The World and Everything in It: December 13, 2022

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

It’s been a month since an unknown killer took the lives of four college students in Idaho. We’ll hear how some people are trying to bring about healing.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Also today, the growing alliance between Iran and Russia. How does it change the war in Ukraine?

Plus, the rise of family friendly streaming services.

And you know that annoying chipmunk Christmas song. Well, WORLD commentator Steve West has a reconsideration.

REICHARD: It’s Tuesday, December 13th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

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

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

KRISTEN FLAVIN, NEWS ANCHOR: Border crossings » The crisis on the southern border is intensifying.

The Chief of the U.S. Border Patrol on Monday reported 16,000 migrant encounters at the border in just 48 hours.

Republican Sen. Ron Johnson…

JOHNSON: This is a humanitarian crisis. It is a disaster. It’s not good for anybody. It’s got to be fixed.

And Fox News reports that Mexican police escorted nearly 20 buses full of migrants into the border town Ciudad Juarez just across the border from El Paso, Texas.

Johnson said lawmakers have also heard from a whistleblower in the Department of Homeland Security who says many illegal immigrants fall victim to sex traffickers.

Border authorities reported a record of more than 2.3 million migrant encounters in the last fiscal year. And traffic on the border could increase further when the pandemic-era Title 42 rule expires a week from tomorrow.

Ukraine requests more air defenses » Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pressed Western leaders again on Monday to provide more advanced weapons to help defeat Russia. WORLD’s Anna Johansen Brown has more.

ZELENSKYY: [Ukrainian]

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN, REPORTER: During a video conference, Zelenskky told leaders of the G7 industrial powers that “Ukraine needs modern tanks,” more guns, shells, rocket artillery and long-range missiles.”

Zelenskyy also told the G-7 that protecting Ukraine’s energy facilities from Russian missiles and Iranian drones protects all of Europe.

He said that’s in part because Russian shelling of Ukraine’s energy grid and other civilian targets has triggered a migration catastrophe.

Polish President Andrzej Duda said “The number of refugees in Poland has risen (recently) to some 3 million … and that numbers will likely rise sharply across the continent this winter."

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Anna Johansen Brown.

EU energy » Meantime, in Europe, top officials sounded alarms about possible energy shortages next year.

The head of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol said Monday…

BIROL: 2023 may well be much more difficult than this year.

European Union leaders said the bloc can weather an energy crisis this winter, but it has to act fast. That includes speeding more renewable energy to the market, cutting down on wasted energy and more.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen:

LEYEN: If you look at the overall scope, efficiency, savings, joint purchasing, renewables; this might be the mixture we need to make up for the missing gas next year.

Russia cut most of its natural gas supply to Europe amid the war in Ukraine. But EU countries tapped new supplies to mostly fill their gas storage for the winter.

EU nations benefited from mild weather and low demand from China amid COVID-19 lockdowns. But those favorable conditions could evaporate next year.

Bomber in court » The man charged with building the bomb that brought down Pan Am Flight 103 more than 30 years ago faced a judge in a U.S. federal court on Monday.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan…

SULLIVAN: Mas'ud will be facing justice for his alleged role in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.

Abu Agila Mohammad Mas'ud Kheir Al-Marimi was in a Libyan prison in 2020. Sullivan would not get into details about the extradition. But he told reporters…

SULLIVAN: I will say that this was done in a lawful manner according to established procedures.

More than 250 people died in the terrorist attack, including more than 190 Americans.

Peru President elections » Peru’s new president gave into protesters’ demands on Monday calling for early elections.

BOLUARTE: [Spanish]

In a televised address, Dina Boluarte announced that she would send Congress a proposal to move up elections. That’s after thousands of protesters again took to the streets demanding that she resign.

The protesters want to replace not only Boluarte but all members of Congress.

Boluarte previously declared that she would remain president for the remaining 3 1/2 years of her predecessor’s term. Now she is saying she will propose general elections for April 2024.

Iran another execution » Iran has executed a second prisoner convicted over alleged crimes committed during the nationwide protests. WORLD’s Josh Schumacher has that story.

JOSH SCHUMACHER, REPORTER: Iranian officials hung protester Majidreza Rahnavard from a construction crane on Monday.

The government accused him of fatally stabbing two members of a security force over the alleged killings and beatings of anti-government protesters.

As many as 500 people have reportedly been killed in the government crackdown on the months-long protests.

Activists warn that at least a dozen people have already been sentenced to death in closed-door hearings.

For WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher.

And I’m Kristen Flavin. Straight ahead: how an Idaho town is coping with the murders of four university students.

Plus, the future of family friendly streaming.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Tuesday, the 13th of December, 2022.

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

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

On Sunday, November 13th, someone killed four University of Idaho students living off-campus in Moscow, Idaho. After a month, police have arrested no one, leaving a community in limbo as they try to cope with the tragedy. WORLD’s Lauren Dunn has our story.

LAUREN DUNN, REPORTER: The day after four college students were found stabbed to death in Moscow, Ida., Martin Trail attended a weekly meeting for the University of Idaho Sigma Chi chapter.

TRAIL: I was in this fraternity. And they like to have an older guy. You know, when I started, I was barely older, and now I'm a lot older, but I'm an advisor for the house.

Law enforcement officials have yet to identify any suspects in the early morning stabbing deaths of Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, Kaylee Goncalves, and Ethan Chapin. The tragedy shocked the community of about 25,000 people. The last murder recorded in the area was in 2015. That’s the year a gunman killed three people–including Trail’s father.

TRAIL: What am I going to say? Just tell him how you did it. I felt like God had given me through my own experiences, some things that I could speak into their lives.

Trail says about 20 to 30 students attended that fraternity meeting in November. Many of them likely knew one of the stabbing victims. Ethan Chapin was a member of Sigma Chi.

TRAIL: Half these guys, they were his roommates, you know? And all of a sudden, their roommate’s gone, and they’ve got all his stuff there—and what do they do, you know?

Three of the four students lived at the residence where they were killed. Two roommates living on the first floor of the house were unharmed.

Moscow Police Chief James Fry spoke at a press conference a few days after the homicides.

FRY: There was no sign of forced entry into the residence. Investigators are continuing to collect evidence at the scene.

University of Idaho officials canceled class that Monday. When class resumed the next day, officials assured students that professors would be flexible about attendance. The school increased its security and continues to offer a free, 24-7 Safe Walk service for students, faculty, and visitors. Officials announced students could finish the semester online if they wanted to go home.

One of the slain students, Kaylee Goncalves, would have graduated last Saturday. City and state police provided extra security for the commencement ceremony. University of Idaho president Scott Green addressed the 500+ students graduating.

GREEN: For our community, and I want to acknowledge an enormous loss in our Vandal family recently. Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Maddie Mogen, and Kaylee Goncalves were taken from us far too soon by a senseless act of violence. They were bright lights on our campus and cherished members of our community.

Kirk Brower pastors Bridge Bible Fellowship in Moscow, Ida., about two miles from the university campus.

BROWER: Everybody's familiar with the road, and the location. There are those that probably had class with some of those kids, or were connected in some capacity, because it's, you know, a relatively small campus in a very small town.

Brower is grateful for police officers’ work, and says the church has reached out to encourage local officers and authorities coming to Moscow to solve the crime. He adds that the long wait for answers worries many residents.

BROWER: There's some some of that fear factor going on and wonder, is there a murderer in town. But there's also some, I think, that are, you know, vigilant in the sense of like, hey, this really rallies people to pray and to offer up services and to be available. So I would say there's a spectrum between fearful but also vigilant and hopeful that justice will come, you know.

Brower’s church offers free certified counseling services. He said the church reached out to the university’s dean of students, as well as student ministries, to offer counseling help.

Last week Martin Trail planned to meet with a University of Idaho student after work.

TRAIL: I just said, Hey, can I buy you a burger? Let's talk. And there's something, I don't know, I just had an intuition that maybe he might want to talk about something…There's a lot of people in our church praying for me that, and I'm, I've asked that I could be bold.

Even as church members pray for Trail to be bold, he’s praying for students, too.

TRAIL: That's been my prayer for these guys, that this would help them maybe face their own mortality, face that they're not really in control, like they might be told, and turn to God.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Lauren Dunn.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: a troubling alliance.

When military drones began raining down on civilian targets in Ukraine, it quickly became clear that those drones were not made in Russia but in Iran.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And British intelligence now believes that Russia is trying to obtain “hundreds of ballistic missiles” from Iran.

How big a concern is this alliance of adversaries to the West?

Joining us now is John Hardie. He is a policy analyst on Russia at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

REICHARD: John, good morning!

JOHN HARDIE, GUEST: Good morning. Great to be with you.

REICHARD: John, explain what kinds of missiles we’re talking about here, and what would the significance of this be, if the reports are true?

