The World and Everything in It - April 6, 2022

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Good morning!

A story widely denounced in the mainstream media as Russian propaganda is turning out to be much more fact than fiction.

NICK EICHER, HOST: We’ll talk about that on Washington Wednesday.

Also how the 2021 Supreme Court decision in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia is affecting religious foster care around the country.

And making the best of bad decisions in politics and life.

BROWN: It’s Wednesday, April 6th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

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

BROWN: News is next. Here’s Kent Covington.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Zelenskyy addresses UN Security Council, demands justice for atrocities in Ukraine » Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday by video. Heard here through an interpreter, he accused Russia of gruesome atrocities in Ukraine.

ZELENSKYY (interpreter): The massacre in our city of Bucha is only one of many examples of what the occupiers have been doing on our land for the past 41 days.

He said many other atrocities have yet to come to light publicly.

Once again, a warning here for young ears as the following is disturbing.

Zelenskyy talked about Ukrainians being blown up with grenades thrown into their apartments and crushed to death by tanks while in cars.

He said Russian soldiers brutalized and tortured civilians, cutting off limbs and cutting their throats. He said—quoting here—“women were raped and killed in front of their children. Their tongues were pulled out only because their aggressor did not hear what they wanted to hear from them.”

ZELENSKYY (interpreter): The Russian military and those who gave them orders must be brought to justice immediately for war crimes in Ukraine.

He called for those responsible to stand trial for war crimes in front of a tribunal like the one established at Nuremberg after World War II.

Top general urges more U.S. troops in eastern Europe » The top general in Washington wants to send more U.S. troops to eastern Europe.

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley said because of Russian aggression, the United States should consider building new bases on NATO’s eastern flank.

MILLEY: I believe that a lot of our European allies, especially those - such as in the Baltics, Poland, or Romania or elsewhere, they are very, very willing to establish permanent bases. They’ll build them. They’ll pay for them, etc.

He said forces could rotate through those bases, rather than make permanent deployments. That would bring down the cost.

Milley and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin were testifying before the House Armed Services Committee on next year’s budget proposal. But much of the hearing focused on the war in Ukraine and what the United States can do to better help Ukraine and strengthen security across Europe.

The Pentagon continues to review its troop numbers across Europe, and whether to add more or shift some of those already there to other locations.

Rights group: Mali’s army, foreign soldiers killed civilians » Meantime in Mali, Human Rights Watch reports that the country’s military and foreign soldiers suspected to be Russians gathered and fatally shot hundreds of people late last month. WORLD’s Josh Schumacher has more.

JOSH SCHUMACHER, REPORTER: The watchdog group reported that the soldiers rounded up and killed about 300 people in the north African country. And Human Rights Watch called it the worst single atrocity in Mali’s 10-year fight against Islamic extremists.

The region has been largely controlled by al-Qaeda-linked extremists. The government is engaged in an effort to root out and eliminate terrorist elements. But the rights group reported that many of those rounded up were likely innocent civilians from the Peul ethnic group.

Witnesses identified many of the killers as white soldiers who didn’t speak French. The U.S. State Department confirmed in January that several hundred Russian mercenaries were brought into Mali in March to fight extremists. Mali’s government denies that, insisting they only brought in military trainers.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher.

2nd man arrested on gun charges in Sacramento mass shooting » Police in Sacramento arrested another suspect in connection to the mass shooting that killed six people in California’s capital.

Investigators say he is 27-year-old Smiley Martin, the brother of a man arrested one day earlier.

Sacramento Police Chief Kathy Lester told reporters …

LESTER: We expect as the investigation continues that we’ll be able to identify more people that were involved.

Officers arrested Smiley while he was hospitalized with serious injuries from the gunfire. When his condition improves enough for him to be jailed, he will be booked for possession of a firearm by a prohibited person and possession of a machine gun.

More than 100 shots were fired early Sunday in downtown Sacramento, creating a chaotic scene. In addition to the six people killed, 12 were wounded, several critically.

Elon Musk joining Twitter board » Elon Musk is joining Twitter's board of directors a day after revealing that he'd become the social media platform's largest shareholder with a 9 percent stake. WORLD’s Anna Johansen Brown has more.

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN, REPORTER: The billionaire has criticized Twitter publicly about its commitment to free speech.

Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal said Musk is—quote—“both a passionate believer and intense critic of the service which is exactly what we need on @Twitter, and in the boardroom, to make us stronger in the long-term.”

Musk said he's looking forward to working with Agrawal and the board “to make significant improvements to Twitter in coming months!"

But he has not spoken specifically about any Twitter rule changes he might push.

Musk is barred from owning more than 14.9 percent of Twitter’s outstanding stock while he sits on the board. That according to a regulatory filing by Twitter.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Anna Johansen Brown.

I’m Kent Covington. Straight ahead: revelations from Hunter Biden’s laptop.

Plus, the benefits of saying no.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Wednesday the 6th of April, 2022.

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

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Up first: foreign payouts to Hunter Biden.

For more than a year, Democrats have dismissed reports about troubling findings on a laptop computer that belonged to President Biden’s son. They called those reports Russian disinformation and media stories amplified that theme.

But last week, Republican Senators Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson released documents that show lucrative payments to Hunter Biden from foreign oligarchs. Grassley told his Senate colleagues:

GRASSLEY: Senator Johnson and I will produce new records to show additional connections between the Biden family and communist Chinese regime.

Here now to talk about what those records revealed and why it matters is Zack Smith. He’s a lawyer and former federal appellate law clerk and a former assistant U.S. Attorney.

BROWN: Zack, good morning.

ZACK SMITH, GUEST: Good morning. Thank you for having me on.

BROWN: First of all, Zack, give us a brief overview of this entire ordeal for those who have not kept up with it. Hunter Biden, the 52-year-old son of President Biden, left his laptop at a repair shop, and what happened next?

SMITH: Well, if you'll remember what happened next is essentially the story was suppressed by the mainstream media in many of those on in the tech world. For a while, remember Twitter was censoring many stories that talked about Hunter Biden's laptop. The New York Post was even temporarily suspended because they had the audacity to report on this story? Well, what we're learning now is Lo and behold, that reporting was accurate, that in fact, Hunter Biden's laptop did exist, and that there are some very troubling documents and information on that laptop. You know, specifically, I think what is troubling many of the people who have seen those documents and had a chance to review it, are emails and other information related to Hunter Biden's business activities. You know, he maintained many business activities with foreign corporations doing business across the globe. And so anytime someone with a close relationship to a high ranking government official has those types of relationships, I think it's very important to understand what they are, how that person is being compensated, and whether essentially, what's being done is a type of influence peddling, which is, you know, a very troubling thing indeed.

BROWN: Okay, so before these documents that Senators Grassley and Johnson just released, what was revealed about Hunter Biden’s foreign connections?

SMITH: Well, he had a lot of foreign connections with businesses everywhere from Ukraine, to China. And so I think it is very important to understand exactly what those relationships were, how Hunter was compensated, whether he was either in reality or in perception, trying to sell influence and access based on his father's governmental position, his father's reputation, and to understand what steps we as a country can take in the future to prevent this. You know, there is a law on the books, the Foreign Agents Registration Act - FARA, as it's commonly referred to - there were a spate of high profile prosecutions related to this at the tail end of the Trump administration coming out of the Special Counsel’s investigation. And so I think it'd be very important and interesting to find out whether Hunter ever registered under FARA, whether he ever had an obligation to do so, and whether the government ever corresponded with him about a potential FARA violation. All of that would be very important and very interesting information to find out.

BROWN: How is the White House defending this?

SMITH: Well, so far, they're essentially sticking their head in the sand and ignoring that is happening. You know, you recall Joe Biden throughout the years has defended Hunter very vigorously. When he was running for office, he essentially said several times that he didn't talk about Hunter’s business dealings with him or something to that effect. And so I think as more information comes out, it's going to become more and more difficult for the White House to continue to ignore this. There's also reports that a grand jury, a federal grand jury in Delaware, is investigating some of these business activities, that that grand jury is currently calling in witnesses to give sworn testimony about some of these activities. And so I think what that investigation reveals, what continues to come out over the next several weeks and months will really shape the White House's response. But I don't think they can continue to deny or simply ignore the existence of this information for much longer.

BROWN: Republicans have asserted that Hunter Biden’s actions and business deals could have led to blackmail of the president. How so?

