The World and Everything in It - May 18, 2021

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

States are pulling out all the stops in their effort to reach herd immunity for Covid-19.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Also what’s behind the latest fighting between Israel and the Palestinians.

Plus The Olasky Interview. Today a conversation about two very different abolitionists.

And comfort for a grandfather lamenting the end of the good ol’ days.

REICHARD: It’s Tuesday, May 18th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

EICHER: And I’m Nick Eicher. Good morning!

REICHARD: Up next, Kent Covington has the news.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Israel unleashed another wave of airstrikes as war rages on » The Israeli military unleashed another heavy wave of airstrikes Monday on the Gaza Strip. Israel said it destroyed militant tunnels and the homes of nine Hamas commanders.

Hundreds have died in the rekindled war, now in its second week.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Monday underscored President Biden’s stance on the conflict.

PSAKI: He conveyed—stressed the need for Hamas to stop firing rockets into Israel and affirmed, again, Israel’s right to defend itself against terrorist attacks. As I would note from the reports, there have been more than 3,000 rockets that have been shot from Hamas ...

Israel has said it will press on for now with its counter-attacks against Hamas.

The White House says it will not pressure the two sides for a cease-fire. Instead, Psaki said the State Department is working quietly but diligently behind the scenes to bring an end to the fighting.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday condemned the pressure that other global powers are putting on Israel to end the conflict. He said he rejects what he called “an obscene moral equivalence.”

MCCONNELL: To say that both sides, both sides need to de-escelate downplays the responsibility the terrorists have for initiating the conflict in the first place.

The latest attacks destroyed the five-story building housing the Hamas-run Religious Affairs Ministry. Israel said that building housed the main operations center of Hamas' internal security forces. Israeli forces also killed a top Gaza leader of a terrorist group called Islamic Jihad.

Supreme Court to take up landmark abortion case » The Supreme Court is set to hear a landmark abortion case. WORLD’s Anna Johansen Brown has more.

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN, REPORTER: Forty-eight years ago, the nation’s highest court barred the government from protecting babies from abortion if they were too young to survive outside the womb. On Monday, the justices agreed to revisit that decision by reviewing a Mississippi law that would replace the “viability standard” with a limit on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The rule allows exceptions for severe fetal abnormalities and medical emergencies.

Pro-life advocates hailed the case as an opportunity to allow hundreds of proposed state laws protecting babies to take effect.

With the addition of three new justices during the Trump administration, the Supreme Court appears to have a solid pro-life majority. Oral arguments in the case will likely begin in the fall.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Anna Johansen Brown.

Trial date set for officer charged in Daunte Wright shooting » A Minnesota judge set a trial date Monday in the manslaughter trial of a former police officer in the fatal shooting of a black man during a traffic stop.

Kim Potter made her first court appearance on Monday via videoconference. Hennepin County District Court Judge Regina Chu ruled that the case will proceed and set a tentative trial date of Dec. 6th.

Police in Brooklyn Center in suburban Minneapolis said Potter mistakenly fired her gun instead of her taser, killing 20-year-old Daunte Wright in his car last month.

Retailers, theme parks relaxing mask requirements » Target is the latest retailer to scrap its customer mask requirements, joining several other national chains as well as major theme parks. WORLD’s Leigh Jones has that story.

LEIGH JONES, REPORTER: After the CDC relaxed its guidance on face coverings last week, several major chains now say vaccinated customers are welcome to shop mask-free.

Target announced the rule change on Monday for customers and employees except where state or local orders still require them.

Other chains relaxing mask rules include Walmart, Sam’s Club, Costco, Trader Joe’s, Publix, and Starbucks.

Disney World and Universal Studios Orlando have also announced that vaccinated guests no longer need to wear masks outdoors, unless they’re on a ride or in line for one.

All of the businesses say they’ll rely on the honor system and will not ask customers for vaccination cards.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Leigh Jones.

Biden boosting world vaccine sharing commitment to 80M doses » President Biden said Monday that the United States will share an additional 20 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines with the world in the next six weeks, boosting its vaccine sharing commitment to 80 million doses.

He said his administration will work with other democracies across the globe.

