(BBC News) Niger's coup leaders have closed the country's airspace until further notice, citing the threat of military intervention.
Flight tracking website Flightradar24 is showing that there are currently no aircraft in Niger's skies.
The West African group of countries, Ecowas, had earlier warned it could use force if President Mohamed Bazoum was not reinstated by 23:00 GMT on Sunday.
A junta spokesman says Niger's armed forces are ready to defend the country.
Bazoum was detained on July...
(Al Jazeera Media Network) Niger’s coup generals have asked for help from the Russian mercenary group Wagner as the deadline nears for it to release the country’s removed president or face possible military intervention by the West African regional bloc, a news report says.
The request came during a visit by a coup leader – General Salifou Mody – to neighbouring Mali, where he made contact with someone from Wagner, Wassim Nasr, a journalist and senior research...
(BBC News) Chandrayaan-3, India's latest Moon mission, has entered the lunar orbit, the country's space agency has said.
The spacecraft with an orbiter, lander, and a rover lifted off on July 14. It will try to set the lander and rover on the lunar surface on August 23 or 24.
If successful, India will be the first country to land near the Moon's little-explored south pole.
It will be only the fourth to achieve a soft landing...
(Al Jazeera Media Network) Former United States President Donald Trump has again appeared in a criminal court where he pleaded not guilty this week to federal charges related to alleged efforts to subvert the 2020 presidential election.
The case is widely considered the most significant of three active criminal proceedings against the Republican politician, who is again running for president.
He also faces state charges in New York related to a hush-money payment, and a federal case...
(Al Jazeera Media Network) Brazilian authorities have said that at least nine people were killed during a police raid in the city of Rio de Janeiro, the latest case of violence stemming from law enforcement activity in the city’s poor favela neighbourhoods.
Police said that Wednesday’s operation was focused on targeting criminal gangs in the Complexo da Penha, a network of favelas in the north of the city.
“A clash occurred when police teams came under attack...
(BBC News) Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has defended the strength of the U.S. economy, after the government was stripped of its top-tier credit rating.
Yellen called the decision by Fitch, one of the three big ratings firms, "puzzling" and "entirely unwarranted".
Her remarks came as global stock markets dropped and many buyers of Treasuries, as U.S. government debt is known, demanded higher returns.
The S&P 500 ended trade about 1.4% lower, while the Nasdaq fell 2.17%.
The Dow...
(Bjorn Lomborg, The Wall Street Journal)
One of the most common tropes in our increasingly alarmist climate debate is that global warming has set the world on fire. But it hasn’t. For more than two decades, satellites have recorded fires across the planet’s surface. The data are unequivocal: since the early 2000s, when 3% of the world’s land caught fire, the area burned annually has trended downward.
In 2022, the last year for which there are...
(Al Jazeera Media Network) Burkina Faso and Mali have warned that any intervention in neighbouring Niger would be considered a “declaration of war” against their two countries, a signal of support for leaders of the recent coup there.
In a statement released on Monday, the governments of Mali and Burkina Faso also refused to implement what they called “illegal, illegitimate, and inhumane sanctions” against the Nigerien people and authorities.
“The transitional governments of Burkina Faso and Mali...
(BBC News) At least 44 people have been killed in an explosion in Pakistan during a rally organised by an Islamist party.
More than 100 people were also injured in the explosion in northwest Bajaur district, where Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) was holding a meeting.
Police told the BBC that they have found evidence suggesting the explosion was a possible suicide attack.
A rescue operation has been completed and all injured have been taken to hospital, officers said.
Officials...
(BBC News) Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he does not reject the idea of peace talks on Ukraine.
Speaking after meeting African leaders in St. Petersburg, he said African and Chinese initiatives could serve as a basis for finding peace.
But Putin also said there could be no ceasefire while the Ukrainian army was on the offensive.
In the hours after he spoke, Russia said a Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow had damaged two office blocks.
Flights...
