GEOFF BENNETT: Good evening.

I'm Geoff Bennett.

AMNA NAWAZ: And I'm Amna Nawaz.

On the "News Hour" tonight: Three years after Russia invaded Ukraine, the U.S. breaks with European allies and sides with Russia on a vote at the U.N. GEOFF BENNETT: The Trump administration's latest firings at the Pentagon and IRS raise new concerns.

AMNA NAWAZ: And a Los Angeles suburb with a history of Black homeownership confronts a difficult future after wildfires burn much of it to the ground.

RICHARD PALLAY, Eaton Fire Victim: Give us the opportunity to build this community again.

We don't want it to be released to developers and change the whole look and feel and the being of Altadena.

AMNA NAWAZ: Welcome to the "News Hour."

A grim anniversary was marked today in Kyiv and across Europe three years after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

GEOFF BENNETT: Today's commemorations come as the U.S. under President Donald Trump has decisively changed its stance on the war.

It's sparked deep concern across Europe and beyond, as the president has sought to deflect blame from Russia for its invasion and criticize the Ukrainians and their European allies.

On the ground in Kyiv today, more than a dozen Western leaders marked the third anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion.

Notably not present was a representative from the U.S.

It was a symbol of a dramatic shift in U.S. policy since President Trump took office again.

Mr. Trump has promised to end the war, but has so far largely left Ukraine out of the negotiations.

That's after last week calling Ukraine's president a dictator while leaving the fate of continued U.S. funding for Kyiv in question and refusing to blame Russia for the war.

Today, President Trump was in Washington with one of America's closest European allies, French President Emmanuel Macron.

The two met virtually with leaders of the world's seven largest economies to discuss the war.

Some of those leaders were in the room with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who appealed directly to Mr. Trump.

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, Ukrainian President: It's essential that we work together so that, when we negotiate with Russia, the strongest defenders of freedom are at the table, America, Europe and Ukraine.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: I think we can end it within weeks.

GEOFF BENNETT: Later, in the Oval Office, President Trump said the U.S. is close to reaching a deal that would give the U.S. access to Ukraine's critical minerals and other resources as part of wider negotiations aimed at ending the war.

Zelenskyy has said the deal would have to come with concrete security guarantees.

President Trump did not confirm if that was part of the agreement.

Mr. Trump also said that Russian President Vladimir Putin would accept European peacekeepers in Ukraine to back a potential cease-fire.

DONALD TRUMP: He will accept that.

QUESTION: You have asked him?

DONALD TRUMP: I have asked him that question, if we do this deal.

He's not looking for more war.

He doesn't mind.

But I have specifically asked him that question.

GEOFF BENNETT: And that he would visit Putin in Russia if an agreement was reached to end the fighting.

Putin said later in the day that he has not discussed resolving the war in detail with Mr. Trump.

Meantime, in New York, the U.S. voted with North Korea, Russia, Iran, and a number of other Moscow-aligned countries against a resolution condemning Russian aggression in Ukraine.

The European-backed resolution, which doesn't carry any enforcement, still passed overwhelmingly in the U.N. General Assembly, the latest evidence of the growing rift between the Trump administration and U.S. allies over continued support for Ukraine.

AMNA NAWAZ: President Donald Trump has picked a loyalist, Dan Bongino, to be second in command at the FBI, one who grew a massive online following spreading lies about election security, including that the agency he will now help oversee tried to rig the 2016 and 2020 elections against Trump.

GEOFF BENNETT: Lisa Desjardins is here with more.

So, Lisa, there are some FBI officials who say that the deputy director position is in many ways more important than the director role, because the deputy oversees the day-to-day operations of the agency.

What does it mean that Dan Bongino, someone who's never served as an FBI agent, will occupy this role?

LISA DESJARDINS: Bongino is very well known in the MAGA world.

He has this massive reach, millions of followers, but he also has repeatedly pushed misinformation on critical ideas.

So when you talk about Bongino, you have got to talk about the podcasting audience, where he pushed this idea that the 2020 election, falsely, was stolen, and specifically he said stolen by the FBI.

He's often gone against the FBI, railed against it as being an agency that is political and at one point he called to disband it.

Separately, he also spread misinformation about COVID.

For that reason, YouTube actually took him off YouTube at one point.

Now, looking at your resume, Bongino does have law enforcement experience.

He worked as a Secret Service agent, as a New York police officer, but he has, as you say, no FBI experience, which is unique for this situation.

He is a Trump appointee who worked at FOX News.

He will oversee that operation, 38,000 FBI agents right now.

That's a lot of day-to-day operations to run.

Critics are concerned not just because of his lack of experience, but you talk to FBI agents like we did, Frank Montoya, they say his conspiracy theories, the pushing of that and the loyalty, the way he's talked about Trump hyperbolically, disqualify him.

FRANK MONTOYA JR., Former FBI Official: You got to be objective if you're going to investigate violations of law.

You just have to.

You can't come in with preconceived notions because that will influence the outcomes of these investigations.

LISA DESJARDINS: Now, this will be the least qualified not just number two, but number one, with Kash Patel at the head of the FBI, that the service has ever seen.

But, of course, Trump is not looking at experience.

He wants disrupters and these are big-time disrupters.

AMNA NAWAZ: Meanwhile, Lisa, you're covering a lot of other news about a chaotic deadline for federal workers today.

What exactly is Elon Musk asking for?

