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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Lois Beckett (now); and Maanvi Singh, Kari Paul, Gloria Oladipo, Richard Luscombe, Fran Lawther, Amy Sedghi, Hamish Mackay, Jonathan Yerushalmy and Lois Beckett (earlier)

Manhattan DA investigating after officer fired gun inside Columbia University - as it happened

Dallas New York NYPD
Workers move metal barriers at the site of a pro-Palestinian protest encampment after it was broken up by police officers at UCLA.
Workers move metal barriers at the site of a pro-Palestinian protest encampment after it was broken up by police officers at UCLA. Photograph: Jill Connelly/EPA

Today's recap

At least 2,000 people have arrested for participating in pro-Palestinian protests on US campuses. Student protesters, faculty and others have sustained severe injury as police raided several encampment protests across the US overnight.

Here’s a summary of the developments today, from Guardian US staff across the country:

  • At least 200 people were arrested at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) on Thursday, the Associated Press reported. The latest figure brings the nationwide total of arrests to more than 2,000 at dozens of college campuses since police cleared an encampment at Columbia University on 30 April.

  • The Pulitzer prize board publicly recognized the work of student journalists across the US who are covering pro-Palestinian protests on their campuses. The board praised the work of student journalists at Columbia University, where the Pulitzer prizes are located, for documenting the events on campus as New York police raided student-led encampments on 30 April.

  • An officer fired a gun inside Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall, and the incident is under review by the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg. The news was first reported by the outlet The City. No one was injured, according to Doug Cohen, a spokesperson with Bragg’s office, who told the AP that no students had been in the immediate vicinity.

  • Joe Biden condemned violent protests, including vandalism, trespassing and forcing classes to be cancelled, during remarks from the White House. “We are not an authoritarian nation where we silence people and squash dissent … but neither are we a lawless country,” he said.

  • At the conclusion of his speech, Biden said he did not think the National Guard should intervene in the protests, while responding to questions from journalists. Biden added that the campus unrest had not made him reconsider any policies in the Middle East.

  • The Gaza solidarity protest encampment at Rutgers University is being peacefully disassembled by students after meeting with university administration and coming to a resolution. Students at Northwestern and Brown have also been able to reach deals with their school administrations. In Canada, University of Toronto officials reversed a previous 10pm deadline for protesters to disperse, and said an encampment could stay if it remained peaceful.

  • The largest union of academic workers will hold a strike-authorization vote as early as next week in response to how universities have cracked down on students’ Gaza protests. The union represents more than 48,000 graduate student workers throughout the University of California system. Meanwhile, the Columbia University chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) called for a vote of no confidence against Columbia president Minouche Shafik.

  • Faculty at Pomona College have voted to divest from Israel, weeks after protesters at the liberal arts campus were arrested.The faculty at the school in Claremont, California, have demanded divestment from “weapons manufacturers and companies complicit in human rights violations committed by the Israeli government”.

  • The Travis county attorney general’s office said there was no evidence to back claims by the University of Texas at Austin that people among the pro-Palestinian demonstrators on campus had “guns, buckets of large rocks, bricks, steel-enforced wood planks, mallets and chains”. The attorney general said that the high numbers of misdemeanor arrests of protesters were unsustainable.

Updated

In Canada, University of Toronto announces it will allow protest encampment to stay

Reversing a previous 10 pm deadline for pro-Palestine demonstrators to disperse, University of Toronto officials said that a protest encampment could remain as long as it stayed peaceful, the Toronto Star reported.

How big are today’s US campus protests compared to those in the 1960s?

Robert Cohen, a New York University historian, told the AP that the scale of today’s pro-Palestinian student protests don’t yet match the anti-war protests of the Vietnam War era.

“I would say that this is the biggest in the United States in the 21st century,” said Cohen. “But you could say: ‘Well, that’s like being the tallest building in Wichita, Kansas.’”

Another contrast is how quickly university administrators are cracking down:

Another difference that has struck observers is the quick crackdown by campus authorities. In 1968, students occupied Columbia’s Hamilton Hall for nearly a week before authorities moved in. The bust – when it finally came – saw more than 700 arrested.

“It’s funny because Columbia is very proud of ... Columbia students’ history of activism,” said Ilana Gut, a senior at the university’s sister school, Barnard College. “So their attitudes toward the modern-day activists, at least in the eyes of protestors, is very ironic – that they’re so proud of their past protestors, but so violently repressive of their modern-day ones.”

Updated

The Los Angeles Police Department made no arrests after a night of violence at UCLA. But the group chats are on it.

On Tuesday night, a pro-Palestinian student encampment at UCLA was brutally attacked by what the university’s chancellor called “a mob of instigators”. Many of the attackers covered their faces: some were dressed in black, with white masks.

The attacks on the protest camp went on for an estimated four hours before law enforcement finally intervened, a delay that sparked wide condemnation, including from California’s governor. And LAPD, which eventually was asked to come to campus to respond to the violence, later announced that they had made zero arrests.

In the absence of any immediate legal action from law enforcement, the LA Times reports, “online sleuths” from around the world have been sharing and scrutinizing video footage from the UCLA attacks, in an attempt to identify the perpetrators and hold them accountable.

“This is where we’re at now,” Brian Levin, the founding director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino, told the LA Times. “People feel for their own protection that they have to bring their own goggles [to protests to protect from teargas], and they also have to find their own assailants.”

Updated

AP: Police detain man who briefly accelerated toward pro-Palestinian demonstrators

This is Lois Beckett, continuing our live news coverage from Los Angeles. The AP has an update from Portland State University in Oregon:

Police said Thursday they detained the driver of a white Toyota Camry who briefly accelerated toward a crowd of pro-Palestinian demonstrators at Portland State University in Oregon, then ran off spraying what appeared to be pepper spray toward protesters who confronted him.

The man was taken to a hospital on a police mental health hold, the Portland Police Bureau said in a written statement late Thursday afternoon. They did not release his name.

People screamed as the vehicle accelerated from a stop toward the crowd on Thursday afternoon, but the driver braked before it reached anyone. Demonstrators approached the car and began striking it, and the driver exited and sprinted off while aiming the spray toward those trying to catch him.

Police said they found the driver later and took him into custody.

Updated

After New York City mayor, Eric Adams, repeatedly claimed that “outside agitators” were responsible for escalations that prompted an overwhelming law enforcement crackdown, the NYPD issued numbers indicating that a third of those arrested at Columbia were not students.

On Thursday, the NYPD issued a press release that said among those arrested at Columbia, “approximately 29% of individuals were not affiliated” with the school, while 60% of people arrested at the CCNY protests were not affiliated with the school. It was not immediately clear how the police were defining “affiliation”, and the release did not break down arrest figures in further detail.

“What we have seen, and what has been made clear by the evidence emerging after this week’s arrests, is that professional, external actors are involved in these protests and demonstrations,” the NYPD commissioner, Edward Caban, said in the release. “These individuals are not university students, they are not affiliated with either the institutions or campuses in question, and they are working to escalate the situation.”

The Guardian requested confirmation of receipt of arrest lists from both Columbia University and the City College of New York (CCNY), and asked if the institutions planned to divulge details breaking down the numbers of arrests. Neither immediately responded.

After Joe Biden said on Thursday that the campus demonstrations had not influenced his views on Middle East policies and and characterized campus demonstrators as violent, the College Democrats emphasized the power of the youth vote.

“College Democrats’ votes are not to be taken for granted by the Democratic Party. We reserve the right to criticize our party when it fails to listen to us,” the group posted on X.

Updated

In an op-ed for the Guardian, Grey Battle, a student at Yale University, wrote about the protests on campus, and the experience of seeing her friends arrested:

Friends who attended last weekend’s formal changed out of long dresses and into masks, sunglasses, hoodies and other dox-preventive wear. Friends from first-year orientation groups led counterprotests with ‘Fact Check’ signs and matching T-shirts. The Yale gospel choir performed, dance troupes offered workshops, and professors hosted teach-ins.

These professors are in full supply: I go to a school that offers classes called Contesting Injustice, Political Protests and The Liberation Movement. Yale is a member of the greater systems, machines and institutions which perpetuate oppression, yet teaches us to knock them down.

I am lying on the floor of my dorm room. I’ve retreated to my corner of campus. It is 80 sq ft of popcorn walls and pine wood furniture. I turn the fan on, a muffle of white noise.

Echoes of ‘Free Gaza, free Palestine, within our lifetime,’ ‘I ain’t gonna study war no more’ and ‘We are the children’ run together. I am lying on the floor staring up at the ceiling when the first tears well.

I am crying because during protests at the November Harvard-Yale football game, every university in Palestine had been bombed. By today’s protest in April, no universities in Palestine remain. I am crying because with every hour that passes, 42 bombs are dropped on Gaza. Yale will not disclose how many of those bombs I funded with my tuition dollars.

Updated

Student protests are happening on college campuses across the US, but also across the world. Here are a few snapshots of protests around the globe.

Outside France’s renowned Sorbonne university, gendarmes and police officers evacuated an encampment. There were also clashes at Sciences Po between protesters and police. The Sciences Po Palestine Committee posted a map showing student-led protests on campuses across the country.

In Mexico City, about 50 students created an encampment at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). “The student movement in the United States has given us a lot of hope,” Luna Martínez, a human rights lawyer who studied at the university, told the AP.

