PBS News Hour - Full Show - July 6, 2026 - PBS News Hour full episode

Episode Date: July 6, 2026

Monday on the News Hour, can NATO allies deliver on promises to up their military spending? A call from President Trump prompts FIFA to reconsider, then reverse the suspension of a Team USA star. Plus, the White House rolls out investment accounts for children, but questions remain about who they'll benefit most. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy

Good evening. I'm Amna Nawaz. Jeff Bennett is away. On the news hour tonight, NATO allies promised to up their military spending. The question at this week's summit in Turkey, can they deliver? Controversy at the World Cup, after a call from President Trump prompts FIFA to reconsider, then reverse the suspension of a team USA star. And the White House rolls out investment accounts for children, but questions remain about who they'll benefit most. We already have extremely significant wealth gaps by income, by race, by gender, and the way that this policy is structured, it's not going to narrow them. It has the potential to widen them. Welcome to the News Hour. President Trump has often been a proud disruptor on the world stage, and today was no different. He acknowledged today that he intervened directly with the president of FIFA, which led to the overturning of a penalty that would have banned a star-American.

striker from tonight's World Cup match. In response, some European soccer leaders are questioning the integrity of the entire tournament. And tonight, President Trump is departing for a pivotal summit with NATO allies, after a year in which he's questioned European country's sovereignty and doubted the very utility of the alliance. We'll get to the soccer controversy in just a moment, but first, Nick Schiffen joins me from Ankara, Turkey, where the NATO summit will take place. So, Nick, what are administration officials saying ahead of this pivotal summit? As one senior official put it to me, it is, quote, show me the money time. It was one year ago at the Hague summit that all NATO leaders pledged to spend 5% of their GDP on defense.

And President Trump declared the U.S.'s military presence in Europe was, quote, not a rip-off. That was a good day for NATO. But since then, it has been a bad year. The President's national security strategies criticize European, quote, civilizational erasure. The president threatened to seize Greenland, which, of course, is a bad year. an autonomous part of Denmark. Even this weekend, Omna, as a senior administration official, was briefing reporters. The officials said that the U.S. is acquiring Greenland would still be, quote, the best way to meet the defense needs of NATO. President Trump has also questioned

the very reason for the alliance's existence after Europeans resisted helping the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran and the Pentagon indicates that they will draw down troops and bases from Europe. And so European officials arrive here, but knowing that if they want to placate President Trump, and that isn't if, they will have to present what Mark Ruta, the Secretary General of NATO today, called clear, concrete, and credible plans to reach that 5% goal. As that senior administration official put it to us, the U.S. is no longer interested in burden shifting. They are talking about burden sharing.

And that really indicates how much the historic U.S. and European security, ties, Omna, have begun to fray. And so, Nick, what do you anticipate here in the summit? Will they acknowledge that sort of momentum and shift? You know, privately, Omna, European officials do acknowledge this, but publicly they are much more careful saying what one European official told me today would be a, quote, more European NATO. But there's a different tone here.

On the last year, European officials arrived here describing an effort, an attempt, a hope, try and keep the U.S. committed to Europe. Now they acknowledge that the Europe is going to reduce its presence in Europe. So their goal is just to minimize the damage of the transition. There are more than 70,000 U.S. troops in Europe. And if the U.S. withdraws quicker, then Europe can mobilize. That could create a security vacuum that would make Europe vulnerable. What Europe wants is, frankly, what it doesn't always get, predictability and collaboration. But as always today, Ruta played his Trump whisperer role, and he praised what he called the president's forcefulness. President Trump has been extremely forceful, encouraging us to do this.

And you could argue that he is the first president of the U.S. since Eisenhower, who was able to come to this situation where the Europeans and the Canadians will spend the same as the Americans. This equalization was a wish for 50, 60 years. And now it's happening. And I think in large part, to his least part, to his leadership. The irony here, Omna, is that European defense spending and capabilities are growing at the exact same time that tension within the alliance is growing, mostly because of President Trump's rhetoric.

Nick, meanwhile, you know, as you've been covering one of the topics at the summit beyond NATO will be Ukraine. What do we expect to come from these meetings when it comes to that ongoing war? I mean, it's certainly a topic that European officials are desperate to present a united front on. Ukraine is extremely vulnerable right now to Russian attack. As we saw overnight, a Russian barrage of missiles and drones hit Keev. All of Russia's ballistic missiles struck their targets. That means that Keeve has run out of Patriot Air Defense. The Russian attack killed at least

22 people. President Trump will meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky here on the sidelines of NATO. And Zelensky, of course, will emphasize getting more European in U.S. air defense, as the U.S. and Europe are also talking about some joint models, joint production in the defense industrial base. And briefly, Nick, before we let you go, what are we expecting from President Trump in the way of an announcement tomorrow alongside the Turkish leader, Erdogan? So the two will meet, and Turkey has been asking for two major military parts from the United States, engines for Turkish military jets, and also being back into the American F-35 military jet program. You'll recall, Omna, of course, that Turkey was removed from the program and sanctioned

during the First Trump administration after it refused to give up air defense missiles provided by Russia. U.S. officials are hinting, although not confirming there could be progress to allow Turkey back into the F-35 program. That is something that has split Capitol Hill. It's split experts. Israel has come out against it, but it's something, Omna, that Prime Minister Erdogan has made such a key in his personal dealings with President Trump. All right, that is Nick Schiffen reporting live from the side of the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey. Nick, thank you.

