Lightning strikes fall on fishing boats docked in New Bedford, Mass., on Thursday as a storm rolls over the region. The Standard-Times via AP

Nation

Massachusetts

Graduates walk out of commencement

CAMBRIDGE — Hundreds of students in graduation robes walked out of the Harvard commencement chanting “Free, free Palestine” after weeks of protests on campus.

School officials announced Wednesday, the day before Thursday’s graduation, that 13 Harvard students who participated in a protest encampment would not be able to receive diplomas alongside their classmates. A student speaker recognized the 13 students and said she is deeply disappointed by the intolerance for freedom of speech and the right to civil disobedience on campus.

District of Columbia

US to announce $275M for Ukraine

WASHINGTON — Two U.S. officials say the Biden administration is expected to announce an additional $275 million in military aid for Ukraine on Friday. It comes as Kyiv struggles to hold off advances by Russian troops in the Kharkiv region.

This will be the fourth installment of military aid for Ukraine since Congress passed a long-delayed foreign aid bill last month.

North Carolina

Universities board axes diversity policy

RALEIGH — North Carolina’s public university system will likely see existing diversity jobs cut after its governing board voted Thursday to repeal its current diversity policy.

The old policy outlines various diversity-related jobs in the University of North Carolina system and the new changes remove mention of those roles, suggesting their elimination.

World

Hurricane season likely to be busy

Get ready for what nearly all the experts think will be one of the busiest Atlantic hurricane seasons on record thanks to unprecedented ocean heat and a brewing La Nina.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says there’s an 85% chance that the Atlantic hurricane season that starts in June will be above average in storm activity. An average Atlantic hurricane season produces 14 named storms, seven of which become hurricanes and three major hurricanes.

Mexico

Stage collapse kills at least 9 people

SAN PEDRO GARZA GARCIA — At least nine people are dead and 121 more injured after the collapse of a stage during a campaign rally in the northern Mexican state of Nuevo Leon.

The state’s governor confirmed the tragedy and said a child was among the dead. A strong gust of wind caused the stage to collapse during an event attended by presidential long-shot candidate Jorge Álvarez Máynez.

United Arab Emirates

Iran inters late president at Shiite site

DUBAI — Iran has interred late President Ebrahim Raisi at the holiest Shiite shrine in the nation, days after a fatal helicopter crash killed him, the country’s foreign minister and six others.

Raisi was placed Thursday inside a tomb at the Imam Reza Shrine in Mashhad, where Shiite Islam’s eighth imam is buried. Raisi is the first top government official to be buried at the shrine since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.