#Travel ban

[strawlessandbraless]

Convicted felon, Donald Trump is legally banned from entering these countries, how can he possibly serve as President of the United States?

🇬🇧 UK

🇮🇱 Israel

🇨🇦 Canada

🇨🇺 Cuba

🇨🇳 China

🇯🇵 Japan

🇮🇷 Iran

🇮🇳 India

🇦🇺 Australia

🇳🇿 New Zealand

🇹🇼 Taiwan

🇿🇦 South Africa

🇲🇽 Mexico

🇰🇷 South Korea

🇧🇷 Brazil

🇮🇪 Ireland

[bloggingboutburgers]

this past week my qpp of almost two years broke up with me. and i know for you, you said you wouldn't necessarily feel heartbroken if your qpr came to an end, but for me, it felt more heartbreaking than some of my past romantic breakups. this whole thing made me wonder if maybe im not queerplatonic or aro enough to be in a qpr, or if id ever want to be in a qpr again. but seeing you post about your qpr gives me hope that queerplatonic love is something that i can experience fully. so thank you for always sharing your story, because that's what's helping me heal right now <3

Aah, to be perfectly honest, as much as I sorta "downplay" it compared to what it must feel for people who experience romantic attraction... I've had a time where I almost felt like I couldn't go on with my QPP as well and the sheer thought of it was really hard to bear too, so my words here aren't necessarily being very fair to the reality of things.

It was during the travel ban of March 2020 to November 2021 where citizens of my country and others weren't allowed to enter the US unless we spent 15 days in a country that wasn't banned. It made it much harder than usual to visit my partner and as it was nearing 2 years with nobody aware it was going on anymore and US people more concerned about whether they'd be able to have turkey for Thanksgiving, my hope was running really thin. So for a few days in mid-October, as I was at rock bottom, I was starting to write in passing to my partner about how maybe going on wasn't worth it because the separation was too hard on us, it wasn't showing signs of stopping, and the whole thing maybe wasn't worth the pain if they could live their life happily and not have to worry about me who couldn't visit.

And then we videocalled at some point, and when they tearfully told me that even if it did end then and there, they wanted me to keep the promise ring they'd recently given me, I suddenly felt a quiet rage in me going like "No. Fuck this. Look at them. I love them. And I love this too much to allow some cruel governmental decision to end it. If it ever ends, it'll be because WE want it to end. Not because of shit like this."

...I'm making it sound super dramatic but yeah long story short this is also a big reason why we're planning to get married. So that when the US government decides to put a ban on countries including mine again, they can't stop us from vibing together this time.

I guess... I still don't wanna 100% assume we'll be together forever because I don't wanna trap them in a situation they may no longer feel happy in. We're doing great now, but I still have it in the back of my mind that maybe someday they'll get sick of me (they say they never will and that'd be dope if they never did, but never say never and all), or we'll both just want other things, and if it ends like that, then... Yeah, that'd be alright. Much more alright than the way it almost ended.

(...Oh, and for the record, if a friendship of mine ended abruptly, or if my brothers stopped being on good terms with me, I'm pretty sure I'd be just as heartbroken, to be fair. And it'd feel like my reality was collapsing a little. I guess anything ending, any human connection ending, has that effect to a degree, if it's important enough, after all.)

Though describing things like that does make it a bit harder to define what makes it "queerplatonic" as opposed to "romantic", I still... Just have that feeling in my gut that it isn't romance, y'know? It's kinda... A mix between being close friends and being an old married couple without ever having gone through the grandiose passion-honeymoon phase. Maybe that phase IS what defines romance per se. I don't know. Maybe someday I'll find more answers, but it's kinda hard to find answers when you have no idea how romance works to begin with I guess 🙈

In any case... Sorry if I caused any confusion or if I made you question your validity. The thing is pretty simple to be honest: if you feel you're aro, you're veeeeeery likely to BE aro. Because nobody can make that call but you and nobody can name the relationships you have but you. And if amongst everything you even FOUND the words "aro" or "queerplatonic" in a world where those identities and types of relationships are so aggressively hidden or erased, then it's gotta stand for something.

...I guess at the very least THIS I can be certain of TwT Sorry I'm a bit messy about all of this myself, I'm still also going on about it trying to figure it out day by day, but I owed it to you and everyone to be honest. These things are hard to define and I hope to keep finding better and better words to do so someday. TwT

[rapeculturerealities]

Breaking: Travel bans proposed in Tennessee & Oklahoma

Tennessee Republican Rep. Jason Zachary introduced a travel ban yesterday—legislation that would make it a Class C felony to take a minor out-of-state for abortion care. That means a friend, aunt or grandmother who helps a teenager get an abortion could be sent to prison for 15 years. In Oklahoma, state Sen. Nathan Dahm introduced a similar bill that would punish anyone who helps a teen obtain care with up to 5 years in prison.

