Trump drafts three-tier US travel ban targeting 43 countries

President Donald Trump appears to have expanded the scope of the travel ban from his first term to include 43 countries, according to a report.

Although Trump failed to reintroduce the “travel ban” on “day one” of his second term, as he promised, he did issue an executive order on January 20 directing cabinet members to draft a list of countries that should face full or partial travel restrictions because their “vetting and screening information is so deficient” within 60 days.

Now, with that deadline approaching, a draft list of proposed countries banned from traveling to the US is circulating, the New York Times reported.

A White House official told The Independent no decision has been made.

It was developed by the State Department weeks ago, officials familiar with the matter told the outlet, who cautioned it will likely undergo changes by the time the White House gets ahold of it.

The Independent has reached out to the State Department for comment.

The draft list was separated into three sections — red, orange, and yellow — to denote the level of restriction, according to the outlet.

The “red” list includes 11 countries whose citizens would be entirely forbidden from entering the US: Afghanistan, Bhutan, Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen.

Ten countries whose citizens will be limited from entering but not entirely banned, meaning they are required to have specific visas, were on the “orange” list. People of Belarus, Eritrea, Haiti, Laos, Myanmar, Pakistan, Russia, Sierra Leone, South Sudan and Turkmenistan will have to sit for in-person interviews to obtain a visa, the outlet reported.

The “yellow” list contains 22 countries, mostly African nations, that the Trump administration is giving 60 days to address its concerns over alleged “deficiencies.” If these nations don’t comply, they risk being placed on the red or orange lists, the Times reported.

This list includes Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, the Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Dominica, Equatorial Guinea, Gambia, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, São Tomé and Príncipe, Vanuatu and Zimbabwe.

Security specialists and embassy officials at State Department regional bureaus are reviewing the proposal and providing comments as to the accuracy of the so-called deficiencies or whether there are “policy reasons” to avoid certain categorizations, the outlet reported.

In his January 20 executive order, Trump said the travel ban would “protect its citizens from aliens who intend to commit terrorist attacks, threaten our national security, espouse hateful ideology, or otherwise exploit the immigration laws for malevolent purposes.”

On former President Joe Biden’s first day in office in 2021, he issued a proclamation to terminate Trump’s travel bans. He said Trump’s bans were “a stain on our national conscience and [were] inconsistent with our long history of welcoming people of all faiths and no faith at all.”

At least 16 killed after bomb from civil war goes off in Syria

An unexploded bomb from Syria’s 13-year conflict detonated in the coastal city of Latakia, killing at least 16 people and injuring 18, the White Helmets paramedic group reported on Sunday.

The explosion reportedly occurred when a scrap dealer unknowingly handled the old bomb, AFP reported. The powerful blast destroyed a four-story residential building, bringing down heavy concrete slabs and trapping residents beneath the rubble.

“Search and rescue operations continue to recover those trapped,” the White Helmets said in a post on Telegram.

The group said that it had worked overnight and recovered 16 bodies, including five women and as many children.

It also shared a video on social media showing emergency responders pulling survivors from the debris. The injured were taken to nearby hospitals for treatment.

Unexploded ordnance remains one of the most dangerous legacies of Syria’s prolonged war, continuing to claim lives and cause destruction even years after the initial conflict.

According to a UN report from February, nearly 100 people have died due to unexploded ordnance over the last 13 years.

Since the ouster of former president Bashar al-Assad in December, disposal teams have intensified work to clear explosive remnants. They have safely disposed of over 1,400 unexploded devices thus far, but the scale of the threat remains severe.

Aid agency Humanity and Inclusion estimates that 100,000 to 300,000 of the nearly one million munitions used during the conflict failed to detonate and remain a significant risk to civilian populations.

It has identified at least 138 minefields and contaminated areas in the country’s most war-affected provinces such as Idleb, Aleppo, Hama, Deir-ez-Zor, and Latakia.

Despite ongoing clearance operations, the presence of undetonated explosives continues to hinder recovery efforts, endangering lives and delaying the safe return of displaced residents to their homes.

