Category World News

United States President Donald Trump has added five countries to the list of nations whose citizens are banned from entering the US, including Palestine and Syria.

The White House announced the expansion of the ban on Tuesday, as it intensifies its crackdown on immigration.

Tuesday’s order imposed a travel ban on six new countries – Palestine, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, South Sudan and Syria – in addition to the 12 initially made public in June.

The decree did not refer to Palestine, which Washington does not recognise as a state, by name or even as the occupied Palestinian territory.

Instead, it describes the Palestine category as “Palestinian Authority Documents” and refers to Palestinians as “individuals attempting to travel on PA-issued or endorsed travel documents”.

The decision comes weeks after Trump declared a “permanent pause” on migration from what he called “all Third World Countries” in response to the shooting of two National Guard troops in Washington, DC.

“Several US-designated terrorist groups operate actively in the West Bank or Gaza Strip and have murdered American citizens. Also, the recent war in these areas likely resulted in compromised vetting and screening abilities,” the White House said.

“In light of these factors, and considering the weak or nonexistent control exercised over these areas by the PA, individuals attempting to travel on PA-issued or endorsed travel documents cannot currently be properly vetted and approved for entry into the United States.”

Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, who is of Palestinian descent, slammed the ban, accusing Trump and his top aide Stephen Miller of pushing to alter the demographics of the country.

“This administration’s racist cruelty knows no limits, expanding their travel ban to include even more African and Muslim-majority countries, even Palestinians fleeing a genocide,” she said in a social media post.

The move to ban Palestinians from entering the US comes as Israel continues its daily deadly attacks in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, where Israeli settlers have killed at least two US citizens this year.

Meanwhile, the ban on Syrians coincides with rapprochement between Washington and Damascus after Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa visited the White House in November.

“While the country is working to address its security challenges in close coordination with the United States, Syria still lacks an adequate central authority for issuing passports or civil documents and does not have appropriate screening and vetting measures,” the White House said.

On Thursday, US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard cited the mass shooting that killed 15 people at a Jewish festival in Australia to laud Trump’s immigration restrictions.

“Islamists and Islamism is the greatest threat to the freedom, security, and prosperity of the United States and the entire world. It is probably too late for Europe – and maybe Australia,” she wrote on X.

“It is not too late for the United States of America. But it soon will be. Thankfully, President Trump has prioritized securing our borders and deporting known and suspected terrorists, and stopping mass, unvetted migration that puts Americans at risk.”

Trump’s Republican allies have been increasingly using Islamophobic rhetoric, and calling for Muslims to be blocked from entering the country.

On Sunday, Senator Tommy Tuberville called Islam a “cult”, baselessly accusing Muslims of aiming to “conquer” the West.

“Stop worrying about offending the pearl clutchers,” he wrote in a social media post. “We’ve got to SEND THEM HOME NOW or we’ll become the United Caliphate of America.”

A Palestinian infant has frozen to death in the Gaza Strip, local authorities say, as Israel continues to restrict the entry of shelter supplies and other humanitarian aid to the enclave despite the harsh winter conditions there.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza said on Tuesday that the two-week-old baby, Mohammed Khalil Abu al-Khair, died a day earlier after seeking treatment for severe hypothermia, brought on by the extreme cold gripping Gaza.

Reporting from Gaza City, Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum noted that the child’s death comes as basic protections in Gaza have been “systematically dismantled” due to Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians in the territory.

“Families are living in tents on wet ground without heating, electricity or sufficient clothing,” Abu Azzoum said. “When food, fuel, shelter and aid are banned, cold absolutely becomes lethal.”

Israel’s two-year war has decimated more than 80 percent of the structures across Gaza, forcing hundreds of thousands of families to take refuge in flimsy tents or overcrowded makeshift shelters.

A huge storm that recently hit the Strip killed at least 11 people as torrential rains and fierce winds flooded tents and caused damaged buildings to collapse.

“We try to dry the children’s clothes over the fire,” Umm Mohammed Assaliya, a displaced Palestinian mother, told Al Jazeera from Gaza City.

