Biden cancels nearly $5B in student loans to relieve 74K borrowers
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden canceled nearly $5 billion in student loan debt Friday for 74,000 people, the latest effort by the administration to deliver piecemeal relief after the Supreme Court struck down Biden’s more ambitious loan cancellation plan last year.
Most of the people who will benefit from the latest round are teachers, nurses, firefighters and others in public service, who qualify for relief under programs that have been plagued by bureaucratic and other problems for years.
“My administration is able to deliver relief to these borrowers — and millions more — because of fixes we made to broken student loan programs that were preventing borrowers from getting relief they were entitled to under the law,” Biden said in a statement.
His promise to forgive student loans is a sticking point for crucial voting blocs, particularly young people, and for Black borrowers who disproportionately shoulder the most student loan debt. More than 43 million people across the country owe about $1.6 trillion in federal loans for college, according to government data.
The Biden administration has canceled more than $136 billion in student loan debt for more than 3.7 million people as the White House finds workarounds after the Supreme Court decision in June.
That more ambitious plan would have canceled up to $400 billion in student debt for about 43 million borrowers. But the court ruled that Biden had overstepped his authority with the plan.
The president said Friday that his administration is “continuing to pursue an alternative path to deliver student debt relief to as many borrowers as possible as quickly as possible.”
Biden’s efforts to wipe out debts through policy changes have consistently polled favorably among Americans. But Republicans who oppose loan forgiveness characterize the policies as an unfair burden on taxpayers.
US jets strike Houthis: U.S. fighter jets struck Iranian-backed Houthi rebel sites for the sixth time Friday, taking out anti-ship missile launchers in Yemen that were prepared to fire, according to two U.S. officials.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing military operations, said the strikes were carried out by F/A-18 aircraft off the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier. And they resembled similar U.S. attacks on Houthi launchers that have been occurring almost daily this week.
Al-masirah, a Houthi-run satellite news channel, said there were air raids in the western city of Hodieda on Friday, targeting the al-jabaana neighborhood in the west of the city. The location of the U.S. strikes could not be immediately confirmed.
Shutdown averted: President Joe Biden signed a short-term spending bill Friday that keeps the federal government operating until early March.
The bill averts what would’ve been a partial government shutdown starting Saturday. It does not address additional aid for Ukraine, which remains in limbo as key legislators continue to negotiate a border security measure that would go in tandem with more support for Kyiv.
Congress, ahead of the winter snowstorm that struck Washington on Friday, passed the shortterm bill with large bipartisan majorities Thursday. The vote was 77-18 in the Senate and 314-108 in the House.
Under the bill, funding for agencies overseeing agriculture, veterans affairs, energy, transportation and housing runs through March 1. Funding for the rest of the federal government now runs through March 8. It’s meant to buy lawmakers extra time to draft full-year spending bills through the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.
Sinn Fein’s ex-chief sued: Former Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams faces a lawsuit by three people who were wounded in bombings attributed to the Irish Republican Army that date back more than 50 years, a judge said Friday.
Adams is one of the most influential figures of Northern Ireland’s decades of conflict and led the Ira-linked party Sinn Fein between 1983 and 2018. He has always denied being an IRA member, although former colleagues have said he was one of its leaders.
The three claimants are seeking to prove that Adams was responsible for bombings in England during “the Troubles,” referring to three decades of violence involving Irish republican and British loyalist militants and U.K. soldiers. About 3,600 people were killed — most in Northern Ireland, although the IRA also set off bombs in England.
The three claimants say Adams was a leading member of the IRA during those events and was on its decision-making Army Council.
Nkorea drone sub: North Korea said Friday that it has tested a nuclear-capable underwater attack drone in response to a combined naval exercise by South Korea, the United States and Japan this week, as it continues to blame its rivals for raising tensions in the region.
The test of the drone, purportedly designed to destroy naval vessels and ports, came days after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared he is scrapping his country’s long-standing goal of a peaceful reunification with South Korea and that his country will rewrite its constitution to define South Korea as its most hostile foreign adversary.
The underwater drone, which North Korea said it first tested last year, is among a broad range of weapon systems demonstrated in recent years as Kim expands his arsenal of nuclear-capable weapons. South Korea’s military says North Korea has exaggerated the capabilities of the drone.
North Korea in recent months has tested various missile systems designed to target the United States and its Asian allies, and announced an escalatory nuclear doctrine that authorizes the military to conduct preemptive nuclear strikes if North Korea’s leadership is under threat.
Ala. execution: An attorney for an Alabama inmate set to be the nation’s first person put to death by nitrogen gas asked a federal appeals court Friday to block the upcoming execution using the “untested methods.”
Kenneth Smith, 58, is scheduled to be executed Thursday, when a respirator-type mask will be put on his face to replace his breathing air with pure nitrogen — depriving him of the oxygen needed to stay alive. Three states — Alabama, Oklahoma and Mississippi — have authorized nitrogen hypoxia as an execution method, but no state has attempted to use it.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard diverging descriptions of the humaneness and potential risks of the proposed method in Smith’s appeal of a federal judge’s Jan. 10 decision to let the execution go forward.
The three judges on the panel asked questions about the proposed method, including claims that it could cause Smith to choke to death on his own vomit, but did not indicate when they will rule.