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The recent release of a trove of documents related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy is a subject that's long been fertile ground for conspiracy theories.

But where do these firm — and unsubstantiated — beliefs that give way to conspiracy theories come from? And how do they spread? PBS News’ John Yang spoke with science writer David Robert Grimes to find out.

“At times when things are uncertain or people are afraid, conspiracy theories, they proliferate more wildly,” Grimes told Yang.

Watch:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esaVx... 

Val Kilmer, an actor known for his roles in “Top Gun,” “Batman Forever” and “The Doors,” has died. He was 65 years old.


His daughter, Mercedes Kilmer, said in an email to The Associated Press that her father died while surrounded by friends and family Tuesday night in Los Angeles.

Fellow actor Josh Brolin paid tribute to his friend Kilmer, calling him “a smart, challenging, brave, uber-creative firecracker. There’s not a lot left of those.”


Kilmer, who at the time was the youngest person ever accepted into The Juilliard School’s drama division, landed his film debut in the starring role of 1984’s “Top Secret!” In the action-comedy, he played an American rock ‘n’ roll performer who mistakenly gets wrapped up in a rescue operation.


In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Kilmer took on leading roles in critically acclaimed films such “Tombstone” with Kurt Russell and Bill Paxton, and “Heat” with Al Pacino and Robert de Niro. In “Top Gun,” arguably his best-known role, he played the role of hotshot pilot Tom “Iceman” Kazansky opposite Tom Cruise.


“I didn’t want the part. I didn’t care about the film. The story didn’t interest me,” Kilmer wrote in his memoir. But after the script was reworked, he agreed to be part of the film. He reprised the role in the 2022 sequel, “Top Gun: Maverick.”


For all of the career highs, he also starred in films that were not as celebrated. He played the title role in 1995’s “Batman Forever,” following up on Michael Keaton’s Batman films, but did not return for a sequel. One year later, he appeared in “The Island of Dr. Moreau” with Marlon Brando, a production that became infamous for its dysfunction.

He acted in fewer movies after that. Kilmer was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014 and underwent two tracheotomies.


“I have no regrets,” Kilmer told The Associated Press in 2021 about his life and career. “I’ve witnessed and experienced miracles.”


Learn more:  https://to.pbs.org/4jeIgwH 

The official death toll from Myanmar’s massive earthquake last week is now more than 2,700 people, according to the country’s military government. Hundreds of people are still missing and thousands are injured.


International aid organizations are working to deliver relief to those in need and left homeless by the quake. 

The U.S. State Department said Monday a humanitarian aid team was on its way to Myanmar to provide help, and rejected the notion that cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) will hamper U.S. response to the disaster. That position stands in contrast, however, to a log written by current USAID employees and obtained by PBS News that said in part, “The U.S. government no longer has the tools or personnel to respond when our global neighbors request assistance.”


Chris Milligan, who previously held the most senior career position at USAID during the last Trump administration, said Monday that there “really hasn't been” an earthquake response from the U.S. That lack of response, Milligan went on to say, could have significant foreign policy consequences.


“We provide humanitarian assistance because we're a generous country, and we do it based upon needs. However, there is a big dividend back here for America. It's a showcase of American values. It creates goodwill. It strengthens our partnerships in the world, and it supports our global leadership,” Milligan told PBS News' Nick Schifrin. “By walking away from humanitarian assistance, we are creating a political void that others, such as China, can fill for their own advantage.” 


Watch more from the interview:  https://to.pbs.org/41ShSDg 

George Foreman, two-time heavyweight boxing champion, Olympic gold medalist and businessman, has died at the age of 76.

In 1968, Foreman won an Olympic gold medal in Mexico City as an amateur boxer. He then went professional and won the world heavyweight championship in 1973. He defended his title twice before being defeated by Muhammad Ali in the famous 1974 fight called "The Rumble in the Jungle."

Foreman retired from boxing in 1977 after losing a match to Jimmy Young and experiencing a religious awakening in his locker room. He became a preacher but then returned to boxing 10 years later, becoming the oldest man to win the heavyweight championship in 1994 at 45 years old.

Foreman was also a spokesman for the "George Foreman Lean Mean Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine," which sold over 100 million units worldwide.

“A devout preacher, a devoted husband, a loving father and a proud grand- and great-grandfather, he lived a life marked by unwavering faith, humility and purpose," his family wrote in a post Friday on Foreman's social media. “A force for good, a man of discipline, conviction, and a protector of his legacy, fighting tirelessly to preserve his good name — for his family.” 

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick suggested this week that if Social Security recipients did not receive their checks, only those who are defrauding the system would complain.

“Let's say Social Security didn't send out their checks this month. My mother-in-law, who's 94, she wouldn't call and complain. She just wouldn't. She'd think something got messed up and she'll get it next month,” Lutnick told “All-In” podcast hosts and entrepreneurs Chamath Palihapitiya and David Friedberg. “A fraudster always makes the loudest noise, screaming, yelling and complaining.”

