← The World and Everything In It
The World and Everything In It
7.23.25 Washington Wednesday on cutting spending and releasing documents, World Tour, and visualizing creatures from fossils
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- [00:05]
Lindsay Mast
Good morning cbs. Cut Stephen Colbert's late show. The Department of Justice releases files on Martin Luther King Jr. And Congress cuts some of its spending.
- [00:15]
Stephen Colbert
This is the biggest cut I've ever seen.
- [00:17]
Hunter Baker
It's like the only cut I've ever seen.
- [00:19]
Myrna Brown
Hunter Baker joins us to talk about it on Washington Wednesday. Also today, world tour and have you ever wondered how scientists figure out what dinosaurs looked like?
- [00:31]
Andrew Walker
I've got the knees left more crouched, tail's a little bit more curved.
- [00:34]
Myrna Brown
An explanation of the science and sketching of ancient creatures and world opinions. Writer Andrew Walker says borders are biblical.
- [00:51]
Lindsay Mast
It's Wednesday, July 23rd. This is the world and everything in it from listener supported World Radio. I'm Lindsay Mast.
- [00:58]
Myrna Brown
And I'm Myrna Brown. Good morning.
- [01:02]
Lindsay Mast
Up next, Kent Covington with today's news.
- [01:06]
Kent Covington
President Trump says the United States and Japan now have the framework in place for what he called a massive new trade deal. The agreement will place a 15% tax on imports from Japan, down from the planned 25% tariff that was set to start next month. The United States has also reached a framework deal with the Philippines. That came after Trump hosted Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. In the Oval Office on Tuesday. White House press Secretary Caroline Levitt and.
- [01:34]
Caroline Levitt
They have agreed to lower their tariff.
- [01:36]
Myrna Brown
And non tariff barriers so we can.
- [01:38]
Caroline Levitt
Sell our products to them.
- [01:39]
Myrna Brown
And they will continue to pay tariffs.
- [01:41]
Hunter Baker
To sell products to us.
- [01:42]
Kent Covington
Under the deal, the US Will lower its planned tariff on Philippine goods slightly from 20% to 19%. Trump also said that the two nations will deepen military ties. That comes as China continues to act more aggressively in the South China Sea, where Beijing and Manila have clashed over hotly contested territory. Marcos told reporters we are essentially concerned.
- [02:07]
Myrna Brown
With the defense of our territory and the exercise of our sovereign rights.
- [02:12]
Kent Covington
Now whether we do this not alone.
- [02:18]
Myrna Brown
We need to do this with our partners.
- [02:20]
Kent Covington
He added that his country's strongest partner has always been the United States. President Trump says he thinks former President Barack Obama should face criminal charges.
- [02:32]
Hunter Baker
He's guilty. This was treason. This was every word you can think of.
- [02:38]
Kent Covington
His remarks come after Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard sent a criminal referral to the Department of Justice. She asked the DOJ to look into allegations that some in the Obama administration, in her words, altered intelligence to push the narrative of a Trump Russia plot days before Trump took office in 2017, despite prior intelligence reportedly indicating otherwise.
- [03:01]
Stephen Colbert
There was a shift, 180 degree shift from the intelligence community's assessment leading up to the election to the one that President Obama directed be produced after Donald.
- [03:12]
Tulsi Gabbard
Trump won the election.
- [03:14]
Kent Covington
Obama's team responded, calling the allegations bizarre and saying they are a ridiculous and weak attempt at distraction. In 2019, a report from the Justice Department's inspector general detailed wrongdoing within the FBI and the handling of the Russia probe. But the IG said he did not find provable evidence that political bias drove the Russia investigation. House Speaker Mike Johnson abruptly sent Congress into recess on Tuesday to avoid a vote on whether to force the Justice Department to release more files related to Jeffrey Epstein. There's no purpose for Congress to push an administration to do something that they're already doing, and so this is for political games. President Trump says he has ordered the Department of Justice to release all credible evidence in the Epstein case. That comes as the president has taken heat on the matter from some, even within his own party. GOP Congressman Thomas Massie, the president's staff.
