Northeast
Columbia suspends students over anti-Israel event featuring speaker linked to terrorist organization
Columbia has suspended several students over an anti-Israel event last month that featured a speaker “known to support terrorism,” the university president announced Friday.
Columbia University President Minouche Shafik said in a statement that “a number of students have been suspended as the investigation continues” into a March 24 event that “took place at a campus residential facility” and “that the University had already barred, twice, from occurring.”
“It featured speakers who are known to support terrorism and promote violence. I want to state for the record that this event is an abhorrent breach of our values,” Shafik said.
The student newspaper, the Columbia Spectator, reported that at least four students face disciplinary action in connection to the March 24 panel titled, “Resistance 101,” which featured Khaled Barakat among its speakers.
VIRAL COLUMBIA PROFESSOR WHO CALLED OUT CAMPUS ANTISEMITISM SAYS UNIVERSITY INVESTIGATING HIM IN ‘RETALIATION’
Pro-Palestine protesters demonstrate near Columbia University on Feb. 2, 2024 in New York City. (Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images)
An Israeli government document links Barakat to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a U.S. State Department designated foreign terrorist organization.
The House Committee on Education and the Workforce on March 25 also called out Barakat’s link to the PFLP terrorist group, noting how he told Columbia students during a webinar that “friends at Hamas and Islamic Jihad” emphasized the importance of support on U.S. college campuses, adding that by contrast, “they don’t care what Biden says, what Kamala Harris says.”
In the aftermath, Columbia also “notified law enforcement, and we hired an outside investigation firm to uncover all the facts,” Shafik said Friday. “With their help, we identified organizers and participants and required them to cooperate with the investigation or face immediate discipline. We are still in the process of interviewing students, faculty, and other members of the community and gathering facts.”
“I realize that our campus has been deeply shaken by the war between Israel and Hamas, starting Oct. 7 with the horrific Hamas terrorist attack in Israel, and now unfolding as a humanitarian crisis in Gaza,” Shafik said. “I did not become a university president to punish students. At the same time, actions like this on our campus must have consequences. That I would ever have to declare the following is in itself surprising, but I want to make clear that it is absolutely unacceptable for any member of this community to promote the use of terror or violence.”
It at least appears that Columbia University is increasingly laying down the law on antisemitism before Shafik is expected to testify before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce on April 17 as part of the congressional probe into the surge of antisemitism at college campuses in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks carried out by Hamas on southern Israel. The presidents of Harvard, MIT and UPenn failed to directly condemn calls for intifada or the genocide of Jews on their campuses when they testified before Congress in December. The Harvard and UPenn presidents stepped down amid the controversy, although now-former Harvard president Claudine Gay resigned amid a separate plagiarism scandal.
NYPD officers clash with pro-Palestine protestors demonstrating near Columbia University on Feb. 2, 2024 in New York City. (Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images)
Shai Davidai, a Jewish professor at Columbia who claims the university is investigating him as a form of retaliation for publicly condemning campus inaction on antisemitism in viral video, took to X on Monday to praise the four student suspensions following the event featuring Barakat.
COLLEGE PRESIDENTS GROWING A SPINE? UNIVERSITIES INCREASINGLY LAYING DOWN THE LAW AGAINST ANTISEMITISM
“That’s a good start, but not enough,” he wrote. “The pro-terror umbrella group that organized the event constitutes 94 different official student groups. ALL 94 heads of the organization should be given 24 hours to either denounce the umbrella group or be suspended from campus.”
Davidai shared a TV clip flagged by the Middle East Media Research Institute in which Barakat allegedly communicated that the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement helps terrorists, that he openly supports terrorist organizations and that he receives money from terrorist organizations.
Columbia University President Minouche Shafik is expected to testify before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce on April 17. (Bing Guan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
One of the four students suspended and evicted from campus housing over the event featuring Barakat was the first speaker at a massive protest Thursday organized by the group Columbia University Apartheid Divest and Student Workers of Columbia–United Auto Workers, the Spectator reported.
The protest drew more than 100 demonstrators, according to the student newspaper.
The suspended student, who was not named in the report, complained about how she had lost her full-ride scholarship to Columbia to pursue a master’s in Middle Eastern studies.
“I left everything behind, my community, my partner, my work, my entire life based on Columbia’s promise of a full scholarship to pursue Palestine study,” she reportedly said. “Ironically, my mom was so happy when I was moving to the U.S. to study at Columbia. She believed I would finally be safe outside of Palestine. Columbia is not only a complicit institution, it is a violent institution.”
The suspensions come after Shafik vowed to take action in a Friday statement.