LISA DESJARDINS: Right.

He's asking workers -- on Saturday, he sent out an e-mail.

We're going to show you what it said, asking all federal workers to e-mail back roughly five bullet points of what they did in the past week.

He said they had to get that back by tonight at midnight East Coast time.

Now, I want to say on camera why we're not showing the e-mail itself.

That's because Musk is known to put coding in e-mails that could reveal our sources for that.

So we retyped it.

Now, Musk went on social media and said that, if you don't respond to this, this ask for what you did last week, that you could be fired.

And you see that there.

So there's been a lot of confusion.

Do employees need to respond to this or not?

Just in the last bit of time, the Office of Personnel Management gave out clear guidance saying, no, it's voluntary.

You will not be fired if you don't send in what you did last week.

But this has been completely chaotic.

Some agencies told their employees, including Homeland Security and the FBI, do not respond.

Others said, you have to respond.

Workers just don't know how to act, what to do on their jobs.

And this is one example of that.

GEOFF BENNETT: So where do things stand with the mass firings and court cases in general?

LISA DESJARDINS: We're going to run through a lot quickly here.

Right now, by my count, 27,000 workers have been told they have been fired or will be fired.

A lot of news today.

So I'm going to go through some important things.

First, at USAID, there were more firings.

We had a reduction in force, which means career workers, 2,000 of them, notified that their jobs will end in April.

On the other side, for probationary workers, those who have been in the job less than two years, a ruling just in the past bit of time where six of those probationary workers were found by the Office of Special Counsel to be restored to their job.

Basically, the Office of Special Counsel found that what has happened to probationary workers is illegal, that it cannot be held.

Now, the issue is, this was just for six workers.

So, waiting -- thousands of other probationary workers, as I talk to you right now, waiting to see if that ruling can affect them.

That office that held that is trying to get there.

So, a lot of news.

And one other thing, a federal judge today found that DOGE cannot have access to Treasury and Education systems, personal data for student loans, and for federal employees.

The district judge ruled it is illegal.

They haven't proven that they need to access that, so, another big case.

GEOFF BENNETT: OK. Lisa Desjardins, our thanks to you, as always.

LISA DESJARDINS: You're welcome.

AMNA NAWAZ: Today's other headlines begin in Washington, D.C., where a federal judge declined to give the Associated Press its spot back in the White House press pool for now.

But District Judge Trevor McFadden,a Trump appointee, urged the government to reconsider its ban of the wire service.

The AP sued three senior Trump aides for barring its reporters from the Oval Office, Air Force One, and other areas after the AP stood firm in using the Gulf of Mexico in its coverage with an explanation that President Trump has moved to rename the body of water the Gulf of America.

The AP says the Constitution's First Amendment prohibits the government from punishing speech.

The White House argues that access to the president is a privilege, not a right.

The Supreme Court today declined to hear a pair of cases from abortion opponents over their right to protest near abortion clinics.

The appeals center on laws in Illinois and New Jersey, which allow for buffer zones between protesters and clinics.

Anti-abortion activists say the laws violate their First Amendment rights and that such restrictions aren't necessary since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

Cities say the laws help limit disturbing behavior outside of clinics.

The court did not provide an explanation for declining the appeals, though conservative Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas disagreed with the decision.

Apple says that it will invest $500 billion in the U.S. over the next four years.

That includes funding for a new factory in Houston, Texas, that will make servers to power Apple's A.I.

offerings, plus new commitments to film TV shows and movies for its Apple TV+ service in the U.S. Apple will also create 20,000 jobs across the country.

The company has not said how much of today's announcement is new funds and how much may have already been in the works.

On Wall Street today, stocks started the week on uneven footing.

The Dow Jones industrial average added about 30 points for a minor gain.

The Nasdaq dropped more than 230 points as major tech companies came under pressure.

The S&P 500 also ended lower on the day.

And this Sunday's Oscar race is looking wide open after the Screen Actors Guild awards delivered a pair of against-the-odds wins.

HARRISON FORD, Actor: And the winner goes to "Conclave."

AMNA NAWAZ: "Conclave" won best ensemble, the equivalent of best picture.

The thriller about the selection of a new pope beat out award-season darling "Anora."

And Timothee Chalamet nabbed best actor for his portrayal of Bob Dylan in "A Complete Unknown,: upsetting "The Brutalist" star Adrien Brody for the honor.

"Conclave"'s win comes as the Vatican announced nightly prayers for the ailing Pope Francis.

The 88-year-old is battling a complex lung infection, though the Vatican said today that recent lab tests showed a slight improvement in his condition.

The Secret Service agent who jumped onto the back of John F. Kennedy's limousine after the president was shot in 1963 has died.

Clint Hill was riding on the running board of a car directly behind Kennedy's when the first shot rang out.

In visuals from the scene, he is the man in the dark suit pushing a distraught Mrs. Kennedy back to her seat as she tried to crawl away.

Hill received Secret Service awards and was promoted for his actions that day, but in later years he spoke of his profound guilt over not being able to save the president.

Clint Hill was 93 years old.

And the music world has lost a giant.

Roberta Flack, a Grammy-winning singer best known for her pop and R&B hits in the early 1970s, died today.

A piano prodigy from an early age, Flack was catapulted to fame in her 30s thanks in part to Clint Eastwood.

Her cover of "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" appeared in his 1971 movie "Play Misty for Me," earning a Grammy for record of the year.

