The World and Everything in It: September 26, 2024

PREROLL: Good morning! I'm WORLD Correspondent Jill Nelson. As I cover the conflicts in the Middle East, I hear a common question: "What's next for Gaza?" The answer? It's complicated. I'll tell you why in just a few minutes. I hope you enjoy today's program.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Good morning!

We’ll hear the possible answers to that question about Gaza’s future.

AL-OMARI: What Palestinians are looking for is not only a government that delivers services, they're also looking for a government that has a political plan and agenda.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Also, what’s happened to women in Afghanistan since the Taliban took control three years ago? We have an update.

And, a pioneer who stopped in Nevada on his way to California thought a longer stay was worthwhile. 

LEVEY: David Walley and his wife Harriet were digging for silver and gold, but they found mineral water.

BROWN: And WORLD commentator Cal Thomas on our derelict mainstream media.

MAST: It’s Thursday, September 26th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Lindsay Mast.

BROWN: And I’m Myrna Brown. Good morning!

MAST: Now the news with Kent Covington.

SOUND: [Hurricane Helene winds]

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Hurricane Helene » Hurricane Helene is zeroing in on northwest Florida … and it’s expected to slam the Gulf Coast today as a Category-4 hurricane. That means winds topping 130 miles per hour.

Gov. Ron DeSantis:

DESANTIS:  The way this is tracking is a storm that is stronger than what we've seen in this region, I think, in anyone's memory.

The governor is urging residents along the coast to heed evacuation orders and get out of harm’s way.

DESANTIS:  The Florida Division of Emergency Management has partnered with Uber to provide free rides to shelters for Floridians in counties with a declared state of emergency.

Georgia is also bracing for Helene’s wrath. Emergency Management and Homeland Security Director Chris Stallings told reporters …

STALLINGS:  Southwest and south central Georgia are under hurricane warnings and should expect hurricane conditions beginning tomorrow evening, lasting through Friday.

Stallings said tropical storm force winds are expected to extend through Atlanta, all the way to the Tennessee state line and possibly farther.

Report on assassination attempt » Senators investigating the first assassination attempt against Donald Trump have released a scathing report citing stunning security lapses within the Secret Service.

GOP Sen. Rand Paul:

PAUL:  Everybody says, Oh no, he was in charge. She was in charge. I was in charge of this, but not everything else. And so you ask, well, didn't somebody walk by that roof that was really about a hundred yards away in plain sight where they could have a direct line at the president?

Senators compiling the report said interviews with Secret Service personnel yielded a lot of finger pointing, but not many acceptable answers.

A second attempt was, of course, made against the former president’s life last week.

Trump Iranian threats » Neither attempt is believed to have been tied to any foreign governments, but U.S. intelligence officials have briefed Trump about ongoing threats from Iran to assassinate him.

Trump on Wednesday noted that the Iranian president is in the United States for meetings at the United Nations headquarters in New York.

TRUMP:  We have large security forces guarding him, and yet they're threatening our former president and the leading candidate to become the next president of the United States. Certainly a strange set of circumstances.

He said the White House should be warning Iran of dire consequences if it commits an act of violence against a former U.S. president.

SOUND: [Air raid sirens over Safed]

Israel / Hezbollah » Wednesday brought another round of attacks between Israel…and the Lebanon-based terror group Hezbollah.

Israel says a home was damaged when a rocket fired out of the north of Lebanon landed in the Israeli city of Safed.

Even more troubling…Israeli government spokesman David Mencer says Hezbollah has set its sights on a new target:

MENCER: This is the first time in history that Hezbollah terrorists have fired at the city of Tel Aviv. Thank God the missile was successfully intercepted by IDF David’s Sling aerial defense system.

Lebanon’s health minister claims that more than 50 residents died in Israeli airstrikes yesterday. Much like another Iran-backed terror group, Hamas, Hezbollah is known to hide military assets in residential buildings.

And there are signs now that Israel may be ready to take the next step in eliminating Hezbollah.

HALEVI: [SPEAKING HEBREW]

Undated video emerged yesterday in which Israeli military chief Herzi Halevi is heard telling members of the Israeli military to prepare for a possible ground invasion of Lebanon.

Putin nuclear threats » Vladimir Putin is ramping up nuclear tensions by likely lowering the threshold for Russia’s use of nuclear weapons. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin reports:

KRISTEN FLAVIN: Putin on Wednesday indicated that the Kremlin is in the process of changing its nuclear doctrine.

PUTIN: [SPEAKING RUSSIAN]

He said under the new rules, any attack against his country by a nonnuclear power with the support of a nuclear power would be seen as a “joint attack” against Russia.

