The World and Everything in It: July 8, 2025

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MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

 Flash-flooding victims number at least 90 in Texas. How is the town responding to the tragedy?

NICK EICHER, HOST: Also the ongoing debate over federal funding for Medicaid.

And later one man’s mission to keep an ancient artform alive.

JONES: Just a fella that likes to make arrowheads and I don’t mind showing people … how I do it.

And WORLD Opinions contributor Nathan Finn on the wisdom of coming to our senses.

REICHARD: It’s Tuesday, July 8th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

EICHER: And I’m Nick Eicher. Good morning!

REICHARD: Up next, Kent Covington with today’s news.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Texas flood update  »  Authorities in Central Texas now say more than 100 people are now confirmed dead after catastrophic weekend flooding.

That news comes as search-and-rescue teams continue to wade into swollen rivers and use heavy equipment to untangle trees. It’s all part of a massive search for roughly 40 people still missing. One volunteer said Monday:

AUDIO:  We are here with about 40 chain saws, cutting into the brush, pulling it all back, separating it in piles of what to burn, metal and trash.

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick asked the public for prayers “for the families affected by this tragedy.”

PATRICK:  I know as the days go longer, um, people, uh, many people are losing hope, but we're not losing hope. We're gonna continue to work hard to search.

Flash flood waters barrelled through Kerr County Friday, ripping up trees by their roots and washing away entire homes.

Holly Kate Hurley was a counselor at Camp Mystic in Kerr County.

HURLEY:  In the morning, they gathered all the counselors who were at Cypress Lake and they told us that two of, sorry, two of the cabins with the 7-year-old girls were wiped away.

The fast-moving waters rose 26 feet on the river in only 45 minutes in the dark of night.

President Trump has declared a major disaster for Kerr County, activating federal aid.

Netanyahu / Gaza »  President Trump is huddling today with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House. The meeting is largely centered on U.S. efforts to broker a ceasefire in Gaza.

Last night, Trump hosted Netanyahu and Israel’s first lady for a White House dinner.

TRUMP: Thank you very much, everybody. It’s an honor to have Bibi and Sarah with us, friends of mine for a long time.

Netanyahu thanked the president for his administration’s work in Trump’s first term … in bringing about the Abraham Accords, normalizing ties between Israel and Arab nations. And he praised Trump for his efforts to bring about peace in the Middle East and beyond.

NETANYAHU:  So I want to present to you, uh, Mr. President, the letter I sent to the Nobel Prize Committee. Uh, it's nominating you for the peace prize, which is well deserved … and you should get it.

TRUMP: Thank you very much. This I didn't know. Well, thank you very much.

In Gaza, the United States is pressing for a 60-day Gaza ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. The proposal would see a partial pullback of Israeli troops in Gaza … in exchange for the release of more Israeli hostages.

Lebanon plan to disarm Hezbollah  »  Meantime in Lebanon, an effort to disarm Hezbollah appears to be gaining steam.

The Lebanese government has responded to a proposal to disarm the Iran-backed terror group. And U.S. envoy Tom Barrack called that response “spectacular.”

BARRACK:   I'm unbelievably satisfied with the response. Now, what it takes is a parry and thrust to the details which we're going to do. We're both committed to get to the details and get a resolution.

For years Hezbollah, with Iranian support, has largely controlled southern Lebanon. And many Western officials said the Lebanese government allowed it to happen.

But now, with a weakened Iran, U.S. officials see an opportunity for change.

The new proposal includes economic reforms to address Lebanon’s six-year economic crisis.

Hezbollah has refused to disarm, demanding Israel withdraw from all Lebanese territory and halt airstrikes. Israel has continued to target Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

Trade deals  » The Trump administration is dialing up pressure on trading partners to complete new trade agreements with the United States this month.

LEAVITT: The administration, the president, and his trade team want to cut the best deals for the American people and American worker.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt says U.S. officials are sending out letters to many different countries notifying them of the planned tariffs they may soon face when selling goods in the United States.

LEAVITT:  The reciprocal tariff rate or these new rates that will be provided in this correspondence to these foreign leaders, um, will be going out the door or deals will be made.

The president, back in April, issued a 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs he had announced just weeks earlier while trade talks were ongoing. That pause was set to expire tomorrow.

But Leavitt said the president was signing an executive order extending the deadline to August 1st.

