WHAT DOES AMERICA STAND FOR?

At the NATO summit in Ankara, President Trump declares “love and unity” with allies, and Europe signals it is taking more responsibility for its own defense. Christiane speaks with former US Ambassador to NATO Julianne Smith about what the summit revealed and growing uncertainty around the fragile Iran truce. Then, Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III responds to White House broadsides accusing the institution of having a “radical, activist ideology.” Will Ripley reports from Taiwan on China’s striking mock-up of a U.S. warship in the Xinjiang desert. Former British Prime Minister Theresa May joins Christiane to discuss CNN’s new documentary The Salisbury Poisonings: A Spy Next Door about the Novichok attack in England in 2018, and they discuss the threat Russia still poses to the West. From the archives, Christiane looks back at Beirut in 1993, a city emerging from civil war and still symbolic of Lebanon’s repeated cycle of destruction and rebirth. And finally, Spain’s Running of the Bulls festivities explode across Pamplona, 100 years since Ernest Hemingway immortalized them in The Sun Also Rises. Air date: July 11, 2026 Guests: Julianne Smith Lonnie G. Bunch III Theresa May Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices