Feed aggregator

CHENGDU, China — In 2018, the censors who oversee Chinese media issued a directive to the nation's entertainment industry: Don't feature artists with tattoos and those who represent hip-hop or any other subculture. Right after that, a well-known rapper, GAI, missed a gig on a popular singing competition despite a successful first appearance. Speculation went wild: Fans worried that this was the end for hip-hop in China. Some media labeled it a ban. The genre had just experienced a banner year, with a hit competition-format TV show minting new stars and introducing them to a country of 1.4 billion people. Rappers accustomed to operating on little money and performing in small bars became household names. The announcement from censors came at the peak of that frenzy. A silence descended, and for months no rappers appeared on the dozens of variety shows and singing competitions on Chinese TV. But by the end of that year, everything was back in full swing. What had looked like the end for Chinese hip-hop was just the beginning. "Hip-hop was too popular," says Nathanel Amar, a researcher of Chinese pop culture at the French Center for Research on Contemporary China. "They couldn't censor the whole genre." Since then, hip-hop's explosive growth in China has only continued. It has done so by carving out a space for itself while staying clear of the government's red lines, balancing genuine creative expression with something palatable in a country with powerful censors. The effort has succeeded: Today, musicians say they're looking forward to an arriving golden age. Much of the energy can be found in Chengdu, a city in China's southwestern Sichuan region. Some of the biggest acts in China today hail from Sichuan; Wang Yitai, Higher Brothers and Vava are just a few of the names that have made Chinese rap mainstream, performing in a mix of Mandarin and the Sichuan dialects. Although Chinese rap has been operating underground for decades in cities like Beijing, it is the Sichuan region — known internationally for its spicy cuisine, its panda reserve and its status as the birthplace of the late leader Deng Xiaoping — that has come to dominate. The dialect lends itself to rap because it's softer than Mandarin Chinese and there are a lot more rhymes, says 25-year-old rapper Kidway, from a town just outside Chengdu. "Take the word 'gang' in English. In Sichuanese, there's a lot of rhymes for that word 'fang, sang, zhuang,' the rhymes are already there," he says. Part of the city's hip-hop lore centers around a collective called Chengdu Rap House or CDC, founded by a rapper called Boss X, whose fans affectionately call him "Xie laober" in the Sichuan dialect. The city has embraced rap, as its originators like Boss X went from making music in a run-down apartment in an old residential community to performing in a stadium for thousands. "When I came to mainland China, they showed me more love in like three or four months than I ever received in Hong Kong," says Haysen Cheng, a 24-year-old rapper who moved to the city from Hong Kong in 2021. The price of going mainstream means the underground scene has evaporated. Chengdu was once known for its underground rap battles. Those no longer happen, as freestyling usually involves a lot of curse words and other content the authorities deem unacceptable. These days it's all digital, with people uploading short clips of their music to Douyin, TikTok's Chinese version, to get noticed. Rarely can a single cultural product be said to have originated a whole genre of music. But the talent competition/reality TV show The Rap of China has played an outsized role in building China's rap industry. The first season, broadcast on IQiyi, a web streaming platform, brought rap to households across the country. The first season's 12 episodes drew 2.5 billion views online, according to Chinese media reports. In the first season, the show relied on its judges' star power to draw in an audience. Two winners emerged from the first season: GAI and PG One. Shortly after their win, the internet was awash with rumors about the less than perfect doings of PG One's personal life. The Communist Youth League also criticized one of his old songs for content that appeared to be about using cocaine, very much violating one of the censor's red lines. Then came the 2018 meeting where censors reminded TV channels of who could not appear on their programs, namely anyone who represented hip-hop. PG One was finding that any attempts to release new music were quickly taken down by platforms. The platform, IQiyi, even took down the entire first season for a while. But by late summer 2018, fans were excited to hear that they could expect a second season of The Rap of China, though there was a rebrand. The name in English stayed the same, but in Chinese the show's name changed from China Has Hip-Hop to China Has 'Shuochang,' a term that also refers to traditional forms of storytelling. Regulators had given the go-ahead for hip-hop to continue its growth in China, but artists had to obey the government censors. Hip-hop had to stay away from mentions of drugs and sex. Otherwise, though, it could proceed. "It was a success for the Chinese regulators," Amar says. "They really succeeded in coopting the hip-hop artists." With tight censorship on the entertainment industry and a ban on mentions of drugs and sex in lyrics, artists have reacted in two ways. Either they wholeheartedly embrace the displays of patriotism and nationalism or they avoid the topics. Some, like GAI, have fully taken on the government's mantle in the mainstreaming of hip-hop. He had won The Rap of China with a song called Not Friendly in which, in classic hip-hop fashion, he dissed other rappers. Just a few years later, Gai is singing about China's glorious 5,000 years of history on the CCTV's Spring Festival New Year's Gala broadcast. The red lines have also pushed artists to be more creative. But developing a genuine Chinese brand of rap remains a work in progress. Hip-hop got its start from New York's boroughs of Brooklyn and the Bronx, where rappers made music from their tough circumstances. In China, the challenge is about finding what fits its context. Wang Yitai, who was a member of Chengdu's rap collective CDC, is now one of the most popular rappers in China. His style has infused mainstream pop sounds. "We're all trying hard to create songs that not only sound good, but also topics that fit for China," Wang says. "I think hip-hop's spirit will always be about original creation and will always be about your own story."

