UNBIASED - May 22, 2024: European Countries to Recognize Palestinian State, Biden Cancels $7.7B in Student Debt, Elvis' Graceland Foreclosure Called Off Amidst Legal Battle, and More.

Episode Date: May 22, 2024

1. Norway, Spain, and Ireland to Recognize Palestinian State (0:34)2. Biden Administration Cancels Another $7.7B in Student Debt (2:45)3. SpaceX and Dept. of Defense Working Together to Intercept Starlink Terminals in Russian Possession (5:53)4. Judge Rules Elvis' Graceland Won't Be Foreclosed Due to Potential Fraud, Then Foreclosing Entity Says It Will Withdraw Claim (7:55)5. Quick Hitters: Republican National Committee Locked Down Due to Vials of Blood, Uvalde Families Reach Settlement with City, P. Diddy Sued Again (12:40)Watch this episode on YouTube.Follow Jordan on Instagram and TikTok.All sources for this episode can be found here.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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call the Conax Ontario helpline at 1-866-531-2600. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Welcome back to Unbiased, your favorite source of unbiased news and legal analysis. Welcome back to Unbiased. Today is Wednesday, May 22nd, and this is your daily news rundown. If you love the unbiased approach that this episode provides and you feel more informed after listening, please go ahead and leave my show a review on whatever platform you listen, and be sure to share the show with your friends. If you're watching on YouTube, hit that thumbs up button, subscribe to the channel. All of those things really help me out, so thank you very much. Without further ado, let's get into today's

stories. We're going to start off with the first piece of news from this morning, and that is that the leaders of Norway, Ireland, and Spain have said their countries will formally recognize Palestine as a state beginning May 28th for the sake of, quote, peace in the Middle East. Norway's prime minister said in a statement in part, quote, in the midst of a war with tens of thousands killed and injured in Gaza, we must keep alive the only alternative that offers a political solution for Israelis and Palestinians alike, two states living side by side in peace and security, end quote. Now, importantly, Norway, this isn't really that surprising because Norway was the country behind the mediation of the Oslo Accords, which was this peace agreement between Israel and

Palestine back in 1993 that in part mapped out a path to a two-state solution, but that plan ultimately failed. All that to say, though, that the move from Norway, you know, Norway being one of the three countries to announce this, isn't really that surprising. Israel has spoken out against the move, whereas Hamas and the Palestinian Authority have welcomed the move. Obviously, not too surprising there on either side. Norway's prime minister said he hoped the recognition would bring some renewed momentum to peace talks, but Israel's prime minister said this recognition will only push peace talks further out of sight. Israel also recalled its ambassadors to the three countries and summoned their envoys, accusing these three countries of rewarding Hamas's October 7th

attack. So obviously this is a controversial move, but let's talk a little bit about the effects of the recognition because on the ground, not much of anything changes, meaning this recognition doesn't stop the war. What it does do is it tells us a little bit more about the domestic policies of these three countries. It puts Israel into a bit more, I guess, a bit further into isolation diplomatically, especially in light of the news out of the ICC earlier this week. And it adds these three countries to the list of countries that recognize Palestine statehood, which will jump to 146 countries once these three formalize their recognition. In some news here at home, President Biden announced another $7.7 billion in student debt relief today, which will affect

roughly 160,000 borrowers. Individuals borrowing off of three programs specifically will be affected. So those programs are the SAVE plan, which is President Biden's newest student loan program, public service loans, and then income-driven repayment plans. Here's how the numbers break down. Of the 160,000 borrowers that are affected by today's announcement, roughly 67,000 borrowers qualified through public service loan forgiveness, roughly 54,000 borrowers qualified through the SAVE plan, and then another 39,000 borrowers qualified through the save plan, and then another 39,000 borrowers qualified through income driven repayment plans. And because I know I have a lot of people listening that weren't here just a few months ago, or even a few weeks ago, for

that matter, I do want to clear up where this forgiveness authority comes from. Because as we know, this is this is actually one of the questions I get a lot. But as we know, this is actually one of the questions I get a lot, but as we know, previously the Supreme Court struck down Biden's forgiveness plan that relied on the HEROES Act. And the reason that that was struck down is because the plan was deemed to be outside the bounds of what the HEROES Act allows for. Remember, the HEROES Act was a piece of legislation enacted after 9-11, and it allowed for loans to be forgiven for individuals that were financially affected by a national emergency. The Biden administration tried to argue in 2022 that because COVID was a national emergency, because the nation

