PBS News Hour - Full Show - November 27, 2025 – PBS News Hour full episode

Episode Date: November 28, 2025

Thursday on the News Hour, investigations into the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., reveal new details about the suspect including his history working for the CIA in Afghanistan, President Trump tries to put his stamp on the NFL with mixed results and we answer your questions about how to remain civil with family and friends during this year's holidays. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy

Good evening. I'm John Yang. Jeff Bennett and Anandabazz are away. On the news hour tonight, investigations into the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., reveal new details about the suspect, an Afghan who worked with the CIA before the Taliban takeover. President Trump tries to put his stamp on the NFL with mixed results, including pushback from some fans. And we answer your questions about how to remain civil with family and friends during this year's holidays. See your loved ones as real people, as humans, and talk to the human and not to the headline. Welcome to the news hour. Tonight, investigators say the suspect in the suspect in the The brazen daylight shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., drove cross-country to carry out the attack, but they're still searching for a motive.

The two victims remain in critical condition, and the accused shooter is also in the hospital. Prosecutors say the suspect, who's an Afghan national, will be charged with three counts of assault with intent to kill, and the Trump administration is further restricting immigration in the wake of the attack. Our coverage begins tonight with White House correspondent Liz Landers. Caught on camera, the moment after an attack that shattered the pre-holiday calm near the White House. The suspect already wounded, tackled to the pavement, surrounded by law enforcement. Within moments, officers take him into custody, ending what authorities describe as a deliberate ambush. Just minutes earlier, officials say he opened fire on two National Guard members as they waited at Washington, D.C. bus stop.

The victims, 20-year-old Sarah Bextram and 24-year-old Andrew Wolfe, both from the West Virginia National Guard. They answered the call. They took the charge. They volunteered. They put their lives on the line for people they don't even know. Law enforcement identified the suspect as an Afghan national and said he drove across the country from his home north of Seattle with a plan to commit the attack. The suspect, he has been identified as Ramanullah Lackenwal, a 29-year-old Afghan. who enter the United States under Biden's Operation Allies welcome, a program following the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. The alleged shooter used a 357 revolver,

shooting a guard member and then firing again after the soldier fell to the ground. The shooter then turned to fire at the second guard member. The CIA director John Ratcliffe confirmed the suspect had worked with an agency-backed paramilitary unit during the U.S. war in Afghanistan and entered the United States through a Biden-era immigration program for Afghans fleeing the Taliban takeover. President Trump framed the shooting

as an act of terror and launched a broadside against immigration, vowing to redouble his mass deportation efforts. We must now re-examine every single alien who has entered our country from Afghanistan under Biden, and we must take all necessary measures to ensure the removal of any alien from any country from any country who does not belong here or add benefit to our country.

He also ordered 500 more National Guard troops to Washington, in addition to about 2,000 already there, though it was unclear when they would arrive or where they would come from. The agency that oversees immigration in the United States says it had stopped processing immigration applications from Afghanistan, effective immediately. This is one deranged man committing terrible crimes against. against our service members.

And he should be held accountable. The entire Afghan community should not be held accountable for this. Sean Van Diver is the president of Afghan Evac, a US-based nonprofit working with Afghan refugees. He said the Trump administration was already working on closing pathways for legal Afghan migrants, even before this incident. On day one, they shut down the ongoing relocation

through our safest, most secure immigration pathway in history. And it's just so worrisome to see them jump to conclusions. According to Afghan Evac, the accused gunman was evacuated by the U.S. military in August 2021 after the fall of Kabul. He first arrived under humanitarian parole after a thorough vetting process under the Biden administration and was granted asylum earlier this year by the Trump administration. I don't think the vetting is where the failure occurred here. I think this man is being used as a political cudgel by the administration to impact an entire community. And that's not fair. You know, if a shooter's from Missouri, they're not trying to do something that impacts

all Missouri. This is prejudice disguised as policy. The director of the U.S. Customs and Immigration Services said today in a statement that he is directing a, quote, full-scale rigorous re-examination of every green card for every alien from every country of concern. When PBS NewsHour asked which of these countries will be impacted, the administration pointed us, John, to an executive order listing 19 countries, including Afghanistan and Yemen. Liz, the National Guard's been in D.C. for months now. They came in August. There's a court fight going on about this. What's going on there? This has been a contentious issue for months now here in the nation's capital.

