is always meant a great deal to me in so many memories of watching the 2 men that have gone from being a child watching games on my sofa actually presenting at aol. com. it really is a dream come true. this is going to be really unique. walcott we haven't seen anything like this before, so i can't even imagine what is going to be like being immersed in it as a fan out. as a journalist, the drama thousands of fans packing on the stadium, gonna be really, really exciting. we understand the differences in the ninety's of cultures across the world. so no matter what moves here with the news and current phones that matter to you. i don't know about this and until hart the top stories in the algae 0 runs, foreign minister says his country has sold military drones to russia, but they were sent before ukraine was invaded. cavers repeatedly accused to run of supplying russia, the so called commer,

causing drones to bomb ukrainian cities and energy facilities. the wrong says ukraine should provide evidence. western allies have also said, members of iran's revolutionary dodge corps, have been sent to ukraine to train russians. how to operate the james i bought out ties with russia, a based on mutual interest is this height that some western countries staged against iran, saying that iran has said muscles and drones to be used in the ukraine war. i would say that it is totally false about missiles, but about drones. it is true. we send a number of drones months before the ukraine war. we agreed with the ukrainian foreign minister. that if they have any evidence to prove that russia has used any iranian drone and the war that can provide us with it. and also jabari has more from her from the radiant foreign minister. am europe. de leon went on to say that steel aliens 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 conflicts in ukraine. according to the remaining foreign minister, those officials never showed up, he believed, said that is as the result of pressure from the united states government as well as germany who are looking to impose further sanctions on your on, at 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 don't support either side. in this conflict, they are looking to come back play a role in resolving the ongoing war in ukraine. russian president vladimir putin says civilians should be evacuated from the strategic setting of how home as ukraine continues, it's counter offensive in the region. but as defense ministry, he says more than $5000.00 civilians are being evacuated from household each day. ukraine says russia is illegally deporting its people, protesters and garners capital and calling for the president to step down. as the

country faces an economic crisis, inflation has surged to more than 37 percent driving a cost of living increase that many people are finding unsustainable. north korea is being accused of launching for more missiles the latest in a series. this week. earlier, the u. s. was set to fly a nuclear capable supersonic bomber over south korea as part of a joint aerial exercise involving hundreds of war planes. it was a show of force against young young tony chang has more form. so the announcement came a couple of hours ago from the joint chiefs of staff here in south korea, saying that just before mid day, local time, for short range, ballistic missiles were fired from north korea to the west. they travelled a distance of about a 130 kilometers before falling into the sea. it's clearly a reaction to, to the escalation we've seen initially with the north korean ballistic missile tests. then the escalation over these military exercises ariel military exercises,

which had been happening over the last few days in which the americans have extended by day, much to the ire of north korea's foreign ministry. we've seen these 4 more tests firings to day. i think the hope is that now that the, the south korean american aerial exercises of finish, that might bring an end to what we've seen as a quite an escalation of tuscany, tensions in the region, but it remains to be seen. i think some military analysts here in solar expecting further developments from north korea and the next couple of days. does us people have been attending a vigil in the south korea's capital one week after a crowd crash? killed more than a $150.00 people during the halloween event. police have been under scrutiny for their failures to prevent the incident. twitters new owner, ellen musk says heavy job losses on friday, won't have an impact on the way it moderates content. online campaigners are

worried that changes could result in the spread of disinformation and hate speech. those are the headlines that use continues here on al jazeera after the bottom line by oh i hi, i'm steve clements and i have a question which just a few days left before the mid term elections. will americans decide to punish the democrats or the republicans? let's get to the bottom line. ah, every 2 years americans get their chance to clean out all 435 elected members of congress and start all over again. but most of the time they just reelect the same folks, but some races while they're genuinely competitive and every cycle bring some fresh bases. what could really shake things up? the next week is the party that controls the most seats in the house of

representatives. 2 years ago at lean democrat, this time, most polls are pointing to a republican read wave taking over the senate. well, that's been evenly split and both parties are working hard to flip a handful of seats in their favor. even flipping one seat for either party makes a huge difference for president biden. well, it's sort of a referendum on his popularity, which is not so hot right now. if his party loses control of either house of congress, the senate, or the house, it'll make it almost impossible for him to pursue his agenda anymore. republicans are focusing on inflation crime and immigration democrats, on abortion rights, donald trump, and a functioning democracy. so what'll it be to day we're talking with grover norquist, a long time republican activist who found it americans for tax reform, which argues for smaller government. and amy, daisy, a veteran, democratic activists who was the c e o of the democratic national committee during the 2016 election and currently had the signed institute a policy and politics at american university. thank you both for joining me. let me

