The World and Everything in It - February 9, 2022

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

Russia’s threat along its border with Ukraine has the world on edge. Today, we’ll talk counter moves by the United States and its prospects for success.

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

Also today, WORLD Tour.

Plus, our occasional series Destinations we’ll visit a scenic drive along the Australian coast.

And a heart to heart from WORLD founder Joel Belz.

REICHARD: It’s Wednesday, February 9th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

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

REICHARD: Now here’s Kent Covington with today’s news.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Macron hails “opportunity” for Ukraine-Russia negotiations » French President Emmanuel Macron met with the president of Ukraine in the capital of Kyiv on Tuesday.

And one day after his meeting with Vladimir Putin in Moscow, Macron declared that the door to diplomacy is open.

MACRON: [Speaking in French]

In a joint news conference with President Volodymyr Zelensky, Macron said he believes there is now—his words—"the opportunity to move these negotiations forward" between Russia and Ukraine.

He said Putin told him on Monday that—quote—“He won’t be initiating an escalation,” and the French president added, “I think it is important.”

But while Macron expressed cautious optimism, White House officials said they’re more cautious than they are optimistic. Press Secretary Jen Psaki:

PSAKI: If there is diplomatic progress, we would welcome that, but we will believe it when we see it with our own eyes at the border.

The Kremlin on Tuesday denied reports that Macron and Putin struck a deal on de-escalating the crisis.

The French president later traveled to Berlin to speak with the German chancellor and the Polish president. Macron plans to meet Putin again and then convene talks with leaders from France, Germany, Russia, and Ukraine on Thursday.

U.S. approves support deal with Taiwan for Patriot missiles » The Biden administration has approved a $100 million support contract with Taiwan. It is aimed at boosting the island’s missile defense systems as it faces increasing pressure from China. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has more.

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: The State Department announced the engineering and maintenance agreement this week as China plays host to the Winter Olympic Games.

Beijing is sharply critical of any American arms sales to Taiwan and has called on Washington to revoke the deal.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said—quote—“U.S. arms sales to Taiwan ... seriously undermine China’s sovereignty and security interests, and seriously damage China-U.S. relations and peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.”

Beijing claims Taiwan as its territory and has not ruled out the use of force to unify the island with the mainland. The Chinese military has ramped up incursions of Taiwan’s air space in recent months.

The support agreement is meant to help Taiwan maintain its existing air-defense missiles as well as advanced U.S.-made Patriot missiles that Taiwan is buying.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

Opioid fight needs new strategy, Cabinet leadership: report » A government panel says the United States must step up its response to the opioid and overdose epidemic.

A bipartisan commission on Capitol Hill released a 70-page report on Tuesday.

The panel warned that the stakes are much higher now with the widespread availability of fentanyl. And the report suggests five “pillars” of government action:

It proposes Cabinet-level leadership to organize the response. It also calls for better coordination of law enforcement actions and more effective treatment programs.

It outlines a strategy to use a mix of law enforcement and diplomacy to shut down the global sources of the chemicals used to make fentanyl. And the report calls for new tools to help spot trends in illicit drug use before they morph into major problems for society.

Former Pope apologizes, admits no wrong » Retired Pope Benedict XVI asked forgiveness Tuesday for any—quote—“grievous faults" in his handling of clergy sex abuse cases. But he denied any personal or specific wrongdoing. WORLD’s Josh Schumacher has more.

JOSH SCHUMACHER, REPORTER: The 94-year-old former pope was responding to a recent report from a German law firm. The German Catholic Church hired the firm to investigate abuse cases within the Munich archdiocese dating back to 1945.

The report faulted Benedict’s handling of four cases during his time as archbishop in the late 1970s and early ‘80s. It accused him of failing to restrict the ministry of four priests even after they were criminally convicted.

Benedict's lack of a personal apology or admission of guilt riled sex abuse survivors.

Benedict issued what he called a “confession,” but he didn't confess to any specific fault. He said he felt pain—quote—“for the abuses and the errors that occurred in those different places during the time of my mandate.”

The report also faulted his predecessors and successors, estimating roughly 500 abuse victims.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher. 

