The World and Everything in It: May 26, 2026

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MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

Today: Dealmaking with Iran: a country that cannot win a battle, but rarely loses a negotiation.

NICK EICHER, HOST: I’ll talk with the president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in a few minutes.

Also today: How close is Cuba to the breaking point? We’ll talk with a former U.S. diplomat. 

And, a legal challenge that could reshape how IVF clinics handle human embryos.

Later, birding is booming, even as birds themselves are disappearing.

RYDER: Bird conservation is at a bit of a crossroads.

And WORLD Commentator Cal Thomas on what Americans are willing to endure today.

REICHARD: It’s Tuesday, May 26th. 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: Time now for the news with Kent Covington.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Iran latest » The U.S. military hit targets in southern Iran Monday. American forces struck missile launch sites and two Iranian boats spotted placing mines off the coast.

U.S. Central Command says the strikes were self-defense. The boats had moved in on U.S. ships — and a surface-to-air missile site nearby had locked onto American warplanes. Central Command spokesman Captain Tim Hawkins said the U.S. is still "using restraint" to keep the April ceasefire in place.

Hours before the strikes — Secretary of State Marco Rubio provided this update on peace talks:

RUBIO: We have a, what I think is a pretty solid thing on the table in terms of their ability to open up the straits, get the straits open, enter into a very real, significant time-limited negotiation on the nuclear matters, and hopefully we can pull it off. It has a lot of support in the Gulf. It has a lot of support globally.

Iran's foreign ministry said Monday the two sides have settled large portions of the framework, but warned an agreement isn't close.

President Trump, on social media, said negotiations are still "proceeding nicely."

Trump is also pushing to expand the Abraham Accords. He's calling on Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, and Jordan to normalize relations with Israel as part of any final deal. Those agreements brought together Israel and four Arab and African nations during Trump's first term. Pakistan has already rejected the idea — pointing to its long-standing position on Palestinian statehood.

Reconciliation update » Members of Congress are out of Washington this week but not out of the woods for passing priority legislation.

WORLD’s Harrison Watters has more.

HARRISON WATTERS: Senators left town last week for the holiday weekend without passing a funding bill for immigration enforcement agencies and House Republicans aren’t happy about it.

Florida Congressman Byron Donalds:

DONALDS: We were more than prepared and ready to do so. And then senators, for whatever reason, they got distracted, doesn’t make any sense to me.

A handful of Republican senators balked at passing the reconciliation bill after the Justice Department announced a nearly $2 billion-dollar fund to compensate victims of alleged Biden-era political targeting.

Majority Leader John Thune decided to reschedule a vote to next week.

Some House Republicans object to the idea of the government potentially compensating January 6th rioters. But many are more concerned about missing President Trump’s request to sign ICE funding into law by June 1st.

Once the Senate approves the budget bill, the House can vote to send it to the President’s desk.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Harrison Watters.

California chemical tank update » Officials in Southern California say the threat of a chemical tank exploding is over.

The tank at an aerospace plant in Garden Grove — near LA started overheating Thursday — forcing some 50,000 people from their homes.

The tank contains methyl methacrylate: a chemical used to make aircraft plastics. It’s flammable and toxic if inhaled.

Crews verified overnight that the chemical had cooled. Orange County Fire Authority Division Chief Craig Covey:

COVEY: Our members went into that exclusion zone again to validate what we were seeing and get those temperatures. The crack is there. We have verified that it's there and the tank has released its pressure.

But officials are not giving ‘all clear.’ The tank hasn't leaked, but Interim Orange County fire chief TJ McGovern says the public is still at risk.

MCGOVERN: We want to be clear that the evacuation zones are still in play. Please abide by those evacuation zones.

There's no timeline yet for when residents can return.

Healthcare workers in Africa face multiple risks » Healthcare workers in eastern Congo are at high risk and face two very real dangers amid a rare Ebola outbreak. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has more:

KRISTEN FLAVIN: The gravest threat is, of course, the virus itself. The disease has now killed more than 220 people, with suspected cases nearing a thousand. And some health workers themselves have been infected. At least one Congolese doctor has died.

In neighboring Uganda — three more health workers have tested positive.

And there is no vaccine for the particular strain that is spreading.

But the other threat to healthcare workers is the people they’re trying to help.

In the city of Bunia — at the heart of the outbreak — residents are pelting aid workers with stones, calling Ebola a hoax.

