AMNA NAWAZ: Good evening.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

Geoff Bennett is away.

On the "NewsHour" tonight: European leaders underscore their priorities and red lines for any Ukraine cease-fire deal ahead of President Trump's summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

National Guard troops begin deploying on the streets of Washington, D.C., even as funding is cut for community-based crime prevention efforts nationwide.

DUJUAN "ZOE" KENNEDY, Executive Director, FORCE Detroit: Why would you want to stop something that's not just saving people's lives, that's bringing quality of life to a community?

AMNA NAWAZ: And how deals for some tech companies to pay the U.S. a percentage of their chip sales in China reflect President Trump's larger views on security and capitalism.

(BREAK) AMNA NAWAZ: Welcome to the "News Hour."

President Trump today issued a new threat to punish Russia if it doesn't end the war in Ukraine just two days before a high-stakes summit in Anchorage with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Mr. Trump also spoke with European leaders, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who said that Mr. Trump agreed to their principles on the best way to try and end the bloody 3.5-year war.

Nick Schifrin reports.

NICK SCHIFRIN: As Ukrainian soldiers today struggle to hold the front line, 5,000 miles away, President Trump lobbed a new threat at Russian President Putin.

QUESTION: Will Russia face any consequences if Vladimir Putin does not agree to stop the war after your meeting on Friday?

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: Yes, they will, yes.

QUESTION: What will the consequences be?

DONALD TRUMP: There will be consequences.

QUESTION: Sanctions?

Tariffs?

DONALD TRUMP: There will be -- I don't have to say.

There will be very severe consequences.

NICK SCHIFRIN: U.S. officials tell "PBS News Hour" President Trump could target Russian energy exports or countries that import Russian oil.

But President Trump has made similar threats before, and he would only punish Putin if, and it's a big if, President Trump concludes Putin is unwilling to end the war.

If Friday's Anchorage summit goes well, President Trump said today he would push for a follow-up meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Putin.

DONALD TRUMP: If the first one goes OK, we will have a quick second one.

I would like to do it almost immediately, and we will have a quick second meeting between President Putin and President Zelenskyy and myself if they'd like to have me there, if the second meeting takes place.

Now, there may be no second meeting, because of I feel that it's not appropriate to have it because I didn't get the answers that we have to have, then we're not going to have a second meeting.

NICK SCHIFRIN: In Berlin today, Zelenskyy, alongside German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, met with other European leaders for a virtual summit that included President Trump.

They presented a united front and said President Trump agreed with their requests.

Any deal must start with a cease-fire, provide Ukraine security guarantees, and only Zelenskyy could decide whether to swap land with Russia.

FRIEDRICH MERZ, German Chancellor (through translator): Fundamental European and Ukrainian security interests must be safeguarded in Alaska.

That was the message we Europeans conveyed to U.S. President Trump today.

And I can say that we were in broad agreement.

DONALD TRUMP: We had a very good call.

He was on the call.

President Zelenskyy was on the call.

I would rate it a 10.

NICK SCHIFRIN: But Russia said today its soldiers would keep fighting for the same maximalist demands.

Right now, Russia controls nearly one-fifth of Ukraine, including nearly all of the Eastern province of Luhansk.

Moscow is demanding Ukraine withdraw from neighboring Donetsk, as well as Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, even though Ukraine holds some of those regions.

Russia is also demanding international recognition it controls those regions and controls Crimea, occupied by Russia since 2014.

ALEXEI FADEEV, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson (through translator): Speaking about the principal position on the settlement of the crisis, Russia's position remains unchanged.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Those demands are nonstarters for Kyiv and Europe.

Multiple European officials told me today the call with President Trump went as well as they thought it possibly could have, but they are still concerned about what he might agree when he meets with Putin without Ukraine in the room.

As a senior European official told me today, they're determined to help Ukraine resist a bad deal, if it comes to that.

For a perspective on all this, we turned to Samuel Charap, senior political scientist at RAND.

He served in the State Department during the Obama administration and is the co-author of "Everyone Loses: The Ukraine Crisis and the Ruinous Contest for Post-Soviet Eurasia."

Thanks very much.

Welcome back to the "News Hour."

I just laid out that European officials are saying today that President Trump agreed to their principles for how they think the war should end, cease-fire first, no legal recognition of Russian occupation, and security guarantees for Ukraine.

Are those principles that Vladimir Putin is likely to accept?

SAMUEL CHARAP, RAND Corporation: I don't think so.

I mean, I think we have seen that, for him, the ongoing fighting is leverage, and that means that agreeing to a cease-fire up front will deprive him of his leverage.

So he's likely to insist on understanding essentially what the contours of the endgame are going to look like before he agrees to stop the fighting.

On the question of no legal recognition, there, I think there's probably a bit more flexibility.

At the end of the day, Russia has lived without anyone recognizing the annexation of Crimea for 10 years, and lived just fine.

On security guarantees, we have got a lot of words coming from European leaders on this score, but without much concrete facts on the ground in terms of what that really looks like.

So it's a bit vague there.

NICK SCHIFRIN: We focused at the end of our story on the map.

The Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman made this point today.

But is that Putin's primary concern, land swaps, or what percentage of Ukraine that Russia holds, or is it more what Ukraine's political future looks like?

