PBS News Hour - Full Show - December 3, 2025 – PBS News Hour full episode

Episode Date: December 4, 2025

Wednesday on the News Hour, the Pentagon's watchdog finds Pete Hegseth's infamous Signal chat put U.S. personnel at risk. As immigration crackdowns begin in new cities, we explore the expanded role Border Patrol agents are playing, far beyond the U.S.-Mexico border. Plus, Congress returns to Washington as Republicans confront issues that expose rifts within the party, including the Epstein files. 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. I'm the Navaz is away. On the news hour tonight, the Pentagon's watchdog finds Defense Secretary Pete Hegset's now infamous signal chat put U.S. personnel at risk. As immigration enforcement crackdowns begin in new cities, we explore the expanded role border patrol agents are playing far beyond the U.S.-Mexico border. Congress returns to Washington as Republicans confront a host of issues. that are exposing riffs within the party, including the expected release of the Epstein files. And near the Israel-Lebanon border, farmers are caught in the conflict,

despite a ceasefire between Israel's military and Hezbollah. We don't know what will become of us. We live from this land. Our lives have been destroyed. Welcome to the News Hour. A Pentagon Watchdog report has found that Defense Secretary Pete Hegeseth put U.S. service members at risk when he used the signal messaging app to discuss a military strike in Yemen earlier this year. His use of signal came to light when a journalist was accidentally added to a chat that gave sensitive real-time updates about a strike against Houthi militants. Nick Schifrin is here to walk us through what we know. So, Nick, what did the Pentagon watchdog find?

So this is an investigation by the Department of Defense's inspector general mandated by Congress. It took him months. And according to a person who has read this document, the inspector general found that the messages that the secretary transmitted were, quote, secret no foreign. The definition of that classification level is that unauthorized disclosure could reasonably expected to cause serious damage to national security, and it can't be shared with foreigners. And the Inspector General went on to say, if those messages had been intercepted, it would have endangered U.S. service members and the mission. And the reason the Inspector General has concluded this is that Hegg Seth was, as you just said, narrating or really previewing upcoming strikes in the Yemen against Houthi rebel leaders on a signal chat, where Atlantic Editor-in-Chief and Washington Week moderator, Jeffrey Goldberg, had been accidentally added. And the detail was extraordinary. times the types of weapons exactly who was going to be flying toward Yemen exactly when.

And they concluded, quote, we are currently clean on OPSEC short for operational security. A former senior military official told me this, Jeff, today. And this was just echoed by the Senate Armed Services Committee, top Democrat Jack Reed, that if a lower level service member provided that level of information before the launches of manned aircraft with pilots in inside those cockpits, that service member would have been court-martialed and discharged. How was the Pentagon responding to all of this? The Pentagon points to other results inside the Inspector General's findings, including these. The Secretary can declassify anything as he sees fit.

And that suggests that Secretary Heggs-S defense is that what he was writing, he was declassifying, essentially, as he wrote it. The Inspector General also said the Secretary provided a small handful. of signal messages to the IG, but not others. Heggseth declined an interview with the Inspector General, and he informed the Inspector General that he considers this investigation completely partisan. And Chief Pentagon spokesman, Sean Parnell, provided this statement, quote, the Inspector General Review is a total exoneration of Secretary Hegeseth and proves what we knew all along. No classified information was shared. This matter is resolved, and the case is closed. by the way, the Inspector General also concluded, Jeff, that Heggseth violated policy by using

his personal device for these signal chats rather than a government phone. All right, Nick Schifferner, thanks to you as always. Thank you. The day's other headlines begin in the Middle East. For the second day in a row, Israel has received, remains. believed to be those of one of the last two hostages still held in Gaza. Palestinian militants transferred a white body bag to the Red Cross, seen here in footage captured by our producer in Gaza, Shams O'Day.

Israel says it will conduct forensic testing after remains handed over yesterday did not match either hostage. All this comes as Israel says it would soon open a critical border crossing with Egypt that's been closed since May of 2024. Israel's military says it will allow Palestinians to leave Gaza via the Rafa crossing, but Egypt says, citing the terms of the ceasefire, that movement must go both ways. Israel says it won't allow Palestinians to reenter Gaza until all hostage remains are returned. Here at home, President Trump has proposed rolling back fuel efficiency standards

set by the Biden administration in a push to make it easier for automakers to sell gas-powered vehicles. We're bringing back the car industry that was stolen from us because we have people that didn't know what they were doing sitting at this desk. In the Oval Office, President Trump touted the move alongside auto executives and Republican lawmakers saying it would make cars more affordable. The new standards would reduce fuel economy from the Biden's standard of 50 miles per gallon to an average of 34.5 miles per gallon by the year 2031. The Biden-era rules were intended to promote the production of electric vehicles.

