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European Union Bars American Travelers For Now As Borders Reopen
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union announced Tuesday that it will reopen its borders to travelers from 14 countries, but most Americans have been refused entry for at least another two weeks due to soaring coronavirus infections in the U.S.
Travelers from other big countries like Russia, Brazil and India will also miss out.
As Europe’s economies reel from the impact of the coronavirus, southern EU countries like Greece, Italy and Spain are desperate to entice back sun-loving visitors and breathe life into their damaged tourism industries.
More than 15 million Americans are estimated to travel to Europe each year, while some 10 million Europeans head across the Atlantic.
Citizens from the following countries will be allowed into the EU’s 27 members and four other nations in Europe’s visa-free Schengen travel zone: Algeria, Australia, Canada, Georgia, Japan, Montenegro, Morocco, New Zealand, Rwanda, Serbia, South Korea, Thailand, Tunisia and Uruguay.
The EU said China is “subject to confirmation of reciprocity,” meaning it must lift all restrictions on European citizens entering China before it will allow Chinese citizens back in.
Countries considered for the safe list are also expected to lift any bans they might have in place on European travelers. The list is to be updated every 14 days, with new countries being added and some even dropping off depending on whether they are keeping the disease under control.
Still, many people both inside and outside Europe remain wary of travel in the coronavirus era, given the unpredictability of the pandemic and the possibility of second waves of infection that could affect flights and hotel bookings. Tens of thousands of travelers had a frantic, chaotic scramble in March to get home as the pandemic swept across the world and borders slammed shut.
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States has surged over the past week, and President Donald Trump also suspended the entry of all people from Europe’s ID check-free travel zone in a decree in March.
In contrast, aside from a notable recent outbreak tied to a slaughterhouse in western Germany, the virus’s spread has generally stabilized across much of continental Europe.
European Union countries hastily slapped restrictions on who could cross their borders in February as the virus spread in Italy. Then in mid-March the Europeans limited all non-essential travel to the 27 EU member states plus Liechtenstein, Iceland, Norway and Switzerland..
Non-EU citizens who are already living in Europe are not included in the ban.
The EU list does not apply to travel to Britain, which left the EU in January. Britain now requires all incoming travelers — bar a few exceptions like truck drivers — to go into a self-imposed 14-day quarantine, although the measure is under review and is likely to ease in the coming weeks. The requirement also applies to U.K. citizens.
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Follow AP coverage of the pandemic at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak
Fox Host Justifies Trump Inaction On Russian Bounty Intel: ‘All Presidents Don’t Read All Of Their Briefings’
Fox News’ Ainsley Earhardt justified on Tuesday President Trump’s inaction on reports that he had been provided a written assessment on a Russian bribery scheme to pay militants to target and kill American and coalition troops in Afghanistan because not all presidents “read all of their briefings.”
"Fox & Friends" host Ainsley Earhardt on Tuesday justified President Trump's inaction on Russian bounty intelligence in spite of reports that he received written assessment on the issue saying, "All presidents don't read all of their briefings." pic.twitter.com/I2I95qANZ3
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) June 30, 2020
The comment came as “Fox & Friends” hosts discussed a deepening plot surrounding a New York Times finding that Russian operatives offered rewards to Taliban-linked militias for killing U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan. While the White House has maintained that the president was “not personally briefed,” the revelation raises questions about when and how the president is made aware of foreign intelligence concerns.
Trump over the weekend tweeted claims that he had not been briefed on the Russian bounty intelligence until Sunday when officials said after deeming the information was not “credible” they decided not to alert Trump to the matter.
“The president has to make decisions based on intel that’s in front of him, and if he is not briefed on it then he doesn’t know about it,” Earhardt said echoing Trump’s swearing of ignorance on the issue. “If he is briefed on it, then he can act on it.”
But Trump’s assertion that he didn’t know about the Russian bribery scheme bristles against reports that officials familiar with the matter confirmed that Trump received a written briefing on the issue in late February – a point raised by co-host Steve Doocey.
“All presidents don’t read all of their briefings,” Earhardt responded.
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Officials Say Trump Got Written Brief In February On Russian Bounty Scheme
The New York Times reported late Monday that American officials provided a written briefing to President Trump in late February, alerting him to the Russian bounty scheme that sought to bribe Afghan militants in the killing of coalition forces and American troops.
The briefing was confirmed by two officials familiar with the matter, the Times said. The Times’ revelation comes as the White House redoubles its efforts to cast doubt over the finding that Russia both targeted and sought to reward militants for the killing of American and coalition forces in Afghanistan.
“There is no consensus within the intelligence community on these allegations,” White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters on Monday.
Late Monday, John Ratcliffe, the recently confirmed director of national intelligence, issued a warning that leaks about the intelligence were a crime, according to The Times.
“We are still investigating the alleged intelligence referenced in recent media reporting, and we will brief the president and congressional leaders at the appropriate time,”Ratcliffe said in a statement.
President Trump has also remained firm in the denial narrative, claiming that he was briefed on the issue which he has referred to in tweets as a “so-called attack” that may have been fabricated by the “Fake News Media.”
The President tweeted later on Sunday that he had “just” been briefed on the Russian bounty intelligence and that intelligence officials had deemed it as not “credible” at the time and therefore “did not report it to me or @VP” until this weekend.
His characterization clashes with the assessment of intelligence officials who shared information about the Russian bribery scheme in a May 4 article in the C.I.A.’s classified “World Intelligence Review,” two officials told The Times.
It is said that Trump is not known to regularly or completely read the President’s Daily Brief and instead relies on oral briefings several times a week. The White House has maintained in coy and carefully selected language that the president was “not personally briefed” on the Russian bounty intelligence.
