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Today’s top stories

Law enforcement officers are moving into a pro-Palestinian encampment at UCLA. Violence erupted this week on UCLA’s campus when counter-protesters attempted to forcibly dismantle the tents. Journalists and protest organizers say fireworks and tear gas were used. The confrontation was a flashpoint among dozens of university protests against the war in Gaza that have broken out nationwide.

Counterprotesters try to dismantle a pro-Palestinian encampment set up on the University of California, Los Angeles campus in the early hours of Wednesday.

Etienne Laurent/AFP via Getty Images

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Counterprotesters try to dismantle a pro-Palestinian encampment set up on the University of California, Los Angeles campus in the early hours of Wednesday.

Etienne Laurent/AFP via Getty Images

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• The nationwide protests began at Columbia University, where police cleared out an encampment and occupied campus building Tuesday night. On Up First, NPR’s Martin Kaste compares the police response to 1968 when Columbia students protested the Vietnam War. Kaste talked about some of these differences with Chuck Wexler, who runs the Police Executive Research Forum. Wexler thinks that in most cases, protesters are getting more careful treatment by the police. Still, injuries have been reported, and police trainer Russ Hicks says he’s seen some officers lose their cool. 
• The U.S. House of Representatives voted to pass an antisemitism bill Wednesday with bipartisan support. The measure would adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism for use in the enforcement of federal anti-discrimination laws in education programs. Some Democrats voiced concerns, however, that the international group’s definition could be broad enough to include protected free speech.   

Arizona lawmakers have voted to repeal a Civil War-era abortion ban. Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs is expected to sign the bill into law today. But it won’t go into effect until 90 days after the state’s legislative session — meaning the near-total abortion ban could temporarily go into effect before the repeal takes it off the books.

• “This has really revealed a schism in the Republican party,” says Ben Giles of NPR network station KJZZ in Phoenix, Ariz. Party leaders like Donald Trump have called on Republicans to fix or repeal the law. But Giles says rank-and-file Republicans in the state, like Sen. Jake Hoffman, who leads the local version of the Freedom Caucus, say the law was great. 
• As abortion continues to be a key issue heading into the 2024 presidential election, a new poll shows voters are more divided by party on the issue than ever before.

Donald Trump yesterday held his first campaign rallies since the start of his criminal hush money trial in New York. In lengthy speeches in Waukesha, Wisc., and Freeland, Mich., Trump focused on what a second term would look like and the consequences if he doesn’t win.

• With his limited campaign schedule, NPR’s Danielle Kurtzleben says Trump is focusing on the new “Protect the Vote” program his campaign and the RNC recently rolled out. The program aims to get a “massive force of people” to watch poll workers and make sure ballots are counted correctly. Kurtzleben says the “renewed, early, organized sustained” push for this program doubles down on “the Big Lie” that Trump and the Republican party have been telling about who won the 2020 election.

How to thrive as you age

A man is walking up the steps of an underground passage

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A man is walking up the steps of an underground passage

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How to Thrive as You Age is a special series from NPR’s Allison Aubrey about the secrets and science of longevity.

Are you an elevator person or a stairs person? Your choice could help you live longer. A new meta-analysis presented at a European Society of Cardiology conference found that people in the habit of climbing stairs had about a 39% lower likelihood of death from heart disease, compared to those who didn’t climb stairs. They also had a lower risk of heart attacks and strokes.

• How many stairs are enough? One study found climbing six to ten flights a day was linked to a reduced risk of premature death. Another found climbing more than five flights a day lowered the risk of cardiovascular disease by 20%.
• The benefits can kick in quickly. One study found that four to eight weeks is all you need to start seeing an improvement in your life.
• But if you’re not a regular stair climber, researchers say you should start slowly.

Picture show

Aviva Siegel, who was held hostage in Gaza for 51 days, and whose husband Keith remains in Hamas captivity, spends time with her eight-year-old granddaughter Yali Tiv at her daughter’s home on Kibbutz Gazit on March 26. Aviva has been staying with her daughter in northern Israel since being released in November.

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Aviva Siegel, who was held hostage in Gaza for 51 days, and whose husband Keith remains in Hamas captivity, spends time with her eight-year-old granddaughter Yali Tiv at her daughter’s home on Kibbutz Gazit on March 26. Aviva has been staying with her daughter in northern Israel since being released in November.

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Tamir Kalifa/Tamir Kalifa for NPR

Aviva Siegel, 63, was taken hostage by Hamas militants on Oct. 7, along with her husband Keith. She was released after 51 days, but he was not. Recently, Hamas released a video showing Keith alive.

