PBS News Hour

AMNA NAWAZ: Good evening.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

Geoff Bennett is away.

On the "NewsHour" tonight: The man accused of firebombing a Jewish gathering in Boulder, Colorado, is charged with a hate crime.

What we know about the suspect and those injured.

A complex Ukrainian drone operation more than a year in the making deals a blow to Russia while the two sides negotiate.

And how the Trump administration plans to slash NASA's budget.

JOHN GRUNSFELD, Former NASA Associate Administrator for Science: The proposal for the NASA science budget is in fact cataclysmic for U.S. leadership in science.

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

Federal and state prosecutors have charged a man with 16 counts of attempted murder and with a hate crime after he allegedly set fire to demonstrators in Boulder, Colorado, yesterday who were marching in support of Israeli hostages.

Twelve people were hurt.

At least two are still in the hospital.

And, today, the Trump administration has condemned the attacker both for his alleged crimes, but also for his legal status, saying he overstayed his visa.

Laura Barron-Lopez has our report.

(SHOUTING) LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Dramatic cell phone video showed a chaotic scene of people rushing to treat burn victims outside the courthouse in downtown Boulder after a man set fire to a group of pro-Israel demonstrators who held weekly walks to raise awareness about Israeli hostages.

WOMAN: Everybody, get back.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: An organizer with the group Run for Their Lives described his horror.

MAN: You want to help them, and then this is when we all retreated and realized that he doesn't care.

He's there to harm as much as possible.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Law enforcement said the suspect, who has been identified as 45-year-old Mohamed Sabry Soliman, used a makeshift flamethrower and other incendiary devices on the crowd before he was taken into custody.

ALEX OSANTE, Eyewitness: I saw fire.

I saw people falling and screaming and crying and tripping.

He had three Molotov cocktails.

One of them, he threw inside of a group at the group, and one lady lit on fire from head to toe.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: The FBI said he had at least 16 more Molotov cocktails in his possession.

Eyewitnesses said he shouted "Free Palestine" and anti-Israel slurs.

Today, prosecutors charged with a federal hate crime and at the state level 16 counts of attempted murder.

J. BISHOP GREWELL, Acting U.S. Attorney For the District of Colorado: We fully intend to hold Mr. Solomon accountable for his actions.

And these charges are the first step.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: And new court documents today revealed Soliman confessed to police that he planned his attack for a year, saying he wanted to kill all Zionist people and wish they were all dead.

And he said he would do it again.

PHIL WEISER (D), Colorado Attorney General: This has every single sign of being a hate crime.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Colorado's attorney general and FBI leaders signaled that Soliman's intent was clear.

MARK MICHALEK, FBI Special Agent in Charge: This is a targeted act of violence and the FBI is investigating this as an act of terrorism.

Sadly, attacks like this are becoming too common across the country.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Authorities scoured for evidence today, both at the suspect's alleged residence and into his background.

For now, they believe he acted alone.

A Department of Homeland Security official said Soliman was living in the U.S. illegally.

After arriving legally in 2022, he overstayed his tourist B-2 visa.

President Trump today seized upon that on his social media, writing: "This is yet another example of why we must keep our border secure."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also condemned the attack, saying the victims were targeted simply because they were Jews.

One of the victims was a Holocaust survivor, according to a Justice Department official.

MARK MICHALEK: Hate-fueled acts of violence have no place in our community, and we will use every tool and resource available to hold those who commit such acts fully accountable.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: This week's attack is the latest in a spike in antisemitic violence in the United States, marking the second attack in his many weeks.

Last month, two Israeli Embassy staffers were murdered outside an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. That suspect also shouted "Free Palestine" as he was being arrested.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Laura Barron-Lopez.

AMNA NAWAZ: We start the day's other headlines in the Gaza Strip and reports that three people were killed and dozens more injured while headed to an aid distribution site in Rafah early this morning.

That came as Palestinians held funerals for victims of a separate attack yesterday near the same site.

Health officials say at least 31 people were killed and more than 170 were wounded.

Among the dead was Hussam Wafi, whose brother said he was trying to get flour for his family.

ALI WAFI, Brother of Hussam Wafi (through translator): They told them there was flour on the way, that they could go and buy flour.

He was buying it to feed his daughters.

He was struck.

He was martyred.

And his two siblings, some are in the intensive care unit.

They all went together.

AMNA NAWAZ: Witnesses of both incidents say Israeli troops opened fire on the crowds.

Israel says it fired warning shots at what it called suspects who approached its forces.

For its part, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation says it delivered aid on both days without incident.

Separately, health officials in Gaza say an Israeli airstrike on a residential building in the north killed 14 people today, mostly women and children.

Israel said it struck terror targets in the area, but did not elaborate.

The U.S. Supreme Court says it won't hear two gun rights cases.

One was a challenge to Maryland's assault weapon ban.

State lawmakers passed the ban after a shooter used an AR-15 to kill 26 people, including 21st graders at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012.

Challengers had argued that the ban violates the Second Amendment rights of gun owners.

Today's ruling doesn't answer if states can crack down on such weapons.

Similar challenges are playing out in lower courts, and just as Brett Kavanaugh says the Supreme Court -- quote -- "will address the AR-15 issue soon in the next term or two."

The justices also declined to hear a challenge to Rhode Island's ban on high-capacity gun magazines.

In 2022, the state banned anyone from owning a magazine that carries more than 10 rounds of ammunition.

