Biden says ‘order must prevail’ during campus protests over the war in Gaza

Biden says ‘order must prevail’ during campus protests over the war in Gaza
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Pro-Palestinian demonstrators hold signs protesting the Israel-Hamas war at the University of Mississippi campus in Oxford, Mississippi, on May 2, 2024. (The Daily Mississippian via AP)
Biden says ‘order must prevail’ during campus protests over the war in Gaza
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A neutral campus organizer, center, tries to direct a pro-Palestinian demonstrator away from being so close to a group of counter-protesters at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi on May 2, 2024. (The Daily Mississippian via AP)
US President Joe Biden speaks during a
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US President Joe Biden speaks during a "Teachers of the Year" State Dinner, an event honoring the 2024 National Teachers of the Year, at the White House in Washington on May 2, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 03 May 2024
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Biden says ‘order must prevail’ during campus protests over the war in Gaza

Biden says ‘order must prevail’ during campus protests over the war in Gaza
  • “Dissent is essential for democracy. But dissent must never lead to disorder,” the president said at the White House
  • The Democratic president broke days of silence on the protests with his remarks amid mounting criticism from Republicans

WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden on Thursday rejected calls from student protesters to change his approach to the war in Gaza while insisting that “order must prevail” as college campuses across the country face a wave of violence, outrage and fear.

“Dissent is essential for democracy,” Biden said at the White House. “But dissent must never lead to disorder.”
The Democratic president broke days of silence on the protests with his remarks, which followed mounting criticism from Republicans who have tried to turn scenes of unrest into a campaign cudgel. By focusing on a law-and-order message while defending the right to free speech, Biden is grasping for a middle ground on an intensely divisive issue in the middle of his reelection campaign.
He largely sidestepped protesters’ demands, which have included ending US support for Israeli military operations. Asked after his remarks whether the demonstrations would prompt him to consider changing course, Biden responded with a simple “no.”
Biden said that he did not want the National Guard to be deployed to campuses. Some Republicans have called for sending in troops, an idea with a fraught history. Four students were shot and killed at Kent State University by members of the Ohio National Guard during protests over the Vietnam War in 1970.
Tensions on college campuses have been building for days as demonstrators refuse to remove encampments and administrators turn to police to clear them by force, leading to clashes that have seized widespread attention.
Biden said he rejected efforts to use the situation to “score political points,” calling the situation a “moment for clarity.”
“There’s the right to protest, but not the right to cause chaos,” Biden said shortly before leaving the White House for a trip to North Carolina. “People have the right to get an education, the right to get a degree, the right to walk across campus safely without fear of being attacked.”
The White House also maintained its focus on combating antisemitism. Doug Emhoff, husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, spoke to Jewish students and Hillel leaders on Thursday to hear about their experience with threats and hate speech, according to a White House official.
Biden will make his own visit to a college campus on May 19 when he’s scheduled to deliver the commencement address at Morehouse University in Atlanta.
His last previous public comment on the demonstrations came more than a week ago, when he condemned “antisemitic protests” and “those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians.”
The White House, which has been peppered with questions by reporters, had gone only slightly further than the president. On Wednesday, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that Biden was “monitoring the situation closely” and that some demonstrations had stepped over a line that separated free speech from unlawful behavior.
“Forcibly taking over a building,” such as what happened at Columbia University in New York, “is not peaceful,” she said. “It’s just not.”
Biden’s latest remarks weren’t well received in some corners of the Democratic Party.
“We need to prevent lawlessness in society. We need to have protections against hate speech,” said a social media post from Patrick Gaspard, president of the Center for American Progress and a former White House political director under President Barack Obama. “But we need to be able to hold space for active dissent and activism that is discomforting without blanket accusations of hate and violence against all activists.”
But Biden’s team has expressed confidence that his stance appeals to the widest array of voters. It also echoes his approach to nationwide unrest after the murder of George Floyd by a police officer four years ago, a politically volatile situation in the middle of his campaign against then-President Donald Trump.
“I want to make it absolutely clear rioting is not protesting, looting is not protesting,” Biden said then in remarks that his team turned into an advertisement. “It’s lawlessness, plain and simple, and those that do it should be prosecuted.”
Biden has never been much for protests of any kind. His career in elected office began as a county official when he was only 28 years old, and he’s always espoused the political importance of compromise.
As college campuses convulsed with anger over the Vietnam War in 1968, Biden was in law school at Syracuse University.
“I’m not big on flak jackets and tie-dyed shirts,” he said years later. “You know, that’s not me.″
The White House has also maintained its focus on combating antisemitism. Doug Emhoff, husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, spoke to Jewish students and Hillel leaders on Thursday to hear about their experience with threats and hate speech, according to a White House official.
Despite the administration’s criticism of violent college protests and Biden’s refusal to heed demands to cut off US support for Israel, Republicans blame Democrats for the disorder and have used it as a backdrop for press conferences.
“We need the president of the United States to speak to the issue and say this is wrong,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, said on Tuesday. “What’s happening on college campuses right now is wrong.”
Johnson visited Columbia University with other members of his caucus last week. House Republicans sparred verbally with protesters while speaking to the media at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday.
Trump, who is running for another term as president, also criticized Biden in an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News.
“Biden has to do something,” he said. “Biden is supposed to be the voice of our country, and it’s certainly not much of a voice. It’s a voice that nobody’s heard.”
He repeated his criticisms on Wednesday during a campaign event in Waukesha, Wisconsin.
“The radical extremists and far-left agitators are terrorizing college campuses, as you possibly noticed,” Trump said. “And Biden’s nowhere to be found. He hasn’t said anything.”
Kate Berner, who served as deputy communications director for Biden’s campaign in 2020, said Republicans already had tried the same tactic during protests over Floyd’s murder.
“People rejected that,” she said. “They saw that it was just fearmongering. They saw that it wasn’t based in reality.”
Apart from condemning antisemitism, the White House has been reluctant to directly engage on the issue.
Jean-Pierre repeatedly deflected questions during a briefing on Monday.
Asked whether protesters should be disciplined by their schools, she said “universities and colleges make their own decisions” and “we’re not going to weigh in from here.”
Pressed on whether police should be called in, she said “that’s up to the colleges and universities.”
Asked on Thursday why Biden chose to speak on the matter after police had arrested protesters at the University of California, Los Angeles and at universities in New York City, Jean-Pierre stressed instead the importance of any protests being nonviolent.
“We’ve been very consistent here,” she said. “Americans have the right to peacefully protest as long as it’s within the law and violence is not protected.”


