← The World and Everything In It
The World and Everything In It
12.31.25 Fragmentation on the right, global news of 2025, and Charlie Kirk’s courageous faith
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We are in the final day of World's December Giving Drive. So before anyone hears Auld Lang Syne, we just wanted to say thanks very much to all who have given so generously to support our work. We are deeply grateful for that. If you've not yet given just a friendly reminder, we're down to the last few hours of our December Giving Drive.
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Yeah. And listener support is essential to our continuing to deliver thoughtful, serious journalism from a Christian perspective. We are looking Forward to strong 2026. Thanks to your generosity.
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WNG.org donate.
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Good morning. Will waste and fraud be the issue to run on in 2026?
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They're all fraught with violations. And even though they have these violations, they're still getting money and it's millions of dollars.
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That's ahead on Washington Wednesday. Hunter Baker standing by. Also today, world tour life and Legacy of Charlie Kirk.
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And without strongmen, then you all of a sudden see civilization unfold upon itself. And we're seeing that happen in real time.
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And world commentator Daniel Darling with a challenge for the new year.
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It's Wednesday, December 31st. This is the world and everything in it from listener supported World Radio. I'm Lindsay Mast.
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And I'm Nick Icker. Good morning.
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Up next, Mark Mellinger with today's news.
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The federal crackdown on potential fraud in Minnesota is ramping up. Federal investigators are looking into whether day care centers in that state defrauded U.S. taxpayers to the tune of millions of and perhaps over $100 million. And the Trump administration announced Tuesday it is freezing child care funds to Minnesota. Republican Minnesota state Rep. Kristen Robbins says Democratic governor Tim Walls and his administration I GOP warnings of potential fraud.
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We warned him about these daycare fraud allegations last year. We did a full hearing on it in February and they have done nothing since then. We gave them the list similar to the list that we've seen go viral.
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Robbins, who's running for the GOP nomination to oppose Walls in the next gubernatorial election. On Fox News Channel's the Story with Martha MacCallum, Walz says a group of fraudsters has taken advantage of the state's generosity, but also accused President Trump of politicizing. Wall's spokesman says the governor has worked for years to combat fraud, including asking lawmakers for authority to take more aggressive action. Immigration officials will follow a judge's order and not detain Kilmar Abrego Garcia as he awaits a trial. That's according to papers filed in court Tuesday. Abrego Garcia is the illegal immigrant from El Salvador mistakenly deported from the US to his home country earlier this year, then charged with human smuggling in Tennessee. After he was returned, a newly unsealed document reveals the Justice Department pushed for his indictment only after the mistaken deportation. Abrego Garcia wants the charges dismissed, claiming his prosecution is vindictive. Maryland Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen agrees. The Justice Department decided to bring these.
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Charges against him because he asserted his.
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Due process rights when they illegally shipped him off to Seekot in El Salvador. Cecot, by the way, is an acronym for a maximum security prison in El Salvador. The acting U.S. attorney who brought the case is pushing back on the claim it's vindictive, insisting he alone made the decision to prosecute and he has no animus against Abrego Garcia. President Trump is threatening to sue Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. Trump is accusing Powell of gross incompetence in his oversight of the costly renovation of the Fed's headquarters. The $2.5 billion cost of the renovation is $600 million over the initial project estimate, and Trump thinks it could get even higher.
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These aren't outstanding buildings.
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These are small buildings, he said.
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Four billion more. It's going to end up costing more than $4 billion. Four billion.
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It's not clear where the president got the $4 billion figure. Trump also reiterated he'd like to fire Powell, though he lacks that authority. In East Asia, tensions are again rising between China and Taiwan. World's Travis Kercher reports.
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Yesterday was day two of large scale Chinese military drills around Taiwan. Those drills included live rounds that Taiwanese officials say landed closer to the island than on previous occasions. China says the drills are part of what it calls Justice Mission 2025. That's a program analysts say is designed to showcase China's military strength to deter any outside support for the is Communist China claims Taiwan is part of its own sovereign territory. Taiwan, on the other hand, operates as a liberal democracy and claims to be a sovereign state, though it has never formally declared independence. For World I'm Travis Kercher.
