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Stanford students defy orders to clear pro-Palestinian encampment, decry ‘fear-mongering tactics’

A tent encampment of pro-Palestinian demonstrators remained on the Stanford University campus over the weekend despite orders to leave the night before.

Administrators had  warned students to clear out of White Plaza, a grassy area outside the student union, by 8 p.m. Friday or face discipline, including  arrest. 

Deputies with the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office made their way through the encampment of about 20 tents around 7:30 a.m. Saturday, trying to identify those involved. Protesters said they had heard of no arrests Saturday.

During the night, the university posted a printout of an email at the corner of the encampment warning protesters that they are violating university policy.

“It’s just fear-mongering tactics,” Stanford student Carlos Enrique Ramirez said of threats of administrative discipline and further repercussions. “I think there’s no bite behind the administration’s words.”

Ramirez, 20, said that while some at the encampment have wandered away, most eventually return, leaving what he estimates to be a hundred students remaining.

“We all showed up last night,” he said. “We listened to music, we had fun, we watched a movie, we made food. We literally broke bread.”

The students had created a  “People’s University for Palestine” at White Memorial Plaza on Thursday, similar to other demonstrations at U.S. universities over the past week to protest Israel’s attacks on Gaza. 

Student protester Yungsu Kim, 21, said the encampment is intended to be a space of “joy” and “liberation.” The space was filled with Palestinian dance and music Friday night.

“We have these moments of joy to sustain ourselves for the next day,” he said.

Although Kim said he doesn’t sleep at the encampment, he has been showing up early each morning to support the movement. He was present when police entered the encampment for a welfare check earlier in the day.

“It’s terrifying, obviously,” Kim said. “That only comes to show how steadfast the people who are committed to keeping this ‘People’s University’ really are.”

Stanford is in the midst of admit weekend, in which hundreds of newly admitted undergraduates visit campus to learn more about the school’s offerings. Many protesters say that is even more of a reason to keep up the demonstration.

“The role of the ‘People’s University’ is to demonstrate that even in the world where Stanford does divest, there’s a positive way forward, there’s a way forward where the university still exists, where scholarship can still happen and where community can still happen,” Kim said. “And that it can be done through our power and because we commit to making it happen.”

Protesters wearing yellow vests remain posted around the edges of the encampment, monitoring people entering the space. As the sidewalk slowly filled with morning joggers and other students, these vested students rose from their seats and began to pace around the perimeter of the space.

“These movements have always been something that’s been youth led, and I think in understanding that and in recognizing that, we need to empower the youth and make the youth coming into Stanford feel empowered,” Ramirez said.

Students sitting in the encampment chanted “Free Palestine” and other phrases. Amid a sea of posters and flags lining the encampment were signs reading, “Stanford tell admitted students the truth: you fund genocide” and “Jews say ceasefire now!”

Large metal pots and plastic tubs filled with food sat atop the concrete benches of White Plaza as the students slowly spilled out of the tents around 9:20 a.m for breakfast. A handful of protesters made pancakes for the group.

A couple with three young children who said they were visitors to the area donated money to the students and commended them on their perseverance and message.

The encampment drew a small crowd of passersby, some of whom began speaking with protesters about the conflict.

A man who identified himself as Lior said he agrees with the students’ right to protest but disagrees with their cause.

“At a university of the rank of Stanford, which is the bastion of education, I would expect people to be a lot more educated,” he said.

Lior and his girlfriend, who grew up in Palo Alto and requested anonymity, joined in on a conversation between another passing couple and students.

“I don’t see anything peaceful. Not one mention of the word ‘peace’ or ‘two state solution’ or ‘surrender of Hamas,’ ” she said.  “I think a lot of these things here are blatant lies.”

A related protest is taking place at  Cal Poly Humboldt in Arcata, which closed its campus Friday through the remainder of the school year after the occupation of an academic and administrative building by pro-Palestinian activists. Students continued to occupy buildings Saturday in defiance of the university’s 5 p.m. Friday deadline to leave.

The protests come as Israel’s war on Gaza and Hamas nears its seventh month. More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 77,000 have been injured as a result of Israeli airstrikes, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. Hamas sparked the war on Oct. 7 when its militants invaded Israel, killed about 1,200 people and took around 250 hostages. About 100 remain missing.

Nanette Asimov, Jordan Parker and Danielle Echeverria contributed to this report. 

Reach Zara Irshad: [email protected]  

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Wonderful experience around Himachal Pradesh with Virenderji! His confident driving and knowledge about the roads made us feel safe throughout our 10 day journey. His patience and warmth did not go unnoticed. Thank you for such a great time! Highly recommend his services.

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32 Items From Zara and J.Crew That Are Perfect for Fall Travel

August's arrival has me finally starting to think about fall. Specifically, I'm pondering my  fall travel  plans and what to pack. I do the bulk of my seasonal shopping when I have a trip ahead of me. Whether that's wise or not, I don't know. But I do at least attempt to shop for things I know I'll wear throughout the coming months. 

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Russian Far East: top 10 experiences

Aug 10, 2018 • 6 min read

The limestone Lena Pillars are a popular cruise trip from Yakutsk © Vicky Ivanova / Shutterstock

The Russian Far East has a mystique that’s been luring travellers for generations. With the volcanoes and geysers of Kamchatka, ancient stone pillars on the Lena River and some of the world’s coldest and remotest human settlements, as well as the cosmopolitan cities of Vladivostok and Khabarovsk, the region has something for everyone. Russia’s poignant past is present here too, from the BAM (Baikal-Amur Mainline) railway to the infamous Kolyma Highway that runs to Magadan, the most notorious outpost of the Far Eastern Gulag system.

Vladivostok

The ‘Master of the East’, a hip, dynamic city with an impressive setting in the Golden Horn Bay, Vladivostok is the unofficial capital of the Russian Far East and a cultural heavyweight in its own right. St Petersburg’s renowned Mariinsky Theatre has inaugurated the Primorsky Stage in the city in recent years, joining the new Hermitage Vladivostok branch and the stellar Zarya Centre for Contemporary Art as the city’s premier cultural attractions. Meanwhile, the S-56 Submarine , Fort No 7 and the Vladivostok Fortress Museum pay homage to the city’s background as Russia’s most important eastern naval base. Vladivostok’s dining scene is second only to Moscow and St Petersburg, and numerous cocktail bars and pubs attract night owls. If the frenetic pace is a little overwhelming, you can always escape to the beaches on Russky Island and Popov Island .

Right in the heart of the legendary Kamchatka peninsula, the little town of Esso is the jumping-off spot for some terrific hiking, soaking in the istochniki (hot springs) and rafting on the nearby Bystraya River. Charming  izbas (wooden cottages) sit in a pine-scented valley, surrounded by forested mountains. A well-marked network of hiking trails threads its way through the surrounding Bystrinsky Nature Park, ranging in difficulty and in length – the shortest is 2km, the longest 42km.

Valley of Geysers, Kamchatka

Accessible only by a helicopter tour from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, the smoking Dolina Geyzerov is the star attraction of  Kamchatka – the volcano- and geyser-studded peninsula that has the most dramatic, volatile topography in all of Russia. This 8km-long valley, bisected by the Geysernaya River, is dotted with several dozen geysers that sporadically blast steam, mud and water towards the sky. Some of the more colourful ones can be admired while strolling along a specially made boardwalk.

The remote capital of the Sakha Republic, Yakutsk is both the world’s coldest city and a marvel of Soviet engineering, built entirely on permafrost. Its tangle of overground pipes, carrying water and gas, is a peculiar sight, but Yakutsk is a surprisingly cosmopolitan place despite its isolation. A visit to the quirky  Permafrost Kingdom is particularly worthwhile, with its never-melting sculptures of pagan gods and mythological characters, while the National Art Museum introduces you to the mammoth tusk carvings and paintings by Sakha artists. The best places to try Sakha delicacies such as indigirka (raw, frozen fish), reindeer and zherebyatiny (colt fillet) are Chochur Muran and Makhtal restaurants.