The D.C. deployment started back in August when the president declared a crime emergency here. That has now been extended several times since. The president does have the ability. He has the right as the commander in chief to mobilize the National Guard in D.E. D.C. because it is a federal district. However, the D.C. Attorney General has been challenging this deployment in federal court saying he's overstepping his authority. Last week, a federal district judge ruled in favor of the attorney general here in Washington saying that the deployment was likely illegal and that it violated the city's rights to self-government. That ruling, though, was paused for three weeks to give the Trump administration time to

respond, an appeal, which they have. White House correspondent Liz Landers. Thank you very much. The shooting has intensified focus on the administration's use of the National Guard to crackdown on crime in cities led by Democrats. Earlier, I spoke with Juliet Kayam, faculty director of the Harvard University Kennedy School's Homeland Security Project. She was an assistant DHS secretary during the Obama administration and oversaw the Massachusetts National Guard when she was that state's Homeland Security Advisor. Juliet, this morning you wrote for the Atlantic where you're a contributing writer that this was a terrible and avoidable tragedy. Explain that. Well, for the last several months since President Trump has deployed the National Guard to D.C., there's been a number of assessments by the military,

including the commanding officers of the National Guard, that these units were essentially sitting targets, that they were vulnerable to nefarious actors, whether criminals or terrorists. And there was growing concern about this within the National Guard. Part of that had to do with that they were fully clothed, that they were in uniform, that they were visible to someone who may want to harm them, but that their mission, right, either walking the streets, doing beautification programs, just sort of paying attention, which generally was the mission, was nebulous enough to make it very difficult to protect them in the way that you might protect troops either in a war or on a base. The president almost immediately announced he's sending 500 more National Guard troops to Washington.

Is that a solution? It's really not. I mean, it's a sort of fallacy to think more is better, especially when it comes to deployments anywhere by the military. The question isn't really about whether the force can be protected. The question is whether the mission, what the mission is and how it is defined. Then you can figure out what force protection is about. The president, as we all know, wanted the National Guard in D.C. Despite decreasing crime rates there because he viewed it as a war zone or, you know, too much crime there. We now know over the last couple months these National Guard units,

have been really been used for roaming patrols, visibility patrols, or in many instances, sort of landscaping, picking up trash. None of that's bad per se, but none of that is unique to the National Guard, nor is it what they're trained to do. And it's in that sort of gray area that you create these vulnerabilities,

as we saw for the National Guard. Adding more doesn't really solve the problem of what is the mission, and how is it defined for the truth? groups who we all want to protect. Talk about a little bit about that. What's the mission? Is this a mission that the National Guard is suited for? No. I mean, I've worked with the National Guard all my career. The National Guard supports civilian efforts in a disaster or in a homeland or is deployed abroad. This, as we all know,

is a unique and some say illegal use by the president of the National Guard in D.C. The National Guard is essentially federalized automatically. It reports to the president. And so the deployment of the National Guard, a unit that's not trained to, units that are not trained to work in civilian areas and urban areas as armed without any standards of what the metrics are. Like, what is success for this mission? All of that creates a sort of a loose understanding of what the mission is, the potential for Mission Creek, and then, of course, vulnerabilities because there is no, there's no notion of force protection. I mean, I sort of describe it as like neither war nor peace. The politics have thrusts the National Guard into this gray zone that they're not built

for, but that has made them vulnerable. Administration officials are making much of the fact that the alleged shooter entered the United States under a Biden-era program for Afghans who were fleeing the Taliban, and that he was never vetted, that there were no background checks. What do you say to that? What we understand now is that the alleged shooter had actually

a number of vetting moments. Some occurred in Afghanistan. What the CIA director, the present CIA director is saying now is that he did assist the CIA. We don't know in what exact capacity, but that he was assisting in intelligence and intelligence gathering efforts.

He then is brought, brought to the United States as Kabul is falling in a special visa program, that does not grant permanent status. It was just a program that brought people in. They are then vetted during that process. And then again, as he's regularizing his process, he was granted asylum under the Trump administration this year. There is another vetting process. So at three different moments he's examined by the United States and either they missed something or something happened since he was granted asylum a few months ago that radicalized him relatively quickly. So I think it's premature to say, you know, this administration was wrong and this one's right or that agency was

wrong and this one's right. I think we don't know. But what we do know is he's had strong ties to the United States for much of his life during the Afghan war. And only and in the last couple of months, at least, as he was granted asylum, he then begins to plan at least an attack on the National Guard that no one quite knows. No one can explain that yet as far as we know. The administration has paused immigration from Afghanistan. And they also say they're going to reexamine all the asylum grants under the Biden administration. What do you make of that? I think in some ways

the Trump administration doesn't quite know what happened, and so they want to look and see whether this special immigrant visa program that allowed Afghans to come in who supported us during the war is picking up the right sort of metrics for radicalization.

