 The crucial Russia-Ukraine grain deal has been extended by a couple of months, bringing some relief to negotiators, grappling with rising global food prices and therefore food insecurity. What pushed the deal over the line and how long will it last? China is hosting the first summit with its five central Asian neighbours, a region long considered Russia's backyard. Why is this emerging regional grouping important? And have the two major regional powers, Russia and China that is, figured out something the West hasn't, that regional peace and cooperation is important to everyone's interests. And in the United States, Bernie Sanders is attempting a new legislation that will inject 200 billion US dollars into the ailing healthcare system. Does the plan have the potential to fix what is broken and equally importantly, will the progressive bill pass through a divided house? You're watching Daily Debrief from People's Dispatch coming to you from our studios in New Delhi. I'm Siddhantani and first up on the show, Ukraine, where two months have been extended in the deal that was brokered between the United Nations, Turkey, Russia and Ukraine to allow grain exports out of the country, ostensibly to allow some of the poorest and most needy in terms of food insecurity, nations in the world to access food grain at affordable prices. Russia, of course, has objected to several aspects, had objected to several aspects of how the deal has been played out since much of Ukraine's export actually ended up going to Europe instead of the countries that were supposedly in the most need. But despite the obstacles after the intervention of Turkey as well, the deal has been extended for a short two month period. Dr. Abdul Rehman joins us now with more details on how this process went down and what the future might hold. Abdul, let's talk about the good part first. Russia had objections, you can maybe sort of list out those objections for us and also how diplomatically were they managed to sort of overcome those differences to make sure that at least in the very short term for a couple of months, this grain deal has been extended. Well, Russia had a very clear position on the grain deal since the first day when it was sank that the deal should of course should be mutual in the nature that if Ukrainian grain is allowed, since Russia is under sanctioned by the US and European countries, it should also have the similar freedom to export its grain and all those restrictions which basically hamper the transaction of money in return of the grain exported should be relaxed when it comes to Russia. So this was the primary, you can say, give and take on which Russia had agreed to allow the agreement deal, considering the larger issue of food insecurity, increasing food insecurity at the global level and rising in the prices of the food grains, particularly impacting the poorer nations in Africa and in Asia. So that was one concern of course. The second concern emerges from this, that the grain should reach the countries which basically need them the most. But if you see the data, which Russia has basically raised the issue again and again, that out of the 30 million metric tons of grain which has been exported since the deal was signed last year, more than half of it have gone to European countries or Turkey. It means that the grain is not reaching the poorer African nations, which basically were the reason behind Russia allowing the export of the grains at the first place. So these two were the primary concerns which Russia has raised, apart from the rising concerns about grain being misused to kind of create different kinds of interest here and there are dangers of smuggling a weapon through those ships which are passing through. So if you see the data, the number of searches on the ships which were passing through Turkey's lines had increased tremendously in the last few months, but given the concern that this is basically used to smuggle weapons on them. So these were the primary concerns because of which Russia has basically was not very willing to extend the grain deal. But finally it seems because of the interventions made by Turkish president and by the UN, the deal has finally come true. The multiple angles on this Abdul that we could talk further about unfortunately were limited on time. So let's look at it in the context maybe of the G7 summit where these reports indicate that a tighter set of sanctions will be put in place. How does that factor into the longevity of this deal? Because at some point Russia is naturally going to turn around and say on the one hand you have evidence of what looks like grain for weapons and on the other you are restricting our ability to export food grains to not to your countries but to those countries that really need them. I mean there are several of them around the world like you were mentioning. Exactly. So if you see the statements made by the US and its allies in Europe after Russia basically agreed for the extension of the deal and the Ukrainian ministers of course say a lasing Russia that it is using the grain for basically as a weapon against the Ukrainians and to get basically to get certain relaxations vis-a-vis the sanctions imposed by European and US allies. So they are making those allegations on the one hand but on the same they are expecting Russians to basically agree to allow the export of the grain without any conditions. So it seems that there is no war going on then they talk about this deal it seems there is no war going on there is no disagreement strategic or whatever about the overall situation in Eastern Europe there is no NATO in it there is no threat of nuclear escalation and all and the aspect in Russia to basically forget all of this and just let the trade happen normal but there are no sanctions by the way that is the most important there are no sanctions on Russia. So this particular way of putting things you are talking about G7 as you write we pointed out this thing about new set of sanctions against Russians and on the one hand they are talking about all these things that they will do whatever they are doing continue to do it against Russia and put sanctions supply more weapon to trade try to block whatever even Russian athletes Russian artists and so on and so forth but Russia should not have any opinion should not express any concerns but it is expected to make certain concessions. So this particular way and it seems if you read the reports by in the international media like AP and other they are expressing this particular perspective of the US and other countries involved in this and that basically speaks volumes about how hypocritically they have approached to the larger issue of which basically has been the center of this particular conflict in the region which is the security concerns Russian security concerns