PBS News Hour - Full Show - August 29, 2025 – PBS News Hour full episode

Episode Date: August 29, 2025

Friday on the News Hour, the U.S. ends an exemption for low-cost imports, raising prices for online shopping. Debate and frustration within Israel rise over the ongoing war in Gaza and the continued detention of hostages. Plus, 20 years after Hurricane Katrina, we hear from people who were forced to flee New Orleans and leave their old lives behind. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy

Good evening. I'm Jeff Bennett. And I'm Amna Nawaz. On the news hour tonight, the United States ends an exemption for low-cost imports, raising prices for online shopping. Debate and frustration within Israel rises over the ongoing war in Gaza and the continued detention of hostages. We are still not waking up from this nightmare, and so many people are getting hurt. Our families are broken. And 20 years after Hurricane Katrina

hit New Orleans, we hear from people who were forced to leave their homes and their lives behind. I will go to my grave being forever marked by the effects of Hurricane Katrina on my life but on my family's life too. Welcome to the News Hour. A dramatic move by President Trump tonight, he's trying to single-handedly block nearly $5 billion in foreign aid already approved by Congress, and he's doing it by invoking a little-known power play called a pocket rescission, effectively cutting lawmakers out of the process.

That is when a president asks Congress to cancel funds so close to the end of the fiscal year that Congress can't act on the request and the funds expire. In this instance, $3.2 billion would be cut from development assistance, along with $838 million from peacekeeping efforts, $520 million in contributions to the U.N., and $322 million from the State Department's Democracy Fund. The Republican Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Susan Collins, publicly criticized their request, writing in a statement that, quote, any effort to rescind appropriated funds without congressional approval is a clear violation of the law. Missouri's Republican governor is calling lawmakers into a special session

to redraw the state's congressional maps. Mike Kehoe's announcement is just the latest move in a nationwide battle over redistricting ahead of next year's midterm elections. Just hours earlier in Texas... I'm about to sign the law that creates a one big, beautiful map that ensures... Governor Greg Abbott signed into law a new voting map. designed to help Republicans gain five more seats in next year's midterms. An emergency hearing about President Trump's firing of Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook

concluded today with no immediate ruling from the district judge. Cook's attorney left the courthouse in Washington, D.C., after more than two hours of arguments. He urged the judge to allow Cook to stay on the Fed board, underscoring that Trump could soon begin the process of filling her seat. The president fired Cook on Monday, citing allegation. of mortgage fraud. It's a significant escalation in Trump's battle with the politically independent central bank. The judge requested more written arguments from both sides by next week. Iowa Senator Joni Ernst reportedly will not seek re-election next year. That's according to multiple media outlets and first reported by CBS News. The Republican is expected to announce her

plans not to seek a third term next month. We have had very frank conversations as that correct, Mr. Hegeseth? An Iraq veteran, Ernst played a vital role in confirming Pete Hegeset as Defense Secretary earlier this year, despite his past comments about banning women from combat roles. Ernst joins a growing list of Republican lawmakers choosing not to run. That's given Democrats new hopes of picking up seats in next year's midterm elections. President Trump has revoked the Secret Service detail for his 2024 opponent, former Vice President Kamala Harris, Her protection officially ends on Monday.

Vice presidents typically get six months of federal protection after leaving office, but former President Biden had reportedly extended Harris's through next July. Mr. Trump had already cut off protections for other Biden officials and family members, plus perceived enemies from his own ranks. That includes former Trump National Security Advisor John Bolton, among others. In Minnesota, local media is reporting that Governor Tim Walls is floating the idea of an emergency legislative session following this week's Catholic school shooting that left two students dead. In a social media post, Walls wrote, quote, it's time to take serious action at the

state capital to address gun violence, but he provided few details. The meantime, the second victim of Wednesday's shooting has been identified as 10-year-old Harper Moiskey. She died along with eight-year-old schoolmate Fletcher Merkel. Harper Moisky's family in a statement demanded that leaders address gun violence and the mental health crisis in the country, saying, quote, no family should ever have to endure this kind of pain. Change is possible and it is necessary. Ukrainian and Western officials are working to kickstart talks aimed at ending the war following a recent uptick in Russian attacks. In New York today, the head of Ukraine's presidential office met with U.S. Special Envoy Steve Wickoff, two weeks to the day since

President Trump welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin to Alaska. Trump has accused Putin of stalling on a U.S. proposal for direct talks between the Russian leader and Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky. In Kiev today, Zelensky said he wants to meet with European leaders and Trump to discuss security guarantees for his country. What we want is that these security guarantees from the European countries and from the United States of America to be supported by the parliaments and by Congress. Yes, we want security guarantees legally. We want to document a serious one. Meanwhile, residents of Ukraine's capital city have been mourning those lost in Russia's devastating strikes yesterday. Officials now say at least 23 people were killed and dozens more injured in those attacks.

