PBS News Hour - Full Show - December 16, 2025 – PBS News Hour full episode

Episode Date: December 17, 2025

Tuesday on the News Hour, signs of a slowing labor market from the latest jobs report. Congress considers a massive spending bill for the military that would give the Trump administration even more money than it asked for. Plus, we speak with physician and Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy about the impending spikes in health care premiums and his decisive vote to confirm Health Secretary Kennedy. 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 Omna Nawaz. On the news hour tonight, signs of a slowing labor market from the latest jobs report. Congress considers a massive spending bill for the military that would give the Trump administration even more money than it asked for. And we speak with physician and Republican Senator Bill Cassidy about the impending spikes in health care premiums and his decisive vote to confirm health secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. We clearly differ on things like immunizations. On immunizations, they are safe.

They do not cause autism. Welcome to the news hour. The U.S. labor market is showing further signs of cooling as the latest jobs report shows unemployment rising to 4.6 percent. percent. That's the highest level in the last four years. There was some good news as payrolls climbed by 64,000 new jobs last month, better than forecast. But the report also showed a net loss of 105,000 jobs in October. That marks the third time that the economy has shed jobs in the last six months. And the biggest losses have been felt at the federal level, amid mass firings, affecting nearly 168,000 positions over the last two months. The delayed report was due to

the six-week government shutdown. For analysis, we're joined now by David Wessel, director at the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy at the Brookings Institution. Thanks for coming in. Good to see you. So the unemployment rate, as Omna said, is now at 4.6%. Is that a meaningful sign of labor market weakening, or is this just normal volatility? I think it's a meaningful sign that the labor market is weakening. There's more than the usual uncertainty this time. I know people are always saying one month doesn't matter, because the government couldn't do the usual collecting of data surveying people during the shutdown, the government shutdown. But we started the year with unemployment at 4%. And now it's at 4.6. So that's a sign that

the labor market is weakening. And you pointed our team to this chart that shows the unemployment rate over the last three years, rising steadily. So in 2023, it was at 3.4% as the economy recovered from the pandemic, then was steady at 4.1 in late 2024. Now, it's climbed back to levels we haven't seen since 2021. So how do those rates compare in terms of job quality, labor force participation under employment? Well, we know that labor force participation was up a little bit in the last report. We know also interestingly that there's a growing number of people who are working part-time who say that they would prefer full-time work. Now that number might be a little messed up by the federal employees. Some of them may have not worked a full week.

So when you look at all the numbers, the readiness of people to quit their jobs has fallen a lot. That's a sign that they're worried about finding jobs. It all points to a labor market that's weakening, but not falling apart. We're also seeing job gains in health care, but losses in manufacturing and transportation. So what does that mix say about the economy, and President Trump's state a desire to rebuild domestic manufacturing? Well, in the Good News Department, we did see that private sector employment was stead. And it's actually increased. The pace has increased a little bit since the summer.

Manufacturing, as you point out, continues to lose jobs, despite all the President's promises to bring it back. I think that has to do, some of it has to do with tariffs, some of it has to do with automation. And so what it suggests is that the economy is a little bit, it's very uneven. Healthcare, education, social services, they've been strong, but the private sector, manufacturing and other service jobs have not been.

have not been. In federal employment, as we mentioned, has dropped sharply this year. How much is that weighing on the overall jobs picture? Well, we lost 168,000 jobs at the federal level in over the last couple of months. Some of that's because people who got laid off as part of the Doge campaign were still being paid. And as long as they were being paid, they didn't count as unemployed. So it all shuts up now. The number of federal employees is now at the lowest has been for a decade. The White House is bragging about that today. It's definitely a minus, particularly in the Washington, D.C. area and other places with a lot of concentration of federal employees, but we still created over the last couple of months, two months, about 40,000 jobs,

and that may be enough to keep us close to full employment. A number that stands out to me is the long-term unemployment number, people who have been out of work for 27 weeks or more. That number is rising. It affects nearly two million Americans, about a quarter of the unemployed. Why does that matter in particular? And what warning signs does that rise? What matters obviously because those people are really not just temporarily laid off. They've been off for a while in human terms. It makes a big difference. Some of them may be running out of unemployment benefits. It's one of the panoply of indicators that suggest that, as we see through the fog of the delayed reports. They suggest that the labor market is deteriorating,

and that's why the Federal Reserve cut interest rates last week, and they made a point of, even though they're above target on inflation, they're more worried, most of them, about the weakening job market. Does it strengthen the case for another cut in January? I don't think that this changes the picture. I think it wasn't bad enough to cause the Fed to cut rates in January. We'll get another job's report before then. I think they think they've done enough for now, but we'll have to see. So taken together, what does this all suggest about the labor market and the health of the economy overall? It suggests that the economy is weakening, that the labor market, which is where most of us earn our income, is slowing down,

and we don't know how much more lies ahead, but it is a very worrisome sign. But as my friend Jason Furman, the former Obama White House economist said, even by usual standards, there's more uncertainty here and we'll have to wait and see another month how bad things are. David Wessel, thanks for helping us make sense of all this. We appreciate it. You're welcome. Award-winning actor and director Rob Reiner and his photographer and producer wife, Michelle Singer-Riner. The 32-year-old was arrested on Sunday, just hours after the Reiner's were found dead in their Los Angeles home. At a news conference this afternoon, L.A.'s district attorney called the case challenging and heart-wrenching.

