Donald Trump ambushes South African president with false genocide claims
US President Donald Trump confronted South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at the White House with allegations of mass killings and land seizures from white people, in a scene reminiscent of his February ambush of Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy. South Africa rejects the allegation that white people are disproportionately targeted by crime. Murder rates are high in the country, but the overwhelming majority of victims are Black. Ramaphosa arrived saying he wanted to discuss trade and critical minerals, and the meeting got off to a cordial start as he and Trump exchanged remarks about golf. Champion South African golfers Ernie Els and Retief Goosen were present as part of Ramaphosa's delegation. But the televised Oval Office meeting soon took a different course, with Trump showing a video and printed articles purporting to show evidence to back up his unfounded claims that white South Africans are being persecuted. "People are fleeing South Africa for their own safety. Their land is being confiscated, and in many cases, they're being killed," said Trump in one of a series of accusations.
South Africa, which endured centuries of draconian discrimination against Black people during colonialism and apartheid before becoming a multi-party democracy in 1994 under Nelson Mandela, rejects Trump's allegations. A new land reform law, aimed at redressing the injustices of apartheid, allows for expropriations without compensation when in the public interest, for example if land is lying fallow. No such expropriation has taken place, and any order can be challenged in court. The video shown by Trump showed white crosses which Trump said were the graves of thousands of white people, and opposition leaders making incendiary speeches. Trump suggested that one of them, Julius Malema, should be arrested. Ramaphosa mostly sat expressionless while the video was played, occasionally craning his neck to look at it. He said he had not seen it before, and that he would like to find out what the location was.
Trump then displayed printed copies of articles that he said showed white South Africans who had been killed, saying "death, death" as he flipped through them. Ramaphosa said there was crime in South Africa, and the majority of victims were Black. Trump cut him off and said: "The farmers are not Black." Ramaphosa responded: "These are concerns we are willing to talk to you about." The South African leader remained composed throughout the scene.
In recent months, Trump has criticised the land reform law and South Africa's genocide court case against Israel. He has cancelled aid, expelled South Africa's ambassador and offered refuge to white minority Afrikaners based on racial discrimination claims Pretoria says are baseless. The United States is South Africa's second-biggest bilateral trading partner after China. But the country is facing a 30 per cent tariff under Trump's currently suspended "Liberation Day" regime, and Ramaphosa was keen to discuss a trade deal and business opportunities.
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Rwanda quits Central African bloc in dispute with Congo
Rwanda says it will withdraw from the Economic Community of Central African States, underscoring diplomatic tensions in the region over an offensive by Rwanda-backed M23 rebels in eastern Congo. Kigali had expected to assume the chairmanship of the 11-member bloc at a meeting on Saturday in Equatorial Guinea. Instead, the bloc kept Equatorial Guinea in the role, which Rwanda's foreign ministry denounced as a violation of its rights. Rwanda, in a statement, condemned Congo's "instrumentalisation" of the bloc and saw "no justification for remaining in an organisation whose current functioning runs counter to its founding principles". It wasn't clear if Rwanda's exit from the bloc would take immediate effect. The office of Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi said in a statement that bloc members had "acknowledged the aggression against the Democratic Republic of Congo by Rwanda and ordered the aggressor country to withdraw its troops from Congolese soil". M23 seized eastern Congo's two largest cities earlier this year, with the advance leaving thousands dead and raising concerns of an all-out regional war. African leaders, along with Washington and Doha, have been trying to broker a peace deal. Congo, the United Nations and Western powers accuse Rwanda of supporting M23 by sending troops and weapons. Rwanda has long denied helping M23, saying its forces were acting in self-defence against Congo's army and ethnic Hutu militiamen linked to the 1994 Rwandan genocide that killed about one million people, mostly ethnic Tutsis. US President Donald Trump's administration hopes to strike a peace accord between Congo and Rwanda that would also facilitate billions in Western investment in the region, rich in minerals including tantalum, gold, cobalt, copper and lithium. The bloc was established in the 1980s to foster co-operation in areas such as security and economic affairs among its member states. Rwanda says it will withdraw from the Economic Community of Central African States, underscoring diplomatic tensions in the region over an offensive by Rwanda-backed M23 rebels in eastern Congo. Kigali had expected to assume the chairmanship of the 11-member bloc at a meeting on Saturday in Equatorial Guinea. Instead, the