The World and Everything in It: September 29, 2026

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

NICK EICHER, HOST: A quick reminder: Tomorrow is the deadline to request your free 100-million-download, 15-year-anniversary commemorative sticker. Thousands have gone out, and there’s room for yours, too. Just let us know where to send it.

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Or visit theworldandeverythinginit.org/sticker.

If you love the program, represent!

EICHER: Deadline’s tomorrow!

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Good morning!

Parents are being locked out of their kids’ medical records.

GONZALEZ: They've built this healthcare relationship with the family, around the presumption that parents need to be kept at arm's length.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Also today, is China cutting off an economic lifeline to Iran? We’ll talk with an expert.

And, why students are bringing Bibles to school.

Later: A roommate program gives young adults with disabilities room to grow.

FRENCH: The mentorship experience is tax-free housing and utilities … and the growth opportunity of a lifetime.

And Netanyahu at the UN. WORLD’s Cal Thomas has commentary.

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

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

MAST: Up next, Mark Mellinger with today’s news.

MARK MELLINGER, NEWS ANCHOR: UK terror suspects released on bail » Those men arrested on suspicion of plotting a terror attack on a U.K. air base used by the U.S are now free on bail.

Police took the five British men, all in their 20s, into custody early Sunday, near the RAF Fairford airbase. Monday, the men were released on bail, but counterterrorism detectives say the suspects face stringent conditions while they’re out.

Laurence Taylor, the head of U.K. Counter Terror Policing, says investigators are looking into every angle.

TAYLOR: Including that this may be actively committed by proxies or individuals, either knowingly or unknowingly, working on behalf of a foreign state.

The U.S. has used RAF Fairford for limited bombing missions in Iran. The Iranian government had previously warned the U.K. any base used to attack Iran is a legitimate target, but Iran denies any involvement in this plot.

President Trump says he’s surprised the suspects were released. If it were up to the U.S., he says they’d still be in custody.

Russian bombings kill 7 in Ukraine » In the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv:

SOUND: Sirens

Emergency crews rush to the aftermath of another Russian air bombardment.

Drone strikes Monday killed at least 7 people and left more than 80 others hurt.

Among the targets: apartment buildings, gas stations, and Ukraine’s National Academy of Sciences.

Ahead of AI summit, Johnson dismisses increased regulation » President Trump’s looking ahead to a busy day with America’s top Artificial Intelligence executives at the White House.

The AI summit comes amid increasing reports of AI agents going rogue, sparking fears the technology could one day prove lethal to humans and leading some AI executives themselves to call for more government regulation.

The president’s dismissing those calls, pressing for the U.S. to go full speed ahead and lead the world in AI development. His co-host for the summit, House Speaker Mike Johnson, agrees.

JOHNSON: We do not need a moratorium. We do not need to jump in and hyper-regulate this ‘cause we’ll lose the race to China.

Instead, Johnson says a key goal of the summit is to strike the right balance between innovation and safety.

For the moment, Open AI has paused training for its latest AI models while the chip maker Nvidia is launching a new security tool to keep AI agents from going rogue.

Massive new Iowa steel plant announced » Southeast Iowa will be the home of a new $15-billion-dollar steel plant that President Trump says will be the nation’s largest.

The announcement came Monday at the Oval Office.

TRUMP: The project is expected to create up to 6,000 new construction jobs, nearly 2,000 manufacturing and mining jobs, and add another $95 billion dollars to the U.S. economy.

A Minnesota-based company owned by a conglomerate from India will build the plant, which is expected to be up and running by 2030. It’ll be accompanied by a new $2-and-a-half billion dollar iron ore mine in Minnesota, meaning the steel will be produced start to finish in the U.S.

The White House is working to revitalize American industry to better compete with China. By the way, in the wake of last week’s face-to-face meetings, the U.S. and China announced a new trade deal to reduce tariffs on $30 billion dollars’ worth of goods from each country.

Duffy pushes for Modern Skies Act » The Federal Aviation Administration is asking Congress for $30 billion more dollars, much of which it would use to upgrade air traffic control infrastructure across the country’s airports.

The proposed bill, called the Modern Skies Act, extends a push sparked by a string of airline crashes and close calls in recent years.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says if now’s not the time for these changes, when will it be?

