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Ceasefire and divestment calls have spread beyond US campuses, with more expected as Rafah offensive begins

University campuses around the world have been the stage of a growing number of protests by students demanding academic institutions divest from companies supplying arms to Israel.

The protests, which first spread across college campuses in the US, have reached universities in the UK, the rest of Europe, as well as Lebanon and India.
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Some students have begun hunger strikes in protest against their university’s “silence and inaction”.
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BUENOS AIRES, April 30 (Reuters) - Argentina's lower house of Congress gave President Javier Milei a boost on Tuesday by approving his sweeping reform bill ahead of a final Senate vote and backing articles related to privatizing state bodies and labour reform.
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Catalonia, in northeastern Spain, created a Ministry of Equality and Feminisms focused on women's sexual and reproductive rights.

MOSCOW, April 25 (Reuters) - Russia said on Thursday that Poland was playing a "very dangerous game" by considering the possibility of hosting U.S. nuclear weapons.

Polish President Andrzej Duda said on Thursday he had invited Prime Minister Donald Tusk for talks on May 1 about the possibility of nuclear weapons from NATO states being deployed in Poland.

Duda has reiterated his position that Poland would be ready for such a possibility, prompting Tusk to say he would like a clarification from the president.
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Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said any U.S. nuclear missiles in Poland could become targets in the event of a Russia-NATO war.

"It is not difficult to assume that if American nuclear weapons appear on Polish territory, the corresponding objects will immediately join the list of legitimate targets for destruction in the case of direct military conflict with NATO," she told reporters at her weekly briefing.

The Freedom Flotilla could depart Friday with 5,500 tons of aid for Gaza, amid Israel’s ongoing siege and blockade.

Activists are planning to lead a flotilla of ships to Gaza, amid Israel’s ongoing siege. They’ll transport 5,500 tons of desperately needed food and supplies from Istanbul to the Palestinian territory, where famine looms.

The activists don’t necessarily expect to make it there. They hope they do. But in the event that Israel blocks them, boards them, and detains them — or worse — they hope their efforts will inspire international outcry and put more pressure on Israel to end its war in Gaza and blockade around the territory.
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A Biden spokesperson declined to comment on the flotilla and did not respond to questions about whether the administration has been lobbying Turkey to block the voyage.
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Wynd Kaufmyn, an activist from Berkeley traveling with the flotilla, says the participants hope that “there will be enough international eyes on us that Israel will leave us alone, and we get the aid in, and we hope that it’s just the beginning of getting aid in.”

She acknowledges, though, if the flotilla is allowed to depart from Istanbul, participants need to be ready for Israel to “board us, take control of the boat, confiscate everything, deport us, and not treat us very well in the process.”

“We are totally idealistic,” she says. “We’re not being unrealistic.”

They could benefit from a diversity of hormones, empathy about their experience, and a frank approach to sexuality—all hallmarks of trans health care.

A little-known amendment to the reauthorized version of Fisa would enlarge the government’s surveillance powers to a drastic, draconian degree

As the war on Gaza reached its six-month mark, it continues to be a war on women. According to UN Women estimates, more than 10,000 women have been killed to date, among them an estimated 6,000 mothers who left 19,000 orphan children behind. Women who have survived have been displaced, widowed, and are facing starvation. More than one million women and girls in Gaza have almost no food, no access to safe water, latrines, washrooms, or sanitary pads, with disease growing amidst inhumane living conditions.

Since the start of the war, UN Women has been documenting the experiences of women in Gaza in a series of gender alerts that look at various aspects of how the war is impacting the daily lives of women and girls, including food, water, shelter, health, and protection. This new alert is the latest in this series, and it focuses on water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services, which are integral to women’s health, dignity, safety, and privacy.

Additional documents

• [Publication (PDF, 673KB)](https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/2024-04/gender-alert-gender-analysis-of-the-impact-of-the-war-in-gaza-on-vital-services-essential-to-womens-and-girls-health-safety-en.pdf)
  
  

• [Arabic version (PDF, 660KB)](https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/2024-04/gender-alert-gender-analysis-of-the-impact-of-the-war-in-gaza-on-vital-services-essential-to-womens-and-girls-health-safety-ar.pdf)
  
  

The United Arab Emirates likes to think of itself as a sort of Switzerland of the Gulf. Microsoft’s (MSFT.O), opens new tab $1.5 billion stake in Abu Dhabi artificial intelligence company G42, announced opens new tab on Tuesday, shows the limits of remaining a neutral counterparty of the United States and China, especially when it comes to AI. While nominally a private sector deal, the main upshot is to shove the UAE firmly into the U.S. camp.

As part of Tuesday’s deal, Microsoft President Brad Smith will join the board of G42, and the $3 trillion group will get to sell a set proportion of cloud capacity to G42, a person familiar with the matter told Breakingviews. G42 in return can use its AI models on Microsoft’s platforms. But there’s an additional, political condition: G42 has to stop using Huawei telecom equipment, which the United States reckons the Chinese government employs for intelligence.

In some ways, China and the UAE have a close relationship – not least because the Middle Kingdom buys lots of Abu Dhabi oil. (...)