Police arrest ‘many’ at Israel-Hamas war protest at UC Santa Cruz, school says

Police arrest ‘many’ at Israel-Hamas war protest at UC Santa Cruz, school says
The academic workers are striking over the law enforcement response at various University of California pro-Palestinian campus protests. (AFP)
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Updated 31 May 2024
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Police arrest ‘many’ at Israel-Hamas war protest at UC Santa Cruz, school says

Police arrest ‘many’ at Israel-Hamas war protest at UC Santa Cruz, school says
  • Campus, local and state police swarmed the protesters, and video from local news stations showed officers telling people to leave
  • There appeared to be some pushing and shoving between police and protesters

CALIFORNIA: Police in riot gear surrounded arm-in-arm protesters Friday at the University of California, Santa Cruz, to remove an encampment and barricades where pro-Palestinian demonstrations have blocked the main entrance to the campus this week.
Many people were arrested, the university said.
Campus, local and state police swarmed the protesters, and video from local news stations showed officers telling people to leave, then taking away signs and part of a barricade. There appeared to be some pushing and shoving between police and protesters. Officers carried zip ties and appeared to detain a few people.
“For weeks, encampment participants were given repeated, clear direction to remove the encampment and cease blocking access to numerous campus resources and to the campus itself,” Scott Hernandez-Jason, a spokesperson for the university, said in a statement Friday.
“They were notified that their actions were unlawful and unsafe. And this morning they were also given multiple warnings by law enforcement to leave the area and disperse to avoid arrest. Unfortunately, many refused to follow this directive and many individuals are being arrested,” Hernandez-Jason said.
The university did not have the exact number of arrests by Friday afternoon. Chancellor Cynthia Larive said in a letter to the community Friday that some demonstraters remained at the entrance.
She said that the road blockades, “with fortified and chained barricades made of pallets and other materials, and other unlawful actions, disrupted campus operations and threatened safety, including delaying access of emergency vehicles.”
It wasn’t known if anyone was injured. The university was holding classes remotely Friday.
Graduate student workers at UC Santa Cruz continued a strike that began last week over the university system’s treatment of pro-Palestinian protesters. The strike will expand to three more campuses next week, their union said Friday.
The strikes began May 20 at UC Santa Cruz, and then extended to UCLA and UC Davis. Members at UC Santa Barbara and UC San Diego will walk out on June 3 and at UC Irvine on June 5, UAW Local 4811 said. Union members include graduate teaching assistants, researchers and other academic employees.
Protest camps sprang up across the US and in Europe this spring as students demanded their universities stop doing business with Israel or companies that they say support its war in Gaza. Organizers seek to amplify calls to end Israel’s war with Hamas, which they describe as a genocide against the Palestinians.
The Associated Press has recorded at least 83 incidents since April 18 in which arrests were made at campus protests across the US More than 3,025 people have been arrested at 62 colleges and universities. The figures are based on AP reporting and statements from universities and law enforcement agencies.
The confrontation in California came a day after arrests at a pro-Palestinian encampment at a Detroit campus and a student walkout during commencement at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
On Thursday, police in riot gear removed fencing and broke down tents erected last week on green space near the undergraduate library at Wayne State University in Detroit. At least 12 people were arrested.
President Kimberly Andrews Espy cited health and safety concerns and disruptions to campus operations. Staff were encouraged to work remotely this week, and in-person summer classes were suspended.
The camp, she said, “created an environment of exclusion — one in which some members of our campus community felt unwelcome and unable to fully participate in campus life.”
An outdoor commencement ceremony went uninterrupted Friday at MIT in Cambridge, near Boston. On Thursday, some graduates walked out of another ceremony, disrupting it for 10 to 15 minutes. They wore keffiyehs, the checkered scarves that represent Palestinian solidarity, over their caps and gowns, chanted “free, free Palestine,” and held signs that said, “All eyes on Rafah.”
“There is going to be no business as usual as long as MIT holds research projects with the Israeli Ministry of Defense,” said David Berkinsky, 27, who earned a doctorate degree in chemistry and walked out. “There are no graduates in Gaza. There are no universities left in Gaza left because Israeli has bombed every single one.”
Some people at the event swore at the protesters and yelled, “Good riddance to Hamas terror fans.” A pro-Palestinian encampment at MIT was cleared in early May.


