 Salaam from the People's Dispatch studios here in New Delhi. I'm Siddharth Ani and you're watching The Daily Debrief. On this week's starting episode today, we're looking at the crucial issues in the U.S. midterm elections that are coming up on the 8th of November. We'll also look at how they will impact wider global geopolitics, including what possible impacts they might have on peace in Ukraine and Russia, with news click edit and chief Praveer Pukhaistha. And finally, we look at the Indian Olympic Association and how its new constitution might provide a framework for countries from the global south and how they govern sports. First up, the U.S. midterm general elections like I was just saying take place on November the 8th. And though the news might have us believe that Twitter is where the election is decided, it turns out there's a lot more to it than just that. The Biden administration and the Democratic Party at large has struggled since assuming office to differentiate itself in any meaningful way from the legacy left by the Trump years. Poverty has perhaps never been as fractured or polarized and this course is continually moving into the realm of the bizarre. People's dispatches Anish follows U.S. politics very closely and spoke to us earlier by a video conference for an internationalist perspective of course looking at the key domestic local issues as well on why these elections are important and what the key issues in the U.S. are. Anish, another important election as all U.S. elections are I guess and they are perpetually in this sort of election cycle ahead of the midterms just ahead of the midterms November 8th is when Tuesday is when those when voting takes place. What are some of the critical issues and why are we watching this election so closely? Well, a lot of things are like a lot of factors come into play right now. And some of the things that we need to note is how certain issues certain key issues have taken center stage right now nationally speaking and that will be at the heart of the election campaign. Obviously the economy and inflation rising spiraling inflation is part of the is actually the biggest campaign issue right now which is where the Democrats are kind of floundering because a whole host of measures that they had promised during before the elections in 2020 they could not or did not pass or they were reluctant to go through it until there was like a popular upsurge demanding for instance. There were also issues of how Biden Biden administration's performance has been for the past two years and that will obviously also affect how it is going to take you know the kind of results that will happen that we will see in the next day after the election. Now, but there is also one important factor that will be not just part of the campaign issue but will also be part of ballot measures at least 60 which is abortion right. This is right after the road was made being overturned we had a series of state legislatures trying to push for different kinds of legislations that can actually limit abortion or make them criminal in some cases and we saw what happened in Kansas where a measure of that an attempt of that sort was defeated by a public referendum of six states will be going to the same sort of referendum. One of them at least Kentucky is will be having the same kind of questions that Kansas because it's a state led referendum. In three other cases you have wording that will actually enshrine abortion and access to contraceptives as part of healthcare and as an essential part of the constitution as well and then there is at least one which will change the kind of way access to healthcare will be given to babies who are still alive. It's a very weird term but still alive after an attempted abortion but whatever it be but yeah so we have at least in such cases abortion being a central issue right now and the results on that will be crucial in how the movement for reproductive rights will move forward. Obviously Democrats are trying to put their entire force behind such thing because obviously that has helped them in Kansas. They saw the kind of popular upsurge that actually led to it being approved by a vast majority of people and so another crucial public referendum that we need to talk about is what is happening in Tennessee which will be having a series of four such constitutional amendments up for ballot and one of that will be to which will actually be contingents another which will actually repeal slavery and forced servitude as a criminal offense in the state and so we are talking about and another that will actually take out measures that disqualifies ministers and religious figures from the testing election. So we are looking at a very crucial set of like obviously it's a state-level issue but if you look at the general overall tendency and when it comes to labor movements right now when it comes to changing or revising history and other measures that actually gives religious fanatics more control this is these are definitely some important measures that we need to watch out for. What are the prospects for the Democratic Party not looking too good it has to be said? Yes so obviously there has been a record for decades now where the sitting president's party often loses in the victims. Now this is also something that the Democrats are expecting at this at the moment right now we are talking about leads that range from between one person to five person depending on the poll that you're talking about but at least in the House the House of Representatives elections. Now that is where the Democrats often had an edge in the previous the last half of the Trump administration in both the cases the especially the progressives could lead through some of the legislation that were important now the thing is that losing that to the Republicans of four years would actually have a bigger problem in their hand because that would mean not only a half-and-half in the Senate but also a complete blockade that can happen if the more Trump-wide Republicans especially gains strength in the House of Representatives and this could mean that the next half of the Biden administration is going to be grim to put it more delicately. We need to also remember that the manner in which obviously it is a referendum of how the government performed but the voter turnout will also be quite significant because we need to remember that very often midterms do not have high voter turnout as compared to general elections the president which happens along with the presidential elections and if that if the voter turnout is still low that means that the historic tendency would continue and Republicans could win a majority not just from the House but also the Senate and that means the Congress and the presidency being at loggerheads with each other that could also mean they will just be blocking a whole host of measures not just domestic measures but also foreign policy measures