by Sharon Lerner | Nov 7, 2026 | News, South Africa, State Department, Trump Administration, White South Africans, White Supremacy
After slashing funding for programs that documented atrocities and protected human rights abroad, President Donald Trump’s State Department is now granting one of its first new human rights awards to a controversial South African organization that promotes the disputed notion that white farmers are a violently targeted, persecuted group, according to multiple sources knowledgeable about the…
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by Sharon Zhang | Nov 5, 2026 | Deportations, Donald Trump, immigration, News, Refugees, South Africa, State Department, White Supremacy
The Trump administration is blocking admissions for nearly every type of refugee — except for white South Africans, who make up nearly all of those admitted under President Donald Trump’s second term so far, data shows. According to State Department data compiled by economist Steve Rattner, white South Africans make up 98 percent of refugee admissions between February 2025 and July 2026.
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by Sharon Zhang | Jul 30, 2026 | AIDS Crisis, Global health, Marco Rubio, News, PEPFAR, State Department
The U.S. State Department presented a map of Africa at a global AIDS conference this week in which every country was mislabelled and its borders jumbled. The map, as first reported by Substack writer and AIDS expert Emily Bass and confirmed by Reuters, “caused a stir” when it was presented by a top official from the foreign affairs agency. The graphic shows an outline of Africa with six…
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by Sharon Zhang | Jul 21, 2026 | Cold War, Criminalization, cuba, Donald Trump, Fascism, Marco Rubio, News, Red Scare, State Department
The State Department has released a report that labels Cuba as the “ideological capital” of left-wing politics in a document seemingly imitating Cold War politics published amid the Trump administration’s fascistic crackdown on the left. The 99-page report is entitled “Cuba: The Capital of 21st Century Communism.” It argues that, since the rise of Fidel Castro and left-wing revolutionary…
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by Sharon Zhang | Jul 15, 2026 | Donald Trump, Francesca Albanese, Ilhan Omar, International Criminal Court, Marco Rubio, News, Palestine, Sanctions, State Department
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota) has introduced legislation urging the U.S. to join the International Criminal Court (ICC), pushing back against Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s campaign to “dismantle” the institution. The move comes as Rubio has been slapped with a new lawsuit accusing him of unconstitutionally sanctioning the court’s officials and a UN human rights expert. Earlier this week…
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by Shireen Akram-Boshar | May 13, 2026 | Clinton Administration, News, passports, SNAP, State Department, Trump Administration, welfare cuts
The U.S. State Department announced on Thursday that it will begin revoking passports of parents who owe significant child support. The department said that it would begin revoking U.S. passports of parents who owe $100,000 in unpaid child support — some 2700 U.S. passport holders — before expanding to include any parents who owe more than $2,500 in child support. The Department of Health…
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