Tunisian journalists and opposition figures have voiced alarm about a surge of prosecutions since President Kais Saied issued a decree outlawing what authorities deem to be "false news".
Rights groups and lawyers say the measure stifles dissent in the North African country that was the birthplace of the Arab Spring protests and for years after was considered a regional beacon of free speech.
Police on Friday entered the Sciences Po university in Paris to remove dozens of students staging a pro-Gaza sit-in in the entrance hall, AFP journalists saw, as protests fired political debate about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Demonstrations have struck education institutions in several French cities in recent weeks, echoing the mass Gaza protests that have led to clashes in US universities.
Hundreds of supporters of Israel and Gaza faced off at a Sydney university Friday, bringing echoes of US college protests and Middle East tumult to a campus and continent on the other side of the world.
Rival demonstrators came eye-to-eye shouting slogans and waving flags. Still, except for a few heated exchanges, the protest and counterprotest passed off peacefully.
But it was another sign that the war in Gaza, approaching its seventh month, and the long-rumbling US culture wars are roiling politics oceans away.
Hamas said its delegation will travel to Cairo on Saturday to resume Gaza ceasefire talks with a "positive spirit" in the latest effort to halt almost seven months of war with Israel.
Foreign mediators have been waiting for a Hamas response to a proposal to halt the fighting for 40 days and exchange hostages for Palestinian prisoners.
Dozens of pro-Palestinian students from Mexico's largest university camped out Thursday in solidarity with similar protests that have swept colleges in the United States.
Mounting flags and chanting "Long live free Palestine," the protesters set up tents in front of the National Autonomous University of Mexico's (UNAM) head office in Mexico City.
The students called on the Mexican government to break diplomatic and commercial ties with Israel.
Israel's Iron Dome defence system has long shielded it from incoming rockets. Now it is building a "cyber dome" to defend against online attacks, especially from arch foe Iran.
"It is a silent war, one which is not visible," said Aviram Atzaba, the Israeli National Cyber Directorate's head of international cooperation.
While Israel has fought Hamas in Gaza since the October 7 attack, it has also faced a significant increase in cyberattacks from Iran and its allies, Atzaba said.
Joe Biden broke his silence Thursday on the student protests against Israel's war with Hamas but the US president faces a difficult balancing act to avoid hurting his reelection chances against Donald Trump.
"There's the right to protest but not the right to cause chaos," the 81-year-old Democrat said in a televised address from the White House.
Biden took a tough, law-and-order tone after police broke up some of the protests that have rocked US college campuses, even as he insisted the United States would not "squash dissent."
UNESCO on Thursday awarded its world press freedom prize to all Palestinian journalists covering the war in Gaza, where Israel has been battling Hamas for more than six months.
"In these times of darkness and hopelessness, we wish to share a strong message of solidarity and recognition to those Palestinian journalists who are covering this crisis in such dramatic circumstances," said Mauricio Weibel, chair of the international jury of media professionals.
"As humanity, we have a huge debt to their courage and commitment to freedom of expression."
Turkey said Thursday it was suspending all trade with Israel until it allows aid to enter Gaza unhindered during its offensive against Hamas militants in the territory.
"Exports and imports to and from Israel have been suspended," the trade ministry said in a statement, adding: "Turkey will apply these new measures... until the Israeli government authorises an uninterrupted flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza."
Palestinian advocacy groups said Thursday that the head of orthopaedics at Gaza's largest hospital Al-Shifa has died in Israeli custody, alleging he had been tortured during his detention.
Doctor Adnan Ahmed Atiya al-Barsh died at the Israeli-run Ofer prison in the occupied West Bank last month, the Palestinian Prisoners Affairs Committee and the Palestinian Prisoners Club said in a joint statement.
Contacted by AFP about the reported death in custody, the Israeli army said: "We are currently not aware of such (an) incident."