She followed it up with "Killing Me Softly" in 1973, which also won the Grammy.

That made her the first artist to win back-to-back Grammys for best record.

Reflecting on her hit more than 20 years later, Flack spoke of her pride that the song endures.

ROBERTA FLACK, Musician: You can hear it all over the world to this day.

So I'm just so grateful that a song that I'm associated with has lasted for over two decades.

AMNA NAWAZ: Those two decades have, of course, stretched to more than five.

Flack also used her platform to sing about racial and social issues throughout her career.

In 2022, the singer announced she had ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease, which left her unable to perform.

Roberta Flack was 88 years old.

Still to come on the "News Hour": a center-right party wins Germany's elections, as the far right doubles its support; Tamara Keith and Amy Walter break down the latest political headlines;and Black homeowners fear they could be priced out of their Los Angeles suburb after devastating wildfires.

GEOFF BENNETT: Late Friday night, President Trump fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General C.Q.

Brown, breaking with decades of precedent, as part of a broader purge of senior military leaders.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also announced the administration would replace the top lawyers for the Army, Navy and Air Force.

Here's Hegseth explaining the decision "FOX News Sunday."

PETE HEGSETH, U.S. Defense Secretary: Ultimately, we want lawyers who give sound constitutional advice and don't exist to attempt to be roadblocks to anything - - anything that happens in their spots.

GEOFF BENNETT: For perspective, we turn now to retired Rear Admiral James McPherson.

He served as undersecretary of the Army and as the Army's general counsel during the first Trump administration.

It's great to have you here.

So let's start with President Trump's decision to fire the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General C.Q.

Brown.

Brown is the first in the job since 2007 to not serve a full term, and there's the added detail that Brown, a four-star general, is being replaced with a now retired three-star general, Dan Caine, whose military service does not include any of the key assignments that were identified in law as prerequisites for the job.

He will need to get a waiver.

So how do you interpret this pick?

REAR ADM. JAMES MCPHERSON (RET.

), Former U.S.

Undersecretary of the Army: Well, it's not surprising that he fired General Brown.

That was rumored in the media many times before the inauguration and then even afterwards.

Perhaps even a greater surprise was his firing the chief of Naval operations, Admiral Franchetti, who was the first female admiral that the Navy had as its chief of naval operations.

It speaks of a profound concern that perhaps the president is putting in place individuals who he can be assured would be loyal to him, and not loyal to the Constitution or loyal to the rule of law.

That's the greatest concern I think many people have.

GEOFF BENNETT: And there's also his decision to fire the military's top lawyers, those judge advocates general known as JAGs.

You had a 25-year career and the Navy, also served as its top lawyer in uniform.

First, help us understand what those lawyers do in providing independent legal advice to senior military leaders.

REAR ADM. JAMES MCPHERSON (RET).

: It's profoundly disappointing to hear the secretary of defense describe the men and women of the services; Judge Advocate General's Corps, some of the attorneys that this country has, many of whom forwent, forgo lucrative civilian careers, to serve their country.

They answer their country's call.

They truly are embracing a lifestyle of service.

And to hear the secretary of defense describe them in a term that's not only crude, but vulgar, is just intolerable and, quite frankly, shameless.

But it also evidences a lack of understanding of what a judge advocate on the staff of a warfare commander does, what their role is.

Their role is advising that warfare commander as that commander puts together an operational plan.

Their role is not one of a roadblock, but one that facilitates the successful completion of a mission within the bounds of the law.

They are not the ones that, if you will, say, shoot, don't shoot.

They're not the ones that promulgate the rules of engagement that guide our warriors, but they advise the commander, who is the one that makes those decisions.

GEOFF BENNETT: Secretary Hegseth has often spoke about restoring what he calls a warrior ethos to a military that he views as having become too soft and bureaucratic.

So when he says that he views the JAGs as obstacles and removing them would ostensibly remove an obstacle, what are the practical implications of that?

REAR ADM. JAMES MCPHERSON (RET).

: Well, there's a common denominator among the three judge advocate generals of the services that he removed.

They were all selected, they were all nominated by President Biden and they were confirmed by the Senate in the Biden administration.

So, clearly, the commonality is, they came into office during the Biden administration, and that's why the secretary wants -- wanted to get rid of them, so he could put his own people in there.

What's interesting is, he directed the service secretaries to nominate names for him.

The law requires that the service secretary convene a board, and that board consists of senior officers, line officers, who will review the records of the eligible officers, that is, captains and colonels, and make a recommendation to the service secretary of the next judge advocate general.

The service secretary forwards that to the White House and it's the president's decision.

So it's not going to be the secretary of defense's decision.

It's going to be a decision based upon, again, a recommendation that comes from a board, something also that Secretary Hegseth in his time with the FOX News interview seemed not to understand.

GEOFF BENNETT: And yet a president has the right to assemble a team of military leaders as he chooses.

Supporters of the president have been quick to point out that Truman ousted Douglas MacArthur, Obama ousted Stanley McChrystal.

Do they have a point?

Or do you see something missing in their justification of President Trump's actions?

REAR ADM. JAMES MCPHERSON (RET).

: I see something missing.

And what I see missing is, they didn't take issue with any decision that the officers made.

They didn't -- there was no misconduct involved.

They simply dismissed them because they weren't, if you will, perceived as being loyal to the president.

