PBS News Hour - Full Show - August 12, 2025 – PBS News Hour full episode

Episode Date: August 12, 2025

Tuesday on the News Hour, prices on some goods are beginning to tick up and the president's tariffs are a key factor. A new State Department report pulls back some of its criticisms of human rights violations around the world. Plus, the world's largest hunger crisis, Millions face famine and displacement amid the intensifying civil war in Sudan. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

Good evening. I'm Amna Nawaz. And I'm Jeff Bennett. On the news hour tonight, new data shows prices on some goods are beginning to tick up, and the president's tariffs are a key factor. A State Department report pulls back some of its criticisms of human rights violations around the world. And the world's largest hunger crisis. Millions face famine and displacement amid the intensifying civil war in Sudan. We are suffering so much from no food, no water.

We are hungry. Our children are naked. We have nothing to eat but animal feed. There is no water. We have nothing. Welcome to the News Hour. New inflation figures show President Trump's tariffs are starting to have an impact on consumer prices. Overall, inflation held steady at 2.7 percent year over year, but so-called core

inflation, which is closely watched by the Fed and does not include volatile food and energy prices, ticked up 3.1%. That's the largest increase in five months. The report was the first from the Bureau of Labor Statistics since President Trump fired its commissioner, Erica McIntyre for earlier this month, accusing her without evidence of rigging economic data. That firing came just hours after the release of a weaker than expected jobs report. Late yesterday, the president nominated her replacement, E.J. Antony, chief economist at the Heritage Foundation. That's a conservative think tank. For more now, we are joined by Michael Strain.

He's the Director of Economic Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute. Michael, thanks for joining us. Let's just start off with these new inflation numbers. Overall inflation holding steady was helped, we should note, by drops in gas and energy prices. But the fact that core inflation did take up. How do you look at that? What's behind it? And what does it say about the overall economy right now? Thank you.

I think it's troubling. As you say, we saw an increase in core inflation. This is, I think, become a trend. I think we can say that we are in an economy where underlying inflation seems to be accelerating. Importantly, underlying inflation is accelerating from a level that's already too high. So we have inflation that's well above the Fed's target and inflation that seems to be accelerating. And what's the role of the tariffs in all of this, especially

given the sort of staggered rollout we've seen, the on-again, off-again nature of the president's tariffs policy. Is that fueling some of that inflation here? Yeah, the tariffs are clearly playing a role. And you can see that some of the goods that are most exposed to tariffs are showing pretty substantial increases in their prices. I think the worst is yet to come when it comes to tariff-driven inflation. I think over the next few months, we're going to see more and more evidence of the tariffs showing up in inflation. A lot of the inflation that we are seeing in the data is driven by underlying strength

in the economy and not necessarily driven by the tariffs. And so, you know, the worry is that we have both happening at the same time. I want to ask you, too, about what we were just reported, how the president's now announced that E.J. Antony is going to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics after the previous head was fired. We should note Mr. Anthony is someone that Steve Bannon had been pushing for, someone who stead on Bannon's podcast, that it should be a MAGA Republican that President Trump knows and trusts to lead the agency. It now looks like he's tapped to do that. He's also long criticized the BLS and the way that it does the work.

So what do you think about this choice to lead the agency? Can you trust the numbers moving forward? I think that we should absolutely go into this trusting the numbers. I am extremely confident that the previous BLS commissioner, the previous head of the agency, did not rig the data. Part of my confidence comes from the fact that it's just really hard to rig the data. And it will be hard to rig the data under the next BLS commissioner as well. So we should have confidence in the data until there's a reason not to. And that could come in the form of career staff, raising alarm bells about things that are happening inside the agency.

It could come from evidence that the information of the agency is putting out doesn't match other data we have or isn't internally consistent. So, you know, we should always be alert. But I think our default assumption should be that the integrity of the data will remain. This is someone we should know, D.J. Anthony, who in an interview earlier this month, with Fox Business Digital suggested that BLS's monthly jobs methodology was flawed. He went on to say this. Until it's corrected, the BLS should suspend issuing the monthly job report, but keep publishing the more accurate, though less timely, quarterly data.

He said major decision makers from Wall Street to D.C. rely on the numbers, a lack of confidence and the data has far-reaching consequences. Do you think, Michael, do you think that's a good idea to suspend that monthly jobs report? I think that would be a terrible idea, and I hope that that was just a throwaway comment that Mr. Anthony gave in an interview and not something that he would attempt to pursue where he put, where he made BLS Commissioner. I think it's something that senators in the confirmation process need to ask him, and I think journalists should be asking him about his views on that as well, and I'm hoping that it was just a one-off comment. he made in an interview before he was nominated to this position. I've just got about 30 seconds left, but I need to ask you about President Trump's comments online today about the Fed chairman Jerome Powell.

