PBS News Hour - Full Show - March 26, 2026 - PBS News Hour full episode

Episode Date: March 26, 2026

Thursday on the News Hour, negotiations to end the war with Iran falter and more U.S. troops are preparing to deploy to the Middle East. With social media under scrutiny, Germany considers following Australia's lead and banning the platforms for most children. Plus, more states are legalizing the controversial practice of medical assistance for dying. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy

Good evening. I'm John Yang. Jeff Bennett and Amna Nawaz are away. On the news hour tonight, negotiations to end the war with Iran falter and more U.S. troops are preparing to deploy to the Middle East. A look at the United States' latest strategy. With social media under scrutiny, Germany considers following Australia's lead and banning the platforms for most children. And more states legalize a controversial practice, medical assistance for dying. I want to go as me, the guy that can smile and laugh and joke a little bit, rather than be a pile of pain. Welcome to the news hour. Late today, President Trump said on social media that he's extending his ban on bombing Iran's power plants by 10 days until April 6th. Earlier this week, he said tomorrow was the deadline for Iran to open the strait of Hormuz or face a resumption of attacks on energy infrastructure,

which is illegal under the Geneva Convention. Today's extension came after an hours-long cabinet meeting that included an update on what U.S. officials say are ongoing negotiations with Iran. Lisa Desjardin has a report. Today, in the Middle East, still more civilians paying the price of war. Emergency workers rushed to help an elderly woman in the Arab-Israeli town of Kaffir Qasem.

She had just been spared from an Iranian missile fragment, Its impact imprinting a crater and flipping cars. That strike, part of the Tehran regime's ballistic attack on central Israel today, engulfed cars in the town of Ghana-Tikva in flames. Rescue workers putting out the fire revealed charred husks of vehicles. Iranian missiles also obliterated a home nearby in Tel Aviv, a fragment landing in a family's living room. Israeli rescue services reported one death and 25 injuries. from Iranian and Hezbollah attacks today.

As Israel last night killed the head of Iran's Navy, Ali Reza Tenghisiri, along with other senior naval commanders. Israeli defense minister, Israel Katz. Last night, in a precise and lethal operation, the IDF thwarted the commander of the Revolutionary Guards Navy, Alirza Teng Siri, along with senior naval command officials. the man who was directly responsible for the terrorist operation of mining and blocking the Strait of Hormuz, and navigation was blown up and neutralized. This as the Strait of Hormuz remains in Iran's grip, causing hundreds of billions in economic blowback and preventing a fifth of the world's seaborne oil and natural gas supply from transport. The U.S. today continued its bombing, releasing video of strikes targeting Iranian military capabilities.

At the White House, a rarity, a public briefing by special envoy Steve Whitkoff during a cabinet meeting with President Trump. He said Iranian officials rejected key demands, including about its nuclear stockpile. Throughout our meetings with the Iranians, we heard the following from them. The Iranians have the inalienable right to enrich. Then we heard they possessed enough 60 percent enriched material, 460 kilograms, to make 11 atomic bombs. Even so, Whitkoff conveyed a belief that Iran may be at a pivot point for a deal with Trump.

Your indications that you are willing to listen to peace proposals have been well received. We have delivered that message, sir, along with the 15 points for peace. Finally, we have told Iran one last day. Don't miscalculate again. Trump told the room that Iranians made a goodwill gesture. He said to show you the fact that we're real and solid and we're there, we're going to let you have eight boats of oil, eight boats, eight big boats of oil. This was two days ago, and they'll sail up tomorrow. And he conveyed his sense of the state of play. And they'll tell you, we're not negotiated. We will not negotiate. Of course, they're negotiated. They're obliterated.

Who would negotiate? They are begging to make a deal. We'll see if we can make the right deal. But yesterday, Iran's foreign minister publicly denied any direct negotiations. Over the past few days, our American counterparts have begun sending messages through others, other countries that are our friends. If there are messages through others, to which we respond with our own position and demands, that is not called conversation, nor negotiation, or anything. This is simply sending messages through others.

Pakistan has emerged as a key mediator in this conflict. Pakistan has, ladies and gentlemen, actively engaged with the regional actors to de-escalate the situation, seize hostilities, and move towards a peaceful settlement. But for now, the war, its issues, and its grief continue. For the PBS News Hour, I'm Lisa Desjardin. Now for the view from Tehran, as airstriots continue and the U.S. claims to be negotiating with the Islamic Republic. For that, we turn again to special correspondent, Reza. Sayah.

Reza, what's the atmosphere like in Tehran right now? John, more air strikes on this 27th day of this war, starting at around 8 p.m. local time here in the Capitol. We heard the unnerving roar of jet fighters above the skies in Tehran, followed by several earth-shaking explosions. State media reporting the airstrikes targeted at least four locations in Tehran, including some near Mehrabad Airport. This is the civilian airport in Tehran.

