The World and Everything in It: December 16, 2025

Editor's note: The following text is a transcript of a podcast story. To listen to the story, click on the arrow beneath the headline above.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: You know what I think? I think the journalism at WORLD does not run on clicks or outrage. It runs on stewardship.

NICK EICHER, HOST: On listeners who decide whether this kind of reporting is worth sustaining.

REICHARD: Yeah and that’s why WORLD’s December Giving Drive matters so much. It’s an opportunity for you to take part in that work—faithfully and meaningfully.

EICHER: We’d be grateful for your support today at wng.org/donate. It’s our December Giving Drive.

REICHARD: Good morning!

American service members gunned down in Syria, is a resurgence of ISIS to blame?

EICHER: We’ll talk about it with a former intelligence officer.

Also today, the Trump administration issues emergency bailouts for American farmers:

LEHMAN: Farmers have had a tremendous amount of damage due to chaotic trade policies.

We’ll also highlight a recent executive order on State laws and A-I.

And, Christmas in Bethlehem, a glimpse at the lives of Palestinian Christians.

ANFOUS: You can see because of the war: No tourism. Zero. Tourism is dead.

REICHARD: It’s Tuesday, December 16th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

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

REICHARD: Up next, Kent Covington with today’s news.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: NYE terror plot » A New Years Eve terror attack plot disrupted.

Authorities have announced the arrest of four suspects who allegedly planned a bombing campaign in Southern California at year’s end.

Federal prosecutor Bill Essayli

ESSAYLI: The defendants are all radical anti-government members of the Turtle Island Liberation Front, which according to their own social media, is an anti-capitalist, anti-government movement that calls for their associates to rise up and fight back against capitalism.

The group is also described as pro-Palestinian.

The suspects allegedly planned to attack multiple businesses as well as immigration and customs enforcement.

Each of the accused now face federal charges, including conspiracy and possession of a destructive device with more charges likely.

The FBI’s assistant director of the LA field office, Akil Davis, told reporters:

DAVIS: The plan stated that the EIDs would be complex pipe bombs. It included instructions on how to manufacture the bombs … and contained guidance on how to avoid leaving evidence behind that could be traced back to them.

Agents say they caught the suspects last week in a desert area east of Los Angeles while preparing improvised explosive devices for attacks across the region.

Ukraine latest » U.S. officials say Washington has offered Ukraine strong, NATO-style security guarantees in peace talks with Russia — in a major policy shift. WORLD’s Benjamin Eicher has more.

BENJAMIN EICHER :Talks in Berlin with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, U.S. envoys and European leaders have narrowed differences.

The proposed guarantees would be legally binding and could go to the U.S. Senate for approval.

European nations say they’re ready to lead a multinational force to help Ukraine rebuild and secure its airspace and seas.

Ukrainian leaders have even signaled willingness to drop their NATO membership bid if the guarantees are solid.

The Kremlin has hinted it may accept terms, but Russia still wants control of parts of Ukraine’s Donetsk region. And as of now, that remains a non-starter for Kyiv.

For WORLD, I’m Benjamin Eicher.

U.S./Paraguay agreement » The United States and Paraguay are teaming up to strengthen their fight against drug cartels and transnational crime.

Leaders from the South American country signed a new security agreement Monday in Washington. Secretary of State Marco Rubio:

RUBIO: The most serious problem we have in our hemisphere is these transnational terrorist organizations who are not ideologically terrorists in many cases, but are financial and economic in their basis, but nonetheless threaten the stability and security of the region.

The agreement gives the U.S. clearer legal footing to work with Paraguay against drug cartels and criminal networks that move drugs toward the United States. And it makes those threats easier to disrupt before they reach the U.S. border.

Rubio also pointed to a growing economic partnership between the two countries, calling Paraguay a key regional partner.

But Paraguay’s congress must still grant final approval.

Jimmy Lai convicted » Hong Kong’s High Court has convicted pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai in a landmark ruling that could keep the 78-year-old in prison for life.

A panel of three government-appointed judges found Lai guilty of colluding with foreign forces and publishing seditious material. He was prosecuted under so-called national security law that the Chinese Communist government imposed on Hong Kong.

The government has used that law to crack down on pro-democracy critics.

