SEATTLE: A federal judge in Seattle on Thursday temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order ending the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship, calling it “blatantly unconstitutional” during the first hearing in a multi-state effort challenging the order.
US District Judge John Coughenour repeatedly interrupted a Justice Department lawyer during arguments to ask how he could consider the order constitutional. When the attorney, Brett Shumate, said he’d like a chance to explain it in a full briefing, Coughenour told him the hearing was his chance.
The temporary restraining order sought by Arizona, Illinois, Oregon and Washington was the first to get a hearing before a judge and applies nationally.
The case is one of five lawsuits being brought by 22 states and a number of immigrants rights groups across the country. The suits include personal testimonies from attorneys general who are US citizens by birthright, and names pregnant women who are afraid their children won’t become US citizens.
Coughenour, a Ronald Reagan appointee, began the hearing by grilling the administration’s attorneys, saying the order “boggles the mind.”
“This is a blatantly unconstitutional order,” Coughenour told Shumate. Coughenour said he’s been on the bench for more than four decades, and he couldn’t remember seeing another case where the action challenged was so clearly unconstitutional.
Shumate said he respectfully disagreed and asked the judge for an opportunity to have a full briefing on the merits of the case, rather than have a 14-day restraining order issued blocking its implementation.
Trump’s executive order, which he signed on Inauguration Day, is slated to take effect on Feb. 19. It could impact hundreds of thousands of people born in the country, according to one of the lawsuits. In 2022, there were about 255,000 births of citizen children to mothers living in the country illegally and about 153,000 births to two such parents, according to the four-state suit filed in Seattle.
The Trump administration argued in papers filed Wednesday that the states don’t have grounds to bring a suit against the order and that no damage has yet been done, so temporary relief isn’t called for. The administration’s attorneys also clarified that the executive order only applies to people born after Feb. 19, when it’s set to take effect.
The US is among about 30 countries where birthright citizenship — the principle of jus soli or “right of the soil” — is applied. Most are in the Americas, and Canada and Mexico are among them.
The lawsuits argue that the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution guarantees citizenship for people born and naturalized in the US, and states have been interpreting the amendment that way for a century.
Ratified in 1868 in the aftermath of the Civil War, the amendment says: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
Trump’s order asserts that the children of noncitizens are not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, and orders federal agencies to not recognize citizenship for children who don’t have at least one parent who is a citizen .
A key case involving birthright citizenship unfolded in 1898. The Supreme Court held that Wong Kim Ark, who was born in San Francisco to Chinese immigrants, was a US citizen because he was born in the country. After a trip abroad, he faced being denied reentry by the federal government on the grounds that he wasn’t a citizen under the Chinese Exclusion Act.
But some advocates of immigration restrictions have argued that case clearly applied to children born to parents who were both legal immigrants. They say it’s less clear whether it applies to children born to parents living in the country illegally.
Trump’s order prompted attorneys general to share their personal connections to birthright citizenship. Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, for instance, a US citizen by birthright and the nation’s first Chinese American elected attorney general, said the lawsuit was personal for him.
“There is no legitimate legal debate on this question. But the fact that Trump is dead wrong will not prevent him from inflicting serious harm right now on American families like my own,” Tong said this week.
One of the lawsuits aimed at blocking the executive order includes the case of a pregnant woman, identified as “Carmen,” who is not a citizen but has lived in the United States for more than 15 years and has a pending visa application that could lead to permanent residency status.
“Stripping children of the ‘priceless treasure’ of citizenship is a grave injury,” the suit says. “It denies them the full membership in US society to which they are entitled.”
A federal judge temporarily blocks Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship
https://arab.news/w678k
A federal judge temporarily blocks Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship
- US District Judge John Coughenour repeatedly interrupted a Justice Department lawyer during arguments to ask how he could consider the order constitutional
- The case is one of five lawsuits being brought by 22 states and a number of immigrants rights groups across the country
Germany’s Merz calls for western unity on Ukraine on eve of peace talks
“Such a ceasefire can open a window in which peace negotiations become possible“
BERLIN: Germany’s new Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Wednesday urged the West not to be divided on Ukraine and said he was working to ensure unity between allies in Europe and the United States on how to end the war.
In his first major speech to parliament since taking office last week, Merz said the West could not accept a dictated peace for Ukraine or a submission to the status quo achieved by Russian military forces.
He was speaking a day before Ukrainian and Russian delegates could meet for peace talks in Istanbul, more than three years after the start of the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War Two.
After winning elections in February, Merz has promised to give Germany a bigger role on the global stage and beef up its military through more defense spending. Though he has publicly castigated US President Donald Trump’s administration as an unreliable ally, in Wednesday’s speech he thanked Trump for his support in pushing for a ceasefire in Ukraine.
