PBS News Hour - Full Show - October 1, 2025 – PBS News Hour full episode

Episode Date: October 1, 2025

Wednesday on the News Hour, congressional leaders and the White House dig in on their demands as the federal government is shut down. Israel intercepts a flotilla full of humanitarian aid and activists that was bound for Gaza at a sensitive time for peace negotiations. Plus, we remember world-renowned primatologist Jane Goodall and how she changed how people see chimpanzees and themselves. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy

Good evening. I'm Jeff Bennett. And I'm Amna Nawaz. On the news hour tonight, digging in. Congressional and White House leaders refused to compromise on their demands and reopen the federal government. Israel intercepts a plotilla full of humanitarian aid and activists that was bound for Gaza at a sensitive time for peace negotiations. And we remember world-renowned primatologist Jane Goodall, who changed how people see chimpanzees and themselves. The main message I have is that every single one of us, every single day, we make some

impact on the planet and we have a choice as to what impact we make. Welcome to the News Hour. end the government shutdown that began overnight have so far been unsuccessful. Democrats are refusing to vote on funding without ensuring the extension of health care subsidy. And Republicans say they will not negotiate until the funding is secure. Federal workers across the country are either on the job today without pay or temporarily furloughed, and President Trump has threatened to make some cuts permanent. Congressional correspondent Lisa Desjardin starts our coverage.

A quiet morning on the National Mall. As the government shuts down, closed signs go up at the National Archives. Vice President J.D. Vance. At the White House, a different sign of the high stakes moment, the vice president in the briefing room. We need to reopen the government. Let's fix America's problems. Let's work together to solve them. But let's reopen the government before we have our negotiation about health care policy. As the Capitol itself closed to Tours, part of a Republican message was the government will stay shut down until Democrats relent. The motion is not agreed to.

Inside the building, other news. Two more senators who vote with Democrats broke ranks supporting Republicans' funding bill. But it is still five short of what it needs. This as agencies felt the shutdown. Some functions are fully operating like the armed services, FBI, CIA, and air traffic controllers. though many of those workers won't be paid until the government is funded. Elsewhere, hundreds of thousands of federal workers are expected to be under a furlough, not working at all. President Trump and Republicans are using all of this and the threat of permanent mass firings to pressure Democrats.

Let's be honest. If this thing drags on for another few days or God forbid another few weeks, we are going to have to lay people off. We're going to have to save money in some places so the essential services don't get turned off in other places. Another pressure point, the administration put a hold on $18 billion marked for New York City, transit, and infrastructure. A blunt statement from the Department of Transportation said the funding was a casualty of radical Democrats' reckless decision. Budget Director Russ Vote later teased that $8 billion of energy project funding would be cut from mostly blue states. House Democrats encouraged their Senate colleagues to hold strong. The goal from Donald Trump and his administration, has been all along to make this, you know, painful.

This isn't about policy priorities for them. They want to send a message. And so it was the start of a major shutdown, but little change from party leaders. The Republican Speaker says Democrats are unreasonable. There isn't anything we can do to make this bill any better for them. We literally did not put one single partisan provision in the bill. There's no policy writers. There's no gimmicks and no truth.

Good afternoon, everyone. Democrats insist Republicans can't be trusted to address major health care cuts, and they must be forced to do it. The Republican health care crisis is immoral in nature, and Democrats are fighting hard to reverse it. Cancel the cuts, lower the costs. Meantime, the shutdown moves forward in a different form at each agency. Health and Human Services will keep benefits going, but furlough 41% of its staff.

National Park Service, open air facilities will stay open even as two-thirds of its workers stay home. At the Federal Communications Commission, the furlough figure is 81%. One agency is expected to be mostly safe from any disruption, homeland security, as its immigration raids and enforcement continue. All of its employees are staying on the job. And Lisa joins us now, along with our White House correspondent Liz Landers. So Lisa, I know you've been in touch with federal agencies and workers. What are they telling you about what the shutdown has already meant? It varies wildly. In some agency, nearly everyone is staying on the job without pay.

In some agencies, nearly everyone is staying home, and the entire agency is shuttered. There was confusion this morning across different agencies as well, because a lot of this notification, many of these plans didn't come out until late last night. I spoke to one DOJ source, for example, who talked about confusion over immigration courts. They weren't sure if the courts were actually going to hear their cases or not today. They are, in fact, hearing them now. Now, as far as RIFs go, there's only one that we know of. PBS NewsHour learned of one at the Patent and Trademark Office. That office telling workers that 1% of the agency will be RIFT, those were long.

Reduction and Force, right? Reduction and Force. Mass layoffs at the Patent and Trade Office. Those mass layoffs had been long planned, but they are happening during the shutdown, and some people wonder if they're legal. Also, just an update in the last few minutes. Now the agency sent out another notice saying, oh, we're also hiring. so we may hire back the people we just rift a few hours ago.

All of this part of the confusion around today. Very fluid, very confusing. Liz, you were at that White House briefing today. There was a lot of questions about those federal worker layoffs. And when they might start, what did you find out? There were so many questions about this because this is not typical sort of procedure. Usually people go on furlough. But this administration is using this as an opportunity to slim down the federal workforce.