All right, let's turn our attention now to President Trump's involvement in another international affair. That's the World Cup. The U.S. takes on Belgium tonight with Star Striker Flo Balagan on the pitch. Balagan was given a red card in last week's game against Bosnia and Herzegovina,

meaning he would miss tonight's game. Then Trump intervened, and FIFA reversed ballot. alleging suspension, leading to controversy and outrage. For more, we turn now to our White House correspondent Liz Landers, as well as Leander Charlochans, who's been covering the cup for ESPN and The Guardian. He's the author of the book The Long Game, U.S. men's soccer and its savage four-decade journey to the top or thereabouts.

Leander, I'll turn to you first because you've covered soccer for a while for context here. How unusual is it for a red card suspension to be handed out during a World Cup match and then reversed mid-tournament. How often does that happen? The rules are very clear here. You get a red card. You're suspended for the next game. In fact, the last time I was on your very show,

I was asked, is there any chance he'll play in the next game? And I said, no, because there wasn't. This has happened before in the World Cup. In 1962, a Brazilian player called Garincha was kind of spared his automatic suspension. It hasn't happened since then. There's a little bit of a recent precedent where Cristiano Ronaldo was supposed to miss the first.

first two games of this World Cup because of a suspension. But then he went to the White House along with his Saudi employer, Muhammad bin Salman, and suddenly that suspension went away and he was ready to go in the opening games of this World Cup. But this is not supposed to happen. There is a huge uproar around the world about this, and rightly so, because what's happened here is that a wrong has been righted in the soccer sense because it shouldn't have been a red card and the U.S. played down a man for half.

an hour and was going to miss its best striker for this Belgium game. But in fixing that wrong, a greater wrong has now been inflicted. And the Belgians, understandably, are upset. So, Liz, how did this happen? The president has come out and said he did make a call. He did intervene. What do we know about what he said? President Trump and the administration apparently sprang into action after this happened last week. And the president talked about this in a lot of detail today in the Oval Office. He said that he saw the play during the game last week, and he thought it wasn't a foul, and instead it was just, as he said, two great athletes that got tangled up. He called the player, a very vital player when someone explained to him what the red card meant and thought

that the red card was very unfair. So he said in the Oval Office today that he did call FIFA President Johnny and Fantino, and here's how he described that phone conversation. I think it would have had a big stain. And I related just that field. I didn't tell him what to do. I can't tell him what to do. And I don't believe he made the decision. I think it was a committee that made the decision. And they made the right decision. The president said that he did ask Infantino to review the red card and to review what had happened during the game. And within about an hour and a half of the president making these comments today, we got a statement from the FIFA president. And he said in part in this statement, quote, during our conversation, I explained that there was an on-

ongoing legal process involving FIFA's independent judicial bodies and that the case would be decided in due course by the competent bodies. That is how FIFA's system works and it is a principle that I will always uphold. So defending the autonomy of the organization there, but these two men have a very close relationship. FIFA took up offices in the Trump Tower. Infantino attended President Trump's inauguration. And of course, people may remember last year in December during the World Cup draw at the Kennedy Center here in Washington. Johnny Infantino presented President Trump with the first ever FIFA Peace Prize. Can I just follow up with a little bit of irony in all of this as well?

This is the president intervening on Flo Balligan's behalf. Balagan can only play for Team USA because of birthright citizenship. His Nigerian mother was too pregnant to fly back from the U.S. when she was visiting. That's why he's a U.S. citizen. He was raised in the U.K. Was the president asked about this, something he's worked to undo? The president has not been asked about this, and he's not addressed this irony either. He challenged birthright citizenship day one back in office here with that executive order,

which the Supreme Court just ruled last week against him and said that the 14th Amendment does give people the right to citizenship if you are born here in the U.S. So basically defending balligan's status as an American citizen in addition to everyone else who has birthright citizenship here. The president expressed his disappointment in that decision, but then went on last week to say that he still. wants to challenge birthright citizenship. So now we see the president advocating on behalf of this one player when it benefits Team USA and him. So Leander, back to the World Cup of it all.

