AMNA NAWAZ: Good evening.

I'm Amna Nawaz Geoff.

Bennett is away.

On the "News Hour" tonight: The FBI charges a sitting judge with obstruction for allegedly helping an undocumented immigrant avoid arrest.

World leaders converge on the Vatican for the funeral of the late Pope Francis, as the faithful continue to pay their respects.

And the head of the World Food Program speaks out about the challenges the agency faces as Israel blocks aid to Gaza.

CINDY MCCAIN, Executive Director, World Food Program: People are starving, and many more are going to starve as a result of this.

We need to be able to not only have a cease-fire, but be able to get in at scale.

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

Today, an escalation in the Trump administration's battle with the judiciary and local authorities over the president's deportation agenda.

FBI agents arrested Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan on charges of obstructing immigration agents.

When officers attempted to arrest Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, a Mexican citizen, last week, the FBI alleges in a criminal complaint that Judge Dugan - - quote -- "escorted Flores-Ruiz and his counsel out of the courtroom through the jury door, which leads to a non-public area of the courthouse."

Earlier today, Attorney General Pam Bondi addressed both Judge Dugan's arrest and another recent arrest of a former New Mexico judge charged with hiding and alleged Tren de Aragua gang member.

PAM BONDI, U.S. Attorney General: I think some of these judges think they are beyond and above the law, and they are not.

And we're sending a very strong message today.

If you are harboring a fugitive, we don't care who you are.

AMNA NAWAZ: Our White House correspondent, Laura Barron-Lopez, joins me now here for the latest.

Laura, an extraordinary move, as we say, a sort of escalation in the ongoing showdown between the Trump administration and judges who they say are undermining their agenda.

Break this down for us.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: So, much of the public first found out about this when FBI Director Kash Patel posted on X that the arrest had occurred, accusing the judge of -- quote -- "intentionally misdirecting" federal agents away from Ruiz in her courtroom, although that's not what the official criminal complaint alleges.

So the complaint details that members of an ICE task force came to the courthouse last Friday to arrest Flores-Ruiz.

That included ICE, FBI, DA agents.

And Flores-Ruiz was at the court for a misdemeanor, battery charges tied to domestic abuse, so not for an immigration hearing.

And Judge Dugan told agents to talk to the chief judge.

She allowed the undocumented immigrant to exit through a jury door.

Agents spotted Flores-Ruiz later in the public hallway and at one point a DA agent even rode in the elevator with Flores-Ruiz and with his attorney.

And that's all lay down in the complaint.

Ultimately, they apprehended him down the street near the courthouse after he was running away from agents.

So, today, though, the judge was arrested on two charges of obstructing a proceeding of federal agents and concealing an individual to prevent discovery and arrest.

AMNA NAWAZ: Well, you talked to a former FBI special agent about all of this?

What did they have to say on this?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: I spoke to former FBI Special Agent Asha Rangappa, and she believed that both charges could be an uphill battle for the Justice Department in court because it's hard to prove corrupt intent.

And she questioned whether the Trump administration was not very focused on the merits of the case and more focused on the signal that it could send.

ASHA RANGAPPA, Former FBI Special Agent: I think this could be highly embarrassing for the Justice Department if they take this very this kind of case which is a spectacle and then don't prevail in court.

And I have to wonder whether this is not so much about the merits of this case, but perhaps to send a message.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Again, Judge Dugan was arrested on the grounds of a Milwaukee courthouse where she presides, according to the U.S.

Marshals Office.

And so that kind of spectacle, which is what Asha said, may be sending a chilling effect to others across the legal community.

AMNA NAWAZ: Now, Laura, you have been reporting on this administration.

Officials have been threatening for months to prosecute officials, judges and lawyers and lawmakers, people they accuse of wrongfully aiding undocumented immigrants.

Now that this has happened, what's been the reaction and are more arrests like it expected?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: It appears as though more could be expected, Amna, because administration officials are saying this is not the end.

President Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, posted today on X -- quote -- "Nobody should be surprised by the arrest of two judges."

He also said that if you are actively impeding our enforcement efforts, you will be prosecuted.

But just as Asha Rangappa, the former special agent, said, I also spoke to a former prosecutor, Julius Kim, who has worked alongside as a lawyer, the judge, Dugan, who was arrested.

And he said that this type of arrest of a judge is not typical, it's not normal, that he is worried that the process is being politicized and that ultimately, again, that the administration is not necessarily focused on seeing this case all the way through to the end, but is more focused on the larger message that it could send to judges who may act in a similar manner to Judge Dugan.

As for the reaction from Democratic lawmakers and the public in Milwaukee, it's been very swift.

And today there were protests outside Judge Dugan's courthouse with chance of people saying, "Free the judge now."

AMNA NAWAZ: I want to ask you about something on a different front I know you have been covering as well.

We saw a major reversal from the Trump administration on their immigration agenda when it comes to restoring the status of thousands of foreign students after the administration had terminated their records in a federal system.

What happened here?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: So earlier this month, the Trump administration terminated the records of thousands of foreign students from a federal database that tracks students across the U.S.

This database was created after 9/11 to track foreign students.

And in response to those terminations, there were 100 or so lawsuits.

Dozens of judges blocked the termination, saying that this wasn't lawful.

And so today in a federal court, the Trump administration did a complete reversal, essentially saying that it will restore the status, the record of these foreign students in this federal database that tracks them.

