A truck loads concentrated brine at SQM lithium mine at the Atacama salt flat, in Antofagasta region, Chile, 3 May 2023. (Keystone/Reuters/Ivan Alvarado)

⛏️You dig? Countries to discuss how to make mining sustainable. Countries will huddle in Geneva this week to try and figure out how to continue to extract minerals and metals, some of which are crucial for the green transition, without wrecking the environment in the process. The consultations, which will take place on 7 and 8 September, are expected to come up with a list of “non-prescriptive” proposals to make mining more sustainable.

🦠Pandemic treaty talks. As WHO warns not to lower the guard as a new more resistant Covid-19 variant looms, discussions between governments on a future pandemics treaty resume this week at the World Health Organization. The talks, which have been ongoing since 2021 are aimed at preparing a final draft to be presented later this month during the UN General Assembly in New York ahead of adoption of a legally binding agreement by member states in 2024.

A man shakes hands with a soldier in Akanda, Gabon, 30 August 2023. Members of the Gabonese army on 30 August announced on national television that they were canceling the election results and putting an end to President Ali Bongo’s regime, who had been declared the winner. /Keystone/EPA/Stringer)

💭 Africa: those willing to sacrifice democracy for stability will have neither. Earlier this week when the military ended 56 years of the Bongo family dynasty in the African state of Gabon, it was just the latest coup d’état to take place since 2020. Just like with other recent precedents in Niger, Sudan, Mali and Burkina Faso and Guinea, the overthrow in Gabon must be condemned in the strongest terms, writes Corinne Momal-Vanian, executive director of the Geneva-based Kofi Annan Foundation.