The World and Everything in It: December 4, 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: Right here at the start, a reminder that this week is special because we’re focused on first time givers in support of WORLD—it’s our New Donor Drive. If you’re a regular listener who feels you’ve been given clarity or courage, but you’ve not given yet … I hope you’ll make today the day you choose to strengthen independent Christian journalism with a gift of any amount.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Every single gift helps to keep our journalism going. On Monday we announced a $50-thousand-dollar challenge gift, demonstrating that giving is a team sport!

We do this together. So many have responded and stepped into the story and joined the team this week.

Nothing encourages us more! So as we go into the last couple of days of this New Donor Drive, let’s wrap it up strong.

Would you make your first-time gift today? Just visit wng.org/newdonor.

REICHARD: Good morning!

A Christian ministry in Nigeria says that persecution there is worse than the media is reporting.

BROWN: And, after the Thanksgiving shooting in Washington D.C., the Trump Administration takes another look at the vetting of Afghan nationals.

Also today, a new plan to revive the black family:

AUDIO: I put it this way. If you want to fix the home you have to get four houses in order, the church house, the school house, the state house and then the art house.

And WORLD commentator Cal Thomas on the legacy of two conservative thinkers who both would have turned 100 years old this year.

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

BROWN: And I’m Myrna Brown. Good morning!

REICHARD: Up next, Mark Mellinger with today’s news.

MARK MELLINGER, NEWS ANCHOR: Drugboat latest: Trump okay w/releasing video of 2nd strike » President Trump says he’s willing to release video of the U.S. military’s controversial second strike on a suspected drug-smuggling boat from Venezuela, after the initial strike failed to kill everyone on board.

TRUMP: I don't know what they have, but whatever they have, we’d certainly release, no problem.

The president, talking to reporters in the Oval Office Wednesday.

Admiral Frank Bradley, who ordered the second strike back in September, is holding a classified briefing on the matter before Congress today. The White House says the strike was a lawful act of self defense, while critics say taking out survivors at sea is a war crime.

Speaking at the Pentagon Christmas Tree lighting Wednesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth referenced the White House’s tactics to stop drug smuggling from countries like Venezuela, to the U.S.

HEGSETH: We remember the ones that are fighting to protect all of us, to bring peace on earth and goodwill toward men, except narco terrorists.

Hegseth’s level of involvement in the double strike is unclear. He claims he didn’t know anyone had survived the initial hit, and didn’t order the second strike.

Pentagon IG: Hegseth use of Signal app endangered mission » Meanwhile, Hegseth is facing renewed scrutiny on another front: his use of the Signal app. A new report from the Pentagon inspector general finds Hegseth endangered U.S. personnel and their mission earlier this year, when he used Signal to share sensitive information about a strike on Houthi militants in Yemen.

That’s according to two sources familiar with the findings who spoke to the Associated Press.

Democrats say the findings show Hegseth isn’t qualified for the job he holds. House Armed Services Committee member Maggie Goodlander:

GOODLANDER: It is absolutely baffling to me how a person in such an extraordinary position of public trust could be so reckless, I think this is one example of, unfortunately, many that show that this is a person who is not fit to serve as our secretary of defense.

Despite the inspector general’s conclusions that Hegseth’s actions could’ve put U.S. personnel at risk, Hegseth does have the ability to declassify material, and the report found he did not do so improperly.

A Pentagon spokesperson calls the report a ‘total exoneration’ of Hegseth.

Ukraine negotiator to meet w/Witkoff, Kushner » Ukraine’s top negotiator is scheduled to meet for peace talks with U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner in Miami today.

It comes just a couple days after Witkoff and Kushner met with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Moscow, for talks aimed at ending Russia’s war on Ukraine.

The president isn’t predicting next steps, but says the U.S. team left Moscow with the sense Putin wants the war to end.

TRUMP: I think he’d like to get back to dealing a more normal life. I think he’d like to be trading with the United States of America, frankly, instead of, you know, losing thousands of soldiers a week.

Ukraine and its European allies are more skeptical. They accused Putin of feigning interest in peace efforts after his meeting with the U.S. diplomats.

