Tuesday on the PBS NewsHour:
The joy of freed Israeli hostages is mixed with grief and the painful recovery ahead — both physical and emotional — as families begin to process two years of loss and captivity.
Meanwhile, major U.S. news outlets push back against new Pentagon restrictions, refusing to sign rules ordered by the defense secretary that they say limit press freedom and transparency.
And finally, a deep look into how the ultra-wealthy continue to fuel and dominate the economy, while working people face rising costs and stagnant wages — widening America’s financial divide.
📺 Watch the full program for in-depth reporting, expert analysis, and the stories shaping today’s world.#PBSNewsHour #BreakingNews #Israel #HostageRelease #Pentagon #PressFreedom #Media #USPolitics #Economy #WealthGap #EconomicInequality #WorldNews #MiddleEast #GlobalHeadlines #TuesdayNews
The joy of freed Israeli hostages is mixed with grief and the painful recovery ahead — both physical and emotional — as families begin to process two years of loss and captivity.
Meanwhile, major U.S. news outlets push back against new Pentagon restrictions, refusing to sign rules ordered by the defense secretary that they say limit press freedom and transparency.
And finally, a deep look into how the ultra-wealthy continue to fuel and dominate the economy, while working people face rising costs and stagnant wages — widening America’s financial divide.
📺 Watch the full program for in-depth reporting, expert analysis, and the stories shaping today’s world.#PBSNewsHour #BreakingNews #Israel #HostageRelease #Pentagon #PressFreedom #Media #USPolitics #Economy #WealthGap #EconomicInequality #WorldNews #MiddleEast #GlobalHeadlines #TuesdayNews
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NewsTranscript
00:00Good evening. I'm Amda Nabaz.
00:05And I'm Jeff Bennett. On the NewsHour tonight, the joy from freed Israeli hostages is tempered
00:11by the long physical and mental recovery that lies ahead and the memories of those who did
00:16not survive. Major news outlets refuse to sign new restrictive Pentagon rules ordered by Defense
00:23Secretary Pete Hegseff. And how the wealthy are driving the current U.S. economy, often at the
00:29expense of working people. They're spending on birthday parties and lavish weddings and growing
00:35their spending month after month. And the rest of America, the bottom 80 percent, they're cautious
00:41right now.
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02:23Welcome to the NewsHour. The fragile Israel-Hamas ceasefire faces new tension tonight in part over the missing remains of more than 20 Israeli hostages.
02:47All 20 living hostages were released yesterday, but they were supposed to be accompanied by the bodies of 28 deceased hostages.
02:54Only eight have been handed over as of this evening.
02:57As Leila Molana-Allen reports again tonight from Israel, caring for the living is now a priority,
03:03while awaiting the delivery of the dead is excruciating.
03:06A tidal wave of emotion on the day a nation had longed for. And then came the day after.
03:15For many months, the focus was on getting the hostages home. Now it's switched to helping them heal.
03:21The staff at Rabin Medical Center in Petatikva were ready, preparing for weeks, or some might say for two long years.
03:28Five of yesterday's 20 released hostages landed here, and head nurse Michal Steinman was there to greet them.
03:35And I'm supposed, you know, to be very official. I'm the head nurse and welcome to the hospital.
03:42It doesn't work. I'm standing there and I'm feeling the river of emotions flows through them.
03:49Really, sometimes I'm feeling even all the nation sits at my shoulders and I have to hug them in order of all the people who want to do it.
03:56Many more hugs as they were reunited with family.
04:01Having treated nine previously released hostages and now experienced in what Steinman calls captivity medicine,
04:08a skill she hopes she'll never need to use again.
04:10They know the medical impact of years without access to regular food and sunlight,
04:15as well as possible physical injury from Israel's aerial bombardment of Gaza.
04:20Their physical condition was better than feared, but psychological wounds can take longer to unveil.
04:25Only 24 hours ago they were in a tunnel, and now they're here in a sort of a paradise,
04:32which everyone gives them whatever they want and just around them in love and hugs.
04:36But I think that for the long term, we're expecting a lot of issues, post-traumatic issues, depression issues, and other issues.
04:49And slowly, slowly, slowly you work with them. A part of them will always stay in Gaza.
04:54You can't take those two years of their life. It's to learn how to live the best way with those parts that they left there.
05:02Things as simple as giving recovering captives a choice over when they take their medicines and what they want to eat
05:09can help recover their sense of identity, but far more challenging.
05:13I ask her, how can they ever begin to feel safe again?
05:17Safe and trust goes together. And when they cry, we hug them.
05:22And when they say, sometimes if they scream about us, it's okay, we can bury them.
05:27They understand that we're going to be there no matter what.
05:30Here and across Israel, it was a day of unbridled joy, but not for everyone.
05:40Every hostage, both living and deceased, was supposed to be returned home yesterday.
05:44But by the end of the day, just four of the 28 bodies had been sent home.
05:49Hamas said they don't actually know where all the bodies are.
05:53Israel said that's not good enough and has now threatened sanctions,
05:56including keeping the Rafa border closed and limiting humanitarian aid into Gaza
06:01until everybody is returned.
06:05When the small kibbutz of Nir Oz, just four miles from Gaza's border,
06:09was attacked by Hamas militants on October 7th,
06:1238-year-old Tamir Adar told his wife and young children to hide
06:15and went out to protect his home.
06:18Narrowly managing to escape as dozens of his neighbors were killed and kidnapped,
06:23Tamir's younger brother Nir feared the worst.