Border Patrol attack » At the U.S. southern border, law enforcement officers shot and killed a 27-year-old man after he opened fire on a Border Patrol facility with a high-powered rifle.

McAllen Police Chief Victor Rodriguez:

RODRIGUEZ: There were many, many, many dozens of rounds fired from by, by the suspect towards the building and towards agents in that building.

The suspect was identified as Ryan Luis Mosqueda.

Both local police and federal agents returned fire. And Rodriguez said several agencies are working together to investigate the incident, but the FBI is taking the lead.

The motive is one of the things the bureau will try to determine. Right now that is unclear. But the shooting comes in the wake of numerous—and sometimes violent—protests against customs and immigration enforcement and President Trump’s related policies.

And U.S. Border Patrol chief Mike Banks said Monday:

BANKS:  We've also g otta hold those that are encouraging violence against law enforcement or inciting violence. We've gotta hold them accountable.

Mosqueda’s father told police that his son had psychological issues, and he had been looking for him hours before the shooting.

Russian Transport Minister dead » Russia’s transport minister was found dead Monday in his car near Moscow. WORLD’s Benjamin Eicher has more.

BENJAMIN EICHER: Russian officials say Vladimir Putin removed Transport Minister Roman Starovoit from office on Monday. And they claim that just hours later, Starovoit died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound—likely suicide.

But some independent journalists and analysts say the puzzle pieces don’t quite fit together. Some reports suggest Straravoit may have died before the official announcement of his dismissal.

And the Kremlin yesterday was tight-lipped about the reason for his removal.

PESKOV: (Speaking in Russian)

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied it stemmed from a “loss of trust.”

But analysts note Starovoit had been implicated in a corruption probe over funds that were meant to fortify the Russian border in the Kursk region. That’s an area that saw heavy Ukrainian drone incursions last year.

For WORLD, I’m Benjamin Eicher.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: more on the devastating flooding in Texas. Plus, efforts to keep an ancient tradition alive.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Tuesday, the 8th of July.

Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

First up, heartbreak in Texas.

Until this weekend, Kerrville was best known as the “Capital of the Texas Hill Country”, a vibrant town with a thriving art scene, home to the Kerrville Folk Festival, nestled along the scenic Guadalupe River. A favorite summer getaway.

REICHARD: But on July 4th, that river turned deadly—rising fast, spilling over its banks and sweeping away homes, businesses, and lives. More than 90 people didn’t make it out—campers, tourists, and locals. Here’s WORLD’s Paul Butler.

PAUL BUTLER: Early Friday morning Kirk Marchand was sitting on his covered porch in Kerrville, Texas. It was raining hard. As he read his Bible he could hear an unusual sound:

MARCHAND: I heard what I thought were fireworks in the distance. And I thought that's strange. Suddenly I realized I was hearing trees snap in the river which is about a mile from our home.

The day before, the national weather service issued a flood warning along the river. The area has a lot of limestone, so excess rain water fills the river basin quickly.

Early Friday morning—about 1 a.m.—the weather service sent out a flash flood alert for Kerr county, triggering automatic emergency alerts on mobile devices and weather radios. Marchand missed those overnight, but Friday morning:

MARCHAND: I glanced at my phone and sure enough, all the alerts were there from late the night before and earlier that morning indicating that flooding and potentially catastrophic flooding was occurring in the Guadalupe River…

By 7 a.m., the sheriff’s office began evacuating residents.

The Guadalupe river floods frequently, in fact, it is one of the deadliest rivers in all of Texas. But last weekend, the flood waters rose much quicker than usual, in some places more than 30 feet in less than an hour. There was little time to respond. Local resident Scott Walden says he’s never seen anything like it.

WALDEN: We couldn't tell if the water is going to continue to rise. So I said we need to get out of the house. So I grabbed my wife and we literally jumped in the water and it swept us down to about 200 feet down that way. And there’s a great myrtle tree there we grabbed hold of and waited for rescue.

Walden and his wife are just one of more than 850 high water rescues since Friday.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem joined Governor Greg Abbott on Saturday, pledging federal assistance and encouraging everyone to lend a helping hand.

NOEM: We were created to serve people. God created us to serve each other, and now is a wonderful time to go find somebody you can help...

Volunteers continue to comb the riverbanks, hoping to find survivors. Jessika James feels compelled to help out:

JAMES: You know, I've got two babies at home…You know, they're home safe, and there's people out there that they're missing their children or their family members. I feel like it's the least I could do to help. So, yeah… It's what I would want if my kids were missing. So, yeah.