My fear is that they're putting people in place when that fateful day arrives and the suggestions made, as it was, in the Oval Office, should we just shoot them in the legs, my fear is that there won't be a Secretary Esper or a General Milley who says, no, Mr. President, we can't.

My fear is there will be officers in the room that say, sure, we will shoot them in the legs.

GEOFF BENNETT: Admiral McPherson, thanks again for joining us this evening.

We appreciate it.

REAR ADM. JAMES MCPHERSON (RET).

: Thank you.

AMNA NAWAZ: The Internal Revenue Service is in the process of terminating more than 6,000 employees, around 6 percent of the agency's overall work force.

It comes as Elon Musk's team, known as the Department of Government Efficiency, continues its efforts to cut the federal work force.

Our White House correspondent, Laura Barron-Lopez, has more -- Laura.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Amna, these firings come in the middle of tax filing season and target relatively recent hires.

Experts warn that this change will hurt the IRS' ability to investigate ultra-wealthy who are evading taxes.

Today, in a New York Times opinion piece, former IRS commissioners who served under both Democratic and Republican presidents, including Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump, called the mass layoffs a mistake.

They write that the firings -- quote -- "will shift the burden of funding the government from people who shirk their taxes to the honest people who pay them."

And they added that it will impede efforts by the IRS to simplify the tax filing process for everyone.

To discuss, I'm joined by one of the authors, Daniel Werfel, former commissioner of the IRS who resigned last month more than two years earlier than expected.

Mr. Werfel, thank you so much for joining us.

DANNY WERFEL, Former Acting Internal Revenue Service Commissioner: Good to be here.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: An IRS commissioner from every administration, essentially, from Ronald Reagan to present, signed onto this op-ed.

Why do you see these layoffs as a mistake?

DANIEL WERFEL: Well, we got together as former commissioners and we tried to understand why this was being undertaken.

And we understood that it was being undertaken in the interest of cost efficiency.

And this made no sense to us.

All of us, all the previous commissioners have experience in the private sector.

And from our experience, we know that the bottom line is not just about cutting costs.

It's also about maintaining and increasing revenue.

So by cutting the IRS and depleting the ability of the U.S. government to collect revenue, you really are becoming less cost-efficient, not more cost-efficient.

And we wanted to put that right up in front in our op-ed and ask the question, why cut the part of the government that collects the revenue if you're going to try to be more cost-efficient?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: What kind of impact could this have on Americans, especially in this season?

And will it make it easier for tax cheats?

DANIEL WERFEL: Well, it's my understanding that they're really focusing on those that are collecting overdue or balanced due taxes.

And so immediately you will see a reduction in the revenue coming in to fund the U.S. government.

But also a big layoff like this right in the middle of tax filing season is likely to be very disruptive.

And it's absolutely important that the IRS during this time is answering the phone, is maintaining those appointments in the walk-in centers and, really important, processing tax returns and getting people their refunds as quickly as possible.

And all the commissioners, we all talked about the fact that, during filing season, we try to not increase risk.

We try to maintain a lot of stability to make sure that people are getting their refunds on time.

And a giant layoff like this is bound to increase risk and it's very concerning.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: The White House says that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent thinks that there should be more firings on top of the current ones.

And all of this, Elon Musk says, is being done under the banner of fraud and waste, which you mentioned.

Do you think that there's a case for streamlining this agency?

What's your response to those claims of fraud?

DANIEL WERFEL: I certainly think there's an opportunity to modernize.

And during the transition, when I was at the IRS, I talked to the Trump transition team about opportunities to automate and add technology.

But there's work to be done before you start terminating employees, because you're going to lose performance if you're not ready to automate while you're cutting staff.

So, really, I do think there's opportunity in the future to streamline the IRS, but it has to be done thoughtfully.

I wouldn't do it during filing season.

And you raised the question about fraud.

There is absolutely too much fraud in the government.

There's too many tax scams.

And the IRS work force has worked tirelessly to try to address that fraud and address those tax scams.

And there's a lot of expertise and people at the IRS that you want to maintain to help protect people from these scams and to protect taxpayer dollars.

But here's the thing about fraud and error.

And I have been involved in fraud and error for pretty much my entire career of trying to prevent it.

And I never believe that I have the monopoly on the right answer.

But I have lessons learned.

And one of the lessons learned is we don't know when payments are going out the door whether they're fraudulent or not.

In order to get smarter about it, typically, what you do is two things.

You collect more information about the person or the organization receiving the payment.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: About American taxpayers.

DANIEL WERFEL: About American taxpayers or businesses.

And you take more time and you do more diligence to validate whether the payment is an error or not.

And when this has been tried, when we have tried as a government to collect more information from the public to get a better sense of whether a payment is fraudulent or not, there has rightfully been pushback.

I don't want the government to have all this information.

I don't want this additional paperwork burden.

And I don't want the government to take so long to make the payment.

So a balance is made where, in the interest of speed and the interest of reducing paperwork burden on Americans, there is error in payments that go out.

And work has been done over time to reduce that error.

But if we're going to eliminate fraud and error, the way the Trump administration is describing, tough questions need to be presented on, what does that mean in terms of the information you're going to collect from Americans and businesses, and does that mean delays in payments that are going out?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: I want to ask you about Elon Musk and his DOGE workers getting access to the IRS system, which contains personal tax information that you're talking about for individuals and businesses.

Why should taxpayers care that Musk, who's unelected, who says that he's policing his own conflicts of interest, have?

