World News

By Diadie Ba, AyenDeng Bior and Anait Miridzhanian

DAKAR, May 25 (Reuters) – Senegal President Bassirou Diomaye Faye named a seasoned economist as prime minister on Monday, three days after dismissing the old government led by a firebrand populist who had spoken out against debt restructuring.

The new prime minister, Ahmadou Al Aminou Lo, formerly served as head of the Senegal branch of the Central Bank of West African States.

Appearing on state television for the announcement of his appointment, Lo said he wanted to reassure the local private sector and foreign investors even as he acknowledged Senegal’s difficult financial position.

“We must all be aware of the state of emergency our country currently finds itself in. In particular, the state of public finances and its impact on the economy,” he said.

“Senegal is a safe and reliable country and intends to remain so.”

The International Monetary Fund ​froze Senegal’s $1.8 billion lending program following the discovery of misreported debt, pushing the country’s end-2024 debt level to 132% of its economic ​output.

Ousmane Sonko, the outgoing prime minister, had opposed any restructuring of ‌the debt, ⁠estimated at $13 billion, which he said the IMF was advocating, while Faye has been less vocal on the issue.

Faye fired Sonko, the man who helped the president’s political rise, on Friday after months of mounting tensions.

POLITICAL UNCERTAINTY

In March, Sonko warned he could take the ruling Pastef party, which dominates the National Assembly, into opposition if the president strayed from the party’s agenda, a threat that looms over the government’s ability to pass any reforms needed to unlock IMF support.

The National Assembly is due to meet on Tuesday to discuss “reintegrating” Sonko as a lawmaker. The resignation of the National Assembly speaker on Sunday has fueled speculation Sonko himself could fill the role.

In his remarks on Monday, Lo said his appointment did not signal a retreat from Senegal’s commitment to “systemic transformation” under Faye, but instead reflected a new approach aligned with the president’s vision.

He also offered conciliatory words for Sonko, praising the record of the government he led, including an economic recovery plan announced last year that featured a heavy reliance on domestic funding.

(Reporting by Diadie Ba, Ayen Deng Bior and Anait Miridzhanian; Editing by Robbie Corey-Boulet and Paul Simao)

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DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — A Palestinian woman and a young girl were killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Gaza on Monday, hospital authorities said.

The strike hit a tent sheltering a displaced family in the area of Muwasi, on the western side of Khan Younis, according to the Kuwait field hospital, which received the casualties. The hospital said another girl was wounded.

The military said it had struck a militant, but gave no further details.

The fatalities were the latest among Palestinians in the coastal enclave since an October ceasefire deal attempted to halt a more than two-year war between Israel and the Palestinian militant Hamas group in Gaza. While the heaviest fighting has subsided, the shaky ceasefire has seen almost daily Israeli fire.

Israeli forces have carried out repeated airstrikes and frequently fire on Palestinians near military-held zones, killing more than 880 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

The ministry, which is part of the Hamas-led government, is generally seen as reliable by United Nations agencies and independent experts. But it does not give a breakdown of civilian and militant deaths.

Militants have carried out shooting attacks on troops, and Israel says its strikes are in response to violations of the truce or threats to its troops. Four Israeli soldiers have been killed since the ceasefire.

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May 25 (Reuters) – Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson said on Monday that conclusions have been reached on many topics discussed in a potential memorandum of understanding with the U.S., but this does not mean Tehran is close to signing an agreement.

The spokesperson, Esmaeil Baghaei, added that Iran is negotiating an end to the war and is not currently discussing nuclear issues, and repeated that changes in the positions of U.S. officials create problems for any agreement.

(Reporting by Elwely Elwelly and Tala Ramadan; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)

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DAGALO MAHAS, Sudan (AP) — The men carried metal detectors as they scanned a mountainous area in northern Sudan in search of gold. One man knelt to examine the ground with a digging tool for the precious metal in an environment that lacks even the most basic safety measures.

They are unregulated miners working in a small-scale private gold mine in the northern town of Dalgo Mahas. The mine is one of thousands of small-scale and artisanal mines scattered across Sudan, part of a sector that is at the center of the devastating war that has at times pushed parts of the country into famine.

