WORLD Radio Rewind

LEIGH JONES: This is WORLD Radio Rewind: a 10-minute review of some of our news coverage and features from the past week on WORLD Radio. I’m managing editor Leigh Jones.

First up, electric vehicles. By 2030, President Biden wants half of all new cars sold in the United States to charge up, instead of gas up. On Tuesday’s program, Sarah Schweinsberg reported on the challenges carmakers face trying to meet that ambitious goal.

SARAH SCHWEINSBERG, REPORTER: The biggest challenge involves what makes these cars go. Today, most EVs use lithium-ion batteries.

VISWANATHAN: I'm Venkat Viswanathan, professor of Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University… I've been working on lithium- ion batteries for a little over a decade now.

Viswanathan says car companies will have to choose between battery trade-offs. So for example, if a battery has a long range, its recharge time will probably be long. But if a battery charges quickly, that means it won’t be able to go as far.

VISWANATHAN: So, one of the main distinguishing factors for electric cars is going to be the battery, which will determine the sticker price, how long it will go, and, also, how safe it will be under operation.

And then car companies will also have to decide what metals and minerals go into their batteries. Brett Smith is with the Center for Automotive Research. He says companies will need lithium, nickel, cobalt, and copper. But…

SMITH: Right now there's a very, very limited supply of those key materials in the U.S.

China, on the other hand, has some of the largest lithium reserves in the world.

SMITH: And that is a supply chain problem. That's balance of trade problems. That is a lot of different worries as we move into this.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Sarah Schweinsberg.

LJ: Next, adjusting to a new life. In 2018, Jill Nelson met an Afghan immigrant who’d worked for the U.S. military as a translator and journalist. He and his family had just moved to California to start over, free from fear. On Wednesday’s program, Jill caught up with the family to talk about the end of the U.S. war in Afghanistan.

MAHZON: Salam Alaikum. (Alaikum. hello...). It's good to see you. (Good to see you again).

JILL NELSON, REPORTER: Abdali Mahzon hasn’t aged at all, and he seems happy. His whole face smiles as he opens the door, though he’s noticeably tired. That’s understandable as he works overnight as a security guard and takes college courses during the day.

He’s had only a few hours of sleep but still welcomes me into his home. Three large Afghan rugs cover the living room floor and embroidered curtains hang by the windows. His seven kids range in age from 7 to 17, and three of them greet me.

Their two-bedroom apartment is small for a family of nine but they make it work. Some of the kids sleep in the living room. Floor cushions line the wall and this is where we sit for lunch. The girls arrange a large plastic tablecloth on the floor and deliver plates of potatoes, beef, salad, and liver.

Life has become easier for this family, but Mahzon’s face darkens when I ask about the current state of Afghanistan.

MAHZON: Taliban in media, in the international media, say they have forgiveness for everybody. But it is not true.

They are worried about their friends and family back home. One of his relatives told him about a family in Mazar-e-Sharif. The wife worked for the Afghan government and the father was a police officer. He says the Taliban came in the middle of the night and killed all 13 family members, even the little children.

Mahzon says there’s no way to verify this incident, but it’s consistent with other reports in the region. Media coverage is scarce because the Taliban threatens journalists and activists.

MAHZON: Not any media covered that incident. And also the social media activists are right now not posting anything. If they post anything in the social media, the Taliban find them and kill them.

A new wave of Afghan refugees has arrived in El Cajon, and that reminds the Mahzon family of their own arrival four years ago. When housing is hard to find, they invite families to stay with them temporarily. The girls tell me their parents are generous and give their bedroom to new families.

The adjustment wasn’t easy, but 17-year-old Salma says they are grateful for their new lives in the United States.

SALMA: I like everything here, like we used to stay at home in Afghanistan. Here we can walk, just walk outside without any fear.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Jill Nelson.

LJ: Next up, pro-life challenges in Texas. On Thursday’s program, Bonnie Pritchett reported on how the state’s new abortion limit has affected crisis pregnancy centers.

BONNIE PRITCHETT, REPORTER: Texas’ new heartbeat law, for all intents and purposes, bans abortion in the state. This is the moment pro-life advocates prayed for. Fought for.

But were they prepared for it?

JAMIESON: You know, I would love to say that the pregnancy centers, you know, my colleagues, that we were all completely prepared for this. I think a little bit, we were like, you know, this is uncharted territory in a lot of ways…

That’s Leanne Jamieson, director of the Prestonwood Pregnancy Center. It serves women in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. She and her colleagues across the state have seen an influx of clients since the law went into effect. Jo Markham kept count. She’s director of the Agape Pregnancy Resource Center in Round Rock, north of Austin.

MARKHAM: I ran numbers last week. So, since the law went into effect on September 1, we've seen a 38 percent increase in clients over the same time in August. And of those, most of them are abortion minded or abortion vulnerable.…

Markham and Jamieson say the women are panicked. Mad. Scared. More than usual. Before the new law went into effect, Texas women had up until the 20th week of pregnancy to decide whether to have an abortion. Jamieson says her counselors used that time to offer godly advice.

JAMIESON: But often also it was a standing weekly appointment where they came in and they sat with someone, and they got good guidance, and they discussed their situation. That element is gone for us. And so you know, Praise Jesus, that we have the Holy Spirit and his wisdom, but we are learning to pivot. And so, you know, no longer is the discussion, okay, you know, you've got time, but it's about how do you make a healthy decision…

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Bonnie Pritchett in Houston.

LJ: And finally, we end today with religious persecution in Canada. Local governments have used pandemic restrictions to limit churches’ ability to meet for the last 18 months. On Thursday’s program, Canadian lawyer Marty Moore told Myrna Brown about the unprecedented attacks on the freedom to worship.

BROWN: I know the COVID restrictions are not the same in every province. Give us a brief rundown of what the pandemic rules look like across Canada.

MOORE: Well, throughout the pandemic, there were a variety of approaches taken by the government. In British Columbia, for example, religious gatherings were prohibited entirely. While you could go to a restaurant with five other friends, you could not attend a worship service at all in person. We challenged that restriction and now those restrictions have been lifted. In other parts of the province, attendance was down to five, for example, in Ontario. We challenged that. They brought it up to 10. In other places, restrictions are now being reimposed. So for example, in Alberta, where no restrictions were last week, impositions and restrictions came, and now attendance is limited back down to 30 with masking and social distance requirements reimposed. And so there's a broad range of restrictions that have been imposed. And the penalties for violating these restrictions have come from things such as jail time to hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.

BROWN: Okay, Marty Moore with the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms has been our guest. Marty, thank you!

MOORE: Thank you, Myrna.

LJ: That’s it for this edition of WORLD Radio Rewind. We’ve posted links to each of the stories we highlighted today in our transcript. You can find that on our website. 

Next week, we’ll dive into the submarine deal between the U.S, the U.K. and Australia that caused such a diplomatic furor. It’s hard to say who’s more annoyed … Europe or China. And we’ll find out how states are faring in the race to redraw congressional districts before next year’s midterms. For the latest news, features, and commentary from WORLD News Group, visit wng.org. For WORLD Radio, I’m Managing Editor Leigh Jones.

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