Protests are growing across Indonesia after police allegedly ran over and killed a delivery driver during a demonstration yesterday. Clashes broke out between protesters and authorities and judges. Jakarta, where thousands took to the streets. One group set fire to a building near a police compound, leaving people stuck inside. The protests began Monday amid anger over a range of issues, including pay for lawmakers and education funding. Indonesia's president is urging calm and says he's ordered an investigation into the delivery driver's death. Don Wall Street today, stocks pulled back from recent records. The Dow Jones Industrial average slipped around 90 points on the day. The NASDAQ fell nearly 250 points. The S&P 500 also ended in negative territory.

Still to come, on the news hour, we speak to the head of the World Food Program after her trip to famine-gripped Gaza. President Trump fires a Democrat from a key transportation board ahead of a massive railway merger. And David Brooks and Kimberly Atkins store weigh in on the week's political headlines. This is the PBS NewsHour from the David M. Rubinstein studio at W.E.T.A. in Washington. And in the west from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University. A federal appeals court today ruled that President Trump has no legal right to impose sweeping tariffs on nearly every country in the world. But the court is allowing the tariffs to remain in place until at least mid-October, giving the Trump administration time to appeal,

the U.S. Supreme Court. That comes as another piece of the president's tariffs plan goes into effect. Starting today, Americans are no longer able to import cheap foreign goods tariff-free, at least for now. The Trump administration ended the so-called de minimis exemption, which allowed packages valued at less than $800 to enter the U.S. with no import tax. Last year, there were nearly four million such packages a day, over $1.3 billion overall. The end of that exemption for goods from China went into effect this spring. Today, it was extended to the rest of the world. For more on this, I spoke just before the court decision with Clark Packard.

He's a trade expert at the Libertarian Cato Institute. Clark, welcome to the show. Thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me on. So most people may not have even known that they were benefiting from this de minimis exemption, but now that it's gone, what is the impact? What kinds of goods are impacted and what type of shoppers? Yeah, that's a good question.

And goods that arrive in the United States under the de minimis exemption tend to be clothing, footwear, small electronics. So think about a phone charger, for example, as well as durable goods. So a phone case might arrive in the U.S. or something like leather, again. But it tends to be more on the footwear and apparel side. And so what does that mean for the shopping experience? What changes? Is everything is now subject to tariff, so it costs more? Is there additional paperwork for customs?

What happens? Both of those, certainly. Yeah, the products that now arrive that would have been duty-free are now subject to the tariffs that have increased under the Trump administration, so prices will increase for those products. But also, like you mentioned, there's going to be a delay in receiving the items in the first place. one of the things that the de minimis exemption did was help facilitate a pretty seamless transition or arrival of packages. And now that that is eliminated, it will subject those packages to a slower process. So consumers should expect a delay in receiving small dollar items.

And is this just applied to commercial items? I mean, if I have family in other countries who want to send me a gift or a care package, is that subject to this as well? No. So gifts, personal gifts can arrive in the United States valued it up to $100 and not be subjected to a more rigorous customs process or duty process. So in that respect, you know, cookies from grandma from Canada will continue to enter the U.S. duty-free. So we should point out bigger picture here that direct-to-consumer e-commerce has absolutely exploded in the last 10 years. Those $1.3 billion shipments that I mentioned last year, that is up from just 134 million back in 2015. So how do sellers, how do they respond to this? Is everyone just going to raise prices? Or could you see

them actually moving production to the U.S.? I think that eliminating the de minimis exemption on its own will not do much to reshore production of various products. And if it did, it would certainly raise the cost of those products. But when you add, the de minimis exemption elimination to the broader trade agenda of the Trump administration, including aggressive tariffs on all kinds of products. Maybe it does a little bit to induce more manufacturing in the United States. I think it's a little early to tell. But ultimately, those costs will be borne by way of higher prices for American consumers. That boost to domestic manufacturing, that is part of the justification that President Trump, the administration have put forward

for this. They've also said that the exemption allowed fentanyl to be smuggled into the U.S., and that's part of their reason for this. What do we know about that? Is there truth to that? I do think there's some kernel of truth to that. You know, at the same time, though, I would caution that the Trump administration is basically using every tool available to it in a protectionist manner. So if this were some other administration that didn't have quite as much of a protectionist bent, I would take the fentanyl argument more seriously. That said, again, I do think there is some validity to what the Trump administration's arguing. However, I would have preferred to see the administration use extra money to beef up the screening

process to maybe interdict more drugs that are entering the United States under the example. rather than just completely eliminating the exemption, which will impact all kinds of Americans and the overwhelming majority of packages that arrive in the United States under the exemption do not have any sort of drug or illegal substance in them. And so I think, you know, ultimately people's lives are going to be impacted in a way that's probably pretty negative for them. But again, I do think that there was a little bit of validity to what Trump administration's arguing. All right. Clark Packard of the Libertarian Cato Institute joining us tonight. Clark, thank you.

Good to speak with you. Thanks for having me. Israel launched its Gaza City offensive today, labeling it a Hamas stronghold. But it's also home to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, already facing starvation, and yet another round. of forced displacement. The United Nations warns that Israel's evacuation orders are a recipe for disaster. And as William Brangham reports, Israel's military has now halted the temporary planned pauses in the fighting. That's right, Jeff. Israel's announcement today that it's suspending pauses and its attacks, which were meant to enable aid deliveries into Gaza City,

makes an already catastrophic problem that much worse. An international body that tracks hunger crises last week declared that area and its people are experiencing famine. The chief UN organization charged with delivering emergency food aid is the World Food Program, and its executive director is Cindy McCain. She just returned from a mission to Gaza this week and joins us now from Rome. Cindy McCain, welcome back to the NewsHour. You were just in Gaza this week. Can you tell us a little bit about where you went and what you saw? Well, we had the opportunity. to go in and I wanted to first of all see our truck routes and see exactly how we get in, the problems that we encounter, etc. But also part of what our trip was about was also going

into many of the areas where food insecurity is at its highest and also seeing what they have to endure each day to be able to survive. I had the opportunity to meet with a family of 11 that had come all the way from the north. And they brought pictures with them in their belongings. And the photographs were of the family, you know, two years ago. Of course, I'm sitting in front of them looking at them as they are today. And the difference, the drastic difference in their health and in their size as well is just mind-boggling. The important thing for us to remember is that it continued what I do each time the things that I ask for is a ceasefire. and to be able to get WP food in at scale, unfettered, and safely,

making sure that our humanitarian aid workers are not targets. What are you able to deliver today versus what you believe is absolutely needed in Gaza? Right now we get in certainly food boxes, which are our food baskets that are per family, which help. Obviously, you've seen our flour that goes in or we attempt to get in. And we do some nutritional items that go into health centers. But those are very limited, to be honest with you, because we just can't get enough of it in there.

During the last ceasefire, we had 200 feeding stations up and running, and we were getting in almost 600 trucks a day. That's a huge difference from what is going in now. As you know, the Global Hunger Monitoring Group, the IPC, just said that half a million Gazins, which is about a quarter of all the people in Gaza are experiencing famine right now. They argue that that is going to go up another 100,000 in the next month or so. Do you believe the IPC's assessment of how dire the circumstance is?

Well, IPC is, as you know, is an independent entity, and it really does serve as the gold standard for measuring food insecurity around the world. We at WP have worked with them for a very long time, But let me say this also. You have an ability, you know, all of us together collectively as humanitarians with aid, the various aid that we can present, to stop this. We're able, if we can get in and do what we said that we can do, which is feed and feed at scale, we can stop a lot of this.

I also might add, I met with some hostage families while I was there. And we seem to forget in all this. Certainly millions of Gazans aren't being fed. but the hostages aren't being fed either. And so we can't forget that one element in all of this as well. You know, I look at this through a mother's lens, and what I saw was utter devastation. And I can't imagine what it would be like as a mother to choose

if you can eat, number one, and if you can feed your children or yourself, because the obvious answer to that is your children. It's a devastating situation. The reason I ask about this report is that Benjamin Netanyahu has said that this report is an outright. lie. The Israeli government has said this data cannot be trusted that the famine is not real and that this report should be retracted. I mean, do you have any question about the authenticity

or accuracy? I, you know, I don't. I don't know. We work with them for so long. It comes down to access. And not just letting WFP in, but letting other organizations in as well. I know that you met while you were there with some Israeli officials, and today Israel said that it was suspending its pause in military actions that had been enacted to allow more aid in. In your conversation with Israeli officials, did you get any assurances that they will speed the flow of aid into Gaza? Yes, you know, we talked at great length with all three of the Ares-Cogat, of course, the IDF and Prime Minister Nets. at Nahu. And a large part was trying to understand on both sides what the difficulties were. In our case, I was asking for the ability to have greater access by road so we can get deeper in to feed those who are even more malnourished, but also making sure that we can pack the trucks

ourselves so that they're nailed down and aren't packed incorrectly so that when they turn a corner, it all falls off. We are the only organization worldwide that can make this happen at the kind of scale that Gaza needs right now. Plainly, though, what is, in your view, the biggest impediment to you doing your job in Gaza? Safety is a huge issue. We just can't abide by guns of any kind aimed either at people trying to get aid

or aimed at the humanitarian aid workers that are trying to deliver aid. Though safety and complete access, we need to be able to get in fully. All right, Cindy McCain, head of the World food program. Always great to speak with you. Thank you. Thank you. Israel said today it had recovered the body of a hostage kidnapped and killed during

Hamas's October 7th attacks, along with the remains of another hostage it didn't identify. The announcement was yet another reminder of how the country, even today, lives in the shadow of October 7th. Nick Schifrin and producer Carl Bostic in Israel set out to measure the country's mood 693 days since the war began. In Tel Avivoultiv at the end of this hot summer of discontent, the heat boils with an angry message. Save them now. Israelis call this hostage square, a barometer of the country's hope and despair. And on stage, Viran Berman issues a challenge.

