Biden Education Dept Forgiving $2 Billion In Student Loans For Up To 30,000 Borrowers

Up to 30,000 student loan borrowers will have a cumulative $2 billion in debt forgiven by the Biden Education Department, after a series of major changes to the troubled Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program were announced.

In a Thursday tweet, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona announced that "30K+ borrowers will get an estimated $3B forgiven." Of that, "Roughly 10K have already had $715M discharged" with another 20,000 to follow.

"This is fantastic news for those who will have their debts cancelled and demonstrates how the Biden administration has the power to make life better for all people with student debt," Mike Pierce, executive director at the Student Borrower Protection Center, told Yahoo Finance. "With payments currently set to restart in less than 90 days, there is much more work to be done for our public servants and all Americans with student loan debt."

Created by Congress in 2007, the PSLF program supplies taxpayer dollars for government and non-profit employees - including teachers, nurses, service members, first responders and other public service workers with federally-backed student loans to apply for forgiveness after providing proof of 120 monthly payments under a qualified repayment plan.

ED's policy change in October was previously expected to result in 22,000 student loan borrowers with consolidated loans — which were previously ineligible to be counted towards loan forgiveness — becoming "immediately eligible" for $1.74 billion in forgiveness. -Yahoo Finance

"The temporary waivers announced by the Department of Education have been an actual life changing event for many of the borrowers we work with," Betsy Mayotte, president of The Institute of Student Loan Advisors, told Yahoo Finance, adding that she's received dozens of notes from borrowers who "woke up this week to find that their balance is finally zero."

According to the report, citing the National Education Association, 45% of educators took out an average of $55,800 in student loans to attend college. Of them, 14% with an unpaid loan balance are carrying $105,000 or more.

When it comes to service members, the NEA found last year that while 200,000 service members hold a cumulative $3 billion in student loan debt, just 17,534 had submitted the proper paperwork to seek forgiveness - while around 40% of those applicants were actually on track for debt relief.

"As the burden of student loan debt has impacted ever larger swathes of American society, the U.S. military has seen more service members come onto active duty with student loans," said former former director of military and consumer protection at Veterans Education Success, Mike Saunders. "This means that PSLF has become a huge factor when it comes to getting the all-volunteer force to reenlist past their initial service obligation."

https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/biden-education-dept-forgiving-2-billion-student-loans-30000-borrowers

Medical Research Rapidly Adopts 'Systemic Racism' as Truth, Risking Scientific Credibility (2 Parts)

Rejection used to be common for medical sociologist Thomas LaVeist when he tried to get his research published on the effects of racism on the health of black people. “Now,” said the 60-year-old dean of Tulane University’s School of Public Health & Tropical Medicine, “I have those same journals asking me to write articles for them.”

LaVeist’s experience illustrates the dramatic transformation in medical research, accelerating in the past few years. While few would dispute that black Americans are more prone to chronic health problems and have shorter life expectancies than whites, the medical community generally sought answers in biology, genetics and lifestyle. Research, like LaVeist’s, that focused on racism was frowned upon as lacking rigor or relevance, an amateurish detour from serious intellectual inquiry.

Today medical journal editors are clamoring for a racial lens and apologizing for what they call their past moral blindness. In recent years, and especially since Black Lives Matter protests erupted last year, systemic racism has been transformed from a fringe theory to a canonical truth.

Medical researchers are now able to offer a sweeping socio-political explanation for racial health disparities by citing the hundreds of peer-reviewed articles authored by LaVeist and a host of others, thus conferring upon the study of systemic racism the imprimatur of scholarly authority and even settled science.

This year, top officials at the National Institutes of Health issued an apology to all who have suffered from structural racism in biomedical research. The NIH, the nation’s largest funder of biomedical research, announced that it is dedicating $90 million to the study of health disparities and structural racism, engaging in more than 60 diversity and inclusion initiatives, and committing “every tool at our disposal to remediate the chronic problem of structural racism.”

In an August special issue dedicated to racial health disparities, the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association stated that systemic racism is a scientific fact beyond dispute, and disagreeing on this point is “wrong,” “misguided” and “uninformed.” Systemic racism is a reality to be assumed in medical research rather than a sociological hypothesis to be tested by skeptical researchers.

Deemed incontestable, systemic racism provides the political rationale for “dismantling” — in the words of no less an authority than the National Institutes of Health — the social institutions and cultural standards that, according to the framework’s advocates, were constructed and are maintained to uphold white supremacy.

