The World and Everything in It: October 29, 2025

Editor's note: The following text is a transcript of a podcast story. To listen to the story, click on the arrow beneath the headline above.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Good morning!

President Trump flexes U.S. power from Venezuela to the Pacific—but is there a strategy tying it all together?

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

Also today, World Tour.

And Mexican wolves making a comeback in the Southwest.

BARNETT: They are considered what we call a keystone species. They play a key role in maintaining the function of that ecosystem.

But not everyone’s happy about it. Kim Henderson has a report.

And perhaps the biggest government problem right now isn’t the shutdown. WORLD Opinions commentary from Jordan Ballor.

MAST: It’s Wednesday, October 29th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Lindsay Mast.

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

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

SOUND: [Melissa winds]

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Hurricane Melissa » The sound of violent winds from Hurricane Melissa, which is now pushing into Atlantic waters after carving a path of destruction through the Caribbean.

National Hurricane Center Director Michael Brennan says today:

BRENNAN:  Southeastern and Central Bahamas, Turks and Caicos. Hurricane conditions are likely along with life-threatening storm surge and heavy rainfall, particularly in the southeast Bahamas.

Many residents in Cuba are surveying the devastation after Melissa struck overnight as a major hurricane.

And hours earlier, it slammed southwestern Jamaica as a catastrophic Category 5 storm, with maximum sustained winds of 185 mph.

Minister of Local Government of Jamaica Desmond McKenzie:

MCKENZIE:  Our infrastructure has been severely compromised. The entire Jamaica has felt the brunt of Melissa.

It was the strongest storm to hit the island since recordkeeping began 174 years ago.

And Melissa's winds tied records for the strongest Atlantic storm ever to hit land anywhere.

Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness warned ahead of the storm:

HOLNESS: There is no infrastructure in the region that can withstand a category five. Uh, there is going to be damage if there is a category five.

He said “The question now is the speed of recovery.”

The storm also triggered widespread flooding, both from storm surge and torrential rain.

Jamaican officials on Tuesday said it was too early to speak to the full extent of the damage.

Israel latest » Israel resumed airstrikes on the Gaza Strip Tuesday — killing at least nine people, according to Gaza’s civil defense agency, which is run by Hamas.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his office ordered “immediate and forceful strikes” after Hamas violated the October 10 cease-fire.

Israel says the terror group staged the recovery of remains belonging to hostage Ofir Tzarfati — whose partial remains were already recovered twice before.

Government spokeswoman Shosh Bedrosian says the IDF caught the fake recovery on drone video:

BEDROSIAN: I can confirm to you today that Hamas dug a hole in the ground yesterday, placed the partial remains of Ofir inside of it, covered it back up with dirt and handed it over to the Red Cross.

Bedrosian said the family has now been forced to reopen Tzarfati’s grave for a third time.

An Israeli military official told the Associated Press that Hamas militants also opened fire on Israeli troops in southern Gaza.

U.S. strikes on four cartel boats » The Pentagon says the U.S. military carried out strikes on four more boats in the Pacific Ocean that it says were operated by cartels, running drugs.

The latest strikes killed 14, leaving one survivor.

A Pentagon official reportedly said the strikes were conducted in international waters near South America.

Democrats continue to criticize the strikes as illegal, and a handful of Republicans also say they want more information., including GOP Sen. Rand Paul:

PAUL:  We haven't had a briefing. To be clear, we've got no information. I've been invited to no briefing.

Most Republicans, though, have applauded President Trump for taking the fight to cartels before the drugs reach US soil. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says drugs from South America have flooded American streets.

DESANTIS: [The] presidents doing something about it. Uh, you also have a regime in Venezuela that's been incredibly hostile to the United States. Uh, and I think the way you deal with those folks is through strength.

The president authorized lethal force against cartels abroad after designating them as foreign terrorist organizations.

SNAP benefits lawsuit » A growing number of Democrat-led states are suing the U.S. Department of Agriculture over federal food stamp benefits.

The USDA says funding has run dry, and if the government shutdown continues, food assistance payments will stop on November 1st.

But California Attorney General Rob Bonta asserts:

BONTA:  There are billions of dollars in contingency funds and other funds that could be used to provide SNAP benefits during the shutdown. They're doing this on purpose. It is deliberate it, it is intentional. They have the funds, they're just not using them.

But Agriculture Sec. Brooke Rollins says … not so.

