The World and Everything in It: May 19, 2026

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MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

The effort to make summer camps safer could shut some down.

FLORES: We cannot change what happened, but we can change how we prepare.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Also today, why Iran refuses to make serious concessions. We’ll talk to an expert.

And, faith and politics at Rededicate 250 in Washington.

Later: A tiny church preserving a historic landmark.

FOSTER: 1,003 people from 1850 to 1977 have been baptized in this baptismal pool.

And WORLD Commentator Cal Thomas on the difficulty of diplomatic dealmaking.

REICHARD: It’s Tuesday, May 19th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. 

I’m Mary Reichard.

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

REICHARD: Up next, Kent Covington with today’s news.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Iran latest » President Trump pulled the plug Monday on a U.S. military strike against Iran that was set for today.

Three Gulf leaders — from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates — personally appealed to Trump to hold off. They say serious talks with Tehran are now underway.

Trump told reporters at the White House Monday:

TRUMP: And I put it off for a little while, hopefully, maybe forever, but possibly for a little while 'cause we've had, uh, very big discussions with Iran, and we'll see, uh, what they amount to.

Meanwhile, the U.S. naval blockade is still choking Iran's ability to sell oil — its single biggest export. The squeeze has reportedly cost Iran nearly $5 billion in revenue since April.

White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly:

KELLY: President Trump ha- holds all the cards. Uh, they have been absolutely decimated militarily. They're now being strangled economically by Operation Economic Fury, and now they're more isolated than ever before.

She says Trump's red line stays the same: Iran can't have a nuclear weapon.

He posted on social media Monday — his words — “a deal will be made.” But he's told the Pentagon to be ready for a full-scale assault on a moment's notice if talks fall apart.

San Diego mosque shooting » The FBI and police in San Diego are still investigating what drove two teenage gunmen to attack a mosque Monday.

Police say the two suspects — ages 17 and 19 — drove to the Islamic Center of San Diego, opened fire, and killed three men before driving off.

Police arrived within four minutes. San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl:

WAHL: Our initial, uh, officers that got on scene, uh, did not engage with the suspects in the parking lot. Uh, they began to make entry into the Islamic Center. They observed three deceased bodies outside of, uh, the center.

The dead included a mosque security guard, who Wahl says kept the death toll from being higher. All the children at the mosque's school were safe.

Investigators found anti-Islamic writings in the suspects' car.

WAHL: Because of the Islamic Center location, uh, we are considering this a hate crime until it's not.

The shooters took their own lives a few blocks away in a stopped vehicle.

DOJ announces compensation fund » The Trump administration has set aside $1.7 billion dollars, for Americans who say the previous Justice Department wrongly targeted them.

It's the result of Trump dropping a $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over his leaked tax returns.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche calls it the “Anti-Weaponization Fund.” Anyone who claims political targeting can apply.

Officials haven't laid out specific eligibility rules or payout amounts — leaving that to the commission.

Trump told reporters at the White House:

TRUMP: They're getting reimbursed for their legal fees and the other things that they had to suffer.

Trump himself isn't eligible. But Democrats are blasting the fund. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer:

SCHUMER: Donald Trump has added a nearly two billion dollar slush fund for his MAGA allies to his wish list of pet projects he wants to fund with taxpayer dollars.

A five-member commission picked by Blanche will decide who gets paid — but Trump can fire any member without cause. The fund runs through December 2028.

GA, KY primary previews » Voters in six states head to the polls today to choose Republican and Democrat candidates for November’s midterm elections.

WORLD’s Harrison Watters has more on the top races.

HARRISON WATTERS: Voters in Alabama and Kentucky will select candidates to replace outgoing Republican Senators Tommy Tuberville and former Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. President Trump has endorsed loyalists from the House of Representatives running for both seats. He’s also endorsed a candidate running to unseat Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie. Massie has often voted against his party on expanding government spending, and last year forced a vote to release Department of Justice files on Jeffrey Epstein.

Meanwhile, Georgia Republicans hope to flip the seat of Democrat Senator Jon Ossoff, who narrowly won a special election in 2020. One name not on that ballot is outgoing Governor Brian Kemp, who many expected to run for Senate, but instead is stumping for one of five Republicans in the running. If no candidate gets more than 50% of votes, the top two will advance to a runoff election in June.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Harrison Watters.

