Officers in tactical gear moving on to campus in latest flashpoint for mounting tensions over protests at US colleges

• Explainer: Where are the US college campus protests and what is happening?

NYPD Deputy Commissioner, Kaz Daughtry, has confirmed that Fordham University was among a number of educational institutions which requested police assistance on campus to disperse protests.

He said that individuals who refused to disperse has been arrested without incident.

Your @NYPDnews officers continue to protect the right to peacefully protest, but lawlessness will not be tolerated. I commend the professionalism consistently displayed by our officers.

In light of the activities that are currently happening, we further request that you retain a presence on campus through at least May 22, 2024 (when commencement and diploma ceremonies are completed) to maintain order and ensure encampments are not reestablished.a

Party predicted to lose about half of the 1,000 seats it is defending in contest that could shape Rishi Sunakas future

Voting has begun in local elections in England, where the Conservatives are braced for heavy losses that could destabilise Rishi Sunakas premiership.

The elections, which cover more than 2,600 seats across 107 English councils, are seen as a key test of whether the Conservative party is as unpopular with voters as the polls suggest.

Dozens of demonstrators in Peckham surround coach before it can take people to barge in Dorset

A standoff was under way in London on Thursday after a coach sent to collect asylum seekers and take them to the Bibby Stockholm barge was surrounded by protesters.

Dozens of demonstrators blocked the coach before it was able to pick up passengers, surrounding it on all sides. Hours later, hundreds were at the scene, while hire bikes had been placed underneath it.

Swinney tells campaign launch event he can bind party together, restore trust and achieve independence

John Swinney has said he will run for the SNPas leadership and first minister of Scotland.

He made the announcement at a press conference on Thursday morning after it emerged on Wednesday that he had met the other frontrunners to succeed Humza Yousaf, who stepped down as first minister on Monday, for informal talks in an attempt to avoid another divisive and damaging leadership contest.

Individuals could win APS25,000 or more if they are successful in claim Uber broke taxi booking rules

More than 10,500 of Londonas black-cab drivers have launched a APS250m legal case against Uber, accusing it of breaking the capitalas taxi booking rules and deliberately misleading authorities to secure a licence.

The case, which has been filed in the high court in London by the litigation management firm RGL, resurrects a claim first raised five years ago, related to the way the ride-hailing app operated in London between 2012 and 2018.

Marcus Aurelio Arduini Monzo also accused of two counts of attempted murder and two of grievous bodily harm

A 36-year-old man has appeared in court charged with murder after Daniel Anjorin, 14, was killed in east London.

Marcus Aurelio Arduini Monzo, a dual Spanish-Brazilian national living in Newham, east London, is also accused of two counts of attempted murder, two of grievous bodily harm, aggravated burglary and possession of a bladed article.

Postponements come hours after queueing fans were turned away from A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie gig on Wednesday evening

The troubled Co-op Live arena has postponed Olivia Rodrigoas concerts as part of her Guts world tour because of a atechnical issuea, hours after the last-minute cancellation of its opening concert for the third time.

Two hours after announcing that A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie would no longer be performing, the venue confirmed that Rodrigoas concerts on 3 and 4 May had also been cancelled.

Exclusive: DNA expert whose work led to Andrew Malkinson case breakthrough says job should be given to forensic scientists

Interns have been given the job of weeding out potential wrongful convictions for rape and murder in a major case review prompted by Andrew Malkinsonas exoneration, the Guardian can reveal.

The miscarriage of justice body the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) said last month that it would be re-examining cases it had refused to refer to the court of appeal to check for new DNA testing opportunities.

Met Office says storms may cause travel disruption and flooding, leading to difficult driving conditions

Heavy thunderstorms could give way to the warmest day of the year so far in Britain.

The same storm caused mudslides in northern France, which started around midnight and killed at least one person, a 57-year-old woman, and injured her partner.

Senior Hamas official told AFP group was looking to end war but had reservations about ceasefire plan

The EU has offered Lebanon a financial package of a!1bn (APS855m / $1.07bn), European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said in Beirut on Thursday.

