PBS News Hour - Full Show - October 21, 2025 – PBS News Hour full episode

Episode Date: October 22, 2025

Tuesday on the News Hour, President Trump's push to end foreign wars faces a test as cracks show in the fragile Israel-Hamas ceasefire and a meeting with Putin is called off. The president faces growing calls to withdraw a nominee who reportedly referred to himself as having a “Nazi streak.” Plus, another university refuses the Trump administration's demands for higher education. 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, President Trump's push to end foreign wars faces a test as cracks show in the fragile Israel-Hamas ceasefire and a meeting with Russia's Putin is called off. The president faces growing calls to withdraw a nominee who reportedly referred to himself as having a Nazi streak while making other racist comments. And the University of Arizona becomes the low. latest school to refuse to sign the Trump administration's demands for higher education. Seeking innovation, academic discoveries, all of that's at risk here if institutions become simply instruments of state policy. Welcome to the News Hour. President Trump is trying to

trying to end two brutal wars on two continents. And tonight, his pursuit of peace faces challenges in both Ukraine and Gaza. The administration now says the president has no plans to meet with Russian president Vladimir Putin anytime soon. That's as vice president, J.D. Vance, traveled to Israel today to try to ensure that a fragile ceasefire holds. Nick Schifrin is following both of these developments and joins us now. All right, Nick, so let's start with Putin.

President Trump initially said they'd meet within weeks. What happened? President Trump made that prediction late last week that they would have a meeting within two weeks. But tonight, an administration official sent me this statement, quote, there are no plans for President Trump to meet with President Putin in the immediate future. Jeff, as we've talked about, Trump has long believed that his relationship with Putin would produce peace in Ukraine. But this afternoon in the White House, Trump seemed to dismiss the possibility of making any progress with Putin. I don't want to have a wasted meeting.

I don't want to have a waste of time. so I'll see what happens. The president later added that nothing had been decided and that he would decide whether to meet Putin within two days. But the fact is that Secretary of State Marco Rubio was supposed to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov this week to hash out the Trump-Pooten summit. But two U.S. officials tell me the Rubio Lavrov phone call yesterday

revealed once again that Russia maintains its maximalist demands. Among them this, Ukraine must give up parts of the eastern Donbass region the Ukraine holds, even though Russia has failed to win it on the battlefield. Number two, Ukraine can never join NATO. Number three, Western troops cannot be based in or even train Ukrainian troops inside Ukraine. And number four, Ukraine's military capabilities must be limited, including its ability to fire long-range weapons. Those are largely the same exact demands that Russia made in late 2021 before the full-scale invasion, which means that neither three years of war during which Ukraine caused,

one million Russian casualties, nor Trump's efforts on diplomacy, have shifted Russian positions. And today, Lavrov specifically rejected Trump's demands that the war end on the current front lines. Now, when we hear from Washington that, quote, we must stop immediately and that we must not discuss anything further. Well, if we simply stop, that would mean forgetting about the root causes of the conflict, which the U.S. administration, with the arrival of Donald Trump, has clearly, understood and voiced. Russia may see a more friendly president, Jeff, but clearly feels no pressure to accept Trump's demands or amend its own.

Well, let's shift our focus now to the Middle East. The vice president is in Israel, as we mentioned. What did he say? So, Vice President of Advance is visiting Israel with Trump's top senior advisors on the Middle East, Jared Kushner and Ambassador Steve Whitkoff. And today, they voiced support for the ongoing ceasefire, even though we've seen major violations over the last few days. The Israeli military says Hamas gunmen crossed in the Israeli-controlled territory inside Gaza,

killing two Israeli soldiers. While Hamas said it was cut off from those fighters, Israel launched widespread air strikes, killing more than 40 Gaza. Despite all of that, Vance expressed great optimism that the ceasefire would hold. He also discussed the return of the deceased Israeli hostages. Two more are crossing over from Gaza into Israel tonight. But Hamas missed a 72-hour deadline. to hand over all of those deceased hostage.

About 13 remain in Gaza. But today, the vice president did not blame Hamas for that. He even declined to give Hamas a deadline for that. And he said he understood why there was a delay. This is difficult. This is not going to happen overnight. Some of these hostages are buried under thousands of pounds of rubble. Some of the hostages, nobody even knows where they are.

That doesn't mean we shouldn't work to get them. And that doesn't mean we don't have confidence that we will. Vance also declined to impose a deadline on Hamas to disarm, Jeff, but repeated the president's threat that if Hamas did not disarm, it would be, quote, obliterated. The next step, of course, as we've talked about in this process, trying to get some kind of reconstruction and foreign forces into Gaza. U.S. officials tell me there is no agreement from any country to actually send any of those troops into Gaza yet.

