The World and Everything in It: August 24, 2023

PREROLL: The World and Everything in It is made possible by listeners like us. My name is Shane Comeaux and I live in Leesburg, Virginia. I was first introduced to the podcast by my friend and fellow Keller Williams Realtor, Steve McIlvaine, three years ago, and I have not missed an episode since. Hope you enjoy today's program.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Good morning!

Republican candidates debated in Milwaukee last night. What was it like without Donald Trump?

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: Kent Covington has a roundtable discussion ahead. Also, mixed gender restrooms in airports are being billed as a way to solve a variety of problems, but what are the unintended consequences of putting men and women in the same space?

Plus, a seminary in Poland is giving Ukrainian refugee children an opportunity to find hope.

AUDIO: Some of them are staying here only with one of their parents because their dads are at war. And they need a lot of support, love, and compassion.

 And WORLD commentator Cal Thomas on the decline in education standards.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Thursday, August 24th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

BUTLER: And I’m Paul Butler. Good morning!

BROWN: Up next, Kristen Flavin with today’s news.

KRISTEN FLAVIN, NEWS ANCHOR: Guiliani / Trump surrender » Former President Trump is expected to turn himself in at a jail in Atlanta today.

He’s facing state charges related to alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is one of Trump’s 18 co-defendants. He surrendered on Wednesday after telling reporters …

GIULIANI: This will be proven to be, like all the rest, a complete hoax and a lie — one of the worst actually, because of all the people that brings in who really don’t deserve this.

Giuliani is Trump’s former personal lawyer. His bond was set at $150,000.

Like Giuliani, Trump maintains he did nothing wrong and that the prosecution is nothing more than a political persecution.

The defendants in the case were given until Friday to turn themselves in.

Mar-a-Lago witness » Meantime, a new development in a separate federal case surrounding Trump’s handling of classified documents. WORLD’s Anna Johansen Brown reports.

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN: The Department of Justice says a witness has retracted “prior false testimony” and provided new information implicating Trump.

Court papers identify him as the IT director at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago estate.

Prosecutors believe he took part in an effort to delete security video footage to obstruct the DOJ’s investigation.

They say he testified in March that he could not recall any conversations about the footage, but after changing lawyers, he has also changed his story.

For WORLD, I’m Anna Johansen Brown.

Russia plane crash Prigozhin » Yevgeny Prigozhin, the mercenary leader who staged a short-lived mutiny in Moscow earlier this year, is dead.

A private jet crashed in Russia on Wednesday, killing all 10 people aboard. And Prigozhin was on the passenger list.

President Biden reacted hours later:

BIDEN: I don’t know for a fact what happened, but I’m not surprised.

Republican Congressman James Comer agrees.

COMER: I don’t think anyone should be surprised. We’ve seen a history and a pattern here with respect to Putin’s enemies meeting untimely deaths.

The Kremlin previously said it was exiling the founder of the Wagner mercenary group to Belarus. But he reportedly was seen in Russia just days later.

South Carolina abortion ruling » South Carolina is reinstating a pro-life law after a ruling by the state’s highest court. WORLD’s Josh Schumacher reports:

JOSH SCHUMACHER: In a 4-to-1 vote, the state’s Supreme Court upheld a law that protects the unborn after a heartbeat is detectable, usually around 6 weeks gestation.

Justice John W. Kittredge wrote in his majority opinion that the law, in his view, does violate women's privacy, but he said the unborn child’s right to live is more important.

The decision overturns a lower court ruling that struck down the law.

For WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher.

Heat alerts » Across the United States today, more than 100 million people are under hot weather alerts with a heat dome parked over much of the South and Midwest.

Rich Otto with the National Weather Service:

OTTO: Index values forecast for today are going to extend from the central Gulf coast all the way up in towards the upper Great Lakes region, 100 plus degrees. 110-220.

At least 17 states face excessive heat warnings or advisories.

But forecasters expect some relief over the weekend.

AUDIO: Soft landing on the moon. India is on the moon.

Moon landing » India’s Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft has successfully touched down on the moon’s South Pole, becoming the first craft to land in the region.

