PBS News Hour - Full Show - August 2, 2025 – PBS News Weekend full episode

Episode Date: August 2, 2025

Saturday on PBS News Weekend, a flurry of new tariffs imposed by Trump shook markets, along with weaker than expected jobs numbers that cost a Labor Department official her job. Former Venezuelan detainees speak out about their abuse in El Salvador’s mega-prison. The phenomenon of “super aging” and the science of longer human lifespans. Plus, the Indiana kids inspiring others to get outdoors. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

Tonight on PBS News Weekend, a flurry of new tariffs imposed this week by President Trump shook markets along with weaker than expected jobs numbers that caused a key Labor Department figure her job. Then we explore the phenomenon of super aging and the scientific advances that may help transform human lifespans. And how a group of kids in Indiana are using their summer vacation to inspire others to get off their screens and get outdoors. I'm Michael.

I'm Luke. I'm Sam. I'm Jack. I'm Dex. I'm Miguel. And I'm Ricky. And we're the Creek Growers. This is day 25.

We're trying to get to one million followers by the end of summer. And today we're going to upgrade the fort and also swim and play games and fruit. ["Pomp and Circumstance March"] ["Pomp and Circumstance March"] Good evening, I'm Allie Rogan. John Yang is away. Countries around the world are facing a flurry of steep new tariffs on goods sent to the

United States. The White House's announcement yesterday that it will impose hefty taxes on imports from nearly 70 countries next week triggered the worst day on Wall Street in over a month. Those economic jitters were compounded by weaker than expected jobs numbers, which prompted President Trump to fire the Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner who produced them. Earlier, I spoke with Ernie Tedeschi, former chief economist for the Biden White House and the director of economics at the budget lab at Yale University.

We discussed the sweeping tariffs, but I began by asking him about the dismissal of the Labor Statistics Commissioner, Erica McIntarfer. Erica McIntarfer is one of the most devoted public servants in government and, among economists, one of the most data-focused and rigorous people that I know. And you've written on X that this type of political interference sets a bad precedent.

What are your concerns? The United States has some of the most trustworthy economic data in the world, both our labor market data and our GDP data. Lots of different entities and consumers throughout the world rely on it for making important decisions. If suddenly that data is politically manipulated and is not trustworthy, these people that use and rely on the data may have to go

elsewhere to less reliable sources for data and may make decisions that are not as sound, you know, not as data focused. And you've been tracking tariffs closely since the very beginning. What do you think this latest tranche of tariffs is going to do to the prices of everyday products? Yeah, so I think over the next two to three years, you would see overall prices rise by just under 2% overall. Now, that doesn't sound like a whole lot to a normal person, but let's keep in mind that 2% is the Federal Reserve's annual inflation target.

So this is like getting an extra year's worth of inflation on top of what we normally would have gotten. For the average American family, you know, that would be the equivalent of $2,400 per household per year. So that's meaningful. And it's going to hurt lower income families more than higher income families because they're more vulnerable to tariffs. I think even in the short run, even you know by the end of the summer, you might start to notice price increases in key import sensitive items, especially during back-to-school shopping. Right, so over the long term after those first spikes in back-to-school products like you just mentioned, where are the other product categories where you think we might see the biggest

impact from the tariffs? Other than electronics and clothing, the other areas where we might see large effects would be things like crops and automobiles, eventually going up in price by 10% to 12%, even in the long run. And the thing is that we find that even after many, many years, when consumers and businesses try to find domestic alternatives to tariff items, or they try to find imports that are

not tariffed as much, and maybe even we have a little bit of reshoring, prices are still persistently higher after five or 10 years, which is a sign that very little, if any, of this production is actually going to come back to the United States. And there aren't going to be that many substitutes that consumers are going to be able to find for the higher tariff items that they buy now. There's a little bit of savings to come in the long run with changes in behavior, but tariffs are going to make consumer products persistently more expensive even in the long run.

President Trump has said that these tariffs are going to, over the long term, strengthen the economy, lower the trade deficit. But based on what you're seeing so far, is your analysis that's actually what's going to happen in the medium and long term? We find that in the first two years, the tariffs shave about half a percentage point off of economic growth in the United States. That's like shaving a quarter off of our expected economic growth over the next two years. That's a significant amount.

It gets a little bit better in the long run, but we still find that over five, ten years, the American economy is persistently smaller. There are still a few days before these tariffs are set to go into effect, but what, if anything, are you going to be looking for in the time between then and now? The key piece of data that I look at most often now is government revenue data on tariffs. And that revenue data suggests that tariffs are definitely biting, but they're not by, you know, we're not collecting as much tariffs as we would have expected beforehand given the announcements. We're collecting tariffs at a rate that's more like a 10%.