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. — With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of U.S. airpower. But the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence, not a human pilot. And riding in the front seat was Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning for an AI-enabled fleet of more than 1,000 unmanned warplanes, the first of them operating by 2028. It was fitting that the dogfight took place at Edwards Air Force Base, a vast desert facility where Chuck Yeager broke the speed of sound and the military has incubated its most secret aerospace advances. Inside classified simulators and buildings with layers of shielding against surveillance, a new test-pilot generation is training AI agents to fly in war. Kendall traveled here to see AI fly in real time and make a public statement of confidence in its future role in air combat. "It's a security risk not to have it. At this point, we have to have it," Kendall said in an interview with The Associated Press after he landed. The AP and NBC were granted permission to witness the secret flight on the condition that it would not be reported until it was complete because of operational security concerns. The AI-controlled F-16, called Vista, flew Kendall in lightning-fast maneuvers at more than 800 kph that put pressure on his body at five times the force of gravity. It went nearly nose to nose with a second human-piloted F-16 as both aircraft raced within 305 meters of each other, twisting and looping to try force their opponent into vulnerable positions. At the end of the hour-long flight, Kendall said he'd seen enough to trust this still-learning AI to decide whether to launch weapons in war. There's a lot of opposition to that idea. Arms control experts and humanitarian groups are deeply concerned that AI one day might be able to autonomously drop bombs that kill people without further human consultation, and they are seeking greater restrictions on its use. "There are widespread and serious concerns about ceding life-and-death decisions to sensors and software," the International Committee of the Red Cross has warned. Autonomous weapons "are an immediate cause of concern and demand an urgent, international political response." Kendall said there will always be human oversight in the system when weapons are used. The military's shift to AI-enabled planes is driven by security, cost and strategic capability. If the U.S. and China should end up in conflict, for example, today's Air Force fleet of expensive, manned fighters will be vulnerable because of gains on both sides in electronic warfare, space and air defense systems. China's air force is on pace to outnumber the U.S. and it is also amassing a fleet of flying unmanned weapons. Future war scenarios envision swarms of American unmanned aircraft providing an advance attack on enemy defenses to give the U.S. the ability to penetrate an airspace without high risk to pilot lives. But the shift is also driven by money. The Air Force is still hampered by production delays and cost overruns in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which will cost an estimated of $1.7 trillion. Smaller and cheaper AI-controlled unmanned jets are the way ahead, Kendall said. Vista's military operators say no other country in the world has an AI jet like it, where the software first learns on millions of data points in a simulator, then tests its conclusions during actual flights. That real-world performance data is then put back into the simulator where the AI then processes it to learn more. China has AI, but there's no indication it has found a way to run tests outside a simulator. And, like a junior officer first learning tactics, some lessons can only be learned in the air, Vista's test pilots said. Vista flew its first AI-controlled dogfight in September 2023, and there have only been about two dozen similar flights since. But the programs are learning so quickly from each engagement that some AI versions being tested on Vista are beating human pilots in air-to-air combat. The pilots at this base are aware that in some respects, they may be training their replacements or shaping a future construct where fewer of them are needed. But they also say they would not want to be up in the sky against an adversary that has AI-controlled aircraft if the U.S. does not also have its own fleet. "We have to keep running. And we have to run fast," Kendall said.

