GEOFF BENNETT: Good evening.

I'm Geoff Bennett.

AMNA NAWAZ: And I'm Amna Nawaz.

On the "News Hour" tonight: The United States ends an exemption for low-cost imports, raising prices for online shopping.

GEOFF BENNETT: Debate and frustration within Israel rises over the ongoing war in Gaza and the continued detention of hostages.

EFRAT MACHIKAWA, Niece of Hamas Hostages: We are still not waking up from this nightmare, and so many people are getting hurt.

Our families are broken.

AMNA NAWAZ: And 20 years after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, we hear from people who were forced to leave their homes and their lives behind.

PHILIP FALCONE, California: I will go to my grave being forever marked by the effects of Hurricane Katrina on my life, but on my family's life too.

(BREAK) GEOFF BENNETT: Welcome to the "News Hour."

A dramatic move by President Trump tonight.

He's trying to single-handedly block nearly $5 billion in foreign aid already approved by Congress.

And he's doing it by invoking a little-known power play called a pocket rescission, effectively cutting lawmakers out of the process.

AMNA NAWAZ: That is when a president asks Congress to cancel funds so close to the end of the fiscal year that Congress can't act on the request and the funds expire.

In this instance, $3.2 billion would be cut from development assistance, along with $838 million from peacekeeping efforts, $520 million in contributions to the U.N., and $322 million from the State Department's Democracy Fund.

The Republican chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Susan Collins, publicly criticized the request, writing in a statement that -- quote -- "Any effort to rescind appropriated funds without congressional approval is a clear violation of the law."

Missouri's Republican governor is calling lawmakers into a special session to redraw the state's congressional maps.

Mike Kehoe's announcement is just the latest move in a nationwide battle over redistricting ahead of next year's midterm elections.

Just hours earlier in Texas: GOV.

GREG ABBOTT (R-TX): I'm about to sign the law that creates the one big beautiful map.

AMNA NAWAZ: Governor Greg Abbott signed into law a new voting map designed to help Republicans gain five more seats in next year's midterms.

An emergency hearing about President Trump's firing of Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook concluded today with no immediate ruling from the district judge.

Cook's attorney left the courthouse in Washington, D.C., after more than two hours of arguments.

He urged the judge to allow Cook to stay on the Fed board, underscoring that Trump could soon begin the process of filling her seat.

The president fired Cook on Monday, citing allegations of mortgage fraud.

It's a significant escalation in Trump's battle with the politically independent Central Bank.

The judge requested more written arguments from both sides by next week.

Iowa Senator Joni Ernst reportedly will not seek reelection next year.

That's according to multiple media outlets and first reported by CBS News.

The Republican is expected to announce her plans not to seek a third term next month.

SEN. JONI ERNST (R-IA): We have had very frank conversations.

Is that correct, Mr. Hegseth?

PETE HEGSETH, U.S. Defense Secretary: Senator, that is correct.

AMNA NAWAZ: An Iraq veteran, Ernst played a vital role in confirming Pete Hegseth as defense secretary earlier this year, despite his past comments about banning women from combat roles.

Ernst joins a growing list of Republican lawmakers choosing not to run.

That's given Democrats new hopes of picking up seats in next year's midterm elections.

President Trump has revoked the Secret Service detail for his 2024 opponent, former Vice President Kamala Harris.

Her protection officially ends on Monday.

Vice presidents typically get six months of federal protection after leaving office, but former President Biden had reportedly extended Harris' through next July.

Mr. Trump had already cut off protections for other Biden officials and family members, plus perceived enemies from his own ranks.

That includes former Trump National Security Adviser John Bolton, among others.

In Minnesota, local media is reporting that Governor Tim Walz is floating the idea of an emergency legislative session following this week's Catholic school shooting that left two students dead.

In a social media post, Walz wrote -- quote -- "It's time to take serious action at the state capitol to address gun violence," but he provided few details.

In the meantime, the second victim of Wednesday's shooting has been identified as 10-year-old Harper Moyski.

She died along with 8-year-old schoolmate Fletcher Merkel.

Harper Moyski's family, in a statement, demanded that leaders address gun violence and the mental health crisis in the country, saying -- quote -- "No family should ever have to endure this kind of pain.

Change is possible, and it is necessary."

Ukrainian and Western officials are working to kick-start talks aimed at ending the war following a recent uptick in Russian attacks.

In New York today, the head of Ukraine's presidential office met with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff two weeks to the day since President Trump welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin to Alaska.

Trump has accused Putin of stalling on a U.S. proposal for direct talks between the Russian leader and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

In Kyiv today, Zelenskyy said he wants to meet with European leaders and Trump to discuss security guarantees for his country.

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, Ukrainian President (through translator): What we want is that these security guarantees from the European countries and from the United States of America to be supported by the parliaments and by Congress.

Yes, we want security guarantees legally.

We want a document, a serious one.

AMNA NAWAZ: Meanwhile, residents of Ukraine's capital have been mourning those lost in Russia's devastating strikes yesterday.

Officials now say at least 23 people were killed and dozens more injured in those attacks.

Protests are growing across Indonesia after police allegedly ran over and killed a delivery driver during a demonstration yesterday.

Clashes broke out between protesters and authorities in Jakarta, where thousands took to the streets.

One group set fire to a building near a police compound, leaving people stuck inside.

The protests began Monday amid anger over a range of issues, including pay for lawmakers and education funding.

