South Sudan Mired in War Declares Independence As World’s Newest Country
In August 2010 Tanya Domi spent a few weeks in Sudan advising the Government of Southern Sudan in preparation for its long-anticipated independence that was overwhelmingly approved by voters on January 9. This past weekend Southern Sudan celebrated its independence and America, a key partner in the effort, gave its blessing and pledged its continued support for the fledgling democracy that faces a difficult journey in the months and years ahead.
The Republic of South Sudan this past weekend became Africa’s 54th newest nation and the world’s 195th country, declaring its independence from the Republic of the Sudan, forged by more than 50 years of war, two million dead, and millions of refugees dispersed throughout the world.
The United States has played a key role in supporting Southern Sudan’s quest for freedom, with significant support by the Bush Administration who brokered a Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in 2005 between the North Arabic speaking and Muslim region of the Republic of the Sudan, led by President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and the Christian and animist African south, led by President Salvaa Kiir, a former general in the Sudan Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA).
Al-Bashir is an indicted war criminal who is wanted for war crimes committed in Darfur by the International Criminal Court (ICC). Consequently, Sudan has been isolated by most of the world community, although al-Bashir has visited China and the Islamic Republic of Iran in recent months.
South Sudanese citizens overwhelmingly voted for independence in a Janurary 9 referendum that was stipulated to by the CPA. Ironically, the Republic of the Sudan became the first nation to recognize South Sudan yesterday.
Other nations who joined in recognizing the world’s newest country include Britain, China and Russia, according to Voice of America. China has a major presence in Sudan as it is the majority consumer of Sudan’s crude oil commodities. A testament to its growing influence in the region, was an appeal issued by the U.S. to China, exhorting it to assist in pressuring al-Bashir to recall his Army out of the border states, which has caused a major humanitarian disaster resulting in more than 70,000 internally displaced persons who have fled violence.
President Barack Obama “welcomed the birth of a new nation” on Saturday and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton offered her congratulations. Clinton said in her remarks that the South Sudanese people had overcome many obstacles, with remaining issues to address:
The realization of this historic day is a testament to the tireless efforts of the people of South Sudan in their search for peace. We commend South Sudan’s current leaders, including President Salva Kiir Mayardit, for helping guide Southern Sudan to this moment. And we recognize the determination and courage of the many southern Sudanese who never abandoned their hope that peace was possible and who stood in long lines on January 9 to cast their votes.
…The challenges are many, but the South Sudanese people have demonstrated their capacity to overcome great odds. The United States will remain a steadfast partner as South Sudan seeks to peacefully meet these challenges and build a free, democratic and inclusive society. The strong ties between our peoples go back many decades, and we are committed to continuing to build on the partnership we have already established in the years ahead.
War continues on South Sudan’s northern border in Abyei, a disputed region between South Sudan and the Republic of the Sudan, where a majority of Sudan’s oil deposits are located that provides hard currency to both governments.
The other area of dispute between the North and the South is the Nuba Mountains located in the  Southern Kordofan State, which borders South Sudan and is presently experiencing calculated violence instigated by the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) according to the UN and other Sudan experts tracking the situation,  such as highly regarded expert human rights lawyer and journalist Bec Hamilton.
Advocates have documented troop movements by the SAF through satellite photo imagery resulting in countless murders of civilians who have been senselessly slaughtered in an ongoing campaign that has been actively prosecuted under the leadership of ICC indicted war criminal Ahmad Muhammad Harun . This military campaign by the North has been underway since at least late May, although the situation has been fraught with tension for many months, which began with Harun’s ominous reassignment from Darfur in March 2009.
The UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) is believed to have evacuated its international staff in the Southern Kordofan State on June 12, due to an escalation of violence by the SAF, which also resulted in the displacement of more than 70,000 civilians.  The Sudan Army has been reinforcing its presence in the area documented by satellite photography by governments, NGOs and  activists, published here by Voice of America.
On June 27 the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1990 that called for the deployment of 4,200 peacekeepers to address the escalating violence in the Abyei region, but not in South Kordofan.
Khartoum relies on the hard currency generated by oil sales and has disputed South Sudan’s territorial claims. These unresolved issues have demanded the attention of U.S. Special Envoy Ambassador Princeton Lyman who was sent out to the region by Secretary Clinton in August 2010 to bolster referendum preparation a and replaced Special Envoy Scott Gration in March.
Susan Rice, U.S. Ambassador to the UN and head of the U.S. delegation that traveled to Juba for its inaugural celebration, spoke about the challenges ahead. She remarked:
Yet even on this day of jubilee, we remain mindful of the challenges that await us tomorrow. No true friend would offer false comfort. The path ahead will be steep and pitted. But the Republic of South Sudan is being born amid great hopes—the hope that you will guarantee the rights of all citizens, shelter the vulnerable, and bring prosperity to all corners of your land; the hope that you will be able to live in peace and justice with your neighbors, bind up the wounds of war, and work with the Government of Sudan to resolve swiftly and peacefully all outstanding issues in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.
South Sudan has some of the worst human development indicators in the world, where it is estimated that 90 percent of its population lives on less than $1 a day. It also has one of highest illiteracy rates in the world estimated at 78 percent of the population with only eight percent of women reported to be literate. Vastly underdeveloped, with little infrastructure and dependent on oil revenues shared by its difficult relationship with Khartoum, virtually all of its food is imported into the country.  Last year the U.S. spent nearly $700 million on food aid to the region alone.
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Tanya L. Domi is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, who teaches about human rights in Eurasia and is a Harriman Institute affiliated faculty member. Prior to teaching at Columbia, Domi worked internationally for more than a decade on issues related to democratic transitional development, including political and media development, human rights, gender issues, sex trafficking, and media freedom.
