The World and Everything in It - June 14, 2022

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

Whatever happened to the Department of Homeland Security’s plans to fight what it calls “disinformation”? It’s tabled the plans, but for how long?

NICK EICHER, HOST: Also a recent survey found that more than half of the nation’s teachers may leave the profession. We’ll find out why.

Plus, two Iowa brothers are coming to grips with unexpected celebrity—we’ll hear how they’re using it to build others up.

And a son’s small remembrance of a father long passed.

REICHARD: It’s Tuesday, June 14th. 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 now for news. Here’s Kent Covington.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: House panel holds second public hearing on Capitol riot » On Capitol Hill, members of a House panel Monday held their second public hearing on the Capitol riot.

Democratic chairman Bennie Thompson said the committee was presenting…

THOMPSON: Our initial findings about the conspiracy overseen and directed by Donald Trump.

Monday’s hearing focused heavily on Trump’s claims that the election had been stolen from him. Members said those claims fueled the Capitol siege.

Former Justice Department official Richard Donoghue said he advised Trump that claims of widespread voter fraud were not credible.

DONOGHUE: I said something to the effect of - sir, we’ve done dozens of invstigations, hundreds of interviews. The major allegations are not supported by the evidence developed. We’ve looked at Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Nevada …

Lawmakers heard pre-recorded testimony from former Attorney General William Barr, who was appointed by Trump. Barr commented on the former president’s claims that voting machines had been rigged.

BARR: I was somewhat demoralized because I thought boy, if he really believes this stuff, he has lost contact with — he has become detached from reality.

Republican leaders say the public hearings are an attempt to distract from major pressing problems in the country and from Democratic policy failures.

Zelenskyy: Russian deaths could top 40,000 this month » ZELENSKYY: [Speaking in Ukrainian]

Ukraine’s president says Russian deaths in his country could top a major milestone this month as casualties mount on both sides. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has more.

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: Addressing the nation on Monday, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia has paid a heavy price for its invasion. He said Russian deaths in his country now stand at about 32,000 and could top 40,000 this month.

But of course, the loss of life is tragically high for Ukraine as well. Its government says 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers have died defending their nation. And according to the UN, roughly 5,000 civilians have also perished.

Zelenskyy is again urging the West to send more weapons and equipment as Russia continues its offensive in the eastern Donbas region.

He said—quote —"How could mass killings, torture, burned cities,” and Russian filtration camps, “which resemble Nazi concentration camps, come to pass?” He added, “Help us speed up the supply of weapons to Ukraine so that we can liberate the occupied territories.”

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

NATO chief: Sweden ready to address Turkish fears » NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says the Swedish government is stepping up its efforts to win Turkey’s approval as it seeks to join NATO.

Sweden and Finland have both applied to join the alliance, but to add a new member, all existing members must agree to it. And right now, Turkey is the holdout.

Stoltenberg said Sweden is taking “the Turkish concerns very seriously," including “their security concerns when it comes to the fight against terrorism.”

STOLTENBERG: Sweden has already started to change its counter-terrorism legislation and Sweden will ensure that the legal framework for arms exports will reflect their future status as a NATO member.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accuses Sweden and Finland of supporting Kurdish militants.

Stoltenberg has invited both Nordic nations to attend the NATO summit in Madrid two weeks from today. He wouldn’t say whether he expects the countries to iron out their differences with Turkey before the summit.

New York passes pro-abortion laws as Roe v Wade decision looms » The Supreme Court did not issue a decision Monday on reversing Roe v. Wade. Analysts now say that announcement could come as early as tomorrow.

In the meantime, states continue to prepare for that announcement. Some have enshrined pro-life laws while other states move to ensure abortions will continue.

In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul asserted Monday that every woman has a right to an abortion…

HOCHUL: Except in the eyes of some neanderthals who say women are not entitled to those rights.

The Democratic governor heard there on Monday after signing a package of bills into law.

One of those new laws will block New York law enforcement from cooperating with the investigations of other states on abortion-related cases. Another will enable people to sue others for inhibiting access to abortions.

Fire crews battle wildfires from California To New Mexico » Fire crews continue to battle wildfires from California to New Mexico as hot, dry, windy weather bears down.

Authorities have evacuated several hundred homes on the outskirts of Flagstaff, Arizona. One area resident said she’s ready to leave home at a moment’s notice.

