World
Migrant workers who helped build modern China have scant or no pensions, and can't retire
At 53, Guan Junling is too old to get hired at factories anymore. But for migrant workers like her, not working is not an option.
For decades, they have come from farming villages to find work in the cities. Toiling in sweatshops and building apartment complexes they could never afford to live in, they played a vital role in China's transformation into an economic powerhouse.
As they grow older, the first generation of migrant workers is struggling to find jobs in a slowing economy. Many are financially strapped, so they have to keep looking.
"There is no such thing as a 'retirement' or 'pensions' for rural people. You can only rely on yourself and work," Guan said. "When can you stop working? It's really not until you have to lie in bed and you can't do anything."
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She now relies on housecleaning gigs, working long days to squirrel away a little money in case of a health emergency. Migrant workers can get subsidized health care in their hometowns, but they have little or no coverage elsewhere. If Guan needs to go to hospital in Beijing, she has to pay out of pocket.
As China's population ages, so are its migrant workers. About 85 million were over 50 in 2022, the latest year for which data is available, accounting for 29% of all migrant workers and up from 15% a decade earlier. With limited or no pensions and health insurance, they need to keep working.
About 75% said they would work beyond the age of 60 in a questionnaire distributed to 2,500 first-generation migrant workers between 2018 to 2022, according to Qiu Fengxian, a scholar on rural sociology who described her research in a talk last year. The first-generation refers to those born in the 1970s or earlier.
Older workers are being hit by a double whammy. Jobs have dried up in construction due to a downturn in the real estate market and in factories because of automation and the slowing economy. Age discrimination is common, so jobs tend to go to younger people.
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"For young people, of course, you can still find a job, positions are available, though the wage is not high enough," said Zhang Chenggang of Beijing's Capital University of Economics and Business, where he directs a center researching new forms of employment.
"But for older migrant workers, there simply are no positions," said Zhang, who conducted field studies at four labor markets across China late last year. "Now, the problem is that no matter how low the wage is, as long as someone pays, you will take the job."
Some job recruiters contacted by AP said older workers don't work well or have underlying illnesses. Others declined to answer and hung up.
Many are turning to temporary work. Zhang Zixing was looking for gigs on a cold winter day late last year at a sprawling outdoor labor market on the outskirts of Beijing.
He said he was fired from a job delivering packages because of his age about three years ago, when he reached 55. In December, he was earning 260 yuan (about $35) a day installing cables at construction sites.
Zhang Quanshou, a village official in Henan province and a delegate to China's National People's Congress, said some older migrant workers are just looking for work near their hometowns, while others still head to larger cities.
"Some older migrant workers are finding temporary jobs, so it is important to build the temporary job market and provide a better platform for such services," Zhang, the Communist Party secretary of the village, said in an emailed response to questions during a recent annual meeting of the Congress.
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Guan, who comes from a rice-farming region in the north, worked on a clothing factory assembly line until she was laid off when she was in her 40s. She then worked various jobs in different cities, winding up in Beijing in 2018.
She works seven days a week, partly because she's afraid labor agencies won't call again if she turns an offer down.
Over February's Lunar New Year holiday, when migrant workers traditionally go home to visit their families, she stayed in Beijing as a caretaker for an elderly woman, because the woman needed help and she needed the money.
"People either want someone who's educated or young, and I don't meet either of those requirements," said Guan, who dropped out after middle school because her parents had only enough money to educate their son. "But then I think, regardless of how other people look at me, I have to survive."
Guan worries jobs will be even harder to find when she reaches 55. The retirement age for women in China is 50 or 55, depending on the company and type of work. For men, it is 60.
Lu Guoquan, a trade union official, has proposed relaxing age limits for jobs, judging workers by their physical condition instead of their age and making it easier for older people to find work through labor markets and online platforms.
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"A large number of farmers have entered cities, making an important contribution to the modernization of our country," said his proposal, made to an advisory body during the recent national congress and seen by the AP.
