Pro-Palestinian protesters are camping on university campuses across Australia, with some scuffling with pro-Israel protesters in Sydney – mirroring similar events in the United States.
Students have set up encampments at universities in major Australian cities over the last two weeks to protest over Israel’s offensive in Gaza.
The students are demanding that universities sever all academic ties with Israel and cut off research partnerships with arms manufacturers.
No arrests were made, as the violence seen on some American campuses has not occurred in Australia.
Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters on Friday met a counter-protest supporting Israel at the University of Sydney, Australia’s oldest university.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported a scuffle between the groups.
Supporters of both sides later backed down because of a heavy security presence.
University of Sydney vice chancellor Mark Scott said there was space for both groups of protesters.
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“They may strongly disagree with the matters that have been discussed. … We can host that conversation and we should be able to do that in a non-threatening way,” he told ABC.
Mr Scott said not all of the protesters were students, and that some might not be committed to peaceful and productive engagement.
“We are working with security and police,” he said.
Ryan Garcia protested his innocence after WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman said the American boxer had returned “adverse findings” in a drugs test before last month’s shock win over Devin Haney.
Garcia floored Haney three times en route to an upset majority decision victory on April 20th, although he did not claim his compatriot’s WBC light-welterweight crown after missing weight for the fight.
Now ESPN reports the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (VADA) has informed all parties that Garcia failed tests for the banned substance ostarine, which can be used to aid muscle mass and stamina.
The samples were allegedly collected the day before and the day of his win over Haney.
Sulaiman wrote on X: “The WBC has received just now notification from @Vada_Testing about Ryan GarcÌa adverse findings on tests taken with connection to his fight against Haney.
“The due process begins immediately as per the WBC Clean Boxing Program Protocol. More information to follow.”
Garcia, who improved his professional record to 25 wins from 26 fights with his win over Haney, took to social media to deny taking a performance-enhancing substance.
In a video posted on his X account, Garcia said: “Everybody knows that I don’t cheat. I’ve never taken a steroid – I don’t even know where to get steroids at the end of the day. I barely take supplements.”
Garcia, 25, then posted a further string of tweets appearing to make light of the situation, which was criticised by Haney.
In a statement, Haney, 25, said: “It’s unfortunate Ryan cheated and disrespected both the fans and the sport of boxing by fighting dirty and breaking positive not once, but twice.
“Ryan owes the fans an apology, and by his recent tweet he still thinks this is a joke. We put our lives on the line to entertain people for a living. You don’t play boxing.
“This puts the fight in a completely different light. Despite the disadvantage, I still fought on my shield and got back up. People die in this sport. This isn’t a joking matter.”
The PA news agency has contacted VADA for comment.
Police have removed barricades and begun dismantling pro-Palestinian demonstrators’ fortified encampment at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
The move came after hundreds of protesters defied orders to leave, some of them forming human chains as police fired flash-bang devices to break up the crowds.
Some people were detained, with their hands bound using zip ties.
The unrest came after officers spent hours threatening arrests over loudspeakers if people did not disperse.
A crowd of more than 1,000 had gathered on campus in support of the demonstration, both inside a barricaded tent encampment and outside it.
Protesters and police shoved each other and scuffled as officers encountered resistance. Video showed police pulling off helmets and goggles worn by some protesters as they were being detained.
With police helicopters hovering, the sound of flash-bangs, which produce a bright light and a loud noise to disorient and stun people, pierced the air.
Police advance on pro-Palestinian demonstrators at UCLA
Protesters chanted: “Where were you last night?” at the officers, in reference to Tuesday night, when counter-protesters attacked the encampment and the UCLA administration and campus police took hours to respond.
Tent encampments of protesters calling on universities to stop doing business with Israel or companies they say support the war in Gaza have spread across campuses across America.
The ensuing police crackdowns echoed actions decades ago against a much larger protest movement protesting against the Vietnam War.
In the Middle East, Iranian state television carried live images of the police action, as did Qatar’s pan-Arab Al Jazeera satellite network. Live images of Los Angeles also played across Israeli television networks, as well.
