Happy Friday! It took just two days for Catholic Answers to “defrock” its new artificial intelligence priest, Father Justin, after the AI apparently claimed it had been ordained by a real-life bishop, offered a user the sacrament of reconciliation, and even claimed it was A-okay to baptize a baby with Gatorade in an emergency.

Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories

• The U.S. State Department on Wednesday formally accused Russia of using chemical weapons in its war against Ukraine. American officials said that Russia has repeatedly deployed chloropicrin, a choking agent used extensively in World War I, to “dislodge” Ukrainian positions, leading the U.S. to impose sanctions on companies with ties to Russia’s chemical weapons program. Anatoly Antonov, Russia’s ambassador to the United States, called the accusations “odious and unsubstantiated.”
• Turkey stopped all trade with Israel on Thursday over the “worsening humanitarian tragedy in Palestine,” the Turkish Trade Ministry said in a statement. The move follows restrictions Turkey imposed in April on the export of products like cement and jet fuel to Israel. “Turkey will firmly and decisively implement these new measures until the government of Israel allows an uninterrupted and sufficient flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza,” the ministry said.
• At least 29 people have died and 60 are missing after heavy rains and mudslides in Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost state in Brazil, authorities said on Thursday. The flooding has displaced more than 10,000 people in what the state’s governor, Eduardo Leite, described as “the worst climate disaster that our state ever faced.”
• President Joe Biden on Thursday criticized anti-Israel protesters on college campuses while affirming the right to peaceful protest in his first prepared remarks on the subject since the wave of encampments began two weeks ago. “Dissent is essential for democracy,” Biden said. “But dissent must never lead to disorder.” When asked if the protests had any influence on his Middle East policy, Biden answered, “No.” Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Police Department cleared the University of California, Los Angeles encampment on Thursday morning, making 209 arrests. 
• Arizona Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs on Thursday signed into law a repeal of the state’s 1864 abortion law, which banned abortions from the moment of conception with exceptions only to save the life of the mother. The repeal passed Arizona’s Republican-controlled Senate in a 16-14 vote earlier this week after two Republicans, along with all 14 Democrats, supported the legislation. The repeal will not go into effect until 90 days after the state legislature adjourns sometime this summer, at which point the state’s 15-week prohibition passed in 2022 will take effect. The 1864 ban could go into force briefly over the summer since Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes’ office estimates the April state Supreme Court decision that allowed the 1864 law to supersede the 2022 regulations will enter into force on June 27. Planned Parenthood Arizona filed a motion with the state Supreme Court on Thursday asking it to block that April decision until after the repeal can go into effect.
• Meanwhile, a six-week abortion ban took effect in Florida on Wednesday, after the state’s Supreme Court decided last month that its constitution does not provide a right to abortion access. However, Florida voters will decide the future of the six-week ban in November in a vote on a constitutional amendment that would make abortion broadly legal in Florida if passed.

Chaos Reigns on College Campuses

WASHINGTON—On the quad at George Washington University (GW) on Thursday afternoon, a statue of the school’s namesake loomed over the scores of people in medical masks chanting, “We do not engage with Zionists ever,” and, “Divest now or go to hell.” 

A Palestinian flag was tied around Washington’s neck like a cape, and a smaller flag had been placed in his hand. Someone had wrapped the first president’s bronze head in at least one keffiyeh—the cloth garment that has come to symbolize the anti-Israel protests—leaving only a slit for his eyes to watch as students, faculty, and random people wandering on H Street in Washington, D.C., banged pots together and hoisted signs.

Scribbled across the pedestal on which Washington stands was an acrostic: “Genocidal Warmongering University.” Behind him, a sea of tents populated the so-called “liberated” zone set up a week ago. A sign taped to a potted shrub nearby said, “Anti-zionism is not antisemitism.” Last week, a man was spotted there toting a sign with the words “final solution” emblazoned on it, a reference to Nazi Germany’s genocidal plans for Europe’s Jewish population during the Holocaust. On Thursday, someone told two counter-protesters waving American and Israeli flags that “we don’t want no rats here.”