Tehran that has already been targeted a couple of times in this conflict. The Revolutionary Guard continues to hit back. State media reporting that over the past 24 hours, its forces, Hezbollah forces, and Iraqi militia groups launched 230 operations targeting U.S. interests and Israeli positions in the region. At this hour, things are quiet in Tehran, with the exception of numerous major squares where Iranians have gathered every night to show solidarity and support for Iranian forces. Throughout this conflict, many have been eager to see if or when anti-government protesters will show up in the streets four weeks into this conflict. We've either seen or heard any reports of any anti-government protests happening. What's the government there saying about

negotiations with the United States? Well, there's been so many conflicting and confusing statements coming from the White House regarding negotiations, Mr. Trump saying talks are happening. The Iranians are begging for an agreement. This week he said Iranians gave them a presence. So sometimes it's hard for Iranian officials to make sense of these statements. Statements from the Iranian officials here in Tefran seem to be more consistent and easy to figure out. What Iran's foreign minister Abbas Arafi confirms is that messages are being exchanged using intermediaries. Pakistan is playing a key role. He says Tehran has seen Washington's 15-point proposal.

Tehran has rejected the proposal and put forth its own proposal, demanding a guarantee for no more wars, reparations, and authority over the street of Hormuz. So both sides are making lofty demands, and it's not clear how they're going to bridge their huge gas, or if this exchange of messages is going to continue. What is clear is that as this war drags on, Iran seems to be getting more confident in believing that they've absorbed and survived the U.S. and Israeli blows, and they're at least projecting the message that they're in the driver's seat. But obviously, Washington is trying to do the same thing. Are there any concerns there about the possibility of a land invasion? Tehran says it's taking the threats of a land invasion seriously.

State media today quoted military officials. saying that they have long known that this was a possibility, and they've been preparing for it. And here's another sign that suggests Iran's confidence has grown. We're seeing bolder, more daring statements from Tehran. State media reported today, if a ground invasion happens, Iranian forces have a surprise in store for American troops, and the surprise won't be more missiles and drones. It'll be something else. Special correspondent Reza Seya in Tehran.

Thank you very much. Thank you. While President Trump talks about trying to make a deal with Iran to end the war, more U.S. troops are headed to the region. The 82nd Airborne Division's first combat brigade team has been ordered to deploy, and the Marine amphibious warship, the USS Tripoli, is expected to arrive in the Middle East in the coming days, along with other assets. So what new capabilities do these forces bring and how might they be used?

For that, we turn to two people with extensive military experience. Retired Army Colonel Joel Rayburn served in the first Trump administration on the national security staff, with a focus on Iran and the Middle East. He's now at the Hudson Institute. And retired Lieutenant Colonel Frederick Wary focused on the Middle East during his two decades in the Air Force. He's now at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Jack Rayburn, let me start with you. What new capabilities will the United States?

United States forces have with these new troops. Good to be with you. Well, the troops of the 82nd Airborne Division that are being deployed, that's part of the rapid deployment force that can deploy anywhere in the world with very short notice. The 82nd Airborne Division, the brigades and battalions of that division, are uniquely trained for forcible entry into contested territory. So they're the kind of troops that do rapid insertion, into, for example, strategic infrastructure like an airfield. If you think about the war in Grenada, back in the Reagan administration, it was the 82nd Airborne Division that seized the airfield on Grenada.

And they usually do that in order to pave the way for, open the way for follow on, more robust, heavier forces to come in after them. So that's an insertion force. The marine forces that are coming, there are two marine expeditionary units that are on their way, as part of amphibious ready groups. Those are the kind of forces that are trained and equipped to do amphibious assaults

onto islands, onto ports, or to seize vessels. So two very similar forces move rapidly, be able to seize key infrastructure quickly. Fred, anything you don't want to add to that? I agree. These are remarkable forces. They strike deep, they strike hard, their quick response forces. As was mentioned, they're designed to,

seize assets very quickly so that other forces can flow into a region as part of a larger assault force. They're not designed for longer duration operations. And they're also, I should add, you know, self-contained, especially the marine units. They have their own air support, their own armor, their own helicopters, and that makes them able to really go anywhere in the world and operate autonomously. Jack, how would you expect these troops to be used? Yeah, I think clearly what's happening here is that the president, Central Command, are moving these assets into the theater to signal that they have the option, they have the capability of seizing islands such as Karg Island or seizing potentially the islands that the Iranian regime uses in order to threaten the Strait of Hormuz. There are several islands closer to the Strait of Hormuz from which they traditionally have done that. Or also to provide supporting kind of seizure operations.

