The World and Everything in It: June 19, 2025

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MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

A new president in South Korea signals shifting political winds, but will his leadership bring stability or more chaos?

KLINGNER: We don't know what is how he will implement his foreign policy and security policy,

MYRNA BROWN, HOST:And the Church of England gets ready to choose its next Archbishop of Canterbury.

Also learning new skills later in life can still pay off, just maybe not the way you’d expect.

DEVIN: Fortunately or unfortunately there are muscles that develop when we’re children that stop developing when we reach a certain age.

And WORLD commentator Cal Thomas on the lasting effects of losing the war in Vietnam.

REICHARD: It’s Thursday, June 19th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

BROWN: And I’m Myrna Brown. Good morning!

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

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Israel-Iran » A plea for peace:

KHATIB: Crying in Hebrew

A Palestinian citizen of Israel says his wife and two daughters were killed in an Iranian missile strike over the weekend.

His family members among the roughly two dozen residents killed in Israel since back and forth airstrikes began a week ago when Israel launched a mission to destroy Iran's nuclear sites.

SOUND: [Air raid sirens, June 18]

Sirens again blaring over Tel Aviv yesterday as Israeli air defenses intercepted more Iranian missiles.

But the Wall Street Journal reports that Israel’s missile defenses may be increasingly vulnerable, with defense forces running low on critical Arrow defensive interceptors.

As for Iran: publicly, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei says his government has no intention of backing down. But President Trump says privately, Iran wants to talk.

TRUMP: I don't wanna fight either. I'm not looking to fight. But if it's a choice between fighting and them having a nuclear weapon, you have to do what you have do. Maybe we won't have to fight, don't forget, we haven't been fighting.

But all eyes remain on the Trump administration to see whether the U.S. military will join the Israeli airstrikes against Iranian nuclear targets.

Republican Senator Ted Cruz:

CRUZ: The only question of direct U.S. involvement that is being discussed is do we use the bombs that we have and Israel does not—the bunker-busters—to take out this nuclear weapons research lab.

Ayatollah Khamenei is threatening the United States with— “irreversible harm” if the US military joins the airstrikes.

When asked about Iran’s tough talk and refusal to surrender, President Trump responded—quote—“good luck.”

Skrmetti SCOTUS » The Supreme Court Wednesday upheld Tennessee’s law banning puberty blockers and hormone therapy for minors with gender dysphoria.

WORLD’s Travis Kircher reports:

TRAVIS KIRCHER: In a 6-3 decision, the justices ruled that the law only needed to meet the lowest legal standard — called “rational basis” — under the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause. That means the state just had to show that the law serves a reasonable purpose.

Arguing for Tennessee in December, Matthew Rice pointed out the law’s purpose:

RICE: It’s application turns entirely on medical purpose, not a patient’s sex. That is not sex discrimination…. The Equal Protection Clause does not require the states to blind themselves to medical reality.

Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, noted that there are strong debates over safety and efficacy.

But he said the Court’s job is only to decide whether the law violates the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause — and in this case, it doesn’t. So, Roberts said, it’s up to voters and lawmakers to decide the policy … not the Court.

The court’s three liberal justices dissented. They argued that the law clearly targets people based on sex and transgender status — which, they said, should trigger tougher legal scrutiny.

The case centered on whether gender identity is a fixed immutable characteristic. And that came up during this exchange between Justice Samuel Alito and Chase Strangio, a woman who identifies and presents as a man. Alito raised questions about people who describe their gender as ‘fluid.’

ALITO: Are there not such people?

STRANGIO: There are such people, I agree with that, Justice Alito.

ALITO: So it’s not an immutable characteristic, is it?

For WORLD, I’m Travis Kircher.

Fed leaves rates unchanged » Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell says the central bank will continue to hold interest rates where they are for now.

The Fed’s strategy remains wait-and-see.

POWELL:  Everyone that I know is forecasting a meaningful increase in inflation in coming months from tariffs because someone has to pay for the tariffs.

The central bank held rates steady for a fourth meeting in a row.

That drew criticism from President Trump, who said many predicted that inflation would have already surged by now, and it hasn’t happened.

TRUMP: We have no inflation. We have only success, and I’d like to see interest rates get down.

