GEOFF BENNETT: Good evening.

I'm Geoff Bennett.

AMNA NAWAZ: And I'm Amna Nawaz.

On the "News Hour" tonight: digging in.

Congressional and White House leaders refuse to compromise on their demands and reopen the federal government.

GEOFF BENNETT: Israel intercepts a flotilla full of humanitarian aid and activists that was bound for Gaza at a sensitive time for peace negotiations.

AMNA NAWAZ: And we remember world-renowned primatologist Jane Goodall, who changed how people see chimpanzees and themselves.

JANE GOODALL, Primatologist and Conservationist: The main message that I have is that every single one of us, every single day, we make some impact on the planet.

And we have a choice as to what impact we make.

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

Attempts to end the government shutdown that began overnight have so far been unsuccessful.

Democrats are refusing to vote on funding without ensuring the extension of health care subsidies.

GEOFF BENNETT: And Republicans say they will not negotiate until the funding is secure.

Federal workers across the country are either on the job today without pay or temporarily furloughed.

And President Trump has threatened to make some cuts permanent.

Congressional correspondent Lisa Desjardins starts our coverage.

LISA DESJARDINS: A quiet morning on the National Mall.

As the government shuts down, closed signs go up at the National Archives.

KAROLINE LEAVITT, White House Press Secretary: Vice President J.D.

Vance.

LISA DESJARDINS: At the White House, a different sign of the high-stakes moment, the vice president in the Briefing Room.

J.D.

VANCE, Vice President of the United States: We need to reopen the government.

Let's fix America's problems.

Let's work together to solve them.

But let's reopen the government before we have our negotiation about health care policy.

LISA DESJARDINS: As the Capitol itself closed to tours, part of a Republican message was, the government will stay shut down until Democrats relent.

MAN: The motion is not agreed to.

LISA DESJARDINS: Inside the building, other news.

Two more senators who vote with Democrats broke ranks supporting Republicans' funding bill, but it is still five short of what it needs, this as agencies, felt the shutdown.

Some functions are fully operating, like the Armed Services, FBI, CIA, and air traffic controllers, though many of those workers won't be paid until the government is funded.

Elsewhere, hundreds of thousands of federal workers are expected to be under a furlough, not working at all.

President Trump and Republicans are using all of this and the threat of permanent mass firings to pressure Democrats.

J.D.

VANCE: Let's be honest.

If this thing drags on for another few days, or, God forbid, another few weeks, we are going to have to lay people off.

We're going to have to save money in some places so that essential services don't get turned off in other places.

LISA DESJARDINS: Another pressure point, the administration put a hold on $18 billion marked for New York City, transit, and infrastructure.

A blunt statement from the Department of Transportation said the funding was a "casualty of radical Democrats' reckless decision."

Budget Director Russ Vought later teased that $8 billion of energy project funding would be cut from mostly blue states.

House Democrats encouraged their Senate colleagues to hold strong.

REP.

PETE AGUILAR (D-CA): The goal from Donald Trump and his administration has been all along to make this painful.

This isn't about policy priorities for them.

They want to send a message.

LISA DESJARDINS: And so it was the start of a major shutdown, but little change from party leaders.

The Republican speaker says Democrats are unreasonable.

REP.

MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): There isn't anything we can do to make this bill any better for them.

We literally did not put one single partisan provision in the bill.

There's no policy riders, there's no gimmicks and no tricks.

REP.

HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): Good afternoon, everyone.

LISA DESJARDINS: Democrats insist Republicans can't be trusted to address major health care cuts, and they must be forced to do it.

REP.

HAKEEM JEFFRIES: The Republican health care crisis is immoral in nature, and Democrats are fighting hard to reverse it.

Cancel the cuts, lower the costs.

LISA DESJARDINS: Meanwhile, the shutdown moves forward in a different form at each agency.

Health and Human Services will keep benefits going, but furlough 41 percent of its staff.

For the National Park Service, open air facilities will stay open even as two-thirds of its workers stay home.

At the Federal Communications Commission, the furlough figure is 81 percent.

One agency is expected to be mostly safe from any disruption, Homeland Security, as its immigration raids and enforcement continue.

All of its employees are staying on the job.

AMNA NAWAZ: And Lisa joins us now, along with our White House correspondent, Liz Landers.

So, Lisa, I know you have been in touch with federal agencies and workers.

What are they telling you about what the shutdown has already meant?

LISA DESJARDINS: It varies wildly.

In some agencies, nearly everyone is staying on the job without pay.

In some agencies, nearly everyone is staying home and the entire agency is shuttered.

There was confusion this morning across different agencies as well because a lot of this notification, many of these plans didn't come out until late last night.

I spoke to one DOJ source, for example, who talked about confusion over immigration courts.

They weren't sure if the courts were actually going to hear their cases or not today.

They are, in fact, hearing them now.

Now, as far as RIFs go, there's only one that we know of.

"PBS News Hour" learned of one at the Patent and Trademark Office, that office telling workers that 1 percent of the agency will be RIFed.

Those were long... AMNA NAWAZ: RIFs are reduction in force, right... LISA DESJARDINS: Thank you, reduction in force.

Mass layoffs at the Patent and Trade Office, those mass layoffs had been long planned.

But they are happening during shutdown.

And some people wonder if they're legal.

Also, just an update in the last few minutes.

Now the agency sent out another notice saying, oh, we're also hiring, so we may hire back the people we just RIFed a few hours ago, all of this part of the confusion around today.

AMNA NAWAZ: Very fluid, very confusing.

Liz, you were at that White House briefing today.

There was a lot of questions about those federal worker layoffs and when they might start.

LIZ LANDERS: Right.

AMNA NAWAZ: What did you find out?

LIZ LANDERS: There were so many questions about this because this is not typical sort of procedure.

Usually, people go on furlough.

But this administration is using this as an opportunity to slim down the federal work force, the press secretary saying that layoffs are -- quote -- "very likely and imminent."