Intel Officials Informed White House Of Russia-Taliban Plot In Early 2019
Top officials in the White House were aware in early 2019 of classified intelligence indicating Russia was secretly offering bounties to the Taliban for the deaths of Americans, a full year earlier than has been previously reported, according to U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the intelligence.
The assessment was included in at least one of President Donald Trump’s written daily intelligence briefings at the time, according to the officials. Then-national security adviser John Bolton also told colleagues at the time that he briefed Trump on the intelligence assessment in March 2019.
The White House didn’t respond to questions about Trump or other officials’ awareness of Russia’s provocations in 2019. The White House has said Trump wasn’t — and still hasn’t been — briefed on the intelligence assessments because they haven’t been fully verified. However, it’s rare for intelligence to be confirmed without a shadow of a doubt before it is presented to top officials.
Bolton declined to comment Monday when asked by the AP if he’d briefed Trump about the matter in 2019. On Sunday, he suggested to NBC that Trump was claiming ignorance of Russia’s provocations to justify his administration’s lack of response.
“He can disown everything if nobody ever told him about it,” Bolton said.
The revelations cast new doubt on the White House’s efforts to distance Trump from the Russian intelligence assessments. The AP reported Sunday that concerns about Russian bounties also were in a second written presidential daily briefing this year and that current national security adviser Robert O’Brien had discussed the matter with Trump. O’Brien denies doing that.
On Monday, O’Brien said that while the intelligence assessments regarding Russian bounties “have not been verified,” the administration has “been preparing should the situation warrant action.”
The administration’s earlier awareness of the Russian efforts raises additional questions about why Trump didn’t take punitive action against Moscow for efforts that put the lives of American service members at risk. Trump has sought throughout his time in office to improve relations with Russia and President Vladimir Putin, moving this year to try to reinstate Russia as part of a group of world leaders it had been kicked out of.
Officials said they didn’t consider the intelligence assessments in 2019 to be particularly urgent, given Russian meddling in Afghanistan isn’t a new occurrence. The officials with knowledge of Bolton’s apparent briefing for Trump said it contained no “actionable intelligence,” meaning the intelligence community didn’t have enough information to form a strategic plan or response. However, the classified assessment of Russian bounties was the sole purpose of the meeting.
The officials insisted on anonymity because they weren’t authorized to disclose the highly sensitive information.
The intelligence that surfaced in early 2019 indicated Russian operatives had become more aggressive in their desire to contract with the Taliban and members of the Haqqani Network, a militant group aligned with the Taliban in Afghanistan and designated a foreign terrorist organization in 2012 during the Obama administration.
The National Security Council and the undersecretary of defense for intelligence held meetings regarding the intelligence. The NSC didn’t respond to questions about the meetings.
Late Monday, the Pentagon issued a statement saying it was evaluating the intelligence but so far had “no corroborating evidence to validate the recent allegations.”
“Regardless, we always take the safety and security of our forces in Afghanistan — and around the world — most seriously and therefore continuously adopt measures to prevent harm from potential threats,” said Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman.
Concerns about Russian bounties flared anew this year after members of the elite Naval Special Warfare Development Group, known to the public as SEAL Team Six, raided a Taliban outpost and recovered roughly $500,000 in U.S. currency. The funds bolstered the suspicions of the American intelligence community that Russians had offered money to Taliban militants and linked associations.
The White House contends the president was unaware of this development, too.
The officials told the AP that career government officials developed potential options for the White House to respond to the Russian aggression in Afghanistan, which was first reported by The New York Times. However, the Trump administration has yet to authorize any action.
The intelligence in 2019 and 2020 surrounding Russian bounties was derived in part from debriefings of captured Taliban militants. Officials with knowledge of the matter told the AP that Taliban operatives from opposite ends of the country and from separate tribes offered similar accounts.
Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied Russian intelligence officers had offered payments to the Taliban in exchange for targeting U.S. and coalition forces.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called the Taliban’s chief negotiator, a spokesman for the insurgents said Tuesday, but it was unknown whether there was any mention during their conversation of allegations about Russian bounties. Pompeo pressed the insurgents to reduce violence in Afghanistan and discussed ways of advancing a U.S.-Taliban peace deal signed in February, the Taliban spokesman tweeted.
The U.S. is investigating whether Americans died because of the Russian bounties. Officials are focused on an April 2019 attack on an American convoy. Three U.S. Marines were killed after a car rigged with explosives detonated near their armored vehicles as they returned to Bagram Airfield, the largest U.S. military installation in Afghanistan.
The Defense Department identified them as Marine Staff Sgt. Christopher Slutman, 43, of Newark, Delaware; Sgt. Benjamin Hines, 31, of York, Pennsylvania; and Cpl. Robert Hendriks, 25, of Locust Valley, New York. They were infantrymen assigned to 2nd Battalion, 25th Marines, a reserve infantry unit headquartered out of Garden City, New York.
Hendriks’ father told the AP that even a rumor of Russian bounties should have been immediately addressed.
“If this was kind of swept under the carpet as to not make it a bigger issue with Russia, and one ounce of blood was spilled when they knew this, I lost all respect for this administration and everything,” Erik Hendriks said.
Three other service members and an Afghan contractor were wounded in the attack. As of April 2019, the attack was under a separate investigation, unrelated to the Russian bounties.
The officials who spoke to the AP also said they were looking closely at insider attacks from 2019 to determine if they were linked to Russian bounties.
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Associated Press writers Zeke Miller and Deb Riechmann in Washington, Deepti Hajela in New York and Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed to this report.
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McConnell Urges People To Wear Masks: ‘We Must Have No Stigma’
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