← The World and Everything In It
The World and Everything In It
8.26.25 Parents rights in California, the rise of deadlier drugs, and a Pittsburgh chapel filled with religious relics
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Good morning.
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California debates a bill that expands who.
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Can take custody of a child if the parents are detained or deported.
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It's a direct assault on parental rights. Also today, a deadly new opioid is spreading into the US we have a report and a little church that's home to thousands of relics. Each one is a jewel, each one is a little masterpiece. And the religious left gets a big platform. It's Tuesday, August 26th.
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This is the world and everything in it from listener supported World Radio. I'm Mary Reichert.
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And I'm Nick Eicher. Good morning. Up next, Kent Covington with today's news. Burn the American flag and go to jail. That was President Trump's message at the White House as he signed an executive order that seeks to penalize anyone who desecrates the flag. You burn a flag, you get one year in jail. You don't get 10 years, you don't get one month, you get one year in jail. And it goes on your record. And you will see flag burning stopping immediately. But there is no jail sentence outlined in the order. Instead, it directs the Justice Department to prosecute people for setting fire to the flag by using existing laws like those penalizing an incitement to violence. When you burn the American flag, it incites riots at levels that we've never seen before. People go crazy. The order also instructs the attorney general to challenge a 1989 Supreme Court ruling that protected flag burning as political expression. Critics say the president is overstepping his authority. And legal challenges are already in the works to that order and to another executive order that Trump also signed on Monday. That one targets cashless bail, whereby some states and jurisdictions now allow suspects after their arrest to leave jail pending trial without posting a cash bond. President Trump and other critics say that lets more criminals out on the street. Somebody kills somebody, they go in, don't worry about it, no cash. Come back in a couple of months, we'll give you a trial. You never see the person again. But proponents of the policy called Trump's remarks an exaggeration, saying cashless bail reforms generally apply to nonviolent offenses. And they say the cash based bail system is discriminatory because some people have the financial means to post bail that others do not. Trump's executive order threatens to withhold federal funds from cities and states that refuse to scrap cashless bail. A short time later, President Trump welcomed the new president of South Korea, Lee Jae Myung, to the Oval Office. Mr. President, let me begin by thanking you on behalf of the Korean people. I would like to thank you for giving your time for today's meeting. Seated before a row of cameras, Myung praised Trump's peacemaking efforts around the world and had kind words for his economic policies. In trade talks. The two presidents moved closer to a deal that would cut US tariffs on South Korean imports from 25% down to 15%, with Seoul also pledging to invest another $350 billion in the US before the meeting, Trump voiced concern over political raids there, including government crackdowns on certain churches and even a prosecutor's search at a joint U.S. south Korean military base. Young called it a misunderstanding. Attorney General Pam Bondi told reporters Monday that federal authorities had arrested Salvadorian national Kilmar Abrego Garcia. We've got him under control.
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He will no longer terrorize our country. He's currently charged with human smuggling, including children.
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The Justice Department says he is a member of the Ms. 13 gang and a danger to society. Garcia denies those accusations. Authorities on Monday arrested him shortly after he met with federal officials for an immigration appointment. The Trump administration now plans to deport him to Uganda. Defense attorney Simon Sandoval Moschenburg for them to insist on fighting out a deportation to Uganda shows that the real motive in this matter is not getting him out of the country, it's punishing him and keeping him locked up. Garcia entered the country illegally in 2011 but had been shielded from deportation by a judge's order. The Trump administration mistakenly deported him earlier this year, sparking a legal battle and political firestorm before prosecutors say they brought him back to the US to face charges. The United States and Indonesia on Monday launched joint military drills in the Indo Pacific region aimed at keeping China in check. World's Benjamin Eicker has that story. Thousands of troops are training with tanks, artillery, helicopters and warships in the annual exercises.
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Air Indonesia is leading the drills along with the United States and nearly a dozen other countries.
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It's an annual exercise known as the.
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Super Garuda Shield, which began back in 2009. Over the years, it has become increasingly.
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Focused on countering the threat that China.
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Poses in the region. Beijing has grown more aggressive, claiming more of the South China Sea as its territorial waters. Jakarta has expressed its own concern about what it sees as Chinese encroachment on its exclusive economic zone in the sea, though Indonesia generally maintains positive ties with Beijing.
