PBS News Hour - Full Show - July 4, 2025 – PBS News Hour full episode

Episode Date: July 4, 2025

Friday on the News Hour, the Supreme Court completes another historic term with rulings that expand presidential authority and could have far-reaching consequences. As extreme heat becomes a dangerous new normal, doctors warn that high temperatures are posing more risks to the human body. Plus, we visit the National Museum of the Marine Corps, commemorating its 250-year history. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

Good evening. I'm John Yang. Jeff Bennett and Omna Nawaz are away. On the news hour tonight, the Supreme Court completes another historic term with rulings that expand presidential authority and could have far-reaching consequences for the future of American democracy. As extreme heat becomes a dangerous new normal, doctors warn that high temperatures are opposing more risks to the human body. The effects of extreme heat might not show up right away as a diagnosable health condition, but they could be taking a silent toll at the cellular and the more regular level. And on this 4th of July, we visit the National Museum of the Marine Corps commemorating the Corps' 250-year history. Welcome to the News Hour.

As Americans celebrate their freedom on this Independence Day, President Trump is celebrating a decisive win for his domestic agenda. His second term legislative wish list, officially entitled The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, is now law. Given the gavel that used to pass the legislation, the president signed the sweeping tax and spending cuts, grounded by congressional Republicans. He touted the bill as one having a generational impact. It includes the largest tax cut in American history, the largest spending cut, $1.7 trillion, and yet you won't even notice it just waste fraud and abuse

in American history. So you have the biggest tax cut, the biggest spending cut, the largest border security investment. The new law is unprecedented in many ways, extending the tax cuts of Mr. Trump's first term, along with others, to the tune of $4.5 trillion, adding another $1.4 trillion in spending cuts, and, according to the Congressional Budget Office, adding a record $3.2 trillion to the deficit over the next 10 years. Across Ukraine last night, Russia unleashed an aerial assault of drones and missiles.

Officials say the all-out attack was the biggest so far of the war. It came just hours after President Trump said little progress was made in a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which he said was disappointing. The Ukrainian capital of Kiev was the primary target. The barrage of more than 550 drones and missiles lasted more than seven hours, killing one person and injuring dozens. Ukrainian leaders called it a brutal, sleepless night. Daybreak revealed scenes of destruction. with the air still heavy with smoke. Something was flying every minute.

The drones were descending, and then bang, bang. Then we realized that our building had been hit. Everything is covered in soot now. It's difficult to breathe. Ukrainian president Volodemar Zelenskyy said he had a fruitful call with President Trump hours after the attack. The two talked about ways to help Ukraine improve its air defenses after the United States recently paused some weapons deliveries.

In Gaza, at least 35 Palestinians were killed in another day of Israel's relentless military campaign against Hamas. Israeli airstrikes claimed more than a dozen lives, while hospital officials said about 20 others were fatally shot as they waited for humanitarian aid convoys. Today, the U.N. said that in the span of a month, it's recorded the deaths of more than 600 Palestinians trying to get aid. UN officials called for an independent investigation. It is clear that the Israeli military has shelled and shot at Palestinians trying to reach the distribution points. How many killings? Who is responsible for? For that, we need an investigation. We need access. We need an independent inquiry. And we need accountability for these killings. Meanwhile, a senior U.S. negotiator tells PBS news that Hamas still has reservations about President Trump's 60-day ceasefire proposal.

but is willing to discuss them in this weekend's talks in Qatar. Mr. Trump said Israel has already agreed to the deal. Severe weather on this July 4th has turned deadly in parts of the country. Texas lieutenant governor Dan Patrick said at least six people are dead in Kerr County, and more than 20 others are still missing. Some of them children, after close to 10 inches of rain, caused flash floods along the Guadalupe River. Meteorologists say the water rose 22 feet in just two hours.

Meanwhile, in New Jersey, at least three people are dead after intense thunderstorms last night. The deaths were the result of toppled trees. The city of Plainfield declared a state of emergency and canceled its Fourth of July festivities. Meanwhile, parts of Europe are dealing with a different set of difficult conditions. Wildfires burned across Turkey today, and new blazes broke out in Greece, where this week, flames have already charred thousands of acres. And a record-breaking heat wave is lingering over much of the continent. In Bulgaria, construction workers braved the hazardous temperatures,

while in Sicily, beachgoers soaked up the sun's rays and took advantage of the sea to cool off. Forecasters say the heat is likely to finally let up over the weekend. And, of course, it wouldn't be the 4th of July without hot dogs, namely this year's Nathan's hot dog eating contest. Competitive eater Joey Chestnut reclaimed his title today after a year away with plant-based competitor Impossible Foods. Chestnut won his 17th mustard belt by downing 70 and a half hot dogs in 10 minutes.

In the women's competition, Mickey Sudo defended her title with 33 hot dogs. Last year, she ate a record 51 francs. Still to come on the news hour, David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart give their take on the massive budget bill. We visit an aquarium exhibit specifically designed for aging penguins and the growing popularity of banana ball. This is the PBS News Hour from the David M. Rubenstein studio at W.E.A. in Washington. And in the west from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University. As the Supreme Court headed into its summer break, the justices gave President Trump a big win,

saying that district court judges do not have the authority to issue the sort of nationwide injunctions that had blocked administration policies. It capped a term in which the court's conservative majority delivered a string of legal victories for President Trump, many of them in emergency appeals, what's called the shadow docket. Earlier, I spoke with two court watchers about the term just ended and what could be coming next. PBS News Supreme Court analyst Amy Howe, who's the co-founder of SCOTUS blog, and Jody Cantor, a New York Times investigative reporter who's covered the justices and the court in depth. Amy, how unusual is the administration's use of emergency appeals? It's really unusual. And when I think back at this term, it's just ending, that's really what we're going to remember.

because it wasn't the kind of historic decisions on the merits that we had in past terms on issues like abortion and gun rights and administrative law. But the administration came to the Supreme Court over and over again on its emergency appeals dockets. And these are the cases that the Supreme Court is generally deciding without oral argument and sometimes without written decisions or even knowing how all of the justices voted. And in fact, the Trump administration in the first five and a half months or so of since the inauguration on January 20th has already come to the Supreme Court on the emergency docket more than 20 times, which is more than twice as many, just to put it into context, than the George W. Bush administration and the Obama administration combined in 16 years. And how have they done? What's their success rate, as it were? Their success rate is high. I mean, the biggest victory was the victory on the universal or nationwide injunctions.

That was a case in which the Supreme Court did hear oral argument and issue a written decision on their merits, but they've had a lot of success on other issues, including immigration and the president's efforts to remake the federal workforce. And although these are theoretically temporary rulings that pause lower court's orders while the litigation continues in the lower court. they can have permanent repercussions if you're talking about firing federal employees, about deporting people or separating transgender service members from the military. Jody, the majority opinion on the case involving nationwide injunctions was written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who's gotten a lot of attention, some skepticism from conservatives. You took a deep dive into Barrett's jurisprudence and the criticism about her. What did you find?

She's very much the justice of the season for several reasons. She's part of the fulcrum of the court right now, the center of the court, along with Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Kavanaugh. This is a court where the power is really concentrated in those three people. Those are the three people you have to convince. Earlier this year, there was a series of extraordinary attacks and threats against her. her by MAGA figures. Remember, she was appointed by President Trump. A lot of, a lot of these statements were way over the line. They were personal. They were about her family. Like many other federal judges, she was getting some very scary threats. At the same time, she became something of a

beacon of hope for liberals who began to notice something we were able to quantify in numbers, which is that she was showing signs of leftward drift. Then, as you say, she wrote the birthright citizen opinion, which was remarkable for a relatively junior justice to take on. I mean, this is a decision that does some reordering of our legal system, and we can start to hear her voice clearly, more clearly than ever before, and to see that really just five years after coming onto the court, her influence is very much rising. And, Amy, one of the other issues or the areas that the court got into this year was the culture wars.

Talk about some of those cases. Yes, so there were a couple of those cases. The court in December heard a challenge to Tennessee's ban on gender affirming care, and by a vote of six to three, the justices upheld the Tennessee law, and this will affect similar laws in a number of other states. This was a case in which Justice Barrett actually joined the six justice majority and then wrote a concurring opinion and said in which she would have gone further

and reached an issue that the majority didn't address, whether or not transgender people are a suspect or a protected class. And then they issued a decision in a case out of Montgomery County, Maryland in the Washington, D.C. suburbs. They ruled that parents have a right to opt their children out of instruction using, LGBTQ-themed storybooks. Amy, you heard Jody say that Justice Barrett is in the center of the court,

along with the Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Kavanaugh. What does it say about the ideological spectrum or analogical shift of this court that these three would be in the middle? They're not moderates, are they? They're definitely not moderates in any definition of the word. It just says that the center of the court has shifted. to the right. Jody also talked about the threats that have been gone against some of these

justices. The day after the court's term ended, Chief Justice John Roberts spoke at a judicial conference of North Carolina and addressed the rising criticism and threats. The danger, of course, is somebody might pick up on that, and we have had, of course, serious threats of violence and murder of judges just simply for doing their their work. Threatening the judges for doing their job is totally unacceptable, and people should be careful about doing that. Jody, in your story about Justice Barrett, you found threats not only against her, but against her family. Exactly. We actually obtained the police report

about a bomb threat to her sister in South Carolina. The language is really menacing. It's really specific. It was an empty threat. There was no bomb. But it is a truly scary sign of the time. times, that it's not just the jurists who are being threatened. It's their extended families. And you also say that her youngest son asked why mommy has a bulletproof vest. She conjured up this really memorable moment in a recent speech. She talks about being at home and her young son spies the bulletproof vest lying somewhere in the house and asks her, what is this? Why do you have it? Amy, how are the justices coping with this?