“Such a ceasefire can open a window in which peace negotiations become possible,” he told parliament.
“It is of paramount importance that the political West does not allow itself to be divided, and therefore I will make every effort to continue to achieve the greatest possible unity between our European and American partners.”
“This terrible war and its outcome will not only determine the fate of Ukraine,” he added. “The outcome of this war will determine whether law and order will continue to prevail in Europe and the world, or whether tyranny, military force, and the sheer right of the strongest will prevail.”
Still, strengthening the German military is a top priority, Merz said.
“The government will provide all the financial resources that the Bundeswehr needs in order to become the strongest conventional army in Europe,” he said.
In his speech, Merz took blunt aim at Russia, accusing it of involvement in state-sponsored killings and poisoning in European cities, cyberattacks and the destruction of infrastructure, including undersea cables.
Merz was speaking as German prosecutors announced the arrest of three Ukrainians for their suspected involvement in the shipment of exploding parcels, after a series of fires at European courier depots pointed to suspected Russian sabotage.
Security officials told Reuters the exploding parcels were part of a test run for a Russian plot to trigger explosions on cargo flights to the United States. Russia has denied this and other accusations by Western countries of sabotage plots.
The growing closeness between Russia and China was also concerning, Merz added.
In a wide-ranging speech, Merz also rattled through his government’s policy priorities, from boosting growth in Europe’s largest economy to hardening its stance on migration. He stressed the latter would be done within the parameters of EU agreements, seeking to dispel fears that Germany would act unilaterally.
Indonesia develops AI system to help diagnose malaria
- Indonesia’s malaria cases may be as high as 1.1m in 2024, WHO estimates show
- AI-powered system could help reach patients in remote areas, Indonesian researchers say
JAKARTA: Indonesia’s National Research and Innovation Agency is developing an artificial intelligence-powered system to help diagnose malaria under the country’s efforts to eliminate the disease by 2030.
Indonesia recorded over half a million malaria cases in 2024, but due to the lack of testing, the World Health Organization estimates that the actual number was at least twice higher.
“Our main goal is to create a computer-aided diagnosis system that can automatically recognize malaria status from blood smear images,” Anto Satriyo Nugroho, head of AI and cyber security at Indonesia’s national research agency, or BRIN, said in a statement.
Such a system would speed up confirmation of malaria, which to date is mostly done through microscopic examination.
“We are optimistic that sustainable AI research and development will create an important tool for diagnosis that will contribute significantly to eliminating malaria in Indonesia,” Nugroho added.
AI applications are rapidly gaining in popularity, including in medical care to improve disease diagnosis, treatment selection and clinical laboratory testing.
In 2020, a study published in Nature showed researchers from Google Health, and universities in the US and UK, reporting on an AI model that reads mammograms with fewer false positives and false negatives than human experts.
That algorithm has since been released for commercial use globally.
In Indonesia, BRIN researchers have been working with various local and foreign universities, the WHO as well as other UN agencies to speed up the country’s efforts in eliminating malaria.
An AI-powered system also opens up possibilities for remote diagnostics, which would enable healthcare workers to reach and assess patients in outlying areas.
Malaria is endemic in eastern parts of Indonesia, with around 90 percent of cases reported from the easternmost province of Papua, where healthcare access remains low due to challenging terrain and limited resources.
“With the massive potential to increase accuracy in diagnosis and improve efficiency in healthcare services in endemic areas, BRIN is optimistic that AI technology will become a strategic partner in managing malaria cases nationally,” BRIN stated.
“AI cannot work on its own. Collaboration between tech experts and biomedical researchers is an absolute requirement for this technology to be reliable.”
New campaign against Israel-linked brands gains ground in India
- First BDS-focused rally took place in the country last month
- Campaigners say Indians join when they realize Palestinians are under colonial occupation
New Delhi: There were only a handful of students at the first BDS India rally last month, but the movement is now gaining ground across the country as more people are willing to join efforts to boycott products and companies linked to Israel.
While many grassroots groups have been organizing in India to protest Israel’s deadly onslaught on Gaza that began in October 2023, it is only recently that the efforts began to focus on advancing the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign.
The first such protest took place in Hyderabad on April 5 and similar rallies and public awareness meetings have since been held in 10 other Indian cities.
“For the last two months, we have been actively promoting the BDS movement in India ... we have been going to different neighborhoods, campuses, working-class areas and we are seeing that the common masses are very receptive,” Sreeja Dontireddy, BDS India coordinator, told Arab News on Wednesday.
