On today’s episode of the 5 Things podcast: President Biden presses China’s Xi to find ‘ways to work together’
USA TODAY White House correspondent Francesca Chambers has the latest from the G-20 summit. Plus, USA TODAY higher education reporter Chris Quintana looks at what happens next for President Joe Biden’s paused federal student loan forgiveness program.
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Hit play on the player above to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript below. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.
Taylor Wilson:
Good morning. I’m Taylor Wilson and this is 5 Things you need to know Tuesday, the 15th of November 2022. Today a look at Biden and Xi’s meeting at the G20, plus, the latest on Biden’s now-frozen student loan forgiveness program, and a look at human rights being rolled back in Iran and Afghanistan.
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The G20 Summit in Bali kicked off with a meeting between President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping yesterday. Producer PJ Elliott spoke with USA TODAY White House correspondent Francesca Chambers to find out where the two countries go from here.
Francesca Chambers:
President Biden said that he and Xi had a candid conversation and that they understood one another. One of the key things he said they talked about was China’s military activity in the Taiwan Straight. President Biden said that he is confident that Xi doesn’t plan to invade Taiwan militarily.
PJ Elliott:
Francesca, how long was the meeting and where do things go from here?
Francesca Chambers:
The meeting was three hours long and Present Biden left it feeling optimistic and saying that he thought the United States and China could work together.
Taylor Wilson:
So does this mean that things have calmed down between the US and China?
Francesca Chambers:
Well, the two sides agreed to keep talking. President Biden said he planned to send Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Beijing.
Taylor Wilson:
You can follow along with Francesca’s G20 coverage and more by giving a follow on Twitter at fran_chambers.
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A federal appeals court has blocked President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness program. The latest move crushes the hopes of 26 million Americans who have applied for the relief and discourages millions more who were eligible. To find out more on what this latest court decision means and what happens next, I’m joined now by USA TODAY higher education reporter, Chris Quintana. Chris, thanks for being here.
Chris Quintana:
My pleasure. Thanks for having me.
Taylor Wilson:
So what was this latest Federal Appeals Court decision?
Chris Quintana:
Yeah, so that’s actually coming out of the 8th Circuit, and so that is related specifically to a case known as Nebraska v. Biden. That is six conservative states, Nebraska being one of them, who brought a legal challenge against the Biden Administration’s plan to cancel billions in student loan debt for millions of borrowers. There are a handful of legal challenges to the plan right now. The 8th Circuit, a panel of three judges, upheld the injunction that was requested.
Taylor Wilson:
All right. Where does the Student Loan Forgiveness Program stand now? Can people still apply?
Chris Quintana:
Yeah. So if you haven’t applied for the President’s Student Loan Forgiveness Plan, you can’t apply at this time. The administration says they are trying to work through the courts and to get it overturned, but they’re not currently taking applications. Now, if you previously applied, the administration still has your information, and so they say they have applications for 26 million people and they’re ready to forgive the debt of 16 million of those folks as well. So it is kind of a situation for borrowers who are kind of on the fence or curious. The only thing you can really do at this point is to wait.
Taylor Wilson:
And what happens next? Will the Biden administration appeal to the Supreme Court?
Chris Quintana:
It depends slightly on different cases. For a while, people had been following Nebraska v. Biden. The government shutting down the application window, that actually came from this Texas case, right? And so it is kind of a challenge for borrowers to kind of track this all the way through. But where I’m paying attention at this point is I am specifically looking at this 8th Circuit ruling and seeing kind of what the administration does as far as filing an appeal to the Supreme Court. I think that is probably where we’re going to see the most action most immediately.
There’s certainly a potential. The Supreme Court has combined cases in the past. I don’t know that there’s any indication or sense that that’s where people are moving right at this moment, but just to say that looking at the lines, Congress could potentially act. They have the authority to potentially decide on student loan debt.
The wider debt relief plan is kind of locked up in courts right now. We see that. But the Education Department has been trying to cancel debt through a lot of its other relief programs. So I’m thinking the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, there are still some flexibilities associated with that. They’re also looking at tweaking the income-driven repayment plans and that sort of thing. So I can appreciate for borrowers feeling perhaps a sense of not sure knowing what to do next, but just to say that there are potentially other options available for them.
Taylor Wilson:
You can read more from Chris with a link in today’s episode description.