In the UK, protests took place on at least six university campuses on Wednesday, including Sheffield, Bristol, Leeds and Newcastle. The University of York, meanwhile, announced in a statement that it “no longer holds investments in companies that primarily make or sell weapons and defence-related products or services”, following pressure from students.

In Canada, students at the University of Toronto set up at a common. “We will not be leaving until we achieve divestment, disclosure and an academic boycott of complicit Israeli universities,” UofT Occupy for Palestine wrote on X.

Updated

An officer fired a gun inside Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall, and the incident is under review by the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg.

The news was first reported by the outlet The City.

No one was injured, according to Doug Cohen, a spokesperson with Bragg’s office, who told the AP that no students had been in the immediate vicinity. Rumors that a firearm had been discharged spread after a student’s video, posted on X, showed a police officer texting about an incident.

Updated

Faculty at Pomona College have voted to divest from Israel, weeks after protesters at the liberal arts campus were arrested.

The faculty at the school in Claremont, California, have demanded divestment from “weapons manufacturers and companies complicit in human rights violations committed by the Israeli government”, according to a statement from the Pomona Divest from Apartheid group. The group has demanded divestment from Barclays, Chevron and a number of other companies.

The Pomona faculty follow University of Michigan faculty and faculty unions at four Canadian universities, according to a statement from the group.

Updated

Despite the recent unrest on campus, UCLA chancellor Gene Block said in a call to alumni Thursday that graduation ceremonies would continue as planned, and that the school also plans to finish out this academic quarter in person on campus as normal. He added that he expects the campus may see “some disruptions”.

“We hope that people will be respectful that people are there for a very special event,” he said. “It’s not a political event.”

Block praised law enforcement for clearing the encampment “without serious injuries”, though a number of social media reports claimed protesters were in fact injured by violent police arrests.

When asked how alumni can support current enrollees at UCLA amid the unrest, Block suggest they educate students about their “decision” to protest.

“People make decisions, and your decision to make a risk of being arrested is still a decision – one that can have an impact on your life,” he said. “So sometimes it is about perspective on how to avoid putting yourself in a position that can impact your future.”

A number of faculty at UCLA, including from the history and English departments, have called for Block to resign due to his response to the incidents. Block did not address those demands on the call. The town hall ended without any questions from participants on the call.

Updated

In a virtual UCLA alumni town hall conference call on Thursday afternoon, chancellor Gene Block explained the school’s reasoning for clearing pro-Palestinian encampments there, which resulted in hundreds of arrests.

He echoed language from a statement he had released earlier in the day, stating that the encampments had been removed due to disruptions they caused to campus operations as well as concerns about counter-protesters and their potential harm to protesters.

“There were risks to the campus, that given the outsiders coming onto campus were just hard to control,” he said. “We decided the best thing for everyone involved was to remove the encampment.”

More updates soon …

Updated

The New York City mayor, Eric Adams, remains under pressure to divulge how many of the 282 people arrested at campus protests in Manhattan on Tuesday night were non-students after repeatedly claiming that “outside agitators” were responsible for escalations that prompted an overwhelming law enforcement crackdown.

Adams, a Democrat and former city police officer, was asked by local reporters on Thursday morning to give a breakdown of the arrest numbers. He repeatedly declined to provide details.

On a local Fox News channel, Adams was asked to provide firm details but instead gave an analogy: “If you have one bad professor educating 30, 40, 50 college students with inappropriate actions, you don’t need 50 bad professors speaking to 50 students.”

He added: “If it’s one, if it’s two, it’s 20. That is what we need to be focusing on.”

The mayor was asked again on the local station NY1 to provide specifics, and declined to do so by offering the same analogy. When pressed to provide further details, he said his office had “turned everything over to the school, and it is up to the school to determine if they’re going to release the names of students and non-students”.

The Guardian requested confirmation of receipt of arrest lists from both Columbia University and the City College of New York, and asked whether the institutions planned to divulge details breaking down the numbers of arrests. Neither immediately responded.

At a press conference on Wednesday, John Chell, the New York police department chief of patrol, told reporters that 173 arrests had been made at City College protests and 109 at Columbia University. Chell assured reporters that a breakdown of those numbers would be understood “some time today”.

The NYPD did not immediately respond to a request for further details from the Guardian on Thursday morning.

Updated

The largest union of academic workers, which represents more than 48,000 graduate student workers throughout the University of California system, will hold a strike-authorization vote as early as next week in response to how universities have cracked down on students’ Gaza protests.

“The use and sanction of violent force to curtail peaceful protest is an attack on free speech and the right to demand change, and the university must sit down with students, unions, and campus organizations to negotiate, rather than escalate,” stated an announcement of the strike vote from UAW Local 4811. Earlier this year, the union voted by a margin of more than 9 to 1 in favor of supporting a ceasefire, according to the announcement.

The graduate workers last went on strike in November 2022 over a union contract, which was the largest strike in US higher-education history. They recently merged two UAW locals, 2865 and 5810, under the single UAW Local 4811.

“We have been calling on the University of California to de-escalate and negotiate with the protesters over their very urgent and moral concerns, and it failed to do that and it failed to protect students and workers and allowed this violence to occur,” Rafael Jaime, co-president of UAW 4811 and a graduate worker at UCLA, said. “We’re holding a strike-authorization vote to hold the university accountable and demand the university respect the members’ right to protected speech and right to protest.”

He said the union also plans to file unfair labor practice charges against the University of California over the university’s use of the Los Angeles Police Department against protesters and for changing policies unilaterally in response to the protests without bargaining.

Updated

US students: share your experience of the pro-Palestinian campus protests

As pro-Palestinian and anti-war protests continue on campuses nationwide, we would like to hear from students across the US – from those who are participating as well as those who are not. How do you feel about what is happening on your campus? What has your experience of it been?

We want to hear from students on US campuses that have seen protests.

More than 200 people were arrested Thursday morning at UCLA as police moved in to the pro-Palestinian encampment to dismantle tents.

Students who were arrested are now slowly able to leave the Los Angeles metro detention center. Many were injured as the police launched flares and rubber bullets.

The university’s chancellor, Gene Block, wrote in an email that the administration “approached the encampment with the goal of maximizing our community members’ ability to make their voices heard”.

“We had allowed it to remain in place so long as it did not to jeopardize Bruins’ safety or harm our ability to carry out our mission,” he wrote. “But while many of the protesters at the encampment remained peaceful, ultimately, the site became a focal point for serious violence as well as a huge disruption to our campus.”

Students, faculty and the local public defenders’ union have pointed out that it was not the pro-Palestinian protesters who instigated violence, and have criticized the university and police for approaching with such brutality, especially after the protesters had been attacked on Tuesday evening. That time, students and reporters said that police looked on for hours before intervening.

“LA campus protests against war in Gaza have so far resulted in a law enforcement response of either 1) hundreds of arrests for non-violent offenses or 2) no intervention as violence by counter-protestors raged for hours,” wrote council member Nithya Raman in an Instagram post. “The police actions at USC and UCLA have implied that the response protestors get from law enforcement is dependent on their politics, not their actions.”

Updated

At the University of California in Los Angeles on Thursday morning, staff were picking up the pieces after two nights of violence that shocked the urban campus.

A loader heaved the remnants of the Gaza protest encampment that law enforcement had forcefully cleared early in the morning, into a large grey dumpster. Pieces of plywood spray-painted with “We love you Gaza” and “ACAB” (“all cops are bastards”) still lay about.

Students milled around. Some walked by the scene with their dogs, while others stood nearby taking photos in front of the slowly disappearing encampment. The sound of helicopters rang in the distance.

But the campus was quiet, at least compared with the earlier chaos, when police decked out in riot gear came into the encampment to shut it down.

UCLA declared the encampment illegal on Wednesday evening, and law enforcement amassed near the campus. After an hours-long standoff, early on Thursday California highway patrol officers poured into the campus by the hundreds.

Officers wore face shields and protective vests, while demonstrators who wore helmets and gas masks chanted: “You want peace. We want justice.”

At least 132 people were arrested, Alejandro Rubio of the California highway patrol said on Thursday morning. UCLA police will determine what if any charges to seek, he added.

Read more:

Updated

The University of Texas at Austin claimed that people among the pro-Palestinian demonstrators on campus had “guns, buckets of large rocks, bricks, steel-enforced wood planks, mallets and chains”. But the Travis county attorney general’s office has said there has been no evidence to support that claim.

Attorney Delia Garza told KUT: “We work in the world of evidence and facts, and we have not seen a single weapons charge or an assault charge.”

Garza also told the radio station that arresting protesters for criminal trespassing, a misdemeanor, was “unsustainable”, as the protests have already led to nearly 140 misdemeanor arrests.

Updated

The Gaza solidarity protest encampment at Rutgers University is being peacefully disassembled by students after meeting with university administration and coming to a resolution.

Most demands have been met, although it’s not clear what these demands are yet. This is noteworthy. So far, only Northwestern and Brown have been able to make headway on this issue.

At Northwestern, Michael Loria, a Chicago-based USA Today reporter, said: “The concessions students got from administrators include disclosure of university investments – a key demand at many encampments, a community house for Mena/Muslim students and funding to support bringing on Palestinian faculty and students.”

Updated

The University of Pennsylvania has asked Philadelphia police to disband an encampment on campus, but the police declined, according to the Daily Pennsylvanian, the university’s student-run newspaper.

Students established the Gaza solidarity encampment eight days ago.

