The World and Everything in It: May 13, 2025

MYNRA BROWN, HOST: Good morning!

Roman Catholics have a new Pope in Leo XIV. Will he lead like the last pope?

JORDAN BALLOR: It's clear that he has a Christ-like concern for the poor, but he doesn't conflate love with acceptance of whatever you find in the world.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Also, rethinking sanctions on Syria.

And hostage families react to the release of their loved ones:

SAFIR: We all yelled, clapped, cried. It was it was tear tears of joy…

But healing after release is a long and difficult path for everyone.

And the harm of the progressive vision of empathy.

BROWN: It’s Tuesday, May 13th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

REICHARD: And I’m Mary Reichard. Good morning!

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

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: China trade » Stocks surged on Monday on news of an agreement between the U.S. and China to de-escalate the trade war.

Economic analyst Mark Hamerick called the market gains a good example of a so-called “relief rally.”

HAMERICK:  And essentially we have the equivalent of a truce and, uh, this is, uh, the first step toward what everyone hopes for, which is a total cessation of hostilities.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters in Geneva:

BESSENT:  We have, uh, reached an agreement on a 90 day pause and substantially moved down the tariff levels.

Beijing will lower its 125% tariffs on U.S. goods to 10%.

The White House agreed to drop its 145% rate on Chinese goods to 30%.

The way that works out is that the U.S. is actually dropping the rate to 10% … but then adding on another 20% over concerns about Chinese fentanyl flowing into the U.S.

The deal gives the two countries time to reach a larger agreement.

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer says any new agreements going forward must be fair to the United States.

GREER:  The United States Trade deficit has ballooned, uh, over the past several years, uh, ending up at $1.2 trillion deficit in goods as of the end of last year.

That, he said, was a 42% increase over where that trade deficit stood at the end of President Trump’s first term.

Pharma cost cut » President Trump signed an executive order today giving drugmakers 30 days to bring down the cost of prescription drugs. He told reporters:

TRUMP: Today, Americans spend 70 percent more for prescription drugs than we spent in the year 2000.

The order directs the Department of Health and Human Services to negotiate drug prices paid by Medicare to match the lowest prices paid by other countries with advanced economies.

He said governments in many other countries have capped the prices of prescription drugs while Americans paid a lot more for the same medications.

TRUMP: Our country has the highest drug prices anywhere in the world by sometimes a factor of five, six, seven, eight times.

It remains to be seen which drugs will fall under the new order.

Trump Qatar plane » Also on Monday, President Trump said the United States is ready to accept a Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet as a gift from the ruling family of Qatar, which could be converted to serve as Air Force One jetliner for the president.

But whether it would be a gift, a loan, or another form of transfer, has yet to be determined.

Some have raised legal and ethical concerns about such a transfer. But White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt says:

LEAVITT: Of course, any donation to this government is always done in full compliance with the law, and we commit ourselves to the utmost transparency.

Trump said the United States helps to protect Qatar militarily, and he appreciates the token of goodwill.

Trump Middle East / Ukraine talks » And speaking of Air Force One it touched down this morning in Riyadh Saudi Arabia as President Trump begins a weeklong trip to the Middle East. He’ll also visit Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

The president will meet with leaders about regional security concerns but he’s also hoping to secure more large economic investments in the United States.

And Trump said he could make an unplanned detour to Turkey if the leaders of Ukraine and Russia move ahead with proposed peace talks Thursday in Istanbul.

TRUMP:   I was thinking about actually flying over there. There's a possibility of it, I guess, if I think things can happen, but we gotta get it done. We gotta save 5,000 lives a week and.

Right now, it’s unclear if Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will move ahead with the meeting without a ceasefire in place beforehand. He stated that a 30-day pause in fighting must come before direct talks. Russia’s Vladimir Putin rejected that precondition.

Hamas hostage release » And in Tel Aviv:

SOUND: Cheers as family reunites

Cheers, hugs, and tears, as American-Israeli soldier Edan Alexander reunites with his family.

Hamas released Alexander on Monday, more than a year and a half after the terror group kidnapped him during the October 7th attacks.

