News
Arrested. Injured. Suspended. Six NYC university students say they'll keep protesting
Pro-Palestinian students locked arms as they braced for New York Police Department officers to raid Columbia University’s campus to dismantle encampments and remove protesters from Hamilton Hall on April 30.
Seyma Bayram/AP
hide caption
toggle caption
Seyma Bayram/AP
Pro-Palestinian students locked arms as they braced for New York Police Department officers to raid Columbia University’s campus to dismantle encampments and remove protesters from Hamilton Hall on April 30.
Seyma Bayram/AP
At Columbia University, word was spreading among the student protesters who’d defied the university’s order to take down their pro-Palestinian encampment on a central lawn. Police were gathering outside the school’s locked gates. Arrests seemed imminent. It was the evening of April 30.
Allie Wong, a doctoral student, was off campus when she heard what was happening. She rushed there and found a way to sneak in.
Before the night was over, Wong would be one among nearly 300 protesters arrested at two New York City colleges. NPR spoke with six of them about their choice to risk arrest, discipline from their universities, and possibly their academic and professional futures.
Allie Wong said she knew what she was getting into.
“I ran like a bat out of hell,” she said, “and sprinted to Hamilton Hall,” the building that a group of students and people unaffiliated with the university had occupied the previous night in an escalation of their protest against Israel and the war in Gaza.
Wong linked arms with other students in front of the building. They were singing songs about peace when the police arrived to force their human chain apart.
Several blocks north, Bashir Juwara arrived at the City College of New York driven by a similar sense of responsibility. He’s the student body president at Hunter College, another campus within the City University of New York system. Hunter students were participating in the pro-Palestinian encampment at City College, and as their president, Juwara wanted to show support. He was live streaming the scene outside the school’s gates when police arrested him, along with 172 others there that night.
In the two weeks since, police have made some 4,000 arrests at pro-Palestinian encampments on dozens of college campuses across the country.
The arrests have rattled academia to its core, inviting criticism that schools are using force to repress the most significant student movement in recent history, but also support from people who see some aspects of the anti-Israel protests as antisemitic.
After being arrested inside Hamilton Hall, Columbia University graduate student Aidan Parisi got a tattoo — a watermelon slice — symbolizing Palestinian solidarity.
Keren Carrión/NPR
hide caption
toggle caption
Keren Carrión/NPR
After being arrested inside Hamilton Hall, Columbia University graduate student Aidan Parisi got a tattoo — a watermelon slice — symbolizing Palestinian solidarity.
Keren Carrión/NPR
Wong, Juwara, and the other arrested students NPR spoke with all said they were conscious of the potential consequences of defying their universities. But they characterized their punishments as minor compared to the suffering that the Palestinians of Gaza are enduring. They all allege Israel is carrying out a genocide that they say they have a moral obligation to try to stop.
Israeli officials reject the genocide accusation, saying the intent of their military operation is not to wipe out Palestinians, but to wipe out Hamas and prevent a repetition of its Oct. 7 attack that Israel says killed 1,200 soldiers and civilians. Israel blames Hamas for the Gaza death toll — 35,000 people killed, according to local health authorities — saying the militant group embeds itself among civilians.
Some of the students NPR spoke with said they believed if they could force their universities to agree to their main demand — divestment from companies doing business with Israel — other institutions might follow, putting further pressure on Israel to end the war.
At Columbia, president Nemat Shafik refused to divest. She said the pro-Palestinian encampments had created a hostile environment on campus. Some Jewish students said they no longer felt safe because of explicit antisemitism that some student and non-student protesters had expressed. When Shafik asked the police to dismantle the protests on April 30, she said it was because they had turned destructive after students took over Hamilton Hall. At City College, Chancellor Félix Matos Rodríguez said he called on the police because protesters – many of whom he said were unaffiliated with the university – had also tried to break into campus buildings, “creating an emergency situation.”
Student protesters insist that being critical of Israel does not make their movement antisemitic. And they say that accusation is aimed at tarnishing a peaceful anti-war movement.
Among the six Columbia and City College students that NPR spoke with after their April 30 arrests, two suffered injuries. Two of the Columbia students have either been suspended from their university programs or notified of the university’s intent to expel them. All who spoke to NPR said they have no regrets.
Here are those six students:
Allie Wong’s tattoo is of a sculpture titled “Non-violence” that stands outside New York’s United Nations Headquarters. It depicts the knotted barrel of a gun. “I’ve never experienced that kind of violence,” she said of the way NYPD officers carried out their arrests of Columbia University student protesters.
