The World and Everything in It: July 11, 2025

Editor's note: The following text is a transcript of a podcast story. To listen to the story, click on the arrow beneath the headline above.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Good morning!

Reflecting on the unspeakable tragedy in Texas, and what the IRS’s new policy means for pastors and politics.

NICK EICHER, HOST: John Stonestreet is standing by, Culture Friday’s coming up …

Also today: 

AUDIO: It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s Superman! 

Collin Garbarino reviews the latest Superman movie.

And later, George Grant offers two cents’ worth on the humble penny.

BROWN: It’s Friday, July 11th. 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, Mark Mellinger with today’s news.

MARK MELLINGER, NEWS ANCHOR: Trump Admin pushes back on ICE unmasking »  The White House is pushing back against an effort to unmask Immigration and Customs Enforcement -or ICE- agents.

Democratic senators Cory Booker and Alex Padilla have introduced a bill mandating ICE agents always wear visible ID, but forbidding them from wearing masks.

Booker says recent illegal immigrant roundups in which agents have worn masks have created confusion, stoked fear, and undermined trust in law enforcement.

President Trump blasted the bill. With assaults on ICE agents up almost 700 percent recently according to the Department of Homeland Security, he says agents need masks to protect themselves and their families.

He calls supporters of the bill “hypocritical.”

TRUMP: Sort of funny, when people picket in front of Columbia, in front of Harvard, and they have masks on, more than masks… but when a patriot who works for ICE or Border Patrol puts a mask on so that they won’t recognize him and his family…

Federal immigration agents have been increasingly targeted since last month, when anti-ICE rhetoric picked up as agents took criminal illegal immigrants into custody in Los Angeles.

That led to riots in LA, and protesters have since clashed with or assaulted ICE agents across several states.

White House ramps up pressure on Fed chair » The Trump administration is applying pressure more aggressively than ever on Fed Chair Jerome Powell.

In a letter sent Thursday, the White House budget director accused Powell of misusing government money in a costly overhaul of the Federal Reserve headquarters, and of misleading Congress when making the case for the renovations.

Trump’s larger, long standing issue with Powell is his refusal so far to cut interest rates. Powell says the Fed needs to hold the course to see what effect, if any, Trump's tariffs have on inflation.

White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett is working to undercut the Fed Chair’s credibility, telling Fox Business Powell is mismanaging the Reserve.

HASSETT: The Federal Reserve has made a lot of errors -- policy errors -- in recent years, and they haven't really explained where the errors came from.

Trump has reportedly considered trying to fire Powell, and earlier this week suggested Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent would make an excellent replacement.

New nationwide block on White House order to end birthright citizenship » A federal judge is blocking President Trump’s attempt to ban birthright citizenship for children of non-U.S. citizens.

Judge Joseph LaPlante is hearing a class-action lawsuit over the president’s executive order. He says depriving the plaintiffs of citizenship constitutes irreparable harm, meeting the standard for a nationwide pause.

Former federal prosecutor Elliot Williams agrees, saying if Trump’s order moved forward, it could create a confusing policy patchwork from state to state.

WILLIAMS: A child is born in Pennsylvania, crosses the border into the state of New Jersey or their parents do, they have different sets of laws regarding their citizenship. Regardless of what anybody thinks about what’s right, that is not workable in a country where everybody ought to be entitled to the same federal laws.

The judge stayed his order for a week to allow for an expected appeal from the Trump Administration. The case could quickly go to the Supreme Court for emergency relief.

You may remember the Supreme Court recently issued a near-ban on nationwide injunctions by lower courts. But in that ruling, Justice Sonia Sotomayor also laid out a class-action lawsuit as a legitimate remaining route to still challenge Trump Administration policies.

Abbott wants overhaul of Texas flood warning system » Texas Governor Greg Abbott is calling for an overhaul of his state’s flood warning system after officials say water rose 26 feet in just 45 minutes during that awful flooding of a week ago.

