Evening Briefing: Amateur traders rock Wall Street

January 28, 2021

Your Thursday Evening Briefing

By Will Dudding and Marcus Payadue

Good evening. Here's the latest.

Olivier Douliery/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

1. Wall Street was shaken by amateur investors, as volatile trading in GameStop and other companies spurred stock trading platforms like Robinhood to put restrictions in place.

Robinhood has attracted millions of millennials to its platform by eliminating fees and making stock trading easy for nonprofessionals. Here's what you need to know.

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the progressive icon who represents parts of New York, called the move to ban trading of some stocks "unacceptable" because "hedge funds are freely able to trade the stock as they see fit."

Our tech columnist Kevin Roose wrote that this week's market chaos — "absurdist, pretty-sure-I-hallucinated-it drama" involving "Wall Street suits and a crusading internet mob" — was a long time coming: "The most unusual thing about Wall Street being challenged by a rowdy band of Redditors is that it took so long to happen."

Separately, the U.S. economic recovery stumbled but didn't collapse at the end of last year. Gross domestic product rose only 1 percent in the final three months of 2020, a slump driven by lower consumer spending. Housing and business investment were some of the only bright spots.

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2. President Biden issued a slew of executive orders, expanding health care access and reopening enrollment for the Affordable Care Act, designed to "undo the damage Trump has done."

A new open enrollment period is unlikely to generate huge sign-up numbers on Healthcare.gov, which currently covers 8.3 million Americans. But evidence from states that tried similar moves last spring suggests that it could effectively bring coverage to hard-to-reach populations. Above, an insurance agency in Miami that will offer plans under the A.C.A.

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Dave Sanders for The New York Times

3. Across the country, the toll of the coronavirus is becoming clearer — and it's worse than many experts thought.

Mississippi prisons have some of the lowest virus rates in the country, but it's probably because of a lack of testing. New York, a state that has been lauded for its coronavirus response under the leadership of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, has severely undercounted deaths in nursing homes. Above, EMTs in Brooklyn in April.

Vaccine rollouts continue across the country. In Los Angeles, where mixed messages have led to widespread confusion, Dodger Stadium has opened as a vaccination center. For all of its recent mishaps, the city has a higher vaccination rate than other large cities and counties.

The World Health Organization recommended that pregnant women not get the vaccine unless they were at high risk, a stance that dismayed several experts who said the risks from getting the virus were far greater than any theoretical harm from the vaccines. The C.D.C. urged pregnant women to consult with their doctors.

Novavax, a pharmaceutical company that was supported by the U.S. government's Operation Warp Speed, announced that its vaccine worked well, except on the variant first found in South Africa. That variant was first confirmed to be in the U.S. just this morning.

Carlos Osorio/Associated Press

4. General Motors will phase out gas-powered cars and trucks and plans to sell only zero-emission vehicles by 2035.

G.M. said the switch was part of a broader plan to become carbon neutral by 2040. The decision came a day after President Biden issued an executive order to electrify the U.S. government's vast fleet of vehicles.

The company also said it was working with the Environmental Defense Fund to build charging stations for electric cars and to persuade drivers to switch to electric cars.

Omar Marques/Getty Images

5. Protesters in Poland declared "war" on an abortion ban.

Women's rights activists vowed to continue their fight against the ban on abortions for fetal abnormalities that went into effect on Wednesday, planning more protests and calling on doctors to defy the increasingly autocratic government of the Law and Justice Party.

"Women are really scared to get pregnant right now," said a Polish journalist "Yesterday was not just a symbol of something. It was doomsday."

Even before the ban, Poland's abortion laws were among the most restrictive in Europe, allowing for termination of pregnancies only in cases of rape or incest, a threat to a woman's life and fetal abnormalities. Now abortion is effectively outlawed in most cases.

Jim Huylebroek for The New York Times

6. In Afghanistan, if you follow these sneakers, you'll find the Taliban.

Cheetahs athletic shoes are produced by one of the largest shoe companies in Pakistan. They are marketed toward athletes, were once endorsed by sports stars and are the company's best-selling model.

But in Afghanistan, the sneakers have become associated with rifle-wielding insurgents who have worn them for decades — from the Soviet-Afghan war in the 1980s to the U.S.-led war that began in 2001. Eventually, the sneakers became synonymous with Taliban militants, above, who often wear them.

The Taliban have begun a concerted propaganda push to publicly divorce themselves from the Cheetahs in an attempt to appear more like a professional army. Still, our reporters found that brisk sales continue, even if most shopkeepers are loath to talk about them.

Stephanie Gonot for The New York Times

7. The loss of smell is one of the strangest and most distinctive symptoms of Covid-19 — and now it's opening new doors to understanding our most neglected sense.

There's a lot about olfaction that we simply don't yet understand. For centuries, thinkers from Plato to Darwin have discounted smell, and less than 30 years have passed since scientists identified the neural receptors that allow us to perceive and make sense of the smells around us.

After the loss of smell was listed as a marker for Covid-19, an international group of scientists formed the Global Consortium for Chemosensory Research. They found that the loss of smell was the most reliable predictor of Covid-19 — and that specialized tests were able to detect coronavirus cases among people who failed to realize their sense of smell was diminished.

"The better we ask questions about smell," said one scientist, "the more people we find."

Ryan Lowry for The New York Times

8. An actor can't sleep, but it's for art.

Whenever he makes a new movie, Riz Ahmed, above, convinces himself that perhaps this time will be different — maybe if he meditates or drinks a glass of warm milk — and he will actually be able to sleep. But every time before a shoot, his nights are sleepless.

As unpleasant as it sounds, his intense process might have helped vault him into the best actor Oscar race for his performance in the Amazon drama "Sound of Metal."

"It's when you release control that the interesting things happen," he said. "Creativity is more physical than we realize."

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9. Hate early morning workouts? Scientists say that's OK.

A new study, which looked at men at high risk for Type 2 diabetes, found that those who completed afternoon workouts improved their metabolic health far more than those who performed the same exercise earlier in the day.

One caveat: The study involved only men, and women's metabolisms might respond differently. Regardless, early birds should still hit the gym. Any exercise is better than none, according to the lead researcher.

Ruth Fremson/The New York Times

10. And finally, a poet goes to the Big Game.

At President Biden's inauguration, Amanda Gorman appeared on the national stage. In the week since, she has claimed two rare achievements in poetry circles: a modeling contract and a slot at the Super Bowl LV preshow. She also has a few books in the works.

Another breakout star of the inauguration was Ella Emhoff, the 21-year-old stepdaughter of Vice President Kamala Harris, who signed with the same modeling agency. Our fashion writer calls her style "Wes Anderson chic."

Have an expressive evening.

Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p.m. Eastern.

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