Transcripts For DW Markus Lanz 20240712

Student protests suspending a media outlet and taking steps to block the messaging app telegram demonstrators are calling on the Prime Minister to resign. And the Temperance League group stage gets underway on tuesday evening for this Legal Leaders like say post turkish champions but should she care the german side will be keen to make only advantage count against the club promised. Im sorry kelly welcome to the Program States across europe are scrambling to contain a fresh wave of coated 1000 cases belgium is one country where case loads far exceed those at the height of the pen demick 1st wave in the spring the countrys bars and restaurants have been told to close but scientists fear a full National Lockdown could be just a matter of time. There were long queues in brussels on monday people lined up socially distanced to get tested for corona virus belgium has recorded more than 700 factions per 100000 people over the past 14 days the 2nd highest rate in europe many have had their 1st brush with the virus and now they want to be sure that theyre not infected. You know. Someone close to me tested positive so i want to get tested to be sure i dont have any symptoms but better to be safe than sorry. With such a high rate of infection belgium authorities implemented a raft of new measures on monday people have been ordered to work from home were of a possible and social contacts outside of the home should be limited to one. Alcohol sales are banned after 8 pm and a curfew is being enforced from midnight until 5 am cafes bars and restaurants will be closed for a month. Many hospitality workers are frustrated with the return to some of the harsh measures experienced earlier in the year. Its like the 1st time its catastrophic we just have to try and survive weve had some state aid and thats something thats better than nothing but well see. But belgian Officials Say the measures are absolutely necessary the countrys Health Minister says the Health System could soon be overwhelmed by infections and warned of a coming to an army of cases many doctors share his concerns. The sky is more or less blue but we can see a huge wave is about to arrive its inevitable authorities hope the drastic set of measures will have a quick and packed they say theyll review the results in 2 weeks time. And for more lets bring in our very own georg mattis who is joining us from brussels georg why has belgium been hit so hard well sarah a big issue here is of course the book mortality rate the 3rd highest in the world but to explain that you need to understand the broad criteria that belgium uses to get to these numbers and the reason is that only 50 percent of the cases are actually confirmed correct corona cases the other ones of possible cases that have not been confirmed whether coronavirus testim the reason is that in the 1st wave of the pandemic here in belgium the country was so hard hits that they wanted an easy way to to count deaths and that is why they installed the system that now makes the numbers of the death rate look really bad on the other hand youre right of course numbers here i stream the high with belgium having a small population extremely high numbers 2 possible explanations one is that the tracking system has been rather weak its not been running smoothly a corona app has only been installed in the past 2 weeks and another thing is testing and thats not running smoothly either i had one test without waited 5 days in order to get the results back and we have to acknowledge and mention that it is not just belgium that is seeing this uptick it is also the broader view given that dark how are restrictions being balanced with principles of Free Movement across the block. Id say the u. S doing much better than in the 1st wave a lot of more coordination is going on a traffic light system has been introduced so the e. U. Member states agreed that they do not want to restrict Free Movement within the for the visa free travel area of europe if youre traveling from a green area to another green area now that at the moment obviously isnt much the case with a lot of orange and red on the map now with the in these cases its still not clear entirely its not come theres no common standard for you Member States how to handle this so it really depends on the National State to decide whether or how long you should go into current time and what test you need in order to travel to the neighboring country or to another human the state and even all of that where the solidarity stand right now in the block and it has covert been more of a strain or or a united or. Id say the lesson is well learn from the forest corona wife that waif that hits europe so nobody wants to go back to traffic jams and medical products being blocked going to another you know member state so when you look at it from a broader picture the e. U. Not being a nation state but rather being an organisation i think the level of cooperation you see on the regional level is i would say its above the monks the best in the world so there is quite a bit of cordon nation now when it comes for instance to buying or ordering mutual of vaccines that are then can be handed out but also when it comes to research and Hospital Corporation so quite a push at the moment from the European Commission in order to be in a good position to face the 2nd wave of matus with a view from brussels thank you. Well russia is likewise logging record case loads of covert 19 more than 16000. 00 on tuesday alone but authorities there are doing all that they can to avoid another unpopular locked out theyre also telling new russian made vaccines due to be rolled out soon and i see that you found out for many people thats music to their ears. Music is his drug nicholai morrow jokes to him its essential. For the professional musician directs an amateur choir in moscow the group is getting ready for an Upcoming Event as if nothing has happened no 2nd wave of coronavirus during the pandemic that has swept across russia and the whole world no one here wants to stop singing despite the risk of infection. Were going to hear the words but the risk here is no greater than the risk of riding the subway or going to the supermarket every day of course we had here to Safety Measures keep our distance while sitting constantly pour disinfectant all over ourselves and so on but ultimately belief and hope remain. Very much we are the good critics. Hope that all goes well something the russians now could use as their country has ranked number 4 world wide in new infection rates for weeks about 15000 covert 1000 cases are registered each day in russia but despite this dramatic situation officials want to avoid another lockdown like the one this spring. We do it weve just extended the School Vacation to 2 weeks all businesses are 1st being given the recommendation and later will be ordered to have their employees work mostly from home more than most here would get no matter what about bars and restaurants must obey hygiene measures in order to stay open the city performs frequent checks on individual restaurants and supermarkets. And imposes penalties of customers or staff dont wear masks for example. Starting this week all guests must register with an electronic code when they visit bars. But many are not especially worried about the risk of infection so do not were all going to infect each other anyway half the country has already survived mild cases of coronavirus myself included. That it will be i had coronavirus without symptoms and im not afraid now i think that sooner or later well all get it. Nicholai mucker outscoring think they get tested for corona virus regulate so that they can attend as many rehearsals possible if one singer test positive for covert 19 he says everyone would be notified immediately. This was a can you was a little bit of it we cant live without music when we were in coron teen for nearly half a year this spring and couldnt sing together we nearly sobbed in despair. That many of the choir singers want to get vaccinated against corona virus as soon as possible russia has just approved its 2nd vaccine against covert 19 despite International Scientists grave safety concerns. And lets cross over now to detail he is moscow correspondent youre overshadow your ear we just heard in your report mention those 2 vaccines that have been approved there and russia do we know how effective they are and what is the outlook for distribution. Well. This week. Announced of the approval of this 2nd new Coronavirus Vaccine even though none is over the russian vaccines have cost of the 3rd phase of rigorous safety trials required in the u. S. And europe earlier in august reported the 1st fix a nation even more one of those hes daughters has been given the russian vaccine hes sad this is surely called be authentic its clear that the 1st to develop a vaccine is a winner in the eyes of the establishment and ordinary people for putin this might be his personal back through about a visit to taste phase of the vaccine will only end in spring then we will be able to see the effectiveness of the russian vaccine despite all the nonsense talk with us a little bit about the general situation because the number of cases in russia is increasing how well prepared are the medical facilities there. Well from a medical perspective fresh eye has of course learned a lot from the 1st wave its not so to the old country but the basic Service Works here and its mostly for freedom i mean agree with basic medical service of course of the authorities have also learned a lot how to avoid next in the hospitals but we shouldnt forget about the huge gap between the capital moscow and the province. Solely western european city with pretty high medical standards but most co is russias calling card and to western bubble the countryside is very different pandemic is much more dangerous is there because many hospitals are poorly equipped there are also shortages of well trained to stuff since wages are extremely low and the best doctors all here in moscow compared with other nations i mean we recently saw those pictures for example of the choir that was practicing there they werent Wearing Masks you know they they were singing. Are the russians in general a bit more relaxed about the pen dymock and if so why is that the case here ie. Well until a week ago i would see people in moscow what actually very relaxed you could probably see any facemasks is partly due to a long and tough lockdown russians experience in march. And muscovite sat at home for almost 3 months and of course people felt relieved once the restrictions were lifted a memory of the lockdown is still present the film nobody wants to do its to happen again and secondly there is also the russian mentality of this socalled voice a voice means everything will be fine somehow thirdly is the governments Information Campaign plays also the role it aims to avoid hard to lock down as i showed it in my report but as i