World: Ceasefire in Name Only
From a Columbia activist's deportation appeal to continued US-Iran strikes, multiple fronts defy nominal ceasefires.
World: Ceasefire in Name Only — On Wednesday, Columbia University activist Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian born in a refugee camp, appealed an immigration court order to deport him to Jordan, arguing the Trump administration is abusing immigration law to silence his pro-Palestinian speech.[^1] "I thought I could build my life in the US with rights I ostensibly lacked there," Mahdawi said, while the ACLU's Nate Freed Wessler warned that allowing exceptions to the First Amendment sets a dangerous precedent.[^1] The case crystallizes a broader global tension between free expression and national security, one playing out even as the US and Iran remain locked in a ceasefire that has not stopped attacks. Despite a ceasefire declared over two months ago, exchanges of fire between Washington and Tehran continue.[^2] The US military launched 43 Tomahawk missiles at Iranian radar and air defenses, while Iran prepared for a possible US ground operation on Kharg Island, which handles 90% of Iran's oil exports.[^3] President Trump told Fox News he does not intend to send ground forces but noted the current strikes are "not tough enough" and announced nighttime attacks, while also expressing hope for a peace agreement.[^4] Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan claimed today that the US and Iran were close to a diplomatic deal with only "a few unresolved sentences" remaining, before the escalation "mixed up the cards."[^5] Meanwhile, Slovenia's new government under Prime Minister Janez Janša today canceled all sanctions imposed on Israel by the previous government.[^6] The conflict's ripple effects are felt elsewhere. An 11-year-old girl in Bahrain sustained minor injuries from debris of an intercepted Iranian drone that fell on residential areas.[^7] Hezbollah, after losing thousands of experienced fighters, has resorted to forcibly mobilizing teenagers under 18.[^8] And the Russia-Ukraine war reached its 1,569th day, officially surpassing the duration of World War I, with Russian advances in Pokrovsk measured at 68 meters per day.[^9] The world confronts multiple fronts of instability, each with its own ceasefire that seems increasingly nominal. Haredi protests and LGBTQ+ sp