And locals have torched at least two treatment centers in the past week alone.

For WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

Philippines hotel collapse » Rescuers in the Philippines are racing to find 17 people still trapped under the rubble of a collapsed hotel. The unfinished nine-story building came down before dawn Sunday in Angeles City — north of Manila — after a fierce thunderstorm.

Four people are confirmed dead. Most of the missing are construction workers who were sleeping on the ground floor.

Three were pulled out alive on Monday. Officials are still hoping to find more survivors. But rescue teams are moving carefully through huge concrete slabs held up by twisted scaffolding.

I'm Kent Covington.

Coming up, dealmaking with Iran. And later, Commentator Cal Thomas on what Americans are willing to endure today

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Tuesday the 26th of May.

Glad to have you along 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: The Iran negotiations.

Headlines over the holiday weekend suggested movement toward a possible agreement—Iranian negotiators are in Qatar, oil prices are reacting, and President Trump says a deal could be “great and meaningful.” But the details seem fuzzy, and some of the toughest issues appear to be pushed into later talks.

Joining us now is Clifford May, founder and president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He’s also a former journalist and foreign correspondent who has reported from Iran and across the Middle East. Cliff, good morning.

CLIFFORD MAY: Nick, good to be with you.

EICHER: Well, when you strip away the diplomatic nuance that we heard all over the holiday weekend, what we heard in the media reports. What do you think we're actually looking at here? Is this beginning to resemble a genuine peace agreement, or maybe more of a temporary off ramp? What do you think?

MAY: I would say, Nick, neither of the above. I think it's very important to understand who we're dealing with here. These people are self-proclaimed jihadis. They don't believe in peace with infidels. They may think they may be convinced that a ceasefire is in their interest. They may want money because they don't have much right now. If they can get some money and make some concessions, they may be willing to do that. It's not entirely clear. Let me be honest with you, the off ramp is—I can't stand the phrase—there's no such thing as an off ramp from wars. Again, what we're negotiating here is a possible cessation of hostilities temporarily that might be in the interest of both parties, and if there is an agreement, it could also disappear an hour afterwards.

EICHER: I think I can stipulate to the idea of no off ramp, and as you were suggesting, I'd like to delve into this a bit. Who's buying time, do you think? Is this Washington or is this Tehran?

MAY: Well, both have an interest in it, and it's a matter of who is tougher on this. Why? Because, as you know, the Strait of Hormuz is not open for traffic, and that's having real impact on the global economy. Meanwhile, as I mentioned, the regime in Iran has been cut off from revenue at a certain point, that becomes very difficult for the regime, in that they can't pay salaries to, for example, the pilots of the fast boats that go out on essentially suicide missions during when you're doing a ceasefire into the Strait of Hormuz to either drop mines or board ships or do other things. They need to be able to pay them. But what you have to understand here is that these are people who say the way we win wars is by we have to be willing to accept bloodshed, conflict, pain, possibly martyrdom. We should celebrate if we get killed, and if this means our people get killed, in any number, that's fine with us. If our people starve, that's fine with us. We'll just blame the U.S. for that. So that's what's going on, the regime in Iran. Who's ever ruling it? If we can talk about that too, they're saying we can hold that we're tougher than Trump is. He'll blink before we do, and Trump's thinking, okay, I'm not so, I'm not going to blink so easily, but let's see if I can't work out a deal that helps me, even though I have to help them, but not too much.

EICHER: I don't want to read too much into this, and this is why I want to ask the question this way. Do you read much into the fact that the reporting that we're getting is that the first thing we're talking about is ending the fighting or keeping the fighting in that stopped mode and reopening the shipping routes, but not yet fully addressing the nuclear program of Iran. Is there some significance to that?

MAY: Well, the significance is that the regime doesn't want to address that at all. What they think is, okay, we got you over a barrel with a Strait of Hormuz. That's our trump card, we're going to play it. The basics is ok, the regime will let ships sail through the Strait of Hormuz, and the U.S. will stop the blockade of Iranian ports, and so is Hormuz for Hormuz, and then everything else to be negotiated later. In addition, they'll make more money if the Strait is open and no longer blockaded, so they can do all the things they do, build missiles, build drones, build and rebuild enrichment facilities under mountains, support terrorist proxies, Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis in Yemen, Shia militias in Iraq, all of that and more. Long negotiations benefits them as they see it, because they just drag it out and wear you down. They never win on the battlefield, but they almost never lose at the negotiating table.

