The University of Southern California has canceled its main commencement ceremony, less than two weeks after it canceled a speech by pro-Palestinian valedictorian Asna Tabassum, setting off a firestorm. Police arrested over 90 peaceful protesters at USC Wednesday.

Nationwide, over 500 people have been arrested on college campuses, including faculty, as student-led protests have swept the country. Just over the past day, new Gaza solidarity encampments and protests formed at Northwestern, Cornell, George Washington University, CUNY and UCLA, among others. Students are calling for their schools to divest from Israel and stop censoring Palestinian and pro-Palestinian voices.

At Emory in Atlanta, a brutal police crackdown led to at least 28 arrests. Among those arrested was economics professor Caroline Fohlin, who was knocked to the ground by a police officer, while another held her down and bound her hands with zip ties. We’ll go to Atlanta after headlines for the latest at Emory.

Meanwhile, students at Columbia — the epicenter of the student encampment movement — filed a civil rights complaint Thursday following arrests by NYPD and threats to deploy the National Guard.
Despite the violent crackdown, students vowed to continue their protests. This is Vincent Doehr of UCLA.

Vincent Doehr: “I don’t think that our concerns about our personal safety are at the forefront of our minds right now. I think at the forefront of our minds is the violence that Palestinians are suffering at the hands of the Israeli state every day these last six months and last, again, almost 80 years.”

In Gaza, the city of Rafah remains under nonstop Israeli attacks as Israel prepares to move ahead with its ground invasion. Eight-year-old Abdel Karim Al-Kurd described the moment his home came under attack Thursday night.

Abdel Karim Al-Kurd: “At night, we were sleeping quietly, my brother and I, in a bedroom. My mother and my grandfather were awake. So, when they shelled, the rubble was above our heads, and the glass was shattered, and the house was smashed. Here, if you want, go and look. The whole house was destroyed. Nothing is left in it.”

In other news from the region, a Hamas official said the group would disarm if an independent Palestinian state is established and refugees are allowed to return.

The New York Court of Appeals overturned the 2020 rape conviction of Harvey Weinstein Thursday and called for a new trial, in a stunning development to the historic case. The disgraced Hollywood mogul was sentenced to 23 years in prison after his 2020 conviction. But the appeals court cited the improper use of what’s known as “prior bad acts” witnesses. In this case, that refers to survivors of Weinstein that testified about their assaults even though they were not part of the case being tried. Tarana Burke, founder of the #MeToo movement, addressed the news yesterday.

Tarana Burke: “We are devastated for the survivors who are connected to this case and the survivors who had found some solace, some solace and catharsis, in the original verdict around Harvey Weinstein. …. We also need to understand that the legal system has never served survivors in this country. Carceral solutions won’t save us.”

Harvey Weinstein’s 16-year sentence for sexual crimes committed in California is not affected by yesterday’s ruling, though Weinstein is expected to appeal that conviction next. At least 87 survivors have accused Weinstein of rape or sexual misconduct.

The U.S. Supreme Court appeared skeptical of Donald Trump’s claim of absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for his attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss. This is liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor questioning Trump’s lawyers.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor: “We would be creating a situation in which we would be saying — this is what you’re asking us to say, which is that a president is entitled not to make a mistake, but, more than that, a president is entitled, for total personal gain, to use the trappings of his office — that’s what you’re trying to get us to hold — without facing criminal liability.”

Conservative justices wrangled with whether the charges against Trump constituted “private acts” or “official acts,” which could potentially be shielded from prosecution. But a resolution to the pivotal case could be further delayed — possibly beyond November’s election — as the Supreme Court weighed sending the case back to lower courts for further deliberation.

Trump’s criminal hush money trial continues in New York. On Thursday, former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker told the court he made deals with Michael Cohen and Trump to “kill” embarrassing stories that would damage his presidential campaign, including Trump’s alleged affair with Playboy model Karen McDougal.

Burkina Faso’s U.S.-trained military forces “summarily executed” at least 223 civilians, including dozens of children, across several villages in the northern Yatenga province in late February. That’s according to a new report by Human Rights Watch, which says the extrajudicial mass killings are part of a widespread military campaign to exterminate residents accused of collaborating with Islamic militants. Executive Director of Human Rights Watch Tirana Hassan said in a statement, “The repeated failure of the Burkinabè authorities to prevent and investigate such atrocities underlines why international assistance is critical to support a credible investigation into possible crimes against humanity.”

Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry has resigned, paving the way for an unelected transitional council to temporarily govern Haiti as the nation faces a worsening humanitarian and security crisis. On the streets of Haiti, locals remained skeptical.

Patrice Agenor: “We want to know if this council can fight the gangs, if they can win back security, because, personally, I want to be able to go back to Port-au-Prince. If they can’t fight the gangs, then I’m going to face them. I’m going to become their enemy. They got two missions: elections and security. But security comes first.”

U.N. chief António Guterres on Thursday called for the swift deployment of a multinational security mission as the transitional government is installed.

In Brazil, thousands of Indigenous leaders have been rallying in Brasília this week, calling on the government to recognize their ancestral lands and enforce stronger protections against illegal mining and other forms of exploitation. Protesters also denounced plans to build a railway that would transport grains across Brazil’s farming states to ports in the Amazon rainforest. A group of Indigenous leaders met with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, while others gathered outside government buildings.

Mana Shanenawa: “In the past, we died by the knife, the bullet. And today we die by the pen, by making laws, by the law and taking away our rights. This is a huge genocide that can happen within our nation, within the people, because our Indigenous land is life. For us, it is forest and life.”

A sweltering heat wave across South and Southeast Asia has forced schools in India, the Philippines and Bangladesh to suspend classes this week. Record temperatures have also disrupted agriculture across the region. The World Meteorological Organization warned Asia remained “the world’s most disaster-hit region from weather, climate and water-related hazards.” In Thailand, at least 30 people have been reported dead due to heat strokes so far this year.

The Environmental Protection Agency finalized new rules Thursday requiring coal-fired power plants to either cut or capture 90% of their carbon dioxide emissions by 2032 or shut down. Power plants are the second-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions after transportation. But climate groups criticized the regulations’ reliance on unproven technologies rather than reducing fossil fuel usage. The group Food & Water Watch said, “Pretending that carbon capture can dramatically reduce climate pollution is nothing but a dangerous fantasy.”

The Federal Communications Commission voted to restore net neutrality Thursday, in a major win for digital and consumer rights. The five-member commission voted 3 to 2 to fully reinstate rules established under President Obama and repealed by Trump that regulated broadband like other utilities and barred internet providers from blocking or degrading certain websites or charging for faster connection.