2017
August
07
Monday

Monitor Daily Podcast

August 07, 2017
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Mark Sappenfield
Senior global correspondent

This weekend challenged some deeply ingrained perceptions in interesting ways. When the United Nations Security Council voted to impose harsh sanctions on North Korea for its recent nuclear activity, it presented a more nuanced picture of both China and the Trump administration.

China is often cast as a foot-dragger at the UN, vetoing measures backed by the West and sheltering its ally, North Korea, from consequences for its actions. But China didn’t stand in the way this weekend. The Chinese foreign minister went so far as to endorse the goal of blocking North Korea’s “nuclear development process.”

The Trump administration, meanwhile, is often seen as a drop-the-mother-of-all-bombs-first-and-ask-questions-later operation. But it clearly helped engineer a powerful diplomatic response to an urgent, delicate situation. “America First,” in this case, meant building meaningful cooperation.

More broadly, the sanctions are a sign of a positive development that might be too easily overlooked. Yes, the world still disagrees on everything imaginable. But the response to North Korea’s wanton recklessness shows some shared sense of how far is too far for acceptable conduct.

Here are our five stories for today.


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

Overlooked

Stories you may have missed
Alexei Nikolsky/Kremlin/Sputnik/Reuters
Russia's President Vladimir Putin (l.) congratulates head of the Moscow Helsinki Group Lyudmila Alexeyeva on her 90th birthday during a meeting in Moscow last month. Ms. Alexeyeva, a dissident who challenged the Soviet regime and Russian authorities for decades, advocating for democratic rights and seeking justice for political prisoners, is still one of Putin’s most scathing critics.
Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP/File
Lauren Southern wore a protective helmet as she spoke at a rally for free speech near the University of California, Berkeley campus in April. Demonstrators gathered to show support for free speech, while others condemned the views of conservative Ann Coulter, whose speech on campus was canceled this year.
Nick Squires
Syrian refugee children on the Greek island of Tilos attend a class. A dozen Syrian families now live on the island.

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AP Photo
Russian President Vladimir Putin, center, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, left, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy Vladimir Korolev, right, and Commander of Western military district Andrei Kartapolov attend a military parade during the Navy Day celebration in St.Petersburg, Russia, July 30.

A Christian Science Perspective

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Jerome Delay/AP
A television cameraman filmed Kenyans looking for their names on the electoral lists at a polling station in the Kibera district in Nairobi, Kenya, Monday. Kenyans are scheduled to go to the polls Aug. 8 to vote in presidential elections after a close race between President Uhuru Kenyatta and the main opposition leader, Raila Odinga.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Jacob Turcotte. )

A look ahead

Thank you for reading today. Tomorrow, we’ll have a report from Nairobi, Kenya. Concerns that the country’s 2007 election violence could repeat itself have been growing ahead of Tuesday’s election. We’ll look at why a peaceful result matters so much – both in Kenya and beyond.

More issues

2017
August
07
Monday
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