← The World and Everything In It
The World and Everything In It
6.9.25 Supreme Court’s unanimous rulings, the Musk-Trump feud, and an Arctic expedition
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- [00:06]
Mary Reichert
Good morning. Today we unpack five rulings. One slamming the door on a case against gun makers. Another affirming that civil rights law protects everyone. And a decision delivering a strong rebuke to a state for stepping in where it didn't belong.
- [00:21]
Lyle Weinberger
It is very encouraging to me to see a unanimous opinion on religious liberty. The court can speak with one voice to that issue.
- [00:28]
Nick Iger
That's ahead today on Legal Docket. Also today, the Monday Money beat. Economist David Bonson standing by with wise financial words for new grads. And later, the world history book. The crucial moment in our voyage is at hand.
- [00:52]
Mary Reichert
It's Monday, June 9th. This is the world and everything in it from listener supported World Radio. I'm Mary Reichert.
- [00:59]
Nick Iger
And I'm Nick Iger. Good morning.
- [01:02]
Mary Reichert
Time for the news. Here's Kent Cumming. Washington.
- [01:09]
Kent Covington
Law enforcement firing tear gas canisters on the streets of Los Angeles Sunday as protests continued against Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ice. Most protesters have been peaceful, but not all. Louisiana County Sheriff Robert Luna.
- [01:23]
David Bonson
Even as I was driving here, I was getting multiple reports of deputies asking for help. Louisiana county deputies being attacked with rocks, bottles.
- [01:32]
Nick Iger
That is 100% unacceptable and have to defend our employees.
- [01:38]
Kent Covington
Protesters said they wanted ICE out of the city and were demanding that everyone arrested during immigration raids be released. President Trump ordered the deployment of 2,000 National Guard troops to rein in the violence. He told reporters yesterday, we're going to have troops everywhere.
- [01:53]
David Bonson
We're not going to let this happen to our country.
- [01:55]
Nick Iger
We're not going to let our country be torn apart.
- [01:57]
Kent Covington
And he threatened tougher action. He authorized Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to call up active duty forces if necessary. Top US And Chinese trade officials are set to gather today in London. That follows a phone call between President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping last week aimed at kickstarting stalled negotiations. White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt.
- [02:19]
Caroline Levitt
We want China and the United States to continue moving forward with the agreement that was struck in Geneva. The administration has been monitoring China's compliance with the deal and we hope that this will move forward to have more comprehensive trade talks.
- [02:33]
Kent Covington
That Geneva agreement last month set out the terms of a ceasefire of sorts in the trade war, scaling back tariffs while negotiations moved ahead. But the two countries have not had meaningful talks since. Meantime, CIA Director John Ratcliffe says the United States is working to combat potential threats from China against the US or its Asian allies.
- [02:54]
Nick Iger
We released two Mandarin speaking videos to.
- [02:59]
David Bonson
The Chinese people inviting them to contact us through the dark web because a lot of the people in China are.
- [03:07]
Nick Iger
Not happy with what's happening?
- [03:08]
Kent Covington
His remarks come after federal authorities last week charged two Chinese nationals with attempting to smuggle a potentially dangerous agricultural pathogen into the US Raising serious national security concerns. Some experts cautioned that the fungus is already native to American agriculture. But authorities charged that the men were looking to conduct unauthorized research, possibly to enhance its resistance to treatment, which could be used in a targeted attack against US Agriculture. House Speaker Mike Johnson says despite loud opposition from Elon Musk, he is confident that the GOP reconciliation bill will eventually make it to President Trump's desk for a signature.
- [03:49]
Nick Iger
Elon's number one responsibility is to save his company. The president and I have the responsibility of saving the country, and that's what this bill does, and we're really excited and proud of this product, and we're.
- [03:58]
Kent Covington
Going to get it delivered. The House passed what President Trump calls his big, beautiful bill last month. The Senate is now considering amendments. Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO who just weeks ago headed President Trump's Department of Government Efficiency, broke with President Trump over the bill, calling it a disgusting abomination that will pile on to the national debt. That disagreement has erupted into a bitter feud between Musk and the president. But GOP Senator Tim Scott predicts that the former allies will iron out their differences.
- [04:28]
Nick Iger
I believe it will be over way before Independence Day.
- [04:31]
Caroline Levitt
The good news is these are two.
- [04:33]
Nick Iger
Strong, powerful men who've worked together to deliver for the American people. One of the reasons why President Trump.
- [04:39]
David Bonson
Made promises on the campaign trail and brought Elon on was to make sure that we kept those campaign promises.
- [04:45]
Kent Covington
White House officials were reportedly trying to schedule a phone call between Trump and Musk, but the president told Fox News he was not interested in talking it out. An illegal immigrant from El Salvador at the center of a legal and political battle is now back in the United States. Gilmar Abrego Garcia is now reportedly in a Tennessee jail after he was mistakenly deported back in March despite entering the country illegally. A judge had shielded him from deportation. The Trump administration alleges that he's an MS.13 gang member. Border czar Tom Homan.
- [05:17]
Nick Iger
We're bringing him back here to prosecute him. We're bringing him back here to put him in prison. Then when he's done in prison, guess what? He'll be deported immediately.
- [05:26]
Kent Covington
Again, the newly unsealed indictment accuses Abrego Garcia of smuggling thousands of illegal immigrants across the U.S. his defense attorney calls the new charges preposterous. More charges could follow. Ukraine released additional video footage over the weekend of drone attacks last week. That struck Russian aircraft deep inside Russian territory. We reported last week that the drone attack destroyed dozens of aircraft, but US intelligence now estimates that roughly 10 aircraft were destroyed, while as many as 10 others were damaged. The Kremlin has vowed retaliation. This comes amid stalled efforts to broker a ceasefire. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday, they.
- [06:06]
Nick Iger
Don'T want, they don't want to stop the war.
- [06:10]
David Bonson
This is the problem.
- [06:11]
Kent Covington
The latest round of peace talks last week in Turkey did not yield any progress toward a ceasefire. I'm Kent Covington. And straight ahead, the Monday legal docke unpacking unanimous decisions at the Supreme Court and later, the world history book. This is the World and everything in it.
- [06:47]
Mary Reichert
It's Monday, the 9th of June. So glad to have you along for today's edition of the World and Everything in It. Good morning. I'm Mary Reichert.
- [06:54]
Nick Iger
And I'm Nick Ickert. Hey, before we get going with the rest of the program, today we kick off World's June giving drive. It's one of only two times a year that we ask for your financial support.
- [07:05]
Mary Reichert
Right. December is the season when giving is on everybody's mind. But June is different. It's our fiscal finish line. We hold our budget for the year ahead up to the light and ask ourselves, can we keep doing everything we've planned and can we maybe do more?
- [07:20]
Nick Iger
Yeah. And at the risk of, you know, mixing metaphors, we're talking about fiscal finish lines and kickoffs. Think about this. When you say kick off the June giving drive, you can think of that as starting with no score. But that's not the way it's going to be this time around. This kickoff comes with points. Already on the board, A few longtime friends have given a $130,000 challenge gift. Now, this is not a conditional match. This money is there. So gift is saying, we're in. Come join us. So we don't start at zero today. We start with very strong momentum.
- [07:58]
Mary Reichert
And you might ask, where does that money go? Well, let me suggest a wide angle view, World magazine for long form reporting, World Digital, and a fleet of free email newsletters to keep you current. World opinions for sharp analysis every day, World Radio, which is this daily podcast and the long form Double take, World Watch and God's World News, trusted news for families of kids and teens, online products, print products, video products, and last but not least, the World Journalism Institute, training Christians to report truth with excellence.
- [08:34]
Nick Iger
Now, all of that is highly technically intensive. It's travel intensive, but mostly it's people intensive. Reporters editors, engineers. The daily cost of telling the truth does add up. And for the first time ever, we are putting resources not just externally with wji, but internally. We're investing in our people to grow their skills, to strive for even greater excellence, because journalism is a craft and professional development is crucial for the good of the journalist, but it does make World that much stronger. So we're very excited to roll that out with your help.
- [09:11]
Mary Reichert
If World's work has helped you to see the day's news through a biblical lens, would you weigh in right now with a gift of any size? Your giving this month decides how boldly we can step into the next fiscal year.