Astrophysics professor Jack Burns says the area may contain water, ice, and other resources that could be valuable for future exploration.

BURNS: Longer term going to Mars and beyond is something that’s certainly in our ambition.

Several countries are aiming to establish a presence on the moon’s south pole.

A Russian spacecraft crashed and burned over the weekend attempting to land there.

I'm Kristen Flavin.

Straight ahead: winners and losers at the first Republican primary debate. Plus, summer camp for kids from Ukraine.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Thursday, the 24th of August, 2023.

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

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: I’m Paul Butler.

KENT COVINGTON: And I’m Kent Covington. First up: last night’s Republican primary debate.

BROWN: Well, the big GOP debate is in the books and Kent is here. His newsroom was debate central and he’s going to walk us through that first-of-the-season presidential debate night.

COVINGTON: All right, thanks. Well, it was a very, very different debate tonight without having the front runner on the stage. That's rather unusual. But again, Donald Trump chose to sit out. But that did perhaps supply a little bit more oxygen to the room for everyone else. And joining me now to break down the first presidential debate of 2023, our world writers, politics reporters, Carolina Lumetta and Leo Briceno from the Washington Bureau, and World Opinions commentator Hunter Baker. He is also a professor of political science at Union University. And Hunter, I'll turn to you first. We'll have to wait of course and watch to see in the weeks ahead to see if any of the candidates get a bump in the polls from their performance. But first reactions to you - did anything stand out? In particular?

HUNTER BAKER, GUEST: Yeah, I thought that Vivek Ramaswamy stood out, I thought that he sort of dominated the debate. I think that he took a lot of the oxygen away from Ron DeSantis. And I thought that a lot of the debate was spent with other people reacting to him.

COVINGTON: Yeah, without a doubt. Now, they're just kind of looking at some of the reaction to Vivek. And of course, this is all anecdotal, but it just there seems to be a lot of both a lot of people that were impressed and they really liked them. A lot of people that thought, well, he seemed smug. He seemed overbearing, they didn't learn, they didn't think or they didn't come away with confidence in his ability to lead. So kind of mixed results. But without a question. He's going to be a better known candidate, after last night, but he, one thing that stood out was that he did praise former President Trump fairly lavishly, including this remark:

RAMASWAMY: President Trump, I believe, was the best president of the 21st century.

So that begs the question, and why are you running against him? If he's the greatest president of the century, and Trump recently complimented Vivek as well. So, Leo, what's the strategy here for the Vivek Ramaswamy campaign?

LEO BRICENO, REPORTER: Yeah, I think, as you mentioned earlier, get the eyeballs, right? Get your name out in front of people. And I think last night, he did that, as we were just discussing some of the clips right after the debate took place. We were noticing that a lot of people mentioned Ramaswamy. And that gave him an opening to discuss a lot. He took a lot of heat from a number of people on the stage and that gave him ample opportunity to respond. And so that I think if you're Vivek Ramaswamy that's exactly what you're looking for screen time.

COVINGTON: The parallels with Trump are striking. Obviously, he's a business person with no political experience. Like I said, he's been very he's been very, he's praised President Trump President Trump's complimented him he was he kind of at times seemed almost like a Trump surrogate on the stage really being the the disrupter Carolina, what do you think was Vivek Ramaswamy's strongest moment in the debate?

CAROLINA LUMETTA, REPORTER: I mean, if we're talking in terms of policy, I think we still have to see that because he actually didn't promise too much. He kept his answers very theoretical, talking about fighting woke ism, talking about returning to the American Dream, solving an identity crisis, I think, yeah, his strongest performance was just being so aggressive. And a lot of us thought that DeSantis was going to be the target of a lot of criticism. He's the second runner behind Trump. But Ramaswamy took up so much oxygen and space as a newcomer, and he put everybody else on the defensive by saying I'm the only one on this stage who isn't bought, and every other person on that stage then turned in on him and said, Well, wait, who are you? Who are you to say this to us? He became his own topic. And I think that that propels him forward. But I don't know if that's going to translate into people liking him,

COVINGTON: Right. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, obviously, as you said, Carolina, the second in the polls, a distant second, but still a solid, you know, second solidly ahead of the other candidates for the moment in the polls. He never really engaged in any actual debate that I can remember last night, I don't remember him really asserting himself. Instead, he seemed to sort of wait to be called upon, stick to the script, you know, just kind of delivered a monologue and then waited until he was called upon again. So I don't I don't think there’ll be many people here today saying Ron DeSantis was the clear winner. On the other hand, he didn't really take any damage either. So Hunter, it felt like a safe performance to me. But was that what he needed? How would you evaluate the governor's performance?