AUDIO: I’m ready to go if I need to go, but I‘m not in this situation yet. So I’m going to go back to my house and see what else I can find and pray … pray, pray, pray.

Crews were expecting gusts of up to 50 mph as they battled the blaze that has burned through parts of the footprint left by another springtime fire that destroyed more than two dozen homes.

Wildfires broke out early this spring in multiple states in the Western United States amid chronic drought.

The number of square miles burned so far this year is more than double the 10-year national average, and states like New Mexico already have set records.

I'm Kent Covington. Coming up: Whatever happened to the Department of Homeland Security’s plans to fight what it calls “disinformation”?

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Tuesday the 14th of June, 2022. You’re listening to The World and Everything in It and we’re glad you are! Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

The Department of Homeland Security announced in late April plans to launch something called the Disinformation Governance Board. DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the entity would create guidelines for all DHS agencies to combat what it called “disinformation.”

REICHARD: Pushback against the board was swift and loud. Just three weeks after introducing it, Mayorkas temporarily halted the board’s implementation and called for a review. But not everyone is satisfied with the temporary reprieve. WORLD’s Bonnie Pritchett reports.

BONNIE PRITCHETT, REPORTER: When Virginia State Attorney General Jason Miyares heard about the Disinformation Governance Board, he was suspicious.

MIYARES: One, I thought it could have a chilling effect on people's first amendment rights. The power of the federal government is just awesome. And the idea that you would have an unelected governing body somehow policing speech, concerns me greatly. And the second was, where did the Department of Homeland Security get the statutory authority to do it?

Miyares and 19 other state attorneys general believe DHS does not have that authority and sent Mayorkas a letter saying so.

Other efforts to undermine the disinformation governance board came from Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill. They introduced legislation that prohibits funding the program.

In response, Mayorkas paused the board’s implementation and called for a review. He asked former DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff and former U.S. Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick to work with the Homeland Security Advisory Council to review the proposed board. The group has until August to make its recommendations.

Miyares doubts the review will sufficiently address his concerns but hopes the reviewers will disband the board.

MIYARES: I think it's too easy to be abused. It's too easy for those in charge of bureaucracy to determine that our legitimate political disagreements in the marketplace of ideas, somehow is, quote, disinformation…

Critics argued the board’s vague objectives left a lot to be imagined. And they imagined the worst: First Amendment violations in the form of government-imposed or self-imposed censorship.

Milton Mueller is a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology in the schools of Public Policy and Cybersecurity and Privacy. He says, defining the terms of the debate surrounding the board could have helped.

MUELLER: Yes, so disinformation has a fairly well understood definition. It refers to the intentional dissemination of misleading information with the purpose of manipulating people's behavior in a way that serves the interests of the disseminator of disinformation…

Mueller also directs the Internet Governance Project at Georgia Tech. It’s a think tank that researches the digital political economy, particularly cybersecurity and the governance of content on the internet.

Who gets to govern online content is a major source of contention surrounding the board.

MUELLER: The idea of disinformation when it is wedded to state actors, essentially puts the government in a position of deciding what is true or what is not true. Now, it is true that certain kinds of information, false information, can be deliberately disseminated, and it can pose a national security risk…

For example: False claims about election integrity can promote distrust of the electoral process. And lies about bank failures during a financial crisis could further damage markets.

MUELLER: Now how much of this is a national security issue? This is one of the things that I, you know, started to part company with. So, there's a whole theory in political science and international relations about what we call “securitization.” And that is where you declare something is a national security issue, and that allows all of the normal constraints to just go away, right…

Department of Homeland Security representatives declined an interview and responded to questions with an unsigned statement saying the board would protect Americans from disinformation that threatens the homeland from foreign adversaries.

The statement also said the board had been grossly and intentionally mischaracterized—that it was never about censorship or policing speech in any manner.

But, for critics, actions spoke louder than words.

MUELLER: So, there is a role for DHS, a cybersecurity role. And there is a role for public authorities of any level of government to counter false information about vaccines, about public health, about threats. But the idea that we need a special disinformation governance board, I think, was not a wise one. And I think that the, the biggest the biggest mistake that they made, was not just the idea of calling it a governance board, but they appointed the head of it was this partisan political person named Nina Jankowicz. She was not somebody who would inspire confidence in DHS taking a limited, First Amendment respecting role…

Jankowicz is an author and analyst of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Her political leanings were evident before Mayorkas tapped her to head the new board.