“We began with maybe five to 10 people in each city or team. Now that number has definitely grown to much more than that, to around 20-25. And different people come to different campaigns. The teams are constantly growing because more and more people are volunteering to be part of the campaign.”
The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement is a global campaign launched in 2005 to pressure Israel to comply with international law and respect Palestinian rights.
It calls for the boycott of Israeli goods and institutions, divestment from companies complicit in violations of Palestinian rights, as well as sanctions against the Israeli state. BDS is inspired by the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa and its goal is to end the occupation of Palestinian land and uphold the right of return for Palestinian refugees to their homeland.
Support for Palestine has always been an important part of India’s foreign policy even before Indian independence from British colonial rule in 1947.
Many years before the establishment of Israel, Mahatma Gandhi, the leader of India’s freedom movement, had opposed a Jewish nation-state in Palestine, deeming it inhumane and wrong.
But a change in the Indian government’s stance has been visible over the past few years. During Israel’s deadly campaign in Gaza, India has even supplied it with weapons.
“Our country’s government might directly or indirectly support Israel, but that doesn’t mean that the people of India also must do so ... when we explain to them that this is a liberation struggle and Palestine is fighting for its independence, they are very receptive,” Dontireddy said.
“The people of Palestine are relentlessly fighting with whatever means they have. And this is a source of inspiration and awe for all of us. And it is our duty to stand by them. And BDS offers something operative to do in that instance, and it allows us also to create a tangible effect that will affect and injure the sort of hegemony that Israel enjoys.”
BDS India activists have been raising awareness about companies and products that have links to Israel. They approach people individually, in local neighborhoods, share their product lists with shopkeepers and have some of them place boycott-related stickers and materials on their displays.
They also organize rallies in front of international outlets featured on global boycott lists.
“People are clearly angry about what is happening in Palestine. They really want to do something,” said Swapnaja Limkar, a member of the BDS India movement in Pune.
“Initially, there were like 10 people. After a month or so, we have about 200 people in every protest. We have organized some boycott protests outside Starbucks, outside Domino’s Pizza, and are campaigning every day. We have gathered around 200 people who are in support of Palestine in Pune right now.”
The most recent BDS India protests took place on May 10 in front of Domino’s outlets in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Visakhapatnam, Hyderabad, Patna and Vijayawada.
“Not only physically, but also on social media, people have shown presence as well as support in larger numbers,” said Akriti Chaudhary from BDS India in Delhi.
“The movement has been growing steadily, and more and more people are joining the campaign ... we have suffered 200 years of colonialism. No one can understand better than us what it means. That’s why the Palestinian issue resonates with us, and we need to stand with the people of Palestine in this hour of crisis, as they face an existential threat from Zionist Israel.”
Kremlin blasts potential EU deployment of French nuclear bombers
- Russia, the world’s biggest nuclear power, possesses about 4,000 warheads and views France’s nuclear deterrence as a potential threat to its national security
- The French president floated the idea during a TV appearance on Tuesday
MOSCOW: The possible deployment of French nuclear bombers across the EU will not enhance security on the continent, the Kremlin said Wednesday, after French President Emmanuel Macron said he was ready to discuss the issue.
“The proliferation of nuclear weapons on the European continent is something that will not add security, predictability, or stability to the European continent,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
The French president floated the idea during a TV appearance on Tuesday, comparing it to the United States’s nuclear umbrella policy that guarantees Washington would reciprocate if its allies come under nuclear attack.
“The Americans have the bombs on planes in Belgium, Germany, Italy, Turkiye,” Macron told TF1 television.
“We are ready to open this discussion. I will define the framework in a very specific way in the weeks and months to come.”
France is the EU’s only nuclear-armed nation.
Amid Russia’s offensive on Ukraine and US President Donald Trump’s calls on Europe to take more of the burden for its own defense, discussion is growing over extending Paris’s nuclear deterrent to the rest of the 27-member bloc.
Russia, the world’s biggest nuclear power, possesses about 4,000 warheads and views France’s nuclear deterrence as a potential threat to its national security.
“At present, the entire system of strategic stability and security is in a deplorable state for obvious reasons,” Peskov added.
Amid his offensive on Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has several times threatened nuclear escalation, drawing rebukes from the West over “reckless” rhetoric.
‘Albania belongs in EU,’ von der Leyen tells re-elected PM Rama
- EU and French leaders congratulated Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama Wednesday after his party’s electoral victory
BRUSSELS: EU and French leaders congratulated Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama Wednesday after his party’s electoral victory, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen hailing his “great progress toward our Union.”
“Let’s keep working closely together on EU reforms. Albania belongs in the EU!” von der Leyen said on X. French President Emmanuel Macron also hailed Rama’s win, writing on X: “France will always stand alongside Albania on its European path.”
