US to accept white South African refugees while other programs remain paused

US to accept white South African refugees while other programs remain paused
White South Africans supporting US President Donald Trump and South African and US tech billionaire Elon Musk gather in front of the US Embassy in Pretoria. (AFP/File)
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Updated 10 May 2025
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US to accept white South African refugees while other programs remain paused

US to accept white South African refugees while other programs remain paused

WASHINGTON: The Trump administration will welcome more than two dozen white South Africans to the United States as refugees next week, an unusual move because it has suspended most refugee resettlement operations, officials and documents said Friday.
The first Afrikaner refugees are arriving Monday at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, according to a document obtained by The Associated Press. They are expected to be greeted by a government delegation, including the deputy secretary of state and officials from the Department of Health and Human Services, whose refugee office has organized their resettlement.
The flight will be the first of several in a “much larger-scale relocation effort,” White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller told reporters.
The Trump administration has taken a number of steps against South Africa, accusing the Black-led government of pursuing anti-white policies at home and an anti-American foreign policy. The South African government denies the allegations and says the US criticism is full of misinformation.
While State Department refugee programs have been suspended — halting arrivals from Afghanistan, Iraq, most of sub-Saharan Africa and other countries in a move being challenged in court — President Donald Trump issued an executive order in February prioritizing the processing of white South Africans claiming racial discrimination.
“What’s happening in South Africa fits the textbook definition of why the refugee program was created,” Miller said. “This is persecution based on a protected characteristic — in this case, race. This is race-based persecution.”
Efforts to get white South Africans to the US
Since Trump’s executive order, the US Embassy in Pretoria has been conducting interviews, “prioritizing consideration for US refugee resettlement of Afrikaners in South Africa who are victims of unjust racial discrimination,” the State Department said.
The department said nothing about the imminent arrival of what officials said are believed to be more than two dozen white South Africans from roughly four families who applied for resettlement in the US Their arrival had originally been scheduled for early last week but was delayed for reasons that were not immediately clear.
The HHS Office for Refugee Resettlement was ready to offer them support, including with housing, furniture and other household items, and expenses like groceries, clothing, diapers and more, the document says. “This effort is a stated priority of the Administration.”
HHS didn’t respond to messages seeking comment.
Supporters of the refugee program questioned why the Trump administration was moving so quickly to resettle white South Africans while halting the wider refugee program, which brings people to the US who are displaced by war, natural disaster or persecution and involves significant vetting in a process that often takes years.
“We are concerned that the US Government has chosen to fast-track the admission of Afrikaners, while actively fighting court orders to provide life-saving resettlement to other refugee populations who are in desperate need,” Church World Services president Rick Santos said in a statement. His group has been assisting refugees for more than 70 years.
Letting in white South Africans while keeping out Afghans is “hypocrisy,” said Shawn VanDiver, who heads #AfghanEvac, which helps resettle Afghans who assisted the US during the two-decade war.
“Afghans who served alongside US forces, who taught girls, who fought for democracy, and who now face Taliban reprisals, meet every definition of a refugee,” he said. “Afghans risked their lives for us. That should matter,” he said.
Trump administration has accused South Africa of anti-white policies
The Trump administration alleges the South African government has allowed minority white Afrikaner farmers to be persecuted and attacked, while introducing an expropriation law designed to take away their land.
The South African government has said it was surprised by claims of discrimination against Afrikaners because white people still generally have a much higher standard of living than Black people more than 30 years after the end of the apartheid system of white minority rule.
South Africa is the homeland of close Trump adviser Elon Musk, who has been outspoken in his criticism, and it also holds the rotating presidency of the Group of 20 developed and developing nations.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio notably boycotted a G20 foreign ministers meeting in Johannesburg in March because its agenda centered on diversity, inclusion and climate change. He also expelled South Africa’s ambassador to the US in March for comments that the Trump administration interpreted as accusing the president of promoting white supremacy.
Shortly thereafter, the State Department ended all engagement with the G20 during South Africa’s presidency. The US is due to host G20 meetings in 2026.
What South Africa says about the refugees
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s office said in a statement Friday that he had spoken with Trump late last month on issues including US criticism of the country and allegations that Afrikaners are being persecuted. Ramaphosa told Trump that the information the US president had received “was completely false.”
“Therefore, our position is that there are no South African citizens that can be classified as refugees to any part of the world, including the US,” the statement said.
The South African foreign ministry said Deputy Foreign Minister Alvin Botes spoke with US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau on Friday about the refugees. Landau is expected to lead the delegation to welcome the group Monday.
South Africa “expressed concerns” and denied allegations of discrimination against Afrikaners, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
“It is most regrettable that it appears that the resettlement of South Africans to the United States under the guise of being ‘refugees’ is entirely politically motivated and designed to question South Africa’s constitutional democracy,” the statement said. It noted that the country has worked to prevent any repeat of the type of persecution and discrimination that happened under apartheid rule.
The foreign ministry said it would not block anyone who wanted to leave as it respected their freedom of movement and choice.
But it said it was seeking information about the “status” of the people leaving South Africa, wanting assurances that they had been properly vetted and did not have outstanding criminal cases.
The foreign ministry added that South Africa was “dedicated to constructive dialogue” with the US.
 


Norway to extradite Rwanda genocide suspect

Updated 5 sec ago
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Norway to extradite Rwanda genocide suspect

Norway to extradite Rwanda genocide suspect
OSLO: Norway will extradite a man sought by Rwanda for his suspected role in the country’s 1994 genocide, police said Friday.
In 1994, an estimated 800,000 Rwandan Tutsis and moderate Hutus died in 100 days of slaughter triggered by the assassination of the country’s president, Juvenal Habyarimana.
The man, whose identity has not been disclosed, was detained in October 2022 by Norway’s criminal police Kripos. He was wanted by Rwanda for “committing a murder during the 1994 genocide,” Kripos said in a statement.
The Oslo district court ruled in September 2023 that the conditions were met for the man’s extradition, a decision confirmed by an appeals court in April 2024.
The suspect then lodged an appeal with Norway’s Supreme Court which was rejected in June 2024.
With the man’s legal options exhausted, the justice ministry decided in February that the extradition could go ahead, a ruling ultimately confirmed by the government’s Council of State.
“The accused is now to be extradited to Rwanda, where he will stand trial for participating in the genocide,” police attorney Thea Elize Kjaeraas said in a statement.
Norway has seen a string of extradition requests for genocide suspects in recent years, and is among half a dozen Western countries where courts have handed down convictions since 2009.

China purges senior military official Miao Hua from top ruling body

China purges senior military official Miao Hua from top ruling body
Updated 1 min 33 sec ago
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China purges senior military official Miao Hua from top ruling body

China purges senior military official Miao Hua from top ruling body
  • Miao was put under investigation for ‘serious violations of discipline’ in November
  • Former political ideology chief of the People’s Liberation Army was also suspended from his post

BEIJING: China’s top legislature has voted to remove senior military official Miao Hua from the Central Military Commission, its highest-level military command body, according to a statement published on Friday by state news agency Xinhua.

Miao, 69, was put under investigation for “serious violations of discipline” in November. The former political ideology chief of the People’s Liberation Army was also suspended from his post.

The Xinhua statement did not contain any other details, but the move marks another stage in President Xi Jinping’s ongoing anti-corruption purge of China’s military, in which over a dozen PLA generals and a handful of defense industry executives have been implicated.

Miao’s photo had been removed from the senior leadership page of the Chinese defense ministry’s website in recent weeks. He was also removed from China’s national legislature for “serious violations of discipline and law,” according to a communique released by the legislature last month.

“The Political Work Department of the Central Military Commission held a military representative conference on March 14 this year and decided to remove Miao Hua from his position as a representative of the 14th National People’s Congress,” the statement said.

Miao was stationed in the coastal province of Fujian when Xi worked there as a local official, according to his official biography. Xi personally elevated Miao to the Central Military Commission.

Another Central Military Commission member and China’s second-ranking general, He Weidong, has not been seen in public since the March 11 closing ceremony of the annual parliamentary sessions in Beijing. Since then, he has not appeared at a series of high-level Politburo and military public engagements.

He is the third-most powerful commander of the People’s Liberation Army and is considered a close associate of President Xi Jinping, the army’s commander-in-chief.

China’s defense ministry said in March it was “unaware” of reports he had been detained. His photo remains on the defense ministry’s website.

Two former Chinese defense ministers have been removed from the Communist Party for corruption. One of them, Li Shangfu, was suspected of corruption in military procurement, Reuters has reported.

Last year, the defense ministry denied reports that Defense Minister Dong Jun was being probed on suspicion of corruption. Dong has continued to appear at public events, attending the Shanghai Cooperation Organization defense ministers’ meeting in Qingdao this week.