The police approach contrasted with the response to Tuesday night’s violence involving counter-protesters
California Highway Patrol officers poured into the campus by the hundreds early on Thursday morning.
Wearing face shields and protective vests, they stood with their batons protruding out to separate them from demonstrators, who wore helmets and gas masks and chanted: “You want peace. We want justice.”
Police methodically ripped apart the encampment’s barricade of plywood, pallets, metal fences and skips and made an opening towards dozens of tents of demonstrators. Officers also began to pull down canopies and tents.
A police officer launches a smoke bomb on the UCLA campus
The number of protesters appeared to diminish through the morning as some voluntarily left with their hands up, while police detained others.
The law enforcement presence and continued warnings contrasted with the scene on Tuesday night, when counter-demonstrators attacked the pro-Palestinian encampment, throwing traffic cones, releasing pepper spray and tearing down barriers.
Fighting continued for several hours before police stepped in, though no arrests were made. At least 15 protesters suffered injuries, and the tepid response by authorities drew criticism from political leaders as well as Muslim students and advocacy groups.
Demonstrators line up behind makeshift shields
By Wednesday afternoon, a small city sprang up inside the re-enforced encampment, full of hundreds of people and tents on the quad. Demonstrators rebuilt the makeshift barriers around their tents while state and campus police watched.
Some protesters said Muslim prayers as the sun set over the campus, while others chanted “we’re not leaving” or passed out goggles and surgical masks.
They wore helmets and headscarves, and discussed the best ways to handle pepper spray or tear gas as someone sang over a megaphone.
Outside the encampment, a crowd of students, alumni and neighbours gathered on campus steps, joining in pro-Palestinian chants. A group of students holding signs and wearing T-shirts in support of Israel and Jewish people demonstrated nearby.
Police push into a group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators
The crowd grew as the night wore on, with more and more officers pouring onto campus.
UCLA chancellor Gene Block promised a review of Tuesday night’s events after California governor Gavin Newsom denounced the delayed law enforcement response. The head of the University of California system, Michael Drake, ordered an “independent review of the university’s planning, its actions and the response by law enforcement”.
Meanwhile, protest encampments elsewhere were cleared by the police, resulting in arrests, or were closed up voluntarily at schools across the US. In New York state, those included the City College of New York, Fordham University, Stony Brook University and the University of Buffalo.
Others nationwide included Portland State in Oregon, the University of New Hampshire in Durham, Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, and Tulane University in New Orleans.
Police burst into a building occupied by war protesters at Columbia University on Tuesday night, breaking up a demonstration that had paralysed the school.
At the University of Wisconsin in Madison, a scuffle broke out early on Wednesday after police with shields removed all but one tent and shoved protesters. Four officers were injured. Four people were charged with battering law enforcement.
Dozens of people have been arrested in Georgia, and an opposition leader was seen bandaged and bruised, after police overnight used tear gas and water cannons to disperse the latest protest outside Parliament against a Bill accused of limiting media freedom.
Georgia’s Interior Ministry said 63 people were arrested on Tuesday in the demonstration against the law that would require media and non-commercial organisations to register as “pursuing the interests of a foreign power” if they receive more than 20% of funding from abroad.
Protesters denounce it as “the Russian law” because Moscow uses similar legislation to stigmatise independent news media and organisations critical of the Kremlin.
Thousands of demonstrators had gathered to oppose the legislation they see as impediments to Georgia’s long-sought prospects of joining the European Union.
During the latest rally against the Bill late on Tuesday, police broke up the protest after demonstrators tried to block the entrances to the parliament building to prevent politicians from leaving.
Despite the protests, the parliament endorsed the Bill in the first reading earlier this month.
A demonstrator gestures while standing in front of the police line
On Tuesday, politicians debated the Bill as part of a second reading.
The Bill is similar to the one the ruling party was pressured to withdraw last year after large street protests.
The Bill requires non-commercial organisations and news media that receive 20% or more of their funding from overseas to register as “pursuing the interests of a foreign power.”
Georgian president Salome Zourabichvili has harshly criticised the Bill and vowed to veto it if it is passed by parliament.
