GEOFF BENNETT: Good evening.

I'm Geoff Bennett.

AMNA NAWAZ: And I'm Amna Nawaz.

On the "News Hour" tonight: President Trump fires a labor statistics official after a lower-than-expected jobs report and unveils yet another list of global tariffs.

GEOFF BENNETT: A former security contractor for a U.S.-backed aid group in Gaza gives his firsthand account of chaos in getting aid to Palestinians.

LT. COL. ANTHONY AGUILAR (RET)., Former UG Solutions Contractor: After 25 years of service in the United States Army, I hung up my uniform, but I did not hang up my oath.

What we were doing in Gaza and how we were doing it is un-American.

AMNA NAWAZ: And amid a string of aviation incidents, safety officials reveal new information about the deadly crash near Washington National Airport.

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

Major economic shakeups are under way.

President Trump today fired the head of the agency that produces the monthly jobs report, accusing her, without evidence, of manipulating the numbers that show weaker hiring than previously reported.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: I believe the numbers were phony, just like they were before the election.

And there were other times.

So you know what I did?

I fired her.

And you know what?

I did the right thing.

I put somebody in who's going to be honest.

GEOFF BENNETT: It comes a day after Mr. Trump announced sweeping new tariffs on more than 60 countries.

The tariffs, which range from 10 to 41 percent, take effect next week.

An executive order he signed last night set high reciprocal rates for countries like Syria, Switzerland and South Africa.

It also confirmed lower rates for those that have made deals with the U.S., including South Korea, the E.U., Japan and the United Kingdom.

Separately, the president announced he was raising tariffs on Canada effective today to 35 percent.

And earlier this week, he slapped Brazil, Latin America's biggest economy, with some of the highest rates in the world, 50 percent.

Last night, we spoke about the tariffs with Jason Furman, the former head of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Obama.

Tonight, we get a different view from Oren Cass.

He's a founder and chief economist of American Compass and a former senior fellow at the conservative think tank the Manhattan Institute.

Thanks for being with us.

OREN CASS, American Compass: No, thanks for having me.

GEOFF BENNETT: I want to start with your reaction to President Trump moving to fire the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics after today's weak jobs report, accusing her, without evidence, of manipulating the monthly jobs report for political purposes.

That's despite the BLS widely being seen as the global gold standard for data collection.

OREN CASS: Well, I definitely think it's a mistake.

I don't think it's ever a good idea to fire someone for delivering bad news, especially when, in this case, I don't think it was bad news.

I think, if you look at the overall picture, I think the economy continues to be doing quite well, especially given everything that's going on, on the trade front.

I think the White House has a lot to be celebrating, all things considered.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, let's unpack that a bit, because, according to the fresh labor data, this is the worst job market since 2020.

OREN CASS: Well, I guess I'm not sure how you're measuring it then.

I mean, the unemployment rate is at 4.2 percent, exactly what it's been -- what it was on liberation day, what it's been within a fraction of a point for months now.

Initial jobless claims remain very low and steady.

It seems to me that what's happening, if you actually look at the data is that, because -- mostly because of immigration policy, you're seeing a quite large exodus out of the labor force of foreign-born workers.

You have seen that figure decline by more than a million.

And so, with that, the number of employed workers in that category has fallen dramatically.

If you look at native-born workers who wouldn't have been affected by the immigration policy, you actually see that up close to two million new jobs in recent months.

And so, again, I think you have to really look at what's going on in the economy generally.

And with that picture, I think it's a lot harder to make out where the distress is.

GEOFF BENNETT: So how then do you interpret this jobs report that came in weaker than expected?

73,000 jobs added last month?

The May and June figures were revised down by a combined 258,000.

OREN CASS: Well, like you just said, there were a lot of revisions.

And I think -- I don't know exactly why the revisions happened.

If I had to guess, in part, when you have the kind of turbulence in the labor market that we have with the ongoing immigration enforcement, you're likely to see more adjustments.

But I don't know the specific facts around that.

And so, again, I think it's important to step back and look at where we are with the economy broadly.

I mean, think about what economists were saying about tariffs, what they were saying after liberation day, the idea that we're headed into a recession, the idea that this was going to be a disaster.

And now look at where we are.

The unemployment rate is the same place where it was.

Like I said, jobless claims are low.

Inflation has ticked up a little bit.

You would expect to see some price increases from tariffs.

The president has said that.

Secretary Bessent has said that.

But, obviously, the stock market has also reacted quite well.

There's been solid wage growth.

I think the investment numbers in terms of real investment in the economy look good.

And so I think the big question is, how did economists get this so wrong?

How did they have -- Jason Furman, the former chair of the Council of Economic Advisers under Obama, he had a very good piece in The New York Times yesterday, where he acknowledged that economists suffer from tariff derangement syndrome.

They, I think, had this ideological view that you just -- you could not do tariffs.

Tariffs were a mistake.

You had to have free trade no matter what.

And we're seeing that that's just not the case.

In fact, I think President Trump has responded to what was a very broken global economic situation, a very unfair trading system, with a set of changes that have obviously been very manageable in the short run, and I think have the potential to deliver a lot of benefits in the long run.

GEOFF BENNETT: Jason Furman was on the program last night, and he was critical of President Trump's tariff policy.

You described Trump's tariffs in terms of trade-offs.

