Protesters in custody after Columbia University calls in police to end pro-Palestinian occupation
NEW YORK (AP) — Hundreds of police officers swept into Columbia University on Tuesday night to end a pro-Palestinian occupation of an administration building and sweep away a protest encampment, acting after the school’s president said there was no other way to ensure safety and restore order on campus.
The scene unfolded shortly after 9 p.m. as police, wearing helmets and carrying zip ties and riot shields, massed at the Ivy League university’s entrance. Scores of officers climbed through a window to enter the occupied building, streaming in over a ramp raised from the top of a police vehicle to get inside. Multiple protesters were taken into custody and taken away from campus on buses.
The confrontation occurred more than 12 hours after the demonstrators took over Hamilton Hall shortly after midnight Tuesday, spreading their reach from an encampment elsewhere on the grounds that’s been there for nearly two weeks to protest the Israel-Hamas war. The police action happened on the 56th anniversary of a similar police action to quash an occupation of Hamilton Hall by students protesting racism and the Vietnam War.
The university, in a statement issued after the police entered the campus, described its decision to seek NYPD aid as a last resort. The police department had previously said officers wouldn't enter the grounds without the college administration’s request or an imminent emergency. Now, law enforcement will be there through May 17, the end of the university's commencement events.
“After the University learned overnight that Hamilton Hall had been occupied, vandalized, and blockaded, we were left with no choice,” the school's statement said, adding that school public safety personnel were forced out of the building and one facilities worker was “threatened.”
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Netanyahu vows to invade Rafah 'with or without a deal' as cease-fire talks with Hamas continue
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged Tuesday to launch an incursion into the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are sheltering from the almost 7-month-long war, just as cease-fire negotiations between Israel and Hamas appear to be gaining steam.
Netanyahu's comments came hours before U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was to arrive in Israel to advance the truce talks — which appear to be one of the most serious rounds of negotiations between Israel and Hamas since the war began. The deal is meant to free hostages, bring some relief to the population and avert an Israeli offensive into Rafah and the potential harm to civilians there.
Netanyahu said Israel would enter Rafah, which Israel says is Hamas' last stronghold, regardless of whether a truce-for-hostages deal is struck. His comments appeared to be meant to appease his nationalist governing partners but it was not clear whether they would have any bearing on any emerging deal with Hamas.
“The idea that we will stop the war before achieving all of its goals is out of the question," Netanyahu said, according to a statement from his office. “We will enter Rafah and we will eliminate Hamas' battalions there — with or without a deal, to achieve the total victory.”
The U.S. has repeatedly said it opposes the Rafah operation until Israel presents a credible plan for evacuating and protecting the estimated 1.5 million people seeking shelter there.
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Takeaways from the start of week 2 of testimony in Trump's hush money trial
NEW YORK (AP) — The first week of testimony in Donald Trump’s hush money trial was the scene-setter for jurors. This week, prosecutors are working on filling in the details of how they say he pulled off a scheme to bury damaging stories to protect his 2016 presidential campaign.
Prosecutors are setting the stage for crucial testimony from Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen, who arranged hush money payments on Trump's behalf before going to prison for campaign finance violations and other crimes.
Trump denies any wrongdoing and has pleaded not guilty.
Here’s a look at how things are shaping up so far this week at the historic trial:
Six months before the 2024 presidential election, the presumptive Republican nominee is being threatened with possible jail time — even before jurors decide whether he is guilty in the hush money case.
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What marijuana reclassification means for the United States
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is moving toward reclassifying marijuana as a less dangerous drug. The Justice Department proposal would recognize the medical uses of cannabis, but wouldn't legalize it for recreational use.
The proposal would move marijuana from the “Schedule I” group to the less tightly regulated “Schedule III."
So what does that mean, and what are the implications?
Technically, nothing yet. The proposal must be reviewed by the White House Office of Management and Budget, and then undergo a public-comment period and review from an administrative judge, a potentially lengthy process.
Still, the switch is considered “paradigm-shifting, and it’s very exciting,” Vince Sliwoski, a Portland, Oregon-based cannabis and psychedelics attorney who runs well-known legal blogs on those topics, told The Associated Press when the federal Health and Human Services Department recommended the change.
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Haiti's transitional council names a new prime minister in the hopes of quelling stifling violence
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Haiti’s newly installed transitional council chose a little known former sports minister as the Caribbean country’s prime minister Tuesday as part of its monumental task of trying to establish a stable new government amid stifling violence.
Fritz Bélizaire was chosen in a surprise move to replace current interim Prime Minister Michel Patrick Boisvert, gaining the support of four of the seven voting members on the nine-member panel but with other panel members saying they were unfamiliar with Bélizaire.
The council also planned to choose a Cabinet as it seeks to quell gang violence that is choking the capital, Port-au-Prince, and beyond. Heavy gunfire was reported in several of the capital's neighborhoods during the council's meeting.
More than 90,000 people have fled the capital in the span of one month, and overall, more than 360,000 people have been left homeless in recent years as gunmen raze communities in rival territories.
