PBS News Hour - Full Show - May 11, 2026 - PBS News Hour full episode

Episode Date: May 12, 2026

Monday on the News Hour, President Trump says the ceasefire with Iran is on "life support" after he rejected Iran's latest peace proposal. American passengers who were on the cruise ship hit with hantavirus arrive back in the U.S., facing strict quarantine. Plus, scientists in Jamaica use innovative sound technology to help revive coral reefs devastated by climate change. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy

Good evening. I'm Amna Nawaz. And I'm Jeff Bennett. On the news hour tonight, President Trump says the ceasefire with Iran is on life support after he rejects Iran's latest peace proposal. Passengers who were on the cruise ship hit with haunt of virus arrive back in the U.S. facing strict quarantine. And scientists in Jamaica use innovative sound technology to help revive coral reefs devastated by climate change. If a reef is alive with sound, it's most likely to stay alive. life, right, and repopulate. And when reefs degrades, they grow silent. Welcome to the News Hour. The U.S. and Iran are at an impasse once again in the talks to end more than two months of war. President Trump says the ceasefire is, in his words, on life support

after Tehran's latest offer did not include nuclear concessions. This afternoon, the administration announced a new round of sanctions against Iran, and Mr. Trump said he would meet with his top military commanders today to discuss next steps. All of this comes just days ahead of a critical meeting with China, one of Iran's closest allies. Our White House correspondent Liz Landers begins our coverage. On Iranian state television today, messages of defiance. Broadcasters claim to show shipping in the street of Hormuz still at a grinding halt, while talks to end the war between the United States and Iran have also once again come to a standstill.

After waiting almost a week for Iran to respond to the U.S. his demands, President Trump said he rejected their latest offer outright and said today that his patience was wearing thin. I would say the ceasefire is on massive life support. It's unbelievably weak. I would say I would go it the weakest right now after reading a piece of garbage they sent us. I didn't even finish reading it.

President Trump claimed that Iran had agreed to let the United States take its highly enriched uranium as part of nuclear concessions. He said Tehran went back on that promise. They sent us this document that we waited four days for that should have taken 10 minutes to do. Look, it's very simple. We get that. They guarantee no nuclear weapons for a very long period of time and a couple of other minor things, but they just can't get there.

So they agree with us and then they take it back. Iran has remained defiant, defending the far-reaching demands in its latest proposal. They included asking the U.S. to recognize its sovereignty and control. over the Strait of Hormuz. Before the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran, the international waterway was free and open to all ships. And Iran demanded ending the war on all fronts, including Israel's war against Hezbollah and Lebanon, and a lifting of international sanctions, pushing all talk about Iran's nuclear program until a later time. The foreign ministry called those terms both reasonable and generous. Whenever necessary, we will fight.

And we don't care if others are happy or not. Diplomatic processes have their own rules. The Islamic Republic of Iran has shown that it's serious in pursuing its national interests and inalienable rights. President Trump said he would meet with top generals today to discuss ways to break the logjam. His energy secretary, Chris Wright, alluded this weekend to possibly restarting military operations. If it's clear in the next few days that there's not a good path to a negotiated settlement, We'll go back to the military method to open the straight.

The threat of returning to war sets the stage for President Trump's trip to China in the coming days for a high-stakes meeting with President Xi Jinping. China is a key ally of Iran and a major economic partner. They're the biggest buyer of Iranian crude oil. The senior administration officials said they expect Mr. Trump to continue his discussion with Xi about their financial support of Iran's regime. It's a small percentage, but it's still money. Back here at home, the president is trying more ways to take the pressure off of Americans paying higher prices at the pump. As Brent crude oil rose back above $100 a barrel today, Trump promised to temporarily pause the 18-cent federal gas tax, though he'd need Congress's approval to do so.

All this comes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told CBS's 60 minutes last night, he didn't think the war was nearly over. I think it accomplished a great deal, but it's not over because there's still nuclear material, enriched uranium that has to be taken out of Iran. There is still enrichment sites that have to be dismantled. There are still proxies that Iran supports. There are ballistic missiles that they still want to produce. Now, we've degraded a lot of it, but all of that is still there, and there's work to be done. There's no pressure.

There's no pressure at all. we're going to have a complete victory. Hints of a lengthier war that President Trump appeared to echo today. For the PBS News Hour, I'm Liz Landers. For a perspective on the state of the conflict with Iran, we turn now to Robert Kagan, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a contributing writer for the Atlantic. Welcome to the News Hour. Thanks for joining us. Thank you.

So for context here, just so folks know who we're hearing from, I want to point out you were co-founder of a neo-conservative think tank. You advocated for years for U.S. intervention in Iraq, so you're not averse to U.S. intervention abroad. But I want to point people to what you wrote in the Atlantic in your latest piece about Iran. You said this conflict has revealed in America that is unreliable and incapable of finishing what it started. Defeat for the United States, therefore, is not only possible, but likely. Why are you so sure of that defeat? Well, I just don't see what options Donald Trump has.

or is willing to undertake in order to open up the strait. And if Iran ends this conflict, as it currently is, in control of the strait, it really completely changes the situation in the Gulf. It puts Iran in the driver's seat. It gives Iran enormous leverage not only in dealing with the United States, but in dealing with the rest of the world. If Iran can charge tolls, if Iran determines who gets in and out of the strait and when, that's just enormous power.

