Building what war destroys

0:0015 years of the world and everything in it. Now we're closing in on 100 million downloads. So we made a commemorative sticker to give away, long time listener or brand new, we would love to send you one with our compliments. Go to the world and everything in it.org slash sticker. There is a handy link in the show notes to order yours, so we know how many to print and where to send them. Good morning. A former Ukrainian education minister talks about what back to school means there. It's the fifth year of schooling during which they will basically not go to school. Also today, first responders in rural America work to overcome short staffing and a new California law critics say could keep fraud hidden. Later, Frank Turek fights a war on reality. Somebody says the God of the Bible is evil. Don't go into a defense of that. First question you ought to ask is what do you mean by evil? And world commentator, Janie B. Cheney on Lindsay Clancy.

1:10It's Tuesday, September 8th. This is The World and everything in it from listeners supported world radio. I'm Mary Reichard. And I'm Nick Eiker. Good morning. Up next Kent Covington with today's news. Investigators are on the ground in Miami trying to figure out why an Amazon cargo jet overshot a runway at Miami International Airport on Sunday. They're looking at whether it landed too far down the runway and they want to know why the pilots did not abort the landing and try again. Tracking data show the plane was still doing 130 miles per hour when it ran off the end of the runway. The Boeing 767 flew in from Puerto Rico on Sunday afternoon. Noise one, Mommy. Looks like we have aircraft over and the runway on 30. Yes, sir. The jet tore through a fence and hit cars on a road used by warehouse workers, killing five people and leaving three others in critical condition. Plains on fire, peens on fire. Push the gamefaces on. Show me alert three all there available airport units.

2:14Alert three runway three zero over run. The airport has been down to of its four runways with hundreds of flights canceled or delayed. The Miami airport has no arrest or beds. Those are the crushable pads that stop a plane from going too far. Federal rules don't require them there. The National Transportation Safety Board expects a preliminary report within weeks. The full investigation though will take a year or more. Iran says it is about to draw a new line in the Persian Gulf and any ship crossing it goes on Tehran's sanctions list. World's Bench of Manika reports. An Iranian security official says its new restricted zone near the street of Hormuz starts at the US naval blockade line and reaches into the Persian Gulf. Analysts doubt that Iran can enforce it but the threat alone could scare off traffic. And that could put more upward pressure on energy prices. Brent crude just topped $97 a barrel its highest since late July.

3:16And AAA reports that regular unleaded set a Labor Day record at $4.15 a gallon. Diesel hit $5.90 an all time high. Over the weekend a Iran launched missiles at a US carrier and destroyer. Central Command says both ships were unharmed. But US forces then completely destroyed one Iranian tanker and disabled two more. For World I'm Benjamin Eiker. A right wing party has won a German state election in a landslide. Three seats short of an outright majority. The alternative for Germany party took 44% Sunday in Saxony annulte. Chancellor Friedrich Merch's party fell from 40 seats down to 15. The alternative for Germany party wants to end the country's constitutional right to asylum. Deport far more people, halt new wind farms and quit the treaties funding public television. Every rival so far has ruled out a coalition with the AFD leaving it without an obvious path to power.

4:18One small party has left open some cooperation but says it will not vote for an AFD candidate for governor. However, two more states vote in 12 days. Rescue crews into Paul are still digging for some 5,000 missing people nearly two weeks after a Himalayan flood. World's Kristen Flavin has that story. The government lowered its flags to half staff Monday for the nearly 1400 people confirmed dead. In Hindu tradition, morning ends on the 13th day after a death. But thousands of families have no body to bury. A glacier gave way high on the border with China nearly two weeks ago sending ice, rock and water down the valleys below. Some 900 of the missing are hydro power workers. Many believed trapped in tunnels inside the mountains. Rescuers pulled three workers out alive late last week. And on Saturday, crews dug a 64-year-old woman out of her buried house after her family had already held her funeral.

5:20Outside government offices, relatives have been demanding more crews and better equipment. For World, I'm Kristen Flavin. Soldiers from 11 NATO countries are training in Greenland today, practicing how to defend it by land, sea and air. The training began Monday as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen arrived in Greenland's capital, promising about $230 million over two years for energy, internet and mining. President Trump has insisted that the United States should control Greenland for security reasons, but von der Leyen said again on Monday. Greenland's future is for the people of Greenland and Denmark to decide. No one else. Territorial integrity, subrenity, the inviolability of borders. These are fundamental principles of international law. No American troops are taking part in this week's exercises. Greenland largely governs itself, but is a part of the Kingdom of Denmark, a NATO ally.

6:21The island sits under the shortest air route between Russia and North America. In January, Trump threatened tariffs on Denmark and seven other European countries after they sent troops to the island. But Trump dropped them after NATO Secretary General Mark Rotos stepped in. The U.S. is still negotiating with Denmark and Greenland over expanded American military access. Danish Prime Minister Metaphredrichson. We have been under pressure. It has been very clear, and we are very thankful for the great support that we have received from our European partners, but by the way, also globally. Under Leyen also wants to double the European Union's regular support for Greenland by 2028 to more than $600 million. I'm Kent Coveington and still ahead. World First Responders work to provide help amid staffing challenges and commentator Janie B. Cheney on the wave of support for Lindsey Clancy. This is the world and everything in it.

7:26There is something new here every weekday morning. Today is Tuesday, September 8. Glad to have you along for today's edition of the World and Everything in it. Now celebrating 15 years. Good morning. I'm Nick Eiker. And I'm Mary Reichard. First up, education in wartime. More than 3 million children in Ukraine began a new school year last week. But for many of them, back to school does not mean back in a classroom. COVID disrupted their schooling first. Then came Russia and its full-scale military invasion. Now, air raid, sirens, war damage and continuing attacks have made this the fifth year in a row without anything resembling a normal school year. World correspondent William Flesin has the story. A days-long blitz on the Capitol Keefe has kept air raid sirens crying out day and night.

8:28And for millions of Ukraine's school children, it's the fifth year of schooling during which they will basically not go to school. That's Anna Novosod, co-founder and director of Save Ed, a large nonprofit based in Keefe. She served as Ukraine's education minister between 2019 and 2020. Novosod listed the many challenges that Ukrainian school kids and their families are up against. For a lot of people, I think Ukraine might seem like a totally bombed country and the question might arise. Like, why don't people leave? Like, why do you have to help with education? They have to get out of there. But first of all, this is exactly what Russians want, us leaving. Yet many Ukrainian parents link their children's learning in Ukraine with learning to be Ukrainian. Teachers teach in the Ukrainian language, students study their country's specifics and history. Novosod's nonprofit seeks to support those who stay. Save Ed has built 160 classrooms since 2022, mostly in frontline zones.

9:31Some of our modular classrooms build with prefabricated parts and big enough to hold almost 200 students. Other projects include underground classrooms. The spaces are often small and uncomfortable, but safe from Russian rockets and drones. Novosod stresses that the best learning happens in person. Everybody has been through COVID on this planet and those who have kids, you know, they know how hard it is to do the home schooling if it's not your choice. And so just imagine that it is a year five plus multiply that by war, constant attacks, and of course Russians know what they do. The United Nations says July was the bloodiest month of child casualties in over four years. 17 children killed and almost 170 injured. According to a Ukrainian government announcement this month, more than 5,000 schools have been damaged or destroyed since 2022. Another report from PBS called this Russia's attempt to quote bomb the future of Ukraine.

10:31Attacks in schools and obstruction of learning is of course a big strategy of theirs. Ukraine's education ministry has responded with major pay bumps to try and keep teachers in classrooms. Keeping schools open also supports families during the upheaval of war. Many Ukrainian mothers either have husbands at the front or are war widows. A recent save ed survey asked about their needs. And they said like they have more time for themselves. They have more time for their other children. They have predominantly time to work because if your small child is sitting with you at home or two kids, then you are basically you have no time and ability to work. And then your economic ability is restrained. The missile alerts from the most recent round the clock blitz on Kiev has resulted in additional challenges in returning to school. Constant stress and low sleep make learning even harder. Every day here is a roller coaster. You never know if in the morning there is a siren is still on when you have to go to school then well nobody goes to school.

