The World and Everything in It - April 26, 2022

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

Russia threatens to end decades of cooperation on the international space station.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Also today China’s security agreement with an island nation in the Pacific has the United States and its allies feeling insecure.

Plus being a good neighbor. 

And the outrage of death.

REICHARD: It’s Tuesday, April 26th. 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: Up next, Kristen Flavin with today’s news.

KRISTEN FLAVIN, NEWS ANCHOR: U.S. diplomats head back to Ukraine » U.S. diplomats are headed back to Ukraine. Washington evacuated its embassy in Kyiv shortly before Russia’s invasion two months ago.

But during a visit to the city late Sunday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the embassy would soon reopen.

BLINKEN: We don’t know how the rest of this war will unfold, but we do know that a sovereign independent Ukraine will be around a lot longer than Vladimir Putin’s on the scene. And our support for Ukraine going forward will continue. It will continue to see final success.

Blinken also announced President Biden’s intent to nominate a new ambassador for Ukraine. Bridget Brink currently serves as the ambassador to neighboring Slovakia. President Trump nominated her to that post in 2019.

Shortly after the visit by Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Russia launched a string of attacks against five train stations in the center and east of the country. Russia also destroyed an oil refinery and fuel depots in central Ukraine.

But several Russian oil depots also suffered damage, possibly from Ukrainian missiles.

Coach Kennedy at the Supreme Court » A Christian football coach fired for praying on the field after games took his case to the Supreme Court on Monday. WORLD’s Josh Schumacher has that story.

JOSH SCHUMACHER, REPORTER: Lawyers for Coach Joe Kennedy argued the Constitution protects his practice of kneeling at the 50-yard line to pray after games. But school officials in Bremerton, Washington, say Kennedy’s prayers could interfere with students’ religious freedom if they felt pressured to join in.

Justices questioned lawyers on both sides for nearly two hours, twice as long as the oral arguments were scheduled to take.

They posed hypotheticals involving coaches who cross themselves before games or host after-school Bible studies in their homes. They also pondered the rights of school district employees to wear ashes on Ash Wednesday or kneel during the national anthem to oppose racism.

Kennedy began praying publicly after games when he started coaching for Bremerton in 2008. Students eventually joined him, and that caught the attention of school officials. They asked him to stop in 2015. He did, but filed suit soon after.

The high court declined to intervene in the case in 2019 after lower courts ruled in favor of the school district. But four justices criticized those decisions, saying they demonstrated a troubling view of public school teachers’ free speech rights.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher.

Elon Musk reaches deal to buy Twitter » Elon Musk has reached a deal to buy Twitter. On Monday the company announced the purchase, worth roughly $44 billion.

Musk revealed earlier this month that he’d bought a 9 percent stake in Twitter. After initially saying he would take a seat on the board, Musk announced his intention to buy the company outright and take it private.

Twitter tried to block the attempt with a so-called “poison pill” measure but eventually decided to negotiate after Musk revealed he’d secured financing for the purchase.

The Tesla CEO has described himself as a “free-speech absolutist” and says Twitter should stop censoring content and banning people who say unpopular things.

On Monday he tweeted, “I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means.”

Texas appeals court issues death row stay » A Texas appeals court issued a stay of execution Monday for a woman convicted of killing her 2-year-old daughter in 2007. WORLD’s Leigh Jones has more.

LEIGH JONES, REPORTER: Melissa Lucio was set to die by lethal injection on Wednesday.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued the stay so a lower court can review claims that new evidence would exonerate her. Lucio has maintained her daughter, Mariah, died from medical complications of a severe fall.

Her lawyers say her conviction was based on an unreliable and coerced confession. They also say unscientific and false evidence misled jurors into believing Mariah’s injuries only could have been caused by physical abuse.

More than half the members of the Texas Legislature asked for the stay of execution. A bipartisan group of lawmakers visited Lucio in prison earlier this month to pray with her.

Five of the 12 jurors who sentenced her to death also asked Texas courts to grant her request for a new trial.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Leigh Jones.

Israel fires rockets into Lebanon amid ongoing violence » AUDIO: [Tanks firing]

Israeli tanks fired into southern Lebanon on Monday after a rocket launched from the area landed in northern Israel. The Israeli military said the rocket caused no damage or injuries.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. But an Israeli military spokesman blamed it on Palestinian militants operating in Lebanon.

Violence between Israel and Palestinian militants has increased in recent weeks, sparked in part by the Muslim holy month of Ramadan coinciding with Passover. Muslims are angry over an increase in Jewish visits to the Temple Mount … also home to the Al-Aqsa mosque.

