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tv   The Bottom Line  Al Jazeera  March 17, 2023 11:00pm-11:31pm AST

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oh i yes ma'am, this is ah, we understand the differences and similarities of culture across the world. so no matter when you call home will be even use in current affairs. that matter to you. an app that sees for the blind and a robotic arm for the disabled. a young australian engineer is inventing tools to help people gain independence will go to my study planning is all side of that will put the ability to recognize objects on the firm so that people with limited vision will be able to recognize everyday objects. women make science provo, girls episode full on al jazeera. ah.
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hello, i marianna demise in london with a quick look at the main stories now. the international criminal court on friday issued an arrest warrant for russian president vladimir putin. he is accused of being responsible for war crimes committed in ukraine. they include the unlawful deportation of children, the unlawful trans her poppy of population from ukrainian territory to russia. this is susan put moments in the process of justice before days to see the judges. f reviewed the information and evidence submitted by the prosecutor and determined that the debt are credible allegation against these persons for the alleged crimes dicey. she is doing it's part of work. as a court of law, the judges issued the arrest warrants the execution depends on international corporation. well, the russian spokesman describe the warrant has outrageous and unacceptable that
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fighting has continued nonetheless in east, in the ukraine. and it says in back, much in shoot for the study of war has warned that russia's wagner must and regroup is nearing culmination in it. siege of the city. that's how they put it. but to the russian back leda of ukraine's danielle region has said that situation for russian forces as difficult as no sign of keep ordering withdrawal of its troops. russia has made the capture of battle, have priority in its tragedy to take control of east in ukraine. the turkish president, russia type i do on says he will now support finland's bid to join nato, often meeting a finish, present sally needs to in ankara. odon said that the turkish parliament start to ratify helsinki is bid. the swedish foreign minister says anchors decision to ratify only felons bid is regrettable or so said it has more in this from ankara. from the beginning on one feelin as to read a book with applied to be
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a member for the natal took little crystals and encore to have repeated the said they have no problem with finance accession to natal because they didn't have and security disagreements with fremont. but the main issue was with steven, however, nato has insisted. so for that 3 minutes to read it to be accepted to me to as package. so, but it seems that nato has changed that position and also last week that will be him in pounds. you've told so we can fremont and turkey and also some other natal leaders. authorities in malawi are still coming to grips with the scale of destruction from psych on friday. survivors are struggling with a shortage of food. government has been providing food parcels, but the aide is slow and coming. many areas are not accessible because the storm caused landslides. at least 326 people have died. thousands are still missing. for me to milla has more from school and blan tire. that's been converted into a camp for the displaced more than 88000 people have been left homeless and
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that's in malawi alone. due to the impact of psych loan freddie, there were land slides landing as well as heavy winds. and the people here lost everything, including their homes, many of the 4000 here a children. and some were brought in by community members because these children had lost both parents all their entire families. there are children here without homes to go to. now the volunteers here are concerned about their resources, they don't have enough riot police are again taking on protest as in paris as it been more demonstrations against the government's pension reforms. officers have been using tig asked to deal with the the crowd near the parliament building. the latest action is a day off the government bypassed parliament and forced through a controversial plan to raise the retirement age from $62.00 to $64.00. the form of pakistani prime minister in one con, appeared in court on friday, where
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a warrant for his arrest was canceled. cons. car was surrounded by supporters when he arrived at the local court. they had been warrants out against him on multiple charges of corruption, but he's also facing terrorism charges, standing from confrontations between his supporters and police. earlier in the week, khan has denied all the chargers and says they are politically motivated. but bottom line is coming out next with steve clemens. ah hi, i'm steve clements. i have a question. what can florida tell us about the u. s. presidential elections next year? let's get to the bottom line. ah,
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it's officially america's fastest growing state and it's bleeding democrats, right. and left. florida might be home to not one, but 2 republican presidential candidates, donald trump and just maybe governor randa santos. what used to be a swing state is now deeply conservative and the state legislature there has a super majority of republicans. so they literally don't need any democratic votes to pass whatever laws they want. and they've been using that power to troll the democrats with one bill, calling for the outright banning of the democratic party because it supported slavery 200 years ago. it's a jap against what they call liberal woke ism more than a serious plan. so what's going on with the democratic party in florida and what can that tell us about the parties chances? nationwide in 2024. today we're talking with one of the florida pop democrats, former congresswoman val demons who served as orlando's police chief for years she was on the short list for consideration as president biden's running mate in 2020 and ran for us. senator last november losing to republican senator marco rubio,