06:25My mom was hoping and praying that he's alive and she tried to convince herself
06:31that even if he were badly wounded, that he might survive.
06:37And then I went on the kibbutz to the spot where they were and saw lots and lots of blood.
06:42I did my one plus one and I understood what happened.
06:46They never saw him again.
06:48Three months later, the family got the news they dreaded.
06:51Tamir was dead.
06:52Killed while fighting back, Hamas took Tamir's body to Gaza as a bargaining chip.
06:58Tamir's elderly Labrador Luli now clings to Nir, unable to understand why her dad never came back.
07:05Being unable to bring Tamir home and bury him has made his loss all the more unbearable.
07:10The Adars feel they've been living a life in limbo.
07:14In the Jewish culture, it's extremely important for us to bury our dads.
07:19We cherish life, but we also cherish the way someone is ending his life.
07:26And it's super important for the family to have a place they can come and pray and meet the one they miss.
07:33He loved his friend, his family.
07:36We used to play poker and watch football.
07:39He was really a funny guy, an honest guy, and a loyal guy.
07:44He never heard anyone.
07:45On that morning of October 7th, he decided to put his own needs behind and help the community.
07:53And he was actually a truly hero.
07:57There were four people who stood against 500 Hamas terrorists.
08:01It's like from a scene in a movie.
08:04Actually, by doing that, they saved lots of life.
08:08Even as we spoke, the news came that Hamas promised to release a few more bodies tonight and several more tomorrow.
08:15If Tamir is among them, his family can finally heal.
08:18But Nir says he won't rest until every hostage is home.
08:23And either way, he'll never forgive his government for doing what he considers so little and so late.
08:30I don't believe that bringing back all hostages was the first priority for this government.
08:36They chose their political considerations over saving lives.
08:40Do you and your family feel left behind?
08:42Of course.
08:42The defining characteristic of this hostage crisis has been the unity it inspired.
09:13Every Israeli identifying as the family of all the captives.
09:17Now, as the country and the world look to the future, for the first time, some have been left out in the cold.
09:24For the PBS NewsHour, I'm Leila Malana Allen in Kiryat Gat, Israel.
09:29Well, with Hamas yet to return, all the hostage remains as part of this first phase of the ceasefire deal.
09:37We turn now to Yusuf Meneir.
09:39He's the head of the Palestine-Israel program and senior fellow at the Arab Center in Washington, D.C.
09:44That's a nonprofit research group.
09:46Yusuf, welcome to the show.
09:48You heard Leila report there.
09:49Hamas say they don't know where all the bodies are.
09:52What should we understand about why they don't know and if they'll be able to make good on the pledge to return all the remains?
10:02Right.
10:02Thank you for having me.
10:03I mean, the first thing I would say is this was actually largely expected in the agreement that was hammered out in Cairo prior to the peace summit the other day,
10:15where Donald Trump met with all these global leaders to declare an end to the war.
10:21There was a detailed agreement about this part of the process that the Israelis came to, along with the Palestinians and the mediators.
10:28And part of that agreement actually delineated what would happen with regards to the remains of Israeli captives that were still inside Gaza.
10:38And the Palestinians made it very clear at that point that they're not in possession of all of these remains and that it will take some time.
10:45So a mechanism was established to share information between the different parties, the Palestinians on the ground, the mediators and the Red Cross about what they know of these remains, where they are, how they're trying to reach them.
11:01And that that was agreed upon at that point.
11:05So what's concerning now is that the Israelis seem to be acting as if this was a surprise, when, in fact, we knew that this was going to be an immense challenge.
11:15Remember, some 83 percent of structures in the Gaza Strip have been partially or completely destroyed.
11:23And there's very little heavy equipment with which to do the searching.
11:28So this is this is a big reason why we're at this place today.
11:32So, Yusuf, a lot of questions, it sounds like, on what's been publicly said and what's privately agreed to.
11:39But a lot of questions around whether or not the remaining bodies will be returned.
11:42I do want to ask you about what we've seen just in the last couple of days on the ground in Gaza, which is Hamas forces in uniform standing guard in some areas,
11:51also engaging in gun battles with people who don't support them.
11:55And also a horrifying video of them rounding up and executing publicly people who they accuse of collaborating with Israel.
12:02Is all of that sanctioned activity by the same Hamas leadership that signed on to this ceasefire deal?
12:12Well, I certainly cannot speak for them.
12:14They would have to speak on that.
12:16And I'm not sure that I've seen any statement in relation to that.
12:19What I can tell you is that extrajudicial assassinations or killings are clearly violations of international law in pretty much every circumstance.
12:30At the same time, the situation in Gaza is extremely fragile and dangerous.
12:37There is no real authority in Gaza right now, except for the pieces of what's left of the previous Hamas authority on the ground in the Gaza Strip.
12:47And there are a large number of vigilantes, gangs, groups that have been involved in other extreme activity, groups that have been collaborating with the Israelis and implicated in other human rights violations.
13:02And we also have to keep in mind, over the last two years, police stations in the Gaza Strip have been targeted and destroyed.
13:10Courthouses have been targeted and destroyed.
13:12Members of the civilian police force in Gaza, some 1,500 of them, have been killed by the Israeli military.
13:19So it's not surprising at this point that law enforcement is not exactly present in the Gaza Strip or behaving in the ways we would normally expect in a situation where there is control and no war.
13:35So obviously these scenes are very disturbing, and it's incumbent, I think, on all parties to act within the bounds of international law.
13:44But it's going to be a very difficult situation in Gaza until there is a authority or government established that can take the reins of the situation on the ground.
13:55A very tenuous peace deal in place, and as you note, a lot of questions ahead, let alone disarmament governance down the line.
14:03Yusuf Muneer from the Palestine-Israel program at the Arab Center in Washington, D.C.
14:08Thank you so much for joining us.
14:13In the day's other headlines, President Trump says U.S. forces struck another boat in the waters off Venezuela that he claims was a drug vessel.
14:31Mr. Trump posted video of the strike on social media, saying all six people aboard were killed and that no U.S. forces were harmed.
14:39It marks the fifth deadly strike in the Caribbean against alleged drug traffickers,
14:44which the Trump administration is treating as unlawful combatants who can be met with military force.
14:49Democrats and those opposed to the administration's actions say the strikes violate U.S. and international law.
14:56Also today, President Trump hosted Argentina's President Javier Mele at the White House,
15:01where he threatened to end U.S. assistance to that country if its internal politics don't go the way Mr. Trump wants.
15:07If he loses, we are not going to be generous with Argentina.
15:12The president said he would not, in his words, waste our time with further investments
15:17if Argentina turns away from Malay's policies in that country's upcoming midterm elections.
15:23President Trump sees an ideological ally in the right-wing leader who is up for re-election in 2027.
15:29The visit comes after the U.S. provided $20 billion in aid to Argentina.
15:34The administration denies that it was a bailout.
15:37Later in the afternoon, President Trump awarded Charlie Kirk with a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom,
15:43the nation's highest civilian honor.
15:50Kirk's wife Erica accepted the medal for her late husband at a ceremony in the Rose Garden
15:56on what would have been the conservative activist's 32nd birthday.
16:00The man who set fire to the Pennsylvania governor's mansion in April pleaded guilty today to attempted murder and other charges.
16:07As part of a plea deal, Cody Balmer was sentenced to 25 to 50 years in prison.
16:13Governor Josh Shapiro and his family were sleeping inside when the 38-year-old scaled a fence
16:18and used beer bottles filled with gasoline to start the fire.
16:21No one was injured, but Balmer told police he planned to beat Shapiro with a small sledgehammer if he had found him.
16:28Shapiro told reporters today the guilty plea amounted to real accountability,
16:33and he warned of the dangers of such attacks.
16:36I think it's important that in this time of rising political violence that none of us grow numb to it
16:43or accept this as the normal course of doing business for elected officials.
16:50Balmer turned himself in the day after the attack.
16:53His family has said he suffers from mental health issues.
16:56A massive Pacific storm is battering the West Coast from California to the Rockies
17:01with heavy rain, flash floods, and damaging winds.
17:04The sudden storm, known as a microburst, tore through Tempe, Arizona late Monday.
17:13High winds ripped the roof off a business and collapsed part of an apartment complex.
17:18Some parts of Southern California saw more than three inches of rain this morning
17:22as authorities evacuated more than 100 homes.
17:25The National Weather Service issued flash flood warnings for areas that suffered recent wildfires,
17:30making them more susceptible to mudslides.
17:32L.A. officials say they are staying prepared.
17:35The evacuation warning will be in effect for the burn scar.
17:40There will be strike teams, rescue teams, helicopters are all here at Station 59,
17:45and this is out of an abundance of caution.
17:48We are hoping that the system will not be as bad as this,
17:52but of course we want to be extremely prepared.
17:56Meantime, a massive Atlantic storm known as a nor'easter is moving away from the U.S.,
18:00but not before it created dangerous, choppy seas from the Mid-Atlantic to New England,
18:05leading to this water rescue off the coast of Cape Cod.
18:09In Madagascar, an elite military unit claimed power today after that nation's president was removed in an apparent coup.
18:16Outside City Hall in the nation's capital, protesters celebrated the transfer of power
18:25after weeks of anti-government demonstrations.
18:28The announcement of military control came shortly after Parliament voted overwhelmingly to impeach the country's president.
18:35The military says it will appoint a prime minister to quickly form a new civilian government.
18:39On Wall Street today, stocks ended mixed amid ongoing worries over trade tensions between the U.S. and China.
18:46The Dow Jones Industrial Average added around 200 points on the day.
18:50The Nasdaq lost ground, falling about 170 points.
18:54The S&P 500 also ended lower.
18:57And R&B singer D'Angelo has died.
19:00Starting with his debut album, Brown Sugar, the man born Michael Eugene Archer,
19:12blended hip-hop with jazz, funk, and gospel into what became known as Neo Soul.
19:17His follow-up, Voodoo, earned him the Grammy for Best R&B Album back in 2001.
19:23D'Angelo then stepped back from the spotlight for more than a decade until 2014
19:27and the release of his third and final album, Black Messiah, which also won the Grammy.
19:33D'Angelo's family called him a shining star, saying he died after a battle with pancreatic cancer.
19:39D'Angelo was 51 years old.
19:41Still to come on the NewsHour, how public health could be affected by the latest round of federal government layoffs.
19:47And we sit down with former Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy
19:51to discuss his new memoir, In the State of the Supreme Court.
19:58This is the PBS NewsHour from the David M. Rubenstein Studio at WETA in Washington
20:03and in the West from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University.
20:12Today marks the deadline for journalists to decide whether to comply
20:15with the Defense Department's new rules, a requirement for keeping the credentials
20:19that allow them to access the Pentagon.
