The World and Everything in It: March 5, 2025

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Good morning!

What will the federal workforce cuts mean for the government and the broader economy?

MUSK: If we make a mistake we will quickly fix it. So, we need to act fast to stop wasting billions of dollars of taxpayer money.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: That’s ahead on Washington Wednesday.

Also, a World Tour special report on the challenges facing the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

And a songwriter discovers the power of trusting God through every high– and low.

MOORE: We have no clue and very little control with what happens. And so to trust God and say God I give you my heart, soul, mind, body…all of me as worship.

And WORLD commentator Janie B. Cheaney on staying the course in marriage.

BROWN: It’s Wednesday, March 5th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

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

BROWN: Time for the news. Here’s Kent Covington.

AUDIO (Joint session intro): Mr. Speaker, the President of the United States!

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Trump joint session » For the first time in his second term, President Trump addressed a joint session of Congress last night. It was effectively, though not officially, a State of the Union address. Tradition holds that presidents don’t deliver State of the Union updates during their first year in office.

The president opened by touting actions he’s taken through his first month and a half in office.

TRUMP: Over the past six weeks, I have signed nearly 100 executive orders and taken more than 400 executive actions, a record.

He highlighted some of those, including actions to expand energy production, strip D-E-I policies from the government, and to declare that there are two genders: male and female.

TRUMP:   I also signed an executive order to ban men from playing in women's sports.

And another aimed at protecting children from transgender surgeries.

The president touted early successes by the Department of Government Efficiency in rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse. He also celebrated new border numbers showing that illegal immigrant encounters at the southern border plummeted last month.

TRUMP:  The media and our friends in the Democrat Party kept saying we needed new legislation, we must have legislation to secure the border. But it turned out that all we really needed was a new president.

President Trump announced that his administration is already taking steps to reclaim U.S. ownership of the Panama Canal. He asserts that Panama is in violation of the treaty by which the U.S. surrendered control of the canal to Panama in 1977. And he once again mentioned his desire to see Greenland become a U.S. territory.

The president also had plenty to say about trade tariffs just hours after new tariffs took effect on imports from Canada, Mexico, and China.

TRUMP:  If you don't make your product in America, however, under the Trump administration, you will pay a tariff, and in some cases, a rather large one. Other countries have used tariffs against us for decades, and now it's our turn.

And Trump again stated as his top foreign policy priority, achieving a peace deal in Ukraine.

Dem response » First-term Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan delivered the Democratic response to Trump’s address. She acknowledged that in voting for Trump, a majority of Americans said they wanted change.

SLOTKIN:  But there's a responsible way to make change and a reckless way, and we can make that change without forgetting who we are as a country and as a democracy.

The senator said Trump’s tax cuts could add to the national debt, contradicting his fiscal promises. She predicted that the president’s tariffs would fuel inflation. And she dismissed Trump's economic policy plans, as well as his administration’s DOGE efforts to cut government waste.

SLOTKIN: Donald Trump is trying to deliver an unprecedented giveaway to his billionaire friends. He's on the hunt to find trillions of dollars to pass along to the wealthiest in America.

On the global stage, she suggested that Trump is pursuing isolationist policies that she said will make Americans less safe at home and abroad.

Zelenskyy / Ukraine » Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke out on Tuesday, just hours after the White House said it is pausing military aid to Ukraine until the country demonstrates it is genuinely ready to negotiate peace. WORLD’s Christina Grube has more.

CHRISTINA GRUBE: Zelenskyy said the White House meeting—quote—“did not go the way it was supposed to” and “it is time to make things right. We would like future cooperation and communication to be constructive.”

Zelesnkyy added, “Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer. Nobody wants peace more than the Ukrainians. My team and I stand ready to work under President Trump’s strong leadership to get a peace that lasts.”

For WORLD, I’m Christina Grube.

