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TOKYO — Japanese authorities have warned residents Saturday to be aware of wild bears in the country's northeast after several people were attacked, including police officers. The bears, measuring about 50 centimeters in height, were seen in the area, including Akita and Fukushima Prefectures. Two police officers were attacked Saturday in the city of Kazuno in Akita while recovering the body of a missing man, according to Japanese media reports. The man had gone hunting for bamboo shoots in the mountains a few days earlier where he was found dead in the area with gash wounds. It remains unclear if he died due to a bear attack. The officers are in serious condition, though not life-threatening, reports said. In response, some wooded areas have been closed off in Kazuno "for an indefinite time," officials said in a statement. News footage showed police officers putting up signs warning people to stay out of mountainous areas where the bears were sighted. Over the weekend, patrol cars were dispatched together with a helicopter search to locate the bears. Akita Prefectural Police have urged people to keep bells and other noise-producing devices on hand to scare the bears away in case of an encounter, and not to go out at night. Thousands of Asiatic black bears live in the wild throughout Japan. Attacks have risen as the borders blur between the bears' habitats and people's dwellings. The scarcity of acorns, berries and other food, possibly connected to climate change, is also blamed for the surge in bear encounters.

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ATLANTA — U.S. President Joe Biden speaks Sunday at the former university of civil rights icon Martin Luther King, Jr, in a bid to woo Black voters that risks being overshadowed by protests against Israel's war in Gaza. Biden's graduation speech at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, will be his most direct engagement with students since demonstrations over the conflict roiled campuses across the United States. Students at Morehouse, a historically Black college, have called on the school's administration to cancel the speech over Biden's support for Israel, which has caused strong opposition in a U.S. presidential election year. "I think it will be a moving commencement address. I think it will meet the moment," White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters at a briefing Friday. Asked about reports that the college principal would shut down the ceremony if there was major disruption, Jean-Pierre said: "He will respect the peaceful protesters. It is up to Morehouse on how to manage that and move forward." A senior White House official recently met students and faculty members at Morehouse to discuss objections to Biden delivering the address, NBC News reported. While Biden's choice of Martin Luther King Jr's alma mater emphasizes the heroism of the civil rights hero, protesters have pointed out that King was also an anti-war activist who opposed the Vietnam War in the 1960s. Biden initially stayed silent on the Gaza protests but later said that "order must prevail" after police broke up several university protest encampments around the U.S. Biden poll worries Biden's problems with voters over Gaza mirrors wider issues he has with Black and younger voters, two groups that helped him beat Republican Donald Trump in the 2020 election. He will need to keep those strands in his coalition to have a hope of preventing Trump from making a sensational comeback to the White House despite a chaotic first term and multiple criminal indictments. The Morehouse College visit caps days of events in which Biden is reaching out to Black voters, all staged around the 70th anniversary of a 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision that ended racial school segregation. A New York Times/Siena poll last week showed that in addition to trailing Trump in several key battleground states, Biden is also losing ground with African Americans. Trump is winning more than 20% of Black voters in the poll -- which would be the highest level of Black support for a Republican presidential candidate since the Civil Rights Act was enacted in 1964, The New York Times said. Several other polls have also shown Biden's support lagging among Black voters. Biden accused Trump and his "extreme" supporters of "going after diversity, equity and inclusion all across America" in a speech Friday at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington on Friday. On Thursday in the Oval Office, Biden welcomed key figures and relatives of plaintiffs in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case that proved a milestone for the U.S. civil rights movement. Later Sunday, Biden will then travel to Detroit where he will address the NAACP, the nation's top civil rights group.

MOSCOW — Russian officials said on Sunday that Ukraine fired nine U.S. ATACMS at Crimea and attacked Russian regions with at least 60 drones in a major attack which forced one oil refinery in southern Russia to halt operations. Russian air defenses shot down nine U.S. ATACMS missiles over Crimea along with 57 drones over Russia's Krasnodar region and three drones over Belgorod region, the Russian defense ministry said. Local officials said six drones crashed onto the territory of an oil refinery in Slavyansk in Russia's southern Krasnodar region. Interfax news agency said the refinery halted work after the attack. Slavyansk refinery is a private plant with a capacity of 4 million metric tons of oil per year, about 1 million bpd. There was no immediate comment from Kyiv. Russia has reported an uptick in Ukrainian attacks on its territory since opening a new front in the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine earlier this month. President Vladimir Putin says Russia is carving out a buffer zone there to protect Russia from such attacks, which Russia says risk triggering a broader war between Russia and the West if Ukraine uses Western weapons. Russia said on Saturday Russian forces captured the village of Starytsia in Ukraine's Kharkiv region and that Russian forces had defeated Ukrainian units along the front, including in the Sumy region. Meanwhile, Ukraine's forces have destroyed all of 37 attack drones launched by Russia overnight, Ukraine's air force chief said Sunday. "As a result of the anti-aircraft battle, all 37 'Shaheds' were shot down in Kyiv, Odesa, Mykolaiv, Sumy, Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, Cherkasy and Kherson regions," the commander said. Odesa governor Oleh Kiper said on the telegram messaging app that 20 drones were destroyed in the Odesa region. "An administrative building in Odesa district was damaged by falling debris. In Odesa, the debris fell into the yard of a residential area. Fortunately, there were no injuries," Kiper said. No destruction or casualties were reported by military and civilian authorities in other regions. Reuters could not independently verify the reports. 

Gaza Strip — A Gaza hospital said Sunday that an Israeli air strike targeting a house at a refugee camp in the center of the Palestinian territory killed at least 20 people. "We received 20 fatalities and several wounded after an Israeli air strike targeted a house belonging to the Hassan family in Al-Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza," the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said in a statement. Witnesses said the strike occurred around 3 a.m. local time. The Israeli army said it was checking the report. Palestinian official news agency Wafa reported that the wounded included several children, and rescuers were searching for missing people trapped under the rubble. Fierce battles and heavy Israeli bombardments have been reported in the central Nuseirat camp since the military launched a "targeted" operation focusing on the southern city of Rafah in early May. Palestinian militants and Israeli troops have also clashed in north Gaza's Jabalia camp for days now. Witnesses said several other houses were targeted in air strikes during the night across Gaza, and that air strikes and artillery shelling also hit parts of Rafah during the night. The Israeli military said two more soldiers were killed in Gaza the previous day. The military said 282 soldiers have been killed so far in the Gaza military campaign since the start of the ground offensive on October 27.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — U.S. President Joe Biden's national security adviser met early Sunday with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to discuss what the kingdom described as the "semifinal" version of a wide-ranging security agreement between the countries. The announcement by the state-run Saudi Press Agency comes as the strategic deal had been upended after Hamas' October 7 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and saw 250 others taken hostage back to the Gaza Strip. In the time since, a punishing Israeli airstrike campaign and ground offensive there has killed over 35,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry. The war has endangered the security deal that had included Saudi Arabia diplomatically recognizing Israel for the first time since its founding in 1948. Saudi state media released no images of Jake Sullivan and Prince Mohammed meeting in Dhahran, a city in the kingdom's far east that's home to its state-run oil giant, the Saudi Arabian Oil Co. known as Saudi Aramco. "The semifinal version of the draft strategic agreements between the kingdom and the United States of America, which are almost being finalized — and what is being worked on between the two sides in the Palestinian issue to find a credible path — were discussed," the statement released after the talks said. That included "a two-state solution that meets the aspirations and legitimate rights of the Palestinian people" and "the situation in Gaza and the need to stop the war there and facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid," the statement added. Saudi Arabia has long called for an independent Palestinian state to be created along Israel's 1967 borders, with east Jerusalem as its capital. However, that likely may be untenable for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose government hinges on support from hardliners who oppose a two-state solution and support Israeli settlements on lands Palestinians want for that state. The White House had acknowledged Sullivan's trip and that he would later head on to Israel, where he's scheduled meet Netanyahu on Sunday. However, there was no immediate statement from the U.S. on the discussions, other than to say they would be "including the war in Gaza and ongoing efforts to achieve a lasting peace and security in the region." Saudi Arabia has long relied — like other Gulf Arab nations — on the U.S. to be the security guarantor for the wider Middle East as tensions over Iran’s nuclear program in recent years have spilled over into a series of attacks. The proposal now being discussed likely would deepen that, and also reportedly includes access to advanced weapons and possibly trade deals as well. Saudi Arabia has also pushed for nuclear cooperation in the deal that includes America allowing it to enrich uranium in the kingdom — something that worries nonproliferation experts, as spinning centrifuges opens the door to a possible weapons program. Prince Mohammed has said the kingdom would pursue a nuclear weapon if Iran had one. Iran in recent weeks has increasingly threatened it could do so. Iran's mission to the United Nations in New York meanwhile confirmed that Tehran held indirect talks with U.S. officials in Oman last week. Iran's state-run IRNA news agency quoted the mission as describing the talks as "an ongoing process." "The negotiations have not been the first and will not be the last of their kind," the mission said, according to IRNA. Oman, a sultanate on the eastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula, has been the site of U.S.-Iran talks in the past, including under Biden despite the tensions between the two nations.

BENGALURU, India — Sizzling heat across Asia and the Middle East in late April that echoed last year's destructive swelter was made 45 times more likely in some parts of the continent because of human-caused climate change, a study Tuesday found.  Scorching temperatures were felt across large swaths of Asia, from Gaza in the west — where over 2 million people face clean water shortages, lack of health care and other essentials amid the Israeli bombardment — to the Philippines in the southeast, with many parts of the continent experiencing temperatures well above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) several days in a row.  The study was released by the World Weather Attribution group of scientists, who use established climate models to quickly determine whether human-caused climate change played a part in extreme weather events around the world.  In the Philippines, scientists found the heat was so extreme it would have been impossible without human-caused climate change. In parts of the Middle East, climate change increased the probability of the event by about a factor of five.  "People suffered and died when April temperatures soared in Asia," said Friederike Otto, study author and climate scientist at Imperial College in London. "If humans continue to burn fossil fuels, the climate will continue to warm, and vulnerable people will continue to die."  At least 28 heat-related deaths were reported in Bangladesh, as well as five in India and three in Gaza in April. Surges in heat deaths have also been reported in Thailand and the Philippines this year according to the study.  The heat also had a large impact on agriculture, causing crop damage and reduced yields, as well as on education, with school vacations having to be extended and schools closed in several countries, affecting thousands of students.  Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam broke records for their hottest April day, and the Philippines experienced its hottest night ever with a low of 29.8 degrees Celsius (85.6 degrees Fahrenheit). In India, temperatures reached as high as 46 degrees Celsius (115 degrees Fahrenheit). The month was the hottest April on record globally and the 11th consecutive month that broke the hottest-month record.  Climate experts say extreme heat in South Asia during the pre-monsoon season is becoming more frequent and the study found that extreme temperatures are now about 0.85 degrees Celsius (1.5 Fahrenheit) hotter in the region because of climate change.  Internally displaced people, migrants and those in refugee camps were especially vulnerable to the searing temperatures, the study found.  "These findings in scientific terms are alarming," said Aditya Valiathan Pillai, a heat plans expert at New Delhi-based think tank Sustainable Futures Collaborative. "But for people on the ground living in precarious conditions, it could be absolutely deadly." Pillai was not part of the study.  Pillai said more awareness about heat risks, public and private investments to deal with increasing heat, and more research on its impacts are all necessary to deal with future heat waves.  "I think heat is now among the foremost risks in terms of personal health for millions across the world as well as nations' economic development," he 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.