Updated

This day so far

At least 2,000 people have been arrested for participating in pro-Palestinian protests on US campuses. Student protesters, faculty, and others have sustained severe injury as police raided several encampment protests across the US overnight.

As Friday approaches, tensions remain high at US colleges and universities as students continue demonstrating against what they and at least one UN expert have called a genocide in Gaza.

Here’s what else has happened:

  • At least 200 people were arrested at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) on Thursday, the Associated Press reported. The latest figure brings the nationwide total of arrests to more than 2,000 at dozens of college campuses since police cleared an encampment at Columbia University on 30 April.

  • The Pulitzer prize board publicly recognized the work of student journalists across the US who are covering pro-Palestine protests on their campuses. The board praised the work of student journalists at Columbia University, where the Pulitzer prizes are located, for documenting the events on campus as New York police raided student-led encampments on 30 April.

  • The Columbia University chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) called for a vote of no confidence against Columbia president Minouche Shafik.

  • Joe Biden condemned violent protests, including vandalism, trespassing, and forcing classes to be cancelled, during remarks from the White House. “We are not an authoritarian nation where we silence people and squash dissent… but neither are we a lawless country,” he said.

  • At the conclusion of his speech, Biden said he did not think the National Guard should intervene in the protests, while responding to questions from journalists. Biden added that the campus unrest had not made him reconsider any policies in the Middle East.

I will be handing off coverage of the US campus protests to my colleague on the west coast.

Thank you for reading!

Updated

Columbia students say government to investigate anti-Palestinian discrimination

Columbia students involved in the pro-Palestine demonstrations on campus said the the Department of Education would be conducting a federal investigation into anti-Palestinian discrimination.

In a statement posted to X, Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) shared news of the federal investigation.

Last week, Palestine Legal, and advocacy and litigation suuport group, filed a civil rights complaint with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR), “demanding an investigation into Columbia University’s discriminatory treatment of Palestinian students and their allies, including by inviting NYPD officers in riot gear – for the first time in decades – to arrest over a hundred students peacefully protesting Israel’s genocide last week”.

The university has added Columbia to a list of schools the department is investigating “for discrimination involving shared ancestry” on 23 April.

In a statement shared with the Guardian, Palestine legal senior staff attorney Radhika Sainath welcomed the federal investigation.

From Sainath, in part:

Palestine Legal welcomes the news that the Office for Civil Rights is opening an investigation into Columbia University for discrimination against Palestinian and associated students – this repression has gone one for too long, and these students deserve accountability for the harmful, racist environment Columbia has created.

For months, Columbia has not only failed to take action to protect Palestinian students and their allies speaking out for Palestinian freedom from racist harassment and discrimination, but actively engaged in differential treatment.

  • This post has been amended to clarify that SJP said in a statement that the US education department would be investigating Columbia over alleged discrimination.

Updated

More high schools in the US have led pro-Palestine actions in solidarity with protests happening on US campuses.

Axios reported that several Chicago Public School students led actions in support of Palestine.

Students at Jones College Prep, a high school in Chicago’s downtown area, staged a sit-in on Wednesday. Pro-Israel students and parents have said they planned to hold Israeli flags as a counter-rally.

Hancock Prep in the Chicago West Eldson neighborhood held a similar protest.

LA mayor condemns 'vandalism and violence' at UCLA

Karen Bass, the Los Angeles mayor, condemned “harassment, vandalism and violence” at UCLA’s campus in a statement released Thursday afternoon.

In her statement, Bass did not elaborate on which incidents of violence she was referring to. Student-led protesters on Wednesday were attacked by counter-demonstrators, leaving at least one student with severe injuries.

Here’s the full statement from Bass:

Every student deserves to be safe and live peacefully on their campus. Harassment, vandalism and violence have no place at UCLA or anywhere in our city.

My office will continue to coordinate closely with local and state law enforcement, area universities and community leaders to keep campuses safe and peaceful.

Updated

Additional video posted on social media shows protesters marching outside the School of Visual Arts in New York City as students occupy a campus building.

Some demonstrators carry Palestinian flags and wear keffiyehs, chanting: “NYPD, KKK, IDF, they’re all the same.”

Updated

US campus arrests pass 2,000 – report

At least 200 people were arrested at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) on Thursday, the Associated Press now says, bringing the nationwide total of arrests to more than 2,000 at dozens of college campuses since police cleared an encampment at Columbia University on 30 April.

Demonstrations and arrests have occurred in almost every corner of the nation, and in the last 24 hours most prominently at UCLA where officers in riot gear swamped protesters, removed barricades and began dismantling demonstrators’ fortified encampment.

Sgt Alejandro Rubio of the California highway patrol, citing data from the Los Angeles county sheriff’s department, said the 200 detained on Thursday were booked at the county jails complex near downtown Los Angeles, and UCLA will determine any charges.

Updated

There’s tension, and reported police activity, at New York’s School of Visual Arts (SVA), where a group calling itself Students for Justice in Palestine launched a sit-in this morning in a residential building.

According to a post on X, formerly Twitter, the administration has called the New York police department and informed the students they are trespassing.

The student group has also posted to Instagram a claim that the school initially agreed to allow them to stay until 5pm ET, but changed its mind once numbers swelled and ordered them to leave immediately.

A separate post to X purports to show an encounter between pro-Palestinian protesters outside the SVA campus in Manhattan, and a man attempting to film them.

Updated

Students at University College London have started a pro-Palestine encampment on campus, according to images posted to X, formerly Twitter.

There has been a wave of student action in the UK in recent days mirroring that of US campuses, with similar demands. Students in London are calling for the university to divest from Israel, the tweet states.

Here’s a report by the Guardian’s education correspondent Sally Weale of student action in the UK, published Wednesday:

Updated

Interim summary

Here’s what we’ve been following this morning as pro-Palestine protests continue across US campuses:

  • Joe Biden condemned violent protests, including vandalism, trespassing, and forcing classes to be cancelled, during an address from the White House. The president also said the right to free speech must be protected. “We are not an authoritarian nation where we silence people and squash dissentv… but neither are we a lawless country,” he said.

  • At the conclusion of his remarks, responding to shouted questions by reporters, Biden said he did not think the National Guard should intervene in the protests; and he said the campus unrest had not made him reconsider any policies in the Middle East.

  • The Columbia University chapter of the American Association of University Professors has called for a vote of no confidence against Columbia president Minouche Shafik. In a statement, the association criticized the decision by Shafik, the university’s board of trustees, and other Columbia officials to call New York police officers to remove student protests on 30 April.

  • Student encampments at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) were cleared by police with riot gear and more than 100 people arrested early on Thursday. A spokesperson with the California highway patrol spokesperson Luis Quintero told KCAL-TV that dozens were arrested as police cleared the peaceful demonstration overnight but did not give an exact figure.

  • The Pulitzer prize board issued a statement recognizing the work of student journalists across the US who are covering pro-Palestine protests on their campuses. The board specifically recognized the work of student journalists at Columbia University, where the Pulitzer prizes are located, for documenting the New York police raid on 30 April.

We’ll continue to bring you the latest developments as the afternoon progresses.

Updated

Pulitzer prize board recognizes work of US student journalists covering protests

The Pulitzer prize board issued a statement recognizing the work of student journalists across the US who are covering pro-Palestine protests on their campuses.

The board specifically recognized the work of student journalists at Columbia University, where the Pulitzer prizes are located, for documenting the events on campus as New York police raided student-led encampments on 30 April.

Here is the board’s full statement:

As we gather to consider the nation’s finest and most courageous journalism, the Pulitzer Prize Board would like to recognize the tireless efforts of student journalists across our nation’s college campuses, who are covering protests and unrest in the face of great personal and academic risk. We would also like to acknowledge the extraordinary real-time reporting of student journalists at Columbia University, where the Pulitzer Prizes are housed, as the New York Police Department was called onto campus on Tuesday night. In the spirit of press freedom, these students worked to document a major national news event under difficult and dangerous circumstances and at risk of arrest.

Updated

Student-led, pro-Palestinian protests in the US have nearly tripled since April, according to ACLED’s report.

Student-led protests made up only 26% of pro-Palestine actions in March. By April, such movements made up 64% of all pro-Palestine demonstrations in the US, a significant increase.

Police involvement at protests have also sharply increase, the report found.

According to the briefing, police are more likely to intervene at protests where there are also counter-demonstrators. But when student protesters were present “unopposed”, police were more than four times more likely to interrupt if the demonstration was pro-Palestinian.

From the briefing:

Police intervention against conflict-related student demonstrations more than quadrupled in April. They arrested demonstrators and physically dispersed crowds much more frequently at demonstrations with counter-demonstrators.

However, in cases where student demonstrators have gathered unopposed, police have intervened against pro-Palestine demonstrations more than four times as often as pro-Israel demonstrations.

Updated

A new report found that 99% of pro-Palestine protests at US colleges have been peaceful, despite remarks from Biden characterizing such demonstrations as violent.

A brief from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a NGO specializing in crisis mapping, said that the vast majority of protests have remained “vastly peaceful”.

From the report:

Student protests on university campuses around the US are the latest sign of public discontent with the Israel-Gaza conflict.

While some notable violent clashes have recently taken place, such as on the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) campus, where demonstrators and counter-demonstrators fought at a student encampment overnight on 30 April, the overwhelming majority — 99% — have remained peaceful.3 Demonstrations involving students make up roughly one-third of all US demonstrations related to the conflict since it reignited in October 2023. Between 7 October 2023 and 26 April 2024, over 90% have shown support for Palestine.

