2022
August
17
Wednesday

Monitor Daily Podcast

August 17, 2022
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Linda Feldmann
Washington Bureau Chief

Rep. Liz Cheney invoked Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, and God in her concession speech Tuesday night. But it wasn’t a farewell. She was setting up her next act: to do whatever she can to prevent former President Donald Trump from staging a comeback.

Come January, the conservative Wyoming Republican will no longer be a member of Congress. Representative Cheney lost the primary big – 66% to 29% – to Trump pick Harriet Hageman, a stunning fall for a once-rising GOP star.

In the wee hours Wednesday, Ms. Cheney reorganized her election account, flush with $7 million, into a leadership political action committee called The Great Task – a phrase from Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. Will she run for president, either as a Republican or an independent? She’d be a super long shot, but could use a campaign to promote her anti-Trump message. If she doesn’t run, she can use that money in other ways to argue vociferously against Mr. Trump, should he run again.

Ms. Cheney’s defeat represents Mr. Trump’s last and biggest victory in his effort to rid the House of the 10 Republicans who voted to impeach him after the Jan. 6, 2021, riot by his supporters at the Capitol. In all, four of the 10 lost in their primaries, two won, and four retired.

But even in the House, Ms. Cheney isn’t done with Mr. Trump. She’s the top Republican on the Jan. 6 committee, which will reconvene this fall with more hearings and a final report.

In Tuesday’s other primary state, Alaska, Trump-backed women aren’t faring as well. With counting still underway, Trump-endorsed Kelly Tshibaka slightly trails moderate GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski. Both will compete in the general election under the state’s new ranked-choice voting system. Alaska’s Trump-backed former governor, Sarah Palin – the GOP’s 2008 vice presidential nominee – is running second in both the special election and November race to fill the state’s only House seat.

Coincidentally, Senator Murkowski and Ms. Cheney are both the daughters of prominent Republicans. Ex-Vice President Dick Cheney, most notably, blasted Mr. Trump in a late campaign ad.

Ms. Cheney is very much her father’s daughter, former Wyoming GOP Rep. Barbara Cubin told me last year. And she knew Ms. Cheney wouldn’t change course.

“It doesn’t matter the cost,” Ms. Cubin said. “She’ll fall on her sword to be right.”


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

Suhaib Salem/Reuters
A Palestinian woman hangs laundry at her house that was damaged during fighting earlier this month between Israel and Islamic Jihad, a militant Palestinian group.

With no bomb shelters and little in the way of civil defense, Gaza’s residents have to fend for themselves when Israeli missiles start falling. A go-bag is essential. A comforting cat can help.

As the climate warms, more people are seeking air conditioning to stay cool. But air conditioning itself can exacerbate global warming.  Is there a way to balance the need for cooling with the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions?

The Explainer

Elias Funez/The Union/AP
Students make their way to their first classes of the 2022-2023 school year, Aug. 16, 2022, at Bear River High School in Grass Valley, California. A law mandating start times for the state's middle and high schools is now in effect.

Balancing school schedules and student needs takes cooperation. California is mandating start times as a way to help teens get more sleep. What is involved in that change?

Books

Our 10 picks for this month include books that deal honestly with the human condition, from the toll of war to the as-yet unfulfilled hopes for racial equity in South Africa. The protagonists offer powerful examples of people seeking truth, pursuing justice, and insisting on the dignity of each individual.   


The Monitor's View

Reuters
Mahamat Idriss Deby, son of late Chadian President Idriss Deby, attends his father's funeral in N'Djamena, Chad, April 23, 2021.

For societies fed up with living under military control, the most difficult question is judging when conditions are ripe to develop trust with a ruler and negotiate for democracy.

In some places, the top brass frequently claim they prefer a return to civilian rule but, either by force or by guile, cling to power. In Sudan, for example, the main pro-democracy movement have refused to negotiate with a junta that reneged last year on a power-sharing pact and has killed at least 116 in crackdowns against protesters.

In contrast, Sudan’s neighbor Chad offers a different example and, potentially, a model.

Pro-democracy activists in the central African country could be on the verge of ending 32 years of military dictatorship. Formal transition talks between the government and more than 40 political groups and armed factions are set to open on Saturday.

That milestone is the result of many factors, from war fatigue to economic crisis. Yet humility and a recognition of shared interests have played a part. “I asked [the military and the opposition] to think about the youth [and] the country’s economic, cultural, and social development,” said Saleh Kebzabo, a former opposition leader in charge of the national reconciliation talks, in an interview with Deutsche Welle.

Chad’s pursuit of democratic transition started with a succession in April last year. Idriss Déby, the country’s longtime dictator who took power in a 1990 military coup, was killed in battle against the main opposition. The military tapped his son, Lt. Gen. Mahamat Idriss Déby, to take over. The younger promised a negotiated transition to civilian rule and elections in 18 months.

Most Chadians were skeptical. In March, however, government officials and representatives from 52 opposition groups gathered in Qatar for a “pre-dialogue.”

Weeks of exquisite captivity in Doha’s plush hotels turned into months of consensus-making. Friendships were forged in elevator rides. “We were crabs in a bucket,” one rebel joked.

The talks were supposed to jump-start constitutional reforms and set plans in motion for elections in October. Instead they achieved something that, in the long run, may be more important. They gave “credibility to the national government’s safety guarantees that the main groups – those with a history of violence or just opposition parties – will be able to come back to N’Djamena [the capital] and be reintegrated into the Chadian political game without risk [to] life or detention,” Benjamin Augé of the French Institute of International Relations told Al Jazeera.

Last week the junta and 43 of its adversaries signed a peace accord establishing a cease-fire and setting the stage for formal negotiations. A few key armed groups remain outside the agreement, but they are still welcomed to join, Foreign Minister Cherif Mahamat Zene told Deutche Welle. “Peace is priceless,” he said. “War never solved anything.”

When Chad’s rival factions gather around the table this weekend, thorny issues await them. Yet the pro-democracy side has taken the hard step of building up mutual trust after years of conflict. At the negotiating table, the military will now be just one of many equals. That could ripen the moment for restoring Chad’s democracy.


A Christian Science Perspective

About this feature

When we’ve made a mistake, is there a path out of rumination and regret? We can turn to God to help us move forward in ways that uplift and redeem.


A message of love

Ajeng Dinar Ulfiana/Reuters
Men join a competition during Indonesia's 77th Independence Day celebrations in Jakarta, Indonesia, Aug. 17, 2022.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Karen Norris and Jacob Turcotte. )

A look ahead

Thanks for joining us today. Come back tomorrow: We’ve got an interview with Cass McCombs, called “one of the great songwriters of his time,” on how he keeps moving forward.

More issues

2022
August
17
Wednesday
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