Tunisian president pledges to protect freedoms | Eye on Africa

Joe Biden is set to travel to Israel on July 13 before heading to the occupied West Bank and Saudi Arabia. The trip's announcement comes despite pledges to side-line the "pariah" Saudi state.

Burkina Faso's leader, Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Damiba traveled to Seytenga on Wenesday to visit people who survived an attack that reportedly killed over 100 people over the weekend. Soldiers have recovered 79 bodies so far after the attack in the northern Seno province, the government said on Tuesday, as new details of the assault emerged.

Tunisia has ground to a halt under strike action, with skyrocketing inflation and unpopular reforms sending tens of thousands into the streets. We hear more from our correspondent in Tunis. Also, many Nigerians who fled to neighbouring Niger under the tyranny of Boko Haram are being called on to return home. And we see how a Paris tech show is honouring startups in Africa with the Africa Tech Award.

Hundreds demonstrated in Tunis on Sunday (June 19) in a second day of protest against a constitutional referendum called by President Kais Saied that his opponents say would cement his hold on power. The demonstration was organized by the Salvation Front, a coalition including the moderate Islamist Ennahda, the largest party in a parliament that Saied dissolved in March.

Marcos Jr. has given himself the position of secretary of agriculture ahead of taking his presidential office and amid prohibitively high global prices. The Philippines is heavily reliant on importing its staple — rice.

With young Indigenous people leaving the Amazon in search of jobs the rainforest is losing one of its best lines of defense. Could ensuring they have economic opportunities at home help protect biodiversity?

A new deal paves the way for the development of the first African-owned Covid-19 vaccines. Cape Town-based Afrigen is working with a Belgian biotech company to develop mRNA shots. Also, Kenya has no reproductive health legislation but the public is going to give its input on a regional bill that could make a big difference to sexual health services. Finally, in football news, Senegal's Sadio Mané moves to Bayern Munich.

A new deal paves the way for the development of the first African-owned Covid-19 vaccines. Cape Town-based Afrigen is working with a Belgian biotech company to develop mRNA shots. Also, Kenya has no reproductive health legislation but the public is going to give its input on a regional bill that could make a big difference to sexual health services. Finally, in football news, Senegal's Sadio Mané is moving from Liverpool to Bayern Munich.

French politics continues to dominate the papers as Emmanuel Macron desperately seeks an alliance to secure a parliamentary majority. The US Senate finds bipartisan support for new gun possession laws for the first time in 30 years. Organisers of the Miss France beauty pageant introduce radical new changes to shake up the contest. Finally, a man escapes his kidnappers by driving erratically on a highway in order to be stopped by authorities.

Colombians have elected a new president. Gustavo Petro, 62, is set to become the first leftist in the country's top job. The former rebel of the now defunct M-19 movement beat millionaire businessman Rodolfo Hernandez in Sunday's election. Petro will take the oath of office in August, replacing the deeply unpopular Ivan Duque. For analysis, we speak to Gerard Martin, a political sociologist based in Medellin, Colombia.

Find these stories and much more when you grab a copy of The Guardian on Friday.

German pharmaceutical company BioNTech has begun construction of an COVID-19 vaccine plant in Rwanda. When completed, it will be the first mRNA vaccine plant in Africa.