20:22The Pentagon's chief spokesperson has described the new policy as common sense,
20:26but virtually every news organization, to include PBS News,
20:30has refused to sign it, arguing that it infringes on First Amendment protections.
20:35Where there was a historic outcome, I want to start with that real quick.
20:37For decades, reporters have held building passes that let them freely enter the Pentagon
20:42to attend press briefings, meet with officials, and talk with sources
20:46as they report on the Defense Department.
20:48But now, in order to keep those credentials, the Trump administration is requiring journalists
20:53to comply with a policy that says reporters cannot solicit or obtain any information
20:58the Defense Department does not explicitly authorize.
21:02Doing so, the Pentagon says, would be a criminal act
21:05and would not be considered protected activity under the First Amendment.
21:09It follows Sean Parnell, the Defense Department's chief spokesperson, posting on social media.
21:15Despite many statements to the contrary, journalists are not required to clear stories with us.
21:20They retain robust access to our public affairs offices, the briefing room,
21:24and the ability to ask questions, which we continue to answer thoroughly.
21:29The only change is an overdue update to our credentialing process,
21:32which hasn't been revised in years, if not decades, to align with modern security standards.
21:37Access to the Pentagon is a privilege, not a right.
21:41Today at the White House, the Defense Secretary defended the new policy.
21:45It used to be, Mr. President, the press could go anywhere, pretty much anywhere in the Pentagon,
21:49the most classified area in the world.
21:52Or also that if they sign on to the credentialing,
21:55they're not going to try to get soldiers to break the law by giving classified information.
21:59So it's common sense stuff.
22:00For more on this, we turn now to Nancy Youssef, a staff writer at The Atlantic who covers national security issues.
22:07And David Schultz is director of the Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic at Yale University,
22:12and he advised the Pentagon Press Association on how to handle the Defense Department's new rules.
22:18Thank you both for being here.
22:20David, we'll start with you.
22:20You heard the Defense Secretary say this is a common sense update.
22:23They're just modernizing the rules.
22:25You argue that this policy criminalizes routine reporting.
22:30So what exactly in the language makes it so objectionable?
22:35Yeah, I would say there's two things that are really quite objectionable.
22:39One is it was mentioned just now that it says that it's improper to solicit information if it has not been approved for release.
22:47But, you know, what the Pentagon calls illegal solicitation, we would call news gathering.
22:51And more important than the label, soliciting information is an activity protected by the First Amendment.
22:58And beyond that, the Pentagon is requiring reporters for the first time to affirm in writing that they understand that national security is harmed by disclosing information the Pentagon has not approved for release.
23:12Even if that information is unclassified, we know that is not true.
23:17Even information that's classified can often be disclosed without harm, and the public interest sometimes compels its disclosure.
23:25Affirming up front that harm can occur from reporting information if it's not officially approved is anathema to a free democracy.
23:35And it's information that could be used against a reporter in future litigation.
23:39Indeed, the place where reporters are being asked to sign has a large privacy notice across the top of it, making clear that the document can be used by the Pentagon in court.
23:52So I would say the obvious intent here is to intimidate and chill reporting on anything that's not officially disclosed.
23:59And, Nancy, why is it so important for reporters to have in-person access to the Pentagon to actually walk the halls and talk to people?
24:07Well, remember, this is an organization that uses nearly a trillion dollars of taxpayer money, employs three million people.
24:14And so being able to get as much information to the public as possible about what is happening in that building, the decisions that are being made about consequential national security decisions, is critical to our reporting.
24:26It allows us to bring the kind of nuance and detail to make for the most accurate reporting on issues as important as when the nation goes to war.
24:33And we should say that reporters don't have access to classified areas at the Pentagon.
24:38What safeguards already exist to prevent journalists from accidentally accessing or publishing classified or sensitive material?
24:46So, first of all, we wear badges every day.
24:49And not only do we wear badges, they identify us as press.
24:52We swipe in and out of the building so they can see when we're there.
24:54And you have to go through a background check to get that pass.
24:57Secondly, the Pentagon is a big office building with lots and lots of offices that are secured.
25:03And so there's not classified information sort of haphazardly thrown around.
25:08It's put in secure rooms and rooms that we don't have access to.
25:11And I would note that the Pentagon has not identified some security breach involving reporters that shows that there has been a violation of these rules.
25:18And so I think what you have seen is a press that has been allowed to talk to officials, understand decisions that are being made, and handle information as we are trusted to do by the public in a responsible way.
25:33So based on your reporting, what is driving this policy?
25:36Why is the Pentagon doing this now when no other federal agency has anything like this in place?
25:42Well, since Secretary Hegseth arrived at the building, he has been aggressively going after access for journalists.
25:49Within weeks, requires some news agencies to vacate their desks and vacate their news booths.
25:55He has indicated that when he doesn't like coverage that there should be repercussions for it.
26:00We've seen a secretary who has only had two press briefings.
26:03In the 10 months he's been in office, we've had less information than we've ever had before.
26:07Even before these rules were put in place, we have seen restrictions on our ability to obtain information.
26:13You mentioned earlier in the show the strikes on boats in Venezuela.
26:16Till this day, we don't know what kind of ordinance was used, who's conducting those strikes, whether they're from drones or from ships, or even who's on those boats.
26:28And so from the beginning, we have seen a secretary that has been quite aggressive in pursuing journalists who will write information that goes against what he and his department want released.
