GEOFF BENNETT: Good evening. I'm Geoff Bennett. AMNA NAWAZ: And I'm Amna Nawaz in Nogales,Mexico. On the “NewsHour” tonight: A bipartisan majorityin the House passes legislation that could result in a U.S. TikTok ban if its Chineseowners don't sell up. GEOFF BENNETT: And it's official. The race for the White House is a rematchof 2020, after President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump clinch their party'snominations. AMNA NAWAZ: And the dangerous journey migrantchildren take, many on their own, seeking.
Safety in the United States. How did where to go or who to go with? NICOLE, Migrant (through translator): We gotto know a group and we started trusting each other and helping each other. (BREAK) GEOFF BENNETT: Welcome to the “NewsHour.” The U.S. House voted overwhelmingly todayto pass a bill that could ban TikTok here in the U.S. unless the app cuts ties withChina. The bill now heads to the Senate, where itsfate is at the moment unclear.
Last night, we heard from the lead sponsorsof the bill about why the legislation is necessary. Tonight, we hear from an opposing voice. And, for that, we're joined by David Greene,civil liberties director and senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Mr. Greene, thanks so much for being withus. And you, as I understand it, oppose this billon First Amendment grounds. We spoke last night with the lead sponsorsof that legislation, as I mentioned, Congressmen Gallagher and Krishnamoorthi. And Congressman Krishnamoorthi said of China'spractices that there's no First Amendment.
Right to espionage, there's no First Amendmentright to harm our national security. Why is he wrong, in your view? DAVID GREENE, Electronic Frontier Foundation:He's not thinking about the First Amendment rights of U.S. people who want to use TikTokand their right to communicate with each other through it and to receive information fromTikTok in the way they receive it now. U.S. people certainly have a right to usecommunications tools like TikTok to get information from them and to put out and to use them todisseminate their own information. So I understand that Representative Krishnamoorthiis very concerned about the First Amendment rights of China, but that's really not whatwe're concerned about.
We're concerned about the First Amendmentrights of U.S. users. GEOFF BENNETT: Doesn't China present a specialcase? The FBI director, Christopher Wray, said thatChina is the defining threat of this generation, and the Chinese Communist Party requires Chinesecompanies to share information and user data upon request. That's the perceived threat that TikTok poses. DAVID GREENE: Well, that doesn't really make– I defer to the FBI director on the threat posed by China in particular, but I will notethat China is not unique in requiring its companies to provide information to them uponrequest.
The U.S. does much of the same thing throughnational security letters and through surveillance conducted under Executive Order 12333. There's a whole congressional debate goingon now about the proposed renewal of section 702 surveillance. So, the U.S. has many of these same tools. China is not unique among nations in requiringcompanies located in it to provide Internet user data. Now, if China does pose some particular threats,the U.S. can react to it. The question is whether forcing the sale orbanning this platform from operating as it.
Currently operates is the properly tailoredway of addressing that threat. And our — what we're saying is that it'snot, or at least the government hasn't so far proven that it is. It hasn't talked about this law in terms ofthe First Amendment scrutiny and the specificity that the First Amendment requires. GEOFF BENNETT: So what then would be a moreappropriate solution? DAVID GREENE: Well, there's a few things. One of the reasons it's hard to talk aboutwhat a better solution would be is because the justification for this law keeps on changing.
Up until yesterday maybe, the — those whosupport this law have been very strongly saying that this law is not about the content onTikTok at all. This is all about just some national securitythreat that we can't really tell you about, that it's just dangerous for China to haveall this data about U.S. users. I think what we saw from your interview yesterdayand from a lot of the statements made on the floor today that this is very much of concernsabout the content that U.S. users get from TikTok. We heard this yesterday. I believe Representative Krishnamoorthi talkedabout how — talked about how, in China, they.
Get healthy content about healthy living andSTEM education, and, in the United States, it's about drug paraphernalia and oversexualization. So we know this is clearly about content. It's very difficult under the First Amendmentfor the government to restrict content. So, if the goal of this bill is to say, wedon't like the content you're getting, that's a very difficult thing for the governmentto do. GEOFF BENNETT: So if TikTok is forced to divest,how does that infringe upon one's First Amendment rights? Because if I want to post on TikTok, I canstill post whatever I'm posting no matter.
Who owns it. DAVID GREENE: Well, there's two things thatcould happen, right? One is that it would — it will just shutdown, it won't have a non-Chinese owner. That could happen. Then those who previously used the site andreceived information from it wouldn't have that, wouldn't get that anymore. If they're sold to a U.S. company or soldto other ownership, then that still may affect First Amendment rights, because the new ownersmay have different editorial policies. In fact, it seems like, based on the commentsthe sponsors gave on your show yesterday,.
Is that they want it to have different editorialpolicies. They want it to show different content toU.S. users and to treat their content in different ways. So, again that's an infringement on the users'First Amendment rights. What Congress wants is for them to get differentinformation. They're doing that through having differentownership and different editorial policies. I think we have all seen how what a changein ownership can mean for the editorial policies of a social media company and for users' experienceswith it and whether they want to engage with that service.
GEOFF BENNETT: You and your organization havecalled instead for comprehensive data privacy legislation. How exactly would that work and how wouldthat solve this TikTok problem? DAVID GREENE: So, again, this really relieson, if the problem is a data — is a data privacy problem — and this is what some peoplehave said early on to justify the bill, a concern that too much U.S. user data was flowingto the Chinese government and then that itself represented a national security concern. And we agree that the flow of U.S. user datais a serious problem, not just for national security reasons, but also for individualprivacy purposes.
