AMNA NAWAZ: Good evening.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

GEOFF BENNETT: And I'm Geoff Bennett.

On the "NewsHour" tonight: JOE BIDEN, President of the United States: The United States seeks a more secure, more prosperous, more equitable world for all people.

GEOFF BENNETT: At the United Nations, President Biden calls on world leaders to promote peace and stand with Ukraine against Russia's invasion, now well into its second year.

AMNA NAWAZ: And we report from on the ground in Ukraine, where U.S. support is bolstering the effort to retake land from Russian forces.

GEOFF BENNETT: And the autoworkers strike enters its fifth day, as a union leader warns of more potential factory shutdowns if talks come to a halt.

(BREAK) GEOFF BENNETT: Welcome to the "NewsHour."

The annual United Nations General Assembly met today, with the world, in the words of Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, at the point of a -- quote -- "great fracture."

AMNA NAWAZ: He wasn't the only one with an unsparing view of the myriad problems faced by many nations.

President Biden spoke this morning, and sought to reassure underdeveloped nations that the U.S. will help them through these tough times.

But his most forceful words were reserved for Russia and its war against Ukraine.

White House correspondent Laura Barron-Lopez begins our coverage.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: The General Assembly gathered today under dark clouds of war, climate crisis, and inequality.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was blunt.

ANTONIO GUTERRES, United Nations Secretary-General: Our world is becoming unhinged.

Geopolitical tensions are rising.

Global challenges are mounting.

And we seem incapable of coming together to respond.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: One hundred and forty-five world leaders were set to address the group.

But leaders from Britain, France, China, and Russia were absent.

JOE BIDEN, President of the United States: As president of the United States, I understand the duty my country has to lead in this critical moment.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Making the United States the only permanent Security Council member with veto power to address the body.

(APPLAUSE) LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: President Biden drew applause after he denounced Russia's war as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy looked on.

JOE BIDEN: If you allow Ukraine to be carved up, is the independence of any nation secure?

I would respectfully suggest the answer is no.

We have to stand up to this naked aggression today and deter other would-be aggressors tomorrow.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Yesterday, Zelenskyy visited wounded Ukrainian soldiers at a hospital in New York.

He criticized the U.N. for still including Russia and its ranks.

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, Ukrainian President: If in the United Nations still, it's a pity, but, still, there is a place for Russian terrorists, it's a question not to me, I think.

It's a question to all the members of the United Nations.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: This year was Zelenskyy's first in-person appearance at the General Assembly.

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY: While Russia is pushing the world to the final war, Ukraine is doing everything to ensure that, after Russian aggression, no one in the world will dare to attack any nation.

Weaponization must be restrained.

War crimes must be punished.

Deported people must come back home.

And the occupier must return to their own land.

We must be united to make it.

And we will do it.

Slava Ukraini.

(APPLAUSE) LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Even as Biden pledged support in New York, back in Washington, House Republicans are rejecting more aid for Ukraine.

Speaker Kevin McCarthy was asked if more money was on the way.

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): Is Zelenskyy elected to Congress?

Is he our president?

I don't think I have to commit anything.

I have questions for him.

Where is the accountability in the money we already spent?

What is the plan for victory?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: At an air base in Germany today, U.S. military officials addressed reporters on the state of the war.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs Chair Mark Milley took part in a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group.

GEN. MARK MILLEY, Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff: This counteroffensive has been going on for about 90 days, and it is taking longer than planners in the war games, et cetera, with the Ukrainian planners and the war games, anticipated.

But that's the difference between war on paper and real war.

There are real human beings in real vehicles moving across real minefields getting blown up, killed, wounded, et cetera.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: The flames of war burn on in Ukraine.

Last night, Russia launched a drone attack that set warehouses containing food and other supplies on fire and killed one person in the western city of Lviv.

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

GEOFF BENNETT: With the war the topic of so many of the speeches today in New York, we turn now to Nick Schifrin, who's in Ukraine on assignment, and has spent much of the last week with Ukrainian forces.

He joins us tonight from the southern city of Dnipro.

Nick, what did you hear in President Zelenskyy's speech?

NICK SCHIFRIN: Geoff, he tried to paint the war in global terms.

He warned that any kind of Russian victory could lead to even nuclear war, and many countries - - quote -- "having empty chairs at the U.N." Once again, he called Russia a terrorist state, accused of genocide, and specifically warned not to negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin, using this zinger, a reference to former Wagner paramilitary group head Yevgeny Prigozhin, who died in a fiery plane crash in Moscow.

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY: Evil cannot be trusted.

Ask Prigozhin if one bets on Putin's promises.

NICK SCHIFRIN: But the larger context of the speech is Zelenskyy's desire and need to expand Ukraine's support across the Global South.

He met today with the heads of South Africa and Kenya.

Many of these countries continue to provide economic or diplomatic support to Russia.

And Zelenskyy knows that, in a long war -- and this war does appear to be heading to a long war -- he needs more support, specifically at the United Nations across the Global South than he currently has, especially if the world will hold Russia accountable and really prevent Russia from having the financial resources to continue to wage war.

GEOFF BENNETT: So, Nick, what does that long war look like on the front where you have been?

NICK SCHIFRIN: It looks very, very difficult, Geoff.

As you said, we have spent the last week in Southern Ukraine on the front line, specifically in what Ukraine calls its most critical front, an offensive south toward the city Melitopol, on the road to Crimea, to cut into Russian-occupied territory and threaten Russian supply lines.

