PBS News Hour - Full Show - June 3, 2026 - PBS News Hour full episode

Episode Date: June 3, 2026

Wednesday on the News Hour, Iranian strikes set Kuwait's largest airport ablaze during a fragile ceasefire with the United States, we delve into the latest results and other takeaways from Tuesday's primary elections across the country, the storied newsmagazine "60 Minutes" in turmoil after its longtime correspondent Scott Pelley is fired by new leadership. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy

Good evening. I'm Jeff Bennett. And I'm Amna Vaz. On the news hour tonight, Iranian strikes set at Kuwait's largest airport ablaze, yet another test of the fragile ceasefire with the United States. Who's leading the race to be California's next governor? We delve into the latest results and other takeaways from yesterday's primary elections across the country. And the storied news magazine 60 minutes in turmoil after its longtime correspondent, Scott Pelly, is fired by new leadership. I think that this is journalistic interference. It makes no business sense whatsoever. Welcome to the News Hour.

Tonight, the U.S. says it's ceasefire with Iran is still holding, but it was a violent day with the U.S. and Iranian militaries trading fire overnight. And today, Iran struck Kuwait's main airport, killing one person and injuring dozens more. The ceasefire is also being tested by the ongoing conflict in Lebanon, which has exposed close rare public tensions between President Trump and Israel's Prime Minister. Nick Schifrin begins his report with the new violence in the Gulf. Inside Kuwait's International Airport today, this is what ceasefire looks like. Part of the passenger terminal clouded by dust and debris, and the crackle of fire.

An airport employee points to the spot where he says Iranian drones made a direct hit. The attack temporarily shut down the airport and shook America's Gulf allies who are advocating for a U.S.-Iran diplomatic deal. But there is no deal, and the attacks are increasing. Today, Iran fired missiles at Kuwait and for the first time since the ceasefire began, Bahrain and the headquarters of the U.S. Navy's fifth fleet. The missiles either failed or were shot down, but the ceasefire is being strained. Iran calls these launches a response to the U.S. striking this oil tanker's engine to enforce

the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports. They were slightly provoked because we took a strong action for a different reason, so they were reciprocating it. Today in the Oval Office, President Trump also labeled Iran strikes a response to U.S. attacks, even though the U.S. military called its strike self-defense after Iranian attacks. And today, as he has repeatedly in the past, President Trump dangled the promise of a diplomatic deal. And if it happens, it might not happen, who knows.

But if it happens, it could happen like over the weekend. But just hours before on the New York Post Podcast Pod Force One, President Trump did not deny a much longer timeline. So you think the blockade is still be in place by Labor Day? I don't know. I mean, I think it could be, but I think it's unlikely. And President Trump confirmed he recently got salty with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Axios reported that you had a phone call with Bibi Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, in which you were angry with him. You said, are you effing crazy? What are you effing doing? I helped you stay out of jail. Is that true? Did you speak to him in those terms?

I did. I would say angry. I was a little bit perturbed at his constantly fighting with Lebanon. You know, at some point I said, maybe we're going to step this. You think this is a crisis? You should be in some other conversations. In a CNBC interview today, Netanyahu downplayed their differences. And Israeli officials note to PBS News Hour, this was not the first time that Trump cursed at Netanyahu. Sometimes we have, as in the best of families, you have these tactical disagreements. We always find a way to work them out.

And we do so as great friends. We can disagree in the morning, and by the afternoon, we have common action. But Israel insists it will continue its unilateral campaign in Lebanon striking the south today. Israeli soldiers have invaded and occupied southern Lebanon deeper inside the country than at any point in a quarter century. And today Netanyahu warned he would keep pushing President Trump to allow targeted strikes in the capital, Beirut. Terrorist chieftains, many of them are in Beirut. So they're giving orders to target our cities from Beirut. And we said, if you keep on targeting Israeli territory and our cities and our communities,

then we'll take out these terror chieftains in Beirut with surgical strikes. My question is, do you agree that Israel should stop its military campaign in Lebanon and support the president's negotiations for a peace agreement with Iran? On Capitol Hill today, lawmakers questions Secretary of State Marco Rubio whether Lebanon jeopardized an Iran deal. Rubio put the blame on Iranian proxy Hezbollah, not Israel. What they are increasingly doing is taking more territory in the south to deny them launching space. Because understand, these rockets are being launched into northern villages and cities in Israel.

And President Trump today said he wanted Iran to make a deal independent of the war in Lebanon. I'd like to separate it. I'd like to have a separate thing. Because it is separate. But Iranian officials tell PBS NewsHour they insist any initial memorandum of understanding include a Lebanon ceasefire. And so the stalemate continues, both in the talks and in the Strait of Hormuz, where a fifth of the world's oil flowed before the war.

