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Johannesburg — Many South African political parties are using populist rhetoric ahead of what is being described as the most important election in 30 years. One South African political party running in the May 29 elections wants mass expulsions of foreign migrants and the return of the death penalty. Another party regularly sings about killing White farmers. Yet another pushes for changing from “Roman-Dutch law” to African traditions and wants to send teenage mothers to a former prison island. Gayton McKenzie, the leader of a small opposition party named the Patriotic Alliance and who spent 17 years in jail for robbery, speaks a law-and-order message. “As a person that grew up as a gangster, that grew up as a criminal, a person that understands the underworld, I’m here today to tell you the only way to stop the crime, the killings,” he said at a rally earlier this year. “Under my regime, if you kill somebody, you shall be killed also. ... We want law and order back in South Africa.” Like populist leaders the world over, he positions himself as an outsider taking on a supposedly elite and corrupt establishment. Beyond advocating for the death penalty, he has also promised to “bring God back into schools.” Immigration is his other key theme, in which he constantly rails against undocumented migrants from other African nations, blaming them for most of the country’s woes — from the unemployment crisis to crime. He’s even raised the idea of building a border wall. Political analyst Tessa Dooms said she sees similarities between the political rhetoric in South Africa and the United States under former President Donald Trump, who is seeking a return to power in November. “I think what’s becoming clear in this election is that there is almost a Trumpian type of moment that is developing where people are resisting establishment politics and big political parties particularly because they feel like those parties are far removed from them, are not accountable to them, and are not engaged with them,” Dooms said. The Economic Freedom Fighters, or EFF — the nation’s third-largest party — is South Africa’s original populist rabble-rouser. Its red-beret-wearing leader, Julius Malema, has twice been charged with hate speech and for firing a gun at a public rally. The EFF advocates “radical economic transformation” — the nationalization of land and banks. Malema has also suggested arming the Hamas militant group. Established less than a year ago, Umkhonto we Sizwe, or the MK party, which is predicted to get the third- or fourth-largest share of the vote, has also assumed the populist mantle. It’s led and represented by former President Jacob Zuma, although he can’t run for parliament due to a 2021 prison sentence he was given for contempt of court. Zuma, who was forced to resign as president in 2018 due to corruption scandals, has an axe to grind with his former party, the governing African National Congress. He also retains considerable popularity among fellow ethnic Zulus in his home province, despite allegations against him. On the campaign trail this year, he has railed against South Africa’s progressive constitution, what he calls “white law,” and argued that traditional chiefs and leaders should be given more power. He’s made derogatory comments about LGBTQ+ rights — which are protected by law in South Africa. Zuma has also floated the idea of dealing with teenage pregnancy by sending young mothers to continue their education on Robben Island — the former prison where he and Nelson Mandela, who would also go on to become president, were jailed under Apartheid. Another party, the right-wing Afrikaans party Freedom Front Plus, advocates for the secession of the Western Cape province, dubbed CapeXit. As a country, South Africa has many conditions that make it fertile breeding ground for populism, analysts say. Unemployment is among the highest in the world, many still live in dire poverty, there are almost daily power cuts due to a flailing electricity grid, and there are high rates of murder and sexual violence. “People are just exhausted and just want to know there are people who are going to fix things fast and are willing to do whatever it takes to get those things resolved,” Dooms said. This month’s elections are being seen as pivotal, because 30 years after the end of apartheid, some polls project the ANC could get under 50% for the first time and be forced to enter a coalition government. But with small populist parties on the rise, the concern now is who they would join with.

Turkey is watching closely to see who will succeed the Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi after his recent death in a helicopter crash. As Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul, relations between the two regional powers are at a pivotal moment.

Under the Biden administration, U.S. veterans have received more than $5.7 billion in expanded health care benefits. But former President Donald Trump argues that veterans were better off when he was in the White House. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias looks at what the veteran population will likely need from the next president.

