ted talk education

.

, , , .

, , , , , , .

138 episodes

What should future schools look like? How do brains learn? Some of the world's greatest educators, researchers, and community leaders share their stories and visions onstage at the TED conference, TEDx events and partner events around the world. You can also download these and many other videos free on TED.com, with an interactive English transcript and subtitles in up to 80 languages. TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading.

TED Talks Education TED

• 4.1 • 444 Ratings
• JUN 2, 2023

How to design a school for the future | Punya Mishra

In all the conversations about improving education for children, the voices of students, teachers and community members are often left out. Educational designer Punya Mishra offers a method to shift that paradigm, taking us through new thinking on the root of success (and failure) at school -- and how a totally new, different kind of educational system could better meet students' needs.

• APR 7, 2023

The rise of the "trauma essay" in college applications | Tina Yong

As if college applications aren't stressful enough, disadvantaged youth are often encouraged to write about their darkest traumas in their admissions essays, creating a marketable story of resilience that turns "pain into progress," says politics student Tina Yong. She brings this harrowing norm to light, exploring its harms and offering a more equitable process for colleges everywhere.

• MAR 9, 2023

How video games can level up the way you learn | Kris Alexander

Video games naturally tap into the way we learn: they focus our attention and track our progress as we head toward a clear goal. Kris Alexander, a professor of video game design and passionate gamer himself, thinks the same elements should be used in traditional education to cater to different learning styles and engage students across the world, both in-person and online.

• FEB 28, 2023

Reviving the legacy of the Black teaching tradition | Sharif El-Mekki

Educator Sharif El-Mekki advocates for the revival of the Black teaching tradition — a set of educational practices grounded in philosophies, values and actions that stretch from pre-colonial Africa to historical African American leaders. He posits that this tradition can help teachers better serve Black students and create a more equitable learning environment for all.

• FEB 1, 2023

How Black queer culture shaped history | Channing Gerard Joseph

Names like Bayard Rustin, Frances Thompson and William Dorsey Swann have been largely erased from US history, but they and other Black queer leaders played central roles in monumental movements like emancipation, civil rights and LGBTQ+ pride, among others. In this tribute to forgotten icons, queer culture historian and TED Fellow Channing Gerard Joseph shares their little-known stories, connecting the origins of drag in the 1880s to the present day and exploring the awesome power to choose how we define ourselves.

• DEC 20, 2022

The board game getting kids excited about school | Joel Baraka

Going to school in a refugee camp can be complicated: students encounter crowded classrooms, rigid curricula and limited access to teachers. Joel Baraka, who grew up in the Kyangwali refugee camp in Uganda, is determined to change that for the better. He shows how educational board games can be a fun and effective way to improve access to learning and help kids thrive in and out of school.

• © TED Conferences LLC

Customer Reviews

444 Ratings

TED talks education

I decided to go with the style of TED talks for a few reasons. The first being it's very familiar and easy to use. Second, in most podcasts you don't see the people talking, you usually just listen to them while on TED talks you get to see the people talking and see and feel the emotions and expressions during their talks. There are a few things that I found to be very memorable. Such as when one of the speakers said to raise our kids to give them the tools to solve the problems we want to solve. Meaning the problems we see in our society we raise our kids to fight those problems. The speaker goes on to talk about how parents who don't want to talk about hard things to talk about often make the kid figure out those things on their own which can be very dangerous especially if the kid is using the wrong things to learn from. Another speaker came out and talked about how she used to love dirtbikes but they were illegal to own at her age in her town so she got really big into science and in class she blew her eyebrows off, glued someone to a chair, and even made stink bombs in class. And the teacher just chopped her up for being the “ bad kid” when they were overlooking the talents she had. AT the same time the only thing I didn't like is a lot of the speaker's rambling off and telling stories that have nothing to do with the overall point they're getting at. Overall I would give this podcast a 4 stars out of 5 because it brought up some very good stories that a lot of people can relate to and also talked about things everyone and society can work on to improve.

Not bad at all

At first I was reluctant to listening to this since I thought it would be just like the rest. But now this has taught me things. I like a lot of them, but some I don’t

Top Podcasts In Education

You might also like, more by ted talks.

10 TED Talks on Education

Staff Writers

Contributing Writer

Learn about our editorial process .

Updated May 23, 2023

TheBestSchools.org is an advertising-supported site. Featured or trusted partner programs and all school search, finder, or match results are for schools that compensate us. This compensation does not influence our school rankings, resource guides, or other editorially-independent information published on this site.

Are you ready to discover your college program?

So we all know that education in America has its fair share of problems (understatement alert). Some of these problems are sociocultural, others are economic. Some problems are practical and others still are philosophical.

In the face of these numerous and mounting challenges, elected officials and lawmakers have been short on meaningful solutions. It makes you wonder if perhaps the biggest problem with our educational system is that solutions don’t always come from the smartest of folks. Feel fee to jump to the defense of your district congressman or state senator at any time…Bueller? Bueller?

Ok. Moving on.

If you’re looking for solutions to education’s myriad problems from the smartest folks, most of them have delivered a TED Talk at some point. Technology, Entertainment, Design, or TED, is a set of global conferences operating under the tagline “Ideas Worth Spreading.”

In that spirit, here are a few education ideas from among TED’s nearly endless panel of featured speakers that we feel are worth spreading. Enjoy our first installment of 10 Awesome TED Talks on Education.

10 Awesome TED Talks on Education

1. do schools kill creativity by sir ken robinson.

Sir Ken Robinson gave this speech in February of 2006 and it has since been viewed more than 10 million times on YouTube and a remarkable 39 million times on the TED Talks website. That is more than enough time to arrive at the conclusion that the answer is probably “yes” to the titular question “Do Schools Kill Creativity?”

Robinson makes the argument that we need to rethink the fundamental premise by which we educate our children. Robinson is dry and hilarious in this insightful takedown of formal education as it exists to day. He argues that all children are born inherently creative and that school systematically squanders that creativity, and “pretty ruthlessly” at that. Robinson makes the powerful assessment that creativity should be viewed as equal in importance to literacy. Robinson also resolves that if you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original. Nonetheless, schools train students to be frightened of being wrong, and of making mistakes. Robinson laments that many highly talented, brilliant, creative people are educated to believe their talents are not valued, and perhaps even that these talents are obstacles to success.

Robinson insists that we can’t afford to continue on this way, that we need to radically rethink our view of intelligence as something diverse, dynamic, and distinct.

2. How To Fix a Broken School? Lead Fearlessly, Love Hard by Linda Ciatt-Wayman

With 1.3 million views on the TED Talks website, and 87,000 views on YouTube, Cliatt-Wayman’s May 2015 Talk casts a blinding light on the reality facing students and educators alike in “low-performing” inner-city schools. As a graduate and principal of North Philadelphia schools, Cliatt-Wayman gives a stirring and personal speech, one that moved many in the audience to tears. Cliatt-Wayman charged that what we call low-performing schools are often not schools at all, that the chains on the doors, the darkened hallways and the half-empty classrooms do not imply places of learning.

Cliatt-Wayman shares her strategies as a principal for transforming dark, dangerous, and frightening North Philadelphia schools from havens for drugs, weapons and violence to havens for disincline, enrichment, and love. Her experiential wisdom makes for a poignant Talk, anchored by a few of the slogans that have produced meaningful change at her Strawberry Mansion High School (where it bears noting she was the fourth principle in four years).

Cliatt-Wayman advises that “If you’re going to lead, LEAD,” an attitude that contributed to changes large and small at her troubled school, from replacing lightbulbs and decorating bulletin boards to recasting the way the school day is scheduled and transforming the budget. She also told educators that eliminating excuses at every turn is the primary responsibility for leaders at struggling schools. Finally and fundamentally, she said that it is the job of educators to offer their students hope, undivided attention, unwavering belief in their potential, consistent expectations, and unconditional love.

3. Teaching the World Peace Game by John Hunter

Filmed in March of 2011, and viewed just under 1.3 million times on TED Talks, 228,000 times on YouTube, “Teaching the World Peace Game” provides an energizing demonstration of how we can use classroom time to cultivate students who will one day be leaders, innovators and decision-makers.

