News & Stories

A senior government official in Benin has told the BBC that the leader of Sunday's failed coup is taking refuge in neighbouring Togo.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said that the government would request Lt Col Pascal Tigri's extradition.

Togo's government has not yet commented.

The failed coup came after a series of military takeovers in West Africa, raising concern that democracy is increasingly under threat in the region.

It was thwarted after regional power Nigeria sent fighter jets to dislodge the mutineers from a military base and the offices of state TV following a request from President Patrice Talon's government.

A group of soldiers appeared on state TV early on Sunday to announce they had seized power, and gunfire was heard near the presidential residence.

French special forces also helped loyalist troops to thwart the coup, the head of the Benin's republican guard, which is in charge of protecting the president, told AFP news agency.

Dieudonne Djimon Tevoedjre said Benin's troops were "truly valiant and faced the enemy all day" on Sunday.

"French special forces were sent from [Ivory Coast's main city] Abidjan, used for mopping up operations after the Beninese army had done the job," he was quoted as saying.

Benin's government spokesman Wilfried Léandre Houngbédji could not confirm the deployment of French forces. He

Rebel forces have entered the last government-held city in mineral-rich eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, in an offensive that has forced thousands to flee across the border into Burundi, residents say.

Heavy artillery and gunfire could be heard in Uvira, with terrified residents describing the situation as chaotic.

The escalation in fighting comes despite the peace deal brokered by US President Donald Trump last week between DR Congo's President Félix Tshisekedi and Rwanda's Paul Kagame to end the long-running conflict. T

he M23 rebel group said it had "liberated" the city, while UN-backed Radio Okapi quoted residents as saying that rebel fighters were on major streets. H

owever, South Kivu Governor Jean-Jacques Purusi told local media that the army and allied militia remained in control of the city, which is just 27km (17 miles) from Burundi's capital, Bujumbura, across Lake Tanganyika. B

urundi has shut its border with DR Congo, a Burundian military source was quoted as saying by AFP news agency. O

ne resident told the BBC that armed M23 fighters had marched in a single column into Uvira from the north-east on Wednesday, meeting no resistance. S

ome residents cheered their arrival, the resident said. T

he city was in lockdown, with shops and schools closed as most people stayed indoors. "

Three bombs have just exploded in the hills. I

Iceland has joined Spain, Ireland, Slovenia and the Netherlands in saying it will boycott the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest.

All five countries have withdrawn after Israel's participation in the competition was officially confirmed last week.

"The Icelandic National Broadcasting Service (RÚV) has decided not to participate in the Eurovision song contest in Vienna, Austria, next year," a statement said after an RÚV board meeting on Wednesday. "P

articipation of Israeli national broadcaster, KAN, in the contest has created disunity among both members of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and the general public." Th

e board meeting came hours before the deadline for countries to confirm whether they will join what's supposed to be a celebratory 70th anniversary edition of the song contest next May. Ic

eland was believed to be the last remaining country to announce its decision. Is

rael's presence at Eurovision has been an increasing source of tension, because of the war in Gaza and concerns about the voting and campaigning processes, including accusations that Israel's government tried to influence the public vote at this year's event. A

new raft of measures designed to protect the integrity of the vote was approved at an EBU summit last week, after which most countries confirmed they would travel to Vienna for the 2026 contest. Th

e Icelandic broadcaster said that while the new measures addressed many of its concerns, it "believes that there are still doubts whether the agreed adjustments would be fully satisfactory". "R

ÚV has repeadly raised concerns that various Icelandic stakeholders, such as artist associations and the general public, were opposed to participation in the contest. "Fu

Tourists from dozens of countries including the UK could be asked to provide a five-year social media history as a condition of entry to the United States, under a new proposal unveiled by American officials.

The new condition would affect people from dozens of countries who are eligible to visit the US for 90 days without a visa, as long as they have filled out an Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) form.

Since returning to the White House in January, President Donald Trump has moved to toughen US borders more generally - citing national security as a key reason.

Analysts say the new plan could pose an obstacle to potential visitors, or harm their digital rights.

The US expects a major influx of foreign tourists next year, as it hosts the men's football World Cup alongside Canada and Mexico, and for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.

The proposal document was filed by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), of which the agency is part.

US media reported that it appeared in the Federal Register, which is the official journal of the US government.

The BBC has asked DHS for comment.

The proposal says "the data element will require ESTA applicants to provide their social media from the last 5 years", without giving further details of which specific information will be required.

The existing ESTA requires a comparatively limited amount of information from travellers, as well as a one-off payment of $40 (£30). I

A federal judge on Wednesday blocked President Donald Trump's deployment of National Guard troops in Los Angeles and ordered the troops be returned to the state governor's control.

In June, Trump sent thousands of National Guard troops to the California city in the wake of protests over his administration ramping up immigration raids in Los Angeles.

US District Judge Charles Breyer said the Trump administration had not proven that that the city's protests against immigration justified taking federal control of the state's National Guard.

The Trump administration still has control over 300 California National Guard troops six months after they were federalised, Judge Breyer said.

