Vice President Kamala Harris unveiled a new proposal for small business tax breaks on Wednesday as she looks to flesh out her economic platform ahead of a debate with former President Donald Trump next week.

The plan, released during a campaign speech on Sept. 4 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, includes an increase in the tax deduction for startup costs to $50,000 from $5,000. The campaign aims to attract 25 million new small business applications in a potential first term—an increase from the 19 million under the Biden administration as of mid-August of this year.

Experts who spoke to The Epoch Times said that while the plan could help spur economic activity, it would add billions to the deficit in the next decade. The proposals would ultimately require congressional approval. Read the full story here›

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said on Sept. 4 that Chinese consul general Huang Ping is no longer holding his position after her request to the U.S. State Department that he be ousted. The State Department said the diplomat left because he reached the end of a regularly scheduled rotation.

On Sept. 3, a former top-level aide to Hochul was charged with spying for the Chinese Communist Party. Hochul said she reached out to the White House and U.S. secretary of state after the arrest and indictment of Linda Sun. She asked that the Chinese consul general be removed from his position immediately.

“I have conveyed my desire to have the counsel general from the People’s Republic of China and the New York mission expelled, and I’ve been informed that the counsel general is no longer in the New York mission,” Hochul said at the press conference. She said her request was meant to send a message. Read the full story here›

A proposed cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas includes the release of some 800 Palestinians currently imprisoned in Israel, including those serving life sentences. Israel has already agreed to most of the prisoner exchanges, according to a senior Biden administration official, but Hamas negotiators continue to make new requests.

The official told reporters on Sept. 4 that Hamas’s execution of six hostages in late August was a key factor “coloring the discussions.”

“It has brought a sense of urgency to the process,” the official said. “But it’s also called into question Hamas’s readiness to do a deal of any kind.”

The official said that ongoing negotiations over an 18-paragraph cease-fire deal hinge on four paragraphs. Three of those paragraphs are related to the exchange of hostages taken by Hamas during the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack for hundreds of prisoners in Israeli jails. Read the full story here›

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