In a stark reminder of deteriorating Franco-African relations, Mali’s military junta sentenced a French DGSE intelligence agent to twenty years in prison. The conviction underscores the deepening rift between Paris and its former colonial territories in the Sahel, where juntas have systematically expelled French military and diplomatic presences in favour of closer ties with Moscow. The photo accompanying the story — junta leader Assimi Goïta at a visit to Moscow — spoke volumes about where Bamako’s loyalties now lie.
On the Israeli-Palestinian front, tensions continued to escalate on multiple fronts. Palestinians called on U.S. President Trump to halt Israeli annexation, with the UN’s Arab Group expressing “deep alarm” over “rapidly escalating” settler aggression and military violence. The United Nations doubled its humanitarian appeal for Lebanon to nearly $640 million, warning that a “humanitarian catastrophe” was looming three months into the Israel-Lebanon war, with a quarter of Lebanon’s population now in need of aid. An investigation by Italy’s L’Espresso also detailed how products from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank — wine, avocados, dates, olive oil — are being marketed and sold in the EU under Israeli branding without tariffs, effectively stripping Palestinian producers of their own export market.
