Simon Montlake

Boston

Senior Staff Writer at The Christian Science Monitor

Senior staff writer, The Christian Science Monitor. Learn-by-doing reporter, formerly in Indonesia, Thailand, China. Whiny Brit. Goofy Dad.

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Articles

Mr. Musk went to Washington - and found it’s a hard place to change

2 weeks ago | csmonitor.com | Simon Montlake

Elon Musk arrived in Washington in January as President Donald Trump’s billionaire benefactor, promising Mr. Trump – and America – that he would transform a bloated and costly federal government into a lean, modernized machine, like his SpaceX Raptor rockets.
What’s behind Trump’s assault on Harvard and crown-jewel US universities?

3 weeks ago | csmonitor.com | Simon Montlake

The escalating battle between President Donald Trump and Harvard University is a high-stakes cultural and political standoff that echoes far beyond higher education. Public deference toward the scholarly excellence that Harvard represents has been eroded by a backlash against elite universities now seen by many voters as bastions of political liberalism. This growing resentment, mostly on the political right, has fueled an assault on their exalted status.
Trump promised to bring jobs to the Rust Belt. The Sun Belt may get them instead.

3 weeks ago | csmonitor.com | Simon Montlake |Patrik Jonsson

Mark Glyptis voted last year for Donald Trump and his vow to use tariffs as a tool to revive U.S. manufacturing. It’s a tool that’s not panned out yet for steelworkers in Weirton, a West Virginia city of 18,000 people built on steel. The mill’s last working section that made tinplate was idled in May, affecting 600 union jobs.
Student-led revolution in Bangladesh leaves Hindu minority behind

1 month ago | csmonitor.com | Simon Montlake

When massive protests erupted last summer against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, third-year information technology student Sukanto Barman was all-in. The student-led demonstrations toppled Ms. Hasina and ended 15 years of increasingly autocratic rule in Bangladesh. The uprising has set the country on a new path, with an interim government, led by Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus, preparing to hold elections by early next year.
Students toppled a dictator. Now they must help remake Bangladesh.

1 month ago | csmonitor.com | Simon Montlake

Where the family house used to stand, shaded by trees on a lakeside street, there are now piles of broken brick, concrete, glass, and tiles. A visitor, Anwar Hossain Swapan, is picking his way through the house’s charred concrete pillars amid the rubble. He stops to read graffiti denouncing the “fascism” of the family who once lived here. For most of Mr. Hossain’s life, this structure was the symbolic heart of independent Bangladesh.
Trump’s Qatari plane controversy puts a spotlight on Boeing

1 month ago | csmonitor.com | Simon Montlake

At a press conference in Qatar on Wednesday, President Donald Trump announced a $96 billion deal between Boeing, an American plane manufacturer, and Airways for as many as 210 jets. The agreement, which was signed by the two companies’ CEOs as they flanked Mr. Trump and Qatar’s emir, was Boeing’s “largest ever” order for those types of aircraft.
Trump meme coins raise money. They also buy access.

1 month ago | csmonitor.com | Simon Montlake

Meme coins have become a profitable new business for President Donald Trump’s family company. The Trump-branded digital tokens are part of a broader push by the Trump Organization – which is managed by Mr. Trump’s sons, and in which the president holds a majority ownership stake – into cryptocurrency, a form of digital money that Mr. Trump once derided but now embraces. Ahead of his Jan. 20 inauguration, Mr. Trump began promoting two meme coins, $TRUMP and $MELANIA, to his supporters.
Empty shelves? Tariffs are about to hit US shoppers in a variety of ways.

1 month ago | csmonitor.com | Simon Montlake

The fallout from President Donald Trump’s punitive tariffs hit Wall Street first. Now it’s Main Street’s turn, as dramatically higher import costs start to ripple through the broader economy. The full effects, including higher prices, out-of-stock items, and even empty shelves could be weeks or months away, say analysts. Many businesses scrambled to stockpile imported goods in March, and some people also bought items early, in anticipation of Mr. Trump’s tariffs.
Four years on, Trump is still trying to rewrite the narrative on his 2020 loss

2 months ago | csmonitor.com | Simon Montlake

Most politicians never forget the races they lost. But perhaps no elected official has ever been as fixated on an electoral defeat as President Donald Trump. Despite successfully recapturing the White House last November, Mr. Trump has continued to circle back with regularity to the 2020 election, which he still insists was stolen from him.
Markets got a tariff pause. But damage to global confidence in US could last.

2 months ago | csmonitor.com | Simon Montlake

A belief in tariffs as an essential tool in economic statecraft has been a constant in President Donald Trump’s career. His recent unprecedented moves to impose sweeping import tariffs – starting at 10% and rising to 50% and more – sparked panic in global markets and rattled U.S. trading partners. On Wednesday, President Trump abruptly announced a 90-day pause during which all countries except China would pay only a 10% tariff, to allow for talks.