Freed from ICE custody, Palestinian activist Mohsen Mahdawi graduates from Columbia to cheers
NEW YORK — Less than three weeks after his release from an immigration jail, the Palestinian activist Mohsen Mahdawi strode across the graduation stage at Columbia University on Monday morning, savoring a moment the Trump administration had fought to make impossible.
Draped in a keffiyeh, Mahdawi, 34, paused to listen to the swell of cheers from his fellow graduates. Then he joined a vigil just outside Columbia's gates, raising a photograph of his classmate Mahmoud Khalil , who remains in federal custody.
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At the time of that ruling, 36 states had already legalized same-sex marriage, and support remains strong in many areas. However, if the convention got its wish, not only would Obergefell be overturned, but every law and court ruling that affirmed same-sex marriage would, as well. Messengers attending the Southern Baptist Convention participate in worship during the 2025 SBC Annual Meeting on June 10, 2025, in Dallas. Richard W. Rodriguez / AP There was no debate on the marriage resolution. That in itself isn't surprising in the solidly conservative denomination, which has long defined marriage as between one man and one woman. However, it marks an especially assertive step in its call for the reversal of a decade-old Supreme Court ruling, as well as any other legal pillars to same-sex marriage in law and court precedent. The marriage issue was incorporated into a much larger resolution on marriage and family - one that calls for civil law to be based on what the convention says is the divinely created order as stated in the Bible. The resolution says legislators have a duty to "pass laws that reflect the truth of creation and natural law - about marriage, sex, human life, and family" and to oppose laws contradicting "what God has made plain through nature and Scripture." The same resolution calls for recognizing "the biological reality of male and female" and opposes "any law or policy that compels people to speak falsehoods about sex and gender." It urges Christians to "embrace marriage and childbearing" and to see children "as blessings rather than burdens." But it also frames that issue as one of public policy. 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Bloomberg
38 minutes ago
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US, China Inch Toward Plan to Ease Chip and Rare-Earth Controls
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