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Suspension of Most Columbia Students Disciplined over Gaza Protests is Removed

FILE - A demonstrator waves a flag on the Columbia University campus at a pro-Palestinian protest encampment, in New York, April 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)
FILE - A demonstrator waves a flag on the Columbia University campus at a pro-Palestinian protest encampment, in New York, April 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)
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Suspension of Most Columbia Students Disciplined over Gaza Protests is Removed

FILE - A demonstrator waves a flag on the Columbia University campus at a pro-Palestinian protest encampment, in New York, April 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)
FILE - A demonstrator waves a flag on the Columbia University campus at a pro-Palestinian protest encampment, in New York, April 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)

Most students at Columbia University who faced disciplinary action, suspension or arrest for participating in pro-Palestinian protests opposing Israel's war in Gaza and calling for an end to US military support to its ally, will soon return to campus, information shared by the institute showed.
WHY IT'S IMPORTANT
The United States has seen months of protests, including at Columbia and many educational institutions. Columbia's handling of those protests led to the resignation of its president, Minouche Shafik, last week.
Pro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia had set up dozens of tents in April and demanded the university sell its Israeli assets. The university administration called on police to clear the encampments, a step condemned by rights groups.
BY THE NUMBERS
From the 40 students arrested or disciplined when the university called upon police to the campus on April 18, only two remain suspended, according to information released by a Republican-led US congressional panel.
The panel probing allegations of antisemitism on campus asked for this information from the university and was critical of Columbia by saying its actions were insufficient.
From the over 80 students arrested between April 29 and May 1, only five now face interim suspension without access to the campus, the information released on Monday showed.
CONTEXT
Protests in some universities saw occasional violence while police made arrests on campuses to clear encampments.
Dozens of protesters were arrested inside Columbia's famous Hamilton Hall that demonstrators occupied, with medical records showing some suffered serious injuries.
The information shared by the university showed dozens of disciplinary cases are ongoing. Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a group behind the protests, said those students could still face disciplinary action.
Information released on Monday showed Columbia did not charge any protesting students with hate speech.
The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on Oct. 7 when Palestinian group Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies. Israel's subsequent military assault on Hamas-governed Gaza has caused a humanitarian crisis and killed over 40,000 people, the Hamas-run health ministry says.

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Putin Makes a Surprise Trip to Chechnya 3 Weeks into Ukraine’s Cross-Border Incursion 

In this pool photograph distributed by Russian state-owned Sputnik agency Russia's President Vladimir Putin (L) meets with the head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov in Grozny, on August 20, 2024. (Sputnik/ AFP)
In this pool photograph distributed by Russian state-owned Sputnik agency Russia's President Vladimir Putin (L) meets with the head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov in Grozny, on August 20, 2024. (Sputnik/ AFP)
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Putin Makes a Surprise Trip to Chechnya 3 Weeks into Ukraine’s Cross-Border Incursion 

In this pool photograph distributed by Russian state-owned Sputnik agency Russia's President Vladimir Putin (L) meets with the head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov in Grozny, on August 20, 2024. (Sputnik/ AFP)
In this pool photograph distributed by Russian state-owned Sputnik agency Russia's President Vladimir Putin (L) meets with the head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov in Grozny, on August 20, 2024. (Sputnik/ AFP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday made an unscheduled trip to Chechnya, his first visit in nearly 13 years, as Ukraine's stunning cross-border incursion into western Russia entered its third week.

Putin was greeted by Chechnya’s self-styled strongman leader Ramzan Kadyrov, before visiting a special forces academy bearing his own name and speaking with volunteer fighters who train there prior to being deployed in Ukraine.

Putin praised the volunteers and said that as long as Russia has men like them, it will be “invincible,” according to reports by Russian state agencies.

Kadyrov said in a post on his official Telegram channels that more than 47,000 fighters, including volunteers, have trained at the facility since Moscow began what it calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.

Fighters from Chechnya, whose bid for independence after the Soviet Union's collapse led to years of war with Russian government forces, are participating on both sides of the conflict in Ukraine.

Pro-Kyiv volunteers loyal to Dzhokhar Dudayev, the late Chechen pro-independence leader, are the sworn enemies of Chechen forces that back Putin and Kadyrov. The latter joined Russia in the months-long siege of Ukraine’s key port of Mariupol and other flashpoints in the country's south and east.

Also on Tuesday, Putin visited the grave of Kadyrov’s father, former Chechen leader Akhmat Kadyrov, a command post and a mosque in the local capital, Grozny.

At the end of the day, he held talks with the Chechen leader, who announced the republic has “tens of thousands” of reservists ready to fight the Ukrainians, according to Russian state media reports. The reports did not specify whether any of these might be sent to repel Kyiv's incursion into the Russian region of Kursk.

The Kremlin has relied on Kadyrov to keep the North Caucasus stable following years of turmoil. International rights groups have accused Kadyrov's security forces of extrajudicial killings, torture and abductions of dissenters, but Russian authorities have stonewalled repeated demands for investigations.

The Kremlin scrambled fighters from Chechnya to help protect Moscow from an abortive mutiny launched by mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin last year, but some commentators warned that Kadyrov’s ambitions could also potentially pose a threat to federal authorities.

As of Tuesday evening, neither the Kremlin nor Kadyrov shared any details about the purpose and timing of Putin’s unexpected visit, with Kadyrov saying only that “a busy schedule” awaited the Russian leader.

Putin later held talks with Kadyrov at the Chechen leader's residence in Grozny.

Before his surprise visit to Chechnya, Putin was earlier on Tuesday in Beslan, a town in the Caucasus province of North Ossetia, where he had his first meeting in nearly two decades with mothers of children killed in the 2004 school attack by extremist militants that left more than 330 dead.

At the meeting, he slammed Kyiv’s incursion into Russia's Kursk region, accusing the Ukrainians of “trying to destabilize” the country.

“We will punish the criminals. There can be no doubt about that,” he said.