World News

... Columbia University administrators called in the New York Police Department (NYPD) on Wednesday evening to violently suppress and shut down a pro-Palestinian student occupation of the campus’ Butler Library. Approximately 78 protesters were arrested just over a year after the police-state crackdown at Columbia last April, when the NYPD swarmed the campus to arrest over 100 students and break up the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment.”

On Wednesday afternoon, a group of around 100 anti-genocide student protesters took over Butler’s main reading room and renamed it the “Basel Al-Araj Popular University,” after the Palestinian activist and writer killed by Israeli forces in 2017.

The students’ demands include Columbia’s financial divestment from Zionist organizations, an academic boycott of complicit institutions, cops and ICE off campus and amnesty for all university members unfairly targeted and disciplined for pro-Palestinian actions.

Columbia’s Public Safety officers immediately responded and violently barred protesters from leaving unless they showed identification, which created a prolonged standoff...

Two men were found guilty on Friday of cutting down Britain's 'Sycamore Gap' tree two years ago, felling the much-loved landmark whose dramatic silhouette had featured in a Hollywood movie in what prosecutors described as a "moronic mission".

The sycamore, estimated to be almost 200 years old, stood at the centre of a dramatic dip in the landscape alongside the historic Hadrian's Wall in northern England, making it a popular spot for photographers, hikers and even marriage proposals.

The felling also caused damage to part of Hadrian's Wall, built by the Romans almost 2,000 years ago and now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Dozens of community kitchens in Gaza were forced to shut down on Thursday due to lack of food, amidst Israel’s ongoing blockade aimed at starving the Palestinian population and annexing their land.

Gina Rinehart, Australia’s richest person and a major donor to the Liberal Party, urged the country’s conservatives to stare down the weekend’s election wipe-out and lean in to policies like those of US President Donald Trump.

Rinehart, an ardent and vocal supporter of Trump, issued a lengthy statement Monday morning following Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s historic election win at the weekend. The result saw him achieve a majority in parliament for his center-left Labor Party, while Liberal leader Peter Dutton lost his seat.

In her statement, Rinehart called for Australians to “stay and fight for understanding of the changes Australia needs,” and to look more closely at the “common sense and truth” in the US.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-05-05/billionaire-rinehart-urges-australian-right-to-embrace-trump

Other sources:

• The Guardian

• Sydney Morning Herald

Israel will not be involved in Gaza aid distribution but will take part in providing security, U.S. ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said in a press conference on Friday.

Israel has been imposing an aid blockade on the enclave since March. Huckabee said the supply of aid was not dependent on reaching a ceasefire.

But U.K. imports will continue to carry a 10% tariff, up from a pre-Trump average of 1.3%. The president referred to that as the "lowest end" import tax.

With 10% import taxes looking like the new minimum — and other countries with more contentious trade relationships likely to continue seeing significantly higher tariffs — there will be serious sand in the gears of global commerce for the foreseeable future.

President Donald Trump on Friday floated cutting tariffs on China from 145% to 80% ahead of a weekend meeting among top U.S. and Chinese trade officials as he looks to deescalate the trade war.

In a joint statement following talks, Xi Jinping and Putin stated that the war in Ukraine could only be resolved by removing its "root causes".

Such formulation clearly echoes key Russian propaganda messages used by the Kremlin to justify the launch of the full-scale war, including the threat of NATO expansion, discrimination against Russian-speaking people and the suppression of the Russian language, culture and media in Ukraine.

Some 125 Indian and Pakistani fighter jets battled for over an hour in one of the biggest dogfights in recent history, according to a Pakistani security source quoted by CNN.

If the numbers of aircraft were confirmed, it would make it one of the largest air battles since World War Two.

Ukraine says it has uncovered a spy network being run by the Hungarian state to obtain intelligence about its defences near their shared border.

Ukraine's security service said it had detained two alleged Hungarian spies who it accused of gathering intelligence.

"For the first time in Ukraine's history, the Security Service has exposed a Hungarian military intelligence network that was conducting espionage activities to the detriment of our state," the SBU said.

Hungary is a member of the European Union and Nato - both firm allies of Ukraine - but President Viktor Orban has repeatedly sided with Russia since its invasion of Ukraine. The Hungarian government has not responded to the claims.

From a woman waving a colonial-era flag in a shopping mall, to bakery staff selling cakes with protest symbols on them - dozens of Hongkongers have been reported to the police by one man for what he believes were national security violations.

"We're in every corner of society, watching, to see if there is anything suspicious which could infringe on the national security law," former banker Innes Tang tells the BBC World Service.

"If we find these things, we go and report it to the police."

When the UK returned Hong Kong to China 28 years ago, internationally binding treaties guaranteed the city's rights and freedoms for 50 years. But the national security law (NSL), imposed by Beijing a year after Hong Kong's 2019 mass pro-democracy protests, has been criticised for scuttling free speech and press, and for ushering in a new culture of informing.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/29823642

Brett Wilkins
May 08, 2025

"Israeli occupation forces enforced a ban on the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees on Thursday by storming three schools in East Jerusalem, terrorizing children and staff as they shuttered the facilities and drawing condemnation from human rights defenders.

According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, heavily armed Israeli security forces raided the schools in the Shu'fat refugee camp in illegally occupied East Jerusalem, detaining one UNRWA employee and forcing around 550 children out of their classrooms as the invaders closed the facilities."

Hafiz Abdul Rauf, a US-designated global terrorist, was seen conducting prayers in the presence of uniformed Pakistan Army personnel and members of the banned Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) of Hafiz Saeed on Wednesday (May 6). They attended the funeral of three persons killed in the military strikes by Indian armed forces on terror camps in Muridke.

He is also a UN designated terrorist, a member of Lashkar e Tayyaba, an organisation considered a terrorist group by the US, EU, Australia, Canada, Russia and the UN. The Markaz camp at Muridke was a hide-out for the World Trade Center bombers of 1993. It was also the training center of 26/11/2008 attacks in Mumbai, according to Ajmal Kasab, David Headley, a key conspirator, and Tahawuur Rana, who recently lost the case against his extradition in the US and was transferred from his jail in the US on India's extradition request.

ISLAMABAD/WASHINGTON, May 8 (Reuters) - A top Chinese-made Pakistani fighter plane shot down at least two Indian military aircraft on Wednesday, two U.S. officials told Reuters, marking a major milestone for Beijing's advanced fighter jet.

An Indian Air Force spokesperson said he had no comment when asked about the Reuters report.

Filmmakers behind a new documentary on the killing of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh by Israeli forces say they have uncovered the identity of the soldier who pulled the trigger.

Who Killed Shireen?, a 40-minute investigative documentary released on Thursday by Washington, DC-based media company Zeteo, identifies the killer as a 20-year-old Israeli soldier who was on his first combat tour in the occupied West Bank and lifts the lid on attempts by the United States to avoid holding ally Israel accountable for the murder.