Source: Christian Science Monitor
by Whitney Eulich
“It’s a phone call no editor wants to receive: a late night jolt from a reporter facing trouble. I have worked with journalists in challenging environments – writing on gang violence and public protests, or from rural, hard-to-reach areas of Latin America and the Caribbean. But it took 15 years before I got my first call from a colleague facing an arrest warrant for his work. Nelson Rauda Zablah, our freelance correspondent in El Salvador, has documented his country’s democratic backsliding since President Nayib Bukele took office in 2019. … When I learned that he was facing the risk of arrest, I felt concerned. I informed Monitor management, offered an advance on his next story payment, and urged him to stay in close touch.” (01/16/25)
“On January 16, 2026, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney stood beside Chinese President Xi Jinping to announce what he called a landmark agreement that fundamentally restructured trade relations between the two nations. The deal slashed tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles from 100% to 6.1% while China reduced levies on Canadian canola from 84% to approximately 15%. But the numbers themselves tell only part of the story. This agreement represents something far more consequential: the first major fracture in North American solidarity since World War II, driven not by ideological sympathy for Beijing, but by Washington’s increasingly erratic and aggressive behavior on the world stage.” (01/19/26)
“Democrats are bullish about retaking the House of Representatives and making Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) the next Speaker after the midterm elections. Part of that optimism is the cushion of five seats created through further gerrymandering of California’s U.S. House districts. According to one respected Ninth Circuit judge, however, California may have a slight problem: Its new congressional map may be based on racial discrimination. Judge Kenneth Lee this week dissented from a decision upholding the districts, and his detailed dissent could lay the foundation for a serious challenge that goes all the way to the Supreme Court.” (01/19/25)
“The capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on January 3, 2026, marked a watershed moment in international affairs. The operation’s significance lies not only in its brazen execution but in the geopolitical shockwave it triggered. Framed by President Donald Trump as a ‘law-enforcement’ strike against a ‘drug cartel’ leader, the move has since unleashed a cascade of global threats, alienated key allies, and signaled a profound shift in America’s role – from guarantor of a rules-based order to its primary disruptor. Analysts warn that this aggressive revival of Monroe Doctrine principles is precipitating an international credibility crisis, straining alliances, and may force a broad strategic contraction, including in the critical Indo-Pacific region.” (01/19/26)
“Although Donald Trump is a habitual liar about issues big and small, he is occasionally capable of surprising honesty. His statement to a group of New York Times reporters, quoted above, is one example. It contains two largely frank and correct assertions: first, that American international behavior is constrained by norms (i.e. ‘morality’) rather than law; and second, that the applicable norms are his personal ones, and not necessarily those shared by other nations. We should acknowledge the truth of the first, and be very frightened of the implications of the second.” (01/18/26)
“It all went off without a hitch. Donald Trump’s huge, beautiful, helicopter coup of 2026. After two years of bungling pretty much everything from tariffs to the Epstein cover-up, our dayglow Caesar rolled the dice in Venezuela, and he appears to have pulled off a high-octane putsch straight out of a cheesy 80s action flick. … The perfect war crime. The problem however, aside from the fact that all of this is totally fucking illegal in every court of law on the planet, is that we’ve seen this blockbuster before and it doesn’t end the way it begins. Afterall, the Second Iraq War went off without a hitch too, until it didn’t and then it was too late.” (01/18/26)
“Two years ago, recordings released during actor Jonathan Majors’ domestic violence trial sparked controversy when he was heard scolding his ex-girlfriend to be more like Coretta Scott King. Be careful what you wish for, Mr. Majors, I thought. Coretta Scott King was a fierce, relentless freedom fighter all her life — and these politics were key to why Martin Luther King Jr. fell in love with her. Yet, time and again, Scott King said she was ’made to sound like an attachment to a vacuum cleaner, the wife of Martin, then the widow of Martin. … But I was never just a wife, nor a widow. I was always more than a label.'” (01/18/25)
“It would alienate allies, impose US rule on an unwilling population, and blatantly violate both US and international law.The plan to impose tariffs on nations opposing the seizure is also illegal and harmful.” (01/18/26)
“Does the US government, as described in the US Constitution, even exist? I say it doesn’t, and as evidence for my claim, I’m going to talk about recipes. That, you see, is what a constitution is: A recipe for government. It’s made of ingredients, instructions, and warnings. Ingredients for sugar cookies: 1 cup of butter, 2/3 cup of granulated sugar, and 2 cups of flour. Instructions: Mix the ingredients, form into individual cookies, bake at 325 degrees for 15 minutes. Cool/rest for 15 minutes. Warnings: Don’t over-bake! Don’t skip the cooling time! If I use vinegar instead of butter, salt instead of sugar, and garlic powder instead of flour, bake it as a whole mass for an hour at 450 degrees, then immediately serve it, I made something. But I think you’ll agree that what I made was NOT a batch of sugar cookies. … A recipe is powerless to prevent incompetent or mischievous cooks from ruining the dish.” (01/17/26)
