Good morning, and welcome to The Epoch Times News Brief for Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025. I’m Bill Thomas, we have some pressing stories to share with you right now, and here’s what’s going on.
Tech giant Meta announces a critical policy change dealing with freedom of expression on its social media platforms, a federal judge issues an impactful decision regarding the classified documents case against President-elect Donald Trump, and Vice President Kamala Harris unveils a significant new rule that could impact your credit report and your ability to take out a loan.
Also, our country’s top diplomat reveals alarming details about a growing military alliance between Russia and North Korea, and the official state funeral for a former president makes its way to the heart of our nation’s capital.
Meta Ends Fact-Checking Program in US
Mark Zuckerberg says that it’s time for both Facebook and Instagram to get back to their roots regarding free expression, and that Meta is now ending the company’s current fact-checking program in the United States.In case you’re not aware, after President-elect Donald Trump was first elected in 2016, Meta started a fact-checking program, which led to a significant number of posts being either removed or flagged.
The Meta CEO now says that the people responsible for checking those facts have become “too politically biased” and that they’ve “destroyed more trust than they created”—especially in the United States.
Zuckerberg says that his company’s current rules are out of touch with “mainstream discourse,” that what started as a movement to be more inclusive has increasingly been used to shut down people with different ideas, and that it’s now “gone too far.”
Meta now says it’s replacing the current program with something called community notes, which is similar to the system used on the social media platform X and is based on feedback from a diverse range of users with different ideologies.
Meta also says it’s simplifying its content policies by removing rules related to topics such as immigration and gender. Zuckerberg says there’s been too much censorship on the platform, and that the change will result in fewer bad posts being taken down and will also reduce accidental takedowns.
Judge Blocks Release of Special Counsel’s Report
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon has just blocked both special counsel Jack Smith and the Department of Justice (DOJ) from releasing their final report until a federal appeals court reviews a motion submitted by Trump’s co-defendants regarding the matter.In court papers, those two individuals—who along with Trump have pleaded not guilty—pointed out that Smith’s appeal of the judge’s dismissal of charges against them is still pending. They argue that the disclosure of certain information in the report will be prejudicial against them.
Additionally, Trump’s attorneys have told Attorney General Merrick Garland that releasing the report would violate “fundamental norms regarding the presumption of innocence” for all of the defendants involved. They asked him to either remove Smith from the case or defer the handling of the report to Trump’s incoming attorney general.
Earlier this week, the special counsel’s team provided details of the timeline for releasing the report, saying that the attorney general will not release the document until this Friday at the earliest.
Meanwhile, Trump hailed the judge’s latest decision and said that the report would be filled with what he called fake information meant to denigrate him.
Harris Unveils Final Rule to Remove Medical Debt From Credit Reports
Vice President Kamala Harris just announced a final rule issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which will remove $49 billion in unpaid medical bills from the credit reports of 15 million Americans.The vice president’s office says that the move will raise the credit scores of those individuals by an estimated average of 20 points each, and that it will lead to the approval of about 22,000 additional mortgages every year.
Harris says that the rule will be life-changing for millions of families, and that it will make it easier for them to take out loans for cars, homes, or small businesses.
The vice president also said that over $1 billion in medical debt for more than 700,000 Americans has already been eliminated by using federal funds, as part of an effort to abolish $7 billion in medical debt by next year.
She went on to say that in order to ease the medical debt burden of Americans, the federal government has also expanded pathways for debt forgiveness and taken actions against what she called “predatory debt collection tactics.”
By the way, this new rule stems from a proposal made last year by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which sought to ban creditors from using medical debt when assessing people for loans.
Additionally, the agency recently noted that medical billing is often riddled with a number of significant errors, including duplicated charges and fees for services the patient never received, making it an unreliable predictor of future repayments.
Blinken: Russia May Soon Share Space Tech With North Korea
Blinken says that Russia may soon begin transferring advanced space and satellite technology to North Korea.He also said that North Korea is already receiving Russian military equipment and training, and that more than 1,000 North Korean troops had been either wounded or killed during the last week of December alone as they tried to help Russia in its war with Ukraine.
Blinken also said that Russia may soon move to formally recognize North Korea as a nuclear weapons state. However, that gesture would be largely symbolic, given that North Korea already has a stockpile of nuclear weapons.
North Korea says that the missile was a new hypersonic intermediate-range weapon that “only a few countries in the world” possess, and its leader Kim Jong Un says that it will “reliably contain” any rivals in the Pacific region that can possibly affect the security of his country.
North Korea says that Kim supervised the missile’s launch, that it traveled more than 900 miles before striking a target in the Sea of Japan, and that it achieved Mach-12, which is 12 times the speed of sound.
For his part, Blinken condemned the new missile launch, and he said that the outgoing administration of President Joe Biden had tried to stabilize our country’s relations with North Korea, but to no avail.
Carter Lies in State at US Capitol
Former President Jimmy Carter is now lying in state beneath the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol, joining an exclusive list of individuals who have had that distinct and rare honor.A horse-drawn carriage brought his coffin to the steps of the Capitol, before members of the U.S. military carried it inside.
The casket was then placed at the center of the Rotunda, which is the dome-shaped area between the House and Senate sides of the Capitol building. The area also houses a number of iconic paintings, including one that depicts the signing of the Declaration of Independence and another that shows the British surrendering in the Revolutionary War.
During yesterday’s private ceremony, a number of speeches were delivered to commemorate the former president, who died on Dec. 29, 2024, at the age of 100. By the way, a congressional tribute was given by both House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.).
After the ceremony, the coffin became available for viewing by members of the public. It will remain in the Capitol until leaving tomorrow for the funeral at the National Cathedral in Washington before returning home later in the day to its final resting place in Plains, Georgia.
Regardless of your political affiliation, the death of any U.S. president should be a reason for all Americans to come together and mourn as one united nation.
And now, it looks like our time is just about up for today, so we’re going to call it a wrap for the Wednesday edition of The Epoch Times News Brief.
Don’t forget the News Brief Motto: We’re portable, affordable, and we’re 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 Rod Serling who said: “There is nothing in the dark that isn’t there when the lights are on.”
Serling was a screenwriter and television producer, and well known as the creator and host of the “Twilight Zone” TV series.
For all of us here at The Epoch Times News Brief, I’m Bill Thomas.
The Epoch Times News Brief program is written each day by David Ross.
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 another edition of The Epoch Times News Brief.
For now, it’s imperative that we all continue to watch out for one another, and have an absolutely superb day today. Bye for now.