26:40And David, building on one of Nancy's points, you point to what you see as hypocrisy, that the recent security breaches within the Pentagon have come from within the Defense Department, not from journalists.
26:50Tell me more about that.
26:51Yeah, I just want to underscore what Nancy just said, that there is absolutely no need for this new policy and no justification for requiring reporters to sign these statements.
27:04As she said, no other agency does it.
27:06They don't do it at the White House.
27:07They don't do it at the State Department.
27:09And we should be clear, there was no problem that prompted this change.
27:13And I do think it's a bit more than hypocritical to suggest that this is a common-sense step that needs to be taken to protect national security, given that the major leaks of classified information during this administration have come from the top, starting with the casual use of signal by the secretary himself.
27:32It's not reporters that are breaching protocols here.
27:37So looking ahead, how will this change the way you and your colleagues report on the Pentagon?
27:42Well, I should start by saying we will continue to report on the Pentagon and do so aggressively, as we've always done.
27:48I think what will be lost is the opportunity for the American public to see troops.
27:52We won't be able to do things like go on ships with sailors.
27:55We won't be able to go into Humvees with troops.
27:57We won't have that kind of detail that I think has really added nuance to the reporting and to the public's understanding of national security and where we ask America's sons and daughters to deploy and potentially be in harm's way.
28:11Nancy Youssef, David Schultz, thank you both for your perspectives and insights.
28:14We appreciate it.
28:16The markets may have finished this day on a mixed note.
28:40But if you've been watching in recent months, you'll have noticed the markets have continued to be strong, despite continuing concerns around the shutdown, tariffs and inflation.
28:50In fact, the broadest index, the S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq have set records more than 30 times this year.
28:57And there's other data that suggests the economy is still chugging along at a steady clip.
29:01But that is only part of what's happening.
29:04As our economics correspondent Paul Solman reports, for the vast majority of Americans, this economy is landing very differently right now.
29:13This is Meta Ray-Ban display.
29:18You don't have to look far to get a clear view of those at the tippy top of the economy.
29:22The first AI glasses with a high resolution display.
29:26Mark Zuckerberg's Meta paying $250 million to recruit an artificial intelligence researcher.
29:33A proposed $1 trillion compensation package for Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
29:40Former Google head Eric Schmidt's purchase of a 123-room, $110 million L.A. mansion to host events.
29:49But well below the hyper-rich, millions of other Americans are also prospering.
29:55As evidence, 56 percent of luxury consumers, according to Saks Global, plan to spend the same or more this season, compared to last, up substantially from just last spring.
30:07Luxury travel continues to hold very strong.
30:11Misty Bellis of luxury travel network Virtuoso sees the same.
30:15When we look at our fall bookings for this year, we are up 38 percent year over year.
30:21If I wanted to go buy a Rolls Royce, I could do it right now and pay cash.
30:26Paul McGarvey and his wife aren't big travelers, but comfortably retired, they are insulated.
30:32I do a net worth survey on the Fidelity website every week, and it just does nothing but go up.
30:41All right, my net worth keeps going up.
30:43John, a retired engineer, is also pretty comfortable.
30:47I own my own house.
30:48I own a couple of cars.
30:50I have everything that I really want.
30:53Problem is, even when you include these upper-middle-income Americans among the prosperous, that still leaves a full 80 percent who are feeling squeezed, like geologist Timothy Runkle.
31:04It doesn't really matter what I'm doing in my career or what other jobs that I'm pursuing.
31:10It just doesn't keep up with what the necessities of life are right now.
31:15Donna is in sales.
31:17I haven't taken a vacation in over almost two and a half years.
31:20Joseph Williamson, a city planner in Collinsville, Illinois, proud home of the world's largest ketchup bottle.
31:27Honestly, right now, as we speak, $200 to my name, maybe.
31:32Fiori Berhana, assistant professor.
31:34I have student loans and medical debt.
31:37Emily Zarena is a librarian.
31:39I'm finding myself needing to use, like, the buy-now-pay-later things for bigger purchases, such as, like, car repairs.
31:47One way to depict the increasing split between the top 20 percent and the rest of Americans, says economist Mark Zandy, the letter K.
31:55The folks at the top part of the income and wealth distribution are doing fabulously well.
31:59And, of course, folks at the bottom part of the K, lower-middle-income households, they're struggling.
32:05Heather Long wrote about the K-shaped economy in The Washington Post.
32:08This economy right now is being driven by spending from the top 20 percent of Americans.
32:15So that dividing line is roughly $175,000.
32:20Families that earn above that mark, they're living la vida loca.
32:24You know, they're out there, they're spending on birthday parties and lavish weddings and big trips abroad and growing their spending month after month.
32:32And the rest of America, the bottom 80 percent, they're cautious right now.
32:38Their incomes haven't kept pace with inflation.
32:41They're encumbered with debt.
32:42They don't have any assets.
32:44Assets to benefit from.
32:46The stock market is booming.
32:47We have record valuations.
32:49All that accrues to the folks with big stock portfolios, and that's in the top 10, 20 percent of the distribution.
32:54They own their own home.
32:55They own bonds.
32:56They own crypto.
32:57They own lots of stuff.
32:58Of course, American wealth inequality is hardly new.
33:02Point is, it's getting worse.
33:03You can go back to kind of the early 90s, and the top 10 percent, the wealthiest Americans, you know, they would account for 35 percent of overall spending.
33:14So a pretty good chunk was reliant on the top.
33:17But today, that number is basically 50 percent.
33:20Half of spending is now dependent on just the top 10 percent.
