PBS News Hour - Full Show - December 11, 2025 – PBS News Hour full episode

Episode Date: December 12, 2025

Thursday on the News Hour, the Senate rejects proposed plans to address a spike in health care premiums under the Affordable Care Act, Ukraine pushes for security guarantees against Russia as international pressure to accept the peace plan grows and economists warn of major risks created by private credit that could pose as large a threat as the housing market did before the Great Recession. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy

Good evening. I'm Amman Abbas. And I'm Jeff Bennett. On the news hour tonight, the U.S. Senate rejects proposed plans to address a spike in health care premiums under the Affordable Care Act. Ukraine pushes for security guarantees against Russia as international pressure to accept the peace plan grows. And economists warn of major risks created by private credit that could pose as large a threat as the housing market did. before the Great Recession. One of the issues with private credit is the lack of transparency. It's very opaque. It's not like the banking system where it's highly regulated

and you know exactly what's going on. Welcome to the News Hour. The U.S. Senate failed to pass two dueling pieces of health care legislation today, leaving Affordable Care Act tax credits all but certain to expire at the end of the year. As lawmakers prepare for year-end recess with no agreement in sight, tens of millions of Americans who rely on the ACA are being left in limbo. The expired subsidies would lead to a sharp rise in health insurance premiums starting next month. Congressional correspondent Lisa Desjardin was at the Capitol today and joins us now.

So Lisa, walk us through what happened today? What we had today in the Senate was Republicans and Democrats, each having one shot to put up a bill to deal with these expiring enhanced tax credits. Now, these are enhanced credits on top of what was originally in Obamacare. So we saw both parties put up bills, but frankly, Omna, those bills, neither one of them seemed likely to pass. Let me go through what they proposed, first of all. Now, the Republican plan is to limit the enhanced subsidies and essentially move them

into health care savings accounts. Now, that plan failed. It got 51 votes, but that's short of the 60 that was needed. Democrats, they're playing a little bit more straightforward, a three-year extension of the enhanced subsidies as they are now. That plan also failed. But interestingly enough, Omna, 51 votes. So we had two plans today that both got a majority vote, but both short of the bipartisan 60 votes that's needed in the Senate. And we learned a couple of things. The Senate clearly is not at a point where there are even having these bipartisan talks that are needed to come up with a compromise plan. The other thing we learned today, as the leaders said on the floor, that there is both political and policy divide. Democrat's so-called plan is a three-year extension of the status quo.

No reforms, no revisions, no rethinking of the way that Obamacare works, just a three-year extension of the status quo. Republicans will have to answer to the American people, explain to the country why they chose. higher health care costs over real solutions. Republicans must answer for why people will lose coverage. Republicans must answer why families see premiums double and triple over the next year. Not a great sign when you get into the finger pointing, especially when millions of Americans waiting for a solution. I talked to Senator Thune, especially afterward. He said there are senator-to-senator talks.

He's not given up on some possible way forward, but time is running out. And Senator Schumer seemed more in the act. attitude of he thinks this might be it for the year but we will see so it's not clear if the senate's going to do anything more on this what about the house what's happening there okay the house very interesting house leadership the republican leadership speaker johnson they are not putting forward a plan to extend these health care subsidies right now however other republicans are there is a group of bipartisan members together there are 35 of them one example last week who there you see them proposed and one year extension there are a couple different versions of that

idea. These groups are now trying to do a run around the leadership with a discharge petition. We've talked about this on the show. That needs 218 signatures. I just checked a few minutes ago. Neither one of these extensions that these few Republicans are proposing is anywhere close to that number yet. And they also may not have enough time to get that done by the end of the year. But here's the tricky part. This is very political. When I talk to Democrats, I think there clearly is a majority in the House for one year. extension. But the politics are such that that may not come to the House floor. And it certainly doesn't look like it will come before next week. So there's a will, but not a way, potentially

in the House right now. So there's a lot of competing dynamics at play here. As you speak to your sources, give us your analysis overall of where things stand right now. Well, let's break this down simply because I know it is confusing. And even for members in Congress, they kept pulling me aside to say, help me understand what's going on here. So let's look at this. in terms of three major problems that are facing Congress here. First of all, Democrats, for their point, Democrats on their end, they oppose the reforms in large form that the Republicans want. That's a problem in the Senate especially.

Now, Republicans, they're divided on an extension. There are a lot of moderate Republicans who, frankly, are vulnerable in the next election who want to extend this and they want to do it now, but the Republicans don't agree. Finally, something that hasn't come up yet, abortion policy omna, this is a huge issue in the Senate. There are Republicans who want to, who are very nervous about the way forward and want to make kind of more conservative policy on abortion. Democrats don't like that. So that's a big hang up as well.

And all of this leads to this point. Now, others say there's a problem because none of this changes health care costs in general. It just moves money around. And finally, Lisa, I know the calendar is always a big issue here, right? Walk us through what's ahead. You know I love doing. Looking at the calendar, time is tight. and, in fact, it's actually even worse than people realize.

So let's take a look really quickly. Here we are today, December 11th. Now, look, at the end of the month, that's when these enhanced tax credits expire. Okay, so it seems like Congress would have time? No, those days in that red-orange color, those are the final days that Congress plans to be here before leaving for the holiday. Now, how about January? Another problematic deadline coming up at the end of January is when government funding runs out

for most government agencies. So they're up against the clock on a couple of issues. not ready to deal with either one of them. Now, we know from KFF that there is a real moment here, and I talked to one of their experts today, Cynthia Cox, about where she thinks things stand. I think it's looking more and more likely that these enhanced premium tax credits are going to expire.

Even if there was some sort of last-minute deal, we're probably looking at people's premium payments going up significantly in January. A reminder of who that affects. So that's not most Americans. It is a smaller portion of the American health care market, it is 24 million Americans who are on Obamacare right now. Most of them would see premiums go up.

Cynthia Cox saying double beginning in January. And we also know from the Congressional Budget Office that around 2 million people would just fall off of insurance altogether. And that's not just hypothetical. That's already happening. We know in Massachusetts, where open enrollment closes in just days from now, that already 10,000 people have not signed up again, won't have insurance. And that is going to cause real health care and financial problems ahead.

Lisa Desjardin, thank you as always. You're welcome. We start today's other headlines with a rare Republican rebuke of one of President Trump's priorities. Indiana's Republican-led Senate voted this afternoon against a plan to redraw its state's electoral map. 19 eyes, 31 knows this bill has been defeated. 21 Republicans joined all 10 Democrats in voting down the measure outside the chamber. Critics of the redistricting plan celebrated. The vote comes after months of pressure from President Trump,

who has been pushing Republican-led states to redraw their maps ahead of next year's midterm elections. A grand jury in Virginia has again refused to bring a new indictment against New York Attorney General, Letitia James, for mortgage fraud. It's the second time in about a week that the district. Justice Department has failed to resurrect its case against James. Last month, a judge threw out an original indictment, finding that the prosecutor in the case, Lindsay Halligan, had been illegally appointed to her role. A similar case against another of President Trump's perceived foes, former FBI director James Comey, was also dismissed last month for similar reasons.

Kilmar Abrago-Gar Garcia has left an immigration detention center in Pennsylvania after a federal judge in Maryland ordered his release, saying his months-long detention was troubling. The native of El Salvador and Maryland resident was mistakenly deported by the administration this past spring and then returned to the U.S. in June to face human smuggling charges, which he denies. The White House says it will appeal his release. It comes as the administration's immigration policies were under scrutiny by lawmakers today. Joe Biden left us with I'm not asking about Joe Biden. I'm asking you a specific question. In a contentious House hearing, Homeland Security Secretary Christy Noem defended the Trump administration's hardline immigration policies.

We're ending illegal immigration, returning sanity back to our immigration system. We will never yield. We will never waver, and we will never back down. And there was also this moment when Secretary Noem was asked how many U.S. military veterans her agency has deported. Sir, we have not deported U.S. citizens or military veterans. We are joined on Zoom by a gentleman named Sayjun Park. He is a United States Army combat veteran. Will you join me in thanking Mr. Park for his service to our country? Sir, I'm grateful for every single person that has served our country and follows our laws.

And can you please tell Mr. Park why you deported him? Every one of them needs to be enforced. Meantime, the Senate Armed Services Committee questioned top military officials over the legality of troop deployments to U.S. cities. The White House says the deployments are necessary in fighting lawlessness, while critics describe them as an abuse of military power that violence. states' rights. The oil tanker that was taken yesterday by U.S. forces off the coast of Venezuela will make its way to an American port where authorities will seize the oil on board. That's according to White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt. This afternoon, she described the tanker as a sanctioned shadow vessel carrying what she called black market oil,

which she said justified its seizure. The United States currently has a full investigative team on the ground, on the vessel, and individuals on board the vessel are being interviewed. and any relevant evidence is being seized. The vessel will go to a U.S. port, and the United States does intend to seize the oil. However, there is a legal process for the seizure of that oil, and that legal process will be followed. Also today, the U.S. imposed sanctions on three of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's nephews, among others, as the Trump administration continues to increase pressure on that country,

meantime the face of Venezuela's resistance movement, Nobel laureate Maria Karina Machado, waved to a cheering crowd in Oslo late last night, where she is being celebrated as this year's Nobel Peace Prize winner. It was her first public appearance in 11 months. Venezuela will be free. At a press conference today, Machado vowed to keep fighting for her homeland's democracy and credited what she called the decisive actions of President Trump for weakening the Maduro regime.