bloc kept Equatorial Guinea in the role, which Rwanda's foreign ministry denounced as a violation of its rights. Rwanda, in a statement, condemned Congo's "instrumentalisation" of the bloc and saw "no justification for remaining in an organisation whose current functioning runs counter to its founding principles". It wasn't clear if Rwanda's exit from the bloc would take immediate effect. The office of Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi said in a statement that bloc members had "acknowledged the aggression against the Democratic Republic of Congo by Rwanda and ordered the aggressor country to withdraw its troops from Congolese soil". M23 seized eastern Congo's two largest cities earlier this year, with the advance leaving thousands dead and raising concerns of an all-out regional war. African leaders, along with Washington and Doha, have been trying to broker a peace deal. Congo, the United Nations and Western powers accuse Rwanda of supporting M23 by sending troops and weapons. Rwanda has long denied helping M23, saying its forces were acting in self-defence against Congo's army and ethnic Hutu militiamen linked to the 1994 Rwandan genocide that killed about one million people, mostly ethnic Tutsis. US President Donald Trump's administration hopes to strike a peace accord between Congo and Rwanda that would also facilitate billions in Western investment in the region, rich in minerals including tantalum, gold, cobalt, copper and lithium. The bloc was established in the 1980s to foster co-operation in areas such as security and economic affairs among its member states. Rwanda says it will withdraw from the Economic Community of Central African States, underscoring diplomatic tensions in the region over an offensive by Rwanda-backed M23 rebels in eastern Congo. Kigali had expected to assume the chairmanship of the 11-member bloc at a meeting on Saturday in Equatorial Guinea. Instead, the bloc kept Equatorial Guinea in the role, which Rwanda's foreign ministry denounced as a violation of its rights. Rwanda, in a statement, condemned Congo's "instrumentalisation" of the bloc and saw "no justification for remaining in an organisation whose current functioning runs counter to its founding principles". It wasn't clear if Rwanda's exit from the bloc would take immediate effect. The office of Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi said in a statement that bloc members had "acknowledged the aggression against the Democratic Republic of Congo by Rwanda and ordered the aggressor country to withdraw its troops from Congolese soil". M23 seized eastern Congo's two largest cities earlier this year, with the advance leaving thousands dead and raising concerns of an all-out regional war. African leaders, along with Washington and Doha, have been trying to broker a peace deal. Congo, the United Nations and Western powers accuse Rwanda of supporting M23 by sending troops and weapons. Rwanda has long denied helping M23, saying its forces were acting in self-defence against Congo's army and ethnic Hutu militiamen linked to the 1994 Rwandan genocide that killed about one million people, mostly ethnic Tutsis. US President Donald Trump's administration hopes to strike a peace accord between Congo and Rwanda that would also facilitate billions in Western investment in the region, rich in minerals including tantalum, gold, cobalt, copper and lithium. The bloc was established in the 1980s to foster co-operation in areas such as security and economic affairs among its member states. Rwanda says it will withdraw from the Economic Community of Central African States, underscoring diplomatic tensions in the region over an offensive by Rwanda-backed M23 rebels in eastern Congo. Kigali had expected to assume the chairmanship of the 11-member bloc at a meeting on Saturday in Equatorial Guinea. Instead, the bloc kept Equatorial Guinea in the role, which Rwanda's foreign ministry denounced as a violation of its rights. Rwanda, in a statement, condemned Congo's "instrumentalisation" of the bloc and saw "no justification for remaining in an organisation whose current functioning runs counter to its founding principles". It wasn't clear if Rwanda's exit from the bloc would take immediate effect. The office of Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi said in a statement that bloc members had "acknowledged the aggression against the Democratic Republic of Congo by Rwanda and ordered the aggressor country to withdraw its troops from Congolese soil". M23 seized eastern Congo's two largest cities earlier this year, with the advance leaving thousands dead and raising concerns of an all-out regional war. African leaders, along with Washington and Doha, have been trying to broker a peace deal. Congo, the United Nations and Western powers accuse Rwanda of supporting M23 by sending troops and weapons. Rwanda has long denied helping M23, saying its forces were acting in self-defence against Congo's army and ethnic Hutu militiamen linked to the 1994 Rwandan genocide that killed about one million people, mostly ethnic Tutsis. US President Donald Trump's administration hopes to strike a peace accord between Congo and Rwanda that would also facilitate billions in Western investment in the region, rich in minerals including tantalum, gold, cobalt, copper and lithium. The bloc was established in the 1980s to foster co-operation in areas such as security and economic affairs among its member states.
