Reuters World News - Columbia standoff, Sudan starvation and UK Labour’s leg up

Episode Date: April 30, 2024

Protesters at Columbia University occupy a building on campus, as a standoff with the school over a pro-Palestinian encampment escalates. We talk to editor-in-chief of ULCA’s Daily Bruin about protests on her campus. The year-long war in Sudan drives parts of the country to the brink of famine. And the resignation of Scotland’s leader may give the UK opposition Labour party a boost ahead of national elections. We are looking for your feedback to improve the podcast. Please take two minutes to answer this survey. Visit the Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement for information on our privacy and data protection practices. You may also visit megaphone.fm/adchoices to opt out of targeted advertising. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, Columbia University students occupy a building on campus as college protests over the war in Gaza escalate across the US. We hear from one college newspaper editor about the demonstrations on her campus, the forgotten war in Sudan and the starvation stalking its people, and how a political upset in Scotland benefits Britain's Labour Party ahead of elections. It's Tuesday, April 30th. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes every weekday.

I'm Carmel Crimmons in Dublin. Pro-Palestinian protesters forming a barricade outside Hamilton Hall at Columbia University. They linked arms and used outdoor tables to block the entrance after other students barricaded themselves inside. Hours before,

the school began suspending activists who refused to take down a tent encampment on its New York City campus. University President Namat Manu Shafiq says the university will not divest assets that support Israel's military. One of the students' demands. Instead, she's offered to invest more in education in Gaza and make Colombia's direct investments more transparent.

Students and state troopers coming face to face at the University of Texas in Austin as campus protests over the war in Gaza spread. Police and troopers later tried to break up the protest using pepper spray and flashbang charges. Dozens of students have been arrested. As protests on college campuses over Gaza heat up, it's been left to student journalists to do much of the frontline reporting.

Over the weekend, UCLA became international news when pro-Palestinian protesters tussled with some Israeli supporters. Isabel Friedman is editor-in-chief of UCLA's Daily Bruin and has been working around the clock. Hey, Isabel, thanks so much for joining us. There were reports of violence on Sunday.

What did your reporter see? Yeah, I think for the most part, any violence that we've seen has been, I think, isolated. It's been like one-off interactions. And yeah, it's felt a little, it hasn't represented the majority of any protests or counter-protests that we've seen from my understanding. There's been a lot of attention on obviously the protests at Columbia, on USC, and at the University of Texas. Do you think UCLA has avoided some of that attention and any ideas, especially? to why and how? There's helicopters flying around on campus. So there definitely is attention on UCLA. I think part of what's kept it a little bit quieter than schools like Columbia and USC

has been the university's response that I think UCLA and UC Berkeley is the direction of the UC system has taken a little bit of a hands-off approach to this and tried to, as long as things are remaining peaceful, not intervene. And so I think that that's probably I think our school has probably drawn a little bit less attention than other schools because there haven't been any mass arrest. There wasn't a single arrest yesterday, according to a statement we got from UCLA. And so I think that's kept us a little bit out of the news from that. In this moment, the only thing standing between the people of Gaza and a ceasefire is Hamas. They have to decide, and they have to decide quickly.

Secretary of State Anthony Blinken in Saudi Arabia, urging Hamas to accept an Israeli proposal for a truce in Gaza. The offer includes the release of fewer than 40 of the roughly 130 Israeli hostages still believed to be in Gaza in exchange for freeing Palestinians jailed in Israel. I'll come to you again with heavy heart to announce that Officer Joshua Iyer recently passed away. Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department Chief Johnny Jennings announcing the death of a fourth police officer in North Carolina. The four were killed and four others wounded on Monday in a gunfight that,

broke out while they were serving a fugitive arrest warrant at a house in Charlotte. French actor Gerard Departé, will be tried in October for alleged sexual assaults against two women during a 2021 film shoot. That's according to a Paris prosecutor. The Green Card actor has denied any wrongdoing. The world's second largest economy is losing momentum. Manufacturing and services activity in China expanded at a slower pace in April. The cooling comes after a jump in March and shows how erratic demand is challenging Beijing's efforts to get its economy motoring again. Investors expect Beijing to launch more stimulus to support the economy, particularly as the Fed appears to be in no hurry to cut interest rates. In Sudan, there is so little food in some areas