Ukraine’s foreign minister urged Putin to -quote- “stop wasting the world’s time.”

Gaza: Israel upset over remains sent, trades attacks w/Hamas » The ceasefire in Gaza is strained, but still holding, after limited back-and-forth attacks between Hamas and Israel Wednesday.

A Hamas attack wounded five Israeli soldiers, prompting a retaliatory airstrike by Israel on a Hamas militant in southern Gaza later in the day.

Also Wednesday, Israel received what could be the remains of one of the last Hamas-held hostages. But forensics experts need to verify that, after remains handed over Tuesday turned out not to match either of the final two hostages. Israeli spokeswoman Shosh Bedrosian:

BEDROSIAN: Hamas publicly said they were committed to the ceasefire more than 51 days ago now. Lie! Hamas repeatedly violated the terms by not only attacking our soldiers, but by not releasing all of our hostages, the living hostages and our deceased hostages.

Hamas claims it had trouble accessing the remains because of Israel’s destruction of Gaza.

One sign of progress: Israel is reopening the long-closed Rafah Crossing for medical evacuations and travel to and from Gaza. That’s a key term of the ceasefire.

ICE crackdown in NOLA, MN » Federal agents hit the streets of New Orleans Wednesday.

SOUND: Agents in New Orleans

Those agents were part of the Trump administration's immigration crackdown across the U.S. -- with the latest phase focused largely on Louisiana.

The Department of Homeland Security says it's all about rounding up illegal migrants who've already been detained and released, despite being charged with violent crimes.

GOP Senator Markwayne Mullin told Fox Business's Kudlow:

MULLIN: It's the Democrat-ran, blue cities that are doing this. And keep in mind, the Democrats always want to scream that we're anti-immigrant. We're not anti-immigrant. In fact we want immigrants to come over here in a lawful way.

Trump administration officials say New Orleans was chosen for the next crackdown because of its status as a so-called sanctuary city.

Also, NBC News reports raids targeting Somali migrants have begun in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Trump rolling back Biden fuel economy standards » The White House is rolling back Biden-era fuel economy standards.

The government says the new standard would cut average fuel economy requirements for light duty vehicles from 50 miles per gallon by 2031, down to 34 and a half.

The Trump Administration says this move will make cars more affordable. National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett says the Biden-era standard was aimed at moving away from the internal combustion engine.

HASSETT: There’s basically no car anywhere in the U.S. that’s being made that would meet that standard. So otherwise, what they’re doing is they’re trying to make everybody buy electric cars.

The new mileage standards still have to be finalized next year before they can take effect.

I'm Mark Mellinger.

Straight ahead: accounts of Christian persecution in Nigeria and why the stories aren’t getting wider coverage. Plus, strengthening the American family.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Thursday the 4th of December.

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

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

First up, the mass killing in Nigeria.

Nigeria is facing one of the deadliest crises in the world today. Entire villages are being wiped out and churches are being burned to the ground. Millions of believers are internally displaced inside Nigeria.

Despite all this, there’s little independent reporting from that country.

BROWN: Joining us now to talk about it is Judd Saul. He’s been working inside Nigeria for years. He is founder of Equipping the Persecuted, a boots-on-the-ground ministry helping persecuted Christians in Africa. He also operates TruthNigeria.com, a journalism project to document what is happening in Nigeria.

REICHARD: Judd, thank you for joining us today.

JUDD SAUL: Hey, thank you for having me. Glad to be here.

REICHARD: Let’s start with an overview. What are the historical roots of the conflict and how is Nigeria laid out as far as religious affiliations?

SAUL: Okay, so currently, Nigeria is 50% Christian, 50% Muslim, and what we are seeing taking place is a radical Islamist takeover of the country, moving in from in the north and working its way south. It was at one point, 70% Christian, 30% Muslim, but over the course of time, call it death by 10,000 attacks, they've taken over more territory, and the reason it's so popular in the news is just because the attacks have been more frequent, more brazen.

REICHARD: Who are the aggressors and what is their goal?

