The World and Everything in It: April 16, 2025

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Good morning!

Congress is in recess. Before they left, they agreed on a spending outline, but there’s still a lot of work to do when they get back on the specifics.

THUNE: One of the principal objectives in our budget resolution and in the House’s, as outlined by the speaker, is spending cuts.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: That’s ahead on Washington Wednesday.

Also today, WORLD Tour.

And folk megastars Mumford and Sons return to their musical roots and rediscover the power of the banjo. 

And WORLD commentator Janie B. Cheaney on the “gift of garb.”

MAST: It’s Wednesday, April 16th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

BROWN: And I’m Myrna Brown. Good morning!

MAST: Up next, Kent Covington with today’s news.

SOUND: [Fighter jets launching]

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Iran talks » Fighter jets launching from the deck of the U.S.S. Carl Vinson.

The Vinson and its strike group is the second carrier group to arrive in the Arabian Sea. It will back up the USS Harry S. Truman as the U.S. pounds the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.

That also puts those carrier groups in Iran’s back yard with nuclear talks underway between American and Iranian negotiators.

Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff:

WITKOFF:  We are here to see if we can solve this, uh, situation diplomatically and with dialogue. The first meeting, I think it was positive, constructive, compelling.

But the carrier strike groups and B-2 bombers now in Iran’s neighborhood send a clear message that if diplomacy fails, the U.S. has other options to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei is speaking out about the talks so far. He said the first round went well, but…

KHAMENEI: Of course we’re very skeptical of the other side. We don’t accept or trust them. We know who they are. But we are optimistic about our own capabilities.

Khamenei says his government is neither optimistic nor pessimistic about the talks.

Negotiators are expected to meet again in Oman this weekend.

Israel/Hamas latest » And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sounded off about those nuclear negotiations today.

In a video posted to social media, he criticized a post yesterday by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei calling for the elimination of the state of Israel.

NETANYAHU: So here you have the ruler of Iran openly declaring—again—that his goal is to destroy the state of Israel. And the most brazen thing about this is that he issues this while he's negotiating—supposedly negotiating peace with the United States.

Meanwhile in Jerusalem, Jewish worshippers dressed in white prayer shawls gathered at the Western Wall yesterday to receive the priestly blessing. That ceremony dates back more than 2,500 years to Solomon's Temple.

One worshipper says this year's blessing comes at a time marked by uncertainty.

KROIZER: This year especially, I wanted to come down here and see how the blessing comes down and hopefully, will help the hostages and the entire nation of Israel that is under extreme duress, especially this year.

All of this comes as Hamas is studying an Israeli ceasefire proposal that would offer the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Hamas' release of 10 Israeli hostages. That according to a report by CNN.

Russian journalists jailed » A Russian court has sentenced four journalists to years in prison for supposed extremism. WORLD’s Christina Grube has more.

CHRISTINA GRUBE: The journalists once worked for an anti-corruption group founded by the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny. He was an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin who died in a Russian prison.

The four journalists were found guilty of involvement with a group that the Russian government labeled as extremist and each were sentenced to more than five years in prison.

They are Antonina Favorskaya, Kostantin Gabov, Sergey Karelin and Artyom Kriger.

All four maintained their innocence, arguing they were being prosecuted for doing their job as journalists.

The closed-door trial was part of an unrelenting crackdown on dissent in Russia.

For WORLD, I’m Christina Grube.

Harvard grant money »  The Trump administration has frozen more than 2 billion in federal grants to Harvard after the Ivy League University pushed back against a list of demands by the administration.

Those requirements would include:  reporting foreign students here on visas who violate codes of conduct; teaching different points of view, a demand seen as including conservative issues in the classroom; and further addressing antisemitism on campus.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt:

LEAVITT:  Unfortunately, Harvard, uh, has not taken the president the administration's demands of seriously, all the president is asking, don't break federal law, and then you can have your federal funding.

Harvard’s refusal to meet the administration’s demand drew applause from former President Barack Obama, a Harvard graduate. He praised the school for rejecting what he called an unlawful attempt to stifle academic freedom.

RFK Jr/Gov. Braun presser in Indiana Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. teamed up with Indiana Governor Mike Braun Tuesday to unveil a state initiative called "Make Indiana Healthy Again."