She was asked if there was a percentage of the specific agency or the overall federal government that would be slimmed down.

She did not have an answer to that.

And you heard the justification from the vice president in Lisa's report there saying that they're going to have to save some money from some agencies to fund essential services in others.

We got a little bit more information, though, from the director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russ Vought.

He had a call around 1:00 p.m.

with Republican members.

And he told them that these reduction in force layoffs could happen in the next day or two.

The source that I talked to who was on the call said that Vought was very intentional not to give information about which agencies would be impacted, just saying that this is part of the administration's larger priorities.

Vought has been a very aggressive defender of the president's agenda.

And he has taken a political bent to the Office of Management and Budget.

For example, he sent out an e-mail late last night, this memorandum that went out to all of the federal agencies.

And, in it, he blames the shutdown on -- quote -- "Democrats' insane policy demands."

AMNA NAWAZ: Lisa, this is shutdown day one.

Is there any movement to resolve it?

LISA DESJARDINS: Not real movement, but conversations, yes.

I want to show people something that happened during those Senate votes today.

A group of bipartisan senators were meeting if you kind of looked -- knew where to look.

That's the start of some conversations trying to figure out if there is possible common ground.

But a major problem here is trust.

Democrats are not sure how to verify that Republicans really will negotiate with them later if they allow the shutdown to end now.

And all of this rhetoric from the administration, including what some agencies are saying, frankly, doesn't help Democrats with trust.

AMNA NAWAZ: Lisa Desjardins and Liz Landers, our thanks to you both.

LIZ LANDERS: You're welcome.

GEOFF BENNETT: We're going to get two perspectives on all of this now, first from House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

I spoke with him earlier today.

Leader Jeffries, welcome back to the "News Hour."

REP.

HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): Good evening.

Great to be with you.

GEOFF BENNETT: Understanding this remains a fluid situation, as we speak, a little after 4:00 p.m.

Eastern, have there been any substantive conversations between Democrats and congressional Republican leadership or the White House since this shutdown started overnight?

REP.

HAKEEM JEFFRIES: Unfortunately, Donald Trump and Republicans have decided to shut the government down so they can continue to gut the health care of the American people.

And subsequent to that shutdown, there's been no communication from either the White House or from Republican leaders in the House and the Senate.

Leader Schumer and I continue to make clear that we will sit down with anyone at any time and at any place to discuss reopening the government, making sure we enact a spending agreement that meets the needs of the American people, and, of course, addressing the Republican health care crisis.

GEOFF BENNETT: The vice president, J.D.

Vance, said today that the White House is willing to have a conversation about health care so long as the government is funded first.

What do you make of that?

And how do you respond to the charge that Democrats are the ones making the demands here, so it's Democrats who are forcing this shutdown?

REP.

HAKEEM JEFFRIES: Republicans control the House, the Senate and the presidency.

They spent all year lecturing the American people that they are dominant and have complete control of government.

So it is ludicrous to suggest that Democrats are actually the ones that have shut the government down, when the government is in Republican hands completely and in totality.

What we have said is that we will partner in a bipartisan way if Republicans are prepared to act in good faith to make sure we can arrive in an agreement that actually addresses the concerns and needs of the American people in terms of their health, public safety and their economic well-being in an environment where the cost of living is too high and Republicans have lowered costs on day one, as Donald Trump promised.

In fact, life is getting more expensive for the American people.

And that's one of the reasons why we're fighting to renew the Affordable Care Act tax credits to prevent premiums, co-pays and deductibles from dramatically increasing for tens of millions of Americans.

GEOFF BENNETT: The vice president also said today that Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi for years have made the point that you don't shut down the government over policy disagreements.

I have covered enough government shutdowns to know that he's not wrong about that.

Why do Democrats see this moment differently?

REP.

HAKEEM JEFFRIES: Well, we haven't shut down the government.

Republicans have shut down the government.

But, for months, we have indicated that there's a growing Republican health care crisis, which includes the largest cut to Medicaid in American history, the fact that hospitals, nursing homes and community-based health centers are closing all across the country, including in rural America, because of what Republicans did in their one big ugly bill.

They refuse to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits, even though starting today notices are going out to tens of millions of Americans indicating that their health care costs, their health insurance costs are about to dramatically increase.

I think the difference of opinion that we have with the White House and the vice president -- and we made this clear in the Oval Office meeting on Monday -- is that the time is now to address the Republican health care crisis and to act in a way that is commensurate with the crisis that they have created with respect to the health care of everyday Americans.

GEOFF BENNETT: When you say this is a Republican shutdown, historically, it's Democratic and Republican votes that are needed on spending resolutions to get them across the finish line.

How are you pinning this directly on Republicans, when it's Democrats who are withholding their votes on a clean resolution?

REP.

HAKEEM JEFFRIES: Well, Democrats actually are in the minority in the House and the Senate, and, of course, Donald Trump is the president.

And what Republicans have consistently done throughout their time in office, they passed this one big ugly bill on a party-line vote, used the reconciliation process to be able to accomplish their objectives, largest cut to Medicaid in American history, stealing food from the mouths of hungry children and seniors and veterans.

And all of this, of course, was done so they could reward their billionaire donors with massive tax breaks.

If they found a way to do that and include more than $3 trillion in additional debt, potentially driving this country toward bankruptcy and certainly complicating the fiscal health of our country for decades to come, of course, they may be able to find a way with their complete control of government to reach a spending agreement.

But they're uninterested.

They're uninterested.

GEOFF BENNETT: The OMB director, Russ Vought, has raised the prospect of mass firings in the event of a shutdown.

We're now in the shutdown.

Have you heard anything more on that front?

Do you view that as a real threat, or was that an initial scare tactic?

REP.

HAKEEM JEFFRIES: Seems to me that, in part, it was a scare tactic designed to try to intimidate Democrats in the House and the Senate.

We, of course, will not be intimidated.

We know that this administration has engaged in mass firings from day one of his presidency.