He’ll push for early warning systems and stronger storm communications in a special session of the Texas legislature this month.

President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump are headed to Kerrville, Texas today to see the damage firsthand and offer the community comfort.

Jonathan Lamb of the Kerrville Police Department:

LAMB: People from all over Texas, all over the country… continue to show their support in so many ways. And we are thankful.

At least 120 people are confirmed dead from the flooding and more than 170 are still missing. As the floodwaters reced, around 2,000 responders are in central Texas helping with search and cleanup efforts.

Rubio, Lavrov meet amid rising U.S.-Russia tensions » U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov exchanged new ideas for reigniting peace talks to end the war in Ukraine.

Rubio and Lavrov met on the sidelines of a forum for world leaders in Malaysia.

Rubio didn’t elaborate on the new approach Lavrov suggested, calling it a concept he’ll take back to President Trump, while also saying it wouldn’t necessarily guarantee peace.

Trump has increasingly been voicing his frustration with Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s recent escalation of the war, which Rubio echoed.

RUBIO: The president’s been pretty clear. He’s disappointed and frustrated that there’s not been more flexibility on the Russian side to bring about an end to this conflict. We hope that can change.

Rubio also hinted Russia could soon be facing stronger economic sanctions from the U.S.

State Dept. to begin mass layoffs immediately » State Department is moving ahead with plans for mass layoffs as the Trump Administration cuts tens of thousands of jobs from the federal government.

This comes after the Supreme Court cleared the way for the cuts in an 8-to-1 ruling this week.

State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce:

BRUCE: The Supreme Court's recent, near-unanimous decision allows the reorganization to commence, and will ensure that the department moves at the speed of relevancy and restores the department to its roots of results-driven democracy.

Bruce says the State Department will be laying off about 2,000 employees, saying the department has grown unsustainably over the years.

I'm Mark Mellinger.

Straight ahead: Culture Friday with John Stonestreet. Plus, Collin Garbarino reviews Superman, and George Grant has this month’s Word Play.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Friday, July 11th. 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. It’s Culture Friday and joining us now is John Stonestreet. He is president of the Colson Center and host of the Breakpoint podcast. Good morning to you.

JOHN STONESTREET: Good Morning.

EICHER: John, there’s been a policy change out of Washington this week that could ease a long-standing tension between church and state. Daniel Suhr has a good column at WORLD Opinions on the subject.

As you well know, many pastors and churches have tiptoed around political issues—especially when election day draws near. The concern being that saying too much from the pulpit might get them in trouble with the IRS.

That fear goes back to the mid-1950s, the so-called Johnson Amendment. It restricted political speech by tax-exempt nonprofits, including churches.

But now the IRS has announced a change: If a pastor is preaching to his own congregation, during a worship service, about issues—even electoral ones—from a Biblical perspective, that no longer counts as political campaigning under the tax code.

John, you’ve often been critical of churches avoiding “political” engagement out of fear. So in your view, was that fear really about the IRS? And do you think this new policy opens the door for pastors to speak more boldly?

STONESTREET: Yeah. Well, I hope it does, and I think probably some of it was fear of the IRS. But of course, that reveals a much deeper problem in worldview. So for example, if you think it is the state's job to put the line on what counts as something that churches should care about, what is within the proper purview of faith and what is outside the purview of faith, where you're looking to the wrong authority to begin with, this is getting the admonition from Jesus rendered to Caesar what belongs to Caesar exactly wrong to begin with. I'm not critical of churches avoiding political content, because I think most political content does need to be avoided in church.

My problem is that we take all of the moral issues that have to do with the definition of what it means to be human and whether or not we're obeying the 10 Commandments and common sense morality that have political expression, and avoiding all of those as if avoiding these moral issues is the same as avoiding political issues. And I think that that's fundamentally misunderstanding the world, and I think it has to do with the fact that we have over politicized everything.

