WORLD Radio Rewind

PAUL BUTLER: This is WORLD Radio Rewind: a 10-minute review of our news coverage and features from the past week on WORLD Radio. I’m Paul Butler.

Up first, the crisis in Haiti. Soon after the assassination of their President, the Haitian government asked the White House to send U.S. troops to establish order and maintain peace. Biden responded Thursday that he’d protect the embassy, but not much more.

Unfortunately, turmoil isn’t unusual in Haiti. It’s the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. On Tuesday’s The World and Everything in It, host Mary Reichard spoke with Dr. David Vanderpool, a trauma surgeon and medical missionary in Haiti.

REICHARD: Give us a sense of what life is really like for the people of Haiti, current crisis aside. What specific challenges do the Haitian people deal with each day?

VANDERPOOL: Well, you know, Haiti on a good day is really tough. You know, there's very little electricity in Haiti, almost no running water, and no sewage control. So, you're looking at a country that doesn't have any of the niceties that we enjoy here in the United States. And so people are extremely poor. We're talking about 80 percent of the people live on less than $2 a day, which is just an incredible crushing poverty that they live in day to day. And it's amazing considering how close Haiti is to our own border.

REICHARD: How might Christians specifically pray for the people of Haiti?

VANDERPOOL: I ask people to pray that the peace of God will permeate Haiti, that the peace that really is not understandable through human terms will permeate Haiti, and that the love of Jesus and faith in Jesus, the entire country will turn toward Jesus for their salvation. Not toward the United States, not toward the United Nations, but to Jesus. That's their only way. It's anybody's only way of salvation. But Haiti in particular, really needs that right now.

PB: Also during Tuesday’s program, WORLD intern Caleb Bailey filed this story about gender ideology in prison.

Almost a year ago, state lawmakers in California approved Senate Bill 132. The measure allows inmates to request transfers to women’s prisons or men’s prisons based on their perceived or desired gender identity. Opponents of the policy worry about the danger of placing men with women behind bars.

CALEB BAILEY, INTERN: In April, the Los Angeles Times reported that 261 inmates had requested a transfer since the bill took effect in January. All but six requests came from men wanting to move to a women’s facility.

LAUREN ADAMS: So these are men have, you know, all their original body parts and aren't taking hormones, or at least they don't have to be.

Lauren Adams is the legal director of the Women’s Liberation Front, also known as WoLF.

ADAMS: Most of the men who have transferred so far, are serving time for really serious crimes. And there's already been incidents, and the women feel really abandoned, and they're not safe.

The California bill builds on previous federal legislation. In 2003, Congress adopted the Prison Rape Elimination Act to deter sexual assault behind bars. It sets guidelines that prisons use to prevent attacks. The sponsors of California’s bill see it as a step in the right direction to protect a vulnerable population. But Lauren Adams says putting other prisoners at risk isn't the right answer either.

ADAMS: They want to solve it by taking a small subsection of those vulnerable men and moving them into the women's facilities. And it's dangerous, and it's lazy. They're leaving behind some of the other vulnerable people.

Currently, Four states house inmates based on gender identity: California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. New York City also prioritizes identity over biology. But if the federal Equality Act passes, every women’s prison in the country will be open to men.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Caleb Bailey.

PB: Our next story is from Thursday’s program. Currently, fifty-seven million people are living under drier-than-usual conditions in the western United States. No immediate relief appears to be in sight.

WORLD’S Sarah Schweinsberg brought this report.

SARAH SCHWEINSBERG, REPORTER: California farmers are used to drought. The state’s precipitation has always been up and down… very wet years followed by very dry ones.

But for the past two decades, the dry years have gotten more and more common. Still, Ryan Talley has soldiered on. He grows fruit and veggies on 1,500 acres.

TALLEY: Here at Talley Farms we grow lemons, avocados, bell peppers, Napa spinach, cilantro…We grow celery, we grow broccoli, and parsley.

But last fall and this winter, the region got one-third of its usual rainfall.

TALLEY: And, and a lot of our ranches have reached the bottom of our wells.

More than half of Arizona, Utah, and Nevada are in an exceptional drought… the most severe rating… along with a third of California.

Across the West, that has farmers and ranchers hurting, and city water planners tightening their belts.

Zach Renstrom manages water for Washington County in southwest Utah… home of Zion National Park.

RENSTROM: We only have actually one source of water in our county, and it comes from the Virgin River Basin.

The county collects water from the river into several reservoirs. Renstrom says that water is used for drinking, irrigating fields, and watering lawns.

Andrea Lopez works with the Ute Water Conservancy District in Western Colorado around Grand Junction. It provides water for 90,000 people.

LOPEZ: Our primary watersheds are the Grand Mesa, specifically the plateau Creek watershed.

Typically, the Grand Mesa’s snowpack fills reservoirs to meet the region’s needs. But this year, for the first time ever, Ute Water officials began pumping water from the Colorado River to keep reservoirs full.

Lopez says once reservoirs get too low, it’s hard to fill them up again.

LOPEZ: If you think of your reservoirs, like your savings account, you know, it's a lot harder to recover anything when it takes a big hit all at once.

And while conditions are dire, some scientists say water conservation has come a long way and will continue to improve. Back in California, farmer Ryan Talley says droughts present many unknowns. But he knows, it’s out of his hands and in someone else's.

TALLEY: I definitely pray for rain. I give it to the Lord… Our faith is what gets us through in times like that. And he, I'm confident he will always provide a way.

PB: Finally today, a possible revolution against the communist regime in Cuba. Demonstrators are lashing out over food and medicine shortages, as the government cracks down. The protests are the largest—and loudest—in 60 years. Many people wonder if this is the start of a new Cuban revolution.

On Thursday, host Mary Recihard spoke with Mike Gonzalez to find out. He and his family fled Cuba when he was a boy. He is now a senior fellow with the Heritage Foundation.

REICHARD: Mike, help us walk in the shoes of the Cuban people here right now. What has life been like for them in recent months with the pressures of pandemic on top of all the normal hardships they have?

GONZALEZ: Well, we haven't had any freedom for the last 62 years. Zero. President Biden was wrong to call it an authoritarian state. It's totalitarian, and there's a big difference. Totalitarian systems tried to control every aspect of your life. It tries to control how you think. They try to control your faith. You're not supposed to have any. It's a society gripped with fear. And the fear is well grounded.

REICHARD: Mike, where do you see this going and what do you wish Americans understood about it?

GONZALEZ: I am not optimistic. I think that the repression will just tighten. People will suffer as a result of their courage. But ultimately, what should Americans do? Two things. One is voice support for the people of Cuba. Obviously, that is very important. But ultimately, what Americans can do is remain free. We must remain free ourselves. We cannot help anybody. We're not going to be the symbol of anything if we don't ourselves remain free. There are committed Marxists inside our society that want to change our system, who despise capitalism. They cannot be allowed to gain power. America must continue to be the beacon of freedom. We have an exceptional attachment to liberty that has been remarked upon by foreign visitors and by social scientists. We should be very aware of that. And so I'm really heartened. I am much more optimistic that the battle against Marxism can be won here in the United States.

PB: That’s it for this week’s WORLD Radio Rewind. If you’d like to hear the complete stories we featured today, visit our website: wng.org.

Stories we’re working on for next week: troubling sex education standards, challenging big tech, and what life is like for the church in Cuba.

Check in each day for the latest news, features, and commentary from WORLD Newsgroup. Again that address is wng.org. For WORLD Radio, I’m Paul Butler.

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