Nick Schifferner, thanks to you for this reporting. Thank you. In the day's other headlines, Republican lawmakers signaled they're not backing down as the government shutdown extended to a 21st day. This is the fourth week of the Democrat shutdown, but we are all here today because your Republican team in the Senate is unified. Speaking during a lunch at the White House, Senate Majority Leader John, Don Thune urged Democrats to, quote, get wise. And President Trump also gave no ground, saying, quote, we will not be extorted. Democrats are firing back with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer calling on Republicans to negotiate.

Later to them means never. We have to get them to the table and negotiate with us now. Schumer also told reporters that he in Democratic leadership had asked President Trump today to meet with them. That comes after the Senate failed for the 11th time to pass a funding. bill on Monday. North Carolina's state Senate approved a new congressional map that will likely help Republicans win an extra seat in Congress in next year's midterm elections. The state's House is expected to approve the plan later this week. North Carolina has a pretty evenly split electorate, but Republicans control both chambers of the legislature. And by law, the Democratic

Governor can't veto the plan. The state's Republican Senate leader celebrated the new map, posting an image of himself next to one of President Trump. Democrats say the move is a power grab, with protesters rallying outside the Capitol building earlier today. In France, the Paris prosecutor says the jewels stolen in the dramatic heist at the Louvre this past weekend are worth an estimated $102 million. Officials say 100 investigators are looking into how thieves managed to break into the world-famous museum and make-off with the jewels, which also hold tremendous historic value to France. Culture Minister Archida Dati told lawmakers today that an investigation will provide full transparency on the incident.

But she was shouted down when she claimed that the security system worked properly during the heist. What happened on Sunday at the museum is a wound, and it's a wound for all of us. I also want to re-establish some truths. Did the museum's security measures fail? No, they didn't. It's a fact. The museum's security measures are. worked.

And as you know, but I'll you'll respond after, there's questions. The French Interior Minister says police officers arrived on site within two or three minutes after they were alerted to a break-in by a witness.

But not before the thieves took off with eight historic objects from the L'Uvres-Apollo gallery. Former French President Nicolas Sarkrosi reported to prison today to begin serving a five-year sentence.

Nicola, Nicola, Nicola! Backed by his supporters and walking alongside his wife, the former conservative leader departed for La Sante prison in Paris. Sarkozy was convicted of criminal conspiracy last month for financing his 2007 election campaign with funds from Libya. He is the first former leader of France to be imprisoned since the aftermath of World War II. Known as a tough-on-crime president, Sarkhose posted a statement online. saying he's an innocent man.

His lawyers have called for his immediate release. Japan's parliament elected Sane Takachi as the country's first female prime minister today. The 64-year-old is an ultra-conservative who supports male-only imperial succession and oppose it same-sex marriage. Takachi is known to admire the former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and is a protege of the late Japanese leader Shinzo Abe. She's also a heavy metal fan and has told Japanese media that she drums to relieve stress. Takachi enters office with a divided government at home and military and economic challenges abroad. She's due to meet President Trump next week.

India's capital of New Delhi was blanketed and smogged today as millions celebrate Davali, the Hindu Festival of Lights. Last night, fireworks lit up the city in surrounding areas as revelers marked the occasion. A recent Supreme Court ruling that relaxed a ban on firecrackers added to the festive atmosphere, but also sent more pollutants into the air. By this morning, the air quality index in several neighborhoods had climbed to severe levels, meaning it was dangerous to breathe. New Delhi routinely ranks among the world's most polluted cities during the winter season. Back in this country, Warner Brothers Discovery says it's open to the United States.

selling whole or part of its business. The entertainment giant behind the likes of HBO Max and CNN announced today that it had received interest from multiple parties but did not reveal any further details. Shares of the company surged nearly 11% after the news. Elsewhere on Wall Street, stocks ended mixed as investors brace for a flood of corporate earnings. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added more than 200 points. The NASDAQ slipped by 36 points. The S&P 500 ended the day virtually flat.

Still to come. On the News Hour, the tightening New Jersey governor's race and its political implications nationwide. We speak to the family of a Palestinian leader who remains imprisoned despite the ceasefire deal. And former White House press secretary, Corrine Jean-Pierre, discusses her new book on becoming an independent. This is the PBS News Hour

from the David M. Rubinstein studio at WETA in Washington and in the west from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University. President Trump's nominee to lead the Office of Special Counsel is under fire, just days before he set to testify on his nomination to a Senate committee. In a text chain obtained by Politico, Paul Ingrossia reportedly made racist remarks, including saying the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday should be ended, and, in his words, tossed into the seventh circle of hell. He also admits to what he called a, quote, Nazi streak in me from time to time.

At least four Republican senators now say they oppose his nomination, including Senate Majority Leader John Thune. We're joined now by Jeff Charlotte, a professor at Dartmouth College who studies rising extremism. Thanks for being with us. Hi, Jeff. Good to be with you. So as we speak a little after 5 p.m. Eastern, the White House has not pulled this nomination, even though the Senate Majority Leader John Thune says he doesn't expect it to move forward. For people who've not followed this story closely, who is Paul Ingrossia and how do these leaked messages fit within what is known about his worldview? Paul Ingracia is a 30-year-old Cornell Law School graduate.

Long time, no other word for extremist activists and has held a couple other positions. He was White House liaison to Department of Justice. And in that capacity, he was advocating for what he called only hiring people with exceptional loyalty to Trump. He, both of having represented Andrew Tate, the sort of extreme misogynist anti-Semite influencer. He has advocated for Nick Fuentes, the anti-Semitic activist. He's even advocated for a man named Timothy. the Hale Cousinelli, a January 6th writer, convicted sentence to four years, viewers might remember him as he liked to style himself as Hitler. He dressed up as Hitler with a Hitler

mustache and a Hitler haircut. And so when we hear now, Paul and Gracia saying, I've got a Nazi streak, this isn't news. He's been talking about the importance of America as a place founded by whites. I mean, even in the language that we see in the text chain, he talks about rejecting, the only part he wants to reject the founders is where they said all people are created equal, because he has long been arguing that they're not. And these text messages are especially striking when you consider he's being nominated to lead an agency that investigates whistleblower claims and claims of discrimination across the federal government. In your view, what kind of moral or political culture allows someone who talks this way in private

to be considered for a Senate-confirmed role in 2025? Well, let's remember. He talks this way in private. He talks this way in public. But why is this hitting now? Why are some of these Republican senators saying this versus all the other times, he said variations of these comments too much? And I think it has to do with the idea that maybe what he was doing in public before was performance, but what happens in a chat group where he makes these points. And then he backs them up. If there's any doubt that maybe he's just joking,

although what kind of joke is that? He doubles down. And he says, no, I'm serious. This really matters. It's almost a kind of private, intimate racism. It removes any veneer of denial that this is some kind of satire or performance. But is there qualitatively a difference

and what he's been saying in this chat and publicly for years now is a qualitatively a difference from news we see reported today in the Washington Post that we're going to be cutting back refugees from what was 125,000 a year under Biden to 7,500, 7,000 of whom may be white Afrikaners. How is this qualitatively different from the attempt to purge the Naval Academy's library of black history, of Holocaust history, even as it left on the shelves, books like Mind Kumpf. This isn't qualitatively different.

It's stylistically different. He's using the N-word, the other N-word. He's calling himself a Nazi. But he's talking about white supremacy, and he's not the only one in this administration. So I hear you say this is not a fringe incident, but talk more about how you see this as part of a larger pattern

where white nationalist ideas are being, normalized within mainstream conservative politics? Yeah, I think, I mean, not only not a fringe incident, this is the, if he gets this position and now it does seem in doubt, but this will be the third position he's held in the Trump administration. And again, all these ideas have been on the public, out in public for a long time. He got this job because of these ideas, not despite them. And so I think when we're talking about normalizing, again, we have to ask ourselves, Is this sort of something that's out there on the fringe or it's it's right there in the center?

It's the language, again, this is not qualitatively different than President Trump calling black elected official after black elected official a low IQ individual. And then when we see Paul Ingracia saying all black people are play victim because that's what they like this. They're from asshole countries. He's just repeating the president's words. And you led with him calling for getting rid of MLK Day, which he's not alone, by the way. A lot of very conservative politicians for years have advocated for that. He actually goes a step further on that score.

He says getting rid of all holidays associated with black people. Only he doesn't say whack. He uses an ethnic slur. Jeff Charlotte. Thanks again for joining us this evening. We appreciate it. Thanks, Jeff. A number of colleges and universities are pushing back on pressure from the Trump administration. Earlier this month, the president offered nine schools priority access to federal funding if they signed a deal called the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education.

includes demands like eliminating diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, prohibiting anything that would, quote, punish, belittle, or even spark violence against conservative ideas, shrinking foreign student enrollment, and freezing effective tuition rates for five years. But so far, the University of Arizona, USC, Brown University, Penn, Dartmouth College, MIT, and the University of Virginia have all rejected the deal. The University of Texas at Austin and Vanderbilt University haven't yet. publicly weighed in. For a closer look, I'm joined now by Ted Mitchell. He's president of the American Council on Education that's a non-profit U.S. Higher Education Association. Ted Mitchell,

welcome to the News Hour. Thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me. Let's just begin with your reaction to the Trump administration's decision to send out this letter. What did you make of it and the terms that it entailed when you saw it? Yeah, many of us were very appalled by the by the letter in a couple of ways. First, it's a major intrusion into the decision-making of higher education institutions. Fundamental to that are who we teach, who teaches, what we teach. And all of those were a part of the Trump deal. Essentially, universities were asked to cede responsibility for those to the federal government in exchange for a nod on federal grants, which is the second problem is that federal grants should always be given on the basis of merit, not on the basis

