CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — South Africans celebrate their “Freedom Day” every April 27, when they remember their country’s pivotal first democratic election in 1994 that announced the official end of the racial segregation and oppression of apartheid.

Saturday is the 30th anniversary of that momentous vote, when millions of Black South Africans, young and old, decided their own futures for the first time, a fundamental right they had been denied by a white minority government.

The first all-race election saw the previously banned African National Congress party win overwhelmingly and made its leader, Nelson Mandela, the country’s first Black president four years after he was released from prison.

Here’s what you need to know about that iconic moment and a South Africa that’s changing again 30 years on:

The 1994 election was the culmination of a process that began four years earlier when F.W. de Klerk, the last apartheid-era president, shocked the world and his country by announcing that the ANC and other anti-apartheid parties would be unbanned.

Mandela, the face of the anti-apartheid movement, was released from prison nine days later, setting him on the road to becoming South Africa’s first Black leader.

South Africa needed years to prepare and was still on a knife-edge in the months and weeks before the election because of ongoing political violence, but the vote — held over four days between April 26 and April 29 to accommodate the large numbers who turned out — went ahead successfully.

A country that had been shunned and sanctioned by the international community for decades because of apartheid emerged as a fully-fledged democracy.

Nearly 20 million South Africans of all races voted, compared with just 3 million white people in the last general election under apartheid in 1989.

Associated Press photographer Denis Farrell’s iconic aerial photograph of people waiting patiently for hours in long, snaking queues in fields next to a school in the famed Johannesburg township of Soweto captured the determination of millions of Black South Africans to finally be counted. It was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

“South Africa’s heroes are legend across the generations,” Mandela said as he proclaimed victory. “But it is you, the people, who are our true heroes.”

The ANC’s election victory ensured that apartheid was finally dismantled and a new Constitution was drawn up and became South Africa’s highest law, guaranteeing equality for everyone no matter their race, religion or sexuality.

Apartheid, which began in 1948 and lasted for nearly half-a-century, had oppressed Black and other non-white people through a series of race-based laws. Not only did the laws deny them a vote, they controlled where Black people lived, where they were allowed to go on any given day, what jobs they were allowed to hold and who they were allowed to marry.

Current South African President Cyril Ramaphosa — a protege of Mandela — will lead Saturday’s 30th anniversary Freedom Day celebrations at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, the seat of government.

The ANC has been in government ever since 1994 and while it is still recognized for its central role in freeing South Africans, it is no longer celebrated in the same way as it was in the hope-filled aftermath of that election.

South Africa in 2024 has deep socio-economic problems, none more jarring than the widespread and severe poverty that still overwhelmingly affects the Black majority. The official unemployment rate is 32%, the highest in the world, while it’s more than 60% for young people aged 15-24.

Millions of Black South Africans still live in neglected, impoverished townships and informal settlements on the fringes of cities in what many see as a betrayal of the heroes Mandela referred to. South Africa is still rated as one of the most unequal countries in the world.

The ANC is now largely being blamed for the lack of progress in improving the lives of so many South Africans, even if the damage of decades of apartheid wasn’t going to be easy to undo.

The 30th anniversary of 1994 falls with another possibly pivotal election as a backdrop. South Africa will hold its seventh national vote since the end of apartheid on May 29, with all the opinion polls and analysts predicting that the ANC will lose its parliamentary majority in a new landmark.

The ANC is still expected to be the largest party and will likely have to enter into complicated coalitions with smaller parties to remain part of the government, but the overriding picture that is expected is that more South Africans will vote for other parties in a national election for the first time in their democracy.

South Africans still cherish the memory of Mandela and the elusive freedom and prosperity he spoke about in 1994. But the majority of them now appear ready to look beyond the ANC to attain it.

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HAVANA (AP) — Alejandro Fonseca stood in line for several hours outside a bank in Havana hoping to withdraw Cuban pesos from an ATM, but when it was almost his turn, the cash ran out. He angrily hopped on his electric tricycle and traveled several kilometers to another branch where he finally managed to withdraw some money after wasting the entire morning.

