Democracy Now!

The balance of power in Congress is still up in the air after Democratic candidates outperformed expectations in much of the country in Tuesday’s midterm elections. Control of the Senate now rests on four states: Wisconsin, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada. We speak with The Nation’s John Nichols, who says Democratic Senate candidate Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes could still close the gap with Republican incumbent Ron Johnson in Wisconsin, who now has the advantage. He also says that while Republicans look favored to win the Senate seat in Nevada, the race has ended up closer than expected. “Nevada can surprise you at the end,” says Nichols.

Fetterman Beats Oz in PA Sen. Race; Warnock and Walker Likely Headed to Runoff in GA, Democrats Win Governor Races in MD, MA, WI, NY, PA; Republican Govs. Hold On to FL, TX, GA, Abortion Rights Win Big; Mixed Results for Ballot Measures on Marijuana, Voting, Slavery, Climate “Loss and Damage” Efforts Gain Support, But Major Polluter U.S. Refuses to Commit, Olaf Scholz, U.N. Human Rights Chief Call for Release of Alaa Abd El-Fattah in Sharm el-Sheikh, U.S. and Russia to Resume New START Talks Against Backdrop of Ukraine War, Russian Authorities Transfer Brittney Griner to Penal Colony, Al-Hol Refugee Camp in Syria Likened to “Open-Air Prison” for Children, Meta Lays Off 11,000 Workers in Company’s Largest-Ever Staff Cuts, Tropical Storm Nicole to Make Landfall in Florida as Hurricane, Mexico City Mayor Accuses Authorities of Covering Up Murder of Young Woman

We speak to Damon Hewitt, the head of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, which is spearheading nationwide efforts to protect the vote in Tuesday’s midterm elections. Republicans at the national and state levels have tried to disqualify thousands of absentee and mail-in ballots in an effort to swing close races in battleground states like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Hewitt describes how litigation has become a major part of the election process, given the increased number of election deniers and white supremacists who now hold positions as election officials. “When the casualness of racism is weaponized in the electoral process, that leads to voter suppression if we don’t stand up,” says Hewitt, who cautions that the final election results in Tuesday’s midterms may take a couple of days. He suggests people report problems to the Election Protection hotline: 866-OUR-VOTE.

We speak with New Yorker staff writer Sue Halpern about the Senate race in New Hampshire, where she says far-right Republican nominee Donald Bolduc is running a “vigorous campaign” against the incumbent Democratic Senator Maggie Hassan and spreading conspiracy theories that some schoolchildren were using litter boxes. “If Maggie Hassan loses, the Democrats might well lose the Senate,” says Halpert, adding that New Hampshire is “a very swingy state” and the midterm outcomes there could surprise many people.

Indigenous voters in Arizona who played a key role in catapulting Joe Biden to victory in 2020 are facing a sweeping rollback of their voting rights that may swing the state back to Republicans in Tuesday’s midterms. “In 2020, Native voters understood that the election of Donald Trump was an existential problem,” says New Yorker staff writer Sue Halpern, whose latest piece explores how voters on Arizona’s Navajo, Apache and Hopi reservations are navigating the 2021 Supreme Court ruling that banned a common method of voting collection used by Indigenous voters. We also speak with Lydia Dosela, who is running efforts to get out the vote on Indigenous reservations in Arizona to make sure “all Native American voices are heard loud and clear.”

The climate movement warns the midterm elections will either advance or torpedo climate initiatives in the U.S. This comes as climate activists and scientists at the U.N. climate summit in Egypt cautioned that the world is heading toward climate disaster without deeper cuts in planet-heating emissions. “We are up against a ticking time bomb of an unrelenting climate crisis and an economic crisis that is bearing down on working people,” says Varshini Prakash of the Sunrise Movement, which has reached 3 million young voters to get out the vote in the midterms. Prakash also explains how parts of President Biden’s climate legislation passed this year could be stalled or reversed if Republicans take back control of Congress in 2023.

The family of the imprisoned Egyptian dissident Alaa Abd El-Fattah says they no longer know if he is still alive or if he is being force-fed, more than 50 hours after he stopped drinking water in an intensification of a six-month hunger strike. We feature an address by Alaa’s sister Sanaa Seif at the U.N. climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh. “The symbolic battle has been won by your show of support,” says Seif. “I just hope his body and he is not sacrificed for it.”

