Good morning, and welcome to The Epoch Times News Brief for Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. I’m Bill Thomas, we’ve got some really pressing stories to share with you right now, and here’s what’s going on.
A judge has given the green light to one of the Biden administration’s loan relief programs, U.S. layoffs are up, and several people in Africa have died from a deadly virus.
Also, the IRS is coming for your big wins, and a Russian court has frozen hundreds of millions of dollars from two American banks.
Judge Greenlights Student Loan Relief
This latest plan—known as the “Third Mass Cancellation Rule”—will proceed after a federal judge declined to renew a temporary restraining order that had earlier blocked the program.U.S. District Judge Randal Hall, whose restraining order had prevented the Department of Education from implementing the student loan forgiveness plan, issued the order earlier this week.
This decision allows the Biden administration to move forward with its student loan forgiveness efforts while the legal battle continues.
You should know that Hall also dismissed the state of Georgia from the lawsuit, citing a lack of standing. The case, originally brought by a coalition of seven states, including Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, North Dakota, and Ohio, challenged the legality of the Biden administration’s debt cancellation program.
Hall determined that Georgia’s claims of financial harm were speculative, based on its tax laws that are linked to federal tax policy.
Interesting to note, while the state of Georgia was dismissed from the lawsuit, the judge transferred the case to the Eastern District of Missouri, where that state’s claims will move forward. Hall found that Missouri, which houses the Higher Education Loan Authority of the State of Missouri, has a more direct stake in the outcome of the lawsuit, since loan services could suffer financial harm due to those loan cancellations.
For now, it’s unclear whether the plaintiffs in Missouri will ask for a preliminary injunction to block the program.
US Layoffs Up 53 Percent
New data shows that employers handed out fewer pink slips in September than in August, when the number was at its five-month high, but layoffs are up significantly when compared to a year ago.According to recruitment firm Challenger, Gray, and Christmas, U.S.-based employers announced nearly 73,000 job cuts in September, which is up 53 percent over last year.
Also, in the first nine months of this year, personnel reductions surpassed last year’s running tally. This is the highest level since 2020, when more than 2 million layoffs were announced between January and September.
You should know that a major chunk of the year-to-date layoffs were centered in technology, entertainment and leisure, education, transportation, and manufacturing.
The Challenger report pointed to cost-cutting, business closures, and artificial intelligence as the main reasons for job cuts.
By the way, Andrew Challenger, the firm’s senior vice president, says that we’re at an inflection point where the labor market could either stall or tighten.
With that said, so far this year, employers say they plan to hire close to 500,000 positions, which is down by 33 percent from 2023 and the lowest year-to-date hiring since 2011.
One more thing. Market watchers are bracing for October employment data due to the economic fallout from Hurricane Helene and the East and Gulf ports dockworker’s strike.
11 Dead From Ebola-Like Virus
Rwandan health authorities say 11 people are dead from the Ebola-like Marburg virus. The death toll has gone up in recent days due to the deadly hemorrhagic fever, which has no authorized vaccines or treatments.So you know, like Ebola, the Marburg virus is believed to originate in fruit bats. It spreads between people through close contact with the bodily fluids of infected individuals or with surfaces, such as contaminated bed sheets.
You should know, just last month, Rwanda’s Ministry of Health described the Marburg cases as “a few patients,” but that number grew to 36 in a matter of weeks, including the 11 who died. By the way, authorities say most of the infected are health care workers.
As of now, officials say patients are being isolated, along with at least 300 people who came into contact with the infected. However, Rwanda’s health minister says there’s no reason to panic. He says they’ve identified all the hotspots of the disease and are taking appropriate action, and states that Marburg is a rare disease. He goes on to say that they’re intensifying contact tracing and testing to help stop the spread.
If you don’t know, Rwanda is a landlocked country in central Africa with a population of nearly 12 million.
One final note. The U.S. Embassy in Rwanda’s capital of Kigali is urging its staff to work remotely and avoid visiting offices.
IRS Vows Tax-Enforcement Crackdown
IRS officials say they’re preparing a tax-enforcement crackdown after a Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) audit revealed that more than $1.4 billion in taxes may have gone uncollected from individuals who won big bucks through gambling.The report from TIGTA’s audit, which was released last week, found that nearly 150,000 Americans with gambling winnings exceeding $15,000 between 2018 and 2020 failed to file tax returns.
The watchdog’s report identified more than $13.2 billion in gambling winnings during that period, which meant that the IRS could potentially increase tax revenue by nearly $1.5 billion just by going after nonfilers who won big.
The audit says that tax enforcement on nonfilers with such winnings has been limited, and therefore, the watchdog recommended that the agency “begin appropriate enforcement actions” to collect those unpaid taxes.
In a written response to the report, the IRS agreed with the recommendation, vowing to begin enforcement actions. However, that will be challenging since hundreds of W-2G forms, which are used to report gambling winnings, have been filed without the required taxpayer identification numbers. That makes it difficult for the IRS to track the winners and enforce tax compliance.
Interesting to note, the TIGTA audits, which highlight gaps in compliance and enforcement, signal that more aggressive tax-collection efforts may be on the horizon. That’s because the IRS is under pressure to reduce the “tax gap,” which is the difference between taxes owed and taxes paid.
Russian Court Freezes Assets of US Banks JP Morgan and Bank of New York Mellon
Nearly $375 million between the Bank of New York Mellon Corp. and JP Morgan Chase was allegedly frozen by the Moscow Region Arbitration Court in response to a Russian bank having its license withdrawn in Ukraine.Reuters says those funds were held in accounts at the Russian affiliate branches of Citibank and Morgan Chase Bank.
The decision was supposedly “in defense of the interests of the Russian Federation” in connection with the Central Bank of Ukraine’s withdrawal of the license of MR Bank, which is a subsidiary of SberBank, the largest bank in Russia.
Reuters reports that the Russian prosecutor’s office wants recognition of $121 million placed by MR Bank in a JP Morgan Chase account as the rightful property of SberBank and $251 million put in an account of the Bank of New York Mellon.
Prosecutors say that Ukraine’s withdrawal of MR Bank’s license infringed on Sberbank’s lawful interests in controlling its subsidiary and their income, which harms Russia’s financial interests.
You should know that in May, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree allowing American property in the country to be seized as compensation for damages related to Russian assets seized in the United States. Putin’s decree allowed the seizure of movable and immovable property of the United States, American companies, and citizens on the territory of Russia, as well as securities owned by Americans.
And now, it looks like our time is just about up for today, so we’re going to call it a wrap for the Friday edition of The Epoch Times News Brief.
*(Don’t forget the News Brief Motto): We’re portable, affordable, and always on-demand.
And finally, as we do each and every day on this program, we wrap everything up with a very notable quote, and this one comes to us from the fabulous entertainer Ray Stevens, who said: “The human brain is a funny thing: it’s very susceptible to tempo and melody. You put the right words to it, and it becomes very influential.”
For all of us here at The Epoch Times News Brief, I’m Bill Thomas.
The Epoch Times News Brief program was written today by the incomparable Sharon Reardon.
Thank you for making us your one-stop source for a concise, accurate, and unbiased daily synopsis of many of the news stories you need to know about.
Enjoy the remainder of your day, and we’ll see you right back here tomorrow for the Saturday edition (the weekend edition) of The Epoch Times News Brief. For now, let’s all continue to watch out for one another, and have an absolutely superb day today. Bye for now.
