A federal court in California dealt a new blow to the Trump administration’s travel ban, ruling some refugees must be allowed into the country. It is the latest twist of the legal wrangling touched off by Donald Trump’s ban, first announced in January with little notice and widely criticised as discriminatory against Muslims. Mr Trump says it is needed to keep out terrorists.
In the new ruling, the US ninth circuit of appeals on Friday upheld a ruling by a court in Hawaii, a decision against which the administration had appealed.
The new decision states the ban must exclude “refugees who have a formal assurance from an agency within the US that the agency will provide or ensure the provision of reception and placement services to that refugee.”
It could pave the way for the entry of some 24,000 refugees whose asylum requests had already been approved. The three-judge panel in San Francisco also confirmed that the ban cannot be applied to grandparents and other close family members living in six mainly Muslim countries.
Trump willing to mediate into Qatar row
Donald Trump has offered to mediate into the crisis between Qatar and its Arab neighbours, saying their dispute could be solved “fairly easily”. Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE and Egypt have accused Qatar of having ties with fundamentalist Islamist groups. In June, they cut diplomatic and economic ties with Qatar. Qatar denies the accusations while Kuwait has emerged as a key mediator in the crisis. “I think there is a chance there could be peace.... I say that a bit reluctantly. We’re going to give it our best,” Mr Trump said at a joint news conference with Kuwait’s Emir Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.
