Month: November 2023

Cornell University has canceled Friday classes due to “extraordinary stress”, after a junior at the university was federally charged with making antisemitic threats.

The school paper The Cornell Daily Sun reported that Friday will serve as a “community day,” according to an email to students and staff from Provost Michael Kotlikoff and Christine Lovely, the vice president and chief human resources officer. The email read: “No classes will be held, and faculty and staff will be excused from work, except for employees who provide essential services. We hope that everyone will use this restorative time to take care of yourselves and reflect on how we can nurture the kind of caring, mutually supportive community that we all value.”

It comes after officials at the university said antisemitic “threats of violence” appeared online over the weekend.  Federal prosecutors in the Northern District of New York said that Patrick Dai, a 21-year-old junior at the Ivy League school, was charged on Tuesday with posting threats to kill or injure another using interstate communications. Prosecutors said that in an online discussion board, Dai allegedly threatened to “shoot up” a campus building. In another post, he said he would “stab” or “slit the throat” of Jewish men, and rape or throw off a cliff Jewish women he encounters on campus. He also said he would behead Jewish babies and threatened to “bring an assault rifle to campus and shoot all you” Jewish people.  School officials said that the threats specifically named the school’s Center for Jewish Living.

Dai appeared in federal court Wednesday but did not enter a plea. He was assigned a federal public defender during the initial court appearance, and a preliminary hearing was scheduled for Nov. 15.  Tensions increased at the Ithaca, NY campus after university police on Wednesday received a report of a male subject displaying a pistol on campus. A search was conducted and police said the report was “unfounded.” University President Martha E. Pollack also said in a statement Wednesday that the crime alert was unsubstantiated, but that “it adds to the stress we are all feeling .. Cornell Police continue to have an increased presence on campus, and especially in high-priority areas.”

Editorial credit: Hexa Studio Design / Shutterstock.com

Desmond Mills Jr., one of the former Memphis police officer charged in the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols will become the first of five officers charged in the case to break ranks with his former colleagues and change his not guilty plea. According to federal court documents and his lawyer, a change of plea hearing has been scheduled on Thursday for Mills.

Mills and four other former Memphis Police Department officers — Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin and Justin Smith — were charged in federal court with using excessive force, failing to intervene, deliberate indifference and conspiring to lie after they were caught on camera punching, kicking and hitting Nichols with a police baton on Jan. 7. Nichols, 29, died three days later in a hospital. The federal charges also include obstruction of justice through witness tampering. The five former officers also have pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and other charges in state court.

Blake Ballin, Mills’ lawyer, said he could not discuss details of the plea agreement, including which charges it pertains to. Ballin said Mills was changing his plea “to take responsibility for his actions.” Mills also plans to enter a plea agreement in state court, but that would not take place until later.

The fatal beating of Nichols sparked protests and renewed debate about police brutality and police reform in the U.S. The five former officers, who are also black, were fired from the department and the crime-suppression team they were part of disbanded after Nichols’ death.

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Evacuations of those trapped in the Gaza Strip began through the Rafah border crossing for the first time since Israel imposed a siege on the Palestinian enclave after the Hamas attack on Oct. 7. An initial group of U.S. citizens were among those that departed Gaza through the Rafah crossing today, and are now in Egypt, with hundreds of foreign passport-holdersalso set to leave. The crossing was opened after Egypt, Hamas and Israel agreed that up to 500 people may cross daily.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller confirmed some American citizens have left Gaza but he wouldn’t provide a specific number, telling reporters on Wednesday: “There are a number of American citizens who have crossed through Rafah and are in Egypt today.”  Miller said the situation in Gaza “remains extremely fluid.” Americans and their family members who want to leave Gaza will be emailed departure instructions over the next three days

In Minnesota at an event about his economic agenda, President Biden said more people will be able to leave Gaza in the days ahead: “We’re working nonstop to get Americans out of Gaza as soon and as safely as possible.” At least five nongovernmental organization workers who have been confirmed as Americans were on a list released by Gaza’s Hamas-controlled interior ministry as approved to cross on Wednesday, but it remains to be seen how many more of the at least 400 Americans stuck in Gaza will be able to cross in the coming days.

Footage showed the gate of the crossing on the Palestinian side of the border being opened Wednesday morning as people began to cross into Egypt for the first time since the war began. Reuters reported that at least 320 foreign passport holders had crossed into Egypt from Gaza, with some 545 foreigners and dual nationals along with dozens of sick and wounded expected to leave throughout the day. After being allowed into the terminal area, huge lines of those waiting to leave formed around crossing booths for checks on passports and other documents.

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