Air Force to pay $230 million to shooting survivors » The U.S. Air Force is set to pay out more than $200 million in a settlement stemming from a mass shooting in Texas.

In 2017, Devin Patrick Kelley opened fire during the Sunday service at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, killing 26 people. The Air Force issued a dishonorable discharge to Kelley in 2014 after an assault conviction. But it failed to report incriminating information about him to a Justice Department database. That allowed Kelley to buy a weapon.

For that reason, a federal judge last July ruled that the Air Force was 60 percent liable for the shooting.

And on Monday, the judge ordered the Air Force to pay out a total of $230 million to 80 surviving relatives and 21 survivors and their families.

I’m Kent Covington. Straight ahead: the one thing that is really and for true the thing that is straight ahead.

Plus, developing a Christian mindset.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Wednesday the 9th of February, 2022.

We’re so glad you’ve joined us for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Up first: the crisis in Ukraine.

Well over 100,000 Russian troops and many other military assets remain parked along Ukraine’s border. And the White House has warned that an invasion could come “any day now.”

The Biden administration and Congress are vowing stiff economic consequences for Russia should that nation invade its neighbor again. Of course, Russia already annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014.

At the time, the West cried foul over that invasion but did little else about it. The United States and its allies vow that this time things will be different.

REICHARD: Joining us now to talk about how Washington is handling this crisis is Bradley Bowman. He is a senior director at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He has served as a top national security advisor to members and committees of the U.S. Senate. Bradley, good morning!

BRADLEY BOWMAN, GUEST: Good morning!

REICHARD: Well, just for context, let’s go back to 2014 when as we said Russia annexed Crimea. At the time the Obama administration policy you remember was “reset.” Resetting relations with Russia.

Take us back to that time. How do you evaluate how the United States handled that invasion?

BOWMAN: Sure, absolutely. I was actually serving as a national security adviser to a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee at the time and so I had a second row seat, if you will, to those developments. And, you know, the bottom line is that the Obama administration, I think, was suffering from what general retired HR McMaster called strategic narcissism. It's this idea where when we see something bad in the world, we Americans tend to really suffer from this malady sometimes, we tend to think everything's our fault, or everything is a reaction to us. And with that perspective, we kind of deprive others of agency. It's like everything must be—if something bad happens—that must be because of us. And sometimes, you know, there's just authoritarian thugs that want to seize territory. And sometimes, as we learned on September 11, 2001, there's just terrorists who want to kill us. And so the question is, how should we respond? And so based on that misleading provocation premise, the Obama administration refused to provide Ukraine weapons to defend itself. And in fact, I remember when the head of state from Ukraine came to Capitol Hill and addressed a joint session of Congress and said something to the effect of thanks for the blankets, but I can't defend my country with blankets. I actually need weapons to do that. And so we now fast forward, we have the Biden administration, which saw indications and warnings for a potential invasion coming as early as October or November, and was really quite slow in responding. I'm glad to see that we've now had up to eight shipments of weapons—American weapons—go into Ukraine, but those were very belated, unfortunately. And I think they're still a bit insufficient.

REICHARD: So that’s a bit of historical context brought current. Well, we know President Biden has asked Qatar to help with the leverage that Russia has over Europe in terms of Europe’s dependence on Russian energy. But it looks like that may not be very effective, so what else might the United States do?

BOWMAN: You know, I think Germany has inflicted a lot of this on itself, a self-inflicted wound, I would say, with what they've done with some of their fossil fuels and nuclear power. And they've been building of course, as some of your listeners may know, the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. This is a natural gas pipeline that runs directly from Russia to Germany and bypasses Ukraine. And in bypassing Ukraine deprives Ukraine of much needed revenue. And gives Ukraine less leverage over what Russia does. And so, you know, this pipeline is almost complete, has not been put into operation yet. And with the German leader’s recent visit to Washington, you know, this was a key topic. And that is, you know, if Russia goes ahead with additional aggression against Ukraine, will Germany work with us and others, to not put that pipeline into operation? And so, you know, I think the Biden administration has been right to say, hey, Putin, if you move ahead, you're gonna suffer from multilateral sanctions, the likes of which we haven't seen. We're going to be forced to beef up U.S. military posture in Eastern Europe, which we've already started to do. And we’ll be forced to provide additional weapons to Ukraine. Those are all good warnings. But I do worry, as I suggested earlier, that those after the-fact-threats or warnings may not be enough to deter aggression from Putin. And that's why I'm focusing on what we should be doing right now.