Trade tariffs » While you heard President Trump’s take on new trade tariffs last night, hours before his address, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau again vowed to strike back with tariffs on more than $100 billion of American goods. He said he finds himself in the uncommon position of agreeing with the Wall Street Journal:

TRUDEAU:  They point out that even though you're a very smart guy, this is a very dumb thing to do. We two friends fighting is exactly what our opponents around the world want.

Trump imposed 25% taxes on Mexican and Canadian imports, though he limited the levy to 10% on Canadian energy. Trump also doubled the tariff he slapped last month on Chinese products to 20%.

Beijing retaliated with tariffs of up to 15% on a wide array of U.S. farm exports.

Mexico says it will announce its response on Sunday.

Israel / Egypt Gaza proposal » Arab leaders and others are lining up to endorse Egypt's plan for a postwar Gaza as an alternative to Trump’s plan for the U.S. to rebuild the territory.

U-N Secretary-General Antonio Guterres:

GUTERRES: Gaza must remain an integral part of an independent democratic and sovereign Palestinian state, with no reduction in its territory or forced transfer of its population.

Egypt’s more than $50-billion-dollar plan would call for the reconstruction of Gaza over the next five years, without the removal of its population.

It would involve removing unexploded ordnance, clearing more than 50 million tons of rubble, and setting up temporary housing for Palestinians.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: Washington Wednesday considers the possible effects of cutting the federal workforce. Plus, commentary from Janie B Cheaney on love and marriage.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Wednesday the 5th of March.

Thank you for listening to WORLD Radio. Good morning, I’m Myrna Brown.

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

Time now for Washington Wednesday.

Today, the trimming of the federal workforce.

The Department of Government Efficiency asked employees again last week to give an account of their work. That comes as it continues its audit aimed at cutting unnecessary programs.

BROWN: What do federal layoffs mean for the government, and the country?

WORLD’s Washington Bureau Reporter Leo Briceno has the story.

LEO BRICENO: Andrea Kohler used to study fruit tree genetics for the United States Department of Agriculture…with a grant program researching, among other things, how to increase crop yields.

Then, a few weeks ago, Kohler started getting unusual emails from the office of personnel management.

KOHLER: They actually created a new email address that we were getting all these from and initially people thought it was spam. So, we had this whole thing where the department quick-sent everybody emails like ‘no this isn’t actually spam.’

Kohler says that those emails were initially just reminding her of her status as a probationary employee of the government—a regular designation for federal employees of two years or less.

KOHLER: I got an email saying, ‘hey you’ve been put on a list of probationary employees.’ I was like ‘that’s cool, whatever.’

But the emails kept coming, and made Kohler wonder if she should be concerned. Then she got the email saying she’d been fired.

Kohler now joins the roughly 26,000 federal employees terminated in recent weeks as the Trump Administration’s Department of Government Efficiency—or DOGE —looks to trim down government spending. Elon Musk, the billionaire businessman leading the effort, spoke at CPAC 2025 last month, touting the waste he’s cleared so far.

MUSK: Waste is pretty much everywhere. People ask, ‘how can you find waste in D.C.?’ I’m like look it’s like being in a room and the walls, the roof, and the floor are all targets. So, it’s like you can close your eyes and shoot in any direction—you can’t miss.

The layoffs have added thousands of job seekers to the market, raising questions about how those cuts will affect the U.S. economy and the effectiveness of the government.

The federal government is the country’s single largest employer. According to data from the Pew Research Center, the government employs more than 3 million people, not including active-duty military personnel. For perspective, about 2 in 100 American workers are on the federal payroll.

That’s more than all the U.S. employees from Walmart and Amazon—combined.

JONES: It remains to be seen what the effect is going to be.

Michael Jones is a professor at the University of Cincinnati. He studies the economics of labor and the workforce. Jones says the entire government workforce has not disappeared overnight—only a small part of it.

Whether the economy feels that incremental change depends on how fast these employees can get back in the workforce.

JONES: The administration itself would argue that if these individuals are productive then the private sector will pick them up and they will be able to be gainfully employed in the private sector, generating taxes and economic growth. Many might retire and just not re-enter the workforce.