Now, the DHS said that they have not necessarily reversed course on a single visa revocation, but this is a key, important status for students to have and it affected some 4,000 foreign students.

AMNA NAWAZ: What are the experts telling you the impact could be here?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: So even though their status is being restored, in a government -- in a court hearing today, the administration said that ICE is still developing a policy that could provide a framework for these record terminations of students in the future.

And I spoke to Charles Kuck.

He is an immigration attorney that says that the impact of these record terminations is potentially irrevocable.

CHARLES KUCK, Immigration Attorney: They have paid a very serious price.

Restoring their SEVIS does not fix the problem that many of these students have.

Many lost jobs because of this, lost job offers.

Some lost the ability to transfer schools during this period of time and many lost their visas.

What we don't know yet is how ICE is going to fix any of these problems.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Immigration attorney Charles Kuck said that these terminations are sending a loud and clear message, despite the fact that they are being restored now.

They are sending a message to foreign students that once you are done with school that you should get out of the United States.

AMNA NAWAZ: Laura Barron-Lopez, thank you, as always.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Thank you.

AMNA NAWAZ: The day's other headlines begin in Moscow, where Russian negotiators say they made progress in talks with the U.S. to end the war in Ukraine.

STEVE WITKOFF, U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East: How are you, Mr. President?

Thank you.

AMNA NAWAZ: U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff sat down with Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly for three hours today.

A Kremlin official said they discussed the possibility of direct talks between Moscow and Kyiv.

All this comes as President Trump continues his push for Ukraine to make major concessions to end the war.

In a "TIME" magazine interview released today, Trump said -- quote -- "Crimea will stay with Russia."

Moscow invaded and occupied Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula back in 2014.

In Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy paid tribute to victims of a Russian attack earlier this week, and he said Ukraine could not and would not recognize Crimea as Russian land.

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, Ukrainian President (through translator): Temporarily occupied territories are just temporarily occupied, but they all belong to Ukraine.

I think this is absolutely a just and legal position, according to the Ukrainian Constitution, as well as international law.

AMNA NAWAZ: In Eastern Ukraine, officials say a Russian drone struck a residential building overnight, killing three people in the city of Pavlohrad.

And outside of Moscow, a car bomb killed a senior military officer, the second such attack on a top Russian commander in four months.

Russia blamed Ukrainian intelligence for the attack.

Ukrainian authorities did not comment.

Indian and Pakistani soldiers briefly exchanged gunfire across the border of the disputed region of Kashmir today.

Tensions are rising between the two nuclear nations since a deadly attack on tourists earlier this week.

India has blamed Pakistan for Tuesday's attack in a Kashmiri resort town.

Pakistan denies any connection.

Diplomatic relations have spiraled in just three days with the suspension of a water treaty, visas, trade and travel.

The United Nations has appealed to both countries to use maximum restraint.

In a Manhattan court today, Luigi Mangione pleaded not guilty to a federal murder charge for the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

Thompson was shot in Midtown Manhattan last December outside of the company's investor conference.

Department of Justice prosecutors under Attorney General Pam Bondi said they would seek the death penalty for Mangione.

He had already pleaded not guilty to separate New York and Pennsylvania state charges.

Those state charges would carry a maximum punishment of life in prison.

Also in New York, former Representative George Santos has been sentenced to more than seven years behind bars.

He pleaded guilty last summer to wire fraud and identity theft.

Santos arrived in federal court this morning and reportedly sobbed as the judge handed down his punishment.

It caps off a dramatic saga for the disgraced Republican who defrauded donors and fabricated his life story during his 2022 run for Congress.

Today, prosecutors praised the outcome.

ANNE DONNELLY, Nassau County, New York, District Attorney: He told lie after lie until it caught up with him, until we caught up with him and exposed him for what he truly was,an opportunist and a fraud.

AMNA NAWAZ: Santos was expelled from the House after barely serving a year in office.

He's due to report to prison in July.

And after a week of wild markets swings and major gains, on Wall Street today, stocks were mostly quiet.

The Dow Jones industrial average climbed back from early losses to basically break even.

Tech stocks carried the day, sending the Nasdaq up by more than 1 percent.

And the S&P 500 also registered a small gain.

Still to come on the "News Hour": how CEOs are shifting their business plans because of tariffs; David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart weigh in on the week's political headlines; and political cartoonists navigate a changing media landscape.

Today in Rome, a last chance for the faithful to view Pope Francis in his casket before his funeral tomorrow.

More than a quarter-million people over the three days of public viewing processed by Francis resting in a simple wood coffin; 54 heads of state, including President Trump, will attend tomorrow's service in St. Peter's Basilica.

Again tonight, special correspondent Malcolm Brabant reports from Rome.

MALCOLM BRABANT: On this, the last day of lying in state, the faithful lined up at dawn to pay tribute to the late pontiff.

The scenes inside St. Peter's were more reverential than earlier in the week, after the Vatican ordered people to stop photographing Francis in his casket.

SUOR MAYARA, Italian Nun (through translator): Truly, I felt in my heart as though I had lost someone very close to me.

But it was a moment to stay in prayer for him, to grant him peace, to give thanks for everything he has done for the church.

This is the feeling of gratitude.

STEPHEN COTTRELL, Archbishop of York: We spent time at the coffin of Pope Francis, just sitting in silence for a few minutes and praying and remembering a very, very beautiful and faithful ministry.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Stephen Cottrell, the archbishop of York, is acting head of the Church of England.