just start out with you, amy. say, you know where few days away from this one. i want our watchers to get a feel for is what's on the dashboard of the voter day. what, what do you see? and we've got republicans and democrats, we also have a lot of independents that are out there. and what do you think are the big drivers right now? the passions, the anxieties that americans are feeling right? this is crunch time for anybody who's an operative and done the 7 days out. we have had 23000000 people already vote early vote. so that small group that were, you know, everybody's trying to scramble to on election days. important. so, you know, in these key races, i think a lot of it's turn out, i mean to have 2 former presidents and a current president all go to the same state to try and make sure that as many of their voters are getting out is important. and this is the time where, you know, these candidates are making their last minute plea to say we're, i'm the answer. i'm, you know, on these issues on the things you care about. i'm the solution for some of your biggest problems today. and so this is what's happening now. they're smart and it's smaller than you would think. like you mentioned at a 4345 races in the house really to only have 30 districts, you know, in place be

a lot about our democracy. and you know, you know, the competitiveness across the country, but you know, i think as you said, it's about, listen it's, it's not just the issues that matter. it's issues that motivate, i think, all issue matter. i don't think democrats don't care about the economy or don't care about inflation. it's what's going to motivate them and get them to the polls . and this is what candidates their teams and their you know, people on the ground or trying to figure out in these final dates. grover, i paid a lot of attention to polls. maybe i shouldn't, because posters rock, it's so wrong. but one of the things i look at is that, you know, weekly or monthly, you see things rise for a while. it was a supreme court decision on abortion really dented this country. now you see inflation, the costs of just surviving and gas at the pump. food at the grocery store is certainly an economic anxiety crime. the border and i'm just interested, as you talk, not just to the people you know out there. but as you kind of take us back, because i know you're both, you're, we're all junkies for this stuff. what do you think right now?

are the passions that are driving a lot of americans? it will be defining in this election, political parties and consultants, and the establishment press, all like to think that they can shape the conversation. and there been efforts early on there was an after say, this is all about roe v wade. and that lasted until it was, and for our, for our audience, robi, what it is, abortion. yes. the abortion issue, whether the sprint, whether abortion be dealt with the state level or through the courts. and so there was an effort to make that the issue and that the challenges when people walk by or drive by the gas station or many gas stations every day, that's like a paid political advertisement to say, biden. and the democrats brought you higher gasoline prices before them. it was someplace else. and the same thing with inflation in general when you go to the grocery store. so you have an effort by the republicans who might want, we'd like this to be about this for the democrats about that. the rise and crime

which is been taking place across the country, the day to day assault of inflation, wages growing slower than inflation and the collapse of people's life savings. and for a when k and irish, those have forced themselves on the agenda. even though smart people go, well, you should care about this or the presses you should be obsessed with us. people make up their own mind and those issues that matter are cutting against the deis this time. and that's the challenge that headwinds the democrats face. can i ask you a question though, grover about the gas price issue, and i thought about it is the question of, do you expect the american public just to sort of be simply say ok, gas prices are rising. that's the fault of the president, or is it the fault of vladimir putin? is it the fault of a, an agent in the world that is weapon, ising energy, and creating that sort of dynamic. and if any thing, the release of strategic oil reserves and others was a response to that,

i guess my question is, i know that the complexity of the strategic goal reserve is there and the americans may not see that that reflected in the price in the way they want, but i'm just interested in do we have to dumb everything down for an american voter or do you, do you tell them that there are certain points where the world is complex. you know, we've got climate change. we have, you know, a guy invading another country and that stuff matters. i'm just sort of interested in depth. well, i mean, politically going back to clinton and gore, the modern democratic parties. goal is to raise the price of gasoline and home heating oil and coal. so that to force people to use more expensive alternatives. so to raise the cost of energy in this, this is their stated goal. when the secretary of energy was asked, what's your plan to reduce the cost of energy? she laughed in the face of the journalist. we don't have one, you idiot. our plan is to raise the cost of energy. and the left has an interesting view of why that's a smart idea. and the american people have a hard time understanding why it's

a good idea. and if you ask them what you willing to pay for for climate change, it's a much smaller number than they've already been asked to pay for. so the 2 parties are different. one one's low cost. abundant energy trunk was always talking about fracking and so on. and the others looking to shut down fracking and drilling and make america less independent, which gives you potent and other people being in charge of the cost of energy. why is there not a greater sense that everybody's on the same boat, even if they have to wrestle over policy differences? well, listen, elections are about contrast governor about consensus. so when you're in the middle of an election is about about, do you share our values, you know, do you share our opinions on these things? and i don't think the democratic parties in the business is trying to make life harder for people. and maybe they're long term strategy is something that they're looking at right? posted with the republicans or, but i think this toxicity this it's, i think it's having less competitive places having less conversation. i think in an interesting way, these razor thin margins in places should we have these,

