PBS News Hour - Full Show - April 8, 2026 - PBS News Hour full episode

Episode Date: April 9, 2026

Wednesday on the News Hour, confusion and tension are growing around the Strait of Hormuz hours into a fragile ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran. We speak to the partner of a man detained by immigration authorities on his way to see his prematurely born baby in the hospital. Plus, Portland's first-of-its-kind climate fund faces growing debate over how the money should be spent. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy

Good evening. I'm Jeff Bennett. I'm the Navaz is on assignment. On the news hour tonight, confusion and tension are growing around the straight of four moves, hours into a fragile ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran, a truce complicated by Israel's ongoing strikes in Lebanon. We speak with the partner of a man detained by immigration authorities on his way to see his premature baby in the hospital. And Portland, Oregon's first of its kind climate fund faces growing debate over how the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the hospital. should be spent. Our frontline communities, those that face the greatest and worst impacts of climate change, should be at the center of creating those solutions.

Welcome to the News Hour. For the first time in more than five weeks, the U.S. did not launch widespread attacks on Iran today, and Iran did not strike U.S. targets. Even as the ceasefire between the two nations largely held, it's being tested by what appears to be Iran's ongoing chokehold of the Strait of Hormuz, as well as the ceasefire. of Hormuz, as well as Israel's war in Lebanon. Nick Schifrin reports on the many factors that could determine if the temporary truce can become a long-term peace.

John John, Campi, today in two capitals, two declarations of victory. In Tehran, immediately after the ceasefire, government supporters filled the streets, desecrating what the regime has for decades called the big and little Satan. Meanwhile, at the White House. This is a victory for the United States of America. And the Pentagon. Operation Epic Fury was a historic and overwhelming victory on the battlefield. A capital V military victory.

The U.S. declared its own goals met. But this is what the Vice President admitted was a fragile truce. In the hours after the ceasefire, Iran attacked Israel, intercepted by air defense. And Iran reported an attack on an oil refinery in the Strait of Hormuz. And it's that energy choke point through which 20% of the world's oil and natural gas usually flows that became one of the ceasefire deal's linchpins. Today, Iranian state media announced it was closed because of ongoing Israeli attacks on Lebanon. This is a case of what they're saying publicly is different privately.

We have seen an uptick of traffic in the straight today. But at the White House today, spokesperson Carolina, Leavitt insisted the strait was open. I will reiterate the president's expectation and demand that the strait of Hermuz is reopened immediately, quickly and safely. That is his expectation. It has been relayed to him privately that that is what's taking place and these reports publicly are false.

Transiting in a strait of promos is closed. In the Persian Gulf, Iran's Navy tells a different story, broadcasting this audio message today. If any vessels try to transit, without permission, will be destroyed out. And maritime intelligence organizations tell PBS NewsHauer that Iran only allowed five ships to the strait today, the same number as the day before the ceasefire. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbasarachi warned, quote, the ceasefire terms are clear and explicit. The U.S. must choose, ceasefire, or continued war via Israel. It cannot have both. The world sees the massacres in Lebanon,

the ball is in the U.S. court. Israel today hit Lebanon with what it called the largest coordinated wave of strike since the war in Iran began. Pounding Beirut, attacking more than 100 targets within 10 minutes. And targeting southern Lebanon, where Israeli troops recently invaded and pushed out most of the population. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Njahou said today this part of the war will not end. I insisted that the temporary ceasefire with Iran would not include Hezbollah, and we continue to strike it hard. I think this comes from a legitimate misunderstanding. I think the Iranians thought that the ceasefire included Lebanon, and it just didn't.

But Vice President Vance today, at the end of a trip to Budapest, Hungary, said Israel never promised to ceasefire in Lebanon, but might be willing now. The Israelis, as I understand it, again, I'm supposed to get a fuller report when I get on the plane, have actually offered to be, Frankly, to check themselves a little bit in Lebanon because they want to make sure that our negotiation is successful. Vance will lead negotiations with Iran beginning this weekend in Pakistan, alongside Steve Whitkoff and Jared Kushner, dispatched by President Trump. He's told us to come to the negotiating table, but if the Iranians don't do the exact same thing, they're going to find out that the President of the United States is not one to mess around.

He's impatient. He's impatient to make progress. He has told us to negotiate in good faith. Last night, Iran's Supreme National Security Council released its negotiating demands, including, quote, the establishment of a secure transit protocol in the Strait of Hormuz in such a manner as to guarantee Iran's dominion, withdrawal of U.S. forces from the Middle East, and U.S. Israeli reparations. The U.S. has long rejected those demands.

Iran is also demanding the lifting of all sanctions, which President Trump acknowledged today, was on the table. But in turn, Iran has rejected the U.S.'s longstanding demands, including no domestic uranium enrichment, end of support for proxies, and limits on missile inventory and range. And today, the U.S. added a new demand and threat. Iran must hand over its nearly 1,000 pounds of highly enriched uranium, believe buried under the rubble of last summer's U.S. strikes, or the U.S. will launch a raid to seize it. They will either give it to us, which the president has laid out.

