US declares South Africa’s ambassador persona non grata
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has called envoy Ebrahim Rasool a “race-baiting politician” who hates the US and President Donald Trump.
“South Africa’s Ambassador to the United States is no longer welcome in our great country,” Rubio said in a post on social media platform X.
“We have nothing to discuss with him and so he is considered PERSONA NON GRATA,” Rubio said.
Rasool had presented his credentials to former President Joe Biden on January 13, marking the start of the envoy’s tenure, according to the South African Embassy’s website, which said this was Rasool’s second stint in Washington.
Rasool has been a vocal critic of Israel. Trump’s staunchly pro-Israel stance has brought the president into conflict with South Africa over its genocide case against Israel at the World Court.
The US announcement also came on the back of a land distribution law meant in South Africa to address inequalities that have continued since the apartheid era. The South African government says that Trump is misinformed about the law, which has not been used to confiscate any land from white South Africans.
US activist group says Gaza war fuels domestic Islamophobia
CAIR, an organisaiton dedicated to advancing Muslim civil rights in the United States, says that it received 8,658 complaints of Islamophobia in 2024, in a newly released report.
This marks the highest number of complaints it has received since it began compiling data on Islamophobia in 1996, it said.
Employment discrimination became the issue most reported to CAIR, and law enforcement encounters jumped 71.5 percent.
Powerful union lambasts Columbia student expulsions
United Auto Workers (UAW) has condemned Columbia University’s crackdown on pro-Palestine protesters, including the expulsion of student union leader, Grant Miner.
The 370,000-member group said the action against Miner, who is the president of the Student Workers of Columbia, comes a day before the union was set to begin contract negotiations with the university.
“Trade unionists everywhere, defenders of the Constitution, of freedom of speech, of academic freedom, and of the right of free association, should be appalled and disgusted by the behavior of Columbia University, and should take it for the clear signal it is,” it said.
“If they can come for graduate workers, if they can arrest, deport, expel, or imprison union leaders and activists for their protected political speech, then they can come for you. For your contract. For your paycheck. For your family. And for your rights.”
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