2024
September
16
Monday

Monitor Daily Podcast

September 16, 2024
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Mark Sappenfield
Senior global correspondent

A second attempt to assassinate former President Donald Trump raises questions the world is struggling to answer. The United States is not alone. Europe faces a spike in political violence, too. How do nations turn down the tone of political apocalypse at a time of significant change?  

Christa Case Bryant notes something important today – an increased alertness among those entrusted to protect politicians in the U.S. It is not too much to say that a similar mental alertness is needed among all of us to recognize that anger and hatred are their own forms of violence.


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

Congress is already digging in to a July 13 assassination attempt against Donald Trump. A new apparent attempt Sunday adds impetus – and evidence – for evaluating how well the Secret Service is handling rising threats of political violence.

Today’s news briefs

• Putin army decree: President Vladimir Putin issues an order to increase the regular size of the Russian army by 180,000 troops, for a total of 1.5 million active service members.
• TikTok in court: The U.S. government and TikTok go head-to-head in the federal appeals court in Washington as oral argument begins in a case that will determine the future of TikTok in the country.
• Shanghai typhoon: Typhoon Bebinca, the strongest to hit Shanghai since 1949, has flooded roads and knocked out power to some homes.
• U.S. interest rates: The Federal Reserve is expected to announce this week that it’s cutting its key interest rate from a two-decade peak.

Read these news briefs.

Lawmakers often struggle to keep pace with emerging technologies, and disagree about whether and how to regulate them. But there’s a growing bipartisan will to place guardrails on cryptocurrency.

The Explainer

Riley Robinson/Staff
Workers repair power lines in Dallas, Feb. 28, 2024. The “grid” consists of three interconnected systems of power generation, transmission, and distribution – including one in Texas.

News about “the grid” and warnings about its vulnerability are ubiquitous. We break down what the grid is and why it’s so complicated to fix.

Alfredo Sosa/Staff
Pablo Morvillo (at left) participates in a tango master class at the Centro Cultural Macedonia on Aug. 18, 2024, in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Tango may conjure up images of tight suits and stiletto heels, but an alternative approach to Argentina’s national cultural icon could change that.

Points of Progress

What's going right

In our progress roundup, opportunities emerge for German apartment renters who want to hang their own solar panels, for arts organizations fighting gentrification, and for animation fans looking for African content.


The Monitor's View

Six weeks into its military incursion in Russia, Ukraine has shown why it is not really seeking territorial conquest. On Monday, it invited the International Committee of the Red Cross to inspect whether Ukrainian soldiers have followed the rules of war as an occupying force over foreign civilians.

“Ukraine is ready to ... prove its adherence to international humanitarian law,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga wrote on social media.

In other words, having taken the military high ground in Russia’s Kursk region, Ukraine now seeks the moral high ground in the court of world opinion.

Since the war began in early 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Ukraine must fight by the rules of the Geneva Conventions, which have been adopted by nearly every country and are administered by the International Committee of the Red Cross. By safeguarding Russian civilians and prisoners of war in Kursk, Ukraine can convince more countries not to support Russia in any way.

Ukraine’s qualitative difference from Russia’s reckless treatment of Ukrainians has become a force unto itself. Ukraine relies on a principle of law calling for the protection of innocent noncombatants as well as wounded or captured troops on the battlefield. “It is important for us not to be like those who brought war with looting and rape to us,” Mr. Zelenskyy said in late August.

Abiding by the rules of war has another effect for Ukraine. It boosts the morale of its soldiers.

“When soldiers are well-led, and engage in ethical conduct in war (as brutal as that might be at times), it keeps them human in the most terrible of circumstances, and also protects their souls,” Mick Ryan, a retired Australian general and military analyst, wrote on the social platform X about Ukraine’s compliance with the rules of war.

Last month marked the 75th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions. While often ignored in many of today’s nontraditional conflicts – such as in Gaza – the rules of war are still highly discussed among nations, indicating a preference to use law to limit wars to combatants and to spare the innocent.

“International norms are guidelines that tell states which actions are and are not appropriate and provide metrics against which to judge others’ conduct,” Tanisha M. Fazal, a political science professor at the University of Minnesota, wrote in Foreign Affairs.

“The norm against territorial conquest didn’t stop Russia from invading Ukraine,” she added, “but it does help explain why Moscow is paying such a high price for its land grab.”

Principles do have power, Dr. Fazal wrote, and beneath the surface of war, “Norms in fact work as a powerful motivator and constraint.”


A Christian Science Perspective

About this feature

Recognizing God, Spirit, as the one divine Mind equips us to engage with artificial intelligence in ways that foster order, truth, and wisdom.


Viewfinder

Jana Rodenbusch/Reuters
Daria Skrobisz participates with her hobbyhorse on the day of the first-ever German hobbyhorsing championship in Frankfurt, Germany, Sept. 15, 2024. The event attracted about 300 competitors. The United States and Australia also held their first hobbyhorse competitions this year.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Jacob Turcotte and Karen Norris. )

A look ahead

Thank you for joining us today. Please come back tomorrow when Henry Gass looks at how, as Election Day approaches, different judges are wrestling with how to handle candidate Donald Trump’s slate of legal cases.

More issues

2024
September
16
Monday
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