And in fact, I think it's even more power than they would have if they were able to develop a nuclear weapon. And I don't see what option Trump has to solve this problem because, you know, they bombed Iran very effectively for 37 days. They took out the entire leadership. And yet Iran has never made a concession. And they've never, the administration never been able to do anything to open the strait. So I think the option that would be necessary would be a full-scale invasion of Iran if you really wanted to remove the regime and open the strait. I don't think Donald Trump or the American people want to do that. So when you hear the Israeli Prime Minister, for example, say the war is not over,

you hear the president and his cabinet repeatedly not rule out military action to reopen that street. What else do you think could be achieved militarily by the U.S. and Israel right now? Well, as I say, it's not clear to me what. You know, the United States does not have the capacity without a fundamental change on the ground in Iran. I believe to open the strait. Iran will be able to fire at it from all kinds of distances. And, you know, the United States can't possibly protect every ship in the strait with what it has. So I think it takes much more. I think, by the way, I'm not surprised that Bibi Netanyahu is saying this.

I think this war has the potential of ending in a very disastrous way for Israel, precisely because the leverage in the region and the influence in the region is going to shift away from the United States in Israel and toward Iran and its supporters. Let me bring you back to where we are now with hoping, or President Trump saying there could be concessions from Iran or some ceasefire moving forward. President Trump likes to talk about who holds the cards in these negotiations, right? He's repeatedly measures that the U.S. could resume some kind of bombing campaign. As you mentioned, that was very effective in the early days of the war.

In your view, is that threat of a continued military campaign? Is that enough to incentivize Iranians to make? some kind of concessions? Well, clearly the answer is no. I mean, the proposal that the Iranians just sent back, you know, in response to the negotiations, I would say, was a slap in Trump's face. I don't blame him for not wanting to take it. They're basically asking the United States to pay war reparations and lift sanctions

and allow the Iran formally to control the straits. So that is not the response that comes from a nation that's a foreign afraid of further attacks. I would say if you just look at the situation objectively right now, the nation that is more afraid of starting the war up again is the United States, not Iran. And Trump has shown, you know, despite all his big threats about destroying Iranian civilization, even when Iran violated the ceasefire by attacking American ships, Trump only responded by going after where the attack was coming from. He did not launch any larger attack on Iran. So it's not inconsistent. that Trump could order military action again,

but I don't think the Iranians believe, A, that he actually is going to, or B, that it would be effective if he does. You said now the defeat for the U.S. is likely. America, as you know, in history, does not say that it has lost wars. It hasn't said that in Vietnam or Afghanistan or anywhere else. What, in your view, is the best possible option for the United States right now? Well, you know, there is no good option. I don't, you know, again, and I'm not,

advocating this, but I think the only military solution would have to be a land invasion that removes the Iranian regime from power. And since I don't think the United States is going to undertake that, I don't really know what the answer is. Sometimes there isn't an answer. There doesn't have to be a solution. In fact, one of the things that I'm suggesting in the article is Americans are not, all these other defeats that you mentioned, the United States was actually able to, they didn't have that much impact on the global strategic situation. In some cases, the United States was able to undo and the damage. I'm just not seeing here how the damage can be undone, absent the kind of war that I don't think we want to fight right now. When you talk about the damage outside of the

region for the United States and the place it holds in the world, what are you talking about there? Well, first of all, this is all taking place in the context of the Trump administration destroying all our alliances around the world. We've effectively destroyed the NATO alliance. Trump has made clear that he's not interested in supporting our European allies, and therefore our European allies are going in a different direction. I think that we're going to see the same thing in East Asia, if we're not already seeing it. The Japanese and the Koreans are paying an enormous price. They're almost entirely dependent on this energy supply, and they're going to have to start figuring out how to look out for themselves. So there is a big general global breakdown, but specifically

in the case of the Gulf, the United States used to be hegemonic in the Gulf, and a lot of nations depended on the United States being supreme in the region and capable of enforcing a general peace. The United States has now demonstrated not only that it cannot, but that it can't be really trusted to make sound strategic judgments. So I think even the countries of the Gulf, which have been dependent on the United States, are going to have to look elsewhere. And so the net result is a real diminishing of American global influence and unmistakably the increase in influence of change. China, first and foremost, but also Russia. They are the biggest beneficiaries, to some extent, other than Iran, of the war so far. And I say that in full consciousness of the fact that Iran has suffered terribly.

But even so, it can emerge from this war and I think is going to emerge from this war stronger than before the war began. That is Robert Kagan with the Brookings Institution joining us tonight. Thank you so much for your time. We appreciate it. Thank you. In the day's other headlines, the U.S. Supreme Court is extending access to the widely used abortion pill Mitha Pristone until at least Thursday. The pause gives the justices more time to consider an emergency request to halt a lower court ruling that would restrict access to the drug. Justice Samuel Alito had issued an initial halt last week that was due to expire tonight.

