The World and Everything in It: October 10, 2025

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MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Good morning!

Journalist Bari Weiss rattles the CBS newsroom, while the FDA faces backlash for approving a new abortion drug, even while supposedly reviewing its safety.

NICK EICHER, HOST: John Stonestreet standing by for Culture Friday.

And rejoicing in Israel. A report from Tel Aviv, where hundreds celebrate a ceasefire deal to bring the hostages home.

Later, a Disney reboot for the age of AI.

DILLINGER: Ares is the ultimate soldier. If by some miracle he is struck down on the battlefield, I will simply make you another.

BROWN: It’s Friday, October 10th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

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

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

SOUND: [Gaza celebrations]

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Gaza: Israel and Hamas sign agreement » Palestinians poured into the streets of Gaza City celebrating news of a historic deal to halt the war in Gaza between Israel and the Hamas terror group.

Both sides signed the phase one agreement on Thursday, and Israel’s cabinet last night voted to ratify it. That means a ceasefire is expected to begin tonight.

President Trump remarked at the White House:

TRUMP:  And I think it's gonna be a lasting peace, hopefully an everlasting peace. Peace in the Middle East. Uh, we secured the release of all of the remaining hostages and they should be released on Monday or Tuesday.

And the president plans to be there when that happens. He is expected to depart for the Middle East on Sunday, stopping in Egypt and in Israel.

The agreement calls for the release of all remaining Israeli hostages. Israel, in return, will release more than 2000 Palestinian prisoners, including militants.

Israeli forces will also begin pulling back. Spokeswoman for the Israeli prime minister Shosh Bedrosian:

BEDROSIAN:  The IDF will then redeploy to that yellow line we mentioned, which will lead to the military controlling and holding about 53% of the Gaza Strip.

Once the hostages are returned home, phase two talks will begin … focusing on a lasting end to the war … and how a post-war Gaza will take shape

Gaza: world leaders react » World leaders are also celebrating news of the deal, including British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

STARMER:  It is a relief to the world. Um, and I think particularly, um, of the hostages who've been held a very long time and their families, and to all the civilians in Gaza who, who've been so affected by this conflict.

French President Emmanuel Macron also hailed what he called the “historic” Gaza accord.

MACRON: [Speaking French]

Both Starmer and Macron thanked President Trump and his team for their leadership, as did Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

ERDOGAN: [Speaking Turkish]

He said he was “deeply pleased” by news of the peace agreement. And he added that Turkey—his words “will closely monitor the strict implementation of the agreement and continue to contribute to the process.”

President Trump, meantime, expressed his gratitude to world leaders in the Middle East and beyond, who threw their support behind this agreement.

TRUMP:  The whole world has come together for this. People that didn't get along, people that didn't like each other, neighboring countries that frankly didn't like each other, but now they it this, this moment in time.

American diplomats worked with officials from numerous governments in and around the Middle East to craft the agreement and push it across the finish line.

Gaza: Aid set to pour into Gaza » United Nations chief Antonio Guterres also welcomed news of the agreement. And he said humanitarian aid was ready to surge into Gaza.

GUTERRES:  We and our partners are prepared to move. Now we have the expertise, the distribution networks, the community relationships in place to act.

The UN says 170,000 metric tons of food, medicine and other aid … is on standby.

And UN officials said they were negotiating with Israel for a green light to massively ramp up help for hungry Palestinians after 2 years of war.

Humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher says in the first 60 days of the ceasefire, the United Nations would aim to increase the number of trucks with aid entering Gaza to between 500 and 600 daily.

Oregon National Guard » A federal appeals court has given President Trump a limited victory in his standoff with Oregon over the National Guard. WORLD’s Benjamin Eicher has the latest.

BENJAMIN EICHER: The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has lifted part of a lower court order that blocked Trump from federalizing Oregon’s National Guard.

That means the Guard can be placed under federal control. But for now, the president’s ordered deployment of those troops to Portland is still on hold.

The case stems from a ruling by a federal judge who said Trump exceeded his authority by trying to deploy Guard units to the city during anti-ICE protests.

