NEW YORK: Columbia University President Minouche Shafik resigned Wednesday after a brief, tumultuous tenure that saw the head of the prestigious New York university grapple with protests over the Israel-Hamas war and criticism over how the school handled divisions related to the conflict.
The school in upper Manhattan was roiled this year by student protests, culminating in scenes of police officers carrying zip ties and riot shields storming a building that had been occupied by pro-Palestinian protesters. Similar protests swept college campuses nationwide.
In addition to the protests, the school in July removed three deans, who have since resigned, after officials said they exchanged disparaging texts during a campus discussion about Jewish life and antisemitism. Shafik said in a July 8 letter to the school community that the messages were unprofessional and “disturbingly touched on ancient antisemitic tropes.”
Shafik was also among the university leaders called for questioning before Congress earlier this year. She was heavily criticized by Republicans who accused her of not doing enough to combat concerns about antisemitism on Columbia’s campus.
In her letter announcing her resignation, Shafik heralded “progress in a number of important areas” but lamented that her tenure had also been a “period of turmoil where it has been difficult to overcome divergent views across our community.” In her statement, she acknowledged the campus protests factored into her decision to resign.
“This period has taken a considerable toll on my family, as it has for others in the community,” Shafik wrote. “Over the summer, I have been able to reflect and have decided that my moving on at this point would best enable Columbia to traverse the challenges ahead.”
Shafik said she will return to the United Kingdom to lead an effort by the foreign secretary’s office reviewing the government’s approach to international development and how to improve capability.
“I am very pleased and appreciative that this will afford me the opportunity to return to work on fighting global poverty and promoting sustainable development, areas of lifelong interest to me,” she wrote. “It also enables me to return to the House of Lords to reengage with the important legislative agenda put forth by the new UK government.”
The Board of Trustees announced that Katrina Armstrong, the CEO of Columbia University Irving Medical Center, agreed to serve as interim president. The board said Armstrong, who is also the executive vice president for the university’s Health and Biomedical Sciences, “is the right leader for this moment.”
Armstrong said she was “deeply honored” to be leading the university at a “pivotal moment for Columbia.”
“Challenging times present both the opportunity and the responsibility for serious leadership to emerge from every group and individual within a community,” Armstrong wrote. “This is such a time at Columbia. As I step into this role, I am acutely aware of the trials the University has faced over the past year.”
Shafik was named president of the university last year and was the first woman to take on the role, and she was one of several women newly appointed to take the reins at Ivy League institutions.
She had previously led the London School of Economics and before that worked at the World Bank, where she rose through the ranks to become the bank’s youngest-ever vice president. Shafik also worked at the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development, followed by stints at the International Monetary Fund and the Bank of England.
At the time of Shafik’s appointment, Columbia Board of Trustees chair Jonathan Lavine described her as a leader who deeply understood “the academy and the world beyond it.”
“What set Minouche apart as a candidate,” Lavine had said in a statement, “is her unshakable confidence in the vital role institutions of higher education can and must play in solving the world’s most complex problems.”
Columbia’s president resigns after months of turmoil, including protests over the Israel-Hamas war
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Columbia’s president resigns after months of turmoil, including protests over the Israel-Hamas war
Indonesia launches national Islamic finance center to boost local halal industries
- Center to serve as platform to develop local industries, from Muslim fashion to halal tourism and food
- Indonesia ranked 3rd in 2023 Global Islamic Economy Indicator, behind Saudi Arabia and Malaysia
JAKARTA: President Joko Widodo opened on Tuesday the Indonesia Islamic Financial Center, a new special area in Jakarta dedicated to strengthening the country’s Shariah economy and helping local industries tap into the global halal market.
Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim-majority country, with about 87 percent of its 270 million population professing Islam. Its government has lately been working to further develop the local halal industry to harness the potential of the domestic market.
“Indonesia has a huge chance, a potential to become a global halal hub, the center of the global halal ecosystem, as long as we strengthen our Shariah economy ecosystem,” Widodo said during the opening ceremony.