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Across the country, local, state and federal police are preparing to keep the nation safe for tonight's New Year's Eve celebrations. New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch says everything's looking good for the ball drop in the Big Apple.
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There are no known specific credible threats.
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To the New Year's Eve celebration in Times Square.
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As always, the men and women of.
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The NYPD will be out there keeping everyone safe.
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Tish says the NYPD will be conducting secondary screenings on anyone considered suspicious. Law enforcement agencies everywhere are especially on the lookout for signs of vehicle ramming attacks after a truck plowed into a crowd in New Orleans and killing 14 people last New Year's Day in upstate New York, people are buried under a foot of snow and it's not letting up. The combination of snow and winds exceeding 50 mph in some areas is making travel treacherous. James Robinson drives a plow truck in Syracuse and feels like he's getting nowhere fast.
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It's hectic, I tell you that sometimes.
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Soon as you shovel one part, it just snows right over it all again.
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By the time the winter blast ends Friday, another foot of lake effect snow could be on the ground. I'm Mark Mellinger straight ahead. Remembering Charlie Kirk plus Washington Wednesday and World Tour this is the World and Everything in It.
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It's Wednesday, December 31st. Glad to have you along for today's edition of the World and Everything in It. Good morning. I'm Lindsay Mast.
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And I'm Nick Icker. Washington Wednesday, coming in just a moment. But first, we have been remembering this week those who died in 2025, those whose lives shaped the world they lived in. Today, though, we begin with someone whose death arguably is shaping the future. Charlie Kirk was one of the most consequential political organizers of his generation. His assassination this fall did not just end a life, it altered the very landscape of conservative politics. Here is World's Mary Reichert with a remembrance.
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Charlie Kirk influenced an entire generation of young conservatives in his nearly 32 years of life. His major achievement was in founding Turning Point USA to identify, educate, train and organize students to promote the principles of faith, freedom, free markets and limited government.
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Wokeism or Marxism combining with Islamism to go after what we call the American way of life. Everybody, if you are Christian and Jesus Christ is your Lord and savior, these two threats are combining forces to come after us, and it's time that the church stands and rises up against it.
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Through his campus tours with Turning Point usa, Kirk demonstrated how to respectfully debate in public with facts and context using the Socratic method.
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Do you love America?
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Yes, I do.
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I hate America. I every state in the USA should be an independent country.
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What do you think of this? Well, I just first have to ask, since you hate the country, do you plan to go live in another country?
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No, I do not.
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Let me tell you something. America is the only country where even those who hate it refuse to leave. That's how you know you live in a great country.
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Charles James Kirk was born October 14, 1993 in Arlington Heights, Illinois to Robert and Katherine Kirk. His father an architect and his mother a Mental health counselor. They raised him and his younger sister in nearby Prospect Heights. For part of that time, he attended a private Christian school where he gave his life to Christ. As a fifth grader, he told the George Jenko podcast, I heard a hot.
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Gospel, and so I realized the stakes in fifth grade. I was like, oh, my goodness, I'm a sinner, I'm selfish, I'm broken, and only thanks to Jesus, perfect sacrifice, coming and living a perfect life, that I get something I do not earn, but has been given to me, this free gift of eternal life.
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That fifth grade teacher, Cindy Weber told World that Kirk's leadership qualities were evident from the start.
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He was very much a leader.
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He was very focused, and he was very bright and very respectful with raising.
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His hand and not talking on turns and things. And then every recess, he would organize a football game, and everybody was invited and included. As an adult, Kirk welcomed everyone on his campus debate tours, inviting opponents to come to the front of the line. One idea college students often brought up was that most wars are started because of religion.
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What religion did Mao Zedong believe in? The great murderer of China who killed 50 million people?
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I don't know.
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Yeah, he was an atheist. What religion did Joseph Stalin believe in, who killed over 30 million people of the Soviet Union?
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An atheist.
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He was an atheist. So that's 80 million people murdered in two countries in just the 20th century that did not believe in any religion.
