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PARIS — Antiracism groups will join French unions and a brand-new left-wing coalition in protests in Paris and across France on Saturday against the surging nationalist far right as frenzied campaigning is underway ahead of snap parliamentary elections. In Paris, those who fear that the elections will produce France's first far-right government since World War II, will gather at Place de la Republique before marching through eastern Paris. Crowds have been gathering daily ever since Marine Le Pen's anti-immigration National Rally made historic gains in the European Parliament elections on Sunday, crushing President Emmanuel Macron's pro-business moderates and prompting him to dissolve the National Assembly. New elections for the lower house of parliament were set in two rounds, for June 30 and July 7. Macron remains president until 2027 and in charge of foreign policy and defense, but his presidency would be weakened if the National Rally wins and takes power of the government and domestic policy. "We need a democratic and social upsurge — if not the extreme right will take power,'' French unions said in a statement Friday. "Our Republic and our democracy are in danger.'' They noted that in Europe and across the world, extreme-right leaders have passed laws detrimental to women, the LGBTQ+ community, and people of color. To prevent the National Rally party from winning the upcoming elections, left-wing parties finally agreed Friday to set aside differences over the wars in Gaza and Ukraine and form a coalition. They urged French citizens to defeat the far right. French opinion polls suggest the National Rally — whose founder has been repeatedly convicted of racism and antisemitism — is expected to be ahead in the first round of the parliamentary elections. The party came out on top in the European elections, garnering more than 30% of the vote cast in France, almost twice as many votes as Macron's party Renaissance. Macron's term is still on for three more years, and he would retain control over foreign affairs and defense regardless of the result of the French parliamentary elections. But his presidency would be weakened if the National Rally wins, which could put its 28-year-old party leader Jordan Bardella on track to become the next prime minister, with authority over domestic and economic affairs.

NORFOLK, Virginia — Ashley Branton has earned a living as a psychic medium for seven years, helping a growing number of people with heavy choices about toxic relationships, home purchases and cross-country moves. And while the tarot cards are never wrong, she said, they didn't see this one coming. The City Council in Norfolk, Virginia, repealed a 45-year-old ban this week on "the practice of palmistry, palm reading, phrenology or clairvoyance, for monetary or other compensation." Soothsaying, it turned out, had been a first-degree misdemeanor and carried up to a year in jail. "I had no idea that was even a thing," Branton said with a laugh Thursday among the crystals in her Norfolk shop, Velvet Witch, where she also performs tarot readings and psychic healings. "I'm glad it's never come down on me." It's unclear exactly why this city of 230,000 people on the Chesapeake Bay, home to the nation's largest Navy base, nullified the 1979 ordinance. Versions of the ban had existed for decades before. Norfolk spokesperson Kelly Straub said in an email that it was repealed "because it is no longer used." City Council members said little during their vote Tuesday, although one joked that "somebody out there predicted that this was going to pass." Jokes aside, the city's repeal comes as the psychic services industry is growing in the U.S., generating an estimated $2.3 billion in revenue last year and employing 97,000 people, according to a 2023 report from market research firm IBIS World. In late 2017, a Pew Research Center survey found that most American adults identify as Christians. But many also hold New Age beliefs, with 4 in 10 believing in the power of psychics. A 2009 survey for the Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project found about 1 in 7 Americans had consulted a psychic. Branton, 42, who previously worked as a makeup artist, said the market is expanding for psychic mediums because social media has fueled awareness. An aversion to organized religion also plays a role, along with the nation's divisive politics and a growing sense of uncertainty, particularly among millennials and younger generations. "Ever since COVID, people have been carrying this weight. They're just carrying so much," Branton said. "And people are starting to do inner work," she continued. "They're starting to take care of their mental health. And they're starting to take care of the spiritual aspect." Branton said she considers her work a calling. Psychic gifts run in her family, and she's had them her whole life. "I always had interactions with spirits," she said. "I've always been an empath. I can feel people's energies." Branton said she's built up her clientele through word of mouth, without any advertising. "I'm very proud of that," she said. "There's going to be scammers and people out here doing this for just the money. Obviously, this is my way of living now. But it was never about money for me." In 2022, AARP warned of scam psychics who prey on "people who are grieving, lonely or struggling emotionally, physically or financially." And some bans remain in place. In October, the police chief in Hanover, Pennsylvania, told a witchcraft-themed store that any complaints about tarot card readings would prompt an investigation, The New York Times reported. The police chief cited an old state law that makes it illegal to predict the future for money. In 2007, the city of Philadelphia cited the same law when it shut down more than a dozen psychics, astrologers and tarot-card readers, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. Fortune telling bans stemmed from anti-witchcraft and anti-vagrancy laws in 18th century England, said Charles McCrary, a professor of religious studies at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida. The American laws took hold in the mid-19th century, an era of growing concern about fraudulent business practices, McCrary said. But the Spiritualism movement, which often involved channeling the dead, was also growing in popularity, particularly among the middle and upper classes. "There was something about these white, Spiritualist women that I think troubled a lot of people," McCrary said. "Part of what made it threatening was it couldn't be written off as something that poor people do or something for the marginal," he added. "It was very popular. And so more mainstream Christians found it especially threatening. And a lot of people were Christians who also did seances." Such laws faced little scrutiny from the courts at first, said David L. Hudson, a law professor at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, and a fellow with the Freedom Forum think tank in Washington. The Ohio Supreme Court upheld a state law in 1928 that regulated fortune telling, writing that "liberty of speech is not license to speak anything that one pleases freed from all criminal or civil responsibility." Other courts reasoned that fortune telling was commercial speech, which received no First Amendment protection until the mid-1970s. More recently, courts have increasingly viewed bans on fortune tellers with skepticism on First Amendment grounds. Maryland's Supreme Court ruled in 2010 that fortune telling for a fee is protected free speech. "We've come a long way, both in terms of social norms and social acceptance," Hudson told The Associated Press, likening psychic readings to tattoos. "But also there's been a massive development of First Amendment law ... It's very disfavored to entirely ban a medium of expression." Even though Norfolk's ban was practically forgotten and no longer enforced, Carol Peterson is relieved about the repeal. She owns the Crystal Sunflower, a store in Norfolk that offers tarot card readings and vibrational sound therapy. She is also a civilian geologist for the military. "I was like, 'Oh my God, I could get a class one misdemeanor,'" Peterson said. "People have this misconceived notion that tarot is evil or demonic," Peterson added. "But you're helping people tap into their highest self for their journey. And if people would be more curious instead of judgmental, I think that they would be pleasantly surprised."

