Judge extends ban on deportation of U.S. student over opposition to war in Gaza
NEW YORK –
A U.S. judge on Wednesday extended his order blocking federal authorities from deporting a detained Columbia University student, in a case that has become a flash point following a pledge by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump to deport some pro-Palestinian college activists.
U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman had temporarily blocked Mahmoud Khalil's deportation earlier this week, and extended the prohibition Wednesday in a written order following a hearing in Manhattan federal court to allow himself more time to consider whether the arrest was unconstitutional.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) says Khalil, 30, is subject to deportation under a legal provision holding that migrants whose presence in the country are deemed by the U.S. Secretary of State to be incompatible with foreign policy may be removed, according to a DHS document.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Mainichi
2 hours ago
- The Mainichi
Editorial: Amid global warming threat, Japan's financial sector must help protect planet
Neglecting climate change initiatives to appease the U.S. administration of Donald Trump will create a breeding ground for future problems. Major financial institutions in Japan and the U.S. have successively withdrawn from the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA), an international framework aiming for decarbonization. Following the departure of U.S. banks including Citigroup Inc., Japan's three megabanks, including Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc., followed suit this spring. The NZBA is a system that encourages financial institutions to select their investment and lending targets based on whether they are contributing to decarbonization, thereby promoting the exit of businesses with a large environmental impact, such as coal-fired power generation. It is expected that the initiative will prove effective in pushing for the realization of a carbon-free society with the power of finance to influence corporate activities. The tide has changed, however, with the return of Trump, who has dismissed the climate crisis as "fake." Criticism within the ruling Republican Party has grown over financial institutions aligning themselves to restrict investments and loans for fossil fuel businesses. In some U.S. states, there have been moves to exclude NZBA member banks from transactions, on the grounds their stance contradicts the Trump administration's energy policy. U.S. banks that have left the NZBA are already actively investing and lending for fossil fuel projects. The Japanese megabanks have not provided reasons for their departure, but it is believed that they became wary of the risk of their business in the U.S. being disadvantaged under the scrutiny of the Trump administration. The banks stress that they will strengthen climate change measures, but by following the lead of American banks, they cannot evade being labeled deceptive. The NZBA was launched in 2021 at the proposal of Mark Carney, former governor of the Bank of England and current Prime Minister of Canada. Leading financial institutions worldwide signed up, pledging to collaborate on decarbonization, aiming for net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. European banks that place an emphasis on climate change measures and many in emerging and developing countries have not withdrawn. Within Japan, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. remains a member of the alliance. The target of keeping the average global rise in temperatures to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels as a measure against global warming is under threat. It is essential to make efforts to keep international cooperation on decarbonization from backpedaling. Megabanks operating globally bear a responsibility to act with the planet's interests in mind.
Yomiuri Shimbun
2 hours ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Ukraine's Previous President Says He Knows How to Win over Trump
Serhiy Morgunov/For The Washington Post Poroshenko at his party's office in February. KYIV – The walls of the windowless meeting room where former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko receives his guests are festooned with mementos from his political glory days – particularly those celebrating his past relationship with President Donald Trump. Poroshenko is seeking to leverage that experience to rebuild his political profile as the man who can deal with the mercurial American president, especially since his chief rival and Ukraine's current leader, President Volodymyr Zelensky, has struggled to secure lasting support from Trump. But Poroshenko, a businessman whose candy empire made him a billionaire, will have to clear his name first. Elected amid a wave of pro-Western sentiment in 2014, he later persuaded Trump to become the first U.S. president to arm Ukraine with lethal weapons. In 2019, he lost his reelection bid to Zelensky – a comedian known for playing a president on TV – and a feud has simmered between the two men ever since. Earlier this year, Ukraine slapped sanctions on Poroshenko, who is now opposition leader in parliament and widely believed to be eyeing another presidential run whenever a ceasefire is reached and