The World and Everything in It: January 22, 2025

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Good morning!

President Donald Trump is using the power of the pen to bypass the legislative process through dozens of executive orders…what’s been done so far and is it a good idea?

DODDS: Executive orders can be overturned by courts, they can be reversed by Congress, and they can be reversed by future presidents.

LINDSAY MAST: That’s ahead on Washington Wednesday.

Also our weekly roundup of international news on World Tour.

And the 80th anniversary of one of the most significant battles of World War II.

SOUND: Reports seeping through the news blackout on the Western Front indicate that…the German counter attack has driven approximately 18 miles into Belgium.

And Janie B Cheaney on craftsmanship and the drive to create.

BROWN: It’s Wednesday, January 22nd. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

MAST: And I’m Lindsay Mast. Good morning!

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

TRUMP: Hello everybody 

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Trump Stargate » President Trump welcomed reporters in the Roosevelt Room of White House on Tuesday

TRUMP: Nice to see you. Some very familiar faces.

And on his first full day in office, Trump announced what he called “the largest [artificial intelligence] infrastructure project in history.” He said three major players in the technology space would work together in a joint venture …

TRUMP: Stargate, a new American company that will invest $500 billion dollars, at least, in AI infrastructure in the United States.

At the front of the room, Trump was flanked by top execs from the companies forming that joint venture Oracle, OpenAI, and Softbank.

Stargate will begin building out data centers in Texas, along with the electricity generation needed for the further development of AI.

Trump hosts GOP lawmakers at White House » The president also welcomed Republican lawmakers to the White House to play referee in something of a friendly sparring session over how to deliver on the Trump agenda.

Republicans in Congress have not seen eye to eye on strategy, specifically on whether to package his priority in one large bill or two separate bills.

GOP Congresswoman Lisa McClain:

MCCLAIN: I think the Republicans have been known to have spirited debate doesn't mean disloyalty. Debate means we talk about issues to get to a better place.

After the meeting, House leaders seemed satisfied GOP leaders in both chambers had settled on the one-bill approach.

The means Republicans would work to shape one bill that would renew Trump’s 2017 tax cut alongside measures tied to border security, energy, and defense.

Their goal would be to get that passed by Memorial Day.

Trump immigration reactions » President Trump is getting some pushback from humanitarian aid groups about an immigration-related executive order he signed this week. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has more.

KRISTEN FLAVIN: Amid the stack of executive orders Trump signed this week … was an order pausing the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program … for at least 90 days.

That will give his administration time to evaluate it.

The program has long served as a legal pathway for individuals to seek safety in the US.

And several nonprofit groups are urging Trump to protect it.

Those include the Christian humanitarian organization World Relief. The group notes that persecuted Christians often benefit from the program.

World Relief says in recent months, it has resettled thousands of refugees with the help of local churches.

And it released a letter signed by more than 20 Christian leaders urging Trump to support the program.

For WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

Legal challenges to Trump executive orders » The president is also facing legal challenges to other executive orders including one that seeks to reinterpret birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment.

Trump's order states that a child born to a mother in the country illegally is not automatically considered a US citizen.

Twenty-two states and some non-governmental groups are suing to strike down that order. New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin:

PLATKIN:  Presidents in this country have broad powers, but they are not kings. We all know this. They are not kings. They do not have the power to unilaterally rewrite the constitution. They do not have the power to unilaterally disregard our laws.

Other lawsuits challenge Trump’s order temporarily halting enforcement of a US law banning TikTok until or unless it’s sold.

And several other suits target the creation of a private "Department of Government Efficiency” to operate outside of government to help find ways to cut Washington overspending.

California wildfires » Fire crews in Southern California are welcoming a calmer weather forecast today after wind gusts on Tuesday of up to 100 miles per hour in some parts of the Los Angeles area.

But they were able to avoid any significant worsening of wildfires.

