By GERALD IMRAY and MICHELLE GUMEDE, Associated Press

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — The United States has sent five men to the small African nation of Eswatini in an expansion of the Trump administration’s largely secretive third-country deportation program, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday.

The U.S. has already deported eight men to another African nation, South Sudan, after the Supreme Court lifted restrictions on sending people to countries where they have no ties. The South Sudanese government has declined to say where those men are after they arrived nearly two weeks ago.

In a late-night post on X, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the men sent to Eswatini, who are citizens of Vietnam, Jamaica, Cuba, Yemen and Laos, had arrived on a plane, but didn’t say when or where.

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She said they were all convicted criminals and “individuals so uniquely barbaric that their home countries refused to take them back.”

The men “have been terrorizing American communities” but were now “off of American soil,” McLaughlin added.

McLaughlin said they had been convicted of crimes including murder and child rape and one was a “confirmed” gang member.

Like in South Sudan, there was no immediate comment from Eswatini authorities over any deal to accept third-country deportees or what would happen to them in that country. Civic groups there raised concerns over the secrecy from a government long accused of clamping down on human rights.

“There has been a notable lack of official communication from the Eswatini government regarding any agreement or understanding with the U.S. to accept these deportees,” Ingiphile Dlamini, a spokesperson for the pro-democracy group SWALIMO, said in a statement sent to The Associated Press. “This opacity makes it difficult for civic society to understand the implications.”

It wasn’t clear if they were being held in a detention center, what their legal status was or what Eswatini’s plans were for the deported men, he said.

An absolute monarchy

Eswatini, previously called Swaziland, is a country of about 1.2 million people between South Africa and Mozambique. It is one of the world’s last remaining absolute monarchies and the last in Africa. King Mswati III has ruled by decree since 1986.

FILE – Eswatini’s King Mswati III addresses the Climate Action Summit in the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters, Sept. 23, 2019. (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow, File)

Political parties are effectively banned and pro-democracy groups have said for years that Mswati III has crushed political dissent, sometimes violently. Groups like SWALIMO have called for democratic reforms.

Pro-democracy protests erupted in Eswatini in 2021, when dozens were killed, allegedly by security forces. Eswatini authorities have been accused of conducting political assassinations of pro-democracy activists and imprisoning others.

Because Eswatini is a poor country with a relative lack of resources, it “may face significant strain in accommodating and managing individuals with complex backgrounds, particularly those with serious criminal convictions,” Dlamini said.

While the U.S. administration has hailed deportations as a victory for the safety and security of the American people, Dlamini said his organization wanted to know the plans for the five men sent to Eswatini and “any potential risks to the local population.”

US is seeking more deals

The Trump administration has said it is seeking more deals with African nations to take deportees from the U.S. Leaders from some of the five West African nations who met last week with President Donald Trump at the White House said the issue of migration and their countries possibly taking deportees from the U.S. was discussed.

Some nations have pushed back. Nigeria, which wasn’t part of that White House summit, said it has rejected pressure from the U.S. to take deportees who are citizens of other countries.

The U.S. also has sent hundreds of Venezuelans and others to Costa Rica, El Salvador and Panama, but has identified Africa as a continent where it might strike more deals.

Rwanda’s foreign minister told the AP last month that talks were underway with the U.S. about a potential agreement to host deported migrants. Last year, the U.K. Supreme Court ruled a British government plan announced in 2022 to deport rejected asylum-seekers to the East African nation of Rwanda was illegal.

‘Not a dumping ground’

The eight men deported by the U.S. to war-torn South Sudan, where they arrived early this month, previously spent weeks at a U.S. military base in nearby Djibouti, located on the northeast border of Ethiopia, as the case over the legality of sending them there played out.

The South Sudanese government has not released details of its agreement with the U.S. to take deportees, nor has it said what will happen to the men. A prominent civil society leader there said South Sudan was “not a dumping ground for criminals.”

Analysts say some African nations might be willing to take third-country deportees in return for more favorable treatment from the U.S. in negotiations over tariffs, foreign aid and restrictions on travel visas.

Gumede reported from Johannesburg.

Today is Wednesday, July 16, the 197th day of 2024. There are 168 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On July 16, 1945, the United States exploded its first experimental atomic bomb in the desert of Alamogordo, New Mexico; the same day, the heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis left Mare (mar-AY’) Island Naval Shipyard in California on a secret mission to deliver atomic bomb components to Tinian Island in the Marianas.

Also on this date:

In 1790, a site along the Potomac River was designated the permanent seat of the United States government; the area became Washington, D.C.

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In 1862, Flag Officer David G. Farragut became the first rear admiral in the United States Navy.

In 1951, the novel “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger was first published by Little, Brown and Co.