The consequences of ignoring this new prime directive for racially focused research were made abundantly clear this year when the top two editors of JAMA were pressured to resign after the organization ran a podcast that questioned whether systemic racism explains health disparities between blacks and other Americans.

More

https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2021/11/11/medical_research_seizes_on_systemic_racism_as_undisputed_truth_its_scientific_credibility_on_the_line_802820.html

Part 2

https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2021/11/11/medical_journals_pour_forth_hundreds_of_articles_on_race_and_racism_803026.html

Black Americans Sue U.S. Farms for Replacing Them with Foreign Workers: ‘It’s Like Being Robbed of Your Heritage’

Black Americans who spent most of their lives working on Mississippi farms are suing their former employer after they were replaced by foreign workers on the H-2A visa program.

The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi, accuses Pitts Farms of laying off a number of black Americans, only to replace them with foreign visa workers from South Africa.

The H-2A visa program allows U.S. farms to annually outsource an unlimited number of American jobs to foreign workers who can extend their stay for up to three years. The foreign families of H-2A visa workers can also come to the U.S. on H-4 visas.

In 1997, a little more than 16,000 foreign visa workers were imported to take American jobs on U.S. farms. By 2020, that number has ballooned to a record 213,400 foreign visa workers — an increase in the H-2A visa program of more than 1,200 percent in less than 25 years.

Data shows U.S. farms use the H-2A visa program to import cheaper, foreign visa workers.

In interviews with the New York Times, black Americans said they had spent most of their lives earning a living as farm workers at Pitts Farms. The work is part of a long history wherein black Americans along the Mississippi Delta have spent grueling hours on farms doing intense physical labor.

One of the black Americans suing Pitts Farms, 50-year-old Richard Strong, told the Times that he has worked on farms for more than 25 years. His father and grandfather did so as well, as well as his enslaved ancestors.

Strong said about 10 years ago is when he noticed farms along the Mississippi Delta began importing foreign visa workers, almost entirely from South Africa. When the first groups arrived, Strong said he helped train them. Now, more than 100 U.S. farms along the Delta employ foreign visa workers from South Africa over Americans.

An expert on the H-2A visa program told the Times that “virtually all new workers entering the agriculture workforce these days are H-2A workers.” A recruiter for the H-2A visa program called the imported South Africans are “the preferred group” over Americans.

“Sunflower County, where [Pitts Farms] is located, is predominantly black; as of 2019, blacks made up an estimated 73 percent of the county’s population,” the lawsuit notes:

For many years, [Pitts Farms] employed a majority Black workforce. As of 2014, however, this number has steadily dwindled, as [Pitts Farms] began applying for and hiring white South Africans for the same work. And since 2014, PFP has used the H-2A program to hire only white South Africans – no black South Africans – although that country too is majority black by a wide margin: estimates stand at around 80% Black compared to less than 8% white. [Emphasis added]

By 2020, Strong said he was fired by Pitt Farms, as were the other American workers, including his brother Gregory, who had also spent most of his life working at the farm.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/11/12/black-americans-sue-u-s-farms-for-replacing-them-with-foreign-workers-its-like-being-robbed-of-your-heritage/

Russia's Dubnikov 'Practically Kidnapped' by FBI in Mexico, Sent to Amsterdam - Attorney

The FBI has practically kidnapped Russian citizen Denis Dubnikov, who was arrested in the Netherlands, his lawyer Arkady Bukh told Sputnik.

"Mexico has not let him enter the country. The US intelligence services have put him on a plane to the Netherlands and sent him there having paid for his ticket. In other words, he was kidnapped in fact," Bukh said, adding that it was the FBI behind the kidnapping.

He stressed that Dubnikov may face up to 20 years in jail.

“[Dubnikov] was detained in Mexico but expelled because Mexico has not such an ideal extradition policy as the Netherlands. They have bought a ticket, in other words, they have in fact kidnapped him and sent him to the Netherlands because the extradition from the Netherlands is in fact guaranteed," Bukh said.

"He is in fact held in jail in the Netherlands, he is accused of money laundering and may face up to 20 years in jail. We expect his extradition to the United States."

"So far, we do not agree to extradition, but we will probably give our consent later because the Netherlands is the country where the fight against extradition is statistically meaningless. We are studying: maybe it is worth agreeing to quick extradition and sorting it out already here," the attorney added.

