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.

Editor’s Note: Warning: This story has graphic content.

Twenty-two people, including at least one infant and a toddler, have been killed in an Israeli airstrike over Rafah, Gaza, overnight into Monday, according to hospital officials.

The deceased were brought into Abu Youssef Al Najjar hospital in Rafah following the attack, as their loved ones gathered for their final farewells.

People are seen crouching over the body bags, with some caressing their loved one’s lifeless bodies. At least one baby’s head can be seen sticking out of a bag, as the woman beside it shouts: “My whole family has perished.”

The baby’s uncle, Mahmoud Abu Taha, was carrying the 1-year-old’s lifeless body while talking to the camera, saying his parents had tried having children for 10 years before he was born.

“We were sitting in our homes, not doing anything. It was unexpected when they struck the house. Everyone was asleep in their beds… most of the people that were killed were displaced… they were women and children,” he said.

Lifting the baby boy’s body to the camera, Mahmoud Abu Taha cries out, “this is who they are targeting. This is their objective. This is the generation they’re looking for. This is the safe Rafah they talk about.”

“The IDF will continue to foil terrorist activity and protect Israeli civilians, in accordance with international law,” it added.

Another member of the Abu Taha family says in the video that 10 of his relatives were killed in the airstrike. Some of his relatives were originally displaced from Khan Younis, where several of them were killed in a previous Israeli airstrike. The remaining few who had fled Khan Younis for the safety of Rafah have now been killed overnight in Rafah, he says.

He called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stop the war, saying “we want to live. We want peace. Enough Arab bloodshed.”

Another eyewitness says a five-day-old boy named Ghaith Abu Rayya was killed in the airstrike. The footage shows him opening a small body bag to reveal the infant’s head, saying his body has been dismembered.

“We are all alone. Nobody cares about us,” he cries.

He is seen opening another body bag next to Ghaith’s, sobbing, and saying, “my beloved Ramy,” who he says is Ghaith’s 33-year-old father.

Several men are seen bringing in another body bag with the name “Ahmad Saleem Abu Taha” written across it, and the crowded people start wailing in distress.

One woman caresses the lifeless face, which has been left exposed, saying: “Oh his smell. Oh God. Goodbye my beloved.”

The death toll in the Gaza Strip has risen to at least 34,454 following 205 days of war between Israel and Hamas, the Ministry of Health in Gaza reported on Sunday. The ministry does not distinguish between casualties among civilians and Hamas fighters.

The latest proposal, which Israel helped craft but has not fully agreed to, is laid out in two phases, the first of which calls for 20 to 33 hostages to be released over several weeks in exchange for the pause and the release of Palestinian prisoners. The second phase is what sources described as the “restoration of sustainable calm,” during which the remaining hostages, captive Israeli soldiers and the bodies of hostages would be exchanged for more Palestinian prisoners.

The diplomatic source familiar with the talks said the reference to sustainable calm was “a way to agree to a permanent ceasefire without calling it that.”

After months of deadlock, agreement from both sides would be a major step toward ending the war. But a failure to agree could deepen Israel’s presence in Gaza — if no deal is made, Israel is likely to launcha large-scale ground invasion into the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians are sheltering. Israel’s allies, including the United States, have warned against the operation due to the potential for large-scale civilian casualties.

Israel is awaiting a response from Hamas, which is expected to meet Egyptian and Qatari mediators in Cairo on Monday, the sources said. A working-level Israeli delegation of Mossad, Shin Bet and the Israeli military officials is expected to travel to Cairo on Tuesday, the Israeli source and another Israeli official said.

A response from Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader in Gaza, is expected within days — possibly within the next 24 hours.

The length of the first phase of the pause in hostilities would be linked to the number of hostages released, with the latest framework calling for a one-day pause for each hostage, the Israeli source said, although this number is expected to shift during more in-depth negotiations.

The release of 40 hostages for a six-week ceasefire had been the basis of negotiations for months, but Israel has agreed to accept fewer hostages in the first phase after Hamas dropped its offer to fewer than 20 people earlier this month.

‘Extraordinarily generous’ proposal

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday that Hamas has been presented with a ceasefire proposal that is “extraordinarily generous on the part of Israel.”

“In this moment the only thing standing between the people of Gaza and a ceasefire is Hamas,” he told World Economic Forum (WEF) President Børge Brende in the Saudi capital Riyadh. “They (Hamas) have to decide and they have to decide quickly,” he said. “I’m hopeful that they will make the right decision.”

