CAMBRIDGE: A group of graduates walked out of the Harvard commencement chanting “Free, Free Palestine” after weeks of protests on campus.
School officials announced Wednesday, the day before Thursday’s graduation, that 13 Harvard students who participated in a protest encampment would not be able to receive degrees alongside their classmates.
Some students chanted “Let them walk, let them walk walk,” during Thursday’s commencement, referring to allowing those 13 students to get their degrees along with fellow graduates.
Harvard University held its commencement address Thursday following a weekslong pro-Palestinian encampment that shut down Harvard Yard to all but those with university ties and roiled tensions on the campus.
Those tensions were ticked up a notch on Wednesday when school officials announced that 13 Harvard students who participated in the encampment won’t be able to receive degrees alongside their classmates. Some students chanted “Let them walk, Let them walk,” during commencement.
Student speaker Shruthi Kumar said “this semester our freedom of speech and our expressions of solidarity became punishable,” she said to cheers and applause.
She said she had to take a moment to recognize “the 13 undergraduates in the class of 2024 who will not graduate today,” Kumar said to prolonged cheers and clapping. “I am deeply disappointed by the intolerance for freedom of speech and the right to civil disobedience on campus.”
Over 1,500 students had petitioned, and nearly 500 staff and faculty had spoken up, all over the sanctions, she said.
“This is about civil rights and upholding democratic principals,” she said. “The students had spoken. The faculty had spoken. Harvard do you hear us?”
Those in the encampment had called for a ceasefire in Gaza and for Harvard to divest from companies that support the war.
Also on Thursday, the leaders of Northwestern University and Rutgers University are expected to testify at a House Committee on Education and the Workforce hearing about concessions they gave to pro-Palestinian protesters to end demonstrations on their campus. The chancellor of the University of California, Los Angeles, also was scheduled to appear at the latest in a series of hearings looking into how colleges have responded to the protests and allegations of antisemitism
The decision by the school’s top governing board follows a recommendation Monday by faculty members to allow the 13 to receive their degrees despite their participation in the encampment.
Harvard’s governing board, the Harvard Corporation, however said that each of 13 have been found to have violated the university’s policies by their conduct during the encampment protest.
“In coming to this determination, we note that the express provisions of the Harvard College Student Handbook state that students who are not in good standing are not eligible for degrees,” the corporation said in a written statement.
The statement left open the possibility of an appeals process saying the corporation understands “that the inability to graduate is consequential for students and their families” and supports the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ intention to provide an expedited review of requests for appeal.
“We care deeply about every member of our community — students, faculty, staff, researchers, and alumni — and we have chosen a path forward that accords with our responsibilities and reaffirms a process for our students to receive prompt and fair review,” the statement added.
Supporters of the students said the decision not to allow them to receive degrees at commencement violated a May 14 agreement between interim President Alan Garber and the Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine coalition that would have allowed the students to graduate.
Protesters against the war between Israel and Hamas voluntarily dismantled their tents after they said university officials agreed to discuss their questions about the endowment, bringing a peaceful end to the kinds of demonstrations that were broken up by police on other campuses.
The group issued a statement late Wednesday saying the decision jeopardizes the post-graduation lives of the 13 students.
“By rejecting a democratic faculty vote, the Corporation has proved itself to be a wholly illegitimate body, and Garber an illegitimate president, accountable to no one at the university,” the group said.
“Today’s actions have plunged the university even further into a crisis of legitimacy and governance, which will have major repercussions for Harvard in the coming months and years,” the group said,
There was a noticeable presence of police officers around the campus Thursday mixing with soon-to-be-graduates, their family members and sidewalk flower sellers.
A small plane circled above trailing an Israeli and US flag. A truck was parked outside the campus with an electronic billboard with the names and images of some of the pro-Palestinian protesters under the banner “Harvard’s Leading Antisemites.”
