Fury and resignation around the world as Trump's travel ban comes roaring back
Many on the list are majority-Muslim countries, and several of those began observing the Hajj pilgrimage holiday late Wednesday, making an immediate response less likely. Officials at U.S. embassies in Libya, Chad, Eritrea, Sudan and Turkmenistan were not available for comment.
Still, Shawn VanDiver, President of the Afghan refugee advocacy group #AfghanEvac's referred to the ban as 'political theater' and 'a second Muslim Ban, dressed up in bureaucracy.'
Trump began a video address on Wednesday by citing recent violence in Boulder, Colorado, where an Egyptian man seeking asylum with an expired tourist visa injured at least 12 demonstrators in what city officials called an antisemitic attack, as justification for a renewed travel ban.
Egypt is not on the list of banned countries, but its absence speaks to the importance of Egyptian influence both on American Middle East policy and in the region at large, said Ahmed Aboudouh, an associate fellow at the London-based think tank, Chatham House.
The proclamation largely affects 'conflict-prone [nations], or ones which have security issues at this time, or don't have the diplomatic or security heft to respond very aggressively to this U.S. ban,' Aboudouh said. 'We're not seeing the U.S. going after its strategic partners in either the Middle East or Africa.'
The White House's decision sparked a carefully-worded rebuke from the African Union Commission, which in a statement Thursday urged the U.S. to exercise its right to protect its borders 'in a manner that is balanced, evidence-based, and reflective of the long-standing partnership between the United States and Africa.'
'The Commission remains concerned about the potential negative impact of such measures on... relations that have been carefully nurtured over decades,' it added.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
10 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Melania joins Trump in welcoming Gaza hostage Edan Alexander
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump welcomed Edan Alexander, the last living American hostage in Gaza , who was released in May, to the White House on Thursday. Alexander told Trump he was treated better in captivity after Trump won the presidential election, per a video posted on social media by Trump aide Margo Martin. The president thanked him and welcomed him to the Oval Office. He noted Melania Trump, in particular, was worried about Alexander. 'The first lady, it was very important to her,' Trump said. The president also said he was concerned that Alexander had been killed in an air strike on a Hamas tunnel where he was being held, Axios reported. Alexander, 21, is an American-Israeli from New Jersey . He was among 251 people taken hostage by Hamas in the Oct. 7, 2023 attack that sparked Israel's war with Hamas. Alexander moved to Israel in 2022 after finishing high school and enlisted in the military. He was 19 when militants stormed his base in Israel and dragged him into the Gaza Strip. He was released on May 12 by the militant group Hamas after 584 days in captivity. Alexander had been in Israel since he was freed until he traveled last month home to New Jersey, where his family still lives. Alexander told President Trump there are other hostages still in Gaza who need to be released and the president agreed with him. The meeting comes ahead of Trump's scheduled sit-down on Monday with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Trump is pushing Netanyahu and Hamas to come to an agreement to end the war in Gaza. The president asked Iran-backed Hamas militants on Tuesday to agree to what he called a 'final proposal' for a 60-day ceasefire with Israel in Gaza that will be delivered by mediating officials from Qatar and Egypt. In a social media post, Trump said his representatives had a 'long and productive' meeting with Israeli officials about Gaza. Trump said Israel has agreed to the conditions to finalize a 60-day ceasefire, 'during which time we will work with all parties to end the War.' He said representatives for Qatar and Egypt will deliver 'this final proposal' to Hamas. 'I hope, for the good of the Middle East, that Hamas takes this Deal, because it will not get better — IT WILL ONLY GET WORSE,' he wrote. Along with the first lady, several other senior officials were in the meeting with Alexander, Axios reported, including Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. Alexander's homecoming to Tenafly, New Jersey, was met with celebration, as hundreds stood in the rain to see him. Trump in early March met at the White House with a group of eight former hostages who had been released by Hamas: Iair Horn, Omer Shem Tov, Eli Sharabi, Keith Siegel, Aviva Siegel, Naama Levy, Doron Steinbrecher and Noa Argamani.
