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The World and Everything In It
6.26.25 Proposed solution to the housing crisis, FDA reviews the abortion pill, and running a drive-in theater
00:34:11
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- [00:04]
Myrna Brown
Good morning, friends. It's Myrna with a gentle nudge as we open the program. World's June giving drive is down to the wire today, tomorrow, the weekend and Monday, and that's it. Now, if World's biblically grounded reporting matters to you, will you let us know by making your gift today? Come on, y' all. Any amount helps. It's quick and it's easy. Give at wng. And thanks for standing with world.
- [00:43]
Mary Reichert
Good morning. Utah looks to sell off public land to ease a growing housing crunch.
- [00:48]
Kent Covington
The western third of the country has the most severe housing unaffordability in the country.
- [00:54]
Myrna Brown
Also, a new study says the abortion drug mifepristone needs stronger warnings just as its use becomes more widespread. And one drug drive in theater is still lighting up the big screen under the stars.
- [01:08]
Cal Thomas
You want to get mustered all over your own car, that's your business. We'll sell you the hot dog to do it.
- [01:13]
Myrna Brown
And world commentator Cal Thomas says it's about time the west did something about Iran.
- [01:26]
Mary Reichert
It's Thursday, June 26th. This is the world and everything in it from listener supported World Radio. I'm Mary Reichert.
- [01:33]
Myrna Brown
And I'm Myrna Brown. Good morning.
- [01:38]
Mary Reichert
Now News. Here's Kent Covington.
- [01:40]
Kent Covington
U.S. officials plan to meet with representatives from Iran's government next week. That is the word from President Trump, but he says he's not interested in restarting negotiations because there's no longer anything to negotiate.
- [01:53]
Cal Thomas
The way I look at it, they fought, the war's done. And, you know, I could get a statement that they're not going to go nuclear. We're probably going to ask for that, but they're not going to be doing it. But they're not going to be doing it anyway. They've had it. They've had it.
- [02:08]
Kent Covington
Iran has already vowed to fully restore its nuclear program, but Trump told reporters that if it does so, the US Would be prepared to strike again. And the Trump administration is pushing back on a recent media report suggesting that the weekend U.S. airstrikes against key nuclear sites in Iran were not all that effective. That report cited leaked low confidence intelligence from one intel agency. Secretary of State and acting National Security Advisor Marco Rubio told reporters that whoever leaked it is also spinning it.
- [02:41]
Cal Thomas
They read it and then they go out and characterize it the way they want it characterized. And they're leakers. This is the game they play.
- [02:47]
Kent Covington
Rubio said Iran's uranium conversion facility, which would be needed to build a nuclear weapon, appears to have been completely destroyed. He also said that after B2 bombers targeted Iran's Fordo nuclear facility with so called bunker buster bombs. Everything underneath that mountain is in bad shape. And Rubio pointed to remarks by Rafael Grossi, the head of the UN's nuclear watchdog agency, who said this week, I.
- [03:11]
Cal Thomas
Think the nuclear program, the Iranian nuclear.
- [03:14]
Lauren Canterbury
Program has been set back significantly.
- [03:17]
Kent Covington
But Grossi would not speculate on how significantly. He's calling for independent inspectors to be given access to key nuclear sites in Iran to assess their condition. Marco Rubio spoke from the Netherlands, where he joined President Trump and other world leaders for the NATO summit at the Hague. And the alliance on Wednesday formally announced that it is raising its defense spending target. Member nations are now expected to spend at least 5% of their GDP on defense and security, more than double the old 2% goal. NATO Secretary General Mark Ruda and the decisions today will produce trillions more for our common defense to make us stronger.
- [03:57]
Cal Thomas
And fairer by equalizing spending between America and America's allies.
- [04:02]
Kent Covington
But Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez did not sign on to the 5% commitment. He said raising defense spending to that level would be unreasonable and counterproductive for Spain. President Trump reacted.
- [04:15]
Cal Thomas
They're the only country that won't pay the full up. They want to stay at 2%. I think it's terrible and you know, they're doing very well. The economy is very well.
- [04:23]
Kent Covington
Trump is threatening to double tariffs against Spain. In response, a former top aide to Jill Biden has abruptly canceled plans to testify today before the House Oversight Committee. World's Benjamin Eicher reports lawmakers were set.
