2020
February
07
Friday

Monitor Daily Podcast

February 07, 2020
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Eva Botkin-Kowacki
Science, environment, and technology writer

Today’s stories explore democracy in Libya, the role of the family unit in seeking asylum, a technique to prevent forest fires, division around state identity in Virginia, and an alternative preschool on wheels

As a special bonus, we invite you to explore the challenges of discerning fact from fiction with Monitor editors and reporters in this recorded panel discussion.

A delightful video broke through the political din on social media this week: A coyote and a badger were captured on film frolicking together like old pals. 

At the start of the video, which was captured as part of a research study on how wildlife interact with major roadways in California, the coyote can be seen jumping and wagging its tail as if to encourage someone off-screen to play. Then it starts walking into a culvert, but turns back to check to make sure the badger is following – which it is. The coyote trots off into the culvert with the badger waddling behind.

Such friendly interactions are typically seen only in Disney movies and children’s books. But this video brought cross-species cooperation to life for the many people who saw it. 

Ecologists were quick to point out that coyotes and badgers are known to hunt cooperatively, so capturing them on camera together doesn’t come as a complete surprise. But, as behavioral ecologist Jennifer Campbell-Smith pointed out on Twitter, that doesn’t mean the two predators are always friendly with each other – they’ve also been observed killing each other. 

Dr. Campbell-Smith suggests that assumptions about species following rigid rules about how they interact stem from a limited view on nature. Rather, she says, animal behavior is flexible, and many ecologists are starting to see what this video shows: “a thinking, complex, dynamic nature.”


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

Libya’s oil and other resources make it a tempting target for outsiders. But at stake for Libyans and the Arab world in the current fight is also the struggle between illiberal democracy and autocracy.

SOURCE:

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Jacob Turcotte/Staff
Henry Gass/The Christian Science Monitor
José and Damaris with their daughter, Angelica, are wed on the Progreso International Bridge between Texas and Mexico, Feb. 1, 2020. The couple hopes marriage will help Damaris and Angelica join José in the U.S. and gain asylum after they fled Honduras.

The year-old “Remain in Mexico” policy has created a new kind of family separation. Some committed couples are getting legally married at the border to try to help their asylum cases.

The idea of fire seems almost synonymous with danger and damage. But it can be regenerative and protective, too – a lesson Aboriginal fire experts hope could shift Australia’s approach to preventing bushfires.

What does it mean to be Virginian? Unnerved by political turnover, one rural, conservative county is considering leaving Virginia. The proposal highlights sociopolitical rifts that divide many U.S. states.

Emily Kaplan/The Hechinger Report
In remote Appalachia, a mobile preschool offers a vehicle to improved life outcomes for children and their families. The Rosie bus travels rural Clay County, Kentucky, bringing early childhood education to the doorsteps of children who otherwise might not be in school.

In this part of Kentucky, inadequate access to preschool is paired with families’ skepticism of its value. How school, on a bus, is persuading them otherwise. 


The Monitor's View

AP
Syrians sit in a truck as they flee the advance of government forces in the province of Idlib, Syria, towards the Turkish border, Jan. 30.

Of the world’s 25 million refugees displaced by conflict, most live in neighboring nations with a welcoming heart, such as Colombia, Bangladesh, and Ethiopia. “Countries in crisis-affected regions, in spite of limited resources, have largely kept their doors open, preserving millions of lives,” said Filippo Grandi, the United Nations refugee chief, in December.

Such neighborly hospitality, however, is not always assured. This is especially true for Turkey right now.

During the nearly nine years of Syria’s civil war, Turkey has generously hosted Syrian refugees, 3.7 million in total, more refugees than any other country in the world. The welcoming spirit has served as a moral counterpoint to the mass killing in Syria.

Yet since Dec. 1, as the last major battle of that war has escalated in Idlib province, Turkey has been faced with a difficult choice. Should it keep its borders closed to Syrians trying to flee the battle for Idlib?

The military forces of the Syrian regime, backed by Russia and Iranian-allied militias, keep advancing into the northwest province, the final stronghold of anti-regime rebels and home to 3 million people. So far 586,000 people have been uprooted. Most are women and children who already fled the war from other provinces. The battle for Idlib could result in the worst humanitarian catastrophe of the Syrian conflict, according to experts.

That prediction, however, depends on whether Turkey decides to reopen its borders and once again be a generous host. Millions of Syrian refugees already in the country have found jobs or are attending school, and have integrated well. More than 100,000 were given citizenship. Yet most Turks, according to polls, have “compassion fatigue,” resulting in the recent closing of the border. The country also has struggled to come to terms with its violent treatment of the Kurdish minority.

Like many countries hosting refugees, Turkey needs help from wealthier countries to continue its traditional hospitality.

U.N. officials often make a point of expressing gratitude to such host countries. Many refugees do the same, grateful for a safe haven. And Western countries have provided billions of dollars for refugees camps. Yet more can be done. In fact, the long conflict in Syria has inspired a shift in how the world engages with refugees.

In 2018, the U.N. General Assembly approved the Global Compact on Refugees, a proposal to better integrate refugees into host countries as long as a conflict prevents them from returning home. The plan is based on studies that show refugees can become a net positive economic contributor with the right investments in education, housing, and industry. The compact is already being applied in a dozen countries, such as Jordan and Ethiopia, helping millions of refugees and their local hosts.

Turkey deserves the same, especially with a potential humanitarian crisis across its border. Hospitality, while abundant in the hearts of the Turks, is not free. It needs generosity from the rest of the world.


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.

If we’re feeling lost, whether physically or mentally, stillness and receptivity to God’s inspiration can be a powerful antidote, as one man experienced firsthand on more than one occasion.


A message of love

Aly Song/Reuters
After wading through mud flats, fisherman Fan Xinde picks old copper coins out of the debris he scooped up. He’s working in the bed of a dwindling river that feeds China’s biggest freshwater lake, the Poyang. Eighty years ago, when residents were fleeing invading Japanese troops, the coins were packed into boxes and sent down the river on rafts. Many sunk without a trace. Now, they’re resurfacing as the water in the Poyang recedes to its lowest level in 60 years. The coins offer a small income to fishers like Mr. Fan, who face an uncertain future after China banned fishing in environmentally sensitive regions along China’s longest river.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Karen Norris and Jacob Turcotte. )

A look ahead

Thanks for joining us. Come back next week. We’ll look into what the fractured presidential field says about divisions in the Democratic Party.

More issues

2020
February
07
Friday

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