September 17, 2024 - PBS News Hour full episode

GEOFF BENNETT: Good evening.

I'm Geoff Bennett.

AMNA NAWAZ: And I'm Amna Nawaz.

On the "News Hour" tonight: In an apparent Israeli attack, hundreds of Hezbollah pagers explode across Lebanon, killing at least eight people and injuring thousands.

GEOFF BENNETT: With seven weeks until Election Day, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump hit the campaign trail in critical swing states.

AMNA NAWAZ: And we explore the deepest depths and efforts to mine valuable metals from the ocean floor.

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

It was an unprecedented and shocking attack.

All across Lebanon today, pagers used by members of the militant group Hezbollah exploded.

Lebanon's Health Ministry says 2,700 people were injured and nine were killed, including a young girl.

Hezbollah blamed Israel for the attack.

Israel has not made any public statement.

GEOFF BENNETT: It comes as tensions between Israel and Lebanon have been near boiling for almost a year since just after the October 7 Hamas terror attacks on Israel.

Days later, Hezbollah stepped up fire into Northern Israel.

The two sides have had near-daily exchanges of artillery and rocket fire since forcing thousands to flee.

Nick Schifrin is here with more.

So, Nick, walk us through your reporting and tell us more about what happened.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Geoff, experts I spoke to all day describe this attack as audacious, never seen before anywhere and an almost unbelievable scale.

And you can really see that even from the videos that immediately come out, Lebanese Hezbollah members in markets going about their days.

All of a sudden, the pagers they're wearing on their belts -- you see that in a market there -- or in their pockets or bags exploded.

Pagers in Syria exploded too.

And that led to 2,700 wounded, as you said, hundreds of them serious.

So the expectation tonight is the total death toll and the total wounded toll will increase, Geoff.

So what happened?

Officially, we do not know.

As you said, Hezbollah blamed Israel.

I asked an Israeli official about that.

The only response I got was an emoji of a shrugged shoulders.

So that's what Israel is saying, nothing.

The experts I speak to, though, do believe that Israel conducted this attack.

And they believe the most likely scenario is that the pagers were altered to include small explosives.

And that means the supply chain of the pagers were compromised by some entity that wanted to do damage to Hezbollah.

Experts also tell me that, a few months ago, Hezbollah switched over from cell phones to pagers, thinking that there would be less surveillance by Israel.

Obviously, that backfired.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, how much of a blow is this to Hezbollah?

NICK SCHIFRIN: It's a big blow; 2,700, as you said, is a lot of people, not aimed at the leadership, not even at the hardcore militants.

Experts tell me it was actually aimed at the mid-level members of Hezbollah.

It also means that it affected thousands of families in Southern Beirut and Southern Lebanon.

That will put a lot more pressure on Hezbollah to respond.

It's extremely embarrassing, in the words of one expert, a slap in the face to the leaders, demoralizing to supporters, raises real questions, of course, about the group's security and, depending on where these pagers are from, Iranian security as well.

Israel recently struck Fuad Shukr.

That is Hezbollah's number three in southern Beirut.

And so, again, that just leads to the idea, the feeling among Hezbollah right now that Israel can get anyone anywhere.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, as we said, tensions are extremely high.

And this follows political announcements by the Israeli government.

Put that into context for us.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Yes, the timing here is very interesting.

At 5:00 in the morning Israel time, Israel's security cabinet released a statement that added a goal to their official war aims in Gaza - - quote -- "returning the residents of the war securely to their homes," a reference to the 60,000 Northern Israelis who have been internally displaced since the October 7 Hamas attack and October the 8th, when Hezbollah opened fire.

Now, that came a few hours after Yoav Gallant, Israel's defense minister, declared that U.S.-led diplomatic efforts to try and de-escalate between Israel and Hezbollah were dead.

Gallant said - - quote -- "The only way left to return the residents to the north to their homes is via military action."

Now, that was a readout of Gallant's meeting with U.S. diplomats that he was meeting yesterday to try and de-escalate - - de-escalate tension,Well, Amos Hochstein, who's a special adviser to the president.

And a senior adviser -- senior administration official told me that Hochstein's message was this.

Hochstein cautioned them that the U.S. does not believe a broader conflict in Lebanon achieves the goal of returning residents to their home in the north.

It risks a much broader and protracted regional conflict.

Hochstein made this clear to Israeli officials and the U.S. remains committed to a diplomatic solution.

That was yesterday, Geoff, in those meetings.

Today, the fear of escalation is very high.

GEOFF BENNETT: So, based on your reporting, where might all of this lead?

NICK SCHIFRIN: So some of the experts, I believe -- some of the experts spoke to I spoke to said that they believe that Israel is trying to message that Israel is serious about Northern Israel, the residents who are no longer in their homes, Hezbollah is overreaching, and that this was a message to accept the diplomatic terms that Hochstein has been trying to get them to accept, which is essentially moving Hezbollah fighters about six miles away from the Lebanon-Israel border behind the Litani River.

The hope in this analysis is that Hezbollah doesn't want war, it can't afford it politically in Lebanon, and also Iran doesn't want Hezbollah to go to war with Israel because Hezbollah is Iran's best deterrent.

But Lebanese analysts and other experts I speak to, Geoff, say, no way, that this is so embarrassing to Hezbollah, it will cause an escalation.