SAMUEL CHARAP: I think at the end of the day, this is not a war about territory for either, and particularly for Putin.

For him, the status of Ukraine, its potential future membership in NATO, the nature of Ukraine's future security relationship with the West, the political character of the Ukrainian state, the size of the Ukrainian military, all of these things are ultimately more important than where the line is drawn.

That at the end of the day is somewhat important, but the political and security issues come first for him.

NICK SCHIFRIN: We, of course, heard President Trump today make a new threat.

He was asked, if President Putin doesn't end the war -- that was the words of the question -- after the summit on Friday, would there be consequences?

The president said, yes, there would be severe consequences.

U.S. officials talk about the possibility of more energy sanctions, secondary sanctions perhaps on countries that buy Russian energy.

Is that threat or perhaps the execution of that punishment sufficient to get Putin to be more flexible about Ukraine?

SAMUEL CHARAP: I think, on the margins, yes, he would like to avoid those kinds of outcomes.

But if it comes to choosing between pursuing his objectives in Ukraine and enduring more economic pressure from the United States, he will pursue his objectives in Ukraine.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Let's zoom out.

What do you think is the best-case scenario for the summit in Anchorage on Friday?

And what are the risks of this summit, or perhaps if the summit doesn't go so well?

SAMUEL CHARAP: So I think, in the best case, the two leaders could agree to actually start a real peace process that -- with a place, concrete people, objectives, a timeline, and, of course, a place for Ukraine and the Europeans at that table, a process that could take a while, because I think we're not at a position where the war is going to end on Friday or there's going to be an immediate peace agreement.

That just is not how these things work.

These have been countries that have been going at it for over 3.5 years now.

And clearly there's no trust there, and it's going to take a while to get to a point where they're actually agreeing to stop the fighting.

So I think, if we get a real process coming out of Anchorage, that would be a huge success.

I think the downside risk, as I think you have heard from Europeans, is that there's some deal that Trump and Putin themselves make that is acceptable to Trump, but not to Zelenskyy, and then,basically, the -- Trump is in a position of putting the screws on Zelenskyy to accept whatever it is that he and Putin agree to.

But another negative outcome could be no deal at all.

If a summit between the U.S. and Russian presidents occurs and nothing comes out of it, that could be a real setback to both President Trump's and broader efforts to bring the war to a negotiated end.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Samuel Charap, thank you very much.

SAMUEL CHARAP: Thanks for having me.

AMNA NAWAZ: We start the day's other headlines in the Middle East.

Gaza's Health Ministry says Israeli gunfire killed at least 25 people seeking aid across three separate aid distribution sites.

Two of the centers are operated by the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which insisted today there were no incidents at or near their sites.

In the meantime, Palestinians in Gaza's city mourned their loved ones following the latest round of Israeli strikes.

Family members say nowhere is safe.

MOHAMMED ABU DAF, Gaza City Resident (through translator): My cousin's house was targeted while they were sleeping at 3:00 in the morning, sleeping in peace.

Where do people go?

Where do people go, Arabs and Muslims?

Now all of Gaza is targeted.

AMNA NAWAZ: The latest strikes come after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel will -- quote -- "allow" Palestinians to leave areas like Gaza City that are being targeted by Israel's military.

But he insists they are not being pushed out.

Wildfires raging across Europe have now killed at least three people across Albania, Spain and Turkey.

In Greece, a blaze burning near Patras has torn through homes, orchards and prompted evacuations of dozens of towns.

Firefighters say they're losing the battle to protect the perimeter of the country's third largest city.

GIORGOS KARAVANIS, Firefighter (through translator): What does it look like?

It looks like doomsday.

We came from Athens with our volunteer association, but we can't do anything more.

May God help us and help the people here.

AMNA NAWAZ: Meantime, in Spain, thousands have been displaced by fires north of Madrid.

The country's Interior Ministry says they're asking Spain's European partners for help.

Officials across the Mediterranean regions say firefighting resources are being stretched thin after weeks of scorching heat.

Authorities in Tennessee say at least three people were and one other remains missing after downpours flooded parts of the state.

Meteorologists tracked nearly seven inches of rain in the Chattanooga area yesterday, the second wettest single day in nearly 150 years.

Officials say that a mother, a father and their child all died when a tree uprooted in the wet soil and fell on their car.

Rescuers are also searching for a man who was last seen walking through a flooded road.

Forecasters are warning of more flash flooding across Central and Eastern Tennessee tonight.

A federal appeals court is allowing the Trump administration to move forward with billions of dollars in cuts to foreign aid.

At issue is funding that includes nearly $4 billion for USAID to spend on global health programs and more than $6 billion for HIV and aides programs.

By a 2-1 vote, the judges found that the aid groups that had challenged the cuts lack the legal right to do so, but they did not weigh in on whether the government's cuts had infringed on the spending powers of Congress.

More Americans appear to be heeding warnings about the health risks of alcohol.

According to a new Gallup poll, just 54 percent of adults say that they drink.

That is an all-time low.

And a record 53 percent say moderate drinking, or one or two drinks a day, is bad for their health.

That's compared to 28 percent a decade ago.

The shift is driven largely by young adults.

Moderate drinking like having red wine at dinner was once thought to be good for your heart, but evidence now shows even moderate drinking leads to negative health outcomes and is a leading cause of cancer.

