The World and Everything in It: June 19, 2024

NICK EICHER, HOST: Just three days left to double your giving in this year’s June Giving Drive, today, tomorrow, and Friday.

Generous WORLD Movers are saying: everything you give this week, they’ll give this week. They’re matching all gifts dollar for dollar.

Visit wng.org/donate and make your gift before the end of the week.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: We say it every day: This program is made possible by listeners like you.

You rely on us to be here every weekday, and we rely on you for the resources it takes to produce this program.

EICHER: Speaking of which. time to produce.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning! Trump-era tax cuts are due to expire.

YORK: So in 2026, most Americans will wake up and face higher taxes unless Congress and the next president do something.

NICK EICHER, HOST: We’ll tell you about the Trump plan of action on Washington Wednesday. Also WORLD Tour. And musicians living out their calling.

GERALDINE: We won’t lie, sometimes it’s a lot of hard work traveling up hundreds of miles to a small country church.

And WORLD commentator Delano Squires on the importance of Juneteenth.

REICHARD: It’s Wednesday, June 19th. 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 with Kent Covington.

BIDEN: Today is a good day.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Biden immigration » President Biden in the East Room of the White House on Tuesday announcing a new immigration plan that could grant legal status, and eventually U.S. citizenship to half a million migrants who are now in the country illegally.

BIDEN:  For those wives or husbands and their children who have lived in America for a decade or more but are undocumented, this action will allow them to file a paperwork for legal status in the United States, allow them to work while they remain with their families in the United States.

To qualify, an immigrant must have lived in the United States for 10 years with no criminal record and be married to a U.S. citizen. Qualified migrants would then have three years to apply for a green card and receive a temporary work permit. And they’d be shielded from deportation in the meantime.

Border debate/migrant arrest » Former President Trump reacted to the news just hours later at a campaign rally in Wisconsin.

TRUMP: Joe Biden wants to be the president for illegal aliens, but I will be the president for law abiding Americans, every background, every walk of life, every race, religion, color, and creed. I'll be the president.

Trump added that what he called “Biden’s mass amnesty plan” will lead to a greater surge in illegal immigration and cost American taxpayers untold millions.

He said the president has just issued “another invitation for illegal immigration.”

Gaetz probe » The House Ethics Committee has issued an unusual public statement regarding its investigation of Congressman Matt Gaetz. WORLD’s Christina Grube has more.

CHRISTINA GRUBE: The committee has confirmed that it’s looking into several allegations against the Florida Republican. Among those allegations: that he used illicit drugs, engaged in sexual misconduct, accepted improper gifts, and obstructed government investigations of his conduct.

Congressman Gaetz says none of that is true.

It was Gaetz who triggered the unprecedented vote to oust then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy from his leadership post last October.

For WORLD, I’m Christina Grube.  

COVID hearing » Meantime, in the Senate.

AUDIO: The committee will come to order.

The Homeland Security Committee questioned experts about the possible origins of the COVID-19 pandemic …

PETERS: And how we can learn from this outbreak, to better address future potential infectious disease outbreaks.

Committee Chairman, Sen. Gary Peters, heard there.

Doctor Gregor Koblen of George Mason University said China’s secrecy means we’ll likely never know for sure where the virus came from. But in his view, it did not originate in a Chinese laboratory.

KOBLEN: I believe the available evidence points most strongly to a natural [UNDECIPHERABLE] spillover event as the origin of the pandemic. 

But Doctor Richard Ebrigh of Rutgers University said what evidence?

EBRIGH: No – zero – secure evidence points toward a natural origin.

The top-ranking Republican on the panel, Senator Rand Paul, said no matter the answer Americans deserved an honest debate. And he said that did not happen with many labeling the lab leak theory as a conspiracy.

PAUL: Media pundits parroted the narrative, while social media platforms censored discussion about the lab leak, labeling it as misinformation and stifling open discourse about the virus’ origins.

The FBI is among the agencies that have concluded that the virus did escape from a lab in Wuhan, China. But there is no U.S. government consensus on its origin.

