Multi-billionaire Jeff Bezos has sold another 14 million Amazon shares, worth around $2.4bn (£1.9bn). The latest sale brings the total number of shares he has sold in the firm over the last nine trading days to about 50 million, with a value of around $8.5bn. The tech giant had previously said Mr Bezos would sell up to 50 million shares by the end of January 2025. His sales of Amazon stock comes after they have risen by more than 76% in the past year. Mr Bezos, who is the firm’s founder and executive chair, had previously last sold Amazon shares in 2021. He has also given away shares in Amazon as part of his philanthropy, most recently in 2022. As Mr Bezos moved to Miami in Florida from Seattle in Washington last year, he will save almost $600m in tax on the $8.5bn worth of stock he has sold. Gains above $250,000 from the sale of shares or other long term investments, are taxed at 7% in Washington state. Florida does not have state taxes on incomes or capital gains. However, he will still be liable to federal taxes as a result of selling the shares. When Mr Bezos announced his move to Florida it prompted speculation over whether it was because of a potential tax bill he would have faced in Washington after the state approved a new tax on large stock sales. Mr Bezos said in November that his parents had recently moved back to Miami where he spent some of his childhood and that he wanted to be close to them and to his Blue Origin space project, which was “increasingly shifting to Cape Canaveral”. “Lauren and I love Miami,” he wrote on Instagram, referring to his fiancée Lauren Sánchez. “For all that, I’m planning to return to Miami, leaving the Pacific Northwest,” he added. Mr Bezos remains Amazon’s biggest shareholder and is one of the richest people in the world, with an estimated fortune of more than $190bn. Amazon did not immediately respond to a BBC request for comment.

CNN—Israeli forces fired on a United Nations convoy carrying vital food supplies in central Gaza on February 5, before ultimately blocking the trucks from progressing to the northern part of the territory, where Palestinians are on the verge of famine, according to documents shared exclusively by the UN and CNN’s own analysis. CNN has seen correspondence between the UN and the Israeli military that show the convoy’s route was agreed upon by both parties prior to the strike. According to an internal incident report compiled by UNRWA, the main UN relief agency in Gaza, which was also seen by CNN, the truck was one of 10 in a convoy sitting stationary at an IDF holding point when it was fired upon. No one in the convoy was hurt, but much of its contents – mainly wheat flour desperately needed to bake bread – were destroyed. Tracing the strike offers a window into the major challenges that humanitarian efforts face in getting aid to Gaza’s more than 2 million people – nearly 85% of whom are internally displaced – amid Israel’s nearly five-month bombardment of the strip. “A convoy that had food on it, heading to the northern parts of the Gaza Strip. That convoy on its way in what we call the middle areas, it got hit. One of the trucks carrying supplies was hit by Israeli naval fire,” Juliette Touma, global director of communications for UNRWA, told CNN. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has not responded to CNN’s repeated requests for comment on the strike. The IDF said on February 5 that it was looking into the incident. It is one of multiple incidents where aid convoys, as well as warehouses storing aid, have been hit since the war began. Israel launched its bombardment and ground invasion of the Gaza Strip after Hamas’ October 7 terrorist attack, in which at least 1,200 people were killed, and more than 250 others taken hostage. More than 29,000 people have been killed in Israeli attacks on the strip, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza. In the wake of the strike on February 5, UNRWA decided to stop sending convoys to northern Gaza. The last time the agency was able to deliver food north of Wadi Gaza – a strip of wetlands that bisects the enclave – was on January 23. The UN estimates that 300,000 people are still living in northern Gaza, with very little assistance. Acute malnutrition has already been identified in 16.2% of children there, above the threshold considered critical, according to the UN. The convoy, consisting of 10 aid trucks and two armored vehicles marked with UN insignia, started its journey in the early hours of February 5. UNRWA said the journeys are undertaken early in the day to avoid the trucks’ contents being raided along route by those desperate for food.

Washington CNN — A new federal student loan repayment plan could lower monthly payments for millions of borrowers. The Biden administration made the plan available ahead of the resumption of student loan payments in October after a yearslong pandemic-related pause. The plan – known as SAVE (Saving on a Valuable Education) – calculates monthly payments based on a borrower’s income and family size and does not take into consideration how much student loan debt is owed. Use this calculator to see how much your monthly payment would be this year if you’ve enrolled in the new program. How Biden’s new program worksThere are other federal student loan programs – known as income-driven repayment plans – that similarly tie monthly payments to a borrower’s income and family size. But low-income borrowers will likely see the smallest monthly payment under SAVE. Plus, unpaid interest will not accrue under the new plan if a borrower makes a full monthly payment. That means that a borrower’s balance won’t increase even if the monthly payment doesn’t cover the interest accumulated that month. There is also a forgiveness component. Once the new repayment plan is fully phased in next year, some borrowers’ remaining balance could be wiped away after making at least 10 years of payments. Most borrowers with federal student loans will qualify for the new repayment plan, but that doesn’t necessarily make it the best option for everyone. Since monthly payments are lowered, it may also increase how long it takes to pay off the loan, potentially resulting in more being paid back over time with interest. Borrowers can apply for the SAVE plan by submitting an application for income-driven repayment plans on the Federal Student Aid website. Why payments could change in the futureOnce the new plan is fully implemented in July 2024, many enrolled borrowers will see their monthly payments cut in half. This year, borrowers’ payments will equal 10% of their discretionary income. But next year, payments on loans borrowed for undergraduate school will be further reduced to 5% of discretionary income. Widener Library on the Harvard University campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, on Saturday, Aug. 26, 2023. The US Supreme Court effectively barred universities from using race as a factor in university admissions, marking the start of a new era in higher education and rolling back decades of precedents. Photographer: Simon Simard/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesAre you ready to start repaying your student loans?Borrowers who have loans from both undergraduate and graduate school will pay a weighted average of between 5% and 10% of their income based upon the original principal balances of their loans.

Washington CNN — Nearly 153,000 student loan borrowers currently enrolled in a new repayment plan launched by the Biden administration are expected to get an email Wednesday notifying them that their remaining federal student loan debt will be canceled, totaling about $1.2 billion. The email is expected to include a congratulatory message from President Joe Biden, whose administration is eager to remind voters what it has done to address student loan debt as the presidential election ramps up. “From day one of my Administration, I vowed to fix student loan programs so higher education can be a ticket to the middle class—not a barrier to opportunity,” the message reads. Biden’s plans to provide student debt relief were dealt a significant blow when the Supreme Court rejected his signature student loan forgiveness program last year – but that hasn’t stopped his administration from finding other ways to help borrowers. Nearly $138 billion of federal student loan debt has been canceled for almost 3.9 million borrowers since Biden took office. The latest round of debt relief, announced Wednesday, will impact some borrowers who are enrolled in a new repayment plan known as SAVE (Saving on a Valuable Education), which the administration launched in August as the pandemic-related pause on payments was ending. Under that plan, remaining federal student loan balances are erased for those who originally borrowed $12,000 or less and have made payments for at least 10 years. At first, debt relief under SAVE was not scheduled to begin until July – but the Biden administration said last month that it would start ahead of schedule in February. Most of the federal student loan debt cancellations that have taken place under Biden have come through programs that existed before he took office. These programs are generally limited to specific categories of borrowers, such as public-sector workers, people defrauded by for-profit colleges and borrowers who have paid for at least 20 years. Under Biden, the Department of Education has canceled more federal student loan debt than during any previous administration – in part due to efforts to temporarily expand some debt relief programs and to correct past administrative errors made to borrowers’ student loan accounts. Here are some of the ways the Biden administration is forgiving federal student loan debt: