Due to a growing row between Washington and Pretoria over a contentious land expropriation law, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has declared he will not participate in Group of 20 (G20) discussions in South Africa.
Following US President Donald Trump’s threat to cut aid to South Africa due to the passage of legislation that allows the seizure of land without compensation in some circumstances, Rubio made his announcement on Wednesday.
South Africa, which holds the G20 presidency until November 2025, is set to host a meeting of foreign ministers from February 20-21 in Johannesburg.
“South Africa is doing very bad things. Expropriating private property. Using G20 to promote ‘ solidarity, equality,]and] sustainability. ‘ In other words: DEI and climate change”, Rubio said in a post on X.
“My job is to advance America’s national interests, not waste taxpayer money or coddle anti-Americanism”.
I will NOT attend the G20 summit in Johannesburg.
South Africa is doing very bad things. Expropriating private property. Using G20 to promote “solidarity, equality, &, sustainability”. In other words: DEI and climate change.
My job is to advance America’s national interests, not…
Rubio’s announcement was greeted with dismay by critics of the Trump administration.
In a post on X, Andrew Bates, who was the senior deputy press secretary for the White House under former US President Joe Biden, wrote that “this show of weakness harms our national security and economy while benefiting China.”
“If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu”.
Trump blasted South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday, causing Pretoria to respond with a rebuttal.
Ramaphosa claimed that the law was a “constitutionally mandated legal process” that would give the public “equitable and just” access to land. It was not a “confiscation instrument.”
The government may seize land without compensation under the law that Ramaphosa signed last month, such as when there is “just and equitable and in the public interest” or when there is “a property that is not being used and there hasn’t been a chance to reach an agreement with the owner.
The legislation, which was necessary to reduce the enormous landownership gaps brought on by the racist system of apartheid, has been defended by Ramaphosa and his African National Congress.
According to the law, the government has not yet expropriated any land.
The Democratic Alliance (DA), South Africa’s main opposition party and a member of the ANC-led national unity government, has opposed the law, warning that it undermines property rights and could scare off foreign investment.
However, the DA, which draws most of its support from white, Indian and Coloured (multiracial) South Africans, has expressed “deep concern” about Trump’s threat to cut aid and said it is a misconception that land can be seized “arbitrarily”.
Due to the history of Black people being raped off their lands and denied access to property, land ownership is a sensitive and contentious issue in South Africa.
Despite accounting for over 80% of the country’s population, Black South Africans only own 4% of privately held farmland, according to a 2017 government audit.
White South Africans, who are mostly descended from British and Dutch settlers, hold about three-quarters of the land despite making up a little more than 7 percent of the population
Trump’s threat to cut funding for the African nation comes as his administration has slowed the flow of almost all foreign aid and placed the majority of USAID staff members on administrative leave.
The president of the United States, Donald Trump, has issued an executive order to stop transgender athletes from competing in both gender sports.
Federal funding will not be provided to educational facilities that allow transgender people to play sports and use female locker rooms as per the order that was signed on Wednesday.
Additionally, the order directs government agencies to convene representatives of major athletic organizations and governing bodies to promote “policies that are fair and safe, in the best interests of female athletes,” as well as encourage sex-based female sports categories at international organizations.
According to Trump, “We are putting every school that receives taxpayer dollars on notice: You will face federal funding penalties if you allow men to invade your locker rooms or play on women’s sports teams,” he said in reference to a 1972 law that prohibits sex discrimination in education.
Trump vowed to put an end to “the war on women’s sport,” but his administration would not “sit back and watch men beat and batter female athletes.”
“We’re just not going to let it happen, and it’s going to end, and it’s ending right now and no nobody is going to be able to do a damn thing about it because when I speak, we speak with authority”.
Trump added that he would push for the International Olympic Committee to explicitly support sex-based participation before the Los Angeles Summer Games in 2028, which has traditionally been reserved for transgender athletes.
The US president said, “We want them to change everything about the Olympics and this ridiculous subject.”
Despite having a small number of athletes, trans women’s participation in sport has been a savior in recent US cultural wars.
National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) president, Charlie Baker, told a US Senate panel in December that he knew of fewer than 10 trans people competing among the 520, 000 athletes at colleges nationwide.
In light of recent high-profile scandals involving athletes, such as college swimmer Lia Thomas, who won the NCAA Division I national championship in 2022 before being barred from women’s events by World Aquatics, polls have suggested growing public opposition to trans women competing.
