Recidivism alert: At least six of the students arrested for storming Columbia’s Butler Library on Wednesday have been previously arrested for campus disruptions, a Washington Free Beacon review found.
“Of the 81 total arrests, at least 44 are Columbia students, while at least 13 attend the university’s sister school, Barnard College. Also arrested was one Barnard employee, Eva-Quenby Johnson, as well as two students at another Columbia affiliate, Union Theological Seminary,” write our Jessica Costescu and Jon Levine.
Among the repeat offenders were Marianne Almero, a recent Columbia grad, and Barnard student Samarra Sankar, both arrested last spring after they stormed Hamilton Hall. Almero previously interned at the Urban Indigenous Collective, where she engaged in “social justice advocacy to decolonize education institutions, climate justice, incarceration and police systems, and health accessibility.”
Also arrested: Johannah King-Slutsky, the Columbia doctoral student who made headlines last spring for demanding “a glass of water” and “humanitarian aid” for the students occupying Hamilton—and Ramona Sarsgaard, daughter of Columbia alumna Maggie Gyllenhaal.
READ MORE: Columbia Students Arrested For Storming Library Include Several Repeat Offenders — Including Grad Student Who Demanded Humanitarian Aid from University
Pence on Harvard: In an interview with Free Beacon editor in chief Eliana Johnson,Mike Pence warned that revoking Harvard University’s tax-exempt status could be a “slippery slope” and worried that Democratic administrations would do the same thing to conservative organizations. But the former vice president also said he “strongly” supports withholding the school’s federal funding until it takes further action to address campus anti-Semitism.
“I give President Trump and the new administration all the credit in the world for saying there is no place for anti-Semitism,” Pence said.
Pence “also drew a distinction between the president and those around him,” writes our Aaron Sibarium. The former vice president said he believes Trump isn’t an isolationist at his core and his instincts are often sounder than those of the populist aides in his cabinet.
As to whether the country would have a peaceful transfer of power in 2028, Pence said: “I’m very confident we will.”
READ MORE: Pence Warns of ‘Slippery Slope’ in Revoking Harvard’s Nonprofit Status—But Is All for Yanking Federal Funds
Should we care about Kashmir? Tensions in the Kashmir region are heating up. Two weeks ago, jihadists murdered 26 tourists; this week, India and Pakistan exchanged missile and drone strikes. In light of China’s global ambitions, the escalating conflict “has taken on a new strategic significance,” writes the Hudson Institute’s Mike Watson. If the two sides “do not back off quickly,” he adds, “Washington should step in.”
The most important American interest at stake is the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific theater. The top American military leader in the region, Admiral Samuel Paparo, said last Friday, “The United States will prevail in the conflict [with China] as it stands now, with the force that we have right now,’ but the trend line is on ‘a bad trajectory.”
Stretched out over the next few decades, it could be even worse. The human resources of many key American partners, including Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, are declining due to their low birth rates. China has the same problem, but it also has half-a-billion rural people in reserve. Only India has the demographic heft to counterbalance China in Asia.
Secondly, “a war between India and Pakistan gives other countries examples for how to fight a nuclear-armed country.” For Watson, “the illusion that wars between nuclear states trigger Armageddon was a helpful deterrent.” Should the current conflict remain conventional, “Xi Jinping may conclude that the potential downsides of an attack on U.S. forces are minimal.”
“That would be dangerous,” Watson writes.
READ MORE: Why the Kashmir Crisis Matters to Us
Away from the Beacon:
- Former Obama adviser Dan Pfeiffer slammed Joe Biden for repeatedly claiming he would’ve beaten Trump in 2024, calling the former president’s insistence “infuriating,” “politically insane,” and “so disrespectful of Kamala Harris.”
- Journalists Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes are standing by their reporting that Joe Biden, after dropping out of the 2024 race, told Kamala Harris there should be “no daylight” between their positions and that he expected her to “protect his legacy” because he was “no longer able to defend his own record.” After CNN’s Ana Navarro questioned the claim’s accuracy on air, Allen and Parnes took to X to tweet, “We stand by our reporting.”
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