SAUL: The aggressors are the radical Islamist, and you have a few different groups of radical Islamists. You have Boko Haram, you have ISIS of West Africa. And then you have the Fulani tribe, which overall, they are a radical Islamist sect that is really hell bent on turning Nigeria into a caliphate. And they will stop at nothing and destroy anything that gets in their way to accomplish their goals.

REICHARD: And describe for us the scale of violence against Christians?

SAUL: So in the last five years, on average per year, you had around 5000 Christians that were killed. This year, it's been exponentially worse. It's seven around, 7600 Christians have been killed since January this year. Now, to put that in perspective, in the last five years, Nigeria has accounted for 90% of all Christian persecution deaths worldwide, every year for the last five years. That's over 90% of all Christian persecution deaths worldwide.

REICHARD: You’ve written that the Nigerian government, the military, and the police are complicit, ordering stand-downs during attacks. What’s the evidence that the government knows about these massacres in advance and then does nothing about it?

SAUL: Well, I created a website—besides equippingthepersecuted.org, I have a website called truthnigeria.com. Our team has issued over 100 terror alerts over the last two years, and we have a 90% accuracy rate on knowing when the terrorists are going to attack and where. Because people trust us with intelligence, they let us know what's going on. And the government's notified. The military is notified. The local police are notified, and in all those attacks, the military and police did nothing. They have stood down. Even while attacks are occurring and people are being slaughtered, the military is called and the calls are ignored. And we have repeated case after case in evidence backing this up.

REICHARD: Well, let’s talk about how the media are complicit in this travesty going on for so long. What’s the method by which “news” is distributed?

SAUL: So in Nigeria an incident only happens when the Nigerian government says it happens. So if there's an incident, the Nigerian government has to call for a press conference, then they pay the journalist to come to the press conference, and those journalists have to report what the government tells them to report. If the Nigerian government does not issue, hold a press conference or issue their own statement, the event never happened. And that's unfortunately what makes it to the BBC and the rest of the mainstream media. And it's always filtered through Al Jazeeraa first. So if they write an article and news comes out, it goes to Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera says this is the final piece on it. Then BBC, CNN, the rest of the mainstream media go off of what Al Jazeera wrote.

REICHARD: Let’s get down to some specifics here. How many churches have been destroyed by the Fulani militias, and how many Christians have been killed? Does that meet the definition of genocide?

SAUL: Well, that's the thing. Over 10,000, we count over 10,000 churches. Now that's, that's what we know of. There are more than that, but that's what we have documented. Over 10,000 churches. How many Christians have been killed? Well, the last five years, 40, if I'm going by the math, about 35,000 Christians have been killed in the last five years in Nigeria. So, yeah, this is a genocide. Because what you don't see happening is you don't see mosques being destroyed in Nigeria. You don't see entire Muslim communities wiped off the map in Nigeria, you only see that happening to Christian communities, which, by the way, over 800 Christian communities wiped off the map, renamed Muslim names where Christians are no more. And currently there is three point over 3.5 million Christians living in camps, displaced from their homes. They're called IDPs by the UN, “internally displaced persons,” over 3.5 million Christians living in total poverty, living in squalor, living in the worst of the worst conditions. And the world has been silent about this.

REICHARD: I think it was late October that the US redesignated Nigeria as a “country of particular concern” under the International Religious Freedom Act. that was a reversal of the Biden administration’s decision to take Nigeria off the list. Is this going to help matters?

SAUL: I think it's a start, but we need to follow it up with a real action plan and a real policy that is going to protect Christians in Nigeria, and not just Christians, just innocent people in general. But I think we need to put together a very tough foreign policy to make sure that that happens,

REICHARD: What is Equipping the Persecuted able to do for survivors?

SAUL: Equipping the Persecuted is boots on the ground mission that works with Christians on the ground, all these IDPs. We do medical interventions, we deliver food, but we also work with village security teams. We also try to train village security teams on how to protect themselves, installing village alarm systems, giving them communications, but also utilizing Truth Nigeria and the network we've built with pastors and communities to try to stop the persecution and stop the attacks and terrorism.

REICHARD: This is all very shocking. To Westerners, this can come off as mere statistics. But I want to ask you, what happens if Nigeria falls?