DUFFY: When are we sick enough of the delays and the cancellations and the infrastructure that we use that’s so old? When are we so tired of it that we say, ‘No, make the investment’?

The FAA already got $12-and-a-half billion dollars for measures like air traffic control upgrades in last year’s Big Beautiful Bill, but Duffy says that’s not enough.

Without more money, he says it’ll take 300 years to replace all of the nation’s control towers.

SpaceX successfully orbits Starship » It’s touted as the most powerful launch vehicle ever built, and it blasted off Monday from Starbase, Texas.

SOUND: 5,4,3,2,1 Blastoff!

SpaceX’s Starship rocket successfully launched into low earth orbit for the first time, even overcoming a malfunctioning engine to make it to the orbit stage.

After reaching orbit, the Starship deployed more than two dozen of the company’s Starlink Internet satellites.

SpaceX intends to use Starship for NASA’s Artemis moon missions and, eventually, for taking humans to Mars.

I’m Mark Mellinger.

Coming up, why some parents can’t access their kids’ medical records. Plus, college students help disabled young adults move toward independence.

This is The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: It’s Tuesday the 29th of September.

This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio, celebrating 15 years. Good morning, I’m Nick Eicher.

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

First up on The World and Everything in It: Cutting Iran’s China ties.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Sunday said a month of sanctions on Iran has scared off its neighbors and is drying up revenue from its oil. Audio from FOX News:

BESSENT: Probably within the next two weeks, they are going to make their final deliveries of oil to China, and then they they will have nothing.

EICHER: This comes days after President Trump hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping in Washington for talks on trade, AI, and Iran.

Joining us now to talk about it is Max Meizlish, he’s a research fellow for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He formerly worked for the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.

Max, good morning.

MEIZLISH: Good morning.

EICHER: Let’s start with what we just heard from the Treasury secretary. Bessent says Iran’s final oil deliveries to China could happen within two weeks. That’s a pretty striking claim, coming just days after President Xi’s trip to the U.S. Do you think something happened in those talks we just haven’t heard about publicly?

MEIZLISH: You know, the Treasury Secretary you know very well could be correct on that timeline. There were several tens of millions of barrels of Iranian oil last month that were that were still on the water by the best estimates. So fifteen million barrels could be correct at this time. The question really is why we are willing to accept that as an adequate solution to the problem that we're facing today, especially if we give consideration to the prospect that the Iranian regime may remain in power for quite some time and these same sanctions of Asian networks will remain in place, ultimately with China benefiting through the form of access to discounted oil, which has long propped up the Iranian regime

MAST: U.S. Ambassador to China David Perdue said late last week the U.S. is working with China to counter what he called Iran’s “indirect support.” What kind of support is he talking about?

MEIZLISH: You know, China has been found through various reports to be implicated in the provision of dual-use goods to Iran. There have been reports coming out over the last several months about China supplying satellite technology to Iran that the regime in Tehran has used to target U.S. service members. And then also thinking about more specifically with Iran's ballistic missile threat, the export from China of the chemical precursors that go into the propellant for ballistic missile fuel. On top of that, China has long purchased 90% of Iran's exported oil supply, with about half of that money going into its military. So looking at the threat that Iran poses to the United States and to its allies and partners in the region, you can't separate from that reality that China is a major player in actually creating the malign environment in which Tehran is operating.

EICHER: President Trump also wanted China’s help keeping the Strait of Hormuz open. Any indication Beijing is willing to do anything there?

MEIZLISH: You know, it's it's unclear. When you think about the threats to global shipping, China is negatively impacted, but we've yet to see China really apply any degree of significant pressure on either Iran or its proxies in the Houthis in Yemen to create more of a calm and and return to normal shipping operations for cargo and energy flows. So there's a lot more that China could be doing. And frankly I think it's high time that the United States apply more aggressive pressure on the Chinese Communist Party to ensure that the economic support lifelines that China offers to Iran are ultimately shut down. Unfortunately I I don't think that we should actually have any expectation of this happening anytime soon.

MAST: It’s been a month since Secretary Bessent announced what he called an economic D-Day to stop Iran’s revenue flows. You wrote that the administration was right to go after the financial institutions that make sanctions evasion possible. But that success would depend on sustained enforcement. So how successful would you rate the economic D-Day effort over the last month?

