海角大神

2022
May
13
Friday

Monitor Daily Podcast

May 13, 2022
Loading the player...
Peter Grier
Washington editor

One of my favorite places for interesting bits of information is the . It鈥檚 an online entity that pursues, analyzes, and posts stacks of declassified U.S. government documents, shedding light on everything from the to the day Elvis Presley dropped by the Oval Office for a .听

Recently they鈥檝e published revealing aspects of the clandestine struggle between the U.S. and the Soviet Union during the Cold War in East Berlin. While old, these papers may illuminate some of the aspects of the shadow conflicts undoubtedly occurring now between U.S. and Russian spy agencies in Ukraine, cyberspace, and beyond.

Some of the most dramatic of the CIA鈥檚 missions in East Berlin have long been public, such as , a phone-tapping center in a tunnel dug under the Soviet section of the divided city.

But the recently declassified documents reveal much more about more day-to-day operations, including U.S. efforts to lower morale and damage support for communist leaders in East Germany.

The U.S. directly supported some activist groups in East Berlin, for instance 鈥 something it long denied. And it devoted to printing false editions of actual East German newspapers and magazines. These fakes contained 鈥渟tories鈥 designed to drive wedges between East German groups and denigrate Soviet officials.

The takeaways for today? There are aspects of the U.S. effort to help Ukraine we don鈥檛 know about, and probably won鈥檛 for years. And 鈥渋nformation warfare鈥 existed long before Russian troll farms began turning out false posts on Facebook.


You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.

Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/AP
Anti-abortion protesters chant during an abortion-rights protest led by the Party for Socialism and Liberation in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, May 11, 2022.

Traditionally, Republicans against abortion have supported exceptions for rape and incest. But as Roe v. Wade teeters, a shift is taking shape.

A deeper look

As Finland applies to join NATO, with Sweden moving in tandem, Europe鈥檚 strategic posture toward Russia is shifting. What isn鈥檛 changing is the Finnish people鈥檚 devotion to defending their nation and its values.

Washington is diving back into Libyan politics, brokering a deal among rival warlords and politicians to boost oil output. Could this engender a broader national agreement, or are American motives suspect?

Driven by a young generation that wants change, waning support for Zimbabwe鈥檚 Zanu-PF party could be a bellwether for the first democratic transition since independence in 1980.

In Pictures

Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff
鈥淪mall Town Big Deal鈥 TV host Rodney Miller (back seat) and Tim Hauck paddle in a race against the show鈥檚 co-host, Jann Carl, in boats shaped like tractors, at the Cape Coral Cardboard Boat Regatta on April 16 in Florida.

What brings a community together? For one Florida city, creativity, teamwork, and a little friendly competition serve to make the annual cardboard boat regatta a rollicking success.听


The Monitor's View

AP
A customer pumps gas at an Exxon gas station in Miami May 2.

Is trust in tatters? The pandemic, inflation, and climate change have shaken public confidence in the ability of governments to solve serious threats. Long stretches of social distancing and remote work have undermined trust between people 鈥 the recent trends following a longer decline. According to the United Nations, global faith in government peaked in 2006.

As the world emerges after the pandemic, however, a 鈥渢rust recession鈥 might possibly give聽way to a trust renaissance. That is because the common challenges of humanity are driving societies to rethink and reclaim the values around which they cohere.听鈥淐ompetence and integrity are the main ingredients for building trust,鈥 wrote Ryan Wong, CEO of Canada-based Visier business consultancy, in a recent newsletter.

One place to look for trust-building is business. As Blackrock CEO Larry Fink noted, the pandemic 鈥渄eepened the erosion of trust in traditional institutions and exacerbated polarization in many Western societies. ... Employees are increasingly looking to their employer as the most trusted, competent, and ethical source of information.鈥

That shift is reflected in growing demands among investors for greater transparency and social responsibility. Those factors motivated the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in March to propose new rules for disclosing climate-related impacts in corporate reports to shareholders. The bar of expectations is high. Even as the public turns to the private sector for societal leadership, this year鈥檚 Edelman survey on levels of trust found 52% of respondents worldwide said business was not doing enough to reverse climate change and 40% said business was falling short on fixing economic equality. As employees and investors reflect shifting public priorities toward environmental and social concerns, they are putting greater pressure on corporate leaders to balance the goal of higher share prices with nonfinancial objectives.

鈥淭oday business must be the stabilizing force, the institution delivering tangible action on wages, climate change, re-skilling and diversity,鈥 wrote CEO Richard Edelman in an essay accompanying the annual survey. 鈥淎s business steps up, we need to move from outrage to optimism, fear to confidence, insinuation to fact. We must create a system that once again works for all.鈥


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.

Daniel Lamotte_Moment_Getty Images

Welcoming the 鈥済racious touch鈥 of divine Love, God, brings healing, comfort, calm, and joy, as this poem conveys. (Read it or listen to it being sung.)


A message of love

Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff
A young cow nuzzles a cat at Green Beach Farm and Food on May 9, 2022, in Strathclair, Manitoba.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Jacob Turcotte. )

A look ahead

Thanks for ending the week with us. Come back Monday, when we鈥檒l have a story about what the possible overturning of a federal right to abortion means for women of the Roe generation.听

More issues

2022
May
13
Friday

Give us your feedback

We want to hear, did we miss an angle we should have covered? Should we come back to this topic? Or just give us a rating for this story. We want to hear from you.