The Trump administration will let in just 7,500 refugees this year, marking the lowest cap on admissions in United States history, according to a Thursday federal notice. The Trump administration said refugee status will “primarily be allocated among Afrikaners from South Africa … and other victims of illegal or unjust discrimination in their respective homelands.” The latest refugee limit accounts for the fiscal year, which began Oct. 1. The Biden administration set the previous year’s limit at a whopping 125,000, according to The New York Times. When President Donald Trump reentered the White House, he paused refugee admissions, citing the “record levels of migration” flows under the Biden administration. In February, Trump signed an executive order freezing aid to South Africa after it enacted a law “to seize ethnic minority Afrikaners’ agricultural property without compensation.” Julius Malema, a member of the National Assembly of South Africa, earlier chanted “shoot to kill” and “kill the boer” at a political rally in reference to the white Afrikaner population. At another event, he said that his political movement is “cutting the throat of whiteness.” South Africa’s Julius Malema, the party leader of the EFF calls for killing white people: “Shoot to kiII. KiII the Boer, the farmer”pic.twitter.com/vFjqJ9l8GR https://t.co/sxzS0d0Dn4 — Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) March 22, 2025 The U.S. welcomed the first group of Afrikaner refugees in May. At the time, Trump accused the South African government of committing a “genocide” against its white citizens. “It is a genocide that is taking place that you people don’t want to write about,” Trump told reporters at the White House at the time. “It’s a terrible thing that’s taking place and farmers are being killed,” he added. “They happen to be white, but whether they are white or black makes no difference to me.” Democrats, however, have expressed outrage over the Trump administration’s acceptance of white South African refugees, accusing officials of prioritizing them because of the color of their skin. The issue became a focal point of a Congressional hearing in May that featured Secretary of State Marco Rubio. “Can you have a different standard based upon the color of somebody’s skin? Would that be acceptable?” Democrat Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine asked Rubio at the time. “I’m not the one arguing that, apparently you are because you don’t like the fact that they’re white and that’s why they’re coming,” Rubio shot back in response. “You’re the one that’s talking about the color of their skin, not me. These are people whose farms were burned down and they were killed because of the color of their skin,” the Secretary of State went on to add. The Episcopal Church’s refugee resettlement wing, which has resettled migrants in the U.S. for decades, announced in May that it would refuse to help settle the Afrikaners for explicitly racial reasons. The organization also pledged to cancel its existing resettlement contract with the federal government over the controversy.