During a joint news conference, Kennedy said the CDC stated that the average American who died from COVID-19 had, on average, about four chronic diseases.

KENNEDY: Healthy people were not dying. It was sick. People who were dying, they were already sick. And so if we wanna protect our country against infectious diseases, we need to start by making people healthy again.

Republican Gov. Mike Braunn said he’s starting by making sure that the state is not feeding unhealthy junk food to those receiving low-income assistance.

BRAUN:  Today's first executive order removes candy and soft drinks from taxpayer funded SNAP benefits. What do you think about that?

Braun signed eight other orders to promote health and fitness in his state. Those included an order starting the Governor's Fitness Test in schools and encouraging more exercise for youth in general.

Both Braun and Kennedy said the goal is to target the "root causes" of chronic illness.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: budgets, spending cuts, and one big beautiful bill, Washington Wednesday is next. Plus, news from around the globe on World Tour. .

This is The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Wednesday the 16th of April.

Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Myrna Brown.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: And I’m Lindsay Mast.

Time now for Washington Wednesday.

The Senate and House of Representatives are on Spring recess, but before they left town, lawmakers agreed on the outline for President Trump’s “big beautiful bill.” The legislation would overhaul border security and tax policy, and with an outline in place, lawmakers can get to work writing it.

BROWN: But the blueprint almost didn’t pass the House of Representatives.

Washington Bureau Reporter Leo Briceno explains why.

LEO BRICENO: Last Wednesday evening, as many as 20 Republicans were ready to vote against the Senate’s budget proposal. They saw it as woefully short on one key ingredient: spending cuts.

SELF: They’re ridiculously low.

That’s Congressman Keith Self of Texas, walking through the basement tunnels underneath the Capitol ahead of that vote.

SELF: We have no confidence in the Senate to do anything other than reach the lowest point they can on savings and the highest point on spending.

A little bit of background: The way a budget reconciliation bill works, the House of Representatives passes a budget outline, and then the Senate creates its own version. They then iron out any differences and pass a final budget that sets the general parameters of how much the bill will cost, how much it will cut, and so on. The line by line details that make up the budget will then get filled in by lawmakers over the next month or so.

In recent weeks, the House passed a detailed plan for Congress to slash up to one and a half ($1.5) trillion dollars over ten years.

The Senate’s budget fell well short of that, proposing just a four billion dollar minimum for spending reductions.

To put things in perspective, the House plan would be similar to cutting $1500 dollars in your family budget, while the Senate plan would be agreeing to cut at least $4 dollars.

House Speaker Mike Johnson sought to reassure the conference that they could fill in more cuts later.

PRESSER: The budget resolution is not a law. Okay? All this does is it allows us to continue the process, begin drafting the actual legislation that really counts. And that’s the one big beautiful bill.

Other Republicans in leadership agree this stage was not the one worth fighting over the size of spending cuts.

Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma is chairman of the House appropriations committee—the group that drafts Congress’ spending legislation every year.

COLE: Let’s have the fight when we’ve produced the bill ourselves that has done that. And we’ve won those kinds of fights. And it’s not like we’re without allies in the Senate. There’s a lot of people in the Senate that didn’t like the $4 billion number themselves and would like real spending reductions.

Despite assurances from leadership, at least 20 Republicans still balked at the bill ahead of a scheduled vote on Wednesday.

Fiscal hawks wanted a guarantee that the Senate would follow through with promises to work on more spending cuts.

And moments before the vote came to the floor, they dug in.

Usually, a routine vote would be over in about fifteen minutes. When a vote stays open for significantly longer than that, it’s usually a sign that leadership is stalling for time, trying to find the votes they need.

This one dragged out nearly an hour and a half.

In a side-room off the House floor as many as 20 Republicans were locked in negotiations with the Speaker.

During that time, hardliners pushed leadership for some guarantee that Republicans would use Trump’s “one, big, beautiful bill” to enact meaningful spending cuts.

By the end of that meeting, Republicans had come up with a plan to bake spending cuts into rules for the chamber. Here’s Missouri Rep. Eric Burlison

BURLISON: You basically put in the House Rules language that says no reconciliation bill can, that doesn’t meet the Smucker language in our instructions, can be brought to the floor.

That would be like promising to keep to your monthly budget by putting it in the terms and conditions of your home’s leasing agreement.