Kampala, Uganda — The University of Cambridge has repatriated more than three dozen traditional artifacts to Uganda in a major act of restitution welcomed by the local officials who sought them.  Some of the objects were shown exclusively to AP journalists on Wednesday. The British university returned the 39 items, which range from tribal regalia to delicate pottery, to the East African country on Saturday.  The items remain the property of the collection of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at Cambridge, which is loaning them to Uganda for an initial period of three years, said Mark Elliott, the museum's senior curator in anthropology.  Elliott described it as "very much a museum-to-museum collaboration" that stems from years of talks about the possibility of returning objects deemed "exceptionally powerful and exceptionally sensitive to communities whose belongings they were."  The objects, selected by Ugandan curators, represent a small fraction of about 1,500 ethnographic objects from Uganda that Cambridge has owned for a century. Cambridge acquired most as donations from private collections, and many were given by an Anglican missionary active in Uganda in the 1890s and early 20th century.  Uganda was declared a British protectorate in 1894. Independence came in 1962.  "It's about putting these objects back in the hands of the Ugandan people," Elliott said. "These objects have been away from home for so long."  The next step is to "research their contemporary significance and to help make decisions about their future," he said.  The Uganda Museum in the capital, Kampala, is expected to put on a temporary exhibition of the objects next year.  Uganda's agreement with Cambridge is renewable, allowing for the possibility of a permanent loan and perhaps local ownership, said Jackline Nyiracyiza, Ugandan government commissioner in charge of museums and monuments.  "Sixty years that have passed for us now to get 39 objects," she said. "We are working now with the Cambridge team to ... see that we talk to other museums and be able to repatriate others maybe next year or within the near future."  Ugandan officials, seeking such restitution, first traveled to Cambridge in 2022 as more African governments started to demand accountability over items of aesthetic or cultural value that were looted before and during the colonial era.  Elsewhere in Africa, including the West African nation of Nigeria, there have been successful restitution events in recent years.  Nelson Abiti, principal curator of the Uganda Museum, spoke of the Cambridge deal as a breakthrough that could prove exemplary for other museums with ethnographic items from Uganda.  "This is the biggest single movement of objects returned to the African continent" in recent years, Abiti asserted.  Still, restitution remains a struggle for African governments, and the African Union has put the return of looted cultural property on its agenda. The continental body aims to have a common policy on the issue.

ABUJA, Nigeria — Traces of highly potent opioids known as nitazenes have for the first time been found to be consumed by people who use drugs in Africa, according to a report released Wednesday by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, a nonprofit organization. Nitazenes, powerful synthetic opioids, have long been in use in Western countries as well as in Asia where they have been associated with overdose deaths. Some of them can be up to 100 times more potent than heroin and up to 10 times more potent than fentanyl, meaning that users can get an effect from a much smaller amount, putting them at increased risk of overdose and death. The report focused on Sierra Leone and Guinea-Bissau and is based on chemical testing of kush, a derivative of cannabis mixed with synthetic drugs like fentanyl and tramadol and chemicals like formaldehyde. Researchers found that in Sierra Leone, 83% of the samples were found to contain nitazenes, while in Guinea-Bissau it was identified in 55%. "The GI-TOC ( Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime) believes that these results are the first indication that nitazenes have penetrated retail drug markets in Africa," the report said. Many young people in West and Central Africa have become addicted to drugs with between 5.2% and 13.5% using cannabis, the most widely used illicit substance on the continent, according to the World Health Organization. In Sierra Leone where kush is one of the most widely consumed drugs, President Julius Maada Bio this year declared war on the substance, calling it an epidemic and a national threat. Nitazenes have been detected repeatedly in substances sold to young people in the region such that users are most likely ingesting them "without knowing the risks they face," Wednesday's report said. The authors said their findings suggest that nitazenes are being imported into Sierra Leone from elsewhere and that the substance being sold as kush in Guinea-Bissau was of similar chemical composition to that found in Freetown. Officials in the two countries must deploy chemical testing equipment as a first step in tackling drug abuse, the report said. "Without this, it is impossible for the government of Sierra Leone, Guinea-Bissau and the wider subregion to accurately monitor the countries' illicit drug markets and develop evidence-based responses," it said.

