PBS News Hour - Full Show - November 13, 2025 – PBS News Hour full episode

Episode Date: November 14, 2025

Thursday on the News Hour, the U.S. attorney who brought charges against James Comey and Letitia James faces scrutiny over whether she was unlawfully appointed to her post. As local agencies sign up to help with Trump's immigration crackdown, we speak with one sheriff about the partnership. Plus, a small community fights for justice after finding high levels of forever chemicals in drinking water. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy

Good evening. I'm Omnavaz. And I'm Jeff Bennett. On the news hour tonight, the U.S. attorney who brought charges against James Comey and Letitia James faces her own scrutiny over whether she was unlawfully appointed to her post. More local law enforcement sign up to help with the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. We speak with one sheriff about the partnership. And a small upstate New York community fights an uphill battle. for justice after finding high levels of forever chemicals in drinking water. The entire community was drinking water that was highly contaminated with a toxic chemical that industry had known was dangerous for decades.

Welcome to the NewsHour, President Donald Trump's Department of Welcome to the NewsHour. President Donald Trump's Department of Justice was on defense today in a Northern Virginia courtroom. A judge is weighing whether to disqualify the prosecutor pursuing charges against former FBI director James Comey and New York's Attorney General Letitia James. That prosecutor, Lindsay Halligan, is a Trump ally with no prosecutorial experience. She was sworn in days after the previous U.S. attorney resigned after being pressured to indict Comey and James. Trump has cast both Comey and James as his political enemies and called for their prosecutions after they pursued investigations into him. Glenn Kirshner is a former assistant U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C. He joins us now after sitting in on today's hearing. It's good to see you.

Good to see you, Jeff. So let's start with this. How unusual is it for a criminal case to hinge on whether the prosecutor was lawfully appointed? Very unusual. This is a high-stakes motion that we saw litigated today. Because, you know, sort of at the bottom of it all, if the judge, Judge Curry, who is presiding over this motion, decides that Lindsay Halligan was not lawfully appointed because she was the only person in the grand jury obtaining this indictment, it would very likely result in the case being dismissed outright against both James Comey and Letitia James. And really, the only thing left to argue about would be whether it should be indicted with prejudice or without. prejudice. With prejudice means there would be a chance for DOJ to go back in and try to correct

the error, without prejudice, rather. With prejudice means it is over. And Donald Trump will never get to, you know, take James Comey or Letitia James to trial. The defense lawyers pointed to President Trump's public pressure, public pressure to include his truth social posts to see one right there on the screen. As evidence that these prosecutions were politically driven, from a legal standpoint, what weight does the president's rhetoric carry in evaluating whether these prosecutions were selective or vindictive? Extraordinary weight. So every word Donald Trump has ever spoken about James Comey or Letitia James, anything he has ever posted, all of it is admissible evidence on the question of whether this is a vindictive prosecution and or a selective prosecution.

These are all called admissions by a party opponent. And, you know, this hearing today wasn't really directly about that, but a little bit of that crept in with some of the questions that the judge was asking. For example, she opened with, have the party seen a declination memo where prior career prosecutors had declined to bring these charges because there was insufficient evidence to do so? And the defense said, we haven't, but we would like to, and we're going to be needing it in discovery. Regardless of how this judge rules, and I think set to rule by Thanksgiving, is that what she said? So what is this entire episode? due to the public confidence of the DOJ?

It doesn't enhance it, Jeff. You know, I think in my experience, I was a federal prosecutor for 30 years. Every White House seemed to understand the importance of that separation between the administration, the White House, the Oval Office, and the Department of Justice. Because the people have to have confidence that DOJ is making prosecutorial decisions day in and day out without political interference or without political. motivations. And because Donald Trump has all but announced, he's anointed himself the chief prosecutor in all cases, posting things like, look, this is making us look bad. I need you all

to move out against the Tish James, the Nkommies, and others. Gone is that wall, that separation. And I think that severely undermines the public's confidence in the independence of the Department of Justice. And there has also been a hollowing out with the firings, the transfers, the the resignations of veteran lawyers. And I worry about our national security. I worry about, for example, the people of the District of Columbia, whom I served for decades as a federal prosecutor in D.C., that office is down reportedly approaching 100 lawyers.

