President Donald Trump headlined a campaign rally in Valdosta, Ga., for Sens. David Perdue, left, and Kelly Loeffler, right.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
At a rally in Valdosta, Georgia, on Saturday, President Donald Trump assailed the state's vote integrity, using debunked claims of fraud to accuse officials of allowing vote counts to be compromised.
"You know we won Georgia, just so you understand," Trump said to the jubilant crowd, despite his clear statewide loss to President-elect Joe Biden.
Throughout the night, the president continued to echo debunked claims of voting fraud.
"All I can do is campaign and then I wait for the numbers," he added. "When the numbers come out of ceilings and come out of leather bags, you start to say, 'What's going on?'"
At a boisterous rally in Valdosta, Georgia, on Saturday, President Donald Trump assailed the state's vote integrity, using debunked claims of fraud to accuse officials of allowing vote counts to be compromised, while simultaneously imploring Republicans to come out to support GOP Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue in the January 2021 Senate runoffs.
The duality of the proposition made Trump's plea even more incredulous.
"You know we won Georgia, just so you understand," Trump said to the jubilant crowd.
Trump quickly shifted to his unfounded claims of coordinated voter fraud, which have been rejected by everyone from local voting officials to GOP Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
"We're fighting very hard for this state, when you look at all of the corruption and all of the problems that have to do with this election," Trump said.
The president then brought up a false claim about ballot-stuffed suitcases that were included in the vote tally. According to the Associated Press, "surveillance footage of ballot processing on election night in Atlanta is fueling a false social media narrative of 'suitcases filled with ballots' hidden under a cloth-covered table and tallied without supervision, even as top state officials confirm election workers followed standard procedure."
Georgia officials have said that state investigators watched the entirety of the hours-long surveillance footage and determined that it showed "normal ballot processing" and no wrongdoing or irregularities.
Trump tweeted the aforementioned video and played the footage during the Saturday night rally, showing ballot containers on wheels being used by election workers, which is not an uncommon practice. Yet, the president insisted on pushing fraud theories despite election officials insisting that there were no irregularities.
"All I can do is campaign and then I wait for the numbers," he added. "When the numbers come out of ceilings and come out of leather bags, you start to say, 'What's going on?'"
"I want to stay on presidential," Trump said early in his speech. "But I got to get to these two."
Trump lauded the GOP senators for advancing his agenda, including COVID-19 relief spending earlier this year. But his sense of grievance was never too far away.
"Let them steal Georgia again, you'll never be able to look yourself in the mirror," Trump said to the rallygoers.
A volunteer receives an experimental vaccination for the coronavirus in a clinical trial at the University of Maryland's medical school.
University of Maryland
England will start administering COVID-19 vaccinations beginning on December 8.
The National Health Service (NHS) said in an official statement the first people to get the vaccine will be people over 80, care home workers, and NHS workers who are at "higher risk."
The first batch of vaccinations will be done at hospitals around the country, with GP surgeries starting to administer injections starting the week beginning December 14.
As more doses of the vaccine become available, the NHS plans to set up mass injection centers in sporting venues and conference spaces.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: "This coming week will be a historic moment as we begin vaccination against COVID-19."
England's National Health Service (NHS) has released the details of its official rollout of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine, which will begin early next week.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: "This coming week will be a historic moment as we begin vaccination against COVID-19.
"We are prioritizing the most vulnerable first and over-80s, care home staff and NHS colleagues will all be among the first to receive the vaccines."
The UK became the first country to authorize the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine, which Pfizer says is 95% effective.
The NHS said vaccinations would begin on Tuesday and that the first "wave" of injections will be done at 50 hospital hubs.
"People aged 80 and over as well as care home workers will be first to receive the jab, along with NHS workers who are at higher risk," the NHS said in a statement.
The NHS said patients aged 80 or over who are already in hospital as an outpatient or being discharged home after a hospital stay would be among the first to get the vaccine. Hospitals will also start inviting over-80s to come in for a jab and talk to care home providers to get their staff vaccinated.
"Any appointments not used for these groups will be used for healthcare workers who are at highest risk of serious illness from COVID," the NHS said.
Patients will need to return for a booster jab 21 days after the initial injection, the NHS said.