Kathmandu, Nepal — A climber from Kenya attempting to scale the world's highest mountain has been found dead near the summit, officials said Thursday. The body of Cheruiyot Kirui was found on Mount Everest, said Khim Lal Gautam, a government official at the mountain's base camp. It was unclear when the body would be recovered because it would be difficult to carry at that altitude due to the low oxygen level. The climb by Kirui, a 40-year-old banker at Kenya Commercial Bank, had been closely followed in Kenya, and fellow climber James Muhia had posted frequent updates about the attempt online. "It is a sad day," Muhia wrote Thursday on X. "Our brother is now one with the mountain. It will be a difficult time. Go well my brother." Kenyan foreign ministry secretary, Korir Sing'oei, said he had met with Kirui before his trip to Nepal, and described him as fearless and audacious. "Really gutted by this news," Sing'oei wrote on X. "I have been following his exploits until this unfortunate end. He is a fearless, audacious spirit, and represents the indomitable will of many Kenyans. We shall miss him." Officials said more than 450 climbers have scaled Mount Everest from the Nepali side of the peak in the south this season. Three climbers were reported killed and four are still missing on Mount Everest this season, which ends in a few days. Most climbing of Everest and nearby Himalayan peaks is done in April and May when weather conditions are most favorable.

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.

Islamabad — Pakistan has temporarily shut down schools in most parts of the country to protect children from heatstroke and dehydration due to an ongoing climate-induced heat wave.  “At least 26 million children in Pakistan’s most populous province, Punjab, - or 52 percent of the country’s total number of pupils in pre-primary, primary and secondary education – will be out of school from 25 to 31 May,” Save the Children said Thursday. The education department in Punjab cited a temperature surge and a prolonged heat wave as reasons for shutting down all public and private schools across the province. However, it said that schools “will be allowed to conduct examinations as scheduled, with necessary precautions to ensure the safety of students.” On Thursday, doctors in major urban centers reported treating hundreds of patients for heatstroke. This is not the first time extreme weather has disrupted educational activities in the South Asian nation, which has a population of about 250 million people.  In 2022, Pakistan’s southern and southwestern regions experienced devastating floods triggered by climate change-induced erratic monsoon rains, which affected 33 million people and halted education activities.  "Pakistan ranks fifth among the countries most affected by global warming,” Rubina Khursheed Alam, the prime minister’s climate coordinator, told a news conference in the capital, Islamabad, on Thursday. She cited recent unusually heavy rains, floods, and soaring temperatures. Alam said 26 districts in Punjab, southern Sindh, and southwestern Baluchistan provinces are experiencing an intense heat wave, which will persist for at least a week.  She advised the public to minimize exposure to direct sunlight during peak heat hours and stay hydrated, warning that the extreme heat and dry conditions could spark bush fires and forest fires in vulnerable districts. This past April was the wettest in Pakistan since 1961, with more than double the usual monthly rainfall, killing scores of people and destroying property as well as farmland.  Offiicials say due to climate change, temperatures in some of the affected areas in Pakistan have already reached close to 50 degrees Celsius (over 127 degrees Fahrenheit). Meteorological Department officials said temperatures in northern and northwestern Pakistani areas would be “4-6 °C higher than normal" for the rest of the week. Pakistan contributes less than 1% to global carbon emissions but bears the brunt of climate change. Save the Children said the country “faces rates of warming considerably above the global average with a potential rise of 1.3°C–4.9°C by the 2090s, and the frequency of extreme climate events in Pakistan is projected to increase as well.” The flooding in 2022 resulted in at least 1,700 deaths, affecting 33 million people and submerging approximately one-third of Pakistan.  “Let’s stop sleepwalking towards the destruction of our planet by climate change,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said after visiting flood-hit areas in Pakistan. He said Pakistanis were “facing a monsoon on steroids — the relentless impact of epochal levels of rain and flooding.” The U.N. Children’s Fund, or UNICEF, said Thursday temperatures spiked to 43-47 degrees Celsius on Sunday across India’s many northern states, including New Delhi.  The agency warned in a statement that “the soaring temperatures across South Asia can put millions of children’s health at risk if they are not protected or hydrated.”  UNICEF noted that 76% of children under 18 in South Asia, about 460 million, were exposed to extremely high temperatures, with 83 or more days in a year exceeding 35 degrees Celsius. It estimated that 28% of children across South Asia were exposed to 4.5 or more heat waves per year, compared to 24% globally.