However, the ruling party can override the veto, and then the parliament speaker can sign it into law.
On Wednesday, Georgian TV showed Levan Khabeishvili, chairman of the pro-West United National Movement party, arriving in Parliament with bandages on his nose and forehead. Members of Mr Khabeishvili’s party said he had been assaulted by police during the protests.
Purple bruising and cuts were visible around Mr Khabeishvili’s left eye as he urged fellow MPs to scrap the bill.
“If you are not interested in how the leader of the main opposition party has been beaten up, then — for the sake of those young people who were injured, who were hit on the heads and bruised — I want to ask you once more, even though I do not have any hope, withdraw this law,” he said.
Deputy interior minister Aleksandre Darakhvelidze alleged at a briefing that Mr Khabeishvili broke through a police cordon the night before and was injured while he “resisted”.
Mr Darakhvelidze alleged that protesters and opposition leaders were “constantly committing violence”.
An exhibition of Western military equipment captured from Kyiv forces during the fighting in Ukraine opened in the Russian capital on Wednesday.
The display, organised by the Russian Defence Ministry, features more than 30 pieces of Western-made heavy equipment, including a US-made M1 Abrams battle tank and a Bradley armoured fighting vehicle, a Leopard 2 tank and a Marder armoured infantry vehicle from Germany, and a French-made AMX-10RC armoured vehicle.
The exhibition, which will remain open for a month at a Second World War memorial venue in western Moscow, also includes firearms, military papers and other documents.
Russian soldiers walk past a M2A2 Bradley fighting vehicle that belonged to the Ukrainian army which has gone on display in Moscow
Russian authorities have criticised supplies of Western weapons and military equipment to Ukraine, casting them as evidence of Nato’s direct involvement in the conflict.
At the same time, Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly declared that Western military supplies to Kyiv will not change the course of the conflict and prevent Russia from achieving its goals.
The exhibition comes as Russian forces have grabbed more land in eastern Ukraine, taking advantage of delays in US military assistance to push back the under-gunned Kyiv forces.
Mr Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, hailed the Moscow exhibition as a “brilliant idea”.
“The exhibition of trophy equipment will attract great interest from Moscow residents, guests of our city, and all residents of the country,” he said. “We should all see the enemy’s battered equipment.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is meeting Israeli leaders in his push for a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, saying “the time is now” for an agreement that would free hostages and bring a suspension in the nearly seven months of war in Gaza.
He has said Hamas would bear the blame for any failure to get a deal off the ground.
Mr Blinken is on his seventh visit to the region since the war erupted in October in his bid to secure what has been an elusive deal between Israel and Hamas that could avert an Israeli incursion into the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are sheltering.
The current round of talks appears to be serious, but the sides remain far apart on one key issue – whether the war should end as part of an emerging deal.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly vowed to invade Rafah, which he says is Hamas’s last stronghold
Mr Blinken told Israeli President Isaac Herzog at a meeting in Tel Aviv: “We are determined to get a ceasefire that brings the hostages home and to get it now, and the only reason that that wouldn’t be achieved is because of Hamas.
“There is a proposal on the table, and, as we’ve said, no delays, no excuses.”
The deal would also allow much-needed food, medicine and water to get into Gaza, he said.
After meeting Mr Herzog and also families of Americans held by Hamas at his hotel, Mr Blinken briefly greeted several dozen demonstrators calling for an immediate hostage release deal who had gathered outside.
Chanting “SOS, USA, only you can save the day” and “In Blinken we trust, bring them home to us”, the protesters urged him to make their case to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Mr Blinken and Mr Netanyahu discussed the ceasefire efforts and Mr Blinken reiterated the US’s position on Rafah, according to State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.
Mr Blinken also spoke of the “improvement” in the delivery of aid to Gaza over the past month and called on Mr Netanyahu to build on that, Mr Miller said.
Mr Blinken told the families there is a very strong proposal on the table and that Hamas needs to say yes to it.
