Tag: bans

Tunisian Court Bans Travel for Islamist Party Chief, Others | World News

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By BOUAZZA BEN BOUAZZA, Associated Press

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — A court in Tunisia has issued a travel ban on 34 people, including the head of the moderate Islamist Ennahdha party, all suspected of involvement in an alleged parallel security service reportedly put into place after the 2011 Tunisian revolution.

Ennahdha party chief Rachid Ghannouchi and 33 others have been targeted in an investigation into the alleged service, dubbed the “secret apparatus,” which has been blamed by some for the still-unsolved murders of two leftist militants in 2013.

The spokeswoman for the court in Ariana, Fatma Bougottaya, claimed on Friday night that the suspects had illegally gained access to information concerning state institutions and allegedly shared it with someone with no legitimate reason to have it, which amounts to an abuse of power. She did not elaborate.

The travel bans were issued on orders of Justice Minister Leila Jaffel, the court spokeswoman told Radio Mosaique.

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Ghannouchi, who also headed Tunisia’s parliament — which was suspended then dissolved by Tunisian President Kais Saied — said in a statement that the “so-called secret apparatus is pre-fabricated” and represents a “falsification of facts.” He denounced “a deliberate operation” by authorities “with a goal of distracting the public from true problems” like the political and economic crisis and social problems in the North African country.

He denounced “continued pressure exercised by President Saied” on the judiciary, which he has ordered to hunt out corruption.

Ghannouchi, an adamant adversary of the president, has denounced the exceptional and controversial measures taken by Saied last July 25 as a “coup d’etat,” claiming the goal was to restore a dictatorship in Tunisia.

Saied conferred on himself sweeping powers. Besides dissolving parliament, Saied fired the prime minister and gave himself the power to rule by decree — measures the president claimed were needed to “save the country from imminent peril” and fight widespread corruption.

Under pressure from Tunisia’s allies, who are concerned about democratic backsliding in Tunisia, Saied has laid out a roadmap that foresees organizing a referendum on July 25 on political reforms to amend the constitution, then holding a parliamentary election on Dec. 17.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.



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Russia bans Biden but not Trump, on list of Americans travel-barred

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President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin arrive for a joint news conference after their meeting in Helsinki, July 16, 2018. 

Grigory Dukor | Reuters

President Joe Biden made Russia’s “blacklist” but former President Donald Trump didn’t.

Russia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry on Saturday released an updated list of nearly 1,000 Americans permanently barred from entering the country, a largely symbolic slap in response to harsh sanctions imposed by Western countries for its brutal invasion of Ukraine in February.

Biden since mid-March had already been banned from visiting Russia, as were Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Army Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

But the updated list now includes Vice President Kamala Harris, as well as Biden’s scandal-plagued son Hunter Biden, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, and Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state and first lady.

The actor Morgan Freeman and billionaire investor George Soros also made the list. Soros’ philanthropic support of liberal causes, and groups in the former Soviet bloc, have made him a boogeyman for both Russia and right-wing conspiracy theorists.

Jen Psaki, who until this month served as Biden’s White House press secretary, posted a sarcastic tweet about the list Saturday evening: “I guess we will have to cancel our August family trip to Moscow…”

Trump was not on the list of 963 banned Americans.

Over the years, Trump has praised Russian President Vladimir Putin and criticized investigations into Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election that ended with Trump’s victory over Democratic rival Clinton.

Trump was impeached in 2019 for withholding congressionally appropriated military aid to Ukraine while pressuring that country’s then-newly elected president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to announce investigations into Joe Biden, who at the time was the leading Democratic candidate for the White House.

Trump was acquitted after a trial in the Senate.

On Saturday morning, in an interview with Fox News, Trump griped about the Russia probe again.

“This is one of the greatest political scandals in history,” Trump said. “Where do I get my reputation back?”

A spokeswoman for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment on his omission from Russia’s travel-ban list.

Former President Barack Obama and Trump’s vice president, Mike Pence, also are not on the list, but Pence’s brother, Rep. Greg Pence, R-Ind., is banned.

So are 211 of Greg Pence’s fellow Republicans in the House of Representatives and Senate — along with 224 Democratic members of both congressional chambers.

The GOP House members on the banned list included two hard-core, Republican Trump supporters, Matt Gaetz of Florida and Arizona’s Paul Gosar.