He once again demanded online that Powell lower interest rates and also seemed to threaten him with legal action related to renovation costs at the Federal Reserve Building. How do you look at this, Michael? Is this political interference or intimidation? What's going on? I think it's absolute political interference and intimidation. It is a threat to the long-term prosperity of the economy to have the president involving himself in monetary policy in this way, to have the president bullying the Fed chairman. I think Mr. Powell has displayed an enormous amount of integrity and has dealt with this bullying and harassment very well.

But what President Trump is doing is dangerous and it should stop. Michael Strain of the American Enterprise Institute. Thank you for joining us. Thank you. The day's other headlines start with President Trump's temporary federal takeover of policing in Washington, D.C. The first of some 800 activated National Guard soldiers were seen on the streets of the nation's capital today. Separately, White House press secretary Caroline Levitt said today that a surge of of some 850 federal law enforcement officers started yesterday.

The city's Democratic mayor, Muriel Bowser, insists that police chief Pam Smith remains in charge. Bowser also spoke about making the most of the heightened security presence. What I'm focused on is the federal surge and how to make the most of the additional officer support that we have. How we got here or what the, what we think about. the circumstances right now. We have more police and we want to make sure we're using them. Also today, the White House said it would increase its crackdown on homeless encampments, offering those affected the option of moving into a shelter or a drug treatment facility,

those who refuse, face fines, or even jail time. In Texas, GOP leaders say they'll call a second special session of the state's legislature if Democrats don't return to work by a Friday deadline. Governor Greg Abbott also threatened to keep at it until the Republican agenda is passed, saying, quote, there will be no reprieve for the derelict Democrats who fled the state and abandoned their duty. There being 95 members present, a quorum is not present. The announcement came shortly after the Texas House once again failed to meet a quorum this morning. A group of Texas Democrats left the state earlier this month to block voting on a redrawn congressional map that could help Republican. claim five additional seats in Congress. Democrats say it amounts to cheating. Police in Texas

say the man who shot three people in a target parking lot opened fire randomly. The attack took place in Austin yesterday afternoon with back-to-school shopping underway. The victims include a target employee who was collecting carts, a four-year-old, and her grandfather. Police say the shooter had been previously arrested for domestic violence and assault. Today, officials said he had a history of mental illness but said they were unaware of a specific diagnosis. For someone to have this capacity to take the life of three innocent people and a four-year-old child. As we move forward and are looking more into this, it will be interesting to kind of peel that back and see where those failures took place. Following the shooting, the 32-year-old suspect

reportedly stole two cars before being subdued with a taser and arrested. He's currently being held on capital murder charges. In the Middle East, Israeli planes and tanks, struck eastern Gaza city overnight and today, killing at least 11 people. Bystanders rushed victims away from the scene of one strike where witnesses say a man-selling water was killed. Israel says it tries to avoid civilian casualties and blames Hamas for operating in densely populated areas. Meantime, Gaza's health ministry says five more Palestinians died of malnutrition in the past day. That comes as foreign ministers from two-distance. From two dozen countries issued a statement today saying the suffering in Gaza has reached what they

called unimaginable levels. They're calling on Israel to allow unrestricted aid into the territory. In Europe, wildfires are burning in areas from one end of the continent to the other. Overnight in Spain, firefighters battled a blaze that surrounded the capital Madrid. Emergency services said one person was killed. Meantime to the east and Turkey evacuees were whisked away from the encroaching flames by boat. In Montenegro, residents there returned to their homes today only to find everything destroyed. Everything that can be paid for and bought can be compensated, but the memories that burned in these four rooms cannot be.

The most important thing is that there were no human casualties, but what happened yesterday was truly like something out of a horror film. already say the flames are being fueled by an extreme heat wave that's simmering the entire continent. Temperatures in some areas top to 104 degrees. Climate change experts say Europe is warming faster than any other continent. Tennis Hall of Famer Monica Sellis is speaking publicly for the first time about her neuromuscular autoimmune disease. The nine-time Grand Slam winner says she was diagnosed with myasthenia gravis or MG back in 2022, which causes muscles to weaken and tire quickly. 51-year-old said she learned she had the condition after experiencing double vision and weakness in her arms and legs. Celis made the announcement shortly before the start of the U.S. Open with the aim of bringing attention to the disease.

When I got diagnosed, I was like, what? So this is where I can't emphasize enough. I wish I had, you know, somebody like me speak out about it and, you know, just raise awareness. Ellis won her first major title back in 1990 at the age of 16. At one point in her career, she spent 91 weeks in a row as the world's number one player. On Wall Street today, stocks rallied after the latest inflation data fueled new hopes for interest rate cuts. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dumped nearly 500 points. The NASDAQ added nearly 300 points. The S&P 500 also ended sharply higher.