But you address privacy concerns by passingprivacy laws. What we do not have in the U.S. is comprehensivedata privacy regulation that controls how much data companies can collect about theirusers in the first place, when — to the extent they can retain such data and how they canshare such data. If companies, TikTok or anybody else, werenot collecting and retaining and sharing so much data in the first place, you wouldn'tneed to single out TikTok for such exceptional treatment. It's hard to take Congress seriously aboutdata privacy if they don't pass data privacy laws, if they don't look at how TikTok andother social media companies retain user data,.
And if they don't look at how data brokersthen purchase and then redistribute that data to lots of actors, including governments andincluding our enemies. GEOFF BENNETT: David Greene with the ElectronicFrontier Foundation, thanks for your time and your insights this evening. DAVID GREENE: Thanks for having me. GEOFF BENNETT: In the day's other headlines:A judge in Georgia tossed out six of 41 charges against former President Trump and his alliesin a 2020 election interference case. One of the dismissed counts involved Mr. Trumpurging the Georgia secretary of state to — quote — “find 11,780 votes to overturn the election.”.
But Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee foundthe charges too broad. He said — quote — “The lack of detail concerningan essential legal element is fatal.” Prosecutors will have the option of seekinga new indictment related to the dismissed counts. In the Middle East, six Palestinians havedied and clashes across the occupied West Bank. A teenager was killed after he allegedly stabbedIsraeli security guards. Three others were shot dead after Israelipolice said they were about to throw explosives. And two men were killed during an Israelimilitary raid in Jenin.
Video of the aftermath showed roads torn upby Israeli tanks and bulldozers. Ukraine sent a new wave of armed drones intoRussia today, striking at oil refineries. One attack set a large facility southeastof Moscow ablaze. Operations were reportedly disrupted at severalother locations. Separately, Russian President Vladimir Putinwas interviewed on state TV, and he said again that Russia could use nuclear weapons in Ukraine. VLADIMIR PUTIN, Russian President (throughtranslator): Weapons exist to be used. We have our own principles. What do they mean?.
That we are ready to use weapons, includingany weapons, including those you mentioned, if we are talking about the existence of theRussian state, about damaging our sovereignty and independence. GEOFF BENNETT: Putin spoke just days beforenational elections. He's expected to secure another six-year term. Officials in Lithuania called out Moscow todayafter an ally of the late Alexei Navalny was bludgeoned with a hammer. Leonid Volkov was assaulted on Tuesday. It happened outside the home where he's beenliving in exile.
In a video posted online, Volkov appearedbruised and bandaged, but vowed not to be silenced. LEONID VOLKOV, Former Chief of Staff to AlexeiNavalny (through translator): They wanted to make me into a schnitzel with a meat hammerright outside my house. The attacker hit me 15 times in my leg. My arm has been broken, but I will live. The most important thing is, we will continueworking and we will not surrender. It was another obvious, typical, classic gangsterhello from Putin. GEOFF BENNETT: The attack came nearly a monthafter Navalny died in a Russian prison, and.
Lithuanian officials made clear they thinkthe Kremlin was involved. Moscow denied it played any role. In Haiti, plans for new leadership to rescuethe violence-plagued nation appear to be in limbo tonight. Several figures tapped to join a transitionalcouncil now say they won't take part. The U.S. and Caribbean leaders had workedout the plan. Current Prime Minister Ariel Henry said hewould resign once the council is in place. Here at home, an autopsy report released todayconcluded that Nex Benedict, a nonbinary high school student in Oklahoma, died by suicidelast month a day after a physical altercation.
In a school bathroom. The report listed a — quote — “combinedtoxicity” of drugs used to treat depression and allergies. The incident sparked outrage from gay andtransgender rights groups, who cited reports that Nex had been a victim of bullying. On Wall Street, stocks mostly drifted on aquiet day of trading. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 37points to close at 39043. The Nasdaq fell 87 points. The S&P 500 slipped 10.
And still to come on the “NewsHour”: a familyin Northern Gaza feeds hundreds of starving Palestinians during Ramadan; the FAA reportsdozens of issues with the production of Boeing's 737 MAX jets; and the impact of America'sdeep political divisions on marriages, dating and families. The race for the White House is officiallya rematch contest, as the two most recent occupants of the Oval Office clinch theirparty's nominations and prepare to face off of the 2020 election. JOE BIDEN, President of the United States:Hello, Milwaukee. GEOFF BENNETT: On his first day as the presumptiveDemocratic nominee, President Biden in the.
Battleground state of Wisconsin touting hisadministration's accomplishments. JOE BIDEN, President of the United States:My predecessor, who failed the most basic duty any president owes the American people,the duty to care, just to care. (APPLAUSE) JOE BIDEN: In my view, that's unforgivable. I came to office determined to uphold theduty that gets us through one of the toughest periods in our nation's history. And we have. And now we're building a future America fullof possibilities.
GEOFF BENNETT: The general election matchupis now official. DONALD TRUMP, Former President of the UnitedStates (R) and Current U.S. Presidential Candidate: We're the official nominee of the RepublicanParty. GEOFF BENNETT: After sweeping four statesyesterday, Donald Trump secured enough delegates to become the GOP nominee for the third electionin a row. DONALD TRUMP: We have to get back to work,because we have the worst president in the history of our country. GEOFF BENNETT: It's a rematch that some voterssay they don't want. JILL WEMER, Georgia Voter: I would love tosee our country represented not by someone.
In their 80s who's a white man. NICHOLE SNYDER, Georgia Voter: We don't haveexceptional candidates right now, so it was a difficult decision. JOE BIDEN: Hey, buddy. GEOFF BENNETT: President Biden won 95 percentof the vote in Georgia last night and 87 percent of the vote in Washington state, even as nearly50,000 Democrats there voted uncommitted. BEN MCALLISTER, Washington Voter: I didn'tfeel comfortable giving him my support again. So I wanted to vote uncommitted today to sendthat message that people aren't just going to continue voting for whoever's in officeas a Democrat regardless of the action or.
