Demonstrators march in support of a ruling by a  federal judge in Seattle that grants a nationwide temporary restraining  order against the presidential order to ban travel to the United States  from seven Muslim-majority countries (AFP)

A US appeals court in San Francisco has denied an emergency motion filed by the justice department to reinstate President Donald Trump’s halted immigration ban.  

 
The decision from the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit means the ban will remain frozen throughout the weekend, and that a decision on a further request to restore the ban will be put off until at least Monday afternoon.   

The justice department filed an appeal on Saturday to reinstate an executive order barring citizens from seven mainly Muslim countries and temporarily banning refugees, even as travellers raced to enter the country while the ban was lifted.  

The appeal aimed to reverse a federal judge’s Friday order that lifted the travel ban, warning the decision posed an immediate harm to the public. “Appellants’ request for an immediate administrative stay pending full consideration of the emergency motion for a stay pending appeal is denied,” the late-night appeals court order stated.Meanwhile CNN reported the strongly-worded filing by the Department of Justice argued that blocking the travel ban “harms the public” and “second-guesses the President’s national security judgment.”The government’s emergency motion was part of a mutli-pronged attack on the ruling by US District Court Judge Robart’s decision, emphasizing the President’s broad authority in the immigration context.  

The restrictions on all refugees and travellers from the seven countries went into effect a week ago wreaking havoc at airports across the US . The political backlash for Trump has been equally severe, with the order driving numerous mass protests. 

US, (Courtesy Aljazeera), 05.02.2017

Trump defends Putin  

05.02.2017 Quoting an interview with ‘Fox’ CNN reported US President Trump saying “There are a lot of killers. You think our country’s so innocent?”  

Trump made the remark during an interview with Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly, saying he respected his Russian counterpart.  

He continued, “I think our country does plenty of killing also, Joe, so you know. There’s a lot of stupidity going on in the world right now, a lot of killing, a lot of stupidity,” Trump said.