In Canada, more than 100 wildfires have forced mass evacuations and sent smoke and unhealthy air deep into the U.S. At least 25,000 residents have fled the fires across the provinces of Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Alberta.

The blazes began last week and are being fueled by hot and dry weather.

As the smoke spreads south, air quality in parts of North Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin is worsening.

In some areas, the air is rated as very unhealthy, the second worst category out of six.

Weather officials say the smoke will be seen as far south as the Gulf Coast states later today and into tomorrow.

Europe's most active volcano sprang to life earlier today.

Mount Etna unleashed plumes of smoke and ash that soared several miles into the air.

Italian authorities say the eruption was triggered when part of a crater collapsed, causing hot lava to pour down its side.

Footage captured tourists hurrying downhill away from the scene.

Local media said tremors could be felt in nearby towns and villages, but there was no immediate danger to the population, and air travel was not affected.

Newark Airport reopened one of its three runways today, nearly two weeks ahead of schedule.

The first flights took off earlier today following a $121 million rehabilitation project.

But more testing is needed before planes can land there.

Still, it's a welcome development after the airport's recent troubles, which included tech outages, staffing shortages and flight disruptions.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says his agency is working to get Newark completely back up to speed.

SEAN DUFFY, U.S. Transportation Secretary: I want you to know that you have every asset that touches the problem working together, coordinating, cooperating, collaborating to make sure that as a team we address the problem that exists at Newark.

AMNA NAWAZ: Last month, the Federal Aviation Administration limited the number of flights to and from Newark.

The FAA is expected to increase daily flights soon, but an exact date has not been made public.

On Wall Street today, stocks managed some modest gains to start the new trading month.

The Dow Jones industrial average added just 35 points on the day.

The Nasdaq rose nearly 130 points.

The S&P 500 also finished in positive territory.

And we have a good news/bad news story from the world of astronomy.

On the one hand, according to a Finnish team of scientists writing in the journal "Nature Astronomy," there's a 50/50 chance that the Milky Way will collide with the Andromeda galaxy in the next 10 billion years.

That's represented on the bottom of this composite image showing the various scenarios.

On the other hand, that's actually less likely than previously thought, or, as the astronomers put it -- quote -- "As it stands, proclamations of the impending demise of our galaxy seem greatly exaggerated."

Still to come on the "News Hour": Congress wrangles over the president's legislative agenda; and Tamara Keith and Amy Walter break down the latest political headlines.

As lawmakers return to Washington, they expect what's known as a rescission request to cross their desks in the next 24 hours.

That's a push from the White House to cut funding already passed by Congress.

Among other cuts, President Trump's request is expected to include the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

It's the nonprofit through which NPR and PBS get federal funding, including for this program.

Our Lisa Desjardins has been reporting on what this could look like and what's ahead in a high-stakes few weeks on the Hill.

Good to see you, Lisa.

LISA DESJARDINS: Yes.

Good to see you.

AMNA NAWAZ: So tell us what we expect in this package of budget cuts and why it matters.

LISA DESJARDINS: First, let's start with why it matters.

This is an important first test for President Trump after months of slashing government without congressional approval.

Now he's going to test what Congress may approve of this, as all of this works through the courts.

Now the question is also, of course, what these cuts would do.

So let's go through my reporting.

Right now, these are round figures.

We haven't gotten the full details yet, but about $8 billion in cuts expected for foreign aid.

That's a fraction of usual annual foreign aid, and about $1 billion in cuts for public broadcasting, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

That public broadcasting number, Amna, would be 100 percent of the funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for the next two years.

That would mean great strain on stations around the country.

Republicans, though, argue that it's time for the federal government to get out of that business and for others to pay for it.

AMNA NAWAZ: Lisa, tell us about what's ahead now for the proposal.

I mean, the big question is, does it have the votes to pass?

LISA DESJARDINS: In the House, it does seem that these cuts have the votes to pass.

The Senate is another question.

I'm eager to get up there tomorrow to talk to senators to find out.

But I also want to take people through how this works.

It's an unusual procedure.

First of all, Congress would have 45 days from the minute they get this rescission request after the president submits it to act.

Now, Congress can amend it.

It can pass some, but not all of it.

And there is only a majority vote required in each chamber for these rescissions to take effect.

Now, we do expect things to start in the House, but Senate Majority Leader John Thune said today he wants this to go to the Senate by the end of the month to move quickly.

If either chamber does not agree, then this funding would actually be locked in.

It could not be cut.

AMNA NAWAZ: We know there's been a couple of issues that have been real sticking points for some senators, things like potential Medicaid cuts.

There's also a lot of talk about this contempt provision.

Tell us about that.

LISA DESJARDINS: Right.

I'm happy to take people through this.

First of all, where we are with this bill, it's not just a big bill, and I'm going to keep repeating this.

It is one of the biggest bills in U.S. history.

So what's happening right now is senators are looking at the House bill.

They can only spare three Republican votes in the Senate.

Right now, that House version does not have the votes to pass the Senate.

And I'm going to show you why.

There are a number of concerns.

First of all, there are a group of Republican senators who do not like the deficit effects of this.

They say it would add too much to the debt, another group concerned about Medicaid and the social safety net funding in this, and now an overlapping group as well concerned about the clean energy credits in here, which would be eliminated.

They say their states actually need those energy credits.

Now, as you say, though, there is this other issue getting national attention.

I want to take people deep into the bill.

