Latest news with #Berkeley
Time of India
3 hours ago
- Business
- Time of India
UK's Barratt Redrow misses home completion target, warns of 'fragile' buyer confidence
BENGALURU: Britain 's largest homebuilder Barratt Redrow on Tuesday missed its annual forecast for home completions and warned confidence among buyers remained "fragile", sending its shares down almost 13%. The group announced 16,565 home completions for the year ended June 29, below its forecast of 16,800 to 17,200, chiefly due to delays in transferring ownership to international customers and to the private rented sector in London . Completions involve homes that have been built and the official transfer of ownership to the buyer. London has been a weak spot for Barratt Redrow in the past year as completions and margins have been weaker than in its regional business. Britain's faltering economy is weighing on consumer confidence and tempering housing demand, overshadowing a gradual decline in interest rates and government incentives that have recently offered some optimism. The slow roll-out of reforms to enhance safety and modernise the housing sector has also hampered delivery targets for builders, including Barratt Redrow, which expects its average number of sales outlets to be broadly flat in fiscal 2026. High-end homebuilder Berkeley , which has a strong London presence, in June cut its profit expectations for the next two years, blaming market and regulatory pressures. "Homebuyer confidence remains fragile," Barratt Redrow said in a trading statement, echoing concerns around affordability raised by rivals including Persimmon and Vistry . While government support could help demand, particularly in high-cost areas like London and South East England, Barratt Redrow is leaning on incentives like topping up deposits to support buyers, CEO David Thomas said during an analyst call. Shares in the FTSE 100-listed company hit their lowest since October 2022 on Tuesday, and pulled the broader housing index down 4.7%. Barratt Redrow, formed after the merger of the two eponymous companies last year, said it expected fiscal 2025 adjusted profit before tax and charges to be in line with analysts' consensus forecast of 582.6 million pounds ($783.1 million). For fiscal 2026, it expects home completions to rise to between 17,200 and 17,800.
The Guardian
9 hours ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
US university leaders challenge campus antisemitism claims in House hearing
Rich Lyons, the University of California, Berkeley, chancellor, challenged US House Republicans on Tuesday as they questioned Lyons and leaders of Georgetown University and the City University of New York in the latest hearing on antisemitism in higher education. The committee accused the schools of failing to respond adequately to allegations of bias or discrimination, however the university leaders said that disciplinary action had been taken where appropriate and stressed the importance of protecting free speech. Lyons pushed back on the suggestion that antisemitism was more present on college campuses than anywhere else. 'If somebody is expressing pro-Palestinian beliefs, that's not necessarily antisemitic,' he said. Lyons, in his first year as chancellor is also the first UC leader to face the House committee during the Trump presidency. In his opening remarks, he defended the campus' commitment to free speech. 'As a public institution, Berkeley has a solemn obligation to protect the quintessential American value of free speech,' Lyons said. 'This obligation does not prevent us, let me repeat, does not prevent us from confronting harassment and discrimination in all its forms, including antisemitism.' The hearing was the ninth in a series Republicans have held to scrutinize university leadership over allegations of antisemitism on campuses after a wave of protests over Israel's indiscriminate bombing of Gaza, which has killed more than 60,000 people, in retaliation to Hamas' 7 October 2023 attack on Israel. Widely criticized testimony before the committee by the presidents of the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University in 2023 contributed to their resignations. At Tuesday's hearing, Democrats blasted Republican committee members for their focus on antisemitism while not speaking on the dismantling of the education department, which is tasked with investigating antisemitism and other civil rights violations in schools. 'They have turned this hearing room into a kangaroo court, where they spend our time litigating a predetermined outcome to do nothing, actually, to help Jewish students, just make public theater out of legitimate pain,' said the California representative Mark Takano. Republicans said university leaders have allowed campus antisemitism to run unchecked. 'Universities can choose to hire antisemitic faculty, welcome students with a history of antisemitism, accept certain foreign funding, and let the behavior of antisemitic unions go unchecked,' Tim Walberg, a Michigan representative and committee chair, said in his opening statements. 'But we will see today they do so at their own risk.' The hearing was periodically interrupted by protesters, who shouted pro-Palestinian slogans before being removed by Capitol police. Randy Fine, a Florida representative, berated the college presidents and said they were responsible because of the attitudes they had permitted on their campuses. Republicans pressed the three college leaders on whether they had disciplined or fired faculty and employees for behavior they said was antisemitic. Elise Stefanik, a Republican representative of New York, pressed the CUNY chancellor, Félix Matos Rodríguez, on the employment of a law professor who worked on the legal defense of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist the Trump administration attempted to deport over his role in protests at Columbia University. Stefanik pushed Matos Rodríguez to answer whether the professor should be fired. Without responding directly, Matos Rodríguez defended CUNY and said antisemitism had no place at the school. He said any student or employee who broke CUNY rules would be investigated. University leaders also emphasized the importance of free speech on campuses for students and faculty. Richard Groves, the interim president at Georgetown, said that as a Jesuit university, fostering interfaith dialogue and understanding was a key part of the school's mission. He said the university has not experienced any encampments or physical violence since the Hamas attack in October 2023. 'Given our Jesuit values, we expose students to different viewpoints on the Middle East,' Groves said. 'In addition to speakers on Gaza, we've hosted IDF soldiers, families of Israelis and Palestinians who've lost their lives. US families of US hostages in Gaza. Georgetown is not perfect, and as events evolve, we've had to clarify rules of student behavior.' Lyons, as well, said his campus has 'more work to do' to prevent antisemitism. 'I am the first to say that we have more work to do. Berkeley, like our nation, has not been immune to the disturbing rise in antisemitism. And as a public university, we have a solemn obligation to protect our community from discrimination and harassment, while also upholding the first amendment right to free speech,' he said.