we call them try factors where the governor's office, the state senate and the state house, or all of the same party having a diversity of ideas. and the power structure can only help with that. now we recently did a pull on at the finance to to that looked at impressions for 18 to 34 year olds. and this can be generational to, there seems to be there's areas that they do seek more consensus on. and in fact, the most striking thing that came out of that pool is that they think if they work together, they can actually solve younger folks younger. far more consensus range, that's new for me yet. well, i mean, this is why we wanted to, you know, look into the poll and say that they, they, you know, they don't necessarily trust the institutions that exist. now they don't think the current power structure allows them to change. they think if they band together that they can, and they think that that's important. now, there's still a lot of differences between even young, you know, republicans and democrats. but here's the other thing that i think is huge and what both parties have to look at. there's an anger, there's an anxiety, there's an angst out there and you have to tap into that. you have to say that you understand that, that situation and how are you the better party then to to,

to answer that. but the other thing is, i think sometimes we suffer from on both sides of the aisle, is you have to be, you can't just be against something, you have to be for something. and so a lot of these candidates and the final day is they, they should be able to reflect that. and my, my final thought on that, which i'm very getting very concerned about, is that we're electing people who think the day after they're elected. that they only represent the people that voted for them, you know, once they're elected, they represent their constituency. and so i think we have to have conversations. they have to be more open to, to look at a lot of different, you know, variations when they come to the table. and hopefully people are rewarded rather than chastise if they reach across the aisle to have some of those conversations. grover, take your republican hat off for a minute, just be, you know, sharp, like what would you do to help buy and biden is about 42.3 percent approval, which is low. you know, as you're kind of, you know, at this moment, but i mean, he was in the thirty's before donald trump was very so we want to be careful that others have been in this,

in this level and have come back. but and the disapproval, though is, is always a harsher number up about 54 percent. why when you've had infrastructure passed and you had support in the american recovery act passed and you had the chip sag pass that was basically about american competitiveness. you had the student loan forgiveness program past. why, from your perspective are his number is so low, not as a republican. and if you were advising this president and his team on how to do better, what would you advise him to do? don't do any of the 4 things he did. if you ask people how they feel about having their money taken to pay 14 percent of the public, many of whom are graduate school students are going to be much richer than them all their lives. is that a good idea? no, it's a bad idea and it's an unpopular idea. we don't talk about it very much. the idea that we should do that give money to people to build chips here instead of somewhere else is it's been tried all throughout the world. it's leads to argentina

. this, this does not have international competition and then having the government make these decisions. japan suffered greatly for having the exactly that strive that didn't work. the other one is the massive tax and spending program, which hasn't even completely hit in on the taxes yet. but you see the stock market in people's life savings way down as a result of those, those passing bills, if they do bad things is not a helpful thing to do. he didn't focus on the things he said he was going to focus on or didn't do the things he said he was going to focus on, and that's been expensive. he should go talk to his base because they still like him. amy, are your thoughts on that as well? and we'll add on this, you know, i, i listen to my friends and the progressive side. the issue, it's powerful for them is this sense that american democracy is dying? we're fading away and crumbling. there's a lot of focus on donald trump as an liberal autocrat about the january 6th attack on congress. and so i guess my question is, does maintaining

a democratic rules based country get out voters? i mean, i think it's important. again, i'll go back to it might be an important issue for people, but i believe that i agree with the group or if you, if you're faced with, you know, challenges for your family, for cost of living, what you need for to make sure that you're able to meet basic needs, good paying jobs, that's something that you know, could be come at the forefront and it's not so you don't care about it, but it's about like when i'm going to bow and my vote matters, i want to make sure that i'm investing you know for a future that's good for me and my family. so i think candidates, democrats, you know, are figuring out ways to do this, you know, as well as republicans about how do we then share with them that, that were, that were the ones who are going to bring you down that path. it's interesting, you look at a race like, why homing, i mean, that became, you know, for liz cheney this, this, let me test on democracy in a sense, and in an interesting way, i watch for a little while the debate between, you know, the 2 opponents who are vying for this, you know,