That might be necessary at this stage, but the idea that you're going to pause indefinitely all Afghans who have come to the United States or their ability to come here permanently, I think is at this stage sort of overblown and also undermines our attempts to support the Afghans who were so instrumental in supporting us during the Afghan war. This is one person who did something absolutely heinous. We need to find out how we either got through the vetting process or what happened in terms of radicalization more recently. But the notion that this is about all Afghans is one that is,

is undermined by the reality. Most Afghans are here lawfully and here because they supported our war effort in Afghanistan. Juliet Kayam. Thank you very much. Thank you. In the day's other headlines, the death toll from yesterday's massive fire at a high-rise apartment complex in Hong Kong has risen to at least 94 people. Debbie Edwards from ITV News has this report. A ferocious fire raged on in one apartment. And flames could still be seen in several other buildings in the Wampok Estate, more than 24 hours after the blaze had started. The worst fire in Hong Kong's history has claimed dozens of lives and taken a massive amount of manpower to bring under control.

What's left is a scene of total devastation. Some of the skyscrapers caved in, becoming shells of blackened concrete, billowing with smoke. Lisa and her husband Sam escaped from the ninth floor of Building 5. There was no fire alarm. They just got a call, telling them to get out. The firefighters made a path for us to run. After that, we weren't able to go back.

I didn't take anything with me, except this bag, and my husband only took his phone. At its height, the Inferno engulfed all but one of the eight buildings in the complex. The night sky filled with a terrifying mass of orange and black. Whatever sparked the fire, it spread quickly across the bamboo scaffolding and construction netting that encased the buildings. Police say several materials being used in the renovations did not meet fire-resistant standards, including highly flammable styrofoam. Three men from the construction company involved

have been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter. The Wang Focust aid has been undergoing renovations since last summer. Upgrades which were meant to make these buildings safer and prevent a disaster like this. With more than 200 people unaccounted for, firefighters went floor by floor in the buildings they could access to search for survivors. Do you feel angry that this has happened? Of course because as I know it's at that moment they say the material, the green one, actually they can block the fire but you can see it didn't

while the cause of this deadly fire is already implicated in a criminal investigation firefighters bowed to remain at the scene doing what they could to preserve evidence and any sign of life Debbie Edward ITV News Hong Kong also today a 16-year-old Palestinian-American was released from an Israeli prison

after spending nine months in captivity. Mohamed Ibrahim was reunited with his father on a road in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. The Florida native was only 15 when he was arrested in February during a raid on his family's home. He was charged with two counts of throwing objects at moving vehicles. His family says he pleaded guilty and is now receiving medical treatment in a local hospital.

Separately, the Israeli military says it's investigating the West Bank shooting of two Palestinian men as they appeared to be surrendering. Video aired on Arab TV stations show them being led back into a garage before they were shot. A Palestinian official says the men were executed in cold blood.

Israel says it's been stepping up its offensive against militants in the area. Pope Leo kicked off his initial international trip today as head of the Catholic Church. The first U.S.-born pontiff arrived in the Turkish capital of Ankara to start a three-day visit to the country. Turkey has played a vital role in

global peace efforts, hosting talks between Russia and Ukraine and offering to help with Gaza peacekeeping. After meeting with President Reisip Tayyaf Erdogan, Leo urged Turkey to be a source of stability during an era of conflict. We are now experiencing a phase marked by heightened level of conflict on the global level, fueled by prevailing strategies of economic and military power. This is enabling what Pope Francis called a third world war fought peacemeal. We must in no way give in to this. The Pope's visit to the Muslim majority country marked 1,700 years since the Council of Nica, a pivotal event in the history of Christendom.

His next stop in Turkey is Istanbul, where he'll visit the Blue Mosque and preside over an interfaith meeting. As the Pope calls for peace, Russia's president, Vladimir Putin said today that U.S. proposals to end the war in Ukraine could form the basis of a future deal. Speaking to journalists in Kyrgyzstan, Putin said hostilities would cease as soon as Ukrainian troops withdraw from areas that he says they occupy. But he said it would be pointless to sign any deal with Ukraine's current leadership. Putin claims that Ukrainian leader Volody Mayor Zelensky lost his legitimacy by not holding elections when his term ended last year. Of course, we ultimately want to reach an agreement with Ukraine, but that's practically

impossible right now. Legally, it's impossible. Anyone who can, whoever once, can negotiate with them. We need our decisions to be internationally recognized by the major international players. That's all. Officials in Kyiv say that elections were impossible at a time of martial law and war with Russia. Meanwhile, U.S. Special Envoy Steve Whitkoff is due in Moscow next week for talks. He's been under fire recently because of a leaked transcript that appeared to show him coaching a Kremlin aid on how to deal with President Trump. Today, Putin dismissed any suggestion that Wittkoff was being too friendly with his Russian counterparts. A joint U.S. Russian crew took off earlier today, headed for the International Space Station.

