Reuters 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…

A man has been rescued from a partially submerged boat in the Atlantic Ocean, 12 miles off the coast of Florida. The boater, 25-year-old Charles Gregory, had been missing at sea for about 35 hours in the ocean after going on an early morning fishing trip, his father told CNN. His family contacted officials after…

Many opera companies are working towards full sustainability, and Glyndebourne is among those aiming to be a force for good, according to a new documentary. A night at the opera is not typically equated with restraint, instead conjuring images of chandelier-filled theatres and arias performed in exquisite costumes against transportative stage sets. Yet, recent years…

Virgin Galactic An 18-year-old Aberdeen University student and her mother will travel to space later this week after a winning a place on Virgin Galactic’s first commercial flight in a prize draw. Anastatia Mayers and her mum Keisha Schahaff will be the first mother and daughter to go to space. They will also be the…

Getty Images By Zubair Ahmed BBC Hindi, Jharkhand For many years now, Anil Jonko’s life follows a simple routine. He starts his day by offering prayers at his parents’ grave in Chaibasa, a small village in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand dominated by the Ho tribal community. The 40-year-old then heads to a special…

When we give AI a humanoid form, we typically choose the robot to have feminine characteristics. Are we playing on stereotypes? There is a popular idea that artificial intelligence (AI) is out to get us. It was this public image problem that the United Nations was recently trying to address at its AI for Good…

Getty Images By Victoria Craig In Antakya, southern Turkey Hulya Yesiloglu gazes just beyond her temporary tent city towards a cemetery and says she often wonders if she would have been better off ending up there rather than surviving Turkey’s twin earthquakes. She stands at the mouth of a wood-burning oven baking flatbread on a…

Getty Images By Sarah Rainsford Eastern Europe correspondent in Warsaw For almost six months, Maria Kolesnikova has been hidden from the world. The Belarusian opposition activist has been held in total isolation in prison in the country since February, with no phone calls or letters and no visits from relatives or her lawyer. “I wait…