For two weeks, President Biden kept his distance from the pro-Palestinian protests roiling college campuses, devoting far more time to Israel-Hamas hostage negotiations than the unrest unfurling at home.

• By yesterday — when Biden delivered unplanned remarks defending students' right to protest but condemning campus violence — it was clear that strategy had become unsustainable, Axios' Zachary Basu and Hans Nichols write.

Why it matters: The next phase of Biden's dueling foreign policy and domestic crises may prove even more difficult.

• In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed — "with or without" a hostage deal — to forge ahead with a ground invasion of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians are sheltering.
• In the U.S., universities are trying to balance protesters' speech rights, while scrambling to avoid high-profile disruptions to graduation ceremonies — including at Morehouse College in Atlanta, where Biden is scheduled to deliver the commencement address.

Biden tried to thread that needle in his remarks at the White House yesterday.

• "We are not an authoritarian nation where we silence people or squash dissent," he said. "Peaceful protest is in the best tradition of how Americans respond to consequential issues. But neither are we a lawless country."

🖼️ The big picture: Wherever Biden turns, Gaza-related backlash seems to follow.

• Protesters — many chanting "Genocide Joe" over his support for Israel — routinely heckle Biden during his public appearances.
• House Republicans, who have spent the past year plagued by extreme dysfunction, are exploiting Democrats' divisions on Israel and antisemitism.
• Then there's the spiraling anxiety about the upcoming Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The party's 1968 convention, in Chicago, was plagued by chaotic protests of the Vietnam War.

The bottom line: The White House still believes ending the war in Gaza is the best — perhaps only — antidote to Biden's foreign policy and domestic crises. But there's no end in sight.

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Police have arrested nearly 2,200 people during pro-Palestinian protests at college campuses during the past two weeks.

• The AP tally includes 56 incidents at 43 different U.S. colleges since April 18.

Deals between four universities and pro-Palestinian protesters offer a rough roadmap for schools seeking to defuse tensions and shut down encampments before commencement, Axios' Sareen Habeshian writes.

• Why it matters: Administrators at Northwestern, Brown, Rutgers and Minnesota found diplomatic alternatives to police force.

🔬 Zoom in: The agreements — including two finalized in the past 36 hours — avoid sweeping and immediate changes to university investments, in favor of scholarships for Palestinian students and expanded academic programs:

1. None of the four schools agreed to divest from companies that do business in Israel or aid the country's war effort, a key demand at schools across the country.
2. All agreed to less concrete concessions around their endowments.
3. Two of the agreements — Northwestern and Rutgers — include scholarships or aid for Palestinian students. They also promised to provide improved space for Muslims on campus.
4. Minnesota told protesters it could explore an affiliation with a Palestinian university.
5. The agreements provide some level of amnesty for students involved in encampments.

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Major news outlets are taking opposite approaches to future-proofing their businesses against the threat of AI — with some opting to partner with AI firms, and others suing them, Axios' Sara Fischer writes.

• Why it matters: Unlike music and book publishers, news outlets are struggling to present a unified front in their fight for copyright protection. That could weaken their leverage in negotiations with Big Tech to license their content.

Eight prominent regional U.S. newspapers joined The New York Times and other news organizations in suing OpenAI (parent of ChatGPT) and Microsoft for copyright infringement this week.

• But several other large news publishers, including the Financial Times, AP and Axel Springer, have instead opted to strike paid deals with AI companies for millions of dollars annually.

💡 Between the lines: Ad-based news businesses depend on visitors sent via search. They fear tech companies will use their content to refine AI-based services that will give users information without sending traffic.

• Licensing businesses, like AP, have less to lose in striking a deal with AI firms: Most of their revenue is already derived from deals providing access to their content.

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China leads the U.S. as a top producer of research in more than half of AI's hottest fields, Axios' Alison Snyder writes from new Georgetown University data shared first with Axios.

• Why it matters: The findings reveal important nuances about the global race between the U.S. and China to lead AI advances, and set standards for the technology and how it is used.

🔭 Zoom out: The dominant narrative for years has been that while Chinese institutions generated the greatest quantity of papers, the quality of those papers wasn't as high.

• But when researchers narrowed their analysis to highly cited papers, the Chinese Academy of Sciences was still the leader. Google is second, followed by China's Tsinghua University, Stanford and MIT.

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The Biden administration is eyeing a new point guard on border issues, with plans to bring in the Department of Homeland Security's Blas Nuñez-Neto, Axios' Stef W. Kight and Alex Thompson have learned.

• Why it matters: A lack of ownership among senior White House officials has hampered President Biden's ability to respond to the border, which has become one of his most vulnerable election issues.

Nuñez-Neto has been closely involved with border issues as assistant secretary for border and immigration policy at DHS.

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The publishers and top editors of The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and New York Times are running a joint letter today to call attention to journalists who are being persecuted for doing their jobs, Axios' Sara Fischer writes.

• Why it matters: The ad, coinciding with World Press Freedom Day, comes as Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich marks more than 400 days detained in a Russian prison on espionage charges. The Journal and U.S. government say the charges are bogus.

It's the second time these news leaders have come together for an ad urging solidarity around press freedoms.

• The publishers ran a joint message urging support from the Biden administration in fighting for the release of Gershkovich last April, just weeks after he was detained.

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Carmakers could soon offer vehicle entertainment systems that seamlessly blend the real world with the digital world, Axios' Joann Muller writes.

• I recently got to try out a new extended-reality racing video game developed by Valeo, a French automotive supplier that makes hardware and software for assisted-driving systems.

Driving the news: Valeo Racer turned our demo car, a Volvo XC90, into a real-time participant in the video game, using the world around it as a digital racetrack.

• From the back seat, I used a video game controller to navigate an animated race car in and out of real traffic, while trying to collect coins and avoid obstacles like traffic cones.

🚘 At times, I feared my little race car would be squished by the giant SUVs and pickups around me.

• I could drive as recklessly as I wanted, jumping over obstacles or spinning out, without any real-world consequences.

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