Transportation remains the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. A dozen former FDA commissioners say they're deeply concerned about proposed changes that would create a far stricter process for vaccine approvals. They penned an article in the New England Journal of Medicine. It comes as a federal vaccine advisory panel is also expected to change longstanding guidelines on immunizing newborns against the liver infection hepatitis B. The CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunizations, which has been overhauled by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., meets tomorrow for a two-day-day-day. meeting where they'll make their recommendations formal. Federal health recommendations

currently suggest babies get the HEPB shot within 24 hours of birth. The American Academy of Pediatrics says it will still urge a dose at birth no matter the panel's findings. On Wall Street, stocks ended up for the second straight day and are once again approaching record levels. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added more than 400 points, while the NASDAQ gained 40 points. The S&P 500 pulled within a half percent of its all-time high. And it's become a bit of an annual holiday tradition. Spotify rapped. The streaming platform released its year-end summary of popular artists and trends today.

The most played artist in the world was superstar Bad Bunny. It's his fourth time racking up the most streams. and he dethrones Taylor Swift, who held the top spot two years in a row. Although we should point out for Taylor Swift fans, she's still ranked first in the U.S. The top song globally was Die with a Smile, the Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars collaboration, and the Joe Rogan Experience was the platform's top podcast for a sixth consecutive year. Still to come on the news hour, an education department proposal to declassify nursing as a professional degree

threatens students' abilities to get loans. President Trump issues another controversial pardon, this time for a Democrat, how he's using the power in new ways. 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. The Department of Homeland Security confirms it started a sweeping immigration crackdown in New Orleans today. multiple reports that the Trump administration has started an immigration enforcement operation in the Minneapolis-St. Paul region. That's after the president repeatedly disparaged the Somali community in that area, which is the largest in the country. Our White House correspondent,

Liz Landers, is with us. And Liz, I understand you have more information about how the president's immigration crackdown is being carried out. Jeff, the News Hour can confirm that Border Patrol, not immigration and customs enforcement, is primarily running the New Orleans operation. The Trump administration has used that strategy to crack down on immigration in several other cities this year. And today, the face of these operations, senior border patrol agent Greg Bovino, was spotted in a Home Depot parking lot in a suburb of the city. Scenes in New Orleans this week, a business warning federal immigration agents to stay out, while a Methodist church praises the contributions of immigrants. The Big Easy is now the latest major city to become part of the Trump administration. immigration crackdown. The Department of Homeland Security announcing today the start of an

operation dubbed Catahoula Crunch that will target, quote, criminal illegal aliens that have been released from jail, a stated effort that's moved across the country this year. In Charlotte, North Carolina last month, Border Patrol agents were seen smashing a car window, chasing people in parking lots, and conducting arrests on the side of the road as part of what it called Operation Charlotte's Web. The Department of Homeland Security. The Department of Homeland Security, says at least 425 people were arrested in that operation, though the total number of people arrested with prior criminal records is not clear. The crackdown there sparked protests.

Who's city? Our city. And condemnation from the state's Democratic governor, Josh Stein. This is not making us safer. It's stoking fear and dividing our community. It seems like he chooses illegal aliens over American citizens in his own state. The man behind these scenes, senior border patrol officer Greg Bevino, who has become one of the faces of the administration's massive immigration enforcement operations. He's vocal about defending his controversial work on TV.

Too many times we're finding that some very, very disreputable individuals are seeking work in people's homes, in their gardens, and otherwise, we don't want those people in society. And on social media. is our fucking country, where he regularly posts Hollywood-style videos like these. ICE is in charge of interior enforcement. Hamad Al-Aziz covers immigration for the New York Times. He says this kind of interior immigration enforcement is normally carried out by immigration and customs enforcement, or ICE officers, not the Border Patrol. Border Patrol typically and historically in the modern era has mostly worked at the

border. I mean, they are in charge of stopping people who cross between ports of entries, people who are crossing illegally into the country. That has been their mandate. And what we're seeing now is a change with that mandate, of course. Bovino joined Customs and Border Protection in 1996, where he worked in the El Centro sector of California's southern border. Reports of a surge in raids of undocumented residents have been circulating on social media. In the waning days of the Biden administration earlier this year, Bovino led a sweeping immigration operation in California's Kern County, which is about 300 miles from the border and home to a community of Latino farm workers. Border Patrol says

the operation resulted in 78 arrests. It almost seemed like a model, a first step in Bevino's efforts to take immigration enforcement across the country. You need to identify yourself. Those methods were seen again in Los Angeles over the summer, with Bovino tapped to lead the way. If you recall in June, ICE did an operation in downtown Los Angeles, and there were protesters who showed up, and there was all kinds of protests after this operation.

President Trump sent in the National Guard, and during that time, you know, the Department of Homeland Security had extrad. people from across the agency come with resources to help with operations, with, you know, security, all of that. And Bevino and El Centro sector that he runs in California were a part of that. And ever since then, he was empowered by the administration. That came after the White House increased pressure on DHS to reach its goal of 3,000 immigration arrests per day. How is it more efficient for the administration to use border protection?

control agents instead of ICE agents to conduct some of these operations and raids. If you have more agents on the ground, more resources on the ground aside from ICE doing arrests, you're naturally going to boost the number of people being arrested. An arrest is oftentimes the beginning of the process of a deportation. After the immigration crackdown in L.A., agents were sued for racial profiling. A lower court ruled against to the border patrol, but the Trump administration appealed to the Supreme Court and won. With Justice Brett Kavanaugh ruling, ethnicity can be a relevant factor in immigration stops. In Chicago, Bovino's tactics have also been the subject of another contentious lawsuit.

Protesters and news outlets sued the federal government over excessive use of force during immigration operations in the Midwestern city. In one instance, Bevino himself appears to launch a gas canister into a crowd, which he said was in response to a protester throwing a rock at his head. Federal Judge Sarah Ellis later determined Bovino lied about the rock and issued a preliminary injunction limiting federal agent's ability to use force, which was temporarily blocked by an appeals court. Bovino told CBS Chicago that his agents only respond to protesters when necessary.

And the use of force that I've seen has been exemplary. And by exemplary, I would say the least amount of force necessary. to accomplish the mission. How much decision-making and leeway does Bovino have when it comes to the Border Patrol? I think it's that the leeway and the decision-making that he has, I think, is seen in the operations that he's conducting. And in every location, there are similar stories of targeting Home Depot, targeting, you know, car washes.

These are the types of arrests that are happening are all apparently. as part of a model that him and his agents have, that they believe it's successful in getting more arrests. So I think he is not somebody that's been limited in any way in conducting immigration enforcement. How Bovino uses that leeway in New Orleans is yet to be seen. For the PBS News Hour, I'm Liz Landers. Congress is facing a long holiday to-do list, from budgets and health care to foreign affairs,

all while Republican leaders contend with growing frustration and even open rebellion within their ranks. Lisa Desjardin has more. Four, three, two, one. There you go. Yay! The season of light is underway outside the Capitol, but there are. our shadows and restlessness inside, especially for House Republicans and their speaker, Mike Johnson. He has key defenders.

Look, Mike's job is like nailing jail out to a wall. He's done a good job. If you look at what our goals were when this Congress started, we've achieved almost all of the ones that were initially set out. But on social media, anger, and worse, like from New York Republican, Elise Stefanik, who this week called Johnson a liar. Another congresswoman, Marjorie Taylor Green, backed her up, writing that the speaker breaks his promises. Green recently announced her resignation, among her concerns that during the government shutdown, as Johnson held daily news conferences, he kept the full house out of session for nearly two months. And he blocked popular bills, like the one releasing the Epstein files. Republican Thomas Massey of Kentucky co-sponsored that.

He's been basically just doing whatever President Trump wants to do. So I would say President Trump's been in control of the House. Johnson points to the numbers. When you have a razor-thin majority, which we have, this is not like the old days. You know, in the old days, they had 30, 40-seat majorities. And so four leaders could go in a back room, create the agenda, and hoisted upon everybody and say, this is what you're doing. But other Republicans say that is exactly what's happened.

They are increasingly going around Johnson. Well, I've been here 13 years, and I've never tried to use a discharge petition. but it became apparent to me that that was a legitimate tool and that it could succeed. Buried in the House rules, discharge motions allow a majority of House members to sign a petition and force a House floor vote on a bill. Just a handful have ever succeeded. But in just the last two years, five discharged petitions have made the 218 signature threshold. This week, Representative Anna Paulina Luna announced she will attempt a discharge petition on another popular and blocked bill, one to ban stock trading by members of Congress. Not everyone is comfortable

with this. I'm a former speaker of Nebraska legislature. I know what it's like to run a legislative body. And that's not how it should work. But increasingly, more Republicans say this is the way to get Johnson and Trump's attention. If the White House took our input, I think they'd be in a stronger position. This is a way the person put in our input. Now, the dynamics for House Republicans aren't just palace intrigue, they will determine if and how the House addresses those Affordable Care Act subsidies due to expire for millions at the end of this month. And Lisa, you've been talking with House Republicans this past week about Speaker Johnson. How serious are their concerns?

