South Africa Farm Exports Surge 10% as US Shipments Climb
South African agricultural exports rose 10% in the first quarter to $3.36 billion from a year earlier as port performance improved and shipments to the US climbed, an industry body said.
The 14% increase in trade to the US, which totaled $202 million, comes as South Africa braces for the imposition of a 30% tariff on exports to the country by the Trump administration when a 90-day grace period expires in July.
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Associated Press
an hour ago
- Associated Press
Environmentalists criticize Trump administration push for new oil and gas drilling in Alaska
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Top Trump administration officials — fresh off touring one of the country's largest oil fields in the Alaska Arctic — headlined an energy conference led by the state's Republican governor on Tuesday that environmentalists criticized as promoting new oil and gas drilling and turning away from the climate crisis. Several dozen protesters were outside Gov. Mike Dunleavy's annual Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference in Anchorage, where U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin were featured speakers. The federal officials were continuing a multiday trip aimed at highlighting President Donald Trump's push to expand oil and gas drilling, mining and logging in the state. The trip has included meetings with pro-drilling groups and officials, including some Alaska Native leaders on the petroleum-rich North Slope, and a visit to the Prudhoe Bay oil field near the Arctic Ocean that featured selfies near the 800-mile (1,287-kilometer) trans-Alaska oil pipeline. Calls for additional oil and gas drilling — including Trump's renewed focus on getting a massive liquefied natural gas project built — are 'false solutions' to energy needs and climate concerns, protester Sarah Furman said outside the Anchorage convention hall, as people carried signs with slogans such as 'Alaska is Not for Sale' and 'Protect our Public Lands.' 'We find it really disingenuous that they're hosting this conference and not talking about real solutions,' she said. Topics at the conference, which runs through Thursday, also include mining, carbon management, nuclear energy, renewables and hydrogen. Oil has been Alaska's economic lifeblood for decades, and Dunleavy has continued to embrace fossil fuels even as he has touted other energy opportunities in the state. Another protester, Rochelle Adams, who is Gwich'in, raised concerns about the ongoing push to allow oil and gas drilling on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Gwich'in leaders have said they consider the coastal plain sacred, as caribou they rely on calve there. Leaders of the Iñupiaq community of Kaktovik, which is within the refuge, support drilling as economically vital and have joined Alaska political leaders in welcoming Trump's interest in reviving a leasing program there. 'When these people come from outside to take and take and take, we are going to be left with the aftereffects,' Adams said, adding later: 'It's our health that will be impacted. It's our wellness, our ways of life.' Zeldin, during a friendly question-and-answer period led by Dunleavy, said wildlife he saw while on the North Slope didn't appear 'to be victims of their surroundings' and seemed 'happy.' Burgum, addressing a move toward additional drilling in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, said wildlife and development can coexist. His agency during the Alaska trip announced plans to repeal Biden-era restrictions on future leasing and industrial development in portions of the petroleum preserve that are designated as special for their wildlife, subsistence or other values. Wright bristled at the idea of policy 'in the name of climate change' that he said would have no impact on climate change. Stopping oil production in Alaska doesn't change demand for oil, he said. 'You know, we hear terms like clean energy and renewable energy. These are inaccurate marketing terms,' he said. 'There is no energy source that does not take significant materials, land and impact on the environment to produce. Zero.' Officials court Asian countries to support gas project Joining for part of the U.S. officials' trip were representatives from Asian countries, including Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Taiwan and United Arab Emirates. Asian countries are being courted to sign onto the Alaska gas project, which has floundered for years to gain traction amid cost and other concerns. The project, as proposed, would include a nearly 810-mile (1,300-kilometer) pipeline that would funnel gas from the North Slope to port, with an eye largely on exports of liquefied natural gas. Wright told reporters a goal in inviting them to the Prudhoe Bay stop was for them to see the oil pipeline infrastructure and environment and meet with residents and business leaders. Glenfarne Alaska LNG LLC, which has taken a lead in advancing the project, on Tuesday announced expressions of interest from a number of 'potential partners.' Costs surrounding the project — which have been pegged around $44 billion for the pipeline and other infrastructure — are in the process of being refined before a decision is made on whether to move forward. ___ Bohrer reported from Juneau, Alaska.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Washington Post admits to faulty reporting on claim that Israel killed dozens of Gazan civilians at aide site
