MALI: The ruling junta has severed relations with Ukraine.

Forty-seven Malian soldiers and 84 mercenaries, thought to be from Russia’s Wagner group, were killed in the north by Tuareg rebels in a three-day battle late last month.

Ukrainian intelligence spokesman Andriy Yusov told a public broadcaster Kiev had given the rebels assistance enabling them to kill the “Russian war criminals,” prompting Mali to cut off ties.

NORTH KOREA: Kim Jong Un held a ceremony today to celebrate the arrival of 250 nuclear-capable missile launchers to front-line military units.

Pyongyang says it has to beef up its military given repeated US-South Korean military manoeuvres, and that the new weaponry will give it “overwhelming” firepower if war breaks out.

NIGER: The United States handed its last military base in the country back to Nigerien control today.

Following anti-imperialist coups across west Africa, governments including Niger’s have demanded foreign troops leave and asserted control of their natural resources.

Niger ended an agreement that US troops could operate in the country in March, and Washington has agreed to remove them all by September.

AUSTRALIA: Authorities killed a 16-foot saltwater crocodile today, saying it had eaten a man.

The 40-year-old on holiday in Queensland from his home in New South Wales had been fishing on the Annan river when a bank collapsed, plunging him into crocodile-infested waters.

It’s the third fatal crocodile attack of the year in Australia, with a 12-year-old girl killed last month and a 16-year-old boy in April.