Gold has become a major source of funding for Sudan’s treasury after the country lost over two-thirds of its oil revenues with the secession of South Sudan in 2011. The precious metal accounted for 70% of national revenues in the years that followed South Sudan’s departure, providing the Sudanese government with much-needed foreign currency.

Most recently, gold has been at the center of the ongoing war between the military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. Large quantities of gold have been smuggled out of the country to finance paramilitaries, who control gold-producing areas in Darfur and Kordofan regions, according to United Nations-commissioned experts.

The conflict has killed at least 59,000 people, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, a U.S.-based war tracking group that says its toll is almost certainly an underestimate, given the difficulties in reporting.

The war also created the world’s largest humanitarian disaster, forcing over 10 million people to flee their homes. Many displaced people joined the mining industry in order to make ends meet for their families.

“Gold mining is the only thing I can rely on,” said Atta al-Khazin, a 28-year-old miner who abandoned his previous profession as a farmer. “Due to the high oil prices, agriculture no longer covered expenses.”

Zahir Adam, a 35-year-old father from the Darfur city of el-Fasher who worked in gold mining for more than a decade, said the sector has drawn many people since the war broke out over three years ago.

They had “no other option,” he said. “Many young people, and many families, depend on mining.”

Sudan produced 70 tons of gold last year, up from 64 tons in 2024, according to official figures, making it one of Africa’s top producers. Gold generated about $1.8 billion in revenues in 2025, figures from the state-run Sudanese Mineral Resources Company showed.

Artisanal and small-scale gold mining accounts for the majority of gold extracted in the sprawling country, where safety standards are largely ignored.

Artisanal miners like the men in Dalgo Nahas usually extract the gold, then crush the ore before applying toxic mercury to create the amalgam. The amalgam is then heated, usually on a stove, to evaporate the mercury and recover the gold.

The process, which includes using hazardous chemicals, is also risky for people living near the mines.

Many of these mines are not controlled by the government. The U.N. panel of experts said in their 2024 report that more than 50% of the gold mined in Sudan was not traded through formal channels but was smuggled out of the country.

Deadly mine collapses are not uncommon in Sudan, where safety standards are not widely applied. Last month, at least seven miners were killed in a mine collapse in the Red Sea province. Thirteen others were killed in another collapse in South Kordofan province in January.

A civilian transitional government that ruled the country for over a year after the military overthrow of longtime dictator Omar al-Bashir in April 2019 attempted to regulate the crucial industry.

However, its efforts were aborted by a military coup in October 2021, and the war that began in 2023.

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May 25 (Reuters) – Myanmar’s military has launched renewed offensives into several border regions, including a frontier area with critical rare earth deposits and other vital trade routes, a month after a new administration took formal control of the war-torn country.

New military chief Ye Win Oo, who took office in March after his long-time predecessor stepped down to become president, is making an aggressive push to reclaim strategic border strongholds from ethnic armies that have gained strength in recent years, spokesmen for rebel groups and analysts told Reuters.

The military’s recent offensives have focused on Kachin State, a region rich in heavy rare-earth elements that abuts China, as well as Chin State on the Indian border and a key trade corridor in Karen State, next to Thailand.

At a meeting last week, Ye Win Oo told soldiers that the military had secured Falam town in Chin State and an arterial route between Mandalay and Myitkyina in Kachin State, the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported.

“The military’s strategic rationale is that they need to regain control over the primary communication and trade routes in Myanmar,” said Myanmar analyst Sai Kyi Zin Soe.

“We can see that the military is trying desperately to recapture towns that host border trade gates.”

An official from Myanmar’s presidential office, reached via phone, declined to comment.

Reuters could not independently verify the details of military offensives and their early successes across parts of Myanmar, where media access remains restricted.

The offensives come after former junta chief-turned-president Min Aung Hlaing last month asked rebel groups opposed to the military to enter into peace talks within 100 days – a proposal that many ethnic armies immediately rejected.

Myanmar’s ongoing conflict was sparked in 2021, when the military staged a coup that ousted the democratically elected civilian government led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

The takeover triggered a nationwide uprising that escalated into an armed resistance, with multiple ethnic armies and rebel groups pushing the military out of several regions.

