海角大神

2024
September
12
Thursday

Monitor Daily Podcast

September 12, 2024
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Clayton Collins
Director of Editorial Innovation

鈥淎 tractor is truth.鈥

That鈥檚 something my father 鈥 a gentleman farmer, with 13 head of Black Angus out back 鈥 used to tell me when I was a kid in Otsego County, New York. The idea, I figured out: Our old Massey Ferguson was a simple machine with not one wasted flourish. Lots of power, though, and a direct line from action to consequence. Like a shotgun, it demanded responsible use.听

Today, contributor Patricia Leigh Brown introduces us to a Nebraska woman who helps instill in young farmers knowledge of tractors and a healthy respect. Can Ellen Duysen鈥檚 work curb the kinds of common, serious mishaps that can cut careers short?听

As Ms. Duysen might say, 鈥淗eck, yeah.鈥澨


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

Our first story, too, is about responsibility. Parents have a huge role to play in how their children act 鈥 including how they handle guns. But a remarkable shift in legal philosophy in Georgia puts one dad on the hook for murder.

Today鈥檚 news briefs

鈥 Alexei Navalny鈥檚 lawyers on trial: Three lawyers who represented the late opposition leader are being tried in Russia. Vadim Kobzev, Igor Sergunin, and Alexei Liptser were arrested in October 2023 on charges of involvement with an extremist group.听
鈥 Rise in foreign-born residents: The percentage of U.S. residents born outside the country reached its highest level in more than a century in 2023, according to a survey released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau.
鈥 North Dakota abortion ban struck down: A judge rules that the state constitution creates a fundamental right to access abortion before a fetus is viable.
鈥 First private spacewalk: Tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman performs it, hundreds of miles above Earth, on Thursday. The high-risk endeavor was previously reserved for professional astronauts.

Read these news briefs.

Scott Peterson/Getty Images/海角大神
Ukrainian military anesthetist Roman Shtybel (left) and surgeon Volodymyr Halenko, posing for a portrait in front of an Azov Brigade banner, await casualties from the front lines at a fortified underground stabilization point in the Luhansk region near Kreminna, Ukraine, July 18, 2024.

Ukraine鈥檚 Azov Brigade has been much maligned, especially by Russia, for a Nazi-tainted past. But today its renowned fighters proudly and emphatically assert their modern self-definition as patriotic nationalists with a broad appeal.

Patterns

Tracing global connections

Iran鈥檚 dispatch of ballistic missiles to Russia could backfire if the shipment provokes Washington into lifting its refusal to let Ukraine aim U.S.-made long-range missiles deep into Russian territory.

Difference-maker

Patricia Leigh Brown
Kenley Dehning sits on a tractor in Gering, Nebraska, before her certification test, which will be evaluated by John Thomas.

About every three days, a child in the United States dies from an agriculture-related injury. One expert is cultivating lifesaving skills among teen farmers.听

Points of Progress

What's going right
Staff

Long-term problems like housing shortages and hunger can feel insurmountable. This week鈥檚 progress roundup shows significant movement on both fronts. In Latin America, food insecurity declines. And in Namibia, innovative management of an invasive species is helping to boost housing stocks.

Staff

The Monitor's View

Reuters
Volunteers in Bangladesh load a boat with relief supplies for flood-affected people in the Chhagalnaiya area, Aug. 24.

Not many nations reinvent themselves twice within one month. Yet in August, Bangladesh did just that.

First, a student-led uprising forced an autocratic ruler to flee, restoring democracy in the South Asian country and renewing people鈥檚 faith in civic equality. Then days later, a country with the world鈥檚 largest delta saw its worst flooding in more than three decades, lasting into early September. Perhaps in part because of the democratic renewal, citizens by the tens of thousands gave time and money to more than 5.5 million people affected by the heavy rains.

The spontaneous generosity ranged from girls breaking open their piggy banks, to famed actors taking supplies to inundated villages, to a concert with some 30 bands raising money. The university students who led the uprising quickly pivoted to aid work and donation collection.

鈥淭he flooding has given us an opportunity to rediscover a missing characteristic of the nation 鈥 the united strength,鈥 wrote journalist Shiabur Rahman in The Financial Express.

鈥淭he empathy the nation has shown for the flood victims is unprecedented,鈥 he stated. 鈥淰olunteers 鈥 both trained and untrained 鈥 coming from different strata of society rushed to the affected areas to join the relief activities risking their lives, alongside the government efforts.鈥

Mr. Rahman makes a crucial connection between the two big events in August: 鈥淚f we enjoy more freedom and get united, combating disasters will be easier for us.鈥

Bangladesh is already known as a social innovator with its use of microloans for poor people to start a business. And with other wise reforms, its poverty rate has plummeted in recent years. Yet as the low-lying country experiences increased flooding from extreme weather, it is also setting a model for citizen participation in disaster response. The mass action in August and into September by its 鈥渃limate volunteers鈥 has not gone unnoticed in other countries working to increase volunteerism to deal with wildfires, storms, and drought.

鈥淰ery few pay attention to the skills of volunteers and citizens who often lead response as disasters unfold,鈥 Janne Parviainen, a researcher at the Stockholm Environment Institute, wrote for Euractiv media network last year. He adds that a bottom-up approach to climate adaptation 鈥渟hould be cherished.鈥 In Bangladesh, for sure, people now cherish their climate volunteers, perhaps as much as they cherish their democracy.


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.

The love that sees everyone as spiritual and whole takes away fear and brings healing.


Viewfinder

Gareth Fuller/PA/AP
World War II veterans Queenie Hall (left), who is 100 years old, and Dorothea Barron, who is 99, talk after taking flight in two Spitfires in honor of their 100th birthdays and their military service. Ms. Hall joined the Women's Auxiliary Air Force during the war, while Ms. Barron joined the Women's Royal Naval Service. The event was organized by the Taxi Charity for Military Veterans and took place at the Biggin Hill Heritage Hangar in Westerham, England, Sept. 12, 2024.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Jacob Turcotte. )

A look ahead

Thanks for diving into your Daily today. We鈥檒l be back tomorrow with a story from Michigan on the politically important question of whether the Biden administration stands to get credit for its actions around what our writer calls 鈥渢he popular but amorphous topic of infrastructure.鈥 Also, Peter Rainer breaks down this year鈥檚 Toronto International Film Festival.听

More issues

2024
September
12
Thursday

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