Earlier on Tuesday, the council chose former presidential candidate Edgard Leblanc Fils as the president of the panel.
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1 person dead, buildings damaged after tornado rips through northeastern Kansas
WESTMORELAND, Kan. (AP) — One person died Tuesday when a tornado ripped through the small city of Westmoreland in northeastern Kansas, authorities said.
Pottawatomie County officials said on Facebook that a tornado struck the city Tuesday evening, damaging multiple structures. First responders were conducting grid searches in Westmoreland to survey damage and to search for people who may have been injured.
A Pottawatomie County spokesperson confirmed the single fatality in a news release sent to media. The name of the person who died was being withheld pending family notification.
Westmoreland is about 45 miles (72.42 kilometers) northwest of Topeka.
Images posted to social media showed a tornado on the ground in Westmoreland, as well as damaged homes, uprooted trees and a flipped semi.
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Trump says states should decide on prosecuting women for abortions, has no comment on abortion pill
CHICAGO (AP) — Former President Donald Trump says in a new interview it should be left to the states whether to prosecute women for abortions or whether to monitor women's pregnancies. He declined to comment on access to the abortion pill mifepristone, which has been embroiled in an intense legal battle.
In an interview published Tuesday by Time magazine, Trump responded to questions about how he would handle various abortion questions if elected by repeatedly saying it should be left up to the states.
“You don’t need a federal ban,” the presumptive Republican presidential nominee said. “Roe v. Wade ... wasn’t about abortion so much as bringing it back to the states. So the states would negotiate deals. Florida is going to be different from Georgia and Georgia is going to be different from other places.”
When asked if he would veto a bill that would impose a federal ban, he reiterated “it’s about states rights” and said “there will never be that chance” because Republicans, even if they take back the Senate in November, would not have the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster and bring the bill to a vote.
Trump repeated his catchall states-rights response when asked if states should monitor women’s pregnancies so the government would know if they had an abortion. Amid debates about criminalizing women for getting abortions, including those who self-manage with medication, experts have raised alarm over how modern surveillance technologies could help law enforcement agencies track and investigate abortions.
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4 officers killed in North Carolina were at disadvantage as shots rained from above, police say
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Law enforcement officers with an arrest warrant demanded that a man come out of a house in North Carolina before four were killed by gunfire, the victims unable to survive shots coming from inside the dwelling, a witness and officials said Tuesday.
Still reeling from Monday's attack — the deadliest against U.S. law enforcement officers since 2016 — investigators in Charlotte said they weren't sure whether there was a second shooter and that more work was needed to determine a precise timeline of events.
“Charlotte isn’t going to be the last place that this happens,” Mayor Vi Lyles said, “but Charlotte will be the place that will heal — that will heal with dignity and respect for everyone.”
A task force made up of officers from different agencies had arrived in the residential neighborhood to try to capture Terry Clark Hughes Jr., 39, who was wanted for possession of a firearm by an ex-felon and fleeing to elude in Lincoln County, North Carolina.
Those killed were identified as Sam Poloche and William Elliott of the North Carolina Department of Adult Corrections; Charlotte-Mecklenburg Officer Joshua Eyer; and Deputy U.S. Marshal Thomas Weeks. Four other officers were wounded in the shootout, and Hughes was also killed.
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Binance founder Changpeng Zhao sentenced to 4 months for allowing money laundering
SEATTLE (AP) — Changpeng Zhao, founder of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, was sentenced Tuesday to four months in prison for looking the other way as criminals used the platform to move money connected to child sex abuse, drug trafficking and terrorism.
U.S. District Judge Richard A. Jones credited the founder and former CEO of Binance for taking responsibility for his wrongdoing. Zhao, 47, pleaded guilty in November to one count of failing to maintain an anti-money-laundering program. Binance agreed to pay $4.3 billion to settle related allegations from the U.S. government.
“I failed here,” Zhao told the court Tuesday. “I deeply regret my failure, and I am sorry.”
But the judge said he was troubled by Zhao's decision to ignore U.S. banking requirements that would have slowed the company's explosive growth. "Better to ask for forgiveness than permission,” is what Zhao told his employees about the company's approach to U.S. law, prosecutors said.
“No person — regardless of wealth — is immune from prosecution or above the laws of the United States,” Jones said.
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Sword-wielding man attacks passersby in London, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring 4 others
LONDON (AP) — A man wielding a sword attacked members of the public and police officers in a northeast London suburb Tuesday, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring four other people, British authorities said.
A 36-year-old man was subdued with a stun gun and arrested on suspicion of murder in a residential area near Hainault subway station, police said. The violence wasn't being treated as terror-related or a “targeted attack.”
Police said that the 14-year-old died at a hospital from his injuries. Two police officers were hospitalized for stab wounds. Two other people were also injured.
Chief Supt. Stuart Bell described the incident as “truly horrific.”
“I cannot even begin to imagine how those affected must be feeling,” he said outside the homes in east London where the attack happened.
The Associated Press
