Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at the White House issuing a new travel ban, U.S. President Donald Trump’s phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping, and the recovery of two killed Israeli American hostages in Gaza.
No Entry
U.S. President Donald Trump resurrected a key tenet of his first term on Wednesday, announcing a sweeping travel ban that targets 12 countries. The new policy, which goes into effect on Monday, will bar citizens from Afghanistan, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Myanmar, the Republic of Congo, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen from entering the United States. Heightened restrictions will be placed on people from an additional seven countries: Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela.
Exceptions will be made for lawful permanent residents; existing visa holders; individuals whose entry serves U.S. national interests; and those eligible for certain visa categories, such as Afghans on special immigrant visas.
“The list is subject to revision based on whether material improvements are made, and likewise, new countries can be added as threats emerge around the world,” Trump said. His underlying message, though, was firm: “We don’t want them.”
The U.S. president tied the move to last Sunday’s terror attack in Boulder, Colorado, where authorities say an Egyptian national who overstayed his tourist visa threw an incendiary device at individuals raising awareness for the Israeli hostage crisis in Gaza. However, Egypt is not included in the travel ban.
Foreign governments and humanitarian activists have condemned the White House’s latest actions. “President Trump’s new travel ban is discriminatory, racist, and downright cruel,” Amnesty International posted on X on Thursday. “By targeting people based on their nationality, this ban only spreads disinformation and hate.”
“To include Afghanistan—a nation whose people stood alongside American service members for 20 years—is a moral disgrace,” Shawn VanDiver, the president of the Afghan refugee advocacy group AfghanEvac, said in a statement. “It spits in the face of our allies, our veterans, and every value we claim to uphold.”
Chad suspended the issuance of visas to U.S. citizens on Thursday. Venezuela’s interior minister warned that “being in the United States is a big risk for anybody, not just for Venezuelans.” And the Republic of Congo claimed that its inclusion must be a “misunderstanding,” as “Congo is neither a terrorist state, nor does it harbor any terrorists, or [is] known for having any terrorist tendencies.”
Yet some countries chose to take a more conciliatory tone. In an effort to not further exacerbate fraying relations, Somalia said it values its long-standing relationship with Washington and “stands ready to engage in dialogue to address the concerns raised.”
Several of the nations included in the latest travel restrictions were previously targeted during Trump’s first term. In January 2017, Trump issued an executive order immediately barring visitors from seven countries with a Muslim majority: Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. Trump and his allies defended the ban as vital to national security despite rights groups denouncing the policy for its anti-Muslim bias; Trump had called for an explicit ban on Muslims during his first presidential campaign.
The so-called “Muslim ban” faced numerous court challenges, forcing the administration to revise the policy several times before the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately upheld it in 2018. Another wave of countries was targeted in 2020. Then, in 2021, U.S. President Joe Biden repealed Trump’s measures.
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What We’re Following
Foreign leader chats. Trump boasted of a “very good” call with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday, during which the two leaders discussed ongoing trade talks, critical mineral exports, and foreign student visas. According to Beijing, Trump was the one to request the conversation, suggesting to some experts that the White House may be growing more desperate to make some progress on strained U.S.-China trade relations.
During the hour-and-a-half-long call, Trump and Xi agreed for their respective teams to hold future talks. Trump appeared to imply that issues surrounding the export of rare earth minerals, which China had recently halted to the United States, have been resolved. And during public remarks in the Oval Office, Trump said, “Chinese students are coming, no problem. It’s our honor to have them, frankly,” which is in direct contrast to a recent U.S. State Department order to “aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students.”
Thursday was a busy diplomatic day for Trump, who also met with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the White House to discuss the Russia-Ukraine war. Despite remaining relatively quiet during much of the conversation, the German leader pressed Trump to recognize that Russia is targeting civilian infrastructure while Ukraine is targeting military sites.
Still, Trump suggested that it might be necessary to let Russia and Ukraine “fight for a little while” before brokering a peace deal, something he claimed to have told Russian President Vladimir Putin when the two spoke on Wednesday. The U.S. president also warned of the possibility of fresh sanctions on both countries if he believes that they are insincere about ending the conflict.
Remains of hostages. Israeli forces have recovered the bodies of two Israeli American hostages killed during Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack and taken into Gaza by the Mujahideen Brigades, a small Palestinian militant group. The remains of Judith Weinstein-Haggai and Gad Haggai, the former of whom was also a Canadian citizen, were recovered during an overnight operation on Thursday in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.
Fifty-six hostages are still in Hamas captivity, of whom 23 are believed to be alive. “We will continue to do everything in our power to bring our sisters and brothers back from hell,” Israeli President Isaac Herzog said. But ongoing cease-fire and hostage release talks remain deadlocked, as Hamas demands stronger guarantees from Israel that an agreed-upon truce would become permanent.
Meanwhile, Israeli strikes continue to wreak havoc on the war-torn territory. On Thursday, at least 22 people were killed, including three journalists who were standing in the courtyard of Gaza City’s al-Ahli Hospital. At the same time, the region’s hunger crisis continues to mount, as the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation reopened only two of its four aid distribution sites on Thursday, following concerns for civilian safety.
Barred from running. Burundi held legislative elections on Thursday that sidelined the main opposition party, the National Freedom Council (CNL). In 2023, the country’s Interior Ministry suspended CNL’s activities due to alleged “irregularities” in how it held its meetings; later that year, the government replaced CNL leader Agathon Rwasa with a government-backed former minister. Rwasa and his allies have since been barred from joining other opposition groups or running as independents.
According to Rwasa, Thursday’s election won’t be fair because the country’s electoral commission is biased toward the government and the ruling CNDD-FDD party’s youth league, known as the Imbonerakure, regularly intimidates voters. “People are so intimidated that they tell you they cannot wear any party colors other than the ruling ones,” said Gabriel Banzawitonde, an opposition leader who was assaulted last August by two Burundian police officers.
The governing CNDD-FDD party has held power for the past 20 years, and President Evariste Ndayishimiye will remain in office until his seven-year term ends in 2027. But with seats in the National Assembly and local councils up for grabs, Burundians hope to pressure the government to address soaring inflation, restricted fuel supplies, and a foreign currency shortage.
Odds and Ends
The Netherlands’ national museum unveiled a new exhibit on Tuesday titled “Safe Sex?” about 19th-century sex work. Its star display: a nearly 200-year-old condom adorned with erotic art involving a nun and three clergymen. “This is my choice” is written along the condom in French, referencing the painting The Judgment of Paris by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. FP’s World Brief writer will be traveling to Amsterdam in August and will most certainly be checking out this exhibit before it leaves in November.