What are the trade-offs now, especially looking at the high reciprocal rates for some of these countries?

OREN CASS: Well, I think it's really important to recognize that life is about trade-offs.

There are obviously people out there who will say, this is all bad, this is all good, or the opposite is all good or all bad.

We made a choice a generation ago that we were going to go all in on free trade.

We were going to embrace China.

We wanted the cheap stuff, and we knew that there were going to be costs to that, right?

Economists would tell you, well, there will be winners and losers.

And what they meant in particular was a lot of the people who had been doing best in our economy were going to be doing even better.

A lot of people who were struggling were going to struggle even more, but we should celebrate it anyway and push ahead because we're going to get a lot of cheap stuff.

And I think what the American people have rightly realized over the last couple of decades is that's not a good trade-off.

Just getting more cheap stuff, having bigger TVs does not compensate for an unbalanced economy, an economy that leaves way too many people behind, an economy that has had industry hollowed out, and as a result of that, an economy that doesn't really support our national security, our resilience.

And so taking the other side of that trade-off, saying, yes, look, there's going to be some disruption in the short run, yes, some things are going to have prices rise, but the flip side is, we're going to rebuild our industrial base.

We're going to bring back manufacturing.

And we're going to have a stronger economy for typical workers and their families.

That's the right side of the trade-off to take.

GEOFF BENNETT: Lastly, let's talk about interest rates.

The president is laser-focused on interest rates.

He wants a rate cut.

What does all of this mean for the chances that the Fed might cut rates at their meeting in September?

OREN CASS: Well, I think the chance of a cut has definitely gone up.

I think -- I feel badly.

Now we're just both quoting Jason Furman.

I saw Jason say also, in light of this employment data, it probably makes sense now to consider a rate cut.

I think Jay Powell, the Fed chair, has been in a very strange position, where he said he would support a rate cut except for the tariffs.

And that's a huge mistake.

Tariffs do change the price level.

The whole point of a tariff is to make some things more expensive.

But that's not the same as the kind of inflation that the Fed needs to worry about.

And so I think, when you had Powell saying, well, I'd cut, but I'm worried about the tariffs, that's something he really had backward.

And I am hopeful that we will move forward with a view that recognizes that this economy can be quite strong, even with tariffs in place.

But at the same time, on balance, if you look at how it's performing, rates are probably higher than they need to be.

GEOFF BENNETT: Oren Cass, founder and chief economist of American Compass, thanks again for being with us.

OREN CASS: Yes, thanks for having me.

AMNA NAWAZ: The day's other headlines start with a resignation at the Federal Reserve.

Fed Governor Adriana Kugler announced today she's stepping down early.

That leaves President Trump a position to fill on the Central Bank's powerful board.

Kugler's term would have ended in January.

Instead, she's leaving next Friday.

Kugler did not offer a reason in her resignation letter, writing that she's -- quote -- "proud to have tackled this role with integrity."

This comes as President Trump continues to attack Fed Chair Jerome Powell over his decision not to lower the Central Bank's short-term interest rate.

Markets slumped today after the weak jobs report and President Trump's new tariffs threats.

The Dow Jones industrial average plummeted by more than 500 points.

The Nasdaq suffered the sharpest drop on the day, losing more than 2 percent.

The S&P closed lower to round out Wall Street's worst day since may.

Convicted sex trafficker and Jeffrey Epstein's accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, has been moved from a federal prison in Florida to one in Texas.

Both the federal Bureau of Prisons and her attorney confirmed the move to the minimum security facility, but didn't explain why.

Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in jail for helping Epstein sexually abuse underage girls, a case with renewed interest over President Trump's former relationship with Epstein.

Justice Department officials interviewed Maxwell at a Florida courthouse last week, and her lawyer has urged the president to pardon her.

Turning overseas now, there was an official day of mourning today in Ukraine's capital city after Russia's deadliest air assault on Kyiv in over a year.

At least 31 people were killed in yesterday's attacks.

Mourners laid flowers at the memorial today and toys for the five children killed; 16 other children were injured.

Meanwhile, in Russia, President Vladimir Putin told reporters to keep expectations low when it comes to peace talks.

VLADIMIR PUTIN, Russian President (through translator): All disappointments arise from excessive expectations.

This is a well-known general rule.

It's necessary to conduct thorough talks to reach a peaceful settlement.

And it should be done calmly during the negotiation process and not in public.

AMNA NAWAZ: Putin's comments were seen by some as a veiled reference to President Trump's increasing frustrations.

Today, online, Mr. Trump escalated tensions, saying he had -- quote -- "ordered two nuclear submarines to be repositioned to appropriate regions," warning against more -- quote -- "foolish and inflammatory statements from Russia."

Trump has threatened to slap new sanctions on Russia unless it moves to end the war by the end of next week.

Lawmakers in El Salvador have approved constitutional changes that will lengthen presidential terms to six years and remove term limits.

ELISA ROSALES, Deputy, New Ideas Party (through translator): With this reform, we are giving power to those who should always have had it, which is the Salvadoran people.

AMNA NAWAZ: The party of President Nayib Bukele has a supermajority and quickly passed the changes, meaning he could seek reelection indefinitely.

Critic says Bukele is removing checks on the presidency in order to consolidate power.

He has become widely popular for cracking down on gang violence in El Salvador, though human rights groups have condemned his tactics.

