Less than 24 hours after police arrested 120 people at a pro-Palestine rally at New York University, students and faculty walked out of their classrooms to call out alleged lies from the administration used to suppress peaceful political protest on college campuses of Israel’s war on Gaza.  Hundreds gathered on Tuesday afternoon at the southeast corner of Washington Square Park for a strike organized by the school’s Palestine Solidarity Coalition. Participants hoisted Palestinian flags into the air alongside signs lambasting NYU President Linda G. Mills and alleging censorship on campus ..read more

Once again, former president Donald Trump is about to find out just how far he can push a judge. On Tuesday morning, Trump’s attorneys faced an angry barrage of questions from New York Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan, demanding they explain why Trump should not be fined for what prosecutors in his hush-money case say was “willfully and flagrantly” violating a gag order Merchan imposed on March 26.  The hearing kicked off the second day of testimony in the historic case that focuses on whether Trump had falsified business records to pay off adult film star Stormy Daniels, among others, to ..read more

This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Unilever is to scale back its environmental and social aims, provoking critics to say its board should “hang their heads in shame.” The consumer goods company behind brands ranging from Dove beauty products to Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream was seen as perhaps the foremost proponent of corporate ethics—particularly under the tenure of its Dutch former boss Paul Polman. On Friday, the London-based firm’s current chief executive appeared to signal a strategic U-t ..read more

Beirut was the place to be if you were an action-junkie journalist in the 1980s. Civil War. Militias, the PLO, an Israeli invasion, the occupation of Lebanon. Car Bombings. Truck bombings. And more. It was an exotic city with an ancient corniche winding along the Mediterranean to the snow-capped Shouf mountains some 30 miles away. Driving through the cedars of Lebanon was glorious. But behind the postcard facade, it was deadly, and dangerous, and cruel. Everything that was happening there had been festering for centuries, sometimes exploding into bloodshed. Journalists like Terry Anderson, who ..read more

Since last week, at Columbia University—as students have gathered to protest the war in Gaza and call for the university to divest from companies with ties to Israel’s military campaign—the college radio station, WKCR, has taken on a new role: near-constant news. It has suspended its usual programming and doggedly covered the demonstrations on campus. And, after the administration called in police to break up the protesters, it has become an increasingly essential source of information on the protests for those outside Columbia, as the demonstrations gain prominence across the country. Te ..read more

This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Joe Biden marked Monday’s Earth Day by announcing a $7 billion investment in solar energy projects nationwide, focusing on disadvantaged communities, and unveiling a week-long series of what the White House say will be “historic climate actions.” The president was speaking at Prince William Forest Park, in Triangle, Virginia, touting his environmental record and unveiling measures to tackle the climate crisis and increase access to, and lower costs of, clean ..read more

A growing number of college students nationwide are staging encampments to protest their universities’ investments in Israeli entities in light of Israel’s war on Gaza, which has reportedly killed more than 34,000 Palestinians. The protests have sparked mass arrests and suspensions, including at Columbia University, where more than 100 students—including some from Barnard, the all-women’s college located across the street from Columbia’s campus, which has a partnership with the university—were arrested last week after occupying the upper Manhattan campus. Central to protesters’ demands are for ..read more

Last week, Justice Juan Merchan pulled off an impressive feat in the New York Supreme Court’s criminal division: He finished empaneling 18 jurors in the first-ever criminal trial of a former president. This was not easy. Donald Trump’s first criminal trial—of the four he faces in the coming months—concerns 34 counts of falsifying business records, including a reported hush money payment he made to pornstar Stormy Daniels to cover up an alleged affair, in an attempt to influence the 2016 presidential election. Trump has pleaded not guilty. In putting together a jury, Justice Merchan needed to f ..read more

The first criminal trial of a former US president is underway, with Donald Trump facing 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to hush-money payments allegedly made in 2016 to cover up an affair he had with adult film star Stormy Daniels. Here’s the latest—the key updates and absurd moments—from the historic trial. “The people call David Pecker.” And with that, the first witness in Donald Trump’s criminal trial took the stand on Monday, where prosecutors questioned the former president and CEO of American Media Inc., the parent company of the National Enquirer, about ..read more

Helen Cruz has been a resident of Grants Pass, Oregon, for roughly four decades, but for the last five of those years, she’s had no home in which to live. She’s not alone. Her small mountain town with a population of 39,189 provides no public homeless shelters. She is among up to 600 people experiencing homelessness in that community. On Monday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments about their disputed right to sleep outside. At issue is an effort from 2013, when Grants Pass attempted to address the town’s burgeoning number of unhoused people by fining and subsequently issuing trespass order ..read more