The funds would be available from this year until 2027, von der Leyen told a joint news conference with Lebanonas prime minister Najib Mikati and Cypriot president Nikos Christodoulides.

This continued EU support will strengthen basic services such as education, social protection and health for the people in Lebanon. It will accompany urgent economic, financial and banking reforms. Furthermore, support will be provided to the Lebanese armed forces and other security forces with equipment and training for border management and to fight against smuggling.

When a group of teenage mothers were evicted from their homeless hostel, Focus E15, they took over a tower block of empty council flats in protest. Ten years on, they are still fighting

On 23 September 2014, protesters entered a disused block of council flats on the Carpenters estate in Newham, east London. The group, Focus E15, was made up of young single mums who had been evicted from a local homeless hostel a year earlier a and campaigners who had fought the eviction with them. When they entered the flats, they were shocked to find that some had newly installed kitchens and the electricity and water were still on.

aWe were very angry,a says Jasmin Stone, one of the single mums, who was 20 at the time. aPeople would cut off their arm to have a home there, and more than 400 flats were empty in the middle of a housing crisis.a

Father of Khaled Arouq, 16, joins calls to reform Palestinian Authority as IDF raids in West Bank leave rising death toll

Khaled Arouq was in his pyjamas when he was killed, shot by a sniper before dawn during a recent Israeli raid close to the centre of Ramallah. The 16-year-old, who had joined a group throwing stones at Israeli armoured vehicles, was shot in the chest and pronounced dead on arrival at the local hospital.

aMy son was killed in cold blood,a said his father, Sulaiman, his voice heavy. aThey shot him right next to our house.a

Kyiv Independentas Olga Rudenko is set on telling the truth in wartime, despite clumsy instances of state harassment

For Olga Rudenko, the editor of the Kyiv Independent, journalism is not just a profession but a moral imperative. aOur soldiers in the frontline are fighting for Ukraine to define its own future,a she says. aThey are fighting for Ukraine not to be Russia; Russia is associated with no freedom of speech, no freedom of media, no freedom whatever.

aIf they are dying, we should be using those rights.a

Anna, 36, and Les, 32, met in Kyiv in 2016. Now based in Vienna, they hope to return to Ukraine

Growing up in Lviv in western Ukraine, Les was never drawn to the capital, Kyiv. aIt was too loud and busy compared with where Iam from,a he says. But in 2016, while working as an artist, he decided to host an exhibition there to gain more exposure. aI was working as a videographer to make money, and as a painter. I wanted to showcase my collection of animal paintings.a

He joined a local social network to advertise his exhibition. Thatas where he met Anna, who was based in Kyiv. aI was working seven days a week, doing admin during the week and working for a beauty salon at the weekends,a she says. She was also busy looking after her five-year-old daughter. aI joined the site to find people to have small talk with, because I had no time for meeting anyone.a

Lucy Illingworth wowed audiences on the TV talent show, but her journey started as a toddler with dedicated tutor Daniel Bath. Now, a documentary shows how they did it a and the shocking moment a royal disaster almost stopped them

Lucy Illingworth is the breakout star of the ivory-tinkling TV talent show The Piano. When the teenager, who is blind and neurodivergent, sat down at Leeds railway station, then 13, her rendition of Chopinas Nocturne in B-flat minor brought rush-hour crowds to a standstill and reduced bystanders to tears. Clips of the performance have clocked up millions of views online and it has been nominated for Baftaas Memorable Moment of 2024.

In the season one finale at the Royal Festival Hall in London, Lucy was crowned the unofficial winner of the Channel 4 show. She was duly invited to play at the kingas coronation concert last May. But as a new documentary reveals, the biggest gig of Lucyas life was almost derailed when her lifelong piano teacher fell foul of royal security.

College fees, free healthcare and transphobia proved to be meaty topics for these aGuardian-reading liberalsa

James, 32, Warwick

Occupation Junior doctor

Sculptor says he wants visitors to form their own relationships with art, without aanyone else interferinga

They are ubiquitous at art galleries across the world: the audio guide telling shuffling visitors the full story of what they are looking at and occasionally how they should feel.

In the eyes of Sir Tony Cragg, one of the worldas leading sculptors, they are a aterriblea modern scourge that amess upa the enjoyment of art. aI think they look sad,a he said. aIt is a new world image that I really dislike and distrust intensely.a

Tony Cragg at Castle Howard opens on 3 May and runs until 22 September.

Questions on general knowledge and topical trivia, plus a few jokes, every Thursday. How will you fare?

This week on social media, Tom Forth mused on those incredible moments when you are attending a pub quiz, and the person asking the questions drops a clanger. He put it poetically like this: aPunters asking for clarification. Clarification isnat going to help you mate. Youare in the hands of the gods now. Welcome to the contested and subjective nature of truth. Itas vibes all the way down. You are merely an ant in the quiz controversy universe. Let go.a Of course, the Thursday quiz never has ambiguous wording, typos or controversial errors, and that is why there is never any quibbling in the comments. So let us get on with it a|

The Thursday quiz, No 158

Messums, London Cork Street
The artist braved the freezing Pennines to cast a Romantic painting in a bold new light, while her restaging of Manetas Olympia is wonderfully subversive

A woman stands majestically on a rocky, icy precipice; she looks out at a vast frosty tract, covered in thick, flawless snow. Her back is turned to us, the mood is contemplative. She surveys her domain, straight-backed, black hair licking the back of her neck.

Itas a photograph by the UK-based Chinese artist Yan Wang Preston. But there is another version of this image, a famous Romantic painting by the German artist Caspar David Friedrich. It is titled Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog, made circa 1817. In that work, a clothed, flame-haired male RA1/4ckenfigur (a person seen from behind) stands on a jagged ridge and gazes out over a foggy landscape; the painting is the epitome of 19th century liberalism and romanticism, the lone figure in the rugged landscape contemplating his place in the world.

The Egadi isles are said to have inspired the mythical islands in the Odyssey. Today, the largest of the group is a quiet place of blissful beaches, fresh fish, neon seas and ice-cream breakfasts

I cycled into birdsong, into colour, the light glimmering against the white of the low stone walls. There was a spaciousness as I cycled, a lateral stretching of soundscape, big skies, birds fluting. I didnat meet anyone else on the narrow lanes and had a sense of being completely alone on an island of 2,000 people. Is there anything happier than being on a bicycle early in the morning, heading to the sea?

The Egadi archipelago off the north-west coast of Sicily is a well-kept secret. Italians come here on holiday, but the islands are relatively unknown to international tourists. And an even better-kept secret is that these magical islands inspired the fantastical lands of the Odyssey, Europeas oldest travel story. There are a total of five islands and itas possible to visit three of them.

Amsterdam is home to 45,000 sq metres of ablue-greena roofs, which absorb rainwater and allow it to be used by building residents to water plants and flush toilets

You might visit Amsterdam for its canals, and who could blame you, really. But the truly interesting waterways arenat under your feet a theyare above your head.

Beautiful green roofs have popped up all over the world: specially selected plants growing on structures designed to manage the extra weight of biomass. Amsterdam has taken that one step further with blue-green roofs, specially designed to capture rainwater. One project, the resilience network of smart, innovative, climate-adaptive rooftops (Resilio), has covered more than 9,000 sq metres (100,000 sq ft) of Amsterdamas roofs, including 8,000 sq metres on social housing complexes. Citywide, the blue-green roof coverage is even bigger, estimated at more than 45,000 sq metres.

As the fortunes of the super-rich soar, a proposed annual levy of 2% could offer a corrective a and they will fight it tooth and nail

The idea is simple. There are about 3,000 billionaires in the world and in recent years they have been getting richer and richer. Demands on hard-up governments from ageing populations and the drive to achieve net zero are growing all the time. Rather than expect voters already struggling to make ends meet to pay more, how about a wealth tax on Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and their like?

This is an idea that has obvious attractions. As Joe Biden has pointed out, US billionaires make their money in ways that are often taxed at lower rates than the ordinary wage income of American workers. Overwhelmingly, their wealth comes from the rising value of their assets, and they use tax loopholes and legal accounting moves to minimise the tax they pay. Wealthy Americans pay an average tax rate on their incomes of just 8%. Biden thinks they should be paying a minimum of 25%.