Trump said he feels Powell is doing a poor job as Fed Chair. Powell, for his part, again said the president’s remarks have no bearing on Fed policy.

But Jerome Powell also said Wednesday that the U.S. economy remains solid, and that the board does foresee two interest rate cuts by the end of this year.

Hearing on alleged cover-up of Biden decline » On Capitol Hill

GRASSLEY: I would like to welcome everyone to this Judiciary hearing.

A Senate panel began digging into whether there was a cover up at the White House to hide then-President Joe Biden’s cognitive decline.

Republicans charge that by the end of his presidency, Biden was not mentally fit for office. Sen. John Cornyn:

CORNYN:  This was a constitutional crisis bigger than President Biden, bigger than any single election.

GOP senators want to know if White House officials worked to hide Biden’s condition from Congress and the public. And they say they’re determined to find out if anyone other than the president was secretly pulling the strings on policy decisions while wielding President Biden’s automated auto-pen signature.

But Democrats called the hearing political theater and a waste of time. Ranking Member Dick Durbin:

DURBIN:  So far this year, the Republican majority on this committee has not held a single oversight hearing despite numerous critical challenges facing the nation that are under our jurisdiction.

The panel will question several former Biden aides later this month,and have subpoenaed the former president’s then-White House physician Kevin O’Conner.

Congo and Rwanda peace settlement » Representatives from Congo and Rwanda have signed the text of a peace agreement between the two countries in Washington.

Congo has accused Rwanda of backing M23 rebels in the east of the country, and U.N. experts says the rebels are supported by about 4,000 troops from the neighboring nation.

The decades-long conflict escalated earlier this year, when the M23 rebels advanced and seized the strategic Congolese cities of Goma and Bukavu.

I'm Kent Covington. 

Straight ahead: a new president in South Korea raises more questions than answers. Plus, what it’s like for an old dog to learn new tricks.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Thursday the 19th of June.

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

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

First up: A new leader in South Korea.

This month, voters there elected President Lee Jae-Myung… after their former president was impeached for unconstitutionally declaring martial law in December.

South Korea plays a key role in countering North Korea and is a vital US trading partner.

BROWN: Now, the new president faces a rocky road ahead: tense regional diplomacy and a potential trade war with the US.

WORLD’s Mary Muncy reports on what lies ahead for South Korea’s new leader.

AFP, NAM HAE-JUNG: (Korean) For the past three years, South Korea has gone through a very difficult time.

REPORTER, MARY MUNCY: Nam Hae Jung is a homemaker in South Korea. On election day, she was in the capital, cheering for now President Lee Jae Myung.

NAM HAE-JUNG: (Korean) I sincerely hope that from now on, things will be done properly for the sake of the country and for all 50 million citizens.

She’s talking about last December when former President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law:

AFP, YOON SUK YEOL: (Korean) I declare an emergency decree to protect the Republic of Korea from the threat of North Korean communist forces

Thousands gathered outside their legislative buildings to oppose him.

PROTEST SOUNDS

Yoon was part of the conservative People’s Power Party, or the PPP. The more liberal Democratic Party of Korea, or the DPK, controlled the legislative branch… and Yoon said they were endangering South Koreans by blocking his policies.

Lawmakers reversed his order just six hours after it was implemented.

AFP, LEE JAE-WON: (Korean) I believe it would be in the best interest of the people if the President steps down.

Then, this student and others started calling for Yoon to step down.

The opposing party started the impeachment process, and the Constitutional Court upheld it in April, officially ousting Yoon and starting a 60-day countdown to elect a new president.

KLINGNER: Politics in South Korea tends to be a blood sport.

Bruce Klingner is a research fellow with the Heritage Foundation. He says since democratization in 1987, only two presidents have avoided being convicted of a crime, being indicted, or committing suicide.

KLINGNER: and one of those two, when he had been a opposition leader, the South Korean intelligence agency at the time had tried to assassinate him.

Authorities arrested former president Yoon in January—levying several charges, including leading an insurrection. If he’s convicted of that one, he could face the death penalty or life imprisonment. Klingner says the other corruption charges are more or less standard practice in South Korean politics.

KLINGNER: Being a former South Korean president is not very conducive to good health.

All of this cleared the stage for the more liberal Lee Jae Myung to be elected president on June 3rd.

REUTERS, LEE JAE MYUNG: (Korean) It is time to restore our democracy... our livelihoods and economy... and our national security and peace.

In his acceptance speech, he promised to set the stage for a peaceful coexistence between the North and South.

CHO: The pattern is pretty predictable.

Joan Cho is an associate professor of East Asian studies at Wesleyan University.

CHO: The political parties are not mainly divided on left right issues that have more to do with redistribution and minority rights. In Korea, it seems like the clearest difference in policies comes down to policies regarding inter-Korea relations, but also foreign policy.

Cho says both the left and right are nationalist parties. But the right seeks to promote South Korea through building good relationships with Japan and the US. That means they tend to be much harsher on North Korea and China, their biggest trading partner. That’s the party that former President Yoon belonged to.

President Lee is a part of the left-leaning party, the DPK. That party wants to build stronger relationships with North Korea and China while trying to lessen the US military presence in the country.

CHO: Given this context, Lee Jae Myung is actually known to be more pragmatic and less ideological than Moon.

That’s Moon Jae-In, the last left-leaning president of South Korea.

CHO: So there's been some expectation that he might strike a different kind of balance.

So far, Lee has turned off the loudspeakers that blast North Korea with propaganda and K-pop songs, and he’s upped the consequences for dropping anti-regime leaflets across the border… however…

CHO: He has also acknowledged the importance of trilateral cooperation with the US and Japan.

Earlier this year, Trump imposed 25 percent tariffs on things like steel and vehicles from South Korea. President Lee had planned to meet with Trump at the G7 Summit to discuss trade. But their meeting had to be postponed as Trump left the summit early.

CHO: When Lee Jae Myung was, elected to presidency Japan and US both expected that the relationship would change and but I think the good news is that Lee is known to be more pragmatic.

Within the country, Cho says Lee’s first priorities are stabilizing the economy after months of political turmoil and uniting the government.

CHO: But the irony here is that Lee himself is a polarizing figure in South Korea. he's been referred to as being simultaneously the country's most popular and unpopular politician. He won the presidency with 49.4% of the vote, and you know that's that was enough to win, but it also means that more than half of the country didn't vote for him

He’s also facing several charges of corruption and criminal investigations that are still pending. But Bruce Klingner says he doesn’t think anything will come of them, at least while Lee’s in office.

KLINGNER: I think all of the courts are probably just going to stand back and say, either decide that he does have immunity, or feel that that individual court doesn't want to be the one to create a constitutional crisis.

Klingner says North Korea is in a stronger position since it's been providing weapons to Russia for the war in Ukraine and he’s interested to see how this stronger North reacts to a more conciliatory party in the South.

KLINGNER: We don't know what is how he will implement his foreign policy and security policy, and we don't know if he will try to reconcile the two very divided halves of the South Korean electorate, or whether he just whether he will figure, ‘I've got the executive branch, I've got a strong majority in the legislative, we're going to do what we want to do.’

During Lee’s campaign, he characterized himself as a centrist, willing to compromise with the right. But Klingner and Cho say based on his staunchly left political past, they’re not sure he’ll bring the unity South Koreans are hoping for.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Mary Muncy.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: new leadership for the Church of England.

The search is underway for the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury. In late May, the Crown Nominations Commission began its work and it’s expected to name a successor this fall.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: But, for most of the world’s Anglicans, the decision won’t carry much weight.

WORLD’s Paul Butler has the story.

PAUL BUTLER: Last November, Justin Welby resigned as the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury.

Welby stepped down after the Church of England published a 253-page report detailing child abuse allegations against John Smyth, a volunteer Christian camp leader. While the document didn’t implicate Welby in the abuse, it indicated that he had known about Smyth’s behavior since 2013. Audio from a BBC interview with Welby:

BBC: I should have pushed harder, because I knew enough to know that people very rarely, almost never, abuse once. I should have said, “Are we absolutely sure there’s no one else involved?”

After announcing his resignation, Welby spoke before parliament:

PARLIAMENT: There comes a time if you are technically leading a particular institution or area of responsibility, where the shame of what has gone wrong, whether one is personally responsible or not, must require a head to roll.