Here at home, state health officials are reporting rising cases of the measles in two separate outbreaks in the eastern and western. US. New cases are cropping up along the Utah, Arizona border, as well as in South Carolina, where more than 250 people have been quarantined. Arizona has logged 172 measles cases since August and Utah has seen 82. In South Carolina, 111 people have been sickened in just the last two months. Nationwide, the number of measles cases is nearing 2,000, the highest number, since 1992. Days of relentless rain have sent rivers rising toward record levels in the Pacific Northwest. The National Weather Service says the atmospheric river began to subside

today, but not before dumping more than a foot of rain in some areas. Washington is under a statewide emergency, with tens of thousands under evacuation orders, especially around the Seattle area. Those who've stayed are doing what they can to keep the floodwaters out. We're just trying to build a wall, like a little island perimeter around the property here, to keep the water out from the house. In the meantime, in parts of western Washington, rivers are continuing to swell, prompting numerous water rescues and road closures. Disney announced a billion-dollar investment in Open AI today

to bring iconic characters like Mickey Mouse and Luke Skywalker to the SORA video tool. The three-year licensing deal will allow fans to create and share videos with more than 200 Disney, Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars characters. Disney CEO Bob Iger said the agreement will extend the reach of our storytelling through Generative AI while respecting and protecting creators and their works. The deal comes as Hollywood tries to navigate the opportunities and challenges that Generative AI presents. Artificial Intelligence is also gracing the cover of Time Magazine, which named the architects of AI as its person of the year for 2025.

That includes NVIDIA CEO Jensen Wong and Open AI boss Sam Altman, among others. Location said this was the year when the potential for AI, quote, roared into view and that there will be no turning back or opting out. An AI boom has, of course, been driving a long-running rally on Wall Street. And today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped more than 600 points to a new all-time high. The NASDAQ lost ground giving back about 60 points. The S&P 500 managed a modest gain. Still to come on the NewsHour, an investigation delves into connections between the misogynist influencers the Tate Brothers and the Trump Inner Circle.

The president's tariffs come with a steep price for stores and restaurants that import Italian pasta, and we explore some of the best video games released this year. This is the PBS News Hour from the David M. Rubenstein studio at WETA in Washington and in the west from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University. Ukraine's president today floated a possible compromise to a Russian demand that Kyiv give up territory in the eastern Donetsk region.

But Demir Zelensky spoke after he met with senior administration officials and sent new edits to the document at the heart of the U.S. push to end the war in Ukraine. Nick Schifrin is here following all of this. So, Nick, what does Zelensky say today about this crucial question, the fate of Donets? It is crucial, Jeff, because any Ukrainian withdrawal from territory it controls today would be illegal under Ukrainian law. This is by far the most contentious part of the peace plan for Zelensky. So let's take a look at the map. Zelensky says, and other European officials confirmed to me that the current deal would have Ukraine give up the portion of the Donetsk region that it controls.

It's that white portion right there inside the Donbass. Russia has failed to capture it through 11 years of war. That would give Russia control over the entire Donbass. So Lensky said today that the U.S. is now calling that area, quote, free economic zone. Russia calls it demilitarized, and in a meeting with the Americans, that included Jared Kushner, Steve Whitkoff, Secretary's Rubio and Heggseth, Zelensky said that he told the Americans, quote, our position is to remain where we stand, meaning on the front lines. And later added, the Russians want the entire Donbass, but we clearly do not accept this.

Zelensky said to the Americans, who would govern this territory if it's demilitarized? He quoted them saying, quote, they do not know. But later, when asked by journalists whether he was willing to accept this proposal, he replied, this will be answered by the people of Ukraine, whether in the format of elections or in the format of a referendum. And that suggests he's considering not rejecting this proposal. And instead, coming up with a compromising, asking Ukrainians, this fundamental question, are they willing to give up territory in exchange for a U.S. security guarantee and economic investment? So what then are the other sticking points?

One of the major sticking points is the fate of the Zaporizia nuclear power plant. This is Europe's largest power plant, and Russia occupied it in the first days after the full-scale invasion. Zelensky said today, and European officials confirmed to me that the U.S. is now proposing that the plant be jointly run by the U.S. and Russia. Ukraine, of course, wants Russia to give up the plant entirely. Another major issue, will the U.S. recognized territory that is currently occupied by Russia? officials tell me that the U.S. recently inserted a phrase of legal recognition for territories that Russia has occupied since 2014 or since the full-scale invasion in 2022. And now Ukraine and its European allies in the most recent draft sent to the United States last night, they've removed

that language from the draft. Zolensky also said this, that he wants any security guarantee from the United States to be a treaty, and that would have to be approved by Congress. We believe this document should be approved by the United States Congress. This would mean real, solid, legally binding, security guarantees for our country. Zelensky said there was no, quote, ultimatum deadline, Jeff, but that the U.S. wants a, quote, understanding of where we stand by Christmas. You mentioned Ukraine's European allies. What are they saying about all of this today?