For the PBS News Hour, I'm Nick Schiffran. And late today, the U.S. House approved a war powers resolution that would stop further military action in Iran. a significant rebuke of President Trump's handling of the war. Four Republicans defied Trump and supported the measure, which would still need to pass in the Senate before heading to the president's desk for an almost certain veto. Well, half a dozen states held their primary elections yesterday,

giving a clearer picture of how some of the nation's high-profile midterm races will shape up this fall. In California, ballots are still being counted in several key races, chief among them the race for governor. Three candidates are locked in a fight, for the top two spots that will advance to November's runoff. On the Democratic side, former Health and Human Service is Secretary Javier Bissera, and billionaire activist Tom Steyer, and Republican media commentator Steve Hilton.

It appears that we are on track to advance to November. We're going to wait until every ballot is counted. We're going to give democracy at time to work, and we know we finish really strong. Change is coming to California, and it's long overdue. Meantime, in Iowa, the matchups for both Senate and Governor are now set. In the Senate race, Republican Congresswoman Ashley Hinson will face Democratic Challenger and former Paralympian Josh Turrick to replace retiring Senator Joni Ernst. And in the race for governor, businessman Zach Lawn narrowly edged out Trump-backed Congressman Randy Feinstra. He'll face Democratic State auditor Rob Sand in what's set to be one of the nation's most watched gubernatorial races this fall.

For more on what these primary results mean. Heading into the fall, we are joined now by Nathan Gonzalez's editor and publisher of inside elections. Always good to see you. So let's start in California, shall we? The governor's race is still being sorted out. These mail-in votes are still being counted. But it appears that the Democrat, Javier Bacera, is going to face Republican Steve Hilton this fall. In this crowded Democratic field, how did Javier Bacera edge out their arrest?

Well, I think that he ended up being the safe pitiful. I mean, remember that we've gone through many chapters with this race, and there was a chapter where it looked like Democrats were going to get locked out of the general election because of California's top two system and the dozens of Democratic candidates. There was a chance that two Republicans were going to finish. So that potential for catastrophe, along with Congressman Eric Swalwell's implosion and exit from the race, then cause some Democrats say there needs to be some consolidation. Becerra looked like a safe pick, and it looks like, you know, at a minimum, we know Democrats are. avoided that catastrophic outcome. We'll see.

And by the end, because there's still so many votes to be counted, Bacera could finish ahead, you know, finish ahead moving into November after these primary ballots are counted. And California is among the states that did the mid-decade redistricting, redrew their congressional maps. Which races are you watching most closely?

One of them is California's sixth district in the Sacramento area. This was a district Democrats drew to elect a Democrat. But right now, the top two contenders are Republican, now independent Congressman Kevin Kiley in a Republican candidate, Michael Stansfield. If that continues, that means that you're going to have

a Republican and a former Republican in the general election and no Democrat. But with the remaining ballots that are coming in, I would expect Richard Pan, the Democratic candidate, who's narrowly in third to inch into one of those top two spots, and Democrats will have a chance to get a district that they've drawn for themselves. We're also watching the 22nd district,

which is in the Central Valley. Congressman David Valdeo, the Republican is moving on. It looks like Democrat Randy Villegas is going to be a challenge. And Valdeo has his reputation for always winning tough races, but he lost in President Trump's first midterm. He's at risk in this second Trump's second midterm, and it's a race to watch. Let's shift our focus to Alabama, shall we? Because the Supreme Court allowed Alabama to move forward with the congressional map that eliminates one of the state's two majority black districts, as you well know. So coming on the heels of other voting rights and redistricting battles, what does this ruling mean for?

Democrats' hopes of winning back the House. I mean, it makes it one seat more challenging. It looks like Democrats will lose a seat in Alabama. And when you look at redistricting nationwide with the cases and the maps, it looks like Republicans will net more seats as a result of it. But it's not going to be enough to shield them from the potential midterm backlash when the president's job approval rating is barely at 40 percent, or the backlash against the party in power at a time when the country is heading the wrong direction.

And in Iowa, Democrats are bullish about their chances in the Senate race there. What informs that optimism? Well, Iowa is a good example of Republican states that normally we would not be talking about, but because the president is in such a weak political position, the economy is in a weak position. We're talking about Iowa, Ohio, Alaska, Texas, South Carolina. And Iowa is a state that Democrats need to win at least two Republican states in the Senate to get to the majority.