And traditionally, we only had about 325 prosecutors in that office. If we don't have a third of our prosecutorial workforce, in my opinion, that's a public safety issue in Washington, D.C. So coming back to this case in particular, what happens next? So as you mentioned, Judge Curry announced that she will have a ruling for us prior to Thanksgiving. So we'll be, you know, waiting every day to get that ruling. In the event she grants the motion, I think then Judge Nachmanoff, who is the presiding judge in Virginia, will step back in and he'll have to decide the consequences of her granting the motion.

It will likely be a dismissal of the charges. And then I think we all know where it's going after that. It's going to the Court of Appeals. And I would assume the Trump administration will try to bubble it up to the Supreme Court if they can. Glenn Kirshner, great to see you. Thanks for coming in. Thanks, Jeff. We start the day's other headlines in California. The Justice Department is suing to block the state's new redistricting plan,

which would give Democrats a shot at picking up five seats in next year's midterm elections. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi called the new congressional map a brazen power grab. Last week, California voters overwhelmingly backed the measure. It came in response to a similar effort by Republicans in Texas in what has become a nationwide battle over redistricting. More than a thousand unionized Starbucks workers are on strike today over stalled contract negotiations. Hey, don't cross our biggest line.

Don't cross our biggest line. Yay, don't cross our pivot line. The action at some 65 stores across the country is intended to disrupt the company's Red Cup Day. That's when customers are given free, reusable cups with a holiday drink purchase. Talks over better hours and wages have been stalled since the spring.

This worker in New York City said that their demands are not unreasonable. What we're asking for is pretty, simple and basic. We want enough hours to meet the benefits. We want enough staffing in our stores so we're not overworked, and we want to be paid enough to live in this city. Starbucks management says, quote, when they're ready to come back, we're ready to talk. The company also stressed that the vast majority of its 10,000 company-owned stores in the U.S. are not affected by the strike. In West Virginia, a coal miner was found dead today,

following a massive days-long search-and-rescue effort. Foreman Steve Lipscomb had been missing since Saturday when workers struck a pocket of water that caused the mine to flood. He was last seen trying to help his fellow miners to safety. It's the third death this year at a facility operated by Alpha Metallurgical Resources in West Virginia. Governor Patrick Morrissey said his state is grieving, writing that, quote, mining is more than an industry here. It's a brotherhood, a way of life, and a source of pride.

In Oklahoma, at least four people are in critical condition after a tanker truck spilled dangerous ammonia gas in a hotel parking lot. Officials in the small city of Weatherford say the fumes cause respiratory distress for people near the area, sending dozens to the hospital and hundreds more to evacuation sites. The gas is used as a farm fertilizer and can be deadly, especially in high concentrations. A shelter-in-place order has been lifted, and police say the air quality is under control, but they ask. that a full cleanup could take several days. We have an update to a story we've been covering this week. The BBC apologized today to President Trump over a misleading edit of his speech to supporters

before they stormed the Capitol on January 6th. But the broadcaster denied its actions amounted to defamation. Trump lawyers had threatened the BBC with a billion-dollar lawsuit. The dispute stems from a documentary that aired in the lead-up to last year's election that included separate parts of Trump's speech that were spliced together. In its retraction, the BBC said the edit, quote,

gave the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action. In the Middle East, Israeli settlers have burned and defaced a mosque in a Palestinian village in the West Bank. An associated press reporter found that walls and carpeting were scorched, as were multiple copies of the Quran, and there were hateful messages written on the building's exterior. The torching comes a day after Israeli leaders condemned an earlier attack by settlers on two Palestinian villages. Today, a government official said the Israeli military does not condone any such acts of violence. Any incidents of lawlessness are dealt with to the full extent of the law. The IDF operates under strict ethical guidelines and international law

in Judea and Samaria. Palestinians and human rights groups say that Israel's far-right government does little to prevent the growing acts of settler violence in the West Bank. So far, there have been no arrests in the mosque attack. In France, the city of Paris has been marking 10 years since the terrorist attack that claimed more than 100 lives and left a lasting mark on the nation's identity. The bells of the fame Notre Dame Cathedral rang out tonight as people laid flowers at a makeshift memorial to honor those killed. A memorial garden was also unveiled to honor the 130 people killed by Islamic State militants that night. Earlier in the day, President Emmanuel Macon

led tributes at each attack site, which included cafes, the Bataclan Concert Hall, and the national stadium. It was the worst bloodshed in France since World War II. And Wall Street saw one of its worst days since April on worries about overinflated AI stocks and the outlook for interest rates. The Dow Jones Industrial average plunged nearly 800 points on the day. The NASDAQ sank more than 500 points. The S&P 500 pulled back even further from its recent all-time high. And for a second night in a row, stargazers in many parts of the country retreated to a dazzling solar display known as the northern lights. This composite satellite image shows just how active it's been these past two nights. The brightness is heaviest near the