Gilad Erdan is Israel’s representative to the United Nations. He addressed those concerns Sunday.

ERDAN: Israel is and continues to be committed to the status quo on the Temple Mount. To the international community, I say: enough. Stop putting Israel and radical Islamic terror groups on equal moral footing.

Israel blames the Hamas militant group of inciting young Palestinian men to violence at Jerusalem’s contested holy site. The unrest in Jerusalem comes amid a string of deadly attacks in Israel and Israeli raids in the West Bank.

It is the worst violence in the region since last year’s 11-day war.

I’m Kristen Flavin. Straight ahead: international cooperation in space. 

Plus, the harsh and final wages of sin.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Tuesday the 26th of April, 2022.

You’re listening to The World and Everything in It and we’re so glad you are! Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. First up: international cooperation in space.

The international space station is in blissful orbit, 248 miles above the war in Ukraine—literally above the fray. Nevertheless, the war has strained relationships. Still, work goes on as usual for the crew of three Americans, one German, and three Russians.

REICHARD: But threats by the head of Russia’s space program to end the 30-year mission are complicating future partnerships in space.

WORLD’s Bonnie Pritchett reports.

MUSIC: [RUSSIAN SINGER]

BONNIE PRITCHETT, REPORTER: Last month, the Russian space agency Roscosmos posted a video online that appeared to show the end of the International Space Station. In the video, three cosmonauts wave good-bye to their colleagues and move into the Russian section of the station. Then, with a song called “Farewell” playing in the background, the video appears to show the main part of the space station falling toward Earth.

Roscosmos director Dmitry Rogozin punctuated the caustic joke with threats to abandon the ISS if the West doesn’t end sanctions against his country.

Scott Pace directs the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University. He’s not too worried about Rogozin’s threats.

PACE: And what's fairly clear here is despite some of the incendiary tweets from Rogozin, Putin is not looking to Rogozin for advice.

But Pace doesn’t completely disregard the threats either.

PACE: I think the station is not invulnerable. No one should think that somehow the station is exempt from international politics…

Jean-Jacques Tortora directs the European Space Policy Institute in Vienna. He says the war in Europe jeopardizes more than the ISS.

TORTORA: The biggest impact which was an immediate impact that we had to face in Europe is the discontinuation of the exploitation of the Soyuz launcher from the Guiana Space Center…

The spaceport in French Guiana is the launch site for the European Space Agency, or ESA. Last month ESA suspended its partnership with Russia, including the use of its workhorse Soyuz rocket. In response, Russia recalled its personnel from the site.

TORTORA: So, this is the major impact that we have to face. And it has immediate consequences on a number of the European programs. The most prominent of them being Galileo…

Galileo is Europe’s GPS satellite system. It’s partially deployed and operational. But its completion depends on the ESA finding a replacement for the Soyuz rocket.

Also grounded are commercial Vega Launchers, designed to carry small to medium-size satellites into orbit. Their engines are supplied by Ukraine and Russia. And ESA’s ExoMars mission to search for evidence of past life on the red planet is indefinitely sidelined.

The International Space Station is scheduled for decommissioning by 2030. That raises big questions about future international partnerships. The station’s cooperative experiment has inspired ongoing space exploration that, now, may not include Russia.

Kazuto Suzuki is a professor at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Public Policy.

SUZUKI: Yes, of course, they, there will be a big change in post-Cold War structure of the international cooperation in space…

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States and its international partners, including Japan, invited Russia to participate in the ISS mission.

SUZUKI: But when the war broke out in Ukraine, Russia unilaterally left this framework. But United States and Russia are not really in the position to cooperate, and nothing to symbolize the cooperation.

Aside from Russia, Suzuki points out another complication.

SUZUKI: And then the, you know, the new actor, China is also playing the sort of a third party of this…

Geopolitical tensions on Earth are compounded by the quest for natural resources in space driven by nations and private companies.

SUZUKI: There is no international agreed upon international rules that all the spacefaring nations agreed upon how to manage the resources. So, it's kind of a Wild Wild West situation. If you want to explore and find the resources on the moon, then you have to start finding it…

Scott Pace says continued post-ISS collaboration on long-term projects could help maintain a cooperative ethos.

PACE: So, we create the rules, if you will, of this new frontier, by showing up, and if we don't show up, somebody else is going to create the rules. And I'll be pointed about it, China's going to be in space. That's great, they have a right to be in space. But they don't share the same values as we do, we have to figure out how to get along…

Jean-Jacques Tortora agrees about the need for guiding principles. But he rejects the first-come, first-served solution.

