More than 600 members of staff at Harvard University have backed its president following criticism over her appearance at a congressional hearing on campus antisemitism.
It comes amid mounting pressure on Claudine Gay to step down after she suggested it would depend on the context whether or not calling for the “genocide of Jews” would be classed as breaking university rules on bullying and harassment.
She told the Washington DC committee of politicians that when “speech crosses into conduct, that violates our policies”.
Two others who appeared alongside her at the hearing, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) President Sally Kornbluth and University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill, were criticised for similar comments.
All three condemned antisemitism during the session last week but dozens of Republican politicians have demanded they be removed from their posts, arguing that the trio should have been more unequivocal in their answers.
Prof Magill resigned at the weekendamid the growing row, while Harvard’s governing body is yet to issue a statement. MIT has given Prof Kornbluth its full backing.
Elise Stefanik, a New York Republican whose questions sparked the controversy, wrote on X: “One down. Two to go”.
More than 70 members of Congress, mostly Republicans, have also called for Prof Gay to go, while billionaire donor and former student Bill Ackman accused her of doing more damage to the university’s reputation than anyone else in history.
However, a petition signed by hundreds of staff has now urged Prof Gay to stay in her post and for the university’s governing body to resist political pressures “that are at odds with Harvard’s commitment to academic freedom”.
In an interview with student newspaper The Crimson, the Harvard president apologised for her answer and said she “got caught up in what had become at that point, an extended, combative exchange about policies and procedures”.
She added: “What I should have had the presence of mind to do in that moment was return to my guiding truth, which is that calls for violence against our Jewish community – threats to our Jewish students – have no place at Harvard, and will never go unchallenged.”
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Clash over antisemitism in US Congress
The controversy comes amid concern over reports of an uptick in antisemitism and Islamophobia at universities – and wider society – amid the Israel-Hamas war.
Supporters of Prof Gay, who became Harvard’s first black president in July, believe she is being targeted for political reasons as Republicans see the US’s Ivy League universities as a “hotbed” of liberalism.
Melani Cammett, a professor of international affairs who helped organise the petition, said: “We have lawmakers getting intimately involved in trying to dictate governance on campus, and this seems unacceptable.”
Critics of Prof Gay have also given her their backing. Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe said her testimony was “hesitant, formulaic, and bizarrely evasive” – but said it would be “dangerous for universities to be readily bullied into micromanaging their policies”.
A handwritten note recovered after a deadly shooting in Dallas detailed the suspect’s desire to inflict “real terror” on US immigration agents, the head of the FBI has said.
One person was killed and two people were critically injured after a gunman opened fire at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office in Dallas, Texas, on Wednesday.
All three victims were in a transport van outside the facility at the time, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.
Several more people were injured before the gunman took his own life, officials said.
Image: Joshua Jahn has been named as the suspected gunman
FBI director, Kash Patel, said the agency had seized devices and processed “writings” obtained at the scene and in the suspect’s home since the attack.
A handwritten note recovered read: “Hopefully this will give ICE agents real terror, to think, ‘is there a sniper with AP rounds on that roof?”
The FBI previously said the suspect left a bullet casing engraved with the phrase “ANTI-ICE” at the scene.
Mr Kash said in a post on X: “While the investigation is ongoing, an initial review of the evidence shows an ideological motive behind this attack.”
Image: One of the bullet casings was engraved with ‘ANTI ICE’. Pic: Kash Patel/X
Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons told Sky News partner NBC that ICE agents pulled some of the detainees out of the line of fire.
“The shooter was just shooting at random vehicles inside,” Mr Lyons said
“They were still hit inside the vehicle. You know, there were some brave men and women on the ground that went into those vans, pulling those detainees out while they were under fire.”
According to the FBI, evidence recovered so far shows a high level of planning ahead of the shooting, including searches of buildings belonging to the Dallas County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
Image: The shooting happened at an ICE field office in Dallas. Pic: Reuters
Officials have not yet disclosed the identity of the victims.
US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem identified the gunman, in a Fox News interview, as Joshua Jahn, 29.
Ms Noem said he had fired the bullets from a nearby rooftop.
Mr Jahn’s older brother, Noah Jahn, who lives around 30 miles north of Dallas in McKinney, said he was not aware his brother held any negative feelings towards ICE.
He said: “I didn’t know he had any political intent at all.”
The shooting comes at a time of heightened tension in the US following the assassination of right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk.
Mr Kirk, a close ally of President Donald Trump, was shot dead by a sniper while speaking at an event in Utah on 10 September.
Tyler Robinson, 22, has been charged with the murder of Mr Kirk.
The Trump administration will work to prevent FIFA banning Israel from international football ahead of the 2026 World Cup, Sky News can reveal.
