PBS News Hour - Full Show - July 7, 2026 - PBS News Hour full episode

Episode Date: July 7, 2026

Tuesday on the News Hour, the U.S. launches new strikes against Iran as President Trump meets with NATO leaders in Turkey and pushes for more military spending. More Democrats call for Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner to step aside after he's accused of sexual assault. Plus, the Trump administration abandons a key tool for combating workplace discrimination. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy

Good evening. I'm Amman Nawaz. And I'm Jeff Bennett on the news hour tonight. The U.S. launches new strikes against Iran as President Trump meets with NATO leaders in Turkey and pushes for more military spending. More Democrats call for Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner to step aside after he's accused of sexual assault. And the Trump administration abandons a key tool for combating workplace discrimination. Our agencies across the federal government have always applied the law to protect all Americans.

So that's why this kind of action is particularly harmful. Welcome to the News Hour. The U.S. military has once again launched a series of attacks against Iran. The strikes, they say, are in response to Iranian attacks on three commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Ormose. An act the U.S. calls a, quote, clear violation of the ceasefire. The Trump administration also today revoked a key sanctions waiver that allowed the sale of Iranian oil. Joining us now to discuss the latest developments and what they could mean for the global

oil supply is maritime security expert Ian Rolby. Thanks again for being with us. We appreciate it. Pleased to be back. A U.S. official tells our Nick Schifrin that these latest strikes are aimed at punishing the regime. They have clearly demonstrated they're not listening. This official tells, Nick, we are turning up the volume. Based on what we know so far, what's your read on what's happening in and around the Strait of Hormuz. Things are turbulent. The last 24 hours have been particularly dicey.

We've seen three vessels hit, two confirmed. One, an LNG tanker out of Qatar that caught fire and could still explode. Things are about as messy as they've been in the last couple of weeks. And with these renewed strikes, I think the maritime traffic is largely turning back. It is likely to become even more stuck in

in order to avoid becoming part of the ongoing hostility. So it's a grim picture at the moment. Has Iran claim responsibility for these strikes that the U.S. says that they're responsible for? And if not, what might that suggest? Yeah, it's a great question. And many have accused Iran of it. It does look like IRGC action. And Iran has made a statement, at least about the Qatari vessel,

that there was warnings given and that they were not accepted. but they haven't gone so far as to claim full responsibility. And the second vessel has been confirmed with a Saudi ultra-large crew carrier, so as big as it gets. And so it's quite interesting that we see the two vessels that have been confirmed both from the Gulf, and neither of them has Iran confirmed as being the responsible party. So it may underscore a degree to which Iran is looking to create some vagary

around what they're doing, partly because they don't want to be seen as aggressing against some of their neighbors. What has shipping traffic through the straight looked like since the ceasefire started? So, you know, we've had a couple of different ceasefires. So, you know, we had the traffic running through at about 130 to 160 vessels before the start of the war. After the April 8th ceasefire, it still remained pretty much nil. We saw a couple going through every day at most about 10. since the MOU was put in place that is basically a framework for a ceasefire, but not formally one,

because it doesn't have some of the specifics we'd hope for a situation like this, like what are the results, what are the consequences of breaking it, we have seen an upward tick, so about 30 to 40 vessels, and over the weekend we saw a total of about 78 vessels in either direction. So it's a much bigger amount in total, but still 78 vessels in two days compared to, you know, 260 is a far cry from where we used to be. Indeed. And at what point, at this point, rather, what options do shipping companies have? Can vessels continue operating safely through the strait? I mean, our insurers, our shipowners, our governments now rethinking how this traffic moves through there?

Absolutely. It's extremely volatile. The criticality of it has gone up. And so we had essentially at one point three different routes, the Iranian route through the Persian Gulf Strait Authority, where you get permission from Iran and hug the Iranian coast. And then two in what the president has called the Southern Highway, which has been either facilitated by the U.S. Navy through what's called the NKaggs program that provides U.S. guidance through or for a very brief window, an IMO international maritime organization and Oman scheme that also went through that same route.

It seems like all three of those are likely to be closed for the moment. But when they return, there's going to be a reticence. And what seems to be occurring is that ships are starting. to actually assess that the Red Sea with pirate attacks on the rise and still a looming threat of Houthis is still safer than traversing the Strait of Hormuz. And so that is a real concern because we may see this move more in a southerly direction into the Red Sea and resume other threats and other concerns as being as high profile as they had been maybe a year or two ago. Ian Ralby, thank you for your insights. We appreciate it. All strikes in Iran come against the backdrop of the NATO summit in Turkey, where leaders are holding. hoping to strengthen Europe's ability to defend itself and become less dependent on the U.S. military.