TORTORA: So, definitely, on the European side, there is a little taste for international rivalry or international competition. What I would really suggest would be maybe to consider having  the UN or a dedicated working group, where with composed of a number of international experts, really sitting together and defining the way the treaty should read, at least on this specific topic on the of the commercial exploitation of the of the space resources…

In 1967, world leaders signed the Outer Space Treaty, an agreement that established basic rules for working in space. Tortora says it could provide a foundation for creating future operating rules.

And the need for those rules could come sooner than we think. Scientists are already looking forward to the potential discovery of water on the moon. Whoever finds and accesses it first could have the power to sustain long-term missions there. And that could cause territorial disputes—a down-to-Earth problem that the three policy experts believe must—and can—be avoided.

TORTORA: And I think that if there is one area, which is really very appropriate to maintaining noncontroversial relations with with any developed country, I think this is space exploration. Because they are this is very easy to identify a joint objective that benefits to all of us. And, frankly speaking, would you challenge me to find another one, I would be unable to do so.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Bonnie Pritchett.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: China’s global reach.

Last month, the Solomon Islands announced plans to sign a security deal with China. Now that might seem a strange partnership, given that the Solomon Islands are almost 5,000 miles from the Chinese mainland, northeast of Australia.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: The island nation’s leaders say the deal is only about diversifying security agreements and allowing China to protect its investments in the country.

But analysts say Beijing has much bigger plans.

WORLD Correspondent Amy Lewis reports.

AMY LEWIS, REPORTER: Foreign ministers from China and Solomon Islands signed the new security deal last week, rejecting concerns from both Australia and the United States. In keeping with China's other security deals, the final draft is unlikely to be made public. But Matthew Wale saw a leaked copy of the draft. Wale is Solomon Islands' opposition leader.

MATTHEW: It provides for, you know, Solomon Islands to request Chinese police and military and other security forces to come to Solomon Islands and aid Solomon's government to maintain social order.

In September 2019, Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare severed diplomatic relations with Taiwan and established formal diplomatic ties with the People’s Republic of China. Protests over the decision last November turned violent, and riots resulted in the looting and burning of Asian-owned businesses in the country’s capital, Honiara. Australia and New Zealand sent troops to help quell the unrest.

In February, China sent a group of nine police advisers to the islands, ostensibly to improve the local police force’s anti-riot capabilities. The leaked draft of the security deal expands that advisory role to include the possibility of an active military presence.

It also gives China permission to transit through the Solomon Islands. Matthew Wale says that would allow Beijing to temporarily station navy vessels in the region.

MATTHEW: It's fairly vague and is opaque enough that, you know, transiting could be a day. It could be a month.

While the new security deal is vague, Wale worries about what his country’s laws might allow.

MATTHEW: Our constitution in Section 19 provides that if there was a deal between our government and a foreign power on military assistance, we don't have domestic law that regulates military activity. And therefore, the law of that foreign power would be deemed Solomon Islands’ law.

Wale believes Sogavare’s motivation for the deal with China has to do with power and money.

MATTHEW: Well, Sogavare’s only ideology is to hold on to the prime ministership.

And, China gets things done quickly. That could increase Sogavare’s popularity with islanders anxious to see infrastructure and other improvements.

MATTHEW: You know, the normal process for World Bank, IMF, Australia, New Zealand, or U.K., U.S. to work would be, you'd have pre-feasibility studies. There, then you'd have feasibility studies, then you'd have financing studies, then an environment impact assessment study, and all the rest of it. China just brings in a ship with cement and steel and all the other stuff and gets on with it.

Tarcisius Kabutaulaka is an associate professor and political scientist at the University of Hawai’i and a graduate of Australia National University. He grew up in the Solomon Islands, and his research focuses on China in the Pacific.

Kabutaulaka says switching diplomatic relations may have been an inevitable step.

TARCISIUS: Although Solomon Islands had had diplomatic relations with Taiwan since the 1980s, Solomon Islands hardly trades with Taiwan. However, since the 1990s, if you look at Solomon Islands trade, both export and import, it's predominantly to China, to PRC. And most of the export is dominated, of course, by timber, because of the logging industry, but also because Chinese companies became involved in the logging industry.

For its part, China is interested in protecting its investments.

TARCISIUS: The U.S. has an estimated 750 bases in about 80 countries. But China has been very good at doing other things other than having a military base. It's building alliances with other countries that would then connect the security apparatus of those countries to China’s security apparatus.