Traces of this Pakistani megacity’s past are vanishing, but one flamboyant pink palace endures

Traces of this Pakistani megacity’s past are vanishing, but one flamboyant pink palace endures
Updated 16 September 2024
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Traces of this Pakistani megacity’s past are vanishing, but one flamboyant pink palace endures

Traces of this Pakistani megacity’s past are vanishing, but one flamboyant pink palace endures
  • Karachi’s population grows by around 2 percent every year and with dozens of communities and cultures competing for space there’s little effort to protect the city’s historic sites

KARACHI, Pakistan: Stained glass windows, a sweeping staircase and embellished interiors make Mohatta Palace a gem in Karachi, a Pakistani megacity of 20 million people. Peacocks roam the lawn and the sounds of construction and traffic melt away as visitors enter the grounds.
The pink stone balustrades, domes and parapets look like they’ve been plucked from the northern Indian state of Rajasthan, a relic of a time when Muslims and Hindus lived side by side in the port city.
But magnificence is no guarantee of survival in a city where land is scarce and development is rampant. Demolition, encroachment, neglect, piecemeal conservation laws and vandalism are eroding signs of Karachi’s past.
The building’s trustees have fended off an attempt to turn it into a dental college, but there’s still a decadeslong lawsuit in which heirs of a former owner are trying to take control of the land. It sat empty for almost two decades before formally opening as a museum in 1999.
The palace sits on prime real estate in the desirable neighborhood of Old Clifton, among mansions, businesses and upmarket restaurants.
The land under buildings like the Mohatta Palace is widely coveted, said palace lawyer Faisal Siddiqi. “It shows that greed is more important than heritage.”
Karachi’s population grows by around 2 percent every year and with dozens of communities and cultures competing for space there’s little effort to protect the city’s historic sites.
For most Pakistanis, the palace is the closest they’ll get to the architectural splendor of India’s Rajasthan, because travel restrictions and hostile bureaucracies largely keep people in either country from crossing the border for leisure, study or work.
Karachi’s multicultural past makes it harder to find champions for preservation than in a city like Lahore, with its strong connection to the Muslim-dominated Mughal Empire, said Heba Hashmi, a heritage manager and maritime archaeologist.
“The scale of organic local community support needed to prioritize government investment in the preservation effort is nearly impossible to garner in a city as socially fragmented as Karachi,” she said.
Mohatta Palace is a symbol of that diversity. Hindu entrepreneur Shivratan Mohatta had it built in the 1920s because he wanted a coastal residence for his ailing wife to benefit from the Arabian Sea breeze. Hundreds of donkey carts carried the distinctively colored pink stone from Jodhpur, now across the border in India.
He left after partition in 1947, when India and Pakistan were carved from the former British Empire as independent nations, and for a time the palace was occupied by the Foreign Ministry.
Next, it passed into the hands of Pakistani political royalty as the home of Fatima Jinnah, the younger sister of Pakistan’s first leader and a powerful politician in her own right.
After her death, the authorities gave the building to her sister Shirin, but Shirin’s passing in 1980 sparked a court fight between people saying they were her relatives, and a court ordered the building sealed.
The darkened and empty palace, with its overgrown gardens and padlocked gates, caught people’s imagination. Rumors spread of spirits and supernatural happenings.
Someone who heard the stories as a young girl was Nasreen Askari, now the museum’s director.
“As a child I used to rush past,” she said. “I was told it was a bhoot (ghost) bungalow and warned, don’t go there.”
Visitor Ahmed Tariq had heard a lot about the palace’s architecture and history. “I’m from Bahawalpur (in Punjab, India) where we have the Noor Mahal palace, so I wanted to look at this one. It’s well-maintained, there’s a lot of detail and effort in the presentations. It’s been a good experience.”
But the money to maintain the palace isn’t coming from admission fees.
General admission is 30 rupees, or 10 US cents, and it’s free for students, children and seniors. On a sweltering afternoon, the palace drew just a trickle of visitors.
It’s open Tuesday to Sunday but closes on public holidays; even the 11 a.m.-6 p.m. hours are not conducive for a late-night city like Karachi.
The palace is rented out for corporate and charitable events. Local media report that residents grumble about traffic and noise levels.
But the palace doesn’t welcome all attention, even if it could help carve out a space for the building in modern Pakistan.
Rumors about ghosts still spread by TikTok, pulling in influencers looking for spooky stories. But the palace bans filming inside, and briefly banned TikTokers.
“It is not the attention the trustees wanted,” said Askari. “That’s what happens when you have anything of consequence or unusual. It catches the eye.”
A sign on the gates also prohibits fashion shoots, weddings and filming for commercials.
“We could make so much money, but the floodgates would open,” said Askari. “There would be non-stop weddings and no space for visitors or events, so much cleaning up as well.”
Hashmi, the archaeologist, said there is often a strong sense of territorialism around the sites that have been preserved.
“It counterproductively converts a site of public heritage into an exclusive and often expensive artifact for selective consumption.”