Public School teacher John Hunter is warm, funny and personable as he explains his extraordinary approach to stimulating interactive learning among gifted students. Hunter demos the multi-tiered, map-based gameboard—basically Risk on anabolic steroids—that he has used to engage students since the late 1970s. The goal of the game is to do nothing less than solve the world’s problems. Students are handed a planet and a list of encompassing crises—not unlike the world that they will eventually inherit from prior generations.

The class collaborates, debates and compromises on developing solutions for issues as far-reaching as ethnic tension, nuclear proliferation, environmental disasters, water rights disputes and basically the entire grab-bag of seemingly insoluble problems that they will one day be asked to solve. Indeed, John told the audience that he’d happily send his fourth graders to consult Al Gore because they succeeded in solving the problem of global warming in a single week.

Hunter demonstrates both how educators can excite the imagination of their students and how they can nurture the young minds that will eventually be required to shape our world for the better. What most fascinates about Hunter’s experience is the fact that his students ultimately manifested strategies in ways that no educator could possibly predict, suggesting that the best educational results come when students are allowed to arrive at their own answers and solutions.

Popular Online Programs

Learn about start dates, transferring credits, availability of financial aid, and more by contacting the universities below.

4. Our Failing Schools. Enough is Enough by Geoffrey Canada

In May of 2013, Geoffrey Canada delivered an impassioned talk that has been viewed 188,000+ times on YouTube and more than 1.5 million times on the TED Talks website. Canada levies an accusation that’s pretty hard to dispute, claiming that in spite of our long track record of educational failure, we’ve basically done nothing to improve our outcomes. From both a scientific perspective and a business perspective, Canada says that our approach to education simply doesn’t make sense.

We’re losing kids, we know we’re losing kids, and yet we simply don’t allow real educational innovation to occur. He asks the audience to imagine a world in which we took the same stagnating approach to technology as we did to education. Whereas we respond to failure in this sector by probing for yet greater achievement, the education business has failed to use science to improve its approach to children.

To much approval from the audience, Canada attests that what sets him apart from many education policy-makers is that he “actually likes kids.” In this spirit, he remarks just how strange it is that we spend billions of dollars on standardized testing, that we gather enormous troves of incredible data, and that we fail to use them to actually help students in either a timely or effective manner.

Canada urges that its time to try something different. He insists that we must keep innovating in education until we nail the science down. We cannot wait another 50 years to get this right. He warns that here is an educational cliff and that we are walking over it right this very second.

5. The Nerd’s Guide To Learning Everything Online by John Green

John Green’s Talk, from November of 2012, has been viewed roughly 2.8 million times on the Ted Talks website and does not appear to have been published on YouTube.

Green takes a little bit of time to get to the point. Fortunately, he does so in a decidedly engrossing fashion. Green analogizes the lifelong quest for knowledge to cartography. Learning, he explains, makes the map of your life bigger. When you begin learning, you may not know every location on the map but you do have an instrument that tells you where you’d like to go. As Green phrases it, you’ve seen the coastline but now you want to explore the land.

When we’re young—and to the extent that we manage to develop a love for learning in school—we get to be part of a physical community of learning. Green advises that as we age out of school, we often lose that level of engagement. He shows how online forums like YouTube are restoring our opportunity to be part of a fluid, active and dynamic learning community.

Green demonstrates the variety and intuition with which YouTube can teach and invite learning, all in real-time. Green notes that videos which aim to teach are not necessarily being viewed in classrooms but independently by individuals electing to be part of a learning community. The centerpiece of his Talk is the resolution that these virtual spaces have become, for a new generation of learners, the kind of communities we used to have as students, communities that allow us to continue following our own learning maps into adulthood.

6. The Key To Success? Grit by Angela Lee Duckworth

Filmed in April of 2013, viewed by roughly 1.6 million on YouTube, and by 8.5 million viewers on the TED Talks website, Angela Lee Duckworth’s Talk brings some level of scientific rigor to a character trait that has rarely been measured thusly.

Often millennials are disparaged for being soft and entitled. If this criticism has any basis in reality, Duckworth’s concise Talk is something today’s students and parents need to watch. Duckworth argues that we need to achieve a better understanding of students and learning from a motivational and psychological perspective. She contends that schools are only really effective at measuring I.Q. and asks if success in school and life require more than just being able to learn quickly.

More than social charisma, attractiveness, and intelligence, Duckworth’s experience and research led her to conclude that grit—day-in day-out hard work and determination—is the trait that most determines success. Measuring traits of grittiness among her own students, Duckworth learned that grittier kids—marathon runners rather sprinters—generally succeeded best, independent of talent and intelligence. In spite of just how determinant an impact grit has, Duckworth concedes that science knows precious little on the subject.

Accordingly, Duckworth promotes “growth mindset,” the belief that the ability to learn can change with one’s effort. In Duckworth’s findings, the fascinating trait that most differentiates gritty people from their softer counterparts is that they don’t view failure as a permanent condition. Duckworth admits that her remarks are brief because we simply don’t know much about grit. Her speech ultimately suggests itself as a starting point for improving our understanding of what might be a key determinant of success. Among TED Talks, Duckworth’s is brief but instructive.

7. Let’s Use Video to Reinvent Education by Salman Khan

Salman Khan’s Talk from March of 2011 doesn’t necessarily break any new ground. Instead it reaffirms that, at least in one regard, we are moving in the right direction. Even if schools aren’t taking the active steps to revolutionize education, at least technologists and web users are. Viewed roughly 900,000 times on YouTube and 4 million times on the TED Talks website, Khan’s Talk deals largely with the positive impact that web-based video-education can have on learners. Indeed, Khan scored his best laugh when he informed his audience that as a former analyst for a hedge fund, he wasn’t accustomed to doing something of social value.

But that’s exactly what happened when he started tutoring his cousin remotely. As part of the process, Khan began producing explanatory YouTube videos to accompany individual lessons and quickly found that his cousin preferred the videos to live instruction. Getting past the “backhanded” nature of that compliment, Khan discusses the ways that video learning can help to improve the individuality, accessibility, and comprehensibility of instruction. Rather than using video to supplement the classroom experience, Khan made a case for allowing video instruction to transform the way we approach classroom time.

Khan’s approach transposes the classroom and homework experiences. As teachers assigned his videos for self-guided after-school instruction, they found that classroom time was freed up for problem-solving, game-playing and innovation-building. Teachers also used this time to provide individual attention and in-class guidance to students while they completed assignments. Ironically, remarks Khan, the impact of replacing human instruction with video instruction was a humanization of the otherwise dehumanizing process of sitting in a classroom listening to a monolithic lecture. Khan’s presentation ultimately demonstrates that video instruction, properly dispatched, can be used to individualize learning outside of the classroom while transforming the in-class experience into something far more personal and stimulating.

8. Teachers need real feedback by Bill Gates

If you’ve ever seen Bill Gates speak, then you know this one isn’t breathtakingly exciting. It does, however, inform on a major shortcoming in our educational system, and one that may help to explain why so many other countries outperform the U.S. in math, science and reading. Filmed in March of 2013, Gates’ Talk has been viewed roughly 293,000 times on YouTube and just under 2 million times on the TED Talks website.

Gates laments that teachers receive woefully inadequate feedback on how to improve their practice. The Microsoft magnate argues that the system in place is unfair to teachers and is consequently unfair to students.

Gates diverges with a brief video featuring a teacher who uses a camera to record her classroom lessons. Not unlike a quarterback, the teacher explains that she revisits her tapes following each lesson in order to dissect her own performance. Gates suggests that this method could be a pathway to providing teachers with real-time diagnoses on their performance and could ultimately help schools develop the tools they need to act on these diagnoses. Again, this won’t be the most entertaining TED Talk you’ll ever watch (and the visual aids just scream Windows ’98), but Gates is right. Teachers need feedback that’s actually designed to help. The real value of this Talk is that a person of visible influence is making that case.

