A charity tennis match at the Vatican would have a small list of guests – but it wouldn’t even include the top men’s player in the world.

Pope Leo XIV recently said he considered himself “quite the amateur tennis player,” but one notable name would be omitted in this hypothetical match.

During a meeting between the new American pope and international media on Monday, journalists offered to play doubles, or to organize a charity match.

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The pope is all for it, but the top-ranked player would be ousted through no fault of his own: his last name.

“But we can’t invite [Jannik] Sinner,” the pope cracked.

Sinner has won three grand slams, all of which have come since the 2024 Australian Open, and has quickly turned himself into the best player on the planet.

At age 23, Sinner has skyrocketed through the world rankings, and has won back-to-back grand slams.

But it doesn’t sound like he’s visiting Pope Leo XIV any time soon.

In the pope’s defense, he does have a halfway decent excuse to exclude Sinner. 

Back in February, he was given a three-month suspension by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) after twice testing positive for a banned anabolic steroid nearly a year ago. 

The ban came just weeks after the Italian tennis pro won his third Grand Slam title – the suspension, though, avoided any Grand Slams.

It was found that Sinner had not intentionally used a banned substance for competitive gain. 

Sinner tested positive for low levels of metabolite of clostebol, a banned anabolic steroid that can be used for ophthalmological and dermatological use, in March 2024. Eight days after the Indian Wells tournament, Sinner tested positive again in an out-of-competition sample. 

According to the ITIA’s initial findings, Sinner explained that he had tested positive after receiving a massage from a trainer who had used an over-the-counter spray that contained clostebol to treat a small wound after cutting his own finger. 

Sinner’s suspension was lifted on May 4, and he is currently playing in his home country at the Italian Open. He will be on the hunt for his fourth grand slam when the French Open begins May 25.

Fox News’ Paulina Dedaj and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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A senior staffer for California Rep. Sara Jacobs’ office was the victim of an armed carjacking in a popular Washington, D.C., neighborhood on Friday afternoon, according to a Metropolitan Police Department report. 

Metro Police announced on Sunday two arrests in the armed carjacking that occurred on Friday afternoon in a Harris Teeter parking lot in Washington’s Navy Yard neighborhood. 

In addition to the victim’s personal items, the senior staffer’s government-issued iPhone, MacBook, ID and Capitol parking pass were identified as missing in the police report obtained by Fox News Digital. Jacobs’ office did not provide comment but confirmed the devices were immediately wiped.  

On Friday, around 12:08 p.m., the suspects approached the victim as they exited their car, demanding the victim’s car keys, according to Metro Police. When the staffer refused, one of the suspects brandished a handgun and obtained the keys before the suspects fled the scene in the victim’s vehicle, police said.

FAMILY OF MOM MURDERED IN RITZY DC SUBURB DECADES AGO GETS JUSTICE AS PERP NOBODY EXPECTED PLEADS GUILTY

Officers recovered the victim’s car and a firearm on Saturday, and then arrested two suspects. According to police, a 15-year-old juvenile male of Washington was charged with armed carjacking, and a 14-year-old juvenile male of Maryland was charged with carrying a pistol without a license and unauthorized use of a vehicle.

WOMAN ARRESTED FOR DRIVING INTO FESTIVAL CROWD HOURS AFTER EXPLOSION ROCKED SAME EVENT

As of Sunday, police are still searching for two outstanding suspects whose photos were captured during the incident by surveillance cameras. 

Navy Yard is a popular Washington neighborhood located south of the U.S. Capitol and home to the Washington Nationals baseball stadium. While the neighborhood has transformed over the past decade into an urban hub for congressional staffers and young professionals, it has also been the subject of criticism for its crime. 

Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said he was walking to the Navy Yard Metro Station for a transit safety event last month when he learned a Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) police officer had just been stabbed in the face. 

The WMATA confirmed the incident to Fox News Digital and said the suspect stabbed the officer “with a sharp metal object” after they did not pay their fare at the station. 

President Donald Trump vowed to clean up Washington while speaking at his “Make America Great Again” rallies on the 2024 campaign trail. Since returning to office this January, Trump has committed to creating a “crime-free capital.”  

“We’re cleaning up our city. We’re cleaning up this great capital,” the president said. “And we’re not going to have crime, and we’re not going to stand for crime,” Trump said at the Department of Justice earlier this year. 