Today, the Coalition of the Willing, that's led by the United Kingdom and France. They met virtually to talk about how they, they can support Ukraine in the future, including sending troops into Ukraine to enforce a ceasefire. And afterward, NATO Secretary General Mark Ruta had a really stark warning that his Europe, to his European colleagues, that we, as in NATO, might be Russia's next target. I fear that too many are quietly complacent. Too many don't feel the urgency. And too many believe that time is on our side.

It is not. The time for action is now. Conflict is at our door. Russia has brought war back to Europe. And we must be prepared to... Jeff, that is a fundamental divide. You have a NATO Secretary General talking about Russian invasion of Europe possible and the White House releasing a document,

national security strategy, talking about strategic stability with Russia and creating economic investments with Russia as part of a Ukraine deal. That's a real divide. right at the heart of the transatlantic relationship. Indeed. Nick Schifrin, our thanks to you, as always. Thank you.

the private credit market, an alternative type of lending to companies that doesn't involve traditional banks. We asked economics correspondent Paul Salman to explain how it works, what's at stake, and why alarm bells are sounding in some quarters. Bought an aftermarket car part in recent years. Good chance it came from First Brands. First Brands was a large supplier of auto parts, things like wiper blades, spark plugs. Over a decade, the company borrowed heavily to grow, gobbling up 20 companies employing 25,000 people, until this fall, that is. The lenders had become a bit concerned about some of the financial goings on at the company and requested some extra information, which First Brads couldn't provide. What happened? Went bust. And who were its lenders? Many came from the world of private credit, a part of the global financial system that's exploded in recent years. and has some key players in finance rattled.

I probably shouldn't say this, but when you see one cockroach, there's probably more. And so we should, everyone should be forewarned on this one. One such roach, first brands. I've been saying this for probably two years now, that the next big crisis in the financial markets is going to be private credit. Okay, but what exactly is private credit? Private credit is just lending by non-banks, financial institutions like pension funds, insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds, but not going through the banking system, thus the word private. It's grown very rapidly. It's now a sizable player in the financial system.

Growing from a $40 billion market in the year 2000 to nearly $2 trillion today. The reason for that growth is that after the Great Recession, regulators realize that, that, you know, the state, the regulators realize that. large financial institutions had been really exposed to making relatively risky bets without having enough of a backstop internally in the form of capital that they held that was available for the bank to draw down on in case some of those bets wet sour. And so the result of the aftermath of the crisis and the post-crisis regulation in Dodd-Frank was to say that in order to take those types of risk, it would be more expensive for banks going forward. As a result, most banks pulled back from riskier lending.

And private credit stood ready, in some sense, to take advantage and meet the need of the market to be able to make those types of loans. For investors, returns on those loans were, well, mouth-watering. Nearly double the rate of government bonds or other loans. So what's the problem? One of the issues with private credit is the lack of transparency. It's very opaque. It's not like the banking system where it's highly regulated and you know exactly what's going on.

Here, we don't know very much because it is, you know, private. And so that makes it a little bit more disconcerting. For example, private credit firms can report the value of their loans according to their own internal models rather than the market price, marking to model instead of marking to market. Problem is it's nearly impossible to verify that the loans are worth what their claim to be. Most times, no big deal, that's probably just fine. But when you get into kind of a risk-off environment, when things are moving quickly,

prices are falling rapidly, that's when marked-to-model becomes more of an issue. A loan-mark-to-model could even become a loan-mark-to-zilch. So how serious is the risk posed by private credit to the American economy as a whole? It's consequential, but it's still, you know, on the small side. And I don't think it's out of place yet where it could do. do us in? In some sense, it's a yarn that you start to pull and you're worried that it's both potentially unraveling, but also that it's potentially connected to all the other parts of the financial system. And the system is still very much reliant on all of these different pieces in a way that

regulators don't yet fully appreciate. And I worry none of us fully appreciate the possibility of cascading downturn risk as well. Most of the market is investment grade. Credit stats are actually improving rather than declining. Look, says Mark Rowan, CEO of private credit giant Apollo global management. There are good banks and bad banks and good insurance companies and bad insurance companies and good asset managers and bad asset managers. But there's nothing that I see that is systemic.

Systemic risk. That's the danger, which starts with risk to, well, Viewers like you. A very large percent of the population is affected by this higher risk without knowing it. Insurance fraud examiner Tom Gober. I look after policyholders and annuitants. If you have a life insurance policy or an annuity, I'm trying to help you know that you're going to be safe. But now there's a lot of pensioners who are also counting on the same insurance companies that are taking all these risks. and suppose insurance policy and annuity holders get skittish

and start withdrawing their, or I should say, our money, the money that backs up the private credit loans, putting them in jeopardy. In fact, recent headlines have featured bankruptcies of firms financed largely by private credit, Renavo, tri-color, and where the story began, first brands. A cockroach, operating in the dark, accused of engaging in blatant sleight-of-hand accounting.