We have seen very able special forces units and drone units try and attack Russian positions that are currently being reinforced in that area.

We have seen very able National Guard units fighting inch by inch, despite not having many resources.

But we have also seen army brigades with shortages of ammunition, and army soldiers telling us repeatedly that there are shortages of weapons and ammunition up and down the front.

And they describe incredibly, incredibly challenging circumstances, especially what are the largest minefields in the world, hundreds of miles of mines that Ukrainians are having to basically hand by hand try and explode, and that they tell us Russia is then remining after they have demined it from the air with small butterfly mines.

And so success right now really is being measured in feet.

Ukraine vows -- and every soldier we talk to repeats this -- that it will continue to fight until victory, and it defines that victory as reseizing Crimea.

But Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley recently said that Ukraine only has about four to six weeks left of decent weather before it gets bogged down in the mud, literally, and can't make much progress.

And given the political context that you just heard Laura report on in the United States, some doubts about support for Ukraine at the top of the Republican Party, Ukraine knows that it needs to make progress in this counteroffensive in the next few weeks if it's going to continue U.S. support, and, Geoff, get that critical Global South support that it needs for this long war.

GEOFF BENNETT: Nick Schifrin reporting for us tonight from the southern Ukrainian city of Dnipro.

Nick, thank you.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Thanks, Geoff.

AMNA NAWAZ: In the day's other headlines: The five Americans freed in a prisoner swap with Iran are finally back on U.S. soil.

One by one, they stepped onto the tarmac early this morning at Fort Belvoir, Virginia.

Loved ones welcomed them home with cheers and tearful embraces after years of separation.

They were freed after President Biden agreed to unfreeze nearly $6 billion in Iranian funds for humanitarian purchases.

A Moscow court has refused to consider the latest appeal by Evan Gershkovich, The Wall Street Journal reporter detained on espionage charges.

His trial date has yet to be scheduled.

Gershkovich appeared in public for the first time in months, standing behind glass walls.

Outside the court, the U.S. ambassador said she won't rest until he and American detainee Paul Whelan are released.

LYNNE TRACY, U.S.

Ambassador to Russia: The plight of U.S. citizens wrongfully detained in Russia remains a top priority for me, my team at the embassy, and the entire U.S. government.

It is unacceptable that Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan still languish in Russian prisons on charges that are baseless.

AMNA NAWAZ: Gershkovich faces up to 20 years in prison.

Paul Whelan is serving a 16-year sentence on similar charges.

Forces in Azerbaijan fired on Armenian military positions today, killing at least five civilians and wounding scores more.

The shelling happened in the long disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region that's under ethnic Armenian control.

Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry released video of today's strikes.

They called it an anti-terrorist operation launched after a land mine killed several soldiers and civilians.

India expelled a senior Canadian diplomat today hours after Canada did the same to an Indian diplomat.

The dueling dismissals come amid allegations that Indian agents murdered Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Vancouver back in June.

He was a Canadian citizen and leading advocate for Sikh independence.

India has called the claims absurd, but Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau defended his decision to investigate.

JUSTIN TRUDEAU, Canadian Prime Minister: We are not looking to provoke or escalate.

We are simply laying out the facts as we understand them.

Canadians have a right to know and need to know when things are going on like this.

And that's why we made the decision to do this.

AMNA NAWAZ: Canada has the highest population of Sikhs outside of their home state of Punjab in India.

In Libya, authorities have divided the flood-ravaged city of Derna into four sections to create buffer zones to prevent the spread of disease.

That comes amid reports that at least 150 residents have fallen ill after drinking contaminated water.

Meanwhile, anti-government protests erupted outside one of the city's mosques.

Demonstrators demanded a transparent reconstruction process.

MOHAMMED BEN HAMAD, Libya Protester (through translator): We ask that, if there are any rebuilding efforts, that no Libyan company be involved.

Everyone in Derna is corrupt, from the head of the municipality to city officials.

Derna should either be left as is, or a foreign company should be involved.

AMNA NAWAZ: Protesters also called for a thorough investigation.

Reports allege authorities ignored warnings that the two dams that collapsed near Derna during the storm needed maintenance.

And stocks slid on Wall Street today as investors awaited tomorrow's Federal Reserve decision on interest rates.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 106 points to close at 34518.

The Nasdaq fell 32 points, and the S&P 500 slipped nine.

Still to come on the "NewsHour": Republican Congressman Ralph Norman on critical negotiations to avoid a government shutdown; why crews regularly remove tons of fishing debris from the bottom of the Gulf of Maine; the newest state and local efforts to register more people to vote; and the first woman to lead Texas' oldest HBCU recounts her remarkable life in a new memoir.

GEOFF BENNETT: The United Auto Workers strike is now in its fifth day, and while it's limited to a few plants now, the UAW president threatened to expand it starting Friday.

The battle largely centers on a dispute over wages, job protections and benefits.

But, as William Brangham reports, the larger shift toward electric vehicles is also a major factor looming in all of this.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: This strike has brought some simmering long-held disputes about electric cars into the spotlight.

As automakers invest billions in the next generation of electric vehicles and as the federal government provides big financial incentives for doing so, autoworkers fear that electric vehicles, which require fewer parts and less servicing than gas-powered ones, will render some jobs obsolete.

So how will this impact America's push toward electric cars and trucks?

For that, we are joined by David Ferris.

He covers this closely for Politico and E&E News.

David, so good to have you on the program.

Before we get into the labor dispute itself, can you just tell us how the Big Three are doing in this shift towards electric cars?

