On Sunday, July 21st, President Joe Biden announced that he would no longer seek the Democratic Party's nomination for president in the election against Donald Trump this November. He then endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for the nomination.

To talk about this momentous development in the 2024 presidential election, E.J. Dionne joins The Current. He is the W. Averell Harriman Chair and senior fellow in Governance Studies here at Brookings. He's also a syndicated columnist for The Washington Post and university professor in the foundations of democracy and culture at Georgetown University.

Show notes and transcript: https://www.brookings.edu/articles/as-joe-biden-exits-the-presidential-race-whats-next-for-kamala-harris/

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As NATO turns 75, alliance leaders gathered in Washington, presenting a united front in support of Ukraine's survival against the threat of Russia. Brookings Visiting Fellow James Goldgeier reviews the NATO summit's outcomes, how the organization is trying to prepare for the uncertainty of American leadership after November, and the broader challenges—and partners—in NATO's future.

Show notes and transcript: https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-state-of-nato-at-75-and-beyond

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Last week, President Joe Biden and former President Trump met in Atlanta for a presidential debate. After the event, most observers focused heavily on Biden’s seemingly poor performance, while paying Trump’s many untruths and exaggerations far less attention. And now some Biden supporters are hoping he’ll quit the race and allow another candidate to replace him. To talk about those issues and to answer the big question, do presidential debates matter?, Governance Studies Senior Fellow Elaine Kamarck, founding director of the Center for Effective Public Management, joins The Current. She’s author of numerous works including Primary Politics: Everything You Need to Know about How America Nominates Its Presidential Candidates, now updated in its fourth edition for the 2024 presidential contest.

Show notes and transcript: https://www.brookings.edu/articles/after-the-first-presidential-debate-whats-next-for-biden-and-trump/

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Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have the potential to amplify the spread of mis- and disinformation in elections around the world. In this historic election year, Valerie Wirtschafter breaks down where generative AI has already played a role in disinformation campaigns and how policymakers, tech companies, and voters can build up guardrails to protect the integrity of election information.

Show notes and transcript: https://www.brookings.edu/articles/what-role-is-ai-playing-in-election-disinformation 

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The Horn of Africa, home to over 200 million people, is experiencing high levels of fragility from both violence and climate change. The World Food Program says that the current conflict in Sudan is “risking the world's largest hunger crisis across the region." Jeffrey Feltman, visiting fellow in International Diplomacy in the Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology at Brookings, joins The Current to talk about the humanitarian and security crisis unfolding in Sudan and the Horn of Africa.

Show notes and transcript: https://www.brookings.edu/articles/what-can-be-done-about-sudans-deepening-humanitarian-catastrophe/

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On May 30, former president Donald Trump was found guilty by a Manhattan jury of 34 felony counts of falsification of business records in the first degree. The case revolved around payments made before the 2016 presidential election to adult film actress Stephanie Clifford, aka Stormy Daniels, in exchange for her silence about her allegation of an affair she had with Mr. Trump a few years prior. To talk about what the trial verdict suggests for governance, politics, and the rule of law, Norm Eisen, senior fellow in Governance Studies at Brookings and chair of the Anti-Corruption, Democracy and Security Project, joins The Current.

Show notes and transcript: https://www.brookings.edu/articles/what-the-trump-hush-money-trial-verdict-means-for-politics-and-the-rule-of-law/

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Following President Putin's visit to Beijing, Angela Stent and Yun Sun examine Russian and Chinese cooperation over the last two years, how China benefits from the relationship, what to watch for as their economic, military, and diplomatic relations continue to evolve.

Show notes and transcript: https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-dynamics-of-the-russia-china-partnership 

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Cities and states have a variety of policy options to help combat high housing costs. Brookings Metro Senior Fellow Jenny Schuetz and Gary Geiler, assistant director of San Diego’s Development Services Department, discuss how accessory dwelling units (ADUs) can be part of cities' toolkits for adding affordable housing.

Show notes and transcript: https://www.brookings.edu/articles/cities-need-more-housing-adus-can-help

The Current is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Find this and all Brookings podcasts on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Send feedback email to [email protected].

Brookings scholar Constanze Stelzenmüller, director of the Center on the United States in Europe and a senior fellow in Foreign Policy at Brookings, talks about whether foreign policy issues matter to U.S. voters, and also what's at stake for the world in the outcome of the U.S. presidential election.

Show notes and transcript

The Current is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Find this and all Brookings podcasts on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Send feedback email to [email protected].

The U.S. House of Representatives passed four bi-partisan bills in a $95 billion foreign aid package with monies going to aid Ukraine, to the Indo-Pacific region to counter China, to offensive and defensive weapons to Israel, and to humanitarian aid for Gaza and elsewhere. Molly Reynolds, senior fellow in Governance Studies at Brookings, joins The Current to talk about how these bills were passed in a deeply divided House of Representatives and the potential risk to Rep. Mike Johnson's speakership.

Show notes and transcript

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The recent collapse of the Francis Scott Key bridge in Baltimore after being struck by a container ship is both a human tragedy and an economic disaster. Six construction workers doing repair work on the bridge lost their lives when it plunged into the cold Patapsco River. The wreckage of the bridge now sits in the channel that connects Baltimore Harbor to the Chesapeake Bay, effectively closing the Port of Baltimore. Joe Kane, a fellow in Brookings Metro, talks about the economic impacts of the disaster and prospects for rebuilding the bridge.