MEIZLISH: I'd say that it's a it's a mixed bag. we've seen a lot of progress in terms of the administration taking steps that many who are hawkish on this issue, like I am, have been calling for years, frankly. but when you look at it in the context of the war that's ongoing, the threat to commercial shipping and energy flows, I would say that the pressure the Trump administration is bringing to bear is is wholly insufficient for the the challenge that we face. Now, it's true in terms of constraining Iran's ability to export oil, the blockade by the led by the U.S. Navy has proven extremely effective. And so if the United States is able to maintain that blockade for the weeks and months ahead, then that's going to mean that Iran is not able to export any more oil. The question then goes to what the larger strategic objective is from the United States in pursuing either a negotiated settlement with Iran or something else entirely.

And so, from a strategic perspective, I think this is why the United States actually needs to be far more aggressive in correcting for some of the fraud and corruption and kleptocracy that has been allowed to move billions of dollars in illicit flows through the global economy for for years and years, even if we are able to reach some sort of settlement with the regime.

EICHER: I want to return to the idea of two weeks. Secretary Bessent said once those remaining oil deliveries make it to China, that’s it. Iran will have “nothing.” I wonder how literally we should take that. If the oil money dries up, what’s left of the relationship? Is this checkmate?

MEIZLISH: The reality is that the regime is going to increasingly become constrained. The problem though is that this regime, while never facing a maritime blockade like this in the history of U.S. sanctions enforcement against Tehran, the reality is that the regime is kleptocratic and it doesn't care a cent for the well being of its own people. And so the regime will continue to live on.

So on the one hand, I think that we could be positioning ourselves better for some sort of negotiated settlement with Iran. But at the same time, what we're doing is creating pathways for ordinary trade to be restricted, while some of the more illicit and opaque revenue streams for the regime might remain in place, absent additional pressure on these third countries that have long served as enabling environments for Iranian sanctions, evasion and illicit financial flows.

MAST: Max Meizlish is a research fellow at the Center on Economic and Financial Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Max, thanks so much!

MEIZLISH: Thank you.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: Locking out the parents.

In some states, hospitals and clinics are cutting off access to children’s medical records—even before a child is old enough to consent to care.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Mom and Dad may foot the bill and carry the responsibility, but they don’t always get the information. Some say that’s a violation of federal law.

WORLD’s Lauren Smyth has the story.

SOUND: [Gonzalez birthday]

LAUREN SMYTH: Lauren Gonzalez lost access to her daughter’s medical records on her twelfth birthday.

GONZALEZ: I did a double take. I go, “What? What do you mean? She’s 12! Like, how am I supposed to make her appointments and stuff now?”... How would I go about getting that again? They go, “Well, she would need to create an online login.”

That requires an email address, but Gmail, Yahoo, and other major email providers require kids to be at least 13 to create their own account.

GONZALEZ: I am responsible for her care and well-being and would be charged with negligence if I didn't provide all of these things for her, but I don't have access to the information that I need to do my job? And they kind of shrugged their shoulders and go, “Yeah, well that's just kind of the way it is.”

The federal law governing medical information privacy is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, known as HIPAA. States can make those standards stricter, but they couldn’t undermine HIPAA’s minimum requirements.

Under HIPAA, hospitals must allow parents to access their child’s medical records, except where state laws restrict access to sensitive care. Here’s Caleb Kruckenberg, a lawyer at the Center for Individual Rights:

KRUCKENBERG: HIPAA makes specific allowances for certain types of psychiatric treatment, or if a child is reporting something like abuse, there are certain provisions where that information is supposed to be secret and not shared with parents.

But some clinics and hospitals say standard software can either block parental access to the whole portal, or they have to share everything—it doesn’t allow for exceptions.

KRUCKENBERG: I’ve heard that excuse….That’s a problem for the hospital, and that’s a problem for the computer system.

I contacted Epic, the dominant U.S. hospital software company. A representative said in an emailed statement its software can be configured to meet a wide variety of state laws.

Kruckenburg believes software limitations would not excuse violating federal law. But HIPAA has no private right of action, meaning individuals who believe they were harmed under HIPAA can’t sue. Instead, enforcement lies with the Department of Health and Human Services—HHS—or a state’s Attorney General.

KRUCKENBERG: I think the hospitals are taking the gamble that they’re saying it's easier to follow state law, or it's easier to have this general policy that we agree with, even if it's inconsistent with federal law, because the odds are we're probably not going to face a federal law enforcement inquiry.

