海角大神

2025
September
23
Tuesday

Monitor Daily Podcast

September 23, 2025
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Kurt Shillinger
Managing Editor

Over the past few decades, China has pumped billions of dollars into Algeria to build ports, solar plants, and dozens of industries. That represents an important engine of modernization for the North African country. Yet the more lasting impact of this bilateral partnership may be better measured in noodles than steel girders. Chinese investments brought Chinese workers, who in turn brought with them a taste for home. Over time, a ramen craze has swept across Algiers. In kitchens and markets across the capital, writes Audrey Thibert, Algerians and Chinese fuse their culinary cultures and speak in broken versions of each other鈥檚 languages. If the world鈥檚 leaders gathering in New York this week need a metaphor for blending harmoniously, they may find it in a bowl of 鈥渃horba be茂da鈥 with pulled noodles.


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News briefs

Jimmy Kimmel returns to his late-night show tonight. After Mr. Kimmel suggested that Charlie Kirk鈥檚 killer was a MAGA supporter, Disney-owned ABC suspended the show under pressure from the Trump administration 鈥 including the chair of the Federal Communications Commission, which regulates the public airwaves. In a statement Monday, Disney said the comments had been 鈥渋nsensitive鈥 but that the show would go back on air after 鈥渢houghtful conversations鈥 with the comedian. Mr. Kirk鈥檚 assassination has renewed debate about the limits of free speech. 鈥 Staff

Nvidia will invest $100 billion in OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, and supply it with data center chips. The move underscores the increasingly overlapping interests of the tech giants developing advanced artificial intelligence systems. The deal gives chipmaker Nvidia a financial stake in the world鈥檚 most prominent AI company. 鈥 Reuters

The U.S. Supreme Court allowed President Donald Trump to remove Rebecca Slaughter, a Democratic member of the Federal Trade Commission, for now. Federal law lets a president dismiss commissioners for reasons such as inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office, but not for policy differences. Ms. Slaughter was one of two commissioners Mr. Trump moved to fire in March, drawing criticism from those concerned it was an effort to eliminate opposition within the agency to big corporations. 鈥 Reuters

The International Criminal Court charged former Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte with crimes against humanity. The charges stem from what鈥檚 often called Mr. Duterte鈥檚 war on drugs, during which thousands of people were killed. His arrest earlier this year was a 鈥渞eminder to the rest of the world that impunity ends, and accountability starts at some point,鈥 prominent Filipino-American journalist Maria Ressa told the Monitor. 鈥 Staff

Egypt freed Alaa Abd el-Fattah, a prominent pro-democracy activist jailed for most of the past 12 years. He and five other prisoners were pardoned after the National Council for Human Rights urged the president to act on humanitarian grounds. Mr. Abd el-Fattah was a leading voice of the country鈥檚 2011 Arab Spring uprising and has gone on hunger strikes in unsuccessful attempts to win his freedom. 鈥 AP

Global agriculture is on track for a record year of harvests despite climate risks. Corn and wheat are driving the gains, with soybeans and rice also expected to reach historic highs, writes data scientist Hannah Ritchie. Not all crops share the boom. Sorghum and millet, staples in parts of Africa and Asia that have not received the same investment, have stagnated. Still, the planet鈥檚 food system is showing surprising strength. 鈥 Staff

The oldest pipe organ in the 海角大神 world came back to life after 800 years of silence at a monastery in Jerusalem鈥檚 Old City. Composed of original pipes from the 11th century, the instrument emitted a full, hearty sound as musician David Catalunya played a liturgical chant upon unveiling the instrument Tuesday. 鈥淭his organ was buried with the hope that one day it would play again,鈥 he said. Researchers hope to finish restoring the entire organ and create copies for churches across the world so its music is accessible to all. 鈥 AP


Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

Ghada Abdulfattah
Sarah Abu Mkhaimer is one of 35,000 students in Gaza who were scheduled to take the Tawjihi in June 2024, before it was postponed due to war.

Gaza's high school graduation exams are seen as far more than an individual academic accomplishment. They are a step into adulthood, carrying both your dreams and your country's. The war has made that transition nearly impossible.聽

The Explainer

President Donald Trump says antifa, which often confronts right-wing demonstrators, is 鈥渄angerous鈥 and is now considered a domestic terror group. Because the movement lacks structure, his declaration raises concern that any protester could be targeted.

