The World and Everything in It - September 28, 2021

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

The United States, Great Britain, and Australia are banding together to deter China’s aggression.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And we’ll find out how European countries are reacting to it.

Plus, it’s that time of year again—time for the leaves to put on a show before they leave.

And WORLD commentator Steve West on the truth claims of relativists.

REICHARD: It’s Tuesday, September 28th. 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: It’s time for the news with Kent Covington.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Republicans block Democratic bill to fund govt, lift debt ceiling » GOP senators blocked a Democratic bill Monday night that would have funded the government and raised the debt ceiling.

Majority Leader Chuck Schumer blasted GOP senators for shooting down the bill and said they could be responsible for what he called two “manufactured disasters.”

SCHUMER: A government shutdown and a first-ever default on the national debt. The impacts of both would gravely harm every single American in this country.

The fiscal year ends on Thursday, and without a new funding bill in place, the government will partially shut down. Many Republicans say they’re on board with passing a funding bill to avoid that.

But Democrats paired it with a measure that would also raise the debt limit. That would help clear the way for a massive $3.5 trillion spending bill, which Democrats would push through the Senate using the reconciliation process without a single Republican vote.

And Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell says Democrats can also lift the debt ceiling on their own without a single GOP vote using a fast track process. And he adds that if Democrats are planning a historic spending spree, that’s exactly the way they’ll have to lift it.

MCCONELL: There’s no chance Republicans will help lift Democrats’ credit limit so they can immediately steamroll through a socialist binge that will hurt families and help China.

Democrats said they will try again before Thursday’s deadline to pass a bill to fund the government. Next time they’ll likely take the debt ceiling provision out of the bill, saving that debate for another day, closer to a separate October deadline.

Biden rule to shield 'Dreamers' seeks to bypass Congress » The Biden administration released a revised DACA plan on Monday, hoping to overcome a court ruling against the program. WORLD’s Sarah Schweinsberg has details.

SARAH SCHWEINSBERG, REPORTER: DACA is short for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. The program has shielded hundreds of thousands of so-called dreamers from deportation. Those are immigrants who were brought into the United States illegally as young children.

Back in July, U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen, said the Obama administration overstepped its authority when it went around Congress to create the program in 2012. He also said the administration did not properly seek public feedback.

The ruling allowed for renewals to continue but barred any new applicants.

The Biden administration is appealing. In the meantime, the new rule would solicit public comment to address the issue raised by Hanen. But it’s not clear if that would be enough.

In any event, only an act of Congress could make the DACA protections permanent. And Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Monday once called again on lawmakers to take swift action on DACA.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Sarah Schweinsberg.

Uncertain start to post-Merkel era after close German vote » The road ahead remains unclear for Germany after an election that failed to set a clear direction. That means Europe’s biggest economy could still be in for weeks or months of uncertainty.

The party that narrowly beat outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s centrist Union bloc is struggling to form a new government.

Both parties finished with well under 30% of the vote. That apparently put the keys to power in the hands of two opposing parties.

And it means Merkel could remain chancellor, heading up a caretaker government, potentially for months as the main German parties battle for coalition partners to form a government.

U.K. pumps run dry amid fuel supply chain disruption » Lines of cars continue to wrap around British gas stations, the ones that actually have fuel, as shortages persist.

One Uber driver said without gas he can’t earn a living.

AUDIO: It’s quite difficult for me. I need petrol and obviously there’s not a lot around. So if I don’t get petrol, I don’t get food. That’s the way I look at it.

A shortage of truck drivers caused a minor disruption as fuel deliveries were delayed in some places. But that triggered a run on gas stations, creating a much bigger supply shortage.

UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps:

SHAPPS: It’s not like we don’t have the fuel in the country. We do need to just ensure that people are filling up when they need to fill up, rather than thinking ‘I’ve got to go fill up now just in case I need it next week or the week after.’