At Drexel University in Philadelphia, protesters packed up their belongings and left a pro-Palestinian encampment Thursday after the school announced a decision to have police clear the encampment. A wave of pro-Palestinian tent encampments on campuses has led to over 3,000 arrests nationwide.
Group of graduates walk out of Harvard commencement chanting ‘Free, free Palestine’
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Group of graduates walk out of Harvard commencement chanting ‘Free, free Palestine’
- Student speaker Shruthi Kumar said “this semester our freedom of speech and our expressions of solidarity became punishable,” she said to cheers and applause
- “I am deeply disappointed by the intolerance for freedom of speech and the right to civil disobedience on campus”
Ukraine, US sign ‘memorandum of intent’ on resources deal: Kyiv
- US officials say boosting American business interests in Ukraine will help deter Russia from future aggression in the event of a ceasefire
KYIV: Ukraine and the United States on Thursday signed a “memorandum of intent” to move forward with a fraught deal for US access to Kyiv’s natural resources and critical minerals, Kyiv said.
“We are happy to announce the signing, with our American partners, of a Memorandum of Intent, which paves the way for an Economic Partnership Agreement and the establishment of the Investment Fund for the Reconstruction of Ukraine,” Ukraine’s first deputy prime minister Yulia Svyrydenko said on X.
Kyiv and Washington had planned to sign a deal on extracting Ukraine’s strategic minerals weeks ago, but a clash between presidents Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky in February temporarily derailed work on the agreement.
Trump wants the deal — designed to give the US royalty payments on profits from Ukrainian mining of resources and rare minerals — as compensation for aid given to Ukraine by his predecessor, Joe Biden.
Svyrydenko did not publish details of the memorandum, but said work continued toward securing a final agreement.
“We hope that the Fund will become an effective tool for attracting investments in the reconstruction of our country, modernization of infrastructure, support for business, and the creation of new economic opportunities,” she said.
“There is a lot to do, but the current pace and significant progress give reason to expect that the document will be very beneficial for both countries.”
US officials say boosting American business interests in Ukraine will help deter Russia from future aggression in the event of a ceasefire.
Kyiv is pushing for concrete military and security guarantees as part of any deal to halt the three-year war.
Man who hijacked a small plane in Belize and was fatally shot was a US veteran
- The man was shot by a passenger who was licensed to carry a firearm, which he later turned over to police
BELIZE CITY: A US citizen hijacked a small Tropic Air plane in Belize on Thursday at knifepoint, injuring three others before being shot and killed, police said.
The assailant pulled a knife while the plane was in air, demanding the domestic flight take him out of the country, Police Commissioner Chester Williams told journalists.
The hijacker was identified as US citizen Akinyela Sawa Taylor, Williams said, adding that it appeared Taylor was a military veteran.
The plane circled the airspace between northern Belize and capital Belize City as the hijacking was underway, and began to run dangerously low on fuel, the police commissioner said.
Taylor stabbed three people on board, according to Williams, including the pilot and a passenger who shot Taylor with a licensed firearm as the plane landed outside Belize City.
That passenger was rushed to the hospital, as was Taylor, who died from the gunshot wound.
Williams said that it was unclear how Taylor boarded the plane with a knife, though he acknowledged that the country’s smaller airstrips lacked security to fully search passengers.
The attacker had been denied entry to the country over the weekend, according to police. The plane had been due to fly the short route from Corozal near the Mexican border to San Pedro, off the coast. Police said it was unclear how Taylor reached Corozal.
Belizean authorities have reached out to the US embassy in the country for aid in investigating the incident. Luke Martin, public affairs officer for the embassy, told journalists that it had no details on Taylor’s background or motivation so far.
According to information released by the airport, Taylor was a teacher in the United States. He was listed online as previously being a football coach at the McCluer North High School in Florissant, Missouri.
An employee at the school told Reuters that Taylor did not currently work there.
