Monday Briefing | January 30

Stories to Follow

First Week of Trump Presidency
On January 20, Trump took office as president of the United States, and in the last 10 days he has used an executive order to roll back the Affordable Care Act; named his inauguration day the National Day of Patriotic Devotion; stated, falsely, that the media misrepresented the crowd sizes at his inauguration (an “alternative fact” that was repeated by the White House spokesman, Sean Spicer, during a press briefing); ordered the National Park Service off twitter; removed the terms “climate change” and “LGBT” from the White House website; claimed without evidence that 3-5 million of illegal votes were cast in the election; reinstated a Global Gag Rule that cuts funding to overseas organizations if they perform or provide information about abortions; revived the controversial Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines; withdrew from the Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal that was 7 years in the making; banned refugees and entrants from seven nations and authorized a US-Mexico border wall. For a full list of Trump’s executive orders, go here.

Legal adviser to Myanmar leader shot dead
Ko Ni, a long-time adviser to Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi, was assassinated by a gunman outside Myanmar’s international airport yesterday. Ko Ni was a Burmese Muslim, and actively involved in Myanmar’s interfaith peace movement. A Buddhist-majority nation, Myanmar’s army has been criticized for targeting and abusing its Rohingya Muslim population of which Ko Ni is a part.

Yemen raid
One US soldier was killed in Yemen during the first counterterrorism raid under Trump’s presidency. The commando was the first US citizen killed in Yemen while fighting against its Qaeda militants. The US-backed, Saudi-led war in Yemen which has plagued the nation for the past 18 months has claimed approximately 10,000 Yemini lives.

This week in JPI

Local Leaders Resist Trump Immigration Order by Ionut Gitan
“The Trump administration hopes to use local city and state law enforcement as a dragnet to increase deportation of undocumented immigrants. The order in effect restores the Secure Communities program, a “force multiplier” program created in 2008 and expanded in 2009 during the Bush administration…The program ended in 2014 after intense criticism from local leaders—though by that time the Obama administration had already deported record numbers of undocumented immigrants. Trump’s immigration order could return deportations to these record numbers.” Read More

Happening This Week

Power Play: How Video Games Can Save the World

The Strand, 828 Broadway St, NY | 7pm-8pm

The Strand hosts Games for Change chairman Asi Burak and journalist Laura Parker who decided to explore how video games pioneer social change, how the stories games feature can focus on social and political issues in an immersive way that other art forms can’t capture. Join them in the Rare Book Room as Asi Burak talks with Susanna Pollack, President of Games for Change, about how video games can change the future. After the discussion, both Asi Burak and Laura Parker will sign copies of their book.

In Your Spare Time

After this election, people have been particularly spurred to support their communities and help fight for advocacy and social justice. Check out this list of organizations who feel particularly threatened under a Trump presidency, and need your help to continue their work.

This week’s Monday Briefing brought to you by Prianka Srinivasan.