A transitional council responsible for choosing Haiti’s next leadership has named one of its members as council president and proposed a new interim prime minister amid efforts to control the gang violence in the Caribbean nation.

The council, which is responsible for paving the way for elections and addressing the country’s deteriorating security situation, on Tuesday named Edgard Leblanc Fils as its president and proposed former sports minister Fritz Bélizaire as new interim prime minister.

The nine-member council, which was sworn in at the National Palace last week, consists of seven voting members and was established with the help of the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM). It is tasked with the responsibility of naming a new prime minister and cabinet.

The committee will exercise certain presidential powers until a new president-elect is inaugurated, which must take place no later than February 7, 2026.

The country’s former prime minister, Ariel Henry, resigned last week as the council was sworn in and the former finance minister, Michael Patrick Boisvert, has been filling the role on a temporary basis.

Still to come are the tasks of appointing a new head of government and a cabinet; coordinating the arrival of a multinational security force to reclaim the capital; and eventually holding long-overdue elections.

The gangs oppose the council, he added, saying it was more of the same, and it was time for the old political elites to go – a view held by many in Haiti.

Since February, attacks by an insurgent alliance of gangs in the capital Port-au-Prince mean the city’s international airport and seaport have ceased to function, breaking vital supply lines of food and aid and triggering an exodus of evacuation flights for foreign nationals.

With the city virtually cut off from the outside world, hospitals have been vandalized while warehouses and containers storing food and essential supplies have been broken into as the social fabric frays.

According to the UN, nearly 5 million people in Haiti are suffering from acute food insecurity – defined as when a person’s inability to consume adequate food poses immediate danger to their lives or livelihoods.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

A nearly 300-year-old settlement once submerged beneath a major dam in the Philippines has reemerged as sweltering heat and drought dry up the reservoir.

Structures, including part of a church, tombstones and a municipal hall marker, reappeared in the middle of Pantabangan Dam in Nueva Ecija province in March after months of almost no rain, Marlon Paladin, a supervising engineer for the National Irrigation Administration, told AFP.

The area was deliberately flooded in the 1970s in the dam’s construction. But a drought currently affecting about half of the country’s provinces has pushed the dam’s water levels down, according to AFP.

Figures from the Philippine government’s weather agency, PAGASA, show those levels on April 30 were nearly 50 meters (160 feet) lower than normal.

Paladin told AFP that this is the sixth time the settlement has resurfaced since the creation of the reservoir, but “this is the longest time [it was visible] based on my experience.”

When water levels drop, the ruins become a popular tourist attraction, according to AFP.

Like much of Southeast Asia, the Philippines has for the past several weeks been hit by scorching heat, leading schools to suspend classes after temperatures hit 42 degrees Celsius (107 degrees Fahrenheit).

Although April and May are normally the hottest months in the Philippines, with temperatures averaging in the mid-30s (high 80s to mid 90s Fahrenheit), much of the country has seen even hotter temperatures.

In the past five days, the heat index in some areas has exceeded 40 degrees (104 degrees Fahrenheit), figures from PAGASA show. Heat index is a calculation of what the human body feels the temperature is like. It takes into account the actual temperature and humidity, which affects the body’s ability to cool itself.

The town of Muñoz near the dam has seen heat index over 41 degrees (106 degrees Fahrenheit) the last five days. On Sunday the temperature felt like 47 degrees (117 degrees Fahrenheit) because of other contributing factors. As of the end of March, drought covered much of northern and central Luzon, including Nueva Ecija province where the dam is located, according to PAGASA.

April has remained dry across the country, with portions of central and southern Luzon seeing less than 25% of the rainfall they should receive at this time, according to the US Climate Prediction Center.

This year, the El Niño climate pattern has exacerbated those conditions, according to AFP. This natural fluctuation comes on top of planetary warming caused by human-driven climate change.

Last spring, several countries in Southeast Asia experienced record-breaking heat well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

A 2023 report from the World Weather Attribution described that heatwave as a once-in-200-years event that would have been “virtually impossible to have occurred without climate change.”

