2021
November
05
Friday

Monitor Daily Podcast

November 05, 2021
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Peter Grier
Washington editor

You probably haven’t heard this, given all the other important post-election political news. But this week, Vito Perillo won a second term as mayor of Tinton Falls, New Jersey.

Mr. Perillo beat three opponents to keep his post as head of the small borough near the Jersey shore. He’ll continue to face such tough issues as financing the library and filling spots on the Chicken Advisory Board, which oversees the new backyard-poultry program.

Did we mention that Mr. Perillo is 97 years old? He’s likely the oldest mayor in the United States. 

“Thank you to my fellow residents for trusting me to lead Tinton Falls forward for the next four years,” he wrote on Facebook, following his victory.

Mr. Perillo remains a political newcomer. When he first ran for mayor, the World War II veteran had never held elective office. But he upset an incumbent with old-fashioned hard work: He knocked on every door in town. 

His main issue was rising local taxes. Working with the borough council was a learning process. But he ran for a second term saying he’d made tough decisions for fiscal prudence. 

“I stopped to think about why people might vote for me,” he wrote on Facebook. “Maybe it’s because I’m a WWII veteran, or an ‘old guy’ (hopefully not) ... My hope, however, is that it’s because you see that I care about our town and the people who live in it above anything else.”

He’s looking forward to a term in office that will end when he’s 101.


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

Evan Vucci/AP
President Joe Biden departs after speaking about the October jobs report from the State Dining Room of the White House, Nov. 5, 2021, in Washington. The economy added more than 500,00 jobs and the unemployment rate dropped to 4.6%.

Presidents like to talk about mandates, but those can be something of a myth. Most of the time, it’s impossible to pin down why people vote the way they do.

The Explainer

Gases like methane are called super pollutants because they are such potent trappers of heat in Earth’s atmosphere. Yet that also means cutting their emissions can be a potent response to global warming.

Graphic

Data on a warming planet: What’s at stake in global climate summit

Do we really need to be hearing so much about climate change and a meeting called COP26? With a global summit underway, here’s a chart-based briefing on why it matters.

SOURCE:

Global Carbon Project, Environmental Protection Agency, NASA, Net Zero Tracker

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Jacob Turcotte/Staff
Lathan Goumas/Northwest Herald/AP/File
Erin Blair, a health teacher at Lakewood School in Carpentersville, Illinois, officiates a boys junior hockey game at Leafs Ice Centre in West Dundee, Illinois, on Dec. 8, 2013. Recruiting more women as referees is one of the strategies for solving the current shortage of officials.

Increasingly hostile parents and coaches are being blamed for a shortage of referees at all levels of youth sports. What does this say about civility in general – and can new programs make people behave better?

Film

Pablo Larrain
Kristen Stewart delivers a fierce performance as Diana, Princess of Wales, in “Spencer,” from Chilean director Pablo Larraín.

Does the latest movie to focus on Princess Diana help people better understand her? Film critic Peter Rainer says “Spencer” intends to impart a more profound view of the famous royal than a biographical rendering ever could.


The Monitor's View

Reuters
A man walks on the outskirts of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Nov. 5.

The war in Ethiopia, which for a year has largely been contained in one region, Tigray, has escalated into a “nationwide social convulsion” with “open warfare that now engulfs the nation,” warned Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta this week. “The fighting must stop!”

Another neighbor of Ethiopia, Uganda, has called for East African leaders to attend a summit Nov. 16 to address the spreading warfare that might soon reach the capital, Addis Ababa, with the rapid advance of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front forces.

Meanwhile, the 55-nation African Union has called on the warring parties to allow former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo to mediate a political solution. The AU also reminded Ethiopian fighters to abide by humanitarian law.

These calls for peace in Ethiopia reflect an Africa that has learned a lesson from the genocide in Rwanda 27 years ago: The continent must intervene early in places when ethnic strife could result in mass violence. Today’s African leaders are better poised to raise alarms when a country like Ethiopia, with more than 100 million people and 80 ethnic groups, has the potential for large-scale atrocities.

Already in Tigray, thousands of civilians have been killed and more than 2.5 million have been forced to flee their homes. At the heart of the dispute lies different visions for Ethiopia. The minority Tigrayans want power distributed to Ethiopia’s different ethnic regions while Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who came to power three years ago, has sought to centralize power and to create a national identity, centered on his new Prosperity Party.

Outsiders like Mr. Kenyatta know that only Ethiopians can resolve the competing visions for a unified country. Africa wants to see peace in Ethiopia, says the Kenyan president. “We all stand ready to assist the process that the Ethiopians themselves see fit.”

The tragedy of the Rwanda genocide, which tarnished Africa’s image for years, has pushed its current leaders to show moral backbone in preventing similar tragedies. Ethiopia’s war could be their biggest test yet. Their sense of urgency shows a key lesson of history is not being forgotten.


A Christian Science Perspective

About this feature

Divine inspiration reveals what we all are as children of God – spiritual, pure, strong, joyful, united – and empowers us to actively live those qualities, as this poem conveys.


A message of love

Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff
The air thins as the train climbs skyward. Wonder is hard to resist along the 9-mile ride. The Broadmoor Manitou and Pikes Peak Cog Railway hauls guests to the 14,115-foot summit of Colorado’s Pikes Peak. Indigenous Utes inhabited the region before settlers came thirsting for gold. In 1893, the vista moved poet Katharine Lee Bates to write what evolved into lyrics for “America the Beautiful.” Purple mountain majesties, indeed. Click "view gallery" to see more images. – Sarah Matusek, staff writer
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Jacob Turcotte. )

A look ahead

Come back Monday, when we’ll have a story on the long-awaited new album from pop supergroup ABBA. Mamma Mia!

More issues

2021
November
05
Friday
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