The World and Everything in It: August 21, 2023

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MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

A man served on a jury in a case involving ISIS brutality and describes the experience.

WAYNE PHOEL: There was a question: Have you ever been kidnapped or held against your will? And that was I think the one thing where I started to wonder: What have I gotten myself into?

NICK EICHER, HOST: You’ll find out what he got into on Legal Docket.

Also on the Monday Moneybeat: a new economic phenomenon. You’ve heard economist David Bahnsen refer to Japanification. Today I’ll ask him about “Chinafication”

Plus the WORLD History Book. Twenty years ago, a battle over the 10 commandments:

AUDIO: It's not about politics. It's not about religion. It's about the acknowledgement of the God on which this nation and our laws are based [APPLAUSE].

REICHARD: It’s Monday, August 21st. 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, Kent Covington with today’s news.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: California storm » Powerful winds and torrential rain are battering Southern California and Nevada this morning after Tropical Storm Hillary roared ashore on Sunday.

Mike Brennan with the National Hurricane Center warned residents in the region.

BRENNAN: You do not want to be out driving around trying to cross flooded roads in a vehicle or on foot. Rainfall flooding has been the biggest killer in tropical storms and hurricanes in the last 10 years.

Brennan said isolated areas could see as much as 10 inches of rain. And in some places, they might get an entire year’s worth of rain in just a matter of hours.

Officials wan of flash floods, mudslides, power outages and possible tornadoes.

Hillary is the first tropical storm to hit Southern California in 84 years.

Hawaii » Meantime in Hawaii, search and recover teams continued to sift through ash and rubble over the weekend. At least 114 people are confirmed dead in wildfires that ravaged the island of Maui. Hundreds more remain missing.

Gov. Josh Green says finding all of those who perished in the flames may be an impossible task.

GREEN: We do have extreme concerns that because of the temperature of the fire, the remains of those who have died, in some cases may be impossible to recover meaningfully. So there are going to be people that are lost forever.

President Biden is visiting the fire-ravaged island of Maui today.

FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell said the president will survey the damage.

CRISWELL: But he’s also going to be able to talk with people and hear their stories and provide a sense of hope and assurance that the federal government is going to be with them.

Criswell said search efforts in the devastated town of Lahaina are 78% complete.

GOP politics » Republican candidates are gearing up for this week’s presidential debate in Milwaukee.

Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy said he’s ready to seize the opportunity on Wednesday.

RAMASWAMMY: I’m looking to introduce myself to the country. Six month ago, many people in this country did not even know who i was. I was polling at 0.0% in March.

An average of recent polls now has him in third place among GOP candidates with 7 percent of voter support.

Former Vice President Mike Pence said Sunday:

PENCE: I’m just going to be me. I mean, I feel like I’ve been preparing for this first Republican presidential debate my whole life.

Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson just announced that he has met the party’s requirements to join the debate stage. At least nine candidates have qualified.

But former President Donald Trump says he will skip the first debate and possibly future debates.

Niger » The military leader of Niger’s coup, Gen. Abdourahamane Tchiani, says the country will return to civilian rule in three years. WORLD’s Josh Schumacher has more.

JOSH SCHUMACHER: Many leaders in West Africa are skeptical that military leaders will fulfill that promise. They also call it unacceptable.

Soldiers from the bloc of West African nations known as ECOWAS are poised to intervene in Niger. But leaders from the bloc recently met with both Tchiani and ousted president Mohamed Bazoum in hopes of finding a peaceful solution.

While many in the country oppose the military takeover. Thousands supporters of the coup have signed up to fight foreign forces if necessary.

POPE FRANCIS: [Speaking Italian]

Pope Francis at the Vatican yesterday asking the world to pray for peace in Niger and for the people there.

For WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher

Russian spacecraft » Russia's Luna-25 spacecraft was supposed to land on the moon today. Instead, it crashed into the lunar surface after spinning out of control.

The unmanned robot would have been the first ever to land on the south pole of the moon.

Scientists believe there could be important reserves of frozen water and precious elements there that future explorers could transform into air and rocket fuel.

