At least 50 people feared drowned after boat from Senegal sinks off Canary island | Migration | The Guardian

At least 50 people feared drowned after boat from Senegal sinks off Canary island

"Nine people rescued from boat sailing perilous Atlantic route that reportedly left Senegal with 60 people onboard nine days ago

Sam Jones

The boat began sinking 60 miles south of the Canary island of El Hierro early on Monday. Photograph: Salvamento Maritimo/EPA

At least 50 people are feared to have drowned after a boat sailing the perilous Atlantic route from west Africa to Europe began to sink 60 miles south of the Canary island of El Hierro.

Nine people were rescued from the craft early on Monday after a passing bulk carrier alerted Spain’s Salvamento Marítimo rescue service, which dispatched a fast boat and a helicopter from its base in Tenerife.

A Salvamento Marítimo spokesperson said: “The helicopter arrived, rescued nine people from the semi-submerged boat, and took them to El Hierro airport, where they were seen by medical staff.”

“The rescue boat confirmed that there was no one else in the boat and returned to base.”

The spokesperson said the nine people rescued were from sub-Saharan Africa, adding that Spain’s Guardia Civil police force had told Salvamento Marítimo that 60 people were reported to have been on the boat when it left the Senegalese city of Mbour nine days earlier.

In October 2020, 140 people who had set out from the same port died after their boat sank off the Senegalese coast. A few hours into the journey, the boat caught fire and capsized near Saint-Louis on Senegal’s north-west coast. Fifty-nine people were rescued by nearby fishing vessels and the Senegalese and Spanish navies, and the bodies of 20 others were recovered.

The disaster led the International Organization for Migration to call for governments to work together “to dismantle trafficking and smuggling networks that take advantage of desperate youth”, and to urge the creation of “enhanced legal channels to undermine the traffickers’ business model and prevent loss of life”.

Tens of thousands of people fleeing war, poverty and instability in sub-Saharan Africa try to reach Spain via the Atlantic route each year, with many dying during the attempt.

A recent report from the Caminando Fronteras (Walking Borders) migration NGO estimated that 6,618 people, including 384 children, died trying to reach Spanish shores in 2023, an average of 18 deaths a day.

According to Spain’s interior ministry, 16,621 migrants arrived in Spain by boat between 1 January and 15 April this year – an increase of 11,681 on the same period last year. The majority of those who have reached Spain by sea this year – 14,030 – landed in the Canary islands.

The dangers of the route were further underscored a fortnight ago when nine decomposed bodies were found in a boat floating off the coast of Brazil. Federal police said the dead were from Mauritania and Mali, and Brazilian authorities believe the boat reached their waters after drifting across the Atlantic. Similar discoveries have been made off the coasts of Tobago and the Turks and Caicos in recent years.

The latest tragedy comes as EU interior ministers meet in Ghent for a two-day conference to discuss the implementation of the long-awaited European pact on migration and asylum, which was devised in response to Europe’s 2015 migration crisis, when 1.3 million people, mostly Syrian refugees, crossed into the EU.

The pact has been denounced by more than 160 human rights organisations – including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the International Rescue Committee – which argue the deal will lead to greater suffering, less protection and more rights violations."

At least 50 people feared drowned after boat from Senegal sinks off Canary island | Migration | The Guardian

Ilhan Omar Plunges Into Democrats’ Political Storm Over War in Gaza - The New York Times

Ilhan Omar Plunges Into Democrats’ Political Storm Over War in Gaza

"Suggesting that some Jewish students are “pro-genocide,” the Minnesota congresswoman seemed to further polarize an already polarizing debate.

At Columbia University last week, Representative Ilhan Omar said “all Jewish kids” should be kept safe, no matter which side they were on in the debate — or, as she framed it, “whether they’re pro-genocide or anti-genocide.”Caitlin Ochs/Reuters

It was just one sentence, uttered to reporters who had gathered around Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota last week when she turned up at a Columbia University encampment to offer a show of support for pro-Palestinian protesters — among them, her daughter, a student activist — demonstrating against the Israeli attacks on Gaza.

Ms. Omar, one of the leading pro-Palestinian voices in Congress, rejected the argument that the protests were antisemitic, noting that many of the participants were Jewish. “All Jewish kids” should be kept safe, she said, no matter which side they were on in the debate — or, as she framed it, “whether they’re pro-genocide or anti-genocide.”

But with her formulation that Jews who support the Israeli military campaign are “pro-genocide,” Ms. Omar plunged into what has become an increasingly turbulent storm for many on the American left as it confronts questions about the extent to which antisemitism is shadowing demonstrations that have broken out on campuses from New York to Los Angeles.

