“This is the graduation gown that I may or may not be wearing — if they let me walk. I’m leaving UChicago with a criminal record and maybe not with a degree. My name is Youssef. I’m a Brooklyn native. I’m half Palestinian, half Moroccan, and UChicago was definitely my dream school.” “Oh my God. I got to the University of Chicago. Mom!” “And during my time here my mission was to make it a dream school for other folks. And that sort of led me straight into the admissions office. I became a student visit coordinator. I gave tours. I got to act as a college rep. And that sort of bubble of being an ambassador for UChicago on the global scale popped when I started talking about my identity, and I started talking about being Palestinian and critiquing the university.” [chanting] [unclear] “We’ve been doing actions all year. Blockades, sit-ins, rallies, protests, banner drops, flyers, brochures — everything. We really just wanted a meeting with Paul, the president of the University of Chicago. So we wanted, like, financial records. We wanted transparency. We wanted to know where our money was going. And then we wanted the university to divest from all Israeli entities. And it took having to occupy a building and perform a sit-in. Like, 30 of us went into Rosenwald, which is the admissions office, and we just sort of set up camp.” [chanting] [unclear] “I was just thinking to myself, Oh, like, I’m going to be arrested.” [chanting] “You invest in genocide.” “The state attorney had made a statement that she wasn’t going to prosecute protest charges. So as soon as our charges were dropped, the university decided to go through the formal process for us, which means everything is on the table. We could be suspended. We could be expelled.” “We came back to join a national encampment movement.” “We won’t stop until we win.” “We actually were planning an encampment as well, prior to Columbia’s launch. Just seeing solidarity all over the country made us more confident to do this encampment.” “What do you know.” “Where does all our money go.” “Where does our money go.” “I have family in Palestine, and I’m living in Palestine. This is my 24/7. I mean, I’m done. Like, I have nothing left here. And that’s weird, like, coming from me, who spent so many years, not just, like, loving this university, but helping others love it. Like, I’m crushed that the university would ever do this. I feel like I have nothing left at the university here, but people in Palestine truly have nothing.”

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European private equity group EQT is in advanced discussions to buy video game services company Keywords Studios for £2.2bn, in the latest potential takeover of a London-listed company.

EQT is negotiating over a cash offer of £25.5 per share. It has already made four unsolicited proposals for the business, all of which were rejected by its board, according to a statement from Keywords.

The EQT offer is a more than 70 per cent premium on the stock’s value at the close of trading on Friday.

The latest proposal is a “significant increase” from the initial bid and the board of Keywords Studios “would be minded to recommend” it to shareholders if a firm bid is made, the company said.

Dublin-based Keywords Studios’s shares rose 5 per cent in Friday trading to close at £14.70 a share.

The company’s board said that it remains confident about its growth plans including expanding through acquisitions, and that EQT supported its strategy.

Keywords Studios, which is listed on London’s junior Aim market, was established in 1998 and has more than 13,000 employees in 26 countries. It provides services from game art to marketing and testing.

Its clients include Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts and Tencent, and it has worked on games such as Fortnite and League of Legends.

It floated in 2013 at a market valuation of less than £50mn.

More recently, its share price has more than halved from a peak in September 2021, as investors have worried about the potential for some of its services, such as translation, to be supplanted by artificial intelligence.

The company reported record revenues of €780mn in 2023 — up 13 per cent year-on-year — while its pre-tax profit fell 49 per cent to €35mn. It also provides services to film and television production and blamed the US writers’ strike for €20mn of lost revenues in the second half of last year.

Sweden’s EQT is among the biggest private investment firms and has previously bought UK-listed firms such as veterinary pharmaceuticals company Dechra. The group has ​​€242​‌bn of assets under management.

The discussions between EQT and Keywords come as takeover interest in UK-listed companies has reached its highest level since 2018, driven by depressed share prices that are attracting foreign investors.

In April, US private equity firm Thoma Bravo agreed to buy UK-listed cyber security company Darktrace in a £4.3bn deal.

Under UK takeover rules, EQT has until June 15 to either make a firm offer or walk away.

A video photojournalist shoots footage of damage at a tire shop at the intersection of Sowden and Bingle in the aftermath of a severe storm on Friday, in Houston.

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A video photojournalist shoots footage of damage at a tire shop at the intersection of Sowden and Bingle in the aftermath of a severe storm on Friday, in Houston.

