By JAKE OFFENHARTZ

NEW YORK (AP) — New York University said it would deny a diploma to a student who used a graduation speech to condemn Israel’s attacks on Palestinians and what he described as U.S. “complicity in this genocide.”

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Logan Rozos’s speech Wednesday for graduating students of NYU’s Gallatin School sparked waves of condemnation from pro-Israel groups, who demanded the university take aggressive disciplinary action against him.

In a statement, NYU spokesperson John Beckman apologized for the speech and accused the student of misusing his platform “to express his personal and one-sided political views.”

“He lied about the speech he was going to deliver and violated the commitment he made to comply with our rules,” Beckman added. “The University is withholding his diploma while we pursue disciplinary actions.”

Universities across the country have faced tremendous pressure to crack down on pro-Palestinian speech or risk funding cuts from President Donald Trump’s administration, which has equated criticism of Israel with antisemitism.

But NYU, which is attended by Trump’s son, Barron, has largely avoided the president’s ire so far.

Rozos, an actor and member of the Gallatin Theater Troupe, was selected by fellow students to give the liberal art program’s address. He said he felt a moral and political obligation to speak to the audience about what he called the atrocities in Palestine.

“The genocide currently occurring is supported politically and militarily by the United States, is paid for by our tax dollars and has been livestreamed to our phones for the past 18 months,” he said.

The speech drew loud cheers from the crowd, along with a standing ovation from some graduating students.

But as video of the speech spread online, it was roundly denounced by pro-Israel groups, who accused NYU of creating an unsafe environment for Jewish students.

“No student — especially Jewish students — should have to sit through politicized rhetoric that promotes harmful lies about Israel during such a personal milestone,” the Anti-Defamation League said in a statement.

The group #EndJewHatred suggested the speech — which did not mention Jewish people — would meet the university’s newly-expanded definition of antisemitism, which includes certain criticism of Israel.

An emailed inquiry to Rozos was not returned.

As pro-Palestinian rallies roiled campuses across the country last spring, the 2024 commencement season was was marked by tensions and cancellations, and strict limits on what students could say.

With billions of dollars of funding at risk from the Trump administration, the stakes for universities are even higher this year, some faculty said.

“They are bending over backward to crack down on speech that runs counter to what the current administration in Washington espouses,” said Andrew Ross, a professor of social and cultural analysis at NYU.

“Myself and many of my colleagues are frankly appalled at the decision that’s being made to deny a student speaker his diploma,” Ross added. “This is a very good example of an administration falling down on the job.”

The Falcon Heights City Council voted Wednesday to create temporary paid parking zones during the Minnesota State Fair.

The pay-by-mobile parking program will turn select city streets east of Snelling Avenue into paid parking zones, providing around 1,000 parking spots near the Fairgrounds, for a fee, according to a news release from the city.

The program, which has a one-year agreement with ParkMobile, will charge a flat fee of $25 per day for vehicles to park between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. during the 12 days of the Fair. As part of the program, the city will also hire trained ambassadors to give directions, answer questions and enforce parking.

The affected streets north of Larpenteur Avenue include: Asbury, Arona, Simpson, Pascal, Holton, Albert, Ruggles and Crawford.

Affected avenues to the south of Larpenteur include: California, Idaho and Iowa.

“Pay-by-mobile parking provides an excellent solution to promote safety for our Falcon Heights residents and the hundreds of thousands of visitors we welcome to our city during the Minnesota State Fair,” said Falcon Heights Mayor Randy Gustafson in the release.

If you’re determined to find free parking and your go-to street now has a fee, Falcon Heights City Administrator Jack Linehan suggests trying the free park-and-ride options the Minnesota State Fair offers.

As for residents who live on streets that are designated as a parking zone, they will receive one free parking pass delivered by mail starting in July with the option to request additional passes. The city estimates around 600 properties will be eligible for these passes.

Attendees will be able to pay online via website, app or automated pay-by-phone line and enforcement will be tied to the vehicle’s license plate. Should drivers fail to pay, parking violations will set them back $100 from Aug. 15 to Sept. 15, which is double the normal rate of $50, Linehan said.

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Falcon Heights will receive an estimated 80% of the parking fees, which the city anticipates could range from $100,000 to $200,000, Linehan said. The city will use its proceeds to support the ambassador program, cover fair costs and invest in its roads and infrastructure.

