PBS News Hour full episode, August 11, 2026

[0:04] good evening i'm jeff bennett on the navaz is away on the news hour tonight [0:08] how president donald trump secretly switched airplanes before departing turkey last month [0:14] over a security threat from iran the death toll rises and the search for survivors continues in [0:20] the wake of a massive earthquake in colombia and in the midst of the iran war a rare and exclusive [0:26] interview with a top advisor to the leader of iran's revolutionary guard the longer this war [0:33] lasts the more experience we gain we had never seen a real war to gain real experience to learn [0:39] how to fight with america major funding for the pbs news hour has been provided by a life with impact [1:00] in this moment and into the future a raymond james advisor can help craft a wealth plan with your [1:06] goals for today and all the possibilities of tomorrow in mind raymond james consumer cellular [1:15] this is sam how may i help you this is a pocket dial well somebody's pocket thought i'd let you [1:20] know that with consumer cellular you get nationwide coverage with no contract that's kind of our thing [1:26] have a nice day the gordon and betty moore foundation established to create positive outcomes for future [1:34] generations and friends of the news hour including kathy and paul anderson and camilla and george smith [1:51] and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions this program was made possible by [2:28] the contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you thank you welcome to the news hour we begin [2:40] tonight with new details about the extraordinary secret security measures taken to protect president [2:45] trump the news hour has confirmed reporting by the washington post that mr trump switched planes not [2:50] once but twice while leaving last month's nato summit in turkey the second transfer to a smaller [2:56] aircraft by way of a catering truck had not been known until now nick schifrin has more as he [3:03] finished his trip to the ankara nato summit last month president trump swept aside a question about [3:09] why he wasn't flying home on the plane on which he'd arrived a qatarie gifted 747 why aren't you flying [3:15] on the new air force it's lying to europe to one of the big bases two or three of the big bases where we can [3:22] show it to the people and we'll be going home by normal methods his journey home only appeared normal [3:31] at 8 24 p.m local that evening president trump boarded the legacy air force one he turned around [3:37] gave a wave to the cameras broadcasting his departure live and disappeared behind the closed door which is [3:43] when the camera zooms out but doesn't focus on that catering truck it was parked on the other side of [3:49] the plane near another catering truck at the level of the doors to let food in or sneak the president [3:56] out and six minutes later at 8 30 p.m local the truck that usually caters to the president now [4:02] secretly carrying him it backs up away from air force one toward another u.s government plane parked [4:09] behind unbeknownst to the press corps the other plane an air force c32a usually reserved for the [4:16] secretary of defense or other senior officials but not the president at 8 44 pm local the legacy plane [4:23] takes off without the president who was in fact still on the ground in the smaller plane as the [4:28] camera focuses on the plane that had become a decoy flying to the united kingdom's milden hall royal [4:34] air force base when the legacy air force one landed there it took the president 40 minutes to disembark [4:41] apparently the time it took him to land in the smaller plane and secretly move on to the [4:45] legacy plane and walk down the steps as if nothing had happened he then walked the new qatari gifted [4:52] plane where on board he told journalists there was nothing unusual going on you're saying there [4:57] wasn't a security concern no no why were you were you aware of any credible threat by iran against her [5:04] well i haven't read all the time i'm number one on their list before you but if i go you go right but [5:12] we now know in the four hours it took for the legacy air force one to fly from turkey to the united [5:17] kingdom the president was not on the plane instead it was full of staff and journalists despite a threat [5:22] from iran deemed credible enough to convince the secret service jeff to use the plane as a decoy and [5:28] nick tell us more about this threat from iran this threat existed well before this year and this war [5:34] iran has threatened to assassinate president trump and other former senior officials ever since president [5:41] trump ordered the killing of qasem sulamani the former powerful head of the quds force you see [5:47] his assassination there in baghdad in 2000 he was responsible for militias and terrorism as part of [5:53] the islamic revolutionary guard corps the threat was deemed credible enough against president trump [5:59] and these former senior officials that they received additional security details not only in 2000 [6:03] but through the biden administration in fact until president trump removed some of those details [6:08] uh and iran has followed through on other threats in the decades prior now as for the last uh the [6:13] threat last month in turkey we don't know the specifics but i talked to former officials today [6:18] who said for the secret service to take this step it would have been serious reliable and well-sourced [6:24] part of a stream of ongoing intelligence or some kind of recent walk-in uh take a listen to michael [6:30] matranga he's a former uh secret service agent now the head of m6 global defense obviously there was [6:37] credible intelligence that a threat was imminent which is what caused the united states secret [6:42] service and other entities to include the united states military to make this decision [6:47] to pull off this ruse this is specifically coming from the administration of iran saying we want to [6:53] assassinate the president of the united states and so we've got to take this very serious and all of [6:58] these measures that the men and women of the united states secret service and dod are taking are [7:03] absolutely appropriate as matranga puts it this has been a powder keg for decades for the secret [7:09] service given iran's threats now how unusual is it for the secret service to turn air force one and [7:15] its passengers to include white house staff the traveling press into a decoy as far as we know the [7:21] decoy fact of that question it has only happened once before in 2000 president bill