Far-right lawmaker Wilders pulls his party out of ruling Dutch coalition in dispute over migration
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Sky News
11 minutes ago
- Sky News
President Trump signs travel ban targeting 12 countries with 'hostile attitudes' to the US
President Trump has signed an order banning people from 12 countries from entering the US. He said Sunday's attack in Colorado had shown "the extreme dangers posed to our country by the entry of foreign nationals who are not properly vetted, as well as those who come as temporary visitors and overstay their visas". "We will not allow people to enter our country who wish to do us harm," he said in a video statement. The countries affected are: Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. The White House said they posed a "very high risk" to the US and had poor screening and vetting to identify dangerous individuals. People from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela will also face partial restrictions. Mr Trump's proclamation said America must ensure people entering don't have "hostile attitudes toward its citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles" - and don't support terror groups. The move echoes a controversial executive order enacted eight years ago during his first term, when he banned people from predominately Muslim countries. The countries initially targeted then were Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen. President Trump said on Thursday that policy was a "key part of preventing major foreign terror attacks on American soil". His new list adds more countries, but notably removes Syria after Mr Trump met the country's leader recently on a trip to the Middle East. Athletes and their coaches competing in the 2026 World Cup and the 2028 Olympics, both of which are taking place in the US, will be exempt. Permanent US residents and existing visa holders are also among those unaffected. Trump cites 'what happened in Europe' to justify new ban President Trump hailed travel restrictions imposed during his first term as "one of our most successful policies". It was also one of the most controversial, with what became known as "the Muslim ban" sparking widespread protest. Thousands gathered at US airports to oppose the detainment of travellers arriving from affected countries. The then German chancellor, Angela Merkel, said the fight against terrorism didn't justify suspicion of people based on their faith. Her French counterpart at the time, President Hollande, warned against the dangers of isolationism. Still smarting perhaps from that criticism, Trump announced his new ban with a commitment to "not let what happened in Europe happen to America". In addition to restrictions on 12 countries and partial restrictions on another seven, he warned others could be added as "threats emerge around the world". In a second proclamation, the US president escalated his war with Harvard University, suspending international visas for new students and authorising the secretary of state to consider revoking existing ones. Having blamed Joe Biden for "millions and millions" of "illegals" in America, he issued a third proclamation ordering an investigation into the use of autopen during Biden's presidency. In a memorandum, President Trump claimed his predecessor's aides used autopen to sign bills in a bid to cover up his cognitive decline. If we didn't know what the Trump administration meant when they talked about "flooding the zone", we know now. The list was put together after the president asked homeland security officials and the director of national intelligence to compile a report on countries whose citizens could pose a threat to the US. The ban takes effect from 9 June but countries could be removed or added. The proclamation states it will be reviewed within 90 days, and every 180 days after, to decide if it should be "continued, terminated, modified, or supplemented". "These commonsense restrictions are country-specific and include places that lack proper vetting, exhibit high visa overstay rates, or fail to share identity and threat information," said White House deputy press secretary Abigail Jackson. President Trump's first travel restrictions in 2017 were criticised by opponents and human rights groups as a "Muslim ban". It led to some chaotic scenes, including tourists, students and business travellers prevented from boarding planes - or held at US airports when they landed. Mr Trump denied it was Islamophobic despite calling for a ban on Muslims entering America in his first presidential campaign. It faced legal challenges and was modified until the Supreme Court upheld a third version of it in June 2018, with judges calling it "squarely within the scope of presidential authority".
Daily Mail
13 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Skip Bayless rants about transgender athletes in girls' sport amid AB Hernandez controversy
Skip Bayless has backed calls for transgender athletes to be banned from girls' sport after AB Hernandez dominated rivals at the California high school track and field championships. Hernandez defied Donald Trump to take gold in the girls' high jump and triple jump over the weekend. The president previously signed an executive order entitled 'Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports'. Trump later called for Hernandez to be banned from the event. A masked pro-trans protestor was also arrested at the state championships after they were seen using a Progress Pride flag to attack a demonstrator. On Wednesday, former ESPN and Fox Sports host Bayless weighed in on the debate, insisting he is 'all for radical inclusivity' but that he must draw the line at transgender athletes competing against girls. 'It is not fair for an athlete born with male genetics to compete in female-only competition,' he said on his eponymous show. It is simply not right for a trans athlete to be allowed to compete against biological girls. I'm sorry, it's just ... not ... fair — Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) June 4, 2025 The transgender athlete took gold in the girls' high jump and triple jump over the weekend 'Though there are obviously some exceptions, in general male genetics give a trans girl unfair advantage over competitors who were born female. 'I am all for radical inclusivity at the church I attend. This trans athlete would certainly be welcome at my church. 'But it is simply not right for this trans athlete to be allowed by the state of California to compete against biological girls. I'm sorry, it's just not fair. This isn't a political opinion, it's just my gut feeling as a sports fan.' Ahead of last week's event, the California Interscholastic Federation announced a new policy in response to Hernandez's recent success. The federation allowed an extra student to compete and medal in Hernandez's events. But Trump threatened to withhold 'large scale Federal Funding' and blasted California governor Gavin Newsom for 'ILLEGALLY (allowing) "MEN TO PLAY IN WOMEN'S SPORTS."' Protestors descended on the state finals to voice their outrage but Hernandez's victory was just one of a number of flashpoints across America over recent days. Another transgender athlete in Washington told critics to 'get a life' after they were booed for dominating a girl's track championship. In Oregon, meanwhile, two female high jumpers refused to stand alongside a transgender rival on the podium at the high school state championships. Rather than taking their spots on the podium, footage obtained by Fox News showed Alexa Anderson and Reese Eckard turning their backs to the crowd before being ushered away from the ceremony by an official. Anderson later revealed: 'We stepped off the podium in protest and, as you can see, the official kind of told us: "Hey, go over there, if you're not going to participate, get out of the photos". 'They asked us to move away from the medal stand, so when they took the photos, we weren't even in it at all.' She told Fox: 'It's unfair because biological males and biological females compete at such different levels that letting a biological male into our competition is taking up space and opportunities from all these hardworking women.'