The Petrol Retailers Association, which represents more than 5,000 independent outlets, said Sunday that about two-thirds of its members had run out of fuel.

The government is now thinking about sending the army in to help with supply disruptions. But UK officials said Monday that they have “no plans at the moment” to deploy troops.

R&B superstar R. Kelly convicted in sex trafficking trial » R&B superstar R. Kelly is guilty as charged. That was the word from a New York jury on Monday in the singer’s sex trafficking trial. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has that story.

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: The court convicted Robert Kelly of racketeering and of violating the Mann Act, which makes it illegal to take anyone across state lines “for any immoral purpose.”

Prosecutors said an entourage of managers and aides that helped the singer meet girls—and keep them obedient and quiet—amounted to a criminal enterprise.

The singer, known for his anthem “I Believe I Can Fly,” has faced numerous allegations of misconduct with women and minors dating back to the 1990s.

Authorities arrested him in 2002 and accused him of making a recording of himself sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl. During the trial, jurors saw videos of Kelly engaging in sex acts that prosecutors said were not consensual.

Kelly is also facing sex-related charges in Illinois and Minnesota. Trial dates in those cases have yet to be set.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

I’m Kent Covington. Straight ahead: China’s growing military threat.

Plus, mundane stories of grace.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Tuesday the 28th 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: China.

Two weeks ago, President Biden announced a new security alliance. It’s called AUKUS, A-U-K-U-S. Australia, the UK, the U.S.—a new defense pact, a bulwark against growing Chinese influence.

REICHARD: Analysts point out it’s a step in the right direction but may not be enough to curb Beijing’s growing aggression. WORLD’s Josh Schumacher reports.

BIDEN: AUKUS will bring together our sailors, our scientists, and our industries to maintain and expand our edge and military capabilities on critical technologies such as cyber, artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, and undersea domains...

JOSH SCHUMACHER, REPORTER: The AUKUS pact mostly focuses on technology sharing. But that’s not what made headlines.

BIDEN: Now as a key project under AUKUS we are launching consultations with Australia's acquisition of conventionally armed nuclear-powered submarines for its navy.

President Biden never mentioned China during his announcement. But Beijing’s military buildup definitely set the stage.

Bradley Bowman is senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

BOWMAN: The People's Republic of China has been pursuing the most ambitious and aggressive military modernization effort in the history of the People's Republic of China. And this is not just like a one or two year thing. This is a multi year deliberate campaign by which they are seeking to field a military that can dominate the region and then be a preeminent or the preeminent global power.

China’s stated goal is to have a “world-class military” by the end of 2049. Although Beijing hasn’t defined exactly what that means, it definitely involves being bigger and better than its rivals. It already has the largest standing army and the largest navy in the world. Its air force is the third largest but is rapidly catching up to Western capabilities.

Bowman says as China’s military has grown, it’s become much more aggressive.

BOWMAN: We know that they're using their navy and their maritime militia and their coast guard to bully and harass Vietnam and the Philippines. We know that they're challenging Japan, the Senkaku Islands, almost daily, I'm barely exaggerating they’re harassing Taiwan with ships and exercises and planes. They bludgeoned to death 20 Indian soldiers on the border with India. We're seeing incredibly aggressive behavior.

China’s military buildup has given it several significant advantages over the United States.

INBODEN: First, by far most significant one is missiles.

William Inboden is executive director for the Clements Center for National Security at the University of Texas at Austin.

INBODEN: So China has a very substantial missile force, nuclear and conventional. And the reason this matters is China has designed its missile force to counter what had historically been America's advantages with our Navy and Air Force.

Inboden says China also has an advantage at sea.

INBODEN: China's Navy is now larger than the American Navy, they've got more surface ships, and they're all concentrated in the Pacific, whereas our naval assets are dispersed around around around the world.

Inboden’s third concern: cyber warfare.