Indonesia's president is urging calm and says he's ordered an investigation into the delivery driver's death.

On Wall Street today, stocks pulled back from recent records.

The Dow Jones industrial average slipped around 90 points on the day.

The Nasdaq fell nearly 250 points.

The S&P 500 also ended in negative territory.

Still to come on the "News Hour": we speak to the head of the World Food Program after her trip to famine-gripped Gaza; President Trump fires a Democrat from a key transportation board ahead of a massive railway merger; and David Brooks and Kimberly Atkins Stohr store weigh in on the week's political headlines.

A federal appeals court today ruled that President Trump has no legal right to impose sweeping tariffs on nearly every country in the world.

But the court is allowing the tariffs to remain in place until at least mid-October, giving the Trump administration time to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

That comes as another piece of the president's tariffs plan goes into effect.

Starting today Americans are no longer able to import cheap foreign goods tariff-free, at least for now.

The Trump administration ended the so-called de minimis exemption, which allowed packages valued at less than $800 to enter the U.S. with no import tax.

Last year, there were nearly four million such packages a day, over 1.3 billion overall.

The end of that exemption for goods from China went into effect this spring.

Today, it was extended to the rest of the world.

For more on this, I spoke just before the court decision with Clark Packard.

He's a trade expert at the libertarian Cato Institute.

Clark, welcome to the show.

Thanks for joining us.

CLARK PACKARD, Cato Institute: Thanks for having me on.

AMNA NAWAZ: So most people may not have even known that they were benefiting from this de minimis exemption, but now that it's gone, what is the impact?

What kinds of goods are impacted and what type of shoppers?

CLARK PACKARD: Yes, that's a good question.

Goods that arrive in the United States under the de minimis exemption tend to be clothing, footwear, small electronics.

So think about a phone charger, for example, as well as durable goods.

So a phone case might arrive in the U.S. or something like leather.

Again, but it tends to be more on the footwear and apparel side.

AMNA NAWAZ: And so what does that mean for the shopping experience?

What changes?

Everything is now subject to tariffs.

So it costs more.

Is there additional paperwork for customs?

What happens?

CLARK PACKARD: Both of those certainly.

Yes, the products that now arrive that would have been duty-free are now subject to the tariffs that have increased under the Trump administration.

So prices will increase for those products.

But also, like you mentioned, there's going to be a delay in receiving the items in the first place.

One of the things that the de minimis exemption did was help facilitate a pretty seamless transition or arrival of packages.

And now that that is eliminated, it will subject those packages to a slower process.

So consumers should expect a delay in receiving small-dollar items.

AMNA NAWAZ: And does this just apply to commercial items?

I mean, if I have family in other countries who want to send me a gift or a care package, is that subject to this as well?

CLARK PACKARD: No.

So, gifts, personal gifts can arrive in the United States valued at up to $100 and not be subjected to a more rigorous customs process or duty process.

So, in that respect, cookies from grandma from Canada will continue to enter the U.S. duty-free.

AMNA NAWAZ: So we should point out bigger picture here that direct-to-consumer e-commerce has absolutely exploded in the last 10 years.

Those 1.3 billion shipments that I mentioned last year, that is up from just 134 million back in 2015.

So how do sellers, how do producers, how do they respond to this?

Is everyone just going to raise prices, or could you see them actually moving production to the U.S.?

CLARK PACKARD: I think that eliminating the de minimis exemption on its own will not do much to reshore production of various products, and if it did it would certainly raise the cost of those products.

But when you add the de minimis exemption elimination to the broader trade agenda of the Trump administration, including aggressive tariffs on all kinds of products, maybe it does a little bit to induce more manufacturing in the United States.

I think it's a little early to tell.

But ultimately those costs will be borne by way of higher prices for American consumers.

AMNA NAWAZ: That boost to domestic manufacturing, that is part of the justification that President Trump, the administration have put forward for this.

They have also said that the exemption allowed fentanyl to be smuggled into the U.S. and that's part of their reason for this.

What do we know about that?

Is there truth to that?

CLARK PACKARD: I do think there's some kernel of truth to that.

At the same time, though, I would caution that the Trump administration is basically using every tool available to it in a protectionist manner.

So if this were some other administration that didn't have quite as much of a protectionist bent, I would take the fentanyl argument more seriously.

That said, again, I do think there is some validity to what the Trump administration is arguing.

However, I would have preferred to see the administration use extra money to beef up the screening process to maybe interdict more drugs that are entering the United States under the exemption, rather than just completely eliminating the exemption, which will impact all kinds of Americans.

And the overwhelming majority of packages that arrive in the United States under the exemption do not have any sort of drug or illegal substance in them.

And so I think ultimately people's lives are going to be impacted in a way that's probably pretty negative for them.

But, again, I do think that there was a little bit of validity to what the Trump administration is arguing.

AMNA NAWAZ: All right, Clark Packard of the Libertarian Cato Institute joining us tonight.

Clark, thank you.

Good to speak with you.

CLARK PACKARD: Thanks for having me.

GEOFF BENNETT: Israel launched its Gaza City offensive today, labeling it a Hamas stronghold.

But it's also home to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians already facing starvation and yet another round of forced displacement.

The United Nations warns that Israel's evacuation orders are a recipe for disaster.

And, as William Brangham reports, Israel's military has now halted the temporary planned pauses in the fight.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: That's right, Geoff.

