Earth’s most polluted place

Pressure builds to end South Africa’s dependence on coal [View in browser]( [Bloomberg]( Welcome to Balance of Power, bringing you the latest in global politics. If you haven’t yet, sign up [here](. It just may be the most polluted place on Earth. Thirty miles south of Johannesburg sits the Vaal Triangle, home to 1.7 million people alongside Africa’s biggest steel mill, a giant coal-fired power plant, an oil refinery and a petrochemicals complex. One town in the area, Vereeniging, regularly registers the [highest levels of harmful particulate emissions]( on the planet. In 2005, the South African region was designated as the country’s first “Airshed Priority Area,” a promise that pollution would be tackled. Two decades later, air quality levels are much the same. In some areas, cash-strapped municipalities have stopped collecting trash, forcing residents to burn it, worsening the problem. That’s a result of the failure by the government, led by the African National Congress, to enforce existing laws and pass new ones to protect its people. And the companies — ArcelorMittal, Sasol and Eskom — have won exemptions to emissions limits by playing on concerns about unemployment that is sky-high and worsening. With elections on May 29 threatening to cost the [ANC its parliamentary majority](, the government is split over the central dilemma: how to wean the most carbon-dependent economy of any nation of more than 4 million people off the dirtiest fossil fuel — coal. President Cyril Ramaphosa and his environment minister advocate a transition to clean power. But his energy and electricity ministers are painting that push as a Western plot that will drive people across the coal belt, an ANC heartland, out of work and worsen already crippling national power outages. New [emissions limits should](, in theory, be applied next year and the government has billions of dollars in concessional finance to switch from coal. Government scientists pouring over millions of death certificates are expected to report mid-2024 how many people have been killed by the use of the fossil fuel. Even that may not sway the argument. —[Antony Sguazzin]( Children play outside a shack with the Lethabo power plant in the distance.  Photographer: Leon Sadiki/Bloomberg Global Must Reads Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, who died in an Arctic prison camp, is being buried in Moscow today as a heavy police presence sought to deter protests against Vladimir Putin. The turnout for the funeral is likely to be [an indicator of discontent with Putin]( ahead of March 15-17 presidential elections he’s certain to win, amid Russia’s war in Ukraine and an unprecedented Kremlin crackdown on dissent. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates joined a wave of [condemnation of Israel]( after its forces opened fire near a convoy of food trucks during an outbreak of violence that left dozens of Palestinians killed and injured. Saudi Arabia, with which Israel wants to establish diplomatic relations, accused “occupation forces” of “targeting unarmed civilians.” Palestinians at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City yesterday. Photographer: AFP/Getty Images Xi Jinping has amassed more power than any Chinese leader since Mao Zedong, but [he’s facing discontent]( over his marshalling of the world’s second-biggest economy. Rebecca Choong Wilkins and Josh Xiao explain how Xi’s move to shun the traditional playbook of unleashing broad stimulus to bring China out of its prolonged slowdown is stoking unrest in the nation. The latest public disagreement between French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz [highlights their longstanding difficulties]( in working together. More worryingly, it also shows how the tensions are jeopardizing Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s invasion, with the war increasingly edging in Moscow’s favor. Sao Paulo Governor Tarcisio de Freitas is widely regarded as a potential heir to Jair Bolsonaro as leader of the Brazilian right, but you wouldn’t know it [from this interview]( in which he stands firmly by the beleaguered former president. Still, Freitas spent months denying he’d run for governor in 2022, before going on to do just that. Protests against US President Joe Biden’s policy toward Israel’s offensive in Gaza have reached unprecedented levels, [prompting rising alarm]( among White House officials. George Galloway, the leader of the Workers Party of Britain, won a seat in Parliament in a special election that underscored how the [Israel-Hamas war]( has exacerbated community tensions and sowed division across British politics. Thousands of South Korean trainee doctors defied a government deadline to [end their walkout in protest]( over a plan to increase medical school places, risking punishment that includes arrest and a suspension of their licenses. Washington Dispatch Biden today will welcome Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to the White House at a critical moment in Ukraine’s struggle against Russia’s invasion. Meloni was one of several Western leaders, including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and European Union President Ursula von der Leyen, [who traveled to Kyiv]( late last month to avow continued support for the Ukrainian war effort. In many ways, the populist Italian leader would seem like an unlikely ally for the American president, a liberal Democrat. Meloni, her nation’s first female prime minister, rose to power in 2022 with a platform that included opposition to immigration, LGBTQ rights and disdain for the EU. Yet as the leader of a right-wing coalition, she has become a strong advocate for continued assistance to Ukraine and prodded Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, another prominent figure on Europe’s far-right, to go along. Meloni’s common ground with Biden extends beyond Ukraine. In a visit to the Oval Office last July, she briefed the president on her proposal to cut back on Italy’s reliance on China. “The US knows we are trustworthy,” she told reporters afterward. One thing to watch today: Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will meet with Chilean Finance Minister Mario Marcel as well as other officials and business leaders in Santiago. [Sign up for the Washington Edition newsletter]( for more from the US capital and watch Balance of Power at 5pm ET weekdays on Bloomberg Television. Chart of the Day Biden faces a number of obstacles on the road to reelection this year, but money won’t likely be one of them. Groups allied with the president have already [committed to spending]( more than $700 million to help him beat Donald Trump. That’s in addition to the $130 million his campaign reported having on hand at the start of February. And Finally With volunteers dwindling and frontline soldiers exhausted, growing numbers of farmers are being called up to serve in Ukraine’s army to fight against Russian forces. Their skills are often so specialized that it isn’t easy for those who remain to tend the land. Officials are forced to weigh preserving Ukraine’s economic backbone against protecting its sovereignty. The outcome of that [balancing act]( in the country often called the “breadbasket of Europe” affects livelihoods and global food supplies. A carrot harvester at a farm in Lviv, Ukraine. Photographer: Julia Kochetova/Bloomberg Pop quiz (no cheating!) The prime minister of which country is promoting a resurgence in alternative medicines, touting the practices to a foreign audience? 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