They might need to win three if they can't win Maine. But it's a possibility because of the overall political environment that we're seeing. You mentioned Maine. Give us a sense of what's happening there and what it means for the upcoming vote. Well, Graham Platner, the likely Democratic nominee, the primary is next week, is undergoing, is facing all sorts of problems with how many women who is not his wife? Is he texting? Is his chest tattoo a Nazi symbol or not?

and but yet he was politically strong enough to push the sitting governor out of the primary. And so Democrats now are wrestling with, this is a must-win seat for the majority because it's Republican Susan Collins in a Democratic state, but he is facing all sorts of things. And it's not just things that happen in the distant past. The tattoo can kind of be said,

well, that was when he was younger. This other things with texting other women, that's something that happened fairly recently. And so we'll see what else comes out And all that to say, he is a Democrat in a Democratic state in a good Democratic cycle. He still has a chance to win. And there are lots of people who aren't giving him a pass for that tattoo at all, whether he was younger or not. But let's talk about California, because even as we say, most people are focused on the governor's race.

Maybe. I think a lot of people are focused on the mayor's race in Los Angeles with Karen Bass and Spencer Pratt. There's another candidate there. Again, votes are still being counted, but what's the latest? Well, I mean, I expect Mayor Bass to end up winning re-election. It's been quite a saga. I think that Spencer Pratt's emergence onto the scene is an example of voters view politicians with such disdain and are so upset with the current status quo that they're willing to give any non-politician a second look, a third look. And I think that helped him kind of get into this conversation. But fundamentally, L.A. is still a Democratic city.

and I expected a Democrat to win that race. Nathan Gonzalez, thanks again. That's a lot to run through. Lots of states, lots of cities. On little sleep, but we made it happen. Good to see you, friend. Good to see it. Well, primary voters in New Jersey last night

also finalized the race for one of the nation's most competitive seats and one of the most unusual because the incumbent Republican, Congressman Tom Kane Jr., hasn't been seen on the campaign trail or Capitol Hill for months. As congressional correspondent Lisa Desjardin reports, his absence raises broader questions. Whoever else has come by Congressman Tom Cain's Capitol Hill office for the past three months, he was not one of them. What do we know about where he is or not? We really don't know anything.

Benjamin Hulak is the Washington correspondent for NJ's spotlight. Tell us the status of Congressman Kane right now. I wish I could. I'm not trying to be oblique, but he last voted. in the House on March 5 and has not been seen in public since. And the only thing I've gotten out of his office is that he is a personal medical issue. This was Kane's last known day in Washington. He appeared at a committee hearing. I heard my colleagues to support this legislation.

Kane waited until late April to issue a cryptic statement, writing that a doctor forecast full recovery very soon. I asked House Speaker Mike Johnson about this today. As soon as he's ready to talk about that, you're all going to breathe a sigh of relief and say that makes sense. What he's dealing with is something very common and not a big thing. Keynes has been the longest but not the only absence this year. Democrat Frederigo Wilson, who's retiring, has missed a month of votes, eventually saying she had eye surgery. Republican Julia Letlow missed two weeks of votes as she campaigned for U.S. Senate. These are 212. The nays are 220. The concurrent resolution is not.

This all led to a tie, a near win for Democrats on a statement vote last month to end the war in Iran. So far this year, the House has been in session 76 days. Congressman Kane has missed more than half of that. But many days, a dozen or more are absent in a one or two vote margin Congress. As the legislation becomes more important in my case for appropriation bills, every vote counts. I represent 772,047 individuals, Republicans, Democrats, independents, and they expect me to show up to my job. Voters, by and large, are very, very understanding. What upsets them is when there's a lack of transparency.

Now both parties need every single member to be there on every single vote. Ellie Powell of University of Wisconsin-Madison studies when members miss votes and points out that Congress used to issue internal penalties for missed votes. And stronger local journalism was a factor. Sort of as an earlier era of congressional history where, you know, your local paper would post how many votes you had missed and it would be really embarrassing during a campaign. Congress has just sort of stopped carrying. The public has started noticing two years ago the Dallas Express discovered Congresswoman Kay Granger had been living in an assisted living facility. She had not voted in Congress for six months. The rules of the House require that members be present for votes unless they have a formal or necessary excuse.

They can put in for an official leave of absence, but rarely do. House leaders can reprimand members with fines, but these days, they never do. And what we're seeing now is that members are disappearing for weeks at a time and just they just don't seem to be involved in the process. Our next witness is Daniel Schumann. Daniel Schumann directs the nonpartisan American Governance Institute and is expert in congressional accountability. Reasons abound for absences. Colorado's Brittany Peterson missed votes to give birth. Others like Thomas Massey or Chip Roy have missed votes while in competitive primaries. But add to that something harder to track, motivation. This arises from like just sort of the member sense of personal responsibility, but it also arises from institutional incentives in the chamber where most of the laws are being written by leadership. Polling shows Americans' opinion of Capitol Hill is near historic. lows. And as a branch, Congress is facing unprecedented challenges from President Trump. While most members are showing up to work, the problem of those who aren't undermine its power.

