分类： politics

As the United States prepares to host the men’s World Cup, a senior White House official has publicly defended controversial visa rejections that have sidelined a top African referee and barred multiple Iranian team support staff from entering the country, framing the moves as necessary security safeguards ahead of the global tournament.

Andrew Giuliani, executive director of the White House World Cup Task Force and son of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, laid out the administration’s position during a policy event hosted by the Atlantic Council in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday. To date, he confirmed, all participating players and head coaches from the 35 participating nations that have already entered the U.S. have received entry approval. Only a small number of non-playing event and team officials have been turned away, he emphasized, and each rejection was justified.

The Trump administration’s long-standing travel restrictions have been the backdrop for these decisions, which have drawn increasing attention in the lead-up to the tournament. Somalia, where top referee Omar Artan hails from, is one of the Muslim-majority nations included in the travel ban first implemented by the Trump administration as part of a broader national immigration crackdown. Artan, who was named 2025 Men’s Referee of the Year by the Confederation of African Football, was set to make history as the first Somali referee ever selected to officiate at a World Cup. He was ultimately turned away upon arrival at Miami International Airport.

When pressed for details on Artan’s case, Giuliani declined to share specific information but reiterated that the rejection stemmed from solid security justifications. “While I can’t go into the details, what I can tell you, high level, is it was for a very good reason,” he said.

The visa restrictions also extend to members of Iran’s national team delegation, which will play all three of its group stage matches on U.S. soil amid long-standing diplomatic and military tensions between Washington and Tehran. Already, the Iranian squad was forced to relocate its pre-tournament training base to Mexico as a result of the ongoing standoff. On Tuesday, the Iranian Football Federation confirmed that the team’s allocated fan ticket allotment had been canceled, and multiple support staff members had been denied entry visas.

Giuliani clarified that all of Iran’s official coaching staff will be allowed to enter for the tournament, but a small number of other Iranian delegation officials have been blocked, again for what he called credible security reasons. He hinted that some individuals claiming official team positions may have misled authorities about their roles, noting “there are some people that claim that they are coaches that may not be coaches.”

More broadly, Giuliani confirmed that the administration’s core policy is to bar any individuals with direct ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a branch of Iran’s military that the U.S. designates as a terrorist organization, from entering the country during the World Cup. The goal, he explained, is to strike a careful balance: welcoming all legitimate participants to the global event while preventing any individuals the U.S. deems dangerous or inappropriate from gaining entry under the cover of the tournament.

“we’re striking that balance between making sure that any bad actors that…try to come into the country under the guise of the World Cup will not get access to the United States,” he said, adding that President Trump wants to guarantee a “level playing field” for all teams competing in the tournament.

On the topic of overall event safety, Giuliani offered reassuring updates. He confirmed that as of Tuesday, U.S. intelligence agencies have not identified any credible threats targeting the tournament. Despite that, he said, the intelligence community has ramped up monitoring efforts, which will remain in place around the clock from now through the final match of the tournament scheduled for July 19.

WASHINGTON D.C. – The U.S. Department of Justice has launched denaturalization proceedings against 17 recently naturalized American citizens, a group that includes two Jamaican nationals, alongside individuals from Trinidad and Tobago and Haiti. All of the people targeted are accused of serious criminal offenses committed during the statutory period when they were required to prove good moral character to qualify for citizenship, as well as fraudulently concealing their illegal activity during naturalization processing.

KINGSTON, Jamaica — In a stern policy announcement delivered to the House of Representatives on Tuesday, Minister of Land Titling and Settlements Robert Montague enacted a hardline new rule: any Jamaican who occupies unoccupied Crown land starting June 9 with the intent to squat will be permanently barred from eligibility for all government-managed land settlement programmes.

Montague, who also serves as the Member of Parliament for St Mary Western, clarified that the policy only applies to new encroachment, noting that existing squatters will retain their current standing under government programs. “If you’re there already yuh there already, but we not dealing with the new people,” he stated during his contribution to the annual Sectoral Debate.

Beyond tightening rules around new squatting, the minister also announced a sweeping crackdown on illegal land scamming, a persistent issue involving the fraudulent sale of publicly-owned Crown lands to unsuspecting buyers. Montague confirmed that ongoing investigations have resulted in a clear roadmap for enforcement: individuals caught illegally selling Crown land will face full criminal prosecution, while buyers who participate in these fraudulent transactions will forfeit any money they have invested.

To help Jamaicans avoid falling victim to these scams, Montague issued an urgent public advisory, urging all prospective land purchasers to verify ownership and legal status directly with the National Land Agency before completing any transaction. “Buying land is not like buying rice and flour, there’s a legal process but always remember, if it sounds too good to be true then it is not true. Save your money,” he added.

The minister also revealed that the Jamaican government has already completed comprehensive mapping of all occupied Crown lands, using advanced drone and spatial survey technology to create an accurate record of current occupants. This means authorities can clearly identify new encroachment occurring after the June 9 cutoff, he confirmed, adding that any new occupation will result in clear legal consequences.

In a nod to long-term solutions for the country’s longstanding squatting crisis, Montague announced that the government will soon unveil a major, comprehensive programme to address existing squatting in a systematic, orderly, and legally compliant manner. The new framework is designed to regularize legitimate land holdings while eliminating opportunities for fraud.

As part of the crackdown on scamming incentives, Montague emphasized that no public official has the authority to sell government-owned land, regardless of their position. “No member of parliament, nor councillor, nor JP, nor big man, nor area leader can sell government land,” he said. He also issued a direct warning to scammers who falsely claim to be acting on behalf of elected representatives: “To those persons scamming people and say is the MP send them, stop it because the MP never send yuh go do nutten like dat.”

