All posts tagged "Columbia"

A 30-year-old Columbia University grad student is suing the Trump administration for $20 million in damages after he was detained by ICE for months, according to USA Today.

Attorneys for Mahmoud Khalil filed the claim on Thursday, alleging that Khalil was "falsely imprisoned, maliciously prosecuted, and smeared as an antisemite, while the government sought to deport him over his prominent role in campus protests."

Khalil, a Palestinian activist, helped lead campus protests against Israel. He was apprehended by ICE and detained in a Louisiana facility for over three months, even missing the birth of his first child....

President Donald Trump's dealings with everything from Ukraine to Ivy League universities amount to blatant extortion, Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker wrote Friday.

"Trump isn’t a dealmaker; he is closer to an extortionist," Parker wrote. "At least he meets the definition of the term: someone who uses coercion or punishment to get what he wants."

Parker explained how Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's "first lesson in the art of the deal" came in 2019, "when Trump essentially threatened to withhold $400 million in military aid if Zelensky didn’t investigate — or at least say he was investigating — Hunter Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine."...

Notable Harvard alumni applauded their university Monday after news that the Ivy League school would not capitulate to the Trump administration's anti-DEI initiatives for $9 billion in federal funding.

Trump threatened to pull the $9 billion if Harvard did not do away with their diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, or crack down on student protests like the pro-Palestinian demonstrations against the continued retaliatory bombing of Gaza.

The university released a statement saying, "The university will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights. Neither Harvard nor any other private university can allow itself to be taken over by the federal government." ...

New York (AFP) - Classes at Columbia University were shifted online Monday as protests over the Israel-Hamas war heightened tensions on US campuses and led to dozens of arrests at Yale University. A large group of demonstrators has established a "Gaza Solidarity Encampment" on lawns at Columbia, with some Jewish students at the prestigious New York institution reporting intimidation and anti-Semitism amid the days-long protest. In an open letter to the university community, Columbia's president Nemat Shafik said there needed to be "a reset." "Over the past days, there have been too many exampl......

New York (AFP) - US President Joe Biden condemned any anti-Semitism on college campuses Sunday, as pro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia University spent their fifth day demanding the school sever financial ties with key US ally Israel.  Students camped out on university grounds are calling for the prestigious New York school, which has an exchange program with Tel Aviv University, to boycott all activities associated with Israel in light of the country's war with Hamas militants and the ensuing humanitarian crisis in Gaza.  "Even in recent days, we’ve seen harassment and calls for violence a......

COLUMBIA, S.C. — If former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is going to win, or at least beat expectations against former President Donald Trump in the Feb. 24 First in the South presidential primary, she’ll need independents to show up and possibly Democratic voters to cross over. And with less than a week to go before the South Carolina GOP primary, groups are stepping up efforts to turnout non-Republicans to the state’s open primary that allows anyone who didn’t vote in the Democratic contest to vote in the Republican nominating contest. Only 131,000 participated in South Carolina’s First in......