The company or group companies would make a sale, generate an invoice, and then sell that invoice, or the sort of debt that generates to a third-party investor. And there were huge multibillion-dollar investments in invoices that First Brands was generating. Those billions came in large part from private credit. That is, private loans backed by invoices. Unfortunately, the head of first brands was allegedly faking those invoices and selling them more than once. And we're still... We're talking about a company that's now being accused of siphoning off billions of dollars to fund its founder and CEO's personal, extravagant lifestyle.

That's why the new CEO of the company is suing his predecessor for malfeasance. While a spokesman for the old CEO says he, quote, categorically denies the baseless and speculative allegations, in the first brands complaint. But the point is, first brands financed in the so-called shadow banking industry, was operating in the shadows. Which leads to the question of the day regarding the private credit industry. Were first brands and its fellow private credit failures anomalies?

Or an early harbinger of risks? Not unlike those that triggered the financial crisis of 2008. For the PBS NewsHour, Paul Solomon. Now a new investigation into the political maneuvers that led to the release of Andrew and Tristan Tate, right-wing influencers charged with rape, human trafficking, and other crimes. The Tates, who are major players with big social media followings in the so-called Manosphere, are facing critical. criminal investigations in Romania and criminal charges in the U.K. for alleged sex crimes. The brothers had been barred from leaving Romania for years as prosecutors built their case, but in February, the Romanian government suddenly lifted the travel ban

and allowed the two to board a plane to Florida, which they announced in this video recorded on the plane. Both men have denied the criminal allegations. A new report from the New York Times reveals how the Trump administration and some members of the president's family may have been involved in a larger move. in conservative circles to support the Tate's. For more, we're joined now by New York Times investigative reporter Megan Tewy, who helped break the story. Thanks for being with us.

Happy to be with you. So for the unfamiliar, tell us more about who the Tate brothers are and the criminal allegations they were facing in Romania. So Andrew Tate and his brother, Tristan, to a lesser extent, are two of the most influential figures in the so-called Manosphere world. They, Andrew is a former kickboxer who has built a huge, massive online audience by preaching brazen masculinity and chauvinism to a young male audience. He and his brother have also also ran a porn business for about 10 years, bragging about how they lured and steered women into making sexual content for paying customers online and with them taking a lot of the profit. And they have also sold courses to young men on how to make money and exploit women.

And as we mentioned, the Romanian courts originally required the Tates to remain in that country as the cases were built against them. But then seemingly overnight back in February, they were seen on this plane headed to Florida. Your reporting links that shift to the relationships they cultivated with influential figures on the political right to include members of Donald Trump's own family. What did you learn about those relationships? Yeah. So Andrew and Tristan, they have joint American and British citizenship, but have been based in Romania since like the mid-2010s. And in 2022, they started to come under investigation. They're ultimately have been under investigation in three countries in Romania where they're accused of trafficking dozens of women into their porn business. And Andrew's been accused of rape. They also have been accused. They're facing charges. in Britain of rape and trafficking.

They've also been under criminal investigation here in the United States. But remarkably, as they started to come undergrowing numbers of criminal investigations, they forged really close alliances with people on the American right, ranging from media figures like Tucker Carlson and Candice Owens

to members of the Trump family, first starting with Donald Trump Jr. and then with Baron Trump. And those we found in the course of our reporting that those sort of strategic alliances culminated in their release from Romania in February of this year. How? How did that all happen? How did the U.S. involvement in their case ramp up after Trump's re-election? So the prosecutors in Romania had barred the brothers from traveling. They've been arguing, as they've been investigating these brothers, that they pose a public risk

and a flight risk, a public danger, and a flight risk. And so they have, like, repeatedly been seeking to confine them in the country. And that changed in February when the prosecutors, like an extraordinary order came down from the highest levels of the Romanian government instructing prosecutors to reach a compromise with the brothers. And then those travel bans were lifted, which was something that the prosecutors did not want to do, according to our sources. And what we've learned is that that was really a culmination.

Once Trump was reelected, there were supporters of the Tates here in the United States who ascended into the administration, including a special diplomatic envoy named Richard Grinnell, who we found through our reporting had at least two conversations with Romanian officials about the Tate's case. And then within days of that second conversation, the order came down in Romania, ordering the, you know, the compromise that led to the lifting of the travel bans. And we've been told that the Romanian prime minister believed that that would appease the Trump administration. What did your reporting find about the involvement of Donald Trump Jr. and Baron Trump specifically? Yeah. So Andrew Tate, you know, was very sort of strategic and shrewd. in cultivating these alliances with people on the American right, including in the Trump family. And so his relationship with Don Jr. stretches back to 2017 when Andrew had posted a positive tweet about his father and Don Jr. had liked it. And anyway, soon they were hanging out at

