Trial of Tunisian opposition figures resumes, 6 on hunger strike


By AFP
April 11, 2025


Tunisia's National Salvation Front opposition coalition Ahmed Nejib Chebbi has called the accusations against the defendants 'wild fabrications' - Copyright AFP/File Arun SANKAR

The trial of dozens of Tunisian opposition figures resumed on Tuesday under tight security, with six detained defendants on hunger strike after they were barred from attending court in person.

Foreign diplomats were in court to monitor the trial of around 40 high-profile accused. They include activists, politicians, lawyers and media figures, some of whom have been vocal critics of President Kais Saied.

Saied, elected after Tunisia emerged as the only democracy from the Arab Spring, staged a sweeping power grab in 2021. Rights groups have since raised concerns over a rollback on freedoms.

The accused face charges including “plotting against the state security” and “belonging to a terrorist group”, according to lawyers, which could entail hefty sentences and even capital punishment.

Tunisia’s judiciary had ruled when the trial opened on March 4 that the defendants would only be allowed to attend Friday’s hearing remotely.

Six of them, including jurist Jawhar Ben Mbarek and a former leader of the Islamist party Ennahdha, Abdelhamid Jelassi, have gone on hunger strike to demand permission to attend the hearing in person, their defence team said.

“The defence asks that the hearing be suspended and the accused be brought before their lawyers,” said one of their legal counsel, Abelaziz Essid. “We cannot make our arguments under these conditions and we refuse to be false witnesses.”

According to an AFP journalist, security was tight at the entrance to the courtroom in the Tunisian capital.



– NGOs denied access –



Representatives of France, Canada, Germany the Netherlands and European Union attended the hearing.

Local NGOs were, however, not given access and only one relative of each accused was allowed entry.

Ahmed Nejib Chebbi, who heads the main opposition coalition the National Salvation Front and is also named in the case, called the accusations “wild fabrications”.

The defence lawyers say that Chebbi, along with several other defendants, is accused of holding contacts deemed suspicious with foreign diplomats.

Several of the defendants were arrested in February 2023, after which Saied labelled them “terrorists”.

Others, like Chebbi, have remained free pending trial, while some have fled abroad, according to the defence committee.

Human Rights Watch has dubbed the trial a “mockery” based on “abusive charges”.

In February, the leader of the Ennahdha party, Rached Ghannouchi, 83, was sentenced to an additional 22 years in prison for plotting against state security.

Ennahdha has been Tunisia’s main opposition party and the main rival to Saied.

The United Nations urged Tunisian authorities last month to bring “an end to the pattern of arrests, arbitrary detentions and imprisonment of dozens of human rights defenders, lawyers, journalists, activists and politicians”.

Tunisia’s foreign ministry at the time dismissed the UN statement with “astonishment” and denounced its “inaccuracies”.

“Tunisia can give lessons to those who think they are in a position to make statements,” it said.

‘Hard on the body’: Canadian troops train for Arctic defense


By AFP
April 11, 2025


A Canadian sailor peers over a ridge during Operation Nanook, the Canadian Armed Forces' annual Arctic training exercise, in Inuvik, Canada in February

 - Copyright AFP Cole BURSTON

Daphné LEMELIN

In normal conditions, Canadian Air Force helicopter pilot Jonathan Vokey uses the treeline to gauge his altitude. But in the Arctic, where the landing zone is an expanse of white snow, he has to adjust.

“Operating in the cold, it’s hard on the body, but it also can be challenging with the aircraft as well,” Vokey, an Air Force captain, told AFP during an exercise aimed at preparing Canadian troops to operate in the country’s extreme north, a region fast becoming a military priority.

Canada is making a significant push to boost its military strength in the Arctic, which accounts for 40 percent of its territory.

Arctic ice is melting as a result of climate change, opening up the region and increasing the risk of confrontation with rivals like Russia over the area’s natural resources, including minerals, oil and gas, as well as fresh water.

“If I was to boil it down: you can access the north now more easily than you have ever been able to. And I would say that that’s going to change even more drastically over the next 10, 20 years,” said Colonel Darren Turner, joint task force commander of Operation Nanook, the annual Artic training exercise established in 2007.