Last year, 88,000 federal employees retired voluntarily. Fifteen percent of the Federal workforce was over the age of 60 in 2023.

Most immediately, the types of cuts may make certain industries more competitive.

JONES: These aren’t blue-collar workers that are being let go, a lot of them are white collar workers. Generally, you see a lot of crossover between non-profits, and federal government, consulting types of work, and so…I’m pretty certain that those individuals will try to find jobs in that sector. And so that will certainly increase the competition for either new or experienced grads who are looking to work in the nonprofit sector.

There also might be competition from the hiring side of things. State governments in particular seem eager to snap up federal employees. Governor Josh Green of Hawaii signed an executive order last week to fast-track new hires in engineering, planning, accounting, and other areas.

But many federal employees are waiting to see if they can get their jobs back. Last week, a federal judge in California temporarily blocked the administration from carrying out some firings. In his ruling, District Judge William Alsup paused firings from several agencies, including the National Parks Service and Department of Defense.

Meanwhile, the cuts are beginning to be felt at the local level…particularly in Washington.

JONES: A lot more homes are being listed. You’re starting to see even effects on home sale prices within the Washington, D.C. metro area. So, to the extent that local economies are heavily dependent on the federal workforce, you will see that play out on the local economy.

Nationally, 93% of the federal workforce is outside the beltway.

Andrea Kohler, the former USDA employee, lives in West Virginia. And she says that while cuts have affected new hires…longtime employees who were recently promoted have also gotten pink slips. That includes at least one senior member who worked alongside her at the USDA.

KOHLER: And what happened was that she was promoted from one position to another. And within the government, when you change positions like that, you re-enter a probationary period. Ironically, this is disproportionately affecting the best performers because they are more likely to have moved up a position in the last year.

Another wrinkle is that the workforce cuts came ahead of trimming the program itself. Tens of thousands of dollars in team positions were cut…but millions of dollars in grant funds are still on the books.

KOHLER: Because it was a project that was a grant that was awarded to a university and the money has already been transferred, it’s already there.

That grant money funded her team’s work. But now there’s no team to do it. For now, Kohler is waiting to see if her job is restored.

DOGE leader Elon Musk is skeptical about how productive many federal programs really are. Here he is in a recent interview with podcaster Joe Rogan.

MUSK: As bad as Twitter was, the federal government is much worse.

After purchasing Twitter and renaming it X, Musk cut the company’s workforce by 80%. In a similar way now, Musk says he’s taking aggressive action to cut waste, but acknowledges it will not be flawless execution.

MUSK: If we make a mistake we will quickly fix it. So, we need to act fast to stop wasting billions of dollars of taxpayer money. But if we make a mistake we will reverse it quickly.

That’s it for Washington Wednesday.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Leo Briceno.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: A World Tour special report.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is in crisis. Rebels on the move, Christians under attack, and a health mystery unfolding.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Here’s WORLD’s Africa reporter Onize Oduah.

ONIZE ODUAH: At the beginning of this year, the eastern city of Goma already hosted some 600,000 displaced people in camps. But then a surge in fighting began in late January.

Since the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels began their takeover, many of the existing refugee camps have been destroyed.

RUMBI: They ordered everybody to go, but they were given only 24 hours to go back to their villages because they said there is now security there.

Rumbi Pairamanzi is the Congo country director for World Relief. She says many of those who remained in Goma are now scattered across schools, churches, and with host families.

M23 rebels seized control of Goma in January … then marched on to eastern Congo’s second-largest city of Bukavu last month.

These rebels are the most active of more than 100 armed groups in Congo’s eastern region, holding trillions of dollars worth of mineral wealth.

Judith Suminwa Tuluka is the prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

SOT: [FRENCH] The conflict has caused, among other things, the death of more than 7,000 compatriots, including more than 2,500 bodies buried without being identified and more than 1,500 bodies still lying around in morgues.