But LA City Councilmember Traci Park says there's another threat on the horizon:

PARK: I normally pray for rain. God knows we generally need it. But right now, let me point out the obvious...Adding water to this mess and saturated unstable hillsides is the last thing we need.

That's because of the possibility of dangerous mudslides.

One resident who returned to check on her home? Former Vice President Kamala Harris.

HARRIS: We are some of the lucky ones. Our home is still standing.

Harris and former President Joe Biden visited the region on Monday night after President Trump's inauguration.

Winter weather » Meanwhile, along the Gulf Coast, a winter front is covering much of the south with a rare blanket of snow.

One New Orleans resident said Tuesday:

RESIDENT:  I just had to get out and experience it because we don't ever get snows like this. Hardly ever. And it's just so beautiful. And the dogs, the dogs wanted to get out here and play in it. It makes you feel like a kid again.

But it’s not all fun and games. The winter weather has shut down highways in the area and grounded nearly all flights. Houston Mayor John Whitmire:

WHITMIRE: We think maybe the freezing temperatures will never get above freezing until probably thursday. This is a serious arctic blast. It's dangerous.

The storm has prompted the first ever blizzard warnings for several coastal counties near the Texas-Louisiana border.

Winter weather is slamming much of the eastern United States right now. Residents around Boston are digging out from about 5 inches of snow.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: the president has been busy, signing more than 40 executive orders on day one. Plus, remembering the last great German offensive of World War II.

This is The World and Everything in It.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: It’s Wednesday the 22nd of January.

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

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

Time now for Washington Wednesday.

President Trump got to work right away after his second Inauguration signing 115 personnel appointments and 42 executive orders on Monday. Those orders address significant issues for American energy, immigration policy, and government bureaucracy.

MAST: Washington Bureau Reporter Leo Briceno now on how the executive orders work and what they aim to accomplish.

LEO BRICENO: While President Trump is waiting on Congress to send bills to his desk to sign into law, he’s not waiting to take action on his agenda.

DODDS: The American people have become attuned to the power of executive orders. And with Trump, the promise of doing so much so early unilaterally has become a thing, a prominent thing in the way that I think it has not been for most other recent presidents.

That’s Graham Dodds, professor of political science at Concordia University, who has studied the use of executive actions in past administrations. He believes that power is the path of least resistance to enacting changes for incoming presidents.

DODDS: It is legally binding, you don't need Congress, and it can be an attractive means to many different ends. Having said that though, most presidents would rather have a law, because laws tend to last longer than executive orders. Executive orders can be overturned by courts, they can be reversed by Congress, and they can be reversed by future presidents.

In 2017, President Trump reversed many of President Barack Obama’s executive actions, and implemented his own. When President Joe Biden took office, he undid many of Trump’s orders. And now, Trump’s Day One executive actions continue the trend.

DODDS: So there are a number of these sort of policy areas that flip-flop depending on which party takes over.

Trump’s first batch of executive orders replaced policies from the Biden Administration, particularly policies on energy.

STERN: I know people in the mining industry who will tell you about mining projects that have quite literally been in the process for 35 years.

Richard Stern is Director of the Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget at the Heritage Foundation. He says the Biden administration’s skeptical stance on leasing federal land for drilling compounded an existing problem: the government is not required to respond to permit applications in a certain amount of time.

STERN: For a project where they should actually give you the permit, they could wait fifty years if they wanted.

Trump’s orders aim to expedite energy production by removing restrictions on drilling for liquified natural gas in Alaska and declaring a national energy emergency. At the same time, Trump canceled leasing permits for wind turbine developments on the outer continental shelf, and ended the electric vehicle mandate.

STERN: Part of what Trump's put out as well is to expedite the process, to direct agencies to do their best full faith effort to actually clear these applications, to review them for all manner of potential issues, whether it be environmental, public safety, that they're following other standards and laws, but then clear these, clear them quickly, resolve issues…and then we can have companies that start building.”

Trump is also taking steps to shift U.S. foreign policy away from commitments that he says hurt American interests, including the Paris Climate Agreement, United Nations refugee resettlement, and membership in the World Health Organization.

Council of Foreign Relations senior fellow Charles Kupchan says this isn’t surprising.

KUPCHAN: Trump's brand, the America first brand, is kind of predicated upon this assumption that for many Americans, there's too much world and there's not enough America. Why are we spending all this time spending problems abroad in Ukraine, in Gaza, in Africa, when we got real problems right here at home?

The biggest problems Trump sought to address on day one were border security and a broken immigration system. He reimplemented his 2019 Remain in Mexico policy and declared a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump also designated drug cartels as foreign terrorist entities.

FULKS: If someone has been a member of a terrorist organization, then many of the benefits under the immigration law will not be applicable to them.

That’s Scott Andrew Fulks, an immigration and asylum attorney with Deckert Law firm in Pennsylvania. He says many, though not all of Trump’s orders simply add urgency to enforcing laws already on the books.

FULKS: There is an intent to enforce our immigration laws in ways that over the last several years there hasn't been great attempts to enforce them. On the other hand, I would also say that by these executive orders, they have overreached in ways that are unthinkable legally…

One of Trump’s executive actions would withhold citizenship upon birth if the child’s parents are either in the U.S. temporarily or illegally.

FULKS: The reasoning is what they call anchor babies. They don't want people coming into the United States in order to have a child here who, by the immigration laws, that child, when they turn 21 years of age, can in turn then file a petition, a family-based petition on behalf of their immediate relative parent.

Citizenship by birth is enshrined in the constitution’s 14th amendment—something that requires an act of Congress to change. More than a dozen states have already filed challenges to the order.

FULKS: I'm not sure that the reason for the executive action is to see how far they could push the limits. I just think that they have made political promises to their constituency, which are not able to be fulfilled without the political process of actually having Congress change the law.

Many of Trump’s legislative priorities are expected to be rolled into one or two budget reconciliation bills in the coming weeks. In the meantime, Congress is working to pass the Laken Riley Act, a bill that makes deporting illegal immigrants who commit crimes easier. That bill could hit the President’s desk before the end of the week and be the first law Trump signs in his second term.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Leo Briceno.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: World Tour with our reporter in Africa, Onize Oduah.

AUDIO: [Ongoing rescue]

ONIZE ODUAH: South Africa illegal mine — We start today in South Africa where authorities have ended their search for people stranded in an illegal gold mine after a standoff turned deadly.

At least 87 miners have died after police first surrounded the mine in the town of Stilfontein in August as part of an effort to clamp down on illegal mining. They cut off food and water supplies to the miners inside the 1.2-mile deep shaft, hoping to force them out.

But rescuers last week used a cylindrical metal cage to pull out the victims after a court order mandated the operation.

Community leader Johannes Qankase said many of the miners are driven by poverty.

JOHANNES QANKASE: There is no one in his right mind, who has everything, who can come and risk his own life to go underground.

Rescue workers also assisted more than 240 survivors. They include nationals from Lesotho, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe. Authorities have charged them with illegal immigration, illegal mining, and other offenses.

Local community members and labor unions have also accused South African authorities of blocking the miners’ exit. But authorities insist that is not true, saying more than 1,500 people found their way out of the mine.

AUDIO: [Chanting protesters]

France march for life — In France, several thousand pro-lifers marched in the streets of Paris on Sunday to mark this year’s March for Life.

France first legalized abortion 50 years ago. Last year, it became the first nation to include a right to abortion in its constitution.

Béatrice Eclache says she joined the march to defend life.

BEATRICE ECLACHE: [FRENCH] I had an abortion that I regret, and if I'd known what I know now, I would have done things differently.

She says she had an abortion and would have done things differently if she had more information.

AUDIO: [Counter-protesters]

Counter-protesters chanting, “My body, my choice,” also gathered at the outskirts of the Sunday rally.

The Paris March for Life began in 2005 and has continued annually since then.

