The World and Everything in It: October 12, 2022

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

Are nuclear threats by the president of Russia as dangerous as the Cuban missile crisis?

NICK EICHER, HOST: That’s ahead on Washington Wednesday.

Also today, World Tour.

Plus living with autism.

And the meaning of suffering and the hope we have in Christ.

REICHARD: It’s Wednesday, October 12th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

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

REICHARD: Time now for news with Kent Covington. 

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Ukraine - NATO/UN/G7 » NATO Secretary General Jens Stotlenberg says Vladimir Putin is failing in Ukraine. He told reporters Tuesday that recent desperate maneuvers prove that his war isn’t going as planned.

STOLTENBERG: His attempted annexations, partial mobilization, and reckless nuclear rhetoric represents the most significant escalation since the start of the war.

And the United Nations and the G7 are condemning Russia’s recent missile attacks on Ukraine as possible war crimes.

Russian forces rained down more missiles and munition-carrying drones Tuesday, hitting more civilian targets. That after widespread strikes killed at least 19 people.

The U.N. human rights office described those attacks as “particularly shocking.” and amounting to potential war crimes.

Ukraine air defenses » After days of deadly Russian missile attacks in Ukraine, the United States is edging closer to sending more advanced air-defense systems to Ukraine.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby …

KIRBY: We’re working hard to get them the first two of those NASAMs, and we think that we’re on track to get the first two of those over there in the very near future.

NASAMS are widely considered one of the world’s most advanced surface-to-air missile systems.

Germany just delivered the first of four air defense systems. Chancelor Olaf Schulz said the systems can defend "an entire major city from Russian air attacks."

And NATO members are meeting this week to discuss sending more similar systems.

Biden reevaluating US-Saudi relationship amid Democrat anger » John Kirby also said Tuesday that President Biden is rethinking America’s relationship with Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi-led OPEC+ alliance recently moved to cut oil production even as Biden asked to ramp up supplies. And with that in mind…

KIRBY: He does believe that this is a good time to reevaluate and see what that relationship ought to look like going forward.

Democratic lawmakers have been calling for a freeze on cooperation with the Saudis.

Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal Congresswoman Ro Khanna on Tuesday introduced legislation that would immediately pause all U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia for one year.

Israel Deal » The United States negotiated a draft energy deal between Israel and Lebanon today. WORLD’s Josh Schumacher has more.

JOSH SCHUMACHER, REPORTER: Israel and Lebanon have been at war since 1948. But this deal would put their oil rigs right beside each other on the Mediterranean Sea.

If the deal is approved, it would split the contested portion of the sea in half. Lebanon will still be allowed to produce gas from Israel’s side as long as it pays royalties.

The Lebanese negotiator said both sides were satisfied, but the deal could still face opposition from the Israeli parliament.

The two countries would make separate deals with the U.S. But both governments still have to approve it, which could take weeks.

For WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher.

NASA astroid » NASA says it successfully knocked a small asteroid off course millions of miles from earth. It was part of a test to see if the space agency could deflect an asteroid heading toward our planet in the future.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.

NELSON: The team has confirmed that the spacecraft’s impact altered the amorphous orbit around it and altered it by 32 minutes and therefore successfully moved its trajectory.

The test was part of the so-called “DART” mission. Now, scientists are working on perfecting their early warning system to detect astroid threats.

Angela Lansbury » MUSIC: Murder She Wrote theme]

Many television viewers of the 1980s and 90s will recognize that music. And those who do will instantly picture the star of Murder She Wrote, the late Angela Lansbury.

Lansbury died Monday at the age of 96.

Younger viewers might remember her as the voice of Mrs. Potts in Beauty and the Beast.

She won five Tony Awards and an honorary Oscar at the age of 88.

She was married to Peter Shaw, her second husband, for 53 years before he died in 2003.

I’m Kent Covington. Straight ahead: how the Biden administration is handling the war in Ukraine.

Plus, living with autism.