ROLLINS:  100% unequivocally, USDA does not have the $9.2 billion that it would require. There's not just pots of $9.2 billion sitting around.

Shutdown funding vote » Meantime, there was yet another vote on the Senate floor Tuesday on a funding bill that would restore and temporarily extend the funding that was already in place before the shutdown.

But the 13th time was not the charm.

AUDIO:  On this vote, the yeas are 54, the nays of 45, three-fifths of the Senate not having voted in the affirmative, the motion is not agreed to.

Nothing has changed. Democrats say they won’t approve funding to reopen the government until Republicans agree to extend Obamacare tax credits. And Republicans say they’re open to negotiations, but only after Democrats end the shutdown.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Tuesday renewed his plea for the government to reopen, so air traffic controllers can start getting paid again.

DUFFY:  Oftentimes these guys are, are nameless and they're faceless, uh, but they're the many and women who work in our towers to make sure that our flights are on time, that our flights aren't delayed, and your flights are safe.

Duffy says more than half of all flight delays right now are due to staffing shortages, as controllers are being asked to work without a paycheck for now.

Amazon job cuts » Amazon has announced the biggest corporate jobs cut in its history . WORLD’s Benjamin Eicher has more.

BENJAMIN EICHER: The online retail giant is doing away with roughly 14,000 jobs as it leans into artificial intelligence and trims bureaucracy.

Amazon executive Beth Galetti says the company is eliminating 4% of its white-collar workforce.

The roles affected include HR, devices, advertising and cloud divisions.

CEO Andy Jassy had already warned in June that generative A-I would reshape the workforce.

A larger wave of up to 30,000 cuts is reportedly underway as Amazon seeks to streamline operationsand invest heavily in its future-tech infrastructure.

For WORLD, I’m Benjamin Eicher.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: Washington Wednesday with Hunter Baker. Plus, the success story of bringing an endangered species back from the brink.

This is The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: It’s Washington Wednesday—foreign-policy edition.

We begin in the Caribbean, where American military power is on the move.

Late last week the Pentagon ordered the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group to redeploy: It’s moving from the Mediterranean toward the Caribbean.

Officials say the carrier and its escort ships are now in transit across the Atlantic. They’re expected to arrive within days.

The stated mission is to target drug traffickers, but the timing and the firepower suggest something more—a possible escalation toward Venezuela.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: That order builds on a campaign that’s already seen more than ten U.S. strikes on suspected drug-running vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, yesterday, another set of strikes taking out four more vessels. The actions have killed now close to 60 suspected drug runners.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says the goal is to treat “narco-terrorists” the same way the U.S. treats al-Qaeda.

HEGSETH: So our message to these foreign terrorist organizations is we will treat you like we have treated al -Qaeda. We will find you, we will map your networks, we will hunt you down, and we will kill you.

EICHER: Senator Lindsey Graham says President Trump “has all the authority he needs” and that the days of Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro “are numbered.”

Venezuelan officials call that fabrication for “a new eternal war.”

Joining us now political scientist and WORLD Opinions contributor Hunter Baker. Good morning.

HUNTER BAKER: Good morning.

EICHER: Hunter—big picture first:

Has the Trump administration crossed the line from a counter-narcotics mission to a regime-change operation?

BAKER: I think that regime change is the intent. I think that that's what is really going on here. I think that Maduro has been an illegitimate leader of Venezuela for a number of years now, and I think that Donald Trump is ratcheting up the pressure, trying, I think, to get Maduro to leave.

Now, why does Trump think he can do that? Well, I don't think that Maduro is popular. I think that he has become what we might term a tyrant, which is to say he does not have the support of the mass of people in Venezuela. And therefore, when you're in that situation, what's keeping you in power is basically the military, and the reason they're keeping you in power is because you are paying them. And so if someone else comes along who can sort of present a counterweight to the military of Venezuela, then people start thinking about switching sides. And I think that that's what's ultimately going to happen in Venezuela. I think people are going to start switching sides, and I think that Maduro will end up leaving.

EICHER: I do want to get to the policy question, because I know already there's some move to try to clip the President's wings by using the War Powers resolution. But do you see this as more of a continuation of the Monroe Doctrine tradition, or do you think it's something new in American policy in the hemisphere?

