AMNA NAWAZ: Good evening.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

Geoff Bennett is away.

On the "NewsHour" tonight: President Trump places the Washington, D.C., police under federal control and deploys the National Guard, claiming a crime emergency, despite the data showing a decline.

Israel targets and kills several journalists in Gaza, as more countries plan to recognize the Palestinian state.

And how the Trump administration's hard-line immigration policies are affecting nursing homes across the country.

DR. DAVID HIMMELSTEIN, Hunter College: There are already huge numbers of vacancies for nursing home workers.

And if the immigrants who are now filling those jobs go away, they just won't be filled.

(BREAK) AMNA NAWAZ: Welcome to the "News Hour."

President Trump announced today a federal takeover of Washington, D.C.'s police department and a deployment of its National Guard in order, he says, to crack down on crime.

The move invokes rare, but legal presidential authorities, but local officials say he's wrong to say that crime has spiraled out of control.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: This is liberation day in D.C., and we're going to take our capital back.

AMNA NAWAZ: Today, a renewed promise from the president to tackle what he says is a crime and homelessness problem in the nation's capital.

DONALD TRUMP: Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs and homeless people, and we're not going to let it happen anymore.

AMNA NAWAZ: Flanked by his Cabinet and federal law enforcement, the president declared a public safety emergency, announcing his attorney general will take control of D.C.'s police force, the National Guard will deploy hundreds of troops in the city and threatening the use of active-duty troops.

DONALD TRUMP: You're going to have a lot of essentially military -- and we will bring in the military if it's needed, by the way.

AMNA NAWAZ: Today's actions mark a major escalation of a federal crackdown already under way.

Over the weekend, over 100 federal agents including FBI, Secret Service and U.S.

Marshals, patrolled D.C. streets, a heightened presence that D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said was wholly unnecessary.

MURIEL BOWSER (D), Mayor of Washington, D.C.: While this action today is unsettling and unprecedented, I can't say that, given some of the rhetoric of the past, that we're totally surprised.

When we think of emergencies, it usually involves surges in crime.

AMNA NAWAZ: Despite the president's claims, violent crime in D.C. hit a 30-year low in 2024, and, this year, violent crime has dropped another 26 percent, according to D.C. police statistics.

The president has stepped up calls for federal forces in the nation's capital since an administration staffer, Edward Coristine, was assaulted in D.C. last week while trying to stop an alleged carjacking.

(CHANTING) AMNA NAWAZ: It's not the first time Trump has used this authority.

During his first term, he ordered National Guardsmen and federal enforcement to forcibly clear largely peaceful protests after the police killing of George Floyd.

The National Guard says this time their functions will be limited to administrative duties and physical presence in support of law enforcement.

Meanwhile, in California, a trial gets under way on whether Trump's recent National Guard deployment there violated the law.

But, unlike in California, Washington, D.C., is a federal district, placing the D.C. National Guard firmly under the president's control.

PROTESTERS: No justice, no peace!

AMNA NAWAZ: And on D.C. streets today, protesters railed against the president's actions.

PROTESTER: If they can place us under military control without our consent, they will carry this playbook to every community that dares to push back in the United States of America.

AMNA NAWAZ: A notion the president didn't knock down.

DONALD TRUMP: We have other cities that are very bad.

We're not going to lose our cities over this.

And this will go further.

AMNA NAWAZ: For more on the legality behind this action and what this means for the future of D.C., I'm joined by Steve Vladeck.

He's professor of law at the Georgetown University Law Center.

Steve, it's good to see you.

Thanks for joining us.

STEVE VLADECK, Georgetown University Law Center: Thanks for having me, Amna.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, when it comes to the president's legal authority, D.C., is different.

But let's just make it clear.

Are the president's actions today legal?

And can he do in other cities what he's doing in D.C.?

STEVE VLADECK: So the short answer to the first question is, technically, yes.

The more important answer to the second question is almost certainly no.

And so, to break that apart, Congress has exerted more control over the District of Columbia than any other place in the country, including other federal territories, really going all the way back to the founding of D.C. in 1801.

That includes the two powers President Trump invoked today, the power to use the D.C. National Guard without federalizing it, the power to take over, at least for 30 days, some assets within the Metropolitan Police Department.

We have never seen, Amna, a president use those authorities in this kind of factually dubious context.

But I think the most important point is, these are D.C.-specific powers that could not be used, for example, for similar moves in New York or Chicago or anywhere else in the country.

AMNA NAWAZ: So we know there's a legal challenge under way in California about the legality of the president's deployment of National Guard troops there.

Could his deployment in D.C. be met with a similar legal challenge?

STEVE VLADECK: It could, Amna, but, again, I think the legal issues are different.

So, in California, President Trump purported to federalize the National Guard.

So he took the state National Guard and tried to basically drop them into federal authority.

In D.C., he doesn't have to do that.

The president is actually already the commander in chief of the D.C. National Guard.

It's the only National Guard for which that's true.

And so D.C. is the only place in the country where actually we don't have the question that's arisen in California about the validity of a federalization.

Here, the president can act without any trigger.

It's part of why I think folks were so critical of President Trump for not using the D.C. National Guard back on January 6.

AMNA NAWAZ: We did mention the president's use of the National Guard in his first term as well.

Just put the use of this authority into some bigger context for us.

How frequently have we seen it used in this way?

STEVE VLADECK: So, Amna, I think we have to break out two pieces here.

So the first is the use of the National Guard.