EICHER: If we look back six months from right at this point, when we look back here, what will tell us whether this was a genuine turning point or simply an intermission before a lot more hostilities.

MAY: Yeah, if this doesn't work out the way we would really like, it still can be seen as what the Israelis have long called mowing the lawn. Right, mowing the lawn means you set your enemies to be back, but you know, put the lawnmower away in the garage, make sure it's got gas, because you're going to need it again. That may be what this ends up as. It won't be useless by any means, but it won't be a turning point by any means. If the regime is still in power and still has, as it will, it's what it calls its Islamic, Islamic revolutionary ambitions, and that's the goal of the jihad. That's what the regime is all about. Very hard for a revolutionary regime like that to say, you know what, we changed our mind. What we want is to give our people the best darn health care plan in the Middle East, and, and they should be able to retire at 65 with security. That's not what this regime is about.

EICHER: Clifford May is founder and president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. We appreciate your work over there, and thanks for making time for us.

MAY: My pleasure.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Coming up next, pressuring Havana.

Cuba’s economy has been sliding for months: More blackouts, more shortages, more strain.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Now the U.S. is turning up the pressure: moving an aircraft carrier strike group into the Caribbean, and bringing new charges against Raul Castro,  the 94-year-old former President.

WORLD’s Lindsay Mast has more.

LINDSAY MAST: I reached out to Charles Shapiro. He is a former U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela. During his more than 3 decades at the State Department he also served as the Coordinator for Cuban Affairs.

I noted the similarities between the Cuba indictment and military build up and the days preceding the extraction of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela. One key difference is that Raoul Castro is not the current leader of Cuba–at least not officially. I asked Ambassador Shapiro what other differences he sees.

CHARLES SHAPIRO: I mean both of them have had bad governments, but Cuba has had terrible governments since 1959. The Communist Party of Cuba and the Cuban government outlawed the private sector, the entire private sector.

The only independent institution in Cuba is the Catholic Church. There's a growing number of Protestant mainly fundamentalist churches, but they are not organized and they're not recognized by the government. They're not, they're not building churches and opening schools and doing the sorts of things that you, you see churches, Protestant churches, do around the world.

You know, you've heard this ad administration, that we don't want to do nation building. In Cuba if there's a change, we'll need nation building. They've got to reconstitute the court system. They've got to reconstitute the education system. They've got to, you know, find a way for churches to build church buildings. They have to, you know, at some point would have to recreate the entire structure for having elections.

They need all the sorts of stuff which the Trump administration says it doesn't want to do anywhere. They need help building democratic institutions in a country where there are none.

MAST: Ambassador, let’s talk about the incident detailed in the indictment. It describes the work of Brothers to the Rescue, a humanitarian organization which flew over the waters between Cuba and the U.S. on missions to rescue Cuban migrants. They spread pro-democracy flyers. And then two planes were shot down over international waters, killing four Americans. You took over as Director for Cuban Affairs two years later and you told me it was still being talked about.

SHAPIRO: Absolutely. Look, I mean your description of Brothers Rescue is pretty pretty accurate. there's huge migration by sea from Cuba to the United States in the late 80s and early 90s. Mostly in boats that were homemade boats that were not seaworthy, that people you know lashing together inner tubes and and and putting a you know something on top of the inner tubes and trying to cross ninety miles and it is not easy and lots of them lost their lives. So this group called Brothers to the Rescue had Manos al Rescate, had Cessnas, they would fly out, identify, you know, there's people in the water, there's a boat here, there's people in the water there, and pass the information to the United States Coast Guard so the Coast Guard could rescue them.

And we were issuing fifty thousand visas a year to Cubans to come to the United States. The idea was to prevent people from trying to take that unsafe passage. So then there were fewer and fewer boats. and so they then moved to a more political mission and would drop pamphlets in international airspace so that the wind would blow the pamphlets into Havana. And I have to tell you that irritated the Cubans unbelievably.We, the United States, the FAA, it actually warned them that you this is really dangerous. And they said, you know, that's our freedom as Americans to do this. And so two of the three planes were shot down over international waters.

MAST: What do you hear from people you know in Cuba, people you know in Miami? What is their mentality at this point towards these incremental moves, it seems, towards potentially some sort of change in Cuba?

SHAPIRO: Cuban Americans want to see a change in Cuba. Right? I mean for them, the country's a disaster. They've left.