Bring them home and the war. The hostages are the most important thing, and we need to prioritize their return. Berman is the big brother to twins Gali and Zeev. Both kidnapped from Kibbutz Kfar Aza during the October 7 terrorist attacks. All of us have the same hobbies. All of us love football or soccer. All of us love music.

We have very tight bond. But today, nearly 700 days after they were taken, and Bermann fears his brother's lives hang by a thread. We know that they were separated in the first day, and we know that they are surviving, and I'm terrified as a brother of two live hostages, that this current deal will fall again. The current deal, Hamas says it's willing to release half of the 20 hostages believed to be still alive and the remaining ones after 10 weeks in exchange for an Israeli withdrawal. But now Israel is demanding all the hostages released at once, and Hamas's total defeat.

I trust my government. I'm just worried that it's taking too long. I hope the Israeli government is listening to me, and I will never stop being optimistic. For the sake of my brothers, I can't be pessimistic. I can't allow myself to be pessimistic. So there is always hope, even in the darkest hours, there is always hope. But there is a darkness here. It plays out in soldiers' funerals a continuous national mourning and a trauma that is still collective. We are still not waking up from this nightmare. And so many people are getting hurt. Our families are broken. Our hostages are fading. We, the families of the kidnapped...

Efraat Makikawa is an international activist who promotes peace. But since October the 7th, she says her ideals are burdened by pain and loss. What I felt on October 7th is that I got into some kind of... moral hill. All the values, all the morals we all grew upon and what I taught and lectured about

all my life were suddenly taken away from me. On October the 7th in Kibbutz Niroz, Hamas kidnapped six members of her family, including her aunt, Marguerite. Five have now returned home.

Including her dear Uncle Gadi, who spent 482 days in captivity. But Gadi's partner, Makikawa's aunt, was killed accidentally on October the 7th by an Israeli helicopter targeting Hamas. Pain has no border, and losing in a war has no border as well. We're all losing, and we're all hurt by now. Our cities, our nation was attacked by vicious.

evilness of Hamas terrorists, and it wasn't a war we chose to get into. But now, almost two years into this war, I have doubts. Doubts about how Israel is waging the war in Gaza and its plan to displace one million people from Gaza City. Who are we to tell them where to go? Why would someone think of such an idea? It's their home. And doubts about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing coalition.

Our prime minister is lost. He lost his way. We Israelis are not our extreme government. And we're not people of revenge and awful behavior that I am. ashamed of. These days, Israel is a country that ricochets. Between anger over failure

to bring home all the hostages, 80% of Israelis want the war to end. And there's anxiety watching every major event in Gaza and every military decision. Israel's calling up 60,000 reserves to take

over Gaza City with the stated goal of eradicating Hamas, and bringing all the hostages home. For the soldiers themselves, who stop by this rest stop near the Gaza border, they preserve their purpose. These soldiers ask to speak to us anonymously. We don't want water, okay?

All we want is peace, and we're not looking for fighting. Dror Trebelzi is the canteen's co-owner with his two brothers. He takes pride in his food and service and his home region's ability to fight the country's enemies. I'm from the South, and I'm the one who actually suffer for the last 30 years from Hamas. Not no one in Tel Aviv did. It's not an endless war. It's a war the need to be end. Israeli society is no stranger to debate, but this one has been raw and widespread. No one here is untouched by a war whose weight falls heavy on families, families of hostages.

And families of soldiers. They call themselves mothers on the front line, tens of thousands of Israeli women whose sons and daughters are fighting in Gaza. You feel that you send your son to the army when you don't trust your leadership. Agamit Geld is one of the group's leaders. She has two sons.

One was just called up for duty last week. Her brother has been called up for a sixth time. The whole family is going under a real change when you send a soldier to the army. It's not a normal life. You're always waiting for them to get home. You always worry. This is Israel's longest war. Gelb and others yearn for it to end.

Yearn to feel more safe. I don't want to be afraid to live here. I don't want to be alerted all day, all night. I don't want to send my sons to a never-ending story war. This is not a way we want to live here. But for now, that is life here, because despite the demands, despite the urgency, the war goes on. For the PBS News Hour, I'm Nick Schiffer. It's not as well known as the Federal Reserve or the CDC,

but the Surface Transportation Board is the latest agency in the Trump administration's cites as the president extends his power across the federal government, including agencies and institutions long considered independent. The board wields enormous authority over the nation's railroads, and President Trump abruptly fired Robert Primus, one of only two Democrats on the five-member board, just as regulators weigh the largest railroad merger ever proposed. Robert Primus joins us now.

