prime minister may for you? an -- mean for you? they're covering with what is liz truss is resigning. what role will they plate and granting him citizenship? is this a setback or will it help? >> the people and sitting to be a reminder for our -- the instability and it has also been since boris, the instability makes the egyptian authorities don't take it seriously. what happened to the british pound was like the negotiations, we heard the egyptian officials were saying, like, or making fun of the british pound. so it does not help britain's image in the world in general.

but the people i'm trying to put pressure on are still in office. civil servants prepare the paperwork and give the advice for whoever will be minister. amy: and members of parliament have joined you at your sit-in. i want to ask you about alaa's health. 200 days on hunger strike and where he is being held. how is he? >> alaa has been living on 100 calories a day. his body took time -- liquids. basically, honey in his tea or skim milk. the degradation was slow. the last i saw him was in august and he already looked very weak.

my mom saw him recently, she is in cairo, and she says he basically looks like a skeleton. he looks like skin on bones. his mind is still alert. he feels better than he looks. he said he thinks he can endure more, but he looks really scary. we are not sure how much time is left. we are not sure his body can take -- how much longer. the prison authorities -- administration will not acknowledge alaa's hunger strike, so they don't do any medical checkups or any of that. they even sent a false medical report to the british embassy in july on a date where alaa was not checked. i am really worried because it is in evitable will happen very

soon. when he collapses, i'm not sure if they will act urgently. but the thing that i always remind myself and to calm myself, there is a camera 24/7 and his cell. that is bad for any normal inmate, but this should mean that alaa is under supervision. but the situation is desperate. amy: i want to bring in naomi klein. naomi klein, senior contributing writer at the intercept and ubc professor of climate justice at the university of british columbia. naomi, you wrote a piece in the intercept and the guardian "greenwashing a police state: , the truth behind egypt's cop27 masquerade." you point out that the tens of thousands of people that will be at the climate summit in egypt, democracy now! we'll be covering it and we will be there, that

number may well be less than the number of political prisoners in egypt's jails. can you talk more about this? >> hi, amy. hi, sanaa. i think the number is important because it is hard to wrap your head around it, but i think amy has been covering cop for more than a decade. there really kind of a city within a city. they are huge. more than 35,000 delegates. this is a combination of government negotiators and activists and ngos, envoys, a few world leaders mixed in, environment ministers the world over. so it will just be very, very large. but that will be about half the number of estimated political prisoners in egypt, which is estimated to be around 60,000.

human rights watch, amnesty groups following this will be quick to say because of the total lack of transparency, it is very, very hard to know whether -- it could be many, many more. this is the political context. the pieces you mentioned, i'm arguing that this really crosses a new redline. there's often repression during cops, often arrest, but the stakes of those arrested are completely different in egypt. but more than that, this is a country, the most repressive regime in modern egyptian history, that is at after four with the very idea of civil society. civil society is a key partner, a key element in these climate summits. this activism research, freedom

of speech -- it is integral to the negotiations themselves. there is going to be this extraordinary because of dissidents were people go to egypt in less than two weeks now because there will be sort of a show that is going on. there will be some members of egyptian civil society. there will be youth leaders, people holding signs and seemingly free to say things. but it will be extremely kind of scripted and constrained because the egyptian groups that have been allowed into that space, they have overwhelmingly been vetted by the egyptian government. according to human rights watch research, there are certain kinds of environmental issues that are considered sort of welcome is the word the use,

things like recycling, picking up litter, advocating for, signs that would enrich this regime. what is not welcome is pointing out the enormous lucrative network of deals that the military itself is engaged in that are linked to fossil fuels, that are linked to destroying remaining green spaces in cities like cairo that are building coal powered cement plants. even just doing the research to say what is going on in egypt could land you with a death sentence under the current regime. amy: i was looking at a retweet of yours commute tweeted --

he retyou retweeted. talk more about this and the connection of the issue of human rights to climate activism and who won't be at the summit, not because there are thousands of miles why -- that is another issue -- but egyptian activists. >> sure. sanaa can speak about this much better than i, but that was a british -- i believe she is the envoy for africa. i don't know what her position is today because the british government is in complete collapse. i did not mean any disrespect to those having their picture taken with her, but this is the kind of photo op staged by sissi.

i think activists are being put inside an untenable position inside and outside egypt. they did not choose for the summit to be in egypt. that was a decision and i think a terrible one made by the secretariat. holding a huge summit is a big economic boon for a country, a pr boon for country. there should be some animal human rights criteria -- minim um human rights criteria. i was the, egypt would not meet that. the irony --sanaa seif is a hero and her own rights. one of the young people who took tahrir square was the toast of the world. democracy now! was covering it wall-to-wall, so was seeing in,

the daily show. there was a great hope in the arab spring. there were 14-year-olds in the square. the irony of this regime holding up their youth leaders and saying they're going to be speaking -- a direct quote from the cop website, "speaking truth to power in egypt" while thousands upon thousands of young people are in el-sissi's torture chamber is orwellian. some of the letters from prison, he talks about how some of his cellmates are just 17 themselves and have been imprisoned since they were kids. >> one thing i would add, yesterday greta thunberg tweeted in solidarity with egypt's prisoners of conscience and said, use hashtah #freethemall.

amy: i want to and with sanaa first play the words of alaa abd el-fattah in his own words. >> all that is asked of us is standing up for what is right. we are not required to be notorious and our stand for what is right, we are not required to be strong as we stand for what is right, we are not required to be rehearsed in our stand for what is right. all that is asked of us, we insist on standing up for what is right. amy: that from alaa's father's memorial in 2014. briefly released to be able to attend. i know this is very painful for you as you talk about your brother, more than 200 days on hunger strike. your dad died in 2014. his son was born, is that right, when he was in prison earlier.

>> yes. amy: your final thoughts? >> i wanted to stress what naomi was saying, it is really important to feel this event, to shed light on the human rights situation in egypt. right now progressions are starting to happen. police forces have started in several neighborhoods in the city of cairo, have started stopping people and industries and checking their mobile phones to see what they write on facebook. we usually -- they do this around the anniversary of the revolution and that is the month where everybody was part of the revolution would wipe their

phones, stay in a different address. everybody believes this oppressive technique has started early this year because cop is happening in egypt. i want to urge anybody going to keep that in mind, that people in egypt are going to pay a very heavy price for that event. it is really important to be critical and important to speak up and i am thankful to everybody doing that like naomi and greta. because first, it could ease the progression. secondly, while we save those repercussions, we should stand in solidarity. as collectively all of us around the planet, we could create -- it could be a good lesson learned for the future climate conferences that there is -- there are requirements for the host country.

next year there are no other countries that are basically sacrifice zones. next year cop will be in the uae, which will be a much bigger challenge. it is really important to shed light on the human rights situation in egypt now. amy: sanaa seif, thank you for being with us. you are incredibly brave. you yourself have been imprisoned for more than three years, have also been on hunger strikes. you are in tahrir square with your high school newspaper, opposing the regime. also one of the editors of the oscar-nominated film "the square" about tahrir, joining us from london where she and her sister mona are leading a sit-in for her brother's release, on hunger strike for more than 200 days, her mother in egypt because they always have one

family member there to be near alaa, though he is in prison. naomi klein, thank you for being with us from british, colombia, senior contributing writer at the intercept and professor of climate justice at the university of british columbia. he only wrote the ford to alaa's book recently released, "you have not yet been defeated." we will into your guardian and intercept peace "greenwashing a police state: the truth behind egypt's cop27 masquerade." next up we go to florida to speak with law professor kimberlé crenshaw civil rights attorney barbara arnwine who are on a 26 city tour to increase voter registration and turnout ahead of the term elections. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the midterm elections, now less than three weeks away, are set to determine the balance of power in congress. black voters could play a key role. black voters helped democrats flip two senate seats that gave them control of the senate in georgia's 2020 special runoff election.

democratic senator raphael warnock of georgia now faces republican challenger herschel walker. this comes as georgia's republican governor brian kemp is fighting for reelection against democrat and voting rights advocate stacy abrams in a rematch after he signed into law new restrictions that disproportionately disenfranchise voters of color. it was one of many voter suppression efforts in republican-led states. in florida, republican governor ron desantis' election police unit -- he has set up an election police unit -- has arrested people for voting. florida law allows formerly incarcerated people to vote unless they were convicted of murder or felony sex offenses. those arrested say florida officials encouraged them to vote and they didn't know about the exclusion. this is police body camera footage of tampa resident tony patterson and his arresting officer, recently obtained by "the tampa bay times."

>> apparently, i guess you have a warrant. >> for what? >> i'm not sure. >> for voter stuff. >> sent out something less to give voter fraud, voter stuff. were not supposed to be voting maybe? >> this is crazy, man. your put me in joe for something i didn't know nothing about. why would you let me vote if i wasn't able to vote? amy: for more, we are joined by two guests who are on a 26-city arc of voter justice bus tour. they are joining us from jacksonville, florida, on one of their tour stops. barbara arnwine is a civil rights lawyer and president of the transformative justice coalition. kimberlé crenshaw is distributing banned books en route as part of the "from freedom riders to freedom readers: the books unbanned tour." she is also executive director

of the african-american policy forum professor of law at ucla , a and columbia university. we welcome you both to democracy now! barbara arnwine, your hashtag is #10millionmoreblackvotes. how are you doing this? >> we are doing it in two ways. one is registering new voters, something like 6 million unregistered african-american voters in this country. can we are also saying to those who are registered, 35% who don't vote, that you have got to show up. show out every election. don't only vote presidential. vote in the midterms. it is so critical. vote the whole ballot, not just the top decisions. no matter what you do, vote. no matter what you do, make sure you are registered. no matter what you do, vote. amy: can you talk, kimberlé crenshaw, about how you are