Inaction that they perform. GEOFF BENNETT: But other Democrats say thestakes are too high for symbolic protest votes. DAWN CLEMENT, Georgia Voter: I'm voting forJoe Biden all the way through. It really is an important election this year,probably the most important our country has ever had. GEOFF BENNETT: Donald Trump's die-hard supportersalso see the choice as critical. FAYE BOWLING, Georgia Voter: I have neverin my lifetime seen this economy as bad as it is now. And I'm all for Donald Trump, and I want everybodyto get out and I want a red wave come November.
DONALD TRUMP: Go out and vote. GEOFF BENNETT: The now-presumptive GOP nomineewill spend at least part of his time in the coming days off the campaign trail. Mr. Trump will be back in federal court inFlorida on Thursday, facing charges of mishandling classified documents and obstructing justice. And his hush money trial begins later thismonth in New York. For both candidates, the focus will soon turnto those few battleground states where the final outcome could be measured in just thousandsof votes in what will be the longest general election campaign in modern history.
Let's bring in Doug Heye. He's the former communications director toHouse Majority Leader Eric Cantor and before that the Republican National Committee. It's great to have you here. DOUG HEYE, Republican Strategist: It's goodto be with you. GEOFF BENNETT: So, Donald Trump, as you wellknow, he lost Georgia by fewer than 12,000 votes back in 2020. Nikki Haley last night won more than 77,000votes, even though she quit the race last week.
DOUG HEYE: Yes. GEOFF BENNETT: We should say that a lot ofthose folks voted early. Georgia has early voting. But a significant number of that vote, thatwas a protest vote against Donald Trump. How alarmed should the Trump campaign be? DOUG HEYE: They should take this very seriously. And what we see with this is something I learnedthe week before in North Carolina. I happened to have been down in Chapel Hillat my alma mater, UNC. We're going to win the ACC Tournament thisweekend.
(LAUGHTER) DOUG HEYE: And I went to a Nikki Haley eventnearby in Raleigh. And what I saw was a room that was jammed. They had to move it to two separate largervenues to handle the crowd size. And there was something real going on in thatroom. And what I saw were a lot of people wearingT-shirts that said “Permanently Barred.” Now, some of those people are probably temporarilybarred. They will ultimately vote for Donald Trump. But if you're looking at a state like Georgia,if 20 percent of those who voted for Nikki.
Haley decide to not support Donald Trump,well, there's your 12,000-vote margin. It's a real problem for the Trump campaign. And pushing people away is not going to bethe answer. Politics should be about addition, not subtraction,whether you're in partisan politics or congressional politics. Donald Trump needs to learn that lesson thisweek and moving forward. GEOFF BENNETT: Well, on that point, I mean,for all of the hand-wringing, Doug, on the Democratic side about Joe Biden's politicalstanding and his poll numbers, Donald Trump has not shown an ability or even a willingnessto expand his base of support outside of his.
People who already support him. I mean, he has an unusually strong floor ofsupport, but he has also an unusually low ceiling of support. And that's problematic. How does he deal with that? DOUG HEYE: Well, if you look at the pollingtrend for years now, Donald Trump has been relatively flat. And it's because of, as you say, there's alow ceiling, but also a high floor. There's not a lot of places that he can go.
What we're going to see Donald Trump do istwo things, essentially. One, try to start to appeal to some of thosevoters that he very proactively turned off. Again, you are proactive — you are permanentlybanned. We don't want you. Well, he's going to have to say, we want you,come and join. How many of those listen are going to be aproblem. The other is going to those people who don'tlike Donald Trump, but also don't like Joe Biden, aren't happy with the direction ofthe country, and think that Trump is better on a whole host of issues, whether that'sthe economy and jobs, inflation, certainly,.
And the border. Those issues and a whole lot more, where JoeBiden is really deeply underwater, you're going to hear Trump talk about those moreand more. Problem is, though, he's still Donald Trump. And so he's going to talk about those issues,but overshadow himself by talking about two-tiered system of justice, this judge hates me, thatjudge is unfair, this woman, that woman, insulting as many people as he can. That turns off those very voters that he needs. GEOFF BENNETT: I want to draw on your experienceat the RNC, because Donald Trump, as you well.
Know, he has cemented his control of the RepublicanNational Committee. The group's members voted to affirm all ofhis hand-picked leaders, including his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, who's now co-chair. It's unusual, not unheard of. Ronald Reagan's daughter was elected co-chairback in 1987. DOUG HEYE: Yes. GEOFF BENNETT: Still, though, with an RNCthat is newly organized to support Donald Trump, what does that mean for Republicanswho are running downballot? DOUG HEYE: Well, I think that's where theconcern will be.
Lara Trump said, our number one priority iselecting Donald Trump. In fact, that's our only priority. Well, if you're running for Senate or governoror House or other offices, you need to be concerned about that. But that's where you have the other partycommittees, the Congressional Committee, the Senatorial and the RGA, working with the RNCto make sure that money is flowing to states in all directions. So, unless you're from North Carolina, withMichael Whatley being the North Carolina state party chair and Lara Trump being there, youdo have concerns about, if money is going.
To be spent on other activities, whether it'slegal bills or what have you, does that come at my expense? This makes the congressional committees andthe RGA that much more important. GEOFF BENNETT: When you look at how the RNChas been hollowed out, mass layoffs, the installation of loyalists, including lawyers who workedfor him who helped spread lies about the election, all of that, one of whom has just been namedthe senior counsel for election integrity at the RNC, Christina Bobb, what does anyof that suggest about the way Donald Trump would govern if he has a second term? DOUG HEYE: Well, some of that is businessas usual.
I have never seen a story that talks aboutJaime Harrison being a Biden loyalist. Of course he's a Biden loyalist. When you're the DNC chair, you're a loyalistto your party and certainly your president. So a lot of this is very normal and is whathappens when — or happened when Mitt Romney became the nominee or John McCain became thenominee. Some of this, though, a hollowing out of staff,does cause concerns. We need to see more about, are they goingto be smart with how they now redirect their money? Sean Cairncross is somebody who has come onboard with the RNC.
He is in charge of making sure the trainsrun on time and that there's money for those trains. I have worked with him. He was at the Senatorial Committee when Iworked with the RNC. He is a pro's pro and somebody who's goingto be very effective in that job. On the issue of election integrity, I thinkit's interesting. We often hear about polling that shows thatvoters are concerned about democracy. A lot of those are Democratic voters. Of course, a lot of those are Republicanswho think wrongly, but think the election.
Was stolen from them. So it doesn't surprise me that Donald Trumpis going to hire people who sort of subscribe to that world view. That's what happens in politics. GEOFF BENNETT: Doug Heye, thanks, as always. Great to see you. DOUG HEYE: Thank you. GEOFF BENNETT: Tens of thousands of unaccompaniedchildren arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border each year, most coming from Central America.
It's a long, often dangerous journey. And Amna Nawaz spoke to a group of sistersmaking the trek alone. And she joins us now from the Arizona border– Amna. AMNA NAWAZ: Geoff, that's right. Just yesterday, in a remote stretch of theArizona border with Mexico, we met three young girls, three sisters. Henesis (ph) is 14, Nicole (ph) is 13, andlittle Valeria (ph) is just eight. Now, these sisters had just made the 1,500-milejourney from Chiapas in Southern Mexico, where they called home, up to the U.S. border.
Their mother had actually left years ago. She'd come to the states as the sole providerto support her family. The girls had been living with a great-grandmotherwho could no longer care for them, so they headed north to reunite with their mother. Here in fact is what Nicole told us aboutthat trip. How did where to go or who to go with? NICOLE, Migrant (through translator): We gotto know a group, and we started trusting each other and helping each other. AMNA NAWAZ: Why did you leave Chiapas in thefirst place?.
NICOLE (through translator): Because it'stoo dangerous. There's a lot of drug trafficking and otherstuff. AMNA NAWAZ: Geoff, as remarkable as it isto see three young girls who have made that very long, very dangerous journey on theirown, these sisters are part of a growing trend, officials tell us they are seeing at the U.S.southern border, more unaccompanied minors arriving there, in 2022, a record high ofover 150,000. And like other people arriving at the border,they are coming from more and more countries. So we have seen some officials tell us theyhave seen unaccompanied children arriving from as far away as Egypt, India and China– Geoff.
GEOFF BENNETT: And these journeys are incrediblydangerous for anybody, let alone three young girls traveling without adults. What did the sisters you met say about that? AMNA NAWAZ: The girls in many ways are lucky,Geoff, because they traveled on planes and on buses and then on foot for hours. We connected with their mother. We spoke to her on the phone and were ableto talk to her not only to get her permission to speak with the girls, but also to hearwhat she had to say. She said she felt she had no choice.
She had to bring her daughters to her. She told them to stay calm and to stick together. I asked, actually, the youngest girl, Valeria,if she was scared at any point in the journey. Here's what she said. Was it scary at any time? Was she worried? VALERIA, Migrant (through translator): (SPEAKINGIN FOREIGN LANGUAGE) AMNA NAWAZ: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE) Because you were with your sister?.
Geoff, when we met the girls, they had beenout there for hours. They'd long run out of food and water. The humanitarian aid group we were with, theGreen Valley Samaritans, offered both, but they were waiting for Border Patrol to comeand pick them up. As unaccompanied minors, they would be prioritized. I should mention, when we left them, hourswent by. Because of some confusion and a lack of BorderPatrol resources, the girls somehow got left behind at the wall with a larger migrant group. Night fell and the temperatures dropped.
It is pitch black out there in rough terrain. It's dangerous with the cartels coming through,and the girls in a panic called their mother, who called us. We were then able to call around to our contactsand alert Border Patrol there were unaccompanied children still out there on the wall. They sent a car overnight to go retrieve them. But all of this just underscores how incrediblyprecarious this journey can be, even when the girls felt they'd reached safety in theUnited States — Geoff. GEOFF BENNETT: So what happens now, Amna,to those three young girls and to other unaccompanied.
Minors who are making similar treks? AMNA NAWAZ: Well, for these three girls, thereis now a multiagency effort that's been triggered. They will be passed into HHS custody, whichhas a system to care and house unaccompanied migrant children. They will vet their mother, hopefully reunitethem in the coming weeks. We will continue to follow their story. But the larger question you ask here is exactlyright, Geoff. It's, how is the U.S. going to continue toprovide and care for what we know are a rising number of unaccompanied children who are nowcoming from further and further afield?.
It's just one of the many challenges at theborder that U.S. authorities now have to deal with — Geoff. GEOFF BENNETT: Amna Nawaz, incredible reportingby you and your team there. We will see you back here tomorrow evening. AMNA NAWAZ: Thanks, Geoff. GEOFF BENNETT: Today, Israel's top spokespersonfor the first time publicly suggested that Israel has a plan to evacuate many of themore than one million people who have fled to Rafah in Southern Gaza. That comes as the U.S. continues to call onIsrael to do more to allow humanitarian aid.
Into the strip. Nick Schifrin joins us now. So, Nick, let's start in Rafah. What plan does Israel have when it comes toattacking Rafah and then moving civilians out of harm's way? NICK SCHIFRIN: U.S. officials tell me thatthere is no plan, at least one that has been presented to them. But, as you said, Israel's top military spokesman,Admiral Daniel Hagari, said today that they have a plan to evacuate — quote — “a significantnumber” of the 1.4 million Gazans who have.