The stars are aligning against artificial intelligence. It’s hard to blame them. One look at Tilly Norwood, the A.I. actress, as pretty as she is, forever young, and it’s clear why actors would be threatened by her digital existence. That explains why so many are raging against A.I. in interview after interview. Except there’s a flaw in their arguments, one few stars are willing to admit. Nor will major studios, for that matter. Oscar-winning actress Emma Thompson excoriated the rise of A.I. during an appearance on the soon-to-be-extinct “Late Show” on CBS. She shared her “intense irritation” with the technological movement. “… when I’ve written something, I will put it into a Word document. And recently, the Word document is constantly saying, ‘Would you like me to rewrite that for you?’ And so I end up just saying, ’I don’t need you to rewrite what I’ve just written, will you f*** off?! Just f*** off!” Screenshot: Late Show with Stephen Colbert/YouTube.com “Parks & Recreation” alum Nick Offerman sang from a similar hymnal during a recent “View” appearance. “In this day and age where companies are taking over the curation of our lives, like, they want AI to think for us…I love my clumsy, stupid farmer voice, I would never want a robot to write my song for me, because my song is stupid in a wonderful, delicious way that’s all about my voice! I don’t want to give over my agency.” One of Offerman’s compositions mocked President Donald Trump during the 2024 campaign. “I’m proud to be a Kamala man, who’s quit the GOP/ I just can’t stick with the man convicted of 34 felonies.” It’s hard to imagine A.I. could belt out a tune quite that insightful. Some artists are doing more than talking about artificial intelligence. Author George R.R. Martin is suing OpenAI for copyright infringement. And he may have plenty of company, especially since said suit, albeit slowly, is moving forward. The collective fear is palpable, and not without reason. If a savvy 21-year-old can use A.I. to create a visually stunning film at the same price point as a studio’s catering budget, Hollywood could be on borrowed time. There’s another reason for the industry to give A.I. a long, hard look. The computer revolution excels at absorbing content and spitting out new material based on that data. How different is it from Hollywood in 2025? Yes, too many film and TV scripts feel like A.I. helped write them from start to finish. Hackneyed plots. Predictable story arcs. Canned dialogue lacking in wit and imagination. Here’s betting A.I. could create an annoying GirlBoss character as well as any woke scribe. Or almost as well. That’s part of the problem. What about the content itself? Hollywood recycling has reached a fever pitch, and it shows no signs of stopping. Recent examples include a deal to turn the ‘80s cop show “Miami Vice” into a feature film, one potentially starring Michael B. Jordan and Austin Butler. The original saga captured the Reagan era to a “T,” from its pastel-flavored suits to its synth-heavy soundtrack. Except we’ve already seen a “Miami Vice” movie directed by a key player behind the original series, auteur Michael Mann. That 2006 film featuring Jamie Foxx and Colin Farrell made only a modest dent at the box office. Now, it’s time to try again? Why not feed the show’s original episodes into Grok and see what it churns out? Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images Another upcoming project essentially reboots Sylvester Stallone’s early years. “I Play Rocky” recalls the actor’s battle to play the main character in his original, in-demand screenplay. Studio executives had little appetite for Stallone, then an unknown actor. They craved an established star to play the blue-collar boxer who dreams of greatness. The film cast young actors who resemble both Stallone and “Rocky” favorite Carl Weathers, respectively, although A.I. could have de-aged both for a fraction of the price. The problem isn’t relegated to the big screen. A new “Karate Kid” musical retells that now tired tale, one that inspired three sequels, a Jackie Chan-led reboot, a spinoff TV series (“Cobra Kai”), and last summer’s tepid “Karate Kid: Legends.” Here’s betting A.I. could write a few wisecracks about Hollywood’s recycling obsession. Actually, here’s one from Grok: Hollywood is so obsessed with sequels, prequels, and remakes that the next big blockbuster will be Spider-Man: The Origin of the Origin Story. Hardly a howler, but it’s not as awful as your average Stephen Colbert monologue. Now, imagine if today’s Hollywood threw off the shackles of its IP obsession and reclaimed the spirit of, say, ‘70s-era filmmaking. That decade delivered rich, complicated stories that brought out the best in Hollywood at all levels. Think “Three Days of the Condor,” “Dog Day Afternoon,” “Network,” “Taxi Driver,” and “Chinatown.” Those are just a few of the iconic films that defined the ‘70s. Photo by Warner Bros./Getty Images No A.I. bot could replicate those stories. Tilly Norwood would look foolish among the likes of Diane Keaton, Al Pacino, and Robert De Niro. Maybe Hollywood should view A.I. not as an existential threat but the ultimate challenge. Hollywood delivered some of the best stories of the modern era thanks to the intense competition fostered by the rise of cable and streaming outlets in the 21st century. “The Sopranos.” “Breaking Bad.” “Game of Thrones.” “Mad Men.” The industry should view the threat of A.I. as a chance to show those dumb robots what great storytelling is all about. * * * Christian Toto is an award-winning journalist, movie critic, and editor of HollywoodInToto.com. He previously served as associate editor with Breitbart News’ Big Hollywood. Follow him at HollywoodInToto.com. The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire. Join us now during our exclusive Deal of the Decade. Get everything for $7 a month. Not as fans. As fighters. Go to DailyWire.com/Subscribe to join now.