The press secretary is saying that layoffs are, quote, very likely and imminent. She was asked if there was a percentage of the specific agency or the overall federal government that would be slimmed down. She did not have an answer to that. And you heard the justification from the vice president in Lisa's report there saying that they're going to have to save some money from some agencies to fund essential services in others.

We got a little bit more information, though, from the director of the Office of Management and Budget Russ vote. He had a call around 1 p.m. with Republican members, and he told them that these reduction in force layoffs could happen in the next day or two. The source that I talked to, who was on the call, said that vote was very intentional not to give information about which agencies would be impacted, just saying that this is part of the administration's larger priorities. Vote has been a very aggressive defender of the president's agenda, and he has taken a political bent to the Office of Management and, budget. For example, he sent out an email late last night, this memorandum that went out to all of the federal agencies and in it, he blames the shutdown on, quote, Democrats' insane policy demands. They said this is shutdown day one. Is there any movement to resolve it? Not real movement,

but conversations, yes. I want to show people something that happened during those Senate votes today. A group of bipartisan senators were meeting if you kind of knew where to look. That's the start of some conversations trying to figure out if there is possible common ground. But a major problem here is trust. Democrats are not sure how to verify that Republicans really will negotiate with them later if they allow the shutdown to end now. And all of this rhetoric from the administration, including what some agencies are saying, frankly, doesn't help Democrats with trust. Lisa Desjardin, Liz Landers. Thanks to you both. Welcome. We're going to get two perspectives on all of this now. First from House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries. I spoke with

him earlier today. Leader Jeffreys, welcome back to the News Hour. Good evening. Great to be with you. Understanding this remains a fluid situation, as we speak a little after 4 p.m. Eastern, have there been any substantive conversations between Democrats and congressional Republican leadership or the White House since this shutdown started overnight? Unfortunately, Donald Trump and Republicans have decided to shut the government down so they can continue to gut the health care of the American people and subsequent to that shutdown, there's been no communication from either the White House or from Republican leaders in the House and the Senate. Leader Schumer and I continue to make clear that we will sit down with anyone at any time and at any place

to discuss reopening the government, making sure we enact a spending agreement that meets the needs of the American people, and, of course, addressing the Republican health care crisis. The Vice President J.D. Vance said today that the White House is willing to have a conversation about health care, so long as the government is funded first. What do you make of that? And how do you respond to the charge that Democrats are the ones making the demands here? So it's Democrats who are forcing this shutdown.

Republicans control the House, the Senate, and the presidency. They've spent all year lecturing the American people that they are dominant and have complete control of government. So it is ludicrous to suggest that Democrats are actually the ones that have shut the government down when the government is in Republican hands. completely and in totality. What we have said is that we will partner in a bipartisan way if Republicans are prepared to act in good faith to make sure we can arrive in an agreement

that actually addresses the concerns and needs of the American people in terms of their health, public safety, and their economic well-being in an environment where the cost of living is too high and Republicans haven't lowered costs on day one as Donald Trump promised. In fact, life is getting more expensive for the American people. And that's one of the reasons why we're fighting to renew the Affordable Care Act tax credits to prevent premiums, co-pays, and deductibles from dramatically increasing for tens of millions of Americans. The Vice President also said today that Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi for years have made the point that you don't shut down the government over policy disagreements.

I have covered enough government shutdowns to know that he's not wrong about that. Why did Democrats see this moment differently? Well, we haven't shut down the government. Republicans have shut down the government. But for months, we've indicated that there's a growing Republican health care crisis, which includes the largest cut to Medicaid in American history, the fact that hospitals, nursing homes, and community-based health centers are closing all across the country, including in rural America,

because of what Republicans did in their one big, ugly bill. They refuse to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits, even though starting today, notices are going out to tens of millions of Americans indicating that their health care costs, their health insurance costs are about to dramatically increase. I think the difference of opinion that we have with the White House and the Vice President, and we made this clear in the Oval Office meeting on Monday, is that the time is now to address the Republican health care crisis and to act in a way that is commensurate.

with the crisis that they've created with respect to the health care of everyday Americans. When you say this is a Republican shutdown, historically, it's Democratic and Republican votes that are needed on spending resolutions to get them across the finish line. How are you pinning this directly on Republicans when it's Democrats who are withholding their votes

on a clean resolution? Well, Democrats actually are in the minority in the House and the Senate. Of course, Donald Trump is the president, and what Republicans have consistently done, throughout their time in office. They passed this one big ugly bill on a party line vote,

used the reconciliation process to be able to accomplish their objectives. Largest cut to Medicaid in American history, stealing food from the mouths of hungry children and seniors and veterans, and all of this, of course, was done so they could reward their billionaire donors with massive tax breaks.