and the expansion of the U.N. I think the U.N. also will be quite deeply concerned looking at all of these aspects particularly for what happens after this two month period and I guess negotiations this dialogue will continue on this subject in this period so hopefully something can be worked out but we wait to see what happens at the end of the G7 summit and what implications that has because at least Reuters like you are pointing out Reuters was reporting Abdul that all items that are not on already cleared list approved list will automatically be considered under sanctions. So that's likely to make life a lot more difficult in most regards. All right thanks very much for your time. China's President Xi Jinping is hosting in the central city of Xi'an the first ever summit with leaders of five central Asian nations. This of course is a reiteration of Beijing's growing influence in the region along with Russia which has long been a major player. The two day event brings together China of course along with Kazakhstan, the Kirghiz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. These countries are all critical to China's Belt and Road initiative. It's been held in the city that was once the starting point of the fabled Silk Road. We examine what the importance of this summit is and the context in which it's happening. And each the temperatures in this part of the world are heating up and so is summit season on all sides. A new sort of regional conversation is happening in China being hosted by Xi Jinping where China is talking to five central Asian countries. Of course in the context of the G7 summit that is also coming, the encirclement that is going on of China on that side. This is in many ways an interesting summit to talk about from a regional trade and cooperation perspective. What are the highlights that you are seeing? Well for China it is essentially an expression of its friendly relations with some of its very old allies. We need to remember that all of these countries that China is having talks with were former Soviet republics and obviously they've helped extensively friendly relations for decades now with China in the manner in which it exists today as the people's public of China obviously. And so there is that legacy apart from that there is the fact that the Belt and Road Initiative obviously requires the central Asian land mass to be a central focus in fact the pivotal focus for the project to expand and have a stable working environment as well. And if it wants to extend to say the Indian Ocean or the Persian Gulf and all the other places that it is now trying to expand into. So definitely Central Asia is quite valuable to China at this point. It is also we need to remember one of those places that the West has very often neglected to see as maybe some potential or geo-strategically potential allies in the coming future. So obviously China is taking that stand where it is treating these countries with the level of perspective it requires to treat them with so that they can be on their side when it comes to trade and economic initiatives that China is trying to push into the region. Which perhaps leads to the scary prospect in the near future of the U.S. actually taking an interest in the region and he says it doesn't work out too well quite often. But maybe you can touch on that a little bit but also there has been some talk of drama where necessarily none exists because Russia and China have managed to cooperate quite well in terms of ensuring stability and generally peace in a region that is otherwise has many people or players trying to stir up trouble in the broader sense. So how does Russia fit into this dynamic between China and these central Asian countries and is it like a sort of regional grouping that will you think continue to cooperate, continue to work towards common aims particularly when it comes to trade and things like that. Well that's an interesting question because obviously we've already seen headlines that try to center Russia as a focal point in the summit when it is not the case. We need to remember that along with Russia all these countries that China is meeting with today in Beijing are also part of the SEO, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. And so they are not necessarily in competitive planes in many ways because obviously for China if it wants to expand its BRI, the Belt and Road Initiative it really requires Russia as well as the central Asian economies. And I think the problem is with how a lot of mainstream media views smaller countries or developing countries as blocks of spheres of influence that certain bigger nation would want to encroach upon and that is really not how China is trying to deal with be it Central Asia or for instance what we saw recently with the Pacific Islands or much back in time in the 2000s when we saw China becoming a bigger player, bigger economic trade partner in the African continent. And so in all of these cases China has extended on a more or less diplomatic relationship it did not really intervene in their politics, it did not comment on its domestic issues either its sort stability, its sort friendly relations and sovereign to sovereign relations and this is something similar that it is doing with Central Asia as well. Now obviously it is becoming a focus primarily because of as I said the kind of initiatives that it wants to expand when it wants to use the land route to Europe for instance to expand its trade or its markets for instance and obviously these countries cannot be avoided for those matters and in the longer run obviously we can definitely see some kind of intervention in that sense by the West but if you look at how the West started taking interest in Pacific Islands and compare that with if the West starts taking interest in Central Asia it is going to be different because in the Pacific Islands there were always certain very conservative right wing governments that have always sided with the US and its allies in the Central Asian region that was never the case in fact many of these countries have been disregarded as sort of like Oriental despots and the kind of treatment that they really get from the West, from Europe or from the United States is basically of you know sort of irrelevant authoritarian governments that do not really require that much attention and that's how they treat them very often so it will be very interesting how the US and the West tries to overturn that and that can always become a problem because they can always talk about how they will be supporting democratic initiatives and stuff like that in the region so we'll need to read and see but at this point obviously the way it stands China has the upper hand and obviously its friendly relations with Russia is going to help in expanding its, if not I don't want