And pioneering jazz vocalist Sheila Jordan has died. I've got to tell her, oh, she'll need to know. I help her a rose, so she'll know right from phone, God, I take her strong. From a whisper to a warble to a wail, Jordan used her voice to startling effect, helping forge a legacy as one of the genre's most daring improvisers. Despite her talents, Jordan's career never entirely took off. As a single mother, she worked as a secretary in New York to help pay the bills, and she also battled addiction.

In 2012, she was named a jazz master by the National Endowment. for the arts, often described as the nation's highest honor for jazz. And Jordan never stopped working, releasing her final record, Portrait Now, just this year. Sheila Jordan was 96 years old. Still to come on the News Hour, the recent shooting at the CDC highlights the increasing threats health workers are facing, and an unusual effort to boost artists of color. This is the PBS News Hour from the David M. Rubenstein Studio at W.E. in Washington, and in the west from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State

University. The State Department released its annual Human Rights Report today, but unlike years past, this edition has come under scrutiny for what it's not reporting about many issues and countries with poor human rights records. Nick Schifrin is here now to discuss the report and to look forward to this active week of renewed Trump diplomacy with Russia. Good to see you, Nick. Thanks, Anna.

talk about this report. What is different in this year's report from years past? The report removes standalone sections on women's rights, LGBTQ rights, and discrimination on racial or ethnic lines. It strengthens criticisms of countries that Trump and his administration have clashed with diplomatically and weakens criticism of some of the administration's allies. So let's take one example, El Salvador, which, of course, as you know, well, is the strongest regional immigration partner for the United States. Last year's report, the last one written by the Biden administration, reads in part, quote, significant human rights issues included credible reports of unlawful or arbitrary killings and forced

disappearance, torture or cruel inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment by security forces, harsh and life-threatening prison conditions, arbitrary arrest and detention. That paragraph actually goes on for double that length in the last Biden administration report. It has been replaced by this sentence. were no credible reports of significant human rights abuses, quote, unquote. So that's the kind of change that you see. Today, Tammy Bruce, the State Department spokesman, was asked specifically about the El Salvador report. She didn't engage with the text, but said this about the administration's approach.

Each administration, like with President Trump, reflects a value system and an agenda and a vision that convinced the American people to vote for them. It needed to change based on the point of view and the vision of the Trump administration. It certainly promotes, as does our work, of respect for human rights around the globe. Another example, Omna, Israel. The Biden administration's last report was more than 100 pages. This is less than a fifth of that. It removes most of or almost all of the criticisms of the Israeli government. But on the other hand, this year's report increases criticisms of South Africa,

which, of course, the Trump administration has classed with diplomatically and increases criticisms of Brazil for targeting Jair Bolsonaro, the former president who, of course, tried to launch a coup against the current government more than two years ago. Some dramatic changes there. So when you talk to folks in the human rights community, what are they saying about this report? Historically, this report has been very important for the community and also for individual human rights advocates around the world,

because it's appeared in war crimes cases. It appears in individual asylum cases. It appears in academic research. But parts of this year's report do not match that historic credibility and accuracy, argues the deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Washington Office, Nicole Witterstein. We feel like this has been the politicization of a very credible, useful human rights tool that really led credibility to the whole entire exercise of the State Department for the last couple decades. Whittershine says the report is accurate on some countries, places like Afghanistan and Haiti.

But those countries are the very places that the Department of Homeland Security has removed protections for refugees living in the United States. They document terrible things that are happening right now in Afghanistan, particularly to women and children. Same with Sudan. Same with South Sudan, a relatively accurate read on Ethiopia, Haiti. And yet, at the same time, they're canceling protection for Afghans, for Haitians, for Venezuelans, for Nicaraguans. And they're sending people back to these countries to be victims and sending them back into peril. State Department spokesman Tammy Bruce said today, the new report removes, quote, politically biased demands and assertions. I mean, Malnick, I know you're also reporting on the war in Ukraine in this upcoming summit. What are you hearing from European leaders and from the White House about what to experience?

from this Friday summit between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Ukrainians and the Europeans are specially worried that President Trump could make a deal about Ukraine, without Ukraine in the room, directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Today, Zelenskyy said that Putin wants Ukraine to withdraw from all of Donetsk, all of eastern Ukraine, including parts that Ukraine still controls and that Russia doesn't occupy. He rejected that and said today that Ukrainians would reject any business. deal made directly and only between President Trump and President Putin. It is impossible to talk about Ukraine without Ukraine, and no one will accept that.

