What's in City Press: Mbeki accused of being selfish
Dead constables: 'Foul play cannot be ruled out'
A highway patrol officer has questioned why there was not a single call about the accident or any noticeable objects indicating a serious impact in line with the damage to the vehicle.
ANC parliamentary caucus expresses strong anti-DA sentiment
The party summoned all its deployees in Parliament to a meeting to discuss several issues ahead of their return after the recess.
'Exclude the rich and foreign nationals from RAF claims' – RAF CEO
One of Collins Letsoalo's last wishes before he leaves his job as CEO of the Road Accident Fund (RAF) in October is to convince legislators to amend the RAF Agency Act to prevent foreign nationals and people who are "well off" from claiming from the fund.
Mbeki slammed as 'selfish' in opposing a lawsuit seeking justice for apartheid-era crimes.
Survivors and families of victims of apartheid-era atrocities have argued that former president Thabo Mbeki 's objection to their lawsuit was motivated by his quest to protect his legacy.
SA's conflict zone foot soldiers see a small slice of the pie
South African soldiers who had to fight on the frontlines in the Democratic Republic of Congo earned considerably less in special allowances than their countrymen who served in comfortable office positions.
'Parliament is our last hope to save Safa from going down' – White
As the troubled Safa prepares to appear before the parliamentary portfolio committee on sports on Monday, a former vice president of the football association is hopeful that the committee will not spare the leadership any blushes.
Rebecca Malope demands R1 m from P&G for 'unlawfully' using her image
The legendary award-winning gospel singer-turned-designer, Rebecca Malope, is demanding more than R1 million from Procter and Gamble SA (P&G).
Following a potpourri of results this season, Kaizer Chiefs' Nedbank Cup final clash against arch-rivals Orlando Pirates will answer the question: Is Nabi still the best man for the job?
Jazz maestro Selaelo Selota faces SIU probe over Lotto cash
South African jazz maestro Selaelo Selota is being investigated by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) for allegedly using funds from a National Lotteries Commission (NLC) grant to buy a luxury car.
The 20-year-old was quieter in some parts of the game against Kaizer Chiefs, but he popped up just at the right moment to hand Bucs the winning goal that completed a league double over Amakhosi.
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14 minutes ago
- Yahoo
How viral images are shaping views of L.A.'s immigration showdown
As protesters and police officers clashed in the streets of Los Angeles, a parallel conflict raged on social media, as immigration advocates and President Donald Trump's allies raced to shape public opinion on the impacts of mass deportations on American life. The sprawling protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids were captured from all angles by cellphones and body cameras and streamed in real time, giving a visceral immediacy to a conflict that led to more than 50 arrests and orders from the Trump administration to deploy the National Guard. Subscribe to The Post Most newsletter for the most important and interesting stories from The Washington Post. Amateur videographers and online creators shared some of the mayhem's most-talked-about videos and images, often devoid of context and aimed at different audiences. Clips showing officers firing less-lethal rounds at an Australian journalist or mounted police directing their horses to stride over a sitting man fueled outrage on one side, while those of self-driving Waymo cars on fire and protesters holding Mexican flags stoked the other. The protests have become the biggest spectacle yet of the months-long online war over deportations, as Trump allies work to convince Americans that the issue of undocumented immigration demands aggressive action. But immigrant families and advocates have also been winning attention, and seeking public support, through emotional clips of crying families grappling with removal orders, anti-ICE gatherings and young children in federal custody. The messaging war comes at a time of polarized public sentiment over Trump's immigration policies. An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll in April found that roughly half the country believed Trump's deportations had gone too far, while the other half thought his actions were about right or hadn't gone far enough. 'To advance your side of the story, you need a piece of content that the algorithm likes. You need something that really grabs people's attention by the throat and doesn't let it go,' said Laura Edelson, an assistant professor at Northeastern University's Khoury College of Computer Sciences. 