Ms. Omar is a Democrat and one of two Muslim women in the House, and she was elected with the endorsement of, among others, President Biden.

“That phrasing is despicable,” said Rabbi David Wolpe, a visiting scholar at Harvard Divinity School, who resigned from a Harvard antisemitism panel after the university was swept by protests against Israel.

“I don’t know anyone who is pro-genocide,” said Mr. Wolpe, who said he was walking by an encampment at Harvard as he spoke on his cellphone. “In the course of condemning antisemitism, it displays antisemitism. Which is an astonishing paradox — I mean it’s a sad paradox.”

The remarks by Ms. Omar were the latest example of how the war in the Middle East has proved to be an agonizingly difficult issue to navigate across the political spectrum, but particularly on the left, which has split from the Democratic Party’s long history of support for Israel.

Some of the critics of Israel have appeared to struggle to distinguish opposition to the policies of the Israeli government under Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, and what many Jewish leaders see as antisemitism unleashed over the past six months, which, in their view, has fueled many of the protests. Jewish students have said they felt threatened by the demonstrations on many campuses.

Ms. Omar showed no signs of pulling back on her statement, citing reports of threats against Muslims since the Hamas attack that set off the war. She pointed to an article in The Intercept reporting that students at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst had yelled out “Kill All Arabs.” In a post on X, she said: “This is the pro-genocide I was talking about, can you condemn this like I have condemned antisemitism and bigotry of all kind?”

The fact that there are Jews protesting against Israel at Columbia should be no surprise: It reflects the ideological diversity of American Jews on this issue. Many Jews, like many protesters at campuses from Columbia to the University of Southern California, are critical of the attacks launched by the Netanyahu government that have resulted in so many civilian casualties — while remaining firmly supportive of the existence of the Jewish state.

Ms. Omar’s remarks seemed to further polarize an already polarizing issue. “It is abhorrent that a sitting member of Congress would slander an entire group of young people in such a cold, calculated manner,” Jonathan Greenblatt, the executive director of the Anti-Defamation League, said on social media. “This is how people get killed.”

And it appeared to put some of her allies on the left in an uncomfortable position, including Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. When Mr. Sanders was asked on CNN if he was “comfortable” with what she said, he responded: “Look, what I think the essential point that Ilhan made is that we do not want to see antisemitism in this country. And I think the word genocide is something that is being determined by the International Court of Justice.”

In her remarks at Columbia, Ms. Omar said that it was “really unfortunate that people don’t care about the fact that all Jewish kids should be kept safe, and that we should not have to tolerate antisemitism or bigotry for all Jewish students, whether they are pro-genocide or anti-genocide.”

Her communications director, Jacklyn Rogers, said Ms. Omar had “clearly condemned antisemitism and bigotry for all Jewish students.”

“Attempts to misconstrue her words are meant to distract from the ongoing violence and genocide occurring in Gaza and the large antiwar protests happening across our country and around the world,” Ms. Rogers said.

All this showed few signs of lowering temperatures. Mr. Wolpe criticized Ms. Omar for trying to invoke the presence of a small group of Jewish demonstrators to rebut what he said was strong evidence of antisemitic sentiment at the demonstrations.

“This is a characteristic maneuver that I am not surprised to hear from Omar,” he said. “I think a lot of the students at the encampment are genuinely decent. But there is definitely a core that are not.”

Ilhan Omar Plunges Into Democrats’ Political Storm Over War in Gaza - The New York Times

Protesters at Columbia Occupy Hamilton Hall: College Protests Live Updates - The New York Times

Live Updates: Protesters Take Over Building on Columbia Campus

"The escalation in the protests came after university officials suspended students who had refused to leave a pro-Palestinian encampment. Columbia closed the campus to students who do not live there.

Updated 

April 30, 2024, 7:17 a.m. ET

1. 

   Protesters outside Hamilton Hall at Columbia University after the building was seized on Tuesday.

   Bing Guan for The New York Times

2. Protesters inside Hamilton Hall.

   Bing Guan for The New York Times

3. Demonstrators barricaded themselves inside Hamilton Hall.

   Alex Kent/Getty Images

4. A maintenance worker confronted demonstrators trying to barricade themselves inside Hamilton Hall.

   Alex Kent/Getty Images

5. A pro-Israel counterprotester was blocked by pro-Palestine protesters outside Hamilton Hall.

   Bing Guan for The New York Times

6. The scene at an encampment at Columbia after the university began suspending students who did not leave.

   Bing Guan for The New York Times

7. Near the encampment at Columbia.

   Bing Guan for The New York Times

8. Protesters moved a tent.

   Bing Guan for The New York Times

9. On the Columbia campus.

   Bing Guan for The New York Times

10. A protester in a window of Hamilton Hall after it was seized.

    Bing Guan for The New York Times

Pinned

Protesters occupied a building on Columbia’s main campus early Tuesday, escalating tensions at the university after weeks of walkouts, encampments and outdoor gatherings by pro-Palestinian demonstrators that had led to suspensions and more than a hundred arrests.