This is a real test. We've seen Speaker Johnson navigate, seemingly even against the odds. Some of the policy concerns get through very large bills this year. But this is his biggest political test. I was amazed in the past week over the holiday week how many of my Republican sources rank and file and senior Republicans were texting me about their discontent, even raising possible ouster. No one's really going that far, but it's in the air right now of Speaker Johnson. So this is a real test.

Today I caught up with him, and he told me exclusively how he's reacting to these public and private calls from discontent. A lot of people disagree with us staying home during the shutdown, but we won the shutdown because of that. And, you know, we're in a midterm cycle. You have very small margins. And, you know, people have their emotions and all that. But you can always find a few people who are disgruntative about things.

And that's true. But the key for Republicans, especially, if you're a Republican speaker in this century, you've got to make sure that doesn't grow. Now, what does this matter? It doesn't just affect him and his leadership, but it also affects big issues. I mentioned health care, also Ukraine, Russia. And, of course, what Republicans present going into a critical election year next year? year. And we heard the speaker mentioned the slim GOP margins. Republicans picked up a win last night and that closely watched special election in Tennessee. Tell us about it. What an interesting

race. There's something for each party in this race, but in the end, the winner of this race, Matt Van Epps, who is a veteran, former Army helicopter pilot, was able to win by nine points. That sure sounds like a lot, doesn't it? No, this is a deep red district where the former congressman Republican won by 22 points. It's pretty easy math. That's a 13 point slide. for Republicans in red Trump territory. Trump, in fact, himself came in and tried to help with this race. So did Speaker Johnson. They were able to win it.

But this is something that when I talked to my Democratic sources last night, they said they were ecstatic about being within nine points. And it really expands the group of potentially vulnerable Republicans. There are more than 30 who in the last midterm election lost their race by 13 points or fewer. So we'll see what it means. It's a special election. It's not the same as a midterm, but Democrats like the enthusiasm they saw from their voters last night. Lisa Desjardin, or thanks to you as always.

You're welcome. New limits on federal student loans could dramatically reshape how the U.S. trains nurses and doctors. Under the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed earlier this year, future medical students would be captured. at borrowing $50,000 per year, no more than $200,000 total. The law also gives the Department of Education broad authority to decide which graduate degrees count as professional and therefore qualify for higher loan limits. The Trump administration is now proposing a far stricter cap. $20,500 a year for students pursuing graduate degrees in nursing, public health, or social

work, fields the department says no longer meet the definition of professional programs. Other disciplines, including education, accounting, and architecture would also lose their professional designations. We're joined now by Jennifer Mensick Kennedy, President of the American Nurses Association. Thanks for being with us. Thank you for having me. So what's your principal concern about how these new federal loan caps would affect future nursing students? And beyond that, the delivery of medical care in the U.S.?

It's going to have devastating effects. We know the average cost of attendance for nursing graduate students. is over $30,000 a year. And the fact that some individuals might say, well, maybe nursing school shouldn't cost that much, that's fine. But we shouldn't limit the definition of what's considered a professional because these have these policy implications have real-world negative impacts. It's like a Trojan horse.

We define it once in one area without nursing, what's next? There's a lot of downhill consequences that could happen in so many other things, besides just this. And this is on the heels of the big, beautiful bill, taking out all of the Title 8 funding. So all the federal funding for nursing education was removed. Now this, we're going to see increased wait times for primary care visits. We're going to see people not having access to health care in the United States. The administration says that nearly all nursing students fall under the proposed caps and therefore would see no impact. I would imagine you see it differently. No, absolutely. So about 20% of nurses have a graduate degree. And when we think about majority and

percentage, maybe that seems like it's a small amount, but when you think there's over five million registered nurses, 20% is a million individuals. And when we're looking at a time when there is a primary care shortage, we have lack of access in rural communities. We need to make sure we help support individuals who are going back to school to be able to become nurse practitioners, certified registered nurse anesthesiologists, certified nurse midwives and CNS. So this is a really important time for our country because nursing is absolutely indispensable to our health care system. Our team spoke this morning with Preston Cooper, who focuses on higher education policy at the American Enterprise Institute. And he has a different view. He says the current

structure contributes to rising tuition. Take a listen. The loan limits which are being applied to nursing programs are going to protect aspiring nurses from borrowing excessive debts. And they are going to protect nurses from schools, which are charging just way too much relative to the value they are offering. This is going to lower student loan burdens for aspiring nurses. And so it's just very odd to me that professional associations, which claim to represent nurses, seem to want to very aspiring nurses in more student debt. How do you respond to that? Well, that's an unfortunate perspective because research does show that this won't have an

impact on reducing the cost of nursing education. What's going to happen are individuals are going to go and seek private loans. Oftentimes, those are maybe more predatory or have higher interest rates. And they don't qualify, for instance, for public service loan forgiveness. So if you have a federal loan and you work in a rural or underserved community, you can work off that time or work off your loan through PSLF. You can't do that with a private loan. So it's not going to stop people from taking out loans.