Israel's announcement today that its suspending pauses and its attacks, which were meant to enable aid deliveries into Gaza City, makes an already catastrophic problem that much worse.

An international body that tracks hunger crises last week declared that area and its people are experiencing famine.

The chief U.N. organization charged with delivering emergency food aid is the World Food Program.

And its executive director is Cindy McCain.

She just returned from a mission to Gaza this week, and joins us now from Rome.

Cindy McCain, welcome back to the "News Hour."

You were just in Gaza this week.

Can you tell us a little bit about where you went and what you saw?

CINDY MCCAIN, Executive Director, World Food Program: Well, we had the opportunity to go in.

And I wanted to, first of all, see our truck routes and see exactly how we get in, the problems that we encounter, et cetera.

But also part of what our trip was about was also going into many of the areas where food insecurity is at its highest and also seeing what they have to endure each day to be able to survive.

I had the opportunity to meet with a family of 11 that had come all the way from the north, and they brought pictures with them in their belongings.

And the photographs were of the family two years ago.

Of course, I'm sitting in front of them looking at them as they are today.

And the difference, the drastic difference in their health and in their size as well is just -- is mind-boggling.

The important thing for us to remember is that it continued.

What I do each time, the things that I ask for is a cease-fire and to be able to get WFP food in at scale, unfettered and safely, making sure that our humanitarian aid workers are not targets.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: What are you able to deliver today versus what you believe is absolutely needed in Gaza?

CINDY MCCAIN: Right now, we get in certainly food boxes, which are our food baskets that are per family, which help.

Obviously, you have seen our flour that goes in or we attempt to get in.

And we do some nutritional items that go into health centers, but those are very limited, to be honest with you, because we just can't get enough of it in there.

During the last cease-fire, we had 200 feeding stations up and running, and we were getting in almost 600 trucks a day.

That's a huge difference from what is going in now.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: As you know, the global hunger monitoring group the IPC just said that half-a-million Gazans, which is about a quarter of all the people in Gaza, are experiencing famine right now.

They argue that that is going to go up another 100,000 in the next month or so.

Do you believe the IPC's assessment of how dire the circumstance is?

CINDY MCCAIN: Well, IPC, as you know, is an independent entity and it really does serve as the gold standard for measuring food insecurity around the world.

We at WFP have worked with them for a very long time.

But let me say this also.

You have an ability, all of us together collectively, as humanitarians, with aid, the various aid that we can present, to stop this.

We're able -- if we can get in and do what we said that we can do, which is feed and feed at scale, we can stop a lot of this.

I also might add I met with some hostage families while I was there.

And we seem to forget in all this, certainly millions of Gazans aren't being fed, but the hostages aren't being fed either.

And so we can't forget that one element in all of this as well.

I look at this through a mother's lens.

And what I saw was utter devastation.

And I can't imagine what it would be like as a mother to choose if you can eat, number one, if you can feed your children or yourself, because the obvious answer to that is your children.

It's a devastating situation.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The reason I ask about this report is that Benjamin Netanyahu has said that this report is an outright lie.

The Israeli government has said this data cannot be trusted, that the famine is not real, and that this report should be retracted.

I mean, do you have any question about the authenticity or accuracy?

CINDY MCCAIN: I don't.

I don't know -- we have worked with them for so long.

It comes down to access, and not just letting WFP in, but letting other organizations in as well.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: I know that you met while you were there with some Israeli officials.

And, today, Israel said that it was suspending its pause in military actions that had been enacted to allow more aid in.

In your conversation with Israeli officials, did you get any assurances that they will speed the flow of aid into Gaza?

CINDY MCCAIN: Yes, we talked at great length from -- with all three of the areas, COGAT, of course, the IDF and Prime Minister Netanyahu.

And a large part was trying to understand on both sides what the difficulties were.

In our case, I was asking for the ability to have greater access by road so we can get deeper in to feed those who are even more malnourished, but also making sure that we can pack the trucks ourselves, so that they're nailed down and aren't packed incorrectly so that, when they turn a corner, it all falls off.

We are the only organization worldwide that can make this happen at the kind of scale that Gaza needs right now.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Plainly, though, what is, in your view, the biggest impediment to you doing your job in Gaza?

CINDY MCCAIN: Safety is a huge issue.

We just can't abide by guns of any kind, aimed either at people trying to get aid or aimed at the humanitarian aid workers that are trying to deliver aid.

Safety and complete access.

We need to be able to get in fully.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: All right, Cindy McCain, head of the World Food Program, always great to speak with you.

Thank you.

CINDY MCCAIN: Thank you.

AMNA NAWAZ: Israel said today it had recovered the body of a hostage kidnapped and killed during Hamas' October 7 attacks, along with the remains of another hostage it didn't identify.

The announcement was yet another reminder of how the country even today lives in the shadow of October 7.

Nick Schifrin and producer Karl Bostic in Israel set out to measure the country's mood 693 days since the war began.

(CHANTING) NICK SCHIFRIN: In Tel Aviv, at the end of this hot summer of discontent, the heat boils with an angry message: Save them now.

Israelis call this Hostage Square, a barometer of the country's hope and despair.

And, on stage, Liran Berman issues a challenge.

LIRAN BERMAN, Brother of Hamas Hostages: Bring them home!

End the war!