BIDEN: We’ll coordinate an multilateral effort to end this pandemic. I expect to announce progress in this area at the G-7 summit in the United Kingdom in June, which I plan on attending. This is a unique moment in history.

Biden said as soon as the country has the vaccine inventory to immunize all Americans, his administration will turn more attention to attacking the virus worldwide.

The White House hasn't yet said exactly how it will share the vaccines or which countries will receive them.

The announcement comes on top of the administration’s prior commitment to share about 60 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine as soon as the FDA approves it for use. To date, the U.S. has shared about 4.5 million doses of AstraZeneca shots with Canada and Mexico.

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: What’s really happening in Israel and the Gaza Strip.

Plus, a letter of encouragement to a worried family patriarch.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Monday, May 18th, 2021.

So glad you’ve joined us for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

First up, war in the Middle East.

After weeks of clashes between Israeli police and Palestinian protesters in Jerusalem, Palestinian militants began firing rockets into Israel ...

SOUND: NATS

... setting off air raid sirens in the center of Tel Aviv.

SOUND: SIREN NATS

Israel’s Iron Dome defense system intercepted many rockets but could not stop them all.

The missile attack triggered a fierce response from the Israeli military ...

SOUND: AIRSTRIKE NATS

which began pounding Hamas targets in the Gaza strip.

The conflict has raged on for more than a week now with hundreds killed in fighting.

Here now to help us understand what’s happening and why is Jonathan Schanzer. He’s the Senior Vice President for Research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Good morning!

SCHANZER: Good morning!

REICHARD: Well, we know that it was Hamas that fired the first shots this time and started this battle, and there’s certainly no justification for their attacks. But this conflict is always simmering on some level. There were some weeks of tension that preceded this. From the Palestinian perspective, why has this boiled over right now?

SCHANZER: Sure, well, I mean, look, the conflict has gone on for seven decades. And at the heart of it is a Palestinian desire to reclaim what they call the land of Palestine. Since 1948, the Israelis have controlled different components of this land. All of the territory that they've conquered has been conquered in defensive battles, making it therefore legitimate. But nevertheless, what we see now particularly in Gaza, is that there is a blockade around this territory. It's under the full control of Hamas, again, a terrorist organization sponsored by Iran, and the Israelis have done everything they can to prevent certain goods from coming into the country. And they've definitely made it harder to govern over there. So you see some frustration boiling over on the part of the population. But I—at least from my perspective, there isn't a whole lot the Israelis can do to make this better, so long as Hamas remains in control of this coastal enclave.

REICHARD: What is Israel actually doing in Gaza and what specifically is the Israeli military trying to accomplish?

SCHANZER: Sure, so you know, the first thing that they try to do is take out all the rocket production facilities, as well as the storage facilities where the bulk of the rockets have been based. Gotta remember Hamas has around 30,000 of these Iran provided rockets. So that is not a small job. There was also an effort by the Israeli military to take out what they call the metro system in downtown Gaza. This is a labyrinth of underground tunnels that Hamas created for commando strikes. Now the Israelis fake them out. They basically said they were going in on the ground. Hamas sent all of its fighters into this so called metro system, and that's when the Israeli started bombing. They took out I'm going to say roughly 100 or 200 of Hamas is top fighters. So that was, I think, a major objective for the Israelis.

They've taken out a couple of large buildings that reportedly contained Hamas, military intelligence or other assets. They've taken out the homes of some of the senior leaders, and they've taken out a good number—I understand it's nine or 10 of Hamas' top leaders so far. Most of these strikes, in fact, I think all of them have been surgical in nature. This is not carpet bombing the way that Hamas is trying to attack Israel, but really very, very specific munitions for very specific targets. And right now, it seems anyway, that the Israelis are asking for at least a few more days to achieve some of their objectives now that this war has started.

REICHARD: You mention Hamas offices. We’ve seen some controversy after the Israeli military destroyed a building in Gaza that housed Associated Press and Al Jazeera offices. Israel gave warning ahead of time to allow them to evacuate. But the AP is furious about that. Israel says they have intel that Hamas was officed there and it was a legitimate target. Is it typical for Hamas to have offices or facilities in a building like that?

SCHANZER: Well, Hamas engages in a practice widely known as human shields. So what they do is they place their military assets in civilian areas, and we've seen it—they've done it with the UN. They've done it with the media. They do it in apartment buildings. They have their some of their assets next to schools and hospitals. So this is, I think, the Hamas way of waging war. They actually typically enjoy it when there is collateral damage, because this means that there's a public relations disaster that Israel then needs to clean up. I think so far the Israelis have navigated this pretty well. Yes, there have been casualties, but the numbers are low. It's—I think it's somewhere around 200 or 250 people in eight days of fierce fighting. So I think the Israelis have really minimized it up until now. Of course we lament all loss of life. But I think this AP Al Jazeera building really just gives us a sense of the way that this Iran backed terrorist organization likes to do battle.

REICHARD: The U.S. State Dept. has said repeatedly that Israel has a right to defend itself against rocket attacks. Does that mean the White House is in Israel’s corner? Where does the Biden administration come down on this?

SCHANZER: Look, I think the Biden ministration has been muted, and in some cases, it actually has come to the defense of Israel, particularly at the UN. There was about to be a harsh statement issued against Israel, and the US vetoed that. And that's a positive. I see two reasons for the Biden administration allowing this to continue. If the administration doesn't want another one of these battles in another three or four years, then I think they need to let the Israelis weaken Hamas significantly. So it's in their interest to let Israel try to run the table for at least another couple of days and weaken Hamas even further than it has been.

And then I think the other part of this is, they also know that a major problem is coming, that when they enter into this Iran nuclear agreement that is going to be coming probably within the next few weeks or a few months, there's going to be a huge amount of money that is sent to Iran. And then Iran is going to send that money straight on to terrorist groups like Hamas. And that tension will boil over with the Israelis, because they will, I think justifiably, see the United States as having funded both sides in this conflict.

REICHARD: What do you think it’s going to take for this current flare-up to end?

SCHANZER: Well, both sides right now are looking for signs that they can declare victory. So, you know, I think Hamas is beginning to see that there is an end of the conflict for them, and it's probably not going to end well. I think the Israelis are looking for achievements that they can tout to their own public to be able to tell the public that they're not just mowing the lawn in Gaza, that they're not just beating back the latest threat, but that they will have more years of relative quiet than they have in the past. I think that's what the Israelis are looking for. My sense is that we probably have a few more days of this conflict unless something really terrible happens. I think both sides are starting to get a little tired. You know, we see enough signs have after having seen enough of these conflicts that we've reached probably the final stanza.

REICHARD: Jonathan Schanzer with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, thanks so much for your insight.

SCHANZER: My pleasure.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: the push for herd immunity.

So far, almost 160 million Americans have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. While that’s about half the country, the rate of vaccine distribution has declined over the last month.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: To be specific, the average number of daily vaccines given has gone from 3.4 million to about 2 million. That slowdown has public health officials concerned. WORLD’s Sarah Schweinsberg reports now on federal, state, and local efforts to get that number back up.

SARAH SCHWEINSBERG, REPORTER: Krispy-Kreme started the incentive trend in March.

SOT: Krispy Kreme announcing this week a free donut everyday this year for anyone who could show their COVID vaccination card…

Other businesses, corporations, and politicians have followed suit. Last week, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a partnership with Shake Shack. The burger-chain will offer vaccinated New Yorkers free fries with any burger now through mid-June.

DE BLASIO: We also know incentives help. They really do. And so we’ve been announcing free tickets, gift cards, all sorts of incentives to encourage people.

The famous chef José Andrés is offering $50 gift cards to vaccinated guests at his Washington, D.C., restaurants. Sam Adams and Budweiser are offering free beer to a limited number of vaccinated customers.

Several states are even jumping on the free-beer wagon. New Jersey and Connecticut are offering free drinks at some breweries for those who get vaccinated this month. The Illinois state legislature is working on creating its own free drink program. And Washington, D.C., held a pop-up event on May 6th, where people who agreed to get a shot could walk away with a free beverage.

But the vaccine enticements are going above and beyond free food and drinks.

Two weeks ago, West Virginia’s Republican governor, Jim Justice, announced a program aimed at getting young people vaccinated. Those between 16 and 35 who get their shots will also get a $100 savings bond.

JUSTICE: Now what we know is our young people have a real reluctance to step up because they think they are invincible. We’re trying to do something that is just novel. It’s a new marketing approach and everything. It’s working, but I don’t think it’s going to be a silver bullet.

Maryland is also encouraging vaccinations for state employees with $100 payments. In Detroit, Michigan, anyone who helps a neighbor get to a vaccination appointment can get a prepaid $50 debit card.

Ohio Republican Governor Mike DeWine is going even bigger.

SOT: Ohio is offering its residents a shot at winning a million dollars along with their Covid vaccine shots.

Starting May 26th, the state will draw one winner every week for five weeks. While five teenagers under 18 will have a chance to win a full-ride to an Ohio public university.

All-in-all, that’s a lot of incentives. But do they work?

Laura Williamson directs the Center for Bioethics and Health Policy at Augusta University in Georgia. She says people not vaccinated yet mostly fall into three camps.

WILLIAMSON: We've certainly got hesitant people. We have people that are genuinely struggling to access vaccinations, and then we've got the refusers.

She says the problem with the freebies and monetary incentives is that they mostly don’t address the vaccination roadblocks these groups have.

Those struggling to access vaccines may need a ride. Or they don’t want to or can’t miss work. Or maybe they need help with childcare.

Those who are vaccine hesitant have questions. They want information… but not from a public health announcement or a flier.

WILLIAMSON: What we know is that people trust their health care providers. People like to be able to ask questions. That's not possible in a max, maximum max rollout of vaccination, right?

Devon Greyson is a health communication professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She says some vaccine incentives do help. Such as Uber and Lyft offering discounted rides to vaccine sites. Or companies offering workers paid leave to go get vaccinated.

But for those who have questions, Greyson says community-specific messaging is the most effective strategy.

GREYSON: Religious congregations have in some places invited a health care provider who's a member of the congregation to come up and answer questions. We also hear, you know, community radio stations running public service announcements. It really will depend on the specific community, what is going to be received as authentic and trustworthy.

Dr. Zach Jenkins is a clinical specialist in infectious diseases at Cedarville University. He says one way to improve vaccine messaging in all communities, is to make it scientifically meatier. People want to know more about the vaccine safety and effectiveness data that’s slowly emerging.

JENKINS: I think just an increase in transparency of where the data, what the data is saying, where it's sourced from, and what the holes are, are in the data that helps get people's buy in.

Of course, some people will choose not to get the vaccine no matter what. And how officials treat them could make a big difference in the way everyone views vaccination efforts.

Dr. Stuart Fischbein is an OBGYN in Los Angeles and a member of Physicians for Informed Consent, a group advocating for voluntary vaccinations. He says the CDC and other public health departments have an uphill battle, no matter how good their messaging.

One recent survey found only half of Americans trust the CDC. That eroded trust means even the data the agency publishes gets questioned.

And he says gimmicky incentives make the vaccines look just as suspicious as mandates.

FISCHBEIN: If it's a good product that sells itself, the idea that we have now public service announcements, and we have advertisements, and we have celebrities and everybody else going on and telling you what a great deal it is to get this vaccine and if you don't get it, you're like, a terrible person and a bad citizen. So you're talking about this coercion.

Laura Williamson at Augusta University says she worries that as public pressure builds to reach herd immunity, companies, schools, and local governments will turn away from incentives and toward mandates which she argues are worse for public trust and for the next public health crisis.

WILLIAMSON: I think we need to be very careful in the type of ethical culture we're creating around vaccination. If we want people to trust the system, which we desperately do, banging on mandates doesn't help build trust.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Sarah Schweinsberg.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Everybody loves a survival story. And this one from last Wednesday certainly fits the bill.

Just outside Denver, two small planes were getting ready to land at a regional airport. But one pilot miscalculated, and the two planes collided in mid-air.

The footage after the fact shows one plane nearly ripped in half, as though someone took a giant bite out of the middle of the plane. Somehow, the pilot managed to get to a runway to put the plane down.

The pilot of the other plane deployed a parachute attached to the aircraft, allowing for a gentle crash landing.

The two pilots and one passenger walked away without injury.

Speaking to KUSA news, Deputy John Bartmann with the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office summed it up this way.