Meanwhile, Governor Greg Abbott set aside Sunday as a statewide day of prayer.

ABBOTT: Your prayers have made a difference. We ask for continued prayers as we continue our efforts to locate everybody who has been affected by this…prayer matters…

Many Kerrville churches took that call seriously, spending time Sunday morning calling out for God’s mercy and attempting to bring comfort to those hurting.

DOMINGUEZ: Jesus we come before you, broken. Some of us with what feels like nothing…but we know that with you we have everything. Jesus, give us hope.

WAY: God we thank you for not being with us on the mountaintop but walking with us in the valleys. God, touch those who are brokenhearted today. Those who are still wondering and missing loved ones, Father we pray that you would be merciful to them.

CAIN: Heavenly Father. We come to you today and ask that Your Word would speak to us, that you would comfort, encourage, challenge and even change us, and we lift these things up in Jesus' name. Amen.

Kerrville resident Kirk Marchand attends Christ Church Presbyterian. He says Sunday’s service was a challenging one.

MARCHAND: We love and trust in a good God. And so we all wrestle with something like this. There's also a bit of an uneasiness in the sense of how are we to wrestle with this?

Pastor Billy Crain spoke from Psalm 20:

CRAIN: There is nothing more important we can do than to ask the Lord to act. You are not wasting your time, to stop and to pray, to lift up the grieving and the hurting, to pour out to the Lord your own broken heart and ask him to do something.

MARCHAND: You have a range of emotions through something like this. And the first one, of course, is you just, you just want to do something. You want to help. But the other emotion is a sense of guilt. When something like this happens, it's like, well, you know, couldn't we have done something? How could we allow this to happen to folks in our Valley?

Marchland says that right now, his church is doing what it can to stay out of the way as the rescue and recovery efforts continue…but the outpouring of material aid has been overwhelming…

MARCHAND: Everything from, you know, waters to diapers to restaurants, cooking food. And all of that is, of course, welcomed by all the first responders and officials that are taking care of that.

He says local officials have actually asked people to stop bringing donations into the area for the time being while they figure out what’s actually needed moving forward. Marchand is confident that the material needs will be met, as he says: “it’s Texas after all…” But he adds, healing is going to be a long time coming.

MARCHAND: Entire families were lost in this. And of course, my heart aches as a grandparent for these families from all over the country who had children at these camps and what they're going through. So praying for them, for the peace of Christ to touch them in what is arguably probably some of the hardest moments they'll ever experience in their lives.

For WORLD, I’m Paul Butler with additional reporting from Mary Muncy.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Up next, cutting back on Medicaid.

On Independence Day, President Donald Trump signed his sweeping legislative package into law—what he dubbed the “One Big Beautiful Bill.”

TRUMP: It's the biggest bill of its type in history. We've never had anything like that before. Nothing like that they thought would be possible to get passed.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: The new law boosts border and defense spending and extends the 2017 tax cuts. But to offset the new costs and the loss of projected tax revenue, it also rewrites some of the rules on mandatory federal spending. That includes Medicaid, the program that helps provide healthcare for low-income Americans, the elderly, and those with disabilities.

EICHER: Critics complain that millions could lose their health care. Supporters say it’s a long-overdue fix that gives states more control.

Here now is WORLD’s Washington Bureau reporter, Leo Briceno.

LEO BRICENO: Medicaid cost the federal government $600 billion in 2024, more than 1 in every 10 dollars Washington spent last year. Last week, Republicans accomplished their goal of trimming that number by reforming who receives Medicaid—and how the program is funded.

HAISLMAIER: There’s three buckets of changes. Two involve enrollment. One involves payments to states and how much states and the feds are paying respectively.

That’s Ed Haislmaier, an expert in healthcare policy for the Heritage Foundation.

First, he explained enrollment will now require proof of residential address, making states increase their reporting, and more to make Medicaid inaccessible to illegal aliens.

In the second bucket, Republicans hope to shrink the number of people on Medicaid through slightly stricter work requirements.

The bill requires adults ages 18-64 to work 80 hours a month to be eligible. Beneficiaries can also meet that standard by completing part-time education, community service, or a work program.

As a result of these first two buckets, the Congressional Budget Office estimates as many as 17 million Americans could lose their health insurance over the next ten years. But who exactly will the changes affect?

