Latest news with #KareemAbdulJabbar
CTV News
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- CTV News
Classic Sports Moments - Find out about Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's connection to Saskatchewan
Classic Sports Moments - Find out about Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's connection to Saskatchewan Matt Young has a look at the 2000-01 Saskatchewan Hawks and their connection to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
CNN
2 days ago
- General
- CNN
Live updates: Harvard graduation, Trump admin international student ban case hearing
Update: Date: 10 min ago Title: Small protests form as Harvard Yard fills with beaming graduating seniors Content: Harvard was bursting with activity Thursday morning as thousands packed into historic Harvard Yard for commencement – all while the school's ongoing battle with the Trump administration loomed over the day. Beaming graduating seniors were decked out in caps and gowns as family members in suits and spring dresses swarmed to celebrate their loves ones. Meanwhile, outside the campus' main gates, two dozen or so pro-Palestinian protesters gathered amid lines into the commencement event. Older protesters who did not appear to be students held signs reading, 'Gaza must have food and water,' and 'Ceasefire Now.' A smaller group of pro-Israel counterprotesters also stood outside the gates, with some among them arguing with some of pro-Palestinian protesters. Despite the crush of people filling the streets of Cambridge, all was relatively calm leading up to commencement. Update: Date: 4 min ago Title: Harvard's commencement ceremony has begun Content: The commencement ceremony for Harvard's graduating class of 2025 – the 374th celebration in the school's storied history – has begun. Update: Date: 11 min ago Title: In speech at Harvard, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar praises leaders for standing up to government Content: Basketball legend and social activist Kareem Abdul-Jabbar came out in strong defense of Harvard University and its leadership during a speech Wednesday on campus. 'When a tyrannical administration tried to bully and threaten Harvard to give up their academic freedom and destroy free speech, (Harvard President) Dr. Alan Garber rejected the illegal and immoral pressures the way Rosa Parks defied the entire weight of systemic racism in 1955,' Abdul-Jabbar said, according to The Harvard Gazette, the school's official publication. Abdul-Jabbar – who is being awarded an honorary degree Thursday by the university – was the keynote speaker at Class Day, an event for underclassmen held a day before the university's main commencement exercises. 'After seeing so many cowering billionaires, media moguls, law firms, politicians, and other universities bend their knees to an administration that is systematically strip-mining the U.S. Constitution, it is inspiring to me to see Harvard University take a stand for freedom,' said Abdul-Jabbar. Update: Date: 32 min ago Title: Some international students at Harvard are worried about attending graduation, school tells court Content: The Trump administration has thrown the lives of the university's 7,000 international students into distress and disarray, with some afraid of attending commencement this week, Harvard's director of immigration services spelled out yesterday in a new court filing. Some US students are even reconsidering enrolling this fall because of the Trump administration's actions, Maureen Martin wrote in her sworn statement. Harvard's faculty and administration are being 'inundated with questions' from concerned students, and international students are so distressed their mental health has been affected, she wrote. 'Some are afraid to attend their own graduation ceremonies this week out of fear that some immigration-related action will be taken against them,' Martin wrote. 'Some have cancelled upcoming international travel plans to conduct academic research or see their families in light of the risk that they might not be admitted back into the United States.' Martin's declaration in court highlights the competitive disadvantage the Trump administration's recent actions against the university have caused. A judge has temporarily blocked the State Department and Department of Homeland Security from rescinding Harvard's ability to host international students. Yet some of the damage is already done, the school says. International students set to come to Harvard for future semesters are reconsidering, including at least one medical school and one law student, Martin added, as are at least three US students who want to study where international students also can be. Others have had trouble getting student visas to the US at embassies abroad in recent days. Update: Date: 16 min ago Title: Alumni group Crimson Courage hands out stickers to commencement attendees Content: Members of the alumni group Crimson Courage handed out stickers and leaflets to commencement attendees outside Harvard Yard while graduating seniors and their families entered for Harvard's 2025 commencement exercises. The group describes itself as 'a growing community of Harvard alumni from all schools and decades united in standing up for academic freedom at Harvard and beyond.' The sticker was meant to be a sign of support for the university, offering alumni the chance to 'stand up for Harvard's independence and integrity.' The group was also encouraging people to sign an amicus brief to support Harvard in its various federal court battles with the Trump administration. Update: Date: 57 min ago Title: A physician who advocates for the power of human touch will deliver Harvard's commencement speech Content: Doctors interact with patients, in many cases, when they are feeling their worst — so how they talk to those patients during such a vulnerable time matters. That's the philosophy of Abraham Verghese, the bestselling author, Stanford professor and infectious disease doctor who will address students at Harvard University's 374th Commencement this week. For many years, Verghese has advocated for strengthening the physician-patient connection and bedside skills. Harvard's invitation to Verghese comes at a time of significant uncertainty at the Ivy League school amid its ongoing clashes with the Trump administration over academic freedom, federal funding, campus oversight and most recently, a ban on the enrollment of international students. Verghese will be the first physician to give Harvard's commencement speech since 1996, according to the school's student-run newspaper, The Harvard Crimson. That year, Harold E. Varmus, a Nobel Prize-winning scientist and former director of the National Institutes of Health, told graduates that supporting science was a shared human responsibility. 'He has pursued excellence across disciplines with an intensity surpassed only by his humanity, which shines brilliantly through his works of both fiction and nonfiction, as well as his work as a clinician and teacher,' said Harvard President Alan M. Garber about Verghese in the university's commencement announcement. Update: Date: 37 min ago Title: Trump administration reverses course, giving Harvard 30 days to challenge ability to host international students Content: The Trump administration on Wednesday said it would give Harvard a month to provide evidence to challenge the administration's attempt to strip the university of its ability to host international students. The move appears designed to unravel a legal challenge the school mounted against the effort last week, and is a reversal of course on the hardball that the administration was playing in attempting to revoke Harvard's student visa program, since a judge stepped in. Lawyers are set to appear in court this morning. Attorneys with the Justice Department notified a federal judge early Thursday of the fact that the Department of Homeland Security sent the school a 'Notice of Intent to Withdraw' it from the Student and Exchange Visitor's Program. The five-page notice cites several reasons for why the government was moving to strip the university of its ability to host foreign students and gave the school 30 days to respond with sworn statements or other evidence 'to rebut the alleged grounds for withdrawal.' The notice has the potential to upend a major court hearing set for Thursday morning in Harvard's challenge to the administration's decision earlier this month to ban the school enrolling international students – a move that the school says officials made without following any federal regulations for decertifying a college from the SEVP system. The new notice cites the same alleged issues the administration leaned on in its recent threats, including that the school hadn't complied with reporting requirements for foreign students and that it is not maintaining an environment 'Free from Violence and Antisemitism.' US District Judge Allison Burroughs has not responded to the filing. The hearing is expected to start at 10:30 a.m. ET. Update: Date: 1 hr 9 min ago Title: Attacks on Harvard by the Trump administration have built for months. A timeline of the dispute Content: Since returning to office in January, President Donald Trump has made a major push to put America's elite universities on notice over political ideology. But the groundwork for the White House's stronger stance was laid more than a year earlier. Two months after Hamas' October 7, 2023, attack on Israel sparked the Gaza war — and protests at colleges over the siege and the US ally's retaliatory bombardment of the territory — the then-president of Harvard University was asked in a congressional hearing whether 'calling for the genocide of Jews' would violate Harvard's rules against bullying and harassment. 'It can be, depending on the context,' Claudine Gay said in a response that slackened the jaws of many students and donors and deeply divided the campus and its alumni. Gay later apologized. But the backlash, plus a plagiarism scandal, ultimately led her to resign, with Jewish organizations agreeing the nation's oldest, wealthiest and most prestigious university wasn't taking antisemitism seriously enough. Still, the Trump administration's claims of campus antisemitism continue to dog Harvard, with the White House making sweeping policy demands of its leaders, while threatening billions of dollars in federal funding. Read the full timeline of the dispute here. Update: Date: 56 min ago Title: Some international students weigh gap year or transferring, Harvard student leader says Content: With no end in sight to Trump administration's ever-escalating fight with Harvard University, some international students are considering taking a gap year or transferring to other schools, Harvard student body Co-President Abdullah Shahid Sial told CNN's Sara Sidner. It's important to remember the young adults 'bearing the brunt' of the latest attacks from the Trump administration are international students often thousands of miles away from their home countries and their families, Sial said. 'The absolute bare minimum you need is simply the security of being safe,' he said, adding none of the students he's spoken with are taking the possibility of leaving Harvard lightly. 