“There are no spare clothes for them. I am exhausted. The tent we were given cannot withstand winter conditions. We need blankets,” she said.

Humanitarian groups have urged Israel to allow unimpeded deliveries of aid to Gaza.

But the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, which the UN says is best suited to distribute supplies in the territory, says the Israeli government has blocked it from bringing aid directly into Gaza.

“People have reportedly died due to the collapse of damaged buildings where families were sheltering. Children have reportedly died from exposure to the cold,” UNRWA said in a social media post on Tuesday.

“This must stop. Aid must be allowed in at scale, now.”

Hamas slams Israeli ceasefire violations

Meanwhile, Hamas has condemned Israel for its repeated violations of a ceasefire deal that came into effect in October.

At least 393 Palestinians have been killed and 1,074 others wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since the first full day of the ceasefire on October 11, according to the latest figures from the enclave’s Health Ministry.

The Israeli military also killed a senior Hamas leader, Raed Saad, in a targeted attack on a vehicle in western Gaza City on Saturday, further straining the tenuous truce.

On Tuesday, Hamas leader Ghazi Hamad accused Israel of “manipulating” the text of the US-brokered agreement.

“We want to make it absolutely clear: the ceasefire agreement is straightforward, detailed, and unambiguous. However, it’s evident that the Israeli occupation has distorted the text, manipulating and violating every single article,” Hamad said.

Canada has announced long-promised rules aimed at dramatically reducing methane emissions from the country’s oil and gas sector.

The regulations, announced on Tuesday, lay out a path for Canada – the world’s fourth-largest oil producer – to cut by 2035 its overall emissions of the potent greenhouse gas by 75 percent over 2014 levels.

They fulfil a promise by Prime Minister Mark Carney to strengthen Canada’s existing methane rules, but allow for a slightly longer target timeframe than the previous draft rules announced under Carney’s predecessor, Justin Trudeau.

Trudeau’s never-implemented rules called for a 75 percent reduction in methane emissions by 2030 and faced criticism from the oil and gas industry for being too difficult to achieve.

While methane does not last as long in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, it can have 80 times the climate-warming impact of CO2 over a 20-year period.

Oil and gas facilities are responsible for about half of Canada’s total methane emissions, according to the government. Methane, the main component of natural gas, is released directly into the atmosphere during oil and gas production, through practices such as venting and flaring, and can also escape through leaks in wells and other infrastructure.

The new rules, which will take effect in 2028, prohibit venting with several exceptions and establish an inspection schedule for companies to find equipment leaks and repair them.

Operators will have the option to design their own approaches to controlling methane as long as they meet the required methane intensity thresholds.

Total greenhouse gas emissions from Canada’s oil and gas sector continue to grow as production increases, and Canada is not expected to reach its target of cutting greenhouse gas output by 40 to 45 percent below 2005 levels by 2030.

Carney, who has been criticised by environmentalists who see him as prioritising the economy over climate, recently rolled back some of Canada’s emissions policies to spur energy investment.

But on methane, the country has made progress. Previously enacted rules, which require industry to regularly inspect and repair equipment to reduce leaks, have helped put Canada on track to meet its previous methane commitment of a 40-45 percent reduction below 2012 levels by the end of 2025.

Chile has joined South America’s shift to the right, electing Jose Antonio Kast, a hardline conservative, as president.

He tapped into voters’ fears about a rise in crime and migration, and an economic crisis.

His victory marks a significant shift since the end of military rule more than 30 years ago.

It also comes as other populist conservatives have taken office in the region.

From Bolivia to Argentina to El Salvador, the move to the right is being watched closely, particularly by the United States.

But what does it all mean for the political dynamics in South America?

Presenter: Dareen Abughaida

Guests:

Claudio Barrientos – Professor at the School of History at Diego Portales University

Jose Ragas – Historian and assistant professor at the Catholic University of Chile

A new poll suggests that the number of people in the United States who approve of the job Donald Trump is doing as president has dropped to 39 percent as concerns grow over the state of the economy.