REICHARD: Congress has been working on a sanctions package against Russia, should Putin give the order to invade. But there are reportedly two sticking points. As you mention, the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and when the sanctions would actually kick in.

What kind of sanctions do you think Washington will ultimately impose and what impact would it have on Russia?

BOWMAN: Yeah, well, there's kind of two different bins or categories, if you will, of sanctions. I mean, one bin is basically punishment to Vladimir Putin in response to a new invasion of Ukraine. And so those would be hopefully multilateral. Hopefully most all of our European allies would join us in those. They would be, you know, the Biden administration has said they would be some of the toughest sanctions we've ever seen. And some of them might go after Vladimir Putin himself, which is somewhat unusual in terms of going after a head of state, would certainly go after his inner circle. And you know, a lot of Russian oligarchs and a lot of advisors, they enjoy vacationing in Europe, they enjoy sending their kids to school in Europe, they perhaps invest some of their money in Europe. So those are all things that could be targeted.

But you know, more broadly, given the size and power, frankly, of the American economy, when Washington applies sanctions, that has a far reaching effect. And so those would put a hurt, no doubt, on Vladimir Putin. But, you know, I think to understand how those would affect his thinking, you have to appreciate how determined he is to write a try to reconstitute as much as possible of the former Soviet Union. And he views Ukraine as a key part of that. So we can put pain on him economically, but whether that's enough to deter him from what’s something I think he sees almost as a historical mission, with an eye on history, and an eye on his reputation as a neo-czar, if you will, I don't know if that will be enough. And then on Nord Stream 2, those would affect German companies working on the pipeline, as well as Russia and Gazprom, and others. But that's where it gets tricky, right? Because Germany is a NATO ally. And imposing sanctions on a German ally is something you want to avoid, because we want to be unified as an alliance. But if they're doing something that's so detrimental to Ukraine and to European and American security interests, Berlin may leave us little choice.

REICHARD: If Russia does invade, Bradley, what do you think is likely to happen next? Will Putin try to absorb Ukraine completely or is he more likely to try to install a puppet government that he can claim retains a measure of independence?

BOWMAN: Yeah, it's a great question. I mean, just as a quick reminder that we've seen this movie before, right? We saw Russia invade Georgia in 2008. Russia continues to occupy parts of Georgia, South ossession of Kazuya. We saw them legally invade and annex Crimea in 2014. And this is the part that a lot of listeners may not be tracking, since then, the Russians have backed a separatist movement in eastern Ukraine in the Donbass and roughly 14,000 people have died as a result. So, you know, when Putin goes, “What? Me? I'm not up to anything.” It's like, well, we're not making this up. We've seen a propensity here for Russia to ignore international borders, and invade and occupy its neighbors. But your question is very good, because it could take different forms, right? I have no doubt that Vladimir Putin would like to accomplish his political objectives at the bargaining table. And those key objectives are commitments that Ukraine would never be able to join NATO, and commitments regarding military units and weapons in Eastern Europe near Russia. He would like to get those concessions made at the negotiating table. If he can't, then, you know, he may go back to his KGB colonel playbook and revert to poisonings, assassinations, and coup attempts. And if that doesn't work, he might take in an invasion. And even the invasion could take several different forms.

REICHARD: Could you elaborate on the big picture here. What are some things people should be thinking about in this situation?

BOWMAN: Yeah, absolutely. I think it's a clash of two worldviews. It's a clash of a worldview held by Vladimir Putin. It’s a might makes right model. Might makes right authoritarianism where Putin says, “Hey, Ukraine, I'm more powerful than you. I can tell you what to do. I can tell you with whom you can associate and what you can do within your territory.” That's essentially what he's saying.