- [04:38]
Lauren Canterbury
To question Anthony Bernal behind closed doors as part of a probe related to former President Joe Biden's mental fitness while in office. Bernal backed out after the Trump White House waived executive privilege for the probe. That means former aides can no longer refuse to answer questions by citing presidential confidentiality. Oversight Chairman James Comer called Bernal's decision to cancel obstruction and said he will subpoena him to testify. For World I'm Benjamin Eicher.
- [05:08]
Kent Covington
Republicans are questioning former Biden White House aides about whether anyone other than the president was carrying out presidential functions. Neera Tanden, former White House staff secretary, testified this week that she used the so called auto pen to sign documents on Biden's behalf. Congressman Darrell Issa, who serves on the oversight committee, said if then President Biden was not involved or fully aware of actions taken on his behalf, we might.
- [05:34]
Ryan Anderson
Undo some of what the president did.
- [05:36]
Kent Covington
Because they were invalid and then we have to look at either statute or.
- [05:40]
Ryan Anderson
Constitutional amendments that give safeguards to prevent this from happening again.
- [05:45]
Kent Covington
GOP members are also probing what they call a cover up of Biden's cognitive decline. But Democrats on the committee say the probe is a waste of time and pure political theater. In New York City, a self described Democratic socialist has won the Democratic nomination. In the mayoral race, State Assemblyman Zoran Mamdani won roughly 44% of the vote in a major upset victory over former Governor Andrew Cuomo.
- [06:11]
Cal Thomas
I spoke with Andrew Cuomo about the.
- [06:13]
Mary Reichert
Need to bring this city, about the.
- [06:16]
Ryan Anderson
Need to bring this city together as.
- [06:18]
Lauren Canterbury
He called me to concede the race.
- [06:21]
Kent Covington
He campaigned on freezing rent, providing free childcare and establishing city owned grocery stores. And controversially, Mamdani promised to boost the minimum wage to $30 per hour and raise the corporate tax rate. Critics say that is a recipe for killing jobs in the big apple. The 33 year old lawmaker will face off in November against incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, a former Democrat turned independent, as well as Republican Curtis Sliwa. I'm Kent Covington. And straight ahead, selling federal land for affordable housing projects plus a visit to a 75 year old drive in movie theater. This is the world and everything in it.
- [07:25]
Mary Reichert
It's Thursday, the 26th of June. Thank you for listening to today's edition of welcome back to World Radio. Good morning. I'm Mary Reichert.
- [07:32]
Myrna Brown
And I'm Myrna Brown. First up on the World and everything in it, creating affordable housing. The big beautiful bill once included a plan to sell off public lands to help lower housing costs, but this week the Senate dropped that part of the legislation. Supporters aren't giving up, though. They say they'll propose an amended bill because people need houses.
- [07:56]
Mary Reichert
The public land in question spans 11 Western states and locals are torn over whether the plan would solve the problem or make it worse. World's Mary Muncie reports.
- [08:08]
Mary Muncie
Laura and Dave Pearl live in Kaysville, Utah, and they spend a lot of time on public lands. I think every bike trip that we've.
- [08:16]
Cal Thomas
Done over the last couple years has.
- [08:19]
Mary Muncie
Been on public lands.
- [08:20]
Art
Almost every trail that we've ridden has.
- [08:21]
Cal Thomas
Been on public lands.
- [08:22]
Mary Muncie
They've lived in Utah for five years and are worried the sale of public lands near their home could change what they do outside. But they do see why Congress is considering it.
- [08:34]
Cal Thomas
I mean, we both work and we.
- [08:35]
Mary Muncie
Make pretty good money, but the home.
- [08:37]
Art
Prices here are just so expensive that.
- [08:39]
Cal Thomas
We'Re currently renting a house from some friends.
- [08:41]
Mary Muncie
But Dave and his wife Laura don't think selling public land is the best way to lower housing costs it might just be one tree, but that one.
- [08:50]
Lauren Canterbury
Tree is part of a forest.