of political ideology, or on the basis of agreeing with a government, whether it's a Democrat government or a Republican government. So by the sound of it, it's not like you would actually advise any of these schools to sign it. Is that what I'm hearing? I think it's a terrible idea for the institution, and I think it's a terrible idea for American higher education. So in terms of what we're seeing right now, we should remind folks, this has been part of a broader pressure campaign by the Trump administration. We know they launched over 100 investigations into K-12 schools and higher education universities. But so far, we've seen some universities agree, for example, to change their

leadership. Or we've seen settlements, for example, from universities like Brown and Columbia and UPenn, reportedly one in the works with the University of Virginia as well. The fact that schools are now rejecting this letter, does that say to you there's been some shift in the landscape? No, I think that there's just been a clearer recognition among institutions of where the bright red lines are, lines that a federal government shouldn't cross, lines that actually would make institutions instruments of the state, rather than institutions seeking truth, seeking innovation, academic discoveries, all of that's at risk here if institutions become simply instruments of state policy. Again, whether that's a Democrat policy, or a Republican policy.

Are there any parts of the letter that stand out to you as points on which the schools should negotiate or should consider? I'm thinking specifically about the tuition freeze. The demands in this letter say the signatories have to commit to freezing tuition rates for U.S. students for the next five years. That feels like something a lot of people

could get behind regardless of their politics. Yeah, as the father of a couple of recent college graduates, I get it. You know, I think that the word that's important and that is negotiate with the government. I don't think that these are matters to negotiate with the government about. Is affordability an issue? Absolutely. It's an issue. Should we do everything we can to constrain prices and cost? Absolutely. And I think the deal that the government has presented is about having the government dictate that. And we think that that's wrong. And I think our colleagues across the country agree with us. Now, there are a number of things that are pointed out in the in the compact that are things that we've been working on for years. We've been clearly working on trying to create ideological diversity in the faculty. I think it's wrong to point out the protection of just conservative views. I think all views need to be protected. I think

cancel culture is wrong, whether it comes from the left or the right. That's something we take seriously. But things like capping international student enrollment, I think that that goes too far demanding that institutions use a standardized test to make all of their admissions decisions. I think that that runs into all that we know about the inequality of K-12 education in this country. So I think there are plenty of things in the compact that we need to work on together, but we need to do it in partnership, not with a deal. Can I ask you about that foreign enrollment cap, though, because they're proposing a 15% cap as a percentage of the student body. The argument there is I'm sure you've

heard is that there are fewer foreign students that they would admit more U.S. students. Is that a wrong assumption? It is because one forgets in that assumption that the international students, in addition to providing great diversity of opinion and background on our campuses, they often pay, most often pay full tuition. So, in fact, international students subsidize low-income domestic students. So on the issue of whether or not schools should sign this, so far we've seen rejection. Do you worry what will happen if one school does decide to sign on? Does that create more pressure for other schools to follow?

I don't think so. I think that every institution is going to take a look at this, as they should, given their own context and their own needs. But I do believe that institutions are voicing their concern with this idea of, well, this federal overreach that has clearly crossed some lines for all of us. All right, that is Ted Mitchell. President of the American Council on Education, joining us tonight. Ted Mitchell, thank you for your time.

Thank you. New Jersey is one of only two off-year gubernatorial races this fall, and it's seen as a bellwether ahead of next year's midterms. As William Brigham reports, after President Trump made inroads with some voters of color In the last election, they've continued to be a major focus for both candidates in this close race. Outside MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, football fans are hyped for a fierce cross-state rivalry, the Philadelphia Eagles against the New York Giants. Among the crowd is Republican gubernatorial hopeful Jack Chittarelli, an equal opportunity campaigner.

Go birds. This former state legislator narrowly lost the last governor's race four years ago to a incumbent Democrat Phil Murphy. This year, he's hoping to build on President Trump's surprisingly strong showing in the state in 2024 and focusing on the cost of living. Property taxes, electricity bills, housing, and child care for families with young children. We've got to fix all that across New Jersey. It's becoming unaffordable and the middle class is getting crushed. Hi. How are you? Hi. That message is also central for Chittarelli's opponent, Democratic Congresswoman Mikey Sherrill.

For too long, we've just seen prices going up and up and up. As someone who's served this country my entire life, I now want to fight incredibly hard for families here in New Jersey. Cheryl is a former Navy helicopter pilot and federal prosecutor who won a seat in Congress in a swing northern New Jersey district during the Blue Wave election of 2018. And like she did back then, she's hoping to make President Trump a key issue in this campaign. People are furious that Trump's tariffs and the one big beautiful bill are driving up their cost. That is really angering people across the state. While Donald Trump lost New Jersey last year, he dramatically improved his numbers compared to his last run. Nowhere was that swing more dramatic than here in Passaic County, and this reflected a larger national trend for Trump.