It says something about our world, and it says something about our worldview when everything gets labeled political, as if that explains what it is. It just doesn't. The most important issues are moral issues. They have political ramifications, and the church has to have the ability to stand up and say things about these things and include the ramifications of being a citizen, and our faith should make us better citizens.

I tell you another thing, Nick. I've been really interested to see the reactions, and there's been a lot of reactions that say things like, “Well, yeah, the Johnson Amendment needed to go because, you know, it wasn't legitimate.” No one really cared about it. It wasn't ever enforced, and no one on the left was ever criticized for being too political, even though they clearly were. But of course, Christians should never endorse political candidates. I think that's exactly wrong too. Why shouldn't Christians endorse political candidates? I think at the very least we should be willing to say never, ever, ever vote for that guy, or never, ever, ever offer power to a party that thinks that children belong to the state and not to parents. Christian political engagement in a falling context is almost always the task not of voting between the lesser of two evils, but voting, whether on issues or on candidates, to lessen evil, and that fundamentally is a moral task, not a political one

BROWN: Speaking of speaking boldly, John, there’s bold and then there’s “Billboard Chris” … He’s the Canadian dad who travels the world with provocative sandwich boards critical of gender ideology. I’m sure you’ve seen him online.

He has a knack for sparking street conversations … or just getting yelled at … and then making the encounters go viral. And this week, he won a major free-speech victory in Australia.

Let me give you the background: The government there had ordered the social-media platform X to take down one of his posts. The reason was because he’d criticized the World Health Organization for appointing a transgender activist to its global gender policy team.

X refused at first but then geo-blocked the post in Australia. So Billboard Chris fought back—and he got help from ADF International—and this week a court ruled in his favor, saying the government got it wrong and that peaceful speech like his is not so-called “cyber-abuse.”

John, how big a deal is this? Is it a one-off? Or does this case tell us anything about the current battle over speech and truth in the public square?

STONESTREET: Well, it's impossible to think about this as a one off, because it is another chapter or another account and what's becoming a long story of people backpedaling on this issue where it seemed as if just a few years ago that trans ideology was going to run roughshod over every aspect of our culture. And think about that however you'd like, whether you're talking about different specific examples or the seven spheres of culture, from medicine to government to education to the arts to religion to whatever else, it's hard to imagine any of those spheres that did not seem completely vulnerable to this ideology, and suddenly it's not. I think it's also interesting to think about it country by country.

I mean, you know, look, Europe started backing off before the United States. This year, we've seen the United States back off of some of this. Australia was a late adopter. And also, I don't know, I mean, Australia, to me, is such a fascinating place. Love the country. Been there a lot. COVID did something right where there's this place that was kind of conservative, like the United States just 10, 12, 15, years ago, compared to the rest. Then becomes, in many ways, during COVID, locked down, and that includes locking down on dissent in any sort of way, and suddenly it went from any dissent on government policy of COVID to any dissent on transgender stuff, and that's what we saw in Australia. So the fact that this decision reversed there, to me, is really interesting as just someone who has been interested in Australia and watched it throughout this whole time. So that's encouraging, and it's part of the larger story.

But billboard Chris is one of those guys that we will look back on when we're on the other side of this madness and say, “You know, there were some people who were willing to say it out loud.” His provocative sandwich boards critical of gender ideology, as you put it, aren't saying anything all that revolutionary, but he has the willingness to put it on the sandwich board and stand out and take shots. And he has taken shots, obviously verbal, but also physical, and this is just the latest case of legal shot that he has taken. So a lot going on here. It's an interesting new development in this ongoing story.

EICHER: John, I want to end here, because I feel like if we started here, there’d be no graceful way to get into other stuff. But we were reminded just a few moments ago about the news that’s rightly consumed us this week: the heartbreaking news out of Texas—the destructive flooding, the unspeakable loss of life. It’s the kind of tragedy that just leaves us stunned.

Obviously, natural disasters come with every season—hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires—but this one feels different. Children at summer camp.