Arguments over the scope of the president’s power continued Thursday in San Francisco.

The appeals court’s temporary ruling sets up what could become another major test of presidential authority before the U.S. Supreme Court.

For WORLD, I’m Benjamin Eicher.

Texas death row appeal » Texas death row inmate Robert Roberson has received his third stay of execution.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals paused the sentence Thursday, sending the case back to a lower court for further review.

Roberson was convicted of killing his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki, in 2002, after doctors said she showed signs of shaken baby syndrome — a form of child abuse caused by violently shaking an infant.

But his attorneys point to new medical evidence that they say indicates the girl’s injuries may have been caused by prescription drugs given days earlier to treat pneumonia.

For his part, Roberson maintains that he was wrongly convicted.

ROBESON: They just assumed that I was guilty because I couldn’t explain what happened to her.

He has now spent more than 20 years on death row. A new trial is still a possibility.

Letitia James indicted » A federal grand jury in Virginia has indicted New York Attorney General Letitia James on a charge of bank fraud.

Prosecutors allege that in 2023, James declared a Norfolk, Virginia property as her primary residence — giving her access to favorable mortgage terms — while serving in New York.

James strongly denied any wrongdoing, calling the charge politically motivated retribution tied to her previous civil cases against former President Trump.

Democrats claim this is the latest example of the Trump administration weaponizing the Justice Department against the president’s political foes.

The Justice Department says it’s upholding the law, plain and simple.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: voices from Hostages Square. Plus, Culture Friday with John Stonestreet.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Friday, the 10th of October.

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

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

First up on The World and Everything in It, a celebration, and hopes for peace in the Middle East.

President Trump announced yesterday that both Israel and the terror group Hamas had signed off on phase one of a ceasefire agreement.

As part of that plan, Israel would withdraw its military forces in Gaza to an agreed-upon line, while Hamas would release all of the hostages still being held after the attacks of October 7th.

BROWN: News that the hostages may soon be coming home brought hundreds out in Tel Aviv yesterday to celebrate.

WORLD Reporter Travis Kircher was there at Hostages Square.

TRAVIS KIRCHER: It’s a chant heard throughout Israel for the past two years. From demonstrations in the streets:

DEMONSTRATOR: Et kolam! Achsav! Et kolam! Achsav!

…to the audience at an October 7th memorial service in Tel Aviv on Tuesday.

AUDIENCE: Et kolam! Achsav! Et kolam! Achsav!

Together they’re chanting “Et kolam, achsav.” Loosely translated into English, it means, “Everyone, now.” What they’re saying is, “bring all of the hostages home…now.” Yesterday…for the first time…there was a glimmer of hope that Israel’s cry may soon be a reality. And in a matter of mere days.

RUBINSTEIN: I’m so overwhelmed. We’ve been waiting for such a long time. So I’m just so happy. I’m just so happy.

That’s Mor Rubinstein…one of several people who flocked to Hostages Square in Tel Aviv yesterday. On Wednesday night…President Donald Trump issued a statement saying Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire agreement. And that all of the hostages—those living and dead—would be returned to their loved ones in a few days. Possibly as early as Monday.

SOUND: [SINGING AND CLAPPING]

As soon as the news came, people flocked to Hostages Square, the unofficial meeting place for supporters of the hostages. There were no events planned. But by Thursday morning, the square was packed anyway, as Israelis sang, danced, and hugged. Elad Barber was one of them.

BARBER: I think it feels like kind of a sort of an independence day for us. Of course, we’ve got to see them back first, but for the first time in two years, I think we are able to take a deep breath and have a sense of optimism.

Helly Sharvit called the hostages Israel’s brothers and sisters, and said she was hopeful that the fighting in Gaza would stop.

SHARVIT: The war will be over. No more soldiers will die and we can be whole again and happy.

On Tuesday, the second anniversary of the October 7th attacks, the mood at Hostages Square was somber and oppressive. Tamara Kolitz says her children felt it. So she brought them back on Thursday for what she says was a very different vibe, one of happiness and celebration.

