Trump administration halts visas for people from Gaza
The State Department said Saturday, August 16, that the visas would be stopped while it looks into how "a small number of temporary medical-humanitarian visas" were issued in recent days. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday told Face the Nation on CBS that the action came after "outreach from multiple congressional offices asking questions about it."
Rubio said there were "just a small number" of visas issued to children in need of medical aid but that they were accompanied by adults. The congressional offices reached out with evidence that "some of the organizations bragging about and involved in acquiring these visas have strong links to terrorist groups like Hamas," he asserted, without providing evidence or naming those organizations.
As a result, he said, "we are going to pause this program and reevaluate how those visas are being vetted and what relationship, if any, has there been by these organizations to the process of acquiring those visas."
A 'national security threat'
Loomer on Friday posted videos on X of children from Gaza arriving earlier this month in San Francisco and Houston for medical treatment with the aid of an organization called HEAL Palestine. "Despite the US saying we are not accepting Palestinian 'refugees' into the United States under the Trump administration," these people from Gaza were able to travel to the US, she said.
She called it a "national security threat" and asked who signed off on the visas, calling for the person to be fired. She tagged Rubio, President Donald Trump , Vice President JD Vance , GOP Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and California Governor Gavin Newsom.
Trump has downplayed Loomer's influence on his administration, but several officials swiftly left or were removed shortly after she publicly criticized them. The State Department on Sunday declined to comment on how many of the visas had been granted and whether the decision to halt visas to people from Gaza had anything to do with Loomer's posts.
HEAL Palestine said in a statement Sunday that it was "distressed" by the State Department decision to halt visitor visas from Gaza. The group said it is "an American humanitarian nonprofit organization delivering urgent aid and medical care to children in Palestine."
A post on the organization's Facebook page on Thursday shows a photo of a boy from Gaza leaving Egypt and headed to St. Louis for treatment and said he is "our 15th evacuated child arriving in the US in the last two weeks."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
LeMonde
2 hours ago
- LeMonde
Buffeted by Trump, India seeks to strengthen ties with Russia and China
The harsh treatment meted out to India by US President Donald Trump has produced the opposite effect to what was intended, pushing an ally into the arms of its adversaries. The American president, who deployed threats and then imposed tariffs in an attempt to distance India from Russia, may end up bringing New Delhi closer to both Moscow and Beijing. On the very day that 50% penalties were announced on Indian products due to imports of Russian crude oil, August 6, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a pointed move toward Moscow, India's longtime partner and its leading arms supplier. Facing the most serious diplomatic crisis since taking office in 2014, the Indian prime minister had little choice but to find a swift response to the American humiliation. He had largely built his legitimacy with Indians on his international stature, often emphasizing his ties with other world leaders, including Trump. The crisis with the US and the ongoing military confrontation with Pakistan have exposed the limitations of his "multi-alignment" or "strategic autonomy" doctrine, which rests on multiple, sometimes contradictory partnerships without true alliances. India found itself more isolated than ever on the world stage.
