Gabon

• Many reports suggest the coup in Gabon has strong popular support: Gabonese are fed up with economic stagnation over 56 years of Bongo family rule. If it holds - which appears likely, given the lack of real opposition or outcry - this would be the eighth in Western / Central Africa since 2020.
• Analysts are suggesting Congo Brazzaville's Pres. Nguesso could be the next to fall: his people are similarly frustrated with the government's failure to use oil revenues to bring about better outcomes for all citizens.

• Russia blocked the renewal of UN sanctions on Mali, effectively ensuring that the Wagner Group personnel accused of "grave human rights abuses" there won't be punished for them. The sanctions had been in place since 2015.

• Pres. Xi is likely to skip next week's G20 summit in India, in what some see as a snub over maps showing disputed areas as Indian rather than Chinese.
• There were whispers that Xi and Pres. Biden would meet on the sidelines of the G20 summit; that potential meeting will obviously have to be delayed if Xi doesn't attend next week.
• Separately, the U.S. approved $80 million in new military aid for Taiwan under the Foreign Military Financing program. That program is usually reserved for foreign countries, so using it for Taiwan could irk China.

• At least 73 people died in a fire that blazed through a sprawling squatters settlement near Johannesburg. The fire - which may have been caused by exposed live power lines - is drawing attention to poor living conditions and a lack of affordable housing.