The U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals has refused to reinstate President Trump’s second attempt at a travel ban on all refugees and citizens of six majority-Muslim nations from entering the United States. The Justice Department has vowed to challenge the appeals court ruling and take it to the Supreme Court.
The court ruled 10-3 to uphold a ruling from a district court judge in Maryland that blocked a portion of the order that temporarily banned travel to the United States by nationals of Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. In the majority decision, Chief Judge Roger Gregory wrote that Trump’s executive order uses “vague words of national security, but in context drips with religious intolerance, animus, and discrimination.”
Judge Gregory listed televised interviews and numerous statements made at political rallies that, in the court’s view, indicated the true intentions of the order. He cited a rally statement in which Trump called the second order a “watered down version” of the first order as well as a televised interview with Rudy Giuliani who said that Trump had asked him to devise an immigration ban within the bounds of legality.
The judge wrote that a reasonable observer would likely conclude the order’s “primary purpose is to exclude persons from the United States on the basis of their religious beliefs”. The government argued that Trump’s comments on the campaign trail should not be taken into account since they occurred before he took office on Jan 20. The appeals court rejected that view, saying they provide a window into the motivations for Trump’s action in government.
The appeals court questioned a government argument that the president has wide authority to halt the entry of people to the United States. They were reviewing a March ruling by Maryland-based federal judge Theodore Chuang that blocked part of Trump’s March 6 executive order barring people from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for 90 days while the government put in place stricter visa screening. A similar ruling against Trump’s policy from a Hawaii-based federal judge is still in place. The Hawaii judge’s ruling also blocked a section of the travel ban that also suspended refugee admissions for four months. The San Francisco-based 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals is still reviewing that decision.
The Trump administration has argued that the temporary travel ban is a national security measure aimed at preventing Islamist militant attacks. “That’s why it’s not a Muslim ban”. The countries were not chosen because they are predominantly Muslim but because they present terrorism risks, the administration has said.
After the 4th Circuit Court ruling, Attorney-general Jeff Sessions said in a statement that the government would seek a review of the case at the Supreme Court. White House spokesperson Michael Short said “These clearly are very dangerous times and we need every available tool at our disposal to prevent terrorists from entering the United States and committing acts of bloodshed and violence,” adding that the White House was confident the order would ultimately be upheld by the judiciary.
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Twenty-two people were killed and 116 injured after a suicide bomber detonated an improvised explosive device at an Ariana Grande concert held in the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England. The explosion occurred as people were exiting the arena after the show ended. Concert-goers and parents waiting to pick up their children were in the arena’s foyer when the bomb went off. The dead included ten people under the age of 20, the youngest an eight-year-old girl. Days later, 75 people remained hospitalized, 23 of them, including five children, in critical condition.
The sold out show was part of Ariana Grande’s 2017 Dangerous Woman Tour where up to 21,000 attended. As news of the explosion quickly spread, residents and taxi companies in Manchester offered free transport or accommodation to those left stranded at the concert. Nearby hotel became a shelter for children separated from parents in the aftermath of the explosion. Many local temples, businesses and homeowners offered immediate shelter to victims as they waited for news of missing loved ones.
The day after the attack, Prime Minister Theresa May raised the terror threat level from severe to critical. A critical threat level means that it is believed another attack is imminent. It also means members of the British military will be deployed throughout the country to supplement its police forces. Nearly 4,000 soldiers were deployed nationwide in the wake of the bombing. ISIS claimed responsibility for the bombing which is the 13th deadly terrorist attack in Western Europe since the beginning of 2015.
The bomber was identified as 22 year old Salman Ramadan Abedi, a British Muslim who was born in Manchester to Libyan-born refugees. Abedi was allegedly reported to authorities about his extremism, by as many as five people, including community leaders, neighbors and possibly family members.
Authorities had investigated him but did not consider him high risk at the time. Authorities have revealed that Abedi had returned to the UK from Turkey four days prior to the attack. French interior minister Gérard Collomb said that Abedi may have been to Syria, and had “proven” links with ISIS. Manchester police believe Abedi used student loans to finance the plot, including travel overseas to learn bomb-making.