Now we know Belgium is obviously furious. Latest news seems to suggest that FIFA has rejected their appeal. What do you expect to happen next? Will there be more appeals? And what does all this mean for the U.S. match tonight? Well, so first of all, Belgium was basically told you can appeal this decision, even though they were never given an explanation or were told what the appeal process would look like, whereupon they basically lodged a blind appeal and then FIFA ruled very, very quickly and said, no, you have no standing in this case, therefore your appeal is denied or it wasn't even considered in the first place. This was already a tough game for the U.S. They played Belgium in March. They lost 5'2 in a friendly game. They were

eliminated by Belgium in the 2014 World Cup at the same stage in the round of 16. The US had a lot more momentum going into this game, but it also feels like this kind of, you know, has re-energized the Belgians. And it feels like there is a lot of kind of goodwill that was building around this US team at this World Cup, which is the point of hosting a World Cup ultimately, has kind of just disintegrated. And there's this huge asterisk behind them if they managed to win this game. So it's all just got all these extra layers now of geopolitics and of scandals because the rest of the soccer world outside of FIFA, the Belgian Federation, the Bosnian Federation,

which was the team that Balagan got the red card against, UEFA, which is the European Confederation, they're all upset, and this isn't going to go away just after this game. All right, Leander-Sharlockins, Liz Landers. Thank you to you both. We start the day's other headlines in Iran's capital city of Tehran, where hundreds of thousands attended a funeral procession for the country's late supreme leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khomeini. Mourners chanted death to America as Haminez

casket and those of his family members made their way through the city's streets. The 86-year-old cleric was killed in U.S. and Israeli air strikes in February. Many supporters vowed revenge, saying that America killed the, quote, father of Iran. Our leader's path will continue. All of us will continue down his path with clenched fists, and soon we will avenge his death against the U.S. and Israel. Iranian president, Masud Pazeshkian, was seen walking among the crowd and greeting mourners. Khamenei's casket will travel to the Iranian city of Qom and then to Iraq before the late

leader is buried in his hometown of Mashad. The multi-day funeral comes as diplomatic efforts continue to find a permanent end to the war. Hamas says it has dissolved its government in Gaza as it prepares to transfer power to a UN-backed technical committee. A lower-level official made the announcement at a news conference today as part of a U.S. brokered ceasefire deal with Israel. But the militant group stopped short of saying it would disarm or hand over security to an international force, both of which are requirements in the deal's second phase.

Israel dismissed the announcement as an attempt by Hamas to avoid disarming, and it's unclear what impact it will have on the ground, if any. Some Palestinians say they hope it's a step toward peace. We wish from God that handing over this Hamas administrative committee brings improvement. We wish from God to be relieved from the tents, mosquitoes, mice that are eating us up at our children. This is not life. We are living in torture. Israel has continued to strike suspected Qamass targets despite the ceasefire that was signed some nine months ago. Hamas has significantly reduced its major results on Israel, but has continued with intermittent strikes as well.

Health officials in Gaza say Israeli attacks today killed at least five people across the territory. Health officials in the Democratic Republic of the Congo say more than 500 people have now died in the Ebola outbreak. The Ministry of Health says the virus spread continues to outpace the response, with confirmed cases now above 1,500. In the meantime, health workers on the front lines are threatening to go on a 24-hour strike over unpaid benefits and poor working conditions. That could jeopardize clinical trials with experimental treatments which opened for enrollment just days ago. Cuba was hit by an island-wide blackout today as the nation's struggles with an ongoing energy crisis. Cuba's power utility called it a total disconnection from the nation's electrical system and said it's investigating the cause. It's just the latest power failure on the island of some 10 million people after at least two similar incidents earlier this year.

The nation suffers from aging energy infrastructure and fuel has been running out since the Trump administration threatened tariffs earlier this year on any countries providing oil to Cuba. Back in the U.S., parts of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast saw drenching downpours today with some 60 million Americans under flood watches and warnings. It follows a wild weekend of storms that downed trees and damaged homes from the Midwest to the East Coast. As of this afternoon, nearly 500,000 people were without power. And while some areas work to recover from this weekend's flooding, forecasters say areas from western Pennsylvania to New England could see up to four inches of rain through tomorrow. In Pennsylvania, officials warned of the flood risk. The bottom line and the last point is never walk or drive through flooding.

areas or moving water. The highest loss of life we see in the Commonwealth is usually associated with flash flooding and it's people trying to drive through moving water and their vehicles getting swept away and they usually have very tragic outcomes. The storms come on the heels of last week's record-setting heat, which officials say may have contributed to at least 25 deaths in New Jersey alone. And out west, evacuation orders remain in effect for parts of Utah and Colorado due to massive wildfires there. Most, are only partly contained. Microsoft said today it's cutting 4,800 jobs

or about 2% of its global workforce. That includes around 1,600 positions from its Xbox Gaming Division, plus more cuts in the coming months. The unit CEO says their business today is not healthy due to increased competition and rising hardware costs. Microsoft is just the latest tech giant to announce layoffs as the sector adjusts

to the rise of AI, following similar moves in recent months, by the likes of Amazon and META. President Trump kicked off the trading day on Wall Street by ringing the opening bell from the Oval Office. So ring the bell, Mr. President. The symbolic act was meant to highlight the rollout of so-called Trump accounts,

which are investment accounts for American kids that are initially funded by the government. By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained about 150 points on the day. The NASDAQ rose nearly 300 points, or more than 1%. The S&P 500 also ended. in positive territory.