DAVID FERRIS, E&E News: Well, William, it's an interesting moment, because I would say we're moving from the excited early adopter phase of customers to people who just want to have a car, want to have a new car, and are interested in maybe saving gas, because they'd be plugging their car in instead of pumping it at the gas station.

And so it is a -- that is a pivot that is very expensive for the automakers.

And, right now, especially GM and Ford are engaged in -- they are poised to start pumping out sort of brands everyone knows, like the GM Blazer, the GM Equinox, the Silverado pickup truck, in the next year.

And they're doing that at the same time as this strike is occurring.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: And, as I mentioned, some of the incentives are coming from the government.

But you're also saying consumer demand is a big driver here.

Is that what automakers just believe, that this is the future and they have to be delivering electric vehicles?

DAVID FERRIS: I think that before the generous legislation passed that really supercharged manufacturing of E.V.s in the U.S., I think mostly the Big Three automakers have been responding to demand not in the U.S., in China and in Europe, where they could see that those requirements were coming.

And they were also making them here because it's their home soil.

And now that there are billions of dollars of tax incentives available, now there's even more reasons to build them at home.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: So, the UAW, from their perspective, they look at all of their employers, the Big Three, shifting to more and more electric vehicle production.

What does that do to them?

Why are they so sort of seemingly perturbed by this?

DAVID FERRIS: Well, as you mentioned in your intro, E.V.

is a simpler vehicle that is easier to -- that is easier to make, requires less parts.

You don't need carburetors.

You don't need fuel injectors.

You don't need mufflers.

And that's going to require -- eventually probably require less hands to build those cars.

But, right now, those people are still employed.

There's still a lot of internal combustion engine vehicles being made.

And in a tight labor market, the workers are in a good position to wring concessions from the automakers.

I think they realize that this is a good moment for them, because, if E.V.s start to eliminate jobs, they will be in a weaker bargaining position.

So this is the time for them to get the -- to set a new floor for how they expect to be treated in the E.V.

age.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: I mean, the Big Three argue that a lot of other electric car manufacturers operate in non-union plants or right-to-work states, and that that creates an unfair cost advantage for those other manufacturers.

And don't they have a point in that regard?

DAVID FERRIS: They really do.

I mean, there's an analysis that, if the UAW got everything that it wanted out of the Big Three, that the labor costs of making a Ford or a GM or a Stellantis Dodge or Jeep vehicle might be twice what it is at Tesla.

And reminder that Tesla sells, what, 60 percent of all E.V.s that are sold in the U.S. today.

And so it is -- it puts them at a cost disadvantage to Tesla at a time when customers have communicated very clearly that they want cheaper E.V.s.

And it's not only Tesla.

All of those automakers in the south, your BMWs, your Hyundais, your Toyotas, are building their factory -- their future E.V.

factories in Southeastern states, where there's not much of a union presence.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: We are only a few days into the strike, but let's say that it goes on.

Do you have any sense of what a prolonged strike would do to this overall shift towards E.V.s?

DAVID FERRIS: Well, as we discussed, one impact is that it is going -- it raises the possibility that E.V.s from the Big Three are going to cost more.

Another is that, as the strike goes on, their - - the trucks and SUVs, the traditional ones that the Big Three roll out in big numbers are also big -- are also the profit engines of the companies.

And those are what the automakers are using to bankroll their E.V.

investments.

And a long strike could sap the automakers' profitability and limit their ability -- limit their ability -- excuse me -- to fund their E.V.

efforts.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: All right, David Ferris of E&E News and Politico, thank you so much for being here.

DAVID FERRIS: Thanks for having me.

AMNA NAWAZ: In a sign of much larger problems ahead, House Republicans today withdrew their potential plan to fund the government.

The conference is divided and struggling to agree, with only 11 full days remaining until most agencies would be forced to shut down.

Congressional correspondent Lisa Desjardins has been at the Capitol today and joins me here in the studio.

Lisa, great to see you.

LISA DESJARDINS: Great to see you.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, the clock is ticking.

You have been talking to all your sources.

Just bring us up to speed.

Where do things stand right now?

LISA DESJARDINS: OK. We have all been through this game before, right?

And I have to say, I'm usually an optimist.

I'm also usually very leery of this situation, because, by the end, we know these lawmakers have ways of figuring this out by the deadline.

But, Amna, I have to say, given the dynamics that we know, given the conversations I'm having on Capitol Hill, we are hurtling toward a government shutdown.

Something dramatic has to change to avoid one.

Now, this is based on initially some very substantive issues, primarily that House Republicans are concerned about spending and the growth of the national debt ahead.

They want to curb spending.

That's the actual easy part.

It's hard, but it's the easy part here, because Republicans then can't agree amongst themselves over how to do that.

Let's just look at a list of the things that House Republicans can't agree on amongst themselves that I heard about today, one, the size and shape of those spending cuts, two, Ukraine funding.

That's something we talk a lot about on this show, big divide over whether Ukraine should get more money, immigration, border policy, also what to do there, and the shutdown itself.

There are some Republicans, Amna, who believe a shutdown could be a good thing.

Believe it or not, they think that it would force the issue about spending and the national debt.

They are the minority.

But there are others who say, no, that's ridiculous.

We shouldn't be going toward a shutdown.

But the idea that there are Republicans like that is adding to this dynamic and really increasing the chances of us having a shutdown.

One -- on the other side of that are moderate Republicans, who say, listen, folks, this is out of control.

Here's Mike Lawler of New York: REP. MIKE LAWLER (R-NY): We're in a divided government, right?

