The United States has revoked more than 6,000 visas in a crackdown on so-called birth tourism.

What was announced

In a statement on X on Thursday, 12 November 2026, the State Department said its Birth Tourism Prevention Task Force had cancelled the visas of foreign nationals found to have taken part in or facilitated the practice. It said the crackdown targets not only people who travelled to give birth but also those who helped arrange such trips, and described the practice as illicit. The department did not release a breakdown of the nationalities affected.

What is birth tourism

Birth tourism refers to travelling to the United States specifically to give birth, so that the child acquires US citizenship under the birthright citizenship provision of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution.

Why it matters to Nigerians

Giving birth in the US has been popular among some Nigerians who can afford it, and the US has previously warned that visitor visas may be refused to applicants suspected of travelling to give birth.

Microsoft is working to restore its services after a global outage disrupted Outlook email, Teams and its Copilot AI assistant for users around the world.

What happened

The outage began on Thursday, 12 November 2026, and affected Microsoft 365 services in 74 countries and territories, according to reports on Friday. Many users were unable to load their inboxes or send and receive emails, while others had trouble with Teams calls and Copilot. Reports of Outlook problems on an outage-tracking website peaked at nearly 140,000 worldwide.

Microsoft's explanation

Microsoft initially blamed the problem on unusually high traffic across parts of its infrastructure, which caused connection errors. The company said it had paused some deployments while it worked on a fix.

Why it matters

Outlook and Teams are widely used by businesses and organisations around the world, including in Nigeria.

Nigeria's Super Eagles beat Tanzania 3-1 at the Godswill Akpabio Stadium in Uyo on Friday, 13 November 2026, in a crucial 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier.

How the match went

Alhassan Yusuf gave Nigeria a dream start with a goal in the second minute, but Tanzania equalised through Alphonce Masanga. Ademola Lookman was forced off injured late in the first half and replaced by Moses Simon. Coach Eric Chelle then brought on Tolu Arokodare and Moses Usor in the second half, and the change paid off immediately: Arokodare scored in the 52nd minute, and the two substitutes combined for Arokodare's second goal and Nigeria's third in the 60th minute.

Table

The win moved Nigeria to second in Group L, one point behind Guinea-Bissau, who were held 1-1 by Madagascar. Nigeria play Tanzania again in their next match, and a win there would take them to nine points, putting them in a strong position to qualify with two games left.

Arokodare delivers

Arokodare, who has been in strong form on loan at Ajax in the Netherlands, had promised to carry his club form into the national team in the absence of the injured Victor Osimhen. Chelle later sent him a message after his brace.

Background

Tanzania are one of the co-hosts of AFCON 2027, along with Kenya and Uganda.

Prominent political figures from Plateau State have endorsed President Bola Tinubu's re-election bid for 2027.

The meeting

The endorsement was made by voice vote at a meeting in Jos organised by Arewa for Asiwaju (A4A), a pro-Tinubu group, according to a statement released on Friday, 13 November 2026. Those present included former governors, ministers, senators, members of the House of Representatives, commissioners and council chairmen, who also adopted other All Progressives Congress (APC) candidates in the state.

What the leaders said

Former governor Simon Lalong, who chaired the meeting as deputy chairman of A4A's board of trustees, said those present believed the President was committed to Nigeria's development and that keeping him in office would speed up economic growth. Former governor Joshua Dariye credited the Tinubu administration with meaningful contributions to Plateau and the country.

Background

Plateau is a key battleground in the North Central. Peter Obi won the state in the 2023 presidential election. A Middle Belt youth group that backed Obi in 2023 also recently switched its support to Tinubu. The presidential election is scheduled for 16 January 2027.