Breyer also denied the Trump administration's argument that the courts should not weigh in on a president taking control of state National Guard troops during an emergency.

"The Founders designed our government to be a system of checks and balances," Judge Breyer wrote in his ruling.

"Defendants, however, make clear that the only check they want is a blank one."

Judge Breyer said his order would not go into effect until 15 December, giving the Trump administration time to make its expected appeal to a higher court.

"President Trump exercised his lawful authority to deploy National Guard troops to support federal officers and assets following violent riots," said White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson in a statement to the BBC, adding "we look forward to ultimate victory on the issue."

This year, Trump has sent National Guard troops to several cities, including Portland, Oregon, and Washington DC, where the deployments have also been contested in courts and, in some cases, blocked by judges.

Four Afghan men were ordered to report to the Taliban government's department of vice and virtue for dressing in costumes inspired by the TV series Peaky Blinders.

The friends were told that their clothing was "in conflict with Afghan and Islamic values", a Taliban spokesman told the BBC, adding the values in Peaky Blinders went against Afghan culture.

In videos posted online, the men, who have been released, can be seen posing in flat caps and three-piece suits similar to those worn in the series set in England soon after World War One.

Since the Taliban seized power in 2021, they have imposed a number of restrictions on daily life in accordance with their interpretation of Islamic Sharia law.

"Even jeans would have been acceptable, but the values in the Peaky Blinders series are against Afghan culture," Saiful Islam Khyber, a spokesman for the Taliban government's provincial department of Vice and Virtue in Herat city told the BBC.

The men, all in their early twenties, come from the town of Jibrail in Herat province.

They were ordered to report to the Taliban's "morality police" on Sunday, and presented themselves for questioning in Herat the following day.

"They were promoting foreign culture and imitating film actors in Herat," Khyber wrote on social media, adding that they had undergone a "rehabilitation programme".

They were not formally arrested, "only summoned and advised and released", Khyber told the BBC's US partner CBS News.

"We have our own religious and cultural values, and especially for clothing we have specific traditional styles," he said.

At least 22 people have been killed and a further 16 injured after two buildings collapsed in the Moroccan city of Fez.

The two four-storey residential buildings that came down early on Wednesday morning contained eight families, state media reports, citing local officials.

Several Moroccan news outlets report that the buildings - located in the south-westerly Al Massira suburb of the new part of the city - had shown signs of deterioration for several years.

An investigation is now under way.

Fez, in north-eastern Morocco, is one of the North African nation's oldest cities, with parts dating back to the 8th Century, as well as being its third-most populous.

A search and rescue operation is ongoing to find anyone who may still be trapped under the rubble.

Footage from the scene shows people and diggers sifting through the debris under the cover of darkness.

In one clip, published by news site Akhbarona, a body can be seen being carried away on a stretcher by emergency services.

Residents of nearby buildings have been evacuated as a preventative measure, state media reports.

Those taken to hospital suffered varying injuries.

Military personnel told they can return to Nigeria after actions described as ‘unfriendly act’ Fate

of 11 Nigerian troops unclear after ‘unauthorised’ plane landing in Burkina Faso Authorit

ies in Burkina Faso have released 11 Nigerian military personnel held after a cargo plane from Lagos made an “unauthorised” emergency landing in its second largest city, Bobo-Dioulasso. The breakawa

y regional Association of Sahel States (AES) said on Monday that the C-130 aircraft had entered Burkina Faso’s airspace without clearance, calling it an “unfriendly act”. Burkina Faso autho

rities said the two crew members and nine passengers were given permission to return to Nigeria but it remains unclear whether the aircraft was also released. Authorities in Nig

eria said on Tuesday that the plane had made an unplanned stop at the Bobo-Dioulasso airport “in accordance with standard safety procedures and international aviation protocols” owing to a technical concern on its way to Portugal for a ferry mission. Ehimen Ejodame, a spok

esperson for the Nigerian air force, neither confirmed nor denied comments about authorisation, or the lack of it, to make the landing but said an investigation into the incident was continuing. He said the military p

ersonnel had been treated well by their hosts and that plans were under way to continue the mission. On Sunday, a domestic

test flight in Niger state had also crashed, with both pilots surviving. The timing of the emer

gency landing on Monday intensified regional scrutiny, coming a day after Nigerian airstrikes at a military camp in neighbouring Benin, where some military personnel linked to a foiled coup were reportedly in hiding. A spokesperson for the

Speaking to reporters today, House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries said that the “full video” of the “double tap” strike on a suspected drug-trafficking boat off the coast of Venezuela should be released. The top