And then on the opposing side of that as a worldview, a worldview codified in the preamble of the 1949 North Atlantic Treaty, codified in the rule of law and international law and territorial integrity, national sovereignty. And when there's a clash like this. Sometimes thugs like Putin will resort to military power to try to get what he wants at the negotiating table. And that's why I'm recommending what I'm recommending. If we arm Ukraine now with weapons to defend itself, we can shift Putin's cost-benefit analysis and hopefully get him to a point where he understands that he can't accomplish his political objectives Ukraine with military force, pushing him back to the negotiating table and hopefully avoiding war in the first place.

REICHARD: Always good to get the big picture. Bradley Bowman with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies has been our guest today. He’s a former U.S. Army officer and Black Hawk helicopter pilot. Bradley, thanks so much!

BOWMAN: Thank you.

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

ONIZE OHIKERE, REPORTER: Australia to reopen borders—We start today in Australia.

After almost two years of strict border closures, the country will once again welcome visitors, starting February 21st.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison made the announcement Monday. Australians welcomed the news.

AUDIO: About time. It's exciting. It almost feels like the end of a period of hermit kingdom-ness ending. I'm just really excited. Opportunities is what we want. The opportunity to leave the country and come back is great.

Since March 2020, Australians have been barred from leaving the country. Only a handful of visitors have been granted exemptions to enter.

According to the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the strict lockdown has cost businesses an estimated $2.6 billion dollars.

Only a handful of countries remain closed to tourists due to the pandemic. They include Japan, China, New Zealand, and several Pacific Island nations.

Queen Elizabeth begins jubilee year—Next we go to Europe.

AUDIO: [Cannon fire]

The sound of ceremonial cannons rang out over London on Monday to celebrate the 70-year reign of Queen Elizabeth II.

Lt. Colonel James Shaw oversees the British Army’s ceremonial events.

SHAW: Today we’re marking Her Majesty’s accession to the throne, but from here now we’ve started the Jubilee year and it’s now the build-up to the Platinum Jubilee weekend in June.

At 95, Queen Elizabeth is Britain’s longest serving monarch. In a message to the nation, the queen renewed a pledge she made during a broadcast on her 21st birthday: “that my life will always be devoted to your service.” She signed it, “Your servant, Elizabeth R.”

Cyclone devastates Madagascar’s agriculture—Next we go to East Africa.

AUDIO: [Wind noise]

Madagascar is cleaning up from a deadly cyclone that raked over the island nation on Saturday. It was the second storm to hit the country in the last few weeks.

Cyclone Batsirai killed 20 people and displaced 55,000 others.

It hit the island’s sparsely populated agricultural heartland, raising fears of a long-lasting humanitarian crisis.

Three-quarters of Madagascar's population lives on less than $2 per day. Due to a severe drought, more than a million people are suffering from acute malnutrition.

Tunisian PM dissolves judicial council—Next, to North Africa.

Tunisian President Kais Saied dissolved the country’s judicial council on Sunday.

AUDIO: [Man speaking Arabic]

Following a meeting with the prime minister, Saied said he would never interfere with the judiciary. But he claimed the council was full of corruption and said he needed to put an end to “this farce.”

Critics denounced the move as another blow to democracy. Liz Throssell is a spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

THROSSELL: The country has made tremendous progress in recent years and this is why it's important to flag that these latest developments are so concerning.

Tunisia established the judicial council in 2016 as a way to ensure the independence of the judiciary. Saied took control of the country’s government in July and has increasingly concentrated all authority in the presidency.

Senegal celebrates Afcon win—And finally, we end today in West Africa.

AUDIO: [Sound of cheering]

Hundreds of thousands of soccer fans packed the streets of Dakar on Monday to welcome Senegal’s national team back home.

The Lions won the Africa Cup of Nations on Sunday, beating Egypt 4-2 in a penalty shoot-out. It was Senegal’s first championship win.

The government declared Monday a public holiday to celebrate.

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

NICK EICHER, HOST: Authorities at the Pentagon took an unnamed trespasser into custody last week.

Thankfully, the interloper was not armed. In fact, it doesn’t have arms—well—because chickens have wings, not arms.

Security personnel say “for actual security reasons” they are “not allowed to disclose the exact location” where they found the chicken. But the bird has been relocated to its new permanent home at an animal sanctuary nearby.

