On campus: Former UI System President Stanley Ikenberry dies at 90
Former UI System President Stanley Ikenberry died Tuesday in Boca Grande, Florida at the age of 90. Ikenberry was both the youngest and longest-serving president in UI System history. He entered the role in 1979 at age 44 and served until 1995 before briefly returning as interim president in 2010.
As the 14th president of the UI System, Ikenberry consolidated the Medical Center and Chicago Circle at the University of Illinois at Chicago, led the development of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology and established the President’s Award Program.
On campus: Nobel Laureate Thomas Cech talks RNA, COVID-19 vaccine
Thomas Cech, who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1989, spoke in front of a crowded audience at the I Hotel and Illinois Conference Center in Champaign on Tuesday. He discussed science communications, responses to COVID-19’s mRNA vaccines and his recently published book, “The Catalyst.”
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Cech partially blamed researchers for COVID-19 vaccine skepticism, saying scientists too often used inaccessible language in science communications to the general public. He encouraged those in STEM fields to attempt to improve their methods of conveying scientific discoveries to friends, family and colleagues not intimately familiar with their field of study.
In CU: ICE officers arrest two in Champaign County
United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement Officers made two arrests on Tuesday at the Champaign County Courthouse.
Both detainees, Fernando Lorenzo-Raymundo and Carlos Gomez, were on pretrial release and facing felony charges at the time of detention. Lorenzo-Raymundo was charged with failure to report a fatal hit-and-run, and Gomez was facing one count of aggravated driving under the influence with a suspended or revoked license.
Lorenzo-Raymundo’s lawyer, James A. Martinkus, told The Daily Illini that ICE agents did not explain the arrest to him or his client. Champaign County Sheriff Dustin Heuerman confirmed the arrest and said the Champaign County Sheriff’s Office had no involvement. ICE did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
In the US: Stock market plummets after Trump’s sweeping tariffs
The global stock market suffered its worst drop since 2020 on Thursday after President Donald Trump announced sweeping 10% tariffs on all imports, with higher rates on goods from China, the European Union, Vietnam and Taiwan, among others.
Nasdaq, S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average — the three largest U.S. stock indexes — dropped over 5% on Friday. Banks, airlines and technology companies were some of the hardest hit by the stock plummet.
Since Thursday, market giants dubbed the Magnificent 7 — Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Tesla — have lost approximately $1.8 trillion in combined market value.
Trump, however, remains optimistic.
“The markets are going to boom, the stock is going to boom, the country is going to boom,” Trump said.
In the US: Anti-Trump rallies held across nation
Crowds gathered on Saturday in over 1,200 cities across the country to protest Trump’s leadership and issues including the economy, immigration and human rights. “Hands Off!” demonstrations also drew attention to the mass funding cuts made by the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency.
In New York City, demonstrators marched with signs that read, “Hands off our public schools,” “Hands off our freedoms,” and “Hands off our Constitution.”
Liz Huston, assistant press secretary for the White House, released a statement refuting the protesters’ claims. Huston wrote that Trump will protect social welfare programs, such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and that Democrats are giving these benefits to “illegal aliens.”
Worldwide: Footage from medic killed in Gaza appears to contradict Israeli military
On Saturday, the New York Times released footage taken from the phone of a paramedic killed in an Israeli attack late last month. The video appeared to contradict Israeli military spokesperson Nadav Shoshani’s initial statement on the attack, which killed 15, per the United Nations.
Initially, the Israeli military said the convoy, which it claimed included Hamas operatives, were “advancing suspiciously” toward its troops “without headlights or emergency signals.” The video published by the NYT, however, shows ambulances marked with emergency lights and ambulance insignias, headlights on, with medics wearing reflective gear. The convoy came under a barrage of Israeli gunfire, which the NYT said lasted more than five minutes.
The Israeli military told the Associated Press Saturday that the incident was “under thorough examination.”
Worldwide: Russia strikes Kyiv, ceasefire negotiations stall
Over the weekend, Russia struck the Ukrainian capital city of Kyiv and the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih with ballistic missiles and drones in two separate attacks. The strikes killed a combined 20 people, including nine children and wounded dozens of others, said the NYT.
Russia claimed the strikes hit Ukrainian and foreign military personnel, while a UN team that visited the site said the strikes hit a meeting of beauticians and children playing in a park. Volker Türk, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, said the strike was the deadliest single attack for children of the entire war, calling it an “unimaginable horror.”
Talks have been ongoing between the U.S., Russia, Ukraine and the European Union for months in an attempt to reach an end to the more than 3-year war. Last month, Ukraine accepted a U.S. proposal for a 30-day ceasefire. Russia said the deal can’t be accepted in its current form.