The Jacobs staffer did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

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Fox News Digital’s Peter Pinedo and Andrew Margolis contributed to this report. 

For the first time since 1988, the New York Yankees have a new full-time play-by-play announcer on the radio.

Dave Sims replaced John Sterling, who retired early in the 2024 season but briefly returned for the postseason, on WFAN. Sims was previously the television broadcaster for the Seattle Mariners.

Sterling, of course, never missed a game from 1989 all the way until the summer of 2019, including the postseason. But Sims was not on the call for the Yankees’ series this past weekend in Sacramento against the Athletics.

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Sims had said on social media he would be missing the series to visit family in Seattle – before the Yankees’ three-game set there this week.

Sims’ absence bothered Boomer Esiason, who hosts a daily morning show on the Yankees’ radio network.

“John Sterling didn’t miss any games, did he? You just take a week off?” Esiason said. “I’m sorry, I love Dave Sims… what are you doing? You just took the Yankee job. It’s supposed to be the job of your life.”

“You don’t miss a Yankee… you just don’t do that.”

Esiason reiterated his fondness for Sims, “but I’m going to call it out as I see it.”

RANGERS’ JOSH JUNG HITS TWO-RUN HR FOR MOM VS. BROTHER JACE ON MOTHER’S DAY

“He just got started as the Yankee announcer, he’s 40 games into his career as the Yankee announcer, and he decided to take off,” Esiason continued.

Perhaps the issue hit a sore spot for Esiason, who has traveled to call NFL games and managed to make it back to New York to host his show, which he co-hosts with Gregg Giannotti.

“I would fly to Monday night games and fly back in the middle of the night to be here in studio with Craig [Carton], especially when we were being simulcast… I have done the same thing with you, as well. It’s the Yankees for God’s sake,” Esiason, the 1989 NFL MVP, said.

There was a rotation of several announcers last year for the Yankees, but they landed on Sims over the offseason.

The Yankees and Mariners series, where Sims will be calling the game from the visitors’ broadcast booth, kicks off Monday night.

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Ransomware gangs once thrived on infected email attachments and bogus invoices, but security-savvy users and hardened mail gateways have weakened those tactics. Attackers are now focusing on a subtler trick that targets the small checkbox labeled “I’m not a robot” that most people click without thinking. 

A widespread campaign known as MacReaper has compromised more than 2,800 legitimate websites and redirects visitors to an infection process designed specifically for Apple computers. The operation relies on visual trust signals, including a convincing fake of Google’s reCAPTCHA, along with hidden clipboard code that ends with the installation of Atomic macOS Stealer malware, a data-harvesting infostealer distributed through Telegram.

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When a Mac user visits one of the compromised websites, they don’t see the page they were expecting. Instead, the site displays a full-screen imitation of Google’s familiar reCAPTCHA box.

This fake reCAPTCHA appears harmless, simply asking the user to click “I’m not a robot.” However, when the user clicks the box, a hidden command is silently copied to their clipboard. Immediately afterward, the page displays a friendly message, complete with familiar macOS keyboard shortcut visuals, explicitly instructing the user to open Terminal and paste what they’ve just copied. If the user follows these instructions, the command downloads and runs the malicious file known as Atomic macOS Stealer (AMOS).

This trick is specifically targeted at Mac users. The website checks the visitor’s operating system and only activates the attack if it detects macOS. For Windows or Linux users, the site behaves normally. Researchers have dubbed this infection method “ClickFix,” referencing the single click that initiates the attack chain.

At the center of this campaign is AMOS, a sophisticated piece of malware that has become notorious in cybercrime circles. AMOS is available for rent on Telegram, with some versions costing attackers up to $3,000 per month. Once installed, AMOS can steal a wide array of sensitive data: it can extract Wi-Fi and app passwords stored in Keychain, collect browser cookies and autofill data, list system information and scan through personal folders such as Desktop and Documents. It is also capable of identifying and targeting more than 50 types of cryptocurrency wallets.

THE HIDDEN COSTS OF FREE APPS: YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

MacReaper challenges two widely held beliefs. The first is that everyday CAPTCHA checks are just harmless speed bumps. The second is that macOS provides a level of built-in security that keeps most attackers at bay. In reality, a single click can expose Keychain credentials, active browser sessions and cryptocurrency wallets.