“Once a route is opened, they will come. And that is something that we need to have an interest in. That is something that we need to have the capabilities to interdict, to stop,” he told AFP.

That requires training more troops to operate in the region’s extreme conditions and deploy to three Arctic military hubs that the government plans to build.

Operation Nanook — the word for “polar bear” in an Inuit language — is central to that effort.

In a long tent pitched on a vast sheet of ice and snow, troops practiced diving into frigid water.

In another location, teams worked on detecting hostile activity with infrared imaging, a particular challenge in the Arctic where the cold can obscure thermal signatures.



– ‘A little different’ –



Dive team leader Jonathan Jacques Savoie said managing the brutal weather is key.

“The main challenge on Op. Nanook in this location is the environment. The environment always dictates how we live, fight and move in the field,” he said, noting the day’s temperature of -26 degrees Celsius (-14.8 Fahrenheit).

This year’s operation marked the first Arctic deployment for Corporal Cassidy Lambert, an infantry reservist.

She’s from the eastern province of Newfoundland and Labrador, where maritime Atlantic weather creates wet, damp winters.

The Arctic, she conceded, is “going to be a little different.”

“I don’t handle the cold too well, but I think I’ve prepped myself well enough,” she said.

Steven Breau, a rifleman with New Brunswick’s North Shore regiment, said troops are trained on a range of region-specific safety measures, like avoiding frostbite.

Sweat can also become a problem.

“It’s really important to stay dry, to take body heat into account. If you get too hot, you sweat. It gets wet, then it gets cold, then it freezes.”



– ‘Direct confrontation’ –



The surrounding frozen tundra does not immediately look like the next frontline in a looming global conflict.

But leaders in multiple countries have put a spotlight on the Arctic.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to annex Greenland, insisting the United States needs the autonomous Danish territory for its security.

And days after taking over as Canada’s Prime Minister last month, Mark Carney visited Iqaluit, in another part of the Canadian Arctic, to announce a multi-billion-dollar radar deal he said would be crucial to securing the nation’s sovereignty.

Briefing troops arriving for Operation Nanook, Major Andrew Melvin said a direct confrontation with Chinese or Russian forces was “highly unlikely” during the exercise.

But, he added, “it is possible that either the PRC (People’s Republic of China) or the RF (Russian Federation) intelligence services will seek to collect intelligence during the conduct of Op Nanook.”

For Colonel Turner, protecting the Arctic from hostile actors means safeguarding a region that is inseparable from Canadian identity.

“It’s a part of our raison d’etre… from a sovereignty perspective.”

Trump carves up world and international order with it


By AFP
April 12, 2025


Analysts say talks to end the war in Ukraine 'could resemble a new Yalta' - Copyright POOL/AFP Gavriil Grigorov

Fabien Zamora

By casting doubt on the world order, Donald Trump risks dragging the globe back into an era where great powers impose their imperial will on the weak, analysts warn.

Russia wants Ukraine, China demands Taiwan and now the US president seems to be following suit, whether by coveting Canada as the “51st US state,” insisting “we’ve got to have” Greenland or kicking Chinese interests out of the Panama Canal.

Where the United States once defended state sovereignty and international law, Trump’s disregard for his neighbours’ borders and expansionist ambitions mark a return to the days when the world was carved up into spheres of influence.

As recently as Wednesday, US defence secretary Pete Hegseth floated the idea of an American military base to secure the Panama Canal, a strategic waterway controlled by the United States until 1999 which Trump’s administration has vowed to “take back.”

Hegseth’s comments came nearly 35 years after the United States invaded to topple Panama’s dictator Manuel Noriega, harking back to when successive US administrations viewed Latin America as “America’s backyard.”

“The Trump 2.0 administration is largely accepting the familiar great power claim to ‘spheres of influence’,” Professor Gregory O. Hall, of the University of Kentucky, told AFP.

Indian diplomat Jawed Ashraf warned that by “speaking openly about Greenland, Canada, Panama Canal”, “the new administration may have accelerated the slide” towards a return to great power domination.

