RASM Al-RAWADHY, Syria — The Israeli tanks — 15 of them, together with two armored bulldozers — growled as they superior, their treads churning up the asphalt as they raced into this tiny village, a contingent of paratroopers in tow.

“Mine was the first house they entered. They lined us up — me, my wife, and four kids — against the wall, a soldier for each of us with his machine gun raised,” stated Thyab, recounting that night time in December when Israeli troops, following the lightning-fast collapse of President Bashar Assad’s regime, stormed into Rasm Al-Rawadhy and different villages on Syria’s western edge.

A broken automobile sits amid the particles left by an Israeli strike on a navy airbase close to Hama, Syria, on April 3.

(Related Press)

The troopers, who stated they have been rooting out gunmen threatening Israel, rounded up residents and gave them lower than two hours to assemble belongings and go away. Once they have been allowed to return 38 days later, villagers stated, they discovered their houses ransacked and half destroyed, and the fledgling indicators of a everlasting Israeli presence.

“They even took the cow-milking machine. Who does that?” Thyab stated. Sitting in his front room, he pointed to graffiti in Hebrew left on the partitions by troopers who had made his house an outpost earlier than they pulled again to Rasm Al-Rawadhy’s edge; “Mom, I love you,” one learn; one other gave what seemed to be the rotation order for the outpost’s guard element.

For years, Thyab and his neighbors had maintained a uneventful — if nonetheless cautious — modus vivendi with Israel in Rasm Al-Rawadhy, which lies simply past a U.N.-patrolled buffer zone between Syria and elements of the Golan Heights that Israel occupied in 1967.

However now, the Israelis are shifting nicely past the 150-square-mile buffer zone. Final week, troops superior close to town of Tasil, some 8 miles past the armistice line and the deepest they’ve reached into Syria because the collapse of the Assad authorities.

On a current day, Thyab and his neighbors saved a cautious eye on a pair of navy automobiles standing sentinel up the highway — one in all a number of Israeli patrols which have turn out to be common fixtures right here and in neighboring villages.

“They keep harassing us, asking us if there are gunmen hiding here and if we have weapons,” stated Ammar, a shepherd who like most interviewed didn’t wish to give their full identify to keep away from reprisals. He shouted at his brother to corral the sheep earlier than they strayed too near the Israeli patrol.

The affect of an explosion is seen on the roof of a hangar following an Israeli strike on a navy airbase close to Hama, Syria, on April 3.

(Related Press)

“We spent 14 years of [civil] war dealing with Assad and didn’t get the chance to celebrate getting rid of him,” Ammar stated.

“We went from dictatorship to occupation.”

This has turn out to be life in southwestern Syria, with the specter of ever-deeper Israel incursions an omnipresent worry and lethal confrontations with residents feeding the prospect of an all-out struggle between Israel and Syria’s new authorities.

Particles is scattered on the web site of an Israeli strike on a navy airbase close to Hama, Syria.

(Related Press)

Israel characterised the incursion close to Tasil as a “defensive operation” to destroy an encampment utilized by the Assad-era military, however it turned lethal when armed locals confronted them. Within the ensuing firefight, the Israeli navy scrambled drones and launched artillery, killing 9 individuals and wounding greater than a dozen others, Syrian well being authorities stated.

Accompanying the raid have been dozens of airstrikes that obliterated main navy installations throughout Syria — all a part of an Israeli marketing campaign to preemptively defang Syria’s new authorities.

Israel’s strikes mirror a shift in its technique since Oct. 7, 2023, when the Palestinian militant group Hamas launched an assault that killed round 1,200 Israelis — two-thirds of them civilians — and kidnapped some 250 others. In its wake, Israel hardened its borders with Gaza and Lebanon, increasing outwards to determine demilitarized buffer zones.

Mourners pray over the flag-draped coffins of individuals killed in reported Israeli shelling on Nawa in Syria’s southern province of Daraa, throughout their funeral on April 3.

(Sam Hariri / Getty Photographs)

On Thursday, Israeli Protection Minister Israel Katz stated in a message posted to social media that the strikes in Syria served as a “clear message and a warning for the future.”

“If you allow forces hostile to Israel to enter Syria and endanger Israel’s security interests, you will pay a heavy price,” Katz stated, addressing Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa by his former nom de guerre, Abu Mohammad al Jolani.

In an earlier speech, he stated Israel would stay within the space indefinitely, whereas Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated he wouldn’t permit forces of the brand new Islamist-led authorities to function south of the capital Damascus.

To date, Syria’s leaders have stated they are going to adhere to the 1974 ceasefire settlement. Fearing extra Israeli strikes, government-affiliated factions working in south Syria transported a lot of their heavy materiel to Damascus, in line with two commanders, whereas the international ministry complained in a press release that final week’s raids have been “a deliberate attempt to destabilize Syria and exacerbate the suffering of its people.”

“We’re waiting for the state to tell us what to do. Is it going to be a matter of popular resistance, or is there a government working on the issue?” stated a commander with a pro-government faction within the south. He spoke anonymously as a result of he was not approved to talk to the media.

“We don’t want martyrs to keep on dying. The Israelis have drones, helicopters, tanks, infrared goggles. What do we have? Nothing.”

In the meantime, indicators of Israel establishing a brand new actuality in southwest Syria abound.

Israeli troops have all however commandeered Freeway 7, which hyperlinks to Rasm Al-Rawadhy, forcing vehicles into arduous detours over slim grime tracks and stopping U.N. peacekeeping troops from approaching.

An evaluation by William Goodhind, a satellite tv for pc imagery knowledgeable at Contested Floor, an open entry analysis undertaking, exhibits Israeli troops have cleared land and excavated tracks for a brand new highway alongside the border that may connect with various outposts. The Israeli military introduced it might set up climbing excursions for intrepid day-trippers into areas inside Syria this month.

The Israelis are the latest in a sequence of unwelcome guests that imposed their presence in southwestern Syria. Throughout the civil struggle between Assad and the rebels, the realm was taken over by Al Qaeda-linked teams after which the extremists of Islamic State earlier than they have been dislodged by the Syrian military and its Iran-backed militiamen.

In Al-Hamidiyah, a village simply north of Rasm Al-Rawadhy that also bears the scars of struggle’s destruction, a squad of Israeli troopers in a weathered Humvee stopped incoming automobiles to examine IDs. Up the hill, enveloped in a late-morning fog, have been the hardly there outlines of a brand new Israeli navy outpost. Residents complained troopers restricted their motion and barred them from accessing grazing land for his or her livestock.

“We keep telling the Israelis: There’s no Hezbollah here. There’s no Islamic State here. They’re all gone. There’s only us,” stated a group chief who refused to be named criticizing Israeli troops’ presence for worry of reprisals.

As if addressing an Israeli, he stated, “You’re an occupier. You cut me off from my areas, and you don’t want me to complain about you?”

Israel has used each carrot and stick in coping with communities within the south. It stated it might open up job alternatives for the realm’s Druze minority, who share ties with Israeli Druze communities and have thus far refused to totally combine underneath al-Sharaa’s Islamist-dominated authorities. Elsewhere, Israel provided help packages — a boon for the poverty-stricken inhabitants however one which many rejected.

“We have a government and a state. We don’t need this from the Israelis,” stated Thyab. Moreover, he added, help packages may hardly compensate for the injury troops inflicted on his house.

“I lost more than $10,000 worth of equipment,” he stated. “They think a couple of boxes of rice are going to be enough? You want to compensate, come rebuild everything you destroyed.”

A helmet lies among the many particles scattered on the web site of an Israeli strike on a navy airbase close to Hama, Syria, on Thursday.

(Related Press)

Most villages have grudgingly acquiesced to Israel’s presence, however some stay defiant. Final month in Koawaya, a hamlet wedged close to Syria’s border with Jordan and Israel, Israeli troops have been operating patrols to confiscate weapons when native males opened fireplace to forestall them from coming into the village. In response, troops launched drones and an artillery barrage that killed six individuals, Syria’s Crimson Crescent stated, triggering an exodus of many of the village.

“Any weapons we have are to protect our livestock from wild boars. Let the Israelis stay in their place, we stay in ours, and we won’t have any problems,” stated Hani Mohammad, a retired faculty principal residing in Koawaya who misplaced his daughter within the barrage. He added that he had instructed his neighbors it was pointless to struggle, however the Israeli incursions have been insupportable for many individuals right here.

Considered one of them is Maher, a 35-year-old farmer of tomatoes and zucchinis whose land was within the close by Yarmouk Valley. He now sat on the porch steps of a home on Koawaya’s edge, just a few dozen yards from an Israeli patrol, holding a rusty AK-47 and searching grim as his eyes scanned the sky for an Israeli drone buzzing above.

“They’re stopping us from reaching our lands. What am I going to live on?” he stated.

Final week, the Israeli navy dropped fliers above Koawaya, telling villagers they have been forbidden from having arms once they moved round within the village and its environs. It additionally banned them from accessing the highway towards the valley.

“We warn you,” the flier learn, “You must follow instructions, to preserve the order.”

By HANNAH SCHOENBAUM, Related Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — “No Other Land,” the story of Palestinian activists combating to guard their communities from demolition by the Israeli army, gained the Oscar for greatest documentary on Sunday.

The collaboration between Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers follows activist Basel Adra as he dangers arrest to doc the destruction of his hometown, which Israeli troopers are tearing down to make use of as a army coaching zone, on the southern fringe of the West Financial institution. Adra’s pleas fall on deaf ears till he befriends a Jewish Israeli journalist who helps him amplify his story.

“About two months ago, I became a father, and my hope to my daughter that she will not have to live the same life I’m living now, always fearing settlers, violence, home demolitions and forcible displacements,” stated Adra.

“No Other Land” got here into the evening a high contender after a profitable run on the movie competition circuit. It didn’t, nonetheless, discover a U.S. distributor after being picked up for distribution in 24 international locations. For the Oscar, it beat out “Porcelain War,” “Sugarcane,” “Black Box Diaries” and “Soundtrack to a Coup d’État.”

The documentary was filmed over 4 years between 2019 and 2023, wrapping manufacturing days earlier than Hamas launched its lethal Oct. 7, 2023 assault on Israel that began the struggle in Gaza.

Within the movie, Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham embeds in a neighborhood combating displacement, however he faces some pushback from Palestinians who level out his privileges as an Israeli citizen. Adra says he’s unable to go away the West Financial institution and is handled like a felony, whereas Abraham can come and go freely.