“We heard from our residents during this process on how we could improve the plan, and we believe the version adopted by the City Council will meet the needs of our community,” Gustafson said in the release.

Temporary parking zone signs will be installed before the start of the Fair and removed after Labor Day.

By GERALD IMRAY, Associated Press

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump’s claim this week that there is an unreported “genocide” happening against white farmers in South Africa was his harshest accusation yet against a country he moved to punish over a range of issues soon after returning to office.

Trump’s criticism has focused mostly on his allegations that South Africa’s government is fueling anti-white racism in the majority Black country, leading to the killing of white farmers. That has been denied by the South African government.

Young Afrikaner refugees from South Africa holding American flags arrive, Monday, May 12, 2025, at Dulles International Airport in Dulles, Va. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

But Trump has also strongly criticized South Africa’s foreign policy, and especially its decision to take Israel to the United Nations’ top court and accuse it of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

Trump has cited that case against a U.S. ally as an example of what he referred to as a larger anti-American position from South Africa. The U.S. president has now accused South Africa, once a key partner in Africa, of the same crime of genocide.

Israel and Hamas

South Africa launched its highly contentious genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice in early 2024, putting a developing nation that’s not a diplomatic heavyweight at the forefront of the pro-Palestinian movement at an especially divisive time. South Africa’s decision caused tensions with the U.S. under the Biden administration and other Western countries, which rejected the accusation that Israel was committing genocide.

FILE – South African President Cyril Ramaphosa addresses the opening session of the G20 foreign ministers meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa, Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay,File)

But Trump’s reaction has been much stronger, citing the case against Israel in an executive order on Feb. 7 that sanctioned South Africa and stopped all U.S. aid and assistance. The order said South Africa had taken “aggressive positions towards the United States and its allies” and the case showed its support for the Palestinian group Hamas, which is designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S., the European Union, the U.K. and others.

The U.S. government under Trump has also cracked down on pro-Palestinian or anti-Israel protests at home.

South Africa has long been a supporter of the Palestinian people and a critic of Israel. But while the government has attempted to draw a line between that and any support for Hamas, the distinctions have become blurred, like when the grandson of former South African President Nelson Mandela hosted Hamas officials on a visit to South Africa in 2023.

Ties with Iran

Trump’s executive order also accused South Africa of strengthening its ties with Iran through commercial, military and nuclear arrangements. South Africa holds diplomatic ties with Iran but said it does not have any agreements with Iran over nuclear weapons, though it is allowing Iran to bid, alongside other countries, for a commercial contract to build a nuclear reactor to provide electricity.

South Africa’s Institute for Security Studies, a nonprofit research institute, said that Trump was “overreacting” to South Africa’s relationship with Iran, but South Africa “also shouldn’t be surprised if they are judged by the company they keep.”

Boycotting South Africa’s G20 presidency

The U.S. has decided to effectively boycott South Africa’s presidency of the Group of 20 developed and developing nations this year, the first time an African nation has held the rotating presidency.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio skipped a G20 foreign ministers meeting in Johannesburg in February, saying South Africa’s theme of “solidarity, equality and sustainability” was effectively DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) and climate change and he wouldn’t waste American taxpayer money on it. The Trump administration has moved to dismantle DEI programs in the U.S.

Shortly after Rubio skipped the meeting, the Trump administration suspended all cooperation with South Africa related to its hosting of G20 events, according to a U.S. official.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal administration deliberations, said the decision was because Trump does not support South Africa’s G20 agenda. The official said the move would not affect the U.S.’s presidency of the G20 next year.

The rebuff by the U.S. will likely undermine South Africa’s efforts to make progress on issues it has prioritized for its presidency.

White farmers

The Trump administration brought more than 50 white South Africans to the U.S. this week as refugees, saying they are members of the minority Afrikaner group and are being persecuted by their Black-led government and exposed to race-based violence.

Afrikaner refugees from South Africa holding American flags arrive, Monday, May 12, 2025, at Dulles International Airport in Dulles, Va. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

South Africa says it condemns the relatively small number of killings of white farmers, but the cause is being mischaracterized and they are a result of its problems with violent crime and not racially motivated.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has not criticized Trump directly but said the U.S. president is being fed false information by some Afrikaner lobby groups in South Africa and some conservative commentators in the U.S. who have elevated the issue.