Trump Tower here in New York. And that stretched up through him coming under investigation and being placed on house arrest in Romania. Don Jr. was one of the people who posted online supporting in defense of the Tate's and critical of the Romanian investigation. And then we found that by 2024, Baron Trump, the youngest son, was also a fan of Andrew

and that they actually spoke by Zoom last year with a mutual friend who told me that Baron is a big fan of the Tate's and that on this call, they had actually discussed the Romanian case and how they thought it was just an effort to silence the Tate's, a politically motivated criminal investigation. Your reporting points to a network of powerful conservative figures who have championed the Tates,

but not everyone on the right shares that view. So what are the fault lines? Within hours of the travel bans being lifted, the brothers were on a private plane to Florida, And their arrival was, I think, a little bit bumpier than they had expected. While on the one hand, they have garnered on a lot of support from certain, you know, media and other conservative figures and even members of the Trump family here in the United States. There were also a lot of conservatives, other conservatives, more traditional conservatives, who were outraged that they had come back to the United States. Megan Kelly, Ben Shapiro, the Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, said that they weren't welcome in his state,

and the Florida Attorney General actually launched an investigation of them there. Megan, how is the White House responding to your reporting? Well, we went to the White House and Baron Trump and Donald Trump Jr. with a lot of detailed questions and spelling out all of our findings. Don Jr. did not respond. we got no response for Baron Trump. The White House basically gave us one line, which was that they say the White House has no involvement in the Tate's legal cases. Megan Tewy of the New York Times, thanks for sharing your reporting with us.

Thanks so much for having me. gained a new honor, becoming the first gastronomic style to be recognized as intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO, the UN's cultural body. But as Dima Zane reports, American cooks face a new potential tariff that may double the cost of an essential part of that cuisine, pasta from Italy. This is Cavatapi. For Diana Calcano, pasta is part of her family's history. She manages Bache, an Italian grocer in Delhi, in Washington, D.C., and nearby Bethesda, Maryland, which her parents founded almost 50 years ago. It's a lot of connection with our customers.

It's generation after generation. So their fathers, and, you know, then they brought their children, and then now they bring their children for pasta and pizza night. But one of the store's staples, pasta from Italy, may soon be under threat. Fin spaghetti, Bucatini. Then I also ordered horquieti, forcing her to stock up on what she can. Some customers have asked us, oh, are you going to still be carrying some pastas? And we just kind of started, you know, snowballing and writing down a bunch of things and trying to figure out how we were going to handle it.

Vache is one of many businesses across the country making preparations after a recent announcement from the U.S. Department of Commerce. As early as January, pasta from 13 major Italian producers. producers will face a 92% tariff, on top of the existing 15% tariff on all goods from Europe. That's nearly 107% in all. It's giving me goosebumps thinking about that right now. I'm like when I found out that that amount, it really did hit a little bit because I was just like, man, it was uncertain, not knowing if people were willing to pay it and we're still uncertain. customers, the news was postatively frustrating after years of rising food prices. I don't know. It just doesn't seem very fair.

Not to be able to buy pasta is really terrible because pasta is a very primary food that everybody should access. Pasta is not a strategic product. Pasta is a basic product. It's, you know, the iconic symbol of the Mediterranean diet. Kiera Danagani is a researcher and professor at Aston University in the UK. He co-authored an article about what she dubs the Great Pasta War. While the US government alleges that the coming tariffs are in response to Italian pasta makers dumping their product at unfair prices in the American market, Danagani has not found evidence of that in the data.

The Italian pasta sold to the US. It is usually priced higher, not lower. The second key indicator is the market share, and the Italian company's market share are broadly straight. over that period with no sign of predatory pricing to squeeze out competitors. For Italian pasta makers, the tariff could be a fatal blow, especially for small and medium-sized producers. Margarita Mastromaro is president of the pasta makers sector of Unione Italiano food, a trade group.

The United States imports approximately 300,000 tons of Italian pasta, worth around $700 million. hundred million dollars. The duty would essentially mean a halt to imports of this pasta into the American market because, obviously, it would mean that the price of pasta would more than double, making it completely unprofitable and uncompetitive. Academic Danagani, who is originally from Italy, sees the tariffs as not about economic fairness. It excess political pressure and basically signals that no sector is safe. The tariffs are preliminary and will be finalized by the second of January. While pasta from Italy only makes up about 12% of the U.S. market, some grocers here are already seeing the impacts. Saturday was the first day ever that

reminded me of the pandemic. It was the same thing where I just, I looked at the shelves halfway through the day and I could not believe how much we had sold of just pasta. Max Evans owns a LaTerry, a small Italian grocer in northeast Washington, D.C. He's ordering more supply to keep up with customer demand. And he says not all pasta is created equal. Italian pasta, it's like Italian wine. It's specific to the region where it's produced. There's such a vast array.

