New Ban

From the BBC:

"US expands travel ban to include N Korea"

US President Donald Trump has expanded his controversial travel ban to include people from North Korea, Venezuela and Chad, citing security concerns. The new, open-ended restrictions follow a review of information sharing by other countries, the White House said. Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen and Somalia remain under the travel ban. Sanctions previously placed on Sudan were lifted. In a presidential proclamation, Mr Trump said the countries in the list had "inadequate" security protocols. "I must act to protect the security and interests of the United States and its people," he said in the document, issued late on Sunday  Mr Trump's original ban was highly controversial, as it affected six majority-Muslim countries, and was widely labelled a "Muslim ban". It was subject to a range of legal challenges and several large-scale protests, and is due to be considered by the US Supreme Court in October, having been partly reinstated in July.  The American Civil Liberties Union rights group said the addition of the new countries did not "obfuscate the real fact that the administration's order is still a Muslim ban". The addition of North Korea and Venezuela now means not all nations on the list are majority-Muslim. The restrictions on Venezuelans apply only to government officials and their family members. The Venezuelan foreign ministry on Monday described the new restriction as "a form of psychological and political terrorism". 

The criteria for the new ban list are now based on vetting procedures and co-operation, and the restrictions have been "tailored" on a country-by-country basis:

• The White House said North Korea did not co-operate with the US government "in any respect" and failed all requirements - and so all travel to the US by its citizens had been banned. However, officials acknowledged to US media that numbers of visitors were very low and the measure might have a limited impact
• Chad, while an important counter-terrorism partner, did not share terrorism-related and other public information the US required - business and tourist visas for its nationals have been suspended
• Only "certain Venezuelan government officials and their immediate family members" have been banned - its government has recently been hit with economic sanctions by the US, who now say it does not co-operate "in verifying whether its citizens pose national security or public-safety threats" and does not receive deported nationals willingly

Most of the restrictions come in the form of suspension of B-1 and B-2 business and tourist visas, and are not time-limited in the way that Mr Trump's former executive order was. In a fact sheet accompanying Mr Trump's proclamation, the White House said that while Iraq also fell short of the required criteria, the country was not included in the new restrictions "because of the close co-operative relationship between the United States" and their part in fighting so-called Islamic State. The restrictions come into effect on 18 October, but will not apply to those already in possession of a valid visa, the White House said.

^ I do not understand how people can continue to protest the travel ban. I guess they are more concerned with just hearing themselves protest against Trump rather than actually looking at the issue itself. The blanket protests only bring more people away from them as they are seen as anti-Trump rather than anti-whatever issue they are actually about. I agree with all the countries that are currently on this travel ban (except for Chad as I don't know much about the country or its internal situation to make such a statement for or against.) The US hasn't had diplomatic relations with Iran since the Iranians broke into our Embassy there and kept Americans hostage (breaking international law.) It is only right to include Iran on the travel ban for that (the lack of diplomatic relations.) North Korea should have been on the travel ban list from the very beginning - not solely because of its current threats, but also because the US has never had diplomatic relations with North Korea and for the way North Korea has continually imprisoned Americans who for some stupid reason or another travelled to that country. Libya, Syria, Somalia and Yemen are on the banned list because of their political instability and the current wars going on there (many countries around the world also either ban their own citizens from going to all of most of those countries or at least advise against travel to them because of the violence.) I don't agree with people or groups simply hating everything because they hate (all that "Love Trumps Hate" really means hate everything Trump touches.) You may not like Trump and that's fine, but constantly protesting everything for no good reason just makes you and your ideals look bad. This new travel ban protest does just that. ^

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41382585