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Biden’s Student Loans Forgiveness Scheme on Hold Until June 2023

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Biden's Student Loans Forgiveness Scheme on Hold Until June 2023

The Biden administration has again suspended the student loans repayment scheme, claiming that the delay will allow courts to rule on the Democrats’ plan to forgive some debt.

It has now been extended until June 30, 2023, marking the eighth time that the US Education Department has delayed requiring student loan repayment.

President Joe Biden stated that his student loan forgiveness plan is completely “legal.”

On November 10, a federal judge in Texas dismissed the plan following a lawsuit filed by a conservative group on behalf of two borrowers who did not qualify for all of the program’s benefits.

Days later, a US court of appeals in St Louis, Missouri, granted an injunction against the program requested by six Republican-led states. The White House then petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn the plan.

The program has ceased accepting new applications due to litigation.

Former President Donald Trump appointed the federal judge in Texas, who argued that the Biden administration had illegally bypassed Congress by approving a $400 billion program through a presidential executive order.

In a video posted on Twitter on Tuesday, Mr. Biden blamed Republican special interests and elected officials who were sued to deny this relief even to their own constituents.

“It’s not fair to expect tens of millions of eligible borrowers to resume student debt payments while the courts consider the lawsuit.”

In August, Mr. Biden announced his plan to cancel up to $20,000 (£16,800) in student debt per person, or $10,000 for Americans earning less than $125,000 per year.

According to the General Accountability Office, the moratorium, which began in March 2020, has already cost more than $100 billion in lost student loan repayments and interest.

Over 26 million Americans have applied for student loan forgiveness.

Sixteen million have been approved, but court cases have prevented the Department of Education, which is in charge of student debt, from clearing their records.

Americans collectively owe the US government $1.5 trillion in university loans.

student loans

According to court documents, U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman declared the loan forgiveness plan illegal because Biden did not follow federal procedures to allow for public comment prior to the policy’s announcement.

The Job Creators Network Foundation filed the lawsuit in North Texas court in October on behalf of two borrowers who are ineligible for all of the program’s benefits. Those borrowers disagreed with the program’s eligibility criteria, and the lawsuit claimed that they were unable to express their dissatisfaction.

The latest assault on Biden’s loan forgiveness programs comes after the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit temporarily halted the program last month in response to a lawsuit filed by six Republican-led states. The Texas lawsuit adds to the growing list of legal challenges to Biden’s loan forgiveness plan, which he announced in August. Borrowers began submitting applications for the program in October.

Republicans and other advocacy groups have since slammed the program as a handout to high-paid professionals. In September, Gov. Greg Abbott signed a letter claiming that student loan forgiveness would harm the working class.

However, people earning more than $125,000 are ineligible for the loan relief program. Eligible applicants are limited to $10,000 in relief unless they are Pell Grant recipients, in which case they can receive up to $20,000 in relief.

According to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, 56% of students who graduated from four-year public universities in 2021 had approximately $25,000 in student debt.

Biden’s decision to forgive more money for low-income students who qualify for federal Pell Grants will have a particularly large impact on low-income borrowers and people of colour, who are more likely to qualify for federal financial aid and have higher levels of student debt.

student loans

The US Department of Education closed the online portal for student debt relief on Friday, which had been accepting applications since Thursday evening.

“Courts have issued injunctions against our student debt relief program. As a result, we are not accepting applications at this time. We are attempting to have those orders overturned “According to the website.

According to the Texas lawsuit, Biden’s program violated the Administrative Procedure Act by not allowing for public comment. The lawsuit also claims that the Secretary of Education lacks the authority to implement the program.

One of the plaintiffs, Alexander Taylor, is not eligible for $20,000 in forgiveness because he did not receive a Pell Grant, which is only available to low-income students, and thus will only be entitled to $10,000 off his student loans.

Myra Brown, the other plaintiff, has privately held loans that are no longer covered by Biden’s plan. Previously, commercially held loans like Brown’s could be consolidated into Direct Loans, which meet the eligibility requirements of Biden’s program, but the Education Department changed this policy in response to multiple lawsuits from conservative states.

