By Noah Brasseur
Hello, and welcome to the first edition of Noah’s News Corner! This is a new project by the Collegiate to get news into digestible bites for your reading pleasure.
First up, an update on the federal government. The Treasury Department of the U.S. is currently using “extraordinary measures” to prevent the U.S. from defaulting on its debt, which means they are shuffling when and where they spend government money.
The measures are expected to keep the government from defaulting, meaning, failing to pay back debts, until sometime in the summer.
This has occurred because the U.S. has hit its debt ceiling.
The debt ceiling is a line, set by Congress, which sets the maximum amount of money the federal government can loan at a time.
Nobody is quite sure what would happen if the U.S. were to default, as it has never happened intentionally. There is speculation among economists there would be an economic catastrophe, but this is, of course, speculation.
The problem has been dealt with in the past by simply raising the debt ceiling. So, why not do that again?
Simply put, a group of Republicans in the House of Representatives have decided to make a stand on the issue. They say government spending has gone wildly out of control, and refuse to pass any act that would raise the ceiling without a complementary act that would reduce spending.
If that sounds familiar, you wouldn’t be wrong because a similar standoff occurred in 2011.
More information can be found her on this subject.
Alright, next up on the block, a more international scale.
The Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, has cancelled a trip to China following a spying incident.
The U.S. is alleging that a Chinese spy balloon has been drifting over the country for the past few days, in what the government called a violation of U.S. sovereignty.
China, for their part, says it was a civilian aircraft, and regretted causing such a stir. According to their statement, the balloon was meant for scientific studies and meteorology.
The balloon was shot down over Myrtle Beach, South Carolina by the U.S. on Feb. 5.
The event comes on the heels of the Philippines announcing they would begin accepting a larger military presence from the U.S. on their islands, likely in a bid to deter Chinese aggression.
The entire affair is seen as somewhat a blow to normalizing relations between the China and the United States. Both nations have had an interest in returning to a healthier partnership after a rocky recent past, which included trade wars and shifting blame for the COVID pandemic.
More information on the matter can be found here.
And finally, one last bit of international news.
The U.S. recently had a bit of a policy reversal by announcing they would be sending tanks to Ukraine’s army.
The U.S. is expended to send somewhere around 30 Abrams tanks to the Ukrainian army, a move that has long been asked for by proponents of their cause.
The government had previously refused to send the vehicles overseas, saying it would be too aggressive a move. Russia said it was a red line for them, and would be met with retaliation should the transfer happen.
So what changed?
Poland, a staunch supporter of the defense of Ukraine, had been aggravating to send their own tank supply to their neighbors.
However, their vehicles are made in Germany, and would require German approval for them to send their tanks.
Germany made it clear they would only send their tank supply if the U.S. sent some, and so the U.S. did.
Alongside the United States, several other nations are sending tanks to Ukraine. Germany’s approval is expected to add around 90 tanks to Ukraine’s army, in addition to the U.S.’s 30.
Learn more here.