The head of the medical division of Israel's health ministry said Alexander will receive both medical and psychological treatment.

She also called on Hamas to release all of the remaining hostages.

MIZRAHI: As a physician and as a human being, I am deeply concerned about the condition of all those who remain in the captivity of Palestinian terrorist organizations and pray for the speedy return home.

Israel officials say Hamas could still be holding more than 50 hostages but they fear that many of those captives are now dead.

India-Pakistan latest Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi says India has only “paused its military action” against Pakistan and is prepared to strike again if provoked. WORLD’s Benjamin Eicher has more.

BENJAMIN EICHER: Modi says India will—in his words—“retaliate on its own terms” if there is any future terror attack against the country.

And he added his government—quote—“will be monitoring every step of Pakistan."

Those were his first public comments on the cross-border tensions since the neighboring countries agreed to a U.S.-brokered ceasefire over the weekend.

The hostilities between the nuclear-armed rivals flared up after a deadly attack on tourists in Kashmir for which India blamed the Pakistani government. Indian forces responded with missile strikes last week targeting alleged terrorist camps in Pakistan.

For WORLD, I’m Benjamin Eicher.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: the Catholic Church has a new pope, what are his top priorities? Plus, rethinking sanctions for Syria.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST:  It’s Tuesday, the 13th of May.

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

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

First up on The World and Everything in It, a new pope with an old name.

On Sunday, newly elected Pope Leo the Fourteenth greeted the crowds in St. Peter’s Square, offering his first blessing and a call for peace around the world.

REICHARD: The American-born Cardinal Robert Prevost—chosen by the conclave last Thursday—now steps into one of the most influential roles in the world.

But will he follow in the footsteps of Pope Francis? Or lead the church toward a more traditional course?

Here’s WORLD Radio’s Executive Producer Paul Butler.

SOUND: [HOLY NAME CATHEDRAL SERVICE]

PAUL BUTLER: This weekend Catholic churches around the world celebrated the selection of their newest pope.

TON NGUYEN: Habemus Papam! We have a new Pope and he's from Chicago!

At Chicago’s Holy Name Cathedral Associate Pastor Ton Nguyen declared the selection of the first American Pope as an opportunity for the global church to renew its hope in Christ.

In Peru, celebrations were more lively, with folk dancing in the streets:

SOUND: [FOLK DANCING]

And during a Saturday evening mass:

EDINSON FARFÁN: [SPANISH] Today we want to thank the risen Lord for having given us this Thursday, May 8, a new successor of Peter, a vicar of Christ, Pope Leo XIV, our beloved Bishop.

Bishop Edison Farfan led the congregation at the Chiclayo Cathedral in a prayer of thanksgiving for the man they lovingly call their “beloved bishop…”

Meanwhile in Rome, the new pope gave his first Sunday Papal Blessing at St. Peter’s Square. During his comments, Pope Leo XIV revealed more about what he sees as his most pressing priorities. including peace in Ukraine and the Middle East.

Then during comments at the Vatican Monday he expressed solidarity with imprisoned journalists and affirmed the importance of free speech and the press. He also returned to Pope Francis’s warning about the dangers of Artificial Intelligence.

Before Friday’s election by the College of Cardinals, Robert Prevost was not a top contender for leading the church. The first question for many observers after his election was “what kind of pope will he be?” Four days later, it’s still unclear, though his brother John told the Associated Press:

JOHN PREVOST: I think he will be a 2nd Pope Francis. I think he's got great concern for the plight of the poor...

That said, experts watching the vatican say while Leo may have similar substance to Francis, his style could well be different.

BALLOR: It's clear that he has a Christ-like concern for the poor, but he doesn't conflate love with acceptance of whatever you find in the world.

Jordan Ballor is Director of Research at the First Liberty Institute’s center for religion, culture, and democracy. He says Prevost’s choice for his papal name harkens back to a figure who brought catholic teaching to bear on modern challenges.

BALLOR: Leo XIII, as a kind of nominal predecessor, brings to mind a revival of Catholic Social Teaching, a commitment to bringing the wisdom of the church to the world.

Pope Leo XIII served at the turn of the 20th century. He set a new precedent by writing a letter titled Rerum Novarum, using scripture to critique ideas that grew into socialism and economic liberalism.

BALLOR: So with the choice of the name Leo the 14th I immediately, you know, began thinking of someone who's focusing on rebuilding, restoring the church in many ways, and renewing the tradition and applying it to the present day.

Pope Leo XIV steps into office with culture wars and military conflicts raging around the world, and questions about the future of the church dividing it from within.

STEPHEN WHITE: What does it mean to be a church that's walking together?

Stephen White is Executive Director of the Catholic Project at the Catholic University of America, and a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. He says for decades, the Catholic church has been trying to figure out how to walk together through synods…meetings of bishops to discuss how the church should address important issues. Pope Francis took that a step further by setting up a Synod on Synodality, bringing Catholics and non-Catholics together to discuss issues like women in the church and authority structures.

White says hearing questions and concerns of the watching world has value, but not for deciding what to say about the gospel.

WHITE: If the church comes to the world and says, we don't know what the truth of the gospel is, can you help us find out? You're not going to have a lot of credibility.

The Synod on Synodality published its findings last year. It’s now working on what to do next, particularly on the question of ordaining women. White says he’s watching to see what Pope Leo does with the Synod going forward.

WHITE: But to this point, it's, it's created more smoke than light, more heat than light.

As a cardinal, Robert Prevost did not take public stands on many hot-button issues, but his track record encourages First Liberties researcher Jordan Ballor.

BALLOR: He seems to be much more open to speaking in more traditional and straightforward terms about realities like sex and gender and the norms that the Bible teaches and that the Church teaches.

Leo has already presented himself as more traditional than Francis in how he approaches the papacy, but he’s also demonstrated a clear continuity with his predecessor’s priorities, prompting many to wait and see how he comes down on issues of the day. But Ballor hopes he will take the approach of his namesake, Leo XIII.

BALLOR: when you're faced with corruption, when you're faced with the challenges of adapting to changing circumstances, there's nothing more wise or prudent than to go back to your unchanging foundations, so for the Pope of course that’s going to be the magisterium of the church, and the tradition, and an emphasis on the centrality of Jesus Christ, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Paul Butler.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: Syria.

President Trump meets today with Syria’s interim president during his visit to Saudi Arabia.

The U.S. has long used economic sanctions to punish regimes that violate human rights. That’s why Congress passed the CAESAR Act in 2019—code named for the whistleblower who smuggled out photos from Syria that proved atrocities.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: The law targets Syria’s former dictator Bashar al-Assad for his use of chemical warfare, torture, and more. It seeks to hold the regime accountable by targeting anyone who helped support it.

Now with Assad gone, some lawmakers are calling for an end to the sanctions. But others say hold on. Syria’s long history of political and religious violence makes trust a dangerous thing.

WORLD reporter Leo Briceno has the story.

LEO BRICENO: Going back to 2011, American sanctions on Syria block global dollars and products from going in, and Syrian oil from coming out. In 2019, lawmakers added restrictions for anyone doing business with Syria.

That’s forced Syrians to get creative with getting basic necessities, like propane.

Middle East studies professor Michael Provence saw this firsthand back in March. He called me from France.

MICHAEL PROVENCE: And when I came from Lebanon, my taxi driver took propane bottles—big ones, you know like what people use in their houses, which is like a 10 gallon tank probably—and he had those in his trunk in the trunk of the car when we crossed and when we went back to Lebanon a few days later, he took empty tanks.

Provence studies the modern history of the Middle East at the University of California, San Diego. He says that the CAESAR Act makes imports like gas almost impossible to get through normal means.

PROVENCE: It played a big role in strangling the previous government which was a good thing. But now it’s starving people to death.

In December, a hodgepodge of militia groups flooded the capital city of Damascus, bringing Asaad’s reign of terror to an end. But to restore order, Syria badly needs investment to repair its economy, and basic utilities like its power grid. Joshua Landis is the co-director for the center for middle east studies at the University of Oklahoma.