STEPHEN COTTRELL: I think it was his simplicity of life and his humility, which is what has made his papacy appear so different.

And I think that's something that all of us as Christian leaders can learn from.

And the fact that he was able to lay aside some of the pomp and the ceremony was something that is very beautiful and has touched our hearts.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Despite Pope Francis' reforms, Catholicism remains far more rigid than the archbishop of York's domain.

And, not surprisingly, he favors a continuity successor.

STEPHEN COTTRELL: What I see when I look at the world is confusion, sorrow, hurt.

And the things that God has given us in Jesus Christ are exactly what the world needs.

So that's what those of us who follow Christ and lead the church, that's who we need to be.

And that's what I hope for in the next pope.

MALCOLM BRABANT: But these are troubled waters.

Following the funeral, a storm is brewing between liberals and conservatives.

FATHER ROBERT SIRICO, Acton Institute: I think, in many respects, the Catholic Church right now is like society in general, that is, polarized.

And I would hope that the next pope would bring some peace, let the dust settle, and bring some authentic dialogue, not just posturing, not just throwing talking points at one another, but really bring some conversation.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Father Robert Sirico heads a center-right institution that offers a moral perspective on the free market.

Like his actor brother tony, who played Paulie Walnuts in the "Sopranos," Father Robert is a straight talker.

Do you not think that the church has to become more progressive to keep in touch with the way in which society is changing?

FATHER ROBERT SIRICO: I think, when I look at churches that have attempted that model, whether it's the Anglican Church in England or the German Church, I see it dying.

Where I see it vibrant and living is in those more traditional parts of the Catholic Church in the United States and, in particular on a more international level, in Africa.

I think we have gotten to the point now in Africa that they could be sending missionaries to the West.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Do you believe that the church is in an existential crisis at all in terms of losing relevance?

FATHER ROBERT SIRICO: I think society is in an existential crisis and that society needs the message of the church.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Some Vatican experts believe it's possible that the next pope might be a conservative from Africa, where Catholicism is booming.

Pope Francis from Argentina broke Europe's dominance of the papacy.

And veteran Vatican observer Robert Mickens believes that European cardinals aim to reassert their authority.

ROBERT MICKENS, English Editor, La Croix International: One of the things we should look for in this conclave are the Europeans, especially those who are more traditional, to put forward a candidate that they think can get enough votes to win this conclave, this papal election, in order to turn the church back to a different path.

I think there's a sense among some of the more conservative, if you will, cardinals that Pope Francis has gone too far.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Having accommodated tens of thousands of mourners, the Italian authorities have now switched their attention to providing security for scores of world leaders who will be attending tomorrow's funeral.

Before departing for Rome, President Trump said he hoped to make progress on trade and the Ukraine conflict.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: It's going to be very interesting.

We're going to meet with a lot of the foreign leaders that want to meet.

Trade deals are going very well.

I think Russia and Ukraine, I think they're coming along, we hope.

Anyway, we're going to Rome to pay our respects.

And we will be leaving that same day.

We will be coming back home tomorrow night.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Seen here with Pope Francis in 2017, President Trump is expected to be seated in a third-tier row of St. Peter's, behind the elite of the Catholic Church and members of royal families.

Ukraine's President Zelenskyy, who enjoyed a much closer relationship with Pope Francis, was due to attend the funeral, but may have to stay in Kyiv because of important military meetings.

If Zelenskyy does make it, it'll be the first time the two leaders will come face-to-face since their acrimonious meeting in the Oval Office two months ago.

The Vatican will be hoping that nothing detracts from Pope Francis' last earthly journey.

Tonight, in keeping with the solemn ancient tradition, Pope Francis' face was covered with a white silk cloth and his coffin sealed in readiness for tomorrow's elaborate funeral.

Humble to the very last, Pope Francis is rebelling against the grandeur of the Vatican.

His final request was to be buried here at the Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore, instead of in St. Peter's, where most popes are interred.

The only inscription his tomb will be his name in Latin, Franciscus.

This church is destined to become one of Christianity's most important shrines, as the calls grow for Francis to be fast-tracked to sainthood.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Malcolm Brabant in Rome.

AMNA NAWAZ: Both President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are reportedly looking for ways to ease the trade war between the two countries.

But with tariffs in effect around the world, corporate leaders are raising serious concerns about the ongoing tension and uncertainty already created.

Many are now asking the White House to reconsider new tariffs that are set to come into play next month.

Earlier this week, the CEOs of Walmart and Target reportedly warned the president there could be empty shelves within weeks.

To get more of a sense of how businesses are reacting, I spoke earlier with Rich Lesser.

He is the global chair of Boston Consulting Group, who works with CEOs of major companies.

Rich Lesser, welcome to the "News Hour."

Thanks for being here.

RICH LESSER, Global Chair, Boston Consulting Group: It's a pleasure.

AMNA NAWAZ: So you have been meeting with and convening groups of CEOs, not just around the country, but really around the world, to talk about how they are navigating this moment.

What do they tell you behind closed doors about their concerns and how they're approaching this moment?

RICH LESSER: Yes, it's very interesting.

Of course, the start of those conversations is always about the high-level stuff, the general economic forecast, inflation, GDP, all that sort of stuff.

But then, when you get beyond that, you typically get into three different kinds of topics.

The first topic is just uncertainty.

I mean, the tariffs are a challenge, and there's been a lot written and discussed about that.