SOUND: [Rail strike]

NY rail strike » Bullhorns replacing the normal sounds of trains rumbling into stations in New York. And rail workers are still marching with picket signs as the Long Island Rail Road strike continues.

Five unions and the railroad's parent agency are back at the bargaining table, pushed there Sunday by the federal National Mediation Board. Marathon negotiations ran past 1:30 am without a deal.

A quarter million daily commuters are starting their week on buses as New York Governor Kathy Hochul runs shuttles from six Long Island stations.

But the engineers' union vice president James Louis told CNN talks are — his words — "much more promising today than it was yesterday."

I'm Kent Covington.

Coming up, new camp safety laws after tragic deaths last summer. And later, commentator Cal Thomas on the difficulty of diplomatic dealmaking.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Tuesday the 19th of May.

Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard.

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

First up, an eleventh-hour reprieve.

President Trump announced he’s postponed a massive military assault on Iran scheduled to launch today. Trump says he called off the strike at the direct request of the leaders of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar. They report that serious negotiations are finally underway.

REICHARD: Joining us now to talk about it is Cliff May. He is the president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, and before that a journalist who covered the Iranian revolution of 1979.

Cliff, good morning!

CLIFF MAY: Good morning, good to be with you.

REICHARD: To start, let’s touch briefly on the President’s trip to China last week. What can you tell us about what effect those talks might have on the war with Iran?

MAY: I don't think they'll have much effect on the war with Iran. Now, President Trump said that Xi Jinping told him he didn't think that the regime in Iran should have sovereignty, should keep possession, have stronghold on the Strait of Hormuz, which is international waterway. That's nice that he said that. He said he didn't think that the regime should have nuclear weapons. That's nice that he said that. Will Xi Jinping do anything about either of those? I'm very dubious that he will. I don't think he will.

MAST: Axios reports that President Trump said that "the clock is ticking" and floated the possibility that "they are going to get hit much harder." Do you see this being different from the last few weeks of proposals and warnings…and resulting in more military conflict?

MAY: I think there's a good chance of it, and I think it's warranted that there be more military pressure on this regime, because the regime at this point has really given away nothing. It's been very tough. I think you need to understand who these people are. They believe themselves to be jihadis. In other words, they are fighting a holy war against America and the West, against Judeo-Christian civilization. This war began 1400 years ago. There is no way they can sit down and say, “Oh, let's negotiate peace,” but they can do a truce to give them time to rearm, and so they could be more pliable. But they're not there yet. We can discuss why, but they are not at the point where they are saying, “Okay, we'll make some serious concessions.” They're not there.

MAST: Well, let’s go ahead and discuss. Why?

MAY: Well, a couple of reasons. One is I don't think we understood how many weapons they had in their arsenal. We had the war last year, the 12 day war, June of 2025. I think at the end of that, President Trump thought we whacked these guys good, they won't want to do this again. That was not their response. Their response was, “Okay, we got whacked good, so now we need to make hundreds, 1000s more missiles, more drones for the next round. Would they hit Fordow, where we had an underground enrichment facility for to make uranium for nuclear weapons? We need to dig deeper.” And they began to do that under what's called Pickaxe Mountain. “We're going to dig so deep that B2s dropping massive ordnance penetrators can't reach us.” In other words, they said after the 12 day war, “We're going to build back better.” And so, I don't doubt that what Admiral Cooper and General Kane are saying when they say we got 80% of their missiles, but 80% means they got 20% left, that could be 1000 that could be a lot. I do think, in addition to what's going on, the economic strangulation campaign, sometimes known as Operation Economic Fury, we also need to resume Operation Epic Fury, or some new version of that, to destroy military targets, and perhaps to destroy, let's call them leadership targets again till we get back to people in power who are more willing to make serious concessions.

REICHARD: You’ve written that “maximum pressure on the regime means maximum support for the Iranian people.” How much are the Iranian people feeling that support right now?

MAY: I think not, not, not much. If they're getting weapons from anybody, and ammunition, and training, and coordination, I'm not aware of it. I think they want to be liberated, and I think they'll suffer a lot of serious sacrifices in order to have that, but I don't think they're getting the maximum support they hoped, yet. They would like to see this regime not saved, even in a weakened and crippled state, which is not nothing. That's an achievement from an American point of view. I think they would like to see this regime collapse, so they have the, at least the opportunity to have decent leaders, which they haven't had for the past 47 years.

