The World and Everything in It: March 6, 2025

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

More reaction from President Donald Trump’s speech outlining his vision for the years ahead.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Also what’s with the price of eggs? We’ll hear from experts and shoppers feeling the squeeze.

And Ukrainians escaping war—many are settling in Germany, but for how long?

ALYONA: It's really difficult, because for me, it's new start. It's looking looking for apartment, job, everything, friends, everything.

And WORLD commentator Cal Thomas says this week’s presidential speech was a study in contrasts.

REICHARD: It’s Thursday, March 6th. 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: Trump freezes auto tariffs / Trudeau call » President Trump says he spoke with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Wednesday. The prime minister tried once more to change Trump’s mind about new trade tariffs but was not successful.

Trump says the import taxes are in response to deadly fentanyl flowing across U.S. borders, with most of it originating in China. White House advisor Peter Navarro:

NAVARRO:  What we want to see is Canada and Mexico crack down on China. China, for whatever reason, and there's a lot of speculation as to whether they mean to do us harm with this, uh, they don't seem to care.

The president says he believes Trudeau is merely trying to use the tariff issue as a political lever to remain in power in Canada.

Trump imposed 25% taxes on Mexico and most Canadian imports — though that number is 10% on Canadian energy.

Tariffs: Auto sector delay »  Separately, U.S. reciprocal tariffs are set to go into effect on April 2nd to match those imposed by any other trading partner, including our neighboring countries.

But three big US automakers will get a short reprieve, GM, Ford and Stellantis.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt:

LEAVITT: At the request of the companies associated with USMCA, the president is giving them an exemption for one month so they are not at an economic disadvantage.

The USMCA is a US trade pact with Mexico and Canada.

ISIS Abbey Gate suspect » An alleged ISIS terrorist faced a judge in Virginia today three and a half years after a bombing at Afghanistan’s Kabul airport that killed 13 U.S. troops.

Mohammad Sharifullah, also known as “Jafar,”, is accused of planning that attack during the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. troops.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe said the president told him to hunt down the people responsible for that attack:

RATCLIFFE:  One of the first things that he told me, uh, as CIA director was to make this a priority on counterterrorism, to find the people responsible.

Roughly 170 Afghan civilians also died in the 20-21 attack.

Trump final warning to Hamas » President Trump says he’s giving Hamas one “last warning.” He addressed the terror group Wednesday, stating “Release all of the hostages now” or—quote— “it's OVER for you.”

He said if the terror group does not comply —his words— “I am sending Israel everything it needs to finish the job, not a single Hamas member will be safe.”

That came just a couple of hours after White House Press Secretary Karline Leavitt said Gaza ceasefire talks were ongoing.

LEAVITT:  These are ongoing talks and discussions. I am not going to detail them here. There are American lives at stake. I would defer you to the Department of State for further details,

Trump posted the threat  shortly after an Oval Office meeting with recently released hostages from Gaza.

SCOTUS USAID » A sharply divided Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to block a lower court ruling, effectively ordering the Trump administration to pay out billions in foreign aid. WORLD’s Mary Muncy has more.

MARY MUNCY: The administration had frozen the nearly $2 billion dollars in payments at the USAID agency, as it conducts a thorough audit of spending.

But some groups sued over the freeze, saying the payments were for work already done. And U.S. District Judge Amir Ali sided with the plaintiffs.

The Supreme Court says the judge must now clarify exactly what money the administration has to pay out.

Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett voted with the court’s three liberal justices in Wednesday’s 5-to-4 decision.

Justice Samuel Alito spoke for the dissent, saying Ali lacks the authority to order the payments. Alito wrote that he is stunned the court is rewarding —quote— “an act of judicial hubris.”

For WORLD, I’m Mary Muncy.

Congressman dies » Democratic U.S. Congressman and former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner has died at the age of 7,0 just two months after taking office.

A spokesperson said the congressman was taken to a hospital in Washington, D.C., and later died at his home on Wednesday morning. The cause of death was not immediately known.

He had previously undergone treatment for bone cancer in his jaw.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: digging into the egg shortage. Plus, how Ukrainian refugees are settling in the countries that have welcomed them.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Thursday the 6th of March.

This is WORLD Radio. Thanks for listening! Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard.

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

Up next: more reactions to an historic address to Congress.

President Donald Trump delivered a record-breaking 100-minute speech to lawmakers on Tuesday. He covered pressing conflicts both at home and abroad, setting the tone for the years ahead.

WORLD’s Carolina Lumetta has the story.

SPEAKER: Members are directed to uphold and maintain decorum in the house and to cease any further disruptions.