This is The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: It’s Wednesday the 12th of October, 2022. This is WORLD Radio and we’re glad you’ve joined us today! Good morning, I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. It’s time for Washington Wednesday.

The White House has spent the better part of a week trying to explain a remark by President Biden.

During a Democratic fundraiser on Thursday, Biden talked about tensions with Russia and nuclear threats by its president Vladimir Putin.

He told supporters that we haven't seen this kind of—his words—“prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban missile crisis."

EICHER: National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told ABC’s This Week that the president was reflecting the “very high stakes” of the moment, but...

KIRBY: His comments were not based on new or fresh intelligence or new indications that Mr. Putin has made a decision to use nuclear weapons, and quite frankly, we don’t have any indication that he has made that kind of decision.

The White House has warned of “catastrophic” consequences for Russia and that it has told the Kremlin privately exactly what that means.

Joining us now to discuss the Biden administration’s handling of the crisis and the latest developments in the war in Ukraine is Bradley Bowman.

He is a former congressional affairs officer on the Army staff in the Pentagon. And has served as a top national security adviser to members of the U.S. Senate.

REICHARD: Bradley, good morning!

BRADLEY BOWMAN, GUEST: Good morning! How are you?

REICHARD: Doing well, even if we’re all living in the shadow of nuclear armageddon. But first of all, Brad, what was your reaction to those remarks?

BOWMAN: Well, my first reaction was why would the President choose to say something so important at a fundraiser? It didn't exactly seem like the most appropriate place to make a statement about something that is so grave. And so that was my first impression. My second impression was that the general gist behind what he's saying I think has some truth to it. Let me hasten to add some nuance there, if I may. As I look at all the different angles here, I think more or less it's accurate to say we have not seen a moment of nuclear weapons danger like this as a country since, arguably, the Cuban Missile Crisis. So I think he was right in suggesting that. But the use of the word Armageddon and kind of ambiguity around it, I think, was not ideal. I think what he's perhaps knowing and maybe not saying as eloquently as he should have is that Russia has approximately 2,000 tactical nuclear weapons. For comparison, the United States has about 200. And in Russian doctrine, there's an explicit concept of using tactical nuclear weapons to escalate to de-escalate. In other words, the preemptive use of them. And we've seen comments since February 24th suggesting that Russia might do just that. And so that would be the first time that tactical nuclear weapons have been used, and the first time that they've been used at all since World War II, and the comments and behavior of Vladimir Putin makes that something that we have to take seriously, I'd say.

REICHARD: What about the “catastrophic” response warning from the White House. What’s your take on what that might be?

BOWMAN: You know, I think that's the President, again, speaking a little bit off the cuff trying to increase deterrence, right? Deterrence is a term we often hear that many don't understand, is the idea that well, first of all, to understand that deterrence is not what I think about it, or you think about it, or what the reality is, it's in the mind of the adversary. And so, you know, how much danger are we in? Well, the truth is, no one knows for sure. It's really up to one individual. It's up to Vladimir Putin, which is a really scary thing to say and as Secretary of Defense Austin has said, there's really not a lot of people standing between Vladimir Putin and the use of Russian nuclear weapons. Let's say, the Kremlin is not known for its checks and balances, if you will. And so that's a little bit of a scary proposition. So whether he will use them or not depends on whether he thinks it serves his interests. And if he were to use nuclear weapons against the U.S. or against a NATO member, that would be essentially a suicide pact. And hopefully, we can assume that Putin wants to live. So I think that's unlikely. And that's maybe where the President's Armageddon comments are a little bit sloppy, because I think the chances for that are quite low, because as far as I can tell, Putin is not suicidal. But I think there is an increased risk of him to potentially use tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine if things get really bad there for the Russians. And he believes that Russian deterrence is at a low and that he needs to remind the world that they have these weapons to prevent aggression—from his perspective—against Russia proper.

REICHARD: What event or series of events would actually bring us to the brink of nuclear war similar to the days of the Cuban missile crisis? What would it take?

