PBS News Hour - Full Show - March 6, 2026 - PBS News Hour full episode

Episode Date: March 7, 2026

Friday on the News Hour, President Trump demands "unconditional surrender" from Iran while Israel ramps up its strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon. The U.S. shows signs of a strained economy that's now facing even more uncertainty from the war with Iran. Plus, Americans who found themselves stranded abroad when the war started share their struggle trying to return to the U.S. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy

Good evening. I'm Amna Nawaz. And I'm Jeff Bennett. On the news hour tonight, President Trump demands unconditional surrender from Iran, while Israel ramps up its strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon. The U.S. loses nearly 100,000 jobs in February, showing signs of a strained economy that's now facing even more uncertainty from the war with Iran. And Americans who found themselves stranded abroad when the war started share their struggle trying to return to the U.S. The American embassy here has been utterly useless. We called and called and emailed. I mean, you launch an attack and you don't man these stations for support for your citizens. Welcome to the News Hour.

Nearly a week into the U.S.-Israel war with Iran, President Trump today demanded the Islamic Republic surrender and again said he wants a hand in choosing the nation's next leader. The Iranian Red Crescent says more than 1,300 people have now been killed by the American and Israel. bombing. Local officials in Tehran also said another school was hit with an airstrike. The bombing of a girl's school last Saturday killed more than 150 people, mostly children. Special correspondent Leila Malana Allen is in the Gulf and starts our coverage tonight of the expanding war beginning in Lebanon. The strikes echo like deep thunder. Thick gray smoke blankets the skyline of Lebanon's capital. The view from the ground, even more menacing.

Buildings completely eviscerated. Overnight and into today, Israel pounded Beirut and its southern suburbs with by far the most intense airstrikes since last year's ceasefire. Israeli officials say their campaign against Hezbollah will continue, even after their war on Iran, ends. Hezbollah and the Iranian regime are one in the same. The Lebanese government must get rid of Hezbollah. and soldiers of the Revolutionary Guard who operate on its territory.

If they won't, we will chase and attack them. Yesterday, the IDF ordered the entirety of southern Lebanon to evacuate. Some 400,000 people ordered to head north of the Latani River. And today, told all residents of several villages in the Beghar Valley to leave too. Having already extended the unprecedented evacuation orders to cover entire neighborhoods in southern Beirut. In this densely populated area, hundreds of thousands of people forced to flee their homes. Terrified families with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

We're sleeping here in the streets. Some are sleeping in their cars. Some on the beach. We are homeless. Meanwhile, U.S.-Israeli attacks intensified across Iran, pushing the war into a new phase as it nears the one-week mark. spokesperson for Iran's foreign ministry released this video showing what appears to be a school in Tehran, smashed into ash by an airstrike. The IDF launched what it called a broad-scale wave of strikes on Tehran and the western city of Keremanshah, home to multiple ballistic missile bases. And the U.S. Central Command said it struck this Iranian drone carrier. It all came alongside

yet another message from President Donald Trump. He ruled out anything other than Iran's quote, unconditional surrender. But Iranian president, Maswood Pazeshkian, today tweeted that, quote, some countries have begun mediation efforts, which should address those who underestimated Iran and ignited this conflict. Trump also met behind closed doors with leaders of American military contractors and said the top defense manufacturing companies would, in his words, quadruple production of certain munitions.

Production for these kinds of systems takes years. Retired Colonel Mark Kansion told us whatever they do now won't have any impact on this war. He's likely exhorting them to increase their production capabilities so that when the war is over, the United States can replace these munitions more quickly and provide them to allies and partners. Patriots, for example, are used very widely. Those systems hard at work over Tel Aviv. Israel shot down Iranian missiles as they flew toward the capital.

And today, missiles reached Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar, though the number of attacks is declining. It's sunset here in Qatar and time to break the Ramadan fast. Usually these streets would be packed, but with so many incoming attacks from Iran, many residents are choosing to stay home. We've just had another emergency alert go off for incoming missiles while we were standing here. Thus far, Gulf nations have managed to intercept most of these attacks, but now, stocks for their missile defense systems are running low and Gulf leaders are beginning to consider a firmer response. Under the constant threat of Iranian missiles, the capital Doha's residents, including its large

population of foreign workers, are trying to go on with life as normal. In Qatar always, they have very good islands with many of other countries, especially neighboring countries. So I don't think it won't go forward. But not everyone feels safe. across the region have been shut down for nearly a week, stranding hundreds of thousands of tourists in a war zone. Matthias, a German tourist whose cruise ships sailed into Doha's port

just minutes before the attacks began, was locked in his cabin on board for five days, taking shelter as drones and missiles rained down on the city. The captain told us, stay here on boat, don't leave the boat. How are you feeling when these missiles come in? We are fear, we are fear. We look, watch in the sky and see the missiles and the other missiles from the airbase from Qatar. And we hit, we're meeting in the sky, an explosion, you see flames.