The explosion on Saturday occurred amid public celebrations in parts of Syria to commemorate the 14th anniversary of the uprising against Mr Assad’s rule.

Latakia, a vital port city, has seen a spike in violence of late following an ambush by gunmen loyal to Mr Assad on a security patrol. The counteroffensive by soldiers of the new Islamist regime, led by interim president Ahmad al Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a rebranded Isis affiliate, subdued the insurgency but resulted in extensive destruction. In a series of retaliatory attacks, Mr Sharaa’s forces also massacred hundreds of people from the minority Alawite community, to which the Assad family belongs.

Xi Jinping declines invitation to EU-China anniversary summit

Chinese president Xi Jinping has declined an invitation to visit Brussels for a summit to mark the 50th anniversary of his country’s diplomatic ties with the EU, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.

Beijing told EU officials premier Li Qiang would meet presidents of the European Council and the European Commission instead of Xi, the paper said, citing two people familiar with the matter whom it did not identify.

The premier usually attends the summit when it is held in Brussels while the president hosts it in Beijing.

But the EU wants Xi to attend to commemorate half a century of relations between Beijing and the bloc, the newspaper said.

Tensions between Brussels and Beijing have grown since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with the EU accusing China of backing the Kremlin.

Last year, the EU also imposed tariffs on Chinese electric vehicle imports.

China’s foreign ministry and the EU did not immediately respond to requests by Reuters for comment.

“Informal discussions are ongoing, both about setting the date for the EU-China summit and the level of representation,” an EU official told the newspaper, while the Chinese ministry was quoted as saying it didn’t have any information to provide on the matter.

China, the world’s second-largest economy, and the EU, its third-largest, spent most of last year exchanging barbs over allegations of overcapacity, illegal subsidies and dumping in each other’s markets.

In October, the EU imposed double-digit tariffs on China-made electric vehicles after an anti-subsidy investigation, in addition to its standard car import duty of 10 per cent.

The move drew loud protests from Beijing, which in return raised market entry barriers for certain EU products like brandy.

China also moved forward with a complaint at the World Trade Organisation alleging that the EU move amounted to “an abuse of trade remedies” that violated WTO rules and to “protectionist” measures, according to the mission’s statement.

Beijing lashes out at ‘arrogant’ G7 for criticism over Taiwan

China lashed out at G7 countries for accusing it of endangering maritime safety, saying that they were “filled with arrogance, prejudice and malicious intentions”.

Even for China’s generally overheated diplomatic language, the statement issued on Saturday was unusually vitriolic, though it did not threaten any retaliation.

In a statement on Friday that prompted the Chinese response, the G7 said: “We condemn China’s illicit, provocative, coercive and dangerous actions that seek unilaterally to alter the status quo in such a way as to risk undermining the stability of regions, including through land reclamations, and building of outposts, as well as their use for military purpose.”

“We reaffirm that our basic policies on Taiwan remain unchanged and emphasise the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait as indispensable to international security and prosperity,” the statement by the grouping’s top diplomats continued, referring to the waterway separating China from the island republic it claims as its own territory.

In the response issued through its embassy in Canada, where the G7 meeting was held in Quebec, China said the statement “repeated the same old rhetoric, ignored facts and China’s solemn position, grossly interfered in China’s internal affairs, and blatantly smeared China”.

“The statements are filled with arrogance, prejudice and malicious intentions to suppress and attack China,” it added. “China strongly deplores and opposes this and has lodged solemn representations with the Canadian side.”

China is not a member of the G7 but follows all comments and references to its international status made by international organisations or in foreign countries, responding to criticism with caustic language.

China claims a vast expanse of the South China Sea, through which passes around $5 trillion in global trade. It occasionally clashes with other countries that claim parts of the sea, especially the Philippines, a US treaty partner.

Beijing has routinely sent ships and warplanes into the airspace and the waters near Taiwan, built military bases on artificial islands in the South China Sea, and recently staged surprise live-fire exercises in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand.