She says the fighting since January has killed more than 7,000 people. More than half of the dead have been buried without identification or remain in morgues.

American missionary Ron Kronz was planning a mission to both Goma and Bukavu when fighting broke out.

KRONZ: If my life depended on it, I could not get to Goma. So we had to change our plan.

Those changes meant staying in Congo’s capital of Kinshasa, and sending support to those stranded in Goma.

KRONZ: Fortunately, we were able to at least get basic provisions in their food. Uh, predominantly food, is a big deal. Water, food, that kind of thing. And we were also able to get messages in via WhatsApp and actually do audio messages, Christian preaching messages, and, and, and that's what we could do.

The fighting has sent some of the displaced fleeing across the border to Burundi.

Katharina von Schroeder is the advocacy and media director for the aid group Save the Children. She says the group’s emergency response is focusing on reuniting separated families and child protection.

VON SCHROEDER: What often happens is that families are separated while they're fleeing. So we see a lot of children that are unaccompanied, and of course those children are even more at risk of being exploited, of being abused.

Leaders have so far refused calls for direct talks with the M23 rebels.

International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan acknowledged that decades of violence has gone unchecked in the region. He added that Congo will host a conference in April to discuss forming a special court.

KHAN: What we’re looking at is not just accountability in specific cases. That's the basic responsibility. But one is trying to have a wider effect, a more profound effect that stops these cycles of violence that have bedeviled this extraordinary, diverse, and rich land. And I think that requires more justice and more consistently applied justice in all parts of the country.

SOUND: [CONGOLESE SOLDIERS]

In the meantime, another rebel group also operating in the region’s North Kivu province, has raised the stakes with a brutal attack in February.

Last month, the Allied Democratic Forces beheaded 70 Christians in an abandoned church. The group has ties with the Islamic State, and Christian analysts say it wasn’t an isolated case.

The insurgents have killed more than 230 Christians since Christmas, according to Barnabas Aid.

Swiss Church Aid, a Protestant church mission, suspended its work in the same province last month after three of its workers were killed.

KRONZ: That’s not a new thing. Um, it’s, this is why we have to teach all that Christ commands. You know, the Gospel Commission tells us that we’re to go and make disciples of all the nations, teaching them all that Christ commands. It’s not just enough for us to ask people to invite Jesus into their heart, because they have to still be taught.

Finally, over in the country’s northwest Equateur province, health authorities are still trying to unravel what’s causing a surge in an unidentified illness.

Affected residents across five villages have recorded symptoms like fever, stiff neck, muscle pain, vomiting, and diarrhea.

More than 1,000 cases have been reported since the first outbreak in January, with at least 60 confirmed deaths.

Health workers have ruled out Ebola and Marburg virus, while they continue to test for any food, water, or environmental contamination.

Dr. Ngashi Ngongo is with the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He said the disease trend in Equateur looks similar to an outbreak last year.

NGONGO: There were investigations that covered almost everything in Marburg and Ebola but at the end it turned out to be malaria.

In this year’s outbreak, more than half of the patients’ samples tested positive for malaria using rapid testing.

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

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: All Hilda Jackson wanted for her birthday was to dance a little jig, and boy did she get her wish.

DJ: “Make some noise for the birthday girl, 105th birthday, happy birthday Hildaaaaa!”

Yeah–you heard that right. 105 years old, and her care home in England decided to throw her a full blown rave. A DJ, strobe lights, glow sticks. The whole deal!

Jackson grew up nearby, married, and ironed uniforms in a factory during World War II. 

She chalks her long life up to taking care of herself, and, of course, dancing, though she’s more a ballroom fan than a clubber. Audio from The Guardian.

REPORTER: “Did you say you wanted a rave, or…”

HILDA JACKSON: “Not particularly but I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.”

Hilda says she lives for the moment, and it shows. She says she doesn’t feel a day over 100!

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: A rave review for her party!

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

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Today is Wednesday, March 5th.