Today's administrative stay means that health care providers can still prescribe Mitha Pristone via telemedicine and deliver it through. the mail. The man accused of attempting to assassinate President Trump at last month's White House Correspondents' dinner pleaded not guilty today. Cole Thomas Allen did not speak during a brief hearing in federal court. His lawyers entered a plea on his behalf. They also asked that acting attorney general Todd Blanche and U.S. Attorney for D.C., Janine Piro, be barred from the case, arguing their presence at the dinner creates a potential conflict of interest since they could be considered witnesses or victims. faces four counts stemming from the attack.

He's due back in court next month. Turning overseas now, a three-day ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine expires today with both sides accusing the other of violating the U.S. brokered pause. Russia says Ukraine has broken the truce more than 1,000 times. Meantime, Ukrainian authorities said today

that Russian attacks have hit parts of the Harkiv and Hercosn regions, killing at least two people. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says his country is bracing for more violence to come. Today there was no silence on the front line. Combat actions have continued. We have documented all of this.

We also see that Russia has no intention of ending this war. And we are, unfortunately, preparing for new attacks. The ceasefire was announced last week by President Trump to allow Russia time to hold Victory Day celebrations, marking the anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany. In his remarks this weekend, President Vladimir Putin vowed that Russia would prevail on the battlefield. He later told reporters that the conflict is, in his words, coming to an end, though neither side has shown a willingness to give ground when it comes negotiations.

Venezuela's acting president is pushing back against comments by President Trump about her country becoming the 51st U.S. state. Mr. Trump told Fox News today that he is, quote, seriously considering the possibility. In response, Delci Rodriguez told reporters during a visit to the Hague today that Venezuela is not a colony but a free country, and that Venezuelan and U.S. officials are working on what she called cooperation and understanding. Rodriguez assumed power earlier this year after a U.S. military operation ousted then-President Nicolas Maduro.

In Texas, medical officials believed that heat stroke was to blame for the deaths of six people whose bodies were found inside a shipping container this weekend. It happened at a rail yard in Laredo near the U.S.-Mexico border. Police believe the five men and one woman were immigrants from Mexico and Honduras based on their cell phone data and ID cards. They were discovered during an inspection on Sunday when temperatures exceeded 90 degrees. Laredo is a busy trading port and a hub for illegal immigration, though authorities have not said that this was related to a smuggling operation. On Wall Street today, stocks inched higher despite the latest rise in oil prices. Jones Industrial average added 95 points to start the week.

The NASDAQ tacked on nearly 30 points. The SMP 500 also managed a slight gain. And Abraham Foxman has died. As director of the Anti-Defamation League for nearly three decades, Foxman was a tireless advocate for American Jews. He also counseled some of the world's most influential people. And he would publicly call out anti-Semitic remarks or actions while also leaving room for apology,

as he recounted during his retirement speech back in 2015. Some of my most satisfying moments as director of the ADL when witnessing people who did bad things and said vile things, turn around and become better people. The ADL said that it deeply mourns the loss of its longtime director but did not provide a cause of death. Abe Foxman was 86 years old. Still to come on the news hour,

a lawsuit seeks to stop President Trump's reflecting pool project as the costs grow. Tamara Keith and Amy Walter break down the latest political headlines. And a new exhibit showcases a Japanese artist's modern take on ancient folklore. This is the PBS News Hour

from the David M. Rubinstein studio at WETA in Washington, headquarters of PBS News. The House and Senate returned to session this week, with deadlines looming on everything from DHS funding and a farm bill to an almost expired national security and foreign intelligence.

law. Our congressional correspondent, Lisa Desjardin, joins us now with more on Congress's long-to-do list. Lisa, bring us up to speed. Two weeks ago, Congress managed to pass a bill that would fund and open DHS, most of DHS. As part of the deal, they left ICE and Border Patrol out. How Republicans handling that now? These next two weeks are critical for those sub-agency's. First of all, remind people that both of those agencies, ICE and Border Patrol, got a windfall, at one-time windfall last summer. They've been living off of that. But it's their usually annual appropriations that they have not gotten one cent of yet. Democrats blocked that because of what we showed in videos

and also their concerns over conduct in general across the country, how Americans killed and also being treated in ICE custody. Now, what's happened now is that Republicans are trying to go around Democrats using a special budget procedure called reconciliation. It only needs 50 votes in the Senate. Here's what they are proposing to pass. First of all, $38 billion for ICE, more than $25 billion. for Customs and Border Protection. Those are large sums. It would be three years worth of beefed-up funding.

