The World and Everything in It - April 20, 2022

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

Both Democrats and Republicans are changing the way they choose their candidates.

NICK EICHER, HOST: That’s ahead on Washington Wednesday.

Also today, WORLD Tour.

Plus the secret life of an FBI informant.

And lessons from losing your laptop.

REICHARD: It’s Wednesday, April 20th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

EICHER: And I’m Nick Eicher. Good morning!

REICHARD: Now news with Kent Covington.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Airlines, other transit companies drop mask requirements » Passengers are now flying without face masks on many airlines.

Some passengers on a Delta flight in New York cheered as a flight attendant announced that face coverings were no longer mandatory.

FLIGHT ATTENDANT: Masks will be optional this evening for all crew and for passengers as well. (cheers)

The White House expressed disappointment with a federal judge’s decision one day earlier that the CDC overstepped its authority by mandating masks for mass transit.

Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday…

PSAKI: The CDC continues to advise and recommend masks on airplanes. We’re abiding by CDC recommendations. The president is, and we would advise all Americans to do that.

JetBlue, United, Alaska, and Southwest Airlines are among the carriers joining Delta in letting passengers choose whether to wear a mask.

Amtrak, Greyhound bus line, and ride sharing services Lyft and Uber have also announced that masks are now optional.

Eastern Ukraine battle » Russia continues to pour more troops into Ukraine while assaulting more cities and towns in the country’s east.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres declared on Tuesday…

GUTERRES: The onslaught and terrible toll we have seen on civilians so far could pale in comparison to the horror that lies ahead. This cannot be allowed to happen.

Russia this week launched its long-feared offensive on eastern Ukraine, the country’s industrial heartland of coal mines and factories.

If successful, Russia's assault on the mostly Russian-speaking Donbas region would essentially slice Ukraine in two.

Artillery rounds shook the ground in multiple cities. And Moscow's forces shelled another hospital. This time in the southern town of Bashtanka.

Russia has also bombarded many Ukrainian military sites, including major troop centers and missile storage depots.

U.S. preparing to send more big guns and ammo » The United States is gearing up to send more big guns and ammo to Ukraine.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby:

KIRBY: They are exactly the kinds of systems the Ukrainians have been asking for. And they are tailored and designed, the things that we’re giving them, tailored and designed for the fight that we know they’re in now in the Donbas and will be in coming days and weeks.

Kirby would not specify exactly what the United States is planning to send in the weeks ahead, but it won’t be sending tanks. He explained that the Ukrainian military is not trained to operate the types of tanks the U.S. military uses.

Multiple European countries have shipped tanks into Ukraine.

Last week, President Biden approved an $800 million package including additional helicopters. The United States has sent about $2.6 billion in military aid to Ukraine since Russia invaded.

Blasts at Kabul schools kill at least 6 civilians » In Afghanistan, burned notebooks and shoes littered the street after explosions rocked a high school and an education center in Kabul. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has more.

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: The explosions hit in rapid succession, killing at least six, including students, and wounding many others.

The facilities are in a Shiite Muslim neighborhood, a minority often targeted by other Muslim groups.

Witnesses said a suicide bomber entered a high school complex Tuesday morning and blew himself up. Two other blasts went off outside the school–likely also suicide bombers.

It wasn’t clear how many were in the school at the time. One explosion happened outside a nearby education center. No deaths have been reported in that incident.

No one has claimed responsibility, but Afghanistan’s ISIS affiliate has been known to target Shiite Muslims, calling the minority heretics.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

Florida Gov DeSantis pushes to end Disney self-government » Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday asked the legislature to repeal a law that allows Walt Disney World to operate a private government over its properties in Florida.

It was the latest salvo in a feud between DeSantis and Disney over a new parental rights law.

His announcement threatens a special concession that Disney received all the way back in 1967. That’s when Walt Disney Sr. convinced Florida lawmakers to essentially allow his new theme park to operate as its own local government called Reedy Creek Improvement District.

On Tuesday, DeSantis told reporters…

DESANTIS: Yes, they will be considering termination of all special districts that were enacted in Florida prior to 1968, and that includes the Reedy Creek Improvement District.

DeSantis has battled with the company after it caved to pressure from LGBT activists and voiced opposition to a new parental rights law. The law bars teaching about sexual orientation and gender identity to young school children.

I’m Kent Covington. Straight ahead: changes to the presidential election process.

Plus, technological failures.

This is The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: It’s Wednesday the 20th of April, 2022.

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

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. It’s time for Washington Wednesday.

Both parties are making significant changes to the presidential election process.

Republicans are withdrawing from the Commission on Presidential Debates. RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel said Republicans see the commission as having a left-leaning bias and that GOP candidates are sometimes treated unfairly.

McDaniel listed a series of complaints, including this from a 2012 presidential debate. Listen for CNN moderator Candy Crowley inserting herself into the debate.

ROMNEY: I want to make sure we get that for the record, because it took the president 14 days before he called the attack in Benghazi an act of terror.
OBAMA: Get the transcript.
CROWLEY: He did in fact, sir.
OBAMA: Can you say that a little louder, Candy?
CROWLEY: He did call it an act of terror.

EICHER: Meantime, the Democratic National Committee stripped the state of Iowa of elite status. For many years, Iowa got to hold its nominating caucuses first before any votes are cast. That meant month after month of visits from presidential candidates competing for an early boost.

Iowa will now have to apply for the coveted spot along with other states.

The DNC says it will evaluate each state according to criteria—as it says—that reflect the party’s current values.

Here now to talk about it is Matt Klink. He’s a political strategist of 30 years and president of Klink Campaigns.

REICHARD: Matt, good morning!

MATT KLINK, GUEST: Good morning! Thank you for having me.

REICHARD: Well, let's start with the Democratic National Committee's change. Talk a little bit more about the DNC's move here to strip Iowa of its first-in-the-nation status. Why are they doing this?

KLINK: So, look, the main problem that the Democratic Party has with selecting Iowa is that it's not a state that's really representative of the diversity that exists in America. Iowa is 90 percent white. And that is not the case of many or most of the states that Democrats have elected officials in. You look at the coastal states—California, Oregon, Washington, New York, Massachusetts—they're very diverse populations and I think that the Democrats want to have a state with a little more political power, that has the ability to steer the selection of a nominee that will better represent the party. And that Iowa, while a historical stop for any president, likely will not be the first stop for Democrats seeking future elected office of President of the United States.

REICHARD: Many people from both parties complained in the past that early primary and caucus states have an outsized influence over the process. Do you see Republicans making changes like this for their nomination process too?

KLINK: I think that both parties are going to look to tweak the nominations process, and one that is most advantageous to them selecting the candidate that best reflects that party's values. So, you know, Iowa and New Hampshire—being first and second—they’re small states, they're not particularly diverse states. And I think that those two factors that while they are rooted in history, both parties are now saying we're looking forward, not back, how can we select a candidate that is not only electable to the broadest possible majority, but also reflects the party's values. And Iowa and New Hampshire don't represent that. And, as I said, everything's on the table. I mean, the Democrats are looking at who goes first, the Republicans, and I know you want to get to this, the Republicans are talking about presidential debates. So, there's going to be a lot of changes afoot for 2024.

REICHARD: Let’s talk now about the Commission on Presidential Debates. For those who don’t know, Matt, explain what this commission is and how it came to govern the debate process.

KLINK: Yeah. So, it dates back to about the late 80s. And there were concerns. Everyone wants to see a person-to-person comparison in presidential debates. And they were always difficult to happen. So in the late 80s, they formed this Commission on Presidential Debates that had Republicans and Democrats involved, but they were more establishment, and then, staff and other members, and they would negotiate out the debates. And at the time it was great because you knew with certainty that you were going to get typically three presidential debates and one vice presidential debate. It established a normalcy. But the Republicans have consistently believed that the way that the debates have been handled - you know, Lester Holt asking Donald Trump far more complicated questions and difficult questions than Hillary Clinton, you know, Chris Wallace in the 2020 debates with Biden and Trump.

The example that you showed with Candy Crowley. She fact-checked Mitt Romney during a debate, and she was not even correct in doing it. That can change the entire outcome of the debate. And the Republican perspective in this is that this should be a debate between the candidates and the moderator should not be calling balls and strikes. They should just be there to maintain order.

The debate moderators have not traditionally been fair, and the commission making unilateral changes to structure, like, for example, they added the mute feature for the second presidential debate in 2020. That was not negotiated. So they made these unilateral changes. Ronna McDaniel, the RNC chair, had been in negotiations and finally they sent a letter, she did, saying that the Republicans were pulling out of the commission, and that they would just negotiate with the campaign on future debates.

REICHARD: Now, if the Commission on Presidential Debates is no longer calling the shots, how’s this going to work? How will future general election debates be done?

KLINK: So, on the positive side, it will force the campaigns to sit down and hack something out. That's on the good side. On the bad side is if you have a candidate that is up by a significant amount, or perceives that there is no benefit in debating, it's unlikely that there will be more than one debate, and it will probably be really, really early. Because the potential for damage is much less. And I think that that's the downside. The American public doesn't get multiple opportunities to judge the candidates against each other on the same stage. But for campaigns, you want to control as much as you possibly can. So if you're the Democratic campaign manager, you can make the requirements very strict. And, look, if a Republican is trailing in the polls, they'll do whatever they can to debate the Democrats so that – it just becomes more, the front runner gets to determine a lot more who and how and what is debated. So I think it has some benefits, but it also may come back to bite them. This is one of those unintended consequences that we talked about so often.

REICHARD: I have a sidebar question here Matt, not really about the process but about the candidates. President Biden says he does intend to run for reelection. But given his age and his poor approval ratings, do you think the party will pressure him to step aside and not run for a second term?

KLINK: Joe Biden has to say that he’s running for re-election. The second that he hints that he is contemplating not doing it, what little political power in Washington D.C. he has, evaporates. So he has to say he's running for re-election. Now, the reality of an 80+ year old man who appears to be in some sort of cognitive decline, with very, very low popularity, he may get a challenger—just as Edward Kennedy challenged Jimmy Carter in 1980. It's very likely that there will be a number of competitors seeking the Democratic nomination. But Joe Biden has no choice but to say he's running for re-election.

REICHARD: Final question, this time on the Republican side. Donald Trump is keeping himself relevant with his supporters and within the party. Do you think he’s keeping his options open, or do you think he’s already decided to run again?

KLINK: I’m hearing rumors on both sides that Donald Trump is definitely in and that Donald Trump likes being the kingmaker but he doesn't want to run for office again. And that’s exactly, I believe, what Donald Trump wants people to think. Donald Trump will be judged partially on his success rate in the 2022 elections. He has endorsed a number of candidates and I think that you'll see in early 2023, or maybe even on November 9, 2022, you'll see a lot of Republican candidates for the White House begin to say Trump was very effective, he still has a lot of influence, or he didn't do as well as he should have, his ability to predict and control has lessened, and you'll see more people running. So, I think that the jury is still out.

I mean, look, Donald Trump got 74+ million votes. Now, the downside of that is that the Democrats, in large part because of who Donald Trump is, they got 81 million votes. So, Donald Trump is a mixed bag, and I think you'll see a lot of candidates try to do what Glen Younkin did in Virginia, is that they will embrace the issues that are popular with the Republican base, but they will distance themselves from a president who is pretty toxic in terms of communications and message control, but is beloved because of his just direct and blunt stance. I think that will continue on in the party for sure. And that's not a bad thing. But again, the rhetoric was always Donald Trump's biggest problem. He was so harsh that he angered more people than he united.

REICHARD: Matt Klink’s been a political strategist for 30 years and is president of Klink Campaigns Matt, thanks so much!

KLINK: Anytime Mary.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: WORLD Tour with Onize Ohikere, our reporter in Abuja, Nigeria.

ONIZE OHIKERE, REPORTER: Flooding kills hundreds in South Africa—Today’s World Tour kicks off in South Africa.

Heavy rainfall last week in the southeastern part of the country sparked widespread flooding that left hundreds of people dead.

Travis Trower directs the volunteer-run organization Rescue South Africa.

TROWER: The devastation is quite vast, I mean, every single little stream or tributary turned into a raging river, a lot of houses that have collapsed, a lot of buildings that have been washed away, the community is affected in a massive way.

Some residents of Durban have been without power or running water for more than a week. At least 443 people are confirmed dead. But officials warn that number could rise as search teams comb through towering piles of rubble.

President Cyril Ramaphosa declared a national state of emergency on Monday.

RAMAPHOSA: It is going to take a massive effort, drawing on the resources and capabilities of the entire nation to recover from this disaster.

The national weather service said 18 inches of rain fell in 48 hours. That’s nearly half the rainfall the city of Durban normally gets in a year.

Drought in the Horn of Africa—Meanwhile, drought in the horn of Africa has created a looming humanitarian crisis.

Michael Dunford is with the World Food Program.

DUNFORD: After three failed rainy seasons it is estimated that the region is the driest it has been in 40 years. We are now waiting for the current rainy season to arrive. It’s late and we are very concerned of what the implications will be if it is below average.

The World Food Program estimates 20 million people are at risk of starvation. The months-long drought has hit Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia especially hard. And soaring food and fuel prices due to the war in Ukraine have hampered efforts to provide aid.

A quarter million people, half of them children under the age of 6, died of hunger or malnutrition in Somalia during a similar famine in 2011.

Riots in Sweden—Next we go to Europe.

AUDIO: [Sound of riots, rock throwing]

Protests in Sweden turned violent over the weekend. Several hundred people clashed with police, throwing rocks and destroying vehicles. That in response to an anti-immigration group’s plan to burn copies of the Koran in public.