King Charles III, who is being treated for an unspecified cancer, returned to public duties on Tuesday with his first official engagement since his diagnosis after his doctors were said to have been “very encouraged” by his progress.

The 75-year-old monarch revealed he was battling cancer in early February and is continuing his treatment as he restarts his public-facing engagements.

The first fresh entry in his diary was a visit to a cancer treatment center in London, where he was expected to meet patients and staff.

The King, who has been patron of Macmillan Cancer Support for nearly three decades, was accompanied by his wife, the Queen. The pair smiled and waved at well-wishers gathered nearby upon arrival before being welcomed to the hospital by medical staff.

Camilla, 76, has been president of cancer care and support charity, Maggie’s since 2008.

The King has largely remained out of the public eye during his treatment so far, apart from an outing on Easter Sunday when he delighted crowds with an impromptu walkabout after attending church with several family members.

Tuesday’s visit to University College Hospital Macmillan Cancer Centre was to reiterate the value of early diagnosis and focus attention on some of the innovative research taking place there.

The King’s outing came as he was announced as the new patron of Cancer Research UK. While at the center, he was due to meet with the organization’s chief clinician, Charlie Swanton, who has led a project called TRACERx, which is focused on lung cancer.

While Buckingham Palace announced on Friday that the British sovereign had been given the green light to return to public duties, it will be a cautious return.

It said that forthcoming events would be adapted where necessary to minimize any risks to his convalescence.

The palace did not specify how many engagements were being added to the King’s diary or whether he would be able to attend his birthday parade in London or the D-Day 80th anniversary commemorations in Normandy in June.

However, it has been confirmed that he will welcome Japan’s Emperor and Empress for a state visit later that month.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

The Duchess of Edinburgh has become the first member of the British royal family to visit Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in 2022, Buckingham Palace announced on Monday.

Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh, who is the wife of Prince Edward, King Charles’ youngest sibling, travelled to Ukraine on Monday to “show her solidarity with survivors of conflict-related sexual violence and torture,” the palace said.

The duchess is a champion of the UK’s Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative and the United Nations’ Women, Peace and Security Agenda.

Sophie met survivors of conflict-related sexual violence and torture, as well as children who were allegedly forcibly separated from their families by Russia, according to Buckingham Palace.

“Survivors here and around the world have spoken out so bravely about their experiences,” the Duchess of Edinburgh said. “They are the most powerful advocates who remind us all that we must not turn our backs on the horrors of this crime, we must never forget survivors.”

“Rather, we must stand shoulder to shoulder with all survivors to secure justice and holistic redress, and ensure that this crime isn’t an accepted part of conflict,” she said, adding that the survivors’ “rights and their voices must be at the heart of all our efforts to consign conflict-related sexual violence to the history books.”

Sophie paid her respects to those who died in Bucha, a suburb of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, which was briefly occupied by Russia at the start of its full-scale invasion. Hundreds of civilians, including women, children and the elderly, were killed indiscriminately during the month-long occupation.

The duchess also met with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and First Lady Olena Zelenska to discuss support for survivors of conflict-related sexual violence, as well as the role of women in ensuring that Ukraine’s “recovery and reconstruction is effective and long-lasting,” Buckingham Palace said.

Sophie has previously visited countries including Kosovo, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Colombia to highlight the impact of conflict on survivors, hearing first-hand accounts from those who have experienced conflict-related sexual violence.

In March 2023, Prince William visited the Ukrainian-Polish border to meet British and Polish troops and learn more about their collaboration in supporting Ukraine.

Around 47 children vanish every day in Europe, according to new research by cross-border journalism collective Lost in Europe showing more than 50,000 child migrants went missing after arrival over the past three years.

Data requested from 31 European countries, including Austria, Germany, and Italy, show at least 51,433 unaccompanied refugee minors were registered as missing between 2021 and the end of 2023. The actual figure could be higher due to inadequate documentation of cases, with some countries not collecting data on such children at all.

The research builds on findings released in 2021 that revealed at least 18,000 child migrants disappeared upon arrival in Europe in the three years from January 2018 to December 2020.

Aagje Ieven, secretary general for Missing Children Europe, a federation bringing together grassroots organizations across the continent, said the increased number of reported cases revealed by the research serves as a sharp reminder of the many instances  yet to be uncovered.