In a Gallup poll conducted in 2023, 69 percent of Americans believed trans athletes should only be permitted to compete on sports teams that are transgender, a seven-point increase over that of 2021.
Baker, NCAA president, welcomed Trump’s order for setting a “clear, national standard”.
“We strongly believe that clear, consistent, and uniform eligibility standards would best serve today’s student-athletes instead of a patchwork of conflicting state laws and court decisions”, Baker said in a statement.
According to him, “The NCAA Board of Governors is reviewing the executive order and will take the necessary steps to align NCAA policy in the upcoming days, subject to further guidance from the administration.”
The Association will continue to support student athletes’ experiences on campuses.
A transgender advocacy group, Athlete Ally, expressed sadness that trans people would no longer be able to experience the joy of being their fully authentic selves.
This day is likely to pass for a long time as this administration pursues straightforward solutions to pressing problems that frequently turn off the country’s most underrepresented communities, the group said in a statement.
We will continue to choose to create a future for sports where everyone belongs in spite of this executive order. When and where possible, we will work with sporting organizations to expand access to the life-saving power of sports.
GLADD, one of the biggest LGBTQ rights organisations in the US, condemned Trump’s order as “inaccurate and incoherent”.
The organization stated in a statement that “every woman and girl, including transgender women and girls, should be welcome to play sports if they want, be allowed to choose their own bodies, be hired for jobs they are qualified for, and be free from lawless attacks by extremists in elected office.”
In any discussion about protecting women and girls, anti-LGBTQ politicians with a history of abusing, bullying, and denying their health care have no credibility.
After receiving a visit from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Guatemala’s country in Central America has agreed to increase the number of deportation flights it receives from the United States.
Bernardo Arevalo, president of Guatemala, made the announcement at a press conference on Wednesday that his nation would accept US-based non-citizens.
Arevalo, who appeared alongside Rubio, and Rubio, announced that they have agreed to increase by 40% the number of flights of deportees of both our and deported from other nationalities.
Guatemala has previously accepted deportation flights from the US; it did so under US President Joe Biden’s previous administration.
However, the current president has campaigned heavily to stop illegal immigration to the US, and he has urged other nations in the area to join his efforts since taking office on January 20.
A Guatemalan official, speaking under condition of anonymity, told the news agency Reuters that, under Biden, the Central American country received about 14 deportation flights per day.
Under Trump, how much of that might grow is still a mystery.
But Reuters noted that the nearly 66, 000 Guatemalans deported from the US in fiscal year 2024 was more than any single year during Trump’s first term, from 2017 to 2021.
Rubio’s first trip as the top diplomat of the US included a trip to Guatemala.
He has been travelling the region to curry support for Trump’s anti-immigration push, passing through Panama, El Salvador and Costa Rica before reaching Guatemala. Next, he’ll make his way to the Dominican Republic.
But while in Guatemala, he praised Arevalo for accepting non-citizens into Guatemala’s borders.
Prior to taking office, the Trump transition team had to decide where to place non-citizens who had been detained during immigration raids. Certain countries, like Venezuela and Cuba, have refused to participate in US deportation flights.
In December, for instance, news reports emerged that Trump planned to approach Caribbean countries, including the Bahamas, Grenada and Turks and Caicos, to accept migrants from other countries.
However, island nation leaders resisted. According to Bahamian Prime Minister Philip Davis at the time, “The Bahamas simply does not have the resources to accommodate such a request.”
Rubio stated on Wednesday that the US would provide Guatemala with financial assistance in order to allow it to return non-citizens to their home countries.
He also praised Arevalo, saying the deportation-flight deal was “very important for us in terms of the migratory situation we’re facing”.
We pledged our support for those efforts, Rubio said, and it’s important that he accepts people from other nationalities as they attempt to eventually return to their own homelands.
President Arevalo, for his part, indicated that the question of accepting migrants with criminal records was not discussed.
A day before, the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, offered to jail any violent offenders the US sends his way — whether they be migrants or US citizens.
Even senior Trump administration officials have questioned the legality of that offer, though.
Rubio acknowledged the legal difficulties, but he publicly thanked Bukele for his offer. “We have a Constitution”, he said of the US.
However, the US began visiting its military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on Tuesday after receiving complaints about alleged human rights violations.
Deir el-Balah, Gaza Strip, Palestine – In Deir el-Balah, central Gaza, Wasayef Abed woke up on Wednesday to murmurs from her fellow displaced Palestinians.