And we can also be thankful to know the answer to the age-old question…

REICHARD: Why did the chicken cross the road?

EICHER: To get to the Pentagon.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Wednesday, February 9th. This is WORLD Radio and we thank you for joining us today.

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: another in our occasional series—Destinations.

Driving Australia’s Great Ocean Road is like cruising along Highway 1 in California, only shorter and wilder. Craggy cliffs, soaring bluffs, and rugged terrain make this drive a global attraction.

WORLD correspondent Amy Lewis sends us this audio postcard from the scenic drive down under.

MUSIC: [Boys of the Dardanelles song]

AMY LEWIS, CORRESPONDENT: In 1918, Australian soldiers returned home from World War I after fighting in Gallipoli and France. They needed jobs. At the same time, Australia needed a road built to remote towns along its southern coast. It was a win-win situation. The soldiers finished hand-building the Great Ocean Road in 1932 in honor of their fallen comrades. It’s the world’s largest war memorial at 150 miles long. But the soldiers weren’t just building it for Australians. It’s a road for everyone.

And it starts in Torquay, where Rip Curl wetsuits originated and Quiksilver first sold its board shorts. Surfers can drive their iconic VW buses along the Great Ocean Road to the famous Bells Beach. It’s home to the world’s longest-running surfing competition.

Those who aren’t surfers still have plenty to see. Most people take the winding road for the sights. Two narrow lanes hug rusty red cliffs clad with scrubby brush. Road signs regularly remind tourists that, in Australia, we drive on the left side of the road. Just keep the ocean on your left as you drive west, and you won’t get lost.

AUDIO: [WAVES]

The water stretches out like an artist’s palette of blues. Teal and turquoise hug the beach. Cobalt and ultramarine mute to a deep navy closer to the horizon. It seems at any moment the Dawn Treader could come cutting through the iridescent waves.

AUDIO: [WILD WAVES]

For the best experience, drive with your windows open and the radio off. Waves crashing against boulders, cliffs, and shallow or steep beaches all lend their voices to the marine orchestra.

Smells change too. At the Great Otway National Forest, the road plunges into the depths of a tall eucalyptus forest. The aroma shifts from thick and salty to spicy and medicinal with hints of mint and honey. Even the sound of the wind changes.

AUDIO: [WIND]

A side trip through this temperate rainforest delivers visitors to an anomaly of young California redwoods. A businessman planted the trees in 1936 for lumber but never harvested it. Australia’s 1990s immigration practices brought many nations to its continent. You can hear a host of languages in the grove as people express their awe and wonder at the stately red-trunked trees.

AUDIO: [ERSKINE FALLS]

Visitors slip under fences and over enormous rocks to take pictures in the spray of waterfalls. They are dwarfed by tree ferns as tall as Goliath.

The Great Ocean Road winds past many coves and rock formations worth stopping to visit.

One collection of rocks used to be called the Sow and Piglets. In the 1930s, a marketing strategy renamed the nine colorful limestone stacks the Twelve Apostles. Now it's the most popular destination along the southern highway.

LEWIS: Do you know who they’re named after?

THOMPSON: Aw, I should, but I don’t. No, sorry. I’m not a Bible man.

SHATALIN: Oh, I don’t remember. Uh, I’m not really into religion too much. Apostles. Ok, uh, let me think. There was, uh, so, Judah was one of them. Right? No? Who basically was not very good by the end of the story Judah then, uh, I don’t remember.

BROADBEAR: I presume the Twelve Apostles in the Bible, but, that, since there’s not twelve of them, I can’t tell you which one is which! Yeah, yeah, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and then I get a bit shaky. I think there’s a Thomas, Philip. I guess Judas was one as well. Um, there were two Johns, weren’t there? Were there two Johns? John the Baptist wasn’t one, was he. Just John. Isn’t that awful?! Peter? And trying to think of the books of the Bible now. Yeah, I’m coming up a bit empty. It’s been a while since I’ve had to think about that.

BHANDERI: They came from the Bible. I didn’t know that at all. That’s good to know…

Bible knowledge aside, the view shouts the wonders of creation to everyone who sees it. The surf crashes against rock pillars that change color depending on the sun and weather. But even rock is temporal.