New York Times
11 hours ago
- Business
- New York Times
Trump Administration Investigates U. of Michigan Over Foreign Funding
The Trump administration widened its investigation of large foreign donations at high-profile American universities on Tuesday, accusing the University of Michigan of improperly labeling some donations and disclosing millions in foreign funding 'in an untimely manner.' The Department of Education has opened similar investigations at Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California, Berkeley. The move comes as the administration carries out a pressure campaign to shift the ideological tilt of American higher education and discourage the enrollment of foreign students at universities. Amid that pressure campaign, the University of Michigan shut down its flagship diversity program in March. Officials did not say what funds received by the university violated disclosure statutes, or which countries the funding had come from. Paul Moore, chief investigative counsel at the Department of Education, said in a news release that the university had erroneously identified some foreign funding as originating from 'nongovernmental entities," even though the foreign funders seemed to be 'directly affiliated with foreign governments.' The department also submitted an expansive list of records requests as part of the investigation, asking the university to provide personnel files on university students and employees, records on research projects, tax records and records on other partnerships with foreign universities, governments and other entities. In the news release, Mr. Moore also sought to tie the investigation into the University of Michigan's funding to two smuggling case involving Chinese researchers working at laboratories at the university. The Department of Justice charged the three students in June, two with smuggling an agricultural fungus and one with smuggling 'biological material related to roundworms.'
Boston Globe
12 hours ago
- Politics
- Boston Globe
University leaders reject Republican attacks on campus antisemitism
On Tuesday, Republicans accused the university leaders of fostering an antisemitic climate and failing to rein in professors and students the lawmakers said were antisemitic. Democrats on the committee argued the hearing was part of a crackdown on speech that attempted to scapegoat academia for a broader societal problem. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up The university leaders, meanwhile, seemed to have learned from the past. They attempted, with apparent success, to avoid the kinds of viral moments that have characterized previous antisemitism hearings and brought down other university presidents. Advertisement And they tried to walk a fine line. They said that language seeming to call for violence against Jews was unacceptable. But they largely declined to discuss the details of discipline for individual incidents and argued that professors and students have speech rights. Rich Lyons, who has been chancellor of Berkeley for a year, challenged the committee at times. He pointed out that not all pro-Palestinian beliefs were antisemitic and described a professor who was criticized for making antisemitic statements as a 'fine scholar.' Advertisement 'If someone is expressing pro-Palestinian beliefs, that's not necessarily antisemitism,' he told lawmakers. Robert M. Groves, the interim president of Georgetown University, said his institution was among the first to condemn the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. He also noted that as a Jesuit university, Georgetown focuses on interfaith dialogue and employs many different faith leaders. 'Georgetown is not perfect,' he said in the hearing, but since Oct. 7 it has not experienced violence, encampments, or city police actions on campus. Lawmakers seemed especially to single out the City University of New York over campus protests and staff members supportive of Palestinian rights. Representative Elise Stefanik, Republican of New York, said that Ramzi Kassem, a CUNY law professor, should be disciplined or fired for serving as a lawyer for Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent resident who was detained by the Trump administration, which continues to seek to deport him. She attacked CUNY for hiring a former employee of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights organization, inaccurately suggesting that CAIR had been a 'co-conspirator in a terrorist financing case.' (The group was listed as an 'unindicted co-conspirator or joint venturer' in a case against a charity, the Holy Land Foundation, along with more than 200 other groups and individuals. It was not accused of a crime.) Stefanik also highlighted an episode where a swastika was drawn on a university building, arguing that a school administrator had been dismissive about concerns that it was not removed sooner. Félix V. Matos Rodríguez, the university's chancellor, defended the school and its employees, saying, 'Antisemitism has no place at CUNY,' and noting that the offensive emblem had remained to allow the police department to respond. Advertisement Responding to Stefanik's attacks Tuesday, CAIR's national deputy director, Edward Ahmed Mitchell, said the 'spirit of Joseph McCarthy is alive and well.' College leaders said they had made changes to address antisemitic behavior, but also defended free speech protections for students and faculty and stressed the importance of civil discourse on divisive issues. They said they had tightened protest policies, bolstered antisemitism training, and focused on making campus life more welcoming to Jews. The Republican-led hearings Tuesday were