The World and Everything in It: October 26, 2022

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

President Biden releases more oil from the nation’s strategic reserve. Legitimate move or political gamesmanship?

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

Also today, WORLD Tour.

Plus Biosphere 2. It set out to prove humans can survive in a closed system. It hasn’t done that, but it’s still a going concern.

And the reality check that may help you number your days a-right.

REICHARD: It’s Wednesday, October 26th. 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: Up next, Kent Covington has the news.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Sunak appoints new ministers » Rishi Sunak on Tuesday became Britain’s third prime minister in the span of just two months. And he’s vowing to bring stability to the office.

SUNAK: This government will have integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level.

That as the now former prime minister, Liz Truss, officially stepped aside.

TRUSS: I wish Rishi Sunak every success for the good of our country.

The Conservative Party picked him on Monday as a steady leader in hopes he will tame a growing economic crisis.

In one of his first acts, he announced he would keep Jeremy Hunt as Treasury chief, a job Sunak himself once held under former Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

And he immediately got to work filling other posts in his government. He removed about a dozen members of Truss’ Cabinet, but kept several senior figures in place besides Hunt.

Putin weapons » Vladimir Putin is scrambling to get his hands on more weapons for the war in Ukraine. WORLD’s Anna Johansen Brown reports.

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN, REPORTER: With Russia facing military production delays and mounting losses, Putin urged his government Tuesday to cut through bureaucracy to crank out weapons and supplies.

He is chairing a new committee designed to speed up production to cover military shortfalls in Russia’s eight-month war with Ukraine.

Many of Russia’s new conscripts haven’t received basic supplies and some have been handed rusted-out rifles.

A British Defense report said Tuesday Russia’s “artillery ammunition is running low.”

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Anna Johansen Brown.

Griner loses appeal » WNBA basketball star Brittney Griner remains behind bars in Russia with hopes of an early release fading by the day.

A Russian court on Tuesday rejected an appeal of her nine-year prison sentence for possessing a cannabis vape cartridge at a Moscow airport.

President Biden said his administration has been in constant contact with Russian authorities …

BIDEN: To get Brittney and others out. And so far we’ve not been meeting with much positive response. But we’re not stopping.

His administration has proposed prisoner swaps to Russian officials, but they’ve yet to respond.

The U.S. State Department says her detainment is unjust.

Consumer confidence » Consumer confidence slipping in the United States. That’s a blinking warning light for the future of the U.S. economy.

The Conference Board reported Tuesday that its consumer confidence index fell to 102.5 in October. That’s a 5% dip from the month before.

A separate metric that takes the temperature of business and labor market conditions slipped by seven-and-a-half percent in a month’s time.

Wisconsin election rules rulings » With Election Day now less than two weeks away, early voting is underway in many states, including Wisconsin amid ongoing lawsuits over election rules there. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has more.

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: Certain voting rules in the swing state have changed over the past couple of years.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court in July banned absentee ballot drop boxes located anywhere other than in a local election clerk’s office. The court also said that only the voter can return the absentee ballot unless the voter is disabled.

And each absentee ballot must include the signature and address of a witness.

A judge sided with Republicans in another lawsuit ruling that election clerks are not permitted to fill in missing witness address information.

There are two pending lawsuits over how much of the witness’s address must be present in order for the clerk to accept the ballot.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

Early voting in GA » Early voters are going gangbusters at polls in Georgia, fueling a new round of jousting over Republicans’ overhaul of election rules.

GOP Gov. Brian Kemp took a jab at his Democratic challenger, Stacey Abrams.

KEMP: She said this new law would be suppressive and Jim Crow 2.0. And President Biden said that. The vice president said that.

He said it’s evident that voting is very easy in Georgia.

Through Sunday, early voting was up about 60% from the same point in 2018, the last midterm election.

More than 10% of Georgia's registered voters have already cast votes, a share that trails only Massachusetts and Vermont.

Wisconsin parade shooter trial » The trial continues in Wisconsin for Darrel Brooks. He’s the man accused of plowing his SUV into the Waukesha Christmas parade last year, killing six people and injuring dozens.

Brooks is defending himself, and the judge in the case says he’s trying to slow down the trial.

BROOKS: Am I acting in dishonor?
JUDGE: Yes, you are acting in dishonor.
BROOKS: How? How?
JUDGE: You are disobeying the direct order of this court to respect the decorum and dignity of these proceedings. You are merely attempting to delay.
BROOKS: I don’t care what you think, that’s not accurate.
JUDGE: Mr. Brooks!

Judge Jennifer Dorow has had Brooks removed from the courtroom multiple times.

During the trial, Dorow ruled that Brooks forfeited his right to testify or call any other witnesses. She said Brooks was pretending not to hear her.

I’m Kent Covington. Straight ahead: President Biden releases more oil from the nation’s strategic reserve.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s October 26th, 2022. You’re listening to WORLD Radio and we’re glad to have you along today. Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. It’s time for Washington Wednesday.

Today, raiding the strategic petroleum reserve.

President Biden last week announced the release of another 15 million barrels from the nation’s strategic reserve. Biden said the move was aimed at helping American families by keeping gas prices down.

BIDEN: When the price of gas goes up, other expenses get cut. That’s why I have been doing everything in my power to reduce gas prices.

But Republicans said the announcement, just weeks before midterm elections, had a different purpose. Congressman Michael McCaul:

MCCAUL: It’s not the political petroleum reserve. He’s playing politics with this national security asset that we have that’s really developed for a time of war.

So now the reserve is is at its lowest level since 1984. But the president argues it’s still more than half full. And that’s more than enough to get the nation through a crisis.

Joining us now is James Coleman. He’s an expert on energy policy. He’s testified before Congress and has written for the Harvard Environmental Law Review.

REICHARD: James, good morning!

JAMES COLEMAN, GUEST: Good morning.

REICHARD: Let’s clear this up first: is the petroleum reserve only designed for times of war or a dire emergency … or is it entirely in the discretion of the president?

COLEMAN: Well it’s mostly designed for those significant disruptions that you identified. But it has been used at times for other purposes. Congress has at times mandated sales and, of course, the President has a lot of discretion about what can be designated an emergency. And so you see President Biden pushing much further than other presidents have done with this unprecedented release of a third of the capacity of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

REICHARD: Is the president correct in saying the reserves we still have on hand are plenty to take us through an emergency?

COLEMAN: Well, we’ll see. It really depends on what kind of emergency we're talking about and I hope we don't have to find out. But it may be that there are further disruptions to oil markets coming in the near future in December. Europe is talking about imposing some kind of tanker ban or maybe price cap on Russia and that's creating a lot of uncertainty for the markets. Remember that this initial release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve was, in theory, designed to address the problem that Russian oil exports to the world were potentially going to drop catastrophically as a result of the war in Ukraine. But, in fact, they haven't really dropped very much at all.

But the question is, when Europe imposes this tanker ban, price cap, whatever will be in early December, that could cause a bigger disruption. And, of course, there's all sorts of other disruptions that could happen in terms of war in the Middle East. We certainly have growing tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran. There's a lot of different things that could happen. And, you know, our hope is always not to find out how the Strategic Petroleum Reserve would suffice in these scenarios. But I think it's important to understand that because it's at lower levels than it's been in 40 years, we are less prepared for a strategic disruption than we've been in decades.

REICHARD: President Biden also said that once the price of oil hits $70 a barrel, the government will buy the oil needed to replenish the strategic reserve. He said that will encourage oil companies to ramp up production. What’s your reaction to that?