On Wall Street today, stocks moved higher as hopes for interest rate cuts gather steam.

The Dow Jones industrial average jumped more than 460 points.

The Nasdaq posted a more modest gain of about 30 points.

The S&P 500 also ended in positive territory.

And President Trump today announced the first class of Kennedy Center honorees since he took over as chairman.

Country music star George Strait, film icon Sylvester Stallone, Broadway actor Michael Crawford, disco queen Gloria Gaynor, and the rock band Kiss will all be honored.

The president said he had an active role in the selection.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: I would say I was about 98 percent involved.

No, they all went through me.

They came over.

AMNA NAWAZ: Trump also said he plans to host the awards program, a first for a sitting president, and he wants to -- quote -- "fully renovate" the site to make it a crown jewel of arts and culture in the U.S.

In February, Trump fired long-term staff and took over as chairman of the Kennedy Center, filling its board with loyal supporters.

Still to come on the "News Hour": who is Laura Loomer, the controversial far right activist who has the president's ear?

; and educator and YouTuber known as Ms. Rachel uses her platform to call attention to the plight of children in Gaza.

The Trump administration moved this week to take over policing in Washington, D.C., and yesterday deployed the National Guard in the city, claiming a spike in crime.

The president has suggested similar action could be taken in other cities.

But the data doesn't back up many of his claims.

Murder and violent crime dropped significantly across the U.S. last year, a trend that's continued so far in 2025.

And, as John Yang reports, the federal law enforcement crackdown comes even as the administration cuts funding for other kinds of crime prevention work.

JOHN YANG: This summer basketball league in West Detroit is about more than just layoffs and dribbling.

These young men are part of FORCE Detroit, a nonprofit group focusing on community violence intervention, or CVI.

The goal?

Stop conflicts before they escalate.

MAN: We got to take the emotions out of it.

It's the scrimmage.

One, two, three.

JOHN YANG: FORCE Detroit targets people at risk of either committing or becoming victims of violence, offering services like mental health support and career placement.

MAN: I couldn't even think of where I'd be without FORCE right now, to be honest.

MAN: One of my main goals was to get back in school.

And they asked me to help me get back in school.

JOHN YANG: The group relies on the influence of people whose backgrounds give them credibility in their communities, like executive director DuJuan "Zoe" Kennedy.

He grew up in this neighborhood and spent almost 15 years in prison on manslaughter and drug charges.

DUJUAN "ZOE" KENNEDY, Executive Director, FORCE Detroit: If a house is shot at in our community, we go do outreach, figure out who's responsible or who they're saying responsible, and we're going to try to negotiate and mitigate that conflict.

Mitigation can give you the time you need to really develop a person and change a person's core belief.

JOHN YANG: For decades, Detroit had the reputation of a blighted city plagued by violent crime.

But now parts of the city are showing signs a revival, and crime has plummeted.

Last year, non-fatal shootings dropped 25 percent and the city had its fewest homicides since 1965.

But now some worry that progress is in jeopardy.

In April, the Justice Department terminated almost $170 million in grants for CVI efforts across the country, including roughly $2 million for FORCE Detroit.

In a statement to PBS News, the Justice Department said: "Many grant recipients provided indirect and often vague support to law enforcement or crime victims.

Organizations seeking taxpayer money must show how their programming will further the administration's priorities and help improve public safety."

DUJUAN "ZOE" KENNEDY: Here you have an administration that would make up excuses why this type of stuff shouldn't be done.

Why would you want to stop something that's not just saving people's lives, that's bringing quality of life to a community?

JOHN YANG: In 2023, Detroit launched a program called ShotStoppers.

It helps measure the success of groups like FORCE Detroit.

It works like this.

CVI organizations devise strategies to tackle violence in their own parts of the city.

Groups get bonus funding if shootings in those areas drop more than in the rest of Detroit.

Last fall, for the first time, all six areas achieved that goal, with reductions between 37 and 83 percent, compared with a 35 percent decline outside those zones.

TODD BETTISON, Detroit, Michigan, Police Chief: This right here saves lives.

JOHN YANG: Detroit Police Chief Todd Bettison helped create ShotStoppers when he was deputy mayor.

TODD BETTISON: I can't put a police officer on every block 24 hours a day, but those community violence interrupters, they're able to move and influence in a way that we don't.

JOHN YANG: But there are skeptics.

In some cities with CVI groups, crime has gone up.

CHARLES FAIN LEHMAN, Fellow, Manhattan Institute: I do not think that the available research really has attempted to evaluate in the way that I would want to evaluate whether or not CVI works as an intervention.

JOHN YANG: Charles Fain Lehman studies crime at the conservative Manhattan Institute.

CHARLES FAIN LEHMAN: I think there are lots of other more promising interventions, both things that we know work like policing.

We have a lot of evidence to policing works, and also things that I would like to invest in more at the margins.

If you force me to choose between starting a community violence intervention program and fixing all the street lighting in my city, I would fix all the street lighting, because I know that works.

JOHN YANG: Nationwide, the federal cuts have left dozens of similar programs scrambling.

Tyrone Kent is the director of a CVI group called Roca Baltimore, a city that's also fought a high crime reputation.

But through July, Baltimore saw its fewest homicides in more than 50 years.