Kruckenberg is suing anyway on behalf of a Minnesota couple whose daughter has a genetic disorder. They fear losing access to her medical records could cause them to miss something vital, putting her life at risk.

KRUCKENBERG: It has nothing to do with this kind of specialized care that’s related to, say, abortion or abuse or anything like that. This is just routine medical care.

Kruckenberg argues clinics that bar parental access are misreading state law, and that federal law preempts state law anyway. But Minnesota courts dismissed the case because of HIPAA’s restrictions on private lawsuits. Kruckenberg and his clients are still planning to appeal.

KRUCKENBERG: The hospitals have taken this policy, they've taken this excuse about technical feasibility, and they're really making a political statement that it is at odds with federal law.

WORLD reached out to three hospitals about their privacy policies, including the one where Lauren Gonzalez’s children received care. None responded.

Even with HIPAA regulations, holes exist that could expose children who are vulnerable. Records of care from the insurance explanation of benefits can provide information about treatments. That could give a child in real need of protection an illusion of privacy that isn’t there.

GONZALEZ: We've created this system where minors are treated as dependent when responsibility is required…but it’s independent where information is involved, and that creates issues.

Gonzalez recognizes that some parents may not be fit to make medical decisions for their children. Still, she feels the system is designed to assume that innocent parents are guilty of harm.

GONZALEZ: It felt like that’s what it was geared toward, and I felt like I had to tread carefully as a protective parent to not paint myself into the role of being overprotective or suspiciously protective.

In December, HHS warned that denying parents access to their children’s records could violate federal law. Hospitals who continue the practice could face fines up to $1.5 million per year—if the agency chooses to enforce the rule.

Meanwhile, state laws continue to change, sometimes in different directions. Louisiana recently gave parents full, default access to their kids’ records. Others, like Alaska, are debating lowering the age of consent for certain types of care so that kids don’t need to involve parents at all.

SOUND: Gonzalez birthday

For WORLD, I’m Lauren Smyth.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Coming next on The WORLD And Everything in It: Bible in the backpack.

This Thursday, students across the country will take part in Bring Your Bible to School Day.

NICK EICHER, HOST: WORLD’s Myrna Brown explains why the day began—and what students are free to do now.

MYRNA BROWN: In the 1940’s it was a common practice in classrooms across the nation. Reading Scripture aloud to get the school day started.

AUDIO: [Old news reel] Good Morning children. Good Morning teacher. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He leadeth me to lie down in green pastures…

But in 1956 a family from Pennsylvania sued their local school district to put an end to mandatory Bible readings in public school.

AUDIO: Abington Township, Pennsylvania vs. Edward Schempp

The case ultimately reached the United States Supreme Court. Attorney Phillip Ward represented the Abington school district.

AUDIO: I remember as I got up to make my argument, a little thought ran through my head. Although this case involved only the children in Abington High School, throughout the country more than 23 million children had the Bible read to them every morning.

Ward lost the case. In 1963, the Supreme Court ruled mandatory Bible readings and prayer in public schools violated First Amendment rights. But what about the rights of students who wanted to bring their own Bible to school? That’s the question that sparked the idea for Bring Your Bible To School Day, fifty years after the Pennsylvania case.

COLLINS: So in 2014 Focus on the Family started Bring Your Bible To School Day.

That’s Emerson Collins. Every year he helps students, parents, churches and schools prepare for Bring Your Bible to School Day. He’s got a checklist. First, go to the website, bringyourbible.org, and register. Next, understand your rights and how to communicate them well.

COLLINS: We have a legal memo that you can print off and give to your teacher saying hey, respectfully I’m going to be participating in this day. I just wanted to let you know ahead of time. Here are my rights.

Those rights include bringing a Bible, distributing Bibles, and discussing the Bible with students. Even advertising the event is allowed-if the school allows other events to be advertised.

Collins advises students to be respectful, of course. So what happens if a conversation is met with resistance?

COLLINS: Maybe it’s in the form of a tough theological question or it’s just picking fun at your faith. I encourage you guys to respond with humility.

That means it’s ok, if you don’t know the answer to every question.

COLLINS: But the follow up is then hey, why don’t you come to youth group with me this week and we can ask my pastor together.