It comes as we have also learnt that European governing body UEFA is heading towards its own decision to suspend Israeli teams over the war in Gaza – with many FAs and members of the executive committee understood to favour that.
Israel’s next match is against Norway on 11 October in a men’s World Cup qualifier.
Football’s world and European governing bodies were urged this week by United Nations (UN) advisory experts to impose sporting sanctions.
FIFA has not responded to the UN special rapporteurs as Israel’s men continue trying to qualify for next year’s World Cup, which is largely being played in the United States.
And the US government, through Marco Rubio’s state department, has made a direct intervention to stop sporting sanctions being imposed.
A state department spokesperson told Sky News: “We will absolutely work to fully stop any effort to attempt to ban Israel’s national soccer team from the World Cup.”
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FIFA launched an investigation last year into allegations of discrimination raised by the Palestine Football Association against the Israeli FA.
There is also an investigation into whether teams from Israeli settlements in the West Bank playing in Israeli competitions breaches FIFA regulations.
Image: Pro-Palestinian protesters in Greece ahead of the PAOK and Maccabi Tel Aviv Europa League match on Wednesday. Pic: AP
FIFA President Gianni Infantino has a close relationship with US President Donald Trump and is a regular visitor to the White House. He has been in New York this week, meeting world leaders around the UN General Assembly – while also at FIFA’s office in Trump Tower.
During a speech after collecting an Atlantic Council Global Citizen Award last night, Mr Infantino referenced the war while speaking on bringing people together in “a divided world, in an aggressive world”.
In an indirect reference to the challenge of sanctioning countries over wars, Mr Infantino said there are 80 countries where there are conflicts.
He added: “I suffer when I see children suffer. I cry when I see mothers crying, whether it’s in Gaza… anywhere in the world.”
Officials have been deliberating over why Russia remains banned over the war in Ukraine but Israel is clear to continue playing in European club competitions and on the international stage as the death toll mounts.
UEFA has previously publicly said there is a difference in how the wars started – with Russia launching an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and Israel responding to the 7 October 2023 Hamas attacks.
“Sports cannot be business as usual and something has to change and Israel has to be excluded,” Alexandra Xanthaki, the UN special rapporteur for cultural rights, told Sky News.
“I think that when we talk about teams, national teams, not individual athletes, of states that are subject to valid claims of genocide… this is where this is for sure a red line.”
Among the athletes killed during the war is the footballer known as the Palestinian Pele – Suleiman al Obeid – who the Palestine FA announced in August died in an Israeli airstrike.
The Palestine Olympic Committee this week said the Israeli sports system has been an “active participant” in war.
“Over 1,000 athletes have had their lives extinguished. Thousands more are wounded, maimed or disabled,” said POC President Jibril Rajoub, who also heads the FA.
“Our stadiums, our facilities, our dreams, all have been ground into dust.”
A suspension of Israeli teams would prevent Aston Villa having to go ahead with their match in the Europa League against Maccabi Tel Aviv in November.
Jessica Chastain has criticised Apple’s decision to delay the release of political thriller series The Savant after the killing of Charlie Kirk.
The actress, who is also executive producer of the show for the tech giant’s TV+ streaming service, said she was “not aligned on the decision to pause the release”.
In a post on Instagram, she said the programme, in which she plays a woman who tries to draw out potential terrorists online, is “so relevant” and she has never “shied away from difficult subjects”.
Chastain portrays a military veteran who works at the Anti-Hate Alliance, where she secretly visits 4Chan-like message boards and poses as a white nationalist to identify possible terrorists.
“‘The Savant’ is about the heroes who work every day to stop violence before it happens, and honouring their courage feels more urgent than ever,” Chastain said.
“I remain hopeful the show will reach audiences soon. Until then, I’m wishing safety and strength for everyone.”
Apple said it chose to postpone the show after “careful consideration” but did not give a reason why.
Kimmel’s comeback show brings in record ratings
Meanwhile, millions of people tuned in to watch Jimmy Kimmel on Tuesday after he returned to TV after Disney suspended him for nearly a week after he made comments about Kirk.
Image: Jimmy Kimmel hosting his late night show. Pic: AP
ABC said 6.26 million people watched Kimmel as he said it was “never my intention to make light of” Kirk’s death. It was the late-night show’s highest-rated regularly scheduled episode.
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Kimmel returns – and not everyone’s on same page
“I don’t think there’s anything funny about it,” he said as he choked up.
“Nor was it my intention to blame any specific group for the actions of what was obviously a deeply disturbed individual. That was really the opposite of the point I was trying to make”.
Kimmel had been accused of being “offensive and insensitive” after using his programme, Jimmy Kimmel Live, to accuse Donald Trump and his allies of capitalising on the killing.