As workers grow older, "they are gradually becoming a relatively vulnerable group in the labor market and face a number of thresholds and problems in continuing to work," it said.
Lu, director of the general office of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, declined an interview request.
Duan Shuangzhu has spent 25 years collecting trash in one Beijing neighborhood after giving up a life of raising sheep and cows in north China's Shanxi province when he was in his 40s. He gets up at 3:30 a.m. seven days a week to make his rounds. For that, he earns 3,300 yuan ($460) a month and has a basement room to live in.
Duan's wife stayed on the farm, where she looks after their grandchildren. Duan has managed to save money for himself, his children and his grandchildren, but never paid into a pension system, directing what little he earns to his family.
That fits the pattern Qiu found in her research, which she published in a book last year. Older migrant workers moved to the cities to improve the lives of their children and other relatives, not themselves, she found. Most have limited or no savings, and few have climbed the economic ladder. They hoped their children would, but most ended up as migrant workers, too.
Most migrant workers' earnings were spent on their children's marriages, homes and education, Qiu said in her talk. "Basically, they did not begin working for themselves and planning for their own late years until the age of 55."
Duan, at 68, has no plans to quit.
"As long as I can work every day, it's enough to survive," he said, standing next to a set of community rubbish bins, color-coded for recycling. "I didn't grow up in a wealthy family — just filling my stomach each day is enough for me."
As conflict worsens in eastern Congo, 2 armed groups pledge to respect civilians
Under a crystal chandelier in a hall where the first Geneva Convention was signed in the mid-19th century, representatives of two armed groups in Congo signed solemn pledges this week to both their violence-wracked country and the wider world: We will do better to respect and protect civilians.
With several Western diplomats looking on, the envoys made commitments that their forces will work to end sexual violence, food insecurity and conditions of famine and to ensure greater access to health care in the parts of increasingly violent eastern Congo that they operate in and control.
The ceremony Tuesday at City Hall in Geneva, a Swiss city that's known for an internationalist bent and as home to the international Red Cross, is the culmination of years of work by the humanitarian group Geneva Call, which works to protect civilians in conflict zones.
Congo, Africa's second-largest country, has seen a recent upsurge in insecurity in its mineral-rich east, an area that has been wracked by conflict for decades. More than 120 armed groups are fighting for land and power and, in some cases, protecting their communities. However, M23, the largest and best-known group, allegedly linked to neighboring Rwanda, has not engaged with Geneva Call.
President Felix Tshisekedi, who started his second five-year term in January, had made quelling violence in the eastern parts of the Central African country a priority in his first term — but has struggled to deliver results.
In Geneva, two armed groups that are loosely aligned with the government against M23 inked separate “Deeds of Commitment” on the rules they've vowed to respect. Geneva Call was quick to say these are not formal agreements and don’t “legitimize” the armed groups.
One of the two, CMC-FDP (the French language acronym for Collective of Movements for Change/Self-Defense Force of Congolese People), has worked with Geneva Call for five years and taken steps such as releasing 35 children who were formerly in the group and rehabilitating schools and health centers.
“We are here as representatives of a patriotic resistance group in the Democratic Republic of Congo and we're here in Geneva to reiterate our commitment to respect international humanitarian law and human rights.” said Jimmy Didace Butsitsi, an assistant to the group's president, Christophe Mulumba.
The larger of the two groups is NDC-R/Guidon (Nduma Defense of Renewed Congo/Guidon), which has about 5,000 fighters. It has released over 20 hostages, undergone training in humanitarian law, and handed over 53 “perpetrators” of sexual or gender-based violence in its ranks to authorities as part of its work with the Geneva group.
“Before all these training courses that we’ve taken, we could let ourselves do whatever we wanted,” said group spokesman Marcellin Shenkuku N’Kuba, who was accompanied in Geneva by Jérémie N'Kuba, the group's political chairman. "Now, we feel — we can see — there's a change on the ground, and so we can’t let ourselves do whatever we want anymore.”