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

Good morning. I’m Lindsay Mast.

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

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Turning worry into worship. It’s not just a catchy tagline, it's what the Bible tells us to do.

MAST: And it’s often easier said than done. Today, the story of a man who’s spent much of his life writing and singing about a truth he’s finally able to experience.

NATE MOORE: I’ve done a lot of therapy work around the first act of my life was to be given up.

BROWN: Nate Moore spent his first six months in the Indiana foster care system, never meeting his biological parents or his half brother.

MOORE: You’re alone. You’re not enough. No one is coming for you.

Those are the lies he grew up believing. Even though a Christian couple adopted him and later gave him a new home in Georgia.

MUSIC: Feels like coming home, coming home…

It was a home filled with singing.

MOORE: It was kinda like not an option once my mom figured out I could sing decently. It's like, oh you’re going to be in the church choir.

Then one of his church moms turned him on to gospel music, from the front seat of her SUV.

MOORE: And that was the first time I’d ever heard anybody sing like that. I remember, like her teaching me how to run, like with singing.

MYRNA: What does that mean…how to run?

MOORE: Like how to sing when somebody’s like oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

MUSIC: In the valley of dry bone

Moore says that back seat vocal coaching helped develop his soulful sound.

MOORE: I started out leading worship in high school and then went on to college.

While in college, he started attending impromptu gatherings called house churches.

MOORE: Very organic, similar to the early church that we see in the book of Acts. Like you kind of invite your neighbors, you invite friends from class. Come over, we’re going to sing and pray and just eat together. I kind of stepped up into a new role with artistry and music and leading worship.

Then, came songwriting.

MOORE: Had no clue what I was doing. Had never taken a course, never studied it in school. It was almost like I was writing and singing my prayers.

MUSIC: All your promises are yes and amen…

In 2013 Moore and half a dozen other singers, songwriters and musicians formed the group Housefires.

MOORE: We weren’t a band. We had no vision. The mission was just like we want to bless our church with these songs. We had no idea it would go global and within a year we’d be opening for bands in arenas all over the world.

In 2019 he won a Dove Award and was nominated for a Grammy. But while his musical career was soaring, deep down he was still fighting rejection.

MUSIC: When I’m scared about the future. When I’m running from the past. When I’m restless in the present. Trying to make each moment last…

He also co-wrote the song, Watching Over Me with fellow-songwriter and singer, Jason Upton.

MOORE: Jason’s also adopted and we’ve connected a lot over that.

MUSIC: [Watching Over Me]

MOORE: It’s like talking about that anxiety, like so afraid of the uncertainty of what could come from life. All the unanswered questions and all the what ifs. We say later in the verse, God reminds me of the promise. And then it goes into the chorus, you’re watching over me, you’re watching over me. But it’s just like addressing the deepest wounds in my heart.

Wounds rooted in rejection from his birth mother and being bullied in school. The pain was so deep, Moore walked away from ministry.

MOORE: And I laid music down for a season, for about a year and a half. But through therapy, through prayer, through just inviting God into those wounded places, saying like God would you help me reinterpret this?

The 36-year-old says he’s learning to acknowledge the uncertainty of life, while trusting fully in God.

MOORE: It’s like we have no clue and very little control with what happens. And so to trust God and say God I give you my heart, soul, mind, body…all of me as worship.

It's an ongoing battle.

MOORE: I still do get lonely. I still can be tempted to get stuck in depression and days where I wake up and I feel more hopeless than hopeful.

Today, he’s thankful for a new season of life.

MUSIC: Heads stuck up in the clouds. All the fear and the doubts had me on my knees…..

Earlier this year, Moore released his debut single as a solo artist, Simplify.

MOORE: It just kind of very basically sums up what I’ve learned the last two or three years. Alright God, recreate this whole thing, rebuild the house, re-prioritize everything for me, recenter me in my focus. And Simplify came out.

MUSIC: Simplify…simplify

And late last year, another first. He found his brother on social media.