Maryland Sen. Van Hollen denied entry to El Salvador prison holding Abrego Garcia
- Van Hollen’s trip has become a partisan flashpoint in the US as Democrats have siezed on Abrego Garcia’s deportation as a cruel consequence of Trump’s disregard for the courts
- While Van Hollen was denied entry, several House Republicans have visited the notorious gang prison in support of the Trump administration’s efforts
SAN SALVADOR: Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen says he was denied entry into an El Savador prison on Thursday while he was trying to check on the well-being of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a man who was sent there by the Trump administration in March despite an immigration court order preventing his deportation.
Van Hollen is in El Salvador to push for Abrego Garcia’s release. The Democratic senator at a news conference in San Salvador that his car was stopped by soldiers at a checkpoint about 3 kilometers from the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, even as they let other cars go on.
“They stopped us because they are under orders not to allow us to proceed,” Van Hollen said.
US President Donald Trump and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said this week that they have no basis to send him back, even as the Trump administration has called his deportation a mistake and the US Supreme Court has called on the administration to facilitate his return. Trump officials have said that Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran citizen who was living in Maryland, has ties to the MS-13 gang, but his attorneys say the government has provided no evidence of that and Abrego Garcia has never been charged with any crime related to such activity.
Van Hollen’s trip has become a partisan flashpoint in the US as Democrats have siezed on Abrego Garcia’s deportation as a cruel consequence of Trump’s disregard for the courts. Republicans have criticized Democrats for defending him and argued that his deportation is part of a larger effort to reduce crime. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt held a news conference on Wednesday with the mother of a Maryland woman who was killed by a fugitive from El Salvador in 2023.
The Maryland senator told reporters Wednesday that he met with Salvadoran Vice President Felix Ulloa who said his government could not return Abrego Garcia to the United States.
“So today, I tried again to make contact with Mr. Abrego Garcia by driving to the CECOT prison,” Van Hollen said, and was stopped.
Van Hollen said Abrego Garcia has not had any contact with his family or his lawyers. “There has been no ability to find out anything about his health and well being,” Van Hollen said. He said Abrego Garcia should be able to have contact with his lawyers under international law.
“We won’t give up until Kilmar has his due process rights respected,” Van Hollen said. He said there would be “many more” lawmakers coming to El Salvador.
New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., is also considering a trip to El Salvador, as are some House Democrats.
While Van Hollen was denied entry, several House Republicans have visited the notorious gang prison in support of the Trump administration’s efforts. Rep. Riley Moore, a West Virginia Republican, posted Tuesday evening that he’d visited the prison where Abrego Garcia is being held. He did not mention Abrego Garcia but said the facility “houses the country’s most brutal criminals.”
“I leave now even more determined to support President Trump’s efforts to secure our homeland,” Moore wrote on social media.
Missouri Republican Rep. Jason Smith, chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, also visited the prison. He posted on X that “thanks to President Trump” the facility “now includes illegal immigrants who broke into our country and committed violent acts against Americans.”
The fight over Abrego Garcia has also played out in contentious court filings, with repeated refusals from the government to tell a judge what it plans to do, if anything, to repatriate him.
Since March, El Salvador has accepted from the US more than 200 Venezuelan immigrants — whom Trump administration officials have accused of gang activity and violent crimes — and placed them inside the country’s maximum-security gang prison just outside of San Salvador. That prison is part of Bukele’s broader effort to crack down on the country’s powerful street gangs, which has put 84,000 people behind bars and made Bukele extremely popular at home.
Human rights groups have previously accused Bukele’s government of subjecting those jailed to “systematic use of torture and other mistreatment.” Officials there deny wrongdoing.
France hails ‘positive process’ as Europe, US discuss Ukraine ceasefire
- “Today in Paris, we launched a positive process in which the Europeans are involved,” the French presidency said
- Rubio called Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to discuss the Paris meeting, Moscow and Washington said
PARIS: France on Thursday hailed talks on the Ukraine war between top US and European officials during which US Secretary of State Marco Rubio reaffirmed a US peace plan.
