US immigration agents arrest Palestinian activist who helped lead Columbia University protests

Update Student negotiator Mahmoud Khalil is seen at the Columbia University campus in New York at a pro-Palestinian protest encampment. (File/AP)
Student negotiator Mahmoud Khalil is seen at the Columbia University campus in New York at a pro-Palestinian protest encampment. (File/AP)
Short Url
Updated 10 March 2025
Follow

US immigration agents arrest Palestinian activist who helped lead Columbia University protests

Student negotiator Mahmoud Khalil is seen at the Columbia University campus in New York at a pro-Palestinian protest encampment.
  • Homeland Security spokesperson said Mahmoud Khalil’s arrest was “in support of President Trump’s executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism”
  • State Department chief said the administration “will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported”

NEW YORK: Federal immigration authorities arrested a Palestinian activist Saturday who played a prominent role in Columbia University’s protests against Israel, a significant escalation in the Trump administration’s pledge to detain and deport student activists.
Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate student at Columbia until this past December, was inside his university-owned apartment Saturday night when several Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents entered and took him into custody, his attorney, Amy Greer, told The Associated Press.
Greer said she spoke by phone with one of the ICE agents during the arrest, who said they were acting on State Department orders to revoke Khalil’s student visa. Informed by the attorney that Khalil was in the United States as a permanent resident with a green card, the agent said they were revoking that instead, according to the lawyer.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, Tricia McLaughlin, confirmed Khalil’s arrest in a statement Sunday, describing it as being “in support of President Trump’s executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism.”
Khalil’s arrest is the first publicly known deportation effort under Trump’s promised crackdown on students who joined protests against the war in Gaza that swept college campuses last spring. The administration has claimed participants forfeited their rights to remain in the country by supporting Hamas.
McLaughlin signaled the arrest was directly connected to Khalil’s role in the protests, alleging he “led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.”
As ICE agents arrived at Khalil’s Manhattan residence Saturday night, they also threatened to arrest Khalil’s wife, an American citizen who is eight months pregnant, Greer said.
Khalil’s attorney said they were initially informed that he was being held at an immigration detention facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey. But when his wife tried to visit Sunday, she learned he was not there. Greer said she still did not know Khalil’s whereabouts as of Sunday night.
“We have not been able to get any more details about why he is being detained,” Greer told the AP. “This is a clear escalation. The administration is following through on its threats.”
A Columbia University spokesperson said law enforcement agents must produce a warrant before entering university property, but declined to say if the school had received one ahead of Khalil’s arrest. The spokesperson declined to comment on Khalil’s detention.
In a message shared on X Sunday evening, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the administration “will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported.”
The Department of Homeland Security can initiate deportation proceedings against green card holders for a broad range alleged criminal activity, including supporting a terror group. But the detention of a legal permanent resident who has not been charged with a crime marked an extraordinary move with an uncertain legal foundation, according to immigration experts.
“This has the appearance of a retaliatory action against someone who expressed an opinion the Trump administration didn’t like,” said Camille Mackler, founder of Immigrant ARC, a coalition of legal service providers in New York.
Khalil, who received his master’s degree from Columbia’s school of international affairs last semester, served as a negotiator for students as they bargained with university officials over an end to the tent encampment erected on campus last spring.
The role made him one of the most visible activists in support of the movement, prompting calls from pro-Israel activists in recent weeks for the Trump administration to begin deportation proceedings against him.
Khalil was also among those under investigation by a new Columbia University office that has brought disciplinary charges against dozens of students for their pro-Palestinian activism, according to records shared with the AP.
The investigations come as the Trump administration has followed through on its threat to cut hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to Columbia because of what the government describes as the Ivy League school’s failure to squelch antisemitism on campus.
The university’s allegations against Khalil focused on his involvement in the Columbia University Apartheid Divest group. He faced sanctions for potentially helping to organize an “unauthorized marching event” in which participants glorified Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack and playing a “substantial role” in the circulation of social media posts criticizing Zionism, among other acts of alleged discrimination.
“I have around 13 allegations against me, most of them are social media posts that I had nothing to do with,” Khalil told the AP last week.
“They just want to show Congress and right-wing politicians that they’re doing something, regardless of the stakes for students,” he added. “It’s mainly an office to chill pro-Palestine speech.”


