Tag: travel

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Signs Bill Banning Taxpayer-Funded Abortion Travel

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed a bill into law Tuesday banning local governments from using taxpayer dollars to fund abortion travel out of state.

The law, Senate Bill 33, bars cities and counties from paying for hotels, airfare, meals, and other travel expenses for women seeking abortions outside of Texas. Abortion is outlawed in Texas with limited exceptions. 

Abbott also signed Senate Bill 31 at a signing ceremony on the same day. That bill, called the Life of the Mother Act, emphasizes that healthcare providers must treat a pregnant woman who has a life-threatening physical or medical emergency that places her at risk of death or serious injury. The law “clarifies and standardizes existing statutes related to medical emergency exceptions to abortion prohibitions, providing healthcare professionals with additional clarity around Texas’ pro-life laws,” according to the governor’s office.

“In Texas, we support mothers and their children,” Abbott said in a statement. “This session, the Texas Legislature worked together to pass the Life of the Mother Act to protect both mothers and babies while giving medical professionals the legal security and clinical clarity they desire. I am also proud to sign a law to ban taxpayer dollars from funding abortions. Texas is a pro-life and pro-family state. With these laws, we will stay that way.”

Abbott signed SB33 into law after the Austin City Council allocated $400,000 in the city’s budget in 2024 to help fund abortion travel. San Antonio considered a similar program this year, but was stymied by a lower court. 

Members of the pro-life organization Texas Values were present at the bill signing ceremony, along with state lawmakers, and other pro-life leaders. 

Policy Director for Texas Values Jonathan Covey celebrated the passage of the bills in a press release. 

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Trump’s “One, Big, Beautiful Bill” Greatly Expands Biometric Surveillance, Funds DHS’ ‘End-To-End Biometric Travel’ And Autonomous Surveillance Towers

Of the many things contained in President Donald Trump’s highly touted spending package, the “One, Big, Beautiful Bill” (BBB) which he signed earlier this month, the bill allocates hefty spending to drastically expand nationwide biometric surveillance in the United States, drastically bolstering the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) tracking capabilities.

Though not revealed by mainstream or alternative media, Biometric Update highlights how the 940-page BBB allocates hundreds of billions of dollars “in immigration-related funding for fiscal year 2025 alone, which is by far the largest such allocation in U.S. history and represents a dramatic technology buildout.”

“Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would receive nearly $30 billion in funding through 2029, earmarked not only for personnel and deportation operations, but also for digital modernization efforts that lean heavily on AI and biometric surveillance,” the outlet added. “More than $5.2 billion within ICE’s share is dedicated to infrastructure modernization, including $2.5 billion specifically for artificial intelligence systems, biometric data collection platforms, and digital case tracking.”

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U.S. to Charge Travelers $250 ‘Visa Integrity’ Fee — Experts Say It Could Raise $30 Billion Over Next Decade

The United States will soon begin charging travelers a $250 “visa integrity fee” in order to enter the country.

The rule, which was included in the recent budget reconciliation package, will apply to all visitors who need nonimmigrant visas to enter and cannot be waived.

However, some travelers eventually may be able to get the fee reimbursed.

CNBC provides more details:

The fee will be at least $250 during the U.S. fiscal year 2025, which runs from Oct. 1, 2024, to Sept. 30, 2025. However, the secretary of Homeland Security is free to set the fee higher, according to the provision.

Thereafter, the visa integrity fee will be adjusted for inflation.

The “visa integrity fee” applies to all visitors who need nonimmigrant visas, which includes tourists, business travelers and international students.

Some visitors, including those from Australia, Japan and many nations in Europe, may not need visas to enter under the Visa Waiver Program.

The fee is paid when the visa is issued, according to the provision. Thus, visitors whose visa requests are denied will not be charged.

To be eligible for a refund, visa holders must meet the conditions outlined in the visa, including not engaging in unauthorized employment and not overstaying the visa’s expiration date by more than five days.

While illegal immigrants are largely the result of people crossing the southern border, many also enter the U.S. on tourist visas and then disappear indefinitely after securing cash in hand employment.

According to some experts, the fee may raise as much as $30 billion over the next decade, which could be used to pay down the national debt.

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Black Customers Outraged By New Carnival Cruise Line Rules Limiting Ghetto Behavior

The fatigue is real.  In recent years the unwritten rule among most vacation goers interested in a week-long cruise was to stay far away from boats with cheap tickets.  Why?  Well, no one has been allowed to say why publicly, but the mountain of video evidence on social media sends the message loud and clear – A certain subset of black customers cause big problems and ruin everyone else’s peace.

It’s not “racist” to point out observable facts, and the viral “black fatigue” discussion is not something that can be easily dismissed.  It’s not just whites complaining – It’s everyone, including other black people.

Ghetto behavior is epidemic and intolerable.  So much so that corporations are starting to take notice and calculate the cost/benefit ratio of marketing to the fatigue subset.  Of course, they won’t say it outright, nor do they need to.