 


Russia launches drone attack on Kyiv, Ukraine’s officials say

Russia launches drone attack on Kyiv, Ukraine’s officials say
Updated 16 September 2024
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Russia launches drone attack on Kyiv, Ukraine’s officials say

Russia launches drone attack on Kyiv, Ukraine’s officials say

KYIV: Russia launched a drone attack overnight on Kyiv, with air defense units engaged in repelling the strikes, Ukrainian military officials said on Monday on the Telegram messaging app.
Reuters’ witnesses reported a series of loud explosions in what sounded like air defense systems in operation.

 


Eight migrants die in Channel crossing attempt

Eight migrants die in Channel crossing attempt
Updated 16 September 2024
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Eight migrants die in Channel crossing attempt

Eight migrants die in Channel crossing attempt
  • Latest tragedy means 46 migrants have lost their lives attempting to reach British shores so far this year
  • The overcrowded vessel had 59 people on board from Eritrea, Sudan, Syria, Afghanistan, Egypt and Iran, says French official
  • More than 22,000 migrants have arrived in England by crossing the Channel since the beginning of this year, say officials

AMBLETEUSE, France: Eight migrants died on Sunday when their overcrowded vessel capsized while trying to cross the Channel from France to England, French authorities said, less than two weeks after the deadliest such disaster this year.
The latest tragedy means 46 migrants have lost their lives attempting to reach British shores so far this year, a regional official said, up from 12 in 2023.
The French and British governments have sought for years to stop the flow of migrants, who pay smugglers thousands of euros per head for the passage on overloaded rubber dinghies.
Regional prefect Jacques Billant said the incident happened at around 1:00 a.m. (2300 GMT on Saturday) off the coast of the northern town of Ambleteuse.
“The toll was terrible, with eight people reported dead,” he told the press near the site of the accident.
He said they seemed all to be men.
Six survivors were hospitalized, including a 10-month-old baby with hypothermia, he added.
The boat had set off from the Slack river that flows into the sea between the towns of Wimereux and Ambleteuse.
It had 59 people on board from Eritrea, Sudan, Syria, Afghanistan, Egypt and Iran, Billant said.
“Only one out of six had a life jacket,” he said.
The dinghy “quickly got into difficulty and ran aground,” he said. “The boat was torn apart on the rocks.”