MAST: Do you think public impatience from Trump signals vulnerability to Iran? Are the survival instincts of the Islamic Republic irreconcilable with American demands?

MAY: Absolutely, I think so. They, if – and I think they are – they're reading the American press. And they're looking at Congress. There's movements in Congress right now to stop, to say, let's stop this war. It was a mistake. If you're in the regime, you think, you know what, maybe we can count on them. Also, if you read in a lot of the media, you'll see, oh, this war is not going well. It's going very well for the regime. They're doing much better. We're not, even though they've lost, you know, if you think about it and, I mean, imagine if this regime had eliminated the president and the secretary of state and dozens of his deputies. I mean, you would say they're losing. This regime is hurt for sure, but of course they are willing to make sacrifices. Martyrdom is a, is a noble aspiration after all, and and surrender is not, capitulation is not, not to the infidels. So yes, I do think the regime is getting some encouragement from, from our side.

REICHARD: If negotiations fail, what’s it look like to go from Operation Economic Fury to Operation Epic Fury?

MAY: Continue the strangulation, continue the blockade of ports as it is right now, the regime is losing what would be like 400 to $500 million a day. Car Island is where the tankers load up on the oil. That's not happening at this point. President Trump, so far, has been careful. This may not continue too much longer. In that, for example, on Kharg Island, we, we bombed out the military infrastructure, but not the oil infrastructure. Why not? Because President Trump would like to leave in place as much as possible for a new and better regime, so that they're not impoverished for years. He has tried hard, and he hasn't so far, to hit anything that is, that would really make civilians suffer.

MAST: You’ve said wars of choice can prevent threats from metastasizing. So if President Trump really decides time’s up and orders bombers back to Iran, what’s the endgame?

MAY: Look, the end game is the collapse of the regime. The end game should be, and I think it's important that the Strait of Hormuz becomes an international waterway, and we enforce that, and don't let them. I do think that the U.S. can rise to the occasion. I don't think that the regime in Iran, now crippled, can or should win this conflict.

REICHARD: Cliff May is the president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD). Cliff, thank you!

MAY: Thank you, guys.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: Texas camps prepare for summer under tough new rules.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: New state safety requirements took effect after last summer’s deadly flooding at Camp Mystic killed 25 campers and two counselors.

But camp operators say some of the changes are unrealistic. WORLD’s Mary Muncy reports.

MARY MUNCY: When Carrie Hanna was a little girl, she spent parts of her summer at Camp Mystic, a Christian summer camp in Hunt, Texas, near the Guadalupe River. When Hanna had little girls, she wanted them to go there, too.

HANNA: I met my best friends there, learned how to be a good sport and grow spiritually.

Hanna told the Texas legislature about her 9-year-old daughter Hadley’s excitement at drop-off last year.

HANNA: Once I convinced them to come outside and take one last selfie, and tell me goodbye, Hadley jumped down from the porch and started cartwheeling her way to her cabin. She heard me laughing, stopped, turned around, threw her hands in the air and screamed, ‘I love this place.’

Hadley died in the flooding at Camp Mystic last summer. The Guadalupe River has seen some major floods, but last year’s broke every record. Afterward, investigators determined the camp’s safety plan was inadequate, even though the camp passed inspection just two days before the flood.

HANNA: Our precious, hilarious, kind, caring, silly, loving, little girl who always wanted to help others died because there was no plan.

Lawyer and investigator Casey Garrett testified as well.

GARRETT: There was a Shelter In Place plan, there was not an evacuation plan for when sheltering in place was no longer viable.

In Texas, summer camps must have emergency plans to be licensed.“Shelter in place” counts as a plan.

State Senator Pete Flores.

FLORES: We cannot change what happened, but we can change how we prepare for and respond to the next emergency.

In September, the legislature passed what’s known as the

“Heaven’s 27 Camp Safety Act,” named after the 27 children and councilors who died at Camp Mystic.

Camps are now required to have an evacuation plan that every person at the camp knows. It also requires redundant warning systems, specifically, fiber-optic internet as a backup. That requirement raised alarms for rural camps. Fiber is too expensive for some, and others are so far off the beaten path that internet companies wouldn’t install it.