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Kirk saw civil discourse as a way to clarify differences, not necessarily to achieve agreement.
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Okay, well, let's. Let's play this out. What is it then? It is an embryo, which is not a baby. Well, okay, so it's a fertilized embryo.
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Correct.
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Which is not a baby. So at what point does it become a baby when it is born?
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Oh, oftentimes the attacks got personal. This student accused him of being a fascist.
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You create a company that's, like, close to being a fascist, and then like, how am I. Sorry, let's go through this. How am I a fascist? No, dude like you. Can you name one thing I believe that's fascist? You believe that like you are. Don't, boy, Don't.
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Boo.
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Don't.
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Boom.
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Let him think.
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But I'm such a bad fascist. I let the people who disagree open mic to talk to me for two hours uninterrupted. Okay. I'm an awful fascist.
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Kirk traveled around the country debating people, and in May debated students from Oxford and Cambridge, developing an international audience. Kirk attended college for a short time, but dropped out to found turning point at age 19. Along with businessman and mentor, the late Bill Montgomery, he taught himself by studying history, theology and political thought to prepare for these campus encounters. Oftentimes, students immersed in woke ideology accused him of being a Christian nationalist.
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So I'm a Christian and a nationalist, so I've never used those two. And then right there. That and nationalist. Where in the scriptures does a Christian. Thank you. Jeremiah 29:7. Demand the welfare of the nation that you are in, because your welfare is tied to your nation's welfare. Let me continue. Daniel fasted and prayed for his nation. In fact, Moses was so political that he wrote an entire book of the Torah, all about how to set up a government. It's the book of Deuteronomy. We as Christians should change the environment that we come in contact with. That's what salt might do. So why should we then not care about changing government to be more Christ?
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Like in his earlier years, Kirk came across as more of a firebrand than later, as he matured and learned to listen and be kind in the face of hostility, critics accused Kirk of promoting controversial interpretations of history, such as his critique of the Civil Rights act of 1964. He said the law's shortcomings could be seen by analyzing its negative cultural outcomes on black families. And his support for Israel was unwavering. Although he saw the Israeli government as separate from its people and its biblical importance. In 2020, Kirk started his eponymous daily podcast, which reached millions. He authored several books, including his last one, published posthumously, titled Stop in the name of God, on the value of taking time every week to rest in honor of the Sabbath. One of Kirk's main pieces of advice, particularly for young Christian men, was on the blessing of marriage and children.
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Enough of this dating thing. Get married and have a bunch of kids, okay? Seriously.
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In 2021, Kirk married Eric, a faith based entrepreneur and real estate agent. They had two children together and wanted to have more. Podcast host Jack Selby asked Kirk how he wanted to be remembered just three months before an assassin took his life on September 10th at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.
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I want to be remembered for courage, for my faith. That would be the most important thing. Most important thing is my faith.
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Reporting for World Mary, I'm Mary Reichard.
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It's the last day of December, the last day of 2025, and it's Washington Wednesday. Joining us now is political scientist Hunter Baker. Hunter, good morning.
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Good morning, Hunter.
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Mary's story makes clear how much of the work of Charlie Kirk was about holding things together, especially among younger conservatives. And that brings us to where we'd like to start the idea that those things are not holding together so well now in any assessment of 2025. And I. I think we have to acknowledge the fragmenting of the conservative movement. So talk to us about what you're seeing here at the end of the year and what we might expect along those lines headed into 2026.
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Well, it's strange that you see a moment like we saw after the death of Charlie Kirk where you have just this gigantic sort of memorial service that was tremendously inspiring and unifying. And yet in the wake of that, you do see a lot of division among people who would call themselves conservatives or Republicans. So in the wake of his dying, we had kind of a collective moment, but now it's all sort of falling out. And he was really a movement but builder. He was somebody who understood that politics is about addition, not subtraction. But right now, we're going through maybe some subtraction now in terms of the way the overall landscape looks. When I think about Charlie Kirk, I think about young people. He apparently had the ability to move young people in terms not only of their activism, but in terms of their voting. And young people are asking that sort of question that comes up generation from generation. Will I be able to live as well as my parents have, or even to exceed them? And for a lot of young people right now, the answer to that is no. And you hear them often saying that earlier generations had a better setup than they do. So that's one issue. How do we address that challenge? How is AI going to affect young people? It will affect them more than it does people my age. And then the other question is, what is going to really drive the conservative movement? Is it going to be constitutionalism the way it was in the past, or is it going to be something like strong executive power?