Also making the list are two Democratic House members whose strongly progressive policy stances are anathema to Trump World: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, and Minnesota’s Rep. Ilhan Omar.

So is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who this week also was banned from receiving communion by the archbishop of the San Francisco Roman Catholic Archdiocese because of her support for abortion rights.

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In a statement published by Russia’s state news agency RIA, the Foreign Ministry said, “Russian counter-sanctions are of a forced nature and are aimed at forcing the ruling American regime to change its behavior” and recognize “new geopolitical realities.”

The ministry also accused the U.S. of trying to impose a neo-colonial “rules-based world order” on the rest of the world.

The ministry said “hostile actions” taken by the U.S. government “boomerang back to hit the United States itself” and “will continue to receive proper rebuffs.”

Russia also has barred entry to the country to hundreds of Canadians, among them Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, and hundreds of members of the United Kingdom’s Parliament.



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LA County bans official travel to Florida, Texas over LGBTQ+ policies

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LA County bans official travel to Florida, Texas over LGBTQ+ policies




















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Los Angeles bans official travel to Texas, Florida over LGBTQ policies

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The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted to prohibit official travel to Texas and Florida after those states’ policies regarding LGBTQ rights, according to multiple local media sources.

The Pasadena Star-News reports that the board vote was unanimous and specifically called out Florida’s legislation barring instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade, dubbed by critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” law, as well as Texas’ recent decision to investigate certain gender affirming medical care for trans youth as child abuse.

The Texas policy “flies in the face of all that we know about best practices when it comes to supporting children and young adults to discover who they are and feel secure in their sense of self,” Supervisors Supervisors Sheila Kuehl and Hilda Solis motion read, according to the Star-News.

The ban carved out an exception for the cancellation of any trips that “would seriously harm the county’s interests.”

In 2017, California enacted a law restricting taxpayer-funded travel to places that “authorize discrimination” against people because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. The law effectively bars California from spending taxpayer money sending state employees or officials to certain states. Law enforcement, tax auditors and collectors and anyone who needs to travel to these states to appear before a federal committee are exempt from the ban.

The law does not affect the travel of private citizens.

That same year, the state of California banned state-funded or state-sponsored travel to Texas after Texas legislators passed a law that giving legal cover to religious adoption agencies that turn away prospective parents because they’re gay.

Texas and several other conservative states put under similar bans filed legal challenged against California’s policy. But in 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up the case, allowing the bans to remain in force.



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US hits Chinese officials with travel bans over ‘repressive acts’ | Uighur News

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State Department accuses targeted Chinese officials of involvement in crackdown on religious minorities, among others.

United States President Joe Biden’s administration is imposing travel bans on Chinese officials whom it accuses of repressing Uighur Muslims, as well as other ethnic and religious minorities.

The US State Department announced on Monday that it is barring the officials from travelling to the US because of their involvement in “repressive acts” and crackdowns on freedom of speech and religion in China and abroad.

The department did not identify which officials would be subject to the expanded ban, nor say how many would be affected.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement that the sanctions are being applied to Chinese officials who “are believed to be responsible for, or complicit in, policies or actions aimed at repressing religious and spiritual practitioners, members of ethnic minority groups, dissidents, human rights defenders, journalists, labor organizers, civil society organizers, and peaceful protestors in China and beyond”.

The move adds to visa restrictions originally imposed by the administration of former US President Donald Trump over China’s treatment of Uighur Muslims in the western region of Xinjiang, as well as repression of pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong and advocates for freedoms in Tibet.

The United Nations says at least one million Uighurs have been detained in so-called “counter-extremism centres” in Xinjiang.

Rights groups have said China’s treatment of the Uighurs amounts to genocide and crimes against humanity. Beijing has rejected these allegations and says its policies towards the Uighurs, as well as other minorities, are necessary to fend off extremism.

The State Department sanctions come just days after Biden spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping amid rising US-China tensions over the war in Ukraine.

The US has raised concerns that China may come to Russia’s aid – either by giving military equipment or bypassing Western sanctions – in its increasingly brutal offensive in Ukraine, and Biden warned Xi of the “implications and consequences” of such support during their call.