BILES: We also want to keep campers safe, but there's not a one size fits all solution.

Paul Biles is the director of Tejas Camp and Retreat Center in Texas. His camp and several others filed a lawsuit to remove the fiber-optic requirement:

BILES: We don't like to put a price tag on safety and things like that, in that sense of, ‘oh, we're not going to do that because it costs too much.’ But for many rural camps a bill like that is their yearly revenue, and so to be able to expect them to pay for something like that is just unrealistic when there's definitely other options available that would serve the same needs.

Some of those options could include Starlink and wireless internet.

Biles and his lawyers believe nearly half of the 360 camps licensed last year did not have fiber optic internet. Many of those now have it, but Biles thinks about 50 were struggling to get it in time for the deadline and would have been unable to open. But the state of Texas struck a deal this month: Camps that maintain redundant internet services and meet the law’s other requirements will be allowed to open without fiber-optic internet.

What happened in Texas has set off preventive action elsewhere. Henry DeHart is the CEO of the American Camp Association.

DEHART: There are currently 11 other states that are looking at strengthening their emergency planning laws in along the lines of what Texas did.

DeHart says Texas needed to update its laws and other states do too, but too much detail can make it untenable.

DEHART: Details around, you know, having redundant communication systems, training and rehearsing where appropriate your emergency plans, you know, things like that. That level of specificity was helpful. Getting granular in that can be problematic in any law.

DeHart says summer camp laws vary from state to state, and parents should do their homework, but…

DEHART: Camps would not be in business if they didn't pay attention to the safety of the campers that were in their care… Folks are in this business because they believe in youth development. They’re trying to make a change in the world.

Texas is still in the process of making sure every camp meets the updated licensing requirements as camps prepare to start welcoming kids by the end of the month.

Reportg for WORLD, I’m Mary Muncy.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Up next, a patriotic rally in the nation’s capital that doubled as a Sunday worship service.

Thousands gathered on the National Mall to pray, worship and reflect on the Christian roots of the United States.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: The event, called Rededicate 250, was one of a number of government-sponsored celebrations commemorating the 250th anniversary of the founding of this nation. But some critics call it a sign of Christian nationalism.

Here’s WORLD’s Juliana Chan Erikson with the story.

REDEDICATE 250: We welcome you and we welcome Jesus to this house.

JULIANA CHAN ERIKSON: Sunday’s Rededicate 250 had all the makings of an ordinary church service.

It had personal testimonies and Scripture reading…

REDEDICATE 250: And he made a covenant before the Lord…

… preaching about the need for God and a relationship with Jesus.

REDEDICATE 250: I cried out to God and prayed…

… and thousands of Christians singing and lifting their hands in worship. Many had come from all over the country, missing their own church service for a different sort of worship event.

Ken Sims from Bethel, North Carolina attended and describes himself as a follower of Jesus.

KEN SIMS: We're just hoping to experience an awesome time in prayer and fellowship.

But pastors weren’t the only ones talking about God and Christian faith.

MIKE JOHNSON: My humble assignment here today is simply to bring us straight to the Lord in a prayer of rededication. Would you join me in that?

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson led the crowd in prayer, and Republican Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina reflected on his personal Christian faith.

TIM SCOTT: I’m talking about the one that saved my life, Jesus. My king, my Lord and my everything.

Scott and other politicians also spent time discussing another idea—that America has been destined to be a Christian nation.

SCOTT: The principles contained in the Declaration of Independence are saving principles. Can I get an Amen? Saving principles. Stand by those principles, be true to them, on all occasions, in all places, against all foes.

Some pastors also shifted from talking about love for God to talking about the founding fathers.

ROBERT JEFFRESS: These leaders who loved our country and loved our God would be called Christian nationalists today.

Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas addressed critics who said this event blurred the line between separation of church and state.

JEFFRESS: If being a Christian nationalist means loving Jesus Christ and loving America, count me in!

Crowds cheered, but some exercised caution about using the term Christian nationalist.

LARRY ARNN: You have to be clear about the relationship.

Larry Arnn is president of Hillsdale College and says historically, Americans have held large prayer gatherings like these, both in crisis and celebration. He said Sunday’s event was no different. But he added that being a Christian nation doesn’t necessarily mean converting everyone. It also means giving citizens the right to choose.

