The World and Everything in It: May 11, 2023

PREROLL: The World and Everything in It is made possible by listeners like us. I’m Brian Couchey living in Greer, South Carolina with my wife of 38 years today. Happy anniversary Suz, you get sweeter as the years go by. I hope you enjoy today’s program.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

Title 42 ends tonight. Are border towns ready for the surge of migrant crossings?

LARRY FLOYD: They can't cross the checkpoints when you leave here. So, El Paso will be the places that people stay now, because there is no way they're gonna be able to process that paperwork, even in a few weeks. No way.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Also, the COVID pandemic is over, but debates about vaccine policy are not. Plus, getting patients out of the hospital for treatment at home.

MEGAN FAGA: We perform care in their home with them, not to them.

And World commentator Cal Thomas on lessons America can learn from the change to the retirement age in France.

REICHARD: It’s Thursday, May 11th. 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: Now here’s Kent Covington with today’s news.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Title 42 » Officials have warned the floodgates will open even wider at the southern border today as the pandemic-era Title 42 immigration rule comes to an end.

Texas National Guard Brigadier Gen. Matt Barker:

MATT BARKER: I can tell you that the state of Texas deployed more than 500 additional soldiers to help with the effort here.

Title 42 allowed the government to more easily expel those who cross the border without permission. The Biden administration sued to end the rule, and after multiple court-ordered delays, the day has finally come.

Some 1,500 active duty troops will support the Border patrol in administrative roles for the time being.

Trump town hall, NY reaction » President Trump went on offense at a town hall event on CNN last night. He tooke President biden to task over the border crisis.

He also shot back at his accuser in a civil sexual assault trial.

DONALD TRUMP: This woman, I don’t know her. I never met her. I have no idea who she is. And I swear on my children, which I’d never do, I have no idea who this woman — this is a fake story. She’s a wack job.

A New York jury rejected writer E. Jean Carroll’s claims that trump raped her in the 1990s. But it ruled that he likely assaulted her and later defamed her … and awarded Carroll $5 million dollars. Trump is appealing the ruling.

And he took aim at an investigation in Georgia over his call to state officials following the 2020 election.

TRUMP: I said you owe me votes because the election as rigged. That election was rigged.

Trump insisted he did nothing wrong.

George Santos » GOP Congressman George Santos has pleaded not guilty to thirteen federal criminal charges.

GEORGE SANTOS: I’m going to fight the witch hunt, I’m going to take care of clearing my name and I look forward to doing that.

The Justice Department yesterday charged Santos with fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds, and making false statements to Congress.

Republicans and Democrats have called for the freshman New York lawmaker to resign after he admitted to lying about his background during his campaign for Congress.

Santos was arraigned in a Long Island court yesterday, then released on bond. His next hearing is scheduled for June 30.

He could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.  

Debt » President Biden, in a campaign-style speech Wednesday, blasted House Republicans over their recently passed debt ceiling bill. He said the GOP is “holding the economy hostage.”

JOE BIDEN: By threatening to default on our nation’s debt that we’ve already incurred unless we give into their threats and demands with regard to what they think we should be doing with the budget.

He said GOP lawmakers are demanding “devastating” spending cuts.

But Republicans say the Biden White House has spent recklessly, fueling inflation. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise:

STEVE SCALISE: If he doesn’t agree with our bill, he needs to put his own alternative on the table about how to solve Washington’s spending problem as we’re dealing with the debt ceiling.

The House bill would raise the debt limit while also reducing overspending. But even the GOP plan would continue to pile onto the national debt, just at a slower rate.

Inflation numbers » Consumer prices rose again in April and at a faster rate.

The Labor Department says prices rose 4/10 of one percent from March to April. They rose only one-tenth of a percent the previous month.

Thomas Barkin is president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.

He said some prices edged down, such travel costs.

THOMAS BARKIN: But I think just looking through all that, it still paints a picture of inflation that is stubbornly high.

Consumer prices last month were up almost 5 percent compared to a year ago.

Gaza–Israel » Palestinian funeral goers firing guns into the skies above the West Bank on Wednesday. At least 21 Palestinians are dead after violence in the Gaza Strip.

Egypt claimed yesterday that it had successfully brokered a cease-fire between Israel and the Palestinians, but rocket fire and air strikes continued late last night.

Israeli military spokesman Richard Hecht:

RICHARD HECHT: We’re not looking for war. We are focused on our targets and we’ll do everything we need to protect our civilians.

Palestinian militants launched hundreds of missiles into Israel, while Israeli forces have continued to carry out airstrikes.

One strike on Tuesday killed 13 people, including three senior militants of the Islamic Jihad terror group.

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: How Christians are helping at the border. Plus, a new program for doing medicine the old way. 

This is The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Thursday the 11th of May, 2023.

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, the end of Title 42.

Towns and cities along the U.S. southern border are bracing for a surge of migrants from Mexico when the COVID-era rule ends at midnight. The policy allowed Border Patrol to return some migrants to Mexico without an asylum hearing.

BROWN: But that ends tonight and as many as 10,000 migrants a day are expected to cross the border. Shelters from California to Texas are already at capacity. The Biden administration sent 1500 active-duty military personnel to El Paso to provide administrative relief to Border Patrol.

REICHARD: WORLD Radio correspondent Bonnie Pritchett spoke with ministry and Border Patrol representatives in three Texas border towns and brings us this report.

LARRY FLOYD: We've always had undocumented coming across. Always. And it's a way of life here. Most of us are not anxious.

BONNIE PRITCHETT, REPORTER: That’s Larry Floyd. He’s executive director of the El Paso Baptist Association and helps run the El Paso Migrant Center, a respite and processing facility. Reports that between 10 to 35 thousand migrants are waiting to cross from Juarez into El Paso give him pause.

FLOYD: But we're wondering, what's life going to look like if all 35, 45 thousand come across?

The city got a preview of those conditions last December when about 7300 migrants crossed in one day filling shelters and forcing the city to convert two unused schools into temporary shelters.

Months later, hundreds of homeless migrants remain in El Paso. In advance of the anticipated surge, Mayor Oscar Leeser declared a state of emergency. And those temporary shelters have reopened.

Floyd says one reason for the homelessness is a lack of documentation. Until the migrants receive their processing papers from Border Patrol they can’t leave town and non-governmental agencies aren’t supposed to house them.

FLOYD: They can't cross the checkpoints when you leave here. So, El Paso will be the place that people stay now You know, as well as Del Rio as well as Brownsville as well as Laredo all of them are going to be the destination for everybody because there is no way they're gonna be able to process that paperwork, even in a few weeks. No way.

Brownsville, Texas is also under a state of emergency.

CARLOS NAVARRO: Zero. No space. We’re to the max.

That’s Carlos Navarro, pastor of West Brownsville Baptist Church. He said shelter space is maxed out and about 400 people are homeless.

NAVARRO: But now there's a new term in the city, which is called a homeless migrant. Those are the ones that can’t leave because the there's not enough buses, or they don't have any, any money to continue. They don't have money for hotels, no shelters, no food, no water. So, the only things we do as an NGOs is just go over there in the surrounding areas with the bus station, where the influx building is and feed the people.

Those migrants cross into Brownsville from Matamoros, Mexico where Abraham Barberi has served as a church-planting missionary since 2009. He lives in Brownsville and pastors a church in Matamoros. He also heads up One Mission Ministries an organization that helps meet some of the migrants’ physical needs.

ABRAHAM BARBERI: I go there every day to bring water and twice a day to to bring food so I'm there all the time.

He’s never seen so many people waiting to cross the border.

BARBERI: I was telling you 2016, 2017, the Cubans had started coming to the border. You would see 20 at the most at the border. If you see 30 or 40, that would be too many. So after 2019 I think the numbers have increased and until this days, they have not decreased. And and yeah, it's crazy. There's a crisis at the border.

Homelessness isn’t the only concern for border communities.

Jason Owens is the Chief Patrol Agent for the Border Patrol Del Rio Sector. He cited the deadly risks migrants take when crossing illegally into the U.S.

JASON OWENS: So last year, we had almost 3000 rescues, and we had 256 deaths that were just Border Patrol. That does not count what the government of Mexico found, or what our county or Stone Garden partners found. This year, so far, we're over 50 deaths. And I believe it's 300 rescues. And that's just the Del Rio Sector. So, the numbers obviously gonna grow across the different sectors on the southwest border.