As the lead bishop of the church of England…Welby decided he was the one who should take the fall.

The Archbishop of Canterbury was once a powerful role. The first Protestant archbishop, Thomas Cranmer, shaped the principles of the Anglican Church with a book he wrote in 1549.

KENNEDY: And that book, the Book of Common Prayer, is really what makes people Anglican in their ethos.

Anne Kennedy oversees liturgy at Church of the Good Shepherd in Binghamton, New York. She is also a WORLD Opinions contributor. She says that as Anglicanism spread with the British Empire, the Church of England couldn’t effectively govern each province.

KENNEDY: They gradually gained jurisdictional authority, so there were archbishops and bishops and clergy in every place where the British Empire had been. And that then became what's called the Anglican Communion.

The Archbishop of Canterbury doesn’t directly control churches within the Anglican Communion. He isn’t a protestant Pope.

KENNEDY: But he always has always had the power to convene meetings and synods where decisions would really be made and has a spiritual authority that should matter deeply.

But over the last few decades, many of the world’s more than 80 million Anglicans have stopped looking to the Archbishop for spiritual guidance. That’s largely because of the widespread failure to uphold Biblical principles about marriage and sexuality. The slide developed gradually. More than 25 years ago, things looked pretty good.

KENNEDY: In 1998, all the bishops from around the world made what's called Resolution 110. And that in that resolution, they, all the bishops from around the world, affirmed marriage as between a man and a woman.

Yet just five years later the Episcopal Church, which represents the United States in the Anglican Communion, ordained Gene Robinson as the first openly homosexual bishop.

KENNEDY: Even though they made this wonderful resolution, they were not able to carry it through.

In 2009, 53 U.S. churches broke away from the Episcopal Church over this and other theological issues. The group formed the Anglican Church in North America. Today, the ACNA represents 28 dioceses throughout the United States and Canada.

A larger split over same-sex marriage occured while Justin Welby was archbishop.

Many Anglicans had high hopes when Welby was installed in 2013. He was advertised as an Evangelical. But that’s not how he’ll be remembered.

WEDGEWORTH: He still wanted to be cautious for the sake of the institution, so he said he wouldn't push radical change, but he personally supports gay marriage.

Steven Wedgeworth is the rector at Christ Church Anglican in South Bend, Indiana.

WEDGEWORTH: The doctrine on paper, it still says marriage between a man and a woman with the intent for the propagation of the species, with the intent to be faithful for life. But they said, We will bless same sex marriages. And so that was the final breaking point.

In 2023, roughly 1,300 bishops met at the Global Anglican Future Conference to renounce the leadership of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

WEDGEWORTH: So that's their response, is that we are actually, in fact, in truth, the majority of worldwide Anglicans. And additionally, even better, we represent the historic doctrine and moral practice, and from from their perspective, Canterbury no longer follows historic Anglican faith and practice.

Today, some conservative Anglicans might be curious about what the Archbishop of Canterbury has to say, however…

WEDGEWORTH: No one is waiting for the Archbishop to weigh in in order to decide a controversy.

That’s unlikely to change when the Crown Nominations Commission picks Welby’s successor. Wedgeworth says they could surprise everyone by choosing a Biblically orthodox candidate. In that case, the role of archbishop could regain some credibility.

But Anne Kennedy suspects the church will continue its leftward trajectory.

KENNEDY: I would expect them to pick a woman of color in a same-sex relationship. That would be my expectation. I don’t see how they could do anything less at this point.

For WORLD, I’m Paul Butler with reporting from Bekah McCallum.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: A home invasion in Monrovia, California, this weekend, but the culprit wasn’t your average burglar. It was all caught on security camera:

I’m guessing a bird sounding the alarm there?...when a black bear sauntered into Zoe Cadman’s house through a screen door.

Zoe only woke up when the bear opened the fridge. But the real wake-up call? When the family dog Doodle came face to face with the intruder.

Doodle dodged a claw swipe, barked, and lived to wag another day. The bear? It let itself out.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Who needs an alarm system when you’ve got Doodle?

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

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Thursday, June 19th.

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

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Learning new things later in life.

The violin is one of the hardest instruments to master, especially as an adult. But for WORLD correspondent and late-blooming violin student Maria Baer, the lessons go well beyond the strings.