HARDIE: Sure. So, we’re talking about a few different types of things. What Russia has gotten so far consists of two perhaps three types of drones. We know about two for sure. The most common one is the Shahed 136, and its slightly smaller cousin to Shahed 131. These are essentially what are commonly known in the press as suicide drones, kamikaze drones. Basically you're firing them as a poor man's cruise missile. Russia has used them extensively against mostly fixed targets, including Ukrainian energy infrastructure as part of a strategic air campaign to try to take out Ukraine's energy grid, and other critical infrastructure, water, heating, etc. Russia is also seeking, as you just mentioned, short-range ballistic missiles from Iran. There are two different types of missiles Russia wants. But basically, these would supplement its own stockpile of SRBMs, which are running low at the moment.

REICHARD: Russia’s been firing missiles into Ukraine and largely at civilian infrastructure as you mentioned. Do these reports suggest that Russia’s stockpiles of missiles are thinning out somewhat?

HARDIE: I think conservation is definitely an issue and it has been for many months now. If you look at the missile usage rates now versus the first few days of the war moving into the first few weeks, they've really plummeted. So whereas Russia might in the first couple days, maybe fire 100 missiles a day, as many as a few hundred during the very first days, and then maybe, you know, 50-60, as many as 100 a day for the first few weeks. Now we're talking about maybe that many missiles in one week. So it's usually an iterative process where Russia is taking a while to play on a particular strike. And then watching it, again, primarily targeting the Ukrainian energy grid. We're not seeing day after day of mass missile strikes.

REICHARD: Some people might be surprised to hear that Iran has hundreds of ballistic missiles. How well armed is Iran in this regard?

HARDIE: So, Iran, for decades now, they’ve poured a lot of resources into drones and missile programs, really to compensate for conventional weakness that they turn to these kind of asymmetric tools. So Iran does have a lot of different types of missiles—cruise and ballistic. The two types they're going after here are said to be fairly accurate. We've never seen them used in a battlefield like Ukraine. So it remains to be seen how they fare. But Ukraine really doesn't have much in the way of ballistic missile defenses. Ukraine really isn't able to shoot down very many of Russia's own Russian made Iskander SRBMs. And I suspect it would not fare very well against the Iranian ones either.

REICHARD: As Russia becomes more desperate for allies, is there any chance that Moscow might decide to aid Iran with its nuclear program?

HARDIE: Well, so Russia has aided Iran’s civilian nuclear program for a while now. I think there've already been indications that Russia and Iranian conventional military cooperation is increasing. Russia reportedly supplied Iran with some captured Western military equipment in exchange for the Iranian support for Russia. There's also most recently been a claim by the United States that the Russians may be looking at providing Iran with the SU-35 fighter jet. So I think all indications are that this military cooperative relationship is going to deepen as Moscow really doubles down on this partnership.

REICHARD: Ukraine recently asked for more air defenses. John, what do they need — or need more of — that they don’t already have?

HARDIE: Right, so I’d say one category is interceptor missiles for their Soviet-made missile defenses, particularly the Buk M1 systems, the medium range system. If Ukraine were to run out of these interceptors, that really would be a big problem. And from all indications, the stocks are running a bit low. Ukraine also needs everything from MANPADS— these are portable man-launched missiles that you can use to take down helicopters, low flying fighter jets, what have you. And then Ukraine has also been getting various Western air defense systems from things like NASAMS, they're fixed, designed to protect key sites in a city to mobile systems that are particularly useful against the Shahed Iranian drones.

REICHARD: Well we’re coming into really cold weather. How do you see this war changing in the cold winter months ahead?

HARDIE: Right, so I think the fall rainy season has already slowed down offensive activity somewhat. I think that the cold winter weather will probably do a bit of the same, although when the ground freezes during the winter, that does open up mobility for wheeled vehicles to some extent. So, we could see kind of an uptick there. But it will make logistics, I think, for both sides a bit tougher. I think Ukraine has an advantage in the sense that it has superior morale, it really has throughout the conflict. And Ukraine is getting supplied with Western-supplied cold weather gear, whereas we know many of the Russian mobilized troops lack that sort of equipment. And so Ukraine's advantage and morale could really increase in the coming months.

REICHARD: John Hardie is with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. John, thanks so much for your time!

HARDIE: Thank you!

NICK EICHER, HOST: OK, there’s a six-year-old girl in L-A County—her name is Madeline—and she has a functioning imagination—as any six-year-old girl would—but also an uncommon practical sense.

