House Republicans launch investigation into federal funding for universities amid campus protests

House Republicans launch investigation into federal funding for universities amid campus protests
Protesters make signs in an encampment area on the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus,Tuesday, April 30, 2024, in Milwaukee. The Pro-Palestinian rally is calling for the University to cut ties with Israel and for peace in Gaza. (AP)
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Updated 01 May 2024
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House Republicans launch investigation into federal funding for universities amid campus protests

House Republicans launch investigation into federal funding for universities amid campus protests
  • Nationwide, campus protesters have called for their institutions to cut financial ties to Israel

WASHINGTON: House Republicans on Tuesday announced an investigation into the federal funding for universities where students have protested the Israel-Hamas war, broadening a campaign that has placed heavy scrutiny on how presidents at the nation’s most prestigious colleges have dealt with reports of antisemitism on campus.
Several House committees will be tasked with a wide probe that ultimately threatens to withhold federal research grants and other government support to the universities, placing another pressure point on campus administrators who are struggling to manage pro-Palestinian encampments, allegations of discrimination against Jewish students and questions of how they are integrating free speech and campus safety.
The House investigation follows several recent high-profile hearings that precipitated the resignations of presidents at Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania. And House Republicans promised more scrutiny, saying they were calling on the administrators of Yale, UCLA and the University of Michigan to testify next month.
“We will not allow antisemitism to thrive on campus, and we will hold these universities accountable for their failure to protect Jewish students on campus,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson at a news conference.
Nationwide, campus protesters have called for their institutions to cut financial ties to Israel and decried how thousands of civilians in Gaza have been killed by Israel following the deadly attack by Hamas on Oct. 7.
Some organizers have called for Hamas to violently seize Israeli territory and derided Zionism. Jewish students, meanwhile, have reported being targeted and say campus administrators have not done enough to protect them.
After Johnson visited Columbia last week with several other top House Republicans, he said “the anti-Jewish hatred was appalling.”
Republicans are also turning to the issue at a time when election season is fully underway and leadership needs a cause that unites them and divides Democrats. The House GOP’s impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden has fallen flat and the Republican conference is smarting after a series of important bills left GOP lawmakers deeply divided. Democrats have feuded internally at times over the Israel-Hamas war and how campus administrators have handled the protests.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said in a floor speech Tuesday that it was “unacceptable when Jewish students are targeted for being Jewish, when protests exhibit verbal abuse, systemic intimidation, or glorification of the murderous and hateful Hamas or the violence of October 7th.”
Rep. Pete Aguilar, the No. 3 House Democrat, at a news conference Tuesday said that it was important for colleges “to ensure that everybody has an ability to protest and to make their voice heard but they have a responsibility to honor the safety of individuals.”
“For many of Jewish descent, they do not feel safe, and that is a real issue,” he said, but added that he wanted to allow university administrators to act before Congress stepped in.
But the Republican speaker promised to use “all the tools available” to push the universities. Johnson was joined by chairs for six committees with jurisdiction over a wide range of government programs, including National Science Foundation grants, health research grants, visas for international students and the tax code for nonprofit universities.
Without Democratic support in the divided Congress, it is not clear what legislative punishments House Republicans could actually implement. Any bills from the House would be unlikely to advance in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
But so far, the House hearings with university presidents have produced viral moments and given Republicans high-profile opportunities to denounce campuses as hotbeds of antisemitism. In December, the presidents of Ivy League universities struggled to answer pointed questions about whether “calling for the genocide of Jews” would violate each university’s code of conduct.
Rep. Elize Stefanik, the New York Republican who posed the question in the December hearing, said it became the highest-viewed congressional hearing in history. She also cast the campaign against antisemitism as part of a broader conservative push against what they say is overt liberal bias at elite American universities.
“Enough is enough,” she said. “It is time to restore law and order, academic integrity and moral decency to America’s higher education institutions.”
The House Committee on Education and the Workforce is also requesting that the administrators of Yale, UCLA and the University of Michigan appear at a hearing on May 23 that focuses on how they handled the recent protests.
“As Republican leaders, we have a clear message for mealy-mouthed, spineless leaders: Congress will not tolerate your dereliction of duty to your Jewish students,” said the committee chair, North Carolina Rep. Virginia Foxx.
At a hearing of the committee earlier this month, Columbia University’s president took a firm stance against antisemitism. But at the same time, a protest was underway on Columbia’s campus that would soon set off others like it nationwide. The university began suspending students this week in an attempt to clear the protest encampment on campus.
The university is also facing federal legal complaints. A class-action lawsuit on behalf of Jewish students alleges Columbia breached its contract by failing to maintain a safe learning environment.
Meanwhile, a legal group representing pro-Palestinian students is urging the US Department of Education’s civil rights office to investigate whether Columbia’s treatment of the protesting students violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell called on university administrators to “take charge.”
“On campus, protect Jewish community members. Clear the encampments. Let students go to class and take their exams. And allow graduations to proceed,” he said.


