Divided States

The first presidential debate was a chaotic, rowdy affair – more of a verbal brawl than a political high point.
Donald Trump and Joe Biden interrupted and insulted each other, and many voters weren’t impressed.
Cordelia Lynch and Emily Purser Brown are in Cleveland, Ohio, and break down the highs and lows from an astonishing night.
They’re joined by Doug Rivers, Chief Scientist at YouGov, who polled people on the night with fascinating results.

This week a Texas judge halted the so-called ‘heartbeat bill’ which bans abortions after 6 weeks, calling it “flagrantly unconstitutional”. But the ruling is temporary, and Texas has already appealed it. It’s already testing the landmark Roe v Wade decision made by the Supreme Court in 1973.

After recently going to Texas to report on the abortion restrictions in effect, the Sky News US team sit down to explain what’s happening with the ‘heartbeat bill’, and what’s next for abortion rights across the States.

The impeachment trial is upon us! After weeks of wrangling, this week the Senate finally began to hear evidence in the trial that the Democrats hope will remove Donald Trump from office.
Join Amanda Walker, Cordelia Lynch and Emily Purser Brown as they catch up on the highlights of this week's evidence, and how bad it is for the president.
The week belonged to the Democrats, who had three days to present their case - but much of the action was outside of the Senate floor, with both sides trying to spin the evidence as best they could. We caught up with Adam Schiff, Chuck Schumer, Bernie Sanders - and many more of the politicians at the heart of this trial.
Plus - with hours spent on the Senate floor without their phones, what are senators allowed to bring in with them? And what can they drink? You may be surprised by the answer.

The impeachment hearings this week were a roaring success, and a complete sham. They were honest and transparent, and filled with falsehoods. The witnesses had decades of experience, and were completely untrustworthy.
And that was how the first public hearings in the impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump played out. It depended on who you were; what you wanted to hear; the decision you had made when you walked in the room.
There was no meeting of minds between Democrats and Republicans, even when the future of the presidency is at stake. Their leaders in the room sat inches away from each other, fuming, and unwilling to compromise.
It is into that environment that we launch with our new weekly podcast, Divided States. Our team here in the US are living and breathing every moment of this impeachment inquiry, and we hope to answer your questions, explain where it might all lead, and take you to the heart of the story, in Congress and with voters across America.
Every Saturday we’ll bring you the latest news from the week, and give you a flavour of what it’s like reporting this story.
In this episode, we take you to the Longworth building on Capitol Hill, where those long days of testimony have been taking place. In the studio, we break down how we got here and what we learnt from the hearings, and hear from Alan Barron, former special impeachment counsel to the House of Representatives, and Michael Carpenter, the former Director for Russia at the National Security Council, and friend of many of the witnesses we saw this week.
Subscribe to Divided States wherever you get your podcasts, and listen every Saturday.

A conversation with Karen Attiah, Global Opinions Editor at the Washington Post.
Just back from Minneapolis, this week Cordelia Lynch and Emily Purser Brown are joined by Karen Attiah to discuss whether the movement sparked by George Floyd’s death will finally be a tipping point for America’s systemic racism, and if there will be lasting change.