“More of the iceberg is becoming visible, and that is a positive evolution,” she said, comparing the unreported cases to the bulk of the ice below the water’s surface. Out of 31 contacted countries, Lost in Europe received 20 responses, with seven lacking required data and 11 not responding — representing an improvement from 12 responses overall in 2021. Lost in Europe was able to find the data needed for two of the countries that did not respond, Italy and Slovakia, in official reports.

Italy and Austria lead in registrations of missing unaccompanied minors, with 22,899 and 20,077 cases respectively, followed by Belgium, Germany and Switzerland with between roughly 2,200 and 1,200 reported cases.

The fate of missing unaccompanied migrant children is worrying, Ieven said. “They are at a higher risk of being targeted by traffickers, if not already exploited by smugglers to pay off debts, or because they hold control over their loved ones or their passports.”

Multiple factors contribute to the disappearance of migrant children. There are concerns that some may have fallen prey to human traffickers or been subjected to exploitation in the sex industry. Others disappear voluntarily because they do not trust the authorities or to escape unsafe reception conditions.

Many move to other countries to reunite with relatives or friends without registering it, Ieven said.

Ieven pointed out that the scarcity of opportunities for minors makes them vulnerable to exploitation, alongside the numerous traumas they endure prior to reaching Europe. A 2022 Ghent University study found that 84% of children experienced physical violence during their migration to Europe, with over 90% witnessing it.

Children make up around 40% of the world’s displaced people, according to the United Nations. While fleeing wars and conflicts, thousands of children find themselves separated from their families and relatives, and others travel alone, sent ahead by parents seeking to ensure their survival.

Afghanistan was the country of origin for at least one in three unaccompanied minors who went missing in Europe between 2021 and 2023. The number of Afghan children arriving there increased following the Taliban takeover of power in August 2021.

Other significant countries of origin include Syria, Tunisia, Egypt, and Morocco, according to the data collected by Lost in Europe.

Patricia Durr, chief executive of ECPAT UK, a children’s rights organization, emphasized in comments to Lost in Europe that the situation represents a crisis in child protection, “exacerbated by punitive border policies and the lack of safe and legal routes for children in Europe to move between member states safely.”

An Austrian Ministry of the Interior spokesperson noted that the substantial influx of asylum applications from unaccompanied minor refugees presents specific challenges regarding legal representation and reception, Lost in Europe said.

Patricia Durr raised further concerns about the impact that the EU’s new Pact on Migration and Asylum, approved by the European Parliament in April 2024, will have on children on the move. “Measures such as including children within detention for screening purposes is a clear breach of their rights under international law and will increase their vulnerability to going missing, abuse and trafficking,” she said.

According to Ieven, registering migrant children and acknowledging their rights, including access to education, is crucial for their safety. “What will keep them safe is understanding that there is a future for them in the system, rather than outside of it,” she said.

Lost in Europe is a not-for-profit cross-border journalism project investigating the disappearance of child migrants in Europe.

On delivery day at the Manganese Metal Company’s industrial complex in Mbombela, South Africa, truckloads of manganese ore from the Kalahari Basin in the Northern Cape are ushered inside for processing.

Manganese is commonly found in the Earth’s crust. The mineral is not only known for its nutritional benefits, but it’s critical in the production of steel and batteries.

South Africa has the world’s largest manganese reserves; however, the International Manganese Institute estimates only 2% of the manganese ore produced within the country is locally processed. The Manganese Metal Company is looking to fill this gap.

The refinery says it receives about 80,000 metric tons of manganese a year to produce high grade electrolytic manganese metal (EMM) – one of the critical alloy components to make steel.

The company’s CEO, Louis Nel, says over the last decade it has seen a “significant” increase in demand for refined manganese in part due to the growing demand for lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles (EV).

“With the growth in EV sales globally, that requires raw materials and batteries. Manganese is a key component in those batteries. So of course, with the uptick in EVs, the raw materials are pulled along,” Nel said.