9. Mathematics and Sex by Clio Cresswell

If you’ve just finished with the Gates Talk and you’re looking for something a little more…stimulating…this one is your next logical stop. More than 3.6 million YouTube viewers have indulged their curiosity in mathematics since Cresswell delivered her April 2014 Talk.

Full disclosure, this isn’t as much about sex as how sexy math can be, whether it’s used to detect inconsistencies in how people report their sexual activeness or in designing the perfect piece of chocolate. Cresswell draws playful connections between sexuality and mathematics, two natural conditions which transcend human culture, in order to demonstrate the fact that mathematics can provide new insight and understanding into all things around us.

The value of Cresswell’s presentation is in its appeal to those who are not of an inherently mathematical disposition. She reveals just how fascinating and all-encompassing mathematics are, and just how scintillating they can be.

10. Why Some of Us Don’t Have One True Calling by Emilie Wapnick

This talk centers around the oft-posed question, “what do you want to be when you grow up?” Wapnick’s Talk has been viewed 261,000+ views on YouTube and 2.7 Million on the TED Talks website since being delivered in April of 2015.

The troubling implication of Wapnick’s leading question is that we are raised to believe that we have no recourse but to choose a single path of personal and professional development. This question, which is innocent and entertaining when we’re young but which imposes stress and insecurity as we grow older, implies that we each have one great thing that we are meant to do while we’re here on this earth and that we have to figure out what that thing is and devote our lives to it.

But what of those who have many interests, whose passions and intelligences can’t be bottled as a single elixir? Wapnick calls these individuals “multipotentialites.” For those who have been instructed that they must pursue a single true calling, Wapnick says its easy to see multipotentiality as a flaw to be overcome but she argues that multipotentialites have superpowers, among them idea synthesis, rapid learning, adaptability.

We need creative thinkers to tackle the world’s problems, Wapnick argues. Accordingly, says Wapnick, we should all be pursuing careers based on how we’re wired. She advises “embrace your inner-wiring, whatever that may be. If you’re a specialist at heart, by all means specialize…To the multipotentialites…embrace your many passions, follow your curiosity down those rabbit holes, explore your intersections.”

Popular with our students.

Highly informative resources to keep your education journey on track.

Take the next step toward your future with online learning.

Discover schools with the programs and courses you’re interested in, and start learning today.

Minneapolis schools, support staff reach deal to avoid strike

Updated 2:55 p.m.

The Minneapolis Public School district has reached a deal with leaders of its education support professionals union to avoid a strike in Minnesota’s fourth-largest district. 

Announcement of the deal on Thursday followed 27 hours of bargaining and came hours after union leaders had set a strike date for May 14.

The unionized staff, who do a variety of classroom support work, were seeking wage increases, more affordable health care coverage and contract provisions allowing for automatic salary schedules based on years of experience. 

Union leaders have not yet released details of the agreement, but Catina Taylor, president of the ESP chapter of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers, said in a statement emailed to journalists that she was proud of the deal. 

Create a More Connected Minnesota

MPR News is your trusted resource for the news you need. With your support, MPR News brings accessible, courageous journalism and authentic conversation to everyone - free of paywalls and barriers. Your gift makes a difference.

“We’re raising wages and we’re creating a compensation system that recognizes the value of experience in the district,” she wrote.

The Minneapolis Federation of Teachers represents about 1,600 support professionals and 3,300 teachers. Unionized teachers settled their contract with the district last month.

Details of that agreement, released this week, show a 4-percent salary increase the first year and a 5-percent salary increase the second year. Teachers also gained an hourly flat rate increase from $25 to $30 per hour. 

Teachers are expected to vote on ratifying the tentative agreement next week. If ratified, the contract will go to the district school board for final approval. 

The Minneapolis school district is currently facing an expected budget deficit of more  than $100 million and has warned that music teachers, nurses, custodians, content experts, information technology workers, athletics, transportation and special education positions are all facing cuts .

• Northland College says it will remain open, with reduced number of majors
• St. Cloud State’s president Wacker stepping down early, amid expected budget cuts
• Pro-Palestinian protesters, University of Minnesota reach agreement to end encampment

• Election 2024
• Entertainment
• Newsletters
• Photography
• Personal Finance
• AP Investigations
• AP Buyline Personal Finance
• AP Buyline Shopping
• Press Releases
• Israel-Hamas War
• Russia-Ukraine War
• Global elections
• Asia Pacific
• Latin America
• Middle East
• Election Results
• Delegate Tracker
• AP & Elections
• Auto Racing
• 2024 Paris Olympic Games
• Movie reviews
• Book reviews
• Personal finance
• Financial Markets
• Business Highlights
• Financial wellness
• Artificial Intelligence
• Social Media

The Latest | Blinken says Israel will open a major aid crossing into hard-hit northern Gaza

Israeli soldiers are seen at a staging ground near the border with the Gaza Strip, in southern Israel, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)

Palestinians look at the destruction after an Israeli airstrike in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Presiding judge Nawaf Salam, fourth from left, arrives to read the ruling at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. The top U.N. court rejected on Tuesday a request by Nicaragua to order Germany to halt military and other aid to Israel and renew funding to the U.N. aid agency in Gaza. The International Court of Justice said that legal conditions for making such an order weren’t met and ruled against the request in a 15-1 vote. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

A student speaks during a Students for Gaza rally on Malcolm X Plaza at San Francisco State University on Monday April 29, 2024 in San Francisco, Calif.(Lea Suzuki/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

An aircraft airdrops humanitarian aid over the northern Gaza Strip, as seen from central Gaza, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Students with the Gaza solidarity encampment block the entrance of Hamilton Hall at Columbia University after taking over it on Tuesday, April 30, 2024 in New York. Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine called for mobilization close to midnight. Students have been occupying part of campus since calling for the university to divest from institutions that have ties to Israel. (Marco Postigo Storel via AP)

Ami Aviv mother of Israeli reserve soldier Master sergeant Ido Aviv kisses his casket during his the funeral in Carmiel, northern Israel, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. Aviv, 28, was killed during Israel’s ground operation in the Gaza Strip, where the Israeli army has been battling Palestinian militants in the war ignited by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack into Israel. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Students from the Lebanese American University (LAU) burn a picture of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a protest inside their university campus to demand a ceasefire and show support for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. Scores of students held pro-Palestinian protests at some of the largest universities in Beirut Tuesday expressing anger over the rising deaths during the Israel-Hamas war. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

An Israeli tank moves to a position near the border with the Gaza Strip, in southern Israel, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)

In this image provided by the U.S. Army, soldiers assigned to the 7th Transportation Brigade (Expeditionary) and sailors attached to the MV Roy P. Benavidez assemble the Roll-On, Roll-Off Distribution Facility (RRDF), or floating pier, off the shore of Gaza in the Mediterranean Sea on April 26, 2024. The pier is part of the Army’s Joint Logistics Over The Shore (JLOTS) system which provides critical bridging and water access capabilities. (U.S. Army via AP)

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks to the press in front of a truck carrying humanitarian aid bound for Gaza at the Jordanian Hashemite Charity Organization in Amman, Jordan, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (Evelyn Hockstein/Pool Photo via AP)

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visits a storage unit with humanitarian aid bound for Gaza at the Jordanian Hashemite Charity Organization in Amman, Jordan, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (Evelyn Hockstein/Pool Photo via AP)

A woman wears a keffiyeh, left, while setting up a tent at an encampment of tents on the campus of Tufts University, Tuesday, April 30, 2024, in Medford, Mass. Tufts University students set up the encampment as part of a protest against the war in Gaza. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

A woman sits outside an encampment area on the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus, Tuesday, April 30, 2024, in Milwaukee. The Pro-Palestinian rally is calling for the University to cut ties with Israel and for peace in Gaza. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Protesters make signs in an encampment area on the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus Tuesday, April 30, 2024, in Milwaukee. The Pro-Palestinian rally is calling for the university to cut ties with Israel and for peace in Gaza. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Ami Aviv mother of Israeli reserve soldier Master sergeant Ido Aviv kisses his casket during his funeral in Carmiel, northern Israel, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. Aviv, 28, was killed during Israel’s ground operation in the Gaza Strip, where the Israeli army has been battling Palestinian militants in the war ignited by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack into Israel. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

A Palestinian flag hangs on the edge of a tent encampment on the campus of Tufts University, Tuesday, April 30, 2024, in Medford, Mass. Tufts University students set up the encampment as part of a protest against the war in Gaza. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

• Copy Link copied

Israel plans on opening a major humanitarian aid crossing into hard-hit northern Gaza, said U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday. Israel’s war against Hamas has flattened huge swaths of Gaza’s north, and famine is imminent for the hundreds of thousands of civilians who remain.