Rob Reiner was a brilliant actor and director, an iconic force in our entertainment industry for decades. His wife, Michelle Singer-Riner, was an equally iconic photographer and producer. We will commit ourselves to bringing their murderer to justice. Nick Reiner's attorney, Alan Jackson, said today that his client was unable to attend a planned court hearing due to medical reasons. Reiner is currently being held without bail. He has yet to enter a plea. If convicted, Nick Reiner could face the death penalty or life in prison without parole. The Trump administration is expanding its travel ban to include five more countries.

That means citizens of Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, South Sudan, and Syria are prohibited from entering the U.S. Officials are restricting travel completely for people with Palestinian Authority-issued travel documents, and they're adding partial restrictions from more than a dozen other countries, including Malawi, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe, among others. The announcement comes after Trump signed an initial travel. ban targeting 12 countries in June, arguing such measures are vital for national security. A federal judge in Washington says he's not inclined to stop construction of President Trump's $300 million White House ballroom. That comes in response to a lawsuit from the National Trust for Historic Preservation last

week aimed at halting the project. The nonprofit group is calling for a thorough review process, saying the project needs congressional approval. The administration argued that the president has the president. the authority to modify the White House and that construction must continue for national security reasons. But officials did not cite specific concerns. Turning overseas, police in Australia say that Sunday's mass shooting at a Hanukkah celebration was a terrorist attack inspired by the Islamic State. At a news conference in Sydney, officials said they found two homemade

Islamic State flags in the car of the suspects, a 50-year-old man who was killed in the attack and his son who's being treated at a hospital. Authorities also recovered improvised explosive devices. In the meantime... ...hundred have been gathering at Bandai Beach to honor the 15 people killed during the rampage and to show solidarity with the city's Jewish community. The victims ranged from 10 to 87 years old. More than two dozen others are still in the hospital.

In the UK, a man who drove his car through a sea of soccer fans in Liverpool earlier this year has been sentenced to more than 21 years in prison. 54-year-old Paul Doyle had pleaded guilty to 31 counts last month. The footage is truly shocking. Today, the judge cited graphic footage that showed Doyle, quote, deliberately accelerating time and time again, again as the crowd celebrated Liverpool's Premier League championship in May. Prosecutor said he was, quote, in a rage because he couldn't get to his destination fast enough.

More than 130 people were injured, including several children. FIFA is slashing prices for some World Cup tickets following a global backlash over the cost of attending a game. Officials will offer around 1,000 tickets per game at just $60 each. They'll go to each country's soccer federation, and it's a lot of. up to them to distribute the tickets to loyal fans. This new supporter entry tier comes as the 2026 tournament is shaping up to be the priciest in World Cup history for fans. Still, FIFA said today that it's received more than 20 million ticket requests in its latest

round of sales. On Wall Street today, stocks ended mixed following that monthly jobs data. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost about 300 points on the day. The NASDAQ managed a slight gain of about 50 points. The S&P 500 ended about 16 points lower. Also today, lawmakers at the U.S. Capitol unveiled a statue of Barbara Rose Johns, the Virginia teenager who helped bring an end to school segregation. Her 16-year-old likeness, holding a tattered book above her head, was unveiled an Emancipation

Hall this afternoon. In 1951, Johns led a student strike in Farmville, Virginia, to press. protest her school's conditions compared to the town's white high school. Notably, Johns replaces the statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, which was removed from the Capitol in 2020. And Joe Ely has died. The singer-songwriter from West Texas helped shape the genre known as Americana. Well, I left my home out on the Great High Plains, headed for some new terrain. In songs like, I had my hopes up high,

Ely fused honky tonk, bluegrass, and rock, serving as an alternative to the more polished so-called Nashville sound. Ely said he was inspired by the vast spaces of the American heartland and toured tirelessly, earning him the nickname, Lord of the Highway. And he was known for his collaborations with legends like The Clash and Bruce Springsteen. His family says Joe Ely died of pneumonia. He was 78 years old. Still to come, on the news hour, why it's been so difficult to locate the suspect in the Brown University shooting. And a rare look at Hezbollah's highly secretive bunkers seized by Lebanon's military. 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. Today, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth rejected calls to publicly release the full video of a boat strike that the military carried out in early September. That attack was the first of more than two dozen strikes on what the administration calls narco-terrorists, but it has become the most contentious. At the same time, the Senate is debating and is expected to pass its largest annual bill to authorize the Defense Department. Nick Schifrin and Lisa Desjardin are here.