This is page 514 of the bill.

This is what it says: "No court of the United States may enforce a contempt citation for an injunction or temporary restraining order if no security was given."

What does that mean?

That means that courts could not enforce an order blocking some of Trump's actions if the plaintiffs, those objecting, hadn't put up a bond, essentially, for multimillions of dollars.

And that, in fact, is the case for most of these injunctions right now before the courts.

So a lot of opponents see this as an attempt to block courts and to block that action.

Why haven't we talked about it on this show before?

Because in order to pass the Senate, this bill has to have budgetary effects.

This provision does not have a budgetary effect.

This is expected to be stripped out before the Senate votes.

AMNA NAWAZ: In the meantime, Lisa, you have also been going through the new Trump rules for the federal work force.

Tell us what you found there and how you think could be shifting ahead.

LISA DESJARDINS: This came down Friday after Elon Musk basically was exiting from government.

And this is part of sort of that idea of DOGE trying to cement these effects after he's gone.

It's important.

I read through these, and these changes would have major cultural and workplace place effects in them.

So let's look through them in multiple ways.

First of all, these new federal hiring rules would mean that agencies could no longer collect or give out data on the race or gender of the work force.

They would be encouraged, in fact, told they should recruit from state schools, religious schools, religious groups, the military, and also some other groups like 4-H that are thought to be more rural around the country.

Now, instead of filling out the question as it is now, applications, would have to fill out four short essays.

Two of those would have to deal with the Constitution, but one, every applicant would have to answer a question about how they would comply and support President Trump's executive orders.

Finally, for senior jobs, they are saying there will be a course given that you would have to pay for if you choose to sort of fast-track yourself to become a senior executive, and that course would train people on Trump's executive orders.

So, of course, there are Republicans who say, hey, this is great, government's too elite as it is,we need to look at state schools and others.

But there are other people who say, no, this is politicizing the federal work force in a way that career servants should not be politicized.

So it is something that's happening now, and it's something we need to watch carefully.

AMNA NAWAZ: Lisa Desjardins, thank you very much.

LISA DESJARDINS: You're welcome.

AMNA NAWAZ: Well, funding for science is also very much on the chopping block in the president's proposed budget.

That includes cuts to NASA.

It's a fraught moment for the agency, particularly for those focused on earth science and not human space travel.

Just this weekend, President Trump announced he was withdrawing the nomination of his original pick to lead NASA, billionaire Jared Isaacman.

Our Miles O'Brien has a look at all of this, starting with the proposed cuts.

NEIL ARMSTRONG, Former NASA Astronaut: That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.

MILES O'BRIEN: It would be the largest single-year budget cut in NASA's storied history, including the early '70s, when the Apollo moon program was winding down.

The Trump White House wants to reduce the $25 billion allocation for the space agency by 24 percent.

Space science would be cut nearly in half.

ADAM RIESS, Johns Hopkins University: That would be sort of, I won't say, almost extinction level for a lot of the space science that we pursue.

MILES O'BRIEN: Adam Riess is a professor of physics and astronomy at Johns Hopkins University.

He and two colleagues won the Nobel Prize in physics for discovering the acceleration of our expanding universe.

They used the Hubble space telescope, along with ground-based instruments, to collect their data.

ADAM RIESS: I think people are awed and inspired by the mystery of space, what's out there.

These are, in the scheme of things, relatively modest investments for us as humans to do this most ambitious thing, to try to understand the place in which we live.

MILES O'BRIEN: The budget would eliminate a planned robotic mission to bring to Earth rock and regolith samples from the surface of Mars.

It cuts climate monitoring satellites, eliminates green aviation programs, and zeros out science education efforts, declaring them woke.

It's just part of the wholesale targeting of federally funded science.

The National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are all facing steep cuts.

JOHN GRUNSFELD, Former NASA Associate Administrator for Science: It actually looks pretty bleak across the spectrum.

MILES O'BRIEN: John Grunsfeld is an astrophysicist and astronaut who flew five shuttle missions, including three to upgrade and repair Hubble.

He later served as NASA's associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate.

JOHN GRUNSFELD: It sends a signal that America is stepping back from leadership in virtually every science area, including NASA.

The proposal for the NASA science budget is, in fact, cataclysmic for U.S. leadership in science.

MILES O'BRIEN: No one in the Trump administration responded to our repeated requests for comment.

Former National Space Council Executive Secretary Mark Albrecht was not a party to the White House budget proposal, but he helped lead the 2024 Trump transition team at NASA.

Is the Trump administration anti-science?

MARK ALBRECHT, Former Executive Secretary, National Space Council: Absolutely not.

But I can assure you there's no evidence that I have ever seen that there is a desire to reduce America's leadership in science.

MILES O'BRIEN: NASA's science that has anything to do with climate change is targeted for cuts.

MARK ALBRECHT: What was eliminated were things that were not contributing to the central mission.

If you ask the question, who is the lead agency in the federal government for climate and climate research, the answer is NOAA.

So the issue is not that we don't do climate research, but that we move it over to NOAA, who is the agency that's responsible for it.

MILES O'BRIEN: But NOAA is facing similar deep cuts.

The Trump NASA budget does preserve funding for the Nancy Grace Roman, Hubble, and Webb Space telescopes.

MAN: And liftoff of Artemis 1.

MILES O'BRIEN: It adds money for human spaceflight, $7 billion for a return to the moon, and a billion for missions focused on Mars.

