Niger

So, you know, it, it is in that respect a country which is now BRICS state, but I suspect the Chinese are a little bit worried about its overall stability, just as they're probably worried about the overall stability of the Middle East altogether.

Nico says, "Is Russia falling for an Afghanistan trap by helping countries like Mali and Niger? These countries are corrupt, and once Russia leaves, they'll collapse."

Well, I, you know, I, I, I...

You may be right, but the Russians have been very careful not to do this with their own, uh, conventional military.

You have the North Africa, Libya, Egypt, Morocco.

You come to the Sahel, you have Mali, and you have Niger.

And Mali and Niger are very special cases when you know when the coup happened, the embargo, the sanctions they were under, but still they received Chinese weapons.

We have Burkina Faso, you come down, even Senegal now.

You have Cote d'Ivoire.

And so you can drill down on all the different levels of China-Africa security engagement across the continent from the GSI, the Global Security Initiative, to peacekeeping, to mediation efforts, to space surveillance ports.

military production and equipment, so a lot more manufacturing.

Again, this is in Nigeria.

Its support to the Niger authorities to help them overcome such an ordeal and pave the way for a return to stability in the country.

Algeria once again renewed its condemnation of such acts that deal a blow to the Niger's people's legitimate aspirations for peace and development.

In Niger itself, security forces affirm having seized control of the situation and that the actions carried out yesterday by soldiers against sensitive sites in Niamey were thwart.

The Niger Defense Ministry affirmed that military forces were confined shortly after midnight by a group of soldiers inside barracks before opening fire at sensitive sites in the capital.

It stated that the security and government forces had managed to gradually regain control of the site and contain the situation.

Two Palestinians, including one three-year-old boy, were killed and several others wounded in airstrikes launched by the Israeli army against the central part of the Gaza Strip.

As Washington ratchets up the pressure on the International Criminal Court, sanctioning two more high-ranking staff members in recent weeks, a small but growing number of the global tribunal's member states have announced they will quit.

The recent departure of Venezuela and Chad brings the number up to five, joining Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger.

The withdrawal comes as the ICC faces hostility from Washington and a leadership crisis after ousting its own chief prosecutor.

Based in The Hague, it takes on cases when nations are unable or unwilling to prosecute crimes on their own territory.

Yeah, well, Charles, that's Africa for you.

And just to sign this off, there was a failed coup in Niger.

Now that's the extreme form of what we are discussing.

But the most interesting thing, Charles, about that was not that there was a mutiny and guys tried to overthrow the Nigerian government, but that the deal, the Sahel deal with the Russians doesn't seem to be paying off.

And I think What was very interesting is that Junta had to rely on Italian troops because the mutiny took place in the barracks where there are, I think, high levels of uranium being held or something like that.

Well, just very quickly, did you follow that or evolution on Saturday morning?

Yep.

And, you know, I never really thought of it.

The

youngest in terms of demographic, meaning the lowest median age of population, is Niger, with a median age of 14 years old.

Wow.

But they don't have any kind of major cities, right? This is like straight-up tribal.

We're not.

Okay, so this is why this is so shocking to me.

So the 14 average year age in Niger.

In America, what do you figure the average age is of most citizens? In

The

youngest in terms of demographic, meaning the lowest median age of population, is Niger, with a median age of 14 years old.

Wow.

But they don't have any kind of major cities, right? This is like straight-up tribe.

We're not.

Okay, so this is why this is so shocking to me.

So the 14 average year age in Niger.

In America, what do you figure the average age is of most citizens? In

As Washington ratchets up the pressure on the International Criminal Court, sanctioning two more high-ranking staff members in recent weeks, a small but growing number of the global tribunal's member states have announced they will quit.

The recent departure of Venezuela and Chad brings the number up to five, joining Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.

The withdrawal comes as the ICC faces hostility from Washington and a leadership crisis.

after ousting its own chief prosecutor.

And then everything below that, U.S. is number four, 7%.

And then some small numbers from Uzbekistan, Namibia, Ukraine, Niger.

Countries you're not used to seeing in Europe.

in everyday conversation.