U.S. and world news for May 1

Demonstrations: New York City police overnight entered the Columbia University campus in Manhattan and arrested the pro-Palestinian protesters who were occupying Hamilton Hall. They also cleared protesters from the tent city that had been set up on campus. City officials said that they have identified professional agitators who mixed in with Columbia students and took over the demonstrations in an effort to promote violence. New York police also broke up a demonstration at City College of New York. At the University of California at Los Angeles there was violence as police broke up the demonstrations there.

Trump and Time: Donald Trump gave two interviews to Time magazine and Time has now published the story that tells what Trump plans to do if returned to the White House. Trump would support requiring government to track the progress of all pregnancies so the government would know if any woman had an abortion. He would use the U.S. military against civilians and allow soldiers round up people to be deported. Trump told Time magazine he would not rule out violence if he loses the next election. If he wins, he would not allow anyone who believes Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election to work for the federal government.

Abortion ban: Florida’s new ban on abortion goes into effect today with women blocked from having an abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. However, most women do not know that they’re pregnant within the first six weeks. Vice President Harris, speaking at a campaign event today in Jacksonville, Florida, blames Donald Trump for overturning Roe v. Wade and all of the new abortion restrictions that have been adopted by Republican-controlled states.

Interest rates: The Federal Reserve is expected to allow interest rates to remain where they are when a two-day meeting concludes today. It’s anticipated that Fed Chairman Jerome Powell will tell an afternoon news conference that inflation still is too high for the Fed to begin cutting interest rates. While Powell had recently hinted that the Fed would make three rate cuts this year, it is expected that he will be delivering a message not to expect interest rate cuts anytime soon.

Louisiana map: By a two to one vote, a federal appeals court has thrown out a newly-drawn Congressional voting map that created a second Black majority district in Louisiana. Two judges appointed by Donald Trump voted against allowing a second Black majority district while a judge appointed by Bill Clinton voted to allow it. The new voting district map had been created after a federal court ruled that the map that had been in effect in Louisiana discriminated against Black voters.

Pfizer financials: Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer today reported first quarter 2024 revenues of $14.9 billion, down about 20% from the first quarter of 2023 when revenues were $18.4 billion. Adjusted income for the first quarter of 2024 was $4.6 billion compared with $7 billion for last year’s first quarter. Pfizer said it expects full-year 2024 revenues to be in the range of $58.5 to $61.5 billion. It said first quarter sales of the Covid-19 drug Paxlovid fell by 50% to $2 billion, due to lower demand especially in China.