CALIFORNIA: The 2-year-old son of a Yemeni woman who sued the Trump administration to let her into the country to be with the ailing boy has died.
Abdullah Hassan died Friday in UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in Oakland, where his father Ali Hassan brought him in the fall to get treatment for a genetic brain disorder.
Ali Hassan is a US citizen who lives in Stockton, California. He and his wife Shaima Swileh moved to Egypt after marrying in Yemen in 2016. Swileh is not an American citizen and remained in Egypt while fighting for a visa.
“We are heartbroken. We had to say goodbye to our baby, the light of our lives,” Ali Hassan said.
Swileh held her son for the first time in the hospital 10 days ago.
A funeral is scheduled for Saturday.
Swileh had been trying to get a visa since 2017, so the family could move to the United States.
Citizens from Yemen and four other mostly Muslim countries, along with North Korea and Venezuela, are restricted from coming to the United States under President Donald Trump’ s travel ban.
When the boy’s health worsened, the father went ahead to California in October to get their son help, and Swileh remained in Egypt hoping for a visa. As the couple fought for a waiver, doctors put Abdullah on life support.
“My wife is calling me every day wanting to kiss and hold her son for the one last time,” said Ali Hassan, choking up at a news conference earlier this month.
He started losing hope and was considering pulling his son off life support to end his suffering. But then a hospital social worker reached out to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which sued on Dec. 16, said Basim Elkarra, executive director of the group in Sacramento.
The State Department granted Swileh a waiver the next day.
“With their courage, this family has inspired our nation to confront the realities of Donald Trump’s Muslim Ban,” said Saad Sweilem, a lawyer with the council who represents the family. “In his short life, Abdullah has been a guiding light for all of us in the fight against xenophobia and family separation.”
2-year-old Yemeni boy whose mother sued US to see him has died
2-year-old Yemeni boy whose mother sued US to see him has died
UN chief calls Ukraine war ‘a stain on our collective conscience’
- Guterres warned that the fighting posed direct risks to the safe and secure operation of Ukraine’s nuclear sites
WASHINGTON: Four years after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the war there remained “as a stain on our collective conscience” and reiterated calls for an immediate ceasefire. In remarks for a session of the United Nations Security Council to mark the fourth anniversary of Russia’s invasion, Guterres commended the efforts of the United States and others to end the war, but said concrete measures were needed to de-escalate and create space for diplomacy.
Referring to Russia’s invasion, Guterres said: “We have witnessed the cascading consequences of this blatant violation of international law.”
He said more than 15,000 civilians had been killed in Ukraine since the start of the war and over 41,000 hurt. Among those killed or hurt were 3,200 children.
Guterres’ remarks were read on his behalf by Rosemary DiCarlo, the UN under-secretary-general for peacebuilding.
Guterres warned that the fighting posed direct risks to the safe and secure operation of Ukraine’s nuclear sites, and added: “This unconscionable game of nuclear roulette must cease immediately.”
He urged UN member states to fully fund humanitarian assistance and said that any settlement to the war must uphold the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders.
“Enough with the death. Enough with the destruction. Enough with the broken lives and shattered futures,” he added.
“It is time for an immediate, full and unconditional ceasefire – the first step toward a just peace that saves lives and ends the endless suffering.