Donald Trump, the president of the United States, and his declaration that America would “take over” Gaza, the topic of discussion. The US president even said that Palestinians should leave the enclave permanently in Trump’s comments made as he stood next to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is to blame for the Israeli invasion of Gaza.
Some of his officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, suggested on Wednesday that any departure would be temporary, although Trump’s language evoked both 19th-century colonialism and the spectre of ethnic cleansing.
The 36-year-old Wasayef’s reaction is one of indifference.
“I didn’t pay much attention,” she said as she made her way to check on her rain-soaked tent.
“I don’t even own a mobile phone or any means of following the news,” she added indifferently, her tired face betraying her exhaustion.
Regardless of what happens, my mother and I are certain that we will never leave Gaza. We are currently looking for a way to bring our ruined house back to the north. ”
Wasayef uses Trump’s statements to impose pressure on both Hamas and the Palestinian people in Gaza.
“I can tell you that people here will never accept forced displacement,” she said. They can endure internal displacement, but forcing them out of their country, as Trump suggests, will never work. ”
Imad al-Qassas [Atia Darwish/Al Jazeera]
‘It will never happen’
Imad al-Qassas, a 60-year-old father of six, has been displaced from eastern Deir el-Balah to its centre, where he now lives in a tent after his home was destroyed.
His response to Trump’s statements was clear: “That’s impossible. ”
“No matter how much destruction, devastation and killing we’ve endured during this war, this will never happen,” he added.
What would we actually do? ” he asked. I would never leave, no matter how challenging my situation would be, even if the border crossings were opened and voluntary migration was offered. ”
Imad believes that no matter the temptations of resettlement – whether houses, compensation, or host countries – a person’s ultimate refuge is their homeland.
In the 1990s, I spent four years living in Sudan and six years in Libya. I was born in the United Arab Emirates. But in the end, I returned home,” he said firmly. “No matter what calamities befall us in Gaza, this is our homeland, and we hold it sacred. ”
“Life outside Gaza, even under normal circumstances, is not as easy for all people around the world. Residency permits, renewals, documents – there’s always a distinction between refugees and residents,” he explained. “Now imagine our situation: displaced, rejected and forced out of Gaza. Undoubtedly, we would suffer humiliation and be treated the worst possible. ”
“I would rather die where I stand. Even if they cut me and my children into pieces, I will not leave. ”
Imad questioned what Palestinians in Gaza the world wanted, and he gave tears to his face.
We are educated and culturally diverse people. We are entitled to live on our land and see it rebuilt. We have merchants, doctors, journalists, engineers – we have lives. Why are we being made to leave? ”
Like many displaced Palestinians, Imad sees Trump’s remarks as part of “a broader effort to pressure the population”, especially amid discussions on prisoner exchanges and reconstruction efforts.
If I have to, I’m willing to wait 100 years for the reconstruction. I will never leave, no matter what. ”
At the same time, Imad still blamed Hamas, the Palestinian Authority, and neighbouring countries for failing to end the war at any cost.
It was all planned out in the beginning. This has been a long-term plot by the US and Israel. Because they are the ones paying the price, all parties should have stopped this plan from being implemented. ”
Iman and Khaled Maqbel [Atia Darwish/Al Jazeera]
‘We no longer care’
Unlike Imad, Khaled Maqbel, 63, and his wife Iman, 52, showed no reaction when asked about Trump’s statements.
“God willing, he will be taken away,” 52-year-old Iman Maqbel muttered, turning her face away.
I have stopped caring about anything because two of my daughters and two of my grandchildren were killed in an Israeli airstrike during the war, she said, wiping her tears out.
Iman fled from the as-Saftawi neighbourhood in northern Gaza to Deir el-Balah with her husband, 63-year-old Khaled, and their remaining children a year ago, enduring displacement five times since then.
“We have no energy left to process anything – Trump or his statements,” said Khaled. After the war, Gaza’s residents are still drained of grief, illness, and hardship. They are incapable of even considering what will happen next. ”
Trump’s relocation plan was vehemently opposed by the couple. “We already regret leaving the north, even though we were forced out at gunpoint. Do they actually believe that Trump will follow our orders now? ”
Iman recalled how, if given the chance, many displaced people living nearby would consider leaving Gaza. “But that was only out of sheer desperation,” she said.
“Despite everything, people in Gaza are still clinging to life on this land, even as the entire world fights against us for reasons we can’t understand,” she adds.
“Even if they offered me mansions, millions, and luxurious homes, I wouldn’t leave Gaza – nor would my sons. ”
When asked about the timing of Trump’s statements, Khaled erupted in anger.
“Timing? What timing? We are just about to start winning this war! ” he said. “People are still pulling their loved ones’ bodies from the rubble. They are still looking for any signs of life in their homes as they clear the clutter. ”
“This world has lost all sense of humanity. ”
Mahmoud Abu Ouda [Atia Darwish/Al Jazeera]
The first chance I get will be my last.
In contrast, 23-year-old Mahmoud Abu Ouda, who runs a small coffee and tea stand in Deir el-Balah, says he wants to leave the Strip as soon as possible.
Trump will ultimately force us to leave Gaza, as did the war’s forced migration from the north to the south, according to Mahmoud.
“If they open the Rafah crossing [with Egypt], a huge number of people will leave immediately. I’ll be the first to go. ”
For Mahmoud, the unbearable pressures of life in Gaza after the war make staying unthinkable. “This is not a life. There is no life here. After the war, there’s nothing left to keep us in this country. ”
Mahmoud wants to leave Gaza, but he also sees no other way to escape.
“We are always forced,” he said. From the north to the south, we were forced to flee. We fought back against our will to win. We fought against our will to avoid bombings. We have never had a choice. ”
“If leaving is the solution to our problems, then let’s go,” he continued.
“If they prepare homes, jobs, and a real life for us, then let’s leave and put an end to the Gaza story. ”
Mahmoud claimed that the youth of Gaza, who have suffered a lot during the war, share his views.
“Our future has been destroyed. Six members of my family are under my care. I couldn’t finish my university degree. I spend my entire day earning a meager wage. Our house was bombed. We were displaced. ”
Is this the life of a 20-year-old young man or an 80-year-old man? ” he asked desperately.
“Gaza will never see peace. Gaza is dead,” he said, convinced that Trump is serious about his threats.
Amir Taleb [Atia Darwish/Al Jazeera]
‘A psychological war’
A friend of Mahmoud’s, Amir Taleb, shared that after the war, life in Gaza had become intolerable, but he opposed forced displacement or the exchange of borders with promises of reconstruction and better living.
Trump’s incendiary rhetoric is forcing many of us who had previously considered leaving to change our minds, Amir said with a sharp smile.
“No rational, self-respecting person would accept this. We are not subject to Trump’s or anyone else’s willful manipulation. ”
Amir claimed to have moved to Belgium without ever intending to return from Gaza four years ago.
“I couldn’t stay there for more than a year, despite having friends and family there,” he admitted.
He relocated to Gaza and opened a small clothing store.
“Living in exile is difficult, and for us in Gaza, returning is never guaranteed. We are not permitted to travel as we please. That’s why many choose to stay despite everything,” Amir added.
Thomas Friedman, the eternal New York Times foreign affairs columnist and Orientalist extraordinaire, resigned as president of the United States of America in January with the oath-taking advice “President Trump, You Can Remake the Middle East if You Dare.”
Trump has taken Friedman’s challenge and taken it to a whole new level by announcing on Tuesday that the US will “take over” and “own” the Gaza Strip, where nearly 62, 000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s genocide since October 2023, despite the fact that the actual death toll is undoubtedly much higher. The majority of the enclave’s remains are now rubble.
No matter how obscurely does Trump appear to be regarding the location of the Gaza Strip on the global map, as demonstrated by his most recent absurdly misguided claim that the US was sending thousands of dollars “to Gaza to buy condoms for Hamas.”
Speaking at the White House after meeting with visiting genocidaire-in-chief, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump declared: “The US will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it, too. We’ll own it”.
In order for the razed coastal enclave to become the “Riviera of the Middle East,” according to Trump, “long-term ownership position” over the area would essentially require forcibly shifting the majority of the resident Palestinian population to “other countries of interest with humanitarian hearts” in order to make Gaza the “Riviera of the Middle East.”
Trump assured his audience that, in order to make people doubt the possibility that the US would illegally appropriate a territory that was 10,000 kilometers (6,214 miles) away, “everyone loves the idea of the United States owning that piece of land, developing and creating thousands of jobs with something that will be magnificent.”
Anyway, who said ethnic cleansing wasn’t magnificent?
And if there are folks who think otherwise, well, Trump has not discarded the possibility of deploying the US military to rectify the situation: “As far as Gaza is concerned, we’ll do what is necessary. If it’s necessary, we’ll do that”.
Naturally, it’s not surprising that a billionaire former real estate mogul, the owner of the renowned Trump Tower in New York City, discovered lucrative business opportunities in a picturesque Mediterranean seaside region that has recently been helped by Joe Biden’s predecessor.
Perhaps the Trump Tower will be built in Gaza City someday?
Trump’s tyrannical policy toward the Gaza Strip is in keeping with his barbaric egotism, which he has also exhibited in many other countries. Trump has threatened to seize the Panama Canal, annex Canada and Greenland, and use military force if necessary, in addition to renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.”
This is not to say, obviously, that Biden and his fellow Democrats have not pursued their own monstrous policies – such as, you know, aiding and abetting Israel’s genocide in the Gaza Strip.
However, Trump’s proposed land grab in Gaza is an especially egregious example of Orientalist psychosis, a deliberate mapping of the Middle East map. According to the Genocide Convention definition of genocide as “acts committed with the intention to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group,” the displacement of Palestinians to make room for the upcoming “Riviera of the Middle East” would appear to be merely a continuation of genocidal behavior.
Although, according to Trump, “the potential in the Gaza Strip is unbelievable” as long as the Palestinians don’t go back, “I don’t think people should be going back to Gaza,” according to what they claim. They live like hell. They live like they’re living in hell”.
Yet one simple way to get out of this terrible situation would have been to stop at first creating it. Even before the onset of all-out genocide in October 2023, the US spent decades facilitating Israel’s regular bouts of mass slaughter, terrorism, and general oppression in Gaza. Trump has now lifted Biden’s superficial moratorium on sending specific heavy bombs to Israel, which won’t significantly lessen “hell” in the world.
Of course, Donald Trump must provide the quickest-ever resolution to an unresolvable crisis that has plagued society for the better part of a century. US imperialism must provide a practical non-solution to a problem it helped to spark. As an added benefit, the hubbub over Trump’s proposed conquest of the Gaza Strip distracts from current serious problems in the US itself, including the country’s unabashed conquest by super-sketchy billionaires.
Trump’s declaration that he wants to “just clean out” Gaza is a mission that Netanyahu and his followers find entertainingly fascist. And as Trump attempts to “reform the world map in one fell swoop” to “bring great stability to that region of the Middle East, and perhaps the entire Middle East,” we ought to have expected nothing less from the self-described “very stable genius.”
After US President Donald Trump declared he would try to reduce Tehran’s oil exports to zero, Iran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian urged OPEC members to unite against potential US sanctions on the major oil producer.
A day after Trump signed an executive order calling for a “maximum pressure” sanctions campaign against Iran, which he claims aims to stop Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons, Pezeshkian made the remarks at a meeting with OPEC Secretary-General Haitham al-Ghais.
Al-Ghais traveled to Iran on Wednesday, which will hold the rotating presidency of OPEC this year, according to OPEC’s X account.
According to Iranian state media, Pezeshkian and al-Ghais met and agreed that if they were united and worked together, the US would not be able to impose sanctions and pressure on one of them.
Iran exports about 1.5 million barrels of crude oil per day (bpd), with the majority going to China. The loss of such a volume, equal to about 1.4 percent of the total world supply, would be significant for markets.
Pezeshkian also outlined strategies for preventing US sanctions and maintaining economic stability, including regional cooperation and self-reliance.
They believe that oil is essential to everything we have, and they want to stop our oil exports, he said, adding that there are many ways to help them by neutralizing their objectives, including enabling them to interact with their neighbors, solve our own problems, and offer a suitable platform for the people of our nation to live in dignity, according to him.
“Destabilize the energy and oil markets.”
After resigning from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action agreement, Trump first imposed “maximum pressure” on Iran. Tehran would curtail its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions under the agreement, which was reached while former US President Barack Obama was in office.
Trump’s actions from 2017 to 2021 saw a sharp drop in Iranian oil exports to as little as 200, 000 bpd in some months of 2020. After Trump urged producers to offset losses brought on by the sanctions against Iran, OPEC and allies agreed to increase supply in 2018.
Iran’s oil exports rose to the highest since 2018 during the term of President Joe Biden, despite continued US sanctions.
Mohsen Paknejad, the Iranian minister of petroleum, also told al-Ghais that imposing unilateral sanctions on crude producers would stifle energy markets, according to a report released on Wednesday by the news agency SHANA.
“The security of the oil market depends a lot on depoliticizing the oil market. According to Paknejad, imposing unilateral sanctions on major oil producers and putting pressure on OPEC will destabilize the world’s oil and energy markets and cause harm to consumers.
