JOHN YANG: Tonight on PBS News Weekend, desperately needed aid begins to flow into Gaza as President Trump heads to Israel in anticipation of the hostage release.

Then, farmers in Minnesota struggling to stay afloat as China boycotts US Soybeans.

And a new film about the life and legacy of George Orwell that argues his greatest fears could be coming true.

MAN: It suffice to watch the news every day, you know, to hear elected officials trying to convince you that what you are seeing is not what it is.

You have to keep as always, say your common sense.

Two plus two is always four.

(BREAK) JOHN YANG: Good evening, I'm John Yang.

President Trump leaves Washington and the government shutdown behind to highlight a diplomatic deal making accomplishment in the Middle East.

The anticipated release of the Israeli hostages held in Gaza.

This afternoon he left the White House headed to Israel.

DONALD TRUMP, U.S.

President: This is the first time everybody is amazed and they're thrilled and it's an honor to be involved and we're going to have an amazing time and it's going to be something that's never happened before.

JOHN YANG: Tomorrow, Mr.

Trump is to meet with hostage families and address the Israeli Parliament in Jerusalem.

Then he'll fly to the Egyptian Red Sea resort city of Sharm El-Sheikh for a summit of Arab leaders who backed the agreement.

Inside Gaza, the Israeli military pulled back to a new defensive line as part of the ceasefire and desperate Palestinians swarmed aid trucks, not even waiting for them to stop before clamoring for suppl.

The next steps are unclear as many details about the future of Gaza have yet to be worked out.

Anshel Pfeffer is the Israel correspondent for The Economist.

He's based in Jerusalem.

Anshel the release of the hostages as expected tomorrow, is going to close a chapter, a two year chapter that's been painful on both sides, both in Israel and in Gaza, albeit in different ways.

What's the mood in Israel where you are and is there any way you can tell what Gazans are feeling?

ANSHEL PFEFFER, Israel Correspondent, The Economist: Well, the mood in Israel is both expectant, but also there is concern that something can go wrong at the last moment.

And the vigils I went to over the last couple of days were all hopefully this is the last time we're standing here.

And these are people who have no personal relationship or acquaintance with the hostages really so much a representation of Israeli society which has been gripped by the hostages saga for the last two years.

I'm not on the ground in Gaza.

I was there on an embed a week and a half ago.

But it's very clear that the situation there is the beginning of a very long road of reconstruction.

Entire neighborhoods, at least one Gazan city, have been flattened in this war.

So many of those you've seen in the footage, hundreds of thousands who are streaming back mainly to Gaza City into parts of Khan Younis, are not going to discover their home standing, and they'll have to camp out for a long time on the rubble where their homes once stood.

And so this is going to be a very long process which is exacerbated, as we've seen in the last couple of days, by Hamas fighters coming out from various hiding places and trying to reassert themselves.

There seems to be a power vacuum in parts of Gaza with the reports over the last few hours of fighting between Hamas and some of the clans who wanted to take control of their areas.

So I think that hopefully what will be tomorrow on the agenda in the conference in Egypt, which Donald Trump is going to check, will be about how to try and maintain control of those areas in Gaza.

JOHN YANG: And does this move us any closer to what Gaza will look like after the war?

Who will run it?

Will Hamas lay down their arms, what their role would be?

ANSHEL PFEFFER: But what we've seen in this very unique type of diplomacy that Trump and his envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have been executing the last few days is that they're taking it very much stage by stage.

Last Wednesday night, they clinched an agreement, but that was an agreement on these very first stages, on the hostage release, on the ceasefire, the Israeli withdrawal from all these populated areas in Gaza.

So that is now taking place.

It's being implemented over the next 24 hours.

The next stage, which is the immediate day after in Gaza, which government will take care of civilian affairs.

It's supposed to be a technocratic independent government without Hamas involvement.

There is an as yet unspecified peacekeeping force which is supposed to be there.

We don't even know yet any of the countries which may be contributing soldiers.

The United States has made it clear that it will be very much involved in this force, but will not have any boots on the ground.

So whose boots will be on the ground?

And that's important because the next most important stage is the disarmament of Hamas.

Now, Hamas haven't officially agreed to that yet, and there's all kind of talks behind the scenes.

If they'll hand over their weapons, which weapons they'll hand over and to whom will they hand it over to international force?

Will it be handed over to the Palestinian Authority, which is also has a role which is yet to be clarified in all of this.

So some of these things may be thrashed out or at least begin to be thrashed out tomorrow afternoon.

But that's still not the long term future of Gaza.

That's just the next stage, weeks or months.

And on the Israeli side, Israel has set some conditions and these were recognized in the Trump plan for when it would carry out further withdrawals.

Getting the IDF to leave that area will also involve various milestones of stabilizing Gaza and disarming Hamas.

So these are all very, very important issues which have yet to be dealt with in any kind of detail or any kind of agreement to be achieved regarding these issues.

JOHN YANG: Anshel Pfeffer, the economist in Jerusalem tonight, thank you very much.

ANSHEL PFEFFER: Thank you for having me.

JOHN YANG: In today's other headlines, on day 12 of the government shutdown, there's still no end in sight.

Democrats say they won't vote to fund the government unless Republicans agree to extend tax credits that help low and middle income earners pay for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act.

Republicans say they're open to talking about that, but only after Democrats agree to a short term funding bill.

On CBS Face the Nation, Vice President J.D.

Vance said the tax credits need to be reformed.

J.D.

VANCE, U.S.

Vice President: Well, the tax credits go to some people deservedly, and we think the tax credits actually go to a lot of waste and fraud within the insurance industry.

So we want to make sure that the tax credits go to the people who need them.

JOHN YANG: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said the credits need to be extended by November 1st, which is the start of the annual Obamacare insurance enrollment period.

Russia attacked Ukraine's power grid overnight as part of its ongoing campaign to cripple the energy infrastructure before winter.

Russia targeted multiple regions from Donetsk to Odesa.

Two employees at Ukraine's largest private energy company were wounded.

The Kremlin reiterated its long standing concern about the United States supplying Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine and said the war has reached a dramatic moment of escalation.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he would use the Tomahawk missiles to further military goals and would not target Russian civilians.

Four people are dead and at least 20 injured after a mass shooting at a crowded bar in an island off South Carolina.

Four of the injured are in critical condition.

The sheriff's office says it happened early Sunday morning at Willy's Bar and Grill on St.

Helena Island.

Authorities said that when the shooting started, people ran from the bar to seek shelter at nearby businesses and properties.

An investigation is ongoing.

A strong Nor'easter is churning its way up the east coast, bringing damaging wind and heavy rain from North Carolina to New England.

There have been flight delays and cancellations at airports from Washington, D.C.

to Boston.

New Jersey declared a state of emergency in anticipation of potentially major coastal flooding and wind gusts of up to 55 miles an hour.

The weather service also warned of potential for scattered power outages.

Still to come on PBS News Weekend, how China's boycott of American soybeans is affecting farmers.

And a new documentary showcases the life and work of visionary author George Orwell.

(BREAK) JOHN YANG: Farm bankruptcies were already on the rise when President Trump's trade war added to the financial pressures on America's soybean farmers.

To hear what's on their minds this harvest season, special correspondent Megan Thompson visited two farmers in Minnesota.

MEGAN THOMPSON (voice-over): Mother Nature has been kind this year to Ryan Mackenthun, who farms about 2,200 acres of corn and soybeans near Brownton, Minnesota.

Great weather has met better than average yields.

And the sun was shining during his soybean harvest in early October.

RYAN MACKENTHUN, Soybean farmer: When you can get a run of a week straight of, you know, 80s weather with nice wind, I mean, you can combine a lot of beans.

The weather's just been fantastic.

MEGAN THOMPSON (voice-over): What's not fantastic?

Just as Mackenthun brings his crops off the field, the world's largest soybean consumer, China, has stopped buying American beans.

RYAN MACKENTHUN: It's really nerve wracking.

The looming tariffs over us have made it just difficult to predict anything.

MEGAN THOMPSON: Ed Usset is a grain market economist at the University of Minnesota.

ED USSET, University of Minnesota: This is harvest time, and traditionally our biggest sales are from September to the end of the calendar year.

And Usset says the biggest chunk of those sales usually goes to China.

ED USSET: Over the last decade, we've routinely sent a billion bushels to billion two just to China every year.

That represents 25 percent of our total soybean demand in the United States.

MEGAN THOMPSON (voice-over): But since May, China has bought zero American soybeans after the Chinese government slapped tariffs on them, a retaliatory move in the Trump administration's ongoing trade war.

RYAN MACKENTHUN: I'll finish this little strip, turn around.

MEGAN THOMPSON (voice-over): And as demand plummets, so does the price.

Caught in the middle are farmers like Ryan Mackenthun, whose great, great grandfather started this farm in 1887.

When we visited, he was just finishing up combining his first field of the day.

Most every year, he puts his soybeans into big storage bins on his farm and sells them throughout the year, trying to eke out a bigger profit when and if the price rises.

But this year he's reversed course completely, is selling his haul right away at the local grain elevator.

RYAN MACKENTHUN: So on that load I had 371 bushels of soybeans got paid $9.13 a bushel.

It's a dollar below what I got for most of my beans last year.

My fear is that the price is even going to get worse and worse as we go along if we don't have that demand for soybeans.

MEGAN THOMPSON (voice-over): Mackenthun is fearful because he's seen that happen before.

In 2018, a similar trade war pushed prices down to around $8 a bushel.

But it means he' his soybeans for less than what it cost to produce them.

With the prices of fertilizer and farm equipment ever increasing, he figures he's losing about $100 per acre, or about $90,000 on his soybeans.

RYAN MACKENTHUN: It's overwhelming on how to manage all these costs when we plant on good faith that the market will be there to support all our costs.

Yeah, it's emotionally demanding to try to balance all of it.

MEGAN THOMPSON (voice-over): Just a few miles away, Bob Lindeman is also veering off his usual harvest plan.

BOB LINDEMAN, Soybean Farmer: With the beans we normally would sell right off the field, we're putting them into these bins.

MEGAN THOMPSON (voice-over): Unlike Mackenthun, Lindeman's holding on to most of his beans, crossing his fingers the market will improve.

BOB LINDEMAN: Oh, it's for sure a risk.

You know, putting them in the market could go down.

I'm hoping that we can get some of these tariffs taken care of.

MEGAN THOMPSON (voice-over): But Lindeman doesn't have a place on his own farm to store the soybeans, so he's renting space from his neighbor, which will increase his costs.

BOB LINDEMAN: Right now we're using one, two, three, four possibly 5 bins on his farm site.

MEGAN THOMPSON (voice-over): Not selling now means he may need to take out a federal loan for the first time in more than a decade to help pay his bills.

And when he does sell, it'll take a lot of time and labor.

BOB LINDEMAN (voice-over): I'll be hauling a load every second to third day from now until next year just to get it all emptied out.

I really don't want to be doing that, but we need to try and make every cent extra we can this year.

MEGAN THOMPSON (voice-over): Ed Usset, who advises farmers on these types of complicated decisions, says they're used to factoring in risk, but this level of uncertainty is making those decisions exponentially harder.

ED USSET: There's a difference between uncertainty and risk.

Risk is something you can measure uncertainty.

Is this trade war going to be resolved in the next month, six months, one year?

Your guess is as good as mine.

MEGAN THOMPSON (voice-over): In September, on a call with Chinese President Xi Jinping, President Trump discussed TikTok, not soybeans.

And he's threatened to cancel an in person meeting with Xi later this month.

In the meantime, his administration is said to be putting together a multibillion dollar bailout package to help make up farmers losses.

DONALD TRUMP: And we're going to take some of that tariff money that we made.

We're going to give it to our farmers.

MEGAN THOMPSON (voice-over): Ryan Mackenthun appreciates the help, but -- RYAN MACKENTHUN: Nobody likes a bailout.

It's a short term band aid.

We need long term fixes.

MEGAN THOMPSON (voice-over): And he's worried about long term damage to the export markets because China has now found other trading partners in Argentina and Brazil.

Ed Usset's also concerned China is learning something.

ED USSET: They have an incredible appetite for soybeans and they can feed all their needs from South America.

That's what they're learning right now.

MEGAN THOMPSON (voice-over): Farmers want to sell more of their products here in the U.S.

and are hopeful about a Trump administration plan to boost biodiesel made from American soybeans.

ED USSET: Renewable diesel it is expanding quickly in the United States, but it's not covering that gap anytime soon.

MEGAN THOMPSON (voice-over): And so as farmers in Minnesota move on to harvest their corn crop, they want their leaders in Washington to understand what's at stake.

BOB LINDEMAN: Well, I'd say let's not worry quite as much about TikTok and this and that.

Let's worry about this ag sector.

You keep agriculture healthy.

It keeps a lot more jobs and a lot more people financially set throughout this United States.

RYAN MACKENTHUN: When farmers are profitable, we spend our money on new equipment which turns around and helps our economy.

To do that, though, we need profitability, we need certainty.

We need a vision of a future, of where farming will be someday.

MEGAN THOMPSON (voice-over): For PBS News weekend, I'm Megan Thompson in Brownton, Minnesota.

JOHN YANG: George Orwell's writings warning of the dangers of totalitarian and authoritarian states gave the English language the term Orwellian.

A new documentary argues that Orwell's greatest fears are coming true.

William Brangham talked with the director about his new film, which is in theaters nationwide.

MAN: The very concept of objective truth is fading out of this world.

MAN: I'm going to set down what I dare not say aloud to anyone.

MAN: This prospect frightens me much more than bombs.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: In his new film "ORWELL: 2 Plus 2 Equals 5," director Raoul Peck offers what is in part a biography of the visionary novelist, essayist and social critic George Orwell, best known for 1984 and Animal Farm.

But Peck's film also serves as a jarring reminder of Orwell's clearest warnings about inequality, the pernicious nature of the surveillance state, and the lengths to which leaders will distort the truth to retain power.

Raoul Peck joins us now.

Welcome back to the program.

RAOUL PECK, Director and Producer: Thank you.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: One of your last films about James Baldwin was incredibly timely in its moment.