to say sphere of influence but obviously it's already existing relations in the region in a much more broader sense with a bigger volume of say trade and services and other sort of outflow of all sorts of economic activities from the region as well. Trade for example up close to 40% over a very short period so obviously a lot more possible in terms of cooperation on those fronts thanks Anish for those updates and we'll catch you very soon on Daily Debrief once again and finally on the back of sustained actions from healthcare workers since the pandemic it has finally been recognized that understaffing is a major issue in the United States healthcare sector now Independent Senator Bernie Sanders is attempting to build political consensus on a bold new plan that will inject a new $130 billion into community healthcare centers and $60 billion on funding and growing the healthcare workforce in the United States over a 5 year period the plan seeks to address working conditions including pay scales of course as well as massive understaffing like I was mentioning and is the next hope to fix a broken system that has left America the richest country in the world in a situation where many still don't have access to critical healthcare on the way of course the legislation is contending with lobbying and the profit motive of large hospitals as well as other private healthcare providers in that country Navrachar of the People's Health movement joins us with the latest and now if you can start by maybe giving our audience a bit of context into what's been going on in as far as healthcare workers in the United States are concerned over the past couple of years essentially since the end of 2022 groups of health workers in the US with nurses taking the leading role I would say have embarked on a series of strikes and of protests of different kinds of action which address both the bad working conditions that they were facing but also the staffing levels that are a concrete consequence of the ongoing health workers shortage in the country and so one of the most notable examples that we can remember of course is the nurses strike in Minnesota at the end of 2022 the nurses held a very successful strike which dealt with all these kind of problems that we usually talk about here so you know it's inadequate pay for a lot of work it's irregular working hours it's a lot of working time and what the Minnesota nurses chose to do was also to talk about issues regarding safe staffing one of the results of their action was a proposal for an act which is called a keeping nurses at the bedside act it's an interesting proposal of legislation because it's actually shaped by health workers by nurses themselves and its main point is to include nurses in the decision-making process and in essentially in monitoring working conditions in hospitals to ensure that there are enough health workers to care for the number of patients that the hospital is seeing so this act has been rallied by nurses over the last almost half a year now and among other things it includes a provision which creates commissions where nurses essentially follow what is going on and they can have the space to say if they feel that the staffing situation in the hospital is inadequate and might be harmful to patients and considering the scale of the problem is it something that can be resolved at the state level or is it essential to have this kind of federal intervention Anna? Judging from the latest news and what's being talked about most intensively these days it seems that Senator Bernie Sanders is actually taking or at least is trying to take significant steps towards improving the healthcare system in the US which is we all know by now a criminal thing so since he took chairing over the Health Education and Labor Committee Sanders has proposed a series of things to strengthen the health system to make it more accessible to people and to protect the health workers who are staffing it the most recent proposal would see around 200 billion dollars being invested in healthcare it's a massive amount of course and what's important in this is to know where he's suggesting that the money should go most of it would go in community healthcare system or primary healthcare system which is very important because we know that this is the level of healthcare where most people get the care they need if this level of healthcare is organized in the right way if it's staffed in the right way, if it's financed in the right way there's a better chance of people getting treated for what they're suffering from and then in addition to that the plan is for seeing some 60 billion dollars being allocated to the health workforce alone so that would include not only employing more people but also training yes training locally and essentially addressing all these problems that health workers have been pointing out throughout the past couple of years one of the most interesting parts of the plan in addition to the amount that the committee is asking for and of course the amount is such that it's already causing great eyebrows all around because we know that in high income countries especially in the US, especially in Europe so legislators are quite not keen to invest in health or education but would rather spend the money on something else this put aside what's interesting in the plan that the committee is putting forward is that it's actually trying to address some of the existing and widespread inequities that are there in the healthcare system in the US and I'm not talking only about how accessible healthcare is to people who live in rural areas for example who are most often cut off from the network but also about the way that the health system is formed and it's trained, it's built so one of the points that Sanders made when he announced this plan is that it should include a plan of training a health workers workforce which is not representative exclusively of the white middle class in the US this is a very big problem at the moment because we know that the structure of the workforce can also impact health outcomes for different groups so for example black people or essentially the black community in the US is underrepresented in the health workforce trained in the United States and it means that the healthcare is essentially less straightforward and less there for the people in the community that's a wrap for this episode of the Daily Debrief from Anna myself and the entire team here at People's Dispatch thank you very much as always for watching we encourage you to head to our website peoplesdispatch.org for all of the work we do and details on these stories of course are there as well you can also follow us on the social media platform of your choice for regular updates we'll be back tomorrow with another episode until then stay safe, goodbye