“It shouldn’t be so difficult to get the money you earn by working,” the 23-year-old told The Associated Press in a recent interview.

Fonseca is one of an increasing number of frustrated Cubans who have to grapple with yet another hurdle while navigating the island’s already complicated monetary system — a shortage of cash.

Long queues outside banks and ATM’s in the capital, Havana, and beyond start forming early in the day as people seek cash for routine transactions like buying food and other essentials.

Experts say there are several reasons behind the shortage, all somehow related to Cuba’s deep economic crisis, one of the worst in decades.

Omar Everleny Pérez, a Cuban economist and university professor, says the main culprits are the government’s growing fiscal deficit, the nonexistence of banknotes with a denomination greater than 1,000 Cuban pesos (about $3 in the parallel market), stubbornly high inflation and the non-return of cash to banks.

“There is money, yes, but not in the banks,” said Pérez, adding that most of the cash is being held not by salaried workers, but by entrepreneurs and owners of small- and medium-size business who are more likely to collect cash from commercial transactions but are reluctant to return the money to the banks.

This, Pérez says, is either because they don’t trust the local banks or simply because they need the Cuban pesos to convert into foreign currency.

Most entrepreneurs and small business owners in Cuba have to import almost everything they sell or pay in foreign currency for the supplies needed to run their businesses. As a consequence, many end up hoarding Cuban pesos to later change into foreign currency on the informal market.

Converting those Cuban pesos to other currencies poses yet another challenge, as there are several, highly fluctuating exchange rates in the island.

For example, the official rate used by government industries and agencies is 24 pesos to the U.S. dollar, while for individuals, the rate is 120 pesos to the dollar. However, the dollar can fetch up to 350 Cuban pesos on the informal market.

Pérez notes that in 2018, 50% of the cash in circulation was in the hands of the Cuban population and the other half in Cuban banks. But in 2022, the latest year for which information is available, 70% of cash was in the wallets of individuals.

Cuban monetary authorities did not immediately respond to AP’s emailed request for comment.

The shortage of cash comes as Cubans grapple with a complex monetary system in which several currencies circulate, including a virtual currency, MLC, created in 2019.

Then, in 2023 the government announced several measures aimed at promoting a “cashless society,” making the use of credit cards mandatory to pay for some transactions — including purchases of food, fuel and other basic goods — but many businesses simply refuse to accept them.

Making things worse is stubbornly high inflation, meaning more and more physical bills are needed to buy products.

According to official figures, inflation stood at 77% in 2021, then dropped to 31% in 2023. But for the average Cuban, the official figures barely reflect the reality of their lives, since market inflation can reach up to three digits on the informal market. For example, a carton of eggs, which sold for 300 Cuban pesos in 2019, these days sells for about 3,100 pesos.

All while the monthly salary for Cuban state workers ranges between 5,000 and 7,000 Cuban pesos (between $14 and $20 in the parallel market).

“To live in an economy that, in addition to having several currencies, has several exchange rates and a three-digit inflation is quite complicated,” said Pavel Vidal, a Cuba expert and professor at Colombia’s Javeriana University of Cali.

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Andrea Rodríguez on X: www.twitter.com/ARodriguezAP

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KYIV (Reuters) – Russia attacked Ukrainian energy facilities in three regions on Saturday, damaging equipment and injuring at least one energy worker, Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko said.

Galushchenko said on the Telegram messaging app that the Russian strikes targeted the Dnipropetrovsk region in central Ukraine and the western regions of Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk.

DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy company, said its four thermal power stations were hit.

“The enemy again massively shelled the Ukrainian energy facilities,” DTEK said in a statement. “The company’s equipment was seriously damaged. At this very moment, energy workers are trying to eliminate the consequences of the attack.”

The company said there were casualties but provided no other details.

Since March 22, the Russian forces have ramped up their bombardments of the Ukrainian power sector, attacking thermal and hydropower stations and other energy infrastructure almost daily.