clinton landed in [7:28] islamabad you see there in an unmarked plane after air force one had landed and a body double who looked [7:35] like clinton got off of air force one jeff though if you go beyond decoys to include feints or secret [7:42] trips like george w bush's to iraq uh the secret service has taken steps like that before as for [7:48] questions today of the vulnerability of those people who did fly on air force one without president trump [7:55] matranga said the bottom lines the secret service had to make a trade-off i don't think that anybody [8:02] intentionally put um you know the anchors or anyone else the white house press corps in harm's way but [8:10] that was a risk that had to be weighed and at the end of the day we have to look at continuity of [8:16] american government and quite frankly i don't have to say this but just to say it is that the president [8:21] of the united states is more important than every single person on that plane more important than every [8:26] other person again jeff all credit to the washington post who broke this story indeed while i'll have [8:31] you let's switch topics because russia released marine veteran robert gilman today we reported on [8:36] his story last night on this broadcast bring us up to speed russia released gilman on humanitarian grounds [8:42] the 32 year old is a former marine who went to russia to teach english he was first arrested in 2022 [8:49] for allegedly hitting a russian police officer and was sentenced to four and a half years but his [8:54] sentence was extended to a decade his family and advocates including those you spoke to last night [9:00] said his health was badly deteriorating he was non-responsive unable to interact or eat essentially [9:06] catatonic senator ed markey of massachusetts even accused russia of torturing him but today he was [9:12] released after 1666 days of detention you see him there on the left with his mother right next to him [9:20] on an american plane uh gilman's on his way now to a u.s military hospital in texas where he will be [9:26] assessed and treated uh global reach says uh that he cannot talk uh cannot walk rather but was speaking [9:33] and the president actually who spoke to him today said he even asked for a cheeseburger on the phone [9:38] uh the trump administration says that there was no prisoner swap nor quote any other concessions given [9:44] to russia but i did talk to u.s officials today about one other aspect they said that shortly before [9:50] his release he was declared wrongfully detained that is something of course that you heard from [9:55] last night the family and advocates were complaining that that hadn't happened they had not made that [10:00] public for fear that it would imperil this release but u.s officials say yes he has been declared [10:05] wrongfully detained and that'll open more treatment for him now that he's home and free certainly good [10:09] to see him released nick schifrin thanks so much for this reporting thank you in colombia tonight the [10:26] desperate search for survivors is entering a critical phase after the powerful earthquake that [10:31] devastated parts of that country more than 180 people have died but 24 hours after the quake struck [10:38] there are still remarkable moments of hope in colombia today neighbors and rescue workers gathered [10:46] shoulder to shoulder clearing away mountains of rubble in the search for survivors in santiago de cali [10:53] where dozens of homes and buildings have collapsed at least 86 people have been pulled from the [10:58] wreckage among them this six-month-old baby and the child's mother rescuers say they heard the mother's [11:07] cries beneath the rubble and then dug through the debris of their five-story apartment building to reach [11:12] them more than 3 000 people remain missing after the 7.4 magnitude earthquake in pareda roughly 50 miles [11:22] from the quake's epicenter jairo vargas joined the search the architect says he traveled hours to [11:29] reach his brother's apartment convinced he's trapped inside i'm absolutely certain he's here absolutely [11:37] certain his horse saddle and all his belongings are here he's not answering his phone the doorman [11:43] didn't report him leaving and his car is parked right there and he's not out he's got to be there [11:49] trapped pareda is among the hardest hit areas where entire residential blocks have collapsed into piles [11:55] of concrete and twisted steel but rescuers say there is still a critical window to find people alive [12:04] we still have a big window about 24 more hours of which there is hope of finding survivors our biggest [12:11] advantage is that there may be isolated air pockets or survivable spaces that can allow people to stay alive [12:18] for a longer period of time colombia is mobilizing resources for a massive rescue and recovery effort [12:27] soldiers who just a day earlier were forced to stop training and brace themselves as the ground shook [12:32] are now being deployed to help with rescue and cleanup operations but reaching the hardest hit areas [12:38] itself is a challenge colombia's aviation authorities have closed six airports because of structural damage [12:45] potentially complicating the delivery of aid for weeks it was a very very strong earthquake much [12:50] more than people had ever experienced before and we live in an earthquake zone edward de berg is the [12:55] senior officer of global security for project hope a humanitarian organization responding to disasters [13:01] around the world he's based in bogota and he says the quake has damaged the very infrastructure [13:07] communities will rely on in the weeks and months ahead when a disaster of this magnitude happens when it comes [13:13] to things like primary health care hospitals clinics which you know housed in buildings are are affected [13:19] like any any other building um whether they're affected in a dramatic way or even just a way that makes [13:25] safety an issue for entering them they they tend to to close down and then infrastructure or primary [13:32] health infrastructure becomes challenged back in santiago de cali another search unfolded in agonizing fits and [13:39] starts at even the faintest hint of sound beneath the rubble rescuers stopped everything and listened [13:49] overnight that persistence paid off [13:56] nearly 24 hours after the quake first shook the country [13:59] firefighters found a 35 year old man trapped under the rubble [14:04] the city's mayor said the man suffered only minor injuries one rescue offering hope to thousands [14:11] of families still waiting for word also in the day's