2019
December
06
Friday

Monitor Daily Podcast

December 06, 2019
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Linda Feldmann
Washington Bureau Chief

Today’s stories include questions of self-determination in Iraq, efforts to reclaim the political narrative from Russian trolls, profiles of four young people carving out solutions to a global problem, a test – and triumph – of marital fidelity, and the wonders of a visitor from another solar system. But first, how a visit to Dayton led to an epiphany.

I’m just back from Dayton, Ohio, and the latest convening of the Dartmouth Conference – a six-decade-long effort by distinguished Americans and Russians to help improve bilateral relations. I always learn something at these dialogues, which I’ve been attending since 2015, but this one may be the most meaningful yet. 

For the first time, the Dartmouth Conference has called on the two governments to take action: Extend the last remaining U.S.-Russian arms control treaty, New START, signed in 2010 and set to expire on Feb. 5, 2021. The agreement limits the number of strategic nuclear warheads each country can deploy.

Extending New START – while also addressing the broader security agenda, including cyber warfare – is a matter of life and death, the retired ambassadors, generals, and others agreed, as they gathered at the Dayton-based Kettering Foundation. 

“The clear threat of an uncontrolled nuclear arms race has reemerged with the collapse in recent years of key elements of the post-Cold War arms control architecture,” the Dartmouth statement warned.

The meaning of our discussions stood out sharply on our final evening in Dayton, when we visited the National Museum of the United States Air Force – the world’s largest military aviation museum. Among its vast collection sits Bockscar, the B-29 bomber that dropped a Fat Man nuclear bomb over Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945.

“I had an epiphany,” says Peter Zwack, a retired Army brigadier general. “We had just been talking about New START and the horrors of nuclear war, and this sobering exhibit brought it full circle.”


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

Scott Peterson/Getty Images/The Christian Science Monitor
Two Iraqi antigovernment protesters check their phones on Dec. 6. Behind them, street graffiti depicts Iraqis' fight against corruption, and portrays American and Iranian influence on the country as tooth decay. Protesters have stepped up their demands for wholesale political change after a brutal crackdown that has left more than 400 Iraqis dead since Oct. 1.

For democracy to work, people need to feel their concerns are heard. When that doesn’t happen – or protest is met with violence – sharper lines can be drawn, making compromise and a path forward much more difficult.

A deeper look

Black activists point to a long history of people interfering with African Americans’ right to vote. What was different in 2016 was that the meddling came from overseas. Here’s what one city is doing after being targeted by a Russian disinformation campaign.

Christine Olsson/TT News Agency/Reuters
Young people rally in the Rinkeby neighborhood of Stockholm, Dec. 6, 2019. The international "Fridays for Future" demonstrations are inspired by Greta Thunberg's August 2018 school strikes to urge better climate policies and follow-through.

Youth anger takes center stage during school walkouts for climate strikes like today’s. But around the world, young activists are also finding ways to become part of the solution.

The Ten

How people use the Commandments in daily life
Sabina Louise Pierce/Special to The Christian Science Monitor
Vai Sikahema is a former NFL player who is now an anchor at NBC10 in Philadelphia. Faith has been an important part of his life.

Vai Sikahema, a TV anchor and former NFL player, has seen benefits to observing chastity and fidelity. Part 8 in a series looking at the Ten Commandments through modern lives.

AP/File
Astronomers at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on the island of La Palma in the Canaries, Spain, are following Comet Borisov closely. The Gran Telescopio Canarias captured some of the first high-resolution images of the comet in September.

Distant reaches of the universe have long been the realm of models and theory. But the arrival of space rocks from afar in our stellar neighborhood sparks a new way of thinking about the cosmos.


The Monitor's View

Reuters
Tiger Woods celebrates his win at the 2019 Masters last April.

For Tiger Woods, the golf megastar who fell from grace a decade ago after admitting marital infidelity, the American belief in second chances seems to be working. His recovery, both morally and physically, could result in 2019 being his breakthrough year.

In April he claimed his fifth Masters green jacket, his first major tournament win in more than a decade. This fall Mr. Woods won his 82nd title on the professional golf tour, equaling the record held by Sam Snead. And Dec. 9-15 he will captain the U.S. team against international all-stars at the Presidents Cup in Melbourne, Australia.

In 2009 the young Mr. Woods had already won 14 major professional golf titles and looked as though he would easily break the record of 18 set by Jack Nicklaus. His remarkable skill and success had drawn new fans to the sport. He was rich (a net worth around $800 million, by some estimates) and world famous. He was also a black man succeeding in a sport dominated by whites. His prospects seemed unbounded.

But when he crashed his SUV into a tree in November 2009 his world quickly unraveled. He confessed to being unfaithful to his wife, which led to a divorce. And then a series of physical problems sent him down a long gamut of medical treatments and an addiction to painkillers.

But unlike some who might try to deny or hide their problems, Mr. Woods took responsibility for them in what looked like true contrition to his fans.

“I was unfaithful. I had affairs. I cheated,” he confessed to friends and family, as well as to a gathering of news media. He realized, he said, that he had “stopped living by the core values” he had been taught by his parents.

His actions had sent out wider ripples as well.

“He disappointed all of us,” said Billy Payne, the chairman of Augusta National Golf Club, where the prestigious Masters Tournament is held each year. “Our hero did not live up to the expectations of the role model we saw for our children.”

At one point Mr. Woods said his physical ailments might not only prevent him from ever playing golf again but keep him from having any hope of a normal life.

Vowing to reform is one thing. But the real task is to follow through and change one’s actions. The last decade has hardly been easy for Mr. Woods, who would attempt comebacks to the game only to face a physical setback and another long absence from the professional tour.

Now his famous work ethic and mental toughness, so important for success on the links, seem to have been joined by an equally deep dedication to raising his two young children, whom he tries to be with as much as possible. He may never dominate golf in the way he once did, but competing at a high level again seems to be enough.

“I think it’s been incredible,” says fellow pro Rory McIlroy, who himself has won four major titles. “I think it shows his character, his mental capacity, his grit that he can come back after all these mishaps, whether it be personal life or the physical injuries that he’s had to endure.”

Mr. Woods’ fall was a heartbreaking story of success crumbling into dust. Now he is writing a new story, one of the most amazing and inspiring comebacks in sports history. No doubt the forgiveness of his fans helped him down this long fairway.


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.

There’s a lot in the news about environmental problems that scientists have pointed to as evidence of climate change, and the United Nations Climate Change Conference is currently in full swing. Here’s an audio clip on how we can face fears of climate change with spiritual poise and a greater expectancy of finding solutions.


A message of love

Alfredo Sosa/Staff
Busy, busy, busy. While reporting in Mexico City, I was struck by the bustling activity of the metropolis. A majority of Mexicans work in the informal economy. Domestic labor and street vending are particularly common. These jobs often lack legal protections. But decades of low economic growth and a federal minimum wage of 102.68 pesos ($5.35) per day mean that an informal job is the best way to earn a living for many Mexicans. Informal economies can exacerbate class divides, and the huge disparity between white- and blue-collar workers was very evident to me while I was in Mexico. And yet, one thing was even more obvious: Most people I encountered did their job with a smile. – Alfredo Sosa, Director of photography
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Karen Norris. )

A look ahead

That’s a wrap for news. Come back on Monday when correspondent Stephanie Hanes take a deep dive into a new course of study cropping up in universities around the United States: happiness classes.

More issues

2019
December
06
Friday

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