We have seen that before, including from this president, including both earlier this term in California and in D.C. What's really novel about what we're seeing today is the use of the D.C. Police Department.

This provision for the president to take control of the Metropolitan Police Department for up to 30 days, it was put into the Home Rule Act back in 1973, but it's never been used.

And so I think part of what we're really going to need to watch out for is, how exactly is the Metropolitan Police Department's day-to-day work over the next days and weeks different from what it was doing over the first eight months of 2025?

I mean, I think that's part of the issue here.

And, again, I think the real key is for folks to not get desensitized to the radicalism of using federalized police, using federalized military authority for ordinary law enforcement contexts in a setting in which the facts don't seem to support it.

Amna, that might be legal in the historically and constitutionally unique context of Washington, D.C.

It doesn't make it right.

And it would be a very dangerous precedent if we started to see efforts to build on that in other parts of the country.

AMNA NAWAZ: So it's expected to be a 30-day takeover.

How do you see this playing out?

Could it be extended beyond that?

STEVE VLADECK: You know, the statute is at least a little bit ambiguous.

It seems to contemplate that, at the end of 30 days, the authority expires.

President Trump might, Amna, try to declare a second emergency at the end of those 30 days to trigger and start a new 30-day clock.

I suspect, if that's what happens, that is when we will see this be taken into court.

And that's when I think there will be very serious arguments that the president is abusing these authorities, not just politically, but legally as well, authorities again that really are meant to deal with only the very unique problems that might arise in the nation's capital.

AMNA NAWAZ: Steve Vladeck, professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center, always good to speak with you.

Thank you again for your time.

STEVE VLADECK: Thanks, Amna.

AMNA NAWAZ: We start the day's other headlines with the war in Ukraine.

President Trump said today he's planning to discuss Ukraine's future borders with Russian President Vladimir Putin when the two meet in Alaska on Friday.

At the White House today, Trump called it a -- quote -- "feel-out meeting," during which he will urge Putin to end the war, but not without some territorial concessions on both sides.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: There will be some land swapping going on.

I know that through Russia and through conversations with everybody, to the good, for the good of Ukraine, good stuff, not bad stuff, also some bad stuff for both.

AMNA NAWAZ: European leaders have acknowledged that the odds of Russia relinquishing Ukrainian land it already controls are low.

And there's mounting fear that the U.S. will agree to land swaps or other terms that favor Russia without Ukraine's participation.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has not been invited to Friday's meeting and said in his evening video address that Putin is not interested in peace and in fact is redeploying forces in ways that point to new military operations.

Also today, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz invited Trump, Zelenskyy and other key players to meet before Friday about -- quote -- "further options for action to put pressure on Russia."

Here at home, a federal judge in New York today rejected a Justice Department request to unseal grand jury records from Ghislaine Maxwell's sex trafficking case.

The DOJ said the transcripts of the investigation could reveal new information about crimes Maxwell committed with Jeffrey Epstein.

The judge called that idea demonstrably false, adding that the DOJ's request to release them is an attempt to create an illusion of transparency.

Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison term for helping Epstein abuse teenage girls.

She recently appealed her case to the Supreme Court.

Officials in Pennsylvania say at least one person is confirmed dead after an explosion at a U.S. Steel plant near Pittsburgh.

Another person is still missing, and at least 10 others were sent to nearby hospitals with injuries.

This time-lapse video shows the moment of the explosion, with black smoke erupting from the site.

Emergency officials say it happened around 11:00 a.m. this morning at the Clairton Coke Works.

The plant is one of four major U.S. Steel plants in the state, which employ several thousand workers.

The company's CEO says it's working with authorities to investigate what caused the blast.

We have a follow-up on last week's shooting at the CDC headquarters which left an officer dead as well as the shooter.

According to information circulated internally at the agency, the Georgia resident fired 180 shots during the attack on the Atlanta-based offices last Friday, and he broke about 150 windows, including blast-resistant windows, leaving glass shards on the floors of some rooms.

Authorities have not yet said whether he took his own life in the attack or was killed by police.

Parts of Wisconsin are starting to dry out after unprecedented rains brought flooding this weekend.

The storm set unofficial state records, pouring more than 14 inches over less than 24 hours in the Milwaukee area.

Motorists abandoned their vehicles near the city's Major League ballpark, and the floodwaters canceled the final day of the state fair.

As of this morning, nearly 3,000 homes were still without power.

No fatalities have been reported so far.

More rain is expected tonight, though it's not predicted to be nearly as bad as this past weekend.

President Trump signed an executive order today to extend a tariff truce with China for another 90 days.

The order was signed just hours before midnight, when the higher rates were set to take effect.

The extension keeps U.S. tariffs on China relatively low at 30 percent.

That's compared to 145 percent had the deal expired.

And Chinese tariffs on U.S. goods were set to go up to 125 percent.

Today's move was largely expected following talks between the two sides last month in Sweden.

Chipmakers Nvidia and AMD have agreed to share 15 percent of their revenues from China with the U.S. government.

That's according to a government official who confirmed details first reported by The Financial Times.

The F.T.

says the companies agreed to the unprecedented terms in order to obtain export licenses to resume sales in China.

President Trump had halted sales back in April, citing national security concerns.

But, last month, the chipmaker said the government would let them restart selling certain advanced chips that are used for A.I.

development.

And on Wall Street today, stocks ended lower ahead of tomorrow's highly anticipated inflation report.

The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 200 points on the day.