His remarks were clearly intended to dissuade the West from granting Ukraine’s request. Kyiv has pleaded with the U.S. and its allies to allow Ukrainian forces to strike military targets deep inside Russia with long-range weapons provided by the West.

For WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

Congress funding vote » Congress has avoided a government shutdown just weeks before the November election.

AUDIO: On this vote, the yeas are 341, the nays are 82. The bill is passed, and without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table [gavel].

The House giving swift approval Wednesday to a bill that keeps federal agencies funded through Dec. 20. The Senate did the same hours later.

The short-term measure generally keeps funding at current levels, delaying any potential funding fight until after Election Day.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: What happens to Gaza after the dust settles. Plus, hot springs in Nevada.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Thursday the 26th of September.

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

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

First up, what’s next in Gaza?

It’s nearly one year since Hamas attacked Israel and massacred nearly 1200 people. Israel is now waging war against terrorist organizations on multiple fronts.

Meanwhile, countries across the Middle East and the West are drawing up proposals for what’s next in Gaza

BROWN: But here’s the problem: No good options exist. And when it comes to the least bad option, Palestinians and Israelis have found few points of agreement.

WORLD’s Jill Nelson spoke with experts from Palestinian and Israeli backgrounds. She brings this report.

SOUND: GAZA GUNFIRE OR MISSILE LAUNCHES

JILL NELSON: For the past year, Israel has been bombarding Hamas’ military network in Gaza. Sources inside Israel say that mission is far from over.

But international bodies are pressuring the country’s leadership to decide now who will govern in place of Hamas.

MICHAEL MILSHTEIN: I think that there are several alternatives, but all of them are bad.

Michael Milshtein is a retired Israeli army colonel and former head of Palestinian Affairs for military intelligence in Israel. He says there are five options for temporary governance of Gaza.

The first involves Israel reoccupying the coastal enclave it left in 2005. Milshtein says this would require the deployment of four or five divisions. But these troops are urgently needed in the north to address the growing threat from Hezbollah on the Lebanese border.

And this option has another problem:

MILSHTEIN: All the international players, and mainly the American administration, say one big no to Israel regarding this idea of reoccupation of Gaza.

Option number two: Israel would fully occupy every corner of Gaza, eliminating Hamas’ capabilities, then withdraw. Milshtein says this too, is a bad idea.

MILSHTEIN: A vacuum would be created in Gaza, a vacuum that will be filled by even more crazy guys than Hamas–all kinds of ISIS-style organizations.

The third option is gaining traction in Washington: The Palestinian Authority, or PA, takes back control of Gaza. It ruled the coastal enclave for two years prior to Hamas taking over. It currently governs parts of the West Bank. That’s a separate territory in Israel with 3 million Palestinians.

Ghaith al-Omari is an expert on Arab and Islamic politics at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He favors this proposal as long as reform benchmarks are tied to the PA’s transition to power. The benchmarks would include stopping martyr payments and replacing school textbooks that call for Israel’s extermination.

GHAITH AL-OMARI: You do have to have an international coalition that goes to the PA and say, “You have no exit ramps. You either reform or you're cut off.” Pressure has to be exerted. To be honest, this time, I'm actually much more optimistic than I was during Bush.

Al-Omari served as a Palestinian Authority official in the 1990s. That’s when the George W. Bush administration insisted on reform benchmarks for Palestinian leadership.

He said he witnessed many positive changes in the organization, but the measures stalled because they copied Western reform models.

AL-OMARI: What works in France doesn't necessarily work in the Arab world.

He explains why he is more optimistic today:

AL-OMARI: Today, there are successful models of reform and institution building in the Arab world that are culturally appropriate. Go to the United Arab Emirates and look at what they have done with their education system, in terms of building a national ethos that is less based on grievance and much more based on a forward-looking entrepreneurial mindset.

However, the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reluctant to hand over Gaza to the PA. Milshtein explains:

MILSHTEIN: The PA today, they are too weak and too corrupted. They barely control the northern parts of Judea and Samaria, of the West Bank, in Janine, Tulkara, and places like that, they do not control it all. So you don't really expect them to take control over 2 million people who really hate them.

Recent polls show the vast majority of Palestinians distrust the PA and its political arm Fatah. Corruption is rampant.

Hamas has already moved into parts of the West Bank where the PA has failed to effectively govern. Milshtein believes reform would take many years.

Option four involves Arab forces deploying to Gaza. But Arab leaders have little appetite for policing Palestinians and facing accusations of collaborating with Israel. And this plan would require fast tracking Palestinian statehood–a nonstarter for Israelis in the wake of last year’s brutal attack.