SMITH: Well, certainly. I mean, look, anytime you have an attempt to peddle influence, anytime you have, potentially, suspected business transactions that can lead to blackmail opportunities. And think back - part of what we're seeing coming out isn't just emails or information about business transactions. They're also pictures on the laptop that appeared to catch Hunter in some compromising positions, or certainly cast him in an unflattering light. And so anytime a foreign government or someone else has that type of derogatory information about a high ranking government official or a family member of a high ranking government official, an opportunity for blackmail certainly exists. And that's part of the reason, you know, we have these registration requirements under the Foreign Agents Registration Act and other statutes, as well to make sure that, you know, we, as the American people can know who is funding a lot of the information that is coming into our country and being injected into our political discourse.

BROWN: Is anyone saying, “Hey this is potentially a criminal matter?” Or is it strictly an ethical and political concern?

SMITH: Well, it's certainly an ethical and political concern. It could become a criminal matter, though, as well. You know, I mentioned earlier, a federal grand jury in Delaware that was investigating this matter. A grand jury is the mechanism by which federal prosecutors can conduct investigations. It's the mechanism by which they can get sworn testimony from witnesses, and the grand jury is inherently a mechanism of our criminal justice system. And so depending on what comes out in that investigation, depending on what proof prosecutors can find, there certainly could be potential criminal violations that Hunter or others could be looking at as well.

BROWN: Okay, Zack Smith has been our guest. He is a legal fellow in the Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation. Zack, thanks so much!

SMITH: Of course, thank you for having me on.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: World Tour with our reporter in Africa, Onize Ohikere.

ONIZE OHIKERE, REPORTER: Bandits attack train in Nigeria—We start today here in Africa.

AUDIO: [Sound of walking on gravel, voices]

Nearly 200 people are missing in northwest Nigeria after armed bandits attacked a train traveling from the capital, Abuja, to the city of Kaduna.

The attackers placed explosives on the track to stop the train and then opened fire on the carriages. Eight people died, and 186 escaped unharmed. The remaining 176 passengers still haven’t been found.

Officials blamed the attack on criminal gangs. Violence against civilians in northwest Nigeria has grown rapidly in the last few months due to a lack of government security in the area.

Many of the attacks target Christian villages. Church leaders in the area have called on communities to prepare to defend themselves.

‘Hotel Rwanda’ hero sentenced to 25 years in prison—Next we go to Rwanda.

AUDIO: [Man speaking Kigali]

The country’s Court of Appeal upheld a 25-year prison sentence handed down last year to outspoken government critic Paul Rusesabagina. In Monday’s ruling, the appeals court judge said the sentence fit “the weight of his crimes.”

Rusesabagina rose to international fame for his role in saving more than 1,200 people during the 1994 Rwandan genocide by sheltering them in the hotel he managed.

After that, Rusesabagina became a fierce critic of President Paul Kagame. Last year, officials accused Rusesabagina and 20 others of backing an armed rebel group blamed for deadly attacks in 2018 and 2019.

His family and supporters denounced his arrest and trial as a sham designed to silence a political opponent.

Viktor Orban reelected in Hungary—Next we go to Europe.

AUDIO:  [Singing followed by cheering]

Hungarian President Viktor Orban won reelection Sunday in a landslide. He joined his supporters in singing the country’s national anthem after results were announced.

ORBAN: [Man speaking Hungarian, crowd laughing]

Orban told supporters his win was so big it could perhaps be seen from the moon, but certainly from Brussels. That was a dig at the European Union. It has criticized Orban’s autocratic government for crackdowns on free speech and the media.

Although Hungary is a member of the EU, Orban maintains close ties with Russia’s Vladimir Putin. He has refused to allow weapons headed for Ukraine to cross Hungarian territory, earning the ire of his European allies.

AUDIO: [Man speaking Serbian]

In another election on Sunday, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic also won a landslide victory. Serbia is not an EU member but depends on the bloc for its financial stability. Even so, Vucic has allied himself with Moscow and Beijing and has increasingly adopted their autocratic tendencies.

Political unrest in Sri Lanka—And finally, we end today in South Asia.

AUDIO: [Sound of protest, chanting]

Thousands of protesters swarmed the parliament building in Sri Lanka’s capital, Colombo, on Tuesday. They are demanding the prime minister resign amid the country’s worst economic crisis in decades.

For several months, Sri Lankans have endured long lines to buy fuel, cooking gas, food, and medicine. Inflation surged to nearly 20 percent last month. Fuel shortages have also led to power cuts, with some lasting almost eight hours each day.

Sri Lanka’s economy depends on tourism and has taken a beating during the global pandemic. The government is struggling to pay for imports of basic supplies because of its huge debts and dwindling foreign reserves.

That has prompted the government to turn to India and China for loans.

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

NICK EICHER, HOST: Well here’s an update on an urgent legal story!

A federal judge has tossed out a proposed class-action lawsuit against the makers of Pop-Tarts.

The plaintiffs complain that Kellogg’s packaging misleads customers as to the actual amount of strawberries in Frosted Strawberry Pop-Tarts.

The judge said the use of the word “strawberry” on the box referred to the flavor, not the actual fruit content.

He added that consumers can check the listing of contents on the back of the box to clear up any confusion.

This is not for the faint of heart. I looked it up. It has sugar. It has icing sugar. It has modified milk ingredients. Modified corn starch. Now we’re getting into the good stuff: monoglycerides, acetylated tartaric acid esters of mono and diglycerides and so on.

The judge said—quoting here—“A reasonable consumer is unlikely to purchase a toaster pastry coated in frosting exclusively for the nutritional value of strawberries in its fruit filling.”

That’s right, folks. Pop-Tarts, apparently, are not health foods! Who knew?!

It’s The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Wednesday, April 6th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Myrna Brown.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Faith and foster care. Last summer the Supreme Court decided the case Fulton v City of Philadelphia.

It was a unanimous 9-to-zero ruling that meant Catholic Social Services could continue in foster-care work in Philadelphia, even though CSS wouldn’t work with same-sex couples.

The Fulton case represented a big win for faith-based agencies, but behind the scenes were losses, too. During the long legal battle, Philadelphia froze the agency’s intake of children for three years before the case resolved.

BROWN: WORLD Senior Correspondent Kim Henderson traveled to Philadelphia recently and paid a visit to the agency. She has this report.

KIM HENDERSON, SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: It’s a bright Wednesday morning. Bob Montoro is making his way to a 13-story building in downtown Philadelphia.

Montoro works for Catholic Social Services.

MONTORO: I'm the administrator of the foster care program.

Montoro is meeting his boss, James Amato, in a conference room. Back in 2018, it was Amato who first fielded a question from city officials.

AMATO: “Do you accept and do home studies on gay individuals or couples?” And I said, “No.” And she said, “Then you violated your contract.” I said, “No, I followed my church teachings.”

That led to a meeting that changed everything.

AMATO: We hadn't even made it back to this building, and we got a call that said, “Your intake is going to be frozen.”

That meant their agency would no longer get foster referrals from the city. Sure, the kids already in their foster homes could remain, but without new ones, their services would eventually dry up.

NEWS CLIP

While the closure made headlines, Bob Montoro had to address his staff of social workers—a team he’d worked hard to assemble.

MONTORO: I couldn't tell them really anything except, let's wait and see.

Staff gradually left for other positions. The agency also had to deal with prospective foster parents who were completing home studies. They’d had background checks, lined up all the necessary insurances, provided references.

MONTORO: It's always a challenge to recruit foster parents. People don't just wake up one morning and say, “I think I’ll be a foster parent today.”

As the months wore on, Montoro had to tell these willing applicants to apply elsewhere. And as the years wore on, the agency’s number of foster kids went from 128 to 18. It lost more than half its certified foster parents.

Attorney Andrea Picciotti-Bayer described one of these parents in an amicus brief for court.

PICCIOTTI-BAYER: When they froze intake, and there wasn't a baby in the house again, there was a silence that she said was an unbearable silence, because they were always used to hearing the laughter and the cries and the fussing of a child.

Even the woman’s adopted foster children said it was a loss.

PICCIOTTI-BAYER: . . . because her arms were those kinds of arms. You know, there's some women out there that a baby can rest in their arms and find comfort and peace.

SOUND OF CHILDREN 

But James Amato says there was an even greater loss.

AMATO: Lost opportunities for children to be placed with experienced foster parents, some who’ve had an interest in adoption. I don't know how you quantify that. But there's some kids out there who lost the opportunity to be placed with those skilled people who may have adopted them at some point.

