Thursday August 25 top stories
Hello! My name is Renca and I will take Alex’s place today for top news. Today is Thursday, August 25. Here are the top stories.
President Biden announces student loan forgiveness
Yesterday, President Joe Biden announced the student loan debt. This was one of the highly-anticipated topics that people were waiting to hear from Biden and what he would decide.
The decision is that if you had a federal student loan with the Pell Grant and you make less than $125,000 a year or less than $250,000 a year for married couples then you are eligible for up to $20,000 in loan forgiveness. If you did not receive a Pell Grant and make less than $125,000 a year (individual) or less than $250,000 (couple) then you are eligible for up to $10,000 in student loan forgiveness. Also, Biden will continue the payment pause for the federal student loan until this December. The payment pause for federal student loans was set up two years ago during the pandemic to help people in their financial situation. The original deadline for the pause to end was September 1st but now Biden has postponed it to December 31st.
In one article, it mentioned that about 43 million borrowers will benefit from this and 20 million will have their debts completely canceled. Not everyone responded the same. Some people were excited to know that their debts would be forgiven, but those with higher debts did hope for $50,000 and were disappointed with the decided amount.
There were some economists and higher education experts that mentioned canceling student loan debts does not do anything to help the rising cost of college. Biden announced on Twitter that he is keeping the promise that he made during his campaign to cancel student loan debts.
Uvalde school police chief fired
The Uvalde school board voted to fire the school district’s police chief Pete Arredondo for his failures in leadership in the response to the school shooting at Robb Elementary School.
Over 15 police officers waited for almost an hour inside a school hallway while the gunman was inside the classroom. Arredondo was the “incident commander,” meaning he was in charge of the police response. Many believe that if police entered the classroom earlier, there could have been more survivors.
The school board’s vote to fire him was unanimous.
Russian rockets kill 25 at train station in Ukraine
The Russian military launched a rocket attack on a Ukrainian train station in a town about 400 miles east of Kyiv. At least 25 people were killed, including two children. An 11-year-old boy was found dead under the rubble of a house. A 6-year-old child died in a car fire near the train station.
The Ukrainian president said they would hold Russia responsible for their war crimes and pledged that Ukrainian troops would drive Russian troops out of the country.
The U.S. said it would send another round of weapons and military equipment to Ukraine that is worth almost $3 billion.
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Widow of NBA star awarded 16 million
Yesterday, Vanessa Bryant, widow of NBA superstar Kobe Bryant, was awarded 16 million in damages for the leaked photos of the helicopter crash that killed her husband Kobe and daughter Gianna. The deputies and firefighters took the photos including photographs of human remains as “souvenirs” and shared them with members of the public.
The federal jury decided unanimously after deliberating for 4 ½ hours. After the verdict was made, Bryant posted a photo of her with her husband and daughter with the caption that read: “All for you! JUSTICE for Kobe and Gigi!”
17-year-old pilot becomes the youngest person to fly around the world solo
Mack Rutherford (17) landed in Sofia in Bulgaria after a 5 months journey around the world, across 52 countries. He became the youngest person to fly around the world solo. Mack was born to British parents, but he grew up in Belgium. His older sister, Zara (19) became the youngest woman to fly around the world solo and that happened this recent January.
Zara was able to advise Mack and his journey around the world. He went through many different things including a sandstorm in Sudan and spending the night on an uninhabited Pacific island.
Mack comes from a family of aviators. Mack flew a Shark plane, a high-performance ultralight aircraft that can hit a cruising speed of around 186 mph. He stated, “you do not need to be an adult to do incredible things.”
That’s all for now. See you tomorrow. Stay with the light.
Biden:
https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/24/politics/student-loans-joe-biden-white-house/index.html
Uvalde: https://www.axios.com/2022/08/25/uvalde-school-board-fires-police-chief
https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1562462774969581570
https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/24/us/vanessa-bryant-la-county-trial/index.html