BRAMPTON, Ontario — All four ice rinks at Susan Fennell Sportsplex are full of action on this winter Saturday morning, the air filled with the sound of hockey skates grinding through ice and pucks clanging off the glass. The scene is as familiar as the sunrise in countless rinks across Canada. Hockey remains a beloved pastime, a source of pride and joy and something that has knitted the vast nation together for more than 150 years. Behind the scenes of the goals and celebrations is an alarming trend: Youth hockey participation in the cradle of the sport has decreased by nearly a quarter over the past decade and a half, a decline that began well before the pandemic from a peak of over half a million kids taking part as recently as 2010. Because of growing costs for everything from equipment and ice time to specialized coaching and travel programs, families are choosing other sports like soccer and basketball over hockey. There are concerns about the future of grassroots hockey in the country that has nourished it into the popular, vibrant sport that is seeing growth elsewhere, including the United States. "It does sadden me," said Alex Klimsiak, who coaches two teams in Brampton as his way to giving back to the game he still plays recreationally in suburban Toronto at the age of 44. "Enrollment's probably been declining for the last five, six years. Definitely before the pandemic you could see it. A pandemic just put a magnifying glass and escalated it." In 2022, about two months after Canada celebrated what was then its 18th world junior hockey championship, the CEO of hockey equipment giant Bauer, Ed Kinnaly, declared: "The number of kids getting involved in hockey in Canada is spiraling downward ... but nobody's talking about that." At the time, Hockey Canada reported 411,818 youths younger than 18 participating in the sport, a 22% drop from 523,785 just 13 years earlier, not counting an introductory program that is has been separated from registration numbers since 2021. That number slightly rebounded in 2023 to 436,895 but is still below pre-pandemic levels even while soccer and tennis numbers in Canada have already recovered. "I'm concerned but I'm not panicked," Kinnaly told The Associated Press. "I'm concerned obviously at what the numbers say. I'm not panicked because I do believe that the sport is evolving. I do think the right people — the National Hockey League, USA Hockey, Hockey Canada, private corporations — are all starting to have the honest dialogue with each other, which is, A, we've got to stop talking about what's wrong and, B, we've got to start investing in change for the sake of the sport." Choices beyond hockeyFew things are more closely associated with Canada than hockey, a place where kids and adults alike look forward to winter and lakes and ponds freezing over so they can lace up their skates, push a net out and play some shinny. When Canada faced the U.S. in the 2010 Olympic final on home ice in Vancouver, half the country's total population watched Sidney Crosby score the "golden goal," etched into national lore. Millions are watching Edmonton this spring as the Oilers try to end the nation's 31-year Stanley Cup championship drought. Yet the sport may no longer be the go-to for kids in Canada. According to the Canadian Youth Sports Report released last summer by Solutions Research Group, soccer is the top choice at 16%, followed by swimming, hockey and basketball. Raw participation numbers for the sports are not comparable given differences in registration requirements across various governing bodies. Parents cited financial issues as their top concern (58%), followed by family care and youth mental health, including bullying. There are some concerns, too, that the time needed for practices and drills even at the lower levels of competitive hockey is part of the problem. "It definitely is a big commitment," said Priyanka Kwatra, whose 10-year-old son Shawn has developed a love for the sport and plays in suburban Toronto. "It's a very time-consuming sort of sport." Time-consuming in large part because of the limited availability of ice that pushes practices and games to very early in the morning or late at night. Many youth programs train nine months or more per year, on the ice three to five times a week along with off-ice workouts. When her husband, Amit, first looked at equipment for Shawn, the $1,000 price tag was a shock. Add to that limits on available ice for practices or for fun and games and basketball or soccer suddenly seem easier. "Getting someone into hockey, it's not as simple as getting someone into soccer where you just need a soccer ball," Amit Kwatra said. "Hockey, the amount of gear that's required in order to kind of get the game started is a lot, and I think that is the biggest barrier for a lot of people that initiate their kids into hockey." Other sports can also feel like a safer choice than hockey with its speed, hits and sharp skates. Gianfranco Talarico is the founder of Daredevil Hockey, which has been making cut-proof gear for more than a decade. He said his company's feedback and surveys have shown safety and cost are the biggest things hindering a more rapid growth of the sport. "It's so intertwined in the fabric of Canadians," he said. "If we don't collectively focus on making hockey a safer sport, the potential brand equity of hockey in general will start to diminish." 'Professionalization of hockey'During All-Star Weekend in Toronto, the NHL put on a youth event in nearby York. With daughter Sharon, Priyanka and Amit watched their son on the ice, he and more than 100 other young players all in their first set of gear provided by Bauer as part of NHL/NHLPA First Shift, one of many learn-to-play efforts intended to keep hockey in Canada's bloodlines. "It's a low-cost entry point, and then it obviously is able to accelerate growth because it provides opportunity," said Matt Herr, a former NHL player who is now the league's senior director of youth hockey and industry growth. "Especially in Canada, we're competing now where it used to be the pastime. ... it was everybody's first choice, and now there's all these different choices and we've got to make sure we're still everybody's first choice." Herr and others know the equipment costs are potentially becoming a barrier. The quality of sticks, helmets and pads has increased sharply thanks to technological advances, but with that comes higher pricing — and with that comes the risk of leaving out lower-income families eager to try hockey, especially with higher levels of the sport running nearly year-round. Rachael Bishop for her 2017 honors thesis at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, found a massive gap between the household incomes of families in hockey compared with other sports, an indication of the means necessary to afford it. "I do think it's more so probably a factor of cost, and we're seeing it become prohibitively expensive now," Bishop told The AP. "You see the professionalization of hockey: It's a full-year sport now: You've got to join summer leagues, you want to get all the best equipment. Then there's always like power-skating lessons, summer camps, so I think a lot of it is cost more so than anything." Klimsiak, the Brampton coach, estimated that the cost of being on a competitive team — the ones that travel to tournaments and have multiple set practice times as opposed to recreational teams — starts at $4,000, with some teams charging $10,000 or more. He said some Toronto hockey organizations are combining resources because there aren't enough players to go around. "The cost of the game has gone up," said Klimsiak, who has three sons playing, one on his team, which he has trouble finding goaltenders for. "Referee costs have gone up. It's tough. It's proportional. It's like cost of living, so everything's gone up and now unfortunately the parents have to pay more." Cost is something University of Toronto professor Simon Darnell is all too aware of. The parent of a 9-year-old playing competitive hockey, the expert in sports culture and sociology calls costs one of the "exclusionary practices in hockey that go back a long time," along with the culture of winning and the obsession over climbing up to the next team. Darnell, acknowledging the willingness to shell out money for ice and other expenses, also understands the early-morning, nearly year-round aspect of hockey is one of factors keeping some out. "It's like if you don't want to participate in hockey on those terms, then there isn't as much space for you I think as there should be," Darnell said. "It's if you don't want to play by those rules, then there isn't space for you and then you go and play a different sport." Stopping the slideA further concern: Are there enough ice rinks to accommodate hockey as a source of fun and character-building for children? Canada's population, now nearly 40 million, has doubled in 50 years, and the International Ice Hockey Federation reports there are still just 2,860 indoor ice rinks across the sprawling country. Renting ice can cost hundreds of dollars just for 1-2 hours. Kinnaly pointed to a 2019 Parks and Recreation Ontario plan to invest $2 billion over the next two decades on 45 new soccer fields, 30 basketball courts, 18 indoor pools and a single hockey rink as further cause for concern "The number of rinks that are in disrepair or have closed further compresses the availability of ice time," Kinnaly said. "If there aren't places for people to play, it's going to continue to be a headwind, a real challenge." Programs like First Shift and Scotiabank's Hockey For All are among the steps being taken to stop the slide. Kinnaly said Bauer's program has been "immensely successful" at not only getting kids into hockey but keeping them, with a retention rate around 60%, and has discussed ways of introducing new Canadians to the game like equipment being part of the welcome package upon signing up for a checking account. But there are still systemic issues, from crumbling infrastructure and a lack of new rinks to inflationary pressure on pricing. The woes are not being seen at the NHL level, where revenue continues to rise and fan interest is growing. In the U.S., youth hockey participation has slowly grown to nearly 400,000 registered players. Instead, the existential crisis for the home of hockey exists at places like the Brampton rink, where the players and fans of tomorrow are developed. There are encouraging signs, such as hockey still being the preferred sports for First Nations youth and nearly 40% of First Shift participants being girls as the women's game gets more attention — but the overall trend has presented a painful question that must be answered. "I don't think hockey can rest on its position in a way that it used to, and there's part of me that's OK with that," said Darnell, the Toronto professor. "I think it makes sense if we're going to invest in hockey in Canada as somehow representative of Canadian culture that we actually need to think about what does Canadian culture look like and is it reflected in hockey? Because right now it's not."

ATHENS, Greece — Desperate hands clutched at Ali Elwan's arms, legs and neck, and screams misted his ears, as he spat out saltwater and fought for three hours to keep afloat in the night, dozens of miles from land.  Although a poor swimmer, he lived — one of just 104 survivors from the wreck of a dilapidated old metal fishing boat smuggling up to 750 migrants from North Africa to Europe.  "I was so, so lucky," the 30-year-old Egyptian told The Associated Press in Athens, Greece, where he works odd jobs while he waits to hear the outcome of his asylum application. "I have two babies. Maybe I stay(ed) in this life for them."  Thousands have died in Mediterranean Sea shipwrecks in recent years as migrants from the Middle East, Asia and Africa seek a better life in the affluent European Union.  But the sinking of the Adriana a year ago Friday in international waters 75 kilometers (45 miles) off Pylos in southern Greece was one of the worst. Only 82 bodies were recovered, so that hundreds of families still lack even the grim certitude that their relatives are dead.  Travelers seek 'best life' Elwan, a cook whose wife and children are in Cairo, said he still gets phone calls from Egypt from mothers, brothers and wives of the missing.  "We (left) home to get best life for family and until now (their families) know nothing about them," he said.  And after a year there are only hazy answers as to why so many lives were lost, what caused the shipwreck, and who can be held answerable.  Migrant charities and human rights groups have strongly criticized Greece's handling of the sinking and its aftermath.  Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said Thursday "a credible process for accountability" was needed.  "It is unconscionable that one year since this horrific tragedy, the investigation into the potential liability of (Greece's) Coast Guard has barely progressed," HRW official Judith Sunderland said in the groups' joint statement.  The Greek coast guard, migration ministry and other officials did not respond to AP requests for comment ahead of the anniversary.  Authorities had a coast guard boat on the scene and merchant ships in the vicinity during the trawler's last hours. They blame smugglers who crammed hundreds of people into an unseaworthy vessel — most in an airless hold designed to store a catch of fish — for a nightmare voyage from Libya to Italy.  