The bill is expected to hit the Senate floor as soon as next week. But the politics are already hitting now because funding three years, that's very unusual. And in addition, there are billions of other dollars in this, including $1 billion to fund security for the president's ballroom. And that money for the ballroom we saw generate headlines just like last week. What's your reporting on how lawmakers are seeing that? This has really dominated conversation among Republicans on the hill behind the scenes. Talking to my sources, there is confusion at best and very high frustration at worst. I think this money right now is really on the edge of coming out of this bill. One congressional source told me the White House has to sell this money.

They're not exactly sure what the billion dollars would be for, and they're not sure if Trump wants it. But we know he wants something because he said so to our own reporter, Liz Landers. Here's what he told her in a phone call last week. He said, all they're doing is financing some security, and it's not a billion dollars. It's just a few what's needed for security. So let's look at the legislation, though. It clearly is calling for $1 billion in numbers available for three years to support the East Wing. That is clearly the ballroom omna, but there are no specifics on exactly why a billion dollars would be needed.

It is a huge amount of money. The U.S. Secret Service's entire annual budget is $3.5 billion. So this is a large chunk of that. We may know more tomorrow. The head of Secret Service has been asked to speak to Senate Republicans behind closed doors at their lunch. Meanwhile, the clock is ticking on several other issues in Congress. What else is on your radar and should be on ours? There's a lot.

It's hard to pick just a couple, as you can imagine. But first of all, we do expect an important nomination to be confirmed this week. That is of Kevin Warsh. He is the nominee to be the head of the Federal Reserve. He is expected to be confirmed this week and step into what will be one of the most powerful jobs, honestly, on the face of this planet. We're also watching the Farm Bill. That's something that is particular to politics, but also has enormous policy implications

from nutrition to farm policy. A lot of our farmers going through a lot of stress, especially in the last couple of years, but we're also watching what it means for ethanol, some important votes on that this week. And finally, key powers in FISA. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. That runs out in a month. That seems like a long time. Congress has punted it, but it's not because, of course,

Congress will have a one-week recess in the middle, and we know it is hard for them to make decisions on this controversial bill, so we're watching that closely. Busy week for you. We'll see you back here soon. Lisa Dejo, Dan. The ship at the epicenter of the hauntabirus outbreak has been evacuated on Spain's Canary Islands.

16 Americans have now been transported to a specialized quarantine unit in Omaha, Nebraska. Two are at a similar unit at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. Health officials confirm that one American and one French national aboard the ship have tested positive for the virus, and another U.S. passenger is showing mild symptoms. So far, the virus has claimed the lives of three people, including a Dutch couple and a German citizen. Our William Brangham gets answers now to the latest questions. Jeff, 16 Americans will remain under observation for up to 10.

six weeks at a special medical facility at the University of Nebraska Medical Center that has a biocontainment unit. U.S. health officials today explained why this location was chosen. It is designed to house a large group of patients or passengers from a plane or a ship like what we have now, to monitor and assess them. If they get symptomatic, become sick, they can be moved into the into the biocontainment system and have a higher level of care. Right now, they're just being monitored and assessed. Six U.S. states are now monitoring residents connected to the cruise ship as other evacuated passengers return to their homes.

So to learn more about this virus and what we can expect, we are joined again by Dr. Ashish Jha. He's with the Belfour Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard's Kennedy School, and previously was the White House COVID-19 response coordinator during the Biden administration. Dr. Jha, always great to have you back. With regards to this, international and American health officials keep telling us that the risk to the public remains very low. But we did see, with this particular strain of this virus, that it was spreading from human to human. And there are some reports that it may not even take close to. contact with an infected person to get infected yourself. So given all of that, how worried should

people be about this circumstance? So, William, first of all, thanks for having me back. Look, first and foremost, I think it's important to understand this is not COVID. No matter how this virus plays out, its transmissibility is going to be very different than COVID. I don't see a large global pandemic coming out of this. That said, I think there are a couple of other important points. One is this is not a virus we know a ton about this. Yes, it's been around for a long time, but the Andes strain that is causing this outbreak has only had outbreaks a few times. So we're still learning a lot about this virus. There is evidence, as you suggested, that it is potentially a little easier to spread than has been traditionally taught in the textbooks. And right now,

we have to pay very close attention to that and do everything we can to bring this outbreak under control so it doesn't become a bigger problem. So these Americans are now being, transported to this center in Nebraska. Does that seem like an appropriate move to you? And does. I mean, UNMC, the University of Nebraska Medical Center is one of the best places in the country. I'd argue in the world for this kind of work. It was designed for it. So I think that is an excellent place for these individuals to be. I think the next big question is, will they stay there for the entire quarantine period? I've heard reports that some of them might be allowed to go home. I think that would not be a good idea. As long as they can stay

at UNMC for their entire quarantine period, I think that would be a very smart and prudent move. I mean, given what you were saying before about what we do and do not know about how this virus is transmitting, is there any concern that other people who got off the ship earlier or were evacuated and are now going home might be carrying haunt of virus unknowingly? Yeah, this virus has a long incubation period, up to eight weeks. That's why I believe that even those individuals who got off the ship earlier and went home, they should be quarantined as well, at least for that six to eight-week period after their last exposure. Look, it just takes one person getting sick and spreading it to a whole bunch of other people

