South Africa police minister says Trump 'twisted' facts to push baseless genocide claims

South Africa police minister says Trump 'twisted' facts to push baseless genocide claims

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africa's top law enforcement official said Friday that U.S. PresidentDonald Trumpwrongly claimed that avideo he showed in the Oval Officewas of burial sites for more than 1,000 white farmers and he "twisted" the facts to push a false narrative about mass killings of white people in his country. Police Minister Senzo Mchunu was talking about a video clip that was played during the meeting betweenTrump and South African President Cyril Ramaphosaat the White House on Wednesday that showed an aerial view of a rural road with lines of white crosses erected on either side. "Now this is very bad," Trump said as he referred to the clip that was part of a longer video that was played in the meeting. "These are burial sites, right here. Burial sites, over a thousand, of white farmers, and those cars are lined up to pay love on a Sunday morning." Mchunu said the crosses did not mark graves or burial sites, but were a temporary memorial put up in 2020 to protest the killings of all farmers across South Africa. They were put up during a funeral procession for a white couple who were killed in a robbery on their farm, Mchunu said. A son of the couple who were killed and a local community member who took part in the procession also said the crosses do not represent burial sites and were taken down after the protest. South Africa struggles with extremely high levels of violent crime, although farm killings make up a small percentage of the country's overall homicides. Both white and Black farmers are attacked, and sometimes killed, and the government has condemned the violence against both groups. Whites make up around 7% of South Africa's 62 million people but generally still have a much better standard of living than the Black majority more than 30 years after the end of the apartheid system of racial segregation. Whites make up the majority of the country's wealthier commercial farmers. Mchunu said Trump's false claims that the crosses represented more than 1,000 burial sites was part of his "genocide story" — referring to the U.S. president's baseless allegations in recent weeks that there is a widespread campaign in South Africato kill white farmers and take their landthat he has said amounts to a genocide. "They are not graves. They don't represent graves," Mchunu said regarding the video that has become prominent on social media since it was shown in the White House. "And it was unfortunate that those facts got twisted to fit a false narrative about crime in South Africa." "We have respect for the president of the United States," Mchunu added. "But we have no respect for his genocide story whatsoever." The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the South African official's remarks. Of the more than 5,700 homicides in South Africa from January through March, six occurred on farms and, of those, one victim was white, said Mchunu. "In principle, we do not categorize people by race, but in the context of claims of genocide of white people, we need to unpack the killings in this category," he said. Lourens Bosman, who is a former lawmaker in the national Parliament, said he took part in the procession shown in the video the Trump administration played. It happened near the town of Newcastle in the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal in September 2020. The crosses were symbols to white and Black farmers and farmworkers who had been killed across South Africa over the previous 26 years, Bosman said. Trump's falsehoods that South Africa's government is fueling the persecution and killing of its minority white farmers has been strongly denied by the country, which says the allegations are rooted in misinformation. Ramaphosapushed for this week's meetingwith Trump in what he said was an attempt to change Trump's mind over South Africa and correct misconceptions about the country to rebuild ties. Trump issued an executive order on Feb. 7 that cut all U.S. financial assistance to South Africa and accused it of mistreating white Afrikaner farmers and seizing their land. The order accused Ramaphosa's government of "fueling disproportionate violence against racially disfavored landowners." Trump's executive order also accused South Africa of pursuing an anti-American foreign policy and specifically criticized its decision to launch a case at the International Court of Justice accusing U.S. ally Israel of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. The order accused South Africa of supporting the Palestinian militant group Hamas through that case. ___ AP Africa news:https://apnews.com/hub/africa

byRoger Fisher

in

May 23, 2025

South Africa police minister says Trump 'twisted' facts to push baseless genocide claims

South Africa police minister says Trump 'twisted' facts to push baseless genocide claims JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africa's top ...

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3.2 million Americans could lose food stamp benefits under new work requirements, CBO projects

3.2 million Americans could lose food stamp benefits under new work requirements, CBO projects