These are exactly the kinds of targets that attract credential-stuffing groups and profit-driven cybercriminals. Because the attack is triggered by the user, many network monitoring tools treat the traffic as normal, leaving security teams with little to investigate. In environments where Macs and Windows machines share identity systems, one compromised Mac can open access to single sign-on portals, cloud storage and even production codebases.

SPOTIFY PLAYLISTS ARE BEING HIJACKED TO PROMOTE PIRATED SOFTWARE AND SCAMS

To protect yourself from the evolving threat of the MacReaper attack, which continues to target users through sophisticated social engineering tactics, consider implementing these six essential security measures.

1) Be skeptical of CAPTCHA prompts: Legitimate CAPTCHA tests never require you to copy commands or paste anything into Terminal. If a website instructs you to do this, it’s likely a scam. Close the page immediately and avoid interacting with it.

2) Don’t click links from unverified emails and use strong antivirus software: Many MacReaper attacks start with phishing emails that impersonate trusted services. Always verify the sender before clicking on links. If an email seems urgent or unexpected, go directly to the company’s official website instead of clicking any links inside the email.

The best way to safeguard yourself from malicious links that install malware, potentially accessing your private information, is to have strong antivirus software installed on all your devices. This protection can also alert you to phishing emails and ransomware scams, keeping your personal information and digital assets safe. Get my picks for the best 2025 antivirus protection winners for your Windows, Mac, Android and iOS devices.

3) Enable two-factor authentication: Enable two-factor authentication whenever possible. This adds an extra layer of security by requiring a second form of verification, such as a code sent to your phone, in addition to your password.

4) Keep devices updated: Regularly updating your operating system, browser and security software ensures you have the latest patches against known vulnerabilities. Cybercriminals exploit outdated systems, so enabling automatic updates is a simple but effective way to stay protected.

5) Monitor your accounts for suspicious activity and change your passwords: If you’ve interacted with a suspicious website, phishing email or fake login page, check your online accounts for any unusual activity. Look for unexpected login attempts, unauthorized password resets or financial transactions that you don’t recognize. If anything seems off, change your passwords immediately and report the activity to the relevant service provider. Also, consider using a password manager to generate and store complex passwords. Get more details about my best expert-reviewed password managers of 2025 here.

6) Invest in a personal data removal service: Consider using a service that monitors your personal information and alerts you to potential breaches or unauthorized use of your data. These services can provide early warning signs of identity theft or other malicious activities resulting from MacReaper or similar attacks. While no service promises to remove all your data from the internet, having a removal service is great if you want to constantly monitor and automate the process of removing your information from hundreds of sites continuously over a longer period of time. Check out my top picks for data removal services here.

MASSIVE SECURITY FLAW PUTS MOST POPULAR BROWSERS AT RISK ON MAC

MacReaper makes it clear that the most durable exploits aren’t zero-days but borrowed moments of trust, an authentic-looking CAPTCHA, a helpful-sounding fix, a clipboard that does what it’s told. As Apple tightens the technical screws with Rapid Security Responses and notarization, expect adversaries to double down on such psychological levers. The counter-strategy is to hard-bake healthy skepticism into user behavior and to instrument Macs with the same telemetry layers enterprises already expect from Windows. Security, in other words, has finally become a platform-agnostic muscle, and complacency is the riskiest operating system of all.

Do you think tech companies are doing enough to stop malware like MacReaper? Let us know by writing us at Cyberguy.com/Contact.

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President Donald Trump and his allies have railed against federal judges for blocking key executive orders in his second term, accusing so-called “activist” judges of overstepping their authority and blocking him from delivering on some of his top policy priorities.

Some of Trump’s most sweeping executive orders and actions have been blocked or paused by federal courts to allow for a full hearing on the merits. But the system of checks and balances also means these rulings can be reviewed – either through appeals to the Supreme Court or by Congress, which has the power to pass laws or expand certain executive branch authorities.

It’s all part of an expressly designed system of government that affords each branch, including the presidency, plenty of options for review. 

The Framers “made clear that no one in our system of government was meant to be king– the president included – and not just in name only,” U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell of the District of Columbia said in a ruling earlier this year.

But that’s not to say Trump is without options. Here’s how he could seek to push back against the wave of court actions. 

100 DAYS OF INJUNCTIONS, TRIALS AND ‘TEFLON DON’: TRUMP SECOND TERM MEETS ITS BIGGEST TESTS IN COURT

Since taking office, Trump’s executive orders have been challenged by hundreds of lawsuits in federal court, though not all have been successful, and some remain in the earlier stages of review.

