bisa williams and eric benjaminson, thank you both forjoining us.l peace prize laureate and journalist dmitry muratov as a "foreign agent." muratov still lives in russia and edited the independent novaya gazeta newspaper before its journalists fled last year to latvia. it's a move that could open up muratov to police searches and other punitive measures. the kremlin has used similar measures to stifle critics. meanwhile, ukraine hasjoined several swedish lawmakers in condemning the nobel foundation's decision to invite the russian and belarusian ambassadors to this year's ceremony in stockholm. they say the move is irresponsible because of russia's war on ukraine. nobel officials say invitations were extended to all countries with diplomatic missions in sweden and norway. india's supreme court is considering petitions challenging prime minister narendra modi's decision to strip indian—administered kashmir of its semi—autonomy. new delhi took direct control in 2019 and now, the security forces are being accused of a campaign of arrests and intimidati

eric benjaminson, do you agree? i do, and thank you for having me on, by the way.have to look at these coups as separate. if there was an underlying effect, i think i would say it was the free flow of information to these the use of smartphones and the internet. the citizens now have more ways to look at information. as you were talking about, we might also have had a coup in the us. so i would be hesitant to lump all these things together. what we used to say about gabon, it's hard to know what's actually going on. you could make a case that this coup might have been driven by other family members than simply by politics. that's just a supposition, there is no way to know. gabon and niger, both former french colonies, but since 1990, 78% of the 27 coups in sub—saharan africa have occurred in francophone countries. how might the legacy of colonialism be influencing things today? that is a pretty startling statistic and it needs paying attention to. however there was colonialism all over the continent. if you go to root causes, maybe this has something to do with th

eric benjaminson, do you agree with that? yeah, i do — and thank you for having me on, by the way.arate. the underlying — if there was an underlying effect, i think i would say it was the free flow of information or few airflow of information to these countries, the use of smartphones and the internet. the citizens now have more ways to look at information. but as one of your earlier segments was talking about, we might also have had a coup in the us, so i'd be hesitant to lump all these things together. what we used to say about gabon is it's hard to know what's actually going on and i think you could make a case that this coup might have been driven by other family members than simply by politics — but that's just a supposition, there's really no way to know. now, gabon and niger are obviously both former french colonies. but since 1990, 78% of the 27 coups in sub—saharan africa have occurred in francophone countries. how might that legacy of colonialism influence the situation that we�*re seeing in the countries today, bisa? that�*s a pretty startling statistic and it�*s one tha

bisa williams and eric benjaminson, thank you both forjoining us.ad. a man has claimed he opened fire on the animal out of fear. that is it for the moment. i am katrina perry in washington. do stay with us on bbc news. hello there. the first week of september is looking a lot more summery than what we had throughout most ofjuly and indeed august. this weekend, high pressure is building in. it will turn drier and sunnier and warmer across the board. however, there will be a fly in the ointment that comes with this area of low pressure in its weather from which will push close to the north—west of scotland at times, certainly on sunday. but high pressure is building in — it's killing off the showers, the clouds. early on saturday we should see any rain fizzling out, but there will be a legacy of clouds and mist and fog, particularly across central southern england, wales, northern ireland. here it's going to be mild, but again, the north—east corner of scotland will be quite chilly with temperatures in low single digits. so we start off, plenty of sun

friday, my colleague caitriona perry spoke with bisa williams, former us ambassador to niger, and eric benjaminsons ambassador to gabon. ifi if i can start with you, in the wake of the niger two, there was concern about the risk of contagion on the continent. emmanuel macron thinks they are different situations, what is your view? i they are different situations, what is your view?— is your view? i think both things are correct- _ is your view? i think both things are correct. i _ is your view? i think both things are correct. i think— is your view? i think both things are correct. i think the - is your view? i think both things are correct. i think the coup - is your view? i think both things are correct. i think the coup in l are correct. i think the coup in niger is a very bad signal to militaries that are thinking perhaps political leadership is no longer necessary and nobody�*s going to do anything about it. at the same time, i think what happened in gabon is not... did not happen to the same kinds of reasons. that you had a coup in niger. the fact you have military taking the steps, everyone