as a whole was financially affected, that therefore all student loan borrowers were eligible for at least some forgiveness under the HEROES Act. But the court said no. They said this is too broad. You can't just issue blanket forgiveness under the HEROES Act. And plus, at that time, COVID was no longer a national emergency. So then the Biden administration goes back to the drawing board and comes up with a new forgiveness plan or forgiveness plans that relied on a separate piece of legislation called the Higher Education Act. And that's in large part the piece of legislation that's been used ever since. It allows for forgiveness on a much smaller scale in much more specific instances. For example, borrowers who have been in repayment for more than 20 years for undergraduate loans, borrowers that have accrued or capitalized

interest, borrowers who previously enrolled in low financial value programs. These are just a few examples of specific categories of borrowers that have qualified for some type of forgiveness under the Higher Education Act. With that said, the administration has also been sued over this particular authority. That case is currently up on appeal in the Sixth Circuit, though the lower court did rule in the administration's favor. So that's a little bit about the differences between the loan forgiveness plan we saw a couple of years ago and the plans that we're seeing now. All of that to say, today, the Biden administration announced $7.7 billion in loan forgiveness. Moving on, a top Pentagon official has said that the Department of Defense is working with SpaceX to find and disable Starlink satellites that have fallen

into Russian hands. These internet terminals were originally meant to help Ukraine forces communicate with each other and with their families after Russia's invasion shut down Ukraine's internet and phone services. But over time, thousands of these Starlink terminals have entered the black market where Russia has gotten a hold of them and is using them to assist in its operations in Ukraine. And the reason that we know about this, the reason we know that the Department of Defense and SpaceX are working together is because there was this initial request sent by Senator Elizabeth Warren to Defense Secretary Austin seeking answers about how this Starlink hardware entered the black

market and what's being done about it. Then there was a hearing yesterday. And at that hearing, Warren said in part, quote, Congress has a constitutional responsibility to make sure that taxpayer money does not go to companies that undermine U.S. national security goals. So I think it's critical we get down to the bottom of this, end quote. And Warren's concern also stemmed from the fact that SpaceX seemingly has not cut off the terminal's access, and that's something that she wants answers to as well. Why hasn't SpaceX cut off that access? So at the hearing, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, John Hill, responded saying that the Defense Department is scouring both classified and public data to find and shut down these terminals. And he suggested

that the department has seen some success. However, he expressed little confidence that the Pentagon would be able to identify illicit use of Starlink services and completely shut them off. He said, quote, I think this will be a continuous problem, end quote. However, Hill did say that Starlink has been cooperative and, quote, forward-leaning in assisting in this search for Starlink terminals that are in the wrong hands. So that's a little bit about what's going on with the work there. Let's now switch gears a little bit to a legal battle involving Elvis Presley's Graceland Mansion. A Tennessee judge ruled this morning, just one day before Graceland's foreclosure sale

was scheduled to occur, that the estate cannot be sold at auction. And then within hours of that ruling, someone claiming to be a representative of the company attempting to foreclose on Graceland said it was going to be dropping its claims. So let's back up a little bit because this is kind of a wild story. In January of 2023, when Lisa Marie Presley died, Elvis's granddaughter, Danielle Keough, took ownership of the home. And this was a result of a settlement between Keough and Priscilla Presley. But recently, a company called Nausani Investments and Private Lending claimed that at one time it loaned Lisa Marie Presley $3.8 million, and in exchange, Lisa Marie put up Graceland as collateral. And because Lisa Marie allegedly

didn't pay back the loan, Nalsani Investments claims that it's entitled to the estate, and it's scheduled an auction. But Keogh said not so fast. She filed a lawsuit earlier this month claiming there was never a loan, there was never a deed of trust, and that Nausani isn't even a real company. In fact, Nausani had submitted what appears to be a 2018 notarized promissory note and deed of trust signed by Lisa Marie Presley, putting up Graceland as collateral. But Keogh then submitted a signed affidavit from that notary that allegedly signed Lisa Marie's documents. And in that signed affidavit from the notary, the notary says she never notarized those documents submitted by Nalsani. She's never met Lisa Marie Presley. She's never notarized anything