Lutnick, a billionaire businessman who led a brokerage and investment firm before being picked by President Donald Trump to lead the U.S. Department of Commerce, said seniors “trust the government. … They're not going to call and scream at someone. But someone who's stealing always does.” 

He went on to say that the federal government does not “have to take one penny from someone who deserves Social Security, not one penny from someone who deserves Medicaid and Medicare” if it stops sending money to “someone who’s not hurt, who’s on disability for 50 years.”

Lutnick’s comments come as the Social Security Administration said it would stay open, following a judge’s ruling that the Department of Government Efficiency was barred from accessing the agency’s systems that hold personal data on millions of Americans.

According to the agency’s own data, an average of nearly 69 million Americans per month will receive Social Security benefits in 2025. Around 10 percent of benefits were paid to disabled workers and their dependents in 2024, and it’s estimated that 1 in 4 young Americans today will become disabled and entitled to Social Security before age 67. 

A recent study from New York University estimates that the number of dementia cases in the United States will double by 2060, reaching 1 million new diagnoses each year. But, the research also found that "a lot of dementia risk is preventable," Dr. Josef Coresh said.

Coresh, director of the Optimal Aging Institute at NYU's Langone Health System, spoke to PBS News Weekend's John Yang about what can be done to help prevent it.

Watch:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RF-Y1... 

In a rare statement, Chief Justice John Roberts called judicial impeachment "not an appropriate response" to disagreeing with a judge's decision.

The nation's top judge made the comments Tuesday after President Donald Trump called for the impeachment of a federal judge who recently blocked the administration's deportation flights.

“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” Roberts said. “The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”

In a social media post earlier on Tuesday, Trump called U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg an unelected “troublemaker and agitator.” The president said he was “doing what the VOTERS wanted me to do” by dealing with illegal immigration and said Boasberg “should be IMPEACHED!!!”

According to the U.S. Constitution, the House of Representatives has the power to impeach a judge, while the Senate votes on whether to convict the official on charges of “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.” Fifteen judges or justices in American history have had impeachment cases go before the Senate in a trial, the last one taking place in 2010.

Read more:  https://to.pbs.org/43RBatE 

There's a growing sense among Americans that the country is headed in the right direction, according to the latest PBS News/NPR/Marist poll.


According to the poll, conducted in late February, 45% of Americans believe the U.S. is headed in the right direction — up 10 points from December and now at the second-highest point of the last 15 years.

Yet more than half of Americans (54%) believe the country is headed in the wrong direction.


President Donald Trump is benefiting from a political honeymoon, said Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion. Trump’s 45% approval is a “cautionary number” that is hard to interpret as broad support for his agenda, Miringoff said.


In follow-up conversations with PBS News, poll respondents described the president’s first month as everything from “fabulous” to “chaos” and “disaster.” Impressions were divided strongly along party lines, and none of the people we spoke to changed their views of Trump since the election.


Read more:  https://to.pbs.org/3QEY4N8 

President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance got into a heated exchange with visiting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office on Friday over U.S. support for Ukraine in its ongoing fight against Russian forces.

The back-and-forth between the three men took place during what’s known as a pool spray, when the White House provides access for a limited number of members of the media to observe and report on a meeting or event.

After Zelenskyy shared his skepticism that U.S. diplomacy with Russian President Vladimir Putin will be successful, Vance told Ukraine’s president that it was “disrespectful for you to come to the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media.”

“You should be thanking the president for trying to bring an end to this conflict,” Vance told Zelenskky, while also noting that Ukraine has issues bringing more manpower into its military.

Trump told Zelenskyy, “You're gambling with World War III, and what you're doing is very disrespectful to the country, this country, that’s backed you far more than a lot of people said they should have.”

Ukraine has been pushing for security guarantees from the U.S. to prevent further Russian incursion on Ukrainian territory. Trump has said in recent days that the U.S. was not going to make security guarantees “beyond very much. We’re going to have Europe do that.” 

After the meeting, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that he has “determined that President Zelenskyy is not ready for peace if America is involved, because he feels our involvement gives him a big advantage in negotiations.”

“He disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office,” Trump said. “He can come back when he is ready for peace.”

Ukraine was set to sign an economic agreement that will give the U.S. access to the European country’s rare earth minerals, But, after the Oval Office meeting, Zelenskyy left the White House early without signing the agreement.

Photos by Brian Snyder via Reuters. 

According to a 2024 survey, 1 in 10 women of reproductive age say they received fertility assistance, including in vitro fertilization. But insurance coverage for the procedure is limited.

One of the executive orders President Donald Trump signed recently seeks policy recommendations to expand access to IVF. The procedure uses assisted reproductive technology to fertilize an embryo outside of the body. The fertilized embryo is then transferred into the uterus.

PBS News' Ali Rogin spoke with Barbara Collura, president and CEO of RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association, for more.

Watch:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVvRz...