US Supreme Court hears Anderson v. Intel, on when savers can sue over weak returns in a 401(k) workplace pension, and the justices lean towards Intel

The rest of the day

9 more stories on this beat.

Each with its own sources. None of these is a link to the story above.

1. 02

   US Medicaid drops refugees and asylum seekers

   On 1 October the US stopped covering refugees, asylum seekers and victims of human trafficking through Medicaid, its public health cover for people on low incomes. [7][8] The cut comes from the tax and spending law that President Trump's Republican Party passed in 2025. [7][8] Arizona officials said 29,000 legal immigrants were removed from Medicaid that day. [7] Florida's figure is estimated at about 177,000, and KFF, a health research group, puts the total across nine states and Washington DC at more than 281,000. [7]

   Why it matters — Full-price plans on the US health marketplaces are often too dear for the people cut, KFF says, and many work in jobs that offer no health cover. [8] A family in Tucson, Arizona, says Medicaid had paid about 25,000 dollars a month for their son's care. [7] Most states have chosen to keep covering pregnant women and children who would otherwise lose cover. [9]

2. 03

   Fake meetings appear in online calendars

   Scammers are sending fake invites that appear in people's online calendars, such as Google Calendar, without being accepted. [10] Calendar apps can add an invite on their own, so the target does not even need to open the email, says Luke Wescott of Sublime Security, an email security firm. [10] The entries look like meetings, voicemail alerts, payment receipts or PayPal warnings. [10] They link to fake login pages or to fake 'support' phone numbers. [10] Wescott says his firm has seen 'exponential growth' in the trick. [10]

   Why it matters — An entry sitting next to a real dentist appointment gets trusted more than a strange email, Wescott says. [10] Some scammers send the invites through real services such as Zoom, which makes them hard to block without blocking real meetings too, says Cofense, another security firm. [10]

3. 04

   Three Plan 2 borrowers, ten years on

   Three friends who started at Newcastle University in 2012 each borrowed about 37,500 pounds under Plan 2, the student loan England brought in that year. [11] Ten years into repaying, one has cleared it, one owes about 47,000 pounds that is not shrinking, and one sees her balance still rising. [11] Since April, Charlotte has repaid about 450 pounds while about 500 pounds of interest was added. [11] The UK government plans to freeze the income at which repayments start, 29,385 pounds, for three years from 2027. [11]

   450 poundsRepaid since April

   vsvs

   500 poundsInterest added

   Why it matters — A frozen threshold means graduates start repaying sooner and pay more each month. [11] Campaigners want the rate cut and the freeze reversed in the Budget later this month. [11] The Department for Education says it will keep looking for ways to make the system fairer. [11]

4. 05

   Fake agent took a family's savings for a Harvard place

   Police in Islamabad, Pakistan's capital, are hunting a man accused of taking 7.2 million rupees from a family to get their daughter into Harvard University. [12] He was not a registered visa agent, and claimed to work as an accountant at Pakistan's Supreme Court, the Federal Investigation Agency says. [12] The family also paid him 550,000 rupees for a job for her brother, and sold a plot of land and gold to raise the money, police sources say. [12] The student, Laiba Aijaz, a recent graduate, died on Friday; she reportedly took her own life. [12]

   Why it matters — Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif ordered the man's arrest, and his name is on a list that stops him leaving Pakistan. [12] Investigators hold the visa papers he gave the family, and are looking for a woman who allegedly helped him. [12]

5. 06

   US starter homes get scarcer and dearer

   Starter homes made up 36.2% of US homes listed for sale this August, down from 38.1% in August 2019, figures from Realtor.com, a property listings site, show. [14] Realtor.com counts a home as a starter home when it costs 80% or less of the middle price in its area. [14] Their typical price rose 30.8% over those years, from about 260,000 to about 340,000 dollars. [14] Of 8,300 ZIP codes, the US postcodes, in the 100 biggest metro areas, only 18.3% had mostly starter homes for sale. [14]

   $260,000Starter home, 2019

   ↓→

   $340,000Starter home, 2026

   Why it matters — These are the homes first-time buyers can reach, and rising mortgage rates make each one harder to afford. [14] The share did rise in at least 20 of the 100 biggest metro areas. [14]

6. 07

   Australian universities short of overseas students

   Australian universities have filled only about two-thirds of their places for international students this year, Department of Education figures show. [15] Charles Sturt University, which teaches in country towns across New South Wales, has filled 40% of its places. [15] It says the fall since before Covid costs it 35 million Australian dollars, and it has announced job cuts. [15] Its head of international students blames a visa fee raised to 2,500 Australian dollars and refusal rates of about 53% for applicants from South Asia. [15]

   40 of 100

   of its international places filled this year

   Why it matters — Fees from overseas students pay for part of the teaching of Australian students, so a shortfall can mean fewer services for them, university heads say. [15] The visa fee is not refunded, and applicants have about one chance in two. [15] That makes applying 'more like a lottery ticket', says Phil Honeywood of the International Education Association of Australia. [15]

7. 08

   Isaias leaves insurers a bill in the billions

   Hurricane Isaias came ashore in Florida's Panhandle late on Friday and killed four people in Florida and Alabama. [17][18] Two died when trees fell on their homes, and a man died from the fumes of a generator running in a closed garage. [17][18] Power cuts hit more than 900,000 customers early on Saturday, and about 550,000 were still without power that afternoon. [17] Matthew Palazola, an insurance analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, says insured losses could run to several billion dollars, under ten billion. [16]

   Why it matters — Two calm hurricane seasons let insurers rebuild the money they hold for claims, and Florida's recent insurance reforms have not yet faced a big storm, Palazola says. [16] Florida's stronger building rules may have held the damage down, he says. [16]

8. 09

   Tehran freezes prices of basic goods

   Tehran's city government has frozen the prices of essential goods for six months, under what it calls a 'Zero-Inflation Initiative'. [13] The city's mayor, Alireza Zakani, says the scheme will now spread across Iran. [13] He presents it as a defence against US sanctions. [13] The US tightened them in late August with a campaign to cut Iran off from world trade. [13]

   Why it matters — Shoppers gain from the freeze only while shops keep selling at the old prices. The announcement does not say how shops will be paid if their own costs rise.

9. 10

   Pakistani party ties talks to scrapping the fuel levy

   Hafiz Naeemur Rehman leads Jamaat-i-Islami, a political party in Pakistan. [19] On Saturday he said he will not meet Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif unless Pakistan's government promises to scrap the petroleum levy, a charge on fuel. [19] His party has held sit-ins against it for 42 days, and says it will name a date for a march on Islamabad after 12 October if no relief comes. [19]

   Why it matters — Ministers' statements suggest the levy will stay, Rehman said. [19] Pakistan's government says it is held back by the International Monetary Fund, and Rehman rejects that. [19]