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This year's drills will wrap up next week with a combined live fire drill for World I'm Benjamin Eicher. SpaceX had to scrub its scheduled launch of its Starship rocket again last night this time due to weather officials had hoped to try again one day after engineers had to call off a Sunday launch due to problems with the ground systems at the Starbase launch site in South Texas. No word yet on when they'll try again. The mission is designed to test upgrades to the rocket's engines and heat shield, key steps toward future deep space flights. I'm Kent Covington. And straight ahead, California families are voicing concern about a proposed law that is supposed to protect miners. Plus a visit to a Pittsburgh church with an interesting collection, collection of religious artifacts. This is the world and everything in it. It's Tuesday, the 26th of August.
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This is World Radio and we're so glad you've joined us today.
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Good morning.
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I'm Mary Reichert.
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And I'm Nick Eichert. First up on the world and everything in it. Assembly built four nine, four in California. The measure would allow non parents to care for children when parents can't. And it's sparking protests. Supporters call it a safeguard for children of detained or deported parents. But opponents warn it's a dangerous threat to parental rights. World associate correspondent Elisa Palumbo reports. Welcome everybody here to the AB495 rally.
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A few thousand people have gathered on the Capitol lawn in Sacramento, California. Some wear MAGA hats. Others are dressed in red, white and blue. Most are holding handmade signs with slogans like protect California kids, no AB495.
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And so with that, I'm going to ask right now for you guys to somehow find the shade that you can.
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Get a hat on your head. That's Pastor Jack Hibbs from Calvary Chapel in Chino Hills. He worked with pro family advocacy groups to organize this rally against Assembly Bill 495. They say the bill's language is too vague. Brad Dacus agrees. He's an attorney from Pacific Justice Institute, a non profit legal defense organization. He claims AB495 could allow complete strangers to gain custody of any child in the state of California. He says the bill needs to be killed immediately.
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This is the human trafficking pedophile estranged spouse holiday. And that's why we need to oppose it. It's a direct assault on parental rights.
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California Assemblywoman Celeste Rodriguez introduced AB495 in April as the Family Preparedness Plan act of 2025. She drafted it as a response to increased ICE raids. She says the intent is to make it easier for a child of deported parents to receive care from a trusted non family member. The problem is how the bill expands the definition of relatives and caregivers raising concerns from many California parents that it could be misused. Nicole Young is The mother of six who testified against AB495 twice in the California Senate. She says when she first read it, she was shocked by its ambiguous language. It's not a well written bill. The language is very broad and it has the possibility of unintended consequences. And I said this in my first testimony. We could help vulnerable immigrant families, but not like this. California has had the caregiver authorization affidavit in place for 30 years. It's a legal tool that allows for non parent caregivers who are already living with the child to enroll them in school and consent to school related medical treatment. The current version of the affidavit does not require a parent's signature, presumably because the parent in question is unable to care for their child due to addiction or incarceration. The name of the adult claiming to be a caregiver and their home address. And then they can have access to that child's ability to have dental care, medical care. But AB495 would take that a step further, particularly in cases where a child's parents had been detained by ice. It expands the current law allowing non family members to use the caregiver affidavit. Kara England is a president of a capital resource institute, a pro family public policy. It's clear it expands the definition of a family to include a mentor, coach, all of that. So it's in the bill. You can read it. The bill defines a non relative extended family member as any adult who has an established familial or mentoring relationship with the child or or relative of the child. Monica Madrid is spokeswoman for Churla, an immigrant rights group lobbying for AB 495. She says the opposition is spreading misinformation. One of the things that they're saying is just anyone can pick up the child for school. Schools already have protections for that. Madrid says the bill updates existing protections to make it easier for immigrant children to receive temporary guardianship, but from trusted individuals who might not be direct family members. It's meant to keep these kids from being taken by Child Protective Services. But all we're doing, we're not updating the affidavit like we're not going through the affidavit itself. We're just adding to include in the case of the child's parents being detained or deported by federal administration, not the full on affidavit. But some of the protesters I spoke to said that as it's written the bill is not just for children of immigrants. Nicole Young, again, the language does not say that. It does not. It says if the parent has been detained, deported or is unreachable. Unreachable could be. I'm in a doctor's appointment, can't answer my phone. So it is a very vaguely written. If they, even if they just remove that, it would change the whole fabric of the bill.
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Horror.
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When Young testified in the Senate, she asked that the bill be amended for clarity. The bill's authors ignored her requests. The current affidavit only requires a caregiver to say the child lives with them and provide their driver's license number. Opponents worry that the lack of additional verification allows for anyone to take the child into their custody. Madrid says this is fear mongering. She explains the bill does not allow for a complete stranger to pick up a child and the goal is to have someone that's trusted both by the parent and the child to be the temporary guardian, not a complete stranger. Both sides of the debate say they want what's best for immigrant kids. But critics of the bill want to safeguard parents rights. The creeping erosion of parental rights in California has given its citizens cause for concern. Let's seek a solution that, that everybody's safe. AB495 is currently in appropriations. It has until August 29th to move forward from committee. If it moves forward, it will go to the Senate floor and eventually to the governor's desk.
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Lord heal our land, we pray, and we gather together to do that very thing.
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Remind reporting for world. I'm Elisa Palumbo in Sacramento, California.
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Coming up next on THE World and everything in it, monster opioids. There's a new wave of synthetic drugs that are more powerful and deadly than fentanyl.
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They're called nitazines, opioids so dangerous they were never approved for human use. Today, they are killing people across Europe.
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And now they're trickling into the U.S.
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Experts warn there's never been a more perilous time for those who abuse drugs.
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Here is world's Anna Johansen Brown.
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Robert Pennell served more than 24 years as a special agent with California's Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement. Today, he helps law enforcement stay up to date on trends in the illicit drug underworld.
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The first thing that really got our attention in the Central Valley was right around 20, 21, 22, we started seeing colored fentanyl. Purple, yellow, silver. We had never seen that before.
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Last year, California law enforcement partnered with the FBI to investigate a ring of Honduran Drug traffickers. The traffickers were operating out of Merced county in the state's Central Valley.
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And one of the things they find is that they offer Fedi, which is fentanyl, but they were also offering ISO.
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ISO is the street name for isotonidazine, which tends to be five to 20 times more powerful than fentanyl, although some is well over 40 times more potent. Law enforcement intercepted messages between a dealer and his customer discussing the deadly drug.
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They talked about, first of all, you know that, you know, it was like a, it was a gray powder, had kind of vinegar smell on it. And they told him, hey, listen, you know, you be really, really careful because this stuff's really, really powerful. So you be careful using it. And that's what he's saying in the text messages. Well, the problem is the guy who is buying it basically, don't worry about me, you know, I've been, I know what I'm doing. Well, he didn't know what he was doing, see, and he overdosed and died.
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Isotonidazine is one of at least eight different kinds of nitosines. Scientists developed the class of opioids in the 1950s, around the same time as fentanyl. Researchers tinkered with the formula, hoping to create a different kind of opioid for managing pain. Something with a chemical structure that was significantly different from morphine.
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And what they found was that nitazine's safety profile had real unacceptable side effects. Respiratory depression and death. So it was never created.
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But covert. Chemists operating underground began sifting through historical research for more ways to create synthetic opioids.
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You have what are called patent pirates, and these are individuals that are always looking all over, whether it be on the dark web, whether it be all over open source material, they're always looking for analogs and new drugs. And they found nitosine and they started reading about nitosine. So you only have to have an organic chemistry background to make it.
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Nitosines exploded in the United Kingdom in 2023. There, at least 400 people died from nitosine involved overdoses from July of that year to January. 20. Some experts say the death toll is probably much higher than what's officially documented since toxicology labs didn't know what they were looking for or how to test for nitazines when they first showed up. Most individuals consume nitazines thinking they're taking another substance. Here's one British heroin user sharing his experience with a UK based news podcast after he took a nitosine laced version of the drug.
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And I had quite a big tolerance at the time. And I just remember, like, passing out basically as soon as I had it and it just not tasting right, like it wasn't right. Smoked a little bit and it instantly, like, knocked me out, almost like I couldn't even really stand up.