If they found a way to do that and include more than $3 trillion in additional debt, potentially driving this country toward bankruptcy and certainly complicating the fiscal health of our country for decades to come, of course they may be able to find a way with their complete control of government to reach a spending agreement. But they're uninterested. They're uninterested. The OMB director Russ Vote has raised the prospect of mass firings in the event of a shutdown. We're now in the shutdown. Have you heard anything more on that front? Do you view it?

that is a real threat, or was that an initial scare tactic? Seems to me that in part it was a scare tactic designed to try to intimidate Democrats in the House and the Senate. We, of course, will not be intimidated. We know that this administration has engaged in mass firings from day one of his presidency. That's been happening since January 20th. And so the notion that they're going to pretend to use a government shutdown as the reason for firing tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of hardworking public servants, is belied by the fact that they've been doing it throughout the duration of the Trump presidency. You know, there are lots of Democrats who say they want their

leaders to put up a fight, to show some spine. In this moment, what does that call to action mean to you? How are you interpreting that message from your base? Well, it's been an important throughout the year for us to continue to push back aggressively against the flood of extremism that has been unleashed on the American people. And it's also understandable that many Americans are disturbed at what they've seen, almost on a daily basis from Donald Trump and members of his administration, the chaos, the cruelty, and the corruption, the likes of which this country has never seen before in one presidential term, let alone in less than a year. And so, We continue to be in a more is more environment.

And as Democrats will be required to do more, more town hall meetings, more press conferences, more speeches on the House floor and the Senate floor, more days of action, more hearings on Capitol Hill and throughout the country so that we can both push back against the chaos that has been unleashed by Donald Trump since day one. Now, this is just the first day of the government shutdown, but it's day 255. of the chaos that Donald Trump has visited on the American people during his presidency, and we're going to have to sustain righteous intensity to match what's happening so we can end this national nightmare. I have to ask while we have you, what did you think when you first

saw that AI generated deep fake video, the sombrero video that the president posted earlier this week. There was another one he posted last night. And what does the mere existence of those videos say about the political climate we're in right now? I thought it was deeply unsurious, and I was surprised from a tactical perspective as to why Donald Trump would engage in this type of unhinged behavior in the immediate aftermath of us having a conversation in the Oval Office to try to actually get to a place where we could avoid a government shutdown and enact an enlightened spending agreement.

The only way to do it is in a bipartisan way. What Donald Trump's actions have suggested is that he's not the leader that we need at a moment like this to bring people together, to work things out, to exercise common sense, to be able to find common ground in order to promote the common good. That's what House Democrats are all about. That's what we will continue to be about as we fight to cancel the cuts, lower the cost, and save health care. House Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries. Thanks again for your time. Thank you. For the Republican view on the shutdown, we're joined now by Representative Mike Herodopoulos of Florida.

Congressman, welcome back to the NewsHour. Great to be here. So, as you just heard, Democrats are not giving in on their demands to reverse the Medicaid cuts, to extend those Affordable Care Act tax credits. They say people's health costs will go up if you don't take those steps. Why oppose that? Well, first and foremost, let's recognize where we're at. Their ransom note for this is $1.5 trillion. And if we wouldn't have a negotiation...

equivalent of the cuts, right? The Medicaid cuts? When you add up all of their goodies, it's $1.5 trillion. And let's also be clear, any Medicaid cuts that they talk about wouldn't take place until 2027. And a person who's disabled, who's an elderly, who's a child of a low-income parent, let alone a pregnant woman, those are untouched, as you know. We talked about that in July. But that said, let's keep the government open and have these thoughtful negotiations. Democrats did it 13 times during the Biden years. We think a CR's a, a smart thing. It's a continuation of the deal we cut back in March. And we think keeping the

government open is a good idea. It's what Chuck Schumer said his entire career. And I'd like to think they can do it again. So as you mentioned, the Medicaid cuts don't go into effect until 2027. But those subsidies do run out at the end of the year. And Democrats say, look, if the Republicans made these cuts in the first place, why should they trust you that you'll negotiate on them in good faith now if you didn't do that before? Well, I think one is we need to negotiate. I think it's a thoughtful thing to do. But let's keep the government in the open in the meantime. Let's not penalize people for this negotiation that's going on. But there are problems within that system, I think they'd have to admit. One is if you live in Arizona and you're a family of four and they

have an income of $600,000, they get a subsidy. In Vermont, if you make $180,000 as a single person, you get a subsidy. I think those are things will negotiate. And I'd also like to say that of those people who are getting these subsidies, 40% of them didn't even use that insurance. So Some people are getting signed up for it. They're not getting that quality health care they need to have. That's why we need to have the overhaul, much like we did with Medicaid. People who really need it, the disabled, the elderly, let's help them. Same thing with the subsidies.

Truly people have the financial need, not just another program. I hear you saying you should negotiate, but as Leader Jeffries just said, the White House hasn't reached out, Republican leadership has not reached out to negotiate. They're basically saying Democrats need to drop their demands. Well, I would say this. What's the benefit of closing the government? I can't think of one. Well, Democrats would say they're fighting for health care costs here.

