White House accuses 'unelected judges' of interfering with Trump's tariff agenda
The Power Panel discusses two U.S. court decisions that blocked, then reinstated, President Donald Trump's broadest tariffs after an immediate appeal from the White House.
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CTV News
42 minutes ago
- CTV News
Will visa delays and border fears keep international fans away from the Club World Cup in the U.S.?
Fans fill the Rose Bowl as Chelsea plays Liverpool FC in an International Champions Cup soccer match , July 27, 2016, in Pasadena, Calif. (Carlos Delgado/AP Images for International Champions Cup, via AP, File) As the United States readies for the FIFA Club World Cup, concern over such things as international travel, fan safety and even economic uncertainty threaten to diminish enthusiasm for the tournament. The United States will see the arrival of 32 professional club teams from around the globe to 11 cities for the tournament. There's a US$1 billion prize pool. The Club World Cup is considered in many ways to be a dress rehearsal for the big event, the 2026 World Cup to be hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico. But there seems to be little buzz for the Club World Cup at home or abroad. The expansion of the field from seven to 32 teams has diminished the exclusivity of the event, and ticket sales appear slow. At the same time, the tournament is being played amid reports of foreign tourists being detained and visa processing delays. Chaotic U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activities and U.S. President Donald Trump's travel bans aren't exactly reassuring international fans, either. Wary travelers, visa woes Trump's policies appear to have already impacted travelers. The U.S. National Travel and Tourism Office released data showing visitors to the U.S. from foreign countries fell 9.7 per cent in March compared to the same month last year. The travel forecasting company Tourism Economics has predicted that international arrivals would decline 9.4 per cent this year. The U.S. Travel Association, a nonprofit group that represents the travel industry, has urged the Trump administration to improve such things as visa processing and customs wait times ahead of a series of big sporting events on U.S. soil, including the Club World Cup beginning June 14, the Ryder Cup later this year, next summer's World Cup, and the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. Association President Geoff Freeman said, for example, that the wait in Colombia for a visa interview appointment is upwards of 18 months — already putting the 2026 World Cup out of reach for some travelers. He said his organization is working with the White House's World Cup Task Force to address issues. 'They (the task force) recognize how important this event is: success is the only option. So we're eager to work with them to do whatever it is we need to do to ensure that we can welcome the millions of incremental visitors that we think are possible,' Freeman said. 'But these underlying issues of visa and customs, we've got to address.' Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking at a House Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing last month, suggested consular staff could be put on longer shifts and that artificial intelligence could be used to process visas. 'We want it to be a success. It's a priority for the president,' said Rubio. But the Trump administration may have added to the concerns for international visitors by issuing a ban on travelers from 12 countries, with restrictions on travel from nine more countries. Iran, one of the countries named, has qualified for the World Cup. The proclamation included an exemption for 'any athlete or member of an athletic team, including coaches, persons performing a necessary support role, and immediate relatives, traveling for the World Cup, Olympics, or other major sporting event as determined by the secretary of state.' It did not mention fans. Fan fears There are signs current immigration policies were already impacting soccer fans and spurring worries over safety. A Latin American supporters group in Nashville stayed away from a recent Major League Soccer game because of ICE activity in the city. The city's Geodis Park is set to host three Club World Cup matches. Danny Navarro, who offers travel advice to followers on his social media platforms under the moniker TravelFutbolFan, said the World Cup Task Force announcement did not allay fears about travel, especially when Vice President JD Vance said, 'We want them to come. We want them to celebrate. We want them to watch the game. But when the time is up, they'll have to go home. Otherwise, they'll have to talk to (U.S. Homeland Security) Secretary (Kristi) Noem.' That insinuated fans visiting the United States for the World Cup could use it to stay in the country, which is nonsensical, Navarro maintained. For many countries, fans traveling to the World Cup — an expensive travel plan with hiked flight and hotel prices — are broadly viewed as higher-spending and lower-risk for host nation security planning. Navarro put the onus on FIFA. 'They must know that there is an anxiety among international travelers wanting to come in. They must know there's an anxiety among the U.S. fan base that is multicultural and wanting to go to all these places. Are they going to? Are they going to be harassed by ICE?' Navarro said. 