Judge Threatens to Jail Trump For Gag Order Violations; Columbia Cancels Main Commencement Ceremony

The judge presiding over former President Donald Trump’s so-called hush money trial fined him a further $1,000 on May 6 for once again violating his gag order, and warned the former president that additional violations could result in jail time. The fine marks the second time since the trial began last month that President Trump has been sanctioned for violating the order, which bars him from speaking about certain individuals connected to the case. He was fined $9,000 last week, or $1,000 for each of nine violations.

The main university-wide commencement ceremony held annually at Columbia University in New York has been canceled after weeks of pro-Palestinian protests on campus. The university said in a statement that the decision had been made after hearing feedback from student leaders. Many of the same students had their high school graduations interrupted at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. President Trump criticized Columbia’s decision before his trial began on Monday, saying such a cancellation “shouldn’t happen.”

A Moscow court on May 4 ordered the two-month detention of Russian Falun Gong practitioner Natalya Minenkova on the basis of her beliefs, pending an investigation. It’s the first such action Russia has taken as the nation increasingly leans toward communist China. The hearing came after police raided the homes of five practitioners of the peaceful meditation discipline, which has faced brutal persecution in China since 1999. Ms. Minenkova was one of four people detained.