Thanks for being here. Thank you for having me. So you're a Democrat who was nominated for the role by President Trump back in 2020. Yes. And you were fired without cause, the White House only saying that you did not align with the President's America First Agenda.

What's your response to that? The first response was surprise. The second was disappointment. If you looked at my record in the four and a half years, I've been on the board. I think I was America first before the president came into office. From my first day I was there, I was pro-growth. And pro-growth, meaning encouraging the growth of energy sectors, whether it be oil, whether be coal, gas, ethanol, agriculture, chemical, manufacturing.

All those are key components to our economy, and all those move via freight rail. And I've said then, and I've continued to say that, you know, the way to grow this country and grow this economy is to grow our freight rail network. And so when I heard that somehow I was against the America First, I was surprised because, you know, I was first to do that. And we should say this dismissal comes, as we said, a pivotal merger is looming. Union Pacific's planned $85 billion acquisition of Norfolk Southern. Your removal changes the board's makeup just as that decision approaches. What does the administration gain by having you out of the way? Well, I mean, as I still consider myself a board member, so I can't comment on the merger.

But what I think it does, it challenges the integrity of the board. Again, that is why I'm fighting back. That's why I'm really disappointed in their actions, because now it calls into question the integrity. of the board. The board is an independent board, not just independent of the administration, but it's independent of outside thinking, political thinking. All of us, I think, are, that we're on the board are independent thinkers. I pride myself that when I came to the board, even though I came as a Democrat, I was simply a board member. And I think now with what has happened to me

and how they are approaching the board now, I think it threatens that independence, that in part And ultimately, some of the decisions, people will now question whether or not they're politically motivated or if they're actually being decided impartially. And you say you still consider yourself to be a board member, so you are contesting this dismissal? I am contesting this dismissal. As you said, I was fired without cause, and the statute says that I have to be, the president cannot dismiss me without stating justified cause.

And there was no legitimate cause mentioned. not being in touch with the America First agenda in line with the America First agenda. That does not constitute a legitimate cause. And so on behalf of board members now, as in the future, I believe it's my right to stand up and say, hey, that's not right, and I think this needs to be challenged. Why do you think you were singled out?

I don't know. So if I say something, it's speculative. I can say that some have said that it's because of my opposition to the previous merger and they fear that my voice may be strong in this next one, though I have not said one way or another how I feel about the merger publicly. Some have said it could be race. I am the only person of color on the board right now. The last one was 25 years ago, and I was actually the only black or the first black

chair of the board appointed by Biden last year. But I will note that even when that happened and even when I was named to the board, I never brought that forward because I don't believe that it was about who I was or my ethnic background that made me qualified to be on the board. I was on the board because people thought that I would be impartial and I would be fair and balanced in looking at all those decisions coming before us. of the Surface Transportation Board. Thank you for being here. We appreciate it.

Thank you for having me. This week has seen tragedy at a Catholic school in Minnesota and a frenetic pace of actions by the Trump administration to remake government. For analysis of it all, we turn to Brooks and Atkins Store. That is New York Times columnist,

David Brooks and Boston Globe columnist Kimberly Atkins Store, Jonathan Capehart is away. Great to see you both. Good to see you. Let's start in Minnesota. The school year had just gotten underway. We already have a deadly school shooting. Eight-year-old Fletcher Merkel, 10-year-old Harper Moiske were killed, 18 others injured after a shooter opened fire during a morning mass marking the very first week of classes at a Catholic school in Minneapolis. I know you both have seen scenes like this. They're so familiar now to us in this country. So is the political debate. I just want to play for you a bit of how we saw reactions from Vice President. J.D. Vance and Minneapolis mayor, Jacob Fry.

When I see far-left politicians say, how dare you offer thoughts and prayers? You need action. I don't care about your prayers. I care about what you're going to do to prevent this from happening. Why does it have to be one or the other? Of course, we're standing up with thoughts and with prayers, but thoughts and prayers are not going to cut it. We need a statewide and a federal ban on assault weapons. We need a statewide and a federal ban on high-capacity magazines. David, from Sandy Hook to Parkland to Uvaldi, nothing has dramatically changed to keep this sort of thing from happening.

Again, is it too cynical to say that there's a numbness that has set in to kids being shot in school here? I think people still have the capacity to be appalled by somebody who shoots through children through stained glass windows. And so I do think that, will there be action? J.D. Vance just said, for air, is an act. Well, what are the actions he's proposing? The shooter in this case got her guns legally.

