Monk ends barefoot Sri Lanka trek with a dog and plea for peace

Jihadists and Tuareg separatists were advancing in northern Mali on Tuesday, three days after launching unprecedented attacks against the ruling junta, in what the government's Russian allies said remained a "difficult" situation.

Junta chief Assimi Goita has not appeared or spoken publicly since the coordinated dawn attacks on Saturday on strategic junta positions, including areas around the capital, Bamako.

The attacks were the largest in nearly 15 years and saw two former foes -- Islamist insurgents and Tuareg separatists -- join forces against the military junta and its Russian paramilitary backers, analysts say.

Defence Minister Sadio Camara -- seen as the mastermind behind the junta's pivot to Russia -- was killed in two days of fierce fighting between the army and Tuareg rebels of the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) allied with the Al-Qaeda-linked jihadist Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM).

Russia's defence ministry said on Tuesday that the rebels, who have captured a key town in the mostly desert north, were "regrouping" and the situation "remains difficult".

The fighting saw "attempts made to seize key facilities in the capital, Bamako -- first and foremost, the presidential palace", the ministry said.

It confirmed that mercenaries from Russia's Africa Corps, controlled by the government in Moscow and sent to back up the Malian junta, had been forced to withdraw from the northern town of Kidal, now under the armed groups' control.

The Kremlin, separately, said it urgently wanted peace and stability in Mali, which has battled more than a decade of jihadist violence and other conflict.

- Abandoned and withdrawn - 

The large-scale attacks at the weekend raise questions about the junta's ability to tackle the armed groups, despite its insistence that its strategy, foreign partnerships and increased military efforts have stemmed the jihadist threat.

The notable absence of Goita, who seized power in 2020 pledging to combat the Islamic militants, has prompted uncertainty about the future of the country's military leaders.

A Malian security source told AFP that Goita was not taking any risks for "security reasons".

"The military leadership is currently drawing lessons from the prevailing situation," an elected official in Bamako said on condition of anonymity.

In a sign of the high tensions in the west African nation, the army has abandoned several positions in the northern Gao region, local sources told AFP on Tuesday.

Gao is the army's second-largest military stronghold after Kati, a garrison town near Bamako which is home to several senior junta officials and was targeted in the weekend attacks.

"The military have abandoned their position in Labbezanga, near the Niger border. They have withdrawn to Ansogo," a local politician told AFP on condition of anonymity.

As well as Kati, the simultaneous weekend attacks targeted the towns of Kidal and Gao in the north, and Sevare in the centre.

Two loud blasts were heard late on Monday near the airport on the outskirts of Bamako, an AFP journalist said.

The cause of the blasts could not immediately be identified. 

"It wasn’t an exchange of gunfire and the explosions were coming from the area of Base 101 at the airport," a resident told AFP.

- Diversion? -

The attacks near the centres of Malian power have been seen by some analysts as a diversion to seize Kidal.

Kidal, a pro-independence stronghold, was controlled by Tuareg rebel groups for years before being retaken in November 2023 in an army offensive, supported by Russian mercenaries from Africa Corps' predecessor, the Wagner Group.

Central Mali, where Mopti is located, was also targeted and the security situation remained unclear on Tuesday.

The attacks are reminiscent of a crisis that rocked Mali in 2012, when Tuareg rebels joined forces with jihadists to capture strategic hubs in the vast, remote north.

That offensive was repelled by forces from former colonial ruler France, who have since left the Sahel country. 

The alliance between the jihadists and Tuareg rebels eventually unravelled when they turned on each other and the jihadists drove the Tuareg separatists out.

The latest attacks are the result of a new alliance forged a year ago.

Although the two groups have different goals, according to experts, they are united against a common enemy -- the military junta that has ruled since 2020 and its Russian paramilitary backers.

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French President Emmanuel Macron called on Andorra Tuesday to "move forwards" on decriminalising abortion during a visit to the principality, which maintains one of Europe's last total bans on abortion.

His comments come as the micro-state, nestled in the Pyrenees mountains between France and Spain, is considering reforming its abortion laws which currently ban the procedure in all cases.

"I hope this debate moves forward," Macron said during a visit to Andorra, where he shares the symbolic title of "co-prince" with a Catholic bishop.

In a world first, France in 2024 enshrined the right to terminate a pregnancy in its constitution, and Macron has since pledged to make the procedure a European basic right.

Women in Andorra have no legal right to abortion -- even in cases of rape, incest, or danger to their life -- and the procedure remains punishable by prison for both patients and doctors, though no trials have ever been held.

The Andorran head of government, Xavier Espot Zamora, on Tuesday acknowledged there was "demand" to reform the micro-state's abortion laws, stating that his government is working toward a "negotiated solution".

Zamora in March voiced hope that abortion would be decriminalised within a year in the non-EU state, though he clarified there were no plans for full legalisation.

But any such reform would require negotiations with the Vatican, which enforces Europe's only other ban on abortions in all cases.

Pregnancy termination is legal in almost all European countries, the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) advocacy group says.

A handful of countries have near-total bans, broadly only allowing it when a woman's life is in danger, it says.

The latter include the principalities of Monaco and Liechtenstein, as well as EU states Malta and Poland.

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A saffron-robed Buddhist monk ended a gruelling barefoot walk across Sri Lanka on Tuesday with an impassioned appeal for world peace and kindness towards animals.

Accompanied by a rescued stray dog, Texas-based Vietnamese monk Pannakara walked 210 kilometres (131 miles) to reach the capital Colombo, where he was received by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake.

Hundreds of thousands of Sri Lankans lined the route from the north-central town of Dambulla during the week-long walk to offer Pannakara and his 12 fellow monks flowers and gifts.

They were accompanied by their mascot, a stray named Aloka, meaning "light" in Sanskrit.

"If we cannot govern our own inner world with wisdom, how can we expect the outer world to remain peaceful?" Pannakara said at a ceremony at Colombo's Independence Square.

The foreign monks were also presented with a sapling of the Sri Maha Bodhi, which according to tradition has grown from a cutting of the original tree under which the Buddha attained enlightenment in India.

The Vietnamese monks had attracted international attention during a longer 108-day walk of 3,700 kilometres (2,300 miles) from Texas to Washington, travelling through freezing temperatures and along ice-covered roads and ending on February 10.

In sharp contrast, they walked on Sri Lanka's roads at the hottest time of the year, when temperatures reached 40C.

Devotees sprayed water on asphalt roads and placed banana leaves and flowers for them to step on, helping them avoid the sweltering heat of the tarmac.

Elite army and police commandos were deployed to protect the group, and veterinarians were placed on standby to care for Aloka, who was kept on a leash held by security personnel taking turns.

"Aloka has no voice to speak our language. Yet he has communicated something very profound to all of us," Pannakara said.

"Through his presence, we were reminded that loving kindness and compassion must not be limited. It must extend to all living beings."

Aloka had followed the monks in India and remained with them even after being hit by a car.

The monks then brought the dog to the United States, where it accompanied them on their peace walk, drawing global attention and donations that helped fund its travels.

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A US judge ruled Tuesday that Maurene Comey, a former federal prosecutor who alleges her firing was politically motivated, can proceed with a lawsuit against the Trump administration despite government objections.

Comey is the daughter of former FBI director James Comey -- a prominent critic of US President Donald Trump -- and was summarily dismissed in July as an assistant US attorney in Manhattan.

She was fired a week after the Justice Department opened a criminal investigation into her father.

Judge Jesse Furman overruled an attempt by the Trump administration to block Comey from pursuing in federal court a lawsuit which claims her dismissal was "unlawful and unconstitutional."

Furman scheduled a pretrial hearing at a Manhattan courthouse for May 28. 

In her lawsuit filed against the office of the president, the Justice Department and others, Comey said she had an "exemplary" record.

"In truth, there is no legitimate explanation," the lawsuit said. "Rather, Defendants fired Ms Comey solely or substantially because her father is former FBI Director James B Comey, or because of her perceived political affiliation and beliefs, or both."