BAKER: I agree that he played it safe. I think that he did kind of stay out of the fray. He has the best record, arguably. I mean, you're looking at somebody who, and he mentioned this, somebody who won 60% of the vote in a state that went for Barack Obama. That's impressive. But I just don't think that we saw that on the stage. He left some of it in the locker room or, or it's simply the fact that he is really good at governing and making things happen as an executive, and is less good in this kind of debate chamber environment. But he seemed a little lost. He's, I think he faded, and they're going to have to figure out a way that he can reassert himself.

COVINGTON: From my perspective, I thought DeSantis's strongest moment was probably shutting down the hand raised challenged by the moderators last night and the climate change question they said is manmade climate change is it man caused by show of hands go on the record, show us your hands, Ron DeSantis? Well, here's what he had to say,

DESANTIS: Look, we're not schoolchildren, let's have the debate. I mean, I'm happy to take it to start Alexander. I don't think that's the way to do, so let me just say to Alexander this, first of all, one of...

DeSantis really shut that down. He really took took charge of the stage and said, No, no, we're not going to do that. We're not children. We're not playing that game. And then he took charge and went from there that felt like the strongest moment but what, I'll leave this open to anybody who has a strong opinion about it, what do you think was Ron DeSantis's strongest moment last night?

LUMETTA: In terms of policy discussions, he promised to declare a national emergency over sending money to Ukraine. And that's a pretty controversial opinion, even within Republican circles. So that was where you kind of saw his Governor side come out a little more. And he was pretty firm on the southern border as well. Another one of his promises is that I will send military forces there on day one, to start addressing cartels in the area. So those were the parts where he really was strong. But there just weren't enough of them, I think.

COVINGTON: Well, let's turn to former Vice President Mike Pence, he seemingly has been in kind of an awkward place from day one, you know, on multiple occasions, he found himself defending the record of the Trump administration. I don't know that he's found a way yet to make a case for himself for President without simultaneously making the case for Trump as president, and this, again, is an open question for any of you who'd like to answer: did Pence accomplish what he needed to accomplish last night? And why or why not?

BAKER: Well, vice presidents typically run with the support of the person under whom they served. And that is not available to him. I think that his pitch was the positive achievements of the Trump administration were basically dependent upon him, that he was the guy who knew how to operate the machinery of government. And he was the guy who got things done. But he is in a unique position in terms of American history trying to run without the backing of the person who served as president and that shows in his low poll numbers.

COVINGTON: That's a hard, hard sell to make. I would have to thank now this this is highly anecdotal. But just gauging on initial reactions, it seems like a lot of people were really impressed with former ambassador former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley's performance, she had a huge applause line going after Vivek Ramaswamy, telling him you have no foreign policy experience, and it shows. Carolina, what was your reaction to her performance last night in? How do you think it will move the needle for her campaign, if at all?

LUMETTA: Of all the candidates on the stage, I think she was the one who achieved the most that she really needed to for her campaign. By all metrics, she is a really strong candidate, but she has struggled to get past even 3% in the polls. So she really needed to make a splash last night, and I think that she did, and that came out the most when it came to foreign policy. She really took Vivek Ramaswamy to town on everything he was saying about Ukraine, where she said, “No, I've met with Putin, you don't know who you're dealing with.” And that's the type of language you really want to hear from a candidate like that, especially for the year that we're in. Yeah, I think she gave the strongest performance. I think she made the waves that she needed to, and we'll see if the polls reflect that, but I think there's a really good chance that they will.

COVINGTON: Okay. New Jersey Governor, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, at least to my memory, turned in the only real moment of levity on the night when he was asked this question of all things about UFOs.

MARTHA MACCALLUM: Governor Christie, do you believe that the recent spike in UFO encounters...

CHRISTIE: I get the UFO question?

But he also took Trump to task as he promised he would do, but it was not a friendly crowd for that - he drew a lot of boos when he did. And he really wasn't the same as if Trump was there, he did not get the benefit of being able to go toe to toe with Trump as if he were on the stage with them. So how did the night go for Chris Christie?

BAKER: Well, I thought that Christie had a very good night. He probably got significantly more attention than his current poll numbers would seem to merit. In a lot of ways he's kind of like the politician of yesterday, he was super hot around, say, 2012. And then, you know, faded with sort of a bad second term in New Jersey. But he did really well, in the debate forum last night, probably one of the top four for sure. And I think he's gonna get a second look.

COVINGTON: Hunter, by not attending, perhaps Trump did protect himself or insulate himself to some extent from taking any damage, even though there were some sort of attacks there from a distance. Did that help him or does he risk looking like an absent leader was it a smart decision or No, with a night to sleep on it?

BAKER: It helps him right now. I think that right now, he still has the ability to kind of control his own destiny, that could change as the legal challenges mount. But what he most does not want to happen is to be bested on the debate stage. Right, you know, and somebody like Vivek or or, or maybe Nikki Haley, or Chris Christie, maybe they could land a significant blow, where Trump would not be able to come back with something, something really strong. And I think he wants to avoid that, you know, I don't think that Trump is especially that good as a debater, I think that his policy knowledge is weak, and he can easily be exposed, depending on the flow of a debate. I think he's wise to stay out for now.

COVINGTON: Okay. Lightning round here, let's go around the room so to speak very quickly. Describe a moment or two from this debate very briefly, the voters will still remember a week from now.

LUMETTA: The topic that might stick out for a lot of listeners is how many different candidates had different positions on abortion. Nikki Haley, again discussed how we need federal consensus on maybe a federal solution, maybe a statewide solution. Pence said “No, there absolutely needs to be a 15 week ban.” That was a moment where you really saw a lot of fractures within the primary. And I think that's going to be pretty memorable.

COVINGTON: Hunter, how about you sir?

BAKER: What the media is going to remember is Vivek saying climate change is a hoax. That will be the big takeaway.

COVINGTON: Without a doubt, Leo, how about you, sir?

BRICENO: I'm also going to go to Ramaswamy. I think at one point, he made the claim that the nuclear family is the greatest form of governance known to mankind. I think that's very conservative, as a Christian, I would say, a very Christian thing to say it seems like an appeal to an ethos and a set of ideals. It goes beyond just the set presented by a Republican GOP party as a political function.

COVINGTON: Yep. Good. That was a good line. One more lightning round again, very quickly, who helped themselves the most tonight and why again, we'll start with Carolina.

LUMETTA: Yeah, I've got to say with Nikki Haley, she pulled it through in a lot of the ways that she needed to.

COVINGTON: Okay, Leo very quickly.

BRICENO: I'll also go with Nikki Haley. I think that as far as policy is concerned, she knocked it out of the park.

COVINGTON: All right, Hunter,

BAKER: Nikki Haley and Vivek, both of them, both of them are gonna get a lot of attention based on last night.

COVINGTON: Okay. Leo, really quick before we wrap up here, you were running in circles last night, sir, keeping tabs on former President Trump's pre taped interview with Tucker Carlson, which ran last night. Any big takeaways from that conversation?

