The World and Everything in It: November 15, 2023

PREROLL: The World and Everything in It is made possible by listeners like me. I’m Cindy Kershaw, a retired homeschool mom of five great adults. I enjoy listening while Uber driving tourists in family-friendly Branson, Missouri. I hope you enjoy today’s program.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning! Keeping the federal government funded was front and center in the U.S. House last night.

NICK EICHER, HOST: We’ll have that story for you on Washington Wednesday. Also today, WORLD Tour. And a community experiment that seems to be working.

AUDIO: Actually, it was awesome! It was kind of fun! And I made a new friend!

And WORLD Opinions commentator William Inboden says there is no “moral equivalency” between Hamas and Israel.

REICHARD: It’s Wednesday, November 15th. 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: Now here’s Kent Covington with today’s news

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: House shutdown vote » Lawmakers in the House have passed a funding bill to avert a government shutdown this week.

AUDIO: On this vote, the yeas are 336, the nays 95. Two thirds being in the affirmative, the rules are suspended. The bill is passed.

New Republican Speaker Mike Johnson had to rely on Democratic votes to pass the funding bill late Tuesday as more than 90 Republicans voted against it.

They complained that the bill will not reduce deficit spending or help secure the border.

Congressman Mark Green said that’s why he and other members of the House Freedom Caucus voted “no.”

MARK GREEN: And so I think our statement to make to the speaker is, look, let’s get something for this.

The measure would temporarily fund some federal agencies into January and others into February. Senate leaders have voiced support for the bill.

Biden meet with Xi » The leaders of the world’s two most powerful nations will meet face to face today. As President Biden sits down with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, he says he hopes to begin to open lines of communication.

BIDEN: To get back on a normal course of corresponding, being able to pick up the phone and talk to one another if there's a crisis, being able to make sure our militaries still have contact with one another.

They’ll meet at an Asia-Pacific summit in San Francisco. The event is mainly focused on economic issues, but Biden intends to tackle a range of topics, including stemming the flow of deadly fentanyl from China.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday:

SCHUMER: I believe we made real progress with President Xi on this issue, and I'm very optimistic that good news will come from tomorrow's meeting.

But Republican Sen. Eric Scmitt said he wouldn’t trust the communist leader—quote—“as far as you could throw him.”

SCHMITT: It's not like this is going to stop the flow and I also don't think I don't believe China that they're going to crack down.

Biden and Xi are also expected to talk trade and tension over Taiwan.

APAC Summit » But national security adviser Jake Sullivan says Biden will be doing a lot more this week than just meeting with Xi Jinping.

SULLIVAN: He'll be welcoming leaders from across the Asia Pacific for APEC economic leaders week at a moment when the most dynamic economic region in the world is looking to the United States as the leading economy in the world.

Leaders from the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group are gathering in California to talk about how to better spur trade and economic growth across the Pacific region.

Israel latest » Palestinian authorities are calling for a cease-fire to evacuate patients from the al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza. Israeli forces have the hospital surrounded.

But U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby says there’s a good reason for that.

 KIRBY:  We have information that confirms that Hamas is using that particular hospital for a command and control node and probably storage of equipment, weapons, up underneath that.

Kirby said that is a war crime and yet another example of Hamas militants using innocent civilians as human shields. He said it makes the situation much more difficult for Israel Defense Forces.

But he added that hospitals must be protected. And President Biden has also urged Israel to take—quote—“less intrusive action” at hospitals in Gaza.

March for Israel » Meantime, in Washington …

SOUND: [Pro-Israel activity]

… hundreds of thousands of people descended on the National Mall on Tuesday in what some are describing as the largest pro-Israel gathering in American history.

Two of the demonstrators told WORLD:

DEMONSTRATERS: This is not about ceasefire and attacking each other. This about Israel defending itself from terrorists. … We have over 200 people still held hostage there. There’s no ceasefire.

By some estimates, as many as 300,000 people attended.

National Jewish groups organized as a show of support for Israel and to protest rising anti-Semitism amid the war.

Senate Iran Resolution » President Biden should keep all options on the table to keep Iran in check, including military force if necessary.