Jimmy Lai’s daughter Claire Lai reacted:

CLAIRE LAI:  They used the term legal fiction of a conspiracy to pull out things from 2017, 2018, 2019, things that were perfectly legal then.

Rights groups and Western governments blasted the verdict as politically driven and a blow to liberty in the formerly semi-independent territory.

Lai has already been behind bars for more than five years, much of it in solitary confinement, even as his health has declined.

Sentencing is set for early next year.

Rob Reiner murder » The suspect in the apparent murder of Hollywood heavyweight Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele, is their 32-year-old son, Nick Reiner.

The couple was found dead inside their Southern California home on Sunday afternoon with stab wounds.

LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell:

MCDONNELL: We have our robbery homicide division handling the investigation. They worked throughout the night on this case and were able to take into custody Nick Reiner, a suspect in this case. He was subsequently booked for murder and is being held on $4 million bail.

Rob Reiner was known for directing hit movies like The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally, A Few Good Men, and Stand by Me.

Nick Reiner worked with his late father on the 2015 film, Being Charlie, which was loosely inspired by the 32-year-old's struggle with drug addiction and homelessness.

Brown University shooter search » Authorities were still conducting a massive manhunt as of early this morning for the suspect who carried out a deadly shooting at Brown University in Rhode Island on Saturday.

Police released their initial person of interest, but have photo and video evidence of the suspect.

Providence Police Chief Oscar Perez:

PEREZ: We're asking the public for assistance to be able to identify this individual.

During a news conference Monday, authorities released three new videos that showed a masked man in a dark jacket two hours before the attack. Although the footage didn’t show his face, the video provided the clearest images yet of the suspect.

The gunman killed two students and injured nine.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: the re-emergence of ISIS in the Middle East. Plus, Palestinian Christians and Christmas in Bethlehem.

This is The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: It’s Tuesday the 16th of December.

This is WORLD Radio and we’re so glad you’ve joined us today! Good morning, I’m Nick Eicher

MARY REICAHRD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. First up on The World and Everything in It: Americans under fire in Syria.

Two National Guard service members and an interpreter were killed in Syria on Saturday after a man opened fire on troops guarding a military meeting focused on countering the Islamic State.

EICHER: The attack comes just weeks after President Trump welcomed Syria’s interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa to Washington to discuss efforts to defeat ISIS.

Over the weekend, Senator Lindsey Graham took to Fox News to raise questions about our relationship with Syria.

GRAHAM: What I want to know about Syria—was this gunman associated with the Syrian security forces? Was this an attack of somebody inside the Syrian security forces that turned on us? Or was it just a lone gunman associated with ISIS? That’s an important distinction; I wanna know about that.

So is ISIS on the rise?

Joining us now is Richard Ghazal, he’s a former Air Force intelligence officer, and now serves as executive director of In Defense of Christians, advocating for Christians in the Middle East.

REICHARD:  Richard, good morning.

RICHARD GHAZAL, GUEST: Good morning. Great to be with you, Mary.

REICHARD: Richard, let’s start with the gunman. President Trump on Sunday said ISIS was behind the attack…and Syrian and U.S. officials have since said he was a member of Syrian security forces, but was scheduled to be fired for extremist views.

Rich, can you give us some background on ISIS? What’s happened since the U.S. declared in 2019 that ISIS was mostly defeated?

GHAZAL: Well, certainly, as many of your listeners are aware, ISIS was a radical Islamic group that sprang on the scene back in 2014 and wreaked havoc across Syria and Iraq, as you mentioned in the years spanning 2016 through 2019 the United States and coalition forces secured the territorial defeat of ISIS. However, the territorial defeat is simply a military nomenclature, that is to say they're no longer holding territory in any meaningful way, but it's still a very active group and in a very vital ideology in the region, and this is why we see it peaking its ugly head out today.

REICHARD: Islamic State attacks in northeast Syria have increased of late…jumping from around 70 attacks last year to nearly 120 this year. Do these appear to be scattered elements, or signs of a resurgence?