that Lisa Marie Presley signed, and she doesn't know why her signature appears on those documents that Nalsani Investments submitted to the court. So in an effort to stop the foreclosure sale, because it was supposed to happen tomorrow, Keough requested a temporary injunction. And this is something you've heard me talk about before. It's essentially a request for the court to stop some action or behavior from the defendant. In this case, obviously, Keogh is trying to stop the sale of Graceland. To have a temporary injunction request granted, you have to prove a few things. One of those things being that you have a likelihood of success in this case once the actual merits of the case are argued. In other words, once you present your arguments, you, you have a shot at

winning the case. And then another thing that you have to prove is that if the judge doesn't grant your request to stop the defendant's action, you will suffer some sort of irreparable harm. And there's other factors the court considers too, like how much harm the opposing party will suffer if the injunction is granted and where the public's interest lies. But here, the judge said that because there is a likelihood that Keough will win on the merits of the case once this case gets to that point, especially in light of the notary's affidavit as evidence. And because the loss of Graceland, Graceland being such a unique property, would result in irreparable harm to Keogh, it's only right to stop the foreclosure sale until the case lays out. So once that ruling came out,

the thought was, okay, you know, this case is going to play out. Eventually the judge will determine who the prevailing party is, but for now, Graceland will remain with Keogh. But then, just hours after that ruling, this statement came out from someone who claims to represent Nausani Investments, saying that Nausani was going to dismiss all of its claims against the estate with prejudice. This means that not only will the company withdraw all of its claims, but it would never be able to bring the claim again. That's what with prejudice means. So it's worth noting that as of 3 p.m. today, which is when I start recording, there wasn't a notice of dismissal on the court docket, but that doesn't mean it's not forthcoming. So as of now, we only have that statement, you know, that the dismissal isn't

confirmed. But interestingly, following the court's ruling, many outlets and myself tried calling the phone number associated with Nausani Investments, which was listed on some of the court documents. And the phone number is out of service. And that may just be because it was getting inundated with calls. But also, outlets did a nationwide search for any record of this Nausani Investments company as a business and couldn't find any records. So maybe Nausani Investments is a complete fraud after all. Maybe. I don't know what explains that. But regardless, if Nausani does end up filing a notice of dismissal, Keogh would never have to worry about this company claiming rights to the property again. Let's now finish with some quick hitters. Starting with the headquarters of the Republican

National Committee was put on lockdown this morning after it received a suspicious package containing two vials of blood, a Korean Bible, and two ice packs. By 9.40 a.m., the all-clear was given and employees returned to work. Nineteen families of the students and teachers killed or injured in the Uvalde shooting announced today that they reached a $2 million settlement with the city of Uvalde. The families also said in their announcement that they are suing separately 92 officers with the Texas Department of Public Safety, the school district, and individual employees. So the litigation there is not completely over, but a settlement was reached with the city.

And finally, another sexual assault lawsuit was filed against P. Diddy yesterday by a woman who says when she was 22, she met Diddy at a restaurant. He later invited her to his recording studio. She ended up going to the recording studio. She smoked some marijuana while she was there, and she says she later understood that marijuana as being laced with a narcotic or intoxicating substance. She says Diddy then led her to the bathroom where the sexual assault took place. She ended up losing consciousness at one point and later awakened in a taxi where she realized she had been assaulted. That is what I have for you today. Thank you so much for being here. Have a great night. And tomorrow is Supreme Court opinion release. So there will be opinions from the Supreme Court at 10 a.m. It could be an interesting day. There are still a lot of important cases that the Supreme Court

has yet to release opinions on. And this is typically the time we start to see those more controversial opinions be released. It's usually between, I mean, it usually doesn't come until the end of June. But right now, the last four or five weeks or so is when we start to see the more controversial opinions. And we still are waiting on that presidential immunity decision, which I do not anticipate the Supreme Court waiting until the very end of June just because of the time constraints, you know, of the matter. So tomorrow should be an interesting day. Stay tuned for tomorrow's episode. If we do get some interesting opinions, we'll definitely be covering those. Have a great night and I will talk to you tomorrow.