Why should they care about him having access to such material?

And who typically has access to it?

DANIEL WERFEL: What the government does when somebody comes in, whether it's an employee or a contractor, and says, I need access to this information, the government just doesn't hand it over.

They ask questions.

They ask questions like, why do you need this information?

How long do you need it for to achieve your objective?

And what is your proven trustworthiness to have this information?

And that's exactly what the government is doing.

People are coming in and asking for broad amount of information, information about every taxpayer, your bank account information, your address, your household makeup.

And before that information is just handed over in Musk, civil servants in the government are saying, OK, tell us why you need it and for how long you need it.

And if the answer doesn't match up, if the answer that comes across is, well, we really don't have a good explanation of why we need everybody's information and we don't know how long we need it for, well, then these civil servants are going to ask more questions before they hand the data over.

And as a citizen, where my information is in those systems and your information, I'm glad that the government is asking those questions before they just knee-jerk hand the data over.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Daniel Werfel, former IRS commissioner, thank you for your time.

DANIEL WERFEL: Thank you.

AMNA NAWAZ: The man poised to become Germany's next chancellor accused President Trump of being indifferent to Europe's plight and blasted Washington's interference in his nation's general election yesterday.

Friedrich Merz has begun work to forge a governing coalition, having ruled out working alongside a far right party supported by the Trump administration.

From Berlin, special correspondent Malcolm Brabant reports.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Germans went to work this morning in a country that was radically different from the one they inhabited just 24 hours ago.

Not only had Germany taken a giant stride to the right, but it had also elected a chancellor who's a straight talker and isn't shy about telling America what he really thinks.

FRIEDRICH MERZ, German Chancellor-Elect: For me, the absolute priority will be to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that step by step we can really achieve independence from the USA.

I never thought I would have to say something like that on a TV program, but after Donald Trump's latest comments in the last week, it's clear the Americans, or at least this group of Americans, this government cares very little about the fate of Europe.

MALCOLM BRABANT: And Merz laid into the Trump administration for Elon Musk's strident support for the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany Party.

FRIEDRICH MERZ: I have no illusions about what is happening in America.

Just look at recent events, including leaving Elon Musk's interventions in the German election campaign.

This is unprecedented.

The interventions from Washington were no less dramatic and brazen than those we have seen from Moscow.

We are under massive pressure from both sides, and my absolute priority now is to establish unity in Europe.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Germany's new chancellor is a man in a hurry.

He wants to establish a stable coalition as quickly as possible.

His priorities are security, the economy and migration.

He says that he's confident of being able to do a deal with the outgoing Social Democrats.

He says Germany needs a government that can act because the world isn't going to wait.

But Lars Klingbeil, the joint leader of the social Democrats, is far more relaxed.

LARS KLINGBEIL, Co-Leader, Social Democratic Party (through translator): Whether a government is formed, whether the SPD joins a government is not certain.

These are decisions that will be made in the coming weeks and months.

MALCOLM BRABANT: At the far right of Germany's political spectrum, Alice Weidel, the leader of the anti-immigrant AfD, was jubilant at becoming the second most popular party.

ALICE WEIDEL, Leader, AfD Party: We are the people's party.

We are stable, the second strongest party in Germany.

We are on the rise.

MALCOLM BRABANT: But she accused the new chancellor of betraying the wishes of the German electorate.

ALICE WEIDEL: Voters want a center-right government, and it is ultimately up to the CDU whether they want to implement this.

At the moment, it doesn't look like they will.

Friedrich Merz has decided to stick to his stance of blocking the AfD.

We consider this blockade to be undemocratic.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Even though the AfD will not be part of the government, public relations consultant Mizgin Aslan fears their influence.

MIZGIN ASLAN, Public Relations Consultant: My prime concern is that it leads to an increasing normalization of far right and racist ideologies.

And, unfortunately, the other parties, by jumping on this debate of the so-called migration crisis, also contributes to this normalization of this ideology, and thereby also contribute to an increasing atmosphere of hate and distrust vis-a-vis people that don't look stereotypical German.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Merz wants to reassure people like Mizgin that, by being tough on migration, he will reduce support for the AfD at the next election.

But that means more controls in places like Frankfurt Oder on the Polish border.

Such checks violate the European Union principle of freedom of movement between member states.

But, right now, Germany's domestic priorities come first.

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

AMNA NAWAZ: From boisterous town halls to an upcoming budget fight in Congress, there's a lot to unpack already in this week in politics.

For that, we're joined by our Politics Stakes duo.

That's Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report With Amy Walter and Tamara Keith of NPR.

Great to see you both.

Amy, kick us off here now, because we have seen lawmakers returning to Congress after holding some town halls in their home districts, sort of getting their first real-time temperature check in this second Trump administration, and they're seeing some anger and some frustration.

Here's just one example that was seen by Congressman Mark Alford in Kansas City, Missouri.

Take a listen.

REP. MARK ALFORD (R-MO): How many of them do you think should be fired without cause, where it is reasonable?

MAN: There's a legal and proper way to downsize the government.

REP. MARK ALFORD: Guys, guys, guys, we're not -- this isn't a junior high cafeteria.

AMNA NAWAZ: Amy, a lot of that related to the mass firing between the federal work force, and he is not alone.

What do these Republicans do now?

AMY WALTER, The Cook Political Report: Yes.

