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Soldiers in Guinea-Bissau have announced they are taking “total control” of the west African country, three days after elections that both the two main presidential contenders claim to have won. Military officers said they were suspending Guinea-Bissau’s electoral process and closing its borders, in a statement read out at the army’s headquarters in the capital

Henry Zeffman, Chief political correspondent and Paul Seddon, Political reporter Getty Images The government has U-turned on its manifesto commitment to offer all workers the right to claim unfair dismissal from their first day in a job. Ministers now plan to introduce the right after six months instead, after business groups voiced concerns it would

Soldiers in Guinea-Bissau have announced they are taking “total control” of the west African country, three days after elections that both the two main presidential contenders claim to have won. Military officers said they were suspending Guinea-Bissau’s electoral process and closing its borders, in a statement read out at the army’s headquarters in the capital

Brian Wheeler Political reporter Watch: How Budget day unfolded Rachel Reeves has said she is "asking ordinary people to pay a little bit more" after unveiling £26bn of tax rises in a Budget that also saw her scrap the two-child benefit cap. The chancellor extended a freeze on tax thresholds for an extra three years

All 24 schoolgirls held by assailants after a mass abduction last week from a school in north-western Nigeria have been rescued, the country’s president announced on Tuesday. A total of 25 girls were abducted on 17 November from the Government Girls Comprehensive secondary school in Kebbi state’s Maga town, but one of them was able

Chris Mason Political editor Kirsty O'Connor / Treasury The thrust of the Chancellor's address will be three cuts – cutting the cost of living, cutting NHS waiting lists and cutting government debt Finally, after weeks - even months - of hearing about it, we are about to find out what is actually in this year's

The UK government has rejected a request by Nigeria to deport a former senior Nigerian politician convicted of organ trafficking. Ike Ekweremadu, 63, a former deputy president of the Nigerian senate and ally of the former president Goodluck Jonathan, is serving a sentence of nine years and eight months after being found guilty in 2023

Ian Youngs Culture reporter 'Most important job right now is to recruit a DG': BBC chairman The chairman of the BBC has said he is "not someone who walks away" after criticism of his handling of the recent crisis over Panorama's edit of a Donald Trump speech. Speaking to a committee of MPs, Samir Shah

South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, closed the G20 summit in Johannesburg by banging a gavel, having rejected a US proposal for him to hand over to a relatively junior embassy official for the next summit in Florida in a year’s time. South Africa presented the two-day event as a triumph for multilateralism but it was

A "tremendous amount of progress" has been achieved in talks to finalise a US-proposed peace plan to end the Russia-Ukraine war, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said. But "there's still some work to be done", Rubio said after meeting Ukrainian and European negotiators in Geneva, Switzerland. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said there were "signals