AUDIO: [Sound of displaced people]

Colombia fighting — And in Colombia, renewed fighting has killed at least 80 people and sent thousands of others fleeing for safety.

The latest fighting comes after authorities suspended peace talks with the rebel National Liberation Army over fighting with another rebel group in the northeastern region.

Andrea Figueroa is among the displaced who sought shelter at a stadium.

ANDREA FIGUEROA: [SPANISH] They (armed groups) said they were going to drive everyone out, to kill people, and everyone got scared.

She says many people fled in fear after the armed groups threatened to drive everyone out and kill people.

General Luiz Cardozo is the Colombian Army commander.

LUIZ CARDOZO: [SPANISH] They clashed precisely over what these armed groups fight for: illicit economies. In this region of Catatumbo, there are more than 50,000 hectares planted with coca.

He says the armed groups are fighting for illegal control of the region’s economy, which has more than 123,000 acres of coca.

Colombian authorities have asked the group to cease operations and allow aid to enter the region.

China’s population drop — We end today in China where authorities are reporting another drop in the population of nearly 1.5 billion people for the third straight year.

Beijing’s National Bureau of Statistics on Friday said the country is down by almost 1.4 million people from the year before.

China has battled with falling birth rates over its one-child policy that was officially scrapped in 2015. The country is now confronting an aging population and a shrinking workforce.

Kang Yi is the commissioner of the National Bureau of Statistics.

KANG YI: [MANDARIN]: The population aged 60 and above was 310 million, accounting for 22.0% of the national population.

He says that people aged 60 and older now make up 22% of the country’s population.

China and other East Asian nations like Japan and South Korea are grappling with falling birth rates as residents face rising living costs and expensive childcare, keeping many young people from starting families.

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

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Larry Anderson attended his first inauguration back in 1989, when George H. W. Bush took the oath of office.

ANDERSON: So my wife was a school teacher, and she had class going. I said, "Okay, but me and the girls are going."

Anderson packed his daughters up and off they went on a road trip from North Carolina to Washington. After that, he went to each Inauguration with his wife Ingrid. He’s been to every one since, ten in all if you’re doing the math. But this year was different.

ANDERSON: She got sick and we didn't, you know, didn't think it all the way through to get the tickets and everything.

Ingrid died last February. That left Anderson with a choice…

ANDERSON: So I decided to come on up just to honor her. Yeah, so it's uh, it's been bittersweet. I miss that girl.

Anderson says he’s hopeful in Christ that he will one day see Ingrid again, and after visiting Washington Monday, he’s hopeful for his country, too.

ANDERSON: You know, we still have problems, but we can work on those problems together.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Wednesday, January 22nd.

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

Good morning. I’m Myrna Brown.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: And I’m Lindsay Mast.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: remembering the Battle of the Bulge.

80 years ago, American and British forces retake positions they’d lost five weeks earlier along the Western Front in Belgium. The defensive victory pushes Nazi troops back into Germany, setting the stage for the end of the war

BROWN: WORLD’s Paul Butler has a special mid-week History Book to mark the anniversary.

ALEXANDER “SPARKY” KISSE: We had no idea where we were.

PAUL BUTLER: In September 1944, Alexander Kisse is 25 years old when he arrives in France. He goes by “Sparky.” Audio here from a video interview posted to YouTube by his son:

KISSE: We just went where they sent us and followed them.

“Sparky” is a private first class with the 112th regiment of the 28th division, company F. He’s what’s known as a “replacement.” The unit he’s been assigned to has been a pretty busy one, seeing action on D-Day and the liberation of Paris.

But private Kisse missed all that. He’s here to fill in the ranks left open by previous casualties. He remembers vividly his first taste of combat.

KISSE: You’re so scared you don't know whether to run, sit down and cry, or what. But once the fighting starts and you hear the bullets, the fear leaves you and it’s nothing…

His unit is heading north. The Allies aren’t just liberating France, they have an eye on Germany itself. Hitler knows he has to do something before it’s too late. He begins planning a winter offensive to knock the Allies down a peg or two and interrupt their plans.

