Despite polls, Biden aides insist Gaza campus protests will not hurt reelection bid

President Joe Biden speaks in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, May 14, 2024. (AP)
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Updated 19 May 2024
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Despite polls, Biden aides insist Gaza campus protests will not hurt reelection bid

  • Protests over Israel’s war in Gaza have broken out at more than 60 colleges and universities this year, disrupted Biden’s events around the country, pushed Democrats in key battleground states to vote “uncommitted” and divided the Democratic party

WASHINGTON: Several top White House aides say they are confident protests across US college campuses against Israel’s offensive in Gaza will not translate into significantly fewer votes for Joe Biden in November’s election, despite polls showing many Democrats are deeply unhappy about the US president’s policy on the war.
The White House optimism on the issue, which is shared by many in the Biden campaign, runs contrary to dire warnings from some Democratic strategists and youth organizers who warn misjudging the situation could cost Biden dearly in a tight race with Republican rival Donald Trump.
Several aides told Reuters they are advising Biden to remain above the fray, rather than directly engage with the relatively small groups of protesters on college campuses, arguing their numbers are too insignificant to harm the president’s reelection campaign.
Faced with a choice between Biden and Trump in November, many officials remain confident even Democrats who oppose US policy will choose Biden. Reuters interviewed nearly a dozen top White House officials in recent days, but only two expressed concern about the impact of the protests and Biden’s handling of the issue.
The issue returns to the spotlight Sunday, when Biden makes the commencement address at Morehouse College, over some objections by students and faculty, and a warning from the college’s president that the ceremony will stop if there are protests.
Most officials Reuters spoke to said they believe housing costs and inflation were the issues top of mind for young voters, not the war in Gaza, pointing to a recent Harvard poll that ranks Israel/Palestine 15th on a list of issues, after taxes, gun violence and jobs. Several aides refer to the protesters as “activists” rather than students.
Asked for comment on the issue, White House senior deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said Biden understands this is a painful moment for many communities and is listening. He has said too many civilians have died in the “heartbreaking” conflict and that more must be done to prevent the loss of innocent lives, Bates added.
Biden and Trump are nearly tied in national polls, and Trump has the edge in the battleground states that will decide the election, multiple recent polls show. On economic issues like inflation, Trump scores higher with voters overall than Biden.
A new Reuters/Ipsos poll found Democrats deeply divided over Biden’s handling of both the war in Gaza and the US campus protests against it, with 44 percent of registered Democrats disapproving of Biden’s handling of the crisis, and 51 percent of his handling of the protests.
Young voters still favor Biden, but support has dropped significantly since 2020, polls show. A Reuters/Ipsos poll in March showed Americans aged 18-29 favored Biden over Trump by just 3 percentage points — 29 percent to 26 percent — with the rest favoring another candidate or unsure if anyone would get their vote.
Two White House officials Reuters spoke to emphasized Biden’s support among young voters is not where it was in 2020 and said they worry the administration is not taking the drop seriously enough.
With over 35,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza since war began in October, US support for Israel’s government could weigh heavily on the presidential election in November, they said.
“There is almost a level of defiance when it comes to some of the president’s closest advisers on this issue,” said a senior White House official with direct knowledge of the matter, who did not wish to be named. “They think the best approach is to simply steer clear and let it pass.”

BIDEN SPEAKS CAUTIOUSLY
Protests over Israel’s war in Gaza have broken out at more than 60 colleges and universities this year, disrupted Biden’s events around the country, pushed Democrats in key battleground states to vote “uncommitted” and divided the Democratic party.
Biden, who is known for saying what he thinks, even when it’s not politically beneficial, has been cautious on the issue of protests over Gaza. He spoke in early May on the importance of following the law, while defending free speech and later on addressed the threat of antisemitism on college campuses.
Both times, he mostly avoided the issue that has sparked the protests — how young Americans feel about his support for Israel. But he also said bluntly that protests will not change his Middle East policy.
Groups organizing the protests say that a recent halt to some weapons to Israel was too little too late, and are planning fresh demonstrations, though the summer break may quieten action on campuses.
Michele Weindling, political director of the climate-focused youth group the Sunrise Movement, said “young people are incredibly disillusioned, they are angry at the way the president has treated this conflict.”
“A huge risk right now is that young voters will completely stay out of the electoral system this November, or deliberately vote against Biden out of anger,” Weindling said.
That has the potential to cost Biden dearly, given 61 percent of the more than half of Americans aged 18 to 29 that voted in the 2020 general election voted Democratic, a Tufts University research group found. The youth turnout was up 11 points from 2016.