Keren Carrión/NPR
hide caption
toggle caption
Keren Carrión/NPR
Allie Wong’s tattoo is of a sculpture titled “Non-violence” that stands outside New York’s United Nations Headquarters. It depicts the knotted barrel of a gun. “I’ve never experienced that kind of violence,” she said of the way NYPD officers carried out their arrests of Columbia University student protesters.
Keren Carrión/NPR
Allie Wong, 38, doctoral student at Columbia Journalism School.
Arrested linking arms outside Hamilton Hall. Charged with trespassing.
Wong said she had attended a few campus protests in the months after the war started, but was not very active. A turning point came when Columbia’s president called on the police to clear protesters’ first encampment on April 18. Wong was outraged. She got more involved, and eventually decided she was willing to risk arrest facing off with police in front of Hamilton Hall. Her trespassing charge was dismissed this week.
“You know, I have a lot of things to contribute to this movement, but physical might is not one of them. So, at no point did I fight back. At no point did I resist. But it didn’t matter. The best way I can describe it is that feeling when you’re at the beach and you get hit by a wave that makes it so that you are no longer in control of your body. When they approached us, it was immediately using batons and shields to break us apart, as well as fists and arms. The first thing that I remember, especially in the context of my injuries, is getting pummeled in the head with an object. I don’t know what the object was. But I remember getting hit in the head and kind of taking a dizzy step back to regain my composure. And twice, I was thrown to the ground.
“I am privileged enough to know that what I risk by being arrested is nothing compared to what my peers risk… I’m not 19. I’m 38 years old and I already have had a career. If I am expelled from Columbia, if I am no longer allowed to get my Ph.D., I’ll be okay. Whereas other people, it might ruin their career. So perhaps that’s naïve of me, but that was the risk I was willing to take.
“The central message that’s important to me and important to those who were arrested and were protesting is that this is not about us, this is not about making us the story. It’s about putting the focus back on what is happening (in Gaza) and doing everything in our power with our voices to make that the central message.”
Basil Rodriguez was arrested linking arms outside Hamilton Hall, but said the arrest had strengthened their resolve to continue protesting. The trespassing charge Rodriguez faced was dismissed this week.
Keren Carrión/NPR
hide caption
toggle caption
Keren Carrión/NPR
Basil Rodriguez was arrested linking arms outside Hamilton Hall, but said the arrest had strengthened their resolve to continue protesting. The trespassing charge Rodriguez faced was dismissed this week.
Keren Carrión/NPR
Basil Rodriguez, 24, Columbia master’s student in American Studies.
Arrested linking arms outside Hamilton Hall. Charged with trespassing.
Rodriguez is Palestinian-American, and has been protesting the war in Gaza since October. Rodriguez, who uses they/them pronouns, said they were angry at Columbia’s refusal to divest from companies doing business in Israel. They narrowly avoided arrest when police cleared students’ first encampment on April 18.
“That day, 108 students who I love, who I consider like family and friends, were arrested. I had been at the encampment since day one, and actually left the morning of those arrests to go feed my cat, and was on the train back when I started getting notifications that the arrests had started. I had this intense survivor’s guilt for not having been there with them. I felt like I had abandoned them. So that’s when I was a lot more conscious of the fact that I couldn’t leave the (second) encampment anymore until they arrested me. And I fully knew all of the risks of arrest. I really believe in this cause and I really believe it’s a just cause. And I was also prepared to face expulsion or suspension because to me, that’s an honor. To give anything up for my people is an honor because they are paying with their lives on the daily.
“This arrest has really emboldened me to continue to speak up for Palestine and for Palestinians — to continue to speak up against the ongoing genocide. Even when I was in the jail cell and reflecting on what I had done to get there, I had zero regrets. I wouldn’t change what I did at all. And I will continue to protest and continue to face whatever consequences are thrown at me, because this is bigger than me. This is bigger than any one of us.”
After being arrested inside Hamilton Hall, Aidan Parisi is facing expulsion from Columbia.
Keren Carrión/NPR
hide caption
toggle caption
Keren Carrión/NPR
After being arrested inside Hamilton Hall, Aidan Parisi is facing expulsion from Columbia.
Keren Carrión/NPR
Aidan Parisi, 27, master’s student at the Columbia School of Social Work.
Arrested inside Hamilton Hall. Charged with misdemeanor trespassing. Facing expulsion.
