Author: Press Room

US President Joe Biden speaks in the East Room of the White House on December 16, 2024, in … [+]AFP via Getty Images The Biden administration walked away from two mass student loan forgiveness plans on Friday, marking an anticlimactic end to the efforts to enact broad student debt relief. Officials withdrew proposed regulations that would have allowed the initiatives to be implemented. The two loan forgiveness plans would have created pathways to student debt relief for broad swaths of student loan borrowers, including those who have experienced runaway balance growth due to interest accrual, and people who are dealing…

As drone sightings continue to puzzle authorities and residents in New Jersey and throughout the East Coast, a new tool developed by the FAA has the potential to quickly identify the source of these mystery drones. The feds have been slow to implement the technology and local and state law enforcement report having no access to the new tool. Fox News reports that the FAA’s recently mandated Remote ID technology, which functions as a digital license plate for drones, could provide much-needed answers to the ongoing mystery surrounding the numerous drone sightings across the East Coast. However, the agency’s lack…

Nigel Farage’s Reform UK is on the cusp over overtaking the legacy Conservative Party in paid-up members, launching a live tracker for the countdown. Reform UK has over 121,000 members at the time of going to press on Monday, putting it within striking distance of overtaking the Conservative Party, reckoned to have some 131,680 members, shortly. The party has experienced strong growth in recent months, and is making something of an event out of the race to beat the Tories, launching a live membership tracker. Announcing the stunt, leader Nigel Farage remarked: “we’ll track daily what our membership numbers are, you’ll see…

Japanese automakers Nissan and Honda have announced plans to work toward a merger that would catapult them to a top position in an industry in the midst of tectonic shifts as it transitions away from reliance on fossil fuels. TOKYO (AP) — Japanese automakers Honda and Nissan have announced plans to work toward a merger, forming the world’s third-largest automaker by sales as the industry undergoes dramatic changes in its transition away from fossil fuels. The two companies said they had signed a memorandum of understanding on Monday and that smaller Nissan alliance member Mitsubishi Motors also had agreed to…

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has sued the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) for deceptive marketing practices in advertising sporting events as women’s competitions and then allowing males to compete. Specifically, Paxton accused the NCAA of violating the Texas Trade Practices Act. This law protects consumers from businesses that “mislead or trick” them into purchasing goods that are not as advertised. Paxton’s suit accuses the NCAA of  “engaging in false, deceptive, and misleading practices by marketing sporting events as ‘women’s’ competitions only to then provide consumers with mixed-sex competitions where biological males compete against biological females.” “The NCAA is intentionally and…

Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) said the relentless pressure that billionaire business mogul Elon Musk is putting on Congress is “nothing new” — even if it is coming from the world’s richest person. “I know that some people out there are saying, ‘Well, he’s putting pressure on everybody.’ That’s nothing new. We get that kind of pressure on a regular basis,” South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds said in an interview on today’s POLITICO Tech podcast.Rounds, who serves on the Intelligence and Armed Services committees, and has been a key voice on AI and cybersecurity policy on Capitol Hill, was responding to…

Striding on stage to thunderous music and strobing pyrotechnics, Charlie Kirk thanked God for Donald Trump’s victory in November’s presidential election during a speech that set the tone for a Jesus Christ-filled weekend at AmericaFest, Turning Point USA’s (TPUSA) annual gathering which drew 20,000 rightwing politicians, media figures and activists.“We cannot take credit for what happened on November 5,” said Kirk, the firebrand director of TPUSA. “Who deserves credit is God Almighty.”Kirk wrapped his speech on a similar note.“Is God done with this country? Now I can say confidently, no, God is not done with America.”The third annual AmericaFest was…

Colorado’s weather can be confusing, and not just from a forecasting standpoint.Storm forecasts usually include geographical or “pseudo-geographical” features, as the National Weather Service office in Boulder refers to them, in explaining its snowfall predictions.But the forecasts lack critical context if people aren’t sure what areas the weather service is referring to. That’s why each year, the National Weather Service in Boulder sends out on social media a geographical map of Colorado.These geographical features are used to inform the public where to expect weather events. Some features greatly influence weather patterns, which makes weather forecasting difficult, especially with rain and…

The Biden administration is set to investigate whether Beijing’s chip-manufacturing policies threaten US economic security The US has launched a trade investigation into China’s production of legacy chips, citing concerns that the country is seeking to dominate domestic and global markets in the critical semiconductor industry. In a press release on Monday, Trade Representative Katherine Tai claimed that Beijing was employing extensive anticompetitive and non-market strategies, including setting and pursuing market-share targets, to achieve indigenization and self-sufficiency.The country’s policies and practices threaten to have ‘detrimental impacts’ on the US and other economies, Tai claimed, adding that they undermine the competitiveness of…

Vineyards supplying elite producers have been accused of exploitation over treatment of seasonal workers People employed to pick grapes for France’s luxury champagne brands are being forced to sleep rough and steal food to stave off hunger, an investigation has found.The Guardian reported on Monday that it had found seasonal workers from west Africa and eastern Europe in the town of Epernay in northern France sleeping on the streets or in tents as the vineyards did not provide accommodation. Dozens of them spent their nights in the doorway of the cinema opposite the town’s main train station, it wrote. Epernay…