Iran crisis, World Cup tensions overshadow FIFA Congress in Vancouver

Football officials gather in Vancouver on Thursday for FIFA’s 76th Congress, weeks before the expanded World Cup kicks off in North America. War in Iran, logistics and Russia’s ban top the agenda. Iranian federation officials left Canada abruptly, casting a shadow over the meeting.


Issued on: 30/04/2026 - 
By: FRANCE 24

FIFA President Gianni Infantino is juggling multiple issues ahead of the 76th FIFA Congress in Vancouver, the last major gathering of football's global governing body before the World Cup © Kent NISHIMURA, AFP

Football's power brokers meet in Vancouver on Thursday as FIFA convenes its 76th Congress, a high stakes gathering less than two months before the biggest World Cup ever opens across Canada, Mexico and the United States

The Iran war, World Cup logistical headaches and the unresolved question of Russia's international ban are set to feature in discussions among roughly 1,600 delegates from more than 200 member associations.

Iran's absence is already threatening to overshadow the meeting.

Officials from the Iranian football federation (FFIRI) abruptly left Canada after landing in Toronto earlier this week, abandoning their onward trip to Vancouver.

Iranian media said FFIRI president Mehdi Taj – a former member of Tehran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) – and two colleagues flew home after being "insulted" by Canadian immigration officers.

Canada, which designated the IRGC a terrorist organization in 2024, said Wednesday that individuals linked to the force were "inadmissible".

"While we cannot comment on individual cases due to privacy laws, the government has been clear and consistent: IRGC officials are inadmissible to Canada and have no place in our country," Canada's immigration agency said in a statement.

The episode adds fresh uncertainty to Iran's World Cup status, already clouded since the Middle East war erupted on February 28 with a wave of attacks by the United States and Israel.

Iranian football officials said last month they had suggested moving their three World Cup group games from the United States to co-hosts Mexico – a plan which was swiftly nixed by FIFA President Gianni Infantino.

Infantino told AFP that Iran will play at the World Cup "where they are supposed to be, according to the draw."

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

But Rubio warned that the United States may yet bar entry to members of the Iranian delegation with ties to the IRGC.
Infantino under scrutiny

The FIFA boss heads into Thursday's meeting facing scrutiny following criticism over skyrocketing World Cup ticket prices and his close friendship with US President Donald Trump.

FIFA on Tuesday announced it had boosted World Cup financial distributions to nearly $900 million, up from the initial $727 million announced in December.

The move came after several World Cup-qualified teams reportedly warned that they risked losing money from competing at the sprawling tournament, citing the high cost of travel, taxes and overall operations.

Rights groups meanwhile have called for the football supremo to use his upcoming address to FIFA delegates to give assurances that World Cup visitors face no risk of being caught in the Trump administration's draconian immigration crackdown.

"FIFA President Gianni Infantino has yet to publicly outline how fans, journalists and local communities will be safe from arbitrary detention, mass deportations and crackdowns on free expression," Amnesty International's head of economic and social justice Steve Cockburn said Wednesday.

"This FIFA Congress should be the moment he does so, and the global football community must receive more than empty platitudes," Cockburn added in a statement.

Infantino is also facing calls to abolish the FIFA Peace Prize, which he awarded to Trump during last December's World Cup draw in Washington.

"We want to see (the prize) abolished," Norwegian football association president Lise Klaveness told reporters this week. "We don't think it's part of FIFA's mandate to give such a prize."

Thursday's Congress could also address the issue of Russia's ongoing ban from international football, which has been in force since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Infantino spoke in favor of lifting the ban on Russia earlier this year.

"We have to (look at readmitting Russia). Definitely," Infantino told Britain's Sky News.

"This ban has not achieved anything, it has just created more frustration and hatred."

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

Iranian football officials leave Canada before FIFA Congress due to airport 'insult'


A team of Iranian football officials left Canada before the start of this week's FIFA Congress due to the "inappropriate behaviour" of immigration officials at Toronto airport, Iranian media reported Wednesday. The Iranian federation's president is a former member of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, which is a designated terror group in Canada.


Issued on: 29/04/2026 - 
By: FRANCE 24

File photo of the 2026 World Cup logo on a screen outside Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles taken on May 17, 2023. © Jae C. Hong, AP

Top Iranian football officials 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 Revolutionary Guards (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.

The incident underscores the practical and political obstacles surrounding Iran's participation at the World Cup, the most politically ‌sensitive item on FIFA's agenda since the US and Israel launched a war against Iran in February.

Iran's ⁠qualification has not removed hurdles tied to travel, visas and security in a tournament staged in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada said it could not comment on specific cases due to privacy but added: "IRGC officials are inadmissible to Canada."

Doubts over Iranian team's attendance

While FIFA has insisted fixtures will proceed as scheduled, the delegation's withdrawal deepens doubts over whether ​Iranian players, officials and supporters will be able to move freely across borders during the tournament.

The officials – ‌who had travelled to Canada to attend Thursday’s Congress in Vancouver – returned on the next available flight, according to the Tasnim report, which added that the incident involved an insult directed at one of the most decorated branches of Iran's armed forces.

FIFA has since contacted the Iranian ‌delegation to express regret over the incident and indicated that president Gianni Infantino would arrange a meeting with them at the organisation’s headquarters, the report added. FIFA did not respond ​to a request for comment from Reuters. A source at the FIFA Congress told Reuters FIFA had sent a representative to mediate in Toronto but their efforts were in vain.

Doubts have 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.

'Visa issues'

Sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters that the Iranian ​officials were also unable to attend Tuesday's Asian Football Confederation Congress, which was also held in Vancouver, due to visa ​issues.

“If it's like this in Canada where it's supposed to be easy, how is it ​going to be for the World Cup in the US?" a delegate at the AFC Congress told Reuters on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

Concerns over security, travel restrictions and the broader geopolitical climate have prompted officials in Tehran to seek guarantees for the Iran team at the World Cup and, in some cases, explore the possibility of ⁠alternative venues for their matches in the United States.

