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That relief includes nearly 85,000 people who attended schools that “cheated and defrauded their students,” 61,000 borrowers with a total and permanent disability and another 6,100 public service workers, Biden said in a statement.

President Joe Biden is signing a proclamation to establish two new national monuments in California, in part to honor two tribes, a person familiar with the decision said Monday. The proclamation will create the Chuckwalla National Monument in Southern California near Joshua Tree National Park and the Sáttítla National Monument in Northern California, said the person, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss the plans that were to be announced Tuesday in California. The declaration bars drilling and mining and other development on the 600,000-acre (2,400-square-kilometer) area in Southern California and roughly 200,000 acres (800...

President Biden has announced he is sending an additional $2.5 billion to Ukraine

The United States is expected to announce that it will send $1.25 billion in military assistance to Ukraine, U.S. officials said Friday, as the Biden administration pushes to get as much aid to Kyiv as possible before leaving office on Jan. 20. The large package of aid includes a significant amount of munitions, including for the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems and the HAWK air defense system. It also will provide Stinger missiles and 155 mm- and 105 mm artillery rounds, officials said. ... Earlier this month, senior defense officials acknowledged that that the Defense Department may not be able...

The White House has confirmed that lame-duck President Joe Biden is trying to funnel “as much funding as possible” to “climate change” groups as he can before his term ends next month. The Biden administration is seeking to rapidly disperse taxpayer-funded climate cash before President Donald Trump is sworn in to power. Biden is hoping to cement his green energy agenda before Trump assumes the Oval Office in January. In a memo released by the White House, Jeff Zients, Biden’s chief of staff, boasted that the president is pumping as much climate cash “as possible before the end of the...

The U.S. on Saturday announced a new $988 million military assistance package for Ukraine in its war with Russia as Washington races to provide aid to Kyiv before President-elect Donald Trump takes office. Trump's victory in the November election has cast doubt on the future of U.S. aid for Ukraine, providing a limited window for billions of dollars in already authorized assistance to be provided before he is sworn in next month. The package features drones, ammunition for precision HIMARS rocket launchers, and equipment and spare parts for artillery systems, tanks and armored vehicles, the Pentagon said in a statement....

The United States will provide more than $1 billion in humanitarian aid for people displaced by drought or conflict in 31 African countries, US President Joe Biden said in Angola Tuesday. The assistance would address food insecurity and other urgent needs of refugees, internally displaced persons and affected communities in 31 African countries, a statement from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) added. "Today, I'm announcing over $1 billion of new humanitarian support for Africans displaced from homes by historic droughts," Biden said in an address in the Angolan capital Luanda, where he arrived late Monday for his...

The Biden administration announced Thursday it is racing to cancel student loans for more than 60,000 public service workers. The move comes just 18 days before the 2024 election and brings the number of public service workers who have now benefitted from such taxpayer-funded largesse to over one million. The gift delivers $4.5 billion in debt relief to teachers, firefighters, and other service workers who have been dutifully meeting loan repayment obligations for over a decade, the Hill reports.

The $400 billion federal clean-energy lending program that has faced criticism for moving too slow is stepping up efforts to push cash out the door before the election. The Energy Department’s Loan Programs Office was turbocharged by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which gave it hundreds of billions of dollars to lend to clean-energy businesses. So far, it has only used a tiny fraction of that capacity. Biden administration officials fear that if Donald Trump is elected, the office would stop making loans. The program was largely dormant while Trump was president. “The election is everything,” said Adam Forgie, the...

The Bureau of Land Management has published details of a plan to make millions of acres of public lands across the western U.S. available for development of solar power. The Western Solar Plan, which revises guidelines from more than a decade ago, was published in the Federal Register on August 30, 2024. The BLM said the plan would make 31 million acres of public lands (that is 48,437 square miles!) available for potential solar energy development. The new proposal seeks to bring solar projects to 11 states. The plan would place development closer to existing or planned power transmission lines,...