Parisi has been a visible leader of the pro-Palestinian movement at Columbia, at times leading protests. In early April, Parisi, who uses they/them pronouns, was suspended after refusing to cooperate with the university’s investigation into an event that the university said featured speakers “known to support terrorism and promote violence.” The event was hosted by the student group that has been calling on Columbia to divest. Parisi is a member of that group, but told NPR they did not organize the event, and that they believe in non-violence. Despite being restricted from campus, Parisi was a regular presence at the pro-Palestinian encampments. But they said they avoided actions that might bring further discipline. On April 30, Parisi changed their mind, and was among the students who occupied Hamilton Hall.
“I was just not really seeing where I belonged in the movement. I was worried that I wouldn’t bring anything to it. I was kind of having an existential crisis. And then I saw a video online, just like many of the videos I’ve seen over the past seven months, of children brutally bombed and murdered by Israel. And something just clicked in my mind and I realized that I could give a little bit more and I could risk a little bit more.
“This expulsion is not going to be the end of my studies. This is not going to be the end of my career. I hope to go to law school and deal with situations just like what’s going on in Gaza, with humanitarian law, or even looking into protest law. And I’m definitely going to fight my expulsion. I mean, I don’t want to waste the $40,000 of student loans I’ve already taken out. No matter what, I will fight this. I’ll fight my suspension, my eviction, my potential expulsion. I will fight all of this to set the precedent that Columbia cannot silence our voices, that they cannot silence a movement — and not just our movement, but any future movements. And that’s why I’ve remained adamant about fighting.”
Bashir Juwara said that as a student body president, he felt a responsibility to advocate for his classmates’ right to protest.
Keren Carrión/NPR
hide caption
toggle caption
Keren Carrión/NPR
Bashir Juwara said that as a student body president, he felt a responsibility to advocate for his classmates’ right to protest.
Keren Carrión/NPR
Bashir Juwara, 24, Hunter College undergraduate student body president.
Arrested at City College. Charged with trespassing and walking in the roadway.
Juwara live streamed the scene of the protest at City College, approaching NYPD officers blocking the entrance to campus and peppering them with questions about why they were there. As a student body president, he said he felt a responsibility to ask. When the arrests began, an officer knocked his phone out of his hand in the middle of his broadcast.
“I actually had a conversation with the cop that arrested me. He was asking, is it really worth it? I said, is it really worth it? Is that a genuine question that you asked? But then I described to him why I did what I did, because I believe that students should be protected. Students should have a right to peaceful protests and assembly. It’s their constitutional rights.
“CUNY gave me an opportunity that not many schools gave me. When I first arrived, I was undocumented. CUNY offered me a scholarship at a community college. And then by the time I transferred to Hunter College, I had my legal documentation. CUNY gave me the opportunity to develop as a student leader. This is something that I am incredibly grateful for. But when I was arrested, I had to rethink. Does CUNY actually support students that learn things in the classroom and try to use what they learn to stand up for what they believe in? After I was arrested, some of that I had to rethink.
“As a student leader, I’m trying to get students that were involved in the encampment to have a meeting for negotiations with the chancellor’s office, because I don’t think the negotiations should be scrapped just because the encampment has been destroyed by brutal force by NYPD. I think that is really important — to show that we can still find a way to negotiate. That is my next step.”
Laith Shalabi was arrested linking arms at the encampment at the City College of New York.
Keren Carrión/NPR
hide caption
toggle caption
Keren Carrión/NPR
Laith Shalabi was arrested linking arms at the encampment at the City College of New York.
Keren Carrión/NPR
Laith Shalabi, 22, first-year student at the CUNY School of Law.
Arrested linking arms at the City College encampment. Charged with trespassing.
As a Palestinian-American with family in the West Bank, Shalabi said he’s always felt deep guilt over the privileges he enjoys that his family there does not. Last fall, a passerby recorded a video of Shalabi tearing down fliers on his campus featuring the photos of Israelis kidnapped by Hamas. He told NPR that he did it in “a moment of frustration” over the many Palestinian children killed by Israel’s bombardment, and the many others that Israel has held without charges but whose detentions he said have historically generated less public sympathy. He said he doesn’t regret removing the fliers, but said he wouldn’t do it again. After the video was shared online, Shalabi was doxxed, and said he and his family started getting threatening emails and phone calls.