Police have conducted several raids and detained a total of eight people in connection to the attack and said they were investigating a “network” as the probe intensified. Authorities have confirmed that Abedi’s father and younger brother have been arrested in the Libyan capital of Tripoli. The brother was suspected of planning an attack in Libya and was said to be in regular touch with Salman. Investigators believe his brother was aware of the plan to bomb the Manchester Arena, but not the date. According to a Libyan official, the brothers spoke on the phone about 15 minutes before the attack was carried out in Manchester.
Abedi’s father, Ramadan Abedi was born in Libya but fled under fear of arrest by the brutal regime of Moammar Gadhafi in 1993. He won asylum in Britain, where his sons were born. Abedi later returned to Libya and works as an administrator for the government, which has been in disarray since Gadhafi was toppled in 2011.
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A federal judge in Mississippi has sentenced a Gulfport man to 49 years in prison for murdering a transgender teenager, in the first-ever hate crime prosecution involving a transgender victim. Joshua Vallum, 29, plead guilty in the 2015 killing of 17-year-old Mercedes Williamson and was sentenced to life in prison in July 2016 by an Alabama judge. The Department of Justice later decided to pursue hat crime charges. He was sentenced under the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act.
Vallum, a long time Latin Kings gang member, was arrested just days after the murder when his own father reported the crime to police. He initially told investigators that he blacked out and killed Williamson when he discovered she was transgendered. Several witnesses stepped forward saying that Vallum knew she was transgendered and the two had been in an 8 month relationship.
He later admitted that his motive for the killing was fear of being killed once fellow gang members found out. Jeanie Miller, Williamson’s roommate testified that Vallum once told her and Williamson that his gang would kill both Vallum and Williamson if Williamson’s transgender status was discovered. His brother Jacob saw him on the night of the murder covered in blood and testified that Vallum told him: ‘Well, it was my life or his.’
Prosecutors say Vallum killed Mercedes Williamson after the end of their relationship, because a friend learned that she was transgender, a fact Mr. Vallum kept hidden from friends and family while they dated. On May 30th, Vallum lured Williamson into his car in Alabama and drove her 50 miles to his family home near Lucedale, Mississippi. He then shocked her with a stun gun and stabbed her in the body and head with a pocketknife. When Williamson tried to run into the woods, Vallum chased her down and beat her to death with a hammer.
Vallum confessed to his father Bobby Vallum on June 1st that he had murdered and buried Williamson on the rural property. Bobby Vallum took the information to police, leading to Josh Vallum being charged with murder. Williamson was one of at least 21 transgender people murdered in the U.S. in 2015.
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The recent cyber-attack has reignited the debate over whether or not governments should disclose vulnerabilities they have discovered or bought on the black market. Privacy experts are also calling the recent global ransomware attack that hit 150 countries a prime example of why requiring tech companies to create backdoors into computer programs is a bad idea. The danger of those digital keys being stolen has the potential to wreak havoc.
The global computer hack that used a cyber-weapon developed by the National Security Agency (NSA), disrupted hospitals, universities, government offices, gas stations, ATM machines and more than 300,000 computers worldwide. Less than 10 U.S. organizations reported attacks to the Department of Homeland Security. The attack caused the most damage in Russia, Taiwan, Ukraine and India.
It’s the first time a cyber-weapon developed by the NSA has been stolen and released by hackers. The NSA has neither confirmed nor denied that they developed the cyber-weapon. Elements of the malicious software used in the attacks were part of a treasure trove of cyber-attack tools leaked by hacking group the Shadow Brokers in April. One of the tools contained in the leak, codenamed EternalBlue, proved to be “the most significant factor” in the spread of the ransom ware used in the attack.
The ransom ware was transmitted by email and then encrypted thousands of computers, locking people out of their data and then threatened to destroy it unless a ransom was paid. The cyberattack locked medical workers out of the computer systems at dozens of British and Indonesian hospitals, disrupted train schedules in Germany and froze government computers from Russia’s Interior Ministry to police stations in India.
The cyber-weapon used exploits weaknesses in Microsoft software. The U.S. government have known for years about this weakness in the software but only told Microsoft about the vulnerability recently. Microsoft had fixed the problem a month prior to the EternalBlue leak on April 14th but many high-profile targets had not updated their systems to stay secure.
