7.22.26 The Nixon revival, Cuba’s deepening shortages, and painting character

**Lindsay Mast** (0:05)
Good morning. A cultural comeback for a former president as the next generation is Nixon maxing.

**Nick Eicher** (0:11)
We'll talk about that as well as Britain's new prime minister and democratic socialism on Washington Wednesday with Hunter Baker. Also today, World Tour, the problems compounding Cuba's humanitarian crisis, and later why one portrait artist still insists on the old fashioned way.

**Igor Babaylov** (0:29)
The portrait is not just a visual likeness, it's a story of the person.

**Nick Eicher** (0:33)
And World Opinions editor Albert Mohler on the medical establishment's continued gender confusion.

**Lindsay Mast** (0:46)
It's Wednesday, July 22nd. This is The World and Everything In It from listener-supported World Radio.
I'm Lindsay Mask.

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

**Kent Covington** (0:54)
Good morning.

**Lindsay Mast** (0:57)
Up next, Kent Covington with today's news.

**Kent Covington** (1:01)
At the White House, President Trump hosted the leader of one Middle Eastern nation for the first time in 17 years.

**Joseph Aoun** (1:08)
Mr. President, it's an honor having you. Thank you very much.

**Donald Trump** (1:11)
Thank you. I've been looking forward to this visit for a long time.

**Joseph Aoun** (1:15)
Thank you.

**Kent Covington** (1:15)
Cameras clicked in the Oval Office as the president of Lebanon, Joseph Aoun, shook hands with President Trump. Aoun was there to push for some kind of lasting calm after months of war between Israel and the terror group Hezbollah, which is based in Lebanon and has largely controlled much of the southern part of the country for years.

**Joseph Aoun** (1:33)
As you know, there's a Hezbollah problem, but we've done some things that I think the world will take notice.

**Kent Covington** (1:41)
Aoun said his goal was lasting peace between his own country and Israel.

**Donald Trump** (1:46)
I know your vision is peace, your vision is stability, and I think my vision goes side with your vision. And together, I think we will be able to achieve and to score success in that regard.

**Kent Covington** (1:58)
I agree with that. Trump said that Israel was in the process of withdrawing from Lebanon and redeploying, but did not elaborate.
White House reporters also asked President Trump about a Wall Street Journal report stating that Iran has moved nuclear centrifuges deep inside a fortified mountain south of Tehran, a site called Pickaxe Mountain. Trump said the US is tracking the material and...

**Joseph Aoun** (2:22)
We'll be hitting that area very probably pretty soon, and there's not a thing they can do about it. Normally, I wouldn't say that.
If I thought they could do something about it, I would never say that.

**Kent Covington** (2:32)
The White House says the US will do whatever it takes to ensure that Iran can never build a nuclear weapon. But not everyone in Washington is behind the war.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer says his party remains committed to pulling the plug on the war effort.

**Chuck Schumer** (2:47)
Senate Democrats will now force another vote this week to end this unauthorized war and bring our troops home.

**Kent Covington** (2:55)
Meantime, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth testified to a Senate committee Tuesday estimating the cost of the war thus far at around $38 billion.
And he's pressing Congress for a nearly $88 billion request, much of it for the Iran war. But Hegseth said the spending is about much more than Iran.

**Pete Hegseth** (3:13)
If we don't make critical investments right now in tech, in compute, in AI, in autonomy, in space, our adversaries who are already making these types of investments could outpace us.

**Kent Covington** (3:27)
Also on Tuesday, the Pentagon confirmed that a third service member is believed to be dead from Friday's Iranian attack on a base in Jordan. The soldier was identified as 28-year-old Sergeant Angel S. Rompersad of New York.
A federal task force investigating health care fraud has announced new actions. World Terrace and Waters reports now from the nation's capital.

**Harrison Waters** (3:48)
Health and Human Services will withhold a combined $1 billion in Medicaid funding from California and Minnesota, according to Secretary Robert F.

**Robert Kennedy Jr.** (3:57)
Kennedy Jr. If Governor Gavin Newsom or Governor Tim Walz wants this funding released, all they have to do is provide basic documentation showing that these services are legitimate and not fraudulent.

**Harrison Waters** (4:12)
HHS also held back hundreds of millions of dollars from California and Minnesota for Medicaid earlier this year.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz pushed back on social media, saying this is about politics, not fraud, and accused the administration of cutting people's health coverage. Secretary Kennedy also said HHS is handing the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services the power to shut bad actors out of federal health programs on its own without going through the states. The money stays frozen until the states show Washington how they'll root out the fraud. Reporting for World, I'm Harrison Waters in Washington.