Blinken is back in the Mideast this week to advance cease-fire negotiations between Israel and Hamas, as talks appear to be gaining momentum. However, hours before he landed in Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to launch a ground offensive into Gaza’s southernmost town of Rafah — “with or without a deal” to halt the fighting and release Israeli hostages.

Rafah is the main entry point for getting desperately needed aid into Gaza, where the United Nations says 100% of the population is at severe levels of food insecurity. More than a million Palestinian civilians have been driven into Rafah, with many living in sprawling tent camps. Israel says Rafah is Hamas’ last major stronghold in the Gaza Strip.

Nearly seven months of Israeli bombardment and ground offensives in Gaza have killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials , and sparked a humanitarian catastrophe.

The Israel-Hamas war was sparked by the unprecedented Oct. 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.

— Why Israel is so determined to launch an offensive in Rafah. And why so many oppose it .

— How Columbia University became the driving force behind protests over the war in Gaza .

— A ship is attacked far in the Arabian Sea , raising concerns over Houthi rebel capabilities.

— Columbia University threatens to expel student protesters occupying an administration building

— Netanyahu vows to invade Rafah ‘with or without a deal’ as cease-fire talks with Hamas continue.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

Here’s the latest:

PALESTINIANS WANT U.N. GENERAL ASSEMBLY TO RECONSIDER THEIR BID FOR FULL MEMBERSHIP

UNITED NATIONS – The Palestinians are seeking approval of a resolution in the General Assembly asking the U.N. Security Council to reconsider “favorably” Palestine’s full membership in the United Nations, which the United States recently vetoed.

A draft Palestinian resolution obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press would also decide to give Palestine “the rights and privileges” to ensure its full and effective participation in the work of the General Assembly and other U.N. organs, “on equal footing with member nations.”

General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding — as Security Council resolutions are — but they are an important reflection of global opinion.

The United States is scheduled to defend its veto of the widely backed Security Council resolution Wednesday morning in the General Assembly. It would have paved the way for Palestine to become the 194th member of the United Nations.

U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wood reiterated the longstanding U.S. position after the April 18 veto: The U.S. is not opposed to Palestinian statehood and U.N. membership but this “will only come from direct negotiations” with Israel.

Israeli-Palestinian negotiations have been stalled for years, and Israel’s right-wing government is dominated by hard-liners who oppose Palestinian statehood.

After the Palestinians’ first attempt at U.N. membership failed in 2011, they went to the General Assembly and succeeded by more than a two-thirds majority in having their status raised from a U.N. observer to a non-member observer state in 2012.

Under the U.N. Charter, full membership is open to “peace-loving” countries recommended by the Security Council and approved by the General Assembly, where there are no vetoes.

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. ambassador, told The Associated Press late Tuesday that the vote will take place on May 10.

The draft resolution would stress the assembly’s “conviction” that Palestine is fully qualified for U.N. membership and express “deep regret and concern” that the U.S. veto prevented its admission. It would determine “that the state of Palestine is, in its judgment, a peace-loving state” and is able and willing to carry out its obligations under the U.N. Charter and would therefore recommend “that the Security Council reconsider the matter favorably.”

BLINKEN SAYS ISRAEL WILL OPEN MAJOR AID CROSSING INTO NORTHERN GAZA

AMMAN, Jordan — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says Israel plans on opening a major crossing to allow aid to flow into the hard-hit northern Gaza Strip.

During a visit in Jordan on Tuesday, Blinken said the first shipments were already leaving Jordan and bound for the Erez crossing. U.S. officials said the aid would enter Gaza on Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity pending an official announcement.

“The Jordanians are doing a remarkable job putting this together. We’re supporting that effort directly, and then this is moving much more effectively and efficiently into Gaza and to the people who need it in the north,” Blinken said, before traveling to Israel.

The U.S. has been pressuring Israel to do more to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, especially the devastated north. International aid organizations have reported a widespread humanitarian disaster, warning that hundreds of thousands of people in northern Gaza face the risk of famine.

Before Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, Erez served as a passenger crossing for Palestinians, including medical patients, laborers and travelers, going in and out of Gaza. The crossing suffered heavy damage in the Oct. 7 attack and has been closed since then.

Israel recently pledged to reopen Erez for aid shipments but did not say when when operations would resume.

NETANYAHU SAYS IT WOULD BE AN ‘OUTRAGE’ IF U.N. COURT ISSUES ARREST WARRANTS FOR ISRAELI OFFICIALS

JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday it would be “an outrage of historic proportions” if the International Criminal Court in The Hague issues arrest warrants against Israeli officials.

In recent days, Israeli officials have raised speculation that the ICC is about to issue warrants in the court’s 3-year-old probe into possible war crimes committed by Israel and Palestinian militants going back to the 2014 Israel-Hamas war.

It was not clear what sparked the concerns. The court has given no indication warrants in the case are imminent. The ICC prosecutor said Monday it would not comment on “speculation in the media” and that it does not give “a running commentary” about ongoing investigations.

Netanyahu said in a video address Tuesday that the court was “contemplating” warrants against Israeli government and military officials as “war criminals.” He denounced the court for “trying to put us in the dock as we defend ourselves” against Hamas and Iran.

“This ICC attempt is an attempt to paralyze Israel’s very ability to defend itself,” he said, saying Hamas was committing war crimes by operating in civilian areas in the Gaza Strip.

Netanyahu said Israel expects world leaders to “use all the means at their disposal” to stop “the ICC’s outrageous assault.”

Israeli officials have raised concerns over potential ICC warrants at a time when the U.S. and other nations have expressed opposition to Israeli plans for a ground offensive in the Gaza city of Rafah. Netanyahu has said an assault in Rafah is crucial to the goal of destroying Hamas, but the U.S. has raised concerns over some 1.4 million Palestinians who have crowded into the area.

BLINKEN WRAPS UP VISIT TO JORDAN AFTER MEETING PALESTINIAN WOMAN, TOURING AID DELIVERY OPERATIONS

AMMAN, Jordan -- U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has met in Jordan with a group of Palestinian women, some of whom had left Gaza after the war began and some of whom have family still in the territory to hear about their personal experiences.

“I heard their stories,” he told reporters Tuesday in Amman shortly before flying to Tel Aviv, Israel. “I heard the suffering that they endured and that their friends and family continue to endure every day.”

Blinken, who also met with Jordan’s king and foreign minister during his trip to the Middle East this week, visited several sites in and around Amman where aid deliveries are coordinated and where trucks are loaded with supplies for their onward journey to Gaza.

At a meeting with UN coordinator for Gaza aid and reconstruction, Sigrid Kaag, Blinken thanked her team for its “extraordinary work to try to make sure that people of Gaza get the help and support, the assistance they need.”

“This is a critical moment in making sure that everything that needs to be done actually is being done, but your expertise, the work that you’re doing every single day really informs what we’re doing and trying to try to help advance,” Blinken said.

At one location, a warehouse for the Jordan Hashemite Charity Organization near the town of Zarqa northeast of Amman, Blinken watched as workers loaded pallets of donated medical supplies and food onto a truck that will be part of the first large-scale convoy to drive directly through Jordan into Israel to the Erez Crossing. Israel agreed to reopen Erez earlier this month for aid deliveries in northern Gaza.

AMID CAMPUS PROTEST CRACKDOWN, U.N. CHIEF URGES RESPECT FOR PEACEFUL ASSEMBLY

UNITED NATIONS – The United Nations chief says freedom of expression and peaceful assembly must be guaranteed – but “hate speech is unacceptable.”

