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In Florida, Republican Governor Ron DeSantis has signed a bill that removes all references to “climate change” in state law and weakens regulations on pipelines, among other measures.

Police continued their violent crackdown on student Gaza solidarity protests this week, with arrests and raids Thursday at UC Berkeley, as well as DePaul University in Chicago. This is DePaul student body president Parveen Mundi.Parveen Mundi: “It’s really important to us that, you know, for the people of Palestine, knowing that, you know, I’m a student body president and I go to a university, and at the same time there are no universities left in Gaza, we’re all responsible for making sure that our tuition dollars aren’t going towards genocide.”Faculty at Morehouse College, a historically Black college in Atlanta, voted 50 to 38 in favor of conferring an honorary doctorate to President Biden when he delivers a commencement speech on Sunday. Biden’s visit to Morehouse has been met with protests from students over his response to the Gaza genocide. In New York state, students at Bard College have just taken over the school’s administration building. Meanwhile, Columbia students and faculty on Thursday celebrated an alternative “People’s Graduation” at the nearby Cathedral of St. John the Divine. We’ll have more from that ceremony later in the broadcast.

Our guest is the Haaretz correspondent Amira Hass, the only Israeli Jewish journalist to have spent 30 years living in and reporting from Gaza and the West Bank. She is the recipient of the 2024 Columbia Journalism Award, and on Wednesday she addressed the graduating class of the Columbia Journalism School in New York City. Hass discusses the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza, why journalists should “resist the normalization of evil and injustice,” Israel's recent censorship of Al Jazeera, its maintenance of a strict apartheid system, its complete rejection of the prospect of Palestinian statehood and more. “Israel took Palestinian life, liberty and freedom as hostage for the past 75 years,” says Hass. “You go to Tel Aviv, you think you are in New York or you are in London — and 40, 50 kilometers away, Palestinians live in cages.”

Israel’s deadly attacks throughout the Gaza Strip are intensifying with thousands more Palestinians in northern Gaza now cut off from food and water as Israel says its troops are fighting in Jabaliya’s “city center.” Israel’s attacks on Rafah are also ongoing, after more than half a million people taking refuge in the southern city were forced to flee. The U.S. said its first aid shipments have started via its temporary Gaza pier after several weeks of construction. But the U.N. reiterated that all humanitarian access points to Gaza need to be opened up.Farhan Haq: “To stave off the horrors of famine, we must use the fastest and most obvious route to reach the people of Gaza. And for that, we need access by land now.”That was the U.N. secretary-general’s deputy spokesperson, Farhan Haq. Many Gazans have rejected the U.S. pier. These are displaced Palestinians in Nuseirat.Hassan Abu Al-Kass: “We don’t want ships. We want the border crossing to open for people to come and go. We want safety. We want official borders. Those planes, as well, that they bring here with the parachutes, and they throw food at us like dogs, like beggars, that does not work. It falls on houses. It falls on people. It brings us problems.”Nadia Al-Debs: “We reject dealing with the ships and the American ships, because in the same way it gives us, it will take away from us. Maybe they want to take over the gas fields that are in the sea, or maybe they are here to displace the Palestinian people and to transfer people from one country to another.”

One-Time Monthly Texas Governor Greg Abbott has pardoned Daniel Perry, the U.S.

In The Hague, the International Court of Justice has ordered representatives for Israel to submit more information about humanitarian conditions in its so-called evacuation zones in Gaza by tomorrow. The request came as the ICJ closed its second day of hearings on South Africa’s request for emergency measures to halt Israel’s assault on Rafah. Israel denied it is carrying out a genocide in Gaza as it addressed the court today. Briefings were halted for a moment when a protester yelled “liars” as the Israeli delegation spoke. Yesterday, South Africa presented its case. bq. Vusimuzi Madonsela: “Israel’s genocide has continued apace and has just reached a new and horrific stage. Israel has sought to hide its crimes through the weaponization of international humanitarian law. It pretends that the civilians it ruthlessly kills, through its 2,000-pound bombs, through its targeted airstrikes, through its artificial intelligence systems, through its executions, are human shields.” We’ll have more on the World Court hearings later in the broadcast.

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a challenge to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s funding mechanism that could have undermined the agency charged with protecting borrowers from predatory loans and other abuses by banks and financial entities. Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich praised the justices for protecting the CFPB from “attacks by shady payday lenders,” adding, “Since 2011, the CFPB has put $17.5 billion back in the pockets of 200 million Americans who have been defrauded.”

Back in the U.S., immigrant rights groups continue to demand the Biden administration immediately halt deportations to Haiti and enact protections for Haitian migrants as the island nation faces a worsening humanitarian crisis, deepening gang violence and political instability. Advocates said Thursday another group of Haitian asylum seekers had been deported — the second deportation flight since April. The Haitian Bridge Alliance said the “deeply troubling policy … places vulnerable individuals in grave danger.”

In other news from Texas, at least four people are dead and nearly 1 million are without power after heavy rains and powerful storms battered the Houston area Thursday night, causing massive floods and other destruction.

The Washington Post reports a group of billionaires and business interests privately pressured New York City Mayor Eric Adams to deploy police on pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University. A WhatsApp group with some of the country’s wealthiest people detailed donations to Adams’s campaign and conversations with the mayor. Some of those involved include real estate magnate Barry Sternlicht; Daniel Lubetzky, founder of the Kind Snacks brand; hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb; and founder of Thor Equities, Joseph Sitt.