2023
December
13
Wednesday

Monitor Daily Podcast

December 13, 2023
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Mark Sappenfield
Senior global correspondent

The United Nations COP28 climate summit is now done. There were surprises, big announcements, and an official charity pop song. (Think “We Are the World,” only greener.) See our wrap-up in today’s issue. 

The question with all such events is, what now? Will actions match promises? That’s the primary question around all climate action, frankly. Our answer has been the Climate Generation series, which ends next week. If you want to know what climate action looks like, read it. There is a place where hope and honest appraisals of the crisis meet. And these young people are leading the way. 


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

Evan Vucci/AP
President Joe Biden shakes hands with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as they meet in the Oval Office of the White House, Dec. 12, 2023, in Washington.

For the United States, is Ukraine a waste of money or is underwriting its fight against Russia a kind of insurance against costlier U.S. military action later?

Thomas Mukoya/Reuters
Visual projections of eagles are displayed at the Al Wasl dome at Dubai's Expo City during the United Nations COP28 climate summit in the United Arab Emirates, Dec. 12, 2023.

COP28 took a historic step in addressing one gap: between clean energy and fossil fuels. But it underlined the work ahead on a second gap: between wealthy and developing countries.

Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters
People protest in support of Palestinians amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Cairo Dec. 13, 2023.

In the Gulf, sheikhs worry that the Israel-Hamas war could become Iraq 2.0, with Arab populations across the region stirred to anger and violence. They’re desperate for the U.S. to do something.

Matias Delacroix/AP
A man in Caracas, Venezuela, sells phone cables in front of a mural of the Venezuelan map, which includes the Essequibo territory. Leaders of Guyana and Venezuela are preparing to meet this week to address an escalating dispute over the Essequibo, which is rich in oil and minerals.

Venezuela is making moves to essentially take over part of neighboring Guyana. The region is oil-rich. But that might not be why Venezuela is doing it. 

Jacob Turcotte/Staff

Books

Jacob Turcotte/Staff

Many of the best books this year touch on the past informing the present. How do societies move forward while also grappling with difficult histories?

On Film

Claire Folger
In “American Fiction,” Thelonious “Monk” Ellison (Jeffrey Wright) spends time beachside sorting out his family and writing career. The edgy satire considers the role of Black writers in society.

“American Fiction” uses satire to poke at both race and publishing in America. Does success come only from selling out and indulging caricatures? The film’s answer is interesting, if not entirely convincing.


The Monitor's View

Reuters/Pascal Rossignol
Migrants crossing the English Channel from the coast of northern France, on Oct. 2, 2023.

South Africa’s ruling African National Congress has posted a spotty record during its three decades in power. Yesterday it received sharp notice from the country’s highest bench that the challenges of governing are no excuse for suspending individual rights and the rule of law.

In a unanimous decision, the Constitutional Court struck down recent amendments to the nation’s refugee law that revoke legal protections for asylum-seekers if they failed to renew their visas before they expire. The government argued it needed the measures to process more asylum applications efficiently and clear a long backlog. The justices disagreed.

“Bureaucratic circumstances” that “infringe the right to dignity [or] unjustifiably limit the rights of children” violate international laws embedded in South Africa’s Constitution, they argued.

Ordinary South Africans are likely to find that message reassuring. They are weary of corruption, joblessness, constant electricity cuts, and crime. On the eve of an election year, three recent polls showed the African National Congress heading toward defeat for the first time since 1994.

But the court’s decision has a broader resonance, too, at a time when some of the world’s most established democracies are grappling with similar issues of immigration and international law. The Geneva Conventions require nations to uphold the dignity of individuals fleeing danger in their own countries. They prohibit discrimination or forced return. All signatory nations are required to uphold them.

The rising tide of migrants globally, however, is straining that commitment. In Britain, the Supreme Court ruled last month that a proposal to send asylum-seekers to Rwanda violates international law because the government would not be able to guarantee the safety of those expelled. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak narrowly averted a revolt within his own party yesterday over revisions he proposed to satisfy the justices.

Simultaneously, the French Parliament yesterday rejected immigration reforms sought by President Emmanuel Macron. Among its provisions, the bill would lift a ban on expelling migrants who arrived in France as children and make it easier to deport foreigners suspected of being criminals. In the United States, meanwhile, House Republicans have tied further military aid for Ukraine to tighter asylum rules and security measures along the southern border.

Amid these challenges, the court rulings in South Africa and Britain have challenged the notion that abiding by international law is a burden. And Claire Hédon, France’s defender of rights, argues that protecting rights for refugees is in fact vital to public stability.

“A balance must be struck between, on the one hand, the sovereign right of states to decide on rules governing entry and residence on their territory, taking into account the imperative of safeguarding public order, and, on the other hand, the necessary protection of fundamental rights,” she wrote today in Le Monde. That balance rests on “essential legal principles, particularly the principles of dignity and equality.”

In South Africa, acting Judge Ashton Schippers wrote, the Constitution “asserts dignity ‘to invest in our democracy respect for the intrinsic worth of all human beings.’” The court’s ruling has set defense of innocent life as a starting point for renewing confidence in government.


A Christian Science Perspective

About this feature

Reliable prayer that can lift us out of troubles of any kind is available to us through the example of Jesus Christ.


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Luisa Gonzalez/Reuters
Riders take in the sights from the tourist train ‘La Sabana,’ decorated with Christmas lights, in Bogotá, Colombia, Dec. 11, 2023.

A look ahead

Thank you for joining us today. Please come back tomorrow when we’ll look at the impeachment proceedings against President Joe Biden – what the probe has found so far, and where things stand. We’ll also have a Monitor Breakfast with presidential candidate Cornel West. 

More issues

2023
December
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