Since taking office in January 2025, Trump has taken a number of punitive measures against his perceived enemies, purging government officials deemed to be disloyal, targeting law firms involved in past cases against him and pulling federal funding from universities.

Comey's firing also came amid mounting pressure on Trump to release material from the probe into Jeffrey Epstein, who committed suicide in a New York prison in 2019 after being charged with sex trafficking.

Comey was among the prosecutors who handled the case involving the wealthy financier, but it never went to trial because of his death.

She also prosecuted Ghislaine Maxwell, the only former Epstein associate who was criminally charged in connection with his activities.

Comey's father has had a contentious history with Trump dating back to his first term in the White House.

Trump fired the elder Comey in 2017, as the then-FBI chief was leading an investigation into whether any members of the president's campaign had colluded with Moscow to sway the 2016 election, in which the Republican beat Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

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German rescuers on Tuesday hauled a stranded humpback whale into a special boat due to carry it to deeper waters, in the latest attempt to free the cetacean whose ordeal has captured hearts in Germany for weeks.

The whale, dubbed "Timmy" by German media, and its struggle for survival have gripped the country since it beached on a sandbank near the city of Luebeck, far from its natural habitat in late March.

The latest rescue effort -- financed by two entrepreneurs -- involves transporting the sea mammal in a barge, which has a water-filled hold and is usually used to carry other boats, from Germany's Baltic Sea coast to deeper waters. 

Starting earlier Tuesday, rescuers attached straps to the whale and heaved the creature down a channel that had been specially dug in the sand to allow it to reach the barge, close to the island of Poel.

After some distance, the whale, with rescuers swimming alongside it, sped up and then swam into the barge, sparking cheers of delight from the rescue team and others watching from the shore.

"I can't even say how happy I am," Karin Walter-Mommert, one of the entrepreneurs financing the rescue bid, told the Bild daily. 

"You could see that the whale fought and wanted to live. Knowing he's now in the barge is simply wonderful and shows that the fight for Timmy was worth it."

The plan is now for the barge to be transported to the North Sea, and hopefully for the whale to be released if it is strong enough.

A piece of green netting will be used to close the entrance to the barge so the mammal does not swim out. 

- Media frenzy -

Till Backhaus, environment minister for the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, earlier gave the green light for the mission to proceed after vets said the whale was fit to be transported.

The whale was first spotted stuck on a sandbank on March 23 before freeing itself and then becoming stuck again several times.

Several attempts were initially made to free the sea mammal, including by digging channels for it to swim down, but all failed. 

At the start of April, officials gave up on the animal, saying they believed it could not be saved. 

But this triggered an outcry and authorities were persuaded to let the entrepreneurs come up with a rescue plan.

Some scientists have strongly criticised the decision to allow further rescue bids, believing they will be too risky for the whale and estimating the chances of success as low.

Backhaus defended the latest attempt, saying it was "definitely worth it".

"I've always said, those who do nothing make no mistakes," he added.

The saga has sparked a media frenzy -- with non-stop coverage from TV channels, online outlets and social media influencers -- but has also led to angry spats and conspiracy theories.

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The US Federal Reserve opened its two-day meeting on Tuesday with policymakers expected to keep interest rates steady, as the war on Iran's effects on energy prices and supply chains ripple through the world's largest economy.

The central bank's rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) began its gathering at 10:00 am Eastern time (14:00 GMT), a spokesperson said.

Fed officials are set to keep rates steady at a range between 3.50 percent and 3.75 percent, extending their pause on rate cuts since the start of the year. Their decision will be announced on Wednesday.

The US central bank has a dual mandate to keep inflation to its long-term two-percent target and to ensure maximum employment.

US inflation, however, has soared well above that level for years. It initially spiked in the pandemic but prices have not stabilized since, leaving consumers battered by years of higher-than-expected price increases.

In March, consumer inflation rose sharply to 3.3 percent year-on-year, driven by higher energy prices as a result of the Iran war.

The Middle East has been plunged into violence since the United States and Israel launched the war on February 28 with wide-ranging airstrikes, prompting Iranian retaliatory action.