BORDER GATEWAYS

The military is seeking to drive deeper into northern Kachin State, with an eye to retake mining belts along the Chinese border that produce roughly half of the world’s heavy rare earths, which are essential for wind turbines and electric vehicles.

Naw Bu, spokesperson for the Kachin Independence Army that took control of the area in October 2024, said the armed group has prepared their defences, particularly around the Chipwi and Pangwa township areas.

“We will welcome them with the barrels of our guns,” he said.

Simultaneously, the military has launched an intensified offensive on the western front in Chin State, bordering India, which could disrupt a key cross-border logistics route that supports opposition groups inside Myanmar.

Resistance fighters have undertaken strategic retreats from Falam and Tonzong towns in the state, as the military uses heavy aerial bombings to recover lost territory, said Salai Van, a spokesperson for the Chin National Front.

Illicit Iranian deliveries of jet fuel have previously powered an expansive bombing campaign by the Myanmar military, which struck more than 1,000 civilian locations in a 15-month period, Reuters has reported.

The war machine does not yet appear to have been slowed down by fuel shortages triggered by the conflict in Iran, although the country’s farmers and other civilians have been hard hit by the global energy crisis.

The military has also launched an offensive to control the Myawaddy-Kawkareik highway near Thailand, a key trade route around which fighting has raged on since the Karen National Union ethnic army pushed into the border town of Myawaddy in 2024.

The KNU is among those that Min Aung Hlaing specifically mentioned as part of his attempt to bring opposition groups to the table by July 31.

“The military has repeatedly and continuously violated pledges along the path to peace and paid no heed to agreements,” said Saw Taw Nee, a spokesperson for the ​KNU.

“Therefore, it goes without saying that there is a complete absence of trust. Whatever they attempt, it is bound to fail.”

(Reporting by Reuters Staff; Editing by Devjyot Ghoshal and Lincoln Feast.)

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PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — A speeding minibus rammed into a bus parked along a motorway in northwest Pakistan on Monday, killing 17 people and injuring five others, police and rescue officials said.

The crash occurred near Mardan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province when the minibus slammed into the parked bus, according to Shah Fahad, director-general of Rescue 1122 emergency services. He said preliminary findings suggested driver negligence caused the accident.

The bus was carrying passengers to the scenic Swat Valley.

Rescue workers and police shifted the dead and injured to a hospital, Fahad said.

Road accidents are common in Pakistan because of poor infrastructure, reckless driving and weak enforcement of traffic safety regulations.

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MUSANZE, Rwanda (AP) — A guide called out to endangered golden monkeys with grunts and clicks to signal he posed no threat, a familiar sound in the mist-covered forests of Rwanda ’s Volcanoes National Park.

Here in one of Africa’s most well-known parks, steep ridges and dense vegetation often obscure even the largest mountain gorillas — also endangered — and scientists are turning to new technology to detect and protect them.

Known as environmental DNA, or eDNA, the technology allows researchers to identify species using genetic material like fur or feces left in soil and water. This reduces the impact of human interaction during wildlife surveys that can leave researchers groping through the mist.

The technology, more often used in marine conservation work, was introduced by the African Wildlife Foundation in partnership with the Rwandan government. It aims to develop a list of all species in the country. That will help protect biodiversity that is threatened by climate change and population growth.

“We selected eDNA as a new technology to bring solutions and to complement existing methods used in ecological monitoring,” said the foundation’s country manager for Rwanda, Patrick Nsabimana.

Biodiversity monitoring for decades has relied on camera traps, which operate when animals trigger their sensors, and ranger observations.

But that is a challenge in rugged terrain such as the Virunga mountains that are central to Volcanoes National Park, which covers part of Rwanda, Uganda and Congo. Insecurity in the border area also can limit ranger movement.

Nsabimana said eDNA is a cost-effective monitoring approach in large ecosystems such as Virunga. Samples are taken from locations like downstream ponds that are likely to have traces of animals on higher ground. Then they are tested.

“With one sample, you can detect multiple species, mammals, birds, amphibians and many others,” said Deogratias Tuyisingize, a Rwanda-based biodiversity researcher with the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund that is also involved in the project.

