The World and Everything in It: October 23, 2023

PREROLL: The World and Everything in It is made possible by listeners like us. My name is Paige Burgess. I'm from California, but right now I'm in balmy Annapolis, Maryland, visiting my son who is a midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy. I hope you enjoy today's program.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning! An insurance company denies a claim, and it’s up to the Supreme Court to decide whether it’s proper.

JUSTICE ALITO: Your client denies the claim because you say they didn't do what they were supposed to do regarding fire extinguishers. But there was no fire.

NICK EICHER, HOST: That’s ahead on Legal Docket.

Also today the Monday Moneybeat: so far no economic impact from the war in the Middle East, but that won’t last.

And the WORLD History Book. Today a historic meeting between Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

AUDIO: It’s time to see a change, it’s time to see a vote for a change, a vote for peace.

REICHARD: It’s Monday, October 23rd. 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. Here’s Ann Johansen Brown.

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN, NEWS ANCHOR: Israel/Gaza » Aid trucks rolled into Gaza from Egypt on Sunday as the international community worked to provide humanitarian relief to victims of the war between Hamas and Israel.

HAMAD: [Speaking Arabic]

Gaza Health Ministry official Mahmoud Hamad discussing aid that arrived over the weekend, calling it a simple and small delivery.

On Friday, the terror group Hamas released two American hostages from Gaza. Qatar and the International Red Cross helped facilitate their release. Hamas says it freed the hostages, both women, for humanitarian reasons.

Meanwhile, President Biden met with European Union leaders at the White House to discuss wartime support for Israel and Ukraine.

BIDEN: We stood together to support the brave people of Ukraine in the face of Putin's aggression. And we stood together to tackle the economic challenges and established standards to guide our relationship with China. And we're standing together now to support Israel in the wake of Hamas's appalling terrorist attack.

The president is asking Congress to approve a $105 billion dollar security package. It would provide roughly $60 billion to Ukraine and less than $15 billion to Israel.

AUDIO: [Protesters chant “Palestine”]

Protests » Demonstrators around the world marched in support of Palestinians in Gaza this weekend and called for a cease-fire.

U.S. embassies were on high-alert for possible attacks by Hamas supporters.

AUDIO: [Protesters chanting]

Near the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, protesters shouted, “No, no, to America. No, no to Israel. Yes, yes, for jihad.”

Supporters of Israel rallied for peace calling on Hamas to release hostages. They gathered outside United Nations headquarters in Geneva.

PROTEST: May we say, Israel, I will go wherever you go.

In Berlin, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier addressed a pro-Israel rally, saying his country has a special responsibility to protect Jewish life.

House Speaker race » Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is endorsing Republican Majority Whip Tom Emmer for speaker of the House.

McCARTHY: We need to solve this problem. We've got a wide open southern border. We got crushing inflation we got war in the Middle East. This is not a moment in time to play around with learning on the job we need someone who understands how to do this job.

The majority whip faces opposition from some of former President Donald Trump’s advisers and allies, who have already made public statements criticizing Emmer.

The House has gone without an elected speaker for almost three weeks. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Congressman Jim Jordan have both failed to secure the role after receiving the GOP nomination.

Republicans are expected to convene behind closed doors on Tuesday to appoint a new nominee for the position. A House floor vote could occur after that.

China/Philippines maritime UFC » The Philippines is calling the actions of a Chinese coast guard vessel in the South China Sea dangerous and irresponsible. WORLD’s Josh Schumacher has more.

SOUND: [Boats colliding]

JOSH SCHUMACHER: That’s the sound of a Chinese coast guard vessel ramming into a Philippine military supply ship.

Philippine officials denounced the incident yesterday off the Second Thomas Shoal.

Both nations claim sovereignty over the shoal. For more than 20 years the Philippines has stationed soldiers on a ship it deliberately ran aground on the shoal to bolster it’s claim.

The Philippine ships involved in the incident yesterday were supplying those soldiers.

AUDIO: [Chinese newscaster]

Meanwhile Chinese state media report that the Philippine vessel was trespassing in Chinese waters.

For WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher.

