PBS NewsHour

Jazz legend Sonny Rollins, the "Saxophone Colossus" known for his improvisation, artistic exploration and tone, has died at the age of 95.

His death Monday at his home in Woodstock, New York, was announced "with deep sorrow and profound love" in a statement on his website.

Rollins recorded more than 60 albums during his seven-decade career, with many of his compositions like "St. Thomas," "Oleo," and "Airegin" becoming jazz standards. He was one of the last living greats of the expressive bebop generation, which included Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk.

In 2011, Rollins told PBS News' Jeffrey Brown that being one of the last giants from that period weighed on him, but that their legacy would endure.

"I'm the last guy. But, in a way, I'm not, because when I'm gone, the music, my music, is going to be here," he said. "So we're all still here."

Born in New York City in 1930 as Walter Theodore Rollins, he grew up in Harlem surrounded by jazz. Largely self-taught, he started playing the saxophone at a young age. By the time he was a teen, he had become a sensation, performing with leading jazz artists.

Addiction to heroin at age 19 sidetracked his career, and he served two stints in jail in the early 1950s. He kicked the habit after checking himself into a drug treatment program in 1954.

He released a string of landmark albums between 1956 and 1958, including "Saxophone Colossus," "Way Out West" and "A Night at the Village." In the late 1950s, he spent more than two years practicing alone on the pedestrian walkway of the Williamsburg Bridge in New York to reinvent his playing. Rollins would later release the 1962 album "The Bridge." Rollins also crossed genres when he provided saxophone solos for the Rolling Stones' 1981 album "Tattoo You."

He received a Grammy for lifetime achievement in 2004, the National Medal of Arts from then-President Barack Obama in 2010 and the Jazz Foundation of America's Lifetime Achievement award in 2015.

Photo by Vincent West via Reuters

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PBS NewsHour

Former Proud Boys leader Henry "Enrique" Tarrio told PBS News he's "excited" about the Department of Justice’s announcement of a $1.776 billion "anti-weaponization" fund, adding he believes he's owed "somewhere in the mid-tens of millions."

The Proud Boys is an extremist, far-right group that played a major role in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. PBS News spoke with several Jan. 6 defendants after the DOJ's announcement of the fund, including Tarrio, who had one of the highest-profile convictions in the agency's large-scale investigation into the attack.

Tarrio said acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is doing an "amazing job" and that, between his commuted sentence last year and potential compensation under the fund, he feels like he is finally getting the justice he deserves. A memo detailing the fund does not address whether Jan. 6 defendants would be eligible.

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PBS NewsHour

Tulsi Gabbard announced Friday that she is stepping down as director of national intelligence.

In a letter to President Donald Trump that she posted on social media, Gabbard wrote that she is resigning, effective June 30, to be with her husband after he was diagnosed “with an extremely rare form of bone cancer.”

"At this time, I must step away from public service to be by his side and fully support him through this battle," she said.

During her 15 months as chief of America’s spy agencies, Gabbard faced scrutiny over her conduct and the handling of U.S. intelligence. Earlier this year, she came under fire for her presence at an FBI search at an election office in Fulton County, Georgia, for records related to the 2020 election. Gabbard also testified to Congress in 2025 that Iran wasn’t building a nuclear weapon, an assessment President Donald Trump later dismissed.

Her resignation comes two months after Joe Kent, a close aide, left his position as director of the National Counterterrorism Center over his opposition to the Iran war.

Gabbard joins the list of recent high-level Trump Cabinet departures, such as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer.

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PBS NewsHour

Barney Frank, the former U.S. congressman from Massachusetts who championed gay rights and crafted major banking reforms in the fallout from the U.S. financial crisis of the late 2000s, has died. He was 86.

He was an LGBT rights pioneer in Congress. In 1987, he publicly declared that he was gay, becoming the first member of the U.S. House to come out voluntarily. When he wed his husband, Jim Ready, in 2012, he became the first sitting member of Congress to marry someone of the same sex.

He told PBS News Hour economics correspondent Paul Solman in 2012 that he was "pleasantly surprised" by how quickly the nation changed its collective view on LGBT rights. "It's gone a little faster than I thought it would," Frank said.

Frank represented the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, yet also worked with the Bush administration to pass bailout packages for the financial services industry as it careened toward collapse. He served as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee from 2007 to 2011, as the country navigated the subprime mortgage crisis and Great Recession.

During that time, Frank worked with Sen. Chris Dodd to craft what has been called the most significant financial reform legislation since FDR's New Deal. The Dodd-Frank Act, signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2010, created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and empowered regulators, among other items.

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PBS NewsHour

Dr. Marty Makary, commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, is resigning from his post, President Donald Trump confirmed Tuesday.

“He's a great doctor and he was having some difficulty, but he's going to go on and he's going to do well,” Trump told reporters as he was departing the White House for a state visit to China.

The resignation follows months of turmoil at the agency and growing frustration inside the White House with Makary's leadership.

Makary, a former surgical oncologist at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, has faced scrutiny for his handling of vaping, abortion and drug policy, according to recent reporting by the Wall Street Journal.

“The president himself grew quite frustrated that he felt Marty Makary was slow-walking his agenda on flavored vapes. And he made that frustration known,” Wall Street Journal reporter Liz Essley Whyte told PBS News Hour’s Stephanie Sy last week.