But what's even more challenging is not knowing where they're going to land.

And that makes it harder to want to invest.

You might want to invest, but it makes it harder to know how and when to invest, whether it's doing deals or adding manufacturing assets or building infrastructure.

AMNA NAWAZ: Yes.

RICH LESSER: And so the uncertainty is the first topic.

I think the second is, many people want to come to the U.S. and to build.

And that's been true even leading up to the inauguration.

I heard that quite frequently.

I think the work force issues are a real challenge.

Many of the towns that the president rightly identified as having been decimated by what's happened over the last few decades, those people have left those towns.

AMNA NAWAZ: Yes.

RICH LESSER: It's not easy to know how you're going to restart.

It's not easy to find work force.

And I have heard that from CEOs across a whole range of industries.

And then the third is any time you have this much change in such a short time, there's a risk of supply chain shocks.

And obviously this isn't COVID.

It's nothing like COVID.

But that -- we saw, when the whole world gets changed overnight, you can have supply chain issues.

So how we get from where we have been to where we're going, the risk of the bumps along the way being substantial, like, those things are what's on people's minds.

AMNA NAWAZ: Yes.

And it's a bit of sort of paralysis among those leaders in terms of decision-making because of that.

Is that right?

RICH LESSER: So, yes and no.

If you're the CEO, you have got to be ready to make decisions whatever the world is.

RICH LESSER: But there are just some decisions that it's better to wait a while on.

And I think right now, until we get a sense of where things are going to land, how these negotiations will proceed, there's a lot of them going on in parallel.

Once we know where they land, then I think CEOs are likely to feel more confident taking decisions about their investment posture, their supply chain footprint, how they want to evolve their business and what they need to do on things like pricing that they have to navigate as well.

AMNA NAWAZ: So that's where consumers are paying attention, right, things like pricing.

AMNA NAWAZ: From their perspective, when are they going to start to feel all of this and how will it show up in their everyday lives?

RICH LESSER: You have to make an assumption about where we're going to end up when you say that.

And I honestly don't know, right?

I mean, this was a more optimistic week.

We saw the stock market doing better because people are more optimistic we will get to lower tariffs and the president said some positive words on that line.

If we are where we are today... RICH LESSER: ... some of the examples are things like -- the near one will be bananas, just to take a really simple one, because all our bananas are imported.

We're not going to grow bananas here probably ever, but certainly not for many years.

Right now, there's a 10 percent tariff from a country, say, like Honduras.

And there was very little value added in the U.S., so that 10 percent tariff will probably hit about a 7.5 percent increase on the price of bananas on the shelf.

Bananas aren't so expensive, but it is a staple product for many, many families.

RICH LESSER: If I look further out, I think some of the seasonal things that will come over the course of the rest of the year, back to school, Halloween, Christmas.

In each of those, consumers buy a range of things that are made in other countries, whether it's clothing for kids and shoes and some of the school supplies, whether it's Halloween costumes, whether it's Christmas tree, artificial Christmas trees that are made overseas.

And then, if you bring it in a more personal way, even something like bridal gowns.

The good news is, brides tend to get their dresses well before the wedding.

RICH LESSER: So the weddings that are going to happen over the summer, probably most of those dresses are already in the U.S.

But if you project out to the fall and you have -- those gowns are maybe on the water right now are about to be shipped, and those could go up substantially in cost.

There's actually little stores, small, small businesses that sell bridal gowns, that are really worried about how they will stay in business as prices go up.

So, again, hopefully this will resolve.

We don't know.

RICH LESSER: But those are the kind of things that I think consumers will actually feel directly in their lives as this plays forward.

AMNA NAWAZ: You know, you mentioned that brief rally we saw in the markets.

That followed the president kind of softening his stance, at least in some of the rhetoric when it comes to the trade war with China.

And that followed a meeting with CEOs at the White House.

Does that tell you that he is listening to business leaders in these cases?

RICH LESSER: I think the president genuinely is listening and listening to a wide range of input, some of whom have very different views.

I mean, he has advisers in the White House, obviously, who are very strong advocates for tariffs.

I think most CEOs really have concerns about it, and particularly very broad-based.

And I'm really glad that he's engaging with them.

I mean, the people he met with are really some of the best CEOs in this country, and I think -- and they're also very honest.

I know all three of them, and they're quite very honest people.

And I think they will tell him in private what they really expect to happen, and that's a good thing.

AMNA NAWAZ: You have also said previously that you believe that President Trump has accurately tapped into a real problem in the country that we have ignored for too long.

But the way that he's going about addressing it now, we have a series of country-by-country deals, potential deals, going on that could go on for quite some time.

So even if you believe that we need to reshore a manufacturing job, we need to address trade imbalances, is this the best way to go about that?

RICH LESSER: We will only know looking backward.

In all honesty, I think that if we end up exactly where we are now, I think there will be a lot of second-order impacts, whether it's things like bananas or bridal gowns or things like that, that are probably not things we're going to make in the U.S. going forward and will have impact.

The group I'm the most concerned actually are small businesses.

Big businesses have a lot of capabilities, a lot of resilience, particularly since COVID, into their supply chains.

They have a lot of ability to make moves.

It will still be costly, but they will figure out a way.

I think a lot of smaller businesses would be really challenged if things end up where they are right now, and -- but hopefully that's not where we're heading.

AMNA NAWAZ: In the meantime, we track the bananas and the bridal gowns, right?

RICH LESSER: And back to school.