He said a combination of traditional methods and new technology is needed to ensure all species are monitored. Because of steep ravines and mountainsides, “we are sure we were missing some species.”

Meanwhile, having a better sense of where endangered species are could help in patrolling against poachers, people with the project said.

The ability to generate a broad snapshot of biodiversity is critical for conservation, especially as Rwanda expands some of its national parks by rehabilitating previously agricultural land.

“We can see how species are colonizing these sites over time,” Tuyisingize said.

That allows conservationists to measure success by the return of rare or threatened species, and offers early warnings of invasive species.

But the eDNA technology is not without limitations. It cannot reliably estimate how many animals are present in an ecosystem. DNA can linger long after a species has left.

Being able to process samples in Rwanda is also a challenge, as the project’s initial ones had to be sent to Europe for analysis.

Joshua Newton, who conducted research on eDNA for Curtin University’s Trace and Environmental DNA Laboratory, said challenges also include having cold storage to preserve DNA samples and ensuring samples are not contaminated.

Data gaps are another issue. Africa has relatively limited genetic reference libraries, despite decades of conservation work on the continent, making it harder to match DNA samples to known species.

Most genetic reference libraries come from Europe and America, said James Munyawera, a lab specialist with the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund.

Researchers are now building region-specific databases.

The project in Volcanoes National Park has also begun training residents of local communities, along with rangers, to participate in monitoring efforts by collecting samples.

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The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

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MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — An Australian spy agency boss told an inquiry on Monday he had pivoted resources away from counterterrorism to espionage and foreign interference investigations a few years before two gunmen massacred 15 people at a Sydney Hanukkah celebration.

Mike Burgess, director-general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organization, the nation’s main domestic spy agency known as ASIO, was testifying at a government inquiry into the spread of antisemitism in Australia ahead of the attack at Bondi Beach on Dec. 14.

ASIO reduced Australia’s National Terrorism Threat Level from “probable” to “possible” — the second-safest level on a five-tier scale — in November 2022, after the Islamic State group in the Middle East had been defeated and was no longer recruiting fighters.

ASIO then shifted to increase its focus on foreign interference and espionage investigations, but left the organization’s “counterterrorism mission” with sufficient resources, Burgess said.

“Because terrorism has the potential to cause people to lose their lives or get harmed, it always remained a priority for us. There was just less activity that we were investigating because the nature of the environment had changed and the number of tasks we were looking at had reduced,” Burgess said.

“At the same time, every rock we lifted up we found espionage or foreign interference that needed to be inquired and investigated and so resources were moved over there,” Burgess added.

Five days after the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Burgess said he took an unprecedented step for an ASIO boss by making a public statement warning that inflamed language could lead to violence.

“Before the Israeli government responded to that horrific attack, we saw the strong emotions appear in this country where we had people celebrating the Hamas terrorist attack,” Burgess said.

ASIO saw threatening and intimidating behavior directed at Jewish Australians through the end of 2023. That behavior escalated to target Jewish businesses and places of worship in October 2024, he said.

ASIO elevated Australia’s terrorism threat level again to “probable” in August 2024. ASIO’s resources became stretched as antisemitic cases mounted, Burgess said.

‘We knew we were busy and had a lot on our plate, but … at no time did we have serious matters that we knew about that we were leaving untreated,” Burgess said.

Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion, the highest form of inquiry in Australia, must report to the government before the first anniversary of what was the nation’s worst mass shooting since 1996.

The father and son gunmen, Sajid and Naveed Akram, were inspired by IS and brought handmade IS flags to Bondi, prosecutors allege.

Both were wounded in a gunfight with police, the father fatally, less than eight minutes after the shooting began. The son has been charged with committing a terrorist act, 15 counts of murder and 40 counts of attempted murder. He has entered no pleas.

Richard Lancaster, who leads a team of lawyers in his role as the Senior Counsel Assisting the Royal Commission, said only four police officers were at the event when the gunmen opened fire on a crowd of around 1,000 people.

Within 29 seconds of the start of the shooting, 10 people had been fatally shot and an 11th had been wounded, Lancaster said.

Within five minutes, 11 police officers were at the scene. Three of those officers were wounded, he said.

