Rwanda is in the early stages of talks to receive immigrants deported from the United States, Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe said on television late on Sunday.

Rwanda has in recent years positioned itself as a destination country for migrants that Western countries would like to remove, despite concerns by rights groups that Kigali does not respect some of the most fundamental human rights.

Kigali signed an agreement with Britain in 2022 to take in thousands of asylum seekers from the United Kingdom before the deal was scrapped last year by then newly-elected Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

“We are in discussions with the United States,” Nduhungirehe said in an interview with the state broadcaster Rwanda TV.

“It has not yet reached a stage where we can say exactly how things will proceed, but the talks are ongoing… still in the early stages.”

US President Donald Trump launched a sweeping crackdown on immigration and attempted to freeze the US refugee resettlement program after the start of his second term in January.

His administration has pushed aggressively to deport immigrants who are in the country illegally and other non-citizens.

The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) warned there was a risk some migrants sent to Rwanda could be returned to countries from which they had fled. Kigali denied the allegations and accused UNHCR of lying.

Last month the US deported to Rwanda a resettled Iraqi refugee whom it had long tried to extradite in response to Iraqi government claims that he worked for the Islamic State, according to a US official and an internal email.

The Supreme Court in April temporarily blocked Trump’s administration – which has invoked a rarely used wartime law – from deporting a group of Venezuelan migrants it accused of being gang members.

Kenya’s President William Ruto fended off a shoe thrown at him during a speech about the cost of living which has been a source of public anger, videos shared on social media showed.

Ruto has been compelled to abandon tax hikes and invite opposition members into cabinet, but discontent remains high in the East African nation.

On Sunday at the rally in Migori county in western Kenya, Ruto blocked the flying footwear with his arm and did not appear to be injured, according to three videos.

“We have said we are reducing the price of fertilizer, true or false?” he said as the shoe bounced off him, kicking up a small cloud of dust.

Interior Minister Kipchumba Murkomen said police had arrested three people, The Star newspaper reported.

Then US President George W. Bush famously had a shoe thrown at him by an Iraqi journalist in 2008 in protest at the chaos following the US-led invasion.

Britain is marking the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe (VE) Day this week with four days of commemorations honoring the end of World War II on the continent, as well as those who served and perished during the conflict.

The official surrender of Nazi Germany to Allied forces took place on May 8, 1945, ending a brutal war that claimed tens of millions of lived and reshaped global history.

London’s commemorations began Monday when Big Ben, the clock and bell in Elizabeth Tower at the Houses of Parliament, struck at midday and extracts from wartime leader Winston Churchill’s VE Day speech echoed across the capital.

A military parade, featuring members of the United Kingdom’s armed forces, marched from parliament to Buckingham Palace. It was watched by King Charles, Queen Camilla, the Prince and Princess of Wales, and their three children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis. More events, including a flypast of historic aircraft, are planned for Monday afternoon, a public holiday in the United Kingdom.

Members of the British royal family attending Monday’s procession wore uniforms chosen to reflect both personal military ties and historical resonance. King Charles wore a Naval No.1 uniform with no medals or decorations – mirroring the attire of his grandfather, King George VI, who stood on the Buckingham Palace balcony on VE Day in 1945. Queen Camilla appeared beside him in a sapphire blue wool crepe dress and coat, adorned with a 12th Royal Lancers Brooch – honoring her late father’s regiment.

Events will continue across the UK this week. On Tuesday, 30,000 ceramic poppies will be installed at the Tower of London to remember those killed in conflict. Elsewhere, historic landmarks across the UK will be illuminated in the national colors of red, white and blue.

VE Day itself, Thursday, will include a national two-minute silence at midday, a service at Westminster Abbey attended by the King and Queen, and a large-scale concert at Horse Guards Palace. Later, 2,500 beacons will be lit across the UK.

Eighty years ago, the nation erupted in joy as news of the surrender broke. In London, the late Queen Elizabeth, then a 19-year-old princess, and her younger sister Margaret famously slipped out of Buckingham Palace to join the revelers.

But this year, the commemorative mood comes amid renewed tensions within the royal family. Just days ago, Prince Harry revealed that his father, King Charles, no longer speaks to him and that he cannot imagine bringing his family back to the UK after losing a court case over his security arrangements on Friday.

