Hello, im lewis vaughanjones. Welcome to the programme. First this hour a deadline set by the west African Regional bloc ecowas for the militaryjunta to reinstate nigers ousted president Mohammed Bazoum expires later on sunday. Ecowas gave the coup leaders a week to restore the president or potentially face Military Action. Meanwhile, france says it will support efforts by ecowas. Nigers Prime Minister has been in paris saturday, meeting lawmakers and greeting protestors outside the niger embassy. He has dismissed pro coup protests taking place in his country. With the deadline only hours away, our correspondent chris ewokor reports from sokoto, North Western nigeria, close to the border with niger. They are bracing for the worst. Many of them were born here in nigeria but they have never been cut off from their roots in niger. The coup has caught them unawares. With the border is closed and the current political crisis, they are now separated from their families. This man lives here b
Antony blinken, has voiced his concern that nigersjunta might turn to the Russian Mercenary Group wagnerfor help. The group is active in neighbouring countries and its leader has welcomed the takeover. The coup leaders are currently Standing Firm against calls to restore democratic rule. Heres what mr blinken had to say about wagner. For sure, we have concerns when we see Something Like the wagner group possibly manifesting itself in different parts of the sahel. And here is why we are concerned. Because every single place that this group, wagner group has gone, death, destruction and exploitation have followed. Insecurity has gone up, not down. It has not been a response to the needs of the countries in question for greater security. I think what happened and what continues to happen in niger was not instigated by russia or by wagner but to the extent that they try to take advantage of it and we see a repeat of what has happened in other countries where theyve brought nothing but bad
And checking out printing and checking out news. Pakistan Election Commission printing news. Pakistan Election Commission has disqualified the former Prime Minister for five years as a consequence of that conviction over the weekend in that case about selling state gifts and islamabad on saturday in sentencing macro two to three years in prison and this means that imran khan will not be able to contest elections that are coming up later in the year or able to any Public Office until the year 2028 and the Commission Says in this notification that imran khan has been de notified as a Member Of Parliament with immediate effects and significant news after sentence cut on saturday that imran khan is been disqualified from taking part in any sort of elections for five years and that will bring you more in my correspondent later in the programme. We turn to brazil and a Landmark Summit to protect the amazon rainforest. The leaders of eight South American countries that share the amazon, have
An incident in the game against nigeria, when the lioness is defeated the super falcons on penalties, you can see it happening here, this is when laurenjames, who has been a key player, got a red card against nigeria. She was shown a straight red for what was seen as stamping. You can see pictures of it here. It means you will not be able to play on the quarter final match on saturday. England will be playing colombia. We understand now that she has just apologised. She colombia. We understand now that she hasjust apologised. She is most distressed about what happened and hasissued distressed about what happened and has issued an apology. It does mean that you will not be playing in the quarterfinals. She scored the winner against denmark in the grip came and against denmark in the grip came and a couple of goals when they defeated china 6 0. So, laurenjames out of the quarterfinals. More now on our main story. Diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis in niger have stepped up a gear. S
The verdict means he is not allowed to hold Public Office for five years with pakistan just months away from a general election. Our correspondent Caroline Davies reports. Sirens blaring, police truck after police truck, arresting former Prime Minister imran khan. The judgement came from here. Police filled every corner in islamabads session court. Mr khan says that the case is politically motivated. The court said hes dishonest. So, this is after months and months of waiting, we now finally have an announcement imran khan has been found guilty and has been sentenced to three years imprisonment. Outside court, shouts of your show is over, khan minutes later, we heard hed been arrested. This was what happened last time mr khan was arrested protests, some violent. Mr khan was released but his party faced a dramatic crackdown. Many of his senior Party Leadership were arrested, then announced that theyd left the party. Police picked up thousands of his supporters. Will the protests happen