2018
January
19
Friday

Monitor Daily Podcast

January 19, 2018
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Clayton Collins
Director of Editorial Innovation

It’s a free country.

That quip still flies in the United States – even if access to the fruits of that freedom can sometimes seem uneven. That’s worth holding dear at the end of a week in which, for example, a 21-year-old Hong Kong activist drew a prison sentence for blocking a road during a protest in Beijing in 2014.

In China, a new party manifesto has just emerged citing a worldwide “democratic deficit” as an opening for some global reshaping. Meanwhile, a report this week from Freedom House indicates that democracy is in retreat worldwide. That’s not a new trend. But this year the watchdog’s report cites the sharpest one-year drop for the US in four decades of monitoring.

Separately this week, a Gallup survey spanning 134 countries indicated that confidence in US leadership had slipped to a new low – landing the US below China, incidentally, in approval rankings. (Peter Ford explores global perceptions of the US below.)

As long as we’re pulling data from the week, here’s some with a little lift: A national survey by Pew Research Center has 61 percent of Americans thinking that 2018 will be a better year.

Yes, the reasons vary by party affiliation. But from optimism, good can flow.  

Now to our five stories for today, chosen to highlight growing acceptance, and role shifts from resistance to leadership in the US and the world. 


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

Kim Hong-Ji/AP
President Trump walked with South Korean President Moon Jae-in during a welcoming ceremony at the Presidential Blue House in Seoul, South Korea, Nov. 7.
Ralph Barrera/Austin American-Statesman/AP
Former Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis (c.), dressed in pink, participates in the Women's March on Austin on Jan. 21, 2017. Millions marched in the US and around the world in a show of defiance and solidarity on President Trump's first full day in office.

Books

Seven reads to start 2018


The Monitor's View

Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters
African National Congress (ANC) supporters attend the Congress' 106th anniversary celebrations in East London, South Africa, on Jan. 13, 2018.

A Christian Science Perspective

About this feature

A message of love

Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff
Tourists visit Gullfoss, Iceland’s most famous waterfall, in December. The double-cascade waterfall has been nearly frozen solid. The natural wonder is one stop on the renowned Golden Circle, a circuit of sites outside Iceland’s capital, Reykjavik. The darkness and cold here might not seem conducive to mass tourism, but even at this time of year, the Golden Circle can feel overrun. At the geyser Strokkur, lines form as visitors hope to glimpse an eruption. Tourism has helped Iceland recover from its banking collapse in 2008. But it has also taken away a sense of peace and isolation, and these concerns make their way into every conversation in Reykjavik.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Karen Norris and Jacob Turcotte. )

A look ahead

Thanks for joining us today. Among the stories we're planning for early next week is a look at Turkey’s threats against US-backed Kurdish forces in northern Syria, and what that means for the balance of power in Syria and the region. We'll also be sizing up a question of stewardship related to … space junk. Until Monday.

More issues

2018
January
19
Friday
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