for this to become a much bigger problem. So far, no one has gotten sick who was not on the ship. I'd like to keep it that way. I mean, as you well know, U.S. officials were not initially involved in this response. The U.S. has also pulled out of the World Health Organization. The CDC is now involved, and an official from HHS today was asked about this, and here's how they described the CDC's response. The CDC rapidly activated its Emergency Operations Center. It deployed medical teams to assess passengers and coordinated closely with international

partners. They have notified state health departments. They have initiated monitoring of potentially exposed individuals, and they have issued clinical guidance through the Health Alert Network. Are you satisfied with how U.S. officials have handled this thus far? I think the honest answer is they've been slow. They've been slow off their feet in terms of doing those things. The things that were laid out, they have started doing them, but should be not much earlier. The communication, of HHS has been also very slow and I think unclear. You know, the engagement with the global community with WHO has been far less than what it would

be under normal circumstances. Look, I think we all hope it still works out just fine. But if this ends up becoming a bigger outbreak, I think those are places we're going to look to see what went wrong. This outbreak took off on a cruise ship. We have seen lots of outbreaks, mostly norovirus, breaking out on cruise ships. Does this, in your mind, change any way that we ought to be monitoring or dealing with those very self-cape?

I remind people, most cruises still are safe. There are special issues with cruises and other kinds of gatherings like that. That's why there was an entire unit at the CDC designed to study and respond to help breaks on cruise ships and similar situations. That, by the way, that unit was eliminated last year by H. by Secretary Kennedy as part of the Doge cuts, which I thought was poorly timed. I think we can make cruising even safer. I don't think we need to get rid of the cruising industry altogether,

but obviously there is an elevated risk that needs to be managed effectively. So there is no vaccine against Haanta virus. For people who do, either at that Nebraska Center or elsewhere, if they do develop symptoms and a serious infection, what treatments are available to them? Yeah, right now we only have what is called supportive treatment, which is nothing specific against the virus, just helping their own body get through it, whether that's oxygen support, fluid support, managing complications. Obviously, not the ideal way to do this. The good news is that Nebraska Center is one of the best places in the country for it.

So, again, if you're going to get sick from hot-divirus anywhere, that's the place. But that said, it's a reminder that we need to be investing more in therapies and vaccines against deadly viruses like this. All right, Dr. Rashidjah of Harvard's Belfar Center. As always, thank you so much for being here. That's for having me back, William. A nonprofit group trying to stop President Trump's reflecting pool renovation on the National Mall claims the project breaks federal law. The Cultural Landscape Foundation filed a lawsuit today, saying the National Park Service violated an historic preservation act by repainting the pool, quote, American flag blue.

The complaint says the new color, quote, will fundamentally alter the visual and experiential character of the pool. The president announced the project last month and drove through the pool's construction site just last week. The New York Times is also reporting that its initial cost of less than $2 million has now ballooned to seven times that figure. For more on the project, I'm joined now by one of the reporters covering that story That's David Farenthold of the New York Times.

David, welcome back. Let's begin with your reporting on this that shows that initial cost estimate from the president of $1.8 million, now up to $13.1 million. What happened there? Well, President Trump has said multiple times that this project is only going to cost

$1.8 million or less than $2 million. That's never been right. From the beginning, the federal government had expected to pay $6.9 million for this contract. And then on Friday, that cost jumped again by another 88%. So now we're talking about $13.1 million. And the contractor for this project, your reporting also showed had no previous federal contracts. How unusual is that for a renovation like this?

It's quite unusual for a renovation of this size and this sort of importance. Remember, this is not a swimming pool. This is a pool. It's about 2,000 feet long. It's been around since 1920s. It has a lot of complicated problems that come from both its age and its size. And the contractor they chose to do it, not only is this their first federal contract, but it's not clear this is a swimming pool contractor at all.

Their website is more about lining pipes and culverts and fuel tanks. It's clear this is a very different project than the ones that they appear to be used to. So folks will remember the images from last week that showed the president and his motorcade driving through that pool area. When we saw those, I know a lot of folks had the same question was, Is that going to impact the pool in any way? What does your reporting show you on that? Well, from folks we've talked to,

it will not probably make the pool look any different in terms of reflectivity. If you're standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, you're standing at the World War II monument on the other end, and you're looking across the pond at a low angle, it will probably still be reflective. The difference, though, may come when you see it from a higher angle, from an airplane or the top of the Washington monument.

