The World and Everything in It - August 4, 2021

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

The massive infrastructure bill: what’s in it and what will it mean for Americans? We’ll talk about it.

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

Also World Tour.

Plus bringing the gospel to Olympians.

And the joys of jigsaw.

REICHARD: It’s Wednesday, August 4th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

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

REICHARD: Now the news. Here’s Kent Covington.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: CDC announces new eviction moratorium » The Biden administration announced a new 60-day eviction ban on Tuesday that will apply to most of the country until early October.

The U.S. Supreme Court allowed the CDC’s prior eviction ban to remain in place until it expired on July 31st. But the court indicated that it would not uphold another extension.

The CDC, however, said it identified a legal authority for a different moratorium. Hours earlier, President Biden told reporters at the White House …

BIDEN: My hope is that it’s going to be a new moratorium that in some way covers close to 90 percent of the American people who are renters.

The CDC allowed the prior eviction ban to expire at the end of July. Citing the Supreme Court’s ruling, the Biden administration said it did not have legal authority to extend it further. The administration said states and cities must be more aggressive in releasing nearly $47 billion in relief for renters on the verge of eviction.

But Democratic lawmakers kept pressure on the White House to extend the moratorium in spite of the high court ruling.

Biden touts vaccinations, urges action to reach holdouts » Also at the White House Tuesday the president touted an uptick in new vaccinations.

BIDEN: Over the past two weeks, the eight states with the highest current case rates have seen a doubling of the number of people newly vaccinated each day.

The United States this week finally reached Biden’s goal of getting at least one COVID-19 shot into the arms of 70 percent of adults … a month later than he president hoped.

Cases continue to rise nationally. Most new infections and the overwhelming majority of serious cases are among unvaccinated Americans.

With that in mind, Biden made another appeal to those who have not yet received a shot.

In an effort to persuade the unvaccinated, the president said he’s urging states to offer $100 cash incentives. Several states have done so, and Biden said daily vaccinations are up 25 percent in those states.

He also called on businesses to incentivize vaccinations for employees.

NYC, Louisiana implement new pandemic mandates » Meantime, more states and cities are introducing new mandates to try and halt the spread of the delta variant.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Tuesday announced unprecedented regulations.

DE BLASIO: The Key to NYC pass will be a first-in-the-nation approach. It will require vaccination for workers and customers in indoor dining, in indoor fitness facilities, indoor entertainment facilities.

That means customers at those New York businesses will have to show proof of vaccination. The city plans to start enforcing the program on September 13th.

And the state of Louisiana has ordered nearly everyone, vaccinated or not, to wear masks again in all indoor public settings.

The delta variant is hitting the south especially hard. Florida on Sunday broke a previous record for current hospitalizations due to COVID-19.

Cuomo defiant after probe says he sexually harassed 11 women » New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is pushing back against the findings of a state investigation into sexual harassment claims against him.

The state’s Democratic Attorney General Latitia James announced those findings on Tuesday.

JAMES: The independent investigation found that Gov. Cuomo sexually harassed multiple women, many of whom were young women, by engaging in unwanted groping, kisses, hugging, and by making inappropriate comments.

The nearly five-month investigation, led by two outside lawyers, concluded that 11 women who made accusations against him were telling the truth.

But Cuomo said the accusations are not accurate.

CUOMO: I never touched anyone inappropriately or made inappropriate sexual advances.

The probe also determined that Cuomo worked to retaliate against one of his accusers.

Following the report, many, including President Biden, called on the Democratic governor to resign immediately. But Cuomo again said he’s not going anywhere.

Taliban take much of provincial capital in south Afghanistan » The Taliban pressed ahead with their advances in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday. It has now captured nine out of 10 districts of the capital city in Helmand province.

Afghan government forces launched airstrikes, backed by the U.S. military, in a desperate effort to defend the city.

The fall of Lashkar Gah would be a major turning point in the offensive the Taliban has waged in recent months as U.S. and NATO forces withdraw.

It would also be the first provincial capital the Taliban has captured in years.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell had sharp words for the White House on Tuesday.

MCCONNELL: The president’s rushed pullback from Afghanistan has left our friends and partners in the lurch and rolled out the red carpet for a Taliban takeover. It is already underway.

The Afghan military dispatched elite commando units to help protect key government buildings, including the local police and army headquarters. But some fear it’s only a matter of time before Taliban forces overrun those facilities.

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: What’s in the Senate’s $1 trillion dollar infrastructure bill?

Plus, puzzling and providence.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Wednesday the 4th of August, 2021.

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

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

It’s time for Washington Wednesday. Today: The infrastructure of the infrastructure bill.

A group of senators from both parties on Sunday finished writing the first draft of a roughly $1 trillion dollar program.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is about 2,700 pages thick. It calls for $550 billion in new spending over five years over and above already-planned spending. It would fund work on a wide range of public works projects.

While a bipartisan group of negotiators was able to come together, it remains to be seen if the final bill can muster enough GOP votes to avoid other Republicans blocking it with a filibuster.

REICHARD: So what exactly is in the bill? How would it be paid for? And what will it all mean for American taxpayers?

Joining us now to help answer those questions is Chris Edwards. He’s an economist and Director of Tax Policy Studies at the Cato Institute. Chris, good morning!

EDWARDS: Hey, thanks for having me today.

REICHARD: First of all, Chris, give us a high level snapshot of what’s in the bill and where all that money would go.

EDWARDS: Well, Congress was scheduled to reauthorize its regular highway programs this year anyway. And that would have cost about $500 billion or so, anyway, this new bill that the Congress is now considering would essentially double that amount of money up to a trillion dollars, as you mentioned. So this bill would spend a lot of money on things the federal government already spends money on, like highways and transit, but it would add in a bunch of new subsidies for things like electric utilities, broadband and electric vehicle charging stations.

REICHARD: One concern raised by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle is potential corporate welfare within this bill? Chris, from what you’ve read, what is fueling those concerns?

EDWARDS: Yeah. I'm really concerned about this aspect of the bill that it goes into new areas of federal subsidization for privately owned infrastructure. So it would provide $73 billion to electric utilities to expand their transmission grid, it would provide 7 billion for electric vehicle charging stations, it would provide 65 billion for broadband in rural areas. I think that's a dangerous area for the federal government to get involved in. Because then, you know, other industries that provide private sector infrastructure are now going to start lobbying Washington for their own subsidies. Electric vehicle charging stations, some of your listeners may not know but there's already about 30,000 electric vehicle charging stations installed across the country by the private sector. If you go to your local Target or Walmart, they're already putting in these charging stations. So in my from my perspective, I'd say hey, let's let the private sector do this. electric vehicles are increasingly popular, and the private private industry already has a lot of incentive to put in these stations themselves. So I don't think we need the additional federal subsidies here.

REICHARD: Not to mention that most people that I know couldn’t afford an electric car right now anyway so why would we have federal spending to fund what rich people can buy.

EDWARDS: There is a lot that have that sort of subsidize the rich stuff going on with federal infrastructure spending. Another good example is transit spending. You know, most Federal Transit subsidies actually go into light rail systems and Amtrak and if you look actually the demographics of who uses those projects, it tends to be the elite upper middle income higher income people, and indeed some of the federal subsidies for cities that encourage them to build a light rail system, they take money away from their bus systems, which are the systems that are the most help to lower income workers who need to get to their jobs. So, you know, I'm concerned about that bias towards rail with these federal subsidies as well.

REICHARD: Well, I know the two sides disagreed throughout this process on how to pay for the infrastructure spending. How did they resolve those differences so far and how would this bill pay for it?

EDWARDS: Well, Congress likes to spend, of course, and neither party likes to raise the taxes to pay for it. And that's why we have such massive federal deficits already. Unfortunately, this bill is kind of unpaid for, and it will push the costs on to taxpayers down the road. There's some accounting sleight of hand here. I mean, for example, the supporters of the bill say that there's $200 billion of money that has already been authorized for previous pandemic spending that is now going to be repurposed for this infrastructure bill. But really, I'd like to see that money pay down the debt. If we have extra money that wasn't spent on unemployment insurance benefits, for example, I'd rather use that money to pay down debt rather than this new spending. I mean, ultimately, federal government spending is going to land on taxpayers if we were going to increase debt now. And that means taxpayers in the future will have to pay those higher charges, then.

REICHARD: So just to be clear as it stands now this bill would merely add to the national debt? It doesn’t do anything to ameliorate that.

EDWARDS: That's right. There are some sort of revenue raisers. But they're pretty minor, mainly. We're going to be adding more borrowing. The federal deficits already $3 trillion this year, an enormous amount of money. So we would be adding to that with his bill.

REICHARD: GOP Sen. Rob Portman said this bill will help the United States better compete with China and would make the economy more efficient and productive. Chris, doesn’t this bill help to do those some of those things, at least somewhat?