Indian soldiers battle Kashmir rebels, one killed

Indian soldiers battle Kashmir rebels, one killed
Updated 24 sec ago
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Indian soldiers battle Kashmir rebels, one killed

Indian soldiers battle Kashmir rebels, one killed
  • Police said two separate gunfights were taking place in the Himalayan region
  • Kashmir has been divided between rivals India and Pakistan since their partition in 1947
NEW DELHI: Indian troops on Sunday were battling with gunmen in Kashmir with one suspected rebel killed, the army said, the latest violence in the long-running insurgency in the disputed Muslim-majority territory.
Police said two separate gunfights were taking place in the Himalayan region, with fighting reported in both the Zabarwan and Baramulla areas.
“One terrorist has been neutralized by the security forces,” the army’s Chinar Corps said, a term they use indicating a gunman had been killed.
Kashmir has been divided between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan since their partition at the chaotic end of British rule in 1947, and both countries claim the territory in full.
India has at least 500,000 troops deployed in Kashmir in a bid to end a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of civilians, soldiers and rebels since 1989.
Rebel groups demand either independence or its merger with Pakistan.
New Delhi regularly blames Pakistan for arming militants and helping them launch attacks, an allegation Islamabad denies.
Last week, an attacker hurled a grenade at a busy market in the main city of Srinagar, wounding 12 people.
Attacks since October have included gunmen launching an ambush on an army convoy, as well as firing on a construction camp, killing seven people.
On Wednesday, Kashmir’s newly-elected regional assembly passed a resolution demanding New Delhi restore the territory’s partial autonomy, canceled in 2019 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government.

Asia, the world’s economic engine, prepares for Trump shock

Asia, the world’s economic engine, prepares for Trump shock
Updated 19 min 57 sec ago
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Asia, the world’s economic engine, prepares for Trump shock

Asia, the world’s economic engine, prepares for Trump shock
  • Trump vowed during campaign to slap 60 percent tariffs on Chinese goods entering US 
  • Move could impact Southeast Asia where production chains are closely linked to China 

TOKYO: Some Asian countries stand to gain if US president-elect Donald Trump pushes ahead with his promised massive tariffs on China and triggers a new wave of factory relocations to the rest of the region.
But a trade war between the world’s biggest economies would also destabilize markets everywhere, with Asia — which contributes the largest share of global growth — the most affected.
Trump, who won a crushing presidential victory this week, vowed during his campaign to slap 60 percent tariffs on all Chinese goods entering the United States in an attempt to balance trade between the two nations.
Analysts however question whether the new president will stick to such a high figure, and dispute the blow such tariffs could inflect on the Chinese economy, estimating GDP could be lowered by between 0.7 percent and 1.6 percent.
The cooling effect would also make waves throughout Southeast Asia, where production chains are closely linked to China and enjoy significant investment from Beijing.
“Lower US demand for Chinese goods due to higher tariffs on China will translate into lower demand for ASEAN exports, even if there aren’t US tariffs levied directly onto those economies,” said Adam Ahmad Samdin, of Oxford Economics.
Indonesia is particularly exposed through its strong exports of nickel and minerals, but China is also the top trading partner of Japan, Taiwan and South Korea.
In addition to China, Donald Trump has also warned of an increase of 10 to 20 percent on duties for all imports, as part of his protectionist policies and fixation that other countries take advantage of the US.
“The extent of these effects likely depends on the direct exposure of each economy to the US,” said Samdin, who added that America accounts for a 39.1 percent share of Cambodian exports, 27.4 percent from Vietnam, 17 percent from Thailand and 15.4 percent from the Philippines.
Trump first slapped China with heavy tariffs in 2018 during his first administration, leading to the emergence of “connector countries,” through which Chinese companies passed their products to avoid American taxes.
Those countries could be in the line of fire now.
“Vietnam’s electronics exports to the US could also be targeted by Trump, in a bid to halt the diversion of Chinese electronic products to the US via Vietnam since 2018,” said Lloyd Chan, a senior analyst at MUFG, Japan’s largest bank.
“This is not inconceivable. Trade rewiring has notably gained traction in the region’s electronics value chain.”
“India could itself become a target of protectionist measures by the US due to the large share of Chinese components in Indian products,” added Alexandra Hermann, an economist with Oxford Economics.
Trump could also impose higher tariffs on Indian goods in sectors such as “automobiles, textiles, pharmaceuticals and wines, which could make Indian exports less competitive in the US,” said Ajay Srivastava of the New Delhi-based Global Trade Research Initiative.
A trade war would be dangerous for India, said Ajay Sahai, director of the Federation of Indian Export Organizations.
“Trump is a transactional person. He may target higher tariffs on certain items of Indian exports so he can negotiate for lower tariffs for US products in India,” he told AFP.
In the medium term, these negative effects could be counterbalanced by establishing factories outside China to escape the fallout.
The “China+1” strategy initiated during Donald Trump’s first term saw production shifts to India, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.
With its geographical position and cheap skilled labor, Vietnam has already been one of the main beneficiaries.
The country has notably received investments from Taiwanese Apple subcontractors Foxconn and Pegatron and South Korea’s Samsung, becoming the second-largest exporter of smartphones in the world behind China.
“The likelihood increases that even more businesses will want to... have a second, or third, production base outside China,” said Bruno Jaspaert, chairman of the European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam.
Chinese firms themselves are investing massively from Vietnam to Indonesia in sectors including solar, batteries, electric vehicles and minerals.
“American companies and investors are very interested in opportunities in Vietnam and this will continue under the incoming Trump Administration,” said Adam Sitkoff, executive director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hanoi.
But whether it is low-end or high-tech production, China’s competitive advantage in terms of price, scale and quality is difficult to reproduce, warns Nomura bank.
A reorganization of production chains could lead to a “loss of efficiency” and increased prices, “with a negative impact on global growth,” Thomas Helbling, deputy director of the IMF for Asia, recently explained to AFP.
Asian countries could therefore gain export market share but ultimately see their situation deteriorate amid weakening global demand.