European leaders head to Kyiv to show support after Putin’s parade

European leaders head to Kyiv to show support after Putin’s parade
Updated 5 sec ago
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European leaders head to Kyiv to show support after Putin’s parade

European leaders head to Kyiv to show support after Putin’s parade
  • Visitors will call on Russia to agree 30-day ceasefire
  • Putin used Red Square parade to show he is not isolated

KYIV: The leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Poland headed to Kyiv on Saturday for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a show of unity a day after Russia’s Vladimir Putin hosted his allies in a Victory Day parade on Red Square.
The summit will discuss a US and European proposal for a 30-day ceasefire in the Russian war in Ukraine that if refused by Moscow would see them jointly impose new sanctions, a French diplomatic source said, adding that the step had not yet been finalized.
The visit by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk is the first time the leaders of the four countries have traveled together to Ukraine.
“Alongside the US, we call on Russia to agree a full and unconditional 30-day ceasefire to create the space for talks on a just and lasting peace,” the four European leaders said in a joint statement.
The visit comes at an unpredictable diplomatic moment in Russia’s more than three-year-long war against Ukraine. US President Donald Trump is pushing for a rapid peace after tearing up the policies of his predecessor since entering the White House in January.
After engaging directly with Russian officials, clashing publicly with Zelensky and briefly cutting vital military aid to Ukraine, the Trump administration has patched up ties with Kyiv and signed an arduously-negotiated minerals deal.
There has also been a palpable shift in tone from Trump, who has signalled growing frustration with Putin’s foot-dragging over a ceasefire and Russia’s restatement of its demands for a settlement.
Trump has threatened to step up sanctions against Russia but he has also said he could abandon the peace effort if there is no breakthrough. He called on Thursday for a 30-day ceasefire and Zelensky said he would be ready to implement it immediately.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying on Friday that Russia supports the implementation of a 30-day ceasefire in the conflict, but only with due consideration of “nuances.”
Putin hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping and other leaders at a Red Square military parade on Friday to mark the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two, sending a defiant message that he is not isolated.
On the same day, European ministers voiced support for a special tribunal to prosecute the Russian President and his officials for crimes of aggression, showing support for Zelensky who on Thursday poured scorn on Putin for planning a “parade of bile and lies.”

‘Ball in moscow’s court’
On the eve of the summit, the US embassy in Kyiv warned of a “potentially significant” air attack in the coming days and told its citizens to be ready to seek shelter in the event of air raid sirens.
The four foreign leaders will meet Zelensky on Saturday morning and are also expected to pay their respects at a memorial in central Kyiv to honor Ukrainian soldiers killed in the war.
They are expected to host a virtual meeting with other leaders to update them on progress being made for a future coalition of an air, land, maritime and “regeneration” force that would help regenerate Ukraine’s armed forces after any peace deal, Britain’s Downing Street said.
The visit falls on the final day of a May 8-10 ceasefire declared by Putin that Ukraine did not accept, denouncing it as a sham. Both sides have accused each other of violating it.
Zelensky said on Thursday he told Trump in a telephone call that a 30-day ceasefire would be a “real indicator” of progress toward peace with Russia, and that Kyiv was ready to implement it immediately.
The French diplomatic source said work had not been completed on the proposal for a 30-day unconditional ceasefire, but that the US and European allies hoped they were “at a moment of convergence.”
“What could happen in the coming hours and days, there could be an announcement of a ceasefire either of 30 days or compartmentalized, which is still being discussed,” the source said.
Merz, who became Germany’s chancellor this week, said on Friday that the ball was now in Moscow’s court.
“It is solely there that the decision will be made as to whether there is a chance, starting this coming weekend — that is, at the beginning of next week — to enable a longer ceasefire in Ukraine,” he said.