This county has the largest share of Latinos anywhere in the state, and Trump boosted his margins. here by 19 points, making him the first Republican to win this county since the early 1990s. Angel Castillo runs El Prometo in Passaic, a Dominican restaurant started by his family more than 30 years ago. Once a Democrat, now a Republican, he supports Chittarelli. He says the high cost of utilities, which has nearly doubled for his restaurant, is squeezing his bottom line. I always tell people, we always elect the same.

And we expect different results. And to me, it's like, let's give somebody else a try. Chittarelli visited El Prometo in August, part of his push to capitalize on Trump's inroads with minority communities. Castillo immigrated from the Dominican Republic as a kid and voted for Trump last year. Some people are a little concerned about Trump's immigration policies, grabbing people off the streets, sometimes people who are here legally. Does that bother you at all?

It doesn't bother me. Because I have people approach me like, oh, how can you still like Trump? I go, listen, I believe every country has the right to enforce its laws. That's what I believe. Chittarelli sees Trump's immigration policies as part of his pitch to voters. He did his job in securing the border. I'll make New Jersey more secure by not having sanctuary cities or us being a sanctuary state. That encourages illegal immigration.

And we don't want to handcuff our local police in any ways. Just a few miles from Angel Castillo's restaurant, Maria del Pilar Rivas has been pounding the pavement for Mikey Sherrill in the heavily Latino neighborhoods of Patterson. Pilar Rivas immigrated from Peru when she was 18 and has been a long-time Democrat. I believe in her as a woman, as a mother, as a woman who worked hard for the people. time when she talked, you can feel it. She says lower taxes and the cost of living are important, but says Trump's masked ICE agents have gone too far, arresting more than 3,000 immigrants in New Jersey

this year. No everybody is a criminal. It's also hardworking people. They came to this country for a different life. So he has to make a difference between criminals and hardworking immigrants. people. We're open seven days a week. Brother and sister Kimberly and David Orozco say the Trump administration's actions on tariffs and on immigration have taken a toll on their family's Colombian bakery and restaurant

in Elizabeth, another heavily Latino city in northern New Jersey. The first few months were a ghost town here. No one was coming in. People maybe never came back. And it's about that fear. Thankfully, we've been here for many years, but our neighbors are closing. Our neighbors are closing. I think a lot of it has to do with the immigrant mentality of, well, we might go out and something might happen, even if you're here legally, just because you might be profiled in a certain manner. Mikey Sherrill visited the Orozco's restaurant as part of her push to reach Latino voters. Do you think that the president's enforcement actions, the aggressiveness of those actions,

is going to play out in this state, in this campaign? I think, you know, people are very concerned about whether agents are following the law and the Constitution. They're hearing about raids where there are no warrants. They're hearing about kids coming home from school and no parents being there. That is really upsetting people. Polls show Cheryl with a single-digit lead, but that is tightened over the last month. In recent weeks, Trump's attacks on blue states during the shutdown have, also added a new wrinkle to this race.

It's terminated. The president says he's eliminating billions in funding for a massive rail tunnel project, connecting New York and New Jersey that is already under construction. Such an important project. And my opponent tried to kind of play it off saying, oh, that's not a New Jersey problem. I thought, you know, that was shocking. I think it's a complete lack of connection to the community. I think the president's just doing right now what he has to do, which is tough negotiations.

But many voters remain focused on their more immediate financial concerns. Giants fan William Span approached Chidorelli with his worry about just making ends meet. My question was, what can you do from the middle class? Span is a truck driver and says he's still not sure who he'll vote for, but he says some of Trump's actions have hurt his finances. Right now, it's so bad for us out there. And that's all because it's trade stuff and all this other stuff that's going on. It's hard for us to make our money.

You're putting us at risk. Yet alone, you're okay. You know why? Because you got billions. But yet, what about the middle class? Inside the stadium, the underdog giants pulled off an upset, blowing out the visiting Eagles 34 to 17. But the race between Chittarelli and Cheryl will likely be a lot closer. For the PBS NewsHour, I'm William Brangham in New Jersey.