BRICENO: Yeah, I think the number one question out of Tucker's mouth was “Trump, why are you not on the stage with your fellow Republicans?” And his answer was, “Listen, I don't need to be on that stage.” And I think that while in a sense, it's a little bit of a shield against maybe some of the criticisms, maybe some of the attacks you would have faced from other candidates. I don't think he's wrong. I mean, he's beating everyone else in the field by at least 20 points. And quite frankly, when you can have 40 minutes to have a one on one conversation with a communicator that has an incredibly large following that you know i's going to be feeding you questions that aren't necessarily antagonistic, right? Why would you not take that opportunity? When on a Republican debate stage, you'd have to be fighting for every 15 to 30 seconds wherever you can get a sound bite. So I think that while he, in his 40 minutes with Tucker, he didn't necessarily focus on any one policy idea, it was very much the continuation of an entire volume of conversations that we've had with Trump on immigration, domestic policy with the economy, with his indictments, with election fraud. It felt like just a continuation of themes that he's been playing on for years.

COVINGTON: Okay, Hunter Baker, Carolina Lumetaa and Leo Briceno, thank you all.

LUMETTA: Thanks for having us.

BAKER: Thank you.

BRICENO: Thanks.

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: a new public restroom at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: But this restroom at Sea-Tac may not be what you expect. WORLD’s Juliana Chan Erikson explains.

JULIANA CHAN ERICKSON, REPORTER: OK, we’ve all been there. You’re about to board a flight, so you make a beeline for the airport restroom.

AUDIO: [Toilet flushing]

But if you duck into the Concourse D restroom at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, you won’t see the traditional stick figures separating the men’s rooms from the women’s. Instead you’ll see a black and white outline of a toilet and a sign saying “all people and families may use this restroom.”

That’s the new multi-user all-gender restroom. It opened last month at Sea-Tac, and it’s one of about a handful of U.S. airports to debut such a design. Inside are ten floor-to-ceiling fully enclosed stalls, a set of urinals in the back obscured with frosted glass, and shared sinks up front. Perry Cooper, spokesperson for the Port of Seattle, says the airport prioritized making restrooms more accessible.

COOPER: It provides that opportunity for folks with a little bit different situations that they may have, whether it's everything from single moms to folks that may be traveling with the people who need some extra help like those who might be on the autism spectrum or, you know, cross gender situations.

That nod to 'cross-gender situations' concerns some people—and we’ll get to that in a moment—but others point to more practical reasons to support the model. Steve Soifer, founder and former president of the American Restroom Association, says the new approach will allow companies to save money on plumbing fixtures. Plus, women will be less likely to wait in long lines. And if it’s in a high traffic area, a gender-neutral restroom might be safer.

SOIFER: I personally believe it's the design of the future. And I think it's trendy now. The question is whether it will root itself in the culture.

But not everyone likes the idea. Julie Barrett says her 17 year old daughter was at Sea-Tac earlier this month, and like most travelers, she wanted to use the restroom before she boarded her flight.

BARRETT: I got a text from her saying that she went into the bathroom. And all these men were in the bathroom. And she couldn't believe it.

Frightened and not sure what to do, Barrett’s daughter ended up boarding the plane and using the bathroom onboard.

As president of the Conservative Ladies of Washington, Barrett says she’s worried these restrooms will allow people to prey on children traveling alone—like her daughter.

BARRETT: I think it puts women and children, children especially, at great risk for sexual predators. I think we're really opening the door for sexual predators to be able to have access to young children. Especially when you look at these unaccompanied minors traveling on their own, that really gives predators access to these kids that they absolutely should not have. And that's very scary.

Brad Payne is the Policy and Government Affairs Director for the Family Policy Institute of Washington. He’s also an ordained evangelical pastor, and he takes issue with the term “all-gender.”

PAYNE: I still hold to the old fashion, belief that there is just, you can, if you want to use the term gender, it’s okay. But there’s just two sexes, male and female.

He says it also feeds the myth that there are more than two genders, and that gender determines which restroom people should use.

PAYNE: I just think that, you know, intermingling idea is, again, it's just a very small, it's, in my mind, it's a very small step, a very small step, but it's one of those steps on that slippery slope that the more we can convince people that that there are multiple genders, and that, that we need to I guess, accommodate all of their specific requirements or their desires.

Sea-Tac still has single-sex restrooms alongside the new space. There are more than one-hundred twenty traditional restrooms in the airport and the nearest one is just a two minute walk away.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Juliana Chan Erikson.