That’s the message from a bipartisan group of senators.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham believes Iran has been behind recent attacks against American soldiers stationed in the Middle East.

GRAHAM: We’ve had over 50 American soldiers injured in Iraq and Syria since October 7th by Iranian backed proxies in Syria and Iraq.

Graham and Democrat Richard Blumenthal have introduced a resolution supporting the president’s authority to use force if Iran or its proxies, like the Iranian Revolutionary Guard or Hezbollah, escalate conflicts in the Middle East.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: Continuing irresolution among the Republican majority in the House on Washington Wednesday. Plus, World Tour.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Wednesday the 15th of November, 2023. Thank you for joining us for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Time now for Washington Wednesday.

Well, as you just heard, last night the U.S. House passed a temporary funding bill to keep the government open into the first few months of 2024. The way the bill is set up, some government agencies would receive funding through January. Others, through February.

REICHARD: Washington Bureau reporter Leo Briceno explains what it took for Speaker Mike Johnson to cross this hurdle, and what’s next.

LEO BRICENO, REPORTER: Forty-seven days ago, the House of Representatives voted to pass a temporary spending extension to avert a government shutdown. And last night, they did it again…kicking the can into early new year.

STEVE WOMACK: The bill is passed and without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table.

Funding for 2024 remains a question mark—and a massive headache for the newly-appointed Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson.

When asked about Speaker Johnson’s decision to bring the temporary spending package to the floor, Texas Representative Chip Roy expressed mixed feelings.

CHIP ROY: This is not the right approach, he knows that’s how we feel. Speaker McCarthy had seven, eight, nine months to go through that process. He’s had 15, 17, 18 days. We’re going to give him a little bit of room, but I’m not going to give any room on my analysis of this bill. This is not the right step forward, but you know, we’ve sent it over. The Senate is going to take it up, so it is what it is now. But nobody sent me here to keep spending at those levels with those policies, period.

A brief recap: On paper, the government is supposed to pass 12 appropriations bills that fund individual aspects of the government: agriculture, defense, and so on. But for the past 40 years, Congress has taken all of those individual bills and sandwiched them into one massive “omnibus bill.” These massive spending packages are easier to pass, they’re quicker to deal with, and so that makes them really useful in the time crunch. But many conservatives in the House believe they come at the cost of meaningful congressional input. Instead, they are enabling a larger and larger bottom line.

These days many Republicans want to go back to the 12-bill method…and Speaker Johnson is doing his best to do just that.

The House of Representatives has already passed 7 bills that cover about 75 percent of the funding for next year. From a numbers perspective, that seems pretty good…right?

But it's deceiving. Because while there are only a few bills left to go, it seems like the House is having a really hard time deciding its priorities.

GREEN: You know, the Republican party is divided along multiple dimensions. And it’s not just left and right.

That’s Dr. Matthew Green, Chair of the Department of Politics at The Catholic University of America.

MATTHEW GREEN: It has to do with things like what is the best strategy or tactics that a party should take? How confrontational should it be? What’s the role of the federal government, both at large and in specific programs ranging from agriculture to defense? It’s divided over views on compromise. More traditional Republicans believe that you’ve got to compromise—you know you give some, you get some, that’s how it works. Others are more wedded to their ideological positions and say compromise is equivalent to defeat.

Some of the sticking points of those negotiations right now include elements like funding for Israel and Ukraine, the U.S. southern border, elements of the farm bill like food stamps, and more.

But those internal negotiations within the Republican majority are only a part of the picture.

Any bill that passes the House of Representatives must also somehow make it through the Senate and then win the signature of president Joe Biden to become law. As of Tuesday evening, the Democratically-controlled Senate has only passed one of these bills and the chamber leadership disagrees strongly with the direction Republicans have taken. The bills Republicans have passed cut spending in a number of different ways. The bill on transportation, for instance, looks to cut spending by about $7 billion in that department. President Biden has called these kinds of cuts irresponsible and he’s expressed frustration at the internal Republican negotiations that are holding up the process.

BIDEN: I’m sick and tired of the brinkmanship, and so are the American people. I’ve been doing this, you all point out to me a lot, a long time. I’ve never quite seen a Republican congress or any congress act like this.

Even after all the negotiations and deal cutting to get Republicans on the same page, Speaker Johnson could still be left holding nothing—if his bill ends up getting rejected by the Senate and White House. That’s what prompted him to pass the continuing resolution, to gain more time with temporary funding.

But it comes at a price.

This exact situation got Johnson’s predecessor, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, booted from the job in October. As soon as many of the Republicans who had been calling for increased fiscal restraint heard that Johnson wanted to extend current spending levels—without any cuts—they said the deal was off.

On Monday, I asked Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Green, one of the bill's opponents, what Johnson could’ve done to gain her support.

LEO: Earlier today Chip Roy mentioned that he wanted to see at least one policy win in that bill. Is there any one particular thing that you’d want to earn your support for the CR?

GREEN: In a clean CR I don’t see many policy wins.

LEO: But what one change would you make?

GREEN: I wouldn’t—I’d say we’re not doing a CR. We’re doing our appropriation bills, and the Senate needs to do its job. That’s what we should be doing.

Green went on to say she’s extremely disappointed in the newly-minted Speaker for even suggesting the idea.

GREEN: I think it’s a failure. I’m not voting for a clean CR. I’m not carrying on Nancy Pelosi’s budget. I’m not carrying on all the woke policies and the excessive spending that the Democrats set forth. I think we should be holding the line. We should finish our appropriations, and we should force the Senate to do their job, and Joe Biden to sign these bills. And we can get this done if we get to work.

Republicans like Green don’t see the CR as a temporary funding solution. They see it as a temporary extension of irresponsible fiscal policy. That makes it a far cry from what they had hoped to see out of Speaker Johnson.

When it came time to vote last night, over 40% of House Republicans rejected the motion to pass the bill. That means Johnson was only able to pass the CR with the help of all but two Democrats. Still, he now has at least three months to negotiate with House Republicans and Democrats, along with the White House and Senate. But even with that extended runway, it’ll be a tough landing.

The nuclear option for Johnson is to pass an omnibus bill that goes around this whole conversation on spending in 2024. But that would be politically devastating for the newly minted speaker. Johnson rose through Republican ranks three weeks ago, largely because of a promise to pass single-subject spending bills instead of mammoth packages. A temporary funding bill is bad enough for some Republicans. A full-scale omnibus bill might be enough to trigger another motion to vacate.

For now, not all Republicans see the issue on the same level as Representatives Roy and Green. New York Representative Marcus Molinaro has been a strong advocate for a return to the appropriations process. On Monday, I asked him if he saw the issue the same way as some of his more hawkish colleagues.

MARCUS MOLINARO: The CR avoids a Christmas eve spending bonanza that congress has often engaged in. It avoids a government shutdown, and provides us the time necessary to consider single-issue appropriations bills. These are all the things we fought for. These are all the things that we would want. And some of my colleagues are more interested in being right than necessarily doing what is right.

The path to appropriations remains a sharp matter of division for House Republicans…despite their shared focus on the final destination.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Leo Briceno.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: WORLD Tour with our reporter in Africa, Onize Ohikere.

AUDIO: [Floodwaters rushing]

ONIZE OHIKERE, REPORTER: Somalia flooding — We start today in Somalia, where residents are using tractors and loaded donkeys to get their belongings out of flooded areas.

The Somali government says torrential rainfall that began last month has killed at least 31 people and displaced nearly half a million others.

Somalia is experiencing heavy rainfall after coming out of one of its worst droughts in four decades. Forecasters expect heavy rainfall to continue into December.

Amina Adow is one of those affected by the flooding. She was already displaced twice this year by flash floods.

ADOW: (English voiceover) We relocated to higher ground here. As you can see, we don't have proper shelter, no food and even water as well as latrines.

The United Nations has called the flooding a once-in-a-century event as it released additional funding to help survivors.

Flooding is also affecting neighboring Kenya, where authorities have reported at least 50 deaths.

AUDIO: [Chanting “Palestine will be free”]

Palestine, Israel support marches — In South Africa, thousands of chanting demonstrators waving Palestinian flags marched across Cape Town on Saturday.

SOUND: [Clashes]

Police later fired stun grenades and water cannons to quell violence between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian protesters.

Marcelo Dan is an Israeli in Cape Town.

DAN: It’s not free Palestine, it’s free Gaza from Hamas. They are the ones doing this.

AUDIO: [Protesters chanting]

Over in Brussels, tens of thousands of people called for a ceasefire and accused the European Union of not doing enough to push for peace.

Meanwhile in Paris, more than one hundred thousand people marched in support of Jews amid rising anti-semitism.

AUDIO: [Chanting protesters]

Honduras protests — Over in Honduras, thousands of anti-government protesters are accusing President Xiomara Castro of hand-picking public officials unconstitutionally.

The ruling party this month elected a new interim chief prosecutor without a congressional vote.

PROTESTER: [Speaking Spanish]

This protester says government officials will turn the country into Nicaragua or Venezuela if people fail to defend democracy.

The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee condemned the apparent attempt to consolidate power.

SOUND: [Fireworks]

India Diwali Festival — Finally, fireworks lit up the night sky across India on Sunday, as Hindus celebrated the annual Diwali festival of lights.

Participants took part in processions and prayers and exchanged gifts. The celebrations also include lighting oil lamps and setting off fireworks.

But by Monday, thick smog clouded the sky across several cities.

MUMBAI RESIDENT: [Speaking Hindi]

This Mumbai resident says the air is so polluted that it makes movement difficult. New Delhi took the top spot as the most polluted city, according to the Swiss group IQAir. Two other Indian cities - Mumbai and Kolkata - appeared among the top 10.

Before we close, a correction from last week.

While reporting on the abduction of the father of Colombian soccer player Luis Diaz, I mentioned he sat out a soccer match against Nottingham Forest. He did, in fact, play in the game and also in another match against Luton Town. And some good news - rebels with the National Liberation Army guerilla group released his father last Thursday.

That’s it for today’s WORLD Tour. Reporting for WORLD, I’m Onize Ohikere in Abuja, Nigeria.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Dog bites man. Not news. Man bites back, that’s the very definition.

How much more so, then, when man bites crocodile?

Down in Australia, Colin Deveraux was putting up fencing near a river and along came a 10-foot saltwater croc. Grabbed him by the foot.

 COLIN DEVERAUX: It was a big grab, solid, and he shook me like a rag doll.

Shook like a rag doll. That I understood. So Devereaux is on his knees, in the mud, face to face with the croc. And he had only one option. Bite back!

DEVERAUX: Me teeth slipped up and I got hold of the eyelids, by accident I think. And I jerked back on that and he let go.

The audio from ABC Australia. We really are two countries divided by a common language.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: I know what he said. He bit the croc by the eyelid! Jerked it back,  and the croc let go.

EICHER: Perfect. He did have to spend a month in the hospital, and he’s all good. 

REICHARD: He didn’t even lose a single toe.

EICHER: It’s The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Wednesday, November 15th. 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.

Today on Concurrently: The News Coach Podcast, News Coach Kelsey Reed talks with WJI Europe graduate Chiara Lamberti about today’s changing attitudes toward children and family. Here’s a preview.

KELSEY REED: Within the Italian culture, how would they define that— raising children and having children? How would they define its value? There's something that you and I spoke about in our correspondence.

CHIARA LAMBERTI: Yeah, people say that they don't, they desire to don't have child because we actually have a weak economic situation. But we also observe that in wealthier neighborhoods of our city, people with a strong position in their career, they decide to don't have child, and it's not about the career but it's about sacrifice and the idea to take a responsibility and to sacrifice your free time. Having a child it's about to not be the king of your life anymore, or the queen. Being the king of your life or the queen of your life, it's the most valuable thing in our society, now.

EICHER: You can hear the entire episode of Concurrently today wherever you get your podcasts. And find out more at concurrentlypodcast.com.

REICHARD: Coming next on The World And Everything in It: Things that divide us.

Sometimes they’re physical: a brick wall, a highway, or a railroad track. But often, the things that separate us are unseen. WORLD’s Myrna Brown takes us to one community where people are trying to be honest and intentional about their barriers.