Ukraine has lost about 80% of its thermal generation and about 35% of its hydropower capacity, officials aid. Its energy system was already weakened by a Russian air campaign in the first winter of the war that Russia launched in February 2022.

Despite mild spring weather in recent weeks, Ukraine has faced an electricity deficit and the government had to introduce scheduled electricity cut-offs in several regions and turn to emergency electricity imports.

In the Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukrainian air defence shot down 13 Russian missiles, said Governor Serhiy Lysak.

“Unfortunately, we could not avoid the consequences. Energy facilities in Dnipropetrovsk and Kryvyi Rih regions were damaged, fires broke out.”

Lysak said the water supply was disrupted in the city of Kryvyi Rih.

(Reporting by Olena Harmash; Editing by William Mallard)

By Kirsty Needham

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Kiribati has notified an Australian-born judge removed from High Court by parliament this week that he will be deported after 21 days, in a case a U.N. special rapporteur said was a major setback for justice in the Pacific Islands nation.

David Lambourne, the former judge, said on Saturday he was served with a deportation liability notice at his home on Friday evening by Kiribati’s director of immigration, after President Taneti Maamau had approved his removal.

Lambourne, who has lived in Kiribati for 30 years and is married to the opposition party leader, said the decision was politically motivated.

The U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers Margaret Satterthwaite said the process by which Lambourne was removed violated international standards, and a special tribunal convened by the president was “marred by procedural irregularities”.

“I am appalled at the impact that this case has had on the independence of the judiciary in Kiribati,” Satterthwaite said in a statement late on Friday.

“The removal of judges without due process is a huge blow to judicial independence,” she said.

Lambourne has been living in Kiribati without a visa or salary since 2022 when President Maamau suspended him from the High Court. Maamau then suspended all three Court of Appeal judges and the chief justice, after they ruled Lambourne should not be deported.

Kiribati will hold national elections this year, and Lambourne appeared in court last month in a failed bid to have his suspension overturned.

A special tribunal recommended Lambourne be removed for misbehaviour because it said he delayed delivery of written reasons in a judgement in a case during an election period.

Lambourne has said the delay was because he was stranded outside Kiribati due to COVID-19 border closures. Parliament voted on Friday to accept the recommendation.

Lambourne said he has been given 21 days before he can be immediately deported, and intends to leave before the deadline to avoid being “whisked to the airport without notice”.

An attempt to forcibly deport Lambourne in August 2022 failed when a Fiji Airlines pilot refused to accept him on the plane against his will.

His wife, opposition leader Tessie Lambourne, will stay in Kiribati to contest the national election.

The Kiribati president’s office said in a statement it had complied with the constitution to remove Lambourne from office.

“The serious misbehaviours of the judge include his persistent disregard of the importance of promptly delivering written judgements in cases affecting public confidence,” it said.

(Reporting by Kirsty Needham; Editing by Tom Hogue)

TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan reported renewed Chinese military activity near the island on Saturday with 12 aircraft crossing the sensitive median line of the Taiwan Strait, a day after U.S. Secretary State Antony Blinken ended a visit to China.

The United States is Taiwan’s most important international supporter and arms supplier despite the absence of formal diplomatic ties. Blinken said he had stressed the “critical importance” of maintaining peace and stability across the strait while in China.

Democratically governed Taiwan has faced increased military pressure from China, which views the island as its own territory. Taiwan’s government rejects those claims.

Taiwan’s defence ministry said that from 9:30 a.m. (0130 GMT) on Saturday it had detected 22 Chinese military aircraft, including Su-30 fighters, of which 12 had crossed the median line to Taiwan’s north and centre.

The line once served as an unofficial border between the two sides over which neither sides’ military crossed, but China’s air force now regularly sends aircraft over it. China says it does not recognise the line’s existence.

Taiwan’s defence ministry said the aircraft were involved in “joint combat readiness patrols” with Chinese warships, adding that Taiwanese aircraft and ships responded “appropriately”. It did not give details.