LORI GARVER, Former NASA Deputy Administrator: There's this singular focus on human spaceflight that NASA really has never historically had before.

MILES O'BRIEN: Lori Garver was the deputy administrator of NASA in the Obama years.

She says the agency may have first caught the public fancy by putting flags and footprints on the moon, but it has evolved into an unrivaled science and engineering enterprise, offering plenty of breakthroughs and thrills, no astronauts required.

LORI GARVER: Underneath the human spaceflight program has always been aeronautics research, robotics, scientific exploration, and earth sciences, viewing the Earth from space.

Those are the things that continue year after year to poll pretty high in the public realm.

MILES O'BRIEN: California Congressman George Whitesides is a former NASA chief of staff and CEO of Virgin Galactic.

He's now the vice ranking member on the Science Committee.

REP. GEORGE WHITESIDES (D-CA): What we see is a full-scale assault on science in America.

It is probably the biggest attack on our scientific establishment in history.

It's a poorly wielded chain saw.

MILES O'BRIEN: Some Republicans suggest the chain saw is required to refocus the federal science enterprise.

MARK ALBRECHT: There has been a lot of things that need reorientation, and I think they're getting reoriented.

Could that in fact result in a couple years with a big new push in science that is managed differently?

I see no reason to believe that wouldn't be true.

MILES O'BRIEN: But as scientists look for opportunities in other countries, a brain drain is already under way.

They say even a few years of retreat could lead to irreparable harm.

REP. GEORGE WHITESIDES: I think that once we get into the real damage that is going to be caused to the weather service, to NASA satellites that are monitoring fire, when we see the carnage that is going to be inflicted on NASA centers around the country, that there will be pushback.

But that is an untested proposition.

We haven't seen that really yet.

MILES O'BRIEN: It is uncharted territory, an experiment that scientists would prefer not to attempt -- Amna.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, Miles, take us back now to the president's original pick nominated to lead the agency.

That's Jared Isaacman.

What do we know about him?

Why was he picked to lead the agency?

And why did the president then pull that nomination?

MILES O'BRIEN: Yes, it was a stunner over the weekend.

Jared Isaacman, self-made billionaire with a payment system called Shift4, picked by the president.

Isaacman, with very close ties to Elon Musk, having purchased two space flights from SpaceX, conducting the first civilian space walk, among other things, owns a fleet of fighter jets, seemed kind of perfect for the job, went through his nomination hearings well, was well on his way to an up-vote in the Senate to become the next NASA administrator.

And then over the weekend, it got pulled by the White House.

And the reason that's been given is that he has a history of giving to Democratic candidates over the years.

I looked at the public records for that.

He has indeed given to several Democratic candidates, also Republicans over the years, and he's not registered as a Democrat.

I'm told this information was known to the White House from day one, so it's rather mysterious why this nomination was pulled so suddenly this past weekend.

AMNA NAWAZ: And what do we know, Miles, about what his leadership would have meant for NASA?

MILES O'BRIEN: It was a real generational shift.

It's from old space to very new, to -- from the commercial ventures were going to take center stage here.

His close relationship with Elon Musk, his desire to explore using private rockets was quite obvious.

And many at NASA saw this as a real change of philosophy there, or at least pushing further into the commercial realm.

There are some choices that are being bandied about to potentially replace him as a NASA nominee.

And some of them are retired Air Force generals, which would indicate a shift in an entirely different direction.

Amna, many Republicans would like to see space being moved more into the militaristic sphere.

So it'll be interesting to see how this plays out at NASA amid all these very draconian budget cuts.

AMNA NAWAZ: And NASA is now facing its largest ever budget cut.

What does it mean that this is a leaderless agency?

MILES O'BRIEN: Yes, it'll take a time to get somebody else vetted, through the process, through the hearings.

And it's facing its biggest cut year to year ever, takes the agency back to its -- adjusted for inflation, back to 1961 budget levels.

So it cries out for a strong leader at this time, and it appears the corner office is going to be empty of the permanent leader for quite some time.

AMNA NAWAZ: All right, Miles O'Brien, always good to speak with you.

Thank you so much.

MILES O'BRIEN: You're welcome, Amna.

AMNA NAWAZ: Ukraine and Russia today met for the second time in two weeks to discuss peace, but walked away without any progress towards ending the war.

The fighting is as intense as ever.

And, this weekend, Ukraine launched an unprecedented attack, launching drones deep inside Russia to target Russian bombers.

Nick Schifrin reports.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Today in Turkey, a tense face-off, two foes failing again to end Europe's largest war in 80 years.

And while the war rages, the two sides are as far apart as ever.

Ukraine is demanding a complete cease-fire before formal negotiations, the freedom to join the European Union and NATO, foreign military security guarantees, no military restrictions, and no legal recognition of Russian-occupied territories.

The Russian demands almost exactly opposed, no unconditional cease-fire, a block on Ukraine's joining NATO, the exclusion of all foreign military support in intelligence, caps on the size of Ukraine's military, and the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from at least four regions of which Russia only controls a portion, as well as international recognition of all occupied Ukrainian territory as Russian.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of stalling.

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, Ukrainian President (through translator): They said they're ready for a two-to-three-day cease-fire to collect bodies from the battlefield.

I think they're idiots, because the whole point of a cease-fire is to prevent people from being killed in the first place.

I really want our American partners to take strong steps to impose a package of sanctions and to pressure the Russians into a cease-fire.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Russian delegation head Vladimir Medinsky was more matter of fact.

