2019
June
06
Thursday

Monitor Daily Podcast

June 06, 2019
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Sara Miller Llana
Americas Bureau Chief

Each year they arrive at Normandy: the veterans who pushed back German platoons after landing in the largest seaborne invasion in history. Townspeople hang out of their windows waving American flags. Commemorating the anniversary of D-Day always has a way of transcending politics.

On the 70th anniversary in 2014, which I covered as the Monitor's Paris bureau chief, the unthinkable had happened: Russia had annexed Crimea, Europe’s first forced border exchange in decades. Yet I saw Europe’s leaders standing together, alongside President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin, resolute in paying homage to the men whose bravery helped forge a more stable world.

Five years later, the unthinkable is happening again, with the very alliances born out of D-Day under deep strain. Yet President Donald Trump, who has been sharply critical of the international order, gave a reverential speech at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial where 9,000 U.S. servicemen are buried. "You’re the pride of our nation," he told the veterans. French President Emmanuel Macron also thanked the United States, which he said “is never greater than when it is fighting for the freedom of others.”

These words resonate even more powerfully in the presence of the last witnesses of world war. I remember meeting Joe Steimel, who was 19 years old when he landed in Normandy, serving in the 29th U.S. Infantry Division. He still carried the weight and ambiguities of war. “I want to say to the French,” he told me, tearing up, “if I killed any civilians, I am truly sorry.”

For a bonus read, we have dusted off a personal essay from our archives. Monitor diplomacy correspondent Howard LaFranchi reflects on his experience as a high school exchange student, living with former members of the French Resistance.

Now to our five stories for today.


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

Can U.S. foreign policy be a winning campaign issue? Republicans have traditionally had an advantage on national security, but Democratic dark horse Seth Moulton wants to flip that script in the 2020 race.

Sputnik/Alexei Druzhinin/Kremlin/Reuters
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin attend a ceremony dedicated to the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Russia and China in Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow on June 5.

Russia has felt exiled from the West for years, barred by economic sanctions. With China now facing U.S. tariffs and Western suspicions over Huawei, the Kremlin has a potential partner for the future.

A letter from

New Delhi
Bunny McBride
World War II veteran Charles Shay, a member of the Penobscot Indian Nation, presides over a commemorative gathering June 5 to honor fallen Native veterans buried at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, Colleville-sur-Mer, France.

Charles Shay may be the last living Native American World War II veteran who participated in D-Day. His return to the theater of war is a chance to honor the 500 Native American and First Nations soldiers who also served.

As Huawei campaigns to build 5G telecommunications infrastructure across the world, Germany must reconcile commercial benefit with national security in granting critical access to the Chinese telecom. 

Book review

Who do classic tales belong to? In “Ayesha at Last,” Uzma Jalaluddin brings a Muslim perspective to “Pride and Prejudice.”


The Monitor's View

Sudan’s great strength after a massacre

Much of the world has condemned Monday’s massacre in Sudan of more than 100 pro-democracy protesters. Yet on the ground, the reaction among protesters was very different. It may even offer a lesson on how to react to evil acts.

After the Army dispersed thousands of Sudanese outside its headquarters with indiscriminate shooting, the demonstrators simply moved to other parts of the city. Their fight was not with bullets but with the bullying during Sudan’s three decades of repression. They set up new barricades, called for a general strike, and relied on an amazing unity formed during six months of a peaceful sit-in.

The sit-in itself was a microcosm of the kind of society that the protesters seek to create. It was well organized in supplying food and water. It was inclusive of women, workers, and the country’s diverse ethnic groups. People provided lessons in civic education. Organizers took surveys of who should run a transitional civilian government.

The Army’s violence certainly deserves international censure. Yet the world should also take notice of the dignity, democratic ideals, and nonviolent tactics of Sudan’s protesters. Real power does not come out of the barrel of a gun.


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.

Moved by a news report on veterans and others without homes who too often feel invisible, today’s contributor considers a spiritual basis for seeing and feeling our and others’ God-given value and worth.


A message of love

Rich Pedroncelli/AP
Sean Newsom, a senior at Paradise High School, poses in his cap and gown at the burned-out ruins of his home in Paradise, California, June 5. After the Camp fire destroyed the home, his parents relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area, and Sean moved to an apartment with his older brother in Chico to finish his senior year. Sean and the rest of the Paradise High School Class of 2019 are graduating Thursday.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Karen Norris and Jacob Turcotte. )

A look ahead

Thanks for joining us today. Come back tomorrow when Monitor reporters Harry Bruinius and Patrik Jonsson will explore what it means to find healing in the wake of a mass shooting.

More issues

2019
June
06
Thursday

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