Travelore News: FIFA Issues Statement After Donald Trump Bans 15 World Cup Countries From US

FIFA has issued a statement about the upcoming World Cup as Donald Trump's travel ban continues to throw things into chaos.

It was always likely to be an unforgettable summer of football as soon as the US were confirmed as joint hosts with Mexico and Canada, and last summer's Club World Cup only added fuel to that fire.

Trump even famously crashed Chelsea's medal proceedings after they won the tournament. The US president also left members of the Juventus squad baffled during a trip to the White House, discussing bombing Iran with the Italian side.

The 79-year-old has made it clear that he doesn't want people from certain countries visiting to the US, taking the total tally to 75 this week, while Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem previously explained the slightly crazy reasoning behind the bans.

In a strong-worded post on X, she wrote: "I just met with the President. I am recommending a full travel ban on every damn country that’s been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies.

“Our forefathers built this nation on blood, sweat, and the unyielding love of freedom — not for foreign invaders to slaughter our heroes, suck dry our hard-earned tax dollars, or snatch the benefits owed to AMERICANS. WE DON’T WANT THEM. NOT ONE.”

Iran fans have already been told they won't be able to attend matches in the US or Canada (Hector Vivas - FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images) The travel ban comes into place just a few months before the tournament is set to begin, with fans of Iran, who boycotted the draw and Haiti, for whom this is a first ever World Cup, already told that they won't be able to attend.

And after Trump added a hefty amount more of countries to his list, the fans of Senegal, Ivory Coast, Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, Ghana, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia and Uruguay may just have had their plans thrown into doubt.

Senegal and the Ivory Coast are under partial travel bans while the other eight countries on that list have had their immigrant visa processing suspended.

Meanwhile, Iraq, Jamaica and the Democratic Republic of the Congo also feature on the list, and they could still qualify for the tournament through playoff fixtures.

As things stand, this doesn't apply to travel visas, meaning that they can currently still visit for the summer's tournament but they will no doubt have to be extremely stringent when flying over if they don't want to find themselves in serious trouble.

FIFA has now issued a press release with an update on ticket sales, warning fans that a match ticket doesn't guarantee you entry to the country.

"A match ticket does not guarantee admission to a host country, and fans should visit each country's government website today for entry requirements for Canada, Mexico and the United States," FIFA's press release states.

"Given the processing times involved, FIFA recommends submitting the visa application as early as possible.

"FIFA World Cup 2026 ticket holders travelling to the United States are eligible for the recently announced FIFA Priority Appointment Scheduling System (FIFA PASS) when it becomes available in the coming weeks."

Iranian fans will also be prohibited from visiting Canada, although that is currently the only World Cup nation on the countries travel ban list.

Even with how chaotic the World Cup draw was, fans from these countries will no doubt be devastated about the possibility of not seeing their sides play on football's biggest stage.

By James Moorhouse

The Biden Administration Is Poised To Allow Israeli Citizens To Travel To The US Without A US Visa

The Biden administration is poised to admit Israel this week into an exclusive club that will allow its citizens to travel to the United States without a U.S. visa despite Washington's ongoing concerns about the Israeli government’s treatment of Palestinian Americans.

U.S. officials say an announcement of Israel’s entry into the Visa Waiver Program is planned for late in the week, just before the end of the federal budget year on Saturday, which is the deadline for Israel’s admission without having to requalify for eligibility next year.

The Department of Homeland Security administers the program, which currently allows citizens of 40 mostly European and Asian countries to travel to the U.S. for three months without visas.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is set to make the announcement Thursday, shortly after receiving a recommendation from Secretary of State Antony Blinken that Israel be admitted, according to five officials familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision has not yet been publicly announced.

Blinken’s recommendation is expected to be delivered no later than Tuesday, the officials said, and the final announcement will come just eight days after President Joe Biden met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in New York on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. The leaders did not raise the issue in their brief remarks to reporters at that meeting but it has been a subject of intense negotiation and debate for months.