33:25That's households making about $250,000 or more.
33:29The economy is more reliant on them than ever.
33:32Official consumer spending is rising thanks to folks like Bellis' high-end travel customers.
33:37Suites are still selling very well at hotels.
33:40Junior suites, anything that's in the upper category there, business class, premium economy, all of those upper categories continue to hold strong.
33:48Washington, D.C., realtor Michael Rankin specializes in the luxury market.
33:53It is very strong and very robust.
33:55They've been buying and spending a lot of money.
33:58In fact, his challenge is there aren't enough houses for his high-end clients to buy.
34:03What we have now is a scarcity of supply of the super high-end, and our marketplace is $7 million, $10 million, $15 million, even higher.
34:12I have active buyers and clients who are looking for something very special, very well-renovated, very well-presented, and there's just a scarcity of supply.
34:21But while the well-off are fueling the economy, so many others are pinching pennies, looking to spend less on just the basics at discount stores like Dollar General,
34:32which recently reported an increase in middle- and higher-income shoppers.
34:36And budget grocer Aldi is America's fastest-growing retailer.
34:40I'm spending sometimes upwards of $150, $200 a week on groceries.
34:47Joe Williamson's pay is barely keeping up with prices at the store, like so many Americans.
34:53I used to be a person who would pay off my credit card every single month.
34:57I wouldn't keep a balance at all, but I have had to start keeping a balance, and I'm not able to pay it off every month.
35:05Pretty good.
35:06This summer, Jessica Cuevas and her husband moved their family to Mexico because they could no longer afford to live in Chicago on her husband's $67,000 a year salary.
35:17Rent is about $1,000 U.S. dollars.
35:21In Chicago, where we're from, it could be anywhere between $25,000 to $5,000.
35:25And Cuevas can work, too, since she can now afford daycare.
35:30That alone is about $150 a month compared to $1,400.
35:36Now, the K-bifurcation isn't just among households.
35:40There's also a K-shaped situation going on on the business side.
35:44And you can look at the stock market, and it's being hugely driven by a handful of superstar tech companies that are involved in the AI boom.
35:53And they're just in a totally different league right now than everybody else.
35:58And they, it turns out, are driving the economy.
36:00In the first half of 2025, spending on AI was as big of a contributor to growth in this country as consumption.
36:11There's a lot of risk to an economy that is so heavily reliant on this AI boom and the rich.
36:18And there could be some pullback.
36:20If your chair has fewer and fewer legs to stand on, it's a lot easier to knock that over.
36:26Meanwhile, the AI boom means more data centers, devouring more energy, driving up electricity prices for the already strapped 80%.
36:36Everybody around me has either doubled or tripled in their power expenses, and we can't afford it.
36:44Not to mention rising rents as investors buy up residential real estate.
36:48My rent is going to continue rising, and my pay isn't.
36:53So why not buy instead?
36:55I do not feel like I could ever buy a house that's not even on my radar, quite honestly.
37:03Just 25% of Americans these days feel they have a good chance of improving their standard of living, a record low.
37:11Why do you suppose there hasn't been a revolt from the bottom, the pitchforks in one cliched version of the revolt?
37:21There's clearly a lot of skewing of the income and wealth distribution, but, you know, times historically, when you've seen, as you say, the pitchforks coming out, the skewing is much more pronounced.
37:31You know, we're not living in Paris, France, circa late 1700s, you know, for example.
37:36That is even the bottom arm of the K.
37:39Making 50, 75K a year here in the U.S., your standard of living, just given the improvements in technologies and everything else, is probably as good as the hearse were back 100 years ago when they were in their castle.
37:51A castle without air conditioning, TV, the Internet, access to modern medicine, and so much we now take for granted.
38:00On the other hand, that man's home was a castle.
38:03For the PBS NewsHour, Paul Solman.
38:05The government shutdown will pass the two-week mark tonight after a continuing resolution failed in the Senate once again.
38:22Neither side seems close to resuming talks.
38:25For its part, the president's team posted on social media that it's, quote,
38:28making every preparation to batten down the hatches and ride out the shutdown.
38:33The White House also threatened to continue laying off federal workers.
38:37Just this past weekend, roughly 1,300 employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention received notices that they were fired.
38:44Then, as the administration realized it had fired some key staff, reportedly half of them were reinstated the next day.
38:51The whiplash still leaves the agency without many crucial professionals.
38:56To break down the impact, I spoke earlier today with Dr. Nirav Shah.
38:59He's former principal deputy director of the CDC, now a visiting professor at Colby College.
39:05Dr. Shah, welcome to the NewsHour. Thank you for joining us.
39:09Thank you for having me, Amna.
39:10So, from the folks you talk to and from what you've seen, for so many people at the CDC to have been fired and then rehired,
39:17even with these lingering threats of more continued layoffs to come,
39:21what kind of impact is that having on folks at the CDC?
39:24It has an impact in two ways. The first is this sort of whiplash with being fired one day, rehired the next.
39:33It just it suggests that there's managerial incompetence at play.
39:37But the second thing that it does, particularly for the staff, is it's a morale killer.
39:43Morale at the CDC was already exceedingly low.
39:46Indeed, not more than two months ago, the CDC was literally attacked by a gunman who fired over 500 rounds at the building.
39:54That alone would be sufficient to kill the morale of any organization.
39:59But now this whiplash of firings and rehirings means that morale at the agency is exceptionally low.
40:05That has implications for all of us and our safety.