if there's a military forcing of the strait. So it really increases the president and central commands options. Karg Island, of course, is where about 90% of Iran's oil is processed, export oil. Brett, are these things a good idea, a good idea to do this? They're quite frankly fraught with risks. I mean, very obviously these forces could accomplish their tactical objectives. They could seize the island. They could destroy coastal missile batteries.

they could seize, you know, various sites along the Strait of Hormuz. But then the question is what next, right? And really, the question is, does that tactical advantage become a strategic liability? Because those forces are now exposed. We know that Iran has trained for this sort of scenario. There's a saying among military planners that the enemy always gets a vote, right? And so the Iranians may have multiple retaliation options against, these forces against staging areas, against the supply lines. The other big risk is that it will not

completely free the Strait of Hormuz, right? It will certainly degrade Iran's ability to disrupt the traffic coming in, but it won't solve the problem completely. And then I should also add, we've seen this before where there's an initial force, and because it doesn't achieve its strategic objectives, it may achieve its tactical objectives, those strategic objectives remain unobtained or unfulfilled, that requires more forces. You have to set up a buffer zone to protect those forces. And very quickly, you're in a situation of mission creep. Jack, what do you think of making the fact that these forces were not in the region when this war began? What does that tell you? I think it means these were an option. I mean, military planners

plan everything to the nth degree. I used to be one. I think Fred did too. You planned scenarios and branches and sequels to all of your base plans. I just think it just means this was an option that they maybe hoped not to have to employ, but they adapted to the situation. I think, look, as far as whether it's a good idea, it's a high-risk tactical operation, but the payoff is huge.

If there's a U.S. seizure of Karg Island, if there's a U.S. forcing the strait, militarily forcing the strait, sort of game over for Tehran at that point. They're pretty much, they're out of strategic military options. They've been quite degraded. We are the enemy that has gotten a vote in their game plan. They are off their game plan.

I don't think their commanding control is coherent enough to be able to adapt. I think our forces are inside their Oodaloup, if you will. So, as I say, tactical risk of that kind of operation is high. The payoff strategically would also be quite high. Joel, I apologize for calling you, Jack. Fred, are these trials? troops, do you think that they are leverage for negotiations or is the United States looking to change the trajectory of this war?

I think both could be at play. And I agree with Joel that, you know, the military has obviously fought through multiple scenarios. But I'm just very concerned that the, you know, the Iranians have thought this through before. And we don't know their strategic calculus. You sees a critical, you know, oil terminal like Hark. You could empower hardliners. you could really force the regime to dig in even deeper.

I don't think it's game over for them. I think they've got redundancy of it. They've got resilience. They could open conflict in another theater. They could engage proxies. So we don't know their retaliation options. I think they see this as a long game, right? I mean, you're talking about a generation of leadership

that weathered the Iran-Iraq war. This is very short-term for them, right? And so simply seizing these islands and these assets, I don't know if it's, I don't think it's going to change their strategic calculus about suddenly giving in to Trump's terms. Fred, I want to stay with you for a second. There's been a lot of talk about the rhetoric of the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth. He talked about no quarter, no mercy for our enemies. He said there would be no stupid rules of engagement.

Early this week, he prayed that every round find its mark against the enemies of righteousness. What do you make of this? Well, it's quite frankly shocking. it's irresponsible, strategically, reckless, ethically problematic on multiple fronts. I mean, look, the Constitution specifies a separation between religion and state, between church and state. And so public officials are not supposed to use their office to push a particular religious vision. And that's exactly what the secretary is doing with this, you know, very apocalyptic Christian nationalist vision. The second issue is the U.S. armed forces are very diverse.

you have men and women of diverse faiths or no faiths at all. And that's going to create frustration or alienation. It's not a good leadership strategy. You're not building inclusion. I mean, the other problem of framing this. We're running out of time, and I'd like to hear Joel's thoughts on us. Sorry. Yeah, sure, sure.

Yeah, I think Secretary Higgs-Seth is the Secretary at war. He's trying to explain to his forces who are engaged, why they're fighting. He's trying to inspire them. He's trying to show them confidence in the campaign. And I think he's also a little bit frustrated about the depiction of a campaign, which is a one-sided contest as being something other than that. Joel Rayburn and Fred Weary, thank you both very much. We start the day's other headlines in the nation's capital,

where pressure is mounting on Congress to end the Homeland Security funding fight. Senate Majority Leader John Thune says he's given Democrats what he called a last and final offer. Enough is enough. Republicans have bent over backward to negotiate with Democrats. And now Democrats need to get serious about funding the Department of Homeland Security. A vote to advance a bill to fund DHS was halted while senators discussed the latest Republican offer behind closed doors. Democrats have said the proposals so far don't do enough to put guardrails on immigration enforcement officers.

