The World and Everything in It: January 18, 2023

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

President Biden harshly criticizes his predecessor over handling classified documents, then gets caught doing the same thing. What’s the fallout?

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

Also today, WORLD Tour.

Plus introducing our newest podcast for families.

And commentary from Emily Whitten on the homegoing of an influential musician.

REICHARD: It’s Wednesday, January 18th. 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: Time for the news now with Kent Covington.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Ukraine » The White House is condemning Russia’s latest deadly attack on a civilian target. The death toll now stands at at least 45 after Russian missiles destroyed an apartment building in the town of Dnipro.

Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.

PIERRE: We will continue our work to hold Russia’s forces accountable for the atrocities they’ve caused and also the war crimes.

America’s top military officer, Gen. Mark Milley met with Ukraine’s highest-ranking commander in Poland on Tuesday, just miles from the Ukrainian border.

It was the first face-to-face meeting between the two top generals. The meeting comes as the West ramps up the military aid to Ukraine, including Patriot missile batteries.

ZELENSKYY: [Ukrainian]

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Netherlands just announced that it will send a Patriot battery to Ukraine.

Ukrainian troops are currently training at an Army base in Oklahoma, learning how to use and maintain the systems.

IAEA mission starts at Ukraine plants » Meantime, in Ukraine, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog agency is now helping to run nuclear energy plants across the country.

UN nuclear chief Rafael Grossi visited the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant on Tuesday.

GROSSI: We are leaving now a group of experts who are going to be staying here permanently. And it will be the same in all these other places. Working hand in hand with our Ukrainian hosts to facilitate some technical support…

Russian shelling near Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant has alarmed officials throughout the war.

World Food Program director on Ukraine war impact » The head of the World Food Program says the war in Ukraine is largely to blame for a growing hunger crisis around the world. Executive Director David Beasley.

BEASLEY: The number has now jumped from 276 million people to 350 million people marching to starvation, not knowing where their next meal is coming from, because Ukraine alone grew enough food to feed 400 million people.

Ukraine is often called the breadbasket of the world. It’s one of the three global exporters of grain.

Beasley explained that the lack of Ukrainian food exports has hit third-world countries especially hard.

He attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland today where almost 600 CEOs and more than 50 heads of state have gathered to discuss economic concerns around the world.

Biden Dutch PM meeting » Biden hopes to persuade the Dutch to join the U.S. in limiting China’s access to advanced semiconductors through export restrictions.

BIDEN: Together we're working on how to keep a free and open Indo-Pacific and, quite frankly, meet the challenges of China.

The Netherlands-based tech company ASML is a major manufacturer of lithography machines that design and produce semiconductors, which could be used in advanced military systems.

China is one of ASML’s largest clients.

Blinken on Biden docs » Secretary of State Tony Blinken says he had no idea that classified documents were stored at President Biden’s old Washington office.

Blinken was the managing director of the Penn-Biden Center for Diplomacy and Engagement where the documents were found.

BLINKEN: I was surprised to learn that there were any government records taken to the Penn-Biden center. I had no knowledge of it at the time.

The documents were from Biden’s time as vice president. More classified documents were found at the president’s Delaware home.

Chinese population decline » China’s population dropped last year for the first time in more than half a century, the government announced Tuesday. WORLD’s Lauren Canterberry has more.

LAUREN CANTERBERRY, REPORTER: The country’s population declined by 850,000 people in 2022, the first reported decrease since China’s Great Famine ended in 1961.

Chinese citizens have blamed the plummeting birth rate on high costs of living and an economic downturn.

In 2016, China ended its decades-long one-child policy. The policy led to widespread forced abortions and child abandonment.

It also created a disproportionate ratio of men to women and placed a heavy burden of caring for the elderly on younger generations.

For WORLD, I’m Lauren Canterberry.

I’m Kent Covington. Straight ahead: the discovery of Biden’s classified documents and how the administration is handling the revelations.

Plus, World Tour.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s the 18th of January, 2023. Glad to have you along 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. It’s time for Washington Wednesday.

The White House is in full damage control mode over President Biden’s handling of classified documents.

In an interview with 60 Minutes last year, Biden was asked what he thought when he learned that former President Trump had classified documents at his home. This is what he had to say:

BIDEN: How that could possibly happen — how anyone could be that irresponsible. And I thought, what data was in there that may compromise sources and methods.

REICHARD: But just a few short months later, classified documents from Biden’s time as vice president were discovered at his old Washington office. And then more were found at his personal home in Delaware, including in his garage.