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Well, Hunter, let's move from movements to governing. Again, talking about big stories of 2025. If there was a single issue, I think where Washington moved from argument to action, it probably is the immigration issue. Not that President Trump was silent in his first term by any means. It was central then, too. But between term one and term two, what we had was the Biden presidency and an unprecedented number of illegal crossings of the southern border. And so, you know, depending upon how you figure it, we have anywhere from 6 million to 10 plus million in the country that were not here when Trump left office the first time. So the rhetoric wasn't about a big, beautiful wall as it was in the first year of the first term. It was about Mass deportations in the first year of the second. So the border was sealed almost immediately. And the issue then became, what do we do about the many millions that have been added? And that has gotten pretty complicated because the promise was, again, mass deportations. How do you assess the administration's performance there, following through on that particular campaign promise?
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Well, first of all, sealing the border has been an impressive feat. This has been for a very long time, a porous border with people moving back and forth, and in more recent years, people just coming across and not going back and instead sort of staying here and sending back money. And so it's had a big impact on the labor force in the United States and probably what blue collar workers have been able to be paid because of that massive addition to the labor force, not to mention the general chaos that comes from having millions of people in the country who are not documented and are not necessarily paying taxes and present certain challenges to health care and law enforcement. So sealing the border, very impressive. Now is for the even harder part, which is how do you deal with the millions who are here? And you saw George W. Bush try to deal with this with the idea of a general amnesty, and that did not sell in the United States. And so we have this situation where people don't seem to want an amnesty, but they also don't necessarily have the stomach for this kind of mass deportation. So the president has got a big challenge there.
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You know, Hunter, leading up to the inauguration a year ago, there seemed to be a real appetite for the work that would be given to doge, the Department of Government Efficiency. But within months, both of its leaders, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, stepped away. And it's not clear just how much more efficient the government is or will become as a result of its work. And yet we end the year with reports of massive waste and fraud coming out of Minnesota. Here's a bit of a documentary by the young online personality Nick Shirley about what he uncovered there.
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These Somalians, these groups are setting up.
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These daycares, these child care centers, getting money from the government, but there's no kids.
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No kids.
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Never had any of them.
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They're all fraught with violations.
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And even though they have these violations.
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They'Re still in operation and they're still getting money. And it's millions of dollars for every.
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One of them every year.
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So, Hunter, it appears fraud and waste continue into 2026. So what's to be done, and who do you see addressing it going forward?
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Well, speaking as somebody who has been concerned about the massive public debt. For a long time, I was very excited about Doge because I very much did hope that they could identify a lot of fraud and waste. I think that that eff out of steam because we cannot simply cut the budget from the executive end. Congress allocates the money, and then the executive is supposed to preside over the spending of that money and the implementation of the policies. So Doge kind of hit a dead end. But what has happened in Minnesota shows that the government needs to address the question of how money is allocated and spent. We love. We love to give out tons of grant money and lots of political support comes with that. But what we've seen in Minnesota, and I guarantee you this is all over the country, especially in the wake of COVID and sort of the gusher of spending, there is just gigantic fraud. And I hope that this is gonna draw enough attention to kind of get people focused in more than a way that a dog follows a squirrel on having some sort of permanent answer to this waste of resources. We are much too far in debt not to figure out how to deal with this. And this presents a ready platform to somebody who wants to run on it. The Republicans are looking at a tough midterm. Maybe they'll pick up dealing with waste, fraud and abuse as one of their main issues.
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Well, Hunter, I'd like to finish out our time today, more or less where we began, remembering those that we lost this year. We don't have time to talk about the full impact of all the leaders who died in 2025, but I would like to get a brief take from you on what impact they left on the political landscape of the country. And I guess next to Charlie Kirk, one of the most consequential losses this year was Vice President Dick Cheney.