* The 8th Circuit officially blocked the SAVE student-loan repayment plan in its entirety. * It replaces its temporary stay on the plan from July, which paused cheaper payments and debt relief. * Enrolled borrowers will likely be in limbo for long as the legal process progresses.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said during a speech in Belem, Brazil, on Saturday that the price tag for a global transition to a low-carbon economy amounts to $78 trillion in financing through 2050. Yellen said that in order to achieve the goal of net-zero global carbon emissions, there would need to be $3 trillion globally in annual financing for the cause, which she said is a top priority for the Biden administration, according to the speech. In order to contribute to this, Yellen vowed to finance green initiatives in developing countries through multilateral development banks and develop “clean energy...

The federal government is spending $1.7 billion to modernize automobile manufacturing facilities, helping the industry compete with foreign subsidies and create and protect jobs.As part of the Automotive Community Benefits Plan, the current administration will extend grants to 11 selected manufacturing plants in eight states, including in Georgia, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, that have temporarily closed or were at risk of closing.Federal funding, which will come from the Inflation Reduction Act, will be dedicated to retrofitting factories, installing equipment, and bolstering annual production.Grant capital will also allow these at-risk facilities to convert to manufacturing electric vehicles and related components and a...

President Joe Biden’s campaign aired an ad on Monday that capitalized on the weaponization of government against his political opponent, former President Donald Trump. The Biden campaign has mostly shied away from campaigning on Trump’s criminal conviction — until now. In a $50 million ad buy through the end of June, Biden will cast Trump as a criminal and himself as a protector of family values. The Associated Press described the ad: Besides Trump’s criminal conviction, the ad, titled “Character Matters,” notes the former president also was found liable for sexual assault and financial fraud in separate proceedings. Trump also...

“The investments that Russia had have matured. So Russia’s funds are sitting in cash, but they’re generating income for the institution which Russia has no claim on,” she concluded. The G7 agreed on the American proposal Thursday during a summit in Italy. The move allows the world leaders to tap into the interest being accumulated at European banking institutions from the frozen assets to the tune of $50 billion. Yellen added that the G7 has made it clear to Moscow that the actual assets will remain frozen until Russia agrees to pay for the damages Ukraine has sustained over the...

President Joe Biden publicly apologized to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday for a congressional holdup over $61 billion in military aid.Observers have said that the delay allowed Russia to make advances in Ukraine.Biden met Zelenskyy in Paris when the apology was made.“I apologize for those weeks of not knowing what’s going to happen in terms of funding,” Biden said, describing the roughly 6 months of debate in Congress over a $61 billion military aid package for Ukraine. “We’re still in. Completely. Thoroughly."Zelenskyy emphasized the importance of unity between the U.S. and Ukraine.“It’s very important that in this unity, United...

A backroom Washington deal brokered two years ago is undercutting a key part of President Joe Biden’s policy to grow the national high-tech manufacturing base — pushing more than $3 billion into a secretive national-security project promoted by chipmaker Intel.In recent weeks, Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer have been taking victory laps for the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, a law intended to create jobs and fund innovation in a key global industry. It has already launched a series of grants, incentives and research proposals to help America regain its cutting-edge status in global semiconductor manufacturing.But quietly, in...

President Joe Biden revealed that his administration will be canceling more than $7 billion in student debt for 160,000 people. The White House issued a statement Wednesday announcing that 160,000 people in the United States would have their student loans canceled, erasing a total of $7.7 billion in student debt for those people. In June 2023, the Supreme Court issued a 6-3 decision to block Biden’s plan to cancel $430 billion in student loan debt for almost 40 million people.

LONDON, May 21 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said there was a possibility Group of Seven nations would support Ukraine by as much as $50 billion using loans linked to seized Russian assets, Sky News reported on Tuesday. "I believe it's important for the G7 to work together to show a united front and to show that we can generate meaningful resources to support Ukraine over the next several years," she told Sky News.