Election Day: GOP Sues to Disqualify Thousands of Mail-In Ballots in Key States, African Union Urges Richer Nations at COP27 to Pay Climate Reparations, Report: Ice Levels Collapsing at Levels “Unthinkable Just a Decade Ago”, Egypt: Family of Alaa Abd El-Fattah Demands Proof He Is Still Alive in Prison, Dutch Authorities Arrest 100 Climate Activists for Blocking Jets at Amsterdam Airport, Ukraine Decries Russia’s Forcible Evacuation of Occupied Kherson, U.S. & South Korea Continue Joint Air Drills Amid Mounting Tension on Peninsula, 89 Asylum Seekers Saved at Sea Finally Allowed to Disembark in Italy, Supreme Court Denies Second Challenge to Biden Student Debt Plan, Judge Temporarily Suspends Prison Sentence for Steve Bannon Due to Appeal, Elon Musk Endorses GOP as Account for League of Women Voters Is Suspended

Alarm is growing over how the world’s richest person, Elon Musk, is changing Twitter after he spent $44 billion to buy the influential social media platform. Musk fired nearly half of Twitter’s workforce in a mass layoff Friday that gutted teams dedicated to human rights, artificial intelligence ethics and combating election misinformation, just days before Tuesday’s midterm election. This comes after he met with over half a dozen civil rights groups amid concerns he will let misinformation and hate speech go unchecked. We speak with leaders from two of those groups: Nora Benavidez of Free Press and Free Press Action Fund, and Rashad Robinson of Color of Change. “Self-regulated companies are unregulated companies,” says Robinson, who along with Benavidez says Musk has exacerbated already toxic conditions at Twitter and failed to see the “real and porous relationship between the online world and this offline real world.” Both groups are urging advertisers to boycott Twitter unless Musk takes dramatic actions to safeguard rights on the platform.

Across the United States, local voters will decide critical ballot initiatives related to reproductive freedom, voting rights, marijuana and slavery in Tuesday’s midterm elections. Chris Melody Fields Figueredo of the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center says the initiatives like abortion could surprise some people, and says the recent Kansas vote to protect abortion shows reproductive health can transcend party lines. Fields Figueredo also explains how slavery is still enshrined in some state constitutions as a form of punishment, which she says has “led to mass incarceration of Black and Brown communities.”

With Democrats at risk of losing both the House and Senate in Tuesday’s midterms, we speak with Justice Democrats spokesperson Waleed Shahid about the progressives favored to win congressional seats. Texas city councilmember and former labor organizer Greg Casar, Illinois state Representative Delia Ramirez and Pennsylvania community organizer Summer Lee have all been endorsed by Justice Democrats, who are best known for helping catapult members of the Squad to victory in 2018. “I think that we’ll continue to see these progressives expand the horizon on issues that working-class communities care about,” says Shahid, who critiques the Democratic Party for weak messaging on the economy. Shahid also discusses how the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC is pouring money into defeating progressive candidates like Summer Lee.

Biden, Obama Campaign for Fetterman in PA, Warn Voters Against Erosion of Democracy in Final Pitches, Judges Rule on Last-Minute Voting Challenges Days Ahead of Midterms, Rights Advocates Raise Alarm over Firings, Changes at Twitter Under Elon Musk, Ukraine Officials Warn Residents to Prepare for Cold, Dark Winter, WSJ: U.S. Nat’l Sec. Adviser Meeting with Russian Officials over Nuclear Risk, COP27 Kicks Off as U.N. Head Warns “We Are on a Highway to Climate Hell”, COP27 President Says Climate Compensation on Official Summit Agenda, Egyptian Hunger Striker Alaa Abd El-Fattah Gives Up Water as COP27 Opens, COP27 Attendees Warned Egypt May Use App to Spy on Critics and Silence Dissent, Iranian Lawmakers Demand Death Sentences for Anti-Government Protesters, Syrian Government Attack on Displaced People Camp Kills 9, Italian Authorities Leave 250 Asylum Seekers Stranded Aboard Rescue Ships, Airline Crash in Tanzania Leaves 19 Dead, Iowa Teen Who Killed Rapist Escapes Probation Center, CDC Warns of “Tripledemic” of Influenza, RSV and COVID-19

Documents obtained by The Intercept reveal the Department of Homeland Security is working with private tech companies to fight online speech that undermines support for the U.S. government. We speak to one of the co-authors of The Intercept’s report, investigative journalist Lee Fang, who says the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act signed into law in 2018 by then-President Donald Trump expanded the government’s power to reshape online discourse. “These documents raise clear civil liberty concerns, concerns around the First Amendment and if the government is trying to shape the kind of news we see,” says Fang.