We'll give it to us voluntarily. We'll get it. We'll take it. We'll take it out. But back in Tehran, there is cautious relief, and for some, a clear enemy. Everyone likes peace and calm, but unfortunately, someone is talking to us who is not trustworthy at all. Every bridge in Iran will be decimated by 12 o'clock tomorrow night.

Even for President Trump, it has been a volatile 48 hours. He whipsawed between threatening to destroy Iran's civilization unless there was a little was a deal to an 11th hour deal, declaring the ceasefire and claiming almost all of our various points of past contention have been agreed to. For European allies confronting an unpredictable president, for the U.S.'s Gulf allies facing persistent new Iranian threats, and for energy infrastructure that will take months or years to rebuild, the war will have consequences long beyond any ceasefire. Tonight, a U.S. official acknowledges to me that the Strait of Hormuz is basically a pressure

pressure valve that Iran can turn on and off. But the official argues the war has shifted Iran's demands, including its willingness to accept this temporary ceasefire. The challenge now is this weekend's negotiations, which Iran enters with a leverage over the strait, Jeff, that it did not have before the war. Nick Schifrin, our thanks to you. Let's turn now to our White House correspondent, Liz Landers, who spoke with President Trump on the phone earlier today. So, Liz, what did the president say about Iran in your phone call? I called him around 845 this morning. right after that Pentagon briefing had ended. And I wanted to ask him about what Nick's report included,

about these strikes that were still happening from the Israeli military on Lebanon that was ongoing this morning. I asked the president if he had seen that there were still military strikes happening. He said, yes, they, Lebanon, were not included in the deal. And I said, why not? And if Lebanon should have been included as part of this ceasefire deal. And he said, because of Hezbollah, they were not included in the deal. That'll get taken care of, too.

It's all right. I went on to ask him if he was okay with the Israeli military continuing to bomb Lebanon. He reiterated, it's part of the deal. Everyone knows that. And he said that that's a separate skirmish. Jeff, I tried to get him to answer another question about the post that he posted yesterday on Truth Social, about wiping out Iranian civilization. But he hung up before I was able to get an answer.

The White House press secretary, Caroline Levitt, was also asked about the different understandings of Lebanon during her White House press briefing this afternoon, the understandings over how Lebanon would be included in this deal or not. What did she say? Iran seems to think that stopping the Israeli attacks on Lebanon was part of the ceasefire deal. The president, though, and both and also Israel, have made it clear that that was not the case from their point of view.

Caroline Levitt was asked about this in today's briefing. Here's what she told reporters. Lebanon is not part of the ceasefire. That has been relayed to all parties involved in the ceasefire. As you know, Prime Minister Netanyahu put out a statement last night in support of the ceasefire in support of the United States' efforts. And he's also assured the president they'll continue to be a helpful partner throughout the course of the next two weeks. Caroline was also asked in a follow-up question if the president may want to see Lebanon included in future conversations.

And she said that this will continue to be discussed between President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu. But again, reiterate it's not part of the current conversation. And the president, in a separate phone call with a journalist from ABC News, talked about a revenue proposal with Iran over the Strait of Hormuz. Tell us about that. That was earlier this morning. And ABC News's John Carl spoke with him briefly as well and asked the president about whether he was okay with the Iranians charging a toll on all ships that are moving through the Strait of Hormuz. The president described the potential for this revenue sharing mechanism telling him, quote, we're thinking of doing it as a joint venture. It's a way of securing it. also securing it from lots of other people. And the president added, it's a beautiful thing. Jeff, a reminder that the Strait of Hormuz was open to free flow of goods and ships

before this conflict started. So this is another complicating factor, of course, that Nick laid out in his full report. Liz Landers, terrific reporting as always. Thank you. Of course. And we are joined now by NewsHour special correspondence, Reza Seya in Tehran and Simone Fultein in Beirut. Reza will start with you. We're seeing reports of air defense.

systems going off in Tehran tonight. And Iran says it may reenter the conflict following Israeli strikes in Lebanon. What are you hearing on the ground right now? Yeah, this ceasefire agreement is not even 24 hours old. And there's signs that it's falling apart. Iranian state media reporting that Tehran is prepared to exit the ceasefire agreement. If Israel continues, it's bombing, its airstrikes, targeting, locations in Lebanon. And seemingly Tehran has taken a couple of steps in doing that. They're once again shutting down the straight-of-form moves, and according to state media, the Revolutionary Guard,

launching a number of missiles targeting locations in the Gulf. Mohamed Barger-Kalibov, he's the Speaker of Iran's parliament. He accused Washington's partner, Israel, of violating the ceasefire agreement by attacking locations in Israel and launching drones into Iranian airspace. around 8 p.m. local time here in Tehran. Once again, Tehran's air defense system activated. We heard that familiar volley of anti-aircraft fire in the skies,

usually an indication that the drone is up above, a bus out of two, the foreign minister here in Iran, with a message to Washington, saying the United States is a choice to either abide by the agreement or choose to continue this war through Israel. And Reza, there also appears to be a major gap on the nuclear issue, President Trump says there will be no uranium enrichment, Iranian officials, and since they have that right, how wide is the divide between the two sides at this point in this