Back here at home, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which has for decades distributed federal funds to both PBS and NPR, announced today that it's shutting down.

That is after President Trump recently clawed back more than a billion dollars of funding for public broadcasting.

In a statement, CPB's president said: "Despite the extraordinary efforts of millions of Americans who called, wrote and petitioned Congress, we now face the difficult reality of closing our operations."

PBS and its stations get around 15 percent of annual revenue from federal money.

Parts of the mid-Atlantic are bracing for more heavy rain this evening after downpours yesterday triggered floods, killing one person.

New Jersey officials declared a state of emergency, as roads flooded across the state stranding drivers.

In New York's Grand Central Station, water from heavy rains poured over commuter trains.

And outside of Baltimore, authorities say a boy playing outside was killed when floodwaters swept him into a storm drain.

In Washington, D.C., the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History has temporarily removed all references to President Trump's impeachments from an exhibit about presidential power.

That exhibit features materials about the Watergate scandal and the impeachments of Presidents Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton.

But mentions of Mr. Trump's two impeachments were taken down last month.

The White House has repeatedly targeted interpretations of American history.

The Smithsonian said the references will be restored once the exhibit is updated following a review.

And gone are the days of the chain gang in the NFL.

The first down line has gotten a serious upgrade.

At last night's pre-season game, the league debuted new technology that measures the 10-yard target virtually.

It relies on a network of 8K cameras to track the ball's position.

It's the very same technology used in tennis grand slams.

The NFL said the system will save time compared to the old process where referees would mark the distance manually with a 10-yard chain.

The trusty chain crew will still be on the sidelines, but only as a backup.

Still to come on the "News Hour": we examine the president's ongoing effort to reshape the White House in his image; David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart weigh in on the week's political headlines; and photographer Platon speaks with a renowned Pakistani filmmaker about gender inequality.

Today, President Trump's top Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, and the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, made a rare visit to Gaza to assess - - quote -- "the facts on the ground" of the U.S.-Israeli-backed humanitarian aid initiative called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

GEOFF BENNETT: GHF has been delivering aid into Gaza since late May, and today said it crossed 100 million meals delivered.

The U.N. says hundreds of Palestinians have been killed outside GHF sites, and the leading authority on global hunger warns that Gaza's population of over two million is now closer to famine than at any point in the conflict.

Tonight, we have a special report with former American contractors from UG Solutions, which works with GHF in Gaza.

Here's Nick Schifrin.

LT. COL. ANTHONY AGUILAR (RET)., Former UG Solutions Contractor: To my rear is Gaza City.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Anthony Aguilar arrived in Gaza in mid-May aware it would be difficult... LT. COL. ANTHONY AGUILAR (RET): So we had 60,000, 70,000 people.

NICK SCHIFRIN: ... but believing it should be done.

LT. COL. ANTHONY AGUILAR (RET): There's the choice to do nothing, and then there's the choice to try.

NICK SCHIFRIN: You are a retired Army Special Forces lieutenant colonel, Green Beret, and the Army sent me a list of your deployments, Iraq, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Jordan, and the Philippines.

Why did you want to become a security contractor in Gaza?

LT. COL. ANTHONY AGUILAR (RET): The mission to me seemed noble and worthy of my time and energy, and I felt that I had a unique set of skills and experience that I felt could lend to that mission to help it succeed.

Feeding starving, hungry people, I think, is a good thing to do.

NICK SCHIFRIN: And, in the end, what did you determine about the mission?

LT. COL. ANTHONY AGUILAR (RET): Well, the purpose of the mission, I think, is still noble, feeding starving people.

The execution of the mission has failed, is failing, and will not succeed because of the inherent danger of how the process has been established, and, quite frankly, an inexperienced, over-their-head lack of leadership from the top.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Aguilar worked for UG Solutions, which provided security at sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

He began in mid-May as a security operator, and UG Solutions says it later moved him to be an operation-centered team leader.

From the beginning, he filmed sites defined by disorganization and desperation.

MAN: All the people, America, help me, please.

Give me one box food.

NICK SCHIFRIN: He filmed gratitude from those lucky enough to collect food and desperate anger from those who left empty-handed.

And he filmed live ammunition and non-lethal munitions, including pepper spray, used for crowd control after crowds tried to collect food.

The Israel Defense Forces and GHF established four locations, each site secured by American contractors, with the IDF stationed on average a few hundred meters away.

And on May 29 at site four, Aguilar film this video, which UG Solutions posted in full on its Web site.

LT. COL. ANTHONY AGUILAR (RET): And I hear a burst of automatic gunfire from the UG Solutions contractor in the tower facing south, and he was shooting at the crowd as they were exiting.

He was shooting over their heads at their feet in the crowd.

(GUNSHOTS) LT. COL. ANTHONY AGUILAR (RET): Another contractor opened up with his individually assigned weapon, and he's cheering for himself as he's shooting at unarmed civilians.

Another contractor who was on the level with me on the ground by the gate catcalls to him or instigates further to him.

MAN: I think you hit one.

LT. COL. ANTHONY AGUILAR (RET): "Hey, man, I think you got one."

The contractor that was shooting then responds with: MAN: "Hell yeah, boy!"

LT. COL. ANTHONY AGUILAR (RET): "Hell yeah, boy."

What the contractor on the ground said of, "Hey, I think you got one," he saw the exact same thing I saw.