The freeze lasted three years. Catholic Social Services lost twice in lower courts, but on June 17, 2021, they won big at the Supreme Court.

So these days Bob Montoro is busy once again responding to foster referrals. And hiring staff. And recruiting foster parents. It’s hard work rebuilding from scratch.

SOUND OF ADVERTISEMENT

And it was especially hard to say goodbye to the face of the case—Sharonell Fulton. All the publicity and litigation took a toll on her. She chose to quit fostering.

MONTORO: She was just talking about moving out to Lancaster County, which is a couple of counties away, west of Philadelphia. It was breaking my heart because this was somebody who had stuck her neck out for some very difficult cases and had hung in there and had done amazing things for children. And she just said, “You know, I'm moving on.”

Even so, the Fulton decision represents a significant gain for religious liberty. Lori Windham, senior counsel for Becket Fund for Religious Liberty represented the group in court.

WINDHAM: After the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Fulton and unanimously in favor of Catholic Social Services, that sent a really powerful message to other governments and other agencies around the country, that their rights could be protected.

Windham says that powerful message is affecting other cases, most recently one involving a foster agency in Michigan.

WINDHAM: The state of Michigan agreed and went into court and acknowledged that it had violated the Constitution, it was bound by the Supreme Court's decision in Fulton, and agreed to a court order requiring it to continue partnering with St. Vincent Catholic Charities.

Amato says he hopes their victory will encourage other faith-based foster agencies to stay in the fight, maybe even re-enter the fight.

AMATO: Based on who they are and their rich histories, and their ability, proven track record to take a look at it again, and maybe it's an opportunity for you to jumpstart your program and get back involved.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kim Henderson in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

EICHER: To read more about this story, look for Kim Henderson’s article in the latest issue of WORLD Magazine, online at wng.org. And we have a link in today’s program transcript.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Wednesday, April 6th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

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

Here’s WORLD founder Joel Belz with some thoughts on political choices and regrets.

JOEL BELZ, FOUNDER: It’s a whole lot easier saying “no” in a multitude of life’s decisions and choices than it is to embrace something that works.

Certainly that is also the case with the road that leads us to the selection of a new president in 2024. Between now and then we will say “no” to candidates we think are less than competent to lead the world’s most important nation. Meanwhile, we’ll put all kinds of energy and resources into the choice of just one of them, to whom we will say “yes.”

And elections aren’t the only area in which this principle applies.

As we aim down the path to marriage, we say “no” to dozens of good folks—many of whom might have made wonderful partners—so that we can focus on that one person who becomes the spectacular “yes” of our life.

Similarly, we pour through dozens of college and university catalogs and websites, finally saying “no” to almost all of them while latching our hopeful “yes” to the magic few we dream will change our lives forever.

We do the same with our homes and vehicles. The probability of a satisfying “deal” the last time you bought a car is somewhat closely related to the number of times you said “no” and walked away.

But back to the political scene, where I hear more and more talk from voters who wish they had a chance to “walk away from the deal.” That “deal” might still be Donald Trump’s first nomination as Republican candidate in 2016, his election as president later that year, or more vividly these days, Joe Biden’s election in 2020 and performance since then.

Most public and compelling of all that “walk away” talk for me has been an editorial feature in a late March Wall Street Journal. The feature followed the remarkably careless slipup by Biden asserting in public the need to have Russian President Vladimir Putin removed from office. Biden’s advisers had to walk back that statement immediately, knowing how much more difficult it would make any future negotiations with Putin. The slipup prompted some “walk away” talk, including, apparently, “fire Biden” letters to the Journal.

But the WSJ editorial board was more practical and more sensible. Here is how they played it: “The reality is that we have to live with Mr. Biden for three more years as president. … We are fated to make the best of the president we have.”

The WSJ covers its tracks pretty well by reminding its readers that not once in almost 100 years has its noteworthy editorial staff endorsed a presidential candidate.

That’s a record of saying no all news outlets should aspire to.

I’m Joel Belz.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: homeschooling. It’s a growing phenomenon and not just in America. We’ll introduce you to students and home educators in Nigeria.

And, vaccine mandates. We’ll get an update on legal challenges by military members who object.

That and more tomorrow.

I’m Nick Eicher.

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

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

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