HAISLMAIER:…non-elderly, able-bodied adults who are on the program. The vast majority of whom, by the way, do not have children.

The total number of Americans losing coverage will depend on a few factors: how many people are on the program now that shouldn’t be, the number that decide to get other forms of health insurance, and those who will opt to forgo the work requirements that go into effect at the end of 2026.

HAISLMAIER: In that regard, t’s expected that some people, that some people will simply choose to give up their coverage rather than go and get a job.

While those two changes to enrollment are significant, it’s the change to federal payments that stands to have a more dramatic effect on Medicaid state by state.

One of the many ways states raise money for Medicaid is through something called “provider tax.”

Right now, states can tax healthcare providers up to 6% of their revenue in order to fund Medicaid programs. The federal government will then match that 6% dollar for dollar. With that extra money in hand, states can then put resources back into their hospitals, pharmacies, and clinics.

HAISLMAIER: This has been going on for years and administrations both Republicans and Democrats have tried to ratchet it down. Obviously states and particularly hospitals like the idea of getting more money.

It’s a big part of how states raise funding for Medicaid, but Republicans have seen provider-tax as a way for states to draw in as much federal funding as they can. Here’s House Freedom Caucus Chairman, Maryland Congressman Andy Harris.

HARRIS: The provider tax is a scam and it's left mostly intact in the bill.

Right now 38 states have a provider tax close to the 6% cap. With the Congress lowering the cap from 6% to 3.5%, they will need to scale down those taxes in just over two years.

The question now is, how will states adjust?

Haislmaier at the Heritage Foundation says there won’t be a silver bullet solution.

HAISLMAIER: The old joke in health policy circles is if you’ve seen one state medicaid program you’ve seen one state Medicaid program. They’re all—everyone’s different.

He says states with large urban populations tend to enroll more people due to high cost of living, while paying doctors less.

HAISLMAIER: So it becomes very difficult, you’re covered but it becomes very difficult to find a doctor. Whereas the more rural states, even if they’re poorer states like Mississippi or Idaho, they actually pay the doctors, they just don’t put everybody on the program.

States could raise taxes to fill the gap. Or move funds from other budget lines. But that won’t be easy after years of depending on provider tax. Here’s Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro last week.

SHAPIRO: I’ve been very clear; Pennsylvania can’t backfill those cuts on Medicaid or on SNAP.

In particular, Democrats like Shapiro argue that the increased state burden would put rural hospitals at risk. With fewer clients, rural hospitals depend heavily on federal funding.

SHAPIRO: I’ve got 25 rural hospitals right now that are operating at a loss, operating at a deficit that rely extensively, almost the majority of their funding coming through public payers like Medicaid. They would likely shutter if these cuts went into place over time.

To protect rural hospitals from funding changes, the new law does provide $50 billion dollars in supplemental funding over 5 years.

When asked about the changes to Medicaid, many Republicans said they believe their bill strikes a good balance between limiting costs and keeping the program for those who need it the most.

LAWLER: Even with the changes, Medicaid is going to grow by 24% over the next decade.

That’s Congressman Mike Lawler of New York. He’s one of a handful of moderate Republicans who previously expressed concern about changes to Medicaid.

LAWLER: So, anybody saying, ‘oh, they’re cutting Medicaid’—no. We’re slowing the rate of growth to make sure that the program is sustainable. Medicaid spending has doubled over the last five years. That is not a sustainable trajectory.

Republicans expect to save the federal government roughly one trillion dollars in the next ten years. Meanwhile, the Congressional Budget Office estimates Medicaid costs will increase by 24% over the next decade, due to factors like inflation, an aging population, and rising medical costs.

How states manage those costs remains to be seen.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Leo Briceno.

NICK EICHER, HOST: City dwellers have a rite of passage called “parallel parking.” In Portland, Oregon, it’s a spectator sport!

MAN: The way this works is when you’re ready, put your car in reverse, listen for the whistle. That’s your begin.

Dozens lined up to squeeze into the teensiest of curb spaces.

No backup cameras allowed, no curb kisses, either, and for sure no bumping the pool-noodle bumpers.

Just nerves, precision, and an audience on edge:

MAN: Ooooh, that’s a tight…(car noises, crowd sounds)

Cars were scored on time, length, style, and how tightly they hugged the curb.

