Most people around the world have long returned to their pre-pandemic lives: ditching face masks, dining in restaurants, and attending packed concerts, among other things. Meanwhile, one of the last major cities to edge back toward normalcy is Hong Kong, which only announced today it will end its controversial Covid-19 mask mandate – nearly three years after it was enacted.
Here’s what else you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On with Your Day.
(You can get “CNN’s 5 Things” delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up here.)
The Supreme Court will take up two challenges today concerning President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness program, with a decision expected by late June or early July. The initiative, aimed at providing targeted debt relief to millions of student-loan borrowers, has so far been stalled by legal challenges. Republican-led states and conservatives opposing the program say it amounts to an unlawful attempt to erase an estimated $430 billion of federal student loan debt under the guise of the pandemic. The cases being heard today will also ultimately provide guidance on payments that have been paused since 2020 and interest in accrual on student loans. View this timeline to see how the federal education borrowing system began in the 1950s – and how it ballooned into a trillion-dollar problem for Americans.
In a surprise visit to Kyiv on Monday, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to reaffirm US economic support and to announce the recent transfer of $1.25 billion in assistance. Addressing the Russian economy, which has not buckled under an array of sanctions from the US and other Western countries, Yellen said she expects it to grow weaker as the country loses foreign investment and runs through its reserves. “We will see an increasing toll on Russia’s economic trajectory over…
Read the full article here