Shenkuku N'Kuba acknowledged that respecting the commitments “isn't easy” and said he's “not a prophet” but that the group will endeavor to adhere to them now that the pledges have been made.
He said his group was also motivated out of a desire to debunk preconceived notions that people around the world might have about resistance groups, and "show our desire and to influence others also to adhere to the philosophy of respect for human rights ... despite the circumstances our country is going through for the moment.”
Alain Délétroz, Geneva Call's director-general, said the idea behind such commitments is “to encourage other groups to follow the examples of these bigger groups.”
The humanitarian group was born in 2000 out of an effort to ban landmines, and it has shepherded nearly 120 such pledges from armed groups in countries, including Iraq, Myanmar and Syria, on issues like child protection, sexual violence and gender discrimination.
Geneva Call will keep tabs on any signs that the two groups might be violating their commitments, and would first raise any issues with their leaders confidentially. If troubles persisted, the aid group could go so far as to “repudiate” the deeds — but that has never happened in any other country.
The ceremony took place in the City Hall's “Alabama Room," under a painting that commemorates a meeting of bearded and mustachioed envoys from Europe and the United States who signed the first Geneva convention on aid to war-wounded in 1864.
At collapsed Baltimore bridge, focus shifts to the weighty job of removing the massive structure
Teams of engineers are now focused on the formidable job of hauling the shattered remains of the Francis Scott Key Bridge out of Maryland’s Patapsco River, the first step toward reopening the Port of Baltimore and recovering the bodies of four workers who are still missing and presumed dead.
A massive cargo go ship felled the span Tuesday after striking one of its main supports. Experts are trying to figure out how to “break that bridge up into the right-sized pieces that we can lift,” U.S. Coast Guard Rear Adm. Shannon Gilreath said Friday at a news conference.
The tools that are needed have been coming into place. They include seven floating cranes — one of which is one of the largest on the Eastern Seaboard, capable of lifting 1,000 tons — 10 tugboats, nine barges, eight salvage vessels and five Coast Guard boats.
“To go out there and see it up close, you realize just how daunting a task this is,” Gov. Wes Moore said Friday afternoon as the massive crane loomed behind him.
“With a salvage operation this complex — and frankly with a salvation operation this unprecedented — you need to plan for every single moment,” Moore added.
Moore surveyed the scene and saw shipping containers ripped apart “like papier-mache.” The broken pieces of the bridge, including its steel trusses, weigh as much as 4,000 tons.
The wreckage has blocked ships from entering or leaving the vital port and also stymied the search for the missing workers.
“We have to bring a sense of closure to these families,” Moore said.
Moore also spoke of the disaster's severe economic impact, saying, “What we’re talking about today is not just about Maryland’s economy; this is about the nation’s economy. The port handles more cars and more farm equipment than any other port in this country.”
Maryland’s Department of Transportation is already planning for rebuilding of the span and “considering innovative design, engineering and building methods so that we can quickly deliver this project,” Secretary Paul J. Wiedefeld said.
Adam Ortiz, the Environmental Protection Agency’s mid-Atlantic Regional Administrator, said there was no indication in the water of active releases from the ship or materials hazardous to human health.
Col. Roland L. Butler Jr., superintendent of the Maryland State Police, said the Federal Aviation Administration has been asked to establish a flight restriction area that would begin 3 nautical miles in every direction from the bridge's center span and extend upward to 1,500 feet.
Butler advised people to keep drones away and said law enforcement is poised to act on any violations of that airspace.
The victims, members of a crew fixing potholes on the span when it was destroyed, were from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, officials said. At least eight people initially went into the water when the ship struck the bridge column, and two of them were rescued.
Divers then recovered the bodies of two men from a pickup truck in the river, but the nature and placement of the debris has complicated efforts to find the other four workers, as have the murky water conditions.
“The divers can put their hands on that faceplate, and they can’t even see their hands,” said Donald Gibbons, an instructor with Eastern Atlantic States Carpenters Technical Centers. “So we say zero visibility. It’s very similar to locking yourself in a dark closet on a dark night and really not being able to see anything.”
Baltimoreans made morning stops at vantage points Friday to watch for the cranes. Among them was Ronald Hawkins, 71, who used to be able to see the bridge from his home and recalled watching its construction in the 1970s.
“I’m going to come up here every day, because I want to see the bridge coming up out of the water,” Hawkins said. “It’s a hurtin’ thing.”
President Joe Biden’s administration has approved $60 million in immediate aid, and Biden has said the federal government will pay the full cost of rebuilding the bridge, which was completed in 1977 and carried Interstate 695.
Ship traffic at the Port of Baltimore remains suspended, but the Maryland Port Administration said in a statement Friday that trucks were still being processed at marine terminals.
Federal and state officials have said the collision and collapse appeared to be an accident that came after the ship lost power. Investigators are still trying to determine why.
The crash caused the bridge to break and fall into the water within seconds. Authorities had just enough time to stop vehicle traffic but were unable to alert the construction crew.
The cargo ship Dali, which is managed by Synergy Marine Group, had been headed from Baltimore to Sri Lanka. It is owned by Grace Ocean Private Ltd. and was chartered by Danish shipping giant Maersk.
The loss of a road that carried 30,000 vehicles a day and the port disruption will affect not only thousands of dockworkers and commuters, but also U.S. consumers, who are likely to feel the impact of shipping delays.
Scott Cowan, president of the International Longshoremen’s Association Local 333, said the union was scrambling to help its roughly 2,400 members whose jobs are at risk of drying up.
“If there’s no ships, there’s no work,” he said. “We’re doing everything we can.”
Japanese authorities raid a factory making health supplements linked to 5 deaths
Japanese government health officials raided a factory Saturday producing health supplements that they say have killed at least five people and hospitalized more than 100 others.
About a dozen people wearing dark suits solemnly walked into the Osaka plant of Kobayashi Pharmaceutical Co. in the raid shown widely on Japanese TV news, including public broadcaster NHK.
The company says little is known about the exact cause of the sicknesses, which include kidney failure. An investigation into the products is underway in cooperation with government health authorities.
The supplements all used “benikoji,” a kind of red mold. Kobayashi Pharmaceuticals’ pink pills called Benikoji Choleste Help were billed as helping lower cholesterol levels.
Kobayashi Pharmaceutical, based in the western Japanese city of Osaka, said about a million packages were sold over the past three fiscal years. It also sold benikoji to other manufacturers, and some products have been exported. The supplements could be bought at drug stores without a prescription from a doctor.
Reports of health problems surfaced in 2023, although benikoji has been used in various products for years.
Company president Akihiro Kobayashi has apologized for not having acted sooner. The recall came March 22, two months after the company had received official medical reports about the problem.
On Friday, the company said five people had died and 114 people were being treated in hospitals after taking the products. Japan's health ministry says the supplements are responsible for the deaths and illnesses, and warned that the number of those affected could grow.
Some analysts blame the recent deregulation initiatives, which simplified and sped up approval for health products to spur economic growth. But deaths from a mass-produced item is rare in Japan, as government checks over consumer products are relatively stringent.
The government has ordered a review of the approval system in response to the supplement-related illnesses. A report is due in May.
Does your dog understand when you say 'fetch the ball'? A new study in Hungary says yes
Many dog owners believe their pets understand and respond not only to commands such as “sit” and “stay,” but also to words referring to their favorite objects. “Bring me your ball” will often result in exactly that.
But science has had trouble determining whether dogs and other animals genuinely activate a mental image in their minds when they hear the name of an object, something that would suggest a deeper grasp of language, similar to the kind that humans have.
A new study in Hungary has found that beyond being able to respond to commands like “roll over,” dogs can learn to associate words with specific objects — a relationship with language called referential understanding that had been unproven in dogs until now.
"When we are talking about objects, objects are external to the dogs, and dogs have to learn that words refer, they stand for something that is external to them,” said Marianna Boros, a cognitive neuroscientist and co-lead author of the study conducted by the Department of Ethology of the Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest.
The study, which has been peer reviewed, was published last Friday in the science journal “Current Biology.” It involved 18 dogs and a non-invasive EEG procedure using electrodes attached to dogs' heads to measure brain activity and register brain waves.
Dog owners participating in the study would play an audio clip in which they said the name of their dog's toy — like “ball” or “frisbee” — and then they would show the dog an object. The researchers measured the dogs' brain activity when the object in the recording matched the object that was displayed, and also when it differed.
"We expected that if a dog really understands the meaning of the object's word, it will expect to see that object. And if the owner shows a different one, there will be a so-called surprise reaction in the brain," Boros said. “And this is exactly what we found.”
The study found a different brain pattern when the dogs were shown an object that matched the word, compared to when it didn't — suggesting the animals conjured a mental image of an object based on hearing the word for it.
Lilla Magyari, also a cognitive neuroscientist and co-lead author of the study, said that while other animals have been shown to have some degree of referential understanding of language, those animals have typically been highly trained to do so.
In dogs, she said, the findings show that such capacities appear to be inborn and require no special training or talent.
The study supports "theories of language evolution which actually say that referential understanding is not necessarily unique to humans,” added Magyari, who is also an associate professor at the University of Stavanger in Norway.
While the study has received praise, some experts have expressed doubts about its findings. Behavioral scientist and professor of psychology at Arizona State University, Clive Wynne, said in a post on Facebook that he believes that all the study shows is that dogs respond to stimuli — but that they don’t actually understand the meaning of specific words.
Scientists believe the first dogs began to be domesticated by humans up to 30,000 years ago, and have lived closely alongside us ever since.
But whether dogs acquired their apparent capacity to understand referential language during that evolution remains unclear.
Budapest resident Emese Doroszlai said during a walk with her dog in a city park on Wednesday that she usually teaches him commands for specific actions.
When told about the study, she said she hasn’t given much thought to building her dog’s vocabulary or teaching him names for objects.
But, she said, maybe the results of the study would change that.
In Indonesia, deforestation is intensifying disasters from severe weather and climate change
Roads turned to murky brown rivers, homes were swept away by strong currents and bodies were pulled from mud during deadly flash floods and landslides after torrential rains hit West Sumatra in early March, marking one of the latest deadly natural disasters in Indonesia.
Government officials blamed the floods on heavy rainfall, but environmental groups have cited the disaster as the latest example of deforestation and environmental degradation intensifying the effects of severe weather across Indonesia.
“This disaster occurred not only because of extreme weather factors, but because of the ecological crisis,” Indonesian environmental rights group Indonesian Forum for the Environment wrote in a statement. “If the environment continues to be ignored, then we will continue to reap ecological disasters.”
A vast tropical archipelago stretching across the equator, Indonesia is home to the world's third-largest rainforest, with a variety of endangered wildlife and plants, including orangutans, elephants, giant and blooming forest flowers. Some live nowhere else.
For generations the forests have also provided livelihoods, food, and medicine while playing a central role in cultural practices for millions of Indigenous residents in Indonesia.
Since 1950, more than 74 million hectares (285,715 square miles) of Indonesian rainforest — an area twice the size of Germany — have been logged, burned or degraded for development of palm oil, paper and rubber plantations, mining and other commodities according to Global Forest Watch.
Indonesia is the biggest producer of palm oil, one of the largest exporters of coal and a top producer of pulp for paper. It also exports oil and gas, rubber, tin and other resources. And it also has the world’s largest reserves of nickel — a critical material for electric vehicles, solar panels and other goods needed for the green energy transition.
Indonesia has consistently ranked as one of the largest global emitters of plant-warming greenhouse gases, with its emissions stemming from the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation and peatland fires, according to the Global Carbon Project.