Stoltenberg calls out China, Iran, North Korea » NATO is worried that Russia may support North Korea's missile and nuclear programs as their military alliance grows stronger.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg spoke at State Department headquarters in Washington on Tuesday.

STOLTENBERG: Putin's visit to North Korea demonstrates and confirms the very close alignment between Russia and authoritarian states like North Korea, uh, but also China and, uh, and Iran.

Stoltenberg added that supporting Ukraine in its battle against Russian invaders isn’t not just about Ukraine, but also about checking the power of this growing alliance of dictator states.

And Secretary of State Tony Blinken told reporters.

BLINKEN:  We're strengthening our collective deterrence and defense. Uh, we're implementing the robust plans that allies agreed to, the most robust plans for defense and deterrence since the end of the Cold War.

Blinken also called on China to stop propping up Moscow’s economy and the Russian war machine.

Netanyahu calls out Biden for withholding weapons » Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is blasting the Biden administration for blocking the transfer of some weapons and ammunition to Israel.

NETANYAHU:  It's inconceivable that in the past few months, the administration has been withholding weapons and ammunitions to Israel. Israel, America's closest ally, fighting for its life, fighting against Iran and our other common enemies.

Netanyahu implied that the holdup was slowing Israel’s offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

President Biden has delayed delivering certain heavy bombs to Israel since May over concerns about civilian casualties. But the Biden administration says everything else “is moving as it normally would.”

Masterpiece Cakeshop owner back in court » Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips is back in court in another religious liberty. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has more.

KRISTEN FLAVIN: Phillips appeared before the Colorado Supreme Court on Tuesday for opening arguments in a lawsuit.

A man who identifies as a woman accuses Phillips of discrimination for declining to make a custom cake celebrating a so-called gender transition.

The Colorado Supreme Court must decide if designing and making the cake is constitutionally protected speech.

Phillips has been defending his First Amendment rights in court since 2012 when he declined to make a custom wedding cake for a same-sex couple.

In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Phillips in a separate religious liberty case.

For WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: Donald Trump’s plans for tax policy on Washington Wednesday. Plus, World Tour.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Wednesday the 19th of June, 2024.

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. Time now for Washington Wednesday.

The first presidential debate this year between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump is next Thursday at 9 pm eastern. At CNN headquarters in Atlanta.

REICHARD: Both candidates’ campaigns are touting policies that are critical to different groups of voters; policies on issues like abortion, immigration, and inflation.

Add to that list taxes. President Biden has promised policies that would raise taxes.

But what about former President Trump?

EICHER: WORLD’s Washington Bureau reporter Carolina Lumetta has that story.

CAROLINA LUMETTA: Unlike most candidates running against an incumbent president, Former President Donald Trump has the advantage of running on his own past record. Speaking to the National Rifle Association last month, he focused on his tax policy:

DONALD TRUMP: Biggest tax cut in history. Biggest regulation cuts in history. Greatest economy in the history of our country…

During this campaign, Trump is promising to restore many of those policies that were overturned by his successor. He’s also promised to do a few new things.

For example, here he is in Las Vegas earlier this month.

TRUMP: So this is the first time I’ve said this, and for those hotel workers and people that get tips, you’re going to be very happy. Because when I get to office we are going to not charge taxes on tips, people making tips. [cheers]

Ending taxes on tip-based income would require congressional approval, and some members are already onboard.

Republican congressmen like Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Byron Donalds of Florida have taken to writing “vote Trump, no taxes on tips” on their restaurant receipts, which they then post to social media to spread the word. Yesterday, Massie introduced the Tax Free Tips Act of 2024 in the House.

Allowing service workers to not report tips to the IRS appeals to lower-income voters. But is it feasible?

Erica York is a senior economist and researcher at the Tax Foundation.

ERICA YORK: I understand the sentiment of wanting to lower people's tax burdens and make it easier for them to keep more of their income. But doing that by granting exemptions to just certain types of workers or certain types of income is really problematic.