BUTLER: Juliana Chan Erikson is WORLD’s marriage and family reporter. If you’d like to keep up to date on other stories like this one, sign-up for her weekly Relations newsletter at wng.org/relations.

COLE DOSS: Weather in Madrid upon arrival.

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: On a recent United Airlines flight to Madrid, pilot Cole Doss welcomed passengers aboard and praised his flight crew. Audio here from Doss’s Instagram account:

DOSS: One of these flight attendants in particular working with us today is not only an exceptional flight attendant, but also my exceptional mom. [CHEERS]

Doss thanked his mom—a 45-year veteran with United—for being his biggest supporter ever since his first flight lesson.

DOSS: I'm especially honored and excited to be able to fly her for the first time today and to be able to share this experience with all of you.

Brings a new twist to United’s classic slogan.

DOSS: I love you mom. And to everyone on board. Welcome aboard our family friendly skies.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Now that’ll melt a mama’s heart.

BUTLER: It’s The World and Everything in It.

SOUND: [JET FLYBY]

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday, August 24th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day. Good morning. I’m Myrna Brown.

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: And I’m Paul Butler. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Kids camp in war-time.

It’s now been nearly 18 months since Russian soldiers invaded Ukraine. In those months, over 6 million refugees left Ukraine, almost a third of them children.

BROWN: So far, Poland has welcomed the most Ukrainian refugees to Europe. Churches in Poland continue opening their doors to help their neighbors. And some Ukrainian Christians who are refugees themselves are using their time and efforts to bring hope to children whose lives have been turned upside down.

BUTLER: WORLD Associate correspondent Caleb Welde recently visited Warsaw, Poland, and brought back this story.

CALEB WELDE, ASSOCIATE CORRESPONDENT: About 80 kids are gathered in the basement of a small seminary. It’s nestled in the forests outside Warsaw.

AUDIO: [Natalia talking to children]

Natalia Karamalak and her husband Sergey are leading a summer camp for kids ages 7 to 11. The vast majority of them, refugees from Ukraine.

AUDIO: [Children singing]

Tonight is the last night of camp. It’s been a full week. The days were filled with morning dance parties, sports, games, arts and crafts, compass lessons, and English lessons. In the evenings, the kids acted out Bible stories.

SERGEY: [Sharing Gospel]

Tonight, things finally settle down as Sergey tells the story of Jesus' death and resurrection, and the promise of forgiveness and new life.

SERGEY: [Gospel presentation]

In addition to teaching English, the camp is an opportunity to build relationships and share the gospel. Volunteer Tanya Melnickova says most of the children are still processing the trauma of fleeing their homes and living in a new country.

SHEVCHUK: Some of them are staying here only with one of their parents because their dads are at war. And they need a lot of support, love, and compassion.

Tanya, Natalia, and Sergey are refugees from Ukraine themselves. Their own lives have been drastically changed by war. Tanya’s fiance was the one who told her when the bombs started falling. At first, they postponed their wedding until better times. But after months of the war dragging on, they changed their minds.

SHEVCHUK: And we decided not to lose time and to get married. And in three months, we had like a small ceremony, like not the ceremony we expected to have, actually. But that was a close circle of friends, relatives, we gathered together, we celebrated.

In two days, Tanya will return to her home in Lutsk in northwestern Ukraine. With Russian attacks on the rise again, the nights are filled with air raid sirens.

SHEVCHUK: Every night, we have alarms because of shelling because of missiles being launched because of drones being launched, and we never know where they would go. And what saves me, like in this situation, and my husband, it's really the peace that God gives, because before going to sleep, we just pray together, we ask God to protect us, and we fall asleep. And sometimes we even don't wake up through alarms, like we just don't hear them, and then wake up in the morning and continue doing what we are supposed to do.

She says she can’t imagine going through this ordeal without the peace that only comes from God. And that’s the reason she is here, sharing the good news of Christ with refugee children.

It hasn’t been easy: Camp leaders had to send home seven children because of behavioral issues related to traumas they’ve experienced. One child’s older brother committed suicide during the week she was here. And while these kids slept safely at camp this week, a Russian missile attack on an apartment building in Lviv killed 10 people and injured 48 more.