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Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Graham Platner is under fire after releasing a video declaring that new allegations against him are false, yet he is “taking time to reflect” on a path forward.
Politico on Monday afternoon reported that a woman who dated Platner, Jenny Racicot, “says he forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections, an allegation Platner denies.”
“Racicot said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner,” Politico reported, “for more than two years before he entered her rural Maine home uninvited one night in late 2021, deeply intoxicated, and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. She said she cut off contact with him after telling him the encounter was not consensual.”
In a video posted to social media eleven minutes after the Politico story dropped, Platner says, “I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious, and false allegations against me. Any accusation of nonconsensual behavior is categorically false.”
He said he and his supporters “were united in a love of Maine, a belief that our politics must change, in a focus on defeating Susan Collins.”
“So, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful the political reality will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.”
“Those were the goals when we launched this campaign. And they remain my goals today.”
“Throughout it all, you never turned your back on me. And I will not turn my back on you now. Every one of you deserves to see that vision come to fruition and see Susan Collins defeated. And we will use every tool at our disposal to do so.”
The Bulwark’s Tim Miller, a political commentator who served as the communications director for the Jeb Bush 2016 presidential campaign, blasted Platner.
“I’m sorry but ‘we are taking time to reflect on the best path forward’ is not an option on the table,” Miller wrote. “Either it’s false and you campaign with vigor or it’s true and you get out / apologize to everyone you let down.”
Journalist Ryan Grim, commenting on Platner’s video, noted that Platner “strongly suggests he is considering dropping out. Already Troy Jackson and Chellie Pingree, both gubernatorial candidates, are being kicked around in Maine circles as potential replacements.”
Several others, including Puck News’ Peter Hamby, predicted Platner will be dropping out.
Platner had postponed several campaign events before the Politico story was published.
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) July 6, 2026
President Donald Trump is facing backlash after posting a video of children — including showing their unblurred faces — graduating from kindergarten, with some of the girls purportedly wearing hijabs.
“President Trump posted a captionless video of graduating kindergarteners on Truth Social on Monday, goading his supporters into verbally attacking little children simply for being Muslim,” The New Republic reported. “The clip is from Gateway STEM Academy, a majority-Black K-8 public charter school in St. Paul, Minnesota. It shows about 21 children in caps and gowns on stage singing a song together. Most of the girls are wearing hijabs.”
The original post of the video which Trump reposted reads: “Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every girl is in a hijab … in kindergarten.”
Trump did not add any comments. TNR called the post “Islamophobic, weird, and creepy,” while noting that the comments section of Trump’s post was filled with calls “by racist, xenophobic MAGA supporters” to “deport the children and ban hijabs.”
TNR also noted that it “should come as no surprise that Trump isn’t above attacking children who just learned how to read, but this post is still particularly discomforting—and will certainly contribute to the already potent level of anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. and in Minnesota.”
Critics blasted Trump.
“There is something deeply unsettling about the president of the United States—the most powerful person in the world—going after kindergarten schoolchildren in Minnesota because they wore hijabs, as Trump has done this morning on his website,” The Bulwark’s Sam Stein wrote.
One social media commentator wrote, “Trump posted an unblurred video of more than a dozen Muslim kindergartners to Truth Social, exposing the children’s faces while targeting them for their religion.”
Another added, “Trump is a bigot. The president took to Truth Social to attack kindergarteners in hijabs. These are little kids. The president isn’t just a bigot, he’s also a coward.”
The original video was posted to the X social media platform in June.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) at the time commented, “If you are in a public school in America, you should be speaking english.”
Image via Reuters
President Donald Trump’s apparent efforts to delay releasing the $5.8 million civil judgment to E. Jean Carroll are being met with a warning by the journalist’s legal team, who suggest there could be a legal maneuver for Trump to employ to forgo paying the judgment in either of the two cases he lost.
According to The Guardian, on July 4, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered Trump to release the $5.8 million judgment, which is in escrow, to Carroll by this coming Tuesday — or explain why he would not do so.
Carroll’s attorneys think Trump may be trying to buy time to mount another legal strategy, telling the judge that Trump’s request for an extension “appears to be little more than yet another play for time.”
“The case is separate from Trump’s appeal of a Manhattan civil jury’s 2024 award of $83.3m to Carroll for defamation,” The Guardian explains. “But her lawyers have suggested a legal scenario in which the president might seek to conjoin the cases and further delay payment of both.”
Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan (no relation to the judge) wrote, “We can only assume that defendant is seeking … to buy time so he can try to concoct some new basis to put off paying plaintiff presumably in connection with his forthcoming petition and motion for a rehearing.”
Trump’s former attorney, Justin Smith, in one of his final acts, wrote to the Supreme Court suggesting that his client would be appealing the $83.3 million civil judgment.
Smith argued that the Supreme Court “may wish to consider the petitions together,” given they involve the same parties.
The larger judgment case involves possible questions of presidential immunity, and that has Carroll’s attorneys concerned.
“A conjoined case, Carroll’s lawyers fear, could result in both judgments being wiped out,” The Guardian reports.
The president has also made clear he is no fan of Judge Kaplan, after the jurist made several rulings that “angered” Trump.
“What else can you expect from a Trump Hating, Clinton appointed judge, who went out of his way to make sure that the result was as negative as it could possible be,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in 2023, “speaking to, and in control of, a jury from an anti-Trump area which is probably the worst place in the US for me to get a fair ‘trial’.”
Image via Reuters
Platner Scorched Over ‘Taking Time’ Video After New Accusation
Trump Sparks Fury Online After Posting Unblurred Video of Muslim Kindergartners in Hijabs
One Legal Maneuver Threatens to Undo Everything E. Jean Carroll Won
Inside the Group Helping MAGA Voters Walk Away — And What Finally Pushed Them