RIETI, Italy — Ella Anthony knew it was time to leave her native Nigeria when she escaped an abusive, forced marriage only to face angry relatives who threatened to turn her in to police because she was gay.   Since Nigeria criminalizes same-sex relationships, Anthony fled a possible prison term and headed with her partner to Libya in 2014 and then Italy, where they both won asylum. Their claim? That they had a well-founded fear of anti-LGBTQ+ persecution back home. While many of the hundreds of thousands of migrants who arrive in Italy from Africa and the Mideast are escaping war, conflict and poverty, an increasing number are fleeing possible prison terms and death sentences in their home countries because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, advocates say. And despite huge obstacles to win asylum on LGBTQ+ grounds, Anthony and her partner, Doris Ezuruike Chinonso are proof that it can be done, even if the challenges remain significant for so-called “rainbow refugees” like them. “Certainly life here in Italy isn’t 100% what we want. But let’s say it’s 80% better than in my country,” Chinonso, 34, said with Anthony by her side at their home in Rieti, north of Rome. In Nigeria, “if you’re lucky you end up prison. If you’re not lucky, they kill you,” she said.  “Here you can live as you like,” she said. Most European countries don’t keep statistics on the number of migrants who claim anti-LGBTQ+ persecution as a reason for seeking refugee protection under international law. But non-governmental organizations that track the phenomenon say the numbers are rising as countries pass or toughen anti-homosexuality laws — a trend being highlighted on Friday's observance of the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia. To date, more than 60 countries have anti-LGBTQ+ laws on the books, most of them in Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia. “The ultimate result is people trying to flee these countries to find safe haven elsewhere,” said Kimahli Powell, chief executive of Rainbow Railroad, which provides financial, legal and logistical support to LGBTQ+ people needing asylum assistance. In an interview, Powell said his organization had received about 15,000 requests for assistance last year, up from some 9,500 the year before. One-tenth of those 2023 requests, or about 1,500, came from Uganda, which passed an anti-homosexuality law that year that allows the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality,” and up to 14 years in prison for “attempted aggravated homosexuality.” Nigeria also criminalizes consensual same-sex relations between adults and the public display of affection between same-sex couples, as well as restricting the work of groups that advocate for gay people and their rights, according to Human Rights Watch. In regions of Nigeria where Sharia law is in force, LGBTQ+ people can face up to 14 years in prison or the death penalty. Anthony, 37, said it was precisely the threat of prison that compelled her to leave. She said her family had sold her into marriage, but that she left the relationship because her husband repeatedly abused her. When she returned home, her brother and uncles threatened to turn her into police because she was gay. The fear and alienation drove her first to attempt suicide, and then take up a trafficker’s offer to pay for passage to Europe. “At a certain point, I couldn’t take all these sufferings,” Anthony said through tears. “When this man told me that I should abandon the village, I immediately accepted.” After arriving in Libya, Anthony and Chinonso paid traffickers for the risky boat trip across the Mediterranean Sea to Italy, where they both claimed asylum as a member of a group – LGBTQ+ people – who faced persecution in Nigeria. According to refugee norms, applicants for asylum can be granted international protection based on being a “member of a particular social group.” But the process is by no means easy, straightforward or guaranteed. Privacy concerns limit the types of questions about sexual orientation that migrants can be asked during the asylum interview process. Social taboos and a reluctance to openly identify as gay or transgender mean some migrants might not volunteer the information immediately. Ignorance on the part of asylum interviewers about anti-gay laws in countries of origin can result in unsuccessful claims, according to the EU Agency for Asylum, which helps EU countries implement asylum norms.   As a result, no comprehensive data exists about how many migrants seek or win asylum in the EU on LGBTQ+ grounds. Based on estimates reported by NGOs working with would-be refugees, the numbers in individual EU countries ranged from two to three in Poland in 2016 to 500 in Finland from 2015-2017 and 80 in Italy from 2012-2017, according to a 2017 report by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights. An EU directive grants special protection for people made vulnerable due to sexual discrimination, prescribing “special procedural guarantees” in countries that receive them. However, it doesn’t specify what those guarantees involve and implementation is uneven. As a result, LGBTQ+ asylum seekers don’t always find protected environments once in the EU. “We’re talking about people who are unfortunately victims of a double stigma: being a migrant, and being members of the LGBTQIA+ community,” said lawyer Marina De Stradis. Even within Italy, the options vary widely from region to region, with the better-funded north offering more services than the less-developed south. In the capital Rome, there are only 10 beds specifically designated for LGBTQ+ migrants, said Antonella Ugirashebuja, an activist with the Arcigay association. She said the lack of special protections often impacts female migrants more negatively than male, and can be especially dangerous for lesbians. “Lesbians leaving Africa often, or more frequently, end up in prostitution and sexual exploitation networks because they lack (economic) support from their families,” she said. “The family considers them people to be pushed away, to be rejected ... Especially in countries where this is punishable by law.” Anthony and Chinonso consider themselves lucky: They live in a neat flat in Rieti with their dog Paddy, and dream of starting a family even if Italy doesn’t allow gay marriage. Chinonso, who was studying medicine in Nigeria, is now a social and health worker. Anthony works at the deli counter in a Carrefour supermarket in Rome. She would have liked to have been able to continue working as a film editor, but is happy. “It gave me the opportunity to grow,” she said.

NEW YORK — Some social media users are calling out celebrities for what they say is inaction in the face of a humanitarian crisis in Gaza — and they've taken to a "blockout" to pressure the stars to take a stand. For the blockout, users put a block on seeing any and all content from the accounts of certain celebrities on social media platforms including X, TikTok and Instagram. Some have posted about the celebrities they've blocked, using a hashtag such as #blockout, #blockout2024, or #celebrityblockout, while others have shared posts from users lambasting attendees of high-glamour events like the Met Gala and contrasting it with the situation in Gaza. Blockout participants say it's a protest because the celebrities either haven't spoken up or haven't said enough against Israel's actions in Gaza during its war with Hamas. Since the war erupted October 7 with Hamas' deadly attacks, Israel's military has killed more than 35,000 people in Gaza, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which doesn't distinguish between civilians and combatants. How does the blockout work? On social media platforms, users see content from people they follow, as well as from those chosen for them by algorithms. In both instances, users can select options to mute or block a person or account. Blocking the accounts of celebrities or influencers means not seeing any of the content they produce on social media — no posts, no photos or videos, no collaborations with sponsors. The number of people interacting with content brings in money, so the blocks are meant to affect views, engagement and — ultimately — paychecks. The blockout also is meant to target celebrities' brands by taking eyeballs and attention away from their content. Who is being blocked? There is no single organized list of celebrities being blocked. Some users are offering celebrity suggestions, while others are deciding on their own. Celebrities in the U.S. and beyond have been named in the blockout. Blocking is up to each social media user. And every celebrity, influencer or content creator must be blocked individually on each platform. How did the blockout start? Protests around the Israel-Hamas war have grown, with encampments on college campuses around the country. Amid those movements, attention to what celebrities and influencers were, or weren't, saying got a boost after the Met Gala last week. The annual party draws a host of famous faces from the worlds of fashion, movies, music, sports and more. It's known for its over-the-top arrivals carpet and the elaborate outfits celebrities wear. This year, the gala was circled by protesters for much of the evening. Social media was flooded with images from the star-studded event. Around the same time, images circulated as Israel launched a military operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. That led to some users calling out the contrast between the gala's celebrity opulence and the situation in Gaza — using images from both - and condemning celebrities for not using their platforms to speak up for those who are suffering. Will the blockout be effective? The effectiveness and staying power of the blockout are yet to be seen, said Beth Fossen, assistant professor of marketing at Indiana University. It might depend on the celebrity and what they're known for — a famous person whose "brand" is tied to humanitarian causes may be more affected than one known primarily for talent, she added. "If your identity is really tied to promoting something that is key to the boycotting, then this could potentially have really serious consequences for you," Fossen said. "There might be some influencers that gain their fame by sort of promoting peace and then they're being silent on this issue — followers may not forgive them." Is there blockout backlash? There has been criticism of the blockout, with some saying the focus on celebrities takes attention away from what's happening on the ground in Gaza. Others question what the parameters are for judging whether someone should be blocked — and what would constitute a well-known person speaking out or doing enough.

PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND — The voice Alexis "Lexi" Bogan had before last summer was exuberant. She loved to belt out Taylor Swift and Zach Bryan ballads in the car. She laughed all the time — even while corralling misbehaving preschoolers or debating politics with friends over a backyard fire pit. In high school, she was a soprano in the chorus. Then that voice was gone. Doctors in August removed a life-threatening tumor lodged near the back of her brain. When the breathing tube came out a month later, Bogan had trouble swallowing and strained to say "Hi" to her parents. Months of rehabilitation aided her recovery, but her speech is still impaired. Friends, strangers and her own family members struggle to understand what she is trying to tell them. In April, the 21-year-old got her old voice back. Not the real one, but a voice clone generated by artificial intelligence that she can summon from a phone app. Trained on a 15-second time capsule of her teenage voice — sourced from a cooking demonstration video she recorded for a high school project — her synthetic but remarkably real-sounding AI voice can now say almost anything she wants. She types a few words or sentences into her phone and the app instantly reads it aloud. "Hi, can I please get a grande iced brown sugar oat milk shaken espresso," said Bogan's AI voice as she held the phone out her car's window at a Starbucks drive-thru. Experts have warned that rapidly improving AI voice-cloning technology can amplify phone scams, disrupt democratic elections and violate the dignity of people — living or dead — who never consented to having their voice recreated to say things they never spoke. It's been used to produce deepfake robocalls to New Hampshire voters mimicking President Joe Biden. In Maryland, authorities recently charged a high school athletic director with using AI to generate a fake audio clip of the school's principal making racist remarks. But Bogan and a team of doctors at Rhode Island's Lifespan hospital group believe they've found a use that justifies the risks. Bogan is one of the first people — the only one with her condition — who have been able to recreate a lost voice with OpenAI's new Voice Engine. Some other AI providers, such as the startup ElevenLabs, have tested similar technology for people with speech impediments and loss — including a lawyer who now uses her voice clone in the courtroom. "We're hoping Lexi's a trailblazer as the technology develops," said Dr. Rohaid Ali, a neurosurgery resident at Brown University's medical school and Rhode Island Hospital. Millions of people with debilitating strokes, throat cancer or neurogenerative diseases could benefit, he said. "We should be conscious of the risks, but we can't forget about the patient and the social good," said Dr. Fatima Mirza, another resident working on the pilot. "We're able to help give Lexi back her true voice and she's able to speak in terms that are the most true to herself." Mirza and Ali, who are married, caught the attention of ChatGPT-maker OpenAI because of their previous research project at Lifespan using the AI chatbot to simplify medical consent forms for patients. The San Francisco company reached out while on the hunt earlier this year for promising medical applications for its new AI voice generator. Bogan was still slowly recovering from surgery. The illness started last summer with headaches, blurry vision and a droopy face, alarming doctors at Hasbro Children's Hospital in Providence. They discovered a vascular tumor the size of a golf ball pressing on her brain stem and entangled in blood vessels and cranial nerves. "It was a battle to get control of the bleeding and get the tumor out," said pediatric neurosurgeon Dr. Konstantina Svokos. The tumor's location and severity coupled with the complexity of the 10-hour surgery damaged Bogan's control of her tongue muscles and vocal cords, impeding her ability to eat and talk, Svokos said. "It's almost like a part of my identity was taken when I lost my voice," Bogan said. The feeding tube came out this year. Speech therapy continues, enabling her to speak intelligibly in a quiet room but with no sign she will recover the full lucidity of her natural voice. "At some point, I was starting to forget what I sounded like," Bogan said. "I've been getting so used to how I sound now." Whenever the phone rang at the family's home in the Providence suburb of North Smithfield, she would push it over to her mother to take her calls. She felt she was burdening her friends whenever they went to a noisy restaurant. Her dad, who has hearing loss, struggled to understand her. Back at the hospital, doctors were looking for a pilot patient to experiment with OpenAI's technology. "The first person that came to Dr. Svokos' mind was Lexi," Ali said. "We reached out to Lexi to see if she would be interested, not knowing what her response would be. She was game to try it out and see how it would work." Bogan had to go back a few years to find a suitable recording of her voice to "train" the AI system on how she spoke. It was a video in which she explained how to make a pasta salad. Her doctors intentionally fed the AI system just a 15-second clip. Cooking sounds make other parts of the video imperfect. It was also all that OpenAI needed — an improvement over previous technology requiring much lengthier samples. They also knew that getting something useful out of 15 seconds could be vital for any future patients who have no trace of their voice on the internet. A brief voicemail left for a relative might have to suffice. When they tested it for the first time, everyone was stunned by the quality of the voice clone. Occasional glitches — a mispronounced word, a missing intonation — were mostly imperceptible. In April, doctors equipped Bogan with a custom-built phone app that only she can use. "I get so emotional every time I hear her voice," said her mother, Pamela Bogan, tears in her eyes. "I think it's awesome that I can have that sound again," added Lexi Bogan, saying it helped "boost my confidence to somewhat where it was before all this happened." She now uses the app about 40 times a day and sends feedback she hopes will help future patients. One of her first experiments was to speak to the kids at the preschool where she works as a teaching assistant. She typed in "ha ha ha ha" expecting a robotic response. To her surprise, it sounded like her old laugh. She's used it at Target and Marshall's to ask where to find items. It's helped her reconnect with her dad. And it's made it easier for her to order fast food. Bogan's doctors have started cloning the voices of other willing Rhode Island patients and hope to bring the technology to hospitals around the world. OpenAI said it is treading cautiously in expanding the use of Voice Engine, which is not yet publicly available. A number of smaller AI startups already sell voice-cloning services to entertainment studios or make them more widely available. Most voice-generation vendors say they prohibit impersonation or abuse, but they vary in how they enforce their terms of use. "We want to make sure that everyone whose voice is used in the service is consenting on an ongoing basis," said Jeff Harris, OpenAI's lead on the product. "We want to make sure that it's not used in political contexts. So we've taken an approach of being very limited in who we're giving the technology to." Harris said OpenAI's next step involves developing a secure "voice authentication" tool so that users can replicate only their own voice. That might be "limiting for a patient like Lexi, who had sudden loss of her speech capabilities," he said. "So we do think that we'll need to have high-trust relationships, especially with medical providers, to give a little bit more unfettered access to the technology." Bogan has impressed her doctors with her focus on thinking about how the technology could help others with similar or more severe speech impediments. "Part of what she has done throughout this entire process is think about ways to tweak and change this," Mirza said. "She's been a great inspiration for us." While for now she must fiddle with her phone to get the voice engine to talk, Bogan imagines an AI voice engine that improves upon older remedies for speech recovery — such as the robotic-sounding electrolarynx or a voice prosthesis — in melding with the human body or translating words in real time. She's less sure about what will happen as she grows older and her AI voice continues to sound like she did as a teenager. Maybe the technology could "age" her AI voice, she said. For now, "even though I don't have my voice fully back, I have something that helps me find my voice again," she said.