Paris crowns a new king of the crusty baguette in its annual bread-baking prize

PARIS (AP) — Paris has a new king of the crusty baguette.

Baker Xavier Netry was chosen this week as the 31st winner of Paris' annual “Grand Prix de la baguette” prize.

His long loaf beat 172 others.

Competing baguettes were evaluated for taste, look, texture, airiness and the quality of the baking. The jury included a deputy mayor, industry representatives, journalists and six Parisians that City Hall said were drawn at random.

The Utopie bakery in Paris' 11th district that Netry works for wins 4,000 euros ($4,290) and becomes one of the suppliers of the presidential Elysee Palace for a year.

City Hall said uneaten baguettes from the competition were donated to a charity that feeds people who are homeless.

Netry, a baker for 25 years, said the secrets of his success are a good sourdough starter and “a good long fermentation,” careful cooking and "some love and some passion, of course.”

Baker Xavier Netry poses outside the Utopie bakery Friday, April 26, 2024 in Paris. Baker Xavier Netry was chosen this week as the 31st winner of Paris' annual "Grand Prix de la baguette" prize. The Utopie bakery in Paris' 11th district that Netry works for wins 4,000 euros ($4,290) and becomes one of the suppliers of the presidential Elysee Palace for a year. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Customers are seen the Utopie bakery Friday, April 26, 2024 in Paris. Baker Xavier Netry was chosen this week as the 31st winner of Paris' annual "Grand Prix de la baguette" prize. The Utopie bakery in Paris' 11th district that Netry works for wins 4,000 euros ($4,290) and becomes one of the suppliers of the presidential Elysee Palace for a year. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Parisians walk by the Utopie bakery Friday, April 26, 2024 in Paris. Baker Xavier Netry was chosen this week as the 31st winner of Paris' annual "Grand Prix de la baguette" prize. The Utopie bakery in Paris' 11th district that Netry works for wins 4,000 euros ($4,290) and becomes one of the suppliers of the presidential Elysee Palace for a year. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Baguettes are seen at the Utopie bakery Friday, April 26, 2024 in Paris. Baker Xavier Netry was chosen this week as the 31st winner of Paris' annual "Grand Prix de la baguette" prize. The Utopie bakery in Paris' 11th district that Netry works for wins 4,000 euros ($4,290) and becomes one of the suppliers of the presidential Elysee Palace for a year. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Baker Xavier Netry works at the Utopie bakery Friday, April 26, 2024 in Paris. Baker Xavier Netry was chosen this week as the 31st winner of Paris' annual "Grand Prix de la baguette" prize. The Utopie bakery in Paris' 11th district that Netry works for wins 4,000 euros ($4,290) and becomes one of the suppliers of the presidential Elysee Palace for a year. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Baker Xavier Netry makes baguettes in the Utopie bakery Friday, April 26, 2024 in Paris. Baker Xavier Netry was chosen this week as the 31st winner of Paris' annual "Grand Prix de la baguette" prize. The Utopie bakery in Paris' 11th district that Netry works for wins 4,000 euros ($4,290) and becomes one of the suppliers of the presidential Elysee Palace for a year. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

NEW YORK (AP) — Columbia University canceled its large university-wide commencement ceremony Monday following weeks of pro-Palestinian protests that have roiled its campus and others across the U.S., but said students will still be able to celebrate at a series of smaller, school-based ceremonies this week and next.

The decision comes as universities around the country wrangle with how to handle commencements for students whose high school graduations were derailed by COVID-19 in 2020. Another campus shaken by protests, Emory University, announced Monday that it would move its commencement from its Atlanta campus to a suburban arena. Others, including the University of Michigan, Indiana University and Northeastern, have pulled off ceremonies with few disruptions.

Columbia’s decision to cancel its main ceremonies scheduled for May 15 saves its president, Minouche Shafik, from having to deliver a commencement address in the same part of campus where police dismantled a protest encampment last week. The Ivy League school in upper Manhattan said it made the decision after discussions with students.

“Our students emphasized that these smaller-scale, school-based celebrations are most meaningful to them and their families,” officials said.

Most of the ceremonies that had been scheduled for the south lawn of the main campus, where encampments were taken down last week, will take place about 5 miles (8 kilometers) north at Columbia’s sports complex, officials said.