Iran has virtually blocked the key Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world's oil and gas normally flows, spiking energy prices and leading to widespread supply shortages.

Fed policymakers have signalled that they are concerned about the knock-on effects of the energy price increases, fuelling overall inflation and potentially slowing the economy due to production cost increases.

Markets overwhelmingly expect the Fed to keep rates unchanged, however, as the central banks waits to see on which side of its mandate it will need to intervene.

- Powell's last meeting? -

While the rate decision has not drawn much speculation this month, all eyes on Wednesday will be on Fed Chair Jerome Powell's press conference, likely his last in this role.

US President Donald Trump has frequently criticized and insulted Powell in the former's second term in the White House, making clear his desire for the independent Fed to lower interest rates.

Powell's term as chair ends in May, and his successor -- Trump nominee Kevin Warsh -- has faced a rocky road to confirmation.

On Friday, a key obstacle on that road was removed when the US Justice Department said it was dropping -- for now -- a criminal probe into Powell over cost overruns on a building renovation project.

Days later, Republican Thom Tillis -- who had vowed to hold up Warsh's nomination while the probe against Powell was ongoing -- said he would support the confirmation.

If Warsh is confirmed he would succeed Powell in May as chair. The outgoing Fed chief could, however, stay on as a member of the board, in what would be an unusual but not unprecedented move.

Powell's term on the board ends in January 2028. 

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(The Center Square) – An Illinois-based parental rights group sent an open letter to the Southern Poverty Law Center requesting that it remove parental rights organizations from its “hate map,” where they are placed right alongside the Klu Klux Klan. 

Founder and president of parental rights group Awake Illinois Shannon Adcock told The Center Square that her organization’s letter “is about accountability.”

“The SPLC has spent four years trying to destroy us,” Adcock said. “With their federal indictment now public, the moment has arrived for them to clean up the mess they made or stand exposed as a discredited smear machine.” 

Adcock told The Center Square that the Southern Law Poverty Center’s (SPLC) hate map is “deliberately harmful.”

“The Hate Map is not a public service; it’s a partisan weapon,” Adcock said. “It brands peaceful, law-abiding parents as ‘hate groups’ right alongside the KKK, then legacy media, school administrators, and politicians treat that label as gospel.”  

The SPLC’s hate map “has triggered doxxing, death threats, job losses, frivolous lawsuits, and reluctant donors. It triggered mass legacy media smears,” Adcock said. 

“In Naperville, it stopped the City Council from even giving me a vote for a volunteer, unpaid committee role,” Adcock said.

Awake Illinois is based out of Naperville.

Adcock told The Center Square that the SPLC "came after Awake Illinois before the ink was even dry on our founding documents because our message threatens their far-left, anti-American agenda.”

“While they poured resources into tracking hundreds of parental-rights chapters, they listed only 14 KKK groups, zero Antifa networks, and zero Islamist extremists,” Adcock said.

“That selective blindness isn’t oversight – it’s a strategy,” Adcock said. “The map doesn’t protect anyone; it silences dissent and turns ordinary moms and dads into targets.”

Adcock told The Center Square that “parents are fierce” but the attacks on them have been “absolute hell.” 

“Nonstop harassment, employers getting called, cars driving down our streets yelling that we’re Nazis,” Adcock said. “The SPLC’s smear turned everyday families into villains.”

Adcock noted that “at the exact same time [the SPLC was] defaming us, a federal grand jury just indicted [them] for secretly funneling millions to the very extremists it claims to oppose.”

“The irony is damning,” Adcock said.

The SPLC was indicted by the Department of Justice on charges it “secretly" funneled "more than $3 million in funds to members of white supremacist and extremist groups," as The Center Square reported.

A few of the groups the SPLC was accused of funding are the Klu Klux Klan, the Aryan Nation, and the National Alliance.

Adcock told The Center Square that the SPLC can “smear” parent rights groups “all it wants but the civil rights warriors of our era are uncancellable.”

“Their hate map failed,” Adcock said. “None of us will bow to their anarchy.” 