Carnival Cruise Line has become a magnet for black vacationers largely due to deep discounts on 3-5 day tickets.  In 2015, the average cost per passenger was around $168 per night (more if you calculate today’s inflation).  The cost was even higher depending on the ship and the destination.  In 2025 the average cost is as low as $50 per passenger per night.  The damage done to travel related industries because of the pandemic lockdowns is often blamed for the price cuts.  

The cruises have also garnered a reputation as a “block party” on the water with many black customers expecting some “rowdiness” as part of the experience.

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US Revokes Visas for British Punk-Rap Duo Over Anti-Israel Chant

The State Department revoked the U.S. visas of the British punk-rap band Bob Vylan, following the group’s anti-Israel comments at a world-famous English music festival. 

Lead singer Bobby Vylan led attendees at his June 28 concert at the Glastonbury Festival in chants of “Death, death to the IDF!” referring to the Israel Defense Forces.

The concert came just days after the United States and Israel engaged in an offensive against Iranian nuclear sites, and almost two years after Hamas’s deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, prompting Israeli military actions in Gaza aimed at eliminating the Palestinian terrorist group and freeing the hostages taken by it. The ongoing Israel–Hamas conflict also triggered protests by pro-Palestinian activists against Israel’s military responses.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau announced in a June 30 X post that “The [State Department] has revoked the U.S. visas for the members of the Bob Vylan band in light of their hateful tirade at Glastonbury, including leading the crowd in death chants. Foreigners who glorify violence and hatred are not welcome visitors to our country.”

The band was scheduled later this year to make appearances in cities across the nation, including Washington, Utah, Colorado, Missouri, Illinois, Minnesota, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, and other states.

During the weekend show, Vylan chanted against the IDF while performing in front of 200,000 people at the festival, held in Somerset, England, which is one of the world’s largest music events.

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Court Expands Block on Trump Admin Biological-Sex-Only Passport Rule

A judge has expanded a preliminary injunction on a move by President Donald Trump’s administration that would limit a person’s sex listed on their passport to align with their biological sex.

U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts Judge Julia Kobick expanded the preliminary injunction on Tuesday after she ruled in favor of six plaintiffs who identified as transgender or nonbinary in April.

The plaintiffs were challenging a Trump administration rule change that restricted passport sex to align with birth sex, overturning a State Department policy that allowed people to choose the sex displayed on their passport, including an “X” option for individuals who identify as intersex and non-binary.

In that April ruling, only the six plaintiffs were allowed to receive passports aligning with their gender identity. Tuesday’s ruling issued by Kobick expands that order to grant class certification, pausing enforcement of the rule change nationwide.

The Trump administration is likely to appeal the decision. In the interim, Kobick’s order prevents the State Department from enforcing the administration’s revised rules.

The U.S. has permitted individuals who identify as transgender and intersex to choose a different sex for their passport than their birth sex since 1992, pending submission of medical documentation, until the rules were changed in 2021 under President Joe Biden. The Biden administration allowed people to self-select their passport sex marker based on gender identity, while non-binary, intersex, and other individuals were allowed to select an “X” marker rather than “M” or “F.”

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A US Bank Closed Our Accounts Because I’d Visited Cuba Six Months Ago

For years, World BEYOND War and other peace groups from around the world had been attending peace conferences in Cuba. When I visited Cuba this past January it was with a visa for that purpose. I published here the remarks I made at the conference. We shouted as loudly as we could about January’s conference in websites, social media, emails, and media interviews. The notion that there could be anything wrong with it — or that some institution could punish us for it — never entered our minds.

Legally, you’re allowed to go to a peace conference in Cuba. Nobody has so much as hinted that I’ve done anything illegal. But on Thursday June 5th I got a bunch of letters in the mail telling me that on Monday June 9th the U.S. bank accounts of World BEYOND War and the private accounts of all of my family members would be closed without explanation. This was the action of a particular bank called First Citizens, with no indication of any involvement by any government. (The explanation, it would be made clear, was my visit to Cuba.)

Morally, it seems a useful thing to do — attending peace conferences in Cuba. As at similar conferences in many other countries, one can meet diplomats, authors, activists, and politicians from all over the world to discuss peace education, disarmament, negotiations, and cross-cultural understanding. Videos of the entire conferences in Cuba, like most others around the world, are posted online for all to see.

World BEYOND War works to abolish all war, and opposes all sides of all wars — an unusual position even at peace conferences. We are constantly working to persuade some people not to support the Russian side of a war and other people not to support the Ukrainian side. We oppose any and all war-making by the U.S., Cuba, or anyone else, without equating disparate sides or blaming victims in any actual wars. Some groups try to shut down weapons programs because the weapons don’t work well; we start with opposing those that kill the most. When Trump sends troops into Los Angeles, we don’t join the Governor of California in asking that soldiers and Marines do their work abroad; we ask people to think about whether such armed forces should invade anyone else’s city either. The nice thing about peace conferences is that we can advance these views nonviolently, disagreeing amicably.