SOUND: [WATER RESCUE] 

AGENT: And on the last run the agent’s actually going to grab the rope and jump into the water to simulate so y’all can see how it is to have to pull somebody in from the river.

In late April Border Patrol and local law enforcement invited international media and government representatives to Eagle Pass for a demonstration of their search and rescue techniques.

If current immigration trends stay on course, their skills will be put to the test.

OWENS: Last year, fiscal year 22, for the Del Rio sector specifically, we had over 480,000 encounters. The year before that we had 259,000 encounters. That year was more than the previous nine fiscal years combined. And if our trend holds true, we are on pace for fiscal year 23 to exceed fiscal year 22’s numbers.

As the number of migrants swell and local charitable and government resources dwindle, ministry leaders agree sharing the gospel is their primary task. They are also asked a 2000 year old question: Who is my neighbor?

BARBERI: There's no easy answer to that because it's hard to find a balance.

At the end of April Abraham Barberi could only watch as 15,000 migrants crossed the Rio Grande into Brownsville from Matamoros.

BARBERI: Now, I'm not I'm not for open borders, or illegal immigration. But we're going find a balance as Christians there.

And he can’t ignore the needs right in front of him – like when a mother tried ferrying three terrified little girls across the Rio Grande on an inflatable mattress. He gave the girls lollipops and told them they would be OK. They arrived safely at the US shore and were immediately taken into Border Patrol custody.

BARBERI: It's really difficult to say, “Well, I'm not going to help this this lady and her children, because, you know, they're gonna go illegally into the United States. And that's not fair.” I just think right now, this lady, and her children need help. And that's what I'm going to focus on. So, I don't know if that answers your question.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Bonnie Pritchett in Eagle Pass and Houston, Texas.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: the COVID vaccine and what we now know. 

The official U.S. COVID emergency declaration ends today. But the debate over the public health response is far from over.

Throughout the pandemic, doctors and researchers who disagreed with public-health recommendations faced censure—or worse. But three years on, the scope of the debate is broader. Here’s Dr. Anthony Fauci, speaking to John Dickerson on CBS News in March.

ANTHONY FAUCI: Well, the biggest lessons that we've learned is that pandemics occur, they do occur and we've got to be prepared better than we were even though we were judged John to be very well prepared. As I mentioned, we were quite well prepared from a scientific standpoint. We have to do much better from a public health standpoint.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It doesn’t stop there. Dr. Fauci, the architect of America’s Covid-19 response, recently gave an interview to The New York Times in which he admitted, “We could have done better.”

WORLD senior writer Emma Freire recently spoke to several doctors about what went right, and what went horribly wrong in how America handled Covid-19.

EMMA FREIRE, REPORTER: Jay Bhattacharya was a COVID policy skeptic from the beginning.

JAY BHATTACHARYA: Public health panicked and misread the evidence. And instead of sticking to normal standards for very high-quality evidence for making decisions, they decided that because this was such a crisis, that even low-quality evidence would suffice to make very broad decisions that damaged the, lives and livelihoods of the poor, the vulnerable working class and children.

Bhattacharya and others said so publicly as far back as October 2020.

Bhattacharya is an epidemiologist at Stanford. He joined with epidemiologists from Harvard and Oxford to write an open letter they called the Great Barrington Declaration.

The document argued for what it called focused protection of those most at risk for COVID.

But everyone else should be allowed to go about their lives.

BHATTACHARYA: Our goal was to tell the public that there were actually a lot of scientists who disagreed with the lockdowns, that there was an alternate path available. In fact, there's nothing really new in it. It's basically the old pandemic plan that worked for a century for respiratory virus pandemics.

Today, more of those scientists feel free to voice their disagreement because the harms caused by lockdowns are undeniable.

But back in 2020, freedom to dissent was costly.

Bhattacharya and his co-authors faced censure from leading public-health officials. Their powerful critics included Francis Collins, who was then head of the National Institutes of Health—not to mention Dr. Fauci.

Collins said Bhattacharya and his co-authors were in his words, three fringe epidemiologists.

And it wasn’t just name-calling.