Pakistan PM condemns Indian strikes on civilians, praises Saudi push for de-escalation

Pakistan PM condemns Indian strikes on civilians, praises Saudi push for de-escalation
Updated 6 min 2 sec ago
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Pakistan PM condemns Indian strikes on civilians, praises Saudi push for de-escalation

Pakistan PM condemns Indian strikes on civilians, praises Saudi push for de-escalation

KARACHI: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday condemned India’s missile and drone strikes against Pakistan that killed civilians this week while appreciating Saudi diplomatic efforts to de-escalate tensions with its nuclear neighbor in a meeting with the Kingdom’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel Al-Jubeir.

The Saudi minister’s daylong visit follows India’s military strikes inside Pakistan in response to a gun attack in the disputed Kashmir region that left 26 tourists dead, with New Delhi blaming Islamabad for the incident, though Pakistani authorities have repeatedly denied any involvement.

With the two archrivals teetering on the edge of a full-scale war, the United States announced on Thursday that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had discussed regional de-escalation with Saudi officials.

The same day, Al-Jubeir made a surprise stop in New Delhi for talks with Indian officials before arriving in Pakistan on Friday.

“While discussing the prevailing situation in South Asia [with the visiting dignitary], the Prime Minister strongly condemned India’s missile and drone strikes against Pakistan that had resulted in the martyrdom of scores of innocent civilians, including women and children, as well as damage to civilian infrastructures,” said a statement issued by his office after the meeting.

“He said Pakistan was fully determined to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity, in accordance with Article 51 of the UN Charter,” it added. “He appreciated the Kingdom’s diplomatic efforts to de-escalate the situation and bring peace in the region.”

Sharif conveyed warm regards to Salman bin Abdulaziz and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and expressed satisfaction at the positive trajectory of Pakistan-Saudi relations.

He also maintained that India’s “unprovoked and unjustified acts of aggression” had violated Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and seriously endangered regional peace and stability. 

The statement said Al-Jubeir offered condolences over the loss of civilian lives and said the Kingdom was “deeply concerned” about the current situation in South Asia.

He reiterated Saudi Arabia’s call for de-escalation and the peaceful resolution of disputes between Pakistan and India in accordance with international law.

Saudi Arabia and Pakistan share close diplomatic and strategic relations.

The Kingdom has extended significant support to Pakistan during prolonged economic challenges faced by Islamabad in recent years, including external financing and assistance with International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan programs.

Saudi Arabia has also contributed to global peacemaking efforts by hosting talks and mediating prisoner exchanges between Russia and Ukraine.


Russia backs 30-day ceasefire but with due account of nuances, Kremlin’s Peskov says

Russia backs 30-day ceasefire but with due account of nuances, Kremlin’s Peskov says
Updated 09 May 2025
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Russia backs 30-day ceasefire but with due account of nuances, Kremlin’s Peskov says

Russia backs 30-day ceasefire but with due account of nuances, Kremlin’s Peskov says
  • “This theme was long put forward by the Ukrainian side...,” said Peskov

MOSCOW: Russia supports the implementation of a 30-day ceasefire in the Ukraine conflict, but only with due consideration of ‘nuances’ in the more than three-year-old war, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying on Friday.

“This theme was long put forward by the Ukrainian side...,” TASS news agency quoted Peskov as saying.

“And as soon as it was advanced by the (US administration of Donald Trump), it was supported by President (Vladimir) Putin with the reservation that it is very difficult to discuss this in detail if no answers are found to a large number of nuances around the notion of a ceasefire.”

Russia has repeatedly said that introducing a prolonged ceasefire depends on establishing mechanisms to monitor and uphold such a move.


Pakistan says India has put neighbors ‘closer to major conflict’

Pakistan says India has put neighbors ‘closer to major conflict’
Updated 09 May 2025
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Pakistan says India has put neighbors ‘closer to major conflict’

Pakistan says India has put neighbors ‘closer to major conflict’
  • Escalation comes after attack on tourists last month in Indian-run part of disputed Kashmir that killed 26 people

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Friday accused India of bringing the nuclear-armed neighbors “closer to a major conflict,” as the death toll from three days of missile, artillery and drone attacks passed 50.