China’s defence ministry did not answer calls seeking comment outside of office hours on Saturday.

Taiwan’s armed forces are well-equipped and well-trained but dwarfed by those of China’s, especially the navy and air force, which respond almost daily to Chinese missions.

China considers Taiwan the most important issue in its relations with the United States, and Beijing has repeatedly demanded Washington end weapons sales to Taiwan.

Taiwan President-elect Lai Ching-te takes office on May 20 after winning January’s election. Beijing considers him a dangerous separatist and has rebuffed his repeated calls for talks.

Lai said on Thursday that China should have the confidence to talk to Taiwan’s legally elected government. Like outgoing President Tsai Ing-wen, Lai says only Taiwan’s people can decide their future.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by William Mallard)

NICOSIA (Reuters) – Aid shipments to Gaza from Cyprus resumed late on Friday, a Cypriot source said, with a ship carrying food to the besieged Palestinian enclave after a pause following Israel’s killing of seven aid workers.

The World Central Kitchen NGO paused aid to review its activity in the territory after the early April attack, halting the direct shipments into Gaza from Cyprus.

A small cargo vessel left the port of Larnaca on Friday night with aid donated by the United Arab Emirates, a Cypriot source said.

Israel’s six-month-old war against Hamas in Gaza, in response to an attack by the militant group in southern Israel, has killed more than 34,000 people, Palestinian health authorities say, and caused a humanitarian disaster for the enclave’s more than 2 million inhabitants.

The U.S. has started construction of a floating jetty on Gaza’s Mediterranean coast that will enable aid deliveries pre-screened in Cyprus with Israeli oversight. Once that aid reaches Gaza, it will still need to pass through Israeli checkpoints on land.

(Reporting by Michele Kambas)

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Violence against women is an “epidemic” in Australia, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Saturday, as thousands attended rallies in Sydney and other major Australian cities urging tougher laws on gendered violence.

The rallies were spurred by a wave of violence against women that the government says has seen a woman killed every four days this year. The rallies also followed a mass stabbing in Sydney this month that killed six people, including five women.

Protesters demanding stronger criminal laws gathered in Sydney, capital of New South Wales state, for a rally and then a march that closed city streets. Some protesters carried signs that read “Respect” and “No More Violence”.

In South Australia’s capital Adelaide, it was estimated around 3,000 people rallied at the city’s parliament building.

Prime Minister Albanese said he would be part of a rally in the national capital Canberra on Sunday.

“I will walk with women across Australia to say enough is enough,” Albanese said on social media platform X.

“Violence against women is an epidemic. We must do better.”

In Adelaide, Greens Party Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said “a national emergency response” was needed to tackle the issue.

“Women are sick and tired of being told ‘yes it’s bad but there’s not much we can do,'” Hanson-Young said, according to a spokesperson.

Similar protests were scheduled across the weekend in state capitals Perth, Western Australia; Melbourne, Victoria; Hobart, Tasmania; and Brisbane, Queensland.

Gender-based violence is an ongoing issue in Australia, a nation of 26 million. In 2021, tens of thousands rallied over allegations of sexual abuse and misconduct in some of the nation’s highest political offices.

(Reporting by Sam McKeith in Sydney; Editing by Tom Hogue)

tpMANILA (Reuters) – The Philippines on Saturday denied a Chinese claim that the two countries had reached an agreement over an escalating maritime dispute in the South China Sea, calling the claim propaganda.

A spokesperson at China’s embassy in Manila said on April 18 that the two had agreed early this year to a “new model” in managing tensions at the Second Thomas Shoal, without elaborating.

Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro said on Saturday his department was “not aware of, nor is it a party to, any internal agreement with China” since President Ferdinand Marcos Jr took office in 2022. Defence department officials have not spoken to any Chinese officials since last year, Teodoro said in a statement.

China’s embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Teodoro’s comments outside office hours.

Beijing and Manila have repeatedly clashed in recent months at the submerged reef, which Philippines says is in its exclusive economic zone but which China also claims.