The hostages are the most important thing, and we need to prioritize their return.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Berman is the big brother to twins Gali and Ziv, both kidnapped from Kibbutz Kfar Aza during the October 7 terrorist attacks.

LIRAN BERMAN: All of us have the same hobbies.

All of us love football, or soccer.

All of us love music.

We have very tight bond.

NICK SCHIFRIN: But, today, nearly 700 days after they were taken, Berman fears his brother's lives hang by a thread.

LIRAN BERMAN: We know that they were separated in the first day, and we know that they are surviving.

And I'm terrified as a brother of two live hostages that this current deal will fall again.

NICK SCHIFRIN: The current deal, Hamas says it's willing to release half of the 20 hostages believed to be still alive and the remaining ones after 10 weeks in exchange for an Israeli withdrawal.

But now Israel is demanding all the hostages released at once and Hamas' total defeat.

LIRAN BERMAN: I trust my government.

I'm just worried that it's taking too long.

I hope the Israeli government is listening to me, and I will never stop being optimistic.

For the sake of my brothers, I can't be pessimistic.

I can't allow myself to be pessimistic, so there is always hope.

Even in the darkest hours, there is always hope.

NICK SCHIFRIN: But there is a darkness here.

It plays out in soldiers' funerals, a continuous national mourning and a trauma that is still collective.

EFRAT MACHIKAWA, Niece of Hamas Hostages: We are still not waking up from this nightmare, and so many people are getting hurt.

Our families are broken.

Our hostages are fading.

We, the families of the kidnapped.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Efrat Machikawa is an international activist who promotes peace.

But since October the 7th, she says her ideals are burdened by pain and loss.

EFRAT MACHIKAWA: What I felt on October 7 is that I got into some kind of a moral hell.

All the values, all the morals we all grew up on and what I taught and lectured about all my life were suddenly taken away from me.

NICK SCHIFRIN: On October the 7th in Kibbutz Nir Oz, Hamas kidnapped six members of her family, including her aunt Margalit.

Five have now returned home, including her dear uncle Gadi, who spent 482 days in captivity.

But Gadi's partner, Machikawa's aunt, was killed accidentally on October the 7th by an Israeli helicopter targeting Hamas.

EFRAT MACHIKAWA: Pain has no border.

And losing in a war has no border as well.

We're all losing.

And we're all hurt by now.

Our cities, our nation was attacked by vicious evilness of Hamas terrorists, and it wasn't a war we chose to get into.

But now, almost two years into this war, I have doubts.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Doubts about how Israel is waging the war in Gaza and its plan to displace one million people from Gaza City.

EFRAT MACHIKAWA: Who are we to tell them where to go?

Why would someone think of such an idea?

It's their home.

NICK SCHIFRIN: And doubts about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing coalition.

EFRAT MACHIKAWA: Our prime minister is lost.

He lost his way.

We Israelis are not our extreme government and we are not people of revenge and awful behavior that I am ashamed of.

NICK SCHIFRIN: These days, Israel is a country that ricochets between anger over failure to bring home all the hostages; 80 percent of Israelis want the war to end.

And there's anxiety watching every major event in Gaza and every military decision.

Israel is calling up 60,000 Reserves to take over Gaza City, with the stated goal of eradicating Hamas and bringing all the hostages home.

For the soldiers themselves, who stopped by this rest stop near the Gaza border, they preserve their purpose.

These soldiers ask to speak to us anonymously.

WOMAN: We don't want war, OK?

All we want is peace, and we're not looking for fighting.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Dror Trabelsi is the canteen's co-owner with his two brothers.

He takes pride in his food and service and his home region's ability to fight the country's enemies.

DROR TRABELSI, Owner, Shuva Brothers Canteen: I'm from the south.

I'm the one who actually suffered for the last 30 years from Hamas, not knowing until we did.

It's not an endless war.

It's a war that needs to be end.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Israeli society is no stranger to debate, but this one has been raw and widespread.

No one here is untouched by a war whose weight falls heavy on families, families of hostages and families of soldiers.

They call themselves Mothers on the Frontline, tens of thousands of Israeli women whose sons and daughters are fighting in Gaza.

AGAMIT GELB, Mothers on the Frontline: You feel that you send your son to the army when you don't trust your leadership.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Agamit Gelb is one of the group's leaders.

She has two sons.

One was just called up for duty last week.

Her brother has been called up for a sixth time.

AGAMIT GELB: The whole family is going under a real change when you send a soldier to the army.

It's not a normal life.

You're always waiting for them to get home.

You always worry.

NICK SCHIFRIN: This is Israel's longest war.

Gelb and others yearn for it to end, yearn to feel more safe.

AGAMIT GELB: I don't want to be afraid to live here.

I don't want to be alerted all day, all night.

I don't want to send my sons to a never-ending story war.

This is not the way we want to live here.

NICK SCHIFRIN: But, for now, that is life here, because, despite the demands, despite the urgency, the war goes on.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Nick Schifrin.

GEOFF BENNETT: It's not as well-known as the Federal Reserve or the CDC, but the Surface Transportation Board is the latest agency in the Trump administration's sights, as the president extends his power across the federal government, including agencies and institutions long considered independent.

The board wields enormous authority over the nation's railroads, and President Trump abruptly fired Robert Primus, one of only two Democrats on the five-member board, just as regulators weigh the largest railroad merger ever proposed.

Robert Primus joins us now.

Thanks for being here.