BAKER: The United States has ever been attentive to what is going on in Latin America. We have certainly been attentive to Cuba. We had an existential crisis in Cuba during the Kennedy administration, as many may recall. But we have also paid attention to the various Marxist movements in Latin America, and I think that that's part of what's going on here. Is that Maduro is a Marxist dictator. I think that Marco Rubio is an interested party here. I think that he has been interested in seeing Maduro go before, and I think that they just are taking the advantage, especially in the wake of this Nobel Peace Prize win from sort of the leader of democracy in Venezuela, to apply pressure. And like I say, I think it's going to work.

MAST: We turn now to Argentina’s colorful president Javier Milei, the free-market economist elected in 2023 on a promise to rescue the country from fiscal collapse.

Milei scored a decisive midterm political win this week—his party now controls a third of Congress. That’s enough to defend his decrees and austerity plan.

MILEI [Spanish]: I have no doubt in telling you that, starting on December 10, we will have, without a doubt, the most reformist Congress in Argentine history.

What he’s saying is that when the legislature returns on December 10th, “we will have, without a doubt, the most reformist Congress in Argentine history.”

Per The Wall Street Journal: Inflation has plunged from 200 to 32 percent, the budget is balanced, and Washington has arranged a $40 billion rescue package.

At the same time, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is tasked with pressing Milei to curb Chinese influence over Argentina’s telecom and mining sectors.

Hunter, the economic stats are impressive… but I don’t think anybody in the U.S. would consider a 32 percent inflation rate anything other than utterly miserable. We’re arguing over 3 percent or 2 percent.

But how do you see this election result: Is it a turning point toward a free-market, pro-U.S. Latin America—or just a brief reprieve before the populist cycle resumes?

BAKER: I'm a free market guy, so take it with a grain of salt. But I tend to see this as a world historical type of event. If you look at Argentina, sort of the home of socialist glamor, if you think about Evita Peron, the wife of the dictator of the regime who brought in the movement that has really been dominant there for approximately the last 70 years. “Don't Cry For Me Argentina,” right? If you know that song that's for Evita, and you see Milei, who swept in a couple of years ago, really, without even a political party, but as sort of a singular force. And the question was, was he going to be able to come in and make policy changes that would stick? And not long ago, there was a local, sort of provincial election that his party lost badly, and people thought, that's it, right? You know, he sort of hit the end of his tether, and he's not going to be able to defend his policies.

Enter one Donald John Trump, who says, Yes, we're going to arrange for this $40 billion rescue. But there are strings attached, right? That yes, I'm going to commit to this rescue as long as Milei does well in the elections. So a lot of people thought, well, he's not going to do well, and Trump is going to be out. But it looks like the Argentinian people listened. It looks like they believed that it was important to keep the U.S. on board, and Milei had a better result than anybody thought he was going to get. You know, I think he got over 40% of the seats, which in the Argentinian context is going to be more than enough to allow him to defend his policies.

So this is a big deal, and he may be able to build on it, and we can pair this with the Bolivians recently rejecting, I think, 18 years of Socialist rule, so there may really be something going on in Latin America. And I just want to say about that inflation rate of 32% No, it doesn't impress us in the United States at all, but when you've been living with 250% inflation, this looks like stability.

EICHER: Well, Hunter, I did want to follow up on this and ask how much of Milei's success depends on us backing and Trump's personal endorsement, but it sounds like you're saying all of it does.

BAKER: I think that it mattered. I think it mattered a lot. I think that, you know, Trump is one of the most famous people in the world, and in a way that American presidents aren't, you know, the American president is always well known, but he's a different sort of a creature. And I think that when he steps in and he says, we're here to help, but if this thing goes the wrong way, we're gone. And that's what he said, If Milei loses, we're gone. And so millet, against the odds, won.

EICHER: Well, Hunter, President Trump is wrapping up meetings in Japan and South Korea before a face-to-face with China’s Xi Jinping.

Wall Street Journal columnist Walter Russell Mead argues the administration’s moves in Venezuela and Iran aren’t side shows. Rather, they’re part of one global strategy that designed to use energy, trade, and military leverage against China.

What do you think? Is President Trump executing a coherent “whole-world” strategy to contain China—or improvising from crisis to crisis?

BAKER: I don't think it's just improvisation. I think that he is engaging in some real statecraft here, trying to look at the interests of all the different nations involved, and figuring out how to sort of balance these things in a way that will ultimately be satisfying. And I think that he's looking at China. China rising has become significant in a way that was virtually unimaginable in the early 1970s and economic power in a way that we would not have thought possible. And of course, rising to become an incredible military power as well. And I think that Trump is looking to the interested parties in places such as South Korea and Japan, and using the threat of China to get those countries to work with us, which they're doing. But at the same time, try not to make it a full on confrontation, because South Korea does want to trade with China. Japan does want to trade with China. We want to trade with China. So it's all about, how do we have strength, but the same time, retain a constructive relationship.