In her organization’s letter to the SPLC, Adcock called on the center to remove parental rights organizations from the hate map, to issue a public retraction and apologize for its reckless designations, as well as to adopt “verifiable standards that separate actual hate groups from citizens peacefully and lawfully advocating for their children.” 

“Cease treating parental advocacy as extremism,” Adcock wrote in the letter. “Parents are not the enemy; the real extremists are those erasing biological reality in classrooms and silencing dissent through defamation.”

The United Arab Emirates will withdraw from the OPEC and OPEC+ oil cartels to focus on "national interests", it announced on Tuesday, causing fresh shockwaves as energy prices soar over the Middle East war.

The UAE, one of the world's top oil producers, which has previously chafed at OPEC production quotas, will pull out on Friday, a statement carried by the official WAM news agency said.

The UAE has been an OPEC member through the emirate of Abu Dhabi since 1967, four years before the former British protectorate became a country.

The last OPEC member to withdraw from the cartel was Angola in 2024.

"This decision reflects the UAE's long-term strategic and economic vision and evolving energy profile," the UAE statement said.

"During our time in the organisation, we made significant contributions and even greater sacrifices for the benefit of all," it added.

"However, the time has come to focus our efforts on what our national interest dictates."

The decision, in the midst of the biggest oil shock since the 1970s, is likely to weaken OPEC, dominated by the UAE's neighbour and rival Saudi Arabia, indicating further turbulence for markets, analysts said.

Gulf oil shipments are currently being strangled by Iran's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which flows past the UAE and normally carries one-fifth of the world's oil.

The UAE, hard-hit by Iranian attacks, has also faced trouble in its relationship with Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, after a stand-off between rival forces backed by the two countries in Yemen.

- 'More volatile oil market' -

Pre-war, the UAE was the fourth biggest producer in the 22-member OPEC+, behind Saudi Arabia, Russia and Iraq.

Jorge Leon, an analyst at Rystad Energy, said its withdrawal may not immediately impact oil markets while Hormuz shipments remain on hold.

But the UAE will now be free to raise production, "raising broader questions about the sustainability of Saudi Arabia's role as the market's central stabiliser -- and pointing to a potentially more volatile oil market as OPEC's capacity to smooth supply imbalances diminishes".

Jamie Ingram, managing editor for the Middle East Economic Survey, posted that OPEC is losing 13 percent of its production capacity with the UAE's departure, citing the International Energy Agency.

Founded in 1960, the 12-member OPEC cartel in 2016 partnered up with 10 other producers to form OPEC+ to gain more clout. 

The Vienna-based group drew international attention in 1973, when it imposed an oil embargo against Israel's allies in the midst of the Yom Kippur War, triggering the first oil crisis. 

Within just a few months, prices quadrupled, highlighting the cartel's dominance. 

Faced with rising competitors in the 1980s, it introduced its famous quota system that enabled it to exert more control over the market. 

This strategy meant the group fared relatively well during the 2008 financial crisis and the price shock in the wake of the Covid pandemic, despite increased internal tensions.

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Ravi Coltrane has a tough task: honour his father John and fellow legend Miles Davis without imitating them, he tells AFP, beer in hand during an interview in Poland.

The younger Coltrane has teamed up with multiple Grammy winner Terence Blanchard for a series of concerts across Europe marking the centennials of his father and Davis which will culminate at the revered Grand Rex in Paris -- a venue that meant a lot to both men.

"If you're doing a tribute to somebody... the assumption might be that we're going to be imitating their style," Coltrane -- named after Ravi Shankar, the Indian sitar player who inspired The Beatles and a host of other Western musicians -- told AFP in Wroclaw.

"To really truly honour them, it's not to copy them, but to peer in and try to find our own voices within the repertoire that they play," he said. 

His collaborator, five-time Grammy-winning trumpet player and composer Blanchard, said the younger Coltrane was a resounding success like his father.

"It's not about his last name," he said of Coltrane, who has performed with the likes of Carlos Santana, Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner and Chick Corea.