As the fragile ceasefire holds, Palestinians are grappling with what comes next in their quest for statehood and who will lead them. The most popular political leader is 66-year-old Marwan Barguti, convicted and imprisoned in Israel as a a terrorist, but seen as a potential unifying force among Palestinians. Special correspondent Leila Mulana Allen spoke with Barcuti's son in Ramallah in the Occupied West Bank. Often called the Palestinian Nelson Mandela, Marwan Barhoti, has long been seen by Palestinians and Western leaders alike as the one man who could unite and lead Palestinians to statehood. The youngest person to be elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council and a key leader of the

second Intifada. But he has been jailed by Israel for 23 years, convicted in 2004 of planning an attack that killed five Israelis. Many say the trial was a sham. Hoax were high he would be released in the ceasefire prisoner hostage swap. But the day came and went and imprisoned he remained. In a rare interview, the news I spoke with his son Arab, who was just 11 when his father went to jail about the campaign for his release. We thought that anyone in their right mind that once an end for this cycle of violence would see that my father represents a great positive voice for a political settlement. The fact that he has a political vigil that is accepted by the international community

is the reason why the Israeli government does not want him released. They already released more than 800 Palestinians with life sentences since his imprisonment, but they insist on keep avoiding him because they understand he's not a security threat and he's never been. He's not a military guy. But they don't want a political figure who is willing and capable of unifying the Palestinian people towards a two-state solution that is accepted by everyone. Tell me about your father's treatment in prison since October 7th?

Since October 7th, the Israeli government has founded a great opportunity for the collective punishment of the Palestinian people overall, and especially the Palestinian detainees inside prisons. After October 7th, my father has been through some of the ugliest torture tactics that you can think of. Obviously, he had nothing to do with October 7th, but yet he got punished for them. He was sent to solitary confinement. He was sent from prison to prison. He was put in a very tiny cell that could barely fit his body without windows, with a spotlight in his face, with putting speakers at the door of his cell with the highest volume of the Israeli national anthem to prevent him from sleeping for days and days. And he got assaulted four different times.

They shackled him, they put him on the ground, and they started kicking him, they started beating him up. They focused on the head area, they focused on the chest area, on the legs. and until he lost consciousness. So that was a clear assassination attempt. These units, they follow the lead of Benghvir. Itzumar Ben-Givir is the security minister in Benjamin Netanyahu's far-right government. He has been a vocal advocate of increasing the severity of state policy towards Palestinians. Benghvir went to my father's cell a couple of months ago.

He taunted him, he threatened his life. He showed him a picture of an electric chair, and he told him that this is your fate, this is your future. I'm just asking myself, what are these Western leaders and Western governments waiting for? This is the man that could unify the Palestinian people for the political vision that you're asking for, you're supporting. So show that you're willing to take steps by calling for his release. For decades, your father has consistently been voted the most popular candidate to be leader of the Palestinian people. What is it about his experience in his background that makes him the man for the job? He's a unifying figure.

He is capable of unifying the Palestinian people. people across factions, across, you know, secular, extremists, whatever you want to call it, and bring them into a reasonable political vision that is accepted by the international community. And he did already did that. In 2006, Marwan Barghouti united the Palestinian factions from prison behind one plan. It remains the best available basis for a cohesive Palestinian government. Barghouti has long been an outspoken advocate of a two-state solution. And before his arrest, worked with Israeli politicians in the Knesset in pursuit of a workable peace plan.

He brought every single faction, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and made them sign on a document that stated clearly that the Palestinian state will be built on the 67 borders and established there. Resistance will be limited to within the 67 borders, and the targeting of civilians should be forbidden regardless where they are. Marwan Baruthi is often referred to as the Palestinian Nelson Mandela. Why is that? I think this is very interesting because Nelson Mandela was called a terrorist and my father as well.

And, you know, if you go back to any struggle in Algeria, in Ireland, in South Africa, in all the countries that were colonized and occupied and so on, you will find that their resistance and they're defending themselves against their occupiers is always being called terrorism. 90% of the civilians killed in the last eight decades of this so-called conflict have been on the Palestinian side and not the Israeli side. And who killed them? It's Israelis. And they're never called terrorists.

Arab says the key to peace is understanding the oppressive system of occupation Palestinians are forced to live under and ending it. It's a part of it. You're ought to feel that you're a second-class citizen in every single day, every single move. When you move from city to city, you're stopped by checkpoints, you're searched, you might get humiliated. For example, I was born in Jerusalem. I'm not allowed to go to Jerusalem for 25 years. While you can go to Jerusalem tomorrow, even though you have no ties to the city.

If you go to Hebron, you're allowed to go to some streets. I'm not allowed to go to because I'm Palestinian. We want to get to a point where we don't need resistance. Because resistance exists, according to international law, we have the right of resistance, as long as there is occupation. We want the occupation to end. The root cause of what's happening is the occupation and the apartheid regime that we're living in.

My message to the international community is that help us with ending the illegal occupation and we promise you that we will commit to every single law and how can I go to Palestinians who are being tortured who are being, you know, their families are being bombed in front of them and tell them you don't have a right to resist. occupier. Arab argues that for decades successive Israeli governments have intentionally imprisoned

popular leaders, so the Palestinian people would have no effective politicians. They always say there is no partner for peace, and that's done by design. It's intentional. They're not interested in a partner for peace. My father has been a big supporter for the two-state solution for more than three decades, and he is the most trusted Palestinian leader. But they don't want that combination, because that combination puts them in the corner that they have to negotiate peace.

