The Take

From ballots and deadlines to envelopes and polling places, if it's part of the US election, there's probably a lawsuit about it. This is the most litigated election in US history, and decisions that could swing the result will come down to the nine unelected members of the Supreme Court. A newly appointed conservative justice has fueled fears about the court's power to decide whose votes count, and whose get thrown out.

What does that mean for people of color who have fought decades of voter suppression? And what will the election mean for the future of the Supreme Court?

In this episode:

Franita Tolson (@ProfTolson), Vice Dean at the University of Southern California's Gould School of Law, and a fellow with The Justice Collaborative Institute; Ryan Doerfler (@rddoerfler), professor at the University of Chicago Law School.

Join The Take on Election Night:

Watch Malika Bilal (@mmbilal) LIVE on the Al Jazeera Instagram feed (@aljazeeraenglish) discuss the 2020 presidential race at the top of each hour from 4 pm ET (9 pm GMT) to 8 pm ET (2 am GMT).

The relationship between China and the US has been a rollercoaster since the beginning of the Trump administration. Tensions have escalated with a trade war, and the US has repeatedly blamed China for the coronavirus pandemic. But could this powerful relationship improve after the 2020 presidential election? We're exploring what an administration change, or not, could mean for foreign relations between the world's biggest economies.

In this episode:

Azhar Sukri, Asia business editor for Al Jazeera Digital; Katrina Yu (@Katmyu), Al Jazeera journalist in Beijing, China; and Josephine Wolff (@josephinecwolff), assistant professor of cybersecurity policy at Tufts University.

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Everything is harder the first time — even voting. Add to that the coronavirus pandemic, and a president who claims he doesn't trust the election process, and you have the potential for problems. So who are the people who will be first-time voters in this year's US presidential election? What are they excited about, and what is holding them back?

In this episode:

Kristen Clarke (@KristenClarkeJD), president and executive director of Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and 866OurVote (@866OurVote).

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A movement to stop police brutality in Nigeria has taken over the streets, and international headlines. #EndSARS, the youth-led movement demanding an end to police violence, and specifically to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad known as SARS, has created a moment of reckoning for Nigeria's government. We spoke to protesters to hear what they've seen over the past two weeks, and where they think the movement will take Nigeria next.

In this episode:

Demonstrators throughout Nigeria.

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Russia’s interference in the 2016 US election shocked many across the United States. But many Eastern Europeans had seen behavior like this before. The 2020 election is quickly approaching, and Russian trolls are once again slyly spreading disinformation. We’re looking abroad to understand how and why Russia meddles, and best practices for safeguarding against it.

In this episode:

Agnieszka Legucka (@ALegucka), senior research fellow on Russia at The Polish Institute of International Affairs (@PISM_Poland).

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Iranians were already dealing with a currency crisis and another wave of coronavirus when the US announced an additional round of sanctions earlier this month, the latest in the Trump administration’s so-called maximum pressure campaign.

What do the Iranians living under Trump’s sanctions think about the US elections? And how long can they expect those sanctions to last?

In this episode:

Dorsa Jabbari (@DorsaJabbari), Al Jazeera journalist.

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Fighting in the tiny, sliver of land known as Nagorno-Karabakh is once again bringing the world's superpowers together to engage in what may escalate to full-scale war. What is the endgame for Armenia and Azerbaijan, and what role could Turkey, Russia, the US and France play in bringing resolution to the decades-long conflict?

In this episode:

Bernard Smith (@JazeeraBernard), Al Jazeera journalist.

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The 2020 vote will have the fewest international observers of any US election, despite having some of the biggest-ever concerns about the integrity of the vote: court disputes over mail-in ballots, loosened restrictions on voter intimidation, and an administration that's left the public guessing on whether it will commit to a peaceful transfer of power.

So what is the role of international observers in the US, and why is it different from many of the countries the US itself observes?

In this episode:

Avery Davis-Roberts, associate director of the Democracy Program at The Carter Center; Al Jazeera journalist, Alan Fisher; and Jasmeet Sidhu, senior researcher with the End Gun Violence campaign at Amnesty International.

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As the November 3 election approaches, we’re hearing from a diverse group of voters who could help determine the next US president. Though Muslims, members of the LGBTQ community and evangelical Christians all represent different percentages of the electorate, each could be a deciding factor in determining the future of the United States.

In this episode:

Mohamed Gula, Muslim community organizer; Sarah Kate Ellis (@sarahkateellis), president and CEO of GLAAD; and Pastor Robert Jeffress (@robertjeffress) of First Baptist Dallas and host of Pathway To Victory.

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A month after Greece’s notoriously unsafe Moria refugee camp burned down, authorities have begun the long process of restarting asylum seekers’ applications. When thousands of people were displaced in September, it gave new urgency to the EU’s plan to break the deadlock on the migration crisis. We hear from asylum seekers and locals about how this round of displacement has affected their lives.

In this episode:

Stefanie Dekker (@StefanieDekker), Al Jazeera journalist.

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