As thousands of asylum seekers continue to arrive on buses in New York, we speak with a man from Venezuela about his journey, and two New Yorkers who have been helping since August to welcome them with dignity and ensure they get the housing, food and other assistance they need. “The system here in New York City is not created for this type of community, which is the migrants that are arriving,” says former asylum seeker, Adama Bah. “It is our job as New Yorkers to be able to welcome them in this city that is a so-called sanctuary city,” adds Power Malu, with the group Artists, Athletes and Activists. Bah and Malu also discuss how their work is being repeated nationwide.

Benjamin Netanyahu is set to return as Israel’s prime minister, with Tuesday’s election results showing his Likud Party and far-right allies winning enough seats to form a parliamentary majority. This includes far-right lawmaker Itamar Ben-Gvir, who openly supports the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, vows to crack down on the LGBTQ community and was once convicted of racist incitement against Arabs. “This is going to be a whole new level of power for the extreme right in the government,” says Natasha Roth-Rowland, editor and writer at +972 Magazine, who studies right-wing Jewish extremism.

Far-Right Coalition Wins Most Seats in Israel’s Knesset, Returning Netanyahu to Power, Russian Troops Signal Withdrawal from Occupied Kherson, UN Nuclear Agency Finds No Evidence to Back Russian “Dirty Bomb” Claims in Ukraine, Imran Khan Survives Assassination Attempt, Accuses Pakistan’s PM of Plotting His Death, UN Warns of Melting Glaciers and Says Rich Countries Aren’t Meeting Climate Pledges, Egyptian Political Prisoner Alaa Abd el-Fattah to Escalate Hunger Strike as COP27 Opens, Civil Society Groups Urge Biden Not to Send Troops to Haiti, Call for Haitian-Led Dialog, UN General Assembly Votes to Condemn US Embargo of Cuba for 30th Straight Year, Elon Musk Begins Mass Layoffs at Twitter, Meets With Civil Rights Groups, University of California Student Workers Overwhelmingly Approve Nov. 14 Strike, Protesters Demand Closure of Rikers Island Jail After 18th Prisoner Death of 2022

The Ethiopian government and forces in Tigray have reached a truce to end two years of brutal civil war. The new peace deal follows a week of peace talks mediated by the African Union in South Africa. The Ethiopian government wants a unified country and Tigrayans want minoritarian rights upheld, says Adebayo Olukoshi, distinguished research professor at the Wits School of Governance who formerly worked on peace efforts in Tigray with the International IDEA. The agreement comes as “a big relief” and “there’s hope that the two sides will adhere to the agreement,” he says.

We look at the impact of the war in Ukraine on the continent of Africa with Adebayo Olukoshi, an international relations scholar based in Johannesburg, South Africa. African nations import much of their grain. With their significant dependency on Ukrainian wheat and fertilizer in the Global South, “there is a wish for much more investment in diplomacy” between Ukraine and Russia, says Olukoshi. He says many African nations have more amicable relations with Russia due to the Soviet Union’s support for anticolonial struggles before its dissolution.

As G7 leaders discuss supporting Ukrainian defense forces against Russia, we speak with Richard Gowan, U.N. director at the International Crisis Group, about the possibility of diplomacy to end the war. It is possible for the U.N. to help broker a peace deal, says Gowan. However, “the Ukrainians are very skeptical about accepting a ceasefire because they fear that Russia will pause hostilities, but it won’t pull its troops back from the territories it’s seized since February,” he adds.

Egyptian authorities have arrested hundreds in a crackdown on dissenting voices ahead of COP27, the U.N. climate conference which starts Sunday in Sharm El-Sheikh. Fifteen Nobel laureates have signed an open letter asking world leaders to pressure Egypt into releasing its many political prisoners, including human rights activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah, who plans to intensify his six-month hunger strike by forgoing water on the opening day of the climate summit. “He’s organizing all of us from his prison cell,” says Democracy Now! correspondent Sharif Abdel Kouddous.