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, also speaking in Riyadh, said he was hopeful that Israel and Hamas will accept the proposal.

“There is a proposal on the table, up to the two sides to consider and accept but certainly the objective is a ceasefire, a permanent ceasefire and dealing with the humanitarian conditions,” Shoukry told a panel at the WEF in Riyadh on Monday.

He said he is hopeful that “the proposal has been taken into account” and that “we are waiting to have a final decision.”

Israeli officials have expressed an openness to negotiating the “restoration of sustainable calm” as part of a comprehensive deal that would effectively end the war.

An Israeli source familiar with the negotiations said Egypt has proposed the parties agree to a one-year ceasefire as part of a comprehensive deal that would see Israeli forces withdraw from Gaza and the release of all remaining hostages and the bodies of those who have died.

Hamas has insisted that a permanent ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza should be part of the agreement. Israel has thus far maintained that its operation in Gaza will continue until Hamas is eradicated.

Israel has also now agreed to the unrestricted movement of Palestinians to northern Gaza, the sources said, a key demand by Hamas which has held back negotiations in the past.

Rafah operation

Hanging over the negotiations is the increasingly likely prospect of an Israeli military offensive in Rafah, which Israeli officials have signposted for months but are now holding back, saying they want to give space to the negotiations.

But Israeli sources have characterized the latest Egyptian effort to broker a deal as the last chance to avert that offensive.

“The only chance to stop Rafah is a deal,” the Israeli source familiar with the negotiations said.

The US and other Israel allies have warned that such an operation will not have their support if adequate measures aren’t taken to ensure the safety of civilians.

“Preparations for entering Rafah continue. In any deal, if there is one, Israel will not give up the goals of the war,” the Israeli official said.

Blinken reiterated in Riyadh that the US wouldn’t support a major military operation in Rafah “in the absence of a plan to ensure that civilians will not be harmed”.

“We have not yet seen a plan that civilians can be effectively protected,” he said.

White House National Security Council communications adviser John Kirby said Sunday that Israel has told its US counterparts that it won’t launch an invasion of Rafah until the Biden administration can share its concerns.

“I think we have to have a better understanding from the Israelis about what they want to do as a matter of fact, we’ve had several staff talks with them, we intend to do that more,” he said on ABC. “They’ve assured us that they won’t go into Rafah until we’ve had a chance to really share our perspectives and our concerns with them.”

In a call Sunday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Joe Biden addressed the need for increased humanitarian assistance and “reiterated his clear position” on a potential Israeli invasion of Rafah, according to a White House readout of the conversation.

Rising death toll

The death toll from Israel’s bombardment in Gaza continued to climb over the weekend.

Twenty people, including at least one infant and a toddler, died following an Israeli airstrike over Rafah, Gaza, overnight into Monday, according to hospital officials.

In a separate incident, two people were killed and several others injured when an Israeli airstrike targeted a house belonging to the Hijazi family in the Sabra neighborhood in the center of Gaza City, according to Basal.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Monday he will not resign, five days after canceling his public duties to “reflect” on whether to continue in the job, on the heels of a Spanish court opening a probe against his wife, Begoña Gomez.

Sanchez, a socialist, made the announcement in a TV address from his official compound in Madrid, following a corruption complaint against Gomez brought by Manos Limpias (Clean Hands), an organization with links to the far-right.

“I have decided to continue, with more force if possible, as the head of the Spanish government,” the 52-year-old prime minister said.

Sanchez said he would step up his fight against “unfounded” attacks, such as the one against his wife, which he has previously blamed on conservative and far-right forces.

“I act on clear conviction. Or we say enough of this degradation or it will condemn us as a nation,” he said Monday. “This is not an ideological question. It’s a question of dignity and defines us as a society.

“My wife and I know this campaign (against us) will not stop,” and he said it’s been ongoing for 10 years.

Sanchez thanked his Spanish Socialist Party members for their support.

The prime minister’s decision on Monday came after the Madrid regional Superior Court of Justice launched a probe against Gomez “for alleged influence peddling and business corruption” after receiving the complaint from Manos Limpias.

News of the probe surfaced on April 24, and Sanchez announced that he had suspended his public duties until Monday in order to “stop and reflect” on “if I should continue leading the government.”

The prime minister said in a post on X that the Clean Hands complaint appeared to be based on “alleged information” published by what he termed some “right and far-right” digital media.

On April 25, prosecutors presented an appeal to the judge against the probe and asked him to shelve the case, according to the Spanish Attorney General’s press office.