'None (of the alternatives) sound as good as continuing your education within the university that you put so much effort to get into,' Sial said. Update: Date: 1 hr 14 min ago Title: Graduation day: What to expect Content: It's a graduation day unlike any other at Harvard University, as the Ivy League school persists in its months-long feud with the Trump administration over antisemitism, federal funding and the First Amendment. With hundreds of students set to walk across the stage today, here's what to expect at the celebrations. Update: Date: 1 hr 14 min ago Title: Commencement and the courts are colliding at Harvard Content: On Thursday, federal district Judge Allison Burroughs will hear the most significant debate so far in the ongoing fight between the Trump administration and Harvard University, after the administration last week tried to put into jeopardy the immigration status of more than 7,000 international students at the Massachusetts elite university. The international student population at Harvard makes up 15 percent of undergraduates, and an even larger percentage of graduate students — in all, a quarter of Harvard's student body. And the university says that with this case, its 'educational mission, its competitive edge, and its academic and research programs' are fundamentally at stake, according to a university administrator who has provided a sworn statement to the court. The arguments – at the courthouse along Boston's harbor a few miles from where Harvard's graduation ceremonies take place at the same time Thursday – are set to be the most significant debate so far in the ongoing fight between the administration and Harvard. The judge has already temporarily blocked the US State Department and Department of Homeland Security from taking action on Harvard's students. The university now aims for a more indefinite protection. Harvard's legal team has argued the university's constitutionally-protected freedoms like free speech are being violated by the federal government. International students are already in chaos and fear heading into the summer and fall semesters, a Harvard official told the court before the hearing. The Trump administration has used accusations of antisemitism and unfairness in faculty hiring and enrollment to threaten billions of dollars of funding for Harvard and notify the university it was pulling all student visa approvals as well as federal contracts and grants. Separately, the university is suing over the administration revocation of more than $2 billion in grants. The grant funding case is also before Burroughs, an Obama appointee, and is set to move forward beginning next week through the summer. 'This is really about academic freedom at universities across the country,' one lawyer involved in the cases on the university's side told CNN this week. Update: Date: 1 hr 13 min ago Title: Harvard's class of 2025 graduates amid new worries after pandemic beginnings Content: As Harvard University's undergraduate seniors collect their diplomas today, some can't help but liken the tumult at the Ivy League school with the uncertainty from their freshman days during a global health crisis. 'I came here right after the (Covid-19) pandemic,' said graduating international student Leo Gerdén. 'Next semester, international students might not be able to come back — It's the only four years that international students have been able to attend this campus.' President Donald Trump has said Harvard should have a cap on the percentage of foreign students at 'maybe around 15%, not 31%.' International students make up over a quarter of Harvard's student body. 'It's a very weird thing to be leaving in uncertainty just as much as you came in uncertainty,' said Chukwudi Ilozue, a Harvard graduating senior. The crackdown on international students 'makes me feel very fearful for them. These are people who I expected to be able to see around, see maybe back in Boston, see around the US, and I think these blows are just very saddening for me.' 'We thought Covid was something that would be insurmountable — that would permanently change everything — and to some extent it has. But we beat Covid. We beat a lot of things in the grand history of this very, very old university. I think that Trump will not be the thing that beats us.' Chukwudi Ilozue, Harvard graduating senior Update: Date: 1 hr 12 min ago Title: Trump suggests Harvard should have 15% cap on foreign students Content: President Donald Trump doubled down on his attacks against Harvard University, saying yesterday that the Ivy League school should have a cap on the percentage of foreign students. 'I think they should have a cap of maybe around 15%, not 31%. We have people want to go to Harvard and other schools, they can't get in because we have foreign students there,' Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. Harvard has said in court documents that full-time international students make up about a quarter of its student body. Harvard has broadly refused many government demands, including that it hand over foreign students' entire conduct records and allow audits to confirm it has expanded 'viewpoint diversity.' The Trump administration last week canceled Harvard's ability to enroll foreign students, a move that a federal judge put on hold. And The Trump administration on Tuesday directed federal agencies to cancel all remaining contracts with the university. 'Harvard has to show us their lists,' Trump said yesterday. 'They have foreign students, about 31% of their students are foreign-based, almost 31%. We want to know where those students come… Are they troublemakers? What countries do they come (from)?' Trump suggested, without evidence, that some of the international students included in Harvard's records will be 'very radical people.' 'They're taking people from areas of the world that are very radicalized, and we don't want them making trouble in our country,' Trump said.