Even so, President Trump seemed on board. Here’s Burlison again, describing the hour-and-a half meeting with the Speaker.

BURLISON: The president called in, spoke with the speaker. The president likes this idea.

With that tentative agreement beginning to take shape, the Speaker pulled the budget vote off the floor with promises to implement the plan the next day. But then the next morning, those plans changed.

Instead of implementing the changes to House rules—or any other kind of an in-writing agreement—Senate leadership instead made a verbal agreement to increase spending cuts.

THUNE: One of the principal objectives in our budget resolution and in the House’s, as outlined by the speaker, is spending cuts….

That’s Senate Majority leader John Thune at a joint press conference with Speaker Johnson.

THUNE: Our ambition in the Senate is we are aligned with the House in terms of what their budget resolution outlined in terms of savings. The speaker has talked about one and a half trillion dollars, we have a lot of senators who believe that is a minimum.

Later on Thursday, House Republicans voted to advance the Senate's budget. Congressman Chip Roy of Texas was one of the 20 Republicans who had threatened to defeat that same bill just one day before. He explains why he changed his mind.

ROY: We have now three strong statements from the speaker, the president, and the Senate majority leader. We did not have those 48 hours ago. We do now…We got a commitment on that and that’s why we’re here.

In many ways, this was the best shot fiscal conservatives were going to have to put a commitment to large-scale spending cuts in writing. From here, getting the Senate to agree with the House on spending cuts will become a line-by-line fight over what to cut and what to leave in place.

One of the most ardent fiscal hawks in the House of Representatives, Representative Thomas of Kentucky, believes conservatives let the moment go—in return for little more than a handshake agreement.

MASSIE: I hope it works out for them. The people who traded their vote for a promise—I think that’s just salve for their conscience. They were probably, maybe looking for an off-ramp because what was coming next was a lot of pressure from the president to vote for this.

Massie was one of just two Republicans who voted against the budget framework. He was joined by Rep. Victoria Spartz of Indianna.

For now, Congress will get to work writing the contents of Trump’s “one, big, beautiful bill,” when they return to D.C. on April 28. Speaker Johnson has said he wants to have a final version ready for a vote sometime around Memorial Day.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Leo Briceno in Washington, D.C.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It:

World Tour, with our reporter in Africa, Onize Oduah.

SOUND: [Rejoicing crowds]

Gabon election — Today’s World Tour begins in the Central African nation of Gabon, where a coup leader clinched a landslide victory in a presidential vote.

Brice Oligui Nguema scored just over 90% of the votes. His closest rival won 3%.

Nguema acted as interim leader after leading a 2023 coup as commander of the elite Republican Guard. He overthrew President Ali Bongo, ending his family’s more than five-decade grip on power.

ALI BONGO: [FRENCH]: Let us be builders, builders of peace and justice. May God bless you, may God bless Gabon. Thank you for this great victory.

He urged his supporters to join him in building peace and justice in the country.

Nguema’s victory now gives him a seven-year mandate to rule. During his campaign, he pledged to end corruption and diversify the oil-dependent economy.

Ecuador vote — Still on elections, we head next to Ecuador, where cheering supporters welcomed President Daniel Noboa’s reelection victory.

Noboa emerged with nearly 56% of the votes. His contender Luisa Gonzalez scored 44%. She has asked for a recount. Noboa says there’s no need.

LUISA GONZALEZ: [SPANISH] There is no doubt who is the winner, and that has been based on the perseverance, struggle, and work of each of the members of this team, of this team that seeks this new Ecuador.

He thanked his team for their perseverance and hard work in the lead-up to his victory.

Now 37, Noboa first assumed office after a snap election in 2023. His weekend victory now gives him a full four-year term in office.

He gained popularity over his hard stance against organized crime groups and drug cartels. His earlier efforts include deploying the military to the streets, and also seeking support from foreign military to support the local troops.

Spain-Moroccans — Over in Spain, authorities have dismantled a criminal network that smuggled as many as twenty five hundred (2,500) Moroccans into the country.

The Spanish Civil Guard said the group first flew the migrants into Romania, then transported them by vans and trucks. The smuggling ring likely completed about 50 trips in the last two years.

Ana Arias is the civil guard’s spokeswoman. 

