PBS News Hour

Good evening.

I'm Geoff Bennett.

And I'm Amna Nawaz.

On the NewsHour tonight A U.S. Supreme Court case pushes gender affirming care for transgender minors back into the national spotlight.

Being a trans youth member is, like, hard enough.

And you're hearing all of these things that lawmakers are saying about you.

It makes you feel like there is no purpose.

Pete Hegseth meets with senators on Capitol Hill in a bid to salvage his troubled nomination for U.S. defense secretary.

And on an historic trip to Angola, President Biden pledges more investment in African nations.

But is the US effort to counter China and Russia on the continent too little, too late?

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Welcome to the News Hour.

President elect Donald Trump has nominated a key and controversial ally to assist him in his next term.

Peter Navarro, who served as a trade adviser to the president during his first term, will return in a similar role.

He spent four months in prison earlier this year for defying a subpoena from the House January 6th committee.

Mr. Trump also named cryptocurrency advocate Paul Atkins to chair the Securities and Exchange Commission, and Daniel Driscoll, an adviser to Vice President elect J.D.

Vance, to serve as secretary of the Army.

Meanwhile, one of the president elect's most embattled nominees, Defense Secretary designate Pete Hegseth, met with Republican senators today on Capitol Hill.

Our Lisa Desjardins has been following his meetings today.

She joins us now from the Capitol.

So, Lisa, bring us up to speed.

Where does that Hegseth nominee's nomination rather, stand right now?

It is in a precarious spot.

Our reporting, both mine and Lord Byron Lopez's, is that this day and the next day are the critical hours for Pete Hegseth and his nomination.

A reminder to our viewers that reports and also a police report have brought up a lot of allegations against Hegseth that include a sexual assault allegation which was not charged against him previously.

And also reports, including from The New Yorker and The New York Times, allegations of mistreatment of women and including accounts of mismanaging two organizations that he ran, as well as reports of alcohol fueled bad behavior.

Hegseth says those accounts are inaccurate.

He denies around June, his lawyer has said that these reports are wrong.

But today he said that he is going to keep fighting for this nomination.

Now, I want to show you how he's doing it.

And The Wall Street Journal today, he came out with an op ed.

He defended his record.

He also went on Meghan Kelley's podcast today and he said that President elect Trump still supports him.

So, Lisa, when you talk to your sources, what are the key arguments that senators here are looking at and how impactful are they?

Right.

Well, let's start by listening to what house Seth himself says here.

Here he was on Megan Kelly's podcast.

He reiterated the same thing this morning.

Hey, Pete, I got your back.

It's a fight.

They're coming after you.

Get after it.

You know, the media is driving with this ridiculous narrative.

It's our turn to.

It's our time to stand up and tell the truth and our side.

And he knows that.

And so he supports me.

We talk.

I won't betray.

What we talked about specifically.

But he said, you will meet those senators and I've got your back.

It means a lot to me.

Tells you who that guy is.

Now, if just four Republican senators vote no and all the Democrats vote no as well, this nomination is sunk.

And by my counting right now, there are at least six Republican senators who are no or have grave doubts privately about him.

One of them that everyone is watching is Senator Joni Ernst, herself a military veteran and survivor of sexual assault.

This is what she tweeted out after meeting with her ex just a few hours ago.

She said, I appreciate his service.

And then she wrote today, as part of the confirmation process, we had a frank and thorough conversation.

Ernst is not a bomb thrower, as you know, but that is about the most brutal, neutral statement that you could see.

As for other issues, the two I'm hearing the most from senators are about his alcohol use and about his treatment of women.

In that regard, an email from his mother has come up quite a lot.

She went on television today to say that she regrets those words and that this is not the same man that she wrote about years ago.

Here she is.

Pete is a new person.

He's redeemed, forgiven, changed.

I think we all are.

After seven years.

I believe he's the man for the job.

Now, that's not a denial of what she saw at the time, but she's talking about him now.

Also on alcohol, a senator said that her except swore to him that he would not drink on the job.

Senators have to decide.

But there is in the air rumors of others being under consideration.

Laura Brown Lopez and I reporting those are Senator Hagerty.

Senator Ernst herself, though it's not clear if she'd be interested.

And some trumpworld sources, Laura's reporting is also talking about Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for the defense secretary position.

So, Lisa, as President elect Trump continues to work to build his cabinet.

We also now have the final numbers for the House of Representatives.

The last race has been called to bring us up to speed.

That's right.

Okay.

Let's go through that.

There's two races that have been called recently, one just in the last day.

That's in California's 13th District.

Democrats have picked up this seat, Adam Gray winning that rematch.

Another in Orange County, California's 45th district.

That was a big pickup for Democrats as well.

So in the end now, here's what this House will look like next year.

220 Republicans to 215 Democrats.

But a reminder, Amna, that three of those Republicans are leaving to join the Trump administration.

So that's 217 to 215.

So all in all, Democrats essentially picked up one seat over where they are at this moment.