The movie is closely reliant on camcorder footage from Adra’s private archive. He captures Israeli troopers bulldozing the village college and filling water wells with cement to stop individuals from rebuilding.

Residents of the small, rugged area of Masafer Yatta band collectively after Adra movies an Israeli soldier capturing a neighborhood man who’s protesting the demolition of his residence. The person turns into paralyzed, and his mom struggles to care for him whereas dwelling in a cave.

Initially Revealed: March 2, 2025 at 9:25 PM EST

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam — Navy officers stoop to examine slim inexperienced cannons alongside the Saigon River. Development gear whines as employees erect towering bleachers in a downtown park. Fighter jets and helicopters roar above town in observe drills.

For weeks, Vietnam has been making ready this metropolis for the anniversary of a defining second within the nation’s historical past: On April 30, 1975, North Vietnamese forces stormed the Presidential Palace in Saigon, the governing seat of the Republic of Vietnam, simply days after U.S. troops had withdrawn. The victory of the communist regime over the U.S. allied armies within the south successfully ended a pricey, three decades-long battle and unified the nation.

Fifty years later, Vietnam is celebrating April 30 like by no means earlier than. However amid the fanfare of parades, fireworks and airshows, a long-standing debate over what to name the vacation continues, a refined acknowledgment of the lingering scars of a contentious struggle.

Victorious North Vietnamese troops take up positions exterior Independence Palace in Saigon on April 30, 1975.

(Yves Billy / Related Press)

The official designation is “The Liberation of the South and National Reunification Day,” nevertheless it’s identified by many different names. Vietnamese who’re aligned with the ruling communist social gathering right here typically discuss with it as Liberation Day or Victory Day, whereas those that resettled within the U.S. nonetheless use phrases equivalent to Black April or Nationwide Day of Resentment. Many Vietnamese in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh Metropolis — as Saigon is understood right this moment — say they merely discuss with it as April 30.

Within the run-up to the fiftieth anniversary beneath Basic Secretary To Lam, who assumed social gathering management in August, lecturers say that state media and authorities have embraced the shorthand “Reunification Day.”

“It has been a divisive issue for Vietnamese within Vietnam, and also between the government of Vietnam and the diaspora,” mentioned Tuong Vu, a professor of political science on the College of Oregon and founding director of its U.S.-Vietnam Analysis Heart. “But this year, they have talked a bit more about national reconciliation and unification.”

All through historical past, completely different names have typically been given to the identical wars and holidays, relying on who’s framing the battle. Right here the Vietnam Warfare is known as the American Warfare, or the Resistance Warfare In opposition to America.

The Hien Luong Bridge, situated inside the Demilitarized Zone in Quang Tri province, is an emblem of the Vietnam Warfare.

(Magdalena Chodownik / Getty Photographs)

The American Civil Warfare was typically referred within the South because the Warfare Between the States, and, later, the Warfare of Northern Aggression. The 1973 Arab-Israeli Warfare is often known as the Yom Kippur Warfare and the October Warfare, amongst different names.

Teachers counsel that, for Vietnam, utilizing the extra impartial title of Reunification Day may assist bridge a spot with the generations of Vietnamese who grew up overseas.

“It does show an effort to reach out to the other side, and that’s what many people have been advising the government,” Vu mentioned. “If you want to take advantage of the strength of the diaspora, then you have to tone down your rhetoric.”

In February, secretary of the Ho Chi Minh Metropolis Celebration Committee Nguyen Van Nen mentioned the vacation needs to be thought-about a day of peace.

“It must be affirmed that it was a war of national defense, not about winning or losing. On the day peace came, there were mixed emotions — some felt joy; others sorrow. But after 50 years, personal sorrow needs to merge with the joy of the nation,” he mentioned, in response to Vietnamese media.

Vietnam’s dedication to navigate a altering geopolitical panorama — with a versatile strategy often called “bamboo diplomacy” — has additionally influenced the language its leaders use to explain the previous.

For instance, Vu mentioned official statements now have fewer references to a “puppet government” in what was previously South Vietnam, a time period used to delegitimize its former adversary and denounce America’s involvement within the struggle. He added this shift was most likely made within the hope of bettering cooperation with the U.S. and to strengthen Vietnam’s territorial claims to a number of islands within the South China Sea.

The nation has benefited from sustaining sturdy bilateral ties to each China and the U.S., its two largest buying and selling companions, even because the rivalry between the 2 superpowers has intensified.

A gardener waters flowers exterior the newly rebuilt Kien Trung Palace inside the Imperial Metropolis of Hue.

(David Rising / Related Press)

“They just kind of worked to build relationships with everybody and become a bigger player because of their economic development,” mentioned Scot Marciel, a former ambassador primarily based in Vietnam when it resumed diplomatic relations with the U.S. in 1995. “The business community has tended to view Vietnam as really a rising star in the region. It’s been a very steady, very pragmatic approach.”

Vietnam additionally invited army personnel from China, Cambodia and Laos to take part in its vacation parade.

“Vietnam prioritizes its relationship with regional and ideological allies as much as this strategic partnership with the U.S.,” mentioned An Nguyen, a historian and lecturer on the College of Maine. “Maintaining that balance, I think, is becoming much harder in today’s context.

Hai Nguyen Hong, a senior lecturer of politics and international relations at Vin University in Hanoi, said he’s noticed the use of terms such as Liberation Day and Anti-American War has decreased over the past three-plus years. That shift, he said, can go a long way in changing perceptions in Vietnam and promoting national harmony.

“The day itself is a historical day. You can’t change it,” Hong mentioned. “What you can change, and what you can see and observe change, is the mood and the attitude of the Vietnamese people.”

Vietnamese media and on-line discourse are tightly managed, and there are not any nationwide surveys that embrace uncensored opinions in regards to the authorities. However forward of the high-profile commemoration on Wednesday, reactions to the celebration on the streets of Ho Chi Minh Metropolis ranged from enthusiasm to ambivalence.

Tran Thi Mortgage Anh, 27, and Phan Minh Quan, 26, in Ho Chi Minh Metropolis, mentioned they may camp out within the early morning of the parade on Wednesday to get a superb view of the fiftieth anniversary celebration.

(Stephanie Yang / Los Angeles Instances)

Tran Thi Mortgage Anh, a 27-year-old tax advisor, mentioned that she and her associates plan to camp out downtown at 3 a.m. the day of the parade, as a way to safe a front-row view.

“I’ve been impressed by how the government has organized events that foster patriotism and national pride,” she mentioned. “I’m especially struck by how music is used — traditional songs about the nation performed in such powerful, stirring ways.”

Pham Phu Quy, a driver and deliveryman, was a teen in Saigon in 1975, with a father who labored for the South Vietnamese authorities, and a mom who labored for the northern military. At this time, the 69-year-old mentioned, Vietnam offers a freedom that differs from his childhood experiences. In the course of the struggle, troopers and checkpoints saved him from touring. Now he rides his bike throughout the nation, taking selfies and images alongside the way in which.

“I don’t know what the future holds, but this is a good enough life for me. Of course, debates between the two sides still continue to this day,” he mentioned. “I just feel that if the country hadn’t been reunified — if the war had continued — everything would still be incredibly difficult.”

Pham Thao Anh, 75, is used to spending the nationwide vacation within the capital of Hanoi the place she grew up. However this 12 months, she plans to fly to Ho Chi Minh Metropolis to rejoice.

“I remember that some of the soldiers that drove the tank into the Independence Palace that day were from my hometown,” the retired hospital employee mentioned. “So this day has very special meaning to me.”

Le Anh Dung, 23, proper, grew up listening to tales in regards to the struggle from his grandfather and says he watches the April 30 celebration on tv yearly. His grandfather, Nguyen Van Them, 73, will journey to Ho Chi Minh Metropolis with different retired army officers to attend the fiftieth anniversary commemoration this 12 months.

(Stephanie Yang / Los Angeles Instances)

Nguyen Thuy Vy, a 32-year-old translator, mentioned her technology typically has much less attachment to the April 30 anniversary than different holidays equivalent to Valentine’s Day, Christmas or Lunar New Yr. “Young people I think nowadays are busy with work, and they don’t care about this traditional holiday,” she mentioned.

However Le Anh Dung, a 23-year-old graphic designer in Hanoi, grew up listening to tales in regards to the struggle from his grandfather, a former army officer who was working in North Vietnam’s artillery unit the day Saigon fell. Studying in regards to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza have made him extra appreciative of peace at house, he mentioned, including, “I feel so lucky that I don’t have to endure the smell of gunpowder or crawl into a bunker once in a while, like previous generations did.”

His grandfather, Nguyen Van Them, 73, mentioned watching the celebrations on tv helped his grandchildren perceive what earlier generations sacrificed for them. He believes that tweaking the vacation’s title makes it extra significant.

“‘Liberation of the South’ is not quite right, because it only mentions one half. But the other half also looks forward to the country’s liberation, unity, harmony and oneness,” Nguyen mentioned.

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam — Navy officers stoop to examine slim inexperienced cannons alongside the Saigon River. Development gear whines as employees erect towering bleachers in a downtown park. Fighter jets and helicopters roar above town in observe drills.

For weeks, Vietnam has been making ready this metropolis for the anniversary of a defining second within the nation’s historical past: On April 30, 1975, North Vietnamese forces stormed the Presidential Palace in Saigon, the governing seat of the Republic of Vietnam, simply days after U.S. troops had withdrawn. The victory of the communist regime over the U.S. allied armies within the south successfully ended a pricey, three decades-long battle and unified the nation.

Fifty years later, Vietnam is celebrating April 30 like by no means earlier than. However amid the fanfare of parades, fireworks and airshows, a long-standing debate over what to name the vacation continues, a refined acknowledgment of the lingering scars of a contentious struggle.

Victorious North Vietnamese troops take up positions exterior Independence Palace in Saigon on April 30, 1975.

(Yves Billy / Related Press)

The official designation is “The Liberation of the South and National Reunification Day,” nevertheless it’s identified by many different names. Vietnamese who’re aligned with the ruling communist social gathering right here typically discuss with it as Liberation Day or Victory Day, whereas those that resettled within the U.S. nonetheless use phrases equivalent to Black April or Nationwide Day of Resentment. Many Vietnamese in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh Metropolis — as Saigon is understood right this moment — say they merely discuss with it as April 30.

Within the run-up to the fiftieth anniversary beneath Basic Secretary To Lam, who assumed social gathering management in August, lecturers say that state media and authorities have embraced the shorthand “Reunification Day.”