Ending taxes on tips likely wouldn’t have a significant effect on the broader economy … since tips are already underreported and undertaxed. Douglas Holtz-Eakin is the president of the American Action Forum, a center-right think tank for domestic and economic policy.

DOUGLAS HOLTZ-EAKIN: So you're really picking out a winner, which is the waiters and waitresses of the world and Uber drivers, I guess, and whoever else, and tilting the playing field from a tax perspective. And the question is, why would you want to do that? Why do you single anyone out? Why doesn't everyone just pay their fair share of their full income? That'd be the tax economist response.

Trump’s tax proposals extend beyond blue collar workers. In a closed-door meeting with CEOs in Washington last week, Trump reportedly said he’d also lower the corporate rate below 21 percent.

HOLTZ-EAKIN: It's not obvious to me exactly why. What problem are you trying to solve? We knew in 2017 that we were losing the headquarters of major corporations. We knew the patents were being located in Ireland for tax purposes, not in the United States. There are a whole series of problems related to corporate taxation that were fixed by the provisions. I don't know what he's trying to fix.

The next president will have to address the tax rates because the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act will expire in 2026. Here’s York of the Tax Foundation:

YORK: So in 2026, most Americans will wake up and face higher taxes unless Congress and the next president do something. If they just make everything permanent, though, that's going to cost more than $4 trillion.

Trump’s plan to offset that number? Replace it with tariffs. At a Michigan rally last month, he promised to boost tariffs on all vehicles made in China.

TRUMP: On day one, we will throw out Biden-omics and reinstate a thing called Maga-nomics. I’ll terminate Joe Biden’s radical plan to kill Michigan’s economy by repealing his insane electric mandate, is that the craziest thing? We’re putting tariffs on foreign cars, and we’re bringing the car industry back to Michigan!

At other rallies, Trump has said he’ll impose a 60 percent tariff on all goods from China, not just vehicles. Another 10 percent tariff would apply to all imports in the U.S.

HOLTZ-EAKIN: The personal income tax rate is about $2 .1 trillion a year. The 10% tariff rate is 300 billion. So that 10 has to turn into 70 or higher since it's going to diminish the amount of imports, to even come close to replacing the personal income tax. That doesn't strike me as plausible.

The problem, according to some economists, is that such a plan could still raise taxes for the average American family. Holtz-Eakin says the proposal is similar to tariffs imposed during the Great Depression that actually raised domestic prices.

HOLTZ-EAKIN: But what that means for the larger economy over time is instead of moving from a place where they're not generally globally competitive to another industry where they are, we trap the workers in a place where they've proven they can't really compete and they need the tariff for protection. less productive there and you hurt the overall function of the economy. If you do it a little bit, it's not the end of the world. If you do it on a large scale repeatedly, you interfere with the basic mechanism that makes America the largest, strongest economy on the globe.

While economists have concerns about Trump’s new tax and tariffs proposals, Holtz-Eakin says some of his previous policies are worth bringing back..

HOLTZ-EAKIN: What they really did is give each agency a regulatory budget. This is how much additional cost you can put on the private sector. And most of those budgets were zeros or negative numbers. So he essentially said, you cannot raise the burden of the regulatory state or you're gonna cut it if at all possible. And I thought that would never happen and could not be done, and he did it. He did it to an amazing degree.

York, with the Tax Foundation, says taxes could be one of the most important issues the next president faces.

YORK: Unfortunately, so far we are not seeing the major candidates really seize that opportunity and cast a vision for what we can do to make the U .S. a great place to do business, a great place for workers to increase their labor force participation. We’re instead seeing these campaign politics of here’s what I’ve going to do to create a benefit for this specific group and here’s how I’m, essentially, try to get the votes from these constituents over here, rather than this positive overall vision of where tax policy could go.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Carolina Lumetta.

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

ONIZE OHIKERE: Malawi funeral — Today’s roundup takes off in Malawi’s capital of Lilongwe at the state funeral for Vice President Saulos Chilima.