This film even more so, as I think audiences are now seeing.

When did you realize that, Orwell, that this film was the moment for now?

RAOUL PECK: Well, as a filmmaker, you know, it takes us three, four or five years to make a film, so we never know when it will end.

But what we do is to make sure that our film will survive any time and that the coincidence that comes out right now shows us how not all, well predicting the future, but how clear it was.

Through his own experience, in arbitrary moments or authoritarian regimes, he deconstruct the whole machine, the whole toolbox of those appearances.

And unfortunately, it rings so truthful today.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: I know I was - - as I was watching the film, the words in this film, one might call them narration, although they're not really that.

MAN: Freedom is slavery.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: As you're listening to him speak, overlaid with images of modern day.

Several times watching the film, I had to remind myself these were words written almost half a century ago.

RAOUL PECK: Absolutely.

And that was the scarier part.

We had that editing the film, you know, and even dealing with the text, because I started with the text and going through all that was the extraordinary occasion that I had access to everything.

Orwell, everything he had written.

And going through those texts, you could see, oh my God, he's describing something I saw yesterday and that's an out of body experience.

But that show how deep his analysis was, how he was able to deconstruct the whole pattern of deviants and authoritarian behavior.

And he said, you know, it doesn't have to be an authoritarian country for this to happen.

It can happen within democracies as well.

And it's a slow burn where you don't even realize what is happening.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: There's not announcement.

The trumpets come and say you're here comes the totalitarianism.

RAOUL PECK: No, it's step by step.

And each time the civil society accepts that facts are not truthful anymore, that there are alternative realities, that words don't mean the same thing anymore, or that words are forbidden, that book or ban, those are part of the toolbox of every authoritarian regime.

When there is a dictatorship or a putsch somewhere, the first thing they do is to burn books or attack the media or, you know, captured the DV stations.

So it's weird to be living this in the United States.

And Orwell says something very truthful when he said the degradation of language is the condition for the degradation of democracy.

And now we are in a world where even words are being, you know, put aside certain words we are not allowed to use in the administration anymore, as if the function of that word would disappear.

You know, it's basically closing your eyes.

So it's a very weird place for democracy right now.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: I mean, you are clearly arguing both in this film, that we are in one of those moments that Orwell warned us about where governments will insist that two plus two equals five.

Do you really believe that?

Do you think we are in one of those moments?

RAOUL PECK: Well, it's suffice to watch the news every day, you know, to hear elected officials trying to convince you that what you are seeing is not what it is, or that you shouldn't use that word to describe something that obviously is an abuse of rights.

When you attack academia, when you attack the justice system, when you attack the journalists or the networks, those are known tools to degrade democracy.

So at one point, you have to accept that this is what's going on.

You know, you can't continue to tell yourself, well, he's saying two plus two equals five.

Maybe they might be right.

No, you have to keep, as always, say your common sense, two plus two is always four.

And that arithmetic formula is arithmetic.

It's not a matter of opinion, you know, it's a fact.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Given that and your belief that we are in one of those moments, how do you explain the relative lack of outrage from people?

RAOUL PECK: First of all, contrary to what is declared every day, it's not a landslide victory.

You know, there is 1 percent difference between the electoral votes.

And second, people are stunned.

A lot of people are stunned when suddenly all the limit that you knew, all the rules that you knew, when even the language that you knew doesn't mean the same thing, it's hard to react.

And I understand that when you lived for so long in a republic that was more or less peaceful, where there was a balance of power, you know, Congress had its job, the executive branch has its job, the justice had their job.

Cut it for them.

And you start to see a dysfunction meant people whose presence is to make sure that everything is running correctly are not doing their job.

Parliamentary are afraid to tell what they actually believe.

They would take the floor when they know they are not going to for reelection.

All those little signs, you know, when you have to think twice before saying something in front of a microphone, those are saying, you know, I come from Haiti.

I grew up in a dictatorship, and I remember my parents, you know, whispering in the living room.

And now I'm seeing friends that they don't have certain discussion openly anymore because they don't want to lose their jobs or for some reason, they don't want to be cataloged in one camp or the other.

Those are very scary signs.

And when you come from the third world, you have some instinct to decipher those signs very early on.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The film is "ORWELL: 2 plus 2 equals 5."

Raoul Peck.

Thank you so much for being here.

RAOUL PECK: Thank you for inviting me.

JOHN YANG: Now, on the NewsHour Instagram account politifacts, Ellen Hein debunks Republican Senator Josh Hawley's claims that the Biden administration tapped the phones of some Republican senators during its investigation of the 2020 election interference.

All that and more is on the NewsHour Instagram account.

And that is PBS NewsHour - - News Weekend for this Sunday.

I'm John Yank.

For all of my colleagues, thanks for joining us.

Have a good week.