PBS News Hour - Full Show - December 30, 2025 - PBS News Hour full episode

Episode Date: December 31, 2025

Tuesday on the News Hour, the U.S. increases pressure on the Maduro regime with a strike inside Venezuela. Federal agents intensify investigations of alleged fraud of taxpayer money in Minnesota. Plus, the U.S. announces a new way to deliver humanitarian aid around the world. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy

Good evening. I'm Nick Schifrin, Jeff Bennett, and Nomina of Oz are away. On the news hour tonight, the U.S. increases pressure on the Maduro regime with a strike inside Venezuela. Federal agents intensify investigations of alleged fraud of taxpayer money in Minnesota. And the U.S. announces a new way to deliver humanitarian aid around the world with a much lower, at least initial, contribution in the past. If this $2 billion is the end of the story and it's all the U.S. is going to provide, that is catastrophic, frankly. Welcome to the news hour. It is exceedingly rare that a U.S. president would announce covert action publicly. But that is what President Trump did yesterday when he acknowledged a U.S. strike on a port facility in Venezuela. And today, media outlets reported it was the CIA

that launched the drone strike on an alleged drug facility. It comes as the Trump administration is targeting not only drug smugglers across the region, but also Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro himself. For a month, the U.S. has built up the Caribbean's largest armada in half a century. Thirty strikes on what the U.S. calls narco-terrorist drugboats, the latest in the eastern Pacific just last night. The capture of two sanctioned Venezuelan oil tankers and the chasing of a third tanker that today reportedly requested Russian protection.

And today, news the CIA reportedly launched a drone strike along the Venezuelan coast. The reported target, a storage facility operated by the transnational gang, Trend de Aragua, which the Trump administration connects without public evidence to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. There was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up. with drugs. They load the boats up with drugs, so we hit all the boats, and now we hit the area. It's the implementation area. That's where they implement, and that is no longer around. If the amount of drug trafficking comes down significantly in the Caribbean, and I think it must,

the regime is going to have a lot less money to throw around. Elliot Abrams was the first Trump administration's special envoy for Venezuela, and is today a senior fellow for the Council on Foreign Relations. He supports the pressure campaign that is targeting Venezuela's chief source of revenue as a way to weaken Maduro's grip on power and force him to step down. The economy of Venezuela will get worse and the finances of the Maduro regime will get worse. And that will increase public pressure and internal pressure in the regime. That at some point there are either mass demonstrations or some of some.

somebody in the military acts or the regime basically decides, we don't know how far Trump is willing to go with this. Let's make a deal now. But the administration's critics argue the pressure campaign's tactics are illegal and its goals are imperialist. It's straightforward territorial intervention. It's the kind of thing that was characteristic of the United States in the Caribbean region back in the beginnings of the 20th century. Daniel Hellinger, as a Webster University professor emeritus who says Maduro is not the threat that the U.S. alleges. I don't think he's sort of the kingpin that they're trying to portray him to be. Venezuela does not traffic in fentanyl through any significant degree,

and that most of what comes out of Venezuela is more likely to be marijuana or cocaine, and even that that doesn't even come towards the United States. The Mayanans of people. Maduro himself this week, has been trying to laugh or sing past the pressure, in between boasts and bravado. Our military have a glorious history as emancipating, humanist, invincible warriors. Today our armed forces are more prepared than ever to continue winning peace, sovereignty, and territorial integrity for our people.

An opponents of the Trump administration's policy predict that if Maduro is ousted, there'll be chaos. Venezuela is a heavily armed society in the civilian sector. There are going to be parts of the Venezuela military that will retreat into guerrilla warfare. And there's just a very dense population in Caracas where crime is a serious problem. And there's lots of firearms around. So it'll get nessey. The warnings that there will be civil war in Venezuela and massive amounts of violence, I think, are wrong, that if Maduro falls, Edmundo Gonzalez, who was elected last year, will become president. And the opposition is planning for that right now and planning for what a democratic transition will look like.

As long as the Maduro regime is there, we are not going to get its cooperation in reducing drug trafficking. You're going to see the continuing flow of migrants, $8 million down, and there's no reason that it can't go to $9 or $10 or $12 million over the coming years. And you're going to see continuing cooperation between the regime and Cuba, Iran, Russia, China. Maduro has not acknowledged the alleged CIA strike, perhaps to avoid further escalation. But more confrontation is coming, as the U.S. is promising. more pressure. In other news today, strong winds and heavy snow enveloped much of the Great Lakes and

northeast, leaving tens of thousands without power. Some areas in western and upstate New York have seen more than a foot of snow, causing whiteout conditions on the road. And there were more disruptions to air travel today, with more than 5,000 flights delayed. Forecasters say a wave of Arctic air is set to bring snow for some in the central and eastern U.S. ahead of the new year. More artists are canceling shows at the Kennedy Center after President Trump's name was added to the Washington D.C. based arts facility. Jazz band The Cookers have called off their New Year's Eve show. The group did not specifically mention the name change, but stressed their commitment to music that bridges division. This comes after musician Chuck Red canceled his Christmas Eve performance, citing the addition of Trump's name.