An older man dropped to the ground and wasn't moving.

NICK SCHIFRIN: A GHF statement provided to "PBS News Hour" says -- quote -- "No Gazan civilians have been shot by UG Solutions personnel, period.

The contractor you were referring to was encouraging IDF fire and was immediately disciplined and terminated for unprofessional conduct."

But, this week, GHF released what it described as sworn affidavits by other UG Solutions contractors.

And one of them says -- quote -- "I did not witness anyone firing warning shots in the direction of civilians."

Another affidavit reads: "I did not witness any UG personnel firing warning shots in the direction of civilians.

Regarding Tony Aguilar's allegations, I believe they are inaccurate and do not align with UG Solutions' strict policies and training on the use of force."

A GHF spokesperson says: "UG Solutions operates under a tiered escalation of force policy that includes warning shots when absolutely necessary to protect civilians, maintain order and prevent violence during critical aid distributions."

LT. COL. ANTHONY AGUILAR (RET): What I saw was an unarmed Palestinian leaving a distribution site was killed by needless, reckless behavior.

There was no threat.

SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D-MD): You have decided to come forward and speak out.

LT. COL. ANTHONY AGUILAR (RET): Yes, sir.

SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN: So why are you speaking out now?

NICK SCHIFRIN: Last week, Aguilar visited, including with Maryland Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen.

SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN: Well, I think your testimony is going to be important to make sure that the American people know what's happening.

MAN: That would be a squad from IDF.

NICK SCHIFRIN: "PBS News Hour" spoke to a second former UG Solutions contractor who helped secure GHF's site number one in Southern Gaza.

He says, on their first day, the site and the contractors were overrun.

He said they fired warning shots only away from the crowd, but he accuses members of the team of roughing up Palestinians in order to clear the site.

And he told the "News Hour" there was no vetting of aid recipients and fears GHF has delivered food not just to civilians, but also to Hamas fighters.

LT. COL. ANTHONY AGUILAR (RET): We're at secure distribution site one.

NICK SCHIFRIN: On June the 2nd, Aguilar filmed at that same site.

He too says the recipients were not vetted.

GHF says -- quote -- "Our focus is on feeding hungry people, not checking I.D.s, because the situation on the ground demands this be the priority."

LT. COL. ANTHONY AGUILAR (RET): Thousands of boxes of aid are gone within eight to 11 minutes.

That's how chaotic it is.

Eight to 11 minutes, the aid is gone.

Two women were sitting on a wooden pallet with their box of aid.

A UG Solutions contractor threw a stun grenade in the crowd, landed next to me, detonated.

It knocked me down.

The pepper spray overwhelmed me, and I looked over to where the two women had been sitting, and the woman that was wearing red had been hit in the head with the metal fuse of the stun grenade, and it knocked - - it immediately knocked her unconscious.

She was not moving.

I heard on the main control center, call to the Palestinian worker, we had local Palestinian workers, to bring the donkey cart in and get her out of here.

I placed my hand on this woman's arm just as kind of a condolence or care to see how she was, and she was lifeless.

There was no pulse.

NICK SCHIFRIN: A Gaza Humanitarian Foundation statement says: "The woman in question was not struck by any projectile or grenade fragment.

She was suffering from heat exhaustion and dehydration, and our team provided her with immediate medical attention."

LT. COL. ANTHONY AGUILAR (RET): I would testify in a court of law.

I would raise my right-hand and attest that that woman was dead.

DAVID PANZER, Counsel, UG Solutions: While it's true that UG Solutions personnel use pepper spray, smoke and flashbangs to prevent trampling in the crowds of civilians that are trying to seek aid, these systems are deployed consistent with their intended use.

There are safety measures in place.

NICK SCHIFRIN: This week, UG Solutions' legal counsel, David Panzer, briefed reporters with information he said discredits Aguilar.

DAVID PANZER: Mr. Aguilar was terminated from his contract with UG Solutions on June 13, 2025, due to poor performance, volatile conflicts with staff and erratic behavior.

NICK SCHIFRIN: GHF also charges Aguilar fabricated a memo highlighting its metadata and made threats unless the company gave him a new job.

Aguilar says the memo and its metadata are authentic.

Those threatening words were directed to a fellow contractor about an unrelated dispute, not at UG Solutions, and the possible new job was with a sister company.

LT. COL. ANTHONY AGUILAR (RET): My family has been threatened, I have been threatened directly and indirectly.

And for anybody that may think that does not deter me, because my loyalty lies with the American people, American values, what we all agree to as a society and as a country and as a nation and as a world what's right and what's not.

CHAPIN FAY (Gaza Humanitarian Foundation): GHF was never designed and never supposed to solve this problem alone.

NICK SCHIFRIN: GHF and its spokesman, Chapin Fay, argue the U.N. must deliver more aid inside of Gaza and Israel must allow more aid into Gaza, and that's the only way to defeat desperation.

GHF says it has delivered 100 million meals.

And GHF says, since Aguilar's final day on the job in mid-June, it's made improvements, establishing separate women's and children's-only distribution.

The IDF recently said it reorganized a GHF site with new fencing, signage and entry routes.

And both Israel and the GHF blame Hamas and point to these videos that the Israeli military says depict Hamas shaking down Palestinians after receiving GHF aid and enjoying food while the people starve.