The Nasdaq fell more than 60 points.

The S&P 500 also ended lower.

And AOL is finally pulling the plug on its dial-up Internet service.

Yes, dial-up still exists.

Those iconic beeps, static sounds and screeches were the way many people first accessed the Internet in the 1990s, as the "News Hour" reported back in 1997.

NARRATOR: Getting online, that is, dialing into cyberspace, is as common as making a phone call for many Americans.

And companies like AOL act much like the phone company, providing the connection into cyberspace.

AMNA NAWAZ: By the early 2000s, high-speed lines quickly replaced telephone lines.

By 2023, dial-up only made up about 1 percent of U.S. household Internet subscriptions.

AOL says the service will officially be discontinued on September 30.

Still to come on the "News Hour": a Texas Republican lawmaker discusses his party's attempt to redraw congressional districts; and Tamara Keith and Amy Walter break down the latest political headlines.

Palestinians in Gaza today buried five staffers from the Arab network Al-Jazeera targeted by Israel last night outside a hospital and also reported some of the heaviest Israeli bombardment in weeks.

Health authorities reported at least 34 people killed after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin continue to defend his plan to occupy Gaza's largest city and an area that Israel has defined as a humanitarian zone for displaced Gazans.

Nick Schifrin reports.

NICK SCHIFRIN: In Gaza today, the story so often is death.

And now death stalks those who tell the story.

For a moment today, the storytellers fell silent for Al-Jazeera's Anas Al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh, mourned with the bulletproof vests that failed to protect.

There is a fierce pride and brotherhood among Gaza's journalists.

And, today, they prayed over the body of a man they considered a mentor who shared their story.

Al-Sharif was a well-known correspondent who began reporting for Al-Jazeera after the war began.

He, like everyone in Gaza, was suffering from a lack of food and, while describing a woman who collapsed from hunger, broke down during a live broadcast.

A missile fired by an Israeli drone killed him and four other journalists last night in the tent where they were living outside Shifa Hospital.

Journalist Mohammed Qeita was 20 feet away and was injured in his lower back.

MOHAMMED QEITA, Journalist (through translator): We did not only lose our colleague Sharif.

We lost the voice of journalism, the journalistic icon for everyone, for all Palestinians.

Sharif was the voice of all of us.

NICK SCHIFRIN: But Israel argued Sharif and other members of Al-Jazeera were also members of Hamas' military wing and released what it described as translated Hamas' salary documents and personnel tables as proof.

Al-Jazeera called them fabricated, part of a campaign by Israel against Palestinian journalists in Gaza.

Sara Qudah is the Committee to Protect Journalists Middle East regional director.

SARA QUDAH, Middle East and North Africa Regional Director, Committee to Protect Journalists: For us, what happened is plain and simple.

It's a murder.

They targeted Anas and his colleagues and they killed them.

They did threaten them before they targeted and killed them.

And, for us, this is a war crime.

NICK SCHIFRIN: CPJ says 192 journalists have been killed since the October 7 terrorist attacks, making this war the deadliest for journalists in history.

SARA QUDAH: The Palestinian journalists in Gaza are the only witnesses and the only journalists on the ground who are able to report on what is happening.

There is no international media access inside Gaza to investigate, document, to report to the entire world what is happening.

So, by killing them, Israel is sending a very clear message that they want to hide the truth and they want to silence those witnesses.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, Israeli Prime Minister: Gaza will be demilitarized.

Israel will have overriding security responsibility.

NICK SCHIFRIN: This weekend, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended his plan for the Israeli military to occupy Gaza City and the Mawasi tent camp, which Israel has described as a humanitarian zone.

WOMAN: We need a deal, a deal to end this war.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Netanyahu pushed that plan over the objections of Israeli hostage families and what former military officials described to "PBS News Hour" as resistance from Israel's chief for the general staff, who today said he planned -- quote -- "operational control of Gaza City," but only after a pause to allow troops a needed break.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: Given Hamas' refusal to lay down its arms, Israel has no choice but to finish the job and complete the defeat of Hamas.

NICK SCHIFRIN: The U.S. and Israeli officials also tell "PBS News Hour," while the IDF prepares for possible occupation, Israel and Hamas will restart cease-fire negotiations.

Until then, the war takes its daily deadly toll, including on the smallest victims, a boy named Majid.

And, today, Ahmed Tota (ph) cried over his daughter's body, filmed by a journalist who is sharing and living the reality of the war.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Nick Schifrin.

AMNA NAWAZ: Texas Governor Greg Abbott now says he will extend his standoff with state Democrats over redistricting as long as necessary.

Stephanie Sy has our conversation with a Republican Texas lawmaker central to the debate over the dividing lines.

STEPHANIE SY: Amna, The Texas Statehouse is stuck in a political stalemate.

The Republican effort is being pushed by President Trump and Governor Abbott, who called the special session, on the agenda, flood relief, but also passing a new electoral map that could yield Republicans up to five additional congressional seats.

Democrats cried foul and they're trying to run out of time by staying out of Texas.

Joining us now is Texas State Representative Carl Tepper, who sits on the redistricting committee and helped draw that proposed map.

Representative Tepper, thank you so much for joining the program.

So I heard a local radio interview you did last month where you outright said that the crux of this special session was about redistricting.

In fact, you said -- quote -- "The Trump administration wants to see if we can squeeze out two, maybe five congressional districts, Republican districts, in Texas."

That seems like a pretty honest explanation of the goal here.

