The World and Everything in It: February 16, 2023

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Good morning!

Parents are growing exceedingly concerned over teens and social media addiction. WORLD’s Mary Jackson tells us why.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Also the geopolitical chess match over the war in Ukraine.

Plus, a community that offers paddock-to-plate dining as an expression of their faith.

And Cal Thomas on why it’s more important than ever to get serious about China.

BROWN: It’s Thursday, February 16th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

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

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

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Senate briefing on balloons/objects / China threats » It’s time to get tough on China. That’s what some lawmakers are saying after attending a classified briefing on Chinese threats on Wednesday. Senator Josh Hawley.

HAWLEY: They've been doing this, they've been flying these balloons for a while now, as the administrations now admitted. We need to get serious about this and say that we're not going to put up with it.

A U.S. fighter jet shot down a Chinese balloon off the South Carolina coast earlier this month.

Pentagon officials briefed lawmakers on how U.S. military capabilities stack up against those of China.

The U.S. on Friday imposed sanctions on six Chinese aerospace companies. Beijing has threatened to retaliate.

EU proposes 10th Russian sanctions round » The European Union is pushing for a new round of sanctions against Russia, its tenth since the invasion of Ukraine almost a year ago.

European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen says the sanctions would target Russia’s economy and war machine.

VON DER LEYEN: We propose further export bans worth more than 11 billion euros to deprive the Russian economy of critical technology and industrial goods.

The package also aims to close loopholes that Russia has used to get around previous sanctions.

Buffalo shooter sentencing » The 19-year-old who shot and killed 10 people in a Buffalo grocery store will spend the rest of his life in prison. A New York judge handed down a life sentence to Payton Gendron yesterday after hearing from the families of his victims.

AUDIO: [Speaking, then man rushing Gendron]

During the sentencing hearing, one man lunged at the killer before police officers restrained him.

The son of one of the victims addressed Gendron directly.

AUDIO: You’ve shattered a lot of lives here son. I've got a child your age. I know it was a mistake. It was a big one, bro. You'll pay for this. Just find it in your heart to apologize to these people man.

The killer did apologize in court.

GENDRON: I believed what I read online and acted out of hate. And now I can't take it back. But I wish I could.

Gendron confessed that the killings were racially motivated. He has pleaded guilty to state charges of murder and domestic terrorism. He has pleaded not guilty to federal charges that could carry the death penalty.

McConnell blasts Dems over id politics in judiciary » Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell told colleagues Wednesday that identity politics should play no role when it comes to picking judges.

His remarks came after Democrats celebrated appointing the first openly LGBT judge to the federal bench in Puerto Rico.

MCCONNELL: It’s offensive to all Americans to have a president seeming to view our judiciary as some kind of crude sociological math problem. This is just the kind of thing our constitution cuts against.

The Democrat-led Senate confirmed Gina Méndez-Miró as a federal district judge. She is President Biden’s 100th federal court appointment.

Earthquake latest » International aid continues to pour into Turkey and Syria after devastating earthquakes that killed more than 40,000 people.

Speaking in Aleppo , Syria, Kelly T. Clements with the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees says aid workers are setting up relief centers.

CLEMENTS: To be able to provide people with a dry and warm place to be able to sleep, some hot food, winter clothing. It’s getting cold.

More than 100 countries have joined relief efforts. But the aid can’t get there fast enough with hundreds of thousands displaced.

Scotland » Scotland will soon have a new leader after First Minister Nicola Sturgeon unexpectedly announced her resignation on Wednesday.

Sturgeon has held the office for more than eight years and is the country’s longest-serving first minister.

STURGEON: This decision is not a reaction to short term pressures, of course, there are difficult issues confronting the government just now. But when is that ever not the case?

Last year, Sturgeon signed a law that made it easier for people to change their legal gender, a move that sparked intense criticism.

She also advocated for another vote on Scotland’s independence from the United Kingdom after a previously failed referendum in 2014.

Sturgeon will remain in power until the Scottish Parliament selects her successor.

I’m Kent Covington. Straight ahead: the geopolitical fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Plus, a community that lives, works, and serves together.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Thursday, the 16th of February, 2023. Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Myrna Brown.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. First up on The World and Everything in It: teens’ mental health and TikTok.

Last week, Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced a plan to ban TikTok on state-issued devices across Texas, citing issues of cybersecurity.

BROWN: While lawmakers point to TikTok’s relationship to the Chinese Communist Party, medical professionals have a different concern: a correlated rise in numbers of young people with tics—meaning those involuntary, repetitive physical movements and vocal noises that are commonly associated with Tourette Syndrome.

