2024
October
23
Wednesday

Monitor Daily Podcast

October 23, 2024
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Have you heard of Javier Milei? He’s the president of Argentina, about to wrap up his first and very consequential year in office. Howard LaFranchi visited Buenos Aires recently and took stock of Mr. Milei’s no-holds-barred drive to radically reorganize the government and reimagine a boom-and-bust, hyperinflation-riddled economy. His often painful pursuit of wrenching change is thrilling some; others reject his rough talk and divisive measures.

It’s a major revolution led by a brash economist and former lead singer in a Rolling Stones cover band. One observer notes that Mr. Milei believes he’s going to save the West with his model. See what you think.


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

A deeper look

Natacha Pisarenko/AP
Argentine President Javier Milei addresses Congress in Buenos Aires, Sept. 15, 2024. The brash libertarian has vowed to root out “socialist” statism and “woke” progressivism.

Libertarian President Javier Milei is undertaking a far-reaching overhaul of Argentina’s economy. Will people accept the pain and give him time to do it?

Today’s news briefs

Hezbollah leader killed: Hashem Safieddine briefly helped run Lebanon’s strongest military and political force. His death marked Israel’s latest heavy blow to Hezbollah.
Enduring friendship: At the BRICS meeting of 36 leaders in Kazan, Russia, Chinese leader Xi Jinping told Russian President Vladimir Putin that Beijing’s strategic partnership with Moscow was a force for stability in a chaotic world.
U.S. election poll: Democratic U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris held a marginal 46% to 43% lead over Republican former President Donald Trump, with a glum electorate saying the country is on the wrong track, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll found.
Georgia ruling: The state’s top court declined to hear an expedited appeal by Republicans of a decision blocking a new rule that would have required poll workers to hand-count ballots.
Airline fined: The U.S. Department of Transportation fined American Airlines $50 million for failing to provide wheelchair assistance to passengers with disabilities and damaging thousands of wheelchairs over a five-year period.

Read these news briefs.

Maya Alleruzzo/AP
A woman chants slogans as relatives of Israelis held hostage by Hamas protest outside a hotel where U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is staying during a visit with Israeli leadership in Tel Aviv, Israel, Oct. 22, 2024.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu initially described Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar’s death as “the beginning of the end” to the war in Gaza. Yet intense fighting continues. Are there any indications that pressures for a cease-fire will bear fruit?

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump both paint a future with abundant energy. Her plans center on renewable sources. He backs traditional fuels, rejecting climate change as a priority.

AFP/Getty Images
Volunteers provide meals at a displacement camp in Gedaref, Sudan, July 13, 2024. Hunger is an ongoing challenge for half of the Sudanese population.

A network of community aid groups is providing pivotal support for communities affected by Sudan’s civil war. By doing so, they are also showing that the ties that bind Sudanese together are stronger than the violence tearing their country apart.

Courtesy of Delaware Area Career Center
A Zoo School student with the Delaware Area Career Center crouches near a farm animal at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium in Ohio.

The career and technical education of today doesn’t look the same as the vocational ed of years ago. Not only have the offerings changed, but so, too, have the expectations about where it leads. Part 1 of 2.

Points of Progress

What's going right

In our progress roundup, we’re focused on the ways we care for young and old. In Australia, Indigenous nations win rights to ancestral land the size of the U.S. state of Indiana. In New Mexico, child care is free to most families. And in Kenya, citizens are reforesting.


The Monitor's View

Reuters
A woman votes during the Oct. 9 election in Mozambique.

The signs point to a democracy derailed. Barely 1 in 3 voters turned out for the Oct. 9 elections in the African nation of Mozambique. An opposition candidate declared himself the winner. Days later, two of his closest associates were fatally shot. Street clashes broke out between protesters and security forces.

Official results are due Thursday. The national election commission is widely expected to declare the ruling party’s candidate the winner. Opposition leaders have called for two days of nationwide protests. Court challenges are likely.

For decades, turbulence during elections in Africa meant hope deferred. Now it more often confirms an extraordinary moment of transformation across the world’s youngest and fastest-changing continent.

Fed up with corruption, extremist violence, and economic dysfunction, Mozambicans are breaking the grip of two political factions that have battled each other for decades at the cost of their nation’s development. Many who didn’t vote went to polling stations anyway to call for – as a coalition of civil society organizations put it – “mais integridade” (“more integrity”).

“The ideologies and alliances of the past are starting to crack” in Mozambique, noted Emilia Columbo, an Africa analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “Voters who did show up to the polling stations arrived with a deep commitment to exercising their civic duty, waiting in lines for hours in the heat to cast their ballot.”

In many societies, from Myanmar to Venezuela, a key challenge for pro-democracy activists is how to get rid of ruling parties that have worn out their welcome. The shift can often happen suddenly. Already this year, youthful protesters in Senegal and Bangladesh forced recalcitrant leaders from power, while South African voters broke 30 years of one-party rule.

In one sign of how democratic norms are deepening in Africa, the incumbent president in Mozambique, Filipe Nyusi, is giving up power peacefully after reaching the constitutional limit of two terms. That’s just a start.

For the first time, the two main presidential candidates were born after independence. The ruling party, in power since Portuguese colonialists left in 1974, looks set to retain power. Independent observers say the voting process was flawed and should be thoroughly investigated.

But what may matter more is who comes in second. A new opposition party called Podemos – “We Can” – is poised to hold a majority in parliament. Across Africa, no trend has mattered more in advancing democracy than the growth of competent oppositions.

“We must form a government that does not depend on party criteria,” insisted Venâncio Mondlane, the opposition candidate. “It will depend on patriotic criteria, meritocracy and, above all, commitment to the country.”

That kind of rhetoric has fed the civic expectations of a new generation of African voters. More and more, their leaders are listening.


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 everyone’s true nature as inherently good – the way God made us – empowers us to engage productively rather than with anxiety and anger, even during polarizing election seasons.


Viewfinder

Julio Cortez/AP
The Los Angeles skyline offers a multicolor backdrop to artists painting under candlelight at Everett Triangle Park, Oct. 22, 2024, in Los Angeles.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Jacob Turcotte. )

A look ahead

We’re glad you joined us today. Tomorrow, look for Peter Rainer’s review of “Road Diary.” It’s all about The Boss – aka Bruce Springsteen.

More issues

2024
October
23
Wednesday

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