linking these two issues, the banned book tour from freedomriders to freedom readers, why it is so important? >> is no secret that our democracy is in crises was of the efforts to suppress black voting, to gerrymandered districts, this is all part of a democracy that is in deep trouble. what a lot of people don't realize is the same people who are trying to gerrymander our districts, try to gerrymander our history, the same people who want to change the outcomes of elections want to change the story of us, the material, the books that tell the full story about america. so we decided that because there is no daylight between racial justice and a fully multiracial democracy, we were going to join this tour to provide the

information, the books that those are anti-democrat don't want us to know. so we're passing out 6000ooks, tles thahaveeen banned in many of the states we are in, of ruby bridges, theobiography x-year-o who intrated hools inew orlea come to classicsike tonyorse's "the bluest e" or "beeen the world an m" peopleeed undetand whais behi this efrt to ban wit the ca critical ractheory. with the sichel he ing is hiory a its conmporary consequees. we think when voters know extlyhat the'rerying to do, they will show up and show out. amy: can you talk about the response? right now you are in jekyll island, georgia, headed to jacksonville. georgia is, to say the least, all eyes are on this state when

you have this race between herschel walker and rev. raphael warnock. rev. raphael warnock just won two years ago but will now run for a full senate term. all of the attention on this. can you talk, barbara arnwine, about the significance of this race and some of the other ones that you are tracking? >> will, obviously, african-american voters are key to all of these races. we are nonpartisan. we believe if african-americans vote, they will vote correctly because they will vote and what is the best interest of not just their community, but the entire nation. one thing about african-american voters, they think broadly. african-american women voters have a real sense of social justice for all. so it is really important to

mobilize this block. incredible, unprecedented, historic turnout of african-american voters. they are 37% of the current early voting percentages. that is an increase significantly, from being 29% in the 2018 midterm elections. african-americans are gearing up. we have been going to community's with the lowest voter turnout and saying, your vote matters. it doesn't matter of all the candidates don't come to see you because they don't consider you high propensity voters, we consider you the most important vote. register. vote. yesterday we went through some of the poorest, most depressed areas. you should have seen the people. this is what we have been seeing everywhere. they came out. they were clapping.

they were giving the power fist. they were yelling and screaming. they were so excited that somebody consider them important. somebody was coming directly to them and saying, vote, it matters. it was just beautiful. that is the experience we have had in richmond where we were on a motorcycle driving through the city with the buffalo soldiers and six block long motorcade. it has been amazing. people see the john lewis buses. they honk on the freeways at us. they honk as we roll because people get the message. they're so happy to see 70 saying "vote" in a positive way, not about candidates, just the fact they are americans and the fact that we care and love a democracy that demands we participate that we vote. amy: kimberlé crenshaw, you are in georgia, the other key race is the rematch between the

longtime voting rights activist stacey abrams and brian kemp, the governor, for the governorship of georgia. the significance of this race and you are visiting these sites of white supremacist terror from the mother emanuel church in charleston, south carolina, to talk about the places that you have been. >> we visited wilmington, which is a site of racial coup in 1898. one of the reasons that was so significant -- amy: in north carolina. >> yes. when we had the january 6 attempted coup, there were a lot including our president who said this is not we are. it is evidence of the fact that

when our history has been erased, we don't know that we are heading in the same direction. in fact, violent coups are exactly who we have been. but when we went to wilmington and looked at the site where the coup began, where a newspaper was burned to the ground and callous numbers of african-americans were killed and a duly elected by racial government was deposed, there is no marker, no placard, there is no "this is what happened." in that same sentiment, the erasure of our history come is what is behind these book bands and behind the effort to challenge the 6019 project and it is an effort to make racism unspeakable. and our position has been that when racism is unspeakable, they democracy, for multiracial democracy is unachievable. there is no daylight between the two. even though when people think and talk about is our country

going to the edge, can it happen here, a lot of people say it can't. but that is just telling us they don't realize that black history and american history are one in the same. it has happened here. unless we understand his legacy and its implication today, it is on the way of happening again and that is what we cannot allow to happen. amy: talk about your plans in florida. in the video we played in the introduction, astounding story of what the governor has done in having arrested with his election police, resting people who are attempting to vote. they said, these men who are in prison and came out, that they can register and if they qualify -- they did not know they did because they had served time in jail -- they will be allowed to vote. and then they were handcuffed and arrested for voting.

your response? >> well, there were handcuffed and arrested for voting while they had in their hands there voting cards. now, if your scent's's of voting card by york county register, wouldn't you assume that means you have the right to vote? so the fact desantis -- you'll hear people call him de satan -- has decided he wants to use and play the race card by having -- look at who is arresting, it is not whites. more whites have been affected by the felony disenfranchisement laws then blacks, but mainly arresting black people, he is playing the race card because it was to be president. if that doesn't say something ill about the concept of our democracy, the concept of who we are that we want -- amy: we have to -- close using

race. they worked before with trump. amy: we have to leave it there but i want to thank you so much for being with us, barbara arnwine, civil rights lawyer, and kimberlé crenshaw, executive director of the african-american policy forum and professor of law at ucla and columbia