COLEMAN: Well, I think it is starting to gesture toward a better idea. Unfortunately, as far as it’s gone so far, I don’t think it’s going to do much to encourage producers, because producers were not, you know, they can already hedge their future production if they want to and that's a pretty low price. Now, on the other hand, if that was a promise to purchase for $70 even if prices went lower, that kind of put option might really put something of a floor under oil prices, at least, to the extent of the capacity and the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. And as we know, it's now a third empty, basically. So I think that could potentially help but just saying at a press conference that you plan to buy when things get down to $70, that's not much of a new incentive for oil producers to ramp up production.

REICHARD: Gas prices are well below what they were several months ago, although a bit higher now than this time last month. The White House says that’s because of the president’s earlier releases from the strategic reserve. James, what do you think? Did the earlier releases affect gas prices?

COLEMAN: Yeah, they certainly have lowered the price for crude. The reality of crude oil is that usually it's a global market. And so everything that happens around the globe affects it. And so there have been really three big things that have been lowering oil prices a little bit. One is that Russian oil production hasn't collapsed as many expected. Two is that Chinese oil demand has actually gone way down compared to what we were expecting, because of all the COVID lockdowns in China that we've had for the past year. And then three is that we've had these releases from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. And the cumulative effect of those three things is that we actually have lower oil prices today than we had the day that Russia invaded Ukraine. And so I do think it's fair to say that releasing from the Petroleum Reserve does lower oil prices. The challenge is that, of course, that leaves us less prepared to deal with future disruptions.

REICHARD: Recently, OPEC+ countries decided to cut back on their oil output, despite Biden’s request that they ramp up supply. Will that affect our energy and gas prices here?

COLEMAN: Yes, it will. Just as all those other developments around the world impact global oil prices. Certainly OPEC’s decision will impact global oil prices. I do think that there's sometimes maybe slightly too much focus on this. I say for a couple of reasons. One is although the headline cut to oil production that OPEC announced was 2 million barrels per day, a lot of their producers were struggling to meet their quota. So, in reality, it's probably a cut of less than 1 million barrels per day. So it's not as big as it appears in the headlines.

The second thing to say about that is, ultimately, in the United States, we don't have a lot of control over production of the Petroleum Exporting Countries in OPEC. But we do have a lot of control over our own production. And so I think sometimes there's a little bit too much focus on something that, really, we don't just get to turn OPEC’s supplies on and off. Whereas we have a lot of control over decisions like how much federal land do we lease for oil and gas development.

REICHARD: We know that Europe is facing a winter with high energy prices, mainly due to their dependence on Russian energy. Will Americans see their energy bills go up significantly this winter? I mean, we don’t buy as much from Russia.

COLEMAN: Yeah, that’s right. So, in oil markets, we’re already seeing, of course, that price at the pump differential and that's partly related to just not enough oil production coming out of the pandemic. Demand recovered faster than our supplies of oil. It's also in part because we had a bunch of refineries shut down in the last 18 months. And so that means that sometimes there's shortages of some of those refined products, particularly diesel. We're seeing very high diesel prices, and that has an impact on prices of food and everything else. So I think we're already seeing that in the oil, you know, those liquid fuel markets. In terms of electricity bills, that's more tied to the price of natural gas. And those natural gas markets are not as global. And that's because, typically, it's hard to transport natural gas from someplace where prices are low to where prices are high and so you can get very different prices developing between places without transport to smooth it out. Now, with that said, the U.S. has recently become the world's number one exporter of liquified natural gas, which can carry refrigerated gas overseas, and that is connecting markets a little bit. And so we're seeing slightly higher prices for natural gas. I mean, in fact, they're significantly higher. I say slightly because they're nothing compared to the price spikes that we're seeing in Europe or in Asia or in other places. And so that's already making its way into utility bills. And it just sort of depends on what the lag is between the higher prices that utilities are paying for natural gas and how long it takes that to work its way into the consumer bills. But I do think that means we're going to be paying higher electricity prices going forward.

REICHARD: Final question, James. Suppose you are advising the White House on how to make energy as affordable as possible and still move toward its clean energy goals. What might you say?

