WASHINGTON: The Supreme Court agreed Friday to decide the legality of the latest version of President Donald Trump’s ban on travel to the United States by residents of six majority-Muslim countries.
The issue pits an administration that considers the restrictions necessary for Americans’ security against challengers who claim it is illegally aimed at Muslims and stems from Trump’s campaign call for a “complete shutdown of Muslims” entering the US
The justices plan to hear argument in April and issue a final ruling by late June on a Trump policy that has been repeatedly blocked and struck down in the lower courts.
The latest of those rulings came last month when the federal appeals court in San Francisco ruled that the travel ban Trump announced in September violates federal immigration law.
The federal appeals court in Richmond, Virginia, also is considering a challenge to the ban.
Last month, the high court said the ban could be fully enforced while appeals made their way through the courts.
The policy applies to travelers from Chad, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen. It also affects two non-Muslim countries: blocking travelers from North Korea and some Venezuelan government officials and their families.
The Supreme Court has never ruled on whether any of the three versions of the travel ban is legal. The court agreed last June to take up the second version until it expired in the early fall.
Trump’s first travel ban was issued almost a year ago, almost immediately after he took office, and was aimed at seven countries. It triggered chaos and protests across the US as travelers were stopped from boarding international flights and detained at airports for hours. Trump tweaked the order after the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit refused to reinstate the ban.
The next version, unveiled in March, dropped Iraq from the list of covered countries and made it clear the 90-day ban covering Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen didn’t apply to those travelers who already had valid visas. It also got rid of language that would give priority to religious minorities. Critics said the changes didn’t erase the legal problems with the ban.
The same appeals courts that are evaluating the current policy agreed with the challengers. The 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond said the ban “drips with religious intolerance, animus and discrimination.” The San Francisco-based 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Trump violated immigration law.
The Supreme Court allowed the ban to take partial effect, but said those with a claim of a “bona fide” relationship with someone in the United States could not be kept out of the country. Grandparents, cousins and other relatives were among those who could not be excluded.
But the high court said lower courts were wrong to apply the same limits to the new policy, at least while it is being appealed. The justices did not explain their brief order.
The third version is permanent, unlike the other two, and the administration said it is the product of a thorough review by several agencies of how other countries’ screen their own citizens and share information with the US
Solicitor General Noel Francisco said in court papers that the policy is well within the president’s “broad authority to suspend or restrict the entry of aliens outside the United States when he deems it in the Nation’s interest.”
In response, the challengers said the policy violates the Constitution because it is biased against Muslims and also violates immigration law. The new version continues “the same unlawful policy” that was struck down by lower courts last year, lawyer Neal Katyal said in his brief on behalf of the challengers.
Supreme Court to rule on Trump travel ban
Supreme Court to rule on Trump travel ban
Kabul hails Saudi Arabia’s decision to resume activities at Afghanistan embassy
- In November 2021, Saudi Arabia said it was resuming consular services in Afghanistan
- The Kingdom also provides humanitarian aid in the country through its KSrelief charity
Kabul: The Afghan foreign ministry on Monday welcomed Saudi Arabia’s decision to resume its diplomatic operations in Kabul, more than three years after Riyadh withdrew its staff during the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.
“We are optimistic about the possibility of strengthening relations and cooperation between Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan through the resumption of these activities,” said Afghan foreign ministry spokesman Zia Ahmad in a statement.
“We will also be able to respond to the problems of Afghans residing in Saudi Arabia.”
Riyadh had posted its decision to resume diplomatic operations in Kabul on social media platform X.
“Based on the desire of the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to provide all services to the brotherly Afghan people, it has been decided to resume the activities of the mission of the Kingdom in Kabul starting on December 22,” it said.
The Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the level of Saudi representation in Kabul.
Riyadh on August 15, 2021 said it had withdrawn its diplomats from the Afghan capital because of the “unstable situation” created by the Taliban’s return to power following the United States’ withdrawal from the country.
In November 2021, Saudi Arabia said it was resuming consular services in Afghanistan. It also provides humanitarian aid in the country through its KSRelief organization.
The Taliban government remains unrecognized by any country.
Saudi Arabia was one of only three countries, the others being Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates, that recognized the first Taliban government which came to power in 1996 and was overthrown by the US invasion of 2001.
Kremlin rejects media reports about Asma, Assad’s wife, seeking divorce and wanting to leave Russia
- Turkish and Arabic media reported on Sunday that Asma Assad had filed for divorce in Russia
MOSCOW: The Kremlin on Monday rejected Turkish media reports which suggested that Asma Assad, the British-born wife of former Syrian president Bashar Assad, wanted a divorce and to leave Russia.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov also rejected Turkish media reports which suggested that Assad had been confined to Moscow and had his property assets frozen.
Asked on a conference call if the reports corresponded to reality, Peskov said: “No they do not correspond to reality.”
Turkish and Arabic media reported on Sunday that Asma Assad had filed for divorce in Russia, where the Assad family were granted asylum this month after militants took control of Damascus following a lightning advance.
Bangladesh launches $5bn graft probe into Sheikh Hasina’s family
- Sheikh Hasina fled to India after being toppled by a revolution in August
- Key allegations are connected to the funding of the $12.65 billion Rooppur nuclear plant
DHAKA: Bangladesh has launched a probe into the alleged $5 billion embezzlement connected to a Russian-backed nuclear power plant by ousted leader Sheikh Hasina and her family, the anti-corruption commission said Monday.
