wow, you get to watch all your favorite stuff. it's to die for. now you won't miss a thing. this is the way. xfiny nget ♪ geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i'm amna nawaz on the "newshour" tonight -- in an apparent israeli attack, hundreds of hezbollah pagers explode across lebanon, killing at least eight and injuring thousands.

geoff: with seven weeks until election day, kamala harris and donald trump hit the campaign trail in critical swing states. amna: and we explore the deepest depths and efforts to mine valuable metals from the ocean floor. ♪ >> major funding for the pbs news hour has been provided by -- the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions, and friends of the newshour, including kathy and paul anderson. >> working to advance democracy. >> i love my job because i love the people i work with. everyone is trying to connect on

a personal level. we look out for one another. we love to see our teammates thrive. >> you don't have to change how you walk, how you talk. >> we can bring our authentic self to work. that is joy. >> the john elf and james l night foundation, more at kf.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. ♪

this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. amna: welcome to the newshour. it was an unprecedented and shocking attack. all across lebanon today, pagers used by members of the militant group hezbollah exploded. lebanon's health ministry says 2700 people were injured, and nine were killed, including a young girl. hezbollah blamed israel for the attack. israel has not made any public statement. geoff: this comes as tensions between israel and lebanon have been near boiling for nearly a year, since just after the october 7th hamas terror attacks on israel. days later, hezbollah stepped up fire into northern israel. the two sides have had near daily exchanges of artillery and rocket fire since forcing

thousands to flee. nick schifrin is here with more. walk us your reporting. nick: yes, experts call this audacious, never before seen on an almost unbelievable scale. even from the videos that come out, lebanese, hezbollah, and the market, going on their days. the pagers they are wearing on their pocket, or their bag exploded. it led to 2700 wounded. as you said, hundreds of them serious. the total death toll in the total wounded troll will increase geoff. so what happened? officially, we don't know. as you said, hezbollah blamed israel. i asked an israeli official about that, and the only thing i got was an emoji of a shrug shoulder. the experts i did speak to believe israel conducted this attack in the most likely scenario was the pagers were altered to include small

explosives, and that means the pagers were compromised by some entity that wanted to do damage to hezbollah. a few months ago, hezbollah switched over from cell phones to pagers, thinking there would be less surveillance by israel. obviously that backfired. geoff: how much of a blow is this to hezbollah? nick: it is a big blow, 2700 is a lot, not aimed at the leadership, actually aimed at the mid-level levels of hezbollah. it also means ineffective thousands of families in southern beirut and southern lebanon. that will put a lot of pressure on has blood to respond. it's extremely embarrassed think of a slap in the face to the leaders, demoralizing to supporters, raises real questions about the group pose a security, and depending on where these pagers are from, iranian security as well. has bless number three in southern beirut, so again, that

leads to the idea of a feeling among hezbollah that israel can get anyone, anywhere. geoff: tensions are extremely high, and it follows clinical announcements by the israeli government. but that into perspective. nick: at 5:00 in the morning israel time, israel security department added a goal to their official wargames in gaza, returning the residence to their home, a reference to the 60,000 northern a wrist raley's who have been displaced since they -- northern israelis who have been displaced since the october 7 attack. the diplomatic effort to try to de-escalate, the law said the only way left to return the residents to the north, to their home, is via military action. that is a readout of the meeting

yesterday to try to de-escalate tensions, and a special advisor to the president and a senior administration official told me gallant hochstein cautioned them that the u.s. does not believe a broader conflict in lebanon achieves the goal of returning residents to their home in the north. it risks a much broader and protracted regional conflict. hochstein made this clear to israeli officials, and that the u.s. remains committed to a diplomatic solution. that was yesterday. in those meetings. today, the fear of escalation, not alone. geoff: based on your reporting, my -- where might this lead? nick: some of the experts said they believe israel is trying to message, that israel is serious about northern israel, the residents who are no longer in their homes, hezbollah is overreaching, and that this was a message to accept the

diplomatic terms that they've been trying to get them to accept, essentially moving hezbollah fighters about six miles away from the lebanon-israel border, behind the river. i hope in this analysis is that has blood does not want war. it cannot afford it politically in lebanon, and iran does not one has blood to go to war with israel, because has blood is iran's -- hezbollah is iran's best deterrent. but this is so embarrassing to hezbollah, this will cause an escalation. hezbollah has to respond in a violent way come in a different way than it has in the past, and that could lead to israel doing the same and the cycle of escalation, the very cycle of u.s. is trying to avoid. geoff: nick schifrin, thank you for walking us through all of it. we appreciate it. ♪

now we turn to the presidential campaign, with election day just seven weeks from today, vice president kamala harris sat down for a high-profile interview in pennsylvania today, while former president donald trump is gearing up for a town hall later tonight, just days after an alleged attempted assassination effort was stopped by secret service. laura barron-lopez has more. laura: the nation's first black vice president fielding questions from the national association of black journalists in philadelphia. harris addressed her opponents' efforts to win over more black men this cycle. vp harris: i'm working to earn the vote. i'm not assuming i'm going to have it because i am black, but because the policies and the perspective i have understands what we must do to recognize the needs of all communities. laura: it comes six weeks after the organization hosted former president trump, who sparred

with the journalists and questioned harris' racial identity. mr. trump: now she wants to be known as black. so i don't know, is she indian or is she black?" laura: today's interview with harris struck a different tone. eugene daniels of politico asked the vice president about springfield, ohio, which has seen a spike in violent threats after trump spread lies about immigrants eating pets there. vp harris: when you have these positions, when you have that kind of microphone in front of you, you really ought to understand at a very deep level how much your words have meaning. i think most people in our country, regardless of their race, are starting to see through this nonsense, and to say you know what, let's turn the page on this. this is exhausting and it's harmful. laura: she also condemned the apparent assassination attempt that unfolded on sunday... when secret service spotted a gunman in the treeline of trump's own golf course. harris said she spoke with the former president by phone earlier this afternoon. vp harris: i checked to see if he was ok, i told him what i have said publicly.

i said there's no place for political violence in our country. we can and should have healthy debate and discussion and disagreements but not resort to violence to resolve those issues laura: a federal investigation into the incident is still in its early stages. in florida today, governor ron desantis announced a state-level criminal probe and said prosecutors will pursue attempted murder charges against the suspect. as for the trump camp -- sen. vance: don't lecture donald trump about softening his rhetoric after two people tried to kill him. laura: his running mate j.d. vance blamed democrats again today, while campaigning in michigan. sen. vance: all the democrats, and i understand where this, where this impulse comes from. i understand where this, this, this desire to say, well, everybody needs to do better. look, i'm running as vice president. i agree. i can sometimes do better, but we have to remember donald trump

is getting shot at. they need to cut that crap out or they're going to get somebody hurt. laura: after the second apparent assassination attempt, vance railed against unnamed democrats for calling trump a "fascist" despite trump himself repeatedly calling harris one. meanwhile, to guard against another attempt by trump to overturn the election results, some political figures are coming together to maintain a peaceful transfer of power a group of bipartisan former governors put out a letter today urging their successors to certify the election results in their states and reject any delays, stating, "while there is much to debate on the campaign trail, we expect all candidates and the american people will agree that this time-honored process during our post-election period is not open for debate. it is simply a ministerial and administrative duty. we hope you agree and are prepared to certify the appointment of electors and also reject any request to delay certification." on the campaign trail, the parties are celebrating national voter registration day. gov. walz: tell your friends iwillvote.com is the place where