They should be engaged in lawmaking. They should be engaged in debate. Kane was unopposed and won his primary last night. He posted on social media that he plans to be back within weeks and then will be completely transparent about his condition. But for now, NJ Spotlights Benjamin Hulak is covering a campaign for Congress where the Republican nominee is absent. And when you're absent, you just don't really give a yardstick to voters about how to judge you. And in modern times, voters are the only ones who decide if absent members get penalized.

For the PBS NewsHour, I'm Lisa Desjardin. In the day's other headlines, Ukraine says it struck an oil depot in Russia's St. Petersburg with long-range drones that flew more than 600 miles to reach their target. attack sent thick smoke rising over the city, which is Russia's second largest and the hometown of President Vladimir Putin. St. Petersburg is also hosting a major economic forum this week. In Kiev, President Volodymyr Zelensky, alongside NATO's Secretary General, said the strike gives Ukraine much-needed leverage at the negotiating table. Thank God our strength is being felt on the battlefield. This isn't an isolated incident.

It's a specific target and a concrete result. Today, we have security guarantees that allow us to end this war on equal footing with Russians in any diplomatic format. Ukraine also struck and damaged a ship at a naval base west of St. Petersburg, as seen here in this satellite image. In the meantime, Russian officials are accusing Ukraine of killing eight civilians in a drone strike on this bus in a Russian-controlled part of Ukraine's Donetsk region. Ukraine, like Russia, has long said it does not intentionally target civilians.

In the UK today, Prime Minister Kier-Starmer condemned violent protests that erupted over the death of an 18-year-old who was handcuffed by police. At least 11 officers were injured during clashes last night in the city of Southampton where Henry Noak was killed in December. The release of body cam footage from the incident has fired up Britain's far right, who claimed Noak's death is proof that police are biased against white people. killer Vikram Digwa, who is sick, had falsely claimed that he was the victim of a racist attack by Noak.

Digva was sentenced to life in prison. Police in New Delhi say a hotel fire killed at least 21 people today, making it one of the city's worst such disasters in years. Flames could be seen rising from the six-story building located in a densely populated residential neighborhood. say dozens of people were rescued with many taken to nearby hospitals. Firefighters were eventually able to bring the blaze under control. As of this evening, no cause has been determined and an investigation is underway. Back in this country, several members of President Trump's

cabinet appeared on Capitol Hill today for another busy day of hearings. The committee will come to order. Lawmakers on the Senate Finance Committee depressed Treasury Secretary Scott Besant about President Trump's anti-weaponization fund, which has now been shelved and his protections from IRS audits which remain in place. Besant declined to weigh in on either. But he did respond when Republican Senator Tom Tillis confronted Besant about his reported run-ins with the president's pick for Director of National Intelligence, Bill Pulte. Did you actually tell Pulte you were going to punch him in the face?

No, sir. I actually said it was going to kick his ass. That was last summer, summer 25, and many teams have fights in the locker room and then go out and win for the team on the field. Pulte was seen as a controversial pick for the role, given his lack of intelligence experience and his involvement in some of President Trump's retribution efforts. Also on Capitol Hill today, Homeland Security Secretary Mark Wayne Mullen told a House panel that training requirements for ICE agents, would return to, quote, regular standards starting next month. Those standards have been a flashpoint after the surge of forces to places like Minneapolis where agents killed two American citizens earlier this year.

Federal prosecutors are reportedly investigating whether former Congressman George Santos engaged in insider trading on a prediction marketplace. In February, Santos teased on social media that he would attend President Trump's State of the Union address. He then didn't show, but not before reportedly betting against his own attendance on the prediction marketplace Kalshi. The company later referred Santos to the Justice Department. In 2024, Santos pleaded guilty to fraud and identity theft, but President Trump commuted his sentence just three months into his seven-year prison term. On Wall Street today, stocks cooled off after a renewed rise in oil prices. The Dow Jones Industrial average sank more than 600 points on the day.

The NASDAQ shed nearly 240 points or nearly 1%. The S&P 500 snapped a nine-session winning streak. And Grammy-winning R&B singer Peebo Bryson has died. Bryson was the voice behind the Oscar-winning Disney duet, Beauty and the Beast, with Celine Dion. He also teamed up with Regina Bell for Aladdin's A Whole New World, the first song from an animated film to top the Billboard Hot 100. Bryson built a five-decade career as one of R&B's premier balladeers with songs like, Feel the Fire and Can You Stop the Rain?