GHAZAL: Well, I think it's both certainly with the overthrow of the Bashar Assad government last year provided a new opportunity for the resurgence of ISIS and other radical groups in the region. Now, one very important thing to point out is when things like this occur in the news, we refer to it as an ISIS attack. Well, ISIS is a nebulous group unified by a common ideology. Now we don't know where the line is between ISIS and the Nusra Front, or ISIS and HTS for that matter, in the new transitional government. And that's really the challenge here, because you have elements that were scattered back in 2018 2019 that are trying to reconstitute, but under what banner? We call it ISIS almost to provide political cover for foreign policy that seeks to normalize relations with the new Islamist government. But really, oftentimes they work hand in glove, whether purposefully or just as a matter of turning the blind eye to the reality. This is something we need to really understand, that we're not dealing with a discrete enemy. We're dealing with an ideology that manifests in many different ways under many different banners.

REICHARD: The new transitional government’s leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa previously fought as a member of Al-Qaeda…against the U.S. Now the U.S. has waived sanctions against him and affirmed his leadership of Syria. Rich, what do you make of this new partnership to quell ISIS in Syria. Do you think it’s going to work?

GHAZAL: Well, I certainly hope it does. I'm certainly not rooting against it, that's for sure, but I do feel that it may have been too much too soon, because we almost jumped into talks and almost normalized relations with them with very little expectations up front, almost like we wanted to fulfill sort of a hopeful dream or hopeful reality for this new Syria that we see unfolding now, President Shura has certainly put forward some pretty exciting or encouraging signs, but we have to be able to discern and distinguish between political maneuvering and earnest and genuine change of heart. Obviously, we want to see a peaceful Syria and a peaceful Middle East, right? It's been 20 years, and we're wary of wars in the Middle East, seemingly endless wars, and this seems to be a new dawn. But of course, we must proceed with cautious optimism. You know that old adage of trust but verify?

REICHARD: Richard, you’ve been watching the new government to see how it is engaging with minority religious groups…and it hasn’t been pretty. Over the summer, we reported on the slaughter of ethnic Druze and Alawite groups…and signs that government forces were involved. What have we heard about the experience of Christians in Syria since then?

GHAZAL: Well, it's been a lot of what we've been watching through the beginning of the summer, since the attack in st Elias Church, and it's mostly been isolated situations of crimes against Christians, whether violent crimes or otherwise, that are really ramping up. We're seeing young girls forced to wear the hijab. We're seeing a lot of those Telltales that kind of show an Islamist government on the rise. So these are certain things we're watching very closely. The thing with the Christian community in Syria is they're afraid to kind of raise their head, so to speak. Even Christian hierarchs the patriarchs of the various churches, there three main patriarchs in Damascus, they've been very hesitant to criticize the new government, and the West almost sees that as implicit, if not explicit endorsement of the new government, just because they're not critical of it, which is obviously not the case.

REICHARD: Wrapping up here, what else are you watching going into the new year?

GHAZAL: Well, we are currently watching the. US, Congress, currently, just last week, I should say, the House of Representatives passed the NDAA, the National Defense Authorization Act for 2026 in that law, there are provisions that lift sanctions that have been long imposed on Syria since 2019 the Caesar act. With the lifting of those sanctions come a number of conditions that Congress has put in place, such that if Syria shows itself not to be adhering to these conditions, not respecting human rights, religious liberty, then sanctions that were lifted by this law would be reimposed, essentially, as a result of non compliance with those conditions. So we are watching this closely, as I said, it's now passed both chambers in Congress headed to the White House for final signature. So we're very hopeful on that.

REICHARD: Richard Ghazal is executive director of In Defense of Christians. Rich, thanks so much.

GHAZAL: Thanks Mary.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: financial assistance for farmers.

President Trump announced a $12 billion aid package last week that will give farmers emergency grants to counter rising production costs and market instability.

The bulk of the assistance will go to farmers who grow row crops–like corn, wheat, and barley. Many have been hit twice by the ongoing tariff wars. Their input costs are higher, yet the price they’re able to get for their products has gone lower.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: WORLD’s Todd Vician spoke with farmers who are thankful for the aid package, but remain frustrated.

AARON LEHMAN: We appreciate the help, because farmers have had a tremendous amount of damage due to chaotic trade policies.

TODD VICIAN: Aaron Lehman farms 500 acres in the heart of Iowa. He’s also president of the state’s farmers union. He says farmers are caught in the middle of global trade policy and should be compensated.

