Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Columbia called the police At Columbia University, tensions between the administration and students protesting over Israel's war in Gaza have reached the point that scores of New York City police marched onto campus to clear an encampment and arrest demonstrators who had commandeered a classroom building.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Unions, businesses eye migrants to fill labor gaps in Ohio

On a noisy factory floor in Columbus, Ohio, trade union apprentice Jorge Herrera moved quickly as he assembled ventilation ducts to be used in the construction of a large car manufacturing plant on the outskirts of the city. The 27-year-old asylum seeker from Nicaragua, who had welding experience back in his home country, crossed the U.S.-Mexico border two years ago. He struggled with unstable jobs before he was hired by the sheet metal workers' union this year despite speaking little English, passing his entry test with the help of a translation app.

Biden thinks he can flip North Carolina, polls show a rough road

Since 1968, North Carolina has backed only two Democrats for president: Jimmy Carter in 1976 and Barack Obama in 2008. President Joe Biden visits the southeastern state on Thursday for the third time this year, betting he can do it again for Democrats in the 2024 election.

Trump hush-money trial judge to weigh more fines for defying gag order

New York prosecutors on Thursday will ask the judge overseeing Donald Trump's criminal hush money trial to impose more fines on the former U.S. president for violating a gag order that prohibits him from talking about witnesses and jurors. The $4,000 total penalty prosecutors are seeking would come on top of a $9,000 fine Justice Juan Merchan imposed on Tuesday, when he held the Republican presidential candidate in contempt of court for social media posts that questioned the jury selection process and insulted his former lawyer Michael Cohen, who is expected to be a crucial witness.

US weekly jobless claims unchanged; layoffs decline in April

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits held steady at lower levels last week as the labor market remains fairly tight. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits were unchanged at a seasonally adjusted 208,000 for the week ended April 27, the Labor Department said on Thursday.

Arizona Senate repeals 1864 abortion ban, governor seen signing quickly

The Arizona Senate voted on Wednesday to repeal the state's 1864 ban on abortion, which could otherwise have taken effect within weeks. The repeal was passed by the Senate in a 16-14 vote and is expected to be quickly signed by Governor Katie Hobbs, a Democrat. Two Republican senators crossed party lines to vote in favor of repealing the ban.

Trump praises New York police raid on Columbia university protesters

Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Wednesday it "was a beautiful thing to watch" New York police officers raiding a Columbia University building occupied by pro-Palestinian students, and called on officials to crack down on campus protests across the United States. "New York was under siege last night," Trump told supporters at a campaign rally in Wisconsin, praising the police officers for arresting about 300 protesters at Columbia and City College of New York who he referred to as "raging lunatics and Hamas sympathizers."

California police move in to dismantle pro-Palestinian protest camp at UCLA

Hundreds of helmeted police muscled their way into a central plaza of the University of California at Los Angeles early on Thursday to dismantle a pro-Palestinian protest camp attacked the previous night by pro-Israel supporters. The pre-dawn police crackdown at UCLA marked the latest flashpoint for mounting tensions on U.S. college campuses, where protests over Israel's conduct of the war in Gaza have led to student clashes with each other and law enforcement.

US class action settlements flooded with fraudulent claims by scammers

Artsana, a maker of child car booster seats, last year agreed to settle claims that it had misled customers about how to use its products, offering $50 to people who had bought Chicco-brand seats. The company, which did not admit wrongdoing in the settlement, knew it sold roughly 875,000 such seats, yet court records show that by the end of October it had received more than 3.3 million claims for payment.

Berkeley takes hands-off approach to Gaza campus protests. Columbia called the police

At Columbia University, tensions between the administration and students protesting over Israel's war in Gaza have reached the point that scores of New York City police marched onto campus to clear an encampment and arrest demonstrators who had commandeered a classroom building. It was the second time in as many weeks that the administration has called on police to control the protests. Students have been suspended, and threatened with expulsion. Police are now stationed around-the-clock on campus.

Biden faces a tough balancing act as campus protests over Gaza escalate

Escalating campus protests are forcing U.S. President Joe Biden to walk a careful line of denouncing antisemitism while supporting young Americans' right to protest and trying to limit longer-term political damage. As violent police crackdowns and counter-protests greet spreading demonstrations across U.S. campuses, Biden faces sharp criticism of his Israel policy from both the left and right.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)