It's hard to say exactly that the court does not comment on the justice's security. I've been going to the Supreme Court for a long time. There is visibly more security at the Supreme Court when the court is in session and then surrounding the justices when they are out and about in the public. But I imagine it has to really weigh on them. Amy Howe, Jody Cantor. Thank you both very much. Thank you. Thank you.

Extreme heat is becoming a dangerous new normal. Last week, it affected much of the United States. This week, it's hitting Europe. The heat brings with it a number of health risks. From severe burns to accelerated aging, the effects of long periods of high temperatures on the human body are getting more attention in this. time of rising climate change. Stephanie Syre reports from Phoenix, the epicenter of extreme heat

in the United States, for our series Tipping Point. Summer's off to a sweltering start. From New York to Chicago, triple-digit temperatures are behind heat illnesses, cancellations of sporting events, and strained power grids and outages. But nowhere is the heat more dangerous than in Maricopa County, Arizona, which every summer records hundreds of heat-related deaths and an untold number of heat-related burns. I was checking the pool. It was July 3rd, the hottest day of the year at that time. It was about 116 degrees. Phoenix resident Robert Woolley is 72. The retired teacher and former Navy aviator was walking around his pool two summers ago when he tripped and fell. I put my hand down to catch myself and I was

startled by how hot and sharp the rocks were and instinctively I picked my hand up and I went all the way down to the ground and I actually hit my head on the ground and I tried to push myself back up and I got partway up and I tried that several more times and I just could not get back up and each time I tried my hands hurt worse and worse and worse and I looked at my hands and the skin had peeled off my hands and it looked like raw hamburger underneath. eventually made it to the back door where his wife could hear him. When he arrived at Valley Wise Hospital, he had third-degree burns on 20% of his body. When you're burned, you continue to burn, and they change your bandages daily.

And so when they unwrap you, it's like being skinned alive. And yet, Wully is one of the luckier burn patients, says Dr. Kevin Foster, the director of the Arizona burn center at Valley Wise. For the most part we're capable of saving just about anybody with a burn. However, the really difficult thing in the summertime is when heat stroke is also a problem because high temperatures affect every system of the body, the neurologic system, the cardiovascular system, the GI tract.

And that really is the determining factor of how these patients are going to do, is how How bad is the heat stroke and how bad of the other systems of the body been injured? The burn center is at its busiest during Phoenix's increasingly brutal summers. As we urbanize and we have more concrete and more areas that absorb heat, that just makes the problem even worse and you have more surfaces to get burned on. Sidewalks, concrete, asphalt, paved surfaces, rocks. Those surfaces can get up to 170 or even 180 degrees,

which is just a little bit below the boiling point of water. So those are really, really hot surfaces, it only takes a fraction of a second to get a deep burn when exposed to that. While heat-related illness and injury can hit anyone in these extreme summer months, people experiencing homelessness and substance users are at particularly high risk, accounting for a disproportionate number of heat-related deaths in recent years. Morning, Circle the City. Would you like some water? Perla Puebla is the Associate Medical Director of Street Medicine at Circle the City,

an organization that provides medical treatment to the unhoused population in Maricopa County. We have to go from wellness to death prevention in the summer. She and her team go out daily, offering medical care to people living on the streets. The summers are also a busy time for them. I have seen severe dehydration, heat exhaustion. I'm talking about the patients are actively sweating. They're dizzy. They're not feeling well.

But they still don't want to go to the emergency room for many reasons. It could be that they don't want to leave their pet. They're no longer able to be hydrated with oral hydration, and we have to provide IV hydration, to intervenous hydration, to help them out. Preventative measures like IV hydration for patients, who don't want to go to the emergency room may have contributed to the number of heat-related deaths taking down last summer. There were still more than 600 such deaths in the county.

The hardest part is staying cool. There's not a lot. Arizona don't have a lot of trees, you know, and with being out on the street, they kick you out from everywhere. 43-year-old Brandolin Valencia has been unhoused off and on over the last couple of years. She had a checkup with Puebla and her colleagues in South Phoenix. There's a lot of people with heat exhaustion, and I've seen a few people get heat stroke, and they just, it's that bad here. It's that bad. So it's not the best place to be out here on the street, but it happens. And so they should just get the resources they can get and take it, use them so they're not in this situation.