TYRONE KENT, Director, Roca Baltimore: We still have work to do because, even though the numbers decreased, we're still talking about losing lives in the city.

JOHN YANG: Roca focuses on those at the center of gun violence, young men like Savion Hardison.

SAVION HARDISON, Roca Baltimore Participant: Those young people, to jail with them.

JOHN YANG: Hardison survived a shooting when he was just 15 and has been in and out of jail for the better part of a decade.

Thanks to Roca, he has a job and is working on communication and coping skills.

SAVION HARDISON: If there's less programs like Roca, then there's more crime.

Why not keep the funding going?

Why not have more funding to help?

Because it's working.

DEANDRA GORDON, Roca Baltimore: We going to be there no matter what.

JOHN YANG: Roca has an active caseload of about 250.

Persistence is a key part of its model, sometimes making dozens of visits before a young person takes the first step and agrees to talk.

DeAndra Gordon is an assistant director.

DEANDRA GORDON: We see there's no food in the refrigerator.

We see you don't have no furniture.

We see the lights off or whatever the case may be.

So us, as Roca, we can meet that, so that you're comfortable enough with us to where it goes you can start to at least listen and give us the opportunity to show you what we can offer.

JOHN YANG: In April, the Justice Department clawed back about half of the $2 million grant Roca Baltimore received in 2022, despite the objections of Maryland's governor and Baltimore's police department.

While Roca's appeal is pending, it's had to cut staff and pause referrals for new clients.

TYRONE KENT: The programs are definitely needed.

Without these programs, the city will be -- it would be disastrous.

JOHN YANG: Charles Fain Lehman says he'd rather see federal dollars spent on things like hiring more local police.

CHARLES FAIN LEHMAN: In order for community violence intervention to work, a lot of things have to go right.

Sometimes, it works, and that's fantastic, but there are many more points at which failure is possible in that approach than there are in much simpler criminal justice tools like arrest or incarceration.

LATONYA "ABYS" DENSON, Founder, Abu Unity Incorporated: It's crazy because the violence can go up and law enforcement funding will go up.

JOHN YANG: Earlier this month, LaTonya "Abys" Denson attended a CVI leadership academy at the University of Chicago.

She started Abu Unity Incorporated in Newport News, Virginia, after her daughter's father was killed by gun violence.

Violent crime in Newport News went up about 12 percent in the first five months of the year.

LATONYA "ABYS" DENSON: For some reason, with community violence intervention and prevention programs, if violence goes up, there's a whoa, whoa, we can't fund you any longer because something's not working.

Just like with law enforcement, just give us the opportunity to continue to do the work.

JOHN YANG: In May, five groups whose grants were canceled by the Justice Department went to court to get the money restored.

A federal judge called the cuts shameful, likely to harm communities and individuals vulnerable to crime and violence.

But, he said, the court lacked jurisdiction and he dismissed the case.

The plaintiffs, including FORCE Detroit, are appealing.

DUJUAN "ZOE" KENNEDY: Imagine someone being 20 to 30 feet away from you, bleeding, dying, and you're trying to get over there.

You got people throwing stuff, putting stuff in your way, pushing you.

That's what it feels like.

It feels like somebody's actually trying to prevent you from saving all the people you grew up around in the community that you live in.

JOHN YANG: For the "PBS News Hour," I'm John Yang in Detroit.

AMNA NAWAZ: President Trump stunned many in the tech world after announcing a controversial deal with chipmakers Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices, allowing them to sell advanced artificial intelligence chips to China in exchange for giving the U.S. government a 15 percent cut of their revenue.

Now there are questions about the legality of this deal and its implications for national security and beyond.

For more on this, I'm joined by Scott Kennedy, senior adviser in Chinese business and economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Scott, welcome, and thanks for joining us.

Let's just start with your take on this deal itself.

For the U.S. to be taking a 15 percent cut of these private companies' sales to China, is there precedent for it and is it legal?

SCOTT KENNEDY, Center for Strategic and International Studies: I have never heard of a deal like this as long as I have been watching U.S.-government business relations or the tech industry, the U.S. government taking a cut of exports.

I think it's pretty unprecedented.

We know the president is a source of a lot of creative ideas.

I don't think this is necessarily the best one that he's come up with.

It has huge implications for the semiconductor industry and actually all of high tech, as well as the export control regime as well.

AMNA NAWAZ: And is it clear that it's a legal deal?

Is the legality issue still at play here?

SCOTT KENNEDY: Well, if you read the Constitution and look at Article I, Section 9, you will see that the U.S. is not supposed to impose export taxes on American companies.

That says Congress is not supposed to, and Congress has not had -- this is the president asking for this.

But it would require someone to challenge this in court for it to be determined to be unconstitutional.

And there's a lot of things the Trump administration has done where people take issue with it and it gets to the courts and they either haven't reached a verdict or have found for the president.

So I think at this point it's not a question of whether it's legal or not, but whether it makes good sense for American foreign policy or even economic policy to be doing this.

AMNA NAWAZ: We should note it's a huge departure from previous policy that was restricting China's access to these advanced semiconductors largely due to national security concerns that they could be used for military technology.

But the president, President Trump, has said that this deal is limited to Nvidia's older H20 chips and a similar AMD chip.