The Congressional Budget Office released projections showing that potential new work requirements would cause over 3.2 million Americans to lose access to food stamps through theSupplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The updated work requirements were included in a Republican-backed spending bill passed by the House on Thursday, called the "Big Beautiful Bill." The legislation will soon be considered by the Senate. Currently, able-bodied adults ages 18 to 54 who do not have dependent children are required to meet certain work-related requirements to be eligible for SNAP. The proposal would increase the upper age limit to 64. RELATED STORY |USDA urges states to reinforce work requirements for SNAP recipients Currently, adults ages 18 to 54 who do not meet work requirements can receive food stamps if they have a dependent child under the age of 18 in their household. Changes in the bill would reduce that age from 18 to 7. Among the 3.2 million people who would lose benefits would be 1 million able-bodied adults ages 55 to 64. There would also be 800,000 able-bodied adults ages 18 to 64 who live with children aged 7 or older, and 1.4 million able-bodied adults aged 18 to 54 who do not live with dependents but currently receive a waiver or exemption from the requirements under current law would lose benefits, the CBO projects. The CBO also projects that the government would save $92 billion from 2025 to 2034 if these changes are implemented. Another change in the bill would prohibit those without citizenship or permanent residency status from obtaining food stamps. This group would include those who are lawfully present in the U.S., such as individuals on temporary protected status. This change would likely result in 120,000 to 250,000 people losing SNAP benefits, the CBO estimates. As of 2023, 42.1 million people, or 12.6% of U.S. residents, were receiving monthly SNAP benefits.

byRoger Fisher

in

May 23, 2025

3.2 million Americans could lose food stamp benefits under new work requirements, CBO projects

3.2 million Americans could lose food stamp benefits under new work requirements, CBO projects The Congressional Budget Office released proj...

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CA K-12 shrinks as birth rate collapses, 'dual language immersion' grows 39%

CA K-12 shrinks as birth rate collapses, 'dual language immersion' grows 39%

(The Center Square) - Overall enrollment in California's public TK-12 schools has declined yet again, this time 0.54% from the prior year. News of the decrease came as State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond celebrated a 39% growth of "dual language immersion" programs since 2019, as well as 17.2% year-over-year enrollment growth in the new non-mandatory "transitional kindergarten" grade that will be made available to all California residents next year. Notably, Thurmond, who narrowly eked out a victory in 2018 as the teachers' union-backed candidate against his pro-charter school Democratic opponent, neglected to highlight the sustained growth of California's publicly-funded charter school system, which grew 2.5% over the prior year. "While we have more work to do, the dramatic growth in TK is inspiring and shows that providing rigorous and quality programs can be a key ingredient to bringing more families back to our schools," said Thurmond in a statement. "One of our initiatives in this area is expansion of Dual Language Immersion programs as a strategy to drive future enrollment growth by providing school programs that are in high demand from California's families." In dual language immersion programs, non-English speakers can take academic classes such as math in their native language, while allowing for enrollment of English speakers in these programs to improve linguistic abilities in another language. Last year, The Center Squarereportedon the state's continued funding of "ghost" students — amounting to over $4 billion in the 2022-2023 academic year — based on its optional "hold harmless" funding formula that allows non-charter public schools to receive per-student payments based on the average number of students for the prior three years, instead of current or last year's attendance, which are also options. Eighty-five percent of school districts received "hold harmless" funding, highlighting the enrollment decline in non-charter schools across the state. "These numbers are stunning and portend years of declining enrollment into the future," said Lance Christensen, vice president of Government Affairs & Education Policy at the California Policy Center and Thurmond's challenger in the 2022 general election. "If this doesn't get the legislature's attention, then they are going to have to deal with closing schools for the next generation of Californians." "This looks like a collapse of the system," continued Christensen. Christensen's warning of the system's collapse is supported by the inversion of the age distribution of students by grade over the past ten years. In the 2014-2015 academic year, there were 511,985 kindergarteners and 496,901 12th graders, with the comparatively higher number of kindergarteners indicating slight population growth. In the 2024-25 academic year, there are now 365,002 kindergarteners and 488,295 12th graders, indicating rapid demographic decline. During the current school year, 5.81 million California residents were enrolled in TK-12 schools, with abudgetof $119.5 billion, or about $20,568 per student, in state funding. During 2019-20, 6.16 million TK-12 students were enrolled in schools, with abudgetof $103.4 billion, or about $16,786 per student, in state funding. Using the U.S. Department of Labor's inflation calculator, $16,786 in June 2019 was worth $20,589 in June 2024, suggesting that despite the large headline increase of nearly 23%, real per-student spending is essentially flat. California's rapid aging — the state projects a quarter of residents expected to be 60 or older by 2030 — has led experts to warn of pendingfiscaldisaster as the state's workforce participation rate — the number of working age individuals engaged in work or actively seeking work — continues itsdeclinethat started in 1989. At the same time, the overall workforcehas shrunkdue to aging amid a now-stagnant overall population. California's population of net taxpayers is also rapidlyshrinking, with40%of Californians so low-income they are enrolled in the taxpayer-funded Medi-Cal public healthc are system, which includes coverage for low-income retirees and illegal immigrants. Meanwhile, the California Department of Education's dataset demonstrated the significant growth of the state's public charter schools since the 2019-20 academic year. While non-charter public school enrollment has declined by 409,129 since then, charter enrollment grew by 52,349. This suggests that while sustained netoutmigrationand "accelerated slowdown" in births accounted for seven-eighths of the decline, about one-eighth of the decrease in traditional public school enrollment was offset by public charter enrollment. Thurmond's 2018 election as state superintendent was considered a referendum on charter schools. Thurmond secured the backing of the teachers' union as his Democratic challenger Matthew Tuck ran on a pro-charter platform, earning the backing of parents and every major newspaper in the state. While Tuck ran ahead on election night, Thurmond eked out a narrow victory a week and a half later after the state finished counting millions of uncounted ballots, including provisional ballots and late mail-in ballots. Seventy percent of public non-charter school teachers areunionized, compared to just 11% of charter teachers. According to federaldata, public charter school teachers tend to earn about 20% less than their traditional public school counterparts. A national Stanfordstudyreleased in 2023 comparing public charter and traditional public schools with similar student body characteristics found that California charter students demonstrated higher proficiency than traditional public school students in the two tested categories — reading and math — by the equivalent of 11 and 4 days of instruction, respectively, per 180-day academic year. Hispanic, Black and low-income students gained the most from charter school instruction, with Hispanic students gaining the equivalent of 31 days of reading — more than six weeks — and 16 days of math instruction, with Black students advancing 28 and 16 days respectively, and low-income students advancing 22 and 17 days.

