2,100+ seized, ribs broken, students threatened: Latest on US campus demos

The Student Spring protests on the US campuses, the biggest and most prolonged since the Vietnam demonstrations in the 1960s and 70s, continued on Thursday despite pro-Zionism rioters attacking students and police cracking down on anti-war students and staff.

Tent encampments of protesters are calling on universities and colleges to stop doing business with Israel or firms they say support the brutal war in Gaza in a student movement unlike any other this century.

More than 2,100 protesters have been arrested over the last two weeks on universities across the US, including the University of Texas at Austin, the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, and California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt.

Here are the latest developments👇

Man briefly accelerates toward pro-Palestine protesters at Portland State University

Police have detained the driver of a white Toyota Camry who briefly accelerated toward a crowd of pro-Palestine 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 on 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.

Officer clearing protesters in Columbia University building fired gun inside —prosecutors

A police officer who was involved in clearing protesters from a Columbia University administration building this week fired his gun inside the hall, a spokesperson for District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office confirmed on Thursday.

No one was injured, according to spokesperson Doug Cohen, who said there were other officers but no students in the immediate vicinity.

Cohen said on Thursday that the gun did not appear to be aimed at anyone and that there were other officers but no students in the immediate vicinity. Bragg's office is conducting a review, which is standard practice.

The NYPD investigated and determined the discharge to be accidental.

Protest peacefully ends at Rutgers University

Rutgers University Chancellor Francine Conway, Ph.D., said in a letter to the Rutgers-New Brunswick campus community that the student protesters agreed to peacefully end their protest and were removing their tents and belongings.

Conway said the resolution was achieved through constructive dialogue between the protesting students and leadership teams. Their agreement opens the door for ongoing dialogue and better addresses the needs of the Arab, Muslim, and Palestinian student body, which numbers over 7,000, the letter said.

Officials had earlier said a morning rally disrupted 28 exams, impacting more than 1,000 students, and had given protesters until 4 pm to disperse.

Arrests on campuses in Stony Brook, New York, Dallas

In New York, Stony Brook University officials said 29 people were arrested early on Thursday morning, including students, faculty members, and others not affiliated with the school.

The University of Texas said on Thursday that 17 people were arrested on criminal trespass charges Wednesday after demonstrators refused to comply with orders to take down an encampment built on the main walkway of the Dallas campus.

At the University of Pennsylvania and at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, officers lined up to separate opposing camps of demonstrators waving Israeli and Palestinian flags.

And bulldozers were scooping up bags of trash and dismantled tents at the University of California, Los Angeles, where crowds swelled to more than 1,000 at a pro-Palestine encampment before police finally cleared the area early Thursday.

California Highway Patrol Sgt. Alejandro Rubio says at least 132 people were arrested at UCLA. They were taken for booking at the county jails complex, and campus police will determine any charges.

Professor suffers nine broken ribs, broken hand during arrest

A college professor from Illinois suffered nine broken ribs and a broken hand when he was arrested ruing a pro-Palestine protest at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, he has said in a statement.

Bystander video shows that Steve Tamari, a history professor specialising in Middle East studies at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, seemed to be moving in to take video or pictures of protesters being detained when multiple officers roughly took him down Saturday.

The video shows an officer driving his knee into Tamari while Tamari is on the ground, and later shows the professor handcuffed with his arms behind him as officers dragged his limp body toward a van and then dropped him face down on the ground.

Johns Hopkins University threatens protesters with suspension

Around two dozen tents have been established at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, with over 100 studnets and staff present at the site, according to organisers.

Protesters told TRT World that the administration has threatened to suspend them.

Meanwhile, a police helicopter flew at a low altitude to observe the protest site where the students held "decolonial yoga class", a script reading on revolution, and de-escalation training.

GOP leaders praise University of Texas-Austin's leader crackdown order

Republicans have praised Jay Hartzell, President of University of Texas at Austin after urging a crackdown against pro-Palestine protests on campus.

"President [Hartzell] is exactly the right man at the right time to lead our state's flagship university," said state Representative Jeff Leach.

Representative Cody Harris said on X, "The vast majority of us think [Hartzell] is doing a fantastic job" and referred to student protesters as "snot-nosed, entitled, mindless brats."

University of Minnesota reopens after deal with protesters

The University of Minnesota has reopened after administrators said they reached an agreement with protesters to end the encampment set up in the heart of the Minneapolis campus.

Interim President Jeff Ettinger said a deal has been reached with pro-Palestine protesters to end the encampment that has been set up for three days.

"While there is more work to do, and conversations are still planned with other student groups affected by the painful situation in Palestine, I am heartened by today's progress," Ettinger wrote in the email.

"It grew out of a desire among those involved to reach a shared understanding."

In exchange, representatives of the coalition of student organisations involved will get to address the university's Board of Regents at their meeting next Friday, May 10, and the discussion will include their demands that the university divest its investments in Israel.

Rutgers sets deadline for protesters to disperse

Rutgers University administrators have said they will have law enforcement officers remove protesters and their belongings from the New Brunswick campus if they don't disperse before 4 pm on Thursday.

University President Jonathan Holloway gave the ultimatum in a statement published on the school's website. He said the protests forced the school to postpone final exams, which were set to begin on Thursday morning in the buildings surrounding the protest and encampment.

Holloway said a morning rally disrupted 28 exams, impacting more than 1,000 students.

Pro-Palestine student escorted out of Georgia State University graduation

A pro-Palestine graduate has been escorted out of Georgia State University's [GSU] commencement ceremony after appearing to stage a protest of Israel's ongoing carnage in besieged Gaza.

