When, in May, a team of 13 Republican senators began drafting the first Senate bill to repeal and replace Obamacare, something stood out: There were no women working on the bill. This was reflected in the bill’s text, which said virtually nothing about health care for women and mothers.
Since Donald Trump took the oath of office on January 20, the White House has taken aim at various groups. It took on Muslims, targeting a travel ban at them as Trump taunted world leaders coping with terrorism. It went after women’s rights, seeking to limit abortions and birth control in the US and worldwide, and weakened rules designed to enforce equal pay by employers.
In March 2017, in honor of Women’s History Month, one of the world’s largest investment management firms, State Street Global Advisors, made news when it placed a bronze statue of a young girl directly across from Wall Street’s iconic “Charging Bull.” The “Fearless Girl,” as Kristen Visbal’s sculpture was titled, looked straight at the animal statue, seeming to challenge everything the bull stood for.
Since 2012, the year of the Sandy Hook massacre, the United States has averaged nine mass shootings (defined as four or more people shot, not including the shooter) for every 10 days. In other words, mass shootings are now the norm, not the exception.
Today (Oct. 3), the House will discuss a bill, introduced by Arizona Republican and member of the Freedom Caucus, Trent Franks, and co-sponsored by 170 representatives, which aims to introduce a blanket ban on abortion at the 20th week from conception. The Trump administration, through the Office of Management and Budget, has expressed its support of the bill, writing in a statement that it “applauds the House of Representatives for continuing its efforts to secure critical pro-life protections.”
Last night (Oct. 1) a man opened fire on the crowd at a country music festival outside the Mandalay Bay hotel in Las Vegas, killing at least 58 people and injuring over 500. The attacker, who later killed himself, has been identified as Stephen Craig Paddock. He appears to have acted alone: “We believe it’s a sole actor, a lone-wolf-type actor,” said Joe Lombardo, the Clark County sheriff who heads police in Las Vegas.
Muhammad Yunus won the Nobel peace prize for inventing microfinance, the practice of lending small sums at a low interest to allow people to start businesses. And yet he’s not a fan of capitalism. “Because of its total focus on money-making, [it] has become greed-oriented,” he says.
In the aftermath of hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico is dealing with horrifying devastation. One thing that could help with a recovery that’s bound to be long and difficult is opening the ports to emergency-supply-laden foreign boats. Plenty such boats come and go to the US that could be deployed for that task, but there’s a catch: They’re not allowed to unload their wares on the island.
AirBnB, Google, WordPress, Apple, and even Uber are among the companies who have refused the business of white supremacists or other hate-speech groups—it seems that taking a moral stand through business is catching on. Though that isn’t the case for every company: On Oct. 2-3, Marriott is scheduled to host ACTCON, the gathering of ACT for America, at its Marriott Crystal Gateway hotel in Arlington, Virginia.
Once again, senator John McCain is thwarting the Republican party’s effort to repeal Obamacare.
At Quartz we pride ourselves on our headlines. At the United Nations, it’s safe to say, they do not.
At the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Goalkeeper conference in New York City, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau spoke about how he came to call himself a feminist.
The first two big speeches of this week’s UN general assembly didn’t exactly fill the heart with joy. The normally philosophical UN secretary general Antonio Guterres told gathered leaders that “our world is in trouble; people are hurting and angry,” that “societies are fragmented,” and that “we are a world in pieces.”
Aung San Suu Kyi has finally spoken, and left the world disappointed.
Donald Trump’s first address at the UN general assembly was a 41-minute long declaration of US power and military prowess, a celebration of sovereignty over international collaboration, and a threatening condemnation of America’s enemies. Though Trump bragged about his country being stronger and greater than ever, the speech had a dark feeling, not dissimilar from his inaugural address, painting a picture of a troubled world.
The program of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and related events is typically overwhelming, due to sheer breadth, jargon-packed development-speak, and the time-honored UN tradition of treating announcements as achievements. But there are also genuinely interesting and important conversations throughout the week-long gathering, which begins today.
The UN General Assembly (UNGA) runs from Sept. 12-29, but this week is when the key events kick off. The centerpiece of the gathering of world leaders is the “general debate,” Sept. 19-29, when countries get to present their views to a plenary session of the UN on whatever topics take their fancy.
Hillary Clinton is the first and only woman to have given a big US presidential concession speech—and she is the first and only candidate to say “I’m sorry.”
Just a few days after 9/11, then-president George W. Bush delivered a compassionate address to America’s “Muslim brothers and sisters”: “These acts of violence against innocents violate the fundamental tenets of the Islamic faith,” he said, “and it’s important for my fellow Americans to understand that.”
Health care is, once again, at the center of the US political debate. After the Republican party tried and failed twice to repeal and replace Obamacare, and as reports of yet another conservative proposal circulate, attention turns to someone else—Bernie Sanders, who today (Sept. 13) is presenting his much-anticipated Medicare for All bill (paywall).
It has been 16 years since New York City woke up to a terror attack that changed America and the world.
Despite US president Donald Trump’s repeated claims that Obamacare is dead, or that it will implode, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) isn’t going anywhere yet. But you wouldn’t necessarily know that from the amount of enrollment outreach and information circulating. Last year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) spent over $100 million in advertising and promotional efforts for ACA signup. This year, the budget is $10 million, the CMS announced on Aug. 31.
It was all too much for Javier Palomarez. He had stood by and watched as Donald Trump’s administration showed off in word and deed its disregard or outright hostility towards Muslims, immigrants, and non-white Americans. But its decision to rescind the DACA program, which protects the children of undocumented immigrants from being deported, was the final straw. On Sept. 5, Palomarez, the president and CEO of the US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (USHCC), announced live on television that he was resigning from the White House National Diversity Council, making him the latest in a long line of business and intellectual leaders to abandon one of Trump’s advisory bodies.
This morning (Sept. 5), US attorney general Jeff Sessions, a longtime critic of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy, announced the Donald Trump administration’s decision to rescind the program. A statement issued shortly after by president Trump echoes much of the announcement, and employs the same rationale for the highly controversial decision as Sessions’ announcement.
