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The judge overseeing Donald Trump’s Manhattan “hush money” trial threatened to jail the former president if he continued to harass witnesses and jurors, after concluding that fines had failed to deter the defendant from repeatedly violating a court-imposed gag order.

Justice Juan Merchan issued the final warning as he found Trump in criminal contempt for a 10th time, over comments made online and to the media. The presumptive Republican nominee has so far been fined $10,000 — $1,000 per violation — which is the maximum financial penalty allowed by New York State law.

“Going forward, this court will have to consider jail sanction,” Merchan said on Monday morning, directly addressing Trump. He added this was “the last thing I want to do”.

“There are many reasons why incarceration is truly the last resort for me,” Merchan continued. “The magnitude of the decision is not lost on me.”

Under the relevant statute, defendants held in criminal contempt can be sent to jail for 30 days. However, the constitutional questions raised by imprisoning a presidential candidate have not been raised before, nor have the logistical arrangements required for remanding a defendant who travels with a Secret Service detail been considered.

Merchan’s caution came as he found Trump in criminal contempt for a television interview last month in which he had claimed it was “unfair” that the jury had been picked from an area that was “95 per cent Democrats”. This comment “not only called into question the integrity, and therefore the legitimacy of these proceedings, but again raised the spectre of fear for the safety of the jurors and of their loved ones,” the judge concluded in a written order.

However, Merchan declined to hold Trump in contempt for three other comments that prosecutors had claimed violated the order. Two statements to the media in which Trump attacked his former fixer — and potential star witness — Michael Cohen may have been “protected political speech made in response to political attacks”, he wrote.

Trump’s lawyers had claimed that their client was merely responding to vituperative attacks by Cohen, a vocal critic of the former president and a ubiquitous media presence. 

Merchan again agreed with Trump’s defence team over a comment in which Trump had said that witness David Pecker, the former tabloid publisher, had “been very nice”. The court “cannot find beyond a reasonable doubt that the statement in question constituted a veiled threat to Mr Pecker or to other witnesses,” Merchan wrote.

In his comments to Trump in court, Merchan left no doubt that he would not err on the side of leniency if further violations warranted a sterner response.

“I cannot allow [the violations] to continue,” he said. “I have done everything I can”.

On his way into court on Monday, Trump once again complained that Merchan had “taken away [his] constitutional right to speak”.

Protesters seen in tents on Columbia University’s campus on April 24. The school later suspended protesters who didn’t leave, and called New York City police to arrest those who occupied a building on campus.

Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

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Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

Protesters seen in tents on Columbia University’s campus on April 24. The school later suspended protesters who didn’t leave, and called New York City police to arrest those who occupied a building on campus.

Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

After a tumultuous few weeks on campus, Columbia University is changing its graduation plans, canceling its main ceremony to focus on multiple school-specific celebrations instead.

Officials at the New York City institution said in their Monday announcement that based on feedback from students, they will prioritize Class Days and school-level ceremonies, “where students are honored individually alongside their peers,” rather than the universitywide ceremony that had been scheduled for May 15.

“Our students emphasized that these smaller-scale, school-based celebrations are most meaningful to them and their families,” the announcement reads. “They are eager to cross the stage to applause and family pride and hear from their school’s invited guest speakers. As a result, we will focus our resources on those school ceremonies and on keeping them safe, respectful, and running smoothly.”

As part of that effort, the university is relocating those ceremonies, which were originally scheduled to take place on the South Lawn — where protesters picketed and camped out in tents for two weeks, calling for an end to war in Gaza and university investment in Israel, until police cleared out campus last Wednesday.

Those ceremonies will move to the Baker Athletics Complex, Columbia’s main venue for outdoor sports. The events will run from May 10-16, with tickets required. Columbia College will hold its ceremony on the morning of May 14, followed by the affiliated Barnard College the next day.

Columbia President Minouche Shafik had previously requested a New York Police Department presence on campus through at least May 17, “to maintain order and ensure encampments are not reestablished.”

She wrote to the NYPD on April 30, as police arrived to remove pro-Palestinian protesters who had occupied a building on campus earlier that day. It was the second time that month that Shafik called in city police to break up protests on campus.

Police broke up the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” and arrested more than 100 people on April 18, the day after it was first set up. Demonstrators regrouped, forming another encampment that continued to grow even as administrators negotiated with student activists over an agreement that would result in its removal.

On April 29, after negotiations stalled, Columbia began suspending students who did not heed its warning to leave the encampment by 2 p.m. The next day, dozens of students began occupying Hamilton Hall — in an echo of the school’s 1968 protests — and barricading themselves inside.

The university — which had already shifted to hybrid learning for the rest of the semester — was essentially under lockdown. Police entered Hamilton Hall, arresting 112 protesters. New York City officials said over the weekend that 29% of them were not affiliated with the school.