said it was like this a week ago now the tide is turning in russia to and we see for example Police Officers officers checking people at subway entrances for we are the place must so lets see if in another knock down maybe in post here in russia to hear your shadow and muska thank you. First get a quick check of some other stories making news around the world french authorities have ordered the closure of a mosque in paris saying that it helps provoke last weeks murder of a teacher in the mosque had shared a video railing against the teachers use of cartoons of the muslim prophet mohammad in his class its director insists that sharing the clip was not a call to violence. The United Arab Emirates and israel have signed a series of accords in tel aviv thats after the 1st ever government delegation from the u. A. E. Arrived on israeli soil last month the u. A. E. And bahrain became the 1st arab gulf states to establish formal ties with israel in a deal brokered by the United States. Firefighters in the u. S. State of colorado are battling the states largest wildfires on record blazes continue to erupt across the drought stricken state and have destroyed 26. 00 homes Authorities Say that the burning is happening at an unusually late time of year in a period where it should be snowing. When new clashes have erupted between armenia and azerbaijan despite a humanitarian cease fire that was agreed to late on saturday in the disputed region of nagornokarabakh both sides accuse each other of violating the agreement just hours after it came into effect the breakaway region is mainly inhabited by Ethnic Armenians but internationally recognized as part of azerbaijan while authority is in both azerbaijan and armenia have denied targeting civilians residential areas have increasingly common amid the hostilities that have raged for more than 3 weeks now our correspondent yulia 100 ports from azerbaijans 2nd largest city. On the ruins of her old life. Her neighborhood was destroyed. The missile attack over the weekend. For home i mean is. This is from where the rocket came there were houses everywhere here but they were hit and everything got destroyed. The small Sports School to. Look they were close and mattresses lying around my belongings also somewhere here. Next to the bombed out homes a makeshift memorial. Many ganja residents come here to commemorate those killed in the attack certain people according to the authorities. They bring flowers and signs saying who they blame the army an army. To rest in peace guns or people may god bless you. This city of ganja lies dozens of kilometers away from nagornokarabakh people who live here never thought they would become part of the fighting but they were wrong several houses in this residential area have been reduced to rubble over the weekend and its become clear once again that this conflict can escalate any time and in any direction. Since late september armenia and azerbaijan have been at war for nagornokarabakh again. And it is difficult to get an independent picture of the situation in the region both sides report military successes both countries accuse each other of fueling the fighting. 2 attempts at a cease fire have already failed. Propaganda and war restoring determine a very day life. Also here in the city center of gunja most people we speak to support the world azerbaijan more distant with the power and strength of our army will soon be taken and the flag over as a by john will be a race that although much of our registered as a woman to join our army im ready is clerk knew it was were not afraid of me my family and fellow citizens all of us so willing to sacrifice our lifes foreign nations or we will never back down this hall clock what it is is almost 4 to 3 orders after the fatal attack on gunja as a by john has the right to defend itself many here say like. He now has to look for a new beginning in the ruins of her own life. Now representatives of the United Nations the European Union and denmark and germany are holding a virtual ministerial meeting today to discuss the humanitarian crisis in africa conflict torn saheli region and try and increase aid funding the side hell is a vast area stretching from the Atlantic Coast of senegal across the continent to eritrea in the red sea the region has been plagued by extreme poverty drought and jihadist violence which roughed it after it were belly and in northern mali in 2012 that violence has since bread to the rest of the country and to neighboring burkina faso and the share the un says that the region needs urgent humanitarian aid to prevent conditions from worsening further. They had to flee leaving behind everything they own and like nearly 2000000 others in the saddle region so a dog or mark i came to this refugee camp with their child now. Last year in august armed men came to our village and attacked us who ran away you know. But its not just the refugees who need to be fed according to the u. N. More than 13000000 people here depend on humanitarian aid yet in on monday. There is massive poverty the people suffer from the replications of Climate Change such as drought on top of that comes the security situation. Violence reigns in the style terrorist groups are active here and International Forces including the German Bundeswehr are in the region to combat it she brings stability is one of europes main goals here one reason why hundreds of millions of euros are hope to be raised that the donor conference. On when millions of people are this