- [08:51]
Mary Muncie
The Senate had proposed selling less than 1% of land owned by the United States Forest Service and the Bureau of land Management, or BLM. That's a little over 2 million acres. It was supposed to be part of the current spending package, but the Senate Parliament ruled that the provision did not relate to the purpose of the bill. That doesn't technically mean it's dead, but. But few Congresses have defied a ruling from the Parliament. Instead, the sponsor of the bill, Utah Senator Mike Lee, posted on X that he'll amend the bill and try to pass it separately.
- [09:28]
Kent Covington
The western third of the country has the most severe housing unaffordability in the country.
- [09:35]
Mary Muncie
Ed Pinto is the co founder and director of the American Enterprise Institute's Housing Center.
- [09:41]
Kent Covington
The Bureau of land Management manages 245 million acres in the Lower 48.
- [09:48]
Ryan Anderson
That's the size of Texas, and almost.
- [09:51]
Mary Muncie
All of it is out west. The original bill excluded a lot of land like national parks, monuments, or wilderness areas, and it said anyone who buys the land must state what their purpose would be and stick to it. Senator Lee says now he's going to add more stipulations and including not selling any Forest Service land and only selling BLM land within 5 miles of population centers. Pinto says even though a lot of land would have been offered for sale in the original bill, developers probably would have only bought a fraction of it.
- [10:27]
Kent Covington
You want to be near other residential development.
- [10:31]
Cal Thomas
You don't want to be, you know.
- [10:33]
Kent Covington
30 or 40 or 50 miles away from the nearest development.
- [10:36]
Lauren Canterbury
You.
- [10:37]
Mary Muncie
That's because it takes money to build things like roads and to run power lines, and most people want to be close to their job in the city. The government passed a similar bill in 1998, ordering the BLM to sell off land around Las Vegas for affordable housing. But they didn't put a time limit on the project. And as of last year, about 35% of that land remains unsold. It's unclear whether a new bill would have a time frame, but the old one required the land to be offered for sale within five years. The question on many people's minds is will the sale of public land actually lead to lower housing prices?
- [11:19]
Ryan Anderson
As pretty much everybody knows, housing prices have gone through the roof over the last five years.
- [11:25]
Mary Muncie
David Dworkin is president and CEO of the National Housing Conference.
- [11:31]
Ryan Anderson
Generally, to buy a home, to buy the same home, you would need twice as much of the income that you would have needed in 2019.
- [11:40]
Mary Muncie
Dworkin says there are a lot of factors that drive that price, but the biggest one and the foundation of the problem is a lack of supply.
- [11:49]
Ryan Anderson
During the financial crisis, we lost a lot of home builders who went out of business, and that's definitely compounded it. We've slowly recovered our annual construction to a sustainable level, but we are so deep in the hole that it will take years for us to make up.
- [12:08]
Mary Muncie
The gap, he says. The other factor is that in many communities where the number of jobs is rising, the number of homes isn't, and that's affecting people from San Francisco to Lincoln, Nebraska. But Dworkin doesn't think selling federal lands is the silver bullet.
- [12:26]
Ryan Anderson
It definitely would be helpful. There is a lot of federal land out there that is underutilized, but we can't get lost in the numbers. People are like, oh, look at all these millions of acres of land, and most of that is never going to be developed for housing or pretty much anything else. There's a reason the federal government owns it, and in many cases it's because nobody else wants to.
- [12:52]
Mary Muncie
Selling public land that could be used for housing would help cities like Bend, Oregon, where the rapidly growing city is surrounded by federal land, but it's not going to help every city.
- [13:04]
Ryan Anderson
We also need to think holistically about what it takes to build a home.
- [13:08]
Mary Muncie
Costs rise when tariffs are in place, when supply chains break down, or when there just aren't enough people on the job site. And Dworkin says sometimes it's blocked by locals who have a not in my backyard mentality.
- [13:23]
Ryan Anderson
People basically say, oh, I support affordable housing, just not here.
- [13:28]
Mary Muncie
As of November, some estimates put the US Housing need at a little over a million homes. Others put that number closer to 5 million. Dworkin says selling public lands could do some good, but it's going to take a lot more than that to fix the problem.
- [13:45]
Ryan Anderson
We got into it by not building a unit at a time, and we're going to have to get out of it the same way. You know, a unit at a time. There is no magic fix. The bottom line is we just have to build housing.
- [13:58]
Mary Muncie
Reporting for world, I'm Mary Muncie.