'If you're on the pro-ICE side of this, you need to find visual images of these protests that look really scary, look really dangerous because that's what's going to draw human attention,' she added. But if 'you don't think that ICE should be taking moms away from their families and kids, you're going to have a video that starts with a crying child's face.' A White House official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal plans, said Trump's digital strategists were following the president's lead by spotlighting images of destruction while insisting that he would always intervene in moments of unrest. The White House, which has said the ICE deportations are necessary to solve a national crisis, on Sunday posted an Instagram photo of Trump and a warning that looters and rioters would be given 'no mercy.' 'We're obviously following the president's direction. He is driving the message through his posts and his comments to the press,' the official said. 'We are definitely playing offense here. We are once again boxing the Democrats into the corner of defending criminal illegal aliens.' The unrest and its online propagation also heightened activity around projects like People Over Papers, a crowdsourced map for tracking the locations of ICE officers. Reports flooded in as the clashes continued, said Celeste, a project organizer in L.A. who spoke on the condition that her last name not be used for fear of government retribution. 'I haven't slept all weekend,' she said. She added, however, that she worried violent imagery from the ground could hurt the protesters' cause. She said she planned to start making Spanish-language videos for her 51,000 TikTok followers, explaining to skeptics that the violence isn't reflective of the protests, which she sees as necessary to counter ICE's agenda. The L.A. unrest followed weeks of online skirmishes over deportations, some of which have been touched off by the White House's strategy to lean into policy fights with bold and aggressive messaging. The White House last month posted a video that it said showed an 'EPIC takedown of 5 illegal aliens' outside a home improvement store and included an ICE hotline to solicit more tips. The clip, recorded by ICE agents' cameras, was liked 68,000 times but also drew criticism from commenters, who called it 'disturbing' and said this 'isn't a reality show.' After a similar ICE raid on Saturday outside a Home Depot in Paramount, a predominantly Latino suburb of L.A., witnesses sent out alerts on social media, and protesters raced to the scene. Within hours, the Trump administration called for the deployment of 2,000 National Guard troops to neutralize the unrest. On his Truth Social account a week earlier, Trump celebrated the Supreme Court clearing the way for the removal of some immigrants' legal protections by posting a photo of a jet-filled sky with the phrase, 'Let the Deportations Begin!' The White House has also posted stylized mug shots of unnamed immigrants it said were charged with heinous crimes. 'I love this version of the white house,' one commenter said, with a cry-laugh emoji. 'It feels like a movie every day with President Trump.' During the protests, the administration has worked with new-media figures and online influencers to promote its political points. Phil McGraw, the TV personality known as Dr. Phil who now runs the conservative media network Merit Street, posted an exclusive interview with border czar Tom Homan and embedded with ICE officers last week during L.A. raids, as the company's spokesperson first told CNN. Some top administration officials have worked to frame the protests in militaristic terms, with White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller on Saturday sharing a video of the protest and calling it 'an insurrection against the laws and sovereignty of the United States.' Others, like Vice President JD Vance, have treated it as a chance for dark jokes. When posters on X said Vance could do the 'funniest thing ever' by deporting Derek Guy, a prominent menswear commentator who discussed how his family had been undocumented after fleeing Vietnam, the vice president on Monday posted a brief clip of Jack Nicholson nodding with a sinister grin. Some far-right influencers urged their followers to identify people caught on camera during the civil unrest. In one X post with more than 29,000 likes, the account End Wokeness shared a video of masked figures throwing rocks at police from an overpass and said, 'These are insurrectionists trying to kill cops. Make them famous.' In more left-leaning online spaces, some posters watching from the sidelines offered advice on how protesters could best position their cause to the rest of the world. On the r/ICE_raids subreddit, some