You go to Miami, there's people who just arrived two years ago, you know, who are driving Ubers in Miami. People aren't happy. I mean they're going hungry. So I mean two hours a day of electricity in Havana, two hours a day with planned blackouts. So it means if your electricity in your apartment comes on at one in the morning, you've got to get up at one in the morning to charge a phone, charge your computer, and cook rice and beans for the day. Right? Because you gotta do it while the electricity is on. You know, government officials they're living okay. but it's ordinary people who are who are really paying the price.

MAST: Ambassador Shapiro, as always, thank you for your time.

SHAPIRO: Thank you.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Up next, taking on the in-vitro fertilization industry.

A lawsuit in Utah argues embryos created through IVF deserve stronger legal protection—and could reshape how clinics operate. WORLD’s Lauren Canterberry reports.

LAUREN CANTERBERRY: When Ashley Jensen and her husband began trying to get pregnant, they found themselves among the roughly 1 in 8 couples who struggle.

Jensen’s OBGYN ran some tests. When her bloodwork came back normal, the doctor made an unexpected suggestion.

JENSEN: You can just go to the IVF clinic. I was like, everything’s normal, go to IVF? Like those just don’t go together.

Jensen worked as a nurse at her OBGYN’s office and volunteered at a birth center. She knew enough about the complexities of reproduction to question why her doctor went straight to suggesting IVF.

JENSEN: Medically didn’t make sense to me.

IVF providers perform hundreds of thousands of treatments every year in the United States. But some patients wish they had been given more information about the true odds of success. Many more say providers failed to explain how many of their embryos will die or be discarded before they can be implanted.

The Utah-based organization Voice for the Voiceless hopes the new lawsuit will change that. Last month, the organization that ministers to women and couples considering abortion, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against seven Utah IVF clinics. A woman who underwent IVF joined the suit.

Frank Mylar represents the plaintiffs in the case.

FRANK MYLAR: I don’t think that there is an understanding of a lot of parents exactly how many they are discarding.

Most doctors will only transfer embryos considered normal after genetic testing.The Reproductive Medicine Associates Network says only about 25% of embryos created in a typical IVF cycle fall in that category.

The remaining embryos either died shortly after fertilization or are discarded if genetic testing shows potential chromosomal abnormalities. While some IVF clinics may implant more than one healthy embryo at a time, most only choose to implant the embryo the doctor has determined to be the strongest. From there, patients may freeze their remaining embryos or discard those that they do not plan to implant.

MYLAR: Very few, if any labs are really choosing ethics over expediency and cost savings. There is a way that you could do IVF that we say wouldn’t violate Utah law.

Though Utah only protects unborn babies from abortion after 18 weeks of pregnancy, the state protects all people’s rights “regardless of age, development, condition, or dependency.” Mylar and the plaintiffs hope a court will uphold that law and affirm that it extends to embryos created through IVF.

Kriss Martenson is the founder and director of Voice for the Voiceless.

KRISS MARTENSON: That’s what this lawsuit is. It’s not to make new law, it’s to uphold the law that we already have on the books.

While Martenson is an abolitionist and wants to see abortion and IVF ended completely, he says this case has a different goal.

He and the other plaintiff want IVF clinics to stop making more embryos than they plan to implant and to stop destroying them or allowing them to die.

MARTENSON: Ultimately what I want is for Utah to have equal protections and for us to win. And other states would be able to look at the wording in their legislation and be more specific for what human beings are and their equal rights.

Mylar and Martenson pointed to what is called ethical IVF as a potential alternative. Doctors who use the method only fertilize the number of eggs that the couple plans to implant during the same cycle. While traditional IVF may have more immediate success, ethical IVF avoids intentionally destroying or freezing human life.

Voice for the Voiceless also hopes that the case will bring more attention to alternative reproductive medicine.

That’s the route Ashley Jensen and her husband decided to pursue instead of IVF. As she sought other doctor’s opinions, Jensen learned about Natural Procreative Technology, or NaPro. It focuses on determining and treating the root causes of a woman’s infertility.

JENSEN: Their kind of slogan is "infertility is not a diagnosis, it’s a symptom.”

During her first call to a clinic, a nurse said she likely had endometriosis, a condition her doctors had never suggested.

JENSEN: I did end up having surgery for endometriosis. My surgery was like six hours long and then I got pregnant four months later.