The Advertiser
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Russia says forces have reached east-central Ukraine
Russia says its forces have advanced to the edge of the east-central Ukrainian region of Dnipropetrovsk amid a public row between Moscow and Kyiv over peace negotiations and the return of thousands of bodies of soldiers who fell in the war. Amid talk of peace, the war is stepping up with Russian forces grabbing more territory in Ukraine and Kyiv unfurling high-profile drone and sabotage attacks on Russia's nuclear-capable bomber fleet and, according to Moscow, on railways. Russia, which controls a little under one-fifth of Ukrainian territory, has taken more than 190sq km of the Sumy region of eastern Ukraine in less than a month, according to pro-Ukrainian open source maps. Now, according to the Russian defence ministry, units of the 90th Tank Division of the Central Grouping of Russian forces have reached the western frontier of Ukraine's Donetsk region and are attacking the adjacent Dnipropetrovsk region. "The enemy does not abandon its intentions to enter the Dnipropetrovsk region," Ukraine's Southern Defence Forces said on Telegram. "Our soldiers are courageously and professionally holding their section of the front, disrupting the occupier's plans. "This work does not stop for a minute." The pro-Ukrainian Deep State map showed Russian forces very close to the Dnipropetrovsk region, which had a population of more than three million before the war, and advancing on the city of Kostyantynivka in the Donetsk region from several directions. A Ukrainian military spokesman, Dmytro Zaporozhets, said Russian forces were trying to "build a bridgehead for an attack" on Kostyantynivka, an important logistical hub for the Ukrainian army. Russia on Saturday accused Ukraine of delaying the swap of prisoners of war and returning the bodies of 12,000 dead soldiers, although Ukraine denied those claims. Russia said on Sunday it was moving bodies towards the border. US President Donald Trump on Thursday likened the war to a fight between young children and indicated he might have to let the conflict play out. Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday he did not think Ukraine's leaders wanted peace, after accusing them of ordering a bombing in Bryansk, western Russia, that killed seven people and injured 115 a day before talks in Turkey. Ukraine, which has not commented on the attack on a Bryansk bridge, has similarly accused Moscow of not seriously seeking peace, citing as evidence Russian resistance to an immediate ceasefire. Russia is demanding international recognition of Crimea, a peninsula annexed from Ukraine by Russia in 2014, and four other regions of Ukraine that Moscow has claimed as its own territory. Ukraine would have to withdraw its forces from all of them. Russia controlled 113,273sq km, or 18.8 per cent, of Ukrainian territory as of June 7, according to the Deep State map. That is an area bigger than the US state of Virginia. The areas under Russian control include Crimea, more than 99 per cent of the Luhansk region, more than 70 per cent of the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, all in the east or southeast, and fragments of the Kharkiv and Sumy regions in the northeast Putin told Trump on Wednesday he would have to respond to Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia's bomber fleet and the bombings of the railways. The US believes Putin's threatened retaliation against Ukraine over its attacks has not happened yet in earnest and is likely to be a significant, multi-pronged strike, US officials told Reuters. Russia says its forces have advanced to the edge of the east-central Ukrainian region of Dnipropetrovsk amid a public row between Moscow and Kyiv over peace negotiations and the return of thousands of bodies of soldiers who fell in the war. Amid talk of peace, the war is stepping up with Russian forces grabbing more territory in Ukraine and Kyiv unfurling high-profile drone and sabotage attacks on Russia's nuclear-capable bomber fleet and, according to Moscow, on railways. Russia, which controls a little under one-fifth of Ukrainian territory, has taken more than 190sq km of the Sumy region of eastern Ukraine in less than a month, according to pro-Ukrainian open source maps. Now, according to the Russian defence ministry, units of the 90th Tank Division of the Central Grouping of Russian forces have reached the western frontier of Ukraine's Donetsk region and are attacking the adjacent Dnipropetrovsk region. "The enemy does not abandon its intentions to enter the Dnipropetrovsk region," Ukraine's Southern Defence Forces said on Telegram. "Our soldiers are courageously and professionally holding their section of the front, disrupting the occupier's plans. "This work does not stop for a minute." The pro-Ukrainian Deep State map showed Russian forces very close to the Dnipropetrovsk region, which had a population of more than three million before the war, and advancing on the city of Kostyantynivka in the Donetsk region from several directions. A Ukrainian military spokesman, Dmytro Zaporozhets, said Russian forces were trying to "build a bridgehead for an attack" on Kostyantynivka, an important logistical hub for the Ukrainian army. Russia on Saturday accused Ukraine of delaying the swap of prisoners of war and returning the bodies of 12,000 dead soldiers, although Ukraine denied those claims. Russia said on Sunday it was moving bodies towards the border. US President Donald Trump on Thursday likened the war to a fight between young children and indicated he might have to let the conflict play out. Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday he did not think Ukraine's leaders wanted peace, after accusing them of ordering a bombing in Bryansk, western Russia, that killed seven people and injured 115 a day before talks in Turkey. Ukraine, which has not commented on the attack on a Bryansk bridge, has similarly accused Moscow of not seriously seeking peace, citing as evidence Russian resistance to an immediate ceasefire. Russia is demanding international recognition of Crimea, a peninsula annexed from Ukraine by Russia in 2014, and four other regions of Ukraine that Moscow has claimed as its own territory. Ukraine would have to withdraw its forces from all of them. Russia controlled 113,273sq km, or 18.8 per cent, of Ukrainian territory as of June 7, according to the Deep State map. That is an area bigger than the US state of Virginia. The areas under Russian control include Crimea, more than 99 per cent of the Luhansk region, more than 70 per cent of the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, all in the east or southeast, and fragments of the Kharkiv and Sumy regions in the northeast Putin told Trump on Wednesday he would have to respond to Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia's bomber fleet and the bombings of the railways. The US believes Putin's threatened retaliation against Ukraine over its attacks has not happened yet in earnest and is likely to be a significant, multi-pronged strike, US officials told Reuters. Russia says its forces have advanced to the edge of the east-central Ukrainian region of Dnipropetrovsk amid a public row between Moscow and Kyiv over peace negotiations and the return of thousands of bodies of soldiers who fell in the war. Amid talk of peace, the war is stepping up with Russian forces grabbing more territory in Ukraine and Kyiv unfurling high-profile drone and sabotage attacks on Russia's nuclear-capable bomber fleet and, according to Moscow, on railways. Russia, which controls a little under one-fifth of Ukrainian territory, has taken more than 190sq km of the Sumy region of eastern Ukraine in less than a month, according to pro-Ukrainian open source maps. Now, according to the Russian defence ministry, units of the 90th Tank Division of the Central Grouping of Russian forces have reached the western frontier of Ukraine's Donetsk region and are attacking the adjacent Dnipropetrovsk region. "The enemy does not abandon its intentions to enter the Dnipropetrovsk region," Ukraine's Southern Defence Forces said on Telegram. "Our soldiers are courageously and professionally holding their section of the front, disrupting the occupier's plans. "This work does not stop for a minute." The pro-Ukrainian Deep State map showed Russian forces very close to the Dnipropetrovsk region, which had a population of more than three million before the war, and advancing on the city of Kostyantynivka in the Donetsk region from several directions. A Ukrainian military spokesman, Dmytro Zaporozhets, said Russian forces were trying to "build a bridgehead for an attack" on Kostyantynivka, an important logistical hub for the Ukrainian army. Russia on Saturday accused Ukraine of delaying the swap of prisoners of war and returning the bodies of 12,000 dead soldiers, although Ukraine denied those claims. Russia said on Sunday it was moving bodies towards the border. US President Donald Trump on Thursday likened the war to a fight between young children and indicated he might have to let the conflict play out. Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday he did not think Ukraine's leaders wanted peace, after accusing them of ordering a bombing in Bryansk, western Russia, that killed seven people and injured 115 a day before talks in Turkey. Ukraine, which has not commented on the attack on a Bryansk bridge, has similarly accused Moscow of not seriously seeking peace, citing as evidence Russian resistance to an immediate ceasefire. Russia is demanding international recognition of Crimea, a peninsula annexed from Ukraine by Russia in 2014, and four other regions of Ukraine that Moscow has claimed as its own territory. Ukraine would have to withdraw its forces from all of them. Russia controlled 113,273sq km, or 18.8 per cent, of Ukrainian territory as of June 7, according to the Deep State map. That is an area bigger than the US state of Virginia. The areas under Russian control include Crimea, more than 99 per cent of the Luhansk region, more than 70 per cent of the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, all in the east or southeast, and fragments of the Kharkiv and Sumy regions in the northeast Putin told Trump on Wednesday he would have to respond to Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia's bomber fleet and the bombings of the railways. The US believes Putin's threatened retaliation against Ukraine