2024
January
16
Tuesday

Monitor Daily Podcast

January 16, 2024
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Mark Sappenfield
Senior global correspondent

I confess I’m fascinated by Guatemala and El Salvador right now. As we write today, Guatemala’s new president is a triumph of democratic principles. And as we’ve written before, its neighbor has embraced a populist strongman. What gives?

The Monitor looks at the world to find universal lessons, so I asked our Whitney Eulich, and I learned something. In some ways, she says, voters in each country have “won.” Guatemala faces poverty and inequality. El Salvador faces rampant gang violence. Each president addresses those concerns in his own way.

It reminds us how well democracies reflect voters’ desires, and encourages us to think about that connection more deeply. 


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

Today’s news briefs

Courtesy of Rob Cleary/The City and County of Denver
A new micro-community in Denver is seen from an aerial view provided by the city. The transitional housing units are part of Mayor Mike Johnston's House1000 plan, which has brought more than 1,000 people off the street and into shelter since last July.
Jose Cabezas/Reuters
Guatemala's new President Bernardo Arévalo and his wife, Lucrecia Peinado, arrive at a ceremony where he was recognized as commander-in-chief of the armed forces in Guatemala City, Jan. 15, 2024.

Points of Progress

What's going right

The Monitor's View

REUTERS
Belgium's King Philippe and Queen Mathilde sit with Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic as they listen during a session of the 54th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Jan. 16.

A Christian Science Perspective

About this feature

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Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/Reuters
People take selfies while visiting the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in Washington, Jan. 15. The design of the memorial, which features a 30-foot statue of Dr. King emerging from two stone boulders behind it, is based on a line from his "I Have a Dream" speech: "With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope."
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Jacob Turcotte. )

A look ahead

Thank you for joining us today. Tomorrow, we’ll look at the U.S. Congress as it punts a third time this fiscal year on coming up with a budget. Why has the budget process become so broken, how much is that contributing to record national debt, and what are the possible solutions?

More issues

2024
January
16
Tuesday
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