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Human rights are being rolled back in Iran with a protestor sentenced to death. That comes as Sharia law is being implemented in Afghanistan. Producer PJ Elliott spoke with Marty Flax, director of the CSIS Human Rights Initiative to find out more on what’s happening in these two countries.
PJ Elliott:
Marty, thanks so much for joining me. We have two big stories coming from the Middle East. One is that a hijab protestor in Iran was given the death penalty and the supreme leader in Afghanistan ordered full implementation of Sharia law. Now, I know that these may seem unrelated, but from a human rights standpoint, they’re certainly tied to each other. I want to start in Iran. Can you talk about the trials and what the protestors were found guilty of?
Marty Flax:
A number of protestors who are facing trial were found guilty, as you said, some of them on charges of actually committing violence and others for participating in the protests. Obviously, none of these trials have been what we would consider to be free and fair trials, and that’s why you see US officials, European officials, and others come out in condemnation of those verdicts.
PJ Elliott:
So what about Afghanistan. Why is the supreme leader calling for full implementation of Sharia law now?
Marty Flax:
So what happened in Afghanistan is really the culmination of more than a year of the Taliban reimposing, the same oppressive policies that they put in place the first time they were in power in Afghanistan 20 years ago, starting from limiting girls’ education all the way to restricting the ability of women to work or even go out in public without a full covering head to toe and without, in some cases, being accompanied by a male relative. This Taliban, when they came into power a year ago, claims that they were going to behave differently, that they had a different view, and in every opportunity they have chosen the more repressive path.
PJ Elliott:
Marty, thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate your insight into these stories.
Marty Flax:
Absolutely. Thanks for having me.
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Taylor Wilson:
Tens of thousands of academic employees across the University of California’s 10 campuses walked off the job yesterday. They’re demanding better pay and benefits in what union leaders say could be the largest work stoppage that public university system has ever faced. Unions representing some 48,000 educators say they want significant pay raises and childcare subsidies to afford the cost of living in some of the country’s most expensive cities. The strike threatens to disrupt classroom and lab instruction across the state’s university system just weeks before final exams.
Organizers from the United Auto Workers, which represents the involved employees, say they’ve set no end date for the work stoppage. Union representatives say they’re seeking pay that’ll take workers out of so-called “rent burden.” That’s defined by the federal government as having to pay at least a third of your salary toward rent. The average annual pay is about $24,000 a year for student employees at UC schools. They’re looking for minimum annual based salaries of $54,000.
Beyond higher pay and childcare help, strikers are demanding better healthcare, public transit passes, lower tuition costs for international scholars, and better disability accessibility. According to the UAW Union, this could be the largest higher education strike in US history.
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Sperm counts are down all over the world. From 1973 to 2000 counts dropped by 1.2% every year. From 2000 to 2018, that decline was 2.6%. For more, health reporter Karen Weintraub joins me now. Karen, thanks for being here.
Karen Weintraub:
Thanks for having me.
Taylor Wilson:
So you wrote about a study that looked at these sperm counts globally. What did it find?
Karen Weintraub:
We knew a couple years ago, there was a study from the same group in 2017 that said that sperm counts were dropping in the US and the other parts of the Western world. Now we know they’re also dropping in the global south. We don’t know why, but the fact that it’s dropping everywhere suggests that it’s something that’s affecting men across the world.
Taylor Wilson:
All right, Karen, what’s the impact on fertility on the whole?
Karen Weintraub:
So we don’t really know, but probably it’s not too dramatic yet. Don’t worry at this point. It may be that it’s just taking a little bit longer for people to have the one, two, or three kids they want to have. In Israel where some super religious people want to have 10 or 12 children, they may not be able to make it to that number, but most people will be able to have the number of children they want, just maybe not as quickly as they want to.
Taylor Wilson:
And what can men do, if anything, to boost their sperm count?
Karen Weintraub:
Basically, anything that makes you healthy, makes your sperm and fertility healthy. So eating well, sleeping well, exercise, not smoking, not drinking to excess. The other warning that they give is to avoid really hot environments. So don’t go in saunas or hot tubs, that kind of a thing.
Taylor Wilson:
You can find Karen’s full story in today’s episode description.
And you can find 5 Things every morning on your podcast app of choice. If you have a chance, we ask for a five star rating and review. Thanks to our great team for their fantastic work on the show, and I’m back tomorrow with more of 5 Things from USA TODAY.
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