Meantime, airport chaos continues across the country as TSA agents are poised to miss another paycheck tomorrow. Nearly 500 officers have put the job altogether. Officials said TSA lines at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston took up to four hours and warned they could only get worse as the weekend approaches. Florida Democrat Sheila Sherfulis McCormick, who's been indicted for allegedly stealing millions in taxpayer money, faced a rare public ethics committee hearing in Congress today. The bipartisan panel, which hasn't held a public hearing against a sitting member of the House in more than 15 years,

began this investigation in 2023. Members questioned why they should delay their conclusion as she requests. And the American people are entitled to demand accountability of all of us when they're, if their elected representatives are without integrity. Sheriffillus McCormick's lawyer joined the case less than three weeks ago. The Congresswoman has denied any wrongdoing and has pleaded not guilty to the federal charges against her. The result of the ethics process could bring political consequences, including possibly getting expelled from the House. New York's LaGuardia Airport has reopened the runway that was the scene of this week's deadly collision of an Air Canada jet and a fire truck.

Crews hauled away the wreckage last night. The mangled plane was taken to a hangar for passengers to reclaim their belongings. The regional port authorities said clearing the runway will help one of the nation's busiest airports return to full operational capacity. Most of the roughly 40 people who were injured in the crash have been released from area hospitals. Federal judge says he will not dismiss the case against ousted Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro and his wife because of a dispute involving their lawyer's legal fees. Maduro's attorney said the U.S. government was violating his client's constitutional rights

by blocking the Venezuelan government from paying those fees. The judge said he'll rule on the issue soon. The deposed leader and his wife, Celia Flores, have pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking and weapons charges. President Trump said today that the Justice Department will bring other cases against Maduro, but did not elaborate. The International Olympic Committee has banned transgender women from competing, beginning with the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

This aligns the IOC with President Trump's executive order barring transgender athletes from women's college sports. Athletes wanting to compete in women's events will have to undergo a one-time genetic test. Today, only one openly transgender woman has competed at the Olympics, a weightlifter from New Zealand in 2021 who did not be. medal. On Wall Street today, stocks suffered their biggest loss since the beginning of the war with Iran. The Dow Jones Industrial leverage fell by more than 450 points or 1%. The NASDAQ plummeted by more than 2%, and the S&P 500 had its worst day since January. And as the men's and women's NCAA basketball tournaments continue tonight and tomorrow, there is only one perfect bracket left

among the 40 million entries tracked across all the major sites. It belongs to 14-year-old Otto Shellhammer, an eighth grader from the Pittsburgh area. In the ESPN Women's March Madness Challenge, he's correctly picked all of the 48 games played so far. There are no perfect men's brackets. What makes Otto's achievement all the more remarkable is that he says he knows basically nothing about basketball

and doesn't even watch the games. But now his mother says he'll be watching very intently. Still to come on the News Hour, how climate change has powered a heat wave that blanketed the West Coast. Germany debates whether to ban social media for children. And the newest umpires in Major League Baseball, robots. This is the PBS News Hour from the David M. Rubenstein Studio at WETA in Washington, headquarters of PBS News. A massive heat dome has been spreading across much of the United States with temperatures reaching historic highs. But it's not an isolated spike. In recent weeks, the country has grappled with a

series of extreme weather events. Ali Rogan has more for our periodic series tipping point. John, this heat is not just notable for nearly unprecedented early spring temperatures, but also for the amount of ground it's covering. Temperatures have been 20 to 40 degrees above normal in the Great Plains, and it's been moving east. Some cities are already seeing record-breaking streaks and the heat is expected to last into early April. That's because a high pressure system is acting like a lid, trapping hot air underneath and allowing temperatures to rise day by day. The Southwest registered triple digits, with temperatures reaching 101 degrees in New Mexico. Kansas also set a March record with 102 degrees twice in four days. For more on what we can

expect in the coming days, I'm joined by Bernadette Woods Placky, chief meteorologist at Climate Central Bernadette, thank you so much for being here. How unusual is it for us to see this type of heat in March? And has this ever happened before? This is wildly unusual. And no, it has not happened to this level before. I do think people are used to seeing temperatures spike 100 degrees in Phoenix and Las Vegas. That's usually May, June, July.