“I’m still a student. I still have a home. I have somewhere to sleep at night. I have food. I’m privileged. I’m 22, and 22 is an age a lot of Palestinians don’t reach. And so for us over here with these protests, we are fighting for people who are our age. There’s not a single university left standing in Gaza. They’re all destroyed. Thinking about each one individually, on a human level, and that each university had a student body. Each university had a system of professionals and academics ready to transform these kids’ lives to contribute amazing things to society – to become doctors, become engineers, become lawyers, become whatever their hearts desired. And now these vehicles of life have been taken from them. My arrest is an extremely small price to pay in comparison.”
Marie Adele Grosso, 19, a sophomore at Barnard College, was arrested twice. First at the Columbia encampment that police dismantled on April 18. And again outside Hamilton Hall on April 30.
Keren Carrión/NPR
hide caption
toggle caption
Keren Carrión/NPR
Marie Adele Grosso, 19, a sophomore at Barnard College, was arrested twice. First at the Columbia encampment that police dismantled on April 18. And again outside Hamilton Hall on April 30.
Keren Carrión/NPR
Marie Adele Grosso, 19, sophomore at Barnard College, Columbia University.
Arrested linking arms outside Hamilton Hall. Charged with trespassing. Suspended.
Grosso spent time as a child living in the West Bank, where her mother worked as a legal advocate and her father researching food access. She was arrested at Columbia’s first pro-Palestinian encampment on April 18. The university suspended her for that, but lifted the suspension. She was suspended again after her second arrest on April 30. Her trespassing charge was dismissed this week.
“I have several injuries as well as bruising all over my body. My shoulder dislocated. But I was able to put it back in, so I didn’t really need to go to the hospital for that. I have a wrist injury that’s a little undefined and then I have some form of back injury.
“With the charge, I will likely not be able to do one of the jobs I was hoping to do this summer. That’s substitute teaching. They have a policy for the protection of kids, obviously. I’m disappointed, because I love the kids, trying to help them learn. I love watching them grow. But it’ll be okay. I have other jobs.
“We’re watching a genocide unfold on social media, and in a lot of ways, we’re helpless. And it’s a moral obligation to do everything and anything we can to stop it. I can’t imagine watching it and being able to sit by.”
NYPD officers clear the pro-Palestinian encampment at Columbia University on April 30.
Marco Postigo Storel/AP
hide caption
toggle caption
Marco Postigo Storel/AP
NYPD officers clear the pro-Palestinian encampment at Columbia University on April 30.
Marco Postigo Storel/AP
A woman suffered several injuries but survived falling 1,500 feet down California’s Mount Shasta on Sunday, officials said.
The climber, 31, was attempting to ascend the mountain, which is technically a stratovolcano with the second-highest peak in the Cascades, according to the U.S. Forest Service. She was climbing in a group of three novices at an elevation of around 13,000 feet when she fell.
She suffered a suspected ankle fracture and “additional injuries consistent with the significant fall,” although she was found alert and “in good spirits,” the forest service said. Officials haven’t identified the climber.
Efforts to locate and rescue the woman got underway at around noon on Sunday and involved three climbing rangers from the forest service as well as members of the California Highway Patrol. An initial helicopter search was limited because of cloud cover on the mountain, the forest service said, prompting one ranger to ascend a portion of the mountain on foot to reach her. One member of the woman’s climbing party helped carry rescue equipment, as did a fourth climber who stopped to assist.
California Highway Patrol safely removed the woman from the mountain at around 5:30 p.m., and she was eventually taken to Mercy Medical Center Mount Shasta for medical care, according to the forest service.
The agency said the woman’s fall “serves as an important reminder that Mount Shasta is a high-altitude mountaineering environment, not a hike,” and “experienced climbers can encounter rapidly ranging weather, steep snow and ice, rockfall, and hazardous fall conditions.”
It also encouraged prospective climbers to “be honest about your experience and physical conditioning” before attempting to summit the mountain.
The woman and her climbing party were ascending Mount Shasta along a route called Avalanche Gulch, which “is steep and rigorous requiring crampons, a mountain axe, helmet, and basic snow travel skills,” according to the Mount Shasta Avalanche Center. It takes climbers up a 7,000-foot vertical ascent that features “steep snow and ice, rock fall, and weather extremes,” the center said.
It’s a tiny restaurant in the Little Morocco neighborhood of Queens. But throughout this World Cup, it has swelled with pride, song and beating drums as the Moroccan national team has pushed its way deep into soccer’s biggest international tournament.
It’s a scene that has been echoed across the United States — in a multitude of languages and colors, as soccer fans from all over the world, many now making their homes in America, have packed bars, restaurants, living rooms and concert venues.
No matter where they came from or where they gathered, they all sought the same experience: a chance to watch their nations compete while surrounded by others who share passion and pride for the country they or their ancestors once called home.
