i'm somaskanda, thanks for joining us. —— i'm sumi somaskanda. protests on college campuses across the us have spread rapidly over the past two weeks. columbia university became the epicentre of protests after what had been a small gathering on campus grew rapidly in size on april 18. then a pro—palestinian demonstration at yale university — in connecticut — began in earnest on the 22nd of april. a day later, an anti—war protest camp was built at new york university, in manhattan. demonstrations then moved from the northeast to california state polytechnic university, then next to the university of southern california. around the same time, nearly a week ago, protests were also beginning at the university of texas, in austin. in total, there have been demonstrations at least 137 colleges and universities nationwide including in georgia, louisiana, virginia, florida, north carolina — and other locations — shown here on the map.

and for the thousands of protesters across the country their reasons for demonstrating vary. this is for the people of palestine and we're going to draft an agreement that is best that shows them we have not given up. i think it's important that students and everyone know that the jewish community is not — we're not going to give into anti—semitism. especially as a jewish student with members of my family. who died in the holocaust, i want to do— everything i can to protest against this genocide - that is happening - against palestinians. we are all here as intelligent people who have autonomy to —— and we have a lot of privilege in being able to stand up and do what we love and stand up and protect the community we think deserves rejection. even though i graduate in a week, i don't think this is going to

end for me as a story. they don't want it to end for me as a story. this is truly an _ intergenerational movement and that is part - of the reason why i think it is time to listen. - i think is only a matter of time until they have to. - i think the time is now. a central demand among demonstrators is for universities to divest from israel because of the war in gaza. cornell's law school describes divestment as the process through which an organisation sells off its shares, assets or other investments for political, ethical or financial reasons. other demands include universities stopping business with military weapons manufacturers that supply arms to israel. not accepting research money from israel that helps the country's military efforts. and more transparency over what money universities receives from israel and what it's used for. one of those pro—palestinian protests is happening right here in dc at george washington university. unlike what we've seen in other cities across the us, police in washington have so far declined to break up that encampment. conservative house lawmakers have visited the protest, and threatened to hold a house hearing over it.

earlier, i spoke to one student whose been at the encampment, moataz salim. moataz is a graduate student at george washington university and a palestinian—american student activist. moataz, thank you for joining us in our studios. we talked to you earlier on these protests. tell us, first of all, you still remain processing in this encampment. tell us what the relationship has been like with the university and police, because dc police have not cleared this encampment. we are on day nine today, i have been there from day one. in terms of the relationship with the university and the police, i mean, the students — so ijust want to clarify, i am just a grad student at gw, i am in the encampmentjust in solidarity, but the student demands are to divest from any sort of funds that go to companies that are aiding the genocide, and a lot

of it is to protect pro—palestine students and black and brown students and the organisers... what has the university's response been to that? i say those things to just make it clear those other demands and the university has so far responded in a mostly negative way. they, like you said, they called in the npd to arrest us the first night and the npd declined. since then we have had seven students that were suspended, that were initially part of the encampment. we also had some intimidation, some threats from the gw police, which continue to surveil us every day and i, as faras i know, negotiations have begun with university admin but all we know is they have begun.

can you tell us what things are like in the encampment right now, how determined are you and your fellow protesters to stay there? i think very determined. the mood is quite good. honestly, morale is high. we have been very peaceful, have had no arrests whatsoever. i think everyone there is committed wholeheartedly and unwaveringly for palestinian liberation, especially after seven months of genocide that they have witnessed. so everyone that there is really, really holding strong and it's actually we are growing in numbers for community members. i have to ask, this process is very personal to you. tell us more about that. my father is from gaza, so i have a lot of family who are still there — cousins, aunts, uncles. so far, 161 of them have been killed by the israeli regime and so, yeah, it's very heavy, it is a very large number, i will admit i did not know all of them, palestinians tend

