A contentious law that allows South Africa’s government to expropriate land – without compensation in some cases – has enraged the United States, triggering aid cuts by Washington and outbursts from President Donald Trump.

Many fear that the African nation could now potentially lose some of its US trade privileges as relations between the two countries deteriorate.

South Africa is the largest beneficiary of the African Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA), a US trade agreement that provides preferential duty-free access to US markets for eligible Sub-Saharan African nations.

Some US lawmakers want those benefits withdrawn when AGOA is reviewed this year.

What has angered the US?

In January, South Africa enacted the Expropriation Act, seeking to undo the legacy of apartheid, which created huge disparities in land ownership among its majority Black and minority White population.

Under apartheid, non-White South Africans were forcibly dispossessed from their lands for the benefit of Whites. Today, some three decades after racial segregation officially ended in the country, Black South Africans, who comprise over 80% of the population of 63 million, own only around 4% of private land.

The expropriation law empowers South Africa’s government to take land and redistribute it – with no obligation to pay compensation in some instances – if the seizure is found to be “just and equitable and in the public interest.”

President Cyril Ramaphosa said the legislation would “ensure public access to land in an equitable and just manner.” But the White House disagrees.

Trump and his South African-born billionaire adviser Elon Musk believe that the land reform policy discriminates against White South Africans. Sanctions have since followed.

Responding to a post by Ramaphosa on X about the new legislation, Musk asked: “Why do you have openly racist ownership laws?”

In an executive order issued on February 7, Trump revoked all aid for South Africa, accusing the country of human rights violations. He also denounced South Africa’s stance against Israel’s war in Gaza, saying the nation undermined US national interests.

The executive order did not specify what aid was being halted but nearly $440 million was committed to South Africa in 2023 – the bulk of which went to its health sector – according to data on the US Foreign Assistance website.

Ramaphosa said in a post on X before the order was issued that, “with the exception of PEPFAR Aid (the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) which constitutes 17% of South Africa’s HIVAids programme, there is no other funding that is received by South Africa from the United States.”

“Based on the changes in trade policy and national interests of the US government, the possibility of changes and South Africa’s exclusion does exist,” he said.

To remain eligible for AGOA, a benefiting nation “must demonstrate respect for rule of law, human rights … (and) should also not seek to undermine US foreign policy interests,” according to requirements outlined on its website.

In a letter to Trump on February 11, US Rep. Andy Ogles and three other Republican congressmen called for South Africa’s duty-free access to the US market to be withdrawn and for diplomatic ties to be suspended, expressing disapproval of its land reforms, its alleged “vendetta against Israel” and its “embrace of China.”

What happens if South Africa is cut off from AGOA?

South Africa’s exports are partly driven by agriculture, which accounted for 10% of the country’s total export earnings in 2021, according to the National Agricultural Marketing Council (NAMC). South Africa is the main agricultural exporter under AGOA and its largest beneficiary, according to the US Department of Agriculture.

In a 2023 report, the department said that two-thirds of South Africa’s agricultural exports to the US “are exported tariff-free under AGOA,” with exporters of citrus, wine and fruit juice among the top beneficiaries.

“South Africa is likely to face higher tariffs of about 3% for agricultural exports to the USA should the country be ineligible for AGOA benefits,” he said.

“The loss of preferential market access for the agricultural sector could lead to reduced foreign exchange earnings, decreased competitiveness of South African agricultural products in the USA, and potential job losses,” Thindisa added.

The move might also run counter to the Trump administration’s apparent aims. Stripping South Africa of its AGOA privileges on account of its expropriation law would hurt the same White farmers whom the US seeks to protect, according to Chrispin Phiri, a spokesperson for the country’s foreign minister.

He added that: “It’s a known fact that most of our commercial farmers are White. They are the ones who are in the majority in the commercial agricultural sector, and they have a commercial gain from an agreement like AGOA. So, the very same people that you believe are being persecuted would be persecuted by such a volatile decision.”

“It would affect us considerably and threaten local jobs,” he said. “It is difficult to estimate precisely to what extent. Citrus is the economic heart of Citrusdal, and any shocks or changes in the industry affect the entire rural community.”

Justin Chadwick, who heads South Africa’s Citrus Growers Association (CGA), said the group was concerned about the situation.

“If AGOA is not renewed, it will create a challenging environment for South African citrus. AGOA ensures our citrus isn’t subject to US tariffs. A US tariff on South African citrus would make our fruit more expensive for American consumers.”

