Russian elections: How democratic are they?

The Taliban have paraded military equipment, captured during their takeover of Afghanistan, through the streets of Kandahar. The militant showcase comes just days after US troops left Afghanistan, ending over two decades of military presence in the country.

While there has been much attention on Afghans being evacuated at Kabul airport, it was important to remember there were more than 500,000 internally displaced people in the country, the UN refugee agency’s representative to Afghanistan has said. Caroline Van Buren told BBC World News that the country was facing a humanitarian crisis. Failure to…

A Malian woman has recently given birth to nine babies – five girls and four boys at a clinic in Casablanca, Morocco. The nonuplets will have to spend “two to three months” in incubators, a director of the clinic has said, but both the mother, Halima Cissé, and her children are said to be doing…

The mixed messaging over the AstraZenca coronavirus jab is affecting vaccine confidence in low and middle income countries, the co-chair of the African Union’s Africa Vaccine Delivery Alliance for Covid-19 has said. Dr Ayoade Alakija told BBC World News that the vaccine is being rolled out to over two billion people and is often the…

An elk who spent two years wandering around Colorado with a tyre around its neck has had a weight lifted off its shoulders by wildlife officials. Officers resorted to tranquillising the bull elk and removing its antlers, after they were unable to cut through the steel lining of the tyre. Scott Murdoch of Colorado Parks…

Reports of a build-up of Russian troops on its shared border with Ukraine is “significant” and could lead to open conflict, Carl Bildt, co-chair of the European Council on Foreign Relations has said. He told BBC World News: “It’s clearly a deliberate decision by the Kremlin to escalate the conflict. Where this will lead us…