You have a Democrat-controlled Senate.

You have a Democrat in the White House.

Of course, you're going to need Democrats.

And anybody who thinks otherwise is lying to the American people.

LISA DESJARDINS: Tonight, House Republicans also could not even pass a rule on the House floor, which is a major defeat for them.

Kevin McCarthy is meeting in small groups with everyone to try and work this out.

AMNA NAWAZ: Lisa, given all the struggle seems to be within one conference here, then what are the off-ramps?

I mean, how do they avoid a shutdown at this stage?

LISA DESJARDINS: It's the same off-ramp as we always see.

There needs to be a short-term funding bill.

And Republicans are trying to come up with one.

But as long as they can't agree on one, then the other way to go is to peel off a few Democrats, maybe bring together moderate Democrats and Republicans, to come up with an easy, simple, classic just fund government for a few weeks.

Problem there, Democrats are very unhappy with Republicans over the impeachment inquiry they launched last week, don't trust them.

Republicans, also, now many of them think being bipartisan means you're not conservative enough.

So, these dangerous rifts in our kind of culture and political sensibilities here in this country are now hitting full force.

If you're a government worker, if you're planning a trip to a national park, I'm sorry to tell you that you really should be watching this, because we could have a shutdown soon.

AMNA NAWAZ: That's Lisa Desjardins covering this incredibly important story, talking to everyone at the heart of it.

Lisa, thanks for your reporting.

LISA DESJARDINS: You're welcome.

AMNA NAWAZ: Let's hear now from one of the Republicans who say they will not support the current deal to fund the government.

Joining me from the Capitol is South Carolina Congressman Ralph Norman, a member of the House Freedom Caucus.

Congressman, welcome, and thanks for joining us.

REP. RALPH NORMAN (R-SC): Glad to be with you.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, how likely is a shutdown right now, in your view?

REP. RALPH NORMAN: It's 100 percent.

AMNA NAWAZ: And are you comfortable with that?

REP. RALPH NORMAN: Well, I mean, a shutdown is not the best thing in the world, but continued bank -- continued path toward bankruptcy is not an option either for me.

It was put in perspective at a caucus meeting today when one of our members said he had calculated that the debt every second is $20,000, every second.

And I'm just not -- it's not business as usual.

Economic security is national security.

In a perfect world, we would agree on everything and have bipartisan support.

But that's just not the case.

So it's up to us to -- we in the majority by slim margin to figure it out and come up with a budget that gets us on a downward trajectory.

That's what we agreed to in January, a 10-year budget, which we will have, and other things.

But this isn't an easy process.

When it comes to money, there's an advocate for every dollar.

And so it's not easy, but it's part of the reason that we're elected to this office to make the decisions.

AMNA NAWAZ: What about a stopgap funding measure, a short-term funding bill?

I know some of your Freedom Caucus colleagues were part of a group that worked out a potential deal.

Yet you don't support that, I understand.

But what would you support?

REP. RALPH NORMAN: What I would support would be leadership agreeing to a top-line number.

We had put on paper in July 10 a 1.471.

I met with the speaker today.

And he is -- to his credit, has been open to talks.

But we need a top-line number that the 12 appropriation bills won't go over.

One of the agreements in January was to operate on regular order, which would mean, for the 12 approps bills to be hammered out in June and July.

That just didn't happen, for whatever reason.

We are where we are.

AMNA NAWAZ: Can I ask you about that top-line number, though?

Do I understand correctly when you say you won't agree to anything unless it has that top-line number of 1.471?

Is that right?

REP. RALPH NORMAN: I need a -- that's the number we have given it.

We need a number.

We're not going into this thing blindly, giving a blank check.

We were burned -- and I told the speaker this - - on the debt ceiling to give this sitting president a carte blanche, a free blank check on the spending limit to January of 2025.

You just don't do that.

So that's why we need the safeguards of a number that he's going to go to work and get, as he did with the speaker vote.

He didn't have 218.

We have almost put the cart before the horse, in that, instead of working on each of the approps bills, to cut the things that we know aren't good for the country or, in the Republicans' opinion, and get a consensus on it.

But you got to work at it.

You got to go to line item by line item.

I'm ready to do that.

AMNA NAWAZ: Congressman, it's really striking to hear you say it's a 100 percent chance of going to a government shutdown now, because we are just now in this country digging out of the hole from COVID and the hit that the economy took.

But inflation is coming down.

Unemployment is at historic lows.

Why risk damaging the economy further with a shutdown?

REP. RALPH NORMAN: Why risk borrowing more money at $20,000 a second that's going to add to the $32 trillion debt?

AMNA NAWAZ: But you do agree that a shutdown would also harm the economy, correct?

REP. RALPH NORMAN: Well, it harmed the economy when the government shut the businesses down for a virus.

It harmed the economy when children couldn't go to school and they took them out of school for the length of time they did.

And the government's going to have to go on a diet.

And a shutdown, if it happens -- and I think it will -- will encourage everybody to come up, particularly Republicans -- I don't think we will have much bipartisan support.

The answer that Democrats continue to give, which is bizarre, is more taxes and more spending.

I'm just not going along -- I'm not using my vote to go along with that.

So, a shutdown is going to be the result of, I guess, waiting until the last minute.

AMNA NAWAZ: As you saw, Mr. McCarthy dared the Freedom Caucus to basically try and remove him from the speakership, if you wanted to, and you didn't.

So is that threat to remove him sort of an empty one at this point?

REP. RALPH NORMAN: Well, you have had one member mention that.