In 1957, Marine Corps Maj. John Glenn set a transcontinental speed record by flying a Vought F8U Crusader jet from California to New York in 3 hours, 23 minutes and 8.4 seconds.

In 1964, as he accepted the Republican presidential nomination in San Francisco, Barry M. Goldwater declared that “extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice” and that “moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.”

In 1969, Apollo 11 launched from Cape Kennedy in Florida on the first manned mission to the surface of the moon.

In 1999, John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife, Carolyn, and her sister, Lauren Bessette, died when their single-engine plane, piloted by Kennedy, plunged into the Atlantic Ocean near Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.

In 2004, Martha Stewart was sentenced to five months in prison and five months of home confinement by a federal judge in New York for lying about a stock sale.

In 2008, Florida resident Casey Anthony, whose 2-year-old daughter, Caylee, had been missing a month, was arrested on charges of child neglect, making false official statements and obstructing a criminal investigation. (Casey Anthony was later acquitted at trial of murdering Caylee, whose skeletal remains were found in December 2008; Casey was convicted of lying to police.)

In 2015, a jury in Centennial, Colorado, convicted James Holmes of 165 counts of murder, attempted murder and other charges in the 2012 Aurora movie theater rampage that left 12 people dead.

In 2017, 10 people died at a popular swimming hole in Arizona’s Tonto National Forest after a rainstorm unleashed a flash flood.

In 2018, after meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, President Donald Trump openly questioned the finding of his own intelligence agencies that Russia had meddled in the 2016 U.S. election to his benefit. (Trump said a day later that he misspoke.)

Today’s Birthdays:

International Tennis Hall of Famer Margaret Court is 83.
Violinist Pinchas Zukerman is 77.
Actor-singer Ruben Blades is 77.
Rock composer-musician Stewart Copeland is 73.
Playwright Tony Kushner is 69.
Dancer Michael Flatley is 67.
Former actor and teen model Phoebe Cates is 62.
Actor Daryl “Chill” Mitchell is 60.
Actor-comedian Will Ferrell is 58.
Football Hall of Famer Barry Sanders is 57.
Actor Corey Feldman is 54.
Actor Jayma Mays is 46.
Retired soccer star Carli Lloyd is 43.
Actor AnnaLynne McCord is 38.
Actor-singer James Maslow (Big Time Rush) is 35.
Actor Mark Indelicato is 31.
Pop singer-musician Luke Hemmings (5 Seconds to Summer) is 29.

ATLANTA — Kyle Schwarber went 3 for 3 in the first All-Star Game home run swing-off to put the National League ahead 4-3 following a 6-6 tie in which the American League rallied from a six-run deficit on Tuesday night.

In baseball’s equivalent of soccer’s penalty-kicks shootout, the game was decided by having three batters from each league take three swings each off coaches. The change was agreed to in 2022 to alleviate the concern of teams running out of pitchers.

Schwarber was named All-Star MVP after going 0 for 2 with a walk in the game.

Brent Rooker put the AL ahead by homering on his last two swings, and Kyle Stowers — subbing for Eugenio Suárez — hit one.

Randy Arozarena boosted the AL lead to 3-1, and Schwarber was successful on all three tries, going down to a knee as he sent the one into the Chop House seats in right.

Jonathan Aranda failed on all three tries, hitting the right-field wall with his second, and the NL didn’t have to use its last batter, two-time Home Run Derby champion Pete Alonso, as it won for just the second time in the last 12 All-Star Games. The AL leads 48-45 with two ties.

Ketel Marte’s two-run double in the first had put the NL ahead, and Alonso’s three-run homer off Kris Bubic and Corbin Carroll’s solo shot against Casey Mize opened a 6-0 lead in the sixth.

The AL comeback began when Rooker hit a three-run pinch homer against Randy Rodríguez in a four-run seventh that included Bobby Witt Jr.’s RBI groundout.

Robert Suarez allowed consecutive doubles to Byron Buxton and Witt with one out in ninth, and Steven Kwan’s infield hit on a three-hopper to third off Edwin Díaz drove in the tying run.

Joe Torre, the 84-year-old former Yankees manager, went to the mound for a pitching change in the eighth to take the ball from Shane Smith and hand it to Andrés Muñoz. The Hall of Famer was picked as a coach by current New York skipper Aaron Boone, who managed the AL.

Heat on the mound

Paul Skenes, the first pitcher to start the All-Star Game each of his first two seasons, struck out Gleyber Torres and Riley Greene in a perfect first that included Aaron Judge’s inning-ending groundout. The 23-year-old right-hander reached 100 mph on four of 14 pitches.

Jacob Misiorowski, a controversial inclusion after pitching in just five major league games in his rookie season, fired nine pitches of 100 mph or more in a one-hit eighth 34 days after his major league debut. The 23-year-old righty, added to the NL roster by baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred, reached 102.3 mph.