Hezbollah has to respond in a violent way, in a different way than it has in the past, and that could lead to Israel doing the same and a cycle of escalation, the very cycle the U.S. is trying to avoid.

GEOFF BENNETT: Nick Schifrin, thank you so much for walking us through all of this.

We appreciate it.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: Now we turn to the presidential campaign, with Election Day, just seven weeks from today.

Vice President Kamala Harris sat down for a high-profile interview in Pennsylvania today, while former President Donald Trump is gearing up for a town hall later tonight, just days after an alleged attempted assassination effort was stopped by the U.S. Secret Service.

Laura Barron-Lopez has more.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: The nation's first Black vice president fielding questions from the National Association of Black Journalists in Philadelphia.

Harris addressed her opponent's efforts to win over more Black men this cycle.

KAMALA HARRIS, Vice President of the United States (D) and U.S. Presidential Candidate: I'm working to earn the vote, not assuming I'm going to have it because I am Black, but because the policies and the perspectives I have understands what we must do to recognize the needs of all communities.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: It comes six weeks after the organization hosted former President Trump, who sparred with the journalists and questioned Harris' racial identity.

DONALD TRUMP, Former President of the United States (R) and Current U.S. Presidential Candidate: Now she wants to be known as black.

So, I don't know.

Is she Indian or is she black?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Today's interview with Harris struck a different tone.

Eugene Daniels of Politico asked the vice president about Springfield, Ohio, which has seen a spike in violent threats after Trump spread lies about immigrants eating pets there.

KAMALA HARRIS: When you have these positions, when you have that kind of microphone in front of, you really ought to understand at a very deep level how much your words have meaning.

And I think most people in our country, regardless of their race, are starting to see through this nonsense and to say, you know what, let's turn the page on this.

This is exhausting and it's harmful.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: She also condemned the apparent assassination attempt that unfolded on Sunday, when Secret Service spotted a gunman in the tree line of Trump's own golf course.

Harris said she spoke with the former president by phone earlier this afternoon.

KAMALA HARRIS: I checked on him to see if he was OK. And I told him what I have said publicly.

There is no place for political violence in our country.

We can and should have healthy debates and discussion and disagreements, but not resort to violence to resolve those issues.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: A federal investigation into the incident is still in its early stages.

In Florida today, Governor Ron DeSantis announced a state-level criminal probe and said prosecutors will pursue attempted murder charges against the suspect.

As for the Trump camp: SEN. J.D.

VANCE (R-OH), Vice Presidential Candidate: Don't lecture Donald Trump about softening his rhetoric after two people tried to kill him.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: His running mate, J.D.

Vance, blamed Democrats again today while campaigning in Michigan.

SEN. J.D.

VANCE: I can sometimes do better, but we have to remember, Donald Trump is getting shot at.

They need to cut that crap out or they're going to get somebody hurt.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: After the second apparent assassination attempt, Vance railed against unnamed Democrats for calling Trump a fascist, despite Trump himself repeatedly calling Harris one.

Meanwhile, to guard against another attempt by Trump to overturn the election results, some political figures are coming together to maintain a peaceful transfer of power.

A group of bipartisan former governors put out a letter today urging their successors to certify the election results in their states and reject any delays, stating: "While there is much to debate on the campaign trail, we expect all candidates, and the American people will agree, that this time-honored process during our postelection period is not open for debate."

On the campaign trail, the parties are celebrating National Voter Registration Day.

GOV.

TIM WALZ (D-MN), Vice Presidential Candidate: IWillVote.com is the place where you go to get Voter Registration Day.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: With Harris' running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, out in Georgia.

And Trump is expected back on the trail with a town hall in Flint, Michigan, later tonight, out for the first time since what appears to be the second attempt on his life.

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

GEOFF BENNETT: And we have one additional note involving the presidential campaign.

Microsoft is warning of a shift in Russian election influence efforts toward the Harris/Walz campaign using fake and misleading videos.

The latest report from the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center says it reflects a strategic move by Russian actors aimed at exploiting any perceived vulnerabilities in the new candidates.

Microsoft adds that we should expect more such staged videos and A.I.-enhanced propaganda heading into the November election.

AMNA NAWAZ: The day's other headlines start in Central Europe, where major cities are bracing for the worst flooding in years to head downstream.

In Budapest, along the Danube, soldiers filled sandbags to keep the river from overflowing its banks.

Floodwaters have claimed around 20 lives so far across Central Europe and submerged entire towns.

Thousands have been displaced.

In Poland, the government has declared a state of natural disaster in the south following heavy rains.

In areas where floodwaters have receded, as seen here in the Czech Republic, residents are left to pick up the pieces.

ZUZANA KUBLOVA, Czech Resident (through translator): The damage will be huge.

All is destroyed downstairs.

The floors are gone.

We are like newlyweds resettling again, but it is not very amusing.

AMNA NAWAZ: Meantime, in Northern Portugal, it's a very different scene, as thousands of firefighters battle some hundred wildfires that have killed at least six people.

More than 50 others have been injured.

And with no rain in the forecast, national authorities say a fire alert will stay in place until Thursday.

The Senate rejected a motion today on whether to consider legislation that would protect in vitro fertilization, or IVF.

The final tally was 51-44.

