World
South Africa rejects US accusations of arms shipment to Russia
South African officials on Friday hit back at US accusations that a Russian ship had collected weapons from a naval base near Cape Town late last year, a move investors fear could lead Washington to impose sanctions.
The US ambassador to South Africa Reuben Brigety said on Thursday he was confident that a Russian ship under US sanctions took aboard weapons from the Simon's Town base in December, suggesting the transfer was not in line with Pretoria's stance of neutrality in Russia's war against Ukraine, Reuters reported.
Western diplomats were alarmed at South Africa carrying out naval exercises with Russia and China this year, and at the timing of a visit by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
South Africa is one of Russia's most important allies on a continent divided over its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, but says it is impartial and has abstained from voting on UN resolutions on the war.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday had discussed the conflict in Ukraine in a phone call with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, the Kremlin said.
Ramaphosa's office said on Thursday that an inquiry led by a retired judge would look into the US allegation. On Friday, a minister responsible for arms control and a foreign ministry spokesman said South Africa had not approved any arms shipment to Russia in December.
"We didn't approve any arms to Russia ... it wasn't sanctioned or approved by us," Communications Minister Mondli Gungubele, who chaired the National Conventional Arms Control Committee when the purported shipment took place, told 702 radio.
He did not say whether or not an unapproved shipment had left South Africa.
South Africa's defense department said on Friday it would give its side of the story to the government's inquiry.
Brigety was summoned on Friday to meet South African foreign minister Naledi Pandor. The ministry "expressed the government's utter displeasure with his conduct and statements made yesterday," a statement said.
It said Brigety "admitted that he crossed the line and apologized unreservedly to the government and the people of South Africa."
Brigety said on Twitter: "I was grateful for the opportunity to speak with Foreign Minister Pandor this evening and correct any misimpressions left by my public remarks."
The US State Department said Secretary of State Antony Blinken had a phone call with Pandor "and reiterated cooperation on shared priorities, including health, trade, and energy."
After leaving Simon's Town, Refinitiv shipping data showed the vessel, the "Lady R", sailed north to Mozambique, spending Jan. 7 to 11 in the port of Beira before continuing to Port Sudan on the Red Sea.
It arrived in the Russian port of Novorossiysk on the Black Sea on Feb. 16, the data showed.
The United States placed the Lady R and Transmorflot LLC, the shipping company it is linked to, under sanctions in May 2022 on the grounds the company "transports weapons for the (government of Russia)".
Washington has warned that countries providing material support to Russia may be denied access to US markets, Reuters reported.
"This is not just a verbal warning, this is something that the Biden administration has shown through its actions that it is willing to do, including by sanctioning companies in places like China and Turkey," said Edward Fishman, a foreign policy expert who worked on Russia sanctions during President Barack Obama's administration.
Cameron Hudson, a former CIA analyst and now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said he thought it was unlikely that Washington would impose sanctions or suspend South Africa from AGOA, a major US trade preference programme for Sub-Saharan Africa, although he said there were grounds to.
Authorities in South Africa's opposition-run Western Cape province said they feared losing a market for exports such as oranges, macadamia nuts and wine.
The US allegation over the weapons has heaped pressure on the rand currency, already weighed down by concerns over a power crisis. It struck an all-time low early on Friday before regaining some ground, but remained at its weakest in three years.
World
Trump steps up immigration crackdown, warns city, state officials against interference
President Donald Trump's administration has directed U.S. prosecutors to criminally probe local officials who resist immigration enforcement efforts, intensifying a sweeping crackdown that Trump launched the day he took office.
Trump's acting deputy attorney general, Emil Bove, told Justice Department staff that state and local authorities must cooperate with the immigration crackdown and federal prosecutors "shall investigate incidents involving any such misconduct for potential prosecution," Reuters reported citing a memo.
The Justice Department could also challenge laws that complicate the effort, Bove wrote.
The policy was issued as the new Republican administration prepared to step up policing of illegal immigration in cities with significant migrant populations, setting up potential confrontations with local officials in so-called sanctuary cities such as New York and Chicago that limit cooperation with such efforts.
The new memo underscored how Trump's Justice Department may try to back his immigration agenda by expanding threats of criminal charges beyond immigrants or those who employ them to city and state officials. It is the latest in a series of executive actions Trump has taken to curb illegal immigration, his top priority.
During Trump's first 2017-2021 term in office, many Democratic officials refused to cooperate with his enforcement efforts, and some vowed to defy him again.
"We know that we don't have to participate in immigration enforcement activities," Democratic California Attorney General Rob Bonta said on CNN.
But resistance in the party is not monolithic this time. In the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday 46 Democrats -- one-fifth of their number -- joined 217 Republicans to pass legislation that would require immigrants who are in the country illegally to be held for deportation if they are accused of theft. The bill was named for Laken Riley, a Georgia woman who was killed by an illegal immigrant who had a prior record of shoplifting.