SOUND: [Water sloshing]

Northern Europe weather » In Scotland, rescue workers wade through flooded streets after a major storm hit Northern Europe.

At least five storm-related deaths were reported in Britain and Germany. Residents had to evacuate from more than three-hundred homes in one Scottish town.

SCOTTISH WORKER: Carpet can be replaced, furniture can be replaced, but it’s just memories, as well.

Hurricane Norma » And in Mexico, Tropical Storm Norma, formerly Hurricane Norma, has been lashing the Baja Peninsula and West Coast with rain and winds. The storm made landfall on Saturday.

RESIDENT: [Speaking Spanish]

One resident saying that the biggest problem from storms like this is the rain washing sand into lower-level streets.

Meanwhile in the Atlantic, another hurricane, Tammy, hit the outer Caribbean islands. The National Weather Service expects the storm to keep moving North, deeper into the Atlantic over the coming days.

I'm Anna Johansen Brown.

Straight ahead: Red ink and the deep blue sea on Legal Docket. Plus, the Monday Moneybeat.

This is The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: It’s Monday morning, October 23rd and you’re listening to The World and Everything in It from WORLD Radio. Good morning! I’m Nick Eicher.

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

Today, we’ll cover a dispute pending at the U.S. Supreme Court. But I’ll start with a few other mentions.

One is a dispute that the court will NOT hear.

And in not hearing it, the justices essentially affirmed a lower-court ruling that the First Amendment protects undercover investigative journalism.

Here, the case involved the activist group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and a state law barring secret recordings. North Carolina passed a law that lets employers sue employees if they make secret recordings that harm the reputation of the business.

PETA says one of its aims is to bring accountability to animal agriculture, and so it sued, claiming the law is unconstitutional.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit agreed with PETA. In a fairly narrow ruling, it said the law violates the First Amendment right to free speech when enforced against news gathering.

EICHER: That brings to mind the case of pro-life activist David Daleiden. You remember him as the man who secretly recorded abortion industry bigwigs freely admitting they sell body parts from the unborn babies they kill.

What about his case?

Just this month, the Supreme Court turned down his appeal.

The justices left in place a lower court award of $2 million in damages Daleiden has to pay Planned Parenthood.

REICHARD: So two completely different results, and you’re probably wondering how that can be. For starters, different states have different laws and federal charges can figure in as well.

But you’d be right to think that the core issue of how to conduct undercover investigations clearly needs clarity.

EICHER: Also last week, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett made a public appearance. That’s always a big deal when a Supreme Court justice makes public remarks. She sat for an interview with a senior law professor at the University of Minnesota. And, per usual, there were protests at the school.

PROTESTERS: Sexist, racist, antigay! ACB go away! Sexist, racist, antigay! ACB go away!

“ACB.” She should go with that.

Inside the building, though, school officials overrode the heckler’s veto.

SCHOOL OFFICIAL: All disruptive parties are asked to vacate the room or be subject to arrest. (cheers)

One bit of news: Justice Barrett backed the idea of an ethical code for the court.

JUSTICE BARRETT: There is no lack of consensus among the justices. There's unanimity among all nine justices that we should and do hold ourselves to the highest ethical standards possible.

And Justice Barrett took a question on collegiality:

JUSTICE BARRETT: I attack ideas, not people. I think that is what opinions are: you know, the fire gets put on the page but it is not expressed in interpersonal relationships.

REICHARD: Alright, now on to the one oral argument we’ll cover today. It deals with admiralty and insurance law.

Here are the facts. Four years ago, a yacht ran aground in Florida resulting in around $300,000 in damages. The yacht owner filed a claim under the insurance policy. But the insurance company denied the claim, saying that even though none of the damage was due to fire, the whole policy was void because the yacht owner hadn’t inspected and certified the fire-extinguishers on board.

EICHER: At risk of having to pay out of pocket the yacht owner sued. By the time the case reached the Supreme Court, the legal issue narrowed down to a contract question within the law of the sea. Which, as you’ll come to understand is very specialized.

Contract jurisprudence says the parties can decide which state laws will be used to interpret a contact. Here, it’s the laws of New York. If that understanding prevails, then the insurance company wins.

