Comment on U.S. cuts millions in aid to Central America, fulfilling Trump's vow

A growing number of college students nationwide are staging encampments to protest their universities’ investments in Israeli entities in light of Israel’s war on Gaza, which has reportedly killed more than 34,000 Palestinians. The protests have sparked mass arrests and suspensions, including at Columbia University, where more than 100 students—including some from Barnard, the all-women’s college located across the street from Columbia’s campus, which has a partnership with the university—were arrested last week after occupying the upper Manhattan campus. Central to protesters’ demands are for the universities to divest from companies that fund corporations closely connected to Israel’s military operations and for administrators to allow pro-Palestinian protesters to demonstrate without threats of disciplinary action. Many of the protests have sprung up the past few days after the groups National Students for Justice in Palestine and Palestinian Youth Movement put out a call this weekend “to take back the university and force the administration to divest, for the people of Gaza.” The encampments appear to be largely peaceful, with demonstrators seen attending teach-ins and chanting in solidarity.

Last week, Justice Juan Merchan pulled off an impressive feat in the New York Supreme Court’s criminal division: He finished empaneling 18 jurors in the first-ever criminal trial of a former president. This was not easy. Donald Trump’s first criminal trial—of the four he faces in the coming months—concerns 34 counts of falsifying business records, including a reported hush money payment he made to pornstar Stormy Daniels to cover up an alleged affair, in an attempt to influence the 2016 presidential election.

The first criminal trial of a former US president is underway, with Donald Trump facing 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to hush-money payments allegedly made in 2016 to cover up an affair he had with adult film star Stormy Daniels. Here’s the latest—the key updates and absurd moments—from the historic trial. “The people call David Pecker.” And with that, the first witness in Donald Trump’s criminal trial took the stand on Monday, where prosecutors questioned the former president and CEO of American Media Inc., the parent company of the National Enquirer, about the practice of “catch and kill” to buy exclusive stories to prevent them from appearing in other publications.

Helen Cruz has been a resident of Grants Pass, Oregon, for roughly four decades, but for the last five of those years, she’s had no home in which to live. She’s not alone. Her small mountain town with a population of 39,189 provides no public homeless shelters. She is among up to 600 people experiencing homelessness in that community. On Monday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments about their disputed right to sleep outside.

And in a truly Orwellian twist, what we call “conservatism” is now “pragmatic progressivism.”

Columbia’s challenge is to get back to where it was and where it might yet be; that’s also the challenge for America.