Riding the BAM railway

Stretching for some 4324km from Severobaikalsk (on the northern shores of Lake Baikal) to the Sea of Okhotsk, the BAM (Baikal-Amur Mainline) is a triumph of railway engineering (and convict labour) and the less-taken alternative to the Trans-Siberian Railway. With its bridges spanning the mighty Lena and Amur rivers, its tunnels blasted through kilometres of sheer rock, and its tracks running through dense spruce forest and taiga, riding the BAM is a wonderful way to get to know ordinary Russians. You might find yourself sharing a beer or hot tea and heaped spoons of caviar with miners or lumberjacks, who’ll be intensely curious about you. It’s worth disembarking in Tynda, where travel writer Dervla Murphy got stuck while writing Through Siberia by Accident, to visit the BAM Museum, and in Komsomolsk-na-Amure, to check out the grand Soviet-era mosaics and the riverside beach.

Some 650km east of Yakutsk, the tiny reindeer and silver fox breeding station of Oymyakon (population around 500) is the coldest permanently inhabited place on Earth, with temperatures in the nearby valleys dropping as low as -82°C. Various travel agencies in Yakutsk, including Visit Yakutia , organise week-long tours to Oymyakon to attend the annual Pole of Cold Festival in late March, featuring reindeer races, outdoor concerts and other festivities.

Whether you come here in winter for the ice sculptures, or in summer for the lively nightlife and the Amur River beach, Khabarovsk is a breath of fresh air, especially if you’ve spent days cooped up on the train before getting here. Its wide boulevards are lined with stately, tsarist-era buildings (spot the Far Eastern State Research Library and the Tsentralny Gastronom), and there are numerous green walkways for strolling around the city, including those on Amursky bul and Ussuriysky bul. The burgeoning dining scene’s highlights are Georgian cuisine at Satsivi  and fusion at Farsh ; some good bars are dotted around the city centre, including the hipster Brozbar , with a good range of craft beer.

Magadan and Kolyma Highway

Surrounded by snow-capped mountains and hemmed in by the Sea of Okhotsk, Magadan is a surprisingly pleasant city, given its dark past. Described as the ‘pole of cold and cruelty’ in Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago, it was the most notorious of the Stalinist forced labour camps from the 1930s to mid-1950s. The harsh sub-Arctic climate and dreadful work conditions are believed to have killed over a million prisoners in the Kolyma region, commemorated by the giant Mask of Sorrow monument on a hillside above Magadan, as well as at the Magadan Regional Museum . You can get here by air, or via the Russian Far East’s most ambitious road trip – a three- or four-day journey from Yakutsk by 6WD vehicle or truck along the Kolyma Highway, aka the ‘road of bones’, built on the backs of countless Gulag labourers.

Lena Pillars

The Russian Far East’s most popular cruise is the two-day jaunt from Yakutsk to the Lenskie Stolby (Lena Pillars) along the mighty Lena River. Resembling a petrified forest, the 80km-long, 35-million-year-old limestone pillars reach for the sky along the riverbank – a startling sight after you’ve spent many hours floating through impenetrable spruce forest. Lena Tur Flot  runs 36- and 46-hour cruises here aboard its two comfy cruise ships; you’ll even get to see a shaman ceremony.

Blagoveshchensk

A remote Russian outpost since 1644, this frontier town faces its rather more modern Chinese neighbour, Heihe, across the Amur River. However, it’s worth making the detour 110km south of the main Trans-Siberian Railway line to Blagoveshchensk to check out the charming tsarist-era architecture that dots the town centre; another highlight is the extensive  Amur Regional Museum . Blagoveshchensk is also one of the easiest places in Russia from which to enter China (though you’ll need to organise your visa in advance).

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