7.24.26 A surrogacy dispute, The Bear’s final season, and Joseph Arthur’s faith

**Myrna Brown** (0:05)
Good morning, a same-sex couple reportedly wanted a surrogate to abort a baby with a defect and then sued when she refused.

**Nick Eicher** (0:13)
Today on Culture Friday, what happens when bringing a child into the world becomes a contract dispute. John Stonestreet will be along in just a few minutes. Also today, the acclaimed drama The Bear returns for a final season. We have a review and later, singer-songwriter Joseph Arthur says faith is not about having all the answers.

**Joseph Arthur** (0:35)
The narrator of that song isn't a spiritual expert. He is a seeker seeking.

**Myrna Brown** (0:46)
It's Friday, July 24th. This is The World and Everything In It from listeners supported World Radio. I'm Verna Brown.

**Nick Eicher** (0:53)
And I'm Nick Eicher.

**Kent Covington** (0:55)
Good morning.

**Myrna Brown** (0:58)
Up next, Kent Covington with today's news.

**Kent Covington** (1:01)
The US military on Thursday pounded Iranian targets for a 13th straight night since Tehran broke the ceasefire agreement attacking ships in the Strait of Hormuz. And President Trump now says that frozen Iranian assets will pay for damages to commercial ships in the Strait.
But Iran continues to talk tough threatening retaliation against the United States. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

**Marco Rubio** (1:25)
I saw Arachi, their foreign minister, who the other day say or something about their policies, an eye for an eye.
The president's policy is a head for an eye. I mean, honestly, that's what it's going to be. I mean, they will pay a very heavy price.

**Kent Covington** (1:39)
The US. Navy has once again blockaded Iran's ports as it continues to target assets that Tehran has used to threaten the Strait of Hormuz. Traffic through the Strait has slowed to a trickle, and oil has once again shot past $100 a barrel, the highest price in months. And the fighting has spread as the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen say they attacked two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea.
Secretary Rubio also spoke to reporters after meeting with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov. The two were in Manila for a gathering of Southeast Asian nations. Rubio said their discussion centered largely on the war in Ukraine.

**Marco Rubio** (2:17)
The United States, the president has been clear that we want, if we can, we are prepared to play a constructive role in bringing about an end to a senseless war. And we're ready to do that.
And we, of course, expressed that, and we've expressed it in other means. So we talked about other things as well.

**Kent Covington** (2:31)
He added that he does not see a deal to end the war coming together quickly. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters that he planned to meet with President Trump in a matter of days, likely on US soil. No word yet from the White House on that.
New York City police say a man attacked and stabbed two people on the city's Upper West Side in separate incidents on Thursday. Authorities are calling at least one of those attacks anti-Semitic and are looking into it as a possible hate crime. One of the victims was Jewish and witnesses say the attacker shouted Allahu Akbar. But police say the two victims were strangers, attacked at random, blocks apart, and the other victim was Asian. Both are expected to survive. Police have a 51-year-old suspect in custody and indicated that mental health issues may have been a factor.
Latest US jobs report brings encouraging news. World's Benjamin Eicher has more.

**SPEAKER_6** (3:31)
The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits this week is the lowest it's been since 1969
The Labor Department reports that initial jobless claims came in at just 187,000, well below economists' expectations. It's also a significant drop from last week's 209,000. Additionally, Americans continuing their unemployment benefits fell to just below 1.8 million, also lower than expected. This comes after the jobs report released earlier this month showed that hiring slowed, as only 57,000 jobs were added in the month of June. Many analysts feel that the latest report points to a resilient, low hire, low fire jobs market. For WORLD, I'm Benjamin Eicher.

**Kent Covington** (4:17)
Congo's Ebola outbreak is now spreading faster than any on record. That's the word from the World Health Organization, as the outbreak outruns the workers trying to stop it.
One reason, according to the agency's Emergency Director for Africa, is that they're fighting not just the disease but also fear and rumors. Marie Rosaline Belazer.

**Marie Rosaline Belazer** (4:39)
The misinformation unfortunately have a higher speed than other real information. We need to work more to engage the community.

**Kent Covington** (4:49)
The virus has killed more than a thousand people in just over two months, a toll that the world's deadliest earlier outbreak took eight months to reach. Health officials count more than 2,500 infections and about four in ten patients have died. Treatment centers are full and armed conflict is lowing the response.