That's been happening since January 20.

And so the notion that they're going to pretend to use a government shutdown as the reason for firing tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of hardworking public servants is belied by the fact that they have been doing it throughout the duration of the Trump presidency.

GEOFF BENNETT: There are lots of Democrats who say they want their leaders to put up a fight, to show some spine.

In this moment, what does that call to action mean to you?

How are you interpreting that message from your base?

REP.

HAKEEM JEFFRIES: Well, it's been important throughout the year for us to continue to push back aggressively against the flood of extremism that has been unleashed on the American people.

And it's also understandable that many Americans are disturbed at what they have seen almost on a daily basis from Donald Trump and members of his administration, the chaos, the cruelty, and the corruption, the likes of which this country has never seen before in one presidential term, let alone in less than a year.

And so we continue to be in a more is more environment.

And, as Democrats, we will be required to do more, more town hall meetings, more press conferences, more speeches on the House floor and the Senate floor, more days of action, more hearings on Capitol Hill and throughout the country, so that we can both push back against the chaos that has been unleashed by Donald Trump since day one.

Now, this is just the first day of the government shutdown, but it's day 255 of the chaos that Donald Trump has visited on the American people during his presidency.

And we're going to have to sustain righteous intensity to match what's happening, so we can end this national nightmare.

GEOFF BENNETT: I have to ask, while we have you, what did you think when you first saw that A.I.-generated deepfake video, the sombrero video that the president posted earlier this week?

There was another one he posted last night.

And what does the mere existence of those videos say about the political climate we're in right now?

REP.

HAKEEM JEFFRIES: I thought it was deeply unserious.

And I was surprised from a tactical perspective as to why Donald Trump would engage in this type of unhinged behavior in the immediate aftermath of us having a conversation in the Oval Office to try to actually get to a place where we could avoid a government shutdown and enact an enlightened spending agreement.

The only way to do it is in a bipartisan way.

What Donald Trump's actions have suggested is that he's not the leader that we need at a moment like this to bring people together to work things out, to exercise common sense, to be able to find common ground in order to promote the common good.

That's what House Democrats are all about.

That's what we will continue to be about as we fight to cancel the cuts, lower the costs, and save health care.

GEOFF BENNETT: House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, thanks again for your time.

REP.

HAKEEM JEFFRIES: Thank you.

AMNA NAWAZ: For the Republican view on the shutdown, we're joined now by Representative Mike Haridopolos of Florida.

Congressman, welcome back to the "News Hour."

REP.

MIKE HARIDOPOLOS (R-FL): Great to be here.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, as you just heard, Democrats are not giving in on their demands to reverse the Medicaid cuts, to extend those Affordable Care Act tax credits.

They say people's health costs will go up if you don't take those steps.

Why oppose that?

REP.

MIKE HARIDOPOLOS: Well, first and foremost, let's recognize where we're at.

Their ransom note for this is $1.5 trillion.

And if we want to have a negotiation... AMNA NAWAZ: That's the equivalent of the cuts, right, the Medicaid cuts?

That's what you're talking about?

REP.

MIKE HARIDOPOLOS: When you add up all of their goodies, it's $1.5 trillion.

And let's also be clear, any Medicaid cuts that they talk about wouldn't take place until 2027.

And a person who's disabled, who's an elderly, who's a child of a low-income parent, let alone a pregnant woman, those are untouched.

As you know, we talked about that in July.

But, that said, let's keep the government open and have these thoughtful negotiations.

Democrats did it 13 times during the Biden years.

We think a C.R.

is a smart thing.

It's a continuation of the deal we cut back in March.

And we think keeping the government open is a good idea.

It's what Chuck Schumer said his entire career, and I'd like to think they can do it again.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, as you mentioned, the Medicaid cuts don't go into effect until 2027, but those subsidies do run out at the end of the year.

And Democrats say, look, if the Republicans made these cuts in the first place, why should they trust you that you will negotiate on them in good faith now if you didn't do that before?

REP.

MIKE HARIDOPOLOS: Well, I think one is, we need to negotiate.

I think it's a thoughtful thing to do.

But let's keep the government in the open in the meantime.

Let's not penalize people for this negotiation that's going on.

But there are problems within that system, I think they'd have to admit.

One is, if you live in Arizona and your family of four and they have an income of $600,000, they get a subsidy.

In Vermont, if you make $180,000 as a single person, you get a subsidy.

I think those are things we will negotiate.

And I'd also like to say that, of those people who are getting these subsidies, 40 percent of them didn't even use that insurance.

So, some people are getting signed up for it.

They're not getting that quality health care they need to have.

That's why we need to have the overhaul, much like we did with Medicaid.

People who really need it, the disabled, the elderly, let's help them.

Same thing with the subsidies.

Truly, people have the financial need, not just another program.

AMNA NAWAZ: I hear you saying you should negotiate.

But, as Leader Jeffries just said, the White House hasn't reached out.

Republican leadership has not reached out to negotiate.

They're basically saying, Democrats need to drop their demands.

REP.

MIKE HARIDOPOLOS: Well, I would say this.

What's the benefit of closing the government?

I can't think of one.

AMNA NAWAZ: Well, Democrats would say they're fighting for health care costs here.

They don't want people's costs to go up.

REP.

MIKE HARIDOPOLOS: Well, let's also say this.

Since Obamacare has been in place, prices has gone up radically.

And a lot of folks are hurting who pay for the private insurance.

AMNA NAWAZ: And this would cause them to go up even further, right?

REP.

MIKE HARIDOPOLOS: Well, that's why we're going to have the debate.

But this is why we're looking at this program.

If they just let the status quo hold, which is their position at this point, when people get insurance paid for or subsidized, and 40 percent don't even use it, there's a problem in the system.

Or if you're a family making $600,000, you shouldn't be having a subsidy.

You shouldn't get other taxpayers to help you out.

But you have to keep the government open.

This is a ransom.

And it's not at the expense of politics.

