(This post is from our new blog: Unofficial Sources.)
Update: The Tufts Climate Action group says the sit-in protest has ended.
Students at Tufts University are currently staging a sit-in protest at the school president’s office, urging the university to divest from fossil-fuel companies. After negotiations with school officials broke down, students say officials have threatened disciplinary action — and have blocked deliveries of food.
The protest, organized by a campus group called Tufts Climate Action, is calling for Tufts to sell off all its investments in fossil fuel companies over a five-year period.
“We’ve been here since 8 a.m. on Wednesday morning,” said Emma Youcha, a freshman taking part in the sit-in. Youcha said Tufts President Anthony Monaco dismissed her group’s concerns and would not allow the students to present their arguments to the full board of trustees.
The students say they are staging the sit-in to make their voices heard. But university officials called in campus security, who have constructed a fence to prevent students from communicating through a window. And when janitors came to bring a shipment of pizzas to the students, security blocked the delivery.
So far, students say they are subsisting on snacks and a loaf of bread they brought with them initially. Youcha says they will eventually be forced to leave once they run out of food.
Photo: Emma Youcha
IT’S EVEN WORSE THAN WE THOUGHT.
What we’re seeing right now from Donald Trump is a full-on authoritarian takeover of the U.S. government.
This is not hyperbole.
Court orders are being ignored. MAGA loyalists have been put in charge of the military and federal law enforcement agencies. The Department of Government Efficiency has stripped Congress of its power of the purse. News outlets that challenge Trump have been banished or put under investigation.
Yet far too many are still covering Trump’s assault on democracy like politics as usual, with flattering headlines describing Trump as “unconventional,” “testing the boundaries,” and “aggressively flexing power.”
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IT’S BEEN A DEVASTATING year for journalism — the worst in modern U.S. history.
We have a president with utter contempt for truth aggressively using the government’s full powers to dismantle the free press. Corporate news outlets have cowered, becoming accessories in Trump’s project to create a post-truth America. Right-wing billionaires have pounced, buying up media organizations and rebuilding the information environment to their liking.
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I’M BEN MUESSIG, The Intercept’s editor-in-chief. It’s been a devastating year for journalism — the worst in modern U.S. history.
We have a president with utter contempt for truth aggressively using the government’s full powers to dismantle the free press. Corporate news outlets have cowered, becoming accessories in Trump’s project to create a post-truth America. Right-wing billionaires have pounced, buying up media organizations and rebuilding the information environment to their liking.
In this most perilous moment for democracy, The Intercept is fighting back. But to do so effectively, we need to grow.
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