byRoger Fisher

in

May 23, 2025

CA K-12 shrinks as birth rate collapses, 'dual language immersion' grows 39%

CA K-12 shrinks as birth rate collapses, 'dual language immersion' grows 39% (The Center Square) - Overall enrollment in California...

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Federal judge blocks Trump administration from barring foreign student enrollment at Harvard

Federal judge blocks Trump administration from barring foreign student enrollment at Harvard

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration from cutting off Harvard'senrollment of foreign students, an action the Ivy League school decried as unconstitutional retaliation for defying the White House's political demands. In its lawsuit filed earlier Friday in federal court in Boston, Harvard said the government's action violates the First Amendment and will have an "immediate and devastating effect for Harvard and more than 7,000 visa holders." "With the stroke of a pen, the government has sought to erase a quarter of Harvard's student body, international students who contribute significantly to the University and its mission," Harvard said in its suit. "Without its international students, Harvard is not Harvard." The temporary restraining order was granted by U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs. The Trump administration move has thrown campus into disarray days before graduation. Harvard said in the suit.International studentswho run labs, teach courses, assist professors and participate inHarvard sportsare now left deciding whether to transfer or risk losing legal status to stay in the country, according to the filing. The impact is heaviest at graduate schools such as the Harvard Kennedy School, where almost half the student body comes from abroad, and Harvard Business School, which is about one-third international. Along with its impact on current students, the move blocks thousands of students who were planning to come for summer and fall classes. Harvard said it immediately puts the school at a disadvantage as it competes for the world's top students. Even if it regains the ability to host students, "future applicants may shy away from applying out of fear of further reprisals from the government," the suit said. If the government's action stands, Harvard said, the university would be unable to offer admission to new international students for at least the next two academic years. Schools that have that certification withdrawn by the federal government are ineligible to reapply until one year afterward, Harvard said. Harvard enrolls almost 6,800 foreign students at its campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Most are graduate students and they come from more than 100 countries. The Department of Homeland Security announced the action Thursday, accusingHarvardof creating an unsafe campus environment by allowing "anti-American, pro-terrorist agitators" to assault Jewish students on campus. It also accused Harvard of coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party, contending the school had hosted and trained members of a Chinese paramilitary group as recently as 2024. Harvard President Alan Garber earlier this month said the university has madechanges to its governanceover the past year and a half, including a broad strategy to combat antisemitism, He said Harvard would not budge on its "its core, legally-protected principles" over fears of retaliation. Harvard has said it will respond at a later time to allegations first raised by House Republicans about coordination with the Chinese Communist Party. The threat to Harvard's international enrollment stems from an April 16 request from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who demanded that Harvard provide information about foreign students that might implicate them in violence or protests that could lead to their deportation. Harvard says it provided "thousands of data points" in response to Noem's April 16 demand. Her letter on Thursday said Harvard failed to satisfy her request, but the school said she failed to provide any further explanation. "It makes generalized statements about campus environment and 'anti-Americanism,' again without articulating any rational link between those statements and the decision to retaliate against international students," the suit said. Harvard's lawsuit said the administration violated the government's own regulations for withdrawing a school's certification. The government can and does remove colleges from the Student Exchange and Visitor Program, making them ineligible to host foreign students on their campus. However, it's usually for administrative reasonsoutlined in law, such as failing to maintain accreditation, lacking proper facilities for classes, or failing to employ qualified professional personnel. Noem said Harvard can regain its ability to host foreign students if it produces a trove of records on foreign students within 72 hours. Her updated request demands all records, including audio or video footage, of foreign students participating in protests or dangerous activity on campus. The lawsuit is separate from the university's earlier one challenging more than $2 billion in federal cuts imposed by the Republican administration. ___ Associated Press writer Annie Ma contributed to this report. ___ The Associated Press' education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP'sstandardsfor working with philanthropies, alistof supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