They don't want people's costs to go up. Let's also say this. Since Obamacare's been in place, price has gone up radically. And a lot of folks are hurting who pay for the, quote, private insurance. And this would cause them to go up even further. Well, that's why we're going to have the debate. But this is why we're looking at this program. If they just let the status quo hold, which is their position at this point, when people get insurance paid for or subsidized and 40% don't even use it,

there's a problem in the system. If you're a family making $600,000, you shouldn't be having a subsidy. You shouldn't get other taxpayers to help you out. But you have to keep the government open. This is a ransom. And it's not at the expense of politics. It's the expense of people who've earned these benefits

or people who pay taxes are not getting the services they deserve. So let's keep the government open. This has always been their position for years. And again, I'm willing to negotiate. The speaker has said that out loud. The Senate Majority Leader said it out loud, and I take them as honorable people. So Republicans are saying Democrats are causing the shutdown.

Democrats are saying Republicans are causing the shutdown. One thing, we voted to keep the government open in the House. Again, we're there. This is, when they're saying we should come. And Democrats say, if you negotiate with them, they would also agree to the C-R. And now it's up to the Senate to vote as well. Well, here's the thing. In the shutdown now, if there are mass layoffs, people's benefits are cut off or they're slowed.

If there's mass travel disruptions like there were last time, do you think people are going to blame Democrats or blame the party that controls the House, the Senate, and the White House? I'm not a sooth sayer, but I don't know that answer. But I think the right thing to do is to keep the government open. That's my perspective in this. And when you talk about how the system works, what I think is silly as a new member of Congress is that all these people are being furloughed. I don't know if they'd be let go permanently or not, but probably just be furloughed. They're literally not working. But as you know, when the government does back, does get back open, they're actually going to get paid for not working. It's so silly. It's

Help me, Washington. It's the reason I came to this place to try to reform it and why you and I have constructive conversations. We need to move past the hyper-partisanship, keep the government open. And you know what? In seven weeks, if we can't work out a deal, the Democrats are probably have a stronger hand. Well, you just mentioned people being furloughed.

There's obviously the threats were heard from the president about permanent mass federal layoffs. I know you were on a call earlier today with the OMB director of Russ Vote. It's been reported that there could be mass layoffs within one to two days. Is that what you heard? What should we expect on that? Look, I think the Russ is, I can only play the hand he's given. Yeah.

And when the government is shut down because the Democrats won't get 60 votes in the Senate, he has to work within the dollars he's given, and that's the flexibility we have. Let's take all these threats off the table. But the president is making those threats. So what did Russ votes say about those layoffs? The threat, in my opinion, is if you don't get $1.5 trillion in spending back into the government's budget, we're going to close it down. And this is the same group a couple of months ago told me that,

The bill from July would cause massive deficits. They wouldn't add another $1.5 trillion to that deficit. I don't buy their logic. So what about those layoffs? What was the mess that you got from Russ Vod on this? Well, they are looking at all options right now. We're all optimists. Remember last night, the good news is three Democrats saw the wisdom of keeping the government open.

I see that a lot of Democrat centers and Republican senators are talking to say, hey, why don't we just keep the government open for seven more weeks and have these real discussions? And I'm, again, I've got to think that in seven weeks we're going to be in a much better position than we are now where we're hurting people because they paid for things. They're not getting the services or they're getting paid to not work. It's just a silly season in Washington. In this shutdown now, will there be layoffs? What did Russ vote say? I think he's looking at everything across the table and it's a reason why we should not have a government shutdown.

Let's hope there's no layoffs because these people should not be the victims of politics. We've also seen the president continue to post these racist videos. with a sombrero superimposed on leader Jeffrey's head. Why does he keep posting those? What's the message there? I think the president's always doing things that change the debate. And what he has always tried to do is have a little fun in politics. We've seen all kinds of push back and forth.

Congressman, how is that fun? What's the joke there? I think what his point is, he's trying to create more interest in politics. And as the president of the United States, and he's getting a little tired of folks saying one thing and doing another. But how is that helping the debate? How is that helping to keep the government open or negotiate, as you continue to say, needs to happen now? Well, I think these negotiations are going to be productive, and it's up to the senators now to work out some type of either deal or agreement that seven weeks from now will have this massive debate on health care. And I'm optimistic that we can get this done. I think that a lot of Republicans feel like these tax considerations for health care will be a positive one.

We just want to get rid of the waste and fraud. I mean, when 40% of the people don't even use that health care program, clearly insurance companies, is getting paid, and no one's getting any services. In this shutdown moment now, I hear you saying you want to see negotiation. Leader Jeffries is saying no one from Republican leadership has reached out should they negotiate to end the shutdown. Well, I think, as you know, the process works this way, and I used to teach this in my classes at the college level.

We passed a bill that will keep the government open under the conditions we put out in March. It's now in the Senate's hands. As you know, we can't even get something back until the Senate acts one way or another. So the Senate's going to come up with some type of proposal and send it back to the House. We have been in good faith always trying to keep the government open. That has been our position from the beginning. And that's why I'm here in Washington right now talking with folks and see what's going on.

But when the Democrats say with the Republicans or AWOL, you know, this is like Tuesday night football. The vote already happened last week. And let's see what the Senate does. Let's hope that a few more Democrat senators will come on board to keep the government open. That's why I'm here. And I think you ask fair questions. and that should be the center of the debate that is going to be happening from this point forward

once we get the government back open. Publican congressman from Florida, Mike Herodopoulos. Thank you for being here. Always great. Thanks for the thoughtful questions. In the day's other headlines, Hamas is still reviewing the U.S. plan to end the war in Gaza.

But the war continues. And tonight, Israel, blocked a flotilla of ships trying to break through Israel's blockade of humanitarian aid to Gaza. Nick Schifrin reports. Hamas might no longer control Gaza's streets, but tonight it controls the war's fate. Arab mediators tell PBS News Hour they've held positive meetings with Hamas, but the group needs more time and is concerned about requirements to disarm and release Israeli hostages before Israel withdraws from Gaza.

And so Hamas faces a choice, end the war and its brutal toll or hold out for a better deal, leaving Ghazans vulnerable to Israel's promise to occupy all of Gaza City. Residents and rescue workers who remain in the city today face their fate. A strike on a U.N. school turned shelter that Israel said targeted Hamas, left a child who's seen so much in shock. Some 400,000 Gaza City residents have fled, today packing the sole remaining road to the south. Israel warned this was their, quote, last opportunity to leave Gaza's city. And so 28-year-old Ahmed Arafat loaded his cart, taking what he could, leaving behind what his family said he must.

I did not want to leave. My family is still in the north, and my father sent me to the south to drop my uncle and not come back. What can we say? We are tired. Our lives are tragic, and the situation is catastrophic. We pray to God that Hamas agrees and that Israel agrees. I mean, I am 28 years old, and I have not done anything in my life. As he drove into an uncertain future...

This is the Israeli Navy. 85 miles to the west, the Israeli Navy intercepted a flotilla that was sailing toward Gaza. We carry crutches. We carry a baby formula for the people that you've been starving today. Israeli forces boarded multiple vessels, detaining those on board, including human rights activist Greta Thunberg, as posted by Israel's foreign ministry. More than 40 boats had been trying to break Israel's maritime blockade of Gaza, with hundreds of people from all across the world.

They set off last week from ports in Spain, Italy, Tunisia, and Greece, carrying humanitarian aid toward Gaza, and escorted by Spanish and Italian naval ships and Turkish drones. David Adler spoke to us before the interception. We're now reaching the final hours of this mission, the largest humanitarian convoy ever to traverse the Mediterranean Sea, carrying critical humanitarian aid with starving people of Gaza. Adler is a Jewish-American activist, part of the Samud Flotilla Coalition. If the governments of the world won't do something to end this genocide,

well, then ordinary people are going to have to take humanitarian matters into our own hands. We cannot let Israel normalize. a state of play in which children are murdered by the day with impunity. And that's why we're here on these boats. And that's why we're approaching the shores of Gaza. But as it has done in the past, Israel used its military to block activists trying to reach Gaza from the sea. And tonight continues to wage war as it awaits Hamas's reply. For the PBS News Hour... Meanwhile back here in the U.S., the Supreme Court is letting Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook stay in her role for now. The justices declined to ask.

on a Trump administration pushed to remove her from the central bank's board immediately and instead said they'll hear arguments on the case in January. President Trump is accused Cook of mortgage fraud, which she denies. The decision is a setback for the president's efforts to exert more control over the Fed, which has long enjoyed independence from political interference. The White House says it will name a new nominee to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics, quote, very soon after pulling its initial choice last night. Officials acknowledged today that President Trump's pick, conservative economist E.J. Anthony,

lacked the votes needed to win Senate approval. As chief economist at the Heritage Foundation, he was widely seen as too partisan for the role. The BLS is responsible for vital economic data, including reports on jobs and inflation. Its previous commissioner, Erica McIntarfer, was fired by Trump in August after a report showing a sharp fall in hiring. In New York City, residents of a Bronx apartment building were unharmed after an explosion this morning caused part of the high rise to collapse. This massive gash on the side of the building used to be a chimney that ran 20 stories up from the boiler room. Bricks plummeted to the sidewalk below, hitting a playground, but amazingly and thankfully no one was injured. Officials are now assessing the overall condition of the building, and residents are demanding answers.

The safety of the residence is of paramount importance, and that's the number one concern. We have building inspectors that are inspecting the foundation of the building and inspecting all of the apartments in the affected areas to make sure that the building is structurally sound for people that live in those wings. This could have been a tragedy. This could have been something a lot worse. All this comes amid citywide concerns over aging buildings where issues like mold and a lack of heat are common complaints. Hurricane Imelda is heading straight towards Bermuda tonight where authorities have shut schools and government offices.

The British territory had already been lashed with wind and rains formed by another storm, Umberto, with the two storms turning almost side by side over the Atlantic. Imelda is due to hit Bermuda as a category two storm, bringing heavy rain and a dangerous storm surge. The U.S. was spared a direct hit, but dangerous surf conditions along the Carolina coast hammered homes there. Eyewitness video caught at least six houses collapsing into the water. They were all unoccupied. In the Philippines, rescuers are using heavy machinery, sniffer dogs, and even their bare hands to search for survivors. A day after an earthquake killed at least 69 people and injured hundreds more. The 6.9 magnitude quake struck last night around 10 p.m. local time off the coast of the central province of Sebu.