fragile ceasefire? Yeah, many gaps. These two sides haven't even sat down to begin negotiations and there's indications that there's lots of confusion. You look at the idea of uranium enrichment, the White House explicitly saying that Iran cannot enrich uranium. That's one of Tehran's conditions, they believe that a peaceful nuclear program is their right. And you look at the straight of Hormuz, Iran is demanding a new protocol to ensure safe passage, saying they want to charge fees for ships and tankers. No indication that Washington is going to accept that. And you know, look at Washington's other demands for Iran to cut ties with proxies to curtail its ballistic missile program. Tehran's demands for the U.S. to get rid of its troops from the region and end sanctions.

demands no indication of any compromise. And Simone, based on your reporting, what more do we know about the Israeli strikes in Lebanon today and their impact? Well, this was a massive attack by Israel on Lebanon. Unlike anything we've really seen over the past month or during the previous war back in 2024, there was no prior warning given by the IDF, which means that civilians didn't have the chance to get to safety, which is why we are seeing this high and still rising death toll with more than 200 people killed, hundreds injured in this sweeping bombardment of densely populated urban areas, not just here in the capital, Beirut, but also in the south and east of the country. The IDF says it was targeting Hezbollah infrastructure and fighters, which had said

had moved outside of Hezbollah's typical areas of control. But what we've really seen are horrific scenes of people, including children being pulled from the rubble of residential building, grocery stores, shops, pharmacies and bakeries. So what this escalation has really done is inflict a very heavy civilian toll and so panic and chaos among a traumatized population on a day when many had hoped that a ceasefire was on the horizon. And, Simone, the president, told our Liz Landers on the phone this morning that Lebanon is not part of the ceasefire agreement.

What does that mean for the situation there? Well, Israel has said that it will continue to strike Lebanon as long as Hezbollah remains a threat in what increasingly sounds like an open-ended war. Let's remember that the IDF has never been able to defeat Hezbollah militarily in the previous wars and occupations. Now, on top of that, the IDF appears to have broadened its targets to include as well as political, financial, as well as media institutions, institutions that are considered legal here in Lebanon and the attacks on which international rights groups have called war crimes. The IDF also said that it wants to clear southern Lebanon of all has been. Hezbollah supporters who still constitute a significant share of Shia Muslims here in Lebanon.

So all of this really raises the question at which point would the IDF consider Hezbollah defeated? Because clearly it's no longer just about the weapons, but also about the organization and its constituents and the ideology. Simone Fultein in Beirut and Rezaeia in Tehran for us tonight. Our thanks to you both. And now for additional perspective on the ceasefire in today's developments, we get two views. Barbara Leaf was U.S. ambassador to the United Arab Emirates and was the Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs during the Biden administration. She's now a distinguished diplomatic fellow at the Middle East Institute. That's a think tank in Washington, D.C.

And Michael Doran was senior director for the Middle East on the National Security Council during the George W. Bush administration and is now a senior fellow at the D.C.-based Hudson Institute. With a welcome to you both. Barbara, we'll start with you. How confident are you that this ceasefire, such as it is, this fragile truce can hold? I'm very worried. I think a lot of people are worried, above all, the folks in the Gulf. I spoke to several senior Gulf officials today.

They all turned the arrangements as fragile. One said it was less a ceasefire than it was a fragile truce, but that the prospect of escalation was clearly there. It did give time, which was good. But another official worried about, the fact that this dispute over whether Lebanon was in or out of the agreement was clearly a point of volatility.

What about that, Michael? The fact that the U.S. and Iran, the negotiations are so far apart, what are the prospects that they can come together? It really depends on how much the Iranians are hurting and how badly they want this deal, I think. And it's really hard to know. They're clearly trying to pull Lebanon into the deal, and perhaps that's one of the reasons why they aren't letting ships travel freely through the straight. Maybe it's part of the reason why they continue to hit the Gulf states today.

We're going to have to see how it goes. It might just be that this is the messy end to this part of the conflict. I mean, ceasefires are often messy, but we're going to have to wait and see. The President Barbara suggested that Iran has capitulated. Do you see any evidence of that? Not so far. Not so far. I think they are getting ready to see what they can get at the table.

but they clearly believe they have two really profoundly important pieces of leverage. One, the capacity, still resilient capacity and will, to impose really huge costs on the Gulf in terms of the energy infrastructure and critical infrastructure. But more importantly, they have a hold on the global economy's throat through the Strait of Hormuz. So that is a huge piece of leverage. How do you see it? I think they do have those points of leverage for sure. We didn't destroy all of their missiles and drones, and they have this muscle that they can

use. They're hurting very, very badly. You've seen their senior leadership has been destroyed. Some of their repressive apparatus has been destroyed. Their defense industrial base has been set back. And think about the situation they were in just before the war began. Their economy is a complete basket case. Their currency is worth nothing.