Am I right?

STATE REP. CARL TEPPER (R-TX): Well, you might as well put the facts out there as they exist.

Trump challenged us to find some more congressional states.

I'm with him.

I think we should have done it in the past.

I'm glad he's motivated to get here.

And I see fit to give it a try.

STEPHANIE SY: Democrat states have also in the past been accused of drawing congressional maps to their advantage.

We hear a lot about Illinois, New York, California.

But wouldn't you say that what you're doing is unusual?

You're redistricting several years early.

How is this not an attempt to rig the system ahead of the midterms?

STATE REP. CARL TEPPER: Well, now I'm going to push back against the term rigged.

I think the system has been rigged against us and we're just responding.

STEPHANIE SY: You represent Lubbock.

That's in Western Texas.

That part of Texas, from what I understand, would not be affected by this new map.

But I understand the parts that would be affected are big cities like San Antonio, Houston, Dallas, Austin.

That is also where a lot of Black and Hispanic Texans live and vote.

Do you think this new map is a fair representation of Texans?

STATE REP. CARL TEPPER: You know, it's not fair enough.

Hispanics voted 54 to 55 percent for Donald Trump last election.

And that's a really troublesome dynamic for the Democrats right now, where a huge swathe of Hispanics are jumping over to the Republican side.

They didn't like seeing illegal immigration, human trafficking, the drug trade, their jobs being stolen by illegal immigrants.

And they are looking at Donald Trump for answers.

And, heck, they voted for Donald Trump.

And wherever we set the lines down, we're going to be representing them better.

STEPHANIE SY: You're part of the redistricting committee, so I understand you have a role in how this new map was created.

Again, I heard you say on this interview something really interesting, that you know where the voters are.

You know who, for example, has a membership with the NRA.

You know who subscribes to a liberal magazine like "Mother Jones."

So how can this be anything other than sort of making it so Republicans are advantaged in a way that you draw this map?

STATE REP. CARL TEPPER: That's allowed.

We're not allowed to draw by race, but we are allowed to be partisan in drawing on the maps and that's what we're going to do.

The courts have been very clear on that and that's absolutely what we're doing.

We're not going to try to fool you.

We're not going to lie to you.

These are partisan maps.

And these are maps that, frankly, are going to be representing our constituents and our voters better.

STEPHANIE SY: Tell me how all of this is affecting other items on your agenda in this special session, notably relief funds for Central Texas, which had those horrible floods earlier this summer.

STATE REP. CARL TEPPER: Yes, our redistricting process is not holding up any other issue.

As a matter of fact, we put some flood relief and some flood response on the calendars this morning for tomorrow.

The only thing that's holding things up, relief for the flood victims, relief for property taxpayers, is the Democrats fleeing the state.

And we hope they come back.

We hope they come back voluntarily.

STEPHANIE SY: Now, I know these are Democratic colleagues you probably have worked with on some issues.

They're being threatened with arrest.

They're being threatened getting kicked out of office.

What do you think should happen to them?

Should they be forced to come back to the state?

STATE REP. CARL TEPPER: I think they should voluntarily return.

I think they should come home and do their jobs, collect their paychecks.

We're going to disagree on a myriad of issues.

By the way, probably 90 percent of the issues that hit the Statehouse floor, we agree on and go together on.

There's a lot of sort of I call them pothole issues out there.

We see a pothole.

It's not a Republican pothole.

It's not a Democratic pothole.

And we all agree to fix it.

But there are some partisan issues.

This is just another one of those partisan issues where we're going to disagree and they need to come home and speak out and speak out forcefully, but they need to be here to do that.

And we need to eventually get to the vote.

STEPHANIE SY: So it doesn't sound like you're particularly angry with your colleagues.

Do you disagree with the governor and the attorney general wanting to potentially have the FBI arrest them?

STATE REP. CARL TEPPER: I'm for all options on the table to get them back.

But obviously I'd like to bring them back peacefully.

I'd like them to come back voluntarily.

STEPHANIE SY: What do you think the odds are at this point that President Trump gets the new congressional map he wants to see in your state?

STATE REP. CARL TEPPER: I think the odds are 100 percent.

Eventually, we're going to get a quorum, and we're going to stick to our guns.

Now, if there's some smart changes to the map, if there's some commonsense changes, we're always looking to legislate.

We're always looking to cut a deal.

We're always looking to negotiate.

STEPHANIE SY: That is Texas State Representative Carl Tepper.

Thank you.

STATE REP. CARL TEPPER: Thanks.

Appreciate it.

AMNA NAWAZ: For more on redistricting politics and President Trump's federal takeover of D.C., I'm joined now by our Politics Monday duo.

That is Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report With Amy Walter and Tamara Keith of NPR.

Good to see you both.

TAMARA KEITH, National Public Radio: Hello.

AMY WALTER, The Cook Political Report: Good to be here.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, we reported at the top of the show there, Tam, about the president saying he's placing D.C. police under federal control, deploying hundreds of National Guard troops, says it's about crime, even as the data shows that crime has been declining.

Why is he doing this now?

What's the intention here?

TAMARA KEITH: There have been some very high-profile instances of crime in D.C. that have come close to the Trump administration and have gotten on the president's radar.

But, to be clear, he has been talking about wanting to take over Democratic-run cities since he ran for president the first time in 2016.

This is not a new theme for him in any way.

This is certainly an escalation.

And D.C. is the one city, it's the one place where he actually has the power to do this.