11:37If you are not to wait until the siren is off then parents have to rush their kids to school somehow get to work. It is a it is a key it is a mess. Despite the increased threats, Novacade urges rebuilding now even if continued fighting might destroy that work. There is no durable support that you can provide. Yeah if you put a module of school, yeah it can be bombed in a year. But for a year kids will go there. With no end to the war in sight she counts each move toward educated citizens as a small victory. Reporting for World I'm William Flesin. Coming up next on the world and everything in it, answering the call. Rural emergency crews are stretched thin. In some communities that can mean longer waits for help. One national study found one in ten rural EMS units took more than a half an hour to show up. World's Lauren Smith paid a visit to one station in Michigan that's been trying for months to fill open positions.

12:43She reports now on why recruiting is so difficult and why some first responders keep answering the call. Zachary Gilstorff and his EMT partner are taking the ambulance out on a call. Here lately it's been about four to six a day. You're normal your medical sir chest pain, trouble breathing, seizures, strokes, things like that, diabetic problems. Gilstorff is the only full-time paramedic in Michigan's Somerset Fire Department. He'll be on duty for most of the next 200 hours. Right now we're done on our paramedics and we're slotted for three and just haven't been able to fill it so. Somerset is trying to hire more paramedics. The job postings have been up for six months and Gilstorff says they've had zero applicants. Stations need paramedics to provide advanced life support for patients experiencing serious emergencies like heart attacks or strokes.

13:45Without a paramedic on, Somerset has to call in another station. You're talking 15, 20 minutes now for an advanced life support unit to get there instead of a few minutes. The first responder shortage has hit rural stations like Somerset the hardest but it's a problem everywhere. Emergency call volumes over the last two decades have tripled. Now 60% of first responder agencies say they don't have the staff to meet that demand. I first started back in 2012 like you couldn't get a firefighting job. There was you know over hundreds of applicants applying for fire spots. Now you're lucky to get three. Gilstorff has spent about three years and thousands of dollars in training to perform care like cutting into the throat to open an airway and injecting medication directly into bone. That's bumped him up to $22 per hour well below Michigan's average wage. If I had the had the answer to fix it, I'd be a lot richer. That's for sure.

14:47Emergency medical services, fire and police often compete for limited tax dollars. Government agencies and insurance companies usually set compensation rates not the station itself. Additionally, many first responders are unpaid volunteers making it harder for paid workers to argue for higher wages. Part timer Don Atwood has worked as a first responder for almost two decades. I don't know of a single one of us that has only one job. He says most people like him have to take three or even four jobs to get by. Two jobs would be that would be nice. Oftentimes it ends up being another job in EMS because it's the shorthanded thing. There's a lot of availability. There's options. There's openings. Shifts can last multiple days. Working overtime and adding other jobs could mean spending weeks away from family and bringing home the emotional burden of hard calls. First responder initiative says they face elevated risks of marital problems. Cancer, suicide, mental illness and accidental death.

15:50But some are still choosing the job. Isaac Elliott likes the hands-on work. It's a very interpersonal career despite what you think. You know, you automatically think of like a movie with someone doing CPR and the 80 or something, but that's not as common as just chatting with the patient. Elliott just graduated from a first responder training program at Jackson College. We had quite a few students who dropped. They realized early on that year this wasn't for them or the schedule wasn't going to work or something else came up. Classes were scheduled during the work day and cost about $3,000. I had a little bit of liquid funds to fund this, but if that hadn't been happening, I would have probably had to just scrape and say for quite a few more months to years. Elliott is getting ready to become a dad. As a new first responder, he's been working unpaid so far. But he believes more training will eventually mean earning enough to support his growing family. You can make a fair amount of money during overtime if you want to work yourself into the ground, but you've got to be willing to do that.

16:51But if you get the right certifications, go the right path. That's what you're interested in. You can absolutely make a viable career. Back at the Somerset station and ambulance departs. Dawn Atwood just came off a 12 hour shift, so he's staying back and getting ready to head home. For many of us, it's just a calling. It's the only thing that we would want to do, the only thing we'd ever do. Soon enough, he'll be back to do this all over again. For World, I'm Lauren Smith in Somerset, Michigan. Additional support comes from Ridge Haven Camp and retreat centers in North Carolina and Iowa. Fall registration now open at Ridge Haven.org And from Ambassadors Impact Network, offering growth stage Christian entrepreneurs funding and support for Mission Aligned Investors.