COLEMAN: I think the biggest challenge and potential opportunity that they have right now is speeding up permitting of energy projects. And kind of an all-of-the-above program for speeding up those projects would in effect have a disproportionate impact in terms of speeding up clean energy projects. Because if you improve a bunch of pipelines and power lines, new solar projects and wind projects, the reality is that a lot of the infrastructure for our traditional energy system based on oil and coal is already there. And so they don't need new infrastructure as much as those new projects for power transmission, for solar, for wind, for natural gas to backup those intermittent sources of energy and to replace coal power overseas. So I think by speeding up permitting, they could help expand the supply of all kinds of American energy, lowering prices, while also encouraging a transition to cleaner sources of energy.

REICHARD: We’ve been talking to James Coleman. He is a Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. James, thanks so much!

COLEMAN: Thank you.

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

ONIZE OHIKERE, REPORTER: Mexico storm —Today’s World Tour takes off in Mexico.

AUDIO: [Relief teams shoveling]

Relief teams and residents in the country’s northwest are clearing flooded roads in the wake of Hurricane Roslyn.

Roslyn made landfall Sunday and quickly weakened to a tropical storm as it moved inland. Local media have reported at least three deaths.

Authorities in the hardest-hit states said the storm caused floods, felled trees, and triggered landslides that buried some homes.

Eduardo Lugo is president of one of the worst-hit municipalities.

AUDIO: [Speaking in Spanish]

He says here the government will continue to support the communities with food and other provisions while they clean out their homes.

China-Vatican deal — We head over to China.

The Vatican has renewed a secretive deal with Beijing over the Roman Catholic Church’s leadership in China.

The deal will last another two years. It allows China to choose bishops on the mainland, while Rome approves them.

China’s foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin…

AUDIO: [Speaking Mandarin]

He confirmed the extension on Saturday, adding both sides hope to maintain close communication.

The Catholic Church says the deal bridges the gap between Catholics in the state-backed church and an underground movement.

But opponents accuse Beijing of religious repression. Last month, a court in Hong Kong started the trial of 90-year-old Cardinal Joseph Zen.

The retired bishop was arrested earlier this year on charges of colluding with foreign forces.

Lebanon election — Next to Lebanon, where lawmakers have failed again to elect a new president.

AUDIO: [Parliament session]

Fifty lawmakers in the 128-seat parliament left their votes blank on Monday.

Parliament is trying to elect a successor to President Michel Aoun, whose term ends next week.

But lawmakers are divided over a candidate opposed by the powerful Islamic extremist group Hezbollah.

Three previous votes failed.

Lebanon has not had a functioning government since May, and it is in the middle of an economic crisis. Parliament will vote again on Thursday.

Tanzania wildfire — We wrap up today in Tanzania.

More than 300 rescuers responded to a wildfire on the slopes of the famous Mount Kilimanjaro.

AUDIO: [Responders preparing]

The fire started Friday evening near a campsite for climbers. It spread quickly as strong winds blew overnight. Authorities have not confirmed how the fire started, but they pointed to human activities.

Nurdin Babu is the Kilimanjaro Regional Commissioner.

BABU: [Speaking Swahili]

He says no one was hurt and all the tourists who were on top of the mountain are safe.

A similar fire on the slopes two years ago burned for a week across 37 square miles. Mount Kilimanjaro is Africa’s highest summit at more than 19,000 feet.

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

NICK EICHER, HOST: If you grew up watching The Jetsons, maybe you expected by now we’d have those flying cars that were supposedly part of the future!

Well, that’s still a way’s away, but this Jetsons-type character seems to have arrived—the loveable robot Rosey.

AUDIO: Thank you, and I love you people too.

She’s a charmer!

And you know, researchers at the University of California-Berkeley have invented a robot very similar to Rosie! This one is able perfectly to fold 30 to 40 pieces of clothing per hour!

