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Elite Universities Clear Pro-Hamas Encampments While New Ones Crop Up Elsewhere

A pro-Hamas encampment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, May 6, 2024. Photo: Brian Snyder via Reuters Connect

A pro-Hamas “encampment” at the University of Pennsylvania was cleared by the Philadelphia Police Department on Friday morning, a measure that included the arrest of dozens of protesters who had illegally occupied the College Green section of campus for nearly three weeks and refused to leave unless the school took steps to boycott Israel.

Following the action, interim Penn president Larry Jameson issued a statement explaining that the situation on the College Green was pernicious and that the protesters’ demands, including their insistence on amnesty for anyone charged with violating school rules, were nonviable.

“The protesters refused repeatedly to disband the encampment, to produce identification, to stop threatening, loud, and discriminatory speech and behavior, and to comply with instructions from Penn administrators and Public Safety,” Jameson said. “Instead, they called for others to join them in escalating their disruptions and expanding their encampment, necessitating that we take action to protect the safety and rights of everyone in our community.”

He added, “We could not allow further disruption of our academic mission. We could not allow students to be prevented from accessing study spaces and resources, attending final exams, or participating in commencement ceremonies, which for many did not happen during the pandemic.”

On Wednesday night, a crush of people stormed the College Green to “expand” the Penn encampment to cover more school property after conversations with the administration stalled, according to The Daily Pennsylvanian, a campus newspaper. Local police equipped with riot gear prepared to clear them from the area but ultimately stood down for reasons that remain unclear. Earlier in the week, Jameson suggested that the university’s tolerance for the demonstration was exhausted, noting that the pro-Hamas mob had vandalized a statue of Benjamin Franklin and “The Button,” a sculpture built in the early 1980s.

“This decision is viewpoint neutral and affirmed by our policies,” Jameson concluded in Friday’s statement. “Open expression and peaceful protest are welcome on our campus, but vandalism, trespassing, disruption, and threatening language and actions are not.”

An encampment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was also cleared on Friday morning by local police, their second attempt at doing so after the school issued an ultimatum to the protesters on Monday. According to numerous reports on social media, police moved in during the early hours of the morning while the protesters slept in their tents. MIT had previously promised not to severely discipline students against whom the school has already filed disciplinary charges if they left by 2:30 pm on Monday afternoon. That deadline has long since expired, but it not yet clear whether the school will follow through on punishing what the school itself has described as misconduct.

Harvard University began suspending its protesters on Friday following their rejection of a deal to end the demonstration, according to The Harvard Crimson. Earlier in the week, interim president Alan Garber vowed that any student who continued to occupy the campus would be placed on “involuntary leave,” a measure that effectively disenrolls the students from school and bars them from campus until the university decides whether they are allowed back.

The disciplinary measures came one day after members of Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine (HOOP) created a sign featuring an antisemitic caricature of Garber as Satan, and accused him of duplicity. HOOP said on Friday that the punishment exposes them to “eviction, food insecurity, degree withholding, and deportation.”

In Washington, DC, protesters returned to the campus of George Washington University on Thursday following the removal of an encampment from the school’s University Yard the prior day. At least one student was arrested for assaulting a police officer, according to the GW Hatchet, which later reported that the students left the area early on Friday morning.

Higher education has been convulsed by pro-Hamas demonstrations since the terrorist organization’s massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7. Three presidents of Ivy League schools — Elizabeth Magill of the University of Pennsylvania, Claudine Gay of Harvard University, and Martha Pollack of Cornell University — have resigned from their positions amid the tumult and numerous investigations into campus antisemitism that have been opened by the US House Committee on Education and the Workforce.

Over the past three weeks, anti-Zionist college students have escalated their methods, amassing in the hundreds to take over sections of campus from which they refused to leave unless administrators agreed to condemn and boycott Israel. Footage of the protests has shown demonstrators chanting in support of Hamas, calling for the destruction of Israel, and even threatening to harm members of the Jewish community on campus. In many cases, they have also lambasted the US and Western civilization more broadly.

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

The post Elite Universities Clear Pro-Hamas Encampments While New Ones Crop Up Elsewhere first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Trump Announces India and Pakistan ‘Agreed to a Full and Immediate Ceasefire’

US President Donald Trump attends the annual White House Easter Egg Roll, on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, April 21, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Leah Millis

i24 NewsUS President Donald Trump on Saturday announced that India and Pakistan had agreed to a full and immediate ceasefire. “Congratulations to both Countries on using Common Sense and Great Intelligence,” he posted on social media. “Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar confirmed the ceasefire, saying Saudi Arabia and Turkey also played an important role in facilitating the deal.

The ceasefire follows weeks of clashes and cross-border missile and drone strikes triggered by a gun massacre of Indian tourists last month.

New Delhi has blamed jihadists from the Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Taiba, a UN-designated terrorist organization. Pakistan denies the charge.

Dozens of civilians have been killed on both sides.

The post Trump Announces India and Pakistan ‘Agreed to a Full and Immediate Ceasefire’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Latest Columbia Scandal Sees Over 65 Students Suspended, Including Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Daughter

Pro-Palestinian protesters are detained by NYPD after taking part in a demonstration at Butler Library on the Columbia University campus in New York, U.S., May 7, 2025. REUTERS/Dana Edwards

i24 NewsIn the latest antisemitism scandal at the prestigious New York institution, Columbia University suspended dozens of students and barred from campus alumni and others who took part in a chaotic and violent anti-Israel incident inside the school’s main library earlier in the week.

On May 7, the mask-clad mob forced its way into the library, injuring two public safety officers in the process. Once inside, they vandalized property, adorning the premises with Palestinian flags, scrawling “Columbia will burn” on a glass case, and declaring the library a “liberated zone.”

Some 75 protesters were arrested after refusing to comply with police directives, including Ramona Sarsgaard, daughter of Hollywood A-lister Maggie Gyllenhaal and actor Peter Sarsgaard.

The Ivy League university in Manhattan declined to say how long the disciplinary measures would be in place, saying only that the decisions are pending further investigation.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said his office will review the visa status of those who participated in the library takeover for possible deportation.

The post Latest Columbia Scandal Sees Over 65 Students Suspended, Including Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Daughter first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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US, Iran to Hold 4th Round of Nuclear Talks on Eve of Trump’s Gulf Tour

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi looks on before a meeting with Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, in Tehran, Iran, Aug. 26, 2024. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS

i24 NewsThe United States and Iran will hold a fourth round of nuclear talks Sunday in Oman, officials said, just ahead of a visit to the region by President Donald Trump.

Trump, who will visit three other Gulf Arab monarchies next week, has voiced hope for reaching a deal with Tehran to curb its nuclear program that would avert an Israeli military strike on Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities that could ignite a wider war. He has refused, however, to rule out military action in the event the talks come to naught.

Iran’s top diplomat Abbas Araghchi said that Oman, the mediator in the talks, had proposed Sunday as the date and both sides accepted it.

“Negotiations are moving ahead and naturally, the more we advance, the more consultations we have, and the more time the delegations need to examine the issues,” he was quoted as saying by regime media. “But what’s important is that we are moving forward so that we gradually get into the details.”

Steve Witkoff, Trump’s personal friend serving as his globe-trotting negotiator, will take part in the talks.

American and Iranian representatives voiced optimism after the previous talks that took place in Oman and Rome, saying there was a friendly atmosphere despite the two countries’ decades of enmity.

However the two sides are not believed to have thrashed out the all-important technical details, and basic questions remain.

The post US, Iran to Hold 4th Round of Nuclear Talks on Eve of Trump’s Gulf Tour first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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