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Protests rock college campuses over Israel-Hamas war
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Pro-Palestinian protests have roiled college campuses across the U.S. this week. Students have been arrested, encampments have been erected and leaders are still searching for a solution.
Columbia protesters opposed to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war created a “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” last week, with students and allies sleeping in tents on campus lawns to call for an immediate cease-fire and for the university to stop doing business with entities that have links to Israel. Jewish students have reportedly been intimidated by the demonstrators this week.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) joined every Republican member of the New York congressional delegation on the Columbia University campus in New York Wednesday afternoon for a meeting with Jewish students, followed by a public address largely drowned out by chants and jeers from protesters.
“My message to the students inside the encampment is, go back to class and stop the nonsense … You can’t intimidate your fellow students and make them stay home from class,” Johnson said. “This is unacceptable, and the American people are demanding accountability for it.”
New York Gov. Kathy Hochel (D) blasted Johnson’s decision to appear on Columbia’s campus amid the unrest, arguing that “politicizing this and bringing the entourage to put a spotlight on this is only adding to the division.”
Columbia leaders announced a decision this week to shift to hybrid in-person/online learning for the reset of the semester out of safety concerns, a move condemned by Republicans and Democrats. Meanwhile, university President Minouche Shafik has faced increasing pressure to resign.
The Hill’s Lexi Lonas talked to education advocates about the spurts of unrest on campuses across the U.S. amid the ongoing Middle East conflict.
Texas
- State police detained pro-Palestinian demonstrators at the University of Texas at Austin after hundreds of students walked out of classes and staged a march and sit-in.
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Social media videos showed Texas police in riot gear and mounted on horses as they tried to disperse the crowd. The Texas Tribune reported at least four students were detained, and the university has threatened suspensions.
California
- The University of Southern California (USC) reportedly locked its gates and began checking student identification amid outbursts on its campus in Los Angeles on Wednesday.
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Campus already was facing turmoil after USC leaders announced that its valedictorian won’t deliver a commencement speech next month because of “substantial” security risks over pro-Palestinian views expressed on her social media profiles.
Israel
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu upbraided the student protests as “antisemitic mobs” targeting Jewish students and faculties.
- “What’s happening on America’s college campuses is horrific,” he said in a video address this week.
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Welcome to Evening Report! I’m Liz Crisp, catching you up from the afternoon and what’s coming tomorrow. Not on the list? Subscribe here.
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Female justices push back strongest on Idaho abortion ban
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A divided Supreme Court is weighing whether Idaho’s strict abortion ban conflicts with a federal emergency care law, with lines appearing to be drawn by gender as well as ideology during a nearly two-hour argument Wednesday.
The Hill’s Nathaniel Weixel reports that the court’s four female justices, including conservative Amy Coney Barrett, pushed back the hardest against Idaho’s assertion that its law, which prohibits doctors from performing an abortion except when a woman’s life is in danger, overrides the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA).
Barrett honed in on the breadth of doctors’ discretion to make decisions in non life-threatening medical emergencies.
Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor — two of the court’s liberal justices — focused their questions on what would constitute a medical emergency, with Kagan saying that, according to the law in question, “you don’t have to wait until the person is on the verge of death,” before performing an abortion.
Sotomayor pointed to the case of a Florida woman who was denied an abortion, despite the fact she was at risk of developing sepsis and uncontrollable hemorrhaging, because the doctors said her situation wasn’t life-threatening.
Doctors face up to five years in prison for violating Idaho’s law.
The Biden administration sued Idaho after the high court upended Roe v. Wade in 2022, arguing that even in states where abortion is banned, EMTALA says hospitals must be allowed to terminate pregnancies in rare emergencies where a patient’s life or health is at serious risk.
The Supreme Court is expected to issue a decision later this year.
Background: Hospitals at center of Supreme Court’s latest abortion battle
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Biden courts union workers by bashing Trump
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President Biden is building upon his relationships with union workers as he campaigns for reelection by painting himself as more relatable than former President Trump.