FIFA has so far resisted any changes, reiterating that participating teams are expected to adhere to the established match ⁠schedule.

The Congress – bringing together ​more than 200 member associations – was already expected to focus on operational and financial questions linked to the first 48-team World Cup.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and Reuters)

How the Iran war is bringing back 'citizenship as a weapon'

Cathrin Schaer

DW

04/27/2026

Some Gulf states, trapped between Iran, Israel and the US in the current war, have started revoking the citizenship of locals considered "traitors." But is it about security — or a way to suppress political dissent?

Anti-government protests in Bahrain went from 2011 until 2013 and saw hundreds arrested and as many as 85 killed after a brutal crackdown

Image: Hasan Jamali/AP Photo/picture alliance

Jawad Fairooz found out that he no longer had a country while watching television.

"I was on a short trip to London," Fairooz, a former politician in Bahrain's parliament, told DW, "when the Ministry of Interior decided to revoke the nationality of people in the opposition. They read 31 names on TV. Mine was one. It was such a shock because I never called for the government to be overthrown."

That was in November 2012. Fairooz had resigned from parliament in protest at security forces killing demonstrators during the so-called Arab Spring. He was arrested, tortured, and then had his citizenship revoked. And he was not alone. Bahraini authorities would eventually withdraw citizenship from close to 990 people.

Made stateless, Fairooz applied for asylum, became a UK citizen and now runs the organization, Salam for Democracy and Human Rights. But he's worried that what happened to him is about to happen to many more Bahrainis, as a result of the Iran war.

Jawad Fairooz, left, pictured in 2011 when he was in the opposition, says there are long-running attempts to bring about demographic change more supportive of the Sunni royal familyImage: Mazen Mahdi/dpa/picture alliance

Weaponizing citizenship

The war began in late February when Israel and the US attacked Iran. But besides Israel, it was Gulf states like Bahrain, Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia that Iran targeted in response.

Politically, Bahrain is in a particularly difficult position. Like other Gulf states, the country is a monarchy and represses most political dissent. But in contrast to other Gulf countries, Bahrain's royal family are Sunni while estimates suggest the majority of the population — just over 50% — is Shiite.

Fairooz says Bahrainis having their citizenship revoked are mostly Shia, while those being given citizenship are mostly Sunni, many who moved to Bahrain from elsewhere

Image: Tetiana Chernykova/Zoonar/picture alliance

Iran is a Shiite theocracy, and in March, there were as many as 250 arrests in Bahrain of people who allegedly posted anti-war messages online, expressed "sympathy" with Iran or participated in demonstrations. Bahrain says it also arrested spies working for Iran.

Then, in late April, the government said it would be reviewing the citizenship of anybody "disloyal" to the country. Fairooz believes Bahrain is weaponizing citizenship again for security reasons, but also because authorities know they can use it to suppress dissent.

"I am hearing about arrests of citizens perceived as siding with the enemy state," said another Bahraini who lives in the US but whose family remains in Bahrain, which is why they could only comment anonymously. "In particular, people of Persian, or mixed Arab and Persian descent, are being associated with Iran, regardless of their actual views on the conflict. These dynamics affect a range of communities — not only Shia minorities, but also Sunni citizens of Persian descent."

Kuwait could be one of the worst offenders. In March 2024, the Kuwaiti government launched a campaign to revoke citizenship and sources say it's highly likely that, since then, over 70,000 Kuwaitis have lost their nationality. The true number could be as high as 300,000 because dependents like wives, children or grandchildren also lose Kuwaiti citizenship.

If correct, that's almost one-fifth of the native population, as there are only around 1.56 million Kuwaiti citizens. In mid-April, Kuwait issued another set of changes to its citizenship law and over 2,000 more people lost Kuwaiti nationality.

"Kuwait's evolving nationality regime reveals how citizenship can be transformed ... into a political instrument of control," the research network Global Citizenship Observatory wrote in aFebruary 2026 report on Kuwait.

"It is potentially too early to identify if there is an increased trend related to the recent conflict with Iran," said Thomas McGee, the Observatory's expert on the Middle East. "What we are seeing now is a number of Gulf states potentially using the Iran war as justification to intensify existing citizenship and nationality controls, rather than inventing the practice from scratch."

Kuwait's emir Meshal Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah says citizenship irregularities are changing the country, but his critics say new nationality rules are meant to regulate who has political power

Image: Jaber Abdulkhaleg/AP Photo/picture alliance

Another Gulf state, Oman, changed its citizenship laws in February 2025. Parts of the law say Omani nationality could be withdrawn if citizens "committed a verbal or physical offense against the Omani Sultanate or the Sultan himself," or joined an organization that might harm the country.

Rights activists argue that because there's no definition of those acts or organizations, the government can use the law against its opponents.

The UAE was recently accused of doing similar things to Iranians who live there. Some found their residency permits had been revoked. Emirati authorities denied this, saying the expats were part of their community — but media outlets like The New York Times interviewed Iranians who had had permits rescinded.

There are warnings of similar action in Iran. Last week, a politician there threatened to strip diaspora Iranians of citizenship if they were seen cooperating with "hostile countries."

Europe and US also use citizenship as a tool

This kind of activity is not limited to the Middle East. Last week in the US, the Trump administration again pushed its Justice Department to denaturalize hundreds of Americans and has issued new guidelines on vetting political opinions of people seeking residency.

In the UK, there's been furious debate about the decision to strip Shamima Begum, who joined the extremist 'Islamic State' group in Syria at the age of 15, of British citizenship

Image: GMB/ITV/PA Wire/picture alliance

Last year, Human Rights Watch criticized a leaked working paper on migration by conservative political parties in Germany. This suggested dual nationals could be stripped of German passports if they were deemed "supporters of terrorism, antisemites and extremists."

Experts say citizenship is being weaponized because, over the past two decades, it's become more acceptable to treat it as a privilege, not a right.

This was not the case after World War II, when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was first written. Article 15 says nationality is a fundamental human right, partly a response to the Nazis making tens of thousands of Jews and political opponents stateless with their 1933 "denaturalization law."