That leaves one final proposal—the one Milshtein recommends:

MILSHTEIN: The least worst alternative is Israel will support local administration, like the provisional government that the Americans established in Iraq in 2003, after the collapse of Saddam's regime. It will be based on local leaders like Fatah members, mayors, heads of professional unions.

But al-Omari is skeptical of this option:

AL-OMARI: What Palestinians are looking for is not only a government that delivers services, they're also looking for a government that has a political plan and agenda. And that plan and agenda has to do with Palestinian self-determination and ultimately, Palestinian independence.

And al-Omari believes both the PA and Hamas will threaten any Palestinians who attempt to govern.

AL-OMARI: I think neither of them will allow someone to come and seize the space, especially if that someone is seen as being anointed by Israel.

One thing both al-Omari and Milshtein agree on: Israel will not be able to fully eliminate Hamas in the near term and should wind down its full-scale war in Gaza. Civilian casualties are in the tens of thousands.

Milshtein says ending the offensive comes at a cost, but he believes it’s time to pivot to an even greater threat than Hamas.

MILSHTEIN: It’s still better from my point of view, because we must concentrate on the Iranian issue.

Iranian proxy groups like Hamas are security threats for Israel, but Iran achieving nuclear weapons capability creates an existential threat for the country. And Milshtein believes prolonging Israel’s wars of attrition will push moderate Arab states away from Israel instead of strengthening the anti-Iran axis in the Middle East.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Jill Nelson.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: silencing women in Afghanistan.

Last month, the Taliban instituted another round of what they call “morality” laws. Since the U.S. pulled out in 2021, the Taliban has chipped away at women’s rights… keeping girls from education, restricting women’s movements, and imposing a strict dress code… but this new round went a step further. According to the Taliban, women should not be heard outside the home.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: The Taliban leader says he’s just enforcing sharia law, but other Muslim scholars warn that these restrictions go further than any other Muslim country and are not consistent with the Quran.

What does it look like on the ground in Afghanistan for women and what will it take to help them? WORLD Radio’s Mary Muncy reports.

MARY MUNCY: This Afghan woman posted a video of herself singing. Fully veiled in black, she sings: “will you seal the silence of the mouth until the silent order?”

WOMAN: My voice is not aurat…

She says her voice is not ‘aurat’—which means it doesn’t need to be hidden from unrelated men. She’s not alone.

Hundreds of women inside and outside of Afghanistan are singing in defiance of the Taliban’s new rules.

Eli Omar works for Uplift Afghanistan Fund. She was in the country in August.

ELI OMAR: You will hear people saying, going back to Afghanistan, we can travel now, but and you know, visit and explore the country, but, but that comes as at a cost, and the cost is the rights and freedoms of women and girls.

The country has been divided by conflicts for decades, whether their own or as a proxy war between other nations. By now, Omar says Afghans are used to it. Mostly.

OMAR: Afghan people, they get up every morning, they go to work, they feed their families. They live like you and I do.

But Omar says the Taliban that took over in 2021 is different from previous regimes… especially in its treatment of women and girls.

Women have to cover every inch of their bodies. They cannot leave their home without a male escort… not even to work in the fields. They can’t get an education past the sixth grade. And now, they can’t even be heard outside their homes.

Breaking these rules—whether intentionally or not—can lead to imprisonment, beatings, or worse.

Omar says since the Taliban took over again three years ago, there has been a heaviness over the country.

OMAR: There are no jobs and the economic hardship faced by people is something that's very palpable and very visible.

So why is this new regime targeting women and girls, and can anyone fix it?

MICHAEL SEMPLE: On one level, it's the same old Taliban movement.

Michael Semple is a professor at the Senator George Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice. He says the people in power now are largely the same as before the U.S. invaded… But they’ve changed their priorities.

SEMPLE: Funnily enough, a lot of the the veterans who now in the middle ages, they're sort of at that stage in life where they think it's time to set something aside for retirement. And basically, they've gone materialistic.

He says that materialism means Taliban officials are not idealistic enough to stand up to the leader of the Taliban, the Amir. Even though some think the oppression of women and girls is casting them in a bad light on the global stage.

SEMPLE: The most authoritative scholars of the the Sunni Muslim world consider these Taliban pronouncements, as you know, as being completely groundless, lacking any scriptural basis.

He says Taliban officials don’t want to give up their lucrative, safe positions for an idealistic cause… But they will defy the Amir for financial gain.

For example, the Amir pledged to stop the cultivation and trafficking of narcotics after he took power… but that hasn’t stopped officials from profiting.