But the question is whether that contract can be overridden by the “strong public policy” of the state in which the case is litigated. In this case, Pennsylvania, where the company that owns the yacht is based.

Insurance company lawyer, Jeffrey Wall:

JEFFREY WALL: We put the choice-of-law clause in the contract, what now? We have a presumption. Well, it wouldn't be much of a presumption as federal law goes if 50 states could just set it aside. And even looking at the facts of this case, it seems to have a fairly international flavor. You have a German insurer. You have an insured in Pennsylvania that designates an agent in the contract in Florida, and the boat can travel up and down the Eastern Seaboard and the Bahamas, nowhere else. That's the navigational limit. That sure triggers some interests of Pennsylvania, but it doesn't seem like the only state in play, and more importantly, it seems like the sort of national and international thing that triggers the broader purposes of maritime.

REICHARD: You may say: a contract’s a contract. Just follow what the parties agreed to.

But it turns out, maritime law is its own thing. And the lower court here found the policy can’t be enforced if it contravenes a strong public policy of the forum in which the suit is brought. Listen to this more lengthy exchange between Justice Samuel Alito and Wall for the insurer:

JUSTICE ALITO: Your client denies the claim because you say they didn't do what they were supposed to do regarding fire extinguishers. But there was no fire. The – the absence of fire extinguishers up to your standards had nothing whatsoever to do with this. And so to deny coverage on that ground does seem harsh, but you say: Although that denial may seem harsh to the land-bound, it reflects traditional maritime principles. Now, if I were not land-bound, suppose I -- you know, I -- I spent a lot of time sailing around the world on ships, it wouldn't seem harsh to me anymore?

WALL: It would not if you were a member of the admiralty bar as I've come to understand. Justice Alito, I've always been worried about this because it struck me as harsh too when I approached the case. There is a different tradition that grew up around the admiralty system and Lloyd's of London.

JUSTICE ALITO: Yeah. I know there are a lot of things about old-time maritime law that are very harsh. Like, we had a case a few years ago about maintenance and cure of seamen, and we had cases -- we had a case involving a -- a sailor who got a fractured skull shortly after leaving port, and then the captain refused -- made the entire journey, refused to put the person -- ashore at any port to get medical treatment, waited until the person came home. So I -- I mean, I don't know about --

WALL: And no punitive damages. But the reason for this, Justice Alito, is that you had international insurers located overseas who had no way of monitoring these vessels or incentivizing compliance. And so this tradition grew up and it's very different from what we think of car insurance or home insurance, where you pay your premiums and they process the claims in the pool. These are sort of specialized policies.

EICHER: Still, the yacht owner’s lawyer had to give it his best. Here’s Howard Bashman. He’ll cite a case from 1955 called Wilburn Boat:

HOWARD BASHMAN: Under Wilburn Boat, state law applies. As a result, the fundamental public policy of the state with the greatest connection to the dispute can override the contractual choice-of-law provision, selecting the law of another state.

REICHARD: Ergo, Pennsylvania law wins because it has the greatest connection to the dispute. Recall that the company that owns the boat is based there.

But Bashman for the yacht owner didn’t gain much traction. Listen to his exchange with Justice Neil Gorsuch:

JUSTICE NEIL GORSUCH: What's the point of distinction, why we would maybe listen to forum-selection clauses in all areas except for maritime insurance?

BASHMAN: Well, I -- I -- I think -- I think the point is that there is no established federal rule applying in the maritime insurance context to forum-selection clauses.

JUSTICE GORSUCH: Yeah. But --

BASHMAN: So the argument would be open --

JUSTICE GORSUCH: But the question --

BASHMAN: -- under Wilburn Boat.

JUSTICE GORSUCH: Everybody agrees it's -- you know, fine, it's open. Why would -- why would we say that state law would control there?

BASHMAN: Because the need for states to protect insurance policyholders in the insurance context from sharp practices involving choice-of-forum clauses --

JUSTICE GORSUCH: Or one would could say we have very sophisticated entities who are engaged in trade on the high seas. These are bespoke agreements, this isn't GEICO, and, you know, they -- they make their choices, they live with them.

EICHER: When Justice Gorsuch says “bespoke agreement” he’s talking about language tailored to fit the project. It’s a fancy way of saying “custom.” You write up a bespoke agreement when boilerplate language isn’t suitable.

In this case, the insurance company is one you go to when other insurance companies won’t take you: what’s known as a surplus-lines insurance company.

But this was just not lawyer Bashman’s day and everyone seemed to know it. So Justice Clarence Thomas can be forgiven the seemingly off-the-point inquiry.

JUSTICE CLARENCE THOMAS: Just a short question, Mr. Bashman, to satisfy my curiosity. Were they able to salvage those twin 12-V 71s? (Laughter.)

BASHMAN: I -- I -- you know, it's a little bit outside of the record that's in front of this Court, but -- but I -- I think that what happened was the boat was taking on water and -- and may have been run aground to avoid sinking it so that it could be salvaged more easily, and -- and the boat is repaired now and -- and is back in -- in working order.

REICHARD: And in rebuttal, lawyer Wall for the insurer could not resist:

WALL: Justice Thomas, to your central question, the boat is available for sale online if you have a half million dollars (laughter) and as best I can tell from the pictures, the engines were salvaged. So don’t worry.

I don’t think the yacht owner will be able to salvage the case, though.

The importance of the eventual ruling could well reverberate beyond the confines of maritime law. It could go as far as all insurance policies. As such, it’s a good idea to consult a lawyer when you are facing one of those “choice-of-law” clauses in an insurance policy.

And that’s this week’s Legal Docket!

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: the Monday Moneybeat.

NICK EICHER, HOST: All right time now to talk business markets and the economy with financial analyst and advisor David Bahnson. David is head of the wealth management firm, the Bahnson group. And he is here now, David. Good morning.

DAVID BAHNSEN: Well, good morning, Nick. Good to be with you.

EICHER: All right, David, what is your sense of the top story of the week?

BAHNSEN: Well, I mean, I think obviously, the top story globally is the ongoing issues in Israel and surrounding Israel. Now people can say, is it really the biggest market story? But you know, I attended a luncheon with Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell last week. And it's clear that the Fed believes that there is the potential for this to become an economic story in the United States. It hasn't been a big market story yet. In other words, the market was down about 500 points last week. But it was actually up three or 400 points at the beginning of the week. And then sold off later in the week. And so it's kind of hard to make the argument that U.S. stock market action has been about the Israel conflict, because why would it have had periods when it's gone up a lot. The first week after Hamas attacked Israel, the market was up hundreds of points. And so I think that we've just had a lot of up and down volatility, which you could argue would have nothing to do with Israel/Hamas. However, if there's going to be an extended supply shock, this is the thing that the Fed knows they can't do anything about. They believe—I don't happen to think they're very good at controlling demand shocks either—but they believe that they're there to try to either weaken demand, which is what they're trying to do right now with high interest rates, or to create demand, which is what they do when they're trying to ease monetary conditions. Supply is a different story. And foreign policy and issues with oil that's on the supply side of the economy. And so this could very well create issues that the Fed doesn't even pretend they can control, let alone actually have the ability to. And I am becoming more convinced that there's some volatility premium in markets right now around this uncertainty with the house. I don't think it's the primary story. I do think, though, that markets are becoming increasingly convinced that the lack of governance being evidenced by the Republicans who have the majority of the House and cannot elect the speaker at a time of great global tumult. This is not good. And I don't think markets like it. And I think as time goes on, it becomes an increasing source of economic vulnerability.

EICHER: Well, I want to hear about the Powell meeting, David. I did see that he appeared to come down in favor of staying the course on interest rates. Not cutting interest rates, but at least not raising them either. What did you take away from your time with the Fed Chair?

BAHNSEN: Yeah, there were a couple of things. And I'm working on kind of a write up of some of the things that he did say that will be part of my dividend Cafe this coming week. Because, you know, he actually said, Nick, that he did not believe that a lot of what created the inflation in the last couple of years, was on the demand side. That he believed there were really big supply shocks out of shutting down the economy from COVID. And then reopening and not having adequate supply, which, of course, has been my belief for several years, now. I think it's absolutely indisputably true. And yet you have a Fed chair who has seemingly been running monetary policy under the belief that they can kind of control this thing that really, I think, was much more supply oriented. And there's this thing that I've talked to you about on the show before called the Phillips curve that has really governed monetary policy for a long time, going back to the 1970s. Where they believe that high employment is inflationary, and higher unemployment is anti inflationary, and that these two things are in sort of a, a tension with one another. And I, of course, don't agree with it at all. But to hear the Federal Reserve Chair in person talk about how well sometimes the Phillips Curve is true, and sometimes it isn't, is an incredibly weird belief about a mathematical model. How are mathematical models sometimes true, and sometimes not. And this is something that was very explicitly said in this lunch I attended. And so if one believes that sometimes things correlate mathematically and other times they don't well, that's obviously true. It just isn't very helpful, because then we have to figure out why something happens one time and doesn't another. But to actually suggest that the model works at times and doesn't work at other times, is essentially conceding that the Fed will runs off the seat of their pants. So they just they have to put a finger in the air to try to govern economic affairs. And so I found that to be a very profound admission on his part. I wish it would become a more humble application for them to concede that a lot of the things they're trying to do, they're not able to do. They're not going to raise rates again. He didn't flat out say it, but I'm quite confident that the tone and the market action suggests so. But what people are afraid of is not that they're gonna raise again, it's that they're gonna stay too high, too long. And I for one, I do not say a lot to defend the Fed because I'm very critical of auto policy decisions. I'm thoroughly convinced that his motive in the policy mistake I think they're making and appear to be set to continue to make, I'm convinced that their motive is that they believe it's the right thing to keep inflation from becoming entrenched. I just happen to think they're completely wrong.

EICHER: And there was news about a disturbance at chair pals talk. Given the global tensions, David, were you a little nervous?

BAHNSEN: Well, because they were immediately chanting something to the extent of stop financing fossil fuel, it was clear that it was an environmental sort of extremism, as opposed to something potentially Hamas or jihadist or something, you know. There's been protests in New York on that front, too. And obviously, we know the tentions around the world. And so, to be honest, it was a little odd to me that there wasn't better security. Powell had to be, you know, hurriedly rushed off stage by security. And we were sitting here not too far from it all. And you had this group of people screaming for the Fed to quit funding fossil fuels. And so I'm glad to know that some of our radicalist in our country not only don't understand environmentalism, but don't understand monetary policy either. But nevertheless, they were eventually removed and Chairman Powell got to speak. And I also was happy that they weren't so against fossil fuel that they did want the lights to be on on them as they were doing their thing. And, of course, these lights were powered by electricity powered by natural gas. So they at least were able to get enough fossil fuel to bring some attention to their effort.

EICHER: All right, David Bahnsen is founder, managing partner, and Chief Investment Officer at the Bahnsen group. You can keep up with David by checking out his personal website bahnsen.com. His weekly dividend cafe, you can find that dividend cafe.com. David, thanks so much. We'll see you next time.

BAHNSEN: Thanks so much, Nick.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Monday, October 23rd. 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, the WORLD History Book. Twenty-five years ago, NASA launches Deep Space 1 to explore the asteroid belt. Also 25 years ago, Israel and the Palestinian Authority sign the Wye River Memorandum. But first, Orville Wright sets the world record for flight.

Here’s WORLD Radio intern, Emma Perley.

EMMA PERLEY, INTERN: It’s October 24th, 1911, and a cold and windy day in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina. Eight years earlier, Orville and Wilbur Wright became the first Americans to fly on that same strip of land. Audio courtesy of Reuters.

AUDIO: As the two brothers prepare to attempt the first catapultic takeoff, man’s age old dream of flight becomes a reality.

Orville settles himself into the cockpit of the Wright Glider as his brother, Lorin, nephew, Horace, and pilot friend Alec Ogilvie (OH-gill-vee) watch from a few feet away.

Orville has already been in the cockpit many times today. At one point, he remains in the air for over 7 minutes. At another, the glider tumbles over as he hangs on for dear life.