Ethiopia Agrees to Peace in Tigray After Two Years of War, Ukraine Nuclear Plant on Emergency Generators After Fighting Severs Power Lines, U.N. Security Council Denies Russia Probe of U.S. Biological Weapons Claims, Pentagon Confirms Active-Duty U.S. Troops Are Deployed Inside Ukraine, Oath Keepers Militia Leader Sought to Contact Trump After Jan. 6 Insurrection, Biden Warns U.S. Democracy Imperiled by Political Violence , Trump’s Lawyers Saw Clarence Thomas as Key to Overturning 2020 Election, Wisconsin Candidate Says, “Republicans Will Never Lose Another Election After I’m Elected Governor”, Trump Aide Kash Patel Granted Immunity to Testify Over Mar-a-Lago Documents, Fears of Recession Grow as Federal Reserve Raises Interest Rates Further, Israeli Soldiers Kill 2 More Palestinians As Netanyahu Clinches Premiership, Ex-Pakistan PM Imran Khan Survives Shooting at Rally, Judge Sentences Parkland Mass Shooter Nikolas Cruz to Life Without Parole, Jackson Officials Say Water Finally Safe to Drink; Flint Residents Ask Judge to Replace Lead Pipes

We look at the high stakes of the midterm elections for workers, including in key battleground states. Mary Kay Henry, president of the Service Employees International Union, says they are campaigning to empower working people, especially infrequent voters of color and new immigrants, to vote in their best interests. “We have got to make our votes a demand, and not a show of support for candidates that are with us one day and against us the next,” says Henry.

As the U.S. pours billions in military aid into Ukraine, we host a debate on the Biden administration’s response to the war and U.S. policy toward Russia amid increasing calls among progressives for a diplomatic end to the conflict. We speak to former Bernie Sanders foreign policy adviser Matt Duss, now a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and Ray McGovern, a former CIA analyst who specialized in the Soviet Union. “Everyone understands that at some point there will need to be a negotiation to bring this war to a close, but I think the tension within the progressive community comes to when and how that diplomacy actually takes place,” says Duss. McGovern stressest that U.S. policymakers must understand Russia’s motivations, saying Russia sees the eastward expansion of NATO as threatening its core interests akin to how the United States viewed the Cuban Missile Crisis in the 1960s. “We need to go back and figure out how this all started in order to figure out how to end it,” says McGovern.

Russia Rejoins Grain Export Deal; Water and Power Restored in Kyiv Following Russian Attacks, Benjamin Netanyahu Poised to Return to Israeli Leadership With Far-Right Alliance, Jair Bolsonaro Refuses to Admit Defeat But Allows Presidential Transition to Move Ahead, North Korea Launches 23 Missiles, Warns U.S. & South Korea Over War Games, U.S. Judge Limits Voter Intimidation By Far-Right Vigilantes; PA Says Undated Absentee Ballots Invalid, Liz Cheney Stumps for Democrat Elissa Slotkin, Backs Tim Ryan Against Trump Supporter J.D. Vance, Abrams Makes Final Push in GA Gov. Race as Biden Speaks to Voters in Florida, SCOTUS Blocks Transfer of Trump Tax Documents, Rules Lindsey Graham Must Testify in GA 2020 Probe, Biden Admin Weighing Sending Haitian Asylum Seekers to Guantánamo Bay, Dozens of Migrants Missing After Two Shipwrecks off Greek Coast, Nobel Laureates Draw Attention to Egypt’s Jailing of Activists Ahead of COP27, Egypt Releases Detained Climate Activist Ajit Rajagopal Amid Crackdown on Protests, Just Stop Oil Activists Take Aim At U.K. Gov’t Buildings to Highlight Climate Crisis, Rapper Takeoff Killed in Houston Shooting, NYC Starbucks/Amazon Go Workers File Union Petition; NLRB Says Ithaca Starbucks Must Reopen, Investigation into 1921 Greenwood Race Massacre Uncovers Another 17 Bodies

The city and state of New York have agreed to pay $36 million to settle lawsuits on behalf of two men wrongly convicted and imprisoned for decades for the 1965 assassination of Malcolm X. Muhammad Aziz and Khalil Islam were exonerated last year for the murder after investigators found “serious miscarriages of justice” in the case. They each spent more than 20 years in prison for a crime they did not commit, and Islam died in 2009 before his record was cleared. We speak to civil rights lawyer David Shanies, who represented the men in their lawsuit, and scholar Abdur-Rahman Muhammad, who helped spark the reopening of the case, and was featured in the 2020 Netflix documentary series “Who Killed Malcolm X?”

As Israel holds national elections amid increasing crackdowns on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, we speak with Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, who is in Jerusalem and has been speaking with Palestinian families in the Occupied Territories. He is calling on Israel to end its decades-long occupation. He describes the ongoing Israeli demolition of Palestinian homes and the growth of illegal settlements, and says the situation is likely to get worse after elections as the political parties expected to make major gains are “in favor of illegal settlements, colonization of occupied land and the displacement of Palestinian families.”