in some cases that could be good but in a whole host of other things especially when it comes to you know progressive legislations that are still under consideration that would mean a bigger problem for the people of the House. All right thanks very much for summing up what is actually a vast array of issues Anish and we'll of course have you back on the show to talk about results and the impact of those results as in when we have them. Thanks again. On Friday last week German Chancellor Olaf Schulz went to China despite what a large section of the western press are calling both domestic as well as international skepticism about the visit. Skepticism of course might come from only certain parties. Schulz is the first leader from the so-called G7 grouping of industrialized nations to go to China since the pandemic broke and reported himself on having had candid conversations with President Xi Jinping on a wide range of issues. Perhaps most importantly the two leaders agreeing that threats to use nuclear weapons irrespective of where they might come from are irresponsible and not in the general interests of the planet. Newspaper editor-in-chief Pravir Pukhaistha is with us in studio to talk more about this visit and what wider ramifications it might have in the weeks and months to come. Pravir, good to have you back in the studio. A lot of sort of commentary on the meeting between Germany and China and the implications it might have. You of course been following very closely both the narrative that is being built as well as the content of some of these conversations and the statements that have been made when the meetings took place. What do you make of it? What is your reading of the situation? Well it was quite a surprise why did Schulz go to meet President Xi at all because it didn't appear that there was something cooking on both sides. So only thing that we can read between the lines that Germany at the moment does feel that it needs to at least try and build an independent identity for itself in the Ukraine-Russia crisis and perhaps try to build some bridges with China. There has also been talk about China and Germany's relationships economic ones that is also the issue that the German economy is facing a huge crisis particularly because of the energy price rise and therefore how it's engineering and other goods chemicals metals all these things machine tools all of this are at risk. The German economy is in a huge risk because of this and therefore is there a way for Germany now to come out of what they see as a crisis of Ukraine in which it is going to be the most hit in fact in the economic terms it's Germany the pre-eminent economic power in Europe that's going to be hit the most and if that happens of course other countries in Europe will also face the consequences but the really the heavy weight there is really Germany and therefore is Schulz trying to work out something with President Xi in terms of an intervention post the midterm elections in the United States at which time possibly there might be an opening for trying to get Russia and Ukraine back to the discussions back to talking to each other and therefore a path to a peace agreement which if you remember the first two months of the war it seems they were very near an agreement which finally didn't work out Zelensky walked out of it and till till then till that point of time we thought that maybe there is a quick war it would get to resolution on the basis of Minsk Accords and some amount of autonomy for the the Russian speaking population in the Donetsk region none of that happened and there's been till from that time there's been talk only of a victory of Ukraine which looking at the military scenario is impossible and the fact that now I think it's increasingly dawning on Europe more than the United States that this a war they are going to lose heavily so is this a rethinking on therefore reaching out to Xi you talked about the headlines the headlines have been that oh Germany and China have condemned Russia on the issue of a nuclear bomb explosion in Ukraine since Putin never talked about a nuclear bomb being exploded on Ukraine in fact he said if the existence of Russia is threatened we have discussed this earlier in which case all weapons that we have is at our disposal which is actually the nuclear posture review of the United States as well which is what they have expanded more on that recently as we have discussed so this is not the really not the issue which is what the headlines seem to suggest it is something more that is happening which perhaps we will see something after the bitter with the US and maybe in the in Bali where all these leaders will be there so maybe something may have may have come out there so that's something to watch I think also Schultz himself wrote an editorial that seemed like a justification of the entire visit and in that an element that did stand out was that we do live in a multipolar world something that increasingly the United States doesn't seem to officially recognize but in like cases such as this might be forced to how do you see that element of geopolitics kind of playing forward leading up to post the midterms and Biden's weakness and leading into the G20 summit well I think a lot of question marks over there because if the republicans emerge stronger what is their position going to be the ukrain war there have been marches now in Italy for instance against the ukrain war there are other places movements are starting to take place talking about peace in ukraine we don't want to continue with the war in ukraine the problems of how to fund ukraine because there's a huge yawning more of money that is going down and we don't know where it's going weapons etc so there is a huge drain that is taking place and european union we've always discussed is a net loser because it's not a major military power it's an economic power at best and given the way the sanctions are operating and what the us is asking european union to do that not buy from russia oil and gas but the same time pay much more much to the united states for the lng that they're supplying so given all of that i think europe whether it'll be able to maintain its economic autonomy is a big question and should the why if you remember the old slogan that the first head of neto is to again that basically neto is a way to keep Germany down russia out and us in europe now that was the argument given so whether the europeans recognize this and is there going to be change and i think the net thing net reality is if europe is willing to deal with russia on in terms of oil gas coal fertilizers etc and with china on the question of manufactured goods if they can mobilize the trade on that count and get a piece in europe europe get ukraine to come to the peace table i think that will step forward for the forward for the world otherwise this destructive battle is going to cause enormous losses for everybody including