Democrat said that the American people should “have an opportunity to determine for themselves whether that strike killing people who were shipwrecked and, by all accounts, were not presenting any threat to American military personnel, whether that kind of seemingly extrajudicial killing is consistent with American values”. The 2 Septem

ber strike has left defense secretary Pete Hegseth embattled, with several congressional lawmakers calling for further investigation into the series of events that killed the remaining survivors on the vessel. Jeffries add

ed that if the administration thinks that their “actions are justifiable, what are they hiding from the American people?” Treasury secreta

ry Scott Bessent spoke with Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Svyrydenko about Russian oil sanctions, Bessent said in a social media post today. “I highlighted P

resident Trump’s commitment to securing a lasting peace in Ukraine and discussed Treasury’s sanctions on Russia’s top oil giants, Lukoil and Rosneft,” Bessent said. He added that the pair als

o discussed “Ukraine’s reform and anti-corruption agenda”, which made headlines in recent weeks after Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s chief of staff resigned following corruption allegations. House speaker Mike Johnson announc

ed an effort to rally the leaders of legislatures around the world to nominate Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2026, in collaboration with Amir Ohana, the Speaker of the Israeli Knesset. Johnson and Ohana had previously a

nnounced the effort in October, and signed a letter launching it today. Both credited Trump for his work t

o release the remaining 7 October hostages. “While the world has aspired to pe

Xiomara Castro alleges US manipulation and blackmail as preliminary count shows two rightwing candidates closely tied

Honduras’s president, Xiomara Castro, has alleged that an “electoral coup” is under way in the country’s presidential election, which she says has been marked by “interference from the president of the United States, Donald Trump”. The leftist

president also said that “The Honduran people must never accept elections marked by interference, manipulation and blackmail … Sovereignty is not negotiable, democracy is not surrendered.” Since Hondurans we

nt to the polls on 30 November, the vote count has dragged on, with repeated interruptions and outages on the electoral council’s website. Two rightwing candid

ates have been neck and neck ever since and, with 99.4% of tally sheets counted in the preliminary results, Nasry “Tito” Asfura is ahead with 40.52%, followed closely by Salvador Nasralla on 39.48% – a margin of only 42,000 votes. A construction magnate and

former mayor of the capital, Tegucigalpa, Asfura received open backing from Trump, who said the US would support the next government only if he won. On the eve of the vote, th

e US president also announced a pardon for the former president and Asfura ally Juan Orlando Hernández, who was sentenced to 45 years in prison for allegedly creating “a cocaine superhighway to the United States”. He was released last week. At a

press conference on Tuesda

y, Honduras’s president “condemned” Trump’s “interference … when he threatened the Honduran people that if they voted for a brave and patriotic candidate of the Liberal party, Rixi Moncada, there would be consequences”. A former finance minister under Castro, Monca

da was chosen by the president to run in her place, as Honduras’s constitution does not allow re-election. Before the vote, Trump had claimed Moncada was

A press conference by María Corina Machado - the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who is currently in-hiding - was cancelled on Tuesday, with the Nobel Institute saying they are "in the dark" about her whereabouts. M

achado is Venezuela's opposition leader and has been in hiding since the country's disputed 2024 election, which she and her supporters say was stolen. S

he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for efforts to bring democracy to Venezuela, and was expected to formally collect it in a ceremony on Wednesday. A

lthough Machado regularly gives social media video updates, usually against a neutral white wall, her current whereabouts are unknown. T

he Nobel Institute said in a statement: "María Corina Machado has herself stated in interviews how challenging the journey to Oslo, Norway will be. We

therefore cannot at this point provide any further information about when and how she will arrive for the Nobel peace prize ceremony." Th

e institute had previously said she would attend the ceremony in person. Ea

rlier on Tuesday, a spokesman said "everything suggests" the press conference would be able to take place on Tuesday despite the delay. Ve

nezuela's government has said that if Machado left Venezuela she would be considered a "fugitive" by the authorities. He

r family are already in Oslo. Ve

Rwanda-backed M23 rebels clash with Congolese army and other groups as they march on strategic eastern town

About 200,000 people have fled their homes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as Rwanda-backed rebels march on a strategic eastern town just days after Donald Trump hosted the Rwandan and Congolese leaders to proclaim peace.

The UN said at least 74 people had been killed, mostly civilians, and 83 admitted to hospital with wounds from escalating clashes in the area in recent days.

Local officials and residents said M23 rebels had been advancing towards the lakeside town of Uvira on the border with Burundi and fighting Congolese troops and local groups known as Wazalendo in villages to the north.

Trump hosted the presidents of Rwanda and DRC in Washington on 4 December for a ceremony to sign a pact affirming US and Qatari-brokered commitments to end the war.

“Today we’re succeeding where so many others have failed,” he said, claiming his administration had ended a 30-year conflict that had led to the deaths of millions. M23 fi

ghters pushed towards Uvira on Tuesday after coming under attack by government forces, said Corneille Nangaa, leader of the Alliance Fleuve Congo rebel coalition, urging fleeing soldiers not to abandon the town. The So

uth Kivu provincial government spokesperson Didier Kabi said in a video message earlier on Tuesday that there had been chaos in Uvira after rumours spread that M23 rebels were near, but that calm was later restored. Despit

e the group’s intention to advance on Uvira, its leader, Bertrand Bisimwa, reiterated the group’s support for Qatari-led peace talks in Doha, where representatives from the two sides signed a framework agreement last month for a peace deal intended to halt the fighting in eastern DRC. “Even if w

e counterattack, we said that there are no other solutions in the current crisis than the negotiating table, and we want to bring Kinshasa to the negotiating table,” he said. On Monday the