So Madeline wants a unicorn for a pet.

But she was smart enough to know she better check with LA County Animal Care and Control. She wrote a letter saying I haven’t found a unicorn yet, but when I do, could you go ahead and give me a license for it?

And she got a reply. A red license tag and a set of instructions to keep her in compliance.

This is actually kind of cute.

First, the unicorn must have plenty of exposure to sunlight, moonlight and rainbows, a good horn polishing once a month. It’ll need watermelon at least once a week. And any sparkles or glitter used to decorate it have to be nontoxic and biodegradable.

REICHARD: Common knowledge.

EICHER: And she gets in trouble, you’ll represent her, you’ll be the lawyer, right?

REICHARD: It’s my specialty.

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

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Tuesday, December 13th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

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

It’s been a rough year for the big players in the streaming industry. Subscriber growth is slowing. And executives at Netflix, HBO Max, and Disney are feeling the pinch. They’ve started tinkering with pricing strategies to stop the bleeding and have resorted to layoffs and hiring freezes.

REICHARD: Despite the doom and gloom in the industry as a whole, a couple of smaller family-friendly entertainment companies are optimistic about the future. Arts and media editor Collin Garbarino recently talked with executives from Pure Flix and Angel Studios.

COLLIN GARBARINO: Streaming was supposed to be the wave of the future, but many companies in the entertainment industry experienced a flood of debt rather than a windfall of profits. Maybe it costs too much to be all things to all people. Maybe knowing your audience can provide a competitive edge.

Michael Scott is CEO of Pure Flix. He says the faith-based streaming service expects to weather the industry shake up by focusing on its core mission.

MICHAEL SCOTT: Pure Flix is a faith and family place where people can come and they can know they’re going to get good clean content that’s going to uplift them, encourage them—it’s going to reinforce family values. And ultimately our hope is that it draws them closer to God.

Like Netflix, Pure Flix invests in original content—18 to 20 new series and movies a year. Everything from documentaries…

AUDIO: [Documentary trailer]

…to action adventure comedies.

AUDIO: [Trailer]

But unlike Netflix, Pure Flix aims to keep its spending tied to its revenue.

MICHAEL SCOTT: I say you’ve got to create the content in line with your membership base. Right now, we’re creating the amount of content we feel we can sustain and continue to create. As our members grow, then we’ll be able to do more. Maybe more content and better quality—a combination of both.

Pure Flix doesn’t disclose subscriber numbers, but Scott says tens of thousands of new people sign up every month to watch its library of about 3,000 titles.

MICHAEL SCOTT: Actually, we know what people want to watch. We can look at the library and say, they want to watch family-kids adventures—whatever it is. Or they want to watch titles that deal with Biblical titles—whatever it is. So we can really look at that data and say these are the areas that we need to create more content like and further go into them.

He says Pure Flix has invested heavily in its 2022 Christmas lineup, because at this time of year people are looking for clean faith-based content they can watch with the whole family.

Scott believes ultimately it’s not about what he or anyone else at Pure Flix wants to see—it’s about the preferences of the Christian families who subscribe.

MICHAEL SCOTT: And you got to say, what are the numbers telling you? What are the people saying they want more of? And then make more of that.

Angel Studios, however, isn’t merely trying to find its niche in the streaming world—it wants to disrupt the entire industry. This is the studio behind The Chosen, a TV series about the life of Jesus. Angel Studios created it with director Dallas Jenkins, using unique marketing and crowdfunding.

Jordan Harmon is president of Angel Studios. He’s not surprised by the streaming industry’s struggles because he doesn’t think Hollywood’s current model makes sense.

JORDAN HARMON: I think when you look at the current market, anybody who had any experience in business or economics could see some of the streamers spending habits and their debt going up—and their revenue not keeping up with their debt—a little unsustainable.

Harmon says Angel Studios also didn’t want a small group of executives deciding what to create.

HARMON: How do we start moving the levers away from the executives making those definitive decisions, and pass those levers into the hands of the fans. To where they’re the ones who get to make the decisions, not five executives in a room who have different biases, opinions, and values.

Angel Studios is named after the “angel” investors who crowdfund the projects. The audience decides which projects get made through their support. And the studio lets people watch for free.

Harmon says they took some of their inspiration from video games like Fortnite. It makes billions of dollars despite being free to play.

