The Takeaway

On Wednesday, Republicans won their 218th seat in the Congress, flipping control of the House of Representatives even with several races still uncalled. Then on Thursday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced her plans to step down as House Speaker after leading Democrats for two decades, though she will still remain in Congress as a Representative from California.

House Republicans nominated current Minority leader Kevin McCarthy to become the new speaker, pending a vote on the House floor in January. President Joe Biden now has a clearer picture of the legislative landscape for the remaining two years of his first term. But before the 118th Congress takes its seats just after the New Year, there is still a narrow window for some legislative action by the 117th.  

The remainder of 2022 — this period between an election and the installment of successors is known as a lame-duck session — and this could be the last chance for Democrats to use their majority in both chambers of Congress to pass legislation. 

In fact, they’ve already started that work. 

On Wednesday, the Senate voted to advance a bipartisan same-sex marriage bill, which would protect marriage equality under federal law. Congress also just passed a federal cannabis bill designed to expand medical marijuana research to be signed into law.And lawmakers need to pass a budget to avoid a looming government shutdown by December 16th.

So what else is on the agenda for this lame-duck session? Potential immigration reform, expansion of Child Tax Credits, and more. We spoke with Dorian Warren co-president of Community Change, co-chair of the Economic Security Project, and my co-host for Takeaway Deep Dives, and Bruna Sollad, Senior communications and Political Director of United We Dream, the largest non-profit immigrant youth-led community in the country fighting for immigration reform.

Assisted reproduction clinics have seen a sharp rise in the number of Black folks seeking their services during the pandemic. But many face a barrier even before pregnancy that they weren’t even aware of: a shortage of Black sperm donors.

For many, having a Black donor is a primary concern in building families that reflect their cultures and identities. And while the best current scientific evidence indicates there’s no genetic basis for the idea of race, that doesn't mean it doesn't matter to people when they are building their families — especially when they’re using assisted reproductive technologies.

We speak with Dr. Camisha Russell, associate professor of philosophy at the University of Oregon and author of the book “The Assisted Reproduction of Race.”

We're also joined by Regina Townsend, founder of The Broken Brown Egg, an infertility support community for Black individuals and families. And, we hear from a Black man who donated sperm on what creating a Black family means to him.

For full transcript, see above.

On Wednesday, members of the Cherokee Nation traveled to DC for a historic Congressional hearing.

Nearly 200 years after the Treaty of New Echota and the Trail of Tears displaced their ancestors, the Cherokee Nation is asking for Congress to fulfill its end of that treaty: a promise to seat a non-voting delegate in the House. The hearing was the first step in that process.

In 2019, the Cherokee Nation nominated Kimberly Teehee to be its delegate. But Native representation is unprecedented in Congress, which left many members of the House Rules Committee with questions about what precisely a Native American delegate to Congress would do.

We spoke with Delegate Kim Teehee, a citizen of Cherokee Nation, Director of Government Relations for Cherokee Nation, and Senior Vice President of Government Relations Cherokee Nation Businesses to find out more about her potential appointment to Congress.

For full transcript, see above.

In the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic––when health risks and isolation protocol felt ever changing––there was one nightly routine New Yorkers could rely on. 

Residents gathered outside of their homes every evening to cheer for the "essential” workers. The nurses, health care professionals, or grocery store employees, who risked their own health to keep critical operations running for others.

It was the sound of recognition for a labor force often overlooked. And the deathly circumstances essential workers faced on a daily basis reimagined the ways we view the conditions of labor. 

Jamie McCallum, professor of sociology at Middlebury College, unpacks the pandemic’s impact on labor rights in his new book: Essential: How the Pandemic Transformed the Long Fight for Worker Justice. 

The Takeaway spoke with Jamie about the intersection of the labor and racial justice movement, rising inflation, policy surrounding worker’s rights, and the history of labor movements. 

Georgians have less than four weeks before their next election since neither Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock or his challenger Republican Herschel Walker earned 50% or more of the vote, which under state law forces a runoff election. On December 6th the state will once again set out to decide who will fill the Senate seat.

 We take a look at the sprint to the election finish line with Stephen Fowler, a political reporter at Georgia Public Broadcasting, and host of the Battleground: Ballot Box podcast.