This was Russia’s first moon launch since a Soviet lunar mission in 1976.

Ukrainian F-16 training » Ukrainian pilots have started training to fly American-made F-16 fighter jets, according to leaders in Kyiv.

U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan:

SULLIVAN: Upon the completion of that training, the United States would be prepared in consultation with Congress to approve third party transfer of F 16 aircraft to Ukraine.

Denmark and the Netherlands have pledged F-16s to Ukraine.

That will bring Ukraine one step closer to being able to counter Russia’s air superiority.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: A man who served on a federal jury trial involving ISIS tells what that was like. That’s ahead on Legal Docket. Plus, the World History Book. 

This is The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: It’s Monday morning, August 21st and you’re listening to The World and Everything in It from WORLD Radio. Good morning! I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. It’s time for Legal Docket—summer edition.

We spend the fall, winter, and spring covering Supreme Court cases while the court is in session. And those cases often turn on narrow legal questions.

Cases far removed from the facts. The original dispute that gave rise to the initial lawsuit. By the time the case reaches the high court, the people involved can be forgotten.

EICHER: Right, we talk in terms of “parties” or “petitioner and respondent.” The facts have been distilled to a couple of short paragraphs in the briefs and are rarely acknowledged at oral argument. But it’s a different story at the trial court level, where cases usually begin.

Today, legal correspondent Jenny Rough joins us to talk about a federal case that went to trial.

Good morning, Jenny!

JENNY ROUGH, REPORTER: Good morning!

So you might recall the news stories. About a decade ago, the terrorist group ISIS kidnapped four Americans. Two of them were journalists, two of them were aid workers. Three men, one woman.

Horribly, ISIS eventually beheaded the three men. It claimed an airstrike killed the woman.

To help give the context, here’s a news report from ABC.

ABC REPORTER: They are among the ISIS terrorists accused of taking part in the abduction, torture, and murder of hostages, including four Americans in Syria between 2012 and 2015. Now Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh are finally facing federal charges in the United States.

REICHARD: The trial against one of the terrorists took place just last year.

The setting was in the U.S. District Court for Eastern Virginia. A criminal case against the captor for the kidnapping and torture of the four Americans.

Let’s not forget their names: James Foley, Steven Sotloff, Peter Kassig, and Kayla Mueller.

ROUGH: Seven years after the last hostage was killed, the life of a man living in Arlington, Virginia, intersected with theirs: A married father of three. His name is Wayne Phoel.

One day he received a summons in the mail.

It was jury duty.

He’d received a few of these in the past, but had always been dismissed.

WAYNE PHOEL: The ones before they had filled up the jury before I even got called. And this time I think I had a feeling like this one was going to go differently.

EICHER: It would go differently because this was a jury summons for a federal trial. He had no idea what the case was about. But during jury selection, a process known as voir dire, the prosecution and defense attorneys posed questions that began to give him an idea. Questions like: Do you know any FBI agents?

PHOEL: There was a question: Have you ever been kidnapped or held against your will? And that was I think the one thing where I started to wonder: What have I gotten myself into?

REICHARD: It wouldn’t take long to find out. He made it through the process and onto the jury.

When the prosecutor’s opening statement came, it was clear what the case was all about. The defendant, El Shafee Elsheikh, was accused of abducting the four Americans that had traveled abroad to Iraq and Syria.

EICHER: The terrorist and his conspirators were originally from Britain. They had English accents. So the hostages referred to them in code: John, George, Ringo, in other words, the ISIS Beatles.

The defendant on trial was the one hostages called Ringo, that is El Shafee ElSheikh.

And to be clear about what happened to the others: One of the ISIS Beatles had already been killed. Another one pleaded guilty.

ROUGH: At Elsheihk’s trial, the prosecutor presented evidence of how ISIS captured the hostages. Wayne Phoel, the juror, says it sounded like a scene right out of a movie.

PHOEL: Some truck pulls up in front of their car, some truck pulls up in the back of their car, these guys jump out, grab them out of their car, stick 'em in the trunk and drive off.