poor the risk of exploitation is high from traffickers from arms dealers and from terrorists who then export the violence. This is why aid organizations say that rather than focusing on military operations the aim should be to support the population with more sustainable solutions. Now thai authorities have ordered a news outlet to close over its coverage of ongoing antigovernment protests these are some of the images captured by voice t. V. Jaring its reporting on the demonstrations that is one of 4 media organizations being targeted by the government as authorities ramp up measures against the prodemocracy movement protesters have been rallying daily in defiance of a ban on public gatherings they are calling for reform of thailands monarchy and for the resignation of the Prime Minister he says that he will not quit and speaking earlier defended the governments decision to suspend certain Media Outlets. Well my duty and everyone is duty is to protect and eradicate all the ilim tensions towards the kingdom we cannot let the attempts to create unrest disunity and chaos in the country to happen will not. And lets go now to bangkok where journalist mathias pair is following events there a fluid situation whats the latest yeah after almost a week of in moscow turings here in bangkok today weve already seen small scale protests in the city even the activists got out of the stations off. Public mess transit. In the city and they were seen to go to the National Anthem and showing the 3 things the salute which is official a sign of the protest. Initially to organize a said there would be a big surprise after whats but the big surprise was just that theyre going to rest today and that theyre not going to protest today on the streets is also a part of the strategy also to tease the police a little bit but the protests of said there will be back on the streets tomorrow with a not a pro and theyre not backing down thats certainly sure but weve heard that the Prime Minister we just heard him saying that he wants that this t. V. Station has been shut down tell us a little bit more about the message that is coming right now from the government and the sense of resolve and opposition to these protests. It government has been trying many things in the past couple of days in order to stop the activists from protesting they have made legal threats against threatening them with imprisonment they. Want the cannons last friday but all of those steps basically to even boden the protesters and they always came back the next day and maybe even more people can take the next day to protest and now the government is trying to crack down on the media in. The country today you have seen one t. V. Station being affected Media Outlets also on the investigation and might have the same results that they also have to shut down because of that the government is also threatening to shut down messaging telegram that is being used by activists and as weve heard the Prime Minister says he thinks that this is necessary to stop chaos in the city but most of us including myself wouldnt say that this situation at the moment is chaotic it has been peaceful protest so far and the term chaos is certainly a term thats mostly only used but a government. Pad joining us from bangkok with the view there thank you so much. Fun weve had some football is now the champions League Group Stage starts on tuesday night among the matches germanys rb lights a host bunch actually here of istanbul like sake reached the tournament semifinals last season and despite losing their star striker in the summer they have started the Current Campaign with a bang. He has every reason to smile at the moment you now goldmans lights are top of the birds League Unbeaten and scoring goals like this. For years paid me star striker t. Mo van air after his move to chelsea scene misplaced so far novels mannys more than happy with the balance of his team. The young skin on the equipment and all the boys all get along with each other really well and so do the Coaching Staff theres a good spirits among us and i hope the players notice that we all speak the same language and all have the same desire to win at the moment for she to be an invaluable source given under. Light cigs run in last seasons Champions League was ended by paris and your man in the semifinals the french side along with bush action here in Manchester United are in light 6 group tricky but doable according to the man between the posts. Flies. It is clear our group this season will be a little bit tougher than last season. But its we want to do as well as last season and get out of the group. The 1st step in doing that laying down a marker against bush actually here week his team in the group. And in cycling colombia fernando governor here was forced to withdraw from the jury after testing positive for covert. 19 ahead of the 16th stage. Is he was the cyclist for the Team Emirates he tested positive for the virus once before back in march but the now isolated 26 year old says that he is completely asymptomatic and doing well due to the rising number of corona virus infections in italy 1000 requested that the g o d italia and early in order to prevent further spread however the request was refused and the competition means september and on october 25th. Next monday that the unit as it is close up this time with a look at the upcoming president ial election in the United States dont forget theres always more in a website t w dot com you can also follow us on social media im sorry kelly in berlin thank you so much for watching. America. Election crisis. Voters the pression electoral districts manipulation and childless denise in this. Type took on hard fast sinister tools in the fight for palin. Is there a way out of the election again. Close up. Next on t w. Law its their obsession for spectacular creatures. Its their passion for nature. Its their complete devotion. That makes them the best Wildlife Photographers in the world. Fascinating. And. Confrontational and stirring. 