The World and Everything in It - September 1, 2021

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

U.S. troops are gone from Afghanistan and evacuations have ended. President Biden defends the time and manner of the withdrawal, but Republicans want answers.

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

Also World Tour.

Plus courts that specialize in helping people trying to overcome addiction.

And WORLD founder Joel Belz on forty years of journalism grounded in biblical worldview.

REICHARD: It’s Wednesday, September 1st. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

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

REICHARD: Time now for the news with Kent Covington.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Biden defends Afghanistan withdrawal, evacuation in White House address » President Biden addressed the nation from the White House on Tuesday, mounting his most forceful defense yet of his decision to withdraw from Afghanistan and the nature of that exit.

BIDEN: I was not going to extend this forever war, and I was not extending a forever exit.

He called the U.S. airlift to extract more than 120,000 Afghans, Americans and other allies an “extraordinary success.” That despite a deadly attack last week that claimed the lives of 13 U.S. troops and nearly 170 Afghans and many Americans and allies left behind.

Biden said many of the Americans stranded in Afghanistan are dual citizens, and added that—quote—“90 percent of Americans ... who wanted to leave were able to leave.”

But GOP Congressman Jim Banks, who’s an Afghanistan War veteran, said the acceptable percentage is 100 percent.

BANKS: Why would any administration, why would any president, commander in chief leave any American behind. It’s never happened before. This has never happened like this in American history that a mission like this would be so botched.

President Biden said his administration has not given up on the Americans left behind. And he signaled a newfound trust in the Taliban.

BIDEN: The Taliban has made public commitments, broadcast on television and radio across Afghanistan, on safe passage for anyone wanting to leave, including those who worked alongside Americans.

Though he added that he won’t simply take the Taliban’s word for it.

As for the decision to withdraw from Afghanistan, the president said it was time. He argued that the Al-Qaida network that carried out the 9/11 attacks has been vastly diminished.

But Congressman Mike Waltz, also an Afghanistan War veteran, said the president’s actions will allow Al-Qaida and other terrorist groups to gather strength.

WALTZ: al-Qaida and the Taliban are married at the hip. al-Qaida fully intends to regroup and to attack the West again. And now they have an entire country to deal with and an arsenal of American weaponry to do it with.

On Tuesday, video footage emerged that appeared to show an al-Qaida leader coming out of hiding and arriving in his home province in Afghanistan to some fanfare.

The footage apparently shows Osama bin Laden’s former security chief Amin al-Haq arriving in Nangarhar province as people gathered around his vehicle to greet him.

Republican lawmakers on Tuesday said they will demand answers over the handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal.

Louisiana swelter in Ida’s wake with no power or water » Hundreds of thousands of Louisianans sweltered in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida on Tuesday with no electricity, no tap water, and no end in sight to the misery.

Gov. John Bel Edwards…

EDWARDS: We’re asking people to be patient. We’re asking people to be careful, and please be good neighbors. Check on that elderly couple who live across the street from you.

Long lines that wrapped around the block formed at the few gas stations that had fuel and generator power to pump it. People cleared rotting food out of refrigerators. Neighbors shared generators and borrowed buckets of swimming pool water to bathe or to flush toilets.

In New Orleans, officials announced seven air conditioned places around the city where people could get a meal and cool off.

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell says 70 buses will serve the same purpose.

CANTRELL: This is a great use of our assets, particularly buses that could be used as cooling centers and deployed, again, strategically throughout the city of New Orleans.

Edwards said that state officials likewise were working to set up places to distribute food, water and ice.

Hurricane Ida knocked out power to more than 1 million homes and businesses on Sunday.

And the storm is now blamed for at least four deaths. That after two people died late Monday after the storm collapsed a section of rural two-lane highway in Mississippi. 

Firefighters defend Lake Tahoe as Caldor Fire spreads » A huge firefighting force gathered Tuesday to defend Lake Tahoe from a raging wildfire. That after officials ordered a mass evacuation of the South Lake Tahoe area.

Cal Fire spokesman Dominic Polito…

POLITO: It was a big chaotic but everyone got out of where they needed to get out, and we didn’t have to deal with neighborhoods where there were still people so that part was successful.