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Some people who are old enough may remember that when Ronald Reagan was running for president in 1980, that there was a push for him to have Gerald Ford as his running mate and that they would have kind of a co presidency. Well, it turns out that Gerald Ford's chief of staff did have a kind of a co presidency with George W. Bush. Bush was the successful governor of Texas, and then he brought on the old hand at foreign policy and defense with Dick Cheney, and together they ran the country. Now, we all know that there was a lot of interest and momentum as they tried to take the American experiment to the Middle east as an answer to 9, 11. But to date, we would have to say that it didn't really pan out. And that's the way Dick Cheney ended His life as somebody who was seen as the author of an ambitious policy in the Middle east that did not really succeed. Along with him, we might look at figures such as Richard Armitage, who started in Vietnam, really formed his identity there, ultimately became an important aide to Robert Dole and reached the position of the number two man at the State Department. And for those of you who are sort of news oriented, he was the one who revealed the identity of Valerie Plame that resulted in that huge controversy during the Bush administration and maybe a couple of other figures from that time. William Webster, he passed away this year as well. He was a federal judge. He headed up the FBI and then headed up the CIA. He is the only person to have run both had an incredible reputation for integrity in office. And finally, on that front, David Gergen, who was sort of the kind of guy that we might think of as a spin doctor, who did that job for a lot of different politicians, Republican and Democrat.
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He passed this year from Reagan to Clinton. Yeah.
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Yes, that's right, Hunter.
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What about on the House and Senate side? A few former senators and Congressmen died in 2025 as well.
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Yes, some significant names there, too. On the Democrat side, there's Charles Rangel, who actually replaced the legendary Harlem congressman, Adam Clayton Powell, who once reigned in the House. Major, major figure who was really sort of supplanted by Martin Luther King Jr. But Rangel was the first African American to reach the position of chair of the House Ways and Means Committee. Was there for a very long time in Congress, not as chair of that committee, went down with an ethics violation, but had a long and storied career. Alan Simpson from wyoming in the U.S. senate. Simpson may be remembered for his book about his battles with the media. Right in the old Gazoo. He was a tall, rangy guy with a lot of personality, socially moderate, but he liked conservative Supreme Court nominees. Christopher Kit Bond, who served in the Senate also as governor of Missouri, probably one of the most successful politicians that state ever saw. I think that he was elected statewide something like seven times. Part of that Reagan class of senators. Lincoln Diaz Ballart, Cuban American congressman who was very well known for fighting the battle against the Castro regime in Cuba. And finally, Mike Castle, who was both governor and a House member from Delaware, one of those typical Northeastern Republicans who had a lot of fiscal discipline but was socially moderate.
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Well, Hunter, again, sort of ending where we started, you know, with political architects. You say Charlie Kirk had Turning Point usa, and he was a builder. Well, you know, so was Ed Fullner. He was one of the founding trustees and longtime president of the Heritage Foundation. I think we would be remiss if we didn't mention Fullness dying this past year. And what a year for Heritage.
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It certainly has been kind of a big year of controversy for Heritage with the sort of happenings between Kevin Roberts and Tucker Carlson and resignations of people like Robert George from the board and actually whole parts of Heritage breaking off to join with Mike Pence's advancing American freedom. Fullner is just a huge deal he really represents. His founding of the Heritage foundation along with Paul Weyrich really represented maturation of the conservative movement to start up really a serious policy shop that starting with the Reagan administration, had a huge impact on policy and really has ever since.
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Hunter Baker is provost at North Greenville University. Thank you so much, Hunter, and happy New Year.
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Thank you.
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Additional support comes from Commuter Bible, the.
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Workweek Audio Bible available on podcast apps.
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And commuterbible.org new yearly plans begin January 5th.
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Well, in the spirit of December 31st content, a late entry for 2025 words of the year, Cambridge has chosen Parasocial. That's the one sided social bonds that people might form with fictional figures, possibly even AI Creations. Then Merriam Webster with its entry a close cousin to Parasocial. I'm sure you've heard it.
