antony blinken, has voiced his concern that niger sjunta 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. here s 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 they ve brought not
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
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
here s tanya arnold. colombia are through to the quarter finals of the women s world cup for the first time. they beat jamaica 1 0 and will now face england on saturday. catalina usme s goal in the second half in melbourne was enough to set up a clash with the european champions. they become just the second south american nation to ever reach the quarter finals of the world cup. brazil were the first. forjamaica though, their impressive world cup comes to an end. for us, we are coming in with no games. i feel very happy for the players that they could perform at this level without getting adequate games to play so i am very pleased with them and they gave it everything tonight. they should be proud of themselves and i am very proud of them. england s laurenjames will miss that quarter final against colombia and has apologised for her red card for standing on nigerian defender michelle alozie. in a post on social media she said to alozie. france are also through to the quarter
This is bbc news. the headlines: a warning from washington about the wagner mercenary group taking advantage of the coup in niger. us secretary of state, antony blinken, speaks to the bbc: every single place that this group, this wagner group has gone, death, destruction and exploitation have followed. we ll be live in ireland as thousands gather on the streets of bray to pay their respects to the singer sinead o connor, who died last month. after years of rampant deforestation in the world s biggest rainforest, leaders meet in brazil to find ways to save the amazon. some breaking news to bring you neu about the woman s world cup. you may well know with the know the name of laurenjames, the england star.