JOSHUA LANDIS: These guys who have taken over the government are from Idlib province. And they’re fighters, they don’t have much expertise. They’re going to need foreign companies to come in and build. They don’t have money. The government is completely bankrupt.

Congressman Cory Mills of Florida went on a two-day fact-finding mission to Damascus last month to see if the new regime would protect religious, political, and social minorities.

Mills told me outside the Capitol that he’s encouraged by what he saw.

CORY MILLS: The ministry of, I think, special tourism and transition is a Christian female with full authorization. You have equal representation from within from the Alawites, the Druze, the Christians, the Muslims.

At the head of that new government is Ahmed al-Sharaa, the rebel leader that led the insurgency against Assad. For lawmakers like Mills, his leadership will be the key factor for decisions about sanctions. Mills met with al-Sharaa and said that interaction went well, but:

MILLS: We can’t forget about his past, obviously …

That “past” is a dark one. Before he was al-Sharaa, Syria’s interim president went by another name—al Jolani. University of Oklahoma professor Landis says al Jolani was the war name he carried as a terrorist.

LANDIS: He was al Qaeda in Syria. He was the captain.
At the age of 20, he went to Iraq from Syria to fight America in 2003 when America invaded right at the beginning. And he joined Al Aqeda there, and he became a foot soldier. Evidently he was good at setting out roadside bombs.

It wasn’t until he got into hot water with another Islamic extremist group that Al Jolani re-branded himself as a Syrian Freedom fighter. Now he’s making the case that he wants to establish peace. But American lawmakers want to see results first.

Congressman Tim Burchett of Tennessee sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

TIM BURCHETT: I’m taking a shot. You know? Six months to a year? Get rid of it, and I don’t want to give them.. I don’t want them to be just covering stuff up either. I mean, they’ve got, they have to have some realistic, realistic objectives.

Even with new leadership, life in Syria is still pretty turbulent. Earlier this year, sectarian conflicts between religious groups turned deadly when more than 1,000 people died in mass shootings carried out by Islamic extremists against non-Sunni minorities, including Christians.

The Sunni Muslim government has pledged to combat these kinds of outbursts. But its affiliation with radical groups carrying out the attacks doesn’t sit well with lawmakers who want to see stronger protections in place before removing sanctions.

Congressman Mills says perhaps there’s middle ground.

MILLS: We could not lift the sanctions, just suspend the current sanctions, where if the metric isn’t met and the conditions aren’t met we could flip the switch right back on and go right back into full sanctions and never touch them again.

Mills said he’s working with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a handful of other members in the House of Representatives to draft legislation on such a proposal. He has not said when he expects to unveil it, but he hopes the legislation gives the United States the opportunity to bring more stability to the region.

MILLS: President Trump will go down in history as the guy who not only created the Abraham Accords and expanded it but pushed Russia out of their stronghold for 50-plus years in Syria and created more stabilization in the Middle East that we haven’t seen in decades without putting a single boot on the ground.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Leo Briceno.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: I grew up in a small Missouri town of 3,000, so this story resonates!

What do you get when you trade traffic jams for tractor pulls? Evidently, you get contentment, and maybe even a check for $5,000.

JENSEN: Ladies and gentlemen, we have to do without a mountain range, without an ocean. But we have awesome amphitheaters, we have quality schools, we have low cost of living, and an awesome quality of life.

That’s Mayor Chris Jensen of Noblesville, Indiana where the neighbors wave and the cows are calm.

But he’s not alone. Small towns across the Midwest are handing out relocation checks, wellness stipends, and even fresh eggs. And remote workers— especially Gen Z’ers — are moving in! Their kids are out riding bikes, and community is the priority.

So you can forget $8 lattes and sky-high rent. Turns out the middle of nowhere might just be where it’s at.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Tuesday, May 13th.

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: holding Hamas accountable.

As you heard in the newscast, Hamas has released the last American hostage. Earlier in the year, the terror group freed 33 others as part of a temporary peace deal, 25 returned alive, and 8 came home in coffins.