It is going to be another very, very tight Congress.

It's going to be difficult.

And maybe one of the most close margins we've seen in recent history.

And Lisa, this Congress has a lot to get done, including funding the government.

Where does that stand?

Right.

We will talk about this more.

But right now, things seem to be moving in the direction of a short term extension of that funding, maybe into March.

That means the Trump administration and new Congress would have to deal with it again and quickly.

All right.

Lisa Desjardins reporting from Capitol Hill tonight.

Lisa, thank you.

Welcome.

The Supreme Court heard arguments today in a landmark case on transgender rights.

The justices are weighing whether a Tennessee law barring gender affirming care for minors violates the equal protection clause of the US Constitution.

Roughly 300,000 young people identify as transgender in this country.

And a decision in this case would have major implications for them, their families and medical providers.

Laura Byron Lopez reports.

Isla Gibbons has been camping outside the Supreme Court since late last night.

Hi, y'all.

It's Eli recording in from the Supreme Court, joined by other activists and advocates.

Givens is urging the conservative dominated court to protect the rights of transgender youth like themselves.

Many kids just like me.

Have had such a difficult time making it to 18.

Many of us.

Will not make it to 18.

Inside the court, justices heard arguments in the most significant trans rights case to ever reach the bench.

The question at the heart of today's arguments whether a Tennessee law banning gender affirming care for transgender people younger than 18.

Like puberty blockers, hormone treatments and surgery violates the equal protection clause under the 14th Amendment.

The Tennessee law also allows people to take legal action against medical providers.

Since 2021, 26 states, including Tennessee, have banned or restricted access to gender affirming health care for minors.

A wave of laws enacted by Republicans that affect roughly 40% of the nation's trans youth.

The only genders recognized by the United States government are male and female, and they are assigned at birth.

Now, after an election in which Donald Trump and Republicans promised to roll back protections for transgender Americans, the Supreme Court is wading into the issue.

The outcome could dramatically alter the lives of youth like givens, who in 2022 at the age of 17, underwent gender affirming chest reconstruction, also known as top surgery.

For me, it was a very like slow process of making sure that this is what I want to do and this is who I am.

Surgeries among transgender youth are very rare, and breast reduction among minors is actually more frequent among non transgender males.

But if Givens had waited just one more year, they would have been blocked by Tennessee's ban.

Surgery saved my life, and social transition has saved my life.

Being a trans youth member is like, hard enough.

But when you have so much pressure from legislative politics and you're hearing all of these things that lawmakers are saying about you without ever even speaking to you, also refusing to speak to you, it really it makes you feel like there is no purpose and you can't grow older or you're just going to deal with hardship for the rest of your life.

Today at the court, challengers to Tennessee's ban urged the justices to look at the law with heightened scrutiny, arguing that it discriminates on the basis of sex and transgender status.

The problem with Tennessee's law here is not that it's just a little bit over inclusive or a little bit under inclusive, but that it's a sweeping categorical ban where the legislature didn't even take into account that the significant health benefits that can come from providing gender affirming care, including reduced suicidal ideation and suicide attempts.

Conservative justices pointed out medical and scientific disputes around gender affirming care in other countries.

And asked if the issue is better sent back to the states.

Doesn't that make a stronger case for us to leave those determinations to the legislative bodies rather than try to determine them for ourselves?

Solicitor General Elizabeth Lugar, representing the Biden administration, acknowledged that there is some debate, but argued there is a consensus that such care is medically necessary for some minors.

You say there are benefits from allowing these treatments, but there are also harms.

Right.

From allowing these treatments.

At least the state says so, including loss, fertility, the physical and psychological effects on those who later change their mind and want to detransition, which I don't think we can ignore.

If you're thinking about this from the standpoint of there's no harm in just making them wait until they're adults.

What this law is doing is saying, we're going to make all adolescents in the state develop the physical sex, secondary sex characteristics consistent with their gender or with their sex assigned at birth, even though that might significantly worsen gender dysphoria, increase the risk of suicide and I think critically make it much harder to live and be accepted in their gender identity as an adult.

Gender affirming care is endorsed by every major U.S. medical association, including the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Pre.

Lugar was joined for arguments by ACLU attorney Chase Strangio, the first openly transgender lawyer to present a case before the high court.

For the Republican controlled state of Tennessee.

Solicitor General Matt Rice argued that the ban is based on medical purpose, not a patient sex.

Just as using morphine to manage pain differs from using it to assess suicide, using hormones and puberty blockers to address a physical condition is far different from using it to address psychological distress associated with one's body.

But liberal justices questioned Tennessee's premise.

The whole thing is imbued with sex.

It's a dodge to say that this is not based on sex.

It's based on medical purpose.

When the medical purpose is utterly and entirely about sex.

We don't think it's actually drawing a line based on sex.

And again, the only way that my friends can point to a sex baseline is to complete the use of puberty blockers to address precocious puberty with the use of puberty blockers to transition.