It's at the expense of people who've earned these benefits or people who pay taxes are not getting the services they deserve.

So let's keep the government open.

This has always been their position for years.

And, again, I'm willing to negotiate.

The speaker said that out loud.

The Senate majority leader said it out loud.

And I take them as honorable people.

AMNA NAWAZ: So Republicans are saying Democrats are causing the shutdown.

Democrats are saying Republicans are causing the shutdown.

weld REP.

MIKE HARIDOPOLOS: Well, one thing.

We voted to keep the government open in the House.

Again, we're there.

This is -- when they're saying... AMNA NAWAZ: And Democrats say, if you negotiate with them, they would also agree to the C.R.

REP.

MIKE HARIDOPOLOS: Well, but, again, we voted.

And now it's up to the Senate to vote as well.

AMNA NAWAZ: Yes.

Well, here's the thing.

In the shutdown now, if there are mass layoffs, people's benefits are cut off or they're slowed, if there's mass travel disruptions like there were last time, do you think people are going to blame Democrats or blame the party that controls the House, the Senate and the White House?

REP.

MIKE HARIDOPOLOS: I'm not a soothsayer.

But -- I don't know that answer.

But I think the right thing to do is to keep the government open.

That's my perspective in this.

And when you talk about how the system works, what I think is silly as a new member of Congress is that all these people are being furloughed.

I don't know if they are being let go permanently or not, but probably just be furloughed.

They're literally not working.

But, as you know, when the government does get back open, they're actually going to get paid for not working.

It's so silly.

And tell me, Washington -- it's the reason I came to this place, to try to reform it, and why you and I have constructive conversations.

We need to move past the hyperpartisanship, keep the government open.

And you know what?

In seven weeks, if we can't work out a deal, the Democrats will probably have a stronger hand.

AMNA NAWAZ: Well, you just mentioned people being furloughed.

There's obviously the threats we heard from the president about permanent mass federal layoffs.

I know you were on a call earlier today with the OMB director, Russ Vought.

It's been reported that there could be mass layoffs within one to two days.

Is that what you heard?

What should we expect on this?

REP.

MIKE HARIDOPOLOS: Well, look, I think Russ is -- can only play the hand he's given.

AMNA NAWAZ: Yes.

REP.

MIKE HARIDOPOLOS: And when the government is shut down because the Democrats won't get 60 votes in the Senate, he has to work within the dollars he's given.

And that's the flexibility we have.

Let's take all these threats off the table.

And... AMNA NAWAZ: But the president is making those threats.

So what did Russ Vought say about those layoffs?

REP.

MIKE HARIDOPOLOS: Well, again, the threat, in my opinion, is, if we -- if you don't get $1.5 trillion in spending back into the government's budget, we're going to close it down.

And this is the same group a couple of months ago told me that the bill from July would cause massive deficits.

They want to add another $1.5 trillion to that deficit.

I don't buy their logic.

AMNA NAWAZ: So what about those layoffs?

What was the mess that you got from Russ Vought on this?

REP.

MIKE HARIDOPOLOS: Well, I -- they are looking at all options right now.

We're all optimistic.

Remember, last night, the good news is, three Democrats saw the wisdom of keeping the government open.

I see that a lot of Democrat senators and Republican senators are talking to say, hey, why don't we just keep the government open for seven more weeks and have these real discussions?

And I'm -- again, I have got to think that, in seven weeks, we're going to be in a much better position than we are now, where we're hurting people because they paid for things.

They're not getting the services or they're getting paid to not work.

It's just a silly season in Washington.

AMNA NAWAZ: Congressman, in this shutdown now, will there be layoffs?

What did Russ Vought say?

REP.

MIKE HARIDOPOLOS: I think he's looking at everything across the table.

And it's the reason why we should not have the government shut down.

Let's hope there's no layoffs, because these people should not be the victims of politics.

AMNA NAWAZ: We have also seen the president continue to post these racist videos with a sombrero superimposed on Leader Jeffries' head.

Why does he keep posting those?

What's the message there?

REP.

MIKE HARIDOPOLOS: I think the president's always doing things to change the debate.

And what he's always tried to do is have a little fun in politics.

We have seen all kinds of pushback back and forth.

AMNA NAWAZ: Congressman, how is that fun?

What's the joke there?

REP.

MIKE HARIDOPOLOS: Well, I think what his point is, he's trying to create more interest in politics, and as the president of the United States, and he's getting a little tired of folks saying one thing and doing another.

AMNA NAWAZ: But how is that helping the debate?

How is that helping to keep the government open or negotiate, as you continue to say needs to happen now?

REP.

MIKE HARIDOPOLOS: Well, I think these negotiations are going to be productive, and it's up to the senators now to work out some type of either deal or agreement that seven weeks from now we will have this massive debate on health care.

And I'm optimistic that we can get this done.

I think that a lot of Republicans feel like these tax considerations for health care will be a positive one.

We just want to get rid of the waste and fraud.

I mean, when 40 percent of the people don't even use that health care program, clearly, insurance companies are getting paid and no one's getting any services.

AMNA NAWAZ: In this shutdown moment now, I hear you saying you want to see negotiation.

Leader Jeffries is saying no one from Republican leadership has reached out.

Should they negotiate to end the shutdown?

REP.

MIKE HARIDOPOLOS: Well, I think, as you know, the process works this way, and I used to teach this in my classes at the college level.

We passed a bill that will keep the government open under the conditions we put out in March.

It's now in the Senate's hands.

As you know, we can't even get something back until the Senate acts one way or another.

So the Senate's going to come up with some type of proposal and send it back to the House.

We have been in good faith always trying to keep the government open.

That has been our position from the beginning.

And that's why I'm here in Washington right now talking with folks and see what's going on.

But when the Democrats say Republicans are AWOL, this is like Tuesday night football.

The vote already happened last week, and let's see what the Senate does.

Let's hope that a few more Democrat senators will come on board to keep the government open.

That's why I'm here.