The poll released by Reuters/Ipsos on Tuesday indicated Trump’s approval rating is down about 2 points from 41 percent earlier this month, a decline driven partly by growing economic dissatisfaction among members of Trump’s own Republican Party.

Just 33 percent of respondents expressed approval of Trump’s handling of economic issues, the lowest level since he took office for a second time in January.

Growing affordability woes could be a serious political liability for Trump and his allies, who campaigned in 2024 on a promise to address inflation and concerns around the cost of living.

A recent Politico poll found high levels of anxiety in the US over expenses such as healthcare, groceries and housing with 55 percent of respondents assigning Trump’s policies some responsibility for increasing food prices.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll also suggested Trump’s approval rating on cost-of-living issues dropped to 27 percent from 31 percent earlier in December. Among Republicans, approval of his handling of the economy dropped to 72 percent from 78 percent.

‘Golden age’

Trump has denied rising prices are squeezing Americans, calling concerns over affordability a “hoax” being perpetrated by hostile media coverage and Democratic rivals and insisting that the US economy is in a “golden age”. In remarks last week, Trump said he was “crushing” inflation and “prices are coming down tremendously.”

Some Democrats have relished watching Trump reprise the arguments of his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden, who was criticised for insisting during his 2021-2025 presidency that Americans’ frustrations over inflation and the cost of living were being exaggerated.

While a Sydney shopowner is being hailed as a hero after disarming one of the gunmen shooting at a Jewish holiday event at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, a couple and another man who died after physically confronting the attackers are also being remembered for their heroic efforts to save those around them.

Reuven Morrison, 62, was shot dead after trying to stop the gunmen, his daughter Sheina Gutnick told US broadcaster CBS News in a report published on Monday.

“He had jumped the second the shooting started. He managed to throw bricks. He was screaming at the terrorist and protecting his community,” she said. “If there is one way for him to go on this Earth, it would be fighting a terrorist.”

Morrison’s actions are visible in several videos posted on social media. After 43-year-old Ahmed al Ahmed, a Muslim father-of-two, charged one of the gunmen from behind and disarmed him, a man is seen chasing the attacker and hurling something at him.

Morrison, who originally came to Australia from the former USSR to escape anti-Semitic persecution, was later shot and killed, according to Gutnick.

“[Australia] is where he was going to have a family, where he is going to live a life away from persecution,” she said. “And for many years, he did do that; he lived a wonderful, free life. Until Australia turned on him.”

A year prior, Morrison had been interviewed by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

“We came here with the view that Australia is the safest country in the world and the Jews would not be faced with such anti-Semitism in the future, where we can bring up our kids in a safe environment,” he told the outlet in December 2024 when asked about the firebombing of the Adass Synagogue in Melbourne.

‘These Australians are heroes’: Albanese

Ahmed, meanwhile, is recovering in hospital after surgery for bullet wounds and donations to support him have topped 2 million Australian dollars (US$1.33m).

Morrison was one of 15 people killed in what is Australia’s worst mass shooting in nearly 30 years. Officials allege a father and son are the gunmen and say the attack is being investigated as an “act of terrorism” targeting the Jewish community.

Another couple, who have not yet been identified, were also filmed tackling one of the attackers to try and stop him before apparently being shot dead.

The dashcam footage, verified by the Reuters news agency, showed one shooter wrestling for a long-barrelled weapon with an older man in a lavender shirt and shorts, before both fall heavily to the ground behind a silver hatchback car.

The man in lavender, who is with a woman, gets up with the weapon as the footage moves on. Separate drone video shows the man and woman lying motionless next to the vehicle beside the pedestrian bridge where the gunmen were later shot by police.

“An elderly man by the roadside did not run away – instead, he charged straight toward the danger, using all his strength trying to wrestle away the gun and fighting to the death,” said dashcam owner Jenny, who shared the footage with Reuters.

“I can see from my camera that the elderly man was ultimately shot and collapsed. That moment broke my heart,” she added.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese earlier this week praised the actions of Australians who had “run towards danger in order to help others”.