☕️ Why your student loan might go down

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend. I spent the weekend watching the new Australian version of The Office.

I simply cannot recommend it highly enough if you’re looking for a laugh. It is pause-the-tv-because-I’m-laughing-so-hard funny.

Although, as I write this, I’ve just looked at some reviews online and they are… not great. So now I’m questioning my taste.

Anyway. You tell me! You can watch it on Prime.

“Let's put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, OK? Let's see how she feels about it. You know, when the guns are trained on her face.”
Presidential nominee Donald Trump in an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, speaking about fellow Republican and former congresswoman Liz Cheney. Cheney has been a vocal critic of Trump. In response to his comment, she said: “This is how dictators destroy free nations."

$25.9 million
The value of a donation to the Kirby Institute at UNSW from the Swire Group, which will enable it to screen women in Pacific nations for cervical cancer.

1922
Archaeologist Howard Carter discovered the tomb of Ancient Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun.

The Federal Labor Government has announced plans to take 20% off all student debts.

It also plans to increase the minimum salary an individual needs to earn before they start making repayments to their loan.

It’s part of a suite of proposed reforms to the student debt system that the Government says it will introduce if it is elected for a second term.

When you begin a university course, you can either pay upfront or apply for a Higher Education Contribution Scheme loan (HECS) under the Higher Education Loan Program (HELP). Most students apply for this loan.

The system, rolled out in 1989, requires students to make payments on their loan depending on their income. From 1974 to 1989, students didn’t pay for their degrees.

The repayment threshold is currently $54,435. This means if you earn above that amount in a year, you will start paying off your debt.

In a speech on Sunday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will announce the Government’s plan to take 20% off all student debts. The proposal covers government loans taken out for uni, vet student loans, and apprenticeships.

A $30,000 HECS debt would be reduced to $24,000.

The Government also plans to increase the minimum repayment threshold from $51,500 to $67,000 in the 2025/26 financial year.

It also wants to decrease the amount you must pay each year towards your HECS debt for anyone earning less than $180,000.

The Government says its plans will mean the average debt holder would pay about $680 less each year in repayments.

It wants to introduce a bill outlining these changes next year. The next Federal Election is due to occur by May next year.

These proposed changes follow an earlier Government bill aimed at changing how student loans are ‘indexed’.

Student loans increase every year to reflect the change in the value of money over time.

If the bill passes, indexation will be based on either the Consumer Price Index (the rate of inflation) or the Wage Price Index (the figure measuring rising wages) — whichever is lower.

Reporting by Lucy Tassell.

In three days, more than 100 million people in the U.S. are expected to vote for their next President.

The White House race is between the current Vice President Kamala Harris (Democrat) and former President Donald Trump (Republican).

Immigration, particularly across the border with Mexico, is an issue that has long dominated American politics. This election is no exception.

Ahead of next week’s vote, TDA is cutting through the noise to break down the biggest election issues. In today’s deep dive, we’ll compare Harris and Trump’s plans for immigration.

In the 1960s, the U.S. introduced limits on the number of people it allowed to permanently settle in America from overseas.

That cap slowly increased until the 1990s, when migration rates drew controversy because family members did not count towards the limit. It’s been an election issue ever since.

Today, around 14% of the U.S. population was born in another country. Nearly a quarter of this group was born in Mexico.

In most situations, if you plan to move to the U.S. permanently, you will need a ‘green card’.

Anyone living in the U.S. who wasn’t born there and doesn’t hold a green card is classified as an “undocumented immigrant”. In 2023, 2.5 million people entered the U.S. via its Mexican border without visas, generally fleeing poverty and violence in Central and South America.

An estimated one million green cards are issued every year. More than half are allocated to immediate family members of U.S. citizens.

Polling by the U.S. Pew Research Center shows 61% of American voters believe immigration is a top issue going into the 2024 election.

Of those voters, a larger proportion of Republicans (82%) rate it as an issue of high concern compared to Democrats (39%).

Separate polling by Pew shows an overwhelming majority of all voters want to improve “security along the country’s borders” (88%).

As President, Trump ordered a wall be built on the U.S-Mexico border to stop migrants, who he described as “bringing drugs” and “crime” into America. “Some, I assume, are good people,” he added.

The wall, which is effectively a large fence, covers a quarter of the border.

Trump also imposed a 90-day travel ban on seven Muslim-majority countries: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. Amnesty International said the bans, which it called “a licence to discriminate,” threatened the lives of refugees and asylum seekers fleeing persecution.

As President, Biden dropped most of Trump’s immigration policies, including stopping construction on the border wall.

Changes under Biden included stopping migrants from being deported without being given the chance to officially seek asylum, or see an immigration judge.

Data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows the number of migrant arrivals has increased over the past few years. However, migration also increased during Trump’s presidency.

During recent campaigning, Trump has pledged to “seal the border and stop the migrant invasion”. He’s also promised mass deportations of what he calls “illegal aliens”.

Trump has repeatedly linked immigration to rising rates of crime. Stanford University research has found migrants are 30% less likely to end up in jail than U.S-born citizens.

At a campaign event last week, Trump said migrants were “poisoning the blood” of America. The Democrats compared these comments to language used by Adolf Hitler.

Kamala Harris has promised to pass a bill to add 1,500 more security agents along the U.S-Mexico border.

She said the legislation would help intercept fentanyl — a powerful and addictive synthetic opioid. U.S. authorities have warned about a spike in arrivals of the drug.

Passing the legislation would need support in both houses of Congress. Currently, Republicans control the House of Representatives, while Democrats have a majority in the Senate.

Reporting by Harry Sekulich.

If you haven’t guessed already, we’re big fans of Betty’s Burgers at TDA. So when we found out about the new Betty’s Bites menu, with every item just $9.90, we were pretty excited!

For $9.90 (which, let’s be real, is cheaper than an iced latte these days) you can try the Chicken Strips Burger, Three Cheese Burger, Calamari Bucket, or Crispy Chicken Strips.

They’re the perfect add-on for a beachside picnic with your besties or a quick boost to power through the afternoon slump.

Head to Betty’s Burgers to try Betty’s Bites, or order on the Betty’s app today!

🍊 Eight Aussies will be joining the Hall of Fame. Who are they?
🍊 NRLW players want compensation. More details here.
🍊 ‘Malcolm in the Middle’ is joining NASCAR. Check out what he said.
🗞️ Also in today’s Sport Newsletter: cricket, soccer, and more…

This 3D printing development has the potential to reduce the amount of animal testing in drug development. It could also support cancer research and treatment by allowing researchers to test new therapies on printed organs, not on people.

Associate Professor David Collins said the technology can “accurately represent human tissue,” which has been a downfall of previous bioprinters. PhD student Callum Vidler said this invention “creates a crucial bridge between lab research and clinical applications.”

Want more good news? Sign up to our weekly Good Newsletter here - we promise it’ll make your week better!

Reporting by Nandini Dhir.

Russia has fined Google 20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 US dollars.

How do you say that amount of money in words? More money than there is in. The. World. Or $US20 decillion ($AU30.39 decillion).

Russia is going after Google for blocking at least 17 national TV channels and media companies from YouTube.

YouTube (owned by Google) reportedly blocked these channels because they breached content policies with videos about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said he “cannot even pronounce this number” but that it should encourage “Google management to pay attention.”

Reporting by Nandini Dhir.

In 2022, Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi criticised the monarchy in a social media post following Queen Elizabeth II’s death.

Fellow Senator Hanson replied with what the Federal Court has now found was an “angry personal attack” that carried racist meaning.

On today's podcast, we break down what the initial comments were, how the court case has evolved, and what this verdict means.