EDWARDS: I don't think so. And here's why I say that because state governments own most of the government infrastructure in America. So for example, the entire interstate highway system may surprise some of your listeners, it's actually owned by state governments, and transit systems run by local governments. So if those state and local governments think that they could increase the efficiency of their state economy with more investment, they would be doing it already. Many state governments already have their own gas taxes that fund their own highway systems, they've got income and sales taxes, they already spend a lot on their own infrastructure. And if they want to spend more, they are free to do so. I don't see any advantage in Washington coming in and increasing spending for every state, every state has different needs. You know, to give you an example, I mean, the southern states, Florida and Texas are growing rapidly. They have new, higher demands for new highway infrastructure. Well, great, they can raise their own taxes to fund their own highway expansion. Some of the slower growing states in the northeast, they don't need new highway capacity. So we shouldn't be, you know, spending so much money there. So I think that's the problem when Washington comes in, it's sort of a one size fits all. And I think the states are really, you know, they're they're capable of funding their own infrastructure.

REICHARD: Anything else in this bill that really caught your attention?

EDWARDS: Well, one interesting part of the the infrastructure bill is that they, you know, the Biden administration is very interested in taking steps to avert climate change, and you know, which is a sensible goal. But the interesting thing about this infrastructure bill is it is not funded in a green manner. And what I mean here is this is that the green way to fund infrastructure is by user charges. So if you want people to use highways less, you should increase the gas taxes so that they drive less. If you want people to conserve water, you ought to increase user charges for water in order to do new water investment. Yeah. But this bill, the the, the infrastructure bill does the opposite. So for example, it would subsidize electric vehicle charging stations. Well, that's sort of subsidizing people to use energy. It seems to me that you'd want to fund electric vehicle charging stations by user charges on the draw on drivers. So I think there's a missed opportunity here that we could have moved America's infrastructure more towards Green financing by increasing user charges to fund new infrastructure spending, not by subsidizing it with federal deficits and future taxes.

REICHARD: Chis Edwards with the Cato Institute has been our guest. Chris, thank you!

EDWARDS: Thank you very much, Mary.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Coming next on The World and Everything in It, our reporter in Africa with World Tour. Here’s Onize Ohikere.

ONIZE OHIKERE, REPORTER: Wildfires in Turkey and parts of Europe—We start today in southern Europe.

AUDIO: BOATS, BULLHORN

Boats manned by volunteers helped evacuate people trapped by wildfires Monday along Turkey’s coast. Fires that started last week have destroyed huge swaths of forests and threatened seaside towns popular with tourists.

AUDIO: PLANE FLYING OVER

Planes carrying fire suppressant flew over the hilly terrain. Parts of Greece, Italy, and Spain are also struggling to contain deadly blazes.

The region is struggling under an unusual heat wave that has seen temperatures soar over 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

West blames Iran for tanker attack—Next to the Middle East.

Western nations are blaming Iran for an attack on a tanker off the coast of Oman last week. The ship is owned by an Israeli company.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Iran would face consequences for the attack.

BLINKEN: And, as I noted, we are in very close contact and coordination with the United Kingdom, Israel, Romania, and other countries and there will be a collective response.

A British security guard and a Romanian crew member died in the drone attack.

Tehran has denied involvement, calling the accusations against it “baseless.” But analysts say the attack bore all the hallmarks of similar tit-for-tat exchanges between Israel and Iran. Attacks in the region in recent months have targeted vessels linked to both countries.

Myanmar general declares himself PM—Next to Southeast Asia.

MAN: SPEAKING BURMESE

Myanmar’s military ruler declared an extension to the country’s state of emergency on Sunday. Elections may not be held for another two years.

That could extend the military’s rule for 18 months longer than generals initially promised when they removed the civilian government in February.

Mass protests against the junta have died down but analysts say opposition remains strong. Manny Maung is a researcher with Human Rights watch.

MAUNG: We know that there’s still resistance happening and we certainly know that this guerrilla activity happening around the cities. I mean, every day there are protests. And you know quite often we're hearing about these small bombs going off around the cities as well, so it doesn't mean that people have given up. But certainly, I don't think we're seeing the same loud campaigning that was happening at the very beginning and of course people are tired. This has been going on for almost 6 months now. You know people don't have the economy or the budget or the money to keep going and now many of them are sick.

Nearly 1,000 people have died in clashes with police in the last six months.

South Sudan swears in new parliament—And finally, we end today here in Africa.

AUDIO: MPs TAKING OATH OF OFFICE

South Sudan swore in a new national parliament on Monday. The lawmakers are a mix of ruling party members and former rebel factions.