AARON LEHMAN:
But the damage is very, very deep, and it's both short term and long term.

American agriculture exports were already dropping before Trump’s new tariffs this year. The $175 billion of agricultural products exported last year was 10% less than in 2022. But export quantities are only one part of the equation.

PAUL KANNING: On the supply-demand curve, the U.S. supply is higher of ag goods, which then drives the prices down.

Paul Kanning is a fifth-generation farmer growing wheat, lentil, canola, and other crops on 2,800 acres in northeastern Montana.

KANNING: So like, for example, lentils … they're worth half of what they were back in January.

The last couple of years have gotten worse financially. He says many of his neighbors are close to a breaking point. The nearby university extension office agrees.

KANNING: Right now now they're, they're forecasting for 2026, a loss on every crop. You're going to lose money for every acre you put those in, unless something big changes.

The Farmer Bridge Act will provide grants of up to $155,000 to farmers who planted certain row or specialty crops this year. It’s the third time the Trump administration has provided emergency payments to compensate for tariff related farm losses.

The Ag Department's Robert Fordyce tried to reassure farmers that even the smallest farms will benefit from this go-around.

ROBERT FORDYCE: If you plan an eligible prop and you've taken a hit, you'll receive support.”

Iowa farmer Aaron Lehman is taking a wait and see attitude.

LEHMAN: During previous bailouts in Iowa, unfortunately, some did not get to the right folks. Some farmers didn't receive anything. In some cases, the payments were too concentrated to the largest operators.

Farming is a tightly regulated industry with high expenses and low profit margins. Marketplace consolidation means farmers have fewer choices when purchasing seed, fertilizer, and livestock. Plus a shrinking number of choices when it comes time to sell what they grow.

And even as food costs increase for the American consumer, those higher prices at the grocery store don’t find their way to the farmers’ wallets.

LEHMAN: USDA keeps track of what is the farmer's share of the U.S. dollar. And we're in an all time low, less than 15 cents of every food dollar actually comes back to the farmer.

Last week’s announcement has been described by some as a bridge to next year’s planting season…and potentially higher prices for farmers. Lehman hopes to someday hand his operation to his son—who will be the sixth generation to farm their Iowa land. So he’s grateful for the government assistance but not sure it provides the necessary long-term solutions to make his son’s prospects very bright.

LEHMAN: We know that this aid package won’t make farmers whole. We need to reform our trade approach so that farmers can reasonably sell what they grow into the marketplace fairly both domestically and foreign.

Montana farmer Paul Kanning agrees. Something has to change, and another temporary measure won’t be enough.

KANNING: If something doesn't change, does that mean, the federal government's going to do this again next year, when, when we're upside down on it? We just want free and fair markets. That's all we want.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Todd Vician.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Up next, the White House goes after state AI laws.

On Thursday, President Trump signed an executive order calling on Congress to create a national policy for artificial intelligence. He also commissioned the Department of Justice to create an AI Litigation Task Force…to sue states with “cumbersome regulations” on AI.

WORLD’s Mary Muncy has the story.

MARY MUNCY: President Trump says the U.S. is winning the AI race with China, but red tape at home could trip companies up.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: We have the big investment coming. But if they had to get 50 different approvals from 50 different states, you could forget it, because it's not possible to do, especially if you have some hostile—all you need is one hostile actor, and you wouldn't be able to do it.

Since 2024, states across the country have introduced more than 1,200 AI bills, regulating everything from taxes to consumer safety. Some of those laws are set to go into effect early next year. But the Administration says the states are creating a confusing patchwork of rules for AI companies to follow.

The President’s special advisor on AI and Crypto David Sacks joined Trump for a press conference and said the administration will work with members of Congress to draft and pass a national policy for AI regulation.

SACKS: In the meantime, this EO gives your administration tools to push back on the most onerous and excessive state regulations.

But what counts as excessive is not clear in the order.

HODGES: The executive order doesn't provide a national standard…

Wes Hodges leads the Center for Technology and the Human Person at the Heritage Foundation.

HODGES: …What it does is it gives a a vision for what the administration wants, which is a, you know, minimally burdensome, regulatory regime to govern AI at the federal level.