They're just going to get loans that are actually going to be a more negative impact via the private process. What would a better policy solution look like in your view? A better policy solution, of course, would be to include the definition of professional include nursing advanced practice nurses back in that definition, particularly in a time when we have a shortage of RNs and a shortage of advanced practice registered nurses. This is also for faculty, right? So nurses who go on to get doctoral degrees to go back and teach nurses, we had over 80,000 qualified applicants for nursing school turned away last year because mostly we don't

have enough nurses to teach in nursing programs. So I would want the Department of Education do go back and include nursing in that professional definition and make sure that Title VIII funding gets re-put into the budget because both of those have such a negative impact that it's just going to be very much more compounded. Do you, from your vantage point, have an idea as to why the Trump administration is delisting these areas of pursuit as no longer professional?

You know, it's a really good question. And I'm going to say that if you have a first year of administration, administration, you have many new people and a lot of departments. The Trump administration has been very supportive of advanced practice register nurses, particularly we saw that in his first administration during COVID. And so this seems very counter to that time. So we think this is really more of a misunderstanding. We did send a letter in October 57 total nursing organizations asking to make sure that nursing was included. So we're hoping that they go back. and review this and add nursing before the comment period opens.

And what's the risk that students, especially those from low-income backgrounds, will be pushed toward private, high-interest lenders if they can't get a loan from the federal government? No, absolutely. So the majority of nurses in this country are white, and what we see is the majority, 58% of our population is not white. And so we really want those from other ethnic backgrounds, minorities, to come into nursing school because we're going to see better patient care when we have nurses and advanced practice nurses

who reflect the communities that they serve. We're going to see people very much question the ability to go back to school. And so it's another limitation on individuals who want to become nurses, who don't have the access, who don't have the economic means to have parents or have other incomes to be able to pay for their education out of pocket. So this is going to severely limit even further those ethnic minority groups who maybe want to aspire to be a nurse

and just had their opportunity taken away from them. Jennifer Mentson-Kennedy, president of the American Nurses Association. Thanks for joining us. Thank you. Today, President Trump announced he was pardoning Texas Democratic Congressman Henry Quayar and his wife, who were indicted last year on bribery and money laundering charges. They were alleged to have accepted roughly $600,000 in bribes and entities connected to Azerbaijan.

The president said Quayar was targeted for criticizing President Biden's border policies. As White House correspondent Liz Landers reports, it's the latest in a series of controversial pardons the president has signed. To help explain some of these controversial pardons, we're joined by Liz Oyer. She served as the Department of Justice pardon attorney in the Biden administration. Liz, thank you so much for joining NewsHour. Let's start with this news about the Democratic congressman who was pardoned today, Henry Quayar. How does this fit into a larger pattern that we've seen from President Trump hardening elected officials? Donald Trump has pardoned historic numbers of elected officials.

Typically, crimes involving public corruption are taken very serious. and corrupt public officials are rarely considered for presidential pardons because of the betrayal of public trust that's involved in the underlying crimes. In this case, Donald Trump is really sort of normalizing public corruption by liberally pardoning corrupt public officials who are charged with offenses that involve abusing their political offices to enrich themselves. That's the case with this congressman. Notably, this congressman had not yet stood trial for these charges. So, you know, Trump is saying that this was an unfair prosecution in some way by the Biden administration. If that is the case, we could expect that that would play out in front of a jury with an acquittal. But rather than allowing that process to play out, Trump has intervened and granted him a presidential pardon.

Let's turn to this pardon of the former Honduran president, Juan Orlando Hernandez. He was convicted last year of drug trafficking. And this comes also as the administration is battling what they say are narco-terrorists and Latin America. Is there judicial consistency here? It really shows that the pardons that Trump is granting are not principled. They're out of sync with other parts of his stated political agenda. It is very hard to reconcile the idea of pardoning a large-scale international drug trafficker with the administration's stated commitment to ending illegal drug trafficking into the United States. The fact that we are literally blowing boats out of the water to stop drugs from coming

into the United States is really just inconsistent with this decision to pardon the former president of Honduras. There was that other recent commutation of the private equity executive David Gentile. He was found guilty of a white collar crime. I asked the White House press secretary Caroline Levitt about that earlier this week. Why did the president commute the sentence of David Gentile recently? He was a private equity executive. He served 12 days out of a seven-year sentence.