The earliest written records only mention 9 stacks. In 2005 the eighth unnamed rock apostle collapsed. Now visitors can see seven Statue-of-Liberty-sized pillars standing out from the mainland.

Everyone I talked to agrees that this is a trip worth taking.

SHATALIN: This place feels absolutely, you know, outstanding. This is something really special not only for Victoria or Australia. The view is just breathtaking. That’s amazing. Obviously, that’s a must-visit place. And, yeah, something really special in the worldwide, you know.

BROADBEAR: Once International borders are open up and especially if you’ve got American listeners who are thinking about coming to Australia, come for a long time. Don’t come for two weeks. The distances here are very large. But it’s just beautiful, the sea breeze and you look across and there’s nothing. Antarctica’s the first place you’re gonna come to looking south. So, it’s lovely…

RANABHAT: Like the scene is very, really, really awesome. And like, everything is really gorgeous. I like it. I can’t explain in words, because it’s naturally really beautiful….

"The psalmist put it this way, 'Shout for joy to the Lord all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music....Let the sea resound and everything in it, the world and all who live in it.'" (Psalm 98: 4,7)

Reporting for WORLD from Australia’s Great Ocean Road, I’m Amy Lewis.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Wednesday, February 9th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Here now is WORLD Founder Joel Belz on some of our in-house conversations.

JOEL BELZ, FOUNDER: Certainly you must have noticed that we’ve been having some robust discussions recently within the WORLD family, focused in part on the general theme of journalistic bias. It’s easy, even among thoughtful considerations by serious Christians, to forget our ultimate goals.

So let me be as transparent as I know how and acknowledge some of our biases and prejudices. We’d like you, our committed listeners, to be developing and growing what have sometimes been called Christian minds.

Sometimes, WORLD News Group will seek to help you in that development and growth in a somewhat abstract manner. But most of the time, we’ll help you in the development and growth of your Christian mind by pointing out examples of Christian minds at work in real-life situations. Because those real-life situations are timely, they come to us on a schedule typically shaped by the day’s news. That’s why WORLD is a news organization.

Some abstract content, some real-life examples.

We almost certainly won’t know from week-to-week where the emphasis will be. We do know the package will sound like news.

And we know that a growing number of readers and listeners like this very practical approach to what many people call a Christian mind, a Christian mindset, a Christian perspective.

Here are just a few we’ve heard from in recent weeks:

John H. Stuart of Winthrop, Maine, writes: “The honesty, creativity, humanity, and individuality of your staff comes through and is much appreciated in today’s world more than ever. I get the sense that I am getting an honest take on the news, without the sensationalism that drives other media outlets. In addition, analysis from a Christian worldview helps me think about the news in like manner, not being pushed to and fro by worldly ideologies and vaporous enthusiasms.”

Sonja Ingram of northern Wisconsin says: “Thank you for answering your call to start WORLD magazine. I was forced to read it when I attended a small Christian school, but never enjoyed it then. Now I read every issue cover to cover. The reporting that is done with God’s redemptive plan in mind brings such joy and peace to my heart, I eagerly await every issue.”

And this good summary from Mari Doerr, who calls herself a long-time reader in Lafayette, Indiana: “I appreciate so many good things about the magazine—but especially the cogent writing and varied story lineup. It’s been challenging to learn about the suffering of so many fellow believers who don’t have the freedom to worship God like I have. Thank you for your vision, and developing a strong team to publish the magazine and now the podcasts that I enjoy listening to each day. And thank you for God’s World News for children that my family enjoyed while they were growing up.”

So whatever you and your family’s news needs might be, keep this in mind: We don’t call ourselves “World News Group” for nothing!

I’m Joel Belz.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: different approaches to the pandemic. We’ll find out what has worked and what has not.

And, Afghanistan. We’ll get an update on the humanitarian crisis there.

That and more tomorrow.

I’m Nick Eicher.

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

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

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

The Bible says: A brother offended is more unyielding than a strong city, and quarreling is like the bars of a castle.

Go now in grace and peace.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.