And this year, everyone is encouraged to bring back the Bible–not just students.

COLLINS: If you’re a parent. If you’re a young adult we encourage you guys to make it a Bring Your Bible Day. We get countless stories every year of students who are hesitant to bring their Bibles to school until mom or dad says hey I’m going to bring my Bible to work if you bring your Bible to school and then let’s talk about it over dinner.

Collins has one last bit of advice about a question he gets alot: what about Bibles on phones?

COLLINS: Whether it’s on your phone or your physical Bible, which is what I encourage everyone to bring, the biggest point here is to have it out.

Collins says when they launched the program in 2014, eight thousand students brought their Bibles to school. In 2025 that number jumped to one million. This year he’s expecting to reach the two million mark.

COLLINS: With the Bible being removed from schools, that source of Truth, that anchor sort of was removed from our places of learning and so the students are kind of left floating without this anchor and they’re looking for something to anchor to.

And the path to a sure and steadfast anchor may just get taken out of a backpack this week.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Myrna Brown.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Only a cat could turn moving day into a five-day search and rescue.

A New York family was packing up to move when all the commotion in the house sent the cat, Lola, scrambling under a floorboard.

And there she stayed, until disappearing completely.

Five days later, she turned up inside a wall on the floor below, stuck upside down.

Enter John DeBacker, also known as “Catman.” He’s a longtime cat rescuer who located Lola, cut into the wall, and freed her.

DEBACKER: It’s pretty miraculous that the cat survived for five days without food or water…

Nine lives, right? Hard to imagine a dog doing this.

First hint his people are leaving, and he’s Velcroed tot somebody.

Cats apparently reserve the right to renegotiate the relationship.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Today is Tuesday, September 29th.

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

Good morning. I’m Lindsay Mast.

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

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Room to grow.

In the U.S., about 6-and-a-half-million people have an intellectual disability. For their families, adulthood brings decisions about work, housing, and independence. For some, living on their own may not be possible

MAST: For others, it can be—with the right support.

WORLD’s Lauren Dunn has the story.

LAUREN DUNN: This morning, grad student Hudson Cryer is coaching his roommate on how to get laundry detergent out of the carpet.

CRYER: Hopefully, we can wash out the detergent. You [don’t] have to squeeze too much because you're still kind of getting the brush… There you go. There you go.

Cryer has lived in this duplex for more than three years. He works as a mentor, guiding young men with intellectual disabilities through the first step in a program built to help people get used to independent living.

CRYER: I've gotten to be the person that's been around all the new guys that join our program, and I'm really thankful for that.

Cryer took on the job with the Shepherd’s Way program at 19, as a college freshman.

But when he started, Cryer had no experience working with people with disabilities. And no plans to.

CRYER: I was gonna do corporate sales for a sports organization. Yeah, that was my, my dream job at the time.

A friend invited Cryer to try it out, and that’s when Cryer saw an opportunity to put his energies toward something outside of himself.

CRYER: My yes was something that could be giving back to somebody besides going to college, thinking about what I'm going to do, what I want to pursue, how much money I'm hoping to make, what friends I want to make, you know, what kind of experience I want to have.

The Shepherd’s Way enrollment process starts with career development guidance for the person with intellectual disabilities. Once the individual has a job, he or she can move into the first guys’ house or girls’ house in the three-step program.

That’s where mentors come in. In the first tier, two mentors, usually college or graduate students, live with two friends with special needs. Next, one mentor lives with two participants. After that, three or four participants live in a program house in the same neighborhood as the others but without any live-in mentors.

The program’s founder, Ben French, says the program wants to develop the mentors just as much as the young adults with disabilities.

FRENCH: I always describe it in short this way: the mentorship experience is tax-free housing and utilities, a stipend to live on, and the growth opportunity of a lifetime.

French says some mentors are surprised by how much they grow through their time as roommates, and they often find their own replacements when they leave for their next career move.

FRENCH: Oftentimes, what I hear is, this is an experience that I grew more than I ever thought I would in, but I had no idea what I was getting into until I really got into it.

Mentors take on a wide variety of tasks. They’ll talk through schedules with their roommates. Take them grocery shopping. And offer reminders while cooking or cleaning.

And cleaning requires a lot. Shepherd’s Way prints out photos illustrating what the clean surfaces should look like. Cryer offers help by prodding roommates to keep the place looking like those photos. And everyone in the house takes turns sweeping, dusting, vacuuming, and tidying.