Graves of babies among dozens vandalized in suspected Islamophobic attack at UK cemetery

Graves of babies among dozens vandalized in suspected Islamophobic attack at UK cemetery
Updated 58 min 1 sec ago
Follow

Graves of babies among dozens vandalized in suspected Islamophobic attack at UK cemetery

Graves of babies among dozens vandalized in suspected Islamophobic attack at UK cemetery
  • Grieving relatives find up to 85 graves damaged in a section of a cemetery in the town of Watford designated for Muslim burials
  • Police are investigating and the local council, which owns the burial site, says it will replace damaged name plaques and restore the cemetery to its proper state

LONDON: Dozens of graves, including those of babies and young children, were desecrated in a suspected Islamophobic hate crime in the British town of Watford, near London, prompting widespread condemnation and sorrow from the local community.

The vandalism, which affected up to 85 graves, is under investigation by Hertfordshire Police. Officers have yet to make any arrests, The Independent newspaper reported on Monday.

The damage was discovered over the weekend by a grieving family visiting the cemetery following a recent burial. The distressing scene sparked an immediate outpouring of grief and support.

A spokesperson for Wadi Funeralcare described the vandalism as “unspeakable acts of disrespect,” and added: “Their pain and anguish was deeply felt by all of us. We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to the many individuals and organizations who responded swiftly and stood in solidarity with the affected families and our wider community.”

The spokesperson said the incident had “deeply shaken” the Muslim community but the swift response and shared outrage reinforced the “strength we have when we stand together.”

The leader of the local Brent Council, Muhammed Butt, urged members of the public to come forward with any information that could help police, and expressed his sympathy for the bereaved families.

“I cannot imagine how they must be feeling at this moment,” he said. “It looks as though Muslim graves have been targeted in what appears to be an Islamophobic hate crime.

“There is absolutely no place for hate or discrimination of any kind anywhere, but particularly in London, a city where everyone is welcome and our diversity is one of our greatest strengths.”

Brent Council will replace the damaged name plaques and work to restore the cemetery to its proper state, he added.

“We will return Carpenders Park Lawn Cemetery to a peaceful, quiet place of remembrance as quickly as possible once the police have finished their investigation,” said Butt.

Hertfordshire Police confirmed that officers were still at the site carrying out inquiries. Chief Superintendent Jon Simpson, from the Local Policing Command, said the force was treating the incident with the utmost seriousness.

“This is an abhorrent incident and one that will understandably spark an emotive reaction in the community,” he said.

“We are continuing to work closely with our local community leaders and our partners at Brent Council, which owns the site, to identify those families who have been affected but we appreciate that this will take some time.

“At this stage, we are keeping an open mind as to the nature of this incident and in the coming days we will continue to engage with our Muslim communities to provide support and reassurance.

“We’re also working with specialist officers in the constabulary to ensure we remain sensitive and respectful to the needs of the communities involved.”


Bangladesh arrest warrant issued for British lawmaker linked to ex-Premier Hasina

Bangladesh arrest warrant issued for British lawmaker linked to ex-Premier Hasina
Updated 14 April 2025
Follow

Bangladesh arrest warrant issued for British lawmaker linked to ex-Premier Hasina

Bangladesh arrest warrant issued for British lawmaker linked to ex-Premier Hasina
  • Tulip Siddiq, 42, is a niece of ex-Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina who was ousted in violent uprising in 2024
  • Country’s anti-corruption watchdog has been probing Siddiq for allegedly receiving land illegally in state-owned project

DHAKA: A judge in Bangladesh issued an arrest warrant for British lawmaker and former government minister Tulip Siddiq, a niece of Bangladesh’s former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted from her 15-year rule in a mass uprising in August.
The country’s Anti-Corruption Commission has been investigating allegations against Siddiq that she and her family members, including Hasina, illegally received land in a state-owned township project near the capital, Dhaka.
Senior Special Judge of Dhaka Metropolitan Zakir Hossain passed the order on Sunday, after considering charges in three separate cases filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission, the leading Dhaka-based Bengali-language Prothom Alo newspaper reported.
Siddiq, 42, was named in the arrest warrant along with more than 50 others including her mother, Sheikh Rehana, and her brother, Radwan Siddiq, the newspaper reported.
Siddiq said the charges were “a completely politically motivated smear campaign, trying to harass me.”
“There is no evidence that I’ve done anything wrong,” she told reporters in London.
Siddiq’s lawyers also called the charges baseless. “To be clear, there is no basis at all for any charges to be made against her, and there is absolutely no truth in any allegation that she received a plot of land in Dhaka through illegal means,” the law firm Stephenson Harwood said in a statement.
The lawmaker, who represents the north London district of Hampstead and Highgate in Parliament, served in Britain’s center-left Labour Party government as economic secretary to the Treasury — the minister responsible for tackling financial corruption.
She quit that post in January after she was named in an anti-corruption investigation into Hasina and her family in Bangladesh. The investigation alleged that Siddiq’s family was involved in brokering a 2013 deal with Russia for a nuclear power plant in Bangladesh in which large sums of money were said to have been embezzled.
Siddiq said in January that she had been cleared of wrongdoing, but that the issue was becoming “a distraction from the work of the government.”
Hasina’s Bangladesh Awami League party says the charges are politically motivated to destroy the reputation of the prominent family. Hasina’s father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, is Bangladesh’s independence leader. The country gained independence in 1971 under his leadership after a nine-month war against Pakistan.
Hasina has been in exile in India since early August.
After the ouster of Hasina on Aug. 5 last year, Siddiq’s mother’s home in Dhaka’s upscale Gulshan area was looted and vandalized, and so far no police case has been filed over the incident. Hasina accused Bangladesh’s interim administration headed by Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus of backing mobs to attack her followers across the country. The home affairs adviser says they are trying to restore order in the country.