It’s also highly vulnerable to climate change impacts, including extreme events such as floods and droughts, long-term changes from sea level rise, shifts in rainfall patterns and increasing temperatures, according to the World Bank. In recent decades the country has already seen the effects of climate change: More intense rains, landslides and floods during rainy season, and more fires during a longer dry season.
But forests can help play a vital role in reducing the impact of some extreme weather events, said Aida Greenbury, a sustainability expert focusing on Indonesia.
Flooding can be slowed by trees and vegetation soaking up rainwater and reducing erosion. In dry season, forests release moisture that helps mitigate the effects of droughts, including fires.
But when forests diminish, those benefits do as well.
A 2017 study reported that forest conversion and deforestation expose bare soil to rainfall, causing soil erosion. Frequent harvesting activities — such as done on palm oil plantations — and the removal of ground vegetation leads to further soil compaction, causing rain to run off the surface instead of entering groundwater reservoirs. Downstream erosion also increases sediment in rivers, making rivers shallower and increasing flood risks, according to the research.
After the deadly floods in Sumatra in early March, West Sumatra Gov. Mahyeldi Ansharullah said there were strong indications of illegal logging around locations affected by floods and landslides. That, coupled with extreme rainfall, inadequate drainage systems and improper housing development contributed to the disaster, he said.
Experts and environmental activists have pointed to deforestation worsening disasters in other regions of Indonesia as well: In 2021 environmental activists partially blamed deadly floods in Kalimantan on environmental degradation caused by large-scale mining and palm oil operations. In Papua, deforestation was partially blamed for floods and landslides that killed over a hundred people in 2019.
There have been some signs of progress: In 2018 Indonesian President Joko Widodo put a three-year freeze on new permits for palm oil plantations. And the rate of deforestation slowed between 2021-2022, according to government data.
But experts warn that it’s unlikely deforestation in Indonesia will stop anytime soon as the government continues to move forward with new mining and infrastructure projects such as new nickel smelters and cement factories.
“A lot of land use and land-based investment permits have already been given to businesses, and a lot of these areas are already prone to disasters,” said Arie Rompas, an Indonesia-based forestry expert at Greenpeace.
President-elect Prabowo Subianto, who is scheduled to take office in October, has promised to continue Widodo’s policy of development, include large-scale food estates, mining and other infrastructure development that are all linked to deforestation.
Environmental watchdogs also warn that environmental protections in Indonesia are weakening, including the passing of the controversial Omnibus Law, which eliminated an article of the Forestry Law regarding the minimum area of forest that must be maintained at development projects.
“The removal of that article makes us very worried (about deforestation) for the years to come,” said Rompas.
While experts and activists recognize that development is essential for Indonesia’s economy to continue to go, they argue that it should be done in a way that considers the environment and incorporates better land planning.
“We can’t continue down the same path we’ve been on,” said sustainability expert Greenbury. “We need to make sure that the soil, the land in the forest doesn’t become extinct.”
Girl, 8, only survivor of bus crash that kills 45 Easter pilgrims on South Africa's deadly roads
An 8-year-old girl was the lone survivor after a bus full of pilgrims making their way to a popular Easter festival in rural South Africa slammed into a bridge on a mountain pass and plunged into a ravine before bursting into flames, killing all 45 others onboard.
It 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. Authorities repeatedly warn motorists of the danger and had issued multiple messages urging caution just a day before Thursday's horrific crash.
The girl somehow survived after the bus carrying worshippers from neighboring Botswana careened off the bridge, fell more than 150 feet (50 meters) and caught fire as it hit the rocks below, according to authorities.
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The girl was in a stable condition in the hospital after being admitted with serious injuries and was "in safe hands,” an official with the local health department said Friday. Details of her injuries were not released.
Forensic investigators retrieved what they believed were 34 of the 45 bodies but couldn't be certain of the exact number, reflecting the gruesome nature of the crash. Many of the victims trapped inside the bus were burned beyond recognition, authorities said.
Dr. Phophi Ramathuba, an official with the Limpopo provincial health department, said only nine of the bodies recovered were likely to be identifiable.