- [09:24]
Nick Iger
It's quick, it's easy and secure. Wng.org JuneLivingDrive Again. Wng.org JuneLivingdrive thanks for standing with World and for keeping journalism you can trust in front of families everywhere. Sound journalism grounded in facts and biblical truth.
- [09:45]
Mary Reichert
Right. I'll say it one more time. WNG.org JuneLivingDrive well, it's time now for legal docket, and it's that very busy time at the Supreme Court during this final month of the term. Five opinions handed down on Thursday, four of them unanimous in what one court watcher considered conservative opinions from liberal justices.
- [10:05]
Nick Iger
It's funny. Mary struck me the same way, you know, when the most liberal Supreme Court justice, Sonia Sotomayor, when she writes an opinion on religious liberty and Justice Samuel Alito says, in effect, yeah, what she says, yeah, right. That's gotta get your attention. Right. And so it has hours. The first of these three really big decisions is the Catholic Charities case. This case has to do with its legal fight with the state of Wisconsin. All nine justices ruled that the state violated the First Amendment by denying the Catholic nonprofit an exemption from state unemployment taxes. Wisconsin's Supreme Court said it wasn't religious enough to suit the state.
- [10:46]
Mary Reichert
Lyle Weinberger is an academic fellow at Stanford Law School and a former law clerk for Justice Neil Gorsuch. He says the court's message is crystal clear.
- [10:56]
Lyle Weinberger
The bottom line ruling is that you can't discriminate on the basis of religion. And the state of Wisconsin was trying to implement a rule that would basically have said that some religious groups got the benefit of a tax exemption effectively and others wouldn't on the basis of their religious practices. And the Supreme Court said you absolutely cannot discriminate in that way.
- [11:19]
Mary Reichert
Here's a refresher on the backstory. Catholic Charities Bureau is part of the Diocese of Superior, Wisconsin. It serves the poor, elderly and disabled, regardless of their religious commitments. Catholic Charities paid into the state's unemployment insurance system for years. It eventually asked for a religious exemption so it can join a church run alternative, but better aligned with Catholic teaching.
- [11:44]
Nick Iger
But Wisconsin said no, arguing Catholic Charities was not, in its words, operated primarily for religious purposes to the state. The organization didn't tick certain boxes to qualify as religious. For example, it doesn't proselytize or limit its help only to Catholics. That theme arose during oral argument back in March with Justice Gorsuch pressing the state's lawyer with a hypothetical. This Wisconsin going to go around this soup kitchen. You know, you have to, you have to go to the service before you get your soup. They're good to go. But that one, they just invite you to the service after the soup.
- [12:20]
David Bonson
They're bad.
- [12:21]
Nick Iger
I mean really, that's the. I would have thought this would entangle the state in religion a whole lot more than a non discrimination rule between religions.
- [12:31]
Mary Reichert
That narrow view on what qualifies as religious is where the state crossed a line. Back to the former Gorsuch clerk, Weinberger.
- [12:39]
Lyle Weinberger
That's what the majority opinion emphasizes that the government can't be taking sides of, on what kinds of religious practices are good and what kinds of religious practices are less favored. And if they're going to say that you get the benefit of a particular tax, write off an exemption from a regulatory scheme based on the way that you practice your faith and the people who pray more or more publicly or focus more on public ceremony, that they are treated as religious. But if you're going to go and live out your religion in everyday life and try to help people as a way of living out your faith, well, that doesn't count. That is a form of religious discrimination.
- [13:25]
Nick Iger
That was the approach Catholic Charities took that Wisconsin saw more as charities and not so much as Catholic. Weinberger explained to us this was the inquiry the state made that the court said the state had no business making. And even if it were a legitimate state function to judge whether a charitable outreach is a religious one, Wisconsin's judgment was just wrong to hear Catholic Charities explain its approach. Serving soup to hungry people flows from Catholic teaching with no need to preach to its clients. For Lyle Weinberger, it's just as well that the government got out of this business and the court's unanimity puts an exclamation point on it.
- [14:05]
Lyle Weinberger
It is very encouraging to me to see a unanimous opinion on religious liberty because I think over the last few years in particular, there has been a strong sense that many have had that religious liberty has become a partisan issue and that there has been increasing polarization. And if you roll back the clock 40 or 50 years, you see bipartisan super majorities rallying around religious liberty issues, whether it's in Congress, in the Religious Freedom Restoration act, or whether it's in the courts, where in the 1970s, 1980s, religious liberty free exercise concerns were concerns that were widely shared amongst liberal justices as well. So it's encouraging to see that here for a clear issue of religious discrimination. There are nine justices. This is not something that divides the court. The court can speak with one voice to that issue.
- [14:59]
Nick Iger
Bottom line, the court reaffirmed that religious exercise is not limited to what happens in a pulpit. It includes faith in action.
- [15:08]
Mary Reichert
In another unanimous ruling, the court threw out a lawsuit brought by Mexico's government against American gun makers. Mexico accused Smith and Wesson, Colt Glock and others of aiding and abetting illegal gun trafficking. It accused the companies of turning a blind eye as their guns were funneled through American gun dealers to drug cartels in Mexico, reaping destruction there. But the opinion says Mexico's complaint just doesn't hold up. Gun makers are generally immune from liability for crimes committed with their products. There is an exception if a company knowingly breaks a gun law. But Mexico didn't plausibly allege that. At most, the gun makers knew that some dealers were misbehaving. But that amounts to indifference, not assistance. What the law requires, the court said, is active participation in specific illegal gun sales.
- [16:02]
Nick Iger
The third big opinion is Ames v. Ohio Department of Social Services. This one says that Title VII of the Civil Rights act applies to everyone, whether you're in a minority group or a majority group. Makes no difference. The justices sided with Marlene Ames, a woman who worked for the state for years. She accused her boss of passing her over for a promotion in favor of a lesbian candidate. Then she was demoted and her job filled by a homosexual male.
- [16:32]
Mary Reichert
Ames sued the state under Title 7, claiming discrimination based on sexual orientation, what some media reports have called reverse discrimination. At oral argument back in February, Justice Sotomayor described the problem. She was a member of the majority group.
- [16:49]
David Bonson
She was 20 year employee, great reviews.
- [16:53]
Mary Reichert
And then all of a sudden, she's not hired. And someone's hired who's gay, doesn't have.
- [16:59]
David Bonson
Her level of college experience and didn't even want the job. Something suspicious about that. It certainly can give rise to an inference of discrimination.
- [17:10]
Mary Reichert
Ohio Solicitor General Elliot Geiser represented the Ohio Department of Youth Services before the high Court. World's Harrison Waters called him up after the decision was handed down. Geyser said the state never violated Title vii.
- [17:23]
Kent Covington
She's still with the department.
- [17:24]
David Bonson
As far as I'm concerned, Ohio never.
- [17:26]
Nick Iger
Discriminated on the basis of sexual orientation or sex. And that's what she's claiming.
- [17:31]
Mary Reichert
And we dispute that.
- [17:32]
Nick Iger
And we're going to continue to fight.
- [17:33]
David Bonson
To vindicate Ohio's process in this matter.
- [17:36]
Nick Iger
The Supreme Court didn't decide whether Ames was discriminated against. It remanded the case to lower court. And that's where that question gets sorted out. What the justices did decide is this, that Ames no longer has to meet a higher burden just because she's part part of a majority group. Title VII protects all equally. Now, you heard Mary refer to media outlets describing the ruling as a case of reverse discrimination. But Geyser says that's not an accurate way to put it.
- [18:06]
Mary Reichert
The Supreme Court did not use that.
- [18:08]
David Bonson
Term in this case and to my.
- [18:10]
Kent Covington
Understanding has not used that term.
- [18:12]
David Bonson
Some lower courts have. And as I said at oral argument.
- [18:15]
Nick Iger
And as Ohio has pressed all along, the law treats everybody equally.
- [18:20]
David Bonson
Discrimination is wrong no matter who it is against. We've always maintained that Ohio acted properly in this case and we'll continue to press our claims and defenses below.
- [18:32]
Mary Reichert
And so the case proceeds in lower court without that higher burden of proof on Ames the employee.