“We are in the process of identifying participants and they will face discipline under our policies,” Shafik said. “This university will only thrive if we can build a strong foundation of respect – both for each other and for our rules.”
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Boston, MA
How to buy Paraguay vs. Germany 2026 World Cup tickets in Boston
Editor’s note: Follow live World Cup standings updates and analysis for the round of 32
Paraguay fans can breathe a sigh of relief, their team is headed to the round of 32 at the 2026 World Cup.
Paraguay rebounded nicely after a tough first match against the United States, defeating Turkey and drawing Australia, finishing the group stage in third place and officially qualifying for the knockout rounds when Uruguay lost to Spain on Friday night.
However, it does not get easier from here, as Paraguay will take on Germany in the round of 32.
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The match will take place outside of Boston at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. and is scheduled to start at 4:30 p.m. ET.
Here’s everything you need to know about how to buy tickets for Paraguay vs. Germany’s in the round of 32 at the 2026 World Cup.
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With its Group E win, Germany will play its Round of 32 match at Gillette Stadium on Monday, June 29. As of publication, the cheapest available tickets for Germany’s game in Boston start at $1,044.
Germany World Cup Round of 32 game information
- Where: Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass.
- What time: 4:30 p.m. ET
- Tickets: Starting at $826
- When: Monday, June 29
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More: Here’s how to buy 2026 World Cup Final tickets in New York
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Germany clinched the top spot in Group E on Saturday, its Round of 32 match will take place on Monday, June 29.
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Germany and Paraguay will play their round of 32 game outside of Boston. This will be the team’s first game in Foxborough, Mass. for the tournament.
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Germany World Cup schedule
- Sunday, June 14: Germany def. Curaçao WIN 7-1
- Saturday, June 20: Germany vs. Ivory Coast WIN 2-1
- Thursday, June 25: Germany vs. Ecuador LOSS 2-1
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World Cup Group E standings
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- Paraguay vs. United States – LOSS 4-1
- Paraguay vs. Turkey – WIN 1-0
- Paraguay vs. Australia – DRAW 0-0
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Pittsburg, PA
South Side Street Fest adds more metal detectors and ID scanner to speed up lines
The South Side Street Fest added additional metal detectors and ID scanners, plus a dedicated line for locals, to help people get in faster after long lines were reported for the event’s first outing last weekend.
There were no lines at 11 p.m. on Friday, the event’s second night, but an organizer said Saturday, when they usually see larger crowds, will be a better test of the new measures. While attendees praised the event’s first night from a safety standpoint, with no arrests and an average number of citations issued, some criticized how long it took to get in on June 20.
“It’s a little overkill. I kind of had to wait 30 minutes,” Justin McCord said. “The line was just startling to me.”
John DeMauro, a business owner and member of the South Side Hospitality Partnership, which is working with the city to put on the event, said leaders have heard the feedback.
“We got more people than we thought there [would be],” DeMauro said. “There was a little bit of a wait to get into the entrances.”
They’ve since added four ID scanners and two more metal detectors, he said.
“We should be able to move those lines along fairly quickly this week,” DeMauro said.
The event is restricted to people 21 and up, but anyone under 21 who lives within the footprint can still get through. They’ll be escorted to their homes, a police commander told KDKA-TV, adding that few kids live inside the event’s footprint.
They also have a new solution for South Side residents to enter the footprint faster: a local lane pass. Acting just like a fast pass at an amusement park, those who have it can go through a dedicated entry line.
“Wanted that to be quicker, wanted that to be not as cumbersome,” he said.
Anyone who lives in the 15203 zip code, which covers the entire South Side, can register for the pass online, he said. At the 18th Street security checkpoint on Friday, residents had to show their ID with the 15203 zip code to go through the local lane.
Because the zip code is used, it means it’s not just for people who live inside the footprint. Anyone who lives on the South Side can enter using the pass, for instance, if they want to grab something from a corner store. Fifty people had registered as of 7 p.m. on Friday.
The line also helps to get delivery drivers through, Zone 3’s police commander said.
A bar owner within the footprint told KDKA-TV last week that during the fest’s debut, they saw a lot of people on the street but fewer in bars. But because it’s so early, they said they weren’t concerned.
“I think that’s the general consensus,” DeMauro said. “It was a really good start to it, but our intention is to make it grow. I think that’s the biggest thing we want people to understand.”
He added that the intention moving forward is to keep listening to feedback and making changes to improve the festival. He also encouraged people to come down to test the improved security measures themselves.
Connecticut
Newly released video shows Connecticut prison officers striking inmate before he died
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Connecticut prison inmate J’Allen Jones was suffering a mental health crisis in 2018 when correctional officers struck him multiple times, stripped him naked, put a spit bag over his head and sprayed pepper spray at his face shortly before he died.
Video of the series of events was released Friday by a state judge in Hartford overseeing Jones’ family’s lawsuit against eight officers and a prison nurse, following a yearslong legal battle and after both sides agreed to certain redactions.
The Department of Correction had sought to keep it sealed since 2019, saying in part that its release could present security problems because it shows the physical layout of the prison and staffing patterns. But Jones’ family, the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut and local NAACP officials called for publicly releasing the video, saying transparency was needed in Jones’ death.
“The events in the video are as disturbing as the events in the video of George Floyd’s death,” Ron Murphy, a lawyer for Jones’ family, wrote in a court document, referring to the man killed by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020. “But in some ways, the video of J’Allen’s death is worse.”
Jones, 31, from Atlanta, was serving a 10-year sentence for robbery at Garner Correctional Institution in Newtown, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) west of New Haven when he died on March 25, 2018. Correction officers had been trying to take him to a medical unit in the prison at the time to get treatment for his mental illness.
Handcuffed inmate appeared in crisis as officers struck him
Portions of the 52-minute video show Jones handcuffed behind his back — and later with his legs shackled — as officers hit his legs and torso with their knees and fists, after he refused a strip search. At one point, an officer pins him down on a bed with a knee on his back while others hold him down.
Jones — who was having a schizophrenic episode, according to court documents — is heard yelling at this point, much of it unintelligible. He repeatedly shouts, “In the blood of Jesus Christ!” At one point, he tells officers, “I command you … to uncuff me now!”
Officers, meanwhile, tell Jones numerous times to stop resisting and to calm down. One officer tells Jones they’re just trying to help him.
About 17 minutes into the video, Jones appears to start having trouble breathing after the spit bag was placed over his head and he was pepper sprayed. Nearly five minutes later, Jones appears to be unconscious as officers struggle to hold him up and put him in a wheelchair. At around the 24-minute mark, an officer requests a nurse to evaluate Jones.
“Right now he’s just being dead weight, and I just want to make sure he’s OK,” the officer says, talking to the video camera held by another officer.
Minutes go by before life-saving measures are started
About 28 minutes into the video, a nurse starts performing CPR and an officer orders someone over the radio to call 911. An ambulance crew doesn’t arrive until more than 43 minutes into the video. Jones was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
Hours after Jones’ death, the Department of Correction put out a brief statement saying that Jones had become “non-compliant and combative with staff and then became non-responsive.” It did not say anything about officers striking Jones but noted that there were no immediate indications that excessive force was used. It said life-saving measures were performed and he was brought to a hospital.
The medical examiner’s office determined that the cause of Jones’ death was “sudden death during struggle and restraint with chest compression and pepper spray exposure in person with hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.” It ruled his death a homicide, although that designation does not necessarily mean a crime was committed.
In January 2019, a state prosecutor investigating Jones’ death determined that no crimes were committed.
An internal Correction Department investigation found that excessive force was not used. But the eight officers and nurse violated policy by not recognizing for more than seven minutes that Jones was in medical distress — although not intentionally, the investigation report said.
Punishment of one-day suspensions without pay were handed down to the nine staff members, Correction Department records show.
The correctional officers’ union did not immediately return an email seeking comment.
Family lawyer hopes video release spurs calls for reforms
Allen was Black, and his lawyer says eight of the nine defendants are white. One is Black. In court papers seeking release of the video, Murphy said it’s important that the public sees the footage and can consider “whether his race or schizophrenia played any role in how his cries for help and gasps for air were perceived and handled.”
“I hope everyone who chooses to watch the video does so with an open heart, remembering that J’Allen Jones was a father and a son and that his family grieves every day,” Murphy said in a statement Friday afternoon, adding that he hoped the video leads to prison system improvements.
He added, “I found the video very difficult to watch as it depicts the painful death of another human being. So please take care of yourself while watching and if you experience overwhelming feelings, consider taking a break or reaching out to someone for support. Thank you.”
Responding to a series of questions from The Associated Press about the video and how officers dealt with Jones, the Correction Department’s interim commissioner Sharonda Carlos, said in a statement that the agency is continually focused on improving the services it offers to inmates experiencing mental health problems.
“Any loss of life in our facilities is a tragedy that we feel deeply, and our sympathy remains with Mr. Jones’ family and loved ones,” she said.
Carlos said she appointed a psychiatrist to lead the department’s inmate medical services in May, and the agency is rolling out major improvements to its mental health training for staff.
“Behind every individual in our care is a family hoping for their well-being, and we do not take that responsibility lightly,” she said.
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