Indians begin voting on Friday in what will be the world's biggest-ever election, with nearly a billion registered voters.

With 63 democracies now outnumbered by 74 autocracies, a new Bertelsmann Foundation report highlights a global shift away from democratic governance, exacerbated by recent geopolitical events and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lola Shoneyin is a Nigerian author and poet. One of her latest projects is a stunning poem entitled "A Fragile State". It's part of a project undertaken by the Financial Times, centered on the theme of "Democracy 2024". She joined us for Perspective.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League party has won a record fourth straight term in power. But the election victory was tarnished by significantly low voter turnout and the main opposition’s boycott.

Protests, riots and a crackdown have erupted in Senegal after the term-limited outgoing president, Macky Sall, suddenly announced a six-month election delay, this on the very day the official campaign to pick his successor was due to start.

With over 4 billion people – or half the world's population – set to vote in elections in 2024, this is one of the biggest election years in world history. We take a look at why some papers are worried that democracy could take a hit in all corners of the globe. We also take a closer look at South Africa's ICC genocide claim targeting Israel and finish with the surprising revelation that mice can be great cleaners.

The far-right populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) is flying high in the polls. In 2024, it expects success in regional elections in eastern Germany and the vote for the European Parliament.

Six minors are standing trial in Paris for their alleged role in the killing of a teacher. But some feel the authorities are missing this opportunity to examine the state of freedom of expression in France.

West Africa's regional bloc ECOWAS on Sunday set up a committee of three leaders to negotiate with Niger's military junta on a transition to democratic rule and to consider easing sanctions, a communique said after an annual summit.

Over the course of two weeks, starting on September 19, some 100,000 Armenians fled the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in an exodus prompted by Azerbaijan’s invasion of the contested region, which had been governed by ethnic Armenians for some three decades. In Perspective, we spoke to Richard Giragosian, the founding director of the Regional Studies Center – an independent think-tank in Yerevan – to discuss Azerbaijan’s recent takeover.

The one thing almost everyone in Poland seems to agree on is that Sunday's elections are the most important the country has held since 1989 and the fall of communism. And they're on a knife-edge. The ruling nationalist Law and Justice party, known by its Polish acronym PiS, is aiming for a historic third term.

What makes mainstream German society tick? The Friedrich Ebert Foundation regularly takes a closer look at this question with its long-term study. Its latest findings have raised alarm.