KILITZ: Hoping that things can be better. That things can go back on track and that Israel can go to good places. It’s the first good thing that has happened here for so long.

SOUND: [CHANTING AND DRUMS]

Avi Nosrati was visiting from Los Angeles. He described himself as a friend of Israel, with several family members who lived in the Jewish state.

NOSRATI: We’re seeing a celebration of mostly just freedom….Just after two years of people having to run to shelter, worried about those that are kidnapped in Gaza, it’s kind of a sign of relief. People crying, like, tears of joy, like a weight has been lifted off their shoulders. And I think it’s both from the political right and the political left. Everyone is celebrating.

And there were politicians there as well.

RAYTEN: You can hear it for yourself—the joy is something to remember. This is really an historic day.

Efrat Rayten is a member of the Knesset—Israel’s parliament—and a representative of Israel’s Democrats party. She says this kind of spontaneous celebration harkens back decades ago in Israel’s history.

RAYTEN: The last time that we saw or heard about people going out into the streets and dancing and singing, I think it was in 1948 when the establishment of Israel. That was the last time that people sang outside in the streets. Because this is the real joy—a real joy to have our family and to have the hostages back home.

SOUND: [Loud singing and drums]

At one point during the celebration, someone began pouring free drinks and passing out glasses. Folks leaped, danced, and cried. Many, like Chuck Maurer, who was visiting from Manchester, gave credit to Trump for helping to push the deal through.

MAURER: We were just praying about Donald Trump would get us out of this mess. And he has. God bless him. Yeah. He’s the best man for a job. Without a doubt.

But even amid the cheers, the tears, the chanting, and the prayers, people here admit there is one haunting question in the back of their minds: Can Hamas be trusted to live up to their end of the bargain? Or are all of these celebrations premature?

SHARVIT: They’re still not back. I feel like the tension is still up in the air. …We know what we’re dealing with. Hamas has let us down before and we want to make sure that everything is going smoothly and everything will be fine.

In all likelihood, we should know the answer to that question in the next few days. For now, the battle cry among these celebrants—and throughout all of Israel—will continue to be…

Everyone. Now.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Travis Kircher. From Hostages Square, in Tel Aviv.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Next up on The World and Everything in It: Culture Friday!

HAWLEY: Um, Sec. Kennedy, different subject, you and I have talked before when you’ve been before this committee and you and I have talked in person a number of times about mifepristone. I just want to follow up with you, because the last time you and I spoke… 

This is from back in May, Senator Josh Hawley, the Missouri Republican, raising concerns about the abortion drug Mifepristone. Appearing before the Senate committee was Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Hawley’s bringing up a study by the Ethics and Public Policy Center pointing to safety issues for women using the abortion pill.

HAWLEY: You will remember that this data shows the biggest study on mifepristone done, I think, ever, and it showed that nearly 11 percent of women experience very serious adverse health effects ... by the way, that’s 22 times higher — that rate is 22 times higher — than the FDA’s current label, which says it’s just point-five, the incidence of serious adverse health events. So my question to you is this: You previously testified at the committee that you would do a top-to-bottom review of mifepristone. Do you continue to stand by that? And don’t you think that this new data shows that the need to do a review is, in fact, very pressing? 

RFK JR: I’ve asked Marty Makary, who’s the director of FDA, to do a complete review and report back. 

HAWLEY: It will be a top priority, though, for you —

RFK JR: Yeah

HAWLEY: —is that safe to say?

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Again, that was more than four months ago. But by the end of September, the Food and Drug Administration, which is an agency under Kennedy’s HHS, gave approval to a generic version of mifepristone.

Last Friday at the White House, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the approval process of the drug, if not, she insisted, the drug itself. Here’s how she put it.

LEAVITT: HHS’s decision, it’s not an endorsement of this drug by any means. They are just simply following the law, and as they put out in their statement, by law, the Secretary of Health and Human Services must approve a generic drug application if the application demonstrates the generic drug is the quote ‘same as the brand-name drug.’