Sixty votes were needed in favor to open debate on the measure.

That was the second time such a bill came to the floor this year, and it was widely expected to fail.

But it was a chance for Democrats to put Republican lawmakers on the record and draw a contrast between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump on the issue.

Majority Leader Chuck Schumer spoke before the vote.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): Expanding insurance coverage for IVF is not a partisan an issue.

A survey from Pew Research showed seven in 10 Americans say access to IVF is a good thing.

Just 8 percent oppose it, 8 percent.

AMNA NAWAZ: IVF protections came to national prominence earlier this year when the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law.

Several clinics canceled the treatments.

The state's Republican-led legislature then enacted a law to provide legal protections for those providing IVF services.

New details are emerging about the company behind the Titan submersible that imploded last year on its way to the Titanic wreckage site.

Former OceanGate operations director David Lochridge told a Coast Guard hearing today that the company's co-founder, Stockton Rush, who died in the accident, put profits over safety.

DAVID LOCHRIDGE, Former OceanGate Operations Director: Cost-cutting And bad engineering decisions, I'd say that's the two main things.

There was a big push to get this done and a lot of steps along the way were missed.

AMNA NAWAZ: Investigators recently released this photo showing remains of the Titan lodged in the seafloor.

The vessel imploded in June of last year, killing all five people on board and raising questions about the future of private undersea exploration.

Instagram is rolling out a new type of account for teenagers.

As of today, new users under the age of 18 will be placed into private accounts automatically.

This means teens will only receive messages from those they follow or are connected to.

So-called sensitive content, like people promoting cosmetic procedures, will be limited.

And teens will be notified if they have been using the app for more than an hour.

The new policy comes as Instagram parent company Meta faces dozens of lawsuits that say its social media platforms can be addictive and hurt children's mental health.

Wall Street ended with little change today as investors wait for tomorrow's decision by the Federal Reserve on interest rates.

The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 15 points, falling back just a bit from yesterday's record high.

The Nasdaq added around 35 points on the day, and the S&P 500 barely budged, adding just a single point.

Still to come on the "News Hour": hip-hop mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs is arraigned in federal court on sex trafficking charges; Springfield, Ohio, remains on edge as Donald Trump and J.D.

Vance continue spreading lies about Haitian migrants; and world-renowned scientist and physician Francis Collins discusses his new book on science and faith.

GEOFF BENNETT: Federal authorities are charging music mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs with racketeering, violent abuse, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution in a sweeping federal indictment.

The details of that indictment were revealed this morning after Combs, who was the subject of a sex trafficking investigation and a pair of federal raids, was arrested in New York City last night.

Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, in a press conference today said Combs used his extensive music and business empire as a criminal outfit.

DAMIAN WILLIAMS, U.S. Attorney, Southern District of New York: And the indictment alleges that he maintained control over the victims in several ways, including by giving them drugs, by giving and threatening to take away financial support or housing, by promising them career opportunities, by monitoring their whereabouts, and even by dictating their physical appearance.

Because of all of this, the indictment alleges that the victims did not believe they could refuse Combs without risking their security or facing more abuse.

GEOFF BENNETT: Combs pleaded not guilty in court today and has denied prior allegations.

The federal judge ordered he be held without bail.

For more on the charges, we're joined by Sidney Madden, reporter for NPR Music.

So, Sidney, according to this 14-page indictment, authorities alleged that Sean Combs turned his business empire into a criminal enterprise in which he and his associates engaged in sex trafficking, forced labor and other crimes.

Walk us through what he stands accused of.

SIDNEY MADDEN, NPR Music: Absolutely.

So, Combs is being indicted on three counts, racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, and interstate transportation for prostitution, which basically just means transporting commercial sex workers across state lines.

GEOFF BENNETT: And critical to this indictment are the allegations of use of force and coercion, using guns, in some cases plying people with drugs.

Help us understand that dynamic as laid out in this indictment.

SIDNEY MADDEN: Absolutely.

Well, there are a few key factors to this indictment, to this suit that makes it stand far and beyond, like, alone from all the others that he's been facing.

The first is that all the other cases that he's been answering to in the last year, almost a year now, have been civil lawsuits.

And this is the first criminal proceeding, criminal case.

And the second is that it is a RICO case.

It really shows how this was a whole orchestrated effort, according to the allegations in the indictment.

He's really being accused of riling everyone around him, corralling them and directing them to do all of his bidding to do things like procure drugs, procure commercial sex workers, taking sex workers over state lines, paying off certain people, setting up sets for these things, these sexual performance parties called freak-offs, and absolutely coercing many people around him to take part in it, enable it or turn a blind eye in the midst of him harming many victims over the years.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, remind us how we got to this point because this indictment paints Sean Combs as someone who is as dangerous as he is depraved.

And just a year ago, he was standing in the middle of Times Square getting the ceremonial key to the city from the mayor of New York, Eric Adams.

SIDNEY MADDEN: Yes, this has been an absolute flip of the switch on Sean "Diddy" Combs career legacy, his entire persona, and his level of prominence in, let's say, the court of public opinion, because all of this really tipped off last November when Diddy's then-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura, released her civil suit that really opened the floodgates.

And she detailed allegations that went back decades, similar to this 14-page indictment, which started -- starts in about 2008.