The number of days with high levels of heat are lasting longer in Phoenix, and that is a problem for the unhoused population because there is a period of time where they can get no relief at night because it does not get under 90 degrees at night for a prolonged period of time. Dr. Rebecca Morin is the medical director of the family health centers at Circle the City and treats unhoused patients. Chronic medical conditions that normally don't change at all for somebody who's housed, will change a lot for somebody who is unhoused because the heat interacts with the medicines, the heat interacts with the underlying medical issue. Meanwhile, new research from the University of Southern California suggests that greater exposure to extreme heat accelerates biological aging in older adults, raising new concerns about how climate change and particularly heat waves impact long-term health.

The effects of extreme heat might not show up right away as a diagnosable health condition, but they could be taking a silent toll at the cellular and the molecular level. And over time, this could accumulate and eventually lead to disability or disease. Yun Yong Choi is one of the study's co-authors. In the study sample, people living in extreme heat experienced 14 months of additional biological aging compared to peers living in cooler areas. This effect was actually comparable to the fact that we could capture for the smoking, heavy smoking and drinking, which are too well-established risk factor for aging and disease. Whether hidden or visible, heat's effects on health can be life-changing. For Robert Woolley, it's been a long two years. After an extended stay in the hospital and undergoing five surgeries and rehab, he's still not the same. How has this incident changed your outlook on your life?

I don't take things as granted as I used to. I'm grateful for every day I'm alive. And while the astronomer gazes at the sun through one of his many telescopes, he now sees its power in a new light. For the PBS News Hour, I'm Stephanie Tsai in Phoenix. On this Independence Day, the Marine Corps has opened a new art exhibit at its National Museum, documenting the service's 250th anniversary. It's called 250 years of dedication, determination, and courage.

It celebrates the Marines' most famous moments, but it also features the other side of war, trauma, terror, and sacrifice. Nick Schifrin went for a visit. For combat artist and Marine Corps veteran Christopher Battles, the brush is no less mighty than the sword. War is one of the oldest human endeavors. It encompasses everything in humanity, the good or the bad and the ugly.

And so we try not to edit out any of that. So combat art tries to show everything as best we can. Battles enlisted back in the 80s as a computer operator. His true love was art, and he rejoined after 9-11 to deploy to Iraq as a combat artist. He's now at the Museum of the Marine Corps, south of Washington, D.C., as its artist in residence. There's something magical about the medium of the painted picture. There's a very intimate engagement there that is very personal. You can see the hand of the artist.

You can see how the paint was put down, what was depicted, how things were around. And we're trying to bring maybe something noble and beautiful out of what is not always a beautiful or noble activity. One of the strengths of our collection is that we do not shy away from any subject. Joan Thomas is the curator of the exhibit, more than 90 works of art that document two and a half centuries of Marine Corps history, from fighting the British in 1781 to fighting Seminoles in the 1840s to the 21st century battles of Afghanistan and Iraq. I look at art as a way of slowing down the scene. It slows down the moment. It captures the emotion.

When you look at a painting, if you've been there, the smells all of a sudden. It's a sensory experience, and it's more than just a quick snapshot. It shapes it in a way that allows the viewer to step more closely into that experience. But the American dead number... Like at Iwo Jima in World War II. The Marines have to fight their way inland over bullet-swept coral. That fighting in the Pacific was savage, island to island, as the U.S. sought to destroy Imperial Japan. This was the Japanese headquarters.

Enemy coast guns open up, and many of the landing craft get direct hits. But amid the amphibious assaults, amid the brutality, moments that can be slowed down. They haven't been afraid to go forward. They have done everything we've asked them to do. There's another painting depicting down the nets by Richard Gibney. Not only did you have to crawl over and try to get down the rope and land in the vehicle that was going to take you onto the beach, and that's before you even fired a shot.

When you look at a painting like the aftermath of Beirut or a field hospital in Anhoa, you realize the price people are paying. There's a human price that's being paid. An often personal price. For so many, the pain and suffering of war comes home. And post-traumatic stress, a fact of war since its inception, has only recently been treated as the wound that it is. Sarah Rothschild's painting, self-portrait, what happens there doesn't always stay there, is her experience after she had gotten out of the Marine Corps, trying to get her life back together, and she was looking at herself in the mirror as she was kind of falling apart.

We have one that shows a shock tent where you have exhausted Marines. It's, you've been through too much, you've seen too much. How are you trained as an artist? Battles showed us around the exhibit. He has nine paintings on display, most realist, but one looks and feels different. This is a battle scene in Fallujah, so war can be chaotic and jumbled and frenetic and dark and light. Give me the first, their second floor! In November 2004, Marines fought Iraqi insurgents to join.

