2017
July
06
Thursday

Monitor Daily Podcast

July 06, 2017
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Yvonne Zipp
Features Editor

Lots of attention has been paid to the Trump Election Integrity Commission’s request to states for voter data – and the tally of more than 40 states that have said they are unable to comply, in whole or in part. (That includes Kansas, the home state of commission head Kris Kobach.)

But a second letter went out the same day, this time from the Department of Justice. And voting-rights experts are concerned that its significance is being overshadowed by the commission headlines. The letter was sent to all 44 states covered by the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, asking them to detail how they maintain their voter eligibility lists.

“If this went to any individual state, I don’t think anybody would’ve blinked twice,” Justin Levitt, a professor at Loyola Law School and former deputy assistant attorney general, told reporters. What made the letter “really weird,” he said, was the sheer number it was sent to.

The question of how to properly update voter rolls – without suppressing legitimate votes – after people move or die is one that needs to be approached carefully, the Brennan Center for Justice argues. “Being careful would include not removing people right before an election, giving voters targeted for removal notice before they are removed, being very sure that two different people with similar names are not confused for each other, and ensuring that voters have an easy way to get back on the rolls on Election Day if they are mistakenly purged.”

Our Southern staff writer, Patrik Jonsson, is in Sparta, Ga., today working on a story about how that city wound up purging roughly one-fifth of its voters from the rolls – and what happened after. Watch for that soon. 


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Today's stories

And why we wrote them

Dmitri Lovetsky/AP
Traditional Russian nesting dolls depicting President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are displayed for sale at a souvenir shop in St. Petersburg, Russia. The two leaders are to meet July 7 for the first time.

What does Russia hope to get out of Friday’s bilateral meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Trump? Surprisingly little, reports long-time Moscow-watcher Fred Weir, who found the Russians growing disillusioned by Mr. Trump.

Tesla, now Volvo: will a ‘legacy’ carmaker speed electrics’ rise?

Is the internal combustion engine headed the way of the horse-drawn carriage? That question may hinge on car buyers – not necessarily carmakers – and whether they are at a tipping point where electric and hybrid vehicles seem the best way to travel.

SOURCE:

US Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy, The Union of Concerned Scientists, International Energy Agency

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Jacob Turcotte/Staff
KCNA/Reuters
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was shown paying a visit to a defense academy after the test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile, Hwasong-14, in this undated photo released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency in Pyongyang.

What makes North Korea so determined to pursue nuclear weapons in the face of worldwide condemnation? That very same worldwide condemnation may stiffen North Korea's resolve – and it makes the question of how the United States will respond to Pyongyang's July 4 missile test a tricky one, with few good options.

In the annals of second chances, it's hard to top Jack Gantos, the Newbery Medal winner who served time in federal prison for running drugs. One of his first steps toward a new life, as he details in a hilarious 2012 NPR interview with Peter Sagal, was getting accepted to college.

Is "balanced" an outdated yardstick to measure reporters by? Some media observers say yes, but others call for a 'pragmatic objectivity.' That doesn't mean a dull recitation of facts – but instead listening with respect to differing ideas about the needs of the country. 


The Monitor's View

The predictions are that President Trump is heading for a global clash at this week’s Group of 20 summit of the world’s economic powers in Hamburg, Germany. That it will be 19 to 1 against Mr. Trump on free trade, climate change, and migration – all topics that German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the summit host, wants to address and where she, too, differs with the US president.

But the world would do well to remember the German leader’s own remarkable experience in overcoming division, and the postwar foundations that support the transatlantic relationship when it encounters rough seas, as it is now.

The daughter of a pastor who grew up in the communist half of a divided Germany, Ms. Merkel came of political age as a result of German reunification in 1990. Her tutor was Chancellor Helmut Kohl – the master statesman who forged national reunification with US support even as he faced deep skepticism from London, Paris, and Moscow. He also helped create a far more integrated European Union where Germans could partner ever more closely with their neighbors.

