This year will be one of the most challenging for democracy yet. Election deniers tone down their claims as they run again this year. And astronomers believe they have discovered the universe’s brightest object.
Here’s what to know today.
This year will see more elections than ever. But don’t call it a win for democracy.
In 2024, around half the world will go to the polls — some 4 billion people in 76 nations — the most of any year on record. Some of these elections will be widely considered fair, such as those already held in Taiwan and Finland; and the so-called votes in Russia, North Korea and elsewhere will be an outright sham.
The centerpiece, even for many outside the United States will be the contest between President Joe Biden and his presumed opponent, former President Donald Trump. “This is a big stress test for democracy globally,” said Kelley E. Currie, who has held senior State Department roles, including under Trump, for whom she was the U.S. ambassador for global women’s issues. “The autocracies are linked up and working together,” she said, adding that “2024 will be an important inflection point for us.”
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Meanwhile, Russia, China and others will likely continue the election meddling that Western intelligence agencies now routinely expect, despite Beijing and Moscow’s denials. This year’s Global Risk Report by the World Economic Forum said misinformation and disinformation were the top risks of the next two years — more so than war or climate change.
Never before will so many people around the world have had the opportunity to vote, but rarely have democracy’s core tenets been so fundamentally threatened.
Prominent election deniers are running again in 2024, but some have toned down their claims
At least 17 Republican candidates who made false claims about the 2020 election the focus of recent campaigns are running for…
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