MARIA BAER: I grew up playing the piano. Theoretically, anyone can sit down, press a piano key, and a musical note will sound.

SOUND: [PIANO]

The first thing I learned when I picked up a violin as a 30-something-year-old woman is that it is nothing like the piano.

A clear note on a stringed instrument requires several things: the right posture. Consistent pressure on the bow along the string, despite the changing angle of your elbow as you pull. You can’t press your left-hand fingers too hard onto the strings.

DEVIN COPFER: Hello, hello! What are we doing today?

I started taking violin lessons about four years ago, when my oldest daughter was starting hers. She was five years old. The Suzuki method recommends adults learn the basics alongside their children, so they can help with practice. But no one had to twist my arm. I’d always wanted to learn the violin.

Our teacher Devin Copfer has a degree in violin performance from Ohio State. She currently teaches 28 students from her home-based studio. The vast majority are elementary schoolers. Only two — including me — are grown-ups.

COPFER: Let’s just do a little bit of the B-flat sequence…

Copfer says the age of a student has little effect on her teaching method.

COPFER: Largely we’re doing the same exercise, you really can’t replace rote practice. There’s no way to speed up a bow hold exercise that has to happen a thousand times.

Even learning to hold the bow takes a daunting amount of time and repetition. Maybe this helps explain why the violin has a reputation for being the hardest instrument to learn.

COPFER: In a string instrument, it’s our entire body that moves.

That physical component is part of what makes learning as an adult particularly difficult.

COPFER: Fortunately or unfortunately there are muscles that develop when we’re children that stop developing when we reach a certain age. Like when people say ‘I feel like there are things that are easier for my kids than they are for me,’ that’s true. That’s physiologically true.

When my daughters pick up their violins, their shoulders are low and easy. They hold their bows lightly. The violin challenges them, too. But when they play, they look calm and graceful.

COPFER: That’s so lovely!

When I play, everything tends to tense up.

COPFER: It’s like the middle of the hand gets a little ambiguous… so it’s not quite clear all the time…

Another challenge with adult students: building trust. Sometimes we’re just less teachable.

COPFER: As an adult, you’re going to an expert and you’re paying your own money to go there, it’s not always a given that that person who’s paying the person is, like, open and trusting in the process.

Still another challenge: gently managing adults’ expectations. Some of Copfer’s adult students have gone on to play in community orchestras, or with their church’s worship team. But aspirations of playing in a world-class symphony one day? That’s less realistic.

COPFER: It’s one of the trickier conversations I can have…I have no business telling you what’s possible for you. But what I do want to do is give you some realistic expectations about where we can be in three months, where we can be in six months or in a year…

The Suzuki practice books I share with my daughters work from the assumption that the students are kids. Warm-up songs are set to nursery rhymes. Bow exercises encourage students to play their “magic violin” in the air before bringing the bow to the strings. Vibrato practice means making the violin sound like a “spooky ghost.”

Copfer adjusts her own language accordingly.

COPFER: You know, I’m not saying “let’s swim the fish to the pond,” you know… I’m saying “let’s get our arm shape the way it needs to be…”

Indeed, the hardest part about learning the violin as an adult might be the threat to one’s pride.

In late May, Copfer rented an old Presbyterian church in downtown Columbus for a studio recital. Each student climbed the red-carpeted altar steps to play a piece for parents and friends in the pews.

COPFER: Hello everyone, welcome to the spring recital! I’m so excited, thank you so much for being here…

Adult students took the same stage as four- and nine- and sixteen-year-olds, and played from the same repertoire.

The whole experience of performing is a bit of a minefield. I want to model self-assurance and perseverance for my girls. I don’t want to sound bad. But I also don’t want to appear to take it too seriously. The straight-A student in me wants to give a disclaimer before my piece, something like: I promise, I really did practice. You don’t understand how hard this is.

Copfer is like a storybook music teacher: she loves music, and she’ll teach anyone who wants to learn to love it, too.

COPFER: But the process of starting a violinist, an instrumentalist, no matter what age they are, is fascinating to me.

It’s fascinating to me, too. I could say I’m doing it simply to help my daughters’ practice. And it’s true I want to shepherd them toward a love of music and a strong work ethic.