congressional to get through this congressional primary and there wasn't a lot said about what they were going to do for why willing or what you know is going on. so i think these matters of democracy. we have a shared responsibility, both democrats and republicans to care about this. and certainly to, to say, there was a problem with january 6. and how are we going to do this? there are 2 things happening. one is during the lifetime of ronald reagan, the 2 parties separated out along issues of principal. there used to be republicans, you would raise taxes to be democrats, with cut taxes. they used to be republicans who it's joe, your guns. they should be democrats who wouldn't steal gun. that's gone. ok. the democrats around the last pro life person out of office doesn't exist. talk to the catholics. so you've got to competing forces where they were being a republican, mean something on all the kish as being a democrat, mean something on the kish, it go back to 19 fifties and sixties, that were southern democrats who were conservatives. and there were northern

republicans who were liberals that sorted out, the 2 parties, our principal parties. and so there's going to be much more partisan at all disagreements or partisan disagreements weren't partisan already logical, but they weren't partisan before. the 2nd part is the 2 parties are fairly evenly split. okay, i mean, this is a huge difference for from 1932 to 1994 and the republicans capture the house and senate. the republicans were elected to control congress for 4 of 62 years. they weren't players. okay. there were the washington generals, and they never got to win ever and see at a one party state in congress which runs america. residents come and go, they can start wars, but that's about it. otherwise, congress runs america. they raise taxes. they do spending from 94 on which i point out is when the republicans all signed the pledge never to raise taxes and kept that promise as the party that won't raise taxes. they've won congress 60 percent of the time, never to 60 percent. if you're a democrat,

your idea of democracy is complete. democracy means we run the house and we run everything. all of a sudden they have to struggle to have a say in running government the way they used to do it for 62 years uninterrupted. in terms of congress, now they have congress less often than not, and they're about to lose it again perhaps. so there's a lot of angst there. right. and people say there's no democracy in the mean. my team's not winning. so is, is, where is the country? so polarized polarized right now that most folks are just going to vote, party line votes. and if, and if no matter who's running the franchise, of the democratic party or the republican party, and where are independence right now, what, what, you know, because i, last time i looked, ah, independent, still account for more republicans or democrats, you know, self defied. i'm just sort of interested in this arduous, she independent were party whose main issues carry the independence wins. okay, you got a carrier base, but you got to convince the independence that the issues you're running on matter.

so some of the issues, abortion, and january, 6th, a fine for the democratic party. do they, when you independence, the republicans go. we want to keep your energy costs low. we want you to have more money. we want your 41 k to matter. that's an eat, that's a better sell for independent. so riling up. your base is one thing. but who wins the independence winds again? to what degree amy, are we seeing a precursor of the 2024 presidential race? so we're in mid term races. where basically, you know, every, almost all these different local and state level seats are up and you know, all the house seats in one 3rd of the senate, but not the presidency. but is this a litmus test? basically for the 2024, whether it's biden and donald trump, is it going to be somebody like biden, and someone like donald trump in 2024. and that's what we're seeing as early 2012 shore. it is like underneath the underneath conversation for everything you,

these are not to separate elections and a lot of respect because i think presidential politics is like chess. you make one move because the next 2 moves are going to get you, you know, maybe where you want to go. so a lot of, you know, put on the line. i think you have somebody like a desantis down in florida, who would say if he does really well in the election, does that position him in a different way for 2024? you know, structure. if democrats lose, you know, the house in the senate, what does that say about how they position themselves for the next national election? i think the question is to, is like, you know, you're going to have a lot of new members of congress. you know, in some of these districts across the country and how will that, you know, influence a national election that's coming. but there's so many factors that come into play for a presidential and, and again, just seeing how we, you know, go through to figure out who the nominees are. and i'll go back to something over that you kind of mentioned, i think the other big challenges, the independence get to the site, a lot of general action, but they're not assigning who those candidates are that go on the ballot for the general election. we both have

a problem in the parties. i think where we're seeing smaller entities decide who are nominees are in these in these things and party affiliation is that decreases and goes away. that can be challenging for both sides because what are the count candidates that are getting on the ballot and the general and are they representing the values of the party? and are they somebody that an independent can align themselves with steve for your international audience? everyone looks at the congress and the president that's vague, the interesting. they're going to be locked like this accomplishing very little in terms of moving the country one way or the other. right? 50 states are having elections, 50 governors, 7000 state legislators. and right now the republicans control most of the governorships and 30 of the state legislatures. and they have been shifting the playing field over the last several years. passing school choice across the country once considered a dramatic issue. homeschooling is to be a go to prison issue back in 1986 in $48.00 states. now it's legal everywhere. private schools are legal everywhere,

and school choice is expanding everywhere. the 2nd amendment now, once really beaten up, now with the states 45 states passed law say, you can carry concealed carry permit. if you want to 27 states, you don't need a permanent, you can carry if you want to. so on these and taxes, you've got a whole series of $24.00 states. red states, cut taxes over the last several years. and you've got 5 states voted to go to a single rate tax progression. that's the single rate tax. and the noise democrats state wanted to go to a progressive tax that was voted down massachusetts about to have a vote for the 6th time. should we go to a progressive and go back to that. if that path is, that's a very interesting, if it fails, it's the 6 time liberal. massachusetts said no to a central tenet of the modern democratic party. well, let me ask you both quickly. some people have characterized this almost in the way that you did generationally, that they're generational change and also racial, divides in the country. and i'd love you to tell me where this equation is wrong.

