2021
September
10
Friday

Monitor Daily Podcast

September 10, 2021
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Linda Feldmann
Washington Bureau Chief

“If you’re ever in my home for dinner, you’ll see the faces of Afghans hanging on the dining room wall,” writes my reporter friend Jessica Stone in an email. “These are pictures I was able to take only because Mohammad made sure I had safe transport to the northern province of Bamiyan for a story.”

“Mohammad” is a pseudonym. Jessica is protecting his identity, because she’s fighting to get him and his family out of Afghanistan. He had worked for her as a “fixer” back in 2009, and they’ve been friends ever since.

Mohammad is also one of the many Afghans who worked for the American-led coalition, and struggled to get the Special Immigrant Visa, or SIV, needed to leave.

“I don’t think I understood how much his life was constantly under threat until I read the letters of support for his SIV,” Jessica writes, noting that he’s an ethnic minority.

In late August, Mohammad and his family came achingly close to getting out. With the promise of a Canadian visa, they made their way to Kabul’s airport, and spent a day and a night outside the gate before the Taliban pushed them away.

“Hours later the suicide bombs went off near that same gate, and what seemed possible – getting him through that gate before the Aug. 31 withdrawal deadline – just melted away.”

Jessica is still working her contacts, praying, and supporting fundraising through Transit Initiatives, which has partnered with Vietnam veterans to help evacuate Afghans.

“This mild-mannered, sweet father of three is actually asking if I’m getting enough sleep, because he hears from me in the middle of the night here in the U.S.,” she writes.

Twenty years after 9/11, the U.S. military is out of Afghanistan. But the battle to help those left behind is far from over. 


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

Wali Sabawoon/AP
Women gather to demand their rights under Taliban rule at a protest in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sept. 3, 2021. When the Taliban last ruled Afghanistan, they enforced a harsh interpretation of Islam, barring girls and women from schools and public life, and brutally suppressing dissent.

The Taliban are back in control, but face an Afghan people protective of social gains made during the 20-year American presence – on women’s rights, health, education, and the economy.

Weather forecasters didn’t use to talk much about climate change. Increasingly they are helping the public learn about the connection between climate science, extreme weather, and their own safety.

The modern idea of marriage is built on a foundation of love and partnership. Increasingly, states are rethinking how young is too young to enter into such a contract, as advocates lobby lawmakers to close child marriage loopholes.

Essay

Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff
Visitors take in paintings by Titian on display at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston on Sept. 2, 2021. The exhibition, "Titian: Women, Myth & Power," brings together six, long-separated works created during the Renaissance for King Philip II of Spain.

Where does viewing art fit among our other attention-demanding options? In Boston, a rare exhibition of Renaissance paintings tests the appeal of quiet contemplation.

In Pictures

Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff/File
A woman chalks a message at the site of a vigil in Union Square on Sept. 14, 2001. After Sept. 11, Monitor photographer Melanie Stetson Freeman spent two weeks walking New York streets and documenting the grief – and love – that flowed in the wake of the attacks.

Sept. 11, 2001, started as a routine day at the office, but turned into the hardest assignment I’ve ever covered.

I drove down to New York that evening on highways empty of traffic except for first responders and utility trucks loaded with flood lights. My press pass got me onto the island of Manhattan, where all roads and bridges leading into the city were closed. It was eerily quiet, no cars and no pedestrians. For the next two weeks I walked the city, photographing people and places forever changed.

I’ve been to war zones far overseas, but never something like this in my own backyard. Still, as in most extreme situations, goodness shone through.

One night, sitting spent in the back of a taxi after a long day of photographing, I saw a small group on a street corner holding a candlelight vigil. I asked the driver to stop and went over to join them. They were Spanish speakers, immigrants, sharing prayers, holding American flags. “Please,” one of them asked, “can you help us sing that song, ‘O say can you see’?” They didn’t know the words. I put down my cameras and together we sang – or hummed – the national anthem. It was beautiful.

Click the “deep read” button above to view Melanie’s photographs.


The Monitor's View

AP
Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Joe Biden meet June 16 in Geneva, Switzerland.

President Joe Biden says the United States is in “extreme” competition with China – even to the point of clashes at sea between their navies. Yet on Thursday he spoke by phone with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, the second time they have talked since Mr. Biden took office. The two presidents may finally meet in person this fall at a multilateral summit.

The phone chats fit a pattern for Mr. Biden. He prefers to talk to geopolitical rivals of the U.S., listening to their grievances and interests without necessarily embracing them. Like President Barack Obama, he seems to believe that denying communication with adversaries should not be considered as punishment.

“It’s always better to meet face-to-face,” Mr. Biden said at his first major overseas summit in June with Russian President Vladimir Putin. “It’s just pure business.”

Also in June, he offered to reopen negotiations with North Korea “without preconditions.” While the offer was refused, Mr. Biden supports South Korea’s attempts for talks with Pyongyang.

Since coming into office in January, the Biden team has also held five indirect talks with Iran in hopes of reviving a 2015 deal that curbed its nuclear program. (In 2018, President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the pact.) Iran has not resumed the indirect talks since Aug. 5 when a hard-line president, Ebrahim Raisi, took office. Nonetheless, U.S. envoys keep in touch with Iran through other countries, such as Qatar.

The Biden administration’s most unusual high-level negotiation with an adversary came in late August. CIA Director William Burns met secretly with Taliban leader Abdul Ghani Baradar in Kabul, Afghanistan. Their talks led to safe evacuations of U.S. citizens and Afghan allies.

During his decades in the Senate, Mr. Biden showed a patience and a willingness to talk to political opponents. That display of respect helped him build up enough trust to open doors for difficult concessions on legislation.

When adversaries do agree to negotiate with Mr. Biden, he also makes a point to thank them. As scholar Arthur C. Brooks wrote in his 2019 book, “Love Your Enemies,” expressing gratitude for those who disagree with you is a “contempt killer.” It helps separate the actions of adversaries from the persons themselves. Then a dialogue across differences can more easily begin.


A Christian Science Perspective

About this feature
Harald Nachtmann/Moment/Getty Images

When tragedy – or the memory of past tragedy – strikes, picking up the pieces of hearts, minds, and lives can seem an overwhelming task. But opening our hearts to God’s love is a powerful starting point for a new birth, one that includes lasting healing and peace.


A message of love

Heng Sinith/AP
A vegetable vendor walks a bicycle on her way to a market, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Friday, Sept. 10, 2021.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Karen Norris. )

A look ahead

Thank you for joining us. Please come back Monday, when staff writer Francine Kiefer examines the history behind California’s recall.

With President Biden’s Thursday announcement implementing new vaccine requirements for federal workers and large companies, we thought it would be useful to look back at our April explainer on vaccine passports. As we reported then, the law is clear. The ethics are not.

More issues

2021
September
10
Friday
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