So the conversation between Putin and Trump may be important for their bilateral track, but they cannot agree on anything about Ukraine without us. I truly believe and hope that the U.S. President understands and realizes that. Today, the White House downplayed expectations calling Friday's summit, quote, a listening exercise for President Trump, emphasizing that it was President Putin who actually requested it. Putin has talked, and his allies have talked

about normalizing relations with the United States, going beyond Ukraine, talking about things like nuclear stability, possible economic deals, direct flights. But today, White House spokesperson Caroline Levitt, rejected that. Is President Trump open to those kind of peripheral conversations, or is this directly focused on ending the war on Ukraine? I think this conversation on Friday

is focused on ending the war in Ukraine, as far as the president's perspective goes. Those conversations, I think the president is interested in having, but his main priority right now is ending this war and to stop the killing that has gone on for far too long. And the war does go on. Ukraine struggling to hold the line. This video released by the Russian Ministry of Defense just today

shows Russian soldiers raising Russian flags in the eastern province of Donetsk. Amna, the timing for Ukraine could not be worse. It could allow Putin to paint Ukraine, in dire straits during that summit. Lots happening on that front. I know you're going to continue to cover it all. Nick Schifrin, thanks as always.

Thank you. on the CDC campus. One police officer was killed and the suspect was later found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Authorities also say the gunman believed the COVID-19 vaccine was to blame for his mental health problems, including depression and thoughts of suicide. In the day since, CDC staff have spoken out about what they describe as dangerous rhetoric and rising hostility. Joining us now to discuss this is Dr. Megan Rainey, Dean of the Yale School of Public Health and Professor of Emergency Medicine. Thank you for joining us.

My pleasure. Thanks so much for having me on tonight. We have seen reporting that many CDC staff are dreading, returning to work. Many still deeply shaken after last week's shooting. From what you're hearing, what's the general mood among health care and public health workers right now? I've spent the weekend talking to friends and colleagues within the CDC, within state and local public health departments, as well as within health care, across the country. And I'll say the mood is one of both fear and frustration or maybe even anger. Fear because folks were shot at. And it is by the grace of God that only one person died on

Friday evening. Frustration and anger because it's felt by many that this was almost inevitable, that at some point the violent rhetoric that is experienced online or sometimes that some of us have experienced in person being yelled at us was eventually going to turn into actual physical threats. On that point at a press conference this morning, the Georgia Bureau of Investigations at a search of the shooter's home turned up documents expressing what they described as discontent with the COVID-19 vaccinations. Tell me more about how this rhetoric, the misinformation about vaccines have played a role in this tragedy and have complicated the work that you and your colleagues do. Yeah, so it's a little bit early to know all the details about the shooter and the

shooting. But what is absolutely true is that instead of there being discussion or debate about science, a reasoned evaluation of the relative risks and benefits of interventions, instead what's happening is that an entire group of people, scientists, public health workers, healthcare professionals are being dehumanized and even demonized and blamed for things that are often not their fault and may not even be the fault of, say, for example, the vaccine. We've seen a rise in that violent rhetoric online over the past few years, but that coupling of I am in pain and suffering to, I must take that out on individuals who are working in health-related fields,

That is relatively new and quite scary and I think reflected in this shooting. Secretary Kennedy, known for his anti-vaccine views, he visited the CDC yesterday, issued a statement condemning the shootings. The new CDC director did essentially the same thing. Do gestures like that meaningfully change the tone and climate? I think it's too early to say, I think that gestures matter, right? After a mass shooting, having those gestures, after things. things like if I go back to something like 9-11, which was a terrorist attack, and in many ways, this was a terrorist attack. Those gestures, those symbolic acts do make a difference. Understanding

that just because only one person died, it does not mean that this was not a severe attack with severe consequences, both in the short and long term, for the psychological well-being of people that work in this field, as well as potentially for their physical health. Again, those gestures matter. But gestures alone are not enough. We also need to think about how do we actually ensure the physical safety of people working in public health and health care? How do we have an emergency response system that is better? I've heard stories from people who are at work on Friday night who only knew that there was an ongoing shooting because friends or colleagues texted them. They otherwise would have walked out into the line of fire.

So thinking about that physical safety, thinking about psychological safety, how do we support people, the survivors of the, this shooting, who, again, may not have sustained physical wounds, but have certainly sustained psychological wounds. And of course, if we are worried that someone is in crisis and has been radicalized and is in danger of hurting themselves or others, how do we take steps to make sure that that person does not hurt themselves or others, does not have access to a firearm in that moment of crisis? Here's what Secretary Kennedy had to say last night on Scripps News when he was asked about disinformation and preventing something like this from happening again.

We don't know enough about what the motive was of this individual, but people can ask questions without being penalized. And, you know, there was a tax on the NFL the other day for by a shooter who was concerned that he got a brain injury from playing football. And nobody blamed the New York Times for spreading that disinformation that football can cause injuries. How do you see the comparison he's making there? There are two parts. The first is, of course, we want people to be able to ask questions and get trustworthy answers. There are times where we don't know the answer yet. We're still researching or exploring, and we should be honest when that is so.

