The World and Everything in It: October 8, 2024

PREROLL: Many rural areas hit by Hurricane Helene are still waiting for federal assistance, but emergency crews, small businesses owners, and volunteers are working together to get them the help they need. I’m Caleb Welde, and I’ll tell you their story in a few minutes.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

The world remembers those lost last October 7th in Israel.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Also today, Israel and its allies on October 8th and beyond.

And the recovery efforts in rural North Carolina in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene:

GARLAND: These local people, and the people from the outside, like all these volunteers and these guys that just got here, that's what's been keeping us going.

NICK EICHER: And later, social media’s role in the lives of despondent teens. Commentary from WORLD Opinions contributor Carl Trueman.

MARY REICHARD: It’s Tuesday, October 8th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

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

MARY REICHARD: Now it’s time for the news with Kent Covington.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Hurricane Milton » Hurricane Milton is now a major hurricane  on a collision course with Florida’s west coast.

It’s currently barreling across the Gulf of Mexico  taking aim at Tampa and surrounding areas. Tampa Mayor Jane Castor:

CASTOR:  Helene was mostly a water event for us. Uh, this is going to be wind, water, storm surge, rain, you name it. It's going to bring everything towards our community.

Milton strengthened to a Category-5 on Monday. It is expected to weaken, at least somewhat before landfall, but will likely still slam the coast as at least a Cat-3 hurricane.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis:

DESANTIS:  You should have a plan and you should be executing your plan, particularly if you're on the west coast of the florida peninsula. These evacuation orders have gone out in many of those places. I know more will be coming in areas that have not yet done that. Now is the time to do it.

And it’s not just those in coastal areas bracing for this storm. Paul Womble is Emergency Management Director for Polk County, just south of Orlando.

WOMBLE:  Winds, uh, certainly will knock down trees. Those trees falling can damage buildings, damage your roof, uh, they'll, they'll certainly knock down power lines, expect power outages that will not, um, that, that will happen as those power lines come down.

Milton could maintain hurricane strength all the way across the Florida peninsula.

Helene recovery, criticism » Meanwhile, many residents across the southeast are facing a long road to recovery in the wake of Helene, which is now the deadliest and most destructive storm to hit the country in the last half-century. It’s second only to Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper:

COOPER:  We're still opening roads. We're still working to reach communities. We still have search and rescue occurring as we speak.

FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell was back in Asheville on Monday, which was especially hard hit by catastrophic flooding. 

CRISWELL:  We at FEMA and the entire federal family are here to support the needs of these communities in delivering exactly what they want, where they want, and when they need it.

The Biden administration is still brushing off criticism from some Republican lawmakers that the federal response to Helene has been far too slow.

Israel latest » Israel marked a somber anniversary yesterday…

SOUND: [Siren over Israel]

Sirens blared across the country to mark one year since the October 7th attacks.

That of course is when Hamas terrorists crossed the border into Israel...killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians. They also took 250 Israelis hostage.

Israel's ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon:

DANON: It was our worst nightmare come to life. On that day, evil didn't knock at our door. It broke it down. Terrorists stormed our land. Massacring, raping, and kidnapping our brothers and sisters. They showed no mercy. They butchered men, women, and children.

Jewish communities across Europe and the U.S. held ceremonies to commemorate the fallen. At the White House…

SOUND: [Jewish prayer]

President Biden and the first lady stood by where a Jewish rabbi recited a special memorial prayer.

Meanwhile, in the West Bank…

SOUND: [West Bank demonstrators]

Anti-Israeli protesters also marked the anniversary. Palestinians gathered in the city of Ramallah to call on Israel to end its war with the terrorist group Hamas.

Lebanon evacuations » And U.S. citizens continue to evacuate Lebanon … as Israeli forces target Hezbollah infrastructure in the country. 

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller says roughly 8,500 Americans have asked the Beirut embassy for information about leaving Lebanon.

MILLER:  A lot of people are making daily assessments about their situation and they look, they reach out to us for information. They want to know if they can join a flight, even if they haven't yet decided to join a flight and to leave Lebanon.