The problem, apparently, for a U.S. bank, with Cuban peace conferences is that, as with many things in Cuba, the Cuban government is involved. The president of the country wanders into the panel sessions. While that has the potential to cause censorship, it also has the potential to educate decision makers. I’d like to see presidents wandering in at peace conferences in Washington and other capitals.

Of course, the U.S. government has been sanctioning and blockading Cuba for generations, for the stated illegal purpose of overthrowing the government but — as usual — with the result of strengthening it instead, and the actual illegal impact of impoverishing the Cuban people — whose impoverishment is then blamed on the Cuban government and used as an excuse to overthrow it. This cruelty from the North provides a handy excuse for all sorts of repression and awful governance by the Cuban government, just as with the Iranian government and several others.

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‘X’ Sex Marker On US Passports SCRAPPED, Outstanding Applications Suspended

The State Department has scrapped the third sex option, X, on passport application forms, declaring that there are only two recognisable sexes.

New Secretary of State Marco Rubio has directed the Department to remove the option, an internal State Department cable obtained by The Guardian revealed.

In the communication, Rubio noted “The policy of the United States is that an individual’s sex is not changeable.”

The directive outlines that “sex, and not gender, shall be used” on official documents, including passports and Consular Reports of Birth Abroad.

State Department staff were also ordered to “suspend any application where the applicant is seeking to change their sex marker” from the definition provided under President Trump’s executive order mandating that government-issued identification must reflect “an individual’s immutable biological classification as either male or female.”

Trump’s order, titled, “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” also states that it is “fundamental and incontrovertible reality” that only two sexes exist.

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High-Speed Rail in USA: An Expensive Tax Burden and Inefficient Solution for America’s Travel Infrastructure

For some reason, high-speed rail is a hot-button issue for liberals and a frequent point of criticism from Chinese communist propaganda and Europeans when they attack the U.S.

“How can you call yourself a developed country when you don’t have high-speed rail?” they ask. The reality is that high-speed rail would be more expensive and less efficient than our current travel infrastructure.

High-speed rail works in Europe and China because of government subsidies, higher taxes, and because people typically travel shorter distances and have fewer travel options.

The U.S. has more cars per capita, more highways, more airports, and more railroads than China or the EU. Additionally, Americans prefer to drive on trips up to 500 miles so they can have their car when they arrive and take the whole family for one price. For longer trips, Americans prefer flying because even high-speed rail is slower.

The US is extremely developed and has a culture of independence. Car ownership is more prevalent in the US than anywhere else, with 860 cars per thousand people, compared to 627 in Germany, 544 in Sweden, and 223 in China.

Not only does America have more cars per capita, but we also have more highways. The US National Highway System comprises 164,000 miles of highways, equipped with rest stops, gas stations, McDonald’s, hotels, and other amenities.

In contrast, China has 105,073 miles of highways, meaning the US has 56% more, despite China’s population being more than three times that of the US. And, good luck finding bathrooms and rest stops on China’s highways.

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California introduces tax-by-the-mile plan as state revenue from fuel tax drops due to electric vehicle usage

Buyers of electric cars in California may not have been aware of the new tax-by-the-mile plan before they decided to purchase their vehicles.Had they known about the potential added cost, they may have made a different decision.But regardless of personal choice, California law mandates that all new car sales be electric by 2035.

“This pay-to-drive scheme essentially turns your car into a rental,” Patrick Wood said.  After quoting from a course on technocracy in 1934, he added, “Don’t tell me that Technocracy is not in play here.”

We would add, do you remember the World Economic Forum’s threat “you will own nothing”?

California has the highest income tax rate in the USA (top tier of 14.4 per cent), the highest statewide sales tax rate (7.25 per cent, plus local sales taxes), and the highest fuel tax rate ($0.78 per gallon).   The old joke is that California would tax the air we breathe if it could. Well, California’s latest tax proposal comes close. The state is recruiting drivers for a pilot program to track and tax the miles they drive.

The plan is borne from the fact that Californians have switched to electric and hybrid vehicles at a faster rate than other US states because of the state’s green initiative which has convinced Californians to switch to hybrid or electric vehicles from combustion engine vehicles.

While electric vehicles are more expensive, Californians were enticed to buy them because of the subsidies and savings they would enjoy by no longer having to buy gas. But like most government programmes, this was not well thought out. California has lost millions in tax revenue because of this scheme and now needs to make up for that. From the many options available to it, it has chosen a plan to begin tracking drivers with GPS monitors.

Under the new plan, according to Caltrans, mileage could be tracked by plugging an electronic device into a vehicle or using the vehicle’s tracking system.

There’s no telling what the government may use this new information for. The main page of the Caltrans website for the program, entitled “California Road Charge,” presents the tagline “Funding transportation in an equitable way.” There’s that word again. Government-imposed “equity” can take any number of forms. On the next page, it states that the charge is “Fair. Transparent. Sustainable.”

By charging an exorbitant fee per mile, it could effectively reduce the number of cars on the road to reduce climate change. It could also easily charge varying fees based on driver income to impose “equity.”

It could also charge varying fees based on miles driven, penalising those who the government determines drive too much.

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