Two basic questions come to mind. First: How do you think believers should respond when the grief is this raw and the loss so great? And second: Yes, there are lessons to be learned and undoubtedly accountability to be had—but, honestly, day one, some of the coverage had turned to finger-pointing. Does that seem to you at this early stage disrespectful?

STONESTREET: You know, I'll answer the second question first, and the answer is yes. The first question, to me, is the far more interesting one for us right now, and the most important one, which is, how do believers respond in a time of great loss. And I think the most important place to get our answer from is from Scripture.

And so I'll point to two places. Number one is at the center of the whole Biblical story, from the start to the finish, is a God who took on flesh and dwelt among us, Emmanuel, God with us. The real answer to the evil and the suffering that God's image bearers have to endure as part of this fallen world is God Himself. He comes in human flesh. He suffers His death, His resurrection.

And you know, one of the things that makes this particular tragedy so difficult is that whenever you talk about children, you're talking about people that are innocent and deserve this. They didn't do anything to bring this onto themselves. They're innocent. And what God gives us at this time is is Christ, who was the most innocent of all sufferers.

The second place is Job, which is, of course, all about dealing with suffering and why bad things happen and and so on. And that's a book that, I don't know about you, but tends to leave more questions than answers. And I think that that is what evil should do. Evil should leave us with more questions than answers. Job’s friends do a great job of responding to his tragedy until they start talking, until they start pontificating. That doesn't mean we don't have anything to say. I think we do have something really important to say, because the suffering, although it makes us question, “Where was God in this? Why didn't God do something to stop this?” We also have to ask, “Why is the world this way?” Unless in the sense that this stuff does happen, but we sense it as evil.

You know, if the world's just a gigantic accident, the product of natural causes and processes, what happened to those beautiful little girls in Texas wasn't evil. It was bad luck. But we sense it as evil. And that says something about us. That says something about the world, and the fact that we have that moral framing gives us the grounding to look to God and ask for help. And that help has been seen. It's been seen already in this event, it's been seen in the helpers. Mr. Rogers used to say that at a time of great tragedy, look for the helpers. Why do we not only then know intuitively that the evil that took place and the suffering that happened to these girls was, in fact, evil, and that the help is good? Where does that framework even come from? That says a lot about who we are, and the ultimate helper is God Himself. And even the girls, as they're driving away, having been rescued, singing praises to God and still saying, we want to sing about God and that being part of that camp and that culture and their lives is something that points us, I think, also in the right direction.

So I think at some level, in the face of tragedy like this, Christians get in trouble by saying too much, and we get in trouble by not saying enough. And to me, again, it goes back to what God reveals about himself, that he ultimately is not only the God who exists, but the God who communicates. And the most clear way that he's ever communicated is in the person of Jesus Christ. And what Jesus Christ reveals in his own suffering and his defeat of death and his witness with us is actually something that we have to offer those who are suffering. So I hope we figure out ways to do that. Clearly, already, there have been people doing that for this community and for these victims, but you're right. I couldn't agree with you more. This one feels different. And whenever you're dealing with the innocence of children and the innocence of suffering, that's when you know this is not the way it's supposed to be.

BROWN: John Stonestreet, president of the Colson center and host of the Breakpoint podcast, thanks again, John.

STONESTREET: Thank you both.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Friday, July 11th. 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 up on The World and Everything in It, Truth, Justice, and a brand new storyline!

Superman is back—and the comic book world is watching.

BROWN: Collin Garbarino is, too.

Here is WORLD’s arts and culture editor with the latest on the return of one of pop culture’s most enduring heroes.

COLLIN GARBARINO: Warner Bros. has a lot riding on its new Superman movie. Back in 2023, its DC Extended Universe died with a series of box-office flops panned by critics and ignored by audiences. Now director James Gunn, best known for the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy, is trying to reboot the DC universe with a fresh approach to the world’s most iconic comic book character.