Miller said another flight left from Beirut to Istanbul on Monday. He added that roughly a thousand U.S. citizens and legal residents have fled Lebanon on flights organized by the U.S. State Dept. in recent days.

SCOTUS no abortion case » The Supreme Court has rebuffed the Biden administration, opting not to intervene over Texas abortion law. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has more: 

KRISTEN FLAVIN: The administration wanted the high court to step in and overturn a lower court ruling regarding when hospitals must perform abortions when there’s a health risk to the mother.
State law does allow abortions in cases of life-threatening or serious health risks to the mother. But the Biden administration argues that the Texas law is too vague and wants courts to force hospitals to follow federal rules, irrespective of state law.
But a lower court declined to do that, and the Supreme Court opted not to take up the case.

For WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

A spacecraft is on its way to a harmless asteroid » A spacecraft blasted off from Florida Monday on a rather unique mission:

SOUND: 3-2-1 ignition, engines full power, and lift off! 

SpaceX launched the European Space Agency's Hera spacecraft, which is embarking on a two-year journey. Its mission is to explore a small, harmless asteroid rammed by NASA in 2022.

It's the second part of a planetary defense test, designed to help save Earth from a potential catastrophic asteroid collision in the future.

Hera will seek to find out exactly how effective NASA's impact was and what changes might be needed to the agency’s asteroid defense program. 

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: Marking October 7th around the world. Plus, bringing help to devastated communities in Western North Carolina.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Tuesday the 8th of October.

We’re so glad you’ve joined us today for The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard.

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

Yesterday marked the one-year anniversary of the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust. Memorial services across the world honored the memory of the 1,200 people who died in the massacre and also those who are still being held hostage by Hamas.

REICHARD: WORLD’s Jill Nelson is here with an overview of commemorative events around the world.

SOUND: [AIR RAID SIRENS]

JILL NELSON: Sirens blared across Israel on the anniversary of the October 7th terrorist attacks. Some were in honor of the lives lost exactly one year ago. But others were a current warning to take shelter…as Israel’s enemies fired more than 130 missiles into the country.

The Israeli government limited gatherings to 2,000 people due to threats of an attack.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot attended a memorial service at the site of the Nova music festival where hundreds were killed. He voiced his country’s support for Israel as it faces enemies on multiple fronts.

BARROT: France will always work for this tragedy to never happen again.

SOUND: [SINGING FROM ROME]

In Rome, Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni commemorated the anniversary by visiting the city’s main synagogue.

She expressed support for Israel’s right to defend itself. And she condemned the wave of anti-Semitism that has plagued Italy in recent months. That includes pro-Palestinian protests over the weekend, some of which turned violent.

SOUND: [ITALIAN PROTESTS]

In Jordan, protestors chanted words of solidarity with Gaza, Lebanon, and Yemen. In the days leading up to the anniversary, crowds in Amman displayed posters of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and former Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. Haniyeh died in July in an attack widely attributed to Israel. He was in Tehran during the strike.

SOUND: [NY PROTESTS]

Hundreds of protesters gathered in New York City’s Central Park to demand the return of hostages. New York is home to the world’s second largest Jewish community, although many in attendance were from Israel.

The protesters displayed pictures of the nearly 100 hostages still in captivity. It’s unknown how many are still alive.

SOUND: [WHITE HOUSE PRAYER VIGIL]

At the White House, President Joe Biden took part in a candle lighting ceremony in remembrance of the October 7th victims. Local Rabbi Aaron Alexander recited a prayer used at Jewish burial and memorial services.

Several Americans are among the hostages remaining in Gaza. And 46 of the 1,200 people who died on October 7th were U.S. citizens.

Across Pennsylvania avenue, on the grounds near the Washington Monument, Jews and Christians from various denominations rallied to remember what happened on October 7th.

GIRIEN SALAZAR: Over the past year, I got to see really, Jews experience a very existential threat…

Girien Salazar attended the rally with his wife and two children. He works with the Philos Project…the organization putting on the rally. He told WORLD that Christians ought to be the first to stand in support.

