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1 Child Tax Credit Payments Have Started Going Out
The first payment from the new expanded child tax credit went out starting on Thursday. This will be sent to about 39 million families and 65 million kids nationwide. The enhanced tax credit was first announced in March through President Biden's American Rescue Plan. Households that are eligible for the full benefit will be receiving $300 per month for children under the age of six and $250 for children aged 6-17. The maximum credit is $3,600 for those under the age of 6 and $3,000 for ages 6-17. However, a recent survey by Ally Bank shows that many families are not sure if they're eligible or not for the credit. Deposits and Consumer Strategy Executive at Ally Bank, Anand Talwar, urges that all parents take a moment to check if they're eligible or not.
2 Report: Kremlin Helped Boost Trump/He Denies It
Leaked papers appear to show that President Vladimir Putin approved a plan to help boost Donald Trump in the 2016 U.S. election during a closed meeting 10 months before Election Day. In the meeting, Putin and his intelligence leadership deemed a Trump victory would benefit Russia. In the report, Trump is characterized as "impulsive, mentally unstable, and unbalanced individual who suffers from an inferiority complex. It also suggested that Russia had compromising material about him. The point according to the documents, for having Donald Trump elected, was to destabilize the country and to have privately-held frustrations bubble up to the surface. Putin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov said that this is all "a great pulp fiction." Trump also agrees that the allegations are false. He tweeted through spokeswoman Liz Harrington saying, "This is disgusting. It’s fake news, just like RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA was fake news. It’s just the Radical Left crazies doing whatever they can to demean everybody on the right. It’s fiction, and nobody was tougher on Russia than me, including on the pipeline, and sanctions. At the same time we got along with Russia. Russia respected us, China respected us, Iran respected us, North Korea respected us. And the world was a much safer place than it is now with mentally unstable leadership."
3 Vaccines for Kids Under 12 Expected Mid-Winter
The Food and Drug Administration has announced that emergency approval for COVID-19 vaccine for children under the age of 12 could come in early to midwinter. They are hoping to move quickly for full approval for this age group. A big hesitation right now for parents is that the vaccine has not been given full approval by the FDA just yet, which is why they are hoping to move quickly to ease this concern. Right now, COVID-19 vaccines have been given emergency approval for those aged 12 and above. However, none of them have full approval just yet. Trials have been happening by both "Pfizer-BioNTech" and "Moderna" for children under the age of 12 since March. They are expecting results sometime in the fall. After this, the FDA will need to take some time to review.