Ukraine can safely organize elections. He has already been subject to multiple corruption investigations. Ukraine's state security services said the latest sanctions were based on allegations of threats to national security, which Poroshenko denies. The day before the sanctions were announced, Zelensky warned a decision had been made that was about 'protecting our state and restoring justice.' The sanctions have restricted Poroshenko from accessing his bank accounts. He has also been banned from travel, penalties that he says are politically motivated and intended to diminish his influence and that are only harming Ukraine. Poroshenko is now fighting them in court. In the meantime, he insists Ukraine's ongoing negotiations with Russia and its dealings with the United States must include opposition voices like his – or they risk losing legitimacy and key Western support. 'I've worked with President Trump for more than three years and I'm proud I have a legacy of that,' the 59-year-old said in a recent interview, referring to their overlap in office from 2016 to 2019. 'Each meeting with Trump is an opportunity. An opportunity to deliver your position and to find one of joint interest. And that's why I'm demanding to be in the United States – because I want to save Ukraine.' As one of the largest donors to Ukraine's military, Poroshenko said he fears the banking restrictions will slow the war effort by hampering his financial assistance to troops on the front lines, which he said amounts to around $1 million a week. The travel ban means he is unable to lobby for support for Ukraine in Europe and Washington. He also fears that the sanctions against him will be used to discredit Ukraine's democracy at a time when the country urgently needs Western support. 'I hate the idea that the case of Poroshenko can be harmful for Ukraine in Ukrainian-American or Ukrainian-European relations,' he said. Political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko said the sanctions have so far actually helped Poroshenko politically and were 'most likely a political mistake' by the Zelensky administration 'because the electoral rating of Poroshenko and his party increased as a result, and Poroshenko received a lot of media attention.' Still, analysts say that Poroshenko's ratings suggest any presidential bid remains a long shot and that in Zelensky's camp, the fears are more about how the billionaire might use his wealth to back other potential candidates, including those with military backgrounds. Many expect the popular Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, who served as Ukraine's military chief until he was fired in 2024, to also make a run for office – potentially pitting him against Zelensky. He is now Ukraine's ambassador to the United Kingdom. Elections delayed Ukraine was set to have a presidential election in 2024, but the vote was delayed by the martial law imposed after the Russian invasion on Feb. 24, 2022. Organizing elections during a period of martial law would violate Ukraine's constitution. But as speculation looms over future presidential contenders, Russia has seized on Ukraine's lack of elections to try to discredit Zelensky and cast him as illegitimate. Earlier this year, Trump called Zelensky a 'dictator without elections,' stirring fears that Washington was backing Russia's claims and could tie future military support to elections. Despite Poroshenko's own political ambitions and his public feuds with Zelensky, he has publicly supported the position that no vote should be organized before a real ceasefire. 'I'm extremely against any election during the war,' he said. Still, he claims the sanctions – which could ban him from participation – are proof enough that there are those in government already preparing for the possibility of elections in the near future. 'I am the living evidence of that,' he said. Anton Grushetsky, executive director of the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, said that even while most politicians say publicly that they are against elections, 'actually, secretly, I think all of them are preparing in case … we have a successful ceasefire for Ukraine with some security guarantees.' Zelensky's reelection is by no means assured. In the first year after the 2022 invasion, the country – and its politicians – united behind him as a wartime leader. But a failed military counteroffensive in 2023, analysts said, created an opening for renewed criticism of his approach – including from Poroshenko's camp. Opposition lawmakers have also asserted that they are being excluded from key talks over the country's future. Poroshenko's lawmakers in his European Solidarity party are his main avenue for criticizing Zelensky, Grushetsky said. 'As a party leader, [his] statements are quite nice, quite calm … like a responsible Ukrainian politician,' Grushetsky said. 'A lot of this dirty job is done by other party members, not by Poroshenko.' A former Ukrainian official who worked with Poroshenko and spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal politics said Poroshenko's team increasingly relies on a Trump-style narrative that if he had been in power, the 2022 Russian invasion would not have happened. Their comments amount to: 'You fools all made a mistake back in 2019. You voted for the wrong guy and now you have a war crisis.' 