Their Soyuz booster rocket lifted off from a facility in Kazakhstan this afternoon local time. American physicist Chris Williams, along with his two Russian crewmates, docked at the ISS about three hours later. This is William's first spaceflight. He's due to spend about eight months orbiting the Earth and carrying out tasks, including scientific research. And back here on Earth, it's been a long day for millions who braved the Thanksgiving travel rush

and a harsh winter storm. Residents of upstate New York woke up to fresh snow. Midwesterners have been navigating icy interstates for days, and forecasters say conditions could get worse over the weekend. Fortunately, the airports were less busy today with fewer delays than yesterday, but things are expected to get busier at the end of the holiday weekend. Meanwhile, Philadelphia hosted the nation's oldest Thanksgiving Day parade, dating back to 1920. In New York, the 99th annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade featured fan favorites like Spider-Man and Dora the Explorer,

plus some newcomers, including K-pop demon hunters, and a Lubbubu or two. Still to come on the News Hour, tips for remaining civil with family and friends this holiday, even if you disagree with them. A tiny chef leaves a big impression for millions of people online, and a camp for Native American children gives them a chance to be rock stars. This is the PBS News Hour from the David M. Rupert. Stevenstein studio at WETA in Washington and in the west from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University. Chances are that at some point in the next few days, a couch in your house will be occupied by someone watching football.

It's America's most popular sport. The National Football League unites much of the country in a shared passion. But as Lisa Desiardam reports, the league faces a tricky potential threat to that. politics. The National Football League is in the middle of a ratings and profit boom. At the same time, it is also in the center of something else notable, the way President Trump engages with and wants to influence American sports. Joining me to talk about this is Christine Brennan, a sports columnist for USA Today and friend of the show. Christine, let's start with the NFL itself. Roger Goodell, the commissioner, is experiencing an all-time, all-star era. What is behind it right now? America has really fallen in love with a new national pastime. It's no longer baseball. It's football. It is about the cadence of the game. Obviously, we love that versus baseball as our attention spans gets shorter and shorter. Also, it's a sport, high school, college Americans grow up with. Not only the day of the week, Sunday, as we all know, but now prime time. That has been going on. A public relations man named Pete Roselle was the commissioner who just saw the NFL explode back in the 70s. You had Monday night,

football. And again, it's the violence. It's the, it's a very national game. The violence, the aggressiveness. Absolutely. And because of its success, you know, having markets like Green Bay, but also, of course, the big cities and the superstars, you know, go all the way back. I think everything about it is a marketing success and it fits the perfect American psyche and what we want, which is quick action, violent action, and then the opportunity to run to the refrigerator before the next play. I do want to come back to President Trump himself. He himself is a showman.

We know he's had a love for sports his whole life. He was at the Washington Commanders game just two weeks ago. Let's listen to this. By the way, they're going to build a beautiful stadium in Washington. That's what I'm involved in. We're getting all the approvals and everything else. And you have a wonderful owner, Josh, and his group. And you're going to see some very good things.

Little name drop in there because he actually wants his name put on that stadium. the reporting here. He's also rung in on everything from the new kickoff plan for the NFL. Now, the billionaire owners of the NFL seem to generally like kind of stoking this relationship. Fans are mixed. But how has Roger Goodell navigated

this attention from Donald Trump? We know when he gives something attention, he wants to be in control. Exactly. Roger Goodell, the son of a senator, Charles Goodell, has been with the league his entire career. I think he understands this, you know, tiptoeing through the tulips, so to speak, with the President of the United States.

For example, there was the announcement that the NFL draft is going to be held in Washington, D.C., in 2027. So, of course, Roger Goodell was there with one of the owners of the Washington commanders and the president. And, you know, how do you say no to the president about, you know, being a part of some kind of show like that? Any president, much less Trump. Exactly. And presidents have been linked with football. Richard Nixon giving play advice to the Washington football team's coach at the president. time, George Allen.

Well, maybe you can put knock in there and then rest him next week. I hope so. Yeah. Who'd you lose? We lost that. This hasn't even been announced. I don't think we lost it. Malinshick, he's going to have to be operating on either tonight or one morning.

So, you know, this is not just, he's not the first president, but he has certainly put it on, you know, times a hundred in terms of his involvement. And I think for Trump, he understands football, the NFL is that common denominator. All Americans love it. They all can talk about it, the water cooler or the virtual water cooler. Lisa, it is a game that all everyone understands. And so Trump is going there to try to change the national conversation or or put his imprint on those issues and of course make the points that he wants to make. Some of them seemingly just kind of fun like, okay, the NFL draft's going to be

in D.C. Some of them much more serious like racial issues. And let's get to that because this is a league, especially commissioner who has pushed for diversity, pushed for DEI ideas. This is a president who has pushed against that. How has that? worked now. Is the NFL continuing its DEI effort now in the era of Trump 2.0? We saw this with the Super Bowl. By the way, the president and President Trump was the first sitting president to ever attend a Super Bowl, which really surprised me as someone who's covered a lot of them. Again, Trump understanding the visual of going there and being a part of this incredible national pastime, highest rated television show every year, of course, is the