"Despite the huge complexities, hospitals will kickstart the first phase of the largest scale vaccination campaign in our country's history from Tuesday. The first tranche of vaccine deliveries will be landing at hospitals by Monday in readiness," NHS national medical director Stephen Powis said in a statement.
"The NHS has a strong record of delivering large-scale vaccination programs - from the flu jab, HPV vaccine and lifesaving MMR jabs - hardworking staff will once again rise to the challenge to protect the most vulnerable people from this awful disease," he added.
The NHS said that the following week - starting December 14 - a small number of GP surgeries will start administering the vaccine. Eventually, the vaccine's rollout will include large-scale vaccination centers in sporting venues and conference spaces, according to the NHS press release.
Pfizer told the BBC on Wednesday, December 2, that the UK will receive 800,000 doses of the vaccine this coming week - meaning the first wave of two-shot vaccinations will be enough for roughly 400,000 people.
In total, the UK has ordered roughly 40 million doses, meaning it will have enough to vaccinate 20 million out of its population of 66.7 million.
Business Insider spoke with six experts and economists and parsed through several reports and studies to see what the math has to say about canceling student debt at various thresholds.
Three experts said that student-debt forgiveness could stimulate the economy by giving borrowers more room to spend on other things, like buying a house.
It's true that affluent households will benefit. But one expert said that communities of color and low-income households will benefit the most when looking at income-to-debt ratios.
Layla is in no rush to finish up her doctoral degree in educational leadership.
Graduating means she would have to start paying an estimated $1,500 to $2,000 per month in student loans, the 35-year-old, who asked to go by a pseudonym for privacy reasons, told Business Insider. They're currently in deferment, meaning monthly payments aren't required, but she's still shelling out $250 a month to try and stay ahead of her balance.
"Knowing that I will soon have a payment due larger than many mortgage payments can be daunting to think about," she said.
She's racked up several degrees in her quest to become a dean in higher education, including a masters in education and an MBA. But her debt - which has climbed to six figures - stems from her undergraduate and doctoral education. She didn't originally borrow this much, but said she's acquired about $35,000 in interest alone at a 6% interest rate since first taking out loans in 2003 as a college freshman.
Layla is one of millions of Americans who would benefit from student-loan forgiveness.
With around 10.7 million people unemployed right now, forgiving $10,000 per student loan borrower would be beneficial for millions of Americans.
Student loan debt makes up the second biggest share of household debt, according to the Brookings Institution. About 45 million Americans hold student loan debt with a total national outstanding amount of nearly $1.7 trillion. Borrowers with outstanding education debt typically hold between $20,000 and $24,999, according to the Federal Reserve's 2020 US households report using 2019 data.
To determine the economic impact of student-loan debt cancellation, Business Insider spoke with six experts and economists, parsed through non-profit and government studies and reports, and dove into the data of national student debt.
Just $10,000 in forgiveness could wipe out debt for millions
Eliminating $10,000 of debt would help 15.3 million borrowers completely wipe out their outstanding federal student debt.
Based on fourth quarter 2020 data, loan forgiveness of $10,000 would mean complete debt cancellation for 33.6% of borrowers, who have an outstanding debt of less than $10,000 in federal student loans. It would also benefit the 9.6 million who owe between $20,000 to $40,000, the debt group with the largest number of borrowers.
However, researchers from the Center for American Progress noted in their own analysis of how many borrowers would have their debt completely eliminated using last year's figures that these shares may actually be lower "because some individuals who currently appear to have low debt levels are in school and are thus likely to end up with higher loan balances as they continue their studies."
Student-debt cancellation could boost the economy
Bharat Ramamurti, a member of the Congressional Oversight Commission, recently tweeted out a thread that argues the benefits of cancelling student loan debt for these millions of borrowers based on previous studies and government data.
"The bottom line is that broad debt cancellation via executive order is popular, economically potent, and - most importantly - life-changing for millions of Americans struggling through this crisis," Ramamurti wrote on Twitter.
One of the studies Ramamurti shared is a 2018 paper from the Levy Economic Institute of Bard College using 2016 data that looks at the effects of student loan debt forgiveness. The authors write that a one-time cancellation of the $1.4 trillion outstanding student debt held would translate to an increase of $86 billion to $108 billion a year, on average, to GDP.
