TRUMP’S WILD FINAL ACT: President radically overhauls COVID-19 rules

19/1/2021

(See translation in Arabic section)

Washington: With just hours before he leaves the White House, Donald Trump has made a huge statement by drastically changing the nation's travel rules.     

He has just lifted entry bans imposed because of the coronavirus on most non-US citizens arriving from Brazil and much of Europe – despite the emergence of new variants in both parts of the world.

The current rules bar nearly all non-US citizens who within the last 14 days have been in Brazil, the United Kingdom, Ireland and the 26 countries of the Schengen area in Europe that allow travel across open borders.

The new rules will come into place from January 26. They state that anyone coming into the country on an international flight must have a negative coronavirus test or proof of recovery from COVID.

“This action is the best way to continue protecting Americans from COVID-19 while enabling travel to resume safely,” Trump said in a statement released by the White House.

China and Iran are still barred, Mr Trump says both nations have “repeatedly have failed to cooperate with the United States public health authorities and to share timely, accurate information about the spread of the virus”.

Some epidemiologists have warned it is likely that new, more transmissible variants are already establishing themselves in the United States, the hardest-hit country in the world by the pandemic.

As of Monday, the US had recorded more than 24 million cases of Covid-19, with nearly 400,000 deaths.

Brazil is the third-most infected country with 8.4 million cases. Europe is also badly hit, with 3.4 million cases in the UK alone.

Biden slaps down Trump's new rules

Within minutes of Donald Trump's new COVID travel rules being announced, Joe Biden has slapped them down.

The president-elect's spokeswoman told Reuters just now Mr Biden does not want to see restrictions from Europe and Brazil lifted – perhaps signalling that he will immediately overturn them.

Surprises in Trump's final pardons

Rapper Lil Wayne is expected to be one of up to 100 people to receive last-minute commutations or pardons before US President Donald Trump leaves office this week, but WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is likely to miss out.

Multiple US media outlets have reported that Mr Trump is preparing an expansive list to be released on Tuesday or possibly even Wednesday – the morning of Joe Biden’s inauguration – but that the President has opted not to take the extraordinary step of issuing a pardon for himself or any members of his family.

Violence erupts as thousands head to the US

Guatemalan security forces have broken up a caravan of some 4000 Honduran migrants trying to reach the United States on a journey of thousands of kilometres through Central America on foot.

Overnight, police advanced on the group in a coordinated move, striking batons against their shields to make an intimidating noise, prompting the migrants to scatter.

The group was still on Guatemalan soil, and many would likely regroup to resume their quest for a better life further north.

Trump has lowest approval rating of his presidency

President Donald Trump will leave the White House this week with the lowest approval rating of his presidency, with just 34 percent of Americans supporting the job he has done, a Gallup poll showed Monday.

Gallup noted that Trump’s average approval rating during his one-term presidency was 41 percent, four points lower than any of his predecessors since the polling group has been gathering data.

Mr Trump’s job approval had dipped to 35 percent in previous polls, most notably after he failing to condemn a violent gathering of white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017.

The last poll of the Trump presidency was taken on the week of January 4-11, which covered the storming of the US Capitol building by Trump supporters trying to overturn the certification of the election won by Joe Biden.