- [18:38]
Nick Iger
All right, before we go, quick treatment of the last two opinions. In ccdvas v. Antrix, the Indian government cancelled a satellite contract with an Indian media startup. That startup won a big arbitration award and turned to US Courts to collect. All nine justices sided with the startup in its collection efforts. And so the case now goes back to lower court for more proceedings.
- [19:03]
Mary Reichert
And finally, Blom Bank Sal v. Honickman, victims of Hamas attacks sued a Lebanese bank claiming it helped terrorists by providing financial services to them. Lower cost courts dismissed the case. So the plaintiffs asked the Supreme Court to reopen it based on newer legal arguments. But the Supreme Court said no. Changing your legal theory after the fact is not enough to bring a case back that's already been closed and that closes our cases on this week's legal docket.
- [19:44]
Kent Covington
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- [19:53]
Nick Iger
More@ambassadorsimpact.com.
- [19:58]
Kent Covington
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- [20:07]
Nick Iger
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- [20:09]
Kent Covington
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- [20:34]
Mary Reichert
Coming up next on the World and everything in it. The Monday Money beat.
- [20:40]
Nick Iger
Time now to talk business markets and the economy with financial analyst and advisor David Bonson. David heads up the wealth management firm, the Bonson Group. He is here now. Good morning to you, David.
- [20:51]
David Bonson
Well, good morning, Nick. Good to be with you.
- [20:53]
Nick Iger
All right, David, let's begin with the latest jobs report. It showed 139,000 new jobs, which is a bit higher than I'd seen in the consensus forecast. The unemployment rate, it was 4.2%. But downward revisions for March and April totaling almost 100,000 jobs. I see, too, that the labor force participation rate also declined. So a bit of a mixed picture. What's your read, David?
- [21:20]
David Bonson
Yeah, you summed it up well. Kind of a mixed bag. There was a little bit better of a number for the month of May than had been expected. But remember, what had been expected wasn't great, and what we got was still well below the normal average, but it was a little better than expected there and revisions a little worse. And then the unemployment rate itself didn't change. So as is often the case when a monthly report has four or five different data points that sometimes can pull in different directions, there's a little something in there for everybody.
- [21:52]
Nick Iger
All right, David, well, let's shift to something a bit less economic and a bit more dramatic. We have this odd back and forth between Elon Musk and Donald Trump just watching in real time as a friends evaporates, Musk going out of Doge, criticizing the big beautiful bill in increasingly hostile terms. Now, we've had our own critiques of that bill, too, but is there any actual economic news value in this story, or you think we should just steer clear of it?
- [22:25]
David Bonson
You know, from a financial and economic standpoint? I understand always when people want to ask me about various events that may be relevant and that that's the lane in which I work and live. And I think that sometimes these things overlap, Nick, with politics, right, or with the just kind of big news stories of the day. The Musk Trump issue is likely a pretty big story for the political realm, the administration, what it could mean for midterms and whatnot. I mean, there's a drama there that I certainly understand. But when you look to policy, will this impact Senate appetite to vote for the big beautiful bill? I don't really think so. I think it helps a little bit to give some of the senators that want to make the bill a little better. It gives them a bit more leverage. But in the end, are they likely going to get to a place where they get the yes votes for the bill and will the bill end up being pretty close to what it is now? That's my best guess. The other issues around Doge, I'm pretty sober about this, soaking wet. They may not be at 100 billion of savings. And there had been talk of 1 to 2 trillion. And I think that the phrase Doge has now become, you know, kind of used as a meme and used as a sort of figure of speech to talk negatively about the cause of deregulation and trimming governmental fat. And so there's a lot of unfortunate things out of this. And yet where it goes from here, this stuff moves so fast. There's such a high turnover in the administration. You know, people could mean it as a compliment or they could mean it as insult, but there's a sort of reality TV element to the presidency. And the economy moves on. Right. The data points are the things we have to look for. You know, the issues that are going to happen with this tax bill, the issues are going to happen with the trade deals. Those things are far more important to me economically and financially than this drama with President Trump and Elon Musk.