the latest in a series that began before the second Trump administration, months after the Hamas attack and the start of the war in Gaza. Earlier hearings with Ivy League university leaders turned into a disastrous spectacle for the educators. Since then, Republicans have widened their lens to other kinds of educational institutions, which they say also failed to keep Jewish students safe when pro-Palestinian protests swept campuses around the country. It was not precisely clear why the three universities at Tuesday's hearing were selected. All have faced tensions on their campuses related to student safety and free expression since the Hamas attack, as have many colleges. The Republican lines of attack echo those of President Trump, who has taken away major sums of money from top universities, arguing they have not done enough to curb antisemitism. A federal task force on antisemitism has singled out many institutions for investigation, and federal agents have detained international students, like Kahlil, who were involved in pro-Palestinian activism. Representative Tim Walberg, Republican of Michigan, the committee's chair, blamed episodes of antisemitism on a series of factors Republicans have long railed against, including centers for Middle East studies, faculty unions, foreign funding and diversity, equity and inclusion policies. Advertisement 'The DEI ideology embraced by so many university bureaucrats categorizes Jews as white oppressors and therefore, excuses, or even justifies, antisemitic harassment,' Walberg said. The committee's ranking Democrat, Representative Robert C. Scott of Virginia, criticized Republicans for what he portrayed as a blinkered focus on antisemitism that excluded consideration of other issues. 'Since this committee's first antisemitism hearing on December 2023,' Scott said, 'we've not held a single hearing addressing racism, xenophobia, sexism, Islamophobia, or other challenges affecting other student groups on American college campuses.'
Time of India
17 hours ago
- Politics
- Time of India
What happened at CUNY, Georgetown and UC Berkeley that alarmed Congress?
CUNY, Georgetown and UC Berkeley face US Congress over campus antisemitism. (AI Image) Three major US universities—City University of New York (CUNY), Georgetown University, and the University of California, Berkeley—will testify before Congress over allegations of campus antisemitism. The upcoming hearing before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce follows months of increased scrutiny into how universities handle protests and the safety of Jewish students. The three institutions are the latest to face questions from the Republican-led committee, which previously summoned leaders from Ivy League schools. The focus of this hearing is on 'the role of faculty, funding and ideology' in enabling antisemitism, as reported by The New York Times. Congressional scrutiny widens beyond Ivy League At CUNY, which serves nearly 240,000 students across 26 colleges, federal investigations found that the university mishandled complaints of antisemitism and other bias incidents dating back to 2019. In 2024, pro-Palestinian protests across multiple CUNY campuses resulted in mass arrests. The Education Department's Office for Civil Rights concluded that a number of cases had not been properly addressed. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Kayseri: Yeni İşitme Cihazları Emeklileri Hayrete Düşürdü Best Hearing Aids Undo CUNY Law School, in particular, has drawn attention due to outspoken pro-Palestinian activism by several graduates. In response to rising concerns, CUNY has taken measures including centralising its bias reporting procedures, deploying more safety officers, and increasing anti-hate training, according to The New York Times . Protests and federal pressure at Georgetown and Berkeley At Georgetown University, tensions escalated after the US Attorney for the District of Columbia threatened to ban graduates from federal employment due to the university's diversity programming. The Georgetown Law School dean described the move as 'unconstitutional' in an official statement, as reported by The New York Times . A postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown, Badar Khan Suri, was arrested by US authorities for allegedly promoting antisemitism and 'spreading Hamas propaganda' on social media. He was detained for two months before a federal judge ordered his release, citing violations of the First Amendment. The judge stated that the arrest had been made 'for punitive reasons,' according to The New York Times . At the University of California, Berkeley, student activists erected tent encampments in 2024 and disrupted an event featuring an Israeli speaker. Protesters reportedly smashed doors, prompting the chancellor at the time to label the incident as 'an attack on the fundamental values of the university.' The House committee later demanded documentation of Berkeley's response to such incidents. Berkeley is also known as the birthplace of the student group Students for Justice in Palestine, which was founded in the early 1990s. Background to the hearings These hearings began after the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023, which led to Israel's ongoing invasion of Gaza. Republicans expanded their investigations beyond Ivy League institutions following widespread campus protests. President Trump has endorsed punitive action against universities, including the withdrawal of federal funds, as reported by The New York Times . TOI Education is on WhatsApp now. Follow us here . Ready to navigate global policies? Secure your overseas future. Get expert guidance now!