A region suspended in fear as the Iran war continues to escalate with no end in sight. And hundreds of millions caught in the crossfire. For the PBS News hour, I'm Leila Malana Allen in Doha, Qatar. Today we also learned that Iran is receiving intelligence support from Russia. Our Nick Schifrin joins us now. So Nick, let's start there. What kind of intelligence? Two officials who have been briefed on this intelligence tell me that Russia has shared satellite data that provides the real-time movement of American troops since Saturday, since the war began.

That confirms the report first in the Washington Post. The officials say the data includes movement of ships, movement of aircraft as they move into the region. as they move throughout the region. Now, the context for this is Iran's ongoing attacks, attempted attacks on U.S. troops, but also ongoing attacks on U.S. bases and embassies. For example, this drone attack that crashed into the Navy's fifth fleet headquarters in Bahrain, an attack on a tactical operations center in Kuwait. On a base, you see the damage in the bottom right there.

That killed six U.S. soldiers in a facility that the soldiers' family members, say, was not reinforced. and attacks like this one on the Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia that we studied yesterday. Close call for the cameraman there. But I spoke to two former senior intelligence officials and two former senior military officials with extensive knowledge of the region who say, let's put this in a little bit of perspective. Iran already has access to commercial satellite data, which is often very good. Iran has already been taking photos of U.S. bases and air. embassies for many years. Iran and Russia do not rehearse the sharing of real-time intelligence

like this, and that would require networks anyway that the U.S. is trying to take down. And Iran does not need Russian intelligence to attack static targets, like those bases, like those embassies. For example, air defense radars on some of these embassies are actually on Google maps. That said, the intelligence could help if Iran were to target things that are moving, ships that have just arrived, aircrafts that have just arrived, and a current U.S. official tells me, look, their number one priority is protecting the force. And it would be an understatement to suggest

that Russia sharing this intelligence with Iran as it's at war with the United States was a concern. Well, what are the political implications of Russia choosing to help Iran in this way? Yeah, I think that's a really important question because the former officials I talked to say, regardless of how much this is actually helping Iran target U.S. forces, we have not seen Russia being willing to take the step before, sharing real-time

intelligence that could target U.S. troops. And what kind of military and military collaboration long term that could lead to, whether air defense or Russian political advisors in Iran? As for the White House today, Caroline Levitt, the spokesperson of the White House said this. That clearly is not making a difference with respect to the military operations in Iran, because we are completely decimating them. said earlier, we've taken out nearly 30 of their ships. Their Navy has been deemed combat ineffective, 90% reduction in ballistic missile retaliatory strikes against the United States and our Gulf

Arab and partners in the region. So of course, we are achieving the military objectives of this operation, and that is going to continue. And that's what the military argues, Jeff, that as this war continues, the U.S. is taking out missile and drone capabilities of Iran. And so all of those attacks that we've seen on the Gulf on U.S. basis and embassies, those are going way down. Nick Schiffren. Thanks as always. Thank you. Let's turn now to the economy and a disappointing new jobs report today showing employers cut 92,000 jobs in February. The report also included downward revisions for the previous two months and a slight rise in the unemployment rate from 4.3 to 4.4%. Altogether, it paints a

picture of a labor market struggling across a number of sectors, including some that were engines of recent growth, like health care and construction. Stocks fell on the news, capping a week of declines, along with a rapid rise in oil and gas prices, a result of President Trump's war with Iran. The average price of a gallon of gas rose 11 percent this week. To unpack today's numbers, we turn now to Diane Swank, chief economist at KPMG that's a tax and advisory firm. Diane, Good to see you. So with the usual caveat, it's important not to overreact to one month of data. The losses in today's report were widespread. What does all this tell you about the economy? Well, part of the losses in health care, this was the one sector that was really sort of the one-legged stool holding up the overall labor market.

And we had a major strike in California and Hawaii that shaves 27,000 health care worker jobs off with some collateral damage as well in the unemployment. rate with temporary layoffs. So that was part of it. But even taking that out, it still is a lot of red ink. And when you lose the one still holding you up, you go negative and the unemployment rate rises. There's been a lot of talk about employers having to navigate uncertainty around shifting tariff policies. How big a factor is that uncertainty in all of this right now? It really acts like a tax on the economy. There's just no question about it. We had escalating uncertainty last year, and we're seeing it again this year. What's important about it is it's much like a broken stoplight at a busy, busy intersection. When you see a busy broken stoplight,

everybody slows down, traffic backs up. Some people opt out and wait for the traffic like to be fixed or traffic to clear before they pass through the intersection. That's the same kind of response you get from employers in periods of heightened uncertainty. They cut back on investment, decisions, most notably on hiring. So if we zoom out just a little bit here, Diane, outside of the two most recent recessions, last year saw the lowest pace of average job growth since 2003. January, we saw unexpectedly high numbers. Now we have unexpectedly low numbers. What does this mean about long-term trends? We're still seeing a very, very slow, sort of slushy labor market. It's a low-hire, low-fire labor market. That is not a good point.