The singer's family said he died days after a stroke, adding his, quote, legacy and music will live on for generations. Peebo Bryson was 75 years old. Still to come, on the news hour, the challenges still facing health workers as they race to contain the Ebola outbreak. The Trump administration cuts an ambitious program to monitor. monitor the oceans, plus much more. This is the PBS News Hour from the David M. Rubenstein studio at WETA in Washington, headquarters of PBS News. CBS News has fired longtime 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley after a contentious all-staff meeting

in which Pelley reportedly clashed with newly installed executive producer Nick Bilton, and accused CBS News editor-in-chief Barry Weiss of murdering the storied news magazine. Billton in a letter firing Pelley yesterday evening accused him of acting with remarkable insubility and contempt. In his own statement, Pelley said, quote, The leadership of 60 Minutes is no longer recognizable. The principles, I hold dear, are gone, and so I must leave as well. The firing marks the latest and most dramatic chapter in the upheaval surrounding 60 Minutes and CBS News, as Weiss moves to reshape both the nation's most watched television news magazine and the news division more broadly.

For more, we're joined now by Steve Croft. He spent 30 seasons as a correspondent for 60 Minutes before retiring in 2019. Steve Croft, welcome to the News Hour. Thank you very much. You joined... Nice to be here. I wish different circumstances. Yeah, indeed. We should say you joined 60 Minutes back in 1989,

spent decades helping make it the most respected, most watched news magazine and TV history. As you have watched recent events unfold, Scott Pelley's firing the dismissal of Tanya Simon, former executive producer, the firings of correspondence, Sharon Alfonzi and Cecilia Vega. What has been going through your mind? You know, I think it's been disastrous for the show, you know, for the audience, which is not insubstantial. It's been going on for a long time. It began really with an interview that Bill Whitaker had done with Kamala Harris, in which CBS was sued for $17 million by the Trump administration,

for what they call the illegal edit. The lawsuit had absolutely no merit. Yet CBS and its corporate management, Paramount, decided to settle the case for $17 million. And since then, it's just been sort of one thing after another. The broader context, which you're speaking of, is important because CBS News is now operating under new ownership as Paramount Skydance, seeks approval from Trump regulators

to acquire Warner Brothers Discovery, by the way, also owns CNN. And President Trump, we should say, has made no secret of his hostility toward much of the mainstream press. He has called out 60 Minutes in CBS News repeatedly. So how much do the larger political and corporate pressures at play

help explain what's happening right now at 60 minutes in CBS News? I think it's perfectly expensive. For Paramount, the parent company, getting these deals done, First, the permission to merge the two companies from the FCC, and then now awaiting a decision on whether this is going to go through with the FCC and be approved. I think that Paramount has just decided that it was going to be that that was the only thing that was important.

And they were going to try and block anything that might get in the way of that, Scott Pelley said this morning, he asked Barry Weiss, the president of the corporation, why they fired Tanya Simon, the executive producer of the show, why they had fired various correspondence in the last week, well, just in one day. And she refused to answer any of the questions, which leaves you with what's been said by the president and by his staff and by the chairman of the FCC, that they don't like the way CBS has been operated. They don't like the fact that it's on the air.

They would like to see it taken off the air. They've said that a number of times. They'd like to see people fired. And that's what's happened. And yet, one could argue, every new owner, every new management team arrives believing they can improve what they bought, that they can make an institution better, even a standout success like 60 minutes.

In this case, though, where is the line between a legitimate business decision and journalistic interference? Well, I think that this is journalistic interference. It makes no business sense whatsoever. The show is still doing very well. It's the highest rated news program on television, and it has been that way for more than 50 years.

The audience was up about 9% last year, and why would you mean? mess with that. It's got an audience of about 10 million people, between 9 and 10 million people, which is still one of the largest audiences on network television. I want to ask you about something else here, because in a statement, Scott Pelley said that the new management instructed him to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story, which he says he did not do. Cecilia Vega, in a separate statement, also spoke of pressure to insert political bias and said that some staffers became reluctant to pitch certain stories out of fear of internal

repercussions. How significant a break is what they described from the editorial culture and standards that defined 60 minutes during your tenure? It's never happened. That's the only way to describe it. I've never had anybody asked to and make any kind of insertion or addition to a story to change the tone of it or to change the facts of it, I don't think it's ever happened at 60 minutes. We should say we reached out to CBS News for a statement they have yet to respond. Zooming out, what does the country lose

if an institution like 60 minutes becomes weaker, less independent, or less ambitious? You've already seen the effects of it. Cecilia Vega, in her final statement to the staff, outlined a number of problems that have occurred on the show and that people have been unwilling or afraid to do story, intimidated from doing stories that needed covering, and that it had instilled this feeling of fear into the broadcast. And I think that's absolutely 100% true. So it's already having effects. And I think that Scott was doing this, not just for himself.

making the point about himself personally. I think he was doing that stand up for Sharon Alfonci, who was fired, and for Cecilia Vega, who was fired, and for Tanya Simon, who was fired, and Ragan Mihalovich, who was fired. All of these people are incredibly good journalists, and the kind of people you would need if you wanted to continue to put a program,

like CBS 60 Minutes on the air, and now they are gone. I think it was a slap in the face to everybody who has worked there over a long period of time. Former 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Croft. Steve, thanks again for your time. We appreciate it. My pleasure. Scientists across the country are expressing alarm as the Trump administration dismantles another tool for understanding how the planet is changing. Starting this month, more than 900 deep-sea ocean sensors will be pulled out of the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean.

off the coast of Washington, Oregon, Alaska, North Carolina, and Greenland. Researchers say these are some of the most critical ocean observation tools we have. William Brangham's here now to explain the latest. William, what are these sensors and why do researchers tell you they're so important? This was a decades-long, about $380 million research project. Hundreds of sensors, you described. Some of them set on the surface of the ocean, some of them went down hundreds of feet. The way to think about this is like an ongoing medical checkup on the health of the oceans.