EICHER: WORLD Senior Writer Mary Jackson recently published a story about TikTok and social sickness for WORLD and we talked with her about it. But before we let you hear that, I’d like to play a bit of audio to give you a small sample of what we’re talking about, these vocal tics.

They’re vocal, but they’re also physical—tapping your chest, like this, or twitching an eye, or jerking your head to the side—in addition to the vocal tics.

Sometimes it’s just a noise, other times it’s random phrases, including foul language, which we’ll bleep out.

But let’s listen to about 30 seconds of TikTok influencer Baylen Dupree.

DUPREE: You guys have asked where Fluffy has been. She's been with, ahhhhhh, urgh, she's been with me. We’ve just been chillin’. She's got whipped cream, like dried whipped cream all over her face because I gave her a pup cup this morning. You want to say hi? Eww. Up talk, Girl Scout! Urgh. Wind it up! [bleep] men. Urgh. Ha!

BROWN: Well, as you can hear there, the symptoms of Tourette Syndrome can be pretty severe. But it’s increasingly showing up in unexpected places, thanks in part to TikTok. So we asked Mary how these things are related:

MARY JACKSON, REPORTER: Coming out of the pandemic, I started seeing reports of teen girls developing tics from spending a lot of time on TikTok and in particular watching videos of certain influencers who claimed to have Tourette Syndrome. And simultaneously, you know, an increasing number of kids at younger ages are on numerous social media platforms. And it's becoming normal for them to say that they have a mental illness, even without a formal diagnosis. So one girl I interviewed said, it's almost like trendy to have a mental illness. Meanwhile, we've arrived at this point where there's an unprecedented number of teens who do have formal diagnoses of mental illnesses. And the social psychologists I cite in my story, started to see those numbers climbing with the advent of the smartphone and social media. And so, it seems significant.

EICHER: You mentioned that the number of young people who self-diagnose mental health issues is rising partly in response to social influencers on TikTok. So I guess there’s a sense in which it’s good that certain mental health problems are becoming easier to recognize. But should we be concerned that teenagers are preferring self-diagnosis to professional evaluation?

JACKSON: You know, I think most medical professionals would say that the awareness around mental illnesses is, is in some ways a good thing. There's less stigma around certain disorders. But they would also say, it's vital that young people seek formal diagnoses and speak with their parents, trusted adults, medical professionals, about, you know, what they're experiencing, what the next steps are. The therapists and medical professionals that I spoke with are really concerned about the number of teens they're seeing self diagnosing, and sometimes finding those same kids are resistant to having a formal diagnosis and relying entirely on what they heard someone say on social media. So that is a concern.

EICHER: So where do parents and family environment come into the picture?

JACKSON: Yeah, some of the research I found pointed to the influence of kids growing up with married parents and how they tended to use social media less or have more rules around usage, you know, so things like not allowing your kid to take their phone in their bedroom at night or have it at the dinner table. In homes where there’s divorce—such as one of the families I profiled in the story—it’s hard for parents to be on the same page and provide that oversight. Coming out of the pandemic, I think a lot of parents just stopped limiting screen time, as they maybe previously had, or let their younger kids, you know, preteens get social media, because it was the only connection they had at the time to their friends.

EICHER: You know, I imagine a listener may be thinking of someone—a child, a grand-child, a friend—they suspect may have a smartphone addiction. Now Mary, what could a listener do to help?

JACKSON: Yeah, so obviously, if a child is exhibiting symptoms of a possible mental illness or disorder, trusted adults, parents, you know, grandparents may need to get others involved, such as a qualified medical professional. But I think young people really need the adults in their life, their parents, grandparents, you know, friends in the church, to talk about what they're experiencing and seeing around them and how it’s affecting them. They need their parents to set limits for their own good and prioritize in-person connection and activities. One pastor and father of five I spoke with was saying, you know, this is a huge opportunity for the church. Kids are yearning for real life connection. They’re searching for things on social media that can only be found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and in a Bible believing community of believers. So helping kids process and helping them understand the potential dangers of social media, and understand how it might be affecting them–those are really important conversations to be having with young people.

EICHER: Mary Jackson is a Senior Writer for WORLD, and you can read her full piece at WNG.org. It’s a substantial piece, 3,000 words, she goes deep into it. We’ll include a link to Mary’s piece in today’s transcript.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: Russia’s war in Ukraine is coming up on its one-year mark. The effects of the invasion have led to new partnerships among some of the world’s most-feared authoritarians.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Washington now confronts a host of geopolitical problems that have the potential to ignite all at once. WORLD’s Jill Nelson takes a look at some of these new alliances and what we might expect in the months ahead.

