Guerrillas claim deadly Colombia attack, say it was an 'error'

Oil-rich African nations at global fossil fuel phaseout talks in Colombia said Wednesday they would keep drilling to support economic growth, highlighting tensions between climate and fiscal realities for developing producers.

Ministers and envoys from nearly 60 nations are meeting in Santa Marta, a city on the Caribbean coast, for the first-ever global conference on transitioning the world away from planet-heating oil, gas and coal.

The conference has unfolded as oil prices surged Wednesday to their highest level since early 2022, deepening fears over global energy security and underlining risks to fossil fuel reliance as the Iran war drags on.

But this is particularly difficult for developing producers highly reliant on fossil fuel revenue -- a message some in Santa Marta have been echoing.

"Not phasing out -- phase down. That is the message," Onuoha Magnus Chidi, an adviser to Nigeria's regional development minister, told AFP in Santa Marta.

"We are phasing down, and we are saying that there should be early planning... It must be fair to all."

Chidi said winding down fossil fuels would take time in Nigeria, the world's sixth most populous country and boasting some of Africa's largest oil and gas reserves. 

"People are going to lose their jobs... How are you trying to re-engage them in other sectors?" he said, stressing the need for debt reform and other financial assistance to make that change possible.

- 'Our right' -

Senegal struck a similar tone, balancing climate and development priorities after relatively recent offshore oil and gas discoveries in the West African nation.

"We are fully aware of the global challenges that require a transition," Serigne Momar Sarr, a technical adviser at Senegal's environment ministry and its sole representative at the conference, told AFP.

"What we wish to assert is our right to development, exercised with full responsibility."

Sarr said Africa accounted for just a fraction of global emissions and said Senegal would pursue a strategy of using gas for power, industry and exports while gradually shifting to cleaner energy.

"We are making this transition at the same time as our extractive activities," he said.

The conference was convened after frustration with the UN climate talks, where efforts to tackle fossil fuel use -- the main driver of global warming -- have stalled.

The world's biggest producers of oil, coal and gas -- the United States, China, Saudi Arabia and Russia -- did not attend, nor did oil-rich Gulf states.

While the gathering is not expected to produce binding commitments, organizers hope it will set out concrete proposals for countries willing to accelerate a managed decline of fossil fuel use.

"Each economy has different circumstances," Spain's Climate Minister Sara Aagesen told AFP.

np-app/mlm

Top Iranian football officials have left Canada before the start of the FIFA Congress because of the behaviour of officials during immigration checks at Toronto's international airport, Iranian media reported Wednesday.

The global football body's gathering of member nation representatives will be held this week in Vancouver, the British Columbia city which is also hosting seven matches in the World Cup that Canada will co-host with the United States and Mexico this summer.

The Iranian football federation (FFIRI) president, secretary general and deputy secretary general "returned to Turkey on the first flight due to the inappropriate behaviour of the immigration officials at the airport and the insult to one of the most honourable organs of the Iranian Armed Forces", several outlets reported, without providing further details.

In 2024, Canada designated Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a terror group, barring its members from entering the country. 

The Iranian federation's president Mehdi Taj is a former IRGC member.

The Iranian reports said the officials had travelled to Canada with "official visas" before turning around.

Canada said it couldn't comment on specific cases due to privacy laws but affirmed in a statement sent to AFP that "IRGC officials are inadmissible to Canada and have no place in our country."

"We have taken strong action to hold the IRGC to account and will continue to do so," Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada said. 

Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree said last month that removing IRGC officials from Canada is a "top priority", amid reports that hundreds of IRGC members have residency permits for Canada, which has one of the world's largest Iranian diaspora populations. 

Doubt has risen over the Iranian team's attendance at the World Cup because of the Middle East war that began on February 28 with a massive wave of US-Israel attacks.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio insisted last week that Iran's footballers would be welcome at the global spectacle.

But he warned that the United States may yet bar entry to members of the Iranian delegation it judged to have ties to the Revolutionary Guard, which is also designated a terrorist organisation by Washington and several other governments.

No one "from the US has told them they can't come", Rubio said.

FFIRI had said it was negotiating with FIFA to relocate the country's World Cup matches from the United States to Mexico.

But FIFA President Gianni Infantino told AFP last month that Iran would be at the World Cup and that they would play "where they are supposed to be, according to the draw".

