Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Fifty-seven of the 212 Democrats in the House of Representatives signed a letter calling on the administration to take every possible measure to dissuade Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government from an all-out assault on the city near the Egyptian border. Trump praises New York police raid on Columbia university protesters Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Wednesday it "was a beautiful thing to watch" New York police officers raiding a Columbia University building occupied by pro-Palestinian students, and called on officials to crack down on campus protests across the United States.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Harvey Weinstein will be retried in New York after rape conviction overturned

Former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein will be retried in New York, the Manhattan District Attorney's Office said in court on Wednesday, a week after the state's highest court threw out his 2020 rape conviction. Weinstein appeared in court before Judge Curtis Farber in a wheelchair and a black suit, more than four years after his conviction was hailed as a milestone for the #MeToo movement, in which women accused hundreds of men in entertainment, media, politics and other fields of sexual misconduct.

VP Harris visits Florida as abortion ban limits women's options

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris sought to blame Republican candidate Donald Trump for Florida's six-week abortion ban that took effect on Wednesday, saying his Supreme Court picks when he was president cleared the way for the policy. The remarks in Jacksonville, Florida, were the latest effort by Harris and President Joe Biden to keep their re-election focus on abortion rights, an issue Democrats are hoping will galvanize voters to pick them.

Bird flu testing shows more dairy products are safe, US FDA says

Preliminary results of tests on additional dairy products show that pasteurization inactivates the bird flu virus, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Wednesday. The FDA released further test results on foods including sour cream and cottage cheese, after reporting last week that preliminary results from testing showed pasteurization kills the H5N1 virus in milk and baby formula.

Republican-led US states sue to block expanded gun background checks

More than two dozen Republican state attorneys general sued the Biden administration on Wednesday to stop a new rule that would require gun dealers to obtain licenses and conduct background checks when selling firearms at gun shows and online.

The lawsuits challenge a rule finalized last month that U.S. Justice Department officials said is aimed at closing the "gun show loophole." Under the rule, those selling weapons at gun shows, other venues and over the internet are subject to the same requirements as gun stores to check the backgrounds of potential buyers.

US appeals court says kids' climate lawsuit must be dismissed

A U.S. appeals court on Wednesday said a lawsuit filed by 21 young people claiming the U.S. government's energy policies violate their rights to be protected from climate change must be dismissed, this time for good. A three-judge panel of the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in a five-page order that the case should have been dismissed after the court first weighed in on the matter in 2020, when it said courts could not mandate broad policy changes that are better left to Congress and the executive branch.

Arizona Senate repeals 1864 abortion ban, governor seen signing quickly

The Arizona Senate voted on Wednesday to repeal the state's 1864 ban on abortion, which could otherwise have taken effect within weeks. The repeal was passed by the Senate in a 16-14 vote and is expected to be quickly signed by Governor Katie Hobbs, a Democrat. Two Republican senators crossed party lines to vote in favor of repealing the ban.

US Democrats press Biden to prevent Israeli assault on Rafah

U.S. President Joe Biden's administration faced renewed pressure on Wednesday from his fellow Democrats to influence Israel not to launch a full-scale invasion of Rafah, the city where almost half of the Gaza Strip's 2.3 million people have taken refuge. Fifty-seven of the 212 Democrats in the House of Representatives signed a letter calling on the administration to take every possible measure to dissuade Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government from an all-out assault on the city near the Egyptian border.

Trump praises New York police raid on Columbia university protesters

Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Wednesday it "was a beautiful thing to watch" New York police officers raiding a Columbia University building occupied by pro-Palestinian students, and called on officials to crack down on campus protests across the United States. "New York was under siege last night," Trump told supporters at a campaign rally in Wisconsin, praising the police officers for arresting about 300 protesters at Columbia and City College of New York who he referred to as "raging lunatics and Hamas sympathizers."

Violence flares at UCLA as police end protests at New York's Columbia

Mounting tensions on U.S. campuses boiled over on Wednesday when pro-Israel supporters attacked an encampment of pro-Palestinian protesters at UCLA, hours after police arrested activists who occupied a building at Columbia University and cleared a tent city from its campus. Eyewitness videos from the University of California at Los Angeles, verified by Reuters, showed people wielding sticks or poles to hammer on wooden boards being used as makeshift barricades to protect the pro-Palestinian protesters before police were called to the campus.

US judge blocks some North Carolina restrictions on abortion pill

A federal judge has struck down parts of a North Carolina law restricting patients' access to the abortion pill mifepristone, which has become the subject of legal battles nationwide. Chief U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles on Tuesday struck down the state's requirements that mifepristone be prescribed only by doctors and only in person, as well as a requirement that patients have an in-person follow-up appointment. She said the requirements conflicted with federal law because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) previously considered and rejected them.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)