"It's about what he's doing as an artist." 

"The difficult thing to do is to find our own personal way with the music," he said, calling it "more rewarding" as a result. 

Together on stage, the pair strike contrasting notes -- Blanchard raising his horn to the ceiling while a demurer Coltrane undulates through his solos with depth and precision. 

- 'The hardest thing' -

While not related to Miles Davis, Blanchard -- like many trumpet players -- is deeply influenced by the jazz great, who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and branded "the most revered jazz trumpeter of all time" by Rolling Stone magazine. 

Like Coltrane, he does not emulate Davis.

"The easiest thing would be for me to go up there and try to play like Miles Davis... yet that would be the hardest thing," he said.

"You can't recreate that time from which those things were created," he added, referencing the social and political tumult of the 1960s.

"There was a lot of suffering going on in the world," he said, adding: "They (Davis and Coltrane) didn't turn a blind eye to that." 

Blanchard, who has written two operas and dozens of film and television scores, is passionate about mentoring and educating younger musicians.

"That's the thing I always tell my students," he said. "Be a person first ... and learn how to use all of the tools musically to express what it is you're feeling inside." 

Ravi Coltrane said it was Blanchard who came to him with the idea of doing a joint tribute, something he might have otherwise turned down. 

"He's probably the only one I would have agreed to do this with," he said, reminiscing on their first meetings in New York in the 1990s, where Coltrane went to begin his career.

It's a harkening back to the collaboration between Davis and the older Coltrane -- whose 1959 joint album "Kind of Blue" is lauded by many critics as the greatest jazz record ever made. 

- Paris is a 'special place' -

Ahead of the concert at the Grand Rex, Coltrane and Blanchard reflected on the French capital's influence on their mentors, themselves, and the genre. 

"Paris has always had a special place in my heart," Blanchard said, recalling his New Orleans origins and the French influences he grew up around. 

Miles Davis spent considerable time in Paris, playing concerts, recording the score to film noir classic "Elevator to the Gallows," and -- like many of his generation -- seeking refuge from the racial discrimination of the United States.

"Bringing this show there, given Miles's relationship with Paris, is very powerful and very meaningful for me," Blanchard adds. 

For Ravi Coltrane, the concert is one of many celebrations of the work of his father, his mother pianist Alice Coltrane, and the myriad other mentors and collaborators he has played with and learned from over the course of his career. 

"The reality is we pay tribute to these artists every day," he says, "every time we pick up our instruments, in some way we're paying homage and honor to the men and women who have gotten us this far". 

"It never goes away". 

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Croatia and Bosnia on Tuesday signed a deal to build a major gas pipeline backed by investors close to US President Donald Trump, aiming to cut Sarajevo's reliance on Russian gas.

The pipeline will connect Bosnia to the European gas network, notably the liquefied natural gas terminal on Croatia's northern island of Krk, which receives significant volumes of US gas.

Hailing it as a "major step forward", Bosnian Prime Minister Borjana Kristo also thanked US partners.

"I signed with Croatia the Southern Interconnection Agreement, boosting energy security and supply diversification," Kristo said in a post on X.

The agreement was also signed by her Croatian counterpart Andrej Plenkovic on the sidelines of a Three Seas Initiative summit in Dubrovnik.

The agreement sets out cooperation between the two countries to build a gas interconnection on both sides of the border.

The project is being pushed by the AAFS Infrastructure and Energy company, headed by Jesse Binnall, a former lawyer to President Trump, and Joseph Flynn, brother of retired general Michael Flynn.

The latter served as national security adviser during Trump's first term.

But the proposal has sparked a warning from Brussels, with the EU's ambassador to Bosnia, which is a candidate for membership, penning a letter urging the country to "carefully consider its obligations" when signing contracts for energy projects.

In addition to a pipeline, the $1.5 billion project would build gas-fired power plants to reduce coal-based electricity production in a country badly affected by air pollution.

No construction dates have yet been announced, but the project is considered of major importance to Bosnia, which would be affected by the EU's ban on Russian gas imports set to take effect in 2027.

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