It may not have the charm of Rosey, but we could be looking at one less household chore to do!

REICHARD: I don’t need the personality, the charm is getting the folding done!

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

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Wednesday, October 26th.

We’re so glad you’ve turned 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: Life inside a bubble.

In 1991, a science experiment in Arizona set out to prove that an enclosed ecological system could support human life in outer space. Eight researchers were sealed inside a futuristic glass complex, housing a few farm animals and several different ecosystems. Biosphere 2, as it was called, was modeled on Biosphere 1, planet Earth.

REICHARD: The experiment ended in 1993. Three decades later, the research facility is not only still standing, it’s also being used to crank out new ideas. WORLD’s Myrna Brown has the story.

ANCHORS: Four women and four men are spending their first night in Biosphere 2… tonight we put a fascinating look into our future… four men and four women set to begin a two-year-experiment and adventure…

MYRNA BROWN CORRESPONDENT: Lia Crocker wasn’t even born in 1991. That’s when five Americans, two Brits and one Belgian sealed themselves inside a 91-foot-tall glass bubble…the same bubble that is now Crocker’s 91-foot-tall, glass office.

LIA CROCKER I didn’t know about Biosphere 2 growing up. I learned about it in high school. So I came out to go to the University of Arizona because I was so intrigued by Biosphere 2.

The University of Arizona owns Biosphere 2 and prepares researchers like Crocker to study complex ecosystems: Things like oceans and coral reefs.

LIA CROCKER: So behind me there’s 700,000 gallons of water.

Crocker is standing at the edge of one of Biosphere 2’s seven ecosystems - the ocean. To the right, huge boulders. To the left, a wall of windows that allow bright beams of the Arizona sun to ricochet off the water’s surface. Crocker manages this man-made ocean and its coral reef.

LIA CROCKER: We have a model coral reef ecosystem here that has undergone a lot of stress and now we’re seeing how it can recover. And that will teach us a lot about how real ocean ecosystems can recover.

Reefs not only protect coastlines from erosion, they’re a source of food and provide research for new medicines. Part of this reef’s recovery process takes place inside a raceway room. Raceways are huge tubs that act as incubators for coral. They’re a cross between a fish tank and the ocean.

LIA CROCKER: We are learning a lot about what we can do to be good stewards of God’s creation. And in ways like what we’re doing with the coral reef here. We’re learning more about these creatures and what our relationship should be to each of them and living more like God intended I think.

Next to the ocean, a rainforest, nine stories high.

AUDIO: [RAIN]

That may sound like raindrops gently falling, but remember, this laboratory is completely sealed. The man behind the moisture is research specialist, Jason Deleeuw.

JASON: Because it’s so high and because it’s shaped like a pyramid so to speak, that allows us to control the atmosphere here. We can control the humidity. We can control the rainfall.

With the flip of a switch, Deleeuw is examining why certain plants tolerate higher temperatures and limited rainfall while others don’t. When he wants to know what’s happening at the root level, he simply lifts up a metal door that reaches 10 feet down.

JASON: And so we have four of these soil pits, going all the way down to the bottom of the soil to the concrete at the base there. And we’ve got sensors inserted along the wall here and that tells us how moisture moves through this soil. How does limited rainfall affect soil microbes? How does the availability of water down there change things?

About three football fields away from the rainforest, is the coastal fog desert.

JOHN ADAMS: That’s what’s incredible about Biosphere 2 and the engineering is that on one end we’re in the rainforest and right now we’re standing in the desert.

John Adams is Biosphere 2’s Deputy Director. He says while the two ecosystems are different, surprisingly, both share similar climate requirements.

JOHN: A Coastal Fog Desert is an area, if you were to drive from Southern Arizona work your way down to New Mexico, along the Baha Peninsula, a lot of the plants that you would encounter along that drive would be represented inside of here.