WASHINGTON — Get ready for what nearly all the experts think will be one of the busiest Atlantic hurricane seasons on record, thanks to unprecedented ocean heat and a brewing La Nina.  There's an 85% chance that the Atlantic hurricane season starting in June will be above average in storm activity, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Thursday in its annual outlook. The weather agency predicted between 17 and 25 named storms will brew up this summer and fall, with eight to 13 achieving hurricane status (at least 75 mph sustained winds) and four to seven of them becoming major hurricanes, with at least 111 mph winds.  An average Atlantic hurricane season produces 14 named storms — seven of them hurricanes and three major hurricanes.  "This season is looking to be an extraordinary one in a number of ways," NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad said. He said this forecast is the busiest that NOAA has seen for one of their May outlooks; the agency updates its forecasts each August.  About 20 other groups — universities, other governments, private weather companies — also have made seasonal forecasts. All but two expect a busier, nastier summer and fall for hurricanes. The average of those other forecasts is about 11 hurricanes, or about 50% more than in a normal year.  "All the ingredients are definitely in place to have an active season," National Weather Service Director Ken Graham said. "It's a reason to be concerned, of course, but not alarmed."  What people should be most concerned about is water because 90% of hurricane deaths are in water and they are preventable, Graham said.  When meteorologists look at how busy a hurricane season is, two factors matter most: ocean temperatures in the part of the Atlantic where storms spin up and need warm water for fuel, and whether there is a La Nina or El Nino, the natural and periodic cooling or warming of Pacific Ocean waters that changes weather patterns worldwide. A La Nina tends to turbocharge Atlantic storm activity while depressing storminess in the Pacific, and an El Nino does the opposite.  La Nina usually reduces high-altitude winds that can decapitate hurricanes, and generally during a La Nina there's more instability or storminess in the atmosphere, which can seed hurricane development. Storms get their energy from hot water. Ocean waters have been at record temperatures for 13 months in a row, and a La Nina is forecast to arrive by mid- to late summer. The current El Nino is dwindling and is expected to be gone within a month or so.  "We've never had a La Nina combined with ocean temperatures this warm in recorded history, so that's a little ominous," said University of Miami tropical meteorology researcher Brian McNoldy.  This May, ocean heat in the main area where hurricanes develop has been as high as it usually is in mid-August. "That's crazy," McNoldy said. It's both record warm on the ocean surface and at depths, which "is looking a little scary."  He said he wouldn't be surprised to see storms earlier than normal this year as a result. Peak hurricane season usually is mid-August to mid-October, with the official season starting June 1 and ending November 30.  A year ago, the two factors were opposing each other. Instead of a La Nina, there was a strong El Nino, which usually inhibits storminess a bit. Experts said at the time they weren't sure which of those factors would win out.  Warm water won. Last year had 20 named storms, the fourth-highest year since 1950 and far more than the average of 14. An overall measurement of strength, duration and frequency of storms last season was 17% bigger than normal.  Record hot water seems to be key, McNoldy said.  "Things really went of the rails last spring [2023], and they haven't gotten back to the rails since then," McNoldy said.  "Hurricanes live off of warm ocean water," said Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach. "That tends to basically be fuel for the hurricane. But also, when you have the warm Atlantic, what that tends to do is also force more air up over the Atlantic, more rising motion, which helps support strong thunderstorms."  There's the background of human-caused climate change that's making water warmer in general, but not this much warmer, McNoldy said. He said other contributors may include an undersea volcano eruption in the South Pacific in 2022, which sent millions of tons of water vapor into the air to trap heat, and a reduction in sulfur in ship fuels. The latter meant fewer particles in the air that reflect sunlight and cool the atmosphere a bit.  Seven of the last 10 Atlantic hurricane seasons have been more active than the long-term normal.  Climate change generally is making the strongest hurricanes even more intense, making storms rain more and making them rapidly intensify more, McNoldy said.  This year, Colorado State University — which pioneered hurricane season forecasting decades ago — is forecasting a season that's overall 71% stronger and busier than the average season with 23 named storms and 11 hurricanes.  That's at "levels comparable to some of the busiest seasons on record," said Klotzbach.  Klotzbach and his team gave a 62% probability that the United States will be hit with a major hurricane with winds of at least 111 mph. Normally the chance is 43%. The Caribbean has a two-out-of-three chance of getting hit by a major hurricane, and the U.S. Gulf Coast has a 42% likelihood of getting smacked by such a storm, the CSU forecast said. For the U.S. East Coast, the chance of being hit by a major hurricane is 34%.  Klotzbach said he doesn't see how something could shift soon enough to prevent a busy season this year.  "The die is somewhat cast," Klotzbach said. 

Washington — The U.S. Supreme Court handed a victory to South Carolina Republicans on Thursday, ruling against a challenge to an electoral map they devised that moved 30,000 Black residents out of a congressional district. The justices in a 6-3 decision, with the conservative justices in the majority and liberal justices dissenting, reversed a lower court's ruling that the Republican-drawn map violated the rights of Black voters under the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment, which guarantees equal protection under the law. The ruling was authored by conservative Justice Samuel Alito.   The lower court on March 28, because of the length of time it took the Supreme Court to act, decided that the disputed map can be used in this year's congressional elections, a ruling that could undercut Democratic chances of winning control of the U.S. House of Representatives. The conservative majority on Thursday sided with South Carolina Republicans who argued that the first congressional district map was designed to secure partisan advantage, a practice that the Supreme Court in 2019 decided was not reviewable by federal courts - unlike map-drawing that is mainly motivated by race, which remains illegal. The majority found that the NAACP civil rights group and Black voters who challenged the map failed to prove that the map's design was chiefly motivated by race.   This case was being closely watched ahead of the Nov. 5 U.S. election in which the presidency and control of both chambers of Congress will be decided. Democrats lost their majority in the 435-seat House in the 2022 election and are hoping to overcome the slim Republican majority this year, with every competitive district crucial to the outcome.   Republicans hold a 217-213 margin in the House. Ongoing legal battles over redistricting in several other states could be enough to determine control of the House in the election. The South Carolina legal fight centered on a map adopted in 2022 by the Republican-led state legislature that redrew the boundaries of one of the state's seven U.S. House districts - one that includes parts of Charleston along the Atlantic coast. Alito wrote that "no direct evidence supports the district court's finding that race predominated in the design of District 1," and that "circumstantial evidence falls far short of showing that race, not partisan preferences, drove the districting process." A federal three-judge panel in January 2023 ruled that the map unlawfully sorted voters by race and deliberately split up Black neighborhoods in Charleston County in a "stark racial gerrymander."   Gerrymandering is a practice involving the manipulation of the geographical boundaries of electoral districts to marginalize a certain set of voters and increase the influence of others. In this case, the state legislature was accused of racial gerrymandering to reduce the influence of Black voters, who tend to favor Democratic candidates. The boundaries of legislative districts across the country are redrawn to reflect population changes measured by the census conducted by the U.S. government every decade. In most states, redistricting is done by the party in power. The new map in South Carolina increased the district's share of white voters while reducing its share of Black voters, which the lower court referred to as "bleaching."   The map shifted 30,000 Black residents who had been in the 1st congressional district into the neighboring 6th congressional district, which stretches 200 km inland from Charleston. These voters were unlawfully "exiled," the three-judge panel wrote.   The 6th district has been held for three decades by Democrat Jim Clyburn, one of the most prominent Black members of Congress. Clyburn's is the only one of South Carolina's House districts held by a Democrat. With the district's previous boundaries in place, Republican Nancy Mace only narrowly defeated an incumbent Democrat in 2020 - by just over 1 percentage point, or 5,400 votes. With the redistricting, Mace won re-election in 2022 by 14 percentage points. The Supreme Court heard arguments in the case in October. The parties in the dispute had asked the Supreme Court to decide the case by the end of 2023. In a separate redistricting ruling, the Supreme Court on May 15 restored a newly drawn Louisiana electoral map that includes two Black-majority U.S. House districts, rather than the one present in a previous version. The justices temporarily halted a lower court's decision throwing out the new map, allowing its use in this year's election.