We started out the year at two and a half percent, but it's not as high as we would have expected given the announcements. I'm going to be focusing a lot on the consumer price index and the inflation data. Ernie Tadeuski with the Yale Budget Lab. Thank you so much. Thanks for having me.

In today's other news, Israeli forces opened fire near two aid distribution sites run by the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, killing at least 10 people, according to witnesses and health workers. Another 19 aid seekers were shot dead near a northern border crossing, and others were reported killed in airstrikes that hit tents and homes. Israel says it is continuing to strike in an attempt to eradicate Hamas, but Hamas said Saturday that it would not disarm unless a Palestinian state is established. In Tel Aviv, U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff met today with families of Israeli hostages who are calling on their government to end the war and bring back their loved one.

Russia claims its forces captured a village in Ukraine's Donetsk region. Meanwhile, Ukraine says it struck Russia's Ryazan oil refinery, causing a fire. The reciprocal strikes hit a day after Ukraine mourned 31 people killed in Kiev in Russia's deadliest attack on the capital so far this year. Russia has stepped up attacks despite pressure from the U.S. to come to a ceasefire deal by August 8th or face new sanctions. President Trump says he's ordered two U.S. nuclear submarines to move closer to Russia after former President Dmitry Medvedev said the ceasefire ultimatum is a step towards

war. Medvedev is known for his inflammatory statements. Trump said, quote, words are very important and can often lead to unintended consequences. And former Colombian president Álvaro Uribe was sentenced to 12 years of house arrest for witness tampering and bribery. Uribe is a polarizing figure in Colombia and his trial has gripped the country for nearly six months. During his presidency, he waged a military campaign against leftist insurgents and brought

security the country hadn't seen in years. But critics say he should be held to account for bolstering right-wing paramilitary groups and for the military's killing of thousands of civilians falsely identified as rebels. Uribe said he will appeal the verdict. And a crew of four astronauts arrived at the International Space Station today aboard a SpaceX rocket. After a speedy 15-hour trip, they were welcomed by the crew already on board. Normal missions last about six months, but the latest NASA crew could be the first to

settle into a new eight-month rotation designed to line up better with Russia's mission schedule. Still to come on PBS News Weekend... Living longer and better lives. The science of super aging and the Creek Crawlers, a group of neighborhood friends in Indiana who are documenting their summer activities and inspiring others along the way. Last month, a three-country deal released 238 Venezuelan migrants the Trump administration had rounded up and in March sent directly to a notorious mega prison in El Salvador. President Trump and his aides claimed those men were savages,

monsters, and the worst of the worst. But a review of government data by ProPublica, the Texas Tribune, and a team of Venezuelan journalists suggested that officials knew at least 197 of the men were

not convicted of crimes in the U.S. We reached out to the White House for comment. White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said, quote, Now some of the freed men are speaking out,

saying they endured physical and psychological abuse while locked up. This is Juan Jose Ramos Ramos. There were so many of us who tried to take our lives away from us. We said, I'd rather die than continue to live this experience. Every day they would wake you up at 4 a.m. to tell you to be rude, to hit you. ProPublica's Melissa Sanchez is one of the authors of this report.

Melissa, thank you so much for joining us. We just heard from Juan Jose Ramos Ramos to hit you. ProPublica's Melissa Sanchez is one of the authors of this report. Melissa, thank you so much for joining us. We just heard from Juan Jose Ramos Ramos talk about how he wanted to end his life rather than stay in this prison. Was that a common sentiment

that the men you spoke with voiced? Yes, it was, unfortunately. I spoke with six of the men who were released a week and a half ago now, two weeks ago now, and every single one of them said that at some

point while they were there for four months in that prison, they thought about killing themselves, that they wished that they were dead instead of continuing to be tortured. That was the word that they used over and over, torture.

And how did they describe the conditions in the prison? I mean, from the day that the planes landed in El Salvador and they were bused to the prison, they said that they were beat constantly by the guards, that they were hit with batons, that they were kicked in the face, kicked in the chest, they were walked on top of, that they were punched,

that their heads were grabbed and banged against walls over and over. The verb that they would use is kind of like their heads were split open. They said it was just constant pain and blood. You also spoke with another detainee named Leonardo. What brought him to the U.S. and what happened to him subsequently? He had come to the U.S. in the summer, last summer, summer of 2024, He had come to the U.S. in the summer, last summer, summer of 2024, and had come because his mother had some complicated medical issues after a car accident back in Venezuela.