President Emmanuel Macron’s office said the talks launched a “positive process” as Europe seeks to be included in efforts to end the three-year-old war.
The meetings in the French capital included Macron, Rubio, US envoy Steve Witkoff, British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, German officials and Ukrainian ministers.
They took place as President Donald Trump’s push to end the war stumbles, with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin rebuffing a complete truce.
“Today in Paris, we launched a positive process in which the Europeans are involved,” the French presidency said.
A new meeting of envoys from the United States, France, Britain, Germany and Ukraine will take place next week in London, it added.
Rubio called Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to discuss the Paris meeting, Moscow and Washington said.
“President Trump and the United States want this war to end, and have now presented to all parties the outlines of a durable and lasting peace,” the US State Department said Rubio told his Russian counterpart.
“The encouraging reception in Paris to the US framework shows that peace is possible if all parties commit to reaching an agreement,” he added.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also praised the talks.
“It is important that we hear each other, refine and clarify our positions, and work for the sake of real security of Ukraine and all our Europe,” Zelensky said in a post on X.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov however dismissed the Paris meeting, saying earlier that Europeans seemed to have “a focus on continuing the war.”
France and Britain have taken a leading role seeking a coordinated European response to defending Ukraine, during the conflict and in any ceasefire, after Trump shocked them by opening talks with Russia.
Macron said the Paris talks were “a very important occasion for convergence,” as everybody wanted “a robust and sustainable peace.”
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told reporters: “The novelty is that today in Paris, the United States, Ukraine, and the Europeans gathered around the same table.”
“For a long time there was concern that the Europeans would not be at the table,” he said.
Barrot expressed hope that the London meeting next week would help achieve a full and unconditional ceasefire “in the very near future.”
Russia’s strikes, which have recently killed dozens of people including children in Ukrainian cities, have increased pressure for new diplomatic efforts to end the conflict.
Zelensky earlier accused Witkoff of “spreading Russian narratives” after the US envoy suggested a peace deal with Russia hinged on the status of Ukraine’s occupied territories.
“I believe that Mr.Witkoff has taken on the strategy of the Russian side,” Zelensky told reporters.
“I think it is very dangerous, because he is consciously or unconsciously, I don’t know, spreading Russian narratives.”
Witkoff said this week that Putin was open to “permanent peace” after talks with the Kremlin chief in Saint Petersburg, their third meeting since Trump returned to the White House in January.
Despite the diplomatic efforts, Russia has continued to strike Ukraine.
Russian drone strikes and shelling in Ukraine killed at least 12 people on Thursday, Ukrainian authorities said, just days after a Russian attack killed at least 35 people in the northeastern city of Sumy.
Zelensky said Wednesday that negotiators were making “good progress” with the United States in fraught talks over a minerals deal intended to secure desperately needed US support. Trump said a deal could be signed next week.
Putin last month rejected a US proposal for a full and unconditional ceasefire, after Kyiv gave its backing to the idea.
He also suggested Zelensky be removed from office, sparking an angry response from Trump who said he was “very angry” with the Russian leader.
France’s Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu held talks in Washington on Thursday with US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who called on France to boost military spending, a Pentagon spokesman said.
“The secretary urged France to increase defense spending and, alongside other NATO allies, take primary responsibility for Europe’s conventional defense,” the spokesman said.
Trump says he’s in ‘no rush’ to end tariffs as he holds talks with Italy’s Meloni
- Trump administration has indicated that offers are coming from other countries and it is possible to do 90 deals during the 90-day tariff pause
- “We know we are in a difficult moment," Meloni said this week in Rome
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said Thursday that he is in “no rush” to reach any trade deals because of the revenues his tariffs are generating, but suggested while meeting with Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni that it would be easy to find an agreement with the European Union.
His administration has indicated that offers are coming from other countries and it is possible to do 90 deals during the 90-day tariff pause, but the president played down the likelihood of an accelerated timeline, saying any agreements would come “at a certain point.”
“We’re in no rush,” Trump said.
Meloni’s meeting with Trump will test her mettle as a bridge between the European Union and the United States. She is the first European leader to have face-to-face talks with him since he announced and then partially suspended 20 percent tariffs on European exports.
Meloni secured the meeting as Italy’s leader, but she also has, in a sense, been “knighted” to represent the EU at a critical juncture in the trade war. She was in close contact with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen before the trip, and “the outreach is … closely coordinated,” a commission spokeswoman said.
“We know we are in a difficult moment,” Meloni said this week in Rome. “Most certainly, I am well aware of what I represent, and what I am defending.”
The EU is defending what it calls “the most important commercial relationship in the world,’’ with annual trade reaching 1.6 trillion euros ($1.8 trillion).
Trade negotiations fall under the authority of the commission, which is pushing for a zero-for-zero tariff deal with Washington. Trump administration officials, in talks with the EU, have yet to publicly show signs of relenting on the president’s insistence that a baseline 10 percent tariff be charged on all foreign imports. Trump paused for 90 days his initial 20 percent tax on EU products so that negotiations could occur.
The EU has already engaged with Trump administration officials in Washington. Maroš Šefčovič, the European Commissioner for trade and economic security, said he met on Monday with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.
Šefčovič said afterward on X that it would “require a significant joint effort on both sides” to get to zero tariffs and work on non-tariff trade barriers.
Meloni’s margins for progress are more in gaining clarity on the Republican president’s goals rather than outright concessions, experts say.
“It is a very delicate mission,” said Fabian Zuleeg, chief economist at the European Policy Center think tank in Brussels. “There is the whole trade agenda, and while she’s not officially negotiating, we know that Trump likes to have this kind of informal exchange, which in a sense is a negotiation. So it’s a lot on her plate.”
As the leader of a far-right party, Meloni is ideologically aligned with Trump on issues including curbing migration, promoting traditional values and skepticism toward multilateral institutions. But stark differences have emerged in Meloni’s unwavering support for Ukraine after Russia’s invasion in February 2022.
The two leaders are expected to discuss the war and Italy’s role in an eventual postwar reconstruction of Ukraine. Trump is expected to press Meloni to increase Italy’s defense spending, which last year fell well below the 2 percent of gross domestic product target for countries in the NATO military alliance. Italy’s spending, at 1.49 percent of GDP, is among the lowest in Europe.
Despite the differences on Ukraine and defense spending, Meloni is seen by some in the US administration as a vital bridge to Europe at a difficult moment for trans-Atlantic relations.
Trump is looking not only to discuss with Meloni how “Italy’s marketplace can be opened up, but also how they can help us with the rest of Europe,” according to a senior administration official who briefed reporters before the visit. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House.
After being the only European leader to attend Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration, Meloni has responded with studied restraint as abrupt shifts in US policy under Trump have frayed the US-European alliance. She has denounced the tariffs as “wrong” and warned that “dividing the West would be disastrous for everyone,” after Trump’s heated White House exchange with Ukraine’s president.
“She has been very cautious,’’ said Wolfango Piccoli, an analyst at the London-based Teneo consultancy. “It is what we need when we have a counterpart that is changing every day.’’
Italy maintains a 40 billion euro ($45 billion) trade surplus with the US, its largest with any country, fueled by Americans’ appetite for Italian sparkling wine, foodstuffs like Parmigiano Reggiano hard cheese and Parma ham, and Italian luxury fashion. These are all sectors critical to the Italian economy, and mostly supported by small- and medium-sized producers who are core center-right voters.
“All in all, I think she will focus on the very strong economic and trade relations that Italy has with the United States, not just in terms of exports, but also services and energy,” said Antonio Villafranca, vice president of the ISPI think tank in Milan. “For example, Italy could even consider importing more gas from the US”
The meeting comes against the backdrop of growing concerns over global uncertainty generated by the escalating tariff wars. Italy’s growth forecast for this year has already been slashed from 1 percent to 0.5 percent as a result.