- [14:05]
Myrna Brown
Coming up next on THE World and everything in it. Fair warning. Federal regulators are taking a closer look at the abortion drug mifepristone. The review comes after new data that raises questions about its alleged safety for women. World's Lauren Canterbury has the story.
- [14:25]
Lauren Canterbury
In a recent hearing, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Said he would direct the Food and Drug Administration to investigate Mifepristone he had this exchange with Missouri Senator Josh Hawley.
- [14:37]
Kent Covington
You previously testified at the committee that.
- [14:39]
Cal Thomas
You would do a, a top to bottom review of mifepristone.
- [14:42]
Lauren Canterbury
Do you continue to stand by that?
- [14:44]
Cal Thomas
And don't you think that this new data shows that. That the need to do a review.
- [14:47]
Lauren Canterbury
Is in fact very pressing?
- [14:49]
Ryan Anderson
It is alarming and clearly it indicates that at very least the label should be changed.
- [14:57]
Lauren Canterbury
Abortion advocates have long claimed mifepristone is safe for women and rarely has adverse effects. But a new data analysis shows the pill is far more dangerous than its supporters admit. Mifepristone was first approved in 2000. Clinical trials appeared to show it was safe for women when used alongside the other abortion drug, misoprostol. And studies claimed that serious side effects were rare. Mifepristone now accounts for more than half of all abortions in the United States. But since its approval, the dispensing standards for the drug have fallen dramatically. At first, the FDA only permitted certified medical professionals to prescribe mifepristone to women up to seven weeks pregnant and only during an in person visit. Patients had to have three appointments. One to determine the gestational age of their unborn child and to rule out ectopic pregnancy. Another, to take the pill and a follow up appointment to check for complications. Abortionists also had to report any adverse effects to the fda, as is standard practice with many drugs and vaccines. Then the restrictions started loosening. The FDA went from requiring three to only two in office visits with a medical professional, and women could now take mifepristone in up to 10 weeks of pregnancy. They went further in 2021, completely removing the requirement to attend any in person visit with a medical professional. Two years later, the Biden administration allowed retail pharmacies to dispense mifepristone directly to patients. Officials are gradually chipping away regulations surrounding the drug. And pro life advocates are worried that the current warning label for the pill is no longer accurate. Ryan Anderson is one of them. He's president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center.
- [16:43]
Ryan Anderson
And we had been hearing stories from pro life doctors in the ER and OBGYN saying the abortion pill is much more dangerous to women. Like obviously we know that when the abortion pill works, it's deadly for children. But you know, the concern here is that it's also much more dangerous for women than the FDA has ever admitted.
- [17:02]
Lauren Canterbury
In April, Anderson and his colleague Jamie Bryan hall published an analysis of data from public and private insurance claims. The Data ranges across five years from 2017 to 2023. And it includes data from almost 900,000 mifepristone induced abortions. The results of the analysis are at sharp odds with previous studies which said only one in 200 women experienced adverse side effects from the drug. But according to the Ethics and Public Policy center, the number is much higher. Their analysis reveals almost 11% of women experienced a serious adverse event within 45 days of taking the drug. That's one in nine women. Almost half of the women who experienced an adverse event visited the emergency room. The most common serious outcomes were hemorrhage, infection and needing surgery to finish the abortion. And there were other abortion related complications, such as damage to a woman's internal organs or life threatening mental health diagnoses that occurred later.
- [18:03]
Ryan Anderson
Real world insurance data shows you well. How is this drug being used in reality, not under ideal circumstances.
- [18:12]
Lauren Canterbury
Pro abortion groups have claimed Anderson and Hall manipulated the data to support their position. The drug maker, Danko says cramping and bleeding are known side effects. And abortion advocates say there have not been any new studies to show the drug is unsafe. But Anderson says he believes their findings will hold up to scrutiny and calls on federal officials to do their own review.
- [18:33]
Ryan Anderson
This should make the FDA think twice about whether the current regime of mail order telehealth is really in the best interests of the safety and the protection of these women.
- [18:46]
Lauren Canterbury
Many others agree. Dr. Donna Harrison is the director of research at the American association of Pro Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists. She says that abortionists dispensing mifepristone without listing complications could amount to medical malpractice.