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — After 30 years of dominating South African politics, the ruling African National Congress will face its toughest election this month as most opinion polls predict it will lose its parliamentary majority for the first time. Once admired under the leadership of Nelson Mandela, and regarded as a beacon of hope by the Black majority following the fall of apartheid in 1994, the ANC's reputation has been battered by record levels of unemployment, widespread poverty, the collapse of some government services and more than a decade of corruption scandals, leaving voters disillusioned. President Cyril Ramaphosa hopes the May 29 ballot will lead to his reelection. But if the ANC does lose its majority, it will force it into a coalition to form a government — also a first for the country and something that may complicate policymaking in Africa's most advanced economy. South Africans don't elect their president directly, but instead vote for parties that get assigned seats in Parliament according to their share of the ballot. Lawmakers then choose the head of state. As South Africa braces itself for the possibility of its most important change since the end of apartheid, here are the main parties and players in the election: A president under pressure Ramaphosa was a senior figure in the ANC in the early 1990s and was once seen as a protege of Mandela. He left politics to become a successful businessman before returning as deputy president of South Africa in 2014. He became president in 2018 after Jacob Zuma resigned under a cloud of corruption allegations. Ramaphosa has tried to rebuild the reputation of the ANC by cracking down on government graft. However, unemployment has risen to 32% during his presidency — the highest in the world — while he has struggled to curb poverty. An electricity crisis has led to power outages across the country of 62 million due to failures at the state-run electricity supplier. It badly damaged the economy and Ramaphosa's reputation as someone who could fix South Africa's problems, even if the blackouts are viewed as a result of mismanagement during the Zuma administration. The ANC is still expected to win the largest share of votes, but if it receives less than 50% as predicted, it will need the help of coalition partners to reelect the 71-year-old Ramaphosa. The main opposition leader John Steenhuisen is the leader of the main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance. The centrist DA has promised to "rescue" South Africa from what it says is the corruption and mismanagement of the ANC but has never come close to winning a national election. The DA won 22% in the last general election in 2019 to the ANC's 62%. The DA entered a preelection agreement with smaller opposition parties, hoping their combined vote might clinch a majority and remove the ANC. But they would all have to increase their share significantly and it's seen as unlikely. Steenhuisen, 48, is the only white leader among South Africa's main political parties. In a country where race is still at the forefront of the national consciousness, that has led to detractors saying the DA represents the interests of the white minority more than the 80% of South Africans who are Black. A firebrand marxist The Economic Freedom Fighters has risen rapidly to become South Africa's third biggest party in Parliament since it was formed in 2013 by Julius Malema, a former ANC youth leader who was expelled from the ruling party. His fiery, far-left rhetoric has made the 43-year-old South Africa's most contentious politician but his message that the ANC has failed poor, Black South Africans has gained traction, especially with unemployed and disaffected young people. The EFF has called for the nationalization of mines and the redistribution of land to poor Blacks. The party, which follows a Marxist ideology, says an economic inequality based on race persists decades after apartheid, with whites generally rich and Blacks still poor. Malema and other EFF lawmakers have regularly interrupted speeches by opponents in Parliament and been involved in scuffles with security guards in the chamber, bringing a militant brand of politics to the heart of South Africa's democracy. The EFF is a possible coalition partner for the ANC, although neither party has said if there is any agreement. Zuma returns Former President Zuma added a new dimension when he announced in December that he was turning his back on the ANC he once led and returning to politics with a new party. Zuma's MK Party is not expected to challenge the top three, but it is expected to further erode the ANC's vote just as the ruling party faces its sternest election test. The 81-year-old former leader still commands support, especially in his home KwaZulu-Natal province. His reemergence also raised security concerns for the election after his conviction for contempt of court and prison sentence in 2021 sparked a week of rioting and looting that led to the deaths of more than 350 people in the worst violence in South Africa since the troublesome last days of apartheid. Zuma is involved in a court battle over whether his criminal conviction prevents him from standing as a candidate for Parliament. There are concerns over unrest if he is disqualified. Even if he isn't, his new reputation as an agitator is likely to increase tensions around a pivotal election.

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SANTA ANA ZEGACHE, Mexico — Mexican farmer Floriberto Matias carefully picks up a honeycomb teeming with bees, as he and fellow activists in southern Mexico carry the delicate structures to a nearby apiary for the buzzing creatures. In the town of Santa Ana Zegache, in the state of Oaxaca, Matias and other farmers are worried that an ongoing drought and the resulting loss of local flora could hurt the local bee population. Such a turn would threaten the farmers themselves, said beekeeper Eloy Perez, who is part of the town's rescue efforts. "Without the work of pollination, which is what bees do, there would be no type of food production, from the smallest grass to the gigantic watermelons," he said. Scientists are warning of declining bee populations in different parts of the world, with vast implications for ecosystems and agricultural production. Studies have shown that habitat loss, pesticides, monoculture agriculture, and the spread of pathogens are all risks to Mexico's bee populations. While there's a need for more research into the effects of Mexico's drought on bees, the farmers in Oaxaca see a clear connection. Matias explained that a lack of water has led to the growth of fewer plants and flowers in the area, which in turn has decreased the available nectar and pollen for the bees to feast on. The group transports the honeycombs to apiaries stocked with food and water in what farmer Bernardino Blas calls a labor of love. "It's our mission in this world: to rescue the bees," he said.

mbale, uganda — Barbara Nabulo was one of three girls in her family. But when a sister died, her mother wailed at the funeral that she was left with just one and a half daughters. The half was the ailing Nabulo, who at age 12 understood her mother's meaning. "I hated myself so much," Nabulo said recently, recalling the words that preceded a period of sickness that left her hospitalized and feeding through a tube. The scene underscores the lifelong challenges for some people with sickle cell disease in rural Uganda, where it remains poorly understood. Despite Nabulo's knowledge of how the disease weakens the body, she spoke repeatedly of "the germ I was born with." Infections, pain, organ damage Sickle cell disease is a group of inherited disorders in which red blood cells — normally round — become hard, sticky and crescent shaped. The misshapen cells clog the flow of blood, which can lead to infections, excruciating pain, organ damage and other complications. The disease, which can stunt physical growth, is more common in malaria-prone regions, notably Africa and India, because carrying the sickle cell trait helps protect against severe malaria. Global estimates of how many people have the disease vary, but some researchers put the number between 6 million and 8 million, with more than 5 million living in sub-Saharan Africa. The only cure for the pain sickle cell disease can cause is a bone marrow transplant or gene therapies such as the one commercially approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in December. Last week, a 12-year-old boy last week became the first person to begin the therapy. Those options are beyond the reach of most patients in this East African nation, where sickle cell disease is not a public health priority despite the burden it places on communities. There isn't a national database of sickle cell patients. Funding for treatment often comes from donor organizations. A patient, a caregiver In a hilly part of eastern Uganda that's a sickle cell hot spot, the main referral hospital looks after hundreds of patients arriving from nearby villages to collect medication. Many receive doses of hydroxyurea, a drug that can reduce periods of severe pain and other complications, and researchers there are studying its effectiveness in Ugandan children. Nabulo, now 37, is one of the hospital's patients. But she approaches others like her as a caregiver, too. After dropping out in primary school, she has emerged in recent years as a counselor to fellow patients, speaking to them about her survival. Encouraged by hospital authorities, she makes weekly visits to the ward that has many children watched over by exhausted-looking parents. Nabulo tells them she was diagnosed with sickle cell disease at 2 weeks old, but now she is the mother of three children, including twins. Such a message gives hope to those who feel discouraged or worry that sickle cell disease is a death sentence, said Dr. Julian Abeso, head of pediatrics at Mbale Regional Referral Hospital. Some men have been known to divorce their wives — or neglect them in search of new partners — when they learn that their children have sickle cell disease. Frequent community deaths from disease complications reinforce perceptions of it as a scourge. Health workers encourage testing Nabulo and health workers urge openness and the testing of children for sickle cell as early as possible. Abeso and Nabulo grew close after Nabulo lost her first baby hours after childbirth in 2015. She cried in the doctor's office as she spoke of her wish "to have a relative I can call mine, a descendant who can help me," Abeso recalled. "At that time, people here were so negative about patients with sickle cell disease having children because the complications would be so many," the doctor said. Nabulo's second attempt to have a child was difficult, with some time in intensive care. But her baby is now a 7-year-old boy who sometimes accompanies her to the hospital. The twin girls came last year. Speaking outside the one-room home she shares with her husband and children, Nabulo said many people appreciate her work despite the countless indignities she faces, including unwanted stares from people in the streets who point to the woman with "a big head" — a manifestation of the disease in her. Her brothers often behave as if they are ashamed of her, she said. Once, she heard of a girl in her neighborhood whose grandmother was making frequent trips to the clinic over an undiagnosed illness in the child. The grandmother was hesitant to have the girl tested for sickle cell when Nabulo first asked her. But tests later revealed the disease, and now the girl receives treatment. "I go to Nabulo for help because I can't manage the illness affecting my grandchild," Kelemesiya Musuya said. "She can feel pain, and she starts crying, saying, 'It is here and it is rising and it is paining here and here.'" Musuya sometimes seeks reassurance. "She would be asking me, 'Even you, when you are sick, does it hurt in the legs, in the chest, in the head?' I tell her that, yes, it's painful like that," Nabulo said. Nabulo said she was glad that the girl, who is 11, still goes to school. The lack of formal education is hurtful for Nabulo, who struggles to write her name, and a source of shame for her parents, who repeatedly apologize for letting her drop out while her siblings studied. One brother is now a medical worker who operates a clinic in a town not far away from Nabulo's home. "I am very happy to see her," said her mother, Agatha Nambuya. She recalled Nabulo's swelling head and limbs as a baby, and how "these children used to die so soon." But now she knows of others with sickle cell disease who grew to become doctors or whatever they wanted to be. She expressed pride in Nabulo's work as a counselor and said her grandchildren make her feel happy. "At that time," she said, recalling Nabulo as a child, "we didn't know."

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Dressed in black and white, the crowd of angry teenagers squeezed into a narrow street in Haiti's capital. They stopped in front of a cemetery and hoisted a coffin onto their shoulders, tears rolling down some faces. "Viv Ansanm manje li!" they chanted loudly in Haitian Creole as they walked to and fro, the coffin swaying gently with their 16-year-old friend inside. Their chant accused a gang coalition called Live Together of killing Jhon-Roselet Joseph. He was struck by a stray bullet earlier this month in his community of Solino, which gunmen have repeatedly attacked. Finding closure for loved ones killed by gangs on a relentless rampage through Haiti's capital and beyond is growing harder day by day in a country where burial rituals are sacred and the dead venerated. More than 2,500 people were killed or injured in just the first three months of the year, according to the United Nations. Victims of gang violence are increasingly left to decay on the street, prey to pigs and dogs, because a growing number of areas are too dangerous for people to go out and retrieve the bodies. Some bodies are never seen again, especially those of officers with Haiti's National Police who are killed by gangs. Still, there are those like Joseph's friends and family who brave the streets despite the danger of whizzing bullets so they can give their loved ones a proper burial. Death and life are tightly intertwined in Haiti, where many believe that bodies need a formal resting place so their spirits can drift into the afterlife. On a sweltering morning, a handful of musicians played drums and a trumpet Saturday as Joseph's friends and family pushed into a small and crowded cemetery, hoisting the coffin up high as small bottles of Barbancourt rum were passed around. The cries grew louder when his friends opened the coffin, bidding farewell as they vowed revenge. "Solino will never die! We will always stand up and fight," said Janvier Johnson, 28. "The fight is just beginning!" another man yelled as he wiped his brow. Joseph was killed last Sunday, around 5 p.m. He had gotten a haircut at the barbershop in anticipation of going back to school and was crossing the street to go home when a bullet struck him in the neck, said Frantz Paulson, his 24-year-old cousin. Paulson is familiar with the difficulty of burying people amid incessant gang violence. His older brother was killed by a stray bullet last month and his mother killed last year. They all lived in Solino, one of the last strongholds in Port-au-Prince that has yet to be taken over by gangs that now control 80% of the capital. Considered a strategic location, gangs have been chipping away at territory in Solino, opening fire from roofs. Bullets killed three other people the same week that Joseph died. As a result, community leaders have sealed off Solino, controlling who enters the working-class neighborhood that is home to dozens of police officers. Although many in Solino refuse to speak to reporters, the community welcomed a team of Associated Press journalists the day Joseph was buried. His mother, Daphne St. Cyr, recalled how Joseph loved school and wanted to become an agronomist. He also was a huge soccer fan and played often, she said. "Ever since he was a baby, anything he could find, he was kicking it," she recalled with a serious face. He was obedient and got along well with many people in the neighborhood, St. Cyr added. "Everybody loved him, all the kids, all the grownups," she said. "He respected everyone." Joseph's older sister stood quietly next to her mother, declining to say anything. "I don't want to lose her," St. Cyr said, looking at her daughter. "I want her to leave the country." The gang coalition created by a former elite police officer named Jimmy Chérizier, best known as Barbecue, is blamed for the killings and attacks in Solino. A neighborhood of roughly 80,000 people, it already has nine large makeshift shelters crowded with families who have fled violence, said Daniel Saintiace, a community leader who vowed that Solino would not be taken by gangs. "We resist. That's how we stay strong," he said as he called on people to help Solino. "We are not going to run." Joseph was buried a week after he was killed, his family relieved they found a place for him since gangs have blocked access to many areas in the capital, even revered spaces. "Not all cemeteries are available," said Nicy Nadir, a musician who plays at funerals. "There are places you can't go." Pastor Claudy Midy, who owns the funeral home that helped organize Joseph's burial, said the only solace he can provide is to sit families down and explain to them that death is part of life. He added that burials are very important in Haiti, especially when someone young dies. Midy was comforted that Joseph's family was able to bury him. When people call the funeral home but say they have no body to bury, all he can offer them is a poster with the person's picture and a brief symbolic ceremony.

