Brazilian tourists wearing protective face masks queue with others to enter the Jeronimos Monastery in Lisbon on March 12, 2020. (Photo by PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA/AFP via Getty Images)
The European Commission has issued a statement condemning President Donald Trump’s travel ban to 26 European countries, announced last night in a widely criticized speech.
“The Corona virus is a global crisis, not limited to any continent and it requires cooperation rather than unilateral action,” the statement said. “The European Union disapproves of the fact that the U.S. decision to impose a travel ban was taken unilaterally and without consultation.”
Countries excluded from the ban include the UK, the Republic of Ireland, Croatia, Cyprus, Romania, and Bulgaria.
It does not apply to legal permanent residents of the U.S., according to the Department of Homeland Security, and most of their family members.
The ban is set to start this Friday evening and last for 30 days. Over the same period, Congress will close the U.S. Capitol to the public, and the White House has canceled tours.
Trump’s speech came in the wake of the World Health Organization’s long-anticipated designation of the coronavirus as a pandemic.
There have been a total of 1,215 cases and 36 deaths reported in the U.S., according to the CDC.
A four-day truce in the Israel-Hamas war has taken effect, setting the stage for the exchange of dozens of hostages held by militants in Gaza for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
A group of Lahaina wildfire survivors is vowing to camp on a popular resort beach until the mayor uses his emergency powers to shut down unpermitted vacation rentals and make the properties available for residents in desperate need of housing.
House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan is calling on the assistant U.S. attorney for Delaware, Lesley Wolf, to appear before the committee by Dec. 7 to respond to allegations that she interfered in the yearslong case into the president’s son.
Israel and Hamas have reached an agreement for a four-day halt to the devastating war in Gaza and the release of dozens of hostages held by the militant group as well as Palestinian prisoners.
New Jersey will prohibit the sale of new gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035 as part of an effort to improve air quality and reduce planet-warming pollutants, officials announced Tuesday.
