Getty Images By Farouk Chothia BBC News Niger’s coup leaders have warned regional and Western powers against military intervention to reinstate the ousted president. A statement claimed that regional body Ecowas was preparing to approve a “plan of aggression against Niger”. The bloc of West African nations has not commented. It is meeting to discuss…

Getty Images By Farouk Chothia BBC News The Central African Republic president is asking voters to back abolishing term limits in a referendum backed by Russia’s Wagner mercenary group. Wagner, which has troops and business interests in the country, is providing security for the referendum. The main opposition has called for a boycott of the…

A farmer in the US has planted a massive field of sunflowers in a surprise gesture for his wife. Lee Wilson told local media in Kansas that he planted 1.2 million sunflowers on 80 acres of land for his wife, Renee, to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. With the help of his son, he secretly…

Reuters By James Gregory BBC News A third firefighter has died in Canada while battling the country’s worst wildfire season on record. Authorities say the firefighter died tackling the Donnie Creek fire near Fort St John, in the western province of British Columbia. People are evacuating an area further south in the province, near the…

Reuters Russia has accused Ukraine of a drone attack on Moscow that damaged two buildings and briefly shut one of the city’s airports. A drone was shot down over the Odintsovo district, west of the city centre, and two others were neutralised but crashed into offices, Russia’s defence ministry says. One person has been injured,…

Protesters in south-west Turkey have scuffled with police over the felling of trees to make way for an expansion to a coal mine. Security forces can be seen using water cannons to try and disperse the activists, who have been protesting since the clearing of the forest began five days ago.

Getty Images Kanye West’s account has been reinstated on Twitter after an almost eight-month ban over offensive tweets. The US rapper, known as Ye, was accused of violating the platform’s rules prohibiting incitement to violence. He has not posted anything new since returning to the site, which owner Elon Musk has rebranded to X. Ye’s…

Reuters 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 an African peace initiative as well as a Chinese one could serve as a basis for this. President Putin also said it was hard to implement a…

By Bernd Debusmann Jr Reporting from Eagle Pass, Texas Under the brutal heat of the midday South Texas sun, pecan farmer Magali Urbina found herself dealing with a sadly familiar scene: a family of dehydrated, injured migrants on her property. In front of her, Border Patrol officers were putting an IV drip into the arm…