ELIZABETH PALMER:
00:00:16
In an abrupt reversal, Israel cleared the way for more aid to Gaza. Overnight, the military airdropped food and supplies. But those pallets are a fraction of what's needed. The bulk of the aid is on trucks waiting to go. And in what could be a game changer, Israel says it will establish secure routes through the war zone so the trucks will no longer be shot at or looted. Gaza's misery has shocked the world. What-- [CLAMORING] And international medical agencies say children, especially the poorest and those with special needs, are suffering from acute malnutrition. [HORN HONKS] Since March, when the ceasefire ended, aid has trickled into the war zone, but not nearly enough. Israel sidelined the main UN agencies and funneled most aid through the privately run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which has only four distribution hubs for 2 million people. [GUNSHOTS] As hunger grew, so did reports of Israeli soldiers shooting at crowds trying to get something to eat. Even so, desperation pushed Gazans to risk death, plundering aid from moving convoys. [EXPLOSION] Alongside the shooting war, there was also a war of words. Israel's military insisted it was letting in plenty of aid. It's just the UN agencies weren't picking it up. The agencies said the army made it too dangerous. And while the blame game played out, Gazans grew thinner and sicker. Now Israel has announced a change of policy. Aid has begun moving under the new rules today. [CLAMORING] For Gazans, it's not a minute too soon. That was our Senior Foreign Correspondent, Elizabeth Palmer. We turn now to French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, who joins us this morning from Paris. Welcome to Face theNation. I want to begin on what is happening in Gaza, with those horrific images that we are seeing of starvation. Overnight, Israel has begun airdrops. We know Jordan, other states are looking to organize more aid. Are you exploring any further avenues to bring aid into Gaza? What's happening in Gaza right now is appalling. Gaza is now in the brink of a full catastrophe. And we've been working out over the months to try and relieve the sufferings of the Palestinian people. We actually have 52 tons of humanitarian help stuck in El-Arish in Egypt, a few kilometers away from Gaza. So we're exploring all options to seize the opportunity offered by the Israeli government by opening the skies of Gaza. But we call for immediate, unhindered, and massive access by all means of humanitarian help to those who need it most. Has Israel responded to your calls? We have, with the European Union, started tough discussions with the Israeli government, who have made first commitments that have not been fulfilled yet. In the next few days, the European Commission will make clear what our expectations are. We expect the Israeli government to stop the operations of the Gaza humanitarian foundation that has caused a bloodbath in humanitarian help distribution lines in Gaza. We expect them to pay the 2 euros billion they owe to the Palestinian Authority and to lift the financial blockage that is now preventing the Palestinian Authority to implement its most basic missions. We also expect the Israeli government to bring to a stop its latest settlement projects, the E1 projects, with 3,400 housing units that might split the West Bank in two pieces and prevent the emergence of a political-- a two-state solution. But what we call for is, of course, the immediate ceasefire, the liberation of all hostages of Hamas that needs to be disarmed, and the entry, the massive entry, of humanitarian help in Gaza. You are headed to New York, to the United Nations, to help lead a summit to talk about a two-state solution. Your president announced France will formally recognize the state of Palestine at the UN in September. More than 100 countries recognize Palestine, but France is the first Western UN Security Council member to do so. And the United States opposes what you are saying. Secretary of State Rubio called it reckless. He says it serves Hamas propaganda, sets back peace, and considers it a slap in the face to the victims of October 7. In your government's view, why is he wrong? So the reason why President Macron made this decision is that it was absolutely necessary to restart a political process, the two-state solution process that is, today, threatened, more threatened than it has ever been. And the conference that will take place in New York tomorrow and Tuesday is a very significant milestone because by recognizing or announcing the recognition of Palestine, France has been able, alongside Saudi Arabia, that has-- that will be co-chairing this conference with us, to collect very significant historic commitments by all stakeholders, including the Palestinian Authority president and Arab countries, in favor of this two-state solution and security guarantees for Israel. The two-state solution is very simple. And I think everyone can understand what we mean by that. The only way to bring peace and stability back in this region is to have two states, the state of Israel and the state of Palestine, living side by side in peace and in security. And what we're doing by bringing the Palestinian Authority leader to recognize 7th of October as a terrorist attack, by calling for the disarmament of Hamas and the liberation of hostages, by committing to deep reform of the Palestinian Authority, and by committing to elections within one year, by bringing the Arab countries, for the first time, to condemn Hamas and call for its disarmament, we are creating or recreating the conditions for this political solution that, again, is the only path forward. And we are paving the way. Minister Barrot, the President of the United States dismissed what President Macron said. The US ambassador mocked it. Do you believe that your plans can succeed without US support? Again, our efforts are very complementary. We share the short-term objective, ceasefire, liberation of all hostages of Hamas, and the long-term objective, peace and stability in the region. But in the meantime, until the US administration provides, through the Abraham Accords logics, a political horizon for this crisis, we need to act in order to facilitate or create an off-ramp for the catastrophe ongoing in Gaza. In other terms, we will welcome and support future Abraham Accords. But in the meantime, inaction is not an option. I want to ask you briefly about an incident that has gained a lot of attention this past week involving some young French citizens who were removed from a flight from Spain. The airline claims they were kicked