The Guardian
15 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Former CBS anchor slams Paramount settlement with Trump: ‘It was a sellout'
A former CBS News anchor and 60 minutes correspondent, Dan Rather, has blasted the $16m settlement between Paramount, the parent company of CBS News, and Donald Trump, calling it a 'sad day for journalism'. 'It's a sad day for 60 Minutes and CBS News,' Rather, a veteran journalist who was a CBS News anchor for over 20 years, told Variety in an interview published Wednesday. 'I hope people will read the details of this and understand what it was. It was distortion by the president and a kneeling down and saying, 'yes, sir,' by billionaire corporate owners.' Last November, Trump sued CBS News, claiming that the network's interview with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, had been doctored to portray her in a favorable light – which he alleged amounted to 'election interference'. Many legal experts had widely dismissed the lawsuit as 'meritless' and unlikely to hold up under the first amendment, but on Wednesday Paramount announced that it had agreed to pay Trump $16m to settle the case over the interview that was broadcast on the CBS News program 60 Minutes. The settlement comes as Paramount is preparing for a $8bn merger with Skydance Media, which requires approval from the US Federal Communications Commission. Paramount has said that the lawsuit is separate from the company's merger. A spokesperson for Trump's legal team said in a statement to the Guardian that 'With this record settlement, President Donald J. Trump delivers another win for the American people as he, once again, holds the Fake News media accountable for their wrongdoing and deceit.' 'CBS and Paramount Global realized the strength of this historic case and had no choice but to settle' the spokesperson added. According to Wednesday's announcement, the settlement funds will not be paid to Trump directly, but instead would be allocated to Trump's future presidential library. The settlement did not include an apology. Rather told Variety on Wednesday that in his opinion 'you settle a lawsuit when you've done something wrong' and '60 minutes did nothing wrong, it followed accepted journalistic practices'. 'Lawyers almost unanimously said the case wouldn't stand up in court,' he said. Ultimately though, Rather said he was disappointed but not surprised by the settlement. 'Big billionaire businesspeople make decisions about money' he said. 'We could always hope that they will make an exception when it comes to freedom of the press, but it wasn't to be. 'Trump knew if he put the pressure on and threatened and just held that they would fold, because there's too much money on the table' Rather said. 'Trump is now forcing a whole news organization to pay millions of dollars for doing something protected by the constitution – which is, of course, free and independent reporting. Now, you take today's sellout. And that's what it was: It was a sellout to extortion by the president. Who can now say where all this ends?'. He continued: 'It has to do with not just journalism, but more importantly, with the country as a whole. What kind of country we're going to have, what kind of country we're going to be. If major news organizations continue to kneel before power and stop trying to hold the powerful accountable, then we all lose.' In his more than 60 years in journalism, Rather told Variety he has never seen the profession face the kind of challenges as those it faces today. 'Journalism has had its trials and tribulations before, and it takes courage to just soldier on,' Rather said. 'Keep trying, keep fighting. It takes guts to do that. And I know the people at CBS News, and particularly those at 60 Minutes, they'll do their dead level best under these circumstances. But the question is what this development and the message it sends to us. And that's what I'm trying to concentrate on.'
The Independent
30 minutes ago
- The Independent
What does Trump's controversial bill mean for Americans?
The GOP's budget package, known as the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," has passed the House of Representatives and is now awaiting President Donald Trump 's signature. The legislation extends $4.5 trillion in tax breaks from 2017, including new deductions for tips and older adults, and temporarily expands the child tax credit and raises the state and local tax deduction cap. It introduces significant cuts to social programmes, with Medicaid spending estimated to fall by over $1 trillion over the next decade and new work requirements for both Medicaid and SNAP benefits. The bill allocates substantial funding increases for immigration enforcement, including billions for border fencing, new ICE agents, and detention facilities, alongside a $5 trillion increase to the debt ceiling. Environmental provisions in the package include stripping tax incentives for renewable energy projects by 2027 and ending electric vehicle tax credits by the end of September.
