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Wednesday, April 24, 2024

Columbia University Announces Move to Hybrid Learning for Rest of Semester

National Review: Columbia University announced Tuesday that it is shifting to hybrid learning for the remainder of the semester as anti-Israel protests continue to disrupt campus life. The Medical Center and Manhattanville campuses will remain in-person. All faculty and staff who wish to work from home are able to do so, while those who want to attend class in-person can do so as well (National Review). Collin Rugg: Columbia University has announced classes will be remote for the rest of the year as anti-Israel protests rock the school. There are now growing calls for tuition refunds for the $70k a year college now that it has practically turned into an online school (X).

Harvard Suspends the “Palestine Solidarity Committee” for Remainder of Semester; Group Supported Hamas’ October 7 Attack

Townhall: Harvard College suspended the Palestine Solidarity Committee for the remainder of the Spring semester and threatened permanent expulsion if they fail to “cease all organizational activities,” The Harvard Crimson reports. The move comes as pro-terrorist demonstrations have overtaken parts of campuses at Columbia and Yale Universities. PSC, which has been on probation since March, was notified via email of the temporary suspension for failing to register a protest and violating use-of-space guidelines (Townhall). NBC Boston: The Palestine Solidarity Committee drew headlines in the aftermath of Hamas’ initial attack on Israel with a letter many criticized as justifying the terror group’s violence (NBC Boston).

NYU Students Tell NYPD to “go to hell” for Arresting Protesters

National Review: New York University students slammed New York Police Department (NYPD) officers in a rally in Washington Square Park on Tuesday, a day after police cleared out an anti-Israel encampment in an outdoor campus plaza. The students, who staged a “walk-out” and congregated in the park, directed their ire toward the NYPD officers who arrested 133 students, faculty members, and outside agitators Monday. “It is right to rebel,” the protesters chanted, “NYPD, go to hell” (National Review). Reporter Zach Kessel: Alongside the typical calls for “intifada revolution,” NY University students told police officers to “go to hell” at a Washington Square Park rally on Tuesday (X).

GOP Senators Demand Colleges Allowing Antisemitic Protests, Harassment to Lose Federal Funding

Spencer Brown: The disgusting displays of at-times violent antisemitism that began at Columbia University and spread to several other schools in recent days are a testament to what’s wrong with leftist-dominated higher education. After years of unconstitutional attempts to block conservative speakers from their campuses in the name of fragile leftist students’ safety, they now have little if any concern that those same intellectually weak leftists are calling for Israel to be eliminated and Jews to be murdered. Now, more than 25 members of the United States Senate led by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) are demanding that schools allowing, tolerating, or encouraging such shocking and often unlawful displays of anti-Jew and anti-Israel hate face accountability and a loss of taxpayer funds (Townhall). Joni Ernst: Universities must restore order and protect Jewish students. If not, these institutions should lose federal funding (X).

Secretary of State Antony Blinken Releases Report Detailing Human Rights Concerns with Both Israel and Hamas

Times of Israel: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken highlighted both Hamas’s October 7 onslaught and the subsequent war Israel launched to defeat the terror group among the issues covered in the State Department’s 2023 human rights report. “Hamas’s horrific attacks on Israel on October 7 last year and the devastating loss of civilian life in Gaza as Israel exercises its right to ensure that those attacks never happen again, have raised deeply troubling human rights concerns,” Blinken said. The Israel chapter of the human rights report itself begins by highlighting the large-scale attack launched by Hamas on October 7, “killing an estimated 1,200 individuals, injuring more than 5,400 and abducting 253 hostages.” “Israel responded with a sustained, wide-scale military operation in Gaza, which had killed more than 21,000 Palestinians and injured more than 56,000 by the end of the year, displaced the vast majority of Palestinians in Gaza, and resulted in a severe humanitarian crisis,” the report says. “The continuing conflict had a significant negative impact on the human rights situation in the country.” The State Department declined to say what its source was for the 2023 Palestinian death count from the Gaza war, but it appeared to rely on the Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures have not been independently verified and include some 13,000 Hamas gunmen Israel says it has killed in battle (Times of Israel).

As Chinese Illegal Immigrants Flood the Southern Border, China Refuses to Take Them Back

Washington Examiner: The number of Chinese citizens coming across the southern border from Mexico has skyrocketed to the fastest-growing demographic of illegal immigrants in recent months, triggering serious concerns among lawmakers in Washington. Tens of thousands of Chinese immigrants have been arrested by Border Patrol agents over the past year, far beyond the hundreds to a couple of thousand seen in recent history preceding the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Customs and Border Protection data. In 2022, fewer than 2,000 Chinese people were stopped at the southern boundary. In the first half of fiscal 2024 (from October 2023 to March 2024), Border Patrol agents on the U.S.-Mexico border caught 24,214 Chinese illegal immigrants who had come into the country by walking through unfenced areas. The figure is more than the record-high 24,048 Chinese immigrants arrested in all of 2023 (Washington Examiner). Fox News: The head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) told lawmakers that China is one of the top three countries he has identified as not doing enough to receive their illegal immigrants — just as the number of Chinese nationals has increased dramatically at the southern border (Fox News).

