2023
February
03
Friday

Monitor Daily Podcast

February 03, 2023
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Peter Grier
Washington editor

A spy balloon over Montana? Really?

Really, according to the Pentagon. United States officials say a big white object now drifting in the stratosphere over Western states is a Chinese espionage airship.

“Clearly the intent of this balloon is for surveillance,” said a senior Defense Department official on Thursday. Its flight path has carried it over some sensitive military sites, he said.

China on Friday apologized for the intrusion and said the object was a weather balloon that had veered far from its intended course.

But the White House took the incident seriously enough to postpone a trip to Beijing by Secretary of State Antony Blinken previously planned for Sunday.

The fact is, high-altitude balloons have been used by military and intelligence services, including those of the U.S., for decades.

During World War II, Japan loaded balloons with incendiary devices and lofted them into prevailing westerly winds, hoping to start forest fires in the U.S. The effort was unsuccessful, though a few civilians were killed.

The U.S. military began spy balloon programs to surveil the Soviet Union in 1946, eventually developing balloons that rose higher than Soviet fighter jets could fly. Project Genetrix launched some 500 spy balloons from Western European nations in 1956. Only 31 provided usable photographs.

Today the Pentagon is studying the use of balloons to operate in what it calls “near space” – the upper stratosphere of 60,000 to 100,000 feet. It plans to spend about $27 million on advanced balloon projects in 2023, according to Politico.

Among possible balloon missions: tracking super-fast hypersonic weapons under development by Russia and China.


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

The police killing of Tyre Nichols shows that hiring Black officers is not a solution for violence against Black communities. Instead, for policing to change, culture needs to change.

Tech-firm layoffs, coupled with hiring in lower-wage industries like restaurants, signal a shift back toward pre-pandemic job patterns. But for the first time in 40 years, the wage gap is declining.

Podcast

Melanie Stetson Freeman/The Christian Science Monitor
Jackie Valley recently joined the Monitor as an education writer. She visited the Boston newsroom in December 2022.

At heart of teachers’ stories, basic questions of fairness

Their work is central to a thriving society, but teachers typically can’t realize that value – at least not monetarily. Our writer talks about reporting on a U.S. push to lift teacher pay. It’s a high-stakes story about equality and fairness.

What’s a Teacher Worth?

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On Film

Courtesy of Music Box Films
Julie (Laure Calamy), a single mom looking for a new job, tries to catch a ride in Paris during a transit strike in the movie “Full Time” from director Eric Gravel.

Perseverance is something working parents demonstrate daily. “Full Time,” filmed like a thriller, offers a lens on that life – and on the strength people draw on to get through tough times.


The Monitor's View

Angela Ponce/Reuters/File
Peru's President Dina Boluarte meets with foreign press in Lima, Peru, on Jan. 24.

Violent clashes between protesters and police in Peru in recent weeks have sharpened fears that the South American country is edging closer to a failed state. It has had six presidents in as many years. At least 58 people have been killed during demonstrations since President Dina Boluarte assumed office Dec. 7. She already faces a motion of impeachment.

Peru’s crisis coincides with similar upheavals in other Latin American countries where new types of leaders and prosecutors are challenging entrenched elites that often evade the law. Ms. Boluarte herself, in a rare moment of public contrition for a new head of state, may have reflected this shift by apologizing last month for the conduct of the security forces.

In an echo of her apology, Peru’s attorney general, Liz Patricia Benavides Vargas, has opened multiple investigations into police brutality. Appointed just eight months ago, she has already shown her mettle. Her corruption inquiry into then-President Pedro Castillo last year led to his removal from office and subsequent arrest as well as Ms. Boluarte’s rise to the presidency.

“When I was appointed attorney general last June, I promised the citizens that I would act with order, determination, and haste,” Ms. Benavides said in a national address on Tuesday. “The distinctive mark of all civil servants should be always to honor their word, to accomplish what they promise, to recover the trust of the citizens in their institutions.”

Popular demands for Ms. Boluarte to resign after less than two months in office underscore the impatience felt not just in Peru but also across the region for democratic renewal. The latest Transparency Index, published earlier this week, showed that perceptions of corruption have changed little in Latin America during the past four years even as voters have tossed out several governments. Protesters in Peru seek immediate elections. Many want a new constitution, echoing similar calls in neighboring Chile.

“Right now, the political situation merits a change of representatives, of government, of the executive and the legislature,” a protester named Carlos told CNN last month. “That is the immediate thing. Because there are other deeper issues – inflation, lack of employment, poverty, malnutrition and other historical issues that have not been addressed.”

Frustrations like those are leading to new responses. In Honduras, for example, President Xiomara Castro, who came to office in early 2022 pledging to curb widespread graft, has established a new anti-corruption commission with the United Nations. Judges and prosecutors from 15 nations across the region, meanwhile, are working with the European Union to create joint investigation teams to strengthen their judicial institutions.

“Pervasive corruption across the Americas fuels the many other crises facing the region,” noted Delia Ferreira Rubio, a legal expert from Argentina and chair of Transparency International, in the new index report. “The only way out is for states to do the hard work, rooting out corruption at all levels to ensure governments work for all people, not just an elite few.”

Popular protests are a release valve for faltering democracies. They have led to striking turnovers in leadership across Latin America. In countries like Honduras and now Peru, they have lent new resolve to tackling impunity, requiring new attitudes – such as contrition, service, and honesty – that can build public trust in governance.


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.

Where can we turn when it seems impossible to find the right job? God is always here to guide us to fulfillment and satisfaction.


A message of love

Kiichiro Sato/AP
People walk along an icy pier in Chicago as the sun rises over Lake Michigan on Feb. 3, 2023. Tens of millions of Americans are experiencing unusually cold temperatures this weekend.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Jacob Turcotte. )

A look ahead

Come back next week, when we’ll have a story on the state of the Biden presidency as the State of the Union address nears.

More issues

2023
February
03
Friday

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