On today’s episode of the 5 Things podcast: Sweden closer to NATO membership after Turkey removes objection
Sweden is closer to NATO membership after Turkey removes their objection. Plus, USA TODAY Supreme Court Correspondent John Fritze looks at whether President Joe Biden’s backup plan on student loan forgiveness will hold up to legal scrutiny, Larry Nassar was stabbed repeatedly in prison, USA TODAY Weather and Climate Reporter Doyle Rice explains how climate change might cause some cities to sink, and baseball’s biggest stars face off in the All-Star Game.
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Taylor Wilson:
Good morning. I’m Taylor Wilson and this is 5 Things you need to know Tuesday, the 11th of July 2023. Today Sweden gets closer to NATO membership. Plus, how well might Biden’s backup plan for student loan forgiveness hold up in court, and climate change is causing cities to sink.
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Sweden is one step closer to joining NATO ahead of a summit that kicks off today. Turkish President Recep Erdogan is withdrawing his country’s long-standing opposition to Sweden’s NATO bid, paving the way for the Nordic country to join the military alliance. Erdogan’s sudden change of heart came as a surprise because Turkey had objected to Sweden’s membership since last year, claiming the country was sympathetic to Kurdish militants that Turkey considers a threat to national security. Earlier yesterday, Erdogan demanded acceptance into the European Union in exchange for signing off on Sweden’s NATO membership. Sweden agreed to help unblock Turkey’s progress toward joining the EU, something that’s been on hold since 2018.
It’s not clear what role President Joe Biden played in Turkey’s decision. Biden spoke with Erdogan by phone on Sunday and said yesterday that he stands ready to work with Turkey on enhancing defense in the Euro-Atlantic area. Biden has emphasized NATO’s solidarity as a defense against Russian aggression. That aggression has prompted Finland and Sweden to abandon their decades-long policy of non-alignment. Finland, which borders Russia, became NATO’s 31st member in April.
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The Supreme Court ruled last week that President Joe Biden overstepped his authority when he used a 2003 law to forgive up to $20,000 in student debt. Hours after that decision, he rolled out a kind of plan B. But as USA TODAY’s Supreme Court Correspondent John Fritze told me, his backup plan will likely face legal scrutiny for the same reason his initial plan was knocked down by the high court. Welcome back to the show, John.
John Fritze:
Thank you.
Taylor Wilson:
What exactly does this new strategy look like?
John Fritze:
So the court said that Biden couldn’t use what’s known as the HEROES Act to execute his sweeping student loan relief program because the law didn’t specifically say he could do that. It said that the administration could waive or modify the terms of loans but not forgive $400 billion in student debt relief. That’s what the Supreme Court said.
The Biden administration, of course, is under a good deal of pressure, especially from the left to make good on this campaign pledge to reduce people’s student debt. So he announced that he would rely on another law. This is called the Higher Education Act of 1965. This law also doesn’t explicitly authorize widespread student debt relief, however, the administration feels like they got a better shot with this one than the last one.
Taylor Wilson:
You do write that this plan faces some major scrutiny. What are the possible barriers this time around?
John Fritze:
Well, look, this is the Supreme Court, the conservative majority of which that has been extremely skeptical of administrations reading too much into the law. The law that Biden is relying on says that the administration has the authority to “compromise” loans, and in the parlance of student loans and debt and so forth, that does mean reduce the amount of a loan. The experts that I’ve spoken to, a number of them feel like the administration is likely to face the same scrutiny from this court on reading that word compromise to mean that the administration has the authority to execute widespread student debt relief.
They can do something narrow, right? Like this law does have some pretty narrow provisions. For instance, in situations where colleges or universities go bankrupt or go kaput, the law is pretty clear. And this deals oftentimes with for-profit schools that go out of business. If people take out loans in that situation, the law is pretty clear that the administration can help forgive those. But what’s not clear is whether some estimated 40 million people can expect relief under the provisions of this law, at least according to I think what the Supreme Court is signaling in its opinions.
Taylor Wilson:
And the court has had several recent rulings dealing with who has the authority to do what, especially when considering presidential powers. How might this next fight for Biden fit into that greater context?
John Fritze:
That’s right. I mean, it’s really a struggle that’s been going on for decades with conservatives seeking to limit the power of what they deem the administrative state. This is happening in a number of cases outside of the context of student loans. Just look back at the eviction moratorium played out along these same lines, or Biden’s effort to require large employers to vaccinate or test workers. Both things struck down by the Supreme Court along similar lines.