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Nitazines emerged in Europe after the Taliban began cracking down on Afghanistan's opium industry and heroin became harder to access. Keith Humphries is a drug policy researcher at Stanford University. He says the rise in synthetic opioids over natural opium comes down to money.
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Someone needs to harvest it. You need to hope the weather holds. Then you have to, you know, process it, export it past the border, get it on a boat, do however many thousands of miles, you're sending it to Europe or the US or Canada or whatever. And there's risk of seizures along the way. So that's a pretty expensive business model.
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Creating and shipping synthetic opioids through the dark web eliminates many of those costs.
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Contrast that with making a fentanyl or carfentanyl or nitosine, which can just be done in the lab, you know, close to the source where the customers are. So the production cost is probably 1%, you know, to make a synthetic opioid versus, you know, heroin. And as a result, that over time is, is inevitably going to force heroin out.
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Unauthorized chemists also tweak drug formulas to evade government regulations. More than 80 fentanyl related substances have been reported to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Here's Robert Pennell again.
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Just had a recent seizure that involved carfentanil. You know, and carfentanil is extremely powerful opiate that is used by veterinarians to anesthetize elephants. In rhinos, big zoos will use carfentanil.
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Pennel said Mexican cartels are becoming more deeply embedded in Canada, where they are turning their attention to producing incredibly dangerous synthetic opioids.
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One of the most popular ways to purchase iron just fentanyl is these counterfeit oxy blue M30 pills. But we had a batch show up in Idaho that were all nitosine.
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Law enforcement raided two large labs in Canada last year that were producing nidazine pills.
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It's literally following the same track as fentanyl.
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Fentanyl killed nearly 73,000Americans in 2023. Overdose deaths are now starting to decline, thanks in part to the widespread availability of the anti overdose drug naloxone. But nidazine overdoses are even more difficult to reverse than fentanyl or heroin.
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If you have an overdose and you have the reversal drug naloxone and you get a powerful opiate like nitosine. Where before it might have taken four to eight milligrams or two dosages of naloxone, now it may take four.
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Pennell says there's never been a more risky time to experiment with drugs.
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The problem you run into now is everything is either diluted or it's cut with or it's in combination with different drugs. But one of the big things you'll get from people is that, well, really, Bob, they don't want to kill all their customers. Well, that's not true at all anymore. There are so many millions of customers and people, they don't really think like that, you know, that they don't want to kill off their customers. It's just all about making money.
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I'm Anna Johansen Brown with reporting from Addy Offerins.
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Additional support comes from Covenant College. Rigorous academics grounded in reformed theology lived out in Christ centered community. Covenant. Edu World from Water's edge. Save more, do more, give more. Helping Christians support ministry by giving through a donor advised fund, watersedge.com daf and from audio Deacon, offering album reviews and artist interviews to cultivate mature musical taste in a noisy world. Audio-deakin.com all right, so they tell me there's this new dating trend making headlines. It's called Shreking, and it comes from the animated film Shrek, where the leading lady falls in love with the title character, an ogre. The trade off is except ogre looks for a princely personality.
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The problem is it's backfiring.
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Amy Chan is author of Breakup Boot Camp.
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These ogre like guys are not treating the women well. Hence the word getting Shrek.
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Yeah. So what's a girl to do?
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The lesson here isn't to only date conventionally attractive people, but to develop better skills for assessing someone's value, character, emotional availability, regardless of what package they come in.
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In other words, forget Shrek and maybe look to 18th century literature. The vicar of Wakefield. Handsome is that handsome does. Ha ha. I bagged both. It's the world and everything in it. Today is Tuesday, August 26th. Thank you for turning to world radio to help start your day. Good morning. I'm Nick Eicher.
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And I'm Mary Reichard. Coming next on the world and everything in it. Faith, history and mystery. In a small church in Pittsburgh, ancient Catholic relics draw hundreds of people making the pilgrimage year after year.
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Across the centuries, relics have stirred devotion and debate. But what do they mean for faith today? World's Emma Eicher takes us to one of the world's most largest collections.
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In the hilltop neighborhood of Troy Hill in Pittsburgh, there's a little chapel called St. Anthony's it's home to the most Catholic relics in the world, second only to the Vatican.
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Here's where that little thread from Mary's veil would be.