Plaintiffs have sought to block the dismantling of certain federal agencies, to restore board heads and inspectors general fired by Trump, and to restrict the access of Elon Musk’s government efficiency agency, DOGE, among other things. 

But like the groups filing the lawsuits, the Trump administration also has the ability to appeal any lower court decisions it views as unfavorable or going beyond the scope of the federal court.

In the interim, it can seek an emergency stay to restore the executive order until the case can be heard on its merits.

The Supreme Court has agreed to do so in several major cases. It sided with Trump in removing two federal board members he had fired earlier this year, and which a lower court had reversed.  

Last week, the Supreme Court lifted a lower court order that paused Trump’s ban on transgender military members from taking effect – allowing his order and related policies to proceed, at least for now. 

BOASBERG GRILLS DOJ OVER REMARKS FROM TRUMP AND NOEM, FLOATS MOVING MIGRANTS TO GITMO IN ACTION-PACKED HEARING

The Trump administration can seek more lasting change by working with the Republican majorities in both houses of Congress to codify its biggest policy priorities, shielding the level of review currently afforded to the courts in the absence of any legislation.

According to the Code of Federal Regulations and the Federal Register, a president’s executive order can be revoked or modified only by the president or via the legislative branch, if the president was acting on authority that had been granted by Congress.  

Plaintiffs in federal court have alleged that Trump’s recent executive actions are beyond the scope of what has been authorized by Congress – and, in the absence of clearly written laws, federal judges do have broad authority to interpret the lawfulness of the executive’s actions. 

Critics of the courts have pushed for Congress to curtail this power – either by stripping the funding for federal courts, impeaching judges or eliminating judicial seats, among other things. 

“When federal judges take off their judicial robes and climb into the political arena and throw political punches, they should expect powerful political counterpunches from the Article III project,” Mike Davis, the founder and president of the Article III Project, or A3P, told Fox News Digital in an interview. 

“And when the federal judiciary loses its legitimacy, it loses everything,” Davis said. 

But these steps are highly controversial, and it’s unclear if they could garner the broad support needed from both the House and Senate. 

HERE’S WHY DOZENS OF LAWSUITS SEEKING TO QUASH TRUMP’S EARLY ACTIONS AS PRESIDENT ARE FAILING

Options available to the White House are more limited by the Constitution. The president can appoint federal judges, but he cannot fire them. The executive branch is also responsible for enforcing court rulings and may either slow-roll or de-prioritize decisions the president disagrees with. 

Meanwhile, Trump allies have also sought to push back on the power of the courts in other, more unorthodox ways.

The America First Legal Foundation, a pro-Trump legal group founded by White House aide Stephen Miller in between Trump’s first and second terms, filed a lawsuit against Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, in his capacity as the official head of the U.S. Judicial Conference, and Robert J. Conrad, the director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, earlier this month. 

The lawsuit accuses both parties of performing certain regulatory actions that go beyond the scope of the “core functions” of the judiciary – and which they argue should put them under the thumb of the executive branch. 

“An American president is not a king – not even an ‘elected’ one – and his power to remove federal officers and honest civil servants like plaintiff is not absolute,” Howell said in a case involving the reinstatement of two fired federal board members earlier this year. 

A visual tribute to Pope Leo XIV’s faithful service – reflecting his journey through priesthood, leadership, and devotion within the Catholic Church.

The identity of a Trump administration official who was allegedly targeted by the Biden administration’s State Department in a “disinformation” dossier remains a mystery nearly two weeks after Secretary of State Marco Rubio revealed details on the file.

Rubio revealed at the most recent Trump administration Cabinet meeting April 30 that an unidentified Trump administration official who was present had been the subject of a State Department dossier detailing alleged promotion of social media “disinformation.” 

Rubio, the State Department and the White House have not yet identified which official the Biden administration targeted. Fox News Digital has reached out repeatedly to the White House regarding the identity of the official, including on Monday, but did not receive replies. 

When asked for an update on the identity of the Trump official, the State Department directed Fox News Digital to Rubio’s April 30 remark, detailing that, “We are going to be turning over these dossiers to the individuals, and they’ll decide whether they want to disclose it or not.”