the crisis in the united states itself what we're seeing in terms of inflation and also lack of jobs etc etc so i think that all of this the economic crisis is not going to be for russia ukraine europe alone it's going to be a global crisis you already see that continuation of what is called stagflation inflation in one hand and stagnation if not a recession at that home so all of this portend a need for a peace initiative and hopefully shawls and she have been discussing it hopefully jai shankar is going to discuss it in his visit to russia and hopefully some thawing may take place behind the scenes in bali as there are hopefully some indicators off as a piece on news click by ambassador vader kumar also seems to indicate that some thaw or some change in the stance at least between the lines is beginning to happen and hopefully that proceeds we'll of course have you back prove it very soon to discuss the upcoming g20 summit and also post the midterms how things will play out in the scenario might look then but thanks for the update today at the moment it's very much between the lines so we still don't see outside the lines what's happening all right thanks very much for and finally the indian olympic association the body responsible for all things that have anything to do with olympic sports and games now has a new constitution of course this applies to india this is in line with the changing needs of our times for example keep taking into consideration the climate crisis the new document governing how much of sport will march into the future is being celebrated as the first of its kind for a couple of reasons prime among them are athlete representation in decision-making and gender equality senior sports journalist sharda ugra spoke to us via video conference for more details sharda welcome back to the show you were very pleased when you read this new draft constitution that might be the way forward for the olympic movement in india and therefore impact the direction in which much of sport will take in this country but we're also looking at it from a slightly international perspective and how this could in in the ways that or the new elements that are being proposed provide a sort of roadmap or a template for other olympic committees to also build on particularly in a couple of key areas so i think the first thing that we want to get from you is a sense of athlete representation in the decision-making of the indian olympic association and how that in your opinion is a positive step forward it's it's quite a radical i mean we met when we when this thing first came to to uh to our notice it's quite a radical document in the sense but i think that's we are looking at it from an indian point of view because of the fact that you've got eight athletes that will be nominated or elected by the athletes commission an athletes commission will have to be formed now in india athletes have never had that kind of power that you see that they may have in other countries in in sort of developed sporting countries but if you could do this in india if it can actually come mean something i think that there is a great opportunity for countries that are there athletes from countries in the global south to be able to say look this is happening here why can it not happen with us you know and this has the approval of the international olympic committee which is very very important now to a lot of ways eight looks like a very small number in a large gathering of sports officials but it's better than zero it's eight times more than it used to be and this is like a structure that's been there now we know that on the 10th this is when this whole thing will come to pass with the general assembly with the assembly of the IOA meeting to say okay we stand by it right the other couple of things that are mentioned and again of course these are these are sort of guidelines or it's a charter so in that sense there there's very little in terms of specific programs that might come into place because of these changes but but there is a focus on anti-discrimination whether on the grounds of race religion gender ethnicity any of these things language of course and a focus on environment or being responsible or recognizing environmental concerns which is a major thing COP 27 of course is starting today and you know the global south like you were mentioning we have and south asia in particular is facing the brunt of the impact of human induced climate change so in that sense it appears to be forward-looking is it just language or do you think that this will actually have an impact on how programs and policies are designed going forward I think the the presence of these of these sort of phrases or this kind of documentation about anti-discrimination in some way about being careful about the impact on climate these are important because it gives everyone outside of the sporting ecosystem a chance to see how a sport is being run and maybe question some things that we take for granted you know that okay it's what we have to do it we have to be sort of you know it's fine to do these kind of things so I think the fact that it's there in language of course you will need to but it gives everyone who is concerned about this issue almost like a line of defense to say look this is unacceptable and it's unacceptable here and I can take this forward I think sexual orientation will also be anti-discrimination against sexual orientation is a very important clause to put down the answer look this is not acceptable if you treat people like this because in India we've seen that there are so many injustice take place against athletes using all these you know ethnicity language whatever to be sexual orientation imagined or real that it's important for this to be there because it is it is a way through it's almost like a tool with which or a weapon with which anyone who is action is taken against them can actually stand up and say this is unacceptable so they may it may look like words at the moment but these are solid words I'm glad that they're there I think you've summed it up pretty clearly and an important point you make there that like if the olympic movement is something that happens from the ground up and is meant to be inclusive and and based on how people want sport to happen then perhaps having all of this in the constitution is important because it allows those who are outside or on the fringes of the system to also challenge the system and say you need to change as well if you want to continue to survive thanks again Sharda as always for taking the time to chat with us that's a wrap for this episode of the daily debrief as always for more details on these stories and all of the other work we do we invite you to head to our website peoplesdispatch.org and don't forget to give us a follow on the social media platform of your choice as well we'll of course be back same time same place tomorrow until then stay safe goodbye