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representative damage. thank you so much for joining us today. let me just start out, you know, i know it's a mistake to look at one state in the united states out of 50 and then kind of generalize from that to the rest of the country. but florida is a big deal, you know, fastest growing state, but has been losing democrats has been gaining republicans. you know, i, as i told you, have been very aligned with many of your perspectives on things. so before we go, national, tell us what you see happening in florida and why it's so important for the country to watch. this will say this good to be with you and look, florida is my home. it is the place where i was born and raised the place where i grew up. my parents were born and raised in florida and is the place that i love. but yes, we do have some work politically a to do, you know, i just think that my party, i kind of took some things for granted as you well know just to
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a couple of years ago, we had a $500.00 person voter registration advantage, which is was completely wiped out and now the audio fee is up by i believe it's $300000.00. and so i just think, you know, the state that elect it, the 1st like president or help to we like the 1st black president twice in 20082012. and now we find ourselves behind the 8 ball. i think we took our eyes off the ball. we need leadership that wants to stay around for a while. i'm so excited about the election of nicky freed. i think she's gonna make a great party chair and give it the time and attention encourage making good courageous decisions that she needs to do. but look, i'm not given up in florida and for someone who just recently ran and lost a race and florida. i was very pleased to hear from people throughout the state and around the nation who said, look, they're not ready to give up on florida either. so we need to develop that long
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term plan. we have some work to do, but i'm really excited about the work ahead. i mean just to show our. busy voters what an uphill climb you had on the republican party in florida gained a 108000 votes. we've got a chart here. we'll put up for folks, and then made of a democratic party for the last 330000 of votes. and even if you have the right messaging, i just sort of been asking you when you kind of look at as you pulled republicans and democrats, what they cared most about. one of the interesting thing is that crime was very, very high on the republican photo roster. and i couldn't think of anyone better than you to address that because you were police chief of orlando, one of florida's major cities. and you and i have talked about police reform and all this is seem to be very much what is the democratic party not getting in terms of selling, you know, on crime on police reform that i think you were communicating well, you know, see, certainly i have said for a lot of years now, certainly long before i became
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a politician that are the safety and security of our communities are a nation. the world, especially sitting around our allies around the world has to be our number one priority. i didn't try to go around scaring the hell out of people. we work every day to make sure that people live in the safest and secure is a communities. and so that was always a message of mine. i think it's always been a message of our party, but the bottom line is, you know what i've noticed since i've been to politicians as democrats, they, we just kind of barrier heads and do the work. we don't go around, like i said, trying to scare the hell out of people are really talking a lot about the accomplishments that we have. we just do the work. on the contrary, the other side talks all the time about the work that they've done or the work that
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they have not do, but they do a pretty good job. i think making people believe that they've done more than they have done. if you look at the house of representatives over the last couple of years, especially the last session, it was a democratic party that actually provided funding that would get into the hands of local police departments. and so we're gonna keep doing the work, steve. we're not gonna play these political games that we've seen. we gotta do a better job though, of getting our message out there. as you well know during the political season as well. this last cycle, florida was dealing with a lot. we had a hurricane that actually affected all 67 counties. people were certainly concerned about that. property insurance, as i'm sure you know, is through the roof in florida, it's doubled and tripled over the last couple of years. so there are a lot of things that people are concerned about trying to a combat the pandemic,
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our schools make sure that we keep our schools open and our schools conducive to learning, to prepare our children for the future and fill out the bottom line is the g o p did a better job of getting out their borders then the, the democratic side did. but at, like i said, i'm excited about the leadership and i'm excited about the road ahead. let me ask you a question that if you were in still is still in the house of representatives. and you had watched the 15 ballots for kevin mccarthy. if you had watched the new ah, members were with a republican tamika on the rules committee. if you saw some of the deals were going on, are you how do you feel that that is gonna, you know, spell you know, work out in the next the congress. you know, given what you've seen with the deals, kevin mccarthy did look, we're elected to go to congress, elected in elected positions to serve the people to promote our values.
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ideas put laws in place that protect the next generation and future generations. any deal that is may, that is not about working on behalf of the people any deal that is made that is, that does not move forward and agenda of for the people or protect future generations is a bad deal. and so, you know, a lot of the things that i heard were not deals that really push an agenda that works for the american people of ford. so i know that speaker mccarthy, look, he's new in the position i just so that he remembers why he is there and why the leadership position that he's in is so critical and important the only thing that matters or helping to improve the quality of life for the people that they serve when it comes to issues like, you know, sensible gun violence, of looking at many of the identity issues out there, mental health issues,
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you know, where people are in society and trying to figure a lot of these issues have brought out a lot of everything which much of it has become, i think inappropriately labeled as of as part of a woke agenda. and, and whether you say it one way or not, randa santos governor on his and his board as a place. you know, where woke goes to die. and my question to you is, how do we deal with substantial social identity, you know, gun issues in a progressive way. or i should say in a constructive way without getting lost. i'm in this kind of politics of doing nothing. well, i wish a really, um, savvy reporter would ask governor to sand is to define what he means by a woke agenda. i just love to hear some 4 examples on that list because, you know, as i said earlier, steve, our primary responsibility is to safety and security of the american people. and
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secondly, of our allies around the world. i spent 27 years, as you will know, was a law enforcement officer served as the chief of police. i watch too many families destroyed as a result of gun violence, not guns in the right hands. like some people who are just using this as a political issue. we're try to make you believe look, my father was a hunter. i grew up around a lot of guns. i carried one for 27 years. this is not about, i say it again. i hope people are listening about taking guns out of the hands of law abiding citizens. this is about keeping guns out of the hands of people who should never uh, have them in the 1st place, the mentally ill terrace,
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and habitual felonious criminals. ugh, we know also that regardless of politicians that try to make this a political issue, we know that the majority of the american people agree that we should have sensitive gun laws. we should have universal a background checks, red flag laws. they're being used right here in florida after the, as you know, after the parkland shooting rate, red flag laws were implemented here. there. well over about 7000 cases where that law has been applied and we believe resulted in protecting life. and so stay, we can do this if leaders would get their heads. i'll let me say this the right way out of their next political venture. and really focus on keeping people safe in orange county, florida, which is a orange county where i live, which is in florida. um we say that the orange county jail is the biggest mental
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health treatment facility and that the orange county jail is the biggest drug treatment facility in the region. i. i'm sure you will see that not across, not just across the state of florida, but in other states as well. that is totally unacceptable. and we have to get serious about keeping guns out of the hands of the mentally ill heaping guns out of the hands of felons keeping guns out of the hands of terrorists. we have to get serious about this and we can do it if we have the political will to do so. let me ask you another personal question. we know through a lot of other reporting. ah, that you were once on the short list to possibly run with president biden as his vice presidential, a candidate on the list. if you were in that role, what big bucket issues would you like to be carrying to solving for the country? you know, on the national level that aren't necessarily the vanity projects that other
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members of the cabinet might get assign. what do you think we need to tackle that? someone like yourself thinks we just can't shirk anymore? well see, 1st of all, let me say this, that as the daughter of a maid and a janitor, it was absolutely an honor to be considered ought to serve as a vice president. when we talk about the american dream. i think that is a prime example, creating opportunities for people that exceed even their wildest dreams or imagination. i go back to the safety and security of our nation has to be our top priority. and also that we continue to be the leader of the world. we know that other countries are watching us to see what america's doing. i do believe that as of late, they probably have been scratching their heads on some issues wondering what's going on. but our safety and security has to be,