AMNA NAWAZ: And back to school.

Rich Lesser, global chair of Boston Consulting Group, thank you so much.

Such a pleasure.

RICH LESSER: It's a pleasure to be with you.

AMNA NAWAZ: Today, the World Food Program announced it had delivered the last of its food in Gaza and warned the kitchens it's been supporting there would run out of food in days.

Nick Schifrin spoke earlier with Cindy McCain, head of the World Food Program, about conditions in Gaza, a lack of funding that's forced her to cut 30 percent of the WFP staff worldwide, and the unprecedented challenges feeding the hungriest in another country that she's currently visiting, Haiti.

NICK SCHIFRIN: The World Food Program is the world's largest humanitarian organization.

And, today, it says some 340 million people face severe food insecurity because of conflict, instability and climate change.

This week, WFP Executive Director Cindy McCain is visiting Haiti, where some 5.7 million people, more than half the country's population, face high levels of acute food insecurity.

And earlier this week, the U.N. warned that gang violence had spread so much, without more international support, there will be more violence and Haiti could -- quote -- "face total collapse."

And Cindy McCain now joins me from Cap-Haitien in Haiti.

Cindy McCain, thanks very much.

Welcome back to the "News Hour."

I just read all of those U.N. dire warnings about Haiti.

You have been traveling around.

You visited schools that provide locally grown meals.

You visited factories that produce snack kits for kids.

How dire is the lack of food for so many?

CINDY MCCAIN, Executive Director, World Food Program: It's a very, very serious problem, as you just stated.

This -- Haiti itself is a powder keg.

And with the lack of food and the lack of ability to obtain food for most of the population, this is a place that could go at any moment.

I'm very worried that the world has forgotten about Haiti.

We really, really, really need to pay attention here, and we really, really need to coordinate countries to get together and do action here to help Haiti get back on its feet.

NICK SCHIFRIN: The WFP has been negotiating with armed groups to try and get access to some of these areas that are difficult to reach, but how much has the violence impeded your ability to actually help the hungry?

CINDY MCCAIN: Well, it's impeded a lot.

We do negotiate with the gangs.

We do get in.

But, again, the violence itself, the inability to have a coordinated effort that's at scale to be able to feed people is just -- it's nonexistent here.

There's famine here.

No one really talks about famine in Haiti, but there's about 8,500 people that are in famine conditions now.

That's tragic.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Let's switch over to Gaza.

The World Food Program has been delivering flour.

The flour has now run out.

The WFP has been handing out food parcels.

That has now run out.

And then we have the announcement today.

As we said, you have been delivering food for kitchens to cook hot meals, and that has now run out in terms of that food stock.

This is a consequence of Israel's block on aid into Gaza for some seven weeks now.

What does this mean for the people of Gaza?

CINDY MCCAIN: Oh, this is a tragic set of circumstances.

People are starving, and they're going -- many more are going to starve as a result of this.

We need to be able to not only have a cease-fire, but be able to get in at scale.

Our last truck left today.

That's the last of what we had stored inside Gaza.

There's nothing left.

There's no place to go for food anymore.

NICK SCHIFRIN: You and the U.N. overall has warned in the past that North Gaza especially has been on the brink of famine.

What are the conditions there now?

Are there fears of famine today?

CINDY MCCAIN: There are fears of famine, sure.

Our inability to get in and our inability to deliver at scale is what's causing this.

We -- again, we need a cease-fire.

We need to be able to get at scale.

We need the world to say, let -- let the humanitarians in.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Another emergency worker in Gaza recently said that this phase of the war, since the fighting resumed on March 18, has been one of the -- quote -- "darkest chapters" of the war.

How has this phase been different?

And have aid workers been killed while doing their jobs?

CINDY MCCAIN: Yes to all of that.

Our people that have been on the ground from the very beginning, because they can't get out, are -- I worry about their well-being.

It is a very dark period.

The world has turned its back on what we really need to be doing.

Food is not political.

And to make food political is something that is unconscionable, number one, but, number two, it just shouldn't happen.

NICK SCHIFRIN: The Israeli government, as you know, has been arguing that Hamas has used food aid as a tool to maintain its power in Gaza, for example, taking the food and selling it and converting that money into some military capacity.

Do you agree?

And how can you prevent that?

CINDY MCCAIN: I don't necessarily agree with that.

No, our people have not seen evidence of that.

Now, mind you, we have seen violence.

But these were hungry people trying to get food off a truck.

It's very hard to watch, which our people are having to do, watch people starve to death, and knowing that we have the capability to deliver and can't -- and we can't do it.

NICK SCHIFRIN: I want to switch over to World Food Program itself as well as U.S. support for it and U.S. foreign aid.

Can you confirm that WFP plans to cut some 30 percent of the work force, some 6,000 jobs?

And why have you made that decision, if that is correct?

CINDY MCCAIN: Yes, that is correct.

We, like everyone else, have lost 40 percent of our budget.

From our standpoint, we were already in the middle of cutting back.

So now this is just kind of the top end of this.

Now we're going to have to have to have to remove jobs.

And I'm -- it breaks my heart.

But it's what's necessary right now.

NICK SCHIFRIN: You and I have talked before about how the funding shortfall preceded the Trump administration.

We have seen the Trump administration take away some funds to WFP, give back some funds to WFP.

Right now, do you have the money that the Trump administration has said it is giving you?

