The World and Everything in It: May 7, 2025

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Good morning!

Congress passes the Take It Down Act, a bill that means what it says: Ordering online platforms to get rid of explicit deepfakes.

GAETAN: Sometimes an issue is so important it takes Congress by storm and thankfully TAKE IT DOWN took Congress by storm.

NICK EICHER, HOST: The details ahead on Washington Wednesday.

Also today, WORLD Tour, who’s stepping in after the U.S. hit pause on foreign aid.

And later, when caregiving stops:

UHLIR: I wept. My father died from complications of Parkinson's. So I knew what was coming. Larry did not.

MAST: It’s Wednesday, May 7th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Lindsay Mast.

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

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

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR:  Trump says Houthis want to halt conflict » President Trump says Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen are waving the white flag of surrender.

TRUMP: The Houthis have announced that they are not -- or they've announced to us at least -- that they don't want to fight anymore. They just don't want to fight. And we will honor that. We will stop the bombings.

Trump says the Houthis have agreed to end all attacks against shipping vessels in the Red Sea. The terror group has been launching attacks in key shipping channels since the start of war in Gaza in 2023.

The announcement came after the Israeli military launched a new round of airstrikes against Houthi targets. Israel says those attacks crippled the international airport in Yemen's capital.

Carney at White House » The president’s remarks on Tuesday came as he hosted Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in the Oval Office.

The two leaders met on a range of issues, but trade and tariffs topped the agenda. Asked about the possibility of the U.S. and Canada sealing a new trade deal, Trump responded:

TRUMP: I would love that. Look, I have a lot of respect for this man.

And despite recent tensions over trade, the meeting was respectful, even friendly.

But Carney held firm when Trump once again suggested that Canada should become a US state.

CARNEY: As you know from real estate, there are some places that are never for sale.

The prime minister said he heard loud and clear from Canadian voters on that point in last week’s national election in which Carney’s party emerged victorious.

India-Pakistan » President Trump Tuesday also reacted to news that India’s military struck multiple sites inside Pakistani controlled territory. That came two weeks after a deadly attack on tourists in the disputed Kashmir region. India had accused Pakistan of supporting the attack.

TRUMP: I guess people knew something was gonna happen based on a little bit of the past. They've been fighting for a long time, many, many decades, I just hope it ends very quickly.

India's Air Force did not cross the border but its missiles did. And Pakistan’s prime minister called it an act of war.

Officials in Pakistan last night said the missile strikes killed eight people. India’s Defense Ministry says it targeted sites “where terrorist attacks against India have been planned.”

SCOTUS military trans ban ruling » The Supreme Court is allowing the Pentagon to enforce a ban on so-called transgender service members while legal challenges proceed. WORLD’s Christina Grube has more.

CHRISTINA GRUBE: The high court ruled Tuesday in the dispute over a policy that effectively disqualifies from service those who identify as anything other than their biological sex.

In response to an executive order by President Trump, the Pentagon then gave the military services 30 days to identify so-called transgender troops and then another 30 days to secure their separation.

But pro-LGBT activist groups sued, and multiple judges halted the military rules.

The high court ruled 6 to 3 to allow enforcement for now.

The court’s three liberal justices said they would have kept the policy on hold.

For WORLD, I’m Christina Grube.

Top Trump officials to meet with Chinese counterparts » Top U.S. officials are set to meet with a high-level Chinese delegation this weekend in Switzerland. The administration on Tuesday announced the first major talks with China since the ongoing trade war began more than a month ago.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent:

BES SENT:  We've agreed to talk. Then on Saturday and Sunday we will agree what we're gonna talk about. My sense is that this will be about deescalation, not about the the big trade deal.

The discussions in Geneva will be the most-senior meeting between the two countries in months.

Bondi announces record fentanyl bust » The Justice Department just announced what officials are calling the biggest fentanyl bust in US history after a multi-state operation.

Attorney General Pam Bondi:

BONDI: 3 million pills going on our streets, 3 million pills, the streets of our country, laced with fentanyl, labeled as oxycodone.

Authorities also seized more than 40 firearms, 75 pounds of methamphetamine, as well as heroin and cocaine.

The operation spanned a half-dozen states from Nevada to Colorado to Oregon.

US Attorney Ryan Ellison told reporters:

ELLISON: 16 individuals have been arrested, including the alleged leader, Eddie Alberto Salazar Maya, an illegal alien from Mexico with two prior removals and direct ties to the Mexican cartel.

The individuals face charges including conspiracy and distribution.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: a crackdown on internet companies that host explicit deepfakes. Plus, a World Tour special report on international aid.

