海角大神

2025
October
18
Saturday

Monitor Daily Podcast

October 18, 2025
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Clayton Collins
Director of Editorial Innovation

You made it to Saturday.

A chief cultural export, Iran鈥檚 films often shimmer. Former Monitor film critic David Sterritt, two decades retired, has been credited with helping to draw global attention to the artistry of Iranian cinema. Our current critic, Peter Rainer, also celebrates it.

鈥淭he irony is that repressive regimes often force filmmakers to come up with more creative, encoded solutions,鈥 Peter says. 鈥淭his was true of filmmakers in countries like Poland and Czechoslovakia in the Soviet era, and it鈥檚 true in Iran today, though in his latest film, Jafar Panahi is saying the quiet part out loud.鈥

Today, Peter reviews a film 鈥 made with French financial backing, and actually entered by France for the international-film Oscar 鈥 by that Iranian director. 鈥淗e鈥檚 fearless,鈥 says Peter, 鈥渁nd so is his movie.鈥


Also: On our 鈥淲hy We Wrote This鈥 podcast, writer Scott Baldauf joins me to talk about seeing the United States with a fresh perspective after many years spent living and working abroad. You can listen here.

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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

The Explainer

Ricardo Arduengo/Reuters
As part of a buildup of U.S. military forces in the Caribbean, a group of Marines comes ashore from a landing craft during training exercises in Arroyo, Puerto Rico, Oct. 16, 2025.

The volume of U.S. military hardware headed to Puerto Rico suggests an escalation of the Trump administration鈥檚 military campaign against Venezuelan President Nicol谩s Maduro. The president says land strikes might follow.

SOURCE:

Reuters, U.S. Naval Institute News, Task & Purpose

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Jacob Turcotte/Staff
Jorge Saenz/AP
Former Bolivian President Evo Morales greets supporters after the first round of voting in the Andean country's presidential election, Aug. 17, 2025.

For the first time since Bolivia elected an Indigenous leader to office in 2005, the party he founded did not make it to the ballot. But in many ways, it shows how far Indigenous rights have come in 20 years.

Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters
French Prime Minister S茅bastien Lecornu speaks during a debate following his first general policy speech in front of the Parliament in Paris, Oct. 14, 2025.

France has become a byword for political instability - nine governments in eight years - and French voters are increasingly fed up with their politicians. But beyond the uncertainty, they still have faith in their institutions.

On Film

Neon/AP
From left, Hamid (Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr), Ali (Majid Panahi), and Goli (Hadis Pakbaten) try to figure out if they have found a former captor in "It Was Just an Accident."

Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi has sacrificed for his art and views, having been sentenced to prison and house arrest. His latest movie, 鈥淚t Was Just an Accident,鈥 examines significant questions, including if there are limits to forgiveness 鈥 or mercy.

Q&A

Ayna Lorenzo/Courtesy of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
Ada Lim贸n served as U.S. poet laureate for three years. Her latest collection is "Startlement: New and Selected Poems," Milkweed Editions, 232 pp.

Inquisitiveness is a key characteristic of being human. For Ada Lim贸n, who served three years as U.S. poet laureate, this kind of probing is 鈥渙ur natural state ... it鈥檚 like breath.鈥

Essay

Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff/File
A rotary telephone bears witness to a bygone era. Before push-button phones and cellphones, these heavy workhorse phones were what every U.S. household used.

Sometimes, there鈥檚 wisdom in the 鈥渙utmoded鈥 ways of life, as our essayist discovered. When she disconnected her landline, she bade goodbye to an era of spontaneous conversations 鈥 the kind you have when you just pick up 鈥 and the close connections that those can forge.


Viewfinder

Jehad Alshrafi/AP
Palestinians pray beside the rubble of a destroyed building in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, Oct. 17, 2025. A peace deal after two years of fighting appeared to be holding, with the first phase leading to the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian detainees. Tensions have simmered over implementation of other elements. Axios reported, citing a U.S. official, that White House envoy Steve Witkoff could travel to the Middle East Sunday.

More issues

2025
October
18
Saturday

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