2024
August
30
Friday

Monitor Daily Podcast

August 30, 2024
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Mark Sappenfield
Senior global correspondent

For as long as I’ve been at the Monitor, we’ve preferred not to mention people’s ages unless it’s essential. Age tends to define people, often poorly. Today’s story by Laurent Belsie beautifully explores this topic.  

Recently, I’ve seen commendable efforts by journalists to broaden this principle. Convict, addict, illegal immigrant – these terms and others, like age, tend to remove humanity, agency, and nuance. To me, looking for better ways to talk about our fellow human beings is not about a political agenda, but about good journalism.

Perhaps more than ever, societies are learning that labeling people is unhelpful, not only to the person but also to our own understanding. Laurent’s story clearly shows why.     


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

Narratives of “too old” have become ubiquitous among pollsters, politicians, and pundits. But on Main Street, the hottest growth in the labor force is among workers well past traditional retirement age.

SOURCE:

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

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Jacob Turcotte/Staff

Today’s news briefs

• Kashmir vote: Residents of Indian-controlled Kashmir are gearing up for their first regional election in a decade that will allow them to have their own truncated government, instead of remaining under New Delhi’s direct rule.
• German elections: Elections in two eastern German states Sept. 1 could make the far-right Alternative for Germany the strongest party for the first time.
• U.S. smoking policy: The health regulator of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has raised the age verification requirement from 27 years old to 30. 

Read these news briefs.

Li Xueren/Xinhua/AP
Chinese leader Xi Jinping (right) meets with White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Aug. 29, 2024.

President Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, capped 15 months of secret diplomacy this week with a trip to Beijing that seems to have put China-U.S. relations back on an even keel.

The Explainer

Paola Garcia/Reuters
People sit outside the Federal Judiciary Council building Aug. 19, 2024, as Mexico's judicial workers launched a nationwide strike ahead of a congressional vote on a controversial judicial overhaul promoted by outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is pushing a controversial reform package through the legislature before leaving office. While he sees changes in how judges are selected as a win for democracy, others, including the U.S., fear the loss of a key independent institution.  

Podcast

‘Five feet from the president’: Watching history unfold as the press pool reporter

Working in the presence of a U.S. president, with responsibility for faithfully recording every wrinkle on behalf of the collective media, can be harried. It can also be pretty heady. The Monitor’s pool reporters wouldn’t trade it for anything. 

Scenes From the Press Pool

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Difference-maker

Much of Canada’s homeless population lives in encampments. Thanks to Nadine Green, some are finding community in villages made of tiny houses, where they can have their own homes.


The Monitor's View

AP
Employees of Humana pick up trash in a park in Louisville, Kentucky, Aug. 21.

On this Labor Day weekend, many more Americans may take part in community service than they have in the past. Their generosity reflects a shift in the workplace as employees demand a greater commitment to the public good from the companies they work for. Younger workers in particular seek jobs that create both community and mission.

That trend reflects a global change. A Deloitte survey this year in 44 countries found that 86% of Generation Z and 89% of millennials prefer work that has a positive impact on society. Among American companies, “employee volunteering has soared in the past three years,” according to Benevity, a platform that develops workplace volunteer programs.

An increasing demand for careers that go beyond self-interest may have been caused by employee isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting rise in remote work. Many younger workers started their careers on Zoom or in largely empty workplaces. Being generous with their time and talents is a way to find common purpose. And they expect companies to share their altruism.

Many are. Forty percent of Fortune 500 companies give grants to nonprofit organizations where their employees can volunteer, according to Double the Donation, which tracks corporate philanthropy. Roughly 60% give their employees paid time off to volunteer. A survey by Benevity found that 80% of companies seek or create opportunities for their employees to engage in “volunteer acts of kindness.”

The rapid growth of employee volunteer activities reverses a downward trend in volunteerism measured by the U.S. Census Bureau over the past decade. According to the latest Gallup index of global generosity, roughly 75% of adults volunteered their time or helped someone they didn’t know last year.

All that generosity counters depictions of a world fragmented by political bitterness and conflict. “You can read this morning’s newspaper and find out how much we distrust each other and indeed, you could almost say hate each other,” said Robert Putnam, an American political scientist, in a recent conversation with The Chronicle of Philanthropy. And yet, he observed, social connections are the evidence of “trust and reciprocity, togetherness.”

In simple acts of helping strangers this weekend, Americans can join a world of volunteers dissolving hate.


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.

As we recognize our status as God’s beloved children, heartache about the past lifts, and we experience more of the goodness that’s filling every moment.


Viewfinder

Emilio Morenatti/AP
Paralympic athletes compete in a qualifying heat for the women's 5000 meter race at the Stade de France during the 2024 Paralympics Aug. 30 in Paris. World record holder Susannah Scaroni of Team USA had the fastest qualifying time. The medal race will take place Aug. 31.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Jacob Turcotte. )

A look ahead

Thank you for coming along with us this week. Next week begins with the Labor Day holiday in the United States, so there will be no Daily on Monday. But Tuesday, we’ll offer the compelling story of how the Chinese threat is reshaping Taiwan’s sense of identity, as well as a portrait from a campaign bus ride with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

More issues

2024
August
30
Friday

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