SAUL: If Nigeria falls, so goes the rest of Africa. And instead of 1000s of Christians being killed, it's going to be hundreds of 1000s, if not millions, being killed. If something isn't done very soon. Things are reaching a boiling point, and the Muslims, politically in the Nigerian government, have taken more territory, and they're leaving Christians defenseless, and they are starting to attack more. So if something isn't done soon, this is going to turn into an even bigger problem, and if Nigeria goes so does the rest of Africa, because these Nigerians have nowhere to go.

REICHARD: Judd Saul is founder of the ministry Equipping the Persecuted, on the ground in Nigeria. Judd, thank you for your work. Stay safe.

SAUL: Thank you. God bless.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: re-vetting Afghan refugees.

Following the shooting of two National Guard servicemembers in Washington, D-C last week… the Trump administration says it will revamp security vetting on refugees who came to the US under the Biden administration, particularly Afghans.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Until then, immigration officials will pause all processing of green card applications, asylum requests, and other immigration-related efforts made by Afghans.

But experts are divided on whether a wholesale re-vetting of Afghans is necessary.

REICHARD: WORLD’s Josh Schumacher has more.

OFFICER: I need everybody to push back please…

JOSH SCHUMACHER: The day before Thanksgiving, a 29-year-old man shot West Virginia National Guard soldiers Sarah Beckstrom and Andrew Wolfe at a metro stop near the White House. Beckstrom later died from her injuries, while Wolfe remained in critical condition.

While the two soldiers’ condition drew media attention, much of the discourse after centered on the identity of the shooter. Rahmanullah Lakanwal is an Afghan national who came to the United States during the Biden administration in late 2021.

Following the shooting, Trump administration officials claimed that the attack was proof that the Biden administration hadn’t properly vetted Afghan nationals entering the United States after the fall of Kabul.

Here’s President Donald Trump speaking about the shooter just hours after the attack:

TRUMP: He was flown in by the Biden administration in Sept. 2021, on those infamous flights that everybody was talking about. Nobody knew who was coming in, nobody knew anything about it.

Days before the shooting, the Trump administration had already announced plans to re-vet every refugee who came to the United States under President Joe Biden. After the shooting, the administration doubled down on those plans—saying it would halt the processing of all immigration-related requests for Afghan refugees in the United States until extensive re-vetting of Afghan nationals in the country could take place.

Here’s Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on ABC News’ “This Week” days after the shooting.

NOEM: He was brought into the country by the Biden administration through Operation Allies Welcome and then maybe vetted after that, but not done well.

But some advocates say that’s not the case. They say that the shooter—and other Afghan refugees—were thoroughly vetted by the Biden administration.

Shawn VanDiver is president of AfghanEvac, a nonprofit that advocates for America’s wartime allies from Afghanistan.

VANDIVER: He was brought here by the CIA. And that's the thing is the Trump administration vetted this guy. They granted him asylum in April 2025. The Biden administration and the Trump administration vetted him over and over again.

In Afghanistan, the shooter fought against the Taliban in an Afghan military unit commanded by CIA. He had to undergo vetting before he joined that unit.

After the U.S. military withdrawal in 2021, the shooter was airlifted out in the early weeks of Operation Allies Welcome. That year-long multi-agency effort focused on vetting, evacuating, and resettling Afghan nationals who worked with the U.S. government or who would face persecution under a Taliban regime.

Federal agencies conducted background checks and interviews with people before they arrived in the United States. Afghan arrivals were then cross-checked against federal agency watchlists and subject to intelligence agency background checks. The government also gathered biometric data—such as fingerprints, photos, and iris scans—about each person both before and after they brought them into the United States.

That leads VanDiver and others to suggest that we may be looking at the wrong problem:

VANDIVER: I don't think that there's anything wrong with the vetting. I think that this guy snapped for some reason. We don't know why.

In June 2025—during Trump’s own administration—the U.S. Department of Justice’s Inspector General touted the effectiveness of the vetting strategies the FBI used in Operation Allies Welcome.

That report said the FBI’s counterterrorism teams followed vetting best practices, and in several dozen instances, found individuals who were terrorist threats among the crowds of people trying to enter the US through the program.