She passed through the red flag law, which they have in Minnesota, the permitting. And so clearly, more needs to be done. Blue states should be experimenting with more stuff. You know, one of the things that comes up in this case is she left a pretty big online trail. Like, is there a way to use AI to sort of find these people a little better than apparently we are? when no red flags are set off when this young person was writing all this stuff online. And I think

the thing that's most chilling to me about this particular case is not only the need for guns. It's not only the need for mental health alertness. But she wrote in one of her comments this is about nothing. Some people kill because they have some crazy ideology like the Unabomber.

She has no ideology. The FBI now has a category of terrorists, which are nihilists. People who just believe in nothing. And we're seeing a rise. The anarchists, 100 years ago, we're killing people. But now we're seeing this tide of nihilism. So I look at it as a gun problem, as a mental health problem,

and really is an intellectual problem about our culture. That you have people who believe in nothing who just want to destroy. Kimberly, we reported earlier. Governor Wall seems to be suggesting he's going to call a special session to try to address this. We don't have details beyond that. But does the Democratic response in particular, does it feel a little more muted to you this time?

I feel like all of it is muted. of it is muted. I think that Americans who are sending their children to school to start their school year are hearing about the thoughts and prayers and these ambiguous actions that may or may not be coming, and they are gutted by that because they know that none of that protects their children. I think that this is not about trying to prevent the last shooting and figuring out what led to that one. It's about how do we change the culture in America surrounding guns because this does not happen other places. It does not happen in other countries that have much more lax gun laws than we do on the books.

This is about a society that believes that the right to carry guns is something like a religion unto itself. And that's from messaging that comes from Republicans about the Second Amendment and how any measure that is common sense that is meant to prevent guns from getting in the hands of people that shouldn't have them is somehow not. just unconstitutional, but sacrosanct in itself. Until we can change that, until we can loosen the grip of the gun industry, the lobby here in Washington and across states, this will not change, and children will continue to die. We'll see if lawmakers do act as they

come back. But I do want to take just a bit of a step back on this past week because a lot happened. It was not, by any means, a slow summer week. There were a lot of big actions taken by the president to exert even more control over the federal government, reshaping. in his vision, whether it was purging dissent at the leading health agency or from the agency that manages disaster response, trying to fire a Federal Reserve board member, or keeping federal troops here in Washington, also threatening to send them to other cities. Also this week, we saw all of the cabinet members sitting for more than three hours in a meeting, essentially praising the president and his work. Journalist Garrett Graf this week wrote that all of these small

events add up to a very big shift in our country from democracy to authoritarianism. He said something is materially different in our country this week than last. David, do you agree with that? Not really. I don't see, I don't look for one moment that will flip the switch to authoritarianism. I look at this as a long degradation. And maybe there will never be one red flag moment where we think, okay, we flip, we're now no longer a democracy.

But the way I see it is in a broader terms that starting somewhere around 22nd or 23, 2013, the era of global populism started. And it happened in countries all around the world. Our version was Donald Trump. It might have been Viktor Orban somewhere else, Nigel Farage somewhere else, Vladimir Putin somewhere else. But it started. And in every one of these countries, and maybe ours faster, we've degraded democracies,

we've personalized, gutted the Justice Department, taken out rule of law or degraded, and so it's an erosion, erosion, erosion. And my view is, if you think this is going to be over in three years when Donald's, we're when Donald Trump leaves office, you're naive. That these historical tides, once they get going, they just keep going until they're stopped. And so what strikes me is, why are we not stopping it? And so the people I'd salute this week are Lisa Cook and Susan Menares,

and frankly, the gentleman from the Transportation Board we just saw in the last segment. Susan Menares from the CDC. From the CDC who are resisting. And I had a Democratic politician call me up today and said, where's the head of the universities? Where are the law firms? Where are the corporate CEOs? These three people have guts.

And they're not just leaving the office. They're just going to stay there and resist. And we should, I've said this on this program multiple times, we should be having a mass coalition of people who are willing to resist together because it's really hard to resist alone. And so at least we're seeing some pushback this week. Yeah, I think that this week didn't change. We're seeing it in a rapid pace and a lot of examples of it.

But I personally think the change, the change from the first Trump administration to the second. Because I agree with you, Trumpism is broader than Trump, but he is who is ushering it in. The big difference, I think, was the decision by the Supreme Court granting the president immunity for actions that he takes while in office. Now, while that decision did not, repeat, did not bless all of the things that he's doing, it seems in his mind that it did. And he believes that the Supreme Court will go along with any legal battle that he chooses, any push, against the wording of the Constitution or federal law that exists. He honestly seems to think he is above it. And so far, in challenge after challenge after the challenge,

the Supreme Court hasn't proven him wrong. Will they do it finally with the Fed Board, which they've already hinted that is different and that he can't just fire people willy-nilly? I don't know. But so far, Donald Trump is coming out on the winning end of each one of these battles because he sees himself as invincible.