U.S.-Canada border, but there are flashes extending far down into the continental U.S. And the view from the ground hasn't been bad either, with sites like this from Lincoln, Illinois. The dazzling lights are a wonderful spectacle, but they are also known to disrupt some GPS communications and even the power grid. Still to come, on the news hour, military personnel question whether the policies they're being asked to carry out are legal. The role African mercenaries are playing in Russia's invasion of Ukraine. and a widespread recall of baby formula tied to botulism raises concern among parents. 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.

As the Trump administration ramps up deportation efforts nationwide, ICE has increasingly turned to local law enforcement through a program known as 287G, which has existed for nearly 30 years. Under these agreements, sheriff's offices can hold undocumented immigrants in local jails before they are deported or transferred, and in some cases, officers are trained to take part directly in ICE operations. Since January, the number of these agreements has surged more than 640%. In Butler County, Ohio, Sheriff Richard Jones reinstated his county's partnership with the federal government when President Trump returned to office. The county has since housed nearly 2,000 ICE detainees in its jails. And Sheriff Jones joins us now. Thanks for being with us.

Yes, sir. How are you doing today? I'm doing well, thank you. So as I understand it, you have partnered with and stepped away from in some instances, partnerships on immigration enforcement with the federal government across five presidencies. So from your vantage point, how does the Trump administration's approach to immigration compare with what you saw and experienced under previous administrations? That's pretty simple. Under Biden, it was hardly nothing. I fired them the four years they were there.

The most deportation we ever done when we had 287G, the enforcement model and the jail model was under President Obama. He was there eight years. So he deported far more than Trump has in roughly five years. What do you think people misunderstand about the Obama era deportations as compared to the present moment?

I think that it's in the past, it's history, depending on what TV channels or where they get their news, they believe in whatever group they watch. But the actual truth is, is that I've been in the deportation business and in fighting illegal immigration for almost 22 years, five presidents,

and I've actually been there. We deported when President Obama was president. eight years, he had eight years. President Trump has going on five. So he's got a lot of catching up to do. But it's in the United States, it's about 78 percent Democrat or Republican, black or white. It's about 78 percent during the last election, wanted the border sit and wanted something done with deportation. President Trump is doing exactly what he said he was going to do, he was going to go, get these programs started, and do deportation. As you know, there are critics who argue that 287G opens the door to racial profiling,

especially in traffic stops and street-level enforcements. So what specific safeguards do you have in place to make sure that your deputies aren't using that authority to target people based on how they look or what language they speak? Listen, we've been doing this since the beginning of time. We stop people that are black, white, red, all the colors in the rainbow. Every religion doesn't matter what kind of vehicles they drive. We just don't do traffic enforcement. We always do traffic enforcement. It's other issues.

You commit crime. You drive drunk, just like anybody else, just like homegrown criminals do. And we don't look at color or religion or anything like that. But people can believe what they want to believe. I could not, if I was on your show for 24 hours nonstop, I could not convince the naysayers. But what specific policies or safeguards do you have in place to make sure that people aren't being stopped based on how they look or the language they speak? Basically, we monitor all their stops, and we always have.

We monitor their stops, we review, we meet with them, but we've done that for 22 years since we've had cameras and before that, we always look at their reports. ports, just like they do all over the country. Walk us through what's changed in your jails since you partnered again with the federal government under this program. On an average day right now, how many ICE detainees are you housing? And what does that mean for the space that's available for local inmates? That's pretty simple.

Today, I think we were up to 360. It varies sometimes as 300. We've had as many as 430 ice prisoners. depends on what they're doing in ice. And we've had up close to 500. So it varies on what they're doing. You've said that the federal contracts as part of this program have brought in more than $200 million over 20 years, and you expect to hit a quarter of a billion dollars by 2027. Is that right? That's correct. And maybe more than that, if you listen to the Homeland Security people, They suspect there's 20 to 30 million people here.

