Reuters World News Summary

Columbia called the police At Columbia University, tensions between the administration and students protesting over Israel's war in Gaza have reached the point that scores of New York City police marched onto campus to clear an encampment and arrest demonstrators who had commandeered a classroom building.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Rebuilding bombed Gaza homes may take 80 years, UN says

Rebuilding homes in the Gaza Strip could drag into the next century if the pace follows the trend of previous conflicts, according to a U.N. report released on Thursday. Nearly seven months of Israeli bombardment have caused billions of dollars in damage, leaving many of the crowded strip's high-rise concrete buildings reduced to heaps, with a U.N. official referring to a "moonscape" of destruction.

Analysis-Russia can't match a Western asset seizure, but it can inflict pain

Russia's ability to mete out like-for-like retaliation if Western leaders seize its frozen assets has been eroded by dwindling foreign investment, but officials and economists say there are still ways it can strike back. The United States wants to seize immobilised Russian reserves - around $300 billion globally - and hand them to Ukraine, while EU leaders favour ringfencing profits from the assets, estimating they will total 15-20 billion euros by 2027.

Awaiting US aid, Ukraine's gunners fire sparingly at advancing Russians

The soldiers manning a U.S.-supplied M777 howitzer close to the front in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region have seen the enemy advance in recent weeks, slowly but surely, and wish they could do more to stop it. Like other artillery positions along the 1,000-km (621-mile) contact line in eastern and southern Ukraine, they do not have the shells they need to suppress the Russian attacks that threaten to turn the course of the war in Moscow's favour.

Trump hush-money trial judge to weigh more fines for defying gag order

New York prosecutors on Thursday will ask the judge overseeing Donald Trump's criminal hush money trial to impose more fines on the former U.S. president for violating a gag order that prohibits him from talking about witnesses and jurors. The $4,000 total penalty prosecutors are seeking would come on top of a $9,000 fine Justice Juan Merchan imposed on Tuesday, when he held the Republican presidential candidate in contempt of court for social media posts that questioned the jury selection process and insulted his former lawyer Michael Cohen, who is expected to be a crucial witness.

EU official calls Georgia's 'foreign agents' bill unacceptable

A senior European Union official warned the Georgian government on Thursday that its proposed legislation on "foreign agents" was unacceptable and would be an obstacle to the country's hopes of joining the EU if adopted in its current form. The bill, which would require organisations receiving more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as agents of foreign influence, has sparked a rolling political crisis in the South Caucasus country.

US official urges China, Russia to declare only humans, not AI, control nuclear weapons

A senior U.S. official on Thursday urged China and Russia to match declarations by the United States and others that only humans, and never artificial intelligence, would make decisions on deploying nuclear weapons. State Department arms control official Paul Dean told an online briefing that Washington had made a "clear and strong commitment" that humans had total control over nuclear weapons, adding that France and Britain had done the same.

California police move in to dismantle pro-Palestinian protest camp at UCLA

Hundreds of helmeted police muscled their way into a central plaza of the University of California at Los Angeles early on Thursday to dismantle a pro-Palestinian protest camp attacked the previous night by pro-Israel supporters. The pre-dawn police crackdown at UCLA marked the latest flashpoint for mounting tensions on U.S. college campuses, where protests over Israel's conduct of the war in Gaza have led to student clashes with each other and law enforcement.

Soccer star's murder highlights South Africa's crime problem as election nears

In the South African township where Luke Fleurs grew up, some friends joined gangs before they reached high school age, but Fleurs found another path: he was so brilliant at soccer that he rose to be a professional player at South Africa's top club. Fleurs' success story ended abruptly last month when he was killed at a Johannesburg petrol station by someone stealing his car.

Berkeley takes hands-off approach to Gaza campus protests. Columbia called the police

At Columbia University, tensions between the administration and students protesting over Israel's war in Gaza have reached the point that scores of New York City police marched onto campus to clear an encampment and arrest demonstrators who had commandeered a classroom building. It was the second time in as many weeks that the administration has called on police to control the protests. Students have been suspended, and threatened with expulsion. Police are now stationed around-the-clock on campus.

Analysis-Low turnout, apathy in India election a worry for Modi's campaign

A lower turnout so far in India's long general election has rattled Prime Minister Narendra Modi's campaign managers, raising into question whether his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies can achieve the landslide victory predicted by opinion polls just one month ago. The lack of momentum has been partly blamed on apathy among party workers believing victory is assured and seems to have prompted Modi to change tack in his campaign speeches to try to fire up the Hindu majority, the party's support base, and get them out to voting stations, political analysts said.

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