Fled to Rafah. You can see some of the conditions that they'reliving in right now. And they would be evacuated, Hagari said,to quote humanitarian islands in Gaza. Hagari gave no more details than that. And the U.S. officials I speak to, frankly,are very skeptical that this is actually a plan, as Secretary of State Antony Blinkenreflected today. ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. Secretary of State: Therehas to be, if there are going to be military operations in Rafah, a clear and implementableplan to get the civilians out of harm's way and to provide for them once out of harm'sway.
We have not seen that plan. Is it possible? Yes, it's possible. But we haven't seen it. And the most important thing is to see itand to make sure that it's something that can be implemented. NICK SCHIFRIN: U.S. officials I speak to,Geoff, are, frankly, skeptical that there will ever be a plan that Israel has to evacuateall of those people. But they do believe that Israel is seriousabout going into Rafah because Hamas' final.
Four battalions are in Rafah. And Israel says it cannot defeat Hamas withoutdefeating those four battalions, which leads to President Biden's warnings, U.S. officials'warnings about what would happen if Israel goes into Rafah and what multiple officialsI talk to say are considerations, just that, considerations right now of what to do ifthat happens, everything from forcible statements to votes in the Security Council to, yes,conditioning the use or sale of weapons to Israel. But, again, we're a long way from that happeningright now. GEOFF BENNETT: Considerations.
OK, so meantime, the U.S. is still tryingto get a hostage deal. What's the latest there? NICK SCHIFRIN: Yes. So, publicly, all sides say that the talksare stuck. But CIA Director Bill Burns, who's been leadingthe U.S. effort here, has been in the region trying to find a path forward. And what U.S. officials fear is that Hamasis biding time, essentially hoping that, during Ramadan, Israel, whether in Gaza or Jerusalem,makes some move that would inflame Palestinian or Arab opinion and therefore alleviate someof the pressure that is being put on Hamas,.
Especially by Qatar right now. And part of that is that Hamas wants the world,wants the focus of Gaza to be on the humanitarian crisis there. GEOFF BENNETT: A humanitarian crisis thatis very real. NICK SCHIFRIN: Very real, especially aboutfood. The U.N. says all of Gaza's 2.2 million peopleare in — quote — “food crisis.” And the U.N. says one-quarter of Gaza is onestep away from famine. So, as the holy month of Ramadan begins, thereis simply not enough food to go around. There is fasting and there is starving.
Many Gazans say they are now doing both. At this soup kitchen in Northern Gaza, familiesstruggle for a small pot of soup. Before Ramadan, this was most of these Gazans'only meal, sustenance to stop starvation. During Ramadan, it is the meal that breakstheir fast, cauldrons to feed a community. Mahmoud Almadhoun is the soup kitchen organizerand head chef. His team filmed this for us. We spoke to him on a patchy phone connection. MAHMOUD ALMADHOUN, Soup Kitchen Organizer(through translator): All day, people are waiting for us at the kitchen door.
They can survive because of kitchens likethese. They would starve without it. NICK SCHIFRIN: Ramadan is about charity andfamily, and the Almadhouns try to be generous together. Three generations prepare the food; 72-year-oldFatima starts her prep at dawn. FATIMA ALMADHOUN, Volunteer (through translator):I get extremely tired, but I feel happy to see young children eat. It helps me sleep better at night. NICK SCHIFRIN: Mahmoud's 11-year-old daughter,also Fatima, with her sister tugging at her.
Shirt, has no school to attend, so she doesthe stirring. FATIMA ALMADHOUN, Volunteer (through translator):I miss my friends in school and studying. I miss my home. I hope we can go back to the way it was before. My dreams are for the war to end and to becomea teacher, and that we're safe. NICK SCHIFRIN: But those dreams are deferred. This Ramadan is defined by displacement anddeprivation. Most Gazans have fled their homes, and theU.N. warns Gaza is approaching famine. MAHMOUD ALMADHOUN (through translator): Peopleare stealing from each other so they don't.
Starve to death. There are many kids who have been orphanedwho come to me asking for food. HANI ALMADHOUN, Director of Philanthropy,UNRWA USA: The starvation is real. The manmade famine is real, and we know familiesthat are hurting. NICK SCHIFRIN: Hani Almadhoun is Mahmoud'sbrother and based in the U.S. HANI ALMADHOUN: A lot of people failed thePalestinians, but the land did not, because they could still find some potatoes. People could not go pick it, and it just keptgrowing and growing, and he'd be cooking whatever he can find.
Is it enough? No, but it's good for our neighborhood andfriends. NICK SCHIFRIN: The Almadhouns launched thekitchen in January for a few hundred locals with two big pots and seasonal vegetables. On the first day of Ramadan, they serve sizzlingsoup with a little lamb to thousands. HANI ALMADHOUN: Four out of the five hungriestkids in the world are in Gaza right now. Five percent of the people of Gaza are eitherkilled, injured or missing. So think about that. In my family, our table will have six lesspeople this time.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Hani and Mahmoud's brother,Majid Almadhoun, in the center, as well as his wife and four kids, were killed when theirfamily home was bombed. HANI ALMADHOUN: I feel sad for the loss ofmy brother. He's my — really my buddy and my sidekick,and he's not here anymore. We say we're resilient people, but that'sgone beyond any level of resilience. NICK SCHIFRIN: International humanitariangroups say the soup kitchen is only necessary because Israel isn't allowing enough aid intoGaza. Israel says it does not block aid and blamesthe shortfall on the lack of U.N. capacity. Last night, Israel opened a new truck routefor the U.N. directly into Northern Gaza,.
Spokeswoman Tal Heinrich said today. TAL HEINRICH, Spokesman for Israeli PrimeMinister: This was a pilot to prevent Hamas from taking over the aid, as they often do. There is no limit to the amount of aid thatcan be delivered into Gaza. NICK SCHIFRIN: The U.S. will continue droppingaid by air, and the first aid ship is sailing to Gaza, ahead of next month's plan for U.S.soldiers to build a pier off Gaza's coast. But Israel must do more, Secretary of StateAntony Blinken said today. ANTONY BLINKEN: There's movement, and it'spositive, but it remains insufficient. Israel still needs to open as many accesspoints as possible and keep them open.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Traditionally, the aid is distributedby the U.N. Relief and Works Agency. HANI ALMADHOUN: is the director of philanthropyat UNRWA's independent American arm. NICK SCHIFRIN: Israel, of course, accusesmultiple members of UNRWA of participating in the October 7 terrorist attack and accusesUNRWA of effectively being intertwined with Hamas. Do you believe that's true? HANI ALMADHOUN: On behalf of myself, and mein my personal capacity, I'm horrified by what I read in the news about those allegations. And I don't know.
I want to repeat that feeding 100 child shouldnever be a political statement. NICK SCHIFRIN: In December, Israeli forcesdetained Gazans whom they accused of being members of Hamas. Among them was Mahmoud Almadhoun. MAHMOUD ALMADHOUN (through translator): Theyhumiliated us, stripped us, and took us over to the coast. We were on the sand all day in the cold. I thought to myself, we're not leaving here. We're going to die.
When you think you're going to die and youdon't, you want to start serving and helping others. It's like a new lease on life. NICK SCHIFRIN: And the Gaza soup kitchen wasborn. So, for the Almadhouns, this Ramadan is aboutcharity amid catastrophe. For the “PBS NewsHour,” I'm Nick Schifrin. GEOFF BENNETT: We're going to shift our focusnow to the latest concerns around Boeing and aviation safety more broadly. The aerospace giant remains on the hot seatover important questions about its manufacturing.
And production processes. The head of the National Transportation SafetyBoard, Jennifer Homendy, told lawmakers her investigators still do not know who workedon the Boeing 737 door panel that blew off an Alaska Airlines flight back in January. At the same time, The New York Times reportedthis week that Boeing and a key supplier, Spirit AeroSystems, failed a number of recentFAA audits. Boeing reportedly failed 33 of 89 productaudits. FAA Administrator Mark (sic) Whitaker wasasked about that on Monday. MICHAEL WHITAKER, Administrator, Federal AviationAdministration: We have increased our audit.
And our oversight of Boeing pretty significantlysince January 5. If we see something that requires us to ceaseproduction or pull something down, we will do that. But we're continuing that oversight and we'reworking with Boeing and demanding that they come up with a very detailed plan within thenext 90 days to fix the quality issues that are out there. GEOFF BENNETT: Equally unnerving, a seriesof problems on flights in just the last week, including several on United Airlines. There have been half-a-dozen incidents forUnited, including one flight that had to turn.
Around after an engine caught fire. And, on Monday, a flight from LATAM Airlinesdropped suddenly and temporarily in midair en route to Auckland. The plane landed safely, but more than 50people suffered injuries. One passenger woke up suddenly to the scare. BRIAN ADAM JOKAT, LATAM Airlines Passenger:I look up, and he's full length facing down and looking down at me. And I look ahead, and there's another guyon the ceiling and there's two people flying through the air going across the aisles.
GEOFF BENNETT: And let's bring in our aviationcorrespondent, Miles O'Brien. Miles, it's always great to see you. So let's start with Boeing. This Boeing audit conducted by the FAA revealedthat the company failed large portions of that evaluation. The company failed 33 of 89 audits after thatdoor panel flew off the Alaska Airlines flight back in January. Put that into context for us. What more can you tell us about that?.
MILES O'BRIEN: Well, Geoff, those numbersare kind of stunning. The Boeing CEO early on used the euphemismquality escape. That's a lot of escaping. And that causes a lot of concern about what'sgoing on, on that factory floor at Boeing. But also, very importantly here, you haveto ask the question, where was the FAA in advance of all this? Why weren't these audits ongoing? As we have discussed several times, Geoff,the FAA has moved to a system where manufacturers do their own inspecting.
Obviously, we have a problem there with aconflict of interest potentially. But to the extent that there are FAA inspectorsinvolved, in most cases, they're requesting and receiving paperwork, not necessarily puttingboots on the factory floor and laying their eyes on potential problems. So, when the FAA administrator says they needto rethink all of this, it's a big rethink, because the way it is done right now, clearly,it's allowing a lot of safety problems to escape into the market. And that's not what anybody wants to hear. GEOFF BENNETT: And the NTSB seems to be sayingthat Boeing isn't cooperating.
How do you interpret the comments from theNTSB that they don't even know who was working on that door panel that flew off? MILES O'BRIEN: The NTSB would like to speakto the machinists that actually did the work on that door which escaped from the AlaskaAirlines flight. What happened? What did they do? What did they not do? What were on the checklist or not? And it's not a criminal proceeding.
This is just an effort to understand whatwent wrong. This is how aviation gets safer. You learn from it and you make better rulesfor the future. But Boeing has so far blocked that effort. And you have to ask the question, why woulda manufacturer do that? Wouldn't it be in the interest of aviationsafety for those machinists to speak to the NTSB, so that lessons can be learned? GEOFF BENNETT: We also learned this week thatAlaska Airlines flight was scheduled for a safety check that same day the door panelblew off and that there were engineers who.
Were concerned about warning lights beforethat. You're a pilot. Are there cases where it's OK to fly whenwarning lights are going off? MILES O'BRIEN: Pilots have something calleda minimum equipment list. It's the stuff that you can — it might benot working 100 percent correctly, but you could still dispatch and take off with. These lights on their own were in that list. In other words, you could fly and get it tomaintenance in a reasonable course, as opposed to grounding the aircraft.