I mean, I don't think you're going to find that from American producers in the kind of numbers and availability. Ultimately, it's his customers that will have to fork out to keep Italian pasta on their plates. Italian pasta, particularly Italian pasta here, is the best in the city. And the fact that it's getting tariff that much, A, is going to dis-signify people from coming. But then B is just like, why are we doing nonsense? Like so, it's just ridiculous.

Back in Maryland, Diana Calcano says even though the tariffs haven't kicked in yet, her suppliers are already raising prices, which she worries will keep customers away. People are not splurging as much on, let's say, a $25 bottle of wine, you know, instead they'll focus on just the main meal. I have had some customers complain about pricing already, and I'm a little scared of what it's going to be like when the other stuff starts going up. For now, she's hoping there may still be a reprieve in the coming tariffs. For the PBS News Hour, I'm Dima Zane. The video game industry is getting ready to celebrate its top achievements at the annual game awards, an award show dedicated to honoring the very best in game design, storytelling, music, and more in gaming.

The show, now in its 11th year, has grown into a major spectacle, drawing millions of viewers from around the world to see which of their favorite games will win any awards. Senior arts correspondent Jeffrey Brown has more for our arts and culture series, Canvas. And the game of the year is Balder's Gate 3. In just over a decade, the game awards have evolved into one of the biggest entertainment events of the year. The show often described as the Oscars of gaming celebrates writers, performers, and the latest technology shaping the industry. And it's not just game developed, taking the stage. We are all trying to tell a story.

Film, television, and music stars have all been drawn in. Often called on to present awards, promote upcoming big-budget titles, and even showcase games they are helping create. Major entertainment figures like El Fanning, Kianu Reeves, Snoop Dog, and Jordan Peel are now acting in and producing games. And the line between gaming and film and TV, TV grows more porous. Think The Last of Us, which started as a video game and then became an HBO series. Or the film adaptation of the popular survival game, Minecraft, one of the

highest grossing movies of this year. While action or shoot-em-up type games still get plenty of attention, other genres are pulling in large audiences, such as Slice of Life role-playing games like Consume Me, where you play as a teen struggling with the pressures of dieting. or expelled, where you attempt to solve a mystery in a 1920s British boarding school. The other girls won't play by the rules. And who's playing? That's evolving, too. Today, 60% of American adults play video games every week.

Average age of players, 36. And women now make up the majority at 52%. This year's game awards are expected to draw millions of viewers rooting for favorites in categories like Best Action Game, Best Action Game, Best Action Game, Best performance and the night's top prize game of the year. And joining me now is James Mastro Marino. He serves as gaming editor for NPR, and it's a producer for the show here and now. Nice to have you. It's great to be here. So, you know, we laid out a lot of this in the setup, but for those who are still not aware so much of this world, how big a deal

is the industry? How much change have you seen in terms of the craft and the art behind it? Well, it's a massive, massive industry. By some counts, it's bigger than Hollywood and the recording industry combined. And people spend dozens of hours each week playing games that have come a long way since the arcade. I mean, games, it's almost an insufficient category because it can encompass things that are basically playable visual novels to grand cinematic games like Death Stranding 2, to classic sort of beat-em-ups and other action sort of titles.

So really, anything that you think could be a game, there probably is a game about that. We're going to go through a few categories, and you can give some examples. So first, a narrative-driven game that you love from this year. Sure. Well, I think the standout is Claire Obscure, Expedition 33,

which comes from a French studio, an independent studio that no one really saw this game coming, and it's sort of like what you would get if you cross like an existentialist novel with like a French New Way film and made it a video game. You're fighting to change things. With fantastical characters

and this really lovable cast, it really blew me away. It has so many twists and turns and it's really trying to tell something that's very heartfelt and compelling. And then you also have something that has, like, grand cinematic ambitions, like Death Stranding 2, which I mentioned. Was it you heads? Huh? Was it you the Kidlu?

It's designer Hideo Kajima has been making these games that really do feel like playable movies. It even stars Hollywood actors like Norman Redis and Leah Sudu and El Fanning. So that's a rather ambitious, really far-reaching kind of science fiction game. So like the movie industry, you've got some of them coming from big studios or big companies. And then you have Indies, smaller games. Right, right. Well, you have your Microsoft. your Sonys, your Nintendos, we call these the AAA studios because they make kind of like the top line most expensive products.

Ironically, they've been kind of faltering in recent years. We've seen lots of layoffs as big tech has sort of gone through some shakeups that's impacted the entertainment industry associated with it. It's the independent studios that have been really getting a lot of traction. Some of them come out, again, absolutely from nowhere and take the world by storm. And as an example of that, at the Game Awards this year, the kind of big premier award ceremony for the industry, half of the games of the year nominees are from independent studios.