INBODEN: China has very substantial cyber capabilities. And their design would be that if there was an outbreak of hostilities for the United States, they would use cyber attacks to take out so much of our command and control and make our forces essentially blind. Again, we have some ways to counter that. I don't want to sound defeatist here, but these are very significant advantages that China has designed to counter the United States.

Finally, Inboden says America needs to keep an eye on China’s manpower.

INBODEN: And, you know, the People's Liberation Army, I think has over a million troops in uniform. Certainly an effective deterrent if there were to be any land invasion of China. No one's no one's talking about that. But likewise, that's something that makes China's neighbors especially India pretty nervous.

AUKUS is designed to counter some of those concerns. But is it enough?

Zack Cooper is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

COOPER: I don't think it really changes fundamentally what's going on in the region. In part, because, you know, we're talking probably about eight submarines, and that won’t fundamentally change the dynamic in Asia. There are just too many ships in the water and China is churning them out left and right. So does this change the Chinese decision making? Probably not. Does it make Australia a little bit of a more difficult military challenge for China to crack in, say, the 2030s or 2040s? Yes. But in the near term, the effects of this are fairly minimal.

Still, Cooper says the agreement does signal something important:

COOPER: It's a clear signal of U.S. commitment to the region. This is a big deal. It's a surprised a lot of people, I think it surprised people both that Australia would be interested, but also that the United States would reciprocate. And so this shows that the U.S. is there in Asia to stay at a time that a lot of people have been suggesting otherwise.

But will that be enough to change China’s posture in the region? William Inboden says maybe.

INBODEN: Again, the whole idea there is that it will deter China from more aggression, it'll hopefully send the signal to China, you know, war will not pay. But in the near term, it does escalate tensions, and there always is the risk of either a miscalculation or stumbling into an accidental war, or maybe Xi Jinping decides that he's got a narrow window of opportunity here to make an aggressive move against Taiwan, or, you know, other, similar aggression in the South China Sea. So it is a more tense and dangerous situation. But I certainly think that in the medium and long term, this was absolutely a step we needed to take.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Next up: the AUKUS rift in Europe.

As you heard a moment ago, not only did China not appreciate the new alliance, multiple U.S. allies were also unhappy with the creation of AUKUS — or at least unsettled by it.

New Zealand, for example, said Australia’s new nuclear-powered subs are not welcome in its waters.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: But one European ally was downright incensed upon hearing the news.

France’s foreign minister called it a stab in the back. And French leaders were so upset, they recalled their ambassadors to the United States and Australia.

Here to explain why this agreement infuriated the French and what it means for U.S. relations with France and other European powers is Glen Duerr. He teaches International Studies at Cedarville University. Professor, thanks for joining us!

GLEN DUERR, GUEST: Thank you for having me.

REICHARD: Professor, let’s start with France’s response. Why did the French government react so strongly to this AUKUS announcement?

DUERR: Sure. This story has a long history dating back about 15 years.
Australia has long had an agreement with France to produce some 12 submarines to replace its aging Collins class submarines. And so, in the midst of all this, the French had promised to provide these new submarines. But the cost increased and increased to the point where it's now in excess of around 60 billion US dollars. And so very, very expensive.

In the midst of all this, the AUKUS arrangement has been growing—that is Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States as a trilateral security-based relationship.

And what's prickly about all of this is that the UK and the United States under AUKUS opted to give Australia the technology, the nuclear submarine technology, effectively for free. I mean, they'd still have to build it, put it together, etcetera. It's still gonna be costly. But it blindsided the French. And a lot of this didn't have to happen. The other issue, too, is that the three countries met during the most recent G7 summit, reportedly behind President Macron's back. And so that's I think part of the reason for the French reaction. In many ways it's an overreaction—withdrawing the ambassadors to Australia and the United States. I don't see it as a long term rift. But clearly there's a major unhappiness on the part of France.

REICHARD: There has been chatter out of Europe, particularly after the Afghanistan debacle, that Europe really needs to build up its own defense more and become less dependent on the United States. Do you see that happening? And second, and how dependent is Europe on the United States currently?