Because you warned that the cuts that the Trump administration was going to make to the WFP would be -- quote -- "amount to a death sentence for millions of people."

CINDY MCCAIN: We're dealing with a situation where sometimes the right hand doesn't know what the left hand's doing.

We have received some of the funds that were promised, yes, that were in the pipeline.

We're not completely there yet.

The world collectively has taken -- has stepped back from some of these disasters and these issues that we face every day with regards to hunger.

It's not just the United States.

It's also European countries.

It's our Middle Eastern friends, although they're beginning to step up a little bit now, but -- and our Asian friends also.

NICK SCHIFRIN: But take on the argument that the Trump administration has been making.

One example from the State Department says it has been fixing -- quote -- "decades of mismanagement, fraud, and misaligned priorities in the delivery of foreign assistance."

Do you believe U.S. assistance, U.S. priorities on foreign aid have been misaligned?

CINDY MCCAIN: You know, I can't really answer that.

I don't -- have never seen that, but what I do know is that we were all top-heavy.

We were big.

We have gotten big, and AID was no different than that.

It was time for all of us to take -- to relook at how we operate.

I would never say anything bad about AID.

We have been great partners in the field, and we have worked together, obviously, for years and years and years.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Cindy McCain, executive director of the World Food Program, thank you very much.

CINDY MCCAIN: Thanks for having me.

AMNA NAWAZ: From dysfunction at the Department of Defense to a judge in Wisconsin being arrested by the FBI, it's shaped up to be quite the week.

Luckily, here to break it all down, I'm joined by Brooks and Capehart.

That is New York Times columnist David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart, associate editor for The Washington Post.

It's great to see you both.

So, David, I want to start off with you because in the last -- for almost 100 days now into his presidency, just in this last week, we saw a bit of a reversal or a walk-back from President Trump on a couple of stances.

One was a sort of softening on the rhetoric towards China and the trade war, and the other, as Laura reported earlier, the administration abruptly reversing itself on the potential cancellation of thousands of foreign student visas.

I don't mean to connect these two in any way.

They are not connected, but they did happen this week.

And I just wonder, as you reflect on where they are now, what this says to you about how the administration is processing feedback and who they're listening to.

It suggests, well, as we learned in Trump one, they don't have a long-term strategy.

There's no policy process, we're going to do this, and then we're going to stick through it no matter who says what.

They just don't do that.

Trump is instinctive.

He responds to the moment.

And the lesson for people who want to defend institutions, whether you're a university, whether you're a law firm, whether you're a scientific research center, whether you're a business who doesn't like what tariffs are doing to your business, is that you can throw sand in the gears of this administration, and they will respond.

They're going to do what they want to do.

But people who oppose what they want to do and want to defend American institutions can do lawsuits, they can do lobbying, there can be leaking, there can be protests.

There are all these things that can happen and they have proven this week they will have an effect.

Donald Trump listened to, like, the CEO of Walmart.

He listens to the polls.

He listens when there's all these lawsuits.

He listened to something about the student -- the international students.

Now, that doesn't say things are going back to normal.

The tariffs are still higher.

If you're a university, your international students are still in jeopardy.

But it shows what can be done, that there is possibility for an opposition to Trump to have successes if they can apply just relentless pressure.

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

You take away the same lessons?

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Yes, I do.

David had a great column today in The New York Times where he talked about what the opposition should do in the face of an administration that hit the ground running.

And the whole point of this administration has been to flood the zone, confuse everybody, confound everybody, and get as much done and through the gates as possible before the opposition has a chance to recover.

And right now what we have been seeing is not just the opposition recovering, but the American people deciding that they don't exactly like what they see.

A raft of polls has started coming out in anticipation of the president's first 100 days.

And on the economy and on immigration, the two issues he ran on or said he was going to run on and change things immediately, he is now underwater and at least two polls that come to mind, but we're going to see more, if not later today, than over the weekend showing that the president is losing ground on the two issues he campaigned on.

AMNA NAWAZ: Meanwhile, David, as Laura also reported earlier, this is other story we're tracking, which seems to mark a different chapter in the ongoing immigration agenda of this administration.

That was the FBI arresting and charging a sitting judge in Milwaukee.

Now, the FBI says that she obstructed their agents when they were trying to arrest an undocumented immigrant who was in her courthouse.

It's been reported, she allowed him to leave through a side door.

But what does this say to you now in terms of what the administration is willing to do and how this was carried out?

DAVID BROOKS: Well, obviously, they're trying to send a note of intimidation, not only to her, but to all judges and maybe to all Americans.

But I don't yet know the specific details of this case, whether she escorted the guy out the jury door or whether she led him.

So that's all murky.

I don't want to comment on this specific case.

But especially on the issue of immigration, there are a lot of people who are appalled by what the administration is doing.

And there will be times for civil disobedience.

And, to me, if she -- let's say she did escort this guy out the door.

If federal enforcement agencies come to your courtroom and you help a guy escape, that is two things.

One, it strikes me as maybe something illegal, but it also strikes me as something heroic.

And in times of trouble, then people are sometimes called to do civil disobedience.

And in my view, when people do civil disobedience, they have to pay the price.

That's part of the heroism of it, frankly.

And so you can both think that she shouldn't have legally done this and that morally protecting somebody against, maybe not even in this case, but in other cases, frankly, a predatory enforcement agency, sometimes, civil disobedience is necessary.

And I don't know if we will get to this point, but we could get to this point in weeks or months where acts of civil disobedience on a lot of fronts may be necessary.