"States have been weaponizing citizenship for a long time," said Lindsey Kingston, a professor of international human rights at Webster University in the US state of Missouri. "But the nature of that weaponization is changing."

A 2022 study by the Global Citizenship Observatory and the Netherlands-based Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, or ISI, found that in the two decades after the September 11, 2001, attacks in the US, "the use and scope of citizenship revocation on security grounds has expanded."

"Terror attacks like 9/11 prompted many people to rethink ideas about legal nationality," Kingston told DW. "People began to see citizenship as impermanent, something that had to be earned and continually justified."

Stripping a person of citizenship became more acceptable, she said, "even when it was in blatant violation of human rights laws."

Iran war's impact

While the weaponization of citizenship is not new, the Iran war seems to be making things worse, experts say.

The conflict has resulted in a slowing of reforms in Gulf countries, analysts at the US-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace argued in early April. The war has upset "the fragile balance that had been emerging in the Gulf between controlled reform and political stability," they wrote.

This includes the weaponization of citizenship, observers say.

"Military conflict can be a catalyst," Luuk van der Baaren, a legal researcher at the European University Institute who focuses on citizenship law, confirmed. "A long-standing ground for citizenship stripping is treason and this logic is now being invoked in some Gulf countries." The same has been seen in Russia and Ukraine, he added.

Additionally, citizenship policies often follow strong regional patterns, the researcher told DW. "Countries tend to adopt similar approaches to their neighbors, which may explain recent changes across countries of the Arab Gulf."

Amal de Chickera, co-director of the ISI, believes it's important to look at the bigger picture.

"If you look at Bahrain, there was a spike in citizenship strippings post-2013, and then there was a lot of international pressure that the Bahraini government should right those wrongs," he explained. "And they did course correct, to a degree."

Now it seems Bahrain is going back to that practice. But, as de Chickera argued, that may not be surprising.

"I think a wider lens is needed," he said. "With Israel’s genocide of Palestinians, invasion of Lebanon and the US and Israeli attacks on Iran, with the way Western nations have doubled down to afford Israel a degree of impunity and their unwillingness to hold America accountable, we are seeing a shredding of international law."

The International Court of Justice in the Netherlands has been investigating Israel's conduct in Gaza since South Africa launched a case in December 2023, alleging that it amounts to genocide. Israel's conduct in the war has been found by many international rights organizations and a United Nations commission to be a genocide. Israel has denied this.

De Chickera thinks all that is connected: "In a world in which international law means nothing, the Bahraini government has probably calculated it can get away with this again."

Edited by: Rob Mudge
Cathrin Schaer Author for the Middle East desk.

Mali: France urges citizens to leave amid Tuareg advance

Matt Ford 

DW with Reuters, AFP

29/04/2026 - 

With Tuareg-led rebels saying the ruling junta in Mali will fall "sooner or later" and demanding the withdrawal of Russian troops, the French Foreign Ministry has called on French nationals to leave the country.

Paris says the security situation in the former French colony remains 'volatile'

Image: AFP

France has urged its nationals in Mali to leave the country "as soon as possible" amid continuing attacks by Tuareg-led rebel forces who have claimed that the ruling junta will "fall sooner or later" and demanded that Russian forces also withdraw from "all of Mali."

The French Foreign Ministry said the security situation in the former French colony remains "volatile" following a coordinated assault by Tuareg-dominated separatists allied with the al-Qaeda-linked Jihadist Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM).

In the largest attacks in Mali in nearly 15 years, the rebel alliance, the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), has captured the strategic northern desert town of Kidal and killed Defense Minister Sadio Camara, seen as the mastermind behind the military government's pivot away from the West and towards Russia in recent years.

Mali: Russian Africa Corps admits losses

Russian troops from Moscow's Africa Corps, who have provided security for the junta, admitted they have "sustained losses" but provided no further details.

"Our objective is for Russia to withdraw permanently from Azawad and beyond," said FLA spokesman Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane, referring to the northern part of Mali in which the rebels would like to declare an independent state.

"We have no particular problem with Russia, nor with any other country," he said. "Our problem is with the regime that governs [in the capital] Bamako."

Nevertheless, he said the Russian troops were still viewed negatively for their role in "supporting people who committed serious crimes and massacres."

In Moscow, the Russian Defense Ministry confirmed that Africa Corps fighters had been forced to withdraw from Kidal, with Ramadane saying they had been escorted out of town.

"The Russians found themselves in danger; there was no way out," he said. "When they realized they could not hold out against our forces and our firepower, they requested this withdrawal."

Mali junta 'will fall sooner or later,' say rebels

Ramadane, who was set to meet French security and defense officials in Paris on Wednesday, claimed that FLA troops had won "all the confrontations we had with the Russians" who he said were no match for Tuaregs who are defending their homeland.

"Even if they are a powerful force, they will not be able to stand up to the Azawadians, the masters of the terrain," he said.

The ​leader of Mali's military government vowed on Tuesday to "neutralize" those responsible for the attacks, but Ramadane said that the FLA also intends to "liberate" the towns of Gao and Timbuktu along the River Niger.

"To achieve peace, to find stability in Azawad, in Mali and beyond in the Sahel, the first thing is to get rid of this junta," he said. "The regime will fall, sooner or later."

Edited by: Srinivas Mazumdaru


Matt Ford Reporter for DW News and Fact Check

ANTI IMPERIALIST UNITED FRONT 

Insurgent alliance strikes at heart of Mali’s junta, exposing limits of Russian protection


Mali’s ruling junta was reeling on Monday after coordinated attacks by separatists and al Qaeda-linked jihadists sparked two days of fierce fighting across the country. It was the most serious challenge to Mali's central government since a 2012 rebel offensive was pushed back by the intervention of French forces.


Issued on: 27/04/2026
By: Barbara GABEL/Benjamin DODMAN

Tuareg rebels of the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) celebrate in Tidal after seizing control of the northern Malian city, on April 26, 2026. © Abdollah Ag Mohamed, AFP

Mali has been plunged into its worse security crisis in more than a decade after Tuareg separatists and al Qaeda-linked jihadist fighters joined forces to launch sweeping attacks on Saturday, delivering a huge setback for its ruling military junta and its Russian allies.