'I think it plays more against the stability in the country,' the former official said. 'It is trying to segregate society, and we don't need things like that.' The Trump factor Divisions between the two camps were on full display earlier this year as relations soured between Trump and Zelensky, culminating in a disastrous Oval Office visit in which Trump berated the Ukrainian president and canceled his meetings with him. Many lawmakers in Ukraine saw the dressing down of Zelensky as a setup intended to discredit him in Washington. Poroshenko, however, said the confrontation – which he described as 'a catastrophe' – was the result of repeated miscalculations by Zelensky and his team in their early dealings with Trump. But Poroshenko's own experience with Trump reveals how difficult it can be to reach any lasting political agreements with the U.S. leader. Sitting at the head of a long table in his meeting room this spring, Poroshenko pointed at a paper framed on the wall behind him. It was the Crimea Declaration, signed by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in 2018. Russia illegally annexed and occupied the Ukrainian peninsula in 2014. Pompeo later declared that 'the United States rejects Russia's attempted annexation of Crimea and pledges to maintain this policy until Ukraine's territorial integrity is restored.' 'This is a result of my foreign policy,' Poroshenko said. 'And this is not just some copy. This is original.' But after four years out of office, Trump has returned stronger, more experienced and surrounded by a new posse of advisers. The stakes for Ukraine and the world are even higher than they were in his last term, before the 2022 invasion – and Ukraine's war has become a point of contention in U.S. domestic politics. In April, the Trump administration proposed a peace plan to Ukrainian officials that included U.S. recognition of Crimea as Russian – a direct violation of the declaration that hangs framed on Poroshenko's wall. Still, Poroshenko said that even if some of Trump's policies have changed, his approach hasn't. 'I know Trump. … He makes a decision without any briefing from the State Department or from the Department of Defense. He very much trusts in his intuition,' he said. 'And those who go to the negotiation with him should take that into consideration. Or, if you don't like it, simply don't go.' Poroshenko last visited Washington in February, before he was banned from travel. He met with U.S. officials and attended the National Prayer Breakfast, where Trump made a speech. After Zelensky's disastrous Oval Office visit, Politico reported that Trump officials then reached out to opposition politicians in Ukraine, including senior members of Poroshenko's party. When asked what was discussed in the conversations, Poroshenko paused, then replied: 'No comments.'
Japan Times
2 hours ago
- Japan Times
French Open champion Coco Gauff proud to represent 'Americans that look like me'
Newly crowned French Open champion Coco Gauff, the first Black American to win the title in a decade, said on Saturday her victory in Paris was for people back home who looked like her and struggled amid ongoing political turmoil. Gauff battled from a set down to beat Aryna Sabalenka 6-7 (5-7), 6-2, 6-4 for her first French Open crown and her second Grand Slam title after the 2023 U.S. Open. She is the first Black American to win the French Open since Serena Williams in 2015. "It means a lot (to win the title), and obviously there's a lot going on in our country right now with things — like, everything, yeah. I'm sure you guys know," she said, smiling but without elaborating further. "But just to be able to be a representation of that and a representation of, I guess, people that look like me in America who maybe don't feel as supported during this time period, and so just being that reflection of hope and light for those people." There has been ongoing political turmoil in the United States following the election of President Donald Trump last year. Trump's first few months in office have featured an unapologetic assault on diversity and inclusion efforts, unraveling decades-old policies to remedy historical injustices for marginalized groups in a matter of weeks. In his second term, Trump revoked a landmark 1965 executive order mandating equal employment opportunities for all, slashed environmental actions to protect communities of color and ordered the gutting of an agency that helped fund minority and female-owned businesses. The actions have alarmed advocates, who say they effectively erase decades of hard-fought progress on leveling the playing field for marginalized communities. "I remember after the election and everything, it kind of felt (like) a down period a little bit, and my mom told me during Riyadh (in November 2024) 'just try to win the tournament, just to give something for people to smile for.' "So that's what I was thinking about today when holding that (trophy). "Then seeing the flags in the crowd means a lot. You know, some people may feel some type of way about being patriotic and things like that, but I'm definitely patriotic and proud to be American, and I'm proud to represent the Americans that look like me and people who kind of support the things that I support." Trump has previously denied claims he has employed racist attacks and an agenda throughout his political career.