The majority-conservative Supreme Court appears poised to strike down race-conscious college admissions decisions, after hearing arguments Monday against Harvard and the University of North Carolina. The plaintiffs argued the admissions process discriminates against white and Asian American applicants by giving priority consideration to Black, Hispanic and Native American applicants. The decision could jeopardize affirmative action initiatives implemented after the Civil Rights Movement to give more equal opportunities to people disadvantaged by centuries of racial discrimination and the legacy of slavery. John C. Yang, president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice, says his organization investigated the allegations against Harvard and found no discrimination but rather that “allowing race to be considered benefited Asian Americans.” Fatima Goss Graves, president and CEO of the National Women’s Law Center, says rescinding affirmative action programs risks harming students of color and will dramatically decrease the racial diversity that has shown to benefit colleges.

Food Prices Soar as Russia Halts Participation in Deal to Export Ukraine Grain , US and South Korea Launch New War Games; China Warns US Over Nuclear-Armed B52s, Supreme Court Justices Appear Poised to End Affirmative Action in College Admissions, Prosecutors Say Home Invader Wanted to Break Nancy Pelosi’s Kneecaps, Arizona GOP Gubernatorial Candidate Kari Lake Jokes About Pelosi Attack, Trump Asks Supreme Court to Block Release of His Tax Returns , “Their Profits are a Windfall of War”: Biden Suggests New Tax on Big Oil, Jailed Egyptian Activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah to Begin Full Hunger Strike During Climate Summit, U.S. Border Patrol Fires “Less Lethal” Rounds at Venezuelan Asylum Seekers, British Police Investigate Arson Attack on Migrant Center, UK Home Secretary Decries “Invasion” of Asylum Seekers, White Ex-Michigan Cop Charged With Murdering Congolese Refugee Patrick Lyoya, Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro Remains Silent After Losing Presidential Run-off Election

Democratic Congressmember Ro Khanna says Saudi Arabia should face consequences for its decision to cut oil output by 2 million barrels a day as part of the OPEC+ cartel, raising gas prices in the United States just before the midterm elections where cost-of-living issues are expected to be a major factor. He also discusses the Saudi-led war in Yemen, describing it as “one of the largest humanitarian crises in the world” that must be brought to an end. Khanna recently co-authored legislation calling on the United States to stop arms transfers to Saudi Arabia.

Why did members of the House Progressive Caucus retract a letter to President Biden that called for diplomatic engagement with Russia to end the war in Ukraine? We speak with Congressmember Ro Khanna of California, one of the signatories, who says he continues to stand by the letter despite the decision to withdraw it. “This letter simply affirms that while we stand with Ukraine, we also have those diplomatic channels,” says Khanna, who adds that President Biden and senior military figures have expressed similar sentiments about the need for diplomacy.

Police in California have arrested a 42-year-old man for breaking into House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s home and assaulting her 82-year-old husband with a hammer. Paul Pelosi suffered a skull fracture and other injuries, but is expected to make a full recovery. We speak to Democratic Congressmember Ro Khanna of California as President Biden links the attack on the Pelosis to election conspiracy theories spread by Republicans. Khanna says “he is sickened by what happened” and that simply condemning violence is not enough. “What we need to be responding to is the threat of political violence that is being stoked by conspiracy theories and propaganda and hate speech,” he says.

Leftist presidential candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has won Brazil’s runoff election, ousting far-right President Jair Bolsonaro after just one term. Lula won with 50.9% of the vote, though Bolsonaro has yet to concede. Other world leaders, including U.S. President Joe Biden, were quick to congratulate Lula on his victory in an effort to forestall efforts by Bolsonaro and his allies to deny the results. Brazilian socialist organizer Sabrina Fernandes says Lula is trying to return “democratic normality” after four years of Bolsonaro’s environmental destruction, COVID denial and undermining of the country’s institutions. Lula’s victory is also a win for Indigenous peoples, whose sovereignty was disregarded under Bolsonaro amid rampant deforestation of the Amazon rainforest, says freelance journalist Michael Fox.