The center's president, Trump ally Richard Grinnell, has threatened Red with a $1 million dollar long. lawsuit. New England Patriots star Stefan Diggs is facing strangulation and other criminal charges, summing from an incident earlier this month. That's according to court records revealed today. A lawyer for the wide receiver says he, quote, categorically denies the allegations, and the Patriots are standing by Diggs saying in a statement, we support Stefan. The 32-year-old is set to be arraigned next month. He's played a major part in helping the Patriots reach the playoffs this season. The United Arab Emirates is pulling its remaining forces out of Yemen after Saudi Arabia attacked an Emirati shipment in a Yemeni port.

Black smoke could be seen in Mukala earlier today, where Saudi officials say two vessels from the UAE had delivered weapons and vehicles meant for a Yemeni separatist group. It's not clear if there are any casualties. The strike is an escalation in tensions between Saudi Arabia and the UAE and threatens to reignite the civil war in Yemen. The head of Yemen's presidential council, which is Saudi-backed, said a defense pact with the UAE would be canceled. Well, we appreciate the previous role of the United Arab Emirates and its efforts as a member of the Saudi-led coalition supporting legitimacy. Its role has now unfortunately become directed against our great people, as it has provided explicit support for the rebellion and fueled internal strife, threatening our security and stability.

The UAE denied providing weapons to the separatists, saying that the shipment, contained only vehicles meant for Emirati forces within Yemen. Israel today said it will suspend the operations of dozens of humanitarian organizations in Gaza starting January 1st. That includes major groups like Doctors Without Borders, Mercy Corps, and others. Israel says the groups did not share enough information about their funding and operations, and that the groups contribute only about 1% of all the aid going into Gaza. Some of the affected groups have called Israel's rules arbitrary and said they could put staff in danger. Today's announcement comes as the U.K., Canada and other countries expressed,

quote, serious concern about the lack of humanitarian aid reaching Gazans. Israel says it is upholding its commitments on aid made to President Trump. In London and Paris, thousands of travelers were left stranded today after train operator Eurostar suspended service due to a power failure in the channel tunnel. The disruption came during one of the busiest travel periods of the year. Officials say a fault with the overhead power supply caused a train to break down inside the 31-mile tunnel. That train was part of Eurostar's Le Shuttle service, which transports vehicles under the English Channel. Service has been partially restored, though delays are expected to continue. George Clooney and his wife, human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, are now French citizens, as are their eight-year-old twins.

That's according to government documents issued over the weekend. power couple bought an estate in France in 2021. The Hollywood Star has said that French privacy laws enable the family to enjoy a quieter life than they would in the U.S., particularly when it comes to protecting their children from the paparazzi. French law allows George Clooney to retain his American citizenship. On Wall Street today, stocks edge lower as the end of the year approaches. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gave back nearly 100 points. The NASDAQ fell about 55 points. the S&P 500 posted a third straight losing session. And Tatiana Schlossberg,

journalist, author, mother of two young children and granddaughter of President John F. Kennedy, has died. Schlossberg was the daughter of Caroline Kennedy and Edwin Schlossberg and covered the environment for the New York Times and others. Last month, she wrote a harrowing piece for the New Yorker in which she described her battle

with a rare form of leukemia. In that same article, she was critical of her mother's cousin, health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., saying his policies could hurt cancer patients like her. Her passing was announced in a social media post by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, Tatiana Schlossberg, was 35 years old. Still to come on the news hour, we look at redistricting efforts and the potential effects on the 2026 congressional elections. A small New Zealand spaceflight startup aims to speed ahead of its larger competitors. And residents

of Harkiv, Ukraine, endure the scars of Russia's offensive during their fourth holiday season under full-scale war. This is the PBS News Hour from the David M. Rubenstein studio at WETA in Washington, headquarters of PBS News. This week, the Trump administration dispatched federal officers to Minnesota amid renewed concerns over fraud. The deployment comes after right-wing influencer Nick Shirley posted a video on YouTube last week, claiming without proof that daycare centers operated by Somali residents

in Minneapolis had misappropriated more than $100 million. In response, FBI director Cash Patel wrote on X, his agency was already investigating, and that, quote, this is just the tip of a very large iceberg. And Department of Homeland Security Secretary Christy Nome posted this video yesterday of agents on the ground in Minneapolis. But state and city officials questioned Shirley's claims that come as the Somali community

in Minneapolis was already facing the administration's immigration crackdown. To break it all down, I'm joined by Jeff Mitrot of the Minnesota Star Tribune who's been covering this story. Jeff Mitrot, thanks very much.