VLADIMIR MEDINSKY, Head of Russian Delegation (through translator): We have handed over our memorandum to the Turkish side, which consists of two parts, first, how to achieve a real long-term peace.

And the second part is what steps should be taken to make a full-fledged cease-fire possible.

NICK SCHIFRIN: The two sides did agree today to exchange the bodies of killed soldiers, 1,000 wounded, ill or young prisoners, and Russia will return more than 300 Ukrainian children kidnapped near the front lines.

But, this weekend, Ukraine reached well beyond those front lines, launching more than 100 drones that had been hidden inside shipping containers and trucked inside Russia to attack Russian bombers.

Ukraine claimed to have destroyed more than 40 bombers on four military bases some thousands of miles from Ukraine's border, the destruction of at least a handful of planes visible from space.

Ukraine said the operation took more than a year-and-a-half to plan, and a senior U.S. defense official confirmed Ukraine provided no advanced warning.

Meanwhile, Russia's strikes have accelerated this weekend.

It launched the largest drone salvo of the war.

One attack killed more than a dozen soldiers, leading to Ukraine's land forces commander, Amna, submitting his resignation.

AMNA NAWAZ: Nick, take us back to that Ukrainian unprecedented attack deep inside Russia.

How significant an attack was that?

NICK SCHIFRIN: So the Ukrainians claimed it was 41 Russian bombers.

Russia only has about 90 of these bombers.

So if Ukraine is telling the truth, then it's a huge portion of Russia's strategic assets in terms of its bombers.

A senior defense official yesterday told reporters that the number is probably inflated, and a separate U.S. official told me that as well.

But, nonetheless, it is a very significant strike.

We have seen multiple aircraft burned out, even from space, as I pointed out.

It shows a lot of planning.

It shows an intelligence capability inside Russia that we did not know Ukraine had, just logistics, trying to get all of those drones, to construct them in Russia, to build some kind of container to conceal them, and then to get close to these four bases.

That shows a level of sophistication that a senior defense official told us yesterday we have not seen Ukraine have.

It also demonstrates, Amna, perhaps that Ukraine still has the capability to do that kind of attack again.

AMNA NAWAZ: So even if the numbers are potentially inflated, could that potentially reduce Russia's ability to carry out strikes against Ukraine?

NICK SCHIFRIN: So, I think part of it does depend on the numbers, the number of bombers that they in fact end up having to have destroyed.

But what this will do, even if the number is lower, it will require the fewer bombers that they have to fly more frequently.

And, therefore, it should reduce the number of sorties that Russia can launch in order to launch these glide bombs, these cruise missiles into Ukraine, which has been absolutely devastating for Ukrainian forces.

So, again, we don't know the full impact, but it's bound to have a negative impact on Russia's ability to launch deep into Ukraine.

AMNA NAWAZ: Aside from Ukraine, these are bombers that fly around the world, right?

They have the purpose of showing off Russia's reach and their nuclear capability.

Does this weaken Russia's global military reach?

NICK SCHIFRIN: I think it's a really important question.

So, when we put it into the context of other Russian losses, think about the lack of bases now in Syria, because Assad has been overthrown.

Think about the Black Sea fleet, which has been a cornerstone of Russia for centuries.

They have lost their ability to have that Black Sea fleet in Western Crimea on the Black Sea.

Think about the percentage of helicopters, of armor, right?

These get into strategic losses for Russia.

And some of the analysts who are looking for this attack, frankly, to be outsized in terms of its impact do believe that these kinds of strategic losses will add up and that, even if Russia doesn't have to necessarily stop attacking Ukraine tonight or next week or next month or even this year perhaps, these things will add up in Putin's mind.

And the hope of these analysts is that the costs of this war simply add up for these strategic losses, rather than the tactical or operational stuff inside Ukraine itself.

AMNA NAWAZ: As you reported, Russia then, of course, launched its largest drone attack over the weekend.

And you saw then, in Istanbul, Moscow is really sticking to its maximalist demands in those negotiations.

Does all of this say to you that they are not yet, Russia is not feeling any kind of military pressure right now?

NICK SCHIFRIN: I think that's the key question, of course, that Ukraine is interested in and Washington is interested.

The evidence is exactly what you just said, that there's nothing on the ground that is forcing Putin to change his calculus, to change his behavior.

If anything, we have seen signs that Russian forces believe that they can keep going, thanks largely to Chinese investments in Russia's defense industrial base.

So this kind of attack individually has no sign that Russia will have to stop any time soon.

And, tonight, in fact, they are warning of a - - quote -- "disproportionate response."

But, nonetheless, some analysts do believe that they are trying to get under Putin's skin, so to speak.

And this kind of attack is just, frankly, almost humiliating.

It's just very public in a way that Ukraine is hoping long term does affect Russia's ability to launch the war.

AMNA NAWAZ: Fascinating reporting.

Nick Schifrin, thank you, as always.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Thank you.

AMNA NAWAZ: Well, it's shaping up to be a big week for Republicans and the Trump agenda on Capitol Hill.

Here to delve deeper into the politics of it all is Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report With Amy Walter and Tamara Keith of NPR.

Great to see you both.

TAMARA KEITH, National Public Radio: Hello.

AMY WALTER, The Cook Political Report: Good to see you.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, as Lisa was reporting earlier, that Republican budget bill now moves to the Senate.