EICHER: Last week, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel to look into the president’s possession of the documents.

So what could this mean for the president legally and politically?

Here to talk about it is Mark Caleb Smith. He’s a political science professor at Cedarville University in Ohio.

REICHARD: Professor, good morning!

MARK CALEB SMITH, GUEST: Good morning. Good to be with you.

REICHARD: Glad you’re here. Professor, explain what it means that the Justice Dept. has appointed a special counsel to look into this.

SMITH: Basically, they've decided that there's enough present to warrant further investigation. And since we're talking about the President of the United States, someone who's obviously in a sensitive position, handing that off to someone who's supposed to be a little bit more objective and detached from the process, like a special counsel, makes a lot of sense. So, this isn't an unusual process to take for a special counsel to be brought in at this point. And I think for Attorney General Garland, it was a pretty easy decision based on what he'd previously done with President Trump.

REICHARD: I haven’t heard too many complaints from Republicans about Garland’s choice. Robert Hur is the special counsel appointed to look into this. He is a former US attorney appointed by President Trump. And he once clerked for former Supreme Court Chief Justice William Renquist. … Mark, what was your reaction to the announcement of Hur as special counsel?

SMITH: I think for Garland, it's a good choice. It'd be hard to argue that he is biased toward President Trump in any sort of way, and it'd be hard to argue that he is going to be overly biased toward President Biden. I think your biggest fear in these situations is you put someone into the system who's not going to be appeared to be impartial or, if they are partial, it's going to be in the wrong direction. But here, I think Garland has avoided that. And so you can expect him to be tough, which they're supposed to be tough in this process. But hopefully be fair as well.

REICHARD: And just to be clear, at the end of the day, it will be Attorney General Garland’s decision as to whether to prosecute either Trump or Biden, correct?

SMITH: Yes, that's correct. So based on evidence that's brought forward, it'd be up to the attorney general to make that decision. And it'll be interesting to see how the two situations are handled similarly or differently once we get to that point.

REICHARD: If Garland were so inclined to pursue charges against Trump, does this make it tougher for him to do so?

SMITH: I think that it really is going to come down to the facts and we really don't know the facts at the moment. I think just sort of as an outside observer, we might expect him to do the same thing in both cases. If you're going to prosecute one, you got to prosecute them both. If you're going to let one off, you got to let them both off, whatever that means. But I think there is still a real possibility that there's a factual difference at work here. And if there is a strong, factual, legal difference that can be justified in a court of law, then a different choice, depending on the case, might happen. And politically, that'd be explosive. I mean, let's not pretend otherwise. But legally, it could be the right thing to do. We'll just have to wait and see.

REICHARD: Democrats and the White House say this situation is quite different from Trump’s ordeal in that Biden is fully cooperating. What do you say to that argument? Does that help Biden in any way, legally or politically?

SMITH: I think legally, it probably does help him. I think one of the things that got President Trump into trouble with his classified documents was the long drawn out process, negotiations back and forth, claims that they had already been declassified, those kinds of things potentially set President Trump up for a charge of obstruction of justice. From what we know, as of now, the Biden White House has been pretty forthcoming with the documents once they've been discovered. And they've been turned over according to procedure. And that doesn't mean he had them properly or that no laws were broken. It just means at least that part of the process is very different. So I think they have a reasonable argument that there are differences at work. But politically speaking, I'm not sure that's gonna matter. You know, politics is not the place for nuance at the moment. The law is where you can find some of that nuance, potentially. But politically, I think this is very damaging for the president.

REICHARD: One other difference is that Trump’s documents were from his time as president. Biden’s documents were from his time as vice president. A vice president does not have the same authority as a president to declassify documents. Do you think that matters?

SMITH: It could. It could matter. From what little I know about the ins and outs of the vice presidency, he does have the ability to classify some information on his own. But that would be the only kind of information that he can then declassify after a certain period of time. So it would depend on a very particular kind of information for President Biden to be able to claim that. But I think most observers, most political observers are going to look at that and say, Yeah, you know, you're both in office, it looks like you both made some pretty serious mistakes.

REICHARD: Strictly from a political standpoint, what do you think this means for the Biden White House and Democrats? Is it just an embarrassment that’s going to blow over or is it something more meaningful?