Super Bowl. So you have that. So then the NFL changes, they no longer have end racism in the end zone, but choose love. Coincidence, not, whatever. Of course, there'd been the terrible terrorist attack in New Orleans, the fires in L.A, the terrible plane crash right off at DCA. So it made sense. That was what the NFL said. Nonetheless, and racism was gone. This is a league that is a majority black league, a significant majority black league. There is no way on earth you cannot have some semblance of DEI in the thinking of the NFL because black players are such a huge part of it. so popular with so many fans. Again, it's that tightrope wire, tight wire act that Roger Goodell and the owners are doing. But they've kept the DEI program in place. Well, they have. They've got the Rooney Rule. Every big opening with an NFL team, there needs to be a minority who's considered for the job. But they've dialed down that messaging of end racism, no longer those words now. Yes, it was Choose Love in the case of the Super Bowl. I think it's the way that all

sports leaders are trying to work with Trump in this era while also understanding that the people who make the league, it's a majority black league. So you cannot just fall in line completely with Trump on that because you'd lose the players, you'd lose the coaches. We've seen that, of course, with Trump going back to 2017 when he said, you know, kick the SOBs, without saying SOBs, off the field, fire them when they were kneeling for the national anthem. Well, two days later, you had incredible kneeling by many, many players throughout the league. So already we have seen that these players will speak out. This is about American culture. It's also about big business quickly on other sports. The president knows that the World Cup is coming to his country,

the Olympics are coming in this country, and he's made some sort of vague threats, sort of political about where they should go. Let's listen. If we think there's any reason that, whether it's Boston or anywhere else, that they're not doing their job, we're going to take that those World Cup games and move them someplace else. Are those serious threats? Is that, what is that? No, it's not serious. Those tickets are already sold. He even said it's sold out. This is a good signal, I think, for many people who are going to watch the two biggest sports events in the world. Men's World Cup soccer next year, the Olympic Games in 2028, back in Los Angeles.

We're going to see Trump do this time and time again. It would be fascinating to watch how these leaders try to deal with him, but also sidestep him and do the things that they were planning to do before Trump opened his mouth. Brennan, thank you so much for joining us. My pleasure, Lisa. Thank you. Talking politics with relatives around the holidays can be tricky territory. Omna Nawaz has more on how to handle conversation if it veers too far in that direction.

Millions of Americans are spending more time gathering with family and loved ones this Thanksgiving. But more time together can also mean more tension, especially when conversations drift into politics or other touchy topics. In fact, our latest PBS News, NPR Maris poll found Americans find it increasingly difficult to talk politics with each other. 85% of Democrats describe Republicans as closed-minded. 82% of Republicans said the same thing about Democrats. Here's what a few of our poll respondents shared with us. I do find it difficult to talk politics with anyone who is, on the other side of the, you know,

aisle for lack of a better way to say it. I don't feel like very many people have very much civility when it comes to politics these days. It feels like we're living in completely different realities. Like they're living somewhere else where I'm not living. Like the facts aren't aligning. The world is not the same, which makes it really frustrating. People feel really strongly in their views one way or another, and I think that I've noticed that more than ever people really dug in to how they feel, and there's not much persuasion taking place.

There's a lot of griping and, say, a lot of division. Because you seem to walk on eggshells when you talk, because you know it's going to cause a rift, or it's going to be contentious, or they're going to say something that's going to make me. or I'm going to say something that's going to make them angry. If they're going to be, have their heels dug in, I'm going to have my heels dug in. So it's automatically contentious. My household is a two-party household. So we talk about it all the time and we're used to talking about it. We can get sometimes we can get pretty bad where it's like, all right, this is really bad.

And it's just like, okay, we got to just move on. You know what I mean? Let's stop. Let's get out of this. move on. I feel that some people are very close-minded to the other side of the table and what those views may be. I believe that everyone has an opinion and that both of us from both sides should be able to say to our opinions and still be able to get along with each other. But it seems that that's getting harder and harder these days to do so. Joining us with some

advice on how to navigate some of these challenging conversations we may have over the holidays is our Eric Thomas. He's the author of the nationally syndicated advice column asking Eric. Eric, welcome to the NewsHour. Thanks for joining us. Thanks so much for having me. It's a pleasure. So before we jump into some of the questions, this big picture, you're in the business of offering advice. You heard some of the concerns people just shared there. Are you getting more of these questions of people grappling with these issues coming your way? I am, especially this year. Every year around this time, people are looking toward the holidays, looking toward family dinners, and asking questions like, how do I have the meaningful time that I want to have without getting

bogged down by political difference? I mean, the advice, you know, is always a little bit the same, which is to see that your loved ones as real people, as humans, and talk to the human and not to the headline. Well, let's hear from a few of those viewers. Now, the first question comes to us from Brandon of Madison, Wisconsin. Take a listen. I guess my question would be, how do you get someone to listen to reason or even hear your side of the argument when their deep heels are so dug in that they are just waiting for you to stop talking so they can say their part. Eric, there's a related question that comes to us from Scott in Newcastle, Washington. He writes, how do you separate the person and your relationship to them from the views