RUBIO REVEALS OBSCURE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION OFFICE KEPT ‘DISINFORMATION’ DOSSIER ON TRUMP OFFICIAL

Rubio said during the April 30 Cabinet meeting that a little-known, now-defunct office within the State Department called the Global Engagement Center (GEC) had compiled disinformation dossiers on Americans across the country as part of an effort to “censor” free speech, including an individual who has since joined the Trump administration. 

“We had an office in the Department of State whose job it was to censor Americans,” Rubio said during the meeting. “And, by the way, I’m not going to say who it is. I’ll leave it up to them. There’s at least one person at this table today who had a dossier in that building of social media posts to identify them as purveyors of disinformation. We have these dossiers. We are going to be turning those over to these individuals.” 

Vice President JD Vance interjected, asking, “Was it me or Elon (Musk)? We can follow up when the media is gone,” which drew laughter from the Cabinet. 

RUBIO OVERHAULING ‘BLOATED’ STATE DEPARTMENT IN SWEEPING REFORM

“But just think about that. The Department of State of the United States had set up an office to monitor the social media posts and commentary of American citizens, to identify them as vectors of disinformation,” Rubio continued. “When we know that the best way to combat disinformation is freedom of speech and transparency.”

Though Rubio did not identify which Trump official the Biden administration kept a dossier on, Elon Musk has previously railed against the Global Engagement Center. 

“The worst offender in US government censorship & media manipulation is an obscure agency called GEC,” Musk posted to X in January 2023. That was more than a year before Musk endorsed Trump in the 2024 presidential race and became a fixture of the administration in his temporary role with the Department of Government Efficiency. 

“They are a threat to our democracy,” Musk added.

RUBIO ANNOUNCES CLOSURE OF STATE DEPARTMENT EFFORT THAT ‘WAS SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD ALREADY’

Former President Barack Obama established the Global Engagement Center in 2016 through an executive order aimed at coordinating counterterrorism messaging to foreign nations before it expanded its scope to also include countering foreign propaganda and disinformation, State Department documents show.

Conservatives have slammed the office as a political weapon to silence free speech, including Rubio in an April op-ed when he cited a 2020 GEC report claiming that a “Russian disinformation apparatus” was behind public speculation that the coronavirus was an “engineered bioweapon” or was created by “research conducted at the Wuhan institute.” 

In the years following the pandemic, the Department of Energy under the Biden administration and former FBI Director Christopher Wray said evidence indicated that COVID-19 was the result of a lab leak, while the Trump administration’s CIA reported earlier in 2025 that a lab leak was the likely origin of the virus.

TWITTER BOSS ELON MUSK ACCUSES GOVERNMENT AGENCY OF BEING ‘WORST OFFENDER IN US GOVERNMENT CENSORSHIP’

In 2024, lawmakers did not approve new funding for the office in the National Defense Authorization Act, and it was scheduled to terminate on Dec. 23, 2024. The Biden administration, however, shuffled staffers and rebranded the office. 

It became the Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference Hub just days before Trump’s inauguration, the New York Post reported in January. 

Rubio announced in April that the office would officially shutter. 

“I am announcing the closure of the State Department’s Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (R/FIMI), formerly known as the Global Engagement Center (GEC),” Rubio said in an April 16 statement announcing the office’s closure. 

“Under the previous administration, this office, which cost taxpayers more than $50 million per year, spent millions of dollars to actively silence and censor the voices of Americans they were supposed to be serving,” he wrote. “This is antithetical to the very principles we should be upholding and inconceivable it was taking place in America. That ends today.” 

WHITE HOUSE PROPOSAL AXES UN, NATO FUNDS AND HALVES STATE DEPARTMENT BUDGET

Rubio has railed against the office in previous interviews and op-eds, including authoring an opinion piece for the Federalist in April touting that he was dismantling the “censorship-industrial complex” that had gripped agencies such as the State Department. 

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“Over the past half-decade, bodies like GEC, crafted by our own governing ruling class, nearly destroyed America’s long free speech history,” he wrote in the op-ed. “The enemies of speech had new lingo to justify their authoritarian impulse. It was “disinformation,” allegedly pushed by nefarious foreign governments, that was the No. 1 threat to ‘our democracy.’ To protect ‘our democracy,’ this ‘disinformation’ had to be identified and stamped out.” 

The latest political action by the Democratic Alliance (DA) to challenge the employment equity regime through the court system may be akin to stirring the hornet’s nest. It is evident that it is a strategic move, but a folly in the context of a political party that is a partner in a coalition government – the government of national unity (GNU). 