It's not in March. And how far has this heat spread in? the country so far? And what can we expect in the coming days? Sure. So there's a lot of ways to put together these numbers. In any way you look at them, they are breaking records like we've never seen before. One is we broke an all-time temperature record for March for the country. We also have had multiple states break their all-time March temperature record. We've seen hundreds of records a day happen over this past week. And when you break down the balance of record highs to record lows,

we took it back all the way to the beginning of the year, because remember, there were some cold stretches. But since the beginning of the year, 85% of our records have been warm or hot records, and only 15% have been cold records. So there's a lot of coverage in that early season cold. It's nothing compared to what we're experiencing right now. So you mentioned we're seeing record heat, record cold,

but why is it that we are seeing more record hot weather? than cold. Well, that's because of climate change. Now, one is the weather pattern. It's extraordinary for this time of year. It looks more like a weather pattern we'd see in July. But that weather pattern alone combined with the additional fossil fuel pollution we put into our atmosphere is why we're breaking records to this level.

One way you can look at that, right, is we understand the greenhouse effect. This is science that goes back to the 1800s that really isn't challenged. And we can measure those greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. and we know we're putting more of those into our atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels like oil, coal, and gas. So when you thicken that blanket around our atmosphere, it traps more heat. The most obvious and direct way that we experience

that extra warming on our planet is through extra hot days. And now we have been experiencing these heat domes for the last 10 years they've been on the rise. What makes them different, though, from just other types of early spring warm weather? Well, we've had heat domes before. We've had them this time of year before. But what happens underneath those, when you add those extra greenhouse gas in the atmosphere,

it allows our temperatures to go to levels we've never experienced. That's the big difference right now is that every time we're using the word unprecedented or record. And it feels like it's getting a little old to some people, but it's happening that frequently right now, that we're pushing record highs to this level. This hot weather is also having implications for things like snowpack and water resources out west. How is this going to affect communities not just in the present, but in the months to come? This is a really important part of this conversation because the West as a whole has been really low on its amount of snow this year. And you've got to remember, that's water.

That's water for the warmer months. That's how we water our plants and our crops. That's also our water resources. So on April 1st, this is a really big day out west where we take these measurements across many different areas in the mountains and get an assessment of where that snowpack is for the year as we head into these warmer months. We are so low. We're record lows.

And it really varies from state to state. But it's not only that it's record low, this March heat has forced melting earlier than usual. So we're not going to have that water in the same ways at the times that we need it. And then that really ups our risk for wildfire. The weather just seems to get worse and worse every year, but it's not just extreme heat. It's also things like flooding in Hawaii, rare snow, in Alabama, shifting temperatures in the northeast. What else can we expect in terms of extreme weather for the rest of this year? Well, it's interesting to look at this as a full pattern.

One thing we do know is that we are shifting into what's called an El Nino year. And there has been discussions of this in the past, and people have followed along. But what happens during El Nino years is we get this extra boost of heat in the water that translates into our atmosphere, and it usually pushes our temperatures overall for the planet higher. So that is one thing. And then that shifts our weather patterns a little bit more. But what we also know is that when you add more heat to this atmosphere, it's like a boiling pot of water, right? And so things get more turbulent.

And when we have more rain events, when they do actually trigger, there's more precipitation for them to come. down. And when we get these heat events, it pushes to higher levels. And that's what we're experiencing right now. And that will continue. In the 40 seconds we have left, I want to ask you about these floods in Hawaii that seemed to be really unusual. What can you attribute that to? Well, one way we've looked at that is the water temperatures. These are islands. And the storms are coming off of the water. And the water around the islands right now is higher than usual. And there is a climate change fingerprint in that also. And we can look at that through what we call attribution science.

And we can tease out that role of climate change in those water temperatures. So it's adding more fuel and more moisture for these storms. So it's adding an extra little boost to the already wet pattern that was setting up. Bernadette Woods-Placky with Climate Central. Thank you so much for joining us. Thanks for having me. The debate over social media use by teens is raging on. In the United States, tech giants meta and Google were just handed back-to-back losses in lawsuits against them in New Mexico and California.

Overseas, Germany is looking to ban social media, or at least make it harder to access, for young people, something Australia did last year. From Berlin, special correspondent Malcolm Brabant reports. These bright young students in a top Berlin high school reach for their smartphones as soon as there's a break in less. They head straight to social media sites that might soon be outlawed if Germany's governing party has its way. This 21st century version of prohibition is a timely subject for the English class of teacher Dala Sheikh. What did you learn? What are strong arguments in favor and strong arguments in opposition of a social media ban? What do you feel like? I often see girls that look perfect and sometimes I think, yeah, I would love to look like them or they look like they have features I don't have and stuff like that.

So yeah, I kind of compare myself. Some people can feel like depressed because they don't have such a perfect life or self-gal life. Even I know how bad and how they affect my mental health and how much you can feel. time they take away from things that are more important in my life. Experts say these experiences are just the tip of a more sinister psychological iceberg. People younger than 13 years old, they should not be on social media. Their brain, their ability, their resilience, their ability to deal with the content and the functionality is just not in place yet.