They also say the Adriana capsized when its passengers — some of whom wanted to press on for Italy after five dreadful days at sea, others to seek safety in Greece — suddenly surged to one side, causing it to lurch and turn turtle. And they insist that offers to take the migrants off the ship were rebuffed by people set on reaching Italy.  Elwan — who says he was on deck with a clear view of what happened — and other survivors say the lurching followed a botched coast guard attempt to tow the trawler. He claimed the coast guard hurriedly cut the towline when it became evident the Adriana would sink and drag their boat down with it.  "If you find the ship (at the bottom of the sea), you will find this rope" still attached to it, he said.  But the logistics make such a feat nigh-on impossible, Greek authorities say, as the ship rests some 5 kilometers (more than 3 miles) down, at one of the Mediterranean's deepest points.  The coast guard has denied any towing attempt, and allegations that its vessel tried to shift the trawler into neighboring Italy's area of responsibility.  A naval court began investigating last June, but has released no information on its progress or findings.  Court drops charges Separately, in November Greece's state ombudsman started an independent probe into authorities' handling of the tragedy, bemoaning the coast guard's "express denial" to initiate a disciplinary investigation.  Last month, a Greek court dropped charges against nine Egyptians accused of crewing the Adriana and causing the shipwreck. Without examining evidence for or against them, it determined that Greece lacked jurisdiction as the wreck occurred in international waters.  Effie Doussi, one of the Egyptians' defense lawyers, argued that the ruling was "politically convenient" for Greek authorities.  "It saved the Greek state from being exposed over how the coast guard acted, given their responsibility for rescue," she said.  Doussi said a full hearing would have included testimony from survivors and other witnesses, and let defense lawyers seek additional evidence from the coast guard, such as potential mobile phone data.  Zeeshan Sarwar, a 28-year-old Pakistani survivor, said he's still waiting for justice, "but apparently there is nothing."  "I may be looking fine right now, but I am broken from the inside. We are not getting justice," he told the AP. "We are not receiving any information about the people of coast guard ... that the court has found them guilty or not."  Elwan, the Egyptian, said he can still only sleep for three or four hours a night.  "I remember every second that happened to me," he said. "I can't forget anything because (I) lost friends in this ship."  A journey of life and death The journey that preceded the wreck also was horrendous.  Survivors said Pakistanis were confined in the hold and beaten by the crew if they tried to stir. But Arabic-speaking Egyptians and Syrians enjoyed the relative luxury of the deck. For many, that spelled the difference between life and death when the ship capsized.  "Our condition was very bad on the first day because it was the first time in our life that we were traveling on the sea," Sarwar said.  "If a person ... tried to vomit, then they used to say that you have to do it right here on your lap, you can't get (outside)," he said. "On the fifth day, people were fainting because of hunger and thirst. One man died."  Elwan said he left for Europe secretly, telling his wife he would be away for months, working at an Egyptian Red Sea resort.  He's upset that he's still to be granted asylum, unlike many Syrian survivors who, he said, have moved on to western Europe.  "Only people from Egypt can't get papers," he said. "I've been working for 10 months to send money for my family ... If someone says come and move rubbish, I will go and move this rubbish, no problem for me."  If he gets residence papers, Elwan wants to work in Greece and bring his family over.  Otherwise, "I will go to Italy, maybe Germany. I don't know." 

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

SAN, Mali — Thousands of fishermen holding cone-shaped nets stood side by side, cheering and chanting as they waited for the signal. Suddenly, they rushed to a large muddy pond and cast their nets, dropping to their knees in the mud. Soon, one proudly held up a fish the length of his arm. For several hundred years, people have gathered in the southern Mali town of San for Sanké mon, a collective fishing rite in June that begins with animal sacrifices and offerings to the water spirits of Sanké pond. The rite, with masked dancers and traditional costumes, is on UNESCO's list of intangible cultural heritage. The marathon session of collective fishing celebrates the town's founding and marks the beginning of the rainy season. But climate change and heat waves are disturbing the tradition. Sanké pond is starting to disappear, said a village chief, Mamadou Lamine Traoré. Heat waves in Mali in recent years have caused the pond to start drying out. Temperatures in the town have reached a record this year at 48.5 degrees Celsius, Emmanuel Doumbia, a local weather observer, told The Associated Press. The unprecedented heat wave in Mali this year has also led to a surge in deaths. The heat wave began in March as many in the Muslim-majority country observed the Islamic holy month of Ramadan with dawn-to-dusk fasting. The Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Center said that insufficient data in Mali makes it impossible to know the number of heat-related deaths, but estimated that the toll this year has likely been in the hundreds, if not thousands. An analysis published in April by the World Weather Attribution — an international team of scientists looking at how human-induced climate change impacts extreme weather — said the latest heat wave in the Sahel, a region south of the Sahara that suffers from periodic droughts, is more than just a record-breaker. Climate change has made maximum temperatures in Burkina Faso and Mali hotter by 1.5 degrees Celsius, the researchers said. Experts have warned of more scorching weather ahead. At the latest Sanké mon collective fishing rite, men sweated as they stripped skinny chickens bare and cooked them over reeds, and dancers in sporty knee socks or plastic sandals adjusted armbands adorned with cowrie shells. A national flag waved limply on a weathered pole along the trampled shore. "This tradition was already established before I was born," said one participant, Amadou Coulibaly, who remains faithful to it despite the growing challenges. When the rite was added to the UNESCO list in 2009, there were plans to dig deeper into the pond to prevent it from silting up, Traoré said. "But since then, nothing was done and the pond is starting to create problems." It wasn't clear why no action was taken. The pond's disappearance would threaten not just the centuries-old rite but also the town's economic survival if attention fades, he said.