And one of the key accusations that Cassie makes is that Diddy forced her to take illicit drugs for years and participate in these freak-offs and do everything in his power to manipulate her life and livelihood just for the sake of his own abuse of power over that time.

So, even though Diddy has been fashioned as something of like Great Gatsby, someone who's made the career of so many greats in hip-hop and R&B, he's also been someone who's been positioned as a titan of industry and who will do anything to get the job done.

But now, with all of these lawsuits rolling out, people are starting to change their opinion on the dark underbelly and the abuse of power that it took to gain that reputation.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, how else do those litany of civil suits that he's facing, how do they mirror or overlap with this federal indictment?

SIDNEY MADDEN: The avalanche of a lot of the civil suits that really created a pathology of behavior or an image of Diddy's behavior for decades, they really do run parallel to a lot of the claims made in this indictment.

For example, back in March, two of Diddy's residences were raided by Homeland Security, one mansion in L.A., one mansion in Miami.

And that was kind of the first clue that there would be some criminal proceedings taking place off of these civil lawsuits.

His lawyer at the time even said that the search warrants were issued based off -- quote, unquote -- "meritless claims" made in civil suits.

And, earlier today, U.S. attorney Damian Williams, he basically confirmed that the civil suits and this criminal suit are inextricably linked, because, within that raid, he detailed how there were firearms seized, there were electronics that have evidence of these freak-offs, these explicit sex parties that he forced people to take part in.

And there were also stockpiles of a lot of the other supplies that were required for Diddy to find pleasure in the sex parties and also used to blackmail his victims later.

GEOFF BENNETT: Sidney Madden with NPR Music.

Sidney, thanks so much.

SIDNEY MADDEN: Thank you.

AMNA NAWAZ: It's been a week since former President Donald Trump and his running mate, J.D.

Vance, threw an ugly spotlight on the small city of Springfield, Ohio, by spreading unverified claims about Haitian immigrants killing and eating people's pets.

Since then, the city has seen multiple bomb threats, school closures, and growing fear within the city's immigrant community.

William Brangham, who was in Springfield earlier, just checked back in with residents and city officials.

He joins us now.

So, William, these city officials are now dealing with a White House national spotlight, with threats coming in.

What do they tell you about how they're handling all this right now?

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: They're having a hard time with it.

I mean, they have had over 33 different kinds of threats.

This is to city hall, local public schools, universities, community centers, either threats coming in via phone or e-mail saying there will be an attack or a bomb will go off in your facility.

Those are under investigation locally, and the FBI is now helping out with those.

None of them have turned out to be real, we should say.

No bombs have been found.

No attacks have happened.

Ohio's Governor Mike DeWine, who I know you're talking with later, said some of these threats are coming in from overseas, from some foreign nation.

He didn't specify which nation it was.

But as Springfield's city manager, Bryan Heck, told us, they have to treat every single one of these threats as real.

He says, look, we do have problems with all of this, a large population that has come into our community.

But them eating pets is not a problem, but these bomb threats really are.

BRYAN HECK, City Manager, Springfield, Ohio: I'm not going to lie.

It's been difficult.

It's been a challenge for us.

We were already facing the challenges and we were facing them head on as it related to the pace at which we have seen our population increase over the last couple of years.

But now to be thrust into the national rhetoric of a highly heated presidential election cycle has just made it very difficult.And it's really unfortunate that our residents have had to endure the impact that they have, especially based off of false claims and false narrative that we have seen here during this presidential election cycle.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Hate groups like the Proud Boys have also been marching through the city.

Residents last week found these fliers from a group affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan saying that Haitian immigrants in Springfield were -- quote -- "disease-ridden and filthy."

Partly because of these threats, the city canceled a 20 year tradition in the city, its CultureFest.

That's been canceled now.

And there is an anti-immigrant march scheduled for the end of the month.

AMNA NAWAZ: William, as challenging as this must be for city officials, I have to imagine it's even worse for the Haitians living in Springfield.

What do you hear from them?

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: A lot of fear, a lot of concern, a lot of confusion.

We spoke to one man yesterday who is a father of two young children.

He and his wife say they live in constant fear.

He has two full-time jobs, and he said, I will only talk to you if you blur my face out and don't use my name, because I don't want any additional publicity.

Here's a little bit of what he said.

MAN: It's not safe for Haitians in Springfield right now, because myself -- today's my day off.

Usually, I take my son and go bike in the park, and I cannot do that anymore, because I'm scared.

When you see accusations like that, lies about the Haitian community, it's pure hatred.

So people actually hate us.

So we don't know who's going to hurt us or who's not going to hurt us.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: That's a very common sentiment.

We spoke with another woman named Philomene Philostin.

She is a local pastor.

She also runs a grocery store that caters to the Haitian community.

She was followed around in her car by a man who followed her after a church service for several blocks.

She tried to shake him, and she said he would only leave when she finally pulled up next to a police car and started talking to the police.

She said that all of the vitriol that's being directed at the Haitians in Springfield overlooks what she argues is the enormous contributions those Haitians have made to the city of Springfield.

Here's how she described that.

PHILOMENE PHILOSTIN, Springfield Resident: It's sad.

Especially, it's all over the news.

And I ask myself is, why all those Haitians helped to build Springfield?

So why they don't see the good thing the Haitian, the immigrant do?

Please stop hurting us.

We don't deserve that.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, William, what about former President Trump and Senator Vance?

Have they responded to any of this now?

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Donald Trump was asked about this on Saturday, about the bomb threats that followed after he spread these unfounded rumors during the debate.

He denied any knowledge of them.

Here's what he said.

DONALD TRUMP, Former President of the United States (R) and Current U.S. Presidential Candidate: I don't know what happened.

With the bomb threats.

I know that it's been taken over by illegal migrants, and that's a terrible thing that happened.

Springfield was this beautiful town, and now they're going through hell.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: I mean, to reiterate, the Haitians in Springfield, the majority of them are not here illegally.

They're covered by temporary protected status.

J.D.

Vance, for his part, said on CNN this weekend that he had to create stories about immigrants in Springfield so that people would pay attention to the larger immigration debate.

And I put that assertion to City Manager Bryan Heck.

And here's what he said.

BRYAN HECK: Any time that somebody wants to mislead or create stories to drum up attention, we know that's problematic.

And we're seeing it played out and lived out in our community right now, how dangerous creating stories and spreading misinformation can be.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Vance also said on the campaign trail today that if these bomb threats are coming from another nation, that he and Donald Trump are blameless for any of the attacks that have been coming.

Again, we need to reiterate that there are no credible reports that Haitians have been harming people's pets.

We have asked the Vance campaign for any names of individuals who they say have contacted them.

They have come up with nobody.

We also spoke with a woman named Casey Rollins.

She works directly with the Haitian community in Springfield, and she says that seeing her city in the middle of this political campaign has been so dispiriting.

CASEY ROLLINS, Executive Director and Board President, St. Vincent de Paul: I think everybody would agree, on this side of the situation anyway, that we are sort of being pawned.

But if we could stop politicizing and criminalizing and dehumanizing the actual people and make this a people initiative, that's all really we want to be able to do, is just care for the folks that are here.

And we stay out of the political realm.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: It does not seem, though, that Springfield is going to be out of the political realm any time soon.

Donald Trump has said he plans to visit the town soon.

AMNA NAWAZ: William Brangham, thank you for covering this so deeply and empathetically.

We appreciate that.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Thank you.

AMNA NAWAZ: Well, throughout all of the turmoil in Springfield, Ohio, Governor Mike DeWine has called for calm.

He sent additional law enforcement resources and condemned hate.

He joins me now.

Governor DeWine, welcome back to the "News Hour."

Thanks for being with us.

GOV.

MIKE DEWINE (R-OH): Good to be with you.

Thank you very much.

AMNA NAWAZ: So I want to put to you something that Senator Vance said earlier at a rally today.

He quoted you, saying that you had said every single one of the bomb threats that Springfield, Ohio, has seen was a hoax and all of the bomb threats came from foreign countries.

Just for clarification, is that accurate?

GOV.

MIKE DEWINE: Some of the bomb threats came from foreign countries.

Others came from in the United States.

And all of them have been hoaxes.

That's correct.

None of them have panned out.

We have obviously checked each one out.

But they have been very disruptive.

Schools have had to close.

We put in our Highway Patrol to the schools, so they can be open today.

And I was glad to see a lot of students were back when Fran and I visited there today.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, when you say that they're hoaxes, that means there haven't actually been bombings.

They have been threats.

But as you just heard from my colleague's conversation with the Springfield city manager, he said you have to respond to every one as if it could be real.

So if the intention is to sow fear, is it working?

GOV.

MIKE DEWINE: Well, Fran and I were in schools today.

We talked to kindergartners, first graders, second graders, and the teachers.

And what the teachers said is, the kids are doing well today, but, yesterday, they had a tough day.

That's how the teachers describe it.

So if the kids are having a tough day, you can imagine that parents have had a tough day.

It's been very disruptive.

We have seen Wittenberg close, our university.

We have seen our Clark State community college have to close.

So, yes, this has been very, very disruptive and very concerning.

And our message has been we're going to supply the help.

Our schools need to stay open.

And we want parents to be able to feel good about sending their children to school.

So, we have put 36 members of the Ohio State Highway Patrol, our special unit, literally in the schools.

They go in the morning in the schools.

They make sure there's no bombs, there's nothing.

We just want to be able to assure the parents that it is safe.

And if I was a parent, I would be concerned as well with all these different threats and all this all this rancor and all this hate.

AMNA NAWAZ: To that point, Governor, former President Trump and Senator Vance have been leaning into dehumanizing and racist tropes about people in need who are legally in your state, saying that they're stealing jobs and that they're stealing homes, and accusing them without evidence of barbaric behavior.

Is that language fueling these threats?

GOV.

MIKE DEWINE: Well, the immigration issue and the border issue obviously is fair game.

We can certainly do better on the border than we're doing.

We could do a lot better.

But if you want to talk about these individuals, these Haitians who are in our cities, our city, look, they're legal.

They came here because they want to work.

They have been hired by our local businessmen and women, and when we talked to them the other morning, they told us these are great workers.

They come to work.

They want to work.

In fact, they want to work overtime.

They're being paid just what, obviously, what anybody else would be paid.

So they have been a boost to the economy.

Springfield in Ohio is really coming back.

And Springfield has seen a lot of new industry come in, and there weren't enough workers.

This is what the companies told us.