- [24:39]
Nick Iger
All right. Hey, one last thing, David. I wanted to commend you on this week's Dividend Cafe. Very timely, I thought, especially with graduation season here you had some advice for young adults, some of it new, some of it revised. We obviously don't have time for the whole thing, but could you highlight one or two kind of key takeaways for recent grads?
- [25:01]
David Bonson
Well, you know, I think that the way I concluded that Dividend Cafe is probably the one, because as really practically important as things are to me as advice to young people about credit card debt, about home purchase practices, about avoiding temptations of get rich quick ideas of how capital ought to be compounded over time, all of these practical financial things are very important, but they still presuppose certain things about one's income, one's career, one's direction of their life. And those things, I think I tried to summarize my conclusion and I'll say now for our listeners that most young people, and by young, it could be 18 year old right out of high school, it could be a 22 year old right out of college, it could be a 25 year old who never went to college. There's a lot of different paths that someone may have at the young adult stage of their life. But regardless of where exactly one is in that journey, the universal takeaway is that we are in a position at society right now that we need more and more young men and women of faith to choose a life rooted to virtue and character. And that a lot of distractions exist from social media, the online world, the temptations of AI, the temptations of our phones and a life on a screen, as well as just, you know, the worldly elements that have been there forever. But then I think right now in this stage that we find ourselves in, there is a cynicism that can take over where people believe that the system is rigged against them, that AI is going to take away all the job opportunities, that the state is out to get them or the man is out to get them, or the system's out to get them. And when I talk about virtue and character, what I'm encouraging young people to do is realize that God has a plan for their life that is not going to be derailed by self pity and by victimhood, that you have it in you to do the right thing, to make the right decisions, and sometimes to overcome evil with good. And in doing so, and in taking a career path, choosing every good endeavor to produce goods and services that meet the needs of humanity, you find a call in that, you find a good life. And I think that this is a message that needs to become universally preached and taught and hopefully adhered to, and we'll all be better off for it.
- [27:41]
Nick Iger
All right. David Bonson is founder, managing partner and chief investment officer at the Bonson Group. He writes regularly for World opinions and@dividendcafe.com David, thank you so much. We will see you next week.
- [27:55]
David Bonson
Thanks so much, Nick.
- [28:14]
Nick Iger
Today is Monday, June 9th. Good morning. This is the world and everything in it from listener supported World Radio. I'm Nick Iker.
- [28:22]
Mary Reichert
And I'm Mary Reichard. Up next, the world history book. 23 years ago, two criminals attempt a daring getaway in a delivery van. But first, nearly 150 years ago, explorers set sail to plant the American flag in Arctic soil for the first time. But the mission fails when they discover they've been misled by a popular myth. World's Emma Eicher has the story.
- [28:50]
Caroline Levitt
On June 13, 1881, the USS Jeannette creaks and shudders. Sealed in the frigid ice packs of the Arctic Ocean, the ship is about to collapse. Voice actor Kim Rasmussen reads what a crewman later wrote.
- [29:04]
Nick Iger
Each successive shock resounded with awful distinctness upon her sides like deathstrokes.
- [29:12]
Caroline Levitt
The Jeannette has been making little progress for more than a year. Sometimes the ship is stuck in ice and other times drifting among the ice caps. Its captain, George DeLong, dreams of being the first explorer to reach the North Pole. He's a large, broad shouldered man convinced he can prove what many scientists that there's open sea around the North Pole, making it easy access for ships. Many believe that the open polar sea is real. But nobody actually knows the truth. The men who had gone on Expeditions before DeLonge had all failed to reach their goal. DeLonge still has hope the Jeannette might pull through. A few days earlier, the ship broke free of the melting winter ice and slid back into the water. The captain and crew cheered at the turn of events.
- [29:58]
Nick Iger
He declared, the crucial moment in our voyage is at hand.
- [30:03]
Caroline Levitt
But that hope fades fast. Soon, sheets of floating ice pound against the ship with deadly force. Then the ice bursts through the hold and cold water pours in. Metal and wood groan and splinter under the pressure. DeLonge stands on the bridge, puffing on a meerschaum pipe. There isn't much time left.
- [30:22]
Nick Iger
Abandon ship. Abandon ship.