Insurgents struck the main army base outside the capital Bamako and killed General Sadio Camara, the country’s defence minister, further undermining the junta’s claim that it is restoring order to impoverished West African nation that has long battled Islamist militants and separatist rebellions. The violence also saw rebel forces drive Russian mercenaries out of the key northern city of Kidal.

© France 24
02:10

It was the most sweeping rebel offensive since 2012, when Tuareg separatists joined forces with Islamist groups and eventually seized control of two-thirds of the country. As fighters advanced on the capital, Mali’s government appealed to former colonial ruler France for reinforcements. After France helped oust the Islamists, the subsequent presence of French troops and a UN peacekeeping mission helped ensure a wary peace over most of the next decade.

A 2020 military coup in Mali saw relations with France deteriorate, and by 2022 France had withdrawn the last of its troops despite a jihadist resurgence.


But history now appears to be repeating itself, with many of the same players on the ground – alongside some new elements that further complicate Mali’s search for stability.
· Defence minister killed, key town captured

Several strategic towns and areas around Bamako were targeted in Saturday’s dawn offensive by Tuareg rebels of the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) and the al Qaeda-linked jihadist Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM).

Defence Minister Sadio Camara, seen as the military regime’s second-most-powerful figure and a key Moscow ally, was killed in an apparent suicide truck bombing on his residence in Kati, a garrison town near Bamako that serves as the junta’s headquarters.

JNIM fighters also struck near Bamako airport and in localities farther north, including Mopti, Sevare and Gao.

In another major blow to the junta, FLA rebels claimed “total” control of their historic northern bastion of Kidal, where they secured the withdrawal of junta-allied mercenaries from Russia’s Africa Corps, which has taken over from the Wagner paramilitary group in much of Africa.

General Assimi Goita, the military ruler who deposed Mali’s civilian government in a 2020 coup, has not been seen or spoken publicly since the start of hostilities.

“This is a dramatic setback for the Malian government and a new phase in the ongoing insurgency in the Sahel,” said Andrew Leibovich, a research fellow with the Clingendael Conflict Research Unit focusing on North Africa and the Sahel.

“The fact that they were able to assemble so many fighters, particularly in and around Bamako and Kati, without detection and without the government being able to stop them, indicates how tenuous the security situation is, even around the capital,” he added.
· JNIM and FLA: Who are the insurgent forces?

One of Africa's deadliest jihadist groups, JNIM formed in 2017 through the merger of five separate militant groups. It has been the main force behind a resurgence of jihadist attacks across several West African nations, including Mali’s neighbours Burkina Faso and Niger.

The group is believed to have around 6,000 fighters. Its leader is Iyad Ag Ghaly, the ethnic Tuareg head of the Ansar Dine Islamist group that took over the historic city of Timbuktu in northern Mali in 2012 and imposed sharia law there.

JNIM aims to establish Islamist governance across the Sahel. Its years-long insurgency broadened to economic warfare last year when it staged a fuel blockade that paralysed Bamako and large swaths of the country.

But experts have cast doubt on the group’s ability to govern.

“JNIM fighters don’t have the capacity to take and run a city like Bamako. What they are trying to do is to target major regime figures, destabilise the junta and perhaps spark an uprising,” said Ulf Laessing, head of the Sahel Program at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.

© France 24
01:32

Mali has been grappling with ethnic Tuareg rebellions since shortly after it gained independence from France in 1960. The Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), officially formed in November 2024, is just their latest iteration.

Present across the Sahara region, nomadic Tuaregs are fighting for an independent homeland they call "Azawad". In 2012, it was the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) that first swept through northern Mali until its campaign was hijacked by Islamist groups.

Mali struck a peace deal with Tuareg separatists in 2015, but the military junta withdrew from the agreement in 2024, leading to a resumption of hostilities.

In July 2024, Tuareg fighters attacked a convoy of Malian soldiers and Wagner fighters in the north, claiming to have killed 84 Russians and 47 Malian soldiers. Ukraine's military intelligence service then suggested it had helped the Tuareg rebels carry out the attack by providing intelligence, and Mali responded by cutting ties with Kyiv.
· ‘A shaky, ad hoc alliance’

Saturday’s coordinated attacks mark the first time since 2012 that jihadists and Tuareg separatists have cooperated on this scale, providing the most concrete evidence yet of a rapprochement negotiated more than a year ago, according to FRANCE 24’s expert in jihadist networks Wassim Nasr.

“We now have proof that there is genuine coordination across the country: all these attacks took place simultaneously,” Nasr explained.

“The aim was not to bring down Bamako, but to tie down the army in order to cut off the north and gain control of it,” he added. “There is a clear coordination to resume fighting against the Malian junta, but also against the Russians."

An FLA spokesperson confirmed the coordinated push on Sunday, stating that JNIM “is also committed to defending the people against the military regime in Bamako”.

However, analysts caution that the two groups have relatively little in common aside from a common enemy, suggesting theirs could be little more than an alliance of convenience.

“They both know they can’t really force regime change on their own – that's why they are teaming up the way they did in 2012,” said Laessing. “The jihadists eventually got rid of the Tuaregs back then, so this is a very shaky, ad hoc alliance, and not something that can run Mali.”

· Twin blows for the junta

Saturday’s brazen attacks on the heart of government, coupled with the fall of Kidal, constitute major setbacks for a military junta that seized power in 2020 on a promise to stabilise the country and assert the central government’s control throughout its territory.

Kidal had long served as a stronghold of the rebellion before being taken by junta forces and mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner. Its capture in late 2023 marked a significant symbolic victory for the junta and its allies in Moscow.

© France 24
08:14

The attacks on Kati and Bamako, and the killing of Defence Minister Camara, are “an even greater blow to the junta’s confidence”, said Paul Melly, Consulting Fellow on the Africa Programme at Chatham House.