It's not an empty point.

I mean, it's always out there.

Who's to say that, if we don't move anything else, what's going to happen?

The motion to vacate, the reason we fought to keep that in, again, in January is because anybody, if you're not doing the job in the private sector, you don't keep your job.

Kevin's done some good things.

But now spending, spending is the cancer in this country.

And he's going to have to focus on it.

And, hopefully, he will.

And I'm not going to -- I'm not going to go there with, would I vote for a motion to vacate, would I not?

I'm just saying, let's get the job on the economy going.

Let's get the spending under control, and then let's move this country forward.

AMNA NAWAZ: As you know, the Republicans' plan does not include additional funding for Ukraine and its war in defending itself from Russia.

You saw Mr. Biden, President Biden, at the UNGA today say the U.S. is going to continue to stand with Ukraine.

Are you worried that calling that funding into question emboldens Russia and its war in Ukraine?

REP. RALPH NORMAN: What I worry about is this president not having any offsets.

If he were sincerely legitimate in saying he wanted to fund Ukraine, cut something on some of these programs that the -- the Green New Deal, as an example, the funding for borders in foreign countries, the $6 trillion (sic) that he gave Iran.

Where is that coming from?

What's Iran -- why does Iran, who would blow - - would prefer to blow this country off the map, why does it deserve $6 trillion (sic) that this sitting president gave?

So... AMNA NAWAZ: Congressman, I think -- do you mean the money that just came as a result of the hostage negotiations?

REP. RALPH NORMAN: Yes.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, that was $6 billion.

And those were not U.S. taxpayer funds.

Those were frozen Iranian funds that South Korea was holding in a restricted account.

REP. RALPH NORMAN: I understand all that.

It's still money, though, that he agreed to give away, and as he's doing in every agency that he's under control.

Look at the executive orders that he's had that have had dollar bills attached to him.

The point is this.

If he was serious about it, let's examine the budget.

We're $2 trillion -- this year, we're going to be $2 trillion -- run a $2 trillion deficit.

That's not fair to the American people.

I will argue that all day long.

If you're comfortable with that, then to add that to the existing debt, I just don't subscribe to that theory.

AMNA NAWAZ: Before I let you go, I have to ask.

Last week, you said you're considering running against Senator Lindsey Graham in 2026, that you haven't made a decision yet.

But I wonder, why is it you believe he could be vulnerable in 2026?

REP. RALPH NORMAN: Well, Lindsey has all -- and I like Lindsey, but you get two different lenses.

In a six year-term, the first four years, he votes with Mitt Romney.

He votes to spend this country into oblivion.

The last two years, he's very conservative.

And Lindsey has got a big war chest.

And an hour in politics is a long time.

2026 is a long way off.

But, yes, I was asked by the press, would I consider it?

And, yes, I will, because I'm frustrated with his votes and just nonparticipation in getting this country back on a firm financial footing.

AMNA NAWAZ: That is South Carolina Congressman Ralph Norman, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, joining us tonight.

Congressman, thank you.

It's good to see you.

REP. RALPH NORMAN: My pleasure.

GEOFF BENNETT: We have often talked about the enormous problem of plastics and microplastics in our oceans.

One important contributor is lost or abandoned fishing gear that breaks down, often referred to as ghost gear.

The issue is getting more attention.

There was a recent effort to get the United Nations to enforce tougher regulations as part of an international treaty.

And, just last week, a coalition announced new funding to remove some debris in the Gulf of Maine.

But as science correspondent Miles O'Brien, there's a lot more work to be done.

MILES O'BRIEN: Hart Island is a tiny, rugged spit of land about a mile off the coast of Maine.

It is uninhabited, a natural refuge for seabirds.

But humans are spoiling the landscape with an unending tidal wave of lost, abandoned, and dumped fishing gear.

LINDA WELCH, U.S.

Fish and Wildlife Service: It's incredibly overwhelming, and the fact is, it just keeps coming.

Oh, it still has use of that.

It probably hasn't been trapped there very long.

MILES O'BRIEN: Linda Welch is a wildlife biologist for the U.S.

Fish and Wildlife Service.

It manages the Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife Refuge, 73 islands that are home to thousands of nesting seabirds, some of them endangered or threatened.

LINDA WELCH: I don't think there's another industry that would be allowed that type of behavior, where trash from your industry accumulates on public lands and you have no responsibility to clean it up.

MILES O'BRIEN: Chicks instinctively seeking shelter from predators, crawl into washed-up lobster traps, confining them inside.

LINDA WELCH: It looks like it has a piece of the rope line in the trap wrapped around its foot, and it died because it wasn't able to get free from that marine debris.

MILES O'BRIEN: The tangled, mangled traps weigh at least 50 pounds a piece, and the refuge islands have no harbors, docks, or boat ramps.

LINDA WELCH: And so we have to come ashore in small skiffs, hand-carry the traps into those boats.

Those boats shuttle the gear to offshore larger boats, and then those boats transport it back to the mainland.

It's incredibly time-consuming.

MILES O'BRIEN: The cleanup is largely left to volunteers coordinated by nonprofits.

LAURA LUDWIG, Center for Coastal Studies: Man, you get an appreciation for how these frigging things are made.

MILES O'BRIEN: Laura Ludwig is manager of the marine debris and plastics program at the Center for Coastal Studies.

We caught up with her on a foggy morning on Cuttyhunk Island, Massachusetts.

LAURA LUDWIG: My gosh, it's like a spider web.