But sometimes we do know the answers. And then we need to share that closest approximation of the truth that we have. So I don't think anyone's saying that we shouldn't be asking questions. What we are saying is that the asking questions, should not be accompanied by violent rhetoric that implies that public health professionals, scientists, or health care providers are somehow out to cause harm

or deserve to be hurt or killed. The other side of that, of course, is to acknowledge that football does cause injury, including CTE or chronic traumatic encephalopathy. We know that. That's why we have changed helmets and padding and all kinds of things. was it football that caused that man's mental illness that led him to then go to New York City

and shoot up an office building? That link is unclear. And so I think in this case, can vaccines or certain vaccines sometimes cause side effects? Of course, is the risk greater than the benefit? No. For the vast majority of vaccines, certainly all that are FDA approved, We know that they are the safest and most effective way to prevent illness. And finally, even if this person did experience a side effect from the COVID vaccine, which does sometimes rarely happen, was that the cause of his mental illness? We don't know any more than we know whether or not it was CTE that caused the man to shoot in New York. But what we do know is that the answer to being sick physically or mentally,

should never be violence against another human. Dr. Megan Rainey, Dean of the Yale School of Public Health and Professor of Emergency Medicine. Thank you for joining us. Thank you. And we should mention the CDC started promoting a fundraiser to help the family of the officer

who was killed in the line of duty, DeKalb County Officer David Rose. He was married with two children and his wife is expecting their third child. Secretary Kennedy visited the police department on Monday and met with his widow. This week, at least 40 people have been killed by Sudan's paramilitary rapid support forces as fighting intensified in the western Darfur region.

Over the last nearly two and a half years, a brutal civil war between that paramilitary RSF and the Sudanese armed forces has killed tens of thousands of people and created the largest hunger and displacement crisis in the world. Over 14 million people, more than a quarter of the population, have been displaced within and outside of Sudan. And the city of El Fasher in Darfur faces famine and has for over a year. Stephanie Sye brings us this update and a warning some of the images in this story may be disturbing. This is the way to El Fashir in Darfur Western Sudan by donkey. No aid enters here. A generation of its children facing starvation, eating animal feed to ease the nighing hunger.

A famine was declared in the Zam-Zam camp in El Fasher more than a year ago. We are suffering so much from no food, no water. We are hungry. Our children are naked. We have nothing to eat but animal feed. There is no water. We have nothing. The risk of using animal feeds. feet to eat, it's dangerous our health. We are in acute starving and acute hunger.

Mohamed El Duda works at Zam Zam. With hundreds of thousands living here, it's Sudan's largest internally displaced persons camp. Elduda filmed these videos. For over a year, the camp in the city has been under a suffocating siege by the paramilitary rapid support forces. For civilian in the fashir, from the morning they are chasing, they are searching for the things to make or to prepare their mail or their foods. Because of the seagable fashir, nothing can enter, not humanitarian aid, not goods. What began as a power struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces or SAF and the paramilitary rapid support forces, the RSF, has escalated into a brutal civil war. Sudanese cities are

the battlegrounds. And while Sudan's army is accused of war crimes, the paramilitary RSF is accused of genocide and ethnic cleansing. In March, the Sudan army took back the capital city of Khartoum, which was captured and held by the RSF for nearly two years. But in April, the RSF declared a parallel government based in Darfur, a large region in western Sudan of more than seven million people that has been the site of gross atrocities for two decades. It is now largely controlled by the RSF with the exception of the besieged Elfashir. Another hot spot in the conflict, Korda Fond, has become a strategic crossroads for both sides in the conflict. The RSF killed dozens of people there in the last few weeks in one of the most deadly

episodes of violence in this nearly two and a half year conflict. International community, the world should be not ignore what is happening now in Sudan because every day there is further escalation. Adnan Hazam, the spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross, spoke to the news hour from Port Sudan. We are talking about 2 million people, 25 millions people who need assistance in different aspects, food, shelter, water, medication, everything. What we are witnessing, there is no respect for IHR for international humanitarian law.

So the ICRC sense of eruption of this conflict remind and urge all the parties involved in the conflict to respect the law, to spare the life of civilians. their lives are precarious, caught in a cycle of famine and disease, a cholera outbreak, and on top of that, malaria. The ICRC warns that Sudan's health infrastructure is at the brink of collapse, with 80% of facilities shut down. Most people in conflict areas have no access to health care, and even those who do rely on these makeshift clinics.

