Latest Democracy News

Jimmy Carter turns 99 at home with Rosalynn and other family as tributes come from around the world

Oct. 01, 2023 21:08 PM EDT

ATLANTA (AP) — Jimmy Carter has always been a man of discipline and habit. But the former president broke routine Sunday, putting off his practice of quietly watching church services online to instead celebrate his 99th birthday with his wife, Rosalynn, and their children, grandchildren and...

Is climate change bad for democracy? Future-watchers see threats, and some opportunities

Sep. 29, 2023 18:47 PM EDT

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Instability driven by climate change could threaten democracies in the future, even though representative governments are best equipped to provide solutions, experts gathered at an annual conference have argued. The Athens Democracy Forum, an event backed by...

Africa's Eswatini, one of the last absolute monarchies, holds an election without political parties

Sep. 29, 2023 17:30 PM EDT

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — The small southern African nation of Eswatini held elections Friday to decide part of the makeup of its Parliament, even as its extremely wealthy king retains absolute power, political parties are banned and elected representatives can merely advise a monarch whose...

Polish democracy champion Lech Walesa turns 80 and comments on his country's upcoming election

Sep. 29, 2023 10:51 AM EDT

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Former Polish President Lech Walesa said as turned 80 on Friday that he is supporting opposition leader Donald Tusk's effort to oust Poland's conservative government in the country's parliamentary election next month. Walesa, whose Solidarity movement toppled...

Biden offers dire warnings about Trump, accuses mainstream GOP of 'deafening' silence

Sep. 28, 2023 19:47 PM EDT

TEMPE, Arizona (AP) — President Joe Biden issued one of his most dire warnings yet that Donald Trump and his allies are a menace to American democracy, declaring Thursday that the former president is more interested in personal power than upholding the nation's core values and suggesting even...

China's top diplomat calls on US to host an APEC summit that is cooperative, not confrontational

Sep. 26, 2023 03:50 AM EDT

BEIJING (AP) — China's foreign minister called on the U.S. on Tuesday to do what it can to host a cooperative meeting of Asia-Pacific leaders in November, criticizing those who seek to play up a confrontation between democracy and authoritarianism. Wang Yi said the Asia Pacific...

The UN's top tech official discusses AI, bringing the world together and what keeps him up at night

Sep. 25, 2023 13:50 PM EDT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Artificial intelligence, and how and whether to regulate it, has gotten a lot of discussion in and around this year's U.N. General Assembly meeting of world leaders. With a U.N. advisory group on AI set to convene this fall, the world organization's top tech-policy official,...

Pakistan's prime minister says manipulation of coming elections by military is 'absolutely absurd'

Sep. 23, 2023 18:38 PM EDT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Pakistan’s interim prime minister said he expects parliamentary elections to take place in the new year, dismissing the possibility that the country’s powerful military would manipulate the results to ensure that jailed former premier Imran Khan’s party doesn’t win...

Hero or villain? Rupert Murdoch’s exit stirs strong feelings in Britain, where he upended the media

Sep. 22, 2023 14:08 PM EDT

LONDON (AP) — Before he hit America, Rupert Murdoch ripped through Britain’s media like a tornado. His newspapers changed the political and cultural weather and swung elections. His satellite television channels upended the staid broadcasting scene. Journalists and...

Biden to deliver democracy speech and pay tribute to John McCain in Arizona next week

Sep. 21, 2023 19:13 PM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will travel to Arizona next week to deliver a democracy-focused address that will also pay tribute to the late John McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential candidate who represented the state in the U.S. Senate for more than three decades. ...