And businessman and pioneer of black hair care products, George E. Johnson has died. He founded Johnson products in 1954 and went on to make a fortune on products like Afro-Sheen and Ultrasheen. His company was said to be the first black-owned firm to be listed on a major American stock exchange. He also founded a bank and was the exclusive sponsor for the legendary TV show, Soul Train. His wife says he died today at his home in Chicago from a respiratory illness. George E. Johnson was 99 years old. Still to come, on the News Hour, the Trump administration rolls back numerous gun regulations. Our Politics Monday team looks at both the unity and divisions that marked 4th of July celebrations

and the rise of a tick-borne illness that makes people allergic to red meat. This is the PBS News Hour from the David M. Rubinstein studio. at WETA and Washington, headquarters of BBS News. While Trump accounts are officially open, they're the first federal tax-advantaged investment accounts for kids. President Trump celebrated the launch this morning in the Oval Office. These children are going to have actually accounts. They're going to learn about finance a little bit. They can watch it.

We're going to all watch it grow together. Some 87 companies, foundations, individuals, and states have announced contributions to the accounts. The question is, can they deliver the benefits over the long haul that are being promoted? Our economics correspondent Paul Solomon walked through the basics after the new accounts became law. Here's an updated look at what you need to know. Trump accounts will be the first, I guess you could say, real trust funds for every American child. To which tech billionaire Michael Dell added, we believe the smartest investment that we can make is an investment in children. So what exactly are these so-called Trump accounts?

Part of last year's one big, beautiful bill act, their tax-advantaged savings accounts, invested in a low-cost stock index fund. They're available for every American child up to age 18. Families opt in through a tax form and can contribute $5,000 annually. For kids born between 2025 and 2028, Uncle Sam salts away $1,000. Now, more than 6 million children have been signed up, but only about 1.4 million were young enough to qualify for the the government money. Philanthropists, employers, and states can also contribute to the accounts. Susan and Michael Dell were the first of many contributors. Moms and dads adding five, ten bucks a week, you know, kids saving a little money in the summertime.

Philanthropists like the Dell's, states like the state of Texas, it said they're going to add $1,000 to these accounts. Silicon Valley entrepreneur Brad Gersner helped make the idea a reality. The objective here is to get the 70 percent Americans who feel left out. and left behind by capitalism into the game to make everybody a capitalist from birth, sharing in the great upside of the American economy. U.S. savings bonds. Now watch how they grow.

Now putting money away for a kid was pretty common back when folks like me and Teresa Gilarducci were babes in the woods. I used my own example of what happened when my grandmother gave me a little baby bond. She eventually became a prominent economist, a left-wing one, who's long promoted something like government trust funds from birth. She even wrote a proposal for them. Along with Kevin Hassett, who's on the other side of me on the political spectrum. Kevin Hassett, President Trump's top economic advisor. Given her politics, how could she pair up with him? We came together as an economist, and we know that wealth gives people security and power. She and Hassett, despite their different politics, have now been meeting with Brad Gersner.

That comes as no surprise to early wealth building expert Ray Bishara. I've been working on this idea for 20 years, and it's been bipartisan over those 20 years. It's important to remember that the bottom half of the population owns only 2.5% of the nation's wealth and only 1% of stocks and bonds. We have a long way to go to build wealth for the bottom half of the population. Trump accounts, designed properly, can do that. Designed properly. But that's only the first problem. says policy expert Amy Metzui.

We already have extremely significant wealth gaps by income, by race, by gender, and the way that this policy is structured, it's not going to narrow them. It has the potential to widen them. How so? Because the practical aspects of these accounts will mean that the families that are very well off will benefit much more than anybody in the bottom 90%. Most families will not be able to contribute the full. $5,000 for the tax advantage.

A family who's been able to steadily contribute the maximum would have almost $200,000 in assets. And in contrast, a family that has the $1,000 and has the 6% rate of return may have something more along the lines of $2,000 or $3,000. But Teresa Gilarducci remains hopeful. The Trump accounts surely can be restructured. But here's a real question. Will they be? The technocrats around populist policies would absolutely endorse a tweak of these accounts so they don't just serve the top 1% or top 10%. Her tweak of choice eliminate tax advantage for families earning over $250,000 per year to make the program more progressive.

She expects Brad Gersner will be sympathetic. And to listen to him, he may be. I started this. Well, my oldest child was 13 years old coming out of COVID, 2021. And I showed them the custodial accounts that I had opened at birth and added to over the years. And they had compounded into a fair bit of money. And my oldest son Lincoln said to me, Dad, this is incredible. But what about all the other kids who don't have these?

And that really was the conversation around our dinner table that led to the birth of Invest America. And now here's another problem. a teenager and money. What happens when he or she turns 18 and suddenly there's a windfall? I used to be a Boy Scout counselor for the personal finance merit batch. And I talked to many teenage boys,

you know, over the years about their finances. I bet that 90% of the teenagers that you talk to will say that they would buy a car or somehow fix their car. What did she do with the grandma bond? The bond that my grandmother gave me was cashed in to pay our back rent. As a father of a 17-year-old and a 14-year-old, I think about that all the time. And so the new law tries to address the problem, he says.

