Vox Sentences - The US lifts pandemic travel ban

The US border opens to international visitors after 20 months; Ortega wins “sham” election in Nicaragua.

Tonight's Sentences was written by Jariel Arvin.

US borders reopen for fully vaccinated travelers

Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty

• The US reopened its land and air borders to most vaccinated international travelers on Monday, after 20 months of closures. [Axios / Rebecca Falconer]
• Fully vaccinated visitors from 33 countries including China, India, and EU nations will be allowed entry. Anyone older than 2 must show proof of a recent negative Covid-19 test, though children aren’t required to be vaccinated. At the Mexican and Canadian borders, only proof of vaccination is required to cross. [NBC / Rachel Elbaum, Sean Nevin, and Erik Ortiz]
• The border reopening should bode well for a struggling air travel industry that has lost billions since the start of the pandemic. In Europe, Brazil, and the UK, hotels and restaurants are also seeing increased demand from travelers. [NYT]
• The reopening will also affect families separated from relatives by the closed borders who have missed out on spending time together and are finally able to reunite. [AP / Elliot Spagat and Carolyn Thompson]
• The World Health Organization recently warned that the pandemic isn’t over in Europe, where countries like the UK and Germany are seeing dramatic increases in cases. There is some concern travel to the US could worsen European infections. [CNN / Sheena McKenzie and Joseph Ataman]

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega wins fourth consecutive term in “pantomime election” 

• Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has won a fourth consecutive term, extending his leadership over the Latin American country to 20 years in an election experts are calling a sham. [Guardian / Tom Phillips]
• With just over half of the ballots counted, Nicaragua’s Supreme Electoral Council said Ortega and his wife Vice President Rosario Murillo secured 75 percent of the vote, with about two-thirds of eligible voters participating. [Al Jazeera]
• Ortega — who once helped overthrow a dictator — squashed all credible opposition in the six months leading up to the election. On Sunday, US President Joe Biden described the vote as a “pantomime election that was neither free nor fair, and most certainly not democratic.” [AP / Christopher Sherman]
• On Monday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US is ready to work with other democratic governments to pressure Ortega to step down; meanwhile, authoritarian governments in Venezuela, Russia, and Cuba congratulated Ortega. [Reuters / Daina Beth Solomon]
• Some experts worry Ortega’s election strategy could spread to nearby countries. “This is a turning point toward authoritarianism in the region. [Ortega] is not even trying to preserve some sort of facade of democratic rule,” José Miguel Vivanco, director of the Americas division of Human Rights Watch said. [NYT / Yubelka Mendoza and Natalie Kitroeff]

Sesame Street's Big Bird became the target of conservative ire after announcing over the weekend that he is fully vaccinated against Covid-19. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) described the move as “government propaganda.” [NPR / Rachel Treisman]

• Nearly 200 countries report significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions to the UN than they are actually releasing into the atmosphere, a Washington Post investigation revealed on Sunday. [Washington Post] 
• Houston officials spoke with rapper Travis Scott about the need for crowd control ahead of his Astroworld music festival, which left eight dead. [NYT / J. David Goodman and Edgar Sandoval]
• Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell claimed Trump wrote the foreword to his memoir The Long Game. In an interview with the Washington Post, Trump says he didn’t. [Guardian / Martin Pengelly]

 ”It’s going to be a bit sloppy at first. I can assure you, there will be lines, unfortunately.”

Delta’s chief executive Ed Bastian describes the long lines that will be waiting for travelers as the US border reopens.

They said the office would never be the same. In part two of our series, The Future of Work, what happens to your workplace when they're right. [Spotify]

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