January 22 2025

1. Trump Reshapes Government: Federal DEI Offices Closed, Federal Health Agency Communications Frozen, Climate Funding Halted
2. Trump Threatens Canada, Mexico with Tariffs to Force USMCA Renegotiation
3. Trump Unveils “Stargate”: $500B Private AI Infrastructure Project
4. Winter Storm Brings Rare Snow, Cold to Southeast
5. India's Economic Growth Slows
January 22, 1973: Roe v. Wade is decided

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1. Trump Reshapes Government: Federal DEI Offices Closed, Federal Health Agency Communications Frozen, Climate Funding Halted

A. President Donald Trump’s administration took aim at government DEI programs, ordering federal diversity, equity and inclusion employees to be placed on leave no later than Wednesday and for DEI offices to be closed down, according to a memorandum sent Tuesday by the Office of Personnel Management.  

B. The Trump administration has instructed federal health agencies to pause all external communications, such as health advisories, weekly scientific reports, updates to websites and social media posts, according to nearly a dozen current and former officials and other people familiar with the matter. The instructions were delivered Tuesday to staff at agencies inside the Department of Health and Human Services, including officials at the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Institutes of Health  

C. Donald Trump’s return to the White House has put more than $300bn of potential federal infrastructure funding at risk, US investors said, as they grappled with the scale of his move to unpick Joe Biden’s climate agenda. Within hours of his inauguration on Monday, Trump signed scores of executive orders rescinding Biden’s policies, including one halting federal disbursements to manufacturers and infrastructure developers. The funds affected were provided under two of Biden’s signature legislative achievements — the Inflation Reduction Act and bipartisan infrastructure law — and include almost $50bn in Department of Energy loans already agreed and another $280bn worth of loan requests under review, according to Financial Times analysis of the DoE’s loan portfolio.

Article Source: WaPo, FT

2. Trump Threatens Canada, Mexico with Tariffs to Force USMCA Renegotiation

President Trump is using the threat of imposing stiff tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico as soon as next week to pressure the two nations to start renegotiating a continental trade deal, according to people familiar with the matter. The U.S.-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) trade agreement, which was crafted during Trump’s first term in office as a replacement for the North American Free Trade Agreement, is up for statutory review in 2026—but Trump hopes to renegotiate it sooner, the people said.  Trump is particularly focused on using the threat of tariffs to change automotive rules under the continental trade pact, forcing car plants to move from Canada and Mexico back to the U.S., according to people familiar with his thinking. That has sent major automakers rushing to find ways to satisfy Trump without “blowing up the North American auto supply chain” that extends throughout the three nations, according to one auto-industry executive.

Article Source: WSJ

3. Trump Unveils “Stargate”: $500B Private AI Infrastructure Project

President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced a new $500 billion, private sector investment to build artificial intelligence infrastructure in the US, with Oracle (ORCL), ChatGPT creator OpenAI, and Japanese conglomerate SoftBank (9984.T) among those committing to the joint venture. The joint venture, called Stargate, is expected to begin with a data center project in Texas, according to CBS News, which first reported the news. Company execs were expected to commit to an initial investment of $100 billion at an appearance at the White House Tuesday. Other companies are expected to join the venture and bring investment in the program up to $500 billion in the coming years.

Article Source: Yahoo

4. Winter Storm Brings Rare Snow, Cold to Southeast

A rare southeastern winter storm barreled across the Carolinas early Wednesday, threatening as much as six inches of snow in coastal communities while frigid air left the Gulf Coast [Gulf of America?] and other parts of the region bracing for icy, hazardous roads. The deadly storm, which has killed at least 10 people, was fueled by a whirling mass of cold air originating from the Arctic. It is expected to leave much of the South in the low-teens or single-digit degrees through Wednesday night.  

Destin, FL

Article Source: NYT

5. India's Economic Growth Slows

A year ago, India was bouncing back from a recession caused by Covid-19 with a spring in its step. The country had overtaken China as the most populous country, and its leaders were declaring India the world’s fastest-growing major economy. This was music to the ears of foreign investors, and to India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, who at every opportunity boasted about his country’s inevitable rise. Home to 1.4 billion people, an invigorated India could become an economic workhorse to power the rest of the world, which is stumbling through the fog of trade wars, China’s troubles and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. India displaced Britain in 2022 as the world’s fifth-biggest economy, and by next year it is expected to push aside Germany in the fourth spot. But India has lost a step, revealing its vulnerabilities even as it moves up the global rankings. The stock market, which soared for years, has just erased the past six months of gains. The currency, the rupee, is falling fast against the dollar, making homegrown earnings look smaller on the global stage. India’s new middle class, whose wealth surged like never before after the pandemic, is wondering where it went wrong. Mr. Modi will have to adjust his promises. November brought the first nasty shock, when national statistics revealed that the economy’s annual growth had slowed to 5.4 percent over the summer. Last fiscal year, which ran from April through March, was clocked at 8.2 percent growth, enough to double the economy’s size in a decade. The revised outlook for the current fiscal year is 6.4 percent.

Article Source: NYT

January 22, 1973: Roe v. Wade is decided

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Sources

1. A https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/01/22/dei-federal-employees-trump/
B https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/01/21/trump-hhs-cdc-fda-communication-pause/
C https://on.ft.com/3PLInDC

2. https://www.wsj.com/world/americas/trump-pushes-for-early-renegotiation-of-u-s-trade-deal-with-mexico-canada-c8f9f371?st=CviBVG&reflink=article_copyURL_share

3. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-announces-500-billion-stargate-ai-venture-headed-by-oracle-openai-softbank-212012023.html

4. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/22/weather/winter-storm-snow-cold-south.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

5. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/21/business/indian-economy-rupee.html?campaign_id=7&emc=edit_mbae_20250121&instance_id=145378&nl=morning-briefing:-asia-pacific-edition&regi_id=61468173&segment_id=188887&user_id=02b32d846497687a8f0c061d7ffd16b1