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.

WASHINGTON — Hoor Mehtab, a Pakistani medical student in Kyrgyzstan, was among the first students to return to Pakistan following Kyrgyzstani mob attacks on foreign students, including Pakistanis and Indians, in various Bishkek universities and hostels May 17.    Mehteb said she and others were dining in a cafe serving Pakistani food when they received messages from classmates at their hostel that a mob had attacked the hostel and Avicenna International Medical University where they were students.   Mehteb said the cafe owner offered her and 59 other Pakistani and Indian students refuge in the basement, where they stayed for 14 hours.  “It was suffocating,” she told VOA.  Mehtab was among nearly 4,000 Pakistani students who left their studies in Bishkek and returned to Pakistan after the violence, which lasted for several hours over May 17 and 18.   Kyrgyzstan's Interior Ministry said in a statement on its website the day after the attack that the violence was triggered by the appearance of a social media video purportedly showing a group of “persons of Asian appearance,” said by eyewitnesses to be Egyptians, harassing foreign students on the night of May 13. The statement said the police charged four foreign students with hooliganism and detained them. Police did not release the students' identities.  Kyrgyz Deputy Education Minister Rasul Abazbek, speaking to reporters Monday in Bishkek, called the mass attacks on Pakistani and Indian students “shameful.”  “We must not lose this reputation to be hub of education,” Abazbek said.  Parents of students who are still in Bishkek say they are worried about the safety of their sons and daughters.    “My family is worried. I have to borrow $320 to send it to my daughter and son to buy air tickets so they can come back home,” Sardar Asif Ali, a Pakistani father in Mardan city, in Pakistan’s northwest, told VOA.  According to official estimates, there are 11,000 Pakistanis in Kyrgyzstan, mostly students.    Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar was in Bishkek this week to ensure the safety of the Pakistani students. At a press briefing Wednesday in Islamabad, Dar said about 4,000 Pakistanis are expected to return from Kyrgyzstan.   Pakistan has launched special flights to repatriate its citizens. A flight arranged by the Pakistani government arrived at Bacha Khan International Airport in the northwestern city of Peshawar early Wednesday, carrying 200 students from Bishkek.  Among them was Azra Alam, a Pakistani student in her third year of medical studies in Bishkek.  "We were stuck in our rooms for six days and scared every minute," she told VOA. She said she is uncertain about her future studies at Bishkek.  Medical schools in the former Soviet republics are popular among South Asian students because of lower costs, proximity and lower qualification requirements. Students and parents say the cost for a year of tuition for a medical school in Kyrgyzstan is roughly $3,000.  This story originated in VOA’s Deewa service with contributions by Urdu Service. Some information for this report came from Reuters. 