Forest fire near Athens under control, but area on high alert

Forest fire near Athens under control, but area on high alert
Updated 6 min 29 sec ago
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Forest fire near Athens under control, but area on high alert

Forest fire near Athens under control, but area on high alert
  • The fire around Athens broke on Thursday afternoon near the towns of Palaia Fokaia and Thymari, around 50 kilometers east of Athens, and forced the evacuation of five villages popular with local and foreign tourists

ATHENS: Greek firefighters said Friday that a forest blaze that had forced evacuations around Athens was under control, but warned that scorching temperatures were keeping fire risk at a highly elevated level around the capital and on northern Aegean islands.
Greece has become particularly vulnerable in recent years to fires in the summer fueled by strong winds, drought and high temperatures linked to climate change.
The fire around Athens broke on Thursday afternoon near the towns of Palaia Fokaia and Thymari, around 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of Athens, and forced the evacuation of five villages popular with local and foreign tourists.
Though it was under control on Friday, a volatile combination of high temperatures and strong winds meant that a high risk of other fires breaking out remained, especially in the Attica region around the Greek capital and some islands in the north Aegean Sea, authorities said.
A spokesman for the fire service told AFP that over 100 firefighters with 37 vehicles and a helicopter were on standby near Palaia Fokaia and Thymari.
Fields, olive groves and some houses were ravaged by the blaze.
The blaze came on the heels of another fire on the island of Chios — Greece’s fifth-largest island — which had destroyed more than 4,000 hectares (10,000 acres) of land in four days.
Weather agencies forecast a heatwave in the coming days with temperatures of more than 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), including in the capital Athens.


Chinese journalist hurt by Ukrainian drone attack in Russia: network

Chinese journalist hurt by Ukrainian drone attack in Russia: network
Updated 22 min 36 sec ago
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Chinese journalist hurt by Ukrainian drone attack in Russia: network

Chinese journalist hurt by Ukrainian drone attack in Russia: network

BEIJING: A Chinese TV journalist was wounded by a Ukrainian drone attack in Russia’s Kursk region while reporting near targeted facilities, his employer said Friday.
Lu Yuguang, a reporter with the state-affiliated Phoenix TV, “was wounded in the head” on Thursday afternoon and was sent to hospital for treatment, the broadcaster said.
In a video circulated by Russian state television on Friday, Lu was seen speaking to reporters with a white bandage over his head.
Lu was with a film crew in the village of Korenevo at the time of the strike, Russia’s foreign ministry said.
It accused Kyiv of “deliberately attacking” journalists and called on “responsible governments to condemn” it.
Beijing’s foreign ministry also said it was “deeply concerned” that a Chinese journalist had been wounded.
“The Chinese side calls on all parties to commit to a political resolution of the Ukraine crisis and jointly work toward easing tensions,” spokesman Guo Jiakun said.
China has portrayed itself as a neutral party in Russia’s more than three-year war with Ukraine.
But Western governments say Beijing’s close ties have given Moscow crucial economic and diplomatic support.


Cambodia’s Hun Sen accuses Thai PM of ‘insulting king’

Cambodia’s Hun Sen accuses Thai PM of ‘insulting king’
Updated 32 min 53 sec ago
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Cambodia’s Hun Sen accuses Thai PM of ‘insulting king’

Cambodia’s Hun Sen accuses Thai PM of ‘insulting king’

PHNOM PENH: Cambodia’s influential ex-premier Hun Sen on Friday accused Thailand’s prime minister of insulting the Thai king, as tensions between the neighboring countries intensified.
He said Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra’s comments about her military commander — who she labelled an “opponent” — in a leaked phone call with the veteran leader over a border dispute were “an insult to the king.”
“An insult to a regional commander is an insult to the Thai king because it is only the king who issued a royal decree to appoint him,” Hun Sen said in a livestream on his official Facebook page.
The daughter of controversial ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra — who goes on trial for lese-majeste next week — faces being sacked as prime minister as the phone call scandal has triggered calls for her to step down and her government to teeter.
Hun Sen — father of Cambodia’s prime minister Hun Manet and former close ally to Thaksin — last week posted the full 17-minute recording of the private conversation on his official Facebook page.
“I just let Thailand know how the prime minister committed a dirty act to their nation,” he said on Friday.
In the recording posted online, the two leaders discussed restrictions imposed on border crossings after a military clash last month killed a Cambodian soldier.
Thailand has strict lese majeste laws, which bans criticism of King Maha Vajiralongkorn and his close family and carries sentences of up to 15 years in jail per offense.