The bloody escalation comes after an attack on tourists last month in the Indian-run part of disputed Kashmir that killed 26 people, and which New Delhi accused Islamabad of backing — an allegation Pakistan denied.

India responded with air strikes Wednesday on what it called “terrorist camps” in Pakistan, killing more than 20 civilians and fueling the worst clashes between the two in decades.

Pakistan’s foreign ministry spokesman Shafqat Ali Khan said that India’s “reckless conduct has brought the two nuclear-armed states closer to a major conflict.”

Military spokesman Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry told media: “We will not de-escalate — with the damages they did on our side, they should take a hit.”

“So far, we have been protecting ourselves but they will get an answer in our own timing,” he added.

On a third day of tit-for-tat exchanges, the Indian army said it had “repulsed” waves of Pakistani attacks using drones and other munitions overnight, and gave a “befitting reply.”

Late Friday, an Indian defense source told AFP that drones had been sighted in the Indian-administered Kashmir areas of Jammu and Samba, and in neighboring Punjab state.

Earlier, Pakistan’s military spokesman denied that Islamabad was carrying out such attacks.

The two countries have fought several wars over Muslim-majority Kashmir, which is divided between the two.

On Friday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with his national security adviser, defense minister and the chiefs of the armed forces, his office said.

Most of the more than 50 deaths were in Pakistan during Wednesday’s air strikes by India and included children.

On Friday, Pakistani security and government officials said five civilians — including a two-year-old girl — were killed by Indian shelling overnight in areas along the heavily militarised Line of Control (LoC), which separates Kashmir between India and Pakistan.

On the other side, a police official said one woman was killed and two men wounded by heavy shelling.

Pakistani military sources said that its forces had shot down 77 Indian drones in the last two days, with debris of many incursions seen by AFP in cities across the country.

India said 300 to 400 drones had attempted to cross into its territory, and also accused Pakistani forces on Thursday of targeting three military stations.

Pakistan’s military said Wednesday that five Indian jets had been downed across the border, but New Delhi has not responded to the claims, while a military source said three jets had crashed on home territory.

Both sides have made repeated claims and counter-claims that are difficult to verify.

“The youth of Kashmir will never forget this act of brutality by India,” said 15-year-old Muhammad Bilal in Muzaffarabad, the main city in Pakistan-administered Kashmir where a mosque was hit Wednesday.

In Jammu, under Indian administration, 21-year-old student Piyush Singh said: “Our [attack] is justified because we are doing it for whatever happened to our civilians.”

Militants have stepped up operations in Kashmir since 2019, when Indian PM Modi’s Hindu nationalist government revoked its limited autonomy and took the state under direct rule from New Delhi.

Pakistan has rejected claims by New Delhi that it was behind last month’s attack in Pahalgam, Indian-administered Kashmir, when gunmen killed 26 people, mainly male Hindu tourists.

India blamed the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba — a UN-designated terrorist organization — for the attack.

The conflict has caused major disruption to international aviation, with airlines having to cancel flights or use longer routes that do not overfly the India-Pakistan frontier.

India had closed 24 airports, with local media reporting the suspension would remain in place until next week.

The mega Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament was on Friday suspended for a week, while Pakistan suspended Super League play indefinitely, barely a day after relocating it to the UAE.

World powers have called for both sides to exercise “restraint,” with several offering to mediate the dispute.

On Friday, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met with Saudi minister of state for foreign affairs Adel Al-Jubeir in Islamabad, according to a statement.

That meeting came after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met his Indian counterpart in Delhi on Thursday, days after visiting Pakistan.

The International Crisis Group, however, said “foreign powers appear to have been somewhat indifferent” to the prospect of war, despite warnings of possible escalation.

On Friday, the International Monetary Fund said it had approved a $1 billion payout to Pakistan, despite India’s objections.


Freed Palestinian student accuses Columbia University of inciting violence

Freed Palestinian student accuses Columbia University of inciting violence
Updated 09 May 2025
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Freed Palestinian student accuses Columbia University of inciting violence

Freed Palestinian student accuses Columbia University of inciting violence
  • Mahdawi said instead of being a “beacon of hope,” the university is inciting violence against students
  • “Columbia University is participating in the destruction of the democratic system,”

NEW YORK: A Palestinian student arrested as he was about to finalize his US citizenship accused Columbia University on Thursday of eroding democracy with its handling of campus protests against the Israel-Hamas war.

Mohsen Mahdawi, 34, who led anti-war protests at the Ivy League school in New York in 2023 and 2024, spent 16 days in a Vermont prison before a judge ordered him released on April 30.

On Friday, an appeals court in New York denied the government’s request to halt that order, saying the Trump administration’s jurisdictional arguments were unlikely to succeed and that it hadn’t shown that Mahdawi’s release has caused irreparable harm.

“Individual liberty substantially outweighs the government’s weak assertions of administrative and logistical costs,” wrote the three-judge panel at the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals.
The Trump administration has said Mahdawi should be deported because his activism threatens its foreign policy goals, but the judge who released him on bail ruled that he has raised a “substantial claim” that the government arrested him to stifle speech with which it disagrees.

Mahdawi spoke to The Associated Press on Thursday, a day after pro-Palestinian protesters clashed with campus security guards inside the university’s main library. At least 80 people were taken into custody, police said.

Mahdawi said instead of being a “beacon of hope,” the university is inciting violence against students.

“Columbia University is participating in the destruction of the democratic system,” Mahdawi said in the interview. “They are supporting the initiatives and the agenda of the Trump administration, and they are punishing and torturing their students.”

A spokesperson for Columbia University, which in March announced sweeping policy changes related to protests following Trump administration threats to revoke its federal funding, declined to comment Thursday beyond the response of the school’s acting president to Wednesday’s protests.

The acting president, Claire Shipman, said the protesters who had holed up inside a library reading room were asked repeatedly to show identification and to leave, but they refused. The school then asked police in “to assist in securing the building and the safety of our community,” she said in a statement Wednesday evening, calling the protest actions “outrageous” and a disruption to students for final exams.

Mahdawi, a legal permanent resident, was born in a refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and moved to the United States in 2014.

At Columbia, he organized campus protests and co-founded the Palestinian Student Union with Mahmoud Khalil, another Palestinian permanent resident of the US and graduate student who was arrested in March.

On April 14, Mahdawi had taken a written citizenship test, answered verbal questions and signed a document about the pledge of allegiance at an immigration office in Colchester when his interviewer left the room. Masked and armed agents then entered and arrested him, he said. Though he had suspected a trap, the moment was still shocking, he said, triggering a cascade of contrasting emotions.

“Light and darkness, cold and hot. Having rights or not having rights at all,” he said.

Immigration authorities have detained college students from around the country since the first days of the Trump administration, many of whom participated in campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war. Mahdawi was among the first to win release from custody after challenging his arrest.

In another case, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday in favor of Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk, upholding an order to transfer her from a Louisiana detention center back to New England to determine whether her rights were violated and if she should be released.

Mahdawi said his message to the Turkish student and others was “stay positive and don’t let this injustice shake your belief in the inevitability of justice.”
“People are working hard. Communities are mobilizing,” he said. “The justice system has signaled to America with my case, and with Rumeysa’s yesterday with the Second Circuit, that justice is functioning and checks and balances is still in function.”

Mahdawi’s release, which is being challenged by the government, allows him to travel outside of his home state of Vermont and attend his graduation from Columbia in New York later this month. He said he plans to do so, though he believes the administration has turned its back on him and rejected the work of a student diplomacy council he served on alongside Jewish, Israeli and Lebanese students.

“I plan to attend the graduation because it is a message,” he said. “This is a message that education is hope, education is light, and there is no power in the world that should take that away from us.”