And I think you ask fair questions.

And that should be the center of the debate that is going to be happening from this point forward once we get the government back open.

AMNA NAWAZ: Republican Congressman from Florida Mike Haridopolos, thank you for being here.

Always appreciate your time.

REP.

MIKE HARIDOPOLOS: Always great.

Thanks for the thoughtful questions.

AMNA NAWAZ: In the day's other headlines: Hamas is still reviewing the U.S.

plan to end the war in Gaza.

But the war continues, and tonight Israel blocked a flotilla of ships trying to break through Israel's blockade of humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Nick Schifrin reports.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Hamas might no longer control Gaza's streets, but, tonight, it controls the war's fate.

Arab mediators tell "PBS News Hour" they have held positive meetings with Hamas, but the group needs more time and is concerned about requirements to disarm and release Israeli hostages before Israel withdraws from Gaza.

And so Hamas faces a choice, end the war and its brutal toll or hold out for a better deal, leaving Gazans vulnerable to Israel's promise to occupy all of Gaza City.

Residents and rescue workers who remain in the city today face their fate.

A strike on a U.N.

school turned shelter that Israel said targeted Hamas left a child who's seen so much in shock.

Some 400,000 Gaza City residents have fled, today packing the sole remaining road to the south.

Israel warned this was their -- quote -- "last opportunity" to leave Gaza's city.

And so 28-year-old Ahmed Arafat loaded his cart, taking what he could, leaving behind what his family said he must.

AHMED ARAFAT, Displaced Palestinian (through translator): I did not want to leave.

My family is still in the north, and my father sent me to the south to drop my uncle and not come back.

What can we say?

We are tired.

Our lives are tragic, and the situation is catastrophic.

We pray to God that Hamas agrees and that Israel agrees.

I mean, I am 28 years old and I have not done anything in my life.

NICK SCHIFRIN: As he drove into an uncertain future... WOMAN: This is the Israeli navy.

NICK SCHIFRIN: ... 85 miles to the West, the Israeli navy intercepted a flotilla that was sailing toward Gaza.

MAN: We carry crutches.

We carry baby formula for the people that you have been starving to death.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Israeli forces boarded multiple vessels, detaining those on board, including human rights activist Greta Thunberg, as posted by Israel's Foreign Ministry.

More than 40 boats had been trying to break Israel's maritime blockade of Gaza with hundreds of people from all across the world.

They set off last week from ports in Spain, Italy, Tunisia, and Greece carrying humanitarian aid toward Gaza and escorted by Spanish and Italian naval ships and Turkish drones.

David Adler spoke to us before the interception.

DAVID ADLER, Progressive International: We're now reaching the final hours of this mission, the largest humanitarian convoy ever to traverse the Mediterranean Sea, carrying critical humanitarian aid for the starving people of Gaza.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Adler is a Jewish American activist, part of the Sumud Flotilla coalition.

DAVID ADLER: If the governments of the world won't do something to end this genocide, well, then ordinary people are going to have to take humanitarian matters into our own hands.

We cannot let Israel normalize a state of play in which children are murdered by the day with impunity.

And that's why we're here on these boats, and that's why we're approaching the shores of Gaza.

NICK SCHIFRIN: But as it has done in the past, Israel used its military to block activists trying to reach Gaza from the sea and tonight continues to wage war as it awaits Hamas' reply.

For the "PBS News Hour"... AMNA NAWAZ: Meanwhile, back here in the U.S., the Supreme Court is letting Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook stay in her role for now.

The justices declined to act on a Trump administration pushed to remove her from the Central Bank's board immediately and instead said they will hear arguments on the case in January.

President Trump has accused Cook of mortgage fraud, which she denies.

The decision is a setback for the president's efforts to exert more control over the Fed, which has long enjoyed independence from political interference.

The White House says it will name a new nominee to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics -- quote -- "very soon" after pulling its initial choice last night.

Officials acknowledged today that President Trump's picks, conservative economist E.J.

Antoni, lacked the votes needed to win Senate approval.

As chief economist at The Heritage Foundation, he was widely seen as too partisan for the role.

The BLS is responsible for vital economic data, including reports on jobs and inflation.

Its previous commissioner, Erika McEntarfer, was fired by Trump in August after a report showing a sharp fall in hiring.

In New York City, residents of a Bronx apartment building were unharmed after an explosion this morning caused part of the high-rise to collapse.

This massive gash on the side of the building used to be a chimney that ran 20 stories up from the boiler room.

Bricks plummeted to the sidewalk below, hitting a playground, but amazingly and thankfully, no one was injured.

Officials are now assessing the overall condition of the building and residents are demanding answers.

ZACH ISCOL, Commissioner, New York City Emergency Management: The safety of the residents is of paramount importance, and that's the number one concern.

We have building inspectors that are inspecting the foundation of the building and inspecting all of the apartments in the affected areas to make sure that the building is structurally sound for people that live in those wings.

WOMAN: This could have been a tragedy.

This could have been something a lot worse.

AMNA NAWAZ: All this comes amid citywide concerns over aging buildings, where issues like mold and a lack of heat are common complaints.

Hurricane Imelda is heading straight towards Bermuda tonight, where authorities have shut schools and government offices.

The British territory had already been lashed with wind and rains formed by another storm, Humberto, with the two storms churning almost side by side over the Atlantic.

Imelda is due to hit Bermuda as a Category 2 storm, bringing heavy rain and a dangerous storm surge.

The U.S.

was spared a direct hit, but dangerous surf conditions along the Carolina coast hammered homes there.

Eyewitness video caught at least six houses collapsing into the water.

They were all unoccupied.

In the Philippines, rescuers are using heavy machinery, sniffer dogs, and even their bare hands to search for survivors a day after an earthquake killed at least 69 people and injured hundreds more.

The 6.9-magnitude quake struck last night around 10:00 p.m.

local time off the coast of the central province of Cebu.