Larry Elliott is the Guardianas economics editor

There is consensus in parliament that indeterminate sentences are unjust. So why is the government dragging its heels?

• Sir Bob Neill KC (Hon) is chair of the justice select committee

Last year I tried to lay to rest a ghost that has haunted four successive governments: the fate of those still in prison under imprisonment for public protection (IPP) sentences. The sentences, now widely acknowledged as both wrong in principle and unworkable in practice, were described by the former supreme court justice Lord Brown as the agreatest single stain on our criminal justice systema and by David Blunkett as the abiggest regreta of his time in government. Yet, as I quickly found out, there is still a lack of political will to end this injustice a and neither the government nor the opposition supported my amendment to the victims and prisoners bill.

IPP sentences were introduced in 2003 as a new form of custodial sentence. Designed to appear tough on crime, they were indeterminate sentences that could be given to offenders who had committed violent or sexual offences and were deemed to pose a significant risk of causing harm to the public. Unlike a normal sentence, those given an IPP sentence would have to serve a minimum tariff in prison before being detained for an indefinite period until they could prove to the Parole Board that they were no longer a risk.

Sir Bob Neill KC (Hon) is the member of parliament for Bromley and Chislehurst and a former local government minister. He is currently chair of the justice select committee

Some say the public bragging of the formerly obscure governor of South Dakota ends her chances. But with Trump, who can say?

There is a familiar moment in Republican electoral politics when an obscure politician thrust into the limelight during election season comes under intense public scrutiny and is found to be not quite as first impressions suggested. This was Sarah Palin in 2008, or Ben Carson in 2016, and the inflection point is the moment at which the supposedly promising new face shades into what Mitch McConnell once delicately referred to as the Republicansa acandidate quality problema. Or, as most of us know it colloquially, the moment we realise: oh, this person is unhinged.

So it was last week for Kristi Noem, the formerly obscure governor of South Dakota, propelled into the big time as a possible running mate for Donald Trump, and who at first glance appeared appalling in all the ordinary ways. The 52-year-old, who was elected to the governorship in 2018, echoes the Republican partyas hardline positions on abortion, immigration and offshore drilling in ways indistinguishable from the rest of the VP field. She is telegenic, charismatic, reliably rightwing, and, according to her forthcoming memoir No Going Back: The Truth on Whatas Wrong With Politics and How We Move America Forward, also killed her 14-month-old puppy, Cricket.

Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist

Appliance manufacturers think theyave made the world a better place by automating their online help service. They couldnat be more wrong

From where Iam sitting at this moment I can order some groceries to be brought to my door in a matter of hours. I can get anything from a cup of coffee to a three-course meal delivered within minutes. In terms of personal services that I could summon at a momentas notice a well, put it like this, I wish I hadnat checked. I can buy almost anything I want from anywhere in the world for delivery at a set time. Big things and small. Big white things, for example, such as dishwashers, washing machines and tumble dryers. A couple of clicks and theyall be on their way, not a problem. Easy. But should my brand new dishwasher, washing machine or tumble dryer require a repair of some sort, thatas a different story. At this point, time seems to slow down like the drum at the end of a spin cycle.

If I may write the most boring sentence Iave ever written, my new condenser tumble dryer worked fine but didnat seem to be collecting any water. An unnerving, unsettling state of affairs, Iam sure youall agree. I went to the manufactureras website and gave the chatbot short shrift by demanding contact with a human, who then materialised. This human, if it was a human, proved to be of limited use. During the early exchanges in this live chat tennis I felt as if I got across the nature of my problem quite clearly. Not so. At the conclusion of the opening rally, the human put me completely off my stroke by asking me what kind of machine I was talking about. I checked. Iad told them that. A dryer. Then the human asked me what it said in the manual about my problem. So I gave up on this human and asked for another, more competent human. And at this point, of course, if you set aside the infernal modern madness of chatbotsa livechats and whatnot, we essentially return to the last century.