Hamilton Hall, a building with a history of student takeovers, was seized shortly after demonstrators marched around the Manhattan campus to chants of “Free Palestine.” Hours earlier, administrators had begun suspending students who refused to leave an encampment. The university encouraged people not to come to the campus on Tuesday.

Protesters hold up signs while occupying a building on the campus of California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, in Arcata, Calif., last week.Andrew Goff/Lost Coast Outpost, via Associated Press

As student protests roiled many American campuses, the campus police at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, made arrests on Monday night and attempted to disperse pro-Palestinian demonstrators who have occupied a campus building for over a week.

The protesters took over Siemens Hall, which includes the university president’s office, last Monday and renamed it “Intifada Hall.” They fought an early attempt by the police to remove them and have rejected increasingly strong entreaties from officials to leave the building.

Tent encampment at

Columbia University

Faculty and staff

members guarding

access to the tents

Columbia

University

Tent

encampment

Columbia

University

Source: Google Earth

Note: Photograph taken Monday, April 29

By Leanne Abraham; Photograph by Bing Guan

April 30, 2024, 6:23 a.m. ET

Columbia announced that it would restrict access to the Morningside Heights campus to students who live in one of seven dorms on campus and employees who provide essential services. It is closing all entry points to the campus indefinitely, except the gate at 116th Street and Amsterdam Avenue.

April 30, 2024, 5:53 a.m. ET

A student group called Columbia University Apartheid Divest, which organized the encampment on campus, said on social media that Hamilton Hall had been taken over by “an autonomous group” of “Columbia community members.” It said those protesters planned to remain in the building until the university conceded to C.U.A.D.’s demands, which include divestment from companies doing business in Israel. 

Police officers forcing students out of Hamilton Hall at Columbia in May 1968 during an occupation.Larry C. Morris/The New York Times

Hamilton Hall, the building at Columbia University that protesters occupied early Tuesday morning, has been occupied several times by student activists over the past half-century.

Here are some of the notable moments of student protest at the building.

April 30, 2024, 4:57 a.m. ET

Karla Marie Sanford

Reporting from Columbia University

It's been about four hours since protesters at Columbia University occupied Hamilton Hall, a building that has been at the heart of campus movements since the 1960s. In the moments after it was taken over early Tuesday, protesters used furniture to barricade doors, draped banners out of windows and shouted pro-Palestinian slogans.

Bing Guan for The New York Times

April 30, 2024, 4:57 a.m. ET

Karla Marie Sanford

Reporting from Columbia University

It’s unclear how many people remain inside the hall. The crowd outside has thinned, with about 20 students there. Another 20 are sitting or sleeping at Hamilton’s back entrance. Music that had been blaring all evening from protesters’ speakers has just stopped.

April 30, 2024, 4:44 a.m. ET

Liset Cruz

Reporting from Columbia University

Columbia University has just posted a message confirming that protesters have occupied Hamilton Hall. The statement advises members of the university community and non-essential workers to avoid coming to the Morningside campus today, and that access to campus may be restricted. “The safety of every single member of this community is paramount,” it says.

Student protestors gathered outside Hamilton Hall after the building was seized and occupied by protestors on Tuesday.Bing Guan for The New York Times

The occupation of a building on Columbia University’s campus on early Tuesday marked an especially tense 24 hours of pro-Palestinian protests across the country, as police in California started arresting protesters that had taken over at least one other building and threatened to do so at others.

Police had begun arresting demonstrators at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, where they had occupied a building for more than a week. And at Portland State University in Oregon, students had taken over a library.

April 30, 2024, 4:06 a.m. ET

On the West Coast, police officers arrested some protesters at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt. Demonstrators there had barricaded themselves in Siemens Hall and were told to leave the premises."

Protesters at Columbia Occupy Hamilton Hall: College Protests Live Updates - The New York Times

Florida ‘callously’ strips healthcare from thousands of children despite new law | Florida | The Guardian

Florida ‘callously’ strips healthcare from thousands of children despite new law

                                        (Pure Evil)

Governor Ron DeSantis’s challenging of a ‘continuous eligibility’ rule has booted over 22,000 children off insurance since January

Richard Luscombe

Ron DeSantis attends a press conference in Sanford, Florida, on 8 April 2024. Photograph: Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock

Florida is continuing to “callously” strip healthcare coverage from thousands of children in lower-income households in defiance of a new federal law intended to protect them.

