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washington — As student protests against Israel's war on Hamas in Gaza continue at more than three dozen American universities, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the demonstrations were "a hallmark" of American democracy. At the same time, he criticized the students for their “silence" on Hamas. "It is also notable that there is silence about Hamas. It's as if it wasn't even part of the story," Blinken said to reporters Friday during a visit to Beijing. "But as I've also said repeatedly, the way Israel goes about ensuring that October 7th never happens again matters profoundly." Speaking in a country where dissent is often harshly suppressed, Blinken said he understood the war invokes "strong, passionate feelings" and voiced support for the students' right to protest. "It's a hallmark of our democracy that our citizens make known their views, their concerns, their anger, at any given time, and I think that reflects the strength of the country, the strength of democracy," he said. Protests have grown in campuses across the country since Columbia University in New York started cracking down on pro-Palestinian protesters occupying a lawn on its campus on April 18. Police interventions have led to hundreds of arrests but have failed to contain the spread of antiwar demonstrations. "We have students of all backgrounds and of all histories and identities coming out here to stand on the side of justice and to oppose genocide," said Malak Afaneh, who spoke with VOA from the encampment at the University of California-Berkeley. The third-year law student who has Palestinian parents said there has been an "outpouring of community support." In many universities, Jewish students participated in expressing their anger about U.S. support for Israel in its war against Hamas in Gaza and their schools' financial and academic ties to Israel and to weapons manufacturers. "We have a university that's actively investing money into companies that are helping fuel [the war], kill these innocent people," a Jewish student from Georgetown University told VOA, declining to share her name because of security concerns. "And it's just not something that I morally can – I have never been able to stand by – but especially not now anymore." Yet some Jewish students have complained of rising antisemitism and have felt unsafe on their own campuses, including Columbia, because of the protests. Overall, the protests are peaceful, even as some are met with counterprotests from pro-Israel and pro-Zionist students. Demonstrations are broadly protected as free speech under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Antisemitic language Still, the protests are potentially explosive for university administrators, particularly as some students have been called out for using antisemitic language. Interpreted differently by its supporters, a chant like, "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free," is seen by many Jews and Israelis as a call to dismantle the Jewish state and replace it with a Palestinian state that extends from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.  The demonstrations are also becoming a political headache for President Joe Biden. Student protesters and progressive Democrats who support their cause are important constituencies for Biden ahead of the November presidential election. His reelection bid depends in part to his ability to pacify progressives' anger about his administration's support of Israel, a close U.S. ally.  An added complication for Biden is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's efforts to portray the antiwar sentiment in the U.S. as antisemitic. On Wednesday, Netanyahu called the protests "horrific" and said they must be stopped.  "Antisemitic mobs have taken over leading universities," he said. "They call for the annihilation of Israel. They attack Jewish students. They attack Jewish faculty." Netanyahu, who is facing protests demanding his resignation at home, said the American demonstrations are "reminiscent of what happened in German universities in the 1930s," drawing parallels to scenes that preceded the Holocaust under Nazi Germany. Ties are already tense as the Biden administration and Democrats in Congress demand that Israel improve its conduct of the war. In March, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, described the Israeli prime minister as an impediment to peace in the Middle East and called for a new election to replace him. Schumer is the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in the U.S. Republicans decry protests Netanyahu's criticisms of the protests are echoed by Republican lawmakers who accuse the students of condoning terrorism and supporting Hamas. Republican-led committees in Congress have summoned university administrators to testify, accusing them of allowing campuses to become hotbeds of antisemitism. On Wednesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson and several other Republican lawmakers visited Columbia University, calling for the resignation of university President Minouche Shafik and decrying the student protests as violent and uncontrollable. "This is dangerous. This is not the First Amendment, this is not free expression," Johnson said, amid raucous booing and shouts from protesters. The speaker demanded that Biden call out the country's military reserve force to quell the protests. "There is an appropriate time for the National Guard," he said. "We have to bring order to these campuses." The White House declined to weigh in, saying decisions to call in National Guard units to break up protests are up to state governors.

State Department  — A U.S. review will decide whether certain Israeli military units violated the human rights of Palestinian civilians in the West Bank before the October 7 Hamas terror attacks on Israel, making them ineligible to receive U.S. military assistance. A source familiar with the investigation told VOA on Friday that the “process continues to be ongoing” and is consistent with a memorandum of understanding between the United States and Israel that requires Washington to consult with Israeli officials prior to any conclusion. The Israeli government will continue to receive U.S. military aid during the review process, in which the State Department is assessing whether the Israel Defense Forces are taking appropriate steps to remediate any violations. There will be restrictions on the provision of U.S. military assistance if it is determined that there has not been appropriate accountability and remediation taken by Israel’s military, according to the source. The review process has drawn sharp criticism from Muslim rights groups who say the Biden administration has not done enough to hold Israel accountable for human rights violations against Palestinian civilians. Some analysts also have said the protracted process indicates the “special treatment” that Israel continues to receive from the United States. The Leahy Law The review is being conducted under a U.S. law known as the Leahy Law, which prohibits U.S. funding from going to foreign security units implicated in severe human rights violations. However, exceptions exist, such as when a foreign government addresses the issue through "remediation" as well as when the U.S. equipment is used for disaster relief. The State and Defense departments have a joint remediation policy allowing resumption of assistance if the foreign government is effectively addressing the violations through investigations, adjudications and proportional sentencing. On Thursday, State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said the Biden administration takes “extensive steps to fully implement the Leahy Law” for all countries that receive applicable U.S. assistance. “That, of course, includes Israel, with whom we have a long-standing security relationship,” Patel told reporters during a press briefing. U.S. officials declined to identify the units under review, but Israeli media said they include Netzah Yehuda, a military unit made up mostly of ultra-Orthodox Israeli soldiers that operated primarily in the West Bank before it was reassigned to the northern border in 2022. The allegations related to the IDF units were based on incidents that took place before the October 7 Hamas terror attacks on Israel. They are not connected to Israel’s military operations in Gaza after October 7, nor to actions against Iran and its proxies. One incident involved the death of an elderly Palestinian American, Omar Assad, in January of 2022. The Biden administration’s review process has drawn scrutiny from Muslim civil rights groups. In a statement, the Council on American-Islamic Relations Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell said: “Sanctioning this unit is the least the Biden administration should have done, and suspending military aid altogether is what the administration should do now." The Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, is the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization in the U.S. Blacklisted foreign security units If foreign security units are blacklisted by the U.S. because of serious human rights violations, they cannot receive U.S. military assistance, use U.S. weapons, or participate in U.S. training. However, technically, the foreign government can use its own funds to purchase U.S. weapons and issue them to any unit it chooses, according to analysts. “It's not really a sanction or a punishment. It's the way in which Congress frames its laws to advance certain values, like human rights in this instance,” Sarah Harrison from International Crisis Group told VOA. “The fact that the State Department is now slow-rolling its decision underscores this exceptional treatment that Israel continues to receive,” Harrison added. Pro-Palestinian protests by US college students The investigation comes amid rising international anger over the high death toll and suffering among Palestinian civilians in Gaza during Israel’s drive to destroy the militant group Hamas, whose October 7 attack in Israel claimed some 1,200 Israeli lives. U.S. college students have staged pro-Palestinian protests on campuses across the United States. Asked about the protests during a press conference Friday in Beijing, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that in America, it is a “hallmark of our democracy that our citizens make known their views, their concerns, their anger at any given time, and I think that reflects the strength of the country, the strength of democracy.” “This could be over tomorrow, it could have been over yesterday, it could have been over months ago, if Hamas had put down its weapons, stopped hiding behind civilians, released the hostages, and surrendered, but of course, it has chosen not to do that,” Blinken said. “And it is also notable that there is silence about Hamas” from the students. VOA White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara and VOA White House Correspondent Anita Powell contributed to this story.