DUERR: Good questions. No is the simple answer to that. I was born and raised in Europe in the United Kingdom. Remember the Yugoslav wars from 1991 to 1995, with additional missions in 1998-1999 over Kosovo. So S4, the stabilization force, and the K4—Kosovo force—respectively. And the big question there was, well, there's the most serious outbreak of violence in Europe since World War Two. What do we do? And a lot of the members of the European Union talked about creating some form of European military as well as a 60,000 troop rapid reaction force, RRF. And those discussions really moved forward in significant ways, but never developed into anything, in effect.

To answer your second question, NATO continues to be the security umbrella. A lot of people in Europe may argue as to its irrelevance. But having said that, the number of member states of NATO has continued to increase. And so NATO continues to build and is now up to 30 member states. And so even in this environment where there is a bit of detachment across the North Atlantic between the United States and Europe, the European Union still hasn't really moved forward. And when you look at NATO spending under the Washington treaty, there is an expectation of 2 percent of GDP to be spent on the military, as well as 60 percent of that 2 percent to be spent on military equipment and upgrades. And as it stands right now, only nine of the 30 countries actually abide by those standards in terms of the 2 percent on GDP and the 60 percent on military expenditures.

And so there's a lot of talk about, well, can we solve our security issues? But it would then require massive changes to the budget, in terms of expenditures. And a lot of Europeans are just not willing to go anywhere near that.

And so it's still Uncle Sam that picks up the phone. There's just not the necessary spending to turn words into action.

REICHARD: Final question, professor. President Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron spoke by phone last week. France said it would send its ambassador back to Washington. They’ve agreed to continue trying to mend fences.
I’ve read speculation that France is going to press the White House to make up for this in some way … to compensate for what France lost in this deal. Where do you see these talks going?

DUERR: The good news is that the talks have been constructive. President Macron is up for reelection in 2022. So, in the short term, I don't think the talks will be -- the can will be kicked down the road a little bit because there's a fierce opposition in France. There's a significant amount of change. And so I think Macron is going to be focused domestically.

However, this story could be brought out to bolster his ratings amongst the French electorate. So it could be used as a political hot potato. but the wider good news is that the two are talking. The ambassadors are back. There has been a very, very strong Franco-American relationship for many years. And there's a wide latitude in terms of how this could be made up. I mean, again, the number’s around 60—a little north of 60 billion U.S. dollars now and the French defense industry is unhappy in terms of losing a lot of that. And so there are ways that this could be made up. I mean, it's possible that we could go directly to the nuclear submarines, that Australia could try and, you know, backtrack a little bit and work with France, that AUKUS could be expanded in some way. But my guess is that it'll be in another related area. And I'm also guessing that the actual monetary figure will be much less than $60 billion. Again, there's a lot that goes on domestically that will interrupt the discussions.

REICHARD: Nice to end on a positive note! Professor Glen Duerr with Cedarville University has been our guest. Professor, thanks so much!

DUERR: My pleasure. Thank you for having me.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Maybe you’re still feeling sticker shock from your summer air conditioning bills. If so, researchers at Purdue University may have just the thing!

The world’s most heat-reflective paint.

You need to see this paint, but I recommend only while wearing very dark sunglasses.

This stuff is whiter than white!

Professor Xiulin Ruan told the podcast This is Purdue that the paint was seven years in the making!

RUAN: We started working on this in 2014. We tested many different materials, concentrations, and the different particle sizes and so on.

The team didn’t set out to create the world’s whitest paint.

It just happened as they worked to make their paint more reflective, they found that it made the paint also extremely white.

It reflects 98.1 percent of solar radiation, and that makes it cooler to the touch than surrounding surfaces.

And researchers hope that someday soon it will help you lower your energy usage and your cooling bills.

The aesthetics, though, imagine a neighborhood with nothing but 98.1 percent reflective paint.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Tuesday, September 28th. 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: it’s fall!