The Chinese leader, for his part, stressed the need to reach a negotiated agreement to end the conflict in Ukraine, while also telling Biden that US-China relations could be negatively affected should the issue of Taiwan not be handled “properly”.

Uighur Muslim woman
Rights groups have said China’s treatment of the Uighurs amounts to genocide and crimes against humanity [File: Murad Sezer/Reuters]

Taiwan has been a source of tension between Washington and Beijing, which claims the self-ruled island as part of its territory. The US, though it does not have formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, is its most important international backer and arms supplier.

Meanwhile, the US Justice Department last week also announced charges against five men accused of acting on behalf of the Chinese government in a series of brazen and wide-ranging schemes to stalk and harass Chinese dissidents in the country.

The criminal cases, filed in federal court in Brooklyn, alleged longstanding efforts to dig up dirt on dissidents, intimidate them, and stifle their speech.

In 2020, prosecutors charged eight people with working on behalf of the Chinese government in a pressure campaign aimed at coercing a New Jersey man who was wanted by Beijing into returning to China to face charges.





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US expands travel bans on Chinese officials for persecution

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration on Monday expanded existing U.S. travel bans against Chinese officials whom it accuses of repressing ethnic and religious minorities.

The State Department said it is barring those targeted from traveling to the United States due to their involvement in crackdowns on freedom of speech and religion in China and abroad. The department did not identify which officials would be subject to the expanded ban nor say how many would be affected.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement that the sanctions are being applied to Chinese officials who “are believed to be responsible for, or complicit in, policies or actions aimed at repressing religious and spiritual practitioners, members of ethnic minority groups, dissidents, human rights defenders, journalists, labor organizers, civil society organizers, and peaceful protestors in China and beyond.”

The move adds to visa restrictions originally imposed by the Trump administration over China’s treatment of Uyghur Muslims in the western region of Xinjiang as well as for repression of pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong and advocates for freedoms in Tibet.

“The United States rejects efforts by (Chinese) officials to harass, intimidate, surveil, and abduct members of ethnic and religious minority groups, including those who seek safety abroad, and U.S. citizens, who speak out on behalf of these vulnerable populations,” Blinken said. “We are committed to defending human rights around the world and will continue to use all diplomatic and economic measures to promote accountability.”

Just last week, the Justice Department announced charges against five men accused of acting on behalf of the Chinese government in a series of brazen and wide-ranging schemes to stalk and harass Chinese dissidents in the United States.

The criminal cases, filed in federal court in Brooklyn, alleged longstanding efforts to dig up dirt on dissidents, intimidate them and stifle their speech.

It’s not the first time the Justice Department has brought charges for similar conduct: in 2020, prosecutors charged eight people with working on behalf of the Chinese government in a pressure campaign aimed at coercing a New Jersey man who was wanted by Beijing into returning to China to face charges.



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Hong Kong not to lift travel bans until outbreak eases, says the government, Hong Kong

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Hong Kong not to lift travel bans until outbreak eases, says the government

Hong Kong not to lift travel bans until outbreak eases, says the government

On Thursday, health authorities in Hong Kong stated that the daily COVID-19 caseload peaked earlier this month, and the city confirmed around 31000 new cases. The latest outbreak has claimed a number …





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US bans Russian airlines from its airspace

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The US has become the latest country to ban Russian aircraft from flying in its airspace due to the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.

President Joe Biden announced the closure of US airspace to Russian airlines during his State of the Union address to Congress in Washington DC on Tuesday (1 March).

The widely expected move comes after the EU, UK and Canada all banned Russian aircraft from its airspace during the past few days. 

Russia retaliated by banning airlines from 36 countries, including all 27 EU members, from using its airspace, which will mean the re-routing of long-haul flights from western Europe to destinations such as China, Japan and North Korea.

Meanwhile, Hungary-based carrier Wizz Air has said it will help support Ukrainian refugees by providing 100,000 free seats on its short-haul flights departing from Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania in March.

Jozsef Varadi, CEO of Wizz Air, said: “Our hearts are with the Ukrainian people during this crisis. We are committed to helping as many Ukrainian refugees as possible to get to a safe place, which is why we will be offering them 100,000 free seats from the border countries and special rescue fares on all other flights. 

“We have already seen great humanitarian efforts on the ground by our people across the network, and as a company we wanted to play our part in these efforts.”



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