Whoever wins must stop acting like the leader of an independent nation that does not yet exist, and start leading the real Scotland

Faced with a crisis in its direction and its fortunes, a political party can sometimes change. Labour has managed that since 2019. But parties do not change easily. Sometimes, indeed, they respond by doubling down on past error, as the Conservatives have done. But the choice between continuity and change cannot be ducked, and it is the one that now faces the Scottish National party after Humza Yousafas resignation this week.

Part of the crisis confronting the SNP is immediate and circumstantial. The SNP is easily the largest party in the Scottish parliament. Until the next Holyrood election, due in 2026, Scotland cannot be governed without it. But the SNP has lost popularity, is a divided party and, since the breach with the Greens last week, has no natural allies that it is able to call on. Its opposition rivals, moreover, have zero interest in coming to the SNPas rescue.

Donald Trump opened the floodgates and bigoted attacks from the right became a new normal. Itas been a sorry spectacle

Mayoral elections can seem set apart from the main drag of politics. People vote for individuals and their records, itas not outlandish to stand as an independent, and even candidates within a party can float above it. It would be unusual, for example, to think aI canat stand Rishi Sunaka (wait! Thatas not the unusual bit) atherefore I wonat vote for Andy Streeta. But even though they stand alone, paradoxically, you can see a huge amount about the bigger picture, globally as well as nationally, from these purportedly local ballots.

Sadiq Khan has pretty unusual international name recognition for a city mayor, and the reason a no offence to him, his Hopper bus fares are good too a is that he has been the focus of racist and Islamophobic outbursts ever since Donald Trump called him a astone cold losera when the then-US president visited London in 2019.

Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist

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In Germany the AfD uses second-generation members to overhaul its xenophobic image a some buy into the message

Like many here in Germany, my home country, I have been following the rise of the far-right Alternative fA1/4r Deutschland obsessively, expecting it to dominate the state elections in eastern Germany this September: polls put it ahead in all three states that are set to vote. Imagine Reform UK winning the north of England by promising to target and deport refugees and immigrants. It feels threatening to people like me.

I guess my alarm is no surprise, given that I come from a Vietnamese family. But I have been shocked to learn that even immigrant Germans are considering voting for the AfD. There are no numbers on this yet, but still, I cannot help but feel a personal sense of disappointment. How can people like me side with them?

KhuAa Phao!m is a German journalist and writer. Her debut novel, Brothers and Ghosts, which is inspired by her Vietnamese family, has just been released

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Big economies such as the US must change fiscal policy as the realities of debt and inflation bite

For more than a decade, numerous economists a primarily but not exclusively on the left a have argued that the potential benefits of using debt to finance government spending far outweigh any associated costs. The notion that advanced economies could suffer from debt overhang was widely dismissed, and dissenting voices were often ridiculed. Even the International Monetary Fund, traditionally a stalwart advocate of fiscal prudence, began to support high levels of debt-financed stimulus.

The tide has turned over the past two years, as this type of magical thinking collided with the harsh realities of high inflation and the return to normal long-term real interest rates. A recent reassessment by three senior IMF economists underscores this remarkable shift. The authors project that the advanced economiesa average debt-to-income ratio will rise to 120% of GDP by 2028, owing to their declining long-term growth prospects. They also note that with elevated borrowing costs becoming the anew normala, developed countries must agradually and credibly rebuild fiscal buffers and ensure the sustainability of their sovereign debta.

Since Rishi Sunak obviously has nothing left to do but campaign, he should call a general election

In the weeks immediately preceding an election, government resources are not meant to be deployed for party political campaigns. The convention a commonly called apurdaha but officially described as the apre-election period of sensitivitya a is not an enforceable prohibition. It relies on deference to democratic protocol and an intuitive sense of what constitutes fair play in the electoral arena.

The Conservative party has abandoned those qualities. The period running up to Thursdayas local, mayoral and police commissioner elections across England have been punctuated with government announcements that look customised more for campaign purposes than practical administration. In the days before the polls open, the Home Office has boasted of successfully flying an asylum seeker to Rwanda, and released a video showing immigration enforcement officers raiding homes and putting people in secure vans ready for deportation.

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