Bad weather is complicating search-and-rescue efforts, and officials have reported more than 600 aftershocks.

More are expected in the coming days, leaving residents on edge.

MARK OCHEA, Bogo City, Philippines Resident (through translator): We are still anxious.

Now we have even lost count of the number of aftershocks we have experienced, because there are a lot of them, and it's been like that since last night.

I haven't even managed to get any rest yet.

AMNA NAWAZ: Officials say the death toll is expected to rise as many people remain trapped in collapsed buildings.

On Wall Street today, stocks climbed higher as investors once again brushed aside concerns about the government shutdown.

The Dow Jones industrial average added around 40 points for a modest gain.

The Nasdaq rose nearly 100 points on the day.

The S&P 500 also ended in positive territory.

And a 1,200-pound brown bear has been crowned the winner of this year's Fat Bear Week competition.

That is despite suffering from a broken jaw.

It's the first win for Bear 32, known simply as Chunk, after finishing in second place three years in a row.

The bracket-style contest allows viewers to watch a livestream from Katmai National Park and preserve in Alaska, as a dozen bears work to bulk up for their winter hibernation.

This year's competition attracted more than 1.5 million votes.

Still to come on the "News Hour": our new poll shows a striking change in Americans' views on political violence; how immigrant labor has become crucial to U.S.

meat production; and a look at the life and legacy of the legendary Jane Goodall.

GEOFF BENNETT: The latest PBS News/NPR Marist poll out today shows that nearly a third of Americans now believe political violence may be necessary to get the country back on track.

That's up from 19 percent just a year-and-a-half ago.

It follows a series of high-profile attacks, including the June killing of a Democratic state legislator and her husband in Minnesota, and the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Utah last month.

Cynthia Miller-Idriss, a professor at American University who studies polarization and extremism, says the rising support for political violence is translating into real acts, and the trend is deeply alarming.

CYNTHIA MILLER-IDRISS, American University: It's just a horrific moment to see that people believe, honestly believe that there's no other alternative at this point than to resort to political violence.

We have had years now of rising support for political violence and willingness to participate in it.

And now we're seeing actual rising acts of political violence follow on the heels of that.

So having this go up even more is a real wake-up call.

It should be a real wake-up call.

GEOFF BENNETT: The poll also tackles the administration's handling of free speech and a number of other issues.

Joining us now to break it all down is NPR's senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro.

Always great to see you.

DOMENICO MONTANARO, Political Editor, NPR: Great to be with you.

GEOFF BENNETT: So what's driving the increase in Americans who now say that violence might be necessary?

DOMENICO MONTANARO: Well, it's really fascinating because it went up 11 points.

It's 30 points now in our poll for people who are saying that they might have to resort to violence to be able to get the country back on track.

It was 19 percent back in April of 2024.

What's driving that here?

Mostly Democrats.

Only 12 percent of Democrats back in April of 2024 said that -- said this.

Now it's up to 28 percent, a huge jump, really, I mean, statistically very significant.

But I will say that Republicans are still higher than Democrats.

They're at 31 percent.

So they also went up from 28 percent, about the same, but still a slight increase.

Even a quarter of independents are feeling this way now, having gone up seven points as well.

GEOFF BENNETT: On the other hand, the poll also shows that most Americans, about 77 percent, say politically motivated violence is a major problem in this country.

Another 18 percent agree that it's at least a minor problem.

What does that tell you about the general attitude?

DOMENICO MONTANARO: Yes, I mean, I think that clearly most people in the country don't think that this is something that should happen.

They think that political violence is a major problem.

They were split on which people are being more targeted, who they're more afraid are being targeted, public officials or protesters.

People were basically split down the middle.

I found fascinating the split by age here.

You had people who were under 45 years old who were 20 points more likely than those over 45 years old to say that resorting to violence was necessary.

You also saw some splits by race as well, where you had people who are Black and Latino more likely to say that this was necessary potentially than whites.

And I think that it really speaks a lot to people who feel under threat in the country.

And people feel under threat across the aisle for different reasons, right, whether they're targeted for hiring practices or feel like they don't have upward mobility or feeling like that the country's not going in the direction they want, in the way conservatives had viewed it before Donald Trump was in office.

In some senses, though, I feel like there's a failure of politics here overall, because, if you feel that politics, which is the only way to really create change in the country, is the way to make that change, then you don't feel this way.

But when politics, people feel, has let them down, then you start to see these kinds of openings.

GEOFF BENNETT: The poll also touched on how Americans feel about free speech, with the vast majority, 79 percent, feeling the country has gone too far in restricting it.

What more should we know?

DOMENICO MONTANARO: Yes, I mean, I think that's a big thing, right?

Conservatives for a long time had said that they felt like their speech was being restricted on college campuses, online.

And now, with everything that we have seen with comedian Jimmy Kimmel being taken off the air and now back on the air after pressure from the Trump administration, everybody's got a gripe as far as whether or not they think the federal government is doing a good job or not.

And most people think that the federal government should basically stay out of it.

I mean, when you look at the numbers here, only 15 percent say that the government should have a major role in deciding extreme speech; 44 percent say that it should have a minor role.

The rest, 41 percent, say it should have no role at all.

GEOFF BENNETT: What other takeaways from this poll strike you as interesting?

DOMENICO MONTANARO: Yes, I mean, there's a lot of fascinating pieces of the poll, I mean, I think, when it comes to speech and violence in particular.

They're somewhat connected, right?

Because I think you have people who feel really just that they don't have the opportunity to say what they want to be able to say.

A lot of Democrats now feel like speech is being restricted in places where it wasn't previously.

And a lot of Republicans have just felt for a long time that they feel that -- and Trump ran on this in 2015-2016, against political correctness, right?

And I think you're seeing people have different thoughts and different ideas about what defines what acceptable speech is in this country.

GEOFF BENNETT: Domenico Montanaro, our thanks to you, as always.

DOMENICO MONTANARO: You're welcome.

And you can see the full results of our poll on our Web site, PBS.org/NewsHour.

AMNA NAWAZ: Well, no single industry in the American economy relies more on immigrant labor than livestock and meat production.

The shift began a half-century ago as the influence of labor unions and wages declined.

Fred de Sam Lazaro reports on how this change has played out in one Minnesota community that witnessed a landmark strike 40 years ago.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Austin, Minnesota, has all the postcard touches of small-town America, ringing church bells, quiet streets and weeknight football practice under the big water tower.

But it's in an adjacent football field where the Norman Rockwell imagery meets the 21st century.

They're playing soccer on it, or football, as it's likely known in the many native languages of these high school players.

The demographic transformation of this community of 26,000 over barely a generation has been driven, like much of its history, by Hormel, known for its bacon, ham and, most famously, spam.

There is even a Spam Museum downtown.

PETER RACHLEFF, Labor Historian: You had a company that had been in this community for 70, 80 years, had prospered, and then, suddenly in 1977, the company announced that their plant was hopelessly outmoded.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Labor historian Peter Rachleff says Hormel, citing competitive pressures, sought and won tax breaks from the city and a wage freeze from the union in exchange for modernizing its plant and keeping it in Austin.

PETER RACHLEFF: And, in 1984, that seven-year wage freeze expired and the union sat down with the company, expecting that wages were going to go up.

And the company came to the bargaining table and said that they wanted a 23 percent wage cut.

And, at that point, all hell broke loose.

(CHANTING) FRED DE SAM LAZARO: After months of agitation, 1,500 workers at the Austin plant walked off the job.

Tensions escalated into the bitter winter, and National Guard troops were called in to keep the peace, especially when the plant reopened on the company's terms with replacement workers and about 500 strikers who crossed the picket line.

More than 1,000 who didn't lost their jobs.

MAN: I'd like to ask you to make this mass a special mass for prayers for all the community of Austin.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: The strike divided church congregations, fraternal groups, and even families.

RONALD BERGSTROM, Former Hormel Worker: It really hurts.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Unlike his brother, Ronald Bergstrom returned to the plant.

RONALD BERGSTROM: He took his position.

I took mine.

And since before Christmas, we haven't talked.

R.J.

BERGSTROM, Former Hormel Worker: My mom called me the other day and she said: "Why don't you go on and get your job back?"

And I said: "Well, one scab in a family's enough."

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: We reached out to the Bergstrom brothers.

They are now reconciled after years of being estranged.

But they, like many others from that time from both sides of the picket line, did not wish to revive painful memories.

For its part, the Hormel company also declined to participate, saying it had moved on from the strike.

RAYCE HARDY, Teacher: There's a lot of people living here that didn't grow up here.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Rayce Hardy grew up here and, as a teacher, he's seen the demographic shift up close.

RAYCE HARDY: I graduated in 1982.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: How many of your contemporaries are still in town?

RAYCE HARDY: I would say 20 percent.

And now Austin is a majority-minority school district, so people who identify as Caucasian are the minority.

And at the time of the strike, it was 98 percent.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Rayce's father, William Hardy, spent 46 years at the Hormel plant starting right after high school.

RAYCE HARDY: And when I was growing up, he worked in rendering.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: So, rendering means essentially cleaning out the guts of... RAYCE HARDY: So it's all the stuff that we're not going to eat.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: The job did support a solid middle-class lifestyle for the Hardy family, one that encouraged higher education and, from his father and fellow meatpackers, this advice: RAYCE HARDY: They said, don't go work in the plant.

Go get a job where it's not going to wear your body out.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: That was the other thing.

It was hard work, right?

RAYCE HARDY: Yes, I would challenge anybody to go in and try to wield a knife at the speed and the accuracy of cutting up a pig that they do.

They're -- it's miraculous to watch.

PETER RACHLEFF: Meatpacking workers have historically been people one generation off the farm.

Today, the workers are fresh off the farm in Eritrea, in Togo.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Do people connect the Hormel strike with the immigration that followed it?

TOM STIEHM, Former Mayor of Austin, Minnesota: Oh, absolutely.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Tom Stiehm is a former mayor of Austin and police officer.

Even though some in this nearly all-white community were unhappy with so many new arrivals, the community and especially police had to take a nuanced approach to immigration enforcement, he says.

TOM STIEHM: If they committed a crime, they were gone, but we just weren't going to stop people on the street and say, OK, let's see your papers, because it was disrupting a lot of families and stuff in town.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: It would have disrupted production at Hormel as well, right?

TOM STIEHM: Oh, sure.

We had to integrate.

It was just the future.

OBALLA OBALLA, Austin, Minnesota, City Councilmember: I was looking for a better life and a better opportunity, because I grew up in a refugee camp.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Oballa Oballa, originally from Ethiopia, first arrived in Maryland, but it was his mother who came to Austin for a job, invited here by a relative.

OBALLA OBALLA: She told my mom: "This town is really quiet, good place.

You will find a job.

It doesn't matter if you speak English or not."

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: What did she do at Hormel?

OBALLA OBALLA: She was working on the line in the ham boning department.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: He barely spoke English when he arrived, but went on to get a college degree and now works as a team leader at Hormel.

So you represent something very different than what's represented on this wall.

OBALLA OBALLA: Yes.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: And, in 2020, Oballa became the first ever nonwhite member of Austin's City Council.

He's taken pains to allay voter fears, he says, about immigrants.

OBALLA OBALLA: When I door-knock, someone will tell you: "Are you even a citizen?"

And I do have to tell people or prove myself.

We are not here to create any crime.

The good thing, the majority of Austin, they were ready for change.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: The term majority has a different meaning, perhaps no meaning at all, in Austin schools, whose pupils represent 46 different language backgrounds, from Myanmar to Micronesia.

KRISTI BECKMAN, Equity Coordinator, Austin Public Schools: We have a team of 16 multilingual, multicultural success coaches who speak 12 languages.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Kristi Beckman and colleague Corey Haugen work to help immigrant students and their families adapt, a task that's become that much more complicated amid fears in recent months of immigration crackdowns.

