TV News LIES

Who tends to get the big foreign policy calls right: student protesters, or their detractors? Answering this question, it turns out, is useful if you don’t want to end up judged poorly by history.

Student protesters were vilified when they stood against the Vietnam war, yet now, who would have wanted to be on the side that denigrated them variously as naive, dupes and extremists? How should we look back at the students suspended after walking out of lessons in protest at the impending war in Iraq in 2003? Today we might say they come off looking pretty good, having had far more foresight than the seasoned politicians and ageing media commentators who cheered that particular cataclysm on back then.

That legacy loomed large on Wednesday in a courtyard at Trinity College Dublin, filled with students waving Palestinian flags alongside the Irish tricolour, as the triumphant student union president, László Molnárfi, told them their protests would succeed in Ireland, the US and across the world “because our cause is right”. The students were jubilant, because they had won.

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A slew of students walked out of Duke University’s commencement ceremony on Sunday to protest Israel’s war in Gaza just as the university’s commencement speaker, Jerry Seinfeld, was set to speak.

Videos posted on social media—but omitted from the university’s livestream—showed students walking out as Duke President Vincent Price introduced the comedian, who received an honorary doctorate. Other students erupted into dual jeers and cheers of “Jerry!”

Seinfeld’s speech largely steered clear of his recent public scuffles, focusing instead on jokes surrounding the students, AI, and his honorary degree. In a riff on the idea of privilege, though, he made specific mention of his heritage to loud cheers.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday the U.S. is still collecting evidence and reviewing allegations that Israel violated U.S. policy and international humanitarian law in Gaza.

The State Department in a much anticipated report on Friday evening said it's "reasonable to assess" that Israel used U.S.-made arms.

"It's reasonable to assess that in a number of instances, Israel has not acted in a manner that is consistent with international humanitarian law," Blinken said Sunday on CBS.in ways that did not sufficiently mitigate civilian harm, but it could not definitively conclude that any specific incident met the violation threshold.

Moscow’s forces captured five villages in a renewed ground assault in northeastern Ukraine, the Russian Defense Ministry said Saturday, and Associated Press journalists in the city of Vovchansk described multiple buildings destroyed after Russian airstrikes and barrages of Grad rockets.

Ukrainian officials didn’t confirm whether Russian had taken the villages, which lie in a contested “gray zone” on the border of Ukraine’s Kharkiv region and Russia.

Ukrainian journalists reported that the villages of Borysivka, Ohirtseve, Pylna and Strilecha were taken by Russian troops on Friday. Russia said the village of Pletenivka was also taken.

In an evening statement Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said fighting was still ongoing in the settlements of Strilecha and Pletenivka, as well as Krasne, Morokhovets, Oliinykove, Lukyantsi and Hatyshche.

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Katie Britt, the Republican US senator from Alabama best known for delivering a widely ridiculed State of the Union speech in March, marked the run-up to Mother’s Day on Sunday by introducing a bill to create a federal database to collect data on pregnant people.

The More Opportunities for Moms to Succeed (Moms) act proposes to establish an online government database called “pregnancy.gov” listing resources related to pregnancy, including information about adoption agencies and pregnancy care providers, except for those that provide abortion-related services.

Students at the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) walked out of their commencement ceremony to protest an address by Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-Va.).

About 100 of the 1,200 graduates at the graduation ceremony Saturday quietly filed out of the Greater Richmond Convention Center, some wearing kaffiyeh scarves and signs reading “Teach Black history” and “Book bans [do not equal] respect for learning,” The Washington Post reported.

Youngkin, who won election in 2021, continued on with his speech. The Hill has reached out to Youngkin’s office for comment.

Pro-Palestine protests have continued at multiple universities this weekend, with students attempting to send a message during their commencement ceremonies.

Student at University of North Carolina Chapel Hill protested outside campus buildings, splattering red paint on the steps of one, the News and Observer reported.

“Today is UNC’s graduation commencement and students have established an encampment at the famous bell tower, where many graduates will want to take their graduation photos,” National Students for Justice in Palestine posted online.

At the end of the chancellor’s commencement address, students moved up the center aisle carrying two Palestinian flags. They were met with boos and people chanting “USA!” The people were ushered away by police, the outlet reported.

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