“To give you an idea of how many jobs are currently connected to US citrus export: an estimated 35,000 local jobs from farm level throughout the supply chain as well as an additional 20,000 jobs in the US are sustained by US-SA citrus exports. Without AGOA, these jobs will surely be under threat.”

At least 100,000 pallets of citrus are shipped to the US from South Africa annually, he said, adding that “South Africa’s entire North American exports make up around 9% of our total citrus exports.”

Are there other markets to turn to?

Outside the Americas region, which accounted for 6% of South Africa’s agricultural exports in 2024, the African continent is the main market for the country’s agricultural goods, making up 42% of its agricultural exports, according to the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa (Agbiz).

Other export destinations include Asia and the Middle East, which together totaled 21%, and the European Union, which made up 19% of South Africa’s agricultural exports for 2024, Agbiz data showed.

Despite the comparatively lower trade volume, the US market “matters significantly,” according to Wandile Sihlobo, chief economist at Agbiz.

“Firstly, the exports (to the US) are concentrated in specific industries, mainly nuts, citrus, wines, grapes, and fruit juices. This means while the risks associated with this market are not as significant in proportion to overall agricultural exports, they present challenges to specific industries,” he said.

Secondly, Sihlobo said, “the negative sentiment arising from any confrontation with the Americas region would have negative effects on South Africa’s agriculture.
It is, therefore, vital that South Africa maintains positive agricultural relations with this region.”

For the citrus grower Van der Merwe, finding an alternative destination for his produce if South Africa is removed from AGOA and exporting to the US becomes less profitable would not be easy.

“We would still probably export quantities (of) citrus to the US, but given that the usual tariffs would then apply, it would be a big setback,” he said. “South African citrus is valued in other markets like the Middle East and the EU, and switching to those markets if it is more profitable can be considered. But the volume of exports for us to the US is large, it will be difficult for it to be absorbed elsewhere.”

Can South Africa mend its ties with the US?

South African leader Ramaphosa said on Thursday he was ready to “do a deal” with the US to repair their plummeting relations.

“We would like to go to the United States to do a deal,” he said while responding to questions from Richard Gnodde, vice chairman of US bank Goldman Sachs, during a conference in Johannesburg.

“We don’t want to go and explain ourselves,” he added. “We want to go and do a meaningful deal with the United States on a whole range of issues.”

Ramaphosa did not specify what the deal would entail but noted it would span trade, diplomatic and political issues.

“We decided that it’s not best to have a knee-jerk reaction,” Ramaphosa said of Trump’s executive order cutting aid to his nation. “We wanted to let the dust settle.”

To seasoned diplomatic observers, US President Donald Trump’s furious dressing down of Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office was a planned political mugging, a trap set by the Trump administration to discredit the Ukrainian leader and remove him as an obstacle to whatever comes next.

Whether it was orchestrated or not, Moscow – which reacted with glee to the White House slanging match – is now anticipating talks aimed at rebuilding the US-Russia relationship will continue, even accelerate, in the weeks ahead.

Nothing has been announced in public. But, privately, there’s talk of the Trump-Putin summit, always on the cards, now being fast-tracked.

There is also renewed optimism in Moscow that, with President Zelensky at odds with President Trump and his team, difficult negotiations to end the war in Ukraine will now take a back seat to a raft of potentially lucrative US-Russia economic deals already being tabled behind closed doors.

Riyadh, in Saudi Arabia, is where the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov led the first round of extraordinary talks last month, sidelining Ukraine.

Separately, the Financial Times is reporting that there have been efforts to involve US investors in the restarting Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Europe, which Germany halted at the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Dmitriev has called for the Trump administration and Russia to start “building a better future for humanity,” and to “focus on investment, economic growth, AI breakthroughs,” and long-term joint scientific projects like “Mars exploration,” even posting a highly produced computer graphic, on Elon Musk’s X social media platform, showing an imagined joint US-Russia-Saudi mission to Mars, on board what appears to be a Space X rocket.

Putting aside the many risks, there are clearly vast profits to be made in doing business with Russia, which incidentally also has the world’s fourth biggest reserves of rare earths, far bigger than Ukraine’s.

That clearly appeals to the mercantile President Trump, whose relentless pursuit of a lucrative deal is being harnessed by the Russian state.