Israel’s admission into the program has been a priority for successive Israeli leaders and will be a major accomplishment for Netanyahu, who has sparred frequently with the Biden administration over Iran, the Palestinian conflict and most recently a proposed remake of Israel’s judicial system that critics say will make the country less democratic.

Netanyahu’s far-right government has drawn repeated U.S. criticism over its treatment of Palestinians, including its aggressive construction of West Bank settlements, its opposition to Palestinian statehood and incendiary anti-Palestinian comments by senior Cabinet ministers.

The U.S. move will give a welcome boost at home to Netanyahu. He has faced months of mass protests against his judicial plan and is likely to come under criticism from the Palestinians, who say the U.S. should not be rewarding the Israeli government at a time when peace efforts are at a standstill.

Israel met two of the three most critical criteria over the past two years — a low percentage of visa application rejections and a low visa overstay rate — to join the U.S. program. It had struggled to meet the third, which is a requirement for reciprocity that means all U.S. citizens, including Palestinian Americans, must be treated equally when traveling to or through Israel.

Claiming national security reasons, Israel has long had separate entry requirements and screening processes for Palestinian Americans. Many complained that the procedures were onerous and discriminatory. Americans with Palestinian residency documents in the West Bank and Gaza Strip were largely barred from using Israel’s international airport. Instead, like other Palestinians, they were forced to travel through either Jordan or Egypt to reach their destinations.

In recent months, Israel has moved to adjust its entry requirements for Palestinian Americans, including allowing them to fly in and out of Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv and going directly to the West Bank and Israel proper, according to the officials. Israel also has pledged to ease movement for Palestinian Americans traveling in and out of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

New regulations took effect earlier this month to codify the changes, although concerns remain and the Homeland Security Department intends to stress in its announcement that it will continue to monitor the situation to ensure that Israel complies, according to the officials. Failure to comply could result in Israel’s suspension from the program, the officials said.

Under the waiver program, Israelis will be able to travel to the U.S. for business or leisure purposes for up to 90 days without a visa simply by registering with the Electronic System for Travel Authorization.

Source: https://www.independent.co.uk/author/matthew-lee

Disneyland Reopening Marks California’s COVID-19 Turnaround

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Disneyland swung open its gates to cheering visitors donning sequined Minnie Mouse ears and snapping selfies Friday, marking a dramatic turnaround in a state so overwhelmed with coronavirus cases just four months ago that patients were being treated in outdoor tents.

California’s world-famous theme park, which reopened after an unprecedented 13-month closure, is admitting only state residents and operating under a limited capacity for now.

Once inside, guests decked in Disney gear waved excitedly at employees tidying up the park’s hallmark Main Street, which was lined with hand sanitizing stations and signs reminding people to wear face coverings.
After spending the year mostly teaching her third-grade class from a tent in her backyard, Libby Birmingham was thrilled to be there. The 38-year-old, who attended the park regularly before the pandemic
with an annual pass, took the day off work to make the trip down from Pasadena with friends.

“Disneyland is like my happiest place, to be totally honest,” she said. “It’s one of those places that I can always enjoy, and it lets me be the kid — not always be in charge of the kids.”

The reopening highlights a big shift for the nation’s most populous state from just months ago when COVID-19 cases were surging, hospitals were running out of ICU beds, and hundreds of people died from the virus each day.

Now, California boasts the country’s lowest rate of confirmed coronavirus infections and more than half of the population eligible for vaccination has received at least one dose. Children have been returning to in-person classes, shops and restaurants are expanding business, and Gov. Gavin Newsom set June 15 as a target date to further reopen the economy, albeit with some health-related restrictions.

“It has such a symbolic nature to really quantifying that we’re finally rolling out of COVID,” said Caroline Beteta, president and CEO of state tourism promoter Visit California.

Theme parks were among the last California businesses allowed to reopen, in contrast to states with fewer restrictions such as Florida, where Disney World’s Magic Kingdom resort has been up and running, though at lower-than-usual capacity, since July. Another major U.S. amusement park, Ohio’s Cedar Point, opened last summer and will do so again for the upcoming season — only this time, it won’t require masks on rides.