We know some Republican senators have some concerns.

Some say not enough cuts.

Some are concerned about Medicaid cuts.

I'm sure you both saw Iowa Senator Joni Ernst took some questions about those concerns in a Friday town hall.

A constituent said people will die as a result.

She said: "Well, we're all going to die."

She doubled down on that with a post over the weekend.

Here's what she shared.

SEN. JONI ERNST (R-IA): I made an incorrect assumption that everyone in the auditorium understood that, yes, we are all going to perish from this earth.

So I apologize.

And I'm really, really glad that I did not have to bring up the subject of the Tooth Fairy as well.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, Tam, Senator Ernst has become sort of the poster child for Democrats' anger around this.

But what happens when the bill goes to Senator Ernst and the other senators?

What happens next?

TAMARA KEITH: I can tell you that President Trump is working on this right now.

We know that he had a call with Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, who is someone who has been raising concerns about Medicaid cuts being political poison.

Hawley then tweeted today that there will be no cuts to Medicaid benefits.

This is very much a rhetorical battle that is taking place where Republicans and the White House are insisting that Medicaid will not be cut, it will just be waste and abuse.

There's going to be a raging fight for public opinion about this in the days and weeks ahead.

But the idea of getting Josh Hawley under the tent, getting this senator who has been openly critical of the House cuts to now be on message, at least in this one tweet, is an indication that the White House is really working to get and essentially demanding that Republicans are all in line, all Republicans vote for this.

And the message that I got from a White House official I was just talking to moments ago was that they really do view the House bill as a necessary framework, that the bones of the House bill need to be what makes it out of the Senate, because the House so narrowly passed it.

So senators are under a lot of pressure from the president.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, the bones of the bill, Amy, does that say to you Republicans in the Senate won't make big changes?

AMY WALTER: Well, I think there's -- we're at this point where it's too big to fail and that there isn't much choice now for senators in what they're able to be able to carve out.

But I think what Tam brought up with Senator Hawley is a really good point, which is here's a great opportunity for you as an elected member to show your constituents that you really care about a certain issue.

You can make the argument that you brought it in front of the president, the president made accommodations to you.

This is a very good political tool.

I think what we're seeing with that response from Senator Ernst is also an example of the fight that is going to be happening, and it is already happening, over the marketing around this bill.

Republicans are convinced that many of these town halls -- this was her response was in a town hall that was very -- that it wasn't exactly a friendly audience.

And their perspective is, these are just liberal activists, these are not regular voters.

Once regular voters understand we're only talking about waste and abuse, we're not talking about kicking needy people over Medicaid, we will win, the polls show this.

Democrats, of course, feel very differently.

They say the polls show that Medicaid is really popular, we're going to make this the centerpiece of our campaign.

And so the fight now is on to really define the bill, but internally, on Capitol Hill, I think the reality is, it is going to be something that not everybody is going to like, but they have to pass it.

TAMARA KEITH: And I think for the Republicans, one of the challenges is that the Congressional Budget Office, which is this independent arbiter, has said that millions of people will lose Medicaid coverage... and that this legislation would add to the deficit.

Those are -- so then you have the House speaker sort of arguing about whether the Congressional Budget Office is really doing math the right way.

AMNA NAWAZ: Calling into question the CBO in the first place.

We will have to talk more about that, but the backdrop for all of this, of course, is what -- the CNN poll from over the weekend I want to put to you.

And it showed the majority of Americans, 58 percent, are saying that they feel the government should be doing more to solve problems, 41 percent saying the government's doing too much.

That's really -- Tam, that's a reversal of a 20-year trend.

Is that saying to you that people are concerned about some of the Trump administration changes, how fast they're going?

TAMARA KEITH: Certainly, those changes have gotten a lot of focus and a lot of attention and things like problems at the National Park Service or the person who has the key to the bathroom at Yosemite being one of the people who was let go.

Those sorts of stories are breaking through.

I think that -- the analogy I think of with this is the Affordable Care Act, which was very unpopular.

Obamacare was not a popular program until Republicans in Congress started taking action to take it away.

And then, suddenly, as this battle raged, people learned about what the Affordable Care Act did, discovered that things that they liked were actually part of this Obamacare that they thought they disliked.

And it became much more popular when there was a risk of it going away.

AMNA NAWAZ: Amy, there's another part of the CNN poll I want to put to you about leadership.

They asked if -- quote -- "the party with strong leaders" described either Democrats, Republicans, or neither; 40 percent of those polls said Republicans, 16 percent said Democrats, 43 percent said neither.

But you wrote this week about Democrats being stuck in what you call a cringe trap.

Tell us more about that.

AMY WALTER: Well, the first thing to note about this poll is that part of the reason the Democratic number is so low is that very few Democrats believe that their own party has leadership.

So that is a big important point to make.

In terms of the cringe trap, I was really looking at this challenge that Democrats are having right now, and they're spending a lot of money to try to figure out, how they get back voters that they used to think of as their core constituents, younger voters.

How did the party associated with youth become so unable to communicate with younger people?

And I think, at the end of the day, really what we have seen are two things.

The first is younger voters have been telling Democrats, Democratic voters, younger Democratic voters in primaries, who they would like to be their nominee.

And that person was Bernie Sanders, both in 2016 and 2020.

And both times the party said, sorry -- well, voters in the party said, sorry, we're picking this person and you have to vote for them.

So there's that built-up frustration.

