Education Department forgives loans of more than 110,000 people, Teases More on the Way

Temporary changes to the troubled Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program have resulted in more than 110,000 people with student debt getting around $6.8 billion in relief. While the defraud forgiveness is welcome, 45 million Americans still currently carry the burden of student loan debt totaling close to $1.7 trillion. Most borrowers hold something between $25,000 and $50,000 of debt. 

Biden confirmed that he would have an announcement on the cancellation of student debt within the coming weeks, and confirmed that whatever debt would be canceled, it would be well below the $50,000 mark. As plans continue to formulate regarding student loan forgiveness, President Biden is considering an income cap of less than $125,000 a year.

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💣 Bomb squad responds to reports of suspicious item near LAX

Bomb squad units are responding to reports of a suspicious item near Los Angeles International Airport Wednesday evening, according to authorities. 

Reports came in about a suspicious item at the Qantas Freight building at 6555 W. Imperial Highway around 4:24 p.m. Wednesday, according to preliminary info from the Los Angeles Airport Police Division.

Officials urged people to avoid the area and use alternative routes for an undisclosed amount of time. No further denoscription of the item was available. 

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🚫 Oklahoma joins Texas in offering glimpse of 'post-Roe' world

Oklahoma joined Texas this week after signing into law a bill that makes performing an abortion a felony offense punishable by up to 10 years.

Signed Tuesday by Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, the measure prohibits doctors from performing an abortion after fetal activity is detected in the embryo, which experts say is typically after about six weeks and before many women even know they are pregnant. 

Abortion providers in Oklahoma said they are prepared for the law to take effect and have been helping women get appointments at clinics in neighboring states.

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⚡️ Europe is not ready for ban on Russian gas supplies, head of Austrian fuel company OMV says

⚡️ Two settlements in Russia's Belgorod region are being shelled from Ukrainian territory, governor says

📸 Barricades are being set up in front of the steps of the US Supreme Court Building as authorities anticipate crowds in response to the leaked draft opinion striking down the abortion precedent Roe v. Wade. 

On Monday evening, Politico published a draft of an opinion in a major abortion case that was argued in the fall. The document indicates the court could be poised to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade case that legalised abortion nationwide.

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⚡️ 📹 The Russian MoD has published footage showing the night hunting of Ka-52 Alligator helicopters at the command posts of the Ukrainian troops.

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❗️ The Russian MoD’s latest statements on the Ukraine crisis:

▪️ The Russian Aerospace Forces’ high-precision air-based missiles have destroyed aviation equipment at the Kanatovo military airfield near Kirovograd, one large ammunition depot in Nikolaev and one fuel storage facility for Ukrainian military equipment near Zhovtnevoe in Nikolaev Region.

▪️ Russian warplanes hit 93 areas where Ukrainian troops and military equipment were concentrated, and missile troops hit two command posts, an artillery battery, and two Tochka-U launchers overnight.
Russian artillery hit 32 command posts, five ammunition depots, 403 strongholds and areas where Ukrainian troops and military equipment were concentrated, as well as 51 Ukrainian artillery positions. Over 600 nationalists and 61 vehicles were destroyed.

▪️ Air defence shot down three Su-24 Ukrainian aircraft near Snake Island, a Su-27 in the Kherson region, a Su-25 in Dnepropetrovsk, as well as 14 drones. Two Smerch rockets were intercepted near the settlements of Tarasovka and Vasilievka.

▪️ Some 149 aircraft and 112 helicopters, 726 unmanned aerial vehicles, 288 anti-aircraft missile systems, 2,834 tanks and other armoured combat vehicles, 325 multiple launch rocket systems, 1,306 field artillery and mortars, as well as 2,646 units of special military vehicles of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have been destroyed so far during the special military operation.

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⚡️ 📹 “The situation in Mariupol is generally improving”, a volunteer with the call sign “Tashkent” said, describing how the liberated city is slowly coming back to life.

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⚡️ 📹 People suffering from the actions of Ukrainian nationalists write on the fences of their houses what they need to receive as humanitarian aid.

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⚡️ 📹 In the Lugansk People's Republic, Father Parthenius, rector of the local church, was killed as a result of shelling by Ukrainian forces in the village of Mikhailovka.

In an interview shortly before his death, Father Parthenius said that the Ukrainian army was deliberately destroying towns and cities.

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❗️ Kremlin: US giving intel to Ukraine won't stop Russian special military op

⚡️ Russian troops continue to block Azovstal plant, humanitarian corridors operational

⚡️🎥 "We crawled away under fire": Watch a man tell how Ukrainian militants shot at refugees escaping in a column of 34 cars between Volchansk and Kharkov.

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⚡️🎥 "My flat was bombed": A rescued Mariupol resident Lyubov Nyrkova recalls how she had to hide in the basement of a school near the Azovstal steel plant after her apartment was bombed by Ukrainian armed forces.

All of her possessions and money were destroyed in the fire, while she suffered several burns.

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⚡️🎥 A resident of one DPR settlement reveals the terrible conditions under which children live due to constant shelling.

Children have no access to education, and many have to sleep in basements or under couches.

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⚡️ 📹 A resident of Mariupol tells how Ukrainian tanks fired at residential buildings in the city.

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⚡️ 📹 A Ukrainian POW said that the West-supplied “overpraised” Javelin and NLAW anti-armour missiles had expired shelf lives and often misfired.

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