They have to negotiate a political settlement, and they're not interested in that. And these are not my words. These are Netanyahu's words. He said that he's not interested in a Palestinian state. Arab believes that now is an inflection point in history. He hopes his father will be a free man to watch a new dawn for Palestinians alongside him. My father's dream has always been very simple and very clear, which is Palestinian children to live in peace, in prosperity, with security, like any.

others. And he's always said that we Palestinians deserve our freedom and deserve to live with dignity and we're not an exception from any other nation. For the PBS News Hour, I'm Leila Milana Allen in Ramallah, the Occupied West Bank. and serving in the Obama and Biden administrations. But her days as a member of the Democratic Party are over, and that is the focus of her new book, Independent. We spoke recently, and I asked her why she's leaving the party. When I left the administration on January 20th with the president,

I was surprised by the amount of people who were coming up to me, and I say this in the book, who were very worried about the state of America and the country and where we were going. And my thinking was, I had thought about becoming an independent, I kind of lay that out in the book. And my thinking was, okay, if I put out a book with a roadmap and really lay out my own process and where I am today with the party, my hope is that it would start a conversation that I believe is needed right now. In this time that we're in, we need to have a conversation about what happened in 2024.

for. How do we move forward? How do we protect our democracy? And there is something fundamentally wrong with the system that were this political system. We need a two-party system in order to protect our democracy and in order to exercise that democracy. And I feel like the two-party system isn't working. And I'm not the only one. I think millions of people feel that way. And we need to have that conversation in order to move forward. You write in the book about the chasm, the Democrats allowed to grow between them and everyday Americans. They're inadequate messaging during and following the last presidential election. I have to ask you, though, you were one of the chief messengers at the White House.

So did you feel that you couldn't change that messaging or influence? Look, the outcome of 2024 obviously was not what we wanted. And I think we all have to take accountability for it. I, even myself, you're right. I was at the podium. You were in the room at times when I was the White House press secretary. behind that lectern, pushing our message of the day. But it was also a different, like, the political atmosphere,

and you see it even more so today, was really fraught. I think you had people who were disillusioned coming out of COVID, trying to figure out the economy. It's not working for them, even when we were trying to turn that around. And we did. The president and the vice president certainly did. But people weren't feeling that. And we did have a hard time communicating that

and connecting with the American. But we would say that, I would say that at the podium when I was asked about polling. And the fact that millions of people who came and voted for Joe Biden in 2020 and didn't do that in 2024, we have to figure out what happened. You talk a lot about the sense of betrayal that you felt after that June debate in which a lot of the party and people started to distance themselves from President Biden. And the calls for him to step down began. You wrote in the book, he could have survived.

The debate set back like Barack Obama, Ronald Reagan, other incumbent presidents overcame their own weak first debates when they ran for re-election. Only the Democrats, Biden's party, my party, didn't seem to want to give him the chance. I think it's fair to say, I mean, he lost a lot of public confidence, too, after that debate. You really think he could have survived after that? I think that people have to understand my position at the time. I was dealing with the reaction of it in a way that most people were not, meaning I was the White House press secretary

and I had to be out there. I had to respond. Speaking for him and defending him. And I was watching... If you can speak freely now in the moment, you thought this personally too, that he could have survived it? Well, I felt the way he was treated

was unlike anything I had ever seen. Objectively, like put my feelings aside, Joe Biden objectively had a successful presidential. Joe Biden objectively was a good human who cared about the American people. That's what people would say. And yet, he was treated as if he was the worst thing ever. And yet, as a Democrat in that moment, right, as someone who wants to see your party win, too, since then we've even seen Vice President Harris come out and say the decision that was left up to him and to Dr. Jill Biden, that it was reckless to leave it up to them

to make that call on their own. Do you agree with that? Again, you go back to 2023, coming out of the midterms, that was successful for Democrats because it wasn't a red wave. And he was an incumbent. And at the time, no one,

when he had to make that decision, no one was saying not to run. If anything, people were saying the opposite. He should run. He had a successful midterm. It's up to him. It's up to him. But it's up to any incumbent.

That's the thing. Yeah. So for me, it was, you have to, you kind of have to go back in time to the moment when he made that decision. It made sense. And so I don't find it to be reckless, but what I will say is I agree with the vice president. I think she should, she has the right to write this book and to share her thoughts. And she was, I think, did a phenomenal job. I say this as a candidate in those 107 days.