NEWSREEL: The Americans have driven into Luxemburg today at two points…

Intense fighting breaks out as “Sparky” and his unit draw close to Germany’s border: the Battle of Hürtgen Forest, one of the longest single battles of the war. The company is soon decimated.

KISSE: We got beat up so bad that they had to take us out. I think, out of the whole company, there was only six of us left…

What the Allies don’t fully comprehend at this moment is that while this devastating battle is taking place, Hitler is carefully, and secretly, preparing for a surprise attack north of Hurtgen.

By early December 1944 the winter weather is in full force. Heavy snow. Dense fog. The Allies believe there will be a break in the fighting as neither side can see what’s going on. Air support for an offensive is impossible. The Americans send some battle weary troops back to France for some rest. It’s exactly the conditions Hitler has been waiting for.

RADIO NEWSCAST: Here are the late developments. Furious fighting is in progress on northern sector where the German counter attack has driven approximately 18 miles into Belgium

The German surprise offensive begins on December 16th, 1944. German forces break through the American line and move forward about a mile an hour. Creating a growing bump in the battle line into Belgium. The Battle of the Bulge has begun.

RADIO NEWSCAST: The attack was a complete surprise, which means that allied units in its path were overrun.

In the days before the attack, Hitler had amassed nearly 250,000 forces under the cover of darkness…shielded by the winter weather. The Germans know the 85-mile-long line through the Ardennes Forest] is sparsely manned and very difficult terrain to defend.

RADIO NEWSCAST: Such an action would naturally result in heavy losses to the defenders. The greater the speed, the greater the losses, particularly in prisoners taken.

On December 17th, German forces surprise and capture several key towns and roads, at least one division lines up captured American forces and executes them, killing 84.

News of the massacre spreads quickly. American and British soldiers do everything they can to at least slow the Germans down. Sparky’s unit heads north to help out.

KISSE: You can hear the bullets going over your head. You can hear them cracking and popping and see the shrapnel…

The bad weather keeps Allied air support from being able to offer any assistance. Each day the bulge keeps getting bigger.

RADIO NEWSCAST: The latest dispatches from Supreme Headquarters in Paris say that Nazi armor has advanced more than 20 miles into Belgium and Luxembourg…

On December 22nd, the Germans arrive at Bastogne, a strategic junction for Allied supply lines. German forces surround the town and the grounded 101st Airborne. They demand the Americans surrender, but they refuse.

The same day General George S. Patton—at this point more than 150 miles to the south—prints a Christmas card for the troops it’s a prayer. It asks Almighty God to restrain the immoderate weather, and to hear the soldiers’ prayers so that they “may crush the oppression and wickedness of the enemy.” The cards go out, as do Patton’s forces. North to Bastogne.

The weather changes on Christmas Day. Allied air support conducts much needed supply drops and begins harassing German positions.

RADIO NEWSCAST: On the Western Front today, the Germans have failed in their latest efforts to close the relief corridor to the highway town of Bastogne…

Patton’s Third Army arrives on December 27th. After 11 days of German advancements—now nearly 50 miles into Belgium—the Allies begin driving the Germans back.

The improving weather doesn’t just benefit the Allies though: it also means the Luftwaffe can see enough to support their troops—successfully bombing Allied airfields, but it’s not enough. Nazis are forced to retreat against Hitler’s orders.

On January 16th the Allies relink their forces and gain momentum as they rapidly push the Nazis back into Germany.

By January 25th, the Battle of the Bulge is over. The Germans are once again contained on their side of the border. But the victory comes at a great cost. The US Army reports roughly 19,000 U.S. soldiers died in the defense of Belgium, more than 23,000 are declared missing. And more than 47,500 wounded, including Alexander Kisse.