Bangladesh arrest warrant issued for British lawmaker linked to ex-Premier Hasina

From front left, Tulip Siddiq, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
From front left, Tulip Siddiq, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
Updated 14 April 2025
Follow

Bangladesh arrest warrant issued for British lawmaker linked to ex-Premier Hasina

From front left, Tulip Siddiq, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
  • Siddiq, 42, was named in arrest warrant along with more than 50 others including her mother, Sheikh Rehana, and her brother, Radwan Siddiq, newspaper reported

DHAKA: A judge in Bangladesh issued an arrest warrant for British lawmaker and former government minister Tulip Siddiq, a niece of Bangladesh’s former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted from her 15-year rule in a mass uprising in August.
The country’s Anti-Corruption Commission has been investigating allegations against Siddiq that she and her family members, including Hasina, illegally received land in a state-owned township project near the capital, Dhaka.
Senior Special Judge of Dhaka Metropolitan Zakir Hossain passed the order on Sunday, after considering charges in three separate cases filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission, the leading Dhaka-based Bengali-language Prothom Alo newspaper reported.
Siddiq, 42, was named in the arrest warrant along with more than 50 others including her mother, Sheikh Rehana, and her brother, Radwan Siddiq, the newspaper reported.
Siddiq said the charges were “a completely politically motivated smear campaign, trying to harass me.”
“There is no evidence that I’ve done anything wrong,” she told reporters in London.
Siddiq’s lawyers also called the charges baseless. “To be clear, there is no basis at all for any charges to be made against her, and there is absolutely no truth in any allegation that she received a plot of land in Dhaka through illegal means," the law firm Stephenson Harwood said in a statement.
The lawmaker, who represents the north London district of Hampstead and Highgate in Parliament, served in Britain’s center-left Labour Party government as economic secretary to the Treasury — the minister responsible for tackling financial corruption.
She quit that post in January after she was named in an anti-corruption investigation into Hasina and her family in Bangladesh. The investigation alleged that Siddiq’s family was involved in brokering a 2013 deal with Russia for a nuclear power plant in Bangladesh in which large sums of money were said to have been embezzled.
Siddiq said in January that she had been cleared of wrongdoing, but that the issue was becoming “a distraction from the work of the government.”
Hasina’s Bangladesh Awami League party says the charges are politically motivated to destroy the reputation of the prominent family. Hasina’s father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, is Bangladesh’s independence leader. The country gained independence in 1971 under his leadership after a nine-month war against Pakistan.
Hasina has been in exile in India since early August.
After the ouster of Hasina on Aug. 5 last year, Siddiq’s mother’s home in Dhaka’s upscale Gulshan area was looted and vandalized, and so far no police case has been filed over the incident. Hasina accused Bangladesh's interim administration headed by Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus of backing mobs to attack her followers across the country. The home affairs adviser says they are trying to restore order in the country.


UK report says outdated laws hampered fight against misinformation during anti-immigrant violence

Police officers watch members of the public outside the Town Hall during a vigil to remember the victims of a stabbing attack.
Police officers watch members of the public outside the Town Hall during a vigil to remember the victims of a stabbing attack.
Updated 14 April 2025
Follow

UK report says outdated laws hampered fight against misinformation during anti-immigrant violence

Police officers watch members of the public outside the Town Hall during a vigil to remember the victims of a stabbing attack.
  • Over several nights, crowds attacked housing for asylum-seekers, as well as mosques and libraries, in worst street violence Britain had seen since riots in 2011

