This is al jazeera, these are the top stories, irans father moses has his Country House sold military drawings to russia. But he says that was before the invasion of ukraine to harangue says, key used to provide evidence that iranian drones have been used and war doses your body has more from to home. The radiant foreign minister am europe de la young, went on to say that the iranians sent a delegation to a european country 2 weeks ago where they were expecting to meet with ukrainian officials who were going to present them with evidence that these drones had been used in the conflict in ukraine, according to the re raining foreign minister, those officials never showed up. He believes that is as a result of pressure from the United States government as well as germany who are looking to impose further sanctions, honor on it regarding the sale of these drones to the russian government. Now, the foreign minister saying that the iranians do not have not taken sides, they dont support either side. In this conflict, they are looking to come back, play a role in resolving the ongoing war in ukraine. Italy says it will allow the docking of one of 3 ships carrying refugees rescued from the mediterranean, but its only for health checks. Some of those on board have been stranded at sea for more than 2 weeks. A b, m o embossed talk was the novel laquonda rivera. A ship will be allowed to remain in italian territorial waters, only for the time necessary to allow us to see on board all the possible Health Emergency of the people for whom i promise italy will take charge will take all the minus. Its been said in the press and not through diplomatic channels that theyre all mine is on board. Its been said that theyre pregnant women or women with small children or people with a fever. We didnt, protesters and gunners capital calling for the president to step down because of an economic crisis. Rising fuel prices and soaring inflation have squeezed grenades already struggling with high cost of living. Photos are being held in london against the spiraling cost of living in the u. K. Demonstrators are calling for an end to government estero, 2 measures, as well as a general election. Coming up next on al jazeera, its up front. The way a sense of belonging to baby says, does it. Then its been like this in and the every day heroes keeping communities together. I believe im good with them. Once again, my phone a 0 visits, the kenyan town of he 10 that produces some of the worlds fastest runners. And where a terrible crime has led to a reckoning with gender based violence, a sense of community on a jesse era in the United States, the right to vote is just that a right. Not a privilege. However, in the run up to the november mid term elections, there has been a slew of legislation pushed through aiming to curtail which should be the right of every us citizen to have their voice heard in electoral politics. Currently, there are a number of cases before the United StatesSupreme Court challenging measures that would undermine representation and participation of black people and other minorities if past adding to that is the growing number of tactics being carried out on the ground right now that are suppressing peoples access to the ballot. So what does this mean for us democracy in the voting process . Ah, joining us today is latasha brown, co founder of black voters matter. Ari berman Senior Reporter at mother jones and the author of give us the ballot. The modern struggle for Voting Rights in america, and sarah brannon, managing attorney at the a c l u Voting Rights project. Thank you all for joining us on a front latasha. Im going to start with you because you are in georgia, which is a republican stronghold reportedly, but its a red state this kind of turning into a Battle Ground state. Black people they are though, are having to contend with some sweeping voting restrictions. And im trying to get an understanding here of what the state of things are in georgia right now for black voters. You know, as you said, people may recall that right after the 202021 election. What we saw on the state legislature there was a beal call s b 2 o 2, senate bill t o 2 that passed on the sign into law by the governor who i call the a brand camp. Who is the vote suppression . Im chief. I think around the country that part of what they bill did and the short way of understanding is that there are components of that bill that one restricted access to the ballot to it literally weapon, as administrative process in such a way that the governor Republican Party can actually were challenging, take over on Election Results of if is that to their liking. Im in the 3rd thing that it does as creates this culture fear by criminal as an organizations such as our own and others that are literally doing things like comfort care to provide just water, a pizza and copper care for people that stand in a line for hours and so like this by 1000 cuts. So theyve been using these different tactics to write, restrict access to create this culture fear, and to really be able to weaponized as administrative process. The good news is that what is happening, george is that we broke in. All kinds of records related to having more people to turn out for early voting. You know, the narrative from republicans, is that, well, this proves that voters suppression does a, were the real narrative. Is that because of both suppression, certain communities, like the African American community, is pissed off. And weve decided to organize ourselves is taking a tremendous amount of time, Human Capital and resources to really be able to combat these