Australia’s aviation authority said it learnt of the drills just 30 minutes before they began, not from Beijing but from a pilot flying in the area, and 49 commercial flights were forced to alter their flight paths in response.

The G7 didn’t mention the exercises in its statement. “We share a growing concern at recent, unjustifiable efforts to restrict such freedom and to expand jurisdiction through use of force and other forms of coercion, including across the Taiwan Strait, and in the South China Sea, the Red Sea, and the Black Sea,” it said.

China has the world’s largest navy, including three aircraft carriers, with a fourth on the way. It has a base in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa and has consistently expanded the range of the force.

Philippines’ ex-president Duterte appears in court at The Hague

The former president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, appeared before judges at the International Criminal Court in The Hague on Friday, days after his arrest in Manila on murder charges linked to the deadly “war on drugs” that he oversaw while in office.

The 79-year-old, who arrived in the Netherlands on Wednesday after being arrested in Manila on charges of crimes against humanity, sounded frail as he spoke via video link from the detention centre about a mile away where he is being held.

For families of victims of the drugs crackdown, Mr Duterte’s appearance in court was a long-awaited sign of hope.

“This is the first step to attaining justice,” lawyer Gilbert Andres, representing those families, said outside the court.

But Mr Duterte’s many vocal supporters say the arrest was illegal. His lawyer, Salvador Medialdea, used the hearing to decry his arrest in Manila as a “pure and simple kidnapping”. He said Mr Duterte “was denied all access to the legal recourse in the country of his citizenship, and this all in the nature of political score-settling”.

Presiding judge Iulia Antoanella Motoc set a pre-trial hearing date of 23 September to establish if the prosecution’s evidence is strong enough to merit sending the case to trial. If a trial does go ahead, it could take years, and if Mr Duterte is convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

Estimates of the death toll during Mr Duterte’s presidency vary, from the more than 6,000 reported by the national police to 30,000, as reported by human rights groups.

The ICC judge said that Mr Duterte had been allowed to participate in his first hearing by video link because of the long flight from Manila.

Mr Duterte, wearing a jacket and tie, listened to the hearing through headphones, often with his eyes closed. He spoke in English to confirm his name and his date and place of birth. He was not required to enter a plea. The hearing, which started about half an hour late, lasted around 30 minutes.

Mr Medialdea said that Mr Duterte had been under observation in hospital because of health problems.

The judge, addressing Mr Duterte, said: “The court doctor was of the opinion that you were fully mentally aware and fit.”

Mr Duterte was arrested on Tuesday amid chaotic scenes in the Philippine capital after returning from a visit to Hong Kong. He was swiftly put on a chartered jet and flown to the Netherlands.

His daughter, Sara Duterte, who is vice president of the Philippines, visited him in the court’s detention centre on Friday and met supporters outside the court. Ms Duterte is a political rival of the current president.

She said her father was “in good spirits” and was being “well taken care of”, and added that his only complaint about the conditions in which he was being kept was that he misses Filipino food.

“There will be a day of reckoning for all,” she said.

Meanwhile, activists marched in Manila to demand justice for the thousands of suspects killed in Mr Duterte’s brutal crackdowns. Families of those killed watched the ICC proceedings on screens set up around the country, some of them holding portraits of their dead loved ones, as they listened to charges read out against Mr Duterte in a courtroom on the other side of the world.

Prosecutors accuse Mr Duterte of involvement as an “indirect co-perpetrator” in multiple murders, amounting to a crime against humanity, for allegedly overseeing killings from November 2011 until March 2019, first while he was mayor of the southern city of Davao and later as president of the Philippines.

According to the prosecution request for his arrest, Mr Duterte, as Davao mayor, issued orders to police and other “hitmen” who formed the so-called Davao Death Squads, or DDS.

Human rights groups and victims’ families have hailed Mr Duterte’s arrest as a historic triumph over state impunity, while the former president’s supporters have slammed what they call the government’s surrendering of a political rival to a court whose jurisdiction they dispute.

“We are happy and we feel relieved,” said 55-year-old Melinda Abion Lafuente, mother of 22-year-old Angelo Lafuente, who she said was tortured and killed in 2016.