Read the full report here.

Updated

Columbia's association of university professors call for no-confidence vote against Columbia president Minouche Shafik

The Columbia University chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) has called for a vote of no confidence against Columbia president Minouche Shafik.

In a statement, the association criticized the decision by Shafik, the university’s board of trustees, and other Columbia officials to call New York police officers to remove student protests on 30 April.

“These offenses culminated in the horrific police attack on our students that is now shamefully on view for the whole world to see,” the association wrote, adding that students, faculty, and staff remain locked out of campus.

“A vote of no confidence is the only way to begin rebuilding our shattered community and re-establishing the University’s core values of free speech, the right to peaceful assembly, and shared governance.”

The call for a no-confidence vote at Columbia comes days after Barnard president Laura Rosenbury lost a faculty-wide vote of no confidence, the first in the college’s history, the Columbia Daily Spectator reported.

Updated

Student protesters have shared injuries they sustained while holding pro-Palestinian protests, as Biden characterized campus actions as violent for disrupting classes nationwide.

Yusef, a UCLA student using only his first name publicly, sustained 12 staples to the back of the head after being hit with a wooden plank by a counter-demonstrator on Tuesday night.

During a press conference Wednesday, Yusef said: “I had the ability to go to a hospital last night. Currently in Gaza, there are zero fully functioning hospitals.”

At least 25 pro-Palestine protesters also were hospitalized yesterday after counter-demonstrators attacked their encampments.

Updated

Biden added that the student protests have not made him reconsider any policies in the Middle East.

After his remarks, a reporter asked: “Mr President, have the protests forced you to reconsider any of the policies with regard to the region?”

Biden replied: “No.”

Updated

Biden says 'no' to calling in National Guard for pro-Palestine college protests

Biden also said that he did not believe that the National Guard should intervene in pro-Palestine protests on college campuses.

A reporter asked Biden: “Mr President, do you think the National Guard should intervene?”

Biden replied: “No.”

This latest stance from Biden comes as Republican lawmakers, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, have called on Biden to allow the National Guard to quell protests on campus.

Several Democrats have dismissed the idea, noting that it would escalate tensions on campuses.

Updated

Biden says 'violent protests are not protected. Peaceful protest is'

In his remarks, Joe Biden admonished protests on campuses that use “violent” methods, including vandalism, trespassing, and forcing classes to be cancelled.

But Biden added that the right to free speech must be protected in the US.

“Violent protests are not protected. Peaceful protest is,” Biden said as scores of demonstrators were arrested overnight for participating in pro-Palestine protests on college campuses.

During comments on Thursday, Biden said: “There’s the right to protest, but not the right to cause chaos,” Biden said.

“Vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campus, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduation ... none of this is a peaceful protest,” Biden said.

Biden added: “We are not an authoritarian nation where we silence people and squash dissent … but neither are we a lawless country.”

Updated

Joe Biden expected to speak on pro-Palestine campus protests

US president Joe Biden will momentarily be giving remarks on the pro-Palestine protests occurring nationwide at colleges and universities.

Stay tuned for further updates on his remarks.

Updated

Here is the Guardian’s Jon Henley on pro-Palestine demonstrations at universities in Paris.

Pro-Palestinian students at Sciences Po in Paris have started a new sit-in – and at least one has said they would launch a hunger strike – after the university’s acting director refused demands to review its relations with Israeli universities, links through joint research programmes.

The students called off a three-day protest late last week when the university pledged to hold a town hall meeting on Thursday to allow them to air their grievances, and to reconsider its ties with Israeli academic institutions.

But acting director Jean Bassères said after the meeting he had “clearly refused to set up a working group on our relations with Israeli universities and partner companies”, prompting several dozen students to immediately resume their protest.

“A first student has started a hunger strike in solidarity with Palestinian victims, but more so to protest against the way Sciences Po is repressing students who want to show their support for Palestine,” Hicham, a pro-Palestinian Sciences Po student, told French media.

More would follow unless the elite university’s directors agreed to a public vote by its management board on reconsidering all partnerships with Israeli institutions, Hicham said.

Classes at two other universities and colleges in France, including the leading journalism school ESJ Lille, were briefly blocked on Thursday in small-scale protests, involving a few dozen students, inspired by those that have engulfed US campuses in recent weeks.

Bassères said he was aware refusing to reconsider relations with Israel could anger some protesters, but added that he was “calling on all to show a sense of responsibility” ahead of end-of-year exams due to start next week.

Updated

Student protests in support of Palestine have spread internationally.

Here’s Leyland Cecco for the Guardian, reporting on student demonstrations in Toronto, Canada.

Student demonstrators in Canada’s largest city have have set up an pro-Palestine encampment at the University of Toronto, demanding the university cut ties with the Israeli government and certain academic institutions as they push for a ceasefire in Gaza

The protest, the latest at a major Canadian university, comes after talks between the group Occupy for Palestine and university administrators failed to reach an agreement. Students breached a fence early Thursday morning. The barrier, erected by the university, was meant to deter similar protests seen on university campuses in the United States.

The university warned students that “unauthorized activities such as encampments or the occupation of University buildings are considered trespassing.”

In British Columbia, students at three post-secondary institutions have set up tent protests. “We commit to grounding ourselves in the cause of this encampment: solidarity with Gaza and the Palestinian people who are facing genocide,” organizers at the University of British Columbia said in a statement.

In Montreal, where a large encampment on the campus of McGill university has divided students and faculty, a judge recently rejected an injunction request from two students to move the camp. The students say the encampment interferes with their ability to safely attend class. The university has asked the police to dismantle the camp but also says it is the situation “advocating for a peaceful outcome.”

Here are more photos from UCLA’s cleared encampment, raided by police early on Thursday.

Updated

UCLA encampment cleared and more than 100 people detained

Multiple sources report that the UCLA student encampments have now been cleared by police and more than 100 people arrested after police raided the demonstrations in riot gear early on Thursday.

A spokesperson with the California highway patrol also said dozens of arrests were made. Officer Luis Quintero told KCAL-TV that more than 100 people were arrested as police cleared the peaceful demonstration overnight. An exact number of arrests has not been publicized.

Photos from the Daily Bruin, UCLA’s student paper, show protest signs and supplies left behind by protesters.

The signs advocated for UCLA to divest from Israel-linked companies as students protested against what a UN expert and multiple lawmakers have called a genocide in Gaza.

One sign reads: “Divest from Genocide”. Another sign says: “We love you, Gaza”.

Graffiti was also sprayed on UCLA’s Royce Hall, where students were camping out, including graffiti reading “free Palestine” and “F--- Israel”.

Updated

More protests near now-raided UCLA encampment

Other protests were occurring near the now-raided UCLA encampment.

The Daily Bruin, UCLA’s student paper, reported that a group of protesters gathered near the university’s Inverted Fountain in solidarity with students in the encampment.

Approximately 40 police officers were gathered near the Inverted Fountain in response to protesters.

Demonstrators left the area “without contact with the police”.

Updated

Here is additional footage of police raiding UCLA student encampments.

As seen in the video, police tore down the barricade where students had sent up pro-Palestinian encampment demonstrations early Thursday.

Sound cannons and rubber bullets were also fired at the crowd of student protesters.

Updated

Video shows police pushing back demonstrators linking arms

Police physically pushed back demonstrators who were linking arms on UCLA’s campus, according to video.

Footage of the intense scene show officers in riot gear shining lights in the faces of demonstrators and shouting for them to “get back”.

Screams and flash bangs are heard in the background.

Officers on scene pushed at least one protester to the ground, as seen on video.

From Cal Matters’ Sergio Olmos:

Updated

Protesters are now being detained by police officers.

Footage from KABC-TV show at least two people being led away in cuffs by officers.

The station previously reported that two buses full of detained protesters were also spotted.

As protesters were taken away, other demonstrators chanted “Shame On You” to police, ABC reported.

Updated

It is just after 5.15am in Los Angeles.

Police are in the process of clearing a pro-Palestine demonstration at UCLA’s campus.

Video footage show the chaotic scene as police in riot gear descend on student encampments, tearing down tents and using “non-lethal” weapons such as sound concussive devices to disperse demonstrators.

In one video, an officer pointed “impact munitions” at a woman point blank. The woman was crouching on the ground and attempting to shield her face.

Impact munitions such as rubber bullets and bean bags commonly used against protesters can cause severe injury, or even death.

From Cal Matters’ reporter Sergio Olmos:

Updated

Here’s a bit more detail from the AP on police action at UCLA:

As police helicopters hovered overhead, the sound of flash-bangs, which produce a bright light and a loud noise to disorient and stun people, pierced the air. Protesters chanted “where were you last night?” as the officers approached.

California Highway Patrol officers wearing face shields and protective vests stood with their batons protruding out to separate them from demonstrators, who wore helmets and gas masks and chanted, “you want peace. We want justice.”

Police methodically ripped apart the encampment’s barricade of plywood, pallets, metal fences and trash dumpsters and made an opening toward dozens of tents of demonstrators. Police also began to pull down canopies and tents. Demonstrators held umbrellas like shields as they faced off with dozens of officers.

As police moved in to dismantle a protest encampment at UCLA and more people were arrested in New York at campus protests, we’d like to hear from students across the US – from those who are participating as well as those who are not.

How do you feel about what is happening on your campus? What has your experience of it been?