This is The World and Everything in It.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: It’s Wednesday, the 7th of May.

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

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

It’s Washington Wednesday. Our main story today is one that is probably not suitable for younger ears. It has to do with A-I generated explicit deepfake images of real people. That’ll get started shortly, so you’ve got time to decide whether it’s appropriate.

MAST: First, an update on the federal budget.

Last week, the White House released its spending blueprint for the new fiscal year. It calls for a 23-percent reduction on discretionary spending by Congress.

Cedarville University economics professor Jared Pincin spoke with WORLD’s Washington bureau … He said it’s a long time coming.

PINCIN: I don’t know if I can remember a time where they’ve actually cut spending—like actually cut spending.

EICHER: Even so, the budget doesn’t touch entitlement programs that add the most to the deficits and debt. Republicans like Congressman Rich McCormick of Georgia say it’s just a start—and that’s putting it generously.

MCCORMICK: Remember, non-discretionary spending makes up 10% of the budget. And we expanded the military, so obviously, 10% of the budget and we’re talking about reducing [it] by 24%, we’ll take 1/10 of that. That’s 2.4 percent of the budget.

MAST: The budget also seeks an additional 13% for defense, and that accounts for more than a trillion dollars.

Congress will be hammering out the numbers in the weeks to come. More on that as the process unfolds. In the meantime, our Washington team will keep you posted online at WNG-dot-ORG, and we’ll have a link for you to follow in the program transcript.

EICHER: Last week, the House passed the Take It Down Act—one of the first A-I focused bills to win congressional approval. It requires social platforms to remove non-consensual intimate deepfakes within 48 hours—and criminalizes their publication. WORLD Washington bureau reporter Leo Briceno explains what this means for victims and tech companies.

LEO BRICENO: Noelle Martin was 18 when she searched for images of herself on Google.

MARTIN: Before I ever found out what was happening to me, it was already too late.

Strangers online had taken images from her social media and manipulated them into pornographic images. Law enforcement told her there was nothing they could do to bring the perpetrators to justice. And websites were slow to remove the images, while users online copied them and posted them elsewhere.

MARTIN: I could never ever get on top of the situation because it had spread too much.

Today, Martin, who works in partnership with The University of Western Australia, is an advocate against the creation and spread of intimate deepfakes.

It’s an old problem supercharged by artificial intelligence.

MARTIN: It’s become a fully fledged online industry. The biggest sites that have been created that are dedicated to this abuse have amassed billions of views.

Lawmakers in the U.S. have taken notice. Last Monday, Congress passed a bill looking to address those harms through the TAKE IT DOWN Act. It’s one of the first AI-related bills to pass Congress. Here’s Congressman Jay Obernolte of California, former Chairman of the Bipartisan Task Force on Artificial Intelligence.

OBERNOLTE: In one way, I’m very happy; Obviously as a co-sponsor of the bill, and someone who’s been very vocal in expressing my belief that non-consensual intimate imagery is something we should all be able to agree is not okay.

The bill passed in an overwhelming 409 - 2 vote. Advocates take that as a good sign it will become law.

GAETAN: Sometimes an issue is so important it takes Congress by storm and thankfully Take It Down took Congress by storm.

Eleanor Gaetan is Vice president and Director of Public Policy at the National Center on Sexual Exploitation or NCOSE.

GAETAN: It requires online platforms to remove non-consensual sexually explicit material within 48 hours of being notified. And then it criminalizes the publication of those images whether they’re actual images of a real person or AI generated images that look exactly like a person.

Penalties for violating the act could result in three years behind bars, and/or a fine of up to 250-thousand dollars ($250,000). The law would apply in instances of interstate or foreign commerce.

So what about the votes against the bill?

Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie had concerns about the penalties.

MASSIE: It’s so vague. My great concern is that the platforms that would be liable for hosting this stuff are just going to put on such a strong filter that a lot of stuff gets filtered out. And then also I think they’re going to be on a hair trigger to take stuff down given the severity of the punishment if they don’t.

He’s also worried about what the two-day requirement means for smaller web platforms that may lack capacity to police their content.

MASSIE: Like what’s a small startup web hosting thing that’s like the next Facebook or the next Twitter, they’re gonna have to spend you know a lot of money trying to make sure that this problem this regulation doesn’t—they don’t run afoul of this regulation and it may keep them from getting started up.

Massie says he would like more clear guidelines in the language on what it means to create an image in someone else’s likeness.

Gaetan, the Vice president at NCOSE, believes that innovation will be able to help address some of Massie’s concerns.

GAETAN: There is extremely successful AI tools to identify imagery that would comply with this law and get rid of it. So we believe in the incredible success and genius of these companies to be able to solve so many problems including this one.

When asked about the two-day window, the bill’s co-sponsor Congressman Obernolte told me that he’s expecting legal challenges, but that the line has to be drawn somewhere.

OBERNOLTE: To anyone who objects to the two-day provision, my question is, well, what is the right amount of time? Two days, I think as we get into implementation of the bill, we’ll see if that’s too long or too short, or just right.

Last year, Australia amended its Criminal Code to give platforms 24 hours to take down non-consensual deepfake content. But Noelle Martin says companies regularly ignore those requirements.

MARTIN: Some of the challenges that we have is websites not actually complying with any requests or they are taking too long to respond. And then by that time, things are reposted, amplified, resurfaced.

Martin says the burden of compliance should be shared by everyone involved—users, platforms, AI companies, and more. She believes that’s the only way to attack the problem.

MARTIN: Like you have to do both. It can’t be one emphasis on just the removal without also holding the whole pipeline to account, otherwise the response is going to be superficial and won’t tackle the root causes of this.

So what can families do to protect their children from this? Some Christian researchers say it’s time to get off—and stay off—social media.

MORELL: The platforms and its algorithms celebrate vice rather than virtue.

Clare Morell is a Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, DC.

She says that families should think carefully about whether they use social media, since the pictures and videos young people post online can be exploited.

MORELL: Be really careful who you share photos with, who you text photos to and be very careful uploading them online. I personally would advise parents to not allow their children under 18 on social media for this reason. But if they are, then they should be really cautioned about being careful knowing that that can sadly be used against them.

The TAKE IT DOWN Act is now headed to President Donald Trump’s desk for his signature.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Leo Briceno in Washington, D.C.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: World Tour.

The Trump administration froze a wide variety of foreign aid when it took office in January. The U-S State Department said it needed 90 days to figure out where development money was going and what it was being spent on. Accounts of waste and profiteering bolstered the White House argument.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: But legitimate international aid groups also found themselves scrambling to fill the funding gap. Some programs had to be shut down. Others cut back.

The U-S has reinstated some of the funding, but other countries are also stepping in, bringing with them their own agendas and priorities.

WORLD Reporter Onize Oduah has this special report.

ONIZE ODUAH: In January, word of the paused U.S. aid brought some initial confusion to the World Relief team in Sudan.

BIRHANU: You know that within a very short time, they approve, then a little bit, after a few days, they disapprove. So it was interrupted several times.

Gemta Birhanu is the regional director of World Relief’s programs in Sudan, South Sudan, and Chad.

The US funded agricultural service for displaced people and host communities program was eventually reinstated, but that wasn’t the case for others.

Birhanu says a different program that provided water, sanitation, and hygiene services to nearly 1 million people in South Sudan wrapped up, but was not renewed.

BIRHANU: We have submitted several projects for Sudan and South Sudan, which were about to be approved, and those projects which were at final negotiations were automatically canceled.

The ministry had to let go of more than 400 workers in South Sudan. It also closed down more than 25 health centers. The group has shifted its focus to finding new partners.

BIRHANU: The impact is really significant on us. However, World Relief is doing its best to mobilize resources from private donors.

Birhanu says the group is also trying to capitalize on its existing partnerships with other United Nations organizations active in the countries.

In countries like Nigeria, State Minister for Health, Dr. Iziaq Salako admitted that the foreign aid pause provided a wake-up call for the country to reorganize its health sector. Authorities there launched a committee to draft a transition plan for USAID-funded health programs.

Meanwhile, other countries like Saudi Arabia are ramping up their global support. Back in February, the Saudi-based King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center partnered with the United Nations Development Program. Together, they assisted Yemeni communities dealing with the effects of armed conflict.

A month later, it donated more than $5 million to support Ukrainian refugees combating sex-based violence against women and girls.

China has also entered the mix. One week after the United States canceled funding for two projects in Cambodia supporting child literacy and nutrition efforts, China launched similar programs. U.S. officials say the country made a similar move after USAID ended a childhood development project in Rwanda.

LANGLEY: There’s a number of programs that we see that the Chinese communist party is trying to replicate. They can’t do what we do.

Gen. Michael Langley is the commander of U.S. Africa Command. He says China is trying to exploit the U-S exit, even though the U-S has proven to be a better strategic partner.

LANGLEY: Those capabilities are needed for the U.S. to maintain a strategic advantage over the Chinese Communist Party.

But not everyone believes China suddenly shifted strategy to capitalize on the United States’ absence.