– The empire strikes back –

Since the end of the Cold War, the United States has posed as the custodian of an international order “based on the ideas of countries’ equal sovereignty and territorial integrity,” said American researcher Jeffrey Mankoff, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

But those principles run counter to how Russia and China see their own interests, according to the author of “Empires of Eurasia: how imperial legacies shape international security.”

Both countries are “themselves products of empires and continue to function in many ways like empires”, seeking to throw their weight around for reasons of prestige, power or protection, Mankoff said.

That is not to say that spheres of influence disappeared with the fall of the Soviet Union.

“Even then, the US and Western allies sought to expand their sphere of influence eastward into what was the erstwhile Soviet and then the Russian sphere of influence,” Ashraf, a former adviser to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, pointed out.

But until the return of Trump, the United States exploited its position as the “policeman of the world” to ward off imperial ambitions while pushing its own interests.

Now that Trump appears to view the cost of upholding a rules-based order challenged by its rivals and increasingly criticised in the rest of the world as too expensive, the United States is contributing to the cracks in the facade with Russia and China’s help.

And as the international order weakens, the great powers “see opportunities to once again behave in an imperial way,” said Mankoff.

– Yalta yet again –

As at Yalta in 1945, when the United States and the Soviet Union divided the post-World War II world between their respective zones of influence, Washington, Beijing and Moscow could again agree to carve up the globe anew.

“Improved ties between the United States and its great-power rivals, Russia and China, appear to be imminent,” Derek Grossman, of the United States’ RAND Corporation think tank, said in March.

But the haggling over who gets dominance over what and where would likely come at the expense of other countries.

“Today’s major powers are seeking to negotiate a new global order primarily with each other,” Monica Toft, professor of international relations at Tufts University in Massachusets wrote in the journal Foreign Affairs.

“In a scenario in which the United States, China, and Russia all agree that they have a vital interest in avoiding a nuclear war, acknowledging each other’s spheres of influence can serve as a mechanism to deter escalation,” Toft said.

If that were the case, “negotiations to end the war in Ukraine could resemble a new Yalta,” she added.

Yet the thought of a Ukraine deemed by Trump to be in Russia’s sphere is likely to send shivers down the spines of many in Europe — not least in Ukraine itself.

“The success or failure of Ukraine to defend its sovereignty is going to have a lot of impact in terms of what the global system ends up looking like a generation from now,” Mankoff said.

“So it’s important for countries that have the ability and want to uphold an anti-imperial version of international order to assist Ukraine,” he added — pointing the finger at Europe.

“In Trump’s world, Europeans need their own sphere of influence,” said Rym Momtaz, a researcher at the Carnegie Endowment for Peace.

“For former imperial powers, Europeans seem strangely on the backfoot as nineteenth century spheres of influence come back as the organising principle of global affairs.”

MACEDONIA

Ex-ministers charged as probe into deadly club fire broadens


By AFP
April 12, 2025


19 people died in the blaze and nearly 200 other people were injured - Copyright AFP -

North Macedonia authorities said Saturday they had widened an investigation into a nightclub fire that killed 61 people, to include former ministers and officials.

The interior ministry said in a statement that, in coordination with the prosecutors, criminal charges had been filed against 19 people for “serious crimes against public security”.

They were under investigation over the March 16 fire that broke out during a hip-hop concert at the club in the eastern town of Kocani. One of Europe’s deadliest fires, the blaze also injured nearly 200 other people.

The 19 new suspects, according to the prosecutors, include notably former economy ministers, as the ministry officials and officials of the protection and rescue directorate.

They were all in office from 2012, when the club opened, until the blaze broke out in March.

They “did not act at all in line with the regulations on protection measures and thereby endangered lives of people and property on a large scale”, a public prosecutor’s office statement said.

Stage fireworks set off inside during the concert, which triggered a stampede for the exit, are thought to have caused the fire.

Local media reported that among of those arrested is the current minister without portfolio and the former head of the protection and rescue directorate.

A warrant had also been issued for the former economy minister, who is currently serving as an ambassador.

These latest developments brings the number of people under investigation to 52 and three companies.