headlines ousted syrian [14:16] president bashar al-assad has been sentenced to death in absentia for war crimes during the [14:21] country's brutal civil war that left roughly half a million people dead [14:29] the capital sentences read aloud on state tv were the first against assad and his inner circle since a rebel [14:35] uprising toppled his government nearly two years ago assad and his younger brother who was also [14:40] sentenced to death fled to russia in 2024 where they were granted political asylum in yemen authorities [14:47] say at least six people were killed when iran-backed houthi rebels fired ballistic missiles on a vessel in [14:53] the bab el-mandeb strait the houthis also claimed to have fired on a saudi ship in the same waterway the [14:59] strikes followed days of houthi attacks on land and on ports that have killed dozens of yemeni government [15:05] forces and civilians they threatened to reignite a civil war that's been under a four-year tentative [15:11] truce meantime u.s forces fired upon and disabled a panamanian flagged ship in the gulf of oman today [15:18] u.s central command said the vessel tried to pass through the american blockade of iranian ports [15:24] over 100 firefighters from mexico have arrived in canada to help battle a deadly blaze in british [15:30] colombia that's forced over 20 000 people to flee their homes eyewitness video shows hillsides in [15:35] western canada completely engulfed in flames the bald range fire has consumed over 60 square miles at [15:42] least one person has died local authorities say firefighting crews have faced challenging steep [15:48] terrain and windy conditions and a criminal investigation has been opened into the cause of [15:53] the fire meantime wildfire smoke is once again reducing air quality across much of the western u.s [16:00] the democratic republic of the congo says the ebola outbreak there has now killed more than 2 000 [16:06] people more than 4 000 cases of the disease have been confirmed in the drc and it's taken just three [16:12] weeks for the death toll to double making it the fastest growing outbreak on record efforts to detect [16:19] and contain the disease have been hampered by armed conflict poor infrastructure and distrust of [16:24] health authorities there is no current treatment or vaccine for this strain of ebola but clinical [16:29] trials have started in eastern congo to try and develop one on wall street today stocks slipped even [16:36] further from their recent all-time highs the dow jones industrial average lost 184 points the nasdaq fell by [16:42] more than half a percent the s p 500 posted another modest drop and sky gazers in many countries including [16:50] this one are about to get a double dose of celestial events both a solar eclipse and the perseid meteor [16:56] shower will be visible across the sky tomorrow from the arctic circle to southern europe countries like [17:01] greenland russia and spain will see a total solar eclipse when the sun moon and earth align perfectly in [17:08] the sky 26 states here in the u.s and washington dc will be treated to a partial eclipse seen from alaska to [17:15] north carolina as for the perseids they will be best viewed after midnight across much of northern [17:21] the northern hemisphere nasa says as many as 50 to 100 meteors could be seen each hour under ideal [17:27] conditions well still to come on the news hour we speak with a top advisor to iran's revolutionary [17:33] guard corps as the war with the u.s continues a look at the national guard's controversial deployment to [17:39] washington dc one year in and credit card delinquencies rise in the u.s as higher interest [17:45] rates make it harder to pay off debt this is the pbs news hour from the david m rubinstein studio at weta [17:55] in washington headquarters of pbs news as the war with iran continues its uneasy stalemate we hear now [18:06] from a top advisor to the overall commander of iran's islamic revolutionary guard corps the force [18:12] largely responsible for border and internal security the u.s and many other nations have [18:18] designated it a terrorist organization the irgc as it's known rarely give interviews and almost never [18:25] to western media but commander mohammed reza nakdi sat down this morning in tehran for an exclusive [18:31] interview with special correspondent reza sayah commander nakdi thank you very much for sitting [18:36] down with us it has been a long-running policy of iran's revolutionary guards to never speak [18:44] to american media what changed why did you agree to sit with us in the name of god the most gracious [18:53] the most merciful we never received a request to reject it we would like for our voice to reach the [19:01] ears of people in western countries it's western media that don't like our voice to be heard [19:08] there's nothing we do that's indefensible and outside the values of humanity that we would want to [19:14] cover up or not discuss let's talk about this war where do you see iran in this juncture of the war [19:24] do you see yourself as winning are you in control certainly victory is on our side after the defeat of [19:33] america's two main objectives the toppling of the leadership and the breaking up of iran we saw [19:39] confusion and bewilderment in america it became a war without a strategy every two or three days they [19:47] announced a new objective for several nights they said they want to invade karg island they said they [19:53] want to open the strait of hormones they mobilized their battleships everything they tried we can show how we [20:00] were victorious in your view is it inevitable that iran has won no we have not yet reached our final [20:08] objective this is clear up until now we are victorious in the future we will continue to be victorious [20:16] the longer this war lasts the more experience we gain we had never seen a real war to gain real [20:22] experience to learn how to fight with america in these five months we have learned how we have also [20:28] seen how the american military is weaker than what we perceived is it iran's objective to drag out [20:34] this war to maybe wait until mr trump is out of office look we have to attain deterrence so that [20:41] the enemy never dares to attack us so we can live with security one way is to prolong this war until we [20:47] get to the next term of the presidency and cause attrition so that if anyone else wants to attack iran [20:54] they will know there is a cost this week on at least two occasions maybe more iranian forces attacked [21:03] non-military ships that were trying to cross through the strait of hormos what is iran's objective [21:10] in attacking civilian ships when we are at war vessels need to pass through a region we can control [21:19] when they leave an area that we control it could be that they're transporting supplies for the enemy [21:26] do you not see that as a violation of international law attacking civilian ships [21:34] when you're in a state of war any thoroughfare deemed to be a threat we can control it this is [21:39] international law anywhere in the world where there is war this law exists one of your most effective [21:47] weapons in this war has been your missiles and your drones reports said before the war you had [21:53] about three thousand to four thousand missiles how many missiles do you have in your stockpile right [22:00] now first of all we are not reliant on missiles and drones if we are victorious we relied on our [22:07] faith to be victorious god is with us as for our missiles the americans and the zionists always want [22:15] to count our missiles first of all the number of missiles we manufacture every day is more than [22:21] the number we launch in a country this vast we can make them wherever we want [22:29] where are you making them is it deep underground we do it in different ways we have various ways to [22:36] manufacture them securely rest assured even if this war lasts for years until the last day iran's rockets [22:44] will be launched i will make this point and this is more important than missiles if there comes a [22:49] day when iran has no more missiles left that's when we will be even more dangerous for america [22:56] how would you be more dangerous because america has thousands of economic interests throughout the [23:01] world and all of them can be easily destroyed military officers often put themselves in the place of [23:09] their rivals and the enemy to maybe predict what they're going to do put yourself in pete hexeth's [23:16] place what is he thinking what is your prediction as to what he might do [23:25] i will never put myself in his place he is a criminal who killed 168 innocent children not only do [23:32] these people not work for the benefit of humanity they don't even work for america they work for their own [23:37] interests as soon as the stock market closes they start hostilities the stock market opens they [23:44] send positive messages to raise stock prices all the while they are buying and selling the stocks [23:49] themselves if i was in the place of the american congress i would call for an investigative committee [23:55] to compare the assets of mr trump his family and his inner circle before the war to their assets after the [24:02] war many observers say iran has put up a strong fight but that america has one weapon that iran [24:12] doesn't and that's a nuclear bomb in your view how likely is it for america to use a nuclear bomb [24:21] naturally it can end up being a mistake for them the morning after they use a bomb all of america's [24:26] military bases around the world would be occupied today things are different than world war ii [24:32] do the people of the world have awakened no one in the world will allow for such a crime to be [24:37] committed because the next time it could be themselves washington has long claimed that iran [24:44] is a threat to israel israel says iran wants to build a bomb to destroy israel does iran want to [24:53] destroy israel iran has only one thing to say about occupied palestine and this is something our martyred [25:01] leader has also said the leadership there must be chosen based on a majority vote by the people who [25:06] are connected to that land this will certainly not be done with a nuclear bomb but we certainly prefer [25:13] if the zionist regime did not exist just like the previous south african regime an apartheid and white [25:21] supremacist regime that was discarded by the people the same thing must happen in palestine [25:26] iranians are often seen shouting the slogan death to america and many american politicians point to [25:36] that slogan and say iran wants to destroy america look we have no enmity with the people of america [25:44] so what does that slogan mean the meaning of death to america means death to america's leadership [25:50] a leadership that has invaded or violated more than 70 countries since becoming a superpower [25:54] increasingly many observers inside iran and outside say that if iran had a nuclear weapon [26:02] america would not attack it that it would be a deterrent is the revolutionary guard is iran [26:08] even discussing the possibility of pursuing a nuclear bomb i will say this clearly our nuclear bomb is the [26:18] hearts of the people of the world that we won fighting oppression islamic values and the divine values of [26:24] the islamic revolution are taking over the world there is no need for nuclear bombs there is no need for [26:31] slaughter after the death of the late supreme leader his son mujtaba khameini was appointed supreme leader [26:39] but during this war he has never been seen in public can you tell us why the strategy belongs to him [26:48] our enemy is criminal and doesn't abide by any law [26:54] so it is it is it because of security reasons naturally it is due to security certainly there [27:00] is no other reason have you seen him let's leave this matter alone [27:05] commander knackley thank you very much you're welcome i too thank you we asked the white house [27:11] about the specific comments knackley made in that interview they responded with a statement that reads in [27:16] part it would be wise for iran to agree to a deal adding otherwise they know what will happen it has [27:35] now been one year since president trump declared a crime emergency in the nation's capital and deployed [27:40] thousands of members of the national guard to its streets as lisa de jardin reports questions continue [27:46] to mount over the mission's cost its legality and its effectiveness in fighting crime from metro stations [27:54] to monuments these days soldiers in d.c are almost as common as sightseers nearly 5 000 troops from more [28:02] than 15 states currently patrol the capital a controversial symbol of the president's authority [28:08] in this overwhelmingly democratic city i'm announcing a historic action to rescue our nation's capital from [28:16] crime bloodshed bedlam and squalor when president trump announced the deployment last august [28:23] combined with a surge of immigration enforcement it immediately sparked protests and drew criticism [28:31] from experts who said the data showed violent crime in d.c was already at a 30-year low d.c it's no [28:38] secret has had above average levels of