Short cars? Fewer points. Showmanship? A bonus for you.

The grand prize? A spray-painted toy Subaru, a leftover gift card, but (the biggest deal is the bragging rights) … (infinite Portland street cred).

It’s The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Tuesday, July 8th.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: “flintknapping.”

Long before metal or machines, there was flint and fire and patient hands.

EICHER: Flintknapping once meant survival. Today, it means community, history, and craft. WJI mid-career graduate Amanda Donahue meets some of the modern-day craftsmen still chipping away at the old ways.

SOUND: [Flintknapping]

AMANDA: Whatcha making?

NOBLE: Aww I don’t know, it’s probably gonna break, it’s got cracks in it…

AMANDA DONAHUE: Rob Noble is a flintknapper at the Osage Knap-in near Booneville, Missouri.

SOUND: [Flintknapping]

Layers of leather protect Noble’s left leg where he’s holding a piece of flint rock. He repeatedly strikes it with a tool held in his right hand. Now, 60 years old, he started knapping in his late 20s.

DONAHUE: Did you have somebody that taught you how?

ROB: Not until I started coming to knap-ins. I had one old guy that uh I used to sit and knap with him. He passed away now and uh he taught me quite a bit.”

Next to Rob sits Dale Miller. He’s working on a six-inch point.

ROB: Now Dale, he’s a traditionalist. He uses antler and stones.

Miller is much younger than most of the other knappers. But he’s not a newbie.

DALE: I started when I was sixteen, been doin’ it ever since. I guess I started earlier than a lot of people.

As Noble and Miller work, chips of rock start collecting at their feet.

DALE: When you work these stone tools you create debitage, chips of rock. Um some of the Indians would use to make scraping tools. Sometimes they just left them on the ground. You may find these in a field. If there’s a bunch of chips of rock, that’s where someone sat down and made an arrowhead.

It’s a tricky process. And the materials don’t always cooperate.

DALE: This rock here’s got a seam in it, but I keep removing material here. Hopefully it’ll go away. I gotta be careful. If I don’t hit it right it’ll just break.

While there are younger knappers like Dale Miller, many of the older masters have retired or died.

DONAHUE: I count about 14 people here, Is this a good turnout?

DALE: There’s knap-ins that draw hundreds, maybe even thousands of people. Just kind of depends on how popular they are, or where they’re located.

One knap-in regular is Earnest Jones:

JONES: I’ve always been interested in Indians and the pieces they made.

Jones is 85 years old.

JONES: Basically, it’s knowing how they did it that would let me appreciate what I saw. And I always thought that nobody today in the modern world made arrowheads.”

His interest in knapping began with his wife’s scout troop.

JONES: One year she took them to Fort Osage and it just so happened there was some guys sitting there making arrowheads. So I thought, ‘Oh wow that’s neat!’ So I went to a fall one just to see what was going on.

Jones doesn’t think of himself as an educator. But once he learned how to knap himself, he wanted to teach others how to do it.

JONES: After a while, once I got my courage up, I started attending historical craft events, anywhere that I thought what I did would be a benefit to the people who attended these events.

Passing on his knowledge gave him a connection to centuries of human experience.

JONES: I’m not an archaeologist, I’m not a geologist. I’m just a fella that likes to make arrowheads and I don’t mind showing people and telling them how I do it. Because I’m showing them something they’ve never seen before but it’s a progress of learning almost forgotten art, and that’s the neat thing. Is that you’re reintroducing something that’s been around for thousands of years.

Eventually, Ernest Jones had to put down his tools. He was unable to attend this year’s knap-in.

JONES: Basically it was my eyesight. I have macular degeneration. I have other things to worry about right now rather than me. On a personal basis, it’s my wife. She needs my help more than I need to knap.

But he misses the craft, and the camaraderie.

JONES: I still pick up my tool every now and then and look at it but uh it’s probably more than anything else, the fellowship of the people. Meeting all these people, you get not only knowledge of the flintknapping world, but of their background and their history which kind of enriches yours.

Despite his health challenges, Jones sometimes thinks about taking up his old hobby again.

JONES: I keep sayin’ one of these days I’m gonna get a rock and see if I can bang one out again. (Laughs) Someday, someday.

AUDIO: [Sounds of flintknapping]

Back at the Osage Knap-in, Dale Noble hopes people who’ve never heard of knapping will get curious enough to stop and ask what he’s doing.