Obviously, he has to declare an emergency.

And there are questions about how much of an emergency this moment is right now, given the decline in crime.

But there are a large number of murders that do take place in Washington, D.C.

Relatively, other cities are higher, but it's still a high number or a high share, a high crime rate.

It is the lowest it's been in 30 years, but it's still high.

So he is going after this, and he's also trying to send a signal to other cities.

You saw what happened in Los Angeles with calling in the National Guard there.

This is something he wants to do.

And he's trying to send a signal to cities like Chicago, one of the cities he called out, also Baltimore, and wants them to be afraid, I think.

AMNA NAWAZ: Amy, how do you look at this in terms of the message it's sending and whether he may expand this approach?

AMY WALTER: Yes, that he can -- yes, it is that he can do it.

If you ask why, it's because he can.

And Tam's exactly right.

Since the minute he announced for -- his candidacy in 2016, he said, "I alone can fix it."

And this has been a central theme, really specifically of the second term.

I alone has been really used now on, well, pretty much everything we're going to be talking about for the rest of our segment.

But whether it is drawing congressional districts, that's the purview of the state legislature.

This was directed by the president of the United States into territory that normally the legislature handles.

Who -- what should we do with Putin?

Well, normally -- or not normally, but traditionally, Congress has a say in that.

And Congress did have a very significant sanctions bill that was tabled, in part because Donald Trump wants to cut the deal himself.

So this is the message that he likes to send, which is, I'm the one who's going to handle it, I'm the one who's going to do it.

All the other agencies, localities, and others who have traditionally had a role are going to take a back seat.

AMNA NAWAZ: Well, let's talk about that Texas redistricting case.

You just heard Stephanie Sy's conversation there with the Republican state lawmaker, Carl Tepper.

Tam, we know this is a map that the president pushed for, that he wanted to see this gerrymandering occur.

It could get Republicans in the state up to five additional seat.

Dozens of Democratic lawmakers still remain out of the state to prevent that quorum from happening and the map moving forward.

How do you see this ending?

TAMARA KEITH: Well, as the Republican lawmaker you had on just said, he says there's 100 percent chance that ultimately these maps go through one way or another.

I think that what is happening is an arms race of sorts to try to gerrymander every possible vote, every possible seat out, to really take this uncertainty out of the coming midterm elections.

So it's not just Texas.

There's talk of Indiana.

There's also then Democratic states like Illinois and California, especially, where Governor Gavin Newsom today sent a letter to President Trump, which I don't know is going to be received with open arms, where he said, how about you don't do the Republican gerrymanders and we won't do the California gerrymander that could offset the Texas gerrymander?

It's like the American public has said repeatedly that they don't like gerrymandering in one way or another.

It's pretty unpopular, but this has become yet another polarized partisan fight where it's like the other guy's gerrymandering is really bad and my gerrymandering might be OK or justifiable.

AMNA NAWAZ: Amy, to that point, in Texas, there is funding for flooding that needs to go through that's going to be held up as a result of this.

Could there be backlash against Republican lawmakers who are trying to push this through with flooding there in terms of how people look at it?

And also this term that Tam used about the arms race, could this set off a gerrymandering arms race between the parties?

AMY WALTER: I know.

That is definitely an open question, and Republicans are hoping actually that Democrats get blamed for not getting enough money to flood victims because they chose to leave the state, rather than come and have this conversation to the public.

And this is where I love to talk about, which is you can draw all the districts that you want, and they certainly are trying to make them as partisan as possible both in California and in Texas, but you still have to have campaigns, you still have to have candidates.

And the environment of the moment that we're in matters a lot too.

So, for example, in those Texas districts, if you look at how Donald Trump did in those districts in 2024, he won all of those districts by a pretty strong margin.

But if you look at how he did in 2020, in some of those cases, Biden won those districts or Trump won by a smaller percentage.

In other words, what Republicans are counting on is that 2026 is going to look a lot more like '24 than it did like 2020.

There's no guarantee.

Even in this era where you can gerrymander within a millimeter of the perfect district, there's still no 100 percent guarantee you're going to get all the seats you want.

AMNA NAWAZ: Meanwhile, if we look ahead now, Tam, we know the president's gearing up for a face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday.

It doesn't look like the Ukrainian president's going to be attending that.

This is a war that President Trump said he would end within a day of coming into office.

We're seven months in now.

What can he hope to get out of this meeting?

TAMARA KEITH: Yes, and I think that this is a frustration of his that he hasn't been able to bring an end to this war that he said never would have happened if he was president and would end as soon as he became president.

He is already lowering expectations for this summit.

When it was first announced, he was talking about we're going to get a peace deal, we're going to get a cease-fire agreement.

Now he's saying, well, I'm just going to go in there, I'm going to feel things out.

And he has repeatedly been frustrated by Putin and has begun voicing it, including using some harsh language at times, that Russian President Vladimir Putin tells him what he wants to hear, says he wants peace, and then does the exact opposite.

Trump has called it tapping me along.

Well, he's going to find out with this summit whether Putin is continuing to tap him along.

And he's leaving open that possibility, which I think is sort of a downgrade in his expectations from where he was last week.

AMY WALTER: And I will be fascinated to see what Congress does, if indeed this does not turn out to be a big wonderful peace deal or that things fall apart or the president's not happy with the outcome, whether they do bring back the sanctions bill, which put significant, significant sanctions on countries that are getting Russian oil and on Russian products.

