Supreme court justices appear skeptical about Biden’s student debt relief plan – as it happened

Activists and students protest in front of the supreme court during a rally for student debt cancellation in Washington DC on Tuesday. Photograph: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images

9.05pm GMT

Closing summary

Joe Biden’s plan to relieve some student loan debt may soon be struck down by conservative supreme court justices, who sounded skeptical of the government’s argument that the program was permitted under federal law. Elsewhere, Florida governor Ron DeSantis still has not said if he will run for president, but plans to travel to the states that vote first in the Republican nomination process. It seems a formal announcement is just a matter of time.

Here’s what else has happened today so far:

• The House foreign affairs committee is holding a hearing about China’s global influence, ahead of this evening’s primetime session of a special panel to examine Beijing’s competition with the United States.

• GOP House speaker Kevin McCarthy will make about 40,000 hours of surveillance footage from January 6 available to the public, after sparking furor by releasing the video to Tucker Carlson.

• The House Republican “weaponization” committee plans to scrutinize the Twitter files.

• A Florida Republican lawmaker wants to formally terminate the state’s Democratic party.

• The Biden White House may soon get its first Asian-American cabinet secretary.

8.55pm GMT

In a House armed services committee hearing today on America’s military aid to Ukraine, Matt Gaetz, a rightwing lawmaker who is opposed to arming Kyiv, thought he had backed a top defense department official into a corner.

In questioning Colin Kahl, the defense department’s undersecretary for policy, Gaetz cited a report that indicated the Azov battalion had received American weapons for years. Founded in 2014, the unit is controversial because some of its early members held far-right views, though commanders say it has since moved away from that ideology.

The problem? The report Gaetz cited was published in the Global Times, an English-language publication of the Chinese Communist party.

In the polite fashion of a congressional witness, Kahl called out Gaetz for falling for what he said was “Beijing’s propaganda”. You can watch the exchange in the clip below, around the three-minute mark:

Rep. Matt Gaetz asks about Global Times Investigative report.@DOD_Policy Kahl: "Is this the Global Times from China?"@RepMattGaetz: "No, this is well...yeah, it might be. Yeah..."

Kahl: "I don't take Beijing's propaganda at face value."

Gaetz: "Fair enough." pic.twitter.com/9XQewKdZeA

— CSPAN (@cspan) February 28, 2023