where use the youth and those of color vote for the democratic party. the elder whites in america vote for the republican party nation if you're doing well. but what does that not account for? in terms of the dynamism of the modern, you know, stablish means groups aren't monolith right. so we can't look at the hispanic community as having all the same. a lot of people do a lot of people and to say that that's an issue with the democrats. but if you look at the shift, hispanics, african americans, women, their persuadable voters, you can't, you know, you can say base voters like there's, they're not a monolith. you have to go to them and, and talk about the values that you have, the issues that you want at what, what, how you can make their lives better. and i think that's the big challenge. even young voters, you know, a young college age, you know, voter who decides to go to college versus somebody who doesn't. you know, these are all on differences within these groups. and i think sometimes we treat them like a monolith and that's a big mistake. and we have to think about how we're, we're communicating, grover,

central or central mistake of the democratic party over the last 40 years is to treat mexican americans, puerto rican americans, cuban americans, you're all hispanic. or then they give them new names. a bunch of white up professors go, we think will call you latin next and take that will tell you what to do and what to think. they did that to the black community for years. and that's getting tiresome. and the spanish committees breaking free step by step ethnic group by ethnic groups state by state that the spanish, hispanic though the people whose parents spoke spanish, that vote is different in every state. not just among ethnicities and, and the democrats were building this sam castle with something that didn't, wasn't going to stay there. go over, what was the book you wrote a few years ago, the title of the book and it, it basically said keep your hand, leave us alone. it was gun god and guns. god and tax actually got awesome therapy. oh god was not there. what were the 3, keep your hands off our, our money and our tech, and our guns, money and guns. and i, and i sort of think that, that was

a very interesting thing for me because i'm just wondering, it was a sort of a, you know, a libertarian ethic there and you kind of look back and say, well, in one hand, what grover wrote his really was pression, but at the same time you see a lot of republicans wanting to federalized their views used to be state's rights. are we going to see a battle within the republican party? a divide over when you have authority from the above forcing everyone to do certain . how's that going to go? you have a bunch of intellectuals who are unhappy that they have no original thoughts that they want to sell, but you have those guys over some republicans what i have a new theory who black, that'll be great, not one. i. and we deal with this all the time that people want to come up and have a new area of the universe. in point of fact, the modern republican party, the conservative movement, is made up of groups that on their vote, living issue, not all issues their vote living issue, not libertarians, but on their vote, living issue, they want to be left alone. whether it's their face with their guns or their kids education or their money, or their life savings, or their taxes,

or not wearing helmets or not getting shots or, you know, whatever it leave me alone then you're in. and that, and that is a coalition that holds together cuz there's no conflict on a vote with an issue when you try to bring the other stuff in. could we steal money from him and give it to me? no, no, no, no. then you pushing people out of the circle, but we'll have to end up there. grover, norquist, president of americans for tax reform, and amy dc, executive director of the sign institute of policy and politics at american university. really great discussion. thank you both for joining us today. thank you . see, so what's the bottom line on one level, these elections are about 2 very different visions for america's future. one defined by donald trump and one defined by joe biden, but that's not necessarily what's on americans minds when they go to vote. they're thinking about their wallets and they see crime everywhere. some feel that america's border with mexico is out of control. others feel they have to save democracy or stop trump or stop biting at all costs. and some are motivated by women's rights, the climate or racism,

or all of the above. each party is trying to figure out what the voters anxieties are. and they're promising to fix it. on another level, they're already thinking about the 2024 elections where some sort of trump like figure will face off against some sort of biden like figure if not those to themself. but for now, this crazy mix of fear, pope and promises is the name of the game, at least for a few more days. and that's the bottom line. ah, abortion has been turned from a health care issue into policing issue. there are now 2 americas and one of them women of lost the right to control their own bodies. if a woman can't do that, she's never gone to receive ultimate equality. full blinds follows a group of women forced to travel across state lines for an abortion we heard. it was in rites by the day and examines what it means to live through the end of road

with me. ah a general madison and dog, the top stories on al jazeera runs, foreign minister says this country has sold military drones to russia, but he says that was before the invasion of ukraine. the crime says keith needs to provide evidence that iranian.