CAROLINA LUMETTA: President Trump’s joint address to Congress started off with a ruckus.

SPEAKER: Mr. Green take your seat. Take your seat, sir.

Congressman Al Green, a Democrat from Texas, stood and shouted over the president, prompting the sergeant at arms to remove him from the chamber.

SPEAKER: Mr. President, you may continue.

TRUMP: Thank you. Over the past 6 weeks. I have signed nearly 100 executive orders and taken more than 400 executive actions of record. To restore common sense, safety, optimism, and wealth all across our wonderful land.

Most newly sworn-in presidents address a joint session of Congress in their first few months in office. Trump used his time to contrast his policies with those of his predecessor.

TRUMP: And we quickly achieved the lowest numbers of illegal border crossers ever recorded…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. [APPLAUSE]

Trump invited 15 guests to sit in the gallery with first lady Melania Trump and called on them throughout this speech. One of them, Marc Fogel, is an American history teacher who was sentenced to 14 years in a Russian penal colony.

TRUMP: The previous administration barely lifted a finger to help him. They knew he was innocent but they had no idea where to begin. But last summer, I promised his 95 year old mother, Malphine, that we would bring her boy safely back home. After 22 days in office, I did just that and they are here tonight.

The night also featured some heartwarming moments, like when Trump held up an executive order to rename a wildlife sanctuary after a 12-year-old Texas girl who was murdered by illegal immigrants last year. He also granted a lifelong dream to D.J. Daniel, a 13-year-old boy battling brain cancer.

TRUMP: Tonight, DJ we're going to do you the biggest honor of them all. I am asking our new Secret Service director, Sean Curran, to officially make you an agent of the United States Secret Service.

Despite recent tensions with world leaders, foreign policy played a small role in the speech. Trump repeated that he would impose tariffs on Mexico, China, and Canada. He said he wanted to reclaim the Panama Canal and possibly Greenland.

MAY: I'm not sure that President Trump knows what his next steps are.

Cliff May is the founder and president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

MAY: I think he often plays it by ear. He improvises…

He says the Panama Canal discussion shows Trump is continuing a habit of throwing out ideas to jumpstart foreign policy conversations.

MAY: And he did mention again that Black Rock had bought the ports on either end and that he was glad and he said there’s more to come. I don't know what that ‘more to come’ is. I'm not sure he does. I'm not sure Secretary of State Marco Rubio does.

May says he appreciated Trump's emphasis in his speech on border security. He says it marked a departure from the Biden administration’s adoption of open immigration policies.

MAY: There was this concept that American citizens don't own this land that our borders should be open for anybody who wants to come and they should get here and they should have housing and healthcare and a whole lot of other things kind of very nice.

Unlike in his first-term address in 2017, Trump did not call on both parties to come together on legislation. He called some Democratic lawmakers names and complained that nothing he does will satisfy them. Robert Rowland is a professor at the University of Kansas who studies presidential rhetoric.

ROWLAND: He essentially gave a rally speech that was aimed only at his core supporters, it is aimed at others, but only in the sense of creating them as a foil that he plays off against.

Members of Congress from both parties have a tradition of protesting presidents from the opposing party during a national address. Last year, Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia shouted at President Biden, and other members heckled him throughout his speech.

On Tuesday night, nearly all the Democratic members walked out before the end of Trump’s remarks.

ROWLAND: I think the Democrats a little bit like President Trump were speaking almost totally to their own supporters, they were preaching to the saved. I thought the wiser Democrats were the ones who sat there and didn't react because I do think the pictures just reinforce for Trump supporters that he's fighting for them.

Rowland said Democrats did not launch an effective protest. Some booed Trump during his speech or held up small signs that read “false” or “no kings” or “Lies.” Democratic leaders Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer ordered their conference not to obstruct the speech. Of those who complied, they did not respond to any of Trump’s points.

ROWLAND: I think in the long run, the Democrats' much better argument would be that President Trump is in fact not fighting for them. He's fighting for the billionaire class. But I think the protests kind of undercut that message.

TRUMP: My fellow Americans get ready for an incredible future because the golden age of America has only just begun it will be like nothing that has ever been seen before. Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America. (APPLAUSE)

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Carolina Lumetta.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It, what’s driving egg prices?

In February, the national average for a dozen large Grade A eggs nearly doubled from January, soaring past $8 a carton. That’s a steep jump from under $3 this time last year according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: What’s behind the surge? And how are farmers and shoppers handling the scramble?

WORLD’s Paul Butler has the story.

PAUL BUTLER: Shoppers roam the aisles of Louisville’s ValuMarket Mid City Mall. One aisle is empty: the egg aisle, where the cheapest carton is currently $4.99.