BHATTACHARYA: Tony Fauci and Francis Collins sit on top of almost $45 billion of money that funds the work of every biomedical scientist of note in the United States. You can't get tenure at a top medical school unless you have an NIH grant. So when they say ‘fringe epidemiologists,’ it's an implied threat: If you cross us, it's not just that you won't be able to get funding for your research. It also determines social status within science.

Bhattacharya believes that’s why there appeared to be broad medical consensus about COVID policies. Even though they didn’t speak up, many medical professionals did not, in fact, agree.

And when the vaccine arrived around the end of 2020, Bhattacharya dissented from that public-health consensus too.

BHATTACHARYA: I think the vaccine was an excellent tool for focused protection of older people who were high risk. I think it provided some benefit on net to that group. I have no idea why it was pushed so hard in younger groups and lower-risk groups. It made no sense. It still makes no sense to me.

According to the CDC, eight in 10 eligible Americans got at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Bhattacharya looked at data from the vaccine trials and saw many limitations. But other people drew excessively optimistic conclusions. They believed the vaccine would make the virus go away.

BHATTACHARYA: That was never possible. And certainly based on the randomized trials, you couldn't assume that it was possible.

Despite this, many businesses and the government imposed vaccine mandates. Just before Christmas 2021, President Joe Biden issued a stern warning to anyone who hadn’t gotten the shot.

BIDEN: We are looking at a winter of severe illness and death for the unvaccinated—for themselves, their families and the hospitals they’ll soon overwhelm.

Vaccine mandates are over now but some of the people who lost their jobs suffered serious financial harm. So did some who got the vaccine and ended up with injuries or adverse reactions.

GREGORY POLAND: After my second dose of the mRNA vaccine, I developed tinnitus, which is a persistent ringing in the ears, and I decided to go ahead and get my third dose and it got dramatically worse.

That’s Gregory Poland. He’s a professor of medicine and infectious disease at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. He’s also the founder and director of the Mayo Vaccine Research Group, and the editor-in-chief of the journal Vaccine.

POLAND: There is not a vaccine I know of that doesn't cause side effects or injury in somebody, mRNA vaccines included.

Despite his tinnitus, Poland still strongly believes the Covid-19 vaccines’ benefits outweigh the risks. 

POLAND: To date, all of the injuries that we believe are caused by the vaccine, by mRNA vaccines, pale in comparison to the extent of those same injuries due to the disease itself.

But many Americans disagreed. Vaccination rates have dropped dramatically over time. According to the CDC, only less than one-in-five of the eligible population has gotten the latest boosters.

In his role as a White House vaccine adviser, Poland fields questions about the best way to communicate with the public.

He always repeats the same advice: radical, transparent honesty, as he says.

But that’s not what America got during the pandemic.

POLAND: We had people sworn to protect the public health who politicalized this and said something publicly different than what they did privately. And it cost people’s lives.

And to count up all those costs, Poland believes the country now deserves what he’s calling a COVID truth commission to reckon with everything that went wrong.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Emma Freire.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: The annual Eta Aquariid meteor shower peaked last week, but you can still catch it through the end of the month. The light show occurs as *Halley Comet debris strikes the Earth’s atmosphere. Skywatchers hope for clear weather for the best view.

One New Jersey family had a much better view than most…perhaps too good. Audio here from KYW-TV in Philadelphia.

SUSIE COBB: It appears that whatever fell through the sky came through the roof.

Susie Cobb’s father lives in Hopewell Township, New Jersey. She checked in on him earlier this week and found a hole in his bedroom ceiling.

COBB: It hit the floor here. It ricocheted up to this part of the ceiling and then finally coming down and resting on the floor there.

Cobb picked up the four by six inch rock and it was still warm. At first she didn’t know what it was. Local officials looked into it and think it’s is a meteorite!

COBB: They did scan us. Everything came back clear. I just thank God that my father was not here. No one was here. You know, we weren't hurt or anything.

Stargazing enthusiasts have been stopping by to see the meteorite. Maybe Susie Cobb should put up a sign for those in queu to see it? Not to worry. “All things comet to those who wait.”

It’s The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Thursday, May 11th. 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: bringing back the doctor’s house call.

