2024
December
12
Thursday

Monitor Daily Podcast

December 12, 2024
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Mark Sappenfield
Senior global correspondent

Scott Peterson and Dominique Soguel are on the ground in Syria. On her first day back in the country, two things struck Dominique. 

First, people are willing to express their political opinions loud and clear, including their concerns about what might come next. That’s a startling change, she says. What has not changed, she adds, is the hospitality and willingness among Syrians of every class and faith to help even perfect strangers. 

“In just a few hours,” she says, “I’ve been able to lean in on old friends and new ones to solve all kinds of problems to arrive safely.”


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

Matias Delacroix/AP
Israeli military vehicles patrol the security fence near what’s known as the Alpha Line that separates the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights from Syria, in the town of Majdal Shams, Dec. 12, 2024.

The Explainer

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Ethan Swope/AP
A woman leads a horse to safety as the Franklin Fire burns in Malibu, California, on Dec. 10, 2024. Authorities said the cause of the fire, which began Dec. 9 and had burned some 4,000 acres, was still unknown.

Difference-maker

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Abatang Favour addresses young women enrolled in Her Voice Foundation’s Empower Project in Becheve, Nigeria.

Film

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The Latvian film “Flow,” from writer-director Gints Zilbalodis, features animal survivors making their way in a postapocalyptic world.

The Monitor's View

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A woman takes a selfie with a fighter of the rebel group that ousted Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Dec. 12.

A Christian Science Perspective

About this feature

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Michael Probst/AP
Tourists pose in oversize and very colorful wooden Dutch clogs at the windmills museum of Zaanse Schans in Zaandijk, Netherlands, Dec. 11, 2024.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Karen Norris. )

A look ahead

Thank you for joining us today. Please come back tomorrow for our story from Dominique and Scott in Syria. They’ll set the scene, sharing sights and voices from Damascus.

More issues

2024
December
12
Thursday
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