Latest policy will be found unconstitutional. Well get an update from the center for constitutional rights. Then to america severing Opioid Epidemic and how congress undermine efforts to restrict the flow of pain pills that led to tens of thousands of deaths. We will look at the secretive family making billions from the Opioid Crisis. That is the Sackler Family, owners of the comedy that invented oxycontin. We will speak with christopher glazek, the reporter who broke the story. Then to guantanamo where detainees on Hunger Strike have accused officials of a sudden change in practice that could result in them starving to death as doctors stop forcefeeding them and are no longer monitoring their medical condition. We will go to london to speak with Clive Stafford smith of reprieveve, which represents eit guantanamo pririsoners. If someone is going to die from starvation, should you go against their will and force feed them or not . When the british did that to the ira, we let them die. Amy all that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. A federal judge in maryland has blocked parts of President Trumps most recent travel ban, dealing a second blow to trumps effort to block citizens from eight countries from entering the United States. In wednesdays ruling, maryland district judge Theodore Chuang said President Trumps own words convinced the judge that the latest ban is a inextricable reanimation of the twiceenjoined muslim ban. This ruling comes only one day after a federal judge in hawaii blocked most of the latest version of the travel ban just hours before it was set to take effect. The two rulings temporarily halt the parts of the ban that would have blocked all citizens from iran, libya, syria, yemen, somalia, and chad from entering the United States. Both the maryland and hawaii orders do allow the part of the ban blocking some north koreans and venezuelan government officials to go into effect. This is trumps third proposed travel ban and the first to include chad, a small african nation that has been a major ally to the United States. More details have now surfaced to show that it appears chad was included in part because it had run out of special passport paper, and therefore, failed to submit a recent sample of its passports to the u. S. Homeland security department. Well have more on the rulings blocking trumps latest travel ban later in the broadcast. In somalia, thousands of people poured into the streets of the capital mogadishu wednesday to protest the massive bombing on saturday killed more than 300 people and wounded 400 more. The protest was a response to a call by mogadishus mayor to show unity in the face of the attack, which has been blamed on the militant group alshabaab. This is mogadishu resident fatina nor. For every somali family that has lost their loved one in the attack. That is all we can hear to protest. Were ready to defend against the attack. I call for Somali People to be united in our country. Amy on wednesday, pope francis also prayed for the victims of the attack, which was the worst in somalia in a decade. I would like to express my grief for the massacre that took place a few days ago in mogadishu somalia, that killed more than 300 people, including some children. This terrorist act terms serves the most deserves the most condemnation. I prefer the dead and wounded, their families, and the entire population of somalia. I encourage those who work with enormous difficulty. Amy in afghanistan, at least 43 Afghan Soldiers have been killed in a Taliban Attack on an army base in southern kandahar province. A separate Taliban Attack in the north of afghanistan killed six Police Officers. This comes only one day after a wave of Taliban Attacks against the Afghan Military left at least 80 people dead on tuesday. U. S. Secretary of state Rex Tillerson said wednesday he holds the Burmese Military responsible for brutal ongoing ethnic cleanansing campaignn against rohihingya minorities, which hakilled thohousands and drdriven a half a million rohina into bordering bangladesh. While we are extraordinarily concerned by what is happening with the rohingya in burma, ive been in contact with suu kyi, the leader of the civilians out of the government as you know, this is a powersharing government that has emerged in burma. We really hold the military leadership accountable for what is happening with the rohingya. Amy human rights wawatch and other groups have calllled on te u. N. N. Council to impose an embargo against selling weapons to burma over the ongoing violence. Israel remains one of the major weapons suppliers to the burmese militatary. In washington, c controversy continues to grow over how President Trump treaeats the parents of u. S. Soldiers killed in combat. The Washington Post reports President Trump called the father of a a soldier r who dien afghanistan and promomised himim 25,000 from trumps personal account. But chris baldridge, the father of Army Sergeant dillon baldridge, says the white house instead sent him a condolence letter with no check included. After questions from reporters, the white house now says the chececk has been sent. This comes a as presidident trp continues toto face criticism fr reportedly telling myeshia johnson, the widow of u. S. Army Sergeant La David Johnson who was