barriers. Ive been placed in a place and what were seeing is that African American voters are literally making up of the school over performing depth between the report between 38 and 40 percent of the early African American, both ari, i mean, the whole point of the 1965 Voting Rights act was to prevent their from being buried. And constitutionally black people and all populate, all citizens have the right to vote. But historically, things like poll taxes, grandfather, cause all sorts of stuff stopped black people in real life for being able to vote 1965 Voting Rights acts as okay, well stop this. Now you have real representation, real access to the vote, and yet right now where to moment where it seems like for the 3rd time the legislation is being got it. Were literally re battling re litigating the same battles. We that we fought 60 years ago. I walk me through one why this piece of legislation was so important in to how was it being struggled over now . Well, thats absolutely right mark. We had decades of disenfranchisement in this country of black americans really going back to the founding itself when only white male Property Owners could vote and then Voting Rights were steadily expanded. First, fir, white men who didnt own property and then dramatically expanded for black men. With the passage of the 14th and the 15th amendment, then many of those rights were taken away. And it wasnt until the 965 Voting Rights act that everyone got the right to vote in this country regardless of race or color. And that was a monumental achievement because you had a situation where in states like mississippi only 6 percent of African Americans were registered to vote before the passage of the Voting Rights act. You had counties in alabama that were 8090 percent black. And there was a single black registered voter before the 1965 Voting Rights act. So it revolutionized american democracy. It made america a true democracy for the 1st time. There have been efforts to try to chip away it for years. But those efforts have dramatically accelerated in the past decade. And i think the reason why those efforts have dramatically accelerated in the past decade is because number one, the Republican Party itself has radicalized against american democracy. But number 2, theyve taken over the courts and the courts and the congress with the 2 entities that always protected the Voting Rights at the Voting Rights act was reauthorized 4 times by the congress. And it was also say that those re authorizations were all signed by republican president s. So there was a broad bipartisan consensus for the Voting Rights act for many years. But republicans have now turned against the Voting Rights act. And in particular, the Supreme Court with 5 and then now 6, conservative justice has dramatically weakened the Voting Rights act. In 2021. They severely weaken the law. It harder to strike down discriminatory voting changes. And now theyre basically on the verge of legalizing racial. Jerry bedroom, so the combination of republicans turning against the Voting Rights act and, and capturing the course and waking the Voting Rights act has left it in a very perilous position. You mentioned gerrymandering. Oh, i want to go there. Latasha. I know you have a lot of expertise, some bizarre, i wanna bring you in 1st on this because whats happening in places is there literally redrawing districts so that black people there vote counts, but theres no powerful black voting block there. Beasley diluting the black vote. Theres a case marrow versus milligan in alabama. What were seeing this very thing. And the argument from republican seems to be, well, were, were, were caught, was, was mcculloch line. So theres no black voltage is volts or votes matter, right . So how do you make sense of this . How can we resist this narrative and a whole dangerous isnt . So were very worried about the Supreme Court case, which is marrow versus milligan, which is the alabama re districting case. I think its worth noting that the Alabama Legislature drew the alabama maps and in that congressional map, a 3 judge panel which included 2 drum trump appointees at unanimously, ruled that the congressional map and alabama violated the Voting Rights act. And part of the reason to understand is exactly what youre saying, which is the map that they drew. The state legislature drew really packs and cracks as the words that we used to deny that. So they put all of the African American populations in sort of altogether in one district instead of a really drawing maps that reflect where like people live in alabama. So what happened in alabama is after that decision was rich issue, the Supreme Court stated that decision and then took the case out, but recently heard our arguments on that case in early october. And the concern is that the u. S. Supreme court is going to undermine that ruling, undermine the Voting Rights act, undermine their Voting Rights act, which has been incredibly successful when you talk about a re districting and vote delusion to sort of ensure and protect and make sure that minority voters by letters get equal opportunities to elect candidates of their choice is that a persuasive argument are not to you, but perhaps to the courts in your anticipation. That voting is race neutral, that every vote should count. Would they, black people dont have a right to elect black candidates or that you know, as long as your vote counts in this district of that district, it shouldnt matter where it counts. I mean that this is what the republican legislate legislatures are arguing. Yeah, i mean, and the thing is it doesnt really matter what we think it