In a village outside Elfashire, Huda Ali and her family escaped family. but not the war. She's pregnant, and already the mother of four. Until now, my husband, the father of my children, has not come back to us from Al-Fasher. I had fled with the children. We have family members that are still missing. And everywhere, so much trauma. Anam Abdallah, only 19, is haunted by what she's witnessed. They killed the people. They killed people in front of us. They took the girls in front of us and raped them. Rape and starvation deployed as weapons of war in a part of the world that fears it's been forgotten. For the PBS News Hour, I'm Stephanie Tsai.

It's an arts organization focused on supporting contemporary black and brown artists and opening doors. to artists of color worldwide. As senior arts correspondent, Jeffrey Brown reports, Indigo Arts Alliance is doing all of this from its home in an unlikely place, Maine. It's part of our arts and culture series, Canvas. And we are walking on your poem. Yes, we are.

But you want us to? Yes, that's the point. A walk in the coastal Maine botanical gardens with poet Aresa White, who was commissioned to create a work within this natural setting. Her response, a mirror, poem or palindrome that can be read forwards or backwards step by step.

So you actually get to determine the pace of your reading and the pace of your contemplation. Now an associate professor of English at Maine's Colby College, White credits the Indigo Arts Alliance, where she was an artist in residence, with helping her adjust to her new surroundings. I moved here in 2018 from the San Francisco Bay Area, but originally from Brooklyn, New York, and sort of left these huge communities, these major cities. And very diverse places. Absolutely diverse in all sorts of amazing ways.

And so there was that sense of isolation and Indigo Arts Alliance felt like a hub. It is a home for me. It gave me a way to connect to different artists throughout the state. And so I felt like I had a place as a result. The fact this day at the Botanical Gardens in Booth Bay, Maine, was part of a three-year partnership with Indigo.

Welcome everyone. Called Deconstructing the Boundaries, it involved artist talks, workshops in clay, and beading, and discussions of public life today. It's also brought new artworks to the gardens, including this sculpture called In the Voice of Trees by Indigo's co-founder, Daniel Mentor. It's the ideas, people who want to make connection. We're reaching out to build community with people who wish to make connections. I am here.

It was Daniels' wife and Indigo co-founder Marcia Minter, whose work first brought the couple to Maine in 2003, when she was recruited by L.L. Bean as a marketing executive. It seemed a good career move. But the Minters had concerns about coming to a state then and still, one of the least diverse in the nation. And at a point where the conversation got serious, I said to the recruiter, I can't move someplace where my son is not going to see someone that looks like him. But they also saw an opportunity towards something larger, through art.

Marcia Minter spent 16 years at L.L. Bean before she and Daniel founded Indigo in 2018 in Portland, where the group now owns an 8,000 square foot artist in residence studio and community space. I realized that there could be a place for us and we decided to give it a shot. That doesn't mean the path has been easy. That doesn't mean that we have been a welcome with open arms at every turn. It has not been easy. We have really had to build community here. We have had to seek and find community of all kind, not just other black people or other brown people or indigenous folk, but people, period. And because that was the only way that we could stay here, we made it our, we made it our mission. Building connections through art and history

has been a major part of Daniel Mentor's own practice, also based in Portland, where he works in many forms, including sculpture, painting, collage. He's also illustrated more than a dozen books for young readers, winning numerous honors. And a large-scale immersive installation he created is featured in a major exhibition on the transatlantic slave trade in slavery's wake, organized by the National Museum of African American History and Culture, now traveling to museums around the globe. This is one of the first images I did to help tell that story. He's also told a little-known piece of Maine's history of racism through a multi-year project

exploring a small mixed-race community on Malaga Island, just off the main coast, active from the Civil War until 1912, when the state forcibly removed its residents. I saw it, uncovered this history, yes, and also connect this history. So we know the story. We know this. We just don't know that it was happening in Maine. We just don't know that it was happening this far north. But why?

I mean, why is an artist? Why take on that story to art? Because it is the responsibility of an artist to make the unseen scene. To that end, Indigo also supports scholarly research and archival projects to study and preserve the work of artists of the past. And most prominently offers time, space,

and future connections through its residency programs from main artists such as Candace Gosta, as well as artists from firsts, a field such as Ayesha Tandywe Bell, who works with a variety of materials including clay. For this particular project, I was looking at how mythology and parables are created and where their foundations are. Bell, who lives and works in Brooklyn, has had other artist's residences. Indigo, she says, offers a special kind of comfort and energy. Especially in the art world.

It's a very small, brown and black community, right? So often when you're in those spaces, you are one of or the only, you know. I think you're often, if not always, thinking about how you present yourself, your work. It's just a different level of self-consciousness and awareness in those spaces. I will eventually finish this in one of the hands that's going to hold. this basket. Another artist this summer, Alejandra Quadra. But with a real message here.