Together, these fans have brought places throughout the United States to life.
Bosnia vs Qatar
Bosnians Rejoice in St. Louis, Mo.
Thousands of Bosnians settled in the St. Louis area during the 1990s, as war and genocide ripped their communities apart. The city is now home to more than 60,000 Bosnians, scores of whom gathered at Bevo Caffe Lounge on June 24 to watch Bosnia and Herzegovina play.
This is only the second time the team has qualified for the World Cup — and the first time it has reached the knockout round. Its reward: Meeting one of the hosts, the United States, on Wednesday in Santa Clara, Calif.
Haiti vs Brazil
In Miami, Little Haiti Comes to Life
More than 100,000 residents of Miami-Dade County, Fla., are of Haitian descent, and the Little Haiti neighborhood of Miami has long been their central hub.
During the World Cup, fans of Haiti’s team have flocked to the neighborhood, packing restaurants, bars and even parking lots to watch the action. Many have come wearing jerseys, while others simply dressed in the red and blue of the Haitian flag.
Haiti ended up in a tough group, losing all of its matches, including a 3-0 defeat to Brazil on June 19. But for some fans, the fact that the team had qualified at all was its one victory. Before this year, Haiti had played in only one other World Cup, in 1974.
Morocco
Moroccan Joy in Queens, N.Y.
Touria Lamtahaf worked as a chef four years ago at a restaurant in Astoria, Queens, in the heart of an enclave on Steinway Avenue known as Little Morocco.
After the Moroccan team upset Portugal in a World Cup quarterfinal, Ms. Lamtahaf remembers hundreds of Morocco fans surging onto Steinway Avenue, setting off flares and red smoke bombs to celebrate.
“It was a good memory for all of us,” she said. “We were very proud. You just needed something to be happy. After Covid, this was amazing.”
The neighborhood has long been a hub for immigrant communities from North African countries, including Egypt, and is also home to a large Greek community.
Many settled in Astoria decades ago, drawn by low rents and a neighborhood that could feel calm compared with other bustling parts of New York. Ms. Lamtahaf, who moved to the United States in 2007, said that she originally lived in Ridgewood neighborhood of Queens, but word of mouth led her to Astoria, where she now runs her own restaurant.
The restaurant, Dar Lbahja, is just a few blocks from where she used to work. Ms. Lamtahaf said that when she opened it just over a year ago, she wanted to create a space where people could not just eat, but also gather to watch soccer, like she did growing up with her father in Morocco.
“It was only one TV, and we had to watch with him,” Ms. Lamtahaf said. “So we grew up with the soccer.”
During this tournament, Morocco fans have packed into Dar Lbahja on game days, with many in Morocco’s red jersey, and others in the team’s white kit. They were rewarded with a berth in the knockout stages, and then again on Monday when their team won a tense matchup with the Netherlands in a penalty shootout.
Fans took to the streets in jubilant celebration, just as they did in 2022.
Kacem Ettahali, 19, of Houston, is spending the summer in New York for an internship and watched the first Morocco game of the tournament on June 13 at the restaurant.
After the team scored, Mr. Ettahali received a flurry of texts from his friends. “When they think of Morocco, they think of me,” he said.
He wasn’t the only Texan in the joint. Jori and Ahmed Lamghari traveled from the Dallas area because Ms. Lamghari, 43, wanted her husband to experience the city during the tournament. “I wanted him to get the New York World Cup vibe,” she said.
Mr. Lamghari, 33, said that “Moroccans make their own ambience,” adding, “We want to live it.”
France vs Norway
In Chicago, Hope for Another French Title
The French love a good outdoor drinking venue. For the country’s June 26 match against the rowing Norwegians, fans gathered on the outdoor patio of Soccer House in Chicago, a city whose deep French roots stretch back to the colonial days.
France is widely considered a tournament favorite, potentially giving its fans several more opportunities to celebrate.
Argentina vs Austria
In Provo, Utah, Messi Mania Is a Family Affair
Sporting the colors is intergenerational in Provo, Utah. Luis and Lidia Peve moved there 25 years ago, following a son who emigrated first, and decorated their home with small Argentina flags ahead of the team’s match against Austria on June 22.
As game time approached, about a dozen members of the family painted their faces with the sky blue and white of Argentina’s flag. Together, they sat around the TV with their eyes trained particularly on Lionel Messi, the team’s star, who is likely playing in his last World Cup.
He finished the game with three goals — a hat trick — and a new generation of fans in the Peve household.
