A federal appeals court refused Thursday to reinstate President Donald Trump’s ban on travelers from seven predominantly Muslim nations, unanimously rejecting the administration’s claim of presidential authority, questioning its motives and concluding that the order was unlikely to survive legal challenges. The three judges of the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the argument that the ban targets Muslims raised “serious allegations” and presented “significant constitutional questions,” and they agreed that courts could consider statements by Trump and his advisers about wishing to enact such a ban. (Chicago Tribune http://trib.in/2lvVRmI)
Mosquitoes love malaria…Scientists may have figured out part of the reason why mosquitoes are drawn to people infected with malaria. Mosquitoes prefer biting people already sickened by malaria, apparently attracted by some kind of odor. Now, Swedish researchers say they’ve identified a substance pumped out by malaria parasites that triggers that smell, noticeable only to mosquitoes. (AP https://yhoo.it/2kYxVev)
Fake news…Wikipedia editors have voted to ban the use of articles from British tabloid The Daily Mail and its globally popular website as sources, calling them “unreliable,” according to a statement. (AP https://yhoo.it/2krplSv)
Top Stories
Gambia’s new president confirmed the West African country will reverse its withdrawal from the International Criminal Court, a European Union official said Thursday. (AP https://yhoo.it/2kx6CY9)
A United Nations human rights investigator says there are signs of mounting opposition within the Philippines to President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs, with police operations on hold and the Church getting critical of the campaign. (Reuters https://yhoo.it/2kx6qbs)
The United Nations is considering removing military personnel from its peacekeeping mission in Haiti, a U.N. official said on Thursday, indicating a possible scaling back of one of the body’s longest-running and widely-criticized missions. (Reuters https://yhoo.it/2lta6IH)
A hepatitis E outbreak is escalating across Am Timan, in the Salamat region of South-Eastern Chad, and more humanitarian actors are urgently needed to treat patients and contain further spread of the virus, according to the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders. (MSF http://bit.ly/2k8aWOU)
Forced evictions of local communities from their lands by foreign companies fuel around two-thirds of land ownership disputes across Africa, often sparking strikes or violence which can prove costly to investors, activists said on Thursday. (TRF http://bit.ly/2kN4kmg)
The European Union announced aid worth $240 million for The Gambia on Thursday as President Adama Barrow warned that the nation was “virtually bankrupt” due to economic mismanagement by the former regime. (AFP https://yhoo.it/2kN0jOS)
The World Health Organization says that China has taken steps to end its once-widespread practice of harvesting organs from executed prisoners but that it’s impossible to know what is happening across the entire country. (AP https://yhoo.it/2krqwkZ)
U.S. officials stopped screening refugees held on Nauru for potential resettlement in the United States this week but will return to the Pacific atoll to continue working toward a deal that President Donald Trump has condemned as “dumb,” an Australian minister said Thursday. (AP https://yhoo.it/2kYlpvL)
Japan accepted just 28 refugees last year when a record number applied for asylum, a government document dated for release on Friday showed, throwing a spotlight on the nation’s reluctance to accept foreigners. (Reuters https://yhoo.it/2kYmMuu)
Hungary plans to house all refugees and migrants entering the country, as well as those already in existing facilities, in border camps built of containers, the government announced Thursday. (AFP https://yhoo.it/2k87kMP)
Britain’s Conservative government placed a limit on the number of lone child refugees it will accept into the country, citing fears that people traffickers were exploiting the system. (AP https://yhoo.it/2kMZ6qt)
Opinion/Blogs
New evidence of systematic sexual violence committed against Rohingya people in Myanmar (Global Dispatches Podcast http://bit.ly/2lp5uYe)
Why this Muslim American, who fled Iran in 1979, backs Trump’s travel ban (PRI http://bit.ly/2kwYiry)
Syria’s plight must not be allowed to slip from the world’s conscience (Guardian http://bit.ly/2kN92Au)
Advance Australia unfair (DevPolicy http://bit.ly/2kYlhw1)
‘Total chaos’ in refugee resettlement following Trump order, say NGOs (Devex http://bit.ly/2ltnsVr)
While Others Saw Refugees, This German Professor Saw Human Potential (Goats and Soda http://n.pr/2kYqbcC)
Why the Repeal of the U.S. Publish-What-You-Pay Rule Is a Major Setback for Combating Corruption in the Extractive Sector (Global Anticorruption Blog http://bit.ly/2lw4G0B)
The Human Rights Agenda and the Struggle Against Impunity (Justice in Conflict http://bit.ly/2lp8hRq)
Regarding Marxism and Islam in Africa (Africa is a Country http://bit.ly/2lp9jN9)