Yeah, with a message. Don't break. Don't break. Born in Peru, raised in Massachusetts where she still lives, Quadra says art has always been her way of responding to the world around her, especially with all that's impacting her community now. It's hard times, and it's challenging times, and I think that's like as an immigrant. I feel it.

And again, I think it goes back to feeling like I have a voice when I'm voiceless. Like arts organizations around the country, Indigo Arts Alliance has recently lost grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. Daniel and Marcia Mentor say it now depends on robust individual and private foundation donor support. Does your work change at a moment like this? Oh, no. No, no, no.

doesn't change. It becomes more important. It just is a testament to how important that work is. And also how the people that are so frightened by the global majority are so in need of places and spaces like ours. Because we are their opportunity to learn a lot about who they are. Jeffrey Brown in Booth Bay, Maine. We'll 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, as Americans take their summer vacations, many are visiting Europe. And some are following the advice of travel writer Rick Steves, the host of Rick Steves Europe on PBS stations.

John Yang traveled to Washington State to speak with him. Here's another look at his conversation that first aired on PBS News weekend. You've got gargoyles. We've got these, I think, are the only functioning gargoyles this side of the Mississippi. These stone carvings would fit right in on Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. But this is Rick Steve's multi-million dollar travel. company in Edmonds, Washington, a Seattle suburb. You know, Gargos do two things.

They scare away the evil spirits, of course. And they also provide a storm drain for when it really rains hard. And on a good rainy day, the water comes in the Notre Dame in Paris at Rick Steves Europe. Steve's researches some of his guidebooks himself. He spends three months every year in Europe filling notebooks with his observations. What to see, where to eat, where to stay. So this would have been 2016, and I did Florence, Paris, Barcelona, Madrid, Venice. And so I would go, and my responsibility was to visit the places in the book with other people helping.

And I would always have my moly skeene, and I would jot all my notes. And I still, I can't begin to read that now, but I can read my writing for 24 hours, and then it expires. Because I can read that shorthand. Here in Edmonds, a staff of about 100, works on his best-selling guidebooks aimed at first-time travelers. Up next, we're going to the Italian Riviera. On his podcasts. This is Travel with Rick Steve. And on his long-running TV series on PBS stations nationwide.

Here in Iceland, we experience both the power of nature and the beauty of nature. In Europe, about 240 guides lead dozens of bus tours each year. Steve said he discovered the transformative power of travel in 1978 when he was 23. That summer, he and a friend spent six weeks going from Turkey to Nepal, the storied hippie trail. It was the epic road trip, Istanbul to Kathmandu. The Beatles were hanging out with the Maharashi in India, you know, and it was a perfect time in my life. I remember this is the last year people could do the hippie trail, 1978. The next year, the Shah fell, and Ayatollah Khomeini turned Iran into a theocracy.

The next year, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, and there's a war zone. He couldn't travel through that. So there's no more hippie trail. But you didn't know that at the time. I didn't know that at the time. In fact, I was clueless about everything political at the time. I was just a 23-year-old looking for adventure in the world. And it was my coming-of-age trip.

He kept a journal on that trip and put it away years ago. but he dug it out during the pandemic. And I read it, and it was vivid. It was candid. It was raw. It was before I was a travel writer. And every day, every moment, I'd be capturing vivid details. To me it was like somebody met butterflies as they flutter by.

You know, when you're traveling, when you're far from home, and something really cool happens, you go, this is what just makes my trip sparkle, but it's gone. And there's another one. And what I wanted to do, I felt this need to write it down so I could save it. This has been Main Street for me ever since I was in seventh grade. And I don't know, when you travel, it's easy to travel when you know where your home is. His family moved to this quiet city on Puget Sound when he was 12.

It's where he practices his own brand of philanthropy and activism. We just got there until the police stalls. We can't do it anymore. But this is... Did you not allowed to sit here? Well, we will be allowed to sit here when this is a traffic-free piazza in the center of our beautiful little town. So we're engaging in a little civil disobedience here.

This is civil disobedience. So everyone's all, hello. Everyone's a while I like to just sit here and imagine it was traffic-free. Yeah, this is, I call it the piazza. You know, in America we need the piazza. Why is Italy my favorite country? In one word, piazza. Communities coming together.

He makes numerous public appearances like this one in Bellevue, Washington. We have the American dream. Not everybody has our dream. There's a moment in the journal. We describe a serendipitous event in India, and you say that this is the moment, sort of moment that makes you choose travel.

Could you read that? Yes, this is really a moment. On the road out of town, we came upon four beautiful women carrying huge baskets of grass on their heads. I goofed around with them a bit, discovering that they had a sense of humor, and then I made my move. Crouching under the giant hat of hay,

I looked a woman right in the eye, sharing the shade of all that hay, so suddenly, so close together from opposite worlds, yet sharing the same planet with our noses just inches apart, it was the kind of moment that makes me choose travel. Choose travel. Yeah, choose travel. Well, that's the kind of moment that travel should be.