SALAZAR: …And we're just here to say they're not, they're not they're not alone. They're not abandoned. If they need somebody to stand next to them, Christians are going to stand next to them.

In Australia…

SOUND: [MELBOURNE VIGIL]

…thousands attended a vigil in Melbourne. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese joined members of the Jewish community for the commemorative event. Albanese said his government condemned Hamas’ actions.

SOUND: [JORDAN RALLY]

Meanwhile, pro-Palestinian protests swept across the continent’s cities. Hundreds gathered in Sydney as local law enforcement stationed units nearby to maintain crowd control. The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry claims more than 40,000 Palestinians have died during Israeli bombardments of Gaza this past year. This number does not distinguish between civilians and soldiers.

In Berlin, the German chancellery was adorned with a giant yellow ribbon in memory of those still in captivity.

SOUND: [BERLIN SERVICE]

Synagogues across the country hosted memorial services throughout the day.

A survivor of the Oct. 7 assault attended one of those services in Berlin. Alon Gat barely escaped the Hamas attack. Both his mother and sister died, and Hamas took his wife hostage. She was released last year.

Gat urged attendees not to forget those who remain in captivity.

GAT: The terror in Israel is still happening. Hostages are still in the tunnels after one year. I'm begging you- keep fighting for those people. They will get back to Israel with your help. We can do it together.

The international community has urged Israel and Hamas to negotiate a cease-fire that includes the release of all hostages. But disagreements over security corridors in Gaza have prevented the two sides from reaching an agreement.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Jill Nelson.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Up next, October 8th.

One day after the brutal attack by Hamas in 2023, Israelis began coming to grips with their vulnerability.

GORDIS: This was a country very much in shock.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Daniel Gordis is an Israeli historian. He says Israelis were horrified by the brutality of Hamas … but also shocked by the security failures.

GORDIS: It was a country wondering, how does Israel, which has always prided itself on the vaunted IDF, get caught so unaware and so unprepared?

EICHER: How could it have happened? WORLD’s Mary Muncy has our story.

MARY MUNCY: Israeli intelligence reportedly got a copy of the attack plan a year earlier, but dismissed it, thinking it was implausible that a poorly equipped group like Hamas could pull it off. A deadly assumption.

WILL INBODEN: …it's one of those things that you can get it right 99% of the time, but the 1% you get it wrong can be absolutely catastrophic.

Will Inboden was a national security council staff member for the George W. Bush Administration.

WORLD’s Washington producer Harrison Watters spoke both with Inboden and with historian at Shalem College in Jerusalem, Daniel Gordis.

According to Inboden, Israel assumed it had Hamas under control in 2005 when it withdrew from Gaza. So it turned its attention to larger threats.

INBODEN: Israel regarded Hamas as a second or third tier threat at the time, the two main threats to Israel was much more focused on then, where Hezbollah in the north, the Iranian sponsored Lebanese terrorist group that's based in Lebanon, and then Iran itself…

Israel was working on the bigger picture. Iran was developing its nuclear program, and supplying Hezbollah with weapons. So with a massive arsenal and battalions of fighters to Israel’s North, Hamas in the south seemed like a small threat.

INBODEN: And what Israel did not appreciate or realize is that Hamas, largely fueled by Iranian money and weapons, as well as you know, other Islamist radicals in the region, had gone literally underground, right? It had constructed this massive network of tunnels and underground headquarters and garrisons.

Six days after the initial attack, an explosion at a hospital in Gaza introduced a new Hamas weapon, its propaganda machine.

It prompted immediate disagreements over who was responsible and how many people were killed or injured. Hamas and others blamed Israel, but American and Israeli intelligence told Biden otherwise, and the President said so during his first visit to Israel in wartime.

BIDEN: I was deeply saddened and outraged by the explosion at the hospital in Gaza yesterday. And based on what I’ve seen, it appears it was done by the other team. Not you.

Inboden says that on top of U.S. military aid, intelligence sharing, and rallying allies, Biden’s state visit sent a strong message.

INBODEN: Even though Biden has had a lot of tensions with Prime Minister Netanyahu, he wanted to stand with him there.

A week after Biden’s visit, Israel’s ground forces rolled into Gaza.

And soon, Biden started feeling the political heat

As months of war raged on, devastation grew, and Gazan casualty figures were taken at face value.

INBODEN: The Biden administration has been, you know, putting a lot of pressure on Israel for a ceasefire to either curtail or end its operations.

BIDEN: It's a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. That's why I've called for an immediate ceasefire, an immediate ceasefire. Stop the fighting, bring the hostages home.

A left flank of Democrats faulted the Biden administration for supporting Israel with weapons that kill Palestinians.

PROTEST IN DETROIT: We want divestment now now now…

… and protests against the administration overwhelmed university campuses this spring.

Iran has gathered strength under Biden, but before he took office, then-President Donald Trump followed what he called the maximum pressure campaign. Under it, the Trump administration withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal, had a key Iranian general killed, and dialed up economic sanctions. President Biden sought to reverse course and offered to lift sanctions in exchange for oversight of nuclear development.

INBODEN: Interestingly, Ayatollah Khamenei, who is the Islamist theocratic dictator in Iran, had no interest in that. He doesn't trust any Americans, but he smelled weakness. He kind of pocketed their concessions. And he in turn, increased his aggressive activities throughout the broader Middle East.

Intelligence sources say Iran provided financial support, weapons, and training for Hamas militants who carried out the October 7th attacks.

One year after the war began, historian Daniel Gordis says that despite the damage Israel has inflicted on Hamas, it would be a mistake to say victory is at hand.

GORDIS: You are underestimating the rapidity with which they are recruiting new people, you're underestimating the way in which they're raising tons of money by stealing not most, but all of the humanitarian aid and then keeping some for themselves and then selling the rest to Gazans at obscene prices.

But for many Israelis, the most important goal has not been achieved.

GORDIS: We have 101 hostages still in Gaza. The government estimates that possibly 50 of them are still alive. Probably 50 of them are dead.

Late last year, Israel and its partners negotiated the release of nearly half of the 250 or so hostages. It has also rescued eight more people alive since then, but many remain unaccounted for. Inboden says the United States’ pressure on Israel to compromise to get a cease-fire deal may be contributing to the delay in freeing them.

INBODEN: When Hamas sees Israel being isolated from the United States, it certainly makes them, you know, less willing to negotiate for some sort of better settlement, or put down their arms.

Cease-fire negotiations are now off the table as Israel battles Hezbollah to the north in Lebanon. It’s also considering options to avenge a missile attack last week by Iran that targeted civilians in Tel Aviv.

GORDIS: This is getting to be very big. I don't think anybody expected this a year ago.

Gordis says what began as a war in Gaza has mushroomed into a multi-front conflict. Iran’s proxies the Houthi rebels in Yemen have attacked shipping in the Red Sea. Hezbollah fighters have displaced 60,000 Israeli civilians near the northern border, and soon Israel will likely be fighting Iran itself too.

GORDIS: This is clearly an axis of evil that is not interested only in killing Jews and Israelis. This is an axis of evil that is intent on destroying the West.

As Americans prepare to vote, Inboden says the broader axis of Iran, Russia, China, and North Korea is not something the U.S. can ignore.

INBODEN: We don't have the luxury of isolation or pretending that we can cut a nice deal with one or two of those countries. They're not going to be separated from each other anytime soon. They forged a real bond against us, and we just need to confront that reality.

For Israel, Gordis believes the Hamas attack has changed the nation’s outlook on the world.

GORDIS: I think Israel is going to become a country much more like Sparta, not at the expense of Athens, but in addition to Athens.

Meaning that while Athens in ancient Greece was the center of culture and liberal democracy, Sparta was a military society that prioritized battle-readiness  and Israel needs to be both.

For WORLD, I’m Mary Muncy.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Tuesday, October 8th.

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

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

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

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Relief efforts in North Carolina.

It’s been eleven days since Hurricane Helene slammed into the mountains of North Carolina. While power, water, and cell service are being restored relatively quickly in larger towns like Asheville and the college town of Boone, many rural communities remain without water, power, cell service, or federal aid.