Arab News
3 days ago
- General
- Arab News
Harvard to hold graduation in shadow of Trump ‘retribution'
CAMBRIDGE, United States: Harvard is due to hold its annual graduation ceremony Thursday as a federal judge considers the legality of punitive measures taken against the university by President Donald Trump that threaten to overshadow commencement comes as Trump piles unprecedented pressure on Harvard, seeking to ban it from having foreign students, shredding its contracts with the federal government, slashing its multibillion-dollar grants and challenging its tax-free is challenging all of the measures in Ivy League institution has continually drawn Trump's ire while publicly rejecting his administration's repeated demands to give up control of recruitment, curricula and research choices. The government claims Harvard tolerates antisemitism and liberal bias.'Harvard is treating our country with great disrespect, and all they're doing is getting in deeper and deeper,' Trump said president Alan Garber, who told National Public Radio on Tuesday that 'sometimes they don't like what we represent,' may speak to address the has acknowledged that Harvard does have issues with antisemitism, and has struggled to ensure that a variety of viewpoints can be safely heard on campus.'What is perplexing is the measures that they have taken to address these (issues) don't even hit the same people that they believe are causing the problems,' Garber told star and human rights campaigner Kareem Abdul-Jabbar addressed the class of 2025 for Class Day on Wednesday.'When a tyrannical administration tried to bully and threaten Harvard to give up their academic freedom and destroy free speech, Dr. Alan Garber rejected the illegal and immoral pressures,' he said, comparing Garber to civil rights icon Rosa Riskin-Kutz, a Franco-American classics and linguistics student at Harvard, said some students were planning individual acts of protest against the Trump policies.'The atmosphere (is) that just continuing on joyfully with the processions and the fanfare is in itself an act of resistance,' the 22-year-old has led the fight-back in US academia after Trump targeted several prestigious universities including Columbia which made sweeping concessions to the administration in an effort to restore $400 million of withdrawn federal grants.A federal judge in Boston will on Thursday hear arguments over Trump's effort to exclude Harvard from the main system for sponsoring and hosting foreign Allison Burroughs quickly paused the policy which would have ended Harvard's ability to bring students from abroad who currently make up 27 percent of its student has since been flooded with inquiries from foreign students seeking to transfer to other institutions, Maureen Martin, director of immigration services, said Wednesday.'Many international students and scholars are reporting significant emotional distress that is affecting their mental health and making it difficult to focus on their studies,' Martin wrote in a court immigration judge Patricia Sheppard protested outside Harvard Yard on Wednesday, sporting a black judicial robe and brandishing a sign reading 'for the rule of law.''We have to look at why some of these actions have been filed, and it does not seem to me seemly that a president would engage in certain actions as retribution,' she told of the graduation ceremony, members of the Harvard band sporting distinctive crimson blazers and brandishing their instruments filed through the narrow streets of Cambridge, Massachusetts – home to the elite school, America's oldest university.A huge stage had been erected and hundreds of chairs laid out in a grassy precinct that was closed off to the public for the wearing black academic gowns also toured through Cambridge with photo-taking family members, AFP correspondents saw.
Al Arabiya
3 days ago
- General
- Al Arabiya
Harvard to hold graduation in shadow of Trump's ‘retribution'
Harvard is due to hold its annual graduation ceremony Thursday as a federal judge considers the legality of punitive measures taken against the university by President Donald Trump that threaten to overshadow festivities. Thursday's commencement comes as Trump piles unprecedented pressure on Harvard, seeking to ban it from having foreign students, shredding its contracts with the federal government, slashing its multi-billion dollar grants, and challenging its tax-free status. Harvard is challenging all of the measures in court. The Ivy League institution has continually drawn Trump's ire while publicly rejecting his administration's repeated demands to give up control of recruitment, curricula and research choices. The government claims Harvard tolerates anti-Semitism and liberal bias. 'Harvard is treating our country with great disrespect, and all they're doing is getting in deeper and deeper,' Trump said Wednesday. Harvard president Alan Garber, who told National Public Radio Tuesday that 'sometimes they don't like what we represent,' may speak to address the ceremony. Garber has acknowledged that Harvard does have issues with anti-Semitism, and has struggled to ensure that a variety of viewpoints can be safely heard on campus. 'What is perplexing is the measures that they have taken to address these (issues) don't even hit the same people that they believe are causing the problems,' Garber told NPR. Basketball star and human rights campaigner Kareem Abdul-Jabbar addressed the class of 2025 for Class Day on Wednesday. 