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U.S. Limits Devices on Planes From 8 Muslim-Majority Nations

Nothing bigger than smartphones on nonstop flights from 10 airports.

Starting Tuesday morning, electronic devices larger than a smartphone are forbidden from passenger cabins on foreign airlines’ nonstop flights to the U.S. from 10 airports in eight Muslim-majority countries across the Middle East and Africa. The new Trump administration policy, which took effect at 3 a.m. ET, means passengers traveling from those areas must check electronics such as laptops, iPads, Kindles, and cameras in their luggage. The affected airports are Amman, Jordan; Kuwait City; Cairo; Istanbul; Jeddah and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Casablanca, Morocco; Doha, Qatar; and Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said in a statement that he “fully supports” the new regulations because they are “both necessary and proportional to the threat.” Officials told The New York Times the ban did not stem from a specific threat of an attack and is meant to address security measures at the named airports and ongoing intelligence about terror groups in the region. Royal Jordanian, the kingdom’s state-run airline, was first to tweet the news, but deleted the post later Monday. The AP reports Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly phoned U.S. lawmakers over the weekend to brief them on the intelligence behind the new measures, according to a congressional aide close to those talks who spoke on the condition of anonymity.