GAZA NOT A TOP ISSUE
Republicans both overwhelmingly disapprove of the protests and Biden’s handling of the war, a Reuters/Ipsos poll published this week shows. Some Republicans have called for him to send National Guard troops on to campuses.
But until a day before Biden delivered his first speech on the protests on May 2, he remained unsure he needed to address the issue, two officials said. Biden asked his team to put together “something rudimentary,” so he could edit and change it, which he did that evening, one of the officials said.
He did not make the final decision to speak until the morning, after violence broke out on the UCLA campus, the official added.
The Harvard youth poll showing Israel/Gaza is low on youth concerns is being circulated at internal meetings at the campaign and the White House and is in line with private data the White House has seen, the first official said.
The president doesn’t speak about every issue in the news, on purpose, another White House official said. It “doesn’t always happen, no matter what kind of news it is, whether it’s the news of the day or the week or the month,” he said.

 


Starmer condemns Israel’s ‘appalling’ actions in Gaza

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Starmer condemns Israel’s ‘appalling’ actions in Gaza

  • UK prime minister refuses to be drawn on recognizing Palestinian state during questions from MPs
  • Says Britain and its allies are considering further sanctions against Israel

LONDON: Israel’s actions in Gaza are “appalling and intolerable” the UK Prime Minister Keir Starter said on Wednesday amid growing international pressure to stop the slaughter of Palestinians.

Aid agencies and governments around the world have all condemned the killing of dozens of Palestinians this week as they tried to access food distribution sites in the decimated territory.

It follows growing opposition in Europe to Israel’s military campaign, with the UK, France, Germany and Italy becoming increasingly critical of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

“Israel's recent action is appalling, and in my view counterproductive and intolerable, and we have strongly opposed the expansion of military operations and settler violence and the blocking of humanitarian aid,” Starmer told MPs.

He said the UK and its allies were considering sanctions against Israel and that his government had already suspended talks on a free trade agreement.

That step was announced after the UK, France, and Canada issued a joint statement last month threatening "concrete actions” against Israel if it did not halt its military operation in Gaza and allow humanitarian aid into the territory.

France, along with Saudi Arabia, are organizing a UN conference this month about a two-state solution for Palestine and Israel. France has already said it is considering recognizing the Palestinian state during the conference.

Starmer didn’t answer whether the UK would follow suit and recognize Palestine when asked in parliament Wednesday.

However, Foreign Office minister Hamish Falconer told MPs that the government was reconsidering its position on Palestinian statehood, The Guardian reported.

Falconer said he was "appalled" by the killings of Palestinians this week as they gathered to approach a new aid distribution hub.

"We call for an immediate and independent investigation into these events for the perpetrators to be held to account,” he said.

Dozens of MPs from both the main political parties have signed letters in recent months calling for Palestine to be recognized.

In the meantime, Starmer is facing fierce criticism from within his own Labour Party to take a tougher line on Israel.

Labour MP Paula Barker said history "will not be kind" to his government unless action is taken.

”What more evidence do we need to call this exactly what it is? A deliberate policy of annexation and genocide," she said.


Trump promised to welcome more foreign students. Now, they feel targeted on all fronts

Updated 35 sec ago
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Trump promised to welcome more foreign students. Now, they feel targeted on all fronts

  • That promise never came to pass. Trump’s stance on welcoming foreign students has shifted dramatically

