Russian President Vladimir Putin told the leaders of dozens of African nations that Moscow was their best partner, accusing the ‘colonial’ West of still trying to exploit the continent’s resources. The Kremlin is hosting a two-day Russia-Africa Summit.
Published On 28 Oct 202628 Oct 2026
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WANT the dream holiday without the long flight? The Gambia has all the perks of bucket list breaks – and flights restart next week.
In just six hours, Brits could be on a safari spotting wild animals and exotic birdlife in 30C.
A trip to The Gambia can have all the perks of the likes of Kenya or South Africa without the 11 hour journey.
In fact, The Gambia is only a six-hour flight away from the UK and these restart with TUI next week from London Gatwick, Manchester and Birmingham.
When it comes to activities, why not head on a safari?
Most tours will take visitors just across the border to Senegal which has lions, giraffe, zebras, buffalo, rhino and antelope.
For those going on holiday with TUI offers excursions to the Fathala Wildlife Reserve.
On the trip, holidaymakers will take a ferry across the River Gambia and then head on the safari tour.
TUI Musement offers the full-day trip from £115 per person.
TUI also offers the South Gambia safari which takes visitors to local villages to get involved in local culture.
Cruises along the River Gambia will involve searching for hippos and crocodiles.
When it comes to birdlife, there are over 450 species to see.
TUI offers a seven-night holiday to The Gambia, staying at the 3T Senegambia Beach on a bed and breakfast basis from £798 per person.
The hotel has two swimming pools, four bars and three restaurants.
It’s found on the resort area of Kololi Beach in Serrekunda which has golden sand beaches, vibrant nightlife and wildlife.
TUI offers a seven-night holiday to The Gambia, staying at the 4T TUI BLUE Tamala on an all-inclusive basis from £1,337 per person
It has an outdoor swimming pool, three bars and two restaurants.
The rooms are Scandi-style and some of the rooms you can swim up to from the pool.
Throughout the year, The Gambia sits at 30C but the best time to visit is during the dry season which runs roughly from November to mid-June.
TUI Travel Advisor, Linda Sharrocks, who has been in the travel industry for 28 years said: “Lots of customers come in wanting a safari but are put off by the price or the flight time.
“The Gambia is the one I always tell them about. You’re there in six hours, and you can be spotting giraffes one day and lying on a beach in 30C sunshine at an all-inclusive the next.
“And make sure you pack some binoculars too, even if you don’t think you’re a birdwatcher. You’ll be amazed at the colours.”
HOLIDAYMAKERS are swapping Spanish escapes for bargain breaks to North Africa, where glamour comes without the premium price tag.
Tour operator TUI has seen a rise in British passenger numbers for this winter, with particular interest in all-inclusive, luxury holidays to Egypt as well as Tunisia.
Meanwhile, easyJet recorded a growth of 14 per cent year on year to North Africa.
Garry Wilson, boss of easyJet holidays, said: “Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco offer huge potential, with high-quality hotels, brilliant value, warm hospitality and great connectivity from airports across the UK.”
Sophie Sweitochowski shares her pick of premium North African getaways for 2027 that won’t break the bank.
Grab them while they are hot.
THE Hilton Hilton Taghazout Bay Beach Resort & Spa is an absolute steal at under £700pp for seven nights with flights.
It’s chic and contemporary in style, with five swimming pools — one adults-only and a few overlooking the sea where you will spot surfers riding Taghazout’s notorious waves.
Bedrooms are generously sized and come with balconies, perfect for soaking up those 22C highs, plus there is a lavish spa dishing out local treatments like
Don’t skip brekkie. The extensive feast features freshly baked pastries, yoghurts, fresh fruits and live cooking stations as well as local honeys and traditional flatbreads.
GO: Seven nights’ B&B at the 5H Hilton Taghazout Bay Beach Resort & Spa is from £656pp including flights from Gatwick on December 3, plus luggage and transfers. See jet2holidays.com.
IT is impossible to feel bored at the Jaz Mirabel Beach Hotel.
The sprawling resort is home to an on-site waterpark with whirling slides, a water sports centre where you can try windsurfing, parasailing and water-skiing, plus an open-air amphitheatre for regular shows and entertainment.
The highlight is the location, bordering the Red Sea. Guests can use the hotel’s private jetty to plunge into one of the best snorkelling spots in the area.
Scenic boat trips and desert safaris to traditional bedouin camps are some of the bucket list excursions on offer from the hotel.
GO: Seven nights’ all-inclusive at the 5H Jaz Mirabel Beach Hotel is from £762pp including flights from East Midlands on December 14. See tui.co.uk.