AUDIO: [Choir singing]

Chilima and eight others—including a former first lady—died in a plane crash last week while traveling to a former minister’s funeral.

All passengers on board died on impact when the twin-propeller aircraft crashed in a hilly, forested area.

President Lazarus Chakwera said air traffic controllers had told the plane to turn back due to bad weather and poor visibility.

Hundreds of soldiers and forest rangers searched for more than 24 hours before finding the wreckage in a forest plantation south of its destination.

Rebecca Adda-Dontoh is the United Nations resident coordinator in Malawi.

ADDA-DONTOH: He was a go-getter for Malawi, and had confidence that Malawi was on the right path. So, it means a lot. Many people are mourning, especially young people who also identified with him.

The 51-year-old Chilima was serving his second term as vice president when he died. President Chakwera declared three weeks of national mourning.

AUDIO: [Welcome ceremony]

Australia-China relations — We head over to Australia, where Chinese Premier Li Qiang wrapped up a four-day visit on Tuesday with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to mend diplomatic tensions.

Li is the highest-ranking Chinese official to visit Australia since 2017. Relations soured between the countries in 2020 after Australia proposed an investigation into COVID-19 origins. Australia was also the first nation to ban Chinese telecommunications provider Huawei from its 5G network.

China has lifted most of its punitive trade barriers since Albanese assumed office two years ago. Li said China will grant limited visa-free access to Australians.

But Albanese still affirmed the two countries’ lingering differences. Both leaders agreed to improve communication between their militaries after recent clashes in the South China Sea and Yellow Sea.

Here’s Albanese.

ALBANESE: Without dialogue, we can’t address any of the differences that arise between us, Australia and China have renewed and revitalized our engagement.

The leaders also visited the Adelaide Zoo, where Li offered to send two new pandas to the country.

Europe update — Now to Europe, where leaders of the EU met Monday evening to divvy up top jobs in the European Commission. They also discussed which direction the bloc will take, after voters chose a hard shift to the right in recent elections.

WORLD collaborator Joel Forster of Evangelical Focus says that, while President Ursula von der Leyen will likely keep her job, there will be new priorities.

FORSTER: The European machine will continue to work in the same direction, probably with a higher emphasis on controlling immigration while building military power to prepare for whatever scenario opens with Russia in the years ahead.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni also won big in the EU elections. Despite low voter turnout, Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party took 29 percent of the vote. Here’s WORLD’s Italy correspondent, Chiara Lamberti:

LAMBERTI: Italy’s right wing government emerges much stronger from the EU elections. And Italy’s prime minister emerges as a stronger leader in Europe.

Forster says that Meloni and von der Leyen will need to work together to develop a working alliance to inspire Europeans during what he called ‘global uncertainty.’

FORSTER: Millions are becoming more and more frustrated in the continent, and may be ready to go to the hard right alternatives to lead sooner than later.

AUDIO: [Crying]

Sweden-Iran swap — We wrap up today with tears of joy in Sweden after Iran released two Swedes in a prisoner swap over the weekend.

Iranian authorities had detained Johan Floderus two years ago during a holiday trip. They also released dual citizen Saeed Azizi, who received a five-year sentence in Iran.

In exchange, Sweden released Hamid Noury—an Iranian former prison official who received a life sentence in Sweden over mass killings in Iranian jails in 1988.

Here’s Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson.

KRISTERSSON: [Speaking Swedish]

He says here that the swap has sparked some mixed feelings, but added that it involved some significantly difficult government decisions.

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

NICK EICHER, HOST: You’d think that after centuries we’d learned everything there is to learn about the estate the father of the country left behind.

Not so! Last week excavators at George Washington’s Mount Vernon estate made a discovery:

SOUND: [Excavating]

What they found were several intact bottles of preserved cherries and berries. Jason Boroughs is principal archaeologist at the site:

BOROUGHS: Finding what is essentially fresh fruit 250 years later is pretty spectacular. This pit in particular, we have a theory. We think this is probably the summer of 1775 which is the last harvest before Washington rode off to Philadelphia and became commander in chief just before the revolution.