This would be, I think, another important test for how Congress wants to get itself involved with this conflict or whether they want to keep this in the purview of the president.

AMNA NAWAZ: We will wait and see how Congress reacts and how that meeting goes.

Amy Walter, Tamara Keith, always great to see you both.

Thank you so much.

AMY WALTER: You too.

TAMARA KEITH: Good to be here.

AMNA NAWAZ: More than a million immigrants work in health care in the U.S., and they make up an increasing share of caregivers for elderly and disabled Americans.

That includes medical professionals, but also the housekeepers and the janitors that keep nursing homes running.

These facilities already face labor shortages.

And now, as William Brangham reports, the Trump administration's immigration policies could make it even more difficult to find workers.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The place that has been Edelyne Jean home for 18 years suddenly doesn't feel that way anymore.

EDELYNE JEAN, TPS Recipient: I came for a better life.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: She fled her native Haiti and settled in Florida.

After the devastating 2010 earthquake, the Obama administration granted her and thousands of other Haitians temporary protected status, or TPS, which allowed them to remain in the United States and work legally, but didn't provide a path to permanent residency.

As TPS for Haitians was repeatedly extended, Edelyne got married, bought this house.

She also had a daughter, who is 6 and is an American citizen.

She enrolled in school, working first as a nursing assistant, and then as a registered nurse in nursing homes.

EDELYNE JEAN: I love what I'm doing, and I do it with pride and the compassion.

Like, I feel for these people.

Like, some of them, they have no family members.

We are the family.

We are family.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Do you feel like you have become an American?

EDELYNE JEAN: I tried.

Like, I do the right thing.

I tried to be one of them, to be part of America.

But I don't think we're welcome, I'm welcome, especially with this administration.

No.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: In February, even as armed gangs expanded control over parts of Haiti, the Trump administration sought to end TPS for Haitians and send them back.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: They're pouring into our country, pouring in.

If I weren't elected president, there'd be nobody in Haiti anymore.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The move was just one of several efforts to rescind the status of thousands of noncitizens working legally across the United States.

Is this something you're worrying about every single day?

EDELYNE JEAN: Every single day.

And I don't know how long do I have.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Haitians on TPS were granted a reprieve last month when a federal district court judge ruled that the deadline for ending TPS must be extended to next February.

But that's little comfort for Edelyne and her family.

EDELYNE JEAN: If nothing happens, I'm screwed, because, if I can't work to take out the bills, I won't be able to take out my daughter.

And I don't know.

I can't even think about it.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The looming end of TPS is not just a crisis for Edelyne and the hundreds of thousands of other Haitians here in the U.S.

It's also putting extraordinary strain on long-term health care facilities, like nursing homes, where a little over 7 percent of the work force are noncitizens.

DR. DAVID HIMMELSTEIN, HUNTER COLLEGE: There are already huge numbers of vacancies for nursing home workers and for home care workers.

And if the immigrants who are now filling those jobs go away, they just won't be filled is almost certainly what's going to happen.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Dr. David Himmelstein is a professor of public health at New York's Hunter College.

He says staffing issues with nursing homes ripple through the broader health care system.

DR. DAVID HIMMELSTEIN: Hospitals and emergency rooms to panned on nursing homes.

They can't discharge patients who are not able to care for themselves unless there's a nursing home to take care of them or home care workers to take care of them.

And that's going to mean backups.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: At the Sinai Residences in Boca Raton, Florida, these policy changes could mean dozens of workers might lose their jobs.

This facility includes independent and assisted living, a nursing home and a memory care unit.

Job losses would include health care workers, but also support positions like maintenance staff and housekeepers like Vanessa Joseph.

She came to the U.S. from Haiti two years ago with a younger sister and her teenage son.

She's legally working under TPS.

VANESSA JOSEPH, TPS Recipient: I cry every day.

But I don't tell my son that because he can have more -- more stress than me.

So I tell him it's going to be OK.

So I just stay positive.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: In your heart of hearts, do you believe that it's going to be OK?

VANESSA JOSEPH: Not 100 percent, no.

RACHEL BLUMBERG, President & CEO, Toby & Leon Cooperman Sinai Residences: They're not just employees.

They end up becoming family members, friends and companions.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Rachel Blumberg is the CEO of the Sinai Residences.

RACHEL BLUMBERG: They have children.

They are homeowners.

They are hardworking.

They are not criminals.

KRISTI NOEM, U.S.

Homeland Security Secretary: This president is standing up.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: In June, Blumberg had to let 10 workers go when the Trump administration ended a humanitarian work permit program that had been started by the Biden administration.

RACHEL BLUMBERG: There were a lot of questions of, what have I done wrong?

And my answer to them was that, you have done absolutely nothing wrong.

It's unfortunately just where you were born, which doesn't seem fair at all.

It was, I would have to say, the hardest day of my entire 30-year career in senior living.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Blumberg says losing these workers would not only be hard on their own lives, but on the many residents at Sinai who've developed long and deep relationships with them; 92-year-old Isobel Loring has lived at Sinai for almost a decade, and she's grown very close to Vanessa.

ISOBEL LORING, Resident, Sinai Residences: Well, you take care of us?

And I'd like to take care of you.

VANESSA JOSEPH: Thank you.

I appreciate it.

ISOBEL LORING: I know.

VANESSA JOSEPH: I love you.

ISOBEL LORING: I love you too.

The people I care about are the people that are working with us, that are helping us, that are here for us when we need them under all circumstances.

