Reuters By Leonard Mbulle-Nziege & Nic Cheeseman Africa analysts Niger has become the latest country in West Africa where the army has seized control, following Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali, and Chad – all former French colonies. Since 1990, a striking 78% of the 27 coups in sub-Saharan Africa have occurred in Francophone states leading some…

South Wales Police Former Lostprophets singer Ian Watkins has been attacked in prison while serving a 29-year sentence for child sex offences. The Mirror newspaper reports that the disgraced rock star, who is being held in HMP Wakefield, was stabbed. A prison service spokesperson said police were investigating an incident that took place at the…

Getty Images By Helen Burchell BBC News, Hertfordshire “There was an old lady who swallowed a spider that wriggled, and jiggled and tickled inside her…” According to the rhyme and song, the unfortunate woman swallowed the arachnid to catch a fly she had previously eaten – followed by a number of other creatures in an…

Getty Images By Philippa Wain Technology reporter What happens when thousands of hackers gather in one city with the sole aim of trying to trick and find flaws in artificial intelligence (AI) models? That is what the White House wants to know. This week at the world’s largest annual hacker convention – Def Con 31…

Jake Olson/BBC By Holly Honderich in Washington A pro-abortion referendum looked poised to win in the conservative state of Ohio this November. Now, Republican state legislators are accused of moving the goalposts. Last summer, just like every summer for the past 22 years, Michael Curtin spent his days on the assorted baseball fields of central…

Getty Images By Tom Gerken Technology reporter Jimmy Donaldson, the person the online world knows as MrBeast, is the biggest YouTuber on the planet – and with that popularity comes large sums of money. The 25-year-old has branched out from video-making and now has his own fast-food chain, MrBeast Burger. It hit headlines this week…

Getty Images By John Murphy BBC News With their large, padded feet, elephants can be remarkably quiet. It’s our third evening of waiting to see these giants cross a dust road. Our guide, Mojita, assures us they’re very close. “They’re collecting just there, in the bush,” he whispers. We’ve been told: “It’s elephant central up…

By Fethi Benaissa BBC News Arabic When Afraa was found in the rubble of a collapsed building in Syria, her umbilical cord was still attached to her mother, who had died just after giving birth. The video of the baby’s rescue from the earthquake in February captivated the world. Since then she has made a…

Getty Images Storms bearing unusually torrential rain and ferocious winds this early in the north Pacific typhoon season have flooded large swathes of East Asia, with China among the countries worst hit. In the capital of Beijing alone, the amount of rain over the past week has broken a 140-year-old record. People in Beijing and…

By Adam Robinson, Erwan Rivault and Olga Robinson BBC Verify It is one year since the Ukrainian city of Mariupol was largely destroyed by Russian forces and captured. It is now being transformed and presented as a showcase for rule from Moscow – and some Russians are even hoping to buy homes there. Russia claimed…