They're in really horrible shape. Let's talk a bit more about the strait, because President Trump today proposed this idea of a joint venture between the U.S. and Iran that would charge ships passing through this key trade corridor. What do you make of this suggestion that the U.S. and Iran could somehow jointly manage the Strait of War moves? Well, I was gobsmacked. I didn't know what to make of it, and I hardly think that was a very much.

a reassuring proposition to, again, the Gulf countries or to others who around the globe who really depend on that to be an open waterway for the free flow of commerce. So that is not status quo ante. And that would suggest something that will be even harder, if anything, to arrange. This idea that Iran is weakened but still dangerous. What does that mean for stability in the months ahead? It's going to be very, very fragile the whole situation. It really does come down to what the new leadership in Iran wants.

There's clearly a current of opinion. You heard it in the statements of President Peschkian to go a different way, less support for proxies, some kind of agreement with the United States over the nuclear program. But the guys who are in control of the missiles don't have that point of view. we have to see once the dust settles here a little bit if that other opinion that we're hearing through President Poschkin can actually have some influence on the IRGC. What's your assessment?

Well, I think the sad truth is that there has not been regime change as such. There has been a transition in the regime, but it is meant that the IRGC has captured the heights of power of every element of power. The Supreme Leader is visible only through statements, but in any case, doubtful that he will be less hardline than his father. He won't be as powerful as his father was at the end of his life. And so, as Mike said, it's a very, it's an opaque system, it's very difficult to measure where it's going to come out. I frankly believe, though, that the true tests that will test the regime is not so much what the U.S. and the Israeli militaries are doing as brutal a campaign as it's been for the regime, but rather when the guns fall silent and they have to face their own people and they have to face a shattered economy.

And that's where getting the straight of Hormuz out of their hands again is so critical because otherwise they have a huge volume of money coming in to fill their cost. Offers. Stepping back, in your view, is the U.S. better off today after striking Iran? Absolutely. They were, the administration faced and the Israelis faced in Iran that was building up a massive stockpile of missiles, and that was going to protect their nuclear program. And we can see how serious these weapons are. They've hit some of our most important radar systems in the Middle East.

They've wreaked havoc with our allies. It's not easy to eradicate it. And if we sat back and let them build up a bigger and bigger stockpile, we'd be in a much worse situation than we are now. How do you see it? So it really fundamentally depends on what we're able to get for these post-conflict arrangements. the damage that Mike laid out is truly epic, but it is transient. What has been destroyed can be rebuilt, especially if they have revenues coming in from their oil and the Strait of Hormuz.

So that all depends. Whether we're better off or not is really fundamentally driven by what we can arrange at the negotiating table. And that will take also something that the administration is not. fond of doing, but really creating a multilateral coalition, not so much for securing the straight, although there may be a role for that, but rather for the collaborative political pressure on the regime. Barbara Leif, Michael Doran. Thank you so much for your insights. Deeply appreciate it. Well, even with this shaky ceasefire, some warn the energy infrastructure in the Middle East will take months to recover, and prices may not drop as much as hoped. Our William Brigham has more on this part of the story.

That's right, Jeff. As we mentioned, it is unclear if the straight is really open, and even if so, there is still great hesitation about sending multi-million dollar vessels through it. Separately, there were additional attacks earlier today on energy infrastructure. One thing that is clear, consumers are feeling the pain at the pump. Gas prices are over $4 a gallon nationally. So for more on what this all means, we are joined by Jason Bordoff. He's the founding director of the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University. Jason, thank you so much for joining us. Does this alleged ceasefire, as much as we can call it that,

give you any sense about what happens going forward with regards to energy prices? Well, as you've been talking about with your correspondence, the only thing lacking from this ceasefire is for people to cease firing. And we've seen Iran today strike many of its neighbors, Israel strike Lebanon. And as long as that's the case, that does not give confidence to the oil tankers sitting in the Gulf, trying to get out to deliver oil to the market to go through. We saw maybe three or four reports differ.

A couple of tankers move through today. But until oil starts flowing again, and it is not yet, and this ceasefire, as you said, is very tenuous. The market is still short. And we saw the sort of traded price of oil come down. but the physical price that people are willing to pay is still quite high, and it's going to keep going higher

unless the oil starts to flow again. If Iran maintains control over the strait, which we should say it did not have before this war began, is it your sense that it is just too financially scary for shippers to go through there? Is it an insurance issue? What is it in particular? I think first and foremost, it's just confident.

Certainly you need insurance. You need signals from Iran, that tankers will be allowed to pass, that their military is not going to arbitrarily stop some and not others. I don't think anyone in the oil industry, I saw a quote today from someone in the industry who said, we didn't have to pay a few million dollars in fees before, and I thought we won this conflict, meaning the United States. So no one's going to be happy about paying a toll. If it was just a toll, the cargo is valuable enough that people would do it. But right now, there's just no confidence that you can move tankers through the strait. And that's just a clear

the oil that's sitting there in tankers for the last 40 days waiting to get to market. If you want to start producing again in the region, you need the rest of the world's tankers to be willing to go to the wrong side of the straight back into the Gulf and load up. And they don't want to get stuck if this thing falls apart again in a couple of days or a week or two. And separate from that, a lot of energy infrastructure was targeted. I believe it's at least nine countries saw facilities targeted successfully by Iran. How long does that take to both rebuild and then restart a legitimate supply of energy?