They need county jails for the jail space. They don't have. The federal government doesn't have county jails or federal jails. They depend on county sheriff's offices. Next year, we believe we're going to bring in $22 million just next year. This year we'll probably bring in 12, but it's just starting to ramp up. There are people who will hear those numbers and conclude that Butler County has a financial incentive to keep beds full of ICE detainees?

Well, sure I am. I've housed prisoners here. I don't do it for free. If other counties want to house prisoners here, they have to pay the going price. And they don't have to come here. But do we do it for free? No.

There's a price that they have to pay to have them here, just like they always have. We've had Marshall prisoners for probably 20 or 30 years. They pay. and we don't do it for free. It helps cover the freight of our local prisoners. So, no, it is what it is. ICE has come under renewed scrutiny, as you well know, across the country for what many folks see as aggressive tactics, in some cases, brutal tactics.

Do you believe that the way ICE is apprehending some of these folks is the best way to remove people who are in the country illegally, but who pose no public safety threat? Well, they all snuck into the country. They're here illegally. If they don't want to be here, go home. They try to offer places that they'll ship you back and they'll even give you money to go home. You're here illegally. You shouldn't be here. The president ran on that premises and he's keeping his promise. And to stop this in these big cities, I've had 500 protesters here or more. They protest all the time here in front of my jail. They chain ourselves to the door. And you know what? That chain. changes? Absolutely nothing. I agree with the way they're doing it, and it's going to continue to ramp up. They're actually doing more jail space, and I support them 110%. Sheriff Richard Jones. Thank you for your perspectives. We appreciate it. Hey, appreciate you. Thank you. Military service personnel have been seeking outside legal advice about some of the missions the Trump administration has assigned them. The U.S. strikes against alleged drug trafficking boats and deployments to American cities have sparked a firestorm of debate over their legality.

And some service members are turning to non-profit organizations for help. In grainy footage from above the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean 20 times since September, Pentagon has shown the same thing. A flash of light and a boat allegedly carrying drugs into the United States incinerated by a U.S. military strike. In all, dozens of people killed on board the vessels. But that is the extent of what the Trump administration has disclosed publicly. No confirmation of any drugs on board or the identities of the people killed. President Trump has justified the lethal strikes and the fog of war that's clouded them. They killed 300,000 people last year, drugs.

These drugs coming in, they killed 300,000 Americans last year, and that gives you legal authority. We know the boats. We know everything else. We're allowed to do it. It's in international waters. If we don't do it, we're going to lose hundreds of thousands of people. Today, reports that the Trump administration is covering its legal basis. According to the Washington Post, Justice Department,

lawyers this summer crafted a classified memo arguing that U.S. troops involved in the boat strikes would not be in legal jeopardy. On Capitol Hill, open questions, including from Republican members about the legality of those strikes. People were not happy with the level information that was provided, and certainly the level of legal justification that was provided. Calls to organizations like the Orders Project, which provides free legal advice to military personnel are on the rise from staff officers involved in planning the boat strikes. As are calls to a separate hotline from National Guard personnel concerned about domestic deployments to American cities. And even calls expressing concerns of complicity and a possible genocide

in Gaza by virtue of U.S. weapons sent to Israel, signaling heightened concern from within the U.S. government that the U.S. military is exposing those. who serve to legal harm. For perspective on all this, we turn to retired Lieutenant Colonel Frank Rosenblatt. He was an Army lawyer and is now the president of the National Institute of Military Justice

which runs the Order's Project. Colonel, welcome to the News Hour. Thanks for joining us. Thank you. So the Orders Project for anyone unfamiliar was started five years ago as a place military personnel can get legal advice

that's independent from the Defense Department. Tell me about the calls you've been receiving specific to those U.S. military strikes on boats. How many calls and what are people asking? Thanks. The phone has been picking up a bit, our activity in the past three months, and some of these have related to the new military activities out in the Caribbean.