It's getting up and close. In August 2024, Steve set out on an unexpected journey. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer. It's something he talks about openly. My personality, I guess, is to try to look on the bright side of things. And I thought, I don't know the language. This is all new to me. I'm going to learn.

I'm going to be okay. And if I'm not, I've had a good life, you know. He was declared cancer-free in February, just as his book was published. The ships that go out here, next stop, Tokyo. You know, I just love that. It's a reminder of a big world. From his home overlooking Puget Sound, Steve says he'll continue to preach his message that travel is more than just bucket lists and selfies. You've got to get out of your comfort zone. You've got to create a situation where serendiping. is constantly knocking on your door, and then you gotta say, yes, come on in. That's where you get those travel experiences.

That's the best souvenir. It stays with you for the rest of your life. It stays with you for the rest of your life. When it comes to travel, and especially booking airfare, new concerns around how artificial intelligence might be used to set prices. The worry comes after Delta Airlines announced it was using AI to help adjust prices on some of its flights. In this report that first ran on our digital platforms, producer Tim McPhillips takes a look at how travelers should approach buying plane tickets and how all consumers can help guard themselves against AI-driven custom pricing.

You may have heard that Delta is using artificial intelligence to help set some airfare prices. That sparked fears that the airline could create a custom price for you, using your data to find how much you'd be willing to pay for a ticket. But while Delta says they aren't doing that, they are using AI to help them adjust prices in response to market forces faster than humans can. Here are three things to know if you're booking airfare now and whether custom pricing could impact you in the future. One, if you're booking airfare now, the same old adages apply to find the best fare. Delta is testing AI to help set prices on limited flights, about 3% of fares for now, moving to 20% by the end of the year.

But while AI might help prices move up and down faster, we currently all still see the same price. So for a better deal, it's still a good idea to be flexible, which may mean flying on lower demand days like Tuesday, Wednesday, or Saturday. Consider alternate airports in the areas you are traveling to and from. Use flight comparison tools like Google Flights to easily compare cities, dates, and airlines. If you're flying roundtrip checks to see if two one-way tickets are cheaper than a round-trip booking. And consider budget airlines or basic economy tickets on mainline carriers.

But if you do so, just be sure to pack light to avoid extra fees. Two, much of the fear sparked by Delta's announcement comes from what Delta or any other airline or other company for that matter could do. What I do hear from many businesses, they're saying that by using AI models, they're able to get both higher revenue and high, higher profits. And that tells me AI is effective. Jay Zagorsky is a professor at the Questrum School of Business at Boston University. We don't have any idea right now which companies are using AI and which are not. And this is the problem I have with AI pricing. It's not transparent and it can be taking advantage of people who are not financially sophisticated.

AI could eventually help you get a better deal. AI can actually come up with custom prices. You can see a price on the shelf and if you tend to linger in that aisle a little bit, we can send you a custom ad. Hey, 10 cents off or 5% if you buy two of them right now. But there is real worry that AI could be used to harness vast amounts of data to build a consumer profile on you and charge you a custom price based on that information. And that means that your personalized price could be lower or much higher than, say, what someone else looking at that exact same product sees.

Here's Reuters Transportation reporter David Shepardson speaking to Ali Rogan on PBS News weekend. The example that a couple of members of Congress made last week was if someone went and looked at an obituary, right, and then went to an airline pricing website, would they be more likely to pay more money because presumably they were looking at an obituary of a family friend or so on? Three. So how can you guard against AI-driven custom pricing? How do you defeat AI? Well, AI runs on data. The less data you give AI, the worstest prediction. Professor Zegorski recommends a few things. Use cash for in-store purchases when you you can. That won't leave a data trail of what you're interested in or how much you've spent.

Clear your cash. According to the FTC, new AI programs could use your browsing history to help set prices for products. And third, consider using a VPN, which hides your IP address and encrypts your internet traffic. If like myself, you're worried that using cash might hurt your credit card rewards funded vacation. My response is pretty straightforward. Those rewards, those points, they're getting you some benefit, but you have to pay for those benefits. And how are you going to be paying for those benefits in the future? One way is by giving AI information so we can charge you the maximum price. And for those of us who grew up on the Internet and may have given up on privacy to participate in the digital world...

Yes, you don't think there's any downside for you losing your privacy in this digital world, but I'm here to tell you that customized pricing is going to cost you a lot. And by maintaining your privacy, even if you're doing absolutely nothing wrong, you're probably going to pay less money in the future. For PBS News, I'm Tim McPhillips. And that is the News Hour for tonight. I'm on the Navaz. And I'm Jeff Bennett. For all of us here at the PBS News Hour, thanks for spending part of your evening with us.