You can glean a lot from artifacts, but one thing is likely to remain apocryphal: and that’s whether young George really chopped down a cherry tree.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: If he had, why would he have had cherries to pick and preserve? I say it exonerates him!

EICHER: It’s The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Wednesday, June 19th. This is WORLD Radio and we’re so glad you’re listening. Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Music, Love and Faith!

WORLD’s Myrna Brown has our story.

SOUND: [Piano]

MYRNA BROWN: With his eyes closed, Carey Luce sits in front of a black upright piano.

SOUND: [Piano]

His wife, Geraldine stands by his side. She watches his fingers glide across the keys and waits for her moment.

GERALDINE LATTY-LUCE: (Singing) Our God is a God who knows all we need…

Together, they’ve just created a new song.

GERALDINE: So at one point, I was thinking just bring all you have in your hands. And then thinking about your listeners, some of them who may be feeling, I don’t have much to give. So that became a prayer that became a song in the moment. Do you see what I mean?

The technique is called musical improvisation. 53-year-old Carey and 61-year-old Geraldine have been honing the skill since they were children. Carey, grew up in London, the son of a pastor.

CAREY LUCE: My dad is a beautiful pianist. His parents both played piano and organ.

And Geraldine is the daughter of West Indies immigrants, who migrated to England.

GERALDINE: I do know I have a photograph of me standing next to my mum and she was the choir director at church and my mouth is this big. And I’m, like singing my heart out, and I know I was around three then.

Both studied music in college, but Carey and Geraldine didn’t meet until years later. As a church music director, Geraldine often brought together musicians like Carey to play at worship conferences around the United Kingdom.

LUCE: But it wasn’t until I started working at London School of Theology, seeing Carey full time where I fell in love.

Taking that next step wasn’t as easy for Carey because Geraldine was his mentor.

CAREY: So, I had to quit the mentor/mentee relationship first so that the love relationship had space.

After they married in 2013, they formed Luce Music and began releasing new projects, like their 2017 album Can You See It?

CAREY: Everything is kind of infused with the Gospel flavor because of Geraldine’s vocals. You’ve got a track there which is Latin. You’ve got some Funk. You’ve got some Rock.

But in 2020, amid the COVID lockdown, Carey took a deep dive into one of his favorite 19th century classical music composers, Chopin.

CAREY LUCE: I started playing through his preludes and then what happens if I just take a few notes from a prelude like eighth notes and then I add a ninth note to change the rhythm from like straight four. But if I have nine notes, it has 1,2,3,4…. [clapping his hands to illustrate]

SOUND: [PRELUDE 1 FROM CHOPIN FUSION]

Carey then added drums, the bass and strings. After a year of composing and rearranging, they released Chopin Fusion.

GERALDINE: One of the critiques we’ve had of our music and our album has been, but do you know who you are? You’re so many things. And we’re thinking, hoorah! That’s what we’re going for.

SOUND: [DORDT UNIVERSITY CLOCK TOWER]

In the Fall of 2021, Carey and Geraldine accepted an assignment that took them to the other side of the world, Sioux Center, Iowa.

JEREMY PERIGO: What would it be like if we brought a couple of worship artists to be guests in residence for about two months…

That’s Jeremy Perigo, on the campus of Dordt University. He’s a professor of Theology and Worship Arts. He first met the Luces in 2013 in London. It was his idea to bring Carey and Geraldine to Northwest Iowa, where Dutch settlers in the late 19th century planted some of the region’s oldest reformed churches.

PERIGO: Our posture is wanting to of course be strong and convicted in our beliefs and our own cultural backgrounds, but also to learn from what God’s doing in other parts of the world and even other times in history.

DORDT GOSPEL CONCERT: Are you ready to be a part of making history tonight?

CHOIR: Your love keeps lifting me…keeps on lifting me…higher, higher and higher…

You’re listening to a 2021 recording of Dordt University’s first gospel choir concert - 50 students strong.