COREY HAUGEN, Director of Information Services, Austin Public Schools: Our focus is the kids first and foremost every single day, so it's certainly on the back of our minds because we want our students to be in school.

We want them to be safe.

KRISTI BECKMAN: So if they come to school with fears about their own safety or their parents' safety, it can be really difficult for them to focus on learning.

RAYCE HARDY: Well, I have nervous students, really nervous spring semester, and I have nervous students right now.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: So far, there have not been any major immigration enforcement actions in Austin.

And, slowly, Rayce Hardy says, over time, a new sense of one community is emerging, beginning in the schools.

RAYCE HARDY: Sports has really helped that.

We have had successful soccer here.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: And that wasn't a thing, I would imagine, in 1985.

RAYCE HARDY: No, we didn't even have high school soccer.

Austin didn't.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Amid the heated national debate about immigration in a region where President Trump remains popular, immigration has brought a nervous prosperity to Hormel and its hometown.

For the "PBS News Hour," this is Fred de Sam Lazaro in Austin, Minnesota.

GEOFF BENNETT: One of the world's most beloved and influential primatologists and conservationists has died.

Jane Goodall spent more than half-a-century studying chimpanzees and advocating for animal rights and environmental protection.

AMNA NAWAZ: She died today of natural causes.

And, as Jeffrey Brown tells us, Goodall helped change the way that we look at animals and their behavior.

JEFFREY BROWN: From the jungles of Tanzania to the halls of the United Nations, the natural world had no greater advocate than Jane Goodall.

JANE GOODALL, Primatologist and Conservationist: We're supposed to share the planet, and yet species are disappearing, ecosystems are collapsing.

That's going to affect us.

JEFFREY BROWN: Goodall was a pioneer who helped revolutionize our understanding of our closest living animal relatives and as a woman breaking through in a male-dominated field.

(LAUGHTER) JANE GOODALL: Two people.

JEFFREY BROWN: In 1960, at age 26, she began the longest-running continuous study of wild primates in the world in what is now known as the Gombe Stream National Park of Tanzania, working with Louis Leakey.

She had no formal scientific training, and her methods were unconventional.

But among her insights, like humans, chimps made and used tools, such as grass stems, to feed themselves, a finding that shocked scientific consensus at the time.

In 2020, marking the release of a National Geographic documentary on her life, she told me of her earliest days in Africa.

JANE GOODALL: It's absolutely so vivid.

And, of course, it was a time when the chimpanzees were like part of my family.

And the striking thing was how like us they actually are.

When I got to Cambridge, because Louis Leakey said I had to get a degree, I was told I had done everything wrong.

I shouldn't have given the chimps' names.

They should have had numbers.

I couldn't talk about personality, mind or emotion.

Those were unique to us, I was told.

But I had been taught by my dog Rusty, who sits near me.

(LAUGHTER) JANE GOODALL: Rusty, he was a very, very special dog.

And there's never been another dog quite like him.

JEFFREY BROWN: Look at look.

Look at Rusty and look at a young Jane Goodall.

JANE GOODALL: Look at us side by side.

(LAUGHTER) JANE GOODALL: But Rusty was a special dog.

All dogs are special, really, but he was extra special.

And of course animals have personalities, minds and emotions.

And now science has been forced to accept we're not, after all, the only beings with those attributes.

JEFFREY BROWN: Goodall made other discoveries too.

Chimps, for example, engaged in organized warfare and they had distinct personalities.

Her research, first chronicled in National Geographic and in several documentaries, made her a household name.

She used that fame to advocate against animal research and became a leading voice against animal trafficking and other abuses.

JANE GOODALL: What we do to animals, from their perspective, certainly, and probably from ours, is morally wrong and unacceptable.

JEFFREY BROWN: In 1977, she created The Jane Goodall Institute, which soon became one of the world's largest conservation groups, and later worked with young people in Africa and around the world through her Roots & Shoots program.

She continued her advocacy until the end, still traveling nearly 300 days a year.

JANE GOODALL: Some of us could say bonjour, some of us could say guten morgen, and so on.

But I can say... (MIMICKING CHIMPANZEE SOUNDS) (LAUGHTER) JANE GOODALL: That's good morning in chimpanzee.

(LAUGHTER) JEFFREY BROWN: When we spoke in 2020, Goodall said she had no choice but to keep going.

JANE GOODALL: Well, I'm -- being 86, I'm -- obviously, the time I have left is slowly shrinking, which means I have to work ever harder.

People go, you need to slow down.

But I have to go quicker.

The main message that I have is that every single one of us, every single day, we make some impact on the planet.

And we have a choice as to what impact we make.

What we buy, what we wear, where did it come from?

And if enough of us make ethical choices and start thinking in a new way, then business will have to change because of consumer pressure, and governments will just have to obey the will of the people, because enough of us willing it.

So, each one of us is part of this growing - - it's my greatest reason to hope.

JEFFREY BROWN: Jane Goodall died today while on tour.

She was 91 years old.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Jeffrey Brown.

GEOFF BENNETT: A note before we go.

Today marks the first day without federal funding for public media, a serious setback for the entire PBS system.

Even so, our commitment to you has not wavered.

We remain steadfast in our responsibility to deliver reporting that is fair, accurate, and independent, and we will continue to provide the kind of trusted, in-depth coverage that has defined public media for generations.

AMNA NAWAZ: For nearly 50 years, PBS News and this nightly program have given you the facts, the context, and the insight to understand our world and to make informed decisions about your lives.

That mission drives our work every day.

Your support makes that possible.

And, for that, we are grateful.

For more information about how you can help and support your local PBS station, you can go to our Web site or to PBS.org/donate.

GEOFF BENNETT: And that is the "News Hour" for tonight.

I'm Geoff Bennett.

AMNA NAWAZ: And I'm Amna Nawaz.

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