A Jewish security organization, the Community Security Group, had requested the New South Wales Police Force post officers at the beachfront park for the duration of the Hanukkah event, Lancaster said. Instead, officers were instructed to attend from time to time.

Police gave the Hanukkah celebration the lowest security priority on a three-tier scale, with police resources managed by a local commander, Lancaster said.

Jewish High Holy Days in September and October were top-tier events in which police resources were managed by the specialized Police Force Major Events Group in liaison with the paramilitary Police Force Counter Terrorism and Special Tactics Command.

“There is no evidence that any intelligence agency or law enforcement agency had any actual knowledge or specific information to suggest there might be an armed attack on the Hanukkah celebration,” Lancaster said.

“In that sense, it was a surprise attack,” he added.

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This story has been corrected to show that Burgess said the agency’s counterterrorism mission was left with sufficient resources.

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By Emily Rose

JERUSALEM, May 24 (Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told U.S. President Donald Trump Israel would remain free to act against threats in Lebanon during a phone call about an emerging agreement between Washington and Iran on Saturday, an Israeli source said.

Trump said Washington and Iran had “largely negotiated” a memorandum of understanding on a peace deal that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping passage that has been effectively closed since the U.S. and Israel launched their war on Iran in February.

“In last night’s conversation with President Trump, the Prime Minister emphasized that Israel will maintain freedom of action against threats in all arenas, including Lebanon, and President Trump reiterated and supported this principle,” the Israeli political source told Reuters on Sunday, asking not to be named.

Expectations rose that a breakthrough might be imminent in the three-month-old war after Trump said an emerging agreement being brokered by Pakistan would reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran’s Fars news agency said the draft stipulates that the U.S. and its allies will not attack Iran ‌or its allies, ⁠and in return Iran pledges not to launch preemptive attacks on them.

Prominent Israeli politician Benny Gantz said it would be a strategic mistake for Israel to accept a ceasefire in Lebanon, which its troops have entered to fight the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia, as part of a deal with Iran.

According to the Israeli source, the U.S. is updating Israel on the negotiations with Iran.

“President Trump made it clear that he will stand firm in negotiations on his consistent demand for the dismantling of the Iranian nuclear program and the removal of all enriched uranium from its territory,” the source said, “and that he will not sign a final agreement without these conditions being met”.

Trump wrote on Truth Social that a call with Netanyahu had gone “very well”.

(Reporting by Emily Rose;Editing by Helen Popper)

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KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — One of the most accomplished mountain guides on Mount Everest is not ready to hang up his boots.

Briton Kenton Cool this week scaled the peak for the 20th time, breaking his own record for the most ascents of the world’s highest mountain by a non-Sherpa guide.

“Maybe another two or three more times,” Cool told reporters after flying out of the mountain to Kathmandu on Sunday.

The 52-year-old from southwest England had said last year that he would be only climbing Everest maybe one more time before switching to other smaller peaks.

He was among the hundreds of climbers and their Sherpa guides to have scaled the 8,849-meter (29,032-foot) summit in the last few days despite the delay caused by a serac hanging dangerously over the route. It forced climbers to make their attempt during a short widow of good weather, with a big number crowding at the summit.

A total of 274 climbers scaled the peak on Wednesday, a single-day record from the popular route on the southern face of the peak, which is located in Nepal.

“We had no issues. We had no crowds, we had a great summit,” he said, adding he reached the summit on Friday.

The peak can be scaled from either the southern side in Nepal or northern face in China’s Tibet, but Chinese authorities have closed the route this year. Nepalese authorities had issued permits to 494 climbers who were accompanied by equal number of their Sherpa guides.

Record-setting veteran guide Kami Rita Sherpa suggested limiting the number of climbers, saying it was too crowded this year.

Cool, however, said it was not necessary to control the number of climbers, but rather focus on the experience and knowledge of those with permits to go up the mountain.

“It is the various companies being little more diligent on who they take, so they are making sure there is the experience of the climbers and then just being little more careful with when they want to climb,” he said.

Nepal’s mountaineering authorities are trying to introduce new regulations requiring climbers to show they have experience, but at present they are are only required to come up with the $15,000 permit fees.

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