'There is just a lot of uncertainty, I would say, too much uncertainty, that the fan base doesn't want to think about.' If you build it, will they come? It remains to be seen how outside factors will ultimately impact the Club World Cup, which is not the global spectacle or draw that the World Cup is. Ticket sales, which were based on a dynamic pricing model, appear to be slow, with lowered prices from earlier this year and a slew of recent promotions. For a match between Paris Saint-Germain and Botafogo at the Rose Bowl on June 19, there were wide swaths of available seats going for $33.45. FIFA created an incentive program that says fans who buy two or more tickets to the Club World Cup 'may' be guaranteed the right to purchase one ticket to the World Cup next summer. Navarro said economic uncertainty and fears of inflation may make fans hesitant to spend their money on the Club World Cup — when the more desirable World Cup is looming. In some host cities, there's little sign the Club World Cup is happening. A light rail station in Seattle had a lone sign advertising the event. The Seattle Sounders are among the teams playing in the tournament. Hans Hobson, executive director of the Tennessee State Soccer Association, suggested part of the problem is that, unlike the national teams that play in the World Cup, some of the club teams playing in Nashville are just not known to U.S. fans. 'It's not leagues that they watch. If it was the Premier League or the Bundesliga or something like that, then they'd go, 'Oh, I know players there. Let's go check it out,' Hobson said. There were tickets available to LAFC's match against Esperance Sportive de Tunisie in Nashville on June 20 for $24.45. FIFA President Gianni Infantino has traveled to several host cities to gin up enthusiasm. He has promised 'the world will be welcomed.' But some say the United States isn't exactly rolling out the red carpet for visitors in the current climate. 'I could see trepidation for anyone looking to travel to the U.S. at this current political climate,' said Canadian national team coach Jesse Marsch. 'So it's a sad thing, I think, that we have to talk about visiting the U.S. in this way but I think everybody has to make decisions that are best for them and that fit best with what's going on in their life and their lifestyle.' AP Sports Writer Teresa Walker contributed to this report Anne M. Peterson, The Associated Press
CTV News
42 minutes ago
- CTV News
Travel ban may shut door for Afghan family to bring niece to U.S. for a better life
Mohammad Sharafoddin, left, and his wife, Nuriya, right, show a photo of their niece in Afghanistan who won't be able to travel to the U.S., under the new travel ban, during an interview at their home in Irmo, S.C., on Saturday, June 7 2025. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins) IRMO, S.C. — Mohammad Sharafoddin, his wife and young son walked at times for 36 hours in a row over mountain passes as they left Afghanistan as refugees to end up less than a decade later talking about their journey on a plush love seat in the family's three-bedroom suburban American home. He and his wife dreamed of bringing her niece to the United States to share in that bounty. Maybe she could study to become a doctor and then decide her own path. But that door slams shut on Monday as America put in place a travel ban for people from Afghanistan and a dozen other countries. 'It's kind of shock for us when we hear about Afghanistan, especially right now for ladies who are affected more than others with the new government,' Mohammad Sharafoddin said, referring to the country's Taliban rulers. 'We didn't think about this travel ban.' Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August 2021 as the Western forces were in the final phase of their withdrawal from the country, they have barred education for women and girls beyond sixth grade, most employment and many public spaces. Last August, the Taliban introduced laws that ban women's voices and bare faces outside the home. President Donald Trump signed the travel ban Wednesday. It is similar to one in place during his first administration but covers more countries. Along with Afghanistan, travel to the U.S. is banned from Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. Trump said visitors who overstay visas, like the man charged in an attack that injured dozens of demonstrators in Boulder, Colorado, earlier this month, are a danger to the country. The suspect in the attack is from Egypt, which isn't included in the ban. The countries chosen for the ban have deficient screening of their citizens, often refuse to take them back and have a high percentage of people who stay in the U.S. after their visas expire, Trump said. The ban makes exceptions for people from Afghanistan on Special Immigrant Visas who generally worked most closely with the U.S. government during the two-decade war there. Thousands of refugees came from Afghanistan Afghanistan was also one of the largest sources of resettled refugees, with about 14,000 arrivals in a 12-month period through September 2024. Trump suspended refugee resettlement on his first day in office. It is a path Sharafoddin took with his wife and son out of Afghanistan walking on those mountain roads in the dark then through Pakistan, Iran and into Turkey. He worked in a factory for years in Turkey, listening to YouTube videos on headphones to learn English before he was resettled in Irmo, South Carolina, a suburb of Columbia. His son is now 11, and he and his wife had a daughter in the U.S. who is now three. There is a job at a jewelry maker that allows him to afford a two-story, three-bedroom house. Food was laid out on two tables Saturday for a celebration of the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday. Sharafoddin's wife, Nuriya, said she is learning English and driving — two things she couldn't do in Afghanistan under Taliban rule. 