Welcome to the News Hour. Federal prosecutors said earlier this month they're investigating some $9 billion worth of fraud in more than a dozen Medicaid funding programs in Minnesota. That is much broader, much larger than anything they've announced previously. So explain what's new here? What's new here is that, you know, a fraud problem that started with a COVID-era relief program to help kids get meals when the schools

were all shut down has just spiraled into this sort of giant monster that just keeps spreading from one program to another. It seems like there's a playbook. that's been passed around out there, and dozens, if not hundreds of criminals, are figuring out how to rip out the state for, it's certainly hundreds of millions of dollars. And they get the $9 billion, my God, that's a huge lift.

I guess it's possible, but there's been a little bit of skepticism about that number two. In the video, Nick Shirley visits several daycares. Some appear closed, and some turn him away when he asked to see children. And he seems to take this as proof that the centers are fraudulent. What is he claiming, and how does it square with your reporting? Well, it's not investigative reporting by any stretch of the imagination.

You know, I can't imagine these daycare facilities letting a stranger in the door. That seems like a violation of all kinds of rules, state and federal. But it does make good theater, and it does raise actually questions about the legitimacy of some of these sites. Some of these do not look like, you know, your standard daycares, you know, blacked out windows, sites that are not that family-friendly. And so it looks damning. And it may very well be that some of these sites are not taking care of children. It looks like a couple of them actually have been closed for some period of time. So, you know, did you cherry pick a list, you know, for sort of maximum impact visually that,

ultimately, it's going to turn out to be nothing. You know, we don't know yet. The state hasn't shared any of their results from what they saw on the streets this week when they went and they visited those daycare centers. Have any of the sites themselves responded? Yeah, we've heard from several of them. We visited some of them today and yesterday. They're pushing back and saying, you know, it's business as usual here.

We're still open. You know, my colleague was in one today that had 50 kids present, which certainly, you know, is not the nerve that we see. saw in the video, and it did not look like a stage situation, like they just suddenly, you know, put in a bunch of cats for kids. But, you know, that said, you know, we haven't visited all of them. And at least one of them has had quite a history of problems, including failure report of what looks like either the death of a child or some other kind of very, very serious incident. So these look like some facilities that may have some issues, whether they're committing

fraud. That's a different question. As you know, Republicans have put the blame on Minnesota's Democratic governor, Tim Walls. And here's what his office told us in part, quote, fraud is unacceptable and it is appropriate that the federal government is investigating problems in federal programs. The governor has been combating this for years. And before the viral video, the state had already referred these cases to law enforcement. What has the state and federal response been even before the latest allegations? Very robust at the federal level, somewhat tepid at the state level. And so I think there's legitimate questions that have been raised about whether the state did what it needed to do at the beginning to shut this thing down. Now, there certainly has been a

lot of action at the state level recently to try to crack down, create new guardrails, to create new processes that would catch fraud and prevent these kind of things from happening again. But a lot of critics are saying this is a little bit too, little too late. And finally, the Somali community in Minneapolis has been demonized by the President of the United States, who has called them, quote, garbage. He said, we don't want them in our country. And here's what Ahmed Somatar told our Fred to Sam Lazaro before these new allegations. He's a Somali professor at McAllister College in St. Paul. He's lived in Minnesota for over 30 years. The consequences could be frightening for many Somalis, especially young people who would think that they were born here.

They are living, you know, the life of a normal citizen going to school and getting on with life. And therefore, should now have to watch their back all the time because they are targeted as an unwanted foreign group of people. That's the danger. How is this renewed attention affecting the Somali community? Absolutely. Absolutely. They've been under siege now for weeks with this cracked down by ICE. And I think the recent video, I mean, based on the hate mail that I'm getting for the stories that we've done that have raised some questions about both things that the state have done, statements that the feds have made. I can't imagine what it's like to be a Somali person in our community right now. Minnesota is home to the largest Somali community in the United States. Over 100,000 folks are living here.

They're police officers, their teachers, a handful of them are criminals, but it's painted the entire community with a very broad bush. Jeff Mitrod is with the Minnesota Star Tribune. Thank you very much. Thank you. This week, the U.S. pledged $2 billion in humanitarian aid to the United Nations as part of a deal that will also overhaul how the U.S. funds foreign aid work going forward. The move comes after the U.S. paused, nearly all of its contributions earlier this year, leaving the U.N. and other aid organizations scrambling. William Brangham breaks it down.