ISIS notifies the parents, not the federal government. And demand ransom.

PHOEL: They get an email from some strange e-mail address, right? Typically not a name, just some sequence of characters at some domain.

When the ransom requests come in, the families don’t know what to do. They don’t want to put their loved one in further danger. Don’t know how to interact with captors. They operate out of fear.

Eventually, the families ask for proof of life. Asking questions that only their son or daughter could answer.

REICHARD: As the trial progressed, the prosecutor put on evidence that became more difficult to hear. The recounting of torture. Foreign hostages who had been held with the Americans, and later released, came to the trial to testify about what they endured.

PHOEL: Beating until they couldn't move anymore. They would have large welts on their body. I think that they're sometimes like forcing them to stand in very, very uncomfortable positions for really long times, like 12 hours or something like that. There was some, I think, electrocution that happened. I mean, it was horrendous just to think about.

ROUGH: The foreign hostages said the punishment they endured didn’t even compare to what the Americans went through.

PHOEL: There was one incident where they had a, um, a mock execution. So they lined people up.

For the three American men it became all too real.

PHOEL: And so the videos of the beheadings were put into evidence. They weren't shown in the courtroom.

Instead, a testifying witness looked at the picture or video and then described it.

If the jury members wanted to watch, they had that option. Wayne Phoel declined. He believed the Americans had been killed. He said watching the videos wasn’t necessary.

EICHER: But if the prosecution’s evidence in the Elsheikh case was difficult to take in emotionally, the defense presented difficult evidence, too. Difficult in the sense that it posed a challenge to the prosecutor’s burden: guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

The so-called ISIS Beatles wore masks when interacting with the hostages. And in the case of ElSheikh, the jury never heard his voice. So the defense argument tried to take advantage of that.

PHOEL: The Beatles were really, diligent about protecting their identity. So they always had their faces covered. And when they came in, all the hostages had to be kneeling, facing the wall. They weren't ever allowed to look up at any of the Beatles.

Unlike the movies where the victim points to the guy who did the crime: “That man sitting right there!”

But one of the other trial witnesses was a former ISIS member who did make a visual i.d.

PHOEL: Somebody who had been in ISIS and had been captured who claimed to have seen them in some ISIS headquarters. And so he could make a visual i.d.

REICHARD: The prosecutors also presented evidence of Elsheihk giving interviews on TV. Those revealed insider knowledge of the events like locations, timelines, personal details of the hostages.

One of the most touching pieces of evidence related to journalist James Foley. He was held hostage with a man from Holland, a photographer set to be released.

But James Foley?

PHOEL: Near the end it became clear that the Americans were never going to be released.

ROUGH: Still, Foley wanted to give his parents a message. So he wrote a four-page letter that the photographer memorized every single word of.

PHOEL: And one of the first things he did when he got released was call up his parents… [voice breaks].

He recited the entire letter to Foley’s parents.

REICHARD: Overall, the trial took about two weeks. The jury convicted Elsheikh of all eight counts he was charged with, ranging from hostage-taking to conspiracy to murder.

Wayne Phoel wasn’t allowed to talk about the case to anyone during the trial, not other members on the jury, not his spouse or kids. But wife Cindy could see the toll the trial was taking on him.

ROUGH: She said she’d never seen him so sad. After the trial, when he finally could talk about all he’d been carrying inside, they had long conversations over dinner.

Cindy recalls waking up one night smelling smoke. It was the outdoor fire pit.

CINDY PHOEL: And Wayne had made himself a fire and was just sitting out there watching fire. I was amazed that there was a lot of processing for him to do. He was never going to be able to unhear what he had experienced. I mean, this was not a triumphant ending by any stretch of the imagination.

EICHER: The sentencing phase is separate from the trial phase. And when Wayne Phoel saw an announcement in the news that the sentencing date had been scheduled, he and his wife decided to attend together. He was the only jury member there.

They thought it might bring closure.

ROUGH: They also thought it would be just perfunctory. A judge handing down a prison term. But it was so much more.

CINDY PHOEL: I guess we should have understood something was going happen when we saw somebody distributing tissue packets.

Before the judge issued the sentence, the families read victim impact statements.

CINDY PHOEL: What we hadn't anticipated was that there would be two hours of families trying to articulate how horrible this had been for them. And it was like a really emotional experience. I mean, even the judge, his voice broke. Even the defense lawyers, you saw them dabbing their eyes.

I asked Wayne Phoel what has stayed with him the most from this jury experience. Two things, he said. First, that all four Americans went overseas to help.

WAYNE PHOEL: These people, they weren't on a side. They would go into the thick of things, and if there's somebody injured, they're gonna help them.

And the second thing was that many of the hostages who did get released are still doing similar things to what they had been doing before they were captured.

WAYNE PHOEL: There were at least two journalists who came back from Ukraine in order to be witnesses at the trial. I think a lot of the aid workers are still working for these aid organizations.

Right back in the field making the daily decision to bless others instead of hurt them.

That’s this week’s Legal Docket. I’m Jenny Rough.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: the Monday Moneybeat.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Time now to talk business markets and the economy with financial analyst and advisor David Bahnsen. David is head of the wealth management firm, the Bahnsen Group, he is here now, David, good morning to you.

DAVID BAHNSEN: Well, good morning. Great to be with you.

EICHER: David, the regular listener has gotten relatively comfortable with a term you use to talk about the lackluster growth in the U.S. economy, saying we’ve taken to “Japanification,” and now just as soon as we’ve gotten used to that term, now you’ve started writing about “Chinafication.” Maybe you need to walk through what you mean by that!

BAHNSEN: Well, in a sense, you know, they're all kind of the same term. And it's, I'm glad to hear that listeners may be getting used to the term Japanification, because it's sort of a word I made up. And if I'm influencing people's vocabulary that way, that's nice to hear. The concept, of course, is borrowing off of what the lessons of Japan the experience of Japan, over the last 30 years has been that I primarily focus on the lessons in America, United States Post financial crisis, that after 2008, we had a major asset bubble burst went into a deflationary spiral. asset prices were dropping faster than we could reduce debt. And we chose to treat this problem with a avalanche of both fiscal and monetary stimulus by fiscal I mean, we spent a ton of governmental money, of course, borrowed money. And then with monetary, I mean, we used the Federal Reserve tools to try to reflate the economy and went to a 0% interest rate for many, many years. And my belief is that Japan did it. United States did it. And what they got out of it, is this downward pressure on economic growth, very, very subpar economic growth. And so Chinafication is just simply taking the exact same concepts, and suggesting that China may be on the verge of doing the same thing. And my most recent dividend Cafe is looking at the parts we do know net, which is that China's in a real economic slowdown. And that at the heart of that slowdown is their property market, their real estate market, their construction industry, grinding to a halt, having achieved a bubble like status, and now coming back down to planet earth. And now them being at a crossroads. Are they going to use fiscal and monetary interventions to support that market to try to stave off the deflationary forces it's generating, and therefore invite Japanification into China. But I think that the goal would be for them to export their deflation around the world, which is most certainly what Japan did. And what really all countries are trying to do use their currency and use the the global nature of the economy to take some of their weaknesses, and do their best to export them around the globe. What us all share a little bit and the declining growth. And there's a lot on the line here besides just what anecdotally happens to China.

EICHER: As I was listening to you talk, David, about similarities between Chinafication and Japanification, I wondered about the differences. Japan is an ally, Its prime minister with our president at Camp David.

China is, depending on who’s saying it, a rival at best, an enemy at worst.

Japan is more of a western-style open society, free elections. China is a totalitarian state.

I wonder how those differences figure in your analysis.

