National

With the second round of voting in the French presidential election just days away, we explore the latest twists and turns in the campaign trail with Andrew Smith, a professor of contemporary French history at Chichester University. He unpicks President Emmanuel Macron's last-gasp bid to convince supporters of defeated leftist Jean-Luc Mélenchon to vote for him, if only to keep the far right out of the Élysée Palace. We also discuss Marine Le Pen's pledge to ban the Muslim hijab in public. Smith tells us it's an attempt to fire up her base – but does it risk alienating more moderate voters?

Nigeria's separatist leader Nnamdi Kanu should stand trial and answer to charges that include terrorism and broadcasting falsehoods, a High Court judge ruled on Friday, April 8.

The first group of Nigerian evacuees escaping the Russian invasion of Ukraine arrived at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja on Friday. Nigerian student Oduola Joshua Adebowale, a first-year medical student said he fled his home with only his documents and laptop after an explosion shook his hostel.

Around 600 Nigerian students return home after being evacuated from Romania and Poland . They had been studying in Ukraine until Russia's invasion. Many report the struggles they faced to leave the country, due to discrimination at the border. And Cape Town's City Hall lights up in blue and yellow - the colours of the Ukrainian flag despite the South African government's efforts to stay neutral in the conflict.

Former defense officials from the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama visited Taiwan. The delegation arrived amid fears Russia's Ukraine invasion could spark China's geopolitical ambitions for the island.

Notwithstanding its overwhelming advantages, the Russian military campaign in Ukraine is meeting stiffer-than-expected resistance from Ukrainian forces. What could the next stage look like?

Lagos is surrounded by wetlands, lagoons and the sea. Despite this, accessible, safe and reliable water is scarce in Nigeria's biggest city. Demands for a better public water system are getting louder.

Traditionally, growing avocados requires lots of water. But entrepreneurs in Nigeria are attempting to grow them in a new water-saving and sustainable way by using drip irrigation systems and recycling water.

An oil production and storage vessel exploded off the coast of Nigeria early on Wednesday (February 2) with 10 crew members on board though it was unclear if there were any casualties or how much crude might have spilled into the sea.

Adenike Oladosu is one of Africa's most vocal environmental activists. She realized that there was a lack of knowledge about climate change on the continent, so she started her own pan- African climate justice movement.

Abubakar Yusuf, an informal Nigerian trader, said he was scared to get a COVID-19 shot after hearing the country had stocks of expired vaccines. That changed, however, when health authorities destroyed more than a million expired doses last month.

A tweet claiming that Covid-19 vaccines were destroyed in Nigeria because of people power has been shown to be untrue. Vaccines were indeed trashed by the authorities, but this was due to low uptake as a result of vaccine hesitancy. We also take a look at a false claim that there are huge protests in Paris right now over pension reforms.