17:52AmbassadorsImpact.com Up next, a new California law aimed at protecting nonprofit workers from doxing is already facing a First Amendment challenge. It's known as AB 2624, the Safe at Work Act. Critics say it's primarily aimed at an independent journalist whose fraud investigations helped put the issue in the spotlight. Nick Shirley sued on Friday, arguing the law could chill his reporting before he even does it. World's Emma Eiker has the story. In late August, protesters gathered at the state Capitol to voice their opposition to what they call the Stop Nick Shirley Act. As Americans, we are entitled not only to hold government accountable, but to ask questions and investigate how our tax dollars are being spent. It is also our right to report to the public what we find.

18:55Shirley, a self-proclaimed independent journalist, made a name for himself last year by posting videos alleging child daycare centers in Minnesota, were receiving millions of dollars without providing services. So this is quality leering center. I meant to say quality learning center. They said they spelled learning wrong. Federal investigators were already probing taxpayer fraud in that same state. Shirley's videos brought the issue before a larger audience and resulted in a surge of resources. Critics contested some of his claims. Man, what do you think about the fraud that's taking place here in Minnesota? California is now under the microscope. This June, the Trump administration suspended federal homelessness funding to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, as officials cited an accounting discrepancy involving about $37 million in taxpayer funds. Here's the U.S. Attorney for Los Angeles, Bill Asale on Fox and Friends. Look at the fraud in health care. Look at the fraud in homelessness. High speed rail. They told.

19:59That's the backdrop for California's Safe at Work Act, or AB 2624. It comes as the Trump administration continues to scrutinize how federal funds are distributed to service providers. The Democratic State Senator Lena Gonzalez says that could put immigrants at risk of being targeted. This bill comes forward as a direct response to requests from immigrant support service providers, including legal aid organizations, humanitarian relief providers, case managers and advocates who are facing targeted harassment because of the work that they do. The bill, Bill PAST, and California last month, and all 10 Republican state senators voted against it. The real goal of this legislation is to chill those core First Amendment journalistic protected activities.

20:59Tax Smith is a senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation. The opponents of this bill said the real impetus behind it from California Governor Gavin Newsom was not so much to protect these individuals from threats as to protect them from the embarrassing situations that occurred when Nick Shirley and other journalists would show up and expose the fraud-wasting abuse that was occurring. Many California Republicans voiced First Amendment concerns. GOP Assemblyman Carl Dameo on Fox News. It is our hope that the U.S. Department of Justice will file to intervene because this is an open shut infringement on our First Amendment rights. Smith says opponents have valid constitutional objections. I think those who oppose the bill would have a very strong argument to some degree that the provisions are somewhat under-inclusive in some respects, somewhat over-inclusive in other respects. And because of that unclear language used in the bill, they would say that it doesn't fact violate the First Amendment.

21:59On the other hand, Smith says the law could be constitutional because it only restricts individuals who seek to inflict bodily harm or make threats through publishing personal information. Late last week, Shirley filed suit to challenge the law on First Amendment grounds, saying he fears facing criminal charges for work done before the bill takes effect. Smith says he shares concerns about how the act will affect journalism while the legal issues play out. You have journalists who are potentially facing thousands of dollars in fines, you have journalists who are potentially facing imprisonment if they're convicted, and this gives a lot of ammunition for many of the individuals who are engaged in what appears to be fraudulent activity to be able to push back and essentially threaten the individuals who are exposing this fraud-waste and abuse. The Safe At Work Act is set to take effect in October 2027. Reporting for World, I'm Emma Eiger.

23:06Some scientific awards celebrate research that changes the world. The Ig No Bells celebrate research that makes you wonder about it. This year's ceremony was held in Zurich. Now, let's get it over with the awarding of the 2026 Ig No Bell Prize. The Biology Prize went to researchers who repeatedly and gently stepped on venomous snakes. They wanted to find out what does and does not make a snake bite. The Ulfaction Prize confirmed something many parents already know that babies smell wonderful most of the time and teenagers do not, also most of the time. And remember, these are the Ig No Bells, some of the other prize-winning research. We don't even really want to talk about. It's the world and everything in it.