BOWMAN: You know, it's a great question. And as I suggested a minute ago, much of this will be decided in the head of Vladimir Putin. But I want Ukraine to succeed on the battlefield. I think the stakes for America there are high, not only in Europe, but I think the world is watching. Beijing is watching. Pyongyang is watching. Tehran is watching. And we want them to take the right lessons from what they see there. But I think the most likely scenario would be where we have a massive conventional rout of Russian forces. And you started to have increased domestic pressure on Putin to take the gloves off, if you will. And I think that explains a little bit of what we've seen in Ukraine with these massive strikes that hit Kyiv, hit Lviev, hit Odessa, and hit Kharkiv, including a lot of civilian infrastructure. There was a lot of pressure from hawkish nationalists to say, hey, we're fighting one hand tied behind our back, take the gloves off. And so I think in even more dire circumstances, you'd have some of the same calls for Putin. And the question is, if he believes that our response would amount a little bit more than harsh communications from the State Department and increased sanctions, that might increase the chances that he would actually roll the dice and make that horrible decision.

REICHARD: Well let’s talk about the latest developments in Ukraine. Of course, last week, a huge explosion damaged the bridge linking Crimea to Russia. Putin ordered the building of that bridge after illegally annexing Crimea in 2014. And he personally celebrated its opening by being the first one to drive a truck over it. So this is symbolically important to Putin. It’s also a key supply line for Russian forces. Bradley, talk about the importance of this bridge blast.

BOWMAN: I think you hit a lot of the key elements there are me exactly right. I mean, the Kremlin invaded Crimea in 2014 and illegally annexed it. And this has been a great source of pride for Vladimir Putin. And the primary means by which Russia is connected to Crimea is via this Kerch bridge and the Crimea bridge, a 12 mile span that includes both a roadway and a railway. And the offensive, the Russian invasion—particularly in the South—has largely been supplied via that bridge. It's a matter of national pride for the Kremlin, and particularly for Putin. And it's a matter of practical logistical necessity in terms of supporting the invading forces, particularly in the South, around the Kherson region, and so the fact that apparently, the Ukrainians were able to pull this off was quite a blow to Putin. And may explain some of the response that we've seen since then.

REICHARD: What do we actually know about that blast to the bridge? Many people assume it was Ukrainian special forces that carried out the bridge attack. But this was a very heavily guarded bridge, correct?

BOWMAN: Yeah. As far as I can tell, it was likely a Ukrainian attack. But you know, Vladimir Putin has called it a terrorist act, which is pretty ironic given his deliberate and systematic targeting of civilians himself all over Ukraine. Ukraine has not taken explicit credit for it, but has applauded the attack. And so it would appear that this was a Ukrainian action that they're happy to kind of leave a little bit ambiguous at the moment.

REICHARD: Ukraine is asking Washington and NATO for more air defenses after Russia launched missile attacks in retaliation for the bridge explosion. What do they need that we are not currently providing?

BOWMAN: You know, the United States and some of our Western allies have provided some air defense assets already. We've provided 1,400 Stinger anti aircraft systems. We've committed to providing eight national advanced surface to air missile systems. But none of those have arrived yet. And the White House has said that they're going to try to expedite that delivery. And thankfully, some of our, as I said, our European allies, such as the Germans have said that they're going to provide air defense systems as well. But that's all really a drop in the bucket of what Ukraine really needs when you look at the breadth, scope, and quantity of the missile attacks conducted by Russia against Ukraine.

REICHARD: Final question: What do you think it will take to actually bring this war to an end?

BOWMAN: You know, I think the quickest way for it to end would be Vladimir Putin to end this unprovoked invasion, but I don't see many signs that he's interested in doing that. He's escalating, not de-escalating. And all paths forward have some risks associated with them. But I think the least dangerous path that best secures America's interests and stands up for our democratic principles is to continue to provide Ukrainians the means to defend themselves against this unprovoked invasion, while making clear to the Kremlin that we're going to continue to do that but we have no designs on Russia territory proper, and no objection to the Russian state.