Mr Duterte’s legal team say the administration of current president Ferdinand Marcos Jr shouldn’t have allowed the global court to take custody of the former leader because the Philippines is no longer a party to the ICC.

Mr Medialdea said that “two troubled entities struck an unlikely alliance. An incumbent president who wishes to neutralise and choke the legacy of my client and his daughter,” and “a troubled legal institution subject to delegitimisation”.

Judges who approved Mr Duterte’s arrest warrant said the court has jurisdiction because the crimes alleged in the warrant were committed before Mr Duterte withdrew the Philippines from the court in 2019.

Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report

In pictures: How India is celebrating the festival of colour Holi

Vibrant hues filled the air as millions of people across South Asia celebrated Holi, the Hindu festival of colour that signifies the arrival of spring in India.

Observed on the last full moon day of the Hindu luni-solar month of Falgun, Holi is marked by joyous gatherings, playful throwing of coloured powders, traditional music, dance, an abundance of sweets, and offering prayers to deities.

The origin of Holi is steeped in legends telling of the victory of righteousness over evil. The most popular story is that of demon king Hiranyakashipu and his son Prahlad. Hiranyakashipu, who was granted near-immortality by the gods, grew arrogant and demanded everyone worship him. However, Prahlad remained a devout follower of Lord Vishnu, defying his father’s command.

Infuriated, Hiranyakashipu plotted to kill Prahlad with the help of his sister Holika, who had a boon that made her immune to fire. Holika tricked Prahlad into sitting with her on a burning pyre, but her boon failed and she perished in the flames while Prahlad, protected by his unwavering devotion to Vishnu, emerged unscathed.

The story is commemorated through the ritual of Holika Dahan, which involves the lighting of bonfires on the eve of Holi to symbolise the destruction of evil.

Another popular myth associates Holi with the playful love story of Lord Krishna and his consort Radha. The legend goes that dark-skinned Krishna was envious of Radha’s fair complexion, so his mother playfully suggested he smear colours on Radha’s face to erase the difference. This legend is celebrated through the playful throwing of colours during Holi, symbolising love.

Northern India, particularly Uttar Pradesh state, celebrated the unique version of the festival called Lathmar Holi, which sees women playfully beat men with sticks and the men defend themselves with shields, re-enacting the legend of Krishna and Radha.

In the eastern state of West Bengal, Holi coincides with Basanta Utsav, a festival initiated by poet Rabindranath Tagore that celebrates spring with songs, dances, and cultural performances.

In Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, the two-day Masaan, or crematorium, Holi along the banks of the Ganges river attracts thousands of visitors from across India and beyond. During this unique celebration, devotees and ascetics apply ashes from funeral pyres to each other’s faces, honouring both the cycle of death and the Hindu god Shiva.

While Holi is known as the festival of joy and togetherness, many women have spoken out about harassment under the guise of playful colour-throwing. Incidents of groping, inappropriate touching, and verbal harassment have been reported, particularly in crowded public spaces.

A video shared by Indian actor Tushar Shukla showing men throwing colours and water at women while making lewd remarks sparked outrage on social media. “Today I went to play Holi in Barsana. Everything was great, it was fun,” he asks in the video. “But I have a question: do only girls go to play Holi in Barsana? Why are they directly targeted in such an indecent manner? Men also come, so why not engage with them?”

Kim Kardashian’s woe as India trip fails to live up to Aladdin dream

When Kim Kardashian traveled with her sister Khloé to India last July for the wedding of Anat Ambani, she’d assumed the experience would remind her of Disney’s Aladdin — but to her surprise, it didn’t.

In the most recent episode of The Kardashians on Hulu, cameras followed Kim and Khloé as they set off to Mumbai, India, on a quick 48-hour trip to celebrate the son of Mukesh Ambani, the wealthiest man in Asia, getting married to Radhika Merchant.

The two Los Angeles-based reality stars arrived in India for the first time at midnight. Before they went to sleep, Kim and Khloé did a fitting for their ceremonial looks, hoping to make the most of their short time overseas.