And the Trump administration will probably welcome that kind of fight, but their opponents should welcome that kind of fight.

And that's one of the ways you can shift public opinion, because one of the ways authoritarians lose control is when their opponents protest in a nonviolent way, and the authoritarians crack down violently.

That's the way you delegitimize an authoritarian regime.

And so that -- it may come to that.

AMNA NAWAZ: Jonathan, what do you make of that on both fronts here, both the accountability part of it and also the message being sent?

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Well, certainly the message being sent is intimidation.

And it is part of an ongoing activity by the president to intimidate the judiciary from openly defying lawful orders of courts not to do X, Y, or Z to what we just saw in that courtroom in Wisconsin.

I read the affidavit that was a probable cause to take action against the judge.

And this scene -- reading that affidavit, Amna and David, made me think of how the Trump administration is very good at muddying up the waters here.

So you now have a situation where a defendant who was in the courtroom because he was charged on three counts of battery, domestic abuse, infliction of physical pain or injury, and you read in the affidavit that the judge was told that ICE was there, she talked to them, and she said, you need to go talk to the chief judge.

And when they go and talk to the chief judge, he said, I got to come up with the policy here because we need to figure out how we're going to work this out, but did acknowledge that they are able to -- that they are able to do the arrest in public places.

All that to say is that the Trump administration is going to hang their hats on that.

And, meanwhile, as David says in that, and I agree, that you have a judge who is, it seems to me, taking a moral stand.

I look forward to hearing from that judge, because if she doesn't stand up against what's now happened to her, which is a ratcheting up of the intimidation against the judiciary, then no other judge is going to take that same stand.

And that is my big fear.

AMNA NAWAZ: Meanwhile, I have to ask you both about what we're seeing unfolding at the Department of Defense.

David, separate from what we're calling Signalgate, right, which is Secretary of Defense Hegseth's use of a commercial messaging app and sending sensitive information, there have been a number of stories questioning his leadership at the agency.

He's fired four top officials in just the last week.

We saw his top spokesman, John Ullyot, resign a few days ago.

And he wrote about the chaos inside, saying this: "Even strong backers of the secretary like me must admit the last month has been a full-blown meltdown at the Pentagon.

It's becoming a real problem for the administration."

Where is the line here in terms of why the president continues to stand by him and when he might not?

DAVID BROOKS: Ullyot wrote that piece in Politico and I thought it was the work of Tolstoy.

It was a work of genius.

It was like mind-boggling, that op-ed, because, basically, he said, I'm friends with Pete Hegseth.

I'm a long time supporter of Pete Hegseth.

I salute Pete Hegseth.

The guy's a total disaster.

(LAUGHTER) DAVID BROOKS: And I would tell Ullyot that, do you think your friendship with Pete Hegseth is going to last?

And he was saying like, I really value our friendship.

I wouldn't bet on that.

I think that relationship might be over.

But -- so, but the point is that Pete Hegseth has always been attacked by his friends, at FOX, at the veterans organizations he was part of.

It was the people he worked closest with and who claimed to be on his side that were always the critics.

So Pete Hegseth needs to be better at picking friends or better at running things.

AMNA NAWAZ: Jonathan, got less than a minute left.

What's your take?

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Look, Secretary Hegseth is in a job he is not qualified to be in, that he shouldn't have even been nominated to be in.

And now we are seeing the results of that.

Anybody who is using a public messaging system in one of the - - what's supposed to be one of the most secure places within the federal government, that tells you everything you need to know.

Donald Trump says he's with Pete Hegseth, until which time he is no longer with Pete Hegseth.

Loyalty with Donald Trump only runs one way.

AMNA NAWAZ: Jonathan Capehart, David Brooks, always great to talk to you both.

Thank you so much.

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Thanks, Amna.

DAVID BROOKS: Thank you.

AMNA NAWAZ: A picture is worth 1,000 words.

It's a well-worn phrase, of course, but there's special resonance when applied to editorial cartoons, a centuries-old tradition that's evolving as the media landscape itself does.

Senior arts correspondent Jeffrey Brown takes a closer look for our series Art in Action, exploring the intersection of art and democracy, and our ongoing Canvas coverage.

ANN TELNAES, Political Cartoonist: I will go back and figure out which lines need more definition or strength.

JEFFREY BROWN: It's art in the service of strong political opinion, backed by hours of research.

It's funny, often using caricature, but with serious intent.

Ann Telnaes has been creating editorial cartoons for decades.

A self-described liberal, she's a Pulitzer Prize winner in 2001, a finalist in 2022.

ANN TELNAES: An editorial cartoon, even if the art is strong, if it doesn't have a strong point of view, then it fails.

Of course, if your art's good, that's even better, because then that will grab the reader faster.

JEFFREY BROWN: Michael Ramirez, who calls himself a constitutional conservative, is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, another longtime leading practitioner of this craft.

MICHAEL RAMIREZ, Political Cartoonist: When people look at the editorial page, it's probably one of the primary things that they look at.

And, therefore, it has a sort of measure of influence.

In a Super Bowl ad, you have got about five seconds to capture their attention, another five seconds to make the sale.

The only difference is, instead of selling a commodity or product, I'm selling an idea.

JEFFREY BROWN: But, these days, who's buying?

Who's even seeing the work?