one of the four green berets that died in the chair, he knew what he signed up for but when it happens, it hurts anyway, trump reportedly told her. Attorney general Jeff Sessions testified to the House Judiciary Committee wednesday as part of the Ongoing Investigation into whether the Trump Campaign colluded with russia to sway the 2016 president ial election. During his testimony, sessions insisted he has the right to jail journalists. This is sessions in question by minnesotota senator amy clover sure. We e commit to not putting reporters in jail for doing their jobsbs . I dont know i can make a blanket commitment to that effect. But i would a this, we have nott takenn any aggressivive action agaiainst the media at this poi, involvevee matteters that the momost Serious National Security i issues that put our country at risk and we willll utilize the authorities that wee have legally and constitutionally if we have to. Amy nbc is reporting a shakeup inside the Democratic National committee has ousted some longtime officials over their opposition to dnc chair tom perez. The shakeup is part of it ongoing struggle between the insurgent progressive wing of by vermonteled senator bernie sanders, and the dncs more centrist wing, which tom perez represents. Among those ousted, the head of the arabamerican institute, prominent center supporter, and the first transgender member of the dnc. In florida, governor rick scott has declared a state of emergency in Alachua County ahead of todays scheduled speech by white supremacist Richard Spencer at the university of florida in gainesville. Thousands of people are expected to attend protests aimed at preventing spencer from speaking this afternoon. Richard spencer was one of the headline speakers during the white supremacist rally in charlottesville, virginia, in august where the white nationalists and neonazis killed one antiracist protester and injured dozens more. In b britain, government figures show hatate crimes have surged o recordhigh levels over the last year, with more than 80,000 hate crimes reported between march 2016 and march 2017. The researchers said the increase in hate c crimes was fueled b by the brexit v vote to leleave the european union, as well as the terrorist attacks in london and manchester. Ababout 80 of the a attacks wee racially motivated. In the west african nation of togo, soldiers shot dead at least four protesters wednesdady during the latest round of mass protests demandiding an end to the decades of rule by the gnassingbe family dynasty. Wednesdays protest was the latest in months of massive demonstrations demanding that the president ouster and the reinstatement of constitutional term limits in togo. In mexico, the Zapatista Movement has nominateded indigenous activist Maria De Jesus patricioio martinez to run for president in the upcoming election in july 2018. Patricio martinez is spokesperson for the National Indigenous congress. She said the poor response helped convince her to run for the presidency. What do we have to do . We have to organize ourselves. This is a proposal. With organize ourselves and extend our hands to all and put an end to this capitalist system. Dispute throughout girl system. Patriarchal system. States,k in the united many of come, together writing in new york city, two new York Police Officers are being investigated for rape after an 18yearold girl said the two undercover officers handcuffed her during a traffic stop, put her in the back of an Unmarked Police van, and then while she was still handcuffed one of the cops raped her and both forced her to perform oral sex on them. Testing shows the dna of the two Police Officers, richard hall and eddie martins, was found on the teenager. The two Police Officers are claiming the act was consensual. Journalist Rita Henley Jensen has died at the age of 70. Jensen was a Domestic Violence survivor who in 2000 founded womens enews, then the only independent Daily News Service focusing on women. She also founded the jane crow project, an investigative news outlet focused on how racial and gender bias affects Womens Health and reproductive rights. She died wednesday morning after a long battle with cancer. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Nermeen and im nermeen shaikh. Welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. President trumps latest attempt to bar some citizens of eight countries from entering the us has suffered a Second Federal Court defeat. On wednesday, u. S. District judge Theodore Chuang ruled trumps own words helped convince the judge that the latest policy is an inextricable reanimation of the twiceenjoined muslim ban that trump called for on the that is likely to be found unconstitutional. This comes after a federal judge in hawaii blocked most of the latest version of a travel ban on tuesday, just hours before it was set to take effect. U. S. District judge Derrick Watson had previously blocked plans by the administration to ban refugees and travelers from six majoritymuslim nations. This week he ruled the latest ban, plainly discriminates based on nationality in violation of the law as well as the founding principles of this nation. Amy the revised ban removed sudan from the original list and added the countries of chad and north korea, and some government