Christel Leclair, a volunteer at a local charity, said a second boat had departed at around 7:30 a.m. despite the fatal accident.
Departures “happen the whole time — winter, day, night, summer... as soon as the sea is calm,” she said.
“The boats are more and more overcrowded. They don’t have life jackets, just sometimes the inner tube of a tire,” she added.
“There are children, pregnant women and tiny babies. We’re sad and deflated.”
The Auberge des Migrants (Migrant shelter) charity on X called on the French and British states to “immediately rethink their migration policy.”
Billant said that this year French authorities had dismantled 20 people smuggling networks, arresting 77 people of whom 59 have been referred to the courts.
But Charlotte Kwantes, of the Utopia 56 charity helping migrants, said departures would only continue.
Without enough legal options for migrants wishing to reach the United Kingdom, “people are continuing and will continue to take the same risks, whatever the quantity of patrols and means deployed at the border,” she said.

Maritime authorities said Saturday that migrants had made numerous attempts to cross the Channel in recent days, with 200 people rescued in 24 hours over Friday and Saturday alone.
The latest incident comes after at least 12 migrants including six minors, mostly from Eritrea, died when their boat capsized off the northern French coast on September 3.
More than 22,000 migrants have arrived in England by crossing the Channel since the beginning of this year, according to British officials.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and France’s President Emmanuel Macron pledged this summer to strengthen “cooperation” in handling the surge in undocumented migrant numbers.
Starmer’s office on Sunday announced the appointment of Martin Hewitt as chief of the new UK Border Security Command, set up to bolster the fight against illegal migration notably by leading joint investigations with other European countries.
Hewitt will accompany Starmer during a trip to Rome on Monday for talks with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni where tackling illegal migration will be high on the agenda.
The Channel crossings often prove perilous, and in November 2021, 27 migrants died when their boat capsized in the deadliest single such disaster to date.
French authorities seek to stop migrants taking to the water but do not intervene once they are afloat except for rescue purposes, citing safety concerns.
 


British ministers head to Gulf for talks on new trade deal

Douglas Alexander (L) and Jonathan Reynolds. (AFP file photo)
Douglas Alexander (L) and Jonathan Reynolds. (AFP file photo)
Updated 16 September 2024
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British ministers head to Gulf for talks on new trade deal

Douglas Alexander (L) and Jonathan Reynolds. (AFP file photo)
  • Trade has been a weak point in Britain’s economy in recent years — with business groups pointing to Brexit as one cause

LONDON: Britain’s new trade ministers visited the Gulf region on Monday in a first joint visit for talks on a possible trade deal, the government said.
Trade secretary Jonathan Reynolds and minister for trade policy Douglas Alexander will meet their counterparts from the Gulf Cooperation Council, which comprises Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Trade has been a weak point in Britain’s economy in recent years — with business groups pointing to Brexit as one cause.
The government, elected after a landslide win for Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour Party in July, is also targeting trade deals with India, Switzerland and South Korea as part of its plan to boost economic growth.
“I want to see a high-quality trade deal that supports jobs, helps UK companies sell their products to the region and increases choice for consumers — so it’s great to be here to discuss exactly that,” Reynolds said in a statement.
Britain’s Business and Trade Department estimates a free trade deal with the Gulf Cooperation Council could boost the UK economy by 1.6 billion pounds ($2.10 billion) over the long run.
Out of the Group of Seven advanced economies, Britain ranks bottom for growth in goods and services exports since 2019, even when accounting for the country’s large precious metals trade, according to national accounts data.

 


Mali, Burkina and Niger to launch new biometric passports

Mali, Burkina and Niger to launch new biometric passports
Updated 16 September 2024
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Mali, Burkina and Niger to launch new biometric passports

Mali, Burkina and Niger to launch new biometric passports
  • In July, the allies consolidated their ties with the creation of a Confederation of Sahel States which will be chaired by Mali in its first year and groups some 72 million people

BAMAKO: Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger will soon launch new biometric passports, Mali’s military leader Col. Assimi Goita said Sunday, as the junta-led states look to solidify their alliance after splitting from regional bloc ECOWAS.
The three Sahel nations, all under military rule following a string of coups since 2020, joined together last September under the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), after severing ties with former colonial ruler France and pivoting toward Russia.
They then said in January that they were turning their backs on the Economic Community of West African States — an organization they accused of being manipulated by France.
In July, the allies consolidated their ties with the creation of a Confederation of Sahel States which will be chaired by Mali in its first year and groups some 72 million people.
“In the coming days, a new biometric passport of the AES will be put into circulation with the aim of harmonizing travel documents in our common area,” Goita said during a televised address late Sunday.
“We will be working to put in place the infrastructure needed to strengthen the connectivity of our territories through transport, communications networks and information technology,” he said.
The announcement came a day before the three states are due to mark the one-year anniversary of the alliance’s creation.
The neighbors are all battling jihadist violence that erupted in northern Mali in 2012 and spread to Niger and Burkina Faso in 2015.
The unrest is estimated to have killed thousands and displaced millions across the region.