REICHARD: Families usually get some warning about the shape their loved ones are in. But the full truth of what happened in captivity unfolds slowly. And the trauma never fully resolves.

WORLD’s Mary Muncy reports.

MARY MUNCY: When hundreds of people gathered in Hostage Square in January, Noam Safir sat down at an outdoor piano in the middle of the plaza. She and others waited to see if their relatives would be released in a recently announced swap.

NOAM SAFIR: My grandfather is Shlomo Mansour and he’s the oldest hostage in captivity.

Safir talked to IJTV about him. He survived a Nazi-inspired terrorist attack when he was a boy, and Safir held out hope he would survive this attack too. By then, she’d waited two years for any news about him.

SAFIR: I know he’s supposed to be on this deal so I’m allowing myself to be a bit more optimistic.

While Safir waited, she sang a song dedicated to her grandfather.

Safir has spent almost every Saturday in Hostage Square since Hamas kidnapped her grandfather on October 7th, 2023. We talked about the first rounds of hostage releases.

SAFIR: We all yelled, clapped, cried. It was it was tear tears of joy, of course, but it was very comforting to be with other families of other hostages, your friends who know exactly what you're going through.

Two weeks after the January swap, her father showed up at her apartment. The Israel Defense Forces had received intelligence that her grandfather would be part of an upcoming swap.

SAFIR: On day 493. It was February 10.

The news wasn’t good. They would only be getting his body back. Her grandfather was dead.

SAFIR: It was honestly heartbreaking, and all the hope I had was shattered. I was shattered.

In each swap, the living hostages went immediately to the hospital, while the bodies of the dead went to Israel’s National Forensic Medicine Center, the only organization qualified to do forensic autopsies in the country.

When Hamas released the bodies of Monsour and three other hostages, people gathered along the route to the forensics center.

The Center’s goal is to identify the bodies and determine how they were murdered, adding to the testimony of the returned living hostages. But the longer it takes for Hamas to release remains, the harder it is to confirm what happened.

Some worry that time is erasing anything the remaining hostages’ bodies could have revealed, and is making them harder to identify.

SAFIR : We were not allowed to see the body. Even if you are allowed to see the body, what you see is not a body after more than 500 days. So even, even if someone gave me the opportunity, I don't think I would have taken it because of the state of the body.

After examining Monsour's body, the Medicine Center determined that he was murdered in the first days of the war. Safir says Monsour’s wife knows what happened to him, but hasn’t shared any details with Safir.

SAFIR: I do know something happened because that's how they were able to determine that he was murdered.

Hostages that came back alive say Hamas kept them in dark tunnels. Gave them little, if any food, and sometimes beat them. The bodies of those who come back tell much the same story.

Safir and her family buried Mansour near the Kibbutz where he lived before he was kidnapped. It was heartbreaking.

Still, Safir says it’s been better for them than many other families. The IDF told them about Monsour’s death, confirmed his identity, and delivered his body to them.

Meanwhile, other families have grappled with false reports and rumors. In one case, Hamas misidentified a body—leaving a family in limbo—and suffering from whiplash.

One Israeli psychology professor says that kind of scenario could add to “disordered grieving”, where families don’t get to follow the normal course of grieving and that often extends a mourning process that is already lengthy and intense.

Safir thought knowing what happened to her grandfather might give her closure, but:

SAFIR: It’s not closure, because, because of that hope for almost 500 days that you keep hoping that one day you will see your loved one again. I'll see my grandfather again.

She’d watched almost 100 hostages return to their families, many of them walking on their own two feet. She had hoped she’d see her grandfather return the same way.

SAFIR: To get that message during times of high hopes is really breaking, really shattering, because you it's when you least expect it, because he was supposed to be coming back as well in this deal, but we hoped that he'll come back alive.

The day after she learned about her grandfather’s death, Safir went back to Hostage Square. She wanted to support her friends. She watched on screens on the edge of the square as some newly released hostages hugged their loved ones.

SAFIR: Of course, I was happy for the families and the hostages who got released. I-I suddenly understood that I wasn't going to get that kind of feeling like them.

Safir doesn’t go to Hostage Square as often as she used to. When she does, it’s to spend time with other people who understand what the past 585 days have been like.