She criticized the investigation into Hunter Biden’s laptop as a “Trump campaign product.” A claim now proven false. In promoting an article about online “gendered abuse” she Tweeted, “Platforms and governments aren't doing enough. It's time to act. Our national security and democracy are at stake.”

Jankowicz resigned when Mayorkas paused the board’s roll out.

Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares and others are awaiting the review recommendations.

MIYARES: My Solicitor General ,who represents our office in all federal filings, is monitoring this. And, if they, you know, they will make a public report. I don't think they will try to hide the football on this board review what they say…

He hopes the Department of Homeland Security will disband the group. If not, his department will explore legal responses.

Georgia Tech’s Milton Mueller summarized a common critique.

MUELLER: The point is, we cannot have the government itself  becoming the arbiter of what is true and what is not. We really have to rely on the classical liberal idea that people have to make up their own minds, and that we're going to have a free and open debate. And, you know, truth will not always win. But I don't see any better way of giving it a fair chance to win then by allowing a free and open media.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Bonnie Pritchett. 

NICK EICHER, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: the impending teacher shortage.

Earlier this year The National Education Association reported that 55% of teachers are thinking of calling it quits.

That’s almost double the number from two years ago.

Recent World Journalism Institute graduate Katelyn Rafferty wanted to find out the reasons why and so she prepared this report.

KAEMINGK: I will be teaching halftime this fall and starting my new job halftime....

KATELYN RAFFERTY, REPORTER: Until recently Karl Kaemingk taught at Unity Christian High School. He’s one of 600,000 teachers nationwide making a career change since January 2020.

KAEMINGK: I had no desire to leave, I would tell anybody that would come that I had a fantastic job, and the dream job...So it's, it's been a wonderful career, and I highly recommend it.

Kaemingk is retiring from teaching to pursue a unique ministry opportunity. But he’s not the only one making a change. Many more teachers than usual are considering leaving the profession next year.

Kaemingk blames the exodus on a combination of different stressors—many of them triggered by COVID lockdowns and distance learning. First he says, there are just a lot fewer teachers to help carry the load.

KAEMINGK: Anytime we need a substitute teacher, we’ve had to fill in for each other, which adds to the stress. So instead of a free period, you have to fill in and cover for colleagues sometimes because you can’t find people to sub.

Tim Van Soelen has anticipated this trend for a while. He’s a former teacher. He currently serves as the executive director for the Center for the Advancement of Christian Education at Dordt University in Sioux Center, Iowa.

VAN SOELEN: So the teacher shortage that we’ve talked about for many years is here…

Van Soelen identifies one big reason teachers are leaving the classroom—poor academic performance. After two years of distance learning, students are years behind where they should be.

VAN SOELEN: There have been learning challenges, like academic challenges but the social challenges have been as great as the learning challenges.

Trying to get kids caught up adds even more stress to an already difficult job. During the pandemic, administrators and parents were often more understanding. But now that in person learning is back, many are impatient with the slow progress.

VAN SOELEN: This year has been a more challenging year to lead schools than the year before.

Students have also emerged from pandemic learning with bad attitudes and bad habits. David Schmus is the executive director of Christian Educators Association International.

SCHMUS: I saw a panel of teachers the other day. And they were saying things like, I've in all my years of teaching, I've never seen this level of disrespect. I've never seen this level of lack of care. Or of absenteeism, of tardiness of, you know, profanity aimed at me as the educator, of hostility for my students.

And those attitudes are having an effect on teachers.

SCHMUS: Something has broke in many of our students and the teachers are worn down and worn out and not sure how they can continue in many cases.

Schmus adds that even when students are respectful, many have simply forgotten how to be good learners. After years of attending school from their bedroom, they’re rebelling against tight schedules and rigorous study.

SCHMUS: They’ve just lost the muscle memory or the brain memory of what it means to be a student.

The emerging teacher shortage is likely to get worse. Fewer college students are pursuing education as a career. Professor Tim Van Soelen oversees the education department at Dordt University. He’s seen the dropping numbers first hand.

VAN SOELEN: In 2000, 11 percent of incoming freshmen were education majors. In 2019, I think that number was down to 3.6 percent.

