2017
April
13
Thursday

Monitor Daily Podcast

April 13, 2017
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Heads swiveled today when the US dropped the “mother of all bombs“ in Afghanistan, targeting an ISIS tunnel and cave complex. Officially known as the Massive Ordnance Air Blast, the MOAB is America’s biggest non-nuclear bomb. This is was its first-ever use.  

Here in the newsroom, we talked about whether the bomb’s deployment might have sent a message to North Korea, a master military tunnel builder. Pyongyang certainly is getting other military messages as its provocative acts rattle East Asia: A US aircraft carrier strike group is steaming toward the Korean peninsula, and Japan appears ready to join it.

But words matter in preventing a crisis as well. Are the US and China cooperating in that arena? China’s language toward its ally Kim Jong-un has toughened since President Trump and President Xi met last week. Its Global Times newspaper warned Kim yesterday that Washington meant business – and foreshadowed tougher sanctions from Beijing if things get worse. 

Those kinds of communications are crucial – and can be equally powerful in keeping tensions from escalating to the battlefield.  


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

As a candidate, Donald Trump called NATO obsolete. But yesterday, standing alongside NATO's visiting secretary-general, he praised the security alliance as a vital institution. It was a welcome accolade for those who had been rattled by his “America First” inauguration speech – and who still see the US as the much-needed leading voice on the world stage.

NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute/AP
An undated photo provided by NASA in 2014 shows Saturn’s moon Enceladus. Scientists announced that year that they had uncovered a vast ocean beneath the moon's icy surface. Researchers made the discovery using Cassini, a NASA-European spacecraft.

NASA’s announcement just hours ago that the Cassini orbiter identified molecular hydrogen on Saturn's moon Enceladus will be parsed for weeks. Could other planets in our solar system be habitable? More study is needed – but all of NASA's planetary work is closely tied to more Earthly research, which the Trump administration wants to scale back. Liz Fuller-Wright reports on whether that might be short-sighted.

Markus Schreiber/AP/File
The Brandenburg Gate in Berlin is illuminated as a Turkish national flag in reaction to a suicide attack at Istanbul's airport in June 2016. Today, tensions are running high in Germany's Turkish immigrant community prior to a referendum in their old home country on expanding the Turkish president's powers.

Simply knowing someone's name can short-circuit incivility. Knowing their story can be even more powerful. That's one way Germany is creating connections between its majority and minority populations. Real information crowds out the stereotypes or assumptions that can creep in its absence.

Points of Progress

What's going right
Kin Cheung/AP
Copies of Amnesty International's report on the death penalty are displayed during a press conference of Amnesty International in Hong Kong.

Americans aren’t ready to give up the death penalty yet. But the US has dropped out of the top five countries that impose it, and it contributed to a drop in executions worldwide last year. 

SOURCE:

Amnesty International

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Jacob Turcotte/Staff

Sometimes it can seem like just another bumper-sticker: the message to coexist or engage in a random act of kindness. But the smallest nod toward being polite to your fellow human being can shift an outlook or reduce some tension. And it's equally effective whether you're driving on the expressway or living in a community struggling with crime and unemployment. 


The Monitor's View

Maria Chiu/Star-Telegram via AP
Gene McGuire, center, poses with Babe's Chicken Dinner House restaurant employees in Arlington, Texas. McGuire says he has found redemption working as a chaplain for the employees at the restaurants throughout North Texas.

How’s your health? 

The question isn’t so simple anymore, according to a recent survey of more than 1,000 Americans by the giant marketing firm J. Walter Thompson. 

The survey found that rapid scientific advances and other trends have expanded the understanding of health to the point that people now say it involves more than a medical perspective. The poll found more than 3 out of 4 Americans consider health to be as much a mental condition as a physical one. Nearly half said being mindful is a form of health.

One of the survey’s surprises is that relatively few people (17 percent) reach for prescription medicines when they feel ill. And about half prefer a nonmedical approach to an ailment. Younger people are much more inclined to prefer a nonmedical method than older people. 

People also are taking greater command of their well-being as their concepts of health evolve, the survey found. They are more careful of who or what they trust with their health. 

“The more we learn about health, the more it seems that health involves everything,” the researchers conclude.

One result of this shift in thinking is that many industries, from hotels to landscape architects, see themselves in the “wellness” business. They provide “restorative environments” or “mood-aligning” experiences. The definition of health care keeps expanding far beyond traditional medicine. More hospitals, for example, are offering spiritual care to patients beyond simply providing access to a chaplain for end-of-life discussions.

In a recent experiment at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center, researchers showed patients who could not speak images that depicted a possible spiritual need, such as prayer or inspirational poetry. The patients could select one and also indicate the extent of their need. Then the spiritual help was given. The result was a sharp rise in patients feeling “more at peace” or “more connected with what is sacred,” according to the study. 

The study was seen as a test of spiritual care “as if it were a new medicine.” That result helps reinforce the findings of the survey. So next time you ask someone “How’s your health?” prepare to hear an unexpected answer.


A Christian Science Perspective

About this feature

Famine and prayer-inspired activism

The specter of famine in several African countries demands humanitarian relief now.  There's an equally pressing need for spiritual sustenance.  


A message of love

Hani Mohammed/AP
Yemenis receive food rations in Sanaa.

Below: Yemenis present documents in order to receive food rations provided by a local charity, in Sanaa, Yemen, April 13. A Saudi-led coalition launched a campaign in support of Yemen's internationally recognized government in March 2015. The stalemated war has pushed the Arab world's poorest country to the brink of famine.

( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Jacob Turcotte. )

A look ahead

That’s a wrap for today. Thank you for taking the time to think more deeply about the day’s news. In our next edition, we'll be looking at what could be a defining referendum in Turkey this weekend. And we're keeping a close eye on protests in South Africa, where President Zuma is facing pressure for change from the most powerful constituency of all: his own party. We'll see you tomorrow!

More issues

2017
April
13
Thursday
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