Well, that's an excellent question, is that I think what they're looking at for the very first time is the reality of all politics is local, even though they have been in many ways just talking in a more national -- have been on a more national focus for quite some time, which is, if you look at the polling nationally, the idea of cutting government waste, of firing excess government workers sounds really popular, until it comes to your home district.

Now, outside of this area that we sit in here in Washington, D.C., most congressional districts have maybe 2, 3 percent of their total work force is employed by the federal government.

But that doesn't mean it's not going to trickle out into other areas, meaning the people that are their suppliers or their contractors, their families.

And here's another thing we know.

Angry people tend to show up, not just to town halls, but they tend to show up to vote as well.

And so I think what Republicans are trying to do now, we have been hearing and seeing some of these stories, trying to find ways to do little carve-outs for programs or other priorities in their districts, trying to take those off the chopping block.

That's going to be really, really hard to do.

The other thing I heard in talking with one Republican source is that what folks, Republicans are really worried about is that it's Elon Musk who they see as -- the voters see as being a big part of this problem, that they -- that Republican members have to figure out a way to message about Musk being unelected and that these voters coming in saying, hey, how did we give the keys to somebody that we never voted for?

AMNA NAWAZ: Tam, it's a number of Republicans who've seen this kind of anger, but a few Democrats as well are facing some anger in their town halls from their constituents for not fighting hard enough against this administration, in their view.

Take a look at what congressman Paul Tonko of New York faced.

MAN: I was so proud that my representative was on the front line right there.

But I thought about Jimmy Carter and I thought about John Lewis.

And I know what John Lewis would have done.

He would have gotten arrested that day.

MAN: Make them -- make them outlaw you.

We will stand with you.

We will be there with you.

I will get arrested with you.

AMNA NAWAZ: Tam, what do you take away from all this?

TAMARA KEITH, National Public Radio: Yes, Democrats are certainly frustrated and they are they are going out there and they are protesting at Tesla dealerships.

Of course they're going to show up to town halls where their members of Congress are.

And Democratic leaders have not exactly given them, given Democratic voters who are frustrated and angry and worried about the state of the country, they haven't given them a lot of hope.

Hakeem Jeffries, the minority leader at one point, he sort of walked to this back, but said, well, there's not much that we can do.

We're in the minority.

And the reality is that Democrats are in the minority in both the House and the Senate.

In the House, in particular, the minority party doesn't have a lot of power to do much of anything.

AMNA NAWAZ: Meanwhile, the context for all this, of course, is the latest polls that we're seeing.

In two new polls, Amy, you have seen, CNN and The Washington Post now show 47 and 45 percent approval ratings for President Trump, 52 and 53 percent disapproval ratings.

That's sort of the flip of what we saw earlier this month in one poll.

But at the same time, we're also seeing polls like this Harvard/Harris poll, which shows Mr. Trump holding steady at 52 percent approval and a majority support for many of his individual policies.

What do you take away from these numbers?

AMY WALTER: So I'd like to look at averages, which is my go-to.

And if you look at the average of all the polls I have been taken since Donald Trump was first inaugurated until now, what you see is kind of a steady decline in his overall approval rating, a hike in his negative rating of about eight points.

So he's become eight points less popular in -- basically in the last month.

The other thing I'm looking very closely at, and I think is going to be really important as we go forward, remember, in 2020, Donald Trump's overall approval rating was low, but people gave him high approval ratings for how he was handling the economy.

We saw this in the 2024 election as well.

Now what we're seeing, really, what I think is for the first time opinions about Donald Trump's handling of the economy are now equally -- he's are underwater in the same way that his overall approval ratings are.

In other words, I think what we're hearing from voters is, they're not really particularly happy with the direction of the economy, which is obviously something Trump ran on.

And we saw it in the data coming from the Michigan Consumer Index this last week.

Voters are more pessimistic now about the economy than they have been since the fall of 2023.

AMNA NAWAZ: Tam, what about you?

What's your take?

TAMARA KEITH: Yes, a lot of the things that President Trump has been doing since taking office have very little to do with the consumer economy in terms of bringing prices down.

He's -- he and Musk have had this focus on slashing the government.

And, yes, they argue that indirectly eventually that could bring down the deficit and that could potentially bring down prices through some sort of magical math formula.

But the other thing that President Trump has spent a lot of time doing is talking about tariffs.

He did it again today.

And polls are showing that voters, not all voters, but a majority of voters agree with the vast majority of mainstream economists who say that raising tariffs is functionally raising taxes on the American people.

And so Trump's approach to the economy, which in some ways is keeping allies and adversaries off-balance, is also keeping American consumers off-balance at the same time that prices aren't coming down, there are growing concerns about inflation, egg prices are still up, and the promises that deregulation and freeing up oil and gas, drill, baby, drill, is just going to somehow magically bring all prices down, it hasn't happened yet.

Trump is saying it's not going to be his economy until it's been six or 12 months, but voters are beginning to look at the economy and have questions.

One other thing to add, all of these federal firings could show up in the jobs report that comes out next month.

AMY WALTER: Right.

AMNA NAWAZ: Amy, I have less than a minute left, but I got to ask you, because Republicans in the House have to pass a budget plan.

AMY WALTER: Right.

AMNA NAWAZ: We have already got at least 11 so far Republican lawmakers are saying they have questions or concerns about some of the potential for Medicaid cuts... AMY WALTER: Yes.

AMNA NAWAZ: ... in particular in the proposal put forward by Speaker Johnson.

These are some of them right there.

They have a slim majority.

AMY WALTER: Yes.

AMNA NAWAZ: With 11, the math ain't mathing, as they say.

AMY WALTER: No.

AMNA NAWAZ: What's going to happen?

AMY WALTER: Well, they have got to decide, the speaker has to decide whether he wants to hold this vote at all or whether they go back to the drawing board.

But I think this is going to be the issue for the next, I don't know, how many months, the reality of having a very slim majority.

And if they want to pass all the things they want to pass, they have got to make deep cuts into programs that are really popular.

AMNA NAWAZ: I feel like we're going to be talking about this a lot more.

AMY WALTER: A lot.

AMNA NAWAZ: Amy Walter, Tamara Keith, always great to see you both.

Thank you.

AMY WALTER: You're welcome.

TAMARA KEITH: You're welcome.

AMNA NAWAZ: The wildfires that burned parts of Southern California last month will likely become the most expensive wildfires in U.S. history.

They also burned a scar through historically Black neighborhoods in Altadena.

William Brangham recently visited with families there who are still sifting through the debris and are concerned about what Altadena will look like going forward.

DIANE PALLAY, Eaton Fire Victim: Oh, my goodness.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: This is a drive that Diane Pallay and her family never imagined they'd have to make.

DIANE PALLAY: Look at all these homes.

Oh, my goodness.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: They're returning to the charred remains of their beloved neighborhood in Altadena, California.

WOMAN: Look at -- their whole chimney fell.

WOMAN: Fell, yes, into our house.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Their house, like hundreds of their neighbors, was devoured by last month's Eaton Fire.

DIANE PALLAY: This is incredible.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Pallay's parents bought this house in the 1960s, becoming some of the first Black homeowners in this part of Altadena.

Diane was raised here and then she and her husband,Richard, raised their own kids here, including their daughter Lisa.

DIANE PALLAY: And, as a matter of fact, right before the fire, we were in process and talks of having Lisa and her husband have the house.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: So three generations.

DIANE PALLAY: Yes.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Now they're gingerly stepping through what's left of the past, both their own families and their communities.

DIANE PALLAY: It was a lot knowing that our home was gone, but then to see the devastation, that we're talking about an entire community, entire blocks and blocks and blocks and blocks, it was just really too much to bear.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Richard and Diane are now staying with Lisa and her husband and their two little kids, crowded into Lisa's rented townhouse in nearby Pasadena.

For Lisa, the fire stole not only the family's refuge, but also the place of countless memories, where she took her first steps and then, years later, her son did the same.

LISA ODIGIE, Eaton Fire Victim: And I just cried.

I literally collapsed on my knees and I just cried, because it was -- it's just an unbelievable feeling.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Like so many families here, they're unsure about what comes next.

WOMAN: his was the bathroom.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Lisa's lease is up in a few months.

The mortgage on their house still comes due every month.

They had insurance, but it's not clear if it'll be enough to rebuild.

While the Eaton Fire destroyed more than 9,000 structures in all, it hit Black homeowners in Altadena particularly hard.

A recent study found that almost half of Black households had their homes destroyed or severely damaged, compared to 37 percent of non-Black households.

Many of those homes can be traced back several generations.

JASMIN SHUPPER, Founder and President, Greenline Housing Foundation: The history of Altadena as it pertains to Black people is very significant.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Jasmin Shupper started the Greenline Housing Foundation.

It's a nonprofit that works to increase homeownership in minority communities.

She says, during the civil rights era, Altadena became an increasingly popular destination for Black families.

JASMIN SHUPPER: Redlining still existed in Altadena, but it was much friendlier to Black people purchasing, especially in the '60s, when the Fair Housing Act was passed.

You had a significant increase in the population, the Black population in Altadena.

So this was for a lot of Black people a haven and a place of solidarity and a place where they could actually access homeownership and the wealth-building that it affords.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: It's a legacy that continues.

About 75 percent of Black residents here own their homes.

That's nearly double the Black homeownership rate nationwide.

But even before the fire, things were changing.

As the cost of housing in L.A. rose, more people flocked to this community of 42,000 people just north of Pasadena.

Today, Altadena is less than 20 percent Black, down from over 40 percent in the 1980s.

JASMIN SHUPPER: The Black population in Altadena had been declining significantly because of gentrification, because of increased home values and prices, because of speculative investment, but this threatens to decrease that population even more significantly.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: As rebuilding gets under way in Altadena, there is a concern in this community that real estate developers are going to swoop in and buy up all of this property and somehow change this integrated, diverse community into something that people here just don't recognize anymore.

MICHELLE BENN, Altadena Resident: They're a saying among the Black community now.

Don't move out of Altadena.

If you move out, you will never get back in.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Michelle Benn's family was lucky.

Their home survived the fires, coming right to the edge of their yard.

MICHELLE BENN: That fire was burning so hot, and it was just burning straight up.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: He says divine intervention held the flames back, but he still can't believe what happened everywhere else.

MICHELLE BENN: For me, it's our home.

It's the only thing I have ever known.

But when I was driving by, I couldn't even recognize what street I was on, because all the houses were burned down, and you didn't know where you were.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: He says the damage from the smoke and all the toxic particles make living in the house unsafe.

MICHELLE BENN: Everything that was burnt up, whether it was cars, the chemicals from the cars, the paint, the lids, the asbestos, and different types of materials all together floating throughout the air and made into our attic, and it's in our house.