To attract the brightest minds to America, President Donald Trump proposed a novel idea while campaigning: If elected, he would grant green cards to all foreign students who graduate from US colleges.
“It’s so sad when we lose people from Harvard, MIT, from the greatest schools,” Trump said during a podcast interview last June. “That is going to end on Day One.”
That promise never came to pass. Trump’s stance on welcoming foreign students has shifted dramatically. International students have found themselves at the center of an escalating campaign to kick them out or keep them from coming as his administration merges a crackdown on immigration with an effort to reshape higher education.
An avalanche of policies from the Trump administration — such as terminating students’ ability to study in the US, halting all new student visa interviews, moving to block foreign enrollment at Harvard — have triggered lawsuits, countersuits and confusion for international students who say they feel targeted on multiple fronts.
In interviews, students from around the world described how it feels to be an international student today in America. Their accounts highlight pervasive feelings of fear, anxiety and insecurity that have made them more cautious in their daily lives, distracted them from schoolwork and prompted many to cancel trips home because they fear not being allowed to return.
For many, the last few months have forced them to rethink their dreams of building a life in America.
A standout student from Latvia feels ‘expendable’
Markuss Saule, a freshman at Brigham Young University-Idaho, took a recent trip home to Latvia and spent the entire flight back to the US in a state of panic.
For hours, he scrubbed his phone, uninstalling all social media, deleting anything that touched on politics or could be construed as anti-Trump.
“That whole 10-hour flight, where I was debating, ‘Will they let me in?’ — it definitely killed me a little bit,” said Saule, a business analytics major. “It was terrifying.”
Saule is the type of international student the US has coveted. As a high schooler in Latvia, he qualified for a competitive, merit-based exchange program funded by the US State Department. He spent a year of high school in Minnesota, falling in love with America and a classmate who is now his fiancee. He just ended his freshman year in college with a 4.0 GPA.
But the alarm he felt on that flight crushed what was left of his American dream.
“If you had asked me at the end of 2024 what my plans were, it was to get married, find a great job here in the US and start a family,” said Saule, who hopes to work as a business data analyst. “Those plans are not applicable anymore. Ask me now, and the plan to leave this place as soon as possible.”
Saule and his fiancee plan to marry this summer, graduate a year early and move to Europe.
This spring the Trump administration abruptly revoked permission to study in the US for thousands of international students before reversing itself. A federal judge has blocked further status terminations, but for many, the damage is done. Saule has a constant fear he could be next.
As a student in Minnesota just three years ago, he felt like a proud ambassador for his country.
“Now I feel a sense of inferiority. I feel that I am expendable, that I am purely an appendage that is maybe getting cut off soon,” he said. Trump’s policies carry a clear subtext. “The policies, what they tell me is simple. It is one word: Leave.”
From dreaming of working at NASA to ‘doomscrolling’ job listings in India

A concern for attracting the world’s top students was raised in the interview Trump gave last June on the podcast “All-In.” Can you promise, Trump was asked, to give companies more ability “to import the best and brightest” students?
“I do promise,” Trump answered. Green cards, he said, would be handed out with diplomas to any foreign student who gets a college or graduate degree.
Trump said he knew stories of “brilliant” graduates who wanted to stay in the US to work but couldn’t. “They go back to India, they go back to China” and become multi-billionaires, employing thousands of people. “That is going to end on Day One.”
Had Trump followed through with that pledge, a 24-year-old Indian physics major named Avi would not be afraid of losing everything he has worked toward.
After six years in Arizona, where Avi attended college and is now working as an engineer, the US feels like a second home. He dreams of working at NASA or in a national lab and staying in America where he has several relatives.
But now he is too afraid to fly to Chicago to see them, rattled by news of foreigners being harassed at immigration centers and airports.
“Do I risk seeing my family or risk deportation?” said Avi, who asked to be identified by his first name, fearing retribution.
Avi is one of about 240,000 people on student visas in the US on Optional Practical Training — a postgraduation period where students are authorized to work in fields related to their degrees for up to three years. A key Trump nominee has said he would like to see an end to postgraduate work authorization for international students.
Avi’s visa is valid until next year but he feels “a massive amount of uncertainty.”
He wonders if he can sign a lease on a new apartment. Even his daily commute feels different.
“I drive to work every morning, 10 miles an hour under speed limit to avoid getting pulled over,” said Avi, who hopes to stay in the US but is casting a wider net. “I spend a lot of time doomscrolling job listings in India and other places.”
A Ukrainian chose college in America over joining the fight at home — for now
Vladyslav Plyaka came to the US from Ukraine as an exchange student in high school. As war broke out at home, he stayed to attend the University of Wisconsin.
He was planning to visit Poland to see his mother but if he leaves the US, he would need to reapply for a visa. He doesn’t know when that will be possible now that visa appointments are suspended, and he doesn’t feel safe leaving the country anyway.
He feels grateful for the education, but without renewing his visa, he’ll be stuck in the US at least two more years while he finishes his degree. He sometimes wonders if he would be willing to risk leaving his education in the United States — something he worked for years to achieve — if something happened to his family.
“It’s hard because every day I have to think about my family, if everything is going to be all right,” he said.
It took him three tries to win a scholarship to study in the US Having that cut short because of visa problems would undermine the sacrifice he made to be here. He sometimes feels guilty that he isn’t at home fighting for his country, but he knows there’s value in gaining an education in America.
“I decided to stay here just because of how good the college education is,” he said. “If it was not good, I probably would be on the front lines.”