Gunn drops us straight into the action. No laborious origin story here. It’s been three years since Superman started playing the hero in Metropolis, living his double life as the mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent. He and Lois Lane have already begun their romance that’s tinged with more than a little journalistic rivalry.

LOIS LANE: So this guy just flew into midtown and started attacking people, demanding for Superman to show up?

CLARK KENT: Yeah. It’s all there, in my article.

LOIS LANE: I’d actually have to make it through your writing, Clark. Knowledge is worth many sacrifices. That isn’t one of them.

Superman had recently stopped a war between two small nations. He saved countless lives. But many people are questioning whether it’s a good thing to let such a powerful individual interfere in geo-politics. But then again, who could stop him? As it happens there are some other superpowered folks out there who are more than happy to cause havoc to keep Superman from meddling.

JIMMY OLSEN: Twenty-two people in the hospital. Over 20 million in property damage. It does make you wonder.

LOIS LANE: Wonder what?

JIMMY OLSEN: As great as he is, maybe Superman didn’t completely think through the ramifications of the Boravia thing.

With this incarnation of Superman, James Gunn recaptures some of the bright, hopeful tone of the classic Superman comics and movies. No dark, angsty Man of Steel here. David Corenswet plays Superman and Clark Kent as a fresh-faced idealist whose overriding purpose is to protect life. It’s a sincere and entirely likable interpretation of the character. I only wish we would have gotten to see more of his Clark Kent. The actors who play Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, and Lex Luthor feel so right in each of their roles. Especially Nicholas Hoult, whose Lex Luthor might be the best version of the character to date.

The overall vibe of the movie is very traditional, respecting the old comics as well as the Christopher Reeves version of the hero. But Gunn also takes some big swings. The biggest might be the inclusion of the superdog Krypto.

SUPERMAN: Ow. Ow! Stop. Ow. Stop it! Krypto, ow, ow. Stop it! Stop! Sit. Sit. Stay.

When I first heard the superdog was making his live-action cinematic debut, I was skeptical. Part of Gunn’s charm is that he doesn’t shy away from the silliness of the comic book genre, but I was afraid this time he might push the silliness too far. However, the mischievous pup gives us some nice comedic moments while also serving as a lynchpin for the story.

SUPERMAN: Superman robots, I thought I told you to keep an eye on him.

NO. 4: We feed the canine, but he is unruly. And he realizes we are not flesh and blood and couldn’t in our heart of hearts care less whether he lives or dies.

Another big swing that pays off is the introduction of the so-called Justice Gang, made up of Hawkgirl, Mister Terrific, and the Green Lantern Guy Gardner. These other heroes help flesh out this world of super-powered individuals without bloating the film. Guy Gardner is actually one of my least favorite comic book characters, but Nathan Fillion’s portrayal made me almost like him.

Superman is rated PG-13 for violence, action, and language. The movie contains some crass moments, which is something of a hallmark for Gunn, but Gunn’s respect for Superman’s earnestness keeps the crudities in check.

The movie contains some cheap gags, but the relationship between Lex Luthor and Superman gives the film its emotional weight.

AUDIO: [door crashing open]

HEATHER: Lex, I tried to stop him.

LEX LUTHOR: That’s fine, Heather. Superman. We finally meet. Would you like a coffee? Tea?

SUPERMAN: Where’s the dog?

LEX LUTHOR: Dog?

Despite being created by a couple of Jewish kids in the 1930s, the Superman character has often left itself open to Christian interpretations. And as with some of his other movies, Gunn lets glimpses of his Roman Catholic upbringing peek through the filmmaking. Superman has godlike powers, but he proudly joins himself to humanity. He also has his own metaphorical death and resurrection in this movie. And we even get a superhero version of the Harrowing of Hell.

Lex Luthor, on the other hand, is the brilliant leader of a techno cult who seems patterned on Satan from John Milton’s Paradise Lost. He’s consumed with envy to the point of self-destruction.

