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Hundreds of law enforcement officers breached a Gaza solidarity encampment at the University of California, Los Angeles campus on Thursday morning, removing barricades and threatening students with arrest.
LAPD officers in tactical gear filed on to the UCLA campus around sunset on Wednesday and began to force their way into the encampment at about 3.15am PDT. They were met with about 300 to 500 protesters in the encampment – and another 2,000 people gathered outside the barricades in support – who shouted “shame on you”.
It is the latest crackdown on pro-Palestinian protesters demanding universities divest from companies linked to Israel’s war effort in Gaza, and comes amid ongoing fallout from events on Tuesday, when counter-demonstrators attacked the UCLA encampment.
Meanwhile in Gaza, a senior Hamas official told AFP overnight that its response to a proposed truce deal brokered by Egypt and Qatar was “negative”, but that discussions were still taking place.
Where have the campus protests spread? As well as sweeping the US and resulting in more than 1,300 arrests nationwide, encampments are now spreading internationally, with similar demonstrations in the UK, France and Australia.
This is a developing story. Follow our live coverage here.
Arizona senate passes repeal of ‘inhumane’ near-total abortion ban from 1864
Arizona lawmakers have repealed the state’s 160-year-old statute banning nearly all abortions.
The 1864 law, which was reinstated by the state supreme court three weeks ago, has made abortion a central focus in the battleground state and galvanized Democrats seeking to enshrine abortion rights.
In the state senate, Democrats picked up the support of two Republicans in favor of repealing the ban. The Democratic governor, Katie Hobbs, is expected to ratify the repeal, which narrowly cleared the Arizona house last week after three Republicans joined with all the Democrats in the chamber.
What were the details of the law? The civil-war era statute, which predates Arizona’s statehood, bans nearly all abortions, including those sought by survivors of rape or incest. It also imposes prison terms for doctors and others who aid in abortions. The law had been blocked by the 1973 supreme court Roe v Wade decisions that granted the constitutional right to abortion.
What did pro-choice advocates say? “We are relieved that lawmakers have finally repealed this inhumane abortion ban – something extremist politicians refused to do for far too long,” said Victoria López, the director of program and strategy for the ACLU of Arizona.
What happens now? The repeal will not take effect until June or July, 90 days after the legislative session. Once the 1864 measure is stricken, a 2022 statute banning procedures after 15 weeks of pregnancy will supplant it as the state’s ruling abortion law.
Harvey Weinstein faces New York retrial after 2020 rape conviction overturned
Harvey Weinstein will be retried in New York, the Manhattan district attorney’s office said on Wednesday, a week after the state’s highest court threw out his 2020 rape conviction.
The district attorney, Alvin Bragg, said via his office staff that his team was determined to retry the case against the disgraced movie mogul.
Legal experts say that may be a long road and may come down to whether the women he is accused of assaulting are willing to testify again. One of the women, Mimi Haley, said on Friday she was still considering whether she would testify at any retrial.
Why was the New York conviction overturned? Last week’s ruling said the court “erroneously admitted testimony of uncharged, alleged prior sexual acts against persons other than the complainants of the underlying crimes”.
What was Weinstein’s prison term for this case? He got 23 years in 2020 for two sex crimes: forcing oral sex on a production assistant in 2006 as well as rape in the third degree of an actor in 2013. He was also convicted in LA in 2022 of another rape, and sentenced to 16 years in prison.
What happens next? One of Weinstein’s accusers was in court on Wednesday and asked the judge for an early fall retrial.
In other news …
Police in Dublin, Ireland were sent in to dismantle about 200 tents of asylum seekers on Wednesday, which was labeled by critics as social “cleansing”.
At least 48 people died in south-eastern China after a highway section collapsed in a mountainous area on Thursday, sending more than 20 cars down a steep slope.
Colombia’s president announced his government will sever diplomatic relations with Israel, saying the country has “a genocidal president”.
Heavy rains and floods in Kenya’s Maasai Mara national reserve saw scores of people evacuated, after over a dozen hotels, lodges and camps were flooded.
Five civilians were killed in Ukraine on Wednesday as Russia struck the eastern Kharkiv and Donetsk regions. It came as the US imposed new sanctions on nearly 300 entities in Russia, China and other countries for supplying “critical inputs to Russia’s military-industrial base”.
Stat of the day: China accounts for nearly one-third of the world’s 339 jailed writers with 107 in prison
The 2023 Freedom to Write Index shows at least 339 people are imprisoned globally for exercising freedom of expression. China put 107 people behind bars because of their published statements, more than any other country. Many have been arrested for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”.
Don’t miss this: How the fiction of Brooklyn’s bard Paul Auster captivated a generation
Like Saul Bellow’s Chicago or Philip Roth’s New Jersey, the American writer Paul Auster – who died this week aged 77 – will always be synonymous with Brooklyn, writes Lisa Allardice. His writing had a postmodern playfulness, and his subjects were loss, grief and identity, with versions of himself (in various degrees of disguise) popping up in his fiction, along with references to 19th-century American writers, notebooks and baseball.
… or this: Daniel Radcliffe says rupture with JK Rowling over her trans views is ‘really sad’
The Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe has described his falling out with JK Rowling as “really sad” because the wizarding world she created was “so deeply empathic”. Radcliffe and co-stars Emma Watson and Rupert Grint have feuded with the author for years over her gender-critical statements on trans women. “I will continue to support the rights of all LGBTQ people,” Radcliffe said.
Climate check: Why are chimps dying of the virus that causes the common cold in humans?
Viruses that cause the common cold in humans are devastating populations of chimpanzees and gorillas. In some ape communities, it’s a bigger killer than habitat loss or poaching. A community of 205 animals in Uganda’s Kibale national park were coughing and sneezing for weeks – with the outbreak causing more than 12% to die. Experts say ecotourism is a risk factor.
Last Thing: ‘The whole town could come’ – Reynolds and McElhenney plan for 55,000 Wrexham’s stadium
Wrexham’s Hollywood owners, Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds, plan to develop the club’s Racecourse Ground into a stadium with up to 55,000 seats. The town had a population of about 45,000 in 2021. “The whole town could come to a game,” Reynolds said.
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