At Disneyland, visitors must wear masks and can remove them to eat only in designated areas. Hugs and handshakes with characters are off limits, and parades and fireworks shows have been shelved to limit crowding.

On Friday, an updated Snow White ride drew throngs of visitors who were methodically spaced out in a winding outdoor line to prevent congestion indoors. Other areas of the park had fewer people. In a section devoted to Star Wars, there was ample space for children to run freely, and visitors waved from a distance to Rey, who flashed a smile and waved from a platform overlooking the park.

Outside a popular boat ride, Allison Sanger and her 4-year-old daughter, Emily, stopped by a cordoned-off patio to chat with a parasol-twirling Mary Poppins and Bert. The 28-year-old said she was glad her daughter could get close enough to see the characters and snap photos even with the new rules.

“We honestly have so many memories here,” she said. “We missed our memories and our magic.”

There was even a marriage proposal.

Zach Bolger, 35, said he met his girlfriend, Mackenzie Brown, 26, some three years ago at Disneyland trading collectible pins. The couple returned to the park Friday, and Bolger pulled out a ring box near Snow White’s wishing well. Brown cried tears of joy.

While California continues to “strongly discourage” anyone from visiting the state as tourists, the travel industry is banking on pent-up demand from its own nearly 40 million residents for a comeback. An advertising campaign encourages Californians to travel within the state, mirroring a pitch made after 9/11.

In a state with so many people shut in for so long, even in-state tourism could be a huge boost. Disney’s California parks have long had a loyal local fan base while its Florida locations rely more heavily on international tourists, said Carissa Baker, assistant professor of theme park and attraction management at University of Central Florida’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management.

Disneyland is a major economic engine in California, drawing nearly 19 million in attendance the year before the coronavirus struck, according to the Themed Entertainment Association. It and other such attractions were shuttered in March 2020 as Newsom imposed the nation’s first statewide shutdown order.

For now, the park and neighboring Disney California Adventure are restricted to operating at 25% capacity under state health rules. Disney is only taking reservations from state residents, though California also allows fully vaccinated out-of-state visitors to attend theme parks.

The reopening was also welcomed by park employees eager to get back to work and owners of hotels and shops in the surrounding city of Anaheim. The city’s convention center saw more than 300 cancellations since the pandemic and so far has rebooked a quarter of them, said Jay Burress, president of Visit Anaheim.

At an early morning flag ceremony, Disney chief executive Bob Chapek thanked the park’s employees, many who greeted each other with fist-bumps and bright-eyes, though their smiles were concealed by constellation face masks. He asked them to “bring the magic back” for visitors who were kept away during the 412-day closure.

“We’re not just another theme park,” Chapek said. “We’re something special, and we’re something special because of all of you, because you bring magic to the world.”

Travelore Update: Amtrak Train Derails In Philadelphia Killing 7 People. The North East Corridor, One Of The Busiest In The US, Possibly Shut For Several Days.

Contributed by Geoff Mulivhill AP, and updated by Allen Barkus

Emergency personnel walk near the scene of a deadly train wreck, Wednesday, May 13, 2015, in Philadelphia. An Amtrak train headed to New York City derailed and crashed in Philadelphia on Tuesday night. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)

Daylight on Wednesday revealed the destruction and devastation caused by an Amtrak train derailment in Philadelphia that left 8 people dead and injured dozens more, several critically. The expected cause was going too fast, going 106 MPH into a 50 MPH zone.

Some survivors had to scramble through the windows of toppled cars to escape. One of the seven cars was completely mangled.

The accident has closed the nation's busiest rail corridor between New York and Washington as federal investigators begin sifting through the twisted remains to determine what went wrong.

Train 188, a Northeast Regional, left Washington, D.C. and was headed to New York when it derailed shortly after 9 p.m. Tuesday. Amtrak said the train was carrying 238 passengers and five crew members.

Mayor Michael Nutter, who confirmed six deaths, said the scene was horrific and not all the people on the train had been accounted for.