Five demonstrators can be seen with their wrists bound by zip ties after being detained at the UCLA campus early on Thursday morning.

CNN is showing footage of police removing tents at the UCLA encampment. Officers are seen moving further into the camp, pulling away and dismantling tents.

Sergio Almos, a Cal Matters investigative reporter who is at UCLA, has posted footage on X he says shows police fire an impact munition:

Another clip shows an officer ordering protesters to move back before what appear to be more impact munitions are fired:

According to the latest update from Reuters, live TV footage showed about six protesters at UCLA under arrest, kneeling on the ground, their hands bound behind their backs with zip-ties.

Dozens of loud explosions were heard during the clash from flashbang charges, or stun grenades, fired by police.

According to Reuters, demonstrators, some carrying makeshift shields and umbrellas, sought to block the officers’ advance by their sheer numbers, while shouting, “push them back” and flashing bright lights in the eyes of the police.

Others on the opposite side of the camp gave up quickly, and were seen walking away with their hands over their heads under police escort, adds Reuters.

Updated

A protester has told the BBC that police have started “detaining people around the edges and at the entrance of the encampment”.

Ben Kersten, from Jewish Voice for Peace at UCLA, spoke to the BBC from the protest and told the broadcaster that police had been setting off flashbangs.

The Guardian has been unable to independently verify the report.

Here are some of the latest images that have come in on the newswires:

The Associated Press has more on the latest at UCLA:

Police removed barricades and began dismantling a pro-Palestinian demonstrators’ fortified encampment early Thursday at the UCLA campus after hundreds of protesters defied police orders to leave, about 24 hours after counter-protesters attacked a tent encampment on the campus.

The law enforcement effort comes after officers spent hours threatening arrests over loud speakers if people did not disperse. Hundreds of people had gathered on campus, both inside a barricaded tent encampment and outside it in support.

The sound of flash bangs could be heard as police moved in.

Police methodically ripped apart the encampment’s barricade of plywood, pallets, metal fences and trash dumpsters and made an opening toward dozens of tents of demonstrators. Police also began to pull down canopies and tents.

Demonstrators were holding umbrellas like shields as they faced off with dozens of officers. Some of the protesters warned their fellow demonstrators to be ready with water in case police release teargas or other irritant.

California police move in to dismantle pro-Palestinian protest camp at UCLA

Hundreds of helmeted police made their way into a central plaza of the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) early on Thursday in a move to disperse a pro-Palestinian protest camp attacked the previous night by pro-Israel supporters, reports Reuters.

The pre-dawn police crackdown at UCLA marked the latest flashpoint for mounting tensions on US college campuses, where protests over Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza have led to student clashes with each other and law enforcement.

According to Reuters, live footage from the scene showed that starting around sunset on Wednesday, officers in tactical gear began filing on to the UCLA campus adjacent to a complex of tents occupied by throngs of demonstrators.

Local television station KABC-TV estimated 300 to 500 were hunkered down inside the camp, while about 2,000 more had gathered outside the barricades in support.

But the assembled police stood by on the periphery of the tents for hours before finally starting to force their way into the encampment at about 3.15 am PDT (10.15am GMT) to arrest occupants who refused to leave. The raid was led by a phalanx of California Highway Patrol officers carrying shields and batons, reports Reuters.

According to the news agency, demonstrators, some carrying makeshift shields and umbrellas, sought to block the officers’ advance by their sheer numbers, while shouting, “push them back” and flashing bright lights in the eyes of the police.

The New York Times reported that police were “tearing through barricades on one side of the encampment outside Royce Hall at UCLA”. Jonathan Wolfe, reporting from UCLA wrote at approx 3.22am PDT: “Officers are pulling apart plywood and other materials that protesters had used to build a wall around them. The other side of the encampment appears to be holding for now.”

Some protesters had been seen donning hard hats, goggles and respirator masks in anticipation of the siege a day after the university declared the encampment unlawful.

Reuters reports that hundreds of other pro-Palestinian activists who assembled outside the tent city jeered police with shouts of “shame on you”, some banging on drums and waving Palestinian flags, as officers marched on to the campus grounds. Many wore the traditional Palestinian scarves called keffiyehs.

A much smaller group of demonstrators waving Israeli flags urged on the police to shut down the encampment, yelling, “Hey hey, ho-ho, the occupation has got to go”.

Prior to moving in, police urged demonstrators in repeated loudspeaker announcements to clear the protest zone, occupying a plaza about the size of a football field between the landmark twin-tower auditorium Royce Hall and the main undergraduate library.

Updated

“More than six hours after police at the University of California, Los Angeles, first issued an order for protesters to leave the encampment or face arrest, the police are moving in,” writes Jonathan Wolfe, reporting from the UCLA for the New York Times.

According to an update from Wolfe that was posted about 20 minutes ago: “Police officers tried again to enter the staircase leading into the UCLA encampment, but protesters blocked them with wooden pallets and homemade shields. Hundreds of protesters surrounded the officers for several minutes before some officers appeared to pull back. Protesters chanted: ‘Cops go home!’”

Earlier, Wolfe had reported that police officers had entered the encampment using a “staircase that protesters had been using to enter and exit”. According to Wolfe, a “loud bang” was heard as officers entered and they then “set up a line”. He described protesters surrounding the officers and filming them. Wolfe reports that the protesters then linked arms and chanted: “Free, free, Palestine.”

Updated

Police reinforcements arrive at UCLA, reports the BBC

The BBC reports that at least three buses carrying police reinforcements appeared to have arrived at UCLA.

“We’ve just seen several dozen police officers get out of coaches near to the pro-Palestinian encampment,” writes the BBC.

“A hundred or so officers appear to be moving into the encampment, ripping the makeshift defences from protesters’ hands and attempting to force their way through the crowd,” it reports.

The Guardian has not been able to independently verify the reports.

Updated

Here are some of the latest images coming in from UCLA on the newswires:

Jon Henley is the Guardian’s Europe correspondent, based in Paris.

With the exception of France, where students at the prestigious Sorbonne and Sciences Po universities have staged high-profile sit-ins and demonstrations, the pro-Palestinian protests on US college campuses have so far found scant echo in Europe.

French riot police this week removed dozens of students from the Sorbonne university after about 50 protesters pitched tents in its main courtyard, unveiled a large Palestinian flag and chanted slogans in support of Palestinians in Gaza.

Last week, three days of protests rocked the Paris Institute of Political Studies, better known as Sciences Po, an elite institution that numbers multiple presidents – including Emmanuel Macron – and prime ministers among its alumni.

About 200 pro-Palestinian students, backed by a number of radical left-wing MPs, tried to occupy an amphitheatre and on Friday, pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli demonstrators faced each other in a standoff before being separated by riot police.

The protest ended peacefully after the protesters agreed to evacuate the building and stop disrupting classes and exams, while Sciences Po promised to drop proceedings against them and examine grievances including links with Israeli universities.

However, a town hall meeting with university authorities later on Thursday could give rise to further protest action if students feel their demands have not been met, students have warned.

In Italy, dozens of students and nearly 30 police officers were injured last month in a crackdown on a pro-Palestinian protest outside Rome’s La Sapienza university, with images of police using truncheons against students sparking a political row.

The university expressed sorrow over the Gaza conflict but rejected student demands for a boycott of scientific research and other accords with Israel. Student marches were also blocked by police in the Tuscan cities of Florence and Pisa in February.

In Spain, about 50 students at the University of Valencia have been staging a sit-in since the beginning of this week in protest at the institution’s links to Israeli universities.

One student told the online newspaper ElDiario.es: “We’re calling for an end to all the links that this university and others have with the different Israeli institutions and businesses that in different ways support the Zionist, apartheid regime.”

In other EU countries, including Germany, students have opted to stage their protests off-campus, taking part in larger pro-Palestinian marches and demonstrations but leaving universities mostly undisturbed.

In Greece, a group of students briefly demonstrated in front of the Israeli embassy in Athens, holding a banner reading: “Solidarity with the university students in the US. No to the genocide in Gaza. Free Palestine – Student Unions of Athens.”

The Associated Press writes the following in its latest update on the newswires:

Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters on Thursday remained behind barricades on the UCLA campus despite police orders to leave as officers were poised to move in on their fortified encampment that was ringed by an even larger crowd, including supporters who locked arms and curious onlookers.

Shortly before 2am (PT) police briefly made their way into the perimeter of the encampment only to retreat after being outnumbered by scores of protesters who yelled “shame on you”. Some in the crowd tossed water bottles and other objects as dozens of officers ran back and later the crowd chanted “we’re not leaving. You don’t scare us.”

Elsewhere, police in New Hampshire said they made 90 arrests and took down tents at Dartmouth College and officers in Oregon came on to the campus at Portland State University as school officials sought to end the occupation of the library that started on Monday.

Sergio Almos has shared a video of protesters cheering as police retreat out of the encampment at UCLA.

Almos, an investigative reporter at CalMatters, also reports that police repeated a dispersal order and declared the assembly as “unlawful”.

According to Almos, a police message warned protesters that “they face arrest and are subject to less lethal munitions for staying in the area”. He shared this update at 2am (PT).

Updated

The Guardian community team would like to hear from students on US campuses that have seen protests. If you are 18 or over and would like to share your experience, then you can fill in this form. Responses can be done anonymously if you wish.

The team would also like to hear from students at universities in the UK and other countries in Europe that have seen protests. You can share your stories here:

For more information please see our terms of service and privacy policy.

Bill Melugin, a national correspondent for Fox News, is at the UCLA campus and reports that a “flashbang just went off” there. He posted the update on X about 20 minutes ago. “Police breach appears to be beginning,” he says.

The Guardian has not been able to independently verify this report.

UCLA Gaza protesters in tense standoff with police – video

Hundreds of law enforcement officers massed on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles after darkness fell in preparation to clear out a pro-Palestinian protest camp attacked the night before by pro-Israel supporters.

Protesters at UCLA have been told to disperse or face arrest. Throughout the evening, hundreds rallied to the campus in support of the protesters. Below is some video footage of UCLA Gaza protesters in a tense standoff with police:

Nine photojournalists from across the US have shared the stories behind their most powerful shots, as pro-Palestinian protesters face police crackdowns. You can view the images and read the stories here:

Here are some images on the newswires from the University of Melbourne:

Updated

Tensions have escalated at the University of Melbourne’s pro-Palestine encampment after the arrival of dozens of Israeli supporters, reports the Australian Associated Press (AAP).

According to the AAP, protesters from both sides spent more than an hour chanting words of opposition near the camp’s entrance on the campus’ south lawn on Thursday afternoon.

Holly Hales, a reporter with the AAP, writes the following:

The groups were separated by a metre-wide moat and were joined by about 100 members of Victoria Police.

More than 50 people brandishing Israel flags and singing songs in Hebrew arrived about 2pm as dozens of students within the encampment came to its picket line.

One woman yelled “get Hamas out of our universities” while pro-Palestine activists shouted “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”.

Another woman attempted to grab the microphone of controversial media figure Avi Yemini before she was tossed to the ground next to the moat.

This triggered jeers and screams from both sides before the Israel supports were moved on by police at 3pm.

Earlier, several hundred pro-Israel supporters gathered at the campus’ University Square, led by Jewish students who said they felt unsafe on campus, reported the AAP.

Australasian Union of Jewish Students president Noah Loven said his group stood in opposition to the encampment, which has attracted more than 200 participants.

“We don’t want to lean into what they want. So we’re here to stand proud as your students and to stand together for peace,” he said.

“In response to the troubling trend that has taken root in our academic institutions across Australia … Jewish students, my peers, have increasingly become targets of fear intimidation, and harassment.”

One of the encampment organisers, Cooper Forsyth, told AAP that the protest was peaceful but they planned to stay until the university changed its relationship with Israel and weapons manufacturers.

“We’ve successfully and peacefully resisted the attempts to antagonise our encampment by other students at the uni,” he told reporters.

“From the beginning of this movement and this camp, we have been absolutely clear that we reject all forms of hate and discrimination against people on the basis of their religion.

“We have been absolutely clear to reject any form of antisemitism in our camp or in our movement.”

According to the AAP report, pro-Israel supporters have planned a similar counter protest at the University of Sydney on Friday after students also created an encampment on its campus.

Sergio Olmos, an investigative reporter at CalMatters, has shared a video on X showing protesters at UCLA wearing hard helmet, goggles, and respirators.

Updated

If you’re just joining us and are wondering how these campus protests began and where they have spread to, my colleagues Jonathan Yerushalmy and Helen Livingstone have provided this handy explainer:

Demonstrators have set-up encampments on about 30 campuses across the US and are demanding that academic institutions stop doing business with Israel or companies that are connected to the Israeli military’s war in Gaza.

The exact number of arrests remains unclear but is believed to have exceeded 1,300 since the start of the latest bout of protests two weeks ago, with more students being detained on Wednesday evening.

According to an Associated Press tally, there have been at least 38 times since 18 April when arrests were made at campus protests across the US.

More than 1,600 people have been arrested at 30 schools, AP reported.

Summary

It’s 11pm in Los Angeles where protesters at UCLA are in a tense standoff with police. Here’s how things stand:

  • Law enforcement officers have massed by the hundreds on the campus of the University of California, in preparation to clear out a pro-Palestinian protest camp. Protesters at UCLA have been told to disperse or face arrest. Throughout the evening, hundreds have rallied to the campus in support of the protesters.

  • The order to disperse at UCLA came less than 24 hours after violent clashes between the encampment’s occupants and a group of masked counter-demonstrators who mounted an assault on the tent city with sticks and poles.

  • University police have come under criticism for the speed of their response to the violence at UCLA on Tuesday night, with a spokesperson for California governor Gavin Newsom saying outside law enforcement was sent to the campus after “unacceptable” delays in the university’s police force response to the clashes.

  • US authorities have expanded their efforts to shut down campus protests across the country, after demonstrations at Columbia University and City College of New York were broken up on Tuesday evening. Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, confirmed that 280 people on the two New York campuses were arrested on Tuesday.

  • At Tulane University, New Orleans officers with guns drawn cleared an encampment local media reported. At least 14 protesters were arrested.

  • Police at the University of Arizona in Tucson fired “non-lethal” chemical weapons at protesters as arrests were made, the Arizona Daily Star reported, adding that at least one protester was hit with a rubber bullet.

  • At the University of Wisconsin, Madison, police tore down tents after a fierce standoff and detained a number of protesters, mostly students.

  • The University of Texas in Dallas confirmed that 17 protesters were arrested on its campus, with the police operation involving dozens of state troopers in riot gear.

  • New York police broke up an encampment at Fordham University. Officers detained pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrating inside one of the university’s buildings, putting demonstrators hands into zip ties behind their backs.

  • The protest movement that emerged from US campuses has continued to spread around the world. In the UK, protests took place in at least six universities with others expected to follow suit. Students at four Australian universities have said they are committed to permanently occupying university land until their demands for divestment are met.

Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested across US campuses on Wednesday, ratcheting up tensions amid the weeks-long protest movement over the Israel-Gaza war that has put student demonstrators at odds with university leadership.

The exact number of arrests remains unclear but is believed to have exceeded 1,300 since the start of the latest bout of protests two weeks ago, with more students being detained on Wednesday evening.

Here’s a summary of the campuses where arrests have taken place over the past 24 hours:

Tensions continue to grow at the University of California where hundreds of police in riot gear have gathered after warning pro-Palestinian protesters to disperse or face arrest, a day after their encampment was violently attacked by masked counter-protesters.

Police began forming lines near the encampment at the Los Angeles campus and ordered the dispersal of more than a thousand people who had gathered in support of the protesters on Wednesday night, warning over loudspeakers that anyone who refused to leave could face arrest.

In California, a large crowd of students, alumni and neighbors gathered on campus steps outside the barricaded area of tents, sitting as they listened and applauded various speakers and joined in pro-Palestinian chants.

The protest movement that emerged from US university campuses has spread around the world in recent days.

In the UK, a fresh wave of student demonstrations is under way at universities in protest over the war in Gaza.

Protests reportedly took place in at least six universities on Wednesday, including Sheffield, Manchester, Bristol, Leeds and Newcastle, with others expected to follow suit, in a show of solidarity with Palestinians.

Like the American demonstrations, students in the UK are also calling for their individual universities to divest from firms that supply arms to Israel and in some cases sever links with universities in Israel.

Students at four Australian universities have said they are committed to permanently occupying university land until their demands for divestment are met.

University of Sydney students set up a camp more than a week ago and a rally last Wednesday drew about 200 people.

The movement has since spread in Australia: the University of Melbourne joined on a week ago, while camps were established on Monday at the University of Queensland and the Australian National University in Canberra.

The students in Australia want disclosure of and divestment from all university activities that support Israel, as well as a ceasefire and the end of government ties to the Jewish state.

California Highway Patrol officers are on the scene at UCLA, along with LA police officers, according to a Fox News reporter who is present on the campus.

Bill Melugin says that the highway patrol officers are “yards away” from the protest camp and are armed with “non lethal weapons”.

UCLA’s student paper is reporting that the around 20 highway patrol officers are present, in what they say is the closest law enforcement has come to the encampment tonight.

Just over 24 hours after police cleared out student protesters who had been occupying an academic building at Columbia University, some demonstrators are reported to have returned.

On Wednesday evening, Columbia Students for Justice posted images online of messages projected onto Hamilton Hall – the Columbia building that was raided by police on Tuesday evening.

The slogans “Escalate for Gaza”, and “Students of the world unite” were projected onto the side of the building as a crowd gathered on to watch.

Huge crowds of protesters remain at UCLA, cordoned off from the main encampment.

Emily Holshouser, a reporter at the scene, says it “feels like a standoff”.

Everyone is tense and tired. It’s unclear when or if anything will change.”

Over 1,000 protesters present on campus at UCLA

The Associated Press is reporting that over 1,000 protesters are present on campus.

A small city has sprung up inside the barricaded encampment at UCLA, full of hundreds of people and tents on the campus quad.

According to AP, some protesters prayed as the sun set over the campus, while others chanted “we’re not leaving” or passed out goggles and surgical masks.

Demonstrators are wearing helmets and headscarves, and are discussing the best ways to handle pepper spray or tear gas, as police continue to tell them to disperse.

A few protesters have constructed homemade shields out of plywood in case of clashes with police.

Inside the UCLA’s Royce Hall, protesters at the encampment set up by pro-Palestinian students and activists are continuing to chant.

Outside, law enforcement officers continue to gather. Both protesters and onlookers are reporting that they expect police to enter the encampment soon.