- [04:11]
Stephen Colbert
Administration, his own children, his vice president.
- [04:14]
Hunter Baker
Have promised that these files would come.
- [04:16]
Kent Covington
Out and and now we're being told it's a hoax.
- [04:18]
Stephen Colbert
It just doesn't wash.
- [04:20]
Kent Covington
The Trump administration has effectively said there was nothing else to see in the case that, for example, there was no written Epstein client list. But the DOJ has now asked a judge to unseal grand jury transcripts in the Epstein case, as well as those related to the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted of aiding the now deceased billionaire in sex crimes against minors. And Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche is set to meet with Ghislaine Maxwell this week if she has any more information of value to provide. It is unclear if she'll be offered a deal for her cooperation. In the Middle east, living conditions in the Gaza Strip continue to deteriorate. Palestinians crowded at a soup kitchen in Gaza City, standing in long lines holding empty pots they're hoping to fill. One Palestinian voicing frustration and anguish amid a humanitarian crisis. He says he hears stories about negotiators in Turkey and Qatar trying to negotiate a ceasefire, but he says they continue to eat and talk while people in Gaza starve. Meanwhile, Israel continues to face pressure from UN officials and others to end its military offensive against the Hamas terror group in Gaza. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres says he wants the fighting to stop. An immediate permanent ceasefire, an immediate and then conditional release of all hostages and.
- [05:44]
Stephen Colbert
Full humanitarian access without any restrictions.
- [05:48]
Kent Covington
But Israeli leaders say there can be no lasting peace as long as a terror group openly devoted to Israel's destruction remains on the nation's doorstep. And Israeli Defense forces launched new strikes in the city of Deir el Bala in central Gaza Tuesday. That's an area that has not seen the same kind of heavy fighting up till now as the rest of the Gaza Strip. But the IDF now believes Hamas is hiding Israeli hostages there. Heavy metal rocker Ozzy Osbourne has died at the age of 76. The Grammy winning performer was often at the center of controversy over the use of dark occult imagery in concerts and in music videos. But in the 2000s, he assumed an entirely different Persona as the star of the hit reality TV show the Osbournes, that of a doddering, mild mannered family man. My wife Sharon is the leader.
- [06:40]
Andrew Walker
We all depend on her for everything.
- [06:42]
Hunter Baker
You know, even me.
- [06:44]
Kent Covington
His career spanned six decades and as a lead singer and solo artist combined, osbourne sold nearly 150 million records. I'm Kent Cuffington. And straight ahead, Hunter Baker joins us once again with analysis of some of the top political stories of the week on Washington Wednesday. Plus, what the Bible has to say about borders. This is the WORLD and everything in it.
- [07:27]
Myrna Brown
It's Wednesday, the 23rd of July. Glad to have you along for today's edition of the WORLD and Everything In It. Good morning. I'm Myrna Brown.
- [07:36]
Lindsay Mast
And I'm Lindsay Mast. Time now for Washington Wednesday before lawmakers head home for August recess. They managed to pass another one of President Trump's priorities, putting cuts from the Department of Government Efficiency into law. A bill Congress passed last week rescinds government spending on funds, including for public media and foreign aid. World's Leo Braceno reports.
- [08:02]
Thomas Massie
The rescissions bill is one of the first actual reductions in government spending that Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky can recall.
- [08:08]
Stephen Colbert
This is the biggest cut I've ever seen.
- [08:10]
Hunter Baker
It's like the only cut I've ever seen.
- [08:12]
Tulsi Gabbard
Right.
- [08:13]
Stephen Colbert
So if we have more of them, that's great.
- [08:15]
Thomas Massie
On Friday, the bill cleared the House of representatives by a three vote margin. It includes a $7.8 billion reduction to U.S. foreign aid programs and a $1.1 billion cut from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. That's the organization that provides financial support and policy direction to services like NPR and pbs. Congressman Massie has opposed his own party in one out of five votes this year, but he told me he's all on board for rescissions.
- [08:43]
Kent Covington
I'm just happy about the process. It's whatever we can agree to cut, we cut.
- [08:48]
Thomas Massie
But agreeing on what to cut is tricky. Senator Susan Collins of maine objected to $400 million in spending reductions to PEPFAR, a US foreign aid program meant to combat the AIDS epidemic in Africa.
- [09:01]
Kent Covington
When you look at pepfar, you are eliminating a lot of the prevention programs.
- [09:08]
Thomas Massie
Collins voted against the rescissions bill, but because this kind of legislation is not subject to the filibuster process, the Senate passed it by a vote of 51 to 48. And the final version left PEPFAR spending untouched. After the House passed the final version, I spoke with Congresswoman Lisa McClain of Michigan, the GOP House conference chair.
- [09:29]
Myrna Brown
Listen, the House is going to continue to do what the House does, and.
- [09:33]
Caroline Levitt
We'Re going to put the most conservative.
- [09:34]
Myrna Brown
You know, rescissions package on the floor.
- [09:37]
Hunter Baker
That we can put, and the Senate's.
- [09:39]
Kent Covington
Going to do what they do.
- [09:40]
Thomas Massie
The next big challenge for Congress will be passing spending bills for 2026 after the August recess. Reporting for World, I'm Leo Braceno in Washington.
- [09:51]
Myrna Brown
Well, Hunter Baker joins us now. He's provost of North Greenville University and a contributor to World Opinions. Hunter, good morning.
- [10:00]
Hunter Baker
Good morning.
- [10:01]
Myrna Brown
Well, as you heard there, lawmakers are now codifying spending cuts from doge into law. So, Hunter, Republicans have been concerned about the federal debt for decades. Why do you think it's taken them so long to tackle the behemoth of government spending?
- [10:19]
Hunter Baker
Well, so in my lifetime, I think that we have only had a balanced budget or a surplus a handful of times. One was with Richard Nixon and there were two or three others with Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. We have much more often had problems with accumulating debt, with yearly deficits. And I think the reason that we don't fix it is very simple, which is that anytime there's an appetite to cut, there's an opportunistic opportunity to attack whoever wants to cut. I can remember Paul Ryan arguing for deficit reduction. And then there was an advertisement with a man who looked like Paul Ryan pushing a grandmother off the edge of a cliff. That's a common sort of a thing, right? Anytime you talk about cutting government, including reducing the rate of growth of the budget, you hear attacks on those proposing it. So one thing that's important to note with the rescissions package is that it is only $9 billion. We're talking about an infinitesimal, tiny amount of federal spending. But what is significant about this is that it is an action fiscal discipline. So maybe we're flexing the muscles a little bit on trying to actually figure out how to tame the budget.
- [11:49]
Lindsay Mast
Another big story out of Washington this week is President Trump's decision to release thousands of documents concerning Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
- [11:56]
Thomas Massie
The Apostle of non violence in the.
- [11:58]
Kent Covington
Civil rights movement has been shot to death in Memphis, Tennessee.
- [12:02]
Lindsay Mast
The investigation goes back to before King's assassination on April 4, 1968, when FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover wanted to find dirt to discredit King. King's family had mixed feelings about this week's document release. His niece, Alveda King, thanked President Trump for his transparency, while King's children, Bernice and Martin iii, asked readers to view the documents within the larger historical context. And they're not the only ones talking about it. So, Hunter, is this welcome transparency? Is it an attempt to distract from criticism over the handling of the Epstein files? What's your take?
- [12:37]
Hunter Baker
Well, I think, first of all, you'd have to be naive not to view this as, to some extent, an effort to pull attention away from the Epstein controversy. There's no question, especially on the right, that people are talking about the Epstein thing a lot. And so I think that Trump is interested in pushing some other narratives out there. And in fact, you notice that he said something about telling Pam Bondi she could go ahead and release information that she thinks is appropriate on the Epstein files. So clearly that's getting through now, coming on to mlk. Regardless of what the motive is, I think it's good that that information is coming out. As with the Kennedy assassination, I think the more that we have, the better. And I think that the. The King family is striking the right posture on this thing. On the one hand, they're grateful. They want to see that information come out and so that people can have confidence that what the government said happened is what happened. But they're also concerned because it is true that the FBI was bugging phones and following King and per perhaps trying to discredit him. They were worried that he was going to engage in communist activism and things of that nature. And so they're concerned that as those papers come out, that there may be some things in there that cast Dr. King in a negative light. But that having been said, I think that a lot of that stuff is stuff that we already know and have seen discussed and presented in movies. So I don't think there's going to be any surprises in these files.
- [14:11]
Myrna Brown
One more story, Hunter. Last week, CBS said it will cancel the Late show with political comedian Stephen Colbert.
- [14:20]
Kent Covington
Yeah, I share your feelings. It's not just the end of our show, but it's the end of the Late show on cbs.
- [14:26]
Hunter Baker
I'm not being replaced.
- [14:28]
Stephen Colbert
This is all just going away.
- [14:30]
Myrna Brown
So the network cited financial reasons, while Colbert seemed to imply the cancellation was political. Hunter, what implications do you see here for the direction of political commentary?
- [14:43]
Hunter Baker
Well, a lot of people are going to assume that the motivations are primarily political or it has something to do with Trump's lawsuit against cbs. But I think that it may be much more of a financial issue. I spoke with an industry insider and what she said to me is that she thinks that it has more to do with Paramount's merger with Skydance. In advance of a merger of this type, you want to try to clean up the balance sheet as much as possible. And getting rid of this huge money losing show is a big part of that. I think a lot of people are going to think that this was done because of politics. I actually don't think that's the case. Probably the least political of the late night hosts, which would be Jimmy Fallon is currently having the lowest ratings. Maybe the one who is the most political would be Greg Gutfeld of Fox News and he's on cable and he has the highest ratings. His ratings are even higher than Stephen Colbert's. So I think that what's really going on is that it's the impact of streaming. Johnny Carson's Tonight show had an audience regularly of 15 million people. Stephen Colbert gets about 2.5 million a night. And so it just doesn't make sense to have a show like this that loses $40 million a year for a much smaller audience.
- [16:06]
Lindsay Mast
Well, Hunter Baker is provost of North Greenville University and World Opinions contributor. Hunter, thank you for joining us today.
- [16:13]
Hunter Baker
Thank you.
- [16:24]
Kent Covington
Additional support comes from the Joshua program at St. Dunstan's Academy in Virginia. A gap year shaping young men through trades, farming, prayer, St. Dunstansacademy.org from Cedarville University equipping students for professional excellence and gospel impact cedarville. Edu World. And from Dort University offering fast track ag degrees to help graduates make an impact in agriculture sooner Dort. Edu.
- [17:05]
Lindsay Mast
Coming up next on the World and everything in It World tour. Onise Adua is on maternity leave. So World's Paul Butler has this week's international news rundown.
- [17:17]
Stephen Colbert
We begin today with an emergency meeting in Cairo. Members of the Arab League gathered yesterday to discuss Israel's ongoing war with the terror group Hamas in Gaza and the continuing humanitarian crisis there. Speaking here, Palestinian Liberation Organization executive committee member Ahmad Abdu Ali saying residents of Gaza are dying of hunger. He goes on to claim that plans to evacuate Gazan civilians to a so called humanitarian city will only result in their ultimate imprisonment and death. The Israeli military says it has called on residents to evacuate areas of central Gaza, including Deir Al Balah. It remains the only Gaza city that has not seen major ground operations nor suffered widespread destruction since the war began. Israel now believes Hamas is holding large numbers of Israeli hostages there. The Israeli military is in the process of splitting Gaza into military corridors to pressure Hamas to release more captives. Next to Iran, where officials are gearing up for nuclear talks with France, Germany and Britain. The three European nations threaten to implement the snapback mechanism from the 2015 nuclear deal. That means they would re implement their earlier sanctions at the end of August if Iran doesn't limit its nuclear actions. Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman, calling the country's nuclear program peaceful, says they'll do whatever it takes to remove sanctions. Iran's foreign minister told Fox News Channel's Special Report with Bret Baer that the U.S. and Israel's bombing of their nuclear facilities did set them back. However, we cannot give up our enrichment because it is an achievement of our own scientists and now more than that, it is a question of national pride. Iranian officials say the country has no plans to resume talks with the United States. Next to Bangladesh On Tuesday, students gathered to protest against the Bangladesh government after an Air Force fighter jet crashed into Milestone School in Dhaka, the nation's capital. Shaffer Shafi is a student at Milestone.
- [19:28]
Thomas Massie
Then bottled up.
- [19:31]
Stephen Colbert
He says here the plane crashed into several classrooms as instructors were teaching English to teenagers and young children. At least 31 people have died and many more are injured. The interim government says the fighter jet was on a training mission when it suffered a mechanical failure, but protesters are demanding more answers. In Dhaka, students broke into a government building demanding the resignation of of an education official. Police disperse them with tear gas grenades and batons. Bangladesh's interim leader, Mohammed Yunus, declared Tuesday a national day of mourning. Saiful Islam is a Milestone teacher. He says here that children were waiting for their parents to come and take them home at the time of the crash. But now many parents are in mourning next to Chile, where Latin American officials and the Spanish prime minister are meeting for the so called Democracy Always Forum. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez saying societies face a real threat from a coalition of what he calls oligarchs and the far right. He calls it an international network of hatred and lies. Chilean President Gabriel Boric says the threat includes forms of extremism, misinformation and inequality. And finally today, saying goodbye to the so called turbaned tornado, friends and family members gathered this week to honor Faju Singh in Jalandhar, India. He's a Centurion marathon runner who was struck and killed by a vehicle near his village last week. His grandson spoke to the press at the funeral.
- [21:19]
Caroline Levitt
When he started participating in marathons, he never kept a single penny in his pocket.
- [21:24]
Hunter Baker
He donated his earnings and inspired all of us.
- [21:28]
Stephen Colbert
Singh began running in his youth, but he didn't start running competitively until age 89. He completed the Toronto Waterfront Marathon in 2011 at age 100. It would have made him the oldest competitor to complete the race, but Guinness Book of World Records refused to officially recognize the feat, as Singh had no documentation to prove his birth date. That's this week's world tour. I'm Paul Butler for Onise Odua.
- [22:08]
Myrna Brown
Superman may be flying high at the box office, but it's a furry guy with four legs stealing hearts on the ground.
- [22:16]
Hunter Baker
This is my dog Ozu, barking at the screen.
- [22:20]
Kent Covington
Crypto was actually 3D modeled after Ozu's body.
- [22:24]
Myrna Brown
That's director James Gunn talking about his own rescue pup named Oz, who, as you heard, gets excited when he sees his digital double crypto on the screen. That's Superman's superdog. And moviegoers aren't just falling for Clark Kent, they're falling for canines. Google searches for Adopt a dog near me soared 500% after opening weekend. Happily, hundreds of pets have found homes since then. Crypto may be faster than a speeding bullet, but adoption, now that's the real superpower. It's the world and everything in it. Today is Wednesday, July 23rd. Thank you for turning to World Radio to help start your day. Good morning. I'm Myrna Brown.
- [23:27]
Lindsay Mast
And I'm Lindsay Mast. Coming next on the World and Everything in it, bringing fossils to life. What can ancient bones, shells and scraps of soft tissue really tell us? Well, in the hands of skilled scientists and artists, they can reveal ancient stories.
- [23:43]
Myrna Brown
World's Mary Munsee takes us to the rugged Badlands of South Dakota, where turning fossils into full illustrations is part science, part sleuthing, and part imagination.
- [23:59]
Caroline Levitt
At Badlands national park in South Dakota, there's a big blue mural on the wall of the visitor center with a creature that looks kind of like a sea monster. What is that?
- [24:11]
Tulsi Gabbard
It's called a mosquito.
- [24:13]
Caroline Levitt
Autumn Carlson and her mom are walking through the park's fossil exhibit.
- [24:17]
Myrna Brown
What is this?
- [24:19]
Stephen Colbert
That's its job.
- [24:20]
Caroline Levitt
There are illustrations and replicas of what scientists think ancient animals might have looked like all over the visitor center. But not everyone agrees on those interpretations, and trying to figure it out is a long process without much confirmation. While Autumn peppers her mom with questions about the fossils they're seeing, paleontologists are in the back trying to uncover more buried creatures.
- [24:45]
Myrna Brown
I've got a pond turtle.
- [24:47]
Caroline Levitt
Mary Carpenter is a paleontologist. She's holding a turtle shell encased in rock.
- [24:53]
Myrna Brown
So I've been working on this, trying to expose the bottom side especially the top of the turtle shell was relatively exposed.
- [25:04]
Caroline Levitt
She looks through a microscope and uses a tool with a needle on the end to chip away at the rock. The work is very slow. There's just a few inches of shell exposed and Carpenter is only removing dust sized pieces. Every time we chip that rock away, it's the first time that this animal gets to see the sunlight again. Exposing the fossil is one of the first steps in figuring out what the creature used to to look like. If it's something less well known than a turtle, paleontologists will study the bones and compare them to similar finds. They'll record their findings and make educated guesses about what an animal might have looked like. Then it's the illustrator's turn.
- [25:46]
Andrew Walker
Today I'm working on a drawing of an animal called Caudipteryx.
- [25:51]
Caroline Levitt
Joel Lineweber is the vice president of design at Answers in Genesis. He's moving an evolutionist made model of a fossil around on his computer.
- [26:00]
Andrew Walker
Some scientists say this animal was a dinosaur and other scientists say that this animal was a bird.
- [26:07]
Caroline Levitt
And some say it's a link between them because they found fossilized feather impressions. Right now the illustration on Joel's screen is standing upright with its arms hanging down to the side and its tail straight out. It looks like a raptor. But Lineweber says he doesn't think that's quite right.
- [26:27]
Andrew Walker
For one, the tail is really short. It's, I think it's less than 20 tail vertebrae and dinosaurs. We expect to find 30 or more tail vertebrae and that pattern is really consistent across these animals.
- [26:40]
Caroline Levitt
Another reason is that birds today have special wrists and shoulders that allow them to tuck their wings up and to fly. And this fossil has both. So Lineweber starts making adjustments to the skeleton.
- [26:54]
Andrew Walker
I've got the knees a little more crouched. I've got the wing a little more folded. And you can see the neck's a little more curved, the tail's a little bit more curved.
- [27:04]
Caroline Levitt
Now it looks a lot more like a chicken. Before he started posing and drawing it, Leinweber and a team of scientists spent years researching what the paleontologists found.
- [27:15]
Andrew Walker
How big would the beak be? What color were the feathers? How long were the feathers, all of those types of things.
- [27:20]
Caroline Levitt
He sends the pose over to his iPad and starts drawing feathers around the head and neck.
- [27:25]
Andrew Walker
So I'm kind of Drawing around the legs. Now, Caudipteryx had pretty long legs, and so some scientists think that he was a quick runner.
- [27:35]
Caroline Levitt
He adds some dark grays and browns and a few white highlights to the feathers.
- [27:40]
Andrew Walker
There are some microscopic molecules, color molecules, that are sometimes found in the fossil record, but not very often. And this coloration in this drawing is kind of based on those.
- [27:53]
Caroline Levitt
Some scientists think there must have been more colors than what we find in the fossil record because there isn't much variation. Plus, the molecules themselves underwent a lot of pressure when they were buried in the bones fossilized, and that could have changed their structure. So just like the pose, the colors are left up to at least some interpretation. All of it combined can result in some vastly different results. Based on Worldview. Lineweber adds a couple of finishing touches to the sketch and saves the file. He talked to me again from his office.
- [28:28]
Andrew Walker
A creationist will look at that evidence and say, oh, look, look at that. It's clearly a bird. But an evolutionist will look at that and say, oh, well, it has some of these characteristics. So. And it was in this rock layer, so it must be a transitional form between this animal and this animal. And they come to a different conclusion.
- [28:44]
Caroline Levitt
He started drawing dinosaurs as a kid. Now he's drawing them for other kids like Autumn at the visitor center, who have big questions about their world. He hopes his work will give them a more accurate understanding of the world before them and help them understand the world around them.
- [29:03]
Andrew Walker
When I create artwork, I can draw attention to the fact that God's word is trustworthy. If you can trust the history in the Bible, then you can trust that what Jesus did on the cross and the history that that's rooted in is trustworthy as well.
- [29:18]
Caroline Levitt
Reporting for world, I'm Mary muncie in Badlands, South Dakota.
- [29:40]
Lindsay Mast
Today is Wednesday, July 23rd. Good morning. This is the world and everything in it from listener supported World radio. I'm Lindsay Mast.
- [29:48]
Myrna Brown
And I'm Myrna Brown. A recent family vacation has world opinions. Managing editor Andrew Walker. Thinking about borders.
- [30:03]
Tulsi Gabbard
If you've traveled internationally, you know the sound of a foreign airport terminal that low thermo voices speaking unfamiliar languages. Add small kids into the mix, as we did this summer. It's a real challenge. But heading home, even with the long customs lines, I felt something unexpected. Gratitude. Gratitude for national borders. Immigration debates can stir up a lot of emotion, especially when our call to love others seems to run up against immigration law. The tension can tempt us to shrug off the whole conversation, but we should not. Christians need to understand the deeper purpose and value of borders. To begin with, borders are not arbitrary. Look at Scripture and you read of God's providence in the way he orders the world. Look at the Book of acts. In chapter 17, we read about God making every nation having determined allotted periods in the boundaries of their dwelling place. From the beginning, God established nations, languages and borders. This was no mistake or problem he had to overcome. It was a way to check humanity's pride and limit our drive for control. Borders also make the rule of law possible. Christians may disagree on immigration policy, but we ought to be able to agree that government is commanded to begin with justice and order. Borders are essential for that. They also define political communities. Without them, how do we even know who belongs to a nation and what laws apply to whom? Borders allow us to live together under shared rules that promote the common good. Seeing them that way, borders aren't a necessary evil. They're a moral necessity. Borders also reflect a principle of good government, that laws are made for specific communities, not vague, undifferentiated masses. Different countries have different customs, interests and ways of life, and that's a good thing. The idea of one global brotherhood of man may sound appealing to some, but the reality is that cultural differences exist, and they require coordination, structure, and leadership. Even though God's kingdom is made up of people from every tribe and nation, that's no call to eliminate them. By eliminating borders, borders protect order, the foundation of justice. Where there are no borders, there is no final authority to turn to when conflicts arise, nation states strike a balance. They're big enough to provide security and small enough to reflect shared values. Borders let societies govern themselves according to their moral and cultural traditions. Because nations are diverse, borders help preserve what makes each one unique. It is good that Nigerians live like Nigerians, and it is good that South Koreans live like South Koreans. In a borderless world, cultures lose their shape and with it, their language, customs and traditions. Despite what some critics say, borders are not signs of fear or hatred. They're not xenophobic. They're not nativist or bigoted. They remind us that people with real differences also carry real responsibilities to one another and to the communities they serve. Enforcing borders isn't always easy, but it is necessary. As I stood in that long line at the Cincinnati airport, I felt thankful for the men and women who work to protect our borders, thankful for the rule of law, thankful to be home inside America's borders. I'm Andrea Walker.
- [33:33]
Lindsay Mast
Tomorrow, as families start to prepare for school to begin again, many states are banning cell phones. In class. How are students and parents responding? And last month, the Trump administration announced a peace deal in Africa. We'll check in on the progress. That and more tomorrow. I'm Lindsay Mass.
- [33:51]
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 Bible says, when the Son of man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. Verses 31 and 32 of Matthew 25. Go now in grace and peace.