May 3, 2024 - US college protests

A man drove his car toward a group of protesters at Portland State University on Thursday, stopping just short of the crowd and spraying them with “some kind of pepper spray,” police said.

In a video taken at the scene, a man can be seen driving toward a large crowd of protesters, stopping just short of them. Another man tries to stop the driver and reaches inside the car window before being sprayed with a brown-colored aerosol. Others then begin to hit and throw objects at the car. The driver then gets out and runs away, spraying others as he flees on foot.

CNN has reached out to police about this incident.

Later on Thursday, police arrested at least 30 people at Portland State University as they worked to disperse pro-Palestinian protesters from a library that had been occupied this week.

The University of California, Los Angeles canceled its request for extra policing days before violent clashes between pro-Palestinian demonstrators and pro-Israel counterprotesters on campus, the LA Times has reported.

University police canceled the request for additional police from other campuses five days before the clashes, the newspaper reports, citing internal communication that they reviewed.

Video from CNN affiliate KABC showed fireworks, objects being thrown, and physical violence among demonstrators during the clashes. 

CNN has reached out to UCLA for comment.

President Joe Biden can ill afford a long, hot summer of protest that comes to a boil in time for the Democratic National Convention in August and then bleeds into the final weeks of an already venomous clash with Donald Trump.

After days of college campus demonstrations — triggered by outrage at the civilian carnage from Israel’s war in Gaza — the president’s reticence to throw himself into the politics of a perilous situation finally became unsustainable, resulting in his first on-camera comments on Thursday.

In a political sense, Biden’s speech was an act of fence sitting.

He needs to avoid further alienating young, progressive voters who are furious about his handling of the Gaza war and could doom his reelection hopes if they don’t show up in November. But he must also ensure that more middle-of-the-road voters aren’t convinced by Trump’s claims the country is on fire and spinning out of control.

Any time a sitting president looks like he’s observing rather than controlling inflammatory events, he’s taking a huge political risk. This is especially the case when a political opponent, in this case Trump, is lambasting him as weak and not up to the job.

Read the full analysis.

Protests in solidarity with Palestinians under Israeli siege in Gaza have spread across university and college campuses in the US and around the world.

While clashes and standoffs with police at Columbia University, Portland State, and UCLA have captured global attention, protests are also being held on campuses in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

Although demands among protesters vary at each university, the majority have called for colleges to divest from companies that support Israel and the war in Gaza.

Here’s a look at some of the pro-Palestinian campus protests around the world:

Australia: Pro-Palestinian protest camps have appeared in at least seven schools across the country, including the University of Queensland and the University of Sydney.

United Kingdom: Pro-Palestinian protests have been held at universities across the country since the early days of Israel’s war in Gaza, with some setting up encampments. Students in the English cities of Newcastle, Leeds, Bristol, and Warwick have set up tents outside their university buildings.

France: In Paris, pro-Palestinian protests erupted at Sciences Po, one of France’s most highly ranked universities, and the Sorbonne university.

India: Protests have been held at the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University, in New Delhi, in solidarity with students protesting at Columbia.

Canada: Protests against Israel’s war in Gaza have swept campuses across the nation, including at McGill University, the University of Toronto, and the University of British Columbia.

Lebanon: Hundreds of students gathered at campuses in Lebanon, waving Palestinian flags and demanding their universities boycott companies that do business in Israel.

Read the full story.

Columbia University plans to allow faculty based on its Morningside campus access to their offices and other spaces on Friday, a university official said in a memo — an easing of campus restrictions that have been in place because of days of tense protests.

Access to the Morningside campus is limited to Morningside faculty, students who live on campus and employees who provide essential services, according to the university's public safety website.

“We are also concerned that Columbia remains a target for individuals and groups that do not have the best interests of our students in mind," Holloway said.

The University of Southern California has told students arrested during on-campus protests on April 24 that they face disciplinary action, according to student newspaper the Daily Trojan.

At least 93 people were arrested during demonstrations on the private campus, according to police.

The newspaper said students received the email Thursday evening.

“Following our normal practice, the alleged conduct leading to your arrest is being referred to the university’s disciplinary process. You will have an opportunity to participate in the process and we will take every effort to resolve the case expeditiously and with care,” the email read, according to a screenshot posted online by the paper.

The school said that more violations of university policy would result in “further discipline up to expulsion as well as an immediate ban from campus.”

CNN has sought comment from USC on the email.

More than 2,000 people have been arrested at colleges and universities since April 18 as a growing wave of pro-Palestinian campus protests ripples across the US.

During the weeks of demonstrations, protesters have mainly called for schools to divest from companies that support Israel and the war in Gaza.

Recent days have seen large crackdowns on protesters: Nearly 200 people were arrested on May 1, after April 30 saw the largest number of arrests in a day since protests began with nearly 400 arrests, according to a CNN review.

President Joe Biden has delivered his most extensive remarks on the unrest. He drew a line between what he called peaceful and violent protests, repeated his support for Israel, and dismissed calls for the National Guard to intervene.

Here are the latest developments on campuses nationwide:

Portland State University: At least 30 people were arrested Thursday at the school, where law enforcement was working to clear a library that had been occupied by protesters since Monday, according to authorities.

University of Pennsylvania: Eight days after a pro-Palestinian encampment was set up in the center of the university, the Ivy League school wrote a letter to the Philadelphia Mayor’s Office asking for more police resources, a school spokesperson told CNN on Thursday.

Columbia University: The district attorney's office is reviewing an incident in which a New York City Police Department officer fired a gun in Hamilton Hall during Tuesday night's police activity at the school, a Manhattan district attorney’s office spokesperson told CNN.

Emory University: The Department of Education's civil rights office has opened a federal investigation into the university in Atlanta, according to a letter sent by the department to Palestine Legal and the Georgia chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and shared with CNN. The probe comes after a pro-Palestinian protest at the university last week ended in arrests — but is based on allegations of incidents that the groups said came well before the demonstration.

University of California, Los Angeles: More than 200 people were arrested Thursday on suspicion of resisting orders to disperse from the now-dismantled encampment on the campus.

At least 30 people were arrested Thursday at Portland State University, where law enforcement was working to clear a library that had been occupied by protesters since Monday, according to authorities.

Arrests were made in a park and at the library, where some people broke back into the building after police left, Portland police told CNN

The situation remained “active” as of about 8 p.m. local time, Portland police said.

Police said they were monitoring the library and several groups that have “splintered off into small marches."

Officers entered the library around 6 a.m. Thursday. Inside, officers found what appeared to be improvised weapons, hollow bamboo sticks, buckets full of ball bearings, unspecified tools, paint balloons, spray bottles filled with ink with a note that said they were meant to be deployed at officers and cups of paint, Portland police Sgt. Kevin Allen said. A soap or slick substance was on at least one floor of the building, making it difficult for the officers to walk, he said. 

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, who oversees Portland police, said those arrested would be prosecuted. 

Over the past week, student journalists have been working around the clock from a makeshift newsroom inside Columbia University.

Due to the school's strict lockdown, they were the only media allowed on campus on April 30 as police massed outside.

Palestinian journalist Samaa Khullar was one of them.