Three people suffered injuries from ricocheting bullets when police fired warning shots at one mob. A dozen police officers were wounded during several days of protests.

In response to the unrest, Iraq’s foreign ministry summoned Swedish diplomats in Baghdad on Sunday. It warned the violence could have “serious repercussions” on “relations between Sweden and Muslims in general, both Muslim and Arab countries, and Muslim communities in Europe.”

Fuel shortages in Sri Lanka—We wrap up this week in South Asia.

AUDIO: [Chanting, clapping]

Thousands of people took to the streets in Sri Lanka Tuesday to protest widespread fuel shortages.

Police said tens of thousands of angry drivers burned tires and blocked a major road leading to the capital, Colombo.

AUDIO: [Man speaking Sinhala]

The country’s president apologized for the economic crisis and said he deeply regretted the people’s suffering.

But this protester said the situation is only getting worse.

PROTESTER: We don’t have gas here. Now the medical supplies are very low. And the food, very low. Luckily, (a)  few of the countries in the world, especially India, China, (a) few countries they are helping us.

The Sri Lankan government is seeking up to $4 billion from the International Monetary Fund to help pay its debts and boost its reserves.

Last week, the government announced it would default on $51 billion in foreign debt. The Colombo Stock Exchange suspended trading to prevent a complete market collapse.

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

NICK EICHER, HOST: Who doesn’t love a good buffet? Especially when the food is fresh!

Well, dozens of sea lions in western Canada recently enjoyed a fresh fish buffet, compliments of a salmon farm.

The sea lions managed to slip past electric fences and netting to feast on the thousands of fish collected in the manmade pond.

The farm says this isn’t the first time the predators have made their way inside. And it’s difficult to do it, but even easier to get out—plenty of exits available.

So far, the sea lions have shown no interest in leaving.

After all, it’s hard to turn down a free all-you-can-eat buffet!

It’s The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Wednesday, April 20th. You’re listening to WORLD Radio and we’re so glad you’ve joined us today!

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: working undercover. 

In the 1960s, civil-rights struggles were at a fever pitch in the South. That’s when the FBI sought help in Laurel, Mississippi.

They were looking for men to infiltrate the KKK, to become informants.

REICHARD: Dangerous work, of course, and although the FBI offered compensation, at least one man took on the task for a different reason: not for the cash, but simply to combat evil in his community.

WORLD Senior Correspondent Kim Henderson brings us the story.

AUDIO: [NEWSCAST]

KIM HENDERSON, SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: In 1965, the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan was an evil blight on Laurel, Mississippi. Tom Landrum, a 33-year-old youth court counselor, agreed to join them.

AUDIO: [NEWSCAST]

Landrum kept his Klan involvement secret for decades. But in 2007, someone published a book that worried Landrum. He gathered his children. 

LANDRUM: His name was mentioned as being at a Klan meeting. And he said, “I just want you to know that it's not what you think it is. And if something ever happens to Mom and I, it's all back there in my old briefcase . . . ”

That’s Landrom’s son, Mike. He says they didn’t think much about it because they knew their dad.

LANDRUM: We never asked questions. We just knew it wasn't anything to worry about.

But Mike had another talk with his dad in 2016. The elder Landrum was then 84, and his health was deteriorating. 

LANDRUM: He realized he needed to not let that become his legacy, the White Knights. So he asked me to help him...

That’s when Tom Landrum handed a stack of journals to his son. Mike said he was blown away by what he read.

LANDRUM: I didn't sleep the whole night. I woke my wife up at 3:30 a.m. and said, “You've got to wake up.” She thought something happened. And I said, “No, you’ve got to listen to this. I'm going to read you some things.” And I did. And I was, quite frankly, emotional.

The journals revealed the truth about Landrum’s involvement with the Klan. He joined at the request of the FBI. He was an informant.

LANDRUM:. . . to create distrust within the White Knights, a kind of psychological warfare where those guys show up at their houses that were at the meetings, and it created a lot of mistrust.

Mike wasn’t the only one interested in the journals. They caught the attention of Curtis Wilkie, a journalist who covered 60's era civil rights struggles in Mississippi. He used the journals to write a book called When Evil Lived in Laurel, a nonfiction novel that landed on NPR’s Best Books list last year.

Wilkie is signing books at a history lunch at Mississippi’s Civil Rights Museum. He tells the audience he remembers when Klansman murdered voting rights activist Vernon Dahmer, but he never considered writing a book about it.

Until he met the guy sitting front row, right. 

WILKIE: Next to her is the son of Tom Landrum, one of the heroes in the book . . .