Earlier this year, the administration lobbied Congress to pass a ten-year moratorium on state-level AI regulations with the aim of freeing AI companies to compete with China at a faster pace. When it came time to pass the president’s big beautiful reconciliation bill:

PRESIDING OFFICER: On this vote, the yeas are 99, the nays are one. The amendment is agreed to.

The AI rule was amended straight into the waste bin. And then this month, efforts to pass a federal AI policy in the annual defense authorization bill also faltered. Now this executive order is putting Congress—and states—on notice:

MORELL: They're concerned about certain state AI laws in particular, and wanted to get in front of them…while a federal standard is being put together.

Clare Morell is a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, researching tech policy. She says the Administration is not aiming to challenge all state laws regulating AI, but is likely to focus on a particular kind of law.

MORELL: The concern all along has been state laws coming out of California and Colorado that push kind of censorship, or almost like DEI standards through for AI models.

In September, Colorado’s governor signed an updated version of the state’s AI law. It requires companies to protect consumers from what the government calls “risks of algorithmic discrimination.” Enforcement is set to begin in February. Trump’s order calls out Colorado for putting companies in a position of producing false results to avoid differential impact of protected groups.

Meanwhile, this fall, California began regulating AI used in hiring. Morell says the Trump Administration is targeting those laws…and pressuring other states to drop similar bills. But even if the DOJ moves fast to create the litigation task force, overruling the states won’t be easy.

MORELL: It really does take time to prove a legal case and win legal arguments. So these laws in the States, you know whether you like them or not, even these kind of problematic AI laws are not going to go away overnight.

The executive order does lay out another tool for pressuring the states: federal funding for internet broadband projects.

MORELL: They would withhold funding under the broadband equity access and deployment program, which has about $42 billion in funding. So this is a huge program, and a lot of states, especially rural states, really rely on it for their broadband funding.

For now, it’s up to Congress to decide if a federal standard for AI safety and development regulations is necessary. But Wes Hodges at the Heritage Foundation is watching the White House with concern.

HODGES: It would do well to target things that are truly unlawful, which I hope is the intent. But if folks use as a means to strike down, you know, all AI laws as an extreme, that would be too far. And ultimately, not good for building the public will, the good trust that you need to scale a technology in a free society. Ultimately, we want to win here. But the question is, you know, to what extreme are we going to take that language?

For WORLD, I'm Mary Muncy. Washington Producer Harrison Watters reported this story.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Modern manners can get really weird, really fast.

Consider the use of Venmo to split a tab at Starbucks.

You grab a five-dollar latte for a friend who’s running late, and then wonder whether sending a Venmo request makes you practical—or just makes you a cheapskate.

Journalist Annabelle Williams wrote about this for The Wall Street Journal, and later talked about it with CBS:

WILLIAMS: It's always awkward to be talking about money with your friends … but it's certainly not uncomfortable to press a few buttons on a screen and ask for it.

Easy in the short term. Uncool in the long term.

Williams says the real trouble comes when expectations are unclear—when you offer to buy, then send a surprise request later. Especially, she says, for small amounts. Better to be clear before the bill arrives.

WILLIAMS: The relationship is more important than the debt. The cost of a good friendship is not always worth the cost of a drink.

Seinfeld knew this long before Venmo.

MORTY: “All right, make it 20 bucks.”

JACK: “It’s $19.45, Morty.”

Precision is cheap. Generosity costs a little more—but:

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s priceless.

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

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Tuesday, December 16th.

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: The little town of Bethlehem.

It’s best known as the city where Jesus was born, immortalized in songs and living nativities. But the Bethlehem of today is a bit more gritty.

WORLD’s Travis Kircher introduces us to a Palestinian Christian facing a fragile economy and political unrest.

AUDIO: [Celebration in Bethlehem]

TRAVIS KIRCHER: Hundreds gathered in Manger Square in the West Bank town of Bethlehem earlier this month for the lighting of the square’s Christmas tree. Public Christmas celebrations haven’t taken place here in two years. Local leadership canceled celebrations after the October 7th attacks—citing Israel’s war in Gaza. But with a fragile ceasefire now in place, Bethlehem’s mayor hopes the tree lighting signals a new beginning.

MAYOR: For the past two years, everything was shut down. The unemployment rate jumped from 14% to 65%. Poverty rate touched 65%. The people left Bethlehem.