Bad weather is complicating search and rescue efforts, and officials have reported more than 600 aftershocks. More are expected in the coming days, leaving residents on edge. We are still anxious. Now we have even lost count of the number of aftershocks we've experienced because there are a lot of them. And it's been like that since last night. I haven't even managed to get any rest yet. Officials say the death toll is expected to rise as many people remain trapped in collapsed buildings. On Wall Street today, stocks climbed higher as investors once again brushed aside concerns about the government shutdown.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added around 40 points for a modest gain. The NASDAQ rose nearly 100 points on the day. The S&P 500 also ended in positive territory. And a 1,200-pound brown bear has been crowned the winner of this year's Fat Bear Week competition. That is, despite suffering from a broken jaw. It's the first win for Bear 32, known simply as chunk, after finishing in second place three years in a row. The bracket-style contest allows viewers to watch a live stream from Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska as a dozen bears work to bulk up for their winter hibernation.

This year's competition attracted more than 1.5 million votes. Still to come, on the news hour, our new poll shows a striking change in Americans' views on political. violence, how immigrant labor has become crucial to U.S. meat production, and a look at the life and legacy of the legendary Jane Goodall. 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. The latest PBS News NPR Marist poll out today shows that nearly a third of Americans now believe political violence may be necessary to get the country back on track. That's up from 19% just a year and a half ago.

It follows a series of high-profile attacks, including the June killing of a Democratic state legislator and her husband in Minnesota and the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Utah last month. Cynthia Miller-Edriss, a professor at American University, who studies polarization and extremism, says the rising support for political violence is translating into real acts, and the trend is deeply alarming. It's just a horrific moment to see that people believe, honestly believe, that there's no other alternative at this point than to resort to political violence. We've had years now of rising support for political violence and willingness to participate in it. And now we're seeing actual rising acts of political violence follow on the heels of that. So having this go up even more is a real wake-up call. It should be a real wake-up call.

The poll also tackles the administration's handling of free speech and a number of other issues. Joining us now to break it all down as NPR's senior political editor and correspondent, Domenico Montanaro. Always great to see you. Great to be with you. So what's driving the increase in Americans who now say that violence might be necessary? Well, it's really fascinating because it went up a lot. 11 points. It's 30 points now in our poll for people who are saying that they might have to resort to violence to be able to get the country back on track. It was 19% back in April of

2024. What's driving that here? Mostly Democrats. Only 12% of Democrats back in April 2024 said that said this. Now it's up to 28%. A huge jump, really. I mean, statistically very significant. But I will say that Republicans are still higher than Democrats. They're at 31%. So they also went up from 28%, about the same, but still a slight increase. Even a quarter of independence are feeling this way now, having gone up seven points as well. On the other hand, the poll also shows that most Americans, about 77% say politically motivated violence is a major problem in this country, another 18% agree that it's at least a minor problem. What does that tell you about the general attitude? Yeah, I mean, I think that clearly most people in the country don't think that this is something that should happen.

and they think that political violence is a major problem. They were split on which people, you know, are being more targeted, who they're more afraid are being targeted, public officials or protesters. People were basically split down the middle. I found fascinating the split by age here. You had people who are under 45 years old who were 20 points more likely than those over 45 years old to say that resorting to violence was necessary. You also saw some splits by race as well where you had people who are black

and Latino, more likely to say that this was necessary potentially than whites. And I think that it really speaks a lot to people who feel under threat in the country. And people feel under threat across the aisle for different reasons, right? Whether they're targeted for hiring practices or feel like they don't have upper mobility or feeling like that the country's not going in the direction they want in the way conservatives had viewed it before Donald Trump was in office. In some senses, though, I feel like there's a failure of politics here overall. Because Because if you feel that politics, which is the only way to really create change in the country, is the way to make that change, then you don't feel this way.

But when politics people feel has let them down, then you start to see these kinds of openings. The poll also touched on how Americans feel about free speech, with the vast majority, 79% feeling the country has gone too far in restricting it. What more should we know? Yeah, I mean, I think that's a big thing, right? Conservatives for a long time had said that they felt like their speech was being restricted on college campuses, online. And now with everything that we've seen

with comedian Jimmy Kimmel being taken off the air and now back on the air after pressure from the Trump administration, everybody's got a gripe as far as whether or not they think the federal government is doing a good job or not. And most people think that the federal government should basically stay out of it.

