CounterCurrents: The resilience of the US legal system is being tested

Dear Friend,

After a 'so called judge' suspended the Trump executive order banning people from 7 countries travelling to USA, the White House lost no time in appealing the ruling by  Federal District Judge James Robart. Dr Binoy Kampmark writes " the resilience of the US legal system is being tested". The core values of the USA also is being tested.

As the world beats heat records, year after year, the earth is litterally catching fire. Chile is facing one of the worst forest fires in its history. We all must be aware that it is not going to be a one-off event. It's going to be the new normal. 

Iran test fired a missile and the Trump administration has gone ballistic. Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich asks if "Trump: Trumpeting For A War On Iran?"

US decision to move its Embassy to Jerusalem is in incontravention of UN conventions says Mustapha Marrouchi. It's only going to make, the already volatile Middle East a dangerous place. 

It's time that the world listened to the cries of the stateless Rohingyas of Myanmar. They are even denied even citizenship in their own country and faces continuous persecution under a Nobel Peace Prize Luareate! Eresh Omar Jamal tells the heartrending stories of the Rohingya refugees in Bengladesh. 


And also more stories from around the world. 

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In Solidarity

Binu Mathew
Editor
www.countercurrents.org





White House Appeals Ruling Against Anti-Muslim Travel Ban
by Tom Carter

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/02/06/white-house-appeals-ruling-against-anti-muslim-travel-ban/

On Friday, Federal District Judge James Robart entered an order halting the enforcement of President Donald Trump’s anti-Muslim travel ban, which has prompted large protests across the US and worldwide. The Trump administration has responded by filing an immediate appeal, arguing that the judge’s order violates a “fundamental sovereign attribute” of the president. 





The Courts versus Donald Trump
by Dr Binoy Kampmark 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/02/06/the-courts-versus-donald-trump/

The resilience of the US legal system is being tested in the first great and continuing confrontation between the Trump administration and his marshalled opponents. The battle is testing the Republic to its limits, pitting views of sovereign will and legality against each other with near unprecedented viciousness.





Chile Ravaged By Fires
by Alexandra del Piano 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/02/06/chile-ravaged-by-fires/

Chile is facing one of the worst forest fires in its history. The worst hit areas are O’Higgins, Maule, Biobio and La Araucana, all located in the extreme south of the country, where in addition to small Mapuche farming communities, there are large forestry companies. The fire, fueled by strong winds, high temperatures and an eight-year drought, has had an enormous impact on the country’s fauna and flora, which experts consider irreversible.






Another Missile Crisis or More Chaos?
by Dr Arshad M Khan

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/02/06/another-missile-crisis-or-more-chaos/

Iran test-fired a missile and the U.S. government went ballistic. It put Iran ‘on notice’ — a phrase meaning little but with a distinct menace. Rummaging around in the Obama administration files, the new arrivals soon discovered well-prepared plans for sanctions should Iran’s actions displease. Iran was no longer ‘on notice,’ it was sanctioned. The Iranians are furious, saying nobody was going to stop them from defending themselves. 






Trump: Trumpeting For A War On Iran?
by Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/02/06/trump-trumpeting-for-a-war-on-iran/

Certainly Americans and non-Americans who took comfort in the fact that we would have a more peaceful world believing that ‘Trump would not start a nuclear war with Russia must now have reason to pause. The sad and stark reality is that US foreign policy is continuous. An important part of this continuity is a war that has been waged against Iran for the past 38 years unabated.





The Question Of Jerusalem
by Mustapha Marrouchi 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/02/06/the-question-of-jerusalem/

The move by the newly elected Republican majority Congress to relocate the US Embassy runs contrary to world opinion in that not a single state acknowledges Israel’s sovereignty over Jerusalem.  It is for this very reason that not one country has an embassy there.  If this were to happen, the country in question would be violating international law andUN Security Council Resolution 478.  So, were the US Embassy to flit to Jerusalem under the watchful gaze of the Trump administration, it would not only contravene international law but also deny the Palestinian right to self-determination and return home. 






Islamophobic With A Smile—The Quebec Case
by Mustapha Marrouchi 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/02/06/islamophobic-with-a-smile-the-quebec-case/

The upshot of it all is that six innocent people were insensibly killed because a deranged young man decided on a whim that they must die. Where are the joys of yesterday when they were up and about? I have no answer to the question I pose here. For now, though, the orphaned families left behind are filled with a terrible sense of loss. They will need time to grieve for their loved ones. The out cold act of killing them also grieves us, the living, to see what we all saw in Québec City on that biting winter day.





Collective Effort Alone Can Solve Rohingya Crisis
by Eresh Omar Jamal 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/02/06/collective-effort-alone-can-solve-rohingya-crisis/

Ever since tensions again escalated between the government of Myanmar and the Rohingya people on October 2016 and the reinvigorated persecution of the minority group that followed, thousands of Rohingyas have fled to Bangladesh — the United Nations humanitarian office’s most recent estimate is 69,000. Scores of them have, meanwhile, been seen begging on the streets between Ukhia and Tekhnaf in Cox’s Bazar, as Bangladesh, with its lack of resources, struggled severely to deal with the crisis that Myanmar started.





Police Repression In Bhangar, West Bengal
by Women Against Sexual Violence and State Repression 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/02/06/police-repression-in-bhangar-west-bengal/

WSS stands with the struggling people of Bhangar against the severe repression unleashed by the state in order to establish a power grid and high power transmission lines across the area by force