MILES O'BRIEN: After a long week of beachcombing by an army of volunteers, the heavy equipment and the barge had arrived to finish the job.

LAURA LUDWIG: At its peak, I believe there were 3.2 million trap tags sold annually.

That could be anywhere from 200,000 to 300,000 traps lost annually, annually.

MILES O'BRIEN: That's a pretty stunning number.

LAURA LUDWIG: It is.

It is.

MILES O'BRIEN: Lobsterman Steve Train has been fishing in the Gulf of Maine for more than 40 years.

STEVE TRAIN, Lobsterman: Last year we had quite a few storms, and I lost 30 traps, and that was like a record for me.

MILES O'BRIEN: The climate emergency will likely worsen that problem, but it's not the only reason traps go missing.

STEVE TRAIN: Boats cut them off.

Ships cut them off.

But it's not trash.

It's not stuff that just got thrown away.

MILES O'BRIEN: There aren't fishermen under cover of night going out and dumping old nets and traps in the water because they don't want to deal with it?

STEVE TRAIN: Oh, do I think that might happen?

Probably, but is that the industry norm?

No.

That's not what we do.

MILES O'BRIEN: Right about the time Train began fishing, the industry started using steel traps coated with plastic and plastic lines.

They replaced wood and sisal, which degrade naturally.

This gear does not.

It lasts forever.

For Buzz Scott, the bigger problem is out of sight, but not out of mind.

BUZZ SCOTT, OceansWide: You clear?

MILES O'BRIEN: Traps that pile up on the seafloor, so-called ghost gear.

BUZZ SCOTT: They're ghost gear because we have lost them.

They're gone.

They're ghosts to us.

But they also are ghost gear because those traps are still fishing.

If they catch one animal a year that is eaten by another animal that's in that trap, we're wasting a lot of resources.

MILES O'BRIEN: Scott is founder and president of OceansWide, a nonprofit that educates students about the Gulf of Maine.

His dismay over the huge mess that lies beneath the surface has led to some action.

Over the past three years, he and his team have removed about 3,600 lost traps from the bottom of Boothbay Harbor.

BUZZ SCOTT: We could have 100 divers, 20 boats, and five ROVs working in the Gulf of Maine constantly.

It's taken 40 years to fill the ocean up, so it will take us a lot longer to find all these traps.

MILES O'BRIEN: Of course, the problem is not limited to lobster traps in the Gulf of Maine.

All over the planet, the seas are littered with abandoned nets, lines, buoys, and traps, death traps for all kinds of marine life, like these desperate crabs.

INGRID GISKES, Ocean Conservancy: Fishing gear is the most harmful form of plastic marine debris in the ocean.

MILES O'BRIEN: Ingrid Giskes is with the Ocean Conservancy.

It is seeking solutions to this burgeoning problem, part of the plastic onslaught on the oceans.

So, pound for pound, is this more lethal for marine life?

INGRID GISKES: Marine animals can get entangled in ghost gear.

They can ingest it.

It can break down.

And the reason for that is, is because fishing gear can be incredibly light and float within the water column, where often the marine animals live and play.

MILES O'BRIEN: The nonprofit leads the Global Ghost Gear Initiative, fostering recycling projects that lead to consumer products.

They have partnered with a company called Bureo to make clothing, sunglasses and skateboards out of fishing nets.

But recycling any kind of plastic is problematic, and the massive nets and heavy traps present an even greater challenge.

Most fishing ports do not even have a place for fishermen to recycle their old gear.

CAITLIN TOWNSEND, Net Your Problem: So, all of the gear that I have here comes from different fishermen in Massachusetts.

MILES O'BRIEN: Caitlin Townsend works for a nonprofit called Net Your Problem, also trying to make it easier for fishermen to recycle their plastic gear.

She works mostly alone, with her dog, in a warehouse near the most lucrative fishing port in the U.S., New Bedford, Massachusetts.

CAITLIN TOWNSEND: I take these nets and I will lay it out.

And, essentially, I will go through and separate it out into all the different types of plastic.

MILES O'BRIEN: Net Your Problem has recycling sites in Alaska, Washington state, California and Maine, as well as this one.

What's the big solution, in your view?

CAITLIN TOWNSEND: In my view, it would be to have an operation like this in every major fishing port in the United States.

MILES O'BRIEN: But she has to send the sorted plastic to Europe, because there are no recycling facilities here that will accept it.

Back down east, Buzz Scott employs a hydraulic crusher to make it easier to recycle the lobster traps.

To get them melted down, he must truck them across the border into Canada.

About a month after our visit to Hart Island, Linda Welch led a cleanup effort.

Volunteers gathered and crushed more than 200 traps.

A chartered barge is set to haul it all away.

But the derelict fishing gear just keeps coming.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Miles O'Brien along the Gulf of Maine.

GEOFF BENNETT: Today is National Voter Registration Day.

That's a civic holiday for organizers to encourage and register Americans to participate in elections up and down the ballot.

It comes not just as the 2024 presidential race heats up, but as six states go to the polls this year for major races with broad implications for issues like abortion policy and voting access.

The League of Women Voters is one of the largest nonpartisan on-the-ground organizations signing people up.

Its president is Dr. Deborah Turner, who joins us now to discuss the effort.

Thank you for being with us.

DR. DEBORAH TURNER, President, League of Women Voters: Thank you.

and it's great for you to have me.

I appreciate it.

(LAUGHTER) DR. DEBORAH TURNER: Very excited to be here on this day.

GEOFF BENNETT: And we're excited to have you.