SOUND: [PEOPLE CHATTING, LAUGHING, MUSIC PLAYING]

MYRNA BROWN, REPORTER: Standing underneath pitched tents, volunteers keep the food lines moving.

VOLUNTEER: Grab you a bag… what you want, a hamburger or hot dog? All the condiments down there….

Children speed down inflatable water slides and teens turn corners of the lawn into dance floors.

DJ: I want everyone to come up on stage and we’re going do this…

This outdoor gathering has all the sights, sounds and smells of a traditional fall festival. But families gathered in this local park are celebrating much more than the change of seasons.

ANNOUNCER: So, we’re going to do what we came out here to do which is meet neighbors and meet someone you never met before. We’ve got two volunteers that are going to introduce each other.

Two women, sitting at different picnic tables, underneath a huge tent, walk towards the blue announcer’s tent. The brunette in the baseball cap grabs the mic first.

KRISTEN CAPPIN: Hi, my name is Kristen Cappin, but I’d like to introduce my new friend, Kim Young…

Young is a few inches taller than Cappin and sports a cropped afro. She smiles as Cappin mentions her pride and joy.

CAPPIN: She also wins the “how many grandchildren you have prize.” She has 14! Kim…

KIM YOUNG: Thank you very much Kristen. And I want to introduce my new friend. Her name is Kristen Cappin. She only has nine grandchildren. She asked me to mention that as well.

As the two walk back to their tables, they say they’re glad they stepped out of their comfort zones.

YOUNG AND CAPPIN: Actually, it was awesome. It was kind of fun. And I made a new friend.

YOUNG: Yes, that’s the biggest part. You get to meet people and you make new friends and connections in ways that you normally would not make them.

That’s the spirit behind Community Spirit Day: bringing people who think they have very little in common, together. It was an idea hatched around a kitchen table in a part of the country where differences once fueled division.

SOUND: [CHIT CHAT AND POURING LEMONADE]

Denise D’Oliveira is pouring a glass of lemonade for her friend, Jewel Lawson. They’re both retired educators. But 60 plus years ago, a get-together like this between a white and black woman would have been unheard of. Both D’Oliveira and Lawson live in Daphne, Alabama, a mid-size city about three hours from the state capital of Montgomery.

Alabama was a deeply segregated state in the 1950s and sixties. At times, the center of the civil rights movement. Federal legislation eventually brought an end to legal segregation. But D’Oliveira and Lawson say certain customs and practices continued.

DENISE D’OLIVEIRA: Connie was the first person to ever explain to me about redlining.

Connie was D’Oliveira’s neighbor in the 1990s. She was a black woman trying to build a home in a predominantly white neighborhood. It was D’Oliveira’s neighborhood. D’Oliveira says instead of being treated like any other potential homebuilder, Connie was the victim of redlining, a discriminatory practice of systematically denying services to potential homeowners based on ethnicity. D’Oliveira says she had heard of redlining.

D’OLIVEIRA: But to hear her talk about that being so very much present, it really shocked me and made me ashamed.

Connie and her family eventually built their home in D’Oliveira’s neighborhood. Still, D’Oliveira says that initial conversation haunted her for decades. She finally decided to do something about it: Community spirit day.

D’OLIVEIRA: An event of some kind that would bring the black and white communities together.

But she knew she couldn’t pull it off alone. That’s when she invited her old friend Jewel Lawson and a few others over for lemonade. Together, around her kitchen table, they planned the first community spirit day.

JEWEL LAWSON: And I just jumped on it. I shopped and I put all the food in my den. But, I couldn’t serve it all. We needed somebody to cook. We needed somebody to do several different things. And people stepped up? Oh they stepped up, yes.

PASTOR: Father God we just thank you for both communities. For all of Daphne. For all those volunteers…..

That first year they raised about two thousand dollars and 300 people showed up. They got support from the city government. In 2022 fundraising and attendance also increased, along with their share of typical event planning challenges: everything from choosing the genre of music to creating a rain-day plan. This year, they’re focusing on deeper outcomes.