D.R. Congo vs Colombia
In Silver Spring, Md., a Happy Return to the World Cup
Congolese fans in Silver Spring, Md., belted out their national anthem in a veterans hall, hands over their hearts, ahead of the country’s match against Colombia on June 23.
Refugee aid programs have resettled many Congolese families in the suburbs north of the nation’s capital, as their nation has been rived by war, unrest and now an Ebola outbreak.
The Congolese side lost its match to Colombia on that day. But the team managed to advance out of the group stage for the first time in its history. Before this World Cup, the country had been to the tournament only once, in 1974, when it lost all of its matches.
Portugal
A Block Party of Red and Green in Rhode Island
The go-to drink special last weekend in East Providence, R.I., was a vodka cocktail called the CR7. And you’d be hard-pressed to find a resident of the region who didn’t know it was in honor of Cristiano Ronaldo, the 41-year-old Portuguese striker who is playing in his sixth — and likely last — World Cup, wearing his famous No. 7.
The drink was served at the Portuguese restaurant O Dinis, a neighborhood staple. A large number of Portuguese immigrants settled in this corner of Rhode Island and nearby Massachusetts during the Industrial Revolution, finding work in the textile, whaling and manufacturing industries.
“Life is beautiful in Portugal,” said Natalia Paiva-Neves, who moved to the United States when she was 16 and now runs O Dinis, which was founded by her father. “But at the time, there was a lot of poverty, because there were no jobs, and there was no tourism. There was none of that stuff going on, so you had to find a means to provide for your family.”
After pre-gaming over CR7s, along with beer, wine, meats and shrimp, some fans walked from O Dinis to a watch party that stretched for two blocks, from a screen in the parking lot of nearby Cafe Alma to Campino’s, another Portuguese restaurant.
“It’s just a great feeling,” said Kevin Matos, the cafe’s owner. “Everybody’s enjoying themselves. It doesn’t matter the result on the screen.”
Some fans might not have agreed, though a scoreless draw sent both teams through to the knockout stage.
The block party, with hundreds of fans lining the streets, was in part the brainchild of East Providence’s mayor, Roberto DaSilva. “We had no idea that it’d be this many people showing up,” he said. “We thought we got a good crowd, but this is much more than than I ever expected.”
Some had to stand on their tiptoes see the screens. Others packed into shops to sit down and watch the game, while others pulled out their phones as they stood in line to buy beer and snacks from food trucks and vendors.
Mexico vs South Korea
A Backyard Party in a Texas Border Town
Roughly four out of five residents in the Texas border town of Weslaco are of Mexican descent, making the country’s June 18 match in Guadalajara feel like a home game.
For a youth soccer team, it was a chance to watch their heroes take another step toward the knockout rounds.
Under the night sky, they watched anxiously, breaking into dance after Mexico won.
Uruguay vs Spain
Elimination Brings Anguish to Uruguay Fans in Miami
Uruguay needed this one. The nation that hosted the first World Cup in 1930, winning the tournament that year and again in 1950, was on the brink of elimination last week against Spain — considered one of the strongest teams in the tournament.
Fans at Doña Paulina, a Uruguayan restaurant in Miami, anxiously watched their team fight for a chance to stay in the competition.
It wasn’t to be. Spain emerged victorious, 1-0.
Japan vs Tunisia
In San Diego, Fans Cheer the Samurai Blue
Their team is called the Samurai Blue, and the many Japanese fans living in Southern California — a diaspora that first settled there in the late 19th century as farmers and fishermen, and endured harsh incarceration during World War II — made their blue kits prominent as the team played its way through a so-called group of death.
They eventually earned a second-place finish to reach the round of 32. The result was a Monday matchup with Brazil, in which Japan fell 2-1.
Iran
In Los Angeles, Mixed Feelings About the Iranian Team
For Americans from Iran, supporting the Iranian national team has been a thorny issue.
Some have refused to even watch the matches. To them, the team feels like an extension of the government, whose persecution drove many to flee the country. It’s especially difficult as their new home, the United States, and their old home are at war.
“That’s a little conflict for me,” said Roozbeh Farahanipour, who helped lead an Iranian student uprising in 1999 and fled the country the following year, seeking political asylum in America. “I am a little different from other fans, because no way I can cheer or stand for either Islamic Republic of Iran’s national anthem, nor for the flags.”
He added, “I am American now. My flag is the U.S. flag.”