There were 21 pitches of 100 mph or more, down from a record 23 last year but up from 13 in 2023, 10 in 2022 and one in 2021.

Robot umpire debuts

Four of five challenges were successful in the first use of the robot umpire in the All-Star Game
Seattle catcher Cal Raleigh signaled for an appeal to the Automated Ball-Strike System in the first inning, getting a strikeout for Detroit’s Tarik Subal on San Diego’s Manny Machado.

Athletics rookie Jacob Wilson also was successful as the first batter to call for a challenge, reversing a 1-0 fastball from Washington’s MacKenzie Gore in the fifth inning that had been called a strike. Mets closer Edwin Díaz and Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk also won challenges, and Marlins outfielder Kyle Stowers lost one.

Earning a hand

Freddie Freeman was removed for Alonso with two outs in the third inning, giving the crowd of 41,702 a chance to cheer a player who spent 12 seasons with the Braves and helped win the 2021 World Series title.

Styling

Teams were back in their regular-season club jerseys — whites for the NL, mostly grays for the AL — after four years of special All-Star uniforms that were much criticized.

Jazz Chisholm Jr. arrived in a Valentino smoking jacket and Christian Louboutin shoes. Instead of having players line up on the foul lines as they were introduced, they walked to a four-level red podium stretching across the infield dirt with flashing lights, smoke a DJ and dancers.

A referendum to boost operating funds will go to voters in November as the St. Paul school district aims to head-off what they say would be $37 million in budget cuts.

The St. Paul school board unanimously approved ballot language at their Tuesday meeting that will ask voters to increase the district’s general revenue by $1,073 per pupil for 10 years, beginning with taxes payable in 2026. The result will cost the average St. Paul homeowner — with the median home valued at $289,200 — $309 per year or $26 per month. The 10-year tax is subject to increase with inflation.

Voters approved similar referendums in 2018, 2012 and 2006. The 2018 levy gave the district $1,180 per student, or $18.6 million per year plus inflation, in new revenue.

If approved by voters, the increase  will generate approximately $37.2 million per year in additional revenue. The school board approved a $1 billion budget in June for 2026. An estimated $51.1 million budget shortfall is to be covered by $35.5 million in reserve funds and $15.6 million in budget cuts and new revenue, including funds from the levy.

If the levy is not approved by voters, district officials say they expect to make at least $37 million additional budget cuts.

Arts, music, language, cultural programs

A Morris Leatherman study of district residents in June found that 78% supported a property tax increase to maintain educational programs, said St. Paul Public Schools Superintendent Stacie Stanley. And, 74% supported a property tax increase to provide financial stability.

“It’s our arts and music programs, our language and culture initiatives — we have robust college and career readiness programs and pathways,” Stanley said. “And in that survey, our residents told us that is what they appreciate the most about St. Paul Public Schools. So really, this is to maintain and sustain those programs. Because … without this additional funding, we are guaranteed that we will have to cut $37 million for the (2026-2027) school year. And those types of programs would have to be on the table.”

Transportation, security and academic support services also face reductions if the district is not able to find additional revenue, according to district officials.

“And those types of services, again, are things that our families prioritize when they come to us, and they actually cost tens of million dollars to provide,” Stanley said.

Budget strains

If state funding kept pace with inflation each year since 2003, the district would receive $1,470 more per-student than it currently does, or approximately $50 million per year, according to district officials. And, if the district received the same amount in per-pupil funding as the average of districts in the surrounding metro area, such as the Minneapolis Public School District, it would have $1,073 more per student.

“The additional funding support we are seeking is not for enhancements, it is to maintain and sustain what we have now,” Stanley said.

The district’s decision to move the referendum forward comes as public schools nationally face funding uncertainty from federal sources.

Attorney General Keith Ellison announced Monday that Minnesota joined a coalition of 23 attorneys general and two states suing the Trump administration for freezing funding administrated by the U.S. Department of Education.

The funding includes more than $70 million in education funding for Minnesota and $6.8 billion total across the U.S., according to Ellison’s office. At least $7.2 million was for St. Paul public schools, Stanley said.

That funding goes toward programs like adult basic education, services for English learners, training for tenure-track teachers and direct student support, Stanley said.

Referendum has union support

Officials with the teachers’ union St. Paul Federation of Educators expressed support for the referendum Tuesday, citing school districts’ loss of federal COVID relief funding, federal cuts and state funding not keeping pace with inflation.

“Our community understands the reality: our schools are severely underfunded,” said SPFE President Leah VanDassor in a statement. “We simply can’t continue to reduce staff and essential programs without harming students’ opportunities and our ability to keep great educators in our district. This levy is our chance to protect what makes our schools strong.”

A district website with information on the referendum is expected to go live Wednesday at spps.org/vote. Stanley expects to share information at Rondo Days on Saturday and hold community forums.

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