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic — Voters in the Dominican Republic will take to the polls Sunday in general elections likely to reinforce the government's crackdown on its shared border with Haiti and the hundreds of thousands of people fleeing the violence-stricken nation. Leading the presidential race is President Luis Abinader, who is seeking reelection as one of the most popular leaders in the Americas. If he tops 50% of the vote, he will win another term without proceeding to a second round of voting. Trailing behind him are President Leonel Fernández and mayor Abel Martínez. Dominicans will also vote in legislative elections. Abinader's anti-corruption agenda and push to grow the Dominican Republic's economy has resonated with many of the 8 million voters in the Caribbean nation. Much of his popularity, however, has been fueled by the government's harsh crackdown on Haitians and the border the Dominican Republic shares with its crisis-stricken neighbor. "This migratory problem worries me, because we're seeing a massive migration from our neighbor and it feels like it's out of control," said Perla Concepción, a 29-year-old secretary, adding that migration was her main concern as she takes to the polls. The Dominican Republic has long taken a hardline stance with Haitian migrants, but such policies have ramped up since Haiti entered a free fall following the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. As gangs have terrorized Haitians, the Dominican government has built a Trump-like border wall along its 400-kilometer border. He has also repeatedly urged the United Nations to send an international force to Haiti, saying such action "cannot wait any longer." The government has also rejected calls to build refugee camps for those fleeing the violence and carried out mass deportations of 175,000 Haitians just last year, according to government figures. While the policy is popular among voters, it has provoked sharp criticisms from human rights organizations which call the policy racist and a violation of international law. "These collective expulsions are a clear violation of the Dominican Republic's international obligations and put the lives and rights of these people at risk. Forced returns to Haiti must end," Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International, wrote in an April report.

RIO DE JANEIRO — A 20-minute drive separates the historic Maracana Stadium from the Complexo do Alemao, the biggest complex of favelas in Rio de Janeiro and one of the most impoverished and violent. One of its residents, 15-year-old football player Kaylane Alves dos Santos, hopes her powerful shots and impressive dribbles will allow her to cover that short distance to the stadium in three years to play for Brazil's national team in the final of the 2027 Women's World Cup. That chance, once remote, became more realistic Friday when FIFA members voted to make Brazil the first Latin American country to host the Women's World Cup. Local organizers have suggested that both the opening match and the final are likely to be played at the 78,000-seat Maracana Stadium that staged the final matches of the 1950 and the 2014 men's football World Cups. Teenager dos Santos knows the hurdles for her to ever play for Brazil remain enormous — in 2027 or later. She doesn't have a professional club to play for, she only trains twice a week, and her nutrition is not the best due to limited food choices in the favela. Most importantly, she often can't leave home to play when police and drug dealers shoot at each other in Complexo do Alemao. Still, she is excited and hopeful about Brazil hosting the Women's World Cup, resulting in a big boost to her confidence. "We have a dream (of playing for Brazil in the Women's World Cup), and if we have that chance it will be the best thing in the world," dos Santos told The Associated Press this week after a training session in the Complexo do Alemao. She and about 70 other young women in the Bola de Ouro project train on an artificial grass pitch in a safe region of the 3-square kilometers long community. If not on the pitch, Dos Santos and her teammates will be happy enough just to attend games of a tournament they could only dream of watching up close until FIFA members voted for Brazil over the Germany-Netherlands-Belgium joint bid. The Women's World Cup was played for the first time in 1991 and will have its 10th edition in 2027. A five-time champion in men's football, more than any other country, Brazil has yet to win its first Women's World Cup trophy. By then, it is unlikely superstar Marta, aged 38, will be in the roster. Dos Santos and thousands of young female footballers who have overcome sexism to take up the sport are keen to get inspiration from the six-time FIFA player of the year award winner and write their own history on home soil. As many female footballers experience in Brazil, dos Santos and her teenage teammates rarely play without boys on their teams. Until recently, they also had to share the pitch with 5-year-old girls, which didn't allow the older players to train as hard as they would like. "(The Women's World Cup in Brazil) makes us focus even more in trying to get better. We need to be able to play in this," said 16-year-old Kamilly Alves dos Santos, Kaylane's sister and also a player on the team. "We need to keep training, sharing our things." Their team, which has already faced academy sides of big local clubs like Botafogo, is trained by two city activists who once tried to become players themselves. Diogo Chaves, 38, and Webert Machado, 37, work hard to get some of their players to the Women's World Cup in Brazil, but if that's not possible they will be happy by keeping them in school. Their nonprofit group is funded solely by donations. "At first, basically, the children wanted to eat. But now we have all of this," said Chaves, adding that the project began three years ago. "We believe they can get to the national team. But our biggest challenge is opportunity. There's little for children from here, not only for the girls." Machado said the two coaches "are not here to fool anyone" and do not believe all the young women they train will become professionals. "What we want from them is for they to be honest people, we all need to have our character," Machado said. "We want to play and make them become nurses, doctors, firefighters, some profession in the future." The two dos Santos sisters, as do many of their teammates, believe that reaching the Women's World Cup as Complexo do Alemao residents is possible. Brazil has more than 100 professional women's football teams, with other players living in favelas, too. But it won't be easy. "Sometimes I have to cancel appointments because of shootings, because there's barricades on fire," she said. "Sometimes police tell us to go back home, they say we can't come down and point their guns to me, to my mother," said Kamilly. Her sister hopes the pair will overcome the violence, against the odds. "I want to earn my living in football, fulfill all dreams," Kaylane says. "And I want to leave the Complexo do Alemao. I want to make it happen." 