You know, we've seen an escalation there, and so even today, with a reported attack by a drone on the major Saudi pipeline to the Red Sea, the East-West pipeline. As far as we know, most of the oil-related infrastructure damage is still modest. There's a bit of a mutually assured destruction dynamic where I think Iran knows that if they really target things in a situation. serious way, they'll be targeted as well. So we're still at a point where within weeks, maybe a month or two, you can probably get the infrastructure back up and running. That could change if this escalates in a tit-for-tat way, and we start to see more significant damage. And then again, no one's going to start restarting production. We have nearly 10 million barrels a day that is shut in. People stopped producing. That is costly, and it can do damage to the wells to restart.

No one's going to do that until they have long-term confidence they can get the oil to market. Crude oil prices we saw did start to come back down, I believe was a 13% drop today. But U.S. gas prices, as I mentioned, still remain high. How long should consumers be expecting here in the U.S. to be bracing for those kinds of spikes? Well, it is a well-known phenomenon that when oil prices rise, gasoline prices rise quickly, and when oil prices fall, gasoline prices fall much more slowly, maybe two weeks or so. And so that would be the time frame if the oil starts flowing and that sharp reduction in price we saw today is matched by the physical reality of the oil market.

But that's still to be seen. If the ceasefire holds, if tankers are willing to go through, if none of that happens, again, the price people have physically been willing to pay for oil has been quite a bit higher than that oil price you just mentioned. That fell about 10 or 15 percent today. That price will rise again if we don't see the oil start to flow quickly. And same thing we saw with jet fuel prices, and a lot of consumers reporting today that airlines were now tacking on all sorts of new fees. Again, is that just what consumers should be expecting going forward?

I think jet fuel, the same as gasoline, the same as diesel, and it's even worse than some other parts of the world. Asia, you're seeing physical shortages. You're seeing not just airlines raise prices, but some airlines canceling flights to Asia because they're not sure they can refuel. And so that's only going to change once we start to see, you know, millions of barrels a day of oil transiting through the Strait again. And until that happens, people should still be ready for higher gasoline prices and airline prices and all the other ways oil prices trickle through the economy. And are there any other, lastly, just any other downstream consequences we ought to be looking out for fertilizer, food prices? Well, the Strait of Hormuz is just one of the most critical transit. maritime transit places in the world.

So we've seen it with oil. We've seen it with natural gas, and there has been real physical damage to the Qatari-LNG plant. So natural gas prices have been rising, particularly in Europe and in Asia. And then, as you said, petrochemicals, aluminum, fertilizer,

which could have really significant impacts as we enter harvesting season in particularly low and middle-income countries, all of that is going to get much more painful that that straight is not reopened quickly. Jason Bordoff, thank you so much for being here. appreciate it. Thank you.

In the day's other headlines, NATO chief Mark Ruta met with President Trump behind closed doors at the White House today in a bid to ease tensions between the U.S. and the military alliance. Before the meeting, White House press secretary Caroline Levitt shared what she called a direct quote from the president about NATO's actions during the Iran war, saying, quote, they were tested and they failed. Mr. Trump has repeatedly criticized the bloc for not backing his war and has threatened to withdraw the U.S. from the 32-member alliance. Earlier in the day, Ruta also met with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said the U.S. will have to re-examine its relationship with NATO. Southwest Airlines is the latest U.S. carrier to say it's raising baggage fees as airlines grapple

with higher energy costs brought on by the Iran War. Starting tomorrow, passengers will pay $45 for their first checked bag and $55 for a second. Southwest, of course, allowed free bags for years. Those prices matched the new fees by Delta, which took effect today, but a third checked bag on that airline jumps sharply to $200. United Airlines and JetBlue also announced price hikes just last week. In most cases, bags will still be free for customers in premium cabins, plus active duty military personnel and those with certain membership status. In Georgia, Trump-backed Republican Clay Fuller will be sworn into Congress, as early as next Tuesday after he won a special election

to replace former congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green. Fuller thanked supporters at an election watch party last night. The Democrat Party poured millions of dollars into this campaign, but they can't beat Donald Trump, and they never will. And I will be on Capitol Hill as a warrior to have his back each and every day. Hill serve out the remainder of Green's term, which ends in January. But for Democrats, there was a silver lining. Candidate Sean Harris performed better than expected in the Deep Red District that Green won by nearly 30 points.