ROBERT PRIMUS, Surface Transportation Board: Thank you for having me.

GEOFF BENNETT: So you're a Democrat who was nominated for the role by President Trump back in 2020.

ROBERT PRIMUS: Yes.

GEOFF BENNETT: And you were fired without cause, the White House only saying that you did not align with the president's America first agenda.

What's your response to that?

ROBERT PRIMUS: The first response was surprise.

The second was disappointment.

If you looked at my record in the 4.5 years I have been on the board, I think I was America first before the president came into office.

From my first day I was there, I was pro-growth, and pro-growth meaning encouraging the growth of energy sectors, whether it be oil, whether it be coal, gas, ethanol, agriculture, chemical manufacturing.

All those are key components to our economy and all those move via freight rail.

And I have said then and I have continued to say that the way to grow this country and grow this economy is to grow our freight rail network.

And so, when I heard that somehow I was against the America first, I was surprised, because I was first to do that.

GEOFF BENNETT: And we should say this dismissal comes as, as we said, a pivotal merger is looming, Union Pacific's planned $85 billion acquisition of Norfolk Southern.

Your removal changes the board's makeup just as that decision approaches.

What does the administration gain by having you out of the way?

ROBERT PRIMUS: Well, I mean, as I still consider myself a board member, so I can't comment on the merger.

But what I what I think, it does it challenges the integrity of the board.

Again, that is why I'm fighting back.

That's why I'm really disappointed in their actions, because now it calls into question the integrity of the board.

The board is an independent board, not just independent of the administration, but it's independent of outside thinking, political thinking.

All of us, I think, are -- that were on the board are independent thinkers.

I pride myself that, when I came to the board, that, even though I came as a Democrat, I was simply a board member.

And I think now, with what has happened to me and how they are approaching the board now, I think it threatens that independence, that impartiality.

And, ultimately, some of the decisions people will now question whether or not they're politically motivated or if they're actually being decided impartially.

GEOFF BENNETT: And you say you still consider yourself to be a board member.

So you are contesting this dismissal?

ROBERT PRIMUS: I am contesting this dismissal.

As you said, I was fired without cause.

And the statute says that I have to be -- the president cannot dismiss me without stating justified cause.

And there was no legitimate cause mentioned.

Even the not being in touch with the America first agenda, in line with America first agenda, that does not constitute legitimate cause.

And so, on behalf of board members now, as in the future, I believe it's my right to stand up and say, hey, that's not right, and I think this needs to be challenged.

GEOFF BENNETT: Why do you think you were singled out?

ROBERT PRIMUS: I don't know.

So, all I - - if I say something, it's speculative.

I can say that some have said that it's because of my opposition to the previous merger, and they fear that my voice may be a strong in this next one, though I have not said one way or another how I feel about the merger publicly.

Some have said it could be race.

I am the only person of color on the board right now.

The last one was 25 years ago, and I was actually the only Black or the first Black chair of the board, appointed by Biden last year.

But I will note that, even when that happened and even when I was named to the board, I never brought that forward, because I don't believe that it was about who I was or my ethnic background that made me qualified to be on the board.

I was on the board because people thought that I would be impartial and I would be fair and balanced in looking at all those decisions coming before us.

GEOFF BENNETT: Robert Primus of the Surface Transportation Board, thank you for being here.

We appreciate it.

ROBERT PRIMUS: Thank you for having me.

AMNA NAWAZ: This week has seen tragedy at a Catholic school in Minnesota and a frenetic pace of actions by the Trump administration to remake government.

For analysis on it all, we turn to Brooks and Atkins Stohr.

That is New York Times columnist David Brooks and Boston Globe columnist Kimberly Atkins Stohr.

Jonathan Capehart is away.

Great to see you both.

KIMBERLY ATKINS STOHR, The Boston Globe: Good to see you.

AMNA NAWAZ: Let's start in Minnesota.

The school year had just gotten under way.

We already have a deadly school shooting; 8-year-old Fletcher Merkel, 10-year-old Harper Moyski were killed, 18 others injured after a shooter opened fire during a morning mass marking the very first week of classes at a Catholic school in Minneapolis.

I know you both have seen scenes like this.

They're so familiar now to us in this country.

So is the political debate.

Just want to play for you a bit of how we saw reactions from Vice President J.D.

Vance and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.

J.D.

VANCE, Vice President of the United States: When I see far left politicians say, how dare you offer thoughts and prayers, you need action, I don't care about your prayers, I care about what you're going to do to prevent this from happening, why does it have to be one or the other?

JACOB FREY (D), Mayor of Minneapolis, Minnesota: Of course, we're standing up with thoughts and with prayers.

But thoughts and prayers are not going to cut it.

We need a statewide and a federal ban on assault weapons.

JACOB FREY: We need a statewide and a federal ban on high-capacity magazines.

AMNA NAWAZ: David, from Sandy Hook to Parkland to Uvalde, nothing has dramatically changed to keep this sort of thing from happening again.

Is it too cynical to say that there's a numbness that has set in to kids being shot in school here?

DAVID BROOKS: I think people still have the capacity to be appalled by somebody who shoots their children through stainless windows.

And so I do think that.

Will there be action?

J.D.

Vance just said prayers and actions.

Well, what are the actions he's proposing?

The shooter in this case got her guns legally.

She passed through the red flag law, which they have in Minnesota, the permitting.

And so clearly more needs to be done.