According to the CDC, more than 600-thousand hospital patients will contract an infection this year —just from being in the hospital. That’s about one out of every 31 patients.

REICHARD: But a growing number of hospital patients may not have to take that risk. Because they won’t actually be in a hospital. Instead, they’ll be treated through a program called “hospital-at-home”... which might sound like a contradiction. But in a few big cities across the country, these new programs are bringing back a very old way of practicing medicine. WORLD Special Correspondent Maria Baer reports on one such program in Ohio.

MARIA BAER, REPORTER: Mary Ann Smiley is sick, but you wouldn’t know it to look at her.

MARY ANN SMILEY: I have a diagnosis of heart failure and lung disease.

The 76-year-old lives alone in a cozy suburban apartment outside of Columbus, Ohio. She’s trim and stylish in a bright sweater and blue jeans. And her living room is immaculate. There’s not a speck of dust on the shelves or a single smudge on the glass backdoor that overlooks a small pond. This was Smiley’s view two months ago, while she was technically in the “hospital.”

SMILEY: I had gone to an Ohio State walk-in clinic, and my oxygen level was in the 70s, so they sent me to the hospital.

And then they came to me and said we’re enrolling you in this hospital at home program, do you want to do that and I said of course! And they said ok, transport’s going to come at 1 o clock, and we’ll transport you to your home.

Smiley is one of the first 20 or so patients that the Ohio State University hospital has enrolled in its brand new “hospital-at-home” program. Similar programs have launched in Worcester, Massachusetts, in Seattle, Fort Wayne, and elsewhere. The idea is in the name: patients with certain conditions who would normally be admitted to the hospital are instead sent home. They’re guaranteed two in-person visits a day by a nurse and 24/7 electronic access to their care team.

SMILEY: Every morning I would take my blood pressure, oxygen level, temperature, weight, heart rate.

On Smiley’s first day in the program, a doctor and two nurses met her at home. She giggles remembering the way her doctor sat right down on her plush ottoman and pulled up her marble coffee table for a desk. He and his team gave Smiley a vitals monitor and taught her how to use it. They told her they’d come to see her twice a day, and someone else would deliver her medications.

SMILEY: I remember asking them if I could feed my birds, and they said of course you can feed the birds out on the patio.

Not all patients qualify for the hospital-at-home program. Those who are in the ICU or people who need major tests like MRIs or CAT scans can’t go home. But technological innovations like mobile x-ray and ultrasound machines are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible.

Rachit Thariani is the Chief Administrative Officer for OSU’s hospital-at-home program. He said it’s not just popular with patients. It’s also solving the hospital’s space and staffing shortages.

RACHIT THARIANI: So this program also then helps us free up capacity by caring for patients in the home and freeing up a hospital bed for somebody who really needs to be in a hospital bed.

Historians credit St. Basil—a Catholic monk—with building the world’s first hospital sometime around 370 AD. Basil challenged the ancient world to change the way it treated the dying, citing Jesus’ teachings to care for and love the sick and needy.

Our knowledge of science and technology has changed a lot since then. But our modern healthcare system is built on the largely Christian idea that sick people shouldn’t be abandoned. Some healthcare workers say treating patients at home brings back a personal touch that’s often lacking in the sterile corridors of a noisy hospital. Here’s registered nurse Megan Faga.

MEGAN FAGA: We perform care in their home with them, not to them. So often in the hospital me as a provider would order a CatScan, and the patient would get wheeled down to CATScan and they wouldn’t have a clue what was happening.

Faga works for DispatchHealth, a Denver-based company that staffs hospital-at-home programs around the country. Before this job, she spent 10 years as a hospital nurse. She says she spends more time with her patients now than ever before.

But being in patients’ homes also means she’s sometimes called on to do some non-traditional nursing work.

FAGA: I have created incredibly complex care plans for people with heart failure, and I’ve also cleaned up cat poop off of somebody’s living room floor because that’s what they needed in that moment.

According to Faga, the initial data suggests about a 20 percent reduction in mortality for patients who are treated at home instead of the hospital. She believes that’s because patients get to sleep in their own beds and keep the company of their pets and family members. They’re also protected from hospital-based infections.

But maybe most importantly, Faga says nurses get to jump into their patient’s world at home. They can look for what she calls the “social determinants of health” —things that don’t always show up on a hospital chart.