Running for her fourth term this fall, Merkel models many of the qualities of her mentor, who died last month. She’s a staunch defender of democracy, a deep believer in the EU and partnering with other nations, and has a stiff spine – whether she’s standing up to Russian President Vladimir Putin over Ukraine or demanding more of debt slackers during the euro crisis. 

As centrifugal forces such as “Brexit” pull at European unity, she’s reaching over to France’s new president, Emmanuel Macron, to restart the German-Franco engine that powers Europe. 

Now along comes an unpredictable American president sending tremors through Europe with his “America First” views, pulling out of the Paris climate agreement and rattling cages over trade and immigration. 

Fewer than 3 in 10 people in 37 countries express confidence in Trump to “do the right thing” in international affairs, according to a recent poll by the Pew Research Center. On Thursday, Trump finally stated unequivocally that the United States stands by its Article 5 obligation to defend any NATO member that comes under attack – something he declined to say on his last European visit, to the chagrin of NATO alliance members. 

It’s still very early in Trump’s presidency to say where the transatlantic relationship is going. Is Washington fundamentally veering away, pushing Germany and the EU to forge stronger ties with other partners? Or is Trump just demanding more of the relationship – in military burden sharing, for instance?

“As G20 chairwoman, I have the job of working out ways of reaching agreement and not contributing to an inability to talk,” said Merkel in an interview with the German weekly Die ZeitAt the same time, she reiterated her earlier view that the time to "fully count" on others – meaning the US – is "somewhat over."

Even if Merkel can’t bridge the divide with Washington, it’s important to remember that many factors unite Europe with the United States – indicating an underlying resiliency, says Karen Donfried, president of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, a think tank. 

Those ties are economic and cultural, as well as institutional. They have survived political turbulence before, such as during the Iraq War under President George W. Bush, who also suffered low global ratings. Despite a lack of confidence in Trump, the prevailing view among those surveyed by Pew is that they don't think their country’s relationship with the US will change in the next few years.

Says Ms. Donfried: “The transatlantic relationship is bigger than our leaders.”


A Christian Science Perspective

About this feature

Each weekday, the Monitor includes one clearly labeled religious article offering spiritual insight on contemporary issues, including the news. The publication – in its various forms – is produced for anyone who cares about the progress of the human endeavor around the world and seeks news reported with compassion, intelligence, and an essentially constructive lens. For many, that caring has religious roots. For many, it does not. The Monitor has always embraced both audiences. The Monitor is owned by a church – The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston – whose founder was concerned with both the state of the world and the quality of available news.

Contributor Mark Swinney loves hiking in the mountains near where he lives and looking out across the landscape. But there’s another kind of “mountaintop” view that brought him peace during a tense situation. When the landing gear of an airplane he was on wouldn’t deploy properly, prayer gave him a higher view of God as infinitely good and of each of us as God’s spiritual creation. The problem was safely resolved. Every one of us is capable of feeling the tangible blessings of understanding the universe as governed by divine Mind.


A message of love

Lee Jin-man/AP
A visitor studies a wire fence decorated with ribbons carrying messages for separated loved ones – and wishes for a national reunification – at the Imjingak Pavilion in Paju, South Korea, near the zone that has separated the two Koreas since the Korean War.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Lisa Andrews/Special to The Christian Science Monitor. )

A look ahead

Thanks so much for joining us. Come back tomorrow, when the Monitor's Howard LaFranchi will examine what it would take to defeat ISIS and calm the fighting in Syria's seven-year-old civil war.

My son just got back from a week hiking the northernmost part of the Appalachian Trail with a teen group, and was full of stories about the thru-hikers they met along the way. For those of us who are, in the words of comedian Jim Gaffigan, "indoorsy," here are two classic titles – Bill Bryson's "A Walk in the Woods" and Cheryl Strayed's "Wild" – to give a taste of summertime adventure.  

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2017
July
06
Thursday

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