I do want to get both of you to briefly weigh in on the news on the Russia-Ukraine war because we saw diplomatic meetings today continue between members of the Trump team and Ukrainian officials. Last week, of course, we saw President Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House with President Trump. We are now two weeks post that Alaska summit

between Vladimir Putin and President Trump and the war not only rages on. Russia is launching some of us worst attacks that we've seen on Kiev, killing 23 people just this week. David, has anything changed? No. And I've never had any hope. Vladimir Putin has made it clear for three years, and he's never wavered, that he wants to control Ukraine.

He wants to kick out the Democratic government of Ukraine and just control Ukraine. And guess what? He's slowly and very bloodily winning this war. And so why should he make any compromises? His job was to try to split Trump off from the Europeans, to pretend to Trump that he's offering some compromises. But he's not compromising. And he's made it clear when they say, we're going to go to the root causes, which is basically a dependent Ukraine. and now he's highlighted that by hitting Kiev again and again and again.

The Ukrainians, fortunately, have developed in the last week kind of miraculously, apparently a new cruise missile that can go 300 or 3,000 kilometers into Russian soil. So maybe that'll exact some cost on the Russians, but it's still a war and not a negotiation. And that really hasn't changed. Yeah, I agree with David. I mean, Donald Trump definitely wants to be able to say, hey, I ended this war. Only I could do it. but he gravely miscalculated Vladimir Putin

by inviting him onto U.S. oil in thinking that there was a deal to be struck. There was never a deal to be struck here, and we are seeing the outcome of that. So it was a terrible blunder that I think only empowered Putin. Obviously, you see with this stakes, but it was something that Trump could not win

even if he thought he could. It was a busy consequential week. We're so grateful to have you both here at the end of it. David Brooks, Kimberly Atkins Store. Thank you to you both. Thank you. Today marks the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which decimated New Orleans and other communities on the Gulf Coast, leading to one of the largest and most sudden relocations of people in U.S. history.

Some 1.2 million Louisianaans were displaced for months or even years. We're going to spend some time now looking at that impact and the ways the city has changed in the two decades since Katrina. And let's start by hearing from a few of the thousands of Katrina survivors who relocated permanently. My name is Kelly Bolden, and before Katrina hit, I was living in New Orleans East, and right now I live in the DFW area. My name is Philip Falcone. When I was in New Orleans, my family, we lived in Metteridge, suburb, outside. of New Orleans, and then now post-Katrina, all these years later, live in a city of Riverside, California. This is Stephen Lipp. I'm living currently in Katie, Katie, Texas, and was living in Orleans,

Louisiana. I'm Pat Mother Blues Cohen. I was living in New Orleans East, where the storm hit, And I am now, since Hurricane Katrina, I've been living in Salisbury, North Carolina. I remember my siblings talking about, let's pack up, let's leave. This one is going to be the one. I have no memory of anything prior to the storm. It was that sort of event. It was so all-encompassing, so overwhelming. I was a Katrina kid, is what we say.

There's a group of us that were children in the time of Hurricane Katrina. know we remember, you know, all that happened, but of course we're not the ones calling the shots in our respective families. Powerful Hurricane Katrina rips across the Gulf Coast. After the storm, we were watching the weather chant, like 24-7, trying to figure out what's going on in the storm. And the shot was a street corner, very close to where we lived, and there was 10 feet of water in the street corner.

I looked at everybody in the room, and I said, you recognize what this is. says, don't you? We've lost everything. Everything is now gone. After Katrina, it was sort of a land grab. You know, people were coming to New Orleans and they were buying up the land. And it was too expensive. And I didn't know whether I was going to be able to work or not. I said, hey, hey, get on out of my life. I sing blues. When people would come to New Orleans and they wanted to see some New Orleans entertainment, they called me a lot. From the storm, what I remember is just coming to North Carolina being displaced. I didn't have a job.

I couldn't get a job because I didn't know musicians. I didn't have any friends. I didn't know where clubs were. I didn't know anything. After the hurricane and, of course, evacuation and so forth, my family decided that what was best for both my parents and for us kids was not to return. I mean, at any moment in time,

in the hurricane season, of course, a major storm could come through and destroy everything. And you were back to square one all over again. When I went back after Katrina and I saw my house and I lost everything from pictures, high school things, my daughter, all of her little things, it just went completely. I mean, it's gone. I don't never want to go through that again. Those two months after Katrina hit, we decided to purchase a house in Houston.

Well, then comes Harvey. Hurricane Harvey barreling into the Texas coastline. In hindsight, it was sort of like, this is easy. Katrina became the measuring set, and there was nothing that could measure to us. I live in California now, and we are not immune to natural disasters.