ANA ARIAS: [SPANISH] Each victim was charged up to €3,000 for each journey.

She says each victim paid about 3,000 euros for the trip.

SOUND: [Marching band]

Dutch Flower Parade — We close today in the Netherlands, where a colorful parade of decorated flowers on moving floats marks the start of spring.

Crowds gathered to witness the 78th running of the annual Bloemencorso Bollenstreek parade. The parade covers 26 miles from Noordwijk to the city of Haarlem.

Méryll Marin was one of several spectators who attended the parade. 

Méryll Marin: [DUTCH] We walked along the road to see all the floats and flowers, all the colours... It's very impressive.

She says she walked along the roadside to view several of the floats and to take in all of the colors.

That’s it for this week’s World Tour. Reporting for WORLD, I’m Onize Oduah in Abuja, Nigeria.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: When a 5.2 earthquake hit Southern California on Monday, the elephants at the San Diego Zoo knew what to do.

Video shows five African elephants hanging out in the sun when the ground begins to shake. The three adult elephants scrambled to form a protective circle around the two young ones. The older elephants looked outward with ears spread and flapping and stayed huddled that way for several minutes.

A teenaged elephant gently tapped her trunk on a young one to get him to behave and stay inside the huddle. Nobody got hurt.

Turns out, pachyderms have rock solid parenting skills. Safety first, drama later!

It’s The World and Everything in It.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Today is Wednesday, April 16th.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Lindsay Mast.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: The English-American folk outfit Mumford & Sons are back with their fifth studio album, Rushmere. It’s their first since 2018.

It’s been even longer since the banjo featured prominently in the band’s music. Now it’s making a return as well.

MAST: So where’s it been all these years? WORLD Associate Correspondent Trevor Sides says that answer requires something of a parable.

TREVOR SIDES: In 2012, Mumford & Sons were one of the most beloved bands in the world. They released their sophomore album, Babel, which debuted at number 1 on both the U.S. Billboard and UK Albums charts. It won the Album of the Year at the Grammys. Babel is all about that banjo. The same cannot be said of the other top-selling albums that year—by Adele, Taylor Swift, and One Direction. You tell me. Does this sound like your typical pop megastar?

The entire Mumford & Sons experience is there in “I Will Wait.” It’s worth noting that lead singer Marcus Mumford grew up in the church—the son of Vineyard church planters. In 2022 he summed up the band’s vibe, saying, “We might take you to church—but we’ll also take you to the fair.”

That description fits the broader 2010s folk resurgence, as well. Mumford & Sons served as the elder statesmen of this movement and cut a swath for a whole bunch of other bow-tie-clad startups to get in on the fun.

And what did Mumford & Sons do with this cultural momentum? They demanded their share of the indie-folk inheritance and squandered it like a younger brother on reckless living in a far country. In their next two albums, they plugged in to electric guitars and synthesizers, scorning the banjo for the cool acceptance of critics and peers.

Consider 2015’s “Believe.” We are a long way from home—spiritually, esthetically, and instrumentally.

The wandering further manifested itself in Mumford’s 2022 solo album. In that project he opened up about being sexually abused as a child and his struggles with addiction.

Now, with Rushmere, it seems that Mumford & Sons are seeking shelter in grace. A prodigal kind of grace that’s lavish enough to overcome trauma, doubt, and unbelief.

That’s “Malibu,” the opening track. Christians may hear imagery from the Psalms and the book of Ruth. But given Mumford's reluctance to identify as a Christian, it’s fair to ask who the “you” is. Is it God? The fans? The banjo? It’s a fun way to think of the band’s arc: the genre-chasing prodigals have rediscovered their musical faith because the banjo abounded in steadfast love.

So, yes, on one level, Rushmere is a parable about wandering from and returning to one’s musical roots. And as Rushmere progresses, it’s hard not to hear it as a testimony of spiritual pilgrimage back home as well.

Home is first a place. Rushmere is the name of a pond in the neighborhood where the bandmates first met. Much of the album’s recording took place in the American south. This helps explain the banjo’s rebirth as well as the bluesy flavor of the fifth track, “Truth.” Here, the band finds freedom to plug in without fleeing their musical roots.

Home is also holy ground, a truth Mumford captures in “Monochrome.” This soil is teeming with resurrection:

There’s a realization in “Monochrome” that our self-defined paths end in emptiness. In the second verse, Mumford goes for more Biblical imagery, delivering this line with a lived-in vulnerability.

