White South Africans arrive in US after Trump administration granted them refugee status
Dozens of white South Africans have arrived in the US after the Trump administration granted them refugee status in the country, having deemed them victims of racial discrimination.
The first 59 Afrikaners were greeted by Christopher Landau, the US deputy secretary of state, at Washington’s Dulles International Airport on Monday.
President Donald Trump invited Afrikaners, the descendants of mainly Dutch settlers, to move to the US in February to escape the alleged discrimination they face at the hands of the black majority in South Africa.
Mr Trump echoed his white South African-born ally Elon Musk, who used to be his US national security adviser, on Monday as he told reporters at the White House that there was “genocide that’s taking place”, with Afrikaners being killed.
US President Donald Trump. Pic: AP/Mark Schiefelbein
Afrikaners arrive at Dulles International Airport. Pic: AP/Julia Demaree Nikhinson
Neither Mr Trump nor Mr Musk provided any evidence for this claim.
Mr Trump also denied favouring Afrikaners because they are white, saying that their race “makes no difference to me”.
South Africa said there is no evidence of persecution of Afrikaners or a “white genocide”, as Mr Musk called it, taking place in the country.
Mr Landau said many of the South Africans who arrived in the US were farming families who could have the land they worked for generations expropriated. He also repeated Mr Trump’s claims that they were facing threats of violence.
Fifty-nine white South Africans arrived in the US on Monday. Pic: AP/Julia Demaree Nikhinson
Deputy secretary of state Christopher Landau greets the Afrikaners. Pic: AP/Julia Demaree Nikhinson
Mr Trump’s order to resettle Afrikaners came after South Africa introduced a land law that enables the state to expropriate land in the public interest.
The policy caused concern among some white South Africans, despite no land being seized.
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The US president cut all financial assistance to the country due to his disapproval of the land policy and South Africa’s genocide case at the International Court of Justice against Israel, one of Washington’s allies.
‘We never expected this land expropriation thing to go so far,” said one of the arrivals, Charl Kleinhaus, 46, who came to the US with his daughter, son and grandson and is set to resettle in Buffalo, New York.
South African president Cyril Ramaphosa. File pic: AP/Jerome Delay, File
Mr Kleinhaus said that his life was threatened and that people tried to claim his property as their own, but his account could not be independently verified.
The US would welcome more Afrikaners in the coming months, according to a spokesperson for the State Department.
“We think that the American government has got the wrong end of the stick here, but we’ll continue talking to them,” Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa’s president, said at a conference in Ivory Coast.
Mr Ramaphosa said that the white Afrikaners who arrived in the US had left South Africa because they were against the policies aimed at addressing racial inequality, which has persisted in the country since the apartheid rule of the white minority ended three decades ago.
Children are among the fatalities in a mass shooting at a child’s birthday party in California.
Police said four people had died and 10 were wounded in the incident in Stockton, about 60 miles east of San Francisco.
Officers were called on Saturday to a banquet hall just before 6pm local time (2am UK time) and district attorney Ron Freitas said children were among the dead.
He said the attacker was still at large.
First responders walk through a parking lot near the scene of a mass shooting in Stockton, California. Pics: AP
“We can confirm at this time that approximately 14 individuals were struck by gunfire, and four victims have been confirmed deceased,” San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office said on X.
The post said early indications suggest it could be a “targeted incident” but that information remains limited.
Police have so far not disclosed the attacker’s identity and the motive is unclear.
Stockton’s vice mayor Jason Lee confirmed on Facebook that the shooting on Lucile Avenue happened at a child’s birthday party.
Pics: AP
Mayor Christina Fugazzi also said that “families should be together instead of at the hospital, standing next to their loved one, praying that they survive”.
California governor Gavin Newsom’s office added that he had been briefed on the “horrific shooting”.
Venezuela has accused Donald Trump of a “colonial threat” after he said the airspace “above and surrounding” the country should be considered closed “in its entirety”.
Mr Trump made the declaration amid growing tensions with President Maduro – and as the US continues attacking boats it claims are carrying drugs from Venezuela.
He wrote on Truth Social: “To all Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers, please consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY.”
Air traffic above Venezuela on Saturday afternoon. Pic: FlightRadar24
Venezuela’s foreign affairs office called it a “colonial threat” and “illegal, and unjustified aggression”.
It accused the president of threatening “the sovereignty of the national airspace… and the full sovereignty of the Venezuelan state”.
President Trump’s words were part of a “permanent policy of aggression against our country” that breached international law and the UN Charter, it added.
The Pentagon and the White House have so far not given any additional detail on the president’s statement.
Mr Trump’s post comes after the American aviation regulator last week warned of a “potentially hazardous situation” over Venezuela due to a “worsening security situation”.
Nicolas Maduro is widely considered a dictator by the West. Pic: Reuters
The South American nation revoked operating rights for six major airlines that went on to suspend flights to the country.
Mr Trump warned a few days ago that land operations against suspected Venezuelan drug traffickers would begin “very soon”.
Such a move would be a major escalation in Operation Southern Spear – the US naval deployment in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific that’s so far attacked at least 21 vessels.
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Three killed as US strikes another alleged drug boat
Venezuela has said the attacks, which have killed more than 80 people, amount to murder.
The US has released videos of boats being targeted, but hasn’t provided evidence – such as photos of their cargo – to support the smuggling claims.
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The Pentagon has sought to justify the strikes by labelling the drug gangs as “foreign terrorist organisations” – putting them on par with the likes of al Qaeda.
It claims the boats targeted are carrying drugs bound for the US, although Sky’s chief correspondent says the final destination is likely to be Europe and West Africa.
President Maduro has denied Mr Trump’s claims he is involved in the drugs trade himself and said his counterpart wants to oust him so he can install a more sympathetic government.
Venezuelan officials have also claimed Mr Trump’s true motivation is access to the country’s plentiful oil reserves.
Mr Maduro is widely considered a dictator who’s cheated elections and has been president since 2013.
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