The prosecutor said he defrauded $1.6 billion. dollars with thousands of victims, including veterans, farmers, teachers. The Biden Department of Justice claimed it was a Ponzi scheme. This claim was profoundly undercut by the fact that GPP had explicitly told investors what would happen. At trial, the government was unable to tie any supposedly fraudulent representations to Mr. Gentile. How many of these white collar pardons or commutations has the president approved and why?

The majority of Trump's pardons to date, setting aside. the January 6 pardons have related to fraud or white collar types of crimes. And what's so staggering about the pardons is the amount of lost money that's involved in these cases. Victims of these frauds that have now been pardoned are out over a billion dollars. And Donald Trump has essentially wiped out the obligations of these folks who've received the pardons to pay back that money to their victims. We've seen some very large fraudsters receive the benefit of parties. and it is greatly beneficial to them financially because they then no longer have to pay back

the debts that they owe to their victims. Is there a way to reign in the power of the presidential pardon? The Constitution gives the president very broad discretion to do whatever he wants, ultimately with the pardon power. He does not have to follow the recommendations of the Justice Department, and that has been a problem. I will say that there are things that could greatly improve the transparency and accountability of the president for pardon decision-making that could be done

without amending the Constitution. One thing is more congressional oversight of the pardon process. They could readily require that the president discloses rationale for granting pardons, promptly disclose the decisions when they are made, and they could also legislate disclosure requirements for those involved in lobbying for pardons and doing legal representation of individuals seeking pardons. What do Trump's pardon say about his broader views on justice? Donald Trump seems to pardon people in whom he sees something of himself. So the pardon of Juan Orlando Hernandez, the former president of Honduras, is an example of another world leader who was prosecuted for crimes involving the abuse of his office.

And Donald Trump can relate to and empathize with that person and he got a pardon as a result. He's pardoned many corrupt elected officials. He's pardoned people who support him. personally or politically sort of as a reward for their loyalty to him. He also is using the pardon power in a way that's very destructive to the justice system more broadly. He's pardoning people in many cases who have not yet begun to serve their sentence or in some cases, as in the case of Representative Quayar, has not even been tried before a jury. And that has the effect of undermining cases that his own Justice Department is actively pursuing. That is a very

unusual way for a president to wield the pardon power. Liz Weyer, thank you so much for joining NewsHour. Thanks for having me. Hezbollah and Israel, a war that left more than 4,000 Lebanese and more than 100 Israelis dead. But with near daily Israeli attacks still taking place, life for civilians in Lebanon's South remains dangerous. Special correspondent, Simone Fultein, reports from that tense border. It's olive harvest season in southern Lebanon. But after two years of war between Israel and Hezbollah, it's slim pickings from Mohamed Aloui.

For two years, we've neglected this land. There are a few olives. We didn't farm it. We didn't even put fertilizer. The people have abandoned their land. They're not willing to come here. We only come here when accompanied by the Lebanese army. Under the protection of the Lebanese army,

farmers have a week to complete their harvest. Coming here alone is dangerous, despite a U.S. brokered ceasefire signed last year. In line with the deal, the Lebanese army replaced Hezbollah as the dominant. security force in Lebanon's south, but Israel has continued to carry out air raids and ground operations and still occupies Lebanese land. Captain Elias Barish is in charge here. Can you explain where we are at the moment?

We are now in the village of Maroon-A-Ras on the southern Lebanese border that looks out on occupied Palestine. This is the main area where you'll find olive trees and it extends up to the village. We are just a few hundred yards from the border. The Israeli settlement of Avivim lies beyond the rubble of Lebanese homes. On this side, the land lies fallow, in contrast to the lush green across the border fence. During Israel's ground incursion earlier this year, countless olive trees were uprooted. In a statement to the news hour, the IDF denied responsibility.

Now Lebanese farmers are trying to salvage what's left. What would happen if you were not present here during this harvest? What are some of the risks the farmers are facing? The farmers are facing difficult challenges in this area because the enemy, Israel, is based close to their lands and sometimes carries out surveillance operations, provocations, and even opens fire to terrorize civilians and prevent them from reaching their land. Our presence here is to give them a sense of security and to protect their right to work their land safely.

The Lebanese army has also come under attack. Last year during the height of the war, one of Captain Barish's men was killed when an Israeli tank fired at a clearly marked army base, an incident the IDF claimed to have no knowledge of. The work in the border region is not easy. The geography is difficult and the security is volatile because the enemy, Israel, is always trying to send threatening messages and ignite tensions in the area. The captain has only around 170 troops for a sector that spans 10,000 acres of hilly terrain.