The Rt.Hon. Jemma Nunu Kumba is speaker of the Transitional Legislative Assembly.

KUMBA: I am sure you are aware that the challenges ahead of us are enormous, to confront and overcome those challenges the situation demands that we, as the representative of our people, should look beyond political, partisan and tribal experiences and focus keenly on the common good of all.

The creation of an inclusive national assembly was a key condition of the 2018 ceasefire. It ended five years of bloodshed between government and rebel forces that left nearly 400,000 people dead.

The truce has largely held since then. But ongoing political disputes could drag the country back to the brink of civil war.

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

NICK EICHER, HOST: Some people are collectors: Stamp collectors, coin collectors, you get the idea.

One man in Berlin took the idea a little further: he’s a military arsenal collector!

He’s got a 45-ton tank, an anti-aircraft cannon, World War II era machine guns, and other military equipment.

None of this was a big secret. During a particularly harsh winter, the man even brought out the tank to plow snow.

But this is a no-no in Germany.

So a court ordered him to sell or donate those items to a museum within the next two years.

Hmm … so between now and then …

SGT SCHULTZ: I know nothing … nnnnnnnnothing!

It’s The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST:  Today is Wednesday, August 4th.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

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

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Olympic Ministry.

The Olympic Games come to a close on Sunday in Tokyo. The entire event looked and sounded much different than usual with almost no spectators in the stands.

But a small band of faithful Christians already in Tokyo took the gospel to the streets.

Last week, WORLD Correspondent Bonnie Pritchett spoke with U.S. missionaries and a Japanese pastor in Tokyo to get their story.

WOMEN: Free English conversation. Fun free facts. English conversation.

REPORTER, BONNIE PRITCHETT: On a shady sidewalk in Tokyo, Japan, two American women hold signs advertising free 5-Minute English lessons and uniquely designed Olympic trading pins. The women are missionaries to Japan and taking part in a city-wide evangelistic outreach during the 2020 Olympic Games.

MAN: God we pray for today- that you will lead our efforts—that you will specifically lead people to us who are searching for you.

This weekend Christians in Tokyo will cross the finish line of an Olympic-themed ministry. It’s not the marathon they had planned for almost two years ago. It’s more like the steeplechase with extra hurdles tossed into their path.

SOUND: TALKING

Ever-evolving COVID-19 protocols have kept the ministry team of local and foreign Christians constantly adjusting their game plan. They’re doing it without losing sight of the goal—sharing the gospel with Tokyo’s 37 million residents.

SCOTT: It's huge. And you have in Japan, 99.5 percent lostness, you have churches, with the average attendance of maybe 30 to 40 people.

That’s Scott Bradford. He and his wife, Julie, are missionaries in Tokyo with the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board. They came to the world’s most populous city in late 2019.

Tokyo ministry teams had just completed an evangelistic outreach during the Rugby World Cup. They anticipated duplicating those efforts for the Olympic Games only a few months later.

Akira Watanabe is a pastor at Tokyo Baptist Church, a partner in the World Cup and Olympic outreaches.

WATANABE: And that was very successful. So, we had big expectations for Olympics. But unfortunately, since last year the situation has totally changed.

Julie Bradford said postponing the games affected more than the Japanese ministry teams. Over 200 international volunteers from outside Japan were prepared to assist the effort.

JULIE: I think there was a lot of disappointment. So, we did have to regroup. We did have to look at things and say, ‘Okay, God's got this, but you know, we have to join him.’ And but we do have to grieve, right?

The Bradfords said God redeemed that time.

With the games on hold, the newly transplanted Bradfords turned their attention to forging relationships with their mission partners and Tokyo’s handful of Christian churches. They believe their team was better prepared when the 2020 Olympic Games finally opened July 23.

VOICE: Hello from Tokyo, Japan. Hey, we’re right here at Nakano Station as you can see right behind us. Today we were doing 5-Minute English. And we were able to engage 80 people today.

Just like Olympic officials, the ministry team has constantly adjusted to new Japanese government mandates. Churches scheduled to host ministry events are closed. Gatherings, even outdoors, are strictly limited.

Street evangelism plans need fine-tuning again.

SCOTT: So, how do we do these activities and spread it out and still be strategic and effective, but also do it in a way that is not going to raise attention and is not going to cause people to be uncomfortable?

The recent government protocols put Japanese Christians in an awkward position.

WATANABE: This month is not good for evangelism.

How could they assist without appearing to defy their own government?