At 18, kids can use up to 25% of this to buy a home, start a business, go to college. If they don't use the money for that purpose, it automatically rolls into an IRA and is subject to the IRA rules. So yes, you can't take it out, but it will be subject to a stiff penalty if you take it out at that point in time. But college? That isn't for most Americans, right? Two-thirds of people don't go to college. And so if they take the money out to buy a car, they have to pay a penalty. So you're actually penalizing people who don't go right from high school to college.

And so that has to be changed. They can use this money to go to a trade school. They can use this money to study a profession that isn't a typical for your education. College to start a small business. Okay, but what about this potential final snag? Trust in government agencies is pretty low. And for families who don't have a lot of financial literacy or a portfolio of their own, they may be unwilling or reluctant to take the steps to open accounts for their children,

even if they could receive that $1,000 of seed money from the government. Brad Gersner says he's keenly aware of the problem. Failure for me would be if we had a bunch of accounts that were not claimed by the bottom third of the economic ladder. We have to make sure that we make it seamless for these people to know about the accounts, to get excited about the accounts, and to claim the accounts. So what's the bottom line right now? Pitfalls galore. But these accounts are, says longtime proponent Ray Bichara.

The down payment on a big idea that can and should be improved over time. And it's important to look at history here. Social Security, one of our most successful social policies, started out largely excluding women and minorities. But today it's one of the most inclusive, successful programs that we have. These Trump accounts, since they are completely wide open for an 18-year-old to spend, will not achieve the goals that right now, President Trump and Michael and Susan Dell say they want it to achieve. It needs reform. But better than nothing.

Better than nothing? And if reforms do happen in myriad ways, and if money pours in from myriad sources, potentially much better. The PBS News are Paul Salman. During his race for the White House, President Donald Trump pledged to expand Second Amendment rights nationwide. Now his administration is taking major steps

to roll back gun restrictions put into place for public safety. Our Justice correspondent, Ali Rogan, has more. Omna, earlier this year, the Justice Department unveiled a major roadmap to reduce regulations on purchasing firearms, arguing the changes would, quote, modernize gun policy. Now the department is also taking more targeted actions going after Democratic-led states for their own gun restrictions. For more on the Trump administration's efforts to broaden Second Amendment rights, I'm joined now by Chip Brownlee. He's a staff writer at The Trace covering federal gun. gun policy. Chip, thanks so much. Welcome to the News Hour. I want to ask you first about these rollbacks that the DOJ has announced. What rules and policies would be impacted here?

Yeah, so the ATF, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives has proposed a range of rollbacks, about three dozen in total. I would say most of the proposals that they have are actually pretty administrative. They update and modernize some of the processes that gun dealers users, but there are a couple of things in there that are pretty significant. One that has gotten a lot of criticism from the gun reform side of things is a rule that was intended to close the gun show loophole. The Trump administration has proposed rolling back that rule. And then there are some other things like reducing regulations on short barrel rifles and bump stocks, bump stocks being one of those devices that was used in the Las Vegas mass shooting in 2017.

And some of those regulations are actually just bringing things back in line with what the Supreme Court has said in terms of things like the bump stocks. But the big thing is the rule that was intended to close the gunshot loophole. There's another rollback that's caused some controversy, and that is reducing the restrictions on people with mental illness to own a firearm. that's upset some gun safety groups. What kind of risks are involved with that rollback? Well, the ATF itself actually said that there's a risk that rolling that ruleback

could result in mass casualty events. I don't know how big of an impact that's going to be because right now federal law is that if you were involuntarily committed into a psychiatric institution, for example, you would lose your gun rights. And that remains the law. This is kind of clarifying essentially that if you were voluntarily entering yourself into a facility that wouldn't count. And then some other things about if you have been previously ruled as not able to handle your own affairs, kind of removing some of that stuff. But this is a regulation and a rule that's been back and forth between the Trump administration and going back to the Obama administration.

So I don't know that that one will have as big of an impact as some people are, you know, saying it will. And I should mention that acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, has disavowed some of the conclusions in that ATF study saying they really don't indicate there's any increased risk. I also want to ask you about these lawsuits that the Department of Justice is pursuing against bans in the states of California and Virginia against certain types of firearms. what led to those suits? Yeah, so ever since the Trump administration took over the Department of Justice, they've really kind of refocused the Civil Rights Division to focus on gun rights and enforcing gun rights. This is the same division that was, you know, previously enforcing voting rights and desegregating schools going back to the 1960s. And since last year, the Trump administration has been focused on gun rights.