Harris said as much to his supporters. The reality of it is, we came up a little short, but we did not lose, because nobody ever thought that a Democrat would actually have a performance like this. Meantime, in Wisconsin, appeals court judge Chris Taylor beat back a conservative challenger to expand that state's Supreme Court's liberal majority five. to two. Federal weather officials say last month was by far the warmest march on record for the continental U.S. Data out today showed the average temperature was 50.9 degrees Fahrenheit. That's more than nine degrees higher than the 20th century average, which officials use as a benchmark

to measure present-day temperatures. And experts say nearly 20,000 daily records were shattered across the country in March. The sweltering heat was inescapable for millions of Americans, from summer-like conditions on the West Coast to record low snowpack in the Rockies and Sierra Nevada's. And forecasters expect that trend to continue. Turning overseas now, Greece is the latest nation to say it intends to ban social media access for children under the age of 15.

The country's prime minister said the move is aimed at protecting children's mental health. The science is clear when a child spends hours in front of a screen The mind does not rest. That's why we have decided to move forward with something difficult but necessary. He went on to say that the Greek Parliament will introduce the ban this summer, and if passed, it will come into force in January.

Last year, Australia became the world's first country to enforce a social media ban for children. Since then, other countries like Malaysia, France, Denmark, and the UK, have drawn up their own social media restrictions for young people. The crew of the Artemis II mission is set to return home. following their voyage around the far side of the moon. Last night, NASA released this photo of the Milky Way galaxy taken on board their Orion spacecraft. It's the latest glimpse from their journey,

which has included extraordinary views of the lunar surface providing new insights into the moon's topography. The Orion capsule is expected to splash down in the Pacific Ocean on Friday evening. On Wall Street today, stocks surged as ceasefire hopes in Iran sent oil prices tumbling. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, jumped more than 1,300 points on the day.

The NASDAQ added more than 600 points or nearly 3%. The S&P 500 also ended sharply higher. And Jim Whitaker, the first American to reach the top of Mount Everest, has died. His achievement back in 1963 made him an instant celebrity. Whitaker developed an early reverence for mountains and a clear understanding of the risks they carry. Once reflecting in a 1981 interview, when you live on the edge, you can see a little farther. Jim Whitaker was 97 years old. Still to come on the News Hour, we speak with the partner of a DACA recipient detained by immigration authorities.

Portland, Oregon debates how a first of its kind climate fund should be spent. And comedian Lerick Lewis gives her brief but spectacular take on finding your authentic voice. This is the PBS News Hour from the David M. Rubenstein studio at WETA in Washington, headquarters of PBS News. During this Trump administration, ICE has detained more than 260 people protected under DACA, also known as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. More than 80 of them have been deported. The Obama era program created back in 2012, Shields undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children from deportation and allows them to work legally.

While DACA recipients can be removed for reasons such as criminal convictions, advocates say some with no criminal record are also being swept up in the broader crackdown. Our Lisa Desjardin has one of their stories. Juan Chavez Velasco was detained on his way to the hospital, Nick Yu, taking breast milk to his infant daughter, who was born almost six weeks premature. Brought to the United States from Colombia when he was eight years old, Juan is 35 years old now in a longtime part of the DACA program. He renewed his DACA status every two years, became a couple of,

college graduate, works in a lab in Texas doing blood and other medical tests. His wife and kids are all citizens, and he has no criminal history. Juan has been held at a detention center in Texas for the past seven weeks. His wife, Stephanie Villarreal, joins me now to talk about this. Tell us what happened in February the day that your husband was detained. Yeah, so I had had my youngest daughter on February the 6th. And 12 days later, he was driving to the NICU to go take for some of my breast milk that I had been pumping. And as he was driving out of the neighborhood, he saw a car parked on the side of the road.

And he pulled over. And there was some ICE agents that approached him. And basically, they questioned him. And he tried to let them know that he had DACA and a work authorization. And he was detained as of that day. on February 18th. At that point when it happened, as you say, he had DACA status right then. How concerned before that were you or he that he could be detained?

I believe that we were just more under the impression that the administration had mentioned nothing would happen to DACA recipients. We had started hearing rumors about DACA recipients being detained and we just started to get really nervous about everything. But again, we just didn't think that it would hit home. I want to talk a little bit about that because he had a DACA status when he was detained, but that status expired while he was in detention. And he had applied for renewal last fall.

Trump administration's under court order, they're supposed to renew this status, but your husband hasn't been. What do you think's happening here? I feel like it's intentionally being delayed, but it is affecting the likelihood of many docker recipients. and just like my husband. He was picked up when it was active, and yes, it did expire while he was in detention. We did ask DHS for a statement about Juan's case, and this is what a spokesman said,

quote, he is an illegal alien from Colombia and was issued a final order of removal in 2005. He received full due process. DACA does not confer any form of legal status in this country. How do you respond to that? I just believe that they use that term so often about illegal aliens. My husband is more than just that. He's a father. He's a husband.