President Trump brought his longstanding criticisms of European countries, once again expressing frustration over their defense spending and the refusal to support the U.S. and Israeli war in Iran. And in his first appearance, he even made it clear he still has eyes on the Danish territory of Greenland. Nick Schiffran reports from Ankara. Today, President Trump arrived in Turkey on his new Air Force, won and in embrace what he called his, quote, special relationship. You're going to have a good time. I like this man a lot.

And President Trump suggested he would soon give what Turkey's strongman leader has long desired. It's a great plane. It's the best, currently the best plane by far. That plane is the F-35, what the U.S. calls the most lethal and most connected fighter jet and one of the U.S.'s most sensitive military technologies. Too sensitive since the first Trump term for Turkey. Turkey uses Russian air defense missiles that the F-35 is designed to defeat. But today, President Trump suggested Turkey deserve the F-35 despite Israeli in some congressional

opposition. Turkey's been in many ways much more loyal than other countries that we think would be loyal. Mr. Trump always stands by his word. I believe that, God willing, a positive decision will emerge from this leader's summit regarding the F-35s. As for the rest of NATO, President Trump arrives here not with rewards, but repriments. and what a senior administration official described as a, quote, expectation that NATO leaders put their money where their mouths are.

Over the past two days, I was honored to participate in the NATO leaders meeting. It was just a year ago at the NATO Leaders Summit in the Hague that President Trump praised NATO allies for pledging to spend 5 percent of their GDP on defense by 2035. It was great. And I left here differently. I left here saying that these people really love their countries. It's not a rip-off. and we're here to help them protect their country. For NATO, that was a good day. It's been a bad year.

But most European nations, they're decaying. They're decaying. In January, President Trump challenged the sovereignty of NATO-Alli, Denmark, vowing to seize Danish territory Greenland. It's the United States alone that can protect this giant mass of land, this giant piece of ice, develop it and improve it. threat he reiterated today. That should be controlled by the United States, not by Denmark.

And when they wouldn't go along with it, and with all the money we spent to help them with Russia, and we don't have to spend any money. We could remove all of our soldiers out of Europe. He's also denigrated European sacrifices since 9-11, even though relative to their population, some European countries lost more men than the U.S. They'll say they send some troops to Afghanistan or this or that. And they did. They stayed a little back, little off the U.S.

front lines. This is not Winston Churchill that we're dealing with. And since then, he's questioned NATO leaders and the alliance's very purpose after European countries decline U.S. requests to use bases to attack Iran. Why are we spending hundreds of billions of dollars and they're not there for us? We've always been there for them. We have a lot to show today. And so today, NATO Secretary General Mark Ruta portrayed the alliance as stepping up.

purchasing of new NATO capabilities built in part by European countries to begin to replace what until today has been mostly American made, European planes to move heavy equipment, European long-range missiles, and a European-built satellite network. These are capabilities that are really made in NATO, not by one nation, but several, working together in close cooperation. And that's how we make our alliance more powerful. Europe is spending more money on defense. But some of these technologies will take Europe years before they're fielded. Until then, NATO remains dependent on American troops and technology.

And the U.S. says it will reduce U.S. troops and bases in Europe. So Europe needs the U.S. to do that slowly and collaboratively. Our allies are not children. But U.S. officials now suggest they might decide on the future of U.S. troops in Europe based not on the threat or the costs, but on whether countries have been naughty. or nice. Model allies that step up like Israel, South Korea, Poland, increasingly Germany, the Baltics, and others will receive our special favor. Allies that do not, allies that still fail to do their part for collective defense will face consequences.

Recently, Hegset has pledged to work with allies and Congress, and when I asked a senior NATO official here in Ankara today, whether the U.S. could reduce its security presence to quickly and leave Europe vulnerable. The official replied, the transition will be manageable if Europe steps up. Omna? Nick, as you reported earlier, the president suggested that he could send F-35s to Turkey. That would reverse a ban that he instituted in his first terms. What would go into that decision? Remember, Omna, why President Trump signed that law during his first term and imposed sanctions on Turkey.

And that was because Turkey imported a Russian air defense system, the S-400. And the concern was that if the S-400 locked on to the F-35, Russia could then not only learn how to shoot down the F-35, but steal some of the jet's most sensitive technology. And the law is very specific. If the U.S. is going to start selling Turkey the F-35 again, the secretaries of state and defense have to pledge that Turkey has gotten rid of the F-35

and pledged never to buy Russian air defense again. Now, President Trump was asked about that today. He said the sanctions would come off. And, quote, I have no concerns about anything having to do with Turkey, although he did not say a decision had been made yet. But there will certainly be opposition to this Amna. Today, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated, in his words, that this would, quote, destroy the power balance in the Middle East and lead to a more aggressive Turkey. And there's bipartisan concerns in Congress against Turkey, against Erdogan, because of support for Hamas, threats to Greece, and even crackdown on the opposition that has continued. while we're at this summit.

Meanwhile, we know another focus of the conference today was the war in Ukraine. Tell us about the message that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky brought to the summit. Zelensky, of course, is asking Ukraine to be a member of NATO, which is off the table. But the main message here is about air defense. And that's because earlier this week, Russia launched another salvo of drones and missiles, and every Russian ballistic missile got through, which shows Ukraine has zero American patriot air defense missiles left. So today, Zelensky said it needed more air defense, and he urged Europe not to be so dependent

on American air defense, create its own capabilities. That's a message that resonates with European leaders. But tomorrow, the focus will be on Zelensky meeting President Trump here on the sidelines of the summit. All right, that's Nick Schiffen reporting from the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey. Nick, thank you. Thank you. The day's other headlines begin in Georgia, where a federal judge rejected the Trump administration's attempt to collect the names and contact information of every.

Fulton County election worker from the 2020 election. In his ruling, the Trump-appointed judge said that given the low need for the subpoenaed information and the highly burdensome nature of the disclosure, the subpoena is unreasonable. President Trump has repeatedly claimed without evidence that voter fraud in the heavily Democratic county led to his loss in Georgia in 2020. In New York City, officials warned a high rise under construction was at risk of collapsing, prompting the evacuation of surrounding buildings. Video from some 20 floors up shows beams completely buckled, and officials reported that floors inside were sagging.

Crews rushed to the scene in Midtown Manhattan this morning after receiving calls that bricks were falling from the tower. The former global headquarters of Pfizer is being converted into luxury apartments. New York mayor, Zoran Mamdani, told reporters that the situation remains a minute-by-minute assessment. Since arriving on scene, we have witnessed additional movement in one of the compromised columns. First responders and structural engineers are working closely with the project engineer to develop plans to shore up the impacted floor. If the floor is deemed to be secure, engineers will enter and begin shoring up the building. Mamdani also urged New Yorkers to avoid the area until it is deemed safe.

There have been no reports of injuries. In Britain, Reform U.K. party leader, Andrews. Trump ally, Nigel Farage says he's resigning from Parliament over questionable donations, but he plans to seek his seat again in a special election. The right-wing lawmaker has come under scrutiny for allegedly accepting millions of dollars in undisclosed gifts and donations. According to parliamentary rules, by stepping down, any investigations into his conduct would be paused, but they'd resume if he wins. In a video statement today, Farage says he's done nothing wrong and appealed to his constituents to decide his fate.

No, I've decided that the people of Clapton should be the judges of my actions. This will be a people versus the establishment by-election. It's a chance to stick two fingers up to the entire establishment, to frankly tell them where to go. Farage also insisted that, as he put it, making money is not a crime. Outgoing Prime Minister Keir Starmor called Farage's actions a desperate stunt. in the UK, a judge dismissed Prince Harry's lawsuit against the Daily Mail's publisher today as part of his long-running battle over alleged privacy violations. The Duke of Sussex had accused

Associated newspapers of obtaining information unlawfully through phone tapping and other tactics. But the judge found there was a possibility the information came from legitimate sources. The publisher called it an overwhelming victory, while Prince Harry criticized the ruling, saying, quote, we came to court seeking justice and accountability, but we have received neither. In France, far-right leader, Marine Le Pen says she will run for president in 27 after an appeals court shortened a ban on her eligibility to hold elected office. Earlier today, the Paris court upheld Le Pen's embezzlement conviction from last year and sentenced her to wear an electronic monitor.

She has previously said such a condition would make campaigning impossible. During a TV interview this evening, Le Pen said she would appeal the decision. The French will be the judges of it. It is funny all the same to consider the French as incapable of making a decision. They are going to have the freedom to choose, which until today was not the case. Le Pen also said she will begin campaigning very quickly. This will be her fourth time running for the French presidency. She's currently considered a frontrunner that's according to recent surveys.

In World Cup news today, Argentina staged one of the tournament's great comebacks this afternoon, erasing Egypt's lead with three goals in a span of about 13 minutes. One of those came off the leg of Lainel Messi, who notched his eighth goal of the tournament. The defending champions now move on to the quarterfinals. Meantime, the U.S. is out of the tournament after a lopsided loss to Belgium last night. Despite the four-to-one blowout, some fans say they're choosing to focus on the host nation's strong run. Instead of being sad about it, I was more proud of what the team has been able to do through the entire tournament. But it's a little bit, you know, melancholyed for a day to end like it did today.