The streets of the popular vacation hot spot, normally filled with thousands of summer tourists, were all but deserted as the Caldor Fire closed in.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom told reporters Tuesday …

NEWSOM: We continue to battle that fire; about 192,000 acres, 16 percent contained.

Thick smoke prevented air firefighting operations periodically last week. But since then, 23 helicopters and three air tankers dumped thousands of gallons of water and retardant on the blaze.

Texas Legislature sends sweeping GOP voting bill to governor » The GOP-controlled Texas Legislature passed a broad overhaul of the state’s election laws Tuesday after a bitter battle with Democratic lawmakers. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin reports.

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: Gov. Greg Abbott said he will sign the bill that lawmakers sent to his desk yesterday.

The Republican governor issued a statement minutes after that bill passed, saying the bill will—quote … "solidify trust and confidence in the outcome of our elections by making it easier to vote and harder to cheat.”

But Democrats fought the legislation for months, arguing the bill was tailored to make it harder for young people and minorities— all Democratic-leaning voters — to cast ballots.

A group of Democrats even fled the state, taking a private jet to Washington DC to deny the state House the quorum needed to conduct business. They succeeded in delaying, but not preventing, its passage. The House passed Senate Bill 1 on Tuesday on a vote of 80 to 41.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

I’m Kent Covington. Straight ahead: what’s next for Afghanistan.

Plus, something that’s ahead but not immediately straight ahead.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Wednesday the 1st day of September, 2021.

Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. First up: What’s next for Afghanistan and the United States? 

With American troops gone and the evacuation of American citizens and allies halted, now what? What about U.S. citizens and allies left stranded in Afghanistan? What’s next for them?

As we reported a short time ago, Republicans on Capitol Hill are demanding answers and say the next step should be a thorough investigation. Whether that will happen remains to be seen.

REICHARD: Joining us now to provide more insight is James Carafano. 

He’s an expert on national security and foreign policy with the Heritage Foundation. He is a retired Lt. Col. in the U.S. Army, and he formerly served on the Homeland Security Advisory Council. 

Colonel, good morning!

JAMES CARAFANO, GUEST: Good to be with you.

REICHARD: The White House and Pentagon have pulled the plug on the evacuation in Afghanistan. But Biden administration officials say they still have a range of tools to help get American citizens out of the country. What might those tools be, and do you think we’ll be able to evacuate more Americans and potentially more Afghan allies?

CARAFANO: Well, we have very little leverage. Matter of fact, the argument that we do is almost—borders on being a lie. We don't have a lot that the Taliban needs. They don't really need international recognition. They already have other countries that are willing to work with them—Russia, China, Pakistan. They don't really need money per se, because they're the world's biggest drug traffickers in South Asia.

Our leverage is very little. And you can actually see that. So, for example, if you look at the surrounding countries—the stans like Tajikistan and Uzbekistan—they've closed their borders. And we've asked them to keep them open. And they've said, no. Because they're more worried about angering the Taliban than they are about working with us. So we have very little leverage. Most Americans, quite honestly, are on their own. So there's a combination of really kind of private efforts. There are people running around trying to set up ratlines and underground railroads to get people out. It's incredibly difficult. Because right now there's no way to fly out. Most of the borders are closed, probably maybe get out through Iran or Pakistan, but it's very, very dangerous. The Taliban are actually controlling the borders. The Taliban promised to reopen the airport. Of course, there won't be commercial flights, but governments might be able to send military or charter flights. But the question is, would people trust the Taliban to go to the airport and let them in? The Taliban say they will, but I don't know. I have half the people tell me the Taliban are going door to door telling people don't worry, everything's going to be fine. And the other half, we're saying the Taliban are going door to door and they're hunting people down and they're going to kill them.

REICHARD: President Biden on Tuesday once again stood by his decision to withdraw American troops when he did. The defense by the White House seems to be that the withdrawal was destined to be messy whenever the United States eventually pulled out, regardless of the timing. What do you say to that?