Police arrested 33 people in the initial stages of the investigation, including seven police officers, a former economy minister and ministry officials as well as three former mayors of the town.

Myanmar marks new year festival mourning quake losses


By AFP
April 12, 2025


The Myanmar city of Mandalay is still devastated from last month's 7.7-magnitude quake - Copyright AFP Sai Aung MAIN

Lynn MYAT

Thousands marked the start of Myanmar’s water festival on Sunday in the ruins of last month’s earthquake, with the country’s most raucous holiday muted by the tragedy of the tremor.

The “Thingyan” festival typically celebrates Myanmar’s new year with water-splashing rituals symbolising cleansing and renewal, but the central cities of Mandalay and Sagaing lie devastated from the 7.7-magnitude quake.

Two weeks on from the disaster which killed more than 3,600, hundreds are still living in tent encampments peppered among pancaked apartment blocks, razed tea shops and demolished hotels.

Many still lack working latrines and need to queue for drinking water, and the weather forecast for heavy rains has them fretting over their makeshift homes.

Early on Sunday families were buying clay pots and plant sprigs customarily placed inside homes to welcome the new year — even though some had nowhere to put them.

“Everyone is in trouble this year,” said 55-year-old Ma Phyu, camping with nine family members north of Mandalay’s quake-damaged Royal Palace.

“I have to prepare the pot with the flowers because it is our tradition. But my heart is heavy.”

The children in her family had been ordered not to splash water in the street for fear their neighbours would criticise them for celebrating as the city mourns.

Myanmar’s ruling military junta has commanded the five-day festival to have no music or dance.

Since the March 28 quake Mandalay temperatures have soared up to a parching 44 degrees Celsius (111 Fahrenheit) while at night tent-dwellers are needled by mosquitos before rising at dawn to line up for aid.

More than 5,200 buildings have been destroyed according to official figures, while more than two million people are in need as a result of the earthquake, the UN says.

It has issued an emergency plea for $275 million, following US President Donald Trump’s evisceration of Washington’s aid budget which has already hobbled some UN operations in Myanmar.

The World Food Programme says it is being forced to cut off one million people from vital aid this month because donations have dried up.

Myanmar has been riven by a civil war following a 2021 coup which spurred mass poverty and displacement even before the quake.

The tremors were felt as far away as Bangkok, where a high-rise under construction collapsed and trapped dozens of workers.

Despite an announced ceasefire, monitors say Myanmar’s military has continued air strikes, while the junta has accused anti-coup guerillas and ethnic armed groups of maintaining their offensives.

“At a moment when the sole focus should be on ensuring humanitarian aid gets to disaster zones, the military is instead launching attacks,” said UN Human Rights Office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani in a statement this week.

Indonesia palm oil firms eye new markets as US trade war casts shadow


By AFP
April 12, 2025


Indonesia accounts for more than half the global supply of the edible oil, used in making foods such as cakes, chocolate, and margarine as well as cosmetics, soap and shampoo - Copyright AFP WAHYUDI

Marchio GORBIANO

Indonesian palm oil companies are seeking new markets in Europe, Africa and the Middle East as they try to protect themselves from the impact of Donald Trump’s trade war, a top industry executive told AFP.

Indonesia is the world’s biggest producer of the edible oil — used in making foods such as cakes, chocolate, and margarine as well as cosmetics, soap and shampoo — and accounts for more than half the global supply.

But the 32 percent tariffs imposed on the country make it one of Asia’s hardest hit by the US president’s sweeping measures that have sent shockwaves around the world.

Palm oil is one of Indonesia’s biggest exports to the United States, and while Trump has announced a 90-day pause on implementing the levies, producers say the uncertainty is forcing them to look elsewhere to earn their keep.

“It actually gives time for us to negotiate… so products can still enter there. I think this is very good,” said Eddy Martono, chairman of the Indonesian Palm Oil Association (GAPKI) on Thursday.

However, he warned that market diversification “must still be done” to avoid the impact of the tariffs if they come into force later in the year, adding that firms would look to Africa — specifically top importer Egypt — the Middle East, Central Asia and Eastern Europe.

“We should not just depend on traditional markets. We will continue to do it. We have to do that,” he said.