A CHAMPAGNE lifestyle on a lemonade budget is achievable in Tunisia, especially at the Sousse Palace Hotel & Spa.
Right in the centre of town, there are glam restaurants and bars right on the doorstep — not that you will need them with this all-inclusive package, however.
The main buffet restaurant operates around a theme of international dishes every night with live cooking and meat carving stations.
If you are willing to shell out a little extra, though, you should visit the hotel’s Le 12ème which serves elegant plates such as freshly-caught fish carpaccio and slow-cooked lamb shank.
Outside of the food, there’s a sandy beach, wellness centre with a traditional Tunisian hammam, steam rooms and massage suites, and several swimming pools.
GO: Seven nights’ all-inclusive at the 5H Sousse Palace Hotel & Spa is from £360pp including flights from Gatwick on November 25. See easyjet.com/en/holidays.
ON the hunt for a relaxing couples break? The Be Live Collection Marrakech is an adults-only haven, set back from the chaos of the city centre but with a free daily shuttle bus direct to Jemaa el-Fnaa square.
There is a quiet pool if you are after complete relaxation, while the activity pool has a livelier atmosphere.
If you have never experienced a traditional Moroccan hammam, this is the place to do it.
The wellness area is equipped with two authentic traditional Moroccan hammams where therapists use authentic black soap to remove dead skin cells.
Come night time, indulge in a drink at one of the four sleek bars.
GO: Seven nights’ all-inclusive at the 5H Be Live Collection Marrakech is from £479pp including flights from Manchester on December 12. See loveholidays.com.
ON a private beach and surrounded by greenery, The Sindbad offers pure luxury escapism in the heart of the town.
Its infinity pool looks a little like the sort you would get in a fancy Ibiza or Mykonos resort, only this place is a fraction of the price.
In to golf? The resort offers discounted green fees to Yasmine Golf Club and Citrus Golf Club, two of Tunisia’s top 18-hole courses, with free shuttle buses.
The buffet restaurant is excellent and a great opportunity to sample the local cuisine such as couscous and brik, a mashed potato dish usually served with fish.
GO: Seven nights’ B&B at the 5H The Sindbad is from £370pp including flights from Newcastle on December 10. See travelsupermarket.com.
And the DRC’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Therese Kayikwamba Wagner said in a statement last week that “giving (Rwanda President) Paul Kagame this platform would help polish the image of an authoritarian leader whose government has helped fuel a devastating war in our country”.
She pointed out that the US had sanctioned the Rwandan army and four senior officers for their role in destabilising the region, conducting military operations inside the DRC and supporting, training and fighting alongside the M23 rebel group.
She added that F1 “should require credible, independent guarantees that no money used to host the race comes from conflict-linked minerals or the exploitation of Congolese resources”.
Seven-time world champion Hamilton said: “Africa is a place that deserves to have a grand prix. It’s about more than just one country. It’s about the continent itself, and there are so many beautiful countries within it.
“The people are so lovely. The culture is so rich, and I think it’s important that we get to show that to the world. We get to do that with our sport. We get to go to all these different countries, and people see some of these countries they didn’t really know too much about.
“All of a sudden, it becomes something that’s on the screen, and kids are talking about it. They go to school talking about it. So, I’m really, really hopeful for that grand prix.”
However, the Ferrari driver added: “Going there doesn’t mean that you neglect the things that are happening there.
“So hopefully many people start to educate themselves a little bit more about what is happening there and what has happened there for hundreds of years. I hope that does spark the conversation.
“And then I guess I’ll finish it off with this: I think we need to make sure we’re pushing to free Congo, free Sudan, free Syria, free Palestine. I think there’s a lot of peace that I’m hoping we get to at some stage.”
Just over two years after the U.S. Air Force retired the last of its KC-10A Extender aerial refueling tankers, four of those aircraft may be bound for a new career in North Africa for a mysterious end user.
The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC) put out a contracting notice yesterday “solely for information and planning purposes” with the express intent “to identify potential industry sources that possess the capability, expertise, and facilities to execute the regeneration, one-time flight clearance, depot-level return to service, worldwide ferry delivery, in-country Contractor Logistics Support (CLS), and operational/maintenance training for up to four (4) KC-10 Extender aircraft.”
The KC-10s could be “transferred via Excess Defense Articles (EDA) to a partner nation in North Africa,” the notice adds, without naming the country in question.
The Air Force operated KC-10s between 1981 and 2024. TWZ has reached out to the U.S. Air Force, as well as the U.S. State Department, for more information. The State Department directed us to contact the Pentagon.
