2017
June
28
Wednesday

Monitor Daily Podcast

June 28, 2017
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It’s important to speak up.

We were reminded of that this week when China moved Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, who is seriously ill, from prison to a hospital.

Mr. Liu has been an enduring voice for democratic reform – first, during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, and later as a contributor to Charter 08, a 2008 petition for political liberalization. His participation landed him in prison in 2009 with the longest sentence ever meted out for “inciting subversion of state power.” He was barred from accepting his 2010 Nobel, and his wife and brother-in-law have both suffered retribution from the state.

President Xi Jinping has little appetite for dissent, a distaste that was further underscored today when his government strengthened legal grounds for state surveillance and monitoring. And China’s economic clout has blunted many nations’ eagerness to engage it on human rights. The US ambassador to China, however, did urge Beijing to let Liu seek medical care "elsewhere."

Liu, for his part, sets a high standard for valuing ideals above all. “Hatred can rot away at a person’s intelligence and conscience,” he said at his 2009 trial. “I hope to be able to transcend my personal experiences ... to counter the regime’s hostility with utmost goodwill, and to dispel hatred with love.”


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

SOURCE:

World Bank

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Jacob Turcotte/Staff
Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff
Fifth-graders took a math exam in April at Maple Street Magnet Elementary School, in Rochester, N.H. (The cardboard barriers are to discourage students from copying from another student’s paper.) Teachers from around the state are visiting for observation and a workshop during an Innovation Studio event designed to showcase learning environments that promote student choice and autonomy.

Difference-maker

Ann Hermes/Staff
Doug Rauch, former president of Trader Joe’s, founded Daily Table, a nonprofit grocery store that sells healthy, affordable food to underserved communities such as Dorchester, Mass., where its flagship store is located.

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A message of love

Fernando Vergara/AP
Colombian musician César López plays his guitar – which he crafted from a rifle and calls 'Escopetarra' (or 'gun guitar') – during a performance in Buenavista, Colombia, commemorating a milestone in the country’s disarmament process. The United Nations says it has now concluded the collection of thousands of individual arms as part of a peace deal between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia rebels and the government.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Christian Coker/Special to The Christian Science Monitor. )

A look ahead

Thanks for joining us. Come back tomorrow, when we’ll be looking at how Muslims are starting to see radicalism as something that needs to be addressed from within Islam.

More issues

2017
June
28
Wednesday
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