It's all over the floors.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: While they're still trying to figure out exactly how much their insurance will cover, Michelle's daughter Cienna says they will never leave Altadena.

Her great-grandfather first came here back in the 1930s.

CIENNA BENN, Daughter of Michelle Benn: Considering Jim Crow and what it would mean to move to California and to build a life for yourself as a Black person in this country, it's just such a great investment, such a -- just such emotional strength to be able to come here and believe in that.

There's no other place like this to me in the world, and I'm not interested in finding another one.

I'm interested in growing everything that they planted here.

JASMIN SHUPPER: You know, thinking about that and the thought of rebuilding, like, what is needed?

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Jasmin Shupper's nonprofit is working with Black families who lost their homes, but want to rebuild, and those who don't plan to stay but don't want to sell to outside developers.

JASMIN SHUPPER: You have got generations of blood, sweat and tears threatened to be wiped out if we're not able to come alongside and support the rebuilding specifically of this Black community.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The Eaton Fire not only destroyed Black homes, but also several Black-owned businesses.

This is what's left of Rhythms of the Village, a learning center that celebrated African culture and music.

EMEKA CHUKWURAH, Rhythms of the Village: We're not going to give up so easily, you know?

I tell those developers, those capitalists, good luck.

They can try, but these are some resilient people.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The store's owners are father and son Onochie and Emeka Chukwurah.

ONOCHIE CHUKWURAH, Rhythms of the Village: So this fire came here, devastated our community.

And it's turning us around to each one help the other.

Everybody's helping.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Right after the fires, they set up a donation space in Onochie's driveway, collecting and dispensing clothes, shoes, toiletries, all for free.

ONOCHIE CHUKWURAH: Anybody out there who is in need right now is welcome to come here and take whatever you see that you need.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: While their store is gone, Emeka says this effort and others like it across the area gives him hope about Altadena's future.

EMEKA CHUKWURAH: We have our boutique, free boutique here, but this is being replicated all over the community.

So, seeing us share resources at this level, I'm very optimistic that we can rebuild.

DIANE PALLAY: We're going to remember the beautiful memories, and also let's just look to the future.

RICHARD PALLAY, Eaton Fire Victim: This is what's going on around the tree.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Despite losing everything, Diane and Richard Pallay are hoping to rebuild in Altadena.

They say it's the people who will make this area back into what it once was.

RICHARD PALLAY: Give us the opportunity to build this community again.

We don't want it to be released to developers and change the whole look and feel and the being of Altadena.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: For the "PBS News Hour," I'm William Brangham in Altadena, California.

GEOFF BENNETT: With the Oscars this coming Sunday, it's a good time to learn about the essential people in Hollywood we don't see, often referred to as working below the line.

Makeup and special effects artist Katie Middleton is one of them.

She's worked on Oscar-nominated films.

And, tonight, she shares her Brief But Spectacular take on navigating an unpredictable industry.

KATIE MIDDLETON, Makeup Artist: I get asked from people how to pursue being a makeup artist, especially TV and film.

And there really isn't a specific path.

It's just you have to want to do it and you have got to go for it.

In film and television, my job and a lot of other crew members' jobs are considered below-the-line jobs.

QUESTION: Do you have any idea why they call it that?

KATIE MIDDLETON: Because we're not important.

This is why I'm below the line, because I'm not supposed to be on this side of the camera.

I grew up in Richmond, Virginia with a family of artists.

My mom and my grandmother were painters.

And we were always drawing and coloring.

My brother and I used to make comic books.

I went to college for painting because I wanted to make some sort of living creatively.

When I graduated, I actually had a job working in accounting for a couple years, so it took me a little bit.

So I went back to school for makeup and special effects in Vancouver.

QUESTION: What was the accounting stuff like?

KATIE MIDDLETON: It was a lot of numbers that I...

I moved to Los Angeles because I thought that's where I had to go to work in film and TV.

It was a struggle for a while, just working on any sort of student film or short film or whatever I could find.

I kind of got into the makeup world because I wanted to do prosthetics and I was really interested in creating characters and special effects.

Prosthetics are used in film and TV from everything from small wounds to huge creature characters, that just really anything we glue on the face or body to change somebody's appearance.

I mean, the industry slowed down a lot when the unions went on strike and we were all out of work for at least six months.

You have seen a lot of friends leave the industry and have to find other jobs.

And we have all kind of found side jobs to get by.

I took the time and set up a permanent studio in my apartment, and it's really made a difference being able to just pick up a brush and paint for a couple hours.

Being a freelance artist is a roller coaster, and you never know when your next job is going to come or what state or country it's going to be in.

Within the last couple of years, I have worked everywhere from Egypt to Uruguay.

I have been in New Jersey.

I go to North Carolina next week.

The community is one of my favorite parts of the job.

You spend more time with the people you're working with than you do at home with your families.

It's definitely not for everybody, but I like the excitement.

It's more of an adventure to me.

My name is Katie Middleton, and this is my brief put spectacular take on working in the film and TV industry.

GEOFF BENNETT: And you can watch more Brief But Spectacular at PBS.org/NewsHour/Brief.

And that is the "News Hour" for tonight.

I'm Geoff Bennett.

AMNA NAWAZ: And I'm Amna Nawaz.

On behalf of the entire "News Hour" team, thank you for joining us.