Six months of war in Ukraine, Biden will announce student loan forgiveness: 5 Things podcast

On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: Six months of war in Ukraine

International reporter Kim Hjelmgaard reports on investigations into war crimes. Plus, President Joe Biden will announce student loan forgiveness, education reporter Alia Wong talks about book bans, the Uvalde school board considers firing school district police chief Pete Arredondo and a teenager is set to become the youngest person to fly around the world.

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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 Wednesday, the 24th of August, 2022. Today, six months of war in Ukraine, plus student loan debt forgiveness, and more.

Here are some of the top headlines:

1. The US military said earlier today that it carried out airstrikes in Eastern Syria. They targeted areas used by militias backed by Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. No immediate casualty figures were available.

2. An attorney for Vanessa Bryant urged a jury to award $75 million to her and fellow plaintiff, Chris Chester. They're suing Los Angeles County accusing officials of taking pictures of the crash scene where their loved ones, including NBA star, Kobe Bryant, were killed in a helicopter in 2020.

3. And a new survey from the Harris poll found that 84% of parents learned more about their kids' education during the COVID pandemic. You can find the poll's full findings on USATODAY.com.

♦

Today marks six months since Russia invaded Ukraine. And it also happens to be the country's Independence Day. The holiday commemorates Ukraine's 1991 declaration of independence from the Soviet Union, though many across the country won't be celebrating much. Authorities in Kyiv have banned large scale gatherings until at least Thursday. There are fears the holiday might bring particularly heavy Russian missile attacks, and tensions are high after a car bomb killed a hard line Russian commentator outside Moscow this past weekend.

Globally, the US and EU are still throwing support behind Ukraine. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg reiterated the defense alliances, "support for Ukraine for the long term so that Ukraine prevails as a sovereign independent nation." Former US ambassador to NATO, Ivo Daalder, told the AP that Ukrainians remain determined to push back on Russia's advances.

Ivo Daalder:

Far from the cakewalk and greeting Russia as liberators that Moscow seemed to think would happen, the Ukrainians offered extraordinary resistance. There is war worry, and war wariness. At the same time, there's also determination. It is very clear that the Ukrainian people and overwhelming majorities are behind their government's determination to not only resist the Russian military advances, but ultimately, to regain full independence of every inch of Ukrainian territory, and are willing to fight to that end.

Taylor Wilson:

And in the US, the Biden administration is expected to announce today an additional $3 billion to the country to help train and equip Ukrainian forces. To date, the US has provided more than $10 billion in military aid to the country since the start of the Biden administration.

Meanwhile, we're learning more about suspected war crimes committed during Russia's invasion. And international reporter Kim Hjelmgaard tells producer PJ Elliott that the pursuit of justice in war time is far from clear.

Kim Hjelmgaard:

Kind of six months into this war between Ukraine and Russia, there's almost 30,000, 26, 27,000 war crimes allegations by the Ukrainians against Russians. These include ordinary soldiers, military commanders, also high level officials, propagandists, judges, cabinet ministers, and of course Mr. Putin himself. And Ukrainians launched their investigations pretty much within the first week of this unprovoked invasion by Russia. And there's been a range of claims and allegations related to sexual violence, torture, kidnapping, much of which was conducted in the suburbs in and around Kyiv in March. Since then, in fact, since late February, all of Ukraine has been bombarded with missiles, shells, rockets, pretty much nonstop. And a lot of these munitions are falling into residential neighborhoods. They're hitting schools, they're hitting apartment buildings, they're hitting warehouses, they're hitting all sorts of things, and civilians are dying.

A lot of these deaths don't necessarily all fall under war crimes because in order to meet a war crimes test, there has to be certain things in place. For example, there has to be an intention. The Russians have to have intended to hit say a school. There has to be... Military necessity is a factor, and a couple of other things.

Ukrainians want to try or hear the majority of these cases in their own courts, rather than waiting for a case say to kind of wend its way to an international court in the Hague or possibly even years from now connected to the UN or some other kind of venues where they could potentially bring some of these cases in an international setting.

PJ Elliott:

So Kim, who could punish Russia in all of this and what kind of punishment could they face?

Kim Hjelmgaard:

So the clearest, most direct way to punishing Russia for a crime that has been heard and there's been a guilty conviction, is in Ukrainian court. And in fact, that's happened already. There's been eight cases, mostly kind of junior Russian military personnel who are prisoners of war, who've been accused of crimes, and they've convicted eight of these people already. And one of the ones that features in our story is a guy who shells an apartment building in Kharkiv. No one was killed, but nevertheless, under Ukrainian law, they charged him and gave him a 10 year sentence.

Now, some of the more high level people, those people are inside Russia. And it's sort of an open question about whether they will ever be dragged into a courtroom in an international setting, because if they don't leave Russia, it's going to be hard to arrest them essentially years from now that is possible if there's a different government in Russia, and some of these officials travel abroad, and if there's an arrest warrant out for them, they could be detained somewhere. But essentially for the bigger cases and the big names, it's kind of a long term game.

Taylor Wilson:

For more, stay with our daily updates page from Ukraine on USATODAY.com. And you can find Kim's piece with a link in today's episode description.