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.

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.

MELBOURNE, Australia — A 16-year-old boy armed with a knife was shot dead by police after he stabbed a man in the Australian west coast city of Perth, officials said Sunday. The incident occurred in the parking lot of a hardware store in suburban Willetton on Saturday night. The teen attacked the man and then rushed at police officers before he was shot, Western Australian Premier Roger Cook told reporters Sunday. "There are indications he had been radicalized online," Cook told a news conference. "But I want to reassure the community at this stage it appears that he acted solely and alone," Cook added. A man was found at the scene with stab wounds to his back. He was taken to a hospital in serious but stable condition, Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported. Police and Australian Security Intelligence Organization agents have been conducting a counterterrorism investigation in the east coast city of Sydney since another 16-year-old boy stabbed an Assyrian Orthodox bishop and priest in a church on April 15. That boy has been charged with committing a terrorist act. Six of his alleged associates have also been charged with a range of offenses, including conspiring to engage in or planning a terrorist act. All remain in custody. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he had been briefed on the latest stabbing in Perth by Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw and ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess, who heads the nation's main domestic spy agency. "I'm advised there is no ongoing threat to the community on the information available," Albanese said. "We are a peace-loving nation and there is no place for violent extremism in Australia," he added. Police received an emergency phone call after 10 p.m. from a teenager saying he was going to commit acts of violence, Western Australian Police Commissioner Col Blanch said. The boy had been participating in a program for young people at risk of radicalization, Blanch added. "I don't want to say he has been radicalized or is radicalized because I think that forms part of the investigation," he said. Police said they were later alerted by a phone call from a member of the public that a knife attack was underway in the parking lot. Three police officers responded, one armed with a gun and two with conducted energy devices. Police deployed both conducted energy devices but they failed to incapacitate the boy before he was killed by a single gunshot, Blanch said. Some Muslim leaders have criticized Australian police for declaring last month's church stabbing a terrorist act but not a rampage two days earlier in a Sydney shopping mall in which six people were killed and a dozen wounded. The 40-year-old attacker in the mall attack was shot dead by police. Police have yet to reveal the man's motive. The church attack is only the third to be classified by Australian authorities as a terrorist act since 2018. In December 2022, three Christian fundamentalists shot dead two police officers and a bystander in an ambush near the community of Wieambilla in Queensland state. The shooters were later killed by police. In November 2018, a Somalia-born Muslim stabbed three pedestrians in downtown Melbourne, killing one, before police shot him dead.

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.

