Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at rising xenophobia in South Africa, indirect U.S.-Iran negotiations in Qatar, and a massive Ukrainian bombardment of Russia.
‘They Must Go’
Widespread anti-immigrant rallies kicked off across South Africa on Tuesday, as thousands of demonstrators demanded that all undocumented migrants leave the country immediately. “For the next six months, we are asking for our national resources to be used to take the illegal immigrants out of this country,” said Jacinta Ngobese, the leader of March and March, which organized the event. “From building to building, they must go.”
Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at rising xenophobia in South Africa, indirect U.S.-Iran negotiations in Qatar, and a massive Ukrainian bombardment of Russia.
‘They Must Go’
Widespread anti-immigrant rallies kicked off across South Africa on Tuesday, as thousands of demonstrators demanded that all undocumented migrants leave the country immediately. “For the next six months, we are asking for our national resources to be used to take the illegal immigrants out of this country,” said Jacinta Ngobese, the leader of March and March, which organized the event. “From building to building, they must go.”
Anti-immigrant groups gave migrants a “deadline” of June 30 to self-deport or face arrest and deportation, with Ngobese vowing on Tuesday to hold weekly marches until the group’s objectives are met. Although South African President Cyril Ramaphosa warned protesters to remain peaceful and not to engage in vigilantism, fear of violence has prompted thousands of people—both undocumented migrants as well as foreign nationals in South Africa legally—to flee the country.
Protesters have accused foreign nationals, mostly from other African countries, of committing crimes and taking away jobs and resources from South Africa’s citizens. Within just a few weeks, their movement gained nationwide traction—and quickly turned violent and, in some cases, even deadly. Last month, demonstrators set fire to more than 50 shacks in the harbor town of Mossel Bay, killing several foreign nationals. Protest organizers have denied responsibility for any violence. “Unfortunately, we can’t be in every single community telling them … how to behave,” Ngobese told Reuters earlier this month.
The violent mob prompted Ramaphosa to announce plans to deploy envoys across the continent to tackle xenophobic attacks. Yet such sentiment appears to only be worsening ahead of municipal elections in November, as some politicians are choosing to join the protests to boost their popularity in local races.
Consulates and foreign missions have reportedly been overwhelmed by the number of people trying to leave the country. Some undocumented migrants have resorted to sleeping outside of government offices for protection, fearing that they will be attacked in their homes. And locals have accused landlords in the cities of Johannesburg and Durban of illegally evicting foreign tenants to prevent their buildings from being vandalized.
Pretoria “will not tolerate any attempts to destabilize the country by anyone, whether marching or otherwise,” Ramaphosa said ahead of Tuesday’s march. Although he has acknowledged the public’s concerns about illegal immigration, he stressed on Monday that the right to protest “does not allow people to threaten or intimidate others, or to engage in acts of vandalism or violence.”
Ramaphosa deployed thousands of police officers on Tuesday to maintain order during the rallies, and he placed the military on standby. Many businesses chose to shutter their doors to prevent looting and vandalism.
Only around 3 million people in South Africa (or roughly 4 percent of the country’s population) are foreign nationals. Yet seven out of 10 South Africans view immigrants’ economic impact as negative, with many accusing foreigners of exacerbating the nation’s high unemployment rate.
Today’s Most Read
What We’re Following
Talks in Doha. U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner arrived in Doha on Tuesday to discuss critical regional issues, including the Iran and Lebanon wars. According to Qatar’s foreign ministry, there are no high-level U.S. talks scheduled with an Iranian delegation, though an Iranian official will also be in Doha this week to discuss the potential release of frozen Iranian assets.
Control of the Strait of Hormuz is also likely to be a topic of discussion in these meetings. Iran maintains that it has sole authority over the strategic waterway, despite U.S. objections. On Tuesday, an Iranian official and four diplomats confirmed that Iran and Oman are jointly moving forward with plans to charge service-related fees for ships traversing the strait. While the countries insist that these will not be transit fees, which are illegal under international law, charging for services would be a significant change to Hormuz’s prewar status and grant Tehran greater influence over the thoroughfare.
Control of the strait is not the only sticking point to ongoing peace talks, though. Tehran insists that the truce with Washington must be linked to stopping the Israel-Lebanon war, even as Israeli forces continue to strike alleged Hezbollah targets. Over the weekend, Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon killed at least one person just one day after Israel and Lebanon signed a U.S.-mediated framework peace deal; Hezbollah was not party to these negotiations and has rejected the agreement’s terms.
Long-distance strikes. Ukrainian forces damaged one of Russia’s largest satellite communication centers on Tuesday during a massive overnight aerial bombardment of Moscow. The Dubna site “is a specialized satellite communications facility used, among other things, for intelligence gathering and coordinating the activities of Russia’s occupying forces in Ukraine,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on X. The Kremlin has not confirmed an attack on the facility, but Moscow region Gov. Andrey Vorobyov acknowledged that a Ukrainian drone hit an “administrative building” in the area.
Hitting Dubna underscores Ukraine’s growing ability to strike targets deep inside Russian territory. Dubna is located around 310 miles from the Ukrainian border, and Tuesday’s attack was the second such strike on the facility this month.
“Step by step, we are implementing our plan of long-range sanctions and making it as difficult as possible for the aggressor state to carry out its invasion operations against Ukraine and the occupation of our territories,” Zelensky added. Russia’s defense ministry claimed to have intercepted at least 419 Ukrainian drones across at least 16 regions, including Moscow and Russian-occupied Crimea, in attacks early on Tuesday.
SCOTUS ruling. The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected the White House’s effort to restrict birthright citizenship in the United States, delivering a blow to Trump’s immigration agenda.
In the 6-3 ruling, the Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s decision to block Trump’s executive order, signed on his first day in office, directing U.S. agencies not to recognize the citizenship of children born in the United States if neither parent was a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident. “[T]here is scant evidence for this dramatically revisionist view,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court, arguing that the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution extends citizenship to “every free-born person in this land.”
Trump, though, appeared to brush off the judicial loss, reposting a headline on Tuesday that claimed that “Trump’s efforts to reverse birthright citizenship may succeed with or without SCOTUS.” He later called on Congress to begin drafting legislation to end birthright citizenship, writing, “No long and unwieldy Constitutional Amendment is necessary.”
Odds and Ends
Paraguay President Santiago Peña declared Tuesday to be a national holiday to celebrate the country’s surprise World Cup victory over Germany. The South American team (ranked 33rd in the world) entered Monday’s match with low hopes, and sure enough, Germany (ranked 12th) dominated possession during the match. Yet with the score still tied 1-1 after extra time, the match proceeded to a penalty shootout, which Paraguay won 4-3. It was one of the biggest upsets of this year’s World Cup thus far.
Paraguay is the second Latin American country to make defeating Germany’s team a national celebration. Last week, Ecuador also announced a national holiday after clinching a 2-1 victory to reach the knockout stage.