Take a listen to how he justifies it.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: This is an old chip that China already has.

And I deal with Jensen, who's a great guy, and Nvidia.

The chip that we're talking about, the H20, it's an old chip.

China already has it in a different form, different name, but they have it.

Or they have a combination of two that will make up for it and even then some.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, Scott, does the president's explanation there address any national security concerns you or others might have?

SCOTT KENNEDY: Sure.

Well, I mean, there's two ways to look at this.

The first is the way the Trump administration originally looked at this, which is in April, when the Commerce Department put controls on this chip and said that it shouldn't be exported.

And we have not heard anything from the Commerce Department yet saying that their evaluation of the national security risks for this chip differ.

And I think the Biden administration would have ended up in the same place.

There is an alternative argument that says it is really important to promote American technology around the world, and if the Chinese are developing similar chips, we'd rather them use our chips and have those profits go back to American companies and be plowed into our R&D to maintain our tech leadership.

But that's not what he's saying there.

These still are really quite advanced chips, and they potentially could go towards purposes that help the Chinese military.

China is a place where it is very difficult to make sure, when you export a technology, it doesn't get diverted for purposes for which it wasn't originally approved.

So I think there are some real risks here, despite what the president has said.

AMNA NAWAZ: There seems to be also the confluence of economic policy and national security policy at play here.

There's a bigger concern about whether this sets up a sort of pay-to-play trade policy.

It sets precedent for other firms who have restricted exports to China.

Do you share that concern?

SCOTT KENNEDY: Yes, I'm worried.

In the semiconductor industry, which is the crown jewel of crown jewels of America's economy, it takes five, 10, 15 years for these companies to make plans on what they're going to do, the chips they're going to design, where they're going to be fabricated, who they're going to go to.

And they need as much runway as possible and they need as much support as they can.

So instead of taxing them on their sales, we should be providing economic relief and government grants to further support them.

And this is also going to be something that other companies and other industries are going to be looking over their shoulder with -- Secretary Bessent said this is a beta test.

I'm not sure this beta test is going to turn out the way the administration is thinking it was.

And, if not, I hope that they decide to abandon it.

AMNA NAWAZ: A lot more to talk about.

We'd love to have you back as this develops further.

Scott Kennedy, senior adviser in Chinese business and economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, thank you for joining us.

SCOTT KENNEDY: Sure.

AMNA NAWAZ: A right-wing political activist who's spread conspiracy theories and used hate speech has become a central figure in the hirings and firings of Trump administration staffers.

Laura Loomer has successfully lobbied to remove aides from several key government roles, including the National Security Council.

Despite her close alliance with the president, she's drawn some foes within the Republican Party, including Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Stephanie Sy has more on her mission to shape the Trump administration in her vision.

LAURA LOOMER, Conservative Activist: The state of Minnesota is a Somali (EXPLETIVE DELETED) hole.

I don't have any sympathy for self-hating liberal Jews.

We need to be focused on America first, not Black people first.

STEPHANIE SY: "She regularly utters disgusting garbage."

That's how Republican Senator Thom Tillis once described the self-styled journalist Laura Loomer.

LAURA LOOMER: All of the, like, meritless DEI Shaniquas talk the same way.

It's very obnoxious.

STEPHANIE SY: But despite her detractors, the online influencer seems to wield real influence, and she knows it.

LAURA LOOMER: I got multiple people fired this week.

STEPHANIE SY: Observers say it's not a coincidence that more than a dozen high-ranking officials in the Trump administration have either lost their jobs or had their nominations revoked after Loomer questioned their loyalty to the president.

LAURA LOOMER: You think he's all these terrible things that all of his detractors call him.

Why do you want to work for him?

Aren't I doing you a favor?

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: She doesn't like things going on that she thinks are bad for the country.

I like her.

STEPHANIE SY: The woman Trump calls a patriot got her start in media with Project Veritas, known for using deceptive tactics, including undercover videotaping, often to make false or exaggerated claims about its targets.

DEREK BLEY, University Employee: How can I help you, Laura?

LAURA LOOMER: I just have some questions about... DAVID GILBERT, Wired: To get to where she is today is -- it's truly mind-boggling.

STEPHANIE SY: David Gilbert has covered Loomer's rise for Wired.

DAVID GILBERT: I don't think anyone would ever have guessed 10 years ago, starting out with kind of gotcha clips for Project Veritas, that she would end up being where she is today.

LAURA LOOMER: This is unacceptable.

You cannot... MAN: Get off the stage.

STEPHANIE SY: In 2017, she stormed the stage of a controversial Shakespeare performance in New York.

WOMAN: Security, please.

STEPHANIE SY: In the production, Julius Caesar, who's assassinated, bore President Trump's likeness.

DAVID GILBERT: That got her arrested, but it also more partly got her on the radar of figures like Donald Trump and the wider MAGA movement.

STEPHANIE SY: Her ambush interviews put Trump's political opponents on the spot.

LAURA LOOMER: What happened to your 33,000 e-mails?

You're going to get prosecuted, Comey.

Rashida, are you willing to admit, as a congresswoman, that Hamas is a terrorist organization?

STEPHANIE SY: In 2018, after unleashing a tirade of Islamophobic tweets about then-congresswoman-elect Ilhan Omar, she was banned from the platform for hateful conduct.