Blue states should be experimenting with more stuff.

One of the things that comes up in this case is, she left a pretty big online trail.

Like, is there a way to use A.I.

to sort of find these people a little better than apparently we are, when no red flags are set off and this young person was writing all this stuff online?

And I think the thing that's most chilling to me about this particular case is not only the need for guns.

It's not only the need for mental health alertness.

But she wrote in one of her comments, this is about nothing.

Some people kill because they have some crazy ideology like the Unabomber.

She has no ideology.

The FBI now has a category of terrorists which are nihilists, people who just believe in nothing.

And we're seeing a rise -- the anarchists 100 years ago were killing people, but now we're seeing this tide of nihilism.

So I look at it as a gun problem, as a mental health problem, and really as an intellectual problem about our culture, that you have people who believe in nothing and just want to destroy.

AMNA NAWAZ: Kimberly, we reported earlier Governor Walz seems to be suggesting he's going to call a special session to try to address this.

We don't have details beyond that.

But does the Democratic response, in particular, does it feel a little more muted to you this time?

KIMBERLY ATKINS STOHR: I feel like all of it is muted.

I think that Americans who are sending their children to school to start their school year are hearing about the thoughts and prayers and these ambiguous actions that may or may not be coming, and they are gutted by that, because they know that none of that protects their children.

I think that this is not about trying to prevent the last shooting and figuring out what led to that one.

It's about, how do we change the culture in America surrounding guns?

Because this does not happen other places.

It does not happen in other countries that have much more lax gun laws than we do on the books.

This is about a society that believes that the right to carry guns is something like a religion unto itself.

And that's from messaging that comes from Republicans about the Second Amendment and how any measure that is commonsense that is meant to prevent guns from getting in the hands of people that shouldn't have them is somehow not just unconstitutional, but sacrosanct in itself.

Until we can change that, until we can loosen the grip of the gun industry, the lobby here in Washington and across states, this will not change and children will continue to die.

AMNA NAWAZ: We will see if lawmakers do act as they come back.

But I do want to take just a bit of a step back on this past week, because a lot happened.

It was not by any means a slow summer week.

There were a lot of big actions taken by the president to exert even more control over the federal government, reshape it in his vision, whether it was purging dissent at the leading health agency or from the agency that manages disaster response, trying to fire a Federal Reserve Board member, or keeping federal troops here in Washington, also threatening to send them to other cities.

Also, this week, we saw all of the Cabinet members sitting for more than three hours in a meeting essentially praising the president and his work.

Journalist Garrett Graff this week wrote that all of these small events add up to a very big shift in our country, from democracy to authoritarianism.

He said: "Something is materially different in our country this week than last."

David, do you agree with that?

DAVID BROOKS: Not really.

I don't see -- I don't look for one moment that will split the switch to authoritarianism.

I look at this is a long degradation.

And maybe there will never be one red flag moment where we think, OK, we flipped.

We're now no longer a democracy.

But the way I see it is in broader terms that, starting somewhere around 2010 or 2013, the era of global populism started.

And it happened in countries all around the world.

Our version was Donald Trump.

It might have been Viktor Orban somewhere else, Nigel Farage somewhere else, Vladimir Putin somewhere else.

But it started.

And in every one of these countries, and maybe ours faster, we have degraded democracies.

We have personalized, gutted the Justice Department, taken out rule of law or degraded -- and so it's erosion, erosion, erosion.

And my view is, if you think this is going to be over in three years, when Donald Trump leaves office, you're naive, that these historical tides, once they get going, they just keep going until they're stopped.

And so what strikes me is, why are we not stopping it?

And so the people I'd salute this week are Lisa Cook and Susan Monarez and, frankly, the gentleman from the transportation board we just saw in the last segment.

AMNA NAWAZ: Susan Monarez from the CDC.

DAVID BROOKS: From the CDC -- who are resisting.

And I had a Democratic politician call me up today and said, where's the head of the universities?

Where are the law firms?

Where are the corporate CEOs?

These three people have guts.

And they're not just leaving the office.

They're just going to stay there and resist.

And we should -- I have said this on this program multiple times.

We should be having a mass coalition of people who are willing to resist together, because it's really hard to resist alone.

And so at least we're seeing some pushback this week.

KIMBERLY ATKINS STOHR: Yes, I think that this week didn't change.

We're seeing it in a rapid pace and a lot of examples of it.

But I personally think the change, the change from the first Trump administration to the second, because I agree with you, Trumpism is broader than Trump, but he is who is ushering it in.

The big difference I think was the decision by the Supreme Court granting the president immunity for actions that he takes while in office.

Now, while that decision did not, repeat, did not bless all of the things that he's doing, it seems in his mind that it did.

And he believes that the Supreme Court will go along with any legal battle that he chooses, any push against the wording of the Constitution or federal law that exists.

He honestly seems to think he is above it.

And so far, in challenge after challenge after the challenge, the Supreme Court hasn't proven him wrong.

Will they do it finally with the Fed board, which they have already hinted that is different and that he can't just fire people willy-nilly?

I don't know.

But, so far, Donald Trump is coming out on the winning end of each one of these battles because he sees himself as invincible.

AMNA NAWAZ: I do want to get both of you to briefly weigh in on the news on the Russia-Ukraine war, because we saw diplomatic meetings today continue between members of the Trump team and Ukrainian officials.

Last week, of course, we saw President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the White House with President Trump.