Cancelling student debt could also mean current monthly payments could go toward savings or other spending. Per the Federal Reserve report, those who make payments usually pay about $200 to $299 per month. Ramamurti tweeted that this "is like sending those people a check every month."
Some experts say student loan forgiveness wouldn't just help graduates, but the US economy.
Getty Images
He told Business Insider that with student loan forgiveness, that is essentially putting almost $3,000 back in Americans' pockets each year, which as a result could help boost the economy.
Indeed, forgiveness would benefit younger Americans who have been putting off milestones. A SoFi survey of 1,000 Americans ages 22 to 35 found 61% of millennials said they've delayed buying a house because of student-loan debt.
The Levy Institute also noted that beyond the effects seen in their models, forgiveness would help with both business and household formation.
"Of course, starting a small business means that there's going to be more jobs available. Buying a home means there's more demand for home construction and so on," Ramamurti said. "And so it has all of these positive ripple effects throughout the economy."
Affluent households won't be the only ones who benefit
One of the biggest arguments against forgiveness is that it would mainly help higher-income households since they typically have more student loan debt.
Lowell Ricketts, senior research associate at the St. Louis Fed, agreed that affluent graduates would disproportionately benefit from student loan forgiveness. "Most borrowers typically have low balances under $10,000 or $20,000," he told Business Insider in a November 23 interview. "Most of the total balance outstanding is held by high-balance borrowers."
This cohort, who are typically in high-earning professions, hold two-thirds of all student debt, Ricketts said. For example, he added, students who owe over $100,000 make up just 7% of student loan borrowers but own 37% of all student debt out there.
But that's not to say low-balance borrowers wouldn't benefit, Ricketts said. Forgiving $10,000 worth of student loans would resolve the serious delinquency that 19% of this cohort has, he said. It would even "carve out an income-based repayment plan or a payment plan that is more workable" for borrowers with $20,000 in debt, he said.
Both high-earning and low-earning borrowers would benefit from forgiveness.
Jose Luis Magana/AP
Based on 2016 Consumer of Survey Finances data, Matthew Chingos, vice president for education, data, and policy at the Urban Institute, wrote "the benefits to lower-income households would come almost entirely in the $10,000 reduction in their loan principal, which will reduce their future loan burden but have a much smaller effect on their monthly cash flows. This is because they are less likely to be making payments on their loans, and payments made tend to be smaller."
But debt cancellation for low-income borrowers as a share of their income is much higher than for wealthier individuals, Laura Beamer, lead researcher at the Jain Family Institute (JFI), told Business Insider.
Beamer has spent the past year studying inequality in student access to higher education in the US for JFI's Millennial Student Debt Project. Her research found that in 2009, the lowest income zip codes across the country saw their student debt burdens go to 56% of their income; by 2018, it had risen to 94%.
"People who are low-income are going to be benefiting the most, even just looking at their debt-to-income ratios before and after debt cancellation," she said. "Those getting $10,000 in student loan relief, the impact for households as a portion of their income that would be freed up is dramatically greater for lower income households."
Forgiveness would help narrow the racial wealth gap
It's these lowest-income households, and communities of color, that will gain the most from cancellation plans. Beamer said: "Progress on mitigating wealth inequality is one of the biggest effects of student debt forgiveness."
Black students shoulder a heavier debt burden than their white peers: About 87% of Black students attending four-year colleges take out student loans compared to about 60% of white students. They also owe $7,400 more on average than their white peers after graduating, per Brookings.
Post-college, it's difficult for workers of color to financially catch up. As the Economic Policy Institute wrote in its latest wages report, "average wages grew faster among white and Hispanic workers than among [Black] workers for all education groups from 2000 to 2019."
Black borrowers under the age of 40 were also more likely to be behind on payments in 2019 than white or Hispanic borrowers: 26% for Black borrowers, 19% for Hispanic borrowers, and 7% for white borrowers, according to the Federal Reserve.
Student-debt forgiveness would benefit communities of color.
MediaNews Group/The Mercury News via Getty Images
A paper by The Roosevelt Institute using data from the Fed's Survey of Consumer Finances looked at what different levels of forgiveness would mean for debt relief for white and black borrowers.