BARTMANN: You expect something a lot worse. This was amazing.

To say the least! It’s The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Tuesday, May 18th.

You’re listening to WORLD Radio and we’re so glad you are!

Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

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

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: The Olasky Interview. Today, a conversation with H.W. Brands, an author and history professor.

Brands wrote the book titled The Zealot and the Emancipator. It compares the militant abolitionist John Brown to the great emancipator, President Abraham Lincoln. Both men, born in the early 1800s, confronted slavery in different ways.

EICHER: Brown, by violent means. Lincoln, by political means.

In this excerpt, Marvin Olasky wonders whether we can learn something about the abolitionist movement by comparing it to a much more modern case.

MARVIN OLASKY, EDITOR IN CHIEF: I've been in the in the pro-life movement for a long time. I was thinking of comparisons to that. There are people who have been working the political and legislative and judicial side of it for a long time, and then occasionally someone arises who talks about direct action. “We're going to do this, we're going to do this, we're actually going to do this…” and sometimes people get swept along in that. Is there an analogy here? Or am I just drawing too tight a connection?

H.W. BRANDS: I think is a very direct analogy between a militant abolitionists like John Brown, and militant anti-abortion folks who are willing to use violence, to as they see it, to preserve innocent life. And John Brown was willing to use violence to end this evil system of slavery. And in both cases, they are doing it not for their own self-interest or for the self-interests of others. In both cases, they are responding to what they see as the inability or the refusal of the political system to correct this horrendous evil. Now, when I raised this analogy, liberals that I know are very uncomfortable, because they like to think: “I would have been on the side of John Brown.” But wait a minute, I'm not with these people who will blow up abortion clinics. They don't want to hear that connection.

OLAKSY: So Lincoln talks about the danger of slavery, corrupting. You know, “familiarize yourselves with the chains of bondage, and you're preparing your own limbs to wear them.” So was Lincoln's concern always more with the corruption of whites rather than the tragedy of blacks?

BRANDS: With Lincoln, you have to be very careful when you interpret what he says, and make allowances for who he is saying it to. He knew perfectly well that black people weren't voting. So whenever he gave a speech, or whenever he wrote for somebody who might reveal the letter to somebody else, he's going to pitch it in a way that appeals to the self-interest of the people that he's writing for. He would never contradict his own principles, but it was entirely possible to oppose slavery, for a whole variety of reasons.

One, is that it's simply unjust, and evil for the slaves themselves. But you can also say that it's corrupting of American democracy. And when Lincoln was speaking to white people, then he would be more likely to use the corruption of American democracy than the arguments for the well-being of black people. But he certainly did sympathize with the sufferings of slaves. Did he think that that by itself would get past the opposition of white slaveholders to an ending of slavery? No. That was something that the American people generally had become inured to over the years.

OLASKY: So Lincoln basically had a containment theory. I’m thinking of George Kennan in 1946—which eventually worked. I mean it took 45 years of Cold War, but it avoided a nuclear war and the containment worked. Was there ever much of a real chance that containment would work with slavery? In other words, was the Civil War inevitable? What could have happened realistically?

BRANDS: There are a couple of ways of looking at it. One is look at it from the inside and see: “So what was happening within the institution of slavery within politics in the United States?” It wasn't a fit of morality, to prompt Connecticut in slavery, it was a recognition that slavery no longer suited their interests, it was no longer profitable.

I like the containment analogy, because by the 1850s, what made slavery profitable in a place like Virginia, was the hope of expansion of slavery in places like Texas, and maybe beyond. Because plantation agriculture, simply the cultivating of plantation crops, was a money loser in Virginia by this time. In fact, when George Washington was still alive, he got out of the cultivation of tobacco because it was wearing out the soil, and he switched to wheat and northern kind of crops. And northern crops don't require the regular and intense cultivation that cotton does. That tobacco did. With wheat, you plant it, and you come back four months later, and you harvest it. And so you don't want a labor force on your hands the whole time.

And this is why the containment model, the idea held together. If slavery could no longer expand, and eventually the market for slaves in places like Texas and Arkansas, and Mississippi would become saturated, and the value of slaves in Virginia would fall. And people would say, “you know what, slavery is just not worth it anymore.”