SEMPLE: Most of the Taliban leaders simply bought up the opium stocks… So they've all made a killing from that. A lot of them are involved in owning or protecting and benefiting from heroin labs.

But that silence may come back to bite them.

So far, resistance has been unorganized, and authorities have cracked down hard. But Semple says any resistance that can get organized would likely have a lot of support and ready fighters… but Semple says that means potential leaders inside the country feel stuck.

SEMPLE: Conventional political figures in Afghanistan calculate that you can only succeed in any movement in Afghanistan if you have the backing of an external power. And until you have the backing of an external power, there's really no point in doing anything, because you're bound to fail.

If the Taliban continues to clamp down, Semple says a leader may emerge who can get enough backing to overthrow the Taliban and ease the burden on Afghans… without international help.

People have also staged protests over things like not being able to collect nuts in the forest.

SEMPLE: Generally the Taliban have they arrested a few people, but they haven't committed mass murder, and that may encourage other people to have a try.

Semple says some kind of uprising, whether civic or armed, is likely the only way for Afghans to help themselves.

But until then, people like Omar are working quietly on the ground to help Afghans with practical needs.

Omar went to an Afghanistan village to help build houses after a round of earthquakes last year. She met a father and his two-year-old daughter. They both had burns on their faces.

OMAR: I could see in this man, in this father’s eyes, how desperate he was.

She says some people see Afghans as harsh, dangerous, and misogynistic… and some are. But many are like this father, desperate to help his family.

OMAR: I've met plenty of men who love their wives and love their girls… they're just like you and I.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Mary Muncy.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: It sounds like something out of a children’s book: the Runaway Camping Cat from California.

The kitty cat, named Rayne Beau, rode along with his owners to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. But he got startled and ran off back in June.

Owners Benny and Susanne Anguiano called and searched for days in vain. Here’s Susanne:

ANGUIANO: Even though that day when we left I was crushed leaving without him.

Somehow, someway that cat made it 900 miles back to California–two months after the trip! A shelter took him in, and the microchip company contacted Susanne. She said the poor thing was a little worse for wear:

ANGUIANO: I believe truly that he made that trek mostly on his own. His paws were really beat up. Lost 40% of his body weight. So he was not cared for.

Rayne Beau now has air tags and a GPS Global tracker, so I don’t think it’ll happen again.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: PSA! Chip your pets!

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

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday, September 26th.

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

Good morning. I’m Myrna Brown.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: And I’m Lindsay Mast. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Geothermal hot springs.

They’re naturally occurring springs of water that rise to the surface due to heated groundwater. Several hot springs dot a faultline in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

BROWN: Some people say they’re potent enough to “cure what ails you.”

Here’s WORLD Senior Writer Kim Henderson.

AMBIENT: SPRINGS OUTSIDE

KIM HENDERSON: The tiny town of Genoa, Nevada, has a big history. It was the first settlement in what became the Nevada Territory back when the West was wild, and people were gold crazy.

STANLEY LAWHEAD: They set up a trading post to serve people going to California. It was a stopover, a place to get supplies, food, get repairs done on your wagon, trade out some tired, worn out oxen for fresh ones, because you still had to cross the Sierra Nevada Mountains to get to the gold fields in California.

That’s Stanley Lawhead. He’s a ranger aid at the local state park. He knows a lot about Genoa and Nevada.

LAWHEAD: SOURCE: There are hundreds of hot springs in Nevada. They're all over the place. Geothermal activity here…

In the Bible, springs of water often symbolize God’s provision. God provided a lot of hot springs near Genoa.

In 1860, a traveler named David Walley was digging a tunnel about a mile outside town when he found a slew of them.

Walley had a grand idea. He and a partner bought the springs and their surrounding property. Park aid Guy Sapp details the cost.

GUY SAPP: It was somewhere around $100,000. And in that day and age, that was a whale of an investment, wasn't it?

Walley immediately set up a tent and started charging 50 cents for a bath in the springs. Business took off. With his wife’s help, Walley built a luxurious 50-room hotel and spa. It opened in 1862.

Visitors came by train, and they came by stagecoach. People like Ulysses Grant and Mark Twain.

SAPP: AKA Sam Clemens. He swore up and down that that took care of all his arthritis and rheumatism…

Today, David Walley’s hot springs resort is still in business. The buildings are different, but the water piped into its outdoor spas isn’t. It’s still mineral rich. Sodium sulfate, magnesium bicarbonate, calcium bicarbonate. And it’s still nice and hot.