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was asked by reporters Tuesday about U.N. human rights chief Volker Türk saying he’s troubled by “heavy-handed steps” taken to break up and dismantle protests at U.S. college campuses against the Israel-Hamas war.

“First of all, I think it is essential in all circumstances to guarantee the freedom of expression and the freedom of peaceful demonstration,” Guterres replied. “And at the same time, it is obvious that hate speech is unacceptable.”

Referring to his time as Portugal’s prime minister from 1995 until 2002, Guterres said, “Based on my experience in government, I believe it is up to the university authorities to have the wisdom to properly manage situations like the ones we have witnessed.”

Student protests over the Israel-Hamas war have popped up at many college campuses following the arrest of demonstrators in April at Columbia University. Dozens of people were arrested Monday during protests at universities in Texas, Utah, Virginia and New Jersey.

The students are protesting the more than 34,000 Palestinians killed by Israel’s war on Hamas, and are calling for universities to separate themselves from any companies that are advancing Israel’s war in Gaza.

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY THREATENS TO EXPEL STUDENT PROTESTERS WHO OCCUPIED A CAMPUS BUILDING

NEW YORK — Columbia University has promised that dozens of protesters would face expulsion after taking over a campus administration building to protest the Israel-Hamas war.

Early Tuesday, student protesters barricaded entrances and unfurled a Palestinian flag from a window of Hamilton Hall on Columbia’s Manhattan campus. The takeover occurred nearly 12 hours after Monday’s 2 p.m. deadline for the protesters to leave an encampment of around 120 tents or face suspension.

In a statement Tuesday, Columbia spokesperson Ben Chang said, “Students occupying the building face expulsion.” He said those who didn’t agree to the terms from Monday were being suspended.

“Protesters have chosen to escalate to an untenable situation — vandalizing property, breaking doors and windows, and blockading entrances — and we are following through with the consequences we outlined yesterday,” he said.

The occupation at Columbia has unfolded as other universities stepped up efforts to clear out encampments. Police swept through some campuses, spurring confrontations with protesters and plenty of arrests. In rarer instances, university officials and protest leaders have struck agreements to restrict the disruption to campus life.

Israel and its supporters have branded the university protests as antisemitic, while critics of Israel say it uses those allegations to silence opposition. Although some protesters have been caught on camera making antisemitic remarks or violent threats, organizers of the protests, some of whom are Jewish, say it is a peaceful movement aimed at defending Palestinian rights and protesting the war.

A SHIP IS HIT FAR IN THE ARABIAN SEA, RAISING CONCERNS OVER YEMEN’S HOUTHI REBEL CAPABILITIES

JERUSALEM — A Portuguese-flagged container ship came under attack by a drone in the far reaches of the Arabian Sea, corresponding with a claim by Yemen’s Houthi rebels that they assaulted the ship there, authorities said Tuesday.

The attack on the MSC Orion, occurring some 600 kilometers (375 miles) off the coast of Yemen, appeared to be the first confirmed deep-sea assault claimed by the Houthis since they began targeting ships in November. It suggests the Houthis — or potentially their main benefactor Iran — may have the ability to strike into the distances of the Indian Ocean.

The Houthis say their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden are aimed at pressuring Israel to end its war against Hamas in Gaza.

The attack happened last Friday, according to the Joint Maritime Information Center, which operates as part of the U.S.-led Combined Maritime Forces in the Mideast. After the attack, the crew discovered debris apparently from a drone on board, the center said.

The ship “sustained only minor damage and all crew on board are safe,” the center said. Ship-tracking satellite data analyzed by The Associated Press put the container ship, bound for Salalah, Oman, in the area of the attack on Saturday.

The MSC Orion has been associated with London-based Zodiac Maritime, which is part of Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer’s Zodiac Group. It was operating on behalf of the Mediterranean Shipping Co., a Naples, Italy-based firm. Zodiac referred questions to MSC, which did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

UNITED NATIONS CHIEF URGES ISRAEL AND HAMAS TO AGREE ON A CEASE-FIRE

UNITED NATIONS – The head of the United Nations is urging Israel and Hamas to reach a cease-fire agreement, warning that if they don’t the war “will worsen exponentially” with consequences in Gaza and across the Middle East.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters Tuesday that an Israeli military assault on the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians have fled seeking safety, “would be an unbearable escalation, killing thousands more civilians and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee.”

Guterres appealed to countries with influence over Israel “to do everything in their power” to prevent an offensive in Gaza. Asked what leverage the United States should use, he said “it’s very important to put all possible pressures in order to avoid what would be an absolutely devastating tragedy.”

The secretary-general said people in Rafah have very little to eat, little shelter, hardly any access to medical care, “and nowhere else to go.” And in northern Gaza, where the threat of famine is greatest, he said sick children, people with disabilities and other vulnerable people “are already dying of hunger and disease.”

As for Israeli promises of stepped-up aid deliveries, Guterres said there has been “incremental progress” recently to prevent famine, but much more is urgently needed.

“We welcome aid delivery by air and sea, but there is no alternative to land routes,” he said, urging Israel to provide safe access for humanitarian aid and workers including from the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.

Israel most also keep its promise to open two crossing points to northern Gaza so aid can be delivered from the port of Ashdod and from Jordan, he said.

Guterres said Gaza’s health system has been “decimated” during the seven-month Israel-Hamas war and “some hospitals now resemble cemeteries.”

He expressed deep alarm at the discovery of mass graves at Shifa medical complex in Gaza City and Nasser medical complex in Khan Younis where he said over 390 bodies have reportedly been exhumed.

“There are competing narratives around several of these mass graves, including serious allegations that some of those buried were unlawfully killed,” Guterres said. “It is imperative that independent international investigators, with forensic expertise, are allowed immediate access to the sites of these mass graves, to establish the precise circumstances under which hundreds of Palestinians lost their lives and were buried, or reburied.”

AHEAD OF ISRAEL VISIT, BLINKEN SAYS U.S. FOCUS IS ON CEASE-FIRE DEAL

AMMAN, Jordan — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the Biden administration’s views on an Israeli offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah “are very well known” and that the focus is on a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas and the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

Blinken spoke to reporters Tuesday in Amman, Jordan, just hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to launch an incursion into Rafah regardless of whether a cease-fire deal is reached.

Blinken is on his way to Israel to advance the truce talks — which appear to be one of the most serious rounds of negotiations between Israel and Hamas since the war began more than six months ago.

The Biden administration has been pushing back against an Israeli operation in Rafah, saying it seeks to protect Palestinian civilians. Blinken said the Israelis put “a strong proposal on the table” for a cease-fire and that the U.S. wanted to see the deal happen in the coming days.

“It demonstrated that they’re willing to compromise, and now it’s on Hamas,” Blinken said. “No more delays. No more excuses. The time to act is now.”

Blinken earlier met with regional leaders in Saudi Arabia and Jordan during his Middle East tour this week.

U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY SAYS HE OPPOSES ANY ISRAELI OPERATION INTO RAFAH

WASHINGTON —U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told Congress on Tuesday that he opposes any Israel military move into Rafah without a specific plan to move and properly care for the more than a million civilians there.

Testifying before the House Armed Services Committee, Austin declined to say whether he would advise the president to withhold offensive weapons from Israel if those forces begin the Rafah operation without implementing such a plan. He said any decision would be up to President Joe Biden.

Austin said he has spoken repeatedly to his Israeli counterpart about the need to do things sequentially. “They must do what’s necessary to take care of these civilians that are not combatants, and move them out of the battlespace,” said Austin. He said that has to be done before any military operations, and the Israelis must allow enough time to do it appropriately, adding, “we’ve had that conversation a number of times.”

Under questioning, Austin acknowledged that U.S. forces working on the humanitarian aid pier that will be attached to the shore could get shot at. He said they have the right to protect themselves and shoot back, if needed. He also noted that Israeli forces on the land will be conducting security for the area.

