In the span of a week, a hush has descended on higher education in the United States.
International students and faculty have watched the growing crackdown on pro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia University with apprehension. Some say they are familiar with government crackdowns but never expected them on American college campuses.
The elite New York City university has been the focus of the Trump administration’s effort to deport foreigners who took part in pro-Palestinian demonstrations at colleges last year.
Federal immigration agents have arrested two foreigners — one of them a student — who protested last year at Columbia. They’ve revoked the visa of another student, who fled the US this week. Department of Homeland Security agents also searched the on-campus residences of two Columbia students on Thursday but did not make any arrests there.
GOP officials have warned it’s just the beginning, saying more student visas are expected to be revoked in the coming days.
Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism issued a statement reporting “an alarming chill” among its foreign students in the past week.
“Many of our international students have felt afraid to come to classes and to events on campus,” said the statement signed by “The Faculty of Columbia Journalism School.”
It added: “They are right to be worried.”
Alarm at campuses across the country
International students and faculty across the US say they feel afraid to voice opinions or stand out on campus for fear of getting kicked out of the country.
“Green-card-holding faculty members involved in any kind of advocacy that might be construed as not welcome by the Trump administration are absolutely terrified of the implications for their immigration status,” said Veena Dubal, a law professor at the University of California, Irvine.
Dubal, who is also general counsel for the American Association of University Professors, says some international faculty are now shying away from discourse, debate, scholarly research and publishing articles in peer-reviewed journals.
“We are literally not hearing their voices. There is a silencing happening that has a huge impact on the vibrancy of higher education,” Dubal said. “People are very, very scared.”
The first arrest
The first publicly known arrest occurred last Saturday, when federal immigration agents arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a prominent Palestinian activist and outspoken graduate student, in the lobby of his apartment building near the Columbia campus.
Khalil has become the face of President Donald Trump’s drive to punish what he calls antisemitic and anti-American protests that swept US campuses last year. Khalil, a legal US resident with a green card, is being held in a federal detention complex in Louisiana.
Students and faculty who participated in the protests at Columbia have insisted criticizing Israel and advocating for Palestinian rights isn’t antisemitic. Some Jewish students and faculty say the anti-Israel rhetoric made them feel unsafe.
Civil rights advocates say the detention of Khalil is an assault on free speech. But the ongoing arrests send a wider message that disagreeing with the Trump administration could get you kicked out of the country, said Brian Hauss, a senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union.
“If the administration can do this to Mr. Khalil because of the speech about Palestine, it can do it to any non-US citizen who takes a position on hot-button global issues, including the war between Russia and Ukraine, the tariffs imposed against US allies or the rise of far-right political parties in Europe,” he said.
That worry has spread outside New York.
A Bangladeshi student at Louisiana State University, who agreed to speak only on condition of anonymity for fear of being targeted by authorities, said she has stopped posting about anything political on social media since the first arrest at Columbia. She fears losing her green card.
“I feel like it’s not safe for me to share those things anymore because I have a fear that a quote-unquote ‘authoritarian regime’ is lurking over social media posts,” the student said. When she lived in Bangladesh, she said, people could be arrested for posting dissent on social media. “What I fear is a similar situation in the United States.”
Advice from colleges and universities
Some schools have been advising international students to be cautious of what they say publicly and to watch what they say online. Several international students on a variety of college campuses said they preferred not to speak with a reporter out of concern for their immigration status.
Administrators at Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism have warned students who are not US citizens about their vulnerability to arrest or deportation.
“Nobody can protect you, these are dangerous times,” the school’s dean, Jelani Cobb, said in a post Thursday on Bluesky explaining the comment. “I went on to say that I would do everything in my power to defend our journalists and their right to report but that none of us had the capacity to stop DHS from jeopardizing their safety.”
At the University of California, Davis, the Global Affairs Program has updated its website with guidance on the First Amendment and advice on free speech for non-US citizens.
“While international students and scholars have broad rights to freedom of speech and lawful assembly, please be aware that being arrested or detained by law enforcement may trigger current and/or future immigration consequences,” the school says on its website. “Each person should take appropriate care and utilize their best judgment.”
Escalations after Khalil’s arrest
Immigration authorities’ activities at Columbia quickly escalated this week.
Leqaa Kordia, a Palestinian from the West Bank, was arrested by immigration officers for overstaying her student visa, the Department of Homeland Security said Friday. The former student’s visa was terminated in January 2022 for “lack of attendance,” the department said. She was previously arrested for her involvement in protests at Columbia in April 2024, the agency added.
The Trump administration also revoked the visa of Ranjani Srinivasan, an Indian citizen and doctoral student at Columbia University, for allegedly “advocating for violence and terrorism.” Srinivasan opted to “self-deport” Tuesday, five days after her visa was revoked, the department said.
The president has warned the arrest and attempted deportation of Khalil will be the “first of many.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters Friday that more student visas were likely to be revoked in the coming days.
After Columbia arrests, international college students fall silent
https://arab.news/msvm3
After Columbia arrests, international college students fall silent
- Some say they are familiar with government crackdowns but never expected them on American college campuses
- International students say they feel afraid to voice opinions or stand out on campus for fear of getting kicked out of the country
Judge is ‘offended’ at DOGE’s tactics but does not pause its takeover of the US Institute of Peace
- The institute and many of its board members sued the Trump administration Tuesday, seeking to prevent their removal and to prevent DOGE from taking over its operations
A federal judge allowed Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to remain in control of the US Institute of Peace, an independent nonprofit created by Congress, but expressed concern about their conduct.
US District Judge Beryl Howell said Wednesday she was offended by DOGE staff’s use of threats and law enforcement to gain access to the USIP headquarters and to remove the institute’s president, George Moose, from the building on Monday.
But she declined to immediately restore the former board members, who filed the lawsuit late on Tuesday, to their positions. Howell also declined to bar DOGE staff from USIP’s headquarters, which they gained access to on Monday in part with the help of the police.
Trump last month in an executive order targeted USIP and three other agencies for closure in an effort to deliver on campaign promises to shrink the size of the federal government.
The institute and many of its board members sued the Trump administration Tuesday, seeking to prevent their removal and to prevent DOGE from taking over its operations.
USIP is a think tank, which seeks to prevent and resolve conflicts. It was created and funded by Congress in 1984. Board members are nominated by the president and must be confirmed by the Senate.
The suit is the latest challenge to the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle US foreign assistance agencies, reduce the size of the federal government and exert control over entities created by Congress.
Among the board members who filed suit is former US Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan, who was nominated to the ambassadorial role in Trump’s first term and continued to serve as ambassador under President Joe Biden and then was picked by Biden for the board.
The lawsuit accuses the White House of illegal firings by email and said the remaining board members — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Defense University President Peter Garvin — also ousted Moose, a former ambassador and career diplomat at the State Department.
In his place, the three appointed Kenneth Jackson, an administrator with the US Agency for International Development, according to the lawsuit.
In response, government lawyers raised questions about who controlled the institute and whether the nonprofit could sue the administration. It also referenced other recent court rulings about how much power the president has to remove the leaders of independent agencies.
DOGE staff tried multiple times to access the building Monday before successfully getting in, partly with police assistance.
The institute’s staff had first called the police around 3 p.m. Monday to report trespassing, according to the lawsuit. But the Metropolitan Police Department said in a statement that the institute’s acting president — seemingly a reference to Jackson — told them around 4 p.m. that he was being refused access to the building and there were “unauthorized individuals” inside.
“Eventually, all the unauthorized individuals inside of the building complied with the acting USIP President’s request and left the building without further incident,” police said.
The lawsuit says the institute’s lawyer told DOGE representatives multiple times that the executive branch has no authority over the nonprofit.
A White House spokesperson, Anna Kelly, said, “Rogue bureaucrats will not be allowed to hold agencies hostage. The Trump administration will enforce the President’s executive authority and ensure his agencies remain accountable to the American people.”
To the top Democrats on the foreign affairs committees in Congress, New York Rep. Gregory Meeks and New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the “hostile takeover” of the institute was one more sign that Trump and Musk want “to recklessly dismantle historic US institutions piece by piece.”
The leaders of two of the other agencies listed in Trump’s February executive order — the Inter-American Foundation, which invests in businesses in Latin American and the Caribbean, and the US African Development Foundation — also have sued the administration to undo or pause the removal of most of their staff and cancelation of most of their contracts.
A federal judge ruled last week that it would be legal to remove most contracts and staff from the US-Africa agency, which invested millions of dollars in African small businesses.
But the judge also ordered the government to prepare DOGE staff to explain what steps they were taking to maintain the agency at “the minimum presence and function required by law.”
EU proposes joint defense push amid Russia fears and US worries
- Kallas said Russia’s economy was in “full war mode,” with 40 percent of its federal budget going to the military
- “Regardless of the ongoing negotiations for peace in Ukraine, this is a long-term investment in a long-term plan of aggression”
BRUSSELS: Europe should further boost military spending, pool resources on joint defense projects and buy more European arms, according to an EU blueprint unveiled on Wednesday, driven by fears of Russia and doubts about the future of US protection.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive body, presented the proposals in a White Paper on defense, which aims to ensure Europe has a “strong and sufficient” defense posture by 2030.