Two separate federal court rulings have invalidated controversial, unlawful immigration policies implemented during the Donald Trump administration, drawing widespread applause from immigration advocates, legal organizations and state officials who have pushed back against the administration’s restrictive, anti-immigrant agenda.

KINGSTON, Jamaica — In a sharp rebuke delivered during Tuesday’s Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives, opposition tourism spokesperson Andrea Purkiss has called into question the Jamaican government’s flagship tourism diversification strategy, accusing incumbent Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett of peddling a harmful “diversification myth” that has wasted hundreds of billions of Jamaican dollars with little to show for the investment. For years, Bartlett has framed the island nation’s overreliance on the U.S. travel market — which supplies more than 80% of all visitors to Jamaica — as an existential economic vulnerability. The minister first amplified this concern during the COVID-19 pandemic, when border closures and travel restrictions in North America brought Jamaica’s core tourism industry to a near-standstill. On multiple occasions, he has argued that over-dependence on U.S. and Canadian travelers leaves Jamaica exposed to external shocks ranging from foreign policy changes to flight cancellations and public health advisories, framing diversification as not just a policy choice, but a matter of long-term economic survival. As the centerpiece of his five-point plan to grow the tourism sector, Bartlett pledged to open new visitor corridors across emerging markets: the Middle East, Africa, South Asia, and other regions disconnected from North America’s economic cycles. But Purkiss says the results of years of investment tell a very different story. Since 2015, the tourism ministry has allocated a total of J$2.86 billion to so-called “seat support” programs — taxpayer-funded subsidies designed to incentivize airlines to add new routes to these non-traditional markets. Purkiss argues that this massive spending has produced negligible returns. To back up her critique, she laid out concrete arrival data for each of Bartlett’s priority emerging markets: For the Middle East corridor Bartlett promoted during high-profile trips to Riyadh and Dubai, the net increase in visitor arrivals by the end of 2025 was just 330 people. Following Bartlett’s 2021 publicity-heavy trip to Nigeria, billed as opening a “historic gateway” for African travelers, net growth in visitor numbers from the region hit only 320, bringing total African arrivals to just 1,440. Even a push to tap India, one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing outbound travel markets, yielded only an additional 360 visitors. All told, these years of investment in new markets have delivered less than half a percent of Jamaica’s total annual visitor arrivals, with most new routes still operating well below capacity. “That is not diversification. That is expensive theatre,” Purkiss told parliament, noting that many of the subsidized new routes continue to fly with massive numbers of empty seats, failing to deliver the consistent visitor growth Bartlett promised. Echoing a common Jamaican idiom, she argued that while Bartlett’s rhetoric around diversification has been prolific, the costly policy has delivered no meaningful economic benefit to the island. Purkiss called on the minister to publicly account for the billions in taxpayer spending that has yielded such underwhelming results, putting renewed pressure on the government to defend its tourism strategy ahead of upcoming budget reviews.

The Jamaica political community is mourning the loss of one of its most dedicated public servants, Lorna Joy Leslie, the former long-serving Councillor for the Denham Town Division who passed away on Tuesday following a prolonged battle with illness. Leslie holds the distinction of being the longest-serving Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) representative to ever serve on the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC), and her decades of advocacy for marginalized communities have left an enduring legacy across the nation.

In the wake of Leslie’s passing, senior JLP figures have led tributes celebrating her decades of service. Desmond McKenzie, Deputy Leader of the JLP, Member of Parliament for Kingston West, and Jamaica’s current Local Government Minister, offered a heartfelt reflection on Leslie’s decades-long commitment to public life. “Lorna Leslie was a true stalwart of the Jamaica Labour Party,” McKenzie shared in his statement. “She served the residents of Denham Town and the wider West Kingston area with extraordinary distinction until her retirement from office in 2011.”

McKenzie extended the party’s deepest sympathies to Leslie’s loved ones, acknowledging the sacrifice her family made to enable her decades of public service. “The entire Jamaica Labour Party, and especially the West Kingston political family, send our most sincere and heartfelt condolences to Lorna’s family,” he said. “We are endlessly grateful for her extraordinary contributions to our party and our country, and we thank her family for sharing her with us throughout all these years of service.”

McKenzie went on to highlight Leslie’s lifelong work advancing the rights and needs of Jamaica’s most vulnerable populations, describing her as an “undisputed champion of the poor and dispossessed.” He emphasized that Leslie was unafraid to speak up for marginalized communities, and her advocacy delivered tangible improvements for countless low-income Jamaicans. “She was fearless and incredibly effective in advocating for the under-privileged across our society,” McKenzie explained. “Lorna’s work, her dedication, and her passion will never be forgotten. She was an exceptional public representative who always went above and beyond to fight for elderly and low-income residents.”

Leslie’s commitment to supporting vulnerable communities extended beyond her work as a division councillor. She served with notable distinction as chair of the KSAMC’s Poor Relief Committee, and also made significant contributions to the daily operations and improvement of the Denham Town Golden Age Home, a long-term care facility for elderly Kingston residents.

Leslie’s legacy has already been formally honored by the KSAMC: in 2021, the municipal body unanimously approved a resolution to rename Metcalfe Street, a major thoroughfare in Denham Town, to Leslie Street in recognition of her 35 years of continuous service to the division. The renaming effort enjoyed broad grassroots support, with 174 local residents signing a petition in favor of the change. Even across party lines, Leslie won widespread respect for her work: at the time of the renaming, councillors from both major Jamaican political parties recognized her as a tireless advocate for the poor, praising her unwavering passion and dedication to improving the lives of the most vulnerable members of Jamaican society.