COPFER: Go ahead and play the second half …

But I also just love it—even despite the hits to my ego. To me, there is nothing so beautiful as the violin. And I think God wants us to delight in beauty for its own sake, just as He does.

Just as I do when Copfer plays.

SOUND: (Minuet)

For WORLD, I’m Maria Baer in Columbus, Ohio.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday, June 19th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Up next, WORLD commentator Cal Thomas has been in Vietnam the last couple weeks. He’s witnessed first hand the lasting impact of the lost war.

CAL THOMAS, COMMENTATOR: Rod Kjersten has returned to Vietnam for the first time since he was a nurse in the U.S. Air Force hospital in Cam Ranh Bay. Now 77, he recalls the precise date when he left – May 28th, 1970. He served at the hospital for two years where he treated wounded American soldiers and saw many die. He says while he was initially “gung-ho” about the U.S. and South Vietnamese war efforts, he has since become “neutral.” Asked why, he said it was after seeing the Ku Chi tunnels on this trip. These were some of the tunnels used by North Vietnamese and Viet Cong soldiers to hide and “pop up” to shoot at Americans.

There is a museum of sorts requiring paid admission so one can not only see the tunnels, but a propaganda film that shows the camouflaged traps. Kjersten said especially after touring the presidential palace “it suddenly struck me that the goal of both sides was the unification of Vietnam.” Yes, but for different reasons.

I saw an example of those different reasons at the presidential palace in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon). A woman was leading about 20 children, all dressed in red, to a U.S. war plane that had been shot down and placed on display next to two North Vietnamese tanks. She appeared to be indoctrinating them in the government’s version of the war and how the U.S. was the enemy.

There was a different scene a few miles up the road, competing for the hearts and minds of Vietnamese children. It was inside the Phanthiet Evangelical Church where Vacation Bible School children were singing praises to God. Freedom of religion is supposed to be guaranteed in the Vietnam Constitution, but it is limited mostly to those churches that register with the government. According to Human Rights Watch: “Vietnam systematically suppresses basic civil and political rights. The government, under the dictatorial one-party rule of the Communist Party of Vietnam, severely restricts the rights to freedom of expression, association, peaceful assembly, movement, and religion.”

In the major cities, Vietnam appears prosperous. Motorbikes swarm the streets like an invasion of locusts. Shops carry brands familiar to Americans, though at much lower prices as so much is made here using cheap labor. But when one leaves the big cities, many streets are lined with dilapidated shops that appear empty with few or no customers. Trash defiles these streets and graffiti defaces structures. I didn’t see a lot of smiling faces in the week I spent here. As in the U.S., hotels here fly the flags of several nations, with one exception. Understandable.

Signs celebrate the unification of Vietnam. In April there was a large military parade in observance of the day.

Many things contributed to the fall of South Vietnam. These included declining support for the war at home, corruption in the South Vietnamese government, the lack of good military training for many South Vietnamese troops, lying by American officials about “body counts” and alleged “progress,” along with the high motivation of North Vietnam to unify their country and expel Americans. A growing media opposition to the war added to the decline in morale among U.S. forces that remained in Vietnam until the end. A general cynicism set in, especially among the young, toward American institutions, politicians and the country, itself. Some returning veterans were spat upon.

Historians will continue to debate about Vietnam for many years. Vietnam systematically suppresses basic civil and political rights. The government, under the dictatorial one-party rule of the Communist Party of Vietnam, severely restricts the rights to freedom of expression, association, peaceful assembly, movement, and religion.” For Vietnam veterans who served honorably, and the relatives of the 59,000 American service members who died here, it should have been a warning that American values can’t be imposed on people who do not share them in sufficient numbers. Apparently we have not fully learned that lesson.

North Vietnam won the war, but freedom for the Vietnamese people was a casualty.

I’m Cal Thomas.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Tomorrow: John Stonestreet joins us for Culture Friday.

Also, Collin Garbarino reviews Pixar’s latest animated adventure. This one features aliens.

And George Grant is back with Word Play for June…reflecting on our human tendency to mess things up.

That and more tomorrow.

I’m Mary Reichard.

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.

The Bible says: “But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” —2 Peter 3:8, 9

Go now in grace and peace.

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