海角大神

2019
December
10
Tuesday

Monitor Daily Podcast

December 10, 2019
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Laurent Belsie
Senior Economics Writer

On tap for today鈥檚 Monitor Daily: Answers from the new report on聽FBI鈥檚 Trump investigation,听strains in NATO, college education and聽the search for meaning, language lessons from聽French Jews and Muslims, and聽emojis for West Africa.

But first, truly electrifying news. The Tennessee Aquarium has a display that uses an electric eel to light up a Christmas tree. The lights flicker when it sends out an extra big jolt. There have been other Christmas-lighting electric eels in the past from Tokyo and Vancouver to Sandy, Utah. But none of them has managed to garner the attention that Miguel Wattson is generating down in Chattanooga. Everyone is reporting on the eel, er, knifefish. Maybe it鈥檚 the name: Wattson is spelled W-A-T-T-S-O-N. Or maybe it鈥檚 because he roars. Sensors in the water monitor the eel鈥檚 electrical discharges and deliver the big ones to a set of speakers.

But I think the biggest reason for his popularity is because he tweets. Miguel isn鈥檛 the aquarium鈥檚 first animal on Twitter. Chattanooga Chuck did it for years around Groundhog Day. But eel tweets are particularly charged: like SKA-TOW and ZING!!!!!! Once in a while staffers will throw in a bad pun or weak joke, like 鈥淚鈥檓 not slippery; I鈥檓 frictionally challenged.鈥 For the most part, though, Miguel keeps it real. And there鈥檚 something particularly soothing these days about a Twitter feed where the biggest zingers amount to BUZZ!!! and SKA-TOW!!!


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

The Explainer

President Trump has alleged for years that the FBI鈥檚 investigation into ties between his campaign and Russia was politically motivated. The 434-page report examines the origins of the probe 鈥 and recommends reforms.

Patterns

Tracing global connections

A shared vision of mission and grounds for united action is central to any alliance. Now 70 years old, NATO is straining under members鈥 differing agendas and individual interests.

A deeper look

Jacob Turcotte/Staff

Higher education of an earlier era focused on contemplation of character, values, and how to live a good life. But today鈥檚 shift to achievement as the goal has students seeking more meaning.

Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters
People attend a national gathering to protest the rise of anti-Semitic attacks in the Place de la R茅publique in Paris on Feb. 19, 2019. The sign reads, "Antisemitism, Islamophobia, racism 鈥 not in our name."

Shared experience and conversation can help overcome the sort of misunderstandings fueling Islamophobia and anti-Semitism in France.

@creativorian
For one year, Ivoirian graphic design student O鈥橮l茅rou Grebet created a new emoji each day, all of them depicting daily life in West Africa 鈥 including cellphone kiosks (upper left) and hibiscus juice (upper right). Today, his collection of nearly 400 emojis is available via his app, Zouzoukwa.

What isn鈥檛聽there an emoji for? A lot, it turns out聽鈥 if you don鈥檛 come from the culture where most 鈥渙fficial鈥 emojis are made. So one student set out to change that.


The Monitor's View

AP
French President Emmanuel Macron, center, arrives with Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, for talks in Paris, Dec. 9.

For all the fear of Russia these days 鈥 in election meddling or the rollout of new weapons 鈥 its leader, President Vladimir Putin, did not seem so fearsome during his first talks with the new president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy. In fact, the power dynamic between them on Tuesday was surprisingly in Ukraine鈥檚 favor. Mr. Putin made concessions that would ease the hot conflict in eastern Ukraine. He also pledged to hold talks again in four months.

One reason may be that Mr. Putin is realizing power is more than missiles, cyberwarfare, or targeted assassinations. It also lies in making Russia an attractive place for its young people to work and start families. On that source of power, he is failing as a leader. And perhaps he knows it.

Nearly half of all young Russians under 24 would like to move abroad 鈥 a sharp increase from five years ago, according to the latest polls. In addition, real incomes in Russia have declined for six years as pro-democracy protests have increased. The population is also dropping.

In Ukraine, by contrast, wages are rising and, with a revived democracy under Mr. Zelenskiy, migration abroad could be in decline. The country鈥檚 reform process was just given a stamp of approval by the International Monetary Fund with a $5.5聽billion loan. Despite ongoing battles with oligarchs and a culture of corruption, young people feel some hope. 鈥淲e fought Russia with nothing [in 2014]; we built an army from scratch,鈥 says Economy Minister Tymofiy Mylovanov. 鈥淭he only little thing left is to start believing in ourselves.鈥

These contrasting trends explain why Ukraine is on track to be a full member of the European Union (and perhaps NATO) while Mr. Putin tries any lever of power to stop its neighbor from drifting toward the West and embracing democratic values. The more he overreaches abroad, the more he loses youth at home.

This point is made in a new book, 鈥淭he Return of the Russian Leviathan,鈥 by Sergei Medvedev, a professor of social science at Moscow鈥檚 Higher School of Economics. The war in Ukraine and the taking of Crimea in 2014, he writes, are good examples of Russia acting upon its fears and myths of being encircled by enemies. The fears have become self-fulling prophesies.

鈥淭oday Russia does not need geopolitical myths that lead us to war and mobilization, but a program of national demobilization and a lowering of the temperature of hatred and confrontation with the West,鈥 he writes. 鈥淭he Cold War is over; it鈥檚 time to build our house and bring up our children, not send them to the slaughterhouse.鈥

Ukraine is hardly out of Russia鈥檚 influence yet. But as its people embrace democratic ideals and equal opportunity to flourish 鈥 the ideals of the EU 鈥 the more it can win the struggle in its Russian-speaking eastern regions. The power of attraction is greater than the force of arms.


A 海角大神 Science Perspective

About this feature

Each weekday, the Monitor includes one clearly labeled religious article offering spiritual insight on contemporary issues, including the news. The publication 鈥 in its various forms 鈥 is produced for anyone who cares about the progress of the human endeavor around the world and seeks news reported with compassion, intelligence, and an essentially constructive lens. For many, that caring has religious roots. For many, it does not. The Monitor has always embraced both audiences. The Monitor is owned by a church 鈥 The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston 鈥 whose founder was concerned with both the state of the world and the quality of available news.

Letting our thoughts and actions toward others reflect God鈥檚 love, rather than disdain or disgust, benefits us and those around us, too.


A message of love

Vesa Moilanen/Lehtikuva/AP
From left, Minister of Education Li Andersson, Minister of Interior Maria Ohisalo, Prime Minister Sanna Marin, and Minister of Finance Katri Kulmuni during press conference of the new Finnish government in Helsinki on Dec. 10, 2019. Finland鈥檚 parliament chose Sanna Marin as the country's new prime minister, making the 34-year-old the world鈥檚 youngest sitting head of government.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Jacob Turcotte. )

A look ahead

That鈥檚 a wrap for today. Join us tomorrow when we look at the implications of the U.S.-Canada-Mexico trade deal poised for a ratification vote in Congress.

More issues

2019
December
10
Tuesday

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