Speakers at some of Columbia’s still-scheduled graduation ceremonies include Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright James Ijames and Dr. Monica Bertagnolli, director of the National Institutes of Health.

Columbia had already canceled in-person classes. More than 200 pro-Palestinian demonstrators who had camped out on Columbia’s green or occupied an academic building were arrested in recent weeks.

Similar encampments sprouted up elsewhere as universities struggled with where to draw the line between allowing free expression while maintaining safe and inclusive campuses.

The University of Southern California earlier canceled its main graduation ceremony. Students abandoned their camp at USC on Sunday after being surrounded by police and threatened with arrest.

Other universities have held graduation ceremonies with beefed-up security. The University of Michigan's ceremony was interrupted by chanting a few times Saturday. In Boston on Sunday, some students waved small Palestinian or Israeli flags at Northeastern University's commencement in Fenway Park.

Emory’s ceremonies scheduled for May 13 will be held at the GasSouth Arena and Convocation Center in Duluth, almost 20 miles (30 kilometers) northeast of the university’s Atlanta campus, President Gregory Fenves said in an open letter.

“Please know that this decision was not taken lightly,” Fenves wrote. “It was made in close consultation with the Emory Police Department, security advisors and other agencies — each of which advised against holding commencement events on our campuses.”

The 16,000-student university is one of many that has seen repeated protests stemming from the conflict that started Oct. 7 when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking roughly 250 hostages. Student protesters are calling on their schools to divest from companies that do business with Israel or otherwise contribute to the war effort.

Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel launched an offensive in Gaza that has killed more than 34,500 Palestinians, about two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory. Israeli strikes have devastated the enclave and displaced most of its inhabitants.

Hamas on Monday announced its acceptance of an Egyptian-Qatari cease-fire proposal, but Israel later approved a military operation in the southern Gaza town of Rafah and began striking targets in the area. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would send negotiators to continue talks.

“Cease-fires are temporary,” said Selina Al-Shihabi, a Georgetown University sophomore who was taking part in a protest at George Washington. “There can be a cease-fire, but the U.S. government will continue to arm the Israeli military. We plan to be here until the university divests or until they drag us out of here.”

Also Monday, the University of California, Los Angeles, alerted students that all classes were moving online due to ongoing disruptions following the dismantling of a pro-Palestinian encampment last week. The university police force reported 44 arrests but there were no specific details, UCLA spokesperson Eddie North-Hager said in an email to The Associated Press.

At the University of California, San Diego, police cleared a pro-Palestinian encampment and arrested more than 64 people, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

Schools are trying various tactics from appeasement to threats of disciplinary action to get protestors to take down encampments or move to campus areas where demonstrations would be less intrusive.

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago said in a Facebook post Sunday that it offered protesters “amnesty from academic sanction and trespassing charges” if they moved.

“Many protesters left the premises of their own accord after being notified by the police that they were trespassing and subject to arrest,” the school said. “Those that remained were arrested after multiple warnings to leave, including some of whom we recognized as SAIC students.”

A group of faculty and staff members at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill asked the administration for amnesty for any students who were arrested and suspended during recent protests. UNC Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine said in a media advisory that it would deliver a letter on behalf of more than 500 faculty who support the student activists.

Other universities took a different approach.

Harvard University's interim president, Alan Garber, warned student's that those participating in a pro-Palestinian encampment in Harvard Yard could face “involuntary leave.” That means they may would not be allowed on campus, could lose their student housing and may not be able to take exams, Garber said.

At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, police restricted access to an encampment after a school deadline for them to leave had passed. About 200 protesters gathered outside the camp, chanting, “MIT can’t you see? Palestine will be free” and other slogans.

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Associated Press writer Jeff Amy in Atlanta contributed to this report.

This story has been amended to change the first name of the president of Columbia University to reflect her preference, Minouche.

