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.


Remaining USAID staff fired, Trump says Myanmar will still get earthquake aid

Remaining USAID staff fired, Trump says Myanmar will still get earthquake aid
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Remaining USAID staff fired, Trump says Myanmar will still get earthquake aid

Remaining USAID staff fired, Trump says Myanmar will still get earthquake aid
  • Thousands of USAID staff and Foreign Service officers assigned to the agency learned in an internal memo that all positions not required by law would be eliminated in July and September

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump’s administration told Congress on Friday it would cut nearly all remaining jobs at the US Agency for International Development and shut the agency, even as Trump promised that the US would provide assistance to Myanmar following a devastating earthquake.
Humanitarian aid experts expressed alarm at the new cuts to an agency whose humanitarian aid has gained Washington influence and saved lives across the globe for more than 60 years. USAID plays a major role in coordinating earthquake assistance.
Thousands of USAID staff and Foreign Service officers assigned to the agency learned in an internal memo that all positions not required by law would be eliminated in July and September.
The memo reviewed by Reuters was sent to staff by Jeremy Lewin, the agency’s acting deputy administrator and a member of billionaire Elon Musk’s job-cutting Department of Government Efficiency. DOGE oversaw a first round of cuts to USAID last month.
The State Department notification to Congress of the job cuts, also seen by Reuters, said USAID missions worldwide would be closed and the agency’s remaining functions would be folded into State.
Cuts at the agency have thrown humanitarian efforts around the world into turmoil. The latest notice came on the day that a powerful earthquake hit Thailand and Myanmar, toppling buildings and killing scores of people. USAID has historically played a major role in coordinating disaster relief efforts.
A US appeals court on Friday
ruled that Musk and DOGE can keep making cuts to USAID while they appeal a lower court order that had barred them from doing so.
US Representative Gregory Meeks, top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement that closing USAID was illegal and aimed at withdrawing the US “from its global leadership role with as much cruelty and disruption as possible.”
The exact number of personnel being fired was not immediately available. As of March 21, there were 869 US direct hire personnel on active duty and working, while 3,848 others were on paid administrative leave, according to Stand Up for Aid, a grassroots advocacy group.
The terminations also included thousands of Foreign Service officers on assignment to USAID around the globe, according to a source familiar with the matter.
In his memo, Lewin said agency personnel worldwide would shortly receive emailed termination notices giving them the choice of being fired on July 1 or September 2.
Over the next three months, the State Department would assume USAID’s remaining “life-saving and strategic aid programming,” he said, adding that USAID personnel will not automatically be transferred to the department, which would conduct “a separate and independent hiring process.”
Trump in January ordered a 90-day freeze of all US foreign aid and a review of whether aid programs were aligned with his policy. He claimed without evidence that Musk had found fraud at the agency, which he said was run by “radical left lunatics.”
Musk and DOGE gained access to USAID’s payment and email systems, froze many payments and told much of its staff they were being placed on leave. On February 3, Musk wrote on X that he had “spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper.”
On Friday, a statement from Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the State Department had notified the US Congress of its intent to reorganize USAID, saying the agency had “strayed from its original mission long ago.”
“We are reorienting our foreign assistance programs to align directly with what is best for the United States and our citizens,” Rubio said.
The decision to cut the remaining USAID jobs sparked concern among humanitarian aid experts, who said the firings and funding cuts would prevent a concerted US response to the earthquake that hit Myanmar and Thailand.
In a post on X, Jeremy Konyndyk, a former USAID official who is president of Refugees International, called the move “a total abdication of decades of US leadership in the world.”
He said the firings will cut “the last remnants of the team that would have mobilized a USAID disaster response” to the earthquake.
Trump on Friday said he had spoken with officials in Myanmar about the earthquake and that the US would provide assistance.
State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said the changes at USAID would not affect the administration’s ability to deploy a Disaster Assistance Response Team, or DART, adding she could not give a timeline.
The former USAID disaster response chief told Reuters the Trump administration’s massive personnel and funding cuts have “kneecapped” the agency’s ability to send disaster response teams to Thailand and Myanmar, opening the way to China and other US rival countries.
“I suspect we will see very shortly Chinese teams showing up, if they haven’t already, possibly Turkish, Russian, Indian teams really making their presence known in support of people that are really suffering right now in Thailand and Burma, and the US won’t be there,” said Sarah Charles, who served as assistant USAID administrator for humanitarian affairs until February 2024, using the former name of Myanmar.
Charles said contracts with urban search and rescue teams from Los Angeles and Virginia had been “turned back on” after being cut.
But, she said commercial contracts for transporting those teams remained cut and non-governmental aid groups that normally would provide emergency water, sanitation and medical help had laid off staff or run out of funds due to Trump’s foreign aid freeze.
“It’s really devastating to watch in real time,” she said.
Rubio said earlier this month that more than 80 percent of all USAID programs had been canceled.