Making this point repeatedly: that green-lighting a cheaper generic medication for the most common abortion method in the country, says nothing about the merits of the current safety program. And that HHS is still reviewing adverse effects.

EICHER: Nevertheless, Senator Hawley was stunned by the approval and said so on social media, going so far as to say he’s lost confidence in the leadership of FDA… namely Dr. Marty Makary.

WORLD Washington reporter Carolina Lumetta caught up with Senator Hawley on Capitol Hill and asked him about it.

HAWLEY: This application has been pending since, I think it's October 3, 2021 so it's been pending for four solid years, and now they say, Oh, we have a statutory deadline of 100 days. They blew through that years ago, I mean, and you're supposed to be doing a safety study to determine … whether the drug needs to be in some way modified from the market, and yet you're going to approve a new one, and under the old rules, the old safety protocols .

EICHER: Joining us is John Stonestreet, president of the Colson Center and host of the Breakpoint podcast, good morning John!

JOHN STONESTREET: Good morning.

EICHER: Great reporting by Carolina, and she tells me further that yesterday, 51 Republican senators wrote Dr. Makary, and made a forceful appeal urging HHS and the FDA to halt distribution and approval of abortion pills until a full safety review is complete.

We’ll see, but this is a serious breach on the pro-life side, John. I know that Dr. Makary is highly respected on the right because of his courage on COVID, but now he finds himself in the hot seat.

All this as abortion by mail and telehealth continues to grow, with some states going so far as to shield providers who ship pills where abortion is banned.

So it’s a big moment—what are pro-lifers to do?

STONESTREET: Well, listen, it is a big moment, and it is a big breach. In one level, it should not surprise us. I mean, listen, in the run-up to the election, there were real questions about President Trump’s commitment to the pro-life cause. He certainly made the case himself as a candidate that he had done all he intended to do in terms of overturning Roe v. Wade, and that was about it.

Now there became a little bit more pressure when he was pushing through RFK to head HHS, mainly because the overturning of Roe v. Wade and pushing this back to the states to define was powerless against mail-order abortion. The case had long been made that mifepristone was not properly evaluated by the FDA.

Obviously, RFK had real things he wanted to get accomplished—having to do with processed foods and having to do with vaccines—and those were common causes for a lot of people on the right, including a lot of pro-lifers. But there was never really any real indication—in fact, there were a lot of indications otherwise—where RFK stood on the issue of abortion.

The only sunlight that we got in this whole issue as pro-lifers was when he made this commitment to evaluate mifepristone based on how it had been rushed through the FDA and how it had not been properly evaluated, and how the kind of mail-order rules that seemed to apply to everything but abortion had been skirted—basically leaving state attorneys general, like in Texas, to try to come up with some sort of way to criminally prosecute those who were shipping abortion pills into the state.

It’s going to be a notoriously hard thing to do. The fact that they’re claiming to do it, though, is a step forward, so I don’t want to dismiss it. I think we’ve got to demand that he follow his word. Gosh, the answer to mifepristone being pushed through the FDA is not to have a cheaper form of mifepristone pushed through the FDA. This is exactly the opposite.

But it does reflect maybe what we should have known all along in terms of how deeply our shared commitment was on this with the Trump administration—particularly RFK—and it wasn’t as committed as many people then turned around and thought.

The other thing that I’ll say is, look, when there were very few legal strategies in play for the pro-life movement back in the days of the stronghold of Roe v. Wade, there were a lot of cultural moves. There were the person-to-person apologetic efforts. In other words, there were extra-political strategies that the pro-life movement thought up and implemented. Some were successful, some were more successful than others.

We’re going to have to do the same thing when it comes to chemical abortion. I’m not claiming to know what that is, but this is something that we’re not winning on, on chemical abortions. Even in states that are prohibiting it, we haven’t figured out how to keep it out of the states through the mail. So we’re going to have to come up with some of these alternative mitigating strategies, and that’s probably a calling for pro-lifers to tackle right now.

BROWN: Bari Weiss—the founder of The Free Press and a leading voice for what she calls “honest journalism”—is now the new Editor in Chief of CBS News.