Hundreds of police in riot gear are gathered on UCLA campus

If you’re just joining us, here’s a reminder of how things stand at UCLA, just after 9pm local time.

Hundreds of law enforcement officers are massed on the campus in preparation to clear out a pro-Palestinian protest camp. Police in tactical gear filed in from later afternoon on Wednesday, filling a square adjacent to the complex of tents occupied by throngs of demonstrators.

Hundreds of other pro-Palestinian activists have assembled outside the tent city and are jerring police with chants of “Shame on you,” some banging on drums and waving Palestinian flags.

Before moving in, police with a loudspeaker urged the demonstrators to clear the protest area or face arrest.

UCLA had canceled classes for the day following a violent clash late Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning between the encampment’s occupants and a group of masked counter-demonstrators who mounted an assault on the tent city with sticks and poles.

Hundreds have gathered outside the protest encampment in support of demonstrators, Constanza Montemayor, a journalist with UCLA’s student paper has reported.

Police have used barriers to separate the crowd from the tent camp and have deployed as many as 100 officers between them as well.

Police continue to gather on Dickson Plaza in UCLA. The plaza is the site of the main protest camp and was also the location in which violent clashes erupted less than 24 hours ago.

Local media are reporting that hundreds of police are present on the campus, with at least 100 having taken up position in front of the protest camp at UCLA.

Protesters continue to chant from within the encampment, despite the gathering police presence.

Police have now cordoned off sections of the UCLA campus, creating a buffer between the Pro-Palestinian encampment and the large group of students and alumni who have gathered in support of protesters.

Police – some in riot gear – are lined up between the two groups.

According to a Fox News reporter on the scene, tensions are building. The crowd is reportedly chanting “shame on you” and “LAPD KKK”.

US police expand efforts to dismantle student protests across the country

As protesters at UCLA are told to disperse and police move further on to the campus, a quick reminder of the speed in which authorities have moved in to shut down protests across the country in the last 24 hours.

On Wednesday alone, police launched operations to dismantle protests in New York, Texas, Wisconsin, Louisiana and Arizona.

That comes after the large operations at Columbia University and City College of New York on Tuesday evening.

An Associated Press tally counted at least 38 times since 18 April in which arrests were made at campus protests.

According to AP, more than 1,600 people have been arrested at 30 schools.

As well as at UCLA, authorities at Portland State University are also reportedly warning student demonstrators to leave immediately.

Crowds of students, alumni and neighbors continue to gather at UCLA, outside the barricaded area of tents. AP is reporting that they sat and applauded at various speakers and joined in pro-Palestinian chants.

Ray Wiliani, who lives nearby, told AP he came to UCLA on Wednesday evening to support the pro-Palestinian demonstrators.

“We need to take a stand for it,” he said. “Enough is enough.”

A small group of students holding signs and wearing T-shirts in support of Israel and Jewish people gathered nearby the protest camp.

It’s almost 8.30pm in LA and police in riot gear are reportedly forming lines and moving in closer to the protest encampment at UCLA.

Matthew Lewis Royer, a journalists with UCLA’s student newspaper, posted the below image of the situation on campus now.

A large number of police in riot gear are now arriving at the UCLA campus, according to Fox News reporter Bill Melugin who is at the scene.

He posted a video of students watching as police made their way onto campus.

Despite the warning to disperse or face arrest, protests at UCLA only appear to have grown throughout the afternoon.

Protesters largely stayed in place, according to an AP reporter, chanting pro-Palestinian slogans. Police stood by strapping on riot gear.

UCLA posted on X that campus operations will be limited Thursday and Friday with all classes required to pivot to remote instruction. The post urged people to continue avoiding campus and the Royce Quad area.

As Los Angeles County Sheriff’s marshalled near the protest encampments, some people prayed in front of where they gathered.

UCLA protesters told to disperse or face arrest

Announcements broadcast at protesters on the UCLA campus told demonstrators to disperse or they would be arrested and face a misdemeanor charge. The protesters largely stayed in place, chanting pro-Palestinian slogans.

Hundreds of supporters of the pro-Palestinian protesters, including students and alumni, have remained on campus steps beyond the encampment as the law enforcement presence has grown.

The order to disperse comes less than 24 hours after a masked group surrounded the pro-Palestinian encampment, throwing fireworks and violently attacking students.

UCLA Chancellor Gene Block said in a statement that “a group of instigators” perpetrated the attack, but he did not provide details about the crowd or why the administration and school police did not act sooner.

According to the Associated Press, metal and wooden barriers had been restored around the tent encampment after the scuffle overnight, while overhead TV cameras showed people within the enclosure distributing goggles, helmets and other gear as well as medical assistance tents that had been set up later in the day.

University police reportedly tell UCLA protesters to disperse

Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin is at the protest at UCLA and is reporting that university police have announced that the encampment is unlawful and everyone must leave the area.

The police have reportedly said that those who don’t will be subject to arrest.

In the last few hours, many more people have arrived at the UCLA protests to support demonstrators there.

At the same Wisconsin campaign rally, Donald Trump accused Joe Biden of failing to speak up on the campus protests.

There’s a big fever in our country, and he’s not talking.”

The US president has so far avoided speaking out on the protests, so far only publicly addressing the demonstrations once.

“I condemn the anti-Semitic protests. That’s why I have set up a program to deal with that,” Biden said last week in response to a journalist’s question. “I also condemn those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians.”

White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre on Wednesday condemned “a small percentage of students” who have been disruptive after a night of clashes and arrests on several campuses.

Students have the right to feel safe. They have the right to learn ... to do this without disruption. And they have a right to feel safe on campus. We are going to be really forceful here and continue to underscore how anti-Semitism is hateful speech.”

She also acknowledged the war in Gaza was “painful” and assured that Biden supported the right to peaceful protest.

Donald Trump praises police response to New York campus protests and condemns demonstrators

Donald Trump has described the sight of New York police officers raiding a Columbia University building occupied by pro-Palestinian students as “a beautiful thing to watch”.

“New York was under siege last night,” Trump told supporters at a campaign rally in Wisconsin, praising the police officers for arresting about 300 protesters at Columbia and City College of New York who he referred to as “raging lunatics and Hamas sympathisers.”

I say remove the encampments immediately, vanquish the radicals and take back our campuses for all of the normal students who want a safe place from which to learn.”

Police reportedly poised to dismantle UCLA protests

Less than 24 hours after the violent scenes at UCLA, local media are reporting that police are preparing to break-up the protest encampment on the campus.

The LA Times reports that a large number of police – including some in riot gear – are marshalling close to student tents.

Protesters are reportedly linking arms to prevent police from reaching their encampment.

Less than 24 hours after the violence at UCLA, hundreds of people have joined the protest encampment their, in support of the pro-Palestinian demonstrators.

Local media have reported that supporters have been bringing supplies to the camp throughout the day.

Earlier on Wednesday, protesters clashed with police officers who destroyed their tents at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

A scrum broke out after police with shields removed all but one tent and shoved protesters. Four officers were injured, including a state trooper who was hit in the head with a skateboard, authorities said.

More tents sprang up within hours. More than 30 people were initially detained, but police said only four were charged with battering law enforcement.

New York’s pro-Palestine movement reassembled across four different locations on Wednesday evening, creating a headache for police who had only 24 hours earlier broken up sit-in at two of its largest private and public colleges.

At a joint Columbia and City universities gathering at the CUNY campus in Harlem, several hundred protesters gathered to decry what they called the NYPD’s violent interventions.

“Last night we were assaulted without warning multiple times by multiple waves of cops in riot gear, 13 hours before an administration deadline to clear the encampment,” said Maia, a student at CUNY.

It was terrifying and completely disproportionate, and a shocking display of force.”

Cameron Jones, lead organiser of the Columbia/Barnard branch of Jewish Voice for Peace, told the crowd that the NYPD action had not dulled the movement’s determination.

He said the “systematic disregard for Palestinian lives” in Gaza had warranted students’ peaceful occupation of the campus, but university administrators and police had turned that too, “into a war zone.”

Another speaker, who offered her name as Fatima, told the protestors that the goal remained “the complete divestment” of Columbia’s endowment fund from any business organisation benefitting from Israel’s war in Gaza.

We’re here to remind students all over the globe that we are stronger than they are.”

UCLA police say campus leadership "owns the results of their decisions"

The Federated University Police Officers’ Association (FUPOA), which represents officers within the University of California Police Department System, has issued a statement on the violence at UCLA, saying “campus leadership, not law enforcement, owns the results of their decisions.”

University police have come under criticism for the speed of their response to the violence at UCLA overnight.

A spokesperson for California governor Gavin Newsom said outside law enforcement was sent to the campus after “unacceptable” delays in the university’s police force response to the clashes.

In it’s statement, FUPOA said its officers are obligated to follow the direction of the leadership of the various campuses and said they welcomed an upcoming probe into the “university’s planning, its actions and the response by law enforcement.”

It’s paramount to recognize that when protests erupt on campus, the decisions regarding the response of the UC Police rest firmly in the hands of campus leadership. They shoulder the accountability for the outcomes stemming from these decisions, not the UC Police Department. It underscores the crucial distinction between operational execution and strategic direction.

Police arrest 17 on University of Texas in Dallas campus

The University of Texas in Dallas has confirmed that 17 protesters were arrested on its campus, after police moved in at the request of university officials.

According to local media, the police operation involved dozens of state troopers in riot gear.

The entire encampment was dismantled within about 20 minutes and additional law enforcement remained on the campus until about 6pm.

Around 100 protesters are reportedly continuing demonstrations on another part of the campus.

Fordham University requested police assistance

NYPD Deputy Commissioner, Kaz Daughtry, has confirmed that Fordham University was among a number of educational institutions which requested police assistance on campus to disperse protests.

He said that individuals who refused to disperse has been arrested without incident.

Your @NYPDnews officers continue to protect the right to peacefully protest, but lawlessness will not be tolerated. I commend the professionalism consistently displayed by our officers.

In its letter to New York Police, Fordham University said it made the request with the “utmost regret”.

In light of the activities that are currently happening, we further request that you retain a presence on campus through at least May 22, 2024 (when commencement and diploma ceremonies are completed) to maintain order and ensure encampments are not reestablished.”

Arrests at New York's Fordham Univeristy

New York police broke up an encampment at Fordham University a short while ago.

According to the New York Times, protesters who were arrested did not appear to resist, but stood facing a large crowd gathered outside the Manhattan campus as officers in riot gear put their hands into zip ties behind their backs.

Police detained pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrating inside one of the university’s buildings.

‘It was terrifying’: UCLA students describe violent attack on Gaza protest encampment

When Meghna Nair, a second-year student at the University of California, Los Angeles, saw a masked group of people headed toward the pro-Palestine encampment on campus late Tuesday evening, she expected trouble.

But the violence that unfolded on the public university’s campus overnight and the slow response from authorities shocked Nair and other UCLA students.

I knew where they were going. I had an idea what they planned to do. I didn’t know what to do.”

Late Tuesday night, a masked group surrounded the encampment in solidarity with Gaza, throwing fireworks and violently attacking students.

Noah, a law student who preferred to use only his first name, said he was horrified by the violence, which he described as akin to a battle.

This is like sacred ground to me. It reminded me of January 6. It was terrifying.”

Daniel Harris, a fourth-year student, said he stopped to observe the demonstrations on Tuesday evening, after the university chancellor said the encampment was “unlawful”, and could see tensions rising anew. Counter-protesters used speakers to play recordings of a crying child at a loud volume. A masked man attempted to hop the fence surrounding the encampment but was forced out by security.

Shortly after Harris witnessed a large group of people wearing black, with white masks that he said were like something from The Purge marching toward the encampment.

I was on the phone with my girlfriend, and I was like, what the fuck is happening right now? What the actual fuck? I’ve never seen this in real life. This is stuff that only happens in movies.”

University of Texas in Dallas reportedly requested assistance from police

Local media is reporting that law enforcement in helmets and carrying batons arrived at the University of Texas in Dallas (UTD) and began taking down parts of a student encampment there after a request for assistance from university officials.

It came after UTD officials approached the encampment in the afternoon on Wednesday, with a written order for students to leave.

“Failure to comply with this instruction may result in removal for criminal trespass or other violations of state law and/or sanctions under the student code of conduct as appropriate,” the letter read, according to student protesters.

Local media in are reporting that many state troopers have now left the campus at the University of Texas, Dallas. Seventeen people have reportedly been arrested after the university gave notice to protesters to remove their encampment.

The protesters are understood to have now moved to another part of the campus to continue their demonstrations.

A reminder, this latest round of disorder on US campuses began less than 24 hours ago when police arrested almost 300 pro-Palestine protesters at the City College of New York and Columbia University.

Both universities requested police intervene after students set up encampments and barricaded themselves inside university buildings.

There was a large police presence at the New York campuses before they entered and broke up the encampments.

Cuny students with the university’s Gaza Solidarity Encampment group have criticised New York police officers for what they called the “brutal and spineless” arrests of protesters.

The Guardian has put together this video summary of the events of Tuesday night in New York.

This is Jonathan Yerushalmy, picking up our live coverage from Lois Beckett

Police are everywhere on UCLA’s campus today. But where were they last night?

In the aftermath of a violent attack last night on a pro-Palestinian encampment at UCLA, there are large numbers of police across the Los Angeles campus.

But students, faculty, and university and state officials still have lots of questions about where law enforcement agencies were last night, and why students were violently attacked for at least four hours while campus police and city police did not respond.

The University of California has promised an independent investigation into what happened on campus. Students at the pro-Palestine encampment that was attacked have described fearing for their lives while both campus security and police stood by and failed to intervene as young men and women where physically assaulted and sprayed with pepper spray, bear mace, and other chemical agents.

If you’re just joining us now, here’s a summary of what else has happened in campus protests across the US today:

  • Michael Drake, the president of the University of California system, has ordered an independent review of the UCLA administration’s planning, after a late-night attack on a pro-Palestinian student encampment resulted in at least 15 people being injured.

  • Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, confirmed that 280 people on the Columbia University and Cuny campuses had been arrested on Tuesday. Bragg has not confirmed reports from city and police officials that “outside agitators” had infiltrated student-led protests.

  • Cuny students with the university’s Gaza Solidarity encampment criticized New York police officers for their “brutal and spineless” arrests of protesters. “We will not be intimidated by these brutal and spineless tactics … We will not stop until these demands are met,” read a statement from students posted on social media.

  • California governor Gavin Newsom condemned the violence at UCLA. Posting on X, he criticized the “limited and delayed” law enforcement response on Tuesday night, describing it as “unacceptable”.

  • UCLA cancelled all classes on Wednesday after counter-demonstrators attacked pro-Palestine protesters overnight. “Due to the distress caused by the violence that took place on Royce Quad late last night and early this morning, all classes are cancelled today,” read a statement from the university.

  • Minouche Shafik, the Columbia University president, sent an email following the use of New York police to lead mass arrests at Tuesday’s protests on campus. In the email sent Wednesday, Shafik said that NYPD had been used because “students and outside activists [were] breaking Hamilton Hall doors, mistreating our Public Safety officers and maintenance staff, and damaging property ... ”.

  • New York police said the wife of a man convicted of terrorism was not at protests on Columbia’s campus on Tuesday, walking back claims from city and police officials. NYPD deputy commissioner Rebecca Weiner said the woman, who has yet to be publicly identified, was not a part of any protests last night and that police “have no evidence of any criminal wrongdoing on her part”, the New York Daily News reported.

  • At least one high school started their own encampment in solidarity with university students at Columbia and beyond, according to a flyer from students at Iowa City’s City high.

  • Police tore down encampments at the University of Wisconsin, Madison early on Wednesday, in yet another crackdown on a peaceful student protest. Several protesters, mostly students, were detained by police.

  • Law enforcement in New York and Texas also made arrests and shut down pro-Palestine encampments at Fordham University in Manhattan and the University of Texas at Dallas.

Updated

Emotional testimony from young people attacked last night at UCLA

The head of UCLA’s Muslim Student Association and members of the campus’s pro-Palestine encampment are holding a press conference right now, giving emotional descriptions of the violent assaults they faced last night, from being hit in the head and requiring stitches, to being bear-sprayed in the face. The university’s chancellor has publicly condemned “a group of instigators” for coming onto campus to deliberately attack a student encampment advocating for Palestinian rights.

The young people attacked described the counter-protesters attacking them as “pro-Israel protesters” or “Zionist supporters”. Some of them are displaying the injuries they received.

“I saw women as young as 18 or 19 being punched in the face by 25- or 30-year-old men,” Aiden Doyle said.

“It was a war zone on our campus,” another student said. “We were attacked by the Zionists.”

“My son who goes here was pepper-sprayed last night, not by the police, not by the school security forces, but by thugs,” a UCLA parent said.

Yusef, who declined to give his last name, described fearing for his life and texting his family group chat during what he described “the scariest moment of my life”.

He said he ended up going to the hospital for treatment for two serious head injuries that left his head covered in blood, but said that he felt comparatively lucky.

“I had the ability to go to a hospital last night. Currently in Gaza, there is zero fully functioning hospitals,” Yusef said. “My cousins who have passed away from this brutal genocide did not have the luxury to go to a hospital after the attack.”

Multiple speakers pushed back against media coverage that framed the violence last night as a fight between two groups of protesters.

“There was no brawl. There was only was group that was abused. There was not a fight … there was only one group that was attacking,” one speaker said, to applause and cheers from the crowd. “I was here till the break of day and I went back and saw the headlines. I was shocked and I felt that if this is how the media is going to treat us, what is going to happen as we move forward?”

Updated

Officers make arrests at pro-Palestinian protests in Dallas and New York

At least 19 people were arrested as a pro-Palestinian protest encampment was cleared this afternoon at the University of Texas at Dallas, according to a local news channel, which said it was unclear whether all those arrested were students.

State troopers moved in on a peaceful protest encampment, the Associated Press and the BBC report.

“The effect of the state troopers has utterly changed the mood. There’s a lot of anger now, and chants of ‘shame on you’, ‘where were you in Uvalde’ and ‘why are you in riot gear’ are now echoing in Dallas,” BBC reporter Tom Bateman writes.

The arrests in Texas came as the New York police department arrested a number of people as they moved to disperse a protest at Fordham University’s Lincoln Center campus in New York on Wednesday.

NYPD deputy commissioner Kaz Daughtry wrote on X: “We have placed the individuals who refused to disperse from the unlawful encampment inside a @FordhamNYC building under arrest.”

NYPD department chief Jeffrey Maddrey told Fox 5 that the police department “has cleared an encampment on Fordham University’s Lincoln Center campus”.

Updated

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