The researchers found that if anything, $10,000 is not enough, according to Suzanne Kahn, the director of education, jobs, and worker power and the Great Democracy Initiative at Roosevelt Institute, told Business Insider that the think tank.
While Kahn said the think tank doesn't have a certain amount they suggest for debt forgiveness, an updated paper based on the latest data suggests that forgiveness of $75,000, "would be a more appropriate level to increase household wealth, help close the racial wealth gap, and boost our struggling economy."
It all ties back to Ramamurti's argument that forgiveness wouldn't just benefit the individual borrower, but the economy as a whole. A threshold could pull lower-end borrowers out of default and restore their credit scores and even help those not in default delaying the aforementioned life milestones.
Consider Layla, who said she's had to weigh life decisions like buying a home, having a kid, and accepting a job against her debt. "Before any major or minor decision is made, I have to consider my student loans," she said.
She said debt relief would open the door for countless opportunities and the hope that she could still create a viable future for herself and her family. "I would feel like I could breathe a little easier. Almost as if I had a second chance at my financial life to do things better."
An online survey found 37% of parents felt their children were too young to engage in online instruction without significant support from their caregivers.
Phynart Studio/Getty Images
Preschool parents may be particularly worried their children will miss out on opportunities to build social, emotional, and behavioral skills when learning remotely, say researchers Michele L. Stites and Susan Sonnenschein.
They suggest parents recreate these experiences by playing games, taking nature walks, reading, setting up Zoom playdates, and talking through challenges and feelings.
Preschool teachers can also support parents by combining reading, math, and social growth through supplementary learning materials and short exercises.
As COVID-19 cases once again spike across the country, parents in school districts like New York City and Detroit face another weeks long stretch of remote learning. This often includes preschool parents, whose children range in age from 3 to 6 and are often too young to manage virtual learning on their own.
Many of these parents worry their children are missing out on important parts of the preschool experience - particularly opportunities to develop social, emotional, and behavioral skills through interactions with teachers and other children.
As researcherswho study children's educational development, we know that preschool helps children develop important academic and social skills they will need for later school success. In April, we surveyed 166 parents of preschool children to examine what they felt was working - and not working - with distance learning. While the data haven't been published yet, they give us important insights into virtual preschool.
Of the 166 parents who responded to our online survey, 73% said their preschool children were provided virtual learning opportunities during the COVID-19 crisis. The children were expected to devote 30 to 60 minutes a day to virtual classes. Two-thirds of parents said they supplemented the school lessons with in-home learning activities, although these primarily focused on reading, not math.
Thirty-seven percent of the parents felt children this age were too young to engage in online instruction without significant support from their caregivers. And 38% of parents reported not having the time to dedicate to distance learning while juggling the demands of work and other child care.
The parents we surveyed recognize that teachers and administrators are doing the best they can in this ever-changing and extraordinary situation. Their frustration and anxiety result from the virtual learning environment itself and the lack of resources to develop children's social, emotional, and behavioral learning along with early academic skills.
Preschool classrooms provide opportunities to build social skills like taking turns, waiting until others finish speaking and displaying empathy. These skills enable children to develop friendships, cope with challenges, and have conversations with other children and adults.
Based on the results of our survey, here are some ways parents can help make up for the shortcomings of virtual learning.
1. Play games. Games often teach reading and math skills, but more importantly, they allow for social development. Model turn-taking for the child and how to handle losing.
2. Take nature walks. Identifying objects and thinking about sounds, shapes, and colors helps with early academics. But also take the time to have conversations. Talking about feelings is important, especially right now.
3. Read. It's widely accepted that reading helps children, well, learn to read. But it also gives them world knowledge and makes for enjoyable interactions with others. And, it can be used as time to work on math skills like counting and shapes. (More math suggestions are available here.) From a social aspect, it's a good time to talk about a character's feelings and ask the child questions like, "How would you feel?" and "What would you do if you were this character?"
4. Make video calls. Set up virtual play dates allowing your child to talk to friends or relatives. Ask a grandparent to read a book with the child on FaceTime. Have the child play a game with a friend over Zoom.
5. Talk about your own feelings. Model coping and dealing with challenges with your child. Don't be afraid to tell your child when you are sad or worried. Ask the child what they would do if they were feeling sad.
Suggestions for teachers
And here are some ways that preschool teachers can support parents in their children's learning and development during COVID-19.