Paramount, which owns CBS, made the move after acquiring Weiss's startup The Free Press. In a memo to staff, Weiss called for what she described as “a return to fearless reporting and clear moral courage,” saying CBS must “earn back public trust by telling the truth even when it offends.” The tone of the memo has already stirred strong reactions inside the network, where some see it as a rebuke of legacy-news culture. Do you think she can succeed?

STONESTREET: Oh, I think Bari Weiss is a force of nature in so many ways. So I think the quick answer to that is yes, she can succeed!

This could be just a purely financial decision of a major news network unable to compete with the new media and looking at the state of the ocean, so to speak—wanting to get out of the red ocean into the blue ocean.

When you have every major network saying the same thing—with one exception, if you put Fox News in that mix—you have all kinds of space for another voice like this. You have all kinds of space between where these networks land, which is on the far left on almost every story every time, to basically people who want to be able to trust it again.

I think there is a brand opportunity here. Bari Weiss is clearly the right one to do that. But let me also add that the Bari Weiss story hit the same time as another story—Louise Perry, who is a feminist writer critical of the sexual revolution—announced that she had fully come to Christ.

There are stories like this, right, where people have come to the truth about something. In Louise Perry’s case, the truth about the sexual revolution being harmful particularly to women. If you think about Chloe Cole, she came to the truth about who she really was in her body as a female, and it’s that truth that then became the stepping-stone for her to come to full faith in Jesus Christ.

Can we hope that for Bari Weiss? Going from left to center, in this case, is the right direction. Being committed to journalism as truth-telling is a good start. We’ve seen examples of this.

By the way, it also puts to lie this notion we’ve heard from so many—even Christian voices—that you can’t talk about these controversial issues, you can’t make a big deal about these public truths because that’ll get in the way of people coming to faith. It seems the exact opposite is happening right now.

It’s a little dangerous to put the Bari Weiss story into that whole category, but that is a growing category, and it’s big enough to include Bari Weiss if she wants to explore who Jesus Christ is, as so many others seem to be doing right now.

EICHER: I don’t want to rain on the parade here, I love this story too. I’m glad to hear you talk about that. But! But, it is one thing to set a standard. It’s another thing, story by story, to hold the standard. And I really hope that she has the ability to see it through all the way. CBS is a massive organization. It’ll be very interesting to see how she does.

STONESTREET: Well, we have seen attempts like this in the past. I think you would know more about the ins and outs of that than certainly I would, Nick, and I think that it’s a good warning. If there’s anybody on the planet right now that I would think, this person has the kind of moral fortitude and the orneriness maybe to pull this off, she would be high on the list of people that could do it.

But you’re exactly right. Turning big institutions around in any sort of way is notoriously difficult. It happens really slow, which explains the effectiveness of new media in so many ways. So we will see what happens.

BROWN: Can I just ask real, real quick? Do you all remember when she resigned from The New York Times just five years ago and and she said that she basically was resigning, well part of the reason, she wrote it in her resignation letter that she was the subject of constant bullying by colleagues who disagreed with her, so she just walking right back into the hostile environment. What's different this time?

EICHER: I think what’s different—I’m not the analyst here—but I think what’s different is that that Bari Weiss now has the support of the ownership, where at The New York Times, she was kind of a dissident, in a tiny minority, and I think that's the difference.

STONESTREET: Yeah, I think that’s exactly right. I think it’s the right question that you’re asking, Myrna, and I think she’s older now, she’s grown, and I think that there’s something else going on behind the scenes in the ownership. But obviously that’s me just guessing based on how this whole story came down.

EICHER: John, with the Supreme Court back in session, we’ve talked this week about Chiles v. Salazar—a challenge to a Colorado law that prohibits licensed counselors from helping minors who struggle with unwanted feelings of gender dysphoria.

Our legal team is reporting this out for Monday’s program, but it sure sounded like Colorado had a rough day in court. Without the legal team, I’m not going to wade into this, so what I’d rather discuss is the broader issue of so-called “conversion therapy.” Some of the older methods are obviously discredited, but the state lumps together any counseling that has the aim of helping a person get comfortable with the body God made for them ... that is lumped together with discredited practices. Isn’t that a kind of misdirection—using the worst examples to outlaw even compassionate, talk-based help?

