WASHINGTON: Students protesting the war in Gaza abandoned their camp at the University of Southern California early Sunday after being surrounded by police and threatened with arrest, while Northeastern University’s commencement began peacefully at Boston’s Fenway Park.
Developments in both places were being watched closely following scores of arrests last month — 94 people at USC in Los Angeles and about 100 at Northeastern in Boston.
Dozens of Los Angeles Police Department officers arrived about 4 a.m. at USC to assist campus safety officers. The university had warned of arrests on social media and in person. Video showed some protesters packing up and leaving, while officers formed lines to push others away from the camp as it emptied out. The university said there were no reports of any arrests.
USC President Carol Folt said it was time to draw a line because “the occupation was spiraling in a dangerous direction” with areas of campus blocked and people being harassed.
“The operation was peaceful,” Folt wrote in an update. “Campus is opening, students are returning to prepare for finals, and commencement set-up is in full swing.”
USC earlier canceled its main graduation ceremony while allowing other commencement activities to continue.
At the Northeastern commencement Sunday, some students waved small Palestinian and Israeli flags, but were outnumbered by those waving the flags of India and the US, among others. Undergraduate student speaker Rebecca Bamidele drew brief cheers when she called for peace in Gaza.
The Associated Press has tallied about 2,500 people arrested at about 50 campuses since April 18, based on its reporting and statements from universities and law enforcement.
Arrests continued apace over the weekend. At the University of Virginia, there were 25 arrests Saturday for trespassing after police clashed with protesters who refused to remove tents. At the Art Institute of Chicago campus, police cleared a pro-Palestinian encampment hours after it was set up Saturday and arrested 68 people, saying they would be charged with criminal trespass.
ARRESTS IN VIRGINIA
In Charlottesville, Virginia, student demonstrators began their protest on a lawn outside the school chapel Tuesday. Video on Saturday showed police in riot gear and holding shields lined up on campus, while protesters chanted “Free Palestine.”
As police moved in, students were pushed to the ground, pulled by their arms and sprayed with a chemical irritant, Laura Goldblatt, an assistant professor who has been helping the demonstrators, told The Washington Post. The university said protesters were told that tents were banned under school policy and were asked to remove them.
Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares told Fox News on Sunday the police response was justified because students had been warned repeatedly to leave, were violating the school’s conduct code, and that outsiders who were not students provided protesters with supplies like wooden barriers.
“We’ve seen folks that are not students show up in riot gear with bull horns to direct the protesters on how to flank our officers,” Miyares said.
He said some had put bear spray into water bottles and thrown them at officers.
It was the latest clash in weeks of protests and tension at US colleges and universities.
Tent encampments of protesters urging universities to stop doing business with Israel or companies they say support the war in Gaza have spread in a student movement unlike any other this century. Some schools reached agreements with protesters to end the demonstrations and reduce the possibility of disrupting final exams and commencements.
DEMONSTRATIONS AMID COMMENCEMENT
The University of Michigan was among the schools bracing for protests during commencement this weekend, as were Indiana University, Ohio State University and Northeastern. More ceremonies are planned in the coming weeks.
In Ann Arbor, there was a protest at the beginning of the event at Michigan Stadium. About 75 people, many wearing traditional Arabic kaffiyehs along with their graduation caps, marched up the main aisle toward the stage.
They chanted “Regents, regents, you can’t hide! You are funding genocide!” while holding signs, including one that read: “No universities left in Gaza.”
Overhead, planes pulled banners with competing messages. “Divest from Israel now! Free Palestine!” and “We stand with Israel. Jewish lives matter.”
Officials said no one was arrested, and the protest didn’t seriously interrupt the nearly two-hour event, attended by tens of thousands of people, some of them waving Israeli flags.
OTHER PROTESTS CONTINUE
At Indiana University, protesters urged supporters to wear their kaffiyehs and walk out during remarks by school President Pamela Whitten on Saturday evening. The Bloomington campus designated a protest zone outside Memorial Stadium, where the ceremony was held.
At Princeton University in New Jersey, 18 students began a hunger strike to try to push the university to divest from companies tied to Israel. Students at other colleges, including Brown and Yale, launched similar hunger strikes this year before the more recent wave of demonstrations.
The protests stem from the conflict that started Oct. 7 when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking roughly 250 hostages. Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel launched an offensive in Gaza that has killed more than 34,500 Palestinians, about two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory. Israeli strikes have devastated the enclave and displaced most of its inhabitants.
Anti-war protesters leave USC after police arrive, while Northeastern ceremony proceeds calmly
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Anti-war protesters leave USC after police arrive, while Northeastern ceremony proceeds calmly

- Israel has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry
In Java, Indonesian conservationist leads efforts to protect endangered silvery gibbons

- Rahayu Oktaviani won the 2025 Whitley Award, which recognizes grassroots conservation leaders
- There are fewer than 2,500 Javan gibbons in the wild, half of which live at a national park in West Java
JAKARTA: It was deep in the heart of an Indonesian rainforest in West Java that Rahayu Oktaviani, known as Ayu, first heard the “song” of the Javan gibbon.
She had her first encounter in 2008 while visiting the Mount Halimun Salak National Park for an undergraduate research project that required her to obtain a voice sample of the primate.
After waiting patiently for two weeks, coming in and out of the forest, she finally heard a Javan gibbon make its distinctive call.
She recalled how the sound she described as melodic and haunting had created a hush, as it echoed throughout the forest.
“It’s like the most beautiful song that I ever heard in my life. It’s so amazing,” Ayu told Arab News.
“They are non-human primates, but they can have like this beautiful song that can make all of … the creatures in the forest just keep silent.”
In the 17 years since, Ayu has dedicated her life to protecting the endangered animals, which are also known as “silvery gibbon,” or “owa jawa” locally.

A vast archipelago stretching across the equator, Indonesia is a top global biodiversity hotspot and home to over 60 species of primates, about 38 of which are endemic to the country.
“Maybe a lot of people know about the orangutan, about the rhino, about the tiger, but how about the overlooked species, just like, for example, the Javan gibbon? Not so many people know about them,” Ayu said.
Fewer than 2,500 Javan gibbons remain in the wild today, according to an estimate by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. About half of them live in the 87,000-hectare Mount Halimun Salak National Park, where Ayu and her team have laid the building blocks for grassroots conservation of the endangered species.
The gibbons rely on a continuous canopy for movement and foraging, making them particularly vulnerable to forest fragmentation and habitat degradation. As around 55 percent of Indonesia’s 270 million population lives in Java, the survival of the endemic species found only in the island’s forests is threatened by deforestation and illegal animal trafficking.
“With the situation in Java, where only like 10 percent of the natural forests are remaining, it means the forest itself should be intact. The forest itself still needs to be there not only for the Javan gibbons, but also for the other species that need this habitat for their lives,” Ayu said.
In 2020, she co-founded the conservation nongovernmental organization Kiara to expand efforts to save the Javan gibbon, believing that a key aspect in protecting the species was to engage the local community.
When she started out as a primatologist, spending much time in the forest to study the gibbons, Ayu did not realize that she was neglecting the very people who lived alongside the primates.
She recalled a question a villager posed at the time, a woman named Yanti, who was curious as to why Ayu always went to the forest but rarely stopped by the village.
“That’s a really casual and simple question, but it kept me thinking about what I’ve been doing so far. Is there something that I’ve been missing?” Ayu said.
Yanti’s query eventually led her to realize that she needed to do more with the community.
“We want to build together with the communities, where actually the gibbon can be something that they can be proud of,” she said. “Community engagement is 100 percent the core for conservation because without community, we cannot do everything.”
Ayu has employed people from Citalahab, a small village enclave located within the national park where locals make a living working in tea plantations or as rice farmers. Eight of them now work in the field alongside Ayu and her team to monitor the gibbons in the wild.
With Kiara, she also established the Ambu Halimun initiative, which involves 15 local women between the ages of 17 and 50 in ecoprinting workshops and financial literacy training.
In April, Ayu won the prestigious Whitley Award, which recognizes achievements in grassroots conservation, to advance her work in protecting the Javan gibbons.
With 50,000 British pounds ($67,000) from the award, Ayu plans to scale up her programs with Kiara to mitigate threats from human activities and to protect the gibbons’ habitat.
This includes developing a data management system to enhance park-wide conservation efforts, training the park rangers in biodiversity monitoring techniques, and guiding conservation strategies.
The 38-year-old, whose role models are “the Trimates,” primatologists Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey and Birute Galdikas, has faith that humans can live in coexistence with wildlife.
“Actually, if we put aside our ego, we are part of the ecosystem itself. We are not separated from the ecosystems, so it means we have to have more balance with nature,” she said. “And to do that, we also have to respect what else (is) actually living together with us in these ecosystems.”
Ayu said the Whitley Award served as good momentum to raise awareness about the species she loves dearly, the Javan gibbons.
“I believe not so many people are aware of the existence of the Javan gibbon, so it’s the right momentum to share the love for the Javan gibbon and make people care about it,” she said. “Because how can you care about the species if you know nothing about them?”
With the award and the coverage that it garnered internationally, Ayu is also hopeful about inspiring a new generation of conservationists from Indonesia.
“I think women also play a good part to be conservationists in the future … It’s also about … regeneration: the importance of nurturing the new generation of conservationists and primatologists from Indonesia, especially because we need more and more people who work in this field.”
UK working with Israel to arrange charter flights out of Tel Aviv, Lammy says

LONDON: Britain is working with Israeli authorities to arrange charter flights for British nationals from Tel Aviv when the airport reopens, foreign minister David Lammy said on Friday.
“As part of our efforts to support British nationals in the Middle East, the government is working with the Israeli authorities to provide charter flights from Tel Aviv airport when airspace reopens,” Lammy said in a statement.
Israel’s main international gateway, Ben Gurion Airport, closed last week due to Israel and Iran’s spiralling air war.
On Monday, the British government advised its citizens in Israel to register their presence with British authorities, saying it was monitoring the situation and considering options for assistance.
It said it had increased its logistical support for citizens who have turned to overland routes into Jordan and Egypt.
Taiwan to hold recall election for lawmakers that could reshape parliament

