PBS News Hour - Full Show - July 9, 2025 – PBS News Hour full episode

Episode Date: July 9, 2025

Wednesday on the News Hour, we follow local groups in Texas supporting first responders as the search for the missing continues. In Gaza, an on-the-ground look at desperate efforts to find food in a barren landscape. Plus, Judy Woodruff reports on a group with a proven track record of overcoming political divides and distrust. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

Good evening. I'm Amna Nawaz. Jeff Bennett is away. On the news hour tonight, we follow local groups in Texas supporting first responders as the search for the missing continues. In Gaza, an on-the-ground look at desperate efforts to find food in a barren landscape. Before I'd leave to get aid, I'd say goodbye to my children and tell them that I'd either come back carrying something or something. someone would be carrying me. And Judy Woodruff reports on a group with a proven track record of overcoming political divides and distrust.

Before you can sit down with someone else and work out these tough issues that we all have to work out. People need to see each other as people. Welcome to the NewsHour. More than 160 people remain missing from the catastrophic floods in central Texas last week. At least 119 people have been killed. But as search crews continue their work, officials expect the death toll to keep growing. Special correspondent Christopher Booker has our report from Kerr County, Texas about the latest efforts on the ground.

In the heart of Texas Hill Country, football coach Tate Damasco has found a way to give back. Who wants to eat? Through the non-profit Mercy Chefs, Damasco was delivering hot meals to victims of last weekend's flooding. The first thing was, oh my gosh, this is where I live. Look at it. The next thing was, how are we ever going to get past all this? One of the families receiving help is Martha and Miles Murayama. I jumped up and came to the door and he looked out and the water was already above the windows. Really? So he went out the back door and then the water swept him away and he got caught in the outdoor kitchen.

Your husband? Yeah. While Martha's husband Miles survived, nearly everything in our home did not. But for now, they're leaning on their community. We've been blessed and we've had a lot of help from our church from all the guys that have been out and helping us day one.

My daughter and I were ripping out floors and we had some help from some friends and start cleaning up. Back at the Mercy Chef's Kitchen, volunteers from across the country have prepared more than 10,000 meals since Saturday. Thank you guys. Love y'all. Appreciate you being with us. Chef Gary LeBlanc founded the organization. We hear so many of the stories. The ones that

really hit me are the first responders that are in here, the search and rescue teams that come in to eat and they sit, they take a few bites and they put their head down in their hands and then you ask them, how are you? And they just look up with this thousand yard away stare and they say, you know, I've just seen things today that I can never unsee. Search teams are now using heavy equipment to peel away layers of tree and debris along the river and finding more victims, like veteran Bill Venus, who served in the Army for 33 years, or 21-year-old Joyce Catherine Badden, who was trapped in a house along the Guadalupe River on July 4th. These satellite images show the scale of devastation along the Guadalupe River.

It's in this low-lying part of Kerr County that's lined with campgrounds like Camp Mystic. We're just two days before the floods, state inspectors reportedly signed off on a disaster plan. The details of that plan are unclear. Local officials continued to dodge questions about how and when the county alerted residents about the floods. According to local reports, an area firefighter requested a code red warning as floodwaters rose in the early hours of July 4. But today, officials declined to give a timeline for when the county's Code Red system was activated. We're going to get that answer. And I know that's going to be asked over and over.

Please understand that. You know, we don't have, we're not running. We're not going to hide for everything. That's going to be checked into at a later time. I wish I could tell you that time. I don't know that time. And today, President Trump's nominee to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association said he would work to improve weather warning communications. For now, though, the search continues for families and

community seeking answers and closure. Amna? Christopher, you know, there's been so much talk in recent days about the emergency warning system and when and how those alerts were actually delivered. I know you spent time today with someone who was actually on the receiving end of some of those alerts as the floodwaters were rising. What did you learn? Yeah, Martha told us that she actually did receive an alert. The alert came through her phone around four or five in the morning, and her phone buzzed, and she said she actually thought it was an amber alert.

So she reached over and turned it off. This alert came through really around the same time that she said her neighbor was calling her, saying that there was a strange banging on her door. This is, of course, when the water started to come into her home. So when her neighbor called, that's when she actually woke her husband up, and their story really started. Tell us a little bit more about Martha.

I know it's been hard for you in the team to move around there, given all the logistical hurdles. How did you connect with her? So we met Martha this morning when we, when we were traveling around with Tate, the high school football coach. She lives in a community called Bumblebee Hills, which is in Ingram, Texas, just outside of Hunt, Texas. We actually connected with Tate this morning as he was picking up his meals before he started his deliveries. Now, Tate has been doing this since Saturday, so he's been able to move around rather freely.

But as soon as we got into the car, we actually encountered two police checkpoints. Tate, of course, was waved through, but this is really emblematic of how movement has been restricted. It's important to note, though, that as soon as we got on the other side of that restricted area, unbelievably, the damage was actually far worse than what you're seeing behind me. There was massive damage to the trees and also massive damage to properties. We saw boats flipped outside down. We saw giant sheets of metal hanging from trees. It was really substantial.

Christopher, you mentioned the movement on the ground being restricted. We should point out, you've covered a number of disasters before. You've been on the ground here in Texas since Monday night. Is there something different about the response there? I'd say there is something different. You know, in other disasters I've covered, there's always a location that serves as a kind of de facto central command. And this is usually where FEMA will plant their flag.

This is where you can go for press conferences and basically organizational response. Here, our contact has been almost exclusively with faith-based organizations and state and local authorities. Now, we have seen throughout the Coast Guard going up and down the river. So the federal government is here, but these reports that the federal government is having a really light touch, we can corroborate that. It's Christopher Booker on the ground in central Texas for us once again tonight. Christopher, thank you.

Thank you. The day's other headlines start with President Trump's new tariffs on. on Brazil and not just the what, but the why. In announcing a 50% levy on Brazilian imports, Trump cited what he called the witch hunt against Brazil's former president, Jair Bolsonaro. The populist leader is charged with trying to overturn his 2022 election loss. Trump said today his trial, quote, should end immediately, thereby tying the tariffs to Bolsonaro's legal fate.

That comes as the administration sent letters today informing seven other countries of new tariffs, that's unless they can strike deals with the White House by August 1st. They include 30% levies on Algeria, Iraq, Libya, and Sri Lanka, plus 25% on Brunei and Moldova, and 20% on the Philippines. Former President Joe Biden's White House doctor refused to answer questions from Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill today. Lawyers for Dr. Kevin O'Connor say he invoked his Fifth Amendment rights during a closed-door interview with the House Oversight Committee. O'Connor also cited Dr. Patient Confidentiality. Republican subpoenaed O'Connor last month as part of their investigation into Biden's health and mental fitness as president. Biden has strongly denied that he was in any way impaired during his time in office, calling such claims ridiculous and false.

Measles cases in the U.S. are at their highest level in three decades. That's according to CDC data out today, showing 1,288 cases so far this year. That compares to fewer than 300 cases for all of 2024. At least three people have died and dozens have been hospitalized in outbreaks that began in under-vaccinated communities in West Texas and nearby areas. Experts say the measles vaccine is highly effective in preventing infection, but data show vaccination rates have dipped among children since the COVID-19 pandemic. Turning overseas, Ukrainian officials say Russia launched its largest barrage of the war so far

sending more than 700 drones overnight. Buildings burned through the morning in the northwestern city of Lutsk, a critical hub where Ukraine receives foreign military aid. Officials say 10 other regions were also struck. The barrage comes a day after President Trump criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin's ongoing aggression

and follows a U-turn by the Trump administration on sending more military aid to Ukraine. Meanwhile... In Rome, Good to see you. In Rome, Ukrainian President Vlodemir Zelenskyy met with U.S. Special Envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, and earlier visited Pope Leo, who again offered to host peace talks at the Vatican. Moscow had previously rejected that invitation.

Separately, Europe's top human rights court found that Russia committed widespread violations of international law in Ukraine dating back more than a decade. That includes its role in the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over separatists controlled Ukraine in 2014. 298 people were killed in that crash. The court also found Russia responsible in cases of murder, torture, and sexual violence against Ukrainian civilians, as well as the kidnappings of Ukrainian children. The Kremlin brushed off the court's ruling, saying it has, quote, no intention to abide by it. Southern New Mexico is bracing for more rain after monsoon conditions triggered flooding that killed at least three people. Oh my gosh, oh, no, oh no.

Raging waters gushed through the mountain village of Ridoso late yesterday, at one point carrying an entire house downstream. The local river rose nearly 19 feet in just minutes. Officials say that a man, a four-year-old girl, and a seven-year-old. year-year-old boy were swept away. Ridosos mayor said the situation could have been even worse, but most people heated warnings to get to higher ground. In Philadelphia, the city's largest workers union has reached a tentative deal to end a strike that had halted trash collection and other services.

Nearly 10,000 workers walked off the job on July 1st, calling for better pay and benefits. That included around 1,000 sanitation workers, meaning garbage was left to pile up in the streets. In a social media pose, Philadelphia's mayor said the strike is over, adding that the three-year contract would mean an overall pay raise of 14 percent over the mayor's four-year term. Union President Greg Bullware told reporters he was not happy with the deal. Why has it ended if you weren't happy with the deal? A lot of factors involved with what was going on, and we ultimately did what we thought was in the best interests of all of our membership. So union stood up in four.

for you. We did the best we could, the second time. The union also represents 911 dispatchers and water department workers. The members still have to ratify the deal before it can take effect. The CEO

of social media platform X is stepping down after two years in the role. Linda Yakorino joined the company shortly after Elon Musk bought what was then Twitter in late 2022. At the time, Musk said she would focus on running the company's business operations, leaving him to manage product design and

tech matters. Her departure comes a day after Musk's AI chatbot, called GROC, posted anti-Semitic content in its responses to users. Yaccarino did not provide a specific reason for her departure, and there's no word yet on a replacement. On Wall Street today, stocks ended higher after AI giant NVIDIA became the first company in history to top $4 trillion in market value. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added more than 200 points on the day. The NASDAQ added nearly 200 points of its own. The S&P 500 also closed in positive territory. Still to come, on the news hour, we break down the impact of the big budget bill

President Trump signed into law, the chair of the Democratic National Committee on his vision for the party's future. And Trump allies face growing criticism from the MAGA base over the Jeffrey Epstein file. 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. Tomorrow will mark one week since Congress passed the Republicans' major budget act. President Donald Trump signed his signature agenda just a day later on Independence Day. But what's in it and how it will affect Americans' day-to-day lives remains a mystery

to most. Congressional correspondent Lisa Desjardin read just about every word of the nearly 900-page law. She's back at our super screen to help us make sense of it all. So Lisa, I know you and the team broke out separate pieces of the legislation before, but it is such a big bill. Help us take the big picture view to start off. Right. And it's not just a big bill. In fact, it is the largest in terms of dollars in terms of tax cuts and spending cuts in U.S. history. So it's easy to get lost in this, but I think we've found some ways to make it more understandable. First, let's look at the main blocks in this bill. There's really six of them. Tax cuts, money for the border and for defense. These ones are money going out of the federal government, essentially. Then bottom,

you have reforms and spending cuts, health care, green energy cuts, SNAP food program, and student loans. That's money that would come in. You put all that together, do the math, and you end up with around $4 trillion in costs for this bill. That does include interest. Now, of course, some of these pieces are bigger than others. So let's look at that with a little bit more depth. Imagine this bill is 100 dots representing 100% of the bill, money in and out so we can compare what's happening in this bill. Let's look at those items we talked about just a minute ago. The border money and DOD, those snap cuts, student loan cuts, and then green energy. You can see that while they will affect millions, dollar-wise, they're not a huge part of the bill. Let's add

something else. The health care cuts for Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. a little bit more of the bill from that. But really, the giant factor in this bill are the tax cuts right there, more than 60 percent of the bill. These three dots are other miscellaneous things, but really, this bill is all about the tax cuts. So, Lisa, how should people understand how this bill affects them individually and precisely? Right. We've talked about income before on the show, but it isn't just income. In this bill, literally more than 100 different provisions affecting people. So we found a way. to get it to some of the broad contours of who may gain or lose from this.

Let's talk about individuals first. Right now, more taxpayers are individuals than families. You would benefit more as an individual if you earn over $50,000 because of the tax cuts largely. If you live in a high-tax state, looking at you, New York, you would benefit because there is that state and local tax deduction in the bill. And if you're a farmer, there are subsidies here for you, and also the estate tax would be expanded on this bill with a higher maximum for that. you would lose more as an individual if you earn under $18,000,

likely losing benefits, potentially. If you work in solar or wind, that is an industry that will face some challenges because of this bill and the cuts. If you're in your 50s and 60s, you would also be affected potentially if you are on Medicaid or SNAP because the work requirements would be expanded to people who are older now. One more, let's talk about families, a little bit different effects. If you're married and wealthy as a family,

you're more likely to benefit, and if you have younger kids, that's because of the child tax deduction. Also, there's a $1,000 new trust account for kids. And if you own a family business, there's a tax cut or tax deduction in there for you that will be extended. Now, if you will lose as a family, if you're a single parent and low income, you will not be exempted from work requirements in the way that one parent may be in a married family. And if you have college-age kids, because of those student loan changes, there may be fewer student loans, and they may be more expensive. So that's the who in all of this in the bill.

Lisa, what about the when? When do some of the key pieces of this go into effect? It really will impact people and the economy, how this bill is rolled out. So let's just look at kind of a simple timeline. And some of the things that are going to impact us immediately. Look at this, 2025, 2026, these tax cuts will go immediately into place. Meaning for this tax year, when you file next spring, you can see these tax rates affecting you. those cuts on taxes, on tips and overtimes, seniors, all of these tax cuts and extensions going

into place now. Only one benefit cut could go into effect this year. That is the SNAP work requirement expansion. But let's go a little bit farther. Let's skip ahead to 2029. Here is when you will see all of these more benefit cuts go into place for SNAP, the state costs, and these Medicaid cuts. Really will not see the effect next year or the next two years, but it goes into effect starting more 2027. Let's go farther down the line. Look at the very big picture here. Now, you see these tax cuts on tips, overtime, seniors, and car loans.

They will end in 2029. Big effect on the economy potentially, but do you notice anything political? Hmm, how about this? 2026. That's when the next election is. Midterm elections, all of the tax cuts will be in place, and very few of the benefit cuts. That's something Republicans.

clearly did, thinking ahead. Lisa, you've gone through nearly 900 pages of this bill. What's something in there that people might miss? Right. There is a lot. We had to choose just a few. But I wanted to get out the idea that this bill is not just a normal tax cut bill. There was a lot that was put in here that were sort of wishlist items for many lawmakers,

including ending the silencer taxes are suppressors that you can add to a gun to make, that your gun will make less noise when it fires. There is a tax on that $200 right now. Now, that will end in this bill. The Kennedy Center gets millions of dollars in this. There's also provision that would allow funding to move a space shuttle or other space equipment across the country. And this is a President Trump item.

The Garden of Heroes is the idea of a statuary garden of different Americans. Now, these are not minor dollar figures. Ending the silencer tax, that's worth $1.7 billion in federal revenue over 10 years that they're taking out. Kennedy Center getting over 200 million, the space shuttle move. That's $85 million that's just tucked away in this bill. And President Trump's Garden of Heroes, 40 million. And these are just four of many of the little nuggets that are in this bill. Lisa Desjardin. Thank you as always. You're welcome.

Democratic officials are looking at the big, beautiful bill as a political gift and hoping the voters view cuts to social spending negatively. But the party faces several challenges ahead of next year's midterms, including a Republican governing trifecta and a base questioning if party leadership is doing enough to challenge President Trump. Joining me now to discuss where the party goes next is Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin. Ken, welcome to the NewsHour. Thanks for joining us. Thank you so much for having me, Omna. So Democrats have just started running some ads this week

against dozens of House Republicans who voted for that Trump budget bill. In your view, is that bill right now sort of the core messaging strategy for Democrats? Is that the strongest argument you've got? Well, absolutely, it's a strong argument because look at what this bill has done. I mean, every Republican in the Congress in the U.S. House and in the Senate voted for this bill. Every Democrat voted against it. This is, as I call it, the big, beautiful betrayal. All Republicans, every single one of them, put their oath to Donald Trump ahead of the oath to their constituents that they were elected by.

And as a result of this betrayal, this big, beautiful betrayal, they betrayed seniors where over a quarter of nursing homes around this country are going to close. They betrayed children. When we think about 4.2 million children in this country are going to lose nutritional assistance. They betrayed the disabled when 17 million Americans are going to be kicked off of their health insurance. They betrayed rural communities with over 300 rural hospitals likely to close now. They betrayed hardworking Americans. 1.75 million construction jobs alone are going to be lost because of this bill. And at the end of the day, they did all of that to actually help those in our communities who already have so much, the billionaires, the rich, the people who don't need a tax break.

So look, absolutely, this is a gift. It's a gift to the Democratic Party, but it's not a gift to the American people who are going to suffer immensely over the next several years and longer because of this disastrous spill. As you've seen among some of your own Democratic base, though, there are those who say they want Democrats to be doing more. I'll put to you the latest numbers from our PBS News and PR Maris poll that showed some 43 percent of Democrats, your own supporters, disapprove of the job that Democrats in Congress are doing right now. So why is it that you think your base is so unhappy with how Democrats are leading right now? Well, there's rightfully so. There's a lot of anxiety out there with what they've seen from this administration so far, is they're going down in a very aggressive manner to dismantle this country. What we've seen is they-

And if I made it to be clear, this is a disapproval of Democrats in Congress, not about the Trump administration. I understand that, but people are concerned of what they're seeing right now in this country. And what they want is they are anxious, they're nervous. This is unprecedented. We've never seen anything like this. And at the end of the day, that anxiety, of course, requires everyone to do their part. They want to see not just Democrats in Congress, but Democrats throughout this country, and whether you're in political party leadership, whether you're a local elected official,

they want Democrats to do their part to resist this authoritarian regime and what they're doing to dismantle this country. So I understand where that anxiety comes from. But let me tell you what the Democratic Party has been doing. We've already hosted over 130 town halls throughout the country to hold Republicans accountable to their disastrous policies that they've been pushing from the beginning with this administration, not just to hold them accountable, but to make sure that we're helping to amplify the stories of all the pain and anguish that's been inflicted upon the American people since Donald Trump was inaugurated. But, Ken, a lot of the frustration, even at those town halls, as you mentioned,

that we've seen has been from Democrats who want to see Democrats do more than just message and hold conversational spaces. They want to see you doing the kinds of things that Cory Booker did with a record floor speech or Hakeem Jeffries did or Senator Padilla did and confronting the DHS Secretary. They want to see you get caught trying, so to speak. Why not do more of that? We are doing that. And you just mentioned people who are doing it, right? And folks are doing it all over the country. I think the sense is it's not enough of that and that's where the frustration comes from. Is that fair? I don't think that's accurate, though. Look, I think initially when Donald Trump was inaugurated, I do believe the party and many of our elected officials were caught flat-footed.

But you haven't seen that in recent months. You've seen elected officials. You just mentioned it, from Cory Booker to Hakeem Jeffries, to our Democratic Attorney Generals who are leading the way on filing litigation after litigation to take on this authoritarian regime, to our governors and local elected officials who are using the power of their offices to actually protect vulnerable communities and communities being targeted by this administration. And to our members of Congress who realize that they may not have power in Congress right now, but they have the power of their voices and their platforms to really get out there and speak loudly about what's happening. And that's what's been happening for weeks and months now. And so I get where the anxiety comes

from. But it's just not accurate or true that the Democratic Party and our elected officials aren't doing enough. What do you take away from Zoran Mamdani's New York City mayoral Democratic primary win. Are there lessons there for the party or the races? Well, first, it was a brilliant campaign. And there's a lot of lessons. One is he campaigned for something. And this is a critical piece. We can't just be in a perpetual state of resisting Donald Trump. Of course, we have to resist Donald Trump. There's no doubt about it for all the reasons we just talked about. But we also have to give people a sense of what we're for, what the Democratic Party is fighting for, and what we would do if they put us back in power. And that's really critical.

And I think that's one of the lessons from Mamdani's campaign is that he focused on affordability. He focused on a message that was resonant with voters, and he campaigned for something, not against other people or against other things. He campaigned on a vision of how he was going to make New York City a better place to live. I think that's one of the lessons. The other lessons, of course, is the tactics he used to get his message out, both a very aggressive in-person campaigning, meeting voters where they're at, and then also in those digital spaces, using very creative messaging to cut through the noise and to get to voters in an inexpensive but authentic way. There's a lot to learn from that campaign, and I'm excited to learn more.

What about concerns from some of your Jewish colleagues in particular about him not outright condemning the phrase, globalized the intifada in a recent interview? Some of your Jewish colleagues have said that that could be very disturbing, potentially dangerous. do you agree with that? You know, there's no candidate in this party that I agree 100% of the time with. To be honest with you, there's things that I don't agree with Mamdani that he said. But at the end of the day, I always believe as a Democratic Party chair in Minnesota for the last 14 years and now the chair of the DNC that you win through addition.

You win by bringing people into your coalition. We have conservative Democrats. We have centrist Democrats. We have labor progressives like me. and we have this new brand of Democrat, which is the leftist. And we win by bringing people into that coalition. And at the end of the day, for me, that's the type of party we're going to lead. We are a big tent party. Yes, it leads to dissent and debate, and there's differences of opinions on a whole host of issues. But we should celebrate that as a party and recognize at the

end of the day, we're better because of it. That is the chair of the Democratic National Committee. Ken Martin joining us tonight. Ken, thank you so much for your time. Good to speak with you. Thank you. I'm not. Tonight, a senior Israeli official predicts Israel and Hamas will come to a ceasefire in the next week or two. A longer time frame than previously expected, but one that aligned with what President Trump also predicted today. An official with knowledge of the negotiation. tells PBS NewsHour there is one final sticking point, the amount of land in Gaza that Israel demands to control.

Until that ceasefire can be reached, fighting goes on, and Israel continues its airstrikes. Nick Schifrin looks now at what Khazens are enduring on an average day to try and find food and where some still see a measure of hope. North of Gaza City, the daily, dispiriting and often deadly fight for food. For boxes, for bags, for anything, it brings out thousands of the desperate.

But many leave empty-handed. The UN calls Gaza the hungriest place on earth. And what's supposed to help them survive instead risks their lives. Aid to us equals danger. If you want to go and try to get some aid, you are going to face death, bombing, and shooting. Nora Shore has six children, including three-year-old Tala. They all live here in a single room in Alnasser Street in central Gaza. Their survival has been her daily struggle.

She cooks on a makeshift stove, but has no source of food. So she's visited this site more than six miles away to try and find some. My children were starving in front of me. Before I'd leave to get aid, I'd say goodbye to my children and tell them that I'd either come back carrying something or someone would be carrying me. Last week, instead, she lost what she was carrying. She had a miscarriage while trying to find food. I am trying to feed six people.

I lost one child to save six children. Bombs were falling around us and there were gunshots. We were next to the tank and the shooting didn't stop. People were dying all around me. Body parts surrounded me. People's bodies were disfigured. The scenes were very tragic. This aid is provided by.

and is supposed to be distributed by the United Arab Emirates. But Israel accuses the international community of providing food that is in part stolen by Hamas, allowing them to rearm. So Israel and the U.S. have created the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to distribute food inside Israeli military zones. That decision has been deadly. Gaza health authorities say more than 600 Gazans have been killed near GHF sites in the last six weeks.

In the midst of this misery and destruction, a young Palestinian couple is documenting their days, past destroyed neighborhoods, but also showing a side of life in Gaza that we rarely get to see. Adele Spachie and Abdul Rahman Abu Takia smile through the suffering. We also suffer, but we wanted to make something positive about life in Gaza. We can show you the bad circumstances here, but also we can. can show you the positive side of Gaza. Yeah, the good vibes.

And this was our coffee day. Good vibes and couple goals. As always, she made me carry everything, including her hand, because she's just a girl. Day two, and I come in life and Gaza. They post daily updates on Instagram and longer videos on YouTube, showing an ordinary couple in extraordinary circumstances, a shared coffee. share coffee, playtime with their cats, Luna and Zatar, and sunset on the beach. See you tomorrow.

On Instagram, yeah. We love to make content about our daily life, our daily challenges in Gaza. We love to give people hope. We started as colleagues in the University of Palestine as English teachers. After one year of war, I decided to propose to Hadil and we got engaged. We got engaged and we got married, but we didn't make any wedding, and now we're trying to prepare for a wedding. Before becoming man and wife, the two were business partners, but they lost it all in the war. We lost both the two offices during the bombing, the constant bombing, and we lost our laptops.

They were burnt in our tent. Life has been about survival, living under Israeli drones and gunfire. They fled from home to home, but the war has chased them. When we first evacuated from our home, we went to Alamoansi. And then, there, the IDF came there, and they burnt our tent while we were inside of the tent. All of our stuff, all of our clothes, blankets, food, money, they were burned in the tent. We had to run inside the... the fire inside the gunshots, the bombing to evacuate to a safe place as they say, but it's not

safe place. Here we go again. Let's get some wheat to eat some bread. And now the daily hunt for food also risks their safety. Two days ago, I went to get some free wheat. I got one, but I had to fight because there's more than 30,000 people there. They are all hungry. they all need wheat and by the way this is a dangerous place yeah this is an evacuation area

at every time there you will be bombed at any time yesterday i went to get some food also they bombed the area that i was sitting in what i've got for free my work needs to be replaced everything is so hard you have every day to go to find some some water to drink and it's not clean and you You have to get some wood to light a fire because you want to cook your food because there is no gas. And one more thing is transportation is really hard, walking in the sun every day. What keeps them going is their faith in God, in a ceasefire, in their followers. Their messages, they always tell us that we are here for you, we are talking about Palestine. we didn't let you alone.

All of this gives us the power to wake up in the morning and film another video. And what keeps us strong is our relationship with Allah. He gives us the strength. We have to be hopeful about that one day the truth will come. We've been waiting for two years nearly for a truth and we still have hope. But the war goes on, this strike on an old market in Gaza City today. And until negotiators can reach that truce, hope feels distant. And a better day remains obscured.

For the PBS News Hour, I'm Nick Schiffran. This week, the Department of Justice released a widely anticipated memo detailing the findings of Jeffrey Epstein's 2019 death in a New York City prison. The report ruled out any foul play, confirming Epstein died by suicide and found no evidence that he kept a client list to incriminate those involved in his sex trafficking ring. Now, some of President Trump's far-right allies are frustrated that the administration appears to be ready to move on. from the Epstein investigation. John Yang has more. John? On the Trump administration officials

had promised to reveal what many of his conspiracy-minded supporters said was the truth about Epstein's death, that he was murdered so he wouldn't implicate powerful people at his trial. Another example, they said, of the corrupt deep state. But the material release this week

supports the official finding that Epstein killed himself. At a cabinet meeting, the president didn't want to talk about it. Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein. This guy's been talked about for years. You're asking, we have Texas, we have this, we have all of the things. And are people still talking about this guy, this creep? That is unbelievable. But some Trump supporters say there's still a cover-up. Now by coming in and being

part of the cover-up, the Trump administration has become part of it. I mean, it just you cannot see it any other way. I just really need the Trump administration to succeed and to save this country and they're doing so much good and then for them to do something like this terrors my guts out. We believe that there was really shady,

nefarious behavior involved at the highest levels of our government and with other wealthy, influential people in our country and around the world. It's not just that. It's that when these people try to get away with something, they do it and they thumb their nose at us.

They, it's like, this isn't even a good lie. Glenn Thrush covers the Justice Department for the New York Times. Glenn, as you can hear, there are a lot of folks up in arms about this, some of, some of his most loyal supporters. How is the administration dealing with this? Well, they're attempting to tell everyone to move on after some of the key administration figures, including the current head of the Justice Department and the two top officials at the FBI. stoke these conspiracy theories for political gain and profit for years. So they are essentially attempting to slam shut a door they themselves kicked open. As you said, it's sort of a 180 for a lot of

these people. For Pam Bondi, she said earlier, that the files had a lot of names, that client list she was talking about, and a lot of flight logs. And FBI director Cash Patel talked a lot about this before he took office. Let's listen to what he had to say in a 2023 podcast about the client list and what he said in May on Fox. Why is the FBI protecting the greatest pederist, the largest scale pederist in human history? Simple, because of who's on that list. You don't think that Bill Gates is lobbying Congress, right and day to prevent the disclosure of that list?