STONESTREET: Well, you’re exactly right. Let me just say Colorado did have a bad day in court—and again, another bad day in court—and that’s because Colorado officials are largely incompetent on matters of the law.

They are pushing forward a particular way of life based on an ideology, and it violates the law. They should know better, but they repeatedly either don’t know better or pretend to not know better. What you’re describing here is exactly the case.

First of all, you have the craziness that many people are beginning to realize—the abuse of language. The side that wants to affirm a person with their biological body are the ones that are called guilty of “conversion therapy,” and those that actually want to fast-track particularly children into converting their male bodies into fake female bodies, or vice versa, are called “affirmers.”

It’s a whole language game, and you can only believe that language has validity if you are trapped within an ideological framework. The entire state of Colorado seems to be this way, which is why this is just one of, I think, seven lawsuits the ADF has filed right now against the state of Colorado.

It really comes down to something simple, and that’s what seemed to emerge during the oral arguments. For so-called “affirmation therapy” that Colorado is actually promoting—and restricting everything else—it involves medication, transitioning, powerful state forces to enforce this over and above the will of the parents. It involves even surgical intervention. It involves every level of what’s called “therapy.”

But someone who is trying to help a young person come to grips with the fact that they were born male or female—you’re not adding hormones, you’re not drugging that kid up. What you’re doing is sitting and talking to them. You know what that’s called? That’s called speech.

Basically, the state of Colorado has exposed that they don’t understand the difference between talk and therapy, and their inability to distinguish between talk and therapy reveals that they can’t tell the difference between conversion and affirmation.

The Constitution of the United States—the First Amendment—clearly protects speech. Legal precedent clearly protects even professional speech. It’s as cut and dry as that. For the justices, they don’t even have to make a decision about the rightness or wrongness of the therapy itself.

EICHER: This could be a nine-zip.

STONESTREET: It might be a nine-zip. I think, given Ketanji Brown Jackson’s question—seemed a little bit off base from everybody else—I don’t hold that same amount of hope, but we could get an 8-1.

BROWN: John Stonestreet is president of the Colson Center and host of the Breakpoint podcast. Thank you, John.

STONESTREET: Thank you both.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Friday, October 10th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. Up next: Disney tries to update an old science-fiction franchise.

Will the film Tron: Ares have anything new to say about our relationship to technology in the age of AI? Here’s WORLD arts and culture editor Collin Garbarino.

COLLIN GARBARINO: The idea of a third Tron movie might make someone wonder whether Disney thought this series could offer something relevant to today’s society. After all, the premise of the franchise rests on humans interacting with sentient computer programs. I think it’s more likely that Disney is yet again hoping to cash in on one of its nostalgia-laden properties since its Marvel and Star Wars franchises have stalled.

JULIAN DILLINGER: Ladies and gentlemen, I would like you to meet Ares.

The first two movies primarily dealt with humans getting sucked into the virtual world of computer programs. But Tron: Ares imagines what might happen if a computer program escaped the servers and entered the real world. The film takes place after the events of 2010’s Tron: Legacy, but it’s not so much a sequel as a soft reboot of the franchise.

In the movie, two large computer companies are racing to change the world through the use of technology and artificial intelligence. ENCOM is the computer company at the heart of the original Tron from 1982. It makes its money from flashy video games. But its executives are the good guys, hoping to use their platform to change the world for the better. Their rivals at Dillinger Systems want to use AI and advanced 3D printing technology to build war machines and super soldiers.

JULIAN DILLINGER: Ares is the ultimate soldier. He needs no food, no water, sheds no blood, and if by some miracle he is struck down on the battlefield, I will simply make you another.

Julian Dillinger, the head of Dillinger Systems, has big plans for military profit. But he needs a piece of code possessed by Eve, the CEO of ENCOM.

ELISABETH DILLINGER: You’re hacking ENCOM?

