2020
February
05
Wednesday

Monitor Daily Podcast

February 05, 2020
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Welcome to your Monitor Daily. Today’s stories look at the road ahead for President Trump, what’s at stake if Israel annexes West Bank territory, election security, laws to protect privacy, and actors who blissfully confound our expectations.

What happens when the global ties that bind economies are suddenly cut? The world is getting a hint of the answer, in an unexpected way.

A public health crisis, over the coronavirus, has landed right in the nation at the fulcrum of global commerce. What you get is a kind of instant deglobalization. 

Automaker Hyundai is halting production in its South Korean factories due to disruption in parts supply. Apple has closed its electronics stores in China and faces supply chain slowdowns for components used in iPhones. Scores of other global companies – and their workers and customers – confront similar effects.

The damage is limited for now. And it’s unclear whether the drag on trade will last. But the disruption is a reminder. Economists widely view trade and rising global integration as a source of economic gains for billions of people. The benefits often extend into arenas such as cultural cross-pollination or cooperation on global problems like climate change.

Those benefits shouldn’t be taken for granted. Even without the coronavirus, the world has hit a “pause button” on globalization. That’s partly because gains for global GDP don’t guarantee gains for every individual. The result is political tension that needs to be managed – and isn’t always managed well. For its part, the coronavirus is “a very good lesson,” says Singapore’s Trade Minister Chan Chun Sing, on the importance of managing supply chains for resilience and diversity.


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

Patrick Semansky/AP
President Donald Trump greets people after delivering his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, Feb. 4, 2020.

President Donald Trump comes out of impeachment in a reasonably strong position. But post-acquittal, will he feel unfettered in his behavior as he seeks a second term?

Mideast peace initiatives through the years have always had their detractors, and the Trump plan is no exception. Perhaps its most explosive idea is that Israel could unilaterally annex portions of the West Bank.

A deeper look

Alfredo Sosa/Staff
From left: Aivar Sarapik, Andrus Padar, and Jaan Priisalu are members of Estonia’s Cyber Defense League, a group of mainly volunteers who help protect the country’s digital networks from outside intruders.

Chaos in the Iowa caucuses has put the importance of voting technology in sharp relief. This next story finds lessons in Estonia, which has raised an array of defenses against hacking and disinformation.

The Explainer

Public opinion toward Silicon Valley has shifted drastically in the past few years. Now, in a bid to reflect that shift, state legislatures across the country are considering laws to better protect consumer data.  

On Film

Andrew Cooper/Sony-Columbia Pictures/AP
Brad Pitt is nominated for a best supporting actor Oscar for his role in Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood.”

Good acting is a “know it when you see it” proposition for film critic Peter Rainer. Here, ahead of Sunday’s Oscars, he shares performances from 2019 that showcase the art form’s intuitive best. 


The Monitor's View

Reuters
Opposition supporters celebrate in Lilongwe, Malawi, after a court annulled the May 2019 presidential vote that declared Peter Mutharika a winner.

In 2020, African nations will hold at least a dozen presidential or general elections. This will be a big test for the continent’s steady if uneven progress in democracy. So far the year is off to a good start.

On Monday, Malawi set the second precedent in sub-Saharan Africa of a court annulling a presidential election. The country’s top judges ruled that the integrity of a vote last year had been “seriously compromised.” In a 500-page decision read over 10 hours from the bench, they noted – among other irregularities – the frequent use of white correction fluid to alter vote tallies. They ordered a new election by July 2 and urged parliament to replace the electoral commission.

Around much of Africa, people will be inspired by the courage of Malawi’s court in overturning the reelection of President Peter Mutharika. In 2017, Kenya’s Supreme Court also annulled the election of a sitting president over voting anomalies. It too ordered a rerun. Together the two rulings will help promote the legitimacy of separation of powers in governance and the need for checks on powers, such as an independent judiciary, journalists, and civil society groups, not to mention neutral bureaucrats in managing elections.

Corruption remains a particular problem in Africa. Of the 50 countries considered to be most corrupt by Transparency International, 29 are on the continent. It is rare for a candidate who loses an election to ask a court to determine if the electoral process was fair.

Many rulers rely on rigging the system to stay in power. Yet, as a result of international pressure and the rising aspirations for clean democracy among young Africans, the continent is seeing more elections that are competitive and conducted under rule of law. “The days of politicians playing fast and loose with electoral law are clearly numbered,” writes South African analyst Gary Van Staden, after the Malawi ruling. Perhaps it will be judges who, in demanding the highest civic principles in elections, lead the way.


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.

Over the past year, protests throughout the world have shed light on a desire to stand for what’s fair and right. Here’s an article exploring the power of another kind of protest: prayer affirming everyone’s nature as fellow children of God – sisters and brothers.


A message of love

Charlie Riedel/AP
A fan sits in a tree to watch a rally in front of Union Station after a parade through downtown Kansas City, Missouri, Feb. 5, 2020, to celebrate the Kansas City Chiefs victory in the NFL’s Super Bowl 54.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Karen Norris and Jacob Turcotte. )

A look ahead

Thanks for joining us today. See you again tomorrow when the Daily will take you to a “preschool on wheels” in Appalachia.

More issues

2020
February
05
Wednesday

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