5 adventures. One goal. The preservation of our planet. Scott is an issue of heart and treason certain paths that are more. Exhausts thats the danger of surat. True or realize that theres a radically different way of living that moves her brother in law passion for china starts nov 6th on t w. Its 2016 and Karen Wilson Mccoy a geriatric nurse from North Carolina wants to cast her vote in the election. Was about. 56 the british. Have sat. Up because i got to reregister because i know were in a system theyre not making this is tiresome. The question is are u. S. Elections truly democratic. Given this is actually an attempt to limit political participation. And these are of course all very powerful players with money and we gave a parson advantage probably one of the biggest ever in history thats how Voter Suppression. Surveys indicate that Many Americans have lost faith in democracy and the problems involved are reflected in this years Election Campaigns. In the us electoral system is based on a number of controversial rules political strategists will do just about anything to help their party win a majority of votes including trying to change those rules to defeat their opponents and a candidate for president can win a majority of the popular vote and nevertheless emerged as the loser. Last new york nov 8th 2016 by late evening it was clear that donald trump would become the next president of the United States. Supporters of the democratic candidate Hillary Clinton were stunned particularly since she had won a majority of the popular vote. Clinton had 2800000 more votes than trump but her opponent won the election. I think its very difficult to call yourselves a democracy. And believe that the people rule when you have a system that. Is essentially making it more difficult for the person. To win the presidency that the most people what if you were drawing this system up today you would never come up with this crazy convoluted scheme. The Electoral College system was written into the u. S. Constitution more than 200 years ago opponents have never been able to find enough votes in congress to change it what was the original purpose of the Electoral College. Is no democrat if you look at this from a theoretical point of view as well but its quite interesting. The authors of the constitution and for the more evidently afraid of mob rule an exit show of their voters supposedly let their emotions take over before they dont make rational decisions. And thats why the authors created the Electoral College to serve as a buffer through college. The college chooses the president after the popular vote is counted each state has a specific number of electors based on the size of its congressional delegation its important to note that the electoral votes are not distributed according to percentages the party that gets a majority of votes in a state is then credited with all the electoral votes in that state. So a state is then listed as either for the democrats or the republicans the winner takes it all. The Political Parties go all out to take the socalled swing states where the vote is expected to be close in a tight race these states can make a big difference. President ial candidates often focus their campaigns on just a few key states because the results can have a major impact on the outcome of the vote. After the republicans lost the 2008 president ial. Then they started working on a strategy to take back the white house and both houses of congress. The rock obama became americas 1st black president winning both the popular vote and the Electoral College plus the democrats held on to the house and senate. Just like looking at the footage from november 2008 and their early years in office and edwards bringing back sort of the hopelessness of the Republican Party at that time. The turnout in 2008 hit a record high and obama won the election with just under 53 percent of the popular vote so. Several states switched from republican shown here in red to democrat shown in blue. After the election the republicans launched a campaign to win back the states that theyd lost it was called red map. What republicans determined to do with red map was actually a really ingenious and savvy plan. They knew that state legislatures after the 2010 election would begin drawing the electoral maps that. The next decades politics in this country. Would be for. The man who came up with the red map concept was a leading Republican Party strategist. Chris drafted a 2 step plan and convinced Party Leaders to approve it the focus of the project was state legislature is. What we were able to do was to bring resources to races that normally wouldnt see about all we had a staff a team a great team that had been in the states many years knew the seats we knew the partners we knew how to invest the money and the trick was raising that amount of money. Which was almost 30000000. 