50,000 square feet of rocks, sand, and various species of cacti cover this part of Biosphere 2. Adams says out of all the ecosystems, the desert has produced the most innovative idea: How does a computer information center interact with an ecosystem?

JOHN: So, we all think of the cloud, we hear the cloud, right. Well the cloud is not someplace up in the sky. It’s a big data center. We were in discussions with a large software company and they were looking at potentially building a replicated data center in here to look at how the data center impacts the environment and how the environment impacts the data center.

Biosphere 2 is open to the public, and visitors like Cindy Hicks consider it a museum of sorts.

CINDY HICKS: I was here like 35 years ago when I was a teacher and they brought us all out here to investigate it. But you know, I came back.

Today, she’s introducing her 10-year-old grandson to words like biomes and ecosystems.

MYRNA TO JACK HICKS: When you first walked up. What did you think when you saw this place? I thought, well…. That’s big! (laughter)

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Myrna Brown in Oracle, Arizona.

REICHARD: If you want to see the rainforest and the desert biomes, Myrna produced a companion piece that also airs today on WORLD Watch. That’s our video news program for students. We’ll post a link to that story in today’s transcript.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Wednesday, October 26th. 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. Well, it’s almost October 31st. And so in the days leading up to it you’re likely seeing lots of celebrations of death with plastic headstones and fake skeletons seemingly everywhere.

WORLD commentator Janie B. Cheaney ponders real cemeteries now, and how they can teach us to number our days.

JANIE B. CHEANEY, COMMENTATOR: Years ago, when we purchased our eight acres in the country at auction, trustees from the church cemetery across the street were standing by. Once the sale went through, they approached us with an offer to buy three acres for cemetery expansion. They promised we would have quiet neighbors.

We agreed to their terms, and I’m glad we did—less grass to mow. But another thing, too: almost as an afterthought, my husband asked for four cemetery plots as part of the deal. One for each member of our family. We were empty nesters with two young adults seeking their fortunes elsewhere—and one of them scoffed at the idea of being buried in the middle of nowhere. But who knows when their time might come, whether they be 27 or 72?

The cemetery has been my fitness track (five times around equals 2 miles) and our choice for an evening stroll. At dusk the gravestones are silhouetted against the sunset like watchful sentries. Or like the ten virgins of the parable, waiting for the call to attend the bridegroom. He’s coming! Get your lamps ready!

A few of these names we know, such as Mr. and Mrs. McCracken, who purchased their monument ahead of time with names and dates inscribed. Mr. McCracken is now under it, and I wonder what his wife thinks while contemplating her own name on that marker. I’ve wondered if we should pre-purchase our marker, though I can think of better uses for a few thousand dollars. No one will visit us here. We will be surrounded by strangers, most of whom lived at least to middle age. But there are children, too, even from this century. Their graves are decorated with toys appropriate to the age they would have been. No life comes with a guarantee.

After a certain age, memories are tinged with death, not just of loved ones, but of everyone who touched our earlier lives. I find myself recalling high school teachers, church mentors and pastors, committee chairmen—all very likely gone. Their babies are now grandparents. It’s a little shocking, as though all humanity were on a conveyor belt that will eventually drop into another state of being. And I’m drawing closer to the edge.

Death is both natural and unnatural, inevitable and astonishing. We seem immune until it comes for us. I’m glad we negotiated those cemetery plots years ago—as Moses wrote, it teaches me to number my days, that I may get a heart of wisdom. Each grave is a reminder to those who pause beside it, as the old Puritan headstones warned passers-by, “As I am now, so you must be.”

But over those watchful, waiting stones lies the shadow of history’s one empty grave: As He is, so we will be. I’ll wait for Him right here.

I’m Janie B. Cheaney.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: a deeper look at Revoice, a controversial movement that its leaders say aims to balance homosexuality and Biblical orthodoxy.

And, an overlooked holiday—one that is less about candy and more about church history.

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: ...whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. (Col 3:17 ESV)

Go now in grace and peace.

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