posters urged L.A. protesters to stop carrying non-American flags. It's 'adding ammo to ICE's justification,' one poster said, attaching a screenshot of a Homeland Security post showing masked protesters with Mexican flags. Many accounts, knowingly or unknowingly, shared images that warped the reality of what was happening on the ground. An X account with 388,000 followers called US Homeland Security News, which is not affiliated with DHS but paid for one of X's 'verified' blue check marks, posted a photo of bricks that it said had been ordered to be 'used by Democrat militants against ICE agents and staff!! It's Civil War!!' The photo actually originated on the website of a Malaysian construction-supply company. The post has nevertheless been viewed more than 800,000 times. On Sunday night, California Gov. Gavin Newsom's X account tried to combat some of the misinformation directly, saying a viral video post being passed around as evidence of the day's chaos was actually five years old. Even before the L.A. protests, the increased attention on ICE activity had driven a rush of online organizing and real-world information gathering, with some people opposed to mass deportations tracking the movements of ICE officers with plans to foil or disrupt raids. In one viral TikTok post last week, a Minneapolis protester marching in a crowd outside the site of a rumored ICE raid said he had learned of it from Reddit, where a photo had been posted of Homeland Security Investigations officers outside a Mexican restaurant. The local sheriff's office later told news crews that the operation was not an immigration-enforcement case and that no arrests had been made. Some online creators treated the L.A. clashes as a prized opportunity for viral content. On Reddit, accounts with names like LiveNews_24H posted 'crazy footage' compilations of the unrest and said it looked like a 'war zone.' On YouTube, Damon Heller, who comments on police helicopter footage and scanner calls under the name Smoke N' Scan, streamed the clashes on Sunday for nearly 12 hours. Jeremy Lee Quinn, a photographer who shares protest footage to his social media followers, posted to Instagram on Saturday a video of protesters cheering from a bridge as officers tried to extinguish a burning police vehicle. Quinn, who also documented Black Lives Matter marches and the U.S. Capitol riots, said viewers on the left and right treat viral videos like weapons in their arsenal. Far-left viewers might take away from the videos ideas for militant tactics to use in future protests, he said, while far-right viewers will promote the videos to suggest the other side craves more violent crime. Either way, his material gets seen - including through reposts by groups such as the LibsOfReddit subreddit, which shares screenshots mocking liberal views on undocumented immigrants and transgender people. 'You end up with a far-right ecosystem that thrives on these viral moments,' Quinn said. As short-form video and social media platforms increasingly become many Americans' news sources of choice, experts worry they could also amp up the fear and outrage engendered by polarizing events. The fragmentation of social media and the attention-chasing machinery of its recommendation algorithms helps ensure that 'there are a lot of people talking past each other,' said Northeastern's Edelson, not seeing one another's content or 'even aware of the facts that are relevant to the other side.' Darrell West, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank, said videos can play a uniquely forceful role in shaping people's reactions to current events because they 'encapsulate the emotion of the moment.' 'There's a heavy dose of misinformation,' he added. 'And, you know, people just end up getting angrier and angrier.' Related Content 'He's waging a war on us': As Trump escalates, Angelenos defend their city To save rhinos, conservationists are removing their horns Donald Trump and the art of the Oval Office confrontation
Yahoo
15 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Pat Cummins: ‘We want to play hard and fair, and I think we've got it right'