And therefore, they shouldn't be on social media. Professor Ralph Haervig is a psychologist who specializes in human judgment. and decision-making. He's a leading advocate for a ban. Think about this endless scrolling, for instance, but also the content, if you think about pornography, if you think about violence, cruelty, hate, etc., then this comes at a point where there are critical developmental windows for the developing brain. And we have to think about, and there is increasing evidence, that there is a negative

association between social media use on the one hand and the psychological healthness of young people. Those sentiments align with the stance of Germany's governing party, the Christian Democrats. Chancellor Friedrich Meertz led the calls for a social media ban for the under 14s, who, on average, spend five and a half hours online each day. Do we want to allow our society to be disintegrated internally, and in this way our youth, our children are endangered? We have to deal with this question because it is the enemies of our freedom, the enemies of our democracy, the enemies of an open and free liberal society who are undertaking this. But education professor Nina Collick doubts that a ban will solve the problem. If we ban it, we even make it more.

more attractive and probably when they are 16, they will even show more addictive behavior when they use it. If we want to solve the problem, we have to ban the algorithms which are so harmful and we have to introduce digital literacy. So just how effective are social media bans? Australia was the first country to enforce an age limit and its latest data suggests that social media companies have been forced to close down. 4.7 million accounts belonging to teenagers.

Nevertheless, it's estimated that 20% of Australian adolescents still manage to access forbidden sites like TikTok and Snapchat. Big tech companies oppose governmental bans on social media for teenagers. They argue that such restrictions are difficult to implement and risk pushing adolescents towards less regulated, more dangerous content. Smartphones they distract us. Smart phones have apps that are very addictive, and so smartphones poison our individual life,

and furthermore, smartphones poison our society. Anti-social media activist Beno Fluegel claims that his campaign against the big tech behemouths is gaining traction in Germany. I'm aware that I'm in a small minority, but I think smartphones will have a similar career like smoking. As years went by, there was more evidence that smoking is actually very harmful.

I think we see the same development with social media right now. You see the rise in depression, you see the rise in anxiety, reading skills of school children are deteriorating. And I think the more evidence we get over the years, the more people will see that our position is actually right. Okay, so my pros are social media as harming children and teenagers. Teenes using social media three hours per daily We have higher risk of anxiety and depression.

Dahlia Shake has only been teaching for two years, but in that time, she's noticed some alarming trends. I can see that the children compare themselves to each other, and I do feel like depression is on the up. There's a lot of children that deal with that, but also comparing themselves to unrealistic body types. There's a lot of body dysmorphia going around. I have a lot of students who are bulimic, actually.

And where do the students stand? Leading the opposition is Elias, who admits to watching TikTok for two to three hours a day. I'm against getting such a media ban because it's something to do in your free time and because you also get information that you don't get at school. And no, I don't think it's harmful to me because I'm still getting good grades, and that's why I wouldn't be able to say anything about it.

If something is banned or you can't use it, like it's forbidden, then it's like more interesting. Like, I don't know how to say it, but it's like something is banned, and then I want it even more. I think that it would be good to ban it, to ban social media as well. But I feel like it is definitely up to the parents and not the government to enforce the span. Germany's coalition government has yet to draft the relevant legislation.

In the meantime, education experts say it's imperative that schools teach students how to become more resilient to social media pressure. For the PBS News Hour, I'm Malcolm Brabant in Berlin. New York has become the 13th state along with Washington, D.C., to legalize medically assisted suicide. More than a dozen other states are. are also considering legalizing the practice, which supporters call medical aid in dying. Stephanie Syde traveled to both coasts to re-examine an issue that for decades has divided

Americans along moral and political lines. I have a brain tumor in my right front of the lobe. Delashment envisions a celebration for the day he dies. We're going to have a fire going that day, I'll have my little guitar over there and pick it up and strumble a little bit. My sister's going to be here. My son's going to be here. There'll be people here. And I don't want it to be a sad day. I just, I just want it to be a day, you know. The Portland, Oregon resident says he's planning to take a lethal dose of medication on April 1st. Why did you choose April 1st? April 1st. Um, no greater fool am I, says I. So I thought that would be perfect. He was diagnosed with stage four prostate cancer in 2017.

Now 67 years old, he's undergone near constant chemotherapy and more than 50 radiation treatments. He had a compelling reason to fight. I have a granddaughter and she was three at the time. And you've had almost a decade with her. Yeah, and I see her every Wednesday, so, and I have since she was three months old. But tumors have now spread to his brain and spine, and he's worried they'll lead to a grueling death. It's funny, everybody says, you know, you're so brave. And it's like, no, I'm being, I'm not brave. Because if I was brave, I would die painfully. So, you know, I would rather not die painfully.