What we know about the Colorado attack on demonstrators for the release of Israeli hostages

Updated 37 min 2 sec ago
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What we know about the Colorado attack on demonstrators for the release of Israeli hostages

  • Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, faces hate crime charges in federal court and multiple state charges including attempted murder
  • He threw two of 18 Molotov cocktails he was carrying Sunday, injuring more than half of the estimated 20 people demonstrating

BOULDER, Colorado: The man charged with injuring more than a dozen people in Boulder, Colorado, who were demonstrating for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza, went disguised as a gardener and told police his initial plan was to kill them all.
Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, faces hate crime charges in federal court and multiple state charges, including attempted murder.
Soliman — whose first name also was spelled Mohammed in some court documents — yelled “Free Palestine” and threw two of 18 Molotov cocktails he was carrying Sunday, injuring more than half of the estimated 20 people demonstrating, police said. Authorities said Soliman shied away from his plan to kill the entire group but expressed no regrets about the attack.
Boulder County officials said Wednesday the number of victims climbed from 12 to 15, plus a dog. The Associated Press left an email message with prosecutors seeking more details on the newly identified victims and the dog.
Among those injured was a Holocaust survivor who did not want her name shared publicly, said Ginger Delgado of the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office, who is acting as a spokesperson for the family.
What’s next for the suspect?
Soliman was being held on a $10 million, cash-only bond. He is due back in a Boulder County courtroom Thursday. More charges are possible in federal court.
Public defender Kathryn Herold is representing Soliman. She declined to comment after Monday’s hearing, where he initially was charged, as is common with Colorado public defenders.
Soliman was living in the US illegally after entering the country in August 2022 on a visa that expired in February 2023, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said. Soliman filed for asylum and was granted a work authorization in March 2023, but that also expired.
He was born in Egypt, spent 17 years living in Kuwait, and lived in Colorado Springs with his wife and five children, according to state court documents.
Soliman’s wife and children were taken into custody Tuesday by immigration authorities and were being processed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said a DHS official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
Federal officials are investigating whether Soliman’s family knew about his plan, US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said. Soliman told authorities that no one, including his family, knew about his plan, according to court documents.
Noem said Wednesday that federal authorities will be cracking down on people who overstay their visas.
What was the motive behind the attack?
Soliman told police he was driven by a desire “to kill all Zionist people,” referring to the movement to establish and sustain a Jewish state in Israel.
Sunday’s attack at the popular Pearl Street pedestrian mall in downtown Boulder, 30 miles (48 kilometers) from Denver, had been planned for more than a year and targeted what Soliman described as a “Zionist group,” authorities said in court papers charging him with a federal hate crime.
That charge carries a sentence of life in prison when it includes attempted murder. Colorado state charges include 16 counts of attempted first-degree murder, two counts of using an incendiary device and 16 counts of attempted use of an incendiary device.
The attack came at the beginning of the Jewish holiday Shavuot, and as the Israel-Hamas war has contributed to a spike in antisemitism in the US. A week before the Boulder attack, a man who also yelled “Free Palestine” was charged with fatally shooting two Israeli embassy staffers outside a Jewish museum in Washington.
Who are the demonstrators?
The people hurt in the attack are demonstrators with Run for Their Lives, a global grassroots initiative that started in October 2023 after Hamas militants in Gaza stormed into Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 others hostage. Israel responded with military attacks on the Gaza Strip, killing more than 52,000 Palestinians, the majority women and children, and arresting hundreds.
Through weekly walks, the Run for Their Lives group’s 230 chapters seek to raise awareness of the 58 people believed to still be in captivity in Gaza, said Shira Weiss, the organization’s global coordinator.
Police liaisons assigned to the victims said none were ready to speak with reporters. They include eight women and seven men, range in age from 25 to 88, and their injuries range from serious to minor.
No new details were released Wednesday about three victims receiving treatment at the UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital.
After the attack, FBI director Kash Patel said the agency was investigating a “targeted terror attack” in Boulder.
Boulder Police Chief Stephen Redfearn said Tuesday he initially suspected terrorism. “There was no intent to hide what happened,” Redfearn said. “There was no intent to minimize or lessen what we later, within a couple of hours at the press conference, confirmed was terrorism.”