Put on your big boy pants and let us know who the pedophiles are. We have an election coming up and we need to adjudicate this matter at the polls. As someone who has worked as a public defender, as a prosecutor, who's been in that prison system, who's been in the Metropolitan Detention Center, who's been in segregated housing, you know a suicide when you see one, and that's what that was. What's happening to their standing their credibility with MAGA supporters? Oh, they're getting trashed over the past couple of days. Look, Trump himself has been somewhat ambival about this whole issue. He was friendly with Jeffrey Epstein, shall we say? He appears

in a whole bunch of photos and old videos hanging out with Epstein. I should say there's no implication that he did anything nefarious. But it's always been kind of a weird fit for the Trump and MAGA movement to embrace the Epstein conspiracy because he himself seems to have had no problem being around Epstein for a long period of time. They had a falling out over a land deal, as a matter of fact, years ago. But what this, the conspiracy theory is, really important because it dovetails with the larger emotional, cultural, and political thrust

to the whole MAGA movement, which is there is a cabal in the establishment who is attempting to protect nefarious actors, powerful, shady, shadowy people, and Trump and the people that he appoints are going to come in and bust this all apart. So even if the particulars of the Epstein conspiracy are dissolving, and the folks who once promoted it are attempting to distance themselves from it because they're now running the most powerful law enforcement agencies in the country, it still has a power. And that power is the same thrust that put these people into these offices to begin with.

And the thing I should tell you, Pam Bondi was the former Attorney General of Florida. She has fairly basic qualifications for her job. But Cash Patel and his number two, Dan Bongino, are the least experienced people to occupy their current positions. And the coin of their realm, the reason why they're occupying those jobs is because they're outsiders. So while the Epstein case itself may be receding into the background, the energy that it provided for these outsiders to become insiders is, I think, ultimately going to be the leg. And the energy from their supporters to send these people, get these people in to take clean house, as it were, are they now saying that they're part of the conspiracy, that they're part of the cover-up?

Absolutely. And let's not avoid the surface reality here. There is a real concrete reason why a lot of people want to keep this going. This has enriched people. It becomes the substance of the substance and topic of conversation and provides subscriptions and heat, you know, for podcasters and other social media personalities, including Patel and Bongino. And it allows people on the outside to have leverage against these powerful actors on the inside.

Laura Lumer, who is one of the most influential far-right activists who Trump listens to. In fact, Trump fired a bunch of national security officials, reportedly, at Loomers' behest. It gives them leverage over the people who are on the inside. And that's the paradox of the Trump world, except for Trump himself, who seems to be able to straddle the inside and the outside at the same time. Once you go on the inside, the people on the outside get to target you. Glenn Thrush of the New York Times. Thanks very much. Thank you. Even amid national discourse about a divided country, many Americans are working to bridge divides in their own communities and solve the issues that matter most to them.

Judy Woodruff recently visited Rhode Island to see how one program is trying to rebuild trust one relationship at a time. It's part of her series, America at a Crossroads. The way we're set up in this factory is very modular. Carl Waddenston is a man on the move. He's president and CEO of Vibco, a leading manufacturer of industrial equipment, located in the town of Wyoming, Rhode Island, in the state's south. Many of the people we sell to our farmers that have a big farm because we sell vibrators for the fertilizer tenders, vibrators for the grain.

It's anything that needs to be. be shaken in the process of manufacture. And I think they even had one in 007, shaken, not stirred. In addition to running this factory, trying to stay ahead of his competition and looming tariffs, Waddenston also brings his big personality and problem-solving ethos to the state's Commerce Board, where he helps businesses grow here, even amid a shifting economic outlook. If we build all these businesses up, we don't have to worry about this tightening because we all float with a rising tide. Meanwhile, in Providence, the state's Urban Corp, Angie Ancoma is focused on improving public health through affordable housing, healthy food, education, and work.

It's mixed income. And so some of them are more market rate? She serves on the board of the West Elmwood Housing Development Corporation, which builds. this 69-unit loft housing complex and next-door community spaces, including a garden, to produce fresh vegetables for the residents. Rhode Island needs to build at least close to 2,000 units annually to meet the need. Every year. Carl and Angie live in different parts of the state, work with different populations, and on the

surface might not appear to have much in common. But something they do share is the belief that to address the real challenges before them. In housing, transportation, workforce development, and health care, they need to find ways to connect with those who are different. Eastern culture is go to the GEMBA. GEMBA means the place where things are done. What tells me the real story is going to the bus stop, watching these poor people that are maybe waiting for the bus, going to the hospitals and seeing what's happening with the patient care, talking to the frontline workers, no one has an agenda Right now there are people are in each respective corner and there's very few people in the middle.

And there's a point where we need to be able to be in the same room and be in close proximity to one another. We're going to start with some intentional introductions. That's what the next morning is all about. Along with more than 50 other participants drawn from a state program called Leadership Rhode Island and representing a cross-section of leaders and business, government, and the nonprofit sector, they meet as part of a trust-building workshop run by a national group called Civiti. We created this word to describe the change that we want to see, which is a culture of deliberately engaging in relationships of respect and empathy with others who are different.

Palma Strand and Malka Coppell founded the nonprofit in 2013. None of us is just a single story. Civity uses storytelling to connect people who might feel they have little in common. My hidden superpower is being able to connect with people. And I don't know if there's any substitute short of spending time with somebody. In a peer-reviewed study, Stanford University's Polarization Lab found that their approach in In the form of these videos, outperformed dozens of others in helping to reduce animosity across party lines, build trust, and increased support for bipartisanship. I'm a public policy wonk. I came into this work because I care about issues, and I used to think that writing a good memo was the way to fix things.

And I started the work because I saw that that wasn't enough, that really these issues really did depend on how people felt about each other and who they thought was in their communities. I'm the Director of Strategic Communications at the Executive Office of Health and Human Services at the state. We wanted to see how it worked in practice. I'm a new grandpa. Koppel began the session that day by having participants introduce themselves in groups. Carl Waddenston, and I have two organizations. One, I'm the president of a manufacturing company. We make vibrators, not the sexy brand.

And the... In smaller groups, they talk this. groups. They talk through the spaces where they see people already connecting and where differences impede that way. I just see so much opportunity. And then folks usually use like titles, right? Like Republican or Democrat to create this invisible barrier. They then paired off a more personal connections. That's where Carl and Angie met face to face and discovered that they had a lot in common. My mom and dad came from Sweden. So this white bread kid speaks a whole different language.

You do? I speak fluently. Wow. When my mother came, she came on a, like a fiance visa or some sort. And then she had to go back to Ghana after she had had me here. And we stayed for like a year. English speaking child, we're back to Ghana, and then when I came back, I spoke no English. Head Start.

I started Head Start. They then moved on to sharing something even more personal, writing down the things about them that are visible to others, as well as some things that aren't. On the visible identity, right, confident, talkative, say yes, ready to go. And the next one is struggling with the loss of the sun and grief. Too critical at times and stubborn. I'm African American.

I have locks, my hair, which is similar to Bob Mali's. That means I've been growing my locks for 20 years. Similar to you all in terms of grief, I'm also grieving the loss of my dad who died last year the day after Father's Day. The point of all this, says Malca Coppell, is not to resolve differences over the difficult issues facing this state and many others. It's to create a space to build trust face to face. What we focus on with the civity work is the conversation before that conversation.

Before you can sit down with someone else and work out these tough issues that we all have to work out. People need to see each other as people. For their part, Angie Ancoma and Carl Waddenston say they think these exercises could help. I think that Angie will be somebody that I will use as a resource. with the things that she does that I'd like to learn more about what she does in her community

and what's behind this because working for the governor of our state now and the previous governors there are things that come up for vote that I spoke to you about going to the GEMBA. She is at the GEMBA for her community center of 45 years

and I've been a little bit more than 45 years where I live. So here are two people, very different but very similar past that I'd call out to Angie and say Angie there's a there's a bill or something that we're thinking about doing. What's your take on it?

You know, he's going to reach out to me if there's a question. So maybe, you know, Carl's in his sector, you know, planting the seeds of change there. I'm in my area planting seeds of change. And if we're looking at this potentially as a state and national model, we just have to plant seeds of people who are willing to be engaged and have these courageous conversations and be vulnerable. It can be hard to measure the,

kinds of changes in relationships. Malka Copel acknowledges and change won't happen overnight. So many Americans, it just feels like we are in a very divided and even ugly moment of division when people think the worst things about people in the other, not just that they disagree, they think very badly toward people in the other party. That has to make your work harder. Yes, it does. And hopelessly. and hopelessness and fear of others makes our work harder. One thing I would say, though, is that we're a national organization, but we work locally.

We work in communities, and there are a lot of positive things to see in communities. Because communities, people who kind of already know they're all in it together because of geography, they have a head start. For the PBS News Hour, I'm Judy Woodruff in Providence, Rhode Island. Remember, there's always a lot more online, including a look at what the big budget law means for clean energy incentives and how that could impact your energy bills at home. That is on our YouTube page. And that is the News Hour for tonight.

I'm Amna Nawaz. On behalf of the entire NewsHour team, thank you for joining us. Thank you.