U.S. Prepares to Sanction China for Assisting Russia’s War Effort

Wall Street Journal: The U.S. is drafting sanctions that threaten to cut some Chinese banks off from the global financial system, arming Washington’s top envoy with diplomatic leverage that officials hope will stop Beijing’s commercial support of Russia’s military production. But as Secretary of State Antony Blinken heads to Beijing on Tuesday, the question is whether even the threat of the U.S. using one of its most potent tools of financial coercion can put a dent in complex and burgeoning trade between Beijing and Moscow that has allowed the Kremlin to rebuild a military badly mauled by more than two years of fighting in Ukraine. China has heeded Western warnings not to send arms to Russia since the beginning of the war, but since Blinken’s trip to Beijing last year, China’s exports of commercial goods that also have military uses have surged. With China now the primary supplier of circuitry, aircraft parts, machines and machine tools, U.S. officials say Beijing’s aid has allowed Moscow to rebuild its military industrial capacity (Wall Street Journal). Forbes: The sanctions would also threaten China’s sluggish post-pandemic economic recovery and mounting debt (Forbes).

DOJ Agrees to Pay $138 Million for Mishandling Case Where Sports Physician Abused Female Gymnasts

NBC: The Justice Department agreed to pay more than $138 million to victims of disgraced sports physician Larry Nassar and apologized for the FBI’s failing to act on warnings about the convicted sex abuser, officials said Tuesday. The announcement is a culmination of several years of internal probes which concluded that FBI agents in Indianapolis made “fundamental errors” by failing to notify other FBI offices or state or local authorities about Nassar. A 2021 report by Inspector General Michael Horowitz blasted Indianapolis-based agents, saying officials at that field office “did not take responsibility for their failures” and instead “provided incomplete and inaccurate information to make it appear that they had been diligent in responding to the sexual abuse allegations.” The settlement came after two years of long and complex negotiations between Nassar’s victims and the Justice Department, according to multiple sources familiar with the drawn-out talks (NBC). Citizen Free Press: The Department of Justice will pay 139 women nearly $140 million after its failure to move on allegations against Michigan St. doctor Larry Nassar (X).

Wall Street Journal Reporter Evan Gershkovich’s Latest Appeal Denied by Moscow Court

Wall Street Journal: A Moscow court rejected an appeal by Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich against his detention, meaning the U.S. citizen, who has been awaiting trial for over a year, will remain behind bars until at least June 30. Gershkovich, who appeared in court Tuesday, is being held on an allegation of espionage that he, the Journal and the U.S. government vehemently deny. Russia’s Federal Security Service detained Gershkovich, who was accredited by Russia’s Foreign Ministry to work there as a journalist, in March last year. The State Department has declared him wrongfully detained, a designation that commits the government to work for his release. The judge addressed the 32-year-old Gershkovich after a closed-door hearing at the First Appeals Court of General Jurisdiction in Moscow. The court upheld a lower court’s decision to keep the reporter in custody until June 30. Several appeals by Gershkovich’s lawyers have been rejected over the past year, at least one of which requested that he either be transferred to house arrest, agree to constraints on his movements or be granted bail. The reporter’s initial pretrial detention has been extended a number of times (Wall Street Journal).

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Supreme Court to Listen to Biden’s Appeal Over Ghost Gun Regulation

Associated Press: The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to take up a Biden administration appeal over the regulation of difficult-to-trace ghost guns that had been struck down by lower courts. The justices by a 5-4 vote had previously intervened to keep the regulation in effect during the legal fight. Ghost guns, which lack serial numbers, have been turning up at crime scenes with increasing regularity. The regulation, which took effect in 2022, changed the definition of a firearm under federal law to include unfinished parts, like the frame of a handgun or the receiver of a long gun, so they can be tracked more easily. Those parts must be licensed and include serial numbers. Manufacturers must also run background checks before a sale, as they do with other commercially made firearms. The requirement applies regardless of how the firearm was made, meaning it includes ghost guns made from individual parts or kits or by 3D printers. The rule does not prohibit people from buying a kit or any type of firearm (Associated Press). Townhall: Biden’s policies surrounding restrictions on “ghost guns” were announced in April 2022. In remarks from the White House at the time, President Joe Biden said: “If you commit a crime with a ghost gun, expect federal prosecution” (Townhall).