The cyber-attack eased but the group who released the global WannaCry “ransomware” attack warned it would release more malicious code. ShadowBrokers said they would release more recent code to enable hackers to break into the world’s most widely used computers, software and phones. A blog post written by the group promised to release tools every month to anyone willing to pay for access to some of the tech world’s biggest commercial secrets. It also threatened to dump data from banks using the SWIFT international money transfer network and from Russian, Chinese, Iranian or North Korean nuclear and missile programs. “More details in June,” it promised.
Cyber security researchers around the world have said they have found evidence that could link North Korea with the WannaCry cyber attack but that it is too early to confirm a definitive connection.
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Members of the Trump administration and Pentagon officials are pushing for the deployment 3,000 to 5,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan. There are currently about 8,400 U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Officials are also looking for the relaxation of restrictions on launching airstrikes. The recommendation comes after the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, General John Nicholson, warned the war has reached a stalemate. Trump is expected to decide whether to approve the deployment of additional troops later this month.
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis visited Kabul to speak with Nicholson just days after an attack by a Taliban-affiliated militants killed 140 Afghan troops, most of whom were unarmed in a mosque praying at their base. The Pentagon’s proposal is aimed at countering the resilient Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan by adding thousands more troops closer to combat and bombarding the Taliban with airstrikes. Army General John Nicholson told the Senate the security situation had deteriorated. If approved, the decision would allow U.S. troops to partner with Afghan forces closer to the fight rather than just playing an advisory role.
The Pentagon had been focused on ending its presence in Afghanistan since 2001 but after the September 11th attacks, U.S. forces, with 100,000 troops deployed-helped topple the Taliban government that had given shelter to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terrorist organization.
With the end of the combat mission “Enduring Freedom” and the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), the United States had pulled out most its troops in late 2014. The Obama administration decided to leave a force of about 13,000 troops in place after responding to pleas from U.S. Commanders. The 13,000 includes all active duty service personnel from all branches (Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force), National Guard and Reserve as well as civilian employees of the Department of Defense and civilian contractors (APF) – which make up the smallest group.
There have been restrictions in place regarding how close Americans could accompany Afghan forces in combat and on bombing Taliban targets. Those rules were eased last year, and the Pentagon’s recent proposal would grant added authority for air strikes. The current NATO-led operation in Afghanistan is called “Resolute Support” and aims to train and advise the Afghan security forces. Sporadic combat operations are left to Special Forces. The U.S. military engagement in Afghanistan is America’s longest war and the Pentagon’s proposal means it won’t be ending any time soon.
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President Donald Trump announced the firing of FBI Director James Comey, the man who is responsible for the bureau’s investigation into whether members of the Trump campaign team colluded with Russia in its interference in last year’s election. The administration attributed Comey’s dismissal to his handling of the investigation into Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s email server, but many suggested the reason behind his dismissal was that Comey was getting too close to the White House with the Russia probe.
The news caught Comey by surprise as it flashed on television screens in the room as he spoke to FBI agents at an event in Los Angeles. His firing is the first dismissal of an FBI chief since 1993 when President Clinton ousted William Sessions as FBI director after Sessions refused to voluntarily step down amid ethical concerns.
President Trump stated in a letter to Comey that he agrees with his Department of Justice’s assessment that Comey is “not able to effectively lead the Bureau.” Those findings, specifically from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, stem from Rosenstein’s belief that Comey mishandled the Clinton investigation.
Trump’s actions were a turnaround from his stance just seven months ago on the campaign trail, when he repeatedly praised Comey for reopening the investigation into the scandal surrounding Hillary Clinton’s private email server. Just days away from the election, Comey sent a letter to Congress stating that the FBI had reopened its investigation into Clinton. The decision was made because of its investigation into former Rep. Anthony Weiner, who is married to Clinton confidant Huma Abedin. Comey followed up days later with another letter, informing Congress that the FBI didn’t find anything and continued to believe Clinton’s practices were reckless but did not merit any criminal charges.
After Clinton’s loss, former President Bill Clinton blamed Comey for it. Hillary Clinton herself told CNN “I was on the way to winning until a combination of Jim Comey’s letter on October 28 and Russian WikiLeaks raised doubts in the minds of people who were inclined to vote for me and got scared off.”