you go to get voter registration day. laura: with harris' running mate minnesota governor tim walz out in georgia, and trump is expected back on the trail with a town hall in flint, michigan later tonight, out for the first time since what appears to be the second attempt on his life. for the pbs newshour, i'm laura barron-lopez. geoff: and we have one additional note involving the u.s. presidential campaign. microsoft is warning of a "shift" in russian election influence efforts towards the harris-walz campaign, using fake and misleading videos. the latest report from the microsoft threat analysis center says it "reflects a strategic move by russian actors aimed at exploiting any perceived vulnerabilities in the new candidates." microsoft adds that we should expect more such "staged videos and ai-enhanced propaganda" heading into the november election. the day's other headlines start in central europe, where major cities are bracing for the worst flooding in years to head downstream. in budapest, along the danube, soldiers filled sandbags to keep the river from overflowing its

banks. the floodwaters have claimed around 20 lives so far across central europe and submerged entire towns. thousands have been displaced. in poland, the government has declared a state of natural disaster in the south, following heavy rains. in areas where floodwaters have receded, as seen here in the czech republic, residents are left to pick up the pieces. >> the damage will be huge. all is destroyed downstairs. the floors are gone. we are like newly-weds resettling again. but, it is not very amusing. amna: meantime, in northern portugal, it's a very different scene. as thousands of firefighters battle some 100 wildfires that have killed at least six people. more than 50 others have been injured. and, with no rain in the forecast, national authorities say a fire alert will stay in place until thursday. the senate rejected a motion today on whether to consider legislation that would protect in vitro fertilization, or ivf.

the final tally was 51-44. 60 votes were needed in favor to open debate on the measure. it was the second time such a bill came to the floor this year, and it was widely expected to fail. but it was a chance for democrats to put repbulican lawmakers on the record and draw a contrast between kamala harris and donald trump on the issue. majority leader chuck schumer spoke before the vote. sen. schumer: expanding insurance coverage for ivf is not a partisan issue. a survey from pew research showed 7 in 10 americans say access to ivf is a good thing. just 8% oppose it, 8%. ivf protections came to national -- amna: ivf protections came to national prominence earlier this year when the alabama supreme court ruled that frozen embryos can be considered children' under state law. several clinics canceled the treatments.

the state's republican-led legislstaure then enacted a law to provide legal protections for those providing ivf services. new details are emerging about election officials disagree over whether these voters can participate in the full election get a special issue was voted on to put the issue before the state supreme court. new details are emerging about the company behind the titan submersible that imploded last year on its way to the titanic wreckage site. former oceangate operations director david lochridge told a coast guard hearing today that the company's co-founder, stockton rush -- who died in the accident -- put profits over safety. david lochridge: cost-cutting and bad engineering decisions. i'd say that's the two main things.

there was a big push to get this done and a lot of steps along the way were missed. amna: investigators recently released this photo showing remains of the titan lodged in the sea floor. the vessel imploded in june of last year, killing all five people on board and raising questions about the future of private undersea exploration. instagram is rolling out a new type of account for teenagers. as of today, new users under the age of 18 will be placed into private accounts automatically. this means teens will only receive messages from those they follow or are connected to. so-called "sensitive content," like people promoting cosmetic procedures, will be limited. and teens will be notified if they've been using the app for more than an hour. the new policy comes as instagram parent-company meta faces dozens of lawsuits that say its social media platforms can be addictive and hurt children's mental health. still to come on the news hour, hip hop mogul sean "diddy" combs is arraigned in federal court on sex trafficking charges. springfield, ohio remains on edge as donald trump and j.d. vance continue spreading lies

about haitian migrants. and world reknowned scientist and physician francis collins discusses his new book on science and faith. ♪ >> this is the pbs newshour, from the david and rubenstein studio at weta in washington and arizona state university. geoff: federal authorities are charging music mogul sean "diddy" combs with racketeering, violent abuse, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution in a sweeping federal indictment. the details of that indictment were revealed this morning after combs -- who was the subject of a sex trafficking investigation and a pair of federal raids -- was arrested in new york city last night. damian williams, the u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york, in a press conference today said combs used his extensive music and business empire as a criminal outfit.

