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REUTERS/Elizabeth FrantzWASHINGTON, Feb 28 (Reuters) - The United States does not expect Russia to make significant territorial gains in Ukraine in the near-term, a senior Pentagon official said on Tuesday, describing the front lines in the year-long war as a "grinding slog." Kahl made the remarks during a hearing focused on oversight of the billions of dollars in military aid Washington has provided to Kyiv. In October, the U.S. restarted on-site inspections in Ukraine to help keep track of the billions of dollars of weapons being provided to Kyiv. One of the weapons the U.S. has not provided -- despite public appeals by Ukrainian officials -- are F-16 fighter jets. Kahl was asked repeatedly by lawmakers about sending the jets to Ukraine.

☆ Biden's student-loan forgiveness plan is in jeopardy. Here are 4 major takeaways from the Supreme Court's oral arguments.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | Oma Seddiq | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments for Biden's student-debt relief on Tuesday. The nation's highest court heard more than four hours of oral arguments in two high-profile cases that reviewed Biden's plan to cancel up to $20,000 in debt for federal borrowers, which lower courts temporarily paused in November. "We're talking about half a trillion dollars and 43 million Americans," Chief Justice John Roberts said, referring to the estimated costs of Biden's plan and the number of affected borrowers. Justice Elena Kagan raised a hypothetical national emergency of an earthquake and the education secretary responded by deciding to cancel student loans for those harmed. Still, even if Barrett and the court's three liberals find that the states and borrowers lack standing, they would need another conservative vote to uphold Biden's debt relief.

☆ Conservative Supreme Court justices target the fairness of Biden's student-loan forgiveness and executive overreach in their first round of questioning
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | Oma Seddiq | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Oral arguments on Biden's student-loan forgiveness are underway at the Supreme Court. Justice Gorsuch also asked Biden's team to address how the relief is fair to those who already paid off their loans. On Tuesday, the two cases that temporarily paused Biden's plan to cancel up to $20,000 in student debt arrived at the Supreme Court. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, representing Biden's administration, took the first round of questions from the justices, and she defended Biden's use of the HEROES Act of 2003 to cancel student debt. He said that "modify" typically means "moderate change," and he questioned whether the language can also be used for broad student-loan forgiveness without Congressional approval.

[1/2] U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks about the student loan forgiveness program from an auditorium on the White House campus in Washington, U.S., October 17, 2022. The program fulfilled Biden's 2020 campaign promise to cancel a portion of the nation's $1.6 trillion in federal student loan debt but was criticized by Republicans and others as an overreach of his authority. Biden's administration has said the plan is authorized under a 2003 federal law called the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act, or HEROES Act, that allows student loan debt relief during wartime or national emergencies. Beginning in 2020, the administrations of President Donald Trump, a Republican, and Biden, a Democrat, repeatedly paused federal student loan payments and halted interest from accruing, relying upon the HEROES Act. Missouri-based U.S. District Judge Henry Autrey found the states - Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and South Carolina lacked the legal standing to sue.

☆ US House Republicans target ESG investments in latest culture war salvo
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( David Morgan | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The measure is the latest salvo in the Republican culture war against the use of issues that promote environmental interests, social equality and corporate responsibility in business and investment decisions. "Retirement plans should be solely focused on delivering maximum returns, not advancing a political agenda," said Republican Representative Andy Barr, who introduced the House resolution. "If Congress doesn't block the Department of Labor's rule greenlighting ESG investing in retirement plans, retirees will suffer diminished returns on the investment of their hard-earned money." The measure is widely expected to pass the House, where Republicans hold a slim 222-212 seat majority. Two Democratic absences could give Republicans the simple majority necessary to pass the measure and send it to Biden's desk.

The justices will hear the case during the court's next term, which begins in October. The case is the latest to come before the Supreme Court seeking to rein in the authority of federal agencies. The CFPB, which enforces consumer financial laws, was created after the 2008 financial crisis as part of a federal law known as the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. A Democratic-led Congress in 2010 set up the agency to draw funding annually from the Federal Reserve, the U.S. central bank, which last fiscal year transferred around $642 million to the consumer protection agency. The court heard arguments in November in two other cases involving agency power.

☆ The fate of a post-2008 watchdog meant to protect Americans from another financial crisis is in the hands of a conservative Supreme Court
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | Jason Lalljee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The Supreme Court will take on a lower court's decision that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's funding structure is unconstitutional. CFPB was set up to prevent another 2008-like financial crisis and has cracked down on big banks and the student-loan industry. On Monday, the Supreme Court agreed to take a decision from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled in October that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's (CFPB) funding structure is unconstitutional. The Supreme Court won't hear the case until next term, though, meaning a final decision isn't likely until the spring of 2024. Created in 2011 under former President Barack Obama, the CFPB was intended to protect Americans from another financial crisis following the 2008 recession.

REUTERS/Jose Luis GonzalezMEXICO CITY, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Dozens of migrant families are splitting up at Mexico's northern border as they struggle to secure U.S. asylum appointments on a government app beset by high demand and persistent glitches, migrants and advocates say. The 15-year-old decided to turn himself in at the border after his pregnant mother could only secure a solo appointment, Santiago said. U.S. President Joe Biden's administration made the app, called CBP One, directly available to asylum seekers in mid-January, aiming to make asylum requests at the border safer and more orderly. On a recent morning at a shelter in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez, migrants awoke in the middle of the night to upload applications, including a selfie photo scan prone to slow processing. Her husband traveled to the Mexican border city of Nogales alone last week for his appointment, scheduled for March 3.

☆ A group challenging Biden's student-loan forgiveness in the Supreme Court this week says it's 'very clear' the relief is illegal: 'We feel very good about our case'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The Job Creators Network, one of the groups challenging Biden's student-debt relief in the Supreme Court, said it feels "very good" about its case. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will hear arguments for two lawsuits that blocked the relief. Biden's administration and Democrats have pushed back on the plaintiffs' standing to sue. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court is taking on two lawsuits that paused Biden's plan to cancel up to $20,000 in student debt for federal borrowers. Both of the lawsuits challenging Biden's plan said the broad debt relief is an overreach of that authority and should not be done without Congressional approval.

☆ Days before the Supreme Court takes on Biden's student-loan forgiveness, Elizabeth Warren urges it to 'do its job and apply the law as it is written'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-26 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Sen. Elizabeth Warren urged the Supreme Court to uphold Biden's student-debt relief. "The Supreme Court needs to do its job and apply the law as it is written." GOP Sen. Marsha Blackburn, for example, wrote on Twitter on Thursday that "canceling student debt is Biden's gift to young left-wing activists. She also led GOP senators in filing an amicus curiae brief to the Supreme Court urging it to strike down Biden's debt relief. This scale of student-loan forgiveness is unprecedented, so it's hard to determine which way the Supreme Court will rule.

☆ Mike Pence, possible Trump 2024 challenger, slams 'apologists for Putin' in the GOP
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Kevin Breuninger | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Former Vice President Mike Pence, a possible 2024 Republican presidential candidate, denounced his own party's "apologists" for Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday while delivering a full-throated call for the U.S. to ramp up its support for Ukraine. "While some in my party have taken a somewhat different view, let me be clear: There can be no room in the leadership of the Republican Party for apologists for Putin," Pence said. Pence has openly said he's considering a run for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, potentially pitting him directly against Trump. Pence has said Trump was "wrong" to believe he could have reversed the election outcome by rejecting key Electoral College votes for Biden. In a CNBC interview on Wednesday, Pence said he believes there will be "better choices" than Trump in 2024.

☆ U.S. hits Chinese, Russian firms for aiding Russian military
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, Feb 24 (Reuters) - The Biden administration on Friday added Chinese and Russian companies, including Russia's no. 2 mobile phone operator, to a trade blacklist for allegedly supporting the Russian military, deepening its crackdown on Moscow on the first anniversary of its invasion of Ukraine. The moves show President Joe Biden's administration is broadening its efforts to thwart Russia's military, targeting companies globally for helping Moscow evade export restrictions and access key technologies. The U.S. Commerce Department added Public Joint Stock Company Megafon, Russia's second largest mobile phone operator, to its entity list for allegedly "acquiring and attempting to acquire" U.S. technology to support Russia's military. Of the scores of new additions to its trade restriction list, 79 were Russia-based, five are listed under China, and two are based in Canada.