King Charles III and Kate will attend remembrance events as both royals slowly return to duty

King Charles III and Kate will attend remembrance events as both royals slowly return to duty
Updated 10 November 2024
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King Charles III and Kate will attend remembrance events as both royals slowly return to duty

King Charles III and Kate will attend remembrance events as both royals slowly return to duty
  • King Charles III and the Princess of Wales both plan to attend the United Kingdom’s annual ceremony honoring fallen service personnel on Sunday.

LONDON: King Charles III and the Princess of Wales both plan to attend the United Kingdom’s annual ceremony honoring fallen service personnel on Sunday, a sign that the royal family is slowly returning to normal after a year in which two of the most popular royals were sidelined by cancer.
Remembrance Sunday is a totemic event in the UK, with the king leading senior royals, political leaders and envoys from the Commonwealth countries that fought alongside Britain in the two world wars in laying wreaths at the Cenotaph, the Portland stone memorial in central London that serves as the focal point for honoring the nation’s war dead.
The presence of both Charles, who is the commander in chief of the military, and Kate signals that normal royal service has been restored — at least for one day.
“They are showing respect to us, as we’ve shown to them by serving,” said Victor Needham-Crofton, 91, an army veteran who served during the Suez Crisis of 1956 and later in Kenya.
Charles was diagnosed with an undisclosed form of cancer in February, forcing him to step away from public appearances for two months as he focused on his treatment and recovery. Just a few weeks later, Kate announced her own cancer diagnosis, which sidelined her for much of the year as she underwent chemotherapy.
The king has been in good form in recent months and recently completed a taxing trip to Australia and Samoa. Kate, who made her first post-diagnosis public appearance during the monarch’s birthday parade in June, is slowly returning to public duties.
Prince William, Kate’s husband and the heir to the throne, reflected this week on the strain that the cancer scare has placed on the royal family.
“I’m so proud of my wife, I’m proud of my father, for handling the things that they have done,” William told reporters on Thursday as he wrapped up a four-day trip to South Africa. “But from a personal family point of view, it’s been, yeah, it’s been brutal.”
Charles’ ceremonial role as commander in chief of the armed forces is a holdover from the days when the monarch led his troops into battle. But the link between the monarchy and the military is still very strong, with service members taking an oath of allegiance to the king and members of the royal family supporting service personnel through a variety of charities. Charles and William both served on active duty in the military before taking up full-time royal duties.
On Sunday, Charles will lay a wreath of poppies at the base of the Cenotaph. William will leave his own floral tribute – featuring the Prince of Wales’ feathers and a new ribbon in Welsh red.
Kate will watch from a balcony of the nearby Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, as is tradition.
All will be present for the culmination of the event, when 10,000 military veterans march past the memorial and lay their own wreaths honoring fallen comrades.
While the Cenotaph is the focus of the national remembrance service, communities throughout the UK will hold their own ceremonies on Sunday.
Needham-Crofton, who served with the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers before a truck accident ended his military career, plans to attend a local service in Eastbourne on the south coast of England.
He has spent much of his time honoring veterans and trying to help them, including 20 years as a volunteer for the Taxi Charity for Military Veterans. Like some of his army tasks, raising cash was rather grueling as it involved standing in front of London subway stations collecting coins to help fund the group’s efforts.
“I like to respect all the veterans and do what I can for them,’’ he told The Associated Press. “It’s a brotherhood really. Even if you don’t know a veteran that you meet, you feel a kinship toward them. That is very important to me. I shall be like that for the rest of my life.’’