Christian-Geraud Neema is the Africa editor of the nonprofit multimedia organization China-Global South Project. He says China was already working in countries like Rwanda ahead of the U.S. financial withdrawal. He also sees the U.S. strategy on the continent as very different from China’s.

NEEMA: China’s development … vision of development aid comes with financing investment and projects. That’s why what China calls development aid also comes with forms of like, for example, financing railways, financing projects ….

He says here that China’s approach to aid includes loans and financing for projects like railways.

That approach could change in the coming years. But for now, many donor-receiving countries are still trying to understand the impact of the funding gap and how to fill those gaps, whether internally or with new partners.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Onize Oduah.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Swimmer Gary Hall Jr. was no stranger to the Olympic medal podium. He’d just never received so many in a single day. Until this week.

The International Olympic Committee presented replacements at a ceremony.

SOUND: “Never before have 10 Olympic medals been replaced, probably because nobody's lost 10 medals before. I'll do a better job of taking care of these.”

Oh, come on, you can’t be blamed for this. Hall lost his medals in the California wildfires back in January. He brought two he was able to recover: But they were fused together from the heat.

Hall said the fires have taught him what really matters(—friendship and character).

SOUND: “(The value of friends outweighs the value of objects, things. And character cannot be taken away.) It cannot be burned. It cannot be lost.''

Lessons from the deep end—greater than gold.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Today is Wednesday, May 7th.

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

Good morning. I’m Lindsay Mast.

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

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: When caregiving closes. The seniors organization A-A-R-P estimates one in five Americans serves as a caregiver for an adult or a child with special needs.

MAST: That includes nearly 6 million who serve as caregivers for a spouse. But what happens when that job ends? WORLD Senior Writer Kim Henderson tracks one woman’s journey through loss and life after.

UHLIR: He would sit and we'd feed him off of this [slaps hospital table], because he couldn't maneuver a chair under a table . . .

KIM HENDERSON: Anita Uhlir is showing me around her home in Southwest Michigan. She built it with her husband, Larry. They were married for 37 years.

UHLIR: This was a church directory picture. And I'm trying to remember when this was . . .

It was 2011. That’s when the Uhlirs’ world turned upside down.

UHLIR: It was a gentle little tremor, but he'd had it for over a year. We finally went to the doctor, and the doctor sent him to a neurologist.

The doctor gave them a hard diagnosis: Parkinson’s Disease. They were both 55.

UHLIR: I wept. My father died from complications of Parkinson's. So I knew what was coming. Larry did not.

Anita loved her husband through all the challenges brought on by his disease. They tried different doctors, different treatments. Lots of supplements. When Larry had difficulty breathing at night, he slept in a recliner. When he could no longer operate it, they bought a power lift chair to help.

These days, it’s Anita who sits in the chair. She’s wearing one of Larry’s old flannel shirts, her feet curled up under her.

UHLIR: We designed this room with kids in mind because we started building when we were trying to have children, and we had four miscarriages in three years. And God said no.

So, no children to help her care for Larry. When he started having panic attacks from being alone all day, Anita hired an agency of caregivers for help. She had to. She was still working full time.

ANITA: I would get home and change my clothes. Breathe, breathe, breathe, breathe, okay. Gotta get down before they leave, and then in the full swing. So yeah, for six years there was this no shutdown time.

She remembers reaching a hard point in 2018. She was at her computer doing more research, trying to find something else to help Larry, who was going down fast. But she suddenly sensed God leading her to stop.

UHLIR: No more. There is no more. You've done everything. You've found everything. There's no more. That was very, very hard to take, that I could do nothing more to help make his life, ease his pain.

SOUND: [SLIDING DOOR OPENING]

Anita stands at her sliding glass door. She looks out on her property and remembers.

UHLIR: He had a shop on the other side of that. Not this tree line, but if you look careful, beyond that thin spot, you see those taller trees.

Parkinson’s eventually left Larry barely able to walk. Anita and the aids couldn’t lift him without hurting themselves.

Still, making the decision to put her husband in a nursing home was hard.

ANITA: I would go from 11 to one o'clock to be with Larry during his lunch time to keep him company. And then I would come back and finish my eight hour shift, and then I’d go spend another couple hours with him, then I would come home.

When Larry died in 2020, Anita struggled to shift into a different role. No longer a wife. No longer a caregiver. And within three years, no longer employed. She retired. It wasn’t how she imagined things would be, even after his diagnosis.

ANITA: I knew that that meant I probably would not have him for very long after retirement. I was not expecting not to have him at all.

All their hopes of growing old together, gone.