Since 1 January, more than 22,500 children have been disenrolled from Florida KidCare, its version of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (Chip) that is jointly subsidized by states and the US government for families with earnings just above the threshold for Medicaid.

Florida healthcare officials admit at least some were removed for non-payment of premiums, an action prohibited by the “continuous eligibility” clause of the 2023 Consolidated Appropriations Act that took effect at the beginning of this year. The clause secures 12 months of cover if at least one premium payment is made.

Last week, the administration of Republican governor Ron DeSantis challenged the rule in federal court Tampa, arguing it makes Chip an entitlement program that illegally overrides a state law requiring monthly payment of premiums.

But it has chosen not to wait for a ruling before continuing to separate children from coverage. Figures from the Florida Health Justice Project show there were 5,552 removals in the month to 1 April, following 5,097 in March, 5,147 in February, and 6,780 in January.

Florida argues the numbers include children aging out or moving into other coverage, and that “disenrollment has been consistent at this level for years”. Notably, the monthly average so far this year is more than 1,500 higher than the whole of 2023.

“It’s just enormously cruel and a crisis of callousness by our governor and state of Florida who are willing to sacrifice sick children for their political aims,” said Democratic US congresswoman Kathy Castor, who said she had been contacted by several families booted from KidCare, or “unwinded” from Medicaid as Covid-19 protections expired.

“It’s an important reform for parents because once you qualify you can stay on for a year, your child will get the care they need, consistent visits to the doctor’s office, and if they have a complex medical condition they know it will be handled.

“In the end, it saves everyone money, and saves families’ heartache when young children can stay healthy and well. But Ron DeSantis loves a lawsuit. Florida is the only state in the country that is so upset that children are going to get healthcare that he’s suing in federal court.”

Castor said one family she has spoken with has a two-and-a-half-year-old toddler who was born three months prematurely.

“She is fed exclusively through a tube. She has extreme developmental delays and requires 24-hour nursing care,” she said.

“They said since birth she has faced challenges including five months in neonatal intensive care, hernia surgery, air tube surgeries and seizures, and ongoing treatment. So the state now has ended her coverage. It’s heartbreaking, it’s cruel and it’s unnecessary.”

Independent experts also question the purge.

“While Florida is not alone in rapidly disenrolling children from Medicaid during the unwinding process – many of whom likely remain eligible – families should know that Florida is distinguishing itself in an apparent violation of federal law by kicking children off Chip as well,” Joan Alker, executive director of the nonpartisan Center for Children and Families and a Research Professor at the Georgetown McCourt school of public policy, said in an analysis published last week.

“Florida is one of just nine states that charges premiums to children below 150% of the poverty line. Seven states have dropped all premiums in Chip at any income level in recognition of the barriers they pose for low and moderate income families.

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“With the litigation, [Florida’s] efforts to block children from retaining affordable health coverage are not stopping at its borders. Depending on how it is framed, a ruling in Florida’s favor could give all states the green light to terminate the coverage of Chip kids if their parents miss a premium payment.”

Florida’s agency for healthcare administration did not return a request for comment. In a statement published on 19 April, the agency called previous media coverage of the issue “misleading”, but did not dispute the accuracy of the disenrollment figures.

“Allowing disenrollment for nonpayment of premiums is crucial to maintaining the integrity and long-term sustainability of the program and helps Florida continue to maintain its high level of quality service for KidCare participants,” it said.

The agency also noted that, in 2023, DeSantis signed legislation that increased income eligibility to 300% of the federal poverty level. They claim that the legislation, which has not yet been enacted, would open Chip to a further 68,000 children. Overall, the agency said 182,000 Florida children are covered by KidCare – 66% more than in May 2023.

Castor, however, says the state’s illegal dropping of enrolled children, and other recent developments – namely Florida’s six-week abortion ban that will take effect on Wednesday – prove the state is more determined to restrict healthcare than expand it.

“Hypocrisy abounds,” she said. “On the ability of women to control when they have kids, and if they have kids, the state of Florida and Ron DeSantis says: ‘You have to have children, you have to’.

“Then if you have a child, it says: ‘OK, you’re on your own,’ even in the face of a new federal law. All of the research shows that if children get the care they need, especially in their early years, they’re going to be more successful in school, have higher reading scores, higher graduation rates, they’ll be more productive in life.