After the pandemic, when everything started moving forward, there was not enough workers, and so they started filling them in with these Haitians.

So those comments are -- about eating dogs and things, they're very hurtful.

They're very hurtful for these men and women who work very, very hard.

They're obviously very hurtful for their children.

AMNA NAWAZ: They're hurtful, but are they also fueling these threats?

GOV.

MIKE DEWINE: Well, look, as the mayor said today, Mayor Rue, he said before this, we had Haitians here for three years, four years, and we did not have any of these.

Now, look, the people who are making these threats are the bad people.

They're the wrong people.

We're having some come from overseas.

We have people who want to mess with the United States.

We have some coming within the United States from people who are sick or who think that, for some reason, this is funny.

The original... (CROSSTALK) AMNA NAWAZ: But, Governor, if I may, to that point -- I apologize.

I know our time is limited.

GOV.

MIKE DEWINE: Yes.

AMNA NAWAZ: If these comments that are baseless that are being made by former President Trump and Senator Vance, if they were not being made, would those threats stop?

GOV.

MIKE DEWINE: Well, I don't know.

I can't predict what would happen, but the statements are wrong.

I have said they were wrong.

The mayor has said they were wrong.

And, frankly, they need to stop.

AMNA NAWAZ: As you saw, my colleague William Brangham reported that there has been a real strain on city resources with the arrival of so many people in need.

Can I just ask.

As governor to those people, what kind of support can you offer from the state level?

And what's your message to those members of the Haitian community there who live in your state and are now incredibly scared?

GOV.

MIKE DEWINE: Our message is, you are welcome.

We welcome legal immigrants to come to Ohio who want to work, who want to raise their families, who want to be part of our community.

I said that in my last inaugural speech.

And I will repeat it again.

This is the way we feel.

So, my message to them is, you're very welcome in the community.

Look, there's no doubt -- and everybody will say this -- that having 15,000 new people in the community over the last three or four years has stretched services.

So we were spending time today with my health director focusing on how we can continue to give the city and the local community more help in regard to primary care.

We have a real strain on primary care.

So no one should say that there hasn't been a strain.

There's been a strain on the school.

But we're working hard.

We're working hard every day and the local officials are working hard, the mayor is working hard, the school superintendent to make this work and to move forward.

Springfield's got a great future.

AMNA NAWAZ: That is Ohio Governor Mike DeWine joining us tonight.

Governor, thank you for your time.

Always good to see you.

GOV.

MIKE DEWINE: Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: Mankind has mined the Earth's surface for thousands of years, searching for the metals and minerals that have made it possible to build our cities, arm our militaries and develop new technologies.

Now there's a furious race to find even more metal that will enable the world's energy transition away from fossil fuels.

And that furious race leads mining operators to hunt for deposits in increasingly remote locations, none more so than the floor of the distant Bismarck Sea in Papua New Guinea, where one company this summer started to dig at what may become the world's first operational deep-sea mining site.

Videographer Edward Kiernan and special correspondent Willem Marx traveled there to witness firsthand this extraordinary new industry, difficult and complex, but also dangerous and controversial.

WILLEM MARX: On the island of New Ireland, getting out to sea can sometimes prove a struggle.

A new jetty's construction, the completion of nearby buildings remain projects for the future.

But beneath these waves, there's a new kind of treasure rush for copper and gold that may one day soon help to fund them.

This quiet pebbly beach on a remote Pacific archipelago may not look like much, but just over the horizon, a group of sailors and engineers are engaged in a series of scientific tests.

And the wealthy investors behind them hope that one day this lonely beach might become a gateway to a multibillion-dollar industry.

A smoke-belching catamaran approaches, our ride across the Bismarck Sea, named for a long-ago chancellor in Germany, which once colonized this region.

Two hot, rolling hours later, in the distance, our destination appears, the MV Coco.

Prow to stern, it measures 270 feet, a triumph of maritime technology, now 14,000 miles from home.

Several stories' high, strong thrusters keep this ship entirely stationery for days at a time 20 miles offshore, and on top of its target site, a mile beneath the surface.

Owned by a Danish firm, OCT Offshore, it's been leased and refitted by a company called Magellan, with more than a decade of deep-sea expertise.

Yet journalists have never before been allowed on board to document this kind of work deep-sea mining.

Inside a darkened room, over 12-hour shifts, a pilot and co-pilot steer a remotely operated vehicle, or ROV, far below their cockpit seats.

JOHN MATHESON, ROV Supervisor, Magellan: You just need to come back to a safer heading.

WILLEM MARX: They're supervised by John Matheson.

We're talking about an ROV that's around a mile deep right now?

JOHN MATHESON: Yes.

WILLEM MARX: I see 1,500 meters there.

JOHN MATHESON: The pressure that's under, the weight of the water, can be massive.

So... WILLEM MARX: And so what's its job?

JOHN MATHESON: It's basically the eyes, isn't it?

That's all we are, and supplying the power.

WILLEM MARX: An umbilical cord and a separate cable connect the surface vessel to both the ROV and a 12-ton grabbing mechanism far below.

The ROV transmits power to the grab and guides its movements as it punches and claws through the seafloor's surface, then scoops up the resulting rocks.

It deposits most of these spoils in a nearby stockpile, but twice a day hauls some up to the ship far above.