retake Fallujah west of Baghdad. The weeks-long operation became the Marines as largest urban battles since Vietnam and among the deadliest. It was street to street and house and house. You're coming into the dark from the light and you can't see well and there's rubble and smoke and dust. And so I was trying to show that jumbled chaos and that unknown. I was emoting on the canvas in a way. I was pallet knife and I was even using my fingers. Some detail is shown, some is not, certain things are blurry and out of focus. Battles served in Mosul, not Fallujah, so we interviewed Marines who'd fought there, to do what Marine combat artists have done for more than 80 years, putting Marines words

and memories to canvas. I wanted to somehow be authentic, even though I wasn't in this hellhouse, so to speak. Authentic for veterans like former Marine Sergeant Piqui Fong. The Marines have to go in and do the dirty work. Fong was Chinese born, raised in New York, and enlisted in the Marines at 17. He served in Iraq and was honorably discharged after being injured while patrolling for roadside bombs. The legacy of being a Marine, like, is extremely important to me. And I want to showcase that, like, to my family and make them kind of, like, understand the sacrifice that took place.

like, you know, throughout the generations. Does showing your family this art, does it help you communicate that to your family? Yes, it brings me comfort, some type of closure, especially, you know, when you have people that come back home without limbs, without their family, and kind of, like, keep that perspective in me, like, as I go on with my life. Life does go on, but war and its legacy remains framed for everyone who fought. For the PBS News Hour, I'm Nick Schifrin in Quantico, Virginia. To discuss the political fallout of the Republican budget bill,

and the state of American democracy on this Independence Day, we turn to the analysis of Brooks and Capehart. That's New York Times columnist, David Brooks, and Jonathan Kepard, Associate Editor of the Washington Post. Gentlemen, welcome. Happy fourth. Jonathan, there were more than a couple times this week. It looked like the big, beautiful bill wasn't going to make it. Like it was sort of a teetering on the brink of failure.

But a lot of the people who said there was no way they could support what came over from the Senate switched after talking to the president. What does this say about the president's hold and influence on the Republican Party now? Well, we've always known that his hold on the Republican Party is firm. What this vote, and now it's law, so now what this law says to me is he now has complete and total control of Washington. Congress, a co-equal, separate branch of government basically is the staffing arm of the executive. And the judicial branch, especially the Supreme Court, it seems like with some of their decisions, they are doing things in favor of a lot of some of the extreme things we've seen come out of the administration. So what we see with this so-called one big beautiful bill act, which is now the law, that they, you know, forced to get passed by this arbitrary deadline of July 4th so the president could sign it on the South Law, and as he just did moments ago,

This just says that President Trump, what happened is what we've been seeing happen since January 20th. He says jump, they say how high, and then they do it for him. David, total control of Washington? Yeah, I mean, it's true that presidents usually get their big signature initiative. But a couple of things are interesting to me. First, he's on a bit of a role. He had the Iran bombing, which did not lead to a wider war. He won some Supreme Court victories.

Immigration across the southern borders are decades-long lows. So the White House is crowing on all these victories, and they pass this thing. And so that suggests some momentum and some control. Of course, the shocking thing, when he's taken a step back, is that this did used to be a party that didn't like deficits. And this is adding $3 trillion to deficits. And so you took a party, a lot of these people who voted for the bill, have walked, said, I wrote, came to office to shrink the size of government and reduced debt. And $3 trillion.

And when I look back on the sort of degradation process that got them to this point, It was the moment when Speaker Johnson started going after the Congressional Budget Office. For decades, the Congressional Budget Office has been considered and is a nonpartisan, accurate counter of the effects of legislation. And once the Republicans, especially Speaker Johnson, said the referee, the umpire doesn't matter, that gives permission for self-deception. And then they could somehow square it internally with themselves. I'm not really increasing debt. The CBO says that, but who believes that? So that was the thing.

Once you walk away from the objective, impartial observer, then you've really, you give yourself permission to self-to-see. But you talk about, David, you talk about the people who said that they were standing on principle to oppose this, that they did not want the national debt increase, that this was spending too much money. Is loyalty and fealty to President Trump more important than that principle? Well, I think we've now had about 600 cases of this, and the answer is 98.2 percent, yes.

And so that, and then the other thing that's interesting to me about this bill is that it's truly aggressive. It's good for the rich, and it's bad for working class folks. But Democrats have been doing this for a little while, and Republicans have been winning working class votes, despite all sorts of pieces of legislation that are aggressive in this way. So how much it will, Democrats are pretty confident we can say, he's cutting your Medicare, your Medicaid, excuse me. He's, you know, giving tax cuts to zillionaires. But Democrats have been saying that for 20 or 30 years, and Donald Trump has been elected. And even in New York, Mandani, the Democratic nominee, presumptive, you know, he did not do well among working class voters.