DAKAR, Senegal — Chad swore in Mahamat Deby Itno as the president on Thursday after holding elections earlier this month, completing a disputed transition to democratic rule after he seized power three years ago.  Deby Itno, also known as Mahamat Idriss Deby, took power after his father Idriss Deby Itno was killed fighting rebels in 2021 after ruling the country for three decades. The long-delayed May 6 election came after three years of military rule.  His main rival, Succes Masra, who contested the results earlier this month, resigned from his post as prime minister on Wednesday. Masra had been involved in protests against Deby Itno's decision to extend his time in power and fled the country in 2022. He was allowed to return last year and was appointed prime minister.  Masra, who claimed to have won the election, filed an appeal to challenge the preliminary results, which showed Deby Itno had won, but it was dismissed. The oil-exporting country of nearly 18 million people hasn't had a democratic transfer of power since it became independent in 1960, after decades of French colonial rule.  In his first presidential address, Deby Itno said his government would focus on boosting Chad's agricultural and farming sectors, and investing in education, access to water and health care.  "I've heard your yearning for change, and I've understood you. Let's all play our part, individually and collectively, to bring about the change we all hope, desire and expect," he said.  Western leaders congratulated Deby Itno despite irregularities in the vote, which included Chad's decision to ban 2,900 EU-trained observers from monitoring the election.  Chad is seen by the United States and France as one of the last remaining stable allies in the vast Sahel region following military coups in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger in recent years. The ruling juntas in all three nations have expelled French forces and turned to Russia's mercenary units for security assistance instead.  "Although there were troubling shortcomings, we welcome the milestones in Chad's transition process," the U.S. State Department said last week.  The British government also said the election marked an important milestone in the return to civilian rule. "The U.K. commends the engagement of the Chadian people and welcomes the largely peaceful way in which the elections and campaign were conducted," it said in a statement. 

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Justice Department filed a sweeping antitrust lawsuit against Ticketmaster and parent company Live Nation Entertainment on Thursday, accusing them of running an illegal monopoly over live events in America — squelching competition and driving up prices for fans. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Manhattan, was being brought with 30 state and district attorneys general and seeks to break up the monopoly they say is squeezing out smaller promoters and hurting artists. "We allege that Live Nation relies on unlawful, anticompetitive conduct to exercise its monopolistic control over the live events industry in the United States at the cost of fans, artists, smaller promoters, and venue operators," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. "The result is that fans pay more in fees, artists have fewer opportunities to play concerts, smaller promoters get squeezed out, and venues have fewer real choices for ticketing services. It is time to break up Live Nation-Ticketmaster." The Justice Department accuses Live Nation of a slew of practices that allow it to maintain a stronghold over the live music scene, including using long-term contracts to keep venues from choosing rival ticketers, blocking venues from using multiple ticket sellers and threatening venues that they could lose money and fans if they don't choose Ticketmaster. The Justice Department says Live Nation also threatened to retaliate against one firm if it didn't stop a subsidiary from competing for artist promotion contracts. Live Nation has denied that it engages in practices that violate antitrust laws. When it was reported that the company was under federal investigation in 2022, the concert promoter said in a statement that Ticketmaster enjoys a such a large share of the market because of "the large gap that exists between the quality of the Ticketmaster system and the next best primary ticketing system." But competitor ticket sellers have long complained that Live Nation makes it difficult for them to disrupt the market with practices such as withholding acts if those venues don't agree to use Ticketmaster's service. The lawsuit is the latest example of the Biden administration's aggressive antitrust enforcement approach targeting companies accused of engaging in illegal monopolies that box out competitors and drive up prices. In March, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit against Apple alleging that the tech giant has monopoly power in the smartphone market. The Democratic administration has also taken on Google, Amazon and other tech giants. "Today's action is a step forward in making this era of live music more accessible for the fans, the artists, and the industry that supports them," Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in a statement. Ticketmaster, which merged with Live Nation in 2010, is the world's largest ticket seller, processing 500 million tickets each year in more than 30 countries. Around 70% of tickets for major concert venues in the U.S. are sold through Ticketmaster, according to data in a federal lawsuit filed by consumers in 2022. The company owns or controls more than 265 of North America's concert venues and dozens of top amphitheaters, according to the Justice Department. The ticket seller sparked outrage in November 2022 when its site crashed during a presale event for a Taylor Swift stadium tour. The company said its site was overwhelmed by both fans and attacks from bots, which were posing as consumers to scoop up tickets and sell them on secondary sites. The debacle prompted congressional hearings and bills in state legislatures aimed at better protecting consumers. The Justice Department allowed Live Nation and Ticketmaster to merge as long as Live Nation agreed not to retaliate against concert venues for using other ticket companies for 10 years. In 2019, the department investigated and found that Live Nation had "repeatedly" violated that agreement and extended the prohibition on retaliating against concert venues to 2025.