See photos of Aviva and her family since her release, and read about how life has changed for them as they wait with hope for Keith’s return.

Check out npr.org/mideastupdates for more coverage and analysis of the conflict.

3 things to know before you go

Angie Cox, left, and Joelle Henneman hug after an approval vote at the United Methodist Church General Conference that repealed their church’s longstanding ban on LGBTQ clergy and same-sex weddings.

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Angie Cox, left, and Joelle Henneman hug after an approval vote at the United Methodist Church General Conference that repealed their church’s longstanding ban on LGBTQ clergy and same-sex weddings.

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1. The United Methodist Church, one of the largest Protestant denominations in the U.S., has voted to repeal its ban on LGBTQ+ clergy and the prohibition on its ministers from officiating at same-sex weddings.
2. Scientists say the bird flu spreading among dairy cattle poses a low risk to humans. But federal health officials say they’ve started trying to develop a vaccine, just in case.
3. If you’re an adventurous eater, you may want to take advantage of the two broods of cicadas that are about to emerge from the ground. Chef Joseph Yoon shares some delectable ways to cook the bugs.

This newsletter was edited by Majd Al-Waheidi and Obed Manuel.

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump faces the prospect of additional sanctions in his hush money trial as he returns to court Thursday for another contempt hearing followed by testimony from a lawyer who represented two women who have said they had sexual encounters with the former president.

The testimony from attorney Keith Davidson is seen as a vital building block for the prosecution’s case that Trump and his allies schemed to bury unflattering stories in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election. He is one of multiple key players expected to be called to the stand in advance of prosecutors’ star witness, Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and personal fixer.

Prosecutors are seeking $1,000 fines for each of four comments by Trump that they say violated a judge’s gag order barring him from attacking witnesses, jurors and others closely connected to the case. Such a penalty would be on top of a $9,000 fine that Judge Juan M. Merchan imposed on Tuesday related to nine separate gag order violations that he found.

It was not immediately clear when Merchan might rule on the request for fresh sanctions, but the prospect of further punishment underscores the challenges Trump the presidential candidate is facing in adjusting to the role of criminal defendant subject to rigid courtroom protocol that he does not control. It also remains to be seen whether any rebuke from the court will lead Trump to adjust his behavior given the campaign trail benefit he believes he derives from painting the case as politically motivated.

During a one-day break from the trial on Wednesday, Trump kept up his condemnation of the case, though stopped short of comments that might run afoul of the gag order.

“There is no crime,” he told supporters in Waukesha, Wisconsin. “I have a crooked judge, is a totally conflicted judge.”

The trial, now in its second week of testimony, has exposed the underbelly of tabloid journalism practices and the protections, for a price, afforded to Trump during his successful run for president in 2016.

The case concerns hush money paid to squelch embarrassing stories, including from a porn actor and a former Playboy model, and reimbursements by Trump that prosecutors say were intentionally fraudulent and designed to conceal the true purpose of the payments and to interfere in the election.

The former publisher of the National Enquirer, David Pecker, testified last week that he offered to be the “eyes and ears” of the Trump campaign and described in detail his role in purchasing a sordid tale from a New York City doorman that was later determined to not be true as well as accusations of an extramarital affair with former Playboy model Karen McDougal.

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The goal was to prevent the stories from getting out, a concern that was especially pointed in the aftermath of the disclosure of a 2005 “Access Hollywood” recording in which he was heard describing grabbing women without their permission.

A separate $130,000 payment was made by Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and personal fixer, to porn actor Stormy Daniels, to prevent her claims of a 2006 sexual encounter with Trump from surfacing.

Trump’s company then reimbursed Cohen and logged the payments to him as legal expenses, prosecutors have said in charging the former president with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records — a charge punishable by up to four years in prison.

Returning to the stand Thursday will be Keith Davidson, a lawyer who represented both Daniels and McDougal in their negotiations with the National Enquirer and Cohen.

He testified that he arranged a meeting at his Los Angeles office during the summer of 2016 to see whether the tabloid’s parent company American Media, Inc. was interested in McDougal’s story. At first, they demurred, saying she “lacked documentary evidence of the interaction,” Davidson testified.

But the tabloid at Pecker’s behest eventually bought the rights, and Davidson testified that he understood — and McDougal preferred — it would never be published. One reason for that, he said, is that there was an “unspoken affiliation” between Pecker and Trump and a desire by the company that owned the Enquirer to not publish stories that would hurt Trump.

The morning will begin with another gag order hearing. The four statements at issue were made by Trump before Merchan warned on Tuesday that additional violations could result in jail time.

They include comments to reporters and in interviews assailing Cohen’s integrity.