'When a tyrannical administration tried to bully and threaten Harvard to give up their academic freedom and destroy free speech, Dr. Alan Garber rejected the illegal and immoral pressures the way Rosa Parks declined--' he said to applause. Civil rights icon Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama sparking a boycott that ultimately led to the desegregation of services, spurring on the Civil Rights movement in what is widely seen as a watershed moment. Madeleine Riskin-Kutz, 22, a Franco-American classics and linguistics student at Harvard said some students were planning individual acts of protest against the Trump policies. 'The atmosphere (is) that just continuing on joyfully with the processions and the fanfare is in itself an act of resistance,' she said. Legal fightback Garber has led the fight-back in US academia after Trump targeted several prestigious universities including Columbia which made sweeping concessions to the administration in an effort to restore $400 million of withdrawn federal grants. A federal judge in Boston will on Thursday hear arguments over Trump's effort to exclude Harvard from the main system for sponsoring and hosting foreign students. Judge Allison Burroughs quickly paused the policy which would have ended Harvard's ability to bring students from abroad who currently make up 27 percent of its student body. Retired immigration judge Patricia Sheppard protested outside Harvard Yard Wednesday, sporting a black judicial robe and brandishing a sign reading 'for the rule of law.' 'We have to look at why some of these actions have been filed, and it does not seem to me seemly that a president would engage in certain actions as retribution,' she told AFP. Ahead of the ceremony, members of the Harvard band sporting distinctive crimson blazers and brandishing their instruments filed through the narrow streets of Cambridge, Massachusetts that is home to America's oldest university ahead of the graduation ceremony. A huge stage had been erected and hundreds of chairs laid out in a grassy precinct that was closed off to the public for the occasion. Students braved sunny conditions to wear black academic gowns, touring through Cambridge with photo-taking family members, AFP correspondents saw.
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar takes aim at Trump's 'tyrannical administration' during Harvard speech
NBA icon Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has praised Harvard University amid its ongoing battle with Donald Trump. The six-time NBA champion hit out at the president and his administration as he addressed the elite university's graduating seniors during Wednesday's Class Day celebration. Speaking at Harvard's Tercentenary Theatre during the annual ceremony, the 78-year-old branded Trump's White House 'tyrannical' as he reflected on his own social activism. Abdul-Jabbar went on to recall Martin Luther King Jr.'s claim that 'if anything happens to me there will be others to take my place.' 'One of the reasons I'm so pleased to be here today is because I view Harvard University as being among the "others" willing to take Dr. King's place,' Abdul-Jabbar said, via the Boston Globe. 'When a tyrannical administration tried to bully and threaten Harvard to give up their academic freedom and destroy free speech, [Harvard President] Dr. Alan Garber rejected the illegal and immoral pressures the way Rosa Parks declined...' he continued to riotous applause. The Los Angeles Lakers legend's remarks come amid Harvard's feud with Trump's administration after the president has cut billions in federal funding from the institution. Trump additionally vowed to make Harvard 'great again' by capping the number of foreign students who can attend the elite university. The president further accused the university of accepting students who come from radical countries. Trump has railed against Harvard and other schools for not stopping pro-Palestine protests that popped up in the wake of the Hamas attack on Israel in October. He has also demanded Harvard eliminate its diversity, equity, and inclusion program; cut the power of its professors; refuse foreign students; and ban masks at campus protests. Harvard has fought back just as hard, filing a lawsuit last month that seeks the restoration of more than $3 billion in federal funding. Another filed last week asked a federal court to reinstate its right to enroll international students. Last week a federal judge temporarily reinstated Harvard's right to enroll international students. There will be a hearing on Thursday to determine whether that order should be extended. And Abdul-Jabbar said Wednesday that Harvard president Garber's 'defiant refusal to succumb to fear' gave him hope that 'there are still people willing to take Dr. King's place.' The Lakers legend delivered the address at Harvard's Class Day on Wednesday 'After seeing so many cowering billionaires, media moguls, law firms, politicians, and other universities bend their knee to an administration that is systematically strip-mining the US Constitution, it is inspiring to me to see Harvard take a stand for freedom,' he said. Class Day is an annual celebration ahead of the school's commencement exercises, which will be held Thursday morning. Abdul-Jabbar, who spent 20 seasons in the NBA with the Milwaukee Bucks and Lakers, joined the likes of former vice president Al Gore and comedian Amy Poehler among the Class Day speaker ranks. While most famous for his career on the court, which included a record six MVP nods, the Harlem native is also an award-winning author and a former Time magazine, who has written on a wide range of topics, including race, religion, sports and black history. In 2019, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by former president Barack Obama for his social justice work.