- [19:01]
Cal Thomas
What we have right now is a willy nilly use a willy nilly distribution.
- [19:06]
Myrna Brown
Of mifeprex, which does cause significant side effects.
- [19:11]
Cal Thomas
Women are really actually not able to get informed consent because you can't tell.
- [19:17]
Myrna Brown
A woman what her rate of complications.
- [19:20]
Cal Thomas
Will be unless you know exactly how.
- [19:23]
Myrna Brown
Far along she is in her pregnancy.
- [19:25]
Lauren Canterbury
Harrison and Anderson advocate for pulling mifepristone from the market entirely, but both recognize that convincing federal officials to do so is unlikely.
- [19:34]
Cal Thomas
It's not real medical care. What it is is an attempt at.
- [19:38]
Myrna Brown
A chemical solution to a social problem.
- [19:41]
Lauren Canterbury
Other pro life doctors agree that the study should push regulators to scrutinize mifepristone much more closely.
- [19:48]
Cal Thomas
If the solution to that is just finding a quote unquote safer abortion pill, then we've also still neglected the baby in the process.
- [19:56]
Lauren Canterbury
Dr. Eric Hussar is the Pennsylvania State director for the American Academy of Medical Ethics. He says it's critical that patients know the truth about the risks of any medication they take. And while mifepristone poses significant risks to women, it is almost always fatal for unborn babies.
- [20:14]
Cal Thomas
Ultimately, it's the enemy that's behind it all, and he's a deceiver and a liar, and he's going to do whatever he can to try to destroy Life.
- [20:23]
Lauren Canterbury
Reporting for World I'm Lauren Canterbury.
- [20:41]
Kent Covington
Additional support comes from Water's Edge Kingdom Investments personal investment that build churches 5.05% APY on a three month term watersedge.com invest and from the Issues Etc. Podcast expert guests expansive topics extolling christ more@issuesetc.org.
- [21:17]
Mary Reichert
A rogue goat is on the lam in Fort Washington, Maryland. It is boldly chowing down on garden beds and lawns, dodging efforts by animal Control to capture local man. Jeffrey Herbert named him Billy the Goat. Sound from UPI this is the goat. He can't be caught. The thing is, animal controls tried over and over again, but Billy manages to to slip through backyard fences. Unlike other recent stories of animals on the loose, they can catch the bear and they can catch the zebra, but.
- [21:46]
Ryan Anderson
They can't catch the goat.
- [21:47]
Mary Reichert
Meanwhile, in Maine, 15 goats made their own break for it, escaping a trailer on the turnpike. But police did manage to wrangle them up. Back in Maryland, Billy the Goat is still undefeated. It's the world and everything in It. Today is Thursday, June 26th. Thank you for turning to World Radio to help start your day. Good morning. I'm Mary Reichert.
- [22:22]
Myrna Brown
And I'm Myrna Brown. Coming next on THE World and Everything in It. Rolling back, the real Dry Bend. Movie theaters have been a hall of Americana since the 1930s, reaching their heyday in the 50s and 60s as the family car became a fixture of American life. Outdoor screens lit up summer nights across the country.
- [22:46]
Cal Thomas
It's intermission time.
- [22:47]
Kent Covington
The show starts in 10 minutes.
- [22:50]
Mary Reichert
Young couples, noisy families, popcorn, those crackling speakers. For years, their towering screens were a summer staple. But then came cable TV, VCRs and binge watching in pajamas. Most drive ins faded to black. Today, only about 300 remain.
- [23:08]
Cal Thomas
Three minutes till showtime.
- [23:10]
Mary Reichert
Why not add to your enjoyment with.
- [23:12]
Cal Thomas
A delicious confection and drink at our attractive refreshment stand?
- [23:15]
Myrna Brown
World's Gracenell takes us to a New York drive in that's still going strong and still full of surprises 75 years after its first showtime.
- [23:33]
Cal Thomas
This is what we used to listen to all the time. And all the projections knew what was going on.
- [23:39]
Art
Lauren Knapp's 1950s movie projector whirs to life with the flip of a switch. Everything's been digital at his theater for a long time now, but he still keeps the old contraption for nostalgia's sake. His weathered hands remember exactly what to do. Knapp stoops over and gestures to a red tinted ribbon of film, flicking through the reels, 24 frames per second.
- [24:01]
Cal Thomas
You look right there for the frame, you see the little picture.
- [24:04]
Art
Squinting. I can just make out a tiny cartoon figure dancing from frame to frame.
- [24:09]
Cal Thomas
The light would come through, shine through the lens to the screen. Just tell me you've got about a minute left.
- [24:16]
Art
The film era may be long gone, but the Black River Drive in is still alive and well. Knapp makes sure of that every weekend. Big block letters alert passersby to what's showing on the big screen. Knapp's theater was built in 1950, the golden era for drive ins. Back then, over 4,000 debuted across the country, from New York to California. They were especially popular in the Midwest, where the strip malls hadn't yet encroached and cheap land abounded. The Black River Drive in changed hands several times across the decades. Then a fire in the 1980s shut things down.
- [24:50]
Cal Thomas
That's where the theater sat for about 20 years.
- [24:52]
Art
The drive in lay in ruins until Knapp's old boss decided to buy it. He asked Knapp to partner with him. Knapp was an experienced drive in projectionist, so he knew his way around the business.
- [25:03]
Cal Thomas
We had to rebuild the screen. Part of the snack bar had been burned off. When it had cold.
- [25:10]
Art
The two men had to jump through all kinds of hoops, from zoning changes to state inspections. But eventually they reopened the theater on August 18, 2006. Today the gates open around 7:30. About an hour before sunset, minivans and pickups start rolling up and kids jump out to set up camp chairs and wait for dusk to fall. Knapp almost always runs double features. Tonight, the first show starts at 9pm It's a scary movie for an older audience, paired with the Mission Impossible finale. But Knapp says action films aren't his usual blockbusters.
- [25:49]
Cal Thomas
Family movies absolutely do the best. Lilo and Stitch came out from Disney and we did super with that.
- [25:57]
Art
That despite a series of rainy weekends, Knapp says picking the movies is always a gamble. How to Train youn Dragon is playing next week. To get the contract, Knapp had to book it for two weeks. And theater season is only 26 weeks long.
- [26:11]
Cal Thomas
I expect how to Train youn Dragon to do very well, but if you pick another movie and it's kind of a flop. You're stuck with it two weeks.
- [26:18]
Art
So it's especially hard to compete in the era of Netflix. Movie studios keep narrowing the window between theater releases and streaming debuts. But Knapp says drive ins like his still have something unique to offer. Not just a movie, but an experience.
- [26:38]
Cal Thomas
You want to get mustered all over your own car. That's your business. We'll sell you the hot dog to do it.
- [26:43]
Art
The snack bar is the heart of Knapp's operation. Movie posters adorn the walls and the smell of butter hangs heavy in the air. Popcorn explodes from a giant metal hopper. A dark haired teenager scrapes up the fluffy kernels and shoves them into colorful paper bags next to the checkout counter. A little old man huddles beside a landline phone. Art is 87 years old and he used to be manager here. Today he helps greet customers and manage orders.
- [27:14]
Cal Thomas
Anybody that's in this business and they stay with it, they gotta love it. It's a lifestyle. The smells, the popcorn, the onions cooking on the grill.
- [27:24]
Art
Art started working in the Drive in industry when he was 14, back in the 1950s, when stars like Roy Rogers and Marilyn Monroe graced the silver screen. At the time, drive in movies seemed almost like magic.
- [27:37]
Cal Thomas
We didn't realize, we didn't know how it worked. It was a big mystery for those that did it. Didn't tell anybody how we did it.
- [27:44]
Art
Things are a lot different now. People can access a universe of streaming options without even getting off the couch. Drive ins have to offer top notch snacks and service to compete. Art heads home at 9:45pm outside. The first movie is less than halfway done. Knapp says Hollywood has started making movies a lot longer than they used to be.
- [28:06]
Cal Thomas
Our second feature this evening is just shy of three hours long, so tonight we're getting out about 3 o' clock in the morning.
- [28:14]
Art
Knapp's partner died in 2017. He and his wife are the sole owners now. Thanks to the Drive in business, they haven't had a summer weekend to themselves since high school.
- [28:23]
Cal Thomas
You're always at the theater working.
