While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Sept 25
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Niger's junta supporters take part in a demonstration in front of a French army base in Niamey.
PHOTO: REUTERS
France to pull troops out of Niger following coup, says Macron
France is to end its military cooperation with Niger and withdraw its 1,500 troops tasked with battling Islamist rebels in the Sahel region following a July coup in the West African country, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday.
Macron said the troops would pull out by the end of the year, a move that deals a hammer blow to France’s counter-terrorism operations in the Sahel and France’s influence in the region.
Nonetheless, Macron said France, the former colonial power in Niger, would “not be held hostage by the putchists” who he has refused to recognise as the legitimate authority in the country.
Gunmen battle police in Kosovo monastery siege; four dead
AFP
Gunmen in armoured vehicles stormed a village in an ethnic Serbian-majority region of Kosovo on Sunday, battling police and barricading themselves in a monastery in a resurgence of violence in the restive north.
Kosovo police said one officer and three of about 30 attackers died in shootouts around the village of Banjska.
Monks and pilgrims were locked in the Serbian Orthodox monastery’s temple as the siege raged for hours.
Republicans appeal to far-right conservatives to avert US government shutdown
Reuters
With just a week before Washington runs out of money to keep the federal government fully operating, warring factions within the Republican Party in the US Congress on Sunday showed no signs of coming together to pass a stopgap funding bill.
Congress so far has failed to finish any of the 12 regular spending bills to fund federal agency programmes in the fiscal year starting on Oct 1.
House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy will push an ambitious plan this week to win approval of four large bills, including military and homeland security funding, that he hopes would demonstrate enough progress to far-right Republicans to win their support for a stop-gap spending bill, known as a continuing resolution, or CR, as well.
Dutch police use tear gas to disperse rioters after Ajax v Feyenoord abandoned
EPA-EFE
Ajax Amsterdam’s home Eredivisie game against defending champions Feyenoord was abandoned on Sunday as fans threw flares onto the pitch, and mounted police used tear gas to disperse rioting fans outside the stadium.
A group of angry Ajax fans tried to force their way into the stadium after the game was halted leading the police to disperse them with tear gas, Amsterdam police wrote on social media platform X.
“After the stopped game supporters broke into the main (stadium) entrance. Order has since been restored,” the police said.
Newcastle smash Sheffield United in 8-0 thrashing
Action Images via Reuters
Newcastle United ruthlessly put Sheffield United to the sword with a dazzling 8-0 victory at Bramall Lane on Sunday, with eight different players scoring, to leave the home side bottom of the Premier League standings.
The victory was Newcastle’s biggest away from home and the Blades’ largest ever defeat while Eddie Howe’s side became the first team in Premier League history to have eight different goal scorers in one game as they moved up to eighth in the standings.
Newcastle showed no signs of a hangover from midweek after their first Champions League game in 20 years -- a goalless draw away at AC Milan -- and they took a 3-0 lead by halftime before switching gears in the second half to go into the record books.