“The fact that they could even launch a truck bomb at the house of the regime’s number two shows the fragility of the regime’s military hold. Even in Kati, basically the headquarters of the junta, they could not guarantee the security of their most senior figures,” he said.

“The reason the military junta took over from civilian authorities was because of the mounting insecurity in the region, under the promise that they would quell the violence. But the data shows that insecurity in Mali and across the Sahel region has only worsened,” added Folahanmi Aina, a lecturer at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London.

He pointed to early signs of a “legitimacy crisis” for the regime.

“While part of the population remains supportive of the junta, we’re beginning to see an erosion of trust in its ability to address the situation on the ground and guarantee the safety and security of the Malian people,” Aina said.

· Russia's African ambitions undermined

The fall of Kidal and the failure to thwart attacks on Bamako and Kati have also exposed the limits of Russian military power in West Africa.

Russia’s Africa Corps confirmed its withdrawal from Kidal on Monday, acknowledging that “the situation in the Republic of Mali remains difficult”. Moscow also lost a key ally with the killing of Defence Minister Camara, a key architect of the rapid shift in alliances that saw the junta expel French and UN forces and turn to Russia for military support.

“The attacks show that Russian mercenaries only have a limited capacity, in stark contrast to the situation before the coup, when Mali had a military partnership with France and there was a very large UN peacekeeping force of 13,000-14,000 soldiers, many of them West African, which helped to maintain a basic degree of security and stability,” said Chatham House’s Melly.

© France 24
01:47

“The French never really had a chance to pacify this vast country and the Russians even less so,” added Laessing. “In fact, they (the Russian mercenaries) made the conflict worse by being brutal and not distinguishing between civilians and combatants, which has made it easier for jihadists to recruit fighters.”

The regime’s political isolation – and that of allied juntas in Burkina Faso and Niger, which have also severed ties with France and left the ECOWAS group of West African states – has left them with few other options to confront the security emergency, he added.

“Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso are on a nationalist, anti-Western course and it is not clear who will want to engage with them,” Laessing explained. “I don’t think Europe or France will be willing or even welcome to put boots on the ground to help stabilise the situation, which is probably beyond a military solution anyway.”

Street battles and withdrawal of Russian mercenaries: Inside the 48-hour fall of Mali’s Kidal

The Azawad Liberation Front and the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) launched an offensive against several Malian towns on April 25. In the north, the city of Kidal was recaptured following a three-year presence of Russian and Malian forces. Verified footage offers a window into these two days of tensions.


Issued on: 27/04/2026 - 
By:  The FRANCE 24 Observers / Guillaume MAURICE

FLA rebels seen parading through Kidal after capturing the city. © Observers

Two and a half years later, the flag of Azawad – the Tuareg name for the northern region of Mali claimed by separatists of the FLA (Azawad Liberation Front) – is once again flying over the city of Kidal.

In November 2023, the Malian army seized the city alongside Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group, now rebranded as Africa Corps. On April 25, separatists raised their flag in the city’s central square, claiming to have regained control.

FLA fighters pose in Kidal’s main square after seizing control of the city on April 25. Location: 18°26'48.17"N 1°24'32.56"E Source: X / Wamaps_news / Guillaumem_MRC

The assault began at 6am. Six Malian cities found themselves under fire. In Kidal and Gao, the offensive was led by a coalition comprising the FLA and the al Qaeda-linked Jihadist Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM).

A morning of heavy fighting on the outskirts of Kidal

An FLA commander told the FRANCE 24 Observers team that checkpoints at the city’s entrance fell within the first hour of fighting. The Tuareg rebel, originally from the area, said that the city fell to the coalition by early afternoon.

Around noon, a video shows vehicles belonging to the JNIM or the FLA circulating freely past a military camp north of Kidal. With a Starlink receiver mounted on the hood of their car, the armed men drove past the building without stopping.

An account supporting the FLA independence movement shared a video showing militants bypassing a military camp north of Kidal. Location: 18°27'27.73"N 1°24'4.54"E Source: Facebook / AlkassimAgAhouchel.1990

Within the city, fighting was concentrated around the police station, where Malian Armed Forces (FAMA) soldiers had taken up defensive positions. The building’s perimeter was breached at approximately 2pm.

Footage published on April 25 shows armed FLA militants parading a Kidal police car they have captured. Source: X / XNewsUncensored

Symbolic sites

Another symbolic victory was claimed as the Kidal governorate fell into the hands of separatists. This building served as the administrative headquarters for General El Hadj Ag Gamou, the governor of the region, following the Malian junta’s return in 2023. As the leader of the Imghad Tuareg Self-Defence Group and Allies (Gatia), Gamou has remained loyal to the junta.

By late afternoon, a pro-FLA account released a video showing independence forces hoisting their flag atop the building.

Footage shows FLA members raising the group’s flag atop the Kidal governorate. Location: 18°26'58.81"N 1°24'12.59"E source: X / Guillaumem_MRC

The FLA and JNIM also claim to have captured soldiers from the Malian army.
The former UN base south of Kidal: a strategic stronghold

Located on the southern outskirts of the city, the former camp of MINUSMA, the former UN mission in Mali, served as a strategic stronghold. While encircled and entrenched within the base, Russian Africa Corps mercenaries were reportedly targeted by drone strikes and mortar fire from the FLA.

To organise their evacuation, negotiations between the FLA and Russian forces reportedly began as early as April 25, according to the pro-independence source the Observers team spoke to. Russian troops were evacuated from the former UN base the following day, at approximately 4 or 5pm.

A comparison of satellite imagery captured on April 10 (left) and April 25 (right) reveals potential signs of fighting or fires. © Sentinel- 2 Copernicus


However, resistance from Africa Corps mercenaries also persisted on the fringes of Kidal until the evening of April 25. Our source within the FLA said the mercenaries and Malian troops, entrenched in a turret with precision rifles, were finally evacuated to the MINUSMA camp the following day.

Withdrawal of Russian mercenaries

At 5pm, the Tuareg commander claimed that the independence fighters had taken control of the camp’s exit points. He said the Russian mercenaries burned several installations and vehicles before pulling out.