The Guardian
37 minutes ago
- The Guardian
What is Trump's new travel ban, and which countries are affected?
Six months into his second term, Donald Trump has announced a new sweeping travel ban that could reshape the US's borders more dramatically than any policy in modern memory. The proposed restrictions, revealed through a presidential proclamation on Wednesday, would target citizens from more than a dozen countries – creating a three-tiered system of escalating barriers to entry. The proposal represents one of the most ambitious attempts to reshape the US's approach to global mobility in modern history and potentially affects millions of people coming to the United States for relocation, travel, work or school. A travel ban restricts or prohibits citizens of specific countries from entering the United States. These restrictions can range from complete visa suspensions to specific limitations on certain visa categories. Trump's day one executive order required the state department to identify countries 'for which vetting and screening information is so deficient as to warrant a partial or full suspension on the admission of nationals from those countries'. His travel ban proclamation referenced the previous executive order, as well as the recent attack by an Egyptian national in Boulder, Colorado, upon a group of people demonstrating for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza. A presidential proclamation is a decree that is often ceremonial or can have legal implications when it comes to national emergencies. Unlike an executive order, which is a directive to heads of agencies in the administration, the proclamation primarily signals a broad change in policy. The following countries were identified for total bans of any nationals seeking to travel to the US for immigrant or non-immigrant reasons: Afghanistan Burma Chad Republic of the Congo Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Haiti Iran Libya Somalia Sudan Yemen He's also partially restricting the travel of people from: Burundi Cuba Laos Sierra Leone Togo Turkmenistan Venezuela The proclamation broadly cites national security issues for including the countries, but specifies a few different issues that reach the level of concern for the travel ban. For some countries, such as Afghanistan, Eritrea, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Libya and Venezuela, the proclamation claims that there is no reliable central authority for issuing passports or screening and vetting nationals traveling out of the country. For other countries, such as Burma, Chad, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Burundi, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo and Turkmenistan, the proclamation cites a high rate of immigrants overstaying their visas in the US. Finally, there are several countries that are included because of terrorist activity or state- sponsored terrorism, including Iran, Afghanistan, Libya, Somalia, Iran and Cuba. The 2017 ban initially targeted seven predominantly Muslim countries before expanding to include North Korea and Venezuela. This new proposal is broader and also makes the notable addition of Haiti. During his 2024 campaign for the presidency, Trump amplified false claims made by his running mate, JD Vance, that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio were 'eating the pets of the people that live there'. The proclamation falsely claims that 'hundreds of thousands of illegal Haitian aliens flooded into the United States during the Biden administration' and this 'influx harms American communities'. In fact, about 200,000 Haitians were granted temporary protected status, which gives legal residency permits to foreign nationals who are unable to return home safely due to conditions in their home countries. Also notable are the restrictions on Afghans, given that many of the Afghans approved to live in the US as refugees were forced to flee their home country as a result of working to support US troops there, before the full withdrawal of US forces in 2021. The agreement with the Taliban to withdraw US troops was negotiated by Trump during his first term. Last month, homeland security secretary Kristi Noem announced 'the termination of temporary protected status for Afghanistan', effective 20 May. The draft proposal leaves crucial questions unanswered about existing visa holders, and sets a concerning precedent following recent actions to kick out residents or bar others from re-entering the country. The administration is attempting to revoke the green card of a Syrian-born Palestinian student with Algerian citizenship, Mahmoud Khalil, over his role in Columbia University's campus protests, arguing that his free-speech stances are a threat to US foreign policy. A Brown University doctor on an H-1B visa was not allowed to re-enter the United States after attending the former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah's funeral in Lebanon, and a postdoctoral researcher at Georgetown on a student visa was detained in the middle of the night in Arlington, Virginia, possibly over suspicion that he and his wife – a US citizen – oppose US foreign policy on Israel. For employers, the ban threatens significant workforce disruptions across tech, healthcare and education sectors, potentially making companies unable to hire from red-listed countries and causing delays from orange-listed nations. The impact could be particularly severe for international Stem talent, medical professionals and academic recruitment. The education and health industries alone employ about 5.5 million foreign-born workers.
