Ethiopia
The Ethiopian government said today it had allowed humanitarian flights to travel to the desperately-in-need Tigray region but the civil aviation authority then told the Reuters news agency that no flights had actually left. The situation in the conflict-ridden region could not be any more severe with 400,000 people living in famine conditions and 1.8 million more on the brink, according to the UN.
Read the full Reuters piece here.
Egypt
Remember the Ever Given? The cargo ship that captivated the world and was the subject of a million memes when it got stuck in the Suez Canal? Well, its refloating wasn’t quite the end of the saga. The ship had been held up for the past three months after Egypt demanded compensation for the rescue operation plus six days of lost trade. A deal has finally been reached, and while Egypt had demanded $550m, its final terms have not been made public. The Ever Given, and its 18,300 containers, finally set sail again today after the captain and crew were presented with flowers and a plaque.
More from BBC here.
Haiti
And finally, a story most of you will have already seen right at the top of the headlines. Attackers shot dead Haiti’s President Jovenel Moïse and wounded his wife at their home in the early hours of today. The country has been thrown into confusion and chaos as Haitians wonder what will come next, while interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph has reassured that the army and police are in full control. Moïse had ruled by decree for more than a year after failing to hold an election and the opposition had accused him of becoming an authoritarian as he sought to shore up power.
More from the Associated Press here. And Al Jazeera has a live blog here.