One of them often dons a Trump-style red baseball cap and wants to make his country “great again.” The other visited the US president at the White House to drum up support. Both could soon become presidents of major allies on Ukraine’s border.

In Romania, the hard-right euroskeptic George Simion convincingly won the first round of the presidential re-run on Sunday, making him a strong favorite to win the final round on May 18.

On that same day, Poland will also hold the first round of a presidential ballot, where both the nationalist candidate Karol Nawrocki and the far-right upstart Sławomir Mentzen have been making gains. If no candidate wins more than 50% of votes, a second round will be held two weeks later.

Although victory for Simion is much more likely than for Poland’s right-wing candidates, Europe is now facing the prospect that two of Ukraine’s neighbors could by next month be led by presidents who are hostile towards Brussels and aping a MAGA-style politics.

“Congratulations,” Nawrocki said to Simion on Monday in a message of support on X.

Also hailing Simion’s first-round victory, Mentzen jokingly asked if Romanian authorities “will cancel the elections again.” This was a reference to the decision last year by Romania’s constitutional court to annul the first-round victory of Calin Georgescu, a Kremlin-friendly ultranationalist, after intelligence services pointed to possible Russian interference in his TikTok-fueled campaign, which he and Moscow denied. Georgescu was later banned from May’s re-run, after prosecutors charged him with establishing a fascist group and other crimes.

The court’s decision to cancel the election had little precedent, outraged many in the country and caught the attention of officials in the Trump administration. In his blistering speech in Munich in February, US Vice President JD Vance singled out Romania as the grossest case of what he called Europe’s “threat from within.”

Sunday’s first-round results showed the court’s decision did little to quell Romania’s simmering nationalist fervor and may even have inflamed it. Whereas Georgescu secured 22% of votes in November, Simion won a resounding 41% in May’s do-over, far exceeding polling expectations. His nearest contender, Nicusor Dan, the centrist mayor of the capital Bucharest, came second at around 21%.

Many in Brussels will be hoping that the pro-European Union voters will rally around Dan in the second round, shutting the far-right out of power, as happened in France in its parliamentary election last year. But analysts say divisions among the mainstream parties mean Simion is likely to win the May 18 second round.

Although Romania, like Poland, has a parliamentary system, the presidents of both countries are commanders of the armed forces and have significant sway over military spending and foreign policy.

While not as brazen as Georgescu, Simion shares many of his views and even cast his ballot alongside him on Sunday. Simion has long voiced his opposition to military aid for Ukraine, and last year was banned by Kyiv from entering the country, citing his “systematic anti-Ukrainian activities.” He is also barred from visiting neighboring Moldova. Simion has claimed he is not anti-Ukraine or pro-Russia, but simply “pro-Romanian.”

In Poland, the picture is less clear-cut. With President Andrzej Duda of the conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS) unable to run for a third term, Karol Nawrocki – currently head of Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance – is attempting to pick up his mantle. Meanwhile, Sławomir Mentzen, a leader of the far-right Confederation Liberty and Independence alliance, has climbed up the polls – but is deemed unlikely to reach the second round.

Although technically running as an independent, Nawrocki has the backing of PiS, which became increasingly authoritarian over its eight years in power, before its defeat in a 2023 parliamentary election by an alliance led by Donald Tusk’s liberal Civic Platform party.

Nawrocki met Trump at the White House last week to mark the National Day of Prayer. “President Trump said, ‘you will win,’” Nawrocki told private broadcaster TV Republika after his reception in the Oval Office.

Nawrocki has accused Volodymyr Zelensky of behaving “indecently” towards his allies, echoing criticism by Vance that the Ukrainian president is not sufficiently “grateful” for the support his country receives. In the fallout from Zelensky’s Oval Office meeting with Trump and Vance, Tusk – prime minister since 2023 – said it is “becoming clear who in Poland wants to pursue Russian interests.”

Currently polling at around 25%, Nawrocki is trailing Rafał Trzaskowski, the centrist mayor of Warsaw representing Tusk’s Civic Platform party, who is leading at around 33%.

But Simion’s overperforming polling expectations will provide encouragement to Poland’s conservative candidates.

Mentzen said Simion’s first-round victory showed that “Romanians again want to choose differently than the EU elites would like.” Further to the right than Nawrocki, Mentzen has also tacked closely to Trump, calling for a MAGA-style “revolution of common sense” in Poland.