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South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said the victims, who appeared to all be from Botswana, were on their way to the rustic town of Moria in Limpopo province for the Easter weekend pilgrimage that attracts hundreds of thousands of followers of the Zion Christian Church.
The church has its headquarters in Moria and it was the first time the full pilgrimage was being held since the COVID-19 pandemic. Worshippers flocked to the small town which features a giant star — the church’s emblem — and the words “Zion City Moria” painted in white on a hillside.
The church was formed in South Africa in the early 1900s as a Christian denomination that also retains some African traditions. It has an estimated 7 million followers across the southern African region.
Ramathuba said South African authorities had asked church leaders from Botswana to come and help identify the victims.
Good Friday and Easter Monday are national holidays in South Africa and many of its neighbors, when millions travel into, out of and across the nation. For some South Africans, it’s a chance to return to their home towns and villages from jobs in the cities. Migrants also travel back to their home countries to see family. Some, like the pilgrims that died on Thursday, make religious trips.
Road travel can be treacherous; South Africa's Road Traffic Management Corporation reported that 252 people died in road crashes between Holy Thursday and Easter Monday last year.
Authorities said it appeared the bus driver lost control and the vehicle slammed into the barriers along the side of the bridge and then went over the edge. The driver was among the dead.
South African Minister of Transport Sindisiwe Chikunga was in Limpopo province attending a road safety campaign when she was informed of the “devastating news” of the crash, according to the national Department of Traffic.
Ramathuba said she had been at an Easter prayer meeting when she was called to the crash scene on the Mmamatlakala bridge near the town of Mokopane, which is about 200 kilometers (125 miles) north of the South African capital, Pretoria.
“I attended the scene of the accident, but now our focus as the health department is on the brave little survivor. She is in safe hands in a hospital with experts looking after her,” Ramathuba told reporters. She declined to give details of the child's injuries, but authorities released a photograph of the child lying in a hospital bed and being examined by a doctor.
Ramathuba also declined to say if the child's parents or other family members were on the bus, saying authorities needed time to trace and inform families of the dead, who were mostly in Botswana.
Meanwhile, forensic investigators worked through the wreckage amid the rocks and steep cliffs. At least 11 bodies were believed still inside what was left of the charred bus, which was almost crushed flat.
“We were at the scene,” said local resident Simone Mayema, who said he was one of the first to arrive after the crash. “We tried to help (but) there was nothing we could do because there was flames.”
Hijab-wearing players in US college basketball hope to inspire others
N.C. State’s Jannah Eissa and UC Irvine’s Diaba Konate are bringing visibility and inspiration to some Muslim women by wearing hjiabs while they play basketball.
They aren’t the first women to do it in NCAA Tournament play, but with record viewership and attendance they are certainly getting noticed.
“Representation really matters,” said Konate, whose team lost in the first round of the tournament to Gonzaga. “Just having people, young Muslim women wearing the hijab, we’re not there yet. Just seeing us play, I think it makes me really happy because I used to have people that I was looking up to. Now having people that look up to me makes me happy.”
Konate admires Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir, who made NCAA history by being the first to wear a hijab in college basketball when she played for Memphis a decade ago. Abdul-Qaadir was instrumental in getting FIBA, the International Basketball Federation, to overturn its own ban on headgear in 2017.
Former UConn player Batouly Camara, who was one of the first to wear a hijab in Spain’s LF1 league, has enjoyed seeing Eissa and Konate represent their religion.
“It’s truly inspiring to witness these two Muslim athletes competing at the highest level. This tournament serves as a significant moment, shining a spotlight on the best teams simultaneously with their faith,” said Camara, who founded the non-profit organization Women And Kids Empowerment (WAKE) in 2017. “It sends a powerful message to girls worldwide, affirming that they belong on the sports field, regardless of economic class, race, culture and more.”
Konate started 31 of 32 games for UC Irvine, averaging 7.5 points and nearly four assists. She moved to the U.S. from France after receiving a scholarship from Idaho State. She transferred to UC Irvine as a junior.