off for being disruptive. The Israeli government came out, though, and said the French students were removed because they're Jewish. Have you determined whether this was indeed an act of antisemitism? I have called the CEO of this company who has-- to express our serious preoccupation. She has confirmed that an internal investigation is ongoing. My team has been reaching out to the ambassador of Spain in France, and we've made the same request. We'll keep following this situation as it unravels. So too early to say, despite what the Israeli government is indicating? I cannot comment on that at this point. France has been very active diplomatically on a number of fronts. It was just five weeks ago when the United States and Israel bombed Iran. Since that time, France has talked to the Iranian government, along with other European powers, about what remains of Iran's nuclear program. How concerned are you that, after these bombings, Iran may now covertly attempt to make a weapon and the world won't know? This is still a risk that we are facing. And alongside Germany and the UK, we have been very clear. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. And we've been, over the past few months, reaching out to the Iranian authorities in close coordination with US authorities in order to express what our expectations are. 10 years ago, we reached a deal on the nuclear program that allowed for a significant rollback of Iranian nuclear capacity. Of course, things have changed till then and since then. Iran has violated all commitments it had taken at the time of signing this agreement. We now want a more comprehensive agreement that would encompass both the nuclear dimension of Iranian destabilization activities, but also the ballistic component, as well as the regional destabilization activities that Iran has been conducting. Unless we-- unless a new and robust and durable and verifiable agreement is reached by the end of the summer, France, Germany, and the UK will have no other choice but to reapply the global embargoes that were lifted 10 years ago, when the nuclear agreement with Iran was signed, embargoes on weapons, on nuclear equipment, and on banking. So France is ready to snap back sanctions on Iran as soon as August. Are you asking Iran to speak directly to the United States in order to avoid that fate? Oh, we've been speaking with Special Envoy Witkoff, Secretary Rubio on a weekly basis on this topic that is highly important for the US, as for Europeans. We have supported US-led efforts to enter into discussions with Iran. We have pressed Iran, after the 12-Day War, to go back to a discussion with the US. And we keep pressing them to do so because indeed, if there is no solid agreement that can be found by the end of August, we will have no other option but to snap back-- meaning to reapply-- those global embargoes. And we are ready to do that. Minister Barrot, thank you very much for your time this morning. We'll be back in a moment. We go now to Columbus, Ohio, and the president of the Ohio State University, Ted Carter. President Carter, welcome to Face theNation. Good morning, Margaret. Good to be with you on this Sunday, from Columbus, Ohio. I wanted to ask you very directly about these Trump administration claims that Ohio State is one of 60 universities that they deemed may have antisemitic practices and policies on campus. They say you're being investigated for them and for failing to end diversity policies, which could be a violation of the Civil Rights Act. What's the status of the probes? And how much pressure are you under? To be quite frank, I'm not feeling a lot of pressure. Our understanding is that we're on those lists because we had been previously on those lists under the Biden administration. We had been working with the Office of Civil Rights during that administration, and I think mostly that was a holdover. We are more than happy to talk to anybody from the Office of Civil Rights. We stand behind our actions. We know how we acted during the time of the protests. We never had an encampment here at Ohio State. We had some attempted. We didn't allow that, and that's our long standing rules on the Oval, which is the centerpiece of our campus. So I'm confident that, as this plays out forward, that we're going to be just fine. The Trump administration did publish Ohio State on the list of universities it's probing. And when you look at some of the issues they've raised at other places, you look at the result of freezing $3 billion in contracts at Harvard, $1 billion at Cornell, hundreds of millions of dollars of research funding at universities like Brown, are you worried that your federal funds could be in jeopardy because of this? Well, like I always say to my staff and my people, if we do the right things for the right reasons, everything will play out. And we've been doing it that way since I've been here, since 1 January of 2024. Our research funding here at Ohio State has grown leaps and bounds over the last couple of years. We're actually ranked number 11th in the country, ahead of Harvard, ahead of UNC Chapel Hill. Our revenues last year were $1.6 billion, $775 million of that came from the federal government, largely in NIH and NSF. As we sit here today, we've had some research grants impacted, but in the tens of millions of dollars, nothing like you're seeing at our Ivy League colleagues. And a lot of that is still in litigation. So I can't even tell you what the number of dollars that we may lose. But against the $1.6 billion, it's pretty small, even though it's had some impact on some of our researchers. Unlike some of our counterparts, we have a significant research arm here, 14,000 faculty, postdoc students that do the research here. And it is significant. It goes way beyond the numbers and the dollars. It's what it's doing for the community, what it's doing to extend and save and change lives, and what it's doing in agriculture, what it's doing for our police force. So what I would tell you is, at this moment today, even compared to where we were last year, we're still up in our research revenue about 7% from where we were last year. And we're proceeding to ask for more grants so that we can be a cancer-free world here in our lifetime. Well, we all hope for that future, sir. But you sound not to be concerned. But I did read that, earlier, when you had the Buckeyes football team at the White House earlier in the year, and that was well covered, The Wall StreetJournal,said, you told President Trump and Vice President Vance that, quote, "Ohio State is not the enemy." Why did you feel you had to say that? What did you mean?