ANITA: The first couple years, it was crying every day too. Um, I've come a long way by the grace of God. But you know, this house there are, there are “Larryisms” all over the place.

Larryisms. The way he built the plumbing lines that run upstairs. The vents with access ports for repairs. The windows still lacking trim.

Anita admits things are tight. She spent a third of her retirement savings on Larry’s in-home care. But she doesn’t regret that.

ANITA: I was just grateful I even had the access to the funds to get him what he needed to function.

Now more than ever, she’s able to be an active member of her church.

ANITA: We're a mostly widow congregation, and in fact, half of the guys are widowers.

Because they understand loss, they know how to encourage each other.

ANITA: We remind ourselves that it's not something you ever get over. It's something you continually, by the grace of God, get through.

And it’s something that should mature you, sanctify you, as a Christian.

ANITA: When Larry was so sick, it was pull into God, lean on him every minute of every day. And you know, granted, life is quieter, but I'm realizing I still need to stay there, which, that's where God wants us to be.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kim Henderson in Paw Paw, Michigan.

This story comes from a much longer report from Kim on rethinking retirement and aging in America. Just one of the many featured articles in the next issue of WORLD Magazine. If you’re not currently a print or digital subscriber, visit wng.org/subscribe.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Wednesday, May 7th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

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

As cardinals convene in Rome to select a new pope, their decision will echo far beyond Catholic circles. WORLD Opinions contributor Carl Trueman argues that in the eyes of secular society, it’s the pope who embodies the moral witness of Christianity.

CARL TRUEMAN: In a sense, the pope has little significance for Protestant churches. Even in the world of Anglicanism, an archbishop is not a pope. He may be one who holds an historically significant post but he occupies a much more modest office in his denomination than the Roman Catholic bishop of Rome. The pope believes himself the successor of Peter—the one on whom Christ would build His church. It is the basis for seeing the papacy as foundational to the unity and the authority of the Catholic Church. Famously, the pope claims infallibility.

This is often misunderstood by non-Roman Catholics as meaning that everything he says has to be taken as true..that he can never make a mistake. In fact, his infallibility is restricted to what are called matters of faith and morals. And this only applies when he speaks publicly as the head of the Roman Catholic Church and with its full and final authority. Thus, the many tweets, off-the-cuff press conferences, and even official speeches by Francis would not count as infallible statements.

Protestantism assigns no such a role to any human leader. We share some creeds with Rome—for example, the Nicene Creed. But we do not consider them authoritative because the pope or a church has endorsed them. We consider them authoritative because they summarize in a clear and accurate form the revelation of God as found in scripture.

But the papacy should still be of interest to Protestants. The outcome of this election will have repercussions even for non-Catholics. Protestantism benefits in several ways from strong and clear papal leadership. First, a vigorously Catholic pope, such as John Paul II or Benedict XVI, makes it easier to see where the points of alignment and the points of disagreement lie between Catholics and Protestants. On things such as the doctrine of God and the moral significance of the human body, Protestants have much to learn from Rome. And yet we must not lose sight of the serious differences on things such as the sacraments and the nature of justification that cannot be swept aside as trivia. A pope with a knowledge of, and commitment to, his own church’s theology, will make Protestants think more clearly about the importance of these similarities and differences.

Second, we must remember that the non-Christian world does not see the importance of doctrinal and ecclesiastical differences as we do. And that means that when they see the head of the largest church body in the world, they see a microcosm of what they consider Christians to be. A pope who is at least clear on basic issues such as gender and human sexuality—indeed, on what it means to be a creature made in God’s image—will benefit us all. Francis spoke with clarity on gender, but his mixed signals on sexuality and equivocal actions on child abuse served to weaken Christian witness across the spectrum.

That leads to a third reason for hoping that the next pope is a man of clear convictions. If the Roman Catholic Church squanders its legacy on questions of ethics, of what it means to be human, and of religious freedom, all Christian churches will suffer. Rome with its public profile and its intellectual and financial power provides cover for us all in wider society.

None of this is to minimize the important differences that exist between Rome and Protestantism, differences that have the office of the papacy at their heart. Ecclesiastically, we have nothing at stake in the papal election. But culturally we Protestants do have an interest in who the next pope will be. Let’s hope he’s less ambiguous than the last.

I’m Carl Trueman.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: tensions between India and Pakistan have boiled over, we’ll hear why. And WORLD’s Steve West will be along with religious liberty updates. That and more tomorrow.

I’m Nick Eicher.

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

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: “All things are lawful” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful” but not all things build up. —1st Corinthians 10:23-24

Go now in grace and peace.

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