Our team geolocated a video showing a convoy of vehicles from the Africa Corps mercenaries and the Malian army departing the MINUSMA base and heading north. However, it’s currently impossible to determine where the forces previously stationed in Kidal are repositioning.

This video was published on April 25 by a pro-FLA account. It shows the evacuation of vehicles from the Africa Corps and the FAMA. Location: 18°26'10.28"N 1°24'29.34"E source:X / BayeAg1 / Guillaumem_MRC

The retreating Russian column included heavy weaponry, such as several BM-21 Grad multiple-rocket launchers, and truck-towed artillery pieces.

The total number of casualties remained unknown after a day of intense fighting. While footage emerged on April 25 showing the bodies of Malian soldiers in Kidal, none of the combatant groups has disclosed their losses. Meanwhile, the Malian Armed Forces stated that “the hunt for armed terrorist groups continues in Kidal, Kati, and other locations across the country”.

This article has been translated from the original in French.

Despite everything, 'the Palestinians have not given up', says historian Rashid Khalidi

11:46 min From the show

Issued on: 29/04/2026 -

One of the world's leading historians on the Palestinian people has told FRANCE 24 about how there is a future basis for peace in the region. Rashid Khalidi has spent years writing a series of books on the region and its conflicts, often through the eyes of his own family. He says that millions of people are not going to leave their land, so there's a basis for the two peoples to figure something out. Khalidi is in Paris for several appearances, including at the Arab World Institute. He spoke to us in Perspective.

BY: Stuart Norval

Palestinians in Gaza’s Deir al-Balah elect local leaders for the first time in two decades

Palestinians living in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the Gazan community of Deir al-Balah headed to the polls this weekend for the first election of local leaders in more than two decades. Palestinian authorities hailed the vote as a success and said it paves the way for more elections in the war-torn enclave in the near future.


Issued on:29/04/2026 
By: FRANCE 24

A Palestinian woman in Deir al-Balah places her ballot vote for local elections, the first in two decades in Gaza, on April 25, 2026. © Abdel Kareem Hana, AP

Palestinian authorities said Sunday that local elections in a single Gaza community and the Israeli-occupied West Bank were a success and called them a step towards a long-delayed presidential election in the territories and eventual statehood.

The Palestinian Authority, which administers semiautonomous areas of the West Bank but is left out of the US-drafted ceasefire plan for Gaza, has described Saturday’s local election in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah as a largely symbolic pilot while the authority seeks to politically link the territories.

READ MORELow turnout as Palestinians vote in first local elections since Gaza war

It was the first election in part of Hamas-run Gaza in more than two decades. Deir al-Balah, like much of the territory, is devastated by two years of war but was spared an Israeli ground invasion. Turnout there was 23 percent, but officials cited challenges including large-scale displacement and outdated civil registry records.


Hamas, which controls the half of Gaza that Israel withdrew from last year under the current ceasefire, did not field candidates and did not try to block the vote.

Turnout in the West Bank elections was 56 percent, or over a half-million people, not dramatically different from elections there in recent years.
Sidelining Hamas

Many races were not contested, and candidates were required to accept the programme of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which leads the Palestinian Authority. The programme calls for the recognition of Israel and renouncing armed struggle, effectively sidelining Hamas and other factions.

Election results, then, were dominated by independents and Fatah, the faction that leads the authority and claimed victory.

“Everyone is aware of the political, security and economic conditions, the fragmentation of Palestinian territory, the war on Gaza, and the regional conflict in Iran,” Rami Hamdallah, chair of the Ramallah-based Central Election Commission and a former prime minister, told journalists.

“Simply holding the elections in Deir al-Balah is a significant achievement, and we hope to hold elections in other bodies across the Gaza Strip in the near future,” he said.

The elections in both territories were for the makeup of local councils tasked with overseeing water, roads and electricity.

The elections were the first to take place since reforms were enacted in response to international pressure. Elections now allow voting for individuals rather than slates. With faith in political parties low, they were less important than families and clans in campaigning.

Hamdallah called the vote a reflection of national unity, adding that “we hope that presidential and legislative elections will follow".

The Palestinian Authority, however, has not held a presidential election in 21 years, and support for it and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has withered during years of corruption and frustration over the sometimes violent advances of Jewish settlers in the West Bank.

The Palestinian Authority is the internationally recognised representative of the Palestinian people. It was ousted from Gaza after Hamas won parliamentary elections in 2006 and violently seized control. Abbas, 90, was elected to what was supposed to be a four-year term in 2005. The authority has not held presidential or legislative elections since 2006.

Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa called Saturday’s elections “another step on the path to full independence". Israel under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, opposes a Palestinian state.

Many Palestinians want more than local votes as they seek a greater say in their future.

“Municipal elections are an important step, but they are not enough ... We want general elections,” Bashar Masri, a prominent Palestinian-American business owner, said on social media.

(FRANCE 24 with AP)

The First Covid Indictment, Finally – OpEd

RIGHT WING ANTI FAUCI CONSPIRACY THEORY

April 29, 2026 
By Brownstone Institute


Dr. David Morens was Anthony Fauci’s long-trusted assistant at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, one of many subdivisions of the National Institutes of Health. He worked there for nearly a quarter of a century, a job he snagged out of his training as a virologist and his tenure at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He was loyal to his boss, clearly to a fault.
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Now he is the first lamb sacrificed in what is likely to be a long series of prosecutions.

Morens, now 78 years old, has been indicted by the Department of Justice “with conspiracy against the United States; destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in federal investigations; concealment, removal, or mutilation of records; and aiding and abetting.”

All of this is clearly documented in emails obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests and Senate investigations, in which Morens is promised wine for his “behind-the-scenes shenanigans,” and arranged for its delivery to his home. He was also promised – very likely by Peter Daszak of EcoHealth Alliance, the recipient of Fauci’s largesse – “additional things of value, including meals at Michelin-starred restaurants in Paris, New York, and Washington, D.C.”