TBILISI, Georgia — Several thousand Georgians marked Orthodox Easter with a candlelight vigil outside Parliament on Saturday evening as daily protests continue against a proposed law that critics see as a threat to media freedom and the country's aspirations to join the European Union. The proposed bill would require media, nongovernmental organizations and other nonprofits to register as "pursuing the interests of a foreign power" if they receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad. Protesters and the Georgian opposition denounce it as "the Russian law," saying Moscow uses similar legislation to stigmatize independent journalists and those critical of the Kremlin. Demonstrators crowded along a broad avenue in Tbilisi late Saturday, clutching Georgian and EU flags, as a small choir sang Easter songs and activists bustled about distributing food, including handpainted eggs and traditional Easter cakes. Unlike at mass rallies earlier in the week, which met with a heavy police response, the atmosphere was peaceful. Unarmed police officers stationed sparsely at the vigil's sidelines received festive foods along with the protesters. Most Western churches observed Easter on April 9, but Orthodox Christians in Georgia, Russia and elsewhere follow a different calendar. "It is the most extraordinary Easter I have ever witnessed. The feeling of solidarity is overwhelming, but we should not forget about the main issue," activist Lika Chachua told The Associated Press, referring to the proposed legislation. The legislature approved a second reading of the bill Wednesday. The third and final reading is expected later this month. The proposal is nearly identical to a measure that the governing Georgian Dream party was pressured to withdraw last year after large street protests. Georgian Dream argues the bill is necessary to stem what it deems as harmful foreign influence over the country's political scene and to prevent unidentified foreign actors from trying to destabilize the country's political scene. But EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has described the parliament's move as "a very concerning development" and warned that "final adoption of this legislation would negatively impact Georgia's progress on its EU path." Russia-Georgia relations have been strained and turbulent since the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the two fought a brief war in 2008 that ended with Georgia losing control over two Russia-friendly separatist regions. In the aftermath, Tbilisi severed diplomatic ties with Moscow, and the issue of the regions' status remains a key irritant, even as relations have somewhat improved. The opposition United National Movement accuses Georgian Dream, which was founded by Bidzina Ivanishvili, a billionaire who made his fortune in Russia, of serving Moscow's interests. The governing party vehemently denies that.

MEREDITH, New Hampshire — Burt Rutan was alarmed to see the plane he had designed was so loaded with fuel that the wing tips started dragging along the ground as it taxied down the runway. He grabbed the radio to warn the pilot, his older brother Dick Rutan. But Dick never heard the message.  Nine days and three minutes later, Dick, along with copilot Jeana Yeager, completed one of the greatest milestones in aviation history: the first round-the-world flight with no stops or refueling.  A decorated Vietnam War pilot, Dick Rutan died Friday evening at a hospital in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, with Burt and other loved ones by his side. He was 85. His friend Bill Whittle said he died of a severe lung infection.  "He played an airplane like someone plays a grand piano," said Burt Rutan of his brother, who was often described as having a velvet arm because of his smooth flying style.  A design, a dream Burt Rutan said he had always loved designing airplanes and became fascinated with the idea of a craft that could go clear around the world. His brother was equally passionate about flying. The project took six years.  There was plenty to worry Burt during testing of the light graphite plane, Voyager. There were mechanical failures, any one of which would have been disastrous over a distant ocean. When fully laden, the plane couldn't handle turbulence. And then there was the question of how the pilots could endure such a long flight on so little sleep. But Burt said his brother had an optimism about him that made them all believe.  "Dick never doubted whether my design would actually make it around, with still some gas in the tank," Burt Rutan said.  Voyager left from Edwards Air Force Base in California just after 8 a.m. on Dec. 14, 1986. Rutan said with all that fuel, the wings had only inches of clearance. Dick couldn't see when they started dragging on the runway. But when Burt called on the radio, copilot Yeager gave a speed report, drowning the message.  "And then, the velvet arm really came in," Burt Rutan said. "And he very slowly brought the stick back and the wings bent way up, some 30 feet at the wingtips, and it lifted off very smoothly."  They arrived back to a hero's welcome as thousands gathered to witness the landing. Both Rutan brothers and Yeager were awarded a Presidential Citizenship Medal by President Ronald Reagan, who described how a local official in Thailand at first "refused to believe some cockamamie story" about a plane flying around the world on a single tank of gas.  "We had the freedom to pursue a dream, and that's important," Dick Rutan said at the ceremony.   A vet of combat missions Richard Glenn Rutan was born in Loma Linda, California. He joined the U.S. Air Force as a teenager and flew more than 300 combat missions during the Vietnam War.  He was part of an elite group that would loiter over enemy anti-aircraft positions for hours at a time. The missions had the call sign "Misty" and Dick was known as "Misty Four-Zero." Among the many awards Dick received were the Silver Star and the Purple Heart.  He survived having to eject twice from planes, once when his F-100 Super Sabre was hit by enemy fire over Vietnam, and a second time when he was stationed in England and the same type of plane had a mechanical failure. He retired from the Air Force with the rank of lieutenant colonel and went on to work as a test pilot.  Dick Rutan set another record in 2005 when he flew about 10 miles (16 kilometers) in a rocket-powered plane launched from the ground in Mojave, California. It was also the first time U.S. mail had been carried by a such a plane. 