“It has been a divisive issue for Vietnamese within Vietnam, and also between the government of Vietnam and the diaspora,” mentioned Tuong Vu, a professor of political science on the College of Oregon and founding director of its U.S.-Vietnam Analysis Heart. “But this year, they have talked a bit more about national reconciliation and unification.”

All through historical past, completely different names have typically been given to the identical wars and holidays, relying on who’s framing the battle. Right here the Vietnam Warfare is known as the American Warfare, or the Resistance Warfare In opposition to America.

The Hien Luong Bridge, situated inside the Demilitarized Zone in Quang Tri province, is an emblem of the Vietnam Warfare.

(Magdalena Chodownik / Getty Photographs)

The American Civil Warfare was typically referred within the South because the Warfare Between the States, and, later, the Warfare of Northern Aggression. The 1973 Arab-Israeli Warfare is often known as the Yom Kippur Warfare and the October Warfare, amongst different names.

Teachers counsel that, for Vietnam, utilizing the extra impartial title of Reunification Day may assist bridge a spot with the generations of Vietnamese who grew up overseas.

“It does show an effort to reach out to the other side, and that’s what many people have been advising the government,” Vu mentioned. “If you want to take advantage of the strength of the diaspora, then you have to tone down your rhetoric.”

In February, secretary of the Ho Chi Minh Metropolis Celebration Committee Nguyen Van Nen mentioned the vacation needs to be thought-about a day of peace.

“It must be affirmed that it was a war of national defense, not about winning or losing. On the day peace came, there were mixed emotions — some felt joy; others sorrow. But after 50 years, personal sorrow needs to merge with the joy of the nation,” he mentioned, in response to Vietnamese media.

Vietnam’s dedication to navigate a altering geopolitical panorama — with a versatile strategy often called “bamboo diplomacy” — has additionally influenced the language its leaders use to explain the previous.

For instance, Vu mentioned official statements now have fewer references to a “puppet government” in what was previously South Vietnam, a time period used to delegitimize its former adversary and denounce America’s involvement within the struggle. He added this shift was most likely made within the hope of bettering cooperation with the U.S. and to strengthen Vietnam’s territorial claims to a number of islands within the South China Sea.

The nation has benefited from sustaining sturdy bilateral ties to each China and the U.S., its two largest buying and selling companions, even because the rivalry between the 2 superpowers has intensified.

A gardener waters flowers exterior the newly rebuilt Kien Trung Palace inside the Imperial Metropolis of Hue.

(David Rising / Related Press)

“They just kind of worked to build relationships with everybody and become a bigger player because of their economic development,” mentioned Scot Marciel, a former ambassador primarily based in Vietnam when it resumed diplomatic relations with the U.S. in 1995. “The business community has tended to view Vietnam as really a rising star in the region. It’s been a very steady, very pragmatic approach.”

Vietnam additionally invited army personnel from China, Cambodia and Laos to take part in its vacation parade.

“Vietnam prioritizes its relationship with regional and ideological allies as much as this strategic partnership with the U.S.,” mentioned An Nguyen, a historian and lecturer on the College of Maine. “Maintaining that balance, I think, is becoming much harder in today’s context.

Hai Nguyen Hong, a senior lecturer of politics and international relations at Vin University in Hanoi, said he’s noticed the use of terms such as Liberation Day and Anti-American War has decreased over the past three-plus years. That shift, he said, can go a long way in changing perceptions in Vietnam and promoting national harmony.

“The day itself is a historical day. You can’t change it,” Hong mentioned. “What you can change, and what you can see and observe change, is the mood and the attitude of the Vietnamese people.”

Vietnamese media and on-line discourse are tightly managed, and there are not any nationwide surveys that embrace uncensored opinions in regards to the authorities. However forward of the high-profile commemoration on Wednesday, reactions to the celebration on the streets of Ho Chi Minh Metropolis ranged from enthusiasm to ambivalence.

Tran Thi Mortgage Anh, 27, and Phan Minh Quan, 26, in Ho Chi Minh Metropolis, mentioned they may camp out within the early morning of the parade on Wednesday to get a superb view of the fiftieth anniversary celebration.

(Stephanie Yang / Los Angeles Instances)

Tran Thi Mortgage Anh, a 27-year-old tax advisor, mentioned that she and her associates plan to camp out downtown at 3 a.m. the day of the parade, as a way to safe a front-row view.

“I’ve been impressed by how the government has organized events that foster patriotism and national pride,” she mentioned. “I’m especially struck by how music is used — traditional songs about the nation performed in such powerful, stirring ways.”

Pham Phu Quy, a driver and deliveryman, was a teen in Saigon in 1975, with a father who labored for the South Vietnamese authorities, and a mom who labored for the northern military. At this time, the 69-year-old mentioned, Vietnam offers a freedom that differs from his childhood experiences. In the course of the struggle, troopers and checkpoints saved him from touring. Now he rides his bike throughout the nation, taking selfies and images alongside the way in which.

“I don’t know what the future holds, but this is a good enough life for me. Of course, debates between the two sides still continue to this day,” he mentioned. “I just feel that if the country hadn’t been reunified — if the war had continued — everything would still be incredibly difficult.”

Pham Thao Anh, 75, is used to spending the nationwide vacation within the capital of Hanoi the place she grew up. However this 12 months, she plans to fly to Ho Chi Minh Metropolis to rejoice.

“I remember that some of the soldiers that drove the tank into the Independence Palace that day were from my hometown,” the retired hospital employee mentioned. “So this day has very special meaning to me.”

Le Anh Dung, 23, proper, grew up listening to tales in regards to the struggle from his grandfather and says he watches the April 30 celebration on tv yearly. His grandfather, Nguyen Van Them, 73, will journey to Ho Chi Minh Metropolis with different retired army officers to attend the fiftieth anniversary commemoration this 12 months.

(Stephanie Yang / Los Angeles Instances)

Nguyen Thuy Vy, a 32-year-old translator, mentioned her technology typically has much less attachment to the April 30 anniversary than different holidays equivalent to Valentine’s Day, Christmas or Lunar New Yr. “Young people I think nowadays are busy with work, and they don’t care about this traditional holiday,” she mentioned.

However Le Anh Dung, a 23-year-old graphic designer in Hanoi, grew up listening to tales in regards to the struggle from his grandfather, a former army officer who was working in North Vietnam’s artillery unit the day Saigon fell. Studying in regards to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza have made him extra appreciative of peace at house, he mentioned, including, “I feel so lucky that I don’t have to endure the smell of gunpowder or crawl into a bunker once in a while, like previous generations did.”

His grandfather, Nguyen Van Them, 73, mentioned watching the celebrations on tv helped his grandchildren perceive what earlier generations sacrificed for them. He believes that tweaking the vacation’s title makes it extra significant.

“‘Liberation of the South’ is not quite right, because it only mentions one half. But the other half also looks forward to the country’s liberation, unity, harmony and oneness,” Nguyen mentioned.

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam — Navy officers stoop to examine slim inexperienced cannons alongside the Saigon River. Development gear whines as employees erect towering bleachers in a downtown park. Fighter jets and helicopters roar above town in observe drills.

For weeks, Vietnam has been making ready this metropolis for the anniversary of a defining second within the nation’s historical past: On April 30, 1975, North Vietnamese forces stormed the Presidential Palace in Saigon, the governing seat of the Republic of Vietnam, simply days after U.S. troops had withdrawn. The victory of the communist regime over the U.S. allied armies within the south successfully ended a pricey, three decades-long battle and unified the nation.

Fifty years later, Vietnam is celebrating April 30 like by no means earlier than. However amid the fanfare of parades, fireworks and airshows, a long-standing debate over what to name the vacation continues, a refined acknowledgment of the lingering scars of a contentious struggle.

Victorious North Vietnamese troops take up positions exterior Independence Palace in Saigon on April 30, 1975.

(Yves Billy / Related Press)

The official designation is “The Liberation of the South and National Reunification Day,” nevertheless it’s identified by many different names. Vietnamese who’re aligned with the ruling communist social gathering right here typically discuss with it as Liberation Day or Victory Day, whereas those that resettled within the U.S. nonetheless use phrases equivalent to Black April or Nationwide Day of Resentment. Many Vietnamese in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh Metropolis — as Saigon is understood right this moment — say they merely discuss with it as April 30.

Within the run-up to the fiftieth anniversary beneath Basic Secretary To Lam, who assumed social gathering management in August, lecturers say that state media and authorities have embraced the shorthand “Reunification Day.”

“It has been a divisive issue for Vietnamese within Vietnam, and also between the government of Vietnam and the diaspora,” mentioned Tuong Vu, a professor of political science on the College of Oregon and founding director of its U.S.-Vietnam Analysis Heart. “But this year, they have talked a bit more about national reconciliation and unification.”

All through historical past, completely different names have typically been given to the identical wars and holidays, relying on who’s framing the battle. Right here the Vietnam Warfare is known as the American Warfare, or the Resistance Warfare In opposition to America.

The Hien Luong Bridge, situated inside the Demilitarized Zone in Quang Tri province, is an emblem of the Vietnam Warfare.

(Magdalena Chodownik / Getty Photographs)

The American Civil Warfare was typically referred within the South because the Warfare Between the States, and, later, the Warfare of Northern Aggression. The 1973 Arab-Israeli Warfare is often known as the Yom Kippur Warfare and the October Warfare, amongst different names.

Teachers counsel that, for Vietnam, utilizing the extra impartial title of Reunification Day may assist bridge a spot with the generations of Vietnamese who grew up overseas.

“It does show an effort to reach out to the other side, and that’s what many people have been advising the government,” Vu mentioned. “If you want to take advantage of the strength of the diaspora, then you have to tone down your rhetoric.”

In February, secretary of the Ho Chi Minh Metropolis Celebration Committee Nguyen Van Nen mentioned the vacation needs to be thought-about a day of peace.

“It must be affirmed that it was a war of national defense, not about winning or losing. On the day peace came, there were mixed emotions — some felt joy; others sorrow. But after 50 years, personal sorrow needs to merge with the joy of the nation,” he mentioned, in response to Vietnamese media.

Vietnam’s dedication to navigate a altering geopolitical panorama — with a versatile strategy often called “bamboo diplomacy” — has additionally influenced the language its leaders use to explain the previous.