And he's a socialist giving away free bus rides. He did well among the people making over $150,000 except for the very rich. And so there's something weird going on in our country. Democrats do not seem to be able to capitalize on the fact that Republicans do all these regressive policies. Well, one of the things that they that they did in this now law that is going to aid what you're talking about, the cuts to Medicaid. They don't kick in until 2026 after the midterm elections. And so Democrats will be out there screaming about how Medicaid has been cut, but the people they're talking to will say, well, my Medicaid hasn't been cut. What are they

talking about? So this sleight of hand that's in that's in this now law is also, it's, it's reprehensible, because by the time people get hit with the full impact of this law, it might be too late for Democrats to capitalize on it. So, Jonathan, you don't think this is going to play a big role in the midterms? Oh, absolutely, it's going to play a big role in the midterms. There's a difference between playing the sound of Tom Tillis, playing the sound of Senator Tillis, Senator Lisa Murkowski, who actually did an old-fashioned job of squeezing out as much benefit for her constituents, but then voting for a bill that she has.

herself is on video saying is a terrible bill. All Democrats have to do is cut and paste those videos into ads and then spread out around the country and talk about the thousands of people who are going to lose health care as a result of this law. Yeah, I mean, maybe they could run Elon Musk ads, things like that. Yeah, him too. I think the one thing I would say if I were a Democrat is Donald Trump won election on the back of the working class. He has betrayed you. You have been betrayed by this guy. Americans are in a mood where many of them feel betrayed. And so Republicans have won because they tell a betrayal story. The elites are betraying you. But Democrats now have a betrayal story to tell. And so you've got to go with the tide of history. And the tide of history is like

68 percent, not just Republicans, think the elites have betrayed us. And now Democrats have a plausible version. This guy, he said he was going to help you in Youngstown, Ohio. He's helping Palm Beach. and that's a story that they could do. And if they hit that populous note a little harder, that might be affected. But polls show that a lot of people aren't even aware of this bill. Are they going to be aware, are they going to put it together when Medicaid benefits are cut or they left to get off the get out of Medicaid? Are they going to make the connection to you think?

I mean, that gets back to what I was saying earlier. I think you're signing the Washington Post-IPSO's poll. A third of the folks who were polled had no opinion of the bill. and two-thirds had heard little or nothing about it. And so you take that, and then you will have, in the 2026 midterm cycle, Democrats saying, your Medicaid has been cut. But those folks, a lot of those folks might be people like, wait, my Medicaid hasn't been cut. So what are they talking about?

And so that's why I think it's terrific. What David is suggesting is, you know, just pound away on the betrayal. Because betrayal usually takes a long time for you to figure out that you've been betrayed. But on the other side, are the tax cuts really going to feel, they're not, they're extensions of cuts. So people aren't going to see more money in their paycheck. They won't see more money. And the effect, the growth effects, the White House estimates of the growth effects is like

we're in Nirvana, like we're going to, we're all going to be rolling in dough. But they will produce some growth. I mean, it's highly stimulative to cut that much taxes. But the growth effects are, if you look at most of these serious estimates, like under 1% added growth to the economy, sometimes significantly under 1%. So that stuff is not measurable. It's going to feel like status quo. There will be a few theatrical things.

And so one of the things Trump talks about all the time is no taxes on tips. But when you actually look, how much is that? It's $32 billion, which in this kind of bill is peanuts. But it's theatrical. No tax on tips. Sounds pretty good. If you're not paying attention, oh, that sounds good. No taxes on tips.

And then there's a slight increase in the child tax credit. And that's a genuinely good policy, by the way. And so they're doing that, and there's some baby bonds for people who want to build up life savings. So these are not big programs, but they're talking points for Republicans. And no tax on car loan interest, but only if you buy an American car. Sorry, John. No, we had a PBS News NPR Marist College poll out this week. And on this Fourth of July, it's sort of time to reflect on our nation and democracy. They asked Americans about, about Americans' openness to people from around the world.

64% said it's essential to national identity. 35% says it risks the national identity. How does this square with what President Trump is doing on immigration and mass deportations? It's the opposite. We've been a country of immigrants since we were before our country. And Americans still love pluralism and diversity. I was celebrating Independence Day and the birth of our country. country yesterday in Milan but at a Bruce Springsteen concert and he talked about exactly that

about the diversity of the country the land he loves he was so patriotic and it's not and I felt very moved and tears coming to my eyes but so did the Italians they love that version of America and people that is the thing people have always felt magnetized that's we have a ton of Italian Americans in this country they literally came here and and so that's the part of the country that has never changed. People were upset at the anarchy in the southern border, but we have never been a country that did not

admire people who come here and work hard and make America what it is. You know, I was giving a speech at the Adams Institute in Holland during Trump won. And in the middle, in the depth of Trump one, when we were worried about our

country, and my host, we were in a cab heading to the event, and I noticed, her lock screen on her phone, the Statue of Liberty. Here's this Dutch woman with the Statue of Liberty. It said to me that America was still a beacon of hope for people around the world. And that's why that number is at 64%. That's why people look to the United States because of who we are, because of where we come from.