Police officers look on as a worker removes signs from a Pro-Palestinian encampment set up in front of Geisel Library at UC San Diego, Monday, May 6, 2024, in San Diego. Police cleared the campus encampment in the early morning Monday. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)

Pro-Palestinian protestors stand on Massachusetts Avenue near a student encampment on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, after a 2:30pm deadline passed to leave the encampment, Monday May 6, 2024, in Cambridge, Mass. (AP Photo/Steve LeBlanc)

Graduate student Bataya Kline speaks at a Pro-Palestinian rally Monday, May 6, 2024 at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn. where a weeklong encampment has grown to more than 100 tents. Wesleyan officials have said they will allow the encampment to remain as long as the protests are peaceful and do not disrupt campus life. (AP Photo/Pat Eaton-Robb)

Graduate student Bataya Kline speaks at a Pro-Palestinian rally Monday, May 6, 2024 at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut where a weeklong encampment has grown to more than 100 tents. Wesleyan officials have said they will allow the encampment to remain as long as the protests are peaceful and do not disrupt campus life. (AP Photo/Pat Eaton-Robb)

Pro-Palestinian protesters at the encampment in the quad at the University of Chicago on the South Side, Monday, May 6, 2024. (Ashlee Rezin/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)

Police officers clash with Pro-Palestinian protesters at UC San Diego, Monday, May 6, 2024, in San Diego. Police cleared a campus Pro-Palestinian encampment in the early morning Monday. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)

Students and passersby watch from a nearby building steps as Pro-Palestinian protestors gather outside a student encampment on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, after a 2:30pm deadline passed to leave the encampment, Monday May 6, 2024, in Cambridge, Mass. (AP Photo/Steve LeBlanc)

Police officers clash with Pro-Palestinian protesters at UC San Diego Monday, May 6, 2024, in San Diego. Police cleared a campus encampment in the early morning Monday. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)

Workers remove tents and debris from a Pro-Palestinian encampment set up in front of Geisel Library at UC San Diego, Monday, May 6, 2024, in San Diego. Police cleared the campus encampment in the early morning Monday. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)

Workers remove tents and debris from a Pro-Palestinian encampment set up in front of Geisel Library at UC San Diego, Monday, May 6, 2024, in San Diego. Police cleared the campus encampment in the early morning Monday. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)

New York City police officers stand on the Columbia University campus, amongst the equipment that was to be used to host a large graduation ceremony, in New York, Monday, May 6, 2024. The university says it is canceling its university-wide commencement ceremony following weeks of pro-Palestinian protests. Smaller school-based ceremonies are still on for this week and next. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

A New York City police officer looks over the center of Columbia University, the usual site of a large graduation ceremony, in New York, Monday, May 6, 2024. The university says it is canceling its university-wide commencement ceremony following weeks of pro-Palestinian protests. Smaller school-based ceremonies are still on for this week and next. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

A New York City police officer walks past seating that was to be used for a large graduation ceremony at Columbia University in New York, Monday, May 6, 2024. The university says it is canceling its university-wide commencement ceremony following weeks of pro-Palestinian protests. Smaller school-based ceremonies are still on for this week and next. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Authorities detain a protester on the campus of Emory University during a pro-Palestinian demonstration, in Atlanta, Georgia, April 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

CORRECTS CAPTION TO NYPD ARREST PRO-PALESTINIAN DEMONSTRATORS New York Police Department officers arrest pro-Palestinian demonstrators on 114th Street and Amsterdam Avenue on Tuesday night, April 30, 2024, in New York. The NYPD also stormed Columbia University’s campus after Columbia University President Minouche Shafik called on the department to dismantle encampments and remove individuals from Hamilton Hall. (Seyma Bayram via AP)

Staff members of the Columbia Daily Spectator, the college newspaper, work into the night as police cleared out demonstrators from Columbia University's campus, late Tuesday, April 30, 2024, in New York. Left to right; Isabella Ramirez, editor in chief; Esha Karam, managing editor; Yvin Shin, head copy editor; Emily Forgash, deputy news editor; and Shea Vance, university news editor. (AP Photo/Jake Offenhartz)

FILE - Pro-Israel demonstrators gather for the "Bring Them Home Now" rally outside the Columbia University, April 26, 2024, in New York. Pro-Palestinian protesters have dominated university quads in the last two weeks, shutting down colleges and clashing with riot police. But there’s been a notable scarcity of student rallies in solidarity with Israelis. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File)