They've been covering this all. So, Nick, let's start with you. What did Secretary Hexat say today? Well, Omna, as you just said, Hexas shot down the idea of releasing the second video from September the 2nd publicly. Now, a reminder, this was the very first strike in what the administration called today, a highly successful counter-drug mission. On September 2nd, the U.S. military says it fired a single missile that killed nine people

and a second strike, some 30 seconds, 30 minutes later, that killed two people who were not killed in the first strike. Now, many Democrats, to see the first strike there, many Democrats and former military lawyers have argued that the second strike killed shipped wrecked sailors. That would make it illegal. But today, Heggseth called the whole video classified. In keeping with longstanding Department of War policy, Department of Defense policy, of course we're not going to release a top secret, full, unedited video of that to the general public. Some Democrats today argued that President Trump himself released the first part of this video and the administration could take the very same steps to release

the second strike video. And Lisa, some in Congress are seeing this as a very important moment when it comes to the balance of power. Why? That's right. Congress has the power to declare war. And this is a question of basic oversight by elected members of Congress over how we conduct war, how we conduct major military operations, which are fatal in this case. Now, the administration is not showing this most contentious part of the video to every lawmaker in Congress. They're holding it back right now. And there are real questions about whether they should do that or not. There are questions because many members of Congress think there could be some human rights violations in those in that video. Here's Democrat Tim Cain today.

Is this what we want to be known for, giving a green light to overturning decades of human rights precedent, decades of laws of war precedent? That's what this administration is now pushing America to be known for. Again, this is about oversight. I spoke with sources of longtime sources in Congress who say senators do have clearance. Members of Congress do have clearance as being members of Congress. It's not an issue of the classification. It's an issue of whether the Department of Defense chooses to show them this video, but they have that oversight.

So, Nick, let's turn now to that $900 billion defense authorization bill. Walk us through the highlights. Yeah, in any bill this big, there are many highlights, and so Lisa and I are going to try and go through just a few. And let me begin with that boat strike. In fact, the NDAA, the authorization bill, cuts Hegss travel budget by 25% until he provides the unended video to the Senate and House Armed Services Committee,

which he said he would do by tomorrow, also providing the committees the execute order for that strike. Other provisions restrain some of the president's threat to reduce support to allies and partners, including what you see there, restricting the withdraws of troops from Europe or South Korea.

The bill also authorizes U.S. money for weapons to Ukraine. It really portrays Russia as an adversary, requiring reports on Russia's activities and limiting the administration's ability to recognize Russian sovereignty over any parts of occupied Ukraine. In addition, it repeals the authorizations of the use of military force related to Iraq in 1991 and 2002 and initiates the most ambitious reform in a generation for how the Pentagon procures weapons. Lisa, what stands out to you in terms of what's in here that may not be usual defense policy? Oh, this is why you've come to PBS News Hour. You're not going to see this stuff anywhere else, but it is important. Number one of two things, DEI. This bill codifies the Trump administration policy. And look, here's what's in, I think, page 728 of the bill. It would say that the Pentagon can no longer establish a diversity office or have any plans related to diversity, equity, or accessibility. That would be in law. This not only puts that in law, but it, It is obviously a big cultural moment.

Secretary Hegg said this is about, says this is about unity at the Pentagon. But Democrats and others, including some Republicans, say they worry that this undermines what has been a long history of inclusiveness and, in fact, anti-racism at the Pentagon itself. The second thing I want to raise that's not really related to the military, the Lombie tribe of North Carolina. That is a tribe that has tried to get federal recognition for years. That is in this defense authorization bill. Well, funny enough, that tribe is in an important county in a swing state, and President Trump promised them federal recognition when this passes they will get it. Nick, Lisa's pointing out here, this becomes a grab bag, this NDA every year.

There's a significant step in here, though, when it comes these administrations, Syria policy? Tell us about that. Yeah, this is the repeal of the Caesar Act. That was a package of sanctions aimed at Bashar al-Assad for killing some half a million of his people during more than a dozen years of war. But it has been one year since Ahmed al-Shara became the president of Syria overthrowing Assad, and Syria recently overcame resistance on the hill to repeal Caesar. And that is vital, because after, you know, about 13 years of war, the World Bank says Syria needs $215 billion to rebuild and facilitate the return of millions of displaced.

Take a listen to Muaz Mustafa, the executive director of the Syrian Emergency Task Force. The remainder of Caesar was shattering to Syria's future. Simple as that. And in order to give Syria a chance, Caesar had to be lifted. What that means is now Syria can rebuild. How can we expect 14 million refugees in this place to come back from within Syria and from the borders and from Europe and from even the United States if they can't rebuild their homes? That's what Caesar allows. The administration had provided temporary waivers, Amna, to Caesar, but only Congress.

repeal and now expect private investors, regional partners to send investments in this area. I mean, while Lisa, as you've been reporting, we'd expected passage of the bill by now, but it has been snagged, not by military concerns, but with something related to air safety. Tell us about that. Right. This is what Nick and I think are getting at. This bill touches so many facets of American and world life. And this, we thought this bill would have passed by now, but it's snagged because of an air safety issue in Washington, D.C.

