African Union (AU) and European Union (EU) leaders began their triennial summit in Brussels today. Ahead of the summit, the EU pledged to invest $169 billion (Al Jazeera) in African countries over the next seven years. The meeting comes after France and other Western nations announced they will end a nearly ten-year antiterrorism mission (France 24) in Mali due to a breakdown in relations with the country’s military junta.
 
France plans to move its more than two thousand troops from Mali to Niger to continue antiterrorism operations. A UN official said the pullout is “bound to affect” a UN peacekeeping mission that will remain in Mali. France and other powers accuse the junta of hiring “hundreds” of Russian mercenaries (WaPo), but the junta denies doing so. However, Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed that Russian military contractors are working in Mali.

Beijing budgeted $1.5 billion to construct or refurbish a dozen venues but spent at least $3 billion, the Financial Times reported.
 
This Backgrounder looks at the economics of hosting the Olympic Games.
 
Australia: The country’s largest coal-fired power plant will close in 2025 (SMH), seven years earlier than originally planned, as the market increasingly favors renewable energy sources.

Afghanistan’s Taliban-led government deployed an estimated 4,400 additional troops (Gandhara) to border provinces in the country’s north, northeast, and west. In the past two months, Taliban soldiers have clashed with Iranian and Turkmen border guards in two separate incidents.
 
Nepal: Police arrested seventy-seven people (AFP) during protests against a $500 million infrastructure grant from the United States. Local media reported that Chinese officials have lobbied Nepalese politicians against the grant.

The constitutional court ruled the law, which criminalized “imitation of the opposite sex,” had been used to violate rights to personal freedom (NYT).
 
In this webinar, Michael Vazquez discusses the Joe Biden administration’s efforts to protect LGBTQ+ rights at home and abroad.
 
Saudi Arabia: The government rebuffed U.S. pleas to pump more crude (WSJ) amid high gas prices, saying it will stick to plans made with Russia and other major oil producers.

The application has raised fears (Reuters) among African companies that replicated Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine. Moderna pledged not to enforce its patents during the pandemic but signaled it could do so in low- and middle-income countries when COVID-19 is declared endemic.

Each side accused the other of opening fire (Moscow Times). Meanwhile, an unnamed senior U.S. official told the New York Times that Russia had sent seven thousand more troops to areas around Ukraine rather than drawing down troops as promised. The chief of defense intelligence for the United Kingdom (UK) also said Russia is building up its military capabilities in the area.
 
In Foreign Affairs, Maria Popova and Oxana Shevel write that no Russian invasion can undo Ukrainian nationhood.
 
UK: Amid a crackdown in money laundering, the country will abolish the so-called “golden visas” (FT) given to people planning to invest at least $2.7 million in the country.

At least ninety-four people died (NYT) in mudslides in the city of Petropolis. Officials say the city saw its heaviest rains since 1952.
 
Venezuela: Alex Saab, a key financier of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, acted as a Drug Enforcement Agency informant (Bloomberg) in 2018 and 2019, according to newly unsealed court documents.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen urged Group of Twenty (G20) leaders to support the proposed fund (Bloomberg), which would be housed at the World Bank. World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said efforts to strengthen global health security will only succeed (Reuters) if the WHO itself is strengthened.