TAIPEI: Taiwan will hold a recall vote for around one quarter of parliament’s lawmakers — all from the main opposition party — next month, the election commission said on Friday, a move which could see the ruling party take back control of the legislature.
While Lai Ching-te won the presidency last year, his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lost its parliamentary majority, leaving the Kuomintang (KMT) and the much smaller Taiwan People’s Party with the most seats.
The KMT and the TPP have passed a series of measures, including swingeing budget cuts, angering the DPP, though the campaigns to gather enough signatures for the recalls were led by civic groups.
The opposition has 62 of parliament’s 113 seats and the DPP holds the remaining 51. The recall votes for 24 KMT lawmakers will take place on July 26, the election commission said.
The DPP has given full support for the recalls, releasing a video this week calling on people to vote yes and “oppose the communists” — a direct reference to China and what the party says is the opposition’s dangerous cosying up to Beijing.
The KMT has vowed to fight what it calls a “malicious recall” that comes so soon after the last parliamentary election in January 2024.
“The KMT calls on the people of Taiwan to oppose the green communists and fight against dictatorship, and vote ‘no’,” the party said in a statement after the recall vote was announced, referring to the DPP’s party colors.
The KMT says its engagement with China, which views separately-governed Taiwan as its own territory, is needed to keep channels of communication open and reduce tensions.
China has rejected multiple offers of talks from Lai, branding him a “separatist,” and has increased military pressure against the island.
Recall campaigns against DPP lawmakers failed to gather enough valid signatures.
For the recalls to be successful, the number of votes approving the measure must be more than those opposing it, and also exceed one-quarter of the number of registered voters in the constituency, so turnout will be important.
If the recall votes are successful, there will be by-elections later this year to select new lawmakers.
Taiwan’s next parliamentary and presidential elections are not scheduled until early 2028.
Belgium announces border checks in migration clampdown

- A spokesperson for the Belgian Immigration Office said it was difficult to give figures for illegal immigration at the moment without the systematic border checks
BRUSSELS: Belgium will introduce border checks on people coming into the country to clamp down on illegal migration, the government said, in another limit on free movement across Europe’s Schengen zone.
The restrictions in the country that borders the Netherlands, France, Luxembourg and Germany will start this summer, a spokesperson for the junior minister for migration, Anneleen Van Bossuyt, said on Friday.
“Time for entry controls. Belgium must not be a magnet for those stopped elsewhere. Our message is clear: Belgium will no longer tolerate illegal migration and asylum shopping,” Van Bossuyt wrote on X.
The announcement follows similar moves by the Netherlands and Germany, part of a broader crackdown on migration across the continent, even as numbers of arrivals on many major routes have shown signs of falling.
“The checks will be carried out in a targeted manner on major access roads such as motorway car parks, on bus traffic ... on certain trains ... and on intra-Schengen flights from countries with high migration pressure, such as Greece and Italy,” a Belgian government statement said late on Thursday.
Prime Minister Bart De Wever, in office since February, has said curbing migration is a key priority for his right-leaning government.
Belgium is part of the open-border Schengen area which guarantees free travel between its 29 member states. Under article 23 of the Schengen Borders Code, members can temporarily reinstate border checks in response to security or migration pressures.
A spokesperson for the Belgian Immigration Office said it was difficult to give figures for illegal immigration at the moment without the systematic border checks.
Belgium, one of the world’s richest countries, received 39,615 asylum applications in 2024, 11.6 percent more than in 2023, numbers from the Federal Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers show.
The country had the capacity to take in 35,600 applicants in 2024, according to the figures, leaving many arrivals without proper accommodation.
Iran-Israel war could have ‘harmful’ migration impact on Europe, Erdogan warns

ISTANBUL: The Iran-Israel air war could spark a surge in migration that could harm Europe and the region, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Friday.
Israel, saying Iran was on the verge of developing a nuclear weapon, launched a massive wave of strikes a week ago, triggering an immediate retaliation.
“The spiral of violence triggered by Israel’s attacks could harm the region and Europe in terms of migration and the possibility of nuclear leakage,” his office quoted him as saying in a phone conversation with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
Erdogan said the solution to the nuclear disagreements with Iran was “through negotiations.” He said the violence had “raised the threat to regional security to the highest level” and Turkiye was “making efforts to end the conflict.”
Despite the escalating confrontation, a Turkish defense ministry source said Thursday there had been “no increase” in numbers crossing from Iran.
The Turkish authorities have not released any figures.
AFP correspondents at the main Kapikoy border crossing near the eastern Turkish city of Van reported seeing several hundred people crossing in both directions, with a customs official saying the numbers were “nothing unusual.”
During a visit to the frontier on Wednesday, Defense Minister Yasar Guler said “security measures at our borders have been increased.”