that they have? What would you say to them? I think, you know, looking at the word choice here is so interesting. The first respondent talks about an argument and getting another person to hear there side. And then the second person talks about relationships. Arguments and relationships are a little bit at odds with each other. You can obviously argue with people you have relationships with. But what is the goal of the conversation that these people are trying to have? Are they trying to win a debate and get one person to say, I admit it, you're right, I was wrong? Or are they trying to maintain a relationship? If it's the latter, then what they're looking toward is actually saying,

I see that we don't agree, there's probably a better venue for us to have this discussion. In the meantime, can you acknowledge that I'm a human who cares about certain things, and I know that you are a human who cares about certain things, and can we find a common ground about what we actually do care about? And maybe that's each other, maybe that's the meal, maybe it's something completely unrelated to the political issue at hand. I love that. Bring it back to the shared humanity. Sometimes the question, though, Eric, as you know, is not about how to engage on the

issue with friends and family, but whether to engage at all. That leads us to a question that comes from Dave and Mayquan, Wisconsin. Take a listen. The question I would ask is, is it worth having the conversation? Are we better to just not have it at all? Or should we have a strategy to how to deal with disagreement? Eric, is it better to just avoid some topics? You know, I think sometimes it is.

And I don't say that lightly, because I do know that politics is personal. And so the ways that the headlines affect us in our daily lives can rise at any moment and can be an ever-present source of frustration or concern or fear. That said, if you are sitting with relatives, friends with whom you don't share certain alignments, really ask yourself what you're trying to get out of this exchange. What is the point of engaging in this debate right now? And ask yourself, is there a different way that we can structure the rules of our conversation? We act like gathering with family or with anybody is something that just naturally happens. And yeah, it does. But it is always important to think about how we gather and what are the guardrails of our gathering.

And it is okay to say this is a lightning rod in our conversation. So for the next two hours, we're going to stay away from this topic. And if it comes up, it's okay to sort of raise a hand, blow a whistle, wave a flag, and say, hey, we agreed that we were going to steer clear. And we're, because there are a million other things to talk about. We got a lot of questions as well about people asking for specific tips and tricks like this one that comes to us from Deer Drought in Charleston, South Carolina. My question would be what sort of emotion regulation? skills do you recommend for in the moment when you're in a heated debate? How can we calm ourselves down? Phil from Fort Myers, Florida, sent a similar question writing, sometimes there are

triggers and long-time behaviors with family members. What tactics would you suggest for not falling into those same behaviors every time? What would you say, Eric? I mean, it is so easy to fall into those familiar grooves with people that know you, that know where all your buttons are because they installed them themselves. And it is, and that's okay, that's human. And so to go in and say to yourself, to the person you're with, your partner, or even your children, to say, like, there are certain things that come up for me when I'm with my parents, my siblings, and I don't always want to respond in the way

that I respond. Can you help me to be an off-ramp? Mindfulness is going to be very important, acknowledging what you are feeling as you are feeling it, I'm feeling frustrated. I'm feeling fearful. I'm feeling not heard. Acknowledge that to yourself and then give yourself the opportunity to step away. You know, we're talking a lot about the potential pitfalls and the tensions around this moment, but this is also a wonderfully warm time to gather with your friends and family. It's supposed to be about gratitude and being thankful. So how can we remind ourselves about the spirit of the season?

It is really, really important to make gratitude an active practice as opposed to something you just sort of acknowledge that you feel. We say, oh, I'm grateful for my family, my house, my home, whatever it is. But it is really important to start your day, start your week, start, you know, a holiday by making a list in your head or on a piece of paper or on your phone of the things that you are grateful for. And they don't have to be completely unqualified gratitudes. You know, you can say, I'm grateful for my home, but I wish the roof didn't leak. That is totally fine. But acknowledging this is a thing that you have, that you acknowledge is not a guarantee, will help you to see the people around you and the conversations that might come up in a different light.

You can even say, I'm grateful for the opportunity to spend time with this relative who gets on my nerves. because even though we don't agree on this part, I value them. That is R. Eric Thomas, is the author of the nationally syndicated advice column asking Eric with some very useful advice for us all. Eric, thank you so much. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours. Thanks so much. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours as well.

On this holiday centered around food and gratitude, we bring you some lessons in life and cooking from a tiny chef. The Instagram sensation, who also happens to be animated, has gained millions of fans of all ages while whipping up vegetarian meals with a side of heart. Stephanie Sye has our Encore report, which is part of our Arts and Culture series, Canvas. He makes a mean vegan taco without missing a beat. His DIY projects are legendary, and he loves to share beachside snaps while on vacation. In many ways, he's like any other social media influencer, sharing the minutia of his daily life and occasionally bearing his soul.

I'm home. But tiny chef, a furry, green, six and a half inch tall puppet who lives in a tree stump, strikes a different chord in a sea of noise. It's not hard to see why. Don't blame yourself, Ruby. He's not cynical. so genuine and like optimistic and he sees good he just sees good tiny chef is the brainchild of co-creators Rachel Larson and Oslam Ocktirk we made it actually like we made it for us and every time we laugh about the topic or want to do this it's because we

tested on ourselves yeah it kind of is true like you kind of make something to your own taste and like you're going to hopefully speak to people who have similar taste or like the same humor and kind of get it. A lot of people get it. The Tiny Chef Show Instagram account has almost 6 million followers. Today, a team of 11 in this Los Angeles studio work to bring his universe to life. Everything in the stop motion animated videos

is custom made from the tiny sets built and designed by creative director Jason Kowalski. Everything is purely functional. is purely functional, you know, doors open for Chef, windows open for Chef. To his belongings. The first video we ever shot of Chef, this was the banjo he's playing.

Oh my God. Yeah. It's a labor of love that started as a hobby, say Larson and Okturk. The creators met in London working on the animated film Isle of Dogs by Wes Anderson. We're a pack of scary, indestructible alpha dogs. Larson worked on the stop motion animation,

A process which involves painstakingly manipulating physical objects to be photographed frame by frame, creating the illusion of movement. OckTurk was part of the film crew. We became really good friends and we were just like, we should do our own project at some point. So that's where the seed kind of got planted. That seed sprouted in 2018, when Larson started sharing images on Instagram of tiny food she sculpted for fun. That gave OckTurk an idea. She remembered a green puppet Larson had shown her years ago.

I was like, he has to be the chef. He's perfect for it. I have to contact her and tell her we need to do a stop motion cooking show. And she loved it. And in an instant, we figured out the name, the tiny chef. Credit for the pint-sized performers' pipes is due to Matt Hutchinson, Larson's brother-in-law.

He sent them his rendition of a classic by Queen. Once he sent the song, it all came together. And we were laughing and we were like, we have to animate it. So we just, like, animated him packing up a pie to that voice, which was on his phone. It was so low-fi. Their early animations, created in a makeshift studio in New Zealand where Larson was working at the time, took off on Instagram. We went from like zero, you know, to 20,000 or something. it was like, it was 50,000.

Was it? Okay. Yeah. When Penguin offered the duo a book deal, they decided to work on their tiny green character full time. Since then, his followers have watched Chefie move to Los Angeles and score his dream job, hosting a kid's cooking show on television. But Chef is more than that to his fans. We get a lot of messages from fans who have kids, speech impediments and say that chef has given them self-esteem. Chef has made it not a bad thing and that is like very meaningful to us because we just always felt like chef is from a

different place and this is his second language and we shouldn't try to hide that or fix him or do anything to him. He's perfect. He's relatable, perhaps never more so than in this clip from June when he learned that his cooking show on Nickelodeon wouldn't be renewed. Can you? Bloody of me? He's cute. Bye. Who hasn't felt that?

The moment when he starts trying to go back to work and then it hits him. Yeah. I honestly feel genuinely bad for chef. We have more practical, logical, like, okay, what's next? Like, how do we keep going? You know, when I think of his experience of someone who just wanted to have this cooking show for so many years, it's like that would break his heart. The cancellation made headlines and the video inspired an outpouring of care. and donations from his worried followers.

Dionne Warwick was downright livid. Are you proud of making this thing cry? Who's in charge over there? I want a name, she posted. As for Tiny Chef, he's taking things one day at a time, playing his trusty banjo and meditating. He's currently on a road trip finding himself and doing an occasional interview,

but only with blilly-blig news organizations. Chef, I know this is your first TV. the interview since your show was canceled. How are you doing? Well, they're not going to fly. Things were a little tough day for a while, but sometimes you've got to pull yourself up and run out of moot swabs, look around, little of multiple things to bring your wife. But it's a Chevy. We're going to find a mixed adventure. What did you think about the huge outpouring of support you got from your fans?

But I'm a little bit more than, but I don't believe it's half. have to pose for how much they get to put on the fans made to me. I don't even call the fans, really. They're just friends, but I haven't met you. Well, Hollywood can be tough. Do you have any advice for anyone going through similar hard times? Number one. Seal, you know, feel.

Number two, have a quiet. Number three, find your flesh. From a fool, gentle, my own next friend, thank you. Who knows what he is? If Roger don't wish us a big. While they cook up his next adventure, Larson and Okturk say chefs not going anywhere. I think what's really important to us is really taking the next step sort of slowly, just in really making sure if we bring in another partner that that's what we want.