How salty is it? How warm is it? How do the currents move in the ocean? Where are they moving? How are the fish doing down there? How is the ocean responding to climate change? I think it's hard to overstate just how critical oceans are to life on Earth. They regulate our weather.

They provide food for millions of people all over the world. Over the last few decades, they have absorbed an enormous. amount of the carbon pollution that we put up in the atmosphere has been taken up by the oceans, thus delaying some of the more negative consequences of climate change against us. These sensors were looking at all of those things, and now we are, in essence, stopping that research project totally. So if this is such an important project, what exactly is the Trump administration's rationale for dismantling it?

I wish I could give you a clear answer on this. The National Science Foundation, which runs this, put out his statement, justifying this, that is incredibly hard to parse. Let me just read this statement. Here's what they said. Quote, the decision to de-scope aligns with NSF's wider strategy of a nimbleer approach to prioritize support

for evolving scientific priorities and emerging technologies, as well as smart life cycle management within its research infrastructure portfolio. If you can parse what that actually means you're a smarter woman than I. Meanwhile, the scientific community could not have been clearer

about what they see going on here. And that is another example, they argue, of the Trump administration turning off the waves in which we observe how the Earth is changing specifically with relation to climate change. One researcher I was in touch with today described this as an intentional choice to embrace ignorance. I spoke earlier today with a researcher named Hilary Pavelski. She's at Boston College. She studies how CO2 moves from the atmosphere into the oceans.

And she described our scientific understanding, like one of those tall jenga towers of understanding. And she said, this is one more example of pulling a tile out of that tower. Here's how she put it. We don't know which piece of that jenga tower is going to be really critical in seeing the changes that are coming in the future. And so we really are at a time that we need more rather than fewer, sensors out in the ocean. And so this is really going in the wrong direction for what we need as a scientific community and as society. William, I understand this is a particularly fraught time

right now to be cutting this kind of research into ocean monitoring. Why? It's because there are two enormously important phenomena happening in the oceans right now. The first one is in the Pacific Ocean. This is what is being called a super el Niño. This is, characterized by incredibly warm ocean waters in the Pacific, which we are seeing right now. A strong El Nino can affect weather patterns all over the world, and this is now gearing up to be a potentially record-breaking El Nino. That's one event in the Pacific. Switching across to the Atlantic is a second system that goes by the acronym known as Amok. Amok is this colossal conveyor belt that moves ocean currents all over the globe,

particularly in the North Atlantic. Some researchers have been detecting a signal that warming, particularly warming in the Arctic, could be disrupting Amok and even overturning it. And if that were to actually happen, this would be considered one of the most grave turning, tipping points that scientists fear could happen with regards to climate change. If that were to happen, this would capture,

incredibly harsh winters over Europe. It could send much more fierce hurricanes to the east coast of the United States. Most problematically, it could seriously distort the rain that feeds millions of people in Africa, in Asia, in South America. And so the researchers that I have been in touch with are arguing this is exactly the time

that you do not want to be, quite literally, taking your eyes off the ocean. William Brigham. Thank you so much, the very latest there. Thank you. Today, the World Health Organization said the fight against Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is, quote, catching up with the spread of the virus. But health officials warn the crisis is far from over.

More than 340 cases have been confirmed, and the outbreak has crossed into neighboring Uganda, worsening the challenge of containing the deadly disease in a region already riddled with conflict, displacement, and strained health care systems. To get a view from the ground, we turn to special correspondent Chris O'Shamringo. in the DRC's capital, Kinshasa. And to give you a sense of the scale of the challenges moving about the DRC, Kinshasa is about 950 miles

from the epicenter of the outbreak in the country's northeast. That's roughly the same distance between Jackson, Mississippi, and Washington, D.C. Chris, thank you for being with us. Bring us up to speed. What do we know about the scope of this outbreak right now and how concerned health officials are about it?

Well, health officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo are struggling to. to contain this outbreak that has spread rapidly since it was declared on May 15th. Back then, health officials told us that there were only three areas that registered cases, Rwampara, Mongualu and Bunya, the capital of North-Ithuri Province in the northeast of the country. But now there are more than 20 health zones that have recorded cases. We've been told that there are 60 people who have died and 344 others were infected with this very contagious disease.