Loomer handcuffed herself to Twitter's headquarters in protest.

She was also banned from Lyft, Uber, Instagram, and several online banking platforms.

LAURA LOOMER: My life is ruined!

Does anybody understand how ruined my life is?

I'm sick of it.

DAVID GILBERT: What she really wanted to do was get the attention of Trump and his base by basically going one step further than anyone else in terms of making extreme claims, making up conspiracies, and posting openly racist and Islamophobic content online simply in order to get clicks, likes and followers on social media.

NARRATOR: A fighter is running for Congress, and her name is Laura Loomer.

STEPHANIE SY: Two runs for Congress followed, with a million in financial support from the likes of Alex Jones, Roger Stone, and Matt Gaetz, fellow bombastic personalities and conspiracies on the radical right.

She refused to accept her 2022 primary loss.

LAURA LOOMER: I'm not conceding, because I'm a winner.

STEPHANIE SY: Election denialism inspired by Donald Trump, who Loomer redoubled her support for in the wake of her electoral losses.

During the 2024 campaign, Loomer posted: "If Kamala Harris wins, the White House will smell like curry."

But now on Elon Musk's rebranded X platform, the post was left live, although again tagged for potential hateful content.

DONALD TRUMP: A fantastic woman, a true patriot, Laura Loomer.

STEPHANIE SY: Trump mentioned her in fond terms on the stump, and she was spotted getting on his campaign plane last fall.

But he's never given her a job.

Still, she fights for him.

LAURA LOOMER: I'm starting to have some serious doubts about who is in control in the Oval Office, because I have just seen so many instances of Donald Trump giving orders and then his orders not being respected by his own staff.

STEPHANIE SY: After an Oval Office meeting with Loomer in April, the president fired six National Security Council officials.

DONALD TRUMP: She makes recommendations on things and people.

And sometimes I listen to those recommendations, like I do with everybody.

I listen to everybody.

And then I make a decision.

STEPHANIE SY: Even when the president doesn't give it, Loomer has taken credit for the firings or resignations of more than a dozen people, including his nominee for surgeon general, the top lawyer at the National Security Agency, and the vaccine chief at the FDA, who was rehired last weekend.

LAURA LOOMER: I'm not working for President Trump.

I'm not getting paid by President Trump.

I'm not in the Trump White House.

I wasn't even on the Trump campaign.

And yet I feel like every single day it's a full-time job just to make sure the president is protected and that he's receiving the information that he needs to receive.

STEPHANIE SY: A full-time job no one hired her or elected her to do.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Stephanie Sy.

AMNA NAWAZ: She's a preschool teacher to millions of children, though most of her students have never set foot in her classroom.

Rachel Accurso, known to the world as Ms. Rachel, is the creator of the wildly popular YouTube series "Songs for Littles" that's a lifeline for parents.

But she's been making headlines and facing scrutiny for taking a stand on her social media platforms on current events.

Geoff Bennett spoke with her yesterday.

GEOFF BENNETT: Her videos, built on repetition, music, and respect for young minds, have helped countless toddlers share their first words and make their first connections.

But Ms. Rachel's reach now extends far beyond sing-alongs and story time.

She's now using her platform in a different way, speaking to adults about the crisis in Gaza, highlighting the experiences of children there and sparking conversations that transcend the world of children's media.

RACHEL ACCURSO, "Ms. Rachel," Educator and Children's Content Creator: We can't let children starve.

That is not who we are.

GEOFF BENNETT: Rachel Accurso joins us now.

Thanks so much for being with us.

RACHEL ACCURSO: Thanks for having me, Geoff.

GEOFF BENNETT: So let's start at the beginning.

You started "Songs For Littles" after your son experienced a speech delay and you had a hard time finding suitable resources for him.

When you first pressed record and launched this account, what was your intention?

RACHEL ACCURSO: I wanted to create videos for him, and I thought maybe some other moms and dads and parents were looking for videos like this for their little ones, since I saw a need, but I had no idea anything like this would happen.

GEOFF BENNETT: Your style has been compared to Mister Rogers, the gentle pacing, the respect for children, the genuine connection.

What about his approach first inspired you and how are you making that your own?

RACHEL ACCURSO: So, Mister Rogers, the way he felt media and kids programming, that we have such a big responsibility, I learned that he imagined speaking to one child or to children through the camera.

And since I worked in a classroom and I have children and I have worked with children for a long time, I just imagine one child, and I show that genuine care.

And I think that deep care for all children is felt by the audience.

GEOFF BENNETT: And when you mention the deep care for all children, you have taken a public stand on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, sharing stories, raising funds, speaking out.

What responsibility do you feel that you have to address that crisis, given your platform?

RACHEL ACCURSO: My deep love and care for children doesn't end at my children, at children I know, at children in this country.

It is for all children in this world.

And it's so important for me to speak out for children whose human rights are being violated.

That's our responsibility as grown-ups, is to stand up for kids when they're being denied access to food, water, education for two years; 18,000 children have been killed.

Everyone should be saying something.

It's a good thing to care about all kids.

GEOFF BENNETT: When did you first know that this was something that you had to do?

RACHEL ACCURSO: Well, I prayed a lot about it.

I'm a religious and spiritual person.

And I think I realized that there's not another children's media person that is -- all of them are a character.