Instead of learning to influence policy reforms in a new terrain and helping South Africa shape the nature of coalition politics, the DA has chosen to divide South Africa.

Like all political parties, the DA has the right to approach the courts or any of the Chapter 9 institutions to seek relief of one kind or another. The Constitution provides the space to do so. But political parties cannot abuse the right simply because they lost a debate. 

Of course, there is a relationship between law and politics. And. yes, the law can be a theatre or instrument to pursue politics.  But it is advisable for political parties to have a strategic gaze rather more than just the narrow confines of the law when dealing with political issues. Strategy is about the theory of change which must help each political party to pursue a certain vision for society.

I want to suggest that the DA has chosen yet another ill-advised political tactic which could prove fatal and undermine its strategic objectives and the interests of its constituency. 

All of this happens in the context where, in recent years, there has been a rise of lawfare in our politics; both inside political parties, parliament, and between political parties and government. I am yet to be convinced that this is the right way to evolve our democracy. The move by the DA follows in the footsteps of this suspicious trend — a trend where if you lose democratic debate, then you run to the courts. 

For their part, the courts are forced to develop the kind of sensitiveness, knowledge and skill to draw a distinction between pure legal matters and political debate. In many instances, our courts have acquitted themselves well in this regard. On numerous occasions, they have referred political debate back to parliament where it belongs. 

But can we say with certainty that this kind of smartness by the courts will always hold, without fail? Will the DA and others take the blame when democracy and the doctrine of the separation of powers weakens due to frivolous legal challenges that are essentially political in nature?  

I listened to DA federal chair Helen Zille at the party’s recent media conference. The substantive argument of the DA against the employment equity regime makes no sense, except that it is an appeasement PR strategy for the party’s constituency and some sections of business. I do not see how the party will win the substantive argument. 

At a substantive level, it is necessary to explain the political motivations behind the DA’s tactical blunder and what it communicates to the critical public. The move simply reaffirms the fundamental nature and character of the DA. 

First, it says some political parties in parliament, including the DA, do not believe in the Constitution, let alone upholding it. According to the DA, the Constitution is valid in so far as it benefits the interests of its constituency; anything else is unacceptable and even unconstitutional. In other words, the collective history, and experiences of generations of people do not matter, but the preservation of privilege. 

Second, the party reminds us that it remains the party of racial liberalism, not just liberalism. Historically, liberalism has always been predominantly racial liberalism, an ideology or system where — to cite academic CW Mills — “a racial contract among whites that denies equal personhood to people of colour” is what drives the fundamental strategy of the party. This is why the collective history, and experiences of the vast majority becomes nothing in the eyes of the racial contractors. 

Third, the rhetoric of “building one South Africa for all” is not aligned with the political practice and choices of the party. It is clearly an empty slogan. One cannot commit to building one South Africa without redress or internalising, as well as respecting the preamble of the Constitution. 

In the long-term, such moves by the DA will not benefit its core constituency or the party itself. On the contrary, a more inclusive, stable and equal society is beneficial for all. The global evidence for this assertion is contained in a book published 15 years ago titled The Spirit Level – Why Equality is Better for Everyone.

Fourth, there is no sign that the party has any meaningful strategy to undo centuries old legacies of slavery, colonialism and racism. The alternatives are simply not there. It is for this reason, for example, that the DA will never join the call for reparations at a local or global scale. 

On the contrary, the party is pursuing an alternative foreign policy which includes undermining official government policies on issues such as Palestine, Ukraine and the United States while claiming to be a GNU partner. Worse still, it does so through megaphone diplomacy. 

Finally, every political party exists to capture state power. In the context of our history and the strong dynamic of identity politics, the DA has no prospects of breaking the 22% political support ceiling so that it may capture state power in the foreseeable future, unless it commits class suicide. 

Therefore, the GNU arrangement is the highest it can aspire to. But the move against employment is eroding whatever little trust it may have garnered since May 2024 and it is alienating itself in the GNU. This comes hot on the heels of losing key debates on the National Health Insurance, Basic Education Laws Amendment Act and the Expropriation of Land Act.

Not a single party inside and outside the GNU is expected to join the court challenge this time around. To remain in the GNU, the DA will have to moderate its racial liberalism, unless it believes against hopelessness that it can break the 22% ceiling and lead a coalition or better still, doing so alone? 