And the big fear right now that I think some have is what's going to happen to Taiwan. Taiwan is the bargaining chip. I mean, China is going to want Trump to relax our ambiguity about Taiwan. We have retained a strategic ambiguity. We have never exactly said, you know, for quite some time you know, if you attack Taiwan, we're going to do something about it. We're going to stop you. So we retain this ambiguity. But I think that the Chinese want Trump to say something like, we don't actually care that much. You know, we think it's okay if you sort of work Taiwan into your plans. The things that I hear from Trump aligned people is that he is not going to do that, but that would be the magic token that he could play and get whatever he wants from China. But I don't think he's going to do that.

MAST: Well, closer to home, we are now in Week 5 of the government shutdown…and now the human toll is starting to become more apparent. Federal employees missed their first full paycheck last week. Then on Monday, the largest union representing federal workers called on Congress to pass the clean CR to fund the government.

That effectively calls out the Democrats who have refused to pass the bill. Here’s House Speaker Mike Johnson:

JOHNSON: You have an offramp now. You painted yourself into a corner. But here's your off ramp. The, the unions, the largest unions are saying, please do this. You can claim that as cover and say that you had to do it.

Additionally, SNAP benefits–food stamps–will not go out on November 1st, that’s Saturday.

If there’s caving to be done, Hunter, what does it look like? That clean CR only goes until November 21st … so the shutdown has burned more than half of the time … and even if it passes today, aren’t we right back here again in three weeks?

BAKER: The federal government employee union basically calling out the Democrats and saying it's time to pass a clean funding resolution... this is a big deal, right? This is the giant crack in the coalition. Government employee unions are a critical part of the Democrat coalition nationally. And so for them to do this, you know, this is like they're basically saying, we're done playing the game. We're done kind of backing you on this. It's time to get things running.

So on top of that, you have this, the food stamps running out on November 1. That's going to apply additional pressure very quickly. And the other thing that's going to happen, and I hate to say this, because I'm flying this week, is if Americans’ travel plans begin to be impacted by this, that's going to generate another major source of pressure.

So I think that the Democrats have played this strategy about as tough as they can. And so I think it's, I think it's probably time to stop it and to go ahead and agree to the continuing resolution. Now you ask, well, so we'll be right back in this place in another three weeks or so. I think that once they break, they're going to have to break all the way, and I think that they'll have to agree to something more substantive for a longer period of time. So my prediction would be that if they break we will not be exactly back at this same place in three weeks.

EICHER: Well, hey, I made it back from Turkey. I got through TSA, I got through passport control, and everything else is working just fine. Hunter so nothing to worry about, not at all.

BAKER: I got a go to Phoenix, and I want to make sure I can get home.

EICHER: Hunter Baker is a political scientist and provost at North Greenville University. Hunter, thank you.

BAKER: Thank you.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: WORLD Tour.

A generation after the fall of communism, a new kind of revolution is quietly underway. WORLD’s Amy Lewis reports from Mongolia, where Christianity is gaining ground, but not without challenges.

DAVID KHONGOR: I not believe in Muslim, Jesus...

AMY LEWIS: David Khongor grew up an orphan living in the heated sewers under the streets of Mongolia’s capital city, Ulaanbaatar.

KHONGOR/TRANSLATOR: I did not believe. I wasn’t Muslim, animus… I did not believe. It wasn’t good.

God was the furthest thought from his mind.

KHONGOR/TRANSLATOR: Not mother, not father, not grandmother, not family, I am only. It's really hard, my life.

All that changed when as a teenager he was welcomed into an orphanage run by Christians.

KHONGOR: I believe Jesus. Jesus my, how you say? Jesus my dad. Jesus my mother. Jesus, my good brother.

Khongor had the opportunity to hear the gospel because his country defends the rights of its citizens to freely choose their religion. In 1989, there were only 4 reported Christians in the country that then had just over 2 million people. Atheism was the dominant belief system.

In 1990, Mongolia underwent a peaceful democratic revolution that brought major changes. It ushered in broad religious freedom. Interest in traditional Buddhism grew. People could suddenly buy things like cars. But unemployment, inflation, and food shortages plagued the new country.