That was clear when I visited Bethlehem in September.

AUDIO: [Meeting Saleem]

That’s where I met Saleem Anfous. Anfous is a Palestinian and a professing Christian—a faith he says he was born into.

Anfous used to be a tour guide in the West Bank until the October 7th terror attacks.

ANFOUS: You can see because of the war: No tourism. Zero. Tourism is dead. So you can see how that is harmful to the community—specifically to the Bethlehem community and specifically also to the Christian community.

WORLD paid Anfous to show me around Bethlehem. One of the first sites we visited is known as the Shepherds Fields—one of three possible sites where shepherds learned of the Christ child some 2,000 years ago. Anfous points to the heavens…

ANFOUS: The angels could appear anywhere in the sky here, telling those shepherds who are taking care of the flock, giving them this beautiful, beautiful, beautiful message of God Himself started something that is magnificent…

From there, he takes me to the Church of the Nativity where we are greeted by members of the Palestinian tourist police who safeguard the site.

AUDIO: [Greetings from Church of the Nativity tourist police]

Inside, Anfous recounted the Christmas story as the locals understand it. He thinks the Western church may have misunderstood aspects of the story—particularly what he sees as his ancestors’ treatment of Mary.

ANFOUS: Hospitality is something that it very important. So can you explain to me, in the sense of our hospitality, in the sense of human nature, why would people kick a pregnant woman who is about to give birth out into the streets, and not welcome her in their homes?

As a descendant of King David, Anfous says Joseph would have had family in Bethlehem. Luke’s Gospel says there was no room for Mary and Joseph in the inn, but Anfous believes our English translation is misleading…

ANFOUS: The word “inn” is not the actual word of what is described in the Bible. It could mean inn, guest house, or guest room.

He thinks Joseph’s family would have welcomed the couple, but as a pregnant woman, Mary would have been ritually unclean.

ANFOUS: So where does she go? To the cave next to the house, where basically there, she is with the midwives giving birth and being with the family.

As we made our way through the church, we reached what is considered one of the holiest sites of all—the very chamber where tradition says Jesus was born. Before Oct. 7, you might have expected to wait at least an hour in line to touch the precise spot. But at that moment on that day in September, Magaly Varona, a Cuban national from Miami and a professing Christian, was the only tourist in the room.

VARONA: Incredible. It’s amazing. The beginning of everything for me.

Tour guide Michael Cavanati offered a more sobering assessment.

CAVANATI: This is our life here as locals. We depend on this place to live—not just for religion. Now we are very lucky to see it’s empty, but for us, we are not lucky. Because it’s a war and we are praying to finish this war. We pray to Jesus to bring peace to us.

Outside, I asked Anfous what it’s like being a Palestinian Christian living in the West Bank. His answers are blunt.

ANFOUS: I’m literally being persecuted by my faith—persecuted as a Christian and persecuted as a Palestinian…

He considers Israel’s security forces in the West Bank as an occupation, its war against the terror group Hamas in Gaza a genocide, and accuses Israeli settlers of pushing Palestinians out of what he sees as their God-given land. But he also condemns the terror attacks of October 7th and says his quarrel is with the actions of the Israeli government—not the Jewish people.

AUDIO: [Saleem describes the wall in detail]

At one point, he shows me what he sees as one of the most divisive structures in the West Bank—a more than 400-mile long security wall. That wall was built by Israel in response to an onslaught of terror attacks launched as part of the Second Intifada 25 years ago. But Anfous sees it as a land grab. He says the end result is that he and other Palestinians are boxed in.

ANFOUS: You see it, the reality. Where can my girls go? There is no empty piece of land that can turn into a playground. A field. A place where they can go around. There’s no hiking spaces I can take them out.

Despite being my cab driver, Anfous was unable to take me back to my apartment in Jerusalem at the end of the trip. The Israeli government wouldn’t let him and other Palestinians across the border, for security reasons. Not since October 7th.

ANFOUS: Before that, I would take my girls to the zoo, I would take my girls to worship in the resurrection church, visit Jerusalem because that’s the right that I should have like anyone else. But I know I no longer have access to do so…

So I wait at a bus stop for an Arab bus line to take me 4 miles back to Jerusalem.