The EDA program allows for materiel deemed extraneous to U.S. military needs to be transferred to allies and partners either at a reduced cost or as a grant. The foreign nation in question has to pay for those assets to be delivered, as well as refurbishment, if applicable.
It is important to note here that the Extender, as designed, is capable of refueling receivers using either the boom or the probe-and-drogue method. Tankers equipped for the probe-and-drogue method are, by far, more common internationally. We will come back to this later on.
While we don’t know what the North African country might be in line now to receive the quartet of KC-10s, Egypt and Morocco would seem to be the most likely candidates based on their current and planned aircraft inventories. They are also both major U.S. allies.
The Egyptian Air Force currently does not operate any dedicated aerial refueling tankers. The country is in the process of acquiring two new C-130J-30 Hercules aircraft for use as airlifters, as well as tankers, using the probe-and-drogue method. It does already fly C-130s, but none explicitly configured for aerial refueling duties. Egypt also has a very diverse array of fighters that includes U.S.-made F-16 Vipers that can only be refueled in mid-air via boom.
Morocco’s Air Force also flies F-16s and is in the process of acquiring more. The first new-production Block 72 F-16D for the Moroccan Air Force just flew for the first time earlier this week. Morocco does have an organic aerial refueling capability now, but in the form of C-130s equipped to dispense fuel via probe-and-drogue.
As mentioned, the KC-10 was designed to connect with receivers via probe-and-drogue, as well as boom, and could be used to refuel other tactical jets in Egyptian or Moroccan service. As an aside, fighters belonging to both regularly receive foreign tanker support during exercises, as already seen earlier in this story. Just last month, Chinese YY-20 tankers (also sometimes referred to as Y-20Us) notably did just this in an exercise in Egypt.
Footage released by Egypt’s official authorities from the “Eagles of Civilization 2026” joint air exercise shows Egyptian **MiG-29M/M2s and Rafale fighters receiving aerial refueling from a Chinese Y-20 tanker aircraft. pic.twitter.com/pvxkpsDHxG
— 笑脸男人 (@lfx160219) September 7, 2026
Whichever country may be in line to receive the four KC-10s, there is a question about the current state of those aircraft. Earlier in this story, we talked about the Extender’s capabilities as designed.
McDonnell Douglas (since absorbed into Boeing) delivered a total of 60 KC-10s to the U.S. Air Force between 1979 and 1987. The Extender was derived from the three-engine DC-10 airliner, the last of which was produced in 1989. The Air Force lost one of its KC-10s in an accident in 1987.
Of the remaining 59 KC-10s, 10 were put up for auction in a non-flyable state last year. For reasons that remain unclear, a single engine had been removed from under one of the wings of each of those aircraft. These Extenders were also among the first to be retired, and their booms had been stripped to be used as spares for the examples that remained in service until 2024. Private aerial refueling contractor Omega Air looks to have subsequently won those auctions. Omega also operates two ex-Dutch KDC-10 tankers, which are broadly similar to the KC-10, as well as another DC-10 converted into a probe-and-drogue-only tanker. The company has several Boeing 707-based tankers, as well.
The condition of the remaining 49 Extenders is unclear. Congress included a provision in the annual defense policy bill, or National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), for the 2026 Fiscal Year that required the Air Force to preserve remaining retired KC-10s, but only stipulated they be maintained “in the same storage condition” they were in as of September 30, 2025. The bill, which was signed into law in December 2025, also made clear that the Air Force could still “dispose” of the aircraft in accordance with existing property management statutes.
Regenerating military aircraft, especially larger ones, back to service can be costly, complex, and time-consuming, even when they are kept in storage in a highly maintained state. In this particular case, acquiring KC-10s via the EDA program, with a very low up-front purchase price, could still be attractive to the right buyer, especially compared to the cost of acquiring new-production tankers.
For a country like Egypt or Morocco that has never operated a boom-equipped tanker, second-hand Extenders could be a valuable entry point to future aerial refueling capabilities, as well. In general, organic aerial refueling capability is an important force multiplier for any air arm.
There is a possibility that KC-10s could be regenerated not as tankers, but as cargo aircraft, though this seems less likely to be the case. Cargo carrying was also an important duty for the Extenders while in U.S. Air Force service, and they still could operate in this role even when returned to service as tankers.
Though the aging KC-10s were getting increasingly more difficult to operate and maintain, the Air Force’s decision to retire them was still controversial. The Extender was a highly flexible tanker that could carry more fuel than the KC-46s that supplanted them. Clearly, there are others still interested in operating them.
It should be stressed that the AFLCMC contracting notice does not present the transfer of the four KC-10s as a done deal. At the same time, it has revealed that one of America’s partners in North Africa could breathe new life into four of these retired tankers.