Ramaphosa’s office said he will meet with Trump at the White House next week in an attempt to “reset” the countries’ relationship.

Associated Press writer Matthew Lee contributed to this story from Washington.

By HILLEL ITALIE, Associated Press

The Library of Congress, a 225-year-old Washington institution, has never had a moment like this.

A week ago, the Trump administration fired the longtime librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden. The man appointed by President Donald Trump to be interim librarian, Todd Blanche, may not actually be the interim librarian. And Hayden’s ouster may not even be legal.

FILE – Todd Blanche, attorney for then-President-elect Donald Trump, departs court, Jan. 7, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)

Here’s more about the library, Hayden’s ouster and the mystery of who’s in charge now:

What is the Library of Congress?

The country’s oldest federal cultural institution, the Library of Congress was founded in 1800 under legislation by President John Adams and has traditionally enjoyed bipartisan backing.

In addition to its billing as “the largest library in the world,” it could also be called the country’s unofficial memory bank. It contains more than 100 million books, recordings, images and other artifacts and offers a vast online archive, and its contents span three buildings on Capitol Hill.

Each year, the library’s National Film Registry chooses 25 movies “showcasing the range and diversity of American film heritage.” The National Recording Registry selects for preservation sound recordings that “are culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant, and inform or reflect life in the United States.”

The library also manages the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, which responds to tens of thousands of requests from Congress each year. Communications are confidential from disclosure under the “speech or debate” clause of the U.S. Constitution. Library of Congress events include an annual book festival, tours, films, exhibits and conferences.

The Library of Congress is not a traditional circulating library but is instead a research library. No one under 16 can get a reader card to access the collection. Those 16 and 17 require a parent’s permission.

What does the librarian of Congress do?

The librarian has a wide range of responsibilities, from overseeing the Library of Congress’ collections to selecting the country’s poet laureate to awarding the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song and the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction.

Librarians serve 10-year terms, and Hayden’s was scheduled to end in 2026.

Her predecessors include James Billington, Daniel Boorstin and Archibald MacLeish.

Who was fired? Who was hired?

Late last week, the Trump administration abruptly fired Hayden, the first Black person and the first woman to hold the position. Hayden, nominated by President Barack Obama in 2015 and confirmed 74-18 by the Republican-led Senate the following year, was informed via email that “your position as the Librarian of Congress is terminated effective immediately. Thank you for your service.”

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More upheavals quickly followed. The White House fired U.S. Copyright Office head Shira Perlmutter, whom Hayden had appointed in 2020. The Justice Department then announced that Blanche, the deputy attorney general, had been named acting librarian of Congress and that Paul Perkins, an associate deputy attorney general and veteran Justice Department attorney, was acting director of the Copyright Office.

Blanche was a member of Trump’s defense team in his New York hush money trial, which ended last year in a conviction on 34 felony counts.

Why was Hayden fired?

The White House cited no specific reason in its email to her, although Trump has been purging officials he believes opposed to him and his policies. The conservative American Accountability Foundation had alleged she was promoting children’s books with “radical content,” and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated that she was “putting inappropriate books in the library for children.”

A copy of virtually every book published in the U.S. during a given year is given to the Copyright Office, with the Library of Congress deciding whether to include it in the main collection.

Hayden’s firing was denounced by Democrats, librarians, educators and others, including the outgoing U.S. poet laureate, Ada Limón. Appointed by Hayden in 2022, Limón called her the “kindest, brightest, most generous Librarian of Congress we could have hoped for as a nation.”

Did the White House have the legal right to fire her?

Despite being nominated by the president, the librarian of Congress is a legislative branch employee and appoints leaders to other positions under it, such as the assistant librarian and the director of the Copyright Office.

That’s why a dispute between Congress and the White House has erupted as Republican leaders sort out how much authority the president — the head of the executive branch — has in tapping an acting librarian.

Usually, if that position is vacant, an interim librarian is chosen from the current ranks of the Library of Congress.

Who is in charge right now?

Although Blanche was announced as acting librarian, he has yet to turn up at the Library of Congress offices, according to a person with knowledge of internal operations. The person was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

The library is currently being run by Robert Randolph Newlen, the person says.

Newlen had been principal deputy librarian, and, per library regulations, was in line to succeed the librarian of Congress in case of absence or temporary unavailability.

Associated Press writer Seung Min Kim contributed to this report from Washington.