The living room in this house is spotless.

CRYER: My mom's never been like, man, but she's come over a couple—Yeah, you guys do a great job for a bunch of bachelors and guys living [in] this house. So I guess that's, I guess that's most all the approval I need when it comes to keeping the house clean.

Cryer started college—and this program—with an achievement mindset. But he’s learned that his heart attitude matters more.

CRYER: Jesus never turned his eyes from the unnormal or the special, and he cared, and it meant a lot, and he valued them, and they were a big part of his ministry, and were a big part of the miracles that he performed.

He says his roommates have also taught him a lot. He’s learned from something as simple as how they do their jobs.

CRYER: Their checkout line is twice as long as any other line because people want to see our friends and get to have their day brightened by a smile and also their name remembered or whatever that may be. … They just live a great life. Like they live it to the full. They don't go halfway.

In January, Cryer will move out of this house and close the chapter on his mentoring days. He’ll be wrapping up his master’s degree in business administration and starting a full-time staff role at Shepherd’s Way. Then, he’ll start recruiting and preparing new mentors to learn from this experience just as he has.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Lauren Dunn in Wichita, Kansas.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

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

World leaders gathered at the United Nations last week for the annual General Assembly. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used his turn to defend Israel’s conduct in war—and challenge its critics. Here’s WORLD commentator Cal Thomas.

CAL THOMAS: There’s an old saying: “There are none so blind as those who will not see.”

At the United Nations last week, dozens of delegates demonstrated the point.

UN OFFICIAL: Order in the hall, please. Order in the hall, please. I request an order in the hall, please…

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: Mr. President. Before I begin, just a quick announcement. If there are any other moral cowards who haven’t yet left this hall, please do so now. Thank you very much.

They walked out rather than listen to Israel’s prime minister.

Netanyahu proceeded anyway.

He began with Iran—and his decision, with American help, to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities.

NETANYAHU: Devastating Iran’s nuclear facilities was hard. It was very hard to do. But for me, it was one of the easiest decisions I’ve ever had to make as prime minister. Because if we hadn’t done it, we’d all be dead.

President Masoud Pezeshkian insists Iran wasn’t building a nuclear weapon and never intended to.

Netanyahu doesn’t believe him. And he had something to say about the countries whose representatives had just walked out.

NETANYAHU: In defending itself, Israel is also defending many of the countries whose delegates just left this hall. In fact, I want you to know that many of their leaders even thank us privately for taking out Iran’s nukes.

Netanyahu called that “mind-blowing hypocrisy.”

Hypocrisy appears to be the main diet for many at the UN.

Then Netanyahu went back to 1967.

Israel had not yet taken control of the West Bank, Gaza, or the Golan Heights. And yet three Arab armies were preparing for war.

NETANYAHU: Just the very survival of this one and only Jewish state, because this is what this conflict is about. It’s not about territories. It’s about the existence of a Jewish state at any boundaries.

That history matters.

Israel’s enemies have changed names over the decades. The PLO. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Hezbollah. Hamas.

Different organizations, different times. But Israel has repeatedly faced enemies committed to destroying the Jewish state.

And now Netanyahu says there’s another front.

NETANYAHU: For three years, our brave soldiers have been valiantly fighting a seven-front war. But there is an eighth front to this war. It’s the war for truth.

The war for truth.

That’s not fought with missiles. It’s fought with facts.

Netanyahu spent much of his speech answering charges against Israel and challenging the people making them. There was plenty there for his critics to dispute.

But the delegates who walked out didn’t dispute him.

They didn’t even listen.

Which brings me back to where I started: “There are none so blind as those who will not see.”

You can’t make people understand the truth if they choose to ignore it.

For WORLD, I’m Cal Thomas.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Tomorrow: it’s Washington Wednesday with Hunter Baker. And, one woman learns to read as national literacy rates keep falling. That and more tomorrow.

I’m Lindsay Mast.

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

This is Episode 3497 of The World and Everything in It from WORLD Radio—celebrating 15 years.

WORLD’s mission is biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires.

The Bible says … “And one called to another and said: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!’

And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!’

Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: ‘Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.’ And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ Then I said, ‘Here I am! Send me.’” —Isaiah 6:3-8

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.