2019
May
14
Tuesday

Monitor Daily Podcast

May 14, 2019
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Peter Ford
International News editor

Two months to the day after a gunman killed 51 Muslim worshippers in New Zealand, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern comes to Paris to launch what she is presenting as the “Christchurch Call.”

There was something particularly horrific about the March massacre: The alleged murderer livestreamed his atrocity on the internet so it would go viral. The Christchurch Call, named for the city where the massacre was perpetrated, is aimed at eliminating such violent extremist content from spreading online.

Ms. Ardern is hoping to persuade governments to pass laws banning objectionable material, and she wants the big tech companies – such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google – to tweak their algorithms to direct users away from extremist and terrorist material.

In some parts of the world, that rings free speech alarm bells, and the United States administration, for example, is not expected to sign on. But Ms. Ardern’s authority and credibility on this issue are grounded in her displays of good faith.

She seized the world’s attention, and won widespread respect, with the way she expressed her nation’s grief after the massacre and consoled its victims and their families. Her humanity gave extra force to her condemnation of the atrocity.

Now, she is well placed to take the lead on the delicate issue of internet restrictions precisely because of her reputation for sincerity.

The fact that the massacre happened in New Zealand, she said in a video explaining the Christchurch Call, means “we have a reluctant duty of care” in the matter, “a responsibility that we have now found ourselves holding.”

Now for our five stories of the day, including the Monitor’s first foray into stop motion animation.


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff
Dean Wilson, who has used heroin since his teens, says the overdose crisis has hit Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside hard, but most of the men dying come from outside the area. He works for the British Columbia Centre for Substance Use and is pushing for a safe supply of drugs.

Video

Why fixing a broken Congress matters

Why Congress should spend more – on itself

The Explainer

Ben Curtis/AP/File
Giraffes and zebras congregate in the shade in Mikumi National Park in Tanzania. In its first global assessment of biodiversity, the United Nations reports that 1 million animal and plant species are at risk of extinction.

The Monitor's View

AP
Vice President Mike Pence and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi shake hands after a speech before Congress by the NATO Secretary General on April 3.

A Christian Science Perspective

About this feature

A message of love

Mark Baker/AP
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres (l.) receives a hongi, a traditional Maori greeting, from Sir Tipene O'Regan upon his arrival at a climate change and agriculture event hosted by Ngai Tahu iwi and the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases in Christchurch, New Zealand, Tuesday. Mr. Guterres is on the final day of his three-day visit to New Zealand as part of a trip to the South Pacific to highlight the problems of climate change.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Karen Norris. )

A look ahead

Thanks for joining us. Come back tomorrow. In Belize, a bold effort to change environmental laws and replant coral has achieved the impossible: It has brought a reef back from the brink.

More issues

2019
May
14
Tuesday
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