Van Soelen blames several influences for this reduction. But he says negative media coverage hasn’t helped. From school shootings to activist teachers, many parents discourage their kids from pursuing careers in education.

VAN SOELEN: More than half of parents will tell their kids, yeah, you probably don’t want to be a teacher, whereas that was 10 years ago, significantly more, the majority of parents would say ya that’s a good profession for you to consider.

As more teachers consider leaving the classroom, educator David Schmus sees an opportunity for believers to step in.

SCHMUS: If the body of Christ will say hey here’s an opportunity for us to replace all these burned out teachers with carriers of hope and carriers and ambassadors for Christ, wow what an opportunity that is.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Katelyn Rafferty in Sioux Center, Iowa.

NICK EICHER, HOST: A recent rescue at a Mars Wrigley plant in Pennsylvania might sound like something straight out of the movies!

WILLY WONKA: Don’t do that! Don’t do that! Please, you’re contaminating my entire river. Please, I beg you, Augustus! … My chocolate!

Well, it wasn’t quite the chocolate river from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

Original reports, however, stated two people fell into a large chocolate tank.

It turns out two workers somehow got stuck after climbing inside the chocolate tank at the plant in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania.

But we can report problems on the everlasting gobstopper production line are just not true.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Tuesday, June 14th, 2022. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

Reminder about our Spring Giving Drive at WNG.org/donate. A good example of how we put your giving to good use—well, you’re listening to it—generous, ongoing support is what keeps this program rolling along each day.

As it does our efforts to train the next generation of journalists. You’ve already heard today from one of the World Journalism Institute grads, Katelyn Rafferty.

REICHARD: Right, and in just a moment you’ll hear from another.

During this year’s World Journalism Institute in Sioux Center, Iowa, our students got to meet a lot of interesting people in the community. Two of the most memorable are brothers who share a unique hobby—and one that led to unexpected celebrity.

WJI graduate Anna Allen has their story.

LIBRARIAN ANNOUNCER: Please welcome Derek and Alex Koops, the first ever Domino Masters! [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]

ANNA ALLEN, REPORTER: Alex and Derek Koops won Fox television’s new game show called Domino Masters. Since the season finale May 11th, the Koops brothers have been the talk of the town.

They’re standing at the front of a large board room at the local library in Sioux Center. About a hundred people fill this room. Elderly couples sit in chairs in the back. A mob of children cover the floor. They inch as close as they can to the yellow caution tape that blocks off a quarter of the room. Beyond the tape are 7,000 dominos lined up in a complex and colorful chain reaction.

Alex explains the design.

ALEX: It'll start on this side with the book dominoes. It'll make its way up and topple this domino wall on the back…

Alex is an otherwise average 21-year-old with short blond hair and a round face. Derek looks just like him. Of course he does. They’re twins. Except Derek’s hair is a little spikier and he’s about an inch taller.

Derek selects two boys from the crowd to start the topple.

DEREK: Does everyone know what time is it? It’s topple time! 5,4,3,2,1

Alex and Derek have been building chain reactions since the fifth grade. Here in the library a decade later, Alex and Derek build much more than dominos.

CLIP OF VIDEO IN GARAGE WHEN YOUNG

This is the twins’ first domino run from 2011. It’s from their YouTube channel. They received YouTube’s Silver Button award eight years later and are now up to 200,000 subscribers. Their videos brought them to the attention of the Fox Network, which invited them to join the first season of the game show.

DOMINO MASTERS CLIP: “IT’S TOPPLE TIME!”

On the show Alex, Derek, and their teammate Lyle walk onto a huge set. Neon lights flash everywhere. Fox turned an airplane hangar in Los Angeles into the competition stage. Challenge one, competitors have 16 hours to build a chain reaction on a platform of six hundred seventy six square feet.

With one hour left, Alex is just about finished with the 3D bridge. It’s 2,000 pieces and it’s the finale of their wild west set up. But then…

TV CLIP: CLIP OF THE TOWER FALLING

One slip of the finger and down it goes. Thankfully, the rest of the line wasn’t affected.

TV CLIP: I just watched the whole thing collapse…thinking, “what have I done?”

After a decade of domino building, Alex has faced dozens of accidents before. They readjusted the plan, made a 2D bridge instead, and finished on time. One of the judges commented that if that accident happened to any other team there, they wouldn’t have been able to recover.

ALEX: But because we had so much experience and we knew kind of how to handle ourselves. That was a huge benefit, and we were able to recover in time.

