For today, links to reports from Reuters, the Associated Press, National Public Radio, Middle East Monitor, and the Public’s Radio, and to commentary from a Substack writer; others are accessible by clicking on their names or initials below. (UKRAINE entry for this date is HERE.) — MCM

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UCLA campus protests over Gaza war erupt into violent clashes between rival groups, by David Swanson | Reuters  LOS ANGELES — Police deployed in force on the University of California in Los Angeles campus this morning after Israel supporters attacked a camp set up by pro-Palestinian protesters. Witness footage from the scene showed . . . READ MORE . . .

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Dueling protesters clash at UCLA hours after police clear pro-Palestinian demonstration at Columbia, by Jake Offenhartz, Joseph B. Frederick, Ethan Swope and Stefanie Danio | AP  LOS ANGELES — Dueling groups of protesters clashed today at the University of California, Los Angeles, grappling in fistfights and shoving, kicking and using sticks to beat one another. Hours earlier, police burst into a building at Columbia University that . . . READ MORE . . .

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Blinken urges Israel and Hamas to move ahead with a cease-fire deal and says ‘the time is now,’ by Matthew Lee and Sam Mednick | AP  JERUSALEM — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Israeli leaders today in his push for a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas, saying “the time is now” for an agreement that would free hostages and bring a pause in the nearly seven months of war in Gaza. He said Hamas would . . . READ MORE . . .

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In Israel, Blinken set to push Netanyahu for sustained aid into Gaza, by Humeyra Pamuk | Reuters  TEL AVIV – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken today kicked off a series of meetings with Israeli leaders aimed at discussing how to get more humanitarian aid into Gaza while, at the same time, repeatedly urging Palestinian militant group Hamas . . . READ MORE . . .

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Hamas official says Blinken ceasefire comments are attempt to pressure the group. From Reuters. CAIRO — Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said today that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is blaming the delay of a Gaza ceasefire agreement on the Palestinian group unfairly. Blinken, meeting Israeli leaders . . . READ MORE . . .

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Israel’s prime minister worries the ICC will soon issue arrest warrants for Israelis. A Martínez of NPR speaks with Oona Hathaway, professor of international law at Yale University, about how International Criminal Court arrest warrants might affect the war in Gaza. Click HERE to listen and, later, read.

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At Brown University, protesters and administrators reach deal to end encampment. Reported by Olivia Ebertz | the Public’s Radio / NPR  Brown University leaders have agreed to hold a vote on divesting from companies that support Israel, and pro-Palestinian student demonstrators agreed to clear their encampment. Click HERE to listen and, later, read.

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FROM APRIL 30  ‘Yes, it is genocide’ in Gaza says Israeli professor of Holocaust studies. From Middle East Monitor.  In a blistering essay on the mass killing and devastation in Gaza, Amos Goldberg, professor of Holocaust History at the department of Jewish history and contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has argued that Israel is committing the crime genocide. “It is so difficult and painful to admit it . . . READ MORE . . .

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Where are the National Intelligence Estimates? By Seymour M. Hersh | SeymourHersh.substack  NIEs are produced on request from the president and his senior policymakers by a team of National Intelligence Officers at work at America’s senior intelligence office, the National Intelligence Council —  scholars in their fields, committed to supplying non-political assessments, housed at CIA headquarters but known to be fiercely independent. READ MORE . . .