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Deacon Greg Jelinek has served at St. Anthony's for more than 50 years.
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At that top little enamel medallion, there's a picture of Mary and then a little piece of her veil underneath. And then with Christ's head, a rock from the tomb where he was buried. And then here, a little thread from St. Joseph's clothing.
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He grew up in this church, wandering through the pews as a toddler.
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And there's a great archway that separates the two sections of the chapel. And on the archway there's an inscription which reads, corpora sanctorum in pace sepulta sunt. The bodies of the saints are buried here in peace. And I think that was the goal of our first pastor, Father Mollinger, who.
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Built this chapel in the late 19th century. Subert Mollinger used his wealth to buy relics and he placed them in elaborate reliquaries. That's a place where relics are displayed, often handcrafted and decorated.
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But this one is a relic of our Lord's cross. It's the little splinter in the center of the reliquary there.
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Here, the reliquaries range from intricate embroidered displays to stunning gold washed crosses a few feet tall. That splinter Jelinek pointed out is held in an ornate cross under a particularly elegant reliquary.
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It's four golden pillars with a, a dome. There are four carved angels, one on either corner of the dome. And the dome is covered with a red velvet fabric. Just fairly opulent way to honor this particular relic.
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There are more than 5,000 relics in the chapel, and they're everywhere. Mounted on walls or clustered together on shelves going all the way up to the high arched ceiling.
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Each one is a jewel. Each one is a little masterpiece.
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Relics come from the bodies of saints canonized in the Catholic Church. They can be anything. Bones, pieces of skin, hair, blood. And the church has to officially verify their legitimacy. The popularity of relics dates back to medieval times. Michael Haken is a professor of church history at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kentucky.
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Relics become very, very significant part of the life of the church. Not only the spirituality of individual believers, but they become essential to the large scale building projects that take place in the Middle Ages.
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People paid money to see Relics from the saints, which guaranteed revenue for cathedrals and church buildings, and their significance to the church was a holdover from even more ancient ideas.
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And one of the key elements of Roman paganism was that certain objects and places had spiritual power associated with them. It's called Newman.
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So when people joined the church during the Middle Ages, they brought a pagan understanding of Newman with them.
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So it was believed that if a person had lived a remarkably holy life after their death, things that they may have touched, but also especially their body, was still charged with spiritual power, almost kind of in some ways, like radioactivity.
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Not only would people go to see the relics, but they would touch, kiss, or even kneel to them. It's called veneration in the Catholic faith, and it means giving honor or respect to someone in a special way. It usually involves praying directly to the saint whose relic is being venerated, asking for intercession. Greg Jelinek says Catholics don't see the relics as magic or possessing powers, but he says they serve as important reminders of martyrdom.
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It's the example and life and presence of the saint herself from himself that give us courage and the strength.
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Angelinek believes the Holy Spirit may still dwell in the bones of the saints, even centuries later.
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St. Paul teaches us, do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit dwelling within you, given to you from God? And that's no more true for any of us than for these saints who lived lives that were filled with the. The work of the Holy Spirit and who were truly inspired by the Holy Spirit. When the soul leaves the body, does the body become negligible? I don't think so.
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But while the Catholic Church officially holds that veneration is not worship, Michael Haken says real spiritual dangers can appear regardless.
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Roman Catholic theologians make this distinction between worship and veneration. I think that line is lost on the person in the pew in many Catholic churches. I think it has tended to take the focus away from Christ and from the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the Spirit's power.
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There are still some things Protestants and Catholics can agree on. Hagen says relics don't have spiritual power, but they do hold a different kind of significance for everyone.
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There are men and women who've lived remarkably holy lives that can be models for us. I think the impulse there is similar to the impulse that you find in the Roman Catholic veneration of relics, which is the need for heroes.
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And Jelinek agrees.
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You know, if you. You know that these are the remains of people who are great models of faith, then to be in the presence of their physical remains makes me want to strive to. To learn from them and to become more like them in my own spiritual life, in my own Faith Quest.
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St. Anthony's still holds weekly mass and worship services for its small congregation. Tourists come and go, peering up at the relics of saints long gone, locked behind glass and gold. Reporting for World, I'm Emma eicher in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Today is Tuesday, August 26th. Good morning, this is the World and everything in it from listener supported World Radio. I'm Mary Reichert.