Video of the person, identified on university video of the event as Bisan Falasteen Hurrah Hamid, appears to show her walking across the stage during Wednesday morning's ceremony while holding a traditional Arab scarf known as a keffiyeh, stretching it tightly across her back while shouting.

Her words are unclear, but raucous cheers and claps can be heard erupting from the crowd as at least two senior faculty members, including a man who appears to be Chancellor Sonny Perdue and another person who is likely GSU Public Health Dean Rodney Lyn Health, on the stage clap and smile in apparent approval.

Hamid is identified as a Master of Public Health graduate in the official video.

Students of University of Vermont seek cancellation of UN envoy's speech

Student protesters at the University of Vermont have called on Thursday for the school to cancel a commencement speech by Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the United Nations.

The protesters, some of whom have been camping out in tents on campus since Sunday, are also demanding that UVM divest from weapons manufacturers and Israeli companies.

UVM spokesperson Adam White said university leaders have heard all the students' concerns. He said the school plans to disclose investments in its endowment by week's end, but not in response to the protesters.

Greenfield vetoed multiple Gaza ceasefire resolutions.

Dozens arrested at Portland State University

Police have cleared a library at Portland State University in Oregon that pro-Palestinian demonstrators had occupied since Monday. Officers said they made a dozen arrests, four of them students.

They found extensive graffiti on the walls inside the library as well as furniture stacked in barricades and caches of tools and paint balloons. Portland Police say at least two of the arrests were made outside the library, where a crowd gathered. Protesters banged pots and pans and briefly blocked the entrance to a major freeway.

California Republicans want university leaders fired for allowing protests

California Republican leaders have blasted university administrations, falsely claiming they failed to protect Jewish students and should have prevented campus protests against the Israeli genocide in Gaza from escalating into "lawlessness and violence."

They now call for the firing of leaders at universities such as UCLA, where more than 200 people were arrested during a police sweep that ended early on Thursday, and California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, where more than 30 were arrested early on Tuesday.

They're also pushing for a proposal that would cut pay for university administrations.

"We've got a whole lot of people in these universities drawing six-figure salaries, and they stood by and did nothing," Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher told reporters on Thursday.

This came a day after rioters violently attacked pro-Palestine protesters at the University of California.

New Mexico protests move from campus to Air Force base

In Albuquerque, New Mexico, about two dozen protesters sat in the middle of a roadway blocking access to one of the main gates at Kirtland Air Force Base on Thursday morning, waving flags and vowing to "shut everything down" over US military support for Israel during its carnage in Gaza.

Base spokesperson Rob Smith said Kirtland supports citizens' rights to peacefully assemble and protest and that base security would monitor the situation throughout the day. Meanwhile, the gate would remain closed indefinitely and people who work on the base were advised to use other routes.

Florida Chancellor orders presidents to prevent disruption of commencements

Florida's state university chancellor has ordered campus presidents to "take any necessary steps" to prevent protestors from disrupting graduation ceremonies.

The order covers the University of Florida, Florida State University, Central Florida University, Florida A&M University and eight others.

"We must protect the integrity of our commencement ceremonies and ensure the safety of our students," Chancellor Ray Rodrigues wrote in a memo to presidents, adding that no ceremonies should be cancelled or substantively modified.

"These ceremonies are important milestones for our graduating students, and we owe it to our students to see to it that these ceremonies take place as planned. While we respect and honour the First Amendment, a commencement ceremony is not the time nor place to hold a political protest."

Biden says violence has no part in peaceful protests

President Joe Biden defended the right to peacefully protest on college campuses but said vandalism, violence, hate speech and other "chaos" have no part in a peaceful protest.

"Dissent is essential for democracy," he said at the White House on Thursday morning. "But dissent must never lead to disorder."

"We are a civil society, and order must prevail," Biden said. "We are a big, diverse, free-thinking and freedom-loving nation."

His comments came amid police crackdown and rioters' violence against pro-Palestine protests across campuses.

Trump praises police crackdown on students

Former president Donald Trump has commended police who cleared pro-Palestine protesters from college campuses as he arrived in court on Thursday morning for another day of his criminal hush money trial.

"It's a shame. I'm so proud of the New York's finest. They're great,” Trump told reporters after police cleared demonstrators who had taken over an academic building at Columbia University.

"They did a job in Columbia, and likewise in Los Angeles. They did a really good job at UCLA."

Trump, in his comments, blamed the protests on "the radical left," which he has railed against for years.

Arrests at Yale University

Yale police arrested four people on Wednesday night after around 200 demonstrators had marched to the school president's home and to the campus police department, Yale officials said.

School officials said in a statement on Thursday that protesters ignored repeated warnings that they were violating university policy by occupying parts of campus without permission.

Two of those arrested were students, and the others were not, Yale said.

The protest group Occupy Yale said campus police were violent during the arrests and did not issue warnings beforehand.

The group posted a video on Instagram showing officers bringing one arrestee to the ground and pinning another on a sidewalk.

"A peaceful protest," Occupy Yale said. "Police officers seized, pushed, and brutalised people. Is this what you call keeping campus safe?"

Dartmouth College president justifies crackdown

Dartmouth College President Sian Leah Beilock has defended the decision to call in police on students resulting in the arrest of around 90 people on Wednesday night, hours after an encampment had been set up.

"Last night, people felt so strongly about their beliefs that they were willing to face disciplinary action and arrest. While there is bravery in that, part of choosing to engage in this way is not just acknowledging — but accepting — that actions have consequences," she said in a statement.

She cited campus policies prohibiting demonstrations that interfere with Dartmouth's academic mission or increase safety risks.

"When policies like these have been ignored on other campuses, hate and violence have thrived — events, like commencement, are cancelled, instruction is forced to go remote, and, worst of all, abhorrent antisemitism and Islamophobia reign," Beilock said.