Exports of palm oil products to the United States have steadily grown in recent years, with Indonesia shipping 2.5 million tons in 2023, compared with 1.5 million tons in 2020, according to GAPKI data.

Eddy called on Jakarta to keep its dominance in that market through talks, particularly as rival palm oil producer Malaysia was hit with lower tariffs.

“Indonesian palm oil market share in the United States is 89 percent, very high. This is what we must maintain,” he said.

According to Indonesian government data, the United States was the fourth-largest importer of palm oil in 2023, behind China, India and Pakistan.



– Smallholder pain –



But Eddy remained confident the US would still need Indonesian palm oil if no deal was sealed when the 90 days are up.

“It is still a necessity for the food industry. I believe our exports to the US will slightly decline or at least stagnate,” he said.

“Those who are harmed first are consumers in America because their main food industry products need palm oil.”

Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani said at an economic meeting Tuesday that she would lower a crude palm oil export tax, alleviating some of the pain.

While Eddy welcomed the move, saying it would make Indonesia’s palm oil exports more competitive, for the country’s 2.5 million palm oil smallholder farmers, the threatened tariffs were worrying.

Mansuetus Darto, the national council chairman of the Palm Oil Farmers Union (SPKS) said the measures would have had a far-reaching impact if a deal wasn’t struck.

“The raw material of the palm oil will pile up and then farmers cannot harvest anymore because of overcapacity in existing plants,” he said before the pause was announced.

President Prabowo Subianto opted for a path of negotiation with Washington instead of retaliation and will send a high-level delegation later this month.

While Trump took aim at Indonesia’s billion-dollar trade surplus with the United States, Prabowo said his threatened levies may have done Indonesia a favour by “forcing” it to be more efficient.

Chief economic minister Airlangga Hartarto also said Jakarta would buy more products such as liquefied natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas to close the gap with the world’s biggest economy.

That has given hope to the industry that a deal with Trump can be done, otherwise they will be forced to turn elsewhere.

“There is still time,” said Mansuetus after the pause was announced.

“The government should prepare to negotiate as best as possible with the US government.”

Bernie Sanders fights apathy on American left


By AFP
April 13, 2025


US Senator Bernie Sanders is emerging as one of the most vocal opponents to US President Donald Trump - Copyright AFP Robyn Beck

Bernie Sanders is emerging as one of the most vocal opponents to US President Donald Trump, with the 83-year-old senator drawing tens of thousands of people to his “fighting oligarchy” rallies around the country.

Supporters packed the Gloria Molina Grand Park in Los Angeles on Saturday as guests including politicians, union representatives and musical acts took to the stage before speeches by Sanders and Democrat representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

“There are some 36,000 of you, the largest rally that we have ever had,” Sanders told the cheering crowd.

“Your presence here today is making Donald Trump and Elon Musk very nervous.”

The self-described socialist, an independent who has never been a member of the Democratic Party, has been attracting crowds over the past two months on his nationwide “fighting oligarchy” tour.

His progressive, leftist rhetoric has resonated with people opposed to Trump’s policies and with those disappointed in established Democrats’ lack of political resistance to Trump.

Folk rock legend Neil Young led the LA crowd on Saturday in chanting “Take America Back!” while he played the electric guitar.

Feminist singer-songwriter Maggie Rogers dubbed the event “Berniechella,” a nod to the massive Coachella music festival taking place in the Californian desert.

Alex Powell, a 28-year-old art teacher in the audience, said Americans “need hope.”

“I’m really disappointed by the Democrats’ response, I want more action on their part, more outrage,” she told AFP.

– ‘Traumatized’ –

“Donald Trump’s new term is distressing, it’s really scary,” Powell said, describing how some of her middle school pupils were “traumatized” after one of their parents was deported from the United States under Trump’s anti-immigrant campaign.

Sanders addressed a litany of grievances, including Trump’s massive cuts to government funding and threats to healthcare and research.

Mentions of Elon Musk, the owner of Tesla and X, drew boos from the crowd.

The South African billionaire has been tasked by Trump with dramatically reducing government spending, and is for many Sanders supporters a symbol of the corrupting influence of wealth in politics.