It has already passed the Senate with Democratic support and now heads to Trump's desk to be signed into law.
"The American people want us to do something about the border and I think we’d be hard-pressed to not say that we have to deport criminals," Representative Tom Suozzi, a moderate Democrat who voted for the bill, told Reuters.
TROOPS TO BORDER
Trump has issued a broad ban on asylum and taken steps to restrict citizenship for children born on American soil. A U.S. official said on Wednesday the military would dispatch 1,000 additional active-duty troops to the Mexico-U.S. border on Trump's orders.
The administration has rescinded guidance from his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden that had limited immigration arrests near schools, churches and other sensitive places. Trump has also expanded immigration officers' power to deport migrants who cannot prove they have been in the U.S. for longer than two years.
Trump has separately taken aim at federal diversity programs, ordering agencies to put officials overseeing diversity, equity and inclusion programs on leave by Wednesday and to shut down DEI offices by the end of the month.
The swift actions signal Trump's intention to fulfill many of his culture-war campaign promises by pushing the limits of executive power even further than he did during his first term.
Americans are sharply divided on Trump's plans for mass deportations. A new Reuters/Ipsos survey showed 39% agreed that "illegal immigrants should be arrested and put in detention camps while awaiting deportation hearings," while 42% disagreed and the rest were unsure.
Some 46% of respondents said they approved of how Trump was handling immigration policy, while 39% disapproved. Most respondents who backed mass arrests identified as Republicans, while most who did not were Democrats.
The poll, which surveyed adults nationwide on Jan. 20-21, found 58% of respondents agreed that the U.S. should "dramatically reduce the number of migrants allowed to claim asylum at the border," while 22% disagreed.
TARGETING SANCTUARY CITIES
State and local officials who resist or obstruct immigration enforcement could be charged under federal laws against defrauding the U.S. or harboring immigrants who are in the U.S. unlawfully, according to the Justice Department memo.
Prosecutors who opt not to file criminal charges will need to explain their reasoning to superiors, the memo said.
The department this week also reassigned close to 20 career officials, transferring some to a new unit aimed at stopping sanctuary cities from resisting Trump's immigration plans, two sources said.
Of the estimated 11 million immigrants in the U.S. illegally or with temporary status in 2022, about 44% lived in states with "sanctuary" laws that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities. That figure does not include those in sanctuary cities and counties in places without a statewide law, such as New Mexico.
In Mexico, authorities have begun constructing giant tent shelters in the city of Ciudad Juarez to prepare for a possible influx of deported Mexicans.
World
Trump declares ‘only two genders’ to be official US policy
Following the inauguration, the president is slated to depart the Capitol and head to the nearby Capital One Arena, where he will address supporters during a rally that will also feature a presidential parade.
Donald Trump declared there are “only two genders” as he was sworn in Monday as the 47th president of the United States, returning for a second term in office.
“As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders -- male and female,” he said, marking the first mention of gender in an inaugural address.
"The golden age of America begins right now," Trump said minutes after he was sworn in during a ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda, the first since 1985, when Ronald Reagan moved the ceremony indoors due to exceptionally frigid temperatures.
In his inaugural address, Trump also used words such as “Manifest Destiny,” "National Emergency," "Colorblind," "Sanctuary," "Horrible," "Suburban," “Betrayal” and “Weaponization” for the first time in history.
Following the inauguration, the president is slated to depart the Capitol and head to the nearby Capital One Arena, where he will address supporters during a rally that will also feature a presidential parade.
World
Trump sworn in as 47th US president
Former Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama attended the inauguration. Tech tycoon and Trump’s biggest supporter Elon Musk also attended the ceremony.
Donald Trump sworn in as the 47th president of the United States on Monday at the Capitol Rotunda by Chief Justice John Roberts.
At the ceremony, Trump vowed to make America "greater, stronger and more exceptional" than ever before.
Former Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama attended the inauguration. Tech tycoon and Trump's biggest supporter Elon Musk also attended the ceremony.
The inauguration ceremony took place indoors due to the cold temperatures in Washington, DC, unprecedented in decades.
In the meantime, Trump signed a barrage of executive orders following the ceremony.
The new orders include tougher anti-immigration measures as well as pardons for people convicted for their role in the Capitol Hill attack on January 6, 2021.
Ahead of his inauguration, Trump met at the White House with the outgoing president Joe Biden – a courtesy the Republican had denied his Democratic successor in 2021.
Earlier, Trump had attended a church service. Alongside, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Google's Sundar Pichai and Apple's Tim Cook, some of the most powerful tech moguls in the world, attended the service.
Trump, 78, was a political outsider at his first inauguration in 2017 as the 45th president.
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