Well, your organization is overseeing lots of events around the country to register voters.

And we spoke with a youth mobilizer, Claudia Yoli Ferla of Move Texas.

That's a nonpartisan group getting people registered to vote.

And she's in San Antonio.

Here's what she said.

CLAUDIA YOLI FERLA, Move Texas: For us, it's really just bringing fun, making democracy accessible, fun, exciting for young people.

We have also been handing out free pizzas on campuses across the state, handing out also popsicle sticks, right, to just get the conversation going, because, often, when we begin that conversation with a young person about, are you registered to vote, we're able to have meaningful conversations about the issues that they most care about.

GEOFF BENNETT: So, how is that effort going, making voting, as she says, fun and accessible?

DR. DEBORAH TURNER: It is going very well.

Glad to hear what she had to say.

And one of the key things she said is that engaging the younger voters, because they are one of the groups that are less likely to be registered and who we need to come to the polls, and that lining them up with the reasons to vote and how voting affects their life is how we get them to the polls, because most of us vote because something means something to us.

And that's -- and that's what they're doing.

And that's exciting to hear.

I give them kudos for doing that.

GEOFF BENNETT: Dr. Turner, there is this widely shared view that higher turnout helps Democrats and hurts Republicans.

Is that the case?

Is there any evidence that turnout is correlated with partisan voting choice?

DR. DEBORAH TURNER: No, really what it turns out is that it depends on where you are who turns out to vote.

But the key is that, when everybody is registered and everybody votes, what will end up how - - the results will end up being what the people want.

And that has nothing to do whether you're Democrat or Republican.

So, when we register voters, we don't even ask what their party is.

We simply say, we want you to vote, we want you to be registered, and we want you to go to the polls and express your feelings, so that your representatives can represent you, your ideas, and your community, regardless of party, regardless of religion, regardless of race, regardless of ethnicity.

GEOFF BENNETT: Our team also spoke with Nora Vinas.

She's the deputy executive director of Engage Miami.

That's a South Florida nonprofit that works to engage young people in elections.

And our producers asked her what issues are motivating young voters.

And here's what she said.

NORA VINAS, Deputy Executive Director, Engage Miami: I think when you affect anyone in their day-to-day what they can read, where they can go, who they could love, all of that really makes people feel certain rage and confusion about why it's happening.

So I think, unfortunately, we have culture wars and these assault on books.

And I also think it's a big motivator for young people to pay attention and to care.

GEOFF BENNETT: So what are you hearing from voters about the issues they care most about and what's really engaging them?

DR. DEBORAH TURNER: What we're hearing is that voters are really interested in making sure our democracy stays strong, and, therefore, they're going to the polls to vote for things that shore up our democracy.

They are concerned about education.

They are concerned about health care.

They're obviously concerned about bodily autonomy.

They are concerned about the finances of the country.

They are concerned about everything that our elected officials take up.

But they have their own opinions, and they want to voice them.

So those are the things that are going to count.

And, for young people, one of the other big issues is gun safety in the country.

So that's what we're hearing from our voters.

GEOFF BENNETT: Today, we saw Pennsylvania enact automatic voter registration.

It's now the 24th state to do this.

How does it work?

And does it actually boost the number of people who show up on Election Day?

DR. DEBORAH TURNER: Actually, it does.

So, how it works is that when you engage in any governmental agency, for whatever reason, you have the automatic opportunity to register to vote.

And one of the things that people will say about voting is, well, I never registered because nobody asked me.

And so if you go to an agency where you're - - even if you're getting your driver's license, for example, and somebody says, "Have you registered to vote?"

it triggers you to say, oh, maybe I haven't, and I can vote.

And so it gives them the opportunity to do it without pain and suffering.

And, at the time, they're doing something else, and it becomes a natural activity.

We are 100 percent in this fight for automatic voter registration at the League of Women Voters, and we hope it becomes standard across the country.

GEOFF BENNETT: As we mentioned, this is an off-year election year, but there are six states holding elections for governor, state legislature, and for the Supreme Court.

How can states close the gap between off-year turnout and presidential election year turnout?

DR. DEBORAH TURNER: I think one of the things is to talk about the issues.

What issues are going on in your state that are important enough for you to vote for?

And so gubernatorial vote -- races are very, very critical to people, because their governors probably have a lot more power over what's going to happen in their lives than maybe their senator or their congressperson.

The other thing is that there are other races that are really important, and we spend a lot of time working with races around school boards, around city councils.

These are all critical to what are making your life better and what you want done in your community.

And that's how we try to encourage people to understand.

Basically, politics is local.

Voting is local.

You got to get those local people in there, because they're going to make a difference in your life.

GEOFF BENNETT: Dr. Deborah Turner is president of the League of Women Voters.

Thanks for joining us this evening.

We appreciate it.

DR. DEBORAH TURNER: Thank you for having me.

And make sure you're registered and vote.

Thank you.

AMNA NAWAZ: She would become one of the country's most distinguished educators, president of three colleges, the first African American to head an Ivy League university.

But Ruth Simmons' new memoir takes us to a time before all that, to the very different circumstances in which she grew up.

Jeffrey Brown traveled to Houston for our arts and culture series, Canvas.

RUTH SIMMONS, Author, "Up Home: One Girl's Journey": One thing I have never forgotten is how to reach out to people.

JEFFREY BROWN: For Ruth Simmons, it was a return to Hester House, a community center in Houston's Fifth Ward that played a large role in her childhood.

RUTH SIMMONS: How to add value to other people's lives.