“That is our determination, and we will not rest, we will not stop until you’re reunited with your loved ones,” he said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks to families and supporters of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza during a protest in Tel Aviv calling for their return
Mr Blinken’s comments came on the last leg of his regional visit, with previous stops in Saudi Arabia and Jordan, where he urged Hamas to accept the latest proposal, calling it “extraordinarily generous” on Israel’s part.
But the United States has also criticised Israel for its plan to invade Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city where some 1.5 million Palestinians are sheltering from fighting elsewhere, saying that any major offensive there would bring potential harm to civilians and should be avoided.
Mr Netanyahu has repeatedly vowed to invade Rafah, which he says is Hamas’s last stronghold, and on Tuesday pledged to do so “with or without” a ceasefire deal.
The deal currently being discussed – with brokering by the US, Egypt and Qatar – would see the release of dozens of hostages in exchange for a six-week halt in fighting as part of an initial phase, according to an Egyptian official and Israeli media.
Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel would also be released, including some serving long sentences.
But a sticking point remains over what happens next.
Hamas has demanded assurances that an eventual release of all hostages will bring a complete end to Israel’s nearly seven-month assault in Gaza and a withdrawal of its troops from the devastated territory.
Israel has offered only an extended suspension, vowing to resume its offensive once the first phase of the deal is over.
The issue has repeatedly obstructed efforts by the mediators during months of talks.
While the talks appeared to be gaining steam, on Wednesday an Egyptian official said Hamas has asked Egyptian and Qatari mediators to provide clarity on the terms of the latest ceasefire proposal being discussed, a demand that could delay progress.
The official, who has close ties to the talks and who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to freely discuss the deal, said Hamas wants clear terms for the unconditional return of displaced people to the north of Gaza and to ensure that the second stage of the deal will include discussing the gradual and complete withdrawal of all Israeli troops from the entire Gaza Strip.
The official said the current deal does not fully explain who would be allowed to return north and how it would be decided.
While the talks continue, the fighting in Gaza goes on.
Late on Tuesday, an Israeli air strike hit a house in central Rafah, killing at least two children, according to hospital authorities. The bodies were taken to the Abu Yousef al-Najjar hospital.
An Associated Press journalist saw them at the hospital morgue as their relatives mourned the deaths.
On Wednesday, Israel’s military said it is operating in central Gaza, where it said jets struck militants, including one said to be setting up explosives.
Later on Wednesday it was reported by Israeli media that an Israeli court has released the sister of Hamas’s top leader to house arrest, after she was indicted for incitement and identification with a terror group.
The sister of Hamas’s supreme leader Ismail Haniyeh, Sabah Haniyeh, 57, was born in Gaza but has Israeli citizenship and lives in southern Israel. She was arrested in early April and charged on April 21.
She was released to house arrest on Wednesday.
According to the indictment, she sent several messages praising the October 7 attack to WhatsApp groups that seem to include members of the extended Haniyeh family.
Previously, rights groups have accused Israel of cracking down on Palestinian online expression during the war.
Ismail Haniyeh lives in exile in Qatar.
The war was sparked by Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 raid into southern Israel in which militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250 hostages.
Israel says the militants are still holding around 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 others.
The war in Gaza has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials.
It has driven around 80% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million from their homes, caused vast destruction in several towns and cities, and pushed northern Gaza to the brink of famine.
Samsung Electronics reported a 10-fold increase in operating profit for the last quarter as the expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies drives a rebound in the markets for computer memory chips.
The South Korean semiconductor and smartphone giant said its operating profit for the Jan-March quarter came in at 6.6 trillion won (€4.4 billion), up from the 640 billion won it earned during the same period last year.
Revenue rose by nearly 13 per cent to 71.9 trillion won, driven by higher prices for memory chips and robust sales of its flagship Galaxy S24 smartphones, the company said.
The company earned 1.91 trillion won in operating profit from its semiconductor business, marking the division’s first quarterly profit since the fourth quarter of 2022, as the chip market continues to recover from a cyclical slump deepened by the Covid-19 pandemic and global trade tensions.
Samsung projected the memory chip market to remain strong in the coming months, driven by the expansion of generative AI technologies, which is increasing the demand for both conventional chips used in servers and advanced chips designed to process AI, including high-bandwidth memory, or HBM.