Along with Hasina, the now-former prime minister who fled to India after being toppled by a revolution in August, those subject to the inquiry include her son, Sajeeb Wazed Joy, and niece, Tulip Siddiq, a British lawmaker and government minister.
The allegations were raised by a writ seeking an investigation filed in the high court by Hasina’s political opponent, Bobby Hajjaj, chairman of the Nationalist Democratic Movement party.
“We seek justice through our court,” Hajjaj said on Monday.
Key allegations are connected to the funding of the $12.65 billion Rooppur nuclear plant, the South Asian country’s first, which is bankrolled by Moscow with a 90 percent loan.
A statement Monday from the commission said it had launched an inquiry into allegations that Hasina and family members had “embezzled $5 billion” from the Rooppur plant via “various offshore bank accounts in Malaysia.”
It said its investigations were examining “questionable procurement practices related to the overpriced construction” of the plant.
“The claims of kickbacks, mismanagement, money laundering, and potential abuse of power raise significant concerns about the integrity of the project and the use of public funds,” the commission said.
Graft allegations also include theft from a government building scheme for the homeless.
Hasina, 77, fled by helicopter on August 5 into exile in India, infuriating many Bangladeshis determined that she face trial for alleged “mass murder.”
It was not possible to contact Hasina for comment.
Siddiq has “denied any involvement in the claims” accusing her of involvement in embezzlement, according to a statement from the British prime minister’s office.
Joy, who is understood to be based in the United States, was also unavailable for comment.
US president Joe Biden commutes sentences for 37 of 40 federal death row inmates
- Biden had faced growing calls to commute the sentences of those on death row
- There had been no federal inmates put to death in the United States since 2003
WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden on Monday commuted the death sentences of 37 of 40 federal inmates, taking action ahead of the return of Donald Trump who oversaw a sweeping number of lethal injections during his first term.
With less than a month left in office, Biden had faced growing calls from death penalty opponents to commute the sentences of those on death row to life in prison without parole, which the 37 will now serve.
The move leaves only a handful of high-profile killers who acted out of hate or terrorism facing the federal death penalty – for which there has been a moratorium under Biden.
“These commutations are consistent with the moratorium my Administration has imposed on federal executions, in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder,” Biden said in a statement.
“I am commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 individuals on federal death row to life sentences without the possibility of parole,” he said.
The three inmates who will remain on federal death row include Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who helped carry out the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, and Dylann Roof, an avowed white supremacist who in 2015 shot and killed nine Black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina.
Robert Bowers, who killed 11 Jewish worshippers during a 2018 mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, will also remain on death row.
Those commuted included nine people convicted of murdering fellow prisoners, four for murders committed during bank robberies and one who killed a prison guard.
“Make no mistake: I condemn these murderers, grieve for the victims of their despicable acts, and ache for all the families who have suffered unimaginable and irreparable loss,” Biden said.
“But guided by my conscience and my experience...I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level,” he added.
Biden campaigned for the White House as an opponent of the death penalty, and the Justice Department issued a moratorium on its use at the federal level after he became president.
During his reelection campaign, Trump spoke frequently of expanding the use of capital punishment to include migrants who kill American citizens and drug and human traffickers.
There had been no federal inmates put to death in the United States since 2003 until Trump resumed federal executions in July 2020.
He oversaw 13 by lethal injection during his final six months in power, more than any US leader in 120 years.
The last federal execution – which was carried out by lethal injection at a prison in Terre Haute, Indiana – took place on January 16, 2021, four days before Trump left office.
The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states, while six others – Arizona, California, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Tennessee – have moratoriums in place.
In 2024, there have been 25 executions in the United States, all at the state level.
Indian police kill three Sikh separatist militants
- The campaign for Khalistan stirred a diplomatic firestorm last year after Indian intelligence operatives were linked to the killing of a Sikh leader in Canada
- The three men belonged to the Khalistan Zindabad Force militant group, police have recovered two assault rifles, two pistols and ammunition , official says
Lucknow: Indian police said on Monday they had killed three Sikh militants fighting for a separate homeland known as “Khalistan,” the struggle for which sparked deadly violence in the 1980s and 1990s.
The campaign for Khalistan was at the heart of a diplomatic firestorm last year after Indian intelligence operatives were linked to the killing of a vocal Sikh leader in Canada and an attempted assassination in the United States — claims New Delhi rejected.
In the latest incident, the Khalistani rebels were killed after a gunbattle in Pilibhit district in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.
The men were wanted for their alleged involvement in a grenade attack on a police outpost in Punjab state this month.
Pilibhit police superintendent Avinash Pandey said officers had surrounded the men after a tip-off, with the suspects launching “heavy fire.”
“In the retaliatory action, all three were critically injured and later died in hospital,” he said.
Police recovered two assault rifles, two pistols and a large cache of ammunition.
The three men belonged to Khalistan Zindabad Force, a militant group, Punjab police chief Gaurav Yadav said in a statement.
The Khalistan campaign dates back to India’s 1947 independence and has been blamed for the assassination of a prime minister and the bombing of a passenger jet.
It has been a bitter issue between India and several Western nations with large Sikh populations.
New Delhi demands stricter action against the Khalistan movement, which is banned in India, with key leaders accused of “terrorism.”