Last week marked the official start of autumn: for many of us that means it’s time to get out the sweaters, attend high school or college football games, and perhaps visit an apple orchard or pumpkin patch.

EICHER: Reporter Lillian Hamman stopped by a North Carolina orchard this weekend and found some real enthusiasm for autumn.

MONTAGE: WHAT DO YOU LIKE ABOUT FALL?

And of course nearly everyone mentioned fall colors—when the leaves change from green to bright yellow, red, and orange. WORLD’s Paul Butler caught up with a botanist to help us understand what’s going on to make this time of year as beautiful as it is.

PAUL BUTLER, REPORTER: According to the 2021 Fall Foliage Map, this week marks peak color across the northernmost states as well as in the higher elevations of the Rocky and Appalachian Mountains. But in less than a month's time, most of the country will be ablaze in yellows, oranges, reds, and a whole range of golden browns. This time of year, even Crayola has a difficult time keeping up.

PARIS: I'm Bob Paris, and I'm an associate professor at Cedarville University. I teach biology...

For most of the year, leaves kind of blend into the background. We don’t usually think much about them. But as Bob Paris points out, they’re a crucial part of our ecosystem.

PARIS: Well, a leaf is...we could think of it as a very highly technical solar panel. So the leaf is going to be the site where the plant converts sunlight into energy that the plant can use. And it does that by taking air, water and sunlight and makes sugar...producing energy not only for the plant, but really for most of life on the planet...

As you may remember from junior high science class, throughout the spring and summer, chlorophyll is the predominant pigment in the leaf. It makes photosynthesis possible and it’s what makes leaves bright green. But, there are usually other pigments also present—we just can’t see them due to the amount of chlorophyll.

PARIS: So as we approach this time of year in the fall, the natural process...start to disassemble those chlorophyll molecules as the chlorophyll decreases in the leaf, then we start to see some of those background colors pop out.

Those other pigments include carotenoids [carrot-noids] and xanthophylls [zanth-a-phills] —which we perceive as oranges and yellows. So as the days get shorter, and the sun less intense, the green chlorophyll begins to break down, and the background pigments reveal themselves.

But some leaves are designed with a very a different chemical process:

PARIS: There are also a few other compounds that begin to be manufactured in the fall. And that would be some of the anthocyanins compounds that would cause the leaves to have a red or maybe more of a purplish color. And those are being manufactured at this time of year. 

However the leaves change color, at the Skytop Orchard, in Flatrock, North Carolina, there are many opinions on which fall colors are the best, as Lilian Hamman found out:

[COLOR MONTAGE]

As for Bob Paris, he’s got a definite favorite too:

PARIS: Oh, yeah, do I really, I really enjoy the sugar maple and...certain trees are marked more colorful than others, but it tends to have a really bright kind of, almost fiery orange, red color to it. And on a sunny day just against the blue sky, it's a pretty, pretty amazing picture. So that's probably my favorite.

The intensity of fall colors is directly related to the weather conditions throughout the year, not just in the autumn.

PARIS: So probably the biggest factor is moisture. We need plenty of moisture to keep the leaves growing and healthy and, and productive so that they kind of go through what we would consider a normal fall decline in their in their growth.

Areas experiencing drought may still have colorful displays, but the leaves usually turn earlier than usual, and inconsistently. And the leaves drop much faster as well: All signs that the trees and plants are under stress.

If the fall is particularly wet, and without a lot of sunshine, the colors will be muted.

PARIS: We also need sunlight to kind of keep them growing...So typically in the fall, as well in the summer, we need nice, even rainfall—and then in the fall we like to have cool nights with bright sunny days and that helps kind of push the leaves along their normal route which then results in all of these vibrant colors we see.

Of course one major downside to the beautiful fall display is when that color moves from the trees...to the ground. Paris encourages people to look differently at this valuable natural resource. Don’t burn them, or bag them up. Compost them if you can.