If these people are not being allowed to work, there won't be people to take care of us.

These communities that have elderly people, there are no Americans that really want to do those jobs.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Vanessa's earnings help support her mom and other family back in Haiti.

She says, regardless of what happens with TPS, the gang violence there means going back is impossible.

VANESSA JOSEPH: I like work here.

We are family here.

But it's so hard, hard, hard to go back in Haiti.

I can't.

Sometimes, I would like to see my mom, hug her because she's sick, but I can't.

RACHEL BLUMBERG: We're already looking at, unfortunately, replacing them.

It's not what I want to do, but we're a 24/7 operation.

We have to have our caregivers and our essential workers there.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The Trump administration is still determining next steps in the court case that delayed the end of TPS to early next year.

In a recent statement, the Department of Homeland Security said: "President Trump and Secretary Noem are restoring common sense to our immigration system and returning TPS to its original status, temporary."

EDELYNE JEAN: Come here.

Come here.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Back outside Orlando, nurse Edelyne Jean is bracing for the next shoe to drop.

If it comes down to the government saying you have to leave, will you go back to Haiti or will you try to go somewhere else?

EDELYNE JEAN: I don't see myself going back to Haiti, because, if I go, they will kill you.

Eventually, they will.

So I'm not going.

And I have my daughter too.

She was born here.

She belongs here.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: With federal immigration policy changing almost daily, Edelyne is left worried that the life she has built in America could soon come to an end.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm William Brangham in Central Florida.

AMNA NAWAZ: And we will be back shortly.

But, first, take a moment to hear from your local PBS station.

It's a chance to offer your support, which helps keep programs like this one on the air.

For those of you staying with us, an encore report about how manufacturers are trying to recruit new talent.

Economics correspondent Paul Solman explores how these efforts are working and whether a so-called manufacturing renaissance is under way.

ROBERT LENARDI, Meyer Tool: We're really suffering right now.

PAUL SOLMAN: Suffering from a lack of workers, says Rob Lenardi, who runs operations for Meyer Tool in suburban Cincinnati.

And I have been hearing the same complaint for years.

PAUL SOLMAN: The despairing employer sound bites have been legion, and so too the optimistic bites from programs I have covered over the years that are trying to address the problem.

For example, even 10 years ago, South Carolina's BMW plant was doing all it could, according to one of its new recruits.

AMANDA ECHOLS, BMW Manufacturing: They pay for your college, first of all, so you will get a degree when you're done.

You make good money while going to college.

I just did not see anybody turning it down, really.

PAUL SOLMAN: And yet most young people do.

PAUL SOLMAN: So America's manufacturers still can't find enough workers, despite the promise of president-elect Donald Trump.

DONALD TRUMP, Former President of the United States (R) and Current U.S. President-Elect: This new American industrialism will create millions and millions of jobs, massively raise wages for American workers and make the United States into a manufacturing powerhouse like it used to be many years ago.

PAUL SOLMAN: Manufacturing has been touted as the next big thing in jobs by both parties, all of America one big maker space, as in the past, when factory workers made up something like a third of the labor force.

That number is now down to less than 10 percent.

But there are some 19 million working-age men out of the work force entirely, not having even looked for a job in the past 12 months.

A manufacturing revival, it's argued, will lure many of them back to work, men without a college degree promised higher paying jobs just waiting to be filled.

ANDREW HOLLOWAY, Meyer Tool: I was just driving past, going down the road.

I saw a big sign saying that they were hiring, basically, and decided to put my name in, and it worked out.

PAUL SOLMAN: Indeed, Andrew Holloway, who quit college, got paid while training on the job at Meyer Tool.

And it's a sophisticated gig.

Moreover, there's a strategic reason to revive manufacturing in America.

RYAN AUGSBURGER, The Ohio Manufacturers' Organization: We're seeing the recognition of vulnerabilities of global supply chains.

PAUL SOLMAN: Ryan Augsburger, head of The Ohio Manufacturers' Association.

RYAN AUGSBURGER: And it seems to be driving more, we call it reshoring, but it's investment that was offshored a generation ago, back into the U.S. PAUL SOLMAN: So the jobs will be there, says Joe Resko, supervisor at noisy metal manufacturer Worthington Enterprises.

Earplugs are standard issue.

JOE RESKO, Worthington Enterprises: I believe we will continue to grow.

There's a lot of people out there that want to come in and contribute to good companies.

And, in America, they want that to happen, right?

PAUL SOLMAN: Maybe, but the company sure has to work hard to recruit them.

JOE RESKO: We have created great partnerships with our local high schools.

We actually have signing day, if you have seen the college athletes that sign.

And then we employ them inside our businesses, inside our factories, and we promise them an opportunity for a job.

PAUL SOLMAN: But why are Ohio's firms only now making such strenuous efforts?

I asked the head of the Manufacturers' Association.

Because they're more desperate?

RYAN AUGSBURGER: I think that the desperation has brought them together, yes.

PAUL SOLMAN: But if they build it, will the kids come?

These are seniors on the welding track at Kilgore High School in East Texas oil country.

But with all the high-paying oil related jobs, why not more kids in the program?

CHELSI ROCHA, Student: They might not know how many opportunities you can get from that line of work.

PAUL SOLMAN: Chelsi Rocha.

CHELSI ROCHA: And they may not know the benefits of going into manufacturing.

or they're motivated towards an easier job.

PAUL SOLMAN: Zevin Dent agrees.

