TANZANIA: The main opposition party could be barred from contesting elections, after it boycotted an event at which parties must sign a code of ethics to secure participation rights.

The Chadema party refused to attend because its leader Tundu Lissu was arrested last week and charged with treason after demanding electoral reforms.

AFGHANISTAN: Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada today defended the executions of four people on Friday, saying the death penalty is a core part of “Islamic law.”

The four were killed by firing squad after being convicted of murder. In line with a tradition also present in Iran, the victims’ families had the right to commute the sentences, but in these cases they did not.

NIGERIA: Eight people were killed and more than a dozen wounded when a bus hit a roadside bomb in the north-eastern state of Borno.

Authorities said the bomb was probably planted by the Boko Haram jihadist group. 

The group has been driven out of most territory it used to control, but periodically launches terrorist attacks from bases in the jungle.

UNITED STATES: The latest Fight Oligarchy demo in the anti-Trump tour by US Senators Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez attracted an estimated 36,000 people in Los Angeles on Saturday.

The pair have held giant protests at Mr Trump’s authoritarianism and attacks on the public sector in many US cities.

“We are living in a moment where a handful of billionaires control the economic and political life of our country,” Mr Sanders told the crowds.