Sanders was “right the whole time,” 27-year-old Vera Loh told AFP.

“The collusion of money and politics has had terrible effects.”

Loh, a housekeeper, said she was stunned by the apathy of many Democrat leaders since Trump’s defeat of presidential candidate Kamala Harris in November.

“The party put too much focus on minorities,” Loh said.

“If people don’t see it as a class war, then we just get lost with the identity politics.”

She told AFP she wanted politicians to remember “we want higher pay, we want housing, we want to be able to afford things.”

– ‘Authoritarian society’ –

“We are living in a moment where a handful of billionaires control the economic and political life of our country,” Sanders said on Saturday.

Trump is moving the United States “rapidly toward an authoritarian form of society,” he said.

The senator from Vermont hopes to encourage new independents to run for office without the Democrat label, at a time when the party is at an all-time low in the polls.

Sanders has no ambitions to run for president in 2028, but has taken rising progressive Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez under his wing.

“No matter your race, religion, gender, identity or status, no matter if you disagree with me on some things… I hope you see that this movement is not about partisan labels or purity tests, but it’s about class solidarity,” the 35-year-old congresswoman told the crowd on Saturday.

“She would make a good presidential candidate,” Lesley Henderson, a former Republican supporter, told AFP.

Depressed by the news since January, the 52-year-old nursing assistant was attending the first political rally of her life with her husband.

“I just hope it’s not too late,” she said, alarmed by Trump’s talk about ruling an unconstitutional third term.

“If no one’s standing up and saying anything now, what makes us think that there might even be midterms, or a next presidential election?”

Trump spotlight divides S.Africa’s Afrikaners


By AFP
April 14, 2025


Some white South Africans say President Donald Trump's intervention is a welcome acknowledgement of their fears - Copyright AFP/File SAUL LOEB
Julie BOURDIN

Country music and the aroma of pancakes enveloped the “Boeremark”, or farmer’s market, outside South Africa’s capital Pretoria where thousands of Afrikaners browsed on a Saturday morning.

Signs written in Afrikaans advertised traditional foods: braided “koeksister” doughnuts, cinnamon-sprinkled “melkkos” porridge, strips of “biltong” cured meat.

There were stands of books in Afrikaans, a language linked to Dutch, and racks of khaki clothes associated with Afrikaner farmers known as “boere”.

The peaceful scene was a far cry from claims of fear and persecution that have reached Washington, leading President Donald Trump to offer refugee status to the white Afrikaner minority in February and thousands to apply.

But, despite the mellow mood, many at the market told AFP they did feel threatened in post-apartheid South Africa.

As “a white person and a boer”, she was a victim of “reverse racism”, said jewellery vendor Cesere Smith, 54. “There is trouble coming,” she told AFP vaguely, welcoming Trump’s intervention.

“Every person should be proud of who they are, but here we must feel guilty — and that’s not right,” Smith told AFP.

White Afrikaners are predominantly descendants of Dutch settlers who arrived at the tip of Africa more than three centuries ago. Today they make up most of South Africa’s 7.3 percent white population.

Mainly Afrikaner-led governments imposed the race-based apartheid system that denied the black majority political and economic rights until it was voted out in 1994.

Under apartheid, whites benefited from reserved access to jobs, education, land and markets.

The privilege has a legacy. For example, unemployment among white South Africans stands at more than six percent compared to more than 35 percent for the black population.



– ‘Phantom pain’ –



Prominent journalist and author, Max du Preez, was scathing of complaints of persecution among his fellow Afrikaners.

“Afrikaners are far better off materially and culturally today than in 1994,” he told AFP.

Afrikaans culture is thriving, he said, adding that it is the only local language with four television channels and an array of newspapers, magazines and festivals.

The fear of white persecution “is a phantom pain: it’s not about what is actually happening, but about what could happen”, he said.

“Nothing is coming. The last thing that will happen here is a race war.”

Afrikaner “disillusion” grew as the post-apartheid economy struggled with corruption and governance, said professor Christi van der Westhuizen, author of several books on Afrikaner identity.