But VanDiver says the vast majority of individuals who made it into the US aren’t threats.

VANDIVER: Like, we're not seeing these folks commit crimes in large numbers.

And while other experts agree that, by and large, Afghans as a whole aren’t a threat to society, some do say it would be prudent to find any other “bad apples” that might be out there.

VAUGHAN: Yeah, that’s a very wise move…

Jessica Vaughan is the director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies. She told WORLD she supports the Trump administration’s decision to review the cases of Afghans who entered the country during Biden’s time in office.

VAUGHAN: Some of them were vetted more than others, but we do know from congressional investigations and government audits that the vetting process for the Afghan evacuees was changed so as to speed up their entry and release into the United States and that certain protocols were abandoned in the interest of processing people quickly.

Specifically, Vaughan says there was no way to fact-check the identities of anyone who came to the United States through the evacuation program. That’s because, at the time, the Afghan government was in chaos. She adds that she doesn’t think Afghanistan had adequate systems that could reliably verify the claims individuals were making about themselves.

VAUGHAN: No more than 10,000 and I think probably a few less than that were people who had actually worked for the government the US government you know and their family members. Most of the evacuees were just anybody who could get on a plane.

Vaughan says many Afghans who came to the United States are likely good people trying to live good and upstanding lives, but ensuring there are not more bad actors warrants a process to re-vet refugees.

VAUGHAN: We know that procedures were lifted by policy under the Biden administration, that adjudicators were told not to do certain things that were standard practice before. And so we should go back and look at the people that were handled that way. You know, just to make sure, just to see if mistakes were made. I mean, there are always mistakes made.

But Shawn VanDiver says the Trump administration isn’t just cracking down on some cases where mistakes could have been made, they’re cracking down on all Afghans—many of whom have followed the rules the U.S. government has given to them.

VANDIVER: Every community has lunatics and bad apples what we have to do with those folks is identify them, isolate them, and excise them. We can't sit around and punish every single Afghan who served our country faithfully.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Seven years ago in Minnesota, teenagers Zach Zarembinski and Isabelle Richards lay in separate hospital rooms. Each in comas, each after suffering separate accidents.

Their mothers kept vigil together, told to expect the worst. Here’s Isabell’s mother, Esther. Audio from the Good News Network:

ESTHER WITZBACHER: She had shards of glass still in her hair and she was unconscious.

Zach awoke from his coma first. He reassured Isabell’s family she’d wake up, too. And she did.

Years later, they reconnected and started a podcast together called Hope in Healing.

ZACH: He has redeemed our stories.

Back at the hospital where they met, Zach read Scripture to Isabelle and then popped the question:

ZACH: Will you marry me? 

ISABELLE: Yes!

From coma patients to bride and groom.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Love works in mysterious ways!

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

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday, December 4th.

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

Good morning. I’m Myrna Brown

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

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Retooling a call to action.

The year was 1965. While serving as Assistant Secretary of Labor, Daniel Patrick Moynihan published a report on the breakdown of the black family.

Despite gains in civil rights, Moynihan was concerned blacks did not have social and economic equality. The report was intended to persuade his boss, President Lyndon B. Johnson, to take federal action to strengthen the black family.

BROWN: In the report, Moynihan identified the reasons for the racial disparities. Topping the list: the rising numbers of female-led single-parent households and out of wedlock births. With Jim Crow laws hardly in the review mirror, that message was controversial.

Here is an edited clip of Moynihan defending the report in 1965 on Meet the Press. Audio from American History TV.

AMERICAN HISTORY TV: You say that 44 percent of the children in Harlem are illegitimate. Now how do you know that? New York City Department of Health sir…and right under our prosperous noses that happened. That hasn’t existed for fifty years. It’s happened in the last fifteen years in America. We’ve been sitting around thinking things we’re getting better. And they haven’t been getting better for those children.

Critics accused Moynihan of victim-blaming and overlooking issues like systemic discrimination, and the legacy of slavery.

Sixty years later, the Moynihan report is still being challenged.

MYRNA BROWN REPORTING: Delano Squires is in the hot seat, literally. He’s sitting under bright lights in a Washington D.C. television studio, getting chewed out on C-SPAN.

CSPAN CALL: And this is Newman calling from San Antonio. Good Morning Newman. Good Morning. First of all, I would like to say to the gentleman. You know, it hurts me to see you sit there. Because really to me…you insulting my mama this morning.

The caller from Texas doesn’t like Squires:

CALLER: You don’t realize how you disgracing black people this morning man.

…and probably didn’t care much for Daniel Patrick Moynihan either back in the day.

DELANO SQUIRES: He basically said that my advocacy on behalf of the traditional family is a slight or a swipe at his single mom. And he got offended because he thought I was insulting his mom. And I was doing no such thing.

Squires told WORLD’s Washington producer, Harrison Watters, he was making this point to the TV audience.

DELANO SQUIRES: Despite all types of the everyday indignities that black Americans had to suffer, not just in the south. In 1965, at the time of the Moynihan Report, the non-marital birth rate for black families was…call it a quarter.

That means 75 percent of black children were born to married parents. Fast forward to 2023. Life has generally gotten better for black Americans since 1965. But the number of children born in single-parent homes has doubled. Just as Moynihan predicted.

DELANO SQUIRES: And he said the roles of husband and wife were reversed. His theory was that if the rest of society has a more patriarchal family structure and the black family has a matriarchal family structure that black families would be at structural disadvantage.

At 43, New York native Delano Squires wasn’t even born when Moynihan released his report in 1965. His parents immigrated from the West Indies and married in Queens.

AUDIO: Uh…let me see. I think I have a picture of them…

After inviting us to his Maryland home, he swipes through old photos on his phone.

AUDIO: My parents have been married forty-four years….

That’s the family structure Moynihan insisted was missing. And in the mid-nineties it was the most important part of Squires’ upbringing.

DELANO SQUIRES: And what we saw is that our lives looked very different than those of our peers. And oftentimes it was because not only were our parents together, but our dads were active in our lives, active in church. Our parents were raising us according to their Christian values and in homes where marriage was the norm. That’s what we knew.

And he never forgot it. After college, Squires wrote about being raised in a two-parent household. As a Research Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, he wrote a special report outlining a new plan to revive marriage and rebuild the black family. Squires says the biggest difference between his and Moynihan’s report is the call to action.

DELANO SQUIRES: Everyone he was writing to at this time was white. It’s now 2025 and black Americans have far more political representation, economic power, and education. My audience is the black leadership class.

Squires calls it the “afrostocracy.” Black preachers, politicians, professors, pundits and performers, all on the center left.

DELANO SQUIRES: I put it this way. If you want to fix the home you have to get four houses in order, the church house, the school house, the state house and then the art house.

In September, Squires invited representatives from those “houses” to join forces with conservative leaders. The goal: create a culture of marriage and strong families.

AUDIO: [Audience applause…] Welcome….

This is a recording from that joint event. Squires says his pitch to potential participants: replace the notion of Black Lives Matter with black wives matter.

DELANO SQUIRES: Can you do that? NAACP, can you prioritize this issue for the next five years? Same for the Urban League.

Squires says he didn’t get any responses from those organizations. Others agreed to come and speak and then backed out. But he refuses to believe black leaders are hostile towards the black family.

DELANO SQUIRES: I think there’s a certain sense of apathy towards it, benign neglect. Part of the reason is because the issues that they see as of more importance are abortion, LGBT issues, climate change. But one person, Khalil Thompson, who was at the event. He was someone who was just open to listening. Open to dialog.

In 2024 Khalil Thompson helped raise more than a million dollars for the Kamala Harris campaign. Who would have imagined a year later, Thompson and Squires would be standing on common ground in an auditorium at the Heritage Foundation.

PANEL LEADER: Khalil builds bridges [applause]

After the panel discussion, Thompson told me he and Squires may still be opponents on some issues:

KHALIL THOMPSON: But what I love in my brother is that he wants to solve something so that my daughter’s life is better. His kid’s lives are better and that we’re leaving a better society for our community.

SOUND: [KIDS CHATTER]

Back at Squires’s house, he says God has been preparing him for this work.