And they say violence at GHF sites is Hamas-instigated and GHF contractors act responsibly, despite threats.

It says that Hamas has placed bounties on GHF staff, murdered 12 Palestinian staff and injured two American contractors with a grenade attack at one of the sites.

And in that particular incident, GHF argues that those contractors did not return fire -- quote -- "that restraint and professionalism should be commended."

Do you acknowledge that argument that GHF faces a threat?

LT. COL. ANTHONY AGUILAR (RET): Hamas are a threat and they are an enemy, and they are present.

I absolutely do not argue with that.

There is absolutely a need to have security.

However, the presence of a threat doesn't then mean that you can use barbaric, aggressive, forceful tactics against the entire population because some of them might be Hamas.

We're not combatants.

We are not belligerents in the war against Hamas.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Since late May, outside the GHF sites and areas exclusively under Israeli military control, the U.N. says more than 850 Palestinian civilians have been killed.

Why do you think that's happening?

LT. COL. ANTHONY AGUILAR (RET): I know many, many of the contractors are very concerned about the conduct and the discipline of the Israeli Defense Force units in Gaza.

They have made this very clear to us.

They're not shy about it.

"We shoot at the crowds to communicate with them."

That's what they say?

"We shoot to communicate."

So is it plausible then that shooting at night at these crowds to control the crowd, that people are dying?

Absolutely.

NICK SCHIFRIN: The Israel Defense Forces told "PBS NewsHour" -- quote -- "Any claim that the IDF deliberately fires at civilians is false and entirely unfounded.

IDF regulations strictly prohibit intentional fire at civilians.

Forces are permitted to carry out warning shots as part of a graduated response to threats posed to them."

In the end, Aguilar says he wants the mission of feeding the hungry to succeed, and he's speaking out because he wants it to be -- quote -- "done right."

LT. COL. ANTHONY AGUILAR (RET): After 25 years of service in the United States Army, I hung up my uniform, but I did not hang up my oath.

My oath is to the Constitution of the United States.

That Constitution is founded in values, American values.

We treat people with dignity and respect.

What we were doing in Gaza and how we were doing it is un-American.

It is not in line with American values.

I didn't raise my right hand and take an oath to a president, to a Congress, to a contract, to money.

I took an oath to the Constitution.

And those values are not what's happening in Gaza.

GEOFF BENNETT: Our thanks to Nick Schifrin for that report.

This week, the White House says President Trump will soon unveil a new plan to increase food aid to Gazans.

AMNA NAWAZ: The National Transportation Safety Board has wrapped up a three-day investigative hearing into the midair collision between a helicopter and a passenger jet in Washington, D.C., that killed 67 people back in January.

New information confirms the crew of the Black Hawk helicopter faced several problems, including incorrect altitude measurements and issues hearing air traffic controllers.

Aviation correspondent Miles O'Brien is here to unpack it all.

So, Miles, three days of public hearings.

Do we have a better understanding of what went wrong?

What stood out to you?

MILES O'BRIEN: We do, Amna.

One thing that stood out to me is, this was a very contentious NTSB hearing.

That normally doesn't occur that way.

And a lot of the focus and the ire was directed at the Federal Aviation Administration.

We have to begin with the fact, Amna, that the tower at Washington Reagan Airport was understaffed.

One controller was handling two frequencies, the fixed-wing airliner coming in for landing and the helicopter traffic designed to fly beneath that flight path.

That controller was overwhelmed.

And, as you pointed out, inside that darkened Army helicopter on a training mission, there was confusion on communication.

There was a little bit of confusion about what altitude they were at.

And, ultimately, when the controller said, do you see the airliner, they looked at apparently another aircraft and said, yes, we do.

But it wasn't the aircraft that they ultimately collided with.

So, a series of confusing events, and ultimately, at the root of it, an overwhelmed flight controller who was handling two frequencies where two people should have been assigned.

AMNA NAWAZ: And, Miles, as we know, the families of the victims were attending the hearings.

They were hearing all of these details.

It had to be difficult for them.

But they also heard Jennifer Homendy, who's the NTSB chair, criticize the FAA, the Federal Aviation Administration, for not taking ownership of the collision, she said, and also said the agency ignored warnings after one of their towers had flagged a safety risk.

Take a listen.

JENNIFER HOMENDY, Chair, National Transportation Safety Board: But you guys are pointing out, well, our bureaucratic process, somebody should have brought it up at some other symposium.

Are you kidding me?

Sixty-seven people are dead.

How do you explain that?

Our bureaucratic process?

Do you know we actually added up how many steps it takes to get from the tower to headquarters to figure out - - and we ran all sorts of scenarios, how many steps it takes to get a policy change.

Twenty-one steps.

Fix it.

Do better.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, Miles, what was and what should be the FAA role here?

MILES O'BRIEN: Yes, 21 steps, bureaucratic inertia, to say the least, and ultimately costing a lot of lives.

Amna, this architecture of airspace in Washington for years was an area of great concern.

To have helicopters fly beneath that flight path with only 75 feet margin of error was clearly a safety issue, and yet the FAA for years did nothing about it.

Amna, over the past three years, there were no less than 85 near-collisions in that sector.

And that is a system blinking red, and the FAA did nothing.