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it must be our number one priority because it is the foundation on which we build a great nation, which we bill our businesses, which we raise our families, which we educate. the next generation for the leadership positions of the future. also, i know that there is always a lot of talk about on the border. it falls under keeping us safe, not being used as a political agenda item like we unfortunately have seen. these are real men and women and children that we're dealing with, but making sure that we protect our board, keep our border secure, making sure that we boots on the ground, the men and women who do the job with cousins and border patrol. so critical, i think that that is the best line of defense, but also using technology also to our advantage. so making sure that america is safe and secure. certainly would be my number one priority and it's not an agenda
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item for a term or a session. it is something that we have to be ever vigilant about. every day you, val, when you're out around florida and campaigning and talking to citizens all over the state. i'm really interested in what you felt. they felt about america's involvement in the ukraine war being involved internationally as if there's one area where i sense a shift right now. it says inflation is rise and as people are scrambling to pay bills, they're asking, what are we doing over in ukraine and why is it important? and if there's one area that i've criticized president biden, i haven't heard the conversation with the country as to why being involved internationally is so important to their bottom line at home. so what were you hearing from your constituents and do you think we need to expect more from federal officials about explaining why we're engaged? well, see, well inflation is still way too high. look the daughter of a made in a janitor. i know it is like to struggle to pay bills. i watch my parents do it,
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and i've certainly had to do it myself in my early years. ah, if inflation is coming down and we, our job is to, well, the president's job and the people in the house in the senate's job is to make sure that we continue to move inflation in the right direction. the only people that have actually heard question our involvement in the euchre brain war are some republicans and even just a handful of them see by had the wonderful opportunity to travel our state. 3rd largest state in the union from the panhandle, a down to the key. i'd been to stop choppy florida if you haven't been. you need to put it on your radar. and i've been all the way down of course, to in the keys, in, in miami and all but talking to people about things that matter to them. of course,
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during my senate race, people were talking about the cost of goods and services. they were talking about the cost of gas that the pumps. we've seen those things slowly but surely move in the right direction. there we're talking about supply chain issues, especially those businesses, people that those small businesses that are really the backbone of communities in florida. talking about the supply chain issues that they were facing. her school teachers talk about can't we just get out of the political arena and get back to teaching our children, which they do it well for the most part and get politics out of our business. i see, not once did i hear a citizen throughout the state of florida question, our involvement in ukraine, but look, we have to be again, we have to be ever vigilant and we have to keep our eye on the ball. ukraine is
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an ally of the united states, and our national security is directly tied to what is occurring in that region. ukraine. i remember when i was on the intelligence committee with the election of president zalinski is john, charismatic president, who was going to fight corruption very hard, but also fight for a democratic form of government. of course, we are supporting them in those efforts, but to any one who will mass the question, our security, our national security, is directly tied to ukraine's ability to protect and defend itself. and so maybe again, as i said earlier, maybe we need to do a better job of really talking about the why we are there as opposed to just talking about the millions and billions of dollars or that we have put, i know a year ago, there were people who thought started with latimer food that the war would be over
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in a few days. obviously we underestimated the resiliency, the passion and the love of country of the ukrainians. but we certainly overestimated the ability of the russian army. but look, we got to keep our eye on the ball. this is a day by day war and the right thing is for america to be there, i in full support, let me just ask you finally, and i really appreciate your candor on these topics. i interviewed you shortly after the george floyd murder. ah, we have yet another murder that happened in the, in the killing of tyree nichols in memphis. i know there's no magic bullet. i've talked to former new jersey governor in presidential candidate, chris christine said, there are some departments. it's just need to be torn down, you know, to the bare bones and rebuilt because you can't just tweak it on top. i guess that you know, in honor of tyree nichols and what's going on. i just want to ask you, given the informed place, what needs to happen at the federal level,
