Mali
We start with Mali again today and the ongoing saga of the “coup within a coup”. Coup leader Colonel Assimi Goita appointed himself transitional president earlier this week and today he named a new cabinet in which army officers received strategically important posts. Analysts, though, said there was likely a sufficient cross-section of society represented in the appointees to satisfy a demand from regional body ECOWAS that Goita form a “national unity” government. ECOWAS and the African Union have both suspended Mali, and France has withdrawn military cooperation. Goita has promised elections for 2022 but analysts are divided on the likelihood of him sticking to that schedule.
More from Al Jazeera here.
Israel-Iran
The outgoing head of Mossad, Israel’s spy agency, has given an extraordinary interview in which he details operations to scupper Iran’s nuclear program. Such an interview would not have gone ahead without clearance from the military so it is being seen as a very public warning to Tehran and its nuclear scientists.
More from The Times of Israel here.
Ethiopia
Following yesterday’s UN assessment that found 350,000 people in Ethiopia were living in famine conditions, today the UN children’s agency (UNICEF) said that 33,000 of that number were children or babies. UNICEF warned that tens of thousands of children were at risk of dying from starvation if full humanitarian access was not granted by the Ethiopian government - something it has resisted as fighting continues.
More from Euronews here.