United States President Donald Trump’s administration is mulling a new travel ban that is expected to affect citizens from dozens of countries to varying degrees, The New York Times reported.

Quoting anonymous officials, the report published on Friday said the US government’s draft list featured 43 countries, divided into three categories of travel restrictions.

The first group of 10 countries, including Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, Cuba and North Korea, would be set for a full visa suspension.

In the second group, five countries – Eritrea, Haiti, Laos, Myanmar and South Sudan – would face partial suspensions that would affect tourist and student visas as well as other immigrant visas, with some exceptions.

In the third group, a total of 26 countries that includes Belarus, Pakistan and Turkmenistan would be considered for a partial suspension of US visa issuance if their governments “do not make efforts to address deficiencies within 60 days”, the draft memo said.

A US official speaking on condition of anonymity told the Reuters news agency there could be changes to the list and it was yet to be approved by the administration, including US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Trump issued an executive order on January 20 requiring intensified security vetting of any foreigners seeking admission to the US to detect national security threats.

The order directed several cabinet members to submit by March 21 a list of countries from which travel should be partly or fully suspended because their “vetting and screening information is so deficient”.

The US president’s directive is part of an immigration crackdown he launched at the start of his second term. He previewed his plan in an October 2023 speech, pledging to restrict people from the Gaza Strip, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Yemen and “anywhere else that threatens our security”.

The latest travel ban proposal, however, harkens back to Trump’s first-term ban on travellers from seven Muslim-majority nations, a policy that went through several iterations before it was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2018.

That ban targeted citizens of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen and ignited international outrage and domestic court rulings against it. Iraq and Sudan were later dropped from the list, but in 2018 the Supreme Court upheld a later version of the ban for the other nations as well as North Korea and Venezuela.

[Aljazeera]

WEATHER FORECAST FOR 16 MARCH 2025
Issued at 05.30 a.m. on 16 March 2025 by the Department of Meteorology

Misty conditions can be expected at some places in Western and Sabaragamuwa provinces and in Galle, Matara and Kurunegala districts during the morning.

Cloudy skies can be expected over the Southern half of the island.

Showers or thundershowers will occur at times in Northern, Eastern and Uva provinces and in Hambantota, Polonnaruwa, Nuwara-Eliya and Matale districts and at several places elsewhere in the island after 1.00 p.m. Fairly heavy showers above 75 mm can be expected at some places in Western, Sabaragamuwa, Central, Southern and North-western provinces.

The general public is kindly requested to take adequate precautions to minimize damages caused by temporary localized strong winds and lightning during thundershowers.

The Parliamentary watchdog Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) has found that there were fake documents regarding the importing of medicines under the emergency procurement system in 2022 and 2023.

This was revealed during a COPE meeting held at Parliament probing the transactions of the National Medicine Regulatory Authority (NMRA).

NMRA CEO Saveen Semage told the committee that several fake documents have been found due to the lack of registration of medicines.

Stating that six such fake documents were found last year alone, Semage said he had recorded statements regarding each of the documents with the Financial Crimes Investigation Division.

He revealed that, however, no investigations have been conducted yet into the incidents.

“We have documents with confessions from a woman accepting that fake documents had been made. However, a statement has not even been recorded from that woman yet,” he said.

Meanwhile, COPE member MP Asitha Niroshana Egoda Vithana also revealed that the highest number of waive-off registrations (WOR) for medicines had been obtained in 2022 and 2023.

He said 656 such WORs had been obtained in 2022 and 261 in 2023, adding that this proves that discrepancies have taken place during the emergency procurement of medicines during these periods.

Furthermore, Deputy Director General of the Medical Supplies Division of the Health Ministry, Dr. G. Wijesuriya said discussions are underway on allowing the State Pharmaceutical Corporation (SPC) to directly import essential medicines.He pointed out that it was essential to take a policy decision in this regard as a solution to mitigate such discrepancies.