LUCERNE, Switzerland — World leaders gather in Switzerland on Saturday for a summit aimed at pressuring Russia to end its war in Ukraine, but the absence of powerful allies of Moscow such as China will blunt its potential impact. Dozens of allies of Ukraine will take part in the summit, but China is staying away after Russia was frozen out of proceedings on the grounds it had dismissed the event as a waste of time and had no interest in attending. Without China, hopes of isolating Moscow have faded, while recent military reverses have put Kyiv on the back foot. The war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas has also diverted attention from Ukraine. The talks are expected to focus on broader concerns triggered by the war, such as food and nuclear security and freedom of navigation, and a draft of the final declaration identifies Russia as the aggressor in the conflict, sources said. "The summit risks showing the limits of Ukrainian diplomacy," said Richard Gowan, U.N. director at the International Crisis Group. "Nonetheless, it is also a chance for Ukraine to remind the world that it is defending the principles of the U.N. Charter." Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Russia would end the war in Ukraine only if Kyiv agreed to drop its NATO ambitions and hand over the entirety of four provinces claimed by Moscow -- demands Kyiv swiftly rejected as tantamount to surrender. Putin's conditions apparently reflected Moscow's growing confidence that its forces have the upper hand in the war. Moscow casts what it calls its special military operation in Ukraine as part of a broader struggle with the West, which it says wants to bring Russia to its knees. Kyiv and the West reject this and accuse Russia of waging an illegal war of conquest. Switzerland, which took on the summit at the behest of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, wants to pave the way for a future peace process that includes Russia. But geopolitical splits over the deadliest European conflict since World War II have dogged the event, and Zelenskyy has even accused Beijing of helping Moscow undermine the gathering, an accusation China's foreign ministry denied. China had said it would consider taking part, but ultimately declined because Russia would not be there. "It's clear that at the moment, in geopolitical terms, for China the special relationship with Russia takes precedence over any other consideration," said Bernardino Regazzoni, a former Swiss ambassador to China. Around 90 countries and organizations have committed to the two-day gathering due to take place at the Buergenstock, a mountaintop resort in central Switzerland. The summit has also had to contend with an alternative plan floated by China. U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and the leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Britain, Canada and Japan are among those due to attend. India, Turkey and Hungary, which maintain friendlier relations with Russia, are also expected to join. Russia, which sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022, has described the idea of a summit without it as "futile." Supporters of Ukraine are marking the Swiss talks with a series of events in the nearby city of Lucerne to draw attention to the war's humanitarian costs, with a demonstration planned to call for the return of prisoners and children taken to Russia. European officials privately concede that without support from Moscow's main allies, the summit's impact will be limited. "What can (Zelenskyy) hope for out of it?" said Daniel Woker, a former Swiss ambassador. "Another small step forward in international solidarity with Ukraine as the victim of Russian aggression."

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Gaza Strip — Israeli forces struck Gaza and battled Hamas militants Friday as truce efforts failed to make progress and tensions surged on Israel's northern border with Lebanon.  Witnesses reported strikes on the southern city of Rafah and central areas of the Gaza Strip. At Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central city of Deir al-Balah, men gathered over the body of an 11-year-old boy who died during a bombardment of nearby Bureij refugee camp. In a black singlet, the child lay on a floor smeared with fresh blood, a white bandage covering the top half of his face, AFP images showed. The Israeli military said troops continued operations in central Gaza, where warplanes struck a militant cell in the Zeitun area. Witnesses in Rafah, on Gaza's southern border with Egypt, reported helicopter fire, while Hamas's armed wing said its militants fired mortar rounds at Israeli troops near the Tal al-Sultan neighborhood. The war began after Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures. The militants also seized 251 hostages. Of these, 116 remain in Gaza, although the army says 41 are dead. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 37,266 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-ruled territory's health ministry. The toll includes at least 34 deaths over the past 24 hours, the ministry said Friday. Border escalation Fears of a broader Middle East conflict have surged again, with Lebanon-based Hezbollah fighters, who are backed by Iran and allied with Hamas, launching waves of rockets, missiles and drones against Israeli military targets. Hezbollah said intense strikes since Wednesday were retaliation for Israel's killing of one of its commanders. Sirens sounded in northern Israel, where police said munitions had hit in the Kiryat Shmona area, with no reports of casualties. The military said, "approximately 35 projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon." "A number" of them were intercepted while some caused fires. Israeli forces responded with shelling, the military said, also announcing air strikes on "Hezbollah terror infrastructure" across the border. Two women were killed in a strike on Jannata in southern Lebanon, village official Hassan Shur said, the latest deaths in near-daily exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and the Israeli military since the start of the Gaza war. French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday that his country and the United States would work separately with Israeli and Lebanese authorities to ease tensions. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant rejected the initiative, decrying "hostile policies against Israel" by France, which last month had barred Israeli firms from an arms trade show. A spokesperson for the Israeli prime minister's office and senior foreign ministry officials however said Gallant's remarks do not reflect the government's position. During a Middle East trip this week to push a Gaza cease-fire plan, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, "the best way" to help resolve the Hezbollah-Israel violence was "a resolution of the conflict in Gaza and getting a cease-fire." Truce 'hang-up' At a summit of G7 leaders in Italy, U.S. President Joe Biden called Hamas "the biggest hang-up so far" to reaching a deal on a Gaza truce and hostage release. The Palestinian group has insisted on the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and a permanent cease-fire, demands Israel has repeatedly rejected. Blinken has said Israel backs the latest plan, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose far-right coalition partners are strongly opposed, has not publicly endorsed it. Biden's roadmap for the first truce since a weeklong pause and hostage-prisoner release in November includes a six-week cease-fire, hostage releases and Gaza's reconstruction. The World Food Program said that "as fighting escalates in the south and center of Gaza, the toll on civilians is devastating." But "with lawlessness inside the Strip... and active conflict," it has become "close to impossible to deliver the level of aid that meets the growing demands on the ground," the U.N. agency's deputy executive director, Carl Skau, said. "More than anything, people want this war to end," Skau added in a statement after a two-day visit to Gaza. The World Health Organization has said more than 8,000 children younger than 5 have been treated for acute malnutrition in Gaza. AFP images from Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital showed the grieving family of a 10-year-old boy who died suffering from malnutrition. His limbs appeared thin and his ribcage was clearly visible. US sanctions The United States, Israel's close ally, imposed sanctions Friday on an Israeli group whose activists have blocked Gaza-bound aid convoys. "Individuals from Tzav 9 have repeatedly sought to thwart the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza, including by blockading roads, sometimes violently," the U.S. State Department said. "They also have damaged aid trucks and dumped life-saving humanitarian aid onto the road." G7 leaders in a statement at the end of their summit urged the "rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian relief for civilians in need," and said the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, must be allowed to work unhindered in Gaza. Israel had accused 12 of the agency's 13,000 Gaza staff of involvement in the October 7 attack, prompting a number of donor governments to temporarily suspend their contributions. An independent review said Israel did not support its claims with evidence. The G7 statement also called for aid flow through "all relevant land crossing points" including the Rafah border, which has been shut since Israeli forces launched a ground operation in the city in early May. As Muslims worldwide prepare to mark Eid al-Adha starting Sunday, Gazans lamented the shortages of essential goods. "There is no Eid spirit," Mohammed Shabat, who like most of Gaza's population has been displaced by the war, said outside his tent in Deir al-Balah.