For instance, Vu mentioned official statements now have fewer references to a “puppet government” in what was previously South Vietnam, a time period used to delegitimize its former adversary and denounce America’s involvement within the struggle. He added this shift was most likely made within the hope of bettering cooperation with the U.S. and to strengthen Vietnam’s territorial claims to a number of islands within the South China Sea.

The nation has benefited from sustaining sturdy bilateral ties to each China and the U.S., its two largest buying and selling companions, even because the rivalry between the 2 superpowers has intensified.

A gardener waters flowers exterior the newly rebuilt Kien Trung Palace inside the Imperial Metropolis of Hue.

(David Rising / Related Press)

“They just kind of worked to build relationships with everybody and become a bigger player because of their economic development,” mentioned Scot Marciel, a former ambassador primarily based in Vietnam when it resumed diplomatic relations with the U.S. in 1995. “The business community has tended to view Vietnam as really a rising star in the region. It’s been a very steady, very pragmatic approach.”

Vietnam additionally invited army personnel from China, Cambodia and Laos to take part in its vacation parade.

“Vietnam prioritizes its relationship with regional and ideological allies as much as this strategic partnership with the U.S.,” mentioned An Nguyen, a historian and lecturer on the College of Maine. “Maintaining that balance, I think, is becoming much harder in today’s context.

Hai Nguyen Hong, a senior lecturer of politics and international relations at Vin University in Hanoi, said he’s noticed the use of terms such as Liberation Day and Anti-American War has decreased over the past three-plus years. That shift, he said, can go a long way in changing perceptions in Vietnam and promoting national harmony.

“The day itself is a historical day. You can’t change it,” Hong mentioned. “What you can change, and what you can see and observe change, is the mood and the attitude of the Vietnamese people.”

Vietnamese media and on-line discourse are tightly managed, and there are not any nationwide surveys that embrace uncensored opinions in regards to the authorities. However forward of the high-profile commemoration on Wednesday, reactions to the celebration on the streets of Ho Chi Minh Metropolis ranged from enthusiasm to ambivalence.

Tran Thi Mortgage Anh, 27, and Phan Minh Quan, 26, in Ho Chi Minh Metropolis, mentioned they may camp out within the early morning of the parade on Wednesday to get a superb view of the fiftieth anniversary celebration.

(Stephanie Yang / Los Angeles Instances)

Tran Thi Mortgage Anh, a 27-year-old tax advisor, mentioned that she and her associates plan to camp out downtown at 3 a.m. the day of the parade, as a way to safe a front-row view.

“I’ve been impressed by how the government has organized events that foster patriotism and national pride,” she mentioned. “I’m especially struck by how music is used — traditional songs about the nation performed in such powerful, stirring ways.”

Pham Phu Quy, a driver and deliveryman, was a teen in Saigon in 1975, with a father who labored for the South Vietnamese authorities, and a mom who labored for the northern military. At this time, the 69-year-old mentioned, Vietnam offers a freedom that differs from his childhood experiences. In the course of the struggle, troopers and checkpoints saved him from touring. Now he rides his bike throughout the nation, taking selfies and images alongside the way in which.

“I don’t know what the future holds, but this is a good enough life for me. Of course, debates between the two sides still continue to this day,” he mentioned. “I just feel that if the country hadn’t been reunified — if the war had continued — everything would still be incredibly difficult.”

Pham Thao Anh, 75, is used to spending the nationwide vacation within the capital of Hanoi the place she grew up. However this 12 months, she plans to fly to Ho Chi Minh Metropolis to rejoice.

“I remember that some of the soldiers that drove the tank into the Independence Palace that day were from my hometown,” the retired hospital employee mentioned. “So this day has very special meaning to me.”

Le Anh Dung, 23, proper, grew up listening to tales in regards to the struggle from his grandfather and says he watches the April 30 celebration on tv yearly. His grandfather, Nguyen Van Them, 73, will journey to Ho Chi Minh Metropolis with different retired army officers to attend the fiftieth anniversary commemoration this 12 months.

(Stephanie Yang / Los Angeles Instances)

Nguyen Thuy Vy, a 32-year-old translator, mentioned her technology typically has much less attachment to the April 30 anniversary than different holidays equivalent to Valentine’s Day, Christmas or Lunar New Yr. “Young people I think nowadays are busy with work, and they don’t care about this traditional holiday,” she mentioned.

However Le Anh Dung, a 23-year-old graphic designer in Hanoi, grew up listening to tales in regards to the struggle from his grandfather, a former army officer who was working in North Vietnam’s artillery unit the day Saigon fell. Studying in regards to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza have made him extra appreciative of peace at house, he mentioned, including, “I feel so lucky that I don’t have to endure the smell of gunpowder or crawl into a bunker once in a while, like previous generations did.”

His grandfather, Nguyen Van Them, 73, mentioned watching the celebrations on tv helped his grandchildren perceive what earlier generations sacrificed for them. He believes that tweaking the vacation’s title makes it extra significant.

“‘Liberation of the South’ is not quite right, because it only mentions one half. But the other half also looks forward to the country’s liberation, unity, harmony and oneness,” Nguyen mentioned.

Supporters of Palestinian causes with ties to American universities have been detained within the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants.

President Donald Trump and different officers have accused protesters and others of being “pro-Hamas,” referring to the Palestinian militant group that attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Many protesters have mentioned they had been talking out in opposition to Israel’s actions within the battle in opposition to Hamas in Gaza.

Greater than half a dozen persons are identified to have been taken into custody or deported by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in latest weeks.

Rumeysa Ozturk

Federal officers detained 30-year-old Turkish pupil Rumeysa Ozturk on Tuesday as she walked alongside a avenue in suburban Boston. A senior Division of Homeland Safety spokesperson mentioned with out offering proof that an investigation discovered Ozturk, a doctoral pupil at Tufts College, “engaged in activities in support of Hamas,” a U.S.-designated terrorist group.

FILE – Scholar negotiator Mahmoud Khalil is seen at a pro-Palestinian protest encampment on the Columbia College campus in New York, April 29, 2024. (AP Picture/Ted Shaffrey, File)Mahmoud Khalil

This month, immigration enforcement brokers arrested and detained Mahmoud Khalil, a authorized U.S. resident and Palestinian activist who was distinguished in protests at Columbia final 12 months. The administration has mentioned it revoked Khalil’s inexperienced card as a result of his function within the campus protests amounted to antisemitic assist for Hamas. He’s combating deportation.

Khalil served as a negotiator for Columbia college students as they bargained with college officers over ending their campus encampment final spring. He was born in Syria however is a authorized U.S. resident married to an American citizen.

Yunseo Chung

Yunseo Chung is a Columbia pupil and lawful U.S. resident who moved to America from Korea as a toddler. Chung attended and was arrested at a sit-in this month at close by Barnard School protesting the expulsion of scholars who participated in pro-Palestinian activism.

The Division of Homeland Safety desires to deport Chung and has mentioned she “engaged in concerning conduct,” together with being arrested on a misdemeanor cost. A decide ordered immigration brokers to not detain Chung whereas her authorized problem is pending.

Badar Khan Suri

Badar Khan Suri, a Georgetown scholar from India, was arrested exterior his Virginia residence and detained by masked Homeland Safety brokers on allegations that he unfold Hamas propaganda. Suri’s legal professional wrote in a courtroom submitting that he was focused due to his social media posts and his spouse’s “identity as a Palestinian and her constitutionally protected speech.” Suri holds a visa authorizing him to be within the U.S. as a visiting scholar, and his spouse is a U.S. citizen, based on courtroom paperwork.

Suri was taken to a detention facility in Louisiana, based on a authorities web site. His legal professionals are looking for his rapid launch and to halt deportation proceedings.

Leqaa Kordia

Leqaa Kordia, a resident of Newark, New Jersey, was detained and accused of failing to go away the U.S. after her pupil visa expired. Federal authorities mentioned Kordia is a Palestinian from the West Financial institution and that she was arrested at or close to Columbia throughout pro-Palestinian protests. Columbia has mentioned it has no report of her being a pupil there.

Kordia is being held in an immigration detention middle in Alvarado, Texas, based on a authorities database.

Ranjani Srinivasan

Ranjani Srinivasan, an Indian citizen and doctoral pupil at Columbia, fled the U.S. after immigration brokers looked for her at her college residence. The Trump administration has mentioned it revoked Srinivasan’s visa for “advocating for violence and terrorism.” Srinivasan opted to “self-deport.”

Officers didn’t say what proof they’ve that Srinivasan advocated violence. Her legal professionals deny the accusations, and she or he advised The New York Occasions that she didn’t assist to arrange protests at Columbia.

Alireza DoroudiDr. Rasha Alawieh

Dr. Rasha Alawieh, a kidney transplant specialist from Lebanon who beforehand labored and lived in Rhode Island, was deported this month, despite the fact that a federal decide ordered that she not be eliminated till a listening to might be held. Homeland Safety officers mentioned Alawieh was deported as quickly as she returned to the U.S. from Lebanon, regardless of having a U.S. visa, as a result of she “openly admitted” supporting former Hezbollah leaderHassan Nasrallah. Alawieh advised officers she adopted him for his spiritual and religious teachings and never his politics, courtroom paperwork mentioned.

She was to begin work at Brown College as an assistant professor of drugs. Stephanie Marzouk, Alawieh’s lawyer, has mentioned she is going to battle to get the 34-year-old physician again to the U.S.

Momodou Taal

Momodou Taal is a doctoral pupil at Cornell College whose visa was revoked after he participated in campus demonstrations.

Taal, a citizen of the UK and Gambia, has requested a federal decide to halt his detention throughout his courtroom problem. The federal government says it revoked Taal’s pupil visa due to his alleged involvement in “disruptive protests.”

His attorneys say the 31-year-old doctoral pupil in Africana research was exercising free speech rights. Taal mentioned he’ll give up to immigration authorities if the courtroom determines the federal government is appearing legally. Taal mentioned in a courtroom declaration that “I feel like a prisoner already, although all I have done is exercise my rights.”

Initially Printed: March 28, 2025 at 12:39 PM EDT

Rep. Al Inexperienced (D-Texas) opened up concerning the second he was escorted out of the Home chamber Tuesday night, saying he protested at President Trump’s joint tackle to Congress as a result of “he needs to save Medicaid.”

Talking with reporters within the Capitol after being faraway from Trump’s speech, Inexperienced mentioned he was protesting the president’s sweeping cuts to federal applications — a difficulty that has left Democrats reeling and threatening to permit a lapse in authorities funding later this month.

“I used to be making it clear to the president that he has no mandate to chop Medicaid,” Green said of his outburst. “I’ve people who find themselves very fearful, these are poor folks and so they all want Medicaid of their lives in terms of their well being care.”

Throughout Trump’s first main speech to lawmakers, he declared that the outcomes of the 2024 presidential election have been a “mandate” from the American folks that “has not been seen in lots of a long time,” echoing phrases he mentioned throughout his victory speech in November.

Inexperienced stood up and asserted that the president had no mandate and didn’t sit again down.

Then, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) repeatedly instructed these in attendance to take care of decorum, however Inexperienced continued to talk. Johnson then requested the sergeant-at-arms to “restore order” by throwing the Texas Democrat out of the chamber.

The lawmaker instructed reporters that Trump is slicing security nets that individuals in his district depend on.

“This president seems to care less about them and more about the number of people that he can remove from the various programs that have been so helpful,” he mentioned.

Many Democrats protested in their very own manner from holding up indicators studying “false” to strolling out through the speech. Inexperienced defended his determination to talk out.

“It is the best way to get it across to a person who uses his incivility, who uses his incivility against our civility,” Inexperienced mentioned.

He added later that he’s “willing to suffer” any consequence he might face from the protest, saying it was “worth it” to indicate the American folks that some members of Congress will stand as much as Trump.

“This is about the people who are being punished by virtue of losing their health care,” the Texas lawmaker mentioned. “This is the richest country in the world, and we have people who don’t have good health care.”

“We’ve got to do better,” he added. “Health care has become wealth care for many people and we can’t afford to let that happen.”

Johnson, in response, argued that his Democratic colleague ought to be “censured” over the protest.

The transfer got here after Inexperienced mentioned early final month that he would deliver articles of impeachment towards Trump after the president instructed the U.S. ought to take over Gaza.

“This president is unfit. He mustn’t maintain the workplace,” Inexperienced mentioned Tuesday, pointing to Trump’s 34-count felony conviction within the New York hush cash case — which ended with no punishment — and the 2 occasions he was impeached by the Home.

We must always not permit the story and surprise of Tommy Hawkins to go up in flames and not using a correct recounting. Nor in order that of his spouse of 39 years, Layla.

The inferno that raged throughout the Palisades on Jan. 7 took hundreds of houses and several other lives. It worn out wealth, hope, reminiscences and futures. It ravaged Las Flores Canyon in Malibu, the place Tommy and Layla had lived for 32 years, in a home with mountain and ocean views.

There had been a number of fires headed their method over time, some coming shut, some even inflicting some injury. However this time, with Tommy now not there and Layla left alone with so a few years of memorabilia and artwork and music and awards and plaques and trophies and household scrapbooks, the inferno allowed no exceptions, paid no consideration to legends of the legend it was consuming.

‘The Hawk’

Tommy Hawkins throughout his time with the Cincinnati Royals in 1963.

(NBA Pictures / NBAE through Getty Photos)

When he died in August of 2017, at age 80, it was duly famous round Los Angeles, however no one lowered the flags to half-staff at Metropolis Corridor in Malibu. He had been a star, a longtime athletic and media presence, however his technology had drifted out of the limelight or preceded him in demise.

He grew to become “The Hawk” out of Parker Excessive in Chicago. He had been considered one of 25 black youngsters despatched out of the Chicago initiatives to Parker, now Robeson Excessive, to begin to combine the college. He would develop to six ft 5, like to play basketball and take inspiration from Jackie Robinson breaking the colour barrier with the Dodgers. His mom had proven him the tales about that and advised him that, if Robinson can do it, so may he.

He grew to become a high-leaping prep basketball star. His specialty was rebounding. He may decide teacups off the highest of the backboard.

In 1955, he and his mom sat down and narrowed the checklist of faculties he would go to to 10, each desirous to have him put on their basketball jersey. His first journey was to South Bend, Ind., and Notre Dame. After he walked across the campus lakes and sat within the shade of giant previous bushes, he referred to as his mom and advised her to cancel the opposite 9 journeys.

For 3 years (freshmen weren’t eligible), he packed the previous fieldhouse with the creaky bleacher seats and the dust flooring. He was an All-American. Notre Dame, a soccer college, began to get seen for basketball. He scored quite a bit, however he rebounded extra. He handled every shot like a long-lost brother. When he completed, he had taken down 1,318 rebounds. That’s nonetheless the college file, standing now for 66 years.

He claimed he by no means had a racial incident at Notre Dame, maybe forgetting the time he went with a number of different college students to a pizza place in South Bend and was refused service. His buddies walked out with him. Soccer star Paul Hornung, already a golden boy on the college, heard about it, got here to Hawkins’ room, knocked on the door and advised Hawkins they had been going out for a pizza. Hornung took him to the identical place that had refused Hawkins service, stared down the proprietor, they usually sat down as their pizza was served.

Lakers ahead Tommy Hawkins shoots over Boston Celtics nice Invoice Russell throughout the NBA Finals in April 1968.

(Related Press)

The professionals drafted him third total and he went off to play for the Minneapolis Lakers, who shortly grew to become the Los Angeles Lakers. Again then, the NBA in Los Angeles was much less of a giant deal than, say UCLA basketball and USC soccer. However the Lakers tried exhausting. Quickly, there have been the likes of Tommy Hawkins and Elgin Baylor, driving in a convertible within the downtown streets of L.A., encouraging folks through megaphone to return and see them play on the Sports activities Area. Attempt picturing Kobe and Shaq doing that.

Hawkins was traded to the Cincinnati Royals and performed there from 1962 to 1966, then traded again to the Lakers for his last three seasons within the NBA, ending in 1969.

As shortly as he had turn into a Laker, he grew to become a media determine of observe within the L.A. space. He was the primary black basketball announcer for NBC, did a number of native TV, had his personal radio present the place he performed jazz and talked about it, grew to become the grasp of ceremonies for main occasions such because the Picket Award dinner and the annual USC-Notre Dame soccer recreation luncheon. Finally, he spent 18 years because the director of communications for the Dodgers and counted as shut buddies Peter O’Malley and Tommy Lasorda.

A day that may by no means be forgotten

Layla and Tommy Hawkins in an undated household picture.

(Courtesy of the Hawkins household)

Layla Hawkins woke that Jan. 7 with the identical dread she had had earlier than. Windy days, scary fires close by, radio and TV sending warnings. However she had been spared earlier than.

That morning, 5 members of an actual property firm had come to take photos for her itemizing. She had needed to maintain the home for her daughter, however her daughter, with reminiscences of previous fireplace shut calls, needed nothing to do with it. Layla talked to buddies, advisors she trusted, and Peter O’Malley and his affiliate, Brent Shyer, helped with the steps to get able to promote.

Because the winds howled and buddies referred to as her with updates on the hearth, the actual property folks completed, packed up and headed out. Layla discovered later that the wind had kicked up so quick that, with fireplace closing in, they barely made it all the way down to Sundown and into Santa Monica, the place their workplace was positioned.

By late afternoon, she was getting frenzied calls from her buddy, Susie, who was two canyons away in Topanga. The message was now not a advice. It was a requirement. Get out.

She shortly sprayed down shrubbery she may attain, noticed a neighbor on his roof doing the identical, then grabbed her purse, and opened the door and gates so the hearth division would have entry. She was a fireplace veteran, in spite of everything.

She was transferring all too slowly, she remembers. She had a latest knee substitute and it slowed her down, nearly tragically.

“The fire came out of nowhere,” she says. “It came at me. It was like one of those 3-D movies. I can’t explain it.

“I was talking to Tommy all the way. Nearly 40 years of marriage, he was always there. I told him, don’t let me die like this. The fire was suddenly right there. It was like somebody dropped an atomic bomb.”

She made it all the way down to Mulholland Drive, nonetheless making an attempt to look again in the direction of her home.

“I knew nothing could survive this,” she says.

Returning residence

A ceramic starfish that Layla and Tommy Hawkins used to position love notes to one another was one of many few issues that was recoverable after the Palisades fireplace destroyed their Malibu residence in January 2025.

(Courtesy of the Hawkins household.)

Layla didn’t need buddies or neighbors to ship her photos of the rubble. She would return, however not immediately. It was weeks.

“I drove up there by myself,” she says. “My house was fourth one on the left. I had to count to make sure. Everything looked like the pictures you see of Gaza. I talked to Tommy again. I told him I was glad he was not there to see this.”

She knew she was in the fitting place. Standing tall, rim straight and web nonetheless in place, was Tommy Hawkins’ basketball hoop. You could possibly have kicked apart a few of the particles, taken a shot and listened for the swish. It will nonetheless be there.

What wasn’t there was past painful.

There had been so many trophies and plaques, an enormous and invaluable artwork assortment, wedding ceremony photos, one of many higher collections of jazz music within the metropolis and invaluable laptop recordsdata. He had began writing his second e book, and after he died, O’Malley and Shryer had been working with Layla on how one can end it and get it printed.

Nevertheless it was gone, together with nearly every part else.

She discovered a starfish-shaped figurine. It was ceramic and had survived. It was initially for placing in cash and unfastened cash.

“We used it to leave love notes to each other,” she says.

She says they had been each avid readers. The home had been stuffed with books.

“Tommy used to joke,” she says, “that if anything ever happened to the Library of Congress, we could just fill it up again with our collection.”

Her return ended when she realized she had bloody fingers from sifting by way of all of the particles. She returned to her automobile, having felt the symbolism of Tommy’s surviving basketball hoop, and having salvaged a ceramic figurine and a barely scorched steel figurine of a trumpet participant.

The objects and possessions of her life, nearly all of them, had been gone.

Life now

Tommy Hawkins’ basketball hoop was among the many few issues left standing at his residence after the Palisades fireplace.

(Courtesy of the Hawkins household)

“I go to the FEMA offices every day,” Layla says.

She was so near not needing to.

Her home was to go available on the market for $3.5 million. Within the Los Angeles actual property market, together with her ocean view and Malibu handle, the value appeared cheap and a fast sale doubtless. The insurance coverage she had will now cowl solely $600,000, and her remaining mortgage is $250,000. No person can actually say now what the land is value, nor whether or not folks will lastly shrink back from constructing in an space the place winds and fireplace are at all times a menace. Associates have tried to rally round her, together with organising a GoFundMe account.

She is 22 years youthful than Hawkins when he died in 2017. She is Persian. She left Iran when her household, a part of the Shah of Iran’s administration, was on the shedding aspect of the Iranian Revolution of 1979. When Ayatollah Khomeini took energy, her household went from rich to endangered.