that people are literally eating dirt. Maggie Michel has been reporting extensively on the country's year-long civil war and the ethnic cleansing that drove people from their homes. Maggie, you recently visited the capital Khartoum. What can you tell us about the hunger situation that's developing? We met with dozens of families who were trapped and caught up in the fighting in Khartoum. Some told us they were actually boiling the mango tree leaves, the stab of hunger. We saw people lining up very early in the morning to get what might be their only meal for the day from Kynal Kitchen or Sufk kitchen. In other areas in Sudan, like North Darfur, it's much, much worse.

but it's very hard to access for journalists. But we managed to speak to residents from refugee camps who lost all their source of income and they had nothing to eat at all. And families, including women and children, were eating dirt. Some of the anecdotes of suffering in your reporting are just heartbreaking. Hunger appears to be affecting people of all different walks of life.

People like this pharmacist, Fatma Sala, who describes her desperation waiting for food aid to feed her starving family. Why is this affecting so many people? The war incident shattered the economy, and the economy is actually based in a large part of it on agriculture. So when the war came and agriculture was really a heavy blow, people lost their income, and this became like anyone else. So those who are rich and those who are poor are just the same. We heard stories about people who were forced to even eat cats. Some were hunting for birds, collecting tree leaves.

And these are the areas where they were trapped and unable to leave. There are areas where people are isolated because the roads are cut or blocked by one of the factions that are fighting incident. And these areas like Darfur and Kordofan are in really, really bad situation. Both sides in the war, the military government and its opponent, the rapid support forces, paramilitary group, deny that they're blocking aid shipments. Maggie, this has been described as the largest hunger crisis in the world, but it's getting far less attention than, say, Gaza and other wars. What's being done to stop a famine? Yes, I have heard a lot of people describing Sudan as a forgotten war, and I was talking to aid agencies, and especially those who are involved in fundraising,

and one of them told me that her biggest challenge is the funding because of lack of attention to Sudan. told me people are so involved in Ukraine, so involved in Gaza, and there is no space for anyone to think or to be open to listen and hear about Sudan. So yeah, this is a reality that Sudan is forgotten and there is little aid going to it. Repairing our relationship across the political divide can only be done with someone else at the helm. Homsa Yusuf, resigning a Scotland's leader on Monday. The crisis in the Scottish National Party is expected to boost the UK opposition labour

Party in a national election, likely later this year. Local elections in England and Wales on Thursday will give an early indication of Labour's chances of pushing out Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his Conservative Party. Alistair's smout is in London. Alistair, how significant is the crisis in the SNP for the Labour Party? So the resignation of Hamzao, as Scottish First Minister, is very significant moment for Labour. Labour leaders Kirstana Sama has already twinned what he terms the chaos in the Scottish Parliament

with the chaos we've seen in Westminster through successive Conservative Prime Ministers. And Labour's hopes for the general election do rest in part on being able to pick up more seats in Scotland where they were once dominant. So one poll this month put Labour ahead of the S&P for the first time since 2014 for a UK election. So if that recent trend of support slipping away for the S&P

continues after Yassav's announcement on Monday, then Salma and Labor will be hoping to be able to fill that void. How is the party expected to do in the local elections? So Labor has a few opportunities to really damage Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at these local elections. The last time most of these votes were held was in 2021, when the Conservatives were riding high under Boris Johnson. So Labor can expect to gain a few hundred seats on local councils at the least. But the real prize would be if they are able to win either of the Conservative regional, mayor races.

If Labor sweep both of those, as well as a by-election in Platpool South, then that will be a really good result and spell trouble for Sooner. That's it for Tuesday. We'll be back tomorrow with our daily headline show. To make sure you never miss any of our updates, subscribe on your favourite podcast player or download the Reuters app.