That’s about 30 percent more than Steve Johnson paid three weeks ago.

JOHNSON: The low-end eggs were running, I think, $3.79. And it was a week or 10 days later, I came back and they were running 499.

Johnson buys a dozen eggs every other week.

JOHNSON: I eat a fair amount of eggs. And right now, I'm not stopping. They'll have to go up a lot more before I stop buying them all together.

But he does say he might have to cut back on the number of omelets he makes.

Ken Spicer works at the store’s deli counter. He’s hopeful prices will drop.

KEN: I don't agree with it, but it will come down because the man is in there right?

The man he’s referring to is President Trump. In recent weeks he’s promised to bring down the cost of eggs. But it's going to take more than an Executive Order to make it happen.

ABC NEWSCAST: …and the big story this week, is the continued outbreak of the avian influenza…also known as bird-flu…

A key culprit for rising prices is H-P-A-I.

YUKO SATO: Highly pathogenic avian influenza.

Yuko Sato is a diagnostic pathologist at the Iowa State University Veterinary Lab. She says that with the spread of avian influenza in recent years, sick chickens are dead chickens.

SATO: You're dealing with a virus to birds, that is going to be almost 100% fatality rate. So it's like, it's like the Ebola of poultry.

When farmers detect the avian flu in a flock, the USDA recommends killing the entire flock to minimize risk of spread to other farms.

SATO: Now we're over 150 million birds that were depopulated.

After depopulation, farms must pass health inspections then wait 21 days before getting new chickens. But the effect on egg production isn’t over. It takes time for chickens to mature to the point of laying eggs large enough to satisfy consumers.

SATO: So they start laying these tiny pee-wee eggs, and they gradually get larger as they continue to lay eggs. So until it gets to the market, it may take a couple of weeks for them to get to that size.

WWMT-TV NEWSCAST: Beginning January 1st, all eggs sold in the state of Michigan must come from cage-free locations…

State policies have also crimped supply. Nine require retailers and restaurants to sell eggs from cage-free operations. Andy Harig studies tax and trade policy for the Food Industry Association.

ANDY HARIG: About 70% of egg production is what would be called standard housing, and a little bit less than 30 is cage-free. So it is a much smaller supply you're drawing from.

Some states are reviewing those cage free laws.

HOWARD WATTS: My name is Howard Watts, and I represent assembly district 15 in the Nevada State Legislature.

In February, Watts introduced a bill to temporarily loosen regulations to increase supply during avian flu outbreaks.

WATTS: It allows the sale of eggs that are not sourced from cage free facilities.

The bill received unanimous support from both houses, with the governor signing the bill soon after.

WATTS: “We needed to provide this flexibility quickly so that we can hopefully start getting the price of groceries down for folks.”

The law also allows smaller egg producers to sell nonstandard eggs to meet demand—including Grade B eggs.

While policies loosening restrictions may help supply, there are several other pressures that affect egg prices that laws alone won’t address. Unseasonably cold weather for instance.

WHAS11 WEATHER FORECAST: A winter storm warning is still in place till Saturday…

MCCLAIN: I don't know how it is in other parts of the country, but here in Kentucky, whenever a forecast has snow…

Steve McClain works with the Kentucky Grocers and Convenience Store Association.

MCCLAIN: …there is a run at the grocery store on staples like milk, bread, and eggs, I guess, to make a lot of French toast…

The cost of feed and transportation further complicates the problem. Andy Harig once again.

HARIG: So it is more expensive to raise the layers than it was, you know, two years ago.

Combine a run on groceries with half-empty delivery trucks arriving late at store docks, it’s no surprise that grocers are struggling to keep shelves stocked.

But it’s not all bleak news. Harig assures consumers that while there is an egg shortage, now is not the time to stock up.

HARIG: And what we always encourage people to do is buy what you need, obviously. But, you know, think of your friends and neighbors out there and make sure there's enough for them. There's going to be plenty of eggs.

Some customers are turning to local farmers like Issac Hebert for fresh eggs and lower prices.

HEBERT: We’ve got a list out, three weeks out, right now for eggs. I've had people come right out and tell me that they're coming to us because our eggs are cheaper than they are in the grocery store.

Hebert currently serves 20 to 25 regular customers. The increase in demand has him wondering if he should increase his small flock. But that work isn’t easy.

HEBERT: You can't just scale up this overnight. It takes six, six months to eight months to bring in more chicks, get them up to laying good and have eggs available.

He doesn’t know what will happen when egg prices come back down. The USDA predicts that could happen after April. Regardless, Hebert hopes the eventual increase in supply doesn’t end the interest in buying eggs straight from the local farm.