So fully half. So how about what you referred to as multiplayer games where you can play with a friend or family? Yeah, I mean, getting back to the arcades. I mean, this is sort of like one of the roots of all gaming, right, is playing with your friends and family. And, you know, this year we saw something really interesting in split fiction, which is a game about,

two writers that are thrown in this sort of virtual reality space based on their their writings so you want to go through more of your crazy stories my crazy stories but it's exclusively playable by two people you have to have you have to have a part there's no way to play it alone it's by a studio that specializes in this sort of thing it blew a lot of people away and then you've also got your classics like mario cart which got a new revised updated version Mario Kart World with the Nintendo Switch 2, a new console. And as always, Mario Kart's just a great time for families. I can attest to that.

I played a ton over the holidays. Let's it go. Yes! All right. Now, you referred to this earlier, the performances, the way that's been growing, and that includes a lot of well-known actors coming into this world. Give us some standouts from this past year. Yeah, well, Claire Obscure, Exhibition 33, and Destranding 2,

both pulled from Hollywood actors. So you had Charlie Cox, Daredevil from that series, who was in Clare Obscure. And a really emotional performance from Jennifer English, who is an actor that really got famous from Baldersgate 3, one of the biggest games of the last few years. And then Des Randing 2, so much, so much Hollywood talent. And the very performances in the game are modeled after the likeness

of these actors. So Norman Redis is the star of that game from The Walking Dead. You've got another called Dispatch, which has the voice talents of Aaron Paul, of Breaking Bad. That's not how bees work, but if we killed a queen, we wrought the hive. And Jeffrey Wright, one of my favorite actors with him today. So these two industries are really converging. They're more and more starting to pull from the same talent. Now, I have to ask this, I feel, you know, there's been a long-time reputation for violence in video games.

video games. I venture to say some of the people watching this, that's what they think of as video games. To what extent is that still true? Well, I mean, violent video games still do good numbers. I mean, if you go back, a lot of that reputation was forged in the 1990s with like ultra-violent video games like Mortal Kombat and Doom. Doom has a very celebrated sequel this year. It's still going strong. But as I've mentioned, like games can encompass so many different categories of play now that it's not just about shooting or swinging a sword. It can be about running a bookshop or selling antiques or just trying to be a good neighbor in like a small town and the the meshing of media whether it's you know games to films games to series one of them of course the last of us yeah and the meshing of actors crossing over that will continue yeah absolutely the last of us the HBO show casts people from the game so Jeffrey Wright another name I've mentioned was in the Last of Us part two, the video game, and is now in season two of The Last of Us on HBO.

So a lot of actors are basically cross-training that can do whatever you want, whether it's being on camera or in a soundstage, hooked up with all that motion capture gear to be in a video game. All right, James Mastro-Marino. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Joseph Martinez is the longtime principal of Carpenter Community Charter School in Los Angeles. And families know him as the principal who literally picks up trash in the morning and dresses up for school plays, but also as the steady hand through fires, immigration fears, and lockdown drills.

In tonight's Brief But Spectacular, Martinez makes the case for why public education remains a smart investment. Public education, to me, is equivalent to our democracy. If we don't have a strong public education system that will accept everyone, that will be competitive with all the private schools in the area, then I don't see our democracy thriving as it has for the past 250 years. I am the principal of Carpenter Community Charter in Studio City, Los Angeles, California. I'm responsible for approximately 900 students daily. Whatever it takes to engage children at an elementary school, I am game for it. I've been everything from Elliot, from E.T., Willie Wonka, I've been Woody, the cowboy, set in the tone, and embrace elementary school for all that it has to offer. There is no job that is above or below me that's cutting the grass or if that's picking up trash.

I hope that they see that everybody has to pitch in, that they have to participate in order for their community to thrive. So I'm born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada. Everybody in my family worked in the service industry. My mother and my grandmother both worked in the kitchens at various hotels. My father was a bellman. So I grew up watching everybody in my family

be service oriented as a school administrator in Los Angeles. Now I try to have that same mentality. I think of it as a hotel to give everybody the greatest experience in elementary school that they could have. One of the reasons why I'm not in private education, and it's because we accept everyone. LAUSD is a sanctuary school district,

and that means that any family that enrolls their child for school has a safe place for that child to be at school so that they can learn. We don't turn anyone away. At all LAUSD public schools, we have meetings and we have resources for immigrant families that are facing a crisis or any kind of a situation involving ice.

My father came from Mexico. He did not have his citizenship until very late in his life. So I understand the struggles and the challenges of immigrant families and their children. I love building relationships. I would go visit my parents when they worked in hotels. And I was always amazed at how much of a family it really was with my mother and the people she worked with in the kitchens or my father and the people he worked with that were all Belmont,

whatever job I was going to have in the future, I wanted to have that. So that's my favorite part of my job is building community, building relationships, and building a support network for our school community. My name is Joseph Martinez, and this is my brief but spectacular take on bringing hospitality to public education. And you can watch more brief but spectacular videos online, at pbs.org slash newshour slash brief. And that is the NewsHour for tonight.

I'm Amna Nawaz. And I'm Jeff Bennett for all of us here at the NewsHour. Thanks for spending part of your evening with us.