SCOTUS on Travel Ban | Nigeria Hajj Worries | Armenian Opposition

Council on Foreign Relations Newsletter If you are unable to see the message below, click here to view. April 25, 2018 Daily News Brief   TOP OF THE AGENDA U.S. Supreme Court Hears Travel Ban Challenge The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday will hear a landmark challenge to the Trump administration's third version of a travel ban targeting immigrants and visitors from several Muslim-majority nations, its last case of the term. The court will consider whether the travel ban violates prohibitions against religious discrimination and whether courts can review executive orders on immigration that cite national security (NPR). This third version of the administration's travel ban took effect in December and bars 150 million people from seven countries (Bloomberg) from the United States: Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, and North Korea. It also bars government officials from Venezuela. The challenge is led by the state of Hawaii (PBS). ANALYSIS "No lawsuit [until now] has gotten to the point of ruling on the legality or constitutionality of the ban itself. Instead, judges have been issuing preliminary injunctions to prevent the ban from going into effect while the case is pending, then having those injunctions upheld or stayed on appeal," Dara Lind writes for Vox. "It is the president and not the judiciary that is given primary responsibility for protecting our homeland," the Heritage Foundation's John Malcolm said in an interview with NPR. "There is not one single official willing to swear on the record to a national-security-based need for the travel ban," former CIA Director Michael Hayden said in an interview with NPR. PACIFIC RIM Malaysia Releases Suspect’s Photo in Hamas Death Malaysian police released a photo of one of two suspects in the murder of Fadi al-Batsh, a Palestinian engineering lecturer and member of Hamas (Al Jazeera), though they said they still have not identified the pair (Straits Times). INDONESIA: Setya Novanto, a former speaker of parliament, was sentenced to fifteen years in prison for a graft scheme involving $170 million diverted from a national identity card program (NYT). SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA Taliban Launches Annual Spring Offensive The militant group announced its new combat push despite a peace process proposed by the government (VOA). It comes as preparations are underway for long-delayed parliamentary and district council elections, which are set to be held in October. A CFR panel discussed the United States’ longest war. MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA UN-EU Conference Pushes for Syria Political Solution Envoys from eighty-five countries attended a Brussels conference hosted by the United Nations and European Union that aims to mobilize humanitarian aid for Syrians inside the country and rally support for the UN-led Geneva peace process (VOA). ISRAEL: The government told the high court that it will not move forward with plans to forcibly deport Sudanese and Eritrean asylum seekers to third countries "at this stage." Instead, the government announced, it will reopen detention facilities for the African migrants (Ynet). SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA Nigeria Reassures Saudi Arabia Over Hajj Health Minister Isaac Adewole said that Nigeria is making progress against an outbreak of Lassa fever after Saudi Arabia raised concerns about receiving pilgrims from the country (Premium Times). Nigeria sends about ninety-five thousand people a year to the rite (Premium Times). ETHIOPIA: Former Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, awarded a medal by the federal government, was praised by his successor, Abiy Ahmed, for ensuring a peaceful transfer of power (Africa News) in February. EUROPE Armenia’s Opposition Calls for New Protests Opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan called for a new round of protests (Al Jazeera) on Wednesday after the ruling party canceled transition talks. Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan resigned on Monday following two weeks of anti-government demonstrations. EU: The messaging service WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook and has more than 1.5 billion users worldwide, announced that it will raise its minimum age for users from thirteen to sixteen to comply with new EU privacy rules (DW). AMERICAS Nicaragua Releases Some Detained Protesters Authorities freed some students arrested during anti-government protests sparked by a proposed social security overhaul while the Roman Catholic Church agreed to act as a mediator (AP) between demonstrators and the government of President Daniel Ortega, which also restored TV signals to five private broadcasters. CUBA: The number of American tourists visiting Cuba (Reuters) in the first three months of 2018 dropped precipitously from the same time period a year prior, Cuban tourism officials said. The drop follows tightened travel restrictions imposed by the Trump administration. Christopher Sabatini discusses Cuba's post-Castro future in a CFR interview. UNITED STATES Judge Orders Trump to Maintain DACA Protections U.S. District Court Judge John Bates ruled that the Department of Homeland Security's legal reasoning for rescinding protections for undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children was "arbitrary and capricious" (Politico), giving the agency ninety days to offer a better argument or else resume the program. GLOBAL Oil Price Reaches Three-Year Record Brent crude traded for $75 a barrel on Tuesday (WSJ), with prices rising as observers are concerned that the United States will reimpose nuclear sanctions on Iran, whose exports could drop by as much as five hundred thousand barrels a day (Bloomberg) this year. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif discussed U.S.-Iran relations at CFR.         Council on Foreign Relations — 58 East 68th Street — New York, NY 10065 CFR does not share email addresses with third parties. Forward This Email | Subscribe to CFR Newsletters | Unsubscribe - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  

From: dailybrief@e.cfr.org

Date: April 25, 2018 at 10:21PM