♦

President Joe Biden is set to announce today that he'll forgive $10,000 in student loan debt for millions of borrowers who fall below an income cap. The cancellation would apply to borrowers from households that make $125,000 or less, and would apply only to federal loans, not private ones. The move will also likely include an extension until January on the moratorium of federal student loan payments. That was implemented during the pandemic, but set to expire this month. AP education reporter Collin Binkley has more.

Collin Binkley:

It's a decision that's long awaited at a very politically polarized, but is expected to bring relief to millions of student loan borrowers across the country. At the same time, he also extended a student loan freeze that allows borrowers to put off their payments during the pandemic. Calls for student debt cancellation have been increasing for years as just the total amount of student debt in the country continues to balloon. Since 2007, the total amount of student debt has tripled. It's now one of the largest forms of personal debt, there are proponents who say that by canceling that it will bring relief to Americans who buy houses, cars, who haven't been able to make other important milestones in their lives because they're so burdened by this debt.

Politically, it was a really thorny issue for President Biden. There's so many factions with strong opinions around student debt and what to do about it. First from the right, Republicans are opposed to any form of student debt cancellation. They say that it's sort of an unfair handout, that it helps wealthier Americans at the expense of taxpayers who didn't go to college. They say that it's going to worsen inflation and be a big cost for the nation.

On the left, you get a variety of opinions. The most extreme, there are groups who say that 50,000 is the minimum that President Biden should cancel. There are some that say that all student debt should just be eliminated entirely. There are some that say that $10,000 is okay as a start. Yeah, no doubt, this will continue to be a political issue going into the midterms. And we could see even a lengthy legal challenge to it, which could delay the actual cancellation for some time. So whether the money actually gets erased before voters go to the polls is kind of up in the air.

♦

Taylor Wilson:

Book bans in schools have landed librarians in activists' cross hairs. Producer PJ Elliott spoke with Education reporter Alia Wong, who says the movement to band books from schools is bringing vitriol toward them.

Alia Wong:

Libraries are being entangled in debates over what type of content kids should have access to specifically content about sex and gender identity in many cases about race as well. So these debates have really centered libraries, including in what's in their collections. Many activists, some of them parents, have called on libraries to remove certain books from their collections on the grounds that they're inappropriate or too graphic. In some cases they've asked libraries to simply move certain books from children's shelves to adult shelves. In many cases, the controversies aren't even over books specifically, but rather about displays, such as what books library is promoting say during Pride month or what kind of signage it has surrounding certain books.

Library programming has also come under scrutiny. Perhaps most notoriously earlier this summer, activists affiliated with the alt-right group, the Proud Boys stormed some library events known as Drag Queen Story Hour in which drag queens read story books to children. And these events have been stormed and disrupted by protestors. So we really see libraries - because of their books, because of their programming, because of their efforts at inclusivity - are really becoming prime targets for a lot of the outrage.

PJ Elliott:

So this obviously makes the job of a librarian harder. Are we going to see a shortage of people in those positions or are we already starting to see that?

Alia Wong:

Yeah. These challenges, the pressure, in many cases the harassment and intimidation, it really has taken a toll on librarians. There are many instances in which librarians have basically quit or at least considered quitting because of these circumstances. But the shortages of librarians, they've been a problem for at least the past decade. A pair of researchers has been studying the trends specifically in school librarians and have found that over the past decade, the country has seen a 20% reduction in the number of school librarians. And that pattern only became more entrenched during the pandemic in the 2021/2022 school year. So the most recent school year, 30% of all school districts - so not just even schools, but entire school districts, entire school systems - didn't have a single librarian.

♦

Taylor Wilson:

The Uvalde School Board in Texas has called for a special meeting today to consider firing School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo. He led the disastrous police response to the elementary school massacre that killed 19 students and two teachers in May. A special Texas House committee investigating the shooting found that he failed to act quickly enough to shoot and kill the gunmen. Officers stormed a classroom more than an hour after entering the school. They waited outside in the hallway, even as students on the other side of the door called 911 for help multiple times. Parents and community members have been calling for Arredondo to be fired along with the other five district officers who responded to the shooting and other district leaders.

♦

A teenager today could become the youngest person to fly around the world in a small plane. Belgian British 17-year-old Mack Rutherford touched down yesterday near the city of Charleroi, Belgium, where he originally learned to fly. His journey began on March 23rd and took him through 52 countries over five continents, crossing the equator twice to meet Guinness World Record requirements. His sister Zara also already set the record for the youngest woman to fly solo around the world at the age of 19. Their father, Sam Rutherford was beaming with pride.

Sam Rutherford:

I'm feeling really, really happy. Very, very proud. They've both done extremely well. They have gone around the world safely, effectively, professionally, and they've shown to other youngsters that you don't have to be 18 even, and certainly not 30 to make a difference and do something and follow your dreams. And I think that's really important. So I'm very, very proud of them.

Taylor Wilson:

Mack Rutherford is due to land in Bulgaria today.

Thanks for listening to 5 Things. You can find us every morning on whatever your favorite podcast app is. Thanks to PJ Elliott for his great work on the show, and I'm back tomorrow with more of 5 Things from USA TODAY.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Six months in Ukraine, student loan forgiveness: 5 Things podcast