ZEVIN DENT, Student: From my generation, I think people -- to be honest with you, I think people have less motivation to work because there's so many other avenues of work that they could do online.

PAUL SOLMAN: Teacher Misty Lewis says the mood is shifting some, at least in Kilgore.

MISTY LEWIS, Teacher: For welding specifically, we have got teachers that were in the industry and now they're teaching.

They do a great job of telling our kids, this is where you can go.

These are the companies.

I think that's why it's growing.

PAUL SOLMAN: In most places, however, it doesn't seem to be growing fast enough, especially given all the Baby Boomers aging out of the manufacturing work force.

But maybe a worker shortage won't be a problem if A.I.

and robots rush in where young folks prefer not to tread, at Worthington Enterprises, for instance.

JOE RESKO: We can automate, and we continue to look to automate.

PAUL SOLMAN: And thus the age-old question, which I put to Stanford's Erik Brynjolfsson.

The idea that high tech will eventually eliminate manufacturing jobs entirely.

ERIK BRYNJOLFSSON: It's probably the most common question I get, is, are robots going to eat all the jobs?

And I always say no.

I do point out that technology has always been destroying jobs and always creating jobs, but that second part is important, that there's this dynamism in the U.S. economy.

As some jobs get automated, new jobs get created, and right now there's no shortage of demand for labor, and I don't see that changing any time soon.

PAUL SOLMAN: OK, too many old folks hanging it up, not enough young people, or even robots to replace them, a manufacturing renaissance without the workers to sustain it?

Not so fast, says economist Robert Lawrence.

The historical data suggests no such revival, as he documents in his new book, "Behind the Curve."

ROBERT LAWRENCE, Harvard Kennedy School: As countries develop economically, the share of manufacturing jobs tends to rise, and then it peaks.

PAUL SOLMAN: So the long-term outlook might not favor factory jobs after all, because, historically, they peaked long ago.

ROBERT LAWRENCE: After that, there's a downward trend in manufacturing employment shares, and this isn't just true of the United States.

It's true of most countries, almost every developed country in the world.

PAUL SOLMAN: And, in fact, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has projected the number of manufacturing jobs to be added over the next eight years, less than 1 percent.

DONALD TRUMP: We will lead an American manufacturing boom.

We're going to have a manufacturing boom.

PAUL SOLMAN: But president-elect Trump, like the Democrats before him, is betting otherwise.

So, right now, if I come to you and say, hey, look, let's make a Makino machine here in America, how long before we could pull that off, and do we possibly have enough human power now coming out of schools?

ROBERT LENARDI: It's going to take a lot of engineering talent to be developed to design equipment like that.

It would take five, six years easily.

PAUL SOLMAN: Assuming there's a job surge in manufacturing at all.

For the "PBS News Hour," Paul Solman in Kentucky and Ohio.

AMNA NAWAZ: After struggling to find doctors who properly treated her own menopause symptoms, Joanna Strober created Midi Health, a virtual clinic designed for the millions of women navigating this significant life transition.

Here's her take on revolutionizing women's health care.

JOANNA STROBER, Founder, Midi Health: When I was in my 40s, I had a big job, and things actually started falling apart in my life.

I was angry a lot.

I wasn't sleeping.

I was having hot flashes.

And, honestly, I didn't know what was going on in my body, and I didn't really have a lot of models to tell me that I was experiencing perimenopause and that I should be doing something about it.

Our physical and our emotional lives are actually very tied together.

If you're not sleeping, if you're having anxiety, when you go to work the next day, it's really hard to perform.

And the statistics are actually staggering and really unhappy when you read that over 50 percent of women are not applying for a raise at work because of these menopause symptoms, and 10 percent actually leave their jobs because of menopause symptoms that are 100 percent treatable.

When I actually found a provider to help me, which took about a year to get into that provider, they had a six-month waiting list, within two weeks, I was on a selection of medications and my entire life got better.

I'm just really sad that it took me so long in order to get the right care.

I really feel strongly that menopause care is an issue of equity.

I really believe women have the right to expert care.

Midi Health is a national virtual care clinic for women to take care of all of the issues of perimenopause and menopause.

We have hundreds of providers around the country, and we give women access to those providers with visits covered by their insurance.

The most rewarding thing about running this company is how grateful people are.

When we first started the company, our engineers used to laugh.

They said, I thought we're a medical company, but when I read the reviews every morning, the women all say, I was seen and heard.

Someone listened to me and paid attention to me and acknowledged my symptoms and wanted to address them.

They feel like they have complained about their symptoms and the doctors have just said to grin and bear it, that it's just a normal stage of aging.

And what we have realized is that women don't need to be told that anymore.

They need to be told, really good care is available.

I recently launched something on my Instagram called Menopause With My Mother, where I interview my daughter and I interview my mom.

And the reason I bring this up is I think these conversations have to be happening everywhere.

They have to be happening at home with your mothers and your daughters.

They have to be happening at work.

They have to be happening among your friends.

This is not just a women's issue.

Men care about the women that they love.

And when those women are frustrated or sad or not sleeping or having anxiety, it impacts the entire family.

My name is Joanna Strober, and this is my Brief But Spectacular take on advocating for better women's health care.

AMNA NAWAZ: And you can watch more Brief But Spectacular videos online at PBS.org/NewsHour/Brief.

And that is the "News Hour" for tonight.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

On behalf of the entire "News Hour" team, thank you for joining us.