Last week, many health facilities there were overwhelmed by the number of people who were brought in with suspected cases. They had to turn away some people because they didn't have enough beds. So there was an appeal that was made, and the international community really came to the rescue of authorities in the DRC. Millions of dollars have been raised. We've seen medical supplies being airlifted to a Turi province, the epicenter of this outbreak. People have set up new treatment centers, and they're now trying to scale up the response to this outbreak before it claims more lives. Jeff? Setting up these new treatment centers containing Ebola is in many ways a race against time.

What are the biggest obstacles health workers face in identifying cases and tracing contacts and stopping transmission? Well, one of the major challenges that they're facing is that this outbreak has occurred in an active conflict zones. There are lots of rebel groups in that area, Turi, there are Kodeko, there's Allied Democratic Forces, Zaire, and a number of other militia groups that have been attacking civilians, forcing them to flee to displaced camps. And these are crowded camps where people are crammed together. They cannot keep a social distance,

and that's a fertile area for the spread of infectious diseases. So health workers are very concerned about the continuous violence in the east and northeast of the DRC, where there are a number of rebel groups, this outbreak has also been recorded in another part of the DRC, in the eastern part, where there are rebels known as M23 who are controlling large swathes of that area. So it's very difficult for health workers to carry out content tracing, which is a very important element about containing this Ebola outbreak. It's about tracking people who came into contact with those who have been confirmed to have Ebola,

and it means moving from one place to another. That can only be done when there's peace in that area. So the DRC government and international partners have been appealing to all the warring parties, the militia groups in that area, to ceasefire so that health workers can be able to reach out to these patients and provide treatments so that this disease does not spread further.

Jeff? We have the benefit of having you on the ground in Kinshasa tonight doing this reporting. Beyond the medical toll, how is this outbreak affecting daily life in the communities at the center of it? Well, it has really disrupted the daily lives of the people. This area, Ituri Province, is a region that borders two countries, South Sudan and Uganda. And those people in that area don't have very many formal jobs. So they engage in petty trade.

So there's a lot of cross-border trade between the people of these three countries. The Democratic Republic of Congo, people keep traveling to Uganda, in South Sudan. And now that this outbreak has really spread, Uganda has shut its border with the DRC, and they have also, South Sudan is also closely monitoring the developments here. So many people have really been hit hard by this development.

They cannot make any money. And the World Health Organization has always been appealing to countries not to close their borders. They're saying that's an issue that will really disrupt the livelihoods of very many people. What they should do is step up screening at the border crossings and also surveillance so that they can treat these suspected cases. But every country has its own decision.

You know, it's a sovereign decision about how they want to deal with this outbreak. And so many people in the DRC have really been affected by this Ebola outbreak. Special correspondent Chris Osham Ringer in the Democratic Republic of the Congo reporting from Kinshasa tonight. Thank you. And we'll be back shortly to hear from some of this year's high-professional. Commencement Speakers. But first, take a moment to hear from your local PBS station. It's a chance to offer your support, which helps to keep programs like this one on the air.

For those of you staying with us, we take another look now at the career of acclaimed mezzo-soprano, Denise Graves, who retired from the operatic stage earlier this year and is now devoting herself to teaching the next generation. Senior arts correspondent Jeffrey Brown joined Graves in the days leading up to her farewell for our arts and culture series, Canvas. canvas. In opera, Denise Graves says there's enormous focus on how to make it, but not so much on how or when to leave it.

With all of the preparation and with all of our attention sort of centered around, what does it take to actually get into the world's greatest opera house? What does that require? And then when you're there, when is it time? After you've done that, if you're lucky, when is it time to... sort of bow out gracefully. There's not a lot of guidance for that. No, not at all.

Now she's done just that with a final series of performances in George Gershwin's classic, Porgy and Bess. Repreasing a role in a production first presented in 2019 at the Metropolitan Opera, one of the grandest stages of all. There was a supporting, not starring role. And that, she told us with a laugh in the Met's renowned hall, just days before her final time on stage came with implications behind the scenes. When I started here, I had the first dressing room. Yeah.

Right? And that was the last one. It's the last one. There's nothing else after it. That's a sign. The next thing is out of the door. There's no other dressing room after that one. Like it's the end of the line.

So it's time. It's time. It's time. And at 61, she's doing it on her terms, publicly announced in a recent New York Times essay. And it's not about dressing rooms, of course, as much as the extraordinary physical and emotional demands of her profession. This is very unnatural what it is that we do in the amount of discipline, the amount of training, the amount of sacrifice that it takes.