1. Help develop social skills. The parents we surveyed wanted short exercises to build social skills while students learn remotely. These activities would help students develop friendships, social norms, and emotional awareness. For example, reading a book together as a class over Zoom and sharing personal experiences prompts natural conversation. Another idea is to send home stories in which a specific social dilemma like anger is discussed. Children can read and discuss the stories with a caregiver.
2. Offer supplementary materials. Parents said they are supplementing school lessons with in-home learning activities. However, these activities typically focused on reading, with less attention devoted to math. Over half of parents said they did reading activities on a regular basis, but only 33% said they worked on math skills - which often predict later school success. By supplying the resources and materials, teachers can take out the guesswork for parents.
3. Combine reading, math, and social growth in short activities. For example, when sending home suggestions for books, point out where math opportunities - like counting certain items - and social dilemmas occur in the story. Combining lessons also makes it more efficient for parents to cover all three areas, which is important when they are balancing so many additional responsibilities.
Although academic instruction in preschool is important - and math especially should not be forgotten - teachers and parents agree that social interactions are critical at this age. And in a time of remote learning, social distancing and quarantines, keeping young children emotionally healthy, as well as physically healthy, is critical.
Blendid and Jamba's new robot smoothie maker kiosk.
Blendid
Jamba has teamed up with Blendid, a robot smoothie maker, to unveil a Jamba by Blendid kiosk at a Walmart in Dixon, California.
The menu includes Blendid smoothies, smoothies developed by the partnering companies that were "inspired" by Jamba flavors, and Jamba Boosts.
The Blendid kiosk uses an artificial intelligence and machine learning-powered system with a robotic arm, blenders, a refrigerator, and ingredient dispensers.
"The Jamba by Blendid opportunity speaks to both brands' strengths and adaptabilities during unprecedented times, while introducing a contactless dining option leveraging the latest digital and consumer robotics technology," according to the news release announcing the new co-partnered kiosk.
The Jamba by Blendid kiosk is located in a Walmart in Dixon, California. However, this isn't Blendid's only kiosk. The company, founded in 2015, has four other locations: one in a different Walmart in Fremont, California, two at cafes at the University of San Francisco and Sonoma State University, and one at a Plug and Play Tech Center in Silicon Valley.
Over the last two years, Jamba has been making "significant" technology investments with the goal of "driving more value and accessibility for guests," Jamba president Geoff Henry said in a statement on the news release.
Blendid and Jamba's new robot smoothie maker kiosk.
Blendid
"We see an opportunity to get Jamba into more locations, make it even more accessible, and create solutions where our team members can leverage the latest in technology to efficiently serve our guests," Henry said in the statement.
Blendid and Jamba's new robot smoothie maker kiosk.
Blendid
The menu includes Blendid's smoothies, smoothies developed by the partnering companies that were "inspired" by Jamba flavors, and Jamba Boosts.
Blendid and Jamba's new robot smoothie maker kiosk.
Blendid and Jamba
The Blendid kiosk utilizes a machine learning, artificial intelligence powered system.
Blendid and Jamba's new robot smoothie maker kiosk.
Blendid
The kiosk includes a robotic arm, blenders, refrigerators, and different ingredient dispensers …
Blendid and Jamba's new robot smoothie maker kiosk.
Blendid
… that hold the fruits, vegetables, liquids, and boosts needed to make the smoothies.
Blendid and Jamba's new robot smoothie maker kiosk.
Blendid
Blendid's system does everything a human working at the kiosk could do, such as processing the payments and measuring the ingredients.
Blendid and Jamba's kiosk.
Blendid
According to a YouTube video overview of Blendid, the smoothies are semi-customizable, which means customers can increase or decrease the amount of an ingredient in their smoothie order.
Blendid and Jamba's new robot smoothie maker kiosk.
The ordering, payment, and pickup process can be done through the customer's smartphone, making the exchange completely contactless.
A person picking up a Blendid and Jamba smoothie.
Blendid
The smoothies can be ready in under three minutes, and the robot can make nine drinks at the same time.
Blendid and Jamba's new robot smoothie maker kiosk.
Blendid
In total, the robot arm and its respective tech can make 45 drinks in one hour.
A person holding a Blendid and Jamba smoothie.
