NTD News Today

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.

Hope Hicks took the stand on day 11 of former President Donald Trump’s New York criminal trial. Ms. Hicks served as director of strategic communications and, later, communications director at the White House during the Trump administration before assuming an advisory position. She described how she handled media requests during President Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.

The Georgia State Senate Special Committee on Investigations held a third hearing to “investigate the allegations of misconduct by the district attorney for Fulton County, Fani Willis, relating to potential conflicts of interest and misuse of public funds.” Lawmakers heard testimony about her hiring of Nathan Wade, a former special prosecutor in Trump's Georgia election case.

Dozens of universities across more than 30 states remain embroiled in confrontations between pro-Palestinian protesters and police, with officials coast-to-coast calling for calm and raising the alarm about the growing presence on campuses of “outside agitators” and counter-demonstrators promoting violence.

President Joe Biden on May 2 decried the violence stemming from pro-Palestinian protesters on American college campuses. “Violent protest is not protected,” he said in an unscheduled speech from the White House. The remarks are the first time the president has spoken out on the issue since the protests escalated this week. They come after violence broke out while police were clearing an encampment at the University of California, Los Angeles.

In former President Donald Trump’s campaign finance trial, Keith Davidson returned to the witness stand to continue his testimony. Mr. Davidson is an attorney who represented Karen McDougal in her deal with American Media Inc. and Stormy Daniels in her deal with Michael Cohen.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has signed a number of bills into law, including tough new immigration enforcement legislation aimed at bolstering public safety. He signed approximately 10 new measures that he said would serve to counteract lawlessness, boost recruitment of law enforcement officers, make communities safer, and provide the state’s judicial system with “even tougher tools to bring violent offenders to justice.”

Authorities cleared out Pro-Palestine encampments Wednesday at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Tulane after the NYPD stepped in at Columbia University Tuesday night, arresting over 300 protestors. New York City Mayor Eric Adams said, “There were those who were never concerned about free speech. They were concerned about chaos. It was about external actors hijacking peaceful protests and influencing students to escalate.”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) says she will force a vote on a measure to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) next week.

As a Florida law prohibiting abortions after six weeks’ gestation took effect on May 1, 40 Days for Life president and CEO Shawn Carney said the important next step is supplying women with other resources.

Former President Donald Trump was fined and held in contempt of court by Justice Juan Merchan on April 30 for what he said were violations of a gag order prohibiting President Trump from discussing certain individuals involved in his campaign finance trial. Prosecutors had sought $1,000-fines for around a dozen Truth Social posts that the former president had made in relation to the case, while Justice Merchan fined him $9,000 for nine posts.

Dozens of students at Columbia University in New York City stormed across the campus and took over a building just one day after the school began suspending students who defied a deadline to disperse from a pro-Palestinian encampment, a spokesperson for the university confirmed to The Epoch Times. Video shows at least one individual breaking windows to gain entry to the hall.

Five Republican-led states are suing the Biden administration over changes to Title IX. The new rules expand federal civil rights law to include discrimination based on gender identity, with critics saying it takes away language that has long been used to protect women's sports. The states involved are Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, and Idaho, while Republican officials in Florida and Oklahoma have said they won’t enforce the new rules.

Columbia University announced on April 29 that negotiations with anti-Israel protesters had stalled, and asked student protesters to "voluntarily disperse" from the campus encampments. The university also said it will hold its commencement ceremony as planned in mid-May, and will not divest from Israel, which is what demonstrators are demanding. This comes as hundreds of protesters have been arrested at college campuses across the United States, from UCLA to Virginia Tech.

At least five people died in Oklahoma and Iowa—including a four-month-old baby—after dozens of twisters swept the Midwest over the weekend. Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt declared a state of emergency across several counties on Sunday, and President Joe Biden has offered the federal government’s support to help with the recovery efforts.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is asking for an investigation into Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley, who made headlines for refusing a traffic stop last week. That's after Ms. Doorley pleaded guilty to speeding, and police bodycam of the interaction was released. Ms. Hochul said that Ms. Doorley had undermined her own ability as a DA to hold others accountable for violating the law.

The Chinese Communist Party is “powering” Russia’s war against Ukraine and Moscow would struggle to sustain its attack without that Chinese support, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on April 26 before leaving China at the end of his three-day trip. Before departing Beijing, Mr. Blinken acknowledged the CCP’s efforts to meddle in U.S. elections. “We have seen, generally speaking, evidence of attempts to influence and, arguably, interfere, and we want to make sure that that’s cut off as quickly as possible,” Mr. Blinken told CNN in Beijing.

David Pecker, the former head of American Media Inc., returned to the witness stand for cross-examination by the defense on day 8 of former President Donald Trump’s campaign finance trial in New York. President Trump has been charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records, which prosecutors say was done in order to cover up a scheme to influence the 2016 elections. The defense is arguing that President Trump has not committed any crimes.

As protests escalate across college and university campuses in the United States, a New York Police Department official has vowed that a “Seattle-style” occupation zone will not be tolerated on the streets of New York City. The comments to Fox News came as anti-Israel demonstrations continued at Columbia University, New York University, and other institutions.

Just 12 hours after the Senate gave its late-night approval, President Joe Biden signed the contentious $95-billion national security package that sends more foreign aid to Ukraine, Israel, and the Indo-Pacific. The legislation also includes a measure that forces TikTok to sever ties with its Chinese parent company, and authorizes the seizure of Russian assets to further fund Ukraine’s war effort.

The Biden administration is trying to create a federal right to abortion in a case about emergency health care standards that the Supreme Court will take up on April 24, Idaho’s attorney general and legal experts say. Specifically, the case is about whether a state law that restricts abortion conflicts with a federal law that forbids “patient dumping”—the practice of hospitals refusing emergency treatment to people who can’t afford to pay for medical services.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Shanghai with a daunting array of unresolved issues further threatening the stability of relations between the United States and China. Blinken will meet with business leaders before heading to Beijing for talks on Friday with his counterpart, foreign minister Wang Yi, and a likely meeting with Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping.

The judge and defense attorneys in former President Donald Trump’s so-called hush money trial engaged in a heated debate Tuesday over whether the defendant violated a gag order with his social media posts. However, the judge did not issue a ruling on whether President Trump had violated the order, as prosecutors had sought.

The Senate on April 23 is expected to advance a $95-billion national security package that includes foreign aid for the war-torn nations of Ukraine and Israel, as well as for the Indo-Pacific region. The bills also include a measure to force TikTok to divest from its Chinese parent company in order to address national security concerns. It comes three days after the House passed the bills with bipartisan support over the objections of those in the GOP’s right flank.

Pro-Palestinian protests are entering their seventh day at Columbia University, as encampments spread to other campuses across the country. Columbia canceled in-person classes, dozens of protesters were arrested at New York University and Yale, and the gates to Harvard Yard were closed to the public as top U.S. universities sought to defuse tensions over the Israel–Hamas war. The protests have sparked safety concerns for Jewish students who, in some cases, have been blocked from attending classes or bombarded with anti-Semitic abuse.

Former President Donald Trump’s so-called hush money trial in New York resumed on April 22, with opening statements from both sides and the first witnesses taking the stand. President Trump called on would-be demonstrators to “go out and peacefully protest” against the case. Before entering the courtroom, the former president said, "This is election interference, everybody knows it."

Columbia University has canceled in-person classes, and new demonstrations have broken out on other U.S. college campuses as tensions continue to grow over the Israel–Hamas war. On Sunday, a rabbi at Columbia sent a WhatsApp message to more than 200 Jewish students, urging them to leave the New York City campus if they did not feel safe. Following arrests last week at Columbia, pro-Palestinian demonstrators set up protest encampments on other campuses around the country.

The Supreme Court is considering whether banning homeless people from sleeping outside when shelter space is lacking amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. The case is considered the most significant argument on homelessness to come before the nation's highest court in decades, as incidences of illegal camping and homelessness reach record levels in the United States.