“This is a self-inflicted wound on the ability to have a healthy, functioning state of Florida.”

Florida ‘callously’ strips healthcare from thousands of children despite new law | Florida | The Guardian

Journalism professors call on New York Times to review Oct. 7 report - The Washington Post

Journalism professors call on New York Times to review Oct. 7 report

"A major investigative report into sexual violence in the Hamas attack on Israel has drawn criticism inside and outside the newspaper

Laura Wagner

The exterior of the New York Times building in Manhattan. (Mark Lennihan/AP)

More than 50 tenured journalism professors from top universities have signed a letter calling on the New York Times to address questions about a major investigative report that described a “pattern of gender-based violence” in the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.

The letter follows months of criticism and concerns raised by outside critics as well as some Times staffers about the credibility of its sourcing and the editorial process for the story.

The letter, signed by professors at colleges including New York University, University of Pennsylvania, Emory and the University of Texas, asks the Times to “immediately commission a group of journalism experts to conduct a thorough and full independent review of the reporting, editing and publishing processes for this story and release a report of the findings.”

It was sent Monday morning to Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger, executive editor Joe Kahn and international editor Philip Pan.

In a statement, a spokeswoman for the Times said that the paper has “reviewed the work that was done on this piece of journalism and [we] are satisfied that it met our editorial standards.”

The letter, obtained by The Washington Post, acknowledged the impossibility of “writing perfectly accurate drafts of history in real time” but emphasized that news organizations must be willing to interrogate their own work.

It notes that the Times and many other publications have reassessed stories in the manner the professors suggest. In 2004, the Times reviewed its coverage of the run-up to the invasion of Iraq; in a note to readers, editors later acknowledged they identified “problematic” stories that had been based on the accounts of Iraqi sources “whose credibility has come under increasing public debate.”

Signers include Robert McChesney of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Victor Pickard of the University of Pennsylvania, Maggy Zanger of the University of Arizona and Diane Winston of the University of Southern California.

Questions began to emerge shortly after the Times published its December investigation headlined “‘Screams Without Words’: Sexual Violence on Oct. 7.”

Relatives of a woman slain in the attack, whose story became a central focus of the Times report, cast doubts on reporting suggesting that she was raped, while other critics pointed to discrepancies in various accounts offered by an eyewitness cited in the story.

The Intercept reported that the Times’ flagship podcast, “The Daily,” had shelved a planned episode about the report due to these questions. In response, the Times launched an intensive internal investigation to determine who had leaked newsroom information, a campaign the paper’s Guild called a “racially targeted witch hunt.” The Times firmly denied the Guild’s claim.

The Intercept also reported that the Times relied heavily on two relatively inexperienced freelancers in Israel, Anat Schwartz and Adam Sella, to report the story, while Times correspondent Jeffrey Gettleman was responsible for weaving it together.

The professors’ letters raised concerns about “such reporting arrangements,” noting that Pulitzer-winning reporter Rick Bragg resigned from the Times in 2003 after it was revealed that he had relied heavily on a less experienced freelancer for reporting.

The letter also makes reference to comments made by Gettleman in an interview after the story was published, in which he said he did not want to use the word “evidence” to describe certain details in the story because it “suggests you’re trying to prove an allegation or prove a case in court.”

“This language is in stark contrast to the story itself which uses the word ‘evidence’ in the sub headline referring to the same information Gettleman was apparently discussing on stage,” the letter said.

In March, the Times reported that new video evidence “undercut” some of the details in its initial investigation. But the paper did not issue a correction or a retraction of the December report, which the journalism professors called an “unusual decision.”

Shahan Mufti, a professor at the University of Richmond, said in an interview that the unusual circumstances called for response from journalism educators.

“We in journalism education are not typically in the business of telling people in the profession how to do their job,” he said. “This required serious consideration and deliberation, and we came to the conclusion that this is necessary.”

Sandy Tolan, a professor at the University of Southern California, said that the timing of the story — as public opinion in the United States was shifting toward a more critical understanding of the devastation of Israel’s bombing of civilian areas in Gaza — is also relevant.

“As the death toll mounted in Gaza, and criticism was beginning to focus more on Israel, the New York Times released this story, which seems to have been published prematurely,” he said. “Being cognizant of the potential damages of and consequences of the timing, given that it didn’t appear to be as well-reported as it should have been, there’s all the more reason why an external review is appropriate.”

An independent review could find the Times did nothing wrong, the letter says, or find errors in the way the newsroom operated. Either way, the letter concludes, an immediate review “is the only responsible and credible thing to do.”

Journalism professors call on New York Times to review Oct. 7 report - The Washington Post