MARY REICHARD: Last week WORLD correspondent Caleb Welde traveled into some of the hardest-hit areas to bring us this report.

AUDIO: [Truck door shuts, starts engine]

CALEB WELDE: Eric Brinker climbs into his Toyota Tundra. He's the ring leader. The husband and dad of three wasn't sure how he was going to lead six vehicles through the various roadblocks between here and the harder hit areas west of here. But then a state special agent stopped by Brinker’s shop and agreed to lead him in.

RADIO/BRINKER: We’ve got him– he’s got the blues on.

Most of the men following behind Brinker work for him.

BRINKER: So I have a construction business, like a general contracting business. We do commercial and residential.

His electricians are in especially high demand.

BRINKER: That road is about to give there.

The trucks and vans are loaded with chainsaws, food, water, fuel, and generators.

BRINKER: Today we bought 11. So about $11,000.

WELDE: And who, who's buying the generators?

BRINKER: Uh my company. Haven't figured out a reimbursement plan yet. [laughs]

He’s also keeping everyone on the payroll– though money seems somewhat down his list of priorities. Brinker’s top priority is checking in on those in need. One of his friends had just gotten engaged.

BRINKER: Nobody could get in touch with him. We finally drove out to find them and realized the house wasn't there, and one of the neighbors said he was at the hospital, so we went straight there.

His fiance was killed when the house slid and his mother-in-law is in critical condition.

BRINKER: You couldn't have guessed that where they were, that that would happen. Not likely, you know?

AUDIO: [HELICOPTER FLIES OVER]

As the convoy nears the community of Newland, it pulls onto a very active airfield.

Small airplanes and helicopters taking off and landing—loading and unloading. A young woman apparently just off a helicopter holds several personal belongings while another woman escorts her away. One of the helicopter pilots is emptying a five gallon fuel jug into his aircraft. He’s seen a lot from the air.

DEITRICH: Down in the river valleys, especially the larger rivers, so the North Toe river, the Cane river, the Nolichucky river valleys… devastation. Railroad tracks that look like spaghetti, banks eaten out, roads fallen in, massive, massive amount of damage there.

The pilot says many communities remain cut off, while others…

DEITRICH: So many people with excavators, private little excavators, skid steers, tractors out there working on it, rebuilding their own roadways just a little bit north of here, near Roaring Creek.

Back in the truck with Brinker, things get worse as they venture further west.

BRINKER: There was all houses down there. They’re gone.

Another of Brinker’s employees leads a volunteer Search and Rescue team.

BRINKER: They're looking for people in this basin today.

The group heads to Riverside School next, where refugees have apparently just run out of tap water.

BRINKER: This is total devastation. I mean, this is a federal DOT bridge. Broken in half.

The school parking lot is half full of RVs who fled here during the storm. Suzanne Garland and her husband are among those who fled to the school. She says so far, the most Federal help they’ve seen is a Chinook fly over.

GARLAND: These local people, and the people from the outside, like, all these volunteers, like you guys, and these guys that just got here, like, that's what's been keeping us going.

National Guardsmen in Boone said the size and weight of their vehicles restrict their progress into smaller communities.

A mile from the school, Derek Buchanan is talking to about ten men circled inside Spear Country Store. Buchanan has run the place for fifteen years. The Monday after the storm, he says almost all one hundred of his construction guys showed up at the store.

BUCHANAN: I said, Look, guys, you know I, I don't, I don't know what to say, other than we love y'all. We've been praying for everybody you know, and to see you come up and want to help everybody else even know, you've lost everything, and you lost family, you lost your houses. And man we prayed out there, and man we about had revival in the parking lot.

All day, a small helicopter has been delivering in the field next to the store.

BUCHANAN: I was able to take the insulin and split it up and take some to Green Valley. They didn't have none, been able to take some insulin to Frank fire department here. We've been asking medical needs, what do you need? You know, prescriptions, those things. And then when we get it, we've got guys waiting, all local, just all local people. And they're, they're taking it out and getting it to em.