Belgium also appeared to take direct aim at President Trump, whose intervention helped clear Philharin Balagan to play after his red card. After Belgium's win, their social media team posted two simple words, overturned this. In Spain, authorities say at least five people were in. injured on the first day of the iconic running of the bulls in Pamplona. The week-long event is anchored by scenes like this one, with bulls barreling through the city's historic streets. Officials say three people were hospitalized today, though none of the injuries were serious. The festival has drawn criticism from animal rights groups over the years, but remains one of

Spain's most popular events. And Americans are the largest group of non-Spaniels who typically take the run, making up about 16 percent of those running. On Wall Street today, AI stocks once again weighed on the broader markets. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell around 130 points. The NASDAQ lost 300 points. The S&P 500 also gave background on the day. Still to come on the news hour, a look at the shifting student loan landscape

after judges strike down some Trump administration policies. We report from Iran where mourners have been honoring Iran's late Supreme leader and how hospitals are increasingly turning to the arts to help patients recover. This is the PBS News Hour from the David M. Rubenstein studio at WETA in Washington, headquarters of PBS News. The list of Democrats calling for Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner to withdraw grew today after a woman he once dated accused him of sexual assault yesterday. Independent Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont, who backed Platner through earlier scandals, said he spoke to him today and, quote, recommended that he step aside. More than 30 Democratic senators have called for him to drop out, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, who's in charge of electing Democrats to the Senate, as well as some influential Democrats outside of Congress like New York Mayor Doran Mamdani. I think the focus of today should be to respond to the gravity of what so many of us have read, and I think that the only appropriate response is for the campaign to come to an end.

Jenny Rascott said in interviews with Politico and CNN that Platner raped her nearly five years ago. Platner denies the allegation. He said yesterday he was reflecting on his path forward and has so far stayed silent today. To discuss the future of the race, I'm joined now by Steve Missler of Maine Public Radio. Steve, thanks for joining us. Let's just start with how this latest allegation is resonating in Maine and whether it's clear if Platner will heed those calls to step aside. Yeah, well, Planner has said that almost immediately after the publication of that Politico story, that he's assessing his campaign, which is a sharp turn of how he's responded to controversies in the past, where he's been pretty defiant, you know, that these are stories or allegations that have tried to disforce him out of the race.

But this time, you know, there was an acknowledgement there that this is very damaging. And you saw that almost instantly this sort of cascade of Democrats, national Democrats that you just referenced, abandoning their support of him and basically calling on him to get out of the race. And in Maine where Democrats locally and including some gubernatorial candidates who had sought his endorsement and in fact won it in some cases were also calling for him to leave the race. So this is a different type of scandal or different type of allegation. And I think, you know, this cratering of support is indicative of probably where this is all headed for him. And Steve, what's the timeline ahead? If he does drop out, when does he have to do so by? He needs to drop out by Monday, the 13th, by 5 p.m.

And that requires a formal notice to the Secretary of State, you know, declaring that he's getting out of the race. And if he does it by then, that would allow the main Democratic Party to basically nominate. a replacement candidate. And so there's this mad scramble underway to determine what that process looks like because the main law is largely silent. It kind of leaves it up to the political parties in these instances to determine

how they want to field the replacement candidate. So there's a lot of interest and how that's going to happen. And of course, the party has to do that by July 27th. So it's this very brief window, very reminiscent of when President Biden got out of the race.

And it was a very brief, window to find a successor and he ended up throwing his support behind Kamala Harris. This is a very similar situation and probably giving some Democrats here a little bit of a flashback. And we're already seeing some folks raise their hand to say they would be considered for its possible contenders. The former state CDC director, Nirov Shah, who ran for governor and lost, announced today he's considering entering the race.

Here's part of what he had to say. There are other candidates who might also get in. What matters more than anything right now is that the process, us to select the nominee be as open and transparent as possible. For example, there should be debates and town halls to make sure that Mainers know who they are selecting to take on Senator Collins. So, Steve, who are other likely contenders? And what do you believe Maine Democrats will do to try to select whoever replaces Platner if he does drop out as expected? Another name that's been mentioned is Troy Jackson. He's the former Senate president. He was

endorsed by Bernie Sanders also and actually campaigned with Plattner several times during the past, like nine months, maybe 10 months. And I think there's a, there's some progressive activist because Platner comes from that wing of the party as well that would like to see Troy Jackson installed as a replacement candidate. But there's a lot of other potential candidates that might want to run, including Secretary of State Shennebello's, who was in the gubernatorial primary and came in fourth in that contest. She's expressed some interest in the race. There's been several others as well.

I think the big question, though, is how the party goes and does this, because there's a, you know, the state committee, which is about 100 people. It's really up to them to decide the process or to just pick the candidate themselves. I think there's an interest in making that sure that this is a transparent process. There's been discussions about having a caucus, basically redoing the process. primary, or even doing a state convention. So a lot of speculation about what will happen, but I think transparency is a big issue for a lot of voters who turned out for Graham Platner on June 9th, and they want to have a transparent process. That isn't just the party establishment picking a successor. All right. That is Steve Missler of Maine Public Radio joining us tonight.

Steve, thank you so much. My pleasure. More changes are underway for federal student loans with major implications for current and future graduate students. A federal judge has temporarily blocked parts of the Education Department's new loan limits, including restrictions affecting some professional degree programs. William Brangham has more. Jeff, the Education Department, prompted by a successful lawsuit, has now put out its revised list of the graduate programs that are eligible for higher student loans.

Previously, the department had limited the amount a student could borrow for graduate programs that train nurses, physician assistants, and certain other roles. But there are other changes underway. A new provision championed by Republicans just took effect which could limit the money available for certain colleges and certain professions. It requires these programs prove that graduates, on average, earn more than high school graduates. If not, they could lose access to federal student loans. So to help navigate these changes and who may be most affected by them, we are joined again

by Danielle Douglas Gabriel. She's the National Higher Education Reporter for the Washington Post. Danielle, thank you so much for being here again. So as we've been trying to look at all the different twists and turns with regards to federal law about student loans, there's this new wrinkle now. The Department of Education, because of this lawsuit, has put it. out this new list of programs that are eligible for higher student loan limits, including programs that covered nurse training and physician assistant training. Can you help us understand why the

department wanted to limit some of those? Well, first, thanks for having me. You know, I think the objective from the department was to really try to curb graduate borrowing. As you remember, the Republican tax and spending bill from last year really instituted a bunch of changes to the federal student loan system, one of them being instituting caps where none had existed when it came to graduate borrowing as well as parent borrowing for undergrads. In the graduate space, the law listed about 11 examples of what they would consider professional degree programs, programs that would require more borrowing up to $50,000 a year or a lifetime of $200,000, like law or medicine. In doing so, there was a lot of ignoring of a lot of professions

and fields that normally would have qualified for higher loan limits under kind of Congress's definition of what a professional degree would be. But the Department of Writing out the rules for this particular cap added all these additional criteria to this professional designation, which really limited how many fields could qualify. In doing so, they left out nursing, physician assistants, and that led these organizations that support such groups to file a lawsuit. Now, keep in mind, this is a temporary order. The judge said that they will block this particular definition

while this litigation is ongoing, and in response, the department expanded its list. This is not final, especially since the Department of Education has vowed to fight and it could potentially be successful in doing so. But for the time being, there is a list that went from 11 to about 29 different professional degrees that now qualify for the higher loan limits. Okay, so now let's pivot to this, this do-no-harm accountability test. It sounds like the department is saying

that if you graduate programs do not churn out graduates that earn more than a high school graduate, maybe you should not be receiving the benefit of federal student loans. Is that the argument that they are making? That's the crux of it. I mean, for undergraduate programs,

because this applies to all schools and all degree programs, which is different from some of the accountability rules we'd had previously, such as gainful employment, which really focus on career and vocational training. This is for everybody. If you're in an undergraduate program and your graduates do not make as much as the median high school graduate, then that's when you have to start worrying about your eligibility. If you're in a graduate program, you start worrying about your eligibility, if your graduates don't make as much as a bachelor's degree graduate.

Now, to be clear, you know, in the first year, you get a warning that students who are applying to your programs will receive and say that, hey, the outcomes for this program isn't so great. Now, if you failed this test in two consecutive years, this is when the stakes get really high, where you could potentially lose access to federal student loans. And if the outcomes are especially bad, you could also lose access to Pell Grants. these rules probably wouldn't be fully realized and felt by schools until 2028. So there is some time. And what I expected we're going to see and what I've heard from my sources is that schools are already judging and looking at all of their programs to see which ones would fail, which ones would pass. So they're starting to do the legwork to try to avoid the worst of the consequences. And how are schools reacting to this new measure?

I mean, I understand this will really impact some for-profit schools. but also schools that teach arts and social sciences that might argue that how much you make is not necessarily the best way to measure whether you ought to get an education in that program. I mean, there's a lot of consternation among a lot of different programs. Definitely cosmetology schools in the vocational training space, certainly religious study schools where their graduates don't make a whole lot of money. I think another argument we're seeing is that, you know, this period of time may not be the best time to capture. the value of the degree. Many people don't start to really earn more until they're later into their career. So it seems a little unfair to judge them at that particular point. But, you know, the overall argument is we want to hold institutions accountable for making sure that students are not left worse off

than when they started these programs. So we'll have to really see how it's going to play out over the next few years. So many complex changes. Danielle Douglas Gabriel of the Washington Post, thank you so much for being here. Thank you. The multi-day funeral of the slain supreme leader of Iran, the Ayatollah Ali-Kamenei, continued today with his coffin traveling to Najaf Iraq. Iraq's prime minister and other political and religious leaders were at the airport to receive the body. The funeral that began this past Saturday has drawn enormous crowds, and NewsHour Special correspondent Reza Sayah has been in Tehran speaking with some who've come to pay their respects.