I mean, when you look at the numbers here, only 15% say that the government should have a major role in deciding extreme speech. 44% say that it should have a minor role. The rest, 41%, say it should have have no role at all. What other takeaways from this poll strike you is interesting? Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of fascinating pieces of the poll. I mean, I think when it comes to speech and violence in particular, they're somewhat connected, right? Because I think you have people who feel

really just that they don't have the opportunity to say what they want to be able to say. A lot of Democrats now feel like speech is being restricted in places where it wasn't previously. And a lot of Republicans have just felt for a long time that they feel that, you know, when Trump ran on this in 2015, 2016, against political correctness, right? And I think you're seeing people have different thoughts and different ideas about what defines, you know, what acceptable speech is in this country. Domenico Montanaro, our thanks to you as always. You're welcome. And you can see the full results of our poll on our website, pbs.bs.org slash news hour. Well, no single industry in the American economy relies more on

immigrant labor than livestock and meat production. The shift began a half a half century ago as the influence of labor unions and wages declined. Fred de Sam Lazaro reports on how this change has played out in one Minnesota community that witnessed a landmark strike 40 years ago. Austin, Minnesota has all the postcard touches of small town America, ringing church bells, quiet streets, and weeknight football practice under the big water tower. But it's in an adjacent football field where the Norman Rockwell imagery meets the 21st century. They're playing soccer on it, or football, as it's likely known in the many native languages of these high school players. The demographic transformation of this community of 26,000, over barely a generation,

has been driven, like much of its history, by Hormel, known for its bacon, ham, and most famously, Spain. There is even a spam museum downtown. You had a company that had been in this community for 70, 80 years, had prospered. And then suddenly in 1977, the company announced that their plant was hopelessly outmoded. Labor historian Peter Ratcliffe says Hormel, citing competitive pressures, Pettitive pressures sought and won tax breaks from the city and a wage freeze from the Union in exchange for modernizing its plant and keeping it in Austin. And in 1984, that seven-year wage freeze expired, and the union sat down with the company

expecting that wages were going to go up. And the company came to the bargaining table and said that they wanted a 23% wage cut. And at that point, all hell broke loose. They say to give back, police and fight back. After months of agitation, 1,500 workers at the Austin plant walked off the job. Tensions escalated into the bitter winter, and National Guard troops were called in to keep the peace. Especially when the plant reopened on the company's terms,

with replacement workers and about 500. strikers who crossed the picket line. More than a thousand who didn't lost their jobs. I'd like to ask you to make this Mass a special mass for prayers for all the community of Austin. The strike divided church congregations, fraternal groups, and even families. It really hurts. Unlike his brother, Ronald Bergstrom, returned to the plant. He took his position, I took mine. And since before Christmas, we haven't talked. called me other day and she's why'd you go on and get your job back and I said well one scab and a family's another we reached out to the Bergstrom brothers they are now reconciled

after years of being estranged but they like many others from that time from both sides of the picket line did not wish to revive painful memories for its part the hormal company also declined to participate saying it had moved on from the strike there's a lot of people living here that didn't grow up here. Race Hardy grew up here, and as a teacher, he's seen the demographic shift up close. I graduated in 1982. How many of your contemporaries are still in town? I would say 20%.

And now Austin is a majority minority school. So people who identify as Caucasian are the minority. And at the time of the strike, it was 94. 8%. Race's father, William Hardy, spent 46 years at the Hormel plant, starting right after high school. And when I was growing up, he worked in rendering. So rendering means essentially cleaning out the guts of her. So it's all the stuff that we're not going to eat.

The job did support a solid middle-class lifestyle for the Hardy family, one that encouraged higher education, and from his father and fellow meat packers, this advice. They said don't go work in the plant. go get a job where it's not going to wear your body out. That was the other thing. It was hard work, right? Yeah, you know, I would challenge anybody to go in and try to wield a knife at the speed and the accuracy of cutting up a pig that they do.

It's miraculous to watch. Meatpacking workers have historically been people one generation off the farm. Today, the workers are fresh off the farm in Eritrea, in Togo. Do people connect the Hormel strike with the immigration that followed? Oh, absolutely.

Tom Steen is a former mayor of Austin and police officer. Even though some in this nearly all-white community were unhappy with so many new arrivals, the community, and especially police, had to take a nuanced approach to immigration enforcement, he says. If they committed a crime, they were gone, you know, but we just weren't going to, you know, stop people on the street

and say, okay, let's see your papers. Because it was disrupting a lot of families and stuff in town. It would have disrupted production at Hormel as well, right? Oh, sure. We had to integrate. It was just the future. I was looking for a better life and a better opportunity because I grew up in a refugee camp.

Obala Obala, originally from Ethiopia, first arrived in Maryland, but it was his mother who came to Austin for a job, invited here by a relative. She told my mom, this town is really quiet, a good place you will find a job. It doesn't matter you speak English or not. What did she do at Hormel? She was working on the line in the handboning department. He barely spoke English when he arrived, but went on to get a college degree

and now works as a team leader at Hormel. So you represent something very different than what's represented on this wall? Yes. And in 2020, Obala became the first ever non-white member of Austin City Council. He's taken pains to allay voter fears, he says, about immigrants. When I don't ask, someone will tell you, are you even a citizen? And I do have to tell people or prove myself. We are not here to create any crime.