She got here to the US, graduated from Louisiana State with a level in mechanical engineering and finally moved to Los Angeles, discovering work in numerous picture companies and movie firms in Santa Monica.

That’s the place she met Hawkins.

“It truly was love at first sight,” she says.

She says that at one level, Hawkins outlined his emotions towards her by sitting down at his desk and typing one sentence on a sheet of paper. He handed it to her and it learn: “It’s more than a feeling. It’s a force.”

That sheet of paper was maybe her most treasured possession.

It burned on Jan. 7.

By DAVID CRARY, AP Nationwide Author

NEW YORK (AP) — The Anti-Defamation League says the variety of antisemitic incidents in america reached a report excessive final yr and notes that 58% of the 9,354 incidents associated to Israel, notably chants, speeches and indicators at rallies protesting Israeli insurance policies.

In a report launched Tuesday, the ADL, which has produced annual tallies for 46 years, mentioned it’s the primary time Israel-related incidents — 5,422 of them in 2024 — comprised greater than half the entire. A key cause is the widespread opposition to Israel’s army response in Gaza after the Hamas assault on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Hamas has been designated as a terrorist group by america, Canada and the European Union.

The ADL’s findings add grist to an intense, divisive debate amongst American Jews — and others — over the extent to which vehement criticism of Israeli insurance policies and of Zionism must be thought-about antisemitic.

FILE – Professional-Palestinian demonstrator Mahmoud Khalil, second from left, debates with a pro-Israel demonstrator throughout a protest at Columbia College, Thursday, Oct. 12, 2023, in New York. (AP Picture/Yuki Iwamura, File)

FILE – Tents and pro-Palestinian protesters occupy a quad at Drexel College, in Philadelphia, Tuesday, Might 21, 2024. (AP Picture/Matt Rourke, file)

FILE – A scholar protester towards the battle in Gaza walks previous tents and banners in an encampment in Harvard Yard, at Harvard College in Cambridge, Mass., on April 25, 2024. (AP Picture/Ben Curtis, file)

FILE – A scholar protester stands in entrance of the statue of John Harvard, the primary main benefactor of Harvard School, draped within the Palestinian flag, at an encampment of scholars protesting towards the battle in Gaza, at Harvard College in Cambridge, Mass., on April 25, 2024. (AP Picture/Ben Curtis)

FILE – A scholar wrapped in an Israeli flag listens to Professional-Palestinian protesters gathered on campus on the College of Texas at Austin, on April 30, 2024, in Austin, Texas. (AP Picture/Eric Homosexual, File)

Present Caption

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FILE – Professional-Palestinian demonstrator Mahmoud Khalil, second from left, debates with a pro-Israel demonstrator throughout a protest at Columbia College, Thursday, Oct. 12, 2023, in New York. (AP Picture/Yuki Iwamura, File)

Develop
Political backdrop

The talk has broadened as President Donald Trump’s administration makes punitive strikes towards universities it considers too lax in combating antisemitism and seeks to deport some pro-Palestinian campus activists.

The upshot, for quite a few Jewish leaders, is a balancing act: Decrying flagrant acts of antisemitism in addition to what they think about to be the administration’s exploitation of the difficulty to focus on people and establishments it dislikes.

“The fears of antisemitism are legitimate and real — and we don’t want to see those real fears exploited to undermine democracy,” mentioned Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs. “I feel that a majority of American Jews can believe that two things are true at the same time.”

The ADL mentioned in its new report it’s “careful to not conflate general criticism of Israel or anti-Israel activism with antisemitism.” However there are grey areas. For instance, the ADL contends that vilification of Zionism — the motion to determine and defend a Jewish state in Israel — is a type of antisemitism, but some Jews are among the many critics of Zionism and of the ADL itself.

Incidents at anti-Israel rallies that counted as antisemitism within the new ADL tally embrace “justification or glorification of antisemitic violence, promotion of classic antisemitic tropes … and signage equating Judaism or Zionism with Nazism.” Additionally counted have been celebrations of the Hamas assault on Israel and “unapologetic support for terrorism.”

“In 2024, hatred toward Israel was a driving force behind antisemitism across the U.S.,” mentioned Oren Segal, who leads the ADL’s efforts to fight extremism and terrorism.

Conserving Jewish college students protected

The report depicted college campuses as widespread venues for antisemitic incidents, saying many Jewish college students “face hostility, exclusion and sometimes physical danger because of their identity or their beliefs.”

The expertise of these college students was evoked by Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism — an umbrella group for greater than 800 Reform congregations in North America — as he mentioned the complexities arising from present antisemitism-related developments.

“We have an obligation to our students on campus,” Jacobs mentioned. “Can they go to Seder? Can they feel safe wearing a yarmulke?”

“At the same time, this current administration has weaponized the fight against antisemitism by weakening core democratic institutions,” Jacobs added.

He referred to the detention and threatened deportation of Mahmoud Khalil, a 30-year-old graduate scholar who served as a negotiator and spokesperson for pro-Palestinian activists at Columbia College. Khalil has been detained since March 8 regardless of dealing with no felony fees.

“There has to be a legal case — not just you don’t like what he says,” Jacobs mentioned. “What has kept Jewish people safe is the rule of law, due process. If it is undermined for Palestinians, it will be undermined for all of us.”

Criticism of ADL

The ADL dismayed some progressive Jewish leaders by welcoming Columbia’s acquiescence in March to Trump administration calls for and by initially commending the marketing campaign focusing on pro-Palestinian activists corresponding to Khalil.

Latest critics of the ADL embrace Michael Roth, the primary Jewish president of Wesleyan College; political commentator Peter Beinart; and Columbia professor James Schamus, who has been urging his fellow Jews on the college to oppose the college’s compliance with administration calls for.

Washington Publish columnist Matt Bai wrote a scathing column concerning the ADL on April 1.

“You can’t call yourself a civil rights organization in the United States right now — let alone a civil rights organization for a minority that has been brutally evicted all over the world — and not loudly oppose the cruel and unlawful removal of foreigners whose views happen to be out of fashion,” Bai wrote.

Two days later, the ADL’s CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt, wrote an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy searching for to distance the ADL from points of the Trump administration’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian activists.

“As an organization that has fought for a minority community for more than 100 years, ADL is incredibly sensitive to the importance of allowing all views to be expressed — even those that we or the majority of Americans disagree with,” Greenblatt wrote. “We should be holding people accountable for actual crimes, not Orwellian thoughtcrimes.”

“We can protect the civil liberties of Jewish students even as we preserve the civil liberties of those who protest, harass or attack them because they are innocent until proven guilty,” he added. “If we sacrifice our constitutional freedoms in the pursuit of security, we undermine the very foundation of the diverse, pluralistic society we seek to defend.”

Past the Israel-related incidents, these have been among the many different findings within the new ADL report:

— The entire variety of antisemitic incidents in 2024 was up by 344% from 5 years in the past.

— 196 incidents, focusing on greater than 250 folks, have been categorized as assault; none of those assaults have been deadly.

— 2,606 incidents have been categorized as vandalism. Swastikas have been current in 37% of those instances.

— There have been 647 bomb threats, most of them focusing on synagogues.

— Antisemitic incidents occurred in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Greater than 10% of the incidents occurred in New York Metropolis.

— There have been 962 “antisemitic propaganda incidents” linked to white supremacist teams. Three teams — Patriot Entrance, Goyim Protection League, and the White Lives Matter community — have been chargeable for 94% of this exercise.

The ADL says its annual report tallies felony and noncriminal acts of harassment, vandalism and assault towards people and teams as reported to the ADL by victims, legislation enforcement, the media and associate organizations, after which evaluated by ADL specialists.

Related Press faith protection receives assist by way of the AP’s collaboration with The Dialog US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely chargeable for this content material.

Initially Revealed: April 22, 2025 at 11:46 AM EDT

By REBECCA SANTANA

WASHINGTON (AP) — The arrest of a Palestinian activist who helped arrange campus protests of the conflict in Gaza has sparked questions on whether or not international college students and inexperienced card holders are protected towards being deported from the U.S.

Mahmoud Khalil was arrested Saturday by Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers. Homeland Safety officers and President Donald Trump have indicated that the arrest was immediately tied to his function within the protests final spring at Columbia College in New York Metropolis.

Khalil is being held at an immigration detention middle in Jena, Louisiana, whereas he awaits immigration courtroom proceedings that might finally result in him being deported. His arrest has drawn criticism that he’s being unfairly and unlawfully focused for his activism whereas the federal authorities has primarily described him as a terrorist sympathizer.

A take a look at what sort of protections international college students and inexperienced card holders have and what is perhaps subsequent for Khalil:

Can somebody with a inexperienced card be deported?

A inexperienced card holder is somebody who has lawful everlasting residence standing in america.

Jaclyn Kelley-Widmer is a legislation professor at Cornell Regulation Faculty who teaches immigration legislation. She stated lawful everlasting residents typically have many protections and “should be the most protected short of a US citizen.”

However that safety isn’t absolute. Inexperienced card holders can nonetheless be deported for committing sure crimes, failing to inform immigration officers of a change in deal with or participating in marriage fraud, for instance.

The Division of Homeland Safety stated Khalil was taken into custody because of Trump’s govt orders prohibiting antisemitism.

Trump has argued that protesters forfeited their rights to stay within the nation by supporting the Palestinian group Hamas, which controls Gaza and has been designated as a terrorist group.

Khalil and different scholar leaders of Columbia College Apartheid Divest have rejected claims of antisemitism, saying they’re a part of a broader anti-war motion that additionally consists of Jewish college students and teams. However the protest coalition, at instances, has additionally voiced help for leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah, one other Islamist group designated by the U.S. as a terrorist group.

Specialists say that officers appear to point with their rhetoric that they’re attempting to deport Khalil on the grounds that he’s participating in some type of terrorist exercise or in some way poses a menace.

Khalil has not been convicted of any terrorist-related exercise. In truth, he has not been charged with any wrongdoing.

However specialists say the federal authorities has pretty broad authority to arrest and attempt to deport a inexperienced card holder on terrorism grounds.

Below the Immigration and Nationality Act, inexperienced card holders don’t must be convicted of one thing to be “removable,” Kelley-Widmer stated. They may very well be deported if the secretary of homeland safety or the lawyer basic have affordable grounds to consider they engaged in, or are prone to interact in, terrorist actions, she stated.

