Modi’s Power Has Peaked

Modi’s Power Has PeakedElection results in India suggest the ruling BJP will return to power, but with a reduced mandate that has surprised pollsters. The natural order of coalition rule is back.

Read more

Biden is said to be finalizing plans for migrant limits

Biden is said to be finalizing plans for migrant limits

FILE – Migrants cross through the banks of the Rio Grande River to the United States, as seen from Matamoros, state of Tamaulupas, Mexico, on May 9, 2023. The Biden administration is planning to restrict the number of people allowed to request asylum, sources say.

Read more

Russian court extends detention of journalist Alsu Kurmasheva

Russian court extends detention of journalist Alsu Kurmasheva

Alsu Kurmasheva, a Russian-American journalist for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty who is in custody after she was accused of violating Russia’s law on foreign agents, holds drawings from her supporters as she attends a court hearing in Kazan, Russia, on May 31, 2024.

Read more

Teaching girls (and boys) about menstruation takes moxie

May 28, 20242:23 PM ET
Girls at a primary school in Sheno, Ethiopia. In partnership with UNICEF, the Sheno Primary School developed a program to educate both girls and boys about menstruation — and provide sanitary pads. A new UNICEF report says that only 39% of the world’s schools offer such instruction.

Zacharias Abubeker/AFP via Getty Images

hide caption

toggle caption

Zacharias Abubeker/AFP via Getty Images

“I wasn’t shy from the first time,” says Genet Birhanu of her job as a menstrual educator in Ethiopia.
“I understand menstruation cycle is an old taboo,” she says, but “I’m not afraid” to talk about it.
And she was fearlessly teaching the topic to both girls and boys, starting with fourth graders.
Only 39% of schools around the world offer this kind of education on menstruation, according to a UNICEF report released on May 28 – designated as “World Menstrual Hygiene Day” by the United Nations.

What it takes to be ..

Read more

Basketball is booming in Rwanda — and the NBA is there for the ride

May 28, 20245:00 AM ET
Enlarge this imageThe popularity of basketball in Rwanda can be seen on courts around the country.

Jacques Nkinzingabo for NPR

hide caption

toggle caption

Jacques Nkinzingabo for NPR

The popularity of basketball in Rwanda can be seen on courts around the country.

Jacques Nkinzingabo for NPR

KIGALI, Rwanda — Dozens of young players sprawl out across a pair of colorful basketball courts at Club Rafiki, a youth center in Kigali, Rwanda. Parents and supporters watch from rows of bleachers.
Coaches work with players of varying ages, boys and girls. From the littlest children come shrieks of joy. From older players, focused stares, determination, precise shots at the basket.
Bizimana Bassam, one of the coaches, says that players show up as early as 7 a.m. on weekends, and that during school vacations, Club Rafiki can host as many as 500 young players.
Bassam played basketball as a child, but began coaching as an adult. He says a lot has changed sin..

Read more

What to know about South Africa’s May 29 elections

May 24, 20247:35 AM ET
A woman wearing a shirt of African Congress for Transformation party looks at other parties’ election posters in Sharpeville, South Africa, on March 21.

Olympia De Maismont/AFP via Getty Images

hide caption

toggle caption

Olympia De Maismont/AFP via Getty Images

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — It’s autumn in South Africa, where election season is in full swing and the streets are plastered with campaign posters of smiling politicians promising “A Job In Every Home” or to “Rescue South Africa”.
It is 30 years since the country’s first democratic elections, in which the Black majority were able to vote for the first time, ushering in anti-apartheid hero and global icon Nelson Mandela as president. It was a heady time then, at the advent of the “Rainbow Nation,” and full of optimism
Three decades later, in many ways things haveimproved. South Africa is a vibrant democracy with a free and fearless press an..

Read more

Biden names Kenya a major non-NATO ally during state visit

President Biden greets Kenya’s President William Ruto at the South Portico of the White House on May 22. The two leaders met with a group of tech CEOs the day before the official state visit.

Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images/AFP

hide caption

toggle caption

Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images/AFP

President Biden welcomed Kenya’s President William Ruto for a state visit on Thursday, a trip aimed at showing his administration wants to deepen U.S. ties with the African continent.
As part of a long list of new agreements with Kenya, Biden announced he plans to designate the country as a major non-NATO ally, which comes with some defense trade benefits.
World Haiti’s notorious gang leader, Barbecue, says his forces are ready for a long fightKenya will be the first sub-Saharan African nation to receive the designation, which recognizes the country’s contributions to counterterrorism work, and its work leading a multinational force in Haiti.
The Biden administration is backi..

Read more

Jacob Zuma banned from running in South Africa’s election

May 20, 202411:11 AM ET
Enlarge this imageFormer South African President Jacob Zuma arrives at Orlando stadium in the township of Soweto, Johannesburg, South Africa, for the launch of his newly formed uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party’s manifesto Saturday, May 18, 2024.

Jerome Delay/AP

hide caption

toggle caption

Jerome Delay/AP

Former South African President Jacob Zuma arrives at Orlando stadium in the township of Soweto, Johannesburg, South Africa, for the launch of his newly formed uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party’s manifesto Saturday, May 18, 2024.

Jerome Delay/AP

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa – The Constitutional Court in South Africa has ruled that former President Jacob Zuma cannot run for parliament, just 9 days before what’s being seen as the most pivotal vote in South Africa’s 30 years of democracy.
It’s a significant blow for Zuma and his new uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party, which is named after the former armed wing of his previous party, the ruling African National Congress. ..

Read more

Rwanda is transforming and growing — but at what cost?

May 20, 20245:00 AM ET
Enlarge this imageRwanda’s post-genocide transformation has been remarkable, but uneven.

Jacques Nkinzingabo for NPR

hide caption

toggle caption

Jacques Nkinzingabo for NPR

Rwanda’s post-genocide transformation has been remarkable, but uneven.

Jacques Nkinzingabo for NPR

KIGALI, Rwanda — Staring at the skyline in this city, you can’t miss the tiered dome of the Kigali Convention Center. At night, its blue, yellow and green lights can be seen from the surrounding hilltops.
Completed in 2016, it’s known to be the most expensive building on the African continent, and a project that’s special to Rwandan President Paul Kagame.
Staff inside the complex say he comes by “every day” to check on the progress. While that’s almost certainly an exaggeration, the building is one of the most visible signs of the ways in which the country has changed since Kagame came to power in the years after the brutal genocide shocked the world.
Yet that transformation ..

Read more

US announces $275M in new military aid for Ukraine

US announces $275M in new military aid for Ukraine

FILE – A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) is fired in an undisclosed location in Ukraine in this image from a social media video uploaded June 24, 2022. The U.S. will soon provide a new military aid package for Ukraine that contains HIMARS ammunition.

Read more

What in the World?

What in the World?Test yourself on the week of May 18: Iran’s president dies, the ICC pursues new arrest warrants, and security forces thwart a coup in Africa.

Read more

U.S. troops and equipment will leave Niger by mid-September, the Pentagon says

May 19, 20246:33 PM ET
Enlarge this imageSupporters of Niger’s ruling junta gather for a protest in Niamey, Niger, on Aug. 3, 2023.

Sam Mednick/AP

hide caption

toggle caption

Sam Mednick/AP

Supporters of Niger’s ruling junta gather for a protest in Niamey, Niger, on Aug. 3, 2023.

Sam Mednick/AP

WASHINGTON — U.S. troops ordered out of Niger by the West African country’s ruling junta will complete their withdrawal by the middle of September, the Pentagon and Nigerien defense officials said Sunday.
The timeline was the product of four days of talks between the countries’ defense officials in the capital city of Niamey, according to a joint statement.
Niger’s decision to kick out American forces dealt a blow to U.S. military operations in the Sahel, a vast region south of the Sahara desert where groups linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group operate.
U.S. troops and some gear already have begun leaving the country, a senior military official and a senior defense..

Read more

‘There is no respect anymore’ as ambulances come under attack in South Africa

May 19, 20248:10 AM ET
Enlarge this imageParamedic Papinki Lebelo waits for a police escort before responding to an emergency call-out in the Red Zone neighborhood of Philippi East in Cape Town, South Africa. Due to a rise in attacks on paramedics, large parts of the city are only accessible to ambulance crews when they have a police escort. This severely delays response times.

Tommy Trenchard for NPR

hide caption

toggle caption

Tommy Trenchard for NPR

Paramedic Papinki Lebelo waits for a police escort before responding to an emergency call-out in the Red Zone neighborhood of Philippi East in Cape Town, South Africa. Due to a rise in attacks on paramedics, large parts of the city are only accessible to ambulance crews when they have a police escort. This severely delays response times.

Tommy Trenchard for NPR

It’s 7:30 p.m. in the South African city of Cape Town. Paramedic Papinki Lebelo wears an expression of deep frustration as he waits in his ambulance outside the Phi..

Read more

11 hurt in mass shooting in Savannah, Georgia

11 hurt in mass shooting in Savannah, Georgia

This image taken from video provided by WJCL shows police responding to a shooting in Savannah, Ga., May 19, 2024. An argument between two women led to a gunfight that left 11 people hurt, one of five weekend shootings in the city, authorities said.

Read more