Washington Post: Trump shut out refugees but is making White South Africans an exception

Federal and Virginia state officials are preparing to receive about 60 White South Africans at Dulles International Airport next week, government documents and emails show.

Months after the Trump administration ground U.S. refugee admissions to a halt, the program meant for people fleeing war or political persecution has restarted — but only for one group: White South Africans.

Plans are underway to fly approximately 60 Afrikaners to Dulles International Airport on a State Department-chartered plane Monday, with federal and Virginia officials preparing to receive them in a ceremonial news conference, according to documents and emails obtained by The Washington Post, as well as three government officials familiar with the preparations.

Real refugees need not apply, but South Africa’s fallen racists are welcomed.

https://archive.is/MMsu5#selection-213.0-224.0

Bloomberg: Global Shift to Bypass the Dollar Is Gaining Momentum in Asia

Banks and brokers are seeing rising demand for currency derivatives that bypass the dollar, as trade tensions add a sense of urgency to a years-long shift away from the greenback.

Firms are receiving more requests for transactions including hedges that sidestep the dollar and involve currencies such as the yuan, the Hong Kong dollar, the Emirati dirham and the euro. There’s also demand for yuan-denominated loans, and a bank in Indonesia is setting up a desk for the Chinese currency.

The vast majority of foreign-exchange trades use the dollar even if they’re transferring money between two local currencies. For example, an Egyptian company wanting Philippine pesos will typically transfer its local currency into the greenback before buying pesos with the dollars it receives. But companies are increasingly looking at strategies that skip the dollar’s role as a go-between.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/ar-AA1EqTN6

Mediaite: Bill Gates Goes Nuclear on Elon Musk: ‘The World’s Richest Man Killing the World’s Poorest Children’

Microsoft founder Bill Gates didn’t mince words in his evaluation of Elon Musk’s role in government, fuming that “the world’s richest man” was “killing the world’s poorest children.”

Speaking with the The Financial Times, Gates expressed his disgust with Musk’s role in shuttering the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

“The picture of the world’s richest man killing the world’s poorest children is not a pretty one,” said Gates, who told the Times that he’d “love for him [Musk] to go in and meet the children that have now been infected with HIV because he cut” American aid that had been going to a hospital in Mozambique.

More here:

https://apnews.com/article/bill-gates-foundation-996819a2c13c58f0c7c658a58374f236

And here:

https://archive.is/rKUs0

Wall Street Journal: First Canada, Now Australia: The Trump Factor Boosts Another World Leader in an Election

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was returned to power in an election Saturday, the latest left-leaning leader to achieve a comeback victory as President Trump roils global markets and upends international affairs.

As of about 11 p.m. Sydney time, Albanese’s Labor Party was projected to win at least 87 seats in the nation’s House of Representatives—where governments are formed—defeating the conservative bloc of the Liberal and National parties, which was projected to win at least 40, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

The result was a decisive win for Albanese, whose party expanded its majority in the 150-seat chamber. Before the vote, polls showed Albanese leading, but not by much.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/first-canada-now-australia-the-trump-factor-boosts-another-world-leader-in-a-close-election/ar-AA1E671D

Axios: Israel plans to occupy and flatten all of Gaza if no deal by Trump’s trip

Israel has set President Trump’s visit to the Middle East next week as a deadline for a new hostage and ceasefire deal, with a massive ground operation to commence if no deal is reached, Israeli officials say.

Why it matters: Israel’s Security Cabinet approved a plan Sunday night to gradually reoccupy all of Gaza and hold it indefinitely if no deal is reached by May 15. Plans for the operation call for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to flatten any buildings that remain standing and displace virtually the entire population of 2 million people to a single “humanitarian area.”

Ethnic cleansing at its “finest”.

https://www.axios.com/2025/05/05/israel-gaza-destroy-trump-deal

Daily Beast: ‘Frustrated’ MTG Unleashes Laundry List of Complaints Against Trump Admin

Outspoken Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has sounded off against the Trump administration in a lengthy tirade on the social media site X.

“I represent the base and when I’m frustrated and upset over the direction of things, you better be clear, the base is not happy,” wrote Greene.

The post fired shots at the recent minerals deal with Ukraine, the handling of the war in Iraq, COVID-19 vaccines, and election integrity, saying the Trump administration has so far failed to address concerns that frustrate “the base.”

The only constituency Marjorie Taylor Greene represents is her own big mouth. But it’s always good to see the carnivores chewing on one another. Remember, “It’s a dog eat dog world.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/frustrated-mtg-unleashes-laundry-list-of-complaints-against-trump-admin/ar-AA1E54Ss

NBC News: Germany hits back at Rubio’s defense of far-right AfD party

Germany rebuked Secretary of State Marco Rubio after he slammed the country’s intelligence agency for classifying the far-right political party Alternative for Germany a “proven-right wing extremist organization.”

“We have learnt from our history that right-wing extremism needs to be stopped,” Germany’s foreign office wrote on X, in direct reply to Rubio.

AfD, whose staunch supporters include Vice President JD Vance and billionaire Elon Musk, was already under surveillance for suspected extremism by Germany’s intelligence services, which on Friday classified the party as a “proven right-wing extremist organization.” 

Marco Rubio & J.D. Dunce & F’Elon Musk seem to thing that neo-Nazis are cool. Thankfully Germany has learned from its past mistakes and has no intention of repeating history.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/germany-hits-back-at-rubio-s-defense-of-far-right-afd-party/ar-AA1E6mLU

Politico Magazine: JD Vance’s Little Brother Tries His Hand at Politics. It’s Not Going So Well.

Cory Bowman says he wants to be mayor of Cincinnati. He might have other things in mind.

A lonely microphone and an empty chair sat at the end of a long, yellow cloth-draped table where Vice President JD Vance’s half-brother, Cory Bowman, should have been sitting. If Bowman had been there, it would have been one of a handful of key appearances ahead of the first election for potentially the first role of his nascent political career: Cincinnati mayor.

It was a Tuesday night in April inside a community center, where the local NAACP chapter was holding the second and final debate ahead of the May 6 mayoral primary. And Bowman, a local evangelical pastor, coffee shop owner and the first Republican to file to run for mayor here in 16 years, was nowhere to be found.

Dunce and Duncer?

https://archive.is/5yTgC#selection-1041.13-1060.0

Newsweek: Mike Pence Calls for Donald Trump Reversal—’Warning Signs Are Flashing’

Former Vice President Mike Pence urged President Donald Trump to reverse course on the sweeping tariffs he announced in April.

In an op-ed published in The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, Pence wrote that “economic warning signs are flashing” as he criticized Trump’s tariffs as a “massive policy misstep.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/mike-pence-calls-for-donald-trump-reversal-warning-signs-are-flashing/ar-AA1E2Gmg

Newsweek: Mike Pence Calls for Donald Trump Reversal—’Warning Signs Are Flashing’

Former Vice President Mike Pence urged President Donald Trump to reverse course on the sweeping tariffs he announced in April.

In an op-ed published in The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, Pence wrote that “economic warning signs are flashing” as he criticized Trump’s tariffs as a “massive policy misstep.”

I’ve a hunch King Donald won’t be listening to any advice from his former vice-president Mike Pence.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/mike-pence-calls-for-donald-trump-reversal-warning-signs-are-flashing/ar-AA1E2Gmg