2022
July
06
Wednesday

Monitor Daily Podcast

July 06, 2022
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Cooperation sometimes occurs under unusual conditions. Consider the latest research on neodymium. 

It gets a little geeky, but stay with me. This chemical element is used in magnets. Normally, if magnetic materials are cooled, the spin of their atoms “freeze” – lock into place in a static pattern, showing what researchers call “cooperative behavior.” 

But for the first time, physicists have found that atoms of neodymium “freeze” not when they’re cooled but when they’re heated. “It’s quite counterintuitive, like water that becomes an ice cube when it’s heated up,” said Dr. Alexander Khajetoorians at Radboud University in the Netherlands.

The behavior of neodymium got me wondering about other examples of counterintuitive cooperation. 

This past year, Israel was governed by a coalition of ultranationalist right-wingers, pro-peace leftists, centrists, and, for the first time, an Arab Israeli political faction. That government recently dissolved, but it remains a remarkable example of unlikely political bedfellows. 

Another case of odd allies illustrates the proverb, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Saudi Arabia has never recognized Israel. Yet the two nations have unofficially engaged in security cooperation against a mutual adversary, Iran. There are reports that President Joe Biden may help pave the way for closer official ties between Jerusalem and Riyadh next week. 

American school curriculums have become heated battlegrounds over teaching the history of racism. But in one Tennessee community, we find Black, white, and Hispanic moms are united in modeling respect and civility.

In a competitive, polarized world, the concept of working together might seem outdated. But the evidence suggests that in nature – ranging from atomic motion to geopolitics – cooperation keeps finding new ways to flourish.


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Today's stories

And why we wrote them

Scott Peterson/Getty Images/The Christian Science Monitor
A Ukrainian National Guard major, who gave the first name Denys, after his unit withdrew from the Donbas city of Severodonetsk following weeks of intense Russian bombardment, on the outskirts of Kramatorsk, Ukraine, June 25, 2022. The officer says his unit achieved its aim of slowing the Russian advance in order to give time for promised American and European long-range artillery to join the fight and turn the tide.

A war of attrition, by definition, tests resilience. Yet even as Ukrainian fighters bow to Russian artillery in the east, our reporter finds a dogged hope that arriving Western weapons will help them turn the tide.

SOURCE:

Institute for the Study of War and AEI's Critical Threats Project

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Jacob Turcotte/Staff
Ann Hermes/Staff
Jhan Ramos works the cash register at Plaza Xochimilco, his father’s grocery store, specializing in Mexican products in the Sunset Park neighborhood on July 6, 2022, in Brooklyn, New York. Ramos said the store had to raise prices on a few items due to inflation.

Hit hard by inflation, Hispanics are coping, as they have with other challenges – with a resilience rooted in cultures that focus on cooperation within the community.

Our reporter looks at Beijing’s latest efforts to bring stability to Hong Kong by curbing financial and political freedoms and putting the territory firmly under Communist Party control.

Our reporter follows the determined and courageous efforts of one Kenyan woman as she battles cultural traditions and weak law enforcement to rescue girls from sex trafficking.

Ann Hermes/Staff
Pickleball players at Loughran Park in Kingston, New York, in June use tennis courts taped off to a smaller size.

What’s behind pickleball’s popularity? Small courts encourage banter, our reporter finds. There’s a joy, even a rowdiness, not often found in tennis. And it’s accessible to a diversity of age, race, and gender.


The Monitor's View

On July 6, European lawmakers designated carbon-emitting natural gas as a sustainable energy source. On the same day, the British government launched an ambitious package of energy measures, including caps on gasoline prices.

In the United States, meanwhile, a pro-climate president, Joe Biden, is likely to sell new oil leases in offshore waters and will visit Saudi Arabia next week in hopes it will export more oil. In South Korea, which is the world’s fourth-biggest oil importer, the government announced plans July 5 to greatly expand imports to boost strategic oil reserves.

In case anyone hasn’t noticed, the issue of energy security has shot to the top of the global agenda, appearing to overshadow progress on climate-friendly policies. It was a hot topic at June’s gathering of G-7 leading industrial nations and has gained urgency for a meeting of G-20 foreign ministers next week. About 80% of the world’s population lives in countries that are net energy importers.

Leaders almost everywhere are responding to the rising costs of fuel caused by Russia’s war in Ukraine, pandemic-era stimulus spending, and supply chain slowdowns. Last year, Russia was the world’s largest oil and natural gas exporter. Now it faces boycotts of its fossil fuels.

For the European Union – the world leader in climate policy – Russia’s cuts in gas deliveries to 12 of the EU’s 27 member states have led to energy security becoming the bloc’s second priority after the war in Ukraine. A few countries, such as Germany, have reverted to coal-fired power.

“The current crisis has fully revealed how existentially important it is for the future of the EU to ensure its independence from countries that threaten our security,” said Petr Fiala, prime minister of the Czech Republic and the new president of the EU Council. He added that each EU country must choose how to meet its own climate goals and withdraw from Russian energy supplies.

While the initial panic over the energy shock may have revived fossil fuel use, that does not mean clean energy and fuel efficiency efforts will lose out. “The world does not need to choose between solving the energy security crisis and the climate crisis – we have the technologies and the policies to solve both at once,” says Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA).

He told world leaders at the G-7 summit that countries can rapidly scale up energy efficiency and renewables as part of the adjustment to the gas and oil shock. Global spending on clean energy reached a record level by 2022. In other words, the world need not accept the seemingly opposing agendas of energy security and clean energy.


A Christian Science Perspective

About this feature

Each weekday, the Monitor includes one clearly labeled religious article offering spiritual insight on contemporary issues, including the news. The publication – in its various forms – is produced for anyone who cares about the progress of the human endeavor around the world and seeks news reported with compassion, intelligence, and an essentially constructive lens. For many, that caring has religious roots. For many, it does not. The Monitor has always embraced both audiences. The Monitor is owned by a church – The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston – whose founder was concerned with both the state of the world and the quality of available news.

Even in trying situations, we all have an innate ability to know that God is here to comfort, guide, and heal, as Jesus taught and proved.


A message of love

Rajanish Kakade/AP
A man enjoys high tide waves on the Arabian Sea coast during monsoon rains in Mumbai, India, July 6, 2022.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Karen Norris. )

A look ahead

Thanks for joining us. Come back tomorrow: We’re working on a global report on who people trust (or distrust) when it comes to safety and guns.

More issues

2022
July
06
Wednesday

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