We are primarily getting calls. A lot of people who are tangentially involved, they aren't the people who are actually on the operations or are approving them. But many of these are, they're performing some sort of role in between, a staff officer who's asked to apply their expertise. And they've been reaching out to us when they've been concerned that the answer that they're giving has been very disfavored and they're feeling pressure from their higher-ups to convert their answer into something that is a little,

to change a concur from a non-concuror to a concur. In other words, pressure to get on board with the decision to carry out the strikes. Is that what you're saying? Yes. And then related to the National Guard deployments, you told my colleague earlier you're also fielding calls related to that. What are those questions? These are, we're getting an appropriate level of curiosity because anybody who's been following the courts, it's like watching a tennis match right now, back and forth every day between a district court and joining the president's actions and a court of appeals lifting that and the Supreme Court acting on their emergency docket. So when people are being told or to anticipate a deployment to an American city, they do have some questions about this.

And we just try to help them figure out what's right for them, you know, to help them feel better about what they're doing or where they need to raise questions, to ask the right questions of their leaders to make sure that they are remaining compliant with their, not only their legal obligations, but so that there's no moral injury later on that they, don't do something that they knew was wrong at the time. As for the Orders Project, we have tended to receive most of our calls from military officers rather than lower-ranking enlisted members. And tell me about that. That sounds like it surprises you, does it? Yes, and I don't think that's because there's any sort of difference in the seriousness which all military members take their jobs.

I do think, though, that lower enlisted members are, if they are told to do something, then they are going to trust that the correct staff processes and command approvals have happened for that to go through. And so, you know, they're not picking up the phones to call. However, some of the military staff officers, on the other hand, they are actually involved in the implementation and planning of these missions. And so when they are, they are able to, I think, maybe get some insight into that sometimes they may be asked to do things that they don't think are correct, or that are at least

maybe boundary pushing and are different than how they've done things in the past. So I should note in response to a request from the news hour, the Department of Justice spokesperson sent us this statement saying, quote, the strikes were ordered consistent with the laws of armed conflict, referring to the boat strikes in the Caribbean and Pacific, and as such are lawful orders. Military personnel are legally obligated to follow lawful orders, and as such are not subject to prosecution for following lawful orders. I just want to get your response to that, Colonel, and also what that means for the kind of advice you're giving people who call you? The public is paying attention to these things, as are many members of the military.

There are lots of questions being asked, and not all of the answers have been forthcoming about, one, the factual basis for this and the legal basis for this. I don't think that we can say that these are orders that are manifestly unlawful, just based on what we can see right now, but there are also many questions about the legal basis for this under both U.S. law, U.S. constitutional law, as well as international law. And, Colonel, the reporting we mentioned earlier that says there's a DOJ memo that basically says soldiers would be immune from prosecution if involved in these boat strikes, how do you react to that?

The conferrence of immunity does raise some important questions. And my first reaction is anybody who relies on that, the fact that DOJ has signed him animal saying there's blanket immunity is making a mistake to fully rely upon this. Now, it does mean something, but there are a number of questions. One is, why is this being offered? I mean, we don't normally immunize people. And so the question is, what is it that you're asking me to do? What sort of conduct will confer this immunity?

Second, who is the person who is giving this immunity? Do they have the proper power to do so? For example, if a service member relies on DOJ immunity, that doesn't mean that a state may not prosecute them for any crimes they commit or if they travel to another country. If there are allegations that they have committed atrocity crimes, then other countries could invoke their own universal jurisdiction and put them before the national courts of another country. All right. That is retired Lieutenant Colonel Frank Rosenblatt joining us tonight. Colonel, thank you for your time. We appreciate it. Thank you.

So-called Forever Chemicals are both harmful to our health and are everywhere. William Brangham profiles a new book that tells the story of how these extremely durable chemicals came to be so ubiquitous through the eyes of one small community in upstate New York that decided to fight for some measure of justice. And this is him and his buddies? Yep, yeah, that was on one of the golf trips. John Ursul Hickey was a fixture in Hoosick Falls, a once-thriving industrial town in northeastern, upstate New York,

near the Vermont border. He raised a family, worked at the local manufacturing plant. This is the bus he drove? One of them, yeah. And he drove a school bus. He did both jobs for 32 years. He was only retired for seven months before he passed away. Seven months.

Seven months. Seven months fully retired before he passed. and I had a tough time. Ursul died from kidney cancer. He wasn't a smoker or a drinker, and something just didn't sit right with his son, Michael. A year after, you know, a local teacher got sick and she passed away in her 50s,

and then, you know, the wheels started turning my head of, you know, why do we seem to have all these illnesses? So I started wondering, you know, what ties everybody together? You know, what could it be? And obviously, that's water. The plant where his dad worked, then owned by the company St. Gobain used Teflon coding, so he Googled Teflon and cancer.