He's done everything right. He's come here and he's built his education. He's built his family. And the term illegal alien just has a very negative attachment to it. I know you speak with him daily. How is he doing? He's holding up. He's having some medical concerns. He just did some labs and he came out with having kidney stones. So he's dealing with bad. He doesn't have the healthiest of foods or the best drinking water. So it's definitely heightened the pain that he has coming from that. This debate that you all kind of landed in the middle of right now in many ways it's about who Americans should be.

who the Trump administration feels should be allowed to enter or stay in this country. And I wonder how you see yourself and how your husband sees himself as Americans. He feels American at heart. He hasn't stepped foot in Colombia since he was eight years old. We love this country. It's the country, you know, that provided him all of his opportunities, especially being on the DACA program. He was, like I mentioned, graduated with two bachelor's degrees, that he was able to work and provide and be able to come. that at the same time. So he definitely is very thankful being here and he does feel like

he's truly an American. You know the argument from the Trump administration is that even if he's done no wrong, his family shouldn't have brought him here and they shouldn't have entered illegally when he was a child. How do you respond to that? I feel like as loving parents, you will do whatever it takes for your children. And sometimes that comes with sacrifices. I truly believe that that's what my mother and my father-in-law did for my husband. They provided him an opportunity to live a better life. Have you thought about what you would do if he is deported? Unfortunately, it would require us to possibly move to a different country

just to be together as a family, just because my kids are so young and he deserves to be a part of their life and they deserve to be with their dad. What's the hardest part about that? It's just approving everything that we thought we were going to do with our children. We just purchased our home last year and things were feeling perfect. We just started building our family. And we were, you know, ready to just build our lives.

We didn't think that anything like this could have ever happened. Given that, I think my last question is, do you look at America? differently now because of this experience or no? I do. Unfortunately, there's so much hatred in this world right now. And, you know, at one point when we were growing up, we were always told that the United States of America was the best place for everyone to be.

And right now, there's just so much hate that I look at my children and try to teach them that we cannot normalize what's goal. on right now. Stephanie Villarreal, thank you so much for talking with us. Thank you. Thank you for having me. In 2018, voters in Portland, Oregon approved a first of its kind climate and justice fund aimed at investing in projects in historically marginalized communities. Since then, the fund has grown and so has the debate over how that money should be spent. Stephanie Syre reports as part of our series' tipping point.

community members die 10 years younger than everywhere else because of the lack of clean air. At a city council hearing last month in Portland, Oregon, in making sure that we make more progress on decarbonization of our transportation sector, climate change and environmental justice were on the agenda. This is going to cause an issue. This is going to cause a delay in some of these programs. Tell the truth. The debate on this day, how to spend about $15 million from a roughly $1.6 billion,

dollar pool of money known as the Portland Clean Energy Fund, or PCEF. There is no other fund like this in the nation. Monica Samoa is a climate and environment reporter for Oregon public broadcasting. So the Portland Clean Energy Fund is a 1% tax that is imposed on large retailers in the city. The purpose of the fund is to address social, racial, and climate justice, as well as to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. When Portland voters created this fund eight years ago, Samayoas says it was expected to generate about $60 million annually. But when the pandemic hit and more people turned to large retailers online, the fund had an unexpected windfall.

It's actually generating $200 million a year. And that threw off everyone because they were thinking, what are we going to do with these large amounts of money? The money, earmarked for both large and small climate-related projects in underserved communities, has been a crucial lifeline for families like 40-year-old Carrie Rowe and her two young children. Roe, a photographer, bought her first home two years ago. Yeah, we moved in, and the house was awesome, cute, small, and then a few days later, a 14-day ice storm hit. And in that moment, I realized like, oh my gosh, my walls are not insulated because there was ice. It was cold to the touch on every single wall.

After qualifying for a program that helps Native Americans make energy efficient upgrades to their homes, they insulated every wall that would adjoin a living space. Roe was able to use more than $20,000 in PCF funds to insulate her walls, weatherize her doors, and air seal her attic. They insulated all the space between the house and the foundation. She says her total energy usage has dropped by half since this work was completed, saving her about $80 a month in utilities. We'd still be freezing in the winter and sweating off summer long, so I'm beyond grateful.

But for the last few years, reporter Monica Samayoa has been tracking efforts to use PSEF dollars outside of climate-related projects. Now at five, a controversial ballot measure that would divert climate tax dollars to fund police staffing in Portland. That includes a proposed ballot measure to divert 25 percent of the fund's annual revenue to hire 400 additional police officers. Voters here will likely vote on the measure in November. Supporters say, well, we need more police officers on our streets. There's not enough. A second proposal that has got a lot of attention right now is coming from Portland Mayor Keith Wilson.

He has floated around this idea that PSEF would provide at least $75 million to renovate the Moda Center. And that is our sports arena where the Portland Trailblazers play. The Portland Trailblazers are a part of our DNA. That's so important to keep in Portland. Mayor Keith Wilson says upgrades. to the MOTA Center are needed, not only to keep the trailblazers in Portland, but also to make the stadium more sustainable, environmentally and economically. It's going to hit the three key pillars of PSEF. It's going to reduce emissions, it's going

to reduce energy usage, and it's going to provide a benefit to a community in need. How is it serving underserved communities to put $75 million from PSEF into these renovations? The Moda Center is right in the middle of what we call our Albina District. It is a district that has been underserved for decades. We built a freeway right through this vibrant community and displaced whole communities. And what we're doing is we're partnering with the Albina District to rebuild that neighborhood and the moda's going to be the center point of that. When you're talking about renovating a support center, I don't think that's the, like, how can you tie that to climate action and community services?