And those are fundamentally different treatments.

Coming out of more than two.

Hours of argument.

My sense.

Is that the Tennessee.

Law will be upheld primarily by at least five.

Conservative justices on the Supreme Court.

Supreme Court analyst Marcia Coyle says the justices appeared to take partizan lines during questioning.

There was sympathy among the liberal justices that this is discrimination.

On the basis of.

Sex and.

Transgender status.

But there are only three.

On the liberal side of the court.

Conservative groups who wrote amicus briefs in support of Tennessee's law claim gender affirming care bans for minors are about protecting children.

Mark Sweet, who is legal counsel for one of those organizations Advancing American Freedom, says being transgender is a, quote, ideology.

In the case of of puberty blockers, hormone therapy, surgery that mutilates their bodies.

What you have is some something where the children are not sick with a physical ailment.

This is a mental and psychological issue.

But on the on the other side of the balance, what they lose is their ability to procreate.

Girls will not be able to breastfeed their babies.

They may not be able to conceive.

A boy may not be able to found his own family.

But Dr. Joshua Safer, who leads the Mt.

Sinai Center for Transgender Medicine in Surgery in New York, says gender affirming care is as medically necessary as other forms of health care.

Our approach for use is already very conservative with.

With with a lowercase C. And the guidelines.

That we follow.

Are quite conservative already.

So.

Just as you would expect they would be across all of medicine.

Part of our conservatism in the health care community is that we don't give medicines to anybody under the age of 18 without their parents consent.

Though it's unclear how the justices will ultimately rule in this case.

The stakes are higher than ever for transgender youth.

It's a mystery to me that people would want to make a political issue out of other people's health.

Care and to.

Deny people health care.

It's clear that they will suffer.

We even have data of increased mental health disease, increased suicidality and increased suicide when people have been denied health care in the past and in situations where they're still denied health care.

For transgender youth, their parents and the doctors treating them.

A decision won't come until the new Year.

For the PBS NewsHour, I'm Laura Berman.

Lopez.

The day's other headlines Start with what New York City police called the brazen targeted killing of a major health insurance CEO in the heart of midtown Manhattan.

50 year old Brian Thompson, chief executive of United Health Care, one of the nation's largest health insurers, was shot and killed just before dawn outside of a hotel where investors had gathered for a conference.

Investigators said the masked suspect waited several minutes for Thompson's arrival before shooting him and fleeing on a bike.

There is no motive yet and no arrests have been made.

Turning overseas now to South Korea, opposition parties move to impeach President Moon School one day after he ordered a brief but chaotic period of martial law.

The declaration came without warning late Tuesday, which Yoon said was to quash anti-state forces.

Armed troops encircle the National Assembly, and lawmakers climbed walls and scuffled with soldiers to get back into the building where they voted unanimously to lift the order.

Today, members of opposition parties and their supporters gathered across the capital to demand that Yoon resign.

Lawmakers spoke of the seriousness of the moment.

If we can do that, impeaching a president is not really a fun thing to do, not even for a lawmaker.

But this person, Yoon Singular, has done something crazy that violates the Constitution.

He basically committed a coup d'etat.

Impeachment is not a choice anymore.

It's a must.

Impeaching Yuan would require two thirds support in both South Korea's parliament and its nine member constitutional court.

The motion could come to a vote as soon as Friday.

In Gaza, Palestinian officials say at least 21 people were killed in a nighttime Israeli strike on a tent camp along Gaza's southern coast, a humanitarian zone where thousands of displaced people were seeking refuge.

The Israeli military said its targets were senior Hamas militants who were, quote, involved in terrorist activities.

More deadly strikes earlier in central Gaza killed eight people, including four children.

The head of Naito is urging the alliance to ramp up its defense spending weeks ahead of President elect Trump's return to office.

Mr. Trump has threatened not to defend Naito members who he says are delinquent in meeting spending targets of 2% of their GDP.

About a third of the alliance's nations still fall short of that target.

And today Secretary General Marc Ruta said the 2% level may not even be sufficient.

I believe strongly and I know many allies believe strongly that 2% is simply not enough.

It is simply not enough.

If longer term, we want to keep our deterrence at a level it is.

No, no, it is okay.

We can now defend ourselves and nobody should try to attack us.

But I want that to stay the same in 4 or 5 years.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken also said of the alliance today that it was, in his words, a time for every ally to lean in, not lean back.

Police in the country of Georgia arrested an opposition leader today in an apparent attempt to stamp out political dissent amid days of mass demonstrations.

The pro-Western Coalition for Change Party shared this video of authorities dragging Nika Guevarra Mia into a car after raiding its offices in the capital city of Tbilisi.

That didn't stop thousands of demonstrators from flooding the streets for a seventh straight night.

Georgians are protesting their largely pro-Russian government's decision to suspend negotiations to join the European Union.

More than 300 protesters have been detained.

