* African Union Commission (AUC) Chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf on Tuesday welcomed the appointment of Kamil Idris as Sudan's new prime minister, describing it as a step toward inclusive governance in the conflict-ridden country.
* Bolivian President Luis Arce on Tuesday swore in Roberto Rios as his new government minister amid rising political tensions leading up to the Aug. 17 presidential race.
* Laos' Ministry of Health, in collaboration with development partners, has introduced a new set of vaccination education tools to enhance vaccine understanding among low-literacy populations and diverse ethnic communities.
* China welcomes and supports Pakistan and India in properly handling their differences through dialogue, achieve a comprehensive and lasting ceasefire and seek fundamental solutions, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Tuesday.
* U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday urged House Republicans to support his "big, beautiful" tax and spending bill, as some party members remain hesitant to back it.
* The British government on Tuesday announced a raft of 100 new sanctions targeting the Russian military, energy, financial sectors and those conducting information operations against Ukraine.
* Indian security personnel killed more than 30 armed Naxals rebels in the central state of Chhattisgarh on Wednesday, the state's Home Minister Vijay Sharma said.
* U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday that President Donald Trump will not participate in the upcoming meeting of the Group of 20 (G20) leaders in South Africa later this year.
* U.S. President Donald Trump announced Tuesday a 175 billion USD missile defense system dubbed the "Golden Dome," appointing U.S. Space Force General Michael Guetlein to lead what Trump described as a "Manhattan Project-scale" initiative.
* U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Tuesday ordered the Pentagon to launch a comprehensive review of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
* Public services across Belgium ground to a halt on Tuesday as unions launched a 24-hour general strike to protest government austerity policies, causing widespread disruption to transport networks and the closure of key institutions.
* The European Union (EU) agreed on Tuesday to lift its economic sanctions on Syria, following a meeting of the bloc's foreign ministers, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas announced on the social media platform X.
* British Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced on Tuesday that Britain has suspended trade negotiations with Israel over its Gaza blockade. Lammy also said the Israeli ambassador had been summoned.
* The Ministerial Committee formed by the Joint Arab-Islamic Extraordinary Summit on Gaza on Tuesday called for a ceasefire and an immediate, sustained and large-scale flow of life-saving humanitarian aid to all in need in the enclave.
* The Israeli military said on Tuesday that it will expand its ground offensive in Gaza and take control of additional territory.
* Israel has recalled its senior negotiation team from Qatari capital Doha for consultations after about a week of indirect talks with Hamas over a Gaza deal, while Hamas said Tuesday that it holds the Israeli government "fully responsible" for failing to reach an agreement.
* More than 28,000 women and girls have been killed in Gaza since the beginning of the war in Gaza in October 2023, according to UN Women.
* Syria and Jordan signed a memorandum of understanding on Tuesday to launch a coordination council aimed at strengthening bilateral cooperation.
* Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi on Tuesday underscored the importance of preserving the ceasefire agreement between India and Pakistan during a phone call with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, according to a statement from the Egyptian presidency.
* The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) on Tuesday declared Khartoum State free of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), ending the group's presence in the state after more than two years.
* African governments must increase public investment in agriculture to strengthen food security and unlock sustainable economic growth, officials said Tuesday at a high-level summit in Kenya's capital, Nairobi.
* Security and governance experts, speaking at a high-level panel session during the International Security Conference on Africa (ISCA) in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, on Tuesday, called for homegrown solutions to tackle the continent's pressing security challenges and leverage digital transformation for economic growth.
* Republic Korea's export fell in the first 20 days of this month due to lower U.S. demand, affected by the U.S. tariffs imposition, customs office data showed Wednesday.
* Kyrgyzstan's economy has maintained a high growth rate since the beginning of 2025, Kyrgyz Prime Minister Adylbek Kasymaliyev said at an extended meeting reviewing the Cabinet's performance over the first four months of the year.
* Thailand's industrial confidence continued to fall, reaching the lowest level in six months in April due to a slowdown in factory output and the impact of U.S. import tariffs, data showed on Monday.
* Slovakia registered its lowest unemployment rate in modern history in April, the government announced on Tuesday. The registered unemployment rate dipped by 0.01 percentage point from the previous month to 3.71 percent, marking the second consecutive month of record-low joblessness since 1993, said Erik Tomas, minister for labour, social affairs and family, at a press conference.
* A total of 105 bodies have been recovered from the sea off Senegal in 2024 following canoe capsizings linked to irregular migration, Modou Diagne, permanent secretary of the Senegalese Interministerial Committee to Combat Irregular Migration, has said.
* Almost 50,000 people have been isolated by rising floodwaters in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW). The NSW State Emergency Service (SES) said on Wednesday afternoon that over 48,800 people and 23,200 dwellings have been cut off by flooding in the state's Mid North Coast region, over 200 km northeast of Sydney.
* An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.6 jolted 111 km NE of Angoram, Papua New Guinea at 2025-05-20 15:05:59 GMT on Tuesday, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The epicenter, with a depth of 53.0 km, was initially determined to be at 3.50 degrees south latitude and 144.90 degrees east longitude.
* An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.2 jolted Near North Coast of Papua New Guinea at 1505 GMT on Tuesday, the GFZ German Research Center for Geosciences said.