Folks may remember the crash January 29th of this year. year over the Potomac with a military helicopter in training and a commercial air flight. After that crash, where 67 people died, the military agreed to use specific technology so that those military training flights would geolocate. This bill, Ted Cruz, a senator, and others are worried that this bill has a waiver that training flights could have to, could wave out of that kind of technology, and that's why this is held up right now. That is in the bill. We're watching to see what happens with that provision. So this bill will pass.

It's a question of when. A lot of money. It's a big bill. Lisa Desjardin, Nick Schifrin, breaking it all down. Thank you both. You're welcome. Thank you.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said today, he will not call for a vote on extending enhanced subsidies for people buying insurance. through the Affordable Care Act. That effectively guarantees the subsidies will expire at the end of the month, and premiums will spike substantially for some 20 million Americans who get their coverage that way. In a moment, we'll hear from Republican Senator Bill Cassidy,

who's a key player in this debate. But before we do, we turn to the first of two reports on the subsidies and alternative ideas. William Brangham focuses tonight on how the subsidies work, and what's at stake if they expire. Because tens of millions of Americans will be a whole lot healthier from this moment on. It was March 23rd, 2010, and Vice President Biden whispers in President Obama's ear, this is a big effing deal.

And it was, signing of the Affordable Care Act into law. Today, after all the votes have been tallied, health insurance reform becomes law on the United States of America. It was complicated to pass and complicated in its structure, but the ACA, which was quickly dubbed Obamacare, had a fairly straightforward goal, expand health care coverage and keep costs down. And over the ensuing 15 years, the ACA has been mostly successful on that first front by expanding Medicaid and by helping people buy insurance. All of that helped cut the uninsured rate in half.

But that promise of lower prices, what President Obama often called, bending the cost curve, that has been a much harder nut to crack. In the United States, we spend twice as much money on health care as many other countries do. Cynthia Cox analyzes the Affordable Care Act at KFF. The ACA worked by using taxpayer dollars to reduce the cost of health care for individuals that qualify for those programs, but it didn't do a whole lot to address the underlying reasons. why health care is so expensive. As health care prices keep rising across the system,

health care premiums do too. With the ACA, to soften the blow of those higher premiums, targeted subsidies were built into the law. Ovik Roy co-founded the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, and he has served as an advisor to past Republican presidential candidates. Part of the rationale of the subsidies was, well, if we're going to regulate what these plans can offer can offer and how they can be designed.

They're going to be more expensive. And if they're going to be more expensive, then some people will have trouble affording them. Despite those subsidies, by 2020 enrollment had stalled. For some Americans, the plans still cost too much. So during the pandemic, then President Biden boosted those subsidies and expanded who was eligible for them to higher income brackets.

And they worked, cutting costs for consumers and driving a surge in enrollment. While those enhanced subsidies got more people covered, they were also very expensive and temporary. Congress gave them an expiration date, December 31st, 2025. Hence, this New Year's Eve deadline that we are all talking about. This is a failed program.

The Democrats created the problem. We've got to solve it. Are they going to vote for this bill and bring health care costs down for the American people or block this bill and send premium skyrocketing? Here's how the subsidies work. What someone has to spend for an insurance policy is capped at a certain percentage of their income on a sliding scale. So, for example, and there's different plans and deductibles to consider, but generally speaking, let's say I make under $22,000 a year.

I'd pay nothing for the basic benchmark health insurance plan. But as my income grows, so does the percentage I'd have to pay, up to 8.5% of my income once I start making $65,000 a year. The remaining cost of that policy, no matter how expensive, is paid for by the federal government. And though they are sometimes referred to as tax credits, in most cases, the money goes straight to insurance companies. What most people opt to do is to have their tax credit dollars sent directly to the insurance company that they pick for their insurance, and then that way it lowers their monthly premiums directly so that that person doesn't have to pay the full premium up front.

In 2025, the total cost of the ACA subsidies was, an estimated $138 billion. That's five and a half times NASA's entire budget. The plans are much more expensive than people believed they would be in 2013, 2014. And as a result, the subsidies have become more needed because fewer people can afford the plans in the ACA. And that's what creates the policy debate that we're having now. If the subsidies are not renewed, nearly all of those 24 million enrollees overwhelmingly low and moderate income households will see huge spikes in their premiums.

On average, people are going to pay about twice as much next year as they do this year. 45% of Obamacare recipients, almost 11 million people, can currently get their coverage at no cost, but that'll change if these enhanced subsidies go away. For example, a family of four making $45,000 a year will see their premium increase from zero to around $1,600 a year. It is a lot of money to someone who's maybe barely making ends meet to begin with. People like Crystal Acres in Kentucky. For the current plan that I have now,

it showed that my monthly premium would be about double what I'm paying. As far as I'm concerned right now, I don't have insurance. I turned off my payment for November. Cox also says some older Americans will be especially hard hit. So that big spike is going to happen. And for older people who have incomes just above four times the poverty level, so for an older couple, this might be an income of $85,000. They actually, because it's two of them, might see their premium costs go up by almost $20,000.

Ovik Roy argues this crisis is a moment to reassess some fundamentals about the ACA. I think the question that a lot of people are asking is, do we just throw more subsidies at the problem and paper over the fact that the ACA has led to these much higher prices for health insurance? Or do we try to reform the design flaws in the ACA so that we can actually have not just lower health insurance for those individuals, but for everybody who has to shop for coverage on their own? But time is running out for that kind of compromise. The Congressional Budget Office estimates, without an extension, 2.2 million enrollees will drop their coverage in 2026 alone. People like Melissa Ruff of Jacksonville, Florida.

Here I am, 57, seven years out from Medicare facing being uninsured with a cardiac condition. I can't afford it. It prices me out of health care. And in Tennessee, Tanika Mason says she has to have insurance. Our daughter is a brain cancer survivor, and we have to go with the insurer that covers the specialist that she needs. So not having insurance is not an option for us. ruin us financially. And that's the trade-off at the heart of this standoff. Keeping health care affordable for Americans on these plans is very expensive, but leaving people with no coverage at

all has costs of its own. For the PBS News Hour, I'm William Brangham. Tomorrow, our Lisa Desjardin will break down the main alternative plan many Republicans prefer. That's an expansion of health savings accounts. We're joined now by the author of one such GOP plan, Louisiana Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, chair of the Senate Help Committee, who also happens to be a physician. Welcome to the News Hour. Thank you. I know you've said there's a deal to be had on health care, and I understand a bipartisan group of senators met last night to hash out an agreement. At this point, what does a compromise look like? First, let me just say what is important to me. We have to make these policies affordable to the enrollee, to our fellow American. And so it's not just about

containing premiums, although that's important, but also about making sure that somebody has the money in their pocket to pay the out of pocket for the policy, if you will, giving power to the patient, not profits to the insurance company. There's your deal. We'll do something to address the high cost of premiums for some and do something else to address that need to have money for the out of pocket for as many as possible. That could be a deal. In the meantime, though, health care premiums for more than 20 million people and those marketplace plans are set to spike in the new year with the House Speaker Mike Johnson saying he's not going to call for a vote on extending the enhanced subsidies. So what can be done in the here and now to help people keep

their coverage? So people are opting for the lower cost plans on the Affordable Care Act, so-called Affordable Care Act Exchange. They're going from a silver plan to a bronze plan. And they're trying to make it affordable. What our plan does, by the way, which I think we could maybe not implement for next year but for the following year, is to give them that money in an account, their pocket, their purse, if you will, that would help address that higher deductible. It may be that the deductible turns out to be the same between the bronze and the silver plan, but the premium on the bronze plan is lower. You get more affordability. You got money up front to pay for those out-of-pocket cost. That's really making things more affordable. So the only option,

for Americans absent action from Congress is to reduce their level of coverage right now? So you're speaking only of that 7% of Americans who are on the exchange, and you're speaking about a minority of those. Let's first be clear. For those less than 400% of federal poverty level, they still have a lot of subsidies going towards it. For those who are above, it depends. But I can tell you what the alternative is, is just to have people continue subsidize premiums, So they still have a $6,000 deductible is not really an option. Most people live in paycheck to paycheck. They don't have money for a $500 medical bill, much less a $5,000 medical bill.

So what we have to do is help Americans where they are, and that is, yes, make the premiums affordable for those for whom it's not, but also help all folks on the exchange with their out of pocket. And that's, I think, the better way forward. Critics on both sides argue that the current options either maintain an expensive status quo, ACA, or shift burdens onto patients. So how does your proposal strike the right balance without reducing coverage or increasing uncompensated care? The plan I am proposing takes financial burden off the patient. Consider the alternative. Democrats are advocating we give $26 billion to insurance companies for now.

next year, and they take 20% for profit and overhead. But if you give money to the patient, she's going to use 100% of that money for the care that she needs. Now, she may choose a less expensive bronze plan. It's less expensive because it has a higher deductible. But we're putting, in some cases, up to $5,000 into an account for her to pay that deductible. That actually could lower her net deductible, if you will. lower cost premium, lower net deductible.

That's how my plan is a sweet spot. Maybe we can't get it for this coming year. We absolutely should get it for the next year because the Obamacare exchanges have become unaffordable for too many. Where's the White House on all of this? The president has made it clear. He will not sign a law giving all the money to insurance companies. He wants money to go to the patient.

And the president's intuition is correct. I said it earlier. I'll say it again. If you give the money to the insurance companies, they take 20% for profit and overhead. They have to give you permission to get the care you know you need. If you give the money to the patient, she uses 100% of the money for the care she knows she needs. She doesn't have to ask permission. She's got the power. Power to the patient, not profit to the insurance company.

Beyond the matter of health care coverage and costs, there's also the question of public health and public health leadership. You explicitly said that you would support RFK Jr.'s nomination as Health Secretary. You delivered that decisive confirmation vote in exchange for serious commitments, that he would meet with you on a regular basis, consult with you, before making changes to vaccine safety monitoring, not remove language from the CDC website saying vaccines don't cause autism. He's made all of those changes. Have you actually received any consultations from him?

He and I have spoken, and a part of our agreement, he will come back to speak to the health education labor and pension committee on a periodic basis, and we're right now in the process of when that next time would be. So to answer your question directly, yes. Well, do you believe the actions at the CDC reflect the agreement that was struck before you voted in favor of him? I think you can look at the agreement and you can look at what has been done. There's clearly a difference between the two. Would you vote to confirm him again if you were presented with the opportunity? Reporters love to ask that question.

But, you know, right now it is what it is. We have to live life going forward. And so let's live life going forward. Well, you called the federal panel of vaccine advisors handpicked by him. He said it was totally discredited. So does he still have your support? You know, there's things we agree on. Ultra processed food, I just have to hand it to the secretary.

He's made an issue of something that has, frankly, never been an issue before. But we clearly differ on things like immunizations. On immunizations, they are safe. They do not cause autism. It is clear that we're having an outbreak of vaccine-preventable diseases and even death from people who have chosen not to vaccinate their child or themselves. We have a flu season, which is kind of one of our worst in a while, and flu immunization is at a low point. We've got a measles outbreak in South Carolina, and we had two that died in West Texas.

Clearly, the safety, the effectiveness of vaccine should be emphasized now. There should not be spurious claims made about their safety. And I think that kind of says it all. So what can be done now? I mean, for Americans who look to the CDC for clear science-based guidance, what assurance can you give them under RFK Jr.'s leadership? I think most Americans talk more of their personal physician than they do look at the CDC website. Indeed, I've never seen anybody look up on the CDC website unless the mother is a pediatrician.

And so speak with your physician. Your physician will reassure that vaccines are safe, that the benefit from them far outweighs the risk. They are not associated with autism in any credible study. And by the way, if you don't get vaccinated, unfortunately, you're at risk of vaccine-preventable diseases and even death. I say that as a physician, as a doctor who has seen patients die from vaccine-preventable diseases or disease get transmitted and that transmission could have been stopped if the person had been vaccinated, either one of the two. So do yourself a favor. Speak to your physician, get your vaccines, and your life, that's how you make yourself healthy. Senator Bill Cassidy, Republican from Louisiana. Thanks again for your time this evening. Thank you.

Authorities are still searching for answers and for the alleged gunmen in the shooting at Brown University four days ago. Two students were killed and nine others injured. Officials have released photos and video showing a person of interest walking near the campus hours before the shooting. The FBI is offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to an arrest. There's still concern in Providence about the whereabouts of the shooter. Providence Mayor Brett Smiley tried to provide reassurance to residents this evening. The best information we have is that there is no credible, actionable, specific threat that has occurred since Saturday. And in order to enhance and ensure the safety of our community, we have stepped up law enforcement efforts throughout the city in a precautionary matter, measure.

For more, I'm joined now by Juliet Kayam. She's a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and former assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security in the Obama administration. Juliet, thank you for joining us. Thanks for having me. So you heard officials there asking for the public's help, releasing these images from your experience, how helpful could this be, these images in particular? And what do you make of the fact that they still have not identified or found this suspect? Yes. I mean, in some ways, this isn't really a manhunt because they don't know who the man is. I mean, manhunt is generally you have an image or even a name and you're going after them, you know, talking to family and friends.

It is remarkable and unusual in this day and age with that many cameras, with students with phones, that they cannot seem to get a great picture of his face. He was, of course, masked through in some of these pictures or in all the pictures. So this will be helpful for the sole purpose of convincing someone who recognizes him, who already knows him, to come forward. He has a unique gait. He has a unique physique and a stocky walk. If you knew him, you might be able to identify him. So that with the, the pictures with the ransom is simply trying to lure family and or friends to come forward. But if you just pass this guy on the street, you would not know who it was. In these kinds of cases, though, the longer it goes on, does it make it less likely that they'll find this person? There's two pieces to that. One is, look, they had a question. course correction, you know, about a day and a half ago, right, with this person of interest not being the person. And so they lost some time. And losing time means that he can get away

and get away further. It also means that evidence that he might have left, he was sort of around the area for a couple hours before could be destroyed. There was a lot of snow. I was in Providence. There was a lot of snow that came down after the killings. But this time, they are used. now to collect videos from people who probably didn't know they had them. There's lots of ring camera videos and other videos that may at some stage give them a better identification. I'm sure you've seen too. There have been some reports about tensions between officials in Providence and the FBI, who were also, of course, on the ground investigating some questions about responsibility. I want to play for you a piece of sound from President Trump

yesterday who spoke to this when he was asked about why he was taking the FBI so long to identify the shooter. Take a listen. But you'd really have to ask the school a little bit more about that because, you know, this was a school problem. They had their own guards. They had their own police, they had their own everything. But you'd have to ask that question really to the school, not to the FBI. We came in after the fact. And the FBI will do a good job, but they came in after the fact. Juliet, what do you make of what the president had to say there?

The school has no arrest or investigatory authority. I think there are great questions about the university, to the university, about essentially its accessibility, what has it learned from this? How is it going to protect students when they come back? But the investigation is clearly led by local state and federal law enforcement agencies, including the FBI. I'm not disclosing anything. The Rhode Island Attorney General said it that the FBI basically got way ahead of the investigation. FBI director Cash Patel has just a very destructive habit of putting things on Twitter before they can be verified. And so what happened is when they had that person of interest, all focus went there because the FBI essentially announced it and then they had to unwind it.

The challenge, of course, as I said, is not only did they lose time, you're really beginning to have a community lose confidence. And that you cannot have. It just, it looks like they're two divided. They did a regroup press conference about an hour ago. FBI was back at the table. Everyone was talking about unity of effort. And one can hope that they find this guy or identify him at least so that the hunt can begin. I mean, Mal Joliet, I want to tap into your expertise to ask you about the other mass shooting that we are following.

That was the one targeting Hanukkah celebrations at Bondi Beach and Australia. We reported authorities are now calling it a terrorist attack. The Australian prime minister said it appears to be inspired by ISIS. They found homemade Islamic state flags in the shooter's car. From your expertise, is there a resurgent ISIS threat to be worried about here? Yes. I mean, I think there's no question about it. It's been one that we've been watching through 2025.

It's not as organized. There's not the same kind of leadership. But basically, about four months ago, ISIS said, or put statements out about targeting Jewish organizations or Jewish meetings, anything that would be public. We saw this now in Australia, but we can't forget also two service members. We're killed in Syria on Friday by someone by ISIS. And so we do worry in the counterterrorism field about this resurgence as ISIS looking at a world destabilized. And much of the world, Europe, Russia, China, and the U.S. are focused on.

other things. So it's a tragedy and might, you know, and is a sign of what ISIS wants to happen in 2026. Julia Kayam, Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Always good to speak with you. Thank you. Thank you. Army is on a tight deadline to comply with an American demand to dismantle Hasbullah's military infrastructure as part of a ceasefire agreement. Israel dealt the terror group destructive blows over the last two years after Hezbollah attacked northern Israel following the Hamas strikes of October 7th. Special correspondent Simona Fultene and videographer Adrian Hartrick were given exclusive access to Hezbollah's military installations recently seized by the army south of the Latani

River as the military works to retake territory long held by the Iran-backed group. We are with the Lebanese army a few miles north of the border with Israel, about to gain unprecedented access to one of Hezbollah's core areas of operation. For the first time in decades, the Lebanese government is asserting sovereignty here. On the edge of Yatar village, we disembark and leave the cars behind. The rest of the trip must be made. made on foot. Hezbollah's military installations are hidden from sight, tucked away deep in the valleys. So we know that there is facilities from these telephone wires and these water pumps.

Captain Christian Abushaya is part of the Army's engineering unit tasked with dismantling Hezbollah's weapons. We are going to see a rocket launcher. The type is Fadi 2. It has eight barrels with eight rockets. When did you discover or when did you search this area? Last week. Last week, so this is pretty recent. Yes.

It's inconceivable that anyone but Hezbollah could have set foot here before the war, not the Lebanese army, not civilians, and certainly not journalists. That these areas are now in the hands of the state, speaks to decisive power shifts the war has brought upon Lebanon and the region. region. We descend along the steep muddy slope down into the ravine. The facility blends so seamlessly into nature, we might have walked past it. But right there, carved into the southern ridge of the mountain, lurks one of Hezbollah's signature weapons. So this is a 240 millimeter rocket launcher that was hit in an Israeli air rate. We don't

know exactly when, but the strike did manage to take it out by damaging the fuse. Now the warheads, the rockets are still inside and they're still active. The site offers a rare glimpse into how Hezbollah operated. The way this weapon system would have been used is a Hezbollah would actually have to come down here. There was a generator in the back that they would have to turn on, then pull the rocket launcher out of this cave using these rail tracks, then enter the coordinates of the target they wanted to strike in Israel and then use this starter over here to launch the rockets.