This is a space that's meant to sort of be invisible. It's supposed to reflect back the graystone, and the trees all around it. If what you see instead is kind of an artificial blue, like a water hazard or the mini-golf course, that could stand out in a very jarring way on the National Mall. We know that the president has framed some of these renovations as part of a broader beautification effort ahead

of those America 250 celebrations. What do we know about what that means about who's paying for much of this? Well, in this case, in this case, and in the case we wrote about recently, about changes to the fountains around D.C., the government is paying for it. It's not private donors. And the money they're using, in this case, is coming from people that go to national parks. If you go to a national park and pay an entrance fee, some of that money goes to the park service

to pay for renovations, and that's the fund they're using here. I know, as we reported earlier, that at least one nonprofit is trying to block this project, but this is one of several renovation projects that we know the Trump administration is looking to at least partially fund with taxpayer money. We've seen the Kennedy Center, renovation, the White House Ballroom, and others. As you track this, as ethics watchdogs and other track this, what are some of the concerns that are coming up here? One of the biggest concerns about this project and others around the area is that these are no bid contracts. The government is supposed to let multiple vendors bid on jobs like this,

so the taxpayers get their best bang for the buck. In this case, the Trump administration used sort of a special power to block out all competition and hand this job directly to affirm that President Trump says this is close to him. He says this is a company that worked on the swimming pools at his golf club in Northern Virginia. And so what happens when you give a contract directly to somebody with no competition, you don't really know you're getting the best deal. You don't know that you're getting the best person for the job. And so it raises questions about why they're circumventing the normal contracting process and what we're losing in the process in terms of quality or maybe overpaying. David, in the 45 seconds or so I have left. I know you track the

money often when it comes to the president's decisions around things like this. Where does this latest project fit into the broader pattern? Well, we have been looking at the way President Trump has been doing two things with these projects around D.C., both using no-bid contracts to direct money to firms that are close to him, and also circumventing the historic review process that's supposed to keep the Washington core, the monuments of Washington, looking consistent and preserved. And what we're seeing here is that he evaded both those systems here and just sort of went around them all to have the reflecting pool painted blue because that's what he wanted.

David Varenthold, the New York Times, always good to talk to you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Democrats in Virginia today ask the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene after the state Supreme Court struck down a voter-approved congressional map. Meantime, President Trump says he wants to suspend the federal gas tax as Americans continue grappling with rising prices at the pump. To discuss that and more, we turn now to our Politics Monday duo. That's Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter. Tamara Keith of NPR. It's always great to see you both. So, as I said, Democrats this afternoon filed an emergency appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court trying to halt this redistricting decision

by Virginia's top court. And as we came on the air, the Supreme Court basically cleared the way for Alabama to pursue new maps after the court gutted the Voting Rights Act. So, Amy, at this point, is the playing field meaningfully tilted toward Republicans? Are Democrats still benefiting from the political environment? Well, I think that's the best way to think about this. From a structural standpoint, and by structural meaning, how many seats were redistricted to help one side or the other, Republicans have an advantage. Before the Supreme Court in Virginia and before the Supreme Court of the United States came out with their decisions, we had talked back and forth for a while about how it was basically a wash. Now it looks as if Republicans are going to come out on top structurally.

By how many seats, we don't know yet. We're still waiting for a number of other legal decisions. But Republicans could get as many as six or seven seats total just through the redistricting process. But the structural is going to meet up with the environmental. And so I think about this a little bit like somebody who is preparing for a big flood. And so they put sandbags in front of their property knowing that a big storm is going to come in. In this case, the storm looks bigger than the sandbags can cover. However, that's today.

We're going to have to wait and see as we get further into the process of how big this storm is going to look. But fundamentally, what it really does is it lowers the ceiling for Democrats to pick up seats in the House this year. And it makes what looked like a very... certain flip of the House from Democrat to Republican, while we still think that Democrats have an advantage, the it is not as the certainty level has gone down. Republicans have an advantage. Republican, I'm sorry. No, no, Democrats still have an advantage in flipping control of the House, but the uncertainty

level has gone up considerably. I love that mental picture you painted of sandbags and storms. Tam, many of these maps, I guess we can say all of these maps. were drawn with 2024 assumptions in place. Given Democrats' recent overperformance in the special elections, are there districts where Republicans think they have it in the bag where maybe they don't? There is a very real risk here that voters will get the final decision, and voters may not do what the people who draw the lines want them to do.

There is certainly a risk for Republicans in South Texas and some other areas where there was a big shift towards President Trump, but where those same types of voters have indicated that they are frustrated and upset and not happy with how this second Trump term has gone. And it's not just about the base. It is also about whether people who voted for President Trump, who these lines are based on,

whether those people just stay home if they're upset about gas prices. They don't have to like Democrats to stay home. They don't have to like Republicans either. Let's talk more about that because President Trump is now floating a suspension of the federal gas tax, as you mentioned, his prices climb. Since Congress would have to approve that, is this a serious policy push or is this political messaging? What's interesting is we've seen plenty of candidates and presidents in the most recent era raise this possibility. And Congress always said, no, we don't really like this because usually gas prices are so, right? and they go down and to suspend the gas tax means that that money does not go into the

transportation fund that goes and does really important things like roads and bridges and taking care of those things, right? So they don't love that idea. Congress has never really loved that idea. Now, there is some bipartisan support for the concept of this because it no longer feels like something that's going up and down but is just staying up. But we also know that, fundamentally, either putting it on holiday or reducing it, whatever it is, it's not going to make much of a difference in what people are actually paying. So, look, if you're Republicans right now looking at this midterm election, you're saying, we want to show voters that we care about cost of living, let's do this. And Democrats, of course, want to show they're doing the same. But is it something that voters are really going to feel and then thank them for? And as I said, especially if five years from now they find out, oh, yeah, well, we can't help you with that bridge because we're struggling to get that money back.

