First Thing: Pro-Palestine protesters take over Columbia University building
Good morning.
Dozens of protesters have occupied a building at Columbia University in New York, barricading the doors and hanging a Palestine flag from a window as demonstrations against the Israel-Hamas war step up on US campuses.
Columbia’s student radio station broadcast a report of the takeover of Hamilton Hall early on Tuesday, while posts on a related Instagram account encouraged others to protect the encampment and join them. The takeover happened 12 hours after the university’s deadline for the protesters to leave their encampment or face suspension.
The demonstrations have continued to spread across US campuses, with the number of arrests nationally nearing 1,000.
What is the latest in Gaza? The death toll in Gaza has reached 34,535, according to the Hamas-led Gaza health ministry, with another 77,704 Palestinians wounded.
Is a ceasefire nearing? Hamas officials left Cairo after talks with Egyptian officials on a new ceasefire proposal, saying they would return to the city soon with a written response.
What might the deal involve? Details have not been released but it is believed to involve a 40-day pause in fighting and Hamas returning 30-40 vulnerable hostages, while Israel frees scores of Palestinian prisoners.
Four officers killed and four wounded in North Carolina shooting
Four police officers were killed and another four injured in a shootout on Monday outside a home in North Carolina.
As police approached the home in Charlotte to serve a warrant for firearm possession by a convicted felon, the subject began shooting at them in the front yard, police said. Officers fired back and killed him.
Further shots were then fired from within the home by a second shooter, injuring four more officers, one of whom is in a critical condition.
A “high-power rifle” was recovered from the property and two additional people, including a 17-year-old, were taken to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg police station as persons of interest, police said.
Who were they? The identity of the subject of the warrant and that of the second shooter have not been released. The dead officers have not yet been named.
Banker who worked with Michael Cohen to testify at Trump trial
Donald Trump’s criminal trial commences its third week on Tuesday (court did not sit yesterday) with further testimony from a banker who last week told of financial scheming linked to the ex-president’s alleged catch-and-kill scheme.
Last week, Gary Farro told the court that in 2015 he became then-Trump attorney Michael Cohen’s contact at First Republic Bank, and described some of Cohen’s financial subterfuge to protect the ex-president.
Prosecutors allege that there was a scheme to kill damaging stories about Trump, in which Cohen allegedly sent a $130,000 hush-money payment to the adult film star Stormy Daniels after setting up two limited liability companies to facilitate the payments without being linked to Trump.
What else did we hear last week? Trump’s assistant Rhona Graff testified that she had seen Stormy Daniels in the reception area of Trump Tower’s 26th floor sometime before the 2016 election.
In other news …
A man with cancer in Oregon has won the the eighth-largest jackpot in US lottery history: $1.3bn. He said it would allow him to provide for his family and “find a good doctor”.
Japan will pilot an AI bear-warning system after a record number of attacks on humans by animals struggling with food scarcity. The system will monitor bears, send out warnings and track their movements.
A Rwandan opposition leader has questioned her government’s “commitment to its international obligations” amid its deportation deal agreed with the UK government.
The first case of a walrus dying from bird flu has been recorded on a Norwegian island. Animals including sea lions and fur seals have previously died from the virus.
Stat of the day: Healthy lifestyle ‘may offset genetics by 62% and add five years to life’
It is well known that genetics play a role in how long you will live – but a study has examined how much you can offset that with a healthy lifestyle. An optimal lifestyle – never smoking, exercising regularly, sleeping adequately and eating healthily – may counterbalance the impact of life-shortening genes by 62% and extend your life by five years, according to the first study of its kind.
Don’t miss this: James Baldwin’s long campaign to crack Hollywood
In the run-up to a series of films and discussions in London hinging on James Baldwin’s 1976 memoir-meets-criticism collection The Devil Finds Work, Lanre Bakare explores Baldwin’s relationship to cinema – and why so many of his ideas never made it to the big screen. “Baldwin discovered the cinema before he discovered books, and he never forgot the impact that these early movies had upon him,” the Baldwin scholar Caryl Phillips said.
Climate check: the NBA pledges to reduce its carbon footprint by 50% by 2030
The National Basketball Association (NBA) aims to use its standing as one of the most popular outfits in the world to do its part in tackling the climate emergency. The biggest ecological impact is fan travel, one environmental experts says, while the league is looking at how to commission food that is regeneratively grown. The sports writer Jacob Uitti considers the impact sports could have.
Last Thing: the TikToker giving ‘boy rooms’ a makeover
Rooms strewn with clothes, both dirty and clean; posters unfurling on to the floor; an ecosystem of empty cups. This is a familiar site to the comedian Rachel Coster, who is investigating the “boy room” phenomenon for her TikTok/Instagram series. For the uninitiated, boy rooms are the messy spaces some adult men live in. Matthew Cantor gets some tips on bring out the best from his living space.
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