In Shia Islam, crying is a virtue. For women and men, it's an act of worship and devotion for those killed in the path of God. In the capital Tehran, millions of Iranians expressed that devotion in the funeral ceremony for the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khomeiniye. Samira Afshari traveled eight hours alone by bus to be here. She credits her success as a neurologist to Khomeiniye. In this country, as a woman, I had free education. I had free room and board.

I became a doctor. It was this country that got me here. And it was because of this dear and martyred leader who passionately wanted progress for this country. To Afshari, Khomeini was a father figure. To Washington, he was enemy number one, the oppressive leader of a terrorist state that aspires to have nuclear bonds. On the morning of February 28th, in a joint operation with U.S. forces, Israeli jet fighters bombed Mr. Chaminé's home office compound, killing him and four of his family members and started a war with Iran.

Four months later, authorities here call his funeral the biggest public event in modern Iranian history. The crowds here are just astonishing. people as far as the eye can see and they keep coming. Opponents critics, enemies of the Supreme Leader long claimed that he didn't have widespread support, that his opponents outnumbered his supporters and the opponents wanted freedom and he wouldn't give it to them. They claimed that if the Supreme Leader was toppled, Iranians would pour out into the streets, take their freedom and celebrate. Obviously, that scenario never happened. And many here will point to this crowd,

point to this gathering to tell those critics that they were wrong, that they underestimated the strength and the resilience of the Islamic Republic, that they underestimated the support the supreme leader had. So you don't view him as your supreme? Not at all. Mariam, a single mother in Tehran, is one of those critics. She asked us not to show her face on camera.

She blames Khomeiniy for the deadly crackdown. deadly crackdown on anti-government protests in January and Iran's struggling economy. During Khomeini's funeral, Mariam stayed home. You didn't go. No, of course. And what is the reason that you didn't go? I personally hold him responsible for whatever has happened to our country. It was all his decision-making, wrong decision-making, his ideology.

Yeah. The turnout for this ceremony was huge. When you see these numbers of people, when you see these crowds, how do you react? I know still they are in minority. I believe that with my heart. You think the opponents are more than the support. Exactly. But of course, no one gives them any room to come up. Back at the funeral at a makeshift souvenir stand, Ali Reza Sadeghli sells pictures. and keepsakes, glorifying the slain leader. He says critics have a right to question his policies, but how he was portrayed was not who he was. The way the media and the news all over the world claimed the Islamic Republic is not for the

people, that the people are against the leadership, that the leader was a dictator. It is not at all like this. We really loved him. We still love him. That's why we're here. Many mourners attended the funeral for religious reasons. For them, Khomeiniye was God's representative on earth. But we found many others who are not religious.

Instead, they are deeply anti-war. They view Khomeiniye as a man who stood up to the world's imperialist bullies. You're right, I'm not religious. This is a political statement on my part. Sheida Rieghi left her PhD studies in industrial design in Sweden and came back to Iran to pay her respects to Khomeini. He was a soldier of the resistance to me. And I understand the resistance as a phenomenon that spans the global south.

And I understand that there are many countries in Latin America and in Africa who are inspired by the way that Iran has stood. stood up to these world powers. Navi Rahman grew up in suburban Chicago and got his PhD in Middle East Studies in New York's Columbia University. The crowds at the funeral of Sayadalia Yerham and I were insane.

Last year he moved back to Iran and started an anti-imperialist Instagram page. You view the late supreme leader as a revolutionary. The country, you spent a lot of time growing up, lot of time growing up in the United States, use him as a danger to America. When it comes to the general demonization of U.S. adversaries, so much of it is just polemical and propaganda. And because the U.S. does not tolerate countries that are politically and

economically independence, it will create propaganda in order to delegitimize them. And that is why the phrase Iranian regime is so popular, because that's kind of a dog to everybody around you, that this is an illegitimate regime that we have to fight and destroy. Sara Larijani moved back to Iran after 14 years in Germany, where she got her PhD in historical geography. Today she's a member of We Defend Iran, a group of current and former expats, here to honor Khomeini. I'm here to give my tribute to this great architecture of Iranian sovereignty and indigenous development. His architecture of our indigenous defense system

and resilience is going to outlive him. Lari Johnny's group is collecting signatures for this tribute letter, where Khomeini is called the leader of anti-colonial resistance. Number two to sign is Bijan Abdul Karimi, a leading professor of philosophy in Tehran. Karimi says Washington's view of the late leader comes through a biased lens.