DELANO SQUIRES: Because it’s going to be laborious and it’s going to take time. It took about three generations to get to this point. It will take us at least three to get us out.

AUDIO: Is Camille downstairs with ya’ll?

But his motivation is the legacy he and his wife are leaving their four children.

DELANO SQUIRES: As a Christian, a husband and a father. In that order and before anything else, children need their father because God designed it… the family in such a way that it takes exactly one man and one woman to make one child. And if it takes two to make. I can infer it takes two to raise.

AUDIO: Camille…she had to go do an outfit change….

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Few of us live a hundred years, but each person does have a centenary date. According to WORLD commentator Cal Thomas, a couple of world changing conservatives hit that milestone this year, with hardly anyone noticing. 

CAL THOMAS: 2025 is the centenary of two towering individuals in the conservative movement, neither of whom receive the respect they deserve among the ruling political, historical and media classes. William F. Buckley, Junior and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Before this year expires, I’d like to offer some reflections and admiration for these two.

Bill Buckley almost single handedly held the conservative fort until reinforcements arrived. Far from being mean spirited, Buckley used his extensive vocabulary and rapier wit to disarm liberal opponents in ways they didn’t recognize until it was too late to respond.

BUCKLEY: I’ve often been quoted as saying that I’d rather be governed by the first 2000 people in the Boston phone directory than by the 2000 people on the faculty of Harvard University.

It’s a classic line undermining what we now call the “woke” agenda of many centers of so-called: “higher learning.”

Another favorite line came after this question:

QUESTION: On television you are always seated. Does this mean you can’t think on your feet?”

BUCKLEY: It’s very, very hard to stand up carrying the weight of what I know. [LAUGHTER]

Coming from anyone else that might sound prideful, but the line had a considerable amount of truth in it. Buckley was incredibly smart and was his own encyclopedia. I once introduced him at a Washington event this way: “Bill, I don’t mind you writing a column, or being the author of many books, or piloting a yacht, but when you built a harpsichord from scratch and played it at Carnegie Hall, don’t you think that’s pouring it on a little too much?” Clearly, he went through the gift line more than once.

The same could be said of Margaret Thatcher. She was hated by the British Left because she almost single-handedly destroyed the socialist programs that had harmed much of the country’s social, economic, and political infrastructure. Her political opponents would never admit they were wrong, despite the evidence.

THATCHER: Let us never forget this fundamental truth: the state has no source of money other than the money people earn themselves. If the state wishes to spend more it can do so only by borrowing your savings or by taxing you more and it's no good thinking that someone else will pay. That someone else is you… [Applause]

Responding to the collectivism and overreliance on government in her day, Thatcher recalled a basic principle: “There is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look to themselves first.”

Another Thatcher line that should have been quoted during the race for New York City mayor, which was won by Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani:

THATCHER: …socialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess…they always run out of other people's money…

In an article titled: “The Woman Who Made Britain Great Again” author Christopher Sandford writes this: “In her first term alone, she oversaw measures that lowered inflation from an annual rate of 18 percent (and rising) to 5.5 percent (and falling). She introduced legislation to curb union militancy (and) privatize(d) inefficient state industries,” among many other reforms.

Sandford wraps up his summation of Thatcher’s remarkable life this way: “she remains the last recognizably great British prime minister, one who embodies the paradox of serving as her nation’s all-but-unchallenged leader for eleven years, while seeing herself as an outsider constantly beset by an inert political establishment.”

Margret Thatcher and William F Buckley, Jr. Two great minds whose ideas and philosophies would still work today should modern politicians again embrace them.

I’m Cal Thomas.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Tomorrow: John Stonestreet is here for Culture Friday. Also, a review of Disney’s latest animated “buddy cop” film, Zootopia 2. And, we kick off our Advent reflections on what it means that Christ came to dwell with His people.

A reminder that it’s our First Time Giving week! We want you on our team. Just visit wng.org/NewDonor.

That and more tomorrow.

I’m Mary Reichard.

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

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The Apostle Paul wrote these words to Timothy: “Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. But as for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.” — II Timothy Chapter 4:2-5

Go now in grace and peace.

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