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HUITZILAC, Mexico — Tailed by trucks of heavily armed soldiers, four caskets floated on a sea of hundreds of mourners. Neighbors peered nervously from their homes as the crowd pushed past shuttered businesses, empty streets and political campaign posters plastering the small Mexican town of Huitzilac. Days earlier, armed men in two cars sprayed a nearby shop with bullets, claiming the lives of eight men who locals say were sipping beers after a soccer match. Now, fear paints the day-to-day lives of residents who say the town is trapped unwillingly in the middle of a firefight between warring mafias. As Mexico's expanding slate of criminal groups see the June 2 election as an opportunity to seize power, they have picked off more than 100 people in politically motivated killings, including about 20 candidates this year, and warred for turf, terrorizing local communities like Huitzilac. "The violence is always there, but there's never been so many killings as there are today. One day they kill two people, and the next they kill another," said 42-year-old mother Anahi, who withheld her full name out of fear for her safety, on Tuesday. "When my phone rings, I'm terrified that it'll be the school saying something has happened to my kids." Cartel violence is nothing new to Mexico, but bloodshed in the country has spiked ahead of the election, with April marking the most lethal month this year, government data shows. But candidates aren't the only ones at risk. Even before the election, it was clear that outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who had made pledges to ease cartel warfare, had done little more than stabilize Mexico's high level of violence. Despite disbanding a corrupt Federal Police and replacing it with a 130,000-strong National Guard and focusing on social ills driving cartel recruitment, killings in April reached nearly the same historic high as when López Obrador first took office in 2018. Authorities have declined to pursue cartel leaders in many cases. Cartels have expanded control in much of the country and raked in money — not just from drugs but from legal industries and migrant smuggling. They've also fought with more sophisticated tools like bomb-dropping drones and improvised explosive devices. So far, those vying to be Mexico's next president have only offered proposals that amount to more of the same. "Criminal violence has become much more difficult to resolve today than six years ago. … You can't expect a quick fix to the situation, it's too deeply ingrained," said Falko Ernst, a senior Mexico analyst for International Crisis Group. "It is going to be even harder to unwind now" than it was when López Obrador took power. Saturday's mass shooting in Huitzilac came after waves of other attacks, according to local media and residents. In recent weeks alone, local media reported that three people were slain on the highway running out of town, three more were shot outside a restaurant in a neighboring municipality, and in the nearby tourist city of Cuernavaca, hit men reportedly killed a patient in a private hospital. Josué Meza Cuevas, Huitzilac's municipal secretary general, said it wasn't clear what provoked the bloodshed, but many in the town attribute it to a turf war between the Familia Michoacana, La Unión de Morelos and other cartels, which has made the state of Morelos one of Mexico's most violent. Huitzilac fell eerily silent as businesses shuttered and few dared to venture into the streets on Tuesday. Schools canceled classes "until further notice" amid requests from fearful parents. Anahi, a longtime resident of the town, and her teenage children were among many families that hunkered down in their homes, too scared to wander out in the streets. While Cuevas said "nothing like this has ever happened," Anahi said she has long felt death breathing down her neck. Located little more than an hour from the hipster bars and backpacker hostels in Mexico City, Huitzilac made a name as a town just outside the law's reach. For years, it's been at the center of a tug-of-war between a rotating set of cartels and gangs, making headlines in 2012 when police inexplicably pumped a U.S. Embassy vehicle with 152 bullets. When Anahi's car, her only means of work, was stolen from her garage last year, she said she didn't dare report it because "they might do something to me." But Anahi said she's never been as scared as she has been since local and presidential elections began to heat up in October. "We're going to ask at the school meeting that they do classes remotely until the elections are over so our kids aren't in danger," she said. "What would happen if there's a shootout and our kids are there?" On Monday night, Anahi heard gunshots echo from town and saw armed men moving outside her window. Days before that, her son's friend who once played at their house, was shot dead. Before that, her daughter's friend received death threats on her phone. Such bursts of violence are common before elections, especially in local races. At least 125 have been killed throughout the country this year in politically motivated killings, according to the electoral violence tracker Data Civica, while even more have been threatened, attacked and kidnapped. A mayoral candidate in the southern state of Chiapas was killed Thursday. That goes "hand in hand" with cartels warring for territory and attempts to terrorize communities into submission, said Ernst, the analyst. "Elections are a high-stakes game for criminal groups," he said. "You see upticks in violence as these groups are trying to position themselves to have a more stable negotiating position in the lead up to elections." In Huitzilac, armed National Guard soldiers shifted nervously on Tuesday as they guarded the side of the road. One soldier said that their units have faced a number of attacks since the bloodshed that took place last weekend. An armored vehicle drove past the small neighborhood bar where the eight men were killed, the facade dented by bullets, with candles and flowers laying on the ground below. Marchers cried and prayed as they carried caskets through town, but dozens approached by The Associated Press fell silent and cast their eyes to the ground when asked how they felt. "This is happening to innocent people now. And if you speak, they kill you," said one middle-aged man in a cowboy hat sitting outside a funeral for four of the dead. López Obrador's political ally and front-runner Claudia Sheinbaum faces off against opposition candidate Xóchitl Gálvez in the June 2 election and the winner will inherit a puzzle more complex than the governments before them, said Victoria Dittmar, a researcher at Insight Crime, a nongovernmental organization tracking organized crime. She noted that increases in forced disappearances and extortion by cartels were particularly worrying. "They're going to have to dismantle these criminal organizations ... but they're more resilient and flexible, with more revenue streams," Dittmar said. Meanwhile, voters like Anahi living under the chokehold of those mafias feel disillusioned. Anahi said she voted for López Obrador in 2018, because she hoped that he would usher in a new era of economic prosperity and reduce violence in areas like hers. "With the violence, I don't know why my government, my president, don't come down with a heavier hand against these people," she said, as she and her children sat trapped in their home. "I feel disappointed. I expected more."