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.

TULKARM, West Bank — Israeli forces killed five Palestinians, including four fighters from the militant group Hamas, in an overnight raid near the city of Tulkarm in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian and Israeli officials said Saturday. Hamas confirmed that four of the men killed during the raid in Deir al-Ghusun village were from its al-Qassam armed wing. The Palestinian health ministry said their bodies had been taken by the Israeli military. There was no information about the fifth man, whose body was too disfigured for immediate identification, the Palestinian health ministry in the West Bank said. The Israeli military confirmed the deaths and said an Israeli officer from a special police unit was wounded in the operation that targeted a Hamas cell responsible for numerous shootings and car bombing attacks. It said the group was responsible for killing a reservist soldier and wounding a police officer in an attack last November and also carried out a car bombing attack in April that wounded two Israelis including a soldier. Saturday's operation near of Tulkarm was the latest in a series of clashes in the West Bank between Israeli forces and Palestinians. The violence had deescalated for more than two years but picked up in intensity since the Hamas-led attack on Israel last October. Hamas, the Islamist group that Israel has been fighting in Gaza, had also been building its fighting network in the West Bank before the start of the war. During the raid, the Israeli army leveled a two-story house with a bulldozer in an operation that lasted more than 12 hours. According to Palestinian Health Ministry records, nearly 500 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or Jewish settlers in the West Bank or East Jerusalem since October 7. Many have been armed fighters, but stone-throwing youths and uninvolved civilians have also been killed. Palestinians want the West Bank and Gaza, which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war, as the core of an independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital. U.S.-backed talks to reach an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians have been stalled for the past decade, but the Gaza war has raised pressure for a revival of efforts to reach a two-state solution. More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's seven-month-old assault on the Gaza Strip, say health officials in the Hamas-ruled enclave. The war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people and abducting about 250 others, of whom more than 130 are believed to remain in captivity in Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