Production challenges

Most manganese by-products are found within the steel industry. Aloys d’Harambure, the executive director of the International Manganese Institute, says only 2% of manganese is used for batteries, with only 1% of that going toward rechargeable batteries.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) found the demand for automotive lithium-ion batteries increased 65% in 2022 due to rising EV sales. And while there are several ways to create lithium-ion batteries, the chemistry combination of lithium, nickel, manganese, and cobalt oxide (NMC) supplied 60% of the market share, according to the IEA.

Compared to other minerals used to make lithium-ion batteries, Nel says manganese, “provides some thermal stability to the battery, which is a safety concern” and is more affordable.

While the opportunity sounds promising, creating these batteries is no easy feat. “A battery consumes manganese in the form of chemical and that’s where the bottleneck is,” d’Harambure said.

He explains manufacturers need to use a high purity manganese sulfate to make the type of battery used in EVs. About 90% of these chemicals are processed in China, he adds, but notes there is a growing push to build chemical processing facilities in other parts of the world.

“Next year we should see some production in South Africa and in Mexico, and progressively in the US and Australia,” he said.

With an abundance of manganese reserves, South Africa has potential to become a leader in high purity manganese sulfate production, but d’Harambure says “issues with the electricity sector in South Africa” and “an increase in electricity prices” have made it difficult to produce manganese chemicals and alloys there.

D’Harambure adds the country has been slow to open manganese chemical processing facilities due to the lack of local customers that would use the product.

“It’s better to build the manganese chemical facility near the customer because transporting manganese to another country is not extremely expensive – what is expensive is producing the chemical,” he said.

Green potential

These obstacles are not stopping the Manganese Metal Company from trying to capitalize on the EV boom and expand its processing facilities. The company says it is planning to build a $25 million commercial plant that can produce 5,000 metric tons of battery-grade manganese sulphate a year. Nel says he’s optimistic it can complete the build within 18 months and bring products to market by the end of 2026.

Access to this “strategic” metal valued by the US and Europe gives Africa advantages, Nel says, adding it will also generate “huge job creation opportunities, as well as economic growth.”

Several sectors within the local economy are already reaping the benefits of manganese. According to the International Manganese Institute, the manganese mining industry employed more than 20,000 South Africans in 2022.

D’Harambure also points to a need beyond steel and batteries for the green economy.

“Manganese is essential to producing several other green power technologies including solar panels (and) wind turbines. It’s also used to treat wastewater and extract pollutants from soil and air,” he said. “So, the whole push towards greener energy directly benefits to manganese industry.”

China’s coast guard fired water cannons that damaged a Philippine vessel on Tuesday, marking the latest flare-up of violence between the two countries in the disputed South China Sea, Philippine authorities said.

The Philippine Coast Guard said the incident occurred as one of its ships and a fisheries agency vessel carried out a “legitimate patrol” near Scarborough Shoal, a Chinese-controlled rocky outcrop 130 miles (200 kilometers) west of the main Philippine island of Luzon and inside Manila’s exclusive economic zone.

Video supplied by the Philippine Coast Guard showed two larger Chinese vessels firing water cannons from opposite sides of the Philippine ship.

“The Philippine vessels encountered dangerous maneuvers and obstruction from four China Coast Guard vessels and six Chinese Maritime Militia vessels,” Philippine Coast Guard spokesperson Commodore Jay Tarriela said in the statement.

The Philippine Coast Guard ship suffered “damage to the railing and canopy,” according to its statement. No injuries were reported.

In a post on social platform Weibo Tuesday, the China Coast Guard said it had expelled the Philippine vessels for “intruding” into the waters, “in accordance with the law.”

Beijing asserts ownership over almost all of the South China Sea in defiance of an international court ruling. Over the past two decades, China has occupied a number of obscure reefs and atolls far from its shoreline across the South China Sea, building up military installations, including runways and ports.

Scarborough Shoal, which China calls Huangyan Island and is also known as Bajo de Masinloc, is a small but strategic reef and fertile fishing ground.

There are no structures on the shoal, but China has maintained a continuous coast guard presence around it since 2012, according to the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative.

The Philippines also said Tuesday that China had reinstalled a 380-meter (1,247-feet) floating barrier that “covers the entire entrance of the shoal, effectively restricting access to the area.”

