2023
June
29
Thursday

Monitor Daily Podcast

June 29, 2023
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The mass of people moving through the main hall of the Kyiv book fair confirmed the rumor: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy would make an appearance.

I have to admit, I was as caught up as anyone as the universally recognizable leader in his signature T-shirt (this day not military green, but black) pressed through the crowd. My journalist instincts kicked in, and I jostled other gawking onlookers until I got as close as presidential spokesperson Serhii Nykyforov. No, he said, the president would not be taking any questions.

After stopping in the fair’s section on “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine” and chatting briefly with event organizers, Mr. Zelenskyy was gone.

Held annually in Kyiv’s historic arsenal, the book fair was canceled last June, with Russia’s full-scale invasion still too fresh. But buoyed by the resilience and resolve of Ukrainians – and the clamoring for the return of a beloved cultural event – organizers knew the fair had to return.

Yet with a difference. The overall theme of “When everything matters” focused on how wartime has made sometimes abstract values real, as well as the interplay between war and democracy.

“What is democracy, how do we experience freedom, what do we mean by inclusivity or the unity of the country, and are these values really worth fighting and dying for?” Nataliya Gumenyuk, the book fair’s events curator, asked when we met.

As a panel of volunteer soldiers and journalists assembled for a discussion of democratic values in wartime, Ms. Gumenyuk explained the power of the theme.

“Suddenly all of these theoretical concepts have become real to people, they mean something more and different,” she said.

“With missiles striking randomly, the simple ‘Have a good night’ becomes something urgent,” she added. “Just walking out of a bomb shelter alive gives freedom new meaning.”         


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

Ira Porter/The Christian Science Monitor
Fluke Fluker, of The Village Nation, fist-bumps with students during a recruitment trip to the University of California, Santa Barbara, April 27, 2023. Mr. Fluker calls the university “a jewel” for his students.

What comes after affirmative action for college? Universities in states like California and Michigan, where race-based admissions had already been banned, may hold answers.

SOURCE:

Pew Research Center

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Jacob Turcotte/Staff

Patterns

Tracing global connections

President Vladimir Putin weathered the immediate threat to his power last weekend, but his moment of weakness is giving even his allies pause for thought about their relations with Moscow.

Monitor Breakfast

At the Monitor Breakfast Thursday, President Joe Biden’s top economic adviser talked up “Bidenomics” and all the ways the U.S. economy is thriving, despite a still-high rate of inflation.  

Film

Lucasfilm Ltd.
Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) and Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) try to thwart a plan to change the outcome of history in “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.”

The latest – and last – Indiana Jones film, “Dial of Destiny,” raises the question: Can we experience action-adventure movie heroism the way we used to? 


The Monitor's View

Reuters
Students from the University of North Carolina’s class of 2023 prepare for portraits with their graduation robes at the college’s iconic Old Well in April.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision today to end race as a factor in college admissions will now launch a vigorous and perhaps difficult search in higher education for legal and creative ways to deservedly educate more students from underrepresented racial groups. Yet it would be helpful to start that search by considering what the court ruling does not do.

It does not dispute as “commendable goals” the desire by Harvard University and the University of North Carolina – the two institutions at the center of the case – to cultivate, through diversity, a higher class of “engaged and productive citizens and leaders.” It also acknowledged the importance of “appreciation, respect, and empathy, cross-racial understanding, and breaking down stereotypes.”

Rather, the court has determined that doing so on the basis of any form of racial discrimination, regardless of the desired social effect, violates the constitutional guarantee of “equal protection under the law” in the 14th Amendment. As Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority decision, “the Court has permitted race-based college admissions only within the confines of narrow restrictions: such admissions programs must comply with strict scrutiny, may never use race as a stereotype or negative, and must – at some point – end.” In reaching that decision, the majority sought to compel universities to find other means to work toward a more just and equal society.

Today’s decision comes at a time when concerns about social justice are prompting deeper discussions about diversity, equality, and reparations for past racial harm in offices, school boards, and legislatures across the country. Removing race as a factor in the composition of college classes, Chief Justice Roberts wrote, in no way prevents a consideration of race as a formative factor in individual experience.

“Nothing prohibits universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected the applicant’s life, so long as that discussion is concretely tied to a quality of character or unique ability that the particular applicant can contribute to the university,” Chief Justice Roberts wrote. “Many universities have for too long wrongly concluded that the touchstone of an individual’s identity is not challenges bested, skills built, or lessons learned, but the color of their skin. This Nation’s constitutional history does not tolerate that choice.”

In her dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor acknowledged that Harvard and UNC have “reckoned with their past and its lingering effects.” She added, “Acknowledging the reality that race has always mattered and continues to matter, these universities have established institutional goals of diversity and inclusion.” Her main argument finds no objection from the majority: “Equality requires acknowledgment of inequality.”

The nation’s ongoing debate over race was reflected in today’s sharp and divided ruling. Yet it also places the burden of finding solutions back on both universities and citizens. The “commendable goals” of integrated campuses are not dismissed. Schools just need new and different means to achieve them.


A Christian Science Perspective

About this feature

An active, understanding trust in God opens the door to comfort, reassurance, and inspiration that bring practical help – as a woman experienced firsthand at a time of financial distress.


Viewfinder

Stan Szeto/USA TODAY Sports
New York Yankees starting pitcher Domingo Germán poses with the team after pitching a perfect game against the Oakland Athletics at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum in California, June 28. It was the first perfect game since 2012, and the 24th perfect game in major league history. A perfect game is one in which no one reaches base by any means and the pitcher faces the minimum possible of 27 batters.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Jacob Turcotte and Karen Norris. )

A look ahead

Thank you for joining us today. Please come back tomorrow for our continuing coverage of the United States Supreme Court, which closes out its term Friday.

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