LARRY ARNN: Freedom of religion was first fully realized in the United States of America, and the founders took great pride in that. See, and they thought that was a natural, rational thing to do, and also a Christian thing to do, that is the sense in which it's a Christian nation.

Last week a Pew survey noted that a growing number of Americans believe religion plays a positive role in public life. But the majority still say churches and other houses of worship should remain silent on political matters. Seventy nine percent of Americans, for example, say houses of worship should not endorse political candidates.

Back at the rally, spectator Tammy Howard talked about balancing a public faith as a Christian with respect for other people’s beliefs.

TAMMY HOWARD: I do speak the word of the Lord to people, and if they don't like it, then that's fine. As long as I have, they have their views, I have mine.

But she said it’s that holding of different views that makes America an exciting place to live. Reporting for WORLD, I’m Juliana Chan Erikson.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: One young owl learned a hard lesson the hard way.

He got himself trapped inside a cement mixer at a construction site in southwestern Utah.

While pouring concrete, workers discovered the bird: they hosed him down, wrapped him in a towel, and sent him to a wildlife sanctuary.

Staff spent days picking dried concrete from his feathers, but the damage left him unable to fly silently, giving delicious prey a chance to escape.

So wildlife staff performed a delicate procedure called “imping”, that is, grafting donor feathers onto the damaged wing.

After months of recovery, the moment of truth.

The great horned owl lifted off, hovered for a moment, then disappeared soundlessly back into the wild.

Older and wiser.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Tuesday, May 19th.

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

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

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

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: a sacred space. For more than 170 years, a quiet, spring-fed pool has helped believers make public professions of faith.

A new historical marker is drawing fresh attention to the spot. Here’s WORLD Senior Writer Kim Henderson.

KIM HENDERSON: Little Bahala Baptist Church in South Mississippi has something few churches can claim: an outdoor baptismal pool. Built in 1850, the spring-fed baptistry is the oldest in the state and possibly the region.

Pastor Andy Delancy showed me the site.

DELANCY: This is the old spring head. I don't know how long this has been here. But you can see the water is clear as it can be. You can see three feet deep down there.

So there’s a spring, and a few yards away, dug into the ground, there’s a bricked baptistry, what they call a “baptismal pool.” It fills with water flowing from the spring. But there’s a shut-off valve. When I visited last November, the baptistry was empty, and men from the church were making repairs.

FLOYD: We got just a couple leaks that we want to stop before we put a coat of sealer on this.

That’s David Floyd. He remembers church services in this very spot.

MAN: Walk right down the hill, right down to the baptism right here. There used to be a set of steps that came off down in here…

Floyd himself was baptized in the cool water of the pool when he was 12.

MAN: July, and you will come out with chill bumps all over you. I promise you.

But the church got an indoor baptistry in 1978. This outdoor pool is rarely used.

MAN: There were two baptized here, I think in 2014.

Glen Foster doesn’t live in the community now, but his family members were some of the first settlers in the area.

FOSTER: Where those pine trees over there go across at an angle, is the old Choctaw Indian boundary line from the Treaty of 19, 1806…

The Foster family owned the land around the church, and they’ve been informal caretakers of the baptismal pool for five generations.

FOSTER: My dad and his 10 siblings, all 11 of them, were baptized in this baptismal pool right here.

AUDIO: [Sound of water splashing]

FOSTER: You touch it, it's like ice water, [KH:All the time?] All the time.

In 1980, the Foster Family restored the grounds.

FOSTER: Hauled in 40 yards of dirt, 20 yards of pea gravel, put a fence around it…

And for the last four decades, they’ve tried to keep it looking nice. When one of Glen Foster’s cousins suggested they get a state historical marker for the baptismal pool, the family voted yes. The church approved as well. So, they got the Mississippi Department of Archives and History involved.

ELLISON: Only the state authorizes these types of markers, and what makes it distinct from other markers is that it has the green background with the Magnolia at the top.

Caleb Ellison is a program manager for the agency. He says close to 1,400 markers currently dot the state’s landscape.

ELLISON: Markers are primarily paid for and promoted by sponsors. So it's the local community that is giving us the recommendation to make the markers.

The sponsor submits an application, then a team at the Department of Archives and History takes the text that’s proposed for the marker and verifies it.

ELLISON: We use our archives, but we also use newspapers. We ask the sponsors to send us information that they have themselves.