officials from venezuela. The new order also includes restrictions on citizens from iraq, as well as all citizens of iran, libya, syria, yemen, and somalia. Both the maryland and hawaii orders will allow a ban on some north koreans and venezuelans to go into effect. The Supreme Court was scheduled to hear arguments this month on an earlier version of a travel ban, but canceled the hearing after trump issued new restrictions. The white house has vowed to appeal the latest ruling. For more, were joined by baher azmy, legal director of the center for constitutional rights. Welcome back to democracy now explain what just took place. Maryland court ruling after the hawaii judge ruled. So this is the third iteration of muslim ban, which attempts to close the previous versions that were just very facially, honestly directed at nationality with some legal pretense. The previous version simply banned all individuals from these eight countries. This version had purportedly neutral rationale that these are countries who insufficiently share insufficient security information with the United States. But these two court saw through the rationale and agreed that the threat of discrimination from the first, to the second to the third is stitill intact. No miko lets go to attorney sessionseff thursday. The department of justice is resolutely focused on dealing with the terrorism threats that we face. They are real, the military tells us they can expect not a reduction after isis is defeated, but maybe even an increase in attacks. S. The president s executive order is an important step to ensuring that we know who is coming into our country. It is a lawful, necessary order that we are proud to defend. And indeed, most may not know, Supreme Court has already vacated one quarts injunction against that order and we are confnfident we will prevaiail as time goeoes by and the Supreme Court. Nermeen that is attorney general Jeff Sessions speaking wednesday in defense of this and. Imagine theif second group best segregationist government of alabama bans all black applicants to the university o of arkansas im sorry, arkansas. And then that gets struck down by the courts and he next decides to ban all applicants from 10 high schools to the university of arkansas, none of them happened to be allblack high schools. Ascourt would accept that reasonable are nondiscriminatory. And that is what we have in the case of this latest version of the muslim ban. Amy explain what happens now with these two federal courts, one in hawaii and i could not help but think about hawaii being one of the judges that struck down the ban because of what Jeff Sessions from lessee said on a rightwing radio show, how is it possible a man on an island in the pacific and stop the president of the United States. Which speaks to the general insufficient regard the Jeff Sessions and trunk the administration have for democracy and constitutional principles. No doubt the government will attempt to appeal thehese injunctions, butut the courts of appeals in governing both of these District Court have previously upheld the prior injunction so they probably wont have much success in the court of appeals and will ultimately seek review and the the department of justice has s given that the countrieies now listed on the bn are listed because of an extensive intelligence sharing evaluation that the u. S. Undertook in all of these Different Countries concluded that these countries dont have sufficient restrictions in place and that is why the countries were selected. In fact, it has nothing to do with muslims or anybody else. That is the justification, but i think it speaks to the lack of credibility this a administration has. Had this been enacted by the bush and administration or the clinton administration, given the traditional deference court gives to the officials in the context of immigration, you would expect courts would step back. But this is just utterly implausible as a justification given the weight is simply reanimate the prior obvious discriminatory actions the government took. And given a sort of lack of a susufficient National Security rationale, once you scratch below the service. Inwere already invested these countries. It is not like are not National Security protocols in place. Speaks to the lack of credibility this administration has in the realm of constitutional law. Amy i want to turn to another issue that deals with refugees. A federal judge on wednesday ordering the u. S. Government to allow an undocumented immigrant teenager in custody in texas to have an abortion. The judge said she was astounded that the Trump Administration was trying to block the procedure. The aclu, which filed the lawsuit on the teenagers behalf, said the 17yearold girl, whos living unaccompanied in a Refugee Resettlement shelter in texas, had been granted permission from a judge to terminate her pregnancy, but officials with the department of health and Human Services and other agencies refused to transport her to a Womens Health clinic for an abortion. The justice department, which is defending the health and Human Services department, has not commented on whether it will appeal the ruling. This is a remarkable action that the government took, and it reflects kind of three undemocratic strands or reactionary strands