Brazilians Vote in Lula, Reject Bolsonaro in Historic Election With Far-Reaching Implications, South Korea Reels After Tragic Crowd Surge Kills Over 150 People, Russian Missiles Target More Power and Water Sources; Moscow Pulls Out of Grain Export Deal, Car Explosions in Somali Capital Kill at Least 100 People, Bridge Collapse in India Kills at Least 141 Pedestrians, Democrats Condemn GOP Silence, Enabling of Violence in Wake of Paul Pelosi Attack, Activists Shut Down Park Ave, Take Aim at BlackRock, Chase For Climate Destruction, Protests Continue in Iran Despite Threats; Journalists Seek Justice For Jailed Colleagues, Pakistani Journalist Killed by Truck in Imran Khan Convoy, Haitian Journalist Killed by Police Fire as Press Faces Mounting Challenges, Lebanese President Leaves Office with No Successor Amid Mounting Economic Crisis, Foxconn Workers Flee Factory After COVID Outbreak in Zhengzhou, Concert Stampede Kills 11 in DRC, New York to Pay $36 Million to Two Men Wrongfully Convicted in Malcolm X Assassination, Oldest Guantánamo Prisoner Is Freed After 18 Years Behind Bars Without Charge

We speak with Florida voting rights activist Desmond Meade about how Republicans like Governor Ron DeSantis are attempting to scare formerly incarcerated people with felony convictions from voting. DeSantis launched an election police force to arrest people on trumped-up voter fraud charges. The arrests overwhelmingly targeted Black people and demonstrate “the state’s failure to have a system in place that can assure any American citizen that lives in the state of Florida whether or not they’re eligible to vote,” says Meade, who spearheaded an initiative to re-enfranchise 1.4 million people with prior felony convictions, before it was overturned by Republicans. While several charges of alleged voter fraud in past elections have been dismissed, Meade says the arrests still intimidate qualified voters from casting a ballot.

With Republicans set to make major gains in the November midterms, we speak with reporter Ari Berman, who says Republican control of the Legislature in Wisconsin is a preview of the damage the party could do if empowered in Washington. Berman’s latest piece for Mother Jones is titled “How Wisconsin Became the GOP’s Laboratory for Dismantling Democracy.” It looks at how severely gerrymandered districts there give Republicans nearly two-thirds of the seats in the statehouse with less than 50% of the popular vote, and how they have used those inflated majorities to undermine Democratic Governor Tony Evers by stripping his powers, refusing to confirm his nominees and ignoring his legislative proposals. Berman says the takeover of the Wisconsin Legislature is part of a larger GOP plan to empower swing state officials to assist former President Trump in staging a coup in 2024.

Former President Barack Obama is in Georgia Friday to campaign for Democrats in the closely watched Senate and gubernatorial races. This comes as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer was caught on a hot mic Thursday saying the race between Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock and Trump-backed anti-abortion Republican nominee Herschel Walker is “going downhill,” and recent polls show Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams is trailing Republican Governor Brian Kemp. We speak with Carol Anderson, professor of African American studies at Emory University, who says 2020 was a “dry run” for Republican plans to subvert democracy. We also speak with reporter Ari Berman, who says the media is lauding Kemp as a “defender of democracy even though he systematically has undermined voting rights.”

Vladimir Putin Says World Faces Most Dangerous Moment Since World War II, Ukraine’s President Warns of Extended Blackouts After Russian Attacks on Power Grid, Pentagon Nuclear Posture Review Won’t Rule Out U.S. First Strike, Fears Rise Over Brazilian Election After Bolsonaro Ally Attacks Police With Rifle and Grenades, Top U.S. and Canadian Officials Meet to Consider Armed Intervention Force in Haiti, U.S. Senators Call on Biden to Expand Protected Status for Haitian Refugees, 260,000 Refugees in US at Risk of Deportation as Talks Over Protected Status Collapse, Families Demand Texas’ Top Public Safety Official Resign Over Uvalde School Shooting, Elon Musk Purchases Twitter for $44 Billion and Fires Top Executives, New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez Under Federal Investigation, Communities of Color Hit Hardest by COVID Less Likely to Receive Antiviral Drugs, Ebola Outbreak Spreads to Ugandan Capital, Thousands in Pakistan Mourn Journalist Arshad Sharif, Killed by Police in Kenya, At Least 31 People Killed By Flooding, Landslides in Philippines, Same-Sex Marriage Now Legal In all 32 Mexican States

Public health experts in the United States are warning of a possible “tripledemic” of respiratory illness this winter: an increase in COVID cases, an early flu season and a surge in cases of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Hospitals in some parts of the U.S. are already seeing a surge in cases of RSV, which usually causes mild, cold-like symptoms but can be very serious for infants. Many respiratory illnesses are “coming back with a vengeance” after ebbing over the last two years due to pandemic mitigation efforts says pediatrician Dr. Christina Propst. She urges parents of infants to continue to avoid crowds, practice good hygiene and keep up-to-date on children’s vaccinations in order to slow the spread of RSV. “It is really important to take these common sense precautions to keep children safe and really to keep our healthcare system afloat at this point,” says Propst.