As Pat Cummins opens up at the pavilion end, while gazing across the vast empty space of Lord's a few days before Australia face South Africa in the World Test Championship final, it's clear that the unexpected opponents this week have helped to frame his remarkable career. On Wednesday morning, while towering a foot over Temba Bavuma, his 5ft 3in South African counterpart, Cummins will lead Australia for the 34th time, in his 68th Test. The fast bowler stands at the summit of world cricket, his grizzled matinee idol charm allied to the grit which has helped him to become such a successful captain. Australia have won almost everything during his tenure of three and a half years and they are expected to retain their Test title. Advertisement Related: Australia v South Africa: where the World Test Championship final will be won and lost But South Africa have been at the heart of the darker moments, from sporting humiliation to moral ignominy, which have dented Australian cricket since Cummins made his international debut. As a teenager he was selected for Australia's tour of South Africa in 2011. Cummins was 12th man for the first Test at Newlands in Cape Town, which would be the site of the sandpaper scandal that shredded Australia's reputation in 2018, and he watched in shock as his teammates were bowled out for 47 and crushed in two and a half days. 'That was my first real taste of Test cricket, inside the changing room,' Cummins says ruefully. 'I remember being really nervous, even though I wasn't playing, and fielded for two overs. One ball got hit to me and I fumbled it. I was an 18-year-old thinking: 'Wow, I'm in the middle of all this.'' Cummins was called up for the second Test in Johannesburg against a great South Africa side including Graeme Smith, Jacques Kallis, Hashim Amla, Dale Steyn and Morné Morkel. 'It felt like the real deal. I'd played a little T20 for Australia where there was a comfort level. But being around Test cricket, and seeing some greats of the game I'd grown up watching on TV, made me think: 'Oh, this is real.' I was playing alongside Ricky Ponting and Mike Hussey and feeling confused as to how I ended up in that position.' Advertisement Cummins took seven wickets, including six in South Africa's second innings, before scoring an unbeaten 13 as he and Mitchell Johnson steered Australia to a nerve-shredding target of 310 eight wickets down. Named player of the match on his debut, Cummins was flying. Yet he didn't play another Test for five years and four months as his injury-ravaged body struggled with the demands of professional cricket. Cummins is grateful now for that delay and he tells a couple of self-deprecating stories which reflect his character. 'It had all come quite easy. Before that tour I'd played three first‑class games and in lots of ways I'd no right to be in the team. I was very fortunate but then it all comes crashing down. The next few years there were lots of injuries and questions: 'Am I good enough? Do I have to find a real job?' It was tough and you're trying to enter the world as an adult. But I learnt patience and consistency and, in some ways, I was very lucky to not have it all on a plate.' His parents also grounded him. 'One of their biggest worries was me getting too big for my boots and, no doubt, I probably did at certain times. There was one instance where I was doing uni part-time. I met the vice-chancellor, who I later found out was the most important person at university. I'd thought: 'Oh, it can't be that serious if he's vice.' He welcomed me to university and I tried my luck. I was catching the train to uni and it was a nuisance so I said: 'Do you have any car park spots you could give me?' Very politely he said: 'No, but maybe we can find you a paid parking spot.' I told Mum and she went ballistic, which was never her style.' Advertisement The 32-year-old's smile is tangled. He lost his mother, Maria, to cancer in 2023 but, with affection, he remembers her saying: ''How dare you ask for that? Who do you think you are?' She made me email him back to say: 'I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked.'' Eighteen months later he met his wife, Becky, who comes from Harrogate in Yorkshire. They were in a bar in Sydney and Cummins told her he was a student. 'I was into my second or third recurrence of a back stress-fracture. I was a part-time uni student doing rehab so I would have felt a fraud if I'd said I was a professional cricketer.' His cover was blown when, soon after they met, Becky turned a corner in Sydney and saw Cummins wearing his whites in a giant KFC poster. There will be no escaping his importance this week and Cummins pauses when I ask if he is surprised to be facing South Africa. 'In some ways you expect India to be around. England have been quite strong at home and New Zealand always seem to get to finals. But the same case could be made for South Africa in ICC events. We just don't see a lot of them in Test cricket but it's nice and different to an Australia-India final.' He shrugs off Michael Vaughan's comments that, after beating 'pretty much nobody', South Africa 'don't warrant being in the final'. Cummins says: 'You can only beat who you come up against. Our route to the final was pretty tough but I don't blame South Africa for having a different route.' As to how South Africa might perform at Lord's, Cummins says: 'It's hard to say because there are so many unknowns. We haven't played them much [with their last Test series ending in an easy Australian victory at home in 2022-23] but you've got to be really well balanced to make the final. Their bowling has always stood out and it's no different now. [Keshav] Maharaj is a really solid spinner and they've always got plenty of quick bowlers who pose a challenge.' Advertisement Kagiso Rabada, the spearhead of South Africa's bowling attack, recently served a one-month ban after testing positive for cocaine. There has been speculation in South Africa that Australia will sledge Rabada mercilessly. 'It's not really our style,' Cummins says. 'I'd be surprised if that came up.' Australia have made legitimate changes to their abrasive cricket since the 2018 sandpaper saga against South Africa. Cummins, who is an ambassador for New Balance, exemplifies the improved reputation. But the ball-tampering saga remains an awkward topic. He listens quietly while I tell him about my 2021 interview with Cameron Bancroft who, as a callow opening batter trying to find his way in Test cricket, followed instructions to use sandpaper to rough up the ball. His captain, Steve Smith, David Warner and Bancroft were banned and the batter, when pressed on whether any of the bowlers had known of the plan, told me that 'it's probably self-explanatory'. Cummins took seven wickets in that Test, which Australia lost heavily, and I ask if he really had no idea what was being done to the ball. 'I don't want to talk about it,' he says bluntly. He concedes, however, that the fate of his two predecessors, Smith and Tim Paine, who both resigned tearfully, made him apprehensive about assuming the captaincy in 2021. 'There was a lot of trepidation. One, because I was uncertain how I was going to go as a captain. I didn't really have any experience. But also trepidation because it's a big role and things can turn against you overnight. Part of me thought: 'Maybe captaincy isn't for me.' But there're enough great parts of the job I really enjoy.' Advertisement What are the hardest aspects? 'When things aren't going well and you've got to be the front of that. You've got to keep everyone positive, chat to media, keep the team aligned. But I've been very lucky that there haven't been too many of those moments. When they have cropped up, the playing group bands together and makes us stronger.' This week marks the first Test that Australia have played at Lord's since the drama two years ago when England were chasing a big total with an inspired Ben Stokes and a pugnacious Jonny Bairstow at the crease. The last ball of the 52nd over flew harmlessly into the gloves of the Australian wicketkeeper Alex Carey. Bairstow thought he had made sure he was in his crease before strolling down the pitch. Carey threw the ball and hit the stumps, Australia appealed and the umpire, who hadn't called for the end of the over, raised his finger. There was outrage in the ground and the Long Room where the florid anger of many MCC members was accompanied by booing and shouts of 'shame' as the Australians walked past. Warner and Usman Khawaja were even confronted by heated England supporters. 'It was a series with such high emotion,' Cummins says. 'Everyone was so wound up but my gut reaction was pretty similar to what I feel now. If you take all the emotion away it's just a simple out and you don't need to make it any bigger. It's out, move on. I've seen it happen before.' Advertisement When Cummins missed the Champions Trophy this year his stand-in, Smith, withdrew a run‑out appeal after Afghanistan's Noor Ahmad ambled out of his crease in a group game. It suggested some kind of change in Australian attitudes, but Cummins says: 'I can't remember that specifically. Sorry. I think it was slightly different circumstances but, look, we want to play hard and fair and I think over my tenure we've got it right just about every time.' Would he do it again? 'Yes,' Cummins says firmly of Bairstow's stumping. The view in the Australian camp is that England would do the same and they 'tried it three times' previously. All this is said calmly, five months before Ashes hostilities resume in Australia. Cummins is vague about England's excitement around Jacob Bethell – he has heard the talk 'a little bit,' adding: 'When he batted [on his Test debut in New Zealand] was it three? I haven't seen much.' He also glosses over England's current uncertainty around their injury‑riddled bowling attack. 'I don't really care. It feels so long away.' Cummins admits that his all-conquering team are approaching the end of an era. 