We are now two weeks post that Alaska summit between Vladimir Putin and President Trump, and the war not only rages on.

Russia is launching some of its worst attacks that we have seen on Kyiv, killing 23 people just this week.

David, has anything changed?

DAVID BROOKS: No, and I have never had any hope.

Vladimir Putin has made it clear for three years, and he's never wavered, that he wants to control Ukraine.

He wants to kick out the democratic government of Ukraine and just control Ukraine.

And guess what?

He's slowly and very bloodily winning this war.

And so why should he make any compromises?

His job was to try to split Trump off from the Europeans, to pretend to Trump that he's offering some compromises.

But he's not compromising, and he's made it clear when they say, we're going to go to the root causes, which is basically a dependent Ukraine.

And now he's highlighted that by hitting Kyiv again and again and again.

The Ukrainians, fortunately, have developed in the last week, kind of miraculously, apparently a new cruise missile that can go 300 -- or 3,000 kilometers into Russian soil.

So maybe that will exact some cost on the Russians.

But it's still a war and not a negotiation.

And that really hasn't changed.

KIMBERLY ATKINS STOHR: Yes, I agree with David.

I mean, Donald Trump definitely wants to be able to say, hey, I ended this war.

Only I could do it.

But he gravely miscalculated Vladimir Putin by inviting him onto U.S. soil and thinking that there was a deal to be struck.

There was never a deal to be struck here, and we are seeing the outcome of that.

So it was a terrible blunder that I think only empowered Putin, obviously, you see with this -- the stakes.

But it was something that Trump could not win even if he thought he could.

AMNA NAWAZ: It was a busy, consequential week.

We're so grateful to have you both here at the end of it.

David Brooks, Kimberly Atkins Stohr, thank you to you both.

DAVID BROOKS: Thank you.

KIMBERLY ATKINS STOHR: Thanks.

GEOFF BENNETT: Today marks the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which decimated New Orleans and other communities on the Gulf Coast, leading to one of the largest and most sudden relocations of people in U.S. history.

Some 1.2 million Louisianians were displaced for months or even years.

We're going to spend some time now looking at that impact and the ways the city has changed in the two decades since Katrina.

And let's start by hearing from a few of the thousands of Katrina survivors who relocated permanently.

KELLY BOLDING, Texas: My name is Kelly Bolding.

And before Katrina hit, I was living in New Orleans East.

And right now I live in the DFW area.

PHILIP FALCONE, California: My name is Philip Falcone.

When I was in New Orleans, my family, we lived in Metairie, which is a suburb outside of New Orleans.

And then now, post-Katrina, all these years later, live in the city of Riverside, California.

STEPHEN LIPP, Texas: This is Stephen Lipp.

I'm living currently in Katy, Texas, and was living in Orleans Parish in New Orleans, Louisiana.

PAT "MOTHER BLUES" COHEN, North Carolina: I'm Pat "Mother Blues" Cohen.

I was living in New Orleans East, where the storm hit.

And I am now -- since Hurricane Katrina, I have been living in Salisbury, North Carolina.

KELLY BOLDING: I remember my siblings talking about, let's pack up, let's leave, this one is going to be the one.

STEPHEN LIPP: I have no memory of anything prior to the storm.

It was that sort of event.

It was so all-encompassing, so overwhelming.

PHILIP FALCONE: I was a Katrina kid is what we say.

There's a group of us that were like, we were children in the time of Hurricane Katrina.

We remember all that happened, but, of course, were not the ones calling the shots in our respective families.

MAN: Powerful Hurricane Katrina rips across the Gulf Coast.

STEPHEN LIPP: After the storm, we were watching the Weather Channel like 24/7, trying to figure out what's going on in the storm.

And the shot was a street corner very close to where we lived.

And there was 10 feet of water in the street corner.

I looked at everybody in the room and I said, you recognize what this is, don't you?

We have lost everything.

Everything is now gone.

PAT "MOTHER BLUES" COHEN: After Katrina, it was sort of a land grab.

People were coming to New Orleans, and they were buying up the land.

And it was too expensive.

And I didn't know whether I was going to be able to work or not.

I sing blues.

When people would come to New Orleans and they wanted to see some New Orleans entertainment, they called me a lot.

From the storm, what I remember is just coming to North Carolina, being displaced.

I didn't have a job.

I couldn't get a job because I didn't know musicians.

I didn't have any friends.

I didn't know where clubs were.

I didn't know anything.

PHILIP FALCONE: After the hurricane and of course, the evacuation and so forth, my family decided that what was best for both my parents and for us kids was not to return.

I mean, at any moment in time, in hurricane season, of course, a major storm could come through and destroy everything and you're back to square one all over again.

KELLY BOLDING: When I went back after Katrina and I saw my house, and I lost everything from pictures, high school things, my daughter, all of her little things, it just went completely.

I mean, it's gone.

I don't never want to go through that again.

STEPHEN LIPP: Those two months after Katrina hit, we decided to purchase a house and used it.

Well, then comes Harvey.

WOMAN: Hurricane Harvey barreling into the Texas coastline.

STEPHEN LIPP: In hindsight, it was sort of like, this is easy.

Katrina became the measuring stick, and there was nothing that could measure to us.

PHILIP FALCONE: I live in California now, and we are not immune to natural disasters.

It seems like everywhere has something, and you kind of pick and choose where you're going to live and take that gamble of what that natural disaster will be for your particular location.