'I'm very happy to be here now, because my son is very good at school and my daughter also. I think after 18 years they are going to work, and my daughter is going to be able to go to college,' she said. The family wants to help a niece It is a life she wanted for her niece too. The couple show videos from their cellphones of her drawing and painting. When the Taliban returned to power in 2021, their niece could no longer study. So they started to plan to get her to the U.S. at least to further her education. Nuriya Sharafoddin doesn't know if her niece has heard the news from America yet. She hasn't had the heart to call and tell her. 'I'm not ready to call her. This is not good news. This is very sad news because she is worried and wants to come,' Nuriya Sharafoddin said. While the couple spoke, Jim Ray came by. He has helped a number of refugee families settle in Columbia and helped the Sharafoddins navigate questions in their second language. Ray said Afghans in Columbia know the return of the Taliban changed how the U.S. deals with their native country. But while the ban allows spouses, children or parents to travel to America, other family members aren't included. Many Afghans know their extended families are starving or suffering, and suddenly a path to help is closed, Ray said. 'We'll have to wait and see how the travel ban and the specifics of it actually play out,' Ray said. 'This kind of thing that they're experiencing where family cannot be reunited is actually where it hurts the most.' The Taliban criticize the travel ban The Taliban have criticized Trump for the ban, with their top leader Hibatullah Akhundzada saying the U.S. was now the oppressor of the world. 'Citizens from 12 countries are barred from entering their land — and Afghans are not allowed either,' he said on a recording shared on social media. 'Why? Because they claim the Afghan government has no control over its people and that people are leaving the country. So, oppressor! Is this what you call friendship with humanity?' Jeffrey Collins, The Associated Press
CTV News
42 minutes ago
- CTV News
Trump officials are vowing to end school desegregation orders. Some parents say they're still needed
A school bus is seen behind a fence with barbed wire outside Ferriday High School in Ferriday, La., Thursday, May 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) FERRIDAY, La. — Even at a glance, the differences are obvious. The walls of Ferriday High School are old and worn, surrounded by barbed wire. Just a few miles away, Vidalia High School is clean and bright, with a new library and a crisp blue 'V' painted on orange brick. Ferriday High is 90 per cent Black. Vidalia High is 62 per cent white. For Black families, the contrast between the schools suggests 'we're not supposed to have the finer things,' said Brian Davis, a father in Ferriday. 'It's almost like our kids don't deserve it,' he said. The schools are part of Concordia Parish, which was ordered to desegregate 60 years ago and remains under a court-ordered plan to this day. Yet there's growing momentum to release the district — and dozens of others — from decades-old orders that some call obsolete. In a remarkable reversal, the U.S. Justice Department said it plans to start unwinding court-ordered desegregation plans dating to the Civil Rights Movement. Officials started in April, when they lifted a 1960s order in Louisiana's Plaquemines Parish. Harmeet Dhillon, who leads the department's civil rights division, has said others will 'bite the dust.' It comes amid pressure from Republican Gov. Jeff Landry and his attorney general, who have called for all the state's remaining orders to be lifted. They describe the orders as burdens on districts and relics of a time when Black students were still forbidden from some schools. The orders were always meant to be temporary — school systems can be released if they demonstrate they fully eradicated segregation. Decades later, that goal remains elusive, with stark racial imbalances persisting in many districts. Civil rights groups say the orders are important to keep as tools to address the legacy of forced segregation — including disparities in student discipline, academic programs and teacher hiring. They point to cases like Concordia, where the decades-old order was used to stop a charter school from favoring white students in admissions. 'Concordia is one where it's old, but a lot is happening there,' said Deuel Ross, deputy director of litigation for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. 'That's true for a lot of these cases. They're not just sitting silently.' Debates over integration are far from settled Last year, before President Donald Trump took office, Concordia Parish rejected a Justice Department plan that would have ended its case if the district combined several majority white and majority Blac k elementary and middle schools. At a town hall meeting, Vidalia residents vigorously opposed the plan, saying it would disrupt students' lives and expose their children to drugs and violence. An official from the Louisiana attorney general's office spoke against the proposal and said the Trump administration likely would change course on older orders. Accepting the plan would have been a 'death sentence' for the district, said Paul Nelson, a former Concordia superintendent. White families would have fled to private schools or other districts, said Nelson, who wants the court order removed. 'It's time to move on,' said Nelson, who left the district in 2016. 'Let's start looking to build for the future, not looking back to what our grandparents may have gone through.' At Ferriday High, athletic coach Derrick Davis supported combining schools in Ferriday and Vidalia. He said the district's disparities come into focus whenever his teams visit schools with newer sports facilities. 'It seems to me, if we'd all combine, we can all get what we need,' he said. Others oppose merging schools if it's done solely for the sake of achieving racial balance. 'Redistricting and going to different places they're not used to ... it would be a culture shock to some people,' said Ferriday's school resource officer, Marcus Martin, who, like Derrick Davis, is Black. The district's current superintendent and school board did not respond to requests for comment. Federal orders offer leverage for racial discrimination cases Concordia is among more than 120 districts across the South that remain under desegregation orders from the 1960s and '70s, including about a dozen in Louisiana. Calling the orders historical relics is 'unequivocally false,' said Shaheena Simons, who until April led the Justice Department section that oversees school desegregation cases. 'Segregation and inequality persist in our schools, and they persist in districts that are still under desegregation orders,' she said. With court orders in place, families facing discrimination can reach out directly to the Justice Department or seek relief from the court. Otherwise, the only recourse is a lawsuit, which many families can't afford, Simons said. In Concordia, the order played into a battle over a charter school that opened in 2013 on the former campus of an all-white private school. To protect the area's progress on racial integration, a judge ordered Delta Charter School to build a student body that reflected the district's racial demographics. But in its first year, the school was just 15 per cent Black. After a court challenge, Delta was ordered to give priority to Black students. Today, about 40 per cent of its students are Black. Desegregation orders have been invoked recently in other cases around the state. One led to an order to address disproportionately high rates of discipline for Black students, and in another a predominantly Black elementary school was relocated from a site close to a chemical plant. The U.S. Justice Department could easily end some desegregation orders The Trump administration was able to close the Plaquemines case with little resistance because the original plaintiffs were no longer involved — the Justice Department was litigating the case alone. Concordia and an unknown number of other districts are in the same situation, making them vulnerable to quick dismissals. Concordia's case dates to 1965, when the area was strictly segregated and home to a violent offshoot of the Ku Klux Klan. When Black families in Ferriday sued for access to all-white schools, the federal government intervened. As the district integrated its schools, white families fled Ferriday. The district's schools came to reflect the demographics of their surrounding areas. Ferriday is mostly Black and low-income, while Vidalia is mostly white and takes in tax revenue from a hydroelectric plant. A third town in the district, Monterey, has a high school that's 95 per cent white. At the December town hall, Vidalia resident Ronnie Blackwell said the area 'feels like a Mayberry, which is great,' referring to the fictional Southern town from 'The Andy Griffith Show.' The federal government, he said, has 'probably destroyed more communities and school systems than it ever helped.' Under its court order, Concordia must allow students in majority Black schools to transfer to majority white schools. It also files reports on teacher demographics and student discipline. After failing to negotiate a resolution with the Justice Department, Concordia is scheduled to make its case that the judge should dismiss the order, according to court documents. Meanwhile, amid a wave of resignations in the federal government, all but two of the Justice Department lawyers assigned to the case have left. Without court supervision, Brian Davis sees little hope for improvement. 'A lot of parents over here in Ferriday, they're stuck here because here they don't have the resources to move their kids from A to B,' he said. 'You'll find schools like Ferriday — the term is, to me, slipping into darkness." The Associated Press' education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at Collin Binkley And Sharon Lurye, The Associated Press
