海角大神

2024
June
13
Thursday

Monitor Daily Podcast

June 13, 2024
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Clayton Collins
Director of Editorial Innovation

We report today on a former president testing his party鈥檚 support on Capitol Hill, and about Russia cozying up to Afghanistan鈥檚 Taliban.

Both smart reads as we slide toward the summer of a contentious U.S. election year and as global geopolitical plates keep shifting.

And find the stories that might move you most a little farther down. Among them: Christa Case Bryant鈥檚 short, second piece today. It鈥檚 a story of connection across continents, of agency and gratitude. It shows the power of journalism 鈥 in this case of a 2018 Monitor story 鈥 to make a difference in a life.


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters
Former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump reacts as he is applauded by Republicans at the National Republican Senatorial Committee headquarters in Washington, June 13, 2024.

In his first visit to Capitol Hill since the Jan. 6 attack, former President Donald Trump highlighted the closer ties he has built with Republicans and how he might leverage them.

Today鈥檚 news briefs

鈥 G7 summit:聽The summit of the G7 leading industrialized nations opens in Italy with agreement on a U.S. proposal to back a $50 billion loan to Ukraine using frozen Russian assets as collateral.
鈥 Hamas counters: Secretary of State Antony Blinken says Hamas presented numerous changes, some unworkable, to a U.S.-backed proposal for a cease-fire with Israel in Gaza, but that mediators seek to close the gaps.聽
鈥 NAACP lawsuit: The Virginia NAACP sues school officials in a rural county after they restored Confederate military names to two schools.聽
鈥 SCOTUS on Starbucks: In siding with the company, the U.S. Supreme Court makes it harder for the federal government to win court orders when it suspects a company of interfering in unionization campaigns.
鈥 Tom Brady inducted: The former New England Patriot, now in the franchise鈥檚 Hall of Fame, provided endless memories and six Super Bowl trophies during his two-decade run with the team.

Read these news briefs.

The Supreme Court鈥檚 ruling on an abortion drug Thursday was procedural, but has big consequences. And reactions to the case illustrate why the abortion issue is likely to reach the court again soon.

Dmitri Lovetsky/AP
Abdul Hanan Omari, acting labor minister of Afghanistan (center) and representatives of the Taliban arrive at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg, Russia, June 6, 2024.

Much of the world regards the Taliban as outlaw rulers of Afghanistan. But Russia appears set to recognize them anyway, calculating that 鈥渢he enemy of my enemy is my friend.鈥

Ken Makin
The Rev. Kenneth Hodges of Tabernacle Baptist Church poses in front of the Harriet Tubman monument in Beaufort, South Carolina, June 5, 2024.

Civil War statues have been in the news in recent years. But a new one in Beaufort, South Carolina, honors a different kind of military leader 鈥 and the story only starts there.

Christa Case Bryant/海角大神
Fred Mbuga, a Ugandan granted asylum in the United States, stands in a crowd of fellow graduates and their families after receiving his diploma from the Massachusetts School of Law June 7, 2024, at Wilmington High School in Wilmington, Massachusetts. He hopes to use his law degree to start an organization to help immigrants, building on his work for a refugee resettlement agency in the Boston area.

At a time of increasing news avoidance by people who feel depressed by conflicts and calamities, news engagement can have the potential to do something very different: inspire and transform lives.

Essay

Scott Wilson

Sometimes the situation 鈥撀爋r person 鈥撀爓e are fleeing from turns out to be just the thing we need, as our writer learned about her blessing in disguise.


The Monitor's View

AP
Host of the G7 Summit, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, center, stands with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, French President Emmanuel Macron, U.S. President Joe Biden, Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, and Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

Twenty-nine countries now have female heads of state, which provides a fresh opportunity for a more varied view of how women might lead differently, if at all. One who has been in office for nearly two years in Europe, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, on Thursday convened a summit of G7 leading industrialized nations in Puglia, Italy. A newcomer on the scene is Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, winner of Mexico鈥檚 June 2 presidential election.

Although Dr. Sheinbaum won鈥檛 take office until October, she is offering clues on her leadership style, listening to citizens about their concerns from crime to education. She offers responses calmly, often with data on solutions. She flies commercial to save public money.

鈥淪he has a certain maternal part, like care, but at the same time she makes it very clear that her decisions are made by her, without having to say it,鈥 Renata Turrent, an economist and adviser, told El Pa铆s. 鈥淪he navigates those two things in a very graceful way, like a dancer.鈥

Descriptions like that might make some people wince. Women in politics, business, or academia frequently face obstacles that originate in stereotypes. Take, for instance, cases of women who rely on a conciliatory approach with a foreign adversary. In a paper published in International Studies Quarterly last fall, researchers at Princeton and Carnegie Mellon universities found such women are viewed as acting 鈥渁ccording to type,鈥 while a man 鈥 pursuing the same sort of diplomacy 鈥 is seen as acting in the national interest.

Still, a shift in such social attitudes may also be underway. A study of the pandemic responses of 14 female heads of state, published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, found that these leaders 鈥渃hallenged deeply ingrained cultural norms and beliefs about women鈥檚 capabilities.鈥 Their success wasn鈥檛 based on qualities typically cast as feminine 鈥 but came through 鈥渄ecisive and timely action, clear communication, and risk-averse decision-making.鈥

Those attributes may now shape debates about European security at the G7 summit. Once dismissed as a hard-right populist, Ms. Meloni has gained a reputation among her peers for pragmatism. One convert is the head of the 55-nation African Union, Moussa Faki Mahamat. He has praised the Italian prime minister for seeking solutions to mass migration through Africa that transform 鈥渢he vast regions of poverty, exclusion and human suffering into a space of prosperity and development鈥 through partnership.

In her own way, Dr. Sheinbaum, a climate scientist and longtime leftist, takes a similar approach. As a student activist leader challenging attempts to privatize public education, she exhorted her peers to seek constructive dialogue. 鈥淟et鈥檚 not fall into provocations,鈥 she urged.

鈥淲omen bring another dimension to leadership,鈥 Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former president of Liberia and the first female head of state in Africa, told Time recently. 鈥淭hey settle conflict rather than fight to resolve it. That does not take away from the application of the strength of authority when required, but when they can find an alternative route to peace, they seek it.鈥

A true picture of female leadership, free of stereotypes, may be emerging as more countries and businesses elevate women to higher roles. In the meantime, examples from Mexico to Italy help expand the picture of what is possible for all.


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.

An understanding that God鈥檚 spiritual goodness is infinite can empower us to see and feel this goodness in our own lives and beyond.聽


Viewfinder

Fernando Vergara/AP
Teachers dance as they march to Congress to protest the Statutory Law on Education, a government initiative for education reforms being considered by lawmakers, on the first day of a teachers strike in Bogot谩, Colombia, June 12.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Karen Norris. )

A look ahead

Thanks for reading today. Come back tomorrow for a new set of reports. We鈥檒l look at how聽voters in a Colorado swing district view recent U.S. action on the southern border, and at what the field of聽candidates for a special election to replace President Ebrahim Raisi, killed last month in a helicopter crash,聽tells us about what鈥檚 next for the Islamic Republic of Iran.

More issues

2024
June
13
Thursday

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