William? That's right, Nick. That $2 billion is just a fraction of the $8 to $10 billion the U.S. has provided to $1 billion. to support global humanitarian work in recent years, but it would still represent the largest commitment of any single country in the world. Yesterday, UN Secretary General Antonio Gutierrez welcomed the news, saying it would, quote,

increase our ability to save lives, deliver to the most vulnerable, and reduce human suffering. So to help us understand the significance of this new pledge, we are joined by Jeremy Kondyke. He's president of Refugees International and a former senior USAID official in both the Biden and Obama administrations. Jeremy, welcome back to the NewsHour. So the U.S. pledges $2 billion and also says all of that money must now be funneled through one UN organization,

the Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA. What do you make of that amount and of that new funding structure? So I think there are two different stories to those two questions. With the new funding structure, I think there are arguments, good arguments to say that that could, if it's done right, be a pretty efficient way to deliver aid and arguably more efficient than some of the traditional ways of funneling it through this whole landscape of individual UN agencies. However, that really pales in comparison to what looks like a massive cut in U.S. humanitarian assistance. If you go back two years now to 2024, the final year of the Biden administration, the U.S. provided $14 billion of global humanitarian assistance. Now, needs in the world are just about the same as they were then. They certainly haven't gone down, if anything, they've gone up.

And this is $12 billion less from that $14 billion. So if this $2 billion is the end of the story and it's all the U.S. is going to provide, that is catastrophic, frankly. What do you think the answer to that question is going to be? Is this $2 billion a down payment or is this it? That is not clear. And that's actually quite important because if you are the entire UN system working across these, I believe it's 17 countries that are eligible for this assistance, you really need to know if you're stretching that $2 billion out over the course of the next 12 months

or if this is just one of several payments, you're going to plan very differently, you're going to invest very differently, you're going to allocate that money very differently if this is the first tranche of several or if this is it for the entire year. That kind of uncertainty is really tough for humanitarians to deal with. And I very much hope that it's not the final word. But I think it would be very important for the administration to make clear what their larger humanitarian funding plans are, whether that will ultimately go through this channel or others. The U.S. also said that there are 17 nations that this aid can go to, and many of those are in dire need as designated by the UN, but it also excluded three

different nation states, Yemen, Afghanistan, and Gaza, saying that they seem they're suspect about the governance in those places. What do you make of that, that exclusion? I think Gaza is a bit of a unique category because the U.S. has been funding there just through other channels directly to NGOs, and hopefully that will continue. more troubled by the exclusion of Yemen and Afghanistan. These are countries where obviously the current administration has a very adversarial relationship with the de facto authorities in both of those places, but that shouldn't be a reason why civilians in those countries who have massive needs should suffer. It's almost a double condemnation of Afghan women,

for example. On the one hand, they have to live under Taliban, impose gender apartheid, And on the other hand, because of that Taliban government, which they did not choose, now the U.S. is pulling aid from them as well. You know, for many, many years, traditionally across administrations, the U.S. has drawn a distinction between a country's government and a country's people. And we want to support the people, even if we are at odds with the government. This really demolishes that distinction. And I think that does huge damage to America's moral leadership and strategic leadership in the world and the long. run, because people will remember that even after governments change. One of the other accusations the Trump administration has made is that this new streamlined

process will eliminate what they argue is the woke ideology in humanitarian aid, the gender ideology, that climate change, in fact, no aid can go directly to climate-related projects. Again, what do you make of that exclusion? I think it's, you know, on one level, it's silly, and on another level it really misunderstands why those things are important. It's silly in the sense that the role of, you know, gender considerations in humanitarian aid, climate considerations in humanitarian aid is not about woke ideology. And frankly, there was not a huge difference in U.S. humanitarian funding priorities from the first Trump administration into the Biden administration.

There was, I would say, continuity of probably 90-plus percent of the programs that were being funded. But more importantly, gender considerations are really important. There is huge, huge mass sexual violence happening in Sudan right now, mass sexual violence that happened over the past few years in the war in Tigray, mass sexual violence happening right now in eastern Congo. That's what I mean when we're talking about gender program. I would hope that rape survivors deserve U.S. support. I would hope as well that the administration understands that the role of climate change in humanitarian action is that it causes more droughts, which mean more people starve.

And if we ignore that, we're not ignoring, you know, they're not writing out some so-called woke ideology. What they're writing out is starvation and sexual violence and things that are really fundamental dimensions of humanitarian response. All right. That is Jeremy Conundike, Refugees International. to speak with you. Thank you so much. Thank you. artisan games. Lisa Desjardin is here to walk through the numbers at the super screen. Lisa, thank you very much. So let's start with what is certain. Where is redistricting in place and which party benefits? We've talked a lot about the two biggest states involved here, Texas, where Republicans began this redistricting war and California, where Democrats responded. In each of those

states, the parties respectively expect to pick up between three and five seats. But let's talk about the three states that have also remapped. are for Republicans, Ohio and North Carolina, where they expect to pick up a couple of seats, but Democrats also have an opportunity as well. Utah, where a court-ordered map means they could pick up a seat around Salt Lake City. So take these five states where new maps will be in place, and what do you get? Here's a cheat sheet. This is a way to think about this math. The Republicans, these are where they expect to pick up. But if you look at it, their Texas gains really are washed out by the California for Republicans.