And they brought seven different lawsuits against jurisdictions across the country. One of them, the most recent one, is against California's handgun roster requirements, which is basically a list of approved handguns that people can buy. And then another regulation in California essentially banning glocks because there's a piece of a Glock that makes it more kind of susceptible to being outfitted with a switch and turned into a machine gun. And then in Virginia, the Department of Justice has sued the state over its assault weapons ban. And that's one of a number of a number of different lawsuits. The department has brought against assault weapons bans, also in Denver and D.C. and some

other places as well. I'm not aware of the Civil Rights Division really enforcing gun rights at any point before this. This new section has since brought seven lawsuits against jurisdictions across the country. So this is really a new thing that we haven't seen before. And the Supreme Court has said next session, they're going to take up two cases in which one state and one local assault weapons ban are being discussed. What are the implications if they rule against those banned? Yeah, so there are about a dozen states across the country that have assault weapons bans and then some municipalities and local jurisdictions that have them. So if the Supreme Court struck down the assault weapons bans in this case, that would mean that most of those,

if not all of those across the country would also be unconstitutional. The two here that the Supreme Court has taken are assault weapons bans in Connecticut and in Cook County, which is Chicago. And those laws have been on the book since the 1990s, and now the Supreme Court is likely going to rule them unconstitutional. This is, again, so you would have a dozen states across the country that could lose their assault weapons bans. A lot of these laws passed in the wake of mass shootings across the country. Chip Brownlee, with the trace. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Democrats in Maine are scrambling again, and the state Democratic Party is calling on Graham Platner to drop out of the Senate race as a new accuser against the nominee comes forward. Politico reported this afternoon that a woman named Jenny Rosicott says Platner sexually assaulted her nearly five years ago. She spoke to CNN about the alleged rape. I don't believe that you can think that that scenario is consensual. You have to understand that that wasn't when somebody is repeatedly,

I mean, when somebody in the middle of it says, don't touch me. Like, that's obviously not consensual. Rossicott says she's speaking out now as she balanced supporting Plattner's politics, but not him personally. Plattner responded to the allegations in a video on social media. Any accusation of non-consensual behavior is categorically false. Regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful of the political reality, it will inflict. We are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.

For more on this development and the week's top political headlines, we turn to politics Monday. Today with Tamara Keith of NPR and Carrie Dan of the Cook Political Report. She's filling in for Amy Walter this week. Thanks for being here, Carrie. Thanks to see you, Tam. Let's start with this late breaking news now happening in Maine. Carrie, we were already seeing some Democrats start to come out and call for Platner to step down and step out of the race. What do you think is going to happen here?

Well, look, I've never seen a candidate make a video like that saying I'm going to assess the situation move forward and go on to say, actually, I'm going to stick this one out. It looks like this is trending towards him making the decision. decision to drop out. Now, the timing is really important here. If this story had broken after five o'clock next Monday, Democrats would have been stuck with Graham Platner on the ballot. As it stands, he has a week to drop out, and then if he chooses to, the party can choose another candidate within the next two weeks. Who they choose, if he is to drop out, is going to be really crucial here. I think if you're Democrats, you want to pick the most generic Democrat you possibly can for that seat.

Now, the main governor's race just took place. There are candidates who run. ran statewide there, as well as other candidates who ran for Senate, who are probably raising their hands to maybe want to be that candidate on the ballot. Susan Collins remains very vulnerable. This could end up being the best news Democrats could have had if they are able to replace him with a candidate who can be competitive against her. However, that person is going to have to raise a lot of money and a lot of name ID really darn fast. Tim, how are you looking at this? Yeah, I mean, Plattner took that primary by storm. He got voters very excited about him and his progressive policies. And then there's just been this drip, drip, drip of controversies,

scandals, red flags leading up to this point where, you know, we have seen Democrats start to separate themselves from him, including people who were early to endorse him. Rokana, who is a progressive Democrat and congressman has said, oh, that's a little bit too far. So has Ruben Gallego, a senator, and more are coming. this is just one of those things where it becomes insurmountable. And as Kerry said, he said that he's taking time to reflect on the best path forward. That is not what you say if you're fighting and staying in. Meanwhile, I know you're also tracking another big race in Michigan.

This is the Democratic Senate primary race. A big moment this weekend when one of the candidates, Mallory McMorrow, decided to drop out. The race is now down to two people. There's a centrist candidate in Haley Stevens and a progressive candidate in Abdul al-Said. Tam, as you know, this is a state that Trump narrowly won in 2024 after flipping it in 2016. So the Dem winner here will likely face Republican Mike Rogers. What do you take away from all of this? Yeah, I think that what we are watching with this race and have been watching,

and now it'll become an even sort of clearer example of this is, where is the heart of the Democratic Party? What did Democratic primary voters want, not just in very blue places like Denver and New York City, but also in a purple state like Michigan. And what you had was this progressive lane and you had the more conventional Democratic standard lane, whatever you want to call it. And Mallory McMorrow was competing with Congresswoman Stevens in that more mainstream, mainline Democratic lane. and McMorough, I talked to someone who has worked with her, McMorough just couldn't compete. Stevens had a ton of money, a ton of backing from the Democratic establishment,

and McMorough couldn't get her name ID out there. I will note she has not endorsed. She has not thrown her support behind either of them. And I think that there's a real question of where her supporters go. Because certainly some of the people who told pollsters they were supporting her, they wanted change. They just wanted a different flavor of change. And I think that trying to figure out this,

how to capture the energy that a lot of Democratic and, frankly, Republican voters have for change, I think is a theme that we're seeing in all of these races. Well, this is the question we ask over and over again. Carrie, does this race tell us anything about the direction of the Democratic Party? I think it certainly will. And I think Abdul Al-Said,