crime for many many years but crime at the time of the [28:46] announcement was falling quite rapidly so there really was no urgent situation that needed to be addressed [28:53] total crime in washington has continued to drop over the last year down another 20 percent according [28:59] to the d.c police department the white house credits the guard and the make d.c safe and beautiful task [29:05] force which it says includes 20 federal and local law enforcement agencies and has made 16 000 arrests in [29:13] the past year but there is debate over the root causes of the decline particularly if the guard impacts [29:19] violent crime at all yesterday on truth social the president threatened to sue the author of a study [29:25] from the liberal center for american progress calling the research a radical left scam in july secretary of [29:33] defense pete hegseth said critics of the operation were blinded by ideology there's nothing political about [29:39] this exercise law and order is something all americans deserve black white rich poor man or woman from d.c or [29:48] far-flung places in this country it's really unnecessary it's a kind of a horse and pony show [29:57] polls have shown a majority of d.c residents oppose the deployment and the congressional budget office [30:02] estimates the total cost of taxpayers so far has been at least 660 million dollars in november [30:09] west virginia national guard specialist sarah beckstrom was killed and another guardsman injured [30:15] in an ambush style attack not far from the white house an afghan national is charged the president [30:22] has also tried deploying troops to other democratic cities in his second term like los angeles chicago [30:28] and portland courts ultimately blocked those efforts but joseph nunn at the brennan center says [30:33] they are concerning and unprecedented no prior president has attempted to use the military [30:40] for domestic law enforcement in such a wide variety of ways and on the scale that the trump second trump [30:49] administration has attempted to use the military meanwhile in d.c where trump has direct control of [30:54] the national guard the pentagon confirmed last month troops will remain on patrol through the end of [31:00] the president's second term the department of defense estimated the cost over the next two and a half years [31:06] would be at least 1.4 billion dollars for more on what the data say about the impact of the national [31:13] guard on crime in the nation's capital we're joined now by richard han he is a senior manager for research [31:18] in the criminal justice department at the niss cannon center a non-partisan think tank based in [31:23] washington d.c richard thank you for joining us this is not a simple discussion we will be getting into [31:29] some of the complexities here but i want to start with something clear major crime is down in the nation's [31:34] capital let's look at some statistics this is just year over year from the d.c police department [31:39] homicides down 32 percent robberies down 15 percent car theft down 53 percent again that's today year to [31:48] year since the national guard arrived in your research what kinds of crime do you think the [31:53] national guard actually affected or impacted well the national guard seems to have impacted mostly low [31:59] level opportunistic property crimes things like petty thefts uh people breaking into cars these are [32:05] really vexing problems for residents in d.c as a d.c resident i know that this is something that that [32:10] that bothers me and plagues many of my neighbors however it doesn't seem like the national guard had [32:15] much of an effect on violent crime which was of course the the banner issue that they were brought in [32:19] to combat that has been going down though so why do you think it's not due to the national guard presence [32:25] so the decline in all crimes in d.c uh has been going on for the last three years really since we [32:30] saw those peaks in 2023 all types of crime have been going down um so what we did was try to [32:36] distinguish between the effect the national guard had and what was already gone going on in d.c [32:41] and what we found is the national guard had a great impact on low-level property crimes they [32:46] declined by about a quarter since the guard deployed however there was very little change in [32:51] violent and other serious crimes after the guard deployed and that's uh looking at the difference [32:55] between what was already happening what sort of the trend looked like before and after the national [32:59] guard got here so yes year over year all crime types are down and that's a great thing that's [33:04] a wonderful story for d.c but it doesn't seem like the guard actually contributed much to that [33:09] and you're saying that they didn't have an effect over and above the trend that was already [33:14] happening now the white house and i reached out to them today they argue that federal officers and [33:19] part of the kind of program that they put in place in washington dc one thing that they did was take [33:25] weapons off the streets is it possible that that kind of effect could have impacted violence in the [33:30] nation's capital i absolutely think it has impacted uh violence in the nation's capital um i think the [33:35] thing is that you got to look at you got to zoom back out and you have to look at what's been happening [33:39] for the last three years and gun arrests have been going up for the past three years arrest involving guns [33:44] by metropolitan police have been going up for the past three years and gun crimes have been [33:48] going down for the past three years so this is really part of a larger trend that's been driven [33:52] by our local police department that's not really been much affected by the national guard's presence [33:57] i know that's one of your main points here is you stress after looking at all this [34:01] that something that may be overlooked here is the job the dc police department has been doing [34:06] and you also found and calculated that they have a smaller force now but yet crime has been going down [34:12] how that's correct so our theory behind this really great trend in dc is that police have actually [34:20] been better at being more proactive a greater share of their arrest over the past three years have come [34:25] from stopping crimes that are actually occurring when they arrive as opposed to waiting in their [34:30] cruiser or on the corner for a call to come through dispatch for them to respond to so they're [34:34] catching more crimes happening in the act and that's not something that the national guard would really [34:39] be good at the national guard tend to be uh untrained as professional police officers their duties [34:44] entail a whole lot of other things besides policing things like traffic safety greening and cleaning [34:50] and as it turns out they have no arrest power they can simply detain someone so a national guard [34:56] troop should really not be judged by the same standards of a police officer you get much more crime [35:02] prevention out of a police officer than you do out of a national guard soldier and you sounds like in the [35:06] police conversation you're seeing less reactive policing more proactive policing make a difference [35:11] in washington that's correct to finish this conversation about the national guard they did [35:15] have a positive effect as you say on things like carjacking and important to so many people [35:20] but at what cost did you look at sort of the efficiencies here and how that worked yes we did the [35:25] national guard is very costly so per person the national guard costs a little bit over 600 a day and [35:31] that's because not only do we have to pay their salaries but we also have to feed them clothe them [35:35] transport them and outside of that 600 figure there's also a hidden cost to the economy in [35:41] terms of people leaving their civilian jobs to do their tour with the guard and also leaving their [35:46] families and that can't be captured in the the figures that congress released that on which we [35:51] based expensive it's a very expensive intervention whereas a police officer in dc which is a relatively [35:56] expensive place to police is still under about 400 a day so that's a considerable difference in cost and [36:02] you get much more crime prevention out of a police officer than you do out of a soldier [36:07] richard han thank you so much for looking at this not a simple topic but you're helping us understand [36:12] it better my pleasure thanks again americans owe more than a trillion dollars in credit card debt up [36:29] 60 percent from just five years ago meantime higher interest rates make debt even more difficult to pay [36:35] off it's a downward spiral causing credit card delinquencies to surge our economics correspondent paul [36:42] solman explains for 35 year old helena and manalo started innocently enough my mother had to move in [36:51] with us at the time it was my husband and i we had a little baby and then we had another baby on the way [37:00] the amount of people in our house almost tripled in a very short time span and expenses tripled as well [37:08] to meet them like so many other americans these days she turned to credit cards that's very easy [37:14] to swipe and you know this is an emergency and everything can be an emergency right now before [37:21] she knew it i accumulated about twenty thousand dollars in debt compared to one estimate of average [37:28] household debt nationwide about ten thousand dollars but it's the most indebted like him and alo who've [37:34] driven credit card delinquencies to their highest rate in 15 years bankruptcies up 12 percent in the [37:41] last year alone once you start adding all of that up well you realize you don't have enough money for [37:47] daycare or you don't have enough money to pay your electric bill and then all of a sudden things just [37:54] get unmanageable very very quickly people talk about a debt spiral that sound familiar it does yeah it does [38:04] i kind of found myself in like an endless cycle of just like trying to pay something even though it [38:10] wasn't making a debt in the overall amount that i owed and it's not just millennials and older [38:17] generation members like emmanalo now caught up in the debt interest whirlpool it's a huge problem and [38:24] it's a specifically huge problem for young people personal finance guru beth cobleiner first published [38:31] get a financial life for young people now in its fifth edition 30 years ago the early life debt [38:37] dilemma since worse than ever we've seen um the rate of uh credit card debt for young people go up [38:44] about 190 percent since 2020. and student debt now near two trillion dollars last i checked it was [38:53] approximately 17 000. 25 year old bridget clinger a lot of what i earn immediately goes to trying to pay off [39:02] all of this uh debt every month gen z has more debt than any other generation in history before it [39:10] let's talk about how much credit card debt i have and spoiler alert it is a lot hey is it any other 18 [39:17] year olds will like 6 000 credit card debt and there's a new debt trap for the young says cobleiner [39:23] buy now pay later is one more example of what we're calling frictionless finance which might sound great but [39:30] it's actually quite pernicious in general getting further and further away from knowing how much [39:36] we're spending and sometimes we don't even realize when we're spending in the last decade we literally [39:42] have changed the way we've made purchases we no longer take out our wallet use cash and count out the [39:48] dollar bills nobody does that anymore not helena and manalo i was doing a lot of buy now pay later and [39:56] when it came time to pay i was like oof i don't have it and when that happens they say they won't [40:04] charge you interest but the problem is if you're late you're going to be hit with a big fee bottom [40:10] line as cobleiner has stressed for decades if you borrow young you dig yourself a hole with my student [40:17] debt my husband's student debt our car loans credit cards it's probably like the amount of a mortgage [40:25] like like an amount of a current mortgage like 125 150 000. so folks like marjorie san petro use credit [40:32] cards their interest rates hitched to credit scores our average credit card rate is about 30 percent and [40:40] that seems frustrating to me it's kind of predatory 30 percent which implies a pretty low credit score [40:47] and says emanalo if you don't have a good credit score like you can't buy a house you can't buy a car [40:55] loan defaults bankruptcies and yet another grim economic statistic setting records these days [41:01] low consumer sentiment now president trump economic advisor kevin asset dismisses its significance [41:08] i actually think that we should stop calling it consumer sentiment and start calling it political [41:12] sentiment because the variables really it's really a political variable not an economic variable and yes [41:18] as joanne shu who runs the consumer sentiment survey the results have been a reflection of which party is [41:24] in power but recently republicans