The first rule of a Marxist revolution is that it must always eat its own. We’re beginning to see that even before Zohran Mamdani is elected mayor of New York, which has a very high likelihood according to the betting markets. The supposed heartburn is already setting in because here is the problem: Once people begin to govern, there are actual rules to governance. You have to be a person capable of carrying out the office of the mayor, and there are obstacles to that. Thus, all of the bizarre, radical signaling that Mamdani has been doing runs up against reality. Make no mistake, Mamdani has embraced Marxism and jihadism. This is a person whose parents are radical; he’s a second-generation radical. His father compared Abraham Lincoln to Adolf Hitler. Mamdani came to America as one of the privileged scions of an immigrant family. His father is a Columbia University anti-American professor; his mom is an anti-American producer, both of whom believe in a racial hierarchy of victimhood. POLITICO reported: Zohran Mamdani and New York City’s Democratic Socialists of America will have some relationship issues to iron out if he’s elected mayor of the nation’s largest metropolis. The DSA has been integral to his success. The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is a revolutionary movement. They’re not interested in governance. They’re interested in revolution. They want to overthrow capitalism. They want to overthrow the Constitution. They hate all of these things. But the problem is that once they get people elected to office, those people have to operate within some boundaries. More from POLITICO: How the arrangement will work should Mamdani win on Nov. 4 is uncharted territory. “One of two things will happen: They will give him a grace period and let him get his sea legs and recognize that compromise is a way to get something done, or they become one of his biggest obstacles,” said Christina Greer, an associate professor of political science at Fordham University. “And if that happens, he’ll be fighting people from the right and the left.” It is clear that that he is going to be moderate in some areas because he doesn’t want to completely destroy all credibility with the New York population; he wants to retain NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch; he’s committed to following through with the city’s plan to build for new jails to replace Rikers, which is something that both he and the DSA had previously opposed. We’ll see if the DSA will give him any space. My theory is that they will give him some space, that they will allow him to be as revolutionary as he wants to be within the format that has been provided to him, and then they will gradually hollow out the movement. What the DSA is realizing is something that people from all sides of the political aisle are realizing: If you maintain your extremely radical ground, but you operate within the party system, you’re able to more quickly take power than if you operate outside the party system and browbeat people. Hijacking a party is far easier than forming your own, and then ideologically twisting and turning it. All this heartburn, this angst, is going to be overplayed. The hard-leftists know exactly who Mamdani is. They know he’s a revolutionary, and they are perfectly happy to travel with him, knowing that his heart is in the revolutionary place. Perhaps he ends up stopping short. Maybe they end up turning on him when he’s no longer useful to the movement. Marxist movements have a real habit of doing this. They will turn on absolute butchers like Leon Trotsky if it turns out that he is now inhibiting the next step of the revolution. But I think they will give Zohran Mamdani an awful lot of rope with which to hang the city of New York before they make those sorts of moves. The Democratic Party has now built itself around the radicals, which is why you see Ilhan Omar out there as a chief advocate for Mamdani, on the basis that he is being attacked for his Islamic religion, not for the pro-jihadism or the pro-Marxism, or for the fact that he’s never held a real day job and that he’s one of the great leeches on the butt of American society. The revolution is the only thing that matters here. The truth doesn’t matter. That’s true even for many voters in New York. There’s a brand new poll out, talking about what New Yorkers think is going to happen if Mamdani is elected. The poll shows that many New Yorkers who do not support Mamdani are convinced he’s going to destroy New York. They think that his mayoralty will mark a return to the urban decay of the 1980s, when the city was blighted by poverty, rampant crime, crumbling infrastructure, and abandoned buildings. It’s not as though New Yorkers are unaware of what’s happening here. New Yorkers are perfectly aware. It’s just that they are willing to risk it. They’re willing to risk it because they want to make a revolutionary statement. The bottom line is that a plurality of New Yorkers understand things are going to be bad, but they don’t have the strength to stop him. That is the real key to this election. Many mainstream Democratic figures have swirled and swiveled behind Mamdani and decided that it’s perfectly fine for him to take a leadership position. This is what happens when the so-called moderates are more invested in the success of the party than they are in the principles of the party. They give way to people who are more interested in shifting and moving the principles of the party than they are in the success of the party. * * * Join us now during our exclusive Deal of the Decade. Get everything for $7 a month. Not as fans. As fighters. Go to DailyWire.com/Subscribe to join now.

'Fraud is far-reaching'

'Keep the money spigot'

'I would use the opportunity to compare it with iran'

'Period'

It’s autumn in Virginia, and lawns are covered with two things: multicolored leaves and multicolored political yard signs. Some people go apple-picking, and others go door-knocking for candidates. The two worlds come together on the hills of southern Albemarle County behind a fence that’s lined with American flags at a winery with a familiar name: Trump. Ten years ago, when Donald Trump announced that he was going to run for the Republican Party nomination for president, he turned the reins of the Trump Empire over to his two sons. >>> Sign up for our Virginia email newsletter Since then, the family has seen nearly constant front-page news, yet amongst the scrutiny, the Trumps have quietly turned their Virginia winery into one that routinely wins awards across the winemaking industry. The property is also considered one of the top destination inns in the country. Eric Trump has chronicled the last decade of the Trump family’s fight to save our nation in his new book, “Under Siege.” We caught up with the first son at the Trump Cidery and talked about all of it. Listen: The post Eric Trump and Freedom of the (Cider) Press appeared first on The Daily Signal.

WARNING: This report contains graphic photographs that some readers may find disturbing. These images are included to document violence against Christians and have been selected carefully to inform, rather than sensationalize. Lawrence Zongo did not smile until asked about his faith.   “I’m a Christian,” he said with joy in his voice. That statement could get him killed.   “Living as a Christian here in Nigeria is … living ready that at any time you will be killed,” Zongo told The Daily Signal during a video call from his small community in central Nigeria.  Like thousands of other Christians in Nigeria, Zongo and his wife have lost loved ones at the hands of Islamic terrorist groups that have gained significant power in the African nation over the past 15 years.   In October 2021, Zongo’s cousin Reuben was shot and killed by Muslim Fulani militants. The Fulani are a predominantly Muslim ethnic group living in Nigeria’s North West and North East states. Earlier this year, Zongo’s wife lost eight family members during an attack on a local village.  “Anytime I’m going out … I may die,” Zongo said. “Sometimes, [when] I’m going, I will just tell my wife, ‘If I die, do this, do this.’”  “We are a people that now, we’re ready to die. We plan our death. We know that we can die at any time,” he said.   The persecution of Christians in Nigeria has gained international attention, including from President Donald Trump, who announced Friday that he will designate Nigeria a “COUNTRY OF PARTICULAR CONCERN.” “When Christians, or any such group, is slaughtered like is happening in Nigeria (3,100 versus 4,476 Worldwide), something must be done! I am asking Congressman Riley Moore, together with Chairman Tom Cole and the House Appropriations Committee, to immediately look into this matter, and report back to me,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. Moore is a West Virginia Republican. Cole is an Oklahoma Republican. “The United States cannot stand by while such atrocities are happening in Nigeria, and numerous other Countries,” the president said. “We stand ready, willing, and able to save our Great Christian population around the World!” Nigeria is roughly a half-Christian/half-Muslim nation. The Muslim extremist groups operating in Nigeria, such as the Islamic State-West Africa Province and Boko Haram, not only persecute Christians, but also war with each other.   In northern Nigeria, where the violent radical Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram primarily operates, thousands of churches have been destroyed since 2009.   Christians have faced persecution in Nigeria for more than two decades, but violence against followers of Jesus grew far worse with the rise of Boko Haram in 2009, according to Global Christian Relief. Boko Haram translates to “Western education is forbidden” and has been labeled the world’s deadliest terrorist group, according to the Brookings Institute.   It is estimated that more than 50,000 Christians have been killed in Nigeria since 2009, and about 7,000 in the first half of 2025 alone, according to Concerned Women for America.   In Zongo’s community alone, he says, more than 2,000 people have been killed since 2017.   Three slain individuals are seen lying on the ground in a Nigerian community. (Lawrence Zongo) Blood stains are seen on the floor following an attack on Christians in Nigeria. (Lawrence Zongo) A girl lies dead in a Nigerian community. (Lawrence Zongo) A large grave holds the bodies of slain Christians in Nigeria. (Lawrence Zongo) Zongo, 39, was raised praying and memorizing Scripture in a Christian home and accepted Jesus Christ as his savior in 2005. Since then, he has proclaimed the Gospel to Muslims, “pagans,” and young people in Nigeria.   Today, Zongo works as a journalist for Truth Nigeria and has been critical of the Nigerian government, military, and law enforcement for failing to do more to protect Christians from persecution.   “The police are not willing to do their work,” Zongo said. “They’re paid by the government [and] if they do the right thing, they’ll be sacked,” he said, adding, “If you are doing the writing here in Nigeria, you will never make it.”  As someone who writes about the persecution of Christians in Nigeria, Zongo says he has to be very careful when he travels in Nigeria, especially when on “government premises.”   “You will not make money in Nigeria if you are saying the truth. If you are lying as a journalist, you [can] build many houses, you [can] buy cars. You will do a lot of things if you are lying,” he said. “But if you are saying the truth, you will not make it.”   Asked why he has chosen to continue following Jesus Christ and speak boldly about his faith, Zongo referred to a Scripture passage found in the book of Matthew in the Bible.   “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” Matthew 5:10 reads.   “My reward is going to be in heaven, that one day I will be with Christ after the crisis here on earth,” he said. “Let me be with Christ at the end.”  Zongo asks that Christians around the world “come and give us support, as they are praying” for their following of Christ in Nigeria.   The post Christian in Nigeria Describes Living ‘Ready to Die’ Amid Violence, Persecution appeared first on The Daily Signal.

