Small Anti-war Protest Ruffles University of Michigan Graduation Ceremony

Students protest in support of Palestine during the University of Michigan's Spring Commencement ceremony on May 4, 2024 at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Michigan. (Getty Images/AFP)
Students protest in support of Palestine during the University of Michigan's Spring Commencement ceremony on May 4, 2024 at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Michigan. (Getty Images/AFP)
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Small Anti-war Protest Ruffles University of Michigan Graduation Ceremony

Students protest in support of Palestine during the University of Michigan's Spring Commencement ceremony on May 4, 2024 at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Michigan. (Getty Images/AFP)
Students protest in support of Palestine during the University of Michigan's Spring Commencement ceremony on May 4, 2024 at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Michigan. (Getty Images/AFP)

Protesters chanted anti-war messages and waved Palestinian flags during the University of Michigan's commencement Saturday, as student demonstrations against the Israel-Hamas war collided with the annual pomp-and-circumstance of graduation ceremonies.

No arrests were reported and the protest — comprised of about 50 people, many wearing traditional Arabic kaffiyeh along with their graduation caps — didn’t seriously interrupt the nearly two-hour event at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, which was attended by tens of thousands of people.

One protest banner read: "No universities left in Gaza."

US Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro paused a few times during his remarks, saying at one point, "Ladies and gentlemen, if you can please draw your attention back to the podium."

As he administered an oath to graduates in the armed forces, Del Toro said they would "protect the freedoms that we so cherish," including the "right to protest peacefully."

The university has allowed protesters to set up an encampment on campus, but police assisted in breaking up a large gathering Friday night, and one person was arrested.

Tent encampments of protesters calling on universities to stop doing business with Israel or companies they say support the war in Gaza have spread across campuses nationwide in recent weeks in a student movement unlike any other this century. Some schools have reached deals with the protesters to end the demonstrations and reduce the possibility of disrupting final exams and commencements.

Some encampments have been dismantled and protesters arrested in police crackdowns.

The Associated Press has recorded at least 61 incidents since April 18 where arrests were made at campus protests across the US. More than 2,400 people have been arrested on 47 college and university campuses. The figures are based on AP reporting and statements from universities and law enforcement agencies.

In other developments Saturday, protesters took down an encampment at Tufts University near Boston.

The school in Medford, Massachusetts, said it was pleased with the development, which wasn’t the result of any agreement with protesters. Protest organizers said in a statement that they were "deeply angered and disappointed" that negotiations with the university had failed.

At Princeton, in New Jersey, 18 students launched a hunger strike in an effort to push the university to divest from companies tied to Israel.

Senior David Chmielewski, a hunger striker, said in an email Saturday that it started Friday morning with participants, including some on "24-hour solidarity fasts," consuming water only. He said the hunger strike will continue until university administrators meet with students about their demands, which include amnesty from criminal and disciplinary charges for protest participants.

Princeton students set up a protest encampment and some held a sit-in an administrative building earlier this week, leading to about 15 arrests.

Students at other colleges, including Brown and Yale, launched similar hunger strikes earlier this year before the more recent wave of protest encampments.

The protests stem from the Israel-Hamas conflict that started on Oct. 7 when Hamas fighters attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking roughly 250 hostages.

Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel launched an offensive in Gaza that has killed more than 34,500 Palestinians, around two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory. Israeli strikes have devastated the enclave and displaced most of Gaza’s inhabitants.



China to US: 'Market Has Spoken' after Tariffs Spur Selloff

US and Chinese flags and a label with the word "34% Tariffs" are seen in this illustration taken, April 4, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
US and Chinese flags and a label with the word "34% Tariffs" are seen in this illustration taken, April 4, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
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China to US: 'Market Has Spoken' after Tariffs Spur Selloff

US and Chinese flags and a label with the word "34% Tariffs" are seen in this illustration taken, April 4, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
US and Chinese flags and a label with the word "34% Tariffs" are seen in this illustration taken, April 4, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

China said on Saturday "the market has spoken" in rejecting US President Donald Trump's tariffs, and called on Washington for "equal-footed consultation" after global markets plunged in reaction to the trade levies that drew Chinese retaliation.

Several Chinese commerce associations in industries from healthcare and textiles to electronics also issued statements on Saturday calling for unity in exploring alternative markets and saying the tariffs would worsen inflation in the United States.

Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan told public broadcaster RTHK, however, Hong Kong would not impose separate countermeasures, citing the need for the city to remain "free and open".

"The market has spoken," Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said in a post on Facebook on Saturday. He also posted a picture capturing Friday's falls on US markets, Reuters reported.

Trump introduced additional 34% tariffs on Chinese goods as part of steep levies imposed on most US trade partners, bringing the total duties on China this year to 54%.

Trump also closed a trade loophole that had allowed low-value packages from China to enter the US duty-free.

This prompted retaliation from China on Friday, including extra levies of 34% on all US goods and export curbs on some rare earths, escalating the trade war between the world's two largest economies.

Global stock markets plummeted following China's retaliation and Trump's comments on Friday that he would not change course, extending sharp losses that followed Trump's initial tariff announcement earlier in the week and marking the biggest losses since the pandemic. For the week, the S&P 500 was down 9%.

"Now is the time for the US to stop doing the wrong things and resolve the differences with trading partners through equal-footed consultation," Guo wrote in English.

China's chamber of commerce, representing traders in food products, called on "China's food and agricultural products import and export industry to unite and strengthen cooperation to jointly explore domestic and foreign markets".

Hong Kong's Chan said it strongly opposes Trump's actions and would persist in being "free and open".

"Allowing a free flow of capital and acting as a free port are our advantages, and this will not change," Chan told public broadcaster RTHK.

"The rules-based multilateral trading system is our core," he said.