24:12Today is Tuesday, September 8. Thank you for turning the world radio to help start your day. Good morning. I'm Mary Wrygard. And I'm Nick Eiger. Coming next on the world and everything, in it apologetics on campus a year since the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Frank Turek was nearby when Kirk was fatally shot at Utah Valley University. For years, Turek had been a mentor and friend to Kirk and a veteran of college campuses himself. He founded the campus apologetics ministry called crossexamined.org in 2006. World's Todd Vision talked with Frank Turek about how ministry to college students has changed over the years and the intense spotlight he shared with Kirk. Frank Turek has spent 20 years criss-crossing the country, speaking at colleges, high schools, and churches. It's there that he challenges skeptics and encourages Christians. We go to colleges because it's the most anti-Christian real estate in America. And what we're trying to do is throw the Christians a line and put a stone in the shoe of the skeptics so they start thinking about things.

25:16Turek knows that by the time college students line up behind a microphone to ask him questions, they've already been catacquized by the culture more than the church. Instead of teaching kids how to think, we're teaching them what to feel. And that can be dangerous because if you follow your feelings without reason or without moral restraint, you're going to wind up in a very dark place. You're going to wind up ruining your life and probably the lives of many other people. This concern is the focus of his latest book and his college tour that he's calling Jesus versus the war on reality. Truth is what corresponds to reality and our view of reality should be what really is true. Now what we want to be true, now what do we hope to be true, now what do we refer to be true, but really lines up with reality. In his book, the war on reality. Turek zeroes in on assumptions behind the cultural trends cutting off the roots of Western civilization. There really is a war on reality going on and it's been going on for quite a while, whether it has to do with identity and transgenderism, Marxism, socialism, evolution, the idea that the family is outdated.

26:22There are so many lies that are being told to people and they believe them and they wind up ruining their lives and maybe their eternity by believing these these lies. Teaching believers to dismantle those lives is at the core of Turek's approach. There's no truth. Is that true? You ought not judge. Why are you judging me for judging? Right. So many of these claims that are brought up are just they're just flat out self-contradictory and we don't know logic enough to recognize it. He says discipling is about more than teaching how to be a better Christian. If we taught people how to think half of what they need to know to defend the Christian faith they'd already know. That emphasis on critical thinking was central to Turek's relationship with the late college apologist Charlie Kirk who counted Turek as a friend and mentor. Turek taught Kirk how to uncover the assumption behind a question before responding. While religion may occasionally make bad people do good things, if you want to get good people to do bad things, you use religion. How would you respond to that?

27:28Okay. What is good? Like Kirk, Turek holds fast to the principle that voting through a biblical lands is important. Laws and policies flow from elections and can either help or hinder human flourishing. If you don't think politics is important, why don't we try and do world magazine in Tehran? We can't. Politically they've ruled it out. You know, there's no first Baptist church of Tehran. There's no Calvary Chapel of Mecca. There's no cornerstone chapel of Cairo white because they don't allow it politically or they make it very difficult politically. He called Kirk someone he had been waiting 30 years to meet. Someone well connected in the secular world who wouldn't compromise on the gospel. We think we can bifurcate things. We can say, okay, you know, I'll be a Christian in church and you know at home and those kind of things. But at work, I get to do what I want, you know, out in the community I do what I want. In the voting booth I do it. No, no, no, no, no, Charlie rightly pointed out that we're supposed to be Christians in every area of life. Frank was nearby when Kirk was assassinated at Utah Valley University. He said he's seen a shift occur on college campuses in the year since Kirk's death.

28:36From skepticism to more evangelism meaning that I got a lot more questions from people saying, how do I convince my friend to be a Christian? Whereas prior to that I was getting maybe a lot of questions on, you know, how do we know God exists or, you know, why do you think that's true or I don't know if it's going to last. I don't know what's going to happen long term. But yeah, in the past year that's been one positive ripple of a very tragic event. Turek returned to college campuses this month as classes resumed. He's no longer debating New Atheists, but he's still unapologetically defending Christianity. Reporting for World, I'm Todd Vision. We have more with Frank Turek online from the latest issue of World magazine. In the larger interview, Turek discusses the problem of what he calls two thirds Christianity, why pastors who avoid political issues are not actually discipling their congregations and how being a Navy instructor prepared him for hostile college Q&As.