MOOGIE JARGAL: So life was very difficult during 1990s. That's why even the good thing is people were very open to gospel…

Moogie Jargal is a Mongolian Christian. Her husband Ulzii pastors an Assembly of God church in Ulaanbaatar.

JARGAL: And like my husband, Ulzii, is one of the first Christians, and he was one of the first Bible School student.

According to data from the Assemblies of God, there are now more than 100,000 Christians in the country. Most evangelical churches don’t have their own buildings. They meet in coffee shops or rented spaces.

Christian workers describe most Mongolians as curious, interested in prayer and life after death. But people who are open to hearing the good news of Jesus are sometimes vulnerable to joining cults. Especially foreign ones, like Mormonism, which is prevalent in Mongolia.

JARGAL: So they have several very nice church buildings. And, and they have lots of missionaries in Mongolia.

Last month, Mormon leaders unveiled building plans for a new Latter-day Saints temple in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar.

The Mongolian government is very cautious about foreigners, especially when it comes to religious work. Ex-pat Christians—and people from other religious groups—often enter the country with a secular profession.

I spoke with a handful of foreign workers for this story. WORLD is not using their names to protect their ongoing work in Mongolia.

One expat teacher says Mongolians often hold onto their traditions, like Buddhism and Shamanism, but they include bits of other religions also.

TEACHER: So they may say, Oh, I like that. I like a little bit of Latter-day Saints. I like a little bit of Christianity. I like a little bit of Islamic beliefs. And they'll add them in on top of the foundation

A medical worker says Mormonism is spreading due to its emphasis on following the rules.

MEDICAL WORKER: The thing that’s attractive about Mormonism is that it fits very well into Buddhism and their kind of cultural beliefs of doing the right things and following rules and doing what you're told.

The deception often starts with Mormon groups offering free English lessons. It seems friendly enough.

MEDICAL WORKER: And then after a time, and I don't know the specifics, but they bring them into their religious literature. And it's almost, it can be impossible to leave.

That’s leading Mongolians to be skeptical of Christians bringing the true gospel.

In spite of those challenges, workers are encouraged by the fervor of the Mongolian church.

WORKER: They are so, so motivated to reach their people… Like, there's always some announcement about some project they're doing, or workers that they're sending, or just ways they're trying to reach the like poor populations, ways they're trying to go out into the countryside…

That vision extends beyond their own borders.

WORKER: They're sending people to Russia. They're sending people to Thailand, to India, to Mongolians inside of China, even to North Korea. So they're just, they're so determined.

Those who work in the country ask for prayer for the Mongolian church to be strengthened and built up.

The government doesn’t consider pastoring a legitimate occupation, so Ulzii and other pastors also hold down full-time secular jobs.

JARGAL: Most of our like energetic times we have to spend for the work. And then after work, we do the ministry, and also the weekend.

But the need is great.

WORKER: When you get really out of the city and especially into the tiny little centers, and then just the nomads who are in the middle of nowhere. It can feel really daunting with, how will we reach them?

Technology and new lifestyles have brought some of the same challenges as Western nations.

JARGAL: It's kind of hard to share gospel nowadays, like everybody says, ‘Oh, we heard about it. Oh, we know about it,’ but they don't go to church, and they don't easily receive good news because they say, ‘Oh, we are busy.’ Everybody says, ‘Busy, busy, busy.’

The best way to overcome that societal apathy and to protect against false teachings is for the local church to grow stronger.

MEDICAL WORKER: I would encourage everyone to pray for maturity in the church, and that people would be, become true disciples and followers of Jesus, and that they would read His word and know it for himself, and long, you know, long for the pure word of God.

For WORLD tour, I’m Amy Lewis.

NICK EICHER, HOST: A mother in China discovered her 11-year-old had spent about $70 on trading cards without permission.

So she sought to send them back—only to find out the seller had a refund policy that could only be called a slap in the face.

To get her money back, mom was told she had to send along proof of discipline: a specific requirement that she provide a five-minute video of herself slapping her daughter—not kidding—complete with “clearly audible” sound. And not only that, but also a handwritten apology letter signed and fingerprinted by the child. This whole thing concerning 70 bucks.

Now, mom didn’t go along with this ridiculous request—but the seller didn’t budge, either.