Clearly something had gone very wrong in the normal affairs of state. What was the point of all this cloak-and-dagger? To cover up what everyone suspected, that the virus leaked from a lab in Wuhan, China, that benefited from funding from the US government channeled through a favored contractor, the EcoHealth Alliance. Daszak himself was involved in the coverup in those early months, even authoring a very early (Feb 28, 2020) op-ed in the pages of the New York Times.


“As the world struggles to respond to Covid-19,” Daszak wrote, “we risk missing the really big picture: Pandemics are on the rise, and we need to contain the process that drives them, not just the individual diseases.” In other words: this is just Disease Xl; blame nature, not scientists in government.

In an April 21, 2021 email to Daszak, Morens wrote: “PS, I forgot to say there is no worry about FOIAs. I can either send stuff to Tony on his private gmail, or hand it to him at work or at his [Fauci’s] house. He is too smart to let colleagues send him stuff that could cause trouble.”

In preparation for his grilling by the Senate on May 22, 2024, Morens wrote Daszak: “I should be prepared to be hit with criminal charges and firing and possible jail time for using my Gmail for supposed government business.…Please come visit me in prison and help me find a job when I get out. At least if that happens I will finally have the ability to speak out and write about what has been going on. I won’t mince words.”

The best we can hope for, then, is precisely what Morens promises: that once in prison, he will sing like a bird. He certainly knows vastly more than he has thus far said, as he admits. Or perhaps he avoids prison by turning on his past associates and ratting them out not only for the lab funding and leak but for what followed: the complete destruction of the country (and much of the world) with a lockdown awaiting an inoculation with a terrible efficacy and safety profile.


This is the real nub of the issue. For six years, people have wondered why it was so crucial for Fauci and his cohorts – among whom there were many, including actors in national security agencies – to work so hard to cover up the possibility of a lab leak, even to the point of commissioning a scientific paper to make the implausible case for a zoonotic origin. The best possible explanation is that they wanted to avoid culpability.

Another conspirator on the other side of the pond, Dr. Jeremy Farrar of Wellcome in the UK, jumped the gun with his 2021 book Spiked. He was a bit too forthcoming.

“In the last week of January 2020,” he writes, “I saw email chatter from scientists in the US suggesting the virus looked almost engineered to infect human cells. These were credible scientists proposing an incredible, and terrifying, possibility of either an accidental leak from a laboratory or a deliberate release. That got my mind racing….It seemed a huge coincidence for a coronavirus to crop up in Wuhan, a city with a superlab. Could the novel corona-virus be anything to do with ‘gain of function’ (GOF) studies?”

One wonders why he even raised the possibility. He continues:


In those weeks, I became exhausted and scared. I felt as if I was living a different person’s life. During that period, I would do things I had never done before: acquire a burner phone, hold clandestine meetings, keep difficult secrets. I would have surreal conversations with my wife, Christiane, who persuaded me we should let the people closest to us know what was going on. I phoned my brother and best friend to give them my temporary number. In hushed conversations, I sketched out the possibility of a looming global health crisis that had the potential to be read as bioterrorism. ‘If anything happens to me in the next few weeks,’ I told them nervously, ‘this is what you need to know.’


What a picture of crazy times. But there seemed to be a solution on the horizon. A technology called modified mRNA had been in the works, funded by Fauci, for decades. It promised a quick turnaround from a genetic sequence. They could get this done now with a proper level of panic and thus bypass the FDA’s normal approval route plus get an easy liability shield for the product. They needed only to convince Trump that he will have his inoculation in plenty of time for the November election.

One stipulation: government needs to minimize the extent to which people get exposed and gain immunity without the shot. After all, we don’t want the inoculation to be superfluous. For this experiment to work, as many people as possible needed to retain immunological naivete to the pathogen in question. Hence: the lockdowns need to keep people isolated and separate for as long as possible. Hence: the removal of alternative therapeutics from distribution.

After Trump granted approval for society-wide lockdowns for two weeks – they said he would otherwise be responsible for the deaths of millions – they would only need to extend them. The entire apparatus of the bureaucracy will have taken hold by that time and there would be nothing Trump could do to stop them. This could continue all the way to November, which Trump would lose thanks to mail-in ballots urged by the CDC. In which case, the distribution of the vaccine could wait and the lockdowns stretched for many months.

In the meantime, Morens and Fauci cooperated on a social-distancing manifesto that appeared in Cell in August 2020. “Living in greater harmony with nature,” they opined, “will require changes in human behavior as well as other radical changes that may take decades to achieve: rebuilding the infrastructures of human existence, from cities to homes to workplaces, to water and sewer systems, to recreational and gatherings venues. In such a transformation we will need to prioritize changes in those human behaviors that constitute risks for the emergence of infectious diseases.”

There we have it: lockdowns are just part of a long-term plan to completely reconstitute the social order. Enjoy your new safety. And remember never to shake hands again.

Imagine: all of this to cover up the culpability of a few for the funding of gain-of-function research in cooperation with the CCP.

If you think this kind of plot seems far-fetched, that surely no one in the government could be that sadistic concerning the treatment of the civilian population, think again. From the point of view of people at the top, you can obtain several wins out of this. You get a coverup of the lab leak. You get a trial run of a new vaccination technology that is potentially worth trillions in the long run. You get Trump – and Boris Johnson – out of office, Plus media and tech will love it: more eyeballs on screens and more customers for online learning platforms.

The whole scheme seemed like a winner too. But there was a serious problem. The shot failed to work and caused more harm than any shot called a vaccine in modern history. The sheer social carnage of the lockdowns was astronomical once you consider inflation, broken supply chains, bankrupted businesses, learning loss, and civic disruptions and displacements. Indeed, the population has been in a slow-burn revolt against everything and everyone since those days.

David Morens has previously said that he would welcome time in prison provided he would be free “to speak out and write about what has been going on.” Prosecutors need to hold him to his pledge: “I won’t mince words.” Meanwhile, Anthony Fauci has already been granted a full pardon by President Biden. There is surely a reason for that. 

