
U.S. refunding application fees for Biden immigration program for spouses of citizens
CBSN
The U.S. government will issue refunds to tens of thousands of unauthorized immigrants married to American citizens who applied for a Biden administration program that was struck down in federal court, according to internal government documents obtained by CBS News.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, or USCIS, plans to refund the $580 application fee that roughly 94,000 people paid in hopes of benefiting from the Biden administration policy, dubbed Keeping Families Together. The refunds amount to about $55 million, the documents show.
Announced in June by President Biden, the initiative offered an estimated half a million unauthorized immigrants a chance to get temporary legal status and a streamlined path to permanent residency, if they were married to U.S. citizens and had lived in the U.S. for at least 10 years without committing serious crimes. But a federal judge halted the policy almost immediately after it took effect in late August, agreeing with Republican-led states that argued the program flouted U.S. immigration law.

Trump's tariffs target Heard Island and McDonald Islands, Australian territory inhabited by penguins
With his announcement of widespread new tariffs on Wednesday, President Trump spared very few places on the globe from his effort to upend global trade — even the remote Heard Island and McDonald Islands, a sub-Antarctic Australian territory inhabited by penguins, but no people.

Researchers are predicting an above-average Atlantic hurricane season in 2025, likely producing stronger and more frequent storms than a typical year but at the same time with less intensity expected than last season. The annual prediction is closely watched in Florida and other coastal states at risk when hurricane season officially starts June 1.