“The international order is undergoing changes of a magnitude not seen since 1945. This is a pivotal moment for European security,” European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told reporters in Brussels.
Kallas said Russia’s economy was in “full war mode,” with 40 percent of its federal budget going to the military.
“Regardless of the ongoing negotiations for peace in Ukraine, this is a long-term investment in a long-term plan of aggression,” she declared.
Some proposed measures aim to boost the EU’s arms industry, meaning any role for companies from major weapons producers outside the bloc such as the United States, Britain and Turkiye would be substantially limited.
EU countries have already begun boosting their own defenses in response to Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. They ramped up defense spending by more than 30 percent between 2021 and 2024.
But their efforts have acquired more urgency from US President Donald Trump’s rapprochement with Russia and US warnings that European security can no longer be Washington’s primary focus.
“450 million European Union citizens should not have to depend on 340 million Americans to defend ourselves against 140 million Russians, who cannot defeat 38 million Ukrainians,” European Defense Commissioner Andrius Kubilius said.
“We really can do better. It’s time for us to take responsibility for the defense of Europe.”
CAPABILITY GAPS
The paper urges Europe to fill “capability gaps” in areas such as air and missile defense, artillery, ammunition and missiles, drones, military transport, artificial intelligence, cyber warfare and infrastructure protection.
The paper – a draft of which was leaked last week — proposes EU countries swiftly pool resources to fill the gaps, including through Defense Projects of Common European Interest, defined by governments and benefiting from EU financial incentives.
Moscow has condemned the EU’s rearmament push as an incitement to war based on an “invented story” of a Russian threat. Such words have not reassured European leaders, as Russia made similar statements before the invasion of Ukraine.
The EU paper includes proposals outlined earlier this month to boost countries’ defense spending.
Those include a plan for the Commission to borrow 150 billion euros ($163.35 billion) for loans to EU governments to spend on defense projects and easing EU rules on public finances, which the Commission says could mobilize a further 650 billion euros.
Defense policy has traditionally been the domain of national governments and the NATO security alliance that brings together North America and Europe.
But the EU has become increasingly involved in defense in recent years and the White Paper suggests a fundamental shift to a more pan-European approach.
Many EU governments say they are in favor. But how it would work is likely to be the subject of fierce debate — over who should have the power to decide on joint projects, who should run them and how they should be funded.
The proposals in the paper would require the approval of the bloc’s national governments and — in some cases — the European Parliament to become law.
In the paper, the European Commission suggests it could act as a “central purchasing body” on behalf of EU members. But some EU capitals have already signalled resistance, wanting to keep such decisions in the hands of national governments.
The paper says the Commission will also work on building a true EU-wide market for defense equipment, simplifying and harmonizing rules.
Such measures are intended to reduce the fragmentation of Europe’s defense industry, in which many manufacturers produce different weapons systems for different governments.
For example, Europe has 19 different main battle tanks, compared to just one in the United States and 17 types of torpedoes compared to just two in the US, according to an analysis by McKinsey.
US State Dept denies deleting data on halted program tracking abducted Ukrainian children
- Department denies deleting data, says it wasn’t holding it
- Yale research report links Putin to adoption program for deported Ukrainian children
WASHINGTON: The US State Department on Wednesday denied that data collected in a government-funded program that helps track thousands of abducted Ukrainian children had been deleted, but acknowledged that the effort had been terminated as part of Washington’s sweeping freeze on almost all foreign aid.
In a letter addressed to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Democratic lawmakers sounded alarm that the data from the repository might have been permanently deleted.
Speaking at a daily press briefing, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said suggestions that data was deleted were false.
“The data exists,” Bruce said. “It was not in the State Department’s control. It was the people running that framework, but we know who is running the data and the website, and we know fully that the data exists and it’s not been deleted and it’s not missing.”
Bruce also suggested that President Donald Trump by bringing up the issue in a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier on Wednesday may mean cooperation between the two countries on the topic could continue.
“The president of the most powerful country in the world, saying, I’m going to do something here... I think that’s a pretty good, clear indication that we can still work on issues that matter and make them happen without it being in a certain structure that has existed,” she said.
The research program conducted by Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab was part of an effort that began under President Joe Biden to document potential violations of international law and crimes against humanity by Russia and Russia-aligned forces in its invasion of Ukraine.