Dubnikov was detained earlier this month while on vacation. Bukh previously relayed to reporters that his client had been taken into custody at the direction of the US on a conspiracy to commit money laundering charge.

The arrestee's case is currently marking one of the first arrests in connection to the Ryuk ransomeware group tied to attacks against US hospitals. Authorities have accused Dubnikov of having taken hundreds of thousands of dollars in bitcoin, a fraction allegedly obtained through Ryuk ransomware strikes.

An earlier report by the Wall Street Journal detailed that the Ryuk group has been tied to over 2,000 ransomware incidents since first emerging in the field in August 2018.

The Biden administration made cybersecurity one of its top concerns over the last several months after multiple attacks rattled American industries, including the strike against the Colonial Pipeline which prompted gas shortages along much of the US East Coast.

https://sputniknews.com/20211113/russias-dubnikov-practically-kidnapped-by-fbi-in-mexico-sent-to-amsterdam—attorney-1090699499.html

Biden’s Jamaica Ambassador Took China Trip Promising ‘Friendship’ And ‘Understanding’ Of Chinese Communist Party.

Nick Perry – Joe Biden’s nominee for Ambassador to Jamaica – participated in a lawmaker’s delegation to China aimed at “building friendship” with Chinese Communist Party officials and establishing business ties.

Perry, who’s served as a member of the New York State Assembly for three decades, joined an Asian American Business Development Center’s (AABDC) “Trade Mission to China” in September 2006. Previous trip participant and New York State Senator Malcolm Smith explained the purpose behind the trip as “provid[ing] us with a foundation to build friendship and an ongoing dialogue with Chinese government officials and business leaders” in an AABDC document chronicling Perry’s delegation.

Among the projects AABDC highlighted as one of its successes – in addition to Perry’s China trade mission – was assisting with the outsourcing of American jobs, noting it was helping “an American manufacturer [that] is seeking Chinese factories for order fulfillment.”

A summary of Perry’s trip reveals the China visit aimed to “enhance understanding of the Chinese government’s role in the country’s economic development and growth”:

The delegates’ first-hand experience of China gave them an enhanced understanding of the Chinese government’s role in the country’s economic development and growth. This, in turn, has provided these New York State legislators with a greater ability to effectively address their own constituents’ interests and concerns regarding doing business with China.

To do so, Perry’s delegation “met with Chinese government officials” in “every city [they] visited,” including events such as private dinners hosted by the National People’s Congress. During the trip, Perry, his fellow delegation members, and AABDC executives also “presented a gift” to the Chinese Communist Party Secretary of the Haining Municipality.

Perry provided a testimonial upon returning from the trip, praising the Chinese Communist Party’s development of China:

The economic development of China is remarkable. What stood out for me in all three cities was that even though they are ancient urban areas, I never had the sense that I was in an old city; everywhere, new construction and building is happening!

https://thenationalpulse.com/exclusive/biden-jamaica-ambassador-joined-china-delegation/

Philips Ventilator Recall Troubles Deepen as FDA Finds New Issues

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has asked Philips to conduct more tests on the foam used in its recalled ventilators, after the agency found several new issues at the Dutch company’s manufacturing facility.

The medical equipment company recalled some breathing devices and ventilators in June because of a silicone-based foam part that might degrade and become toxic, potentially causing cancer.

The FDA noted, in a so-called form 483, that between April 2016 and January 2021, Philips was aware of 14 instances of issues related to potential foam degradation with its different sleep and respiratory devices.

Philips, which in September said it will repair and replace the 15 million devices recalled globally, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The company has not sufficiently demonstrated that other devices containing this foam should not also be recalled, and its risk analysis was inadequate, the agency said in the form.

The Form 483 lists observations of issues that could lead to potential FDA rule violations.

The agency said the procedures for design change were not adequately established and the design validation did not ensure that the device conforms to defined user needs and intended uses.

The FDA had initially approved a plan that Philips developed, to repair the foam in the recalled devices with a different silicone-based foam.

But that was before the agency found new information during its manufacturing facility inspection, which showed that the silicone-based foam used in a singular, similar device marketed outside the United States had failed a safety test for the release of certain chemicals of concern, called volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

The FDA has requested that Philips retain an independent laboratory to perform additional testing to determine what, if any, potential safety risks may be posed to patients by the silicone-based foam.

https://www.ntd.com/philips-ventilator-recall-troubles-deepen-as-fda-finds-new-issues_701231.html

AUSTRALIA - Melbourne Protest In Full Force Against Mandates

https://youtu.be/GdYbvOS6HFw

>>14988030

Daily mail upset as they will be held to account also

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10197179/Coronavirus-Australia-Anti-vax-protesters-chant-kill-bill-proposed-law-Melbourne.html

>>14988288

We is victims you anti Semites

THEY HATE THEIR VOTERS: Senate Republicans Promote Dirtbag Lisa Murkowski as “Great Leader” Who’s “Fighting for Alaska” in New Promotion

Dirtbag Lisa Murkowski is arguably the worst Republican in the US Senate next to Mitt Romney.

She’s rotten and constantly ignores and spits on her voting base. She is about as unpopular with Republicans and Trump voters as Liz Cheney. An awful person.

On Friday Murkowski announced she was running for reelection. She is not through torturing the country.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee was quick to endorse this dirtbag.

They really hate their voters.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/11/hate-voters-senate-republicans-promote-dirtbag-lisa-murkowski-great-leader-fighting-alaska-new-promotion/

New DHS order: Cease deporting Nicaraguans under Title 42 public health emergency authority

Border Patrol agents fear being left to cope with new surge of illegals with dwindling staff to man the border due to federal vaccine mandate.

On Friday, Customs and Border Patrol agents received instructions on a new policy: Effective immediately, the Department of Homeland Security would no longer allow deportations of Nicaraguan illegal aliens under Title 42, a clause within the 1944 Public Health Services Law that "allows the government to prevent the introduction of individuals during certain public health emergencies."

All Nicaraguans entering the U.S. illegally, with some exceptions related to criminal history, will be released directly into the U.S. as of Friday afternoon, Just The News has learned.

The order to all CBP agents was issued verbally on a conference call. Official orders in writing are expected soon. The Department of Homeland Security has not issued a statement, nor has CBP.

Border Patrol agents and those in law enforcement told Just The News that the prohibition on deporting Nicaraguans will lead to a surge of Nicaraguans heading to the U.S., as well as many coming from other countries claiming to be Nicaraguans, knowing they won't be deported under Title 42.

The Biden administration had already altered enforcement policies under Title 42, facilitating an unprecedented influx of illegal aliens into the country this year. Under the Trump administration, families and unaccompanied minors were turned away under Title 42.

Trump's use of the authority was halted by a federal judge in January of this year. In March, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas issued an official directive stating that families and unaccompanied minors would not be deported under Title 42.

Border Patrol agents have also heard that Title 42 deportations will most likely end across the board around January 2022, which they fear will double or triple the numbers of illegal aliens coming across the southern border every month, numbers which have already reached record highs under the lax border security policies of the Biden administration.

In September, agents encountered nearly 200,000 illegal aliens. These numbers exclude got-aways — tens of thousands evading capture every month in each sector. Agents view the numbers as already unsustainable — double or triple what would overstrain resources and precipitate a full-fledged humanitarian crisis.

Agents worry they will be left to contend with a new surge of illegal aliens with significantly reduced staff to man the border because of Biden's federal employee vaccine mandate. So far, roughly 3,900 agents have requested exemptions.

Those who filed exemption requests don't expect them to be granted — whether for health, religious or other reasons. Progressive disciplinary timelines issued for noncompliance indicate that these agents will likely be terminated by the end of the year unless a judge intervenes.

These numbers exclude the agents who have refused to file their vaccine status. They also exclude the untold number of agents who are putting in for early retirement, demoralized by Biden policies with which they don't agree with and which have made it harder for them to do their jobs.

Even as agents are being forced to get the COVID jabs or lose their jobs after years of service, the 1.7 million illegal aliens they've apprehended were not required to receive any vaccinations as a condition of entering the U.S.

No policy exists requiring illegal aliens to be vaccinated for COVID or anything else.

https://justthenews.com/government/security/new-dhs-order-cease-deporting-nicaraguans-under-title-42-public-health

Pakistan’s Economic Woes Could Worsen If It Does Not Impose The EU’s Liberal World View

Citing Pakistan’s worsening human rights situation, particularly relating to the safety of minorities, women, and journalists, the European Union has raised concerns and put the country’s preferred trade status in question. Luis Garicano, a Spanish member of the European Parliament, recently visited Pakistan and met with top leaders and members of civil society.

