2018
June
05
Tuesday

Monitor Daily Podcast

June 05, 2018
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After almost 100 years, the Miss America pageant will no longer have a swimsuit competition. It won’t be an exhibition of physique but a competition of ideas, intellect, and talent, say organizers. Also: including what a path to security might look like for North Korea, war refugees finding home in Mexico, and what ink can teach us about air pollution. Join the Monitor's Dave Scott and Kendra Nordin Beato for today's news. For more information, visit csmonitor.com/daily.

We’re watching key primary votes Tuesday that may be indicative of the November elections. More on that tomorrow. But today we’re taking note of a symbolic shift: After almost 100 years, the Miss America pageant will no longer have a swimsuit competition.

That’s right, not only is the bikini banned, but the evening gown contest is being revamped. Miss America won’t be an exhibition of physique but a competition of ideas, intellect, and talent, say organizers.

In the age of #MeToo, one of the most visible symbols of female objectification is now joining the “empowerment movement,” says Gretchen Carlson, chair of the Miss America board.

You’ll recall that Ms. Carlson, a former Fox News anchor, filed a sexual harassment lawsuit in 2016 against former Fox chairman Roger Ailes, a particularly courageous move more than a year before the Harvey Weinstein scandal reignited the #MeToo movement. This past January, Carlson took the reins of the pageant after allegations of misconduct led to the resignation of several executives. She’s the first pageant winner to lead the organization. Now seven of the nine board members are women.

This certainly looks like progress, a step toward celebrating inner beauty with a competition that values the qualities – not the appearances – of young women.

Now to our five selected stories, including what a path to security might look like for North Korea, war refugees finding home in Mexico, and what ink can teach us about air pollution.  


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

The Trump administration’s negotiating style on trade rules relies on confrontation. Analysts say that’s high-risk. But many voters in the Midwest and South, where job losses are greatest, are hoping it pays dividends.

Muhammad Hamed/Reuters
Protesters play music and sing during a late-night protest in Amman, Jordan, June 5.

Since the 2011 Arab Spring, activists in the region have struggled to find a sustainable model for pressuring their governments. In Jordan, protesters are staying unified by focusing on three key issues: taxes, jobs, and government integrity.

Patience will be a virtue, it seems, in reaching a denuclearization deal with North Korea. While the outline of such a deal is still hazy, the path is becoming more clear: a drawn-out process of give-and-take.

Finding ‘home’

An occasional series exploring what it means to belong
Whitney Eulich
Renas Farid Alahmed prepares lunch for his peers and the Habesha office staff in Aguascalientes, Mexico. It’s a first: Growing up in Syria, he rarely had reason to enter his family’s kitchen.

Our reporter talked to a group of 14 Syrian war refugees invited to Mexico to study. In the process, these students are learning a new language, a new culture, and lessons about the universality of family, generosity, and a sense of home.

Courtesy of Kristopher Ho
Illustrator Kristopher Ho used ink made from air pollution for works he displayed at a 2016 exhibition in Amsterdam.

Sometimes big problems can be hard to see. A company in India is illuminating air pollution by transforming it into ink.


The Monitor's View

AP Photo
Baker Jack Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop, right, manages his shop June 4 in Lakewood, Colo. The Supreme Court ruled Monday in favor of Phillips, who wouldn't make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple, in a limited decision that leaves for another day the larger issue of whether a business can invoke religious objections to refuse service to gay and lesbian people.

One way for a country to enjoy peace is to ensure government leaders do not show malice of intent toward a religious belief. In a June 4 ruling, the Supreme Court was so adamant on this point that it didn’t even decide the main issue in a case – whether a Christian baker could refuse to sell a cake for a same-sex couple’s wedding. Instead, the court sided with the baker, Jack Phillips, because anti-religious animus was so clearly an official motive in fining him for discrimination against a customer.

The ruling leaves to another day the question of how to balance a business person’s religious objections to supporting gay marriage against the rights of gays to wed without facing bias from a commercial operation. For now, the court wanted to send a warning that government must be neutral toward religious beliefs in deciding how it acts against the practices of religious believers.

The 7-to-2 ruling focused on the open hostility of some members of Colorado’s civil rights commission toward Mr. Phillips’s Christian views in ruling against him. The court also pointed out the commission’s double standard in not fining three other bakers who had refused to sell cakes with anti-gay themes.

“It hardly requires restating that government has no role in deciding or even suggesting whether the religious ground for Phillips’ conscience-based objection is legitimate or illegitimate,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the majority. The law protects against discrimination on the basis of religion as well as sexual orientation, he added.

Courts have long looked at the motives of lawmakers and regulators in its decisions. In particular, government actions born of animosity toward the views of a religious minority violate the Constitution’s clauses that allow the free exercise of religion and prohibit the government establishment of religion. From the Republic’s early days, the Founders sought to prevent the kind of violent social conflicts over religious beliefs that had ripped apart Europe for centuries.

Justice Kennedy also sent a reminder of the qualities needed in government to keep social harmony. The Colorado commission, he wrote, “was neither tolerant nor respectful of Phillips’ religious beliefs.”

With the immense power of government to fine or to jail people, lawmakers and regulators must indeed embrace such civic affections and be fair in their actions involving religion. Motives do matter as much as the law.


A Christian 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 – in its various forms – 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 – The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston – whose founder was concerned with both the state of the world and the quality of available news.

Left without money, a home, or a job, today’s contributor found practical answers to her needs as she gained a life-changing conviction that God abundantly cares for all.


A message of love

Fabricio Alonzo/Reuters
A rescue worker carried a child covered with ash after Fuego volcano erupted violently in El Rodeo, Guatemala, just west of Guatemala City. More than 60 people have been killed since the June 3 eruption.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Jacob Turcotte and Karen Norris. )

A look ahead

Thanks for joining us. Come back tomorrow: We're working on a profile about a conservative, US-born Israeli politician who seeks to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and offers a tougher approach on Palestinian statehood.

More issues

2018
June
05
Tuesday

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