Brett Coomer/AP

HOUSTON — As the Houston area works to clean up and restore power to hundreds of thousands after deadly storms left at least seven people dead, it will do so amid a smog warning and scorching temperatures that could pose health risks.

National Weather Service meteorologist Marc Chenard said on Saturday that highs of around 90 degrees (32.2 C) were expected through the start of the coming week, with heat indexes likely approaching 100 degrees (38 C) by midweek.

“We expect the impact of the heat to gradually increase … we will start to see that heat risk increase Tuesday into Wednesday through Friday,” Chenard said.

The heat index is what the temperature feels like to the human body when humidity is combined with the air temperature, according to the weather service.

“Don’t overdo yourself during the cleanup process,” the weather service’s Houston office said in a post on the social platform X.

In addition to the heat, the Houston area could face poor air quality during the weekend.

Heavy rainfall was possible in eastern Louisiana and central Alabama on Saturday, and parts of Louisiana were also at risk for flooding.

The Houston Health Department said it would distribute 400 free portable air conditioners to area seniors, people with disabilities and caregivers of disabled children to contend with the heat.

Five cooling centers also were opened — four in Houston and one in Kingwood.

Hundreds of thousands remain without power

A man walks through fallen bricks from a damaged building in the aftermath of a severe thunderstorm on Friday, in Houston.

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A man walks through fallen bricks from a damaged building in the aftermath of a severe thunderstorm on Friday, in Houston.

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The widespread destruction of Thursday’s storms brought much of Houston to a standstill. Thunderstorms and hurricane-force winds tore through the city — decimating the facade of one brick building and leaving trees, debris and shattered glass on the streets. A tornado also touched down near the northwest Houston suburb of Cypress.

More than a half-million homes and businesses in Texas remained without electricity by midday Saturday, according to PowerOutage.us. Another 21,000 customers were also without power in Louisiana, where strong winds and a suspected tornado hit.

CenterPoint Energy, which has deployed 1,000 employees to the area and is requesting 5,000 more, said power restoration could take several days or longer in some areas, and that customers need to ensure their homes can safely be reconnected.

“In addition to damaging CenterPoint Energy’s electric infrastructure and equipment, severe weather may have caused damage to customer-owned equipment” such as the weatherhead, which is where power enters the home, the company said.

Customers must have repairs completed by a qualified electrician before service can be restored, CenterPoint added.

High-voltage transmission towers that were torn apart and downed power lines pose a twofold challenge for utility companies because the damage affected transmission and distribution systems, according to Alexandria von Meier, a power and energy expert who called that a rare thing. Damage to just the distribution system is more typical, von Meier said.

How quickly repairs are made will depend on a variety of factors, including the time it takes to assess the damage, equipment replacement, roadwork access issues and workforce availability.

The storm caught many off guard

Down power lines are shown in the aftermath of a severe thunderstorm on Friday, near Houston.

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Down power lines are shown in the aftermath of a severe thunderstorm on Friday, near Houston.

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Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez reported late Friday that three people died during the storm, including an 85-year-old woman whose home caught fire after being struck by lightning and a 60-year-old man who had tried to use his vehicle to power his oxygen tank.

Houston Mayor John Whitmire previously said at least four other people were killed in the city when the storms swept through Harris County, which includes Houston.

School districts in the Houston area canceled classes Friday for more than 400,000 students and government offices were closed.

Houston Independent School District Superintendent Mike Miles said Saturday that he hoped to reopen schools on Monday, but that is dependent upon the restoration of electricity in school buildings.

“If a school doesn’t have power, it will remain closed,” Miles told reporters during a tour of the heavily damaged Sinclair Elementary School.

Whitmire warned that police were out in force, including state troopers sent to the area to prevent looting. He said the speed and intensity of the storm caught many off guard.

Noelle Delgado, executive director of Houston Pets Alive, said she pulled up at the animal rescue on Thursday night and found the dogs and cats — more than 30 in all — uninjured, but the building’s awning had been ripped off, the sign was mangled and water was leaking inside.

She hoped to find foster homes for the animals.

“I could definitely tell that this storm was a little different,” she said. “It felt terrifying.”

State and federal recovery assistance is on the way

In light of the storm damage, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo and Whitmire both signed disaster declarations, paving the way for state and federal storm recovery assistance.

A separate disaster declaration from President Joe Biden makes federal funding available to people in seven Texas counties — including Harris — that have been affected by severe storms, straight-line winds, tornadoes and flooding since April 26.