In retrospect, maybe that wasn't great. However, there was no other signs or symptomsof trouble with the pressurization system. And when I say that, either the crew or passengerswould feel popping in their ears or hear a rushing of wind. None of that was occurring. So, for all that engineer and all those machinistsknew, it was just a bad sensor. And so the decision to wait until it got toSeattle, in retrospect, was probably an OK decision. GEOFF BENNETT: Here we are some three monthslater.
Do we still know enough about the circumstancessurrounding that Alaska Airlines flight? MILES O'BRIEN: We're getting there. But, I mean, it would be — again, it wouldbe nice to talk to all the parties involved, see exactly what happened, exactly what theywere thinking. Everything that is done in aviation has achecklist. And the process of building aircraft are nodifferent from that. This particular activity, taking off thatdoor to fix some rivets, was not in the system, so to speak. It was kind of an ad hoc move to make a fix.
Those are the kinds of things, that kind ofdetail is really important to understand to understand how that slipped through the cracksand how those bolts weren't put in place. GEOFF BENNETT: And, Miles, amid all of this,a veteran Boeing employee, a prominent whistle-blower involved in quality control, he died by suicide. What more can you tell us about his case andhis deposition? MILES O'BRIEN: Well, John Barnett worked fora long time in the South Carolina plant for Boeing, which produces the 787. And his whistle-blower case has revolved aroundquality control issues at Boeing. And at the core of his testimony is the ideathat parts that were taken out of the production.
Line by workers, concerned that they weren'tup to snuff and put off to the side, were not properly evaluated, but rather were putright back onto aircraft that are now flying around the world. That's a big concern. And that deposition was a very heated onefrom the company officials. Now, what that might have to do with whathappened later, we don't know, of course, but it's a tragic end to John Barnett's story,for sure. GEOFF BENNETT: And, as we mentioned, therehave been a series of incidents involving united flights and others involving Boeingplanes with different airlines.
How concerning is all of this, big picture? MILES O'BRIEN: Yes, it's kind of all overthe map, Geoff. You have cases where wheels are falling off. That could be attributed to maintenance, anaircraft taxing off a runway, probably pilot error. An engine flame out, that's the manufacturer,CFM, that makes the engines. And then you have a 787 which had a precipitousfall between Australia and New Zealand. What drives that all together? It's hard to say, except I will say this.
The aviation industry was clobbered by thepandemic. It lost experienced people in every quarter,on factory floors, in control towers, in cockpits, and the people that screw on the wheels toairplanes. All those places lost experience during COVID,when people retired. And so this industry, which is raring andback, and people are flying, is struggling to keep up with all that. And it is worrisome. GEOFF BENNETT: Miles O'Brien, appreciate yourinsights, as always. Thanks so much.
MILES O'BRIEN: You're welcome, Geoff. GEOFF BENNETT: For many Americans, politicshas become far more personal and divisive than it once was. And now, in the run-up to the November election,that's creating some friction in families. Tonight, Judy Woodruff looks at the impactof politics on marriages, dating, and families as part of her ongoing series America at aCrossroads. JUDY WOODRUFF: For the Glasgow family, politicsis never too far from home. Whom are you voting for? CHLOE CHIGRO, Democratic Voter: I'm goingto go with Biden.
MATT GLASGOW, Republican Voter: I will gofor Donald Trump. HILARY GLASGOW, Executive Director, ColoradoWins: Joe Biden all the way. JUDY WOODRUFF: Hilary and Matt, who were marriednine years ago, have always butted heads, even making light of it in their wedding vows. HILARY GLASGOW: I said that something aboutstill loving him, even though he votes wrong. MATT GLASGOW: Yes. HILARY GLASGOW: Because he does. MATT GLASGOW: I thought it was funny. HILARY GLASGOW: Yes, we laugh.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Hilary is the Executive DirectorOf Colorado Wins, a labor union representing more than 24,000 state employees. She's always been a die-hard liberal. HILARY GLASGOW: No, as long as I can remember,I have been a Democrat. JUDY WOODRUFF: Her husband, Matt, is on theopposite side. He voted for Donald Trump. MATT GLASGOW: I don't know. He's probably not that nice of a guy. But I think that, like, overall, his policiesprobably have my best interests in mind.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And he says he will vote forhim again in November, if he's the nominee. MATT GLASGOW: Like, the economy was good. I mean, it was. JUDY WOODRUFF: Both admit it's led to shoutingmatches. MATT GLASGOW: It comes out of nowhere. HILARY GLASGOW: It comes out of nowhere. It does get heated. We have big fights. We have heard that there are people who areopposite parties and they just avoid the topic.
I don't understand how people do that, becausepolitics is a big deal to me. So… JUDY WOODRUFF: The Glasgows are part of asmall minority in America that's growing even smaller, marriages between Democrats and Republicans. This polarized time, when politics have becomeso personal, has led to fewer people dating and marrying people with different views. And it's one factor in a decline in marriagesperiod, which have dropped by 60 percent since the 1970s. BRAD WILCOX, Director, National Marriage Project:People are waiting longer and they're just.
Forgoing marriage. And part of the — I think the challenge foryoung adults today is that they're often in different ideological camps. JUDY WOODRUFF: Brad Wilcox, the director ofthe National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, studies the impact of marriageon society. BRAD WILCOX: A much larger share of youngwomen who are in this sort of progressive camp. It's more than doubled since the early 1980sof women who are kind of identifying as liberal in that 18-to-30 bracket.
And then you have seen a modest uptick inthe share of young men who are single who are identifying as conservatives. There are a lot of issues that are kind ofdividing Americans now, and that makes it harder for people who are Republican to sortof, like, live with their Democratic family members, and vice versa. JUDY WOODRUFF: Political tension wasn't somethingCarole from Michigan expected to face with her husband. CAROLE, Founder, Wives of the DeplorablesFacebook Group: You know, the day after the election in 2016, my husband was working inItaly, and I called him, because I'm not — I.
Have never been political. I'm just an anti-news kind of artsy gal. And I called him and said, “Hillary lost,”and I was absolutely in tears and he said: “Well, of course. She should have.” And I was like, uh-oh. Here we go. And that was the beginning of realizing whathis beliefs were versus mine. JUDY WOODRUFF: In an effort to find supportafter Trump's election, she started a private.
Facebook group, Wives of the Deplorables,a tongue-in-cheek name drawing on a comment by Democratic presidential nominee HilaryClinton in 2016. A handful of the group's 175 members spoketo us, but didn't want to use their last names. ELANA, Democratic Voter: I think that politicsweren't discussed as intensely, at least in my experience, before the 2016 election. Like, I think that I knew he was a Republican,I was a Democrat. I had no idea that these are some of the beliefsthat he had. And that's very hard to stomach. JUDY WOODRUFF: Most of these mixed politicalmarriages have survived, while some ended.
In divorce. But the 2016 election was a turning pointfor them all. GRETCHEN, Democratic Voter: I needed otherwomen to talk to help — who are in similar situations to help talk me through it to figureout strategies to get to common ground again. LINDA, Democratic Voter: if you look at thegroup, you will hear a lot of pain, that women are struggling to be able to maintain theirrelationships. And, in some cases, they're not able to continue. And this is the way of the world right nowwith friends, with relatives, polar opposites, different silos not willing or able to listento each other.
JUDY WOODRUFF: These political tensions aren'tjust with married couples. Brad Wilcox says many young Americans arechoosing to only date people with the same political views. A recent survey found 81 percent of respondentswould prefer not to date across the aisle when it comes to serious relationships. That's a poll published by “Newsweek” lastyear. BRAD WILCOX: So, there's an undersupply ofliberal men for liberal women, and there's an undersupply of conservative women for theconservative men. We are seeing a large — a larger minorityof folks having difficulty finding someone.
Who fits their world view. JUDY WOODRUFF: The Glasgow's 22-year-old daughter,Chloe Chigro, a college student, is one of those young people. CHLOE CHIGRO: So I think it really is a case-by-casebasis. JUDY WOODRUFF: So there are issues that youwould say, if somebody has a different view from me on this, that would matter? CHLOE CHIGRO: Absolutely, reproductive rights,LGBTQ+ rights, immigrant rights, really just like if — people of color, like, Black LivesMatter, that's a really important movement for me.
JOHN MCENTEE, Co-Creator, The Right Stuff:I think conservatives definitely need to stick together. JUDY WOODRUFF: John McEntee, a political adviserwho served in the Trump administration, created a dating app for conservatives called TheRight Stuff. WOMAN: We're sorry that you have had to endureyears of bad dates and wasted time with people that don't see the world our way. JOHN MCENTEE: We knew there could be a marketfor it, so we took it to an investor. He loved the idea, and that was two yearsago, and, yes, we're off and running. JUDY WOODRUFF: Do you think that's good forall of us in the long run to be separated.
This way? JOHN MCENTEE: If you match up in this dayand age and you don't agree on a lot of the main themes and the main values, it's goingto end poorly and maybe in disaster. So stay away from that. JUDY WOODRUFF: But Brad Wilcox says, in thepast, mixing politics and relationships has been beneficial to society. BRAD WILCOX: Marriage has tended to sort ofbridge the sexual divide, has — kind of to bring men and women together on a number ofdifferent fronts, including on the sort of political front.
And there were many marriages back in theday where you had a Democrat and a Republican getting married, and then that moderatingtheir approach to life in general, whereas, today, because of this more polarized context,people are tending to marry along similar lines. JUDY WOODRUFF: So the consequences, you'resaying, are greater than simply they can't find a date for Saturday night? BRAD WILCOX: Jefferson talked about life,liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And what I think people don't always realizeis that sort of what happens in our loved lives and what happens in our families mattersnot just for ourselves or for our kids, but.
For their wider country or for our neighborhoodsand communities. JUDY WOODRUFF: And even when there are profounddisagreements in those connections, some couples have figured out how to turn the focus towhat brought them together in the first place. CAROLE: We used to scream at each other outsidein the hot tub when politics came up, literally. I — and where we live, everyone can hearyou. And we — just this last couple months, wewere like, this is a politics-free zone. LESLIE, Democratic Voter: Humor has savedus now. Humor — we can now get through a disagreementin about less than a minute by we kind of make the other person crack up.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Others acknowledge repairingfractured relationships will just take time. PAM, Democratic Voter: It took us seven oreight years to get — of all this anger. It's going to take us a while to get backto where we were and hopefully improve our relationships and be better off for it, butit's going to take time. JUDY WOODRUFF: For the Glasgows, their secretfor happiness across the divide is focusing on what they have in common. MATT GLASGOW: I firmly believe, like, legitimately,everybody wants what's best for everybody. And if you come from that position, I justdisagree the path that she sees. That's it.
Politics is a big part, but, like, so arethe kids. So are, like, everything else, which so areour interests. So are the things we like about each other. So are — so, I mean, that's more than whoI voted for. HILARY GLASGOW: If we can figure out a waythat we can all still love each other, despite big differences like that, I think that that'simportant. JUDY WOODRUFF: For the “PBS NewsHour,” I'mJudy Woodruff in Pueblo, Colorado. GEOFF BENNETT: Remember, there is much moreonline at PBS.org/NewsHour. AMNA NAWAZ: And we will have much more comingsoon from the U.S.-Mexico border, including.
A closer look at how U.S. authorities aredealing with unprecedented border challenges. That's coming to the “NewsHour” soon. But that is the “NewsHour” for tonight. I'm Amna Nawaz in Nogales, Mexico. GEOFF BENNETT: And I'm Geoff Bennett. Thanks for joining us, and have a good evening.