But this emptiness is its own kind of grace—a gift that leads to, well, surrender. That’s the title of another track, a folk praise song about reconstruction.

The one possible fly in this narrative ointment is the album’s finale, “Carry On.” Mumford seems to revel in being, in his words, “unholy,” “lost,” “empty,” and “adrift.” He bristles at orthodoxy, confusing it for hypocrisy.

Okay, maybe he’s not ready to surrender everything. Of course he isn’t. Stories of deconstruction and reconstruction are never neat or linear.

Still, the bridge on “Malibu” connects past, present, and future. For the band, and possibly for a generation of souls who wandered from their faith. For anyone contemplating the valleys God has walked with them. And how all they ever wanted was to find peace in the shadow of His wings.

This is the power of grace. And the banjo.

For WORLD, I’m Trevor Sides.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Wednesday, April 16th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: And I’m Lindsay Mast. Up next, WORLD commentator Janie B. Cheaney on God’s goodness and the clothes we wear.

JANIE B. CHEANEY: During the Great Depression my great grandmother made an Easter dress for my mother. It was black, because black was all they could afford. As a typical teen, my mother was ashamed to wear it, but every girl had to have a new dress for Easter. Perhaps that memory explains my own Easter dresses growing up. My sisters and I were a pastel bouquet every spring, even if Mama had to make the dresses herself.

For humans, clothing is both glory and shame. Even the most primitive bushman wears something, if only a rag about the middle. But like most everyday phenomena, dressing ourselves gets weirder and more perplexing as we think about it. It began as desperation, when Adam and Eve frantically grabbed fig leaves to cover themselves. The leaves were laughably inadequate, so the Lord provided animal skins—borrowed righteousness owed to the sacrifice of an innocent creature.

Clothes soon became much more than covering. They were booty when Achan hid them in his tent, reward when Naaman offered them to Elisha, symbol when Kings exchanged their finery for sackcloth. Also moral obligation, as in “Don’t take the poor man’s cloak as surety.” The amount of labor that went into producing a single garment made it valuable: Jesus’ executioners considered even his unremarkable tunic worth gambling for.

For most of human history, status and position dictated what one could wear. During Shakespeare’s time, for example, the poor were restricted to “sad colors,” while tradesmen could indulge in a little more variety. But the full spectrum was reserved for the rich, because dyes were very expensive. Not until the early 19th century, when textile manufacturing kicked off the Industrial Revolution, did clothing gradually transition from a costly commodity to a cheap one.

Today clothes pile up on garage-sale tables, clearance racks, resale shops, and our closets—routinely purged every spring. As we take abundant food for granted, so we do abundant garb.

We’ll never go back to the garden; clothes are a necessity. But as it was in the beginning, they are also a gift. The variety of available styles allows us to tell the world who we are by how we dress. But Christians can also tell the world whose we are. Discussions about “modesty” concern what not to wear, but what to wear deserves thought as well. And incidentally, the male of the species should be aware that excessive sloppiness can be as immodest as suggestiveness. Color, style, appropriateness, and flattering lines complement the wearer, but might they also praise our Maker?

Near the end of That Hideous Strength, the conclusion of C. S. Lewis’ Space Trilogy, some of the female characters are trying on gowns for a special occasion. Each finds the perfect dress—for the others. No one chooses her own, and the wardrobe contains no mirrors. Each woman’s pleasure comes from pleasing the rest, and He who shaped each woman is also pleased.

That’s how it will be some day: our bridegroom has chosen the perfect outfit for us to wear to our wedding. It’s a robe of righteousness—no longer borrowed, but our very own. From the gracious hand of our redeemer.

I’m Janie B. Cheaney.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Tomorrow: after years of delays, the REAL ID deadline is approaching fast, some states are scrambling to meet the demand. And, the story of a small town police force who brought down an international crime ring. That and more tomorrow.

I’m Myrna Brown.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: And I’m Lindsay Mast.

The World and Everything in It comes to you from WORLD Radio. WORLD’s mission is Biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires.

The Psalmist writes: “The Lord has made known his salvation; he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations. He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.” –Psalm 98:2, 3

Go now in grace and peace.

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