Elon Musk says xAI startup buying X platform

Elon Musk says xAI startup buying X platform
Updated 6 min 43 sec ago
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Elon Musk says xAI startup buying X platform

Elon Musk says xAI startup buying X platform

SAN FRANCISCO: Elon Musk on Friday said his artificial intelligence startup xAI is buying his social networking platform X in a deal valuing the company once known as Twitter at $33 billion.
“This combination will unlock immense potential by blending xAI’s advanced AI capability and expertise with X’s massive reach,” Musk said in a post on his social network.
X has more than 600 million users, and its future is “intertwined” with that of xAI, launched two years ago, according to Musk.
“Today, we officially take the step to combine the data, models, compute, distribution and talent,” Musk said of combining the two companies.
“This will allow us to build a platform that doesn’t just reflect the world but actively accelerates human progress.”
The companies are being combined in an all-stock deal that values xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion, factoring in the social network’s $12 billion debt.
Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion in late 2022 in a transaction that included debt and launched xAI the following year, spending billions of dollars on high-end Nvidia chips for the venture.
xAI in February released the latest version of its chatbot, Grok 3, which the billionaire hopes will find traction in a highly competitive sector contested by the likes of ChatGPT and China’s DeepSeek.
Musk has promoted Grok 3 as “scary smart,” with 10 times the computational resources of its predecessor that was released in August last year.
Grok 3 is also going up against OpenAI’s chatbot, ChatGPT — pitting Musk against collaborator-turned-arch rival Sam Altman.
Musk and Altman were among the 11-person team that founded OpenAI in 2015.
Created as a counterweight to Google’s dominance in artificial intelligence, the project got initial funding from Musk.
Musk left three years later, and then in 2022 OpenAI’s release of ChatGPT created a global technology sensation — which made Altman a tech world star.
Their relationship has become increasingly toxic and litigious ever since.
X’s billionaire owner, the world’s richest person, is a major financial backer of US President Donald Trump and heads a Department of Government Efficiency that has been slashing the ranks of government employees.
Industry analysts at Emarketer this week forecast that ad revenue at X will grow this year as brands fear retaliation by politically connected Musk if they don’t spend on the platform.
“Many advertisers may view spending on X as a cost of doing business in order to mitigate potential legal or financial repercussions,” said Emarketer principal analyst Jasmine Enberg.


Congo doubles salaries for beleaguered army amid rebel advance

The conflict has forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes and piled pressure on President Felix Tshisekedi. (Reuters)
The conflict has forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes and piled pressure on President Felix Tshisekedi. (Reuters)
Updated 28 March 2025
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Congo doubles salaries for beleaguered army amid rebel advance

The conflict has forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes and piled pressure on President Felix Tshisekedi. (Reuters)
  • We learned that our pay has been doubled, but we have not yet experienced this increase because our salary has been frozen