Scarborough Shoal is one of several disputed islands and reefs in the South China Sea, which have long been a flashpoint of territorial disputes between the two nations.

In March, Chinese coast guard ships fired water cannons against a Philippine vessel on a resupply mission to a contingent of Filipino marines on another contested South China Sea feature, Second Thomas Shoal, causing “heavy damages.”

That shoal sits about 200 kilometers (125 miles) from the coast of the Philippine island of Palawan. In the 1990s the Philippines grounded an aging World War II-era transport ship called the BRP Sierra Madre on the shoal, to help enforce its claim to the area. The ship is now mostly a rusted wreckage and is staffed by marines stationed on rotation.

Following that incident, the China Coast Guard said on Weibo it had taken “control measures in accordance with the law” against the Philippine vessels, which it said had “illegally entered the waters adjacent to Ren’ai Reef,” as Beijing calls Second Thomas Shoal.

Earlier in March, Chinese water cannon hit a Philippine resupply boat as it headed to Second Thomas Shoal, shattering windows and injuring four Filipino sailors.

Beijing and Manila’s South China Sea disputes have heated up since the 2022 election of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who has taken a stronger line against China than his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte.

The clashes have also raised fears they could lead to a wider conflict, as Manila maintains a mutual defense treaty with the United States, which Washington says covers Philippine vessels in the disputed waterway.

For many of us, an identity card is a little piece of plastic tucked away in a wallet that we rarely think much about.

But for Hong Kong transgender activist Henry Tse, his ID card was something that dominated his world for the past seven years, the center of a lengthy court battle and a fight for recognition that finally concluded this week.

On Monday, Tse finally picked up a new ID card that registered his gender as male at Hong Kong’s immigration office.

“This card in my hand means a lot to me and others who can finally get their new IDs,” he told reporters and photographers gathered outside.

Clad in a pink-and-blue-striped shirt over a white t-shirt – the colors of the transgender flag – he declared: “Finally, here comes the genuine solution to all the embarrassment and daily problems caused by an incompatible identity card.”

Tse’s legal battle is symptomatic of a wider trend across many places in East Asia where LGBTQ activists are forced to seek change through the courts against often conservative governments, even as public polls show growing acceptance for greater equality, especially among younger generations.

The 33-year-old activist, who holds both British and Hong Kong passports, identifies as a man and has lived as a man for years. His British passport identifies him as male but Hong Kong authorities refused to make that change for the city’s identity card, which is compulsory for all residents.

The card is essential for everything from filing tax returns and opening a bank account, to booking a tennis court or a doctor’s appointment.

For years, Hong Kong authorities insisted a gender change could not be registered unless the applicant had completed full gender confirmation surgery which, under the city’s rules, meant the removal or reconstruction of their genitalia.

Transgender rights groups have long argued that surgery is an individual’s choice and only one part of a person’s transition. Not all transgender people choose to have surgery, can afford to or are healthy enough to undergo such procedures which, like any surgery, can carry risks.

So in 2017, Tse took legal action against the Hong Kong government, which fought the case all the way.

Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal eventually ruled in Tse’s favor in February last year. But it took authorities more than a year to amend their policy to comply with the ruling, hence the long wait before Tse could finally retrieve his new ID card.

Even under the new legal framework unveiled by Hong Kong’s government, female-to-male transgender applicants are only required to undergo top surgery (the removal of breasts). However, male-to-female applicants still must have full gender confirmation surgery.

Hong Kong’s Immigration Department said it had to “consider and study carefully” the court ruling as the policy-making process, involving legal and medical opinion, is “complex.”

Battle for equality

Tse said life remained challenging while he waited for the government to act on the court order.

He described almost missing a flight because airline staff took issue with his gender on his old identity document and said he was detained by Chinese immigration officers while crossing the border into the mainland.

“I was still so anxious and felt being treated like a prisoner,” he said.

In late March, he filed another lawsuit accusing the government of “unreasonable delay.” Two weeks later, the government announced the new policy.

LGBTQ activists in Hong Kong have long questioned why they must keep fighting through the courts to gain recognition and equality, but they have nonetheless seen repeated successes.