REICHARD: Bradley Bowman is senior director at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Bradley, always a pleasure to speak with you.

BOWMAN: Thank you.

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

ONIZE OHIKERE, REPORTER: Haiti’s cholera outbreak— Today’s World Tour takes off in Haiti, where health workers are trying to control a cholera outbreak.

AUDIO: [Haitian streets]

Authorities said last week that at least eight people had died in the outbreak.

The deaths come as Haiti is battling armed gangs and fuel shortages, limiting people’s access to clean water and medical care. In a joint letter, Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry and 18 high-ranking officials asked international partners for specialized troops to help stop the violence.

Doctors Without Borders has opened two treatment centers in the capital of Port-au-Prince.

AUDIO: [Doctor speaking French]

This doctor says the center receives multiple patients each day with symptoms, which include severe diarrhea and vomiting. Cholera spreads through contaminated food and water.

Venezuela landslide— We head next to central Venezuela, where a landslide killed at least 36 people.

AUDIO: [Rescue workers]

Heavy rainfall caused a river and several streams to overflow on Saturday, triggering a mudslide that swept through homes and uprooted trees in the town of Las Tejerias.

More than 50 people are still missing.

Volunteers joined thousands of rescuers using heavy equipment and trained dogs to search for survivors.

AUDIO: [Speaking Spanish]

This resident says he and others headed to the roof when the water started to rush in. Venezuela declared three days of national mourning.

The country has seen historic levels of rain in recent months. At least eight people died last month when flooding struck a religious retreat in the western part of the country. And in August, mud and rock slides killed at least 15 people in the Andes.

Tunisia shortages— In Tunisia, residents are battling with scarce staples and soaring food prices.

AUDIO: [Tunisians outside a store]

Residents crowded outside this supermarket in the northeastern city of Ariana trying to buy sugar.

Other staples like rice and vegetable oil are increasingly absent from grocery shelves or too costly.

AUDIO: [Speaking in Arabic]

This 63-year-old local resident complained about the high prices and saw people fighting to buy food items.

The government has blamed black market hoarders and the war in Ukraine. But economists point to Tunisia’s budget crisis. Inflation is now at 9.1 percent—the highest in three decades.

Taiwan National Day — We wrap up today in Taiwan.

AUDIO: [Dancing performance]

Performers danced and military guards marched outside the presidential office in the capital of Taipei on Monday.

AUDIO: [Military honor guards]

The celebrations marked the 111th anniversary of the island’s founding.

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen said China’s growing military action in surrounding waters prompted the island to acquire more weapons.

ING-WEN: [Speaking Mandarin]

She warns here that the destruction of Taiwan’s democracy would be a grave defeat for the world’s democracies.

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

NICK EICHER, HOST: Well, you think you’ve heard it all. But listen to this one: A man from New York was arraigned last week on charges of smuggling pythons in his pantaloons.

Of course, he’s innocent until proven guilty. But the details are squirm-worthy: Calvin Bautista is charged with smuggling three Burmese pythons he got in Quebec and bringing them into New York, crossing the Canadian-U.S. border.

Now, these snakes are invasive and they threaten native animals in the United States.

Smuggling them could land Bautista up to 20 years in prison and a fine as high as $250,000.

I dunno. I feel like the poor guy’s maybe suffered enough, even if he did bring it on himself.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Wednesday, October 12th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: thriving with autism.

At least one of every 100 Americans has been diagnosed with autism. It’s a neurological disorder that can affect a person’s social interaction and communication. People with autism might move, learn, or pay attention differently because of the way their brains process the environment.

REICHARD: Getting that diagnosis is difficult and can feel isolating. But it can bring the help someone needs along with a reminder of who made them. Here’s WORLD correspondent Amy Lewis.

AUDIO: [Mall]

AMY LEWIS, REPORTER: It’s closing time at the Waurn Ponds mall near Geelong, Australia.