The Washington Post admitted Tuesday that a claim in its recent report that Israeli soldiers killed dozens of civilians in Gaza could not be verified. The outlet shared a post on X stating it had updated its Sunday article to reflect that it could not verify that Israeli troops killed around 30 civilians near a U.S. aid site in Gaza. The previous version of the piece reported that the Israeli military had committed the killings. "The article and headline were updated on Sunday evening making it clear that there was no consensus about who was responsible for the shootings and that there was a dispute over that question," the outlet's social media post read. Huckabee Slams French-backed Palestinian Statehood Push At Un, Says Us-israel Are 'Inseparably' Linked At least 26 Palestinians were reportedly killed and some 175 were wounded over the weekend as they made their way to receive food in the Gaza Strip, according to officials from the Hamas-run health ministry and witnesses. Witnesses said Israeli forces fired on crowds around 1,000 yards away from an aid site run by the Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). A Palestinian journalist told the BBC that thousands of Palestinians had gathered near the aid site near Gaza's southern city of Rafah when Israeli tanks approached and opened fire on the crowd. Read On The Fox News App However, the IDF has disputed these allegations, saying they are "currently unaware of injuries caused by IDF fire within the Humanitarian Aid distribution site," adding that "the matter is still under review." Israel Hostage Deal In Doubt As Hamas Adds Demands, Us Envoy Calls Terms 'Unacceptable' "It is false and fabricated. All aid was distributed today without incident," the GHF said. "No injuries or fatalities as noted in our daily update sent out earlier. We have heard that these fake reports have been actively fomented by Hamas. They are untrue and fabricated." However, as an editor's note in the updated Washington Post piece said, The Post had reported on Sunday that "Israeli troops had killed more than 30 people near a U.S. aid site, with the headline attributing the action to 'health officials.'" "The article failed to make clear if attributing the deaths to Israel was the position of the Gaza health ministry or a fact verified by The Post," the note read. The body of the updated piece reported the casualties, but this time, did not blame the IDF. It said, "At least 31 people were killed and another 170 wounded, most of them with gunshot wounds to the extremities and upper body, according to local health officials and medics who treated the victims." Click Here For More Coverage Of Media And Culture "While three witnesses said the gunfire came from Israeli military positions, the Israel Defense Forces denied the allegations, saying in a statement that an initial inquiry indicated that its soldiers did not fire at civilians while they were near or within the distribution site," the new piece added. The editor's note confirmed that "The article and headline were updated on Sunday evening and for the print edition on Monday making it clear that there was no consensus about who was responsible for the shooting and that there was a dispute over that question." It added, "The Post didn't give proper weight to Israel's denial and gave improper certitude about what was known about any Israeli role in the shootings. The early versions fell short of Washington Post standards of fairness and should not have been published in that form." Reps for The Washington Post did not immediately reply to Fox News Digital's request for additional article source: Washington Post admits to faulty reporting on claim that Israel killed dozens of Gazan civilians at aide site
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
White House calls South Korea election 'fair,' expresses concern about Chinese influence
By Jeff Mason, David Brunnstrom WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The White House said on Tuesday that South Korea's election, which saw liberal party candidate Lee Jae-myung win the presidency, was fair, but it expressed concern about Chinese interference. "The US-ROK Alliance remains ironclad. While South Korea had a free and fair election, the United States remains concerned and opposed to Chinese interference and influence in democracies around the world," a White House official said in an emailed response to a Reuters request for comment made at an earlier White House briefing. "ROK" refers to the Republic of Korea. The official did not elaborate on the reference to alleged Chinese interference or connect it directly to the South Korean election. In recent days, however, right-wing allies of U.S. President Donald Trump have taken aim at Lee, who has spoken of the need to balance Seoul's relations with China and the United States. Laura Loomer, a far-right activist who has jockeyed her way up from online agitator to self-appointed Trump adviser, posted "RIP South Korea" on X on Tuesday after Lee's victory became clear. "The communists have taken over Korea and won the Presidential election today," she wrote. "This is terrible," she added. Loomer has shown herself to be highly influential: Several high-ranking White House officials were fired this year after she presented Trump with a list of national security staffers she perceived to be disloyal. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a statement congratulating Lee, and like the White House spoke about the two countries' alliance, also calling it "ironclad." He made no mention of concerns about China. "The United States and the Republic of Korea share an ironclad commitment to the Alliance grounded in our Mutual Defense Treaty, shared values, and deep economic ties," Rubio said. "We are also modernizing the Alliance to meet the demands of today's strategic environment and address new economic challenges." Rubio also said the United States would continue to deepen trilateral cooperation with South Korea and Japan, "to bolster regional security, enhance economic resilience, and defend our shared democratic principles." As South Korea's ousted former president, Yoon Suk Yeol, fought for his political life earlier this year, he raised unsubstantiated claims about possible fraud in South Korea's elections as one reason for his announcement of a martial law decree that had prompted his ouster. His backers adopted "Stop the Steal" slogans and expressed hopes that Trump would intervene to help, but that never came. Last week, without providing evidence, Trump ally Mike Flynn, a retired general who briefly served as the president's national security adviser during his first term, referred in a post on X to "signs of fraud" in the South Korea election, and said a fraudulent outcome would only benefit the Chinese Communist Party. Another Trump ally, Steve Bannon, explored a similar theme of Chinese election interference on his WarRoom channel last week.