A few thousand ethnically Chinese people live in the country of 700,000. The PRC wants control of its own citizens, even when they aren’t in China. Kabutaulaka says that’s the most likely reason for Beijing's interest in sending security forces to the islands, since the country really doesn't have a pressing need for police training.

TARCISIUS: Solomon Islands mostly has very good social order. It is only the disorders in Honiara, that attracts a lot of international attention. Most of the country is not rioting. Most of the country is not burning down shops.

Right now, local communities provide their own policing. Kabutaulaka isn’t just worried about what China will do on a global scale. He’s also concerned about the harm its governing mindset might bring to the people of the islands themselves.

TARCISIUS: China comes from a different idea of policing altogether. The state has overriding power, and the state will reach out and punish you if you break the laws. And so that's my concern is that over time such training could potentially change the way in which we think about, and the philosophies, the ideas that inform our policing.

But opposition leader Matthew Wale hasn’t given up hope.

MATTHEW: We're a people of hope. God is sovereign, he’s in control. He's at work in ways that we do not see or understand. And even in the most frustrating of times, he's always at work. And that gives me great hope.

For now, Wale is focused on next year’s elections. He hopes Sogavare calls for them as planned.

MATTHEW: I think the vast majority of our people right across our islands are extremely concerned. And I trust in their judgment, to be able to return leaders that will hopefully have the spine to stand up and review a lot of these decisions.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Amy Lewis.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Tuesday, April 26th. Thank you for listening to WORLD Radio.

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

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

In 2018, a survey found that just over half of Americans actually know their neighbors. That disconnect with the people who live closest to us may be one reason many people feel lonely.

REICHARD: Some might say loneliness in America is an epidemic. But some communities are working to change that. WORLD’s Lauren Dunn visited one neighborhood in southwest Missouri that has a different story.

BURTON: EQ, how are you doing? How's your shoulder and everything? You're doing some physical therapy and rehab now?

LAUREN DUNN, REPORTER: David Burton greets a neighbor as he walks down his street. He moved to Stoney Creek Estates in Republic, Missouri, 18 years ago with his wife, Stacey, and their two children.

BURTON: I thought a great neighbor was somebody who picked up after their dog on walks and chopped their leaves. And we didn't throw loud parties. So I had to be a great neighbor, right?

In summer 2019, his sister-in-law gave him a book that made him think more deeply about loving our neighbors.

BURTON: One chapter into that book, I realized, I'm a horrible neighbor. I mean, we had lived here for a long time, at that point, 15-16 years, right. And I realized, man, we only know even the names of just two of the houses, and we don't have much interaction with one of them.

David decided it was time to be a better neighbor. He and Stacey delivered homemade chocolate chip cookies and introduced themselves. They gave them cards with a family photo and David’s contact information.

David began organizing driveway chats, inviting neighbors to bring their lawn chairs and simply talk. He set up a July 4th children’s parade at the park just outside their neighborhood.

Last year, Shane and Tara Crawford moved in across the street from the Burtons. Their three kids are 10, 8, and 5 years old. David introduced himself to the family before they even closed on the house.

CRAWFORD: We began texting weeks before we closed. And I'd ask him questions about lawn mowing, and getting utilities changed over and this and that, just things that the schools that come up, and he would, he would write lengthy texts back, I mean, deep thought into my questions and give me every detail that he could think of.

The family is looking forward to another summer of neighborhood activities, including the now popular driveway chats.

Not everyone was initially excited about driveway chats, including David’s wife Stacey.

BURTON: I'm like, What do you mean, on a Friday night from six to eight? Friday nights are family night. So you know, it can cause issues. I mean, it that night was a little I would say a little rough. But we got through it and learned and he's, we've gotten better about communicating is always a good thing, right? So communicating those nights on the calendar and being sure that you do try to have that balance.

Family commitments weren’t her only hesitation. Stacey doesn’t think of herself as outgoing or extraverted as David. She says she wasn’t “gung-ho” about neighboring like he was. At least, not at first. But then one neighbor who had resisted their outreach efforts stopped David when he was out walking. The neighbor asked David to pray for him.

BURTON: That was huge. I think that's what spurred me in going, Okay, this is bigger than just getting to know your neighbors. There’s ministry here.

Stacey realized that there were other ways she could be neighborly. Ways that better matched her personality. After a women’s event last November at their church in Springfield, Stacey decided to lead a five-week Bible study for women in Republic. Just five weeks. They started in January.

AUDIO: [Sound from Bible study]

That was an answer to prayer for Brenda White. She’s lived in the Stoney Creek Estates neighborhood for over 18 years, just next door to the Burtons.. And for about that long, she’s prayed for a neighborhood Bible study.