AFP
5 hours ago
- AFP
Video of protest outside Indonesian court falsely linked to Thai-Cambodian border clashes
"Soldiers' families gather to demand (authorities) find the missing bodies of unaccounted for Thai soldiers," reads the Khmer-language caption of a Facebook video shared on August 5, 2025. The video, which has been viewed more than 13,000 times, shows a large crowd that rushes into a two-storey building with an orange-tiled roof. It circulated after Cambodia and Thailand agreed to a truce that came into effect on July 29, ending five days of clashes on their 800-kilometre (500-mile) boundary that killed at least 43 people on both sides (archived here and here). The fighting, the latest eruption of violence in a long-standing dispute over contested border temples, also displaced more than 300,000 people. Following the truce, Thailand's deputy defence minister Nattapon Narkphanit called on Cambodia to retrieve the bodies of its fallen troops at the border and Cambodian social media users also claimed the corpses of Thai soldiers had been left at the frontier (archived here and here). Image Screenshot of the false Facebook post captured on August 16, 2025, with a red X added by AFP The footage was also shared in similar Khmer-language posts on Facebook and TikTok, as well as in a few Thai posts linking it to the border spat. But the video does not show either Thai or Cambodian protesters, and is unrelated to the recent clashes. Disinformation about the conflict has continued to spread online despite the ceasefire, with misleading visuals and emotionally fuelled falsehoods stoking fear and hatred between the neighbours (archived link). Indonesian protest A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared video led to the same clip posted on TikTok on July 31 (archived link). Its Indonesian-language caption reads, "Demonstration #MandoCourt #LandMafia". Image Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared video (left) and the July 31 TikTok clip (right) Subsequent keyword searches led to reports in local media outlets the Manado Post and Kompas TV on July 31 about hundreds of people rallying outside the Manado District Court in Indonesia's North Sulawesi province (archived here and here). According to the reports, protesters were demanding the cancellation of the court-ordered seizure of land in Wisma Sabang, a district in Manado. A similar video of the protest was also posted on the Manado Times' Instagram account on July 31 (archived link). Image Screenshot comparisons of clips from the falsely shared video (left) and the Manado Times' Instagram account (centre and right), with similarities highlighted by AFP Features in the falsely shared video -- such as a red-and-white flag and text on the building also match Google Maps photos of the Manado District Court (archived link). The flag is Indonesia's national flag and the text reads "Pengadilan Negeri", which translates as "court district". Image Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared clip (left) and the Google Maps photo (right), with corresponding elements highlighted by AFP AFP has previously debunked a similar false claim about supposed unrecovered bodies at the Thailand-Cambodia border, as well as other misinformation related to the countries' border clashes.
LeMonde
10 hours ago
- LeMonde
Trump administration halts visas for people from Gaza
A day after conservative activist Laura Loomer posted videos on social media of children from Gaza arriving in the US for medical treatment and questioning how they got visas, the State Department said it was halting all visitor visas for people from Gaza pending a review. The State Department said Saturday, August 16, that the visas would be stopped while it looks into how "a small number of temporary medical-humanitarian visas" were issued in recent days. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday told Face the Nation on CBS that the action came after "outreach from multiple congressional offices asking questions about it." Rubio said there were "just a small number" of visas issued to children in need of medical aid but that they were accompanied by adults. The congressional offices reached out with evidence that "some of the organizations bragging about and involved in acquiring these visas have strong links to terrorist groups like Hamas," he asserted, without providing evidence or naming those organizations. As a result, he said, "we are going to pause this program and reevaluate how those visas are being vetted and what relationship, if any, has there been by these organizations to the process of acquiring those visas." A 'national security threat' Loomer on Friday posted videos on X of children from Gaza arriving earlier this month in San Francisco and Houston for medical treatment with the aid of an organization called HEAL Palestine. "Despite the US saying we are not accepting Palestinian 'refugees' into the United States under the Trump administration," these people from Gaza were able to travel to the US, she said. She called it a "national security threat" and asked who signed off on the visas, calling for the person to be fired. She tagged Rubio, President Donald Trump , Vice President JD Vance , GOP Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and California Governor Gavin Newsom. Trump has downplayed Loomer's influence on his administration, but several officials swiftly left or were removed shortly after she publicly criticized them. The State Department on Sunday declined to comment on how many of the visas had been granted and whether the decision to halt visas to people from Gaza had anything to do with Loomer's posts. HEAL Palestine said in a statement Sunday that it was "distressed" by the State Department decision to halt visitor visas from Gaza. The group said it is "an American humanitarian nonprofit organization delivering urgent aid and medical care to children in Palestine." A post on the organization's Facebook page on Thursday shows a photo of a boy from Gaza leaving Egypt and headed to St. Louis for treatment and said he is "our 15th evacuated child arriving in the US in the last two weeks."