“We’re only here for 48 hours, and we do have a schedule,” Khloé explained in her confessional with the show’s producers. “We’re planning to go to some of the local markets before we have to go to the wedding so we can enjoy as much of India as possible.”

The 44-year-old Skims co-founder seconded her sister’s statement, noting how she wanted to “explore the city” too.

The pair would be disappointed though, as, according to Kim, they thought the markets they were visiting would be similar to those seen in the 1992 Disney animation, which is set in the fictional Middle Eastern city of Agrabah, not India.

“I thought it was going to be like the marketplace,” Kim said. “This is like the streets.”

“What you see Aladdin going through and stealing some bread from. This is where I thought we were going,” she added.

It wasn’t the only shock they were in for. The duo, who are used to being driven around L.A., were told they would be walking to the street sellers rather than being escorted by car or rickshaw.

The walk was less than pleasant for Kim, who was startled by everything around her, from the car horns to a stray dog.

“Oh! I don’t do random dogs!” she exclaimed, to which Khloé quipped: “At least there’s a Starbucks here.”

In her confessional, Khloé joked: “We’re not in Calabasas anymore.”

“There’s rickshaws going by, everyone was so surprised, like: ‘What the f*** are these people doing here?’” she added.

Kim described the setting of the street vendors as “mayhem.”

Online, viewers were appalled by Kim’s unrealistic expectations for what her time in India would look like, especially because the Disney picture is trying to depict an entirely different culture.

One commenter wrote: “Agrabah and Aladdin isn’t even based in India, it’s supposed to be the Middle East and is a fictionalized portrayal of Middle Eastern culture (or at least an attempt). They should have tried the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul.”

“Spoiler: it wasn’t a magic carpet ride! Guess she was expecting more,” a second joked on X/Twitter.

Drunk driver kills woman in car crash and shouts ‘another round’

A woman was killed and at least four people injured after a drunk driver crashed his car in western India’s Vadodara city.

The incident took place in the early hours of Friday near a busy intersection in the city’s Karelibaug area in Gujarat state. According to eyewitnesses and surveillance footage, a speeding black car lost control and crashed into a scooter and hit several people.

Hemaliben Patel was killed instantly while two girls aged 10 and 12, a 35-year-old woman and a 40-year-old man were left seriously injured, NDTV reported.

Indian social media erupted in outrage after a video of the accident and the driver’s reaction appeared online.

In the video, a young man, later identified as Meet Chauhan, exits the wrecked car and says in Hindi: “I did not do anything, he was driving the car.”

That is when the driver, identified as law student Rakshit Chaurasia, steps out and shouts: “Another round, another round!”

Mr Chaurasia was subsequently arrested. “A four-wheeler rammed into a two-wheeler and one woman died in the accident. The accused driver has been caught,” joint commissioner of police Leena Patil told the press. “This is a case of drunk driving.”

In the video, Mr Chaurasia appears incoherent and is caught by bystanders.

“A car was moving from Sangam to Muktananad crossroad. It met with an accident while overspeeding. Police reached the spot and arrested one accused, Rakshit Ravish Chaurasia. Search to arrest the other accused, Meet Chauhan, is underway,” deputy police commissioner Panna Momaya told the press. “The car belonged to his friend Meet Chauhan, who was sitting in the co-driver’s seat when Chaurasia rammed it into some two-wheelers at full speed while going towards Muktanand circle.”

Speaking to reporters outside the local police station, Mr Chaurasia denied being under the influence of alcohol and claimed his airbag had deployed unexpectedly and caused the accident.

“The airbag deployed suddenly and I could not see anything ahead. It was also difficult to control the car as it was automatic,” he said, according to Times Now, adding that two or three scooters suddenly came into his path.

Several eyewitnesses told local media that the speeding car took a sharp turn before it hit a scooter.

Mr Chaurasia claimed he did not know the crash had resulted in a death.

A preliminary investigation found that Mr Chaurasia was under the influence of alcohol as well as drugs, police said, adding that they would be sending his blood samples for drug tests.