JEFFREY BROWN: Because you -- that's what happened for you.

RUTH SIMMONS: Because that's what happened to me.

JEFFREY BROWN: What happened is the story Simmons, now 78, tells in "Up Home: "One Girl's Journey," which begins with these words: RUTH SIMMONS: "I was born to be someone else, someone, that is, whose life is defined principally by race, segregation, and poverty.

That, in the end, I did not become the person I was born to be still, at times, confuses and perplexes me."

Always been looking back.

JEFFREY BROWN: You always have?

RUTH SIMMONS: I have, because imagine going from these circumstances to the presidency of an Ivy League university and meeting powerful people and wealthy people.

So, I have lived in a world that was so different from the world that I was born into.

JEFFREY BROWN: That world was rural, deeply segregated East Texas in the 1940s and 1950s.

Simmons was the youngest of 12 children of Fanny and Isaac Stubblefield, who worked as sharecroppers in the system of subservience and ever-potential violence that continued long after slavery ended.

RUTH SIMMONS: And that was the world that - - that my parents knew.

JEFFREY BROWN: And that meant bound to the land, bound to the farm.

RUTH SIMMONS: Yes, absolutely.

JEFFREY BROWN: No running water, no -- a lot of no's.

RUTH SIMMONS: A lot... (LAUGHTER) RUTH SIMMONS: A lot of no's, no dignity, no rights, really, to speak of, but a means of subsistence.

In the book, I describe my father and what this world did to him, and the prototypical shuffling and obsequiousness that are associated with the worst of that period.

JEFFREY BROWN: Which you saw in him.

RUTH SIMMONS: Which I saw in him.

And so I think we were all looking for a way to be proud and straight-backed.

JEFFREY BROWN: When Simmons was 6, her family moved to Houston's predominantly Black Fifth Ward, where she attended Atherton Elementary and walked across the street to Hester House, which, seven decades later, continues to serve seniors.

Chair volleyball, anyone?

Teens here in a dramatic karate display, and children taking part in a variety of after-school programs.

Hester House, Simmons says now, saved her and other family members.

RUTH SIMMONS: There were few outlets for African Americans at that time.

We couldn't go to certain places.

We couldn't socialize outside of our area.

And so here was this wonderful community center, and one could come here as a young person and meet other young people.

JEFFREY BROWN: Mm-hmm, and also pick up books off the shelves, which you write about.

RUTH SIMMONS: Especially get books.

JEFFREY BROWN: Yes.

RUTH SIMMONS: And that began a fascination with books and with literature, which, of course, shaped my entire life.

JEFFREY BROWN: She credits a number of adult mentors, most of all teachers at nearby Phillis Wheatley High School, for opening up her world and showing her previously unimaginable opportunities.

RUTH SIMMONS: They were on a mission, these teachers, let's face it, because here they were teaching in an era when we all thought nothing was possible.

Their charge was to make sure they prepared us for the possibility that the world would change, the possibility.

And that's what they were doing.

JEFFREY BROWN: One of the most interesting parts of this in my reading was, in those years in high school, you describe making a conscious decision of how you were going to act, how you were going to speak.

RUTH SIMMONS: Yes.

JEFFREY BROWN: Right?

You were going to speak in a mannered, correct English.

Why?

RUTH SIMMONS: Because once as a child people make fun of you, that's kind of an unforgettable experience.

But there's -- that's just one element of it.

The other element of it is that I had so little, really, as a child, and I was very aware of how little I had of my own.

But when it began to occur to me that I could possess these words, oh, my God, these words were available to me.

JEFFREY BROWN: And you were going to make them yours.

RUTH SIMMONS: And I was going to make them mine.

And, furthermore, no one could prevent my having them.

They could prevent my going into a department store or sitting at a lunch counter, but they couldn't prevent my taking hold of these words for myself.

JEFFREY BROWN: Graduating from Wheatley, she would go on to attend Dillard, the historically Black university in New Orleans, earn a doctorate in romance languages and literature from Harvard, and later become one of the nation's most prominent educators, president of Smith College, the first Black president of one of the all-women's Seven Sisters schools, Brown university, where she was the first woman president, and first African American to lead any Ivy League school.

And, most recently, in a return to Houston, the historically Black Prairie View A&M University, a public institution.

You have achieved a number of firsts.

When you look back now, what are you most proud of?

RUTH SIMMONS: I have to say, I'm most proud of the fact that I remain the same person.

JEFFREY BROWN: From this young girl that you're writing about.

RUTH SIMMONS: Yes, yes, which is what I was desperately seeking to accomplish.

I always tried not to think of myself as proving anything to anybody.

I didn't want to prove that I could be president of an Ivy League university.

I always wanted to be the best person I could be in the context of the values that shaped me.

And I wanted to make sure that, no matter what happened to me, I would still be that person who respected other people, who cared about difference, who listened to others.

I cared more about those things than anything else.

JEFFREY BROWN: In fact, Ruth Simmons' memoir of her childhood ends well before the accomplishments that would bring her renown.

And so, of course, the only appropriate spot for family and friends to join her for a book launch party, here at Hester House.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Jeffrey Brown in Houston.

GEOFF BENNETT: And there is more with Dr. Simmons online.

You can hear her thoughts on what the end of affirmative action in college admissions could mean for higher education.

That's on our YouTube page.

AMNA NAWAZ: And join us again here tomorrow night for more.

In the meantime, that is the "NewsHour" for tonight.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

GEOFF BENNETT: And I'm Geoff Bennett.

Thanks for spending part of your evening with us.

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