Those that can make it to the grocery store, shop for free. Outside, Buchanan is cooking meat with what’s left of his propane.

BUCHANAN: I know today we fed 700 people hot meals, all volunteers out of the front, out here was under our tents.

He looks tired– though not exhausted– and appears to be dedicating a significant amount of personal resources to help his neighbors. One of them said he has a house in Tennessee he could’ve evacuated to.

BUCHANAN: I've always been one that I feel like God's, anything that I has is from him, you know. And, you know, so that's just, that's kind of mine and my wife Erin's mindset is we want to, we want to go out and if we can help somebody, we're going to help somebody.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Tuesday, October 8th. 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. Coming up next, social media and teen suicide. The recent death of a young Japanese girl is a reminder of the despair epidemic many teens face…and social networking apps are only making matters worse. Here’s WORLD Opinions contributor Carl Trueman.

CARL TRUEMAN: Anyone with even a passing acquaintance with young people in America knows that anxiety and depression are everyday fare. Abigail Shrier and Jonathan Haidt are just two of the more well-known cultural analysts who have pointed to the problem. And they say it’s being made worse by the increasingly online, disembodied, and thus disconnected existence that many teenagers now experience as normal daily life. Talk of a teenage wasteland of despair and anxiety is everywhere, and anecdotal evidence of a mental health crisis on college campuses is not hard to find.

Given the comparative affluence and stability of many Western societies today, this problem should be a cause for concern. The typical college undergraduate in the United States does not live in daily fear as earlier generations did They do not have to flee the Luftwaffe’s nightly bombing raids, as my father did as a small child in England during the Second World War. Nobody is being drafted to serve in an overseas war. And there are no dust bowl children living in shanty towns as depression sweeps the country.

Even so, this does not make the anxiety of today’s young people any less real. Take just one important difference: The world I grew up in was one where I had friends who were a real, physical presence in my life. Nobody’s opinion of me beyond them counted. Indeed, I had no way of knowing what others that I had never seen and didn’t really know thought of me. A falling out with someone I did know was costly and could easily end with fists flying. It didn’t happen very often, but when it did, it was rarely of any great duration.

Today, social media makes members of the pool of approvers or disapprovers vast. Insults come cheap. Indeed, the very medium incentivizes nastiness and despair and helps to fuel the anxiety and insecurity of young people for whom their online image is sometimes, perhaps often, the most real thing in their minds. More than once, online bullying has contributed to tragic teenage suicides in the United States in recent years.

Of course social media is not the only pathogen. The forces driving this social sickness are complicated and varied, and the situation can press even Christians toward despair of finding a solution. Yet Christianity is nothing if it is not a religion that repudiates despair and is supposed to embody its opposite. Reading the New Testament, and especially the letters of Paul, it is clear that hope lay at the theological and experiential heart of his ministry…even amid all the chaos he experienced, the church disputes that kept him awake at night, and the persecution he endured.

That is where Christians today need to engage in serious self-examination. The forces that have created teenage angst and catapulted young people toward suicide may be beyond our power to change at a macro level, but Christian witness offering hope to those around us can have great power. We all exert some influence on the people in our congregations and even those who read our social media accounts. And such a witness needs to eschew the idioms of anger and despair that are infused into our culture and point by way of contrast to something better.

It is sobering to ask ourselves how much Christian hope—hope in God’s sovereign purpose of redemption—characterizes the public statements of those whose social media platforms lay claim to the name of Christianity. Anger at the desecration of God’s world is certainly in order—combined, of course, with humble acknowledgment of our own complicity in this. But our hope must be obvious to all. If we do not have the solution to the despair that leads young people to decide life is not worth living, then who does?

I’m Carl Trueman.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: The battleground state of Michigan. It’s important not only in the presidential race but also for control of Congress. That’s on Washington Wednesday. And how Australians train some of the country’s most valuable dogs. 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 records Paul and Barnabas returning to Syria, and the scripture says, “... when they arrived and gathered the church together, they declared all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.” —Acts 14:27

Go now in grace and peace.

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