fabrice pothier's chief strategy officer at rasmussen global.e eguegu is a security analyst at afripolitika. and at washington dc, we are joined by andrew lebovich, a policy fellow at the european council of relations. good to have you, gentlemen. let's start with you, andrew. president macron says the mali government has zero credibility. is he right, and what is his reasoning for saying something so controversial so publicly? andrew: this comes from a lot of frustration not just in france, about the behavior of mali's transitional government that the fact they have signaled multiple times, especially recently, that they are likely planning to extend the transitional period past what the international community agreed to. i don't think it is fair to say they have no credibility, but certainly there is frustration in the region and international community about the transitional government, and what they are actually doing, particularly amid reports of negotiations with russian mercenaries in the country. adrian: fabrice, why is france reducing i