AUDIO: [Drones]

JILL NELSON, REPORTER: It was early on a Monday morning in October when the residents of Kyiv, Ukraine woke up to a new kind of weapon attacking their homes. The Shahed-136 is a type of suicide drone. It attacks in clusters, weaving around buildings and dive-bombing into targets with its 80-pound warhead.

During the October attack at least five people died, including an unborn child whose mother was six-months pregnant. This new form of terror was made possible by one of Moscow’s newest friends in the region: Iran. Tehran sold hundreds of the kamikaze drones to Moscow last year, and they first arrived on the Ukrainian battlefields in September.

RESIDENT: [Ukrainian] At 6:30 it flew from there. The rumble was like...

This Kyiv resident survived a drone strike in December. She says it sounded like a moped approaching, followed by a roaring explosion.

Retired Lieutenant General Ben Hodges commanded U.S. Army forces in Europe from 2014 to 2017. He says Western-backed sanctions have made it difficult for the Kremlin to replenish what they’re using on the battlefields.

HODGES: We know that they are now having to pull out ammunition and equipment that is almost my age, and it's just not as effective.

Russia is creating new alliances with pariah states to make up for the shortfall. Russia and Iran have been enemies for nearly 500 years, but now that’s changing.

Behnam Ben Taleblu is an expert on Iran at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

BEN TALEBLU: You know, these are troubling times. America’s authoritarian adversaries are moving closer and closer together.

The White House in October said Iranian forces were on the ground in Ukraine to help Russian troops operate the new equipment. Iranian drones knocked out power and heat during the heart of winter … and killed dozens of civilians.

U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan in January said Tehran may be “contributing to widespread war crimes.” And now the two nations are building a drone factory in Russia.

Taleblu says Washington should close the door to the fatally flawed Iran nuclear deal, effectively enforce sanctions, and go after Iran’s oppressive regime.

BEN TALEBLU: For instance Khamenei, the country’s supreme leader, and Raisi, the country’s president, are not subject to human rights sanctions despite everything they’ve done and everything they’re accountable for at the helm of that system.

Russia is also turning to North Korea for help. Moscow purchased millions of rockets and artillery shells from Pyongyang according to declassified American intelligence.

Retired Lieutenant General Hodges believes these are all signs of a Russian logistics system in deep trouble.

HODGES: And I do think that over the next couple of years we're going to see potentially the gradual breakup of the Russian Federation. I think their economy is in such bad shape, their military is no longer feared the way it was.

And that means Russia could run to China for support. The Wall Street Journal recently reviewed Russian customs forms and found Beijing is already helping Moscow get around Western sanctions. China has exported navigation equipment, fighter jet parts, and other military-linked supplies to Russia.

Hodges says it's in the United States’ best interest to ensure the Ukrainians win this war.

HODGES: If Ukraine fails and Russia is allowed to keep Crimea, for example, or other territories that it has illegally occupied, if they're rewarded for that, it will not be as helpful or beneficial for all of us. And the Chinese will be watching that, of course.

Other nations are wildcards in the geopolitical shakeup. Turkey, for example, has played both sides.

It has supplied Ukraine with weapons and helped broker a deal to end a Russian blockade of Ukrainian grain exports. But Turkey has also dramatically increased trade with Moscow and welcomed millions of Russians, including sanctioned oligarchs, into its country.

Hodges lived in Izmir, Turkey, for two years. He acknowledged the government’s rollback of basic freedoms, but says it will be increasingly important for the U.S. to acknowledge Ankara’s regional interests and rebuild trust.

Turkey is in a rough neighborhood. He recalled a conversation with a senior officer on the Turkish General Staff.

HODGES: He said, “Ben, I wake up in the morning, I've got Russia to the north, Iran, Iraq, Syria to the south, the Caucasus to the east, and the Balkans to the west.”

Washington will have plenty to navigate in the months ahead, and some analysts are increasingly concerned about the new axis of evil between Russia, Iran, and China. But Hodges is optimistic, and believes Ukraine will take back Crimea by the end of the summer and eventually push back all Russian troops.

HODGES: So, of course I don't have a crystal ball, and I've been proven wrong before. But if the West sticks together and we do everything we said we were going to do and we keep sanctions in place, we deliver the weapons, the capability, the supplies, and we keep looking for ways to get better and better at doing that, Ukraine is going to win this war.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Jill Nelson.

