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This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service.

I'm Pete Ross, and at 15 hours GMT on Friday the 8th of May, these are our main stories.

The UK's two main political parties suffer huge losses in local elections as

the populist right-wing reform UK party surges ahead. South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa faces

calls to resign after a court rules will be investigated over the theft of more than half a million

dollars. The WHO says efforts are underway to trace anyone

who disembarked from a cruise ship before an outbreak of Hanta virus was detected.

Also in this podcast,

End-to-end encryption is one of the key ways in which children can keep themselves safe online.

We're worried that meta are perhaps caving to government

pressure. Privacy groups express concern after Instagram turns off end-to-end encryption for direct

messages in a major U-turn by parent company Meta.

Here in the UK, polls have suggested for some time surging popularity for right-wing populism.

Commentators suggest there are a number of reasons for this, including the cost of living crisis and the stagnation of living standards that's brought,

as well as the breakdown of social cohesion and anger and disillusionment towards politicians.

It's a pattern that's been seen across Europe and the US. And now some electoral proof to back up what the polls

appeared to be showing. For the first time in decades, early results from UK local elections

show huge losses for the main two dominant parties, the current governing Labour Party and the opposition conservatives.

The big winner so far is the Populist Right Wing Reform UK Party,

while the centrist Liberal Democrats are also performing strongly,

and the Populist Left Wing Green Party also picking up a number of seats.

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