place to be. It's a labor market where it's very hard for those people who've not gotten a job yet new college grads or new high school grads that are just entering the labor market to get their foot in the door when firms are not hiring at a healthy pace. There's not a usual churn in the labor market that we've seen. And in fact, the ability to hop jobs and get a premium has almost evaporated now. So in a low-fire, low-hire economy, what does that mean for how the average American is experiencing this economy right now? Well, it really has been what we've been in for the last year now, and that is not good. What we've seen is both concerns about inflation and job security intensify, even as the economy

continued to grow. We had almost a jobless boom in 2025. And that is not, it's showing up in the dissonance that people say how they feel about the economy because they're dealing with this sort of tension of both higher unemployment and higher inflation. And inflation is much like stock returns. Stock returns compound over time and make people wealthy. On the other side of that, inflation has been high and too high for five years.

It's compounded and put the level of prices out of reach for far too many. In about 30 seconds or so, I have left. We know the Federal Reserve is going to meet in another week and a half to discuss a possible rate cut. What do you think we'll see? They're not going to be able to cut rates at this meeting. There will be at least one descent, maybe two. but I think this is a very difficult situation for the Fed to navigate. It's not the 1970s, but we are five years in with inflation too high, and that context matters.

Diane Swank, Chief Economist at KPMG. Thank you so much for your time. Always good to speak with you. Thank you. In the day's other headlines, U.S. Customs and Border Protection says it should have a process ready in about 45 days to start refunding invalidated tariffs to hundreds of thousands of companies. In a filing today, CBP told the Court of International Trade that it couldn't immediately comply with the judge's order to refund the tariffs after the U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled them illegal.

Many large companies, including Costco, FedEx, and Coals, have sued the Trump administration for refunds. Some have pledged to pass on any compensation directly to customers. Potentially dangerous storms are rolling across the central U.S. with forecasters' warning of possible tornadoes across multiple states. More than 7 million Americans from Texas to Iowa are at a higher risk of severe weather. More heavy rain and strong thunderstorms will stretch into the upper Midwest. By tomorrow, the risk will shift as far south as the Gulf Coast and to the eastern Great Lakes.

Authorities in Oklahoma say the storms have already claimed the lives of two people. A police official there says a car crash involving a mother and daughter appear to be tornado-related. Republican Congressman Tony Gonzalez of Texas is, vowing to finish out his term after announcing he won't seek re-election. The third-term congressman faced increasing pressure after admitting to an affair with a staffer who later took her own life. Just yesterday, House Speaker Mike Johnson and the Republican leadership had called on him to withdraw, and the House Ethics Committee had launched an investigation into his conduct.

On Wall Street today, stocks limped to the end of a week marked by war, economic concerns, and rising oil prices. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost around 4. 450 points on the day. The NASDAQ fell roughly 360 points. The SMP 500 closed out its worst week since last October. Tributes have been pouring in following the passing of civil rights activist Bernard Lafayette. The Florida native is best known to history for his work in Selma, Alabama, where he laid the groundwork for the voter registration campaign there that culminated with the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Lafayette was also arrested during his time as a freedom. and he helped found the student nonviolent coordinating committee. His ties to the civil rights movement ran deep. Lafayette was seminary roommates with civil

rights icon and future congressman John Lewis. He also helped lead Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s poor people's campaign in 1968 and was with King on the morning of his assassination. In later years, Lafayette spoke to the PBS program American Experience about the importance of Dr. King's legacy of nonviolence. We always took the position that when we were faced with an avalanche of violence, that we had a response with the macro nonviolence, and that somehow we couldn't let violence rule the day. Lafayette's son said he died Thursday morning of a heart attack.

Bernard Lafayette was 85 years old. And thousands gathered in Chicago today to pay their respects to the late Reverend Jesse Jackson. Quires and gospel singers provided the soundtrack to a public celebration of life for the late civil rights leader. The event was part of a series of memorials, including in South Carolina, where Jackson was born. Former President Barack Obama spoke about Jackson's immense gifts for creating racial progress in American politics and how Jackson's two campaigns for president helped inspire his own. And it was because of that path, that was that. That's

that he had laid because of his courage, his audacity, that two decades later, a young black senator from Chicago's South Side would even be taken seriously as a candidate for the presidential nomination. Obama was one of three former presidents to speak today. He was followed in his remarks by Joe Biden and Bill Clinton. All three men knew Jackson personally and spoke about their relationships and the example that he said. Jesse kept up alive for us in his lifetime.

And we've got to continue to do it in our lifetime for our children. Because there's nothing beyond our capacity when we work together. Nothing, nothing, nothing. He was always trying to lift people up. So I'm here more as a friend than a former president. He was my friend when I needed it. Former Vice President Kamala Harris also spoke today about how Jackson inspired her as a student and later early in her legal career. The Reverend Jesse Jackson died last month. He was 84 years old.

Still to come on the News Hour, the Justice Department releases more Epstein files with sexual assault allegations against President Trump. And David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart weigh in on the week's news. This is the PBS News Hour from the David M. Rubenstein studio at WETA in Washington. Headquarters of PBS News. The Justice Department released a batch of previously unreleased documents from the Epstein files that include notes from FBI interviews with the woman who says she was assaulted by President Trump as a minor. In interviews with the FBI, the woman alleged she was assaulted by Mr. Trump in the 1980s and that she was also a victim of Epstein's. The documents were released after multiple news outlets discovered they were missing from the initial mass release of files. For more, we're joined now by our justice correspondent, Ali Rogan.

So, Ali, tell us more about what's in these documents. Jeff, these documents are known as 302 files. There are summaries of three interviews the FBI conducted with this accuser in which she alleges that Epstein brought her to meet Trump sometime between when she was age 13 and 15. She details in very graphic terms, Trump's alleged sexual assault against her and how she fought back. She also says she has, she had two additional interactions with Trump, but before she expanded on that any further, she asked if she could go on to another subject. During the last interview with the accuser, the FBI asked if she would be comfortable sharing more about her contacts with

Trump. She said at the time that she didn't know what the point would be when there was a strong possibility, nothing could be done about it. And it's unclear, Jeff, if there was any additional follow-up after that last interview. Why weren't these documents initially released? These three summaries are actually part of a set of four, and that other document was released as part of that initial major tranche we saw in late January. That summary was an interview in which the accuser focused on Epstein and didn't mention Trump.

These others, also, these others, of course, mention the Trump allegations. Reporters caught this discrepancy because descriptions of all four. four summaries of the interviews were included in a list that was given to attorneys for Epstein co-conspirator Galane Maxwell. In a statement released on social media, the Department of Justice said the interviews had been incorrectly deemed duplicative and were subsequently published. The DOJ also says that the unredacted versions of the documents will be available for members of Congress to review, but reporters have noted that even still, there are additional documents

that remain missing. journalist Roger Solenberger has been following this closely. And he noted that there are at least 37 pages still missing. That includes notes that informed these summaries, as well as internal communication that would memorialize how the situation with the accuser was resolved. What's the White House saying about all of this? White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt put out a statement in which she calls the accusations completely baseless. And she says they come from a, quote, sadly disturbed woman who has an extensive criminal history.

If the accuser is unidentified, how would she know that to be true? There are some details in the summaries of these interviews in which the accuser talks about her arrests as a minor. While these allegations remain uncorroborated, there is new reporting Jeff tonight from Julie K. Brown of the Miami Herald, who's broken much of the Epstein story, saying that DOJ officials who spoke to this woman found her to be credible and that they wouldn't have interviewed her four times if they didn't. Allie Rogan, thanks so much for this reporting.

You bet. U.S. ignited a war with Iran last weekend. The State Department advised Americans to depart now from several countries in the region. But airspace closures left thousands of Americans suddenly stranded. Over the last five days, nearly 24,000 U.S. citizens have safely returned to the United States from the Middle East. This week, we spoke with some of the Americans who were stranded overseas. My name is Iman Abbas. I'm originally Egyptian, but I was born and raised in Calais. The last nine and a half years, I've lived here in Dubai. There's not really been an easy way out for residents like us.

My name is Pauline West, and I'm from Lehigh, Utah. My husband and I were in Jerusalem, and we were ready to go home, and the war broke out. We got back to Salt Lake yesterday. My name is Matt Gentile. I'm from Rochester, New York, and I was in... The Kurdistan region in Iraq when the war started. I just got back like two hours ago. My name is John Almeida.

I'm here with my wife, Susana Almeida. We're still in Dubai. We got here about 10 days ago. We were one day away from catching a flight back. And the days prior to that, this was probably the most amazing vacation we've ever had. Then next thing you know, the war breaks out. And there were missiles that were being intercepted right over. overhead, like from my bedroom window, and it was like a cloud of smoke.

The 28th was probably the scariest day I think we've all ever had in our lives. The missile that fell near the Fairmont Hotel was less than a kilometer away from where we were staying. It was surreal to be standing on the beach and hearing these noises and the ground shaking. Our hotel had a bomb shelter, so we actually went down there, and you would, either hear a missile go by or sea missiles go by, and then you would hear the explosion. And that would happen every couple hours. I was backpacking around, and I was having an incredible time. My friends that were in Kurdistan notified me of the attacks before the government did,

and then I kind of realized I needed to evacuate because it was probably only going to get worse. but all of the airports in the region closed because the missiles were flying everywhere. So we created a plan for me to get to Turkey and then from Turkey, I would figure out how to get home. We just spent hours trying to figure out, okay, the airports closed. How do we get out? And it took us two days, didn't sleep. You'd sleep maybe for an hour, but not too long because missiles were going all night long and the sirens in the city.

so you were awake and a little bit traumatized every time we'd hear a loud boom or maybe some jets flying overhead. I would freeze. I'd get emotional. Because we have dual citizenship, we've contacted the authorities on both sides. Our American passports and our Portuguese passports. The American embassy here has been utterly useless, utterly. We called on the day of the attacks, which was a Saturday. We called on the Sunday.

We called and called and emailed. I mean, you launch an attack and you don't man these stations with support for your citizens. Conversely, the Portuguese embassy, a representative answered immediately. They had posted a phone number for us to contact for support in terms of helping us evacuate. We call and we're on hold for lengthy periods of time. Finally, we get through to someone. They tell us this isn't the right number. You need to call the consulate.

And it's basically a recording. Please do not rely on the U.S. government for assisted departure or evacuation at this time. We cannot help you, basically. There is no concern for our lives. I'm still in very much contact with all my friends there. And they keep just sending me more videos of the missiles and bombs. It's happening across different cities now, too. So I'm just kind of worried about them.

This was a life-changing event for me and my husband and the people that we were with. The whole time I would think, I am so grateful to live in America and to have the freedoms that we have. We didn't ask to be a part of this. The neighboring countries did not ask to be a part of this. And the United States and the government decided to take action, very recognized. recklessly. And it's just unfortunate that, you know, you have U.S. citizens who pay their tax dollars to support these wars, essentially. And you can't even give them the support to get to a place where they might feel safe. And a note, John Almeida, who is featured in that story, was able to get on a flight out of Dubai after we spoke and arrived safely back home, along with his wife early this morning.

Well, it's been nearly one week since the U.S. and Israel launched those attacks on Iran. Meantime, the newest jobs numbers are adding to economic uncertainty. To discuss all this, we turn now to the analysis of Brooks and K-Part. That is, at the Atlantic's David Brooks and Jonathan K-Part of MS Now. It's great to see you both. So before we get into how Americans are viewing this war, which we need to talk about, I just want to kind of circle back. It's the first time we've spoken since the war was launched.

And we've seen evolving justifications from the administration. about why now and what they hope to have accomplished. So, David, let's just start there. What is your understanding of why this war was launched now and whether or not it was justified? Well, you know, I hate the way the decision was made, which seems to have been extremely haphazard. I have shared everybody's reservations and fears

that there's no exit strategy, that there's no plausible way to change the regime, let alone the deaths that are happening. And so I share everybody's fears. It's also true the 1979 Iranian Revolution was one of the worst event. of the 20th century, and it began 47 years of terrorism, extremism, theocratic fascism. It started with 1 to 2 million people dead in the Iran-Iraq war in 1980.

There were 241 Americans killed by Iranian supervision in Beirut. And you go on. And Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, they've destabilized the Middle East. They've killed people in Syria. A couple weeks ago, they killed somewhere between 10,000. and 30,000 people in Iran who are protesting. And so this is a destructive and savage regime that has destabilized the Middle East.

It's also a regime that is in an unprecedentedly vulnerable situation. It's lost the faith of its people. Its economy is in tatters. Its military is destroyed. Its regime is decapitated. So I'm ambivalent. I hope the Iranian regime falls. And that could happen.

What bugs me, frankly, is the people who are sure, the people who are sure this is a terrible thing and the people who are sure this is a good thing. We just don't know, but the people who are ignoring the horrors that Iran has perpetrated on the world for the last 47 years should be hoping this works, and we just don't know. Jonathan?

Given what we went through with the Second Gulf War, given what we went through in Afghanistan, Why on earth are we now at war with Iran? That's what I'm trying to understand. I would feel better if the president and his administration would give us, the American people, a consistent rationale. Instead, we've gotten multiple rationales within the first 24-48 hours. And I still don't really understand why we're doing what we're doing.

And really, what is the end game? If you are going to go in there and break it, you know, Colin Pound's pottery barn rule, well, then what is, what's the plan? Don't know what the plan is. And, you know, the thing that's been bugging me about all of this is the level of disrespect. The president has shown Congress, has shown the American people, has shown the military, by doing what he's doing with no clear plan, talking rather blithely about the potential of loss of life

of service members. But then today in an interview with Time Magazine, when he was asked about, he said, well, about potential reprisals on Americans at home, he said, I guess, and said, you know, this is war. There will be loss of life. No, Mr. President, you owe the American people more than just glibed talking points

about something so consequential. Iranian regime was terrible and great if it falls, but only great if there's an actual plan for what comes next if slash when it does. Feels like the American public has a lot of questions about it as well. This is a look at how the war is resonating back home, according to a few questions from our latest PBS News NPR, Maris poll. Just 44% of Americans support U.S. military action in Iran. 56 oppose it.

That includes 66% of independence. and just 36% of Americans approve of how President Trump is dealing with Iran overall. That is down from 42% in January of 2020 when the U.S. assassinated the Iranian general, Qasem Soleimani. So, David, the man who ran on no new foreign wars is up against the public that doesn't want to see this happen. How does this end? First, I would say the reason we're at war is because Iran declared war on us 47 years ago. And we've been in a forever war with Iran that has gone up until last week when they were trying to reconstitute their nuclear weapons. As for the American public, America has learned the lessons that Jonathan mentioned.

Even I've learned the lessons of the Iraq war and the lessons of imperial overreach. And so it's good for us that we've learned that lesson. The second thing that causes the low poll ratings for the war is a low poll rating for Donald Trump and distrust in the way the war seems to be run by the civilians, but definitely not the military. But third, Donald Trump didn't sell the war. We had a, whether you like the outcome in the Iraq war debate, we had a year-long debate before George Bush went to war in Iraq.

We had nothing. We had a few minutes in the state of the union that was throwaway. And so if a president is going to make, spend American treasure in blood, he really owes it to the American people to sell them on it. And he did nothing. It would be nice to go to Congress, but it's been decades since Congress has spared war on anybody. And that's for both parties. But he should sell it and explain what the heck he's doing, and they have not done that,

which is why people are so anxious and nervous about it. Jonathan? You know, those poll numbers sort of highlight an APNRC poll that was conducted a week before, you know, we went to war with Iran that asked people what they thought about the president's handling of, not just foreign affairs, but his military action. actions, the way of thinking. And a majority of them said that they disapproved. That was before he took action against Iran.

So I can only imagine what the American people now think, just broadly of the way he is conducting military actions and foreign affairs. But again, I go back to if the president wants those numbers to get better, if he wants the American people to see and support. what he's doing, then he has to do more than put out videos on his social media platform and blithely talk about something so incredibly serious. David, can I ask you briefly, how do you see this ending? Do you see the goal as regime change?

And what does that mean? Because the Ayatollah is now dead. They could vote into place a successor who's equally hardline. How do you see this ending? Well, I mean, the short answer is nobody knows. We could have a successor who's even more hard line, which seems to be in the offering right now. right now, but we could have a successor who's not democratic by any means, but is less hardline and is less wedded to the nuclear program that is less wedded to spending money

on terror armies opposed to the Iranian people. On the other hand, the regime could collapse. I've seen regimes collapse. I was there when the Soviet Union collapse. It seems impossible to imagine it collapsing until the regime collapses. And it collapses from a loss of faith, a loss of confidence. And the Iranian experts that I've been reading from Iran say that maybe 10 to 20 percent of the in Iran actually support the regime.

So that's a lot of enemies. And now you have Israel fighting alongside the Gulf states and the Saudis. So there's a coalition against this regime. And so those three things seem to be all possible. I do want to turn to the jobs numbers because it is the number one issue for American voters. And Jonathan, I'll start with you because all of the uncertainty overseas is resonating back here now. It's been a really choppy week for the markets. We just reported a net loss of 92,000 jobs in February and downward.

revisions for previous months. The president says this is all part of the plan. The agenda's working. The turmoil is going to be short-lived. What do you see here? It's been saying that since he was running for president and then got inaugurated. This is bad. And when we were talking about this in an earlier call, because I'd been flying, I asked,

was there a revision of the January jobs numbers? Because that, those numbers were unexpectedly high. unexpectedly high. And because of Heather Long, my former colleague at the Washington Post, now Navy Federal Credit Union, I've been paying attention to that because she long ago wrote about the fact that if you took out health care and potentially hospitality, there's been no job creation in the United States since April of last year. She's calling it a hiring recession. And so the fact that the January numbers have been revised downward, the February numbers are already down.

It's just more validity to the argument than she's been making, and also more evidence to the American people that whatever the president is doing, he thinks he's doing to improve the economy, it's not working. David, the argument that this is the process, it'll just take time. Do you buy that? Well, it's been a year, and there's been no job growth, and there's been everything done to maximize the uncertainty of the American people, whether it's tariffs or Iraq or anything else Donald Trump wakes up and does that day.

And so people have lost faith in the future. And that's why they're not quitting. That's not hiring. That's not there why I investing. And it's this rabid uncertainty that's out there that the economy is not terrible. Wages were up 3.8% year after year, which is pretty good. But nobody's doing anything. Nobody's moving.

It's not yet AI. A.I is not the thing here. That could be the thing next month. But it's just the rabid uncertainty. Could be the thing next month. Or next week, we will see. David Brooks, Jonathan K. Park. Thank you both so much.

Thanks, something. And we'll be back shortly with a look at a PBS documentary about debate league students who are learning to think critically and find their own voices. But first, take a moment to hear from your local PBS station. It's a chance to offer your support, which helps to keep programs like this one on the air. For those of you staying with us, we examine a long-overlooked marvel of ancient engineering that had been tucked away beneath a golf course near Columbus, Ohio. Some archaeologists say significance is on part.

with Stonehenge, but its struggle for recognition spanned decades, ending only recently with validation as the state's only world heritage site which opened to the public last year. Stephanie Sy has this encore report. So we're approaching the avenue, the parallel walls that connect the observatory circle with the octagon beyond. From the ground where archaeologist Brad Leper stands, you can't really appreciate its complexity. It's the view from above that reveals the site in Newark O'Brien. Ohio's astonishing geometry.

The octagon earthworks are composed of vast soil mounds, a perfect 20-acre circle connecting to a perfectly symmetrical 50-acre octagon, large enough to fit four Roman Coliseums. The intricate design mirrors the moon's 18.6-year journey across the sky. Its central axis meticulously aligned to the spot where the moon rises at its northernmost point.

And they're not just. close to being precise. They're very, very precise. What's even more impressive is when it was constructed. About 2,000 years ago, the span of time we're talking about is like 1 CE all the way up to 400 CE. That's about the time of the peak of the Roman Empire. There are still many unknowns about who these Native American builders were. It's a long gone ancient cultural network spread across the eastern United States that researchers now call the hope well. These people lived in scattered little communities, and thousands and thousands of those

communities probably came together here, but they have left no written records. I think this was like Mecca or like Jerusalem as a pilgrimage center, but without a Koran or a Bible, we don't have the knowledge of who these ceremonial leaders were. What was the vision that compelled people to come here for hundreds of miles? But to Lepper, who spent almost 40 years studying them, the earthworks themselves speak volumes about their builders who lived roughly 1,500 years before Galileo. They were geometers, mathematicians, they were astronomers, they were geniuses. I mean, they were soil scientists.

They knew what soils to use to build enduring earthworks. When I go to those mounds, I can hear those ancestors singing. They didn't have steel. They didn't have concrete. They didn't have metal. What they had was Mother Earth. Glenna Wallace is the chief of the Eastern Shawnee tribe of Oklahoma, descendants of the Hopewell people. They were forced out of Ohio after the passage of the Indian Removal Act of 1830.

Ohio truly didn't have a voice, a Native American voice, a Native American presence. Without that voice, these mounds were buried over time, beneath railroads, development, and housing. Today, of the dozens of Hopewell earthworks that once stood across Ohio, less than half remain preserved. Will they never be content until they have eliminated every trace of our ancestors? That's what's going through my mind. The octagon earthwork was spared only because of how the site was used. This is part of the golf course infrastructure. There was even a time when they teed off from the top of the mound.

For more than a century, the site was. was taken over by a golf course. It was such a contrast to have golfing going on in a place that's like Notre Dame Cathedral or something. It always was jarring. The first thought that came to my mind was the biblical scripture, Father forgive them for they know not what they do.

Earthworks are sacred to us. And to then look out and see that those mounds had a golf course on top of them. I can't explain the disappointment, the hurt, the lack of respect that I felt on behalf of my ancestors. Over the years, the golf course became a member's only country club, which limited access to the historic site. It was very much that sort of private aspect that made it really challenging for us, even to do things like research. Jennifer Altman is the director of historic sites and museums at the time. Ohio history connection, which hatched a plan for the long overlooked ancient mounds more than

two decades ago. There was sort of this thought that like this place is as significant as Stonehenge and Machu Picchu, and nobody seems to understand that. And if it was a world heritage site, like people would have to understand that. But to become a world heritage site isn't easy. It's a list that includes the Great Wall of China and the pyramids of Giza. It took Ohio history connection more than 20 years, including a lengthy legal battle for control of the site before the moment arrived in 2023. Adopted. Congratulations to the United States. At the World Heritage Committee hearing in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, eight of Ohio's Hopewell mounds were put on the list.

The gavel came down and it was in that moment a world heritage site. That was moving enough. but to be in that room with representatives from all over the world and have Chief Glena, whose people were forcibly removed from Ohio, speak. That was the moment that it really came home, like how important this was, that we did this. They were not just geniuses. They were uncommon geniuses. Their genius lives on today in many descendant tribes.