KISSE: And one shot, and away I went. I got shot in the leg here. Flopped me on my back. So when I got hit, he came running up to me. I asked him “how bad is it?” “Oh it’s not bad. Just a hole in your leg.” My foot was up under my arm here…

The significance of the Battle of the Bulge is sometimes overshadowed by the D-Day invasion but the Germans lost more than 100,000 troops through casualties and capture in those five weeks. It was Hitler’s last major offensive during World War II.

While the brave American and British men who repelled the German army at the Battle of the Bulge didn’t end the war, they made the ultimate victory of the Allies certain.

KISSE: I just did because I had to. I mean, I wouldn’t want to do it again…

As for Sparky, he earned a Purple Heart as well as a Bronze Star for his bravery. He died in 2015 at age 97.

That’s this week’s WORLD History Book. I’m Paul Butler.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Wednesday, January 22nd. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: And I’m Lindsay Mast. Up next, WORLD Commentator Janie B Cheaney reflects on the need to create, and what it might tell us about our creator.

JANIE B CHEANEY: Do you remember when “scrapbook” became a verb? When craft stores played host to women pouring hours into a single scrapbook page, sometimes featuring only one or two actual photographs, smothered in artistic expression. The fad soon gave way to digital scrapbooks that achieved a similar effect in a fraction of the time. Stores closed and papercraft supplies retreated to online outlets, which claim some of my disposable income at least once a year.

My thing though is not scrapbooks but cards. Some are unique creations and some, like the handmade Christmas cards I no longer have time for, were mass-produced assembly-line style. These days, most of them are embellished cards out of a box. But even for those, craft makes it demands.

For instance, my card box contains a stack of watercolor florals I like to decorate with butterfly stickers. I personalize the stickers by inserting a small piece of vellum under each wing to make them pop. This takes time. First, section out a rectangle of vellum just large enough to cover one wing. Snip the antenna where it’s attached to the wing. Apply the vellum and carefully cut around the wing to remove the excess. Add a tiny glue dot to the body to make sure it will hold, and finally apply the finished work to the card—not just anywhere, but in a spot that balances the overall composition.

It’s tedious to describe, and also to do. Any creative act requires tedious craftsmanship, whether mixing paint or dyeing yarn or cutting boards or putting words together. Nevertheless, the creator is compelled to persevere. I was in a hurry one morning and decided to forego the 3-D butterfly effect. But no . . . it wouldn’t do. I peeled off the sticker I’d already stuck and hunted down the vellum and scissors. I satisfied myself, and hope the recipient of the card will be equally pleased.

But all the time I was thinking, Why? The work itself seemed to demand it. Even though conceived and executed by me, it has a quality, a character, a life apart from me. This is as true of a handmade card as it is of a perfect loaf of homemade bread or a well-turned chair leg or a masterpiece like Beethoven’s 3rd symphony. Once created, the work has its own integrity. If it doesn’t, the creator knows, and will not rest until he achieves what the work demands.

This should tell us something. The world is crammed with meaning, not just because God made it but because he equips us to embellish it. Some call this creativity, a word that unfortunately separates so-called “creatives” from those who think they’re no such thing. But everybody has their nagging center of beauty or perfection they can’t leave alone.

Is it too presumptuous to say that we are God’s nagging center? “We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works,” Paul tells us in Ephesians. God is shaping and carving us by means that are often tedious, but necessary. He’s aiming for perfection, and won’t leave us alone until he’s satisfied.

I’m Janie B. Cheaney

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Tomorrow: protecting sports opportunities for women and girls. We’ll hear about a bill the House of Representatives passed last week that aims to do just that.

We’ll also check in on how the ceasefire might change humanitarian aid heading into Gaza.

And, a new study finds that drinking took off during the pandemic, and it hasn't abated. We'll explore the problem.

That and more tomorrow.

I’m Lindsay Mast.

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.

“Now I know that the Lord saves his anointed; he will answer him from his holy heaven with the saving might of his right hand. Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.” —Psalm 20:6-7

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.