by Brittney Melton

December 22, 2024

Good morning. This week, Michael Vick announced he’ll be a head coach at Norfolk State University, the world’s biggest iceberg went back on the move, and Big Lots said it’s having going-out-of-business sales.

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In 1989, the Berlin Wall fell, ushering in a wave of regime change that overwhelmed dictatorships around the world. At the same time, political scientist Francis Fukuyama wrote about the then-apparent triumph of liberal democracy. In "The End of History," Fukuyama spoke on the idea that liberal democracy was an endpoint every country would gradually reach, even if haltingly.

Illustration of a hand placing a cutout of a person in a suit in a slot.

Boris Zhitkov/Getty Images

Now, 35 years after the Berlin Wall’s fall, history has shown that it's not over. Oxford professor Ben Ansell says we are witnessing a battle between nationalism and liberalism that will indelibly mark our time in the history books of tomorrow.

This year alone, the greatest number of people ever were able to vote in elections — but not always democratic ones. Half of the world’s population — 4 billion people — live in countries where elections took place in 2024. Only around half of those were in countries where the elections could be viewed as free and fair.

Elections in India were marred by the disqualification and arrests of opposition leaders; in Mexico, elections were tarnished by violence; elections in Turkey and Pakistan witnessed accusations of voter fraud and party interference; and in some particularly authoritarian cases, such as Venezuela, Bangladesh and Russia, the elections were systematically biased in favor of the ruling party.

Even when the idea of national elections is not taken seriously, they have prevailed, showing that democracy will always have a fighting chance. Ansell dives into this year’s elections as part of NPR's 2024 Year of Global Elections series.

➡️ On All Things Considered yesterday, NPR's international correspondents joined host Scott Detrow for a one-hour special to discuss some of the throughlines they discovered this year. Historians Margaret MacMillan and Daniel Ziblatt analyzed what does the state of democracy today tell us about its future as a form of government. You can also find some of these conversations this morning on Consider This.
➡️ Over the last four decades, the phrase “people power” has been regularly deployed by journalists in covering popular protests. But “people power” has had a checkered history. Since August, NPR has reported extensively on the aftermath of the students-led popular protests that toppled Bangladesh’s long-time ruler, Sheikh Hasina. Will post-Hasina Bangladesh become a true democracy, as protesters demanded? Wilson Center’s Michael Kugelman provided his answer.

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The Week That Was

People demonstrating against the health care industry stand outside Federal Criminal Court on Dec. 19 in New York City.

John Lamparski/Getty Images

Health care companies are ending the year in the hot seat. This month’s killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO Brian Thompson thrust the company and his industry into the spotlight, sparking widespread consumer reckoning. But even before this, the health care business was having a rocky year. Costs were up, profits were down, top executives lost their jobs and investors sold off their shares. As the industry continues to grow, industry executives say this helps to offer a wider array of low-cost services, while critics say the size and scale of these companies make them expensive and lead to worse outcomes for patients.

Humans stayed in Africa for millennia until roughly 100,000 years ago, when they started leaving the continent in waves. A group of early modern humans who migrated to Europe and Asia met Neanderthals. Prehistoric sparks flew, and they had babies. The exact timing of this ancient interbreeding has been fuzzy. Now, two papers released in the journals Nature and Science provide a better picture of humanity’s origin story.

Wang Jingyu, a young Chinese man, portrayed himself as a brave dissident standing up to Communist Party repression. In recent years, dozens of news organizations worldwide have quoted or covered him as just that. This year NPR conducted an investigation that uncovered evidence linking Wang to an elaborate con involving the impersonation of government officials and credit card fraud. Since NPR’s reporting, at least 10 news organizations have retracted or amended their stories.

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Podcast Picks

Screen capture of Disney’s 2016 Moana movie.

FlixPix / Alamy Stock Photo / Disney

Pop Culture Happy Hour: Five days a week, Pop Culture Happy Hour serves you recommendations and commentary on the buzziest movies, TV, music, books, video games and more. The Happy Hour team leaves room at the table to explore a range of reactions and opinions on every bit of the pop universe. From lowbrow to highbrow to the stuff in between, they take it all with a shot of cheer.

🎧 Watching a movie on a plane can be a great way to pass the time if you're traveling for the holidays — particularly if you're going a long way. But picking the right movie can be very tricky. In this episode, there’s a debate over the best movies to watch on an airplane. Get recommendations, including Moana, Jackie Brown, The Holdovers and The Lion in Winter.

Throughline: On each episode, Throughline takes listeners beyond the headlines to answer the question, "How did we get here?" The show uses sound and stories to bring history to life and put listeners in the middle of it. From ancient civilizations to forgotten figures, this podcast takes you directly to the moments that shaped our world.

🎧 Christmas wasn't always a national shopping spree — or even a day off work. But in 19th-century London, it went viral. When Charles Dickens published A Christmas Carol, the book's tale of the miserly Scrooge and the ghosts that transformed him transformed the holiday too, especially in the U.S.

Up First from NPR: The news you need to start your day. Get three of the biggest stories of the day in 10 minutes. On Sundays, hear a longer exploration behind the headlines with Ayesha Rascoe on The Sunday Story.

🎧 In 1972, the federal government launched a program to support the poorest disabled and elderly Americans. Supplemental Security Income, run by the Social Security Administration, provides monthly checks that are a lifeline for some of the most vulnerable people in this country. In this episode, correspondent Joseph Shapiro, who led a recent NPR investigation, explains how SSI's outdated rules have made the system difficult to run and almost impossible for its beneficiaries to navigate.

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This newsletter was edited by Suzanne Nuyen.

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