Ah, no, again, im fully battle with the headlines on al jazeera ukraine is said to hold muted, independent face celebration, laughter, warnings rush. Im a rom puppets attacks. A strict curfew is in place in the northeast and see of concave and authorities in the capital kia have banned Mass Gatherings for the whole week. And photos have emerge of russian back separatists in my a poll building prison. K juice that the Chamber Philharmonic to hold a trial for ukrainian prisoners of war. Russia Supreme Court declared the as all regiment a terri school earlier this month. The United Nation has express concerns about the potential trial. There are photos and theres video footage in the media and social media showing cages being built in the mario pool. Philharmonic call really massive cages and the apparently the idea is to to restrain the prisoners of war during proceedings in these cages. And this is not acceptable, this is humiliating as well to the prisoners of war. And it adds to our concerns about how they are being treated and whether the presumption of innocence is being upheld. The construction of these cages coupled with statements made by high level russian officials, calling these people terrorists than not sees and war criminals before any trial has even taken place, is deeply worrying. And the Un Security Council has held an emergency meeting to discuss fighting near the russian occupies Operation Nuclear plant in ukraine. A court in thailand is said to hand down a ruling that will decide if Prime Minister fi your channel check in remaining power. Theyve been protests in the capital bank call ahead of the decision for you took power in a cool in 2014. In the u. S. A former Police Officers pleaded guilty for a role in the death of brianna taylor, a black woman, shot and killed during a police raid at her home. Federal investigators say kelly good lead . Conspired to create a cover story . Brianna taylor steph. Sponsor protests over racial injustice. And Police Brutality across the u. S. Youre up to date with the headlines on al jazeera coming up next year. Its democracy. Maybe we understand the differences and similarities of culture across the world. So no matter where you are, well bring you the news and Current Affairs that Mattie Al Jazeera ah, all i i, what is a democracy . I dont know. Ive never lived in that just guy. I i grew up in south bro. During the crack epidemic me, people was shot in front of my door. My neighborhood was rougher than anyone can ever believe. 5 kids. 1214 shot in the hey. I was just always, i was always different. You know, you realize how, how you make it for people in the community to realize how you make it for people in the community. I had serious anger issues. I was drinking a lot. I gave my life back to god and it put me on a different path. Right. So i came up with black lives matter. Create a new york. If i see the police doing something wrong, always nice. Because the problem is, the average people in our community are too afraid to say anything. Activism chose me. You know, my parents met at a civil rights rally. My father was leaving the protests. My mother looked out the window. He was like, you know, what are you doing up there were protesting girl come on down. Right. So she went down, rest is history like history. We are doing really well with the African American community with hispanic community. Were doing well with women. Were doing very well. See my children as much because i cant stay in one place for too long. Im bouncing around. Kind of live in my life on a right. Right. But im not running. Im just not making myself an easy target. I live out in the back of his car daily. Im going to kill you. Im going to kill your family. We make ourselves hard to kill. Thats our goal. We are hard to care berman women, they love the, you know what . They want security and they dont want roger mean right next to that america has never been a real democracy in the black people will never experience that. Ah, today do not want to see our election victory stolen, valuable than radical m. M a grades which is what theyre doing and stolen by the big news media. Thats what theyve done and what theyre doing. We will never give up. We will never get it doesnt have with the january 6, assault on the Capital Building in the United States was the most shocking day in america since september 11th, 2001 ah. And in many respects more horrified. It wasnt done by foreign terrorists. It was done by merican ah, it was an attempted coup against democracy in the United States. I am often asked why have you spent your whole life studying democracy . We have extended family who narrowly escaped the holocaust there remember, one friend would come over is a survivor of the concentration camp and the numbers were tattooed on his forearm. So when you see in extremities, the ultimate cost of authoritarian rule, when there are no checks on the power of a ruler and a ruling party and a ruling ideology gone mad, it ought to drive you had certainly drove me toward a very passionate commitment to freedom. Ready ready ready democracy is in retreat, freedom is in retreat and more and more countries are slipping backwards. Ready many of the liberal democracies of the world, the high quality democracies, have been losing ground and in particular, the United States, our democracy is under unprecedented sought. I never imagined that democracy itself would be in danger. Like anything weve seen in modern tribes with last a lot of ground in terms of Voting Rights, political polarization, the independence of the courts trust and in the electoral process. And so i, americans tend to be a bit insular and proud. And so its natural to think american democracy began in 1770. 00 search with the declaration of independence or the freeing of the slaves and the granting of the franchise to African Americans in the south. The United States had become full electoral democracy until 1965. When we passed the Voting Rights, the please the would they be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood . I have a dream. Washington dc in 1900. 63, microsoft speaks in a minute. When president johnson introduced the Voting Rights that to the american public, he used the language of the civil rights movement. It took almost 100 years to realize that those civil war amendment granted because there was a push back to the right that were granted on the amendment we had was we call the jim crow era where lots of states passed laws that made it impossible for minority voters, black voters to be able to vote. They had literacy test. They had poll tax is so while on the books, it said you had the right to vote. In reality, you didnt who you know, you hear that america is one of the oldest democracies in the world. But in reality, most people have not had a chance to participate in our democracy. And even now were facing a lot of laws that try to limit or create barriers to that participation. I could direct the Voting Rights project that work with the open my eyes to the challenges within our democracy. It wasnt just about elections, but it was the rule that Racial Discrimination played in voting right. So is america . Democracy is the country thats learning how to be a democracy, but its not there yet. And wanted to make sure that my daughter would become a citizen of a democracy who is really engaged and not taking that democracy for granted. I with democracy in the ideal should definitely be one person when both in a simple way democracy is self governing. Right. People choosing their own leaders, people being able to govern themselves that were finding out that democracy requires the quality ah with the development of technology and the development of a global system, its becoming much clearer how unequal we are and how far we are from the values that we claim to have with are important to think about when we set that intention right when we called ourselves democracy. And i think we spend the rest of our existence of the country trying to get there a i have spent a lot of time thinking and writing about the into war period in europe. I never imagined that setting the into war period would have a lot to teach me about what was going on in my own country. I hadnt thought very carefully about how fragile democracy was, how much it took to make it work and how easily people could forget how valuable democracy was. Democracy originally, the term comes from the greek rule by the people. So on some basic level, on this idea of rule by the people is quite ancient. So on the most basic level, democracy means that people have the right to choose their leaders and governments in free and fair elections. Now that sounds very simple, but in order to have truly fran farrell actions, 1st of all, you have to have freedom to organize politically, to Campaign Around the country to run for office. You have to have freedom to vote. That means all different groups in the country have to have, at a minimum, the franchise the right, the right to vote on the right to contest for office. I think democracy stem o from the innate desire of human beings for dignity, for respect. One person, one vote that citizens have political equality. And of course, in the United States, as in many other parts of the world, that remains an ideal, but not a reality. I do not think that the election system and of countries bear, i think that there are so many problems with the way that we do elections and is extremely inaccessible. We do not have universal voter station like many democracies do. So there are so many steps between an eligible voter and actually voting. The rate of voting in this country is low and thats a direct consequence of an over overly convoluted registration process. Do you register online, you register by mail, for example, in texas you have to be deputized. These are all things that stand in the way of people boating. So our elections cant possibly be fair. They arent actually representative of the american people. First and foremost, not everyone has the right to vote, and of course, that disproportionately affects people of color. Thats why shot one, because we havent done anything about racism in this country. Ah, no, its a question. We often ask ourselves, how did the us get to that point . Ive just received a call from secretary clinton. When donald trump emerged on the scene as a president ial candidate in 2015, i thought it was political theater. And really theater of the absurd, i will totally accept the results of this great and historic president ial election. If i, when he gain more momentum and was able to win the republican nomination and a divided feel, im asking for the vote of every African American citizen struggling in our country today. Who wants a different and much better future. And i told my friends around the world, dont worry about it. It was an unlikely event, like a once in a century story lakes. I love, what healing ah, so november 8th, 2016 was one of the most shocking and alarming a nights of my life. I was worried for american democracy and i was worried for democracy around the world. The combination of the 2008 recession. It had hurt working class incomes in the United States, a lot dag needed for the last 2 to 3 decades. While the very rich were becoming ever richer, much of the middle class, the traditional White Working Class felt threatened as well by social change by immigration, the movement of racial equality. And its just so much social change happening that a lot of people felt their world was being turned upside down. And the way that has been manipulated by populous like donald trump playing on racial anxieties and divisions. It was a very, very volatile mix. We are returning power to you. The american people. Ive gotten more indian blood in me than you do it. I have not. Mm. Mm. Ah, i deal with a number of organizations are referred to as patriots looking for g. Im the president of new york goals keepers. We expect people to live up to that definition of honoring their role to defend the constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. Ah, my background is that i been in war, i was in vietnam. The reality is that you learn things a more that you cant learn any world people wonder what a patriot its someone who loves their country and wants the best for it. And there are many people who believe that there are factions within the United States who dont want that. It seems like our country has moved away from being a Christian Judeo based country to wanting to be a socialist country. My biggest fear for america is the decline of america moving too far to the left. Joe biden. I dont believe hes a moderate less. I believe hes going far left so that the people can be more and more dependent on the government for everything. If you dont have a job, were going to give you money. But the ideology of the right side is that capitalist society, it gives everybody an opportunity to be rich. My parents came from puerto rico, both of them came from puerto rico. Ive worked hard for what i have. I went to school i study, but look at me where i am, we need immigration. We need to bring people into this country. We have to, but we cant have uncontrolled immigration. Uncontrolled immigration will lead to a disaster will lose our country. We have oh, oh, oh oh, you gotta be thankful for. He exposed america for what it really is. He showed you that 70000000 people in this country are races. Evil hateful people, the reading houses of mexican brothers and sisters. We protested for that. I was arrested for police beat me up. They damage my spine. Ah, america expects us to protest peacefully. Meanwhile, is country was founded on bloodshed with with there was a lot of painful moments, initial presidency. He did a lot of evil things to people. Well, actually set it out, was guilty of treason, insurrection, in sedition. And after he did that, the following week i received over a 1000 deft, right. I get Text Messages every day, saying were coming to kill, you dont come to my town. Lynch. Were going to hang you. Were going to lent you. So people put threats on my life, serious threat on the when it happened. I was like, ok, i graduate. I graduated president of the United States of america. I heard my words and thought i should be put to death. Part of me say im doing something right. He put it on the were using you just want to lose the right history or sight. They want to kill you and youre doing the job. Youre doing a work of liberation. So we wait a bullets, well learn how to fight. We learn how to shoot. We will have weapons to defend ourselves with. This is just what it is. You step out there and put your life on the life of like people you are looking america in and saying, im ready to die. Race continues to be the single most powerful and enduring dividing force in american politics. We all know this is the original sim of american democracy is slavery. It was incredible that the america, at its beginning, was able to say all men are created equal while having a significant enslaved population. When america started only white men with property could vote. And america has been struggling since that time, with the ideals that are written down in our documents. All men are created equal ah, my dream is that people like a my daughter, the young people does have a full voice and dont feel targeted because of their race or ethnicity. I think about how how much has changed and then with the kind of thing that Martin Luther king with faith and john logo bad time. But at the same time you had to think about how much still hasnt changed. And we still like we were celebrating the 50 something memorial, but we still were talking about the same thing and just different versions of it. I guess that those fundamental issues havent really changed. You have to be vigilant because it just, if you dont pay attention, you go right back. Exactly ill those times. I think thats really my fear as we move forward, because now we have a new president. But i dont want that to mean that we stop try that we start working because thats exactly how itll come right back around whenever you go backwards the arc when you fight for progress, the arg was a little more of a head. So you are going forward, but you also have to fight about going back, you know, and i think thats an important thing to think about because especially when you think about how much really hasnt changed, its easy to feel defeated, feel like its quite low. But i think, i think every actor with us to try to address that for themselves, knowing that you will work your entire life and in that being will really change. But just think about what would happen if nobody did anything with ah, pro democracy activists risking their lives fighting autocracy. I know that i might go to prison. Good. So i will join the rodney democracy may be exposed to struggle with those who believe democracy is worth dying for. We never know when an opening is going to come. When are fruit vendor is going to emulate themselves and say enough is enough. My life for democracy on al jazeera, my la moda, one dokey mentoring, is that nice . Im more guy on al jazeera debating the issues of the day from the use of always been criminalized around though boundaries of rights. These are just number their people or families and our friends and our Community Member on our online jewel voice. This made it to we dont believe in dialogue. Political crisis must be off with a political solution as Climate Change progress is there. Some people who are in places that theyre just going to have to made. Theres no recognition about what were ready facing. The street. Oh no. J 0 ah. The curfew in khaki