And as I understand it, Tam, it's roughly a savings of about 18 cents a gallon. What's the White House thinking here? Yeah, so President Trump back in March was asked about doing a gas tax holiday or putting it on pause. And he said, I don't think we need that now. We'll keep that in our back pocket if we really need it. Well, now he's talking about it. So I think that means that he feels like he really needs it. In that time, gas prices have done nothing but rise.

And this excursion that President Trump was talking about is just continuing on and on with no clear ending, the excursion being the war with Iran. The Strait of Hormuz is still closed. It is causing global price shocks that are likely to affect not just the cost of gas, but also the cost of food and other products. that require shipping. So since the start of the war, gas prices, well, let's go back to the numbers I have in my head. Sorry, I'm going to do math, and this might get tough. But from a year ago, gas prices are up $1.40 a gallon.

This possible gas tax holiday is 18 cents. Those two things are not equal. And so people are going to continue to feel the pain. Something like 80% of Americans are now saying that gas prices are making it hard for them. And more than 60% of them blame President Trump for that. And it's part of the reason why the Transportation Secretary, Sean Duffy, is facing backlash for this new, I guess we can call it, reality series. It's launched on YouTube, and it's basically, as he says, it's a way to get out on the highway for America's 250th birthday.

But this is coming at a time when Americans, as we say, are frustrated. by prices. He's also facing criticism from Pete Buttigieg, who says in the social media post, he called the series brutally out of touch. This was filmed over seven months, and it's not funded by taxpayer dollars, the Department of Transportation says, and it's funded by private companies. Some of those companies have business before the DOT. So there's a lot happening here. What's your read of it? Right. Well, look, I think when I talk to Republicans, a lot of them do believe that this, by focusing on the 250th anniversary, that's a lot of the 150th anniversary, that's an opportunity to sort of gin up enthusiasm for the country, patriotism. And that may be something

that also goes to Tam's point about waking up voters who may not be feeling particularly engaged, especially those who might have voted for Donald Trump, to come out and vote in the fall because of this wave of celebration around the 250th. I think everybody also loves the idea. It's a pretty popular idea, the idea of get through the whole family in the car and going on a road trip, right? That's about as American as you can get. If, however, Americans feel

that they have a pinch because they're not able to fill up their car and go, that's not necessarily going to land the way they would like it to. Yeah, road trip's a great idea until you pull up to a gas station and it's $4.50 a gallon. Tamara Keith, Amy Walter, thank you both.

Welcome. Welcome. Coral reefs are essential to the health of our oceans, our food supply, and to protect coastal property from catastrophic storms. But as climate change pushes ocean temperatures to record highs, reefs all around the world are dying, and global coral bleaching events have put more at higher risk. Special correspondent Ben Tracy with Climate Central shows us how scientists in Jamaica are using an unlikely tool to try to bring reefs back from the brink. It's part of our series Tipping Point.

The patrol boats is going to live with the anchors for the buoy. Off the northern coast of Jamaica, in the middle of a tropical downpour, a team of researchers, is on a mission to save a dying coral reef. But two things are a bit unusual. They're installing speakers on the ocean floor, and the guy calling the shots... The boy is somewhere here. He is not a scientist. It's very different from everything that I did before.

Marco Barotti is an artist from Italy. Why is an Italian artist in Jamaica wearing a wetsuit? Because everything started in Italy, actually. Five years ago, he began creating sculptures based on 3D scans of coral. Inspired by research showing sound could help revive struggling reefs. Sound has always been the core of my work, right?

But never at this level. A healthy reef is a noisy reef, a symphony of sounds made by fish, shrimp, and other creatures. A dying reef is eerily quiet. If a reef is alive with sound, is most likely to stay alive, right, and repopulate. And when reefs degrades, they grow silent. Fish and tiny coral organisms use sound to sound

to navigate. So the idea is if you bring noise back to the reef, marine life will follow. It's kind of like hearing the sounds of a really great party. Makes you want to go check it out. I dropped in to watch as they assembled the coral sculptures piece by piece, topping them with the waterproof speakers. This underwater boombox plays recorded sounds of a healthy reef 14 hours a day, powered by solar panels floating above. A similar experiment on the Great Barrier Reef saw fish populations double in just six weeks. I'm at this point where let's try everything. Leanne Randow is a second-generation scuba diving instructor.

She's worried about what she doesn't hear down here. It is getting quieter. It's getting quieter. It's really sad to say that I've seen the degradation. a lot in the past 10 years. Reefs cover just 1% of the ocean floor, but support 25% of marine life. They're essential to our food supply

and protecting coastlines. Since 1950, we've lost about half the world's coral reefs due to overfishing, pollution, and climate change-fueled bleaching events. A record marine heat wave in 2023 turned Caribbean waters into a hot tub that devastated corals. And as the summer progressed, it just got warmer and warmer.

