5 vital stories to know this week [5/3]
From Tennessee permitting teachers to carry guns in schools, to the U.S. admitting it mistakingly killed a Syrian farmer, here 5 five stories you need to read this week.
Arrests of pro-Palestinian college protestors exceeds 2,300
More than 2,300 people have been arrested at pro-Palestinian protests at colleges around the nation as students aim to spotlight Israel’s bombardment of Gaza that has killed over 30,000 Palestinians. Viral videos on social media show law enforcement officers using aggressive tactics, including pepper spray and zip ties, to fend off anti-war protesters.
The demonstrations have been most notable at Columbia University, where students occupied a campus building before police bulldozed inside to arrest the students. Columbia began suspending students since the administration and the student body couldn’t agree to remove their encampment and for the university to divest from Israel. Suspended students are not eligible to graduate at Columbia.
Meanwhile: Jewish and Muslim students continue to raise concerns about a significant uptick in antisemitism and Islamophobia since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7.
ByteDance says it won’t sell TikTok
TikTok’s Chinese-based company ByteDance said it will not sell its stakes in TikTok after the US passed a law forcing ByteDance to sell the social media app or be banned in America. The company said it would challenge the “unconstitutional" law in court.
Context: Over 170 million Americans use TikTok.
US admits air strike killed a farmer rather than an al-Qaeda leader
The U.S. military said it killed a 56-year-old shepherd named Lutfi Hasan Masto in an airstrike in Syria a year ago after misidentifying him as a senior al Qaeda leader, according to an investigation by US Central Command last summer.
The probe “concluded the strike was conducted in compliance with the law of armed conflict as well as Department of Defense and CENTCOM policies” but “revealed several issues that could be improved,” according to a summary of the findings obtained by CNN.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signs into law bill allowing armed teachers
Last week, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed a law that would allow school teachers and staff to carry guns in schools, despite protests from school shooting survivors, teachers, and gun-reform advocates. Parents and most staff will not be told who in the school has a weapon or where it may be stored and the law will go into immediate effect.
Armed teachers and staff will be required to undergo 40 hours of training, which Sen. Jeff Yarbro, D-Nashville, at one point likened to fewer hours than children are sent to summer camp.
Biden denounces violence on campus, breaking silence after rash of arrests
President Biden condemned pro-Palestinian student protests at college campuses on Wednesday and said there would be no change to U.S. policy on Israel.
“Vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campuses, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduation — none of this is a peaceful protest. Threatening people, intimidating people, instilling fear in people is not a peaceful protest,” he said.
By the numbers: 99% of student protests of Israel's war on Gaza have remained peaceful, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.