PBS News Hour - Full Show - December 14, 2025 – PBS News Weekend full episode

Episode Date: December 14, 2025

Sunday on PBS News Weekend, police take a person of interest into custody over the deadly shooting at Brown University. Gunmen attack Australia’s Jewish community at a gathering to celebrate Hanukkah. A new book highlights Patagonia’s path to becoming a global corporate leader in doing well by doing good. Plus, a dog with prosthetic paws inspires Ukrainian soldiers recovering from wounds of war. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy

Tonight on PBS News Weekend, police take a person of interest into custody in connection with the mass shooting at Brown University that killed two students and wounded nine others. Then there are at least 15 victims in a shooting that targeted Australia's Jewish community as hundreds gathered to celebrate the first day of Hanukkah. A very good dog with prosthetic paws inspires Ukrainian soldiers as they recover from the wounds of war. You feel a sense of emotional relief, especially with a dog here on prosthetics, just like us. It's truly wonderful. Tonight, two communities, half a world apart, are struggling with the aftermath of a mass shooting.

In Sydney, two gunmen killed at least 15 people celebrating Hanukkah on Australia's most famous beach. Authorities call it a terrorist attack on Jewish Australians. And we begin in Providence, Rhode Island, where two Brown University students were killed and nine others wounded when a man opened fire in a classroom where a review session for an economics exam was going on. Authorities say a person of interest, described as a man in his 20s, was taken into custody at a hotel about 20 miles from Providence. Today, police patrolled the streets around the Brown University campus as snow fell. It was a stark contrast to last night when police responded in force to reports of an active

shooter. They searched the campus for a suspect. Students were told to shelter in place, for some that met a classroom. were escorted to an athletic center. Engineering student, Chiang Heng Qian, was working in a lab when the alert went out. We decided to close all the doors and turn all the light up and hide under the desks and wait for the next notification. Another witness described the scene last night.

Someone's getting CPR. I've seen a few people getting carried out on stretchers. Video from surveillance cameras show a figure coming out of the building where the shooting took place. Police won't say if it led them to the man they took into custody. This morning, Providence Mayor Brett Smiley reflected on this difficult time. We knew it could happen anywhere, including here, but that's not the same as it happening in our community. And so this is an incredibly upsetting and emotional time for Providence, for Brown, for all of us.

School officials have canceled classes and exams for the rest of the year. Many students will head home for the holidays. what should be a joyous time now shattered by the tragic cycle of gun violence. It's a sad sign of the times that this was not a new experience for at least two Brown students. They had been through shootings at their high schools. Ian Donis is a reporter at Ocean State Media, which is Rhode Island's PBS and NPR stations. Ian, is there anything new on the investigation? The most significant development, John, is that early Sunday law enforcement took into custody

a person of interest at a hotel in Coventry, about 25 miles southwest from Providence. Officials have been very guarded in releasing information about the suspect. They say they don't want to compromise the information. One of the few things we know is that he's a man in his 20s. FBI director, Cash Patel on X, tweeted that the FBI helped to locate the person through cell phone tracking and a tip from Providence Police. But the Providence Authority has been very guarded in saying anything beyond that. I haven't said much about motive, but is there any speculation about the building that he chose for this attack? It certainly raises a lot of

questions. The place where the shooting took place is an engineering and physics building where an exam was being given. That's a very specific location. If a mass shooter wanted to create the most carnage. That's probably not the place they would go. So, but officials have not said whether the person of interest had any prior connection with Brown University. So that is an obvious question to follow. And as you say, they have not cited anything as far as a motive at this point. What do we know about the status of the students who were wounded? There are some better news about that. Today, officials said that seven of the nine injured are now in stable condition. That's improvement from Saturday when they were critical.

One person is still critical, but stable, and one of the injured has been discharged from the hospital. And the briefing earlier, I know that there was, they offered a reason why the names of the two victims have, haven't been released. Yes. The Mayor of Providence said not all the families had been notified yet, and that was the explanation. for why there have not been identification yet of the two students who were killed and the other people who were injured. And he said that at least one of the families was traveling so that they're difficult to reach. What's the situation on campus or what's the mood on campus right now?