It is pretty much clear that the DA uses privilege rather than rational reason to conduct politics in the GNU terrain. That’s the nature of racial liberalism. How else can anyone explain its regular violations of the Statement of Intent by punching above its weight and continuing its divisive role in the polity? 

The strategists surrounding the DA are not helping it. Instead of guiding it to expand the political and policy space in the GNU, their tactics are designed to weaken the GNU and cause a realignment of power ahead of the first anniversary of the GNU. Very soon, such a tactical blunder will have deleterious effects on the unity of the DA itself. It is a suicide mission. 

Meanwhile, if the other parties are serious about power and social transformation, they would also look at the GNU age as an opportunity, not only to increase their political fortunes but to consider, seriously, the idea of a second republic as suggested by historian and author Eddy Maloka. This they must do to demonstrate that they do not seek political power for merely reproducing themselves as political elites, but for the people. 

In the end, lawfare is the low road for any political party. The high road is the pursuit of strategy — but first, in so far as the DA is concerned, it must construct a progressive strategy, away from racial liberalism. Otherwise, it will remain just another fringe opposition party stirring the hornet’s nest.

David Maimela is a public policy specialist and political commentator. He writes in his personal capacity.

The judicial conduct tribunal into Eastern Cape judge president Selby Mbenenge heard on Monday that CCTV footage from the date of the alleged incident of indecent exposure was not stored — despite footage from the day before and after having been preserved.

The director of facilities and security management at the office of the chief justice, Prabagaran Naidoo, testified that he received CCTV footage from 14 and 16 November 2022  from the Mthatha high court.

The complainant in the matter, 37-year-old court secretary Andiswa Mengo, has said she is unsure whether the alleged office sexual harassment by the judge occurred on 14 or 15 November 2022. She testified earlier that she fled Mbenenge’s office in shock afterwards,  and expected CCTV footage to corroborate her account. But footage from 15 November, one of the dates on which the alleged incident is believed to have occurred, is missing.

The tribunal is in its second week after resuming this month from its initial sitting in January, during which Mengo endured eight days of cross-examination. 

Mengo says the sexual harassment occurred over Whatsapp and in-person, and an alleged flashing incident now in dispute. 

Naidoo told the tribunal he “can’t say” what happened to the missing footage. Footage from 14 and 16 November 2022 was transferred to the Midrand office of the chief justice  almost a year later, he said.

According to Naidoo, he received a call from Norman Mabuza, the Eastern Cape court’s head of security, after Judge Bantubonke Dakota requested to review footage from the 14th and 15th.

“In his affidavit, Judge Dakota says he viewed footage from 14 and 15 November. But the footage stored and transferred was of the 14 and 16 November,” counsel for Mengo,  Nasreen Rajab-Budlender said.

Naidoo acknowledged the discrepancy and confirmed that the only footage he requested to be downloaded and preserved was what Dakota had viewed. He said he realised the importance of the footage only after the story appeared in the media.

Naidoo also testified that each court has a control room where footage is stored for 45 to 60 days, and may later be transferred to the office of the chief justice’s central servers. 

Naidoo had asked that the relevant footage be couriered to his office in Midrand on a USB.

“Whether this evidence was tampered with, I cannot confirm,” he said, adding that he had told Mabuza at the time: “If a judge took time to view the footage, it might amount to something later on. So just save it and keep it.”

Naidoo admitted he cannot account for the missing footage of the 15th. 

Mbenenge has denied the allegation and claimed he could account for his movements on the day in question, including giving a morning lecture to students, a visit to a bank and seeing Mengo only later in the day in the company of another colleague.

His counsel, advocate Griffith Madonsela, pointed out that CCTV footage from 14 November shows Mengo walking past Mbenenge’s office twice without entering.

Dakota, in his affidavit, confirmed that in the footage he viewed, Mbenenge was seen arriving with a briefcase and leaving with it. He said she did not appear in the footage he reviewed.

Both counsel for Mengo and Mbenenge were surprised the footage was missing and said it would have supported either one of their cases. 

The tribunal continues this week with counsel for Mbenenge, advocate Muzi Sikhakhane SC, saying he is ready to call his client to the witness stand as early as Tuesday morning.

It was up to United States President Donald Trump to decide whether he would attend the G20 leaders’ summit in South Africa in November, International Relations Minister Ronald Lamola said on Monday.