A senior white house official said that a replacement will be announced in the coming days. Some possible candidates include Ray Kelly, Chris Christie, David Clarke, Trey Gowdy. Ray Kelly has a 47 year career within the NYPD. He served as Police Commissioner from 1992 to 1994 and again from 2002 to 2013. Chris Christie is the current governor of New Jersey and is a former Republican-appointed United States attorney in New Jersey. David Clarke is currently serving his fourth full term as the sheriff of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, a position he has held since 2002. Trey Gowdy is a Replublican U.S. Respresentative for South Carolina and a former federal prosecutor. He led the House committee investigation of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during the Benghazi investigation.
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A Balch Springs police officer was fired for violating several department policies and procedures in the shooting death of a Texas teen. He was later arrested on a murder charge in the killing of Jordan Edwards, who was a passenger in a car that was driving away from a party. The former officer turned himself in at the Parker County Jail, posting his $300,000 bail that evening. If convicted of murder, he faces up to life in prison.
Roy Oliver, 37, was the second of two officers who responded to a report of a loud party with underage drinking in the Dallas suburb of Balch Springs. Oliver and the other officer went into the house to talk to the host of the party as teens scattered from the party. During this time, 15-year-old Jordan Edwards, his two older brothers and two 16 year old friends got into their car driven by his older brother Vidal.
As the officers were talking to the host they heard what sounded like gunshots and went outside. Both officers went outside to see what was going on and saw several people fleeing the party. The other officer, who has not been identified, walked toward the area where he thought the shots had been fired while Oliver went to the patrol car and got his rifle.
The second officer tried to stop a black Chevrolet Impala at the nearby intersection. The car slowly reversed, and the second officer pulled his gun and walked toward the passenger side of the car. As the car started to drive forward, the officer used his gun to break the rear passenger window. Oliver got behind the officer and fired several rounds into the car as it drove past him.
Jordan Edwards was shot in the head as he sat in the front passenger seat of the vehicle. Originally Balch Springs Police Chief Jonathan Haber said the officer fired after the car drove “aggressively” toward both officers but he later said he misspoke. Both officers were wearing body cameras and body camera footage showed the car was driving forward, away from the officers, not reversing toward them as he originally reported. The officer’s behavior “did not meet our core values,” Haber said.
Records reveal that Officer Roy Oliver, a 6 year veteran with the Balch Springs department was suspended in 2013 for sixteen hours and ordered to attend “anger management and training in courtroom demeanor and testimony.” That same year, according to his personnel files – he demonstrated a low score on “the extent to which this employee is able to communicate with the public as wells as other employees both verbally and in writing.”
Jordan Edwards was a freshman at Mesquite High School and a straight A student with a 4.0 GPA. He was a talented athlete who played quarterback and receiver on the football team. He lived in an upper middle class neighborhood in Balch Springs with his parents, two older brothers and younger sister.
Those who knew him say he was the last person you’d expect to die in a police shooting. His family, teachers and coaches described him as a happy, hardworking and respectful teen that was always in a good mood. His father Odell, said that his son Vidal, continued driving away so that no one else would be shot. He stopped the car two blocks from the party and called his father while his two friends in the back seat called their parents. “All I could hear was screaming and crying and the boys saying that police had just shot and killed Jordan. I could hardly make sense of it all” said Odell Edwards. Then the phone went dead. At that point, police had swarmed the car and forced all of the boys out at gunpoint.
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United Airlines has reached a settlement with Kentucky physician, Dr. David Dao, who was dragged off a plane at O’Hare International Airport in early April. The incident aboard Flight 3411 was captured on video by passengers on the plane and widely shared online around the world. It quickly became an international embarrassment for both the carrier and the city’s aviation department.
Dao’s attorney Thomas Demetrio, announced that a settlement had been reached, but terms were not disclosed. The airline released a written statement in response to the announcement: “We are pleased to report that United and Dr. Dao have reached an amicable resolution of the unfortunate incident that occurred aboard flight 3411. We look forward to implementing the improvements we have announced, which will put our customers at the center of everything we do.”
The airline unveiled new policies earlier in the same day the settlement was reached. Part of the new policies include a promise to not use law enforcement to remove overbooked customers from planes, additional training for front-line employees and setting up an automated system that will ask passengers at check-in if they would be willing to give up their seat. United CEO Oscar Munoz also pledged to reduce the amount of overbooking and offer up to $10,000 for customers willing to volunteer to take a later flight.