Mike Landrum makes it to as many of these book signings as he can, because he’s proud of his dad, one of the book’s heroes.

As an FBI informant, Tom went to Klan meetings, but he didn’t participate in missions. He took notes and his wife typed them up.

LANDRUM: He would meet the FBI a couple times a week either in a creek bed behind Charity Hospital or even at the Southern Miss library . . .

Landrum couldn’t prevent the murder of Vernon Dahmer in 1966, but his meticulous records helped bring some of those responsible to justice, even as late as 1998.

Mike is quick to acknowledge his parents were partners in this work. His mother made carbon copies of the typed notes and sent them to her mother, who lived a couple of hours away. 

LANDRUM: Grandmother would take them to the bank, put them in a lockbox. And so thank the Lord they did that, because now we have a record.

Mike had the notes digitized, and they eventually shared them with author Curtis Wilkie. Wilkie was also able to interview Landrum before his death.

LANDRUM: My dad wanted to have the book come out, but he really didn't want to be alive when it came out.

Tom Landrum risked his life, and the safety of his young family, to chronicle the activities of the Klan. He did it because he believed it was the right thing to do. Even though his parents never knew what did. Or his siblings. His friends. His church.

He did it with no desire for personal gain. 

LANDRUM:I knew Dad and Mom were both very special, but man, I didn't know how special they were.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kim Henderson in Jackson, Mississippi.

REICHARD: To dig a little deeper into this story, look for Kim’s companion piece in the upcoming issue of WORLD magazine, or visit us online at wng.org.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Wednesday, April 20th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. WORLD founder Joel Belz tells the sad tale of a mindless action I think most of us mortals have probably done in one way or another.

JOEL BELZ, FOUNDER: We had houseguests for the weekend, and I thought we were ready—but then we hit a couple of snags we hadn’t counted on.

For one thing, I’d been hoping to complete our April 15th tax returns before our guests arrived, and thought I was on schedule to that end. But just as our guests were checking in, I got a most unwelcome message on my laptop computer: “TAX RETURN REJECTED.” I knew that would require a lot of extra work.

The other snag was more serious and more costly. One of our guests, on his arrival, discovered that the sound function on his laptop had gone silent. He decided to take it to a nearby repair shop first thing the next morning. That’s when things started to go wrong.

Walking out to his car, he realized he’d left his keys in the house. So he laid his computer on the car’s rooftop and retraced his steps to the house. Only when he arrived 10 minutes later at the repair shop did he realize he’d forgotten to retrieve his computer from its precarious perch.

Of course, such mishaps by their very nature leave no tracks. Did someone walking by our house opportunistically grab the computer from the cartop? Or did it slide off at the first of two dozen curves?

Believe me, the 2.6 miles of road between our house and the computer repair shop never got a more careful inspection. The ditches, too. Back and forth, over and over again. Here are some of the things we learned.

First, of course, is to remind yourself never, ever, ever to use your cartop as a storage shelf. We’ve all done it. We all know we shouldn’t.

Second, technological responses have their limits. Our guest had been careful, when he bought his computer, to include the feature that equips it, when it is stolen or mislaid, to say, “Here-I-am—come-and-get-me!” Just how helpful is that when it guides you to an apartment complex, a dormitory, or an office complex? We got the signals, OK—but they came in almost useless batches. And remember that we got into this fix first of all because the computer had lost its sound system. Now we wanted it to become very noisy indeed!

Third, take seriously the reports you hear about the limitations on police. A couple hours into our escapade, my wife Carol Esther reminded us that a Christian friend in the management of Asheville’s police department might give direction to our confused pursuit. A quick call proved her right. Within minutes, he helped us complete a formal “Incident Investigation Report”—and said he’d be praying for our efforts. But he also sobered us with the reminder that, compared to a very few years back, the department had only half as many police officers on the street investigating such incidents.

Finally, I couldn’t help recalling a rule of etiquette that says: When a guest accidentally breaks something during a visit, the proper response is for the host quite deliberately to break another just like it. In doing so, you’re making a point of saying: “Don’t worry. It doesn’t matter.”

But that only applies when the guest breaks something belonging to the host. Has anyone suggested a sensitive response of the same kind when the guest breaks something of his own?

I’m Joel Belz.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: elections in France. We’ll tell you about the issues that could determine the presidential vote there on Sunday.

And, the Boston Marathon. We’ll visit a memorial to the people who lost their lives during the 2013 terror attack.

That and more tomorrow.

I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

The World and Everything in It comes to you from WORLD Radio.

WORLD’s mission is biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires.

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Go now in grace and peace.

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