Manos Limpias acknowledged on the same day that it had relied on press reports for its court complaint. “It will be up to the judge to determine if that journalistic information is true or not,” the group said in a statement.

On Friday, another group linked to conservative causes, Hazte Oir (Make Yourself Heard) made public its own complaint to the same court against Gomez, listing only alleged “influence peddling” against her.

Sanchez’ Socialist party performed strongly in recent regional elections in Spain’s northern Basque region. Polling also predicts that the party will do well in regional elections in Catalonia in next month.

Sanchez became prime minister in 2018 after winning a no-confidence vote against the conservative Mariano Rajoy.

He won a general election in November 2019, but fell short of a majority. He formed a coalition government with the leftist Podemos party but called snap elections in May 2023 after his party suffered major setbacks in regional and local elections.

Sanchez managed to form a new coalition with a narrow parliamentary majority and was sworn in for a four-year term in November 2023.

Sanchez’s government has been a staunch ally of Ukraine, sending tanks, air defense systems and other aid to Kyiv.

At home, his government has implemented a progressive agenda, including policies on women’s rights and a euthanasia law. These reforms won votes in urban areas, but the pace of change has also led to a backlash in other parts of Spain, as has his openness to working with separatist parties as worries over the breakup of the country.

According to government estimates, some 12,500 people filled the narrow streets around the Socialist Party headquarters in Madrid on Saturday to call on Sanchez to stay. Another 5,000 supporters rallied at the Spanish parliament on Sunday, the government said.

Despite a rainy start to Saturday’s proceedings, huge crowds turned out and chants of “Pedro, stay in office” and “Pedro, we do support you” could be heard amid enthusiastic cheering from the huge crowds.

Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf has resigned barely a year into the role after the collapse of his coalition government, a humbling and chaotic departure that throws Scotland’s ruling pro-independence party into chaos.

Yousaf’s coalition government fell apart unexpectedly last week when he tore up a coalition agreement with Green Party lawmakers, a risky move that backfired spectacularly when the Greens said they would vote against him in a confidence motion.

The ruling SNP will now hold a leadership candidate to replace Yousaf, he announced in a news conference on Monday.

Yousaf took over as the leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) party last March, hoping to extend the party’s domination of politics north of the border into a third decade and strengthen the case for a new referendum on Scottish independence.

But the party’s ever-worsening legal woes and a tumultuous coalition agreement put his leadership on brittle footing, and an unforced error to throw two Green lawmakers out of his government sent Yousaf into a five-day fight for his job.

“Unfortunately, in ending the Bute House Agreement in the manner I did, I clearly underestimated the level of hurt and upset that caused Green colleagues,” he admitted in his news conference.

“For a minority government to be able to govern effectively trust when working with the opposition is clearly fundamental,” he said.

The left-leaning SNP has led Scotland’s devolved government since 2007, and forced an independence vote in 2014 in which Scottish voters opted to remain part of the United Kingdom.

Yousaf has argued for another vote to be held in the coming years, insisting that Britain’s exit from the European Union – which Scots had voted against – changed the calculus.

But his calls have been batted back in Westminster and undermined by a long-running police investigation into financial irregularities by the SNP, which has eroded its public support.

The SNP will now look to elect a replacement to lead Yousaf’s government, but they are two seats short of a majority in Holyrood, Scotland’s seat of power, meaning any potential leader would have to win over opposition lawmakers in order to govern effectively.

Should the opposition unite to stonewall a new appointment, Scotland could ultimately face the prospect of going to the polls in a snap election. Opinion polls suggest the SNP would face a two-way battle with the resurgent and pro-union Labour party for control of parliament, having lost a chunk of its support since the last vote in 2021.

But the SNP will hope to avoid that possibility by finding a leader who can command enough support from opposition parties. Yousaf said Monday he would stay on until a new leader is chosen.

The SNP’s descent into disorder has nonetheless mired a remarkable, 17-year run of supremacy in Scotland, dimming the prospect of the bloc achieving its holy grail: quitting the union with England, Wales and Northern Ireland and striking out alone as an independent country.

A historic but brief tenure

In an emotional speech on Monday, Yousaf said it had been an “honor” to lead the SNP in government. But his time in power was rocky and his short tenure has harmed his party’s standing even further after a brutal year for the group.

Yousaf took over from the commanding former SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon last year, becoming the first non-White head of the Scottish government. On his victory he pointed to his own background – born in Glasgow, with a father from Pakistan and mother from Kenya – and views as examples of the progressive and multi-ethnic Scotland that the SNP has promoted.