With help from the crew, high up on the bridge and an operator perched above the vast rear deck, where the enormous winch and perpetual motion is central to this ship's mission.

Underwater mapping experts monitor what's already been excavated and where, while also planning the next day's digging.

These waters hardly seem to challenge the team from Magellan, since it sometimes operates at four times these depths.

The relatively calm surface here allow this massive mining experiment to continue, almost uninterrupted, 24/7, for more than two months.

How difficult is this kind of work compared to other stuff you have done in the past?

JOHN MATHESON: Operationally, it's as easy as we could probably get.

But it takes a lot of strain on the ROV, I would say.

WILLEM MARX: Overseeing this operation is James Holt, one of two so-called offshore managers aboard the Coco.

JAMES HOLT, Offshore Manager, Magellan: With the trial mining permit, we have been given permission to remove 180 tons for sampling process, so you can get a better picture of what's actually down there, what the deposit looks like, how it's placed around.

And, then hopefully, we will move forward into the full-on mining permit, where we will be able to develop the whole site.

WILLEM MARX: This is a frontier industry, and the team on board the Coco are essentially trying out this technique, hoping it will be financially rewarding and environmentally friendly enough to justify a far larger effort that would be the first of its kind on Earth.

As the grab's jaws unlock, out tumbles tons of rock, much of it visibly rich in copper.

This latest haul is photographed, then broken up with a power drill for easier packing and processing.

Seen in slow motion, this time-consuming process forms part of this feasibility study to determine the most efficient approach to mining such deep-sea sites.

But the concentration of copper found here will also help decide if such a high-cost operation could be high reward too.

Each grab of this material they bring up from the ocean floor weighs several tons, and with the current price of copper and the concentration of the metal they're finding in this ore, you're looking at several thousand dollars right here.

You multiply that dozens of times and dozens of grabs each day and you're suddenly talking about real money.

Seeking to confirm the copper concentration is Paul Lahari, one of two onboard geologists from Papua New Guinea.

He pulls out several samples of the rocks to test inside his makeshift laboratory just yards away.

He used a device called an XRF that can offer a rough estimate of the metal concentration or grade inside each chunk he's selected.

Grab 350, that means you have done 350 of these already this trip?

PAUL LAHARI, Geologist: That's correct, yes.

So, yes.

So, basically, it's not the number of grabs that come on board.

What happens is, you also get -- you count the number of grabs from excavating site to stockpile.

WILLEM MARX: What are you expecting to find in this rock, and what do you hope to find in this rock?

PAUL LAHARI: Well, I'm hoping to find if I can get good grades of copper.

And if the XRF can detect the gold as well, I think that would be pretty good.

WILLEM MARX: The gold?

PAUL LAHARI: Yes, gold and copper.

So... WILLEM MARX: Every one of the 180 tons brought on board will eventually be tested back onshore in Australia to get the most accurate data.

Another local scientist on board is focused not on the potential wealth this venture might create, but the potential harm it may cause.

Each time the grabbing device heads to the surface with fresh material from the seabed floor, Nicole Frani collects data on how this impacts the nearby ocean.

She does this in part with a couple dozen tubes lowered hundreds of feet down on yet another winch, designed to sample water at a dozen different depths below the vessel.

NICOLE FRANI, Environmental Scientist: It triggers according to the pressures.

And once it comes back up, it brings up water samples of each depth, 12 depths, goes back down, on deck.

I switch it off, put the caps on.

Then I collect the water quality meter from each of the sample bottles.

WILLEM MARX: Her major focus is monitoring the cloud of silt that's disturbed from the seabed known as the plume.

NICOLE FRANI: We need to know how widely its spreading out and how it can affect the sea life below.

If there's so much plume going around, or if it settles, it may harm the sea life, and the biodiversity underneath.

WILLEM MARX: And this kind of data collection is key to the work of this entire crew.

JAMES HOLT: The major part of our job here is accurate log keeping of where the samples are coming from, what depth the samples are coming from, how much energy was used to actually produce that sample.

And that, together with the environmental data, when we pull up the two environmental moorings that we have put in place, which are monitoring what's going on here all the time, then we will be able to present a decent case for why we should be allowed to start commercial mining here.

WILLEM MARX: That case must be made to Papua New Guinea's government and local communities.

Navigating those two challenges that we will examine in our next reports could make this complex engineering effort on board seem relatively straightforward.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Willem Marx in the Bismarck Sea.

GEOFF BENNETT: For decades, Dr. Francis Collins has been at the forefront of the world's most advanced biomedical research.

He led the Human Genome Project and then went on to become the longest-serving director of the National Institutes of Health, where he oversaw the country's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Collins has since retired, but is now drawing on his groundbreaking career to focus on what he sees as the core pillars of wisdom during a time of deep polarization.

He sat down recently to discuss his new book, "The Road to Wisdom: On Truth, Science, Faith, and Trust."

Dr. Francis Collins, welcome back to the "News Hour."

DR. FRANCIS COLLINS, Former Director, National Institutes of Health: It's great to be here in your beautiful space.

GEOFF BENNETT: Oh, thank you.

You said your goal in writing this book was to turn the focus away from hyperpartisan politics and back to what you see as the most important sources of wisdom truth, science, faith and trust.

How did you settle on those four as the most important sources of wisdom?