Ukraine drone attack sparks fire in Russia’s Bryansk, region’s governor says

Ukraine drone attack sparks fire in Russia’s Bryansk, region’s governor says
Updated 14 min 45 sec ago
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Ukraine drone attack sparks fire in Russia’s Bryansk, region’s governor says

Ukraine drone attack sparks fire in Russia’s Bryansk, region’s governor says
  • There was no immediate comment from Ukraine

MOSCOW: One person was injured by a Ukrainian drone strike in Russia's Moscow region on Sunday, regional governor Andrei Vorobyov said via his channel in Telegram messaging app.
Ukraine attacked Moscow and its region on Sunday with at least 32 drones, Russian officials said, in what was the biggest Ukrainian drone strike on the Russian capital to date. 

The drone attack on the Russian border region of Bryansk has set several non-residential buildings on fire, regional Governor Alexander Bogomaz said on Sunday.
“Emergency services and firefighters are on the site,” Bogomaz wrote on the Telegram messaging app, without providing further detail.
He said earlier on Telegram that Russian air defense systems had destroyed 14 Ukrainian drones over the territory of the region overnight.
Reuters could not independently verify the report. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine. Kyiv has often said its drone attacks on Russian territory are aimed at infrastructure key to Moscow’s war efforts and are in response to Russia’s continued attack on Ukraine’s territory.


Mauritius holds election with cost of living on everyone’s minds

Mauritius holds election with cost of living on everyone’s minds
Updated 10 November 2024
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Mauritius holds election with cost of living on everyone’s minds

Mauritius holds election with cost of living on everyone’s minds

PORT LOUIS: Mauritius was holding a parliamentary election on Sunday with Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth and his main rivals all promising to tackle a cost of living crisis in the Indian Ocean archipelago.
Polling centers opened at 7 a.m. (0300 GMT), with small numbers of voters seen moving to check their names in the register before picking their ballots, a Reuters witness said. Voting was expected to end at 1400 GMT.
The country of about 1.3 million people markets itself as a link between Africa and Asia, deriving most of its revenues from a flourishing offshore financial sector, tourism and textiles.
It has forecast 6.5 percent economic growth this year compared with 7.0 percent last year but many voters are not feeling the benefits.
Jugnauth’s Alliance Lepep coalition has promised to raise minimum wages, increase pensions and reduce value-added tax on some basic goods.
It says it will use payments from the UK under an October agreement for Britain to cede the Chagos Islands while retaining the US-UK Diego Garcia air base.
Mauritius also receives aid from China.
“The alliance led by the prime minister is selling the economic prosperity card, with promises of more money to different segments of the population,” said political analyst Subash Gobine.
The opposition is also pledging to increase pensions as well as introduce free transport and Internet services and reduce fuel prices.
It is dominated by the Alliance du Changement coalition led by Navin Ramgoolam and two other parties running in the Linion Reform alliance, whose leaders, Nando Bodha and Roshi Bhadain, plan to alternate as prime minister if they win.
“It is the youths who will make the difference in these elections,” voter David Stafford, 36, said in the capital Port Louis, explaining that people were looking for economic innovation and job opportunities as much as fiscal changes.
Just over a million people are expected to choose lawmakers for the islands’ 62 seats in parliament for the next five years from a list of 68 parties and five political alliances.
Last week, Jugnauth’s government blocked social media platforms until a day after the election, when results are expected, citing national security concerns after conversations between public figures were leaked. It lifted the ban a day later after opposition parties criticized the move.
Whichever party or coalition gets more than half the seats in parliament also wins the prime minister’s post.