Show Notes
Benjamin Netanyahu is in the fight of his political life. Voters in Israel are heading to the polls today to decide an election that could determine whether Netanyahu will remain the country's prime minister (and affect the outcome of the corruption charges against him). But the Israeli election also arrives at a time when voters around the world seem to be rejecting authoritarianism. A student-run movement stunned the world on Sunday when its candidates routed Serbia's long-serving leader, Aleksandar Vučić. That same day, Brazilians beat back a campaign by Flávio Bolsonaro — the son of Jair Bolsonaro, the disgraced former president — in a historic upset. Carter Sherman speaks to Julian Borger, the Guardian’s senior international correspondent, about how these four elections could reshape the political world order in just 10 days, and why the upcoming US midterm elections are the biggest test for global democracy.
Julian Borger on ten days that could shake the world
Image credit: Amir Cohen/Reuters Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More from Stateside with Kai and Carter
Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s You Can See Everything has packed movie theaters and set records at the box office. It’s also kicked off a debate about, well, pretty much everything that happens on screen – including whether the film's subjects, notorious fraudster Elizabeth Holmes and her mysterious partner Billy Evans, can ever be trusted. Carter Sherman and Guardian arts writer Adrian Horton break down Horton's five-star review of the film, analyze Evans's most shocking moments and chart Holmes' trajectory from girlboss to (maybe) tradwife. They want to know: how did ideas about gender and sex shape this film? Contains spoilers
This week, the Department of Justice charged 28 green card holders in California over alleged voter fraud. It’s the latest move by the Trump administration to crack down on noncitizen voters, and part of a wider push to throw the results of the midterms into doubt. In today's episode, Carter Sherman and Kai Wright are joined by George Chidi and Sam Levine, two reporters who have spent years covering Donald Trump’s attacks on voting rights. They analyze the tactics being used to purge voter rolls, and look ahead to how Trump might react if the results on election day don’t go his way.
When the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade in 2022, millions of people got angry — and voted on it, making abortion was one of the top issues in the 2022 and 2024 elections. But now, during this year’s midterms, it seems like abortion has fallen out of the headlines. Candidates aren't discussing it nearly as much as they used to, while voters say it's no longer as important to them — even though four states are voting directly on ballot measures that deal with abortion access. One state could even reinstate its near-total abortion ban.
The vast majority of Americans say they are struggling to pay for gas and groceries, and are cutting back on luxuries. But what or who is actually behind these price rises? We asked you to tell us what's gotten too expensive in your own life. Now, Kai Wright and Carter Sherman enlist Guardian columnist and former labor secretary Robert Reich to explain why you’re feeling the pinch. From breaking down the market factors behind the cost of a $16 cheesesteak, to explaining why AI is playing into the price of a Nintendo Switch 2, Reich reveals who you should point the finger at in this economy. Additional music by Epidemic Sound Robert Reich has written this week’s edition of How We Win, a pop-up opinion newsletter with bold ideas for defeating Trumpism. Sign up here Send us your questions on how the US economy is shaping the US election Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
As the midterms approach, Donald Trump is continuing to make strongman moves: banning reporters from the White House; trying to remake Washington DC’s architecture in his name; putting "Dear leader"-style videos on television. But historian Timothy Snyder tells Kai Wright that what this really is, is a sign of weakness. And even as the Democrats seemed poised to win the midterms, Snyder argues that the Democrats need to take bold, decisive action if they do win. They have to investigate cases of obvious personal corruption among the people surrounding Trump and try everything they can to get money out of politics. Snyder is the author of On Tyranny and one of the first scholars to warn that the Trump movement presented a threat that looked like fascism. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.