And so I said, I think I need to speak out for kids in this world.

The zero to 3 brain development is so crucial.

And if you have a malnourished child who's traumatized and losing family members and displaced, what is that doing to the brain?

We know what that does to the brain, and that's not right.

GEOFF BENNETT: Your advocacy, we should say, lives on Instagram, which is separate from your children's programming.

How do you draw that line, that distinction?

RACHEL ACCURSO: Well, I really serve children on my program zero to 3 primarily, and it does go up to about 5.

So we are having Rahaf on our show, and I'm really excited about that.

GEOFF BENNETT: This is a 3-year-old double amputee whom you met.

How did that meeting happen?

How did you meet her?

RACHEL ACCURSO: So the Palestine Children's Relief fund reached out to me when they saw my advocacy and asked to do a meeting.

Let's go back to sleep, Rahaf.

And then they told me Rahaf loved the show, and then they said, would you want to meet her and have her on the show?

And I said, I'd love to.

GEOFF BENNETT: Knowing that there are children in Gaza watching your videos, perhaps as one of few moments of joy, how does that make you feel?

RACHEL ACCURSO: There really aren't words to express how that makes me feel.

I'm so honored that I could be helpful or I could provide a moment of relief or joy in the midst of genocide.

GEOFF BENNETT: And there has been backlash, as you well know.

This past spring, the pro-Israel group, it's called Stop Antisemitism, they published an open letter calling on the attorney general, Pam Bondi, to investigate whether you were acting as a foreign agent who was being paid -- this is a quote -- "to disseminate Hamas-aligned propaganda to her millions of followers."

What is your response to that?

And how have you been navigating the criticism?

RACHEL ACCURSO: I think it's sad to take someone's dedication and love for all children and try and make that wrong.

It's not wrong.

It's wonderful to be an advocate for all children.

And deeply caring for a group of children who are in an emergency situation, who are starving doesn't mean you don't care equally about all children.

That's false.

And it's painful.

But no amount of pain is going to compare to what people in Gaza are going through.

Every time I got worried about it, I just thought about a mom in Gaza who -- I have a baby who's 6 months old.

She takes formula.

I breast-fed my first son.

When you have a baby who is crying because they are hungry and you're looking at them and you're feeding them and nourishing them, it's just a wonderful thing.

And the thought for a minute that you would have formula miles away that can't get to them -- and I told my son today: "I'm going on 'PBS News Hour' to try and help the kids in Gaza get food."

And I said: "It's miles away from them and they can't get it."

And he said: "Do they have cars?"

We talk to kids.

Another kid came up to me today and said: "Ms. Rachel, keep help -- trying to help the kids in Gaza."

Our kids are looking at us.

They're saying, why can't these children have food?

It's miles away.

Why can't you drive it to them?

And the mothers are too malnourished to breast-feed.

I just shared a poem by a Palestinian mother.

She was one of the top 10 teachers in Gaza.

And she -- her husband is a novelist and professor, and they're living in a tent, and they have four children.

One had a dream to be a surgeon.

One had a dream to be a dentist.

They -- she said: "We're not living in Gaza.

We're waiting.

We're waiting for food.

We're waiting for water.

We're waiting for our kids to come home and wondering if they're going to be one less child in the morning."

As a mother, she's not different than me.

They're so dehumanized.

They -- people have made up stories about them.

And it's an excuse to conduct a genocide.

And I just wish people could -- I wish leaders would hear their voices and sit with Rahaf and her mom and see that Rahaf doesn't have legs anymore.

And this girl is so bright.

And every 3-year-old I have worked with across all communities, they're all different and unique and beautiful, but they're all the same.

And to look at her, and for people to think that it doesn't matter that they're the largest cohort of amputees in history, it doesn't matter that 18,000 children have been killed, it doesn't matter that there's that new acronym, wounded child no surviving family.

Like, it matters.

GEOFF BENNETT: What do you hope is the most enduring impact of Ms. Rachel on the children and families who watch your work?

RACHEL ACCURSO: I hope they all know that they're welcome, and that they're valuable, and that they're worthy, and that they're loved, and that they belong, and that they're equal.

GEOFF BENNETT: Rachel Accurso, better known as Ms. Rachel, thanks so much for being with us.

RACHEL ACCURSO: Thank you so much for having me.

AMNA NAWAZ: And we will be back shortly.

But, first, take a moment to hear from your local PBS station.

It's a chance to offer your support, which helps to keep programs like this one on the air.

For those of you staying with us, special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro brings us an encore report about an ancient musical tradition using the violin.

It's part of our arts and culture series, Canvas.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: The violinists come from musical traditions as distant as their respective hometowns.

Sumanth Manjunath home is right here in Mysuru, a rising star in Carnatic music who has performed across the world.

Ariana Kim from St. Paul, Minnesota, Grammy nominated, a violin professor at Cornell University, far more familiar with the musical scores of Bach or Handel than this raga in the Carnatic tradition improvised entirely.

Kim is spending a sabbatical in India learning a very different adaptation of her instrument, learning that's taken some unlearning, like posture.

ARIANA KIM, Cornell University: One of the hard things is to resist the temptation to do what my Western sort of muscles and ear want to do, like learning how to use these muscles differently, and using this muscle differently.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: The instrument sits like an inverted cello, resting on the foot, artist seated on the floor, the traditional tamboura strings here replicated via a phone app.