“Trump’s business acumen crushes Biden’s narratives. The attempt to defeat Russia collapsed,” Dmitriev commented on X.

But what has been witnessed since Trump’s inauguration in January seems to be about way more than money but a fundamental resetting of US-Russia ties.

By so closely embracing the Kremlin, the Trump administration risks turning its back on the Western allies, leaving Europe isolated in a seismic shift of Washington’s global stance.

Even the Kremlin, somewhat taken aback by the speed of events, has publicly taken note.

“The new (US) administration is rapidly changing all foreign policy configurations. This largely coincides with our vision,” the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told Russian state television in remarks which aired Sunday.

But why the US president would choose the Kremlin over America’s traditional partners remains the subject of intense speculation.

Much of it, like the frequent suggestion that Trump is somehow a Kremlin agent, or beholden to Putin, is without evidence.

Perhaps the right-wing US ideological fantasy that Russia is a natural US ally in a future confrontation with China, and can be broken away from its most important backer, is motivating Washington’s dramatic geopolitical shift.

But for many bewildered observers, both explanations for Trump’s extraordinary pivot to the Kremlin seem equally misplaced.

The usually strained, if not openly hostile, relationship between the US and Russia appears to be entering a new and radical phase.

Massive snowstorms and record heat hit eastern China over the weekend, with residents of one province wrapping up against driving snow and their compatriots down the coast heading outdoors to enjoy ice cream.

Blizzards on Sunday swept across the eastern province of Shandong, south of Beijing, with snow piling up to 13 centimeters (5.1 inches) deep in some areas, according to state-run outlet the Global Times.

Photos from provincial capital Jinan showed residents bundled up in thick coats and boots, workers shoveling snow from roads, and parks boasting newly-built snowmen.

City authorities issued two red alerts for road ice and blizzard dangers, while several districts canceled classes for Monday, the Global Times reported.

Travel was also disrupted, with delays on multiple high-speed rail lines through the province.

But about 400 miles down the coast in the finance hub of Shanghai, residents experienced a weekend of record heat.

The city of almost 25 million recorded its hottest early March in more than 150 years, according to the Global Times.

Temperatures hit a new early March record on Saturday – then rose even higher on Sunday to 28.5 degrees Celsius (83 Fahrenheit). Residents took advantage of the unseasonably warm weather, flocking outdoors in t-shirts and shorts; photos from the city show people eating ice cream in the sun and children frolicking in public fountains.

Temperatures in Shanghai are expected to drop in the coming days. But the vastly different conditions across the country reflect the increasingly unpredictable climate that in recent years has brought soaring temperatures, prolonged droughts and devastating floods.

Last year was China’s hottest since nationwide records began more than 60 years ago and in Shanghai, it was the warmest year since the Qing dynasty, Reuters reported, citing local authorities.

It was a weekend for the history books. What began with US President Donald Trump furiously berating Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House ended with a show of European unity in London and vows to wrestle negotiations over the Russia-Ukraine war away from the US.

Here are five key takeaways from a public bust-up that has profound implications for Washington’s relationship with some of its strongest allies:

Zelensky-Trump fallout

The unprecedented scenes that unfolded in the Oval Office on Friday appalled Western allies, but came after weeks of fundamental changes in transatlantic relations led by a new White House administration pushing an “America First” agenda.

Those changes first became apparent when US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said last month that Kyiv joining NATO was unrealistic – upending the alliance’s stated policy while handing Russia a major concession – and told European allies the US will no longer prioritize European and Ukrainian security.

Later, Vice President JD Vance made a blistering speech to European leaders in Munich, claiming they are suppressing free speech, losing control of immigration, refusing to work with hard-right parties in government – and that the biggest threat they face comes “from within,” rather than China and Russia.

And Trump had already wrongly accused Kyiv of starting the conflict and labeled Zelensky a “dictator.”

Then Zelensky met Trump on Friday as their two countries tried to hammer out an agreement that would give Washington access to Kyiv’s mineral resources in exchange for investment and what Ukraine hopes would be concrete security guarantees.

That deal looks off the table for now after the fiery showdown which saw the Ukrainians instructed to leave the White House, accused of being ungrateful for American military support.

Europe steps up

Western nations were quick to signal their continued support for Zelensky and his war-torn country.

On Saturday Zelensky arrived in London, where British Prime Minister Keir Starmer embraced him in front of the TV cameras. That warm reception also extended to a meeting with King Charles at Sandringham House.