LONDON: Outdated laws unfit for the social media age hampered police from countering false claims that helped fuel anti-immigrant violence in Britain last summer, an investigation by lawmakers said Monday.
Parliament’s Home Affairs Committee said limits on disclosing details of criminal investigations “created an information vacuum that allowed disinformation to flourish” after three children were stabbed to death at a summer dance party in July.
The attack in the northwest England town of Southport shocked the country and triggered days of disorder after far-right activists seized on incorrect reports that the attacker was a Muslim migrant who had recently arrived in the UK
Over several nights, crowds attacked housing for asylum-seekers, as well as mosques, libraries and community centers, in the worst street violence Britain had seen since riots in 2011.
Attacker Axel Rudakubana, who was 17 when he carried out the rampage at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class, is the British-born son of Rwandan Christian parents. He is serving a life sentence with no chance of parole for 52 years for killing Alice Da Silva Aguiar, 9, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Bebe King, 6, and wounding eight other children and two adults.
Longstanding contempt-of-court rules, intended to ensure fair trials, hampered police in correcting online misinformation, and a ban on naming suspects under 18 meant the attacker’s identity was withheld from the public for several days.
A tweet falsely identifying the attacker, posted on the day of the stabbings, was retweeted thousands of times and viewed by millions of people, the lawmakers said. Police did not state that the information was false until the next day, and even then did not release the attacker’s name.
Conservative lawmaker Karen Bradley, who heads the Home Affairs Committee, said “bad actors sought to exploit the unspeakable tragedy that unfolded in Southport.”
“By failing to disclose information to the public, false claims filled the gap and flourished online, further undermining confidence in the police and public authorities,” she said. “The criminal justice system will need to ensure its approach to communication is fit for the social media age.”
The committee of lawmakers from both government and opposition parties also said police struggled to monitor the sheer volume of content on social media. It called for government support “to monitor and respond to social media at a national level.”
The government said it agreed that “social media has put well-established principles around how we communicate after attacks like this under strain, and we must be able to tackle misinformation head on.” It has asked the Law Commission to carry out a review into contempt of court rules.
The government also has set up a public inquiry into how the system failed to stop the killer, who had been referred to the authorities multiple times over his obsession with violence.
The lawmakers’ committee, which heard from police, prosecutors and experts during its inquiry, also said there was no evidence to support allegations of “two-tier policing” in Britain. Politicians and activists on the political right have argued that those arrested over the summer disorder were treated more harshly than climate change activists or Black Lives Matter protesters.
More than 1,000 people have faced criminal charges over the violence, which saw 69 police officers treated in hospitals.
“Those participating in disorder were not policed more strongly because of their supposed political views but because they were throwing missiles, assaulting police officers and committing arson,” the lawmakers said. “It was disgraceful to see the police officers who bore the brunt of this violence being undermined by baseless claims of ‘two-tier policing.’”


Former Malaysia PM Abdullah dies aged 85, family and medical authorities say

Malaysia’s former prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (C) takes part in multi-religion mass prayers. (File/Reuters)
Malaysia’s former prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (C) takes part in multi-religion mass prayers. (File/Reuters)
Updated 14 April 2025
Follow

Former Malaysia PM Abdullah dies aged 85, family and medical authorities say

Malaysia’s former prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (C) takes part in multi-religion mass prayers. (File/Reuters)
  • Abdullah became Malaysia’s fifth prime minister in 2003, following the resignation of veteran leader Mahathir Mohamad after 22 years at the helm

KUALA LUMPUR: Former Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi died on Monday, aged 85, his family and medical authorities reported.
Abdullah became Malaysia’s fifth prime minister in 2003, following the resignation of veteran leader Mahathir Mohamad after 22 years at the helm.
The former premier died at 7:10 p.m. (1110 GMT) at the National Heart Institute in the capital Kuala Lumpur, his son-in-law and former health minister Khairy Jamaluddin said in an Instagram post, without specifying a cause of death.
Abdullah was admitted to the National Heart Institute on Sunday after experiencing breathing difficulties and was immediately placed under intensive care, the institute said in a statement.
“Despite all medical efforts, he passed away peacefully, surrounded by his loved ones,” the institute said.
As premier of the Muslim-majority country, Abdullah embarked on an anti-corruption drive and espoused a moderate version of Islam that aimed for economic and technological progress over religious fundamentalism. But he came under public criticism for his review of fuel subsidies that saw a sharp spike in prices.
Abdullah stepped down in 2009, a year after an election that saw the then-ruling Barisan Nasional coalition lose its parliamentary supermajority for the first time in the country’s history. He was succeeded by Najib Razak.