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Slop, slop, slop, slop, slop like oink, oink.
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What Piggies ingesting slop, AI slop in particular, terrible fake content found mostly on social media. So put that together with Parasocial along with an earlier entry we told you about several days ago, Rage bait. Well, that points to something like the same problem. Users digging through all that slop trying to find something real. It's the world and everything in it. Today is Wednesday, December 31st. First, thank you for turning to World Radio to help start your day. Good morning, I'm Nick Iker.
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And I'm Lindsay Mast. Coming next on the World and Everything In It World tour, here's our reporter. In Africa, Ondua.
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The past year is characterized by ongoing conflicts and persecution. In Sudan, fighting between two warring generals has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced more than 14 million people. The conflict has drawn allegations of genocide and fueled famine in some cities. This month, the United States sanctioned four people and four companies, all linked to Colombia, for recruiting people to join the war. I spoke with Joseph Siegel, a senior research associate at the University of Maryland.
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This is not a civil war in the classic sense of different ethnic groups, communities, regions of a country fighting one another. This is about a political conflict between these two military leaders who want to control the state and it's spiraled further out of control.
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Over in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a Rwanda backed rebel group seized major cities in the country this year. Another rebel group, the Allied Democratic Forces, also continued its attacks. The group beheaded 70 Christians in an abandoned church in February. And in Syria, sectarian clashes flared this year after the fall of dictator Bashar Assad. Last December, Syria's interim president Ahmad Al Sharah led the largest rebel group to overthrow the Assad regime. He previously fought alongside Al Qaeda and was designated a terrorist by the United States. Since he assumed pa, his forces have targeted minority groups. More half Ibrahim belongs to the Alawite sect.
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I think he's very good at nice words and nice gestures, but actions on the ground actually giving everybody different impression.
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About what's going on.
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Finally in Israel, bittersweet celebrations after the return of all the 20 remaining living hostages. World Travis Kircher spoke with people at Hostages Square, including Israeli Ori Nakmani.
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I really hope that we're not only going to get the hostages back.
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I really hope the end is really.
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Over and the suffering from our side and the other side can stop and we can rehabilitate.
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Of the 251 hostages that Hamas took during its 2023 attack, 168 eventually returned home. Meanwhile, insurgency in Nigeria received renewed global attention this year. Violent attacks hit several communities, including the town of Yelwatta in north central Benue state, where more than 200 people were killed in June. Other attacks included school abductions and church attacks. The violence prompted US President Donald Trump to declare Nigeria a country of particular concern. He threatened possible military intervention. And the United States also imposed visa restrictions on perpetrators of the violence. Alhairy Magaji is a Nigerian Christian who welcomed the designation. Even if it's just one life gone.
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Like I always say, it means a.
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Lot not to talk of whole villages.
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Being wiped out, people not being able.
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To go back to their villages. Persecution of Christians continued in China as well. Authorities there cracked down on the prominent Zion Church in a series of coordinated raids in October. Police detained at least 27 people across multiple locations, including Tin Min Ju, the head pastor. They faced charges of illegal use of information networks. Authorities have released several of the detainees, but Pastor Tin remains in prison. I spoke with his daughter Grace.
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As Christians, when we see that other brothers and sisters in the world are praying for us and are speaking out.
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For us, it really means so much.
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Like that we are not forgotten and that we are still all bodies of Christ together.
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And finally, some uplifting global stories to remember this year. In January, Patrick Henry College journalism student Clay Ramirez spoke with members of a South Sudanese Christian military chaplaincy. Wes Bentley is the director of Far Reaching Ministries, the organization that runs the chaplaincy training program.
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You know, we're not there to be soldiers. I went there to be a pastor. But the rebels started coming down and killing all the women and children.
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So when that happened, I realized that.
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We needed to train these men to be able to defend those that cannot defend themselves and protect those that cannot protect themselves.
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And in Germany, Gracenell visited a Syriac Orthodox Church community working to safeguard the language of the early church. Linda Gouven is Germany's first state approved high school teacher of Syriac Orthodox theology.
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The most important thing in teaching is to make the students understand why if.
