Trump administration reverses policy on fiancés as travel ban takes effect

Agencies
June 30, 2017

Washington/New York, Jun 30: US President Donald Trump`s administration reversed a decision late on Thursday as its revised travel ban took effect and said fiancés would be considered close family members and therefore allowed to travel to the United States.trump

The US State Department concluded "upon further review, fiancés will now be included as close family members," said a State Department official who requested anonymity.

The Trump administration had previously decided on the basis of its interpretation of a US. Supreme Court ruling that grandparents, grandchildren and fiancés traveling from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen would be barred from obtaining visas while the ban was in place.

The 90-day ban took effect at 8 pm EDT (0000 GMT Friday) along with a 120-day ban on all refugees.

On Monday, the Supreme Court revived parts of Trump`s travel ban on people from six Muslim-majority countries, narrowing the scope of lower court rulings that had blocked parts of a March 6 executive order and allowing his temporary ban to go into effect for people with no strong ties to the United States.

A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, who requested anonymity, said it would be updating its guidance to state that fiancés will not be barred from obtaining visas while the ban is in place.

The Supreme Court exempted from the ban travelers and refugees with a "bona fide relationship" with a person or entity in the United States. As an example, the court said those with a "close familial relationship" with someone in the United States would be covered.

On Thursday evening, the state of Hawaii asked a federal judge in Honolulu to determine whether the Trump administration had interpreted the court`s decision too narrowly.

Hawaii said in a court filing that the U.S. government intended to violate the Supreme Court`s instructions by improperly excluding from the United States people who actually have a close family relationship to U.S. persons, echoing criticism from immigrant and refugee groups.

Hawaii called the refusal to recognize grandparents and other relatives as an acceptable family relationship "a plain violation of the Supreme Court`s command."

Hawaii`s Attorney General Doug Chin asked U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson in Honolulu, who blocked Trump`s travel ban in March, to issue an order "as soon as possible" clarifying how the Supreme Court`s ruling should be interpreted.

Karen Tumlin, legal director of the National Immigration Law Center, said the administration`s guidance "would slam the door shut on so many who have waited for months or years to be reunited with their families."

Asked how barring grandparents or grandchildren makes the United States safer, a senior U.S. official did not directly answer, but instead pointed to Trump`s guidance to pause "certain travel while we review our security posture."

The U.S. government expects "things to run smoothly" and "business as usual" at U.S. ports of entry, another senior U.S. official told reporters.

The administration said that refugees who have agreements with resettlement agencies but not close family in the United States would not be exempted from the ban, likely sharply limiting the number of refugees allowed entry in coming months.

Hawaii said in its court filing that it was "preposterous" to not consider a formal link with a resettlement agency a qualifying relationship. Refugee resettlement agencies had expected that their formal links with would-be refugees would qualify as "bona fide."

The administration`s decision likely means that few refugees beyond a 50,000-cap set by Trump would be allowed into the country this year. A U.S. official said that as of Wednesday evening, 49,009 refugees had been allowed into the country this fiscal year. The State Department said refugees scheduled to arrive through July 6 could still enter.

Trump first announced a temporary travel ban on Jan. 27, calling it a counterterrorism measure to allow time to develop better security vetting. The order caused chaos at airports, as officials scrambled to enforce it before being blocked by courts. Opponents argued that the measure discriminated against Muslims and that there was no security rationale for it.

A revised version of the ban was also halted by courts.

The State Department guidance, distributed to all U.S. diplomatic posts on Wednesday evening and seen by Reuters, fleshed out the Supreme Court`s ruling about people who have a "bona fide" relationship with an individual or entity in the United States.

It defined a close familial relationship as being a parent, spouse, child, adult son or daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law or sibling, including step-siblings and other step-family relations.

A department cable said grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins, brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law, fiancés, "and any other `extended` family members" are not considered close family.

The guidelines also said that workers with offers of employment from a company in the United States or a lecturer addressing U.S. audiences would be exempt from the ban, but that arrangements such as a hotel reservation would not be considered bona fide relationships.

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News Network
February 4,2020

Kuala Lumpur, Feb 4: Malaysia said on Tuesday that India's move to cut back on palm oil purchases is "temporary" and will be resolved amicably between the two nations.

Last month, India restricted imports of refined palm oil and asked importers to avoid purchases from Malaysia after its criticism of actions in Kashmir and a new citizenship law.

"Having long-standing bilateral ties, the two nations will overcome the current challenges, and prevail towards mutual and beneficial outcomes," the Malaysian Palm Oil Council said in a statement, citing Primary Industries Minister Teresa Kok.

Malaysia's push to implement B20 biodiesel starting this month will also help sustain high crude palm oil prices, the statement read.

