Israel-hamas war protesters and police clash on Texas campus, Columbia University begins suspensions
NEW YORK — Protesters and police clashed Monday at the University of Texas in a confrontation that resulted in dozens of arrests, and Columbia University began suspending students as colleges around the U.S. begged pro-palestinian demonstrators to clear out tent encampments as commencement ceremonies approach.
From coast to coast, demonstrators are sparring over the Israel-hamas war and its mounting death toll, and the number of arrests at campuses nationwide is approaching 1,000 as the nal days of class wrap up. The outcry is forcing colleges to reckon with their nancial ties to Israel, as well as their support for free speech. Some Jewish students say the protests
have veered into antisemitism and made them afraid to set foot on campus.
The protests have even spread to Europe, with French police removing dozens of students from the Sorbonne university after pro-palestinian protesters occupied the main courtyard. In Canada, student protest camps have popped up at the University of Ottawa, Mcgill University in Montreal and the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, The Canadian Press reported.
At the University of Texas at Austin, an attorney said at least 40 demonstrators had been arrested Monday on charges of trespassing and disorderly conduct, some of them by of cers in riot gear who encircled about 100 sitting protesters, dragging or carrying them out one by one amid screams. Another group of demonstrators trapped police and a van full of arrestees between buildings, creating a mass of bodies pushing and shoving and prompting the of cers to use pepper spray and
ash-bang devices to clear the crowd.
The confrontation was an escalation on the 53,000-student campus in the state’s capital, where more than 50 protesters were arrested last week.
Backers of a ban on gender care for minors in Kansas fail to override the governor’s veto
TOPEKA, Kan. — Republican legislators in Kansas failed
Monday to override the Democratic governor’s veto of a proposed ban on gender-af rming care for transgender minors.
The vote was 82-43 in the state House to reverse Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto, but that was two votes shy of the necessary two-thirds majority.
Two Republicans who’d backed the bill earlier voted against overriding the veto, citing their concerns about provisions that included one that would have barred state employees from advocating social transitioning for transgender youth.
The House’s vote came after the Senate voted 27-13 to override the veto, with the exact two-thirds majority required in that chamber.
Under the bill, social transitioning includes “the changing of an individual’s preferred pronouns or manner of dress,” and the rule against promoting it would have applied to state workers who care for children. The measure doesn’t spell out what constitutes promoting it.
President Joe Biden, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador discuss migration in latest call
WASHINGTON — President
Joe Biden spoke with his Mexican counterpart, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, about cooperating on migration policy as the U.S. leader continues to deliberate whether to take executive action that would crack down on the number of migrants arriving at the southern U.S. border.
The call occurred on Sunday at Biden’s request, López Obrador said during his daily news conference Monday in Mexico City. In a joint statement, Biden and López Obrador said the call centered on their joint efforts to “effectively manage” migration and “strengthen operational ef ciency” on the U.s.-mexico border.
“We talk periodically,” López
Obrador said. “I seek him out, he seeks me out, we chat.”
The joint statement said Biden and López Obrador have directed their national security aides to “immediately” put in place concrete measures to reduce the number of unauthorized border crossings. The policies would also protect human rights, according to the statement. White House press secretary
Karine Jean-pierre would not elaborate what those new measures were, nor would of cials from the National Security Council.
The Mexican leader said the two countries have made progress in controlling unauthorized migration by persuading many migrants not to use illegal methods to move from country to country. López Obrador also applauded a January decision by the U.S. Supreme
Court that allowed Border Patrol agents to resume cutting razor wire that the state of Texas had installed along the border to try and deter migration.