So, it seems sparing the rod, in this case, spoiled the refund.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Wednesday, October 29th.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: And I’m Lindsay Mast.

Before we continue this morning, I’ve got a quick note for anyone interested in exploring a career change…this Friday is the application deadline for our 2026 WORLD Journalism Institute Mid-Career course.

We’re looking for Christians in their mid-thirties and older, wanting to hone their reporting and writing skills while engaging their faith. The course features instruction in boots-on-the-ground reporting, and the opportunity to learn from WORLD reporters and editors.

The scholarship-funded training will be held in Louisville, Kentucky. It runs January 4th to January 10th. Again, the deadline to apply is this Friday, October 31st​.

I can attest that it’s an intense week but so impactful. My classmates –go Class of 2023!-- were-are- people of deep faith that I got to work alongside… deep-diving on the hows and grappling with the whys of the practice of journalism. I haven’t had any other experience quite like it. So–get on it!

For more information or to submit the online application, visit wji.world.

EICHER: Another of our Midcareer graduates is WORLD reporter Kim Henderson. Today she takes us to New Mexico for the first of a two-part story about a long-vanished voice in the American Southwest—and the people working to bring it back.

SOUND: [Sound of wolf howl]

KIM HENDERSON: The howl of a Mexican wolf was once a common sound in the southwestern United States. But conflict with humans brought them to near extinction by the 1970s.

These days the best place to see Mexican wolves is somewhere like this, the Albuquerque BioPark Zoo.

AUDIO: [Moms and kids talk at exhibit]

There’s a special Mexican wolf exhibit here. The wolves are in a forest-like habitat behind a tall privacy fence with windows. A zoo educator explains why.

ROBERT: You have to actually look for them. It's less obtrusive the way it's set up.

Kids love it. This group has managed to spot a wolf.

SOUND: [Kids howling at wolf]

The kids are howling at him.

Zoos across the United States maintain a captive population of some 350 Mexican wolves. That’s part of the work of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. For more than a quarter of a century now, that agency has worked to increase the number of Mexican wolves. It’s called a recovery program. And it costs more than 5 million dollars a year to run it.

But there’s a problem with the wolves—inbreeding.

BIRD: The challenge is that we saved this animal from a very small number of surviving members. There were about seven in the wild when they were all brought back into captivity, which means a very narrow genetic print.

That’s Bryan Bird. He’s a wolf advocate with a group called Defenders of Wildlife. He says the only way to save the wolves for the long run is by spreading their genetic material beyond zoos and breeding facilities.

BIRD: We need to get it in the wild. And so the only way to do that is to release these animals into the wild.

And that’s what they’ve done. The latest survey shows 286 Mexican wolves living wild and free in Arizona and New Mexico.

But not everyone rolls out the red carpet for wolves.

NEWS CLIP: [NEWS CLIP]

Cattle ranchers have an ongoing conflict with these apex predators. So do other residents who are fearful of wolves attacking pets and people.

It makes you wonder, is it really important to have wolves in the landscape?

Leia Barnett says yes, wolves are very important.

BARNETT: They are considered what we call a keystone species, which means in an ecosystem, they play a key role in maintaining the function of that ecosystem.

Barnett works for the environmental group, WildEarth Guardians. She says the wolves keep unglulates—elk and deer—on the move. That’s important for wetland habitats.

BARNETT: If ungulates don't have any prey, they'll just stand near the water, in the water, eating all of the aquatic plants.

In places where natural predators like wolves prey on elk, the wetlands habitat has a chance to vegetate. Bushes and trees grow. Things that provide shade.

BARNETT: Which keeps the water cool, which trout need cold water to reproduce and live in, along with other aquatic species. So it's these whole system effects like that . . .

A “whole system effect” obviously designed by God.

NOWICKI: Let's just walk around the side of this dam. I think this is the easier way to go over here . . .

Brian Nowicki works with the Center for Biological Diversity.

NOWICKI: We're looking at the Sandia Mountains, and that's the Sandia peak right up there . . .

Nowicki also points out the top boundary of the Mexican wolf experimental population area—Interstate 40. Keeping wolves within a certain range is hard, especially now that their numbers are growing. But Nowicki believes strongly that Mexican wolves need room to thrive.

NOWICKI: We've decided as a people, as a country, that we're not going to let species go extinct. In order to have them come back, you have to provide enough space and enough opening so that wolves can be wolves.

