Thursday Briefing: Police deployed at U.S. campuses

May 2, 2024

	By Amelia Nierenberg

Good morning. We’re covering a wave of arrests on U.S. campuses and China’s new generation of electric cars.

Plus, Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s new Netflix drama.

Protesters wearing masks stand near plywood. People appear to be fighting. Some are ducking down while others seem to be swinging sticks.

Clashes at the University of California, Los Angeles. Mark Abramson for The New York Times

Police called to deal with rising U.S. campus violence

Police officers across the U.S. entered campuses where pro-Palestinian protesters have erected encampments and seized academic buildings. Students at several universities remained entrenched, indicating no intention to back down.

The University of California, Los Angeles, was the site of one of the most violent clashes. A group of about 200 counterprotesters stormed the pro-Palestinian encampment in an attempt to tear it down. Both sides threw objects, got into fistfights and sprayed chemicals in confrontations that went on for several hours.

Nearly 300 protesters were arrested in New York, Mayor Eric Adams said. They included students at Columbia, where demonstrators had taken over a building. The school’s president asked the police to stay on campus past graduation, which is planned for later this month.

More than 1,600 protesters have been taken into custody on U.S. campuses in nearly two weeks, according to a tally by the Times.

In the Middle East: Antony Blinken, the secretary of state, called on Hamas to accept a proposed cease-fire deal during a visit to Israel. “The time is now,” he said.

Blinken also urged Israeli leaders to put off a major ground invasion into the thickly populated southern Gaza city of Rafah.

People at an auto show fill up the front and back seats of a bright orange electric vehicle as other people look on.

Xiaomi, a Chinese producer of inexpensive smartphones, displayed its first electric car. Gilles Sabrié for The New York Times

China’s EVs have rivals worried

Chinese automakers are building a new generation of bigger, more technologically advanced electric cars. A suite of improvements — more storage space, bigger tires, comfier seats — are included.

All these changes are an attempt to make them more appealing to Chinese customers, and even more competitive abroad. China’s EVs could soon leap further ahead of their global rivals as exports increase.

MORE TOP NEWS

Emergency vehicles, rescue workers and onlookers are gathered on either side of a large gap in a hillside highway.

The road gave way in an apparent landslide. Xinhua News Agency, via Associated Press

China: At least 24 people were killed and 30 injured when an expressway in the rural southeast collapsed yesterday after days of heavy rain.
The U.S.: Florida’s ban on abortion after six weeks of pregnancy took effect yesterday. The ban will affect women across the South, who traveled to Florida for care.
U.S. economy: The Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged and suggested that rates will stay high for longer.
Britain: Two men were charged in connection with cutting down a beloved tree that stood along Hadrian’s Wall.

South Korea: A doctors’ walkout has dragged on for weeks, leading to drastic disruptions and delays. The public is blaming the government.
Covid: A Chinese virologist who disclosed the virus’s genome to a global database held a rare public protest after he was locked out of his lab for days.

Georgia: People in Tbilisi, the capital, have spent weeks protesting a bill that resembles a Moscow law used to crack down on dissidents.
Sanctions: The U.S. announced nearly 300 new sanctions on international suppliers of military technology that it said have been helping Russia restock its arsenal.

Climate: The recent drought in the Panama Canal was driven not by global warming but by below-normal rainfall linked to El Niño, scientists said.

Culture

The artist Dread Scott in a gray and white shirt sits in front of a textured wall designed by Lisa Hunt.

Dread Scott is known for unabashedly activist art. Matteo de Mayda for The New York Times

At the Venice Biennale: The artist Dread Scott tackled racist immigration policies with an imaginary union of African countries, complete with passports and visas.
The Met Gala: Anna Wintour, Zendaya, Jennifer Lopez, Chris Hemsworth and Bad Bunny will host New York City’s biggest fashion event.
Books: Dozens of rare editions by Alexander Pushkin and Nikolai Gogol are vanishing from European libraries.

MORNING READ

An actor dressed in a sari raises a chandelier wrapped in cloth, using ropes while a cameraman captures the scene.

On the set of the new Netflix show “Heeramandi” in Mumbai. Atul Loke for The New York Times

Sanjay Leela Bhansali is a master of the grand old style of Indian filmmaking. His latest project, “Heeramandi,” is an eight-episode musical drama for Netflix about an exalted milieu of courtesans in pre-independence India.

It poses a challenge: How do you translate big-budget splendor and grandiosity for viewers largely watching on tiny mobile screens?

Lives lived: Paul Auster, the American author lauded for works like “The New York Trilogy,” died at 77. Here’s a guide to some of his most famous books.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

Beneath the sand: Australian rangers found a northern marsupial mole, the “hardest of all the animals to find.”
The stars at last: Edward Dwight was passed over for a spaceflight 60 years ago. Now, at 90, he’s finally going up.
The key to resilience: Scientists who compared 16 societies over 30,000 years found that surviving frequent hardships enabled groups to get through future shocks faster.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times .

ARTS AND IDEAS

A nearly full house watching the screen in a movie theater.

China is, by far, the biggest movie market outside the U.S. Gilles Sabrié for The New York Times

Sex is back in Hollywood

In the 1980s and 1990s, eroticism was a common theme in U.S. films. Movies like “Basic Instinct” or “Eyes Wide Shut” all had characters who wielded sex like a weapon. Then, in the 2000s, studios focused on animation and PG-13 franchises that could play to a global audience and help studios to expand into China, where censors don’t allow sex scenes.

But Chinese audiences have since cooled on Hollywood, and so sex is back on the big screen in the U.S. “Saltburn” has an arousing-disturbing bathtub scene. Emma Stone lustfully romps through a Paris brothel in “Poor Things.” Even “Oppenheimer” turned up the heat as Christopher Nolan filmed the first sex scenes of his 35-year career.

“Hollywood is hornier than it has been in years,” Brooks Barnes, our Hollywood reporter, wrote.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Chicken katsu on a plate with a small bowl of tonkatsu sauce, shredded cabbage lemon wedges.

Linda Xiao for The New York Times. Food stylist: Monica Pierini.

Cook: Take a crack at chicken katsu, a popular Japanese comfort food.

Read: Rachel Khong’s highly anticipated new novel asks: What makes for “real Americans”?

Watch: “Challengers,” directed by Luca Guadagnino, follows a pro-tennis love triangle.

Tolerate: Here are tips to block out a loud chewer.

Play: Spelling Bee, the Mini Crossword, Wordle and Sudoku. Find all our games here.

P.S. Sui-Lee Wee wrote about her reporting trip to Indonesia, where she met leaders of the “Green Islam” movement.

That’s it for today. See you tomorrow. — Amelia

Email us at briefing@nytimes.com.

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