Trump's order on abortion policy: What does it mean?

A group of men standing around a desk: it is not the typical image that goes viral online.

The photograph in question was taken on US President Donald Trump's first day in the Oval Office on Monday, when he signed a ban on federal money going to international groups that perform or provide information on abortions.

"Men making decisions about women's bodies" was a much-repeated phrase on Twitter, as it was shared hundreds of thousands of times, including by author JK Rowling.

The concern over lack of women at the table comes as Mr Trump's cabinet attracts attention for the high proportion of white, male nominations.

And while some people welcomed the move on abortion, others on social media expressed alarm and confusion over what its impact could be.

Viral images and headlines do not always tell the whole story. So here is an at-a-glance look at what President Trump's executive order means.

Is this a step towards banning abortion in the US?

Not in itself. This particular executive order is relevant outside of US borders.

The policy requires non-governmental organisations receiving federal funding to agree to "neither perform nor actively promote abortion as a method of family planning in other nations".

This particularly worries women's rights campaigners in developing countries, where funds or facilities are already limited.

source:-BBC

The Roots of Trump's Trade Rage

For more than three decades, Donald Trump has made it clear that, if ever elected president, he would turn U.S. trade policy in a radically different direction. And he himself would be at the helm. “What I would do if elected president would be to appoint myself U.S. Trade Representative,” he wrote in his 2000 book The America We Deserve, when he was considering a run for president on the Reform Party ticket. “My lawyers have checked, and the president has this authority. I would take personal charge of negotiations…. Our trading partners would have to sit across the table from Donald Trump and I guarantee you the rip-off of the United States would end.”

Now, against all odds, Trump is about to become the president of the United States, and he has the extraordinary opportunity to upend an elite consensus that has shaped America’s global strategy since the second World War.


Trump has completed the triumvirate of appointments that will make up his team on U.S. trade policy, adding Washington trade lawyer Robert Lighthizer as U.S. trade representative to billionaire fund manager Wilbur Ross for commerce secretary and China hawk Peter Navarro as the head of the new White House National Trade Council. Corporate lobbyists and foreign envoys are busy scouring the writings and records of each to try to judge what it means for the future direction of U.S. trade policy.

They shouldn’t have to look too hard: Trump was elected for many reasons, but growing frustration over the negative impacts of trade played a big part. He won the election in the manufacturing states hardest hit by import competition, including Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. And he won the highest percentage of union voters of any Republican president since Ronald Reagan in 1984. Since his election, union leaders have tried to cozy up. AFL-CIO leader Richard Trumka, who visited Trump Tower last week, recently said he would support Trump’s calls for renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Mexico and Canada, among other trade deals. “Entire communities have lost their purpose and identity, and we have to fix that,” he said. “Working people are looking for a new way forward on trade.”

Source:-Politico