to have pretty big families. but i did know a lot of them who died, some of them i was very close to. so, i think you don't need to have family members to really feel it, but i have filtered extra hard because to me these were real human beings who had day—to—day activities, day—to—day lives and had already been under siege and under occupation by the israeli state — under siege for over 15 years, under occupation for over 75, and now they are gone and i can't ever see them again. so sorry for the loss of yourfamily members. i think there are many people in the protests and encampments across the country who share similar stories. i just want to ask you one more question about how you see some of the disagreements that have come out of these protests between some students

who say they feel harassed or threatened on campus, between those who say they are exercising their right to free speech, how do you see that playing out at gw? i will say what i said the last time, is i would content with the feeling of unsafe, i would understand a little more having discomfort, because, you know, the israeli regime uses its propaganda to sort of co—opt thejewish faith as a central part of its identity, but from what i understand everything that it is doing in gaza it has been doing for seven months now and is occupation go against the central tenants about giving service, providing services to the world and love for all. those things go against what the israeli regime is doing and that's what i understand thejewish faith be centred in and i would also say if people want to come in and actually talk

to as they would understand there is really nothing like whatsoever against the jewish faith, it is just a lot of people who have seen the settler colonialism, this apartheid system for a long, long time and above that seven months of genocide and theyjust want a free palestine and palestine were palestinians can have justice, freedom, and dignity. moataz, we have to live the conversation there. but thank you for coming in. thank you for having me. as we mentioned, these protests started at columbia university in new york. earlier this week, police in riot gear cleared out the encampment there and cleared protesters from a university hall. the department of education is now investigating the university about allegations of discriminatory treatment of palestinian students. the university is also facing criticism for its handling of allegations of anti—semitism on campus before and during these protests. columbia's president minouche shafik, was called to testify before congress about those accusations one day after the house of representatives passed the antisemitism awareness act on tuesday.

earlier, i spoke to maya platek, student body president—elect, columbia school of general studies who has also been outspoken about the need to ensure all students, including jewish students, are safe and can access campus. thank you forjoining us. columbia's encampment has been cleared. tensions are high. can you give us a sense of what things are like on campus now? currently campus is effectively shut down. this is affecting every single student on campus, even barring some students from their ability to eat, study, and learn effectively, despite the fact that students are spending thousands of dollars on these resources. this is not a long—term solution and nor should ever be normalised. columbia should find a way to bring back students during this divisive period to ensure this shutdown can never happen again. i will talk to you about the communication with columbia in a moment, you have talked about not feeling yourself particularly comfortable on campus in recent weeks. do you feel safe on campus now?

i'm unable to attend campus. campus is effectively under lockdown. it's really unfortunate that it got to this stage and i'm really disappointed that this is the current state. i would say that manyjewish students returned home even before the final shutdown of campus during the final week of classes. even though there have been many instances of physical assault and intimidation over the last six months, over the last few weeks this has been an especially heightened escalation. can i ask you, maya, but what we heard from our previous guest who has said that for pro—palestinian protesters they believe, some of them at least, that it is not a question of safety forjewish students but rather a question of some jewish students perhaps feeling uncomfortable with their message. what did you make of that? i really fundamentally disagree. i think that there have been —

at least at columbia instances of physical and verbal assault on campus, very much documented and many students have repeatedly rung the ballot this specific and is very much clearly anti—semitic indiscriminate story and completely unacceptable. moreover, i think every student has to be able to feel safe on campus and colombia has to do something to make sure every single student feel safe. i should make clear you are speaking from columbia university and student we spoke to previously was part of the endowment at gw here in washington, dc, different circumstances, to we have said colombia must pursue communication and dialogue and the future, going forward with these types of incidents. what you think should look like? absolutely. i think colombia has to find a solution that encourages dialogue across campus. columbia has an opportunity to click a restart button here, going into the new academic year, and there is genuine interest on campus for dialogue and i would say that my election actually proves it as they ran on a campaign of encouraging dialogue,