☆ U.S. EPA unveils $550 mln in environmental justice grants
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Valerie Volcovici | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The money is part of $3 billion included for environmental justice block grants authorized by Congress in the Inflation Reduction Act, the Biden administration's signature legislation that will drive investment of nearly $369 billion in clean energy and climate priorities. The scale and the vision of this investment that Congress has given us will change these communities," Robin Morris Collin, senior advisor for environmental justice at the EPA, told Reuters in an interview. It will oversee deployment of the $3 billion in environmental justice grants. "We are stepping our processes up to expand what has traditionally not been a very welcoming environment for low income and disadvantaged communities to access financial resources," Collin told Reuters. The block grant program is one of several investments the IRA made focused on environmental and climate justice.

☆ U.S. weapons sales to get stricter human rights review under Biden
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Patricia Zengerle | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

"We are looking at a policy of prevention when there is a risk of violation of human rights," one official said. Biden's administration was criticized last year for approving the potential sale of radars and aircraft to Egypt despite what Human Rights Watch called Egypt's "atrocious human rights record." Reuters reported in 2021 that the Biden administration was considering a CAT policy shift to emphasize human rights. For example, Senator Bob Menendez, Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, opposes the sale of Lockheed Martin F-16 aircraft to Turkey for reasons including disregard for human rights. He rolled out a CAT policy in 2018 that gave commercial concerns as much weight as human rights in deciding whether to approve weapons sales.

☆ U.S. manufacturers see big boost from government subsidies and tax breaks
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Timothy Aeppel | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +9 min

While the Biden administration push, described by economists as an industrial policy, has opened opportunities for some companies, significant hurdles remain. Eight out of 12 Republican representatives in Ohio’s congressional delegation voted in favor of federal subsidies for semiconductor production, including the funds that will go to Intel. The 2022 CHIPS and Science Act provides $52.7 billion in federal subsidies for semiconductor production and research. Scott Lincicome, director of general economics at the libertarian Cato Institute, said industrial policy tends to crumble into failed projects and cost overruns. "There's all sorts of more market-oriented reforms that could achieve the type of objectives our political class wants, without the unintended consequences of industrial policy," he said.

While the Biden administration push, described by economists as an industrial policy, has opened opportunities for some companies, significant hurdles remain. The 2022 CHIPS and Science Act provides $52.7 billion in federal subsidies for semiconductor production and research. Industrial policy still has critics. Scott Lincicome, director of general economics at the libertarian Cato Institute, said industrial policy tends to crumble into failed projects and cost overruns. "There's all sorts of more market-oriented reforms that could achieve the type of objectives our political class wants, without the unintended consequences of industrial policy," he said.

☆ U.S. Supreme Court's 'major questions' test may doom Biden student debt plan
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( John Kruzel | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

She did not realize she was setting off on a path toward another, less-welcome family first - racking up more than $150,000 in student debt. The major questions doctrine is an outgrowth of an approach favored by many conservatives and business groups to curb what they call the excesses of the "administrative state." Beginning in 2020, the administrations of President Donald Trump, a Republican, and Biden, a Democrat, repeatedly paused federal student loan payments and halted interest from accruing. Two lawsuits - one by six conservative-leaning states and the other by two student loan borrowers who opposed the plan's eligibility requirements - prompted lower courts to block it. 'INSUFFICIENT FUNDS'The major questions doctrine gives judges broad discretion to invalidate executive agency actions unless Congress clearly authorized them in legislation.

[1/2] Television equipment is seen outside the U.S. Supreme Court as Justices hear oral arguments on Twitter's appeal to an anti-terror law violation, in Washington, U.S., February 22, 2023. Both lawsuits were brought under a U.S. law that enables Americans to recover damages related to "an act of international terrorism." Conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch said the statute focuses liability on aiding a person who engaged in a terrorist act. Islamic State called the attack revenge for Turkish military involvement in Syria. In the Twitter case, the San Francisco-based 9th U.S.

[1/2] Television equipment is seen outside the U.S. Supreme Court as Justices hear oral arguments on Twitter's appeal to an anti-terror law violation, in Washington, U.S., February 22, 2023. The lower court dismissed that case largely based on Section 230 immunity. In the Twitter case, the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Islamic State called the attack revenge for Turkish military involvement in Syria. Twitter in court papers has said that it has terminated more than 1.7 million accounts for violating rules against "threatening or promoting terrorism."

Both lawsuits were brought under a U.S. law that enables Americans to recover damages related to "an act of international terrorism." The lower court dismissed that case largely based on Section 230 immunity. In the Twitter case, the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Islamic State called the attack revenge for Turkish military involvement in Syria. Twitter in court papers has said that it has terminated more than 1.7 million accounts for violating rules against "threatening or promoting terrorism."

☆ U.S. abortion rights groups and law firms launch legal defense network
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Gabriella Borter | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Feb 22 (Reuters) - Major abortion rights organizations and private law firms have teamed up to provide legal counsel to patients and providers navigating the complicated patchwork of U.S. abortion laws, the groups said on Wednesday. The Supreme Court's June 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, a nearly 50-year-old precedent that established federal abortion rights, has resulted in a dozen states banning abortion almost entirely. The group's launch comes a day after 20 Democratic governors announced they had formed an alliance to protect abortion rights and access within their states. Abortion rights supporters have been largely dissatisfied with the Democratic-led administration's response to the elimination of abortion access in large swaths of the country. Abortion providers and those supporting abortion patients can seek counsel through the network, while patients will be referred to a helpline already run by If/When/How, one of the network's advocacy partners.

☆ Exclusive: U.S. to vet human rights more closely before approving arms deals, officials say
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Patricia Zengerle | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Defense companies and activists scrutinize such policies for insight into the administration's posture as it balances commercial interests of exporters like Lockheed Martin Co (LMT.N) and Raytheon Technologies (RTX.N) against the country's stated commitment to human rights. One change is how the CAT policy addresses the possibility that arms from the United States could be used for major human rights violations, the officials said. Previous CAT policy had said such transfers would not be authorized only when Washington had "actual knowledge" that the arms would be used in such actions. "We are looking at a policy of prevention when there is a risk of violation of human rights," one of the officials said. For example, Senator Bob Menendez, Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, opposes the sale of Lockheed Martin F-16 aircraft to Turkey for reasons including disregard for human rights.

☆ 9/11 victims are blocked from seizing $3.5 billion in frozen assets from Afghanistan because Biden would have to recognize the Taliban
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Joshua Zitser | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The families of 9/11 victims are blocked from seizing $3.5B in frozen Afghan central bank funds. A federal judge ruled that seizing the funds would mean recognizing the Taliban as legitimate rulers. A group of families of 9/11 victims had previously sued the Taliban for their losses, winning a default judgment when the militant group did not turn up to court. Last February, Biden cleared a legal path for relatives to pursue the $3.5 billion held in Afghanistan's central bank to pay off the judgment debts. "This decision deprives over 10,000 members of the 9/11 community of their right to collect compensation from the Taliban," he said.

☆ Djokovic hopes for positive news on U.S. tournaments participation
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

I will know soon," world number one Djokovic told reporters after practice in Belgrade. I'm thankful to the Indians Wells and Miami communities for their support. I'm looking forward to a positive decision coming soon, but it's not in my hands." "Last year I missed Indian Wells, Miami and the U.S. Open swing so it won't be the first time if it happens (again). "So I want to go back and connect with people and hopefully play my best tennis and get another trophy there."

That money was to be given in $2 billion annual installments of Foreign Military Financing, or FMF, grants over five years. Republicans accused Biden's administration of failing to advocate strongly enough for the Taiwan grants, given that his fellow Democrats controlled both the Senate and House last year. "Securing FMF funding is always a challenge given the tight budget constraints, even for priority partners like Taiwan," said Eric Lee of the Project 2049 Institute think tank. "I would prefer to see a revival of FMF grants, but with clear strings attached," said Michael Hunzeker, a Taiwan military expert at George Mason University. Grants to buy specific weapons could be made on condition of Taiwan showing further moves toward asymmetric defense, he said.

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