Amanda Shendruk

When Rajesh Pathak’s wife took their daughter to get tested for Covid-19 at a Gandhinagar hospital on April 1, she saw two plastic-covered dead bodies being moved out of the premises. That day, the government figures listed zero Covid deaths in Gandhinagar. The situation alarmed Pathak, resident editor of a 98-year-old local newspaper Sandesh’s Ahmedabad edition.

Bill Gates is the latest in a long line of business titans to be accused of inappropriate behavior at the office.

India has administered over 158 million Covid-19 vaccine doses as of May 4, in a country of 1.4 billion people. With vaccination supplies dwindling, and delivery rates dropping however, the government’s goal to vaccinate 300 million Indians by August 2021 cannot possibly be realized.

On his first day as US president, Joe Biden hit the ground running. He issued more executive actions than his three immediate predecessors—Trump, Obama, and Bush—combined. Now, 100 days into his term, he has hardly slowed down.

In India’s capital city hospital beds are a prized commodity right now.

It seems intuitive enough: Red means stop, amber means caution,  green means go.

The courtroom verdict that turned Derek Chauvin into a convicted murderer this week brought ripples of celebration across the United States, many tempered by reminders about the ongoing need for police reform and accountability.

When global travel returns to normal, poll after poll suggest people will be quick to hit the road. Some will go to the beach, others to visit family, and many will head to the world’s most famous shopping districts.

The images are already iconic; an excavator and bulldozer claw at the muddy bank of the Suez Canal, dwarfed by the gigantic hull of a container ship so clearly and deeply stuck that the action can only be described as futile.

The results are clear. Companies increased the diversity of skin tones in their Instagram posts, following their mid-2020 pledges to support Black Lives Matter and, in particular, commitment to improving representation. However, it is also clear that those increases were often only marginal.

At the end of May last year, as protests exploded over police killings of Black Americans, numerous fashion and beauty companies went online to post their messages of support for the Black community and the Black Lives Matter movement, as well as to pledge their own commitments to change.

Joe Biden has been US president for less than two weeks and has already issued nearly as many executive action as Trump and Obama did in the same period, combined. Biden hit the ground running, enacting 25 executive orders, 10 presidential memos, and four proclamations within his first 12 days in office.

Joe Biden isn’t wasting time. On his first day in office, the newly inaugurated US president signed 17 executive actions. It’s not unprecedented for world leaders to get to work on day one, but the number of directives on Biden’s desk is much higher than usual. It took his recent predecessors weeks to sign 17 executive orders. Trump, Obama, Bush, and Clinton signed four executive orders or memos on their first day—combined.

Many in the rabid mob who stormed the US Capitol yesterday came armed with a portable and potent weapon: a flag. There were large election banners, battle colors from the American Civil War, neo-Nazi flare, Christian symbols, and a smattering of national and state flags. Seen as a whole, they serve as a twisted ideological quilt for those who believe that the US election was stolen from incumbent president Donald Trump.

Raphael Warnock will be Georgia’s first Black senator. The preacher’s historic victory is one of a number of firsts made by members of the 117th congress, which is the most diverse to date. Representatives include the first two openly gay, Black men, and the youngest member of congress since 1797. The new US Congress will also seat more women and women of color than any other in history.

Global leaders took to social media and the airwaves on New Year’s Eve to wish their citizens a brighter future. Many acknowledged the sacrifices people made in 2020, and thanked the public for pulling together through an historically difficult year. To date, more than 1.8 million people have died in the Covid-19 pandemic.

Jan. 1, 2021 will be a historic day for free trade agreements—but not only because it’s the day the UK and the EU are finally breaking up.

Consumer spending is a vital indicator of the financial health of a country. Luckily for both kids and the economy, Santa has been classified as a key worker, is exempt from quarantine, and was personally vaccinated by the top infectious disease expert in the US, Dr. Anthony Fauci.

The UK economy saw a partial recovery in the third quarter of 2020, according to the latest data released by Britain’s Office for National Statistics. The country’s gross domestic product grew by a record 16% between July and September, though it is still 8.6% less than what it was at the end of 2019.

The US House and Senate are voting today on a $900 billion pandemic relief package. If the bill passes, which is expected, it will have “a little bit of everything for everybody,” US Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin promised on CNBC.

The 2021 version of this analysis can be found here: The most popular Wikipedia article for every day in 2021

In the UK, university students are getting tested for coronavirus en masse. The nation-wide plan is to have all students receive a negative Covid-19 diagnosis before traveling home for Christmas holidays, often in other parts of the country.

In 2015, Greece, Thailand, Israel, and the UK were equally unequal. That is, all four countries had the same Gini coefficient, a common measure of income inequality.

Analysts expect Cyber Monday 2020 to be the biggest online shopping day in US history, with anticipated sales of $10.8 billion to $12.7 billion.