communication, and unity. moreover, i would say that up until now dialogue and communication have been effectively shut down. we have seen it through many different levels on campus, within academic departments, for example, we have seen singular narratives being propagated, which is an example —— unacceptable when it is concerning regions are goblets, have also seen as the students were completely good faith attempted to encourage and engage with conversation with members of the encampment to encourage dialogue and more effectively pushed out by faculty members. an encampment that shows to advocate against multifaceted conversation. i think this is absolutely unacceptable colombia must do whatever it can to ensure and encourage conversations like that in the future. moreover, although colombia attempted to encourage dialogue on campus once and failed to do so in our case you do outside russia to discourage dialogue, colombia is an academic institution encompassing a myriad of perspectives and ideas through faculty and administration and it has an obligation to facilitate efforts to discuss this topic

in a respectful manner. it is sad conversation and communication as being so condemned right now on campus. maya, one more question on this, do you have the sense on campus, with things as heated as it has been, that since both sides of this discussion are ready and able to sit down and have a dialogue? i think it might not be that every student is ready to have that dialogue. i think there are a lot of students ready to have that dialogue. i think that this current situation and specifically to do with the fact that our campus has shut down as lead to a new opportunity for people to recognise our serious this divisive culture has become on campus. and, again, as i said, there were enough people who voted for me, specifically, as president to indicate this is likely a majority perspective on campus and i think it's really important that colombia tries to advocate for it, even if it takes many attacks. 0k, maya platek, thanks very much forjoining us tonight

on bbc news. thank you. some protests have now ended, including at brown university in rhode island where they were able to successfully negotiate with protesters. administrators and the brown divest coalition, a pro—palestinian student—led group reached a deal on tuesday. demonstrators agreed to end the encampment on campus in exchange for the university to hold a board vote in october on whether or not to divest from israel—linked companies. it is the second such deal between universities and protesters following northwestern university, which struck a deal on monday. since then, administrators at rutgers and the university of minnesota have also agreed to come to the table and discuss protesters�* demands. to understand how brown university successfully negotiated with organisers, i spoke to aiyahjosiah—faeduwor, who sits on the university's community council. thank you so much forjoining us on bbc news tonight. i want to start with what brown university has done here, this different approach and experience with a resolution that ended

the encampment there. can you tell us what that process was like and how it led to a resolution? yeah, just first on that, what brown has done, this has been student power, this is been people power, this has been students across the nation that have stood up that has put the pressure on round to respond the way they did. as a member of the community council i have sat on for two years as a community member someone who graduated from brown in 2013 and lives on rhode island, i was invited to council and sat on it for two years, we have never voted on anything, any counsellors just been there to placate community and what eventually came to realise is when we were being brought an opportunity to engage with the students to respond to a community asked, this was the first thing we were brought and we had to really — me and other

members of the council had to push the administration, pusher leadership to take their concerns seriously and force them to go to a vote... and it seems to have worked, is i could justjump in, and this led to a resolution. do you think it is little more open dialogue between students as well on how they see the war in gaza? i think for students they really are sceptical about howserious the institution is about delivering on the vote. it's so clear that the presence of the encampment with commencement reunion coming up was a threat for what the institution was hoping this time would look like and so i think the students the conversation has been about how are we preparing for when and if they likely will try and not bring something substantive to the table or vote seriously, so i think students are talking about what the sustained engagement would look like and how

we keep the pressure there. you are very much saying this is not over, you're waiting to see what university does. where do you see the university's role, this difficult battle we have seen across the country between protecting the right to free speech to protest, but also the safety of students and the ability to access campus. how do you see the university, where you are, and its role in striking that balance? i am maybe being pollyannaish about it, i have felt that way, i've had a large level of optimism throughout my life and career, so i want to say i hope the makes the right decision, looks at this context, looks at what the students are saying and seriously, look at what is happening in gaza and understands the responsibility it should play as an institution that is measured on impacting the world and the way it intends to do. i think being realistic and the scepticism from