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And I'm Nick Icker. Texas passes a law to put the Ten Commandments on classroom walls. A Democratic senator and seminary grad says it's not only unconstitutional, but as he sees it, unchristian. World Opinions contributor Daniel Darling looks at what happens when the religious left gets on the national stage with one of America's top podcasters. Broadly, we should say that using religion to control the people is a tale as old as time. In a recent episode of his popular podcast, Joe Rogan talked with Texas Democratic Senator James Talarico, a mainline Presbyterian seminarian. His Christian language has some pundits enthusiastically predicting he could, quote, turn Texas blue. I have my doubts. What do you think is the biblical evidence to support the opinion of being pro abortion? So one, you know, in Genesis, God creates life by breathing life into the first human being, which we later call Adam. That life starts when you take your first breath. And that is actually the mainline position in Judaism is that that's when life starts. Talarico might be a seminarian, but his exegesis needs work. Besides claiming that Scripture declares life begins at first breath, he also suggests the incarnation of Jesus and is a defense for elective abortion. Creation has to be done with consent. You cannot force someone to create. Creation is one of the most sacred acts that we engage in as human beings. But that has to be done with consent. It has to be done with freedom. And to me that is absolutely consistent with the ministry and life and death of Jesus. That's how I come down on that side of the issue. Rogin's more than two hour conversation with Talarico began with the senator's opposition to a new law in the Lone Star State, a law that requires every public school classroom to display a poster of the Ten Commandments. I feel like I have a special obligation to speak out against it. And so I told my colleagues that I thought the bill was unconstitutional. I thought the bill was unamerican. But I went one step further and I said I thought the bill was unchristian. Talarico says that he's a Christian who firmly believes in the separation of church and state. He isn't alone in his opposition to the law. The ACLU has of course, weighed in. But some conservatives also wonder if it violates the establishment clause of the First Amendment. As a Baptist who believes that a free church and a free state is the Christian ideal, I'm allergic to state compelled religion. For instance, I don't believe the government should demand non Christian students to pray Christian prayers. The government should not trample the conscience. However, I don't think the Texas Ten Commandments law falls into this category. First, it's undeniable that this set of laws is not only at the heart of the Christian faith, but is at the fountainhead of Western moral law. Consider the words of founder John Adams. He wrote, if thou shalt not covet and thou shalt not steal or not commandments of heaven, they must be made inviolable precepts in every society before it can be civilized or made free. His son, John Quincy Adams was even more explicit. The law given from Sinai was a civil and municipal as well as a moral and religious code. It contained many statutes of universal application, laws essential to the existence of men in society. To post the Ten Commandments in the classroom is not an imposition of the Christian religion by the state, but an acknowledgment of history by public schools. The founders desire to resist the establishment of a state church wasn't intended to scrub any contact with Christianity from the government. Christianity wasn't the only influence on the formation of American democracy, but it wasn't an insignificant one either. Sadly, in the last several decades, American jurisprudence has sought to rob American students of knowing the full history of their country. Most of America's past leaders, from Thomas Jefferson to FDR to Martin Luther King, would not recognize the secularism that has dominated our discussions. They all understood and acknowledged Christianity's influence on the Republic. Additionally, public schools often post signs and posters from numerous historic events on classroom walls. Many post motivational quotes and signs. Some even push messages about sexuality. What's more, the mere presence of a poster containing the Ten Commandments will not harm even those who don't share the Christian faith. They can look away if they are so inclined. But if those students do happen to catch a glance, they might be inspired to not steal or not covet. And that would be a good thing indeed. I'm Daniel Darling. Tomorrow, Washington, Wednesday. We'll be checking in with Hunter Baker. And a new vision for shelter helping the homeless feel at home, not just warehoused. That and more tomorrow. I'm Nick Eicher.
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And I'm Mary Reichard. The world and everything in it comes to you from World Radio. World's mission is biblically objective journal that informs, educates and inspires. Jesus said, one who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much.
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And one who is dishonest in a.
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Very little is also dishonest in much. Verse 10 of Luke chapter 16, Go now in grace and peace.