This made many susceptible to “divisive” narratives pushed by right-wing groups with roots in apartheid, even if “significant sections of Afrikaners remain vehemently opposed” to these ideas, she said.

Such groups have found a sympathetic audience in the United States, where Trump is close to conservative South African-born billionaire Elon Musk.

Their claims that white farmers are targeted for murder — despite official data that most victims of killings are young black men in urban areas — have morphed into a myth of a “white genocide”, repeated by Trump at the weekend.

Another sore point is an education bill that some believe will limit Afrikaans learning at schools. Also under fire are government attempts to redress apartheid-era discrimination through regulations on business, labour and property ownership.



– Integration –



On a recent Monday, five men — black and white — sat around a plate of biltong in a church room in Johannesburg while discussing their mission to bring South Africa’s races together.

“This narrative of victimhood makes me sick. The people who were victims here are millions of black people,” said Trevor Ntlhola, 57, a pastor and former anti-apartheid activist.

“It takes me back to the 1980s when I preached in white churches against apartheid,” said pastor Alexander Venter, 70, his voice breaking.

“The dismantling of apartheid let white people off lightly. A lot of racial conditioning was just buried, and now it’s all resurfacing,” he said.

“Trump has given a microphone to radical whites all over the world,” added Schalk van Heerden, 47, co-founder of the Betereinders (“Better Enders”) movement of Afrikaners which has the slogan “Be better not bitter”.

Right-wing groups think Afrikaans culture can only be preserved through self-governance and separation, said Betereinders co-founder Johan Erasmus, ideas that evoke apartheid principles of “separateness”.

“Our solution is integration,” he said. Many Afrikaners want to be part of “the story of the South African project” of post-apartheid reconciliation.

“People have been betting against us (South Africa) for the last 30 years,” he said. But “we are still here.”

Trump blames Zelensky for ‘millions’ of deaths in Russian invasion




PUTIN'S SOCK PUPPET

By AFP
April 14, 2025


US President Donald Trump resumed his attempts Monday to blame Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky for Russia’s invasion, falsely accusing him of responsibility for “millions” of deaths.

Trump — who had a blazing public row in the Oval Office with Zelensky six weeks ago — said the Ukranian shared the blame with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who ordered the February 2022 invasion, and then-US president Joe Biden.

The Republican told reporters that there were “millions of people dead because of three people.”

“Let’s say Putin number one, but let’s say Biden, who had no idea what the hell he was doing, number two, and Zelensky,” Trump said during a meeting with the visiting president of El Salvador.

Trump then doubled down on his attack on Zelensky.

“He’s always looking to purchase missiles,” he said dismissively of the Ukrainian leader’s attempts to maintain his country’s defense against the Russian invasion.

“When you start a war, you got to know that you can win the war,” Trump said. “You don’t start a war against somebody that’s 20 times your size, and then hope that people give you some missiles.”

Relations between Trump and Zelensky have been tense ever since the US president stunned the world by opening talks with Russia in February.

In the run-up to their televised row on February 28 Trump repeatedly echoed Moscow’s talking points — blaming Ukraine for the war and calling Zelensky a “dictator without elections.”

Zelensky has since tried to patch things up, including sending a delegation to Washington last week to discuss a mineral deal Trump has called for, that would give the US preferential access to Ukrainian natural resources.

But the US leader has stepped up his rhetoric in the last few days.

Trump however insisted a deal to end the Ukraine war was possible, despite Ukrainian accusations that Moscow is stalling.

“I want to stop the killing, and I think we’re doing well in that regard. I think you’ll have some very good proposals very soon,” Trump said.

Trump’s comments came despite a deadly Russian strike on the Ukrainian city of Sumy on Sunday that killed at least 35 people, one of the deadliest attacks of the war.

The US president said on Sunday that the attack was a “mistake” but did not elaborate. Russia insisted Monday that its missiles hit a meeting of Ukrainian army commanders.

Zelensky urged US counterpart Donald Trump in a CBS interview broadcast Sunday to visit his country to better understand the devastation wrought by Russia’s invasion.