AMNA NAWAZ: Miles, I have to ask you, because folks will have seen a number of other headlines about airline travel, one severe turbulence on a Delta flight in which a number of people were injured, another close call over North Dakota between a B-52 bomber and a Delta jet.

Is it still safe to fly?

MILES O'BRIEN: Statistically, it is.

It's still the safest way to get from point A to point B.

But we are seeing the system developing stress fractures, Amna.

The understaffing, the bureaucratic inertia, the safety redundancies built into this system are being shaved away.

And this accident we have just been talking about, this midair, is a warning call that the system is in trouble and it's time to invest in the people, the personnel and the technology to modernize this system and take these serious safety concerns much more seriously.

For years, Amna, people in the aviation world have said the FAA has a tombstone mentality.

Unfortunately, that's what we're seeing here.

And it's time that changed.

AMNA NAWAZ: Miles O'Brien, thank you, as always, for your time.

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

GEOFF BENNETT: The White House announced plans for one of the largest renovations of the executive mansion in decades, a 90,000-square-foot state ballroom that will be built in the East Wing of the White House complex.

The cost is some $200 million, with construction set to begin in September.

The White House says it'll be funded by donations from President Trump and other private donors DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: We have been planning it for a long time.

They have wanted a ballroom at the White House for more than 150 years, but there's never been a president that was good at ballroom.

I'm really good.

GEOFF BENNETT: For more on this, we're joined by Tamara Keith, senior White House correspondent for NPR.

There's never been a president who's been good at ballrooms, President Trump says, Tam.

So what more do we know about this project, how it came to be, and who's been driving this effort behind the scenes?

TAMARA KEITH, National Public Radio: He is driving this effort behind the scenes.

This is something that he has been on a mission to have built all the way back at least until 2010.

I spoke with David Axelrod, who was an adviser to then-President Obama.

He got a call from Donald Trump, then just a man on the outside, offering initially to help with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, you might remember.

Then, when that was solved, he called back and he said, hey, I can build ballrooms.

You need a ballroom.

These tents are no good.

Typically, state dinners have been held in tents because the largest event space at the White House is the East Room, and it only holds maybe about 200 people seated for dinner.

So Trump called and tried to get Axelrod to let him build a ballroom at the White House.

That didn't work out.

Trump has never forgotten the slight.

And over the last 15 years, he has talked about this repeatedly.

We know now that in the last few months, he's had a number of meetings to get this going.

And he has been very serious, and now it's really happening.

GEOFF BENNETT: And this is the latest in a string of Trump era changes to the White House.

You have got the redesigned Rose Garden.

You have got those towering flagpoles.

You have got the gold accents all over the Oval Office.

How much of this is about aesthetics and how much of it is about branding, the president really trying to put his stamp on the executive mansion itself?

TAMARA KEITH: Yes, the president is putting his stamp on the presidency with his expansive view of executive power.

And he is also very much putting a stamp on the executive mansion, on the White House, all the way down to the medallions above the light fixtures in the Cabinet Room, which he insisted that they have installed because he thought that it just didn't look right before.

He is doing this personally.

It is -- this is a hobby.

He says it gets his builder juices flowing.

And you can't forget that that is where he started.

It's part of his origin story.

And it's clearly something that he is preoccupied with.

GEOFF BENNETT: And the White House says the $200 million price tag will be covered by President Trump and so-called patriot donors.

What kinds of ethical questions does that raise, especially around donor influence?

And then there's a host of potential conflicts of interest.

TAMARA KEITH: Yes, I think we don't have a lot of clarity at this point on who these donors are.

I asked the White House.

They said that they expect them to remain anonymous unless people announce -- they want to announce it themselves.

And it is the case that, with many projects at the White House, it's not funded by the American people.

Many aspects of the upkeep of the White House, the art, the drapery, some of these things, are actually funded by outside groups that are nonprofits that raise money through donations.

GEOFF BENNETT: And the timing is notable because, just last week, the president criticized the Fed chair, Jerome Powell, for what he called luxurious and expensive renovations at the Federal Reserve.

So what kind of transparency can the public expect around this new White House project in terms of the cost and the budget?

TAMARA KEITH: I don't think that the public can expect a lot of transparency.

As we know, with many things involving the White House and the executive branch, no matter the administration, but let's be honest, especially this administration, there just isn't a lot of transparency.

And especially because this is being funded by outside donors and not being paid for by the taxpayers, it's just very hard to get information out of the White House, until 25 years later, when it shows up in the National Archives.

GEOFF BENNETT: Tamara Keith of NPR with us on a Friday night, instead of a Monday, it's always good to see you.

TAMARA KEITH: Good to see you.

AMNA NAWAZ: With the White House surveying the food situation in Gaza today and Vice President Harris making her first television appearance since losing the election, we now turn to the analysis of Brooks and Capehart.

That is New York Times columnist David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart of MSNBC.

Welcome to you both.

So, David, I want to start with the president's approach to the economy and really more to his power.

We did see him unveil a whole new slate of tariffs on a number of nations, including Canada.

And, today, as we reported earlier, he chose to fire the labor official who's responsible for the jobs numbers after a lower-than-expected jobs report, accusing her of political manipulations.

The White House has cited those numbers before when they're in their favor, but what do you make of this move?

DAVID BROOKS: Well, it's not true.

I mean, we have used these data.

I would say some of the most trusted arbiters of information are the BLS and the CBO, the Congressional Budget Office.