SMITH: I think right now, it probably is just an embarrassment that will eventually blow over. But that's assuming that there are no more documents and it's assuming that we won't be subject to sort of a constant drib and drab of documents that come out over the next few weeks or a few months. That's also assuming that the information within those documents is relatively, I don't know if I want to use the word benign, but not as damaging as it could possibly be. You know, there's certainly levels of top secret information. Some of that is restricted and could reveal sources, could reveal intelligence methods that we use. I think worst case scenario for the president would be that it's information that reveals information about himself or about his family in a damaging way. If that kind of information comes forward and that's the information that he had and protected it, that I think that could be incredibly damaging for the White House. And so I think as of right now, it probably blows over. However, as you know from scandals of the past, we still potentially have a long way to go.

REICHARD: Finally, what about this idea that Biden’s mishandling of these documents was known in November but the news was held back until after the election?

SMITH: I think this is probably the most problematic part of this for the Biden administration. The information was known and they've claimed to be a transparent administration. They, as you noted before, have been extremely critical of President Trump and his handling of classified material. And the fact that they sat on this for a couple of months and then it just came out because of reporting, not because of their own admission, I think it's very damaging to the White House. And I think, as of now, they really can't avoid this criticism, you know, that this is handled in a purely political manner. And it was done to avoid any missteps in the midterm elections and so I think, at least from a political point of view, that's where they're weakest at the moment is the timing of this just really looks bad.

REICHARD: Mark Caleb Smith from Cedarville University. Professor, thanks so much!

SMITH: Always a pleasure. 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: DRC church, Nigeria — We begin today’s international roundup here in Africa.

AUDIO: [Explosion site]

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for a bomb that ripped through a Pentecostal church in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

At least 14 people died and 63 others were injured in the Sunday attack.

AUDIO: [Speaking Swahili]

This survivor says the choir finished singing and the preacher just began his sermon when they heard the explosion.

Shoes littered the premises, and the hole where police said the bomb was buried… was still visible this week.

More than 120 armed groups operate in the mineral-rich eastern Congo.

The same day in Nigeria, gunmen burned a Catholic priest alive in central Niger state after failing to gain entry into the parish residence.

Egypt, China tour — We head next to Egypt, where China’s new foreign minister wrapped up his first African tour on Sunday.

AUDIO: [Qin speaking]

Foreign Minister Qin Gang met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi in Cairo. He pledged that Beijing will continue to develop its investment in Egyptian infrastructure.

Qin’s week-long tour also included stops in Gabon, Angola, and Benin.

AUDIO: [Camera shutters, applause]

In Ethiopia, he inaugurated the newly built headquarters for the African Center for Disease Control funded by China.

Beijing has invested heavily in infrastructure in African countries—including roads, telecommunications, and hospitals.

Qin’s Africa tour came one month after President Joe Biden hosted dozens of African leaders in Washington. Biden’s administration pledged government funding and private investment across different sectors on the continent.

Israel protests — We head over to Israel.

AUDIO: [Chanting protesters]

Tens of thousands of Israelis waved flags and chanted in the streets of central Tel Aviv.

They are protesting plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government to overhaul the country’s legal system and potentially weaken the Supreme Court.

Shikma Bressler is a protest organizer.

AUDIO: But the changes that are being proposed are going to the core of the way this country is managed and organized. And this we cannot allow.

Netanyahu is on trial for corruption charges and has made overhauling the country’s legal system a priority.

The proposed changes have also drawn criticism from top officials, including the country’s attorney general and the Supreme Court’s top justice. But Netanyahu has insisted the reforms will restore the public’s faith in the justice system.

Greek funeral — We wrap up today in Greece.

AUDIO: [Funeral service]

More than 2,000 people lined the streets of Athens on Monday, watching as the casket of Greece’s former king was carried into the Metropolitan Cathedral.

Constantine the second died last week at 82.

Greece abolished its monarchy in a 1974 referendum. Constantine later had his citizenship revoked in 1994 after battling with the Greek state over the royal family’s former property.

He returned from exile in 2013. The government did not grant him a state funeral.

AUDIO: [Speaking in Greek]

This resident said it was petty not to hold a state funeral for a man who ruled for 10 years—for better or worse.

Constantine was buried at Tatoi, the former summer residence of Greek royals where his parents and ancestors are also buried.

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

NICK EICHER, HOST: The government says airlines in America mishandle or lose millions of pieces of luggage each year—some of it belongs to April Gavin.

GAVIN: And so we tried for months and months to get my luggage, phone calls all the time constantly looking for it, they couldn't find it—had no idea what had happened to it.

United Airlines lost her luggage after a business trip to Chicago in 2018 and she kind of forgot about it. So imagine her surprise when she received a phone call.