Brown had previously benefited from a federal loan forgiveness program as the owner of Desert Star Enterprises Inc., according to The Intercept. According to the publication, Brown’s company received a $48,000 business loan, $42,997 of which was forgiven in April as part of the Paycheck Protection Program.

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For The Past Year, Global Ocean Temperatures Has Set New Records On A Daily Basis.

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According to new data, the world’s oceans have now been subjected to an unprecedented year of heat, with new temperature records being smashed every day.

Global water surface temperatures began breaking daily records in mid-March last year, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the University of Maine’s Climate Reanalyzer, raising fears about marine life and extreme weather worldwide.

ocean

For The Past Year, Global Ocean Temperatures Has Set New Records On A Daily Basis.

“The amplitude by which previous sea surface temperature records were beaten in 2023, and now again in 2024, is remarkable,” said Joel Hirschi, associate head of marine systems modelling at the National Oceanography Centre in the United Kingdom.

Gregory C. Johnson, a NOAA oceanographer, reported that the global average ocean temperature in 2023 was 0.25 degrees Celsius higher than the previous year. That increase “is equivalent to about two decades’ worth of warming in a single year,” he told CNN. “So it is quite large, quite significant, and a bit surprising.”

According to scientists, human-caused global warming, along with El Niño, a natural climate trend characterized by higher-than-average water temperatures, is accelerating  heat.

The biggest repercussions are for marine life and global weather. As the global waterwarms, hurricanes and other extreme weather phenomena, such as blistering heat waves and heavy rains, may gain more force.

High temperatures are already wreaking havoc on coral. In March, based on aerial observations, authorities declared that Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is witnessing its seventh mass bleaching episode.

Bleaching happens when heat-stressed corals release the algae that dwell in their tissue and serve as a food supply. If water temperatures continue too high for too long, corals will starve and die.

ocean

For The Past Year, Global Ocean Temperatures Has Set New Records On A Daily Basis.

Data from NOAA’s Coral Reef Watch program suggest that the crisis extends far beyond Australia, with the world potentially facing a fourth worldwide mass coral bleaching event in the coming months.

Ocean heat creates the conditions for more powerful hurricanes. “The warmer the ocean, the more energy to fuel storms is available,” said Karina von Schuckmann, an oceanographer at Mercator Ocean International in France.

Temperatures in the North Atlantic, an water area important for storm generation, have been unusual, startling some scientists who are still investigating the specific causes.

“At times, the records (in the North Atlantic) have been broken by margins that are virtually statistically impossible,” Brian McNoldy, a senior research associate at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School, said to CNN.

If water temperatures remain high in the second half of 2024 and a La Niña event intensifies the Atlantic hurricane season, “this would increase the risk of a very active hurricane season,” Hirschi explained.

The oceans contain around 90% of the world’s excess heat generated by burning planet-heating fossil fuels. “Measuring water warming allows us to track the status and evolution of planetary warming,” Schuckmann stated in an interview with CNN. “The ocean is the sentinel for global warming.”

El Niño is expected to weaken and fade in the coming months, perhaps reducing record water temperatures if La Niña replaces it.

ocean

For The Past Year, Global Ocean Temperatures Has Set New Records On A Daily Basis.

“In the past, surface temperature values have decreased after the passage of El Niño,” Schuckmann said. However, she cautioned that it is now hard to forecast when water temperatures will fall below record levels.

While natural climatic variability will cause water temperatures to vary, NOAA’s Johnson predicts that in the long run, they will “continue to break records as long as greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere rise.”

SOURCE – (CNN)

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Reactions As Vladimir Putin Secures A Fifth Term As Russia’s President After Tightly Controlled Vote

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putin charged with war crimes

Vladimir Putin won a historic fifth term as Russia’s president on Monday, as the electoral commission announced the results of a referendum in which he faced no serious challenges and took place amid the toughest crackdown on dissent and free speech since Soviet times.

putin

Reactions As Vladimir Putin Secures A Fifth Term As Russia’s President After Tightly Controlled Vote

Putin claimed that the landslide majority demonstrated Russians’ “trust” and “hopes” in him, while lawmakers throughout Europe blasted the vote as a hoax and Russia’s efforts to conduct elections in seized portions of Ukraine that it claims as its territory.

Here’s what Putin, European leaders, and others say:

“Of course, we have a lot of work ahead. But I’d like to clarify one thing: no one has ever been able to intimidate or stifle our will or self-conscience since our consolidation. They have failed in the past and will fail in the future. Vladimir Putin, President of Russia.

“The elections took place in an ever-shrinking political space, which has resulted in an alarming increase of violations of civil and political rights, and precluded many candidates from running, including all those opposed to Russia’s illegal war of aggression.” – Statement from the European Union.

“These Russian elections highlight the intensity of repression under President Putin’s administration, which tries to stifle all dissent to his illegal war. Putin eliminates his political opponents, controls the media, and declares himself the winner. “This is not a democracy.” — David Cameron, UK Foreign Secretary.

putin

Reactions As Vladimir Putin Secures A Fifth Term As Russia’s President After Tightly Controlled Vote

“Searches at voting stations’ entrances, attempts to examine ballots before voters place them in ballot boxes, and detentions of voters who arrived at noon. According to reports, at one voting location in Moscow, police asked that the chairman of a commission (of poll workers) unlock a ballot box and hand them a ballot with anything inscribed on it. This is the first time in my life that I have witnessed such ridiculousness.” — Stanislav Andreychuk, co-chair of Golos, the independent election watchdog, on Telegram.

putin

Reactions As Vladimir Putin Secures A Fifth Term As Russia’s President After Tightly Controlled Vote

“The Russian election was one without a choice. Holding so-called elections in portions of Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia violates international law. It is all the more amazing that so many Russians made it known over the weekend that they do not agree with this Russian president. That you go to a polling station even if you’re surrounded by military earns me the highest respect.” — German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.

SOURCE – (AP)

 

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India Announces 6-Week General Elections Starting April 19 With Modi’s BJP Topping Surveys

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india

NEW DELHI – India declared on Saturday that its six-week general election will begin on April 19, with most polls projecting a victory for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.

Voting in the world’s largest democracy will occur in seven phases, with different states voting at different times, and the results will be published on June 4. Over 970 million people, or more than 10% of the world’s population, will elect 543 members of the lower house of Parliament for five-year terms.

india

India Announces 6-Week General Elections Starting April 19 With Modi’s BJP Topping Surveys

Modi, who is running for a third term, has little opposition since the main opposition alliance, led by the Indian National Congress, appears to be fraying due to rivalries, political defections, and ideological disagreements.

According to analysts, the elections will likely confirm Modi’s status as one of India’s most enduring and influential leaders, having pushed to turn the country from a secular democracy to an avowedly Hindu nation.

Each election phase will span one day, with votes cast in many constituencies distributed across multiple states, strongly populated cities, and remote villages. The staggered polling method enables the government to deploy tens of thousands of troops to avoid riots and transport electoral workers and voting machines.

India uses a first-past-the-post multiparty electoral system, meaning the candidate with the most votes wins.

india

India Announces 6-Week General Elections Starting April 19 With Modi’s BJP Topping Surveys

Ahead of the election, Modi has been touring the country, inaugurating new projects, giving speeches, and connecting with people. Support for the leader skyrocketed after he opened a Hindu temple in northern Ayodhya in January, which many considered the unofficial start of his election campaign because it fulfilled his party’s long-standing Hindu nationalist commitment.

The 73-year-old Modi first rose to power in 2014 on promises of economic progress, portraying himself as an outsider cracking down on the political class. Since then, he has grown in popularity and combined religion and politics in a combination that has resonated strongly with the country’s majority Hindu population, even if it weakens India’s secular roots.

The elections come as India’s global power has grown under Modi, owing to its vast economy and, in part, to its position as a counterweight to a rising China.

india

India Announces 6-Week General Elections Starting April 19 With Modi’s BJP Topping Surveys

Critics claim that over a decade of Modi’s administration has seen increased unemployment even as the country’s economy has expanded, attacks by Hindu nationalists on the country’s minorities, particularly Muslims, and a narrowing space for dissent and free press. The opposition claims that a victory for Modi’s party could jeopardize India’s status as a secular, democratic country.

A victory for Modi’s BJP would build on its 2019 electoral triumph when it won an absolute majority with 303 parliamentary seats to the Congress party’s 52.

SOURce – (AP)

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