DR. FRANCIS COLLINS: Well, Geoff, I spent a lot of time in the public eye as NIH director and before that the leader of the Human Genome Project.

And I have this vision of how science and truth can bring us into a place of less suffering and more flourishing.

But I couldn't help but notice in the last few years that we seem to have kind of lost our way in some of these aspects.

We don't seem to agree about what objective truth is all about, or even whether there is such a thing.

Distrust of science has grown, even as science has been delivering some amazing things in the course of the last few years.

Faith, which ought to be a foundation we could anchor ourselves on at difficult times, seems to have also been readily pushed aside by politics, even in our churches.

And a lot of the problem is, we haven't really figured out, how do we decide who to trust?

How do we anchor ourselves in sources that are actually reliable, as opposed to whatever else is coming at us?

You put those four together and you have got something pretty reliable, even a road to wisdom, which is not just knowledge.

It's also understanding, it's a moral framework.

But our road to wisdom right now feels like it's got a whole lot of bumps, and I have hit a few myself.

I want to be clear about this.

I'm on this road too, and occasionally I find myself in the ditch.

But it feels like we really need to re-anchor ourselves in those four things, truth, science, faith, and trust, so that we have a better chance to move our society forward, because I think we'd all agree it's not looking so good right now with all the polarization and the cynicism and the hyper-partisanship.

GEOFF BENNETT: On the topic of faith - - this is a central theme in the book, the compatibility, as you see it, of science and faith.

You present a harmony between the two, which is interesting, because the common perception is that faith and science are inherently incompatible.

DR. FRANCIS COLLINS: That is a common perception.

It's unfortunate that it is.

And it's a fairly recent American emphasis.

It was not always so.

People doing science in the 16th and 17th century were almost all believers, who saw science as a means of investigating God's creation and being able to be even more worshipful as a result.

But, somehow, in our culture, we have the idea that science and faith are in some sort of irreconcilable conflict.

I did not grow up a person of faith.

I became a Christian at age 27, and people said, well, you're a scientist.

Your head's going to blow up because these things are just not going to work out together.

I have never encountered a situation where I see it that way.

Science is great at answering those how questions, and if you want to know how something in nature works, use science.

But if you want to know why, why am I here, why is there something instead of nothing, science doesn't have much to say there.

Faith has a lot to say.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, you write about your personal journey in the book.

You say that you once thought atheism was the only rational option for a thinking person.

What, for you, changed?

DR. FRANCIS COLLINS: I really had to look at what my basis was for that claim, because I hadn't spent much time investigating it.

And the more I began to look at how people have stepped into belief, instead of atheism, I realized there's a lot of rational arguments there that I had ignored.

The whole argument about the fact that there is something, instead of nothing, there was the Big Bang.

Out of nothingness, a universe was created, a universe that follows exquisite mathematical laws and has fine-tuning in those laws to make it interesting for something to happen.

You can't look at that and not marvel at it and not come to the conclusion, seems like there's an intelligence behind all of this, an amazing physicist, mathematician.

But then I also had to struggle with the moral law, good and evil.

For an atheist who's really strict about their atheism, that's a big problem.

Is that just something that we have been hoodwinked into by evolutionary constraints, that we think there is such a thing as good and evil, but there really isn't?

I don't know very many people who are comfortable with that.

GEOFF BENNETT: Have your scientific and spiritual world views ever clashed?

DR. FRANCIS COLLINS: Not in a way that I couldn't figure out how to resolve.

There are certainly times where, on the surface of it, it seems like there is an issue here.

And, obviously, the one that I think causes a lot of trouble for people of faith is origins.

Where do humans come from?

As a scientist, especially one who studies DNA, I can tell you that we humans are part of a remarkable tapestry of evolutionary connections between lots of other organisms.

We're part of that.

We're not separate.

And yet, at the same time, Genesis 1 and 2 talks about the special relationship that God has with his people, between Adam and Eve and thereon.

So how do I put that together?

I think it's entirely possible to do so if you don't insist upon an ultra-literal reading of certain scriptures, like Genesis 1 and 2.

And go back to St. Augustine in 400 A.D. and he would have warned us against such literal readings as not being required by the words of the Scripture and potentially putting you in a circumstance of making faith look silly by claiming that one interpretation has to be right and then finding out it doesn't fit.

GEOFF BENNETT: How has your faith influenced your approach to scientific inquiry?

DR. FRANCIS COLLINS: I think it has added a dimension to it.

For me, science is a -- it's a detective story.

It's trying to understand how things work.

And you do experiments.

And, sometimes, they take you down a blind alley and you're like, oh, darn, that wasn't it.

And, eventually, you come up with a solution.

And then it's something that's satisfying.

It's beautiful.

And if you're a scientist who's also a believer, you just got a glimpse of God's mind.

In that regard, I think of a laboratory as a cathedral also, and science is kind of a form of worship, if you want to put it in those terms.

GEOFF BENNETT: Dr. Francis Collins.

The book is "The Road to Wisdom: On Truth, Science, Faith, and Trust."

Thanks so much for being here.

We appreciate it.

DR. FRANCIS COLLINS: Wonderful to be with you.

GEOFF BENNETT: And join us again here tomorrow night for the latest on the Federal Reserve's expected interest rate cut, the first in four years.

And 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.