HEBERT: I hope that people will continue to support these small farms.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Paul Butler in Louisville, Kentucky, and Arlington, Illinois.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: For more than sixty years, Australian James Harrison showed up every two weeks to donate blood—nearly 1,200 times.

As a teen, Harrison needed transfusions after lung surgery, and he vowed to give back. Then doctors discovered his blood contained a rare antibody that could prevent Rhesus disease, a condition that threatens unborn babies. 

His donations helped create a treatment credited with saving over two million lives, including his own grandson’s. Audio from NPR from 2015.

HARRISON: I was always looking forward to donating, right from the operation, because I don't know how many people it took to save my life, but I've never met them, didn't know them.

His generosity earned him the nickname The Man with the Golden Arm.

HARRISON: Some people say, oh, you're a hero. But I'm in a safe room, donating blood. They give me a cup of coffee and something to nibble on. And then I just go on my way - no problem, no hardship.

Harrison donated until age limits forced him to stop. He died last month at the age of 88, but his life-saving legacy lives on in every life he helped save.

MARY REICHARD,: Wow.

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

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday, March 6th.

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

Good morning. I’m Myrna Brown.

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

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: fitting in.

Last week marks three years since Russia invaded Ukraine, forcing thousands to flee their homeland. Many have landed in countries around the world, but Germany is the leading destination.

BROWN: Many arrive speaking no German, having no job, and owning little more than the clothes on their backs. WORLD’s Mary Muncy takes us to Germany where Ukrainian refugees are working to build a new life.

MARY MUNCY: Two weeks ago, three Ukrainians, a Russian, and a German sat around a coffee table, trying to learn a new board game in German.

They’re at a “speech cafe” where a group of people whose first language is not German meet in a community center room to learn the language together. The game is supposed to help them learn grocery store vocabulary words.

Maria is Russian but she speaks fluent German. She’s pointing to different grocery items on cards and having the others say the words aloud. She generally leads the café, but the cafe wasn’t her idea.

MARIA: The first idea was from Alyona.

Alyona Lemeshko. She’s a Ukrainian refugee. When she first arrived in Germany three years ago, she didn’t know the language. Today, she helps others in the same situation make a new life away from home.

She’s making tea while the others figure out the game:

ALYONA: I said, oh, we need more practice in German.

They come to put their classroom knowledge to use, where they don’t have to be perfect and everyone else is learning too.

Sometimes, as many as 30 people squeeze into the two small rooms. There’s one from Macedonia, another from Greece, and many from Ukraine.

Lemeshko arrived in Germany in March of 2022. She’s one of more than 1.2 million Ukrainian refugees in the country, and the number keeps growing.

Germany has the most Ukrainian refugees of any country in the world, partly because it has a refugee-friendly system.

When the war started, Lemeshko’s town back in Ukraine was one of the first to feel the effects.

We talked over tea and cake at her new home in Germany.

ALYONA: I called my friends and asked about, may I come to your village? Because I was alone.

She’s not married and doesn’t have any children. She stayed with her friends as the war crept closer, but after a few weeks, Lemeshko and her friends decided to leave.

The first place she went was an American missionary’s house in Germany. She filled out asylum paperwork, applied for medical insurance, and took language classes.

ALYONA: It's really difficult, because for me, it's new start. It's looking looking for apartment, job, everything, friends, everything.

In the last few months, Lemeshko passed her German exams, found a job at a kindergarten, and found an apartment, her transition was smoother than many. Vera Shlychkov is Lemeshko’s friend and met us at her house.

VERA: I lived in Selidovo. It's a city 40 kilometers from Donetsk, where the war began.

Shlychkov is married, and when the war started, all three of her children were seven and younger. At the time, they didn’t know anyone abroad, and it was hard for men to leave the country.

But after about two months, the war became too much and they packed up a few suitcases and left.

VERA: And we come in the city, they are sick.

All three of her children and Shlychkov herself had an infection and needed antibiotics, not only that, but her kids hadn’t eaten in days because of the stress of leaving Ukraine.

VERA: About me, I don't think. I think just about my children, how I can help. I saw my children and the they don't want eat, don't want nothing.

She didn’t know German, only a little English, they didn’t have insurance yet, and it would’ve been too expensive to go to the doctor without it—if they could even get in.

VERA: I can't make anything, nothing, and I don't know [speaking Ukrainian] What I must… What must I do.

After a few days of this, she asked for help in a WhatsApp group for refugees. They helped her get in contact with the right people so they could pay for a doctor’s visit, and eventually, they did get in.