00 and getting it out the door and spent a smart way. Much of that money came from wealthy donors including the Koch Brothers and their lobbying organization americans for prosperity the republicans were able to finance a series of socalled attack ads on democrat candidates a form of advertising that is intended to show a political adversary in the worst possible light. Attack your opponent. This strategy worked in the 2010 midterm elections the republicans took back control of the house of representatives. Before the election republicans governed 15 states afterwards that number rose to a total of 27. 00 a massive realignment of political power. Soon after the 2010 elections phase 2 of red map began every 10 years following a census that is required by law states redraw the boundaries of the electoral districts. District has approximately the same number of. But its a system thats open to abuse politicians who seek partisan advantage. This practice was named after Elbridge Gary a governor of massachusetts in the early 1900 who signed off on a plan to redraw the electoral district boundaries the borders of one district were so twisted that someone likened it to a salamander and then garys name was attached to it the process has become much more sophisticated. Well i mean we have the ability now to look at any voter in america and have a fairly good idea in the coming years how theyre likely to even within the swing voters you can grade them by you know an affinity score that is done by sophisticated data modeling and so you have to take. The clicker with these softwares where you draw these lines and you have to go ok im going down maple street do i take a left onto elm street or do i take a right to jones ave. Invariably every turn you may. Is going to have some part of. The practice is called gerrymandering the borders are drawn strategically to take into account the Party Preferences of the residents there are 2 ways to do this tracking and packing. Packing means putting as many supporters of the Opposition Party into the smallest possible number of electoral districts as a result the Opposition Party can win a few districts by a wide margin but the party in power can win more districts by a narrow majority. Cracking means we can in the power of the opposing party by distributing voters who favor that party into as many districts as possible where they then constitute a minority the votes have been counted all that matters is the number of districts a party has won not the number of voters. Take North Carolina for example the republicans won this state in 2010 and redrew the electoral boundaries in the next election they won only 49 percent of the popular vote but they took 9 of 13 seats for the u. S. House of representatives they also ended up controlling this state legislature. Gerrymandering can change the results from one election to the next as seen in wisconsin in 28. 00 the republicans won only 46 percent of the popular vote but still kept a clear majority in the Wisconsin State Assembly and sent more representatives to congress in washington than the democrats. But this is fundamentally remapped american democracy when a majority of voters in a state are consistently able to elect a majority of representatives. In election after election this has done great and lasting damage to the idea of one person one vote. Last year the u. S. Supreme court declined to rule in 2 cases of gerrymandering. The justices said this was a matter for state legislatures and the u. S. Congress to decide. Another controversial aspect of the american electoral system involves the voters themselves. Excluded voters. This can be done by taking people off the list of registered voters in a given district for any number of reasons Karen Wilson Mccoy from North Carolina was not allowed to take part in the 26000 election shed moved recently and officials couldnt find her new address in their files when i found out alice pursed up the rolls. When i changed my address to warm stand. But my new address change in system a Group Similar family of oh my god you are right today to vote. In the us people are not required to provide government officials with their address and other personal data those who want to vote have to register with the local election authorities. Fishel lists of voters are updated regularly and the names of people whove moved or died are removed. A recent study shows that states are purging record numbers of voters from these lists 16000000 were struck off between 20142016. Thats an increase of 33 percent compared to the figure for 2006 to 2008 many of these. Members of an Ethnic Minority Group the study says that the increase was highest in states that have a history of voter discrimination. North dakota before the 2018 midterm elections on native American Reservations volunteers helped residents fill out their voter applications but the republican led State Government approved a law that requires voters to obtain a new id card that shows their address people had just 3 weeks to get the card. Some failed to meet that deadline so they were not allowed to vote. The socalled voter id laws are just one of several measures that make it difficult for people to vote on election day they simply stay home. While voter id if it needs that kind of you. Sense that everybody has got an i. D. Not every type of i. D. Becomes an acceptable form of voting id what texas did was say you have to have a government issued photo id and then said but your student id from the university of texas a State University for instance will not count but your gun registration card will. In recent years voter id laws have been passed in many states that are controlled by republicans. Africanamericans finally won the unrestricted right to vote in 1965 and new legislation required states to get federal Court Approval before changing their election laws that helped to reduce discrimination against voters prompted a big increase in election turn. Out and strengthened the democratic process. But in 2013 the Supreme Court ruled that a key part of the 1965 Voting Rights act was invalid the court decided that federal supervision of state election laws was no longer necessary. That cleared the way for states to impose new voter identification laws and other restrictions. The result of this has been efforts to decrease very strategically voter turnout in particular among poor and africanamerican nonwhite voters who tend to vote for democrats by introducing things such as voter id laws things that actually sound very sensible if youre outside of the United States of course we should build have to show your id when you vote but in the United States where there arent national i. D. Many people dont have drivers licenses people who tend not to have drivers drivers licenses tend to be poor who tend to vote for democrats its a kind of effort to shape the electorate in a neutral sounding way that actually benefits republicans so thats thats one big threat. According to supporters of tougher of voter id laws these measures how to reduce voter fraud but opponents say theres little evidence to back up that claim. Lobbying groups linked to the Republican Party insists they are merely concerned about Election Security and that any new requirements have nothing to do with Voter Suppression among them is a group called freedom works. Yes it is your right to vote but its also your responsibility to make sure its your responsibility to pay your bills on time its your responsibility to go and make sure if you are interested in voting that you are certain or able to participate in the system i want to make it very easy for anyone in america. Who is legally able to vote to vote that should be a very easy process however it still should take some amount of personal initiative for you to check in you to make sure that everything is all squared away and youre ready to vote. But democrats say that these measures go too far rush holt served for 16 years in the house of representatives and hes concerned about these developments. The right to vote is the most sacred of the rights that we have there are some people who live for the election and they will in gage in Campaign Tactics that are intended to win the election at all cost even those who are conscientious. Can sometimes be fooled by Party Propaganda such as. Being told that oh we must have voter id laws because. Fraudulent voters are everywhere. Consequently its becoming more difficult for some people to cast their ballots and there are other tactics involved such as closing polling stations over the past few years their numbers have been reduced by local Election Officials particularly in Southern States that means that people have to travel further to vote and stand in line longer the impact of this practice is especially acute in neighborhoods that have a large black population. At the same time an estimated 6000000 us citizens are not allowed to vote anyway because theyve been convicted of a criminal offense in some states this form of disenfranchisement applies even after individuals have served their sentence and here 2 africanamericans are disproportionately affected. Then there is creating obstacles to mail in voting. Right now 5 states hold almost all their elections by mail and its an option in 33 others because of the pandemic more people may vote by mail in this years election than ever before they dont want to run the risk of catching the virus at a polling place. But thousands of voters have not yet received their ballot papers and technical problems with the computers at some polling stations have created long delays. I know people who say they came early they were here 630 they left at 830 i saw at least 5 people saying they had to go or they had other things to do when they couldnt stand in. Because that there just was no indication of how quickly they were going to resolve the problem we dont really understand that there are in technology but i also feel like me every time i love some sort of new technology and theres always a problem i just feel like. I feel i hate you its intentional that its so difficult to vote but there are fewer such problems in neighborhoods where the population is predominantly white and relatively affluent some critics have accused elected officials of targeting ethnic minorities we believe that what we saw here in georgia as well as what we saw in wisconsin last month were were test runs to see how they can take a vote by mail and sabotage it right how they can take these elections which may largely be by mail because we dont know whats going to happen with the chrono virus between now and november so theyre trying to see in what ways they can take the same person that they do in every other year and how they can translate that into a National Election that will largely be done by mail. In some states voting is conducted by mail only and others postal ballots are allowed only in exceptional cases and some republicans refuse to accept coronavirus as a valid reason experts believe an increase in mail in voting will benefit the democrats in any case President Trump has been dead set against the option. Dont watch their. Ballots because its going to leave. So we dont want their mail and ballots we dont want anyone to bail and balance that out so are the opponents of mail in voting trying to reduce Election Fraud or do they just want to keep the republicans in power. Compared to 2 main Political Parties and democrats actually have a larger brizard potential voters if a lot of those people over at. Actually able to vote and did so the republicans would have a hard time winning elections in violence a given. The next rule of the game is that there is virtually no limits on the amount of money that organizations can contribute to an Election Campaign funding from the super branch. 2010 the u. S. Supreme courts ruled that the federal government cannot restrict independent contributions to political campaigns because it violates free speech provisions that are guaranteed in the constitution. But critics claim the ruling gave more power to special Interest Groups and their lobbyists in congress. Money and politics its 1. 00 of a very intriguing subject because the natural gut reaction to everyone is take all money out of politics unfortunately thats not even close to being something in the realm of possibility of for several reasons in this country free speech is very very important and so speech is defined as getting your message out so if you start restricting someones ability to buy an ad or to move a mass as it actually very quickly gets back down into free speech we proudly uphold freedom of speech as one of the founding principles of this country and thats good but if money equals speech then those with more money have more to say they have more influence in what they say they can distort the political process. And one person equals one vote another. Strong american principle is completely undone if money is the same as speech. Campaign contributions have continued to increase one of the organizations that keeps track of this funding and its donors is the center for responsive politics based in washington d. C. Theyre concerned that transparency is being a routed that really opened the floodgates to a much bigger amount of money in u. S. Elections than was previously allowed with Campaign Contribution limits capping the amount that donors could give directly to political candidates one limit that super pacs and other outside groups have as theyre not allowed to coordinate with campaigns theoretically in many cases this can happen behind the scenes that may happen in a way thats not as obvious to the average person where they might encourage that and theres very limited in force meant by the federal Election Commission which is tasked with oversight of these types of campaign finances. A lot of this money comes from Political Action committees called super pacs there are no limits on the amount that these organizations can give to politicians much of the cash is spent on advertising campaigns. Hillary clinton raised a total of about a 1000000000. 00 for her president ial Election Campaign and about one quarter of that came from super pacs. Donald trump has portrayed himself as an independent candidate who doesnt want to be tied to big donors but the facts tell a different story. In the case of the 2020 alexion weve seen a President Trumpeting his almost imprimatur to these 2 outside groups that are run by his former officials who worked for his campaign who worked for his white house and who are now running outside groups supporting him and he has appeared. Their advance and has a very close relationship because the laws have these gaps. They can affect that we operate as extensions of campaigns in many cases without violating any rules. Of average citizens are drowned out by the special Interest Groups including super pacs and. Wealthy influential organizations dominate the public debate on major issues. When does a secret just of the politicians Pay Attention to them and ignore the interests of little people. Thats a real problem for the democratic process in america. Will be a moment in with. Freedom of expression versus a 1000000000. 00 business at the end of the day no one can run for congress or the white house without having a sizable Campaign War Chest the rules of the election game in the us can help to sway results at the ballot or mailbox and it doesnt look like the system is going to improve anytime soon. Given the way. Its hard to imagine how he defines institutional forms that are necessary introduced currently i dont think it ever felt so thats a mistake a key thing a democracy requires lots of work requires care and attention. Americas struggling with the size of government and the social fabric its moving left on things. I hope we dont move too far. To mystic. And im going to keep organizing in the light of. This. We cant get there by being places. We cant get here by saying things are never gonna change. Perfectly. Suited. To get. Discovered. Subscribe to. Documentary. Play. Player play. This is live from berlin the european states begin reimposing their toughest restrictions to fight the resurgence of. Curfews and closures spread across the map as case. Numbers have new records Authorities Say the Health Situation in some states is worse than during the pandemics 1st wave we have a closer look at restrictions in belgium and germany. Also coming up feeding the people in that complex and Climate Change and International Donor conference gets underway to