And what this really gets down to is a belief that Congress is the one that’s supposed to be creating these programs. And increasingly what’s happened, of course, with a divided Congress and a divided Washington is presidents of all strikes, not just Democrats, have wanted to try to do runarounds around Congress a little bit. They want to get something done, of course, and one of the ways they can do it is through agency regulation or executive action. But this court is increasingly sort of slapping those efforts back and telling presidents that, look, if you want to do a sweeping program, you really got to get Congress to approve it.
Taylor Wilson:
USA TODAY Supreme Court Correspondent John Fritze, great insight as always. Thanks, John.
John Fritze:
Hey, thank you.
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Taylor Wilson:
Disgraced former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar was reportedly stabbed in prison multiple times over the weekend during an altercation with another inmate. The 59-year-old was stabbed six times in the chest and twice each in the neck and back, according to the president of the union that represents employees at the prison where he’s incarcerated. Nasser suffered a collapsed lung but was in stable condition yesterday. The union president, Joe Rojas, said prison employees had been warning that something like this at the Florida prison could happen because of staffing shortages. Nassar is serving a decades-long prison term after hundreds of athletes, including Olympic champions, said he sexually abused them. Nassar was previously moved from an Arizona prison after he was also assaulted there.
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Climate change is warping the ground our cities are built on, in some cases causing them to sink. I spoke with USA TODAY Weather and Climate Reporter Doyle Rice to learn more. Thanks for hopping on 5 Things, Doyle.
Doyle Rice:
Great to be here. Thank you for having me.
Taylor Wilson:
What did this study find specifically about how climate change warps the ground that cities are built on?
Doyle Rice:
Well, we’re all familiar with urban heat islands, which is what happens especially in the summer when the temperature really gets hot in urban areas around the pavement. And the buildings heat up tremendously, just they absorb the heat from the sun. But what this one particular study found that’s actually not just at ground level, it’s below ground, it’s underground, that it’s actually changing the composition of the ground under these buildings. And the theory is that it could cause buildings, not just here in the United States, but around the world, to slowly, very almost imperceptibly sink as the temperatures rise.
Taylor Wilson:
And Doyle, how is development making underground climate change worse?
Doyle Rice:
Yes, they found that it’s not just buildings, but also subways, things like that. So it’s all the things that are underground like basements, parking garages and tunnels, they continuously emit heat. So all these things that we have already built underground are also contributing to this underground heat effect.
Taylor Wilson:
And does this sinking mean that buildings are increasingly dangerous to be in and to live in?
Doyle Rice:
That’s probably something for future studies. The scientists were being very cautious with this one. They didn’t want to alarm anybody. They said that this is only a very preliminary first of its kind study. So they didn’t indicate that there was necessarily anything dangerous at this point, but it’s something to think about as we go into the future.
Taylor Wilson:
And what does all this mean for insurance risks in the future?
Doyle Rice:
Yeah, insurance companies are really aware of this and they’ve actually had to pay out some money. There was an example last year in France after a tremendously warm summer and a drought, they had to pay out billions of dollars in insured losses due to historic heat and significant drought, which led to these buildings in France starting to crumble. So there is some evidence of this already.
Taylor Wilson:
And Doyle, kind of a big broad question here, but what are the solutions on this?
Doyle Rice:
To reduce the amount of carbon dioxide that we’re pumping into the atmosphere, which is what’s causing the temperatures of the atmosphere to rise to levels that are beyond what would naturally occur.
Taylor Wilson:
All right. Doyle Rice covers weather and climate for USA TODAY. Thanks so much, Doyle.
Doyle Rice:
No problem.
Taylor Wilson:
Like father, like son. 16 years after Vladimir Guerrero Sr. won the Home Run Derby, his son Vlad Jr. followed suit last night. The Toronto Blue Jays [player] edged out the Tampa Bay Rays’ Randy Arozarena to kick off Major League baseball’s All Star Week last night in Seattle. Tonight the sports biggest stars will face off in the 93rd All Star game. Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Zach Gowen will start for the National League while Yankee starter Gerrit Cole gets the assignment for the American League. The American League has won the game nine times in a row coming in to tonight. You can tune in at 8:00 PM Eastern 5:00 Pacific on FOX and follow along with USA TODAY Sports.
Thanks for listening to 5 Things. If you liked the show, please subscribe and leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. And if you have any comments, you can reach us at podcasts@usatoday.com. I’m back tomorrow with more of 5 Things from USA TODAY.