The West always views others through their own lens. The West doesn't see Iranians through Iranian eyes. The West only knows one pair of glasses, and that's their own pair of glasses. If Americans were to view Iranians with Iranian glasses, who would they see? A country with culture, one of the world's greatest centers of religion and spirituality. Iranian tradition says that among all humans there is friendship and love. At Ayatollah Khamanei's funeral, there was neither friendship nor love for the United States. Instead, calls for revenge, a message that millions who support him still stand,

determined to continue his fight. For the PBS News Hour, I'm Reza Seya in Tehran. For more than 60 years, the federal government has relied on the equal employment Opportunity Commission, or EEOC, to enforce laws against workplace discrimination. But the Justice Department is now challenging a legal framework that has underpinned that work for decades, known as disparate impact liability. That's the idea that policies can be discriminatory if they disproportionately harm certain groups, even if they appear neutral on their face. The Trump administration says it wants to return civil rights enforcement to a colorblind,

merit-based approach. Critics argue the shift could weaken longstanding protections against discrimination. To help us understand the policy shift and its implications, we're joined now by Jenny Yang, former chair of the EEOC under former President Obama and the beginning of the Trump administration. She's now a partner at Outen and Golden. Thank you for being here. Thank you for having me. So let's start by talking about disparate impact. Give us a real-world example of the kinds of discrimination it's designed to uncover. What kinds of seemingly neutral policies or practices are we talking about? Well, the law prohibits practices. that are unfair because they're screening out people for reasons that aren't job-related.

This could be AI-based screening that ranks and sorts, resumes. It could be pay, for example. So imagine two people who start on the same day with the same qualifications and doing the same exact job duties. But one person has paid thousands of dollars less because her prior employer paid her less. That kind of disparate impact from relying on a prior salary is what the law is designed to prevent. Where an employer does an equal pay audit, disparate impact protections, encourage that employer to evaluate whether that practice is fair and job-related.

If it's not, it asks the employer to change it. So it's not unfairly paying certain workers compared to others. Another example is our client, Kenny Miller. He challenged a unfair criminal history screen. EOC had originally brought this case after years of investigation. He was already working and was fired because of an older conviction, despite performing the job well. And the EOC had found in its earlier case that this kind of criminal background history screen was not job-related. Employers, of course, can check for criminal history screens where it's related to the job.

But where it does an overbroad screen, it's missing qualified talent. Employers are missing opportunities to support their families. And as America, we are harming our economy. If these policies aren't explicitly discriminatory, why should an employer be responsible for the unequal outcomes these policies might produce? Because employers are in the best position to actually understand how these practices are operating. Employers can evaluate whether a particular hiring criteria, like a four-year college degree requirement, is actually necessary for the job. There are many ways people can learn the skills necessary to perform the job.

And if an employer decides everyone must have a four-year degree, when in fact, many people could successfully perform the job without one, that can operate as a discriminatory barrier that leads to an unjustified disparate impact and employers are in the best position to understand that and to prevent discrimination by taking action to change that practice. I want to play for you a video

that the current chair of the EEOC posted late last year. Take a look. I'm Andrea Lucas, chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Committee Commission. Are you a white male who's experienced discrimination at work based on your race or sex? You may have a claim to recover money under federal civil rights laws. Contact the EOC as soon as possible. Time limits are typically strict for filing a claim. So you've held that position. How unusual is it for a chair to publicly solicit discrimination claims from one specific demographic group like that? Yes, this is highly unusual. Many people were not

sure if it was real when they first saw it because our laws protect everyone and EOC was created by Congress out of the March on Washington and it was a call for fairness and jobs and freedom and that was meant for everyone it wasn't meant for only certain individuals of a particular race or gender and that is deeply problematic at a time particularly where the agency is very strapped for resources and a focus on only one community actually harms many others. There are white Americans who believe the Biden-era DEI policies were unfair to them, that race was considered in ways that disadvantaged them. Why is it wrong in your view for the

administration, the current administration, to respond to those concerns and insist that civil rights laws protect white folks too? Well, civil rights laws have always protected white individuals and men. And we brought those cases when I was at the EOC as well. You know, there were retailers that thought, let's prevent harassment by not promoting men, right? That is discrimination. So our agencies across the federal government have always applied the law to protect all Americans. So that's why this kind of action is particularly harmful. Our laws have always asked for protections for all Americans. Big picture here, you have this disparate impact liability, this framework.

It remains part of federal law. Congress codified it. The Supreme Court upheld it. The administration now is urging and directing agencies to deprioritize it. How significant is it that a president, any president, can effectively narrow civil rights protections, not by changing the law with Congress, but by deciding which laws the federal government will enforce? Well, I want to be clear the law has not changed. This administration is attempting to change the law and dramatically narrow its protections.