40:08When you look at where folks have been fired and not rehired, is our understanding, among those staffers are people at an agency known as ASPR, I believe,
40:17that works with the intelligence agencies to prepare for or protect against things like pandemics and weaponized pathogens.
40:23What do we know about the impact of a team like that being fired?
40:28ASPR, which focuses on strategic preparedness for bioterrorism and biodefense threats,
40:34is really the connective tissue that links up a number of different agencies,
40:39not just within health and human services, but across the federal government,
40:43to make sure that we are ready to detect a potential biological threat and then respond to it in unison.
40:49It's not a large entity, but it's an important one.
40:52It's the nucleus of a lot of our work.
40:55And so any reductions in force to such a small but important group, again, leave us all less safe.
41:01There are a number of other agencies where we saw some firings,
41:05the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration among them.
41:09Are there other teams that stand out in particular to you as very dangerous or potentially harmful?
41:15And also, how should the rest of the country look at this?
41:18Is this something that's going to show up in their lives tomorrow or this week?
41:21The impact of them may not be seen for days, weeks, months, even years.
41:26But when that impact is materialized, it will be in the midst of a crisis or a catastrophe,
41:33when we are the last ones to know about a devastating biological threat,
41:37when all of our foreign adversaries have had weeks or months of lead time to be ready,
41:43and we are the ones who are scrambling.
41:46The worst part about all of these cuts is that the impact of them won't be felt until there's an emergency.
41:52And then we'll all be looking around wondering why we were the last to know.
41:57It will mean that the way that the health of the American public is protected for the foreseeable future
42:02is through state and local governments, not necessarily through the federal government.
42:08Can I put to you what we've heard from the president about some of these firings,
42:11because he's repeatedly characterized these as firings around democratic programs or democratic priorities.
42:18What's your response to that?
42:19How do you look at that language?
42:20That is the wrong way to characterize public health programs that keep us all safe.
42:26There is no virus out there.
42:29There's no deadly pathogen out there that only goes after folks of one political party or another.
42:35When the next biological threat comes, it will attack everybody, irrespective of their political preferences.
42:42And therefore, the systems that keep us safe are not democratic or republican or red or purple or anything in between.
42:50Dr. Shah, longer term, when you look at the future of the CDC, for people who are being fired now or even rehired, are they likely to stay at the agency?
42:59Are the things that are being broken down now, are they able to be built back up later?
43:03They will be able to be built back up, but unfortunately, I fear that it will take a generation to do so.
43:10The talent and the career scientists who have been let go.
43:15Again, these are not political appointees.
43:17These are career public servant scientists.
43:20They have other opportunities owing to their excellence and their education.
43:24And those opportunities will be found elsewhere, perhaps in industry, perhaps in academia.
43:30And this is not just at the CDC.
43:32It's at the NIH and at the FDA and SAMHSA.
43:35Those scientists will take a generation, if not more, to be lured back or for the next generation of scientists to come up.
43:43What it means specifically in an era of increasing bioterror threats is that other countries and foreign adversaries will have a leg up on us whenever that next threat emerges.
43:55We'll be the ones behind when we should be the ones in front.
43:59That is Dr. Nirav Shah, formerly of the CDC, now with Colby College in Maine, joining us tonight.
44:05Dr. Shah, thank you.
44:06Good to speak with you.
44:07Thank you for having me.
44:19Former Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy served on the nation's highest court for three decades
44:24and was often described as the swing vote in landmark decisions, from marriage equality to campaign finance.
44:30It's a label he's long resisted, even years after his 2018 retirement.
44:35When we spoke last week about his new memoir, Life, Law and Liberty, he explained why.
44:40Well, it's really the metaphor that's the problem for me.
44:45The metaphor you see this person swinging back and forth.
44:48And my comment when people say about that is that the cases swing, I don't.
44:52And so that's why it seems to me, people can disagree, that my jurisprudence is quite consistent and it doesn't swing.
45:02And so that was one of the things explained in the book.
45:08You were the pivotal voice in cases that expanded LGBTQ rights, that preserved abortion rights at the time,
45:15but also a ruling that struck down campaign finance restrictions.
45:19How do you reconcile or explain those strands of your legal philosophy?
45:24The campaign finance cases are very, very difficult.
45:29I'm sure most people don't like the idea that millionaires, maybe billionaires,
45:33come in and spend all this money in a place where they don't even live in order to get somebody elected.
45:38And why should the successful candidate be the one that has the most money?
45:43That's something that's wrong with it.
45:45So then you're asking me, well, what are you talking about, Kennedy?
45:47Why did you write this?
45:49The answer was that what the Congress had done was to say that corporations could not give the money.
45:57They forgot that the New York Times was a corporation and it was exempt.
46:03The Washington Post was a corporation and it was exempt.
46:05And many corporations were small, a small chamber of commerce, a grocery store.
46:11So to me, if we had upheld it for just big corporations, we would have had endless cases on drawing the line
46:17and we had no jurisprudential reason to do it.
46:19My suggestion, and it's still my hope, is that the voters will be better informed about who is giving money,
46:31who is getting money, and take that into account when they vote.
46:37And voters should be better informed, the book talks generally about we have to be better informed
46:43about how our government works and what our great, the issues of our time are.
46:48We were talking earlier about how the book is organized because you do explain your opinions in these key cases.
46:56In the Obergefell v. Hodges case, you wrote so powerfully about the dignity of same-sex couples.
47:02And you write in the book about how someone once told you that the opinion passed the refrigerator test.