Then, nine days after they arrived, the government set them up with housing and language classes. Shlychov and her children started going to the speech cafe a few months ago.

Once Shlychkov passes her German exams, she’ll be able to help support her family. Something she thinks the speech cafe will help her do.

ALYONA: A lot people should to work and learn language. It's really difficult. It's really hard.

During our interview, Lemeshko and Shlychkov would speak Ukrainian and Russian to each other, English to me, and sometimes slip into German when they couldn’t remember an English word.

VERA: I think about that, ich speak four languages. Oh, cool.

Both say learning German is not just for finding work or navigating a foreign country. It’s also about building community.

ALYONA: I didn't know Vera, but now I know.

Lemeshko says the cafe has helped her to connect with people from all over the world.

ALYONA: We have a lot Ukrainian people here. But I have not a lot friends from these people. It's important to have not just people from your culture, your country, but you have maybe the same like… something valuable.

Both Shlychkov and Lemeshko don’t know when or if they’ll go back to Ukraine or what will be there for them if they do. But Lemeshko says uncertainty is a part of life.

ALYONA: I didn't like, have line between, like before and then, you know? It's like another. In Ukraine, I had also bad days and good days. It's not like worst or best. It's like different, just like life.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Mary Muncy in Vilseck, Germany.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday, March 6. 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. Now, WORLD commentator Cal Thomas weighs in on Tuesday night’s presidential address.

CAL THOMAS: It was a partisan speech. It was an optimistic speech. It was a long speech. It was a deliberately divisive speech when it came to policies pushed by the Democrats as opposed to policies endorsed by Republicans. And it was at times a funny speech as President Trump pointed to Democrats and the silly signs raised by some, blasting them for all sorts of things when they had the power.

It was also full of empathy for victims of migrant crime. President Trump brought some of the widows and daughters whose husbands and fathers were taken from them by gang members. Gang members who had committed repeat crimes but were let go after being arrested in Democrat led states with “sanctuary cities.”

As if to rile Senate Democrats who wouldn’t vote for a bill protecting women's sports, Trump invited a woman who suffered traumatic brain injury after being hit with a volleyball. The player on the other side of the net who spiked the ball was a male—yet played with women on the opposite team.

Perhaps the sweetest moment of the night was when Trump authorized the Secret Service to bestow the title of “agent” on a young boy who was given five years to live after being diagnosed with brain cancer. He always wanted to be a police officer. The boy hugged the agent who gave him an official identification card. His proud father lifted him up for all to see.

Incredibly, all the Democrats remained seated, stoic, and would not applaud anything. Not the boy with brain cancer, not families of murder victims, not even the First Lady when she entered the chamber. So deep is their hatred for President Trump who is running circles around them with the speed of his policy initiatives. Some held up signs, reminiscent of that TV ad for a pharmaceutical company that treats depression. The woman in the ad carries a round sign with an upside-down smiley face. That appears to be the face of today’s Democrat Party. They are being beaten by Trump at every turn. Polls show the public are mostly with him, especially in his quest to downsize bloated government

That’s where Democrats are these days. A lowlight during the speech was when Texas Democrat Representative Al Green began yelling and interrupting the president. Green, who has filed articles of impeachment against Trump that are going nowhere, was escorted out of the chamber by the Sergeant at Arms as Speaker Mike Johnson pounded his gavel and called for decorum.

It is supremely ironic that Democrats are criticizing the economy when it was the previous administration that caused inflation and accompanying high prices. It took Ronald Reagan two years to turn around the bad economy of Jimmy Carter.

The headline was kept until almost the end of the speech. President Trump announced he had received a letter from Ukraine Prime Minister Volodymyr Zelenskyy, saying he is ready for negotiations to end the war with Russia. And a willingness to mine Ukrainian minerals to help repay the U.S. for its $350 billion contribution to the war. Trump said he has heard “strong signals” from Russia that Vladimir Putin is “ready for peace.” We’ll see about that.

It was a good night for Trump and Republicans. All the Democrats and their media allies could do is look like they were attending a funeral. They have nothing else to show the country except policy failures from the last four years.

I’m Cal Thomas.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Tomorrow: John Stonestreet is back for Culture Friday. Also, our music reviewer Arsenio Orteza spotlights fresh releases you won’t want to miss. And WORLD’s Editor in Chief shares what we’ve learned from our latest focus groups. That and more tomorrow.

I’m Mary Reichard.

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

Our thanks to the WORLD Journalism Institute mid-career class for their help in writing today’s egg story.

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: “For from [God’s] fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.” —John 1:16

Go now in grace and peace.

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