According to The Herb Block Scholarship, named after the legendary Washington Post cartoonist who died in 2001, the number of editorial cartoonists at newspapers, many of them syndicated nationally, dropped from more than 120 to fewer than 30 in the past 25 years.

One challenge, economic, amid the ever-shrinking newspaper business.

Another, ideological, amid national divisions so profound that many papers seek to avoid strong satire and opinion.

ANN TELNAES: There's less tolerance for satire, because satire involves things that aren't necessarily easy for people to accept, depictions of people, criticizing people.

JEFFREY BROWN: For Ann Telnaes, the tolerance factor, hit home directly.

Earlier this year, she quit The Washington Post, her employer since 2008, after experiencing a first.

One of her cartoons was spiked.

It pictured billionaire tech and media executives, including Amazon's Jeff Bezos, who also owns The Post, bowing with bags of money before incoming President Trump.

ANN TELNAES: I had not planned to quit.

I wanted to continue commenting on what I thought was important.

And I just realized I can't work like that.

JEFFREY BROWN: You just felt like there are now things you couldn't -- you're not allowed to say?

ANN TELNAES: Yes, I thought this was the beginning.

This is like, it's not going to stop here.

JEFFREY BROWN: Michael Ramirez's work appears in both the Las Vegas Review-Journal, which publishes him six times a week, as well as The Washington Post, two times a week.

His moment of confrontation came when a cartoon about Hamas was pulled from the post Web site in 2023, accused of being racist in its caricature.

MICHAEL RAMIREZ: I do believe that political cartooning is a necessary element in self-governance.

Not only is it a catalyst for thought, but it's a call to action.

I want to promote liberty and democracy in our republic.

SARA DUKE, Curator of Popular and Applied Graphic Art, Library of Congress: They are great documents for a moment in time.

JEFFREY BROWN: Editorial cartooning itself has a long and varied history dating back to the 1600s.

SARA DUKE: This could reach people who weren't quite literate.

JEFFREY BROWN: We got a sampling from Sara Duke, curator of popular and applied graphic art at the Library of Congress, which holds 140,000 cartoon prints and drawings.

SARA DUKE: Here, we have a group of vultures waiting for the storm.

JEFFREY BROWN: So when was this?

SARA DUKE: This is 1871.

And this is Tammany Hall in New York.

It's the Democratic stronghold.

And Boss Tweed ends up fleeing the United States.

JEFFREY BROWN: A key point, Duke says, editorial cartoons have always changed with the times and with new technology.

And that has affected their impact.

SARA DUKE: We had the copper engravings.

Maybe a few dozen could be printed and distributed.

And then we had the rise of the lithograph, and you had a few thousand.

And then you had Harper's Weekly.

Editorial cartoons at the peak of newsprint because they were distributed by syndicates, you're talking... JEFFREY BROWN: Millions.

SARA DUKE: Millions.

SARA DUKE: And now you're talking potentially millions via social media, Instagram, Bluesky, Facebook, all places to ingest editorial cartoons.

JEFFREY BROWN: In fact, Ann Telnaes left the post for Substack, an online platform where creators built a direct relationship with their audience through subscriptions.

She now has 91,000 followers, a readership and earnings, but arguably less influence, for now, at least, than at a major newspaper like The Post.

One thing she feels she does have, more freedom to say what she wants.

Recently, in the wake of the president appointing himself chair of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, she depicted him on stage with a conductor's baton topped by a swastika and portrayed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth with a tattoo across his chest reading: "I'm not a defense secretary.

I just play one on TV."

For his part, Michael Ramirez continues to skewer what he sees as progressive dogma and Democratic impotence.

But he's also deeply critical of President Trump's tariffs and many aspects of the MAGA movement.

Here, a Republican elephant on a deserted island says to an abandoned man: "I know how you feel.

I'm a free market constitutional conservative."

MICHAEL RAMIREZ: Today's cartoon is really a mirror of where I am.

It's so strange that, in today's politics, the roles have been reversed, this kind of reactionary populism on one side and then the extreme progressive ideas.

And I think most people are sort of caught in between.

JEFFREY BROWN: For both cartoonists, the stakes are incredibly high, a test of democratic values, and extend beyond the U.S. Telnaes spoke recently in the Netherlands for World Press Freedom Day.

ANN TELNAES: Autocrats especially do not like editorial cartoons.

They are the great equalizer, and they don't like being laughed at.

If editorial cartoonists all of a sudden go away, that means something else is following.

Other voices will be silenced.

And it's not that great a leap to go from an editorial cartoonist being silenced through threats or whatever to you sitting around having coffee with your friends and you're joking about politics nowadays, and you're making fun of the president or the prime minister or your local politician, and somebody reports you.

And then you get questioned about your political beliefs.

It's not that big of a jump.

JEFFREY BROWN: An urgent warning from one cartoonist offered with pencil and brush.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Jeffrey Brown in Washington, D.C. AMNA NAWAZ: Remember, there's always a lot more online, including our PBS News digital weekly program that reviews the week's top events and political headlines.

You can see that on our YouTube page.

Be sure to watch "Washington Week With The Atlantic" tonight on PBS.

Jeffrey Goldberg and his panel discuss the most consequential moments of the first 100 days of President Trump's second term.

And on "PBS News Weekend," we're covering the funeral service of Pope Francis and how his legacy could shape the future of the Catholic Church.

And that is the "News Hour" for tonight.

On behalf of the entire "News Hour" team, I'm Amna Nawaz.

Thank you for joining us, and have a great weekend.