FAGA: So being able to do a refrigerator biopsy and open up the refrigerator and see what they’re actually eating.

Maybe it’s a physical therapist that’s working with them, but they’re actually practicing getting into and out of their own bathtub, or in and out of their own car. I’m setting up a medication management strategy that involves their own pill box.

Still, “hospital-at-home” patients do face certain risks, given that they’re not, well, in the hospital. Faga says somewhere between 6 and 10 percent of patients end up needing re-admission.

FAGA: Other times if the diagnosis is unclear, we have had to transport them back to the hospital via an ambulance and they may have to stay because of the worsening of their clinical condition.

Once during Mary Ann Smiley’s hospital-at-home stay, she started having what she called a bad episode of shortness of breath. Fortunately, her care team was already on the way to her house for their scheduled visit and was able to jump into action when they arrived. But if they hadn’t been, Smiley says she might have had to call 911.

SMILEY: The next day the doctor told me that he had been pretty concerned about me. That if I hadn’t improved they were thinking about putting me back in the hospital, but I did improve.

Even though I was sick, I’m still saying it was a wonderful experience. I kind of hated to be discharged.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Maria Baer in Columbus, Ohio.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday, May 11th. 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. More than a million people recently protested France’s increase in the retirement age. Americans are well advised to watch what is happening.

Here’s World commentator Cal Thomas.

CAL THOMAS, COMMENTARY: French President Emmanuel Macron has been behaving like many other politicians. Following massive demonstrations against his enactment of a law raising the retirement age in France from 62 to 64, Macron took a page from America’s Democratic Party playbook – If you can’t beat them, bribe them. He announced a pay raise for teachers.

Despite that, teachers refused a meeting Macron hoped would pacify them and help end the protests. The teacher’s union and other opponents vowed to continue the fight, not only because of the increased retirement age, but also because they say the proposal did not finish a process already in the proper legislative channels. The measure was scheduled for a final parliamentary reading, but when it appeared he would lose that vote, Macron turned to his Constitutional Council, which approved it. More protests are being called for on June 6.

The retirement measure is deeply unpopular here and Macron’s sliding opinion polls resemble the downward trend of President Joe Biden’s poll numbers. Last year, Macron won the election with 58.5 percent of the vote over conservative Marine Le Pen, who scored a still impressive 41.5 percent. Politico Europe reports that Macron’s approval rating has crashed to 30 percent, while his disapproval has risen to 69 percent.

To a visitor it may seem like the French are a lazy bunch when they oppose raising the retirement age by only two years, but as Reuters reports, “Only 36% of French workers retire at (62) and another 36% already retire older on account of requirements to pay into the system for at least 42 years in order to be able to claim a full pension.” Is what is occurring in France a preview of what could happen in the U.S. with Social Security projected to run out of money in 10 years and Congress forced to confront these options: raise the retirement age, raise taxes, cut benefits, or all three?

Macron’s rationale for raising the retirement age is that the French must work longer or else the pension budget will fall billions of euros into a deficit each year by the end of the decade. Again, this mirrors the trajectory of the U.S. Social Security and Medicare programs absent reform.

Macron has also been criticized by some in the U.S. for cozying up to Chinese president Xi Jinping. The two recently held a three-day meeting in Beijing after which the French president seemed to project weakness when he said Europe must not become a “vassal” by being lured into a potential conflict between China and the U.S. over Taiwan. If president Xi does invade Taiwan, Macron will deserve some of the blame for appearing not to oppose China’s intentions.

The French have long been the butt of jokes. Remember “freedom fries” in reaction to French opposition to the U.S. invasion of Iraq?

Mark Twain famously said, “France has neither winter nor summer nor morals. Apart from these drawbacks, it’s a fine country.”

Reporting from Paris, I’m Cal Thomas.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Tomorrow: John Stonestreet returns for Culture Friday. We talk about books and Southern Baptists. And, Collin Garbarino reviews two new science fiction offerings for kids and adults.

That and more tomorrow. I’m Mary Reichard.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Mryna 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.

In his first letter to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul testified to the resurrection of Christ: “... Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, he was buried, he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verses 3 through 8.

Go now in grace and peace.

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