I want to be clear: When I say these laws target anyone who “helps” a teen get an abortion, I don’t just mean someone who physically takes them out of the state. You could be arrested for lending a teenager gas money, or texting them the url of an out-of-state clinic. That’s because both Tennessee’s HB1895 and Oklahoma’s SB1778 deliberately define ‘abortion trafficking’ as broadly as possible. Anyone who “recruits, harbors, or transports” a minor for the purpose of getting an abortion is guilty of ‘trafficking’.

In fact, that’s the exact issue at the center of the legal fight over Idaho’s ‘abortion trafficking’ law—which is currently blocked because a judge ruled it violated the First Amendment. An amicus brief filed by 20 Attorneys General in opposition to Idaho’s travel ban offered this example:

“A teenage girl in Moscow, Idaho, calls her aunt in Pullman, Washington, less than ten miles away, to say she is pregnant and feels she cannot safely tell her parents. If the aunt tells her niece about a clinic in Pullman that offers abortion care and counseling, is that ‘recruitment’? What if the aunt texts her niece a web link to the clinic’s informational material? Or if the niece books an appointment and the clinic’s office manager emails her a preappointment information sheet? If the aunt pays for her niece’s bus ticket to Pullman, is that ‘transportation’—or, as the Idaho law would have it, ‘trafficking’?”

This broad language isn’t just meant to scare off a teen’s friends and family from helping her; it’s about targeting abortion funds. Whether you’re talking about Idaho’s travel ban, the ordinances being passed in Texas counties, or the new proposed legislation in Tennessee and Oklahoma—all of these laws are about stopping funds from helping people, and making it possible to prosecute them.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Morgan Stephens at Daily Kos:

To no one’s surprise, Donald Trump’s immigration policies are off to a chaotic start before he even takes office. The uncertainty is palpable, especially for international students who have been told by faculty to stay on campus during holiday break and summer breaks due to Trump’s travel ban that will be enacted once he’s inaugurated. The Wall Street Journal reports that Chinese officials are also telling Chinese students in the United States not to leave the country for the holidays or during the following school year. This follows calls from numerous U.S. universities advising international students to return to campus before Trump’s second term begins on Jan. 20, 2025. “A travel ban is likely to go into effect soon after inauguration,” Cornell University Office of Global Learning advised students. “The ban is likely to include citizens of the countries targeted in the first Trump administration: Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, Myanmar, Sudan, Tanzania, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Syria, Venezuela, Yemen, and Somalia. New countries could be added to this list, particularly China and India.”

With Trump repeatedly promising a full-scale immigration overhaul and mass deportations on “day one,” the fear is that students—regardless of their country of origin—could be swept up in the crackdown. 

Adding to the anxiety among students and faculty, Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan reiterated that he has no problem reinstating Trump’s first administration’s “zero tolerance” child separation policy. This cruel and chaotic immigration policy separated families from their children while keeping them locked in prison-like detention centers.  Meanwhile, Trump ally and Department of Government Efficiency co-chair appointee Elon Musk is publicly feuding with the MAGA coalition over immigration, revealing tensions among rightwing leadership.  The dispute started when conservative activist Laura Loomer criticized Trump’s decision to appoint Sriram Krishnan as AI adviser, citing his support for removing green card per-country caps for skilled immigrants. Loomer, known for promoting racist views, argued that foreign workers—particularly in STEM—were taking jobs from Americans. Musk responded by saying that the United States lacks talented engineers, so he supports providing more visas to skilled workers.

International students are urged to return to the college campuses on US soil before Donald Trump returns to office due to the very real fears of a travel ban being issued for certain countries, such as Nigeria, Iran, Venezuela, Syria, and possibly China and/or India.

[eretzyisrael]

From the PA's official Wafa news agency:

Jordanian King Abdullah II, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, and President Mahmoud Abbas affirmed today, Wednesday, their opposition to any Israeli plans to displace Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and the need to condemn them internationally and confront them. At their summit, which was held in the city of Aqaba to discuss the dangerous situation in Gaza, the leaders stressed their complete rejection of all attempts to liquidate the Palestinian issue and separate Gaza and the West Bank, which constitute an extension of the one Palestinian state.

They're getting better at their doubletalk. But they mean the same thing they have said since October 7: no Gazans will be allowed to flee to safety, no matter how much they want to.

The position of the United Nations is that freedom to emigrate is a human right, part of the right to freedom of movement. According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, "Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country."

Travel bans are considered a major infringement of human rights. 

By any sane metric, banning Gazans from leaving if they want to is a massive violation of their human rights. But the PA, Egypt and Jordan enthusiastically support such bans on travel, as do NGOs that otherwise are dead-set against it. 

Amazingly, they all claim that this is for the Gazans' own good. Equally amazingly, no one is asking Gazans themselves what they want to do and what they think of these leaders who decide for them what they are allowed to do.

Even though there are articles showing that many Gazans are desperate to leave.

The only, and I mean only, reason why no one is concerned over this massive violation of Gazan human rights is because they hate Jews more than they hate Gazans, and they think Israel would benefit from this mass travel ban on 2 million people. That is enough to damn them all to potential death and injury as Israel fights a terrorist group that uses those same civilians as their main line of defense. 

The world's hypocrisy knows no bounds. 

[galaxiadecima]

If you're planning on travelling to the Shuswap/Okanagan right now for 'vacation', then please, do not. You are not welcome right now. Keep traffic as much to a minimum as you possibly can while locals and families try and figure out their next steps to safety and security.

Meme under the cut because I've been crying for hours.

[latestnews-now]

South Korea faces political turmoil as President Yoon Suk Yeol faces a travel ban following his controversial martial law declaration. Discover the key events, the role of opposition parties, and the public's reaction.

[bloghrexach]

🇲🇻 … anything/anywhere/anyone standing up to IsraHell will be bashed/insulted/demeaned!! Makes me think about a spoiled child!! — it’s the Maldives turn now.

By: LaillaB, founder ‘Reclaim the Narrative’, from LinkedIn …

“Pro-Israel social media users are urging a boycott of the Maldives with the hashtag “#boycotttheMaldives" following the Maldivian government's announcement of a ban on Israeli passport holders.

Begs the question if one can actually advocate to boycott something that had already actively been boycotted first?!

Renowned for its beautiful beaches and luxury resorts, The Maldives joined over a dozen countries that do not allowing Israeli passport holders to enter their territories.

The archipelago's minister for homeland security and technology made the announcement to "impose a ban on Israeli passports" at a news conference on June 2, according to a statement from the president's office.

It comes amid rising pressure from political leaders in the world's smallest Muslim-majority country on President Mohamed Muizzu to take action in protest against the genocide.

The Maldives suspended diplomatic ties with Israel 50 years ago, however, Israelis have been able to visit since the early 1990s, when the nation lifted a previous ban on Israeli tourism.

Restrictions on Israeli passport holders are not new.

In 2023, 28 countries did not recognise Israel as a sovereign nation and 14 of those countries would not allow entry to citizens with Israeli passports.

Algeria, Bangladesh, Brunei, Iran, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Pakistan, Syria and Yemen all impose bans on Israeli nationals, including Israeli Arabs. These countries do not recognize the State of Israel, and as such, they do not allow entry to Israeli passport holders.

Other countries have policies which prohibit Israeli citizens unless in certain circumstances. Iraq has a ban on Israeli nationals except in Iraqi Kurdistan, Oman will not allow Israeli nationals unless for transit reasons and Saudi Arabia imposes a ban excepting religious and business purpose. Malaysia also does not allow Israeli nationals unless they have a clearance permit obtained from the ministry of home affairs.

Following the announcement by the Maldivian government, the Israeli foreign ministry advised citizens to "avoid all travel to the Maldives."

In a statement on its website, the ministry said it recommended any Israelis currently in the country to leave, "as in the event of any distress, it will be difficult for us to provide assistance."

The Maldivian government also announced it will start a fundraising campaign for Palestinians and hold a nationwide rally called "Maldivians in solidarity with Palestine."

Who will be the next to take a stand and refuse to normalise genocide? — 🕊🍉 #Maldives — 🇲🇻 #Respect …

🇩🇿 🇱🇾 🇸🇾 🇮🇶 🇮🇷 🇰🇼 🇵🇰🇧🇩 🇧🇳 🇲🇾 🇴🇲 🇾🇪 🇸🇦🇱🇧 …

#reclaimthenarrative … @hrexach

[originalleftist]

A message to anyone who thinks you should not support Biden because of his support for Israel:

Biden has consistently supported a Palestinian state (the two state solution). Trump and the Republicans have not.

