Tag: top stories

Nigerian actor, content creator and influencer Odira Nwobu has died in South Africa aged 43, a lawyer and the Actors’ Guild of Nigeria have told the BBC. News of his death has shocked many at home in Nigeria, prompting an outpouring of grief online from fans and colleagues alike for the Nollywood star who was read more

Tanzania has cancelled next month’s independence day celebrations, with the funds to be instead spent on rebuilding infrastructure damaged in recent election unrest, Prime Minister Mwigulu Nchemba has said. His announcement comes as the opposition and others have been calling for people to gather on independence day – 9 December – to demonstrate about killings read more

President Donald Trump’s senior Africa envoy, Massad Boulos, has rejected criticism that the US’s latest proposal to end the Sudan civil war is “biased”. The US, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have been attempting to mediate between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which have been fighting for read more

The defeat increases pressure on Gambhir. Since the the former batter took charge in July 2024, India have won seven Tests but lost 10. The defeats by New Zealand and South Africa are added to by a 3-1 defeat in Australia last December and January, while Gambhir’s side drew 2-2 in England in the summer. read more

Navin Singh KhadkaEnvironment correspondent, BBC World Service Getty Images The Tapanuli orangutan was only discovered by scientists to be a separate species in 2017 – distinct from the Sumatran and Bornean apes An unusual silence in the forests of north Sumatra in Indonesia is worrying wildlife experts and conservationists. Here, in the mountainous forests of read more

Watch: Video shows US military seizing oil tanker off Venezuela coast The US has imposed fresh sanctions on six more ships said to be carrying Venezuelan oil, a day after seizing a tanker off the country’s coast. Sanctions have also been placed on some of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s relatives and businesses associated with what read more

The English section of South Korea’s gruelling college entrance exam, or Suneung, is notoriously difficult, with some students comparing it to deciphering an ancient script, and others calling it “insane”. So intense was the criticism around this year’s test that the top official in charge of administering it resigned to take responsibility for the “chaos” read more

Reddit has launched a challenge in Australia’s highest court against the nation’s landmark social media ban for children. The online forum is among 10 social media platforms which must bar Australians aged under 16 from having accounts, under a new law which began on Wednesday. The ban, which is being watched closely around the world, read more

Residents in the Pacific Northwest of the US and Canada are bracing for what could be record-setting floods as an atmospheric river dumps heavy rain on already swollen rivers. On Thursday, the National Water Center reported major, in some cases record, flooding along the Skagit and Snohomish rivers in the state of Washington that is read more

Ethiopian police have arrested a sixth popular TikTok creator days after five other influencers were detained over allegations of wearing “indecent attire” at a public event in the culturally conservative country. Adonay Berhane, 25, is a lifestyle and motivational creator with close to four million followers, who was named “TikToker of the Year” at the read more

A judge has ordered the immediate release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported and brought back to the US to face criminal charges, from immigration custody. US District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland said since returning to the US, Mr Abrego Garcia was re-detained “without lawful authority”. The order means he can at read more

Brandon Livesayand Bernd Debusmann,at the White House Watch: Video shows US military seizing oil tanker off Venezuela coast A US helicopter flies low over a hazy blue sea as it approaches a massive ship. It hovers as camouflaged soldiers holding rifles swing down ropes to the vessel’s deck. The video, released by the US government, read more

Kayla Epsteinand Ione Wells,São Paulo Watch: Video shows US military seizing oil tanker off Venezuela coast US forces have seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, marking a sharp escalation in Washington’s pressure campaign against Nicolás Maduro’s government. Speaking at the White House on Wednesday, President Donald Trump said the tanker was “the read more

Joshua Cheetham, Paul Brown, Richard Irvine-Brown & Matt MurphyBBC Verify BBC The oil tanker seized by US forces on Wednesday had a track record of faking or concealing its location information, apparently to hide its activities, ship tracking data shows. On Wednesday evening, the US confirmed that its forces seized a vessel during a helicopter-launched read more

Imran Rahman-Jonesand Liv McMahon,Technology reporters Getty Images Nvidia boss Jensen Huang is among the tech bosses the magazine has put on its biggest cover of the year Time Magazine’s Person of the Year for 2025 is not a single person. Instead, the magazine has recognised the year’s most influential figure as “the architects” of artificial read more

The government of Bulgarian Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov has resigned after protesters took to the streets in cities across the country and filled the centre of the capital Sofia on Wednesday night. Zhelyazkov’s dramatic move came ahead of a vote of no confidence in parliament, and 20 days before Bulgaria joins the euro. Protesters had read more

Polish authorities have arrested a prominent Russian academic from St Petersburg’s world-famous Hermitage Museum who is sought by Ukraine for allegedly conducting illegal excavations and partially destroying the ancient city of Myrmekion in Crimea. The suspect, identified under Polish law as Aleksandr B, is the head of the Ancient Archaeology of the Northern Black Sea read more

Ghana has deported three Israeli nationals who arrived in the country on Wednesday in what appears to be a tit-for-tat move over the alleged mistreatment of Ghanaian nationals at Ben Gurion International Airport in Israel. Seven Ghanaians, including four members of an official delegation attending a cyber-security conference in Tel Aviv, were allegedly detained without read more

Austria has passed a law banning headscarves in schools for girls under the age of 14. The conservative-led coalition of three centrist parties, the ÖVP, the SPÖ and the Neos, says the law is a “clear commitment to gender equality”, but critics say it will fuel anti-Muslim feeling in the country and could be unconstitutional. read more

Kayla Epstein, Tiffany Wertheimerand Yang Tian Watch: BBC speaks to Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, who has been in hiding for months, has told the BBC that she knows “exactly the risks” she’s taking by travelling to Norway to collect her Nobel Peace Prize. Machado appeared in read more