But it was at a crucial summit of European leaders in London that European unity and allyship with Ukraine was on full display, as they attempted to forge a path toward a ceasefire and ramp up ongoing military support for Kyiv.

Starmer told the summit that the West is at a “crossroads in history” and “this is not a moment for more talk. It’s time to act.”

NATO chief Mark Rutte said more countries agreed to ramp up defense spending, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said it was vital for Europe to “rearm” and would present a plan to do that this week.

Fresh plan to stop the fighting

During the meeting, France and Britain proposed an alternative peace deal for Ukraine that would involve a month-long limited ceasefire, French President Emmanuel Macron told Le Figaro newspaper.

Countries would enter a “coalition of the willing” to defend a deal and guarantee peace, Starmer said, and his country would back this with “boots on the ground and planes in the air.”

Any potential peace plan would have to involve Russia, but Moscow would not dictate the terms of “any security guarantee,” Starmer added. Zelensky has not said whether he agreed with the proposal and Russia has already said it will not accept European troops as peacekeepers.

And it remains to be seen whether this proposal has legs with the White House, which has pursued direct peace talks with Moscow that currently do not include Ukraine or Europe.

American support still needed

What was clear from the meeting is that US support is still crucial for Ukraine peace efforts. Starmer reiterated any plan would need “strong US backing.”

Since his disastrous visit to Washington, Zelensky has repeatedly expressed his gratitude for both US and European military support. “There has not been a day when we have not felt this gratitude,” he said in his nightly address Sunday night.

Zelensky said on Saturday his country was ready to sign the rare minerals deal with the US, and called the US a “strategic partner,” saying it would not benefit anyone other than Russia if US assistance to Ukraine were to stop.

A win for Putin

Putin has been tight lipped about the Oval Office fracas although Russian state media and officials have reacted with glee.

Moscow is now anticipating talks aimed at rebuilding the US-Russia relationship will continue in the weeks ahead and, though nothing has been announced in public, there’s talk of a Trump-Putin summit being fast-tracked.

The Dominican Republic deported more than 276,000 people in 2024, the country’s Immigration Directorate said Wednesday.

In the last three months of the year alone, over 94,000 foreigners with irregular status were deported under a new operation aiming to remove up to 10,000 undocumented Haitians per week, ordered by the Dominican Republic’s National Security and Defense Council headed by President Luis Abinader.

Dominican authorities also deported 48,344 during the January-March quarter, 62,446 between April-June, and 71,414 from July to September, according to the statement.

Government spokesman Homero Figueroa told reporters in October that the government ramped up deportations to address an “excess” of Haitian migrants in the Dominican Republic, which shares an island with Haiti. The two countries have long seen an informal flow of people across their shared border.

Haiti’s then-Foreign Minister Dominique Dupuy condemned “brutal scenes of raids and deportations,” and demanded justice for “dehumanizing acts” against her compatriots. Dominican authorities maintain that the deportations are carried out in compliance with human rights.

In October, Reuters footage captured dozens of migrants crammed into caged Dominican Republic law enforcement trucks heading to Haiti. Aid organizations have rushed assistance to the Haitian side of the border to assist the thousands of deportees.

The mass deportations come amid a worsening political and social crisis in Haiti; gangs are estimated to control more than 80% of the country’s capital, Port-au-Prince.

Correction: This story and headline have been corrected to reflect that the cited deportation statistics did not specify nationality.

First, they fired the people who look after the nuclear bombs, then had to hurriedly find where they went and hire them back.

They got rid of the government agricultural workers responsible for fighting bird flu — which has sent the cost of America’s breakfast soaring.

Then, amid rising public concern that an Ebola outbreak in Africa could leapfrog to the US, Elon Musk took his chainsaw to the most prominent US experts on the disease.

“We won’t be perfect. But when we make mistake, we will fix it very quickly,” later backtracked Musk, who is running President Donald Trump’s effort to eviscerate the federal government.

“With USAID, one of the things we accidentally canceled very briefly was Ebola, Ebola prevention. I think we all want Ebola prevention. So, we restored the Ebola prevention immediately,” he said.

This haphazard nihilism is symptomatic of Musk’s approach with the de-facto Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE): destroy first, ask questions later.

Claims that DOGE has already saved tens of billions of dollars in taxpayer cash are dubious — despite evidence trumpeted by conservative media of frivolous spending. Trump’s claim, for instance, that the now expunged US Agency for International Development spent $100 million on condoms for Hamas is absurdly untrue.