The 2022 FIFA World Cup is expected to draw a record breaking 5 billion viewers. Play kicks off Sunday and all eyes are on the host nation Qatar.  This year's World Cup has been embroiled in controversy from the start, with allegations of corruption and bribery in the process of FIFA awarding the bid to Qatar.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Human rights organizations have called out Qatar over human rights violations against migrant workers who have been building the infrastructure for the World Cup. There are also concerns over freedom of expression and assembly, and discrimination against women and the LGBTQ community in Qatar. Meanwhile, there have been protests and calls for boycotts. 

We speak with Roger Bennett, founder of the Men in Blazers media network, and co-author of Gods of Soccer. 

On Monday, President Joe Biden met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping ahead of the G-20 summit in Indonesia. This was their first face-to-face meeting since Biden was elected, and the meeting comes at a rocky point in U.S.-China relations.

For more on how the meeting went and what was discussed, we spoke with Gordon Chang, author of “The Coming Collapse of China” and “The Great U.S.-China Tech War.”

For full transcripts, see above.

Protests in Iran continue in response to the death of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old woman who died while in police custody after having been detained for allegedly wearing her hijab incorrectly.

Since the protests began in September, HRANA, an Iranian human rights organization, estimates that at least 344 protesters have been killed, and almost 16,000 have been detained. 

Last week, in an open letter signed by the vast majority of Iran’s members of Parliament, lawmakers called for "no leniency” against protestors.  The letter reads:

“We, the representatives of this nation, ask all state officials, including the Judiciary, to treat those, who waged war (against the Islamic establishment) and attacked people’s life and property like the Daesh (terrorists), in a way that would serve as a good lesson in the shortest possible time.”

And on Monday, an Iranian court court issued the first known death sentence to a protester since the demonstrations began in September. The protester was accused of setting a government building on fire and charged with “war against God” and “corruption on Earth.”

We speak with Jason Rezaian, Global Opinions Writer for The Washington Post and former Tehran correspondent for The Washington Post.

Teen Vogue hosted it's 5th annual Teen Vogue Summit at Goya Studios in West Hollywood, Los Angeles.

"Everybody is just trying to be cool, but there's no such thing as cool," said Karissa Mitchell, Senior Beauty and Fashion Editor of Teen Vogue after hosting a panel of changemakers in the beauty industry. 

Karissa said put the panel together "...to inspire the teenagers that are coming up in today's society that you're fine just the way you are. And just don't panic when it comes to beauty. Everybody's having the same struggle, even the people you're trying to impress."

The theme of this year's summit was "celebrate, collaborate, create!" and it featured some of the industry's favorite creators, changemakers, and ceiling-breakers. Following the midterm elections, our digital producer and "Senior Gen-Z Correspondent" Zachary Bynum stopped by the Summit for some post-election takeaways on politics, culture, fashion, and self-care.

Zach spoke with Versha Sharma, Editor-in-Chief of Teen Vogue; ALOK (they/them), gender nonbinary writer, performing artists, and comedian; and Adwoa Aboah, British supermodel, actor, and founder of Gurls Talk. 

Last week UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, opened the United Nation's annual climate summit, COP27 meeting this year in Egypt, with a dire warning: "We are in the fight of our lives, and we are losing, Greenhouse gas emissions keep growing, global temperatures keep rising, and our planet is fast approaching tipping points that will make climate chaos irreversible. We are on a highway to climate hell with our foot still on the accelerator.”At last year's conference in Scotland, countries recommitted to cutting greenhouse gas emissions to limit the rise in global temperature to 2 degrees Celsius. Despite these promises, the world is still not on track to meet that goal. Even in this year the earth’s rising temperatures have fueled extreme weather events. It’s poorer nations in the Global South that bear a disproportionate share of the burden. This year some of those nations have intensified demands for wealthier nations to pay climate reparations and establish a “loss and damages fund.”

President Joe Biden spoke on Friday and outlined U.S. commitments to cutting methane and carbon emissions, but he stopped short of committing any resources for global “loss and damages” due to the United States role as the world’s second largest producer of of greenhouse gasses.  

For more on this we spoke with Jean Su, Energy Justice director at the Center for Biological Diversity, the co-author of the report, “The Climate President’s Emergency Powers.” And she is Co-Chair of Climate Action Network International.

For full transcript, see above.