Wednesday Briefing

Police officers arresting protesters at Columbia University on Tuesday night.Credit…Dave Sanders for The New York Times

Protests roiled U.S. universities

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators on college campuses across the U.S. clashed with police officers yesterday and drew crackdowns from administrators.

Hundreds of officers in riot gear last night arrested demonstrators who had occupied a building at Columbia University’s campus in Manhattan. The university had said earlier that it would expel students who did so. Officers also pepper-sprayed protesters to keep them from taking over a building at the City College of New York; officials at Portland State University shut down the campus after students broke into a library; and protesters stormed a barricade at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Elsewhere, there were signs that disruptions were waning. Police officers put an end to an eight-day occupation of an administration building at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt. At Brown University, demonstrators agreed to dismantle their encampment after administrators said they would vote on divesting funds from companies connected to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.

Police officers made scores of new arrests. More than 1,000 protesters have been taken into custody since the arrests of at least 108 people at Columbia on April 18 kicked off a wave of student protests.

For President Biden, the unrest recalls the 1960s protests of his youth — except now he is a key player.

In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to invade the southern Gaza Strip even as cease-fire talks seemed closer to a breakthrough.