January 31, 2020

On Friday, the Trump administration announced a new wave in its blanket bans on people from certain countries. And this time around, it includes one particularly vulnerable group — and one that tends to be very successful once it arrives in the U.S.

President Trump's original travel ban was one of his first acts in office, blocking people from several countries, most of which were majority Muslim, from coming to the U.S. altogether. This newest iteration explicitly bans people from Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Nigeria, Sudan, and Tanzania from receiving immigration visas, but doesn't touch those who are just visiting temporarily. That leaves 13 total countries on the travel ban list.

The fact that the ban explicitly targets those who are here to stay is particularly confusing when it comes to Nigeria, seeing as its immigrants are among the most likely immigrants to receive college degrees once they come to the U.S. In fact, an estimated 60 percent of Nigerian immigrants to the U.S. have college degrees, as opposed to 33 percent of Americans who do, Census data has shown. Nigerian immigrants are also much more likely to hold doctorates and master's degrees.

Myanmar also stands out among this new group because, unlike every other banned country, it doesn't have a significant Muslim population. In fact, its Rohingya Muslim people faced severe persecution and rampant genocide that turned survivors into refugees. Kathryn Krawczyk

8:23 a.m.

Joaquin Phoenix didn't let the British Academy Film Awards off the hook for the lack of diversity among its nominees.

The Joker star on Sunday won the BAFTA for Best Actor in a Leading Role, in his acceptance speech saying he feels "conflicted" doing so. After all, this came as the BAFTAs this year was widely criticized for nominating only white actors, including two nominations for Margot Robbie in the same category.

"I think that we send a very clear message to people of color that you're not welcome here," Phoenix said in his speech. "I think that's the message that we're sending to people who have contributed so much to our medium and our industry in ways that we benefit from."

Phoenix went on to admit that he's "part of the problem" because "I have not done everything in my power to ensure that the sets I work on are inclusive," but he went on to say that "we have to really do the hard work to truly understand systemic racism." He concluded, "I think that it is the obligation of the people that have created and perpetuate and benefit from a system of oppression to be the ones to dismantle it. So that's on us."

The lack of diversity in the BAFTA acting nominees had previously been criticized by the organization itself, which promised to "review all aspects of our voting process." Brendan Morrow

7:43 a.m.

The Senate will hear closing arguments in President Trump's impeachment trial Monday, and senators are expected to reject the impeachment articles, mostly along party lines, on Wednesday afternoon. The outcome of the impeachment trial was never in serious doubt — it would take 67 senators to convict Trump, if all senators voted — but Democrats narrowly lost a key vote Friday to subpoena former National Security Adviser John Bolton and other witnesses.

More information tying Trump to the Ukraine pressure scheme he was impeached over continues to emerge, but a handful of key Republicans say they already believe Trump did what he's accused of, it just wasn't serious enough to remove him from office, especially in an election year. Other Republicans embraced a shockingly broad argument about what a president can legally do in office put forward, then partly rescinded, by Trump defense lawyer Alan Dershowitz.

Historians and legal experts tell The Washington Post that Trump's acquittal will have serious long-term repercussions for the balance of power between Congress and the White House, lowering the bar for what future presidents can do.

"The Republicans have embraced a theory that permits future abuses of power," historian Timothy Naftali, former director of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, told the Post. "The outcome of acquittal was predictable ... but I'm afraid that this process in the Senate is more enabling of an abusive president than expected." Nixon wasn't impeached, but he's the only president forced out of office due to the likelihood of conviction in an impeachment trial.

"It is not hyperbolic to say that the Republican Party treats Donald Trump more like a king than a president," presidential historian Jon Meacham told the Post. "That was a central and consuming anxiety of the framers. It is a remarkable thing to watch the party of Lincoln and Eisenhower and Reagan and the Bushes become an instrument of Donald Trump's. That's a massive historical story." Peter Weber

6:34 a.m.

Jared Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, put together an Israeli-Palestinian peace plan that earned praise from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, immediate dismissal by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and unanimous rejection by all 22 Arab League member states, including several U.S. allies. The plan is "100 percent the ideas I personally heard many times from Netanyahu and his negotiators," said former Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat. "I can assure you that the American so-called peace team have only copied and pasted Netanyahu's and the settlers' councils plan."

But Netanyahu's allies among Israel's commentariat, rather than lauding Kushner, "started on Sunday what looked like an orchestrated campaign" against him, "attacking him for stopping the Israeli prime minister from annexing parts of the West Bank" and apparently using "many of the same talking points," Israeli journalist Barak Ravid writes at Axios. Kushner has said publicly several times that Israel shouldn't annex any part of Palestinian territory until at least after Israel's March 2 elections. "Netanyahu — who promised to annex the Jordan Valley and the settlements as soon as this week, hoping it would help his election campaign — was forced to back down," Ravid reports.

Among the common points these commentators make is that Trump risks losing his evangelical Christian base if Kushner messes this up by pressuring Netanyahu into waiting on annexation. Talk radio host Yaakov Bardugo even appeared to threaten Trump on Israel's Army Radio: "With all due respect to Kushner, there are millions of evangelicals in the U.S. and Netanyahu can mobilize them against Trump like he did to Obama." Peter Weber

5:22 a.m.

Iowa Democrats are caucusing Monday night, starting off a Democratic presidential primary race that is unusually crowded and fluid. Former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) lead in the polls nationally and in many Iowa surveys, but Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and former Mayor Pete Buttigieg aren't far behind in Iowa, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Andrew Yang are in the running, too. A large percentage of Iowa Democrats are still undecided, and the winner of the Iowa caucuses might be decided by second-choice picks. The top quality Democrats say they want in a candidate is the ability to beat President Trump, but nobody is sure what that looks like in 2020. Peter Weber

4:17 a.m.

If you were wondering how President Trump would attack each of the top Democrats who might face off against him in November, Fox News host Sean Hannity saved you the trouble. In an interview that aired before the Super Bowl on Sunday, Hannity asked Trump what "comes to your mind" when he read the names of various Democratic contenders. Former Vice President Joe Biden was "sleepy," Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) was a "fairy tale," and Michael Bloomberg was "little."

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who draws his inspiration from European-style democratic socialism, got "communist," in part because he and his wife, Jane, took their "honeymoon" in the Soviet Union in 1988. Trump has his own odd relationship with Russia, and his answer appeared to reflect that, too. "I think he's a communist," Trump told Hannity. "I mean, you know, look, I think of communism when I think of Bernie. Now, you could say socialist, but didn't he get married in Moscow? And that's wonderful, Moscow is wonderful."

"Might have been his honeymoon, I'm not sure." Hannity said. "Well, whatever," Trump continued "But you don't necessarily think in terms of marriage, Moscow. And it's wonderful. I'm not knocking it, but I think of Bernie sort of as a socialist but far beyond a socialist."

If you are curious about Trump's other word-association attacks on some of the leading Democrats, you can read the transcript below. Peter Weber

3:20 a.m.

After the State Department revoked the press credentials of NPR's Michele Keleman for Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's trip to Europe and Central Asia, in apparent retaliation for questions Pompeo didn't like from NPR reporter Mary Louise Kelly, there were concerns about what kind of message Pompeo sent to the world about America's commitment to press freedoms. On Sunday, when Pompeo was in Kazakhstan — which has a dismal zero press-freedoms rating from Reporters Without Borders — Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reporter Aigerim Toleukhan asked Pompeo. He said the episode sends "a perfect message about press freedoms."

Pompeo can be heard telling Kelly in their interview that he only wanted to discuss Iran, not Ukraine and whether he stood up for America's former ambassador to Kyiv when President Trump and his allies smeared her. Kelly said after the interview, Pompeo took her into a separate room and berated her at length, using profanities.

Pompeo told Toleukhan he didn't have a "confrontational interview" with Kelly and insisted that reporters "get to ask me any questions, all questions." As for barring Keleman from his trip, Pompeo said he always brings "a big press contingent, but we ask for certain sets of behaviors, and that's simply telling the truth and being honest. And when they'll do that, they get to participate, and if they don't, it's just not appropriate" or even "fair to the rest of the journalists who are participating alongside them." That's when Toleukhan asked about what message that sends to the world, and Pompeo said "a perfect message."

After Kelly told NPR listeners about Pompeo berating her, Pompeo accused her of lying twice, once while "setting up our interview" and again by not honoring her agreement keep their "post-interview conversation" private. Kelly said she never agreed to go off-the-record — it's unclear why she would — and she released emails showing she told Pompeo's staff she intended to ask him about both Iran and Ukraine. Peter Weber

2:13 a.m.

When their teacher's pricey basketball shoes were stolen from his office last month, a group of eighth grade students in Bellevue, Nebraska, immediately came up with a way to replace them.

The students from Logan Fontenelle Middle School hatched their plan in a group chat. They decided to raise money to buy their teacher, Trey Payne, a new pair of shoes, and asked their friends to contribute to the effort. As soon as they had enough to pay for the shoes, they ordered a pair online, and presented the box and a card to Payne.

As soon as Payne realized what they had done, he started to cry. "It's more than a pair of shoes," he said. "It's about doing things to build everyone up around you. I try to show my kids this and I think the lesson has sunk in for many, in turn, reaffirming my purpose and my ideals." Payne has definitely made a lasting impression on the students, who were happy to let the world know how much he means to them. "We want Mr. Payne to know we love him and we care about him," Elicia Fenner told WETV. Catherine Garcia

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