It's one that asks for your entire being. Everything that you do affects what happens because you are the instrument. Perhaps her best known role was the fiery, sensual Carmen. George Bisse's opera. But she told us of being a shy and awkward child growing up in what she calls humble surroundings in Washington, D.C. Among her role models, legendary soprano Leontine Price, whom Graves first encountered in high school listening to recordings. And I discovered this art form, and I said, what is this? I'd never heard anything like that before. I saw this woman who looked like me, and I said, what is this? And I said, that's what I want

I want to do. I want to do whatever it is that she's doing. So then to make it, it must require drive, ambition. You better believe it. And do those come with doubts and anxieties and fears all along the way? A fire has to be ignited inside of you somewhere, and you have to believe that you have something unusual to offer. In the New York Times piece, you wrote announcing the retirement.

You said that as a black woman, you write of the difficulties of pursuing life in a culture that often seem foreign to me or that saw me as foreign to it. Absolutely. I remember looking once at a production photo of myself on the stage with my colleagues and how different I was from everyone else. And some directors who would say to me, there's no way you're going to be believable in this character. As a white European character.

I mean, I can say these things now, I guess, maybe, maybe. But I had the director, you know, at the Vienna Stooper, one of the world's greatest opera houses said to me, there's no way that I would hire you for, you know, like 99% of the roles here because you just would not be believable. And we were talking about Mozart's Cousifantute, in which I would sing the role of Dora Bella. He said, nobody would believe you as a sister.

And I said, well, I could be. be adopted, you know, or she could be adopted. Grave says the world of opera has changed a lot in terms of the stories being told and greater representation on stage. And that's been part of her work with her foundation, to which she'll now devote much of her time, with a focus on training and mentoring a new generation of singers, including at historically black colleges and universities. Another focus, helping to preserve history.

an advocate for the restoration of the former National Negro Opera House in Pittsburgh. Once home to an organization started by singer Mary Caldwell Dawson, who, feeling shut out of most opera companies, decided to start her own. I was so moved by her and her story and by the fact that I didn't learn about her. She's a great, great hidden figure. Who really changed in the shape of the landscape of this profession. In the very best sense of the word, you are one of our deans. Oh.

Yes. Graves is leaving behind legions of colleagues, including in the Mets costume and wig shop, but looks forward to continuing to coach singers and a new pursuit, direct operas. But on January 24th, it was time for a final performance as a singer, and an on-stage celebration. I'm incredibly grateful. I feel incredibly fulfilled. I did many of the roles that I wanted to do. And when I look around me on the stage, I see another generation. For the BBC NewsHour, I'm Jeffrey Brown at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

Over the past month, college seniors have been donning their caps and gowns to mark the end of one chapter in the beginning of another. They're facing a daunting future, entering a rapidly transforming job market thanks to artificial intelligence, global unrest and a host of other factors. It was against this backdrop that graduation speakers took to the stage to provide their best advice with honesty, passion, and humility. Here now are some notable speeches you might have missed. I was thinking about what I would say to you today. What advice I would give you in terms of life advice, career advice,

what I would say to myself if I were your age or if it were my son graduating. And I will probably tell you, it's scary out there! No. Overcoming fear and doubt in the face of those challenges is where you're going to gain the confidence to make your best choices when things aren't going the way you want. You may only get one chance to impress your boss or land a promotion, or to close a deal or not.

So what then? You better have prepared your self. prepared yourself in advance to deal with the adversity you're going to face in order to give yourself the best chance to succeed. Your trip's not someone else's trip. Don't worry about who's next to you. Don't worry about if they get promoted before you. Don't worry about if they get a house first.

You run your race, okay? All of my blessings happened after 50. I know it sounds weird. All of them. I got the job of my dreams at the Today Show. I got the family I've dreamt of. I have two kids now. Your blessings come when they come, and they come right on time.

Your generation faces a temptation no generation before has ever faced. The temptation to perform for everyone and belong to no one. To be globally visible and locally invisible. To have thousands of followers and no one knows actually where you live. exist this. Plant yourself somewhere. Put down roots with the full intention of growing there. Redirecting your energy in one area can mean sprinting in another. The key is that I was choosing where my energy went instead of letting others choose for me. A wonderful part of giving yourself that space is you can look back and see the distance you've traveled.

Success is building a community and keeping that community close. Cherish your community. It will become the fabric of your life. Nurture your friends and acquaintances. Stay in touch. Be kind. Reach out. Check in.

Be the person that's there for others. Show up. I honestly believe that community, spontaneity, and a real commitment to humility has helped me build a rich life that means much more to me than any diploma. And believe me,

Believe me, I'm not saying the goal is to renounce accomplishments, but rather to metabolize them. If you carry your victories lightly, other qualities, kindness, originality, courage, humor, and humanity have room to emerge. All great advice. Well, that is the NewsHour for tonight. I'm Jeff Bennett. And I'm Omna Nawaz. On behalf of the entire NewsHour team, thank you for joining us.