Up popped a study from West Virginia that showed a likely link between the chemicals in Teflon and various cancers, including kidney cancer. Hickey approached a local family doctor who said, yes, he had seen a lot of cancer in his patients, but the city and the county wouldn't test the water. So I went and I tested the water at my house. the local dollar store McDonald's and I came back and it was right our water was contaminated with these chemicals one of the things that I really remember for our first meeting is that he said he told me that he got his political

news from ESPN and yet somehow he was spiriting this fight against multiple government agencies and giant multinational corporations to get his community clean drinking water and he was doing it because he was heart broken over the death of his father. Journalist Mariah Blake wrote the book They Poisoned the World, which tells the story of the discovery Michael Hickey made in the years-long

environmental and legal fight he helped launch. That was the genesis. It was a heartbroken son trying to figure out why his father had gotten sick, and he wound up discovering that the entire community was drinking water that was highly contaminated with a toxic

chemical. That industry had known was dangerous. decades. The chemicals in Hussick Falls water were forever chemicals, per and polyfluoro alcohol substances, or PFS. Teflon is a wonderful electrical insulator and resists a lot of moisture too. They're extremely resilient, durable synthetic chemicals that have been used in hundreds of products. They helped usher in the era of space travel and high-speed computing. You see, DuPont technology helped make today's tiny electronic circuits possible. They have enabled life-send medical devices. They've also transformed thousands of everyday items, things like outdoor clothing,

dental floss, furniture. On the other hand, they are probably the most insidious pollutants in all of human history, and they are literally polluting the entire planet. In her book, Blake explains that unlike many developed countries in the U.S., new chemicals like PFS are to be presumed safe until proven otherwise. Nothing sticks to Teflon. She also documents how, going back decades, both industry and government officials knew these chemicals were dangerous to human health. The U.S. government scientists had determined as early as 1943 that these chemicals were

highly toxic and that they were accumulating in human blood. But regulators in the public didn't learn that until much, much later because this information was withheld. Is that your best friend, Eli? Emily Marpie also grew up in Hussick Falls, but she eventually saved enough money to move out of her trailer and into her dream house in nearby Petersburg, New York. She called it Cloud 9. I remember the day of the closing and the previous owner handed me the keys, and I just looked at it on and was like, now I'm on Cloud 9 because we kind of went through the steps together. That's where the name came from?

Yeah, that's what it felt like. The dream was short-lived. After the revelation in Hussick Falls, just 11 miles away, her county tested the water in Petersburg, where another factory was using PFAS. The health department called with terrible news. He told me what the results were, and he's like, you need to even stop brushing your teeth with it. That day? That day. Like, I literally fell, like, to my knees in my driveway, dry heaving.

Marpey reached out to Michael Hickey on Facebook, and he shared all the research he'd gathered, and she'd devoured it. She also decided to test her family's blood. P-FAS in a person's blood is measured in nanograms or parts per billion. Under two parts per billion would be considered safe. Between two and twenty is when the potential for harmful effects start. Emily Marpey's kids had over 100 and 200 parts per billion. Her own numbers were even high. My children were violated.

Who has the right to do that? Who? I mean, you're altering their organs, their DNA, their blood, their health outcomes. I mean, it's one thing if they decided to pick up a cigarette when they got older, chose to drink. You know, at least there's somewhat of a choice in that. You know, there was no choice in this. They had never really taken much interest in politics or environmental issues. They had spent their lives.

believing that there were systems in place to protect them. And now that trust had been completely shattered. But these people, the people of Hoosick Falls, rather than becoming cynical or resigned or wanting to burn it all down, they fought like hell to change the system for the better because they thought that was the best way to protect their communities and their families.

Well, things got heated tonight at the village board meeting in Hussickford Falls. Against huge odds, Hickey and Marpy and others decided to fight. They badgered local officials, they went to the state capitol, they testified before Congress in D.C. We're suffering the health effects. They're already here. There's 20 years of research on PFAS, if not more. And we just need to do some common sense legislation. And they filed multiple lawsuits against the companies. In 2021 and again in 2025, they won.