“Indonesia’s Shariah banks, an important part of the Shariah economy ecosystem, must continue to grow with modern management, must be competitive (and) professional to reach the potential markets we have — our 236 million Muslim population — while also growing to become the standard of Shariah banking in Indonesia, in the ASEAN region, and in the world.”
The IIFC comprises Indonesia’s biggest Islamic bank, Bank Syariah Indonesia, and Danareksa, a state-owned holding company.
The center will serve as a platform for the development of local industries — from Muslim fashion to halal tourism and food.
“(The center) will support all aspects so we don’t lose our potential to other regions or countries,” Widodo said.
BSI’s tower at IIFC — the construction of which is to be completed next year — will be a “center for business and halal ecosystem literacy,” the bank’s director Hery Gunardi said.
“We are ready to develop and accelerate the nation’s goal of becoming a sustainable global hub and establishing an Islamic ecosystem.”
Indonesia was ranked third in the 2023 Global Islamic Economy Indicator, which measures the strength of the Islamic economy in 73 countries. It was placed just behind Malaysia and Saudi Arabia.
“This area will become a platform to strengthen the Shariah economy ecosystem that will also boost the growth of our national economy,” State-Owned Enterprises Minister Erick Thohir said.
Through the halal industry, among other avenues, “Indonesia has great potential to become the largest Islamic economy country in the world,” he added.
Nigeria bus crash kills at least 25 children on religious trip
- Organizers of the religious pilgrimage gave a higher toll of 40, with 31 injured
- The children were from Kwandare village and heading to the nearby town of Saminaka for the annual Maulud festivities marking the birth of the Prophet
KANO, Nigeria: A bus carrying Muslim faithful celebrating the birth of Prophet Muhammad crashed in northern Nigeria’s Kaduna state, killing at least 25 children, an official told AFP Tuesday.
Organizers of the religious pilgrimage gave a higher toll of 40, with 31 injured.
The accident occurred on Sunday when the speeding bus overloaded with young adherents of the Tijjaniyya Sufi order lost control and crashed into a truck in Lere district, Kabiru Nadabo, head of the local office of Nigeria’s road safety agency, FRSC, said.
“The bus was overloaded with 63 children and the driver was speeding recklessly when he lost control and rammed into an articulated truck,” Nadabo said.
“Fifteen of them died on the spot while 48 injured were taken to various hospitals, among which 10 died the following day, raising the death toll to 25,” he said.
The children were from Kwandare village and heading to the nearby town of Saminaka for the annual Maulud festivities marking the birth of the Prophet, said Nadabo.
He said the death toll could have changed since the injured were taken to hospitals in various locations and he did not get further updates.
Dikko Dahiru, one of the organizers of the trip, said 40 children were killed in the accident, while 31 were injured.
“The bus was carrying 71 passengers and 36 died instantly while four more died in hospital the next day,” said Dahiru, whose nephew was among the dead.
“Thirty-one were taken to hospitals with severe injuries, 11 of them in critical condition,” he said.
Road accidents are common on Nigeria’s poorly maintained roads due largely to speeding and disregard for traffic rules.
Russia says shot dead Ukrainian agent who tried to blow up car
- The suspect, whom it did not name, allegedly worked for Ukraine’s GUR intelligence agency
- A pistol with ammunition was found at the scene
MOSCOW: Russia’s FSB security service said Tuesday it shot dead a Ukrainian agent who attempted to plant explosives under the car of a senior defense industry official.
The suspect, whom it did not name, allegedly worked for Ukraine’s GUR intelligence agency and targeted a “senior employee of a defense enterprise in the Sverdlovsk region,” the FSB said.
He was detained while “placing an improvised explosive device in a hiding place, put up armed resistance and was neutralized by return fire,” the FSB added.
A pistol with ammunition was found at the scene, while law enforcement seized components used for making explosives during a search of his residence, it continued.
There was no immediate comment from Kyiv.
Ukraine has often targeted Russian officials it believes are complicit in the Kremlin’s full-scale military assault on its territory, which began in 2022.
In December 2023, pro-Russian Ukrainian defector Illia Kyva was shot dead near Moscow in an attack claimed by Kyiv’s security services.
Kremlin says Russian army expansion needed to address growing threats on western flank
- Putin on Monday ordered the regular size of the Russian army to be increased by 180,000 troops
MOSCOW: The Kremlin said on Tuesday that an order by President Vladimir Putin to transform Russia’s army into the second largest in the world was needed to address growing threats on Russia’s western borders and instability to the east.
Putin on Monday ordered the regular size of the Russian army to be increased by 180,000 troops to 1.5 million active servicemen in a move that would make it the second largest in the world after China’s.
“This is due to the number of threats that exist to our country along the perimeter of our borders,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call.
“It is caused by the extremely hostile environment on our western borders and instability on our eastern borders. This demands appropriate measures to be taken.”
Climate fund chief targets poor countries
- The GCF’s priority target list includes Algeria, the Central African Republic, Chad, Iraq, Lebanon, Mozambique, Papua New Guinea and South Sudan.
- Also on the list is war-torn Somalia, hit by major floods last year and still reeling from its worst drought in decades
PARIS: Green Climate Fund chief Mafalda Duarte is on a mission to help vulnerable nations that have yet to receive a penny from the world’s largest dedicated source of climate finance.
The United Nations’ flagship organization for chanelling climate funding was set up for developing countries worst hit by climate impacts even if they are least responsible for carbon pollution that drives warming.
Money disbursed helps nations to draw down their greenhouse gas emissions, on the one hand, and adapt to storms, droughts and heatwaves made worse by climate change, along with sea level rise, on the other.
The fund, which began doling out grants a decade ago, has identified 19 climate-vulnerable nations that have received no or very limited funding.
“We are deliberately targeting those,” Duarte told AFP in an interview, taking stock of her first year in charge and outlining her ambitions.
The GCF’s priority target list includes Algeria, the Central African Republic, Chad, Iraq, Lebanon, Mozambique, Papua New Guinea and South Sudan.
“Our goal is to equip the organization such that it becomes a partner of choice for the most vulnerable... and that it delivers where the funds are most needed,” said the Portuguese development economist.
Also on the list is war-torn Somalia, hit by major floods last year and still reeling from its worst drought in decades.
The GCF has pledged to invest more than $100 million over the next year to help the East African nation unlock investments and develop climate projects.
These include funding off-grid solar energy in rural communities, boosting resilience of the agricultural sector and helping with access to more money in the future.
“We need to adjust our mechanisms to be responsive to this type of country with weak institutional capacity,” she said, insisting on the need for projects to reach isolated populations despite security challenges.
The GCF was first funded by wealthy nations a decade ago as a key component in the landmark 2015 Paris climate agreement.
It funnels grants and loans for projects mostly in Africa, the Asia-Pacific region, Latin America and the Caribbean.
But its ambitions have been hindered by limited resources and a cumbersome bureaucracy, making it hard for some of the world’s most at-risk countries to access funding.
How to streamline the process for getting money in a timely manner will be critical issues at November’s COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan.
Duarte aims to triple the GCF’s capital to $50 billion by 2030 — an ambitious goal, but a small fraction of the trillions experts say is needed overall.
Founded in 2010, the fund today has some 250 partners implementing projects on the ground, spanning UN agencies, development banks, government ministries and agencies, the private sector and NGOs.
Another 200 have expressed interest in aligning with the fund.
“If we are able to work with this vast network of partners that are closer to the realities on the ground where investments are happening, we can make a really big difference,” she said.
As of last month, the fund has committed $15 billion to 270 projects.
In the last 12 months, the GCF approved close to $790 million for the world’s poorest countries — a fourfold increase compared to 2022.
But it remains a drop in the ocean compared to what is needed, experts say.
Currently, donor nations decide what contributions they make to the fund.
At COP29, countries are expected to set a new global climate finance goal, though divisions over its size and scope have hampered negotiations.
As discussions enter a critical phase, Duarte has a simple message for governments: “Be bold. We don’t have the luxury of waiting.”