It seems like everywhere has something, and you kind of pick and choose where you're going to live and take that gamble of what that natural disaster will be for your particular location. I will go to my grave being forever marked by the effects of Hurricane Katrina on my life, but on my family's life, too. In New Orleans, we had communities. We have friends that turned into family. I still will visit New Orleans a lot. And one thing that I will visit for is the food and definitely snowballs. Snowballs are in New Orleans dessert. And I'm like, how about we open up a snowball saying? We're going to treat you like family.

you come here. And that's what New Orleans is about. For more on all this, we're joined now by historian Douglas Brinkley. He was a professor at Tulane University in New Orleans in 2005 when Katrina hit. And he's the author of The Great Deluge, Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. He's now a professor in humanities in the Department of History at Rice University. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for having me. We just heard the stories of people who lived through Hurricane Katrina 20 years ago, hundreds of thousands of people were displaced, many never returned. What is the legacy of that displacement? Well, it was a diaspora from a region. I mean, it reminds me in history of the Dust Bowl of the 1930s when people fled Oklahoma,

New Mexico, Texas Panhandle for California. They just had to go somewhere else. And like the Dust Bowl, Katrina is in about one date, August 29th, you know, it's really about. years, decades that it's taking to heal. The effects of Katrina are still being felt in the Gulf South area. Not everybody has been able to come back that wanted to, and a lot of neighborhoods haven't been able to rebuild for various different reasons. And Katrina, of course, exposed major failures in preparation and response from the levies to evacuation planning to the federal government's slow reaction at the time. What do you see as the biggest institutional breakdowns? Well, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built Lego levees, and Louisiana hadn't supervised them properly

for safety. It's a city, you know, the mayor during Hurricane Katrina, Nagin, Mayor Nagin went to jail. The current mayor of New Orleans is under corruption charges, and as I speak, there's always been a sense of shoddiness that goes on in those parishes, and this turned deadly. I mean, the Lego levees built during the 1960s and beyond proved in 2005 just to be poorly constructed. So you have those three breaches, and it turned the city of New Orleans into like a saucer bowl. Once those broke open, all the water poured into New Orleans, and the below sea level neighborhoods were just inundated. And that led to all sorts of problems, health issues, debris. and then, of course, no electricity on in the city for so long.

And anything bad that could happen did seem to happen. And in the immediate aftermath, some questioned whether New Orleans should have been rebuilt at all. Looking back with the long lens, what did we get right and what could have been done better? It's a great question. What we got right is to save and defend New Orleans. There is no United States of America without that important city. It meant everything to us, you know, and just think of the arts and culture alone with Lewis Armstrong and the birth of modern jazz or playwriting Tennessee Williams or Lillian Hellman. And the list is long and it's a deep, rich cultural history.

People all over the world love New Orleans and maybe our most loved American city. What we got wrong is it was built in part below sea level, but it means we have to defend it. And back 20 years ago and even now, we still turned. to the Dutch, look how to build better dams, better levee systems. I believe the Army Corps of Engineers this time around has built durable levees, but you never know what's going to happen. There's a fear factor for a category four or five storm comes to New Orleans because Louisiana is losing all of its wetlands.

And every storm that comes, that power of the surge, is getting closer to the city of New Orleans. So being there is like living on the edge, sort of like Key West. You know, you just feel that life's good, but at any hurricane season, the big one can hit, and it might be the one that knocks New Orleans off its feet. Like living on the edge, that's a great way to describe it. To your mind, what were the key lessons of Hurricane Katrina, and have we as a country really learned them? In New Orleans utterly failed in how to get people out, particularly poor people or elderly people. For example, when I wrote my book, I couldn't believe how many. older people wouldn't leave because they were afraid they wouldn't be able to get their diabetes medicine or wouldn't leave because they're on insulin or wouldn't leave because they had a pet and the buses wouldn't allow them to travel with their dog or cat hence they stayed there were

no clear directionals of how to flee and most most notoriously the super dome people poured in there they didn't have the right water or food and then the roof caved in and then people came to the Convention Center, and it was mayhem, and there were bodies, dead bodies, just laying there in front of it. All hospitals need to have helicopter facilities on their top. They have to have generators to stay in business. You can't deal with the crisis anywhere if hospitals aren't going to be able to function around the clock. Douglas Brinkley, we are grateful to add your voice to our coverage of this anniversary. Thank you for being with us. Thank you. And we have to also remember the people in Mississippi who got hit by the brunt of the storm and towns like

Biloxi and Bay St. Louis wavelength and the rest. Indeed. And be sure to watch Washington Week with The Atlantic tonight right here on PBS. Retiring Washington Post correspondent Dan Balls talks to Jeffrey Goldberg about his more than five decades covering politics. And on tomorrow's PBS News weekend, the worsening situation for women and girls inside Afghanistan four years after the U.S. withdrawal. And that is the News Hour for tonight. I'm Jeff Bennett. And I'm Omna Nawaz. On behalf of the entire NewsHour team, thank you for joining us. Have a great weekend.