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Hundreds of students at U.S. universities have been arrested in protests against Israel’s war in Gaza. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the protests are a hallmark of U.S. democracy but criticized students for their silence on Hamas. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara reports.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Secretary Blinken and President XI meet in Beijing, discuss Russia, Ukraine and the South China Sea. Rabbis protest in Gaza and Donald Trump asks the Supreme Court for Immunity. The Head of Parliament in Vietnam resigns over a corruption scandal and an Iranian rapper is behind sentenced to death.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — It has been only a day since the transitional presidential council was installed in Haiti, and the list of demands on the Caribbean nation's new leaders is rapidly growing. Haitians want security, food, jobs — and they want them now.  The members of the council, tasked with bringing political stability to Haiti, are under immense pressure to produce quick results, despite a deep-seated crisis that has been years in the making.  Making Haiti safer is a priority. More than 2,500 people were killed or injured from January to March alone, and more than 90,000 have fled the capital of Port-au-Prince so far this year amid relentless gang violence.  “The task is really monumental,” said Robert Fatton, a Haitian politics expert at the University of Virginia.  Gangs have burned police stations, opened fire on the main international airport that has been closed since early March, and stormed the country’s two biggest prisons, releasing more than 4,000 inmates.  Gangs now control 80% of Port-au-Prince, and though they have long depended on powerful politicians and the country’s economic elite for their survival, they are increasingly becoming self-sufficient.  “How you extricate yourself from that is very complicated,” Fatton said. “I don’t expect the presidential council to come up with a solution.”  However, the council could push for disarmament and find ways to ease poverty in the slums, he added. “Those gangs are simply not going to go away by simply saying, ‘We want you to be nice guys.’”  The nine-member council acknowledged the challenges it faces after it was sworn in early Thursday at the National Palace, located in an area in downtown Port-au-Prince that has been under attack by gangs in recent weeks.  Gunfire erupted during the ceremony as some officials looked around the room. Hours later, the new interim prime minister, Michel Boisvert, addressed the council.  “The task ahead is daunting,” Boisvert said. “I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the population expects a lot from you ... everything becomes a priority alongside security.”  How exactly the council plans to tackle the daunting tasks is unclear. Its members have met behind closed doors with top government officials as they prepare to choose a new prime minister, a Cabinet and a provisional electoral commission. They will also establish a national security council.  However, no strategy to quell gang violence has been publicly announced. Several council members did not return messages seeking comment Friday.  After the swearing-in ceremony, curious pedestrians slowed down as they passed by the building housing the prime minister’s office.  Some were openly displeased. “Thieves and gangs! That’s all they are!” yelled a man as he drove past on his motorcycle.  There wasn't much hope at a crowded makeshift shelter set up at Haiti’s former Ministry of Communications — a building the government had abandoned due to gang violence.  Rose Hippolite, 66, was forced to flee her Port-au-Prince home with her four children after gangs raided their neighborhood. They have now spent two months in the yard of the ministry building, sleeping on the ground or sitting in a corner when it rains, waiting for the ground to dry out.  Gunshots ring out every day across the city. “We live in fear,” she said. “Only God knows if the new leaders will help.”  Nancy Philemon, a 42-year-old mother of six children, sat under a large and tattered umbrella nearby, selling candy and other small items to shelter refugees. “I don’t have any hope,” she said. “Instead of things getting better, they are getting worse. ... There is no safe place anywhere.”  Haiti’s National Police remains largely overwhelmed by gangs that are better armed and have more resources. More than 15 officers have been killed by gangs so far this year.  Lionel Lazarre, general coordinator for the SYNAPOHA police union, told The Associated Press over the phone Friday that the council must prioritize security “above everything."  Police need so much, he said, including combat helicopters, armed vehicles, drones, high-caliber weapons and infrared thermal imaging for nighttime operations.  “It is important to us that the council meet with us urgently,” Lazarre said. “I believe if there is political will, we have hope things can change.”  There is hope because for the past three weeks, police have managed to prevent gangs from taking over the National Palace and multiple police stations, he said.  Fatton, the Haitian expert, said he heard predictions on the radio about how the council is doomed to fail “if things don’t change with the security situation."  “They have a very short period of time to get their act together and get results,” he said.

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GENEVA — The United Nations says Sudan’s warring parties appear headed toward major clashes in the northern Darfur city of El Fasher, home to 2 million people and about a half-million internally displaced. The office of the spokesperson for the U.N. secretary-general said in a statement Friday that “The Rapid Support Forces [RSF] are reportedly encircling El Fasher, suggesting a coordinated move to attack the city may be imminent. Simultaneously, the Sudanese Armed Forces [SAF] appear to be positioning themselves.” The statement said the secretary-general's personal envoy, Ramtane Lamamra, is working with the parties to de-escalate tensions in El Fasher. At least 43 people, including women and children, reportedly have been killed in fighting in the northern Darfur city since April 14 when the RSF, backed by its allied militia, began a push to gain control of the city, the SAF’s last remaining stronghold in Sudan’s Darfur region. Earlier, a spokesperson for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk urged the parties to immediately halt violence in and around El Fasher. Speaking from the Kenyan capital of Nairobi, Seif Magango warned that the fight for El Fasher, already raging outside the city for several weeks, may be taking a turn for the worse.  “Reports indicate that both parties have launched indiscriminate attacks using explosive weapons with wide-area effects, such as mortar shells and rockets fired from fighter jets, in residential districts,” the spokesperson said. “Since early April, the RSF has conducted several large-scale attacks on the villages in western El Fasher mostly inhabited by the African Zaghawa ethnic community,” he said, noting that several Zaghawa villages have been burned down. “Such attacks raise the specter of further ethnically motivated violence in Darfur, including mass killings,” he said. Last year, fighting and attacks between the Rizeigat and the African Masalit communities in West Darfur left hundreds of civilians dead or injured, and thousands displaced from their homes. The earlier Darfur conflict that erupted in 2003 between Arab and non-Arab communities killed at least 200,000 people and left a deadly legacy of mines and explosive remnants of war, which continue to wreak havoc on communities long after that war ended. The new war between rival factions of Sudan’s military that broke out last year has left more than 18 million people facing acute food insecurity and uprooted nearly 9 million from their homes. OHCHR spokesperson Magango said civilians trapped in El Fasher are afraid they will be killed if they try to flee the city. “This dire situation is compounded by a severe shortage of essential supplies as deliveries of commercial goods and humanitarian aid have been heavily constrained by the fighting, and delivery trucks are unable to freely transit through RSF-controlled territory,” he said. High Commissioner Türk is urging both parties to the conflict and their allies to grant civilians safe passage to other areas and allow safe and unhindered humanitarian aid to reach civilians in dire need. For his part, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has reiterated his call on all warring parties “to refrain from fighting in the El Fasher area,” warning of devastating consequences for the civilian population that is “in an area already on the brink of famine.”

Uganda has been using fertilizers since World War II. The first lady's comments came amid a fake fertilizer scandal unfolding in Kenya's presidential administration.

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