I do think Michigan Democratic voters are thinking about electability as part of their calculation here. Alsaid makes the argument, I can remake the electorate. I am with progressive ideas, with the backing of somebody like Bernie Sanders, I can mobilize young progressives. I can mobilize disaffected Trump voters

who liked Trump because they were voting for change. He represents certainly bold change. I think it's interesting that McMorra was not able to get that momentum because she was sort of this Goldilocks candidate. If you're thinking about electability And you also want bold change in somebody who says, hey, I'm going to tell Chuck Schumer that I don't support him. She would have been that candidate, but she just simply couldn't compete. El Sayad, on the other hand, seems to have the momentum.

He's being outspent on the airwaves by Haley Stevens by 17 to 1. So the support that he is getting is really from the grassroots movement that he has been able to build. And also, I think, from being a talented candidate. Policy aside, he communicates, I think, he looks and sounds like a normal person and is calling for change. that's what a lot of voters want in their politicians. He does these great, he does these advertisements where he's water skiing. I mean, he looks like a normal guy. People that may be appealing to people. Before I let you both go, I need to kind of look back at this weekend's 250 at celebrations and a bit of a split screen. I know you've both been mulling over as well,

because we saw the president speak, as he often does sort of marrying historical narratives with political grievances in his remarks. And then we also saw these marches that caught a lot of attention, which was members of this white nationalist group, the Patriot Front, marching through the streets of Washington, D.C., chanting, reclaim America. I know a lot of people saw this photo that went viral of a black woman on the Toronto train surrounded by these people. This was taken by photographer Cheney-or. Tam, what does all of this say to you about America at 250? Yeah, America in 2026 is still a very complicated country.

That doesn't have just one red, white, and blue narrative, but it has. a lot of competing ideas and, you know, the idea that it is still working towards being a more perfect union. And when you talk about that video of this white supremacist group, I think it just is a reminder of how much the Overton window has moved on this. Recall the Charlottesville Unite the Right rally, how horrifying that was for Americans because they were so unused to people being so brazen about those views. Now, this happened on a very busy weekend otherwise, but still, it was sort of a tertiary story.

And I think that just shows you how much the country has changed over this period of time of Donald Trump's presidency. Complicated, as you say, but hopefully on her way to a more perfect union. Carrie Dan, Tamara O'Keefe, great to see you both. Thank you. You're welcome, thank you. It's summertime and ticks are out in full force. While in certain parts of the country, ticks have long been an issue. They're now spreading to new regions and bringing new threats. William Brigham has the latest.

For many years, ticks have been viewed as a men. because they sicken us with Lyme disease. About half a million Americans get Lyme every year, and it can cause serious, sometimes lifelong health problems. But now, ticks are infecting us with some different ailments, including one called alpha-gal syndrome, which can give humans a dangerous allergy to red meat and to dairy products. For the latest on these tiny blood-sucking terrors,

we turn to Holly Gaff. She's a mathematical ecologist who studies ticks. who studies ticks at Old Dominion University. Holly, thank you so much for being here. The CDC says that so far this year, ER visits for tick bites are way above normal, almost going back, they haven't seen it this bad since, I think, a decade ago. Do you have a sense as to why we are seeing such a busy start to tick season? And that's a great question.

I think tick populations are extremely complex and understanding where they are. That's certainly been a big tick year starting off. I'm really curious to see how it's going to go through the rest of the season, whether we've just jammed them all in the first part of it, but they are up. They are up in a lot of places. I think there's a couple complicating factors of the combination of a very cold winter, which is kind of contradictory to what people would think.

They think cold should kill a tick. But honestly, the cold probably killed some of the things that they would have fed on instead of you and me. So they're kind of, I jokingly call them hangary ticks at this point that are up and they haven't found food until they find out. Great. That's just a way to give us some summer terrors is an army of hangary ticks out there. Exactly. Are there more regions of the country, different regions of the country that are more vulnerable to this explosion of ticks? Yeah, so I think the best way to understand the explosion of ticks as well is also these particular ticks, these Lone Star ticks, really like to feed on white-tailed deer.

And so as white-tailed deer populations continue to explode, the ticks that come with them do, we've also built and moved into the exurbs and the suburbs and the areas. We like a little forest around us. And so we've moved to them and we've created the buffet for these little, as I described them, hangary little ticks. So Lyme disease has been the principal problem as far as human health. Is that still the principal concern? It's a mixed bag. I mean, Lyme disease is nothing to be trivialized at all in all of this. I think it's just the recognition of this newer ailment of Alphagal syndrome that is coming along. Lyme disease has been moving south, but it's definitely been more in the Midwest and northeast.

