--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Good morning. It's Thursday, January 28th. I'm Duarte Giraldino. And I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today. Each morning, hear about some of the most fascinating stories in the news and how the world's best journalists are covering them.
--:-- Shamita Basu: When Joe Biden was vice president, the Affordable Care Act was the Obama administration's signature accomplishment. But after leaving office, Biden spent four years watching what they built slowly undermined. As CNN explains, the Trump administration tried to gut the health care law by making it easier for states to opt out, getting rid of incentives for insurers to take part and shrinking the open enrollment period.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Now that Biden is president, he's not only reversing Trump's moves, he wants to expand on our current health care system. And that starts today with a series of executive actions. Specifically, President Biden is expected to sign an order reopening healthcare.gov. This is the federal marketplace selling health plans under the Affordable Care Act, the ACA.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Because of the pandemic, tons of people lost their jobs and therefore their health insurance. According to a Kaiser Family Foundation analysis, more than half of consumers looking for coverage during the open enrollment period in 2020 had a hard time, And nearly 5 million people who were looking for in-person help just didn't get it.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Now, on top of reopening enrollment, Biden is also expected to sign orders strengthening Medicaid and rescinding the so-called Mexico City policy, which basically says to nonprofits in other countries, if they provide or promote abortion, they won't get aid from the U.S. government.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This is like the hot potato of policies. It's been enacted under Republican administrations and then reversed by Democratic ones back and forth for more than three decades. But Biden can only do so much via executive order. If he wants to make good on his broader health care goals he going to need Congress Quartz breaks down what Democrats can do with a slim majority
--:-- Shamita Basu: One way to try to push this new legislation through is to tack on health care measures to any future COVID relief bill So you can expect to see things like tax credits for people enrolled in COBRA, which allows them to stay on their former employer's health care plan. Another is expanding Affordable Care Act tax credits. The Biden team says this change will both save people money and increase overall enrollment.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Biden also wants to expand access to mental health and substance abuse resources, increase support for victims of domestic violence, and grow funding for veteran and Native American health care.
--:-- Shamita Basu: As for bigger campaign promises, like adding a public option or lowering the age for Medicare eligibility, those will definitely be more of a lift. But Biden is betting that with Democrats in control of Congress, big change is possible.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: So far, it's been a wild week on Wall Street, and Reddit may have played a role in increasing the volatility. Yeah, this is such a crazy story, Shamita. And maybe if you've been hearing about it, but not quite following it, Vox has a very clear explainer for you.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The story is centered on GameStop, which is the video game store. As of yesterday's close, its stock is up 1,555 percent in just a month. That kind of move is not normal for any stock, and it definitely was not expected for GameStop. Wall Street had left it for dead, you know, along with many other brick and mortar retailers.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Major investors shorted the stock, betting it would drop even further. So here's where Reddit comes in. Apparently, a bunch of people on a Reddit forum called WallStreetBets saw GameStop's stock being heavily shorted. And they decided what if all of us at the same time buy up the stock which is what they did And that sent the stock price soaring which meant all of those sophisticated investors who bet on GameStop going down lost billions which is apparently what the people on Reddit were trying to do the whole time.
--:-- Shamita Basu: They were trying to stick it to short sellers. And now these Reddit folks are looking for their next meme stock. Theater chain AMC went up 300 percent yesterday. And the pros on Wall Street, well, they're licking their wounds, trying to understand where this might go next and how they could make money off of it.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: For the rest of us, it's a reminder of how risky it can be to chase the dream of instant wealth on Wall Street. Casual investors who chase these kind of hot tips usually lose big, especially if they jump into something as wild as the GameStop frenzy, which Wall Street Journal columnist James McIntosh calls a bubble in its purest form.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It might be a fun story of regular people sticking it to Wall Street, but it's not something to bet your retirement savings on. There are more than 1.3 billion people in India, and more than half of them make a living through agriculture. That's why a growing protest movement there is getting a lot of attention. Farmers are rallying against a recent change in federal agriculture laws.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: The Wall Street Journal breaks down what's behind these protests. Tens of thousands of worried farmers were already camping out on the outskirts of New Delhi, holding peaceful protests for months now. But this week, it all came to a head. They rushed into the city. Some drove in on tractors. They broke into the Red Fort, which is a centuries-old historic landmark.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Police took aim at the crowds, firing tear gas and water cannons. At least one protester reportedly died. Hundreds of demonstrators and police were injured. The reason why these farmers are in the streets right now is because they concerned that these new laws could dramatically shrink their earnings The new laws reduce the government role in regulating the way that fruits vegetables and grains are priced and sold The idea is to allow more private sector competition, which the government argues is good for the economy and will modernize the agricultural sector.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: But these small farmers say those laws were there to protect them, and they're concerned that they'll lose out if big corporations move in and cause prices to fall. And this could also have a political impact. Farmers are an extremely influential voting bloc in India. The Wall Street Journal says these protests are emerging as the biggest challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's power since his election in 2014.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Okay, so soon it won't just be astronauts in space. NPR reports the first entirely private mission to the International Space Station is set for one year from now. And all for the low, low price of $55 million a ticket. Whew, that's a lot of millions. Well, a company in Houston called Axiom Space is the one that's planning this mission. It'll send three high-paying customers to spend a little over a week at the International Space Station.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: A former NASA astronaut and space station commander is the one leading the trip. He's also an executive at Axiom. NPR is also reporting the mission represents a new era of space tourism, but the passengers won't just be stargazing. They'll also be doing some research while they're up there for organizations right here on Earth, like the Mayo Clinic and the Canadian Space Agency.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And while you're there, check out some of our audio stories. We'll talk with you again tomorrow.
