January 28, 2021
Four years ago, two actions US president Donald Trump took soon after taking office effectively cut reproductive health funding for developing countries.
He did this by completely cutting US funding to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), which received a budget of about $32 million a year from the US government, and by imposing the so-called Global Gag Rule, which was first introduced in 1984, only to be removed by each Democratic administration and reinstated by each Republican one since. The rule withholds US foreign aid money to non-governmental organizations that provide abortions and abortion counseling.
Today, Joe Biden dropped the rule, alongside a similar one that applies to domestic organizations. The administration plans to fund UNFPA, too. But the damage done in the past four years has been significant.
January 20, 2021
Between election day on Nov. 3 and today, the S&P 500 index has climbed 14.3%. The gain is the best between election and inauguration day for any first-term president since World War II, according to a report by CFRA Research, an investment research firm in New York.
After an initial surge following the election, the market cooled slightly. There were lower expectations due to concerns about the availability of Covid-19 vaccines and new coronavirus-related restrictions in several states. By early January, investors had already factored in the distribution of the vaccines and the likelihood the Biden administration would raise taxes on corporations, both which would affect expenses and earning expectations for 2021. And president Donald Trump was still a major source of uncertainty.
January 19, 2021
MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell is a devout supporter of outgoing US president Donald Trump. On right-wing shows and on his social media accounts, he has pushed the baseless claim that Trump actually won the November election and it was stolen from him through fraud. On a Jan. 15 visit to the White House just over a week after the pro-Trump insurrection at the Capitol building, he was photographed carrying notes that referred to invoking martial law if necessary.
His actions have made him a target of Sleeping Giants, a collection of activist social-media accounts that have tried to hobble far-right targets such as publishing outlet Breitbart by pressuring their advertisers. Now, Lindell says, Sleeping Giants is responsible for US retailers dropping MyPillow products. Some of the retailers, however, are giving a more traditional reason: low sales.