Well, this takes place in Rhode Island, the small state in the nation, where we're all pretty closely connected with one another. There was clearly a lot of anxiety and concern when the shooter was considered. still at large yesterday. Officials had put a shelter in place order in effect. That was lifted after the person of interest was apprehended today. I think there's a lot of sadness. You know, certainly Rodan has experienced gun violence in the form of crime and even shootouts with people involved in crime, but there's never been a mass shooting of this type. And there's a lot of sadness. Brown University president, Christina Paxson, said the campus is reeling,

and that it will take a long time for people to cope with this. State and city officials have made counseling resources to try and assist in that effort, but it's a difficult journey. At Brown, is there any discussion or any concern about how easily this suspect was able to enter a classroom building? Indications were that access was a little bit easier to this building because exams were being given. university officials said when exams are being given like that, the outside doors to buildings are open. As they explained it, usually someone has to check in in the evening. But there are a lot of porous places in an open society and how to stop something like this against a person

intent on committing violence is just a really tough question to resolve. Ian Donis of Ocean State Media in Rhode Island. Thank you very much. Thank you, Chuck. There's late words since we spoke with the end that authorities have identified the person of interest as 24-year-old Benjamin Erickson. There are no other details. And now to the shooting in Australia, where there's been a spike in anti-Semitic incidents. Ali Rogan has that story.

A deadly attack on Sydney's iconic Bondi Beach sent crowds fleeing for safety Sunday evening. Two gunmen, a father and son, according to police, opened fire on a Hanukkah celebration where hundreds had gathered for the start of the eight-day Jewish holiday. One alleged gunman appeared to be shooting from behind a palm tree when a bystander crept up on him and seized the gun. A second gunman took aim from a footbridge over a nearby parking lot. At least 16 people are dead, including the gunman, and a 12-year-old child. 38 others were wounded. Young and old had gathered for the Hanukkah event.

I seen like a kid, like she was like maybe eight years old. She got injured on the leg and she was crying and she was on the ground. So she was behind her mom. Her mom was on the ground as well. Finn Green is a tourist from the United Kingdom. I just saw an older lady get shot and she was on the floor. So an older guy get shot, very bad to be injured on the left-hand side. And I just saw a bunch of people screaming run towards me.

I didn't know what was going on. One gunman was fatally shot by police and the second who was arrested is in critical condition. One of the men was known to security services. Australian authorities declared it a terrorist attack. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanyes. This is a targeted attack on Jewish Australians on the first day of Hanukkah, which should be a day of joy, a celebration of faith, an act of evil anti-Semitism, terrorism that has struck the heart of our nation. The massacre is the latest in a wave of anti-Semitic incidents in Australia over the last year.

Synagogues and cars torched, homes graffitied, and Jews attacked. Australia blamed Iran for two of the attacks and cut ties to Tehran, but authorities have not made any claims about Sunday's massacre. For more on this tragedy, I'm joined by Amy Spitalnik, CEO of the non-profit Jewish Council for Public Affairs. Amy, thank you so much for being here. Thanks for having me. We've seen anti-Semitic attacks on the rise in the past decade, really. Should we be thinking about this latest attack in Australia in that global context?

Absolutely. We've seen, unfortunately, a horrific cycle of anti-Semitism, whether it's the far-right white supremacist, white nationalist anti-Semitism, like the Tree of Life attack, the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in U.S. history, or the attack in Australia just this weekend, targeting the Jewish community marking Hanukkah, or the increasing cycle of attacks targeting Jews here in the United States and around the world under the guise of protesting Israeli policy like the Boulder and Capitol Jewish Museum attacks this spring. And so it's important to understand that none of these

attacks are happening in a silo. They're part of a broader normalization of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and tropes, this idea of Jewish control and power that ultimately leads to direct violence targeting Jews. This rhetoric doesn't happen in isolation. Rhetoric leads to real-world violence. And why is it that this sort of rhetoric that leads to attacks like these, why is it so pervasive now? I mean, we've seen it over the past 10 years, but why now? Yeah. Well, anti-Semitism is at its core a conspiracy theory. It's about pitting communities against one another, sowing distrust in our institutions and our democracy, and fundamentally making it less safe, not just for Jews, but for everyone. And so as we see these conspiracy theories

become normalized, whether it's replacement and invasion conspiracy theories like what we've seen here in Pittsburgh and Charlottesville and elsewhere, or conspiracy theories about Jewish or Zionist control of our foreign policy or finances or government. We're living at a really tumultuous time and people are looking for scapegoats. And so anti-Semitic conspiracy theories are far more salient than perhaps they would have been a few decades ago across the ideological spectrum. And it leads to what we're now seeing. I want to ask you about what is really Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today against Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. He said that the Australian support and recognition of the Palestinian state

