8.31.26 Colorado’s preschool program, the Fed on inflation, and the ISIS Yazidi genocide

**Mary Reichard** (0:05)
Good morning.
Colorado says Catholic preschools can have state money, but only if they follow state rules. But those schools say some Colorado rules are more equal than others.

**Nick Reeves** (0:16)
If the rule is being applied like Swiss cheese, and there are all kinds of exceptions, then it's not really that important.

**Nick Eicher** (0:21)
That's ahead on Legal Docket. Also today, the new Fed Chairman wants out of what he calls the Central Bank's Hall of Mirrors. Economist David Bonson is standing by, and later the World History Book.

**Pari Ibrahim** (0:34)
There's never been any respect for our community.

**Nick Eicher** (0:36)
The ongoing struggle of the Yazidi people in the Middle East.

**Mary Reichard** (0:47)
It's Monday, August 31st. This is The World and Everything In It from listener-supported World Radio. I'm Mary Reigert.

**Nick Eicher** (0:54)
And I'm Nick Eicher.

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

**Mary Reichard** (0:58)
Now news. Here's Kent Covington.

**Kent Covington** (1:00)
US forces have struck Iranian rocket launchers on the Strait of Hormuz, marking their first military action in a month. Iran has vowed to retaliate. Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps was reportedly preparing to launch rockets with sea mines into the Strait. The US recently cleared sea mines from the Strait's shipping routes. The Trump administration just days ago had shifted focus to economic pressure but said the US military would act if Tehran attempted to place more mines in the Strait.
Republicans are applauding a new oil deal with Venezuela that President Trump announced over the weekend calling it the biggest oil deal in world history. Republican Congressman Rick Crawford.

**Rick Crawford** (1:42)
Not only from an energy security perspective, but from a geographic security, I mean, Western security perspective, this is really a good deal for the United States and a good deal for Venezuela.

**Kent Covington** (1:55)
Under the deal, a new company gets the rights to 17 Venezuelan oil fields for at least 25 years, 65 billion barrels worth. The US gets a 55 percent stake in the venture, including the right to buy at cost. No text of the deal has yet been released.
GOP Congressman Brian Mast called it a blow to America's adversaries.

**Brian Mast** (2:15)
That's actually now going to go to the United States of America instead of China, not on Russian ships, so Russia isn't going to benefit from that.

**Kent Covington** (2:23)
Trump says the deal will bring gas prices down, though energy analysts say that will not happen quickly. Venezuela's oil fields are wrecked and fixing them will take years and billions of dollars. Acting Venezuelan President Delci Rodriguez is also touting it is a great deal for her country.
She says the money will build houses for Venezuelans who lost theirs in recent earthquakes and for families who never had one. But some Democrats in Washington are not impressed with the deal. They say the US raid that took out former Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Moruro was about oil all along. They assert that American troops were risked so oil companies and Trump's allies could profit. Virginia Senator Tim Kaine called it quote, using our troops for a private oil grab.
The death toll from last week's Himalayan flood has passed 800 with more than 3000 people still missing across Nepal and Tibet. Whole villages sit buried in gray mud with homes and tractors sticking out. Nepal's Foreign Secretary Amrit Bahadur Rai.

**Amrit Bahadur Rai** (3:28)
Our immediate national priority remains clear. To save lives, locate missing persons, rescue them, and provide urgent relief to survivors and ensure that affected Nepalese, as well as foreigners, receive appropriate assistance and support.

**Kent Covington** (3:46)
Roughly 90 Americans are among the missing. Many were on a pilgrimage to a mountain in Tibet.
One American woman said she talked with her parents less than two hours before the water came.

**SPEAKER_9** (3:56)
They were just telling my sister about the amazing time that they had in Nepal and China and how blessed they felt to be on the pilgrimage.

**Kent Covington** (4:06)
Her parents are still missing. The flood started when bedrock under a Himalayan glacier gave way, triggering a rockfall so violent that it registered as an earthquake. Nepal on Sunday warned people to stay clear of the rivers as China reported more water coming down from the mountains.
A village outside of Kiev is counting its dead, 38 so far and four still unaccounted for after deadly Russian attacks. World's Benjamin Eicher has more.

**Benjamin Eicher** (4:35)
A Russian strike hit an ammunition dump over the weekend and the resulting blast and fire swept through houses nearby.
No attack this year has killed more.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called it terrible negligence, storing explosives near people's homes and he ordered an investigation. Russia has stepped up its air campaign in Ukraine, now striking Kiev in daylight, which used to be rare. Moscow said Sunday it's preparing to strike Ukraine's power grid. Vladimir Putin says it's payback for Ukrainian drones hitting Russian refineries and warehouses, but this is nothing new for Russia, which has attacked Ukraine's power grid in past winters. Ukrainian officials warn this campaign could be the worst since the invasion began. For World, I'm Benjamin Eicher.