SAFIR: I had so many things that I wanted to tell him. I wanted to talk to him once again. But terrorists, the terrorists, took it away from me and the entire family, and they took his life.

And with that, a chapter of hope has closed, and a time of mourning opened. Safir doesn’t know how long this chapter will be.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Mary Muncy.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Tuesday, May 13th. 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 Opinions contributor Joe Rigney says true Christian compassion isn’t soft on the truth.

JOE RIGNEY: The other day a friend asked how Christians should address the fact that compassion is often regarded as a characteristic of progressives, not conservatives. In the popular imagination, compassion and care are “left-coded”—that is, these virtues are ostensibly given greater priority among liberals and progressives.

My friend was thinking of this problem in terms of evangelism. What do we do when unbelievers feel that they have to give up compassion in order to become conservative Christians? As I thought about the question, I began to consider how Jesus addressed a similar problem. In the first century, righteousness and holiness were “Pharisee-coded.” That is, both in the Pharisees self-understanding and in the popular imagination, righteousness and holiness were regarded as Pharisaical priorities.

And yet think of how Jesus approached this problem. He warned his followers about the hypocritical appearance of righteousness: practicing righteousness to be seen by others, standing in the streets to show off their deeds in the ancient equivalent of virtue signaling. Indeed, the entire Sermon on the Mount might be seen as Christ’s attempt to re-orient the meaning of righteousness among Jews in the first century.

Throughout his ministry, Jesus refused to grant that the Pharisees were truly righteous—they neglected the weightier matters of the law while excelling in relative trivialities.

Again and again, Christ insists that for all of their talk of righteousness, the Pharisees honored God with their lips, but their hearts were far from him. Not only that, but they substituted man-made traditions for the actual commands of God. Empty talk may have garnered them a righteous reputation, but the reality was very different.

So what does this mean for us today? How should conservative Christians address the reputation gap when it comes to compassion?

First, we must actually be compassionate, according to the biblical standards. Kindness, tenderheartedness, bowels of mercy—these must mark us as individuals and communities.

Second, we must be aware that the devil is a liar and will seek to steer us by our reputation. Accusing conservative Christians of a lack of compassion is one of the fundamental tools that the devil and his brood of vipers have used to sabotage and mute the church’s witness by demanding that Christians prove their compassion according to progressive standards. And, unfortunately, Christians have sometimes had heads as soft as their hearts.

Third, like Christ, we must refuse to adopt the framing of the left when it comes to defining compassion. We must tell people, “Beware of practicing your compassion before others to be seen by them. Don’t sound the trumpet or stand on the street corner announcing your compassion like the hypocrites. They have received their reward.”

More than that, we must be clear about the left’s failure to be compassionate. Given their false ideology, the people they “help” often end up worse because of the “treatment.” Just look at the breakdown of the family, failing schools, rampant crime and drug use, and the enfeebling dependence on government aid that afflicts communities that receive progressive “compassion.”

But the evil of progressive compassion goes beyond unintended consequences. In the name of compassion, they castrate children and murder the unborn. In the name of compassion, they celebrate sodomy and other forms of sexual perversion. In the name of compassion, they overwhelm communities with migrants and destroy social trust and cohesion. They outsource compassion to bureaucratic agencies in order to get rich and garner a reputation for mercy and care. Like the Pharisees of old, they have rejected and nullified the word of God for the sake of their so-called “compassion.”

In short, how should Christians deal with left-coded compassion? Be compassionate like Christ. Refuse to be steered by falsehoods. And be ready to puncture the lie of progressive “compassion.”

I’m Joe Rigney.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: On tomorrow’s Washington Wednesday: Trump's budget bill is coming together, taking aim at some of the most divisive areas of policy. We’ll take a closer look. And while the opioid crisis dominates the news, another rising drug problem is taking hold. That and more tomorrow.

I’m Mary Reichard.

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

Our story today about Pope Leo XIV was written by Washington Producer Harrison Watters.

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: “Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”—II Corinthians 4:16-19 

Go now in grace and peace.

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