The making of a marker is a six-month process. It happens out of state, in Ohio.

AUDIO: [Sound of shovels]

When I returned to the baptismal pool in April, men with shovels were trying to make a dent in hard ground near the road.

FOSTER: There's a 3 foot hole there that we're going to put the post down in. We're going to put a little additional concrete there to hold the pole . . .

Glen Foster was there, along with some men from the church. The new marker was, too—weighing in at 80 pounds, wrapped up in Foster’s truckbed.

When the men finished setting it in place, they covered it with fabric.

FOSTER: When we have the dedication service on the 18th, we will unveil it.

And two weeks later…

AUDIO: [Crowd reacts and claps]

…the unveiling caused just the reaction Foster hoped for.

AUDIO: [Sound of crowd]

The marker dedication drew a crowd. It was a historic event. It was a spiritual event.

FOSTER: I have counted up through there, through all the records, I have 1,003 people from 1850 to 1977 have been baptized in this baptismal pool…

Family member Don Wallace stood before the crowd to pray.

WALLACE: Thank you for every soul who has stepped into these waters, for every tear of repentance and for every song of joy that has echoed in this sacred place. Lord, may this pool continue to be a wellspring of grace for generations to come.

Wallace prayed that the waters of the baptismal pool would serve as a reminder of God’s unchanging love and promise of a new life in Christ. It was a prayer 176 years in the making, with a view toward eternity.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kim Henderson in Little Bahala, Mississippi.

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

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

With tensions in Iran rising — and negotiations off-again, on-again — the debate in Washington is no longer whether Iran can be trusted.

The debate is whether diplomacy alone can stop a regime determined to get nuclear weapons.

WORLD commentator Cal Thomas says history offers a clear answer.

CAL THOMAS: Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently met with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican.

The Pope continues urging diplomacy and peace.

Rubio sounded respectful but realistic about the danger posed by Iran’s rulers.

RUBIO: I expressed … updated them on the situation with Iran, expressed our point of view about why this was important, and the danger that Iran poses to the world, which is largely recognized. So, obviously, the Holy Father is a spiritual leader … and obviously the church has always interacted on behalf of a mission for peace and a respect for all of humanity.

Of course! Peace is always preferable.

The problem comes when one side wants peace and the other side wants power.

Iran’s rulers have spent decades funding terror groups, brutalizing dissidents, threatening Israel, and pursuing regional domination.

Diplomacy works when both sides ultimately want stability.

But history is filled with regimes that interpret conciliation not as goodwill, but as weakness.

More than a century ago, Winston Churchill warned that militant Islam was not a fading force, but an expansionist one.

Ronald Reagan understood something similar about the Soviet Union.

When Reagan called it an “evil empire,” critics recoiled. Some advisers reportedly urged him to remove the phrase.

He refused.

Reagan believed moral clarity mattered more than fashionable diplomacy.

And eventually, the Soviet Union collapsed.

Now the same debate surrounds Iran.

RUBIO: I think everybody agrees that Iran having a nuclear weapon is unacceptable … except the Ayatollah. So, I think the question is, what do you do about it? And the president's actually trying to do something about it. …we've had every American president say, ‘Oh, they can't have a nuclear weapon.’ This is the first American president actually trying to do something concrete about it.

That is the question.

What do you do about a regime that repeatedly cheats, kills, threatens, and expands its influence through violence?

In the meeting between the Pope and the Secretary of State, the two exchanged gifts.

Pope Leo gave Rubio a pen made from an olive branch.

Rubio gave the Pope a crystal football.

An oddly fitting exchange.

One symbolized reconciliation.

The other symbolized conflict.

But history suggests evil rarely retreats simply because it is asked politely to do so.

For WORLD, I’m Cal Thomas.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Tomorrow: Hunter Baker will be along to talk politics on Washington Wednesday. And, a family seeks to rebuild after Georgia wildfires destroyed their home. 

That and more tomorrow. I’m Lindsay Mast.

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

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, “Your hands have made and fashioned me; give me understanding that I may learn your commandments. Those who fear you shall see me and rejoice, because I have hoped in your word. I know, O LORD, that your rules are righteous, and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me. Let your steadfast love comfort me according to your promise to your servant.” —Psalm 119:73–76

Go now in grace and peace.

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