TED CARTER:
00:16:09
Well, that might have been taken a little bit out of context. I kind of said that in jest a little bit to the vice president when I had a chance to meet with him. And we had a long conversation. It was a very productive conversation. I won't go into all the details. But the point is, they know that Ohio State is doing the right things for the right reasons. I have said publicly that I believe the future of higher education is going to go through the large public land grant flagship institutions like the Ohio State University. I look at what we're doing today, and yes, like many other universities, there's a lot of concern about the future, what's coming out of the federal government and even what's coming out of our state government here in Ohio. But right now, I feel like we can still play defense, still understand how to adjust, make sure that we're getting our bat on the ball, so to speak, and playing defense in protecting the plate. But we're also looking at how we can play offense. This is the time where institutions like Ohio State, we are very financially secure. We're actually looking to invest in ourselves. I just reflect on the graduation ceremony that we just had this past May. We produce about 18,000 graduates a year, but at that ceremony, we graduated 12,400. All of them, by the way, got their diploma that day that they earned. And 90% of those students-- 90%-- already had a job, or they were going on to another higher academic endeavor. And 70% of those undergraduate students are staying in the state of Ohio. 66% of the PhD and masters are staying in the state of Ohio. This is a wonderful workforce development program that is what is raising the confidence of Ohioans and the American public in higher education. And that is starting to change. Vice President Vance was on this program a number of times, and one of them when he was still a senator. I spoke to him about his views on higher education. He's an Ohio State alum, undergrad. And he said he believes universities-- he wasn't speaking of yours. But he said, universities are controlled by left-wing foundations, and they're going in the wrong direction. Do you think he has a point? I think higher education has started to build that reputation. And you can even see that in the Gallup-Lumina polls. I was the superintendent of the Naval Academy from 2014 to 2019. And that Gallup poll in 2015 said that nearly 60% of Americans had high confidence in post-secondary secondary education. Now, go ahead and just move that needle nine years forward, and yet two in three Americans said they did not have confidence in higher education. That's a really bad mark. Americans were saying higher education costs too much. They were saying that the return on investment was difficult to prove. They were even saying some of the research being done may not have impact them or their families. And yes, there was this conversation about the potential indoctrination of students or that institutions were leaning very liberal. We, as administrators of higher education, maybe ought to listen to the American public and say, maybe we haven't always gotten it right. So I'm here to say, here at the Ohio State University, we have paid attention to that. We are making efforts to make affordability a key issue for students. I mentioned that graduating class. 57% of those undergraduates left with zero debt-- zero debt. And the other 43% that left with debt that was less than $24,000. And as we look across our hiring practices, I have 8,500 faculty. This is the best group of faculty I have ever worked with in my 12 years in leading in higher ed. And that's saying quite a bit.
MARGARET BRENNAN:
00:19:41
Well, I-- And I will tell you that, as we hire the future, we're looking across the entire political spectrum for who we hire. On that point, you talked about what happened at the state level. The Republican-controlled state legislature passed a law that eliminates the diversity programs, does a number of things. But it also requires professors to post their course syllabi online and their contact information. Do you think that this is meant to intimidate? Are you concerned? Is your faculty concerned about the focus on what they're doing? Yes, I have talked to our faculty through our Faculty Senate and our leadership. There are some concerns, of course, because we've not done that before. We've got some time before we implement that. We have put all the pieces of Senate Bill 1, which is the General Assembly's bill here in the state of Ohio, into implementation phase. We're still working through some of the details. But let me tell you, the principles of academic freedom, what is taught in the classroom, the move towards scholarly pursuit, the research that we do here at Ohio State, those are things that we are still very passionate about. And I know that we're going to continue that work. And yet we'll still follow the law. We'll still follow some of the federal policies that are coming out. We're ready and prepared to do all of that. Well, to that point, you saw what Columbia University did this week in paying the $200 million fine to settle their dispute with the Trump administration. They also agreed to an outside monitor to assure the school complies with stamping out diversity programs. Does this precedent trouble you? I mean, would you take a deal like that? Well, I can't speak to those institutions, because I'm not leading them. I know both the President Shipman and some of the other Ivy League presidents are colleagues. And they're having to do, I think, what I would call being in survival mode, quite frankly. We're not going through any of that here at Ohio State, and nor do I think that we will. I mean, obviously, we have a new state law. We're a public institution, so that means we're going to be transparent and put out everything that we do so that the state of Ohio, the people, and the entire country can see it. We will watch to see what happens. Good luck to you, sir. We'll be right back.