The FIFA chief reiterated that stance in Washington earlier this month.

bur/dcp-bs/sla

Ford raised its full-year profit forecast Wednesday after reporting stronger than estimated first quarter results based partly on $1.3 billion in tariff refunds.

The big US automaker sold fewer autos compared with a year ago but pointed to robust demand for higher-priced trucks and sport utility vehicles that contributed to higher earnings.

Profits for the Michigan automaker came in at $2.5 billion, compared with $471 million in the year-ago period. Revenues rose 6.4 percent to $43.3 billion.

Ford's quarterly results included the $1.3 billion tariff refund after the US Supreme Court in February struck down some of President Donald Trump's levies. 

While Ford accounted for the refund in terms of profits, it held off on raising its cashflow forecast because it may not receive the actual reimbursement until late in 2026, or 2027, said Ford Chief Financial Officer Sherry House.

But the better outlook on tariff costs was offset somewhat by the $1 billion more in expected 2026 commodity costs, with disruption from the Middle East war exacerbating an already difficult market for aluminum and steel, House said.

"Even before the conflict in Iran, we were starting to see some global shortages, particularly in aluminum," House said on a conference call with reporters. "Then that was coupled with the Middle East conflict."

Ford's US rival General Motors said Tuesday that higher gasoline prices have not so far dampened consumer demand, but that it was watching the issue.

House also described a muted impact, noting that many of Ford's truck buyers have higher incomes with a stable employment outlook. 

Another group of truck buyers consists of commercial customers who need towing and hauling capacity.

"These are nondiscretionary purchases for them," she said of continued demand.

jmb/ksb

© Agence France-Presse

Jewish volunteers won widespread praise Wednesday for their quick action during a stabbing attack in north London, where police have arrested a suspect.

They were part of the Shomrim neighbourhood watch group, a 60-strong, non-profit volunteer group set up in northwest London in 2008 to boost security amid a spate of crimes and break-ins.

Two Jewish men were stabbed in the morning incident in Golders Green, which Prime Minister Keir Starmer has denounced as "utterly appalling".

The volunteer group was modelled on the first Shomrim -- meaning 'Guardians' in Hebrew -- set up in New York in the 1970s. There is another one in Stamford Hill, London North and East, with some 40 members.

"Its dedicated team of unpaid male and female volunteer responders and telephone operators are made up from members of the local community regardless of ethnicity or religious affiliation," the London NW group says on its website.

It has a 24-hour emergency hotline, allowing teams to be dispatched to any incidents reported to them.

The group is funded by donations, and volunteers also complete a Metropolitan Police counter-terrorism training course.

Patrolling unarmed on foot or in cars their aim is to "help the police reduce crime and help citizens feel safe within the Jewish community of North West London", the group says on its website.

"When Shomrim is dispatched to a scene of a crime, our volunteers then bridge the time gap between when police are called and when police attend. This enables Shomrim to follow suspects and preserve evidence until the arrival of police."

- Praise from mayor, PM -

Both Starmer and London mayor Sadiq Khan praised the group, as well as a volunteer ambulance charity Hatzola, for helping to get Wednesday's incident under control.

"Attacks on our Jewish community are attacks on Britain. Thank you to Shomrim, Hatzola and the police for acting swiftly," Starmer said.

"Those responsible will be brought to justice," he vowed.

But volunteer Steven Bak, who helped found the group 17 years ago, said: "I think the government needs to do more. They know exactly what they need to do, what they should be doing."

"As an organisation, we're doing our part to protect the community. We need the government to do their part also," he told AFP.

He said they had received the call on Wednesday morning and were at the site within 90 seconds.

Mayor Khan also praised the "heroic volunteers for their response".

"London's Jewish community have been the target of a series of shocking antisemitic attacks," he wrote on X.

"There must be absolutely no place for antisemitism in society."

bur-jkb/jdg/jj

The man accused of trying to assassinate President Donald Trump took a selfie in his hotel room moments before bursting through security with a pump-action shotgun, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Cole Allen launched his attack just after 8:30 pm on Saturday, descending from his room at a Washington Hilton, then trying to get into the basement ballroom where Trump and other senior officials had joined a media gala dinner, prosecutors said.

The 31-year-old was tackled and detained in a chaotic scuffle with security guards. Shots were fired but no one was killed.

According to prosecutors, Allen spent his last minutes checking websites that covered Trump's whereabouts, arming himself, and posing for a selfie taken with a cellphone in the mirror of his room.

A copy of the photo showed him dressed in black, with a red tie, and carrying a knife, a shoulder holster for a handgun and what authorities said was a bag for ammunition.

As he left his room, scheduled emails went out to friends and family with a manifesto explaining his actions.

The details of Allen's alleged preparations for what prosecutors called an attack of "unfathomable malice" emerged in a filing asking a Washington federal court to deny bail.

"The court should detain the defendant pending trial," the filing said.

"The political nature of the defendant's crimes further counsels in favor of detention because the defendant's motivation for committing the crimes exists so long as he disagrees" with the government.

Allen is a highly educated teacher from California.

Prosecutors say he made the journey to Washington -- carrying an arsenal that included the shotgun, a handgun and numerous knives -- by a famously scenic train route via Chicago.

Along the way, the filing said, Allen recorded his appreciation for the changing landscapes, for example writing on his phone that Pennsylvania's woods resembled "vast fairy lands filled with tiny trickling creeks."

Once in his Hilton room, he wrote of surprise at what he thought was the lax security in the hotel, saying he had walked in "with multiple weapons and not a single person there considers the possibility that I could be a threat."

In the email to friends and family, he allegedly listed his targets as members of the Trump administration "prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest."

He said he hoped not to kill Secret Service bodyguards or other law enforcement or hotel guests.

According to the court filing, Cole discarded his long coat once he reached the hotel entrance area and sprinted through one set of metal detectors, his shotgun at the ready.

Cole allegedly fired the shotgun "in the direction of the stairs leading down to the ballroom." A Secret Service agent then fired five times, but did not hit Cole, who fell and was then restrained.

"The defendant suffered a minor injury to his knee but was not shot," the filing said.

sms/ksb

Philadelphia is presenting itself as the US World Cup host city offering fans the best value for money, with affordable transport, accommodation and food while other venues are pilloried for gouging supporters.

Fan groups have panned plans to charge $150 per person for a short roundtrip to the New Jersey stadium near New York that will host the soccer tournament's final match on July 19.

By contrast, fans travelling to the Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia on the US East Coast will be charged just $2.90 to reach the venue on the subway.

"We want to make sure that it is accessible and affordable for fans," Philadelphia Chief Deputy Mayor Vanessa Garrett Harley told AFP at a media event Tuesday.

"If we price the transportation at some exorbitant rate, then you have already shut out a whole class of folks." 

The United States has 11 venues holding matches at the World Cup, which it is co-hosting with Canada and Mexico. The tournament kicks off in Mexico City on June 11.

Fears of sky-high costs have led organizers FIFA to announce an extra $100 million to help the 48 participating teams cover the expense of being in North America after federations raised the alarm over potential financial losses.

Astronomical ticket prices, far exceeding those charged in Qatar in 2022, have also drawn the ire of fans already facing elevated costs, particularly in megacities New York and Los Angeles.

For the many supporters expected to travel without match tickets, the "City of Brotherly Love" says it will offer a free fan festival for the World Cup's 39-day duration.

A daily crowd of 15,000 will have space to watch matches and sample local food and entertainment at Philadelphia's Lemon Hill.

The city of 1.6 million has long grappled with high crime rates but authorities say murders have sharply declined in recent years.

There is also a rush to be ready on time, with roadworks in several areas of the city and scaffolding still packing the grand 30th Street rail hub as it prepares for an influx of visitors.

But with negative headlines about soaring hotel prices elsewhere in the country, Philadelphia is looking to capitalize.

- 'Blue-collar' background -

An investigation by The Athletic found that hotel room prices in Houston jumped 457 percent for the Texas city's first World Cup fixture, compared to 198 percent in Philadelphia. Rooms in Kansas City surged by 364 percent.

"You can still get a (mid-range) hotel in Philadelphia over July 4 for about $400 a night" -- $200 for a basic room -- said Anne Ryan, deputy secretary at the Pennsylvania Tourism Office.

She touted the low transport costs for spectators, the free fan festival and "that you're not going to be price gouged when it comes to hotels" as making Philadelphia the best value US venue. 

"There's just no other comparison," she told AFP.

Organizers say the tournament is expected to attract some 500,000 visitors to the Philadelphia region -- located between Washington and New York -- split evenly between US visitors and those from abroad.

The soccer showcase will bring a $700 million boost to the area, according to Econsult.

"Philadelphia is a hardworking, gritty city, a blue-collar city, and we take a lot of pride in that," said Meg Kane, the Philadelphia Soccer 2026 host city executive. 

"While we have the arts and culture... we also have all of the restaurants and the food and beverage experiences that can meet any price point," she added.

"It allows for so many different people, socio-economically, to be able to have a World Cup experience here."

While Philadelphia will host six games at its reconfigured NFL venue, concluding a Round of 16 match on July 4, Kane said the city was a viable fan base through the end of the tournament.

The journey from Philly to the New Jersey stadium hosting the final "is oftentimes a much... easier route to travel" than from even Manhattan, she said.

gw/msp/mlm

Seven lawsuits were filed in US court on Wednesday against OpenAI on behalf of families impacted by the February mass shooting in the small Canadian mining town of Tumbler Ridge.

The artificial intelligence behemoth has faced intense criticism over its decision not to report the troubling ChatGPT usage of Jesse Van Rootselaar, the 18-year-old transgender woman who killed eight people at her home and a school.

OpenAI banned her account in June 2025 but said it did not report the account to Canadian police because it saw no evidence of an imminent attack.

The lawsuits filed in a US federal court in California allege OpenAI decided not to report Van Rootselaar "because reporting one case would mean reporting thousands," a statement from the legal team said.

The lawsuits also challenge the assertion that Van Rootselaar's ChatGPT account was actually banned.

They allege that when an account is shut down for dangerous behavior, OpenAI instructs the individual on how to resume usage, including tips on how to circumvent the 30-day suspension period.

"OpenAI also tells users that if they don't want to wait, they can open a new account immediately using a different email address," the statement said.

Van Rootselaar reportedly opened a second ChatGPT account after her first one was shut down.

The US legal team said it is working in coordination with Canadian lawyers who had previously filed a lawsuit against OpenAI on behalf of the family of Maya Gebala, a 12-year-old gravely injured in the shooting.

But the US actions will "supersede" the Canadian case, Wednesday's statement said.

"There are more cases to come. Over the next several weeks, a cross-border team... will be filing over two dozen cases on behalf of the victims of the Tumbler Ridge mass shooting. The lawsuits will be filed in waves," it added.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman apologized to the remote community of Tumbler Ridge earlier this month, saying he "was deeply sorry that we did not alert law enforcement to the account that was banned in June."

The company has also said that under its current security policies, which have been revised since June, Van Rootselaar's conduct would have been flagged to police.

Asked to comment on Wednesday's legal filing, an OpenAI spokesperson said: "We have a zero-tolerance policy for using our tools to assist in committing violence. As we shared with Canadian officials, we have already strengthened our safeguards, including improving how ChatGPT responds to signs of distress."

Van Rootselaar killed her mother and brother at the family's home before heading to the local secondary school, where she shot dead five children and a teacher.

She died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after police entered the building.

bs/mlm

Elon Musk faced fiery questioning Wednesday in his court showdown with OpenAI, as he insisted that the maker of ChatGPT had fooled him by turning what was an altruistic pursuit into a profit-making juggernaut.

His second day of testimony in federal court in Oakland, California grew testy at times, as OpenAI's lawyers sought to portray the Tesla tycoon as an unreliable narrator of the company's history.

Musk, who helped co-found OpenAI in 2015 with Sam Altman and other Silicon Valley figures, has called for it to be forced to revert to a pure nonprofit. He also is seeking the ouster of Altman and company president Greg Brockman.

"Your questions are not simple. They're designed to trick me essentially," Musk complained to OpenAI's lead attorney William Savitt.

"Mr. Musk, you're a bright guy. I'm asking you questions that mostly have a yes or no answer," Savitt shot back.

The cross-examination sought to dismantle the narrative Musk had built during questioning from his own attorney. 

In hours of testimony, Musk -- who left the project in 2018 -- insisted he was blindsided by OpenAI's transformation into a major tech company with a for-profit arm that has made it one of the most valuable private companies in history.

"I gave them $38 million of essentially free funding which they then used to create an $800 billion for-profit company. I literally was a fool," Musk told the court Wednesday, before cross-examination began.

- Promise broken? -

At the heart of the case is his accusation that OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman betrayed the company's original nonprofit mission. 