U.S. officials have said that the U.S. Army and Navy will also have the ability to protect their forces, including using weapons on the ships.

NO EVIDENCE FOREIGN ADVERSARIES ARE STOKING CAMPUS PROTESTS, WHITE HOUSE SAYS

WASHINGTON — A White House spokesman said Tuesday that U.S. intelligence officials have not found any evidence that foreign adversaries are attempting to stoke the ongoing protests in the U.S. over the Israel-Hamas war.

National Security spokesman John Kirby said that White House National Security Council officials have been watching the growing protest with concern.

“I’m not aware of any evidence either in the intelligence world or the law enforcement about bad actors,” Kirby said. “But I caveat that by saying we’re constantly looking at the information stream out there to make sure that we have as clear a picture as possible.”

Rep. Nancy Pelsoi, D-Calif., last week said in an interview with Ireland’s RTE that the U.S. protests over Biden’s support of Israel have a “Russian tinge.”

The comments come amid growing protests on college campuses against universities’ and the Biden administration support for Israel.

Kirby said that the president supports the students right to protest, but that action on some campuses has crossed the line.

“You just got to do it peacefully,” Kirby said. “You can’t hurt anybody. … You can’t be disrupting the educational pursuit of your fellow students. They have a right to go to school and do so safely. They have a right to get an education. And taking over a building by force is unacceptable.”

U.N. HUMAN RIGHTS CHIEF IS CONCERNED ABOUT CRACKDOWN ON U.S. CAMPUS PROTESTS

GENEVA — The office of the United Nations human rights chief on Tuesday expressed concern about “heavy-handed steps” taken to break up and dismantle protests at university campuses across the United States over Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.

Volker Türk, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in a statement he was concerned that some actions by police at some U.S. universities “appear disproportionate in their impacts.”

His office said Türk also stressed that any antisemitic behavior and speech were “totally unacceptable and deeply disturbing” – as were anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian conduct and speech.

“U.S. universities have a strong, historic tradition of student activism, strident debate and freedom of expression and peaceful assembly,” he said. “It must be clear that legitimate exercises of the freedom of expression cannot be conflated with incitement to violence and hatred.”

The comments come as thousands of protesters have taken to university campuses across the U.S. to speak out against Israel’s war in Gaza, which has killed 34,000 Palestinians pushed northern Gaza to the brink of famine .

In recent weeks, hundreds of students have been arrested, and while many have been released, others still face charges or academic sanctions, the rights office said.

Turk was “troubled by a series of heavy-handed steps taken to disperse and dismantle protests across university campuses” in the U.S., his office said.

A TURKISH T

Ourist stabbed an israeli police officer in jerusalem, israeli official says.

JERUSALEM — An Israeli security official said the man who stabbed a police officer in Jerusalem was a 34-year-old Turkish national in Israel on a tourist visa.

The attacker moderately wounded the police officer and was killed on the scene by police, the security official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to discuss the incident with the media.

It is rare for visitors to carry out violent attacks in Israel, although relations between Israel and Turkey have significantly deteriorated during the war in Gaza.

Earlier this month , Turkey and Israel announced trade barriers on each other. Turkey has also accused Israel of barring its planes from participating in humanitarian aid air drops. Around 400 Turkish tourists came to Israel in March, 85% lower than the previous year, according to Israel’s Tourism Ministry.

Tensions have been surging in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank throughout the war between Israel and Hamas. Tuesday’s suspected attack took place in east Jerusalem, which has a large Palestinian population and where tensions between Palestinians and police often flare.

Stabbing attacks, car rammings and shootings by Palestinians against Israelis have increased, mostly in the occupied West Bank but also in Israeli cities and towns, since the start of the war in Gaza.

Associated Press writer Melanie Lidman contributed.

BIDEN ADMINISTRATION REPEATS CALL FOR ISRAEL NOT TO INVADE RAFAH

WASHINGTON--The White House on Tuesday reinforced its position that Israel should not move forward with a military operation in Rafah without a plan to safeguard innocent Palestinian civilians, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would move on Rafah regardless of whether a deal with Hamas to release remaining hostages is completed.

“I will let the prime minister speak for himself,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby said about Netanyahu’s latest assertion that Israel would move forward in the southernmost Gaza city “with or without” a hostage deal. “Our position on Rafah is absolutely the same. We don’t want to see a major ground operation in Rafah. Certainly we don’t want to see operations that haven’t factored in the safety security of those 1.5 million folks trying to seek refuge down there.”

Kirby sidestepped questions about whether Netanyahu’s comment undermines efforts to get a deal completed, but noted Israel has worked in “good faith” on what he called a “healthy proposal.”

“There is a fresh proposal on the table,” Kirby said. “It is a good proposal. We are waiting to hear Hamas’s reaction to it. The Israelis worked closely with us and diligently to get this fresh proposal in place. And it’s really important that Hamas act on it, accept it, so we can get those hostages home.”

TOP U.N. COURT REJECTS NICARAGUA’S REQUEST FOR GERMANY TO HALT AID TO ISRAEL

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The top United Nations court has rejected a request by Nicaragua to order Germany to halt military and other aid to Israel and renew funding to the U.N. aid agency in Gaza.

The International Court of Justice said that legal conditions for making such an order weren’t met and ruled against the request in a 15-1 vote.

“Based on the factual information and legal arguments presented by the parties, the court concludes that, as present, the circumstances are not such as to require the exercise of its power ... to indicate provisional measures,” said Nawaf Salam, the court’s president.

However, the 16-judge panel declined to throw out the case altogether. The court will still hear arguments from both sides on the merits of Nicaragua’s case, which alleges that Germany failed to prevent genocide in Gaza. That will likely take months.

Salam said that the court “remains deeply concerned about the catastrophic living conditions of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, in particular in view of the prolonged and widespread deprivation of food and other basic necessities to which they have been subjected.”

Germany argued at hearings in the case that it has barely exported any weapons to Israel since the offensive against Gaza started following the deadly incursion into southern Israel by Hamas militants on Oct. 7.

Nicaragua, a longstanding ally of the Palestinians, alleges that Germany is enabling genocide by sending arms and other support to Israel. Tuesday’s ruling by the International Court of Justice is only about preliminary orders in the case that will likely take years to resolve. Germany rejects the allegations.

Israel, which isn’t a party to the case between Nicaragua and Germany, strongly denies that its assault on Gaza amounts to acts of genocide, and insists that it’s acting in self-defense.

Nicaragua’s case is the latest legal bid by a country with historic ties to the Palestinian people to stop Israel’s offensive.

Late last year, South Africa accused Israel of genocide at the court. The cases come as Israel’s allies face growing calls to stop supplying it with weapons, and as some, including Germany, have grown more critical of the war.

PALESTINIAN PROTESTERS IN THE WEST BANK DAMAGE GERMAN ENVOY’S CAR

JERUSALEM -- Palestinian protesters at a university in the occupied West Bank have damaged a German diplomatic vehicle and forced European diplomats to leave the area, according to video circulating on social media and German officials.

Videos taken by protesters and circulated on social media show protesters threw stones and smashed the side mirror of the car on Tuesday, while dozens of others chanted slogans as diplomats hurried to their cars.

An official with the German mission to the Palestinian territories said diplomats from the European Union were forced to leave a meeting at the Palestinian Museum at Bir Zeit University, outside of the Palestinian city of Ramallah, after students shouted at them and demanded they leave.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the diplomatic incident with the media.

Oliver Owcza, Germany’s representative in the Palestinian territories, said on X that Tuesday’s meeting of European mission heads was “unduly interrupted by protestors.”

No injuries were reported, Germany’s ambassador to Israel wrote on X.

In Berlin, the German Foreign Office confirmed that the diplomats, including the head of the German office in Ramallah, “decided to leave the site for security reasons.”

Germany has for decades been a staunch supporter of Israel, sparking accusations of bias from some Palestinians. Germany, however, has gradually shifted its tone as civilian casualties in Gaza have soared, becoming increasingly critical of the humanitarian situation in Gaza and speaking out against a ground offensive in Rafah.