The Jensens have three children now and she practices Restorative Reproductive Medicine.

Treating the underlying causes can improve the chances of having a healthy baby, regardless of if a couple chooses to pursue IVF. But she says she’s learned her patients’ doctors often don’t incorporate any methods besides IVF.

JENSEN: If you can just muster up enough money to do IVF that it will be your ticket. You’ll get pregnant. And that obviously is not the case for everyone.

Back in Utah, the plaintiffs are waiting to see how the case will proceed. So far, the defendants have not filed a response and a court has yet to weigh in.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Lauren Canterberry.

NICK EICHER, HOST: A diplomatic campaign celebrating America’s 250th birthday has hit the streets of New Delhi.

The U.S. Embassy plastered about a hundred auto-rickshaws with giant ads featuring images of President Trump and the slogan: “Happy Birthday America.”

SOUND: [Traffic horns]

The idea was to spread goodwill. The reality?

Some drivers seemed less interested in international friendship than practical considerations.

AUDIO: [Speaking in Hindi] My hood was torn—that’s why I got this.

This driver saying his rickshaw hood was torn and the ad covered it.

AUDIO: [Speaking in Hindi] They said put it on—we’ll give you a packet of tea.

Rickshaw driver Ganesh Kumar saying he held out on placing the ad until he was offered a packet of tea.

Ironic, too. For a republic born from disputes over tea, taxes, and tyrants, two-and-a-half centuries we’re still haggling over tea.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Tuesday, May 26th.

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

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

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

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: a bird decline.

Birding is a popular pastime for many Americans, but there are far fewer birds these days to watch.

Thousands of species across North America continue to decline—and conservationists are rethinking how to bring them back.

REICHARD: WORLD’s Emma Eicher took a walk with an Audubon Society educator in Western Pennsylvania and has the story.

SOUND: [Red winged black bird chirps, warbler chirps]

EMMA EICHER: Chris Kubiak is armed with binoculars in his jacket pocket.

CHRIS KUBIAK: That’s your northern parula, that’s a really cool looking warbler …

But he doesn’t use them. Instead, he bends his head and listens.

SOUND: [Bird chirps]

KUBIAK: See, right next to our left here, there’s a hooded warbler that’s making a loud chirp note back there.

Kubiak doesn’t have to see a bird to believe it’s there. He’s encountered about three to four thousand bird species over his lifetime … and now he mainly birds by ear, identifying them through sound alone.

KUBIAK: I'm better with bird language than human language, so I don't know why that is, but that is the case. [Chuckles]

SOUND: [Bird song]

KUBIAK: So there's a bird behind us that just sang, called a Tennessee warbler …

Birding is the act of watching—or in Kubiak’s case, more often listening—and appreciating birds. It’s one of the fastest-growing hobbies in the world. It grew significantly during the pandemic—when bored quarantiners set up feeders in their own backyard. Bird outings and related expenditures contribute about $279 billion to the economy each year.

The recent surge in avian enthusiasm coincided with a crisis event: in 2019, Science Magazine published a study that revealed a devastating population decline in North America. Since the ’70s, nearly 3 billion breeding adults have disappeared across more than 500 species—ranging from house sparrows to the red-winged blackbird.

BRANDT RYDER: I think it was eye opening for a lot of folks …

Brandt Ryder is a conservation scientist at the Bird Conservancy of the Rockies. He says the decline was the result of several factors, like habitat loss and pesticide use.

But the biggest culprit? Domestic and feral cats, which kill up to 4 billion birds every year in the U.S. alone.

Conservationists had known about bird population decline for decades, but this new study showed their efforts to reverse it just weren’t working. And it brought the problem to the forefront of the public.

RYDER: From my perspective, bird conservation is at a bit of a crossroads.

Ryder says the research forced a reckoning.

RYDER: I think we have faced a bit of a paradigm shift in bird conservation, and tried to have this inward look and ask this question, you know, are the things that we're doing, are they working, or do we need to do something different?

So, conservationists have been blazing new trails. One new strategy is an old one: to keep encouraging people to care more about the birds, and maybe keep their cats indoors.

A lot of people have responded to the call.

RYDER: There is a general appetite out there in the public for doing things that are beneficial to both just them, not just themselves, but also for the greater good of the planet.

And with birding on the rise, there’s renewed interest in so-called “backyard education.” In these programs, homeowners are encouraged to plant native wildflowers to attract birds and other native animals.