Dill Ashman meets the requirements of Oregon's death with dignity law. Since 1997, the option has been available to adults. who have a medical prognosis of six months or less to live from at least two doctors and are deemed mentally competent. They must also be able to take the drugs themselves. Remember there's no pressure to ever take the medication. Totally your choice. Dr. Charles Blanky wrote the prescription for Delashment. Blanky was one of the first physicians in the U.S. to practice medical aid in dying.

An oncologist by training, he says demand has grown. More and more of my patients seem to want this option. And I probably write between 100 and 150 prescriptions per year. Acceptance for legalizing, what's also known as medically assisted suicide has been rising steadily in the U.S. Polling in recent years has shown that more than 70 percent of Americans support it. The idea of authoring the end of your own life is becoming less and less taboo. Anita Hanig is a cultural anthropologist and the author of The Day I Die, the untold story of assisted dying in America. Medical aid in dying is actually increasingly being seen as a medical treatment, that some, and we're talking about a very small subset of the population, choose to avail themselves off when they reach the end of their life and they have a terminal condition.

Since Oregon became the first state to allow assisted dying nearly 30 years ago, 12 more states in Washington, D.C. have passed similar laws. Roughly 13,000 Americans have used medical aid in dying, according to a nonprofit that tracks this data. Who am I to deny you or your loved one, what they're begging for at the end of their life. New York just approved legalization last month, reigniting opposition from longtime opponents, including the Catholic Church. So since the beginning of Christianity, it was very clear that God gives life only God can take life away. Father Peter Clark is the director of the Institute of Clinical Bioethics at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia. He says even the phrase medical aid in dying

is misleading. You're committing suicide. Medical aid and dying sounds very different. It sounds like, you know, the doctors are helping you in the last stages of death and dying, but the help is intentionally terminating you. So, I mean, you can play semantics all. You're want it. It's still the same thing. But Clark says the Catholic Church is not against taking someone off of a ventilator or removing a pacemaker, and he believes more options could be offered to make patients suffer less at the end of life. People are going to die needlessly. It's a perspective that 80-year-old Delaware resident and disability rights advocate Denise McMullen Powell shares. I am shocked. Society is so accepting of this. And, and, and,

And their assumption of what suffering is by offering you death instead of better health care, instead of a better life. McMullen Powell had polio as a child, which has left her with long-term disabilities. She's joined a lawsuit against the state of Delaware, which passed a medical aid in dying law last year. Among other concerns, she fears that people with disabilities will cut their lives short to spare their families the expense of their care. For them to have that option puts pressure on people with disabilities and makes us feel an obligation to die. Opponents have assisted dying also often point to other countries as a warning, including Canada, where next year people whose sole underlying condition is a mental health disorder will become eligible. There's a slippery slope. I mean, if you allow for this, what comes next?

I mean, look at the Netherlands, look at Luxembourg, look at Belgium, look at Switzerland. They now allow people who are mentally ill to do this. Oregon has had these laws in place for decades and they have not gone down the slippery slope. Correct, because, but that's not to say we can. So, I mean, you know, it may not have happened in Oregon, but it's our closest neighbor. Canada is allowing for it. You know, the church is very concerned that that could come next here. Researcher, Anita Hanig, doesn't see the U.S. going down.

that road. Among all the jurisdictions that have legalized assisted dying, the U.S. model is actually the most restrictive. And the gains that have been made in this country are hard one. And today, I would say very few advocates of these laws are willing to push the envelope on them for fear of losing them altogether. There have been a whole host of reasons put forward by opponents to death with dignity. They believe that this is harming the patient. I feel the situation is the opposite. Dr. Charles Blanky says he sees people suffering in ways that can't be relieved. What my patients want, for the most part, is control. They cannot control their life at all. They can't control their cancer. But I can, because of these drugs, offer them essentially

100% control over their death, pretty much when and certainly how. And I can say that it's going to happen without suffering. When we met Del Dahlashman, he was preparing to pick up his prescription and trying to make the most of the time he has left. He took one last trip to the beach on Oregon's coast, wrote love letters to the people he'll leave behind. We had so much fun. We did. And pulled out old photos.

Are you scared? There's a part of me that's scared. But there's a part of me that something profound is going to happen to me on April 1st. Is there anything that would change your mind at this point? No. No. Because I want to go as me, you know, the guy that can smile and laugh and joke a little

bit, you know, rather than be a pile of pain. Whereas this way, you know, there's a good chance that I may be having a good day, you know. and they can see me like that. For the PBS News Hour, I'm Stephanie Sy. We've had our first ABS challenge, ABS powered by Team Mobile, and a call that was a strike. A little sinker up and in. Has been confirmed.