byRoger Fisher

in

May 23, 2025

Federal judge blocks Trump administration from barring foreign student enrollment at Harvard

Federal judge blocks Trump administration from barring foreign student enrollment at Harvard WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Friday blo...

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Ex-Harvard morgue manager pleads guilty to trafficking organs, brains, other remains

Ex-Harvard morgue manager pleads guilty to trafficking organs, brains, other remains

Organs, brains, skin, hands, faces and dissected heads are examples of the human remains stolen and trafficked by aformer morgue manager at Harvard University, the ex-employee admitted in federal court. Cedric Lodge, 57, pleaded guilty on May 21 in the Middle District of Pennsylvania to the interstate transport of stolen human remains,Acting U.S. Attorney John Gurganus announced on May 22. From 2018 through at least March 2020, Lodge was involved in the sale and trafficking of human remains stolen from Harved Medical School's morgue in Boston, Massachusetts, according to the U.S. attorney's office. At the time of the crimes, Lodge was employed as the manager of Harvard Medical School's morgue. The stolen remains came from donated cadavers after they were used for research and teaching purposes, federal prosecutors said. Before they could be disposed of, Lodge took the remains without the knowledge or permission of Harvard, the donor of the cadavers or the donor's family, according to the U.S. attorney's office. "We are appalled to learn that something so disturbing could happen on our campus — a community dedicated to healing and serving others," George Daley, dean of the Faculty of Medicine, and Edward Hundert, dean for Medical Education,said in a joint statement in 2023."The reported incidents are a betrayal of (the Harvard Medical School) and, most importantly, each of the individuals who altruistically chose to will their bodies to HMS through the Anatomical Gift Program to advance medical education and research." Once in Lodge's possession, he transported the remains to his home in New Hampshire. After Lodge and his wife, Denise Lodge, sold the remains, they would ship them to buyers in other states, or the buyer would purchase them directly and transport the body parts themselves, the U.S. attorney's office said. According to federal prosecutors, the stolen remains sold by Lodge were transported from the morgue in Boston to various locations in Salem, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania. Lodge admitted to selling the remains to multiple individuals who have since pleaded guilty, including Jeremy Pauley, Joshua Taylor, Andrew Ensanian, Matthew Lampi and Angelo Pereyra. According to court documents obtained by USA TODAY, Ensanian and Pereyra bought and transported remains worth $5,000 or more. Lodge, his wife and Taylor would communicate with potential buyers of the stolen human remains through social media websites and cell phones, an indictment against the three says. According to the court document, the group sometimes shipped the remains through the U.S. Postal Service to Pennsylvania and elsewhere. Another individual involved in the scheme was Candace Chapman-Scott, who stole remains from an Arkansas crematorium where she was employed and sold them to Pauley in Pennsylvania, federal prosecutors said. She pleaded guilty in Arkansas federal court and was sentenced to 15 years. The only person who has not pleaded guilty or been convicted is Katrina Maclean, who federal prosecutors allege helped Lodge, his wife, and Taylor. According to a criminal complaint, Maclean owns Kat's Creepy Creations, a studio and store in Peabody, Massachusetts. As of May 23, court records do not show that Lodge has a sentencing date scheduled. Contributing: Eric Lagatta/ USA TODAY Jonathan Limehouse covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at JLimehouse@gannett.com. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Harvard morgue case: Cedric Lodge pleads guilty to trafficking remains

byRoger Fisher

in

May 23, 2025

Ex-Harvard morgue manager pleads guilty to trafficking organs, brains, other remains

Ex-Harvard morgue manager pleads guilty to trafficking organs, brains, other remains Organs, brains, skin, hands, faces and dissected heads ...

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