Delayed election results can open the door to suspicion and disinformation. Yet in a close election, a dayslong wait to know the winner isn’t surprising. It happened in 2020. We look at why it could easily happen this year, too.

• Georgians protest: Tens of thousands of Georgians mass outside the nation’s Parliament, demanding the annulment of the weekend parliamentary election that the president has alleged was rigged with the help of Russia. 
• Cease-fire proposal: Egypt’s president says his country has proposed a two-day cease-fire between Israel and Hamas during which four hostages held in Gaza would be freed.
• China family planning: China outlines steps to boost the number of births after two consecutive years of a shrinking population. The State Council called for efforts to build “a new marriage and childbearing culture.”
• Philippines storm: Residents of northern and central provinces in the Philippines are picking up the pieces following one of the deadliest storms to hit the country this year.

Read these news briefs.

In over a year of conflict between Israel and Iran’s militia allies, a key brake on a regional war has been each side’s fear of what the other could do. Does Israel’s latest strike mean that brake is failing?

Republican presidents have long withheld U.S. aid from groups in developing countries that practice abortion. If Donald Trump wins the election, he is likely to impose harsher restrictions that will negatively impact broader health care, workers in the sector fear. 

Changing demographics have stirred speculation for years about Texas turning purple. But as Democrats look to this massive Southwestern state as their best chance to maintain Senate control, they may be disappointed again.

In Japan, the long-ruling party’s dramatic loss in a parliamentary election underscores the public’s growing frustration with its leaders, and has plunged the country into political uncertainty.

“Emily in Paris,” the Netflix hit series, skewers French foibles and mines antiquated French stereotypes. And the French cannot get enough of it – especially now that there is talk of Emily moving to Rome.

This fall, American four-year colleges saw a big drop in first-year enrollments – more than 5% from last year, based on preliminary figures. While the causes are many, one could be that the academic track in higher education is simply no longer attractive to many 18-year-olds. A Harvard University study of teens and young adults, for example, found that 58% say they feel a lack of direction and little to no purpose.

Both of these trends, however, belie another one: Enrollment in postsecondary career and technical education – or CTE, once known as vocational education – continues to rise. More to the point, the nonprofit Advance CTE that helps define “cluster groupings” for these types of jobs just updated the arrangements to reflect changes in fields from digital technology to agriculture over the past two decades. One big difference in the new job definitions: They focus more on the purpose and impact of the different fields.

Today’s young workers “find meaning in making contributions that positively affect those around them – coworkers, customers, and society more broadly,” concluded a study this year by American Enterprise Institute.

More states, such as Texas, Georgia, and Maryland, have increased funding for CTE. Many companies are dropping a college degree requirement for some positions, such as work in semiconductors. The gist is that the trades, or building and creating, are both needed more and better appreciated.

A good example of this shift is Skylar Eastman, a young woman from the Columbus area in Ohio. She is about to graduate from high school with three welding certifications and a job lined up.

“My family’s always pushed trades onto all of us, because it’s something that is always going to be needed,” she tells the Monitor. In Ohio, she is a part of a growing number of students and families who view career and technical education as a ticket to upward economic mobility.

“When I first saw [welding], I was like, ‘That would be really fun to do,’” Skylar says. “I could see myself having a career out of it.”

For one assignment, shop workers in her class built metal chairs and barbecue smokers. Some of their craft is on display at her school and a source of pride for the students.

In the midst of ever-advancing technology, some young people are falling in love with making things with their hands. They are also discovering ways to earn a living, using social media to both market themselves and develop close connections with consumers.

Making things for others is an opportunity for empathy, wrote Glenn Adamson, author of books on the meaning of the craft industries. “Just as a skilled maker will anticipate a user’s needs, a really attentive user will be able to imagine the way something was made,” he wrote in a 2018 book, “Fewer Better Things.” An appreciation of the deep skills needed to change the material environment, he said, opens us up to  “better understand our fellow humans.”