Biden does not support a ban on Palestinians/Muslims entering the US. Trump and Republicans do.

And no, no third party candidate is going to be elected- and most of them are in the pocket of far Right money anyway (Cornell West got money from Harlan Crow, RFK Jr. is a Steve Bannon sock puppet, Jill Stein's closeness to the Kremlin is well-documented, and No Labels is basically the Centrist corporate suits party).

[gwydionmisha]

Republicans consider the handmaid's tale aspirational.

[fly-chicken]

A Pragmatic and surprisingly comforting perspective about the Trump 2nd Presidency from the ACLU

***Apologies if this is how you found out the 2024 election results***

Blacked out part is my name.

I’m not going to let this make me give up. It’s disheartening, and today I will wallow, probably tomorrow too

AND

I will continue to do my part in my community to spread the activism and promote change for the world I want to live in. I want to change the world AND help with the dishes.

And I won’t let an orange pit stain be what stops me from trying to be better.

A link to donate to the ACLU if able and inclined. I know I am

[bloggingboutburgers]

Are you and your partner planning on moving in together? If so... how long did it take for you to decide it was right?

We are! And I think like... After we cried one times too many after leaving each other at the airport?

And also personally, the early 2020-late 2021 travel ban that didn't allow people from my country to visit my partner's country unless they'd been to another, non-banned country for 14 days. It made it this much harder to be with each other, and it made me have regular meltdowns even when we DID manage to painstakingly meet up, so... My partner gave me a timeline and was like "OK, then we'll get married in X years" (getting married is pretty much the only way a foreigner like me can be allowed to stay in their country without being eventually kicked out, because of the joys of binational). I needed that kind of certainty and I'm immensly grateful to them that they gave it to me.

That timeline is underway, because my partner wanted more time to get their life together in many ways, so we haven't started engagement/visa proceedings, but... That's gonna be a journey for sure. To be fully honest, I'm not even 100% sure if governments will let us do it and whatnot. But we'll do our best to make it happen someday. It's just... Gonna take a while.

But yeah, honestly, at this point, I can't wait. Our meetups are sparse, more and more expensive, eating up at their already very scarce time off (I'm French so thankfully I have a bit more of that myself), and I'd like to be there for them more than the occasional "holiday" – but also through times when they're tired from work, for instance, and I could offer them comfort at the end of the day, that kind of thing. I also live in fear of another travel ban that long or longer hitting out of nowhere, and I want to make precautions so that they can't separate us like they did before ever again.

So yeah. It's gonna be tough and long. But I can't wait.

PS: I just realized I haven't answered the "how long" part exactly, so to give a bit of a timeline: we'd been in a long-distance queerplatonic relationship for about 2 years and a half when the travel ban hit, it had been almost 4 years when we decided on that marriage timeline, and it's been about 6 years now. I expect we'll have been going for about 8 to 10 years when we can finally get married, if everything goes well.

[ehubusa]

What Trump's New Presidency Means for Immigrants

Now that Donald Trump is coming back to office as USA’s chief executive, several policy shifts could significantly impact immigrants in the United States. His previous administration saw a range of actions affecting immigration laws and enforcement. Here are ten potential implications for US immigrants under a Trump presidency. 1. Stricter Immigration Enforcement    Trump’s administration…

[kazifatagar]

New: Parliament Proposes Travel Ban for Developers of Abandoned Housing Projects

Parliament was informed that housing developers and board members of abandoned projects could soon be barred from leaving Malaysia under proposed amendments to housing laws. The measures aim to penalize errant developers. The Housing Ministry will be empowered to declare a project abandoned if it misses the completion deadline. Once declared, developers may be blacklisted, denied new licenses,…

[bopinion]

Personal travel bans

Russia - because I can't keep my mouth shut about Putin. And that wouldn't sit well with me over there.

Afghanistan - because I couldn't overlook the discrimination against women. And I didn't want to.

Saudi Arabia - because I despise their system. Even if it is against Iran.

Iran - because I despise their system. Even if it is against Saudi Arabia.

North Corea - because I couldn't get in. And even if I could, I couldn't get out afterwards.

Nigeria - because it's way too dangerous. But I wouldn't actually want to travel to the country.

Syria - ditto. Although I would really like to travel to the country.

China - because my attitude towards those in power would not earn me enough "social points" to be able to move around freely.

United Arab Emirates - because it's all fake.

Antarctica - because I like it warm and cozy.