How the 2022 midterms will test democracy

Good morning! It's Tuesday, October 4th. I'm Shumita Basu. This is "Apple News Today." Each morning, hear about some of the most fascinating stories in the news, and how the world's best journalists are covering them.

We're exactly five weeks away from the midterm elections. And starting today, we're hosting a series of interviews with thought leaders and journalists about what's at stake in November. My colleague, Gideon Resnick, is here with me. Hey, Gideon.

Hey Shumita. How's it going?

Good, good. So Gideon, help our listeners understand what they're gonna get out of this series of conversations and why you wanted to speak to the people you spoke with.

Yeah, I guess I was trying to answer some of the fundamental questions that it feels like we've all been asking ourselves about this midterm cycle. You know, there are races themselves, every house race, 36 Senate races, lots and lots of important down-the-ballot races, but it really does feel like something bigger is going on, right? It really feels as though it's almost a referendum on our democracy itself.

Yeah, so Zelizer being able to put this into context. What does he say about whether he thinks our democracy is strong enough to withstand the bumps in this election cycle?

I think he would characterize it as a loaded question at this point. I get the sense that he does want to say "Yes, it can survive." You know, historians like him tend to lean on historical fact, like the fact that the United States survived the Civil War, but Zelizer really said he's not sure because we've never truly had a moment where half the country's version of reality is really just so different than the other half's.

This danger is we don't even really know what's happening, or a lot of people are fundamentally disagreeing over the basic facts. That makes democracy hard because you have no common foundation.

You know, he had one example where he was talking about speaking to students at Princeton about the Vietnam War, and during that time there was, of course, really robust debate about whether we should be there in the first place, what we were even doing. And he says that he can't really imagine that debate taking place in that way in today's times.

Today, I would imagine, like, you'd have the debate being "Are we even in Vietnam?" With some people saying "Well, we're not there. Nothing's actually happening." Even as body bags come back right in front of our eyes. And if you're in that space, how can a political leader lead the country in a direction?

So, what does Zelizer say that the signs are pointing us toward? Like, what does our future look like? How hopeful is he?

So Zelizer was trying to offer some amount of hope. He said, reflecting on the last couple administrations, that he was surprised at how quickly institutions we take for granted can get eroded, but also surprised at how quickly they can return to some extent. He also said that the fact that there was really high voter turnout in the 2020 election was a good sign. But even with all of that, Zelizer's message really was that he was quite concerned.

I think if we move in a direction where many election deniers win office and the outcome is read as legitimating January 6th, rather than negating what January 6th was about, that means we're in a worse place.

Thank you so much, Gideon. If you're interested in hearing Gideon's full interview with Princeton historian Julian Zelizer, we'll put it out in our feed today as a special episode. You can find that in both the News app and the Podcast app. And if you're listening in the News app, we'll queue it up to play right after this episode of "Apple News Today."

Earlier this year, American military veterans Alex Drueke and Andy Tai Huynh traveled to Ukraine to fight Russian forces. On their first mission, they say they were ambushed and separated from their group. They tried to make their way back to their base on foot, but along the way, they were captured by Russian forces. They spent more than 100 days in captivity.

They were regularly beaten, punched, hit. They were forced into stress positions. One of them that they described was staying on their hands and knees for hours and basically holding that position until their feet went numb, so that there was really no way around the beating. It was really a matter of how and when. They said their captors also questioned what they were doing fighting for Ukraine.

They were asked repeatedly if they were members of the CIA, if they were affiliated with the CIA, and basically trying to trip them up into saying that they were. They seemed to have a hard time believing that Americans without support of the U.S. government would be finding themselves in the situation as a rank-and-file soldier in a Ukrainian unit.

A new report says the women's professional soccer league has normalized abuse and misconduct, and it says the roots go all the way back to youth leagues with verbally and sexually abusive coaches. ESPN reports on this investigation, which was conducted by former U.S. Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates on behalf of the United States Soccer Federation. The report starts with this allegation, and a warning here that some listeners may find these details disturbing.

He's a predator. He sexually harassed me, he sexually coerced Sinead, and he took away our careers.

Riley told "The Athletic" that the majority of the allegations against him were untrue. But following these articles, things got ugly inside the league. Riley was fired, players refused to take to the field, which led to a bunch of cancelled games, the commissioner of the league and her general counsel stepped down, and more players started speaking up. By the end of the season, half of the head coaches in the league were gone.

TRUTH BE TOLD ARCHIVAL CLIP]

She went through all the right steps to report someone who was sexually harassing her, and she was failed. She was failed by the system, and I think that was the hardest thing at the time was "What do we do now?"

TRUTH BE TOLD ARCHIVAL CLIP] In a statement, USSF president Cindy Parlow Cone called the findings of this most recent report "heartbreaking and deeply troubling." She said the federation is taking immediate action to make soccer safer for all the athletes involved.

It's officially pumpkin spice season, a time of year when Starbucks rolls out its fall drinks and seemingly everyone else in food and retail follows suit. You can get pumpkin spice cereal, pumpkin spice beer, ramen, SPAM, even dog shampoo. Recently, I was on a trip to India and I brought some pumpkin spice for my aunts to try. They had heard of it, they were curious. And let's just say, for people who cook with way more spices on any given day, it did not live up to the hype.

Cinnamon, cloves. I'm sorry, this is not a spice.

Maybe you agree with my aunt that pumpkin spice is nothing special. But you can't deny that it is a business force, and it is growing. The "Guardian" points out that Americans recently spent nearly a quarter billion dollars on pumpkin spice-flavored groceries in a year. That's a 24% jump from the previous year.

You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And remember, if you're listening in the app, stick around to hear the first episode of our midterm special. I'll talk with you again tomorrow.