Student anti-war protesters dig in as faculties condemn university leadership over calling police

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrapped up his just-concluded latest visit to China with a stop at a Beijing record store where he bought albums by Taylor Swift and Chinese rocker Dou Wei in a symbolic nod to cross-cultural exchanges and understanding he had been promoting for three days. Music, he said at the Li-Pi shop on his way to the airport late Friday, “is the best connector, regardless of geography.” Yet Swift’s “Midnights” and Dou Wei’s “Black Dream” could just as easily represent the seemingly intractable divisions in the deeply troubled relationship between the world’s two largest economies that both sides publicly and privately blame on the other. And, as Blinken's trip showed, neither side is willing to back down.

Student anti-war protesters at U.S. universities are digging in and vowing to keep their demonstrations going, while several school faculties have condemned university presidents for calling law enforcement. As Columbia University continues tenuous negotiations with the pro-Palestinian student encampment, the University’s senate criticized the schools' president on Friday after more than 100 protesters were arrested last week. School faculties at universities in California, Georgia, and Texas initiated or passed votes of no confidence in their leadership. They are largely symbolic rebukes, without the power remove their presidents. But the tensions pile pressure on school officials, who are already scrambling to resolve the protests as May graduation ceremonies near.

South Africans celebrate their “Freedom Day” every April 27. It's the day they remember their country’s pivotal first democratic election in 1994 that announced the official end of the racial segregation and oppression of apartheid. Saturday is the 30th anniversary of the momentous vote when millions of Black South Africans decided their own futures for the first time. It was a fundamental right they had been denied by a white minority government. The first all-race election saw the previously-banned African National Congress party win overwhelmingly and made Nelson Mandela the country’s first Black president. The iconic moment is still marked but South Africa is changing again 30 years later.

A Colorado judge has sentenced a former paramedic to a jail work release program and probation in the death of Elijah McClain. Jeremy Cooper faced up to three years in prison during his Friday sentencing after administering a dose of the sedative ketamine to McClain. The 23-year-old Black man had been stopped by police as he was walking down the street in 2019. Cooper was sentenced to four years of probation and 14 months in the jail work release program. The sentencing caps a series of trials that resulted in three convictions. Experts say the convictions would have been unheard of before 2020 protests over racist policing.

Ballistic missiles fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels caused “minor damage” to a Panama-flagged oil tanker traveling through the Red Sea. The attack Friday follows an uptick in assaults launched by the Houthis in recent days after a relative lull in their monthslong campaign over Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The rebels fired three missiles in the attack, one of which damaged the Panama-flagged, Seychelles-registered Andromeda Star. The vessel was traveling from Primorsk, Russia, to Vadinar, India. Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree later claimed the attack early Saturday in a prerecorded statement aired by the rebels. He described the tanker as being “directly hit.”

For many in the graduating class of 2024, the unrest at campuses across the country over the Israel-Hamas war has marked an emotional end to their college experiences that started amid a pandemic. Students across the country say the reactions by colleges to the demonstrations have been particularly painful, including the cancellation of the main commencement ceremony at the University of Southern California on May 10. Many of the graduates also saw their high school proms and graduation ceremonies cancelled to curb the spread of COVID-19. Some say they believe the turmoil has made them care deeply for others.