However Kelley-Widmer stated she’s by no means seen a case the place the alleged terrorist exercise occurred within the U.S., and she or he questioned whether or not participating in protests as Khalil did qualifies.

What did ICE say about why they have been arresting him?

One of many key points in Khalil’s case is what ICE brokers stated to his lawyer on the time he was arrested.

His lawyer, Amy Greer, stated the brokers who took him into custody at his university-owned residence close to Columbia initially claimed to be performing on a State Division order to revoke his scholar visa.

However when Greer knowledgeable them that Khalil was a everlasting resident with a inexperienced card, they stated they’d revoke that documentation as a substitute.

Kelley-Widmer stated that change raises questions on how acquainted the brokers who arrested him have been with the legislation or whether or not there was a “real disregard for the rule of law.”

“I think we should be really concerned that this is happening,” she stated.

What are the subsequent steps in his case?

Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated in a message posted Sunday on X that the administration can be “revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported.”

If somebody is within the nation on a scholar visa, the State Division does have authority to revoke it if the individual violates sure circumstances. For instance, stated Florida immigration lawyer John Gihon, it’s fairly frequent for the State Division to cancel visas of international college students who get arrested for drunk driving.

However in terms of somebody who’s a lawful everlasting resident, that typically requires an immigration decide to find out whether or not they are often deported.

Gihon stated the subsequent step is that Khalil would obtain charging paperwork explaining why he’s being detained and why the federal government desires to take away him, in addition to a discover to seem in immigration courtroom.

Typically, he ought to obtain these inside 72 hours of being arrested, after which he would make an preliminary look earlier than an immigration decide. That would take from 10 days to a month, Gihon stated.

However he cautioned that proper now he’s seeing in depth delays throughout the immigration courtroom system, with shoppers typically moved across the nation to completely different services.

“We are having people who are detained and then they’re bounced around to multiple different detention facilities. And then sometimes they’re transferred across the country,” he stated.

Khalil’s legal professionals have additionally filed a lawsuit difficult his detention. A federal decide in New York Metropolis ordered that Khalil not be deported whereas the courtroom thought-about his case. A listening to is scheduled for Wednesday.

Initially Printed: March 11, 2025 at 1:54 PM EDT

By DEE-ANN DURBIN

Ben & Jerry’s says its CEO was unlawfully eliminated by its guardian firm, Unilever, in retaliation for the ice cream maker’s social and political activism.

In a federal courtroom submitting late Tuesday, Ben & Jerry’s mentioned Unilever knowledgeable its board on March 3 that it was eradicating and changing Ben & Jerry’s CEO David Stever. Ben & Jerry’s mentioned that violated its merger settlement with Unilever, which states that any choices concerning a CEO’s removing should come after a session with an advisory committee from Ben & Jerry’s board.

The Related Press left a message in search of remark with London-based Unilever on Wednesday.

Unilever acquired Ben & Jerry’s in 2000 for $326 million. On the time, Ben & Jerry’s mentioned the partnership would assist the progressive Vermont-based ice cream firm develop its social mission.

However these days, the wedding hasn’t been a contented one. In 2021, Ben & Jerry’s introduced it will cease serving Israeli settlements within the occupied West Financial institution and contested east Jerusalem. The next 12 months, Unilever offered its Israeli enterprise to a neighborhood firm that mentioned it will promote Ben & Jerry’s beneath its Hebrew and Arabic title all through Israel and the West Financial institution.

Final Could, Unilever mentioned it was planning to spin off its ice cream enterprise — together with Ben & Jerry’s — by the top of 2025 as half of a bigger restructuring. Unilever additionally owns private hygiene manufacturers like Dove cleaning soap and meals manufacturers like Hellmann’s mayonnaise.

However the acrimony continued. In November, Ben & Jerry’s sued Unilever in federal courtroom in New York, accusing it of silencing Ben & Jerry’s statements in assist of Palestinians within the Gaza struggle.

In its grievance, Ben & Jerry’s mentioned Unilever additionally refused to let the corporate launch a social media publish that recognized points it believed could be challenged throughout President Donald Trump’s second time period, together with minimal wages, common well being care, abortion and local weather change.

Tuesday’s submitting was an modification to that lawsuit.

Initially Printed: March 19, 2025 at 12:53 PM EDT

Essentially the most consequential cameo of Coachella to this point was an unbilled visitor slot from Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Recent off a packed rally at Gloria Molina Grand Park in downtown L.A. that drew tens of hundreds, Sanders (flanked by congressman Maxwell Frost, a Gen Z heir of his imaginative and prescient), spoke simply forward of Clairo’s Outside Theater set at 8:15 p.m.

“This country faces some very difficult challenges. The future of what happens to America is dependent upon your generation,” Sanders mentioned. “You can turn away and ignore what goes on, but if you do, you do it at your own peril.”

Sanders advocated for the younger Coachella crowds to not give in to despair on the present Trump administration, and to recollect they’re nonetheless within the battle for the atmosphere, ladies’s rights and peace in Gaza.

The crowds heartily booed the primary point out of President Trump (“I agree,” Sanders mentioned in response).

Sen. Bernie Sanders, left, and Rep. Maxwell Frost on the Coachella music pageant on Saturday in Indio.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Occasions)

“He thinks that climate change is a hoax. He is dangerously wrong, and you and I are going to have to stand up to the fossil fuel industry and tell them to stop destroying this planet.”

Recognizing the urgency of the second for Clairo’s fan base, he reminded them that “in many states politicians [are] trying to take away women’s rights to control their own body,” he continued. “We need you to stand up and fight for women’s rights.”

Then he performed his equal of his best hits — railing in opposition to billionaires like Elon Musk.

“We have an economy today that’s working very well for the billionaire class but not for working families. We have a healthcare system that’s broken. Healthcare is a human right.”

Then he introduced out Clairo, who Sanders mentioned has “used her prominence to fight for women’s rights and to try and end the terrible and brutal war in Gaza.”

Most followers in all probability got here to Coachella to flee the grimness of politics right now. However as all the time, politics will observe them anyway, and Sanders made it really feel looking forward to the trustworthy.

The Cannes Movie Pageant

is revealing the official choice for the 2025 version. The French occasion, a significant spot on the annual cinematic calendar, will reconvene for its 78th competition from Tuesday, Might 13 to Saturday, Might 24. Regardless of rumors swirling, only a few movies had been confirmed for the competition forward of time, when usually a number of outstanding titles are revealed early. Solely Mission: Unimaginable – The Last Reckoning was introduced as a Cannes premiere earlier this week.

Now, a press convention has revealed the official lineup of Cannes 2025 – or, at the least, most of it. After an introduction from Iris Knobloch, President of the Pageant de Cannes, the preliminary record of alternatives was shared by Thierry Frémaux, Common Delegate. He did, nonetheless, finish his presentation by saying extra titles will probably be introduced forward of the competition’s begin date, noting that the choice committee reviewed a document 2,909 function submissions. The announcement itself could be replayed under:

The official Competitors alternatives embody many motion pictures beforehand tipped for the competition, together with Ari Aster’s Eddington, Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme, and Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Obscure, which dramatizes the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless and at all times appeared destined to premiere on the French competition. Julia Ducournau, whose 2021 horror movie Titane made her the second girl ever to win the Palme D’Or, returns with Alpha, whereas acclaimed American filmmaker Kelly Reichardt will debut The Mastermind after breaking into the competitors lineup along with her 2022 movie Exhibiting Up.

Frémaux confirmed that Tom Cruise will seem in Cannes alongside Christopher McQuarrie to current their latest Mission: Unimaginable movie to the world, and he actually will not be the one star to attend. The casts of The Phoenician Scheme and Eddington alone can be sufficient to crowd the crimson carpet, however actors Scarlett Johansson and Harris Dickinson are additionally each confirmed to be making their directorial debuts, with Eleanor the Nice and Urchin, respectively. These motion pictures will compete within the competition’s Un Sure Regard part.

Try the total record of introduced movies under:

Opening Night time

Depart One Day, Amélie Bonnin

In Competitors

Sentimental Worth, Joachim Trier

Sound of Falling, Mascha Schilinski

Romeria, Carla Simon

The Mastermind, Kelly Reichardt

The Eagles of the Republic, Tarik Saleh

File 137, Dominik Moll

The Secret Agent, Kleber Mendonça Filho

Fuori, Mario Martone

Nouvelle Obscure, Richard Linklater

Two Prosecutors, Sergei Loznitsa

La Petite Dernière, Hafsia Herzi

In Easy Accident, Jafar Panahi

The Historical past of Sound, Oliver Hermanus

Renoir, Chie Hayakawa

Alpha, Julia Ducournau

Sirat, Oliver Laxe

Younger Moms, Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Luc Dardenne

Eddington, Ari Aster

The Phoenician Scheme, Wes Anderson

Out Of Competitors

The Coming of the Future, Cedric Klapisch

Mission: Unimaginable – The Last Reckoning, Christopher McQuarrie

The Richest Girl within the World, Thierry Klifa

Vie Privée, Rebecca Zlotowski

Un Sure Regard

The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo, Diego Céspedes

Meteors, Hubert Charuel

My Father’s Shadow, Akinola Davies, Jr.

L’inconnue de la Grande Arche, Stephane Demoustier

Urchin, Harris Dickinson

A Pale View of Hills, Kei Ishikawa

Eleanor the Nice, Scarlett Johansson

Pillion, Harry Lighton

Aisha Can’t Fly Away Anymore, Morad Mostafa

As soon as Upon a Time in Gaza, Arab Nasser, Tarzan Nasser

The Plague, Charlie Polinger

Heads or Tails?, Alessio Rigo de Righi & Matteo Zoppis

Homebound, Neeraj Ghaywan

Cannes Premieres

Amrum, Fati Akin

Connemara, Alex Lutz

The Disappearance of Josef Mengele, Kirill Serebrennikov

Orwell, Raoul Peck

Midnight Screenings

Son of the Neon Night time, Juno Mack

Exit 8, Genki Kawamura

Particular Screenings

Tales of Give up, Bono
Inform Her That I Love Her, Claude Miller
Marcel et Monsieur Pagnol, Sylvain Chomet
Dolloway, Yann Gozlan

Cheeks and CBS Leisure President Amy Reisenbach unveiled the community’s new primetime schedule for reporters at Paramount’s Hollywood workplaces, trumpeting CBS’ primetime successful streak of 17 consecutive seasons.