NICK EICHER, HOST: In recent weeks we've reported on many unidentified objects in our skies and as a result of all this, interest in skywatching has exploded.

And with it, an explosion of UFO reports.

On Tuesday dozens of videos filled social media with what appeared to be a string of lights moving across the sky.

Michelle Nichols is with Chicago's Adler Planetarium. She spoke with FOX news and pinned the whole thing on Elon Musk:

NICHOLS: So yesterday SpaceX launched 53 Starlink satellites into space and not too long after the launch they get released and they essentially they string out in a line...

So that positive ID takes the “U” out of the U-F-O and that group of 53 will soon disappear from sight.

But if you missed it, don’t worry. We’ll see more.

NICHOLS: Yeah, actually we will because SpaceX is planning to send up thousands and thousands of these satellites and they've sent up a few 1000 so far. Many more thousands to go.

So it’s not enough that Musk is head of SpaceX and owns a social media platform, now he’s writing messages in the skies.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday, February 16th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Myrna Brown.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: From paddock-to-plate.

Paddock-to-plate is the Australian version of our farm-to-table. For one community of Christians in New South Wales, it’s a way to show love for neighbor.

It’s a community called the Danthonia Bruderhof.

BROWN: They live off the land and paddock-to-plate is the norm. But their story is about more than just food. This community works, lives, and serves together 24/7 because they believe that’s what God has called them to do.

WORLD Correspondent Amy Lewis spent three days with the community and she has our story.

NORANN: So last year, a local bride and groom asked me if I would cater their wedding, because they were quite keen to have a paddock-to-plate experience. And they know that we grow most of our own food here at Danthonia.

AMY LEWIS, REPORTER: It’s a Saturday morning in Inverell, New South Wales. White fluffy clouds fill the blue sky over Danthonia, the name of the large Bruderhof farm.

AUDIO: [Talk about greens, just like at home only bigger, production line...]

Norann Voll calmly moves around the kitchen. She’s overseeing the final food preparations for this afternoon’s outdoor wedding reception featuring food grown on their farm.

NORANN: Our 16-hour brisket, our three meat sausages, our special barbecue sauce, a fresh garden salad with Caesar sides with our homegrown bacon and eggs. Then we finished out with cheesecake, New York style cheesecake, my mom's recipe and fresh fruit…

Even with such a diverse menu, she’s not stressed. This project is like any other the Bruderhof undertake. They live, work, and serve together. That includes the community’s auto mechanic—who doubles as their butcher.

NORANN: Our butcher, he did a lot of work on the meat. But that's the end product right. So you had the farmers growing the pigs and growing the the beef. And then basically of the last week I had myself and about three other young ladies who've been helping me.

About 200 people call Danthonia home. This is their church, their neighborhood, and their workplace all rolled into one. It’s a self-contained village, complete with school, a sign-making business that provides income, an on-site doctor, and 5,500 acres.

The Bruderhof have 24 communities in seven countries. Because of the women’s skirts and head coverings, people sometimes mistakenly think of the Bruderhof as Amish. But unlike the Amish, the Bruderhof have all things in common and personally own nothing—except clothing and toothbrushes. They resonate more with the early Hutterites, who believed strongly in the Great Commission and welcoming new neighbors.

The Bruderhof do use technology, judiciously. For example, on Sunday, Australia’s rugby grand final game airs on the dining room’s big screen TV. Some people carry the latest cell phone in their pockets. And the agricultural team electronically records all their data.

But Norann’s husband Chris Voll recognizes their vocation and particular way of life isn’t for everyone.

CHRIS: We take lifelong vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. And within that vow of obedience, we place ourselves completely at the disposal of the church to serve and do our best wherever we're asked.

For the Volls, that meant flying from America to Australia 20 years ago when their second child was only 12 weeks old. They had a tough transition, including contending with upside down seasons.

CHRIS: We were 10,000 miles away from the people who are nearest and dearest to us. Both my wife and I left our parents overseas. Or just, just being in a country where everything felt upside down and backwards. We arrived in November, and going into that Christmas season was, was quite confronting I would say.

Norann says that confrontation was just what she needed.

NORANN: …got me to a place I really, really didn't want to be and has changed me in ways I didn't know I needed. So it's been a humbling journey to come to a foreign land with very capricious weather and wild seasons that I was completely unprepared for, and be changed and I hope I'm still changing.

Now, the area’s capricious weather makes an appearance just before the wedding. The fluffy morning clouds have changed to dark menacing ones. They deliver one of those gullywasher rainstorms New South Wales gets too many of.

NORANN: And realized pretty soon by the time we got there, that it was going to be a really big challenge to get the food actually to the wedding site. And the DJ had already got his ute stuck right in front of the wedding shed and was making quite some tracks there.

On top of that, the quinoa gets overcooked and the lettuce crop is flooded. The Bruderhof manage to get the DJ’s ute—or pickup—out of the mud. The wedding goes on, and the couple give their wedding vows inside an old woolshed. Afterward, the guests head outside to warm fires and all the food Norann’s team prepared.

NORANN: So the meat was coming off the grill fresh, and the brisket was being sliced in front of the guests, the pork was being pulled off the shoulder in front of the guests. And they could actually load up their plates right from the table. So it was, it was just a delight.

The practical act of offering this new couple what the Bruderhof have grown in their paddocks means more than just filling people’s plates.

NORANN: And I really feel that when we are sitting around a table or around a campfire or under a marquee with rain pouring down, and there's beautiful food that's bringing us together, there's something else that happens. It's kind of like a spiritual transformation. Much more simply, of course, it's nothing airy fairy, it's very down to earth. But the joy of, the joy of Jesus is there when people are together celebrating.

The Bruderhof say the world will know the gospel is true when Christians show love and unity. Working together to cater a wedding in a rainstorm is one expression of that.

CHRIS: Our way of life, our expression of faith community, is not about retreating from the world, but actually being an encouragement both to the church at large and also to people that don't share faith that another life truly is possible. And clearly, that starts with our faith and a life that’s centered on Christ.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Amy Lewis near Inverell, New South Wales, Australia.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Thursday, February 16th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. Commentator Cal Thomas now on threats to America from the Chinese government. Specifically, those that aren’t coming from the sky.

CAL THOMAS, COMMENTATOR: While the military is focused on foreign objects flying over American and Canadian territory, a more disturbing threat to our national security is occurring on the ground. Federal, state and local governments are behind in their response to the acquisition of American land by people and companies associated with the Chinese government.

The Department of Agriculture is supposed to oversee foreign ownership of U.S. farmland and all such purchases are required by law to be reported to the USDA. It is unclear how much reporting has been done because the USDA’s Farm Service Agency mostly relies on volunteer reporting. That must change.

The Quad City Times reported on research by Investigate Midwest, a self-described “independent, nonprofit newsroom.” It found “significant gaps in the USDA database” and discovered “3.1 million acres without an owner listed.”

Constitutional attorney John Whitehead of The Rutherford Institute notes, “As of 2021, foreign persons and entities owned 40.8 million acres of U.S. agricultural land, 47% of which was forestland, 29% in cropland, and 22% in pastureland. Foreign land holdings have increased by an average of 2.2 million acres per year since 2015. Foreign countries also own over $7.4 trillion worth of U.S. debt, with Japan and China ranked as (the) two largest foreign holders of our debt.”

A simple web search shows that in the year 2000, China owned around 192,000 acres of farmland in the United States. That’s not a large percentage of total farm acreage, but it’s steadily growing.

Some of the land purchases have been near U.S. military bases. What does that tell you? It said enough to the City Council in Grand Forks, North Dakota, which recently voted unanimously to block the purchase by a Chinese company of a corn mill after national security concerns were raised by the U.S. Air Force because of its proximity to a military base.

Federal and state legislators have proposed laws banning citizens of China from purchasing land, homes and other buildings in the United States. If people want an issue that ought to be bipartisan, this one is it.

If balloons traversing the U.S. and Canada are not enough for us to get serious about China’s worldwide effort to replace the United States as a world power, conducting espionage at many levels and what looks like preparations to invade Taiwan as Beijing tests U.S. resolve, then what will get our attention to take stronger countermeasures?

The Chinese Communist Party oppresses its people, controls the press, discriminates against religious believers whose primary faith is not in the regime, refuses to hold fair elections, and jails and kills opponents. In this they are not unlike Soviet Russia. They are today’s “evil empire.” Beijing’s aggressive agenda must be opposed, or the threat will spread to the point we might not be able to deter them. Backing measures to keep China from buying up American land is a good place to start, even while monitoring the skies for more balloons.

I’m Cal Thomas.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: Culture Friday with John Stonestreet and Word Play with George Grant.

Also, WORLD film critic Collin Garbarino reviews Ant-man.

That and more tomorrow.

I’m Nick Eicher.

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

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

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

And he answered them, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” (Luke 7:22-23 ESV)

Go now in grace and peace.

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