Farmers were once a cornerstone of civilization. But global economics and environmental needs are now making them fight to survive the modern world.

• Officers killed in North Carolina: A shootout that killed four law enforcement officers began as officers approached a home to serve a warrant to a man with a felony conviction who was wanted for possessing a firearm, police say.
• States sue Biden administration: Nine Republican-led states file lawsuits challenging new Biden administration regulations that bar schools and colleges that receive federal funding from discriminating against students based on their gender identity. 
• Israeli security units under scrutiny: The United States finds five units of Israel’s security forces responsible for gross violations of human rights, though the units are not barred from receiving U.S. military assistance. 
• Trump fined by judge: Former President Donald Trump has been held in contempt of court and fined $9,000 for repeatedly violating a gag order that bars him from making public statements about witnesses, jurors, and some others connected to his New York hush money case. The judge warned that Mr. Trump could be jailed. 

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For protesters, the tactic of occupying buildings at Columbia University and beyond has historical echoes. But it also creates new risks for campuses and for the protesters themselves. 

In the cramped Gaza city of Rafah, the threat of an Israeli invasion gives the overriding sense that nowhere is safe. Even as cease-fire talks enter a crucial stage, Palestinians are scrambling to find a way out.

Before the Israel-Hamas war, an Atlanta college instructor and former politician, who is Black and Jewish, saw an opportunity to bring students from both those groups together. His approach offers a timely model for civil discourse on campus. 

Clashes between humans and wildlife are as old as agriculture. In Uganda, farmers are ensuring a peaceful coexistence with chimpanzees by planting crops just for them.

In one of the world’s most violent crises – which is considered by the United States to be as important as the wars in Gaza and Ukraine – a solution may have started last Thursday.

Haiti’s prime minister, forced into exile by the nation’s powerful gangs, handed over authority to an inclusive group of prominent political leaders to pick a new prime minister and prepare for elections in 2026. Haiti has not held an election for eight years.

“The situation calls us to rise above ourselves,” said interim Prime Minister Michel Patrick Boisvert during a swearing-in ceremony in the besieged capital, Port-au-Prince.

The new nine-person transitional council, however, wasn’t the only act of inclusion.

In March, Haiti’s neighbors in the Caribbean decided to act in a neighborly way, even if only to prevent the migration of Haitian refugees at their shores. The 15-state Caribbean Community saw the power vacuum in Haiti and gathered in Jamaica to help form the transitional council.

Its support in putting together a Haitian-led solution is a good example of how much the world has come to rely on regional groupings of nations – in Africa, Southeast Asia, Europe, and elsewhere – to nudge a troubled neighbor toward peace or democracy.

“At times of deep geopolitical division, it is even more important that regional organisations play an active role,” said James Kariuki, the United Kingdom’s deputy representative to the United Nations.

The Caribbean Community’s support of an interim government in Haiti has already led to a renewal of Kenya’s offer to lead a multinational force of as many as 2,500 officers to quell the violence in Haiti, relying on a recent resolution by the U.N. Security Council.

Such outside support, of course, depends on Haitians themselves finally acting to save their country. “Facing this unprecedented crisis,” said Régine Abraham, a member of the new Haitian council, “the entire population has recognized the urgent need of a firm hand to take us out of this spiral of despair and destruction.”