Ryder says his conservancy programs rely on volunteers, hired help, and birders. One activity is called eBird, where birders digitally log species they’ve encountered.

RYDER: Normal bird watchers, anyone out there bird watching, can create an eBird checklist, and that data is now being compiled and can be again used to track what's happening for the status and trends of these populations through time.

Species often face unique problems, from environmental destruction to pesticide poisoning and they require specific solutions.

For example, some grassland birds in the Rockies face habitat loss, so Ryder’s conservancy is replanting native grasses.

On the other hand, some birds are actually adapting to the changing environment, like the Baltimore Oriole. Here’s Kubiak again.

KUBIAK: Historically, they've been very closely tied to elm trees. We've lost a lot of our mature elms through Dutch elm disease, and there was a worry that they wouldn't adapt. But they've adapted just fine. Every year we're seeing that their numbers are increasing.

For Kubiak, his job at the Audubon Society doubles as an educational opportunity and a reminder that humans aren’t separate from nature.

KUBIAK: I think humans need to re-remember that we’re part of nature, we're part of the ecosystem, and this is how I connect to the natural world. But I think there's just, even if you don't want to be a bird nerd like myself, which I am, there's all sorts of great ways to connect to nature through birds.

Bird populations are still declining in North America. The 2025 U.S. State of the Birds report shows grassland birds have experienced the steepest losses.

Science lays out practical rescue efforts for the future, challenging ordinary people to remember what stewardship of the earth really means.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Emma Eicher in Western Pennsylvania.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And finally today: Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: The ceremonies included a reminder of the cost paid by generations of Americans who served and died for the country. Giving remembrances yesterday were the president and vice president, as well as the Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.

EICHER: WORLD commentator Cal Thomas says remembering that cost also raises a question about what Americans are willing to endure today.

TRUMP: Before we hail the founding, we honor the fallen. Before we celebrate the triumph, we pay the tribute. Before we crown the victory, we count the cost...

CAL THOMAS: Count the cost.

That phrase stayed with me over Memorial Day weekend.

As Americans gathered at cemeteries and memorials around the country, I found myself thinking not only about those who served and died, but about the generations that came home and built the country afterward.

We call them The Greatest Generation.

But do we stop to think about what made them great?

My mother used to tell me what life was like during World War II. I was too young to understand sacrifice at the time, because sacrifice was simply normal life.

Gas was rationed. So were many other things.

Long road trips were rare. If families ran short on ration stamps, neighbors shared. And when those neighbors needed help later, the favor was returned.

Neighbors knew neighbors. Neighbors helped neighbors.

People accepted inconvenience because they believed something larger was at stake.

But even those inconveniences were tiny compared to what others were being asked to give. Vice President JD Vance:

VANCE: ...weddings they never got to attend ... children they never saw grow up ... daughters and sons they never got to hug and kiss again..

The people back home gave up gasoline and comfort.

The people on the battlefield gave up entire futures.

That is the kind of cost Memorial Day calls us to remember. War Secretary Pete Hegseth.

HEGSETH: ...those graves are more than names and dates with a dash in between. Each grave marker is a story...

And that is what struck me as Americans debated the latest tensions involving Iran.

Now, I understand why many Americans are wary of foreign intervention. Many remember Iraq and Afghanistan and do not want another conflict in the Middle East.

Those are serious concerns.

But I also heard something else:

What about gas prices?

And that question stopped me.

Because I wondered when we became so quick to measure national problems against our own convenience.

Can we endure temporary inconvenience if the alternative is allowing a regime that sponsors terrorism to gain nuclear weapons?

Previous generations endured far more.

The Great Depression and World War II together consumed roughly sixteen years of American life.

Sixteen years.

The generation we celebrate on Memorial Day did not become great because life was easy.

They became great because they believed some things mattered more than comfort.

As we move toward America’s 250th birthday, perhaps that is something worth remembering.

For WORLD, I’m Cal Thomas.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: Washington Wednesday with Hunter Baker.

And, a tiny school that provides classical education for students with disabilities.

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.

WORLD’s mission is biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires.

The Bible says, “Turn to me and be gracious to me, as is your way with those who love your name. Keep steady my steps according to your promise, and let no iniquity get dominion over me. Redeem me from man’s oppression, that I may keep your precepts. Make your face shine upon your servant, and teach me your statutes.” —Psalm 119:132–135

Go now in grace and peace.

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