CARAFANO: Well, that's a lie. So here's the plan: Their plan was, they were going to give the country to the Taliban and they had thought they would broker talks between Ghani and the Taliban to turn the country over. And that we would walk out the door. And after we left, the Taliban roll in. And whatever happened, Biden could say, Well, it didn't happen on my watch. It's not my fault. Ghani got cold feet and bolted. The United States essentially had a no-plan plan. Because the idea is if we told people we were leaving, that we’d have to defend all those decisions. So we didn't coordinate with allies. We didn't register people for visas. We didn't have the forces in place to safely evacuate. So, we thought we'd just walk away. And then the Taliban would wait until we were gone. Well, because there was no deal with Ghani and the people just started cutting deals with the Taliban, they collapsed. They rolled into the country. And so we wound up in a situation where we were leaving, and we were completely at the mercy of the Taliban to get people out. And we had a completely inadequate plan to actually evacuate people. So the reality is this is 100% the president's decision. And the chaos was caused by how the President decided to leave Afghanistan

REICHARD: Colonel, the better part of a hundred retired generals and other officers just penned a letter calling on Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman, Gen. Mark Milley to resign for—quote—“negligence in performing their duties” with regard to the Afghanistan withdrawal.
What is your take on that? Do you think they were just following orders from the commander in chief, or do you think they bear responsibility for this as well?

CARAFANO: Well, I do think they bear some responsibility. But this is fundamentally Biden's decision—how he decided to withdraw, not having the forces in country to do that responsibly, not having a plan to support the Afghan military, not having a workable political transition, those are all the president's decision. And the military were left with the consequences of that. So for example, the president would not allow them to send any additional forces, therefore, they didn't have—there's only two airfields—Bagram airfield and the commercial airfield. And then there's the embassy. They didn't have sufficient forces to safeguard all three. The president would not let them put more forces in there to do that. So they had to make a choice so that essentially just wound up defending an Airfield—put them completely at the mercy of the Taliban. And then we even still had to bring in more forces to do that.

Having said that, I do think that they bear some responsibility. This is why I have called for a 9/11 style commission. This administration says they did everything exactly right. Well, if that's true, then they should be the first people to stand up and say, yes, let's have a nonpartisan investigation and look at this. And it's important. It's not just important for, you know, politics and playing a blame game. We need to understand what happened, where we are, what's the threat going forward, and what to do about it. If you remember back, we had a 9/11 commission that was under a Republican president, who had 9/11 happen on their watch, and a Republican controlled Congress. And they were happy to have an independent commission because they said we need to be transparent about what we're doing. And we need to know what's going on so we can make decisions on the way forward. And people remember after the 9/11 commission, we made a lot of changes. Matter of fact, Speaker Pelosi actually introduced a bill to implement the findings of the 9/11 commission.

So commissions are completely appropriate when dramatic things like this happen. They are assessments not for assigning political blame. They're helping us to understand what happened and why, providing transparency and governance, and starting on the right way forward. And I think that would be an incredibly positive and constructive step for this administration to take.

REICHARD: Explain, if you would, the Taliban’s relationship to al-Qaida. What are the odds that Afghanistan becomes a haven again for terrorist training and plotting and carries out another attack?

CARAFANO: Well, it is. I mean everybody—including the U.S. government—thinks that Afghanistan is going to become a haven for transnational terrorism. Now there is a group there called ISIS K. It's an offshoot of ISIS—if we remember back from Syria and Iraq—they had 10 organizations all around the world. One of them was in Afghanistan. They're not necessarily the best friends with the Taliban. Right now they're kind of useful idiots. Because on the one hand, the Taliban can turn to the Americans and say, oh, you need us to fight ISIS K. But on the other hand, they're probably happy that ISIS attacked Americans and helped drive us out of the country. The real threat there is something called the Haqqani Network. This is a terrorist criminal group that spans Afghanistan and Pakistan. They intimately cooperate with the Pakistan intelligence services. They were the ones that originally brought Bin Laden to Afghanistan and asked the Taliban to host him. They have very close ties with al Qaeda. The senior al Qaeda leadership's being hosted in Iran. They're probably going to move back into Afghanistan. Both Haqqani and al Qaeda share the goal of a global campaign against the governments in the Middle East and their supporters in the West. That global terrorism is vital for them. The first thing they're going to do is start planning the next 9/11. The Taliban are going to tolerate these people. And then I'm sure they're less fearful that if something happens, anybody is going to come back and try to kick the Taliban out again. So, I think the potential for a renewed global terrorist campaign against the United States is incredibly high. It's not just Afghanistan, where we're absolutely certain there will be a terrorist sanctuary. The fact that the Taliban inflicted a humiliating withdrawal on the United States will be a clarion call to Islamists worldwide to live Bin Laden’s dream that America is a paper tiger to rise up and strike them and seal a victory the way the Taliban did. So I think we've got to worry about this on multiple fronts.