His men must secure five border villages and dozens of miles of roads. UN peacekeepers, called UNIFIL, are here to support them. From what I've observed, they're well equipped, the individuals that I've gone on, but the size of patrols that I've been on are small patrols, they're one to two vehicles. Do you think that the farmers would not tend to their land if Laf and Unifil were not present? UNIFIL were not present? They absolutely would not come down here. Why?

It wouldn't, they feel anyway, it wouldn't be safe enough for them. There's been a large number of civilian excavators targeted by drones, usually actually small quadcopters that drop grenades on them. So I think there would be the fear there from the civilians that that might happen to them. Responding to these allegations, the IDF said it operates with utmost precaution to minimize civilian harm. harm. But the fact remains that more than a hundred civilians have been killed in Israeli strikes during the ceasefire, according to the UN. Farmers like Muhammad need to come here daily to work the land, not just when the Lebanese army and the UN are able to provide

an escort. We are not just living on olive trees. We also grow tobacco and wheat. We have to come here all the time to work. You are a farmer. If you cannot come to your fields, if you can't to your olive trees, what are your options? We don't know anything else. I mean, most people here survive on farming. And if there is no farming, I ask? The painful realization that life as it was before the war may never return. We don't know what will become of us.

We live from this land. this land our lives have been destroyed it's afternoon and the window of the army's protection is closing we leave the fields and head for the village center along abandoned roads past more abandoned fields and this is what's left of mohammed's village maruna rass just layers upon layers of destruction he shows us where he used to live with his wife and five children. The IDF booby-trapped and detonated all the houses here. They used this field for the tanks.

They set up a perimeter here, and they detonated all the homes. Muhammad's family fled during the heaviest fighting, and he's unsure if Hezbollah used his house to launch attacks. There are, however, traces of the IDF. In the rubble, we find a spent Israeli rocket alongside fragments of civilian life. Mohamed doesn't feel safe to live here. They won't allow any of the border villages that face them to be inhabited. More than a year after the ceasefire, Lebanon's border villages remain a no-man's land,

where life has been rendered all but impossible. For the PBS News Hour, I'm Simona Fultin in Maroon Arras on Lebanon's border with Israel. The News Hour reached out to the Israeli military with detailed questions. about their activities in southern Lebanon, they issued a statement which read in part, since the ceasefire came into effect, the IDF has identified Hezbollah's efforts to rebuild its military infrastructure,

including in southern Lebanon, and that the IDF continues to act in a targeted manner against Hezbollah's reconstruction attempts. We'll be back shortly, but first, take a moment to hear from your local PBS station. It's a chance to offer your support, which helps to keep programs like the News Hour on the air. For those of you staying with us, as we mentioned, today is the day when Spotify tells it subscribers, which artists they listen to the most this year.

And for most, vocals reigns supreme, but there's a growing genre focused on instrumental music. William Brangham profiled one of the bands at the forefront of this movement. Here's a second look. This Texas trio, with their airy and dreamy sound, are one of the most unlikely musical sensations. Guitarist Mark Spear, bassist Laura Lee Ochoa, and drummer Donald D.J. Johnson are the band known as Krungben. Even though their shows sell out globally like they did here in Vermont this summer, even they can't quite put a label on this moody genre they've carved out. People still ask me like, hey, so, oh, you're in a man, what genre do you play? I don't know.

Whatever it's called, it has taken Krumben to great heights. They've had hit collaborations with fellow Texan Leon Bridges, Texas Sun, and another with Sir Paul McCartney. Those trademark black wigs that Mark and Laura wear, they were initially put on as a lark before their first ever show, but they now offer an easy mask of anonymity. Their records have earned them critical acclaim for their undefinable brew of rock, funk, and psychedelia.

But even 15 years on, the band members say the process of crafting that sound is still evolving. Earlier in our career, yes, we had a very specific way of making songs, But I feel like that's shifted over the years. And I couldn't tell you exactly how we do it anymore because every time we go into it, it's different. Yeah, they're just like puzzle pieces. Yeah.

Almost like arranging furniture in a room. Mm-hmm. You like, you don't know where anything's going to go. And then you find one thing that works. And you're like, this is where this table is going to go. And then you paint. And it's like, oh, crap, now I have to rethink it. I mean, we have a saying the song will tell you what it wants.

Yes. And that's absolutely true, but it almost takes a minute for the song to be like, put this drink down. Oh, no, yeah. Do you really think, I know we're talking metaphorically here, but do you really think of it as another organic entity that you guys are interacting with? The song? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, big time.

