Johnson calls on Columbia University president to resign House speaker Mike Johnson, speaking on the steps outside the Low Library at Columbia University, called for the resignation of the president of the university, Minouche Shafik, over her handling of the protests at the school. Johnson said: I am here today, joining my colleagues and calling on President Shafik to resign if she cannot immediately bring order to this chaos. Johnson’s speech was repeatedly interrupted by a crowd of protesters. “Enjoy your free speech,” the speaker replied. Police in Texas have arrested a journalist who was covering the protest at the University of Texas at Austin. A Fox 7 photographer was reportedly arrested after getting caught between protesters and law enforcement. Officers have clashed with students after dozens of local police and state troopers formed a line to stop protesters from marching through campus. They have detained multiple people. Greg Abbott, the Texas governor, said arrests would continue until “the crowd disperses”. “These protesters belong in jail,” he said. Cal Poly Humboldt, a public university on the far northern coast of California, where pro-Palestinian students are occupying a campus building, said on Wednesday that it would remain closed through the weekend. Protesters have barricaded themselves in Siemens Hall since Monday evening despite a large showing of local law enforcement who unsuccessfully attempted to force them out. Police have arrested three protesters. Students are reportedly also holding a sit-in in another campus building. The university said it is considering keeping the campus closed beyond the weekend, and accused students of stealing items and breaking “numerous laws”. Aside from the confrontation with police, media outlets report the mood on campus has been festive. Students there told the Sacramento Bee they felt compelled to take action. “I think the solution is to get involved, because at least I can feel like I’m doing my part. Even if it’s not enough, I’m doing the best I can to make something of it. I find peace in that,” one student said. With protests under way at universities across the US, the White House said on Wednesday that Joe Biden supports freedom of expression on college campuses. “The president believes that free speech, debate and nondiscrimination on college campuses are important,” Karine Jean-Pierre, the press secretary, said at a briefing. At least 10 arrests at University of Texas in Austin At least 10 protesters have been arrested at the University of Texas at Austin, according to the school. Dozens of state troopers and police officers in riot gear were at the scene after hundreds of students walked out of class to protest the war in Gaza and demand the university divest from companies that manufacture machinery used in Israel’s war. “UT Austin does not tolerate disruptions of campus activities or operations like we have seen at other campuses,” a statement by the university’s division of student affairs said. This is an important time in our semester with students finishing classes and studying for finals and we will act first and foremost to allow those critical functions to proceed without interruption. Johnson calls on Columbia University president to resign House speaker Mike Johnson, speaking on the steps outside the Low Library at Columbia University, called for the resignation of the president of the university, Minouche Shafik, over her handling of the protests at the school. Johnson said: I am here today, joining my colleagues and calling on President Shafik to resign if she cannot immediately bring order to this chaos. Johnson’s speech was repeatedly interrupted by a crowd of protesters. “Enjoy your free speech,” the speaker replied. Mike Johnson slams college protests in remarks at Columbia University The House speaker, Mike Johnson, is giving a news conference surrounded by a group of House Republicans, amid boos and chants of “We can’t hear you” and “Free, free Palestine”. Johnson urged that the “madness has to stop” and said Jewish students had shared with him experiences of “heinous acts of bigotry” because of their faith. Quoting Winston Churchill, Johnson said “it is manifestly right that the Jews should have a National Home where some of them may be reunited.” Johnson claimed Columbia University is being “overtaken by radical extreme ideologies” that “place a target on the backs of Jewish students”, adding: Let me say this very simply: no American of any color or creed should ever have to live under those kinds of threats. That is not who we are in this country. He said he met briefly with the president of Columbia University and encouraged her to take more action against the protesters. New York governor says Johnson "adding to division" with Columbia University visit Kathy Hochul, the Democratic governor of New York, called Mike Johnson’s trip to Columbia University “divisive” and accused the House speaker of “politicizing the issue”. According to the New York Post, Hochul said: There’s a lot more responsibilities and crises to be dealt with in Washington. I’d encourage the speaker to go back and perhaps take up the migrant bill, the bill to deal with closing the border, so we can deal with a real crisis that New York has. A crowd has gathered on the Low Steps of Columbia University, where the House Speaker, Mike Johnson, is expected to deliver remarks at a press conference after meeting with Jewish students today. In a radio interview this morning, Johnson said he would call on the president of Columbia University, Minouche Shafik, to resign after failing to crack down on the protests. There is “significant activity” at the University of Southern California’s university park campus in Los Angeles, the school said in an update this afternoon. As we reported earlier, videos posted to social media show students taking part in pro-Palestinian demonstrations being forcibly arrested by police. As Columbia’s administration faces growing backlash following president Minouche Shafik’s decision last week to authorize police to dismantle Palestinian solidarity encampments and arrest students, a page on the university’s website has been garnering some attention online. The page reflects on the 1968 protests that swept through Columbia as students demonstrated against the Vietnam war and the construction of a segregated gym in Morningside Park. It says: Columbia is a far different place today than it was in the spring of 1968 when protesters took over University buildings amid discontent about the Vietnam War, racism and the University’s proposed expansion into Morningside Park. After a weeklong standoff, New York City Police stormed the campus and arrested more than 700 people. The fallout dogged Columbia for years. It took decades for the University to recover from those turbulent times. Columbia now has one of the most socio-economically diverse student bodies among its peer institutions.” As students are arrested across the country over demonstrations and encampments held in solidarity with Palestine, New York University – which describes itself on its website as “a campus without walls” – has set up plywood walls. The walls come after New York police arrested multiple protesters following demonstrations on Monday during which students and faculty called for the university to divest from Israel. The Texas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union has issued a statement about the crackdown on students at the University of Texas, Austin following their anti-war protests and calls for the university to “divest from death” in Israel. In a statement on X, the ACLU chapter wrote: “The freedom to protest is integral to our democracy. UT Austin students have a First Amendment right to freely express their political opinions - without threats of arrest and violence. If you or someone you know needs legal support, call the Austin Lawyers Guild: 512-817-4254.” Students forcibly arrested at University of Southern California in LA Videos emerging online show students being forcibly arrested by police at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Campus officials have also dismantled Palestinian solidarity encampments set up earlier today by students who are demanding for USC to divest from Israel, along with a ceasefire in Gaza where Israeli forces have killed more than 34,000 Palestinians. Columbia University student protesters said the university has provided a “written commitment and concession not to call the NYPD or the National Guard” to break up the encampments. A statement from Columbia students for justice in Palestine reads: The university’s previous threats of an imminent sweep by the NYPD or the National Guard had severed negotiations. The administration’s threats backfired when student negotiators refused to stay at the table. “Thousands of peaceful students flooded the lawns in support of their peers” in response to the failed negotiations, it said. Student protestors on Columbia’s campus – the majority of whom are Palestinian, Black, brown, and Jewish students from marginalized backgrounds – stood by each other for hours last night, awaiting the outcome of Columbia’s disturbing threat of military or police violence. Anti-war student protesters at France’s most prestigious politics school, Sciences Po, have begun pitching tents on the university’s campus. Bilge Kotan, a student and journalist at Sciences Po, said about 70 people would camp at the university’s Saint-Thomas campus, demanding the institution cut ties with Israeli universities and stop “repression” of pro-Palestinian voices.