Peace talks between Ethiopia’s government and rebel forces in Tigray began Monday in South Africa, where the African Union is mediating the highest-level effort so far at ending the bloodshed. The war began in November 2020 when Ethiopian troops, backed by soldiers from neighboring Eritrea, launched an assault on the northern Tigray region against the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front. All sides in the conflict have been accused of abuses, with the death toll believed to be in the hundreds of thousands and millions more displaced. Journalist Tsedale Lemma, founder of the English-language magazine Addis Standard, explains what is at stake in the negotiations.

We speak with Phyllis Bennis, Director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, about the growing crisis in the occupied West Bank as Israel escalates its daily military raids. At least 120 Palestinians have been killed so far this year, including dozens of children. U.S. President Joe Biden met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog Wednesday but neither mentioned Palestinians in public remarks. “There has to be a change to acknowledge that U.S. support for Israeli apartheid and occupation is what enables these raids to go on with impunity,” Bennis says.

A group of progressive Democrats in the House of Representatives this week sent, then retracted, a public letter urging the Biden Administration to engage in direct diplomacy with Russia to end the war in Ukraine while continuing to arm and support the government in Kyiv. The letter was signed by 30 lawmakers from the Congressional Progressive Caucus and saw an immediate and fierce backlash, as critics said it undermined Ukraine’s position and downplayed Russian atrocities. Progressive Caucus chair Congressmember Pramilya Jayapal issued a retraction less than 24 hours after it was published, blaming her staff for improperly releasing it. Meanwhile, some signatories said they had signed the letter months earlier when the war was at a much different stage and that they were unaware it would be released now. Phyllis Bennis, fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, says ignoring diplomatic channels will only prolong the war. “The level of outrage that greeted this very careful sort of commonsense approach shows us how much work is still needed … to stop the kind of control that militarism seems to have on our assumptions about what foreign policy looks like,” says Bennis.

U.N.: Failure by Nations to Meet Climate Pledges Puts World on Track for 2.9 Degrees of Heating by 2100, The Lancet: Immediate Action on Climate Could Save the Lives of Millions, Cholera Spreads in Nigeria After Historic Flooding, Russian Attacks Further Degrade Ukraine Power Grid; 70,000 Evacuate Russian-Held Region, 15 Killed, 40 Wounded at Iranian Holy Site in Attack Claimed by Islamic State, Second Woman Says GOP Senate Candidate Herschel Walker Pressured Her to Have Abortion, Outgoing Rep. Seeks to Clear Up Confusion Over Name “Mike Doyle” in PA Congressional Race, Arizona Democrat Katie Hobbs’ Gubernatorial Campaign Office Burglarized, Judge Orders Mark Meadows to Testify in 2020 Georgia Election Probe, Michigan Jury Convicts 3 More Men in Gov. Whitmer 2020 Kidnapping Plot, Prominent Trump Backers Plead Guilty to Robocalls Spreading Voter Misinformation, Elon Musk Moves Closer to Twitter Takeover As Employees Fear Mass Firings, Pennsylvania Judge Set to Deny New Trial Request for Mumia Abu-Jamal, Prominent Haitian Reporter Survives Shooting as Another Journalist Found Dead

As Republican-led states clamp down on voting rights, we look at how Black voters are helping to organize unprecedented voter turnout ahead of midterms. “We are literally fighting for democracy,” says LaTosha Brown, co-founder of the Black Voters Matter Fund, who says organizing voters is “the winning strategy” despite the resolve of the “consulting class” to invest campaign funds primarily in TV ads.Georgia’s special election Senate races in early 2021 were “not a fluke, “says Brown. “We need to recognize that it is going to be community-led efforts, grassroots democracy groups that are literally our best defense on the frontlines from protecting us against facism.” This comes as President Biden announces he has authorized the transfer of $10 million from the Democratic National Committee to House and Senate Democratic campaign committees.