Dao’s attorney praised Munoz for agreeing to the settlement. “Mr. Munoz said he was going to do the right thing and he has. In addition, United has taken full responsibility for what happened on Flight 3411, without attempting to blame others, including the City of Chicago. For this acceptance of corporate accountability, United is to be applauded.”
Demetrio added “Dr. Dao has become the unintended champion for the adoption of changes which will certainly help improve the lives of literally millions of travelers. I sincerely hope that all other airlines make similar changes and follow United’s lead in helping to improve the passenger flying experience with an emphasis on empathy, patience, respect and dignity.”
Dr. Dao, 69, of Elizabethtown, Ky., was one of four passengers picked to be bumped from an April 9th flight from Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport to Louisville, Ky., to make room for four airline employees who were added to the flight shortly before it departed. When he refused to leave, multiple Chicago Department of Aviation security officers were called to remove him.
According to a report released by the Chicago Department of Aviation, Officer James Long boarded the plane to respond to a disturbance involving two passengers who were refusing to leave the aircraft. When he approached Dao’s seat and asked him to leave, Long said Dao “folded his arms tightly” and refused to leave the aircraft. The officer said he was able to “hold” the physician in order to remove him from his window seat.
A struggle ensued between Dao and the officer in the isle of the aircraft. Dao, who was hospitalized in Chicago, suffered a concussion, a broken nose and lost two teeth in the ordeal. The viral video shows Dao being dragged by his arms down the aisle of the plane as other passengers watch in horror.
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The state of Arkansas received heavy criticism and sparked new debates over the death penalty after they rushed to carry out an unprecedented series of 8 executions in 11 days during the month of April as its supply of the sedative midazolam was set to expire at the end of the month. All eight men were convicted of murders that occurred between 1989 and 1999 with some of the crimes described as particularly heinous. The eight men scheduled for execution were Kenneth Williams, Bruce Ward, Stacey Johnson, Don Williamson Davis, Ledell Lee, Jack Harold Jones, Jason McGehee and Marcel Williams.
Governor Hutchinson signed proclamations setting four execution dates for the eight inmates between April 17 and 27. Two men would be put to death on each of the four dates. In a statement he said that it was necessary to schedule the executions close together because of doubts about the future availability of one of three drugs the state uses in its lethal-injection procedure.
Arkansas uses a cocktail of three drugs in its lethal injection formula: Midazolam is used to sedate the prisoner, vecuronium bromide paralyzes prisoners and stops their breathing, and potassium chloride stops the heart. Midazolam is the most controversial of the three since it has repeatedly failed to make prisoners unconscious in other executions, leading to painful deaths. It is not approved by the FDA to be used as an anesthetic on its own, but doctors do use it combined with other drugs before surgical procedures. That is not the case in prisons.
The hurried schedule hit roadblocks from the moment it was announced as attorneys for the eight men attempted to block the executions- including using the argument that midazolam does not effectively prevent a painful death. Separate rulings stayed the executions of two of the prisoners, Don Davis and Bruce Ward. Arkansas appealed the decision in Davis’ case, but the US Supreme Court upheld it. Then Federal Judge Kristine Baker put a stop to all eight executions on April 15, a decision that the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed two days later. By the end of April, four of the men received stays for various reasons.
Despite the drug shortage and the controversy over its use- lethal injection remains the country’s primary method of execution. The drug shortage has spurred some states to begin adapting new and untested combinations of drugs while other states look at other methods of executions. Utah, Tennessee and Oklahoma added or broadened their abilities to use a firing squad, electric chair or nitrogen gas.
With the month over and the expiration date passing-the freshly stirred dust on the death penalty debate has not settled. Capital punishment has long been a divisive issue in the United States with support of it declining to a 40 year low. According to a 2016 Pew Research Center poll, Americans remain split, with 49 percent in favor and 42 percent against it (9% were undecided).
Nationwide, the number of executions has faced a decline as well. Since 2007, seven states have abolished the death penalty and the governors of four others have issued moratoria on the practice. Arkansas is currently one of 31 states with courts that still issue death sentences.
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