Sturgeon had abruptly announced her resignation after a nine-year stint, and soon after was arrested then released without charge as police probed the party’s finances, causing a political headache for Yousaf early in his role.

Nonetheless, he never enjoyed the levels of popularity with voters that Sturgeon once did, and frequently found himself caught between the liberal tendencies of his Green allies and parts of his party on one side, and the more socially conservative members of the SNP on the other.

An especially controversial expansion of Scotland’s hate crime legislation, which expanded protections for transgender people, was hailed by LGBTQ+ groups but attacked by critics as a move that would stifle free speech.

Ultimately, Yousaf’s decision to drop key 2030 climate targets angered the Greens, prompting him to tear up the so-called Bute Agreement between the parties and instead try rule as a minority government. In response, the Greens pulled their support for him altogether, meaning a narrow majority of the Scottish Parliament was positioned against him.

Scotland had pitched itself as a global climate leader by setting a goal of slashing carbon emissions by 75% by 2030, from 1990 levels — one of the most ambitious targets in the world. But Yousaf’s government was forced to admit earlier this month that the nation was off track in meeting the goal and scrapped the target outright.

Yousaf said that the goal, which was set before he came into office, was “beyond what we are able to achieve.”

At least 35 people have been killed and dozens of others are missing after a dam burst in southern Kenya, sweeping away homes and vehicles as the country grapples with weeks of heavy rains and devastating flash floods.

The incident comes as flooding has inundated large swathes of Kenya, killing at least 103 people and forcing thousands of residents from their homes since March, government spokesperson Isaac Maigua Mwaura said Monday.

In Mai Mahiu, Kihika said a serious situation was unfolding as floodwaters swept away people and homes.

“We are trying to get a handle on the situation but it’s a bit overwhelming but we’re doing the best we can especially to reach those who have been carried away because we hope that some are still alive,” Kihika said.

Access to Mai Mahiu, 20 miles north of the capital Nairobi, had been difficult as part of the road had been cut off from recent heavy rains, Kihika said. Teams are clearing debris as they try to reach survivors and pull out bodies, she added.

On Monday, the Kenya Red Cross Society said several people were taken to a health facility in Mai Mahiu due to the flash floods affecting Kamuchiri village.

“The floodwaters are reported to have originated from a nearby river that broke its banks,” the group said.

Kenya has registered heavy rain since mid-March but downpours have intensified over the past week, leading to mass flooding.

“Kenya is facing a worsening flood crisis due to the combined effects of El Niño and the ongoing March-May 2024 long rains,” IFRC Secretary General and CEO Jagan Chapagain said in a post on X, referring to the climate pattern that originates in the Pacific Ocean along the equator and impacts weather all over the world. “Since November 2023, El Niño triggered devastating floods and river overflows, causing more than a hundred deaths and widespread damage.”

The Horn of Africa, a region of East Africa that includes Kenya, is one of the most climate-vulnerable regions in the world — exposed to increasingly frequent and severe extreme weather events.

While rainfall is set to fall in the region overall, as the world warms, the frequency and intensity of extreme rainfall events is expected to increase, as a warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture.

The deadly rains across the Horn of Africa at the end of last year, which killed at least 300 people, were about twice as intense as they would have been without climate change, according to a December analysis from scientists at the World Weather Attribution (WWA) initiative.

Those rains followed years of catastrophic drought, the worst in at least four decades, which affected many parts of Kenya, killing livestock and crops, and causing widespread hunger and water insecurity. This drought was made 100 times more likely by planet-heating pollution from fossil fuels, an April WWA analysis found.

Some 131,450 people have been affected as floods swept through almost half of Kenya.

Images and video from Nairobi, which has been badly impacted, show people stranded on rooftops or salvaging what they can from homes destroyed by the flash floods.

Other video shows vast flooding around the Tana River, with large parts of the surrounding area underwater. Roads, buildings and vehicles are submerged.

The Ministry of Education announced Monday that all primary and secondary schools would postpone the start of the new school term for one week until May 6.

On Sunday, the Kenya Red Cross Society said 23 people had been rescued and others were missing after a boat capsized at Kona Punda while heading to Mororo, Tana River County, on Sunday.

As of Friday, the group said it has rescued more than 300 people since the onset of the rain in March.

Heavy rains in East Africa have also affected Tanzania and Burundi. Tanzanian Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa said on Thursday that at least 155 people have been killed by flooding in the country.