mr. williams: and the indictment alleges that he maintained control over the victims in several ways, including by giving them drugs, by giving and threatening to take away financial support or housing, by promising them career opportunities by monitoring their whereabouts, and even by dictating their physical appearance. because of all of this, the indictment alleges that the victims did not believe they could refuse combs without risking their security or facing more abuse. geoff: combs pleaded not guilty in court today and has denied prior allegations. a federal judge ordered he be held without bail. for more on the charges, we are joined by sidney madden, reporter for npr music. so sidney, according to this 14-page indictment, authorities allege that sean combs turned his business empire into a criminal enterprise in which he and his associates engaged in sex trafficking, forced labor, and other crimes. walk us through what he stands accused of.

sidney: absolutely. so combs is being indicted on three counts racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, and interstate transportation for prostitution, which basically just means transporting commercial sex workers across state lines. and critical to this indictment are the allegations of use of -- geoff: and critical to this indictment are the allegations of use of force and coercion, using guns, in some cases plying people with drugs. help us understand that dynamic as laid out in this indictment. sidney: absolutely. well, there are a few key factors to this indictment to this suit that makes it stand far and beyond like a loan from all the others that he's been facing. the first is that all the other cases that he's been answering to in the last year, almost a year now, have been civil lawsuits and this is the first criminal proceeding, the criminal case, and the second is

that it is a rico case. it really shows how this was a whole orchestrated effort, how it took so much organized nature to necessitate the crimes that diddy is being accused of. as you said, he, according to the allegations in the indictment. he's really being accused of riling everyone around him, corralling them, and directing them to do all of his bidding to do things like recur procure drugs, procure commercial sex workers, taking sex workers over state lines, paying off certain people, setting up sets for these things, these sexual performance parties called freak offs and absolutely coercing many people around him to take part in it, and label it or turn a blind eye in the midst of him harming many victims over the years. geoff: well, remind us how we got to this point because this indictment paints sean combs as someone who is as dangerous as

he is depraved, and just a year ago, he was standing in the middle of times square getting the ceremonial key to the city from the mayor of new york, eric adams. sidney: yeah, this has been an absolute flip of the switch on sean diddy combs' career legacy, his entire persona and his level of prominence in, let's say, the court of public opinion because all of this really tipped off last november when diddy's then girlfriend cassie ventura released her civil suit. that really opened the floodgates and she detailed allegations that went back decades, similar to this 14-page indictment, which started, starts in about 2008, and one of the key accusations that cassie makes is that diddy forced her to take explicit drugs, take illicit drugs for years and participate in these freak offs and do everything in his power to manipulate her life and livelihood just for the sake of his own abuse of power over that time. so even though diddy has been fashioned as something of like hip-hop's great gatsby, someone who's made the career of so many greats in hip hop and r&b, he's

also been someone who's been positioned as a titan of industry and who will do anything to get the job done, but now with all of these lawsuits rolling out, people are starting to change their opinion on the dark underbelly and the abuse of power that it took to gain that reputation. geoff: well, how else do those litany of civil suits that he's facing, how do they mirror or overlap with this federal indictment? sidney: i think the -- the avalanche of a lot of the civil suits that really created a pathology of behavior or an image of diddy's behavior for decades. they really do run parallel to a lot of the claims made in this indictment. for example, back in march, two of diddy's residences were raided by homeland security, one mansion in l.a., one mansion in miami, and that was kind of the first clue that there would be some criminal proceedings taking place, off of these civil lawsuits. his lawyer at the time even said that the search warrants were

issued based off quote-unquote, "meritless claims." in civil suits and earlier today, u.s. attorney damian williams, he basically confirmed that the civil suits and this criminal suit are inextricably linked because within that raid, he detailed how there were firearms seized. there were electronics that have evidence of these freak offs, these -- these are explicit sex parties that he forced people to take part in, and there were also stockpiles of a lot of the other supplies. that were required for diddy to find pleasure in the sex parties and also used to blackmail his victims later. geoff: sidney madden with npr music. sidney, thanks so much. sidney: thank you.

amna: it's been a week since former president donald trump and his running mate j.d. vance threw an ugly spotlight on the small city of springfield, ohio by spreading unverified claims about haitian immigrants killing and eating people's pets. since then, the city has seen multiple bomb threats, school closures, and growing fear within the city's immigrant community. william brangham, who was in springfield earlier, just checked back in with residents and city officials, and he joins us now. so, william, these city officials now are dealing with a white hot national spotlight. what are they telling you about how they are handling things right now? william: they are having a hard time with it. they had over 33 different threats, city hall, universities, public schools, community centers. these are threats coming end via phone or email saying an attack will go off. those are under investigation

locally. the fbi is now helping out with all of those. no bombs have been found, no attacks have happened. ohio's governor mike dewine, who i know you are talking to later, says some of these threats are coming in from overseas, from some foreign nation. he did not specify which it was. but i city manager bryan heck tells us, they have to treat these as real. he said we do have a problem with a large population coming into the community, but the meeting pets is not a problem. bryan heck: i'm not going to lie. it's been difficult. it's been a challenge for us. you know, we were already facing the challenges, and we were facing them head on, as it related to the pace at which we've seen our population increase over the last couple of years. but now to be thrust into the national rhetoric of a highly heated presidential election cycle has just made it very

difficult. and, you know, it's really unfortunate that our residents have had to endure the impact that they have, especially based off of false claims and false narrative that we've seen here during this presidential election cycle. william: hate groups like the proud boys have been marching for the city. residents have found these flyers from a group affiliated with the ku klux klan, saying that haitian immigrants were disease rigid and filthy. partly because of these threats, the city canceled its culture fast, and there is an anti-immigrant march schedule for the end of the month. amna: as challenging as this may be, i imagine it is even worse from the haitians in springfield. what do you hear from them? william: a lot of fear, concern, confusion. we spoke to one man yesterday who is the father of two young

children. he and his wife say they live in constant fear. he said he has two full-time jobs. he's that i will only talk to you if you blur my faith and don't use my name, because i do not want any additional publicity. here is a little of what he said. >> it's not safe for haitians in springfield right now, because myself, today's my day off. usually i take my son and bike in in the park. and i cannot do that anymore because i'm scared. but when you see accusations like that, lies about the haitian community, it's pure hatred. so people actually hate us. so we -- we don't know who's going to hurt us, or, who's not going to hurt us. william: that is a very common sentiment. we spoke to another woman, philip meehan, who is a local -- philomene, who is a local pastor for she was followed by a man who followed her in her car after a church service. she said he would only leave

when she finally pulled up to a police car and started talking to the police. she said all the vitriol being directed at haitians, she argues, ignores the enormous company. -- contributions those haitians have made to the city of springfield. here is part of what she said. philomene: it's sad, especially it's all over the news. and i k myself is why? haitians help to build springfield. so why they don't see the good thing the haitian, the immigrant do. please stop hurting us. we not deserve that. amna: william, what about former president trump and senator vance. have they responded to this? william: donald trump was asked about this on saturday, the bomb threats that spread after the debate. he denied any knowledge of them. here is what he said. mr. trump: i don't know what happened with the bomb threats. i know that it's been taken over by illegal migrants, and that's a terrible thing that happened.

springfield was this beautiful town, and now they're going through hell. william: to reiterate, the haitians in springfield, the majority of them are not here illegally. they are protected by a protected status. jd vance said he had to create stories so that people would pay attention to the larger immigration debate. i put that assertion to city manager bryan heck, and here is what he said. bryan heck: any time that somebody wants to mislead or create stories to drum up attention, we know that's problematic. and we're seeing it played out and lived out in our community right now. how dangerous creating stories and spreading misinformation can be. william: vance also said on the campaign trail today that if these bomb threats are coming from another nation, he and donald trump are blameless for any of the attacks that have been coming. we need to reiterate that there