And that naturally leads to conflict with ranchers operating within that space—wild, forested lands. In many cases, it’s federal land. Ranchers lease thousands of acres from the government.

Nowicki says the leases are part of the problem. They were made under decades-old laws.

NOWICKI: …ideologies that we developed back in the 60s or earlier, we want to modernize our thinking. We want to think in terms of ecosystems, and we want to think in terms of the kind of level of science and landscape scales that we're now able to look at.

But wolf advocates and ranchers look through very different lenses. And the conflict is only heating up.

In August, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham fired a game commissioner for failing to disclose that she’d worked with ranchers on a wolf media campaign. More about that tomorrow.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kim Henderson in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

EICHER: To read the full print feature story on Mexican wolves, look for the November issue of WORLD Magazine...and we’ll post a link to the digital version of the story in the transcript of this episode.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Today is Wednesday, October 29th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Linsday Mast.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. As we reviewed earlier, Congress is still at an impasse over federal spending. But WORLD Opinions contributor Jordan Ballor says the shutdown is in many ways a diversion from what’s more important.

JORDAN J. BALLOR: At this point, the “continuing resolution” isn’t much of a resolution. If it were to pass tomorrow, it’ll be shorter-lived than most New Year’s gym memberships.

For the CR would only fund full government operations until November 21st. This means that no matter what happens in the Senate, a longer-term deal will be needed to avoid continued shutdown.

Though calling this a shutdown isn’t really quite accurate. Before this funding conflict, the federal government was spending about $20 billion dollars per day. During the supposed shutdown, the government is still spending about $18 billion per day. What accounts for that 2 billion per day difference? Federal agencies have suspended many so-called “non-essential” operations, while payments to contractors and others have been delayed. Other government services, including national parks, museums, and others are operating at reduced capacity or are closed. Overall roughly 900,000 federal employees are on furlough while another 700,000 are still working but not receiving pay.

But what seems like a reduction of federal spending by 10 percent per day is actually far less than that. Furloughed workers will eventually receive back pay. Grants and contracts will also eventually be paid out. So what the government is doing during the shutdown is really accruing greater levels of obligation that will eventually be repaid. Not much is actually being saved during the government shutdown. And of course the government continues to do all kinds of things and spend all kinds of money, from providing entitlements like Social Security and Medicare to servicing the national debt.

What’s described as a government shutdown is really a partial pause of some aspects of the federal government’s discretionary spending. Most of the government continues to burn through money at the same rate as it did before the funding dispute. All of this goes to show how divorced from reality our political discourse and leadership actually is. The government shutdown is unsustainable. But that’s because we cannot afford to continue to operate indefinitely even at these marginally reduced levels of outlays. Even more unsustainable is the level of money the federal government spends when it is at full capacity.

All of this coverage and consternation over a nominal “shutdown” is a distraction from the much larger, more structural, and more concerning imbalances in our federal government’s fiscal policy. We need entitlement reform now. That we so regularly get into funding fights over what amount to crumbs from the master’s table just demonstrates the immaturity and imprudence of our political leadership.

Much like the attention spent on DOGE, the shutdown is in fact an abdication of political responsibility by our ruling class. If we look at the books for the end of the last fiscal year, concluded just before the current shutdown, we find some truly troubling trends: “For the fiscal year that ended on September 30th, the federal government spent a little more than $7 trillion dollars, a $301 billion dollar increase from … 2024.”

As John Calvin once put it, those “who rule unjustly and incompetently have been raised up by God to punish the wickedness of the people.” In the case of our democratic republic, we are reaping the bitter fruits of trees that we ourselves have planted and nourished. We cannot simply denounce the failures of our elites and the ruling class. We must recognize that we the people are ultimately the ruling class in these United States, and that our failings, whether moral, spiritual, economic, or political, are finally to be counted to ourselves.

This means that we need to acknowledge our errors and repent. A national day of repentance might make for a good beginning. But repentance requires turning from our ways. Repentance demands not merely words but actions. So the first order of our collective business at this moment is to resolve this government shutdown. But we must do so in a way that makes our future sustainable and improves the prospects for flourishing, not only for ourselves but for our posterity.

I’m Jordan Ballor.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Tomorrow, part two from Kim Henderson. We’ll hear from the ranchers who say Mexican wolves are threatening their way of life. And a member of parliament from Finland makes her case before the highest court in her country arguing for her rights to express a Biblical view of human sexuality. That and more tomorrow.

I’m Lindsay Mast.

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

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