DORDT CHOIR SOLOIST: Now I’m flying on Your wings of grace..and it’s taking me higher and higher and higher….

The campus auditorium was packed with people like a 70-year-old who sat in the front row with six of his friends.

GERALDINE: And he said, yeah, this is not what we’re used to. But for them the message was so key that there was no difference. It was just in a different key, but the Good News was still the same.

After the concert, Geraldine and Carey returned to London. But in 2023 they were asked to come back to Dordt to fill in as interim Directors of Worship Arts.

LIBBY BANDELIN: I just love serving under them and being led by them.

Libby Bandelin is a cellist on the Dordt worship arts team.

BANDELIN: Geraldine would come and just ask how I was doing as a person. I’d gotten a running injury and was experiencing some pain, so she just stopped in the middle of rehearsal and asked if she could pray for me.

SOUND: [CAREY ON PIANO]

After a year of mentoring, teaching and composing, Geraldine and Carey are praying about God’s next assignment for them. As independent artists, they haven’t had huge material success and aren’t well known in mainstream Christian music.

GERALDINE: One of the things I think we have sacrificed is popularity. But part of where we have been called feels different. We won’t lie, sometimes it’s a lot of hard work traveling up hundreds of miles to a small country church.

But the Luce's say the sacrifice has been worth it.

CAREY: If we look to the feeding of the five thousand and then Calvary. And if it’s about the numbers, the feeding of the five thousand would be the success and Calvary would be the failure. But Calvary was no failure. No failure.

MUSIC: [PLAYING/SINGING]

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Myrna Brown in Sioux Center, Iowa.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Wednesday, June 19th. 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 Opinions commentator Delano Squires on the significance for Christians of Juneteenth.

DELANO SQUIRES: Juneteenth commemorates the end of slavery in Texas on June 19, 1865. That was the day Union General Gordon Granger issued General Order No. 3, freeing all remaining slaves in the state–more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.

The holiday has been celebrated in Texas for decades, but it has been a casualty in the culture wars in recent years. President Trump recognized Juneteenth during his administration and pledged to make it a federal holiday during the 2020 election. But the day has been weighed down by partisanship since President Biden signed the holiday into law in 2021.

It shouldn’t be that way. Juneteenth is a day celebrating the most important American value: freedom. Further, if there is anyone who should understand the joy that comes from being freed from bondage, it’s a Christian. We know that as bad as chattel slavery is, slavery to sin is far worse–because it has eternal consequences.

And like all values, freedom is not neutral. It implies being released from one thing to pursue another. 1 Peter 2:16 makes the Christian’s new pursuits clear. It says, “Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.”

Frederick Douglass, one of the nation’s most prominent abolitionists, also had a positive vision for freedom:

“As colored men, we only ask to be allowed to do with ourselves, subject only to the same great laws for the welfare of human society which apply to other men, Jews, Gentiles, Barbarian, Sythian. Let us stand upon our own legs, work with our own hands, and eat bread in the sweat of our own brows.” 

The formerly enslaved did just that, using their newfound liberty to rebuild their families, create businesses, lead social organizations, fight honorably in war, and push for equal citizenship.

The fight against chattel slavery was built on the Biblical principle that every person is created in the image of God. Unfortunately, some Christians at the time used scripture to defend the practice. And over the past half century, feminists, abortionists, and LGBT activists have argued that their campaigns are the continuation of the civil rights movement.

But they all reject Biblical teaching about the nature of human beings in favor of a twisted form of individualism. Christians should reject these connections as quickly as we would reject any attempts to use the Bible to justify human bondage today. We oppose the slavery of men and slavery to sin for the same reason: our primary identity–regardless of skin color–is slaves of Christ.

I’m Delano Squires.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: Axis and allies for the 21st century. We’ll talk about the U.S. security deal with Ukraine, and Vladimir Putin’s trip to North Korea. And the story of an exceptionally talented musician. 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: “...false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.” —2 Peter 2:1

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.