ARIANA KIM: You just plug it in and it makes this beautiful drone to play against.

And wherever they set that up is their sa.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: The sa, another adjustment for Kim, tuning her instrument to the Carnatic scale or raga.

ARIANA KIM: So, do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, and si is (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE).

So they all have a direct equivalent.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Not quite that simple.

The scales are, as she puts it, ornamented.

ARIANA KIM: It might sound... (MUSIC) FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Carnatic music is played mostly in South India, the oldest form of Indian classical music, originally intended as devotional, not necessarily entertainment, and oriented toward the human voice.

That likely explains why Carnatic maestros from the 18th and 19th centuries saw the violin as a good fit.

Kim's three weekly sessions are with both Sumanth Manjunath and his father, Mysore Manjunath, one of India's most renowned Carnatic violinists, who was away when we visited.

SUMANTH MANJUNATH, Musician: Beautiful.

Once again.

(MUSIC) SUMANTH MANJUNATH: Yes, there, there is no tension.

You can play it peacefully.

We don't need to make it a little bit faster.

You can also take time when you play.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: The learning here is oral, though she takes copious notes.

The ancient ragas, if written at all, were only loosely outlined by their composers.

Individual artists improvise and build on them, just as jazz musicians do.

It's a big change for a musician's schooled to faithfully follow notes or scores as the composer wrote them.

ARIANA KIM: I have always had sort of an interest in music from other parts of the world and how symbiotic they can be.

Just as nature inspired thousands of ragas, she says, the experience here will profoundly inform all her work and future.

ARIANA KIM: It inspires new creativity in the way I think about Bach.

And when I play American bluegrass and old-time music, it makes me think differently about how I might improvise a cadenza in Mozart, and, likewise, the similarities between Korean music, which I studied in my last sabbatical, and Carnatic music, how the gamakas function, how you sort of unveil a raga, how you sort of welcome the audience into a raga.

And you have the responsibility of understanding sort of the tone and the feeling.

Dr. Manjunath and his son, Sumanth, they're just -- they're masters at feeling that internal pulse.

SUMANTH MANJUNATH: Ariana has been grasping all the minute microtones.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Sumanth Manjunath was himself complimentary at this recital in the home of a retired Indian diplomat.

SUMANTH MANJUNATH: The amount of observation that she does about the fingering techniques that we play is amazing.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: She will return home soon and hopes to jam occasionally with Carnatic artists in America, helping preserve memories, including those in the muscles she awakened while learning Carnatic violin.

(MUSIC) FRED DE SAM LAZARO: For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Fred de Sam Lazaro in Mysuru, India.

(MUSIC) (APPLAUSE) SUMANTH MANJUNATH: Wow.

AMNA NAWAZ: And Fred's reporting is a partnership with the Under-Told Stories Project at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota.

Finally tonight, a story from PBS Student Reporting Labs, our high school journalism training program.

They traveled to Maryland to learn about one man's very unique job as a so-called riverkeeper.

FRED TUTMAN, Patuxent Riverkeeper: My name is Fred Tutman.

And I'm the riverkeeper on the Patuxent River for the last 21 years.

As the riverkeeper, I'm an advocate for clean water on the state's longest and deepest inside-the-state river.

This river doesn't go anywhere except Maryland.

My main mission as a riverkeeper is to not only protect the resource to the best we can, so we do file lawsuits and lobby for policy change and new laws and better laws, but also to preserve, particularly on the Patuxent, the tradition of community activism.

I kind of stumbled into this work.

I was a late life law student after a career in television and radio, and I just thought this was made for me.

I grew up next to the Patuxent river, and so this was my home river.

I grew up as a boy playing on the river, having little adventures, kind of like Huck Finn or Mark Twain's novels.

I was a kid who played around building my homemade rafts and trying to catch fish in various ways.

So the summer camps are a passion project of myself and the people who work here at Patuxent Riverkeeper.

All of us have had mentoring.

All of us have had people who have been kind to us and shown us stuff along the way.

Everybody needs mentors.

I have seen kids really transformed.

I have seen kids come here scared of the water and leave this camp thinking, ah, I got this.

(LAUGHTER) FRED TUTMAN: I love that.

I think that's really exciting.

And who knows?

Maybe we will find another riverkeeper.

I'm not a young man anymore.

I have had two careers behind me.

And I look ahead to some formal succession someday and think, if there's going to be a riverkeeper, maybe it'll come from this community that we have started to build.

And I think the isms, classism, racism, sexism, those infect every institution, not just the environmental ones.

The truth is, the environment is -- whether it's intentional or not, is segregated.

What people experience in the environment is unique to their social orientation.

And I think that's where we have to really integrate these movements.

These movements are dying for more participation from people of color, people from all walks.

Clean water, we cannot live without it.

And then the reality is, I don't think the planet's going to get cleaned up by just white people doing all the work and the rest of us standing around saying, ah, I'm going to be diverse.

I mean, how crazy is that?

How incomplete a story.

The story of America is the story of everybody.

AMNA NAWAZ: Terrific student journalism there.

And that is the "News Hour" for tonight.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

On behalf of the entire "News Hour" team, thank you for joining us.