watching how this process has since you, i think the university is really trying to protect its interests and it is more interested in making sure that the brown corporation continues to support financially anyway does, allows the institution to grow, you know, its real estate footprint, i think the real concern is the institution will adhere to what the corporation wants, rather than what the student is asking for and rather than what the world needs right now. just 30 seconds left, can you tell us how you anticipate being able to engage your fellow students and dialogue going forward? ijust believe in them. i will continue to be a resource for them, they will continue to listen to what they have to say, i will watch what they have gone through and this is just this moment we have now, the student heavy fighting for three years and ensure that brown doesn't use this as an opportunity for good optics and actually delivers on this. so i'm just hopeful that i can remain a speaker for these students and uplift their voices and make sure they are heard and taken seriously. all right, aiyah, thank

you forjoining us on bbc news tonight. really appreciate it. thank you. now for a look at covering these stories. in the last two weeks, hundreds ofjournalists have been tasked with covering unrest on college campuses, and for student journalists they are in the epicentre of it all. at ucla, four student journalists from the school's daily bruin newspaper were attacked by counter—protestors on wednesday during a demonstration that turned violent. in new hampshire, two studentjournalists at dartmouth college were arrested on wednesday. each charged with criminal trespassing although they were wearing their press identification badge. on thursday, the pulitzer prize board, one ofjournalism's highest award, issued a statement recognising the "tireless efforts" of studentjournalists who have covered the protests at "great personal and academic risk" to themselves. we wa nted we wanted to get the perspective of some of those journalists. i spoke to columbia university graduate students and freelance journalists julia vargas jones and karla marie sanford. can you tell us

what the experience has been like being part of the students reporting on these protests? it is a little surreal. we are not used to having to report on something that is so close to home. i think it has been a fantastic experience for students that haven't had a lot of experience, just learning aboutjournalism and how to do it, to cut their teeth, and also they have to grapple with really serious issues right on their doorstep. you having to learn how to take care of yourself and make sure that you are taking care of your mental health, taking care ofjust being fed. we had the luck and support of the journalism school that fed us, that kept us having access to campus, but it was, i'm sure, a very strenuous situation for many students going through that for the first time. i felt quite privileged to have access to campus and to be able to tell that story, because effectively no—one else was there. marie, what do you think, how was the experience for you? i would completely agree.

what a time to be injournalism school and at columbia journalism school is a privilege, asjulia said. it's been a tough two weeks covering the story day in and day out while also juggling our own schoolwork and also asjulia said experiencing what has been happening on campus both as a journalist but also as a student of the university and just as people ourselves, so it has been a really strenuous time and also, as reported, quite exhilarating. you are also part of the student body as a graduate student, marie, so how has it been for you seeing these clashes and tensions on campus that are part of your community? it's been really hard. i think it's hard when you are a reporter but you are not just coming in. we talk a lot about parachuting in as reporters, but this is the exact opposite where maybe you are a little too close and you know people who might feel one way or the other, so i think when i'm thinking about being professional and reporting this out it's been really interesting and it has been a learning lesson to learn how to be a reporter and step

away from being yourself as a student at school. julia, we have seen this protests from columbia university spread across the country. what did you learn reporting on them that has made this so volatile and spread so quickly? i think there is a clear message that students in all these universities want to send and that is something they have been telling us as journalists that we need to centre it. why is it that there are students all of the country saying the same thing? they want these universities with their billion—dollar budgets to take their money away from — to cut their ties with israel, right. that is a pretty resounding message and i think that has spread really quickly and the more resistance we see, i think, the bigger is the reaction. we saw backlash happening at columbia, right, we saw backlash to the arrest of over 100 students two weeks ago. personally, i wasn't really

paying that much attention to the protests until that happened. that actually heightened the tensions and it brought more attention to the issue. marie, were there any moments you felt unsafe reporting on these protests? i will say the moment julia spoke to two thursdays ago when masses of police swarmed on campus, the encampment, it was wild on campus. there was a picket surrounding the original encampment and then although the gates had been closed it was like the moment before the storm hit, the gates opened and police swarmed onto campus. i was right there recording with my phone and it was definitely a really surreal experience to be that close to police officers who were wearing riot gear. it was really scary. i felt like in that moment i understood how vital journalism is in these moments. accountability, really, and that is something that when i think that these most recent