omaha, nebraska — Warren Buffett cautioned the tens of thousands of shareholders who packed an arena for his annual meeting that artificial intelligence scams could become "the growth industry of all time."  Doubling down on his cautionary words from last year, Buffett told the throngs he recently came face to face with the downside of AI. Someone made a fake video of Buffett, apparently convincing enough that Buffett himself said he could imagine it tricking him into sending money overseas.  The billionaire investing guru predicted scammers will seize on the technology and may do more harm with it than good.  "It has enormous potential for good and enormous potential for harm and I just don't know how that plays out," he said.  Earnings  The day started early Saturday with Berkshire Hathaway announcing a steep drop in earnings as the paper value of its investments plummeted and it pared its Apple holdings. The company reported a $12.7 billion profit, or $8.825 per Class A share, in first the quarter, down 64% from $35.5 billion, or $24,377 per A share a year ago.  But Buffett encourages investors to pay more attention to the conglomerate's operating earnings from the companies it owns. Those jumped 39% to $11.222 billion, or $7,796.47 per Class A share, led by insurance companies' performance.  None of that got in the way of the fun.  Throngs flooded the arena to buy up Squishmallow plush toys of Buffett and former Vice Chairman Charlie Munger, who died last fall. The event attracts investors from around the world and is unlike any other company meeting.  "This is one of the best events in the world to learn about investing. To learn from the gods of the industry," said Akshay Bhansali, who spent the better part of two days traveling from India to Omaha.  A notable absence  Devotees come for tidbits of wisdom from Buffett, who famously dubbed the meeting Woodstock for Capitalists.  This was the first meeting since Munger died.  The meeting opened with a video tribute highlighting some of his best-known quotes, including classics like "If people weren't so often wrong, we wouldn't be so rich." The video also featured skits the investors made with Hollywood stars over the years, including a "Desperate Housewives" spoof where one of the women introduced Munger as her boyfriend and another in which actress Jaimie Lee Curtis swooned over him.  As the video ended, the arena erupted in a prolonged standing ovation honoring Munger, whom Buffett called "the architect of Berkshire Hathaway."  Buffett said Munger remained curious about the world up until the end of his life at 99, hosting dinner parties, meeting with people and holding regular Zoom calls.  For decades, Munger and Buffett functioned as a classic comedy duo, with Buffett offering lengthy setups to Munger's witty one-liners.  Together, the pair transformed Berkshire from a floundering textile mill into a massive conglomerate made up of a variety of interests, from insurance companies such as Geico to BNSF railroad to several major utilities and an assortment of other companies.  Next Gen leaders  Munger's absence, however, created space for shareholders to get to know better the two executives who directly oversee Berkshire's companies: Ajit Jain, who manages the insurance units; and Abel, who handles everything else and has been named Buffett's successor. The two shared the main stage with Buffett this year.  The first time Buffett kicked a question to Greg Abel, he mistakenly said "Charlie?" Abel shrugged off the mistake and dove into the challenges utilities face from the increased risk of wildfires and some regulators' reluctance to let them collect a reasonable profit.  Morningstar analyst Greggory Warren said he believes Abel spoke up more Saturday and let shareholders see some of the brilliance Berkshire executives talk about.  A look to the future  Buffett has made clear that Abel will be Berkshire's next CEO, but said Saturday that he had changed his opinion on how the company's investment portfolio should be handled. He had previously said it would fall to two investment managers who handle small chunks of the portfolio now. On Saturday, Buffett endorsed Abel for the gig, as well as overseeing the operating businesses and any acquisitions.  "He understands businesses extremely well, and if you understand businesses, you understand common stocks," Buffett said. Ultimately, it will be up to the board to decide, but the billionaire said he might come back and haunt them if they try to do it differently.  Nevertheless, the best applause line of the day was Buffett's closing remark: "I not only hope that you come next year but I hope that I come next year." 

LOME, Togo — Togo's ruling party has won 108 out of 113 seats in parliament, according to the final provisional results of last month's legislative election announced on Friday. The sweeping majority secured by President Faure Gnassingbe's UNIR party follows the approval of controversial constitutional reforms by the outgoing parliament that could extend his 19-year rule. The new charter adopted in March also introduced a parliamentary system of government, meaning the president will be elected by parliament instead of by universal suffrage. Opposition parties were hoping to gain seats in the April 29 vote to enable them to challenge the UNIR party after they boycotted the last legislative poll and left it effectively in control of parliament. The election had been delayed twice because of a backlash from some opposition parties who called the constitutional changes a maneuver to allow Gnassingbe to rule for life. Constitutional amendments unanimously approved in a second parliamentary vote earlier in April shortened presidential terms to four years from five with a two-term limit. This does not take into account the time spent in office, which could enable Gnassingbe to stay in power until 2033 if he is re-elected when his mandate expires in 2025. 

MOLEPOLOLE, Botswana — At least 44 people who died in a horrific bus crash during Easter weekend in South Africa were laid to rest in neighboring Botswana on Saturday. About 5,000 mourners clad in black gathered in the Botswana village of Molepolole to pay their last respects nearly a month after the bus crash that claimed the lives of everybody on board except one 8-year-old child. The bus driver, Ogaufi Noonyane, was buried separately in the village of Thamaga, about 40 kilometers away. The victims were travelling to an Easter pilgrimage of the Zion Christian Church, one of the biggest churches in southern Africa, when their bus plunged about 50 meters from a bridge near Mokopane village in South Africa's northern province of Limpopo. The accident was a tragic reminder of how deadly South Africa’s roads become during the Easter period, when millions crisscross the country during the long holiday weekend. The mass funeral followed the repatriation of the victims' remains to their home country of Botswana. "We stand here with devastated hearts," said Limpopo provincial minister of health Phophi Ramathuba, who was among the South African dignitaries who attended the funeral. Atlang Siako, the sole survivor, was transported back home to Botswana after receiving medical attention in South Africa. Last month, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and his Botswana counterpart Mokgweetsi Masisi visited the scene of the crash, where they laid wreaths and paid their respects to the deceased. 

Louiville, kentucky — Mystik Dan won the 150th Kentucky Derby in a three-horse photo finish on Saturday, edging out Sierra Leone by a nose with Forever Young third in the tightest finish since 1996.  Sent off at 18-1 odds, Mystik Dan and jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. rode the rail down the stretch with a short lead. Sierra Leone, the second choice at 9-2 odds, and Forever Young from Japan gave chase and pressured the leader to the wire in front of 156,710 people at Churchill Downs.  It was just the 10th Kentucky Derby decided by a nose — the closest margin in horse racing — and the first since Grindstone wore the garland of red roses in 1996.  The crowd waited several minutes before the result was reviewed by the stewards and declared official.  "The longest few minutes of my life," Hernandez said, after he and the bay colt walked in circles while the stunning result was settled. "To see your number flash up to win the Derby, I don't think it will sink in for a while."  Fierceness, the 3-1 favorite, finished 15th in the field of 20 3-year-olds.  Mystik Dan ran 1¼ miles in 2:03.34. Hernandez and trainer Kenny McPeek had teamed for a wire-to-wire win in the Kentucky Oaks for fillies on Friday with Thorpedo Anna. McPeek is the first trainer to sweep both races since Ben Jones in 1952 and the fourth overall.  McPeek's only other victory in a Triple Crown race was also a shocker: 70-1 Sarava won the 2002 Belmont Stakes — the biggest upset in that race's history. The colt spoiled the Triple Crown bid of War Emblem.  Sierra Leone lugged in and bumped Forever Young three times in the stretch, but jockey Ryusei Sakai didn't claim foul. 

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.

tel aviv, israel — Thousands of Israelis protested on Saturday, demanding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accept a cease-fire agreement with the Islamist movement Hamas that would see the remaining Israeli hostages brought home from Gaza.   At a rally in Tel Aviv that took place as Hamas officials were meeting Egyptian and Qatari mediators in Cairo, relatives and supporters of the estimated 100 hostages still alive and in captivity said anything possible had to be done to bring them home.  "I'm here today to support a deal now, yesterday," said Natalie Eldor. "We need to bring them back. We need to bring all the hostages back, the live ones, the dead ones. We got to bring them back. We got to switch this government. This has got to end."  The protests, ahead of the Yom HaShoah Holocaust Remembrance Day, which falls this year on May 6, came as the war in Gaza nears the end of its seventh month amid growing international pressure to stop the fighting.  "The only thing that keeps us going is the hope that Bar is alive and surviving," said Ora Rubinstein, the aunt of Bar Kupershtein, who was seized along with more than 250 others when Hamas-led gunmen rampaged through Israeli communities near Gaza on October 7.  Many of those taken hostage are believed to be dead, but the families want them brought back.  "Everyone must be returned. We will not abandon them as the Jews were abandoned during the Holocaust," said Hanna Cohen, an aunt of 27-year-old Inbar Haiman, who was initially believed to have been taken hostage on October 7 but was subsequently found to have been killed. Her body is still believed to be held by Hamas in Gaza.  About 1,200 Israelis and foreigners were killed on October 7 in the deadliest day in Israel's history, according to Israeli tallies.  In response, Israel launched a devastating assault on the Gaza Strip, destroying large swaths of the enclave and killing more than 34,000 people, according to Palestinian health authorities.  Netanyahu's government has insisted that it will not stop the war until Hamas is destroyed and all the hostages are returned, but intensive efforts are underway to secure a halt to the fighting that might lead to a full cease-fire.  However, Netanyahu faces pressure from nationalist religious parties in his coalition to refuse a deal with Hamas and go ahead with the long-promised offensive against the southern Gaza city of Rafah.