You're essentially saying anyone can take money from PSF with no purpose. Jessica Carmona is a senior program manager for the Bonneville Environmental Foundation, a non-profit that manages more than 2,000 solar panels near Portland's airport. Funded from a $4 million PSEF grant, Carmona believes this is how the money should be spent. There's unlimited need and opportunity for climate. action projects in many different ways that benefit community. The solar panels have been up and running since September and now provide about 150 low-income residents with so-called energy credits.

Kermona says they'll help lower utility bills up to 40 percent over the next two decades. You make it accessible for people who move around a lot because they don't have stable housing sometimes so they can subscribe and they can take the subscription with them. They don't have to own their home. Just across the street, PSEF funding also financed rooftop solar panels inside this community of roughly 60 formerly homeless people who live nearby. Our frontline communities, those that face the greatest and worst impacts of climate change should be at the center of creating those solutions. This is a competitive grant-making program. Sam Barrasso is the program manager for the Portland Clean Energy Fund.

He says the projects that PSEF is funding will be transformative for the city. I mean, we've retrofit hundreds of homes that now see bill savings of $1,000 plus per year. We've planted countless trees across the community, invested in getting folks on the e-bikes and so forth. And we've distributed almost well over 20,000 portable heat pump cooling units. But Barrasso admits, like many cities, Portland is facing a challenging moment when it comes to local government revenues. There has always been competing priorities. and desires to spend the resources in other ways. So I think there are these tradeoffs that are always there,

and we try to balance those tradeoffs in a way to get out ultimately. How do we make sure that this fund addresses our climate, creates real tangible benefits for the folks that are here? Tradeoffs now being weighed by Portland City Council, and ones that Monica Samayoa says carry enormous consequences for America's first of its kind billion-dollar climate fund. That money is allocated. So Mayor Wilson's proposal is going to be interesting if it moves forward because the city is going to have to decide, do you remove money from the city bureaus that are needing this money or from the community that also needs this money? So that's a tough decision that's going to have to be made. Decisions that will become only more difficult in the years ahead. For the PBS News Hour, I'm Stephanie Sy in Portland, Oregon.

Actor and comedian Lyric Lewis says she discovered her love of performance through improv. In tonight's brief but spectacular, she reflects on finding her authentic voice in comedy. My favorite thing about improv is, oh, it feels like playing as an adult. The instant gratification of audience laughter, there's truly nothing like it. It's just a launching point to like really take off and have fun. So I'm originally from New Orleans, Louisiana. My mom's side is from the lower knife. My dad's side is from the 17th ward.

As a kid, they called me motor mouth because I literally would never stop talking. The basic rules of improv, for anybody, but especially for a beginner, it's really to yes and. And it's to try not to be funny. I think the worst thing that can happen during an improv performance is becoming self-aware. Improv, like acting, is just reacting.

When I was coming up, especially in junior high, high school, and college, I'd seen these women's career Maya Rudolph, Jennifer Coulich, Sherry O'Terry, even like Will Ferrell, they all had the groundlings in common. I'm like, I want to go where these people who I idolize where they got sharp. Coming from a theatrical background and the drama department at Syracuse,

it isn't like super, super diverse. I was kind of used to at that point being one of in a classroom setting, but still at the groundlings, it was very interesting that at first I was just doing the classes and I was just getting my training on. And it wasn't. It wasn't until I got into writing lab. My teacher was Karen Mariyama.

I was writing monologues and I had this thing where I was like, I will not be a stereotype. And Karen was so great and delicate about being like, look on the wall and how many people on that wall that are in the main company look like you. So I went and looked and it was none at that time. And she was like, why would you have a chance to write for yourself and to give a voice not only to yourself,

but she was like to your cousin, to your aunts, to your family. Why not give them seat at the table by writing from every pocket of perspective that you have. So when I got voted into the main company, there had not been a black person in the main company for 16 years. I was like, students need to see a representation of everything on the stage,

and every student needs to see it. The oddest reaction, this was the summer of 2019. So this is when Disney first announced that they were doing the live action Little Mermaid, but that it was gonna be Hallie Bailey, and the outraged people had on social media because they were like, how? How can a mermaid be of color?

And so I did a sketch where I was literally a mermaid. The whole sketch, I'm like, my name is Alcorella. I'm from the NAACP sector of the mermaids under the sea. And I literally am like, who's mad? And I had one woman once that was like in the second row. She went, I'm mad. She was like, well, what? I don't know what to do now with the dolls.

Ain't know where a nobody song did she say, kiss the little white mermaid that has red hair. It's just kissed the girl, girl. My name is Lyric Lewis. And this is my brief but spectacular take on how life is playing. Because it is. Well, you can watch more brief but spectacular videos online at pbs.org slash news hour slash brief.

And that is the news hour for tonight. I'm Jeff Bennett for all of us here at the PBS News Hour. Thanks for spending part of your evening with us.