The four major companies involved, 3M, St. Gobain, Honey, and DuPont all settled large multi-million dollar class action lawsuits over the pollution they caused. In statements to the press, St. Gobain said it valued the health, safety, and well-being of its employees and the communities in which it operates, while Honeywell pointed to its remediation efforts, including the funding of a new water treatment facility in town. In their settlements, residents got access to a new, unpolluted aquifer, regular ongoing medical monitoring and compensation for the decline in their home values. It was a long battle. They spent eight years fighting this fight. But in the end, they accomplished

just about everything they set out to accomplish. See hello. But for the residents of Hussack Falls in Petersburg, New York, the successful end of their legal battle is bittersweet. A company can just dump their stuff all over and I can drink it for years and nobody goes to jail. Nobody gets punished nobody there's there's no real recourse except okay yep we want a class action but it's just money it doesn't give me back the time with my kids it doesn't give me my dream home gone it's success I think for some that look at it for me it's not it's not we've lost so much in in between you know we've lost good people that could have been here to have full lives, and they lost that.

You can't ever get that back. Nationwide, attorneys now predict a wave of lawsuits against companies over PFAS chemical pollution that could dwarf the asbestos and tobacco settlements. For the PBS News Hour, I'm William Brangham in Hussick Falls, New York. Since last fall, more than 12,000 North Korean servicemen have reportedly been deployed to fight alongside the Russian army in Ukraine. More recently, Ukraine has accused the Kremlin of recruiting foreign fighters from an entirely different region. Growing numbers of mercenaries from Cameroon, Ghana, Senegal, Uganda, and other African nations reveal the extent to which Russia is struggling to recruit fresh troops among its own population.

Reporting from Ukraine, special correspondent Simon Ostrovsky investigates how these mercenaries also represent an increased reliance on guns for hire in some of the world's deadliest conflicts. This is one of five prisoner of war camps in Ukraine, and the Ukrainian authorities won't tell us how many POWs they have. But what we do know is that there's a mix of Russians, who were captured as well as foreign nationals from third countries. And increasingly, many of those fighters have been from Africa. A vast Kremlin network of recruiters is pulling in thousands of mercenaries from across the African continent to fight and die for Russia and Ukraine.

The lucky few who survive end up here, where one in ten are foreign fighters, according to Ukrainian officials. But the ramifications of what's happening go far beyond this European theater of war. The African recruits and other internationals are helping Russia increase its battlefield numbers. But that's not just a problem for Ukraine. They're leaving their homelands in such high numbers,

particularly in some countries in Africa, that it's becoming a security issue there. Cameroon? Cameroon. So many troops from Cameroon have joined up that the Cameroonian Defense Ministry ordered its officers to quote, immediately take appropriate measures against desertion.

All men in uniform are now banned from traveling abroad without special permission, according to this March document, which was provided to News Hour by Atlantic Council fellow Ali Abrahimi. The Cameroonian government are feeling vulnerable. They're fighting on four fronts at least. Pirates on the coast, Central African rebels in the east, English-speaking separatists in the south, ISIS and Boko Haram, that are on the march in the north of the country.

They can't afford to be losing any soldiers, let alone their most skilled soldiers, let alone their special forces, who we know are going to Ukraine, they're fighting in Ukraine, and they're dying in Ukraine. No, it's all, it's going to Cameroon. I'm here in Russia. While it's hard to know exactly how many men have enlisted, reportedly as many as 100 are dead or missing in action. Their loved ones now search for them across social media, posting pictures like these in the hopes that they'll be identified. Petro Yitzenko from Ukraine's coordination headquarters for the treatment of prisoners of war says that over the past few months, he's seen an increase of foreign fighters at camps like this one. We know why the Russian government is recruiting foreigners to fight in its military.

They need more men. But why are these people agreeing to fight for Russia? Russia. I mean, the numbers of people being killed on the battlefield is huge. Russia needs more and more cannon fodder. They never say the truth for these foreign mercenaries. They promised them a very big salary. They promised them to be very far from the front line. In fact, they were thrown to the front line, to the kill zone, to the very hard conditions to survive. Mohammed Imra, age 26, is originally from Egypt.

