![The $1.93 trillion deficit for the first seven months of this budget year was $459.4bn higher than the $1.48 trillion deficit run up in the same period a year ago, according to the United States Department of the Treasury, headed by Secretary Janet Yellen [File: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/treasury.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
The US shortfall this year is 30.3 percent higher than the $1.48 trillion deficit run up over the same period a year.
Government
![NASA last month chose Elon Musk’s SpaceX for the initial $2.9bn contract, leaving out Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin and Alabama-based firm Dynetics [File: Isaiah J Downing/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/blueorigin.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
US Senator Maria Cantwell is seeking to nudge NASA to rethink its decision to reject Amazon’s Blue Origin space venture.
Fault Lines asks what the US Capitol riots and their aftermath signal for the Republican party’s future.
![Pro-democracy protesters wave flags and chant slogans outside the UK embassy on September 15, 2019 in Hong Kong, China. The UK has opened up a British National Overseas (BNO) visa for those born in Hong Kong before 1997, when the territory was handed back to China [Chris McGrath/Getty Images]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/GettyImages-1174887924.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
The UK has a unique opportunity to show how it can lead on immigration policy.
![With Turkey's double-digit inflation, sinking national currency and businesses in trouble, many Turks already have been struggling financially [File: Dilara Senkaya/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/turkey.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan did not announce a stimulus package to offset the economic impact of the new shutdown.
![Sanctions against Guatemalan officials accused of corruption came just hours before United States Vice President Kamala Harris (pictured) was due to meet with Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei to discuss an increase in Central American migration that has led to a crisis at the US-Mexico border [File: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/harris.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
The sanctions target a member of Guatemala’s Congress and a former presidential chief of staff.
![Jandira Freitas shows off her mumbuca card — aid in the form of digital currency — that helped her start her own small business in the socialist city of Marica, Brazil, where she lives [Monica Yanakiew/Al Jazeera]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Jandira-and-Mumbuca-card.jpeg?resize=270%2C180)
Marica pays its residents a universal basic income, using its own digital currency, and procures its own COVID-19 jabs.
![Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, centre left, on Tuesday reintroduced the 'Green New Deal' resolution, the Democrats' set of aggressive climate goals [File: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/aoc.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
The non-binding Green New Deal seeks to eliminate US greenhouse gas emissions within a decade.
![Bishop Reginald Jackson, leader of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Georgia in the United States, says corporations have a responsibility to their customers on the issue of voting rights [File: Jeff Amy/AP Photo]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/vote.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
‘We just don’t think we ought to let their indifference stand,’ Bishop Reginald Jackson said of Home Depot.
![Johnson & Johnson tried to build an industrywide alliance among itself and three other coronavirus vaccine makers to communicate benefits and risks and address the public’s concerns about blood clots, sources told The Wall Street Journal [File: Ivan Alvarado/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/lion.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Only AstraZeneca accepted Johnson & Johnson’s pitch, while Pfizer and Moderna declined, sources told the WSJ.
The bill would make it easier for Americans to sue employers over pay discrimination.
![In the last few weeks, United States businesses have started voicing opposition to a new voting law in Georgia [File: Elijah Nouvelage/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/voter.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
From Amazon to Warren Buffet, US firms and CEOs signed a letter opposing Republican efforts to pass new election laws.
![Over 550 SPACs have filed to go public on United States exchanges in the year to date, seeking to raise $162bn, according to Bloomberg data [File: Spencer Platt/Getty Images]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/wall-street.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
On Tuesday, SPACS hit another milestone with Singapore’s Grab agreeing to the biggest blank-cheque deal on record.
![General Motors Co Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra is among industry leaders who signed a letter to Michigan's lawmakers saying that changes to voting laws should not restrict people from casting ballots [File: Bloomberg]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/woman.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
The group of 38 business leaders sent a letter stating their objection to any voting restrictions deemed unfair.