of Khan Younis. “There is no food, no flour, no shelter, no mosques, no homes, no mattresses … The conditions are very, very harsh.”

The U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome said Thursday that Gaza’s people are projected to fall into acute food insecurity by September, with nearly 500,000 people experiencing extreme food deprivation, leading to malnutrition and starvation.

“This means the risk of famine is really touching the whole of the Gaza Strip,” said Rein Paulson, director of the FAO office of emergencies and resilience.

Prayers for Gaza

The war in Gaza and the struggle to celebrate were at the forefront of the minds of Muslims in Kenya, Imam Abdulrahman Mursal said as he led Eid prayers in the capital, Nairobi.

“We ask Allah to hear their (Palestinian) cries. We feel their pain, as much as we are far from them,” Mursal said. “But what unites us is our Muslim brotherhood, so we ask Allah to give them victory and to give victory to all the other Muslims wherever they are, if they are facing any kind of oppression.

Eid preparations in South Asia

Eid al-Adha commemorates the Quranic tale of Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son Ismail as an act of obedience to God. Before he could carry out the sacrifice, God provided a ram as an offering. In the Christian and Jewish telling, Abraham is ordered to kill another son, Isaac.

South Asian countries like India and Bangladesh will celebrate Eid al-Adha on Saturday. Ahead of the festival, many Muslims in the region were turning to livestock markets to buy and sell millions of animals for sacrifice.

In New Delhi, sellers were busy tending to their animals and negotiating with potential buyers.

Mohammad Ali Qureshi, one of the sellers, said this year his goats were fetching higher prices than last year: “Earlier, the sale of goats was slow, but now the market is good. Prices are on the higher side.”

Festival preparations also were peaking in Indian-controlled Kashmir, where many Muslims dye sheep and goats in henna before they are sacrificed.

“We are following the tradition of Prophet Ibrahim,” said Riyaz Wani, a resident in Kashmir’s main city of Srinagar, as his family applied henna on a sheep they plan to sacrifice.

Indonesia markets changing

In Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, Muslim worshippers were shoulder-to-shoulder in the streets and the Istiqlal Grand Mosque was filled for morning prayers Friday.

Outside Jakarta, the Jonggol Cattle Market bustled with hundreds of traders hoping to sell to buyers looking for sacrificial animals. While sales increased ahead of Eid, sellers said their businesses have lost customers in recent years due to economic hardship following the COVID-19 pandemic.

A foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in 2022 and 2023 significantly dampened the typically booming holiday trade in goats, cows and sheep, though Indonesia’s government has worked to overcome that outbreak.

Rahmat Debleng, one of the sellers in the market, said before the pandemic and the FMD outbreak, he could sell more than 100 cows two weeks ahead of Eid al-Adha. But on the eve of the celebration this year, only 43 of his livestock were sold and six cows are still left in his stall.

Jakarta city administration data recorded the number of sacrificial animals available this year at 35,133, a decline of 57% compared to the previous year.

Stoning the devil at the Hajj

More than 1.6 million Muslims were in Mina, Saudi Arabia, on Friday to perform the Hajj ritual, the symbolic stoning of the devil.

Mina is where Muslims believe the Prophet Ibrahim’s faith was tested when God commanded him to sacrifice his only son Ismail.

Ibrahim was prepared to submit to the command, but then God stayed his hand, sparing his son. In the Christian and Jewish versions of the story, Abraham is ordered to kill his other son, Isaac.

Solidarity and prayer in Congo

As Muslims around the world celebrated Eid al-Adha, the holiday was tinged with bitterness in the rebel-controlled city of Goma, in eastern Congo.

Under the looming shadow of the occupation, hundreds of worshippers wearing colourful tunics and hijabs gathered at Goma’s Stadium of Unity to pray for peace.

The decades-long conflict in eastern Congo escalated in January, when the M23 rebels advanced and seized the strategic city of Goma.

Despite the challenging situation in the region, those gathered expressed their gratitude for being able to celebrate the holiday.

“We were anxious because of the war, but by God’s grace, we made it here,” Fatuma Ramazani, a Muslim resident of Goma, told The Associated Press. “We prayed ‘in’ peace, and that is why we prayed ‘for’ peace to return,” he added.

“Islam is a religion of peace, so we can only pray for peace and for God’s grace to help all those involved in this security issue to see how to prioritize peace,” Grâce Omar, another worshipper, said.

In the crowded stadium, imams emphasized the importance of solidarity and prayer in difficult times.

“Today is a special day for Muslims, so I take this opportunity to pray to God to bring peace to Congo in general, and to areas plagued by violence, like Goma, in particular. It is time for people to say ‘enough’ to all that is happening in the country,” said Imam Sheikh Sabiti Djaffar Al Katanty.

Hardship and hope in Nigeria

Eid al-Adha celebrations in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, were overshadowed by one of the worst cost-of-living crisis in decades.

The severe hardship stems from recent government economic policies, intended to boost savings and attract investors. Instead, these measures have fueled high inflation and sent the naira plummeting to record lows against the dollar.

The cost of rams for the traditional Eid al-Adha sacrifice, central to the celebration, has more than doubled since last year.

Despite these challenges, some devout Muslims in Nigeria, where roughly half the population practices Islam, found reason for hope.

“We know prices are a bit on the high side and everything is hard,” Lagos student Amira Mustapha said. “But we should look beyond that and see the positive side of things, celebrate, be joyful for seeing another year and pray for seeing many more years.”

Christians and Muslims brought together in Turkey

An event celebrating Eid-al-Adha on Friday brought together Christian and Muslim religious leaders and citizens in Turkey’s southeastern city of Mardin, according to state-run media.

Organized by the Mardin Municipality’s Art Academy, attendees included Mardin Governor Tuncay Akkoyun, Syriac Orthodox Metropolitan Bishop Saliba Ozmen and Deputy Mufti Ali Uney, alongside congregants from both faiths.

“Recently we celebrated Easter. Today we’re celebrating Eid al-Adha. Tomorrow there will be another holiday, and we will again be together, said Bishop Ozmen.

Deputy Mufti Uney praised the gathering as a “great example of co-existence” and wished for fraternity and solidarity.

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Associated Press journalists Shonal Ganguly, in New Delhi, Dar Yasin in Srinagar, India, Inaara Gangji, in Nairobi, Justin Kabumba, in Goma, Cinar Kiper in Bodrum, Turkey and Dan Ikpoyi in Lagos, Nigeria contributed to this report.

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkish authorities suspended five elected mayors from duty Thursday as part of an ongoing crackdown on the country’s opposition.

Separately, prosecutors launched an investigation into the leader of the opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP, over comments made in a speech Wednesday evening. Ozgur Ozel had criticized Istanbul’s chief prosecutor following the jailing of the mayors the previous day as part of a corruption investigation.

Officials from municipalities controlled by the CHP have faced waves of arrests this year, including Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, who was detained in March over allegations of corruption.

Many consider the cases to be politically motivated although President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government insists the courts are impartial and free of political involvement.

Imamoglu is widely viewed as the main challenger to Erdogan’s two-decade rule and is the CHP’s candidate for a presidential election due in 2028, but which could be held earlier.

Istanbul and a clutch of major cities fell to the CHP in 2019, with the opposition extending its control in last year’s municipal elections.

The five suspended mayors represent the Istanbul districts of Avcilar, Buyukcekmece and Gaziosmanpasa, as well as Seyhan and Ceyhan in the Mediterranean province of Adana. Their suspensions were announced by the Interior Ministry after they were detained over claims of bribery and extortion.

A total of 11 mayors, including Imamoglu, have now been removed from office as part of investigations into CHP municipalities. Dozens of other officials have been imprisoned awaiting trial.

Imamoglu’s jailing led to the largest protests in Turkey for more than a decade, with demonstrators complaining of judicial abuses and wider democratic backsliding under Erdogan.

Speaking in Gaziosmanpasa on Wednesday evening, Ozel criticized Istanbul Chief Prosecutor Akin Gurlek, who has been the focus of opposition claims of political interference. This led to Gurlek’s office launching an investigation into charges of “threatening a judicial officer” and “insulting a public official.”

ISTANBUL (AP) — Delegations from Russia and Ukraine gathered in Turkey on Monday for their second round of direct peace talks in just over two weeks, although expectations were low for any significant progress on ending the three-year war.

The Ukrainian delegation led by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov was in Istanbul for the meeting, Heorhii Tykhyi, spokesperson for the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, said in a message posted on the Ukrainian Embassy WhatsApp group.

The Russian delegation headed by Vladimir Medinsky, an aide to Russian leader Vladimir Putin, arrived Sunday evening, Russian state media reported.

Turkish officials said the meeting would start at 1 p.m. local time, with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan presiding over the talks and officials from the Turkish intelligence agency also present.

