Donald Trump says he will unveil overhauled immigration order next week

February 17, 2017

Washington, Feb 17: U.S. President Donald Trump said he will issue a new version next week of his executive order banning citizens of seven mostly Muslim countries and all refugees from traveling to the United States.

At a news conference on Thursday, Mr. Trump once again blasted federal courts that blocked the implementation of his travel ban.

“We had a bad court, got a bad decision,” Mr. Trump said of the judicial actions that temporarily stopped his immigration ban.

The immigration order, issued on Jan. 27, led to confusion in U.S. airports and prompted international protests and complaints from businesses.

The Mr. Trump administration asked for a pause on Thursday in proceedings by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which had sided with a lower court in halting Mr. Trump's immigration ban.

He said his new order would seek to address the issues raised by the court, even as he attacked its reasoning.

“The new order is going to be very much tailored to what Iconsider to be a very bad decision,” Mr. Trump said.

Mr. Trump's decision to issue a new executive order plunges court proceedings over his actions into further uncertainty. Separate from the appeals court proceedings, a Seattle federal judge on Wednesday ordered both Washington state and the Justice Department to submit initial plans for discovery in the case by next month.

Washington state Attorney-General Bob Ferguson has said he wants to depose Trump officials about their motives for the travel ban, which could help the courts decide whether it violates constitutional protections for religion. The Justice Department said it opposes discovery at a hearing last week.

Mr. Ferguson claimed a victory in the case on Thursday, after the Justice Department made a court filing announcing that there would be a new, rewritten order.

“Today's court filing by the federal government recognizes the obvious — the President's current executive order violates the Constitution,” Mr. Ferguson said, in a statement. “President Trump could have sought review of this flawed order in the Supreme Court but declined to face yet another defeat.”

Whenever Mr. Trump issues a new order, Washington state could revise its lawsuit if it believes that directive is unconstitutional as well.

Mr. Trump has said his directive was necessary to protect the United States from attacks by Islamist militants. It barred people from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from entering the country for 90 days. Refugees were banned for120 days, except those from Syria, who were banned indefinitely.

The abrupt implementation of the order, however, plunged the immigration system into chaos, sparking a wave of criticism from targeted countries, Western allies and some of America's leading corporations, especially technology firms, which lean heavily on immigrant talent.

But Mr. Trump said the rollout had been “very smooth.” He said the order was needed to keep the country safe and that was the reason for its quick implementation.

If the administration had decided to spend a month crafting the order, “everything would've been perfect,” Mr. Trump said.

“The problem is we would've wasted a lot of time, and maybea lot of lives because a lot of bad people would've come in to our country,” he added.

The Justice Department court filing on Thursday said Mr. Trump's order would be “substantially revised” but did not provide details. Last week an congressional aide who asked not to be identified told Reuters that Mr. Trump might rewrite the original order to explicitly exclude green card holders, or permanent residents.

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Powerful solar storm hits earth; will it disrupt communication, power grids?

News Network

May 11,2024

Washington, May 11: The most powerful solar storm in more than two decades struck Earth on Friday, triggering spectacular celestial light shows from Tasmania to Britain -- and threatening possible disruptions to satellites and power grids as it persists into the weekend.

The first of several coronal mass ejections (CMEs) -- expulsions of plasma and magnetic fields from the Sun -- came just after 1600 GMT, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s Space Weather Prediction Center.

It was later upgraded to an "extreme" geomagnetic storm -- the first since the "Halloween Storms" of October 2003 caused blackouts in Sweden and damaged power infrastructure in South Africa. More CMEs are expected to pummel the planet in the coming days.

Social media lit up with people posting pictures of auroras from northern Europe and Australasia.

"We've just woken the kids to go watch the Northern Lights in the back garden! Clearly visible with the naked eye," Iain Mansfield in Hertford, England, told AFP.

That sense of wonder was shared in Australia's island state of Tasmania.

"Absolutely biblical skies in Tasmania at 4 am this morning. I'm leaving today and knew I could not pass up this opportunity," photographer Sean O' Riordan posted on social media platform X alongside a photo.

Authorities notified satellite operators, airlines, and the power grid to take precautionary steps for potential disruptions caused by changes to Earth's magnetic field.

Elon Musk, whose Starlink satellite internet operator has some 5,000 satellites in low Earth orbit, described the solar storm as the "biggest in a long time."

"Starlink satellites are under a lot of pressure, but holding up so far," Musk posted on his X platform.

Unlike solar flares, which travel at the speed of light and reach Earth in around eight minutes, CMEs travel at a more sedate pace, with officials putting the current average at 800 kilometers (500 miles) per second.

The CMEs emanated from a massive sunspot cluster that is 17 times wider than our planet. The Sun is approaching the peak of an 11-year cycle that brings heightened activity.

'Go outside tonight and look'

Mathew Owens, a professor of space physics at the University of Reading, told AFP that how far the effects would be felt over the planet's northern and southern latitudes would depend on the storm's final strength.

"Go outside tonight and look would be my advice because if you see the aurora, it's quite a spectacular thing," he said. People with eclipse glasses can also look for the sunspot cluster during the day.

In the United States, this could include places such as Northern California and Alabama, officials said.

NOAA's Brent Gordon encouraged the public to try to capture the night sky with phone cameras even if they couldn't see auroras with their naked eyes.

"Just go out your back door and take a picture with the newer cell phones and you'd be amazed at what you see in that picture versus what you see with your eyes."

Spacecraft and pigeons

Fluctuating magnetic fields associated with geomagnetic storms induce currents in long wires, including power lines, which can potentially lead to blackouts. Long pipelines can also become electrified, leading to engineering problems.

Spacecraft are also at risk from high doses of radiation, although the atmosphere prevents this from reaching Earth.

NASA has a dedicated team looking into astronaut safety and can ask astronauts on the International Space Station to move to places within the outpost that are better shielded.

Following one particularly strong flare peak, the US Space Weather Prediction Center said users of high-frequency radio signals "may experience temporary degradation or complete loss of signal on much of the sunlit side of Earth."

Even pigeons and other species that have internal biological compasses could also be affected. Pigeon handlers have noted a reduction in birds coming home during geomagnetic storms, according to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Officials said people should have the normal backup plans in place for power outages, such as having flashlights, batteries, and radios at hand.

The most powerful geomagnetic storm in recorded history, known as the Carrington Event after British astronomer Richard Carrington, occurred in September 1859.

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