D’OLIVEIRA: I just didn’t want for everyone to come and plop down with their family or their friends and there be no interaction.

ANNOUNCER: And we have two more volunteers…

As two more perfect strangers step up to the mic to introduce each other, a local mom and her baby girl listen intently from underneath their tent.

TIFFANY BROWN: Where we’re from, how much money we have, our color, our educational background. None of that matters. We’re just all out here to have a good time and be a family.

The day ends abruptly with an unforecast gust of wind, heavy rain, and lightning. Everyone packs up and heads out quickly.

So what happens when the tents come down, community spirit day is over and everyone goes home? Maybe not deep lasting friendship . But Jewel Lawson says people are committed to recognizing the new people they’ve met and remembering their names and stories.

LAWSON: And they wanted to know when the next one is going to be.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Myrna Brown in Daphne, Alabama.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Wednesday, November 15th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Up next: WORLD Opinions Commentator Will Inboden on the Democrats’ big mistake in the Middle East.

WILLIAM INBODEN, COMMENTATOR: A decade ago during the Barack Obama presidency, I bemoaned that Obama’s background as a professor left him prone to “the endless second-guessing, the sanctimonious lecturing, the odd detachment from decisions of tremendous consequence” common in academia.

Well, old habits die hard. The former president is once again indulging his professorial pontifications. In early November, Obama delivered a sanctimonious mini-lecture about Hamas’ current war on Israel and the conflagration in the Middle East. Specifically, Obama pronounced that to understand the situation, “you have to take in the whole truth, and you then have to admit nobody’s hands are clean—that all of us are complicit to some degree.”

On one level Christians can agree about the pervasiveness of sin in our fallen world. On another level, Obama seems to draw a moral equivalence between Hamas’ genocidal campaign against Israeli civilians and … what, exactly? On this he is unclear, but he implies that any past or present American support for Israel renders all parties equally guilty.

This “both-sides-ism” is appalling in its moral obtuseness. Since Obama equivocates, let me be clear: One side (Hamas) deliberately rapes and tortures innocent women and butchers infants, while urging the extermination of their enemies. The other side (Israel) does not.

The other outrage is that Obama ignores how his own policies emboldened our enemies, imperiled Israel, and weakened the United States in the Middle East.

Consider these facts.

In 2009, the Iranian people rose up in their courageous “Green Movement” against their tyrannical government. Obama ignored their appeals for support and instead pursued a nuclear agreement with the Iranian regime.

In 2011, Obama ignored the counsel of his military, intelligence, and diplomatic advisors, and withdrew the residual American troops from Iraq—leading directly to the rise of the Islamic State terrorist caliphate, the slaughter of thousands of innocent civilians, and an emboldened Iran.

In 2013, Obama abandoned his own “red line” and refused to punish the Assad regime in Syria for its use of chemical weapons—which also emboldened Iran.

In 2015, Obama implicitly welcomed Russia’s intervention in Syria to prop up the Assad regime, leading to the deaths of thousands more Syrian civilians and the expansion of Iranian power.

That same year, Obama signed the “Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action” with Iran that released some $100 billion in frozen assets to Iran for Tehran’s illusory promises to suspend its nuclear weapons program.

Obama hoped these policies would encourage Iran to become a responsible regional power. As he said in 2016, the tension in the region “requires us to say to our friends, as well as to the Iranians, that they need to find an effective way to share the neighborhood.”

This was the core strategic error in Obama’s Middle East policies: the belief that with enough inducements, Iran would become a stabilizing presence in the Middle East. Instead, rather than “sharing the neighborhood,” Iran and its terrorist proxies, Hezbollah and Hamas, sought then, and seek now, to dominate the neighborhood and destroy Israel.

For that reason and many others, the United States should continue to support Israel in its quest to destroy Hamas and to deter Iran.

I’m William Inboden.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: lawyers from the ACLU challenge a Tennessee law that protects minors from attempted sex change operations. What’s the potential fallout if this case goes to the Supreme Court? 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 Apostle Paul wrote: “Finally, brothers, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.” —Second Corinthians chapter 13, verse 11.

Go now in grace and peace.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.