Undebatable: You need this existential threat scorecard for the Kamala Harris and Donald Trump debate

On Tuesday night, the fate of the world may be decided between four TV personalities. ABC anchors Linsey Davis and David Muir will meet with Donald Trump and Kamala Harris on a soundstage with no live audience and no live mics between answers, to give American viewers and journalists another chance to pick a winner before the actual presidential election on November 5.

On the one hand, not much has changed since the last debate between the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates on June 27. The nuclear arms race continues; the planet one-upped the Olympics by breaking more global temperature records; foreign disinformation campaigns are proliferating; astronauts are still stuck in space.

On the other hand, the fallout from the last debate radically reshaped the final months of the election season—shortly after the Republican candidate survived an assassination attempt, it was in fact the Democrat candidate who was knocked out of the race. With Harris taking Joe Biden’s place on the debate stage, the September 10 event might be a chance for something completely different, and for each candidate to address the biggest threats to human civilization.

But will they? If either party’s campaigns over the last month are any indication, there hasn’t been much change in their attention to global dangers, despite the enormous consequences for the world that this election may have. As always, the Bulletin will be paying closing attention Tuesday night, and so can you, with our latest edition of our presidential debate existential threat scorecard:

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