The West African bloc Ecowas will meet on Thursday to discuss the coup in Niger, as cracks appeared in its unity and the military junta in Niamey refused to cave in to international pressure to stand down.

The announcement that the Economic Community of West African States would gather in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, came hours after the coup leaders ignored a deadline to reinstate the ousted president after the power grab on 26 July – a move the bloc had earlier warned could lead it to authorise a military intervention.

Shortly before the deadline, coup leaders closed Niger’s airspace until further notice, citing the threat of military intervention.

Storms and landslides claim lives in Slovenia, Austria

At least seven people have died amid heavy storms, floods, and landslides across Slovenia, Austria and Croatia. Further north, the extreme weather caused power outages and travel delays.

Rescue workers tackled extreme weather on Monday in Slovenia, Austria and Croatia, with record floods, hundreds of landslides and at least seven deaths.

The storms have forced the evacuation of villages and caused major damage, with emergency crews braced to respond to landslides and potential dam bursts.

Flooding and lightning prove fatal

Most of the deaths recorded so far have been in Slovenia, where the extreme weather was reported to have killed at least six people by Monday.

They included two Dutch men believed to have been struck by lightning and four Slovenians thought to have been caught up in the flooding.

Philippines summons Chinese ambassador over water-cannoned boats in South China Sea

Manila summoned Beijing’s envoy Monday after the China Coast Guard blocked and water cannoned Philippine vessels in the disputed South China Sea, President Ferdinand Marcos said.

The incident happened Saturday as the Philippine Coast Guard escorted charter boats carrying food, water, fuel and other supplies for Filipino military personnel stationed at Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratly Islands.

Beijing claims almost all of the South China Sea, through which trillions of dollars in trade passes annually, and has ignored a 2016 international court ruling that its assertion has no legal basis.

The Philippine military and coast guard have accused the China Coast Guard of breaking international law in blocking and firing water cannon at the re-supply mission, which prevented one of the charter boats reaching the shoal.

China said it had taken “necessary controls” against Philippines boats that had “illegally” entered its waters.

Muslim homes, shops bulldozed; over 150 arrested in Nuh in India’s Haryana

Residents in BJP-ruled state’s only Muslim-majority district say more than 300 properties have been demolished in four days.

 Abdul Rasheed says police locked him in a bus as a bulldozer demolished his shops in India’s northern Haryana state where a Muslim-majority district saw communal clashes last week.

“I was heartbroken. My family and children depended on the rent we received from the shops. We had rented shops to both Hindus and Muslims,” he told Al Jazeera on Sunday, adding that the authorities “gave no notice or showed any order, and bulldozed everything”.

“This is vengeance. They are destroying hotels, shops and homes. There is no appeal and hearing,” the 51-year-old said. “We have been handed a begging bowl.”

Trump and team seek to destroy credibility of his election subversion trial before a date is even set

Donald Trump and his legal team are escalating efforts to discredit and delay a trial over his alleged attempt to overturn the 2020 election, as his fight to avert criminal convictions becomes ever more indistinguishable from his presidential campaign.

The former president’s attorney Sunday vowed to petition to relocate the trial from Washington, DC, claiming that a local jury won’t reflect the “characteristics” of the American people. And as prosecutors seek a speedy trial, he warned that his team will seek to run out the process for years in an apparent attempt to move it past the 2024 election.

Trump demanded the judge set to hear the case recuse herself in a flurry of assaults on the process that may fail legally, but will play into his campaign narrative that he is a victim of political persecution by the Biden administration designed to thwart a White House comeback.

Jamboree participants to leave Saemangeum early due to Typhoon Khanun

Tropical storm expected to make landfall on Thursday morning

By Lee Hyo-jin

All participants of the World Scout Jamboree currently taking place in Saemangeum, a reclaimed tidal flat in North Jeolla Province, will leave the campsite for Seoul and its surrounding areas as Typhoon Khanun is expected to hit the nation on Thursday, the government announced, Monday.

Beginning Tuesday morning, tens of thousands of young Scouts will be relocated to the greater Seoul area under an emergency contingency plan initiated in the wake of the rapidly-approaching typhoon.

About 1,000 buses will be mobilized to transport some 36,000 participants from 156 countries. The Jamboree initially drew some 40,000 young Scouts from 159 nations, but the 1,500-member U.S. and 4,400-member U.K. delegations, along with participants from Singapore, pulled out from the campsite over the weekend citing risks posed by the heat wave.