Stephanie Hanes/海角大神
Over the past 25 years, Roseville, California has become a nationwide model for resiliency to inland flooding. The city has restricted development close to its creeks, creating bike paths and recreation areas that also serve as natural flood mitigation.

Recent disasters in Texas and North Carolina underscore how costly interior floods can be. After Roseville, California, was hit by destructive floods in the 1980s and 鈥90s, the city turned itself into a model of preparedness and hazard mitigation.

SOURCE:

First Street Foundation

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Jacob Turcotte/Staff
Ken Makin
Samaria Rice, seen here at a playground near her son Tamir's memorial in Cleveland, Aug. 7, 2025, is working to create a cultural center for children.

Tamir Rice was killed at age 12 by a Cleveland police officer. His mother鈥檚 passion and solace are in helping children, but she also wants to provide a cultural road map for young people. Part of an occasional series.

Audrey Thibert/海角大神
A Chinese cook at Ramen Best Option hand pulls noodles to be served to customers, Aug. 26, 2025.

The ebb and flow of the global economy brings cultural forces in its wake. This is how a Chinese cook going by an Arabic name comes to be serving hand-pulled noodles in Algiers to Algerians.


The Monitor's View

AP
Erika Kirk pauses as she speaks at a memorial for her husband, conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Sept. 21, in Glendale, Ariz.

Americans who feel angry or hurt by President Donald Trump鈥檚 words and actions 鈥 such as his unsupported accusation that the 鈥渞adical left鈥 influenced Charlie Kirk鈥檚 killer 鈥 might find some calming wisdom in the words of Mr. Kirk鈥檚 widow. At a memorial service Sunday for the slain conservative activist, Erika Kirk said she forgives 鈥渢hat young man鈥 charged with the Sept. 10 assassination.

Such quick mercy after a crime so calculated and callous was not only for Mrs. Kirk鈥檚 peace of mind. Like others who cherish forgiveness as the essence of universal love, she explained the religious origins of her profound choice:

鈥淚 forgive him because it was what Christ did,鈥 the mother of two young children stated. 鈥淭he answer to hate is not hate. The answer we know from the Gospel is love and always love. Love for our enemies and love for those who persecute us.鈥

Can such acts of person-to-person forgiveness, especially so soon after a tragic killing, really bring restoration and reconciliation in an America so divided and too often violent?

At the very least, Mrs. Kirk鈥檚 mercy reveals how much she relies on individual spiritual reflection, rather than a president or other public figure, to influence the country during a crisis. She certainly did not call for the accused to be let off the legal hook or to show remorse simply as a result of her forgiveness. Rather, her reasons serve as a practical 海角大神 counterpoint to the accused killer鈥檚 stated justification for the shooting, as written in a text message: 鈥淚 had enough of [Kirk鈥檚] hatred.鈥 Her embrace of love helps diminish a common belief in evil as an inevitable power.

Last April, the United States saw a similar case of forgiveness after another horrific shooting 鈥 the 2019 mass murder of 23 people at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas. The courtroom forgiveness of some shooting survivors helped spare the gunman鈥檚 life after he pleaded guilty. The prosecutor decided to remove the death penalty and instead seek life imprisonment.

At its root, forgiveness is a plea for offenders to regain their divinely bestowed innocence by embracing the love offered them, as well as the errancy of past wrongdoing. Or as Yolanda Tinajero, whose brother was killed in El Paso, told the shooter: 鈥淚 want you to see and feel all of us who have been impacted by your actions that has brought us all closer with God鈥檚 love, which shows you that this great city of El Paso is a very聽forgiving聽place to dwell in.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.

鈥淚 realized that the pain I had been experiencing had disappeared.鈥


Viewfinder

Stephanie Lecocq/Reuters
Waiters carry croissant, glass of water, and frothy beverage in the Cafe Race, Sept. 21, 2025. The event meanders through the streets of Paris. Running is forbidden. So is spilling. Competitors must cross the finish line with a clean, well-lightly conveyed tray.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Jacob Turcotte. )

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