He says an army recruiter promised him a Russian passport, but after just three days of fighting, he ran out of ammo and was captured, along with another mercenary from Egypt. But not before seeing his comrade die right next to him. It was first time to me. It was too much hard, no, and you see him, like, just die, and you can do anything. You can't help him. You can do anything. Ukrainian military officials report a flood of mercenaries like these two men on the front lines

in the past year and say most don't survive more than a month. Recruited from countries such as Uganda, Kenya, Togo, and South Africa, over 1,400 citizens of 36 African states are currently fighting for Russia, according to Ukraine's foreign ministry. Russian recruiters target active duty servicemen across African countries, promising salaries 10 times what they make at home, sign up bonuses upwards of $2,000 and even Russian passports. A Russian man from Cameroon will go serve in the special military And it's not just Russia that's growing more dependent on mercenaries and private military

companies or PMCs. Brahimi warns of a growing mercenary storm with Russia's tactics, capturing the attention of both American defense firms and the White House. Reportedly, the Trump administration is considering private sector solutions for problems as varied as peacekeeping in Ukraine to security along America's southern border. In Gaza, the White House has already come under fire for using military contractors to distribute food aid. It's part of this broader phenomenon where the private security industry is now a go-to option to solve thorny security problems. So are we seeing the Trump administration echo what Russia has used? used PMCs for?

This very much fits in with the general ethos of the Trump administration, and particularly his commitment to ending U.S. military commitments abroad. And in Ukraine, the number of foreign combatants keeps climbing. The vast majority of captured foreign fighters end up in legal limbo, with neither Russia nor their home countries interested in trading for them. That leaves these men stuck in prisons for months, even years. Richard Kanu is a 42-year-old former soldier from Sierra Leone, who was captured after two weeks of fighting.

That was more than a year and a half ago. So what would you say to other young men from Africa who are thinking about coming to Russia to join the military? Even when I'm here now, still Africans are signing contact for Russians. Because for now we have no hope. We don't have someone who can plead on our behalf, how to get out of this place. and this is not the life I want to live. But as long as there are young men

from some of the world's poorest countries dreaming of escaping the life at home, there will be no shortage of men fighting someone else's war for pay. For the PBS News Hour, I'm Simon Ostrovsky in Western Ukraine. An outbreak here in the U.S. of infant botulism, a rare but serious illness caused by toxins that attack the nervous system, is causing alarm among regulators and parents, prompting an investigation and a nationwide recall of by-heart, whole nutrition infant formula. Stephanie Sy has more.

According to the Food and Drug Administration, there have been 15 hospitalizations of infants across 12 states. No deaths have been reported. Hannah Everett, a mother in Kentucky, experienced this firsthand. Her four-month-old Piper was hospitalized over the weekend. We've seen the recall, and I just, in my gut, I was like, yeah, we need to take her. Her gag reflex was not intact. It's like, it becomes paralyzed. She's going to make a full recovery.

They said we just got very lucky to catch it as early as we did. For a closer look, I'm joined by Helena Bodmiller-Evich. She's the founder of Food Fix, a publication that covers food policy in depth. Helena, thank you for joining the NewsHour. First of all, how sick are babies who have gotten infant botulism linked to this baby formula getting? Well, 15 hospitalizations is something that is very concerning. We have not seen botulism tied to infant formula in this country. We've certainly not seen an outbreak.

These babies are requiring a lot of intervention. mention at the hospital, the key is to catch it early. So any signs of poor feeding, difficulty swallowing, loss of head control, you know, if your baby has had this formula and seems off, you should talk to your doctor as soon as possible. Last week, California's Department of Health identified botulism in preliminary testing of an opened can of by heart formula that had been given to a baby who later was discovered to have botulism. Earlier, we spoke with Dr. Erica Pan, the director of California's Department of Public Health. Infant botulism is what we call a sporadic disease. It's almost never been seen in an outbreak.

So, right, this is the first time we've seen it linked to a specific formula. The spores that this bacteria creates can live in dirt and soil. So often, most cases, in infant botulism, we actually don't find out what the exact source was. Infant formula should be sterile. Shouldn't have either dirt or bacteria in it. So how did this contamination happen is what I'm concerned about both for this product, but also in the future, so this can be prevented. So you heard, Helena, that there's a lot of mystery around how this bacteria could have contaminated formula. The FDA commissioner said in an interview this week that the supply chain for formula could be stronger. Do you see ways that this could have been prevented from a policy procedure.