Oh, yeah. When you're in love with someone, like really in love with someone, that's what this is. When the song is there, it's not just three of us. You know, it's the whole thing. success has ushered in a wave of other bands seeking to capitalize on this style, like glass beams, Arc de Soleil, and Youth, each offering their own take on this moody, guitar-driven genre. Though Krungben is known for their musicality, there's also that pretty unusual name.

It's a tie word that sort of means airplane, and it is a tough one. for even die-hard fans to pronounce. I was calling it, like, Karangibibin. Kerabing, or Keringbing? Kerrgbin? Kerr-Kagabin. Karobin. I went on Google so many times for the pronounce...

Kringbin. Karagbin? I think I'm saying it right. Karangabing. Is that right? Karingabin? What's the name of this band again? Kringbin.

Given your guy's success, did you ever think maybe we should name our band a more pronounceable word? Well, we can't change it now. We wanted the website domain to not be taken. Yeah. That was the genesis of it? Partly. Type in the first four letters of our band name, you're going to get us and... Chris Chef.

Chris. Yeah, that's it. And he hasn't put out a record in years, so we're good. And it bombed. Oh. Even though they do occasionally layer vocals into their songs, almost always sung together, Khrumbin's essential sound is a trio of instrumentalists. Do you think that there's something distinct about listening to just instrumental music

that resonates with people differently than music that is more filled with identifiable, lyrics and words and sounds. It's like the international language. I mean, I think there's that part of it. That's something that we discovered early on when we were traveling throughout different countries that spoke different languages that we didn't speak.

We could just get on stage and play and it still works. I think it's also when there's not the human touchstone of her voice, I think it's slightly more challenging, but I think it's a challenge that people enjoy. enjoy. They have to get over that initial hump of being like, okay, I don't speak this language. I don't know anyone at this party. It makes you have to like intentionally listen and connect. And I think that that can be really moving. Sometimes though, their fans can't help but sing along, even if the words aren't there. This beautiful moment that we had once in

Columbus, Ohio, early on, we were playing Dernkala and the entire room started to, singing Mark's guitar melody. Wow. Didn't have words. It was just da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da at the top of their lungs. They were going off too. It was amazing.

No words, just people singing along with the melody, and it's all you needed. For those other fans wanting to sing along with Krungben, the band's fall tour is wrapping up soon. For the PBS News Hour, I'm William Brangham. At the men's central jail in downtown Los Angeles, Angeles, a new children's library inside the visitor center is giving kids a place to read and learn during the often long waits to see their loved ones. Tonight, a grandmother and her 10-year-old grandson share their brief but spectacular takes on connecting through reading. My name is Francisco. I'm 10 years old. I am in 4th grade.

Francisco, tell me who you're sitting next to. My grandma. What's your favorite thing about your grandmother? Everything, he always stayed there for me. Francisco's father is in men's central jail in LA. He's been there almost three years. Francisco basically lived in a little town in Mexico by Guadalajara. I brought him here back in July because he wanted to be with his dad. He misses his dad a lot.

So I put him in school. The language barrier has been hard on him, but he's trying. To get into the men's central jail, you have to be on the phone, 12 o'clock midnight, Thursday. You have two minutes to try to get an appointment, and if you don't get the appointment, that's it. I wish he could see him more often, but he only sees him like every two, three weeks. We get there by 10.30 or so, and we go put money on his business. books and then they tell you to sit down and wait. When I walked in there one day, I saw this little library,

beautiful, and I was like, wow, that's really nice. But I didn't know that the kids were allowed to take books. Do you have to wait a lot in the jail? Yeah, like two or three hours. Every time we go, we take some new books. Find your favorite dinosaur there as fast as you can. Here. Okay, you've got it pretty fast.

We take advantage because of the fact that he's still having a hard time reading. I read with him and I translate it to him. What's the hardest part about the visit? Seeing your son there, my grandson and my son just hold the glass with their hands. My son tries to put a face, you know, like it doesn't bother him, but I know it does.

What's something that makes you feel proud about Francisco? The way he is, the smile that he has when he comes out of school saying, you know, I did this, I did that, and I love you. He always tells me I love you. I'm proud of you, Papa. I love you. My name is Linda. My name is Francisco. This is our brief, but spectacular take.

Our reading with my grandma. And you can watch more brief but spectacular videos online at pbs.org slash news hour slash brief. Also online, we explore who will qualify to get those so-called Trump accounts after the Dell family pledged more than $6 billion for the investment accounts for children that were authorized in a Republican spending bill passed earlier this year. that's at pbs.org slash news hour. And that is the news hour for tonight. I'm Jeff Bennett for all of us here at the PBS NewsHour. Thanks for spending part of your evening with us.