are no credible reports that haitians have been harming people's pets. we have asked of the advance campaign for any names of individuals who they say have contacted them. they have come up with nobody. we also spoke with a woman named casey rollins who works directly with the haitian community in springfield. and she said seeing her city in the middle of this political campaign has been so dispiriting. casey: i think everybody would agree, on this side of the situation anyway, that we are sort of being pawned, but if we could stop politicizing and criminalizing and dehumanizing the actual people and make this a people initiative. that's all really we want to be able to do is just care for the folks that are here, and we stay out of the political realm. william: it does not seem though that sprinkled will be out of the political realm anytime soon. amna: thank you for covering this as deeply and

empathetically. we appreciate that. william: thank you. amna: well, throughout all of the turmoil in springfield, ohio, governor mike dewine has called for calm, sent additional law enforcement resources, and condemned hate. he joins me now. governor dewine, welcome back to pbs newshour. thanks for being with us. gov. dewine: good to be with you. amna: senator vance quoted you at a rally today, saying you had said every single one of the bomb threats that springfield, ohio has seen was a hoax, and all of the bomb threats came from foreign countries. just for clarification, is that accurate? gov. dewine: some of the bomb threats came from foreign countries, and others came from in the united states, and all of them have been hoaxes, that is correct. none of them have panned out. we have obviously checked each one of them out. it has been very disruptive. schools have had to close. we put in highway patrol for the schools, so they could be open today.

i was glad to see a lot of students were back when we visited today. amna: so when you say hoaxes, there have not been bombed some there have only been threats. speaking to the springfield city manager, he says you have to respond to every one as if it is real, so if the intention is to sow fear, is it real? gov. dewine: fran and i went to school today, talking to students and teachers, and the teachers said the students are doing well, but yesterday, they had a tough day. if the kids are having a tough day, i imagine the parents are having a tough day. we've see in our university close. we've seen clark state community college have to close, so this has been very, very disruptive and very concerning. and, you know, our message has been, we are going to supply the help. our schools need to stay open. we want our parents to feel good

about sending their students to school. we put 36 members of the ohio state highwapatrol in the school. they go in and in the morning and the schools, make sure there's no bombs, nothing. we want to make sure we can assure the parents, you know, that it is safe, and if i were a parent them i would be concerned with these different threats and all this rancor and all this hate. amna: to that point, former president trump and senator vance have been leaning into dehumanizing and racist tropes about people in the who are legally in your state, saying they are stealing jobs and stealing homes and accusing them, without evidence, of barbaric behavior. is that language fueling these threats? gov. dewine: well, the immigration issue and the border issue obviously is fair game. we can certainly do better on the border than we are doing. but if you want to talk about these individuals, these

haitians who are in our cities, look, they are legal, they came here because they want to work. they have been hired by our local businessmen and women, and when we talk to them the other morning, they told us, these are great workers, they come to work, they want to work. in fact, they want to work overtime. they are being paid obviously with anybody else would be paid. so they have been a boost to the economy. springfield and ohio is really coming back. in springfield has seen a lot of the industry come in. there weren't enough workers, and when we were moving forward, there were not enough wkers, so we started filling them in with these haitians. so those comments about, you know, eating dogs and things are very hurtful. they are hurtful for the men and

women who work very hard. obviously they are very hurtful for their children. amna: they are hurtful, but are they also fueling these threats? gov. dewine: well, look, as the mayor said today, he said before this, we had haitians here for three years, four years, and we did not have any of these. now, look, the people who are making these threats are the bad people, they are the wrong people. we are having some come from overseas, some come from within the united states, from people who are sick or who thank for some reason this is funny. amna: governor, if i may come our time is limited. if these comments that are baseless that are being made by former president trump and senator vance, if they were not being made them the windows threats stop? gov. dewine: i cannot predict what would happen, but the statements are wrong. i said they are wrong. the mayor has said they are wrong, and frankly, they need to stop your amna: as you saw, my

colleague, william brangham, reported, there have been strains with the arrival of so many people in need. what kind of support can you offer from the state level, and what is your