is among the factors that led to this attack. What do you make of that? Look, it's so important to be clear that when Jews are targeted for the actions of the Israeli government, that's anti-Semitism, and therefore it makes it that much more important to be clear. the distinction between Jewish people and the actions of the Israeli government. And so when we start conflating these things, it only leads to Jews becoming less safe. What we actually need from our political leaders, whether it's the prime minister, whether it's President Trump, whether it's any leader around the world who claims to be committed to countering anti-Semitism is a whole of government,

whole-of-society approach to countering this hate and extremism, and a refusal to weaponize and exploit the very legitimate fears and concerns of the Jewish community right now in furtherance of a broader political agenda. And when we talk about that whole of community response to things like this, what can we all do from the leaders around the world to individuals? Well, we actually have a good roadmap for this in a variety of ways. The Biden and Harris administration put forth a comprehensive strategy to counter anti-Semitism. There's a proposal from the Special Envoy in Australia for a similar plan there.

We know that what countering anti-Semitism requires is actually what requires us to build broader democratic resilience as well, protecting core democratic norms, building education and other resiliency to hate and extremism becoming indoctrinated in the first place, teaching media and digital literacy, investing in hate crimes prevention, investing in the protection of civil rights, like Title VI, which is what protects students and others on our campuses and in our schools. And unfortunately, we've seen a disinvestment from so many of these programs by the Trump administration and, frankly, in other countries around the world as well. And so what we need is that whole of society, whole of government approach that understands

countering anti-Semitism is inherent to protecting our democracy, just as protecting democracy is inherent to Jewish safety. Amy Spatelnik with the Jewish Council for Public Affairs. Thank you so much. Thanks for having me. In the day's other headlines, in Berlin, there were more talks today on how to end the war in Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volody Mirzelensky, President Trump's special envoy,

Steve Whitkoff and Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, met for five hours and are set to meet again on Monday. Earlier, Zelensky appeared to be willing to abandon his goal of NATO membership if he got security guarantees. Tomorrow, the group will be joined by European leaders. In Gaza, large crowds gathered for the funeral of a top Hamas commander who was killed in an Israeli air strike outside Gaza city. Israel said Ra'ad Sad had been trying to rebuild Hamas in violation of the ceasefire. fire agreement. He was also believed to have been the last remaining living architect of the October 7th attacks. Hamas said it had named a new commander. And it will be a frigid start to the work week for many across the country. The National Weather Service forecasts an Arctic

blast will plunge temperatures in the east and bring more snow to the Great Lakes. Freeze warnings are expected as far south as Georgia. At the Pacific Northwest, heavy rains are expected to return tomorrow and could lead to flash flooding in that already saturated area. So to come on PBS News Weekend, a new book highlights Patagonia's path to becoming a global corporate leader in doing well by doing good. And a dog with prosthetic titanium paws supports war veterans in Ukraine. This is PBS News Weekend from the David M. Rubenstein studio at WETA in Washington, home of The PBS NewsHour, weeknights on PBS.

Surveys consistently ranked Patagonia as one of the most reputable brands in America, not just for its outdoor clothing and gear, but also for being good environmental stewards. That comes from its iconoclastic founder, Yvonne Schenard. When he retired, he didn't cash out by selling the billion-dollar company. He transferred it to a trust that uses Patagonia's profits. to combat climate change and protect undeveloped land. The story of both the company and its founder is told in a new book, Dirtbag billionaire, how Yvonne-Shanard built Patagonia,

made a fortune, and gave it all away. Earlier, I spoke with the author, David Gellis, a reporter on the New York Times climate team. I asked him to explain the book's title. Well, a lot of people hear the title and think I must not have liked the guy, but quite to the contrary. Yvonne Chouinard himself actually calls himself a dirtbag. In the climbing community that he came from, a dirtbag is actually a term of endearment.

It refers to someone who's so unenamored with materialism that they're content to sleep in the dirt. But when he heard the title of the book, he actually didn't like it, not because of the word dirtbag, but because of the word billionaire. He never wanted to be known as a billionaire. Not only that, but he said he never wanted to accomplish. He never wanted to be a businessman, and so, of course, he ends up running a billion-dollar company. How did that happen? This is the great paradox at the heart of Yvonne-Shanard's story and of the company, Patagonia. This is a man who grew up despising businessmen, who grew up loathing corporate America.

And yet, nevertheless, he wound up running a company with more than a billion dollars in annual sales. How that happened? he wound up making products that people really liked. And the only way to do that in this very imperfect system is by running a sort of conventional company. And also you mentioned he hated the term billionaire. He was very irked when he got on the Forbes list of billionaires. How did he handle that sort of psychologically and internally?