And that experience brought them all the way to the finale show.

TV CLIP: The first ever title of Domino Masters goes to Dominerds!

That was just a year ago. The finale episode didn’t air until this May. Everywhere they went in Sioux Center, people recognized them as the Domino Masters.

AUDIO: [SOUND OF THE CROWD]

KOOPS: Anyone that wants to is invited to come try to build some dominoes. [kids cheer]

Back in the library dozens of boys and girls swarm the dominos. In about three minutes, one boy had a tower up to his chest. Alex and Derek wandered between the rooms teaching kids their techniques.

GIRL: How do you make like that? Derek: um so that one how he did that…

DEREK: When a kid would like run up to me and say, Can you come see my build, and then they would topple in front of me. I thought that was the cutest thing ever.

Alex and Derek hoped that the TV show would expose more people to this niche hobby. Alex says builders have no boundaries for what they can create with dominos. He wants dominos to be to the next generation what Legos were to his generation.

ALEX: Like Legos, you build something and just kind of sits there. But Domino's you build it, but the point is to topple it.

It’s art in motion, with valuable life lessons.

DEREK: Like patience and determination, and creativity. To keep pushing through the challenges, I think is one of the best things that it can teach.

ALEX: It’s fun seeing everyone get so into building now. I was one of these kids.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Anna Allen in Sioux Center, Iowa.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Tuesday, June 14th. 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’s WORLD commentator Steve West on God’s interest in time, place, people, and things.

STEVE WEST, COMMENTATOR: Like many of my generation, I have a father who served in World War II, and also like many, I don't know a lot about this. The men who returned from WWII did not talk about the experience much. My father certainly didn't. He died when I was 14, taking with him his memories.
I do know that he was a private in the Army. From his rural North Carolina town, he traveled far. He entered the war in Northern Africa, then went to Sicily, Italy, France, and then Luxembourg, where he was in the Battle of the Bulge. He became separated from his patrol or battalion, stepped on a land mine, and lost his left foot and leg up to just midway between the knee and his ankle. He came home decorated with a Purple Heart medal. But I learned all this from an older sister who pieced it together.
A few years before she died, my mother gave me an inexpensive silver bracelet, much like a dog tag. It bears my father's name and serial number. It was apparently issued to him or purchased by him from the military, I assume so that he could be identified if he was killed in action. By God's grace, in His providence, my father did not die. In all of the battles, he was not shot or injured, though surely there were many instances when he could have been. And he did not die from the landmine, though he bore its wound for the rest of his life.

I’m at that point in life where I need to shed things, but the bracelet will stay with me. Inanimate objects like bracelets carry weighty memories, stories, and meanings. In this sense they live. They point outward to things we need to remember. Though this function served by the inanimate can be warped into mere sentiment and nostalgia, like anything else good in life, it need not be abused in this fashion. Objects have a Godly function. God created a world of particular things, not a world of abstractions. When He ultimately restores creation, it will be flesh and blood, dirt and rock and water, and we will not be disembodied spirits roaming over a great nothingness.

Scripture is replete with particulars. There are long chronologies, perhaps to remind us that history is full of real people who had names, who lived and loved and died, with God or without. There are names of places, as well. Even Eden is not some dreamy wisp of a place like Shangri-La but rooted in space and time by two rivers that still flow, the Tigris and Euphrates.

Racing ahead to the end of time, there is enormous detail about the New Heavens and New Earth—a city 12,000 stadia in length, height, and width, with walls made of jasper, streets of gold, the foundations in all kinds of precious stones—all named. Why named? Why the excruciating detail? Why else than because the inanimate matters, as it has meaning, carries memories, and roots us in the particulars of reality. Things are unique. People are unique. God is interested in the things that surround us, the created reality in all its detail.

That number on the bracelet, "346033355," is not just a number. It points to a person worthy of being remembered, not for sentiment sake, but for what he points to—a loving God who cares for His creation—all of it—who is not disengaged but actively governing over it, turning even evil to His good purposes. Bringing my father home. In 1945, and in eternity.

I’m Steve West.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: The January 6 Commission. After about a year of investigation, what have we learned?

And, World Tour.

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.

It’s our Spring Giving Drive and we’d be grateful for your support. Please visit WNG.org/donate.

The Bible says: Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 1:13 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.