U.S. and world news for May 3

Employment: Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 175,000 in April, lower than had been forecast. The unemployment rate changed little at 3.9%, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains occurred in health care, in social assistance, and in transportation and warehousing. Both the unemployment rate at 3.9% and the number of unemployed people at 6.5 million changed little in April. The unemployment rate has remained in a narrow range of 3.7% to 3.9% since August 2023.  

Donald’s testimony: Outside of the Manhattan courtroom where he is on trial in the Stormy Daniels hush money scheme, Donald Trump falsely claimed yesterday that he is blocked from testifying in his own defense by the gag order imposed by Judge Juan Merchan. Trump repeated the falsehood a couple of times. The gag order only blocks him from intimidating witnesses and jurors. Trump has said in the past that he planned to take the witness stand during the trial, then changed that to say he might testify in his own defense.

Campus protests: Police in New York City today cleared out pro-Palestinian demonstrators from the New York University property in Manhattan and also the New School. The school administrators asked for police to remove demonstrators who were trespassing. At some other colleges around the U.S., compromises were reached with protestors resulting in tent encampments being dismantled. Among those colleges are Northwestern University, Rutgers, Brown and the University of Minnesota.  

Apples financials: Apple has announced financial results for its fiscal 2024 second quarter that ended March 30, 2024. The company posted quarterly revenue of $90.8 billion, down 4% percent year over year. Net income was $23.6 billion compared with $24.1 billion in the second quarter of last year. Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, said the company is looking forward to what he called an exciting product announcement next week.

Chinese moon launch: China today fired an unmanned spacecraft on a mission to collect samples of soil and rocks from the dark side of the moon and return them to Earth. The spacecraft is supposed to land on a part of the moon that never faces the Earth. It is expected to be back with the lunar samples in 53 days. China says it plans to land its astronauts on the moon by 2030 and will build a manned base there.

Ukraine: British Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron says Britain will provide $3.75 billion in aid to Ukraine each year and that Ukraine can use weapons provided by Britain to attack Russia if it wants to do so. Cameron made the statements while visiting Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv. Ukraine asked Cameron for additional British help to rebuild its electrical infrastructure that has been damaged in Russian attacks.