Demonstrations against the Israel-Hamas war have spread to college campuses around the world, especially in the United States.

By Associated Press writer Melanie Lidman

HEAD OF THE UN AGENCY FOR PALESTINIANS WELCOMES INFUSION OF DONATIONS

GENEVA — The head of the U.N. agency for Palestinians said Tuesday that it has raised over $115 million in private donations since the war between Israel and Hamas erupted more than six months ago, praising a welcome infusion after a string of well-heeled Western governments suspended their funding.

Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of UNRWA, made the comments after a closed-door briefing with diplomats from U.N. member states in Geneva. He said that most donor countries who paused their contributions in the wake of allegations from Israel that some staffers were connected to the militant group Hamas had since restarted their aid outlays.

Three countries — the United States, Austria and Britain — have not resumed funding, he said. The United States, its biggest funder, has “clearly indicated that it will keep the freeze until March 2025,” while Austria and Britain haven’t yet decided, Lazzarini said.

He said $267 million that had previously committed was still on hold, “the bulk of it” from the United States.

On Friday, the U.N. said its investigators are looking into allegations against 14 of the 19 UNRWA staffers who Israel claims were involved in the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas militants that spurred the latest war in Gaza.

In January, the world body was informed of Israeli allegations that 12 employees of the agency known as UNRWA had taken part in the Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel , when Hamas and other Palestinian militants killed about 1,200 people and seized some 250 as hostages. Seven other cases have since emerged.

Israel’s allegations led to the suspension of contributions to UNRWA by the U.S. and more than a dozen other countries, leading to a pause of funding worth about $450 million, according to a U.N.-commissioned report released last week.

UNRWA has 32,000 staff in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and the Palestinian territories, including 13,000 in Gaza who provide education, health care, food and other services to several million Palestinians and their families.

BLINKEN ARRIVES IN JORDAN

AMMAN, Jordan — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Jordan on the second leg of his latest Mideast diplomatic mission to boost aid shipments to Gaza and champion a new proposal for an Israel-Hamas cease-fire that would include the release of hostages held by the militant group.

A day after saying in Saudi Arabia that Israel still needs to do more to get humanitarian assistance into Gaza, and that Israel’s latest cease-fire offer was “extraordinarily generous” to Hamas, Blinken was meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Foreign Minister Ayman al-Safadi in Amman. Their talks were expected to focus on those issues as well as planning for post-conflict reconstruction and governance of Gaza.

Blinken will then tour several aid facilities and meet the U.N. humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza, Sigrid Kaag, before leaving for Israel. Blinken will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his war cabinet in Tel Aviv on Wednesday as well as visit Gaza-aid related sites.

On Monday in Riyadh, Blinken also reiterated the Biden administration’s opposition to Israel mounting a major military operation against the southern city of Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians have fled to escape fighting farther north. Blinken said Israel has still not presented a credible plan to protect civilians if it goes ahead with such an offensive.

Netanyahu said Tuesday that Israel would proceed with a Rafah operation “with or without” a cease-fire for hostages deal.

AN ISRAELI POLICE INJURED, SUSPECTED ATTACKER SHOT DEAD IN JERUSALEM

JERUSALEM — An Israeli police officer has been moderately injured in a stabbing attack outside of Jerusalem’s Old City, police said.

Police say the attacker, a Turkish national, was killed by police on the scene.

Tensions have been surging in the region since the Israel-Hamas war broke out Oct. 7 when the militant group launched a cross-border raid into Israel, killing 1,200 people while another 250 were taken hostage.

Tuesday’s attack took place in east Jerusalem, which has a large Palestinian population and where tensions between them and Israeli police often flare.

Stabbing attacks, car rammings and shooting incidents against Israelis have increased, mostly in the occupied West Bank but also in Israeli cities and towns, since the start of the war in Gaza.

UNICEF: AT LEAST 8 CHILDREN KILLED, 75 INJURED IN 6-MONTH-LONG CONFLICT ALONG LEBANON BORDER

BEIRUT — At least eight children have been killed and 75 injured in Lebanon in the ongoing conflict along the country’s border with Israel, UNICEF said Monday.

Out of 90,000 people displaced by the conflict in south Lebanon, 30,000 are children, UNICEF said in a report. It said that 20,000 students have been impacted by the partial or total closure of 72 schools in the conflict zone.

Children in Lebanon have also suffered as a result of disruptions to services including health care and water and are struggling with mental health issues because of the violence, the report said.

More than 350 people have been killed by Israeli strikes in Lebanon over nearly seven months of near-daily cross-border fighting between the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Israeli forces. The conflict escalated after the Israel-Hamas war erupted on Oct. 7.

Most of those killed were fighters with Hezbollah and allied groups, but more than 50 civilians have also been killed. In addition to eight children, 21 women were killed in the first six months of fighting, UNICEF reported. On the Israeli side, strikes from Lebanon have killed at least 10 civilians and 12 soldiers.

Western diplomats have brought forward a series of proposals for a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah but have so far failed to broker a deal. Hezbollah has said there will be no truce in Lebanon before there is a cease-fire in Gaza. Israeli officials, meanwhile, have said that a Gaza cease-fire does not automatically mean it will halt its strikes in Lebanon, even if Hezbollah does so.

GAZA HEALTH MINISTRY REPORTS 47 KILLED IN THE LAST 24 HOURS

CAIRO — The Gaza Health Ministry said Tuesday the bodies of 47 people killed by Israeli strikes have been brought to hospitals over the past 24 hours. Hospitals also received 61 wounded, it said in its daily report.

That brings the overall Palestinian death toll from the Israel-Hamas war to at least 34,536, the ministry said. Another 77,704 have been wounded, it said.

The Health Ministry does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its tallies, but says that women and children make up around two thirds of those killed.

The Israeli military says it has killed roughly 13,000 militants during the war, without providing evidence to back up the claim.

HAMAS DELEGATION LEAVES CAIRO AFTER CEASE-FIRE TALKS

CAIRO — Officials from Hamas have left Cairo after talks with Egyptian officials on a new cease-fire proposal in Gaza, Egypt’s state-owned Al-Qahera News satellite channel said Tuesday.

The channel, which has close ties with Egyptian security agencies, said a Hamas delegation will return to Cairo with a written response to the cease-fire proposal, without saying when.

The delegation, chaired by senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya , held talks with Egyptian officials Monday that focused on an Egyptian-crafted proposal to establish a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip.

Along with Qatar and the United States, Egypt is mediating between Israel and Hamas to secure a truce after nearly seven months of war. In recent weeks, Egypt has stepped up mediation efforts in hopes of averting an assault on Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city on the border with Egypt where more than half of Gaza’s population is sheltering.

The terms of the draft deal were not made public. But Israeli media said Israel softened its position, now seeking the release of 33 hostages — down from 40 — in return for the release of some 900 Palestinian prisoners. Hamas is believed to hold around 100 Israelis in Gaza and the remains of at least 30 more.

• Share full article

Advertisement

Where Protesters on U.S. Campuses Have Been Arrested or Detained

By The New York Times

Police officers and university administrators have clashed with pro-Palestinian protesters on a growing number of college campuses in recent weeks, arresting students, removing encampments and threatening academic consequences. More than 2,000 people have been arrested or detained on campuses across the country.

Campus protests where arrests and detainments have taken place since April 18

The fresh wave of student activism against the war in Gaza was sparked by the arrests of at least 108 protesters at Columbia University on April 18, after administrators appeared before Congress and promised a crackdown. Since then, tensions between protesters, universities and the police have risen, prompting law enforcement to take action in some of America’s largest cities.

Arizona State University

Cal poly humboldt, case western reserve university, city college of new york, columbia university, dartmouth college, emerson college, emory university, florida state university, fordham university, indiana university - bloomington, new york university, north carolina state univesity, northeastern university, northern arizona university, ohio state university, portland state university, princeton university, stony brook university, tulane university, university at buffalo, university of arizona, university of california, los angeles, university of colorado, university of connecticut, university of florida, university of georgia, university of illinois urbana-champaign, university of mary washington, university of minnesota, university of new hampshire, university of new mexico, university of north carolina at chapel hill, university of south carolina, university of south florida, university of southern california, university of texas at austin, university of texas at dallas, university of utah, university of wisconsin-madison, virginia commonwealth university, virginia tech, washington university in st. louis.

