Happy Thursday! Don’t show up to Mother’s Day brunch this weekend empty-handed; give mom the gift of fact-based news and expert analysis that respects her intelligence and her time.

Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories

• The papal conclave in Rome did not elect a new pope during their first round of voting on Wednesday, signaled by the black smoke above the Sistine Chapel. Following the death of Pope Francis last month, 133 cardinals will vote to select the new pope in the coming days. Although the closed-door process does not have a set length, the last five papal elections have not taken more than three days. Voting will continue Thursday morning, and if a pope is successfully chosen, white smoke will billow above the chapel. 
• Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will meet with China’s lead economic and trade representative, He Lifeng, in Switzerland this weekend. The talks are expected to focus on reducing the tariffs on U.S. and Chinese goods—which stand at 125 percent and 145 percent, respectively—rather than a full trade deal. The officials will seek de-escalation, Bessent said, describing the current tariff rates as unsustainable. But President Donald Trump indicated Wednesday that Washington would not lower its levies on Chinese products ahead of the scheduled talks.
• The Federal Reserve on Wednesday held interest rates steady amid concerns over the economic impact of the Trump administration’s tariffs. “If the large increases in tariffs that have been announced are sustained,” Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said at a news conference yesterday, “they are likely to generate a rise in inflation, a slowdown in economic growth, and an increase in unemployment.” But Powell also expressed his apprehension about moving too fast to adjust rates, adding that the Fed is going to “be patient.” His comments lowered expectations for a rate cut in June, with analysts predicting that borrowing rates will remain at their target range of 4.25 to 4.5 percent. 
• Dozens of masked pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protesters occupied Columbia University’s Butler Library on Wednesday, prompting university administrators to ask the New York City Police Department to clear the demonstrators. Two public safety officers were injured in the incident, according to Columbia’s acting president. In a statement, the protesters called on students to “propagate the successes of the heroic Palestinian armed resistance in weakening Israel and U.S. imperialism.” They also asserted that they were renaming the library “Basel Al-Araj Popular University,” after a Palestinian man accused of plotting attacks against Israelis before he was killed in a shootout with Israeli soldiers in 2017. The protests came just over a year after anti-Israel protesters briefly occupied Columbia’s Hamilton Hall.
• U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy on Wednesday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deporting immigrants to Libya—or to any country where they are not citizens—without due process. The ruling followed reports on Tuesday that a military aircraft was preparing to transport a group of migrants to Libya, a country with a history of human rights violations and political turmoil. In his ruling, Murphy stated that the move, if undertaken without giving immigrants a chance to raise fear-based claims, would defy his earlier order blocking deportations to third countries. 
• President Trump announced plans on Wednesday to nominate Dr. Casey Means to serve as surgeon general after the White House withdrew its previous nominee, Dr. Janette Nesheiwat. Nesheiwat, a medical contributor on Fox News, was found last month to have misrepresented details about her medical education, sparking a controversy that MAGA activist Laura Loomer reportedly used to encourage Trump to pick a different nominee. Means is a wellness influencer in the Make America Healthy Again movement and the co-author of a book criticizing the medical establishment for failing to root out persistent chronic disease in the United States.