2018
October
04
Thursday

Monitor Daily Podcast

October 04, 2018
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Noelle Swan
Weekly Editor

Ap Verheggen has done something impossible.

The Dutch artist and inventor has developed a technology capable of pulling water out of thin air.

During a five-day test of his SunGlacier project in the Mali desert, Mr. Verheggen was able to extract 8 liters of clean water per day using two minifridge-sized metal boxes he dubbed the Desert Twins.

In the grand scheme of things, that yield is small. But in a world where more than 2 billion people lack access to potable water at home, every drop counts. Verheggen has since offered a smaller version of his device to universities around the world to improve upon.

The secret sauce of visionaries, it seems, is to help the rest of us to see past the confines of possibility. Not all attempts to achieve the impossible pan out, of course. The alchemists, for instance, never did find the recipe to transform ordinary elements into gold.

But every day, there are individuals all over the world who do succeed in turning fantastical ideas into reality, from drones that are restoring lost forest in Southeast Asia at the rate of 100,000 trees a day, to fans in Iceland that suck carbon dioxide out of the air and turn it into stone.

In a world facing seemingly insurmountable challenges, these technological “miracles” offer a sense of hope for us all.

Now on to our five stories for today. One showcases a symbiotic relationship between Chinese families wanting their children to receive an American education and a US community struggling to fill desks. Another highlights the perseverance required to keep a country wracked by violence and hunger informed.


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

Mikhail Metzel/Sputnik/Kremlin/Reuters
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi meet in New Delhi Oct. 4. On the visit's official agenda are arms deals and other traditional items, but for Mr. Putin, the underlying mission is winning back the allegiance of one of Moscow's staunchest Soviet-era friends.
Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff
‘The social aspect is very important. As international students, all of us are a little bit worried about making friends with local students,' says Ivy Chen, a junior from China enrolled at the Clinton, Iowa, high school. She and 14 other Chinese students live in the dorms of a former college.

Student loans: a look at the trends and disparities

SOURCE:

(TOP) 2018 calculations by the Institute for College Access & Success based on data from National Center for Education Statistics, Peterson's Undergraduate Financial Aid and Undergraduate Databases. (BOTTOM) NCES, Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study

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Jacob Turcotte and Noble Ingram/Staff
Ryan Lenora Brown/The Christian Science Monitor
Anna Nimiriano leads a morning news meeting at the Juba Monitor. She is the first female editor in chief in the South Sudanese newspaper's history.

The Monitor's View

AP
A young person tries out an iPhone 6S at an Apple store in Chicago.

A Christian Science Perspective

About this feature

A message of love

Anthony Anex/Keystone/AP
Professional golfer Rory McIlroy, from Northern Ireland, plays the ball during an exhibition event on the Aletsch glacier, 3,454 meters above sea level, in Jungfraujoch, Switzerland, Oct. 4.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Karen Norris. )

A look ahead

Thanks for spending time with us today. Come back tomorrow, when Monitor economics reporter Laurent Belsie digs into how President Trump's tax reform is likely to encourage more aggressive tax avoidance reminiscent of what he and his family allegedly employed during the 1990s.

More issues

2018
October
04
Thursday
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