MOGI GUACU, Brazil — Orange juice prices have always been volatile, falling when bumper harvests create an oversupply of oranges and rising when frost or a hurricane knocks out fruit trees. But the record-high prices the world is seeing for OJ right now may be on the table for a while, since the diseases and extreme weather ravaging orange groves in some top-producing countries aren't easily resolved problems. This year's harvest in Brazil, the world's largest exporter of orange juice, is likely to be the worst in 36 years due to flooding and drought, according to a forecast by Fundecitrus, a citrus growers' organization in Sao Paulo state. "The concern isn't just that the price of juice is going up. The concern is not having the juice," Oscar Simonetti, an orange farmer in Mogi Guacu, Brazil, said. In the U.S., Florida's already diminished orange production fell 62% in the 2022-23 season after Hurricane Ian further battered a crop that was struggling due to an invasive pest. Drought also cut Spain's orange production last year. Scarce supplies have sent prices soaring. In the U.S., a 12-ounce can of frozen orange juice concentrate cost an average of $4.27 in April, 42% more than during the same month a year earlier, according to government figures. In the United Kingdom, where the British Fruit Juice Association says supplies are at 50-year lows, the price of fresh orange juice rose 25% over the past year, according to consumer research company Nielsen. Those price increases are turning off inflation-weary consumers. Orange juice consumption has fallen 15% to 25% in major global markets — including the U.S. and the European Union — over the last year, according to Rabobank, a Dutch bank that focuses on food and agriculture. Jonna Parker, a principal for fresh food client insights at market research company Circana, said consumers are increasingly getting their morning fruit intake from energy drinks, smoothies and other beverages besides orange juice. "The price gets high and people consider other alternatives," she said. Global orange juice consumption was already declining before the current price hikes due to competition from other drinks and public concern about the amount of sugar in fruit juices. If that trend continues, it should help balance supply with demand and keep prices from rising much further, Rabobank said. But it expects limited supplies will keep prices elevated for some time. In some markets, orange juice is disappearing from shelves altogether. Late last year, McDonald's in Australia removed orange juice from its menu in favor of an "orange fruit drink" that contains 35% orange juice. The company cited short supplies. Tokyo-based Morinaga Milk Industry Co. expects to stop shipping its Sunkist brand orange juice – which uses juice from Brazil – by the end of June because of low juice supplies from Brazil, a company spokeswoman said. In April 2023, Megmilk Snow Brand Co., based in the northern Japanese city of Sapporo, stopped shipments of 1-liter and 450-milliliter packs of orange juice, which it sells under an agreement with Dole. Sales haven't yet resumed. Some companies are considering using alternatives to oranges in their products. Coldpress, a British juice company, introduced a mandarin juice product in February, citing the high price of regular juicing oranges. But others are tight-lipped about their plans. Several major orange juice makers – including Dole, Tropicana, Florida's Natural, Uncle Matt's and Coca-Cola, which makes the Simply and Minute Maid brands – declined to comment or failed to respond to inquires from The Associated Press. The roots of the current supply troubles stretch back decades. In 2005, an invasive bug called the Asian citrus psyllid arrived in Florida, injecting bacteria from its saliva into the state's orange trees. The bacteria slowly kills the tree by destroying its root systems. There's no known cure once a tree is infected. The impact has been devastating. In 2004, before the disease – called citrus greening – hit Florida, the state produced 200 million boxes of oranges. This year, it will produce less than 20 million. Michael Rogers, a professor of entomology and the director of the University of Florida's Citrus Research and Education Center, said no type of orange tree is totally resistant to greening, but scientists have been trying to breed trees that are more tolerant of it. Citrus greening arrived in Brazil around the same time as Florida, but it has progressed more slowly there because Brazil has much larger orange groves. Bugs spread the disease by flying from tree to tree, Rogers said. Still, the disease is spreading. Fundecitrus estimates that 38% of Brazil's orange trees had citrus greening in 2023. Simonetti, the orange farmer, estimates that 20% of his production is affected by greening. Oranges on affected trees don't ripen properly and fall off early, affecting the quality of their juice, he said. Shifting production to other locations isn't necessarily an option. California grows oranges, for example, and the citrus psyllid doesn't fare as well in the state's climate. But California also doesn't get the rainfall needed for juicing oranges; its oranges are usually sold for eating, Rogers said. Another issue impacting orange harvests is extreme weather, which is becoming more common as the world warms due to climate change. Last year, nine heat waves swept across Brazil, resulting in lower output and poorer fruit quality. This year, the impacts of El Niño have been particularly dramatic, with a historic drought in the Amazon and devastating floods in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul. "The temperatures are high during the day. At night the temperature drops. The plant can't stand this temperature difference," Simonetti said. Brazil's 2024-25 harvest is expected to yield 232 million boxes of oranges, down 24% from the prior year. "We have never seen a harvest like this," Vinícius Trombin, the coordinator of Fundecitrus' crop estimates survey, said. To make up for the anticipated smaller yield, some producers are considering blending oranges with tangerines to make juice, Trombin said. But he's skeptical. "The consumer wants an orange juice made up 100% out of oranges," he said. Parker, of Circana, isn't so sure. She thinks blends with other fruits might help hold down costs and revive consumer interest in orange juice. "The idea of multiple flavors is very popular and is a way to stand out," she said. "You've got to keep people engaged. Once you lose that interest, it's really hard to get people back."