He was a soccer coach for kids, and he just wasn't making enough money in Venezuela's collapsed economy. And at the time, during the Biden administration, there was a program called CBP-1 where you could use a phone-based app to sort of apply to get an appointment to go to the border and make your case for asylum. And so he did that. He didn't want to try to cross illegally.

He wanted to do this the right way. And at his appointment in October of last year, he said that officials sort of set him aside and asked him whether he had tattoos on his body. So he said that, yes, he had tattoos. And they set him aside and told him he would go through a different process.

And from that day in October, he was in U.S. detention until March 15th, when he was sent towards Salvador. And, Melissa, one of the things that's interesting about what you just said is that Leonardo started having issues

with ICE under the Biden administration. They took him aside for having tattoos, which seems similar to what we're hearing the Trump administration do, although of course, Biden did not then deport them to third countries. Were you surprised to learn of the practices that were also employed under the Biden administration?

No, I mean, this is something we've been hearing for some time. There is an issue when people are coming in from a country with which we don't have diplomatic relations, that it becomes difficult for immigration officials to really vet their criminal backgrounds. And so what I've been told is that because this was the case with Venezuela, that officials at the border ended up using whatever they could to try to decide whether to let somebody in or not. And one of the obvious things was tattoos. And we know that there's a gang in Central America called MS-13 that very prominently uses tattoos as part of the gang membership,

but that's not the case with the gang that Trump is saying all these guys are a part of. So yes, under the Biden administration, they were using this evidence, so-called evidence of tattoos, and it wasn't legitimate. But they weren't imprisoning people in a foreign country at the time. So the men you spoke with were released. Where are they now? What are they doing? And how are their families doing?

So, they're back in Venezuela. The men I've spoken to can't sleep. They tell me Leonardo and others have told me that they close their eyes, and then they just remember being beat constantly. They have a lot of nightmares. Some of the men are telling me they're desperate to look for work.

Others are thinking about migrating again somewhere, anywhere, maybe not the U.S. A lot of them told me they were looking for psychological help. Melissa Sanchez with ProPublica, thank you so much for bringing us this story. Thank you. MUSIC Imagine a future where the aging process can be delayed and more and more people live active, healthy, disease-free lives well into their 90s. That reality may be here sooner than you think according to Dr. Eric Topol, author of the recently

published book Superagers, an evidence-based approach to longevity. I talked to him earlier this week about the rapidly advancing science of health aging. Dr. Topol, thank you so much for joining us. What is a super-ager? A super-ager, we could roughly define as somebody over age 85 who has never had cancer, heart disease, or any sign of a neurodegenerative disease. And what research were you undertaking

that led you to coin this term and identify this population? Yeah, well, we actually called it the Welderley study. It was a very long study of seven years to find 1,400 people. And we did genome sequencing of this 1,400-person group. And we found very little of genetic underpinnings to explain their remarkable health span. So what are some of the keys to becoming a SuperAger and is it ever too late to start trying to become one? People who are physically active, who have a healthy diet, have good sleep health, that connected with other people.

These are all factors that contributed in the Welderley. Some of it is luck. Some of it, of course, is genetics, but that's not a dominant thing. And the biggest thing that I think we've uncovered beyond that study is that the immune system is playing a critical role in keeping people healthy at eighth, ninth, and tenth decade of life. We know that the major age-related diseases, cancer, neurodegenerative cardiovascular, they take 20 years to incubate in our bodies before they actually show clinically. So we have such a great runway and we have so many ways to help prevent these diseases or certainly defer them for a long time from ever occurring. And you write about a health span. How does that differ from

a person's lifespan? Right, Ali, that is the biggest gap that we have to get over which is we don't want to go after longevity per se because if you have Alzheimer's or if you're frail with so little quality of life, that really isn't the objective. But if we can maximize the years of healthy aging, health span, that is the primary goal. And how long do you think humans are capable of prolonging that health span? I think if we get people into their late 80s and 90s fully healthy without these age-related diseases,

that ought to be the goal. Some of these folks might even get beyond 100 years old. But if we just get over 85, age 85, that's a huge improvement because right now, the average person 60 is in what we call the elderly group. These people have at least one chronic age-related disease, if not multiple diseases. So we have a long way to go to flip from the elderly to the well-duty super-aged people. How important are genes and family history, in other words, the factors that we can't

control to predicting our health outcomes? How important are genes and family history, in other words, the factors that we can't control, to predicting our health outcomes? There's no question that our genes do have some role, but I think that's been overestimated. It's much more the things that are, as we know, these critical lifestyle behavioral factors that play such an essential role. The notion of longevity has become a buzzword within the wellness industry. There are any number of products on the market. What are some tips you might have for somebody looking to cut through that noise?

