Cornell rally, France protests, LGBTQ deportations and Yemen's advance
00:01 Hi, I'm Kim Vinal in Wanganui, New Zealand. It's Tuesday, October 6th, today. Protesters stage a mass rally to demand accountability at Cornell, calling on universities to do better. LGBTQ migrants granted legal protection in the US are deported to countries where they could be at more risk. And the Saudi-backed Yemeni government moves fast, retaking Houthi territory in a bid to loosen the Houthi's grip on the Red Sea. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes, seven days a week. A protest movement is growing at Cornell University after a student's gang rape allegations sparked national outrage. No justice, no peace. No justice.
01:08 No peace. Students, faculty and activists marched across campus Monday, demanding an external inquiry into how Cornell managed the allegations and calling for minimum sanctions for all sexual assaults on campus. We need to ban the frats and start treating the root cultural issues that lead to environments where this is allowed or perpetuated. One sign held by a protester read, Prison sentences, not topic sentences.
01:41 The reference to a claim made in the alleged victim's civil lawsuit that some of the seven students accused were allowed to seek reduced penalties from the university by writing essays. Cornell says essays weren't the only punishment. It says it shut down the fraternity chapter involved and disciplined the accused students with suspensions, and expulsions.
02:06 Broiter's reporter Ed O went to the rally in Ithaca, New York, and has more. Cornell's president has said that the allegations raise serious questions about the university's handling of the case and has welcomed an independent review. But students and protesters here say that the problem goes beyond just one case, that this is a systemic issue. The students here I spoke to describe both anger and grief and frustration that These issues keep on coming up over and over again. One thing that I noticed, a lot of the undergraduates were too young to remember me too.
02:45 They are aware of the beginning of this new movement. I am Jane Doe. But many students I've spoken to have reflected that it's actually really sad that every new generation has to reckon with the exact same thing, that nothing really changes. Police fired tear gas at protesters on the outskirts of Paris, as protests over poor education conditions and funding continues across France. On Monday, a teenager's hand was blown off in a clash with police.
03:22 Eyewitness video shows protesters gathered in the street outside a school as fireworks, tear gas and smoke bombs go off around them. France's justice ministry said more than 5,000 people have been arrested since the protests began three weeks ago. President Trump's approval rating is still at a record low ahead of next month's midterm elections, with Hispanic voters turning sharply against him. A new Reuters-Ipsos poll shows just 32% of Americans approve of Trump's performance, the lowest of his presidency,
03:58 and less than a quarter of Hispanic Americans now back him, down from nearly half during the 2024 election. The decline comes as Americans grapple with, high inflation linked to the president's military campaign against Iran. One final bit of Trump news. The US president says taxpayer money will no longer be used to fund television ads featuring him after the campaign style spots drew criticism from ethics experts and lawmakers in both parties. The nationally broadcast ads promote what Trump calls a golden age of America and have aired during major sporting events.
04:36 Trump says future ads will instead be paid for by him or his political action committee. Yemeni government forces backed by Saudi Arabia have staged a dramatic advance, retaking Yemen's coastline around the Babel Mandib straight from the Iran-backed Houthis. That's according to the internationally recognised government. Footage released by government forces, which Reuters could not verify, showed armed fighters exchanging gunfire as a convoy advanced along coastal roads near Dubab in Thayez.
05:20 If the gains are confirmed, the advance reverses much of the gains the Houthis made last month and loosen the group's grip on the vital waterway. In response, the Houthis say they attacked two of Saudi Arabia's airports as well as an oil facility and a military base. After Eroyce's report,
05:40 revealed McDonald's is using AI to help set menu prices across nearly 14,000 restaurants in the US. The fast food giant is now facing a proposed nationwide class action lawsuit. Plaintiffs allege McDonald's illegally coordinated prices between company-owned and franchised locations, and they claim the company used algorithms trained on non-public data. McDonald's caused the allegations speculative and uninformed. That's Abdo Lato Fou, who two years ago was assaulted by a mob after he was seen kissing the man he loved in the West African nation of Togo. He fled his home and sought refuge in the United States, according to his asylum application.
06:33 A U.S. immigration judge ruled it was not safe for him to be sent home. But in June, Latifo was forced onto a U.S. deportation plane, not back to Togo, but to Sierra Leone, a nation where gay men can be sentenced to life in prison. He's now in hiding in Ivory Coast. Latifo's case is one of 40 documented by Reuters, where migrants were granted U.S. legal protection after being persecuted for their LGBT status. were then deported to third countries that either criminalize same-sex relations
07:12 or have been described by the State Department as hostile to LGBT people. Robbie Corey Boulaye has more. These countries agree to take in migrants who have a judge's protection not to be deported to their home country. Instead, they go to this third country, which is ostensibly safer for them
07:34 and means that they're not being sent back to a place where they would face the same threat that spurred them to seek asylum in the U.S. in the first place. And the Trump administration has said that when it carries out these third country deportations, once somebody is no longer in U.S. custody, it's the receiving country that is responsible for what happens next, their well-being. What immigrants rights advocates and lawyers and the deportees who we spoke to them, themselves have said is that you for LGBT people, if you are deporting them to a third country
08:13 that criminalizes same-sex relations or is known for climate of hostility toward LGBT people, this idea that it's somehow safer doesn't apply and these deportations are, you know, no less dangerous than if you were to send them home. Now we end with a bit of an odd one today. A death at a plague research institute in Siberia has triggered quarantines and sparked fears online, though the World Health Organization says the risk to the public appears low. Now, the laboratory studies infectious diseases and plague, of which there are three kinds. Bubonic, big in the 14th century, which affects the lymph nodes,
09:02 septicemic, which affects the blood, and pneumonic, which affects the life. The 28-year-old laboratory worker who died had what authorities describe as pneumonia of unknown origin. However, the bacteria that causes plague is regularly found in small wild animals in Siberia. The disease can be treated with antibiotics if caught early, but some forms, including pneumonic plague, can spread through infectious droplets and become fatal within days if left untreated. Authorities say all known contacts have been traced and no new cases have been reported. For more on any of the stories from today, as well as more analysis and news shaping our world, check out Reuters.com or the Reuters app.
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