BAHNSEN: Well, we have to be a little bit honest about this Japan, we can call Western economy but Japan doesn't even pretend that their central bank and their government are separate functions, they work as one in the same. Now China despite the fact that they are a totalitarian and communist state, which refers very specifically to their appalling lack of civic freedom, religious freedom, and political freedom. China does allow the ownership of private property, they have an obscure hybrid of economic freedom with a lack of political and civic freedom. Now, I would argue, and I think you would do and I bet most of our listeners would, that that's not good enough that what they're doing in economic freedom is ultimately really not even all that free because they still have the ability to come take it back and they can imprison people and things of that nature. But my point being that economically, humans act in China off of economic incentives, humans act in Japan and America off of economic incentives, China over the last 40 years. This has dramatically changed what their economic landscape looks like. It looks far more Western than sometimes certain Western economies do. And I would suggest that sometimes Japan's economy looks more Eastern. But you're very right. The communist nature of China's government complicates it. What I would argue is more complicated is that China has the ability to accelerate their Japan vacation because they can intervene in markets more directly. When the United States came in and did Fannie Freddie or when they took over General Motors, or when they did the TARP legislation that involves injecting equity in our financial firms, it was highly controversial, it was really difficult to do in our form of government. China has the ability right now to just simply prop up their property developers that are state owned, and do so at the expense of the non state owned property developers. And so there is almost an ability to get more juice out of their interventions. And none of those things I would see as a positive.

EICHER: I’m reminded of the cliche, beloved in economic or geopolitical journalism, “when the U.S. sneezes, the rest of the world catches cold.” Will we do well to be aware of the economic sniffles in China? We’ve been down that road, so to speak.

BAHNSEN: Yeah, I actually have news for you. The expression was originally when China sneezes, the world catches a cold. And it's been used to apply to both countries so many times that I think that we forget, you know, where it all comes from, because both things are certainly true. All one has to do is just look up, how much product is exported from China to other countries. And by the way, as an import partner to I mean, there are significant industries that different countries, including United States, rely on China as a customer for a lot of things as well. Now all that could be breaking down, a lot of that could be diminishing. I've talked in recent weeks about what I think will take years to play out with a marginal reshoring of a lot of America's manufacturing, particularly around things that are more supply chain critical. And I think that's a much more complicated subject than people act like it is. And yet my point is, no matter what anyone's view of China's role in the global economy, there is very much contagion impact that when they sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold. We've seen this neck loud and clear in recent years, where when China decided to make a change in their currency policy in 2015, the rest of the world went into a total kind of shock around it, when China decides that they need to strengthen their currency, or when they decide they need to weaken their currency that has an impact. And of course, the the same exact thing is true of the dollar as well in the U.S. But I don't think anyone can look at the decisions a major economic powerhouse like the United States or China are making and believe it doesn't impact the rest of the globe.

EICHER: Ok, David Bahnsen is founder, managing partner, and chief investment officer of The Bahnsen Group. You can keep up with David at his personal website, Bahnsen.com. His weekly Dividend Cafe is at dividendcafe.com.

Thank you, David!

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Monday, August 21st. 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. Up next, the WORLD History Book. Twenty years ago, a judge is suspended for refusing to remove a Ten Commandments memorial. Plus, losing contact with an interplanetary probe. But first, 75 years ago this week, the birth of a worldwide church association. Here’s WORLD Radio executive producer Paul Butler.

PAUL BUTLER, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: On the heels of World War II, the international desire for cooperation isn’t just political. It also ecclesiastical.

NEWSREEL: It was a year of great decision. Of decisions made in the final reckoning by people like ourselves. By all of us…

In the summer of 1948, delegates from more than 40 countries and nearly 150 Christian denominations gather in Amsterdam, Holland.

NEWSREEL: The World Council of Churches, is constituted and established.

The ecumenical movement traces its roots to the great Edinburgh missionary conference of 1910 as Christians from many different denominations obey the great commission. An effort interrupted by the second world war.

But once conflict with Germany and Japan is over, the World Council of Churches assembly steps forward to offer hope to the war-torn world.

MUSIC: [OLD HUNDREDTH]

The opening ceremony begins on August 22nd with a procession of delegates—dressed in their national and ecclesiastical vestments, much like the parade of nations during Olympic events. The delegates sing “All People that on Earth do Dwell.”

The World Council of Churches General Secretary describes the present status of the Council as something unprecedented in Church history. He says: “We are a Council of Churches, not the Council of the one undivided Church. Our name indicates our weakness and our shame before God, for there can be and there is finally only one Church of Christ on earth.”

The obvious hope of the delegates is to discover a way forward to at least work together for a common Gospel purpose, if not come together in one unified body.

MUSIC: [A MIGHTY FORTRESS]

The assembly ends on September 4th with the singing of “A Mighty Fortress is our God.” The delegates leave without a comprehensive doctrinal statement that every branch of the Christian Church can fully embrace.

The World Council of Churches assembly meets once every six to eight years. Since its founding, some of its member denominations have left the orthodox tenets of the Christian faith—embracing forms of universalism, syncretism, and unbiblical views of human sexuality. The WCC has come under fire from many of the world’s largest evangelical denominations for leaving the true faith as expressed in its founding documents that reminded its members of Ephesians 4: that God Himself gives the church gifts for the equipping of the saints and the edifying of the body of Christ. Declaring that the unity of the faith only comes through the knowledge of the Son of God.

Next, August 21st, 1993. After an 11 month flight, the Mars Observer probe is fast approaching the red planet. Its mission is to orbit Mars for a full planetary year—687 days—recording data and images to send back to earth.

Three days before its ultimate destination, NASA loses communication with the spacecraft.

NEWSCAST: Somewhere in space tonight the Observer remained silent. America's first mission to Mars in 17 years is in jeopardy, possibly dashing the hopes of hundreds of scientists who've spent years on the project.

NASA is never able to reconnect with the probe. A lengthy investigation concludes that the probable cause of the failure is a fuel line rupture. The failed mission cost the space agency more than $800 million dollars. Although it wasn’t a total loss as NASA collected a lot of flight data…information that’s proven useful in its later missions to Mars.

And we end today with a battle over the ten commandments. It began in 1992 when Alabama circuit judge Roy Moore hangs a wooden plaque of the commandments in his courtroom. He carved it himself. When Moore becomes Chief Justice in 2001 he promises that “God's law will be publicly acknowledged in our court.”

On July 31st he installs a large stone monument in the courthouse rotunda without informing the eight associate justices.

He later told WSFA channel 12 news:

MOORE: We must acknowledge God to have a moral basis for our society and to retain that freedom of conscience which every person in this state in this country recognizes as very important.

On November 18th, 2002, U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson orders the monument removed for violating the constitution’s ban on government establishment of religion. Thompson gives Moore an ultimatum: remove the monument by August 20th, 2003, or face the possibility of fines. Chief Justice Moore refuses. Four days before the deadline, he addresses a rally of supporters:

ROY MOORE: It's not about politics. It's not about religion. Let's get it straight. It's about one thing, it's about the acknowledgement of the God on which this nation in our laws are based.

Moore appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene but it declines to get involved. On August 21st, 2003, the Associate Justices of Alabama Supreme Court unanimously order the building manager to remove the monument. The next day, the State Judicial Inquiry Commission suspends Chief Justice Moore.

He tells C-SPAN:

MOORE: The monument is simply an acknowledgement of the moral foundation of our law. Our foundation is found in Holy Scriptures. It's clear from the very outset of this country that the moral foundation of law comes from the Bible.

Not only is the monument removed, but on November 13th, 2003, the Alabama Court of the Judiciary removes Roy Moore from office as chief justice.

Today, the 10 Commandments monument is on display once again in Montgomery, Alabama. This time at the offices of The Foundation for Moral Law, a religious liberty advocacy group started by Justice Moore.

That’s this week’s WORLD History Book. I’m Paul Butler.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: New York wants schools to get rid of Native American nicknames and logos, but one high school is pushing back. We’ll hear why.

And, the bike whisperer! You’ll hear from a man who helps kids overcome fear of learning to ride a bike without training wheels.

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.

Jesus said to His disciples: “When you pray, say: “Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.” Luke chapter 11, verses 2 through 4.

Go now in grace and peace.

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