President Biden always said, you know, the United States is the only nation that was formed around an idea. And it's been successful because that idea is something that people from around the world, they can see themselves in it. And as long as we stay true to that, then no matter who the president is, we will stay true to our founding and our founding principles, I think. On that also, the idea that we asked about a serious threat to the future of democracy, 76% said yes, there is a serious threat. 24% said no. But what do you make of that? There is a serious threat. But, you know, in the winter of 1777, there was a serious threat.

In 1830, when Andrew Jackson did the Indian Displacement Act, there was a serious threat. 1863, that was no joke. 1890s, we had lynchings. We had corruption. 1930s, 1968. This is a country has built itself through a process of rupture and repair. We go through these hard periods, but then we repair. I'm still confident we're going to repair.

Confident? Absolutely. Absolutely. And I'm confident just simply because of my own story. I don't know. Well, we have no time. I can't even. I just looked at the clock. Just read my book, John. Best tales job there. Jonathan Capert, David Brooks. Thank you very much. Thanks, John. penguins, we tend to think cute and energetic. But as they age, they also experience aches and pains just like we humans do. That's why the New England Aquarium in Boston has created a first-of-its-kind oasis for its penguin elders. Special correspondent Jared Bowen of GBH, Boston, takes us there

for our arts and culture series, Canvas. Thank you for being a friend. The hit sitcom The Golden Girls opened our eyes to the joys of aging together. Now the New England Aquarium is doing the same with its penguin golden girls and boys. This is our geriatric island. We affectionately call it our assisted living community. This is a new development at the aquarium where for decades, various penguin species have ruled the roost,

or rather these islands, dotting one of the institution's most popular exhibits. It's also a place where kids will be kids, says Associate Curator Eric Fox. As we look at our older populations, we started to identify that there could be ways that their life could be easier, but oftentimes it's the youngsters who might be trying to take over their territory or steal their mate or just cause a little bit of ruckus. These are African penguins, and in the wild, their average lifespan is 10 years. But here, where care is paramount, many are living into their 30s. And in their senior years, they face a host of ailments.

Beyond just ruffians in the neighborhood, says curator Kristen McMahon. They'll get cataracts, glaucoma, some spinal conditions sometimes where they don't move quite as easily as a younger bird, arthritis. Recently, 32-year-old penguin Lambert had both cataract surgery and his left eye removed. It occurred to the aquarium team that post-surgery, Lambert might be better suited in a community where life is a bit slower. a bit easier. Same for his fellow senior citizens who were gradually moved to a retirement home of their own. The other thing that's really great about it is it's very close so we can walk by any time and take a snapshot and say, okay, all eight birds look really great. Or hey, I want to look a little closer at Good Hope. He's moving a little different than he did yesterday. Life is good on retirement

island. The penguins receive restaurant quality meals, acupuncture treatments, and physical therapy. all by way of on-site medical care. Great, everything sounds nice and normal. All right, it's going to give a feel here. Fill your belly. All right, Lambow, let's take a look in your eye. Dr. Catherine Tuxbury is the New England Aquarium's senior veterinarian. In performing exams as often as once a week,

she knows her patients intimately. What are you looking for when they walk? I'm taking a look to see if she has any signs of lameness, so we've been treating her with an anti-examination. with an anti-inflammatory pain medication for some stiff gait. There is a comprehensive treatment plan here, which includes a lot of bonding with caregivers. We establish relationships with each individual bird, just like with people, getting to know each other, spending quality time, building trust, and you do that by being present.

In the water, alongside the birds, which is where we headed for an up-close look at penguin life, with penguin trainer Mia Luzietti. So they know their names. Yes, so we do train name recognition, but even if we didn't train it, they end up knowing them. They're very intelligent animals. And curious. They thrive, the aquarium says, a new object, people, and PBS camera crews. That familiarity, the comfort with caregivers, is key as we enter the geriatric island,

where Luzietti administers eyedrops and meals. We know everything that's going on with the birds at any given time. if someone didn't come to the island for the feed, why didn't they come? Is that normal for that individual? To accommodate its new residents, the island features more ramps and flatter areas. It's easier to navigate and reduces stress. So what are these pads, these brown pads? Yeah, so the matting on the island provides them a little more cushion for their feet, especially with some of the birds on this island having arthritis. We want to make sure that their joints are comfortable. The New England Aquarium believes it's the first to establish a geriatric

community for its animals. Now about five months into the effort, the aquarium says it's been a success and will share its findings with other institutions. It's really a great network and it's really such a great feeling to be involved with the species that really needs our help. Because in the wild, African penguins are now a critically endangered species. Their food supply has declined significantly as ocean temperatures have shifted and there's more competition with commercial fisheries. The population has declined by at least 70% over the last decade, says Eric Fox, who has worked on penguin rehabilitation projects in South Africa. What's happening when the parents aren't catching enough fish is that they're abandoning their chicks because they can't get enough to survive,

let alone feed another. Once abandoned chicks are properly nourished, they can be released back into the wild. Continuing a cycle of best practices devised here, with potential benefits a world away. Our story is way more powerful than just the eight penguins that get to live here. It's about the colonies in South Africa that could be making it to these ages if things are done to help reduce the threat on their population. And that's kind of what we're here and why we do what we do. For the PBS News Hour, I'm Jared Bowen in Boston. millions are going bananas over a new take on baseball called banana ball to show us what it's all about our Dima Zane took in a banana ball game

between the Savannah bananas and the firefighters. If a fan catches a foul ball, it's an out, a pitch in the dirt, the batter steals first, and if you draw a walk, you better run as fast as you can. This is anything but traditional baseballs. They're called the Savannah of Bananas, and they're playing what they call banana ball. It's a fast-paced take on baseball, with 11 rules you wouldn't see at a major league game, filled with constant entertainment. Hey, hey, baby. Ooh, I want to know.

There was spun around a chair like that before. It was all started in 2016 by Savannah Banana CEO, Jesse Cole, who had a vision of a fan's first approach to, baseball. Bring energy, bring fun, and lift people up. It was a tradition-busting idea. I realized that there's a fundamental problem with a game if you leave the game in the middle of the game. And so we said, all right, well, what if we need our own rules? With new rules in the game also came new antics on the field, including a twerking empire, acrobatic trick plays, a batter on stilts, trending choreographed dances, and much more. Feels like a party. It feels like a party. It's like a game.

Circus meets the Olympics. Like, it's just amazing. And Cole himself is the circus's ringleader, rocking a signature banana yellow suit and top hat. It gives permission to not, to people to have fun, to not take themselves too seriously. When your owner is running around, you know, throwing out Dolce and Banana underwear into the crowd and having fun,

I think it says, you know what, we can loosen up. Banana Ball's popularity has grown exponentially in the past few years, racking up more than 30 million followers on social media and outpacing some major league baseball teams. And with a growing social media presence, came an expanding banana ball league that welcomed the party animals. And in 2024, the firefighters and Texas tailgators, with more teams on the horizon, according to Cole.

When the bananas and firefighters went head-to-head in Washington, D.C. recently, the excitement was palpable. We're new fans, but now forever fans. They are the best baseball show on Earth that's not a playoff game. Yeah, they're all Samantha League. and it's a different game. There are different rules, but it's close, and it's a lot of fun. Who are we rooting for?

The firefighters or the Savannah Banana? Savannah! But things weren't always a home run for Cole and the bananas. We were just hoping to glad to sell a few tickets when we first started. You know, we were sleeping on the airbed and grocery shop with just $30 a week. That's where we were nine years ago. At first, no one wanted to play for us. And now every week we're hearing from numerous players,

from guys that have played professional baseball, from people that are literally foregoing. their college eligibility just to join us and be a part of this journey. The bananas Robert Anthony Cruz first played professionally with the Washington Nationals. It was my dream to be a professional baseball player. It was a lot of pressure, though. Showing up to the ballpark every day with the Nationals was pretty nerve-wracking. Showing up to the ballpark here with the bananas, it's exciting. Kyle KJ. Jackson and Christian Deerman also found playing for the league an opportunity

to give their baseball careers new life. I felt as if this was the best way for me to continue to play the game I love. and pursue my goal of being entertainer. I saw how much it revived my love for the game, and it just made me want to be a part of it forever. The Savannah Bananas bring in tens of thousands of fans selling out games across the nation. And a ticket lottery system is the main way

to be a part of the action. We are the Taylor Swift of baseball. Tim Natty is the Savannah Bananas vice president of finance. It pains us that we can't get everybody in the door, but we are trying the best we can in order to deliver the product to them if they can't come and be in our home venue for a night or two. And it's big business when banana ball comes to town, hitting 40 cities and 25 states this

year, playing at 18 major league stadiums and three NFL football stadiums across the nation. Last year, what we saw was that 25% of the ticket holders that came to see Savannah bananas were from outside of the region. Deputy Mayor for planning an economic development for the District of Columbia, Nina Albert, says games with nationwide appeal always bring in the big bucks. What an out-of-town visitor does for the District of Columbia, it includes staying in a hotel, it includes eating out for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And for dessert, perhaps a banana split.

The world's hungry for fun, and so we're grateful that we get to deliver it every night. For PBS news, I'm DeMa Zane, catching a story that's just banana. Remember, there's a lot more online, including a look at the scientists from the nation's top health agencies who've lost their jobs. That's at pbs.org slash dues hour. And join me tomorrow on PBS News weekend for a look at what's behind a secondhand, a boom, in secondhand shopping as more Americans turn to thrifting. And that is the news hour for this 4th of July. I'm John Yang. For all of my colleagues, thanks for joining us.

See you tomorrow.