'Yes. No doubt. We've got quite a few players who are past their mid-30s and there seems to be a natural attrition rate into the late‑30s. If you'd asked me a year or two ago I would have said: 'It's going to be a huge change. There's a little bit to be worried about.' But we've seen Josh Inglis, Sam Konstas, [Nathan] McSweeney debut throughout [Australia's] summer. [Beau] Webster's come in plus a few others have debuted in white-ball cricket. I don't think the transition will be as jarring as we first thought.' Advertisement Does he have concerns about the future of Test cricket – the format he loves most? 'Yes and no. In Australia, no. Each summer it seems to get stronger and stronger. The ticket sales for the Ashes are just berserk the last week. But that's not the reality for many Test-playing nations and one of the beauties about Test cricket is playing in totally different conditions with different challenges. I'd hate Test cricket to turn into only a couple of nations.' In 25 years will Australia and England still be playing Tests against Pakistan, West Indies and South Africa? 'It's really hard to say. I hope so. But if we just let things play out, probably not. There needs to be some intervention and finding a way – maybe its dedicated windows for franchise cricket. I really hope so because they are cricket-loving nations as well. They're always going to have good players and [offer] a tough challenge.' Can Cummins play for another five years? 'Yes, I'd hope so. Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood are a couple of years older than me, but they don't show any signs of slowing up. I'm trying to look after myself and I'd love to play in my mid-30s. I feel great and physically as good as I have in a few years. I love the job and just want to keep doing it – particularly in Test cricket. I want to keep playing for a long time and do it with good people while making it fun and hopefully winning along the way.'
New York Post
41 minutes ago
- New York Post
Jon Stewart accuses Trump of ‘happily' lighting fuse on Los Angeles: ‘Our most flammable city'
Comedian Jon Stewart accused President Trump of happily lighting the fuse on the fervent anti-ICE protests throughout Los Angeles – which he called 'our most flammable city.' 'I was in Los Angeles over the weekend getting a BBL from a celebrity doctor, and quick question for those of you who live in the area – is your city ever not on fire?' Stewart jabbed Monday night on 'The Daily Show.' Volatile protests in the city of Angels over the weekend led to dozens of arrests and the deployment of the National Guard as demonstrators set driverless Waymo cars on fire and clashed with law enforcement officials. Comedian Jon Stewart accused President Trump of happily lighting the fuse on the fervent anti-ICE protests throughout Los Angeles. The Daily Show / YouTube 'Whether you win a basketball championship, a world series championship, whether you have an exploding pinata gender reveal gone wrong – congratulations, it's a boy and an evacuation – or you're just protesting the Trump administration's expanded deportation raids, LA continues to be our most flammable city,' Stewart said. He tore into Trump's deployment of at least 2,000 National Guard members over the weekend, claiming it escalated the protests – the same argument made by California Gov. Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass. Trump on Monday deployed an additional 2,000 troops and 700 Marines. These broad deportation raids have created a 'tinderbox' situation in cities with large immigration populations, and 'Trump happily lights the fuse,' Stewart said. 'This weekend's combustion was the very predictable result of a liberal city reliant on an immigrant population colliding with a heavy-handed MAGA migrant-trolling operation looking to hit its quota of Brown Pokémen,' Stewart said. 'Gotta catch 'em all. Yes, America!' A recent raid by ICE officers at a Home Depot in Los Angeles, Stewart argued, went against Trump's previous claims that his administration's deportation efforts would target the worst criminals first. Protesters stand atop burning cars tagged with anti-ICE graffiti in Los Angeles. AFP via Getty Images 'A Home Depot? From the worst of the worst to a f—— Home Depot? Jeez, ICE, if you need assistance in arresting people, you know, those guys are looking for work, so…' Stewart said. He called it an explosive tug-of-war between federalism and state's rights, border control and due process and militarized sweeps and hard-working community members – 'the United States Marines versus the Postmates guy who brought you an egg sandwich.' After rolling a clip of Trump threatening protesters – saying 'they spit, we hit, 'a warning to anyone who spits on police officers – Stewart remarked, 'Well done, Mr. Churchill.' Stewart also mocked top Trump aide Stephen Miller, who reportedly demanded that immigration officials ramp up arrests to 3,000 a day, with a 'Star Wars' reference, calling him 'young lord Vader.'