Others of Iranian descent have eagerly backed the national team and bristled at its travails, especially in Southern California, which was host to the team’s first match and is home to the largest diaspora of Iranians outside Iran. Many live, shop and eat in the Westwood area of Los Angeles, where an enclave has become known as Tehrangeles, after the Iranian capital.
Still, compared with those of other diasporas, gatherings to back the Iranian team have seemed smaller and more muted. Only a handful of fans gathered at Attari Sandwich Shop, a Persian eatery in the heart of Tehrangeles, during Iran’s June 21 match against Belgium at SoFi Stadium in nearby Inglewood, Calif.
Inside the restaurant, some fans anxiously watched the game over kebab plates and pastries. Others outside proudly waved their flags on the neighborhood thoroughfare, Westwood Boulevard.
Bijan Bahmani, who lives in Los Angeles, took his 2-year-old son to Iran’s match against New Zealand on June 15 in Inglewood with his father-in-law. While he opposes the Iranian regime and hopes for democracy one day, Mr. Bahmani said he still wanted to cheer to the national team.
“It’s complicated, because we have feelings a lot of different ways, with the complicated politics,” said Mr. Bahmani, 41, who moved to the United States in 2001. “I am definitely rooting for Iran because they represent Iran, not the government.”
Even as he took in the game with this family, Mr. Bahmani said the war was on his mind.
“I hope this peace lasts,” he said, referring to the current fragile cease-fire. “Every day, we’re worried.”
Cape Verde vs Saudi Arabia
Celebrating the Small but Mighty in New Bedford, Mass.
Every tournament has a surprise underdog. This year, it’s Cape Verde, a small island nation off the western coast of Africa. Its team had an opportunity on Friday to become the smallest country by population ever to advance to a World Cup knockout round.
The pivotal match drew people of Cape Verdean descent to a veterans hall in New Bedford, Mass., about an hour drive south of Boston. Like Portugal and Brazil, whaling and related industries brought a sizable population of immigrants from Cape Verde to southeastern New England.
A scoreless tie with Saudi Arabia was all it took for tears and roars to erupt in the veterans hall. Their team would keep playing, for at least one more game.
Brazil vs Haiti
A Brazilian Dance Party Near Boston
Massachusetts has a long history of Portuguese-speaking settlers, making Brazilians feel welcome in the Boston area. That’s especially the case in the southwest suburb of Framingham, Mass., where the Brazilian-born population rivals that of Boston.
They packed into Tropical Cafe, a Brazilian restaurant in Framingham, gathering around hightop tables as their team played Haiti on June 19. After Brazil secured a 3-0 win, fans made the restaurant an impromptu dance club to celebrate.
Germany vs Curaçao
In Texas, German Fans Root, and Eat, to Honor a Neighbor
Bratwurst and steins of beer accompanied the match at Bavarian Grill in Plano, Texas, a Dallas suburb, as Germany played Curaçao in Houston on June 14. But perhaps the city’s most important fan of the German team was not there.
Jürgen Mahneke, who was born in Braunschweig, Germany, immigrated to the United States in 1984, and worked in hotels across the country before settling in Plano.
He opened the restaurant in 1993, and died at age 67 on June 10, a day before the World Cup began.
His restaurant went on with the planned festivities. One of the managers said Mr. Mahneke would have wanted them to. His team won its opener, 7-1, but went home on Monday, falling to Paraguay in a heartbreaking penalty shootout — the opposite of Morocco’s elating win hours later.
The U.S. Supreme Court
Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images
hide caption
toggle caption
Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images
The Supreme Court Tuesday upheld the long-established right of children born on U.S. soil to automatic American citizenship, regardless of their parents’ immigration status. In so doing, the court rejected President Trump’s most aggressive attempt to limit immigration in the United States.
Writing for the court majority, Chief Justice John Roberts traced birthright citizenship back to the founding of the nation. Just as the colonists demanded “the rights of Englishmen” more than 250 years ago, he said, Congress, after the Civil War, amended the Constitution to specify automatic citizenship for any child born on U.S. soil.
“Citizenship then and now was the right to have rights”—and the framers of the 14th amendment extended that promise to every free born person in this land. He concluded: “We keep that promise today.”
The vote was 6-to-3, depending on how you count it. Altogether, five justices signed on to the Roberts’ majority opinion. A sixth, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, agreed only that federal legislation enacted in the 1950s grants automatic citizenship for children born in the U.S.
Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the lead dissent, a 91-page opus that agreed with Trump’s assertion that the 14th amendment only applied to former slaves and their descendants. The Thomas dissent added ominously that he “was not sure that “today’s opinion will stand the test of time.” The dissent was joined by Justice Neil Gorsuch, with Justice Samuel Alito writing a separate dissent.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who, like Thomas is African American, responded to some of the themes in the Thomas dissent.
“Despite his longstanding endorsement of a colorblind society,” she wrote, “Justice Thomas now surprisingly suggests that the citizenship clause was a race-conscious remedial measure relating only to freed slaves.”
Cecillia Wang, legal director of the ACLU, who successfully argued the case at the Supreme Court, said President’s Trump failed attempt to limit birthright citizenship was transparent.
“A majority of the court saw through what the president was trying to do in spinning birthright citizenship as something that can flex and retract and expand depending on what the administration in power thinks about immigration policy,” she said.
Wang sees birthright citizenship as “much more fundamental than that.”
“It is part of how our country rejected caste distinctions and championed freedom and equality,” she said.
Yale law professor Akhil Amar called the court’s opinion a classic example of the court sticking to the original meaning of the Constitution. The text of the 14th Amendment, he said, “is about the child. It doesn’t say anything about parents.”
University of Virginia law professor Amanda Frost, however, was surprised and saddened that the court was so closely divided.
“The very length of the opinion,” she told NPR, plus “the fact that you had four justices say the Constitution does not require near universal birthright citizenship, which had been the understanding, that suggests that this is a fringe argument that the Trump administration has succeeded in moving into the mainstream, even though it has not succeeded in the end of the result.”
The issues in the birthright case focused in large part on the longstanding, and as of Tuesday, still standing, meaning of the 14th Amendment, which was enacted after the Civil War. It guarantees birthright citizenship to almost all persons born or naturalized in the United States. Chief Justice Roberts pointedly said the only exceptions written into the amendment were for certain Indian tribes, which were not subject to the laws of the United States at the time, and the children of foreign diplomats. That understanding was so well accepted that even in World War II, when Japanese citizens were confined to internment camps, their children, born in those camps, were automatically deemed to be American Citizens.
The Supreme Court’s decision Tuesday was the second time the justices have upheld birthright citizenship. The court’s previous decision came in 1898 in the case of Wong Kim Ark, born in the U.S. to Chinese parents. His great grandson, Norman Wong, issued a statement today saying, “My great grandfather, Wong Kim Ark, never set out to become a symbol. He was one man, only a cook, and yet he stood up for what was right, and I believe that it has made a difference. As a result, he stood up for the rights of all of us Americans – it just so happens that I am related to him. Today’s ruling shows that his victory remains as important now as it was in 1898.”
The high court also issued opinions in two other cases on Tuesday. In a 6-to-3, ideologically divided vote, the court upheld state laws that prevent transgender athletes from playing on women’s sports teams. Writing for the conservative majority, Justice Brett Kavanaugh said that the laws violate neither federal statutes nor the 14th Amendment. States, he said, have a legitimate interest in protecting the safety of sports, which he suggested could be compromised if transgender girls or women are allowed to play on female teams. Similarly, he said transgender athletes could also compromise fairness in athletic competition.
Sitting in the court chambers Tuesday when Kavanaugh summarized his opinion were not only his wife and mother, but his two daughters, whose athletic teams their father has long coached.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by her liberal colleagues, issued a partial dissent. She agreed with the majority that the benefits of sports are “immense,” but she wrote that these laws unconstitutionally deny transgender athletes the opportunity to play with their peers.
In a third ideologically divided case Tuesday, the Court struck down decades-long limits on the amount of money political parties can spend on candidates. The limits were challenged by the Republican National Committee. The decision may well increase by millions of dollars the amount of money that will pour into campaigns.
-
News18 minutes agoWoman survives falling 1,500 feet down Mount Shasta
-
Los Angeles, Ca2 hours agoMan dies after violent solo crash in Sherman Oaks
-
Detroit, MI2 hours agoPriority Waste CEO shares progress on plan to fix disruptions, delays across Metro Detroit
-
San Francisco, CA2 hours agoThe San Francisco Church That Holds America’s Secrets
-
Dallas, TX2 hours agoCrews battle large fire at Pilates studio in Uptown Dallas, officials say
-
Miami, FL2 hours agoalaïa clads first miami boutique in pink mosaic tiles, from interior to facade
-
Boston, MA2 hours agoLooking for a lodging adventure? Beat the heat at a floating B&B. – The Boston Globe
-
Denver, CO2 hours agoLavender festival, Tennyson Street Fair and more free and cheap things to do in July