MOORE: And I was like gosh, I don’t know. I just never want to be a burden. Another one of the lies of my life is that I’m too much. Like, that’s the core woundedness, like I’ve mentioned several times. I didn’t want to be rejected.

But he reached out anyway. After a phone conversation and several text messages, Moore and his brother planned their first face to face.

MOORE: I’ve traveled all over the world but somehow I’ve never landed in Cleveland.

Moore’s girlfriend captured the moment on her phone.

AUDIO: [Long time no see..Right…]

MOORE: He actually said… you can’t hear it in the video, long-time no see. So I chuckled. I just thought it was funny that we have the same sense of humor. I just gave him a big hug. By the end of the weekend, he legitimately said to me, I am not trying to convert or anything, but he’s like, man I want what you have. He’s like this Jesus thing… is really interesting to me.

Moore says that’s music to his ears and even better than a Grammy.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Myrna Brown.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Today is Wednesday, March 5th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Lindsay Mast.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. Up next, WORLD commentator Janie B. Cheaney on the quiet redemption of a lifelong vow.

JANIE B. CHEANEY: In my experience, when one partner decides to leave a marriage, no amount of persuasion will change his or her mind. I suspect the decision is often made before the other partner even suspects anything amiss. The dissatisfied spouse may agree to counseling, may attend a class or read a book or sit down for earnest conversation with the pastor or the in-laws, but it’s a pretense. Or perhaps going-through-the-motions to ease any qualms of conscience. I did all I could, goes the justification. I tried my best. But it’s hopeless; our differences are irreconcilable.

I’ve seen this happen many times, and three times I was involved as a confidante or counselor. Each marriage is its own story that only two people know, and whether to split or stay together is a decision only those two can make. But outsiders can make guesses based on what they’ve seen and heard. In those three cases, all parties involved were church-going Christians. In each case, one partner was the instigator, while the other was willing to do what it took to keep them together. In each case, the grounds for divorce were not the biblical examples of adultery or abandonment. One side wanted out—that was the bottom line. Some of their complaints were trivial, others more serious, and some, I believe, were exaggerated.

But specific complaints were secondary. As Blaise Pascal observed almost 400 years ago, “The heart has its reasons that reason cannot know.” My friends were letting their hearts shout down any counsel to the contrary. For them the matter was already settled, and sooner or later they’d cut off the peace talks and get down to the business of dividing up assets.

Am I speaking to anyone who’s already decided they’re done? Anyone who’s building a case for leaving that may lack strong biblical support? Allow me to get personal.

Several years ago, I wanted out. My husband was never abusive or violent, but he’d come to believe things about me that weren’t true. We had drawn apart, while living in the same house—more like roommates than husband and wife. My conscience wouldn’t let me leave him, but I wouldn’t have minded if he’d left me.

At the same time, I was praying that God would help me love him. Sometimes I prayed half-heartedly, even reluctantly. I didn’t see how it could happen, but prayer was my duty.

We should never underestimate God—not just his faithfulness, but also his creativity and his willingness to act. Who could have imagined that he’d give my husband Alzheimer’s and erase all memory of our bad times? Who would have thought he’d give us another honeymoon period of “I love you’s” and “You’re so beautiful?” For us, dementia comes at a high cost, but also unexpected blessings. And the greatest of these is love.

So I say to those on the brink, don’t close your heart. Open yourself to possibility and give God a chance. You have no idea what he might do.

I’m Janie B. Cheaney.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Tomorrow: the response to the sky rocketing prices and limited supply of eggs.

And, many Ukrainian refugees are waiting for the war to end from the safety of neighboring countries. We’ll hear a few of their stories.

That and more tomorrow.

I’m Lindsay Mast.

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

The World and Everything in It comes to you from WORLD Radio. WORLD’s mission is biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires.

Jesus said to the disciples after he’d risen from the dead: “Peace to you!” But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. And he said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?” —Luke 24:36-38

Go now in grace and peace.

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