How did he deal with that? The day he was placed on the Forbes list of billionaires for the first time in 2017, he called it one of the worst days of his life. He wound up stomping around the office, huffing, mad, screaming at people, demanding that his lieutenants find a way to get him off that list. But of course, it's not so simple because he was indeed a billionaire on paper. But ultimately, he and his family gave away the equity in Patagonia, which led to this really profound philanthropic transaction in 2022, where he renounced his ownership of the company. renounced his ownership, and where do all the profits go now? All the profits from Patagonia, the company that are not reinvested in the company itself,

are donated to a series of nonprofit organizations that they set up, and that amounts to roughly $100 million a year. You're right that he was an outsider from the time he started grade school. Was that sort of a thread that ran through his life? That started from a very early age. He was raised in French-Canadian, Maine. When he showed up in California, when he was 10 years old with his family, he didn't speak English. And so as he grows up as an adolescent, he finds himself sort of on the margins of polite society.

And that leads him first to being a falconer, which is to say he was actually going out and capturing birds of prey as a teenager, learning how to train them. and then as a rock climber, and that leads to a series of other adventures, and then to him starting and then growing this business in Southern California that becomes known as Patagonia. He's been an iconocast, an outsider his whole life. It started as an outdoorsman, but then even as he became a very successful businessman, he did so in really unconventional ways. Talk about that because he did things that a normal retailer probably wouldn't have done. He had a very popular product line that he just ended because he thought it was damaging rocks, damaging the earth. This is one of the patterns that repeats itself. This notion that Yvonne Cheneard was willing to just disavow a popular product line if he discovered that it had a negative environmental impact.

He did it very early on when he discovered some of the climbing gear he was using, was damaging the rocks that he was climbing. And he did it again in the 1980s when he discovered that conventional cotton, which at the time was being treated with formaldehyde, all sorts of other toxic chemicals. When he understood that, he said, we're switching to organic cotton. Now, that meant sacrificing something like 20% of sales overnight, but he said he was going to do it because it was more important to him to run a company that had high ethical and environmental standards than it was to just keep pursuing profits. or even sales at all costs.

You talk about it at the end when he gave the company away. He said he hoped that he would influence a new form of capitalism that doesn't end up with a few rich people and a bunch of poor people. Are there any signs that that's worked that influence has been felt? I think it's too much to ask one company or even one individual, someone like Yvonne-Shanard, to change the whole course of capitalism. That's a tall order. What I can say with confidence is that over the years, Patagonia really has had an impact on other companies and on corporate America at large.

And you can see its influence in groups like the B court movement, in groups like Time to Vote, the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, the textile exchange. These are all initiatives that Patagonia and Yvonne Cheneard actually helped start very quietly in the background. And when you look to a new generation of CEOs who say that they're drawing their inspiration from Patagonia, from Cheneard, trying to do business differently, there too. You can see the fingerprints of Patagonia. But those I wish it weren't the case are still the exceptions that prove the rule. The reality is most companies are not like Patagonia today. David Gellis, author of Dirtbag Billionaire.

Thank you very much. Thanks for having me. work hard to learn how to use their new limbs. If they need inspiration to persevere, they can look to a dog named Lava. You feel a sense of emotional relief, especially with a dog here on prosthetics, just like us. It's truly wonderful. Lava was found near Odessa's railway station after a train had severed his front paws. Now he uses prosthetic paws.

They're made of titanium, just like amputee's prosthetics. And like many of the patients, they're integrated with his bones through an advanced reconstructive surgery procedure called Osseointegration. Wavr's owner is the founder of the rehab center. It's remarkable that our work inspired the veterinarian, a trauma surgeon, to perform osseointegration on this dog. And it succeeded. They designed and produced titanium implants.

He's a fixture at the center, playing with patients and joining in physiotherapy sessions. Lava behaves as if his prosthetics were his natural paws. The most important thing is that the dog has accepted the prosthetics. He doesn't chew them, he licks them, treating them as his own paws. If they felt artificial to him, he would have chewed them off. He's a dog, after all. As Lava roams the center, he's making a difference in the lives of so many of these soldiers

who lost limbs on the battlefield. The dog can walk now, and I want to as well. Soon I'll be able to walk too. The dog wants to live, just like we do, and I'll walk too, not on four legs, but on two. Now on the NewsHour Instagram account, Simon Ostrowski goes into depth on the new lawsuit against U.S. tech companies that supplied Iran and Russia with microchips used in missiles and drones to attack Ukraine. All that and more is on the News Hour Instagram account. And that is PBS News weekend for this Sunday.

For all of us here at the PBS News, thanks for joining us. Happy Hanukkah. Thank you.