Millions of people across Cuba are without electricity yet again after one of the island's major power plants failed.

As the sun rose over Havana this morning, the buildings remained dark.

It's the third massive blackout in just over six weeks.

But other smaller outages have been frequent.

Most have been caused by fuel shortages as well as Cuba's aging infrastructure.

The minister of energy says power should be fully restored by tomorrow.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell offered some optimism today, saying that the economy is in remarkably good shape.

That helped to send stocks to record highs across the board.

The Dow Jones Industrial average soared more than 300 points to finish above 45,000 for the first time ever.

The Nasdaq added 1.3% to reach its own record.

And the S&P 500 also set an all time high.

And it's that time of the year when the streaming service Spotify releases its annual top artists and listening trends known as Spotify wrapped.

It's become a bit of a cultural phenomenon in this year.

Listeners across the globe made one thing clear, and that's women dominated the charts.

Eight of the top ten most streamed albums worldwide were by female artists.

And perhaps it should come as no surprise that Taylor Swift snagged the top album spot in the US the most.

Dreamed song was Espresso by Sabrina Carpenter.

And Joe Rogan again had the number one most listened to podcast for the fourth year running.

All right.

Still to come on the NewsHour, why President Biden is visiting Africa in the final weeks of his presidency.

A Federal Reserve official on the central bank's efforts to keep inflation in check and the push to make one of America's most revered symbols, the national bird.

This is the PBS NewsHour from the David Rubenstein studio at etah in Washington.

And in the West, from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University.

The White House said today that a broad Chinese hacking operation had infiltrated at least eight American telecommunication companies and that none of them have managed to remove these Chinese hackers from their systems.

Nick Schifrin has been following this all and joins us now.

So, Nick, what did the White House say today?

The White House gave new details on what is believed to be the largest hack on American telecommunications firms in U.S. history.

As you said, Chinese hackers infiltrated at least eight communications firms in the United States.

And over the last 1 or 2 years, quote, dozens of telecommunications companies across Asia and Europe.

And the hack was ongoing.

Deputy National security advisor for Cyber and Emerging Technology.

And Neuberger said today.

The affected companies are all responding.

Right now we do not believe.

Any have fully removed the Chinese actors from these networks.

So the risk of there is a risk of ongoing compromises to communications until US companies address.

The cybersecurity gaps.

The Chinese are likely to.

Maintain their access.

Today, intelligence officials were on the Hill briefing all 100 senators in a classified hearing about the Chinese hackers known as Salt Typhoon.

And our Lisa Desjardins caught up with Texas Republican John Cornyn.

So the Chinese Communist Party has infiltrated the tunnels, communication systems here in the United States in a dramatic and an unprecedented sort of way.

And it's a subject of tremendous concern.

And I'm sure you're going to hear more about it because it affects a lot of people and not just in this country, but around the world.

Yesterday, Jeff, a senior FBI official admitted the bureau still did not know how deeply the Chinese hackers had penetrated, even though the bureau had been investigating since the spring.

And it could take years to know the true scope of the hack.

Do we, though, do we know, though, who has been targeted?

Intelligence officials describe three baskets or three groups of targets, essentially.

Number one, a large number of users whose phone metadata was stolen.

Number two, a small group of individuals whose audio calls and text messages were specifically targeted and successfully intercepted.

Number three, the portal that law enforcement uses to submit court orders to telecommunications and Internet service providers.

And I want to keep that list up for the moment on the first group whose metadata was stolen, a senior administration official said today it was, quote, a large number of Americans but would not provide the number.

But it had a, quote, regional focus suggesting it was designed to find members, members of the second group whose calls were intercepted and included senior members of the Trump and Harris campaigns.

A former intelligence official described to me, Jeff, that this is so hard because these are incredibly sophisticated state actors with limitless budget and limitless time.

They are extraordinarily difficult to detect because they enter networks with stolen credentials so as not to set off alarm bells.

And if they detect any surveillance by the Americans, they simply stop moving.

They can sit there and take as long as it takes, therefore avoiding detection.

And how has China responded to all of this?

In a statement, Chinese Embassy spokesman Liu Kang, you told me that the US claims were, quote, disinformation.

And he continued, quote, China firmly opposes and combats all kinds of cyber attacks.

The US needs to stop its own cyber attacks against other countries and refrain from using cyber security to smear and slander China.

U.S. Jeff is believed to to conduct the same surveillance around the world, and I do use that term surveillance.

U.S. officials use that term because this is not designed as far as they can tell, to destroy any critical infrastructure.

It is instead designed to conduct espionage, to collect information.

No signs that any of this is being leaked online.

As for solutions, Neuberger said today the only solution was to require companies to meet minimum cybersecurity guidelines.

Right now, those guidelines are optional for these companies to meet.

All right.

Nick Schifrin, thank you for this reporting.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

President Biden returns today from the first US presidential trip to the continent of Africa in more than a decade.

Mr. Biden visited Angola to further U.S. investments on the continent.

But the Americans are playing a game of catch up with the Chinese, who've spent decades and billions investing, extracting and some say exploiting developing countries.

In Angola this week, a new U.S. commitment to Africa's future.

As president, Biden promised $600 million in funding for a multinational railway project linking Zambia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Angola, all part of the Trans Africa.

Libido Corridor.

Railway, a key hub for mineral exports.

The United States is all in on Africa.

The future of the world is here in Africa and in goal.

Yet that $600 million U.S. investment is small potatoes compared to China, which invested $21.7 billion in the continent in 2023 alone.

This railway will not only speed up the economic development of two of the world's most underdeveloped countries, but also change local people's lives.

Over the last 20 years, China has become sub-Saharan Africa's largest bilateral trading partner, accounting for 20% of the region's exports.

The main commodities export aid are heavy metals, minerals and fuel.

In exchange, China has provided billions in infrastructure investments in the region in almost 24 years.

China has invested over $182 billion in loans to 53 African nations.

China's Belt and Road Initiative launched in 2013.

A trillion plus dollars global infrastructure investment project has sent over $91 billion into Africa building transportation, energy and mining infrastructure.

And at the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Beijing in September, President Xi Jinping promised an additional $51 billion to be invested in the continent.

Strong value and home free fund.

China is willing to deepen cooperation with Africa in the areas of industry and agriculture, infrastructure, trade and investment.

But all of.

This comes at a cost.

Some of the projects built aren't economically sustainable, and sub-Saharan African nations are now over $134 billion in debt to China.

China has also been accused of bribing local officials to secure contracts.

And to further understand the race for influence and Africa, I'm joined by member Pizzo Diesel.

He's the director of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Welcome back.

Thanks for being here.

Thank you very much.

So Biden's visit to Angola marks sort of his last big trip as president is the first visit to the nation by a sitting US president.

How big a deal is that?

What message do you take away from that trip?

It's a big deal.

The timing notwithstanding, this signals that the US is committed to continuing good relationship with African countries.

He made statement today.

New commitment, $600 million that will be investing in this project, particularly the little bit of corridor.

We'll remember that for 80 years since President Obama left no Africa and no US president went to Africa.

And even though President Biden hosted the US Africa Leaders Summit.

He made a commitment that did not necessarily translate.

So people have been wondering if Africa still mattered.

And the fact that he made the effort to go even with 50 days before he steps down, that's very impressive.

And people would take it as such.

When you say it sends a message that Africa matters to the US, but you saw in that report how dramatically different the level of investment from China is versus what the US has been investing on the continent.

How much of Biden's visit is fueled by this need or want to try to counter Chinese influence?

And is the American effort too little too late?

I think it's a little late, but late doesn't mean never you can catch up.

I think the US spent the last 35 years not really taking Africa seriously after the collapse of the Berlin Wall.

The US was the only superpower.

They could really restructure and reframe the world, but.

That was a missed opportunity.

That was a missed opportunity.

30 years of this.

So now that you have China that will seize that moment, investing over $170 billion in various projects, China really has planted its flag and the US has to catch up.

How is that going down on the ground?

I know you've visited Angola and officials there at the little bit of corridor at the the port terminus there.

What are they telling you about these?

What they're excited about this.

When you talk to the officials, they're very excited by this project because to them, it shows to the population that they're doing something.

The challenge is the average Angolan was not really aware of this.

If you talk to the farmers along the railroad, they didn't only think about if you talk to civil society.

So I think the work has been cut out for both Angola and the US to try to translate this so that the stakeholders, the Angolan people particularly feel invested in this.

We know, of course, that this is critical when it comes to us need for the minerals that we're talking about exporting from African nations to fuel the technology future the US is trying to build.

But we also know these nations are much more than just exporters of these minerals.

You're talking about a continent that's home to 1.5 billion people.

So to have superpowers competing to some degree for resources, for partnership and alliance.

What does that mean for a country like Angola or Zambia or Kenya?

So for Angola, it's about options and choices.

You know, African countries, on average, welcome great power competition because you give them a chance to choose who they want to deal with.

And Angola is kind of the epitome of this.

You find Russian, Chinese, Brazilian, everybody in Angola.

However, I think the big challenge for the US will be because the US sees China as an adversary and vice versa.

They cannot.

Neither China nor the US can can afford to do this thing without collaborating.

China controls the mines.

So if the US is going to evacuate these products out of Congo and Zambia to this very road, it will be a corridor.

But if the Chinese control the mines, for the Chinese to have leverage, they can block the mines and push it towards the Indian Ocean, which is the tradition where they've been taking the resources as well.

So you cannot avoid this collaboration.

In fact, when I was in Angola, I'm just a quick story.

I was talking to the board of the Benguela Railroad and they told me know recently we ordered 100 locomotives from China.

I say, why just China?

North America?

They say, Well, but we asked the Chinese to put GE engines in those locomotives.

So that's why the prime example of collaboration.

The GE engines couldn't get there without approval from the State Department or Department of Commerce.

Well, as you know, these investments that President Biden is making now only really make a difference if they're continued by the next administration.

The incoming president, President elect Trump, has a very different world view than the outgoing president, President Biden.

Do you see those investments like this railway corridor being continued by the next administration?

That's the question we are all asking.

I bet we know a couple of things about President Trump.

We know that he's keen on counteracting China.

So this is an opportunity.

For him to do that.

The challenge is I said it's not going to be easy because China is deeply involved in these countries.

But then to the question that we ask also is when President Trump chooses to counteract China, will punish China or will it punish the Africans for partnering with China?

So time will tell us what President Trump does.

But we know that he definitely will take this seriously.

Time will tell us in days if that is a member or these olalia from the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Great to have you here.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'm the.

The Federal Reserve may cut interest rates for the third straight time when it meets later this month.

That's as officials weigh the state of inflation in the broader economy.

Inflation has been running above the Fed's targeted rate recently, and other economic indicators have remained strong, leaving some worry that progress on reining in prices has stalled.

We're joined now by someone familiar with these challenges.

That's Mary Daly, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, who will have a vote in this month's meeting.

Welcome back to the NewsHour.

Thank you.

Glad to be here.

So the Fed chair, Jerome Powell, said today that the strength of the US economy means that the central bank can show some restraint when it comes to cutting rates.

Is that how you see it?

Well, I think we do not need to be urgent.

There is no sense of urgency, but we do need to continue to carefully calibrate our policy and make sure it's in line with the economy we have today and the one we expect to have going forward.

Do you favor a rate cut at this December meeting?

You know, I'm going to wait until I get to the December meeting and do all the analysis.

I talked to a lot of my contacts on the way up to the meeting, not only looking at the published data, but also getting the real time data on the ground from people who are doing business, working in the economy, leading their communities.

And I'm going to bring that information with all of my other colleagues.

And there's 19 of us and discuss and debate what the right calibration of policy is to support both the decline and inflation, which we need to have and the health of the US economy.

Well, how do you interpret the signals that you're seeing right now from the economy?

That's a great question.

So there's really multiple signals, if you will.

You know, this is an economy where the data often look really good, but the lived experience of individuals, it is not meeting those data.

It's not I wouldn't characterize the lived experience is feeling very good.

And so we're balancing all of those things.

Ultimately, what people want is price stability, lower inflation, bringing it fully back to target and an opportunity to catch up from what inflation took from them when it was so high and wages weren't keeping up.

So there's a lot more work for us to do and balancing policies so that we deliver on that price stability, 2% inflation, and we deliver on the doable expansion that gives people that opportunity to catch up, be made whole and return to what they really want to do, which is families, communities, careers.

Yeah, it's an interesting point.

And we reported on this pretty extensively on the program last night, this disconnect between the strong economic indicators and the significant portion of Americans who say the economy isn't working for them.

And that raises the question, you know, given the delta between the two, do you think the mechanisms for measuring how the economy affects everyday Americans is adequate?

Well, I think it is, but I think it's often mischaracterized as we only look at the published data.

But policymakers at the Fed have really for 20 years broadened their lens and importantly, the reserve banks.

There are 12 of us across the country are most of their jobs are out in the field, so to speak, talking to our communities, businesses of all sizes, community groups, workers.

You know, I have the nine states in the western United States.

So that's all of your Intermountain states, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and then the coastal states and Alaska and Hawaii.

What I hear from each one of those, wherever I travel, is that inflation is still the number one challenge that people are facing and what they're hoping for and what we're trying to accomplish as the Fed is bringing inflation down, giving them back that 2% price stability and doing it in a way that supports the economy.

And because they're not done with digging out of the hole that inflation caused.

And they just want an opportunity to do that and then go back to the business of living.

Why do you think inflation has been so sticky in recent months after significant progress on that front?

Know, it's a great question and everyone's asking it.

But I ultimately, you know, the the expectation I had is inflation would be bumpy on the way down.

And it has been bumpy.

You remember the early part of this year, there was even concerns it was re accelerating.

But if you unpack inflation, you see that, you know, the the core services X housing are kind of been stickier than coming down.

But then they reversed.

We've seen this pattern before.

So I expect they'll continue.

Ultimately, what we what we do at the Fed, what I do is and with my teams is we look at the fundamentals, one of the fundamental features of the economy to drive inflation.

And the biggest one is supply and demand.

And right now, supply and demand or even better balance.

That's true in the the goods market is true in the supply in the labor market.

And that ultimately puts downward pressure on inflation.

So, you know, those are the things you have to look to to really project how inflation is because as you know, monetary policy works with lags.

If we're only looking at the last three months, we're already behind.

You know, looking ahead a bit.

Many economists think that President elect Donald Trump's.

Policies, the sweeping tariffs, the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants.

That those those policies could kick start inflation.

Does the awareness of his plans, does that figure into the decision making of a Fed officials, as you as you think about how you're going to cut rates moving forward?

You know, the first thing to understand about the Fed and policy makers is we don't deal in speculation.

We deal in facts and data and evidence.

And, you know, the the president elect hasn't even come into office yet.

And so it's just right to let him come into office, work with his team, proposed the whole slate of policies that he has in mind, like any incoming administration, and then start to unpack and understand better the impact that we're going to have on the economy.

I think, out of due respect, it's just a lot of speculation right now.

And, you know, again, policy isn't made on speculation.

It's made on actual projections of how the economy will evolve.

And today, my focus is entirely on is inflation coming down like we would like it to and we need it to.

And are we doing that in a way that supports growth in the labor market?

Donald Trump also frequently pressured and attacked the Fed and the Fed chairman during his first term.

And during an interview today, Powell acknowledged that that pressure came not only publicly on social media, but also privately.

What concerns do you have about the the pressure that the Fed could face in the second Trump term?

Well, one of the things that is really important when you're under whatever pressure is to do your work well.

And so I think returning to what we've always done and our goals are the same regardless of what administration is in place.

And we've had a history of being pressured.

But ultimately, the work we do is important to every American, and that is what matters.

So again, restoring price stability, that's got to be top of our list and doing that in a way that doesn't unnecessarily slow the economy or the labor market.

That is ultimately what Americans want.

And I feel confident if we do our work well, we're going to have good relationships with whoever we work with in in the public sector.

Mary Daly, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

Thanks for being with us.

Thank you.

And we'll be back shortly with a story about an effort to make the bald eagle the national bird.

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

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

For those of you staying with us, we take another look now at a part of southeastern Louisiana known for its petrochemical production and for its high rates of cancer.

As William Brangham reports, a recent study documents how the risks may now be falling on the next generation.

Right.

Not long ago, Tisha couldn't imagine making memories like this with her son, Cairo.

You see Aaron with Mommy.

He was born prematurely, almost two months early, weighing just 4 pounds.

He had to live in this incubator, had a slow heart rate, and sometimes stopped breathing entirely.

My first time seeing him after birth, I was holding him and he looked so peaceful.

And I was like, my God, he's so peaceful.

And I took a picture and seconds later his alarms went off.

He had stopped breathing and.

And of course just me being new to the experience.

It was it was very overwhelming.

Yeah.

We go.

Tisha, who asked me not use her last name for privacy reasons, has lived in Louisiana Saint John, the Baptist Parish most of her life.

The community sits within an 85 mile stretch of land that's home to some 200 fossil fuel and petrochemical operations.

Growing up, we knew nothing about how those things were affecting us.

Researchers at Tulane University found that in Louisiana's most polluted areas, pregnant women had a 25% higher risk of low birth weights and a 36% higher risk of premature birth.

Prematurity is the leading cause of death among infants in the U.S.. Black and low income women in those areas face the highest risks.

It's a wake up call in terms of how we think about the consequences of industrial pollution.

And what you emit today affects the health of somebody who's going to be born in six months or nine months.

Right.

It's not decades from now.

Kimberly Terrell is a staff scientist at Tulane's Environmental Law Clinic and was lead author of the study.

What was really surprising was the proportion of adverse birth outcomes that could be attributed to pollution exposure in Louisiana.

So our study suggests that a third of the cases of low birth weight and about half the cases of preterm birth in the state can be linked to pollution exposure.

The Mississippi River is, you know, full of petrochemical plants as well as grain elevators because they are truly the gateway to the world.

Louisiana Republican State Senator Eddie Lambert chairs the Environmental Quality Committee, which oversees the agency that regulates the chemical industry.

I'm sure your committee has seen the number of studies that have linked living in these areas to disproportionately high negative health outcomes.

You don't accept that as a hazard.

If there is and as a complete truism, I mean, you know, there may be some some correlations.

I mean, I'm going to tell you, let's start looking, you know, vaccines.

You know, we've had an explosion of vaccines in the last, you know, 20, 30 years.

And now you have autism, you know.

Is there a connection there?

I don't know if there's a lot of people who think they are.

There's a lot of people who think there are, but there's no good evidence that they are connected.

Is it, you know, economically depressed, their health?

What kind of prenatal care are they doing?

I mean, there's all kinds of factors.

But Terrell argues those factors were accounted for in her study, and they aren't exclusive.

They are compounding.

It doesn't make sense to say, well, we're just going to ignore pollution and focus on poverty or health care access if we know pollution is a risk factor.

And we do, we absolutely know that pollution is linked to low birth weight and preterm birth across the board.

Why aren't we addressing that?

I think the key is that the DKA needs to take an unbiased approach to environmental justice analysis in its permitting decisions.

And what that means is when a facility wants to build a new plant in a community of color, dequeue needs to say, okay, what's the existing burden of pollution here?

And is this community overburdened?

Two years ago, the Environmental Protection Agency opened up a civil rights investigation, looking at whether state regulators here in Louisiana were allowing oil and gas and petrochemical companies to build and pollute in a way that disproportionately harms black communities.

In response, Louisiana's then attorney general and now Governor Jeff Landry sued the EPA, and the agency dropped the investigation.

The EPA declined to comment, citing pending litigation.

We're going to focus on mitigation with climate change.

In Ascension Parish, another community with concentrated petrochemical plants, Ashley Gilliard is counting on a younger generation to enact change.

She founded the organization Rural Roots Louisiana, to teach kids about environmental issues.

That creates another generation of awareness.

It preserves abilities, sustains what we have, because if we don't start preserving it, industry is going to buy out every piece of clean property they can.

All three of Gain Yard's children were born premature and with low birth weights.

She says at the time, she didn't connect her baby's poor health with the air she breathed when she was pregnant.

My son, born with an undeveloped lung and he's had really horrible asthma all his life.

And to have a kid gets told he can't take risks anymore.

When you learn you got formaldehyde in the air and methane.

Ethylene in the air.

And benzene in the air in all of those chemicals have effects on your respiratory system.

You get angry.

That's it.

Back in Saint John, the Baptist Parish.

Tisha says even now, she worries about how the air could be harming her son.

If you could, would you move far away from here?

Is that something you thought about?

It's something that I thought about.

But I love here.

I don't want to be anywhere else.

I want to be home.

And I want my baby to know home and love home the way that I do.

So what do you do when you need to be home?

And home is, unfortunately, where the problem is.

For the PBS NewsHour, I'm William Brangham in southeastern Louisiana.

Finally tonight, we take a closer look at one of America's most revered symbols.

Despite centuries on the national seal and widespread assumption, the bald eagle has never officially been designated as the US national bird.

Our John Yang has this report on the effort to change that and why it matters.

Along the Mississippi River, about 80 miles south of Minneapolis, a bald eagle glides high above the water searching for prey.

This area is home to more than 50 nesting pairs of bald eagles, one of the highest concentrations in the country.

It's why Tiny Wabasha, Minnesota, is called the Eagle Capital of America.

Who cannot love that big, massive beak?

The bright plumage, the yellow feet, the black talons.

It's just born spidery.

You ought to be.

Scott Mayhew says the education director at the recently renovated National Eagle's Center in the heart of Wabasha.

15,000ftentirely dedicated to this stately creature.

Everybody has a story when we're here at the Eagle Center.

They want to come and share that story.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is.

People can learn all about the eagle from its size, diet and habitat to its central place in American history and culture.

A trove of the center's Eagle memorabilia was donated by retired real estate investor Preston Cooke.

I was asking a ornithologist friend of mine from Canada what he sees when he sees an eagle.

And he says, I see an eagle.

But when an American sees an eagle, we see something a little bit different.

We see the freedom, the liberty, the independence, the power.

We see all of those things in this bird that represents America so often.

So they authenticated this, that Cooke is perhaps the world's foremost collector of eagle related items.

Obsession is probably a good word for what I've done.

And then I've got the buttons.

It began with the brass buttons that adorn his military uniform as a young man.

Now, his collection has more than 40,000 items filling floor to ceiling shelves next door to the center.

I never tire of looking for eagles or watching eagles.

I pull my car over when I'm driving around this area when I see an eagle.

I'm in awe continually.

Around 2010, as Cooke was doing research for his book American Eagle.

He tried to nail down exactly when it became the U.S. National bird and found out that it wasn't.

Research at the National Archives confirmed his findings.

The Second Continental Congress put the bald eagle on the national seal in 1782, But there had never been a law or an executive action designating it as the national bird.

So Cooke drafted legislation to do just that.

He took it to Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar and Representative Brad Finstad, whose district includes Wabasha.

It does matter.

It gives it a little higher status.

This assumption has been with us for 240 some odd years.

The Senate passed the bill without opposition.

If it's approved by the lame duck House and President Biden signs it, the eagle would join the roads.

America's national flower, the oak, the national tree and the bison.

The national mammal.

The eagle has two wings.

It has a left wing and it has a right wing and it has a body middle.

And so it really represents all Americans.

The Eagle Center's Scott Mahou says it's important to keep educating America about its soon to be official bird.

It's just an opportunity for people to be aware of this bird that still needs its recognition.

I think that's the cool part, is that people are able to come here and to recognize that this little small town in Minnesota has that opportunity to do something major, really to set the world straight.

That the bald eagle, Yes.

Is our nation's symbol.

But it was not designated as our nation's bird until now.

For the PBS NewsHour, I'm John Yang.

And remember, there's a lot more online, including a story about Saint Louis becoming the latest U.S. city to recommend reparations.

You can read that at PBS.org.

Slash News hour.

And that is the NewsHour for tonight.

I'm Jeff bennett.

And I'm.

Omnivores.

On behalf of the entire newshour team.

Thank you for joining us.

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