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Agencies
July 7,2020

Washington, Jul 7: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday (local time) confirmed that the White House is "looking at" banning the Chinese social media apps including TikTok.

"With respect to Chinese apps on people's cell phones, I can assure you the United States will get this one right too. I don't want to get out in front of the President [Donald Trump], but it's something we're looking at," Pompeo was quoted by CNN during an interview with Fox News.

He said people should only download the app, "if you want your private information in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party."

Responding to his comments, a TikTok spokesperson said, "TikTok is led by an American CEO, with hundreds of employees and key leaders across safety, security, product and public policy here in the US."

"We have no higher priority than promoting a safe and secure app experience for our users.  We have never provided user data to the Chinese government, nor would we do so if asked," the spokesperson added.

The US politicians have repeatedly criticised TikTok, owned by Beijing-based startup ByteDance, of being a threat to national security because of its ties to China.

Recently, India banned 59 Chinese apps including TikTok following a violent standoff with Chinese troops. This move was lauded by the US officials.

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News Network
April 26,2020

Apr 26: The remarkable story of an airman who overcame prejudice to become one of only a handful of Indian fighter pilots in the First World War has emerged in newly-released archive files by the UK's Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC).

Lieutenant Shri Krishna Chanda Welinkar is one of the thousands of moving stories from the war preserved in family correspondence and being brought alive as part of a digitisation project.

The never-before-published files contain thousands of letters, pictures and other papers sent between the Commission and the next of the kin of First World War dead.

Among them is the story of Welinkar, who hailed from Bombay in colonial India. After much hardship and discrimination, he eventually became a pilot and went missing while on patrol over the skies above the Western Front in June 1918.

His family had to wait nearly three years before they finally knew for certain that he had died, and his grave was located.

“For everyone who died in the First World War, there was inevitably a partner, parent or child back home who had questions. The heartbreaking letters in CWGC's archive give us an insight into what it was like for those families trying to come to terms with their loss,” said Andrew Fetherston, chief archivist for CWGC.

“They are stories that show desperate searches for closure, former enemies uniting and, on many occasions, the sad realisation that a missing loved one would always remain so. We are pleased to be able to make this invaluable piece of World War history accessible to a new generation and help deepen our understanding of how the First World War impacted those who were left behind,” he said.

Welinkar was one of the 1.3 million Indians who answered the call to fight for the British Empire. Nearly 74,000 never saw their homeland again and are remembered today in cemeteries and memorials throughout the world, including France, Belgium, the Middle East and Africa.

Welinkar was a well-educated man studying at Cambridge University. He trained to become an aviator in Middlesex and wished to join the Royal Flying Corps, later known as the Royal Air Force.

Upon attempting to enlist, Welinkar encountered the same prejudices as his other fellow Indian airmen and was encouraged to become an air mechanic instead.

He was eventually given a commission in the Royal Flying Corps as an Officer. In 1918, he was posted to France and patrolled the skies above the Western Front.

In June 1918, Lieutenant Welinkar embarked on what would be his final patrol; he did not return and was reported missing. His fate remained unknown for many months afterwards.

The newly-released e-files chronicle the remarkable discovery of Welinkar and his final resting place long after the war had ended. Colonel Barton, who knew Welinkar, acted on behalf of his mother and helped find her missing son. They spoke to former enemies and honed their search to the grave of an unidentified man, buried by the Germans as “Oberleutnant S.C. Wumkar” in a grave in Rouvroy, Belgium.

The body was later moved and reinterred in Hangard Communal Cemetery Extension but it wasn't until the vital clue, found in the original German burial records in February 1921, that it was confirmed beyond doubt this grave was of Welinkar's.

In May 1921, Colonel Barton, on behalf of Welinkar's mother, requested that a Commission headstone be placed on the grave with the following personal inscription: “To the Honoured Memory of One of the Empire's Bravest Sons”.

This records – known as Enquiry Files – are part of a collection of nearly 3,000 files which have never been made available to the public before. Nearly half have been digitised so far, alongside a previously unreleased collection of more than 16,000 photographs held in negatives in the Commission's archive.

The files, internally referred to simply as E-Files, contain correspondence between the CWGC and the next of kin of the war dead. They often contain letters, typed memos between Commission staff and on occasion photos, maps and diagrams.

CWGC only holds an enquiry file for a small proportion of the 1.7 million people it commemorates from the Commonwealth. Today it is only possible to release those surviving records from the First World War because correspondence with families of Second World War casualties often involves people still alive today and cannot be made public for many years, due to the UK's data protection rules.

To date, more than 1,300 of the surviving 3,000 First World War enquiry files have been digitised.

The CWGC commemorates the 1.7 million Commonwealth servicemen and women who died during the two World Wars. It also holds and updates an extensive and accessible records archive, while operating over 23,000 locations in more than 150 countries and territories.

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