47:08Explain that for us.
47:10Somebody said you passed it.
47:11We were at some event.
47:13Somebody said, your opinion passed the refrigerator test.
47:15I said, what's the refrigerator test?
47:16If there's something that's written in a newspaper article or a book or, in this case, a Supreme Court opinion,
47:25and the parents want the family to read it, they get some adhesive tape and put it on their refrigerator.
47:31And then everybody reads it when they're going to get something out of the refrigerator.
47:35So certain parts of my opinion, they said pass the refrigerator test,
47:39those parts of the opinions which talk about the dignity and the sanctity of marriage.
47:44But Justice Clarence Thomas recently said at Catholic University that legal precedents, this is a quote, are not the gospel.
47:51Given the current petitions seeking to revisit Obergefell, do you worry that parts of your legacy, including that case, could be undone?
48:00Well, of course, the law must stand the test of time.
48:04And if we learn or think we learn new things over the course of years, judges and the legal profession and the general public are free to examine and think about the reasons.
48:20That's why we give reasons for what we do.
48:22That's why we write about what we do.
48:25And we see if those reasons can stand the test of time.
48:29So the fact that there is a re-examination and additional conversation, to me, is a strength of our system.
48:38I want to ask you about democracy and the court's role in preserving it.
48:42You warned this past summer in remarks that freedom and democracy are at risk.
48:48What, in your view, poses the greatest threat to our democratic system?
48:52Lack of civility.
48:53Aristotle wrote that democracy depends upon a rational, thoughtful, probing discussion in which you have disagreements, but you respect the other person.
49:14And you do not, and you respect the dignity of the other person.
49:19Those with whom you disagree have a dignity that you must respect.
49:25And in this age of the cyber age, we have some problems.
49:36Initially, my thought was, oh, the cyber age is good because more people will talk to each other.
49:43And there are 39,000 books in the Library of Congress.
49:51There are close to 2 billion websites on the Internet.
49:56And the problem with the Internet, as a professor from the University of Michigan, Barbara Mecham wrote, is that, sure, we talk to each other more, but we talk only to people who feel exactly the same way as we do.
50:14We don't have, we don't have, the Internet doesn't lend itself to a debate.
50:18If you and I are going out to lunch, we'll find something we disagree with, and we'll enjoy the lunch, but we disagree.
50:24That doesn't happen on the Internet.
50:27Beyond that, is the court doing enough to safeguard our democratic system?
50:31There are those who argue that the court, with its current trajectory, is strengthening the executive branch at the expense of Congress, at the expense of the people.
50:41Is that, in your view, a fair assessment?
50:43Well, my practice is not to comment on current issues, current issues.
50:49We have, during my time on the court, we had three times as many cases as they have now.
50:56Does that mean that we were three times as busy?
50:58No, because of all of these emergency orders.
51:01And the problem with emergency orders is that there is little time to have briefs or argument to think about it.
51:11And the court, in my view, is beginning to recognize that and beginning to say, there'll be an executive order.
51:18Sure, we'll allow it for a couple months, or we won't allow it for a couple months, but we'll hear arguments and then we'll decide.
51:25It's very, very important that the court hear arguments.
51:29One of the problems that we have is, as you know, lawyers are brilliant now about finding a way for almost any social issue to become part of a lawsuit.
51:40So that courts can decide almost any social issue.
51:45This means that we have to be very, very careful about the authority and the position of the courts in deciding so many critical issues that the public should be deciding for themselves.
52:02Because Nino Scalia would say, oh, you ask what the framers of the Constitution would do.
52:08And if they don't give you the answer, then you can't come up with it.
52:11And many of us disagree with that.
52:13But it is quite true that we have to be very careful that we don't just jump off from what the framers said and decide whatever we like.
52:23On that point, as of last week, the court had issued 23 rulings in a row for the Trump administration.
52:30At a time when public opinion of the Supreme Court is near historic lows, do you worry that the consistent support for the Trump administration feeds into this public perception that the court is partisan or, worse than that, political?
52:44The danger of the court being thought of as partisan and political, it's very real and of great concern to me.
52:51It begins with the confirmation process.
52:54The confirmation process is too partisan.
52:58There are very few presidents who appointed justices from a different party.
53:06Eisenhower did, Brennan, and you could argue about Warren.
53:09Warren was something of an independent.
53:10And so partisanship has always played a role.
53:15But it shouldn't dominate.
53:17We should talk about temperament and learning and moderation and thoughtful writing.
53:23We should emphasize that more than just he or she will decide this my way and therefore we're going to appoint that person as a judge.
53:31That's not right.
53:33You have shaped the law in ways that have touched millions of lives, expanding rights, defining liberty.
53:39At times, dividing the nation with some of the rulings.
53:43When you reflect on that, what part of your legacy feels most meaningful to you?
53:48Well, I'll think of this answer later tonight.
53:51The part that I hear is that we give reasons for what we do and that it's essential for all of government, for all thoughtful people, to give reasons for what we do.
54:08And to be unafraid to discuss those reasons openly and with a searching mindset.
54:23The book is Life, Law, and Liberty, a Memoir.
54:26Justice Anthony Kennedy.
54:28Thanks again for being here.
54:29A real pleasure to speak with you.
54:30Thank you so much.
54:31It's my pleasure and honor to be on this great, great television network.
54:35And that is the NewsHour for tonight.
54:50I'm Amna Nawaz.
54:51And I'm Jeff Bennett.
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