It's trying to argue that we should only care about intentional discrimination, but not harms from discrimination. It may be built into systems. And that is incredibly important for the federal government to continue, because individuals can't always find lawyers. always find lawyers to represent them. So the federal government has the kind of scope and scale of impact that is not possible for individuals to have on their own. Jenny Yang, former chair of the EEOC,

thank you for being with us. Thank you for having me. As the impact of art on health outcomes is being studied more and more, some hospitals are now focusing on even the youngest of patients. Special correspondent Mike Surrey takes a look at one approach for all It's part of our series on arts and health and part of our Canvas coverage.

Music therapist Brianna Negretti on her morning rounds at this neonatal intensive care unit for patients who have yet to experience life outside of this hospital. We found that infants that receive music therapy have a reduced length of stay than patients that do not. It's a positive way to engage in an environment that there's a lot of stress. It's great to be able to bring infants together, development, to help support them socializing, but also for our staff support as well to engage with them in a positive way, through music. At University of California, San Francisco Health, the art of recovery relies on a variety of creative programs and artists, working directly with its patients and medical teams throughout its hospital network.

Here at the UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital in Oakland, they produce a variety of entertainment and game shows, some of them bilingual. On its closed circuit TV network, patients can call in to interact from their rooms, as well as participate in the production, like Mason Allen Cook's show on goosebumps. Shout out to our audience, too. Sometimes they're just silly shows.

Sometimes we just talk about poop for 30 minutes, which is really delightful, and we have kids who call us and tell us poop jokes. Since daily poop analysis plays an oversized role for kids undergoing an extended treatment, treatment here. Producer Jessica Chung believes the shows complement the medical treatment, as well as entertain and distract the younger patients. We've had patients who have maybe shared with us that it's really hard to cope in the hospital, and so we've done shows related to building resiliency

and building coping strategies like deep breathing or distraction or journaling. People come here for the medical care, but I think it's also important for them to understand about what we do for the emotional side of our patients to help with their coping. Rochelle Porter's Child Life Services team is funded by local philanthropy. But pediatric oncologist Dr. Elliott Stiglis believes the growing medical evidence of their effectiveness is making them more than just nice to have ancillary services. A patient can be undergoing a bone marrow biopsy or a lumbar puncture or even undergoing an MRI where they have to sit still.

Using music therapy to physiologically bring the stress and the tension down allows us to accomplish those procedures with as little side effects, with as few side effects as possible. Here at UCSF Mount Zion Hospital in San Francisco, the original Art of Recovery class is the country's oldest hospital art class of its kind. It was co-founded nearly 40 years ago during the age-creas. crisis by a resident doctor along with an art therapist. It's totally natural. Mirrorless turned art therapist, Amy Van Cleave, is its current director.

It's frequent and it's special that we hear people say in our program that art or art for recovery or coming to these groups save my life. Mostly cancer patients or survivors. These weekly classes are much more than art and crafts activities just for passing time or decorating hospitals. more decorating hospital walls. It's not about making pretty or making perfect art. It's about putting your truth on the page. It's about getting the emotional experience out and on the table. No judgment.

And once that clicks, usually it takes a couple sessions for them to kind of step outside of their thinking brain and what they think they should be creating. Sylvia Parasota has been battling her brain cancer for 24 years. So I had one of my brain scans when you had to carry around the film, and so I started painting on it, and I said, here, let me show you what's in my brain. Let me show you my resilience, my hope, and my strength. So I started painting these warrior women on my brain scans,

and it was sort of my way to take back my scan and have some agency in my health. The class also includes former hospital medical staff, like Mary Casey, who unexpectedly became a cancer patient herself. I worked in the pediatric cancer population and I could see how the creative approach and the outlets really help, not only young people, through their journey of cancer and the illness, but trying to get healthy, but it really can help adult people too because we're allowed to play and escape the pain and the medicine and the treatment for a while and also be around

people that are going through similar experiences. Statistically, men do not use any of the supportive care services in hospitals. It's just culturally, they go into their silos. And we have a few in our groups, but I decided to make a group just for them. I think some of it is that most men are comfortable, looking vulnerable. They're not comfortable talking about pain. They're not comfortable talking about being scared. All of that is a part of being a cancer patient.

Anu Kirk, a rock singer, until he got throat cancer, credits the Art of Recovery Program for helping him accept his condition and inspiring his new career as a therapist. San Francisco's Museum of Modern Art recently honored the Art of Recovery with a special exhibition of its work and a celebration of the healing community the arts have created inside a medical community.

For the PBS NewsHour, I'm Mike Surrey in San Francisco. And that is The News Hour for tonight. I'm Omna Nawaz. And I'm Jeff Bennett. For all of us here at The News Hour, thanks for spending part of your evening with us.