Students back protests in poll

A majority of college students support the anti-Israel protests plaguing campuses across the country, and 15% of those surveyed don’t believe Israel has a right to exist, a poll has found.

Sixty-five percent of students support the recent protests, according to a survey of 763 fulltime students from Intelligent, an online magazine focused on higher education.

The demonstrations have hit more than 80 American campuses, starting with Columbia University’s “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” and stretching to the University of California, Los Angeles.

Forty-three percent of the supporters have participated in a demonstration for Gaza themselves and more than half of those — 63% — expressed at least some sympathy for Hamas terrorists who slaughtered at least 1,200 Israelis during an Oct. 7 surprise attack, the survey found.

The terrorist sympathizers were about split between having “a lot of” or “a little” sympathy for the group.

Horrifying chants including, “We are Hamas” rang out on campuses like Columbia while literature found at NYU read, “Death to America.”

One in 10 of those polled also admitted to having an “unfavorable” opinion of Jewish people.

TikTok was the top source for information on the Israel-Hamas war among the students polled, trumping other social media outlets, news, friends and family and professors.

Thirty-six percent of those who support the protests also support using violence, and 35% back using hate speech. Seventy-five percent of supporters give a thumbs-up to encampments and 45% are OK with blocking students from getting to class as a form of protest.

By the numbers

Thirty-six percent said the protests have increased their support for the Palestinian cause.

More than 2,000 arrests have taken place at the anti-Israel protests across the country; only 24% “very much” support consequences for student protesters who break the law while about as many support punishment for those who violate school policy.

Thirty-eight percent support graduation ceremonies being canceled due to the protests, the survey, which was conducted online in the beginning of May, also found.

Columbia and UCLA have canceled their upcoming main commencement ceremonies after weeks of campus turmoil.

Off campus, almost half of Americans support banning antiIsrael protesters from campuses entirely, according to another recent poll.

A brown horse rescued from the small tin roof of a house almost fully engulfed by water in Brazil became a national symbol of hope, as the country continued to combat unrelenting rain and deadly floods.

The nation’s first lady, Rosângela Lula da Silva, got involved after a photo of the horse went viral and she helped organize its rescue.

Corn farmers are being threatened by an influx of leafhoppers that thrive in the hotter temperatures brought about by global warming.

Argentina, the third largest corn exporter in the world, has lost millions of tons of its current harvest due to the infestation. The 4-millimeter insects carry a disease which damages the crop’s cob and kernel.

The world’s largest direct air capture plant that “vacuums” out pollution from the air opened in Iceland.

Mammoth is the second of its kind to debut in the country and is 10 times larger than its predecessor, which opened in 2021. It employs the use of direct air capture technology to suck in air and strip out carbon using chemicals.

Rice fields in central Japan that were hit by a powerful earthquake on New Year’s Day are being replanted by a civic group due to a shortage of farmers.

The tourist attraction of the Shiroyone Senmaida rice terraces, which consists of 1,000 paddies overlooking the Sea of Japan in Wajima City, was damaged by the quake.

People gathered from across the country to rebuild it by planting the rice seeds by hand.

After two years of war in Tigray, known for its bicycle culture, cycling teams are competing again.

Just three out of the region’s six women’s cycling teams survived the 2020-22 war, where women reported they were subjected to mutilation, rape and sexual slavery by members of Ethiopia’s army.