The weapon components were likely brought here one by one, as Hezbollah secretly built its capabilities over many years. But Israel managed to infiltrate the group and in the span of a few short weeks wipe out a significant portion of its infrastructure. The Lebanese army is dismantling what's left. It's a part of our routine job. Every day. We inspect a new area. What are some of the challenges you face in this difficult terrain? The nature, you know, the climate, it's raining, now it's winter. And not just the nature.

We have also, we faced a lot of mines, IEDs, cluster munition. So the work here is very dangerous. Do you know if there might be other similar facilities around here? We will neutralize this one and go forward. But I think, yes, from the dirt road, dirt road, I think we should find something else down there. The army has combed through 124,000 acres of land and seized more than 230,000 weapons across 460 Hezbollah facilities in the south.

General Jihad al-Kazen is the deputy commander of the sector. We started this on the 5th of September and we're still continuing that. Until now, we have already completed between 90 to 95 percent. The IDF claims that Hezbollah is rebuilding its military infrastructure, including south of the Littani River. There's no evidence now that Hezbollah is rebuilding its infrastructure. The army has until the end of the month to complete the process south of the Littani River, the first of five phases to disarm the Iran-backed group.

The Trump administration has complained about lack of progress, which the army is keen to disprove. They take us to another site where the engineering unit is about to detain. alternate a rocket launcher. We are using here TM 57 mines, anti-tanks, because they contain a large quantity of explosive. This facility was also damaged in an Israeli strike. So what is the reason why you destroy these weapons rather than storing them? So usually when we find an item, we check if it's in a good condition or not. If it's in a good condition and it's safe to move, we just collect it and more than it.

transported to be inspected by specialists. If it matches with the weapon system, the army weapon system, we store it. Would you say that most of the weapons you find are compatible with the army's weapon systems or not? Most of the weapons we find are not compatible with our weapon system, because our weapon system is western and most of the weapons that we find are eastern. Hezbollah was Lebanon's most powerful armed actor. The destruction of its equipment means the country will be left with few defenses. Safety protocol dictates that we must withdraw 500 yards as the engineers rig the site. So we drive uphill to watch the explosion alongside the local population.

Many here remain loyal to the resistance, as Hezbollah is called here. In the absence of a robust state, the group was seen as their protector, as the only bulwark against repeated Israeli incursions. The army is trying to win their trust, an uphill battle in light of Israel's near-daily ceasefire violations and ongoing occupation. We need also that the Israeli side give some positive steps by withdrawing, by stopping all their attacks. Squeezed between demands of the U.S. and Israel on the one hand and concerns of Lebanon's

Shia population on the other, the army is walking a tightrope. They must walk it fast if they want to avert another war. For the PBS News Hour, I'm Simone Fultin in southern Lebanon. Kala Stewart is a Tennessee-based urban forester who leads the organization TreeCPR to create healthier, stronger communities as climate change escalates. She shares her brief but spectacular take on the power of trees. My fondest memories outdoors were with my grandparents in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We would look for craw dads and salamanders and birds. My grandfather was an ecologist, so we had a walking encyclopedia with us

who fed us all this information that I didn't realize would have such a huge impact of my life. I unfortunately lost him to cancer, and ever since then, and I have been looking for ways to continue his legacy and really make him proud of the person that I'm becoming in our natural world. Memphis sits along the Mississippi River in the Delta region, and it's got some of the most beautiful, big trees

I've ever seen in my entire life. Trees provide protection for us, and sometimes we forget that. They can cool cities, up to 20 degrees sometimes and times of extreme heat. There's a lot of inequities in neighborhood to neighborhood across Memphis. You can tell which neighborhood is more vulnerable just by looking at how their vegetation is managed.

If there are any trees that have been planted recently, and a lot of times those communities that are more vulnerable and have historically faced discrimination tend to have lesser quality tree canopy. I created TreeCPR. Tree CPR is a workforce-based program that teaches individuals primarily from underserved communities,

the technical skills, as well as the soft skills, they need to get jobs and natural resources. I want the students in my class to understand how important it is for us to be stewards of the vegetation in and around our communities. It's important from people from these like historically disadvantaged communities to have a seat at the table so they can make decisions for their own neighborhoods to say, hey, we need more shade here, we need higher quality tree canopy here. They'll reduce their communities vulnerability because they're present in those conversations.

And that's important. I hope to not only make my grandfather proud, but I want people who look like me and who have had similar experiences in life as myself to really. feel like they can take control of their own communities through urban forestry. My name is Kayla Stewart, and this is my brief but spectacular take on creating a cooler future. And a news update before we go. President Trump says he's designating the Maduro regime in Venezuela, a foreign terrorist organization, and is imposing a, quote, total and complete blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers going into and out of Venezuela. We'll continue to follow this story online and write

here tomorrow on the NewsHour. And that is The NewsHour for tonight. I'm Jeff Bennett. And I'm Omna Nawaz. On behalf of the entire NewsHour team, thank you for joining us.