That was a bit of baseball history being made last night in San Francisco. The first regular season challenge using Major League Baseball's new ABS system, that's automated ball strike. In every Major League ballpark now, new camera technology will track the precise location of pitches. Teams can challenge up to two baller strike calls made by an umpire and a nine-ending game. It's the start of a new era, so on this opening day, let's bring in Dan Evans, a former general manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

He's also had key roles with four other teams most recently as a scout for the Toronto Blue Jays. So, Dan, help us understand us. Give us the ABCs of ABS here. How does this work? Who can make a challenge and when? First of all, John, just what we need in our life, another acronym that we have to look up the first time.

For the fans, the key thing is the game is trying to get it right and working on getting it right as well as possible. What this does is twice a game, a batter, catcher, or pitcher can ask within two seconds of a pitcher for a clarification is the call overruled or does it stand? There's going to be real alacrity to this. And I think the key to know for the fans is that a manager, a coach, someone in the ballpark can't really influence the batter,

the catcher, or the pitcher to ask for the appeal. It's only those three. Don't you think some managers are going to figure out a sign to get one of those three to make a call? I wouldn't be surprised, but I think there'll be penalties. What we've already learned, John, is the pitchers and the catchers, actually the catchers and the pitchers are better at this than the hitters are. So there's already a little bit of peeling behind the curtain with a brand new rule. You know, all this brings up the question, the age-old question of what is the strike zone?

I think over the years, a lot of players have said that umpires, it can vary from umpire to umpire. personal strike zones. What does the ABS system say is the strike zone? Well, you're a fan, you know, John, that there were hundreds of different interpretations at the Little League level all the way up. Now they're using a percentile of the player's height for the top and for the bottom of the zone. I have the numbers nearby because they don't just roll off my tongue, but 55.6 percent of the batter's height, and 24.2% of the batter's height are used as the top and the bottom of the zone. So if you crouch, if you get into an exaggerated stance like a Rose or a Ricky Henderson, it could adversely affect you. But in reality, what we have is every player should be consistently called by the ABS system.

Now, this system's been used in spring training for the last two years and in the minor league since I think 2022. What have players been saying about it? Every player in the big leagues who's played in the minor leagues is played under this situation in their career. So it's not going to be real new, just like the pitch clock. The Atlantic League started it in 2019 as an experiment for Major League Baseball. This has been seven or eight years in the works, John. As a result, many of the bugs are out. The players understand it.

The fans have been overwhelmingly in favor of it almost to an 80 percentile rule. I think what they've done from a competition committee down is they've done a good job tweaking it, making changes that identify the problems that they had. I think the fans will benefit, the game will benefit, but I think the biggest thing we'll see is we'll see a comprehensive plan for people to use this system as a strategic move in the first eight innings and then in the ninth inning. You mentioned the two challenges. I don't think very many people will use their second challenge before a key segment of the late part of the game. Well, what has experience taught us or what do we know from it being used in the minors in spring training? How often are calls overturned and when do they use?

When are, is it tend to be used? Around 50% of the calls are overturned. So, you know, what you believe to be a strike is probably a better chance of being a strike if you're the catcher, a lesser chance if you're the pitcher, and a much less chance if you're a hitter. John, what we've learned is the pitchers and catchers are right about 60% of the time. hitters are right 45% of the time. That's a real big difference

in decision making. And I think what you'll see is managers put a throttle on some of the players on their teams and ask their pitchers to not be the point person and try to channel their energy into the catcher, let the catcher

make the decision. I think it's going to be a fascinating thing to watch in the really the first month of the season as people orient towards it. And I think it's going to be seamless. What we have really learned, too, is it doesn't add to the length of the game, simply because they've been doing it long enough. The guys know how to use it. And the umpires and the Piedbillan stadium are also very good at it too. In the long run, do you see a day coming where this is the way they call balls and strikes that the home plate umpire will no longer call balls and strikes?

No, I sure hope not. And I think all the people that are decision makers in the game hope not to. I think this is a happy medium between the way the game's been umpired since the 1800s to a point now where it could be full ABS. I think this is the compromise and I think it's a good one. Umpires are such a great fabric of the game. They love the game just as much as you do at home. And I think the important thing for them is we have found out, they're right far more than they're wrong.

We saw that in replay, and now we're already seeing it in the ABS. I think what we have here is a happy medium that works for everybody involved. Former baseball executive Dan Evans. Thank you very much. Thanks, John. And that is The NewsHour for this Thursday.

I'm John Yang. For all of us here at PBS NewsHour, thanks. See you soon.