Target employees roll down a massive garage-style door. They lock away plastic mannequins sporting new spring styles in this Land Down Under. But even though it’s closing time, a small crowd is gathering in the echoey chambers of the mall. Parents, grandparents, and children sit in rows of folding chairs and seating pilfered from the food court around the corner. They’re waiting to meet Chloé Hayden at her first book signing.

Chloé Hayden is only 25. But she’s already a bestselling author and is starring in a new Netflix series. The world looks rosy…now. But growing up was hard—for her and her parents.

CHLOÉ: To my parents, I was always just nicknamed ‘their quirky little kid.’... From a really, really young age, I remember knowing that I was different. And I didn’t know what that different was…

While other kids at school built things with Legos, Hayden organized them by color. The Lost and Found bin at school was mostly full of her stuff. At age 13, psychologists ran her through a series of tests. She and her mom left the office with a large handbook and her mom in tears.

CHLOÉ: And when you’re 13 years old, and your mom is crying, you feel like the entire world is ending.

She asked her mom if she was dying. No, she said. Hadyen had been diagnosed with autism.

CHLOÉ: She was crying because it had taken so long to have an understanding as to why there was something that was different about me and how her and my dad could better help me.

Her own Google search dredged up articles that painted autism as a nightmare. Symptoms like seizures, language issues, head banging, biting. Hayden found the stereotypes differed from her own experience.

CHLOÉ: Especially back then when they think of autism they think of a young boy that is nonverbal, sitting in a corner, and unable to interact.

Hayden started a blog, wanting to find someone else like her. She found thousands.

CHLOÉ: It wasn’t until I saw other young people that were going through the same thing that I did in my childhood that I started to realize, no one is speaking up for us.

She started making YouTube videos about her experience. Those videos led to speaking opportunities. She landed a role as an autistic character in a new Netflix series. While we can’t recommend watching the series, for Hayden it’s a dream come true.

Then an editor asked if Hayden would write a book. She did. It’s called “Different, Not Less.”

CHLOÉ: This book is for 13-year-old me who was Googling things having no idea what it meant…So this book is for the young people that have just gotten a diagnosis and having no idea what it means for them. It’s for their parents. It’s for my teachers. I wish my teachers had this book…

And it’s this book that has drawn so many hungry for help on their own journey with autism.

BOOK SIGNING: Thank you so much! You are an inspiration to all of us.

Sixteen year old Charlotte and her mom wait in line to have their book signed.

CHARLOTTE: I’m also autistic. And she kind of gave me the confidence to say that I’m autistic, in a way, because I didn’t like it when I was first diagnosed when I was 12 or 11.

Her school psychologist mom Laura admits the journey has been hard. But now her daughter educates other kids about her experience.

LAURA: She came to my school and spoke to some children, some of the classrooms…and spoke to them about mental health and what it’s like to have autism and to be diagnosed with autism…

Judith Popping has an autistic son who didn’t fit well in schools. His behavior got him kicked out by age 7.

POPPING: People primarily look at behavior. And it’s so not about behavior. The behavior is a symptom of the experience. And what you need to do is dig beneath the behavior and say, “What’s causing this?”...

Knowing when to discipline an autistic child is difficult.

POPPING: They’re not sinless, you know. So I get that. I guess the parents would, would know the best through close observation of the child. I mean, this has been a long journey for us….Of course, you know, there are times when there’s naughty behavior. It’s a hard call…

Many people offered her advice, websites, diets to try, and books on discipline when her son was young. But there was one thing she wanted more of.

POPPING: What you need from others…Maybe I should just speak for myself. But I think just understanding.

Having an autistic son has made her reconsider her understanding about the kingdom of God.

POPPING: I think about things like the passage that talks about the presentable parts and the less presentable parts.

That’s the section from First Corinthians 12 about the parts of the body. She used to think of the presentable parts as the people who had it all together and visibly contributed to the church.