just matters what 5 conservative justice is on the Supreme Court. And so clearly they think that thats gonna be an appealing argument to them. You have to go back though, because this argument has been made by republicans for decades, that basically the Voting Rights act was becoming a form of affirmative action in the electoral sphere. And its been made more aggressively by republicans in the last redistricting cycle. And theyve taken some really dramatic steps in florida, for example, in the maps that were put forth by the governor Rhonda Santas which in and of itself was extraordinary. As a governor is not supposed to control redistricting, they just filed, dismantled, majority black districts in a way that was clearly thought to violate the Voting Rights act. Southern states have very clearly diluted the power of black votes deny them representation. So youre not saying one group should be favored over another. Youre just saying that the group should have equal access to the political process. And it doesnt really make sense in a state like alabama, which is over a quarter black that they would only control one of 7 districts or that in a state like florida. There could be no black representatives or very few black representatives after this restricting cycle is done. So i dont think its about special treatment. Its about everyone treated the same and right now, white republicans in states like alabama are being treated differently more advantageous. Lee, then black democrats are black voters writ large because black voters are much more likely to associate with the democrats. So i think on the merits of the case, its pretty clear. Thats why they, one of the lower courts of sarah said, but i think you have a Supreme Court that is extremely ideological when it comes to the Voting Rights act. And theyre going to find a way to rule in favor of alabama that they want to do. Theres another piece to this latasha that i wanna talk about, which is the actual Voter Suppression bill. Since january of 2021. There had been 400. 00 restrictive bills introduced into legislatures around the country that is a stunning number, or those that would point at this being part of a larger kind of racial backlash against the black community and minorities. Ah, there is a fear of black political power. Ah, that is motivating jim crow era voting restrictions. Some would argue were seeing efforts to criminalize, we see people who have food and water. We see the lines get longer. We seen fewer voting locations. I mean, it seems to me that this could have a Material Impact on the midterm elections. If, if, if black you will have it harder to vote and its gonna be harder for their vote to count this as a mature election are literally not just on black voters, but it actually unravels democracy that we have to really recognize the fragility of democracy. That were dealing with right now, so i can talk about george. I can also talk about florida, where in florida, where the centers is actually created a police force, essentially to actually be in a termination to for voters the or theres one voter who was a former incarcerated returning citizen who had registered to vote because his county said that he could register to vote, he was awakened one morning at 5 oclock in the morning with a swat team at his door and a helicopter over his house and police in his back yard. That is, at his most, that is not only traumatized as an intimidation, but really when we look at it, those are signs of fashion. We have to really recognize what were up against. This is not just another election around the democrats and republicans. Were literally an election that we are determining what is the future of democracy in this country. Not just what the black people can vote, but whether people can vote who may or may not have the same opinion as those that are in power. Will we have free and fair access . Will we have a system that people are not punished because they participate in election . So sir, theres a way that weve talked about this along racial lines. But in this country, its also more difficult for transfer to vote, a disabled folk to vote ah, 9 English Speaking people to vote a poor and working class people to vote. I mean, structurally, it seems to me that the most vulnerable in society have it hardest when it comes to accessing one of the very things it might make their lives easier, right. Which is access to the democratic process. Um, is this a new thing or has every we, historically always me to harder for all these wonderful groups to vote . I think we have, there has been some history of always making it harder for these vulnerable groups to vote. But i think its a Fair Assessment to say that has gotten worse in more and recent history in the last 10 years. I think one thing to understand about it is, and this is, comes up particularly in georgia, was that the early vote is a good example, which is that as we, as a society have modern i, in our technology and our access to try and, and figure out how to do things. Theres great opportunities, early voting, registering to vote online, automatic voter registration, just all of these ideas that take it a vote by mail that really good example that take advantage of some of the Technology Advances we have as a society. And in some places, theres a lot of effort to try and implement those improvements to make it easier for everybody to vote. Particularly people of color people who are lower income people who have disabilities and need more assistance with voting. People who have, you know, our english is not their 1st language. We have the capacity to help thos