“Folks, we all know people like Trump who look down on us. Don’t we? We all know somebody we grew up with like that,” Biden said at the North America’s Building Trade Union (NABTU) National Legislative Conference on Wednesday. “It’s either Scranton values or Mar-a-Lago values.”
NABTU endorsed Biden Wednesday, and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) endorsed him ahead of its conference last week.
NABTU President said Sean McGarvey said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” ahead of Biden’s address Wednesday that his union will not “waste a lot of time” with Trump supporters.
“We’re not gonna waste a lot of time talking to every American that supports Donald Trump, and we’re not gonna waste a lot of time with some of our members that support Donald Trump, because we’re not gonna change their minds,” he said.
In a statement, McGarvey added that Biden’s policies and administration have “demonstrated his laser-like focus on not only rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure and manufacturing sector but rebuilding the American middle class itself.”
He said the union “took [Trump] at his word that he would have a worker-centered agenda and deliver on long-stalled issues such as infrastructure investment.”
“Instead of delivering, he aligned himself with his billionaire buddies to enact tax cuts that raised costs for our members,” he said.
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Trump, allies part of Michigan fake elector scheme: Investigator
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A Michigan prosecutor testified Wednesday that former President Trump and senior campaign allies contributed to a scheme to overturn the state’s 2020 electoral results.
Special Agent Howard Shock of the Michigan attorney general’s office said Trump is an unindicted co-conspirator in the alleged plot, which has resulted in charges against 16 Michigan GOP officials.
Prosecutors have accused the Trump campaign and allies of working with local Republicans to override the state’s 2020 election results by putting forward a fraudulent list of Electoral College voters. (The Hill)
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TikTok vows to challenge law that could ban app from US
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TikTok plans to challenge a new law that could potentially ban the popular social media app in the U.S.
“This unconstitutional law is a TikTok ban, and we will challenge it in court,” a spokesperson said in a statement. “We believe the facts and the law are clearly on our side, and we will ultimately prevail.”
The company has been on an aggressive campaign to build support around the viral video sharing program, through television ads, a robust lobbying effort and even a message to users urging them to contact their representatives in Congress.
“As we continue to challenge this unconstitutional ban, we will continue investing and innovating to ensure TikTok remains a space where Americans of all walks of life can safely come to share their experiences, find joy, and be inspired,” the company said.
The TikTok legislation was tucked into a broader $95 billion foreign aid package that provided long-sought additional funding to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
It requires TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance to divest from the app or face a ban on U.S. devices and networks.
ByteDance has roughly a year to sell TikTok under the new law.
Supporters of the legislation have argued it is necessary for national security and data privacy interests. Critics, including TikTok, have argued that it restricts free speech and that the platform has had a positive impact.
“This ban would devastate seven million businesses and silence 170 million Americans,” the company said.
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Buttigieg: US needs more air traffic controllers
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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says more air traffic controllers are needed to address concerns about workloads.
“If you look at just a chart over the last 30 years or so, the number of air traffic controllers has gone down and down and down, until recently where we finally got that number going up,” Buttigieg said Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
Reports of air traffic controllers suffering from exhaustion and burnout were captured in a 114-page report released this year, which found that lack of sleep, especially during night shifts could hinder safety and lead to mishaps.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued new rules and guidelines that will take effect this summer and mandate controllers take 12 hours off before midnight shifts and 10 hours off between regular shifts.
Buttigieg said the administration is requesting funding from Capitol Hill lawmakers to hire 2,000 additional controllers. (The Hill)
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“Media killed the presidential debate,” writes Jeffrey M. McCall, media critic and professor of communication at DePauw University.
“Our disaffected electorate is proof that the old model of politics isn’t working,” writes Max Burns, veteran Democratic strategist and founder of Third Degree Strategies.
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81 days until the Republican National Convention.
116 days until the Democratic National Convention.
194 days until the 2024 general election.
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