A leader of Columbia University protests against Israel’s war in Gaza was arrested by immigration officers, a campus union said Sunday, after US President Donald Trump vowed to deport foreign pro-Palestinian student demonstrators.Mahmoud Khalil, one of the most prominent faces in the campus’s protest movement that erupted in response to Israel’s conduct of the war, was arrested Saturday, the Student Workers of Columbia union said.”On Saturday, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officers detained Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian recent Columbia graduate and lead negotiator for last spring’s Gaza solidarity encampment,” the union said in a statement.US campuses including Columbia’s in New York were rocked by student protests against Israel’s war in Gaza following the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack. The demonstrations ignited accusations of anti-Semitism.Protests, some of which turned violent and saw campus buildings occupied and lectures disrupted, pitted students protesting Israel’s conduct against pro-Israel campaigners, many of whom were Jewish. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on X that “we will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported.”Khalil, who remains in immigration enforcement detention, held permanent residency at the time of his arrest prompting thousands of people to sign a petition calling for his release, the union statement added. “We are also aware of multiple reports of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents accessing or attempting to access Columbia campus buildings on Friday and Saturday, including undergraduate dorms,” the union said.Columbia did not directly address Khalil’s arrest in response to inquiries, but in a statement said “there have been reports of ICE in the streets around campus.” “Columbia has and will continue to follow the law. Consistent with our longstanding practice and the practice of cities and institutions throughout the country, law enforcement must have a judicial warrant to enter non-public University areas, including University buildings,” Columbia said.The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment.Trump railed against the student protest movement linked to the conflict in Gaza, and vowed to deport foreign students who had demonstrated.He also threatened to cut off federal funding for institutions that he said were not doing enough to combat anti-Semitism.His administration announced Friday it was cutting $400 million in federal grants to Columbia University, accusing it of failing to protect Jewish students from harassment.

Hundreds gathered Sunday in Selma, Alabama to mark the 60th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday,” when a group of peaceful demonstrators marched for African Americans’ voting rights and were brutally beaten by police.As the group began marching the 50 miles (80 kilometers) to the southern state’s capital on March 7, 1965, state troopers blocked their path and attempted to turn them back.The police began beating the protesters when they refused to disperse, leaving at least 17 hospitalized and 40 others needing treatment, with the violence documented by accompanying journalists.”Bloody Sunday” catalyzed support for Black rights and led a few months later to the passage of the Voting Rights Act, a federal law prohibiting racial discrimination in voting.On Sunday, there was a festival atmosphere as crowds stopped to take photographs and pause in front of signs for the town of Selma and the Edmund Pettus Bridge.A contingent of bow-tied, white-gloved freemasons processed in a column across the bridge as part of the commemoration.”We’re here to remind people that there are human and civil rights that we are all entitled to. And that we don’t need to step back, we need to keep moving forward,” said Alicia Jordan, a 32-year-old bank employee.The event is known as “The Annual Pilgrimage to Selma,” and features a festival of arts and music ahead of the March to Restore Voting Rights across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the top Democrat in the US House of Representatives, addressed the gathering, which was attended last year by then-vice president Kamala Harris.”We stand here in support of civil rights, stand here in support of voting rights, stand here in support of racial justice, social justice, economic justice,” Jeffries told the crowd.”They want us to step back, but we are here to make clear that we are going to fight back,” he said.Selma native Godfrey King told AFP ahead of the march that his “father was thrown in jail for the right to vote.” “My pastor at the time was one of the courageous eight, Dr. Frederick D. Reese. My uncles were thrown in jail, cattle prodded on Bloody Sunday. Voting is so important to me.”

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum told cheering crowds Sunday that she is confident that her country has headed off the threat of US tariffs for now.Last week, Sheinbaum’s US counterpart Donald Trump agreed to offer another month of temporary relief on threatened tariffs on imports from Mexico.During a huge rally in Mexico City of 350,000 people, according to local authorities, Sheinbaum declared herself “optimistic” about the future of the trade relationship.But she also warned Mexico “cannot give up our sovereignty.”Sheinbaum originally organized the event to announce the tariff and non-tariff trade measures with which Mexico would respond if Trump had carried through with his threat.But on Thursday, Trump once again put a pause on plans to impose a 25 percent tariff on imports into the United States from Mexico — which represent 80 percent of Mexican exports.Announcing the truce, Trump said he had done this out of respect for Sheinbaum and argued that the pair have a “very good” relationship.US financial markets had also reacted negatively to the tariff threat, and most economists agree that if implemented they would damage both countries’ economies. “We gather to congratulate ourselves because, in the relationship with the United States, with its government, dialogue and respect prevailed,” Sheinbaum said.In the Mexican capital’s Zocalo square, she added: “We cannot yield on our sovereignty, nor can our people be affected by decisions made by foreign governments.”In such a case, we will always act immediately,” she said. “I am convinced that the relationship must be good, respectful, and that dialogue will always prevail.”Trump’s justification for tariffs on US imports from Mexico and Canada — which are part of the USMCA trilateral free trade deal — has varied.- Recession threat? -He claims the US economy is losing out to unfair Mexican and Canadian competition, but also accused both of turning a blind eye to undocumented migrants and illegal drugs.In particular, Washington is incensed over shipments of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that kills thousands of Americans each year.Citing US figures, Shenbaum told the crowd that — thanks to seizures made in Mexico — the amount of fentanyl into the United States across the countries’ 1,900-mile (3,100-kilometer) border decreased by half between October 2024 and January 2025. She said Mexico will continue to cooperate to tackle smuggling for “humanitarian reasons” and she hopes the United States remembers its promise to control the trafficking of arms to Mexican criminal organizations. While Mexico is an important supplier to the United States of products such as avocados and tequila, the biggest impact of a trade war would be on the manufacturing production chains of the three USMCA partners. Experts warn that if the tariffs as described by Trump were implemented then Mexico would fall into recession.Seeking to correct alleged trade imbalances, Trump has pledged to launch “reciprocal” tariffs on all countries beginning on April 2.Sheinbaum said she was “optimistic because on that day… they would not have to be applied” to Mexico, given most products are covered by the USMCA trade deal.