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LAUDERHILL, Florida — The United States cricket team made more history by reaching the second round in its Twenty20 World Cup debut after its last group game against Ireland was washed out Friday. Rain meant the match at Broward County Stadium was abandoned without a ball bowled, advancing the Americans to the Super Eight stage and automatically qualifying them for the 2026 Twenty20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka. The U.S. qualified for this T20 World Cup only as a co-host with the West Indies, but it has used home advantage to make a stunning first impression in its first major cricket tournament. While the Americans progressed alongside unbeaten India from Group A, former champion Pakistan and winless Ireland were eliminated from Super Eight contention. Pakistan won the title in 2009 and reached two more finals, including at the last T20 World Cup in 2022. Pakistan has failed to get out of the group stage for the first time. Ireland was expected to be a threat, too. The Irish also reached the second round on debut in 2009 and repeated in 2022. The competition point from the washout was enough for the U.S. to advance after beating Canada in Texas and stunning Pakistan in Texas during the first week. Tying Pakistan in regular overs then beating it in a super over was one of the greatest upsets in the tournament's history. The Americans were thumped by India, one of the title favorites, as expected on Wednesday but the hosts' progression without being able to play on Friday was still well deserved. The umpires made four inspections of the wet outfield before heavy rain arrived at around 1:30 p.m. local time and the match was called off three hours after its scheduled start. The 17th-ranked U.S. joined the West Indies, India, Australia, South Africa and Afghanistan in the Super Eight, with two more teams yet to qualify. The Super Eight starting on Wednesday splits into two groups, with each team guaranteed three games to try and reach the semifinals. Nepal wins toss At Kingstown, St Vincent, Nepal won the toss and chose to bowl in its later match against Group D leaders South Africa, the first international match between the teams. South Africa already has qualified for the Super Eight stage after winning its first three matches against the Netherlands, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. South Africa's first match in the Super Eight playoffs is next Wednesday against the U.S. in Antigua. Nepal lost to the Netherlands in its opening match, and its second match against Sri Lanka was rained out, meaning this will be its first game in 10 days. It is also the first match at the tournament to be played in St. Vincent. Nepal captain Rauhit Praudel said he elected to bowl first to take advantage of easier batting conditions in the second innings. Proteas captain Aiden Markram said he would have chosen to bat first. For the first time at the tournament, Nepal has been able to select its leading player, Sandeep Lamichhane. Lamichhane was convicted of rape in January and sentenced to eight years in jail. But his conviction was overturned in May by the Nepal High Court. His application for a visa to travel with the Nepal squad to the United States was rejected. But he has been able to join the team in St. Vincent, bringing the Nepal squad up to its full complement of 15 players in the Caribbean. New Zealand bowls first At Tarouba, Trinidad, New Zealand won the toss and chose to bowl in a Group C match against Uganda. The West Indies and Bangladesh already have taken the two Super Eight qualifying spots available from the group. New Zealand lost its first two matches at the tournament to Bangladesh and the West Indies and can no longer qualify. It sits at the bottom of the group behind Uganda, which has two points from a win over Papua New Guinea. New Zealand's failure at this tournament ends a run of success at white ball World Cups. It has reached at least the semifinals of the last six white-ball world tournaments over the last decade. 

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MATAMOROS, Mexico — Some shelters south of the U.S. border are caring for many more migrants now that the Biden administration stopped considering most asylum requests, while others have yet to see much of a change. The impact appears uneven more than a week after the temporary suspension took effect. Shelters south of Texas and California have plenty of space, while as many as 500 deportations from Arizona each day are straining shelters in Mexico's Sonora state, their directors say. "We're having to turn people away because we can't, we don't have the room for all the people who need shelter," said Joanna Williams, executive director of Kino Border Initiative, which can take in 100 people at a time. About 120 are in San Juan Bosco shelter in Nogales, across the border from the Arizona city with the same name, up from about 40 before the policy change, according to its director, Juan Francisco Loureiro. "We have had a quite remarkable increase," Loureiro said Thursday. Most are Mexican, including families as well as adults. Mexico also agreed to accept deportees from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela. A shelter in Agua Prieta, a remote town bordering Douglas, Arizona, also began receiving more Mexican men, women and children last weekend — 40 on Sunday, more than 50 on Monday and then about 30 a day. Like those sent to Nogales, most had entered the U.S. farther west, along the Arizona-California state line, according to Perla del Angel, a worker at the Exodus Migrant Attention Center. Mexicans make up a relatively large percentage of border arrests in much of Arizona compared to other regions, which may help explain why Nogales is affected. Mexicans are generally the easiest nationality to deport because officials only have to drive them to a border crossing instead of arranging a flight. In Tijuana, directors of four large shelters said this week that they haven't received a single migrant deported since the asylum ban took effect. Al Otro Lado, a migrant advocacy group, consulted only seven migrants on the first full day operating an information booth at the main crossing where migrants are deported from San Diego. "What there is right now is a lot of uncertainty," said Paulina Olvera, president of Espacio Migrante, who houses up to 40 people traveling in families, predominantly from Mexico, and has others sleeping on the sidewalk outside. "So far what we've seen is the rumors and the mental health impact on people. We haven't seen returns yet." Biden administration officials said last week that thousands have been deported since the new rule took effect on July 5, suspending asylum whenever arrests for illegal crossings hit a trigger of 2,500 in a single day. The officials, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity, were not more specific. The halt will remain in effect until arrests fall below a seven-day daily average of 1,500. "We are ready to repatriate a record number of people in the coming days," Blas Nuñez-Neto, assistant homeland security secretary for border and immigration policy, told Spanish-language reporters after the policy was announced. The Homeland Security Department did not immediately respond to a request for figures on Friday and neither did the National Immigration Institute in Mexico.