Working in France: Risky business?

Rescue teams are celebrating what they hope is a major win weeks into efforts to assist a stranded humpback whale. "Timmy" has been coaxed onto a special barge that will help steer him back towards the Atlantic.

Speaking with FRANCE 24's Sharon Gaffney, Dr Nathaniel Powell, West Africa Analyst at Oxford Analytica and Research Associate at Lancaster University's Centre for War and Diplomacy, explains that the jihadist group operating in Mali, JNIM, "does not appear to have the capability to seize and hold an urban area for any length of time, so Bamako is not yet under threat of being captured, but the long term prospects certainly do not look good".

As the Strait of Hormuz stays largely shut and Washington sends mixed signals, talks run through Islamabad and Moscow.

Pirates appear to be taking advantage of international naval strength being diverted elsewhere in region Three vessels have been hijacked off the coast of Somalia in the past week, raising fears of a resurgence in piracy around the Horn of Africa – and adding to the woes of the global shipping industry. The merchant vessel Sward was taken over on 26 April, a day after a dhow was seized. These followed the 21 April hijacking of Honour 25, a motor tanker carrying 18,000 barrels of oil, according t