arrests when press kicked off campus, is what feels like the biggest betrayal that press was kicked off campus. we saw those dramatic scenes playing out of our screens as well. lastly the same question, starting with you, marie, what you think non—student media, i'm about ourselves here as well, can learn from our experience? that is such a hard question. i mean, so i can tell an anecdote. on the last night outside of hamilton hall, which is being occupied, there were protesters standing outside linking arms and singing. standing directly across from them was a line of press, campus was effectively closed down so there really wasn't a large presence on campus other than the press that have been able to get on campus, largely student reporters and then the protesters themselves. everyone was crying, everyone was tearing up. i think there is this rhetoric that this has been excessively violent, but i think in these moments it'sjust the humanity that is... ok, the humanity of it. julia, want to get your take on this as well.

we just have about 30 seconds. honestly, marie spent more time with the protesters and covered it much more closely than i ever did and i will go ahead and agree with her. i think the humanity is something that is important and just getting back to what really touches people's lives. julia, marie, thank you forjoining us, really interesting to hear more about your reporting experience as journalists on the ground. thank you so much. thank you so much for having us. and that was our bbc news a special report. thank you for watching and do stay with us. hello there. the weather at this time of the year really can be very fickle, as we've seen over the past week, and during the bank holiday weekend, it's going to be a mixture, really, where there'll be some sunshine at times. there'll also be some heavy showers. it could be quite warm but we're not going to reach the high temperatures that we've seen in the past few days. take you back to thursday and all four home nations had their warmest day of the year and we maintain those sort of temperatures

in western scotland and northern ireland on friday. but for suffolk and north wales, it was much colder because of cloud and rain. that's moving its way a little bit further north but we've got some more rain to come on saturday across northern ireland. some heavy showers pushing across scotland may turn a bit drier in north wales and northern england but still a lot of cloud. to the south, though, we'll see some sunshine after a chilly start. a few showers developing in the south east of england. but in the sunshine across midlands, southern england, south wales, east anglia, it's going to be a warm day —16, 17 degrees. we could reach 19 in the northwest of scotland before those heavy showers arrive. there's a few more showers, though, to come in scotland and northern ireland, perhaps the far north of england. should be a bit brighter but a bit of sunshine will trigger some thunderstorms. the odd shower across england and wales and a bit of rain coming into the far southwest. that's keeping temperatures a little bit lower here. but otherwise, widely, temperatures are going to be a reasonable 16—18 degrees on sunday afternoon. now, there is a bit of rain in the southwest — it's on that weather front there, an area of low pressure. not really much wind to move things on at all. there's a bit of uncertainty as to how far north that showery rain could get but it's

pushing a little further north into england and wales. there'll be some sunshine but we're also going to trigger some more of these slow—moving, heavy, thundery showers, particularly in scotland. and temperature—wise on monday afternoon for the bank holiday, typically 16 or 17 degrees. now, after the bank holiday, the weather is going to change, wouldn't you know it? and it's going to get a lot drier because that area of low pressure moves away and this area of high pressure will build in. now, around the top of it next week, we could well see a bit of rain towards northwestern areas of the uk but on the whole, it is looking like it's going to get dry after monday. there'll be more in the way of sunshine around as well and if anything, those temperatures are going to be rising, getting into the low 20s in many places later in the week.

voice-over: this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. 30 years after south africa's first democratic votes

were cast, this dynamic, challenged and critically important country is facing a new reckoning with pivotal elections. it's not the only country to go to the ballot box in 202a. gunfire amid a surge of military takeovers, worsening security and greater repression, nearly a third of african nations are heading to the polls. voting is the one thing that can recreate a sense of hope amongst us as south africans. i'm nomsa maseko and i'm the bbc�*s southern africa correspondent. i was born here in the rainbow nation and i want to find out where 30 years of democracy has left south africa and, in this bumper election year, where democracy is headed

across the world's fastest—growing continent.