Shafik has faced widespread criticism and calls to resign from both sides of the aisle over her handling of the protest, though maintains the backing of Columbia’s board of trustees.

Officials acknowledged on Monday that “these past few weeks have been incredibly difficult for our community.”

And they said they are continuing to solicit student feedback about the possibility of a “festive event on May 15 to take the place of a large, formal ceremony.”

Columbia is the second major university to cancel part of its graduation ceremony. The University of Southern California announced in late April that it would cancel its main graduation ceremony, several days and considerable backlash after it scrapped its valedictorian speech over security concerns.

Other schools are forging ahead with graduation as planned, but expecting — and for some, already experiencing — protests during the day. Over the weekend, students and faculty at Indiana University held an alternate graduation ceremony, while dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters waving flags and banners briefly disrupted the University of Michigan’s graduation.

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

The Israeli military has told tens of thousands of Palestinians to leave the southern Gazan city of Rafah as Israel’s defence minister warned of an imminent military “operation” as talks to free Israeli hostages appeared to have stalled.

At least 100,000 civilians in eastern Rafah, along the border with Israel, should move to what Israel calls a humanitarian zone on the Mediterranean, an Israel Defence Force spokesperson told reporters, in “a limited scope” operation as part of a “gradual plan”.

Yoav Gallant, the Israeli defence minister, told troops in Gaza on Sunday that there were “worrying signs” that negotiations over a ceasefire and a hostage swap with militant group Hamas were flailing.

“The implication of this is an operation in Rafah and all of the Gaza Strip in the very near future,” he said. “We are a moment before action.”

Israel had previously suspended its plans to invade Rafah to allow for indirect negotiations with Hamas over the release of hostages to proceed, Gallant told the troops. The failure of those talks would put those plans back into play, he said.

The evacuation order came amid conflicting reports on the progress of negotiations that could see as many as 33 Israeli hostages freed by Hamas during a six-week pause in hostilities that would have delayed any Israeli operation in Rafah.

Hamas had proposed that the six-week pause be part of a broader deal in which the remaining hostages, many of them soldiers abducted during the October 7 attacks, would be freed in exchange for a more lasting ceasefire.

Israel would have simultaneously released hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, including those convicted of violence against Israeli civilians.

But a senior Israeli official said over the weekend that the IDF would “enter Rafah and destroy the remaining Hamas battalions there — whether or not there will be a temporary pause for the release of our hostages”.

A Hamas spokesperson told the Al-Aqsa TV channel that the militant group continued to insist on a “permanent ceasefire” before it would agree to free any hostages, a stumbling block that has derailed prior negotiations.

CIA director Bill Burns is expected to visit Israel after talks in recent days in Cairo and Doha with mediators on the details of the proposal, which is being brokered by the US, Egypt and Qatar.

The proposal, at present being studied by Hamas, leaves open the possibility of continued negotiations during an initial limited ceasefire. This could see more of the estimated 132 hostages — including kidnapped soldiers — freed in exchange for a “sustainable calm”.

The evacuation order came after four Israeli soldiers were killed on Sunday in a mortar attack on the Israeli side of the area being evacuated, near the Kerem Shalom border crossing that is crucial for humanitarian aid deliveries into Gaza.

The IDF spokesperson declined to say if the order was prompted by the attack. The attack “was a reminder of Hamas’s presence”, he said.

Israel’s western allies have repeatedly warned it not to invade Rafah without a detailed plan to protect the more than 1mn Palestinian civilians who have sought shelter in the southern edge of the besieged enclave.

Humanitarian conditions in Rafah remain dire, with food and water shortages that have been exacerbated by the influx of displaced Palestinians from the devastated north of the enclave. UNRWA, the UN relief agency for Palestinians, said it would continue working in Rafah despite the evacuation order, which Israel started communicating with flyers dropped from planes, text messages and phone calls.

The Mawasi humanitarian zone where Israel has told civilians to move is about the size of Heathrow airport, with tent cities set up by international aid organisations and limited field hospitals. The IDF said it would expand the “humanitarian” area.

Egypt has repeatedly said that it opposes any Israeli military operation in Rafah, especially along the so-called Philadelphi Corridor, which runs alongside its border with the Gaza Strip. A map of the evacuation order appears to also include the Rafah border crossing, a major conduit for humanitarian aid.

Gallant spoke late on Sunday with US defence secretary Lloyd Austin, who repeated Washington’s concerns that any Israeli military operation in Rafah must include a “credible” plan for protecting civilians.

The IDF spokesperson declined to comment on whether Israel’s current plans had been submitted to or approved by the US.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right coalition allies have threatened to collapse his government if he accepts an end to the war in Gaza without dismantling the remaining Hamas battalions that Israel says are now in Rafah.