Zelensky urges Trump to visit Ukraine to see war devastation: CBS


By AFP
April 13, 2025


A Russian strike killed at least 34 people in Ukrainian city Sumy on Sunday - Copyright AFP ADEK BERRY

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged US counterpart Donald Trump on Sunday to visit his country to better understand the devastation wrought by Russia’s invasion.

“Please, before any kind of decisions, any kind of forms of negotiations, come to see people, civilians, warriors, hospitals, churches, children destroyed or dead,” he said in a CBS “60 Minutes” interview broadcast Sunday.

With a visit to Ukraine, Trump “will understand what (Russian leader Vladimir) Putin did.”

“You will understand with whom you have a deal,” Zelensky added.

Zelensky’s invitation follows the heated row at the White House in late February between the Ukrainian president, Trump and US Vice President JD Vance, which played out in front of press.

Vance at the time accused Ukraine of hosting foreign leaders on “propaganda tours” to win support.

Zelensky repeated his denial of that allegation, and told CBS that if Trump chose to visit Ukraine, “we will not prepare anything. It will not be theater.”

“You can go exactly where you want, in any city which (has) been under attacks.”

Trump is pushing for a quick end to the more than three-year war, with the United States holding direct talks with Russia despite its unrelenting attacks on Ukraine.

Washington has also held talks with Ukrainian officials on a potential truce, while European nations are discussing a military deployment to reinforce any Ukraine ceasefire.

Kyiv has previously agreed to a US-proposed unconditional ceasefire but Moscow has turned it down.

“Putin can’t be trusted. I told that to President Trump many times. So when you ask why the ceasefire isn’t working — this is why,” Zelensky said.

“Putin never wanted an end to the war. Putin never wanted us to be independent. Putin wants to destroy us completely — our sovereignty and our people.”

Zelensky spoke to CBS Friday in his hometown Kryvyi Rig, where a Russian strike earlier this month killed 18 people, including nine children.

The Ukrainian leader said he had “100 percent hatred” for Putin, asking “how else can you see a person who came here and murdered our people, murdered children?”

However he added that the animosity “doesn’t mean we shouldn’t work to end the war as soon as possible.”

As negotiations continue over ending the war, Zelensky said that a just peace would be “to not lose our sovereignty or our independence,” and pledged to eventually reclaim any territory currently held by Russia.

“We, no matter what, will take back what is ours because we never lost it — the Russians took it from us.”

Man charged over Tesla arson as anti-Musk wave sweeps US


By AFP
April 14, 2025


Tesla's image has been badly tarnished by Elon Musk's role in the US government's cost-cutting drive and his company has become the target of vandals - Copyright GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP David Ryder

A man who allegedly torched two vehicles at a Tesla dealership and painted “Die Elon” on the side of the building has been hit with federal charges, the US Department of Justice said Monday.

The charges are the latest to be levied in connection to attacks on the EV maker, whose boss Elon Musk has become a hate figure for some over his role in slashing government as a top advisor to President Donald Trump.

Two Tesla vehicles were badly damaged in the firebomb attack on a showroom in Albuquerque on February 9, and slogans likening Musk and his company to Nazis were sprayed on the walls.

Jamison Wagner, 40, who lives in the city, in the western state of New Mexico, was also charged over a firebomb attack that hit an office of the state’s Republican Party last month.

If convicted of the two counts of malicious damage or destruction of property by fire or explosives, he could be jailed for up to 20 years on each count, the Department of Justice said.

“Let this be the final lesson to those taking part in this ongoing wave of political violence,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement.

“We will arrest you, we will prosecute you, and we will not negotiate. Crimes have consequences.”

Federal prosecution carries a stiff penalty compared to local law, where such a crime typically results in a sentence starting from just 18 months’ incarceration and a $5,000 fine. In March, Trump even suggested that people who vandalize Tesla property could be deported to prisons in El Salvador.

Musk, the South Africa-born billionaire chief of Tesla and SpaceX, is leading Trump’s ruthless cost-cutting drive at the head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Lauded on the right, he has rapidly become one of the most controversial figures in the country.

Several Tesla dealerships and a number of cars both in the US and around the world have been vandalized, and the company’s stock price has taken a hammering.