On November 7, he tweeted: “Just returned from a fascinating visit to Pakistan. The European Parliament is very concerned about the deteriorating human rights situation, which puts into question the continuation of the preferred trade status of the country (GSP+).”

During his visit to Pakistan, he met with the senior Trade Advisor, Foreign Minister, Trade and Justice Ministers, Attorney General, Speaker of the House, opposition leaders, journalists, civil society and religious minorities. Following the trip, Garicano explained that Europe has zero trade tariffs for many Pakistani goods in exchange for the country’s implementation of 27 human rights conventions. This status, which expires in December 2023 and is now up for revision, has led to 31% of all Pakistani exports going to the EU.

“The European delegation wanted to ensure that the Human Rights part of the deal advances. Only with respect to human rights can Pakistan prosper, extremism be defeated and the country attain the level of progress it deserves,” the MEP wrote in a follow up tweet.

Despite the constitution protecting minority rights, he highlighted that “this is not the reality due to blasphemy laws and civil rights suppression. Blasphemy laws are abused to keep minorities on the defensive-any mistake can result in years in prison after a false accusation of blasphemy.”

While talking about women’s rights, he said, “There are huge concerns about forced marriages for young girls, often after forced conversion. Since Islam punishes apostasy with death, once a girl is forced to convert, it is impossible for her to divorce and come back to her home.”

Garicano warned that: “Our message was clear: Pakistan should not take for granted its privileged trade status. The EU has done its part; Pakistan must fulfill its own part.”

Considering nearly a third of Pakistan’s exports are to the EU, threats against its privileged trade status could unravel the already struggling economy. Although Pakistan has a preferential trade status with the EU and is a major part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, particularly through the $62+ billion worth of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects, its economy is struggling and thus has hampered efforts to alleviate poverty, develop vital infrastructure outside of CPEC, and improve literacy and water access.

Pakistan has a bloated military budget that in 2019 accounted for 18.43% of the GDP. The vast military funding is needed to maintain Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal, support terrorist organizations in Jammu and Kashmir, and for corrupt military leaders to siphon money. Despite this vast military spending, Pakistan still suffers from a poverty rate of nearly 40%, a literacy rate of only 60%, a ranking of 92 out of the 116 countries in the 2021 Global Hunger Index, and could “run dry” by 2025 as its water shortage is reaching an alarming level.

https://southfront.org/pakistans-economic-woes-could-worsen-if-it-does-not-impose-the-eus-liberal-world-view/

Saudi-Backed Forces Withdrew From Dozens Of Positions In Yemen’s Al-Hudaydah – Reports

Saudi-backed forces have carried out a surprise withdrawal from dozens of positions in the southern and eastern outskirts of the western Yemeni city of al-Hudaydah, the Beirut-based al-Mayadeen channel reported on November 11.

In November of 2018, the Saudi-led coalition and its Yemeni proxies reached the outskirts of the Houthi-held costal city after a large-scale offensive. The following month, the offensive came to an end as a result of a UN-brokered ceasefire agreement.

A Yemeni source told al-Mayadeen that Saudi-backed forces have now withdrawn to the district of Mocha. The district is located on the coast of the southwestern province of Taiz, some 170 kilometers to the south of al-Hodeida city.

“The [Saudi-backed] Giants Brigades and Tariq Saleh’s forces withdrew from the frontlines south and east of al-Hudaydah,” the source said, speculating that the withdrawal “may be aimed to strengthen the collapsed Hadi and Islah forces in Ma’rib.”

Now, Houthi fighters are reportedly advancing in he outskirts of al-Hudaydah city to secure the positions evacuated by Saudi-backed forces.

Earlier this week, Saudi-led coalition forces were caught withdrawing from the southern city of Aden, the temporary home of the Saudi-backed Yemeni government. The coalition claimed that its forces were just “relocating”.

While it is possible that the Saudi-led coalition is relocating some of its forces and proxies to Ma’rib, where the Houthis have been advancing for the last few months, it is also possible that the coalition is preparing for a surprise pullout from Yemen.

Saudi Arabia and its allies may be planning to end their costly ground presence in the war-torn country in favor of lower-risk aerial operations.

https://southfront.org/saudi-backed-forces-withdrew-from-dozens-of-positions-in-yemens-al-hudaydah-reports/