- [30:26]
Caroline Levitt
As everyone grabs belongings and escapes to the Arctic floes, DeLonge glances back at the collapsing vessel. It's completely horizontal, sucked into the depths below. He writes in his journal, it will.
- [30:37]
Nick Iger
Be hard to be known hereafter as a man who undertook a polar expedition and sunk his ship at the 77th parallel. I fancy it would have made but little difference if I had gone down with my ship.
- [30:53]
Caroline Levitt
Now the men are at the mercy of the tundra. They're almost 1,000 miles from the nearest landmass, the Arctic coast of Siberia. They have sleds, sled dogs and three small boats, but they only have 60 days worth of food and water. Time is of the essence. Months of struggling only brings them a fraction closer to escape or rescue. Desperate for food, they hunt seals and polar bears. Some of the men fall dangerously ill. Delong plows onward, keeping the men in line. He's as much the captain on land as he was at sea. Eventually, the crew splits into three parties. One perishes while taking an ocean route in one of the boats. But another makes it back to a Russian village. The last one, headed by DeLong, is lost inland. Sensing they might not make it out, DeLonge sends two men ahead to find help. But before they get back, the crew succumbs to the harsh weather.
- [31:49]
Nick Iger
DeLonge's final journal entry reads, October 30th, Sunday, 140th day. Boyd and Yurts died during the night. Mr. Collins dying.
- [32:06]
Caroline Levitt
Of the 33 men, only 13 return. During their harrowing journey, DeLonge and his crew discovered three islands in an archipelago. They're named Delong Islands in his honor. The disastrous expedition ended the theory of the open polar sea. Next, a polar opposite story. From frost to frosting. Over the years there have been a handful of so called donut heists. On February 11th of this year, a 32 year old Indianapolis woman stole a Krispy Kreme delivery truck when its driver pulled up to one of his stops. But as she sped off, the truck's door swung open leaving Baker's dozens covering the road. Body cam footage afterwards shows an officer cleaning up the street donuts by the box. If you listen closely, you can hear one officer admit how good the donuts look even on the street. Just helping out.
- [32:59]
Mary Reichert
Thank you.
- [33:01]
David Bonson
Please. Bad boys do what donuts?
- [33:04]
Caroline Levitt
The woman was caught 11 miles later and charged with auto theft and possession of paraphernalia. In late 2023, an Australian woman tried the same stunt, making off with 10,000 Krispy Kreme doughnut while the unsuspecting driver stopped at a filling station.
- [33:19]
David Bonson
This CCTV footage from Sydney's Northwest showing a woman stealing a van from a petrol station.
- [33:24]
Caroline Levitt
But the doors stayed shut. So without the doughnut crumb trail, it took police two weeks to apprehend the woman. Most of the doughnuts were recovered, but the evidence had to be destroyed as they had gone stale. But one of the earliest Krispy Kreme doughnut truck thefts happened on March 27, 2002 in Slidell, Louisiana. At 3:30 in the morning, two men carjacked a Krispy Kreme delivery van. Like the copycat crimes that followed, the driver had stopped to make a delivery but kept the truck running while entering the store. When he came back out, the van was gone. The police quickly responded, leading to a 15 mile high speed chase. Donuts spilled from the vehicle sprinkling the road as they drove. Eventually they abandoned the van and the joyriding driver got away. It began a two month long manhunt. Police knew the man liked doughnuts and kept an eye out for him at the local shops. The search came to an end on June 10, 2002 when the 21 year old attempted to flee from sheriff deputies driving intentionally into a patrol car. He was eventually charged with auto theft, resisting arrest by flight and attempted murder of a police officer. Afterward, one of the Slidell police joked, we're glad he's off the streets, but this unfortunately means we're going to have to stop staking out all the local donut shops looking for him. That's this week's world History book. I'm Emma Iger.
- [35:05]
Nick Iger
Tomorrow, a dispute that could wind up defining disability rights for every child in America and what life's like when your home is on the range. That and more tomorrow. I'm Nick Iger.
- [35:17]
Mary Reichert
And I'm Mary Reichard. 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, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence, draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Verses 15 and 16 of Hebrews, chapter 4. Go now in grace and peace.
- [35:58]
David Bonson
Sam.