WATANABE: As Romans 13:1 says, ‘Let everyone be subject to governing authorities.

So, Japanese Christians are taking a support role. They’re praying. And they’re offering their churches for follow-up activities, once it is allowed.

SOUND: TRAIN

SOUND: TEMPLE

Despite the scaled back volunteer corps, the mission team presses on. They’re covering the city in prayer—walking through neighborhoods and riding trains. Street evangelism includes 5-Minute English lessons, small sports-themed outdoor events, and the obligatory Olympic pin trading.

Scott Bradford tapped into the extremely popular cosplay culture and donned an anime character costume to hand out Bible literature near the city’s busiest pedestrian crosswalk.

As of July 31, the team had spoken with over 500 people. Sixty-two of the conversations included gospel presentations.

The Olympic evangelism project may not be reaching the world as originally planned. But for one man among the 37 million people, their faithfulness may have made all the difference in the world. U.S. missionary Pierce Hite explains.

HITE: Yeh. One of those cool engagements we had was with a guy from China who’s here as a student. And he has had a hard time meeting people and making friends. So, he just straight up asked us directly, ‘Would you be my friend?’ And so, we talked to him and said ‘We would love to be your friend…’

The student was invited to and agreed to attend a follow up event.

Those sharing the gospel in Tokyo the last two weeks have little control over when, where or even how it takes place. But there is one thing they do control:

SCOTT: And so, we can’t control what is happening under the scenes. All we can control is being faithful and doing what God has called us to do and living out our lives and sharing the good news of the gospel.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Bonnie Pritchett. I’d like to thank Scott Bradford and Andrew Rivers for providing audio from their work in Tokyo for this report. Arigatou gozaimasu!

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Wednesday, August 4th. Good morning! You’re listening to The World and Everything in It and we’re so glad you are! Good morning! I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Here’s WORLD commentator Steve West on the philosophy of jigsaw puzzles.

STEVE WEST, COMMENTATOR: My favorite puzzles are the kind other people “work,” because that’s what it is to me: work. When I look at a tabletop of 1,000 ragged, zig-zagged colored cardboard cutouts, I’m lost. My wife, on the other hand, is enchanted by the thought of a new puzzle to pore over. She sets up a table by the window and opens up shop. Leave her alone for a minute, take your eye off her, and there she is bent over the table, puzzling her way to a completed picture—a print of blooming flowers, cityscape, or animals. All the little gaps of her day are filled with puzzling.

It’s a silent activity. There’s no humming satisfaction that attends it, no singing, no sighing of frustration, no exclamations of glee at finding the missing piece. Just a quiet joy, a dogged determination, a resilient spirit, a patient trying, trying, trying and succeeding, God mending the fabric of creation, disorder to order, chaos to creation.

I ask her what she likes about puzzles, about the pointless waste of time and unending frustration (well, I keep that last bit to myself). She says, “I like the satisfaction of finding the right piece, working with my hands.” She doesn’t even look up as she says this, the task before her.

Although there are a thousand other things I would rather do, I appreciate part of why she loves it so much. The disassembled puzzle on the table is a problem a little god can fix. Most of the big ones require a bigger God, the God. Despite the fact that utopian schemes abound, humankind is not evolving to perfect peace and happiness and bliss. We can’t fix the people around us, remedy human imperfection. We can’t fix ourselves. That requires a better puzzler.

The other day, I watched her begin again. She spread all the pieces out on the table. She brooded over the deep, over the chaos, until light came. She pulled back her hair so she could concentrate, putting on her placid but serious puzzling face. Her hands moved over the pieces, trying one, then another, until she heard the subtle click of a fit and the world sighed just a bit. A strand of hair broke free and traced her face, but she ignored it in her deliberation. Starting with the periphery, she built a frame for this new world, finding the edges and corners. Over time, it began to take shape. I sensed hope and promise, a time when all things fit.

And then, a few days later, she finished. Leaning back, she rested from her work. I could almost hear her say, “It is good. It is very good.” I admired her work, my hand resting on her shoulder, and smiled at her pleasure. It’s a start on the puzzle of the world.

I’m Steve West.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: political diversity. Democrats in South Texas are rethinking their party allegiance. We’ll tell you what that might mean for next year’s midterm elections.

And, trick shots. We’ll introduce you to a YouTube sensation whose claim to fame is doing what seems to be impossible.

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: “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?”(Matthew 7:3)

Go now in grace and peace.

That and more tomorrow.

I’m Nick Eicher. 

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.