Well, noise it is. It's really a circus whereby the longevity companies are marketing anti-aging supplements that have no data. There are no definitive studies to show that these things that are being marketed right now, these various supplements, these companies, these scans, have changed the course of a person's health span. And we actually have a much better chance to prevent these age-related diseases rather than be promoting things

that have no basis or data to back them up. The book is Superagers. Dr. Eric Topol, thank you so much for joining us. Oh, thanks so much for the chance to talk about it with you. ["Super Ages Theme"] Finally, tonight, we leave you with a group of intrepid kids in Indianapolis who set an ambitious goal this summer and hope to meet it. Along the way, they're inspiring others to get off their screens and get outdoors.

This group of neighborhood friends heads out almost every summer day on a new adventure. Seven boys and one girl, ages 10 to 15, they call themselves the Creek Crawlers. I'm Michael. I'm Liam. I'm Sam. I'm Jackson. I'm Dex. I'm Miguel. And I'm Ricky. And we're the Creek Crawlers. This is day 25 of trying to get to one million followers by the end of the summer. And today we're going to upgrade the fort and also swim and play games in the creek. They document their adventures to post on instagram and some of their reels have reached millions even tens of millions of views. That's a nice one. We didn't really think it turned out like this. We didn't really think that we hit our first goal of 10,000 followers. When we first met our goal of 10,000

followers, I would have been fine with a thousand. Like, I would have been fine at least if a couple people watched us, but once we hit 10,000, it was crazy. They started posting in late June, and now they've exceeded 800,000 followers. Their adventures can last an hour or all day. They problem solve. They get creative. Here they used pieces of bark that had fallen off the trees to spell out creek crawlers at the entrance to their fort.

There's usually a cool find of the day that's included in each reel. The cool find of the day are these ripped up champion pants. And since it's Indiana, basketball plays an all-important role. The group cleared out space for a court under the trees in the shade. Each creek crawler has a job. For Jackson Kinet, it's all about the tunes. I'm the music person, so I usually do a lot of old school,

and I like doing it a lot. Your musical tastes run retro. Where does it come from? I really just search for songs, and if I like it, I really just like play it and like I know a lot of songs so I make like a playlist for some songs to play each day. And for Ruthie Dinwiddie, it's all about the details. I kind of help like interior designer kind of. Like I help like make everything look right and like it won't like look all messed up and stuff. They leave and then they come back and then they leave again and oh

yeah I mean I I joke they're they really have a gm pack schedule from sun up to sundown most days. Parents Meredith Fredrickson and Jessica Dinwiddie are as surprised as the kids at how the Creek Crawlers project has taken off. I've been kind of blown away that people are so interesting to be honest. People have asked me, so like, what are they doing? And I'm like, playing a great band. Just thinking. Yeah, totally.

Nothing more than that. Yeah. So we did. Yeah, exactly. It's pretty simple. Yeah. And to that point, I wonder why you think this has resonated so much with so many people. I think because it is simple to be honest. I think in today's world

we're craving that in a lot of ways. The world and life is complicated and I think that people when I stopped and thought about it I thought well I guess it does make sense that we're all kind of just looking for something simple and joyful. And it also, I mean, I think it's nostalgic too, you know. I think a lot of the age range of the viewers are 45 and up. Yeah. And I think there it's just bringing them back to a simple time in their lives, you know, where you didn't have all these big worries. The comments on their posts back that idea up.

All of us out here remembering the best days of our lives while watching theirs. Thanks for letting us relive our childhood. I was a Ruthie. Love how they are bringing back being kids. No video games, outside playing, exploring. I'm having a great summer just watching. And their followers span the globe.

As for what they'll do with all the attention and any money they may earn for merchandise sales, Creek Crawler founders Michael Fredrickson and Lou Dinwiddie have a cause they want to help. A percentage of all the money that we make, we're gonna donate to cancer research. We don't really need the money necessarily but we want to at least put it to a good cause and we don't want to just take it in

for us and ourselves only so we want to do something good with the money we get. I think all like every one of us has had a family member that's died from cancer so that's all spend my dollars on all you want to do. The Creek Crawlers plan to keep on crawling until they have to go back to school in a few weeks when they'll post less. Keep crawling boys and girls. And while they'd love to hit their goal of a million followers they say the memories they've made this summer are the real reward. And that's our program for tonight. I'm Allie Brogan.

For all of my colleagues, thanks for joining us. See you tomorrow.