PARIS: Composting really, I think, can become a valuable way to do that because it provides a nutrient rich media in the spring for gardening. So it's kind of a win win situation we can use it for for weed control, we can use it for sort of a organic fertilizer application.

And if you don’t have room to compost, then Paris says the next best thing is to get the mower out, mulch them into small pieces, and let them fertilize your lawn and garden.

PARIS: Of course you don't want to concentrate all of those leaf clippings in one spot but if they're spread out, they can be a very helpful source of nutrients. So really my favorite way to to handle it is the compost and really, it kind of saves you in the spring from having to purchase other inputs that you might normally have for your garden.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Paul Butler.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Tuesday, September 28th. 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. Former federal prosecutor and WORLD commentator Steve West ponders the unlikely educational choices he made along the way.

STEVE WEST, COMMENTATOR: College students have returned to our local university, the one my wife and I attended over 40 years ago. From my lunch table, I can see the edge of the building in which I spent much of my time while there and the steps on which I sat sometimes pondering my next move: another class, another relationship, a job.

I was a sociology major. So was my wife. When we were dating we used to have animated discussions about great sociologists like Emile Durkheim or Peter Berger. Or we discussed how we know what we know—the sociology of knowledge. Kind of like C.S. Lewis and his wife, Joy Davidman, talking. High level stuff.

I’m kidding. We never talked about that. I ate chocolate chip cookies and talked about my problems, and she listened, kind of a sociology of one: Me.

Usually, when I tell people I majored in Sociology, I detect a bit of mental head wagging. They’re wondering how I could waste my time and my parents’ money on a dead end path of study like sociology. All I can say is I didn’t have to crunch any numbers or do any calculus, write code, or decipher poetry. I liked the thoughtfulness of a discipline that believed in an examined life. Many of my peers were looking at life filtered through a beer can and under the table, or through a haze of smoke. Sociologists were thinking about culture and life, descriptively if not prescriptively. Thinking, at least.

On the other hand, some sociologists were (and remain) insufferable. In Sociology 101, in the first chapter of the book I have long since rid my home of, the first thesis was that “all morals are the product of agreement and thus relative”—a statement ironically pronounced as absolutely true. From day one, I knew something was wrong, and yet my self-assured and authoritative professor was intimidating, as were some of my peers, so I dissented silently, increasingly amazed by the absolute claims made by what some regarded once as the “queen of the sciences.”

I wish I had been braver. I wish I had done more than silently dissent. Because for all the perceptiveness that sociologists had, most were blind to their own presuppositions.

I couldn’t figure out what to do with sociology, so I went to law school. Now, I figure out the shortest distance between two points and try and get there as best I can. While the judge might occasionally wax eloquent on philosophy, I can’t. In the end somebody wins and somebody loses, and on the best days justice is more or less done.

Yet, on the rare quiet day, when the phone doesn’t ring, when the fires are out, I have time to consider if I have done justice. I go home and talk to my wife about it. We discuss the facts of cases, legal theories, the meaning of justice, and the presuppositions of our adversarial system of justice.

I’m kidding. We never talk about that. What we talk about is far more mundane and far more important: who called, what the children did, who needs prayer, what we’re happy about, and what we’re sad about—the stories of our day, the stories we believe in, echoes of the One Story of Grace. I just love those stories, don’t you?

I’m Steve West.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: Afghanistan. We’ll talk about how military leaders framed the U.S. exit during today’s Senate hearing.

And, milking cows. We’ll visit a dairy farm in New Jersey where one family is putting a new spin on an old business.

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.

Reminder for those living in the Twin Cities area—Minneapolis St. Paul—The World and Everything in It Live, we’ll be recording our Friday program live on Thursday night—that’s September 30th—and we’d love for you to be there. We’ll place a link in today’s program transcript so you can sign up or from our podcast page, click on live events and you’ll find it.

Jesus said: I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.

Go now in grace and peace.

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