Contact the author: joe@twz.com
DAKAR, Senegal — In Miami, Daniela Fuentes styled hair for clients and performed in drag at a nightclub called Azúcar. She wore her blond wig in public and dressed as the woman she had known herself to be since adolescence in Cuba.
Now, more than 6,000 miles away in the Central African Republic, she wears men’s clothes, lowers her voice and tries not to draw attention to the breasts she developed after beginning hormone treatment as a teenager. As part of U.S. efforts to deport people to countries other than their own, authorities sent her Aug. 29 to a place where she has no ties and where advocacy groups have reported arbitrary detention, torture, and other rights violations of sexual and gender minorities.
“Everything is difficult here because I have to hide who I am,” said Fuentes, a 32-year-old transgender woman living on a compound she rarely leaves, sharing a room with four Cuban men also deported from the U.S. “I don’t know this place, the people or the language, and I have no idea what will happen to me.”
The Central African Republic — one of the world’s poorest countries, a place with a history of conflict that the U.S. State Department advises American travelers to avoid — is one of at least 12 African nations that signed agreements to accept “third-country” deportations, a policy the U.S. Supreme Court last month allowed to continue, at least temporarily.
In the Central African Republic — where transgender people have little to no legal protections and are marginalized in much of society — Fuentes dons her wig only in the privacy of her bathroom. She described disguising herself as protection, first in U.S. detention and now in a country she first heard of when she was already headed there on a deportation flight.
“My whole life, my whole identity, was taken away from me,” Fuentes said.
Public records say a judge ordered Fuentes to leave the U.S. but offer no other information. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials did not reply to emailed questions.
Fuentes’ compound in the capital, Bangui, is an apartment complex where the government houses male deportees.
Fuentes said she can leave but that officials have advised her and others to avoid it — they have no identification, which could lead to issues with the police. It also means they can’t work, she said, and she’s waiting on travel documents that would allow her to leave the country. The International Organization for Migration, an agency associated with the United Nations, has provided food, and the migrants say they’ve crowdsourced for donations to buy groceries.
The U.S. — via agreements often not made public — has deported about 25,000 people to more than two dozen countries that aren’t their own, the vast majority to Mexico, according to a tally by Third Country Deportation Watch, a partnership of Refugees International and Human Rights First. The U.S. has not released numbers or details.
From January 2025 to August 2026, more than 500 were sent to countries in Africa, according to a Human Rights Watch report published Thursday — including at least 12 people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender and were deported to places that criminalize same-sex relations or public same-sex romantic conduct. Some advocates say the number is likely higher.
“These are not bureaucratic errors or isolated incidents,” said Bridget Crawford, of the group Immigration Equality. “They are the predictable result of policies that purposefully abandon our legal and moral obligation to protect LGBTQ+ immigrants fleeing persecution.”
The U.S. government says the policy is lawful and that receiving governments provide assurances deportees won’t be persecuted or tortured.
Fuentes grew up in La Lisa, on Havana’s outskirts, and said she understood from childhood that she was different. She began living as a woman in adolescence and started taking hormones at 18.
She ran a salon from her home, coloring and cutting hair. She said she was harassed because of her gender identity and attacked at least twice, leaving scars on her arm and head. Police also questioned her about operating a private business, she said — though housefront businesses are common in the area.
In 2023, Fuentes sold her home and left amid a deepening economic crisis and a crackdown on dissent — even as Cuba, one of Latin America’s most progressive countries for LGBTQ+ rights, adopted new inclusion laws. Making her way to the U.S., she said, she presented as a man traveling through Central America; she believed it was safer.
After seven months in Mexico, she said, she entered the U.S. through Texas via CBP One, a President Joe Biden-era online appointment system that allowed migrants to live in the country for two years on humanitarian grounds. Then she went to Miami.
There, she began living openly as a woman again. She found work styling hair and performed at Azúcar. Though she lacked permanent legal status, Fuentes said Miami offered something she’d rarely experienced: the freedom to move through daily life as herself.
That ended when officers encountered her outside a motel. Fuentes said they learned she had missed an immigration court hearing in Texas. She said she asked that the case be moved to Florida but received no response.
Fuentes said she was taken into custody and later placed in immigration detention with men. Officials confiscated her wig and gave her a male detainee’s uniform, she said.
Such treatment is in line with a January 2025 executive order directing officials to exclude transgender women from women’s prisons and detention centers.
“When I learned that they were going to put me with men, I almost fainted,” Fuentes said.
Fuentes was held at two detention facilities in Florida, then transferred to Texas. When armed officers arrived there, she said, she suspected she was facing deportation, but they didn’t reveal she was being sent to Africa until about five hours into the flight.