Cuban students call boycott over mobile tariff hikes

Updated 04 June 2025
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Cuban students call boycott over mobile tariff hikes

  • Student leaders at the University of Havana’s mathematics and informatics faculty called for a boycott of classes in order to try to force state telecoms company to annul the tariff hikes
  • The average monthly salary on the communist island is 5,700 pesos, or $47. Topping up data would cost the individual 3,000 pesos, or $25

HAVANA: Cuban students called for a boycott of classes Wednesday over new mobile Internet tariffs that include steep fees for those who exceed their monthly data limits.
Cubans say the tariff hikes implemented by state telecoms company Etecsa on May 30 will leave them with only a few gigabytes of data per month as purchasing additional data will be prohibitively expensive.
Students have been particularly angered by the new pricing system, under which top-ups must be paid in hard-to-come-by-dollars or at a steep increment in Cuban pesos.
While acknowledging “progress” in negotiations with Etecsa, student union president Jose Almedia told AFP: “We want more.”
On Tuesday evening, student leaders at the University of Havana’s mathematics and informatics faculty called for a boycott of classes in order to try to force Etecsa to annul the tariff hikes.
Fellow leaders of the union chapter in the philosophy, history and sociology faculty backed the boycott, as did some students from the arts department.
It was not immediately clear how many students heeded the call for the protest.
But an arts student who attended classes on Wednesday told AFP there were “practically no students” in the faculty.
New pricing structure
Etecsa gave no forewarning of its new pricing structure, which it said was necessary to fund investment in infrastructure.
Rafael Gomez, an 18-year-old student at the University of Havana, said the new tariffs left mobile users with the bare minimum in terms of data.
“We were used to a certain system,” where customers can top up their credit as often as they like, he told AFP.
Now, they are limited to 6GB of data, which Gomez noted “is nothing and if you want to buy more, it costs over 3,000 pesos ($25), which you cannot afford on a regular Cuban salary,” Gomez said.
The average monthly salary on the communist island is 5,700 pesos, or $47.
Faced with the outcry from students, President Miguel Diaz-Canel said Sunday that the government was looking at “options” for “the most vulnerable sectors, including our dear students.”
After talks with student bodies Etecsa on Monday announced that students would be allowed two monthly top-ups at 360 pesos ($3), compared with one for the rest of the population.
Further top-ups have to be paid in dollars or at the eye-watering price of over 3,000 pesos.
The concessions failed to assuage the anger of many students.
Brian Gamez, a history student, told AFP he favored “peaceful protests” but was afraid that a mobilization could lead to vandalism.
The Cuban government has been wary of stoking popular discontent since July 2021 when thousands of people took to the streets in a rare show of defiance to demonstrate over shortages of fuel, food, medicine and electricity.
One person was killed and dozens injured in the protests, which Havana accused Washington of orchestrating.


Trump administration plans $1,000 fee to fast-track tourist visas -memo

Updated 04 June 2025
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Trump administration plans $1,000 fee to fast-track tourist visas -memo

  • The new $1,000 option the US is considering would be a premium service
  • The program could arrive in pilot form as soon as December

WASHINGTON: The Trump administration is considering a $1,000 fee for tourists and other non-immigrant visa applicants seeking an expedited interview appointment though government lawyers have raised legal red flags over the plan, according to a US official and an internal State Department memo.

Individuals entering the US on tourist and other non-immigrant visas already pay a $185 processing fee. The new $1,000 option the US is considering would be a premium service that allows some people to jump to the front of the line for visa interviews.

The program could arrive in pilot form as soon as December, the memo reviewed by Reuters said.

The proposed fee for visa appointments, which has not been previously reported, comes alongside President Donald Trump’s vision of a “gold card” that would sell US citizenship for $5 million, granting faster access to those willing to pay.

But the State Department’s legal team said there was a “high risk” it would be rejected by the White House budget office or struck down in US courts, the memo said. Setting a fee above the cost to provide the service “is contrary to settled Supreme Court precedent,” the memo said.

A State Department spokesperson said the department does not comment on internal documents and communications.

“The department’s scheduling of non-immigrant visa interview appointments is dynamic and we are continually working to improve our operations worldwide,” the spokesperson said.

Since taking office on Jan. 20, Trump has aggressively cracked down on immigration, including revoking some student visas and increasing scrutiny of all visa applicants.

The State Department issued 10.4 million non-immigrant visas in fiscal year 2023, including 5.9 million tourist visas, according to the agency’s most recent annual report. International travel spending in the United States is expected to decline about 7 percent in 2025 as opposition to Trump’s policies and a strong dollar prompt foreign visitors to opt for other destinations, the World Travel and Tourism Council said in May.