But on Wednesday, OpenAI's counsel used old emails to show that Musk himself, at various points, had questioned whether a nonprofit was the right model as he and the OpenAI leadership explored other corporate structures.

"You didn't respond that creating a for-profit would break any promise to you, did you?"

"No, as long as the for-profit is in service to the nonprofit, it is not breaking the promise."

On the stand Tuesday, Musk traced his motivation to help launch OpenAI to a deep distrust of Google, which he believed did not take AI safety seriously and could not be trusted to responsibly develop such powerful technology.

He told the court he backed the project on the understanding it would be a nonprofit that would put society's interests first, with any technology it developed released as open source, freely available to all.

Since Musk's exit, OpenAI has become an AI superpower valued at $852 billion, buoyed by its ChatGPT chatbot, and is preparing for a high-profile IPO.

Musk has since launched his own AI lab, xAI, which he merged into SpaceX in February. The rocket company is valued at $1.25 trillion, and its IPO -- expected in June -- could rank among the largest in history.

Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers will decide by late May whether OpenAI broke its promise to Musk. 

Along with seeking to force OpenAI back to a nonprofit structure and oust Altman and Brockman, Musk has sought as much as $134 billion in damages -- which he has pledged to redirect to the OpenAI nonprofit.

bl-arp/sst

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he believes NASA has a good chance of returning astronauts to the Moon's surface before he leaves the White House at the start of 2029.

Asked if he thought the US space agency would achieve the goal during his second term, Trump said, "Oh, we have a shot at it."

"I mean, we don't like to say 'definitely,' because then you say, 'oh, we failed,'" he added.

But "I think we have a good shot," the Republican president emphasized while welcoming to the Oval Office the four Artemis II astronauts who recently returned from a trip around the Moon.

The four astronauts -- Americans Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian Jeremy Hansen -- who carried out that mission earlier this month traveled further into space than anyone before.

It was also the first crewed journey around the Moon in more than 50 years.

The United States is targeting a lunar landing in 2028. But experts have voiced skepticism that the lunar landers being developed by SpaceX and Blue Origin -- companies owned by billionaires Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos respectively -- will be ready in time.

NASA administrator Jared Isaacman, who was at the White House for Wednesday's event, told Trump that "we have an achievable plan to go back to the Moon."

China is forging ahead with its own effort, targeting 2030 to put astronauts on the lunar surface.

Trump on Wednesday meanwhile jokingly asked, "is a president allowed to go up on one of these missions?"

"We can get working on it Mr President," Isaacman replied.

mdo/sms

(The Center Square) – The Federal Reserve wrapped up what could be its last meeting under current Chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday with a decision to hold rates steady, in line with market predictions.

This marks the third consecutive meeting where the board has maintained a target interest rate of 3.5%–3.75%.

The central bank often raises interest rates to tame inflation and lowers them if economic growth is too slow. While oil and gas prices have risen dramatically in the past couple months pushing inflation higher above the Fed’s target rate of 2%, other parts of the economy aren’t seeing as much movement.

“The U.S. economy has been expanding at a solid pace. While job gains have remained low, the unemployment rate has been little changed in recent months,” Powell explained Wednesday with the rate announcement. “We see the current stance of monetary policy as appropriate to promote progress toward our maximum employment and 2% inflation goals.”

Ongoing conflict at the Strait of Hormuz makes it difficult to tell when global energy prices will return to levels closer to what they were before Operation Epic Fury.

Wednesday also saw Fed Chair nominee Kevin Warsh clear the last hurdle in his confirmation process before the final Senate vote, with the Senate Banking Committee voting 13-11 to advance his nomination to the full chamber. The final vote is expected to take place within the next few weeks.

Warsh is President Donald Trump’s nominee to replace Powell, whose term ends on May 15. Powell has often been the object of Trump’s wrath, as the Fed’s rate cuts have not been as aggressive or as fast as the president would like.

Trump has long talked about firing Powell before his term expired, despite the independent nature of the central bank, and the Department of Justice launched a criminal investigation into Powell’s oversight of the Federal Reserve headquarters’ renovations, as there were cost overruns between $600 million and $700 million. The department handed its investigation over to the Fed’s inspector general just days ago, after opening it in January.

Warsh previously served on the Federal Reserve board from 2006 to 2011.