As the midterms draw closer, we speak with journalist Will Bunch about how extremist Republican candidates increasingly look like they could win. In Pennsylvania, the Republican gubernatorial candidate is Doug Mastriano who attended the January 6th “Stop the Steal” rally and helped arrange buses for pro-Trump protesters to come as well. He later worked with former President Trump’s legal team to overturn the 2020 election results. This comes as racist campaign ads sponsored by a new group called Citizens for Sanity continue to fill the airwaves. “The Democrats are running out of time but I hope they find a way to counter this Republican message on crime because I’m really worried that it’s proven to be very effective so far,” says Bunch.

Hundreds of Penn State students protesting a speaking event with Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes on Monday night were showered with pepper spray by men who appeared to be with the hate group. Penn State, which abruptly called off the talk on Monday, had resisted earlier calls from students, faculty and community members to cancel the event, citing free-speech rights. We speak with one of those students, Sam Ajah, president of the Penn State College Democrats club. “Fascism doesn’t have a place on our campus,” says Ajah, who describes being “disappointed and disgusted” by the university, which attempted to pin the violence on the peaceful protestors.

The candidates for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania met Tuesday for their first and only debate in a race being closely watched across the country as a possible bellwether for the midterm elections. Trump-backed Republican nominee and TV personality Mehmet Oz, better known as Dr. Oz, sparred with Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman about crime, inflation, abortion and more. The night was a major test for Fetterman, who used a closed captioning device as he recovers from a major stroke that has resulted in auditory processing difficulties. “No matter where you come down politically, it was a very hard night for John Fetterman in terms of where he was at with his stroke recovery and trying to deal with a format like this,” says journalist Will Bunch, who called the debate “one of the most make-or-break nights I’ve seen in my lifetime of covering politics.”

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With U.S. midterm elections less than two weeks away, Democrats hoping to keep control of Congress and make gains in state governments are facing significant political headwinds — even in supposedly safe blue states like New York, where the race for governor has tightened ahead of the November 8 vote. For more, we speak with political organizer Mark Green and four-time presidential candidate Ralph Nader, co-authors of a new report titled “Crushing the GOP, 2022.” They argue Democrats have the better policies but are not conveying them to a public that is eager to vote for a party that will protect democracy and their pocket books. ​​”This party doesn’t know how to win,” Nader says of Democrats.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has begun a historic third term, cementing his place as the country’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong. The Chinese Communist Party confirmed Xi’s third five-year term at a party congress in Beijing this week, elevating more Xi allies to top roles and demoting some who were seen as potential rivals. Under Xi, China has taken a much stronger role in economic management, as well as a “zero COVID” policy that has imposed severe restrictions in an effort to control outbreaks during the pandemic. He has also overseen a growing surveillance state to silence dissent and target ethnic minorities including Uyghurs. “In the past 10 years since Xi came to power, the horrendous human rights violations Xi Jinping committed was just striking. And now he’s going to have another five years at least,” says Yaqiu Wang, senior China researcher at Human Rights Watch. We also speak with Johns Hopkins University professor Ho-fung Hung, who says characterizing the U.S.-China rivalry as a “new Cold War” is misleading, saying the countries are instead engaged in an “inter-capitalist competition” over economic dominance within China and elsewhere in the world.

Rishi Sunak Becomes Third U.K. Prime Minister in Seven Weeks, Representatives of Ethiopia’s Government Meet Tigray Rebels for Peace Talks , IAEA to Investigate Ukraine Nuclear Sites Over Russia’s “Dirty Bomb” Claims, German President Visits Kyiv Amid Calls to Further Arm Ukraine, U.S. Progressive Lawmakers Call on Biden to Pursue Diplomacy With Russia, Russian Court Rejects Brittney Griner’s Appeal of 9-Year Prison Sentence , Heavily Armed Teen Gunman Shoots Six, Two Fatally, at St. Louis High School, Michigan Teen Pleads Guilty to Murder and Terror Charges in Oxford High School Shooting, Charlie Crist and Ron DeSantis Clash in Florida Governor Debate, Justice Clarence Thomas Blocks Lindsey Graham Subpoena in GA Election Interference Probe, Ex-Minneapolis Cop Pleads Guilty to Aiding and Abetting Manslaughter of George Floyd, Israeli Forces Kill 6, Wound Dozens in Overnight Assault on Nablus, Iran Indicts 300+ on Criminal Charges Over Anti-Government Protests , Deadly Cyclone Leaves Millions Without Power in Bangladesh, North and South Korea Exchange Warning Shots Amid Heightened Nuclear Tensions, U.S. Public Health Officials Warn of Surging RSV Cases , Penn State Cancels Talk by Proud Boys Founder Gavin McInnes Amid Student Protests