However, Ukrainian spokesperson Tykhyi said the start would be at midday local time. It was not immediately possible to clarify the discrepancy.

Recent comments by senior officials in both countries indicate they remain far apart on the key conditions for stopping the war.

Fierce fighting has in the meantime continued along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, and both sides have hit each other’s territory with deep strikes.

On Sunday, a Ukrainian drone attack destroyed more than 40 Russian planes deep inside Russia, Ukraine’s Security Service said, while Moscow pounded Ukraine with missiles and drones.

Russian air defenses downed 162 Ukrainian drones over eight Russian regions overnight, as well as over the annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, Russia’s Defense Ministry said Monday.

Ukrainian air defenses damaged 52 out of 80 drones launched by Russia overnight, the Ukrainian air force said.

Two ballistic missiles struck a residential neighborhood in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Monday morning, including one that hit near a school, the city’s mayor said.

One missile landed near an apartment building, while the second struck a road near the school, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said in a statement and published a photo of a wide crater.

“Standing next to the crater, you realize how different it all could have been,” Terekhov wrote. “A few more meters — and it would have hit the building. A few more minutes — and cars, buses would have been on the road.”

No casualties were reported.

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Associated Press writers Suzan Frazer in Ankara, Turkey, and Hanna Arhirova in Kyiv, Ukraine, contributed to this report.

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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine is ready to resume direct peace talks with Russia in Istanbul on Monday, a top adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, following days of uncertainty over whether Kyiv would attend a further meeting proposed by Moscow.

But Ukrainian officials have insisted that the Kremlin provide a promised memorandum setting out its position on ending the more than three-year war, before the two delegations sit down to negotiate.

“Ukraine is ready to attend the next meeting, but we want to engage in a constructive discussion,” Andrii Yermak said in a statement on the website of Ukraine’s Presidential Office late Thursday.

“This means it is important to receive Russia’s draft. There is enough time – four days are sufficient for preparing and sending the documents,” Yermak said.

Ukraine and its European allies have repeatedly accused the Kremlin of dragging its feet in peace efforts, while it tries to press its bigger army’s battlefield initiative and capture more Ukrainian land.

Kyiv’s Western partners, including the U.S., are urging Moscow to agree to an unconditional ceasefire, something Kyiv has embraced while the Kremlin has held out for terms more to its liking.

Ukraine’s top diplomat, Andrii Sybiha, also told reporters on Friday that Kyiv is waiting for Russia to clarify its proposals ahead of a next round of talks.

“We want to end this war this year. We are interested in establishing a ceasefire, whether it is for 30 days, 50 days, or 100 days. Ukraine is open to discussing this directly with Russia,” Sybiha said at a joint news conference in Kyiv with his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan.

Sybiha and Fidan also held the door open to a future meeting between Presidents Zelenskyy and Vladimir Putin of Russia, possibly also including U.S. President Donald Trump. Fidan said the ongoing peace push in Istanbul could be “crowned with” such a meeting.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Friday told reporters that a Russian delegation will head to Istanbul and stand ready to take part in the second round of talks on June 2.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday publicly invited Ukraine to hold direct negotiations with Moscow on that date. In a video statement, Lavrov said Russia would use Monday’s meeting to deliver an outline of Moscow’s position on “reliably overcoming” what it calls the root causes of the war. Russian officials have said for weeks that such a document is forthcoming.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov on Wednesday said that Ukraine isn’t opposed to further direct talks with Russia, but that they would be “empty” if Moscow were to fail to clarify its terms. Umerov said he had personally handed a document setting out Ukraine’s position to the Russian side.

Low-level delegations from Russia and Ukraine held their first direct peace talks in three years in Istanbul on May 16. The talks, which lasted two hours, brought no significant breakthrough, although both sides agreed to the largest prisoner exchange of the war. It was carried out last weekend and freed 1,000 captives on each side.

Fidan on Friday voiced a belief that the successful swap has “proved that negotiations can yield concrete results.”

“There are two paths in front of us. Either we will turn a blind eye to the continuation of the war, or we will reach a lasting peace within the end of the year,” he told reporters in Kyiv.

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Associated Press writers Hanna Arhirova and Illia Novikov in Kyiv, Ukraine, and Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, contributed to this report.

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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — The U.S. flag was hoisted Thursday outside of the long-shuttered ambassador’s residence in Damascus, in a sign of growing ties between Washington and the new Syrian government.

The U.S. ambassador to Turkey, Tom Barrack, who has also been appointed special envoy to Syria, arrived to inaugurate the residence, Syrian state-run news agency SANA reported.

Washington hasn’t formally reopened its embassy in Damascus, which closed in 2012 after protests against the government of then President Bashar Assad, met by a brutal crackdown, spiraled into civil war. Assad was unseated in December in a lightning rebel offensive.

But Barrack’s visit and the raising of the flag were a significant signal of warming relations.

Washington was initially circumspect about Syria’s new leaders, led by Ahmad al-Sharaa, the former leader of an Islamist insurgent group that the U.S. still lists as a terrorist organization. However, the Trump administration — encouraged by two U.S. allies in the region, Saudi Arabia and Turkey — has in recent weeks shown increasing openness to Damascus.

Trump held a surprise meeting with al-Sharaa in Riyadh earlier this month, and the U.S. has begun to roll back decades of sanctions slapped on Syria under the Assad dynasty.

The U.S. State Department posted a statement on X on Thursday attributed to Trump announcing Barrack’s appointment as envoy to Syria.

“Tom understands there is great potential in working with Syria to stop Radicalism, improve Relations, and secure Peace in the Middle East. Together, we will Make America, and the World, SAFE AGAIN!” the statement said.

Barrack thanked Trump in an X post for “your bold vision, empowering a historically rich region, long oppressed, to reclaim its destiny through self-determination.”

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Passengers on flights to Turkey who unbuckle their seat belts, enter an aisle or open overhead compartments before their plane has stopped taxiing upon arrival are eligible for fines under new regulations issued by the country’s civil aviation authority.

Under the updated rules, commercial airlines operating flights in Turkey are required to revise their standard in-flight announcements telling passengers to remain seated with seat belts fastened until the aircraft has reached a gate or other final stopping point.

Airlines now need to warn that violations of the procedure will be documented and reported, according to a circular issued by the Turkish Directorate of Civil Aviation. The announcements also are supposed to remind passengers to let the people sitting in the rows ahead of them exit first.

Turkish media reports have said rule-breakers could be fined up to $70. The civil aviation directorate did not specify the amount but said it updated the regulations following passenger complaints and flight inspections that indicated a growing number of safety violations.

“Despite announcements informing passengers of the rules, many are standing up before the aircraft reaches its parking positions and before the seat belt sign is turned off,” the directorate said. “This behavior compromises the safety of passengers and baggage, disregards the satisfaction and exit priority of other travelers.”

Passengers who race to stand up and grab their possessions the second the seat-belt light goes off — often referred to as “aisle rushers” or worse — are the bane of many travelers.

Many countries have regulations to deter unruly passengers, and most have regulations requiring people to follow instructions for when to stay buckled up. However, Turkey’s threat of financial repercussions for post-landing misbehavior is unusual enough to have attracted notice.

The regulations took effect earlier this month. There have been no immediate reports about people getting fined or airlines enforcing the regulations by reporting violators. Turkey is a popular travel destination that draws millions of tourists every year.

The Associated Press reached out to Turkish Airlines and Pegasus Airlines, a low-cost carrier also based in Turkey, for comment on Tuesday.

In the U.S., Federal Aviation Administration regulations require passengers to have their seat belts “properly secured during taxiing, takeoff, landing, and any other time when instructed to by crewmembers,” the agency confirmed via email.

A failure to obey safety instructions can result in a hefty civil penalty. But reports of the FAA and other aviation agencies actually fining passengers for not wearing their seat belts are rare — and, if such enforcement is taken, it’s usually paired with additional “unruly” behavior.

In 2021, for instance, the FAA proposed a $14,000 civil fine for an Endeavor Airlines passenger who allegedly unfastened her seat belt while the “fasten seat belt” sign was illuminated and also refused to wear a mask properly despite repeated instructions from flight attendants.

Aviation agencies worldwide reported a concerning uptick in disruptive passenger behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic, largely due to travelers who refused to follow mask policies.

As incidents skyrocketed in 2021, the FAA implemented a “zero-tolerance policy” of issuing fines instead of giving unruly passengers warning letters or the option of remedial counseling. These days, unruly passengers can face FAA fines of up to $37,000 per incident as well as criminal prosecution, the agency said via email.

Airlines, aviation regulators and safety organizations alike have long-expressed the importance of remaining seated wearing a seat belt while a plane is in motion to avoid injuries from in-flight disruptions like turbulence. After a plane lands, passengers are at risk of falling or other injuries if they stand and attempt to move while the aircraft taxis to the gate.