GAVIN: Saying they had found my luggage. And I was confused. And they said, Did you lose a suitcase and I said, Yeah, four years ago. And so come and find out, they found my suitcase. It was in Honduras.

So close but yet so far. United ended up Fed-exing the the bag to April Gavin's home in Oregon. Then she posted a series of social-media videos narrating the opening of her long-lost luggage:

GAVIN: There we go. Ok. And open it up…Oh my goodness. It's like Christmas opening up all my stuff. I had went shopping for my girls and bought them a bunch of souvenirs. I always buy souvenirs for my kids...

United Airlines blamed the problem on a scanning error that made it impossible to track. They did reimburse her for her trouble, but she's glad to have her stuff back. She seems pretty forgiving about all this—and I hate to spoil a happy ending—but I think maybe she should get the credit for the frequent flier miles her bag racked up over the years!

It’s The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Wednesday, January 18th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Well, your generous support has made it possible for us to start a brand new project with WORLD News Coach Kelsey Reed. For the last year, Kelsey has been working with the team at God’s WORLD News to help parents develop news literacy and cultivate biblical discernment within families.

A few months ago the team began looking for ways to get that helpful material into the hands of more parents and starting today it’s available as a weekly podcast.

REICHARD: Kelsey Reed herself is here to tell us more. 

Hi there, Kelsey!

KELSEY REED, NEWS COACH: Good morning, Mary.

REICHARD: Before we get to your new podcast, let’s start with why? Why this kind of podcast?

REED: Well, the last couple years, we've been going through a rebranding process in our student division—God's World News. And we engaged in an extensive needs assessment: talking to pastors, teachers, parents of children in homeschool, private and public educations. And across the board each of these voices were crying out for a resource for their own. They asked, we need somebody to help demystify what's going on in our world, a calm and encouraging voice that is non-anxious that comes alongside us. A resource for us.

REICHARD: Well, tell us what a news coach is and what you’ve been doing for God’s World News.

REED: The idea came from our brilliant editor, managing editor Rebecca Cochran at God's World News, who came up with this concept that a coach was what was needed; somebody who was an encourager. And so the material that we have been seeking to develop to this point is just laying a foundation for that voice that ultimately is getting its expression in the podcast. We've been talking about material just from scripture, you know, how do we have a framework for what we're doing when we engage children and this world? And then demystifying aspects of the news and culture. So the role named News Coach, it's a little bit mystifying at first, we have to sometimes demystify that, too. We're not coaching about what to put in the news. But we're talking about what is in the news with parents so they can equip their children to look at this world.

REICHARD: It’s so exciting and now you’ve got a brand new podcast just launching today and it’s called Concurrently. Explain that name to us.

REED: Concurrently is meant to describe that alongside position of the news coach. It's something that is going on at the same time as all the things in our world. So it's with current events. So it's with the parents. It is co-laboring, co-learning with them, and having those conversations that are necessary for, again, helping to demystify the news or to give resources that can be used with our children at home or in the classroom.

REICHARD: Well, let’s go ahead and listen to a short clip from today’s first episode titled: Extraordinary times call for ordinary measures. Let’s listen.

KELSEY: When we think about “extraordinary,” and we want to approach that carefully—extraordinary: something that is not the normal. What else?

JONATHAN: I think “out of the ordinary.” Something that disrupts our expectation.

KELSEY: That’s really good. We don’t have a sense of what’s next. How do we meet with that idea, then? If this is extraordinary to us, where do we get our bearings from? I want to submit the idea that, in Christ, we have our bearings secure.

REICHARD: Well, obviously, Kelsey, you’re not doing this alone. Who else is on your team?

REED: Well, you heard Jonathan Boes there with me along on the podcast. He is my co-host and will be for some time as we establish this voice. He also is our producer. He's very technically gifted. He brings all that I don't have to this team. My own background is in teaching, education, seminary. So the two of us make a pretty good team, I think.

REICHARD: Let’s listen to one more clip. This one, from Episode 2, which is also available today:

JONATHAN: When I was a kid, everybody wanted to be a rock star, or an athlete, or an actor. I think there’s a similar heart behind those desires and the desire to be an influencer. Those are fame positions. Those are positions that come with influence and celebrity. But one difference, I think, is that all of those involve some sort of craft or skill. Athletic training, or learning an instrument. Today, we have all that realm of craft stripped away to just the bare thing of influence online. Fame for fame’s sake. And we actually see people sacrificing their skills, like being a classically trained violin player, for the sake of this raw thing of fame, stripped from the real fruit of a good vocation.