KINSHASA: Democratic Republic of Congo doubled salaries for soldiers and police on Friday, the Finance Ministry said, in an apparent bid to boost morale as Rwanda-backed M23 rebels advance in the east.
M23 has seized eastern Congo’s two largest cities in a swift offensive that has left thousands dead, forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes, and piled pressure on President Felix Tshisekedi.
The Finance Ministry said that the pay hikes will be “a turning point toward better conditions” for the army. An officer in North Kivu province said on Thursday he had heard about the raises, but said that troops had not received even their basic salaries over the last two months since banks shut following the fall of the city of Goma.
“We learned that our pay has been doubled, but we have not yet experienced this increase because our salary has been frozen,” the officer said.
Congo has roughly 260,000 soldiers and other security forces, according to the 2025 budget law.
Government documents show that official monthly salaries since 2022 have averaged between $100 and $200 for all ranks.
It was not immediately clear what effect the pay raise would have on the budget.
A draft law amending the budget for 2025 was due to be sent to lawmakers earlier this month, but that has not emerged.
“These expenses are being incurred outside the budget. This is serious because no one will be able to monitor the actual numbers and salaries of the military personnel to be paid,” Valery Madianga, a Congolese expert on public finances, said.
Rwanda denies allegations from Congo and the UN that it supports the M23 with arms and troops, saying its forces are acting in self defense against Congo’s army and militias hostile to Kigali.
Rwanda’s government severed links with Belgium on March 17, accusing it of having “consistently undermined” it during the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
National and international NGOs working in Rwanda have been banned from cooperating with Belgian institutions, the Rwanda Governance Board said, after Kigali cut off diplomatic ties with Brussels earlier this month.
The RGB, which oversees service delivery in the east African nation, said the ban also extended to “faith-based organizations” and common-benefit companies.
The RGB said any current projects or agreements with the Belgian government or its affiliates were “prohibited” and “must be terminated immediately and reported.” “No funds, grants, donations, or financial contributions shall be received from or disbursed to the government of Belgium, its institutions, affiliated agencies or programs,” it said in a statement issued Thursday.
“Any attempts to circumvent these financial restrictions, including indirect transactions through subsidiaries or partner organizations, will be subject to strict penalties.”
Political and human rights activist Pelly Prudence Iraguha said the decision should have been submitted to parliament.
But RGB chief executive Doris Uwicyeza Picard wrote on X: “RGB has powers to take such decisions backed by laws passed by parliament.
“These laws give RGB powers to suspend NGOs involved in activities that infringe on citizens unity or security.”

 


Mali condemns violence against migrants

Passengers from the Mauritanian side of the Senegal river disembark from a pirogue in Rosso, Senegal, on March 20, 2025. (AFP)
Passengers from the Mauritanian side of the Senegal river disembark from a pirogue in Rosso, Senegal, on March 20, 2025. (AFP)
Updated 28 March 2025
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Mali condemns violence against migrants

Passengers from the Mauritanian side of the Senegal river disembark from a pirogue in Rosso, Senegal, on March 20, 2025. (AFP)
  • More than 1,800 Malian migrants have been pushed back from Mauritania in recent weeks, according to Minister for Malians Living Abroad Mossa Ag Attaher

BAMAKO: Mali says it is outraged over violence suffered by its citizens deported by neighboring Mauritania and has demanded the “flagrant violation of human rights” must end.
For several weeks, Mauritania has been throwing out migrants, mostly from neighboring countries in west Africa like Senegal, Mali, Ivory Coast, and Guinea.
The vast, arid country on the Atlantic seaboard is a departure point for many African migrants seeking to reach Europe by sea.
The authorities say their “routine” deportations target undocumented people.
But the campaign has sparked an outcry in the region.
“The government of Mali expresses its indignation and condemns with the utmost rigour the treatment suffered by its nationals in Mauritania,” it said in a statement released during a press conference on the issue held in the capital Bamako.
It also said it regretted “the conditions of arrest in flagrant violation of human rights and the rights of migrants in particular.
The government said it “calls on the Mauritanian authorities to show restraint and calls for an immediate cessation of violence against Malian nationals.”
Migrants’ rights groups such as SOS Esclaves have condemned arrests in “inhumane” conditions.
Mauritania says the migrants are returned to the border crossings through which they had entered the country.
More than 1,800 Malian migrants have been pushed back from Mauritania in recent weeks, according to Minister for Malians Living Abroad Mossa Ag Attaher.
Talks with Mauritania will continue “to preserve the solid historic ties between the two countries,” the Malian government said.
The state AMI news agency reported that Mali’s foreign minister, Abdoulaye Diop, visited Mauritania on Thursday to deliver a message on maintaining the “friendly and brotherly relations” between the two countries.
His Mauritanian counterpart, Mohamed Salem Ould Merzoug, raised the issue of their respective citizens in each other’s country, AMI said.
But Ould Merzoug insisted that Mauritania “has the right to take all necessary measures to ensure its security and to protect its citizens,” the agency reported.

 


Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh welcome $73 million in new US financial aid

Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh welcome $73 million in new US financial aid
Updated 28 March 2025
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Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh welcome $73 million in new US financial aid

Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh welcome $73 million in new US financial aid
  • The US had been the largest provider of aid to the Rohingya refugees, contributing nearly $2.4 billion since 2017 and providing the UN with emergency food and nutrition assistance, according to the State Department

COX’S BAZAR, Bangaldesh: The US government has confirmed it would provide $73 million in new financial aid for Rohingya refugees through the United Nations’ food agency, easing worries among more than 1 million refugees that essential food rations would be cut.
Aid agencies, the UN and refugees have voiced concerns after the World Food Program  warned it may be affected after US President Donald Trump’s administration announced it was cutting international aid.
The World Food Program said earlier this month that if it is not able to raise funds, it will have no option but to halve food rations to $6 a month from previous $12.50 in Bangladesh’s southern coastal district of Cox’s Bazar, where the Rohingya live in sprawling camps.

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The US had been the largest provider of aid to the Rohingya refugees, contributing nearly $2.4 billion since 2017.

Bangladesh government’s Refugee, Relief and Repatriation Commissioner, Mohammed Mizanur Rahman, told reporters that he received confirmation from the WFP on Thursday that refugees in Cox’s Bazar — as well as the thousands who have been relocated to Bhashan Char island — will continue to receive $12 to $13 a month each in aid.
“This food and nutrition support through WFP will provide critically needed food and nutrition assistance for more than one million people,” US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday.
“It is important that our international partners engage with sharing the burden with life-saving assistance such as this,” Bruce added.
The US had been the largest provider of aid to the Rohingya refugees, contributing nearly $2.4 billion since 2017 and providing the UN with emergency food and nutrition assistance, according to the State Department. The US provided about $300 million in humanitarian aid for the Rohingyas in 2024.
Refugees in Cox’s Bazar welcomed the announcement that aid will continue.
“I am glad that the president of America is donating the money, which will help (provide food for) our grandchildren. We are very happy,” said 60-year-old Hussain Bahar.
Forid Alam, a 36-year-old refugee at Balukhali Rohingya refugee camp, said the announcement was a gift coming days before Muslims’ largest festival Eid Al-Fitr.
“We are grateful to the people of Bangladesh, its government, and the donors who are donating. We are so thrilled after hearing the news ahead of Eid that we don’t have words to express our gratitude. We are praying from the bottom of our hearts and are truly glad,” he said.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who visited Bangladesh recently, said Cox’s Bazar is “ground zero for the impact of the budget cuts on people in desperate need.”
Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya reside in Bangladesh, including more than 700,000 who arrived in 2017 fleeing persecution in Myanmar. About 70,000 others crossed the border from Myanmar in 2024 when, during fighting with the military junta, the opposition force known as the Arakan Army effectively took over the Rakhine state where Rohingya were displaced.
Bangladesh says repatriation of the refugees to Myanmar is the ultimate solution, but complexities over verification and other diplomatic and political issues have made the refugees’ return uncertain.