I will go to my grave being forever marked by the effects of Hurricane Katrina on my life, but on my family's life too.

KELLY BOLDING: In New Orleans, we had communities.

We had friends that turned into family.

I still will visit New Orleans a lot, and one thing that I will visit far is the food and definitely sno-balls.

Sno-balls are a New Orleans dessert.

And I'm like, how about we open up a sno-ball stand?

We're going to treat you like family when you come here.

And that's what New Orleans is about.

GEOFF BENNETT: For more on all this, we're joined now by historian Douglas Brinkley.

He was a professor at Tulane University in New Orleans in 2005 when Katrina hit.

And he's the author of "The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast."

He's now a professor in humanities in the department of history at Rice University.

Thank you for joining us.

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, Professor of History, Rice University: Thank you for having me.

GEOFF BENNETT: We just heard the stories of people who lived through Hurricane Katrina 20 years ago.

Hundreds of thousands of people were displaced.

Many never returned.

What is the legacy of that displacement?

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY: Well, it was a diaspora from a region.

It reminds me in history of the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, when people fled Oklahoma and New Mexico, Texas Panhandle for California.

They just had to go somewhere else.

And like the Dust Bowl, Katrina isn't about one date, August 29.

It's really about years, decades that it's taking to heal.

The effects of Katrina are still being felt in the Gulf South area.

Not everybody has been able to come back that wanted to.

And a lot of neighborhoods haven't been able to rebuild for various different reasons.

GEOFF BENNETT: And Katrina, of course, exposed major failures in preparation and response, from the levees to evacuation planning to the federal government's slow reaction at the time.

What do you see as the biggest institutional breakdowns?

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY: Well, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built LEGO levees.

And Louisiana hadn't supervised them properly for safety.

It's a city -- the mayor during Hurricane Katrina, Nagin, Mayor Nagin, went to jail.

The current mayor of New Orleans is under corruption charges and -- as I speak.

There's always been a sense of shoddiness that goes on in those parishes.

And this turned deadly.

I mean, the LEGO levees built during the 1960s and beyond proved in 2005 just to be poorly constructed.

So you have those three breaches.

And it turned the city of New Orleans into like a saucer bowl.

Once those broke open, all the water poured to -- into New Orleans, and the below-sea-level neighborhoods were just inundated.

And that led to all sorts of problems, health issues, debris, and then, of course, no electricity on the city for so long.

And anything bad that could happen did seem to happen.

GEOFF BENNETT: And in the immediate aftermath, some questioned whether New Orleans should have been rebuilt at all.

Looking back with the long lens, what did we get right and what could have been done better?

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY: It's a great question.

Well, what we got right is to save and defend New Orleans.

There is no United States of America without that important city.

It was -- meant everything to us.

And just think of the arts and culture alone with Louis Armstrong and the birth of modern jazz or playwriting Tennessee Williams or Lillian Hellman.

And the list is long and it's a deep, rich cultural history.

People all over the world love New Orleans.

It may be our most loved American city.

What we got wrong is, it was built in part below sea level, but it means we have to defend it.

And back 20 years ago and even now, we still turn to the Dutch, look how to build better dams, better levee systems.

I believe the Army Corps of Engineers this time around has built durable levees, but you never know what's going to happen.

There's a fear factor, if a Category 4 or 5 storm comes to New Orleans, because Louisiana is losing all of its wetlands.

And every storm that comes, that power of the surge is getting closer to the city of New Orleans.

So being there is like living on the edge, sort of like Key West.

You just feel that life's good, but at any hurricane season, the big one can hit, and it might be the one that knocks New Orleans off its feet.

GEOFF BENNETT: Like living on the edge, that's a great way to describe it.

To your mind, what were the key lessons of Hurricane Katrina, and have we as a country really learned them?

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY: New Orleans utterly failed in how to get people out, particularly poor people or elderly people.

For example, when I wrote my book, I couldn't believe how many older people wouldn't leave because they were afraid they wouldn't be able to get their diabetes medicine or wouldn't leave because they're on insulin or wouldn't leave because they had a pet and the buses wouldn't allow them to travel with their dog or cat.

Hence, they stayed.

There were no clear directionals of how to flee.

And, most notoriously, the Superdome, people poured in there.

They didn't have the right water or food, and then the roof caved in.

And then people came to the Convention Center.

And there was -- it was mayhem.

And there were bodies, dead bodies, just laying there in front of it.

All hospitals need to have helicopter facilities on their top.

They have to have generators to stay in business.

You can't deal with a crisis anywhere if hospitals aren't going to be able to function around the clock.

GEOFF BENNETT: Douglas Brinkley, we are grateful to add your voice to our coverage of this anniversary.

Thank you for being with us.

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY: Thank you.

And we have to also remember the people in Mississippi who got hit by the brunt of the storm in towns like Biloxi, and Bay St. Louis, Waveland, and the rest.

GEOFF BENNETT: Indeed.

AMNA NAWAZ: And be sure to watch "Washington Week With The Atlantic" tonight right here on PBS.

Retiring Washington Post correspondent Dan Balz talks to Jeffrey Goldberg about his more than five decades covering politics.

GEOFF BENNETT: And on tomorrow's "PBS News Weekend": the worsening situation for women and girls inside Afghanistan four years after the U.S. withdrawal.

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, and have a great weekend.