Now, the glider hits a 40 mile an hour gust of wind and soars upward. After 9 minutes in the air, Orville sets the world record for unpowered flight that would stand for 10 years. Audio here from a Wright brothers documentary.

AUDIO: Remaining motionless, pretty much motionless over one spot. Marvelous accomplishment.

After touching back down, Orville sends a message to Wilbur, who stayed behind in Dayton, Ohio. He writes triumphantly, “All our theories are proved.”

The next year, Wilbur falls ill, passing away at the Wright family home. But Orville lives to see their aeronautical inventions transform the world. Less than ten years after Orville’s glider flight comes fighter aircraft used in World War I. And in 1944, Orville gets to ride in a four engined airliner named the “Constellation.” In a span of 45 years, the Wright brothers’ dreams of aviation give rise to the era of supersonic airplanes.

Next, on October 23rd, 1998, the Israeli Prime Minister and the Palestinian Authority meet in Wye River, Maryland with President Bill Clinton to discuss peace. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks with the press. Audio from AP News:

AUDIO: It’s time to see a change, it’s time to see a vote for a change, a vote for peace.

The agreement stipulates that the Israeli Defense Forces pull out of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. And it aims to create Palestinian self-government with a Palestinian Council of 82 representatives. Perhaps most importantly, both sides must agree to zero tolerance for violence and terrorism. But during the negotiations, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat threatens to take control of the territories by force. Netanyahu asks him to retract his demands. Here’s AP News again:

AUDIO: President Clinton said recently that it's not enough to have an agreement, it has to be complied with. And threats of violence, overt threats of violence against us are a clear violation of that compliance.

On the final day, it looks like conversations will end without an agreement. Netanyahu requests that Clinton release an American intelligence analyst who is serving a life sentence for selling classified information to Israel. Clinton refuses, and Israel backs down. Finally the agreement is signed at the White House with King Hussein of Jordan attending. Audio here from C-Span.

AUDIO: I think it is fitting that these three great leaders, two signers, one his majesty observing, who know a great deal about war, have come to make peace on this table which for our country has come to embody it. And we thank them. Thank you very much. [audience clapping]

Unfortunately, many conditions of the agreement remain unfulfilled. The Palestinians failed to crack down on violence and terrorism, and so Israel only withdrew 2% of their troops in the West Bank instead of the proposed 13%.

Finally, SpaceX launched a spacecraft on a six year flight to a metal-studded asteroid last week. But that journey would have been impossible without the initial success of Deep Space 1. It launched from Cape Canaveral 25 years ago on October 24th. Audio here from NASA.

AUDIO: 5…4…3…2…1, main engines start and liftoff of the Delta rocket with Deep Space 1! Testing the spacecraft technologies of the next century.

Deep Space 1 is a high risk mission. It tests twelve unproved technologies that could end in catastrophic failures or even explosion. One of these is a futuristic ion engine—the same type that supposedly powers sci-fi starships like the Star Trek Enterprise. It is also a smaller, less expensive spacecraft that can operate more independently of ground control. According to NASA, Deep Space 1 proves to be “the little engine that could.” Here’s project manager Dr. Marc Rayman in 2001.

AUDIO: We tested all of the technology successfully, and then in July of 1999 the spacecraft had a very close encounter with an asteroid as a bonus.

Deep Space 1 transmits data from an asteroid named Braille—including its physical properties and surface composition. Once the first part of its mission is complete, NASA directs the spacecraft to flyby the Borrelly comet. The Deep Space 1 mission results in some of the best images ever taken of an asteroid or a comet.

AUDIO: Deep Space 1 took the risks so that future missions wouldn’t have to.

That’s this week’s WORLD History Book. I’m Emma Perley.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: Right to Repair legislation. Does it fix the right problems?

And how some churches are serving — and being served — by people with disabilities.

That and more tomorrow.

I’m Nick Eicher.

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

The World and Everything in It comes to you from WORLD Radio. WORLD’s mission is biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires.

Thus says the Lord: “Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.” But they say, “I will not walk in it.” —Jeremiah chapter 6, verse 16.

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.