DALE: It’s a great opportunity to see how stone tools were made and meet some neat people. Oftentimes we’ll have artifacts that we’ve found cuz we’re all interested in those too. It can be a really nice learning opportunity.

Reporting for WORLD I’m Amanda Donahue in Boonville, Missouri.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Tuesday, July 8th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. When future historians look back on the so-called “transgender movement,” WORLD Opinions contributor Nathan Finn says two male athletes will feature prominently in the record.

NATHANIEL FINN: It’s a story of two men…one helped make transgenderism a national phenomenon. The other unwittingly opened society's eyes to what it had missed.

OLYMPIC COVERAGE: The 5th event for the men’s decathlon, 400 meters…

Bruce Jenner has been famous for his entire adult life.

OLYMPIC COVERAGE: But here is Jenner in lane number 5…

He became a household name when he won the gold medal in the decathlon at the 1976 Summer Olympics.

Like many elite athletes, Jenner became a celebrity endorser of various products, most notably the breakfast cereal Wheaties.

WHEATIES COMMERCIAL: Because a complete breakfast with Wheaties is good tasting and good for you…

He also appeared in various films and television programs.

MUSIC: [STING FROM KEEPING UP WITH THE KARDASHIANS]

For over a decade in the 2000s and 2010s, Jenner starred on the reality television show Keeping Up with the Kardashians, where he became a celebrity among a new generation who never knew him as one of the best-known athletes in America.

In the summer of 2015, Jenner identified publicly as a woman.

ABC: I would say I’ve always been confused with my gender identity since I was this big…

He changed his name to Caitlyn Jenner, adopted feminine pronouns, and eventually underwent sex reassignment surgery to create the appearance that he was a woman.

For about a decade, it seemed like Bruce Jenner represented a tipping point. Transgenderism became one of the agendas represented in the increasingly ubiquitous acronym LGBTQ.

While the legislative fortunes of transgenderism ebbed and flowed based upon congressional and presidential elections, transgender activists seemed to be gaining ground in the public imagination.

That brings us to the second athlete, William Thomas. He became a poster child for transgender advances in American society.

SOUND: [WILLIAM THOMAS SPORTS COVERAGE]

Thomas wasn’t an elite athlete like Jenner, but he was good enough to swim for the University of Pennsylvania, a NCAA Division I program.

SOUND: [LIA THOMAS SPORTS COVERAGE]

During his junior year, Thomas began to identify as a woman and adopted the new name Lia Thomas. After undergoing hormone therapy, Thomas was allowed to swim for the women’s team. In 2022, Thomas won a national championship in the women's 500-yard freestyle.

SOUND: [LIA THOMAS SPORTS COVERAGE]

While Jenner seemed like a tipping point, Thomas represented a reality check. Progressive activists celebrated Thomas’s win, but many Americans realized that allowing biological men to compete in women’s athletics is unjust.

Numerous states passed laws barring men from competing in women’s sports at the high school level. In the spring of 2024, the National Association for Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) banned men from women’s sports.

In February 2025, Trump issued an executive order...

AUDIO: In a few minutes I’ll sign a historic executive order to ban men from competing in women’s sports. It’s about time…

It states “it is the policy of the United States to rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities.” The order updated NCAA eligibility requirements to align with biological sex. The Department of Education Office for Civil Rights began investigating the University of Pennsylvania for allowing Thomas to compete as a woman and froze over $175 million in federal funding.

ABC NEWS: This morning, the University of Pennsylvania reversing course…

On July 1st, university president Larry Jameson wrote a letter announcing the investigation was resolved. Jameson acknowledged that female student-athletes were at a competitive disadvantage during the 2021-2022 season, apologized to those women, and updated school athletic records to reflect current NCAA eligibility standards.

We should welcome this turn of events. Conservatives should celebrate every wise use of political power to enforce just policies that promote human flourishing. It’s unjust for males to compete in girls’ and women’s sports. That so many educators don’t see that reflects a malformed view of justice informed more by progressive identity politics than God’s design, or even basic common sense.

I’m Nathan Finn.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: a special edition of Washington Wednesday with Hunter Baker on the countdown to America’s 250th birthday.

And, what Sweden is doing to try and rein-in immigration overload.

That and more tomorrow.

I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

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 records that….as Jesus reclined at a table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” Matthew 9:10-13

Go now in grace and peace.

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