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what needs to happen at the local level to change this equation? well, let me start here as a former law enforcement officer and a police chief, i've worked with some of the bravest, most compassionate men and women the profession has to offer. and we do know that the overwhelming majority of men and women who wear the uniform or good decent people who would risk their lives to protect strangers. but we've had some problems . certainly with george floyd. ah, it was senseless, it was brutal. it was murder, it should have never happened. you're right, steve. here we go again with terry nichols senseless, brutal. it was murder. it should have never happened. and the person's responsible must be held accountable. but look, i did an up it shortly after terry nichols i did one after george flor to doug did another one after tyree nichols basely put in the responsibility for immediate
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change in the hands of law enforcement executives in the hands of police chiefs in the hands of shares, one of the things that i did right after george flawed was i got on the phone and called a some members of law enforcement, law enforcement executives. and talk to them about, look at your policies. and there are some things that you can change, right? now some things that you can do yourselves like really limiting? no, no more. it's really looking at show coals and other use of force and when it's used and how it's used. we can always look at our reading training standards. police executives can do those things right now. i also get a call to action if you will, again, with police executives, you know, many times. unfortunately, there are some who believe that any criticism or any questioning of law enforcement is not supporting well good cops and good police executives know that that is not
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true. and when you sit back and full your arms and do absolutely nothing and you think that's protecting your police officers will doggone it, how many are going to prison? so that's certainly not protecting them. so yes, police executives need to look at their own policies and make changes that they can make right now. long term. i hope it doesn't have to be long term. there was a lot of criticism of the george floyd justice in police the neck. there again, we need to do something and no, it was not perfect. there were a lot of questions about qualified immunity. i had questions about qualified immunity, but we have to do something and i believe as police departments, they come in different sizes. they come there, they're there, you know, some have their own training department. some do not have training departments because they can afford them. some are as little as 10 officer, some as great as we know in new york is 36000. that there should be national
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standards that can help govern the way police officers are hired. police officers are trained and in some instances how they are disciplined. i see this as a tool that would really assist a profession that i loved. and i still love and men and women who i call friends, i see this as a way that can improve their performance and help protect them. not of the opposite . well, we'll have to leave it there unfortunately, because it's a great conversation. former police chief, former congresswoman and senate candidate val demik. thank you so much for joining us today. thank you, steve. take care. so what's the bottom line? the same debates happening in florida are happening in all 50 states. what to teach in schools? how to police the people which books should be bad? you name it americas taking a long look at itself in the mirror and sometimes it likes what it sees and sometimes it just doesn't. the nation is fractured across many lines. geographic
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divides, education divides, racial divides, privilege divides, and these can affect everything for the average american, even literally their health and life expectancy. more than a 150 years ago, president abraham lincoln talked about the know nothing crowd who appealed to the masters by saying what's ever popular, even if they know it's wrong. but that populism has moved from the political fringe to the center of power. witness q anom congresswoman marjorie taylor green. my guest today is optimistic that the country can overcome its worst instincts. but i think we need more proof. and that's the bottom line. ah. in a concert hall in baghdad, away from the conflict and tales from the war, sectarian bonnet and sanction the rocky national symphony orchestra has full to
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perform classical and traditional ira music. in the face of all adversity. ah oh to 0, woe tells it's challenging story. symphony for iraq on al jazeera warbler forward say you just dial as the ballade. never lay, alley my battle. and no hell in my thought that the national food i did them nice. she was even be saddam. that there will be now you will not view. ah lou.
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oh i marian.

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