“The G20 is for all leaders of the G20 … they are all invited to attend,” Lamola told a briefing about South Africa’s year-long presidency of the forum and preparations for the summit.

“Obviously the US president, as a member state of the G20, will be invited, but it is up to the US whether they attend or not the G20 in South Africa’s leaders’ summit.”

The remark came as a first contingent of 49 Afrikaners were en route to the US to take up Trump’s offer of special refugee status, extended for alleged racial persecution that he has stated as a reason for snubbing the summit.

In mid-April, Trump, in a post on Truth Social, asked rhetorically how he could be expected to attend the G20 in South Africa “when land confiscation and genocide is the primary topic of conversation?”

He continued: “They are taking the land of white farmers, and then killing them and their families. The media refuses to report on this. The United States has held back all contributions to South Africa. Is this where we want to be for the G20? I don’t think so!”

South Africa’s international relations department responded at the time by saying the government was compelled by the Constitution to protect the rights of all citizens, regardless of their race.

“We have to reiterate that from the perspective of the South African government, in terms of the executive orders that have defined the South Africans as refugees, we have stated in the statement we issued on Friday that in line with the international definition, they do not qualify for that status,” Lamola said on Monday.

“There is no persecution of white Afrikaner South Africans in South Africa. This has been proven by a number of statistics in our country, including the police reports, which don’t back that assertion of persecution.”

He said violent crime in South Africa affected everyone, irrespective of their race.

“We are glad that a number of organisations, even from Afrikaner structures, have denounced this so-called persecution.”

Lamola said the government encouraged more such discussions to clarify “on the world stage this disinformation that has now taken root”.

He noted that Washington opted to be represented by the charge d’affaires of the local embassy at earlier key meetings of the G20, including the meeting of foreign ministers in February.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio snubbed that meeting for the stated reason that the government was seizing private land, a charge that has been made by Afrikaner pressure groups and taken up enthusiastically by right-wing commentators in the US, as well as the Trump administration.

“I will NOT attend the G20 summit in Johannesburg,” he posted on X. “South Africa is doing very bad things. Expropriating private property. Using G20 to promote ‘solidarity, equality & sustainability’’. In other words: DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] and climate change. My job is to advance America’s national interests, not waste taxpayer money or coddle anti-Americanism.”

Rubio’s decision was not communicated through the usual diplomatic channels. Instead Lamola learnt of it on social media. Though the two foreign ministers are yet to meet, the diplomatic ice was somewhat broken by a phone call between President Cyril Ramaphosa and Trump ahead of Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy to South Africa last month.

Lamola noted that there had been some improvement in US engagement in the G20 in that the US secretary treasury, Scott Bessent, met South African officials during a second meeting of the G20 finance ministers and central bank governors in Washington in late April.

The narrative of Afrikaner persecution and land seizure was also put forth by Trump in his first term as US president. He tweeted in 2018 that white farmers were being killed on a large scale in South Africa.

Washington insiders have attributed this to a campaign by Afrikaner lobby group AfriForum and right-wing US commentators, among them Joel Pollak, who object to the government’s policy of racial redress and land redistribution.

That campaign found fresh ammunition this year in the promulgation of the Expropriation Act, which allows for expropriation of land without compensation in limited circumstances.

The presidency has said the furore was fuelled by disinformation, which it would be happy to clarify in discussion with the Trump administration.

Ramaphosa was asked both about Trump’s possible attendance at the summit and his claims of Afrikaner victimhood by reporters while he was attending the African CEO Forum in Côte d’Ivoire.

He said it was still a long way from November “and a number of discussions will be ensuing”.

“The G20 process consists of 130 meetings, the whole year, and we participate with a number of countries and the US also participates and leading to that summit, we will as South Africa hand over to the United States.

“One would hope that it will all happen seamlessly and in an ordinary and well-managed manner. So one will see how this whole process will all end up,” he added.

Ramaphosa was referring to the US leading the G20 in 2026.

It is customary that the country who takes over the presidency appropriates, at least in part, the themes of the previous presidency. Trump and Rubio’s pronouncements appeared to rule that out.

Ramaphosa on Monday said he was pleased that South Africa’s chosen themes of solidarity and equality were gaining support around the world.

“We expect that our key priorities will become top of mind in the discussions that are currently taking place leading up to the leaders’ summit in November.”