Same thing. North Carolina. That basically is canceled out by the potential in Utah. That leaves us with Ohio, where the Cook Political Report forecasts that Republicans stand to either have a wash or pick up a couple of seats. And that's the story right now of where these maps stand. Essentially, Republicans either will have a wash or pick up a couple with the maps certainly in place. Okay, so the states where it's locked in may give Republicans an edge. But what about all the states where the efforts are still in progress? This is the right question, because I think this is where people get confused and start to flatline. This is what we especially want to clear up. Let's look at the Republican opportunities still in play. There are five states we're watching. They're all right here.

Some like Florida involve state legislatures. Others involve court orders that we are waiting for. One state that is not in this circle, Indiana, you'll remember the Trump administration wanted a Republican map there, but they're not getting it because state Senate Republicans rejected it. Now, let's look at what's still in play for Democrats we're watching. Right here, there's three states. Virginia, where a new Democratic governor will be inaugurated next month. Maryland, we're watching, and Wisconsin. Now, I'm not going to do all the math for all these states because this is complicated and it's uncertain which of these states will actually redistrict.

But this map tells the story anyway. You see more red and pink here. There are more opportunities for Republicans than Democrats. However, it does come with risk. In places like Texas, Republicans are putting new seats on the board by watering down the Republican content on some of their safe seats. Democrats are hoping that maybe that makes them more vulnerable. All right, so upheaval in the maps, but also upheaval among members of Congress. We have a long list of retirements already.

What does that look like? And what does it mean? Nick, we're a near-record pace right now for this midterm. And there's some big names, moderates like Don Bacon, Jared Golden. They're fed up with Congress and leaving, but also some on the ideological. ends of the spectrum. Big-name conservatives, including Marjor Taylor Green, who is leaving at the beginning of January. Nancy Pelosi, former Speaker of the House, also want to point out Lloyd Doggett, Texas Democrat, leaving because he's been redistricted out of his own seat.

This is the who, but I think the number actually tells a more important story. Right now, by my account, we know 46 different members of this House are leaving of their own accord not returning. Most of them, as you see here, that red bar are Republicans. How does that compare? We looked back at the end of December for the last two midterm cycles. Here's what you see. This figure is much higher than we saw four years ago when Joe Biden was in office. But look at this.

It's very close to where we were in 2017 under President Trump. And again, it was mostly Republicans leaving. Why might that matter? I'm glad you asked. Actually, I asked that. But in 2018, after we saw these large number of retirements, what happened? Republicans lost 40 seats. It was a wave of election. There are not that many seats in play now because of redistricting, but Republicans and Democrats, rather, really like their chances because in order to flip the House to regain control, Democrats only need to met three seats in the 2026 election.

So the big takeaways here, Nick. One, House Republicans do stand to gain from their efforts to redraw maps around the country, but their own members are telling a different story. Their message is they're leaving for the exits does not look like they expect with certainty to be in the majority. Lisa Desjardin, breaking it down, as always for us brilliantly at the super screen. Thanks so much. Welcome. The private space economy is growing significantly, and 2026 could be a big year.

The first private space station is expected to launch next spring. New commercial space flights will be offered for the very wealthy, of course, and SpaceX is thinking of a public stock offering. Smaller startups are beginning to make a name for themselves as well. And our science correspondent, Miles O'Brien, has the story of one in New Zealand, catching some attention of its own. All right, Michael, what's this room called? So this is the Mission Control Center.

Another day, another pair of launches on tap for the world's second most frequent flyer to space after SpaceX, Rocket Lab. Launch director Michael Pearson showed me their mission control room for the rocket they call Electron. It's ramping up and up, so last year we did 16 launches. This year we're doing 20 or so. We will continue to accelerate that and, you know,

Before long, we'll be doing one a week, maybe more. Brisk, but still well short of the record-setting pace set by SpaceX. Elon Musk's company has logged more than 160 Falcon 9 launches this year. Starlink deploy confirmed. Most of them to deploy its Starlink Internet constellation. With SpaceX, they have unlimited money and unlimited people, right? We've had to be a bit more scrappy. Scrappy.

It reflects the culture of its country of origin, New Zealand, and its CEO, Peter Beck, a rocket company founder who didn't begin with billion-dollar deep pockets. Beck grew up in a small town in southern New Zealand, telling anyone who would listen that he wanted to build rockets. I imagine there was some skepticism. That's an understatement. There was no trodden or obvious pathway.

He had to start from zero and build it up. growing this company in adversity. He founded the company in 2006. His second hire was Sean O'Donnell, now the chief engineer special projects. So this facility is called APC, our Auckland Production Complex. So all electrons flow through here, right? That's right, yeah. The final assembly and testing all happens here.