AUDIO: [Children at camp]

Camp wraps up Friday evening. Afterward, Sergey Karamalak and his family drive two hours to another city to lead a weekend retreat for Ukrainian Sunday school teachers. On Monday, they’ll begin another week-long kids’ camp, hoping to share God’s peace with more of their fellow countrymen.

All the volunteers understand why it’s important to preach the gospel now. One girl prayed to receive Jesus at camp. When she went home, she found out that her father had been killed at the front.

SHEVCHUK: We realize that we can't lose any moment– no postponing, no putting off life. No putting off serving, no putting off saying kind things to each other. And that's it, we continue living.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Caleb Welde, in Warsaw, Poland.

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: Today is Thursday, August 24th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Paul Butler.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. Up next: Commentator Cal Thomas on the decline in education standards for American children.

CAL THOMAS, COMMENTATOR: As millions of children return to public school, it’s a good idea to again examine what they are being taught and what is being left out. It also offers an annual opportunity for parents to ask if their kids are being educated or indoctrinated.

At the recent convention of the National Education Association in Orlando, Florida, reports told of delegates waving rainbow signs proclaiming: “freedom to teach” and “freedom to learn.” The delegates ignored parental concerns over pornography in certain books and tarred conservative politicians as book banners. Peculiar how it’s “academic freedom” to introduce books that promote behavior and ideas many parents oppose, but “censorship” to object to them.

The NEA loudly supports “reproductive rights” for women. And delegates continue to favor the LGBTQ-plus agenda, which professes to advocate for sexual and gender equality under the law.

How is any of this preparing children to compete with China and other nations in math, reading, and science?

It is not. The New York Times reported last October: “U.S. students in most states and across almost all demographic groups have experienced troubling setbacks in both math and reading. … In math, the results were especially devastating, representing the steepest declines ever recorded on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), known as the nation’s report card, which tests a broad sampling of fourth and eighth graders and dates to the early 1990s.”

The Covid-19 pandemic is blamed for some of the decline, but as the NAEP notes, the trend has been headed downward for many years.

It hasn’t always been this way. In a 2006 column for WORLD Magazine, Joel Belz recalled a 1924 education pamphlet designed to prepare eighth graders for high school. It had the lengthy title “Stephenson’s Iowa State Eighth Grade Examination Question Book.” Belz thinks most high school seniors today would find the questions challenging.

They include questions about arithmetic, like this one: “A wall 77 feet long, 6½ feet high, and 14 inches thick is built of bricks costing $9.00 per M. What was the entire cost of the bricks if 22 bricks were sufficient to make a cubic foot of wall?”

One prompt on grammar reads: “Define five of the following terms: antecedent, tense, object, conjugation, auxiliary verb, expletive, reflexive pronoun.”

Regarding civil government, the book asks students to “Name three township, three county, and three state officers and state what office each person holds…”

I’m betting not many students today could name their members of Congress, much less local officials.

Other categories were geography, history, music, reading, and physiology. These were supported by a daily salute to the American flag and other expressions of patriotism.

Who decided these subjects and practices were unnecessary to equip children to become good citizens and lead prosperous and healthy lives? Is it the teacher’s unions and other activists who see schools not as places for education, but as indoctrination centers for their secular-progressive worldview?

Some parents have begun moving away from public schools. Increasing numbers are homeschooling their children or taking advantage of school choice programs.

For the rest, get them out now if you can and while you are still able to save their minds and the country.

I’m Cal Thomas.

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: Tomorrow: Culture Friday with John Stonestreet. Monday marks the 60th anniversary of the march on Washington D.C. This year’s commemoration has a very different emphasis.

And a faith-based movie about a baseball player with a degenerative spinal disease is in theaters this week. Is The Hill a home-run?

And your listener feedback. That and more tomorrow. I’m Paul Butler.

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

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

Job writes: “I have sewed sackcloth over my skin and buried my brow in the dust. My face is red with weeping, dark shadows ring my eyes; yet my hands have been free of violence and my prayer is pure.” Job chapter 16, verses 15 though 17.

Go now in grace and peace.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.