over its attacks has not happened yet in earnest and is likely to be a significant, multi-pronged strike, US officials told Reuters. Russia says its forces have advanced to the edge of the east-central Ukrainian region of Dnipropetrovsk amid a public row between Moscow and Kyiv over peace negotiations and the return of thousands of bodies of soldiers who fell in the war. Amid talk of peace, the war is stepping up with Russian forces grabbing more territory in Ukraine and Kyiv unfurling high-profile drone and sabotage attacks on Russia's nuclear-capable bomber fleet and, according to Moscow, on railways. Russia, which controls a little under one-fifth of Ukrainian territory, has taken more than 190sq km of the Sumy region of eastern Ukraine in less than a month, according to pro-Ukrainian open source maps. Now, according to the Russian defence ministry, units of the 90th Tank Division of the Central Grouping of Russian forces have reached the western frontier of Ukraine's Donetsk region and are attacking the adjacent Dnipropetrovsk region. "The enemy does not abandon its intentions to enter the Dnipropetrovsk region," Ukraine's Southern Defence Forces said on Telegram. "Our soldiers are courageously and professionally holding their section of the front, disrupting the occupier's plans. "This work does not stop for a minute." The pro-Ukrainian Deep State map showed Russian forces very close to the Dnipropetrovsk region, which had a population of more than three million before the war, and advancing on the city of Kostyantynivka in the Donetsk region from several directions. A Ukrainian military spokesman, Dmytro Zaporozhets, said Russian forces were trying to "build a bridgehead for an attack" on Kostyantynivka, an important logistical hub for the Ukrainian army. Russia on Saturday accused Ukraine of delaying the swap of prisoners of war and returning the bodies of 12,000 dead soldiers, although Ukraine denied those claims. Russia said on Sunday it was moving bodies towards the border. US President Donald Trump on Thursday likened the war to a fight between young children and indicated he might have to let the conflict play out. Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday he did not think Ukraine's leaders wanted peace, after accusing them of ordering a bombing in Bryansk, western Russia, that killed seven people and injured 115 a day before talks in Turkey. Ukraine, which has not commented on the attack on a Bryansk bridge, has similarly accused Moscow of not seriously seeking peace, citing as evidence Russian resistance to an immediate ceasefire. Russia is demanding international recognition of Crimea, a peninsula annexed from Ukraine by Russia in 2014, and four other regions of Ukraine that Moscow has claimed as its own territory. Ukraine would have to withdraw its forces from all of them. Russia controlled 113,273sq km, or 18.8 per cent, of Ukrainian territory as of June 7, according to the Deep State map. That is an area bigger than the US state of Virginia. The areas under Russian control include Crimea, more than 99 per cent of the Luhansk region, more than 70 per cent of the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, all in the east or southeast, and fragments of the Kharkiv and Sumy regions in the northeast Putin told Trump on Wednesday he would have to respond to Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia's bomber fleet and the bombings of the railways. The US believes Putin's threatened retaliation against Ukraine over its attacks has not happened yet in earnest and is likely to be a significant, multi-pronged strike, US officials told Reuters.
ABC News
3 hours ago
- ABC News
Pope Leo XIV criticises nationalist politics at Sunday mass
Pope Leo criticised the emergence of nationalist political movements around the globe on Sunday, calling them unfortunate, without naming a specific country or national leader. Leo, the first pope to come from the United States, asked during a mass with a crowd of tens of thousands in St Peter's Square for God to "open borders, break down walls [and] dispel hatred". He was celebrating a mass for Pentecost, one of the church's most important holidays. Leo, the former Cardinal Robert Prevost, was elected on May 8 to succeed the late Pope Francis as leader of the 1.4-billion-member Catholic Church. Before becoming pope, Prevost was not shy about criticising US President Donald Trump, sharing numerous disapproving posts about Mr Trump and Vice-President JD Vance, a Catholic, on X in recent years. The Vatican has not confirmed the new pope's ownership of the X account in question, which had the handle @drprevost and was deactivated after Leo's election. Francis, who served as pope for 12 years, was also a sharp critic of Mr Trump. The late pope said in January that the president's plan to deport millions of migrants in the US during his second term was a "disgrace", and had previously said Mr Trump was "not Christian" because of his views on immigration. "A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian," Francis said when asked about Mr Trump in 2016. Mr Vance last month extended an invitation to the new pope to visit the US, and the pope was heard to say a visit will happen "at some point". Reuters