Some Republican lawmakers wanted greater restrictions placed on the abortion pill mifepristone, which Makary had promised in his confirmation hearing to have the FDA review.

Kyle Diamantas, FDA deputy commissioner for food, will succeed Makary as acting commissioner of the agency.

Photo by Elizabeth Frantz via Reuters

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PBS NewsHour

More than 8 in 10 Americans say that they're feeling the strain of higher gas prices, according to the latest PBS News/NPR/Marist poll released Wednesday — and more than 6 in 10 blame Trump.

About 63% of independents blame the president for higher costs at the pump. Meanwhile, 32% of Republicans and 26% of people who voted for Trump in 2024 blame him "a good amount" or "a great deal."

"That's something people see, like the cost of milk and the cost of bread," said Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion. "More than some kind of economic indicator, these are the things that people react to and they see it. I guess it's the old Marx Brothers like: 'What are you going to believe, me or your own eyes?' And in this case, people are experiencing it directly."

In the latest poll, a third of U.S. adults say gas prices are putting a "major strain" on their budgets -- a consistent sentiment across the political spectrum (36% of Democrats, 28% of Republicans and 33% of independents said the same).

Overall, 63% of Americans do not feel the economy is working well for them. That percentage has ticked up slightly since December, and has risen about six percentage points from a year ago.

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PBS NewsHour

President Donald Trump's approval rating remains low, according to a new PBS News/NPR/Marist poll.

Thirty-seven percent of Americans approve of the job Trump is doing as president, according to the poll, released Wednesday. Fifty-nine percent disapprove — relatively unchanged from March.

Sixty-one percent of Americans disapprove of how Trump is handling the economy, which may be a warning sign for the GOP come this fall, said Amy Walter, editor of The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter.

"It's hard not to connect all those dots to say that the reason his job approval is slumping is because frustration about inflation is rising, and you're seeing it across all groups of voters now," she said.

Overall, Republicans are sticking with Trump, she noted, with 81% saying they approve of the job he's doing as president. But among white Americans who are not college graduates, 52% say they disapprove.

"That is a core constituency of his, and I would have to believe that it is driven as much by the frustration over inflation as anything else," Walter said.

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PBS NewsHour

Ted Turner, the media tycoon who founded CNN, has died at 87.

“He was and always will be the presiding spirit of CNN," Mark Thompson, chairman and CEO of CNN Worldwide, said in a statement. "Ted is the giant on whose shoulders we stand, and we will all take a moment today to recognize him and his impact on our lives and the world.”

Turner said in 2018 that he had been diagnosed with Lewy body dementia, a progressive brain disorder.

Born in 1938 in Cincinnati, Turner took over his family's advertising firm, Turner Advertising, after his father's death in the early 1960s.

He later started acquiring radio and TV stations, eventually renaming the firm to Turner Communications, which would become the Turner Broadcasting System. One of the stations he bought was a struggling UHF station in Atlanta, and he transformed it into the first satellite "superstation." After buying the Atlanta Braves in the 1970s, he secured the rights to broadcast live games nationwide.

Turner launched CNN, the first 24-hour news television station in the country, in 1980. The network helped change the industry and way the world gets news, with cable stations like Fox News and MSNBC, now known as MS Now, launching more than a decade later.

In 1996, he sold Turner Broadcasting to Time Warner. Turner became vice chairman and oversaw the company's cable TV brands. Time Warner merged with AOL in 2001, and Turner resigned two years later.

Turner, whose third and final marriage was to activist and actress Jane Fonda from 1991 to 2001, was also a philanthropist and environmentalist.

He co-founded the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a nonprofit that aims to reduce the use of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. Turner also co-founded the restaurant chain Ted's Montana Grill to help revive and grow the country's bison herd.

Photo by Phil McCarten via Reuters

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PBS NewsHour

Six in 10 Americans disapprove of the way President Donald Trump is handling his war in Iran, including more than one in five Republicans, according to a new PBS News/NPR/Marist poll.

More than 60% of Americans believe the president has weakened the nation's standing on the world stage.

Hundreds of Iranians have been killed and thousands injured in strikes since late February, and at least 13 U.S. service members have died in action. Oil and gas prices skyrocketed and shipping disruptions have complicated supply chains, driving up prices for food, fertilizer and other goods.

Trump on Tuesday claimed "great progress" on a deal to end the war, after weeks of a fragile ceasefire and largely stalled talks.

"I think it's got a very good chance of ending, and if it doesn't end, we have to go back to bombing the hell out of them," Trump told PBS White House correspondent Liz Landers in a phone call Wednesday morning.

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PBS NewsHour

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz criticized the U.S. strategy in its war with Iran, saying Monday that America is being “humiliated” by Iran’s leadership and comparing the conflict to earlier U.S. wars in the Middle East.

"The Americans clearly have no strategy," Merz said to students in the German town of Marsberg. "The problem with conflicts like this is always that you don’t just have to go in; you also have to get out again. We saw that all too painfully in Afghanistan, for 20 years. We saw it in Iraq. So this whole affair is, as I said, ill-considered, to say the least."

Merz said he could not see what a “strategic exit” would look like for the U.S., due to what he described as the Iranian government’s skillful negotiation tactics.

"An entire nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership, especially by these so-called Revolutionary Guards," he said.

Merz added that Germany's offer to send minesweepers to help open the Strait of Hormuz still stands, but only after the fighting ends.

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