What do you think the significance is of having it be designated as a World Heritage Site. It certainly gives us as Native Americans a wonderful feeling, a pride. And I am so proud of the changes that are occurring in Ohio. The people are beginning to recognize what they have in their community. An ancient astronomical observatory in Ohio that will now be preserved for the ages. For the PBS News Hour, I'm Stephanie Sye. A new documentary called Immutable follow students in the Washington Urban Debate League over a two-year period as they face challenges in their own lives and on the debate stage.

In the program, students from middle school through high school learn how to think critically, challenge their own opinions, and find their voices through debate. Immutable starts airing tonight on many PBS stations. I recently spoke with three people connected to the film for a closer look. I'm saying that age is going to start a war. The U.S. role in NATO, Social Security benefits, and economic inequality. Not the kind of topics you usually hear teenagers discussing, but in debate competitions, nothing is off the table. Urban debate leagues took hold in the 1990s, opening the door to competitive debate for students in city schools. Imagine it for the first time, and we use this as a hook with kids.

Adults have to sit in the back of the room for an hour and 45 minutes and just listen to your ideas. That's really powerful. They're paying money and not receiving SSI. Noah Milhouse is one of the students featured in the documentary Immutable. Now a high school sophomore, Millhouse started debate during COVID after his mother pushed him to give it a try. I just saw it as summer opportunity and going into debate and starting to compete and actually win, it felt good. I liked the sport of debate. I like the people I met.

And it just felt like something I was able to adjust to and just learn new things. Millhouse is part of the Washington Urban Debate League, which helps students in D.C. area public schools hone their debate skills. It teaches life skills. It teaches public school kids a whole host of things, how to speak in front of any audience. Get your own voice, how to do research, how to write, how to sort out information from misinformation and disinformation, because this is policy debate. And that means that every assertion you make has to be backed by a piece of evidence. And if that evidence is bogus, you're going to get caught with it. Norm Ornstein's late son Matthew was a national debate champion in high school. After Matthew died, Ornstein founded the Matthew Ornstein Foundation, which now hosts a summer debate camp for students.

We looked at for a way in which we could carry that set of missions forward and thought, Let's try and bring all of this to people who don't have those resources. It's been just a rich experience for us to see what happens when you can take kids and give them the tools and the resources. And one of the elements of this, Jeff, is that you see brilliance emerge. Wow. Interesting. We're negative. Debaters have to be ready to argue either side of a topic. High school senior Satara Mazumdar approaches it this way.

I think I have a coupled approach of both like one of strategy and one of empathy. Even if you do not want to debate or argue a certain side, you will encounter people in real life who hold those beliefs. So it's important to kind of get in their own minds and think about how they would approach an issue and see it from their side. And I think the second is in terms of empathy, being able to not just understand what someone is saying, even if you disagree, but also why they say it and what experiences they might have had in their life that have led them to believe that.

Along the way, students learn how to make arguments about issues that affect their own lives. Judge, I implore you to vote affirmative just to be entering all this all of the public services they need. That's court 23 just all the university. 1.9 million autistic adults. I think really the biggest takeaway is that debate can be anything you want it to be. It is not just your standard like stock image of two people yelling at each other.

It's not just like an argument at the dinner table that you might have. It can really, you can take it and use it as a platform to talk about issues that you most care about. How about you, Noah? I feel the same. I actually started the debate team at my middle school at Ketterton Middle School. And so I sought it to be as an experience because of what I had felt. And the experience is being able to foster a community, being able to bring others in so they can begin to understand not only what's going on in the world because we want to care about what's going on the road, but how that affects us at home.

Most of all, Ornstein says he hopes that in this politically polarized time, immutable can show that civil disagreement is still possible. We're at the 250th anniversary of the founding of this nation and spreading at a time of deep division, the whole idea that you can have civil discourse, that you can argue strenuously about things, but not end up in a pitched battle. If people can come away understanding that that's possible in the society, and not just while these kids are doing debates, but more broadly, we hope that that will resonate. Coming up tonight on Washington Week, Jeffrey Goldberg and his panelists take us inside President Trump's decision to go to war. And watch Compass Points this weekend.

Nick Schifrin and his panel of experts discuss just how long the U.S. can sustain the military campaign against Iran. And on Horizon's best-selling author Michael Pollan sits down with William Brangham to discuss his new book that explores the mystery of human consciousness. Those are right here on your local PBS station. and on our YouTube page. And that is The NewsHour for tonight. I'm Omna Nawaz. And I'm Jeff Bennett for all of us here at The NewsHour. Thanks for spending part of your evening with us

and have a great weekend.