HARMON: So we’ve launched a free model where all of our content’s free. We almost don’t look at ourselves as competing with Netflix, you know, any one of these subscription models—Disney+—because no one’s going to cancel Angel Studios subscription—there’s a membership that gets you extra perks and experiences and stuff—but our model’s not built off that. It’s built off of building a community experience where you watch the content, you love the content, and then you get to pay it forward or buy collectibles or buy merchandise.

Angel considers a show a success when its original investors get paid back—with much of those profits coming from licensing and merchandising.

Angel Studios doesn’t bill itself as a “faith-based” company. But many of its latest projects are overtly Christian created by evangelical Protestants. Some critics are concerned by the founders’ association with Mormonism. When asked about his religion, Jordan Harmon said Angel Studios’ job isn’t to dictate content. It’s merely a facilitator to connect fans with creators.

JORDAN HARMON: Our mission is to tell stories that amplify light. And we don’t get to decide what that is. We put principles in there based off of whatever’s noble, true, lovely, worthy of praise. These are our guiding principles. But one of the key elements of our model that was very important to us was although we want to help provide feedback and insight into what we believe that makes content win, we are the only studio who provides true and complete creative control to the creators.

Both Angel Studios and Pure Flix talk about the importance of listening to the fans. They expect giving families what they want will be the key to future success.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Collin Garbarino.

REICHARD: If you’re interested in arts and media news, as well as reviews of the latest shows and books, you can subscribe to Collin’s weekly newsletter called Muse at wng.org/newsletters.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Tuesday, December 13th. 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. You’ve probably heard this slightly annoying song at some point:

CLIP: [Christmas don’t be late…]

I’m sure some people enjoy that classic version. No matter how you feel about it, though, WORLD commentator Steve West found a different version worth a closer listen.

STEVE WEST, COMMENTATOR: In 1958, Ross Bagdasarian wrote a song called “Christmas Don’t Be Late.” The song rose to #1 on the Billboard charts and won three Grammy awards. You know it, of course, as “The Chipmunk Song,” sung by the fictitious trio of Alvin and the Chipmunks and as a song played for comic relief.

THOMAS: [INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

But wait.

THOMAS: [INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

If you listen to the contemplative rendering of the song by Rosie Thomas, who adds some additional verses, you’ll understand why it remains one of my favorites. Here’s a clip from the 2008 album, A Very Rosie Christmas.

THOMAS: Christmas, Christmas time is near, Time for joy and time for cheer…

Under Thomas’ care, the song is transformed. It begins in a child’s perspective, longing for Christmas to “hurry fast,” for a “hula hoop” and a “plane that loops the loop.” But then the perspective broadens, first to a concern for others in the family, for Someone or Something to “please bring joy to Mom and Dad,” to “help my brother, he’s been sad,” all of which immediately makes you wonder what weighs on Mom and Dad, and why is brother sad? And then it ends with a zinger of longing, Thomas pleading, “may they know He came for them.” I hear a longing for a Christmas still to come, when Jesus comes and dries up every tear.

THOMAS: Christmas, Christmas time is near, Time for memories, time for cheers, Comfort those who need a friend, fill their hearts with happiness, May they know He came for them, Oh Christmas…

He came. For a Mom and Dad who are weighed down by too many Christmases of disappointment in themselves, in each other, in life. For a brother who is sad. For a shop-clerk whose feet are tired and longs to go home. For a Christmas that, on December 26th, didn’t live up to what it promised. Or one that even in its finest moment, when your gaze is on the Infant Lowly and the miracle of Incarnation, remains yet to come.

But I can tell you this: When I wake up the day after Christmas, a trio of chattering chipmunks will be in my head, still asking that Christmas not be late, and Rosie Thomas imploring that the world can’t wait.

Hearing them, I hear “Come, Lord Jesus, come.” I hear promise and hope. I hear the mystery of the love of God for the world and the unwinding of the curse. I hear the promise of Christmas to come. I can hardly stand the wait.

THOMAS: [Christmas time, please don’t be late, please don’t be late…]

I’m Steve West.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow, Washington Wednesday. We’ll talk about the new Democratic majority in the Senate.

Plus, we’ll meet a collector of antique Christmas ornaments.

That and more tomorrow.

I’m Nick Eicher.

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

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

WORLD’s mission is biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires.

The Bible says: Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. James 1:17

I want to leave you with a reminder about WORLD’s December Grassroots Giving Drive. We’re halfway there and that means, halfway to go. If you’ve not given yet, I hope you’ll do it today. WNG.org/donate.

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.