POPPING: And it’s challenged me to think. Maybe I’ve got that the wrong way around in God’s topsy-turvy economy and kingdom values, that it’s actually the people who seem to be the least presentable that actually are the most presentable.

She says the beauty of disability is that it gives us the opportunity to rethink our views.

POPPING: They’re doing it tough; we do it easy. They are the ones who are living out the whole idea of suffering before glory right here…

Chloé Hayden’s book title points out that someone with autism is different, but not any less of a person.

CHLOÉ: I think my favorite tip is probably understand that who you are is exactly who you’re supposed to be, keep going because you are the only you, and you are you for a reason, and you’re going to do incredible things by being here.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Amy Lewis in Geelong, Australia.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Wednesday, October 12th. 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.

“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.” Older generations learned this idiom as children.

But today, imprecise use of words encourages fragile emotions. WORLD commentator Janie B. Cheaney says Christians have the truth.

JANIE B. CHEANEY, COMMENTATOR: Have you ever been struck or swindled? Have you ever spent weeks in the hospital recovering from a drunk driver, or seen your reputation ruined by false accusations? If so (as many an attorney billboard reminds us), you may have suffered harm. But what does that word even mean anymore?

In 2018, Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt published The Coddling of the American Mind, examining how fragility and emotionalism had convinced too many college students that opposing views actually hurt their sense of self-worth.

Scoffers scoffed that these “snowflakes” would soon melt under the harsh glare of real life. But at least some of them dragged their fragility into real life. For example, last August during the annual Podcast Movement convention, Ben Shapiro, America’s number-one conservative podcaster, dropped in for the afternoon and greeted well-wishers at his Daily Wire booth. At least one attendee complained about not feeling safe, prompting the convention’s organizers to abjectly, “[W]e take full responsibility for the harm done by his presence.”

The apology was so gushy it sounded like satire. It was definitely open to satire, as in this headline from the Babylon Bee: “Thousands Dead After Ben Shapiro Casually Strolls Through Whole Foods.” Deluged by further complaints, Podcast Nation later apologized to Shapiro.

A weightier example appeared in an editorial for the online journal Nature Human Behaviour. Titled, “Science must respect the dignity and rights of all humans,” the editorial began with, “Although academic freedom is fundamental, it is not unbounded.” Scientific research must be sensitive to potential harms. Conclusions that might be taken as “discriminatory, racist, sexist, ableist, or homophobic” would be rejected for publication, regardless of its scientific soundness and merit. “Harm” trumps truth.

Nature Human Behavior is not a random website but an affiliate of the British journal Nature, possibly the world’s leading science publication. It’s not alone in its hedge against so-called harm: Science, Scientific American, and Popular Mechanics have all dropped a knee to woke sensibilities. It’s a stunning descent from coddled minds on campus to deliberate self-censoring of scientific research. Have American minds become so scrambled that doubting a child’s gender confusion is considered more “harmful” than blocking her hormones? That words are seen as more violent than rocks thrown through windows and stones to the head?

“What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger,” said Friedrich Nietzsche, thereby making death the ultimate and only harm for an ubermensch. But for the rest of us, David says it better in Psalm 56. “In God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me? . . . For you have delivered my soul from death and my feet from falling.”

My two great fears—of death and of failure—are already overcome. What man does may hurt, perhaps grievously, but will not permanently harm. What doesn’t kill me makes me holier. I can live with that.

I’m Janie B. Cheaney.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: we head south. The GOP is making inroads in Southern Texas. What are their chances during the upcoming midterm elections?

Plus, we cross the border into Mexico for Vacation Bible School—in one the region’s most violent areas.

That and more tomorrow.

I’m Nick Eicher.

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

The World and Everything in It comes to you from WORLD Radio.

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

The Bible says: “I will guard my ways, that I may not sin with my tongue; I will guard my mouth with a muzzle, so long as the wicked are in my presence.” (Psalm 39:1 ESV)

Go now in grace and peace.

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