29:45A link to the full conversation is in the show notes. Good morning. This is the world and everything in it from listener supported world radio. I'm Nick Eiker and I'm Mary Ryker. Last Friday, the murder trial of Lindsay Clancy ended in a mistrial after the jury deadlocked. The case has sparked a disturbing public reaction. One that world commentator Janie B. Cheney traces back to a decades old fundraising poster and a familiar phrase that's taken a troubling turn. You've probably heard the term poster child as in my grandson could be a poster child for ADHD. According to the know-it-all internet, the first actual poster child was a five year old boy named Donnie Anderson. His sad countenance appeared out from a 1947 March of Dimes poster.

30:57The before and after photos showed Donnie leaning against his hospital bed in a neck and arm brace, then striding forward with a cocky little boy smile under the heading, your Dimes did this for me. Suffering children have adorned fundraising pitches ever since for Easter seals, smile train, feed the children, world vision and many more. This kind of poster child touches our hearts and tugs at our pocketbooks. More recently, the term has morphed to mean a single individual who symbolizes not a disease or a disaster, but a social evil. You know, if I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon. Do you remember Trayvon Martin's hoodie shrouded face or the cherubic face of Michael Brown? Around noon, Saturday, August 9, 2014, on Canfield Drive in Ferguson, Missouri, 18 year old Michael. Remember, I'm almost certain you hold an image of George Floyd's granted features. You recall, because all three quickly became emblematic of a larger problem.

32:00Their personal character in the circumstance is around their premature deaths mattered much less than what they symbolized. They were all three black and all three victims. And nothing else mattered. Now we're seeing an odd twist in the poster child dynamic, placarding the perpetrators rather than the victims. Luigi Mangione became a folk hero. Mangione, today, telling the Federal Judge, quote, I shot Mr. Thompson and Manhattan and... Mangione admitted killing United Healthcare Executive Brian Thompson in cold blood. For Mangione and his fans, Thompson symbolized the larger problem of accessible healthcare. A well-publicized trial would have plastered his face all over social media and attracted chanting supporters outside the courtroom. But because the New York judge has dismissed the state case on double jeopardy grounds, we were spared. Not so with Lindsey Clancy. By now, everyone must know that three years ago she strangled her three young children and tried to kill herself.

33:06You may remember Andrea Yates in 2001. Andrea P.A. Yates, not guilty by reason of insanity. Or Susan Smith in 1994. A young mother drowning her two young sons. They achieved Lindsey Clancy levels of notoriety. Similar had stories of mothers murdering children. But neither attracted widespread support from other women. So what does it mean that weeks before the trial began? Mothers and grandmothers began posting videos of themselves claiming solidarity. We feel you Lindsey. Same Lindsey. They pictured themselves within without their babies wearing pink and forming Valentine hearts with both hands. They've even written songs in her honor. Dear Lindsey, look outside the window. You may not see us, but we're there. You may never know our names. You may never see our faces there.

34:08But Lindsey, we support you. We are here. I don't know Lindsey Clancy. But none of these women do either. There probably aren't millions of them. But even a relative handful on TikTok injects an unhealthy substance into the national bloodstream. What exactly are they supporting? Better mental health care, longer maternity leave, less reliance on pharmaceuticals. It's possible they don't even know. That Lindsey Clancy is an opportunity for some self-dramatizing women to platform themselves. Or she could be a poster child for maternal despair. If so, we've come a long way from polio-stricken Donnie Anderson and in precisely the wrong direction. For World. I'm Janie B. Cheney.

35:08Tomorrow Hunter Baker is back for Washington Wednesday and 25 years after 9-11, one woman finally found a way to talk about the brother she lost. That and more tomorrow, I'm Mary Reichard. And I'm Nick Eiker, 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 go to the ant-os-luggard, consider her ways and be wise. Without having any chief, officer or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest. How long will you lie there, Osluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest. And poverty will come upon you like a robber and want like an armed man. Versus 6-11 of Proverbs 6. Go now, in grace and peace.