This article was published by the Brownstone Institute

CORONA VIRUS GENETIC CODE FROM CHINA JANUARY 2020

The Problem With Eternal Vigilance – OpEd

AMERIKAN LIBERTARIANISM

April 29, 2026 
MISES
By George Ford Smith


“Politics in all its variants, particularly the politics of political parties, is the archenemy of freedom, prosperity, and peace. Yet wherever one looks, more government is invoked as the solution.”—Antony P. Mueller, “Is Anarcho-Capitalism Viable”

People are supposed to exercise eternal vigilance to keep themselves free. How does one exercise vigilance when the entity in question can pretty much do what it wants and can back its actions with superior force? How does one exercise vigilance when nature requires him to spend his time supporting his life and the lives of those he chooses to support? How does one exercise vigilance in defending freedom when most people today would rather be the subject of a state than be free?

It is a formidable task that has little in the way of a promising future.

Imagine how life is for people in Ukraine or Gaza or Iran—or anywhere else where bombs are falling or missiles striking. Borrowing from Hobbes, you might describe their lives as “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short,” but you’d be immediately faced with another problem. Hobbes was describing what life would be like in the absence of a state. People suffering the consequences of war are suffering at the hands of states.

Is life one vast contradiction that can only be resolved at one’s death? Is that one of the appeals of religion, that it replaces suffering with peace and good will in the afterlife? Or is it possible people still on earth can find a way to live peacefully with one another without a state?

If it is possible then anyone looking to persuade others of this position will find resistance everywhere he turns. And not just from warmongers.

More moderate positions on the state’s necessity come from thinkers who self-identify as libertarians, who promote peace, prosperity, and freedom but also claim none of it is possible without a sovereign authority to establish and enforce laws. They argue for limited government—keep the state but limit its functions to those needed to protect the Declaration’s inalienable rights.

It’s intellectually easy to criticize the state as it exists today, rather than the idea of the state itself, here understood in Oppenheimer’s sense as a predator of the producing class. Taxation is theft, inflation is deceptive theft, conscription is kidnapping—each established libertarian positions, and all attributable to the state’s aim of increasing its power. Do away with these and others, such as a standing army, and we will arrive at a version of the state that satisfies libertarians because it’s the best we can hope for. Their axiom: We will always have states. Libertarians want them as small as possible.

But even this version is alien. States grow. It’s in their nature. Their purpose is to provide security. There are always more and better ways to secure. For the state, security comes at a cost of imposing restrictions on freedom. People can turn to private security firms but they operate under state permission. If the security sought is that provided by sound money, the whole industrialized world opposes it. Fiat money, best understood as legal counterfeiting, grows the state, not sound money.

How does a state get away with growing? Usually, in response to a crisis. What is government for if not to fix or alleviate it, as FDR allegedly accomplished with his New Deal? Isn’t that how security is understood? It will require government expansion but most people are led to believe it’s worth it. Besides, under a fiat monetary regime, such as most states have, the hit on its subjects’ net worth will be mostly hidden until much later, a result of the Cantillon effect, at which time there will be market actors to blame, not the government.

Instead of demanding a flat sum immediately such as a sales tax imposes, the state has an ingenious theft installment plan of which most people are unaware. The Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee has as policy an innocent-sounding target of a 2 percent inflation rate, translated as a 2 percent hit on the purchasing power of the dollar that is achieved by creating money ex nihilo—out of nothing, like a child playing make believe, only these children are considered the best and the brightest so are obliged to do it in a very circuitous way by adjusting something called the federal funds rate. Fed monetary inflation is sometimes augmented with higher taxes on the rich that slides down to the middle and lower classeswho are mostly puzzled at this outcome. As for the benefit of state expansion, the combination of welfare and warfare has worked every time. At home it helps the “needy” often on the basis of their support for the current regime, abroad it devastates lives and destroys critical infrastructure to impose political ideals on people who don’t want them, always with the threat of blowback.

All this is how the state provides protection to ensure the freedom and well-being of its subjects. For this difficult task it claims a legal monopoly on the use of force. Monopoly defined:

A situation, by legal privilege or other agreement, in which solely one party (company, cartel etc.) exclusively provides a particular product or service, dominating that market and generally exerting powerful control over it.

The “particular product or service” a state allegedly provides is protection of your status as a human being. Did you vote to be under rule by a state? No. Did you vote for the particular constitutional state now in effect? No, your ancestors did. The Constitutional US replaced the Articles US by means of a quiet coup d’etat. Pro-Constitution delegates in 1787 argued that their purpose was “to render the federal constitution adequate to the exigencies of Government and the preservation of the Union [i.e., the State]” which they claimed justified ditching the Articles. In their view, an adequate government required a monopoly central state with the power to tax.

Americans have always inveighed against monopolies, usually without making a distinction between coercive and non-coercive monopolies. Problems emerge when coercive monopolies have the force of law behind them.

In the late 19th century, for example, voluntary cartel agreements couldn’t establish the market control big business wanted so they turned to the state, the mother of all coercive monopolies, to get the legal advantages they wanted.

Always, the legal establishment of monopolies that began with the creation of the federal government was done under the moral umbrella of the public interest. The Constitution’s preamble gives it away, that it was created by “We the People . . . to promote the general Welfare . . .” A person genuinely concerned with the general welfare of the country would not agree to assign that task to the state, the historical record of which is anything but a promoter of its subjects’ welfare.

The idea of eternal vigilance suggests the task of keeping the state in line, of keeping it from overstepping its boundaries. But ask yourself: what boundaries does a nuclear superpower have today? We would be far more effective in elaborating the raw essence of any state and its threat not just to our freedom but to our lives.

About the author: 

George Ford Smith is a former mainframe and PC programmer and technology instructor, the author of eight books including a novel about a renegade Fed chairman (Flight of the Barbarous Relic) and a nonfiction book on how money became an instrument of theft (The Jolly Roger Dollar). He welcomes speaking engagements and can be reached at gfs543@icloud.com.

Source: This article was published by the Mises Institute