She’d like a chance to play in a hijab at home in France, where she won two medals playing on their youth teams. But currently, the French Federation of Basketball prohibits the wearing of “any equipment with a religious or political connotation.”
“Being French and hosting the Olympics, it really hurts to not be able to be ourselves,” said Konate, who first started wearing the hijab in 2020. “Hopefully, it changes.”
Eissa and Konate have never met, but are aware of each other.
“I just know there’s another woman wearing a hijab,” Eissa said. “I just saw a post about two days ago. I was so happy there are other people.”
Eissa, who turned 18 in February, was a walk-on at N.C. State. She joined the team after trying out in September. She didn’t play much this season — appearing in 11 games and hitting one 3-pointer.
Earlier this season, a group of young Muslim girls came to her game. They also showed up a few more times to support her.
“I’d love to say I was a role model to them. Never thought I could be a role model for someone I didn’t know,” said Eissa, who grew up in Cairo before coming to N.C. State. “Never knew one person could make such an impact. They were so young girls and girls my age looking up to me and I was so happy.”
Eissa chose N.C. State because her father got his PhD there and her two older sisters attend the university.
She said when having a bad day or an off day, she’d remember her young fans and it would bring a smile.
“If they see someone giving them hope, I’m happy that I’m the person to give it to them,” Eissa said. “I want to make it as far as I can for the image of women in hijabs.”
Hainan to have world's best free trade port by 2035: Chinese academic
Hainan, China’s largest economic special zone is going to be the next best free trade port hub in the world by 2035, said Professor of Law School of Hainan University and Deputy Director of Hainan South China Sea Policy and Law Research Center Zhang Liangfu.
He said this in a programme 'Introduction to Hainan Free Trade Port' at the Sanya city of Hainan province where 31 journalists from 25 countries including staff correspondent of United News of Bangladesh from Bangladesh attended. The professor also answered the questions of the journalists.
He said the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China decided to build Hainan Island into a free trade pilot zone, supporting Hainan’s gradual exploration and steady advancement of the construction of a Chinese-style free trade port, and establishing a policy and institutional system for free trade ports in stages and steps in April 2018.
Saying that the free trade port is hailed as the most advanced form of openness in the world today, he said the construction of a free trade port in Hainan represents China’s strategic choice to explore and promote a higher level of opening up, demonstrating China’s unwavering determination and confidence in advancing opening up.
He informed that the initial establishment of a policy and institutional system for free trade ports focused on trade liberalization and investment facilitation will be finalized by 2025.
"The institutional system and operational model of the free trade port will be more mature by 2035," he also said.
Israeli airstrikes near Syria’s Aleppo kill 42 people
The Syrian army says Israeli airstrikes early Friday near the northern city of Aleppo killed or wounded “a number of” people and caused damage. An opposition war monitor said the strikes killed 42, most of them Syrian troops.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said Israeli strikes hit missile depots for Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group in Aleppo’s southern suburb of Jibreen, near the Aleppo International Airport, and the nearby town of Safira, home to a sprawling military facility.
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The Observatory said 36 Syrian troops and six Hezbollah fighters died, and dozens of people were wounded, calling it the deadliest such attack in years.
There was no immediate statement from Israeli officials on the strikes.
Israel, which has vowed to stop Iranian entrenchment in its northern neighbor, has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets in government-controlled parts of Syria in recent years, but it rarely acknowledges them.
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On Thursday, Syrian state media reported airstrikes near the capital, Damascus, saying they wounded two civilians.
Hezbollah has had an armed presence in Syria since it joined the country’s conflict fighting alongside government forces.
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Aleppo, Syria's largest city and once its commercial center, has come under such attacks in the past that led to the closure of its international airport. Friday's strike did not affect the airport.
The strikes have escalated over the past five months against the backdrop of the war in Gaza and ongoing clashes between Hezbollah and Israeli forces on the Lebanon-Israel border.