How to watch tonight's Republican debate with Engadget

Tonight the Republican candidates for president of the United States square off once again in the art of debate. The main event, which begins at 9PM ET on Fox Business, will feature Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, Jeb Bush, John Kasich and Chris Christie. If you're one of those fancy cord-cutters, you can tune it at FOXBusiness.com for a live stream. Unlike some previous debates, this evening's event will not focus on particular topic. Instead it'll cover a number of subjects in the realm of economic, domestic and international policy.

With Rand Paul, Carly Fiorina, Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum confined to the secondary stage, tonight's affair should be able to delve a little bit deeper into the issues at hand. How will the candidates handle the energy industry? Are there any wrinkles to Ted Cruz's flat tax plan that could help grow the renewable energy without punishing oil or coal? There's also bound to be a fair amount of discussion about security and surveillance. Though, the number of candidates ideologically opposed to opening backdoors in encryption and mass data collection on the main stage is dwindling.

But, before the festivities kick off, you should catch up on the candidate's positions by checking out our guide to the 2016 election, including our guide to the issues. We've just updated it to reflect current polling numbers and included new quotes about the issues from the Republican nominee hopefuls.

And of course, follow @engadget and its editors for our take on the candidate's tech and science positions.