actually have been showing declining sentiment this year as well [41:31] and the current reading from may shows both republicans and independents at their lowest level [41:37] since the beginning of 2025 people across the political spectrum they have been feeling [41:42] less optimistic about the economy over the course of this year and come on says economist mark sandy the [41:47] reason is obvious for so many americans if you look at real disposable income that's after inflation [41:54] after taxes it's lower today than it was a year ago and that's for the that's economy wide right so [42:00] that means that you know stands to reason about half the population is experiencing outright decline [42:06] and so if you've been spending in a certain way for a long time and your income starts to erode what [42:11] do you how do you respond to that which brings us back to the subject of this story consumer debt many [42:17] people turn to leverage and credit and the credit card being the best example of that to help tide [42:22] things over but then you get nailed with higher interest rates now you're paying 20 interest on [42:28] whatever you borrowed and that that's like you know very very difficult to get out of and deeper [42:34] and deeper you may sink one final point in an increasingly k-shaped economy who's doing the lending [42:41] the folks in the top part of the distribution the well-to-do they own lots of things they have the [42:47] big deposits at banks they own bonds and stocks and those deposits and those savings go to providing [42:54] the credit that uh folks in the bottom part of the income distribution the middle part of the [42:58] distribution are using to finance their spending on autos and on a home and other things there's an old [43:05] saw in economics it's not how much you borrow but what you do with the money if you can afford to [43:11] invest the money great but if you can't and have to borrow to survive you may find yourself like so [43:18] many of our fellow americans sucked under for the pbs news hour paul solman and we'll be back shortly [43:37] with a look at new digital driver's licenses but first take a moment to hear from your local pbs [43:42] station it's a chance to offer your support which helps to keep programs like the news hour on the air [43:47] for those of you staying with us we get an encore of sorts now from a musician who is bringing the [44:03] organ to a new generation of listeners senior arts correspondent jeffrey brown went to speak with [44:08] her in portland maine as part of our arts and culture series canvas a lone musician the console [44:23] of an instrument capable of enormous and enormously varying sounds feet flying across the keyboards oh my [44:36] gosh thank you so much for coming i am so excited about this it's become a most unexpected phenomenon [44:43] playing out before packed audiences hello um i'm here at the sydney opera house and gaining large [44:49] followings on social media i will give in this baby trader joe's bag and it's the perfect size for my [44:55] organ shoes traditional pipe organs something big is happening and anna lapwood is helping lead the way [45:05] it's a novelty that people haven't been given the opportunity to understand because it's been [45:10] impossible to get them close enough but now with social media we can bring a million people close [45:18] enough just for a phone they come to the concerts they come and they want to hear what you're talking [45:28] about and they want to understand and they have questions live and real and they want to feel it [45:33] they want to feel the room shaking we got a glimpse of the lapwood effect recently in portland maine [45:41] as she prepared for the final performance of a u.s tour playing the kotchmar organ built for the city in 1912. [45:52] there's a lot going on here right there's quite a lot going on particularly an organ of this size [45:56] actually because we have five keyboards five manuals you've got the full pedal board you have all of [46:00] the different stops these are called stops that control the sounds ahead of the performance she [46:08] spent more than 18 hours registering the organ for every moment of the concert you have to choose [46:14] the sounds you want you have to basically audition the different sounds for this program about 350 [46:21] different settings all of which have to be programmed individually and this is a completely new organ [46:26] for you right so you are getting to know this instrument every organ is totally different it's a [46:31] bit like sort of speed dating and you have to like try and get to know the personality of the organ as [46:36] quickly as possible and then figure out what that organ wants you to say with the music lapwood's [46:48] classical music credentials off and all are impeccable now the official organist at london's royal albert hall [46:59] she was the first female organ scholar at magdalene college in oxford later director of music at pembro [47:07] college cambridge she tried many instruments in childhood somehow it was the organ which she [47:13] sometimes refers to as a machine that offered a new kind of connection to audiences and more [47:20] it is a way to connect with them but i think for me it's been a way to connect with myself [47:24] and figure out who i want to be on stage what does that mean i feel the most free natural [47:30] version of myself i feel so much more free than i do in normal life to be perfectly honest it is the [47:42] freest version of myself on stage because it's the music which is just like a glove in my mind it is just [47:50] me popularity she's gained has also led her into some unexpected places performing with contemporary [47:58] artists from other musical genres including a collaboration with the electronica musician [48:04] bonobo they heard me practicing and came on stage they're like this is so cool wouldn't it be cool if [48:13] we included the organ in our set tomorrow so i ended up joining the show with no notice and it was so [48:19] far outside my comfort zone i had no idea what i was getting myself in for yeah and then [48:23] soaring strings and i just started crying the wool had just been pulled from over my eyes and i went [48:33] oh my gosh the musical world is about 70 million times larger than i'd ever imagined it could be no [48:47] one knew i was going to be doing it and the crowd just erupted clearly behind all this lapwood's personal [48:57] effervescence love of her instrument lord of the rings um this is the biggest project i've ever done [49:04] and desired to communicate directly with her audience including regular posts of behind the [49:09] scenes of her life and work the middle of the night rehearsals often the only time she can access [49:16] these special and unique instruments it's paying off with more than four million followers across [49:22] platforms is that a phenomenon that still surprises you all the time all the time it's so strange [49:30] i always say there's like anna lapwood and there's anna right who's here with me oh somewhere in [49:34] the middle i think probably a little mix i try to bring as much as i can over and i think there's [49:41] something that people like about that because it feels like it gives them permission to be the most [49:47] authentic version of themselves as well the portland concert had ticket holders come from 43 states and [49:53] four foreign countries hello and she greeted many of them for more than two hours after the concert ended [50:01] she just exudes this enthusiasm hi i'm finding you her energy it's just magnetic well come this way come [50:09] this way come this way yes the way she lights up she's so entertaining to watch [50:14] lapwood's growing audiences online and in halls around the world are more than happy with what and [50:25] how she's playing for the pbs news hour i'm jeffrey brown in portland maine your old plastic driver's [50:50] license could soon be getting a digital upgrade digital reporter tim mcphillips walks us through [50:55] three things you should know including some of the benefits and some of the concerns one what's a [51:01] mobile driver's license is essentially what it sounds like which is taking your driver's license [51:06] and making it a digital credential that you can carry on your smartphone your watch your tablet that's [51:12] ian grossman president and ceo of the american association of motor vehicle administrators [51:18] they're a trade organization that provides dmvs with best practice guidance as well as software [51:24] and tech infrastructure 20 states and puerto rico offer a form of a digital driver's license [51:30] some allow you to add it directly to your mobile wallet like your credit card others have a state [51:34] created mobile app that stores your id two what are the benefits well the idea is when you need to [51:41] show your id you could essentially tap your phone on a reader like at an airport or a doctor's office [51:47] or while getting a speeding ticket you would never hand over your phone and that could help to limit [51:53] the information you share take for example a liquor store they don't need to know your name [51:58] they don't need to know your address and if like me you've lost your wallet and or left it in a tsa bin [52:04] it's more difficult for someone to get into your phone than it is to just pick up your plastic id [52:09] what you have time to do is get to any browser anywhere log into your online dmv account and say [52:17] i've lost that device pull that credential off of that phone but there are concerns around this [52:23] new technology to prove who we are and that brings us to three government data collection [52:28] here's american civil liberties union senior policy analyst jay stanley one problem is that the [52:33] standard for a digital id that a lot of the states although not all of them are adopting would [52:38] actually let the government track you so what does that mean well when you tap your mobile id on a [52:45] reader information about you is sent from point a to point b that simple transaction involves major [52:51] decisions like does verification happen locally on your phone or on a server and could a third [52:58] entity like a state or federal government access data on where you used your id stanley and the aclu [53:04] have rallied against that last scenario called phone home or server retrieval over potential abuses [53:11] for ambas part grossman says states that might allow server retrieval would be blocked from using [53:17] ambas digital id systems we have prohibited the ability to what we would say call back to the agency [53:25] all this is pressuring states not to build systems that phone home but because it is possible to do with [53:31] the technology and laws in place today the responsibility falls on our elected officials not to flip the switch [53:38] but we have seen a couple states that have put in place some very good protections in their laws [53:44] in march utah put in place the nation's first digital identity bill of rights that bans phone [53:50] home architecture stanley agrees that states need to be proactive in codifying a phone home ban [53:55] into law the states are sleepwalking into building a version that's not privacy protective and we're [54:00] going to get stuck with that as a standard for potentially generations as of now some state governments [54:05] on both sides of the aisle have allowed mobile driver's licenses but others have rejected them [54:11] like texas and minnesota but grossman says widespread adoption is coming but nobody is forcing anybody [54:18] to do it and stanley argues that too should be codified in law you should have a right [54:24] to continue to use your plastic license his fear but it has a real potential that we're going to wake [54:29] up one day we're all going to be forced to get these things they're going to become like a virtual ankle [54:33] bracelet for pbs news i'm tim mcphillips and you can find more on this online including live election [54:40] results from state primaries later this evening and that is the news hour for tonight i'm jeff bennett [54:46] for all of us here at the pbs news hour thanks for spending part of your evening with us major funding [54:51] for the pbs news hour has been provided by our economy for 160 years bnsf the engine that connects us [55:24] the william and flora hewlett foundation for more than 50 years advancing ideas and supporting [55:31] institutions to promote a better world at hewlett.org the charles f kettering foundation working to [55:40] advance inclusive democracies learn more at kettering.org friends of the news hour including [55:47] nell martha and mary minnow in honor of the life and legacy of their parents newton and josephine [55:53] baskin minnow and julie and robin powell through fidelity charitable the andrew carnegie foundation [56:05] formerly carnegie corporation of new york working to reduce political polarization through philanthropic [56:11] support for education democracy and peace and with the ongoing support of these institutions [56:23] this program was made possible by the contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you thank you [56:30] this program was made possible by watching pbs watching pbs