Syria: Fighting between Druze and Bedouin tribes in Sweida continues
18/07/2025
Deportation dossiers: Trump's AI-driven war on immigrants and freedom of speech
18/07/2025
Tour de France: Pogacar's solo masterclass seals stage 12 victory
18/07/2025
UK lowers voting age from 18 to 16 in historic electoral reform
18/07/2025
Tomorrowland festival begins days after fire destroyed main stage
18/07/2025
Syria accuses Israel of trying to destabilise country through airstrikes
17/07/2025
Taipei holds annual air raid drill to prepare for Chinese attack
Asia / Pacific
17/07/2025
Church attack will weigh 'terribly' on Gaza's Catholic community
Middle East
17/07/2025
Death toll from south Syria violence rises to 594: monitor
Middle East
17/07/2025
Syrian Bedouin fighters mount new offensive in Sweida against Druze fighters despite truce
Middle East
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Euronews
2 hours ago
- Euronews
Columbia University to pay over $220M in deal to restore funding
Columbia University said on Wednesday it had reached an agreement with the Trump administration to pay more than $220 million (€186.76 million) to resolve a dispute over federal research funding pulled amid accusations of antisemitism on campus. Under the agreement, the Ivy League school will pay a $200 million (€169.79 million) settlement over three years, the university said. It will pay an additional $21 million (€17.83 million) to settle alleged civil rights violations against Jewish employees that have occurred following the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, according to the White House. 'The agreement marks an important step forward after a period of sustained federal scrutiny and institutional uncertainty,' acting university president Claire Shipman said. The university had been threatened with the potential loss of billions of dollars in government support, including more than $400 million (€339.62 million) in grants cancelled earlier this year. Columbia's alleged failure to address antisemitism on campus during the Israel-Hamas war was cited as the reason behind the funding being pulled. Since then, Columbia has agreed to a series of conditions including a revision of its student disciplinary process and the adoption of a contentious, federally endorsed definition of antisemitism. This would apply not only to teaching but also to a disciplinary committee that has been investigating students critical of Israel. Wednesday's agreement – which does not include an admission of wrongdoing – codifies those reforms while preserving the university's autonomy, according to Shipman. The agreement also includes a review of Columbia's Middle East curriculum to make sure it was 'comprehensive and balanced' and appointing new faculty to its Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies. It also promised to end programmes 'that promote unlawful efforts to achieve race-based outcomes, quotes, diversity targets or similar efforts.' In a post Wednesday night on his Truth Social platform, President Donald Trump said Columbia had 'committed to ending their ridiculous DEI policies, admitting students based ONLY on MERIT, and protecting the Civil Liberties of their students on campus.' He also warned, without being specific, 'Numerous other Higher Education Institutions that have hurt so many, and been so unfair and unjust, and have wrongly spent federal money, much of it from our government, are upcoming.' Crackdown following Columbia protests The agreement between the leading US university and the Trump administration follows months of negotiations at the more than 270-year-old university. It was among the first target of Trump's crackdown on pro-Palestinian campus protests and on universities that he alleges have allowed Jewish students to be harassed and threatened. Columbia's own antisemitism task force had found that Jewish students had faced verbal abuse and ostracism during the 2024 demonstrations. However, other Jewish students taking part in the rallies as well as protest leaders said they weren't targeting Jews but instead criticising the Israeli government and its war in Gaza.