He gave me a tour of their bustling rocket factory. We designed this facility to be able to build one electron-launch vehicle a week. He took me to the power pack, which houses nine Rutherford engines. They are 3D printed so they can be manufactured faster at scale, the first of their kind to reach orbit. The rocket itself is the first orbital vehicle made entirely from carbon composite materials. So very lightweight construction, which differs from a lot of rockets which are made out of aluminum. Electron has enjoyed a long run of smooth sailing off the launch pad. 74 successful missions out of 78 attempts, a 95 percent reliability rate in an inherently risky business.

The main purpose of the fairing is to protect the payload. O'Donnell took me to the faring, the pointy end of the rocket. Electron is built to deliver small payloads, weighing no more than about 660 pounds, to lower Earth orbit. It may not look like much, but the miniaturization of electronics and sensors has dramatically shrunk satellites. Rocket Lab has carved out a near monopoly in launching small communications, earth imaging, and sensing platforms for private customers, NASA, and national security agencies. So is that a function of not having the resources to go bigger, or did you truly see a market niche there?

Both. We have no money, therefore we have to think. That line comes from the legendary New Zealand physicist Ernest Rutherford, the namesake of the electron engines. First backed by venture capital, Rocket Lab became a U.S. company in 2013 and went public in 2021, with a roughly $4 billion valuation. It's now a $37 billion company with 2,500 employees, growing fast, but still. much smaller than SpaceX, with 13,000 employees and an $800 billion valuation. Well, we're certainly not going to outspend them, so, you know, we have to have to out-innovate, out-think and out-hustle. And we go about things in a way that we can afford to do them, and we continually scale and build bigger and bigger and bigger.

Rocket Lab is getting bigger with a holistic approach to space. It launched NASA's Capstone Mission to the Moon, built the satellites for the escapade. mission to Mars and is planning a privately funded mission to Venus. Beck's goal, to be an end-to-end player in space. You're able to build a satellite using your own components, launch the satellite on your own rocket, and operate the satellite in orbit. So for us, this is where we've been driving methodically to go. But to get there, they need a bigger rocket.

And that is what they're building right now. It's called Neutron. So at this point, you have a basic design, but the design work doesn't end. Is that the idea? The design really never ends. Sean DeMello is the vice president in charge of the Neutron program. The rocket is designed to deliver nearly 29,000 pounds of payload to low Earth orbit, 40 times more than electron.

This right now is a missing piece for Rocket Lab, isn't it? Yeah, it's quite literally the big piece, one of the big pieces of the puzzle here. It closes that loop on Bing and to end. It's not as large as SpaceX's Falcon 9, which can carry about 50,000 pounds to orbit. But Neutron would put Rocket Lab in the same league. There is a pretty significant demand for launch right now. There's only a handful of launch vehicles available. Basically have Falcon 9 launching at a high rate, and the market's looking for more alternatives.

Like Electron, Neutron is built mainly from carbon composites. composites and uses 3D printed engines. While it won't be human-rated at the outset, the design preserves that option for the future. Launch historically is a hard place to make money. I think this is going to be a challenging trip. Carissa Christensen is founder and CEO of Bryce Tech, a space and defense consulting firm. Rocket Labs' timing is opportune. commercial space sector is reaching escape velocity thanks to a deliberate shift in NASA policy

accelerated by the cosmic ambitions of billionaires like Richard Branson, Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos. What we're seeing now is the results of about a decade of investment by venture capital firms and super angel billionaires that's led to an unprecedented growth in the number of companies, growth in the number of launches, growth in the number of satellites. We're at a moment where we're waiting to see if the revenues catch up with the investment. The global space economy is now more than $600 billion annually, with nearly 80% driven by commercial providers.

That momentum was underscored recently by Blue Origin's successful debut of its long-awaited New Glenn rocket, signaling growing competition beyond SpaceX. So where do you see your company in 2035? Well, we've been unashamedly stating. We're trying to build the biggest space company in the world. That's what we're trying to do. You want to beat SpaceX? No, I don't see it about beating SpaceX.

The definition of success here for me is building like this long-living, multi-generational space company that just keeps having impact year after year after year after year. The company hopes Neutron will arrive on its launch pad at Wallops Island, Virginia in the first quarter of 20, It aims to launch soon after that. The space economy is looking up. For the PBS NewsHour, I'm Miles O'Brien in Auckland, New Zealand.

Less than 20 miles from the Russian border is Harkiv. It is Ukraine's most bombarded city and has suffered great trauma from Russia's four-year onslaught. Special correspondent Jack Houston was one of the few international reporters inside the city at the beginning of the full-scale invasion. And he reports now that despite great loss among the city's soldiers and citizens, its holiday culture lives on. Now enduring its fourth Christmas at war, Kharkiv has learned to live with its scars.

Some are obvious, shattered buildings, the strike points of missiles, shells and drones. Others are carried on the bodies and in the minds of its people. We first met Nikita Rajenko in the first weeks of the war, a formerly pro-Russian city councillor whose politics flipped in an instant when Russia invaded and he signed up to fight for Ukraine. Russians, please come here if you dare. We'll send you back in plastic bags. Later he was deployed across Ternetsk and Harkiv provinces, working in logistics,

logistics, fearing ammunition and equipment to the front. But on a fateful day in 2023, the car he was traveling in, on route to a position near Izzyum, was hit. They found me crawling along the road. My car was wrecked somewhere in the bushes. At that moment, it seems I recognized everyone and reported to them that I had no eye. A local doctor there said, why did you even bring him here? He's practically a corpse.

There's nothing we can do. Keita remembers none of this. It was only two weeks later when he woke up in a Harkiv hospital that he was told what had happened. He had lost an eye, he had suffered a fractured skull, bleeding on the brain, and broken vertebrae in his neck and back. Doctors warned it was unclear whether he would regain his faculties or be paralyzed. It was a harrowing time. In the hospital, there were wounded people everywhere. Someone wakes up and realizes he has no leg or no arm. someone screams from pain.

I had thoughts of self-pity, asking why this happened to me, why I survived, why I couldn't just die easily and not endure this suffering. Despite losing nearly 60 pounds and unable to eat solid food for more than a month, Nikita knew he had to leave hospital and start building himself back up. He dedicated himself to gaining weight, rebuilding atrophied muscle, and returning to the gym as soon as he could. I thought, okay, it is what it is. You survived.

Now you have to reclaim your life. Nikita has had to relearn how to live in a body changed by war. Under near daily bombardment, less than 20 miles from the Russian border, Kharkiv has been forced to do the same. Celebrating Christmas here has become an act of civic resistance. Not just to survive, but to insist on living. Harkiv is Ukraine's most bombarded city. In November there were more than 40 strikes on this place,

which is why they're holding this Christmas concert down here in the metro station so people could enjoy themselves in the festivities in some degree of safety. The meaning of these gatherings has changed. After years of loss and constant trauma, public moments of culture and togetherness carry a new weight. There are moments of release and of hope. for the police and of hope. For the first time in years of war, I attended this concert.

I was in Kharkiv the whole time. These are tears of happiness. I wish everyone peace and to never know explosions. The war has taken many things from Nikita and Kharkiv, but the city and its people have found their own ways to endure. We asked Nikita if he had a Christmas message. You need to find faith. Maybe if you believe in God, if you don't believe in God, just believe in yourself. Keep yourself kind in your heart, no matter what around you.

Is there anything that you would say to anyone going through a difficult time like Kharkiv is going through? I want to say that just one, you know, message, it will not be always like that. You just need to move forward. For the PBS News Hour, I'm Jack Hewson in Kharkiv, Ukraine. Finally, from us, a culture at risk. Gaza has suffered through catastrophic war since the October 7th Hamas terror attack on Israel. It has been a war that is severely damaged or destroyed much of a rich artistic history. Senior arts correspondent Jeffrey Brown looks at the loss, but also the hope that the arts could create a better future.

It's part of our arts and series culture, Canvas. A tapestry of color and coastline, old city markets, and ancient monuments. A place layered with more than 5,000 years of history. To the outside world, Gaza was known as a conflict zone, siege for 16 years even before the war. But it was also filled with life, both every day and extraordinary. Now much of it looks apocalyptic. According to the UN, nearly two years of Israeli bombardment has destroyed 90 percent of its

built environment, its infrastructure, residential buildings. And as of November 2025 UNESCO has verified damage to 145 historical, religious, and archaeological sites. Palestinian officials say the actual number is much higher. Gaza is not just a place of war and conflict. It is a place where cultural heritage has flourished for thousands of years. Mahmoud Hawari is a professor of archaeology who teaches at several Palestinian universities and has spent decades studying Gaza's ancient past.

He said the destruction is not just a humanitarian catastrophe, but an erasure of civilization's memory. This is a huge loss not only for the people of Gaza, but also for humanity, because these buildings and this history of Gaza belonging to human history and the human contribution to civilization as a whole. From Bronze Age artifacts to Byzantine churches. Gaza's archaeological richness

embodies the sweep of Mediterranean history. In the last 2,000 years, it was an important port on the Mediterranean that brought merchandise from the east to the west. For example, the Roman Empire needed incense and spices that came from India through Arabia and into the port of Gaza and to the rest of the Mediterranean. In the Byzantine times, it was a learning center for Christianity.

In the Islamic times, also it was a flourishing center of culture and learning. And the buildings and the archaeological sites in Gaza testify to these facts. Among the lost treasures, the ancient ports of Antheidon, dating back a thousand years. Sixth century churches in Jabalya in central Gaza. The 1600-year-old church of St. Perferius was thought to be the world's third oldest church. An Israeli strike in the first few weeks of the war destroyed it. The 7th century great Omari Mosque, a crusader church turned early Islamic mosque, with its towering mineral and marble columns, now in ruins.

The 14th century, Hamam al-Samara, an Ottoman-era bathhouse noted for its arched ceilings, marble floors, and heated systems, now a pile of rocks. The Khan Yunus Karavansarai, a medieval gathering hub for merchants from around the world, reduced to rubble. And the Pasha Palace in Gaza City, first built in the mid-13th century,

a seat of power during the Mamluk and the city, during the Mamluk and Ottoman periods. Today, it's a shell of its past glory, a historic structure reduced to rubble. It used to serve as a museum of history in Gaza and housed thousands of rare artifacts. Now local archaeologists are undertaking the impossible task of recovery.

They told the news hour that so far out of 17,000 precious artifacts, just 20 have been found in the rubble. Most of the artifacts were bulldozed and stolen inside rooms. Of course, the extent of the destruction is more than 70% of the area of the place, but now we are striving to restore this place to the way it was more than before. I hope that this ceasefire holds for some time so that archaeologists can make an informed assessment of their real damage on the ground, but the decimation of archaeological and

historical buildings is staggering, and we will have to grapple with for many generations to come. Beyond heritage sites, Gaza's modern cultural ecosystem, universities, libraries, galleries, studios, art schools has been nearly wiped out. A recent report by Pan America, an advocacy organization promoting free expression around the world, documents the destruction or heavy damage to 36 major cultural, educational, and heritage sites. Pan America concludes that many of the sites appear to have been deliberately

targeted in breach of international law protecting cultural property. In a statement to NewsHour, the Israel Defense Forces said Hamas stores weapons inside civilian buildings, and that, quote, sites of cultural heritage and locations of historical and cultural significance are treated with the utmost sensitivity by the IDF. Meanwhile, for contemporary artists who've survived the war, the destruction is deeply personal. Even all my colleagues around me, we lost thousands of our artworks because of the laws of either our studios or our houses. In Madrid, Spain, far from the ruins of Gaza City, artist Sharif Sirhan lives in exile.

No artist hasn't experienced loss of art. We all also experienced loss in suffering from the conditions we are living in. Therefore, this is a case of two losses, the loss of family or loved ones, and the loss of the artist's soul, his work and his art. In addition to making his own work, Sir Hahn ran the Shubabik gallery that once held nearly a thousand artworks, a heartbeat of Gaza's contemporary art scene. One Israeli air strike in October 2023 erased a generation's creative archive. Yet Sir Han insists Gaza's memory should not be reduced to rubble and suffering.

We don't hear too much about Gaza's culture or art. What do you want people to know? How rich is that culture? How varied is it? Here are two images of Gaza. The first image is always known in the media, which is that of war, destruction, siege and suffering that people go through. And the second image is a beautiful Gaza, a Gaza that has hope, love, and art.

And no one talks about this image that is always in Gaza. Before the war, Sir Hahn built one of Gaza's most iconic public artworks. a Gaza lighthouse installation crafted from concrete, metal and remnants of earlier conflicts. It too destroyed in this war. This work has become over the years a symbol of beauty and freedom in Gaza. Many people took pictures of it as if it had become Gaza's monument. Imagine you live all your life there in place, your school, your childhood, your friends, your family, everything, and suddenly it's completely destroyed.

completely gone. In Cape Town South Africa, 23-year-old artist May El-Shayr carries her own fragments of loss from her hometown of Rafa. In her new exhibition in exile called Violet Dreams, May captures the dual pain of what's lost and the uncertainty of where to go from here. Between what's going now in my country and for my people and what I'm facing now in a new place that I have to survive in. and start from scratch. May first fled Gaza for Egypt, where she worked with children from Gaza.

When I went to Egypt, I just stopped doing anything, literally anything. I couldn't even paint because I was really, really stuck in survival. And then I met these children's. And I was like, at least they make me feel like I have to survive because of them. After all of these things, I tried to back to paint again. Step by step, I just felt again that I deserve to live.

For May and others, Palestinian art is a form of record-keeping and resistance, a way to insist that behind the statistics are human beings. I want to speak about Palestine and the people that I know. I don't want just to stay silent because they deserve to live. They deserve that people remember them. They are not just the numbers. people have to see them. For his part, artist Sharif Sirhan looks forward to rebuilding one day.

Yes, I feel hopeful. Without hope, I can't live. You always have to feel hopeful to have a good future. Maybe sometimes you feel a little depressed, but hope is what propels you to have a good future. So I am always hopeful. For the PBS News Hour, I'm Jeffrey Brown. Hope for a better future.

And that's the News Hour for tonight. I'm Nick Schiffran. On behalf of the entire NewsHour team, I hope you had a good day. Have a good night. Thank you for joining us.