Slavery was long understood to be a necessary evil. And as long as it was necessary, one had to sort of overlook the evil part of it. But if slavery no longer became economically necessary, then you could focus on the evil part and they could do exactly what the people of Massachusetts had done. They could consign it to the dustbin of history. That was the hope.

Now, there's one other way of looking at it. And that is sort of from the global perspective. In 1800, slavery was practiced pretty much everywhere on earth. And it was hardly thought to be a big deal at all. Slavery had existed from time immemorial. That's 1800. In 1900, slavery existed almost nowhere on Earth, even in the West Indies. Even in Brazil, slavery had ended. And so you know, there's something that was going on in the world between 1800 and 1900. And I would say it was modernization, and along with this, it's changing views of how people should be considered.

But it's only in the United States of America during this time period, that this major war was required to end slavery. So it doesn't seem to me to be out of the question at all, that America could have come up with a way of ending slavery without this huge war.

EICHER: That’s H.W. Brands talking with Marvin Olasky. To read more of their interview, we’ve posted a link in today’s transcript at worldandeverything.org.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Tuesday, May 18th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

If you’ve recently had a conversation with someone of a certain age you’ve probably heard him or her say that the good ole’ days were much better than today’s days.

Whitney Williams hears that quite often from her grandfather. It’s got him a bit down in the mouth. So, she wrote him this letter of encouragement which she’s going to share with us.

WHITNEY WILLIAMS, COMMENTATOR: Dear Daddy Dan,

A lot’s changed in the 84 years you’ve been on this earth, huh?

Long before refrigerator-freezer combos necessitated touchscreens, you anxiously waited for the ice man to bump down your little dirt road, cut off a block for your mama, and trade you some “Good Old Poly Pop” for a penny.

You reminisce with me about the day electricity finally illuminated your two-room schoolhouse. Back when social networking was listening in on the party line, and your Christmas morning consisted of fruit, nuts, and a new grass rope. “We were just as happy as a hog in the slop, you know. We didn’t know we was poor. Everybody was in the same shape,” you tell me. I can hear your smile through the phone as you think back on the good ol’ days …

Now, as you sit and watch mainstream media each day, you can’t help but lament over the world you’re leaving to me, your granddaughter, and to my sons, your great grandchildren. You’re frustrated with our current administration, you fear for our future. You feel you’ve failed us. That you could have done more! Should have done more! And you struggle over what could possibly be done at this point.

I beg you to turn off the TV. It’s not that I don’t see what you’re seeing. It’s just that I still see so much good.

Things may be going south in America, OK. Yes. I’ll give you that. There are more “genders” than there used to be. Who knows what will happen with our guns and our healthcare? Christians aren’t so popular these days. I know.

“But there’s still joy to be had, Daddy Dan!” I say. “Be not dismayed!”

No one can take away the Spirit living inside us, the sustenance of God’s Word, the coolness of the grass on our feet, the beauty of freshly fallen snow, the sweet coos of a new baby, the warmth of the sun, the crackle of a fire. Dessert’s not going anywhere for a long while, nor is laughter among friends.

I beg you: Don’t spend your final days lamenting. Instead, give grandmother’s hand a squeeze and thank her for putting up with you for 63 years. Enjoy a hamburger and a Coke with a friend up at the cafe. Be on the lookout for kind strangers, and continue to lend a helping hand when you can. Let the great magnificence of our God meet you in the middle of a thunderstorm, and consider that that same powerful, limitless God cares for little ol’ you, and your granddaughter, and your great grandsons—and He always will. Stop worrying about things you can’t change and consider our unchanging, ever-faithful God. Stop fretting over how bad things are and are yet to be for your great grandsons—they’re busy building their own good ol’ days.

I’m Whitney Williams.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: turmoil in the Republican Party. We’ll talk about recent changes in leadership and what could be coming as we approach the next election season.

And, we’ll take you to an art festival in Virginia where people are celebrating a return to some sense of what’s normal.

That and more tomorrow.

I’m Nick Eicher.

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

The World and Everything in It comes to you from WORLD Radio.

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The Bible says, "God’s voice thunders in marvelous ways; he does great things beyond our understanding."(Job 37:5)

Go now in grace and peace.

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