The Philippines had accused China of blocking manoeuvres and firing water cannons at its vessels to disrupt supply missions to Filipino soldiers stationed in a naval ship which Manila deliberately grounded in 1999 to bolster its maritime claims.

China claims almost the entire South China Sea, a conduit for more than $3 trillion in annual ship commerce. Its claims overlap with those of the Philippines and four other nations. In 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague said China’s claims had no legal basis, a decision Beijing rejects.

Teodoro called China’s claims of a bilateral agreement “part of the Chinese propaganda”, adding that the Philippines would never enter into any agreement that would compromise its claims in the waterway.

“The narrative that unnamed or unidentified Chinese officials are propagating is another crude attempt to advance a falsehood,” he said.

(Reporting by Mikhail Flores; Editing by William Mallard)

SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea accused the United States on Saturday of politicizing human rights in the East Asian country, denouncing what it called political provocation and conspiracy.

Pyongyang will make stern and decisive choices to protect its sovereignty and safety in response to Washington using human rights as a tool for invasion and hostile, anti-North Korea behaviour, state media KCNA quoted a foreign ministry spokesperson as saying.

The spokesperson cited a special envoy on human rights in the administration of President Joe Biden. The envoy on North Korean human rights issues, Julie Turner, visited Seoul and Tokyo in February to discuss North Korea.

An annual report this week by the State Department described “significant human rights issues” in North Korea.

It cited credible reports of “arbitrary or unlawful killings, including extrajudicial killings; enforced disappearance; torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by government authorities”.

North Korea also criticised the U.S. for urging it to stop launching missiles and other rockets for what Washington calls violations of U.N. resolutions, KCNA said, mentioning a South Korean satellite launch in April.

“We will carry out our critical mission as planned to enhance our space reconnaissance capabilities to ensure the security of our country,” KCNA said in a statement citing a spokesperson for North Korea’s National Aerospace Development Administration.

(Reporting by Hyunsu Yim; Editing by Sandra Maler and William Mallard)

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said it had received on Saturday Israel’s official response to its latest ceasefire proposal and will study it before submitting its reply, the group’s deputy Gaza chief said in a statement.

“Hamas has received today the official response of the Zionist occupation to the proposal presented to the Egyptian and the Qatari mediators on April 13,” Khalil Al-Hayya, who is currently based in Qatar, said in a statement published by the group.

After more than six months of war with Israel in Gaza, the negotiations remain deadlocked, with Hamas sticking to its demands that any agreement must end the war.

An Egyptian delegation visited Israel for discussion with Israeli officials on Friday, looking for a way to restart talks to end the conflict and return remaining hostages taken when Hamas fighters stormed into Israeli towns on Oct. 7, an official briefed on the meetings said.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Israel had no new proposals to make, although it was willing to consider a limited truce in which 33 hostages would be released by Hamas, instead of the 40 previously under discussion.

On Thursday, the United States and 17 other countries appealed to Hamas to release all of its hostages as a pathway to end the crisis.

Hamas has vowed not to relent to international pressure but in a statement it issued on Friday it said it was “open to any ideas or proposals that take into account the needs and rights of our people”.

However, it stuck to its key demands that Israel has rejected, and criticised the joint statement issued by the U.S and others for not calling for a permanent ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Friday he saw fresh momentum in talks to end the war and return the remaining hostages.

Citing two Israeli officials, Axios reported that Israel told the Egyptian mediators on Friday that it was ready to give hostage negotiations “one last chance” to reach a deal with Hamas before moving forward with an invasion of Rafah, the last refuge for around a million Palestinians who fled Israeli forces further north in Gaza earlier in the war.

Meanwhile, in Rafah, Palestinian health officials said an Israeli air strike on a house killed at least five people and wounded others.

Hamas fighters stormed into Israeli towns on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and capturing 253 hostages. Israel has sworn to annihilate Hamas in an onslaught that has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians.

(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Writing by Ahmed Tolba and Nidal al-Mughrabi; Editing by Sandra Maler and Rosalba O’Brien)