Russian strikes on Ukraine killed at least two people overnight into Sunday, officials said, hours after Moscow rejected German calls to ease off its escalation toward NATO.

The post Russian Strikes Kill Two in Ukraine as Moscow Rejects German Calls to De-Escalate appeared first on Breitbart.

Two hypothetical college graduates who are married now have a combined annual income of $240,000; they each earn $120,000 per year.

Should an American who graduated from high school but never went to college—and who now works as a delivery truck driver, earning $43,950 per year (the median annual earnings for that job) be forced to help pay off the federal student loans of these two college graduates who make $240,000?

If former President Joe Biden had gotten his way, that truck driver and other hardworking American taxpayers would indeed have seen their tax dollars help pay off those loans.

When Biden was running for president in April 2020, he announced his plan for “forgiving student debt.”

“I propose to forgive all undergraduate tuition-related federal student debt from two- and four-year public colleges and universities for debt-holders earning up to $125,000,” Biden said.

His plan, he said, would also “[i]mmediately cancel a minimum of $10,000 of student debt per person.”

After he was elected president, Biden did not get Congress to enact new legislation to implement this plan. Instead, he took unilateral executive action in an attempt to do so—and his administration claimed this action was justified under a law that had been enacted under former President George W. Bush.

In 2003, Bush signed the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act, aka the HEROES Act.

This act, said its official summary, “[a]uthorizes the Secretary of Education to waive or modify any requirement or regulation applicable to the student financial assistance programs under title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 as deemed necessary with respect to an affected individual who: (1) is serving on active duty during a war or other military operation or national emergency; (2) is performing National Guard duty during a war, operation, or emergency; (3) resides or is employed in an area that is declared a disaster area by any Federal, State, or local official in connection with a national emergency; or (4) suffered direct economic hardship as a direct result of a war or other military operation or national emergency.”

As the nation headed into the 2022 midterm elections, Biden announced his student loan forgiveness plan. “On August 24, 2022,” explained the Congressional Research Service, “the Biden Administration announced it would invoke the Higher Education Relief Opportunities Act of 2003 (HEROES Act) to carry out a ‘one-time student loan debt relief policy’ to ‘address the financial harms of the [COVID-19] pandemic for low- and middle-income borrowers.’ Under the one-time student debt relief policy (HEROES Act policy), ED (Education Department) would have cancelled up to $10,000 in qualifying HEA Title IV federal student loan debt for borrowers with an adjusted gross income (AGI) in 2020 or 2021 of less than $125,000 (for individuals or married borrowers who filed federal income taxes separately) or $250,000 (for married couples filing jointly and certain other individuals).”

So, under Biden’s plan, a law that had been designed to help individuals “serving on active duty during a war or other military operation or national emergency” or had “suffered direct economic hardship as a direct result of a war or other military operation or national emergency” could be used to grant general federal student loan forgiveness in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Sept. 26, 2022, the Congressional Budget Office sent a letter to Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., and Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., that estimated the cost of the Biden plan. “As of June 30, 2022, 43 million borrowers held $1.6 trillion in federal student loans,” said this letter. “About $430 billion of that debt will be canceled, CBO estimates.”

Six states, including Nebraska, sued Biden, arguing that he did not have the legal authority to move forward with this loan forgiveness plan. The Supreme Court agreed with the states, voting 6-3 against Biden’s plan.

“The Secretary [of Education] asserts that the HEROES Act grants him the authority to cancel $430 billion of student loan principal. It does not,” wrote Chief Justice John Roberts in the majority opinion.

“The new program vests authority in the Department of Education to discharge up to $10,000 for every borrower with income below $125,000 and up to $20,000 for every such borrower who has received a Pell Grant,” said the court. “No prior limitation on loan forgiveness is left standing. Instead, every borrower within the specified income cap automatically qualifies for debt cancellation, no matter their circumstances. The Department of Education estimates that the program will cover 98.5% of all borrowers.”

“From a few narrowly delineated situations specified by Congress, the Secretary has expanded forgiveness to nearly every borrower in the country,” said the court.

“But imagine instead asking the enacting Congress a more pertinent question: ‘Can the Secretary use his powers to abolish $430 billion in student loans, completely canceling loan balances for 20 million borrowers, as a pandemic winds down to its end?'” said the court. “We can’t believe the answer would be yes. Congress did not unanimously pass the HEROES Act with such power in mind.”

Despite this loss in the Supreme Court, Democrats in Congress have not given up on trying to find a way to make federal taxpayers pay for someone else’s college costs.

Led by Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., a group of nine Democrats in the Senate and 18 in the House are now co-sponsoring the Debt-Free College Act. This bill would appropriate $84 billion in fiscal year 2027 alone. It would provide funding to states so that those states could “distribute the grant funds … in a manner designed to best achieve the partnership’s goal of providing debt-free college for all eligible students at in-State public institutions of higher education.”

This month, the Census Bureau released its report on income in the United States in 2025. It showed that the median household income of a high school graduate who did not attend college was $60,790 last year. The median household income of those who earned a bachelor’s degree or higher was $138,300.

Democrat politicians who would like to make taxpayers subsidize the student loan debt of college graduates are seeking to redistribute wealth to the wealthier.

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We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of the Daily Signal.

Police evacuated homes Sunday near an air base in England used by the U.S. and arrested several men over suspected explosives offenses.

The post Evacuations Near Royal Air Force Base Used by U.S. After Men Arrested With Suspected Explosives appeared first on Breitbart.

President Donald Trump rejected Iran’s latest proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, saying Tehran is “losing so badly” after the U.S. turned its attempt to close the waterway against it with what he called the “greatest blockade ever in military history” — while making clear he remains willing to reach an agreement on terms he considers acceptable.

