News Wrap: More pro-Palestinian protests held at prominent universities

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• Geoff Bennett:

  There have been more pro-Palestinian protests at some of the nation's most prominent universities.

  At Yale University, police arrested at least 45 demonstrators today. They were calling on the school to divest from companies involved in Israel's war in Gaza. A pro-Palestinian encampment has gone up outside New York University's Stern School of Business, and Columbia University canceled in-person classes today as it tries to calm tensions. Police arrested 100 protesters there last week.

  Today, the NYPD said they hadn't found any credible threats, but said it would maintain a presence outside the campus.

  Michael Gerber, NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Legal Matters: We're always going to protect people's First Amendment rights, but to the extent you have criminal conduct that's going that's not protected by the First Amendment, we're going to take action and our officers are very clear about that.

• Geoff Bennett:

  After the arrests at Columbia, pro-Palestinian demonstrators set up encampments at the University of Michigan, MIT, and the University of North Carolina, among others. Harvard University has restricted access to its famous Harvard Yard to prevent any protests taking place there.

  The growing unrest comes as the Jewish holiday of Passover starts tonight.

  Vice President Kamala Harris unveiled new rules today to improve care at federally funded nursing homes. The new standards mandate a minimum number of hours that staff members must spend with residents. They also require a registered nurse to be on site 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

  It's the first time the government has issued such requirements. And it comes after the COVID-19 pandemic exposed understaffing and neglect at facilities that care for the elderly and disabled.

  The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to take up a Biden administration appeal in favor of regulating so-called ghost guns. Those are kits that can be bought online to assemble untraceable firearms. The justices will address a lower court's ruling that a regulation imposed back in 2022 on ghost guns was unlawful. The case will be heard in the court's next term, which starts in the fall.

  Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said today that President Biden promised his country air defense systems once the U.S. Senate signs off on $61 billion in aid. The two leaders spoke by phone after the House passed the aid measure this weekend.

  The Senate is due to vote later this week. Mr. Zelenskyy also told Mr. Biden about an attack in Kharkiv that happened just minutes before their call. A Russian missile strike broke a TV tower in half, leaving it in pieces and disrupting television signals in Ukraine's second largest city. There were no casualties.

  In Southern China, state media is reporting that at least four people are dead and 10 others missing after a weekend of continuous rain flooded parts of that region. Across Guangdong Province, rescuers helped locals swim through neck-deep water to safety. Others fled from low-lying villages where farmlands were completely washed out.

• Huang Jingrong, Farmer (through interpreter):

  Everything is gone. All the seedlings are gone. Our fields over there all flooded. We will eat some of the grain we have left. Some of it was bought. Nobody is paying attention to us this year. The government hasn't come. They did in previous years, but nobody came this year.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Official media reports say that more than 100,000 people have been evacuated throughout the province.

  The world has been marking Earth Day in support of environmental protection. President Biden used the occasion to announce a $7 billion investment in residential solar projects. He also vowed to expand the green jobs training program known as the American Climate Corps.

  Speaking at a park in Northern Virginia today, the president stressed the urgency of addressing climate change.

  Joe Biden, President of the United States: Over the last two years, natural disasters and extreme weather in America have caused $270 billion, $270 billion in damages. The impacts we are seeing, decades in the making, because of inaction are only going to get worse, more frequent, ferocious and costly.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Meantime, Europe is warming up faster than any other continent on Earth. A new report out today from the U.N.'s World Meteorological Organization and the European Union's climate agency warns that temperatures there are rising nearly twice the global average.

  On Wall Street today, stocks started the week higher across the board. The Dow Jones industrials added 253 points to close at 38239. The Nasdaq snapped a six-session losing streak, adding 169 points. The S&P 500 also ended a losing run, tacking on 43.