Other deportees on the flight told AP they also weren’t told the destination until they were on the plane. Dozens have been sent to the Central African Republic, including an Iranian woman facing persecution in her home country and an Afghan whose brothers worked with the U.S. military.
Fuentes said she does not understand why she was sent to Africa rather than Cuba. She told AP she has no lawyer.
The U.S. does repatriate Cuban citizens, as part of agreements to resume deportation flights in 2023, despite tensions in relations between the countries. Charter flights have arrived in Havana regularly.
Yasmany Moreno, another Cuban deportee in Bangui, said that upon arriving, the group had no visas or documents establishing their legal status in the country. Officials spoke of providing assistance for 90 days, he said, but the deportees didn’t know what would happen afterward or where they would live.
Several told AP their longer-term status remained unclear and that U.S. authorities had taken their identity documents.
A policy officer at the Central African Republic’s Foreign Ministry said the deportees are in “good hands” and are being monitored by the International Organization for Migration. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
The U.S. this year committed to $85 million in funding to IOM for Central African Republic operations including “assistance to migrants” and “community stabilization.”
IOM says migrants can seek asylum in the country, request assistance to return home or get help traveling to another place they’re authorized to enter. It referred questions about the deportees’ status and individual cases such as Fuentes’ to Central African Republic officials. A government spokesperson didn’t reply to phone calls and text messages seeking comment.
Human Rights Watch’s report says some people deported to third countries face detention, abuse and the prospect of persecution. Eswatini has held deportees in a maximum-security prison without charges. Equatorial Guinea has held them against their will at a hotel owned by the president’s family.
“Several of these African governments are not only complicit in U.S. abuses but have violated the human rights of these deported people themselves,” Michael Garcia Bochenek, of Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.
Fuentes said the Cuban men in her room know she is a woman and look out for her. She rarely feels safe enough to leave. Once, at a supermarket, workers pointed at her breasts and initially refused to sell her fruit, she said. Other people in Bangui have mocked her and pointed at her.
“My personal appearance is awful,” she said. “I look like a different human being.”
Moreno described restrictions on the group’s movements, saying officers accompanied them to the market and on occasional outings but restricted them from going out at night.
Fuentes and Moreno said they have no passports or other identification and cannot work. Most days, Fuentes remains at the compound, looking at her phone and waiting for travel documents.
She said Cuba has agreed to accept her return — a Cuban embassy document shows she is authorized.
But Fuentes said she hopes to seek asylum elsewhere, possibly Canada.
“The harassment and economic hardship that caused me to flee still remain,” she said.
Banchereau writes for the Associated Press. Jean Fernand Koena in Bangui, Central African Republic; Tim Sullivan in Minneapolis; and Cristiana Mesquita in Havana contributed to this report.
IF you want beautifully hot winters without the long, stopover flights, then an island is about to be on your list.
The island of Mauritius, just off the coast of Madagascar in East Africa, has seen a drop in passengers in recent years.
According to Travel Gossip, visitor numbers fell by 11 per cent, linked to the Middle East conflict due to the majority of flights operating via Dubai.
However, it also rose slightly back in August, with last-minute bookings to the island.
Airline Air Mauritius – who currently operates flights from London Gatwick – could add even more from the UK.
Dinesh Burrenchobay, Chairman of the Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority, said: “Air Mauritius has committed to increase its frequency back to five flights a week, maybe even six or seven.
“It didn’t commit to a timeline, but I think we will get extra flights from the UK by next summer.”
The UK is one of the island’s biggest markets, with as many 150,000 visiting a year.
Air Mauritius UK Country Sales Manager Allan Owen added: “We are looking at the tourist board to increase knowledge of Mauritius and what it has to offer and we will increase capacity in line with rising demand.”
Direct flights from the UK to Mauritius take just under 12 hours.
However, the time difference can be as little as 3-4 hours, so jet lag is minimal.
Not just that, but January is one of its hottest months with highs of 30C, so its the ideal escape from the cold UK.
When it comes to visiting the island, the north is popular with fly-and-floppers with most resorts lining the beaches.
Otherwise the south of the island is more for the nature fans, with waterfalls and tropical jungles.
One of it’s most famous beaches is Le Morne Beach, often named one of the best in the world.
We’ve found some very cheap holiday deals – local B&B breaks start from £739pp (with flights and seven nights) while beachside resorts start from £999pp on loveholidays.
South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced new measures to combat femicide and gender-based violence in the country. Since July, the bodies of at least 11 women have been found in an area east of Johannesburg prompting a nationwide outcry for action
Published On 30 Sep 202630 Sep 2026
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