At its heart, this Superman film offers a conservative message to our relativistic society. We’ve been told that it matters who we think we are. We value intentions, inward dispositions, and self-identifications. Pa Kent reminds us, “Your actions make you who you are.” What good are all our talents and abilities if we fail to do good with them?

I’m Collin Garbarino.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Friday, July 11th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Up next: Word Play for July.

Today, we turn attention to a coin that’s held less and less value in currency—even though, in its earlier days, it had more value in copper.

Still, it’s valuable enough to have bought its way into our idioms, our memories, and our music.

Here is the invaluable George Grant.

GEORGE GRANT: Earlier this year the U.S. Treasury Department announced that it was phasing out the penny. After 233 years as a mainstay of the money supply, a lifespan nearly as long as the nation itself, the one cent coin will soon disappear from circulation.

Once a symbol of thrifty stewardship and practical value, the penny has come to represent government inefficiency and waste—it now costs four times more to make than it is worth. As P.J. O'Rourke quipped, “A penny will not buy a penny postcard or a penny whistle or a single piece of penny candy. It will not even, if you're managing the U.S. Mint, buy a penny.”

In 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt complained to his treasury secretary, L. Mortimer Shaw, “I think the state of our coinage is artistically of atrocious hideousness.” To improve the aesthetics of the nation’s currency, the famed Beaux-Arts sculptor Victor David Brenner was first commissioned to design a new penny. It would be the first American coin to depict an historical figure, unveiled five years later to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth.

In the decades since, the U.S. Mint has produced nearly 500 billion pennies featuring Brenner’s crisply articulated profile of the sixteenth president. According to James Panera, “In the history of the world no other sculpture has been as ubiquitous.

Not surprisingly that ubiquity not only shaped our economic transactions, but it also shaped our language. Think of all the names and phrases that the little copper coin has given us: a penny saved is a penny earned; penny wise and pound foolish; worth every penny; and a penny for your thoughts.

Pennies have even been featured in the lyrics of popular music: Lionel Richie sang “Penny Lover,” the Bee Gees sang “Throw a Penny,” Tony Martin and Dinah Shore sang “A Penny a Kiss,” the Carpenters sang “Drucilla Penny,” and the Beatles sang “Penny Lane.”

There are lucky pennies and bad pennies. There are pennies from Heaven and penny dreadfuls. There are pretty pennies and penny loafers. There are penny pinchers and penny antes. There are dollars and cents and not one red cent.

And of course, where would 007 be without Miss Money Penny?

It may be that none of us will soon have two cents to rub together, so before we get down to our last penny, I thought I’d better put in my two cents worth.

I’m George Grant.

NICK EICHER, HOST: All right, it’s time to name the team who helped make it happen this week:

Mary Reichard, David Bahnsen, Emma Eicher, Leo Briceno, Amanda Donahue, Nathan Finn, Hunter Baker, Jenny Lind Schmitt, Lindsay Mast, Janie B. Cheaney, Anna Johansen Brown, Bekah McCallum, Carolina Lumetta, Arsenio Orteza, Cal Thomas, John Stonestreet, Collin Garbarino, and George Grant.

Thanks also to our breaking news team: Kent Covington, Mark Mellinger, Travis Kircher, Christina Grube, Steve Kloosterman, and Lynde Langdon.

And thanks to the Moonlight Maestros: Benj Eicher and Carl Peetz.

Harrison Watters is Washington producer, Kristen Flavin is features editor, Paul Butler is executive producer, and Les Sillars our editor-in-chief. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, 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.

The Bible records Jesus confronting the Pharisees in the Gospel of Matthew:

 “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” —Matthew 12:33-37

Your weekly reminder now, and you know what it is: Go to church!

Get in a Bible-believing church on the Lord’s Day and celebrate that day with other believers.

Lord willing, we’ll be right back here with you on Monday. Go now in grace and peace.

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