That contrasts heavily with LGBTQ rights in mainland China where the community has come under increased pressure and scrutiny during the leadership of Xi Jinping.

In September last year, Hong Kong’s top court handed down the most far-reaching ruling yet, ordering the government to set up a new framework to legally recognize the rights of same-sex couples, despite not vouching for full marriage.

The government has not yet announced a concrete plan to put in place the court’s ruling.

Taiwan became the first place in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage in 2019, two years after its Constitutional Court ruled that restrictions were unconstitutional.

Last year Japan’s top court ruled against the government’s requirement that transgender people must be sterilized before they changed their gender.

Meanwhile, a high court in Japan found in March this year that the country’s ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional, according to Reuters, in a case set to continue in the courts.

For Tse, his battle for equality has at least concluded.

“What is normal for any other men has finally become normal for me,” he said.

She spoke on the sidelines of the AmCham Business Summit after meeting Kenyan President William Ruto during her first official trip to Africa.

Anti-Western sentiment

Like many other African nations, Kenya has deep ties with China, which has funding projects and major infrastructure projects across the continent.

Russia is also making fresh inroads into the continent, capitalizing on anti-Western sentiment in some nations to profit from arms sales and natural resources.

Secretary Raimondo addressed the criticism that African nations dislike ‘lectures’ from the US and its European allies about democracy and human rights, and many prefer dealing with China or Russia that don’t make similar demands.

Raimondo said the US is coming to Africa “without strings attached,” saying she had brought more than a dozen businesses to the Nairobi summit.

“I just met with President Ruto, and we had a fantastic meeting. I said to him: we’re not here to lecture, we’re here to partner, we’re here to learn from you, we’re here to invest, in your people and in your country,” she said.

Ministers from the Group of Seven nations have agreed to shut down all their coal plants by 2035 at the latest, a UK minister said on Monday, in a climate policy breakthrough that could influence other countries to do the same.

“We do have an agreement to phase out coal in the first half of the 2030s,” Andrew Bowie, a UK minister at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, told Class CNBC in Turin, Italy. “This is, by the way a historic agreement, something that we weren’t able to achieve at COP28 in Dubai last year.”

“So, to have the G7 nations come around the table to send that signal to the world — that we, the advanced economies of the world are committed to phasing out coal by the early 2030s — is quite incredible.”

The US State Department declined to comment on the G7 agreement. Last week, the US Environmental Protection Agency announced new rules that will require coal-fired power plants to either capture nearly all of their climate pollution or shut down by 2039.

“Coming just days after the EPA released proposed new rules that will essentially lead to an accelerated phaseout schedule for most coal plants, this G7 commitment is a further confirmation from the US that coal is on its way out sooner rather than later,” said Katrine Petersen, a senior policy advisor at climate think tank E3G.

The commitment is “a major step forward in particular for Japan, as the only G7 country left without a commitment to move away from coal,” Petersen said.

Many of the other G7 nations already have national plans in place to phase out the fossil fuel. Around 16% of the G7s electricity comes from coal, Ember reports.

“This is another nail in the coffin for coal,” said Dave Jones, Ember’s Global Insights program director. “The journey to phase out coal power has been long: it’s been over seven years since the UK, France, Italy and Canada committed to phase out coal power, so it’s good to see the United States and especially Japan at last be more explicit on their intentions.”

He warned, however, that while coal power has been falling, gas consumption continues. “Coal might be the dirtiest, but all fossil fuels need to be ultimately phased out,” he said.

Fossil fuels are the main cause of the climate crisis. Almost every country in the world agreed last year to transition away from fossil fuels at the COP28 climate talks in Dubai, but failing to put an end date on coal was seen as a shortcoming of those negotiations.

Energy, environment and climate ministers are meeting in Turin for talks that are expected to end on Tuesday.

The G7 — made up of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, with the European Union as a member with special status — typically leads on global climate policy. The group’s decisions often trickle down or influence the wider G20, which includes other big emitters, like China and India, as well as major fossil fuel producers, such as Saudi Arabia and Russia.

This story has been updated with additional information.