At a checkpoint, I show my American passport to Israel Defense Forces troops before I’m allowed across the border, left with Anfous’ parting words.

ANFOUS: We’re screaming for the need of the Western church to stand as a church. Listen to us! Listen to what we say!

Now back in the States, I spoke with Anfous again a few days ago. He says even with public Christmas celebrations returning, he hasn’t seen a significant rise in tourism yet, but he’s hoping it will improve by Easter. And some good news: He says he was finally granted a permit to visit Jerusalem—at least until the end of this month.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Travis Kircher, from Bethlehem in the West Bank.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. And finally today, WORLD Opinions contributor and Anglican rector Steven Wedgeworth says when it comes to the language of Christmas. the church should not neglect centuries of tradition and expression.

STEVEN WEDGEWORTH: Our family has a lot of annual rituals we like to do each December. One of these is the daily Advent calendar. The countdown to Christmas is a highlight of every morning. But we got a new calendar this year and I couldn’t believe my eyes, or my ears. One of its scripture readings went like this: “Listen,” the angel said, “You will become pregnant and have a baby boy.”

Listen? ... Pregnant? ... And then came another unwelcome visitor…the bible verse said “Caesar sent out an order, that everyone’s name must be put on a list.”

Put on a list? And wasn’t this Caesar formerly known as Augustus? It leaves me asking, whatever happened to Christmas?

The crown jewel of English literature is the King James Bible. It remains a top-seller in the Bible markets, and it is still the most widely used by English-speaking churches. Its prose is classic, a stabilizing feature of not only literature but of culture. It formed the English nation, and then it migrated to North America where it found its way into the mouths of John Witherspoon, Abraham, Lincoln, Johnny Cash, and Linus Van Pelt. Every year in December, millions of Americans have used the text of the King James in their Christmas carols, their seasonal devotions, and in their Christmas Eve services. It is part of who we are. But now we seem to be giving this heritage away.

We all know the excuses. It’s old-fashioned and hard to understand. But of course, when it comes to Christmas, being old-fashioned is a strength and not a weakness. Auld acquaintance and all. The whole point is to remember, to place our focus backwards. If at no other time, surely the Christmas holidays call for “that glorious song of old.” The context is familiar, and the virtue of seasonal repetition and public religion has quite simply drilled the second chapter of the gospel of Luke into our bones. For Christmas readings, we know what we're hearing.

The worst argument of all comes, as it not infrequently does, from the religious academy. It argues that the newer translations, while admittedly tinny and unlikely to endure, are still nevertheless “more accurate.” And so instead of “only begotten Son,” we should use “one and only” or “unique.” Your hymns and creeds and heirlooms might all have to go, but at least we will have accuracy. Mercifully, this particular example has already started to lose ground. “Only begotten” is currently enjoying a renaissance among historians and linguists, and so the rest of us can be spared.

The poet W. H. Auden once offered some famously curmudgeonly remarks about religious language revision. In the process he also gave one of the best defenses of the KJV. Auden puts it this way:

Our Church has had the singular good-fortune of having its Prayer-Book composed and its Bible translated at exactly the right time…late enough for the language to be intelligible to any English-speaking person in this century and early enough…when people still had an instinctive feeling for the formal and the ceremonious which is essential in liturgical language.

The King James Version really is intelligible, certainly in its most famous parts. Your grandparents managed it. As a Mississippi schoolboy in the 1990s, I could sort it out. Countless working-class communities still make it work today. And the Christmas season is one of the last cultural artifacts that can make a credible claim to being a public liturgy. As such, it deserves an appropriately liturgical language. Even if you can't bring yourself to use it for regular bible study, at least use the KJV for your pomp and ceremony.

The King James Version is the only Bible that can be called the English and American family Bible. It’s what you are used to hearing this time of year. It’s what the season calls for. It just sounds better. If for no other reason, do it for the holly and the jolly. Do it for Old Blue Eyes. Do it for your forefathers and do it for your grandchildren.

Please, for Christmas this year, stick with the King James.

I’m Steven Wedgeworth.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Tomorrow: Washington Wednesday with Hunter Baker. And, a visit to German Village in Columbus, Ohio, for a Christmas celebration, old world style. That and more tomorrow.

I’m Mary Reichard.

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

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Go now in grace and peace.

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