Temple University Hospital's Dr. Herbert Cushing said Wednesday a person died there overnight from a chest injury

"It is an absolute disastrous mess," Nutter said. "I've never seen anything like this in my life."

He said all seven train cars, including the engine, were in "various stages of disarray." He said there were cars that were "completely overturned, on their side, ripped apart."

More than 140 people went to hospitals to be evaluated or treated.

Amtrak said the cause of the derailment was not known and that it was investigating. The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Railroad Administration were also dispatching investigators to the site.

Early Wednesday morning, authorities on the scene seemed to be girding for a long haul. One sign: several portable toilets were delivered for investigators and recovery workers. Utility poles near the wreck could be seen leaning into the tracks.

"It is a devastating scene down there," Nutter said. "We walked the entire length of the train area, and the engine completely separated from the rest of the train, and one of the cars is perpendicular to the rest of the cars. It's unbelievable."

The front of the train was going into a turn when it started to shake before coming to a sudden stop.

An Associated Press manager, Paul Cheung, was on the train and said he was watching Netflix when "the train started to decelerate, like someone had slammed the brake."

"Then suddenly you could see everything starting to shake," he said. "You could see people's stuff flying over me."

Cheung said another passenger urged him to escape from the back of his car, which he did. He said he saw passengers trying to escape through the windows of cars tipped on their sides.

"The front of the train is really mangled," he said. "It's a complete wreck. The whole thing is like a pile of metal."

Gaby Rudy, an 18-year-old from Livingston, New Jersey, was headed home from George Washington University when the derailment occurred. She said she was nearly asleep when she suddenly felt the train "fall off the track."

The next few minutes were filled with broken glass and smoke, said Rudy, who suffered minor injuries. "They told us we had to run away from the train in case another train came," she said.

Another passenger, Daniel Wetrin, was among more than a dozen people taken to a nearby elementary school afterward.

"I think the fact that I walked off (the train) kind of made it even more surreal because a lot of people didn't walk off," he said. "I walked off as if, like, I was in a movie. There were people standing around, people with bloody faces. There were people, chairs, tables mangled about in the compartment ... power cables all buckled down as you stepped off the train."

Police swarming around Tuesday's derailment site, in Port Richmond, a working-class area with a mix of warehouses, industrial buildings and homes, told people to get back, away from the train. They pleaded with curious onlookers: "Do NOT go to scene of derailment. Please allow first responders room to work."

Roads all around the crash site were blocked off. Hundreds of firefighters surrounded the train cars, taking people out.

Several injured people, including one man complaining of neck pain, were rolled away on stretchers. Others wobbled while walking away or were put on city buses. An elderly woman was given oxygen.

Former U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy was on the train and said he helped people. He tweeted photos of firefighters helping other people in the wreckage.

"Pray for those injured," he said.

Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware also was on the Amtrak train but got off in Wilmington, shortly before the derailment. He later tweeted that he was "grateful to be home safe and sound."

The area where the derailment occurred is known as Frankford Junction and has a big curve. It's not far from where one of the nation's deadliest train accidents occurred: the 1943 derailment of The Congressional Limited, from Washington to New York, which killed 79 people.

Amtrak said rail service on the busy Northeast Corridor between New York and Philadelphia had been stopped. The mayor, citing the mangled train tracks and downed wires, said, "There's no circumstance under which there would be any Amtrak service this week through Philadelphia."

Port Richmond, one of five neighborhoods in what's known as Philadelphia's River Wards, includes dense rowhouse neighborhoods located off the Delaware River. Area resident David Hernandez, whose home is close to the tracks, heard the derailment.

"It sounded like a bunch of shopping carts crashing into each other," he said.

The crashing sound lasted a few seconds, he said, and then there was chaos and screaming.

Gov. Tom Wolf, who was in touch with the mayor and other state and local officials about the derailment, thanked the first responders for "their brave and quick action."

"My thoughts and prayers are with all of those impacted by tonight's train derailment," he said in a statement. "For those who lost their lives, those who were injured, and the families of all involved, this situation is devastating."