Ken Robinson: 10 talks on education

Education legend Sir Ken Robinson picked the talks he loves — all full of insight, bright ideas and, of course, creativity.

What do babies think?

Turning trash into toys for learning

Build a School in the Cloud

The El Sistema music revolution

A girl who demanded school

Teach arts and sciences together

Teaching one child at a time

To This Day ... for the bullied and beautiful

Education innovation in the slums

Let's use video to reinvent education

Mayor Adams talks migrant crisis, zoning changes, education funding at Staten Island town hall

• Updated: May. 02, 2024, 3:45 p.m. |
• Published: May. 02, 2024, 3:33 p.m.

• Erik Bascome | [email protected]

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- South Shore residents came ready to question Mayor Eric Adams on a variety of topics at Wednesday’s town hall at Paulo Intermediate School (I.S. 75) in Huguenot.

Questions at the town hall, which was part of the administration’s ongoing Community Conversations series, included the city’s handling of the ongoing migrant crisis, proposed zoning changes that would allow for increased housing development, planned cuts to education funding, a long-requested fast ferry connection to Brooklyn and more.

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

Education | UCLA declares Palestine encampment unlawful,…

Share this:.

• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
• Click to print (Opens in new window)
• Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)

Today's e-Edition

• Latest News
• Environment
• Transportation

Education | UCLA declares Palestine encampment unlawful, USC president in talks with protesters

Ucla probes protestors who allegedly blocked students from class; they may be suspended or expelled.

For update, see: Violent clashes break out among opposing protest factions at UCLA

Tensions have been escalating at both universities over the last week, where protesters refuse to stand down until leadership meets their demands, which including divesting from companies that do business with Israel and calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Pro-Palestinian protests in the region are also roiling campuses at UC Irvine, UC Riverside, Cal Poly Pomona and Pasadena City College.

UCLA delivered the notice to vacate to protesters at Royce Quad around 4 p.m. on Tuesday and sent an alert to all students notifying them two adjacent buildings, Royce Hall and Powell Library, will be closed for the rest of the week.

“Those who choose to remain — including both students and employees — could face sanctions,” states the notice. “For students, those sanctions could include disciplinary measures such as interim suspension that, after proper due process through the student conduct process, could lead to dismissal.”

In a Tuesday evening statement, student protesters at UCLA declared the administration’s notice to vacate a “repression tactic” and a “continuation of a long history of attempts to shut down student activism and silence pro-Palestinian voices.”

Organizers said they intend to continue their occupation of Royce Quad, which was established Thursday.

Earlier in the day, UCLA Vice Chancellor Mary Osako issued a statement saying that the university has removed metal barriers that protesters were using to control foot traffic in and around Royce Quad.

She said attempts to block student access “could lead to severe disciplinary action including expulsion or suspension” of the protestors and that “this kind of disruption to our teaching and learning mission is abhorrent, plain and simple.”

Osako also said that campus security is being expanded following altercations between protesters and counter-protesters, including “adding greater numbers of campus law enforcement, safety personnel and student affairs monitors.”

A Palestinian supporter at UCLA on Monday, April 29, 2024. Hundreds of Pro-Palestinian supporters joined in a march from their encampment in front of Royce Hall to areas around the campus. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

Pro-Palestinian protesters continued to occupy the grounds at UCLA in front of Royce Hall on Monday, April 29, 2024. Security has surrounded the encampment after a skirmish broke out Sunday between the Pro-Palestianian protesters and Israel supporters. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

Pro-Palestinian protesters watch pro-Israel demonstrators on Sunday morning, April 28, 2024. at UCLA. (Photo by Gene Blevins/Contributing Photographer)

Some UCLA faculty joined with Pro-Palestinian protesters at UCLA on Monday, April 29, 2024. Hundreds of Pro-Palestinian supporters joined in a march from their encampment in front of Royce Hall to areas around the campus. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

At USC, President Caroline Folt issued a statement on X condemning the discovery of a swastika on campus.

“Clearly, it was drawn there right now just to incite even more anger at a time that is so painful for our community,” she said. “We’re going to work to get to the bottom of this immediately.”

On Tuesday afternoon, Folt met for a second time with student leaders from the Divest From Death Coalition.

Tensions have been running especially high at USC following the administration’s decision to bar a Pro-Palestinian valedictorian from delivering a commencement speech and LAPD’s arrest of 93 protesters at the campus’ Alumni Park last Wednesday.

USC’s campus is closed to the public, and students have reestablished a tent encampment in Alumni Park. Folt initially met with protest organizers to discuss their demands on Monday.

A University of Southern California protester is detained by USC Department of Public Safety officers during a pro-Palestinian occupation at the campus’ Alumni Park on Wednesday, April 24, 2024 in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)

UCLA students set up a Palestinian solidarity camp at their Westwood campus on Thursday, April 25, 2024. The encampment comes one day after a protest on their cross-town rival USC. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

In a statement on Instagram, the Divest From Death Coalition said the talks were “deeply disappointing” and “indicative of a larger pattern of the administration’s failure to address the needs of its student, faculty and surrounding community.”

Folt told the USC student newspaper the Daily Trojan that she understands students “wouldn’t have considered this meeting a win from their perspective.”

“I think we need to continue to have those conversations, and I’m pleased we all agree on that. We’ll go day by day,” she added.

Going into Tuesday’s meeting, USC protest organizers said they will not make any concessions and “our occupation will continue until our demands are met.”

While student demands vary slightly from school to school, most follow the principles of “disclose, divest, defend.” Students are asking their administrations to disclose all financial ties, divest from companies that do business with Israel, defend protesters by allowing activism to take place and defend the Palestinian people by calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.

Also on Tuesday, encampments entered their second day at UC Irvine and Riverside and 300 students staged a walk-out at Pasadena City College.

“This is class. We are leading people out of ignorance,” said Grant Bridges, a theater arts major and protester at Pasadena City College.

The crowd’s chants to “free Palestine” echoed through the campus. They waved flags and DIY cardboard banners as many others looked on, some applauding, some just witnessing it all in silence.

Violet Stoeker, a political science student leader at Pasadena City College, told fellow students that the demands “will not stop.” And Kat Clark, a sociology student, said the action was important, even at a smaller school.

“Doing nothing doesn’t make a difference,” Clark said, adding that the diversity of voices at a smaller public campus amplifies the voices.

At UC Irvine, around fifty protestors continued their encampment protest, even though the administration said the tents were “unauthorized.”

Members of the Irvine Police Department and Orange County Sheriff’s Department were present on campus on Monday, prompting Irvine Mayor Farrah Khan to issue a statement asking law enforcement to stand down.

“I will not tolerate any violations to our students’ rights to peacefully assemble and protest,” she said.

In addition to the 93 arrests made at USC, 20 arrests were made at Pomona College on April 5 and 25 protesters were arrested at Cal Poly Humboldt on Tuesday morning.

Members of Arab American Civic Council, a grassroots organization based in Anaheim, released a statement saying they were very alarmed by the recent police response on college campuses.

“We are deeply concerned about the recent events at the University of Southern California and Pomona College, where peaceful demonstrations to oppose U.S. complicity in the ongoing genocide in Gaza have been met with excessive force and punitive measures by law enforcement,” they wrote. “These incidents represent a blatant violation of students’ constitutional right to protest and express their views without fear of repression or retaliation.”

Daily News photographer Sarah Reingewirtz and City News Service contributed to this report

• Report an error
• Policies and Standards

More in Education

Education | East Bay school district plans independent investigation of boss accused of bullying; places him on leave

Education | UCLA pro-Palestinian encampment left in a rubble as students vow campus protests ‘are not over’

Education | Cal Poly Humboldt closure still enforced after crackdown on protesters

Crime and Public Safety | 3 former students file suit against Bay Area elementary school teacher charged with sexual misconduct