Gop Leadership Presses Cigarette Tax Vote

On Friday evening, dozens of student activists at Columbia University started another tent encampment on the campus, in an effort to disrupt the university’s upcoming alumni weekend. As Israel’s ground invasion of Rafah continues, the protesters say a new tent village—like the one that garnered national headlines before police brutally cleared it away—is necessary to call attention to the role of the United States in Israel’s war on Gaza and what the students see as the university’s complicity in Israeli abuses.

Colorado has made it a misdemeanor to knowingly carry a firearm onto school grounds, into a polling place or inside a government building under a law signed Friday by Gov. Jared Polis. The ban, which takes effect July 1, includes the open and concealed carry of firearms, and it applies to public and private schools as well as colleges, universities and child care centers.

Colorado’s Front Range Passenger Rail board on Friday decided to delay their pursuit of billions in funding from voters for two years, acknowledging they haven’t completed plans for train service linking cities from Fort Collins to Pueblo. Board members voted 13-0 to continue planning instead of bringing a ballot measure this year. Train frequency, speed, and whether to add “secondary stations” hasn’t been determined. Related Articles Colorado News | Part of RTD A Line to be replaced by shuttle buses Saturday for maintenance Colorado News | Major RTD construction work in downtown Denver starts this weekend Colorado News | Polis signs bills to pump millions of dollars into public transit Colorado News | Part of RTD A Line to be replaced by shuttle buses Tuesday for maintenance Colorado News | Trains, drivers stuck in traffic are likely winners as Colorado lawmakers reach finish “We’re going to be taking a breather,” Front Range Passenger Rail District manager Andy Karsian said ahead of the vote.

In the wake of Donald Trump’s conviction yesterday, far-right influencers have taken to Twitter to express their dismay—and desire for revenge. While some have simply urged Trump supporters to show their support at the ballot box in November, others have gone full apocalypse, urging retribution through thinly disguised calls for violence.

Washington — President Joe Biden on Friday detailed a three-phase deal proposed by Israel to Hamas militants that he says would lead to the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza and could end the grinding, nearly 8-month-old Mideast war. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Biden added that Hamas is “no longer capable” of carrying out another large-scale attack on Israel as he urged Israelis and Hamas to come to a deal to release the remaining hostages for an extended cease-fire. The Democratic president in remarks from the White House called the proposal “a road map to an enduring cease-fire and the release of all hostages.” Biden said the first phase of the proposed deal would would last for six weeks and would include a “full and complete cease-fire,” a withdrawal of Israeli forces from all populated areas of Gaza and the release of a number of hostages, including women, the elderly and the wounded, in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. American hostages would be released at this stage, and remains of hostages who have been killed would be returned to their families.

This article is part of The D. C. Brief, TIME’s politics newsletter. Sign up here to get stories like this sent to your inbox. Even by Donald Trump’s standards, the ex-President’s and newly-minuted felon’s Friday morning free-association session in the lobby of his Midtown Manhattan tower was a doozy—and a warning that the march toward Election Day could be just as befuddling. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Without evidence, Trump claimed once more that the dozen jurors who voted unanimously to convict him on 34 felony charges a day earlier were working at the behest of his political opponent, President Joe Biden.