Rebels claim to capture a key military camp in northern Mali after army withdraws. The claim by the Azawad Liberation Front separatist group was the latest setback for Mali’s ruling junta, which lost control of the major city of Kidal earlier in the week as part of attacks that killed Malian Defence Minister Sadio Camara.

Local reports said the Malian army and members of Russia’s Africa Corp pulled out of Tessalit starting Thursday. The Azawad Liberation Front, or FLA, has been fighting in the region in collaboration with the al-Qaeda-backed Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, or JNIM.

Achafghi Ag Bouhanda, a top FLA commander, announced the capture of the Tessalit camp in a video posted online. The camp is strategically located near an airport and the border with Algeria.

The Associated Press could not independently confirm the situation at the camp, which is located in an area with poor internet access. Malian authorities did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The wider Sahel region south of the Sahara Desert including Mali and other conflict-battered nations has been a hotspot for violent extremism. Jihadis have in recent years ramped up pressure against Mali’s military junta as well as the juntas of the neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger.

The three countries, run by militaries which deposed elected governments in recent coups, have severed security ties with Western partners and turned instead to Russia for security support.

The latest assault in Mali began on Saturday after the jihadis and separatists partnered to target the main international airport in the capital, Bamako, as well as other towns and cities in near-simultaneous attacks as they rode on motorcycles and trucks.

At least 10 locations have been attacked by the militants since then, forcing Malian and Russian forces to withdraw from the key northern city of Kidal, which was once a stronghold of the separatists.

The Associated Press

#Banksy confirms a new statue in central London of a man blinded by a flag is his work.

#LONDON — Elusive street artist Banksy said Thursday that a new sculpture that appeared in central London of a man striding off a plinth, with his face blinded by a billowing flag, is his work.

In a humourous video posted Thursday on his Instagram account, Banksy showed snippets of how the sculpture was put up in the dead of night. The sculpture appeared to have been erected in the early hours of Wednesday on a plinth on a traffic island in Waterloo Place, near Buckingham Palace.

Before the artist’s post, locals and tourists gathered to inspect the statue on the assumption it was Banksy’s work because his signature was scrawled at the base of the plinth.

The statue is situated close to those of King Edward VII, who reigned between 1901 and 1910, and legendary nurse Florence Nightingale, as well as the Crimean War Memorial.

Statues are not what Banksy is primarily known for. He is far more famous for his spray-painting on buildings, with his first creations appearing in the early 1990s in his hometown of Bristol in southwest England. He has since gone global and his paintings and installations have sold for millions of dollars at auction. His street art is often targeted by thieves and vandals.

Banksy, who has never publicly revealed his identity, is part of a tradition of street artists who viewed the undercover act of posting their art in public as a subversive form of expression.

The Associated Press

King Charles III will meet #Trump and address Congress in a bid to spotlight U.K.-U.S. ties

Defending champion #PSG faces 6-time winner Bayern in Champions League semifinal, Two-time finalist PSG is appearing in its third straight semifinal and faces a Bayern which has not lost in any competition since Jan. 24 and scored 19 goals in the past five games.

Striker Harry Kane netted his 53rd goal of another prolific season on Saturday and right winger Michael Olise also was on target as Bayern rallied from 3-0 down at halftime to beat Mainz 4-3 in the Bundesliga.

Ligue 1 leader PSG also rested some first-teamers in a 3-0 win at Angers on Saturday and hopes to have midfielders Vitinha and Fabián Ruiz ready to start alongside João Neves at Parc des Princes.

Paris Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire said he would attend the game and Paris city hall was decked out in PSG’s colors.

“Tonight I will be beside the team at Parc des Princes,” he posted on X. “All Parisians are with you, we’re waiting for a victory. Good luck.”

Spanish side Atletico Madrid hosts London club Arsenal on Wednesday in the other semifinal first leg.

King Charles III heads to #Washington on a delicate mission to restore the U.K.-U.S. relationship

US President Donald Trump is still at the annual White House Correspondents' Association reception, where a shooting occurred, the White House press pool accompanying the US leader reported.

"The pool is still at the Hilton [hotel] <…>, which means that the US president hadn’t departed yet," the journalists said.

According to the Associated Press news agency, neither Trump nor Vice President JD Vance were harmed in the incident.

A longer Iran conflict could boost risk for Ukraine securing missile defenses, Zelenskyy says.

Ukraine could face increased risks in securing U.S. anti-missile defenses if the war in Iran goes on for an extended period of time, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday.

Zelenskyy, interviewed by CNN, said Ukraine received limited numbers of such weaponry because U.S. production was limited, but so far it had experienced no disruption in supplies or in provision of intelligence.

Zelenskyy said Ukraine was able to secure U.S. weaponry through the PURL program under which NATO countries can finance the purchase of weapons for Kyiv.

“Through this program, we can include and buy anti-ballistic missiles for Patriot systems and some other weapons which is very important for us. We don’t have this...with our European neighbors,” Zelenskyy told CNN in English.

“And of course, (given) the big challenge in the Middle East war and Iran, all these packages are at risk.”

The United States, he said, had supplied “only a small number. We had not too much. We understand why, because the production in the United States is not so big.

“And if the war will continue or a ceasefire is delayed...(this) will be not good. And maybe we will have more risks with anti-ballistics.”

Zelenskyy repeated that Ukraine was making available to countries in the Middle East the know-how it has acquired in four years of countering drones deployed by Russian forces, many of them designed by Iran.

Agreements had been signed with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

Man who swiped Noem’s purse in a D.C. restaurant is sentenced to 3 years in prison.

Mario Bustamante Leiva did not recognize Noem when he grabbed her Gucci handbag from the floor of a restaurant where she was eating with her family in April 2025, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. Noem’s purse had credit cards and about US$3,000 in cash. Police recovered it from Leiva’s motel room.

Bustamante Leiva, a 50-year-old native of Chile, is facing deportation after his sentence imposed by U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden.

“Bustamante Leiva came to Washington illegally to prey on citizens of the district,” said Jeanine Pirro, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, in a statement. “His pattern of theft ends here.”

Noem, who is identified only by her initials in court filings, acknowledged the incident in a statement last year that referred to Bustamante Leiva as a “a career criminal who has been in our country illegally for years.”

He pleaded guilty in November to three counts of wire fraud and one count of first-degree theft. He was charged and convicted of robbing two other people and charging fraudulent purchases to their credit cards.

Bustamante Leiva was charged along with a second suspect, Cristian Montecino-Sananza, who was sentenced in March to 13 months of incarceration for his role in one of the other thefts.

Investigators said they identified Bustamante Leiva as a suspect in the thefts after he used a stolen gift card to make a purchase.

Michael Kunzelman, The Associated Press

#Kazakhstan has received unofficial reports about the impossibility of transporting fuel via the Druzhba pipeline in May, Kazakh Energy Minister Yerlan Akkenzhenov told reporters.

#TASS has compiled the main details about the situation. Statement from the Kazakh side

- Kazakh Energy Minister Yerlan Akkenzhenov told reporters that the country received unofficial information about the impossibility of transporting fuel via the Druzhba pipeline in May.

- According to him, the Russian side, citing unofficial sources, "stated the lack of technical capability to transport Kazakh oil."

- Oil transit from Kazakhstan via the Druzhba pipeline will resume as soon as technical capability becomes available, Akkenzhenov said. He added that during the planned supply suspension, #Kazakhstan is redirecting crude flows to other destinations, including the Caspian #Pipeline Consortium (CPC).

- The minister also noted that the oil could be redirected for shipments to China.