Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan will hold a week-long round of negotiations in another attempt to finally find a breakthrough in the long-deadlocked talks over the future of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said yesterday following a meeting between the countries’ foreign and water ministers. The ministry called for an agreement to be reached before Addis Ababa begins the second phase of filling the reservoir in August while Sudan believes a pact can be reached before South Africa’s chairing of the AU ends at the end of January. Talks have been on hold since Sudan walked away from the table in November and called for the African Union to take on a bigger role as a mediator.

Meanwhile in the US of A: The Donald has been caught trying to subvert democratic norms in a tape published by the Washington Post during which he pressures a Georgia Republican official to “find” him extra votes to hand him the state. Understandably this is causing quite a commotion in the US press: NYT | WSJ | CNN. And all 10 living former defense secretaries have come out in the Post to warn Trump against using the military during the democratic transition of power.