KELSEY: Another thing to challenge here—to do it succinctly and clearly—is that idea of “seeking glory.” We’re really not made for glory in that sense.

REICHARD: Kelsey, how do you think this podcast can really help families?

REED: Well, I want to affirm so many practices that are already going on at home. When we engage this conversation, I hope what we're doing is identifying those practices that parents and teachers are already engaging with their children. Some of the things that I do at home that I want to make sure that I'm affirming across from me, that carving out time for quiet reflection. We are bombarded with information right now. Sometimes we just need to still those streams, quiet the voices, and build reflective capacity for our children's sake. Lots of conversations around the table, in the car, pausing what media that you're experiencing and listening to, to ask questions. And then that age old thing, asking questions. Ask your children to think about their thinking, what they're feeling, what they're absorbing, and have them process the content that they have been enjoying. But then, most importantly—and I've saved it for last—is that gentle, consistent exposure to Scripture. They need to be saturated in the Gospel, saturated in the confidence and hope that they get from knowing that this is their Father's world, that He is in charge. The nation's might rage, the kingdoms might topple, but our refuge, He is with us. And Jesus promises in Matthew 28:20 that He will be with us to the end of the age. And so just encouraging those practices at home.

REICHARD: The Concurrently podcast from God’s WORLD News and WORLD Radio, available everywhere you get your podcasts—starting today. Kelsey, thanks for joining us.

REED: Thank you for having me, Mary.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Wednesday, January 18th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Up next, WORLD’s Emily Whitten looks at the spiritual legacy of a world class choral director in Nashville.

MUSIC: [There’s a great camp meeting…in the promised land. Oh walk together children]

EMILY WHITTEN, COMMENTATOR: Last week, I was shocked to come across this headline from September 15th in the New York Times: “Paul T. Kwami, Fisk Jubilee Singers’ Longtime Director, Dies at 70.” As his Fisk Jubilee Singers put it, he’d gone to that “great camp meeting in the promised land.”

I first met Dr. Kwami in the Fisk Music Hall in February of 2021. I’d come to interview him about his Musical Direction of the Fisk Jubilee Singers’ 150th anniversary album, which later won a Grammy. But our conversation ranged over many topics, including his childhood.

KWAMI: I knew negro spirituals when I was growing up in Ghana we sang them in schools in church played them on piano we had American choral groups visit Ghana and sung Negro spirituals…

He told me how he came to Fisk and dreamed of making his mark elsewhere, only to come back to Fisk nearly a decade after graduation. He also shared anecdotes from headline performances at places like Carnegie Hall in New York.

KWAMI: When it was time for our rehearsal, nothing was going well. Nothing! After all the preparation we had done, the voices were not in shape. People were singing out of tune. What’s going on? The natural thing for me would have been to just–as some choral directors would probably do–scream at the students...

Kwami knew they needed to get back to God.

KWAMI: I allowed students to go and change and relax. I asked them to pray individually and when they finished, they all came back together. I talked to them, encouraged them, we prayed. We walked on to stage. It was one of the best concerts of that year from the beginning to the end.

As we talked, I began to see a faithful shepherd, pointing his students to the Great Shepherd. If a student had financial trouble, he shared a verse saying God is our provider.

KWAMI: I'll bring in Bible verses such as those you know and then follow them with prayer.

I mourn for the loss to Dr. Kwami’s family and his co-laborers at Fisk. And I am grateful to the New York Times for bringing his death to my attention. But I mourn most for those who can only rejoice in Dr. Kwami’s earthly accomplishments—his three Grammy nominations, his win in 2021, and other ways he left his mark on Fisk and the Nashville music scene.

When I asked him about his legacy, Paul Kwami had higher goals.

KWAMI: I’d like to be remembered as someone who positioned himself to be used by God.

It was his job to help others sing Negro spirituals, but he also sought to embody their truths.

KWAMI: These are songs of history, but they are also songs through which God is still speaking to us, telling us who He is, reminding us of His promises, reminding us who we are in Him, reminding us what we are able to do because we are His children, It’s amazing.

I’m Emily Whitten.

MUSIC: [Gonna shout and never tire…there’s a great camp meeting in the promised land]

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: An outbreak of cholera. Malawi is fighting its worst cholera outbreak in decades. Other African countries also report a dramatic spike in cases. What’s to be done?

We’ll talk about 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 that “Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, ‘It is written, “My house shall be called a house of prayer,” but you make it a den of robbers.’” (Matthew 21:12-13 ESV)

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.