The ousted President of Mali, Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, has died aged 76, family and former colleagues say. Two years ago he suffered a minor stroke but the cause of his death on Sunday was not immediately clear. He died at 09:00 GMT at his home in the capital Bamako, a member of his family told AFP news agency. Mr Keïta led Mali for seven years until 2020, when he was ousted in a coup after huge anti-government protests over his handling of jihadist unrest. An economic crisis and disputed elections also fuelled the demonstrations against his rule. Mr Keïta was involved in politics for more than three decades, serving as a socialist prime minister from 1994 to 2000.(BBC)…[+]

New Zealand has sent a plane to Tonga to assess the damage after a huge volcanic eruption triggered a tsunami. The eruption has covered the Pacific islands in ash, cut power and severed communications. Up to 80,000 people there could be affected, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) told the BBC. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the tsunami had wreaked “significant damage”. No deaths have been reported so far. Information remains scarce, however, and New Zealand and Australia are sending surveillance flights to assess the extent of the damage. The New Zealand Defence Force tweeted that an aircraft had left to “assist in an initial impact assessment of the area and low-lying islands“.(BBC)…[+]

An Indian court has cleared a bishop accused of raping a nun between 2014 and 2016 in a case that had shocked one of the country’s oldest Christian communities. Franco Mulakkal, 54, was arrested from the southern state of Kerala in 2018. He had denied the allegations. The case sparked widespread protests after the nun alleged that the Catholic Church had ignored her complaints. The Vatican had temporarily relieved the bishop of his duties. On Friday, a trial court in Kottayam city of Kerala found him not guilty of the charges. “The prosecution failed to prove all the charges against the accused,” said Kottayam Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) G Gopakumar.(BBC)…[+]

The Netherlands’ King Willem-Alexander has announced that Dutch royals will cease using a historic golden carriage amid a debate over slavery links. Critics say that one side of the horse-drawn carriage, called De Gouden Koets, is decorated with an image that glorifies the country’s colonial past. Out of use since 2015, the carriage has traditionally been used to carry Dutch monarchs to the opening of parliament. The move comes amid an ongoing debate in the country over its history. The controversial image featured on the vehicle is called Tribute from the Colonies, and depicts black and Asian people – one of whom is kneeling – offering goods including cocoa and sugarcane to a seated young white woman who symbolises the Netherlands. Seated next to her is a man offering a book to a young boy, which the work’s painter, Nicolaas van der Waay, said in 1896 was intended to portray the Netherlands’ gift of “civilisation” to its colonies.(BBC)…[+]

A man has drowned and 30 other people have been brought to safety by French rescue services after they tried to cross the Channel to the UK. The man fell overboard when the small migrant boat got into difficulty close to the French coast at Berck-sur-Mer, south of Boulogne. Most of those rescued were on board the dinghy, but five people were picked up from a sandbank. Friday’s drowning is thought to be the first fatality in the Channel in 2022. Prosecutors said the man who died on Friday was believed to be in his 20s and of Sudanese origin.

Local media said the alarm was raised when someone on land spotted the boat getting into difficulty in freezing temperatures, possibly when they were trapped by the tide. Some of those rescued were suffering from hypothermia, according to officials.(BBC)…[+]

The hashtag #KPLC has been trending on Twitter this week as Kenyans share memes and gifs about the country’s worst national blackout for years. While some tried to find some light-hearted moments in the midst of darkness, others fumed at the inefficiency of the state-run Kenya Power Lighting Company. It was the third nationwide blackout in the past four years and raised questions over KPLC’s ability to provide a stable power supply.

In a statement, the company said four pylons supporting the power line, which connects the capital, Nairobi, to a hydroelectric dam in the central region, collapsed. It said vandalism had weakened the structures.Police are investigating the cause of the blackout, with the head of criminal investigations telling journalists that they can’t rule out anything, following concerns of possible sabotage following reforms at the energy ministry that were seen to have ruffled the feathers of bureaucrats.(BBC)…[+]

Australia has equalled its hottest day on record after a remote coastal town reported temperatures of 50.7C (123.26F). The temperature in Onslow, Western Australia, on Thursday matched a record set in 1962 in South Australia. Onslow and the surrounding areas could see records broken again with temperatures set to rise slightly on Friday. It comes after Western Australia reported large bushfires last month. One fire near Margaret River scorched through more than 6,000 hectares of land, forcing evacuations. The Bureau of Meteorology confirmed on Thursday that Onslow equalled the record at 14:26 local time (22:26 GMT).(BBC)…[+]

A Canadian father who has not been vaccinated against Covid has temporarily lost the right to see his 12-year-old child. A judge ruled his visits would not be in the child’s “best interest”. It followed a request by the father to extend his visiting time during the holidays. The judgement is the first depriving a parent of access rights on immunisation grounds, a family law expert told Le Devoir newspaper. The judge’s decision, made at the end of last month in Quebec province, suspends the father’s visitation rights until February, unless he decides to get vaccinated. The mother, who opposed the father’s initial request to extend his visitation time, told the court she had recently discovered he was unvaccinated, using his social media posts to show he was opposed to vaccines. The mother lives with her partner and two other children who are too young to be vaccinated. The judge said it was not “in the child’s best interest to have contact with their father” due to the recent increase in Covid cases in French-speaking Quebec. Quebec, which has seen the highest number of Covid-related deaths in Canada, announced earlier this week it would impose a tax on residents who are not vaccinated against Covid-19.(BBC)…[+]

The past seven years have been the hottest on record, according to new data from the EU’s satellite system. The Copernicus Climate Change Service said 2021 was the fifth-warmest year, with record-breaking heat in some regions. And the amount of warming gases in our atmosphere continued to increase. Governments are committed to limiting global temperature rise to 1.5C to curb climate change. But scientists warn that time is fast running out. The environmental, human and economic costs of hotter temperatures are already being seen globally.

Europe lived through its warmest summer, and temperature records in western US and Canada were broken by several degrees. Extreme wildfires in July and August burnt almost entire towns to the ground and killed hundreds. “These events are a stark reminder of the need to change our ways, take decisive and effective steps toward a sustainable society and work towards reducing net carbon emissions,” Carlo Buontempo, director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, explains.(BBC)…[+]

Two former Israeli prime ministers have faced off in court in Tel Aviv, as Benjamin Netanyahu and his family began a defamation suit against Ehud Olmert.r Netanyahu, his wife Sara, and their eldest son Yair are suing Mr Olmert for $269,000 (£198,000) in damages for saying that they were mentally ill. Mr Olmert made the claim in two Israeli TV interviews last April. He is arguing that it was not libellous because it was true, and also that he was clearly expressing an opinion. Netanyahu: A shrewd leader who reshaped Israel. The suit filed by the Netanyahus accuses Mr Olmert of “obsessive efforts to harm their good name in public, out of jealousy and deep frustration”. It is based on two interviews he gave in the wake of Israel’s last general election, when Mr Netanyahu was attempting to remain in power while standing trial on corruption charges.(BBC)…[+]