Responding to higher demands for AI chips, Samsung said it started this month the mass production of its latest HBM chips, called 8-layer HBM3E, and that it plans to start producing the 12-layer version of the chips during the second quarter.
Samsung said in a statement: “In the second half of 2024, business conditions are expected to remain positive with demand — mainly around generative AI — holding strong, despite continued volatility relating to macroeconomic trends and geopolitical issues.”
For smartphones, the company will continue to focus on boosting the sales of its flagship device, Galaxy S24, which is built with an array of new features enabled by AI, including live translation during phone calls in 13 languages and 17 dialects.
Samsung said it plans to expand AI features beyond the S24 to other mobile devices as it expects the technologies to drive growth in the smartphone market in the coming months amid improvements in global consumer spending.
Dozens of protesters took over a building at Columbia University in New York early on Tuesday, barricading the entrances and unfurling a Palestinian flag out of a window in the latest escalation of demonstrations against the Israel-Hamas war that have spread to college campuses nationwide.
Video footage showed protesters on Columbia’s Manhattan campus locking arms in front of Hamilton Hall early on Tuesday and carrying furniture and metal barricades to the building.
Hamilton Hall is one of several buildings that were occupied during a 1968 civil rights and anti-Vietnam War protest on the campus.
Protesters renamed Hamilton Hall as Hind’s Hall as an homage to Hind Rajab, who was found dead 12 days after she called for help in Gaza
Posts on an Instagram page for protest organisers urged people to protect the encampment and join them at Hamilton Hall where a “Free Palestine” banner hung from a window.
The student radio station, WKCR-FM, broadcast a play-by-play of the hall’s takeover, which occurred nearly 12 hours after Monday’s 2pm deadline for the protesters to leave an encampment of around 120 tents or face suspension.
Representatives for the university did not immediately respond to emails requesting comment but the Public Safety department said in a statement that access to the Morningside campus has been limited to students living in the residential buildings and employees who provide essential services, such as dining, public safety and maintenance staff.
There was just one access point into and out of campus.
“The safety of every single member of this community is paramount,” the advisory said.
Protesters said they planned to remain at the hall until the university conceded to the CUAD’s three demands: divestment, financial transparency and amnesty.
Police moved to clear an encampment at Yale University, though no arrests were reported
Universities across the US are grappling with how to clear out encampments as commencement ceremonies approach, with some continuing negotiations and others turning to force and ultimatums that have resulted in clashes with police.
Dozens of people were arrested on Monday during protests at universities in Texas, Utah, Virginia and New Jersey, while Columbia said hours before the takeover of Hamilton Hall that it had started suspending students.
Police moved to clear an encampment at Yale University in Connecticut on Tuesday morning, but there were no immediate reports of arrests.
The Yale Daily News, an independent student newspaper, reported that Yale and New Haven police surrounded the encampment in the Cross Campus quad with caution tape starting around 6am and said that anyone inside the blocked-off area would be subject to arrest and suspension if they did not leave.
Officer Christian Bruckhart, a New Haven police spokesperson, said no arrests had been made as of 7:30am.
At Princeton University, 13 people were arrested on Monday night including 11 students, after briefly occupying a building that houses its graduate school.
They received a summons for trespassing and have been barred from campus, President Christopher Eisgruber said in a statement.
The nationwide campus protests began as a response by some students to Israel’s offensive in Gaza after Hamas launched a deadly attack on southern Israel on October 7.
Militants killed around 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took roughly 250 hostages.
Vowing to stamp out Hamas, Israel has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the local health ministry.
Colleges around the US have implored pro-Palestinian student protesters to clear out tent encampments with rising levels of urgency, including an ultimatum from Columbia University for students to sign a form and leave the encampment by the afternoon or face suspension.
College classes nationwide are wrapping up for the term, and campuses are preparing for graduation ceremonies.
The notice sent by Columbia to protesters in the encampment on Monday said that if they leave by the designated time and sign a form committing to abide by university policies through to June 2025 or an earlier graduation, they can finish the term in good standing.
If not, the letter said, they will be suspended, pending further investigation.
The encampment at Columbia University in New York
“We urge you to remove the encampment so that we do not deprive your fellow students, their families and friends of this momentous occasion,” the letter said, noting that exams are beginning and graduation is upcoming at the Ivy League university in New York City.
A spokesperson for Columbia confirmed the letter had gone out to students but declined to comment further.
Mahmoud Khalil, the lead negotiator on behalf of protesters, said university representatives began passing out the notices at the encampment shortly after 10am on Monday. He said discussions were ongoing about how to proceed.
Early protests at Columbia, where demonstrators set up tents in the centre of the campus, sparked pro-Palestinian demonstrations across the country.
Students and others have been sparring over the Israel-Hamas war and its mounting death toll. Many students are demanding their universities cut financial ties with Israel.
About 275 people were arrested on Saturday at various campuses including Indiana University at Bloomington, Arizona State University and Washington University in St Louis.
The number of arrests nationwide has passed 900 since New York police removed a pro-Palestinian protest encampment at Columbia and arrested more than 100 demonstrators on April 18.
The demonstrations at Columbia have led it to hold remote classes and set a series of deadlines for protesters to leave the encampment, which they have missed. The school said in an email to students that bringing back police “at this time” would be counterproductive.
The students and administrators have negotiated to end the disruptions, but the sides have not come to an agreement, university president Minouche Shafik said in a statement on Monday.
Protests were still active at a number of campuses. Near George Washington University, people at an encampment breached and dismantled the barriers on Monday morning used to secure University Yard, the university said in a statement. The yard had been closed since last week.
Protesters at Yale University set up a new encampment with dozens of tents on Sunday afternoon, nearly a week after police arrested nearly 50 demonstrators and cleared a similar camp.
At least one school, the University of Southern California, cancelled its main graduation ceremony this spring.
Protesters on both sides shouted and shoved each other during duelling demonstrations on Sunday at the University of California, Los Angeles.
The university stepped up security after “some physical altercations broke out among demonstrators”, said Mary Osako, vice chancellor for UCLA strategic communications. There were no reports of arrests or injuries.
The plight of students who have been arrested has become a central part of protests, with the students and a growing number of faculty demanding amnesty for protesters. At issue is whether the suspensions and legal records will follow students through their adult lives.
Tesla founder and chief executive Elon Musk has met the Chinese premier in Beijing, just as the nation’s carmakers are showing off their latest electric vehicle models at the capital’s auto show.
Li Qiang told Mr Musk that he hopes the US will work more with China on “win-win” cooperation, citing Tesla’s operations in China as a successful example of economic cooperation, China’s state broadcaster CCTV said on its main evening news programme.
For China, Mr Musk is a welcome antidote to the tough talk from US officials, which played out most recently during a visit by secretary of state Antony Blinken.
Mr Li’s remarks also reflect China’s efforts to attract foreign investment to boost its flagging economy.
It was not clear whether Musk would visit the auto show, which runs through this week.
Chinese carmakers and start-ups have launched several electric cars in recent years, some going head-to-head with Tesla and undercutting the American maker on price
An earlier CCTV online report said that Mr Musk had come at the invitation of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and met with its president, Ren Hongbin, to exchange views on further cooperation and other topics.
Tesla has a major manufacturing base in Shanghai for both domestic sales in China and exports to Europe and other regions.
It cut prices in China a week ago, following similar reductions in the US.
Tesla has a major manufacturing base in Shanghai for both domestic sales in China and exports to Europe and other regions. It cut prices in China a week ago, following similar reductions in the US.
The European Union has launched an investigation into Chinese subsidies for the EV industry that could lead to tariffs on electric vehicles made in China, potentially including Tesla cars.
The green energy subsidies have helped transform the Chinese auto market, with EVs reaching about a quarter of new car sales last year, eating into demand for petrol-powered vehicles.
Foreign carmakers such as Volkswagen and Nissan are scrambling to develop new EV models to hold onto or claw back market share in China, the world’s largest automobile market.