The Trump administration paused the program on January 25, the unnamed State Department spokesperson said in an email, as the Republican president ordered a broad review to prevent what he says is wasteful spending of US taxpayer dollars with causes that do not align with US interests.
“Following a review, the US Department of State decided to terminate the foreign assistance award supporting the Ukraine Conflict Observatory,” a different spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said the data resides on a platform owned by MITRE, a non-governmental organization that operates research and development centers, according to its website.
“To the best of MITRE’s knowledge and belief, the research data that was compiled has not been deleted and is currently maintained by a former partner on this contract,” it said in a statement.
Researches lose access
In his call with Zelensky, Trump inquired about the children who had gone missing from Ukraine during the war, including the ones that had been abducted, the White House said in a statement.
“President Trump promised to work closely with both parties to help make sure those children were returned home,” the White House said.
Ukraine has called the abductions of tens of thousands of its children taken to Russia or Russian-occupied territory without the consent of family or guardians a war crime that meets the UN treaty definition of genocide.
Russia has said it has been evacuating people voluntarily and to protect vulnerable children from the war zone.
The decision to stop the program means researchers will lose access to a trove of information, including satellite imagery and other data, about some 30,000 children taken from Ukraine, the lawmakers said in their letter.
Last December, a report produced as a result of the research said Russian presidential aircraft and funds were used in a program that took children from occupied Ukrainian territories, stripped them of Ukrainian identity and placed them with Russian families.
In March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his children’s rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova for the alleged war crime of deportation of Ukrainian children.
Malaysia agrees on terms for restarting MH370 wreckage search
- The decision will enable commencement of seabed search operations in a new location estimated to cover 15,000 sq km in the southern Indian Ocean
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has agreed to terms and conditions of an agreement with exploration firm Ocean Infinity to resume the search for the wreckage of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, its transport minister said on Wednesday. Flight MH370, a Boeing 777, was carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew when it vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in 2014 in one of the world’s greatest aviation mysteries.
The decision will enable commencement of seabed search operations in a new location estimated to cover 15,000 sq km (5,790 sq miles) in the southern Indian Ocean, based on a “no find, no fee” principle, Minister Loke Siew Fook said.
Ocean Infinity will receive $70 million if the wreckage is successfully located, he said.
“The government is committed to continuing the search operation and providing closure for the families of the MH370 passengers,” Loke said in a statement. The government in December said it had agreed in principle with Ocean Infinity’s proposal to resume the hunt for MH370. The firm had conducted the last search for the plane that ended in 2018 but failed on two attempts.
Those followed an underwater search by Malaysia, Australia and China in a 120,000 sq km (46,332 sq mile) area of the southern Indian Ocean, based on data of automatic connections between an Inmarsat satellite and the plane. A ship that will look for the missing plane was deployed to its Indian Ocean search zone late last month, ship tracking data showed, even though a deal had yet to be signed with the government.
It was not immediately clear how long the search contract with Ocean Infinity would be. Loke had previously said it would cover an 18-month period.
Pope Francis no longer using ventilation, confirmed as improving, Vatican says
- “The clinical conditions of the Holy Father are confirmed to be improving,” said the latest detailed medical update
- The pope’s doctors believe his infection is under control, the Vatican press office said
VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis is no longer using mechanical ventilation for help breathing at night and his doctors believe he will continue to improve, the Vatican said on Wednesday, in the latest positive update as the 88-year-old pontiff battles pneumonia.
Francis has been in Rome’s Gemelli Hospital for nearly five weeks for a severe respiratory infection that has required evolving treatment.
“The clinical conditions of the Holy Father are confirmed to be improving,” said the latest detailed medical update on his condition.
The pope had been using non-invasive mechanical ventilation overnight during his hospital stay, which involves placing a mask over the face to help push air into the lungs.
Such ventilation had been “suspended,” the statement said. But it said the pope is still receiving oxygen via a small hose under his nose.
The pope’s doctors believe his infection is under control, the Vatican press office said shortly after the release of the latest statement. The pope does not have a fever and his blood tests are normal, it said.
The pope has been described as being in a stable or improving condition for two weeks, but the Vatican has not yet given a timeframe for his discharge, saying his recovery is going slowly.
Francis is prone to lung infections because he had pleurisy as a young adult and had part of one lung removed.
He has been receiving both respiratory physiotherapy to help with his breathing and physical therapy to help with his mobility. He has used a wheelchair in recent years due to knee and back pain.
Doctors not involved in Francis’ care said the pope is likely to face a long, fraught road to recovery, given his age and other medical conditions.