She likes to go on walks, praying for her neighbors as she goes. She takes her dog, a part-Dachshund mix named Brutus, with her. He sometimes hides under her bed at first but eventually decides he likes to go, too.

WHITE: People have so much going on in their lives. You just ask the Lord to meet them where they're at, and show himself boldly, to draw them to him if they don't know him. I know the dog's names a lot too. Because of Brutus, I think people associate you with your dog. They have a little white dog here...

Brenda and the other ladies convinced Stacey to keep hosting the Bible study even after the planned five weeks. Stacey said they’ll take a break this summer, but plan to start up again in August.

But not all of the Burtons’ ideas have worked out so well.

A neighborhood directory project flopped. Only three families joined in on a get-to-know-your-neighbors Bingo activity. A Halloween event was poorly attended—leaving the Crawfords with a lot of leftover hotdogs. But David says it’s not really about the activities anyway.

BURTON: It's the kind of ministry of being available. You have some margin in your life and to be able to linger at the mailbox a little longer, to be able to be interruptible on a walk, to be able to visit with someone…It just takes a little time. It's a crock pot. It's a slow cook process for sure.

Burton is quick to add that he doesn’t want his neighbors to think he sees them as a project. He says he’s genuinely trying to do better at simply loving his neighbors—and asking others to join him..

BURTON: There's not much, probably not anything, that I can do that will impact Washington, DC. And there's very little I can do that would ever impact Jefferson City. But there's a whole lot I can do that can impact my neighborhood, and my community as a result. And I think that's, that's what we've seen the power of building relationships and connections in our neighborhood, and how that has spread from those neighbors, to their neighbors, and then how that is even spreading then throughout the community, as well..

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Lauren Dunn in Republic, Missouri.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Tuesday, April 26th. 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. Here’s WORLD commentator Whitney Williams on the outrage of death, and the hope of the Resurrection of Christ.

WHITNEY WILLIAMS, COMMENTATOR: It was the evening before Easter—known to some as Silent Saturday, though I just discovered that this year. I was sitting by a campfire overseeing the roasting of hot dogs—“ketchup or mustard?” I asked each of my children, a bag of buns in my lap. My husband was several hundred yards away making one last cast (again and again) before packing up his fishing poles for the weekend. We planned to load up everything but our tent that evening in hopes of making a quick getaway for our church’s Easter service the next morning.

Mid-condiment squirt, I received the following text from a neighbor: “Hey, are you guys home?” Before I could respond that we weren’t, another text came in. “We have a rabbit that got caught in our fence. He’s going to die, but it’s in pain. Can you tell us how to kindly, humanely kill a rabbit?”

Kindly, humanely kill. Hmm.

After a few exploratory texts, I gathered the following from my distraught friend and discussed the situation with my husband: All of the nearby veterinarians were closed. The mobile vet couldn’t get there until the next week and had told my friend that, based on her description and a photo, the rabbit was beyond rehabilitation. My friend did not have a gun.

I’ll spare you the details of my husband’s and my suggestions on how to kill the rabbit, but eventually, after much trepidation, she and her husband put the mangled animal out of its misery.

My friend told me that she couldn’t stop crying. She hated death so much.

As the sun dipped down below the horizon and the day turned to night, my husband and I discussed our society’s overall distance from death.

Back in the day, we mused, killing and death was a part of everyday living—at least for meat-eaters. It’s still a part of our everyday lives, of course, but we outsource it. We don’t want to think about the fact that something had to die so that we might live.

No, we like to avoid the thought of death at all costs. We medicate it. Dress it up. Put lipstick on it. Place it in a pretty box. We put posies in our pockets to mask the stench of it and opt for celebration of life services in place of funerals. Now, I’m not saying any of this is wrong—in fact, I want full make-up and big ol’ Texas hair at my funeral. And I’m certainly not against comfort measures for the dying. But perhaps the living have become too comfortable. Out of sight, out of mind.

Until a rabbit comes along, bloody, mangled, and suffering. Cancer. A car wreck. Covid. And suddenly, we find ourselves forced to face it, to face death—ugly, harsh, and final, the wages of sin smack us across the face.

“This isn’t right,” our souls cry out. “This is not how it is supposed to be!”

It’s not. And that realization is what finally makes us ready for Easter Sunday.

I’m Whitney Williams.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: global persecution. We’ll tell you about the latest report on countries and groups that target religious minorities.

And, faith in the face of trial. We'll meet a young couple separated by war from their Ukrainian family.

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.

The Psalmist wrote: Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. (Psalm 51:1 ESV)

Go now in grace and peace.

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