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They don't understand the meaning behind the.
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Thing or the intention of, then it's.
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Always difficult to live it, to feel it.
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And finally, we wrap up in the United Kingdom, where the Supreme Court in April ruled that the word sex in its Equality act refers to biological sex. The Equality act of 2010 seeks to protect people from discrimination. It outlines rights to separate spaces for women in vulnerable places like changing rooms, prisons and sports. From the courtroom.
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As a matter of ordinary language, the provisions relating to sex discrimination and especially those relating to pregnancy and maternity and to protection from risks specifically affecting women, can only be interpreted as reformation, referring to biological sex.
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That's it for this week's world tour. Reporting for world I'm Onize Odua in Abuja, Nigeria.
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Well, as the year draws to a close, World Opinions contributor Daniel Darling says The headlines of 2025 are an invitation to contemplate the words of the psalmist. Teach us to number our days so that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.
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A review of 2025 is an occasion to lament. Our headlines this year were filled with tragedy. A fatal midair collision over the Potomac in Washington, D.C. took the lives of 64 airline passengers and three crew. Floods in Texas cost the lives of 27 people, including many young campers. A shooting at a Catholic school in Minnesota where children were the intended targets. The year also saw a rise of political violence. Minnesota State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband were shot dead in their home. Two staff members of the Israeli Embassy were struck and killed outside an event at the Capitol Jewish museum in Washington, D.C. and as we've already been reminded today, the assassination of Christian political activist Charlie Kirk. While engaging the questions of college students, all of these events and many others remind us of the fallenness of our world. Even in a country like America, that might be the safest and freest nation in human history. With each headline we pray, we weep, we seek solutions, but ultimately we plea come, Lord Jesus. While we rightly focus on our nation and our communities, we should not forget the body of Christ, who is under threat of harassment or even death merely for naming the name of Jesus. Hebrews 13 urges us to remember those in prison as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you are also in the body. Persecution of our brothers and sisters overseas is one of those ongoing stories that is easy for Christians in the west to overlook. According to the World Watch List published by Open Doors International, 380 million Christians globally faced high levels of persecution and discrimination for their faith. That's one out of every seven believers. Nearly 5,000 believers were killed for the crime of being Christian, including 3,100 in Nigeria, where Islamic militants routinely attack churches and kill and kidnap believers. President Trump named Nigeria as a country of particular concern and, working with the Nigerian government, authorized airstrikes against the militant strongholds. According to open doors, nearly 200,000 Christians have been displaced around the world, and nearly 55,000 have been beaten and physically attacked. Many of these incidents are happening in Pakistan, India and Myanmar. Meanwhile, in China, the communist government has executed its most aggressive crackdown on house churches in many years, arresting leaders, shuttering churches and fostering a climate of fear and intimidation for its estimated 100 million believers. We know that attempts to stop the spread of the gospel will ultimately fail, for Jesus promised in Matthew 16:18 that the gates of hell will not prevail over his church. The Apostle Paul writes in Romans 8 that God's people are more than conquerors. And According to Revelation 6, 9, 11, we know the Father hears the cries of his martyrs. Still, for those who suffer further faith, the pain, the loss, the trauma is real, and it's incumbent on us to not forget them. So perhaps this can be a goal for all of us. In 2026, let's advocate for the US government to use its power through the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, through the bully pulpit of the White House, to pressure nations to allow religious freedom. Let's urge the Senate to confirm former Baptist pastor Mark Walker to his position as US Ambassador at large for religious freedom. But even more importantly, let us make it a habit to pray for our brothers and sisters in peril. Around the world, the persecution of Christians may not often make it to the top of the headlines. But in 2026. It can stay at the top of our prayer lists even as we long and pray for the day when Christ returns in power and wipes every tear from our eyes. I'm Daniel Darling.
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Tomorrow we'll have a report on the record number of legislators not seeking re election in 2026 and what comes next after the US military strike in Nigeria. That and more tomorrow. I'm Lindsay Mast.
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And I'm Nick Icker. 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, let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Verse 6 of Psalm 150. Go now in grace and peace.