2023
November
07
Tuesday

Monitor Daily Podcast

November 07, 2023
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Mark Sappenfield
Senior global correspondent

Today is Election Day in the United States. No, not that Election Day, but an important one. Perhaps most interesting is voters in solidly red Ohio leaning toward adding abortion protections to their state constitution. 

If that passes, it will be a huge win for abortion rights. But polls show that Americans have complex views on abortion. Our “Looking Past Roe” series explored this masterfully. Ohio voters are trying to define those complex views in law. That won’t end today. “Win” or “lose,” finding a way to talk respectfully and listen honestly will help chart the way forward.


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

Mark Schiefelbein/AP
Former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords speaks outside the Supreme Court, Nov. 7, 2023, in Washington. She was seriously wounded in a mass shooting in Tucson, Arizona, in 2011.

U.S. federal law bars those with a standing domestic violence restraining order from owning firearms. A case before the Supreme Court today challenges that. Recently, the court has aggressively expanded gun rights. What are the limits on those rights? This case is a crucial test.

West Maui relies on tourism. But after the wildfires that destroyed Lahaina, it also still needs to heal. How do you find a balance between meeting pressing economic needs and caring for each other? There are no easy answers. But state officials say that “patience and grace” can be a first step.

Mickey Hammond
Gary Pinkerton stands by Hendricks Lake near Tatum, Texas. The legend of a treasure at the lake is the subject of Mr. Pinkerton's second book. His first was about Trammel’s Trace, an old smuggler’s trail turned migration path for Americans journeying to Texas before it was part of the United States.

For one prominent Texan, academic historians have gone too far. He sued the Texas State Historical Association, saying it isn’t adding depth to history, but vilifying the state’s greatest figures. But the lawsuit wasn’t about the past, really. It was about defining the story of Texas for the future. 

Courtesy of Rondine
The campus of Rondine is immersed in the woods outside the Tuscan city of Arezzo. Rondine is a unique school in Italy, where students from opposing sides of wars and conflicts live and study together.

What if you had to be roommates with your enemy? That’s the idea behind a unique school in Italy. When students find calm away from conflict and ancient hatreds, the school has found, there is space to find peace. 

Points of Progress

What's going right

Our weekly roundup of progress around the world has a strong sense of home – newly protected homes for nature in Mexico, a safe place for snow leopards in Bhutan, and help for older adults and people with disabilities in the United Kingdom. We also tackle food waste in Saudi Arabia and drinking water in China.    


The Monitor's View

AP
A technician in Nairobi, Kenya, examines solar panels.

This week the Monitor launched a seven-part series tracing how young people are forging a response to climate change. Rather than finding despair over slow action by governments, reporters found individuals relying on enterprise and ingenuity to act. In less wealthy nations, they found young people who reject helplessness and are unwilling to wait for the grown-ups to resolve their disputes.

Take a young climate activist in Bangladesh, Farzana Faruk Jhumu. She wants to change the way the Global North talks about the Global South as being vulnerable or doomed. “We want to show there is hope and many solutions are already there,” she said.

For youth from Namibia to Bangladesh, the world’s changing weather patterns leave no time for lengthy debates. Climate change, as the Monitor reports, “is shaping a mindset revolution” among the emerging generations. Some have turned to protest. Others, like youth in Montana and Portugal, have taken governments to court.

Yet the real activity is happening largely out of public view – in local projects often shared on Instagram and Facebook that reflect “a new ethos about consumption, ‘progress,’ and what it means to have a good life,” the Monitor reported.

In Kenya, a young entrepreneur has harnessed satellites to collect data on climate and environmental fluctuations. That information is helping nearly 3,000 small-scale farmers check on soil health and make better-informed crop decisions. The project’s goal is to reach 15,000 family farmers in 20 countries by the end of the year. In Namibia, the Monitor met Deon Shekuza, a young “climate influencer” who devotes his time to teaching his peers about green hydrogen and other renewable energies.

For Mr. Shekuza, climate change fits into a continuum of Africa’s pursuit of democracy and equality forged by earlier struggles against slavery, colonialism, and apartheid. “In our day, for my generation, the environment has presented itself as the challenge of our era,” he said.

The most challenging intervals of human history have often resulted in great transformations led by youthful thinkers. That may be the most salutary disruption of climate change.


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.

Recognizing the spirituality and wholeness of God’s creation brings authority to our prayers – with healing results.


Viewfinder

Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP
Britain’s King Charles III sits beside Queen Camilla during the State Opening of Parliament at the Palace of Westminster in London, Nov. 7, 2023. Charles reads out the King's Speech, a list of planned laws drawn up by the Conservative government and aimed at winning over voters ahead of an election next year.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Jacob Turcotte. )

A look ahead

We’re so glad you could join us today. Tomorrow, Linda Feldmann will look back on the elections across the United States and see what they might be saying about political trends. The ballot measure on abortion rights in Ohio is top of the list.

Our team working from Gaza and the West Bank will also analyze developments from the past week and what they might suggest about the future of the Gaza Strip once the fighting stops.    

More issues

2023
November
07
Tuesday

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