2024
April
11
Thursday

Monitor Daily Podcast

April 11, 2024
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Mark Sappenfield
Senior global correspondent

There’s a lot of talk about World War II these days – particularly over the concern that resurgent populism could lead to anti-democratic backsliding. Is the world as complacent now as in the 1930s? 

Today, Ned Temko gives that narrative a twist. In the ’30s, the West let Hitler take the areas of Czechoslovakia he considered German. What if the West lets Vladimir Putin take Ukraine? Historical analogies are tricky, and so is the current situation. The U.S. role as global cop can grow wearisome. 

But beneath Ned’s story is a more pressing question: When is it OK to let the tyrant win? 


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

Leaving abortion access to states means stakes are growing for the 2024 election – and roiling Republicans over how to respond.

Today’s news briefs

• Israeli airstrike: An Israeli airstrike in Gaza kills three sons of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, according to Israel’s army and the militant group’s official media.
• U.S. surveillance program: A modest overhaul of a controversial U.S. surveillance program falters after Democratic and Republican critics, including Donald Trump, say it gave the government too much power to spy on its citizens.
• Background gun checks: Thousands more firearms dealers across the United States will have to run background checks on buyers when selling at gun shows or other places outside bricks-and-mortar stores, according to a new Biden administration rule.
• Arkansas ban in federal court: A federal appeals court hears arguments over Arkansas’ first-in-the-nation ban on gender-affirming care for minors, as the fight over the restrictions on transgender youths adopted by two dozen states moves closer to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Read these news briefs.

Caitlin O’Hara/Reuters
Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake gives an interview to Newsmax at a campaign watch party at Foley Ranch bar on the night of the primary election in Phoenix, March 19.

Another challenge for Republicans: In Arizona and North Carolina, MAGA candidates are stirring up controversy and running behind their Democratic opponents, even as former President Donald Trump leads President Joe Biden.

Patterns

Tracing global connections

The congressional holdup on U.S. aid to Ukraine is stirring European memories of how WWII started – with a disengaged America turning its back on Europe.

Russia’s migrants have long been tolerated by both authorities and the public. But when several Tajiks became suspects in the March 22 attack in Moscow, the whole community came under withering scrutiny.

Q&A

Vasha Hunt/AP
The recently opened Freedom Monument Sculpture Park in Montgomery, Alabama, includes Black Renaissance, a trio of bronze busts by artist Rayvenn D'Clark.

“What kind of art would help people understand this history?” Bryan Stevenson says he asked himself before creating the new Freedom Monument Sculpture Park in Montgomery, Alabama.


The Monitor's View

At a moment when a majority of Americans say illegal immigration is their country’s top problem, Europe has shown them a way forward. On Wednesday, the European Parliament passed major reforms on migration policy that, according to one negotiator, are “a triumph of European values ​​over political stagnation.”

One value embedded in the reforms is equality. Migrants seeking asylum will be treated more uniformly – and quickly – across the Continent. And the 27 member states of the European Union will be required to equally share the burden of taking in migrants who now largely enter through the Mediterranean countries of Italy and Greece.

One benefit of the so-called New Pact on Migration and Asylum could be greater EU unity, especially ahead of parliamentary elections in June. In the last EU-wide elections, in 2019, migration was the top concern of citizens. The new pact, writes Lena Düpont, a German politician in the European Parliament, can “create reliability among [EU] partners and create trust in overcoming challenges together.”

Ms. Düpont adds in a piece for the European Policy Centre that “the EU has stumbled from one emergency solution to the next [on migration] while becoming more vulnerable to polarised and overheated debates.” It has “failed to cherish its very own values” and find a “balance between protecting fundamental rights and effectively managing borders.”

For nearly a decade, the EU struggled to find a consensus on migration. The trigger for a fresh dialogue began in 2015-2016 when more than million people fleeing Mideast conflicts poured into Europe, fueling the rise of anti-immigrant parties. Last year, the EU saw a seven-year high in applications for asylum and the biggest increase in illegal entries since 2016. Also, both Russia and its ally Belarus have “weaponized” migration by sending Middle Eastern migrants into EU countries.

The breakthrough for an EU deal began in 2022 after the influx of some 4 million Ukrainian refugees fleeing the Russian invasion – the largest refugee movement in Europe since World War II. The warm welcome of the Ukrainians showed that disagreements over migration could be solved. Compassion triumphed over fear.

The new EU pact could take two years to implement. And the way it balances competing views might be challenged in coming elections or in the courts. Still, says German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, “after years of tough negotiations, ... we have overcome a deep division in Europe.” And that sets a helpful example for what many Americans expect in their country.


A Christian Science Perspective

About this feature

As we get to know God’s nature as entirely good, we come to find that the most effective prayer is a humble yielding to God’s love and care.


Viewfinder

Michael A. McCoy/Reuters
Cheryl Heat holds a photograph of her mother, Eunice Heat, during a Congressional Gold Medal Ceremony honoring the “Rosies” – women like Rosie the Riveter who held jobs or volunteered in support of the war effort during World War II. The ceremony took place in Emancipation Hall in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, April 10.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Karen Norris and Jacob Turcotte. )

A look ahead

Thank you for joining us today. Please come back tomorrow for a lovely story by Cameron Pugh about how Black families are finding one way to overcome a lack of trust in the health care system. Those having children are turning to specialized caregivers who offer them confidence – and a voice.  

More issues

2024
April
11
Thursday
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