JULIAN: Just a peek over the garden wall. No one will notice.

ELISABETH: What makes you think ENCOM is any closer to finding it?

JULIAN: Because I know who else is looking for it, all right?

When corporate espionage fails, Julian uses his 3D printing lasers to bring Ares into the real world. Ares, played by Jared Leto, is Julian’s most advanced security program. And now that Ares has a body, Julian gives him the task of kidnapping Eve and stealing the code at all costs. However, the sentient computer program grows a conscience, which leads to a number of action-packed chase scenes.

The visual effects provide plenty of eye candy during scenes in which the audience’s perspective swoops and shifts. And when the action moves to the virtual world the graphics create an immersive computerized reality—especially when viewed in IMAX. The special effects are well executed, but don’t expect a jaw-dropping experience. There’s nothing here that we haven’t seen before. It’s appropriate to pay homage to the stylings of the original, but too many scenes rely on derivative imagery from other digitally-inspired franchises.

EVE KIM: What happened back there?

ARES: I disobeyed my directive.

EVE: Which was?

ARES: To retrieve the code from your disc and delete the carrier.

EVE: Dillinger told you to delete me?

I also found the soundtrack by industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails a little overbearing. Oppressive synthesizers cause the film to drag, and some scenes contain music that doesn’t suit the tone of the action.

MUSIC: [As Alive As You Need Me To Be]

This musical miss is surprising, considering band members Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross have ably scored more than a dozen films. Their work appears in 2010’s The Social Network, 2020’s Soul, and 2023’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.

It’s hard to say how fans of the previous films will react to Tron: Ares. This is the first Tron film that doesn’t include the title character Tron, and it’s the first to be rated PG-13 instead of PG. I’m not sure the sci-fi violence is any worse than its predecessors, but the film contains some misuses of God’s name.

There are enough callbacks to the original to amuse children of the ’80s, but this third installment for the most part pretends that the second movie never happened. I’m afraid moviegoers coming into this film without any affection for the prior films might not find enough to keep them interested.

ATHENA: Delete Ares and bring the user back to me.

A movie about AI’s effect on the world should resonate with audiences right now, but the film contains numerous plot holes and directorial decisions that don’t make sense. I know it’s a minor detail, but I couldn’t get over the fact that Ares has long scraggly hair. Does Jared Leto have an I-won’t-cut-my-hair clause in his contract? And speaking of Leto, it seems the overhyped method actor has finally found the perfect role by playing a soulless algorithm. It’s terribly ironic that ChatGPT has more personality than Leto’s Ares.

Moreover, the film doesn’t really have anything worthwhile to say about technology or the human condition. The original Tron was a Cold War metaphor for the dangers of totalitarianism, laden with Christian imagery. Ares timidly trots out Silicon Valley cliches. Lately, tech billionaires have been buying up movie studios left and right. Perhaps that’s left Disney too scared to say anything interesting about the people who might one day be the boss.

I’m Collin Garbarino.

NICK EICHER, HOST: It’s time to name the crew who put the week’s programs together:

Collin Garbarino, John Stonestreet, Travis Kircher, Cal Thomas, Mary Muncy, Lauren Canterberry, Carolina Lumetta, Ray Hacke, Kim Henderson, Onize Oduah, Hunter Baker, Joe Rigney, Josh Schumacher, Lindsay Mast, David Bahnsen, Emma Eicher, Mary Reichard, Jenny Rough and Steve West.

Thanks also to our breaking news crew: Kent Covington, Christina Grube, Steve Kloosterman, and Daniel Devine.

And thanks to the Moonlight Maestros, staying up in the dark of night so the program’s ready bright and early: Carl Peetz and Benj Eicher.

Paul Butler is executive producer. Harrison Watters is Washington producer, Kristen Flavin is features editor, and Les Sillars is editor-in-chief. I’m Nick Eicher.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

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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 records that Paul addressed the Areopagus: “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” —Acts 17:30, 31

A reminder to worship at a Bible-believing church this weekend. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances. And Lord willing, we’ll be right back here on Monday.

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.