And when you saw it all day, I was just, it was horrible. Yeah, it was sad. She captured this footage swimming through the ghostly white reef as tears filled her diving mask. What is that experience like? Man, it just, you feel hopeless. You know, you really do feel like, am I ever going to see this again? So the locations are already marked out. The sound project is designed to boost the work of the local alligator head foundation.

Dexter Dean Colhoun is head of research. When you first heard that they were going to put speakers down there and play these sounds, what did you think? Man, I was excited because, first of all, I'm a musician by trade. I'm a pianist. So I believe and I know the power of sound. It basically fit right into what we're trying to do, which is restore the reefs using as many methods as we can. Oh, wow. This is cool.

In their lab, researcher Bethany Dean is growing coral fragments and experimenting with breeding coral because less natural reproduction is happening on degraded reefs. And so we are looking at how can you bring these egg and sperm together so you can actually have successful reproduction. So you're like a coral matchmaker. You're helping them do their thing. Yes.

You can look at it that way. Those coral fragments get attached to the underwater sculptures, which will become part of the reef, a fusion of science and art to replace silence with sound. You've got to stay hopeful, right? I mean, because, yeah, I definitely went through that phase where I'm like, oh my God, it's done.

But I think there is hope. There is strands of it. For the PBS News Hour, I'm Ben Tracy with Climate Central. Well, what's known as the night parade of 100 demons is an ancient Japanese folk tale about supernatural beings taking over the night. At an art museum in Boston, artist Masako Miki is bringing the tale into a colorful and even cuddly present day. Jared Bowen of GBAH Boston takes us there for our arts and culture series Canvas.

In the silvery hue of night, a gathering of characters. At first glance, they're curvy forms, standing on their own and dappled with rainbow colors. Look longer, and the shapes come into being, like an all-knowing oak tree. The trees, they're transparent. witness everything that has happened and that we have done. And I feel like this is the character who observed everything in our history. Each of these needle-felted sculptures here at the Mass Art Museum in Boston has a reason for being, says artist Masako Miki. They are characters she has conjured and crafted to take their place in her own contemporary mythology.

It's a human nature to make stories and narratives. And if you believe in the same story, there's a sense of trust. And we actually believe in that stories and we act on it. In creating what she now calls Midnight March, Miki was prompted by a Japanese tale more than a thousand years old. It tells the frightening story of the night parade of 100 demons, where paranormal beings called Yoki, who range from the monstrous to the mischievous, rampage through the streets and the wee hours of the morning as villagers hide in their homes.

They're very upset. They're being discarded by humans and they want to reclaim their existence. But as Miki returned to the tale in her adult life, she began to dissect the demonization of the Yokai, thinking they were less perpetrator and more misunderstood, vilified because people couldn't look beyond the Yokai's otherness. I think the first thing and a human sort of reaction is they're not like me. We come from different places and different cultures, but we always just seeking for a new home, which is safe. So in her telling, Miki's yokai are shapeshifters, discarded things like an umbrella or a string of prayer beads that become all things adorable and inviting. You don't rationally understand what they are, but they're drawn by the colors and patterns.

and the shape. It's very important that people feel invited and have this affinity. I think affinity leads into the empathy. When I first saw these wonderful, colorful creatures, I thought, this is amazing. Everyone's going to love them, and they do. But then you start to dig in a little deeper.

Lisa Tong is artistic director of the Mass Art Art Museum and says beyond their huggable charm, Miki's characters represent an intersection many have navigated, especially immigrants. Masako is trying to figure out her background, her culture, how does that fit with this new culture that she's come to? And being a child of immigrants, my parents came here. I've been living here for the past 50 years. There's always that, you know, what is the culture? Miki was raised in Japan and came to the United States as a young adult to study art.

She cherishes her Japanese heritage, she says, but embraces, especially as a woman, the independence life in the U.S. has afforded her. I really felt like I had to choose, you know, do I have to become more like Americans or, you know, like how, what is, you know, but then I'm Japanese. I became almost obsessed with his characters because here I am trying to figure out how I live my life. Giving the Yoki life requires a rigorous, even painful process of needle felting, where she repeatedly stabs mounds of rubbing wool, covering armature. I just have a love and hate relationship with it. It's so labor intensive. Because you can only felt so much

because it hurts your shoulders and your arm. Also, I love that part of art making. You can't have a shortcut. The repetition of making is akin to prayer, Miki says. So that by the time each sculptor is finished, a transformation occurs beyond the act of creation. You just repeat the same thing for so long, and then you're like so focused and intense and your head. And at the end, it becomes like its own thing. It has its own spirit.

Like these Yochai finding their way to a new dawn. For the PBS News Hour, I'm Jared Bowen in Boston. And that is the News Hour for tonight. I'm Omna Nawaz. And I'm Jeff Bennett. For all of us here at the PBS News Hour, thanks for spending part of your evening. with us.