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—The State Department is sounding the alarm on the financial hardship its employees who live paycheck to paycheck are facing amid the federal government shutdown, particularly the essential personnel responding to Hurricane Melissa, The Daily Signal has learned. Amid the now-monthlong shutdown, the State Department is urging creditors to extend grace on federal employees who are among the 67% of Americans who say they live paycheck to paycheck. The agency is particularly concerned about the nearly 40 State Department personnel in the Caribbean and in Washington, D.C., working unpaid around the clock to respond to the devastation from Hurricane Melissa. “While Democrats on Capitol Hill refuse to open the government and continue to deny paychecks to more than a million government workers, State Department officials deployed at a moment’s notice to respond to Hurricane Melissa on the ground in Jamaica,” a State Department official said. “It is past time to reopen the government and restore pay to those who work to safeguard America’s national interests and boldly jump in harm’s way to offer assistance to those in crisis.” More than 50 deaths have attributed to the monster storm in Jamaica, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. Authorities continued to verify reported deaths. The State Department sent a letter, obtained by The Daily Signal, to creditors of employees informing them that the staff members may struggle to meet their financial obligations. “This lapse in appropriations is beyond our employees’ control,” the letter says. “We appreciate your organization’s understanding and flexibility toward State Department employees until this situation is resolved.” “Our employees will be returned to pay status once funding is appropriated,” the letter continues. “We hope this letter helps explain the pay situation that our State Department employees are currently experiencing through no fault of their own. We extend our thanks in advance for your patience and compassion towards our employees during this time when they are negatively impacted by the lapse in appropriations.” The Senate Democrat government shutdown has an outsized impact on government workers who make less than the average personal per capita income of D.C. residents and are now being forced to work without pay, a State Department official said. More than 6,100 State Department employees, nearly a quarter of the agency’s workforce, make less than the city’s personal per capita income of $108,233, according to internal data shared with The Daily Signal. But the shutdown is having the most drastic impact on the more than 1,700 of those State Department employees making less than $76,900, the annual median salary in Washington, D.C. A total of 1.4 million civil servants across the country are going without pay and have already missed a paycheck despite many of them continuing to work through the shutdown. Some have been forced to rely on food banks, according to the official. The leader of the American Federation for Government Employees, the largest union for government workers, urged Senate Democrats to vote to pass a clean continuing resolution to fund the federal government and provide back pay. “These are patriotic Americans—parents, caregivers, and veterans—forced to work without pay while struggling to cover rent, groceries, gas, and medicine,” AFGE President Everett Kelly wrote. The State Department warns that the consequences of the shutdown are about to become even worse for Americans facing economic hardship. Food assistance funds like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program are set to run out on Saturday. The post EXCLUSIVE: State Department Employees Responding to National Disasters Face Hardship Amid Shutdown appeared first on The Daily Signal.