The good thing, the majority of Austin, they were ready for change. The two majority has a different meaning, perhaps no meaning at all, in Austin schools, whose pupils represent 46 different language backgrounds from Myanmar to Micronesia. We have a team of 16 multilingual multicultural success coaches who speak 12 languages. Christy Beckman and colleague Corey Hogan work to help immigrant students and their families adapt, a task that's become that much more complicated amid fear. in recent months of immigration crackdowns. Our focus is the kids, first and foremost, every single day.

So it's certainly on the back of our minds because we want our students to be in school, we want them to be safe. So if they come to school with fears about their own safety or their parents' safety, it can be really difficult for them to focus on learning. Well, I have nervous students. Really nervous spring semester,

and I have nervous students right now. So far, there have not been any major immigration enforcement actions in Austin. actions in Austin, and slowly, race hardy says over time, a new sense of one community is emerging, beginning in the schools. Sports has really helped that. We've had successful soccer here, and that wasn't a thing, I would imagine, in 1985. No, we didn't even have high school soccer. Austin didn't. Amid the heated national debate about immigration, in a region where president Trump remains popular, immigration has brought a nervous prosperity to Hormel and its hometown.

For the PBS News Hour, this is Fred de Sam Lazaro in Austin, Minnesota. and conservationists has died, Jane Goodall spent more than half a century studying chimpanzees and advocating for animal rights and environmental protection. She died today of natural causes. And as Jeffrey Brown tells us, Goodall helped change the way that we look at animals

and their behavior. From the jungles of Tanzania to the halls of the United Nations, the natural world had no greater advocate than Jane Goodall. We're supposed to share the planet, and yet species are just, disappearing. Ecosystems are collapsing. That's going to affect us. Goodall was a pioneer who helped revolutionize our understanding of our closest living animal relatives and as a woman breaking through

in a male-dominated field. In 1960 at age 26, she began the longest-running continuous study of wild primates in the world in what is now known as the Gombe Stream National Park of Tanzania, working with Louis Leakey. She had no formal scientific training, and her methods were unconventional. But among her insights, like humans, chimps made and used tools, such as grass stems, to feed themselves, a finding that shocked scientific consensus at the time. In 2020, marking the release of a National Geographic documentary on her life, she told me of her earliest days in Africa. It's absolutely so vivid.

And, of course, you know, it was a time when the chimpanzees were like part of my family. And the striking thing was how like us they actually are. When I got to Cambridge, because Louis Leakey said I had to get a degree, I was told I'd done everything wrong. I shouldn't give them the chimps names. They should have had numbers.

I couldn't talk about personality, mind or emotion. Those were unique to us, I was told. But I'd been taught by my dog, Rusty, who sits near me. Rusty, he was a very, very special dog. And there's never been another dog quite like him. Look at that. Look at, look at Rusty and look at a young Jane Goodall. Look at us, side by side. But Rusty was a special dog. All dogs are special, really, but he was extra special. And of course animals have personalities, minds and emotions. And now science has been forth to accept. We're not after all the only beings with those attributes. Goodall made other discoveries too. Chimps, for example, engaged in organized warfare and they had distinct

personalities. Her research first chronicled in National Geographic and in several documentaries made her a household name. She used that fame to advocate against animal research and became a leading voice against animal trafficking and other abuses. What we do to animals, from their perspective, certainly, and probably from ours, is morally wrong and unacceptable. In 1977, she created the Jane Goodall Institute, which soon became one of the world's largest conservation groups,

and later worked with young people in Africa and around the world through her Roots and Shoots program. She continued her advocacy until the end, still traveling nearly 300 days a year. Some of us could say bonjour, some of us could say Good Morgan, and so on, but I can say, that's good morning in chimpanzee.

When we spoke in 2020, Goodall said she had. had no choice but to keep going. Well, I'm being 86, obviously the time I have left is slowly shrinking, which means I have to work ever harder. People know you need to slow down, but I have to go quicker. You know, the main message I have is that every single one of us, every single day, we make some impact on the planet, and we have a choice as to what impact we make, what we buy, what

we wear, where did it come from? And if enough of us make ethical choices and start thinking in a new way, then business will have to change because of consumer pressure. And governments will just have to obey the will of the people. There's enough of us willing it. So each one of us is part of this growing. It's my greatest reason to hope. Jane Goodall died today while on tour. She was 91 years old.

For the PBS NewsHour, I'm Jeffrey Brown. A note before we go. Today marks the first day without federal funding for public media, a serious setback for the entire PBS system. Even so, our commitment to you has not wavered. We remain steadfast in our responsibility to deliver reporting that is fair, accurate, and independent, and will continue to provide the kind of trusted, in-depth coverage that has

defined public media for generations. For nearly 50 years, PBS News and this nightly program have given you the facts, the context, and the insight to understand our world and to make informed decisions about your lives. That mission drives our work every day. Your support makes that possible, and for that, we are grateful. For more information about how you can help and support your local PBS station, you can go to our website or to pbs.org slash donate. And that is the NewsHour for tonight. I'm Jeff Bennett. And I'm Omna Nawaz. On behalf of the entire NewsHour team, thank you for joining us.