- [28:25]
Art
He and his wife are Both in their 70s now and looking to retire. But if no one wants to buy the place, Knapp says he'll keep it open as long as he can. But the people here today, sitting in their trunks, huddled around staticky radios, are blissfully unaware of all that. They're just here for a good show. Reporting for World, I'm Grace Snell in Black River, New York.
- [29:03]
Myrna Brown
Today is Thursday, June 26th, good morning. This is the world and everything in it from listener supported World Radio. Hello, I'm Myrna Brown.
- [29:12]
Mary Reichert
And I'm Mary Reichard. Up next, world commentator Kal Thomas reflects on last weekend's strike against Iran, arguing it wasn't just necessary, but long overdue given four decades of provocation.
- [29:28]
Cal Thomas
In ordering the bombing of three nuclear sites in Iran, President Trump did the right thing for the right reason and at the right time. As usual, some of the major media got it wrong. The New York Times initially headlined US Enters war against Iran. A Washington Post editorial said Trump did not prepare America for his war with Iran. The US has effectively been at war with Iran since 1979, when so called Iranian students seized the American Embassy in Tehran. They held 52Americans hostage for 444 days before releasing them. Apparently fearing what incoming President Ronald Reagan might do, Trump turned that fear into a reality. In a brief Saturday night address, the President said all of Iran's nuclear capabilities were obliterated. He then warned any retaliatory strikes on Americans would be met with even more disaster for the regime of Ayatollah Ali Khamani. Addressing whether we were at war with Iran, the President said, For 40 years Iran has been saying death to America, death to Israel. They've been killing our people, blowing off their arms, blowing off their legs with roadside bombs. That was their specialty. We lost over 1000 people and hundreds of thousands throughout the Middle east and around the world have died as a direct result of their hate. So many were killed by their general, Qassim Soleimani. I decided a long time ago that I would not let this happen. It will not continue, unquote. Kamani has reportedly retreated to a bunker as Adolf Hitler did at the end of World War II. The difference is Hitler committed suicide for fearing capture by the Allies. While Kamani is said to be naming his successors should he be killed. He is reported to have said he's willing to die as a martyr. This is another major difference between the two leaders. The defeat of Hitler squashed Nazism in Germany. Should Kamani be toppled, it won't completely defeat radical Islamism. That's because it is a virus that does not respond to a diplomatic vaccine. Still, the bombing may have set back Iran's nuclear bomb capabilities for a very long time. Time, hopefully forever. Some feckless European leaders were still pushing the diplomatic track despite violations by Iran of previous agreements until the bombing began. A few still are. Democrats are talking impeachment again. They ignore that their Nobel Peace Prize President Barack Obama bombed targets in seven countries during his two terms without congressional authorization. So did Bill Clinton and Joe Biden. As former Israeli diplomat Yoram Ettinger has correctly stated in his newsletter, the well intentioned wish of isolationists to militarily disengage from Islamic terrorism, establish peaceful coexistence and be preoccupied with a domestic agenda must be based on global and Middle east reality, not on alternative reality. In his article, he goes on to describe the reality of both the Muslim barbarian pirates of the 19th century and today's Sunni and Shiite Islamic terrorists, saying they seek to intimidate, terrorize and subjugate the infidel west and especially the great American Satan, while establishing Islam as the only legitimate divinely ordained religion on earth. An act of war is a tough decision for any president, but when the world is already at war with Islamic terrorism, there can be no compromise. Failure to have attacked those nuclear sites would have put not only Israel at risk of destruction, but the US in greater peril. President Trump's bold decision to end the talking and act against an evil menace could change the entire dynamic of the Middle East. Others have tried and failed. Trump may have just succeeded. I'm Cal Thomas.
- [33:14]
Mary Reichert
Tomorrow Culture Friday with John Stonestreet. Colin Garbarino reviews a new racing movie and your listener feedback. That and more tomorrow. I'm Mary Reichert.
- [33:24]
Myrna Brown
And I'm Myrna Brown. 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 psalmist writes, one generation shall commend your works to another and shall declare your your mighty acts. On the glorious splendor of your majesty, and on your wondrous works I will meditate. Verses 4 and 5 of Psalm 145 go now in grace and peace.
- [34:09]
Cal Thomas
Sam.