LeMonde
3 hours ago
- LeMonde
Columbia University to pay $200 million in clash with Trump
Columbia University said Wednesday, July 23, it will pay $200 million to the US government after President Donald Trump threatened to pull federal funding over what he said was its unwillingness to protect Jewish students. In a sweeping deal that will restore the prestigious New York institution's federal monies, Columbia has pledged to obey rules that bar it from taking race into consideration in admissions or hiring, among other concessions. "Columbia University has reached an agreement with the United States government to resolve multiple federal agency investigations into alleged violations of federal anti-discrimination laws," a statement said, adding that the $200 million would be paid over three years. The university will also pay $21 million to settle investigations brought by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, it said. "Under today's agreement, a vast majority of the federal grants which were terminated or paused in March 2025 will be reinstated and Columbia's access to billions of dollars in current and future grants will be restored," the statement said. The promise of the federal funding spigot reopening offers relief for the university, which was under growing financial pressure, despite a comfortable endowment and a reputation it can bank on. The agreement also represents a victory for Trump, who has repeatedly claimed elite universities brainwash students against his nationalist ideas with left-wing bias. The centuries-old Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is also in a fight with the administration over Trump's threats to rip away federal funding, and Wednesday's carefully worded agreement – in which Columbia admitted no wrongdoing – could offer a framework for future deals. "This agreement marks an important step forward after a period of sustained federal scrutiny and institutional uncertainty," Columbia's acting president Claire Shipman said. "The settlement was carefully crafted to protect the values that define us and allow our essential research partnership with the federal government to get back on track." "Importantly, it safeguards our independence, a critical condition for academic excellence and scholarly exploration, work that is vital to the public interest," he added. Disciplinary actions Under the settlement, Columbia will maintain a security force to prevent demonstrations in academic spaces, such as those that rocked the campus last year when pro-Palestinian protestors clashed with law enforcement and occupied university buildings. The school also agreed to "promptly provide" federal authorities with any requested information on "disciplinary actions involving student visa-holders resulting in expulsions or suspensions, and arrest records that Columbia is aware of for criminal activity, including trespass or other violation of law." Partner service Learn French with Gymglish Thanks to a daily lesson, an original story and a personalized correction, in 15 minutes per day. Try for free Columbia found itself at the center of a firestorm last year over claims of anti-Semitism triggered by campus protests against Israel's war in Gaza. Some Jewish students claimed they were intimidated and that authorities did not act to protect them. The school announced a wave of various student punishments on Tuesday, including expulsions and degree revocations, against nearly 80 students involved in the pro-Palestinian protest movement that has called on the university to divest from Israel. "Our institution must focus on delivering on its academic mission for our community," Columbia said in a statement about student protests on its campus. "Disruptions to academic activities are in violation of University policies and rules, and such violations will necessarily generate consequences." While the university appears to be acquiescing to the Trump administration's demands to quash student protests, one of the most prominent leaders of the US pro-Palestinian campus protests is still raising his voice. Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate active in campus demonstrations, has sued the Trump administration for $20 million over his arrest and detention by immigration agents. Khalil, a legal permanent resident of the United States who is married to a US citizen, missed the birth of his son while being held in a federal immigration detention center in Louisiana. He called the lawsuit a "first step towards accountability."
Euronews
3 hours ago
- Euronews
EU and China hold trade talks with expectations low
European Union leaders are meeting with top Chinese officials in Beijing on Thursday for a one-day summit aimed at addressing trade imbalances, climate cooperation and global conflicts, though expectations for concrete outcomes are low. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang to mark 50 years of relations between Brussels and Beijing. Originally planned as a two-day event, the summit was scaled back amid economic uncertainty, wars in the Middle East and Ukraine and the looming threat of renewed US tariffs. EU officials were expected to raise concerns over China's support for Russia amid its ongoing, full-scale invasion of Ukraine, persistent cyberattacks and espionage, trade imbalances, Beijing's near-monopoly in rare earth minerals and human rights issues in Xjinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong. The EU is also navigating a balancing act with Washington as it braces for a possible trade war with the US. 'Europe is being very careful not to antagonise President Trump even further by looking maybe too close to China, so all of that doesn't make this summit easier,' said Fabian Zuleeg, chief economist of the European Policy Centre. 'It will be very hard to achieve something concrete.' There is also little likelihood of a major breakthrough amid China's hardening stance on the EU, despite a few olive branches. This includes the suspension of sanctions on European lawmakers who criticised Beijing's human rights abuses in Xjinjiang, a region in north-western China home to the Uyghurs. 'China has come away emboldened from its trade confrontation with Trump. That has reduced its appetite for making concessions to the EU,' Zuleeg said. 'Now that Trump has backed down, China sees less of a need to wood Europe.' China is the EU's second-largest trading partner after the US, with around 30% of global trade flowing between them. While both sides hope to use their economic ties to help stabilise the global economy, fundamental divisions remain.