I do believe that these types, like the power should not be sitting in the White House, that the power should be sitting in the hands of the people, right? I think in this moment that we're in, and that's what I want to make sure that I convey, should not be on one person, on how the direction of our country goes. I have to ask you to, because since the election, you've seen all of these books and interviews and accounts from people, even in the inner circle, who saw the president, day who said that they had some worries about his age and about potential decline and about his ability to serve a second term.

You say definitively in the book, I was technically a part of the president's inner circle and saw Biden every day and saw no such decline. And what you are saying and what the accounts we have seen since then do not match up. Both can't be true. So how should people look at this. And I will say, and I said this at the podium and the president said this, he was aging. There's nothing. No one can deny that. They could see with their own eyes. He got older. We all get older. He was definitely aging. He was in his early 80s. So no one is denying that. And he would say, you know, I don't talk as, you know, the way that I used to. I don't walk, you know, as well as I used to. He would even make fun of himself. And so we always, you can't hide that, right? What I am saying when it comes to his mental acuity, when it comes to someone who understand, and history, and I would banter back and forth with and answer questions that he had of me.

He was someone who was very focused, very aware, and you can be in a room with him for a good amount of time and see, oh, this is the type of president that I want in this space right now in this moment, continuing to run this country. And that's what I saw. So when you have accounts from former chiefs of staff, right, Jeff Seines and Ron who say that they saw problems with memory or he was out of it in debate prep you say what to that well look i just said he was aging so there were those moments too there were what i'm talking about is the mental acuity to be there to understand history to understand the policies and to speak to it no one is

not saying i mean we saw right he would forget names sometimes or you know we're not he walked differently no one is it was never enough of a concern to you to say that he shouldn't run again that's that Well, my whole piece of that is it really was his decision. My job is, I'm his White House press secretary. My job is to speak for him and to make whatever decisions that he made was to speak on those decisions. I truly believed this is such a personal decision to run any election and certainly in this re-election. And so for him, I really do believe it was his decision to make. So as an independent now, do you ever think you'd run for office yourself?

Absolutely not. I think I talk about that in the book. Look, I wrote this book not to run for office. I really did write the book to truly try to meet the moment and figure out how do we move forward in this in this world that we're in. And I do believe for me running for office, it's, you have to feel it. It has to be a calling. And that's not what's calling me right now. Corrie Jean-Pierre. The book is Independent, A Look Inside a Broken White House Outside the Party Lines. Great to speak with you. Thank you for me. Thank you all. I appreciate it. Salt marshes exist on every coast of the U.S., but these important wetlands are succumbing quickly to the effects of sea level rise caused by climate change. Grace Goh with the NewsHours Journalism Training Program student reporting labs has the story of how one young photographer from Massachusetts is fighting to protect. these places. Traditional DSLR. And then in the back, we got a huge battery pack.

Soren Goldsmith is a 20-year-old photographer who has been named a National Geographic Young Explorer. What makes his photo stand out is not only their beauty, but how he captures them. So yeah, this is the underwater amphibious camera trap. I call it Impact, which stands for intertidal, motion picture activated camera trap. If it works right, it will go for a week in the marsh.

Goldsmith is working on a project in the coastal marshes of Wellfleet, Massachusetts, a landscape that presents unique challenges for photography. Salt marshes are intertidal environments, which means that half the day they're going to be dry, but the other half of the day, the water is going to come up and cover this landscape. I had this idea of what if I could build an amphibious camera trap. Camera traps, which take photos based on motion detection, have long been a mainstay of wildlife photography. But there are few options for taking the same kinds of photos underwater. I ended up heading to the University of Wisconsin for engineering.

And suddenly I had all these resources at my disposal at mechanical engineers, environmental engineers, civil engineers, computer engineers that were able to combine their expertise. onto one project because a camera trap is a complex contraption. We spent many months building this, putting this together, getting everything to fit, getting everything waterproof, so it doesn't flood when it's underwater. Soren hopes his photos will make people want to protect salt marshes. These biodiverse ecosystems help prevent coastal erosion

and store large amounts of carbon, which makes them vital to mitigating climate change. But they're also particularly susceptible to the effects of the effects of the to the effects of climate change. The salt marshes are very low elevation, practically at sea level. So the sea level rising only a little bit, like an inch, is a huge impact on that land.

And as a result of this, salt marshes are being flooded more frequently and eroding more quickly than they can replenish. And you mix in this problem with human development. And a lot of projections are saying that marshes are going to disqualify. disappear very quickly by the end of the century. Still, Goldsmith is optimistic because of new tools to combat climate change and raise awareness about the threat it poses. Some of the stuff that I've been able to build 15 years ago would not have been possible.

I'm lucky to be young right now when I have all of these cool technology and opportunities that I can leverage to tell my stories that older people might not have had. For PBS News Student Reporting Labs, I'm Grace Go in Wellfley, Massachusetts.