And there are professionals.

And I have met some of them who do this work, and that's all they care about, is getting the numbers right.

I don't think it can cross Donald Trump's mind that there are neutral arbiters who are objective and are not politicized.

But this is the weakness of authoritarian or pseudo-authoritarian regimes, is, they create an atmosphere in which it's not possible to be honest with the executive.

And so you walk around there filled with distorted information.

And the perverse thing about this is that the news is not terrible.

I mean, we had 70-some-odd thousand jobs, new jobs.

That's not like -- it's going to get worse, by the way, if the business cycle goes up and down as normal.

Second, the economy is suffering because of the Trump tariffs.

Jason Furman, who was on earlier this week, said it's like you took 1,000 bucks out of every family's household, and then you did that for the rest of their lives.

And so there's cuts in growth and there's hints of stagflation.

But it's not the recession that a lot of economists were expecting because the tariffs were not as bad as a lot of economists were expecting.

So the news is not bad, and Donald Trump's firing of this person is symptomatic of the way information and honesty are being distorted up and down.

And when Speaker Johnson tried to discredit the CBO numbers on how much debt would be caused by the Big Beautiful Bill, that was part of this process of getting rid of the umpires.

When you have no umpires or referees, you don't have a fair game.

AMNA NAWAZ: Jonathan, what do you make of this?

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Well, I agree with everything that David says.

As he was talking, I was thinking about this song from the 1970s musical "The Wiz," where you have the bad witch, Evillene, singing, don't nobody bring me no bad news.

Donald Trump famously said a few months ago, if the economic news is bad, it's Biden's fault, and if it's good, I should get the praise.

And no one likes it.

No executive likes it when bad news comes out of the Bureau of Labor Statistics or if the CBO scores a bill that they want poorly.

But what no president has done until today was, as David said, fire the referee.

I mean, I think from this point going forward, I wonder if we as journalists can trust the information coming out of BLS in the months ahead, simply because the president is demanding that they mold and shift economic data to please him.

And that does no one any good.

AMNA NAWAZ: Let's shift our focus overseas now, David, because this week we saw a bit of a shift in how President Trump at least talks about what's happening in Gaza right now.

He talked about the suffering of Palestinians in a new way, saying you can't fake it when you have seen images of the starvation.

We saw special envoy Steve Witkoff and Ambassador Mike Huckabee on the ground there to see it for themselves.

We also saw the very first Republican member of Congress to say that she believes Israel's conduct in Gaza is genocide.

And that was Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Trump and MAGA loyalist.

Is this a bigger shift or is this about this moment in time?

DAVID BROOKS: I think it's about this moment in time.

I think what's happened, and this is true in Israel, too, is a lot of people who thought that Hamas need to be defeated are taking a look what happened in the last six months, eight months, a year or even before and saying, what the heck?

Like, this is callous, cruel.

It's -- so many people are dying.

And then, as we just saw in Nick's report, it's marked by incompetence on all levels.

It's marked by IDF incompetence.

It's marked by the American contractors and the American government.

Remember when Joe Biden tried to put a port into Gaza, which was a total failure?

And so there's just been a level of incompetence on top of what you could call cruelty.

And a lot of Israelis are now saying, this can't stand.

And we even have Israeli human rights groups, or at least one calling it genocide, which I don't think it's accurate.

I think it's more accurate to say it's ruthless warfare.

It's more like the Battle of Dresden in the middle of a war situation of being callously disregarding to civilian casualties.

I think that's more accurate than genocide.

But there has been a shift.

And the good - - if I can find a silver lining here, the Arab League today or this week, a unanimous vote, said that Hamas needs to step down, free the hostages and get out of Gaza.

And somehow this shift is, a lot of -- some people, at least in the Arab League, are seeing this as an opportunity.

I don't know if it is, but there is a shift in the way people are thinking about this conflict.

AMNA NAWAZ: Jonathan, what do you make both of what we have heard from President Trump and also the fact that more Senate Democrats than ever before this week voted to block weapon sales to Israel?

How are you looking at this?

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Oh, I'm looking at it as the ground is shifting in the perceptions and the long-held views of United States' support for Israel, for the Israeli government.

2 But the thing that I find most galling about what President Trump said about what we're seeing coming out of Gaza, this is a man who is the leader of the free world, who gets an intelligence briefing every morning.

He has more access to information than anyone else on the planet.

And his diagnosis of what's going on is, the television pictures look really bad?

To me, that says the president of the United States is not active behind the scenes using American power and muscle to bring forth a resolution to the war between Israel and Hamas, and instead is worried about the optics, the public relations disaster that this is, as he said before, for Israel.

What needs to happen in that region is for true, real American leadership, and it's not happening.

AMNA NAWAZ: Meanwhile, last night, as I'm sure you both saw, in her very first interview since the 2024 election, former Vice President Kamala Harris spoke to Stephen Colbert and explained her decision not to run for California governor or any other office right now.

Take a listen.

KAMALA HARRIS, Former Vice President of the United States: I believe and I always believed that, as fragile as our democracy is, our systems would be strong enough to defend our most fundamental principles.

And I think right now that they're not as strong as they need to be.

And I just don't want to -- for now, I don't want to go back in the system.

AMNA NAWAZ: David, it's a system she described as broken.

What do you make of that response?