KAREN LEVEY: Every morning steam rises from this water. So in the winter, it lasts all day. It's just beautiful, yep, and we have snow and it’s just perfect…

That’s Karen Levey. She keeps watch over the outdoor spas and the visitors that use them. They’re concrete—in-ground with steps and rails. Levey calls them “tubs.”

LEVEY: We have 7 mineral tubs which recycle their water every hour to hour and a half. And the tubs run between 101 and 104 degrees and no chemicals in the tubs.

The spring that sources the tubs is located beneath the building where Karen works. Pipes get the water to the spas, and an employee checks the temperature every hour or so.

LEVEY: Just to make sure the temperature has not risen, because the water comes in at about 135, so we have to let it cool.

It’s a picturesque setting. The desert on one side. Mountains on the other. Travelers come from all over the country to enjoy the water.

Like the Freedmans, a retired couple from San Diego. It’s early morning, and they have one of the spas all to themselves. It’s their fourth vacation here.

FREEDMAN: We came out here a lot, to Lake Tahoe, mostly. And we found Walley's, and it's beautiful here. She's got arthritic feet. I have an arthritic back. We're older. It makes you feel better, especially if you go in more than one time. There are people that have moved here just to take advantage of the hot springs.

He’s right. Levey knows some locals as regulars.

LEVEY: Hi, Jerrio.

And they say the same thing.

LEVEY: That their bones feel better, that their skin is softer. A lot of people come here after surgery or after physical therapy.

So they benefit, just like the early settlers who enjoyed the hot springs, and the Native Americans before them. Water bubbling up from the barren ground year after year.

A good gift from a loving God that just might be even better than the gold in California’s hills.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kim Henderson in Genoa, Nevada.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday, September 26th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: And I’m Lindsay Mast. Up next, WORLD commentator Cal Thomas says it's past time for Vice President Kamala Harris to talk with the press…and for the press to ask the Democratic candidate some important questions.

CAL THOMAS: It’s been more than two months since Vice President Kamala Harris was deeded the Democratic presidential nomination. During that time, she has not held an open news conference or sat with many mainstream journalists to answer serious questions about how she would lead the country and who she would choose as her advisers. The recent Presidential Debate didn’t shed much light on that either.

Harris has promised to bring down the cost of everything, though costs still remain high partly because of the spending policies of the current administration. Will those policies continue and if not, what policies will replace them? She has said she wants to impose price controls, but they’ve never worked. Wouldn’t it be better to address and change the policies that have caused prices and inflation to rise?

How would she handle the war in Ukraine? If China were to invade Taiwan on her watch, would she commit U.S. troops and resources to defend the democratic nation? Would she support laws already on the books to keep migrants who are not U.S. citizens from voting in federal elections? How would she do this?

Does she still intend to tax unrealized capital gains, meaning people would pay for the increased value of assets like their homes, 401K’s and other retirement savings, even though they have not yet benefited from those gains?

The Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump, has promised to bring in outside auditors to reduce the size, cost and reach of the federal government. Is this something Harris endorses? If not, what would she do to reduce the debt which is a record $35 trillion?

All of this – and more – could be discussed if Harris would stop engaging in a stealth strategy that keeps her from having to answer hard questions the public has a right to know.

Real journalists, not the kind who used to work for politicians and activist organizations, should be demanding she start holding long news conferences. Immediately.

Every other president for the last century has done so before and after elections. John F. Kennedy held his in the State Department auditorium. Lyndon Johnson fielded reporters’ questions as he walked around the White House driveway, sometimes pulling the ears of his dogs. Barack Obama was a master of the news conference. Ronald Reagan, too, projected strength and good humor.

This is the 100th anniversary year of Calvin Coolidge’s ascension to the presidency following the death of Warren Harding. Coolidge’s oldest son, John, once told me his father invented the modern news conference. Even while traveling, Coolidge made sure the press had information of at least some value. The favor was returned in mostly helpful coverage and not the cynicism and one-sided “reporting” that characterizes so much of what’s left of real journalism today. Reporters sought facts and did not cheerlead for one candidate or another.

So madam Vice President, it’s time to hold a news conference. Americans need to know as much as possible about each candidate and how he or she will lead. Elections shouldn’t be an “arranged marriage” in which neither side knows much about the other. The public has a right to know what they’re voting for.

I’m Cal Thomas.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Tomorrow: Katie McCoy returns for Culture Friday. And, a beautiful animated movie celebrating family bonds. Plus, your listener feedback. That and more tomorrow.

I’m Lindsay Mast.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

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: “[And] it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” —Acts 2:21

Go now in grace and peace.

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