Right now we're just enjoying just focusing on social media. chef's best chapter is coming up. I just feel really strongly in my heart that the best a chef is to come. In the meantime, the joys of tiny chef continue to capture our hearts. For the PBS News Hour, I'm Stephanie Tsai in Los Angeles. Bligh, Bligh. Finally tonight, an encore report that originally aired on PBS News weekend. It's about summer camps in South Dakota and Minnesota for indigenous children. As special correspondent Megan Thompson tells us, there's a little rock star treatment thrown in.

The sound of drums, guitars, and keys drift from a building on the east side of St. Paul, Minnesota. But peek inside and you'll see, this is no ordinary garage band. This is Rock the Res, a summer camp for indigenous girls and gender diverse kids. We want them to feel strong and let them know that they have a voice. We'll get the snare going and then we'll get the hi-hat going.

April Mattsin, who is Sikangu Lakota and Athabaskan, has been the executive director here since 2019. Indigenous, two-spirit, LGBTQ girls, they're so overlooked and representation is low to none. You rock! And so this is our way. of helping them to take up space and hopefully they take that courage and they put it into everything that they do. Ten campers from around the Twin Cities attended the session we visited in

August. Marine O'Brien was teaching kindergarten on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota when she came up with the idea to start the camp in 2016. Music really wasn't like an extracurricular very much at least at the school that I was at. So like music wasn't as accessible. O'Brien, a self-taught musician, also wanted to promote the idea that anyone can pick up an instrument and jam. So it's kind of like breaking down the third wall of, you can't do this, maybe you don't see folks that look like you, or you're not trained classically. I like that. There are now five rock the res camps, including three new camps in Minnesota that launched this summer. The program is free of charge thanks to grants and donations, and the band coaches are mostly volunteers.

Most of the campers who come in have no music experience, or they've played another instrument, but they've never played this instrument. The campers we met formed two bands and spent a few hours each day learning the instruments and parts they chose, working up to a public concert at the end of the week. Well, it's a little bit scary, but it's more fun, actually. Raina Spears, who is Ojibway in Dakota, was the lead singer of the younger band. which called itself Little Rockers with Spirit. I just get sometimes too excited that I try to go really fast, but I know I have to follow the other instruments, and they have to follow me too.

Spears wrote the lyrics for her band song. Gotta write how I get into the light, and what I mean by that is, gotta write how I get, like, courage, so you can, like, show who you really are. Three, four, four. Four. We're kind of like fighting for our voices to be heard and for a change.

Alia Hansen, who is read like Ojibway, led her band called Kamimila, which means butterfly in Dakota. Their song was filled with historical and social messages. This is where it started. We are taken from our homes. When we come back, we have nowhere to go. Frame us as addicts, blame us and laugh, but when the white man leaves, you better hope you don't come back. I think it's very powerful, and it goes very deep into Native culture.

Native culture. I wrote some things down. The songs were written collaboratively by the campers. The band coaches encouraged and facilitated, but otherwise got out of the way. We all are seen equally and we're all respected. I'm an introvert, so it's hard speaking up. But here, I think I'm pretty loud here, and I like that, that I get to actually interact with people and not feel afraid.

This is the only urban rock the res camp. others are held on or near reservations. So some of these campers come from communities where there aren't a lot of other native kids. At school, I just feel kind of left out on my culture. So here, I feel like I belong more. When people think of native, they think of like those like old photos that are like yellow and like wearing and its own chief guy. But we're not that anymore. We're still here, you know. Workshops held each day, like this Dakota language lesson, gave the kids a chance to dive deeper into indigenous cultures. And there were musical performances every day after lunch.

Lakota recording artist Tiana Spotted Thunder sang the day we were there. Showface your skills. Showcase your talent. Then, after a week of pep talks and practicing, the final day of arrived. The campers got themselves and each other all glammed up and headed to a park down the street to perform the final showcase for their friends, family, and community. Welcome to the Procala Showcase. The name of our song is singing to our hearts. Empowerment's a huge part of it. I hope that they are proud of themselves and feel

like accomplished by the end of it because it's a pretty big feat to write a song and perform it in a matter of one week. Being lost in history. Being cheated of our treatise. And if anything, they can look back and say, oh, I performed in front of a bunch of people. Because it can be really scary, but they are being so brave.

Thank you for coming. For PBS News Weekend, I'm Megan Thompson and St. Paul, Minnesota. A sad update to tonight's lead story. One of the National Guard members shot in Washington, D.C. yesterday, has died. President Trump announced this evening that 20-year-old Sarah Bextram succumbed to her injuries. The other victim, Andrew Wolfe, is still hospitalized, as is the alleged shooter. And that's the NewsHour for tonight.

I'm John Yang. For all of us at PBS NewsHour, thanks and happy Thanksgiving.