DAVID BROOKS: First, I give people who've lost a presidential race a lot of grace.

It's apparently brutal.

Bob Dole used to joke, what's it like to lose?

He says, oh, I sleep just like a baby.

I wake up every three hours screaming.

And so it's super hard to be in that position.

One thing I really like what she said, and one thing I didn't like what she said.

The system is broken.

Running for governor -- the gubernatorial system is not broken.

Governors all around the country are doing wonderful work.

And Washington is a little broken, but running for governor, I think, would be a nice way to serve the country.

But that's totally up to her, obviously.

The part where I totally agreed with her was, she made a point about capitulation.

And this has shocked me too, that, in Israel, when Bibi tried to do these judicial reforms before October 7, hundreds of thousands of people got to the street and they did it for month after month after month.

And now we have a similar situation.

And this happens all across the world.

When somebody tries to centralize power, the people rise up.

And why have the people not risen up?

And everybody's cutting separate deals.

And I see business leaders, university presidents, other people laying low and not trying to rise up.

And, therefore, there's strength in numbers, and we're not using that strength.

Trump can pick people off one and another.

And so I think that civic capitulation that she mentioned, that is a real thing.

AMNA NAWAZ: Jonathan, what did you make of the interview?

JONATHAN CAPEHART: I watched all 20-something minutes of it.

And I think what we saw was a former vice president who ran for president, lost and is still coming to terms with that loss, and deciding not to run for governor is, basically just to boil it down, possibly just a form of self-care.

But she also said in that interview that she's going to spend this time going around the country and listening to people without having the baggage of being seen as someone running for office and only talking to people because she wants their votes.

And I think that's a good thing.

And that matches up to what she said later on in the interview, which she -- when Colbert asked her who's the leader of the Democratic Party, and she said, look, we make a mistake when we look for that one person.

It's up to all of us to jump in and push back on what's happening in the country and do the kind of leadership that we are pining for.

Get out there and do it.

AMNA NAWAZ: Jonathan, before we go, folks will have noticed that we introduced you slightly differently tonight than we usually do.

We should point out, after nearly two decades at The Washington Post, you recently made the decision to leave.

I just wanted to give you a chance to speak directly to our audience to tell them why.

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Well, the direction of the opinion section changed.

Jeff Bezos, the owner of The Washington Post, as is his right, decided that he wanted the section to focus on the twin pillars of personal liberties and free markets.

And it became clear, as time went along, and especially when he chose a new leader for the section, that there was just not going to be any room for a voice like mine, especially when we were told that we would have to be unapologetically patriotic in talking about the positive things happening in the country.

How can you talk about the positive things happening in the country when the rest of the house is engulfed in flames and the foundation is flooding?

I wanted to go someplace where my voice would be heard.

AMNA NAWAZ: Jonathan Capehart, we're so glad your voice is heard right here at our table, David Brooks, yours as well.

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Thank you.

AMNA NAWAZ: My thanks to you both.

GEOFF BENNETT: For decades, prominent photographer Platon has been taking portraits of some of the world's most prominent people, from heads of state to movie stars and everyone in between.

Tonight, we share his dialogue with Pakistani filmmaker and political activist Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, who focuses on gender inequality.

It's part of our arts and culture series, Canvas.

PLATON, Photographer: You're helping me understand that I'm very lucky to have you here because of what you know and what you have been through.

And I need to know what you know.

SHARMEEN OBAID-CHINOY, Filmmaker and Political Activist: We are holding ourselves back.

So I will talk to the women.

We all need to make this massive push forward.

We all need to be fighting, because, if we all start fighting, if we all speak the same language, how are you going to hold half the world back?

PLATON: What do you say to a young girl who thinks that the people around her don't value her as a human being as much as a boy of the same age?

SHARMEEN OBAID-CHINOY: I say to her that life is going to be very tough, that you will have to fight for a place on the dinner table to even get a piece of bread.

You're going to have to fight to get an education.

You're going to have to fight to be allowed to go out of your house to find a job.

You're going to have to fight once you're at your workplace to get fair wages.

You're going to then have to fight to get promoted.

Then you're going to have to fight with your husband when he wants more of your time and he wants you to quit a job.

Then you're going to have to fight for your children.

But, eventually, once you get there, you have to fight for other women.

PLATON: Now we're getting somewhere.

If they were to ask you advice, what would you say to them who want to be useful?

SHARMEEN OBAID-CHINOY: The volume of leadership is what I want men to help women with.

That is what we need the doors opened for.

We are qualified.

We have everything that it takes.

Kick open that door for us and watch us march forward.

We don't need anyone to hold our hands.

PLATON: Eyes open.

Eyes here.

SHARMEEN OBAID-CHINOY: My message to any young woman who's trying to achieve her dreams, or who's trying to fight through a patriarchal system, or who's just trying to exist today, be free.

Choose freedom.

My name is Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy.

I am a storyteller.

I hold up a mirror to society, so that people can see their reflection.

PLATON: It's a great privilege to be here.

I love my job on days like this.

SHARMEEN OBAID-CHINOY: Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: Don't forget to watch "Washington Week" later tonight and "PBS News Weekend" tomorrow.

That is the "News Hour" for tonight.

I'm Geoff Bennett.

AMNA NAWAZ: And I'm Amna Nawaz.

On behalf of the entire "News Hour" team, thank you for joining us, and have a great weekend.