The second part is Democrats for so long have assumed that, because younger voters are theirs, they just have to turn them out.

They don't have to persuade them.

And the cringe comes in the ways in which they're trying to figure out how to persuade them.

They seem to have lost any ability to understand how those younger voters in this era communicate both online and with each other.

AMNA NAWAZ: Well, related to that, we just saw Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy announce today a new PAC that he's going to spend, he expects some $2 million, not just on fighting Medicaid tests, but also, Amy, to your point, registering more young voters.

And that comes in the context of we're seeing other potential 2028 contenders out there out there in early primary states.

AMNA NAWAZ: We saw Tim Walz, Wes Moore, J.B. Pritzker, Pete Buttigieg.

Tam, quickly here, so I can get to both of you, but are we seeing competing visions for the Democratic Party moving forward?

TAMARA KEITH: I don't know that they are actually saying vastly different things from each other.

I think that all of those people who you named are, broadly speaking, in the establishment part of the Democratic Party.

And what Amy is talking about here is that many Democratic voters have been crying out for something different from the establishment.

But we're a long way off.

And all of these things that they're doing are sort of the things that you do when you think you might be president someday.

AMY WALTER: Yes.

And when you give away money, you also are offering that those favors come back to you, so to candidates, to local organizations, to grassroots groups, that if you decide to run for president, you go back to those people and say, remember how I helped you out.

But I think they're trying to fill in that poll number, that gap, which is, who stands -- who, Democrats, do you think would be a great stand-in in your party as a leader?

And, right now, that is a huge vacuum that a lot of different people are trying to fill.

AMNA NAWAZ: With a good amount of time... AMY WALTER: And with a lot of time.

AMNA NAWAZ: ... until 2028.

AMNA NAWAZ: But we're still having the conversation.

And I appreciate you both for doing that.

AMNA NAWAZ: Amy Walter, Tamara Keith, always great to see you.

Thank you.

AMY WALTER: Thank you.

TAMARA KEITH: You're welcome.

AMNA NAWAZ: And we will be back shortly with a Brief But Spectacular take on how one question can cut through all the small talk.

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 an encore look at punk music, known for its raw, aggressive sound, and also for being predominantly white.

But music from its earliest days underscores that punk has also been influenced and shaped by Black artists.

Stephanie Sy has more.

MAN: We were all convinced that we had a sound that no other rock 'n' roll band had at that time.

STEPHANIE SY: That time was 1971.

And three brothers from Detroit, David, Dannis and Bobby Hackney, started playing rock 'n' roll.

They were inspired by bands like The Who and Alice Cooper, but their sound had a different edge and reason behind it.

DANNIS HACKNEY, Musician: In rock 'n' roll, the more times people laugh at you, the more times people reject you, the more times, it builds up in anger.

STEPHANIE SY: Dannis played the drums.

DANNIS HACKNEY: But the only way we would take out our anger is through the music.

And I guess that's what made the music louder and faster.

STEPHANIE SY: The rejection, they say, came from an industry that didn't like the name of their band.

Even though later punk bands had names like the Dead Boys and The Damned, the name Death turned off major record labels.

BOBBY HACKNEY, Musician: David said, yes, why don't we call it Death?

He had such a conviction about it that we didn't have no choice but to get on board.

And when we did get on board, we were all in.

STEPHANIE SY: Bobby was the lead singer and bassist.

BOBBY HACKNEY: We got Death shirts printed up.

We were Death.

STEPHANIE SY: In more recent years, musicians, writers and critics have recognized the music Death was playing as the predecessor to punk.

STEPHANIE SY: Death recorded a seven-song album in 1975, but were unable to secure a record deal that year, and the band never played live.

They eventually dissolved in the late '70s.

URIAN HACKNEY, Son of Bobby Hackney: That's the problem with being ahead of your time.

STEPHANIE SY: Bobby's youngest son, Urian Hackney, grew up listening to punk rock, oblivious to his dad and uncle's pioneering pre-punk band.

URIAN HACKNEY: No one really accepted them for what they were trying to do.

So I understand why he wouldn't tell us about it because it was kind of like a moment of, like, them coming so close to this thing and then not grabbing the ball.

STEPHANIE SY: But a small number of promo records with two Death songs eventually made their way into the hands of record collectors and deejays.

And Death's music had found a receptive new audience.

Their album was finally released in 2009 on Drag City Records, 34 years after it was recorded.

RAEGHAN BUCHANAN, Author, "The Secret History of Black Punk": There were Black punk rockers in the story of punk rock at every turn.

We have always been there.

STEPHANIE SY: Raeghan Buchanan has been listening to punk music since she was a kid.

She began playing in bands in her early 20s, but sometimes felt alienated as a Black artist in the mostly white punk scene.

The better-known Black punk band Bad Brains was already in her rotation.

But it was years before she learned about the more obscure Black artists who developed the genre.

like, upset and, like, angry.

This was a band that had nobody had ever mentioned to me and I had never heard.

How could this had never come up?

KENNY "STINKER" GORDON, Musician: We were musicians in Philadelphia from the same neighborhood and we were -- basically had the same interest in music.

STEPHANIE SY: Around the time Death formed in Detroit, Kenny "Stinker" Gordon moved with his friends to New York City, a haven for America's budding punk scene.

KENNY "STINKER" GORDON: The younger people were just starting to want to create their own style of music.

And in New York, you saw people like the Talking Heads and The B-52's and The Ramones.

STEPHANIE SY: But while those bands released albums and became the face of punk, Pure Hell faded.

After a dispute, their manager refused to release their only album recorded in 1978.

KENNY "STINKER" GORDON: A lot of people say they got ripped off.

These guys were -- the original guys had gotten written off, and that's because you didn't have an album or record that was out there that was in the mainstream.

STEPHANIE SY: That is, until their music and photos of their classic punk aesthetic resurfaced online.

KENNY "STINKER" GORDON: People started to find out who we were.

We were elated.

STEPHANIE SY: Legendary punk musician Henry Rollins released a Pure Hell single on his label in 2017.

For Buchanan, who works as an illustrator, discovering Pure Hell was only the beginning.

RAEGHAN BUCHANAN: This kind of really pushed me to start really searching for other bands that I would like that were Black.

And I just kept finding so many.

STEPHANIE SY: Her discoveries culminated in "The Secret History of Black Punk," a comic she created profiling Black punk artists, like Poly Styrene from the X-Ray Spex, Pat Smear of The Germs, and musician and filmmaker Don Letts.

She also started a festival, one of a dozen across the world celebrating newer Black and brown punk artists, like Soul Glo, a hardcore punk band from Philadelphia, and Special Interest, a charismatic Black-led band from New Orleans.

ALLI LOGOUT, Musician: There has been just such a big shift just within the last decade.

Alli Logout is the lead singer of Special Interest.

ALLI LOGOUT: Now I feel like I see so many young Black and brown people at punk shows.

I think that it has really crossed over and is speaking - - speaking to people in a different way.

STEPHANIE SY: Of these new bands, there's one that hearkens back to punk's earliest days.

URIAN HACKNEY: Death never played a live show before, so he wanted to, like, show people that this music exists.

MAN: We are Rough Francis.

STEPHANIE SY: Bobby Hackney's sons, musicians in their own right, formed a band, Rough Francis, to play Death's catalogue front to back.

While they say the renewed interest is exciting, for Bobby and Dannis Hackney, Death was never just about the fame.

BOBBY HACKNEY: Even though we never made it, even though we never had a hit record, I will cherish between 1973 and 1976 as the best rock 'n' roll years of our lives.

STEPHANIE SY: David Hackney, who founded Death, died in 2000, but Bobby and Dannis are still making music together.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Stephanie Sy.

AMNA NAWAZ: Tonight, we meet Kalina Silverman, a storyteller who's transforming how we connect with each other.

Her Make Big Talk project turned simple conversations into profound exchanges and has reached millions through her viral videos.

Recently, Silverman turned her attention to documenting the stories of California wildfire survivors helping to raise millions in relief.

Here now is Kalina Silverman's Brief But Spectacular take.

KALINA SILVERMAN, Founder, Big Talk: I feel that everything we do in life -- we have a limited amount of time -- should be meaningful.

Every conversation we have, every relationship, there should be something to it that keeps you moving forward with a sense of human connection and purpose.

Every time I meet someone new and have a meaningful conversation with them, I get this sense of a high, euphoria.

More than anything, any drug you could ever take, just having a meaningful interaction with a complete stranger makes me elated.

I love people.

I have always loved people.

I remember, when I was in kindergarten, I visited China for the first time, and my grandpa tried to convince me that he was friends with everyone in the whole wide world.

And he walked with me and he said hi to every single person we encountered and started a conversation with them.

And I think little 5-year-old me actually took a lot of inspiration from that.

One night, I was having a deep conversation with a friend and he said: "Screw small talk."

So the name big talk popped into my mind, and I didn't know what to do with it at the time.

And that following summer I had the opportunity to go to Germany to work on a project about the Holocaust.

We had to meet new people right away, build trust with them, be invited into their homes, into government offices, and have big talk, instead of small talk.

And that was really inspiring to me.

And I remember, on my last day in Germany, I saw a question written on the Berlin Wall, and it said: "What do you want to do before you die?"

And I thought, that's big talk.

So I decided to try a social experiment where I walked up to strangers, skipped the small talk and made big talk to ask them: "What do you want to do before you die?"

This is the beginning of an experiment called Big Talk.

One day, I walked up to this man in Beverly Hills on Rodeo Drive.

He was wearing a suit.

He looked really busy.

And I asked him: "What do you want to do before you die and what would you do if you found out you were going to die tomorrow?"

And this businessman, buttoned up, broke down into tears and told me he wished he spent more time with his kids, instead of working.

And he told me his mom was asked that question right before she died too.

So it was really personal to him.

That was just an aha moment for me, because he challenged my own stereotypes and so many people who are watching.

The greatest impact I have been able to make with Big Talk has been through the recent interviews I have done with Los Angeles wildfire survivors.

What did you love and lose in the fire?

MAN: What did I lose?

Everything but the clothes on my back.

KALINA SILVERMAN: I have shared these videos in 90 second clips on social media, and they have raised over $2 million for them, which is just a number I can't even wrap my head around.

I would say an everyday thing you can do to make big talk in your own lives is to slow down.

If you pack your life with meetings and errands and things to do, you don't have time for the serendipity and magic that can come from interacting with a complete stranger or having a meaningful conversation with your colleague or your child.

I think the most important thing we can all do right now, especially in this day and age, is to slow down and let magic happen.

My name is Kalina Silverman, and this is my Brief But Spectacular take on big talk.

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

And that is the "News Hour" for tonight.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

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