And so it, but Alpha-Gal and Lone Stars are moving north. So everything is moving every direction. And I think there's a whole bunch of other tick-borne diseases that also can, are, you know, smaller numbers of cases, but certainly of concern for those who are impacted by that. So specifically about that alpha-gal syndrome that you're talking about, that is something you get from a tick that causes an allergy to meat and dairy products, to red meat. Is that correct?

Yeah, that is correct. So the saliva of a lone star tick in particular and some other tick species around the world have a sugar that will basically expose you to the alpha-gal protein or carbonate carbohydrate. And so it's a delayed allergy. It's a very bizarre series of steps in the immunology of the human and all non-old-world primates actually that can have the alpha-gal allergy that can be triggered from this exposure. again, it depends on your genetics, so not everybody's going to have this immediately after being bitten by a lone star, but certainly a lot of folks have. I see. So for people who are hearing about this might be not familiar with how to protect themselves, what are some basic guidelines of how to keep ticks off you? I think the best bet is to be aware that you are looking and you are

trying to find them before they find you. So stay, if you go outside, areas that will be infected with ticks and that would be anywhere that you see a white tail deer, that's a great indicator that ticks will be nearby. You definitely want to stay on trails if you're hiking or in your own backyard, be aware when you're going near wooded areas where there'll be more ticks. And so being aware to where to look on your body, check yourself, check your children, check your pets. If you do want to use chemicals, there are some things like Diet that will deter them some. I always recommend permethrin as well, if you are willing to use that on your shoes, at least. That can kill the tick as it comes across that. But it's just, you can't, nothing, nothing will

be checking yourself for ticks consistently while you're outside, as well as when you get back inside. I mean, I know you're not a doctor, but I know given your exposure and your expertise, you must have done this a million times. But if one gets through those defenses and is stuck in you, there seems to be so much misinformation out there about how to get them off. I've read petroleum jelly, burning in with matches, nail polish remover. What is the best way safely to get a tick out of you? The best recommendation, CDC recommendation, World Health Organization recommendation, is to get a pair of tweezers, if possible, and pull the tick straight out.

It does not want to be irritated out of there. I mean, all the other techniques that you're talking about will probably do more harm to you. But you get a pair of tweezers, put it flat against your skin and pull straight up. Don't twist. Don't crush the tick. And your whole goal is just to get as much of the tick out as possible. First, I would say also wash the area. Don't panic. It is disconcerting to find one. But the sooner you get it out, the better. Because the longer you wait to do anything else, the more exposure you are to both the saliva for alpha-gal as well as all the pathogens it can be transmitting. All right, that is Holly Gaff of Old Dominion University. Thank you so much for your

expertise. Thank you. Adam Met is best known as the bassist of the multi-platinum band AJR. But offstage, he's a climate scholar, educator and advocate. His recent book, Amplify, explores how connection drives action. Tonight, he shares his brief but spectacular take. The music industry and entertainment industry broadly is so good at building fan bases. All of these tactics that the music industry has mastered can be applied to how we can build better social movements. So why not take the tools that are already out there and so good and apply them to make the world a better place? A lot of times when people first meet me, they think, oh, this is Adam the A and AJR. And when I'll be meeting with members of Congress or state legislators or governors, they'll think, oh, he's coming in because he's

He's a musician with a cause. And funny enough, it's the opposite. I'm a policy person, a policy wonk that happens to be a musician. When my brothers and I were growing up, we had triple bunk beds. My two brothers, Ryan and Jack, are the songwriters. And they would come up with all of these ideas. Then we would actually start street performing in Washington Square Park, and Union Square and Central Park.

At this point, Jack was eight. So I think people on the street felt really bad for us. I've done a lot of shows all around the world with AJR. The Adam who isn't on stage spends a lot of time thinking about how to imagine the world that he would want to live in. Working with my nonprofit organization Planet Reimagined, writing climate policy with the U.S. government and other governments around the world and teaching climate campaigning at Columbia University. Our song, Burn the House Down, wasn't written about any movement in particular.

But it was kind of holding up a mirror to the power that millennials and Gen Zs have to make change in the world. And one of the biggest movements that picked up the song was March for Our Lives, the Gun Sense legislation movement that came out of the school shooting at Marjorie Stonewyn-Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. One of my favorite terms ever is collective effervescence. And it's the idea that when people come together over one thing, their brainwaves start to get on the same page, and they have this group think and they're all working towards the same cause. That happens at concerts all the time, and that same thing can happen in social movements. We actually did a big study and a big test to figure out can we use concerts and collective

effervescence to get people to take more climate action? And the answer is yes. We did this on our last tour, and we had about 15% of people that walked through the door at our concerts take really concrete climate action. They were registering to vote. They were volunteering for local organizations. My new book, Amplify, is about how we can build effective fan bases for social causes. It's about meeting people where they are, but also giving them the path to take those next five steps and come join you.

My name is Adam Met, and this is my brief but spectacular take on building fan-based movements. And you can watch more brief but spectacular videos online at pbs.bs. and that is the NewsHour slash NewsHour for tonight. I'm Omna Nawaz. On behalf of the entire NewsHour team, thank you for joining us.