REICHARD: The White House claims they have capabilities now that they didn’t have 20 years ago and have the ability to monitor and counter terrorism threats from—quote—“over the horizon.” What’s your response to that?

CARAFANO: I think it's largely a lie. We have no place where anybody is really going to let us base to have real-time operational capabilities in theater. You can send a drone from over the horizon. The best case it will take eight or nine hours to get there. The ability to maintain assets on a rotating basis over the country is incredibly expensive. We've got very few intel assets on the ground. I actually think we have less capability to know what's going on in Afghanistan today after we've withdrawn from the country than we did when Bill Clinton was president in the 1990s, you know, blindly lobbing cruise missiles at al Qaeda where they were planning the next 9/11.

REICHARD: Retired Lt. Colonel James Carafano with the Heritage Foundation has been our guest. Colonel, thanks so much!

CARAFANO: Alright. Thanks for having me.

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: Violence against Christians in Nigeria—We start today here in Africa.

Violence against Christians in central Nigeria has escalated in the last month. The region is rife with inter-communal clashes between ethnic Muslim Fulani herdsmen and predominantly Christian farmers.

Attacks by herdsmen are driving the farmers from their land. This man has resorted to planting a small crop on a public riverbank.

AUDIO: We are not able to farm, you understand, so this place you see is where I am managing to feed my family. I managed to harvest some maize...

So many farmers are fleeing from their land that it’s driving up the cost of food across Nigeria.

In the first three weeks of August, suspected Fulani herdsmen killed at least 70 Christians, displaced more than 30,000 others, and burned 500 homes in a town in northern Plateau state.

AUDIO: The government should try on his part provide security for us so that we can go back to our farms because that is the only source of livelihood we have.

Last week, gunmen stormed another community and killed at least 36 people in a carefully orchestrated attack. Residents said the suspected armed herdsmen opened fire sporadically in the village and went door to door, killing and burning people.

Leaders in the Christian Association of Nigeria accuse the government of not providing security to non-Muslim communities.

China rules on video games, student exams—Next we go to Asia.

Children in China can no longer play video games whenever they want. Under new rules announced Monday, students can only play games for three hours a week—between 8 and 9 p.m. Friday through Sunday. During school holidays, students can play up to an hour a day.

AUDIO: [Man speaking Mandarin]

This teen says he thinks the measures are a bit strict. He also says it’s unfair to blame students’ falling grades on the time they spend online.

But the Chinese Communist Party disagrees. It says gaming addiction is affecting studies and has made many parents miserable.

China is known for its strict approach to education. And some say that puts too much pressure on students, especially young children. To help ease that pressure, the government announced this week that first and second graders will no longer have to take written exams at the end of the year.

Paris drops speed limit—And finally, we end today in Europe.

AUDIO: [Sound of traffic, cars accelerating]

Drivers in Paris are slowing down. To 18 miles an hour! That’s the new speed limit in the French capital.

AUDIO: [Man speaking French]

This taxi driver calls the slow speed stressful. He predicts other taxi drivers may quit over the limit.

The city’s new mayor imposed the new speed in an effort to reduce accidents, noise, and pollution. Drivers might not like it, but the city’s cyclists say they feel much safer on the city’s busy streets.

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

NICK EICHER, HOST: Up, up, and away in my beautiful balloon—maybe you’re too young to know that song.

Hamish Davis of Canberra, Australia, is too. And definitely too young to pilot a balloon, but that hasn’t stopped him.

Balloon pilot Dave Roberts says Hamish is more than capable.

ROBERTS: He’s as good as every one of our chief crew. He really helps out a lot. Definitely guaranteed a job with us, yeah. As soon as he gets his car license and balloon license, he can work with us for sure.

So how young is he? He’s 11. Eleven years old.

So right now, Hamish is working without pay because for him, it’s not a job, it’s a passion. And that love affair began at a very early age.

DAVIS: When I was 2 my parents took me to the Canberra balloon festival and I fell in love with them from there.

And by the time he has his license, he’ll already have quite a resume. He’s now made more than 120 flights.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Wednesday, September 1st. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Drug addiction. 

About 1 in 10 Americans has some sort of substance abuse problem, and the connection to crime is undeniable.

Treatment courts are a proven means of leading addicts out of the justice system and into lives of recovery and stability.

EICHER: WORLD Senior Correspondent Kim Henderson recently studied drug courts up close for an article in the current issue of our sister publication, WORLD Magazine. She brings us this report.

KIM HENDERSON, SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Drug addiction loves variety.

MAN: I was, you know, using marijuana heavily . . .
MAN: I was addicted to methamphetamines.
WOMAN: Crystal meth.
RACHEL: After she was born, that’s when I got introduced to crack cocaine. I was 20. Yeah 20.
MAN: My addiction was marijauna and hallucinogenic drugs—mushrooms, acid, LSD, and dimethyltryptamine was the last one.
WOMAN: Started out with pain pills years ago, and then ended up with meth. . . I was using a needle and shooting up, hiding it from everyone . . . 

And that’s pretty much the story of everyone standing here in line at the 14 Circuit drug court in McComb, Mississippi.

They were addicted, tried to hide it, and got caught.

Drug court is really a program, not a place. They vary in how they operate, but here, the drill goes like this. An addict gets arrested for a non-violent felony. They offer the offender the chance to get out of jail and get treatment through drug court. They’ll have to work a job, pay their fines, attend weekly court dates, take part in group therapy. But they get to stay out of jail while they’re doing it. And if they complete the four treatment phases, their felony will be expunged. And in the best cases, participants kick their habits. Long term sobriety is the goal.

Oh, and there’s another component of drug court. Random drug screenings. 

AUDIO: THURSDAY, JUNE 3, PHASE 2 AND 3 WILL TEST . . .

Every day at 4 o’clock—truly every day—participants listen to a recorded message. It tells them if they must report for a drug test that evening.

This night, it’s a go. Drug court participants arrive at the offices of the program and prepare to give urine samples. Probation officers keep the line moving.

DOUGLAS: Hey, listen up right quick . . .

That’s Drug Court Coordinator John Douglas. At 47, he’s had a long career in law enforcement, and every bit of it has involved drugs. Keeping them off the streets. Catching dealers. And now, rehabilitating addicts. 

DOUGLAS: This system of racks over here with the test tubes, advances the sample, and then there's a barcode reader . . .

Part of Douglas’ job involves screening. They have an impressive machine that hums and rattles and performs close to 10,000 drug test panels each month. They’ll test for about 10 drugs tonight, and within 15 minutes, they’ll know if any samples test “hot.”

Helping someone beat a drug addiction takes time, money, human resources. Douglas points out the stakes are incredibly high. Recently he was processing a young man to begin drug court the next day. 

DOUGLAS: He got a stimulus check, and that night he cashed that check and he went and spent it on heroin and he overdosed and he died. And he never got to be in drug court.

Douglas acknowledges the drug problem is epidemic. Their program is funded for 200 participants. They're currently running at 120 percent capacity.

Rachel Williams is on their rolls.

WILLIAMS: Marijuana is a gateway drug. It leads you to other drugs, more, you know, more harder drugs.

Which is exactly what happened to Williams. 

WILLIAMS: I did my first hard drug when I was 19—cocaine.

That one experience hooked her. And later landed her in jail. She opted for drug court. 

BAILIFF: All rise. The drug court of Lincoln County is now in session . . .

On Monday mornings, participants like Williams come to their local courthouse for a one-on-one with Judge Mike Taylor. They have to prove they’re attending an approved form of therapy. That they’re working a job, passing their drug tests, and fulfilling other program requirements.

A woman approaches the bench, and the judge asks if she’s paid her fines. In another instance, the judge gives praise where praise is due. 

JUDGE: Mr. Middleton made nine months clean. Let’s give him a hand . . . (applause)

Participants average about four years in this program. That’s a drawback for some would-be participants and for many states … that cap funding for their drug courts at 18 months.

But Judge Taylor thinks the length of treatment is key.

TAYLOR: If all we do is keep them sober for 18 months or two years, that's a good thing. That's not a bad thing. That's a huge accomplishment. But we're right back where we started. And what this is designed to do is to break that cycle.

Lots of participants fail at breaking the cycle. But some succeed.

Back at the office, John Douglas considers a question about how we’re doing in the war against drugs. He has a good comeback. 

DOUGLAS: I don't know. I know where we're at on the war against drugs with Rachel Williams. She graduates Monday.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kim Henderson in South Mississippi.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Wednesday, September 1st.

Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

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

This year, WORLD celebrates 40 years of producing Biblically sound journalism for kids, teens, and adults. Here’s WORLD founder Joel Belz with the story of how it all got started.

JOEL BELZ, FOUNDER: Time was running out. For a whole year, we’d been planning for the launch of It’s God’s World, a weekly paper to help children in the middle grades think about news and current events from a Biblical perspective.

Now it was early April, 1981. Many details had fallen into place for a late August inaugural issue. But I hadn’t found an editor—someone who could manage the content of this important venture.

It hadn’t been for lack of trying. Word about this project had spread around the country, in both educational and journalistic circles. I had reviewed 45 applications and resumes—including some that were pretty impressive. But every single one of those 45 stumbled at one or two key points.

Along the way, the process had helped me develop a real-to-life job description. The person I was looking for had to have a proven ability to write for children; teaching experience in a Christian school; a mature Biblical perspective on life; a sensitivity to the multi-faceted theological-socio-political orientation of the Christian school movement; resourcefulness and an ability to pioneer; and finally, a willingness and ability to move to Asheville, N.C., no later than July 1st.

Needless to say, that last point was a biggie.

But ignoring or soft-pedaling any one of the six vital job requirements could easily deep-six the whole project. Better to delay the effort for a year.

So, we delayed—but in God’s providence, it didn’t need to be a year.

There was, you see, this fellow out on the plains of central Kansas. His name was Norm Bomer, and his resume was one of the 45 I had already processed. But in his resume he had selflessly explained how a year earlier he had been sidelined from a teaching career because of medical issues. Indeed, even then he was recovering from treatment at the famous Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. I remember thinking: I’ve got enough hoops to jump through. I don’t need to take on someone’s medical challenges along with everything else..

But now, as I said, time was running out. This Bomer fellow came closer than anyone else on my list of 45 to filling all six of my “requirements.” “Could you get on a plane,” I asked, “and come here to Asheville for a few days so we can get to know each other?”

Four months later, Norm moved his family to Asheville. He created the first ever issue of It’s God’s World, and established a topical weekly outline for the rest of that 1981-82 school year. Then he began to assemble a staff. I don’t remember, in the midst of all that, that he had a single minute to visit a doctor.

Under Norm Bomer’s editorial leadership, the God’s World series of magazines for children came to include graded editions for kindergartners all the way to high schoolers. Although the subscriber list through the years included thousands of Christian schools and, later on, hundreds of thousands of homeschooling families, I don’t remember Norm or his team ever being charged with a significant factual error.

Only in 2011, with three decades of this grueling pace under his belt, did Norm Bomer step aside as the senior editor for God’s World News.

But by then, he’d helped to set a grand stage for our future. Our offerings for students have now grown to include WORLD Watch, a daily 10-minute video newscast aimed at high schoolers. As many of you know, we launched it just last year.

And I think you’ll find that WORLD Watch rivals the original establishment of the God’s World papers for children as a significant journalistic venture.

I’m Joel Belz.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: the power of the purse. Reform efforts on Capitol Hill would make it harder for the president to deploy troops without the approval of Congress.

And, the healing power of music. We’ll visit a very special class for veterans.

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: Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Go now in grace and peace.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.