The post Trump Rejects Iran Hormuz Deal: ‘They’re Losing So Badly’ — ‘Greatest Blockade Ever in Military History’ appeared first on Breitbart.

President Donald Trump reportedly showed Chinese President Xi Jinping a collection of historical documents during their visit to the National Archives on Friday, including treaties a law professor said carry a pointed message for Beijing.

The post Trump Reportedly Showed Xi Historic U.S.-China Treaties at National Archives appeared first on Breitbart.

Chris LaCivita, co-campaign manager of President Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, told Breitbart News Saturday that Republicans are continuing the voter turnout strategies developed during the 2024 election, with Trump planning to hit the campaign trail for 30 days as the party works to maintain its congressional majorities.

The post Exclusive — Chris LaCivita: Trump to Hit Campaign Trail for 30 Days Ahead of Midterms appeared first on Breitbart.

Louisiana Congressional candidate Stephen Wagley shared he was "not going to second guess" President Donald Trump and his decisions when it comes to the war with Iran, and added he supports Trump.

The post Exclusive — Must ‘Get the Job Done’: Stephen Wagley Backs Trump on Iran appeared first on Breitbart.

Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA) said Saturday that President Donald Trump's address to the United Nations General Assembly conveyed a foreign policy that "puts America first," praising a speech he watched from inside the chamber as part of the Senate delegation.

The post Exclusive — McCormick Says Trump U.N. Speech Showed ‘America First’ Doctrine appeared first on Breitbart.

The New York Post reported on Sept. 23 that Texas Rangers are investigating whether crimes, including manslaughter, were committed in the deaths at Camp Mystic during the July 2025 floods. Investigators are seeking evidence; no finding of criminal guilt has been made. Whatever that inquiry concludes, it raises broader questions: Why do we keep building and sleeping on floodplains? And why do federal maps and subsidized insurance continue to make the danger easy to overlook?

After the floods killed more than 130 people—many of them children at Camp Mystic—the Federal Emergency Management Agency said its flood maps are “snapshots in time” that establish minimum floodplain standards and identify areas of highest insurance risk. They are not predictions of where flooding will occur.

That statement may be technically accurate. From my seat as the senior political appointee running FEMA at the time of the floods, I found it profoundly unsatisfying. I called it bureaucratic obfuscation. I wanted to know how so many people had ended up in a river’s path.

There was no single cause. In the early hours of July 4, 2025, a storm stalled over the Texas Hill Country. Rain rushed down limestone hills into creeks and rivers. The Guadalupe surged. Water swept away structures, vehicles, and people. No flood map could stop that storm.

But the storm alone does not explain the death toll. Questions about forecasts, warnings, and evacuation plans deserve rigorous answers, including in the Camp Mystic investigation. I will not prejudge its findings.

Running FEMA taught me how frequently flash flood warnings are issued across the country. When warnings are common and catastrophe is rare, people can grow accustomed to the alarms. A warning is useful only if it reaches people in time and they can act on it. In Texas, the worst flooding struck while many were asleep. Evacuation plans must be prepared and practiced before that moment arrives.

There is an even deeper problem: People occupied the floodplain.

Rivers are beautiful, and waterfront property is valuable. Rivers in hilly terrain can also turn deadly with frightening speed. In 1987, flooding near the Guadalupe killed 10 young campers. Other American communities have learned the same lesson at terrible cost.

Two federal programs help perpetuate the risk: the National Flood Insurance Program and floodplain mapping.

Congress created the National Flood Insurance Program to provide insurance and encourage prudent local management of floodplain development. Yet federal insurance also makes it easier to maintain and build property in risky places. When floods destroy those properties, taxpayers bear much of the cost.

Flood maps compound the problem when people mistake an insurance boundary for a safety boundary. Lines on a map can influence premiums, development decisions, and the public’s sense of danger. They cannot tell a family that a particular building will be safe when an extraordinary storm arrives.

At Camp Mystic, FEMA removed dozens of buildings from the mapped 100-year floodplain after appeals in 2013, 2019, and 2020. Reporting by NPR and ABC News after the disaster also showed that official maps did not capture the full flash flood risk. A building’s position outside a mapped zone did not move it away from the river.

The underlying issues here are present far beyond Texas. When a map changes, the underlying terrain does not. When insurance becomes available or cheaper, the water does not become less powerful. Yet both can make continued development seem reasonable.

Local officials approve land use. Property owners make choices. Congress sets the terms of federal insurance. FEMA administers the program and produces maps. Responsibility is spread so widely that each institution can point elsewhere when disaster strikes.

That diffusion of responsibility cannot become an excuse for inaction. Congress should examine whether flood insurance encourages new development in dangerous areas. FEMA should make the limits of its maps unmistakable and improve how it communicates risks the maps do not show. State and local officials should treat historical floods and flash flood potential as real hazards, even when a federal boundary suggests otherwise.

None of this absolves anyone whose decisions may have contributed to deaths at Camp Mystic—the Rangers’ investigation should follow the evidence wherever it leads. It also should not distract us from the conditions that placed people in harm’s way in the first place.

Storms will stall over hill country again. Forecasts and warnings will improve, but we can never make them perfect. We can, however, stop treating floodplain maps as promises of safety and taxpayer-backed insurance as permission to keep building in a river’s path.

We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of the Daily Signal.

President Donald Trump used his Truth Social account to broadcast social-media messages that trash pro-amnesty Rep. Maria Salazar (R-FL).

The post Trump Slams Amnesty Advocate Rep. Maria Salazar appeared first on Breitbart.

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