The president’s voters will shed few tears for federal workers kicked out of their jobs with little notice and less compensation. Tearful USAID workers had only 15 minutes to clear their desks on Thursday. But then, as with much of the Trump agenda, the cruelty is the point.

There’s nothing wrong with curtailing bloated government. When the public thinks its cash is being wasted, governance loses legitimacy.

But screw-ups by Musk and his DOGE boys are revealing one key truth — they have no clue how government works. Conservatives might view the federal government as the home of liberal elites. But it pays out pensions, administers health care for seniors and the poor, and keeps keeps planes in the sky. Every state capital has a big federal building — and it’s now dawning on some of Trump’s cheerleaders that hundreds of thousand of government jobs exist outside the Beltway.

A backlash is building as GOP lawmakers get upbraided by constituents back home.

“Things are happening so fast and furiously,” Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis said. “We need to take a step back and make sure that we’re doing things in a way that we are rooting out the waste, the fraud and the abuse and the mismanagement, making programs efficient but not resulting in unintended consequences.”

That’s not Musk’s way. He’s treating the government to the kind of creative destruction — with the emphasis on destruction — that rocked his tech businesses, rocket ship company and social network X.

If this carries on, Trump may pay a price for giving the world’s richest man almost limited government power, come the midterm elections next year.

Even when government is working, financed and fully staffed, things can go badly wrong — the botched response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the comically mismanaged Obamacare website come to mind.

But when the government is being deliberately desecrated, disasters are all but guaranteed.

Thousands of lives at stake

The obliteration of USAID has had a devastating impact on global public health programs like PEPFAR, the global HIV/AIDS program initiated by President George W. Bush that has saved millions of lives and was one of the most successful US foreign policy programs in decades. The Trump administration insists that it has offered waivers for life-saving treatments. But reports on the ground suggest that cash often isn’t getting through to clinics.

This doesn’t just affect HIV/AIDS patients whose US-provided anti-retroviral drugs keep the disease not just from worsening, but from spreading to new victims. It also risks dismantling the early warning health systems that stop outbreaks becoming epidemics.

Meanwhile wanted to find out whether an emergency operation like the one mounted by the Obama administration that successfully put down a 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa would be possible after Musk’s carnage.

Here’s what Dr. Yukari Manabe, of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, who is also a fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, told us.

“There have been some restrictions on travel for people that would normally respond (to outbreaks). So, I think that there are going to be difficulties sending the number of people in addition, people who might normally have dealt with viral hemorrhagic fever outbreaks may not be able to do that. They’ve either been fired or they are not around to do that,” Manabe said.

Without the same support, vital health services USAID built could crumble, she said. “Having people from whom you can bounce ideas off, I think, are very important, and having people who have helped build that capacity.

“They’ve trained people on the ground to be able to do this as well,” Manabe said. “So, countries in the West African Ebola outbreak who had had PEPFAR as part of the programming that they had within their countries, in general, did better in terms of the number of cases that they had.”

What to look for next week

Trump will take his latest victory lap on Tuesday night with a prime time, televised address to Congress. A man who loves adulation will get plenty from Republican lawmakers who control both chambers. It will be another moment of vindication for a president whose followers smashed their way into the very House of Representatives chamber from where he’ll speak, on January 6, 2021.

Trump’s message will be simple: He’s saving America.

But the GOP euphoria will be tempered by the reality that the president’s agenda hangs on the miniscule Republican majority in the House of Representatives. New York Rep. Elise Stefanik hasn’t yet taken up her post as the new US ambassador to the United Nations because House Speaker Mike Johnson can’t afford to lose her vote.

It’s one thing for Trump to fire off executive orders, to trample US treaties, to call for the annexation of Canada and to threaten to invade Greenland and Panama. True, lasting, political change requires Congress to act. If he wants his huge tax cut and to fund his mass deportation plan, Trump must inspire unity among his political troops.

Keep an eye on which Supreme Court justices show up. Their attendance at such events is always politically charged — even though they’re usually stone faced and sit out standing ovations.

The high court will have the critical final say on the legality of many of Trump’s power grabs and will define the destiny of his presidency and the Constitution. That means even a stray smile from one of the arch conservatives on the bench that implies favor for Trump’s political cause could ignite a political furor.