For the season that ends this month, CBS boasts eight of the highest 10 primetime reveals in community TV. The broadcaster’s schedule of originals towers over opponents ABC and NBC. This previous yr, rankings grew 3% — a uncommon feat in an period of shrinking linear TV audiences.

However that power has been undermined by the corporate’s high-profile tangles with Trump, who introduced a $20-billion lawsuit over edits of a “60 Minutes” interview final fall with then-Vice President Kamala Harris.

First Modification consultants have described Trump’s lawsuit, which alleges the “60 Minutes” episode was fraudulent, as frivolous. However the president has remained defiant, saying CBS ought to be punished.

Representatives of Trump and Paramount met with a mediator final week, however there was no fast decision of the lawsuit. Controlling shareholder Shari Redstone’s want to finish the wrangling with a settlement stays a cloud hanging over the corporate and its sale.

Cheeks acknowledged the turmoil Wednesday.

“This is an unprecedented, challenging time for the industry and for our company in particular,” Cheeks informed a few dozen reporters gathered in a CBS convention room. “For me, what’s most important as a leader is how you show up in a difficult time.

“ … My biggest goal is to make sure that the team feels supported and that we recognize that we have to focus on what we can control,” Cheeks mentioned. “We’re going to get through this.”

George Cheeks the at Lincoln Middle in New York in January.

(Kristina Bumphrey / Getty Photos)

Correspondent Scott Pelley informed “60 Minutes” viewers about Owens’ resignation in late April, noting that journalists had been going through elevated company oversight.

Since Trump’s go well with was filed final fall, “60 Minutes” has remained dogged in its protection of the Trump administration’s insurance policies.

This previous Sunday, Pelley reported on how Trump has used government orders to focus on regulation corporations that he accuses of “weaponizing” the justice system towards him.

Redstone has expressed frustration with “60 Minutes” for months. She was sad with this system’s protection of the Israel-Hamas struggle and its results on Gaza. She reportedly has requested Cheeks whether or not there have been extra “60 Minutes” tales coming that would antagonize Trump.

A Redstone spokesperson declined to remark.

It’s been 10 months since Redstone agreed to promote Paramount, which incorporates the historic Melrose Avenue film studio, Comedy Central, MTV and Paramount+, to David Ellison’s Skydance Media, a deal valued at $8 billion.

The deal would see the Redstone household vacating its perch in Hollywood after almost 40 years. Ellison and executives with RedBird Capital Companions would take over management of the corporate. Cheeks is predicted to remain on in a high-profile position, sources have mentioned.

However the Federal Communications Fee has solely begun preliminary steps to evaluate the deal, which insiders had hoped could be finalized by early this spring.

The 2 sides face an early October deadline to realize approval and shut the deal. Paramount wants the FCC to consent to the switch of CBS station licenses to the Ellison household.

If the deal isn’t wrapped by mid-October, both facet might again out. Paramount would owe a considerable break-up price.

The outcomes of the inquiry are pending.

Through the presentation, neither Cheeks or Reisenbach addressed Trump’s bombshell announcement Sunday that he deliberate to impose 100% tariffs on films which might be filmed in international international locations, saying it was untimely to invest.

Questions swirl in regards to the feasibility of his proposal, and Trump didn’t say whether or not tv reveals could be included. CBS movies a number of reveals in Canada.

Cheeks and Reisenbach informed reporters their crew was attempting to dam out the “noise” to concentrate on growing the brand new fall schedule, a way of normalcy that was welcomed inside CBS’ ranks. Subsequent week begins the annual upfront gross sales season when advertisers place bets on the varied community schedules.

“George really creates an environment where we almost feel like we have the space and room to operate in a noise bubble,” Reisenbach mentioned.

CBS introduced eight new collection, together with “Marshals,” a brand new western drama from hitmaker Taylor Sheridan, together with different new reveals, “CIA,” “Sheriff Country,” a comedy known as “DMV” and a rustic music expertise search present, “The Road,” with Keith City and Blake Shelton.

Donnie Wahlberg, who will reprise his position from the CBS hit “Blue Bloods” within the new present “Boston Blue,” made a cameo look on the presentation, together with Sonequa Martin-Inexperienced, who will co-star as a detective.

The Wahlberg present picks up from the beloved Tom Selleck unique. “No ‘Blue Bloods’ fans will be disappointed,” Wahlberg mentioned. There’s additionally a bake-off known as “America’s Culinary Cup” with Padma Lakshmi and “Harlan Coben’s Final Twist.”

By JAKE OFFENHARTZ, Related Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Columbia College says it has expelled or suspended some college students who took over a campus constructing throughout pro-Palestinian protests final spring, and had briefly revoked the diplomas of some college students who’ve since graduated.

The college didn’t present a breakdown of what number of college students have been expelled, suspended or had their diploma revoked.

The fruits of the monthslong investigative course of comes because the college’s activist neighborhood is reeling from the arrest of a widely known campus activist, Mahmoud Khalil, by federal immigration authorities this previous Saturday – the “first of many” such arrests, in response to President Donald Trump.

On the identical time, the Trump administration has stripped the college of greater than $400 million in federal funds over what it describes as the school’s inaction in opposition to widespread campus antisemitism.

The takeover of Hamilton Corridor got here on April 30, 2024, an escalation led by a smaller group of scholars of the tent encampment that had sprung up on Columbia’s campus in opposition to the struggle in Gaza.

College students and their allies barricaded themselves contained in the corridor with furnishings and padlocks in a significant escalation of campus protests.

On the request of college leaders, a whole bunch of officers with the New York Police Division stormed onto campus the next evening. Officers carrying zip ties and riot shields poured in to the occupied constructing by way of a window and arrested dozens of individuals.

At a courtroom listening to in June, the Manhattan district legal professional’s workplace stated it might not pursue legal prices for 31 of the 46 folks initially arrested on trespassing prices contained in the administration constructing — however all the college students nonetheless confronted disciplinary hearings and attainable expulsion from the college.

The district legal professional’s workplace stated on the time that they have been dismissing prices in opposition to most of these arrested contained in the constructing due partially to an absence of proof tying them to particular acts of property injury and the truth that not one of the college students had legal histories.

Greater than a dozen of these arrested have been provided offers that may have ultimately led to the dismissal of their prices, however they refused them, protest organizers stated, “in a show of solidarity with those facing the most extreme repression.” Most in that group have been alumni, however two have been present college students, prosecutors stated.

Initially Revealed: March 13, 2025 at 6:20 PM EDT

By LARRY NEUMEISTER

NEW YORK (AP) — Handcuffed and shackled, Mahmoud Khalil was rushed from New York to Louisiana final weekend in a way that left the outspoken Columbia College graduate pupil feeling like he was being kidnapped, his legal professionals wrote in an up to date lawsuit looking for his rapid launch.

The legal professionals described intimately what occurred to the Palestinian activist as he was flown to Louisiana by brokers he mentioned by no means recognized themselves. As soon as there, he was left to sleep in a bunker with no pillow or blanket as high U.S. officers cheered the trouble to deport a person his legal professionals say generally grew to become the “public face” of pupil protests on Columbia’s campus in opposition to Israel’s navy actions in Gaza.

The submitting late Thursday in Manhattan federal court docket was the results of a federal decide’s Wednesday order that they lastly be allowed to talk with Khalil.

The legal professionals mentioned his therapy by federal authorities from Saturday, when he was first arrested, to Monday reminded Khalil of when he left Syria shortly after the pressured disappearance of his buddies there throughout a interval of arbitrary detention in 2013.

“Throughout this process, Mr. Khalil felt as though he was being kidnapped,” the legal professionals wrote of his therapy.

Earlier this week, President Donald Trump heralded Khalil’s arrest as the primary “of many to come,” vowing on social media to deport college students he mentioned interact in “pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity.”

In court docket papers, legal professionals for the Justice Division mentioned Kahlil was detained beneath a regulation permitting Secretary of State Marco Rubio to take away somebody from the nation if he has cheap grounds to consider their presence or actions would have doubtlessly critical antagonistic international coverage penalties.

Trump and Rubio have been added as defendants within the civil lawsuit looking for to free Khalil.

The federal government attorneys requested a decide to toss out the lawsuit or switch it to New Jersey or Louisiana, saying jurisdiction belongs within the places the place Khalil has been held since his detention.

In response to the lawsuit, Khalil repeatedly requested to talk to a lawyer after the U.S. everlasting resident with no felony historical past was snatched by federal brokers as he and his spouse have been returning to Columbia’s residential housing, the place they lived, after dinner at a pal’s house.

Confronted by brokers for the Division of Homeland Safety, Khalil briefly telephoned his lawyer earlier than he was taken to FBI headquarters in decrease Manhattan, the lawsuit mentioned.

It was there that Khalil noticed an agent method one other agent and say, “the White House is requesting an update,” the legal professionals wrote.

Sooner or later early Sunday, Khalil was taken, handcuffed and shackled, to the Elizabeth Detention Middle in Elizabeth, New Jersey, a privately-run facility the place he spent the evening in a chilly ready room for processing, his request for a blanket denied, the lawsuit mentioned.

When he reached the entrance of the road for processing, he was advised his processing wouldn’t happen in spite of everything as a result of he was being transported by immigration authorities, it mentioned.

Put in a van, Khalil seen that one of many brokers obtained a textual content message instructing that Khalil was to not use his telephone, the lawsuit mentioned.

At 2:45 p.m. Sunday, he was placed on an American Airways flight from Kennedy Worldwide Airport to Dallas, the place he was placed on a second flight to Alexandria, Louisiana. He arrived at 1 a.m. Monday and a police automotive took him to the Louisiana Detention Facility in Jena, Louisiana, it mentioned.

On the facility, he now worries about his pregnant spouse and is “also very concerned about missing the birth of his first child,” the lawsuit mentioned.

In April, Khalil was to start a job and obtain well being advantages that the couple was relying on to cowl prices associated to the delivery and care of the kid, it added.

“It is very important to Mr. Khalil to be able to continue his protected political speech, advocating and protesting for the rights of Palestinians — both domestically and abroad,” the lawsuit mentioned, noting that Khalil was planning to talk on a panel on the upcoming premiere in Copenhagen, Denmark, of a documentary through which he’s featured.

At a listening to Wednesday, Khalil’s attorneys mentioned that they had not been allowed any attorney-client-protected communications with Khalil since his arrest and had been advised they might converse to him in 10 days. Decide Jesse M. Furman ordered that not less than one dialog be permitted on Wednesday and Thursday.

Initially Revealed: March 14, 2025 at 11:39 AM EDT