This week on
Nearly half the world holds nationwide elections…
Perhaps none more impactful than the presidential race in The United States.
We look at how newsrooms globally are preparing for a challenging year… confronting disinformation and safety.
We continue our coverage of conflicts in Israel and Gaza, and between Russia and Ukraine.
Plus we see what's in store for space exploration.
Now... on ... The Year Ahead.
Hello, I’m Katherine Gypson VOA’s Congressional Correspondent and today we’re going to take this opportunity to look at what’s coming in the year ahead... and look back at how we got here.
From elections to war to the continuing march of technology, 2024, for many holds promise, and for some, more than a bit of anxiety.
All this and more on today’s Inside Story.
We begin with what will be history’s biggest year for elections, roughly half of the world will have the chance to choose new leadership, perhaps none will be more consequential than the presidential election in the United States.
Campaigning is already well underway. Most of the attention is on current incumbent, Democrat Joe Biden, and his predecessor whom he defeated in 2020, Republican Donald Trump.
From the White House, VOA’s Chief National Correspondent Steve Herman reports on what increasingly appears to be a Biden-Trump rematch.
Many of Donald Trump’s supporters continue to falsely believe that Joe Biden stole the 2020 election and that the former president is the victim of political persecution.
Half of the Republican Party’s likely voters tell pollsters they still support Trump over his primary challengers. This comes as no surprise to those who study Trump’s rhetoric, including communications professor Jennifer Mercieca.
When he claims that he was doing everything right and he was the greatest president who's ever existed, they are inclined to believe that. And, so, he does seem like the strong leader that he promises them that he is.
Most of the other candidates for the Republican nomination have limited their criticism of Trump.
That strategy is in line with polls finding that while the party’s base is open to an alternative to the former president, that does not include someone who is anti-Trump.
Republican presidential contender Nikki Haley was Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations.
What we need in a president is someone who knows the difference between good and evil, who knows the difference between right and wrong.
President Biden faces only token opposition from other Democrats and is campaigning largely on his economic record.
We've created 14 million new jobs, including 800,000 manufacturing jobs. The unemployment rate has stayed below four percent -- below four percent for the longest period, longest stretch in over 50 years. And wages for working families have gone up, while inflation has come down 65%.
Polls show that many voters, including Democrats, question how effective a leader Biden might be by the end of a second term, when he would be 86 years old.
He can't shake the fact that people feel like he's too old or that they feel like the economy isn't going great.
Trump and Biden both say they’re running to save America from the existential threats posed by the other.
Our country is going to hell. Our country is being destroyed. Together, we will take on the ultra-left-wing liars, losers, creeps, perverts and freaks who are devouring the future of this state like a swarm of locusts.
Biden says part of why he is running again is to prevent Trump from getting back to the White House.
Look, he is running, and I have to run.
The first electoral tests for Trump come in January with the Iowa caucuses on the 15th and the New Hampshire primary on the 23rd. Republicans nominate their presidential
candidate in Milwaukee in July. Democrats expect to renominate Biden in Chicago in August.
Steve Herman, VOA News, at the White House.
Looking ahead, 2024 will be an extraordinary test of democracy worldwide. Over a billion individuals in numerous countries will be dependent on their votes to select their leaders. According to our correspondent Henry Ridgwell, the outcome of their choices this year will shape the global outlook for years to come.
Sheikh Hasina won a fifth term as prime minister of Bangladesh Saturday - the first in a series of major elections across the world this year.
Taiwan will hold its presidential election on January 13. China’s threat to retake the island by force looms over the vote.