Pro-Palestinian Campus Protests Go Global

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at pro-Palestinian campus protests around the world, U.S. and Russian troops sharing a Nigerien air base, and emergency flooding measures in Kenya.

A Global Student Movement

Pro-Palestinian student protests like those seen in the United States in recent weeks have begun popping up at universities around the globe, including in Australia, Canada, France, Mexico, and the United Kingdom. Pro-Israel counterdemonstrations have also arisen in several places in response. Unlike in the United States, where more than 2,300 demonstrators have been arrested or detained across at least 49 campuses since April 18, international protests have largely faced minimal police interference.

Hundreds of people gathered at the University of Sydney in Australia on Friday to urge the school to sever academic ties with Israeli universities and divest from weapons manufacturers, a similar demand of many U.S. protesters. Vice Chancellor Mark Scott told local media on Thursday that the university’s encampment, which was set up last week, could stay on campus in part because it has not experienced the type of violence seen overseas and because “strongly held views and intense debates” are “part of who we are.” “Our instinct is never to pre-emptively shut down free speech and debate and the right to protest,” he said.

(A report released Thursday by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, a nongovernmental organization specializing in crisis mapping, found that despite “some notable violent clashes”—such as the one at the University of California, Los Angeles, where pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel demonstrators fought—99 percent of the U.S. protests have remained peaceful.)

Across the Pacific, dozens of pro-Palestinian students camped out at Mexico’s largest university on Thursday to call on the Mexican government to sever diplomatic and commercial ties with Israel. If Mexico City were to do so, it would become the fourth Latin American nation to cut diplomatic relations with Israel since the Israel-Hamas war began in October 2023. In Canada, Quebec Premier François Legault ordered students at McGill University on Thursday to dismantle their encampment after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said “Jewish students do not feel safe” from the protests. Demonstrations have also been reported at schools in Beirut, London, Rome, and Tokyo.

Law enforcement has played an active role in quelling pro-Palestinian protests in France. Police entered Sciences Po university in Paris on Friday to remove students who had occupied campus buildings overnight; reports indicate that the French protests have remained peaceful, and eyewitnesses reported seeing no signs of violence as police took the students out of the Sciences Po buildings. The university closed its main site on Friday, and school director Jean Bassères rejected demands to review Sciences Po’s relationship with Israeli universities. French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal’s office said on Thursday that student protesters had been “evacuated” from 23 higher education institutions across the country.

Meanwhile, U.S. lawmakers are looking to mitigate campus unrest via legislation. The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Antisemitism Awareness Act by a 320-to-91 vote on Wednesday as part of a bipartisan effort to crack down on antisemitism on college campuses. This would be the first definition of antisemitism enshrined in U.S. federal law, and it could allow the Education Department to withhold federal funds from schools that fail to restrict antisemitic statements.

But pushback from both sides of the aisle makes the act’s passage in the Senate uncertain. Some Republicans have argued that the bill would outlaw parts of the Bible by criminalizing the claim that “Jews killed Jesus.” The Anti-Defamation League views that belief—which is held by some Christians, including some Republican lawmakers—to be an antisemitic trope that has for centuries been used to justify collective violence against Jews.

Democrats and First Amendment advocates, such as the American Civil Liberties Union, also condemned the bill, arguing that it could restrict political speech.

Today’s Most Read

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What We’re Following

Close quarters. Both Russian and U.S. troops are currently stationed at the same military air base in the West African country of Niger. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin confirmed late Thursday that Russian military personnel were deployed to Air Base 101 in central Niger despite U.S. troops also being stationed there. “The Russians are in a separate compound and don’t have access to U.S. forces or access to our equipment,” Austin said. It is unclear when the Russian staff arrived or how many are at Air Base 101.

The awkward arrangement is the result of a recent decision made by Niger’s junta, which took power in a military coup last July, to ask the United States to withdraw its roughly 1,000 military personnel from the country over disagreements on the nation’s future. Junta members initially proposed a three-year timeline to transition to civilian rule, but Washington has argued that is too long. In the meantime, Niger has instead turned to Russia to help combat Islamist insurgencies as Moscow takes a more prominent security role in the Sahel.

Alongside tensions in Africa, the U.S. State Department accused Russia on Wednesday of deploying chemical weapons in Ukraine, specifically the choking agent chloropicrin and tear gas. “The use of such chemicals is not an isolated incident, and is probably driven by Russian forces’ desire to dislodge Ukrainian forces from fortified positions and achieve tactical gains on the battlefield,” the department said in a statement. U.S. officials argued that this violates the Chemical Weapons Convention, which Russia is a signatory of. Moscow has denied the allegations.

Torrential rain. Kenya launched emergency measures on Friday to combat “unprecedented” deadly flooding across the country. These include evacuation orders for anyone living near the Nairobi River or 178 specified dams and reservoirs, the establishment of new temporary shelters, and providing additional resources for flood victims to buy food and medicine. Nairobi also suspended school openings, warning that the country may experience its first cyclone in the coming days.

More than 200 people have been killed and over 160,000 others have been displaced since heavy rain began in March. This crisis “is a direct consequence of our failure to protect our environment, resulting in the painful effects of climate change we are witnessing today,” President William Ruto said on Friday.

Voting in Panama. Panamanians are set to elect a new president on Sunday. Polls currently have former Security Minister José Raúl Mulino as the front-runner despite being the last candidate to join the ballot. In March, he replaced former President Ricardo Martinelli after the ex-leader received a 10-year prison sentence last July for money laundering—barring him from running. Panama’s top court approved Mulino’s bid for the presidency on Friday.

Jostling for second place are lawyer Rómulo Roux and former President Martín Torrijos. Roux has pledged to boost tourism and create 500,000 jobs. He previously oversaw the Panama Canal, one of the busiest waterways in the world. Torrijos, a son of former dictator Omar Torrijos, is also centering his campaign on expanding the Panama Canal, creating new jobs, and funding infrastructure projects.

What in the World?

On Tuesday, a Chinese spacecraft carrying three astronauts returned to Earth after completing a mission aboard the country’s orbiting space station. How long was the mission?

A. Two months
B. Six months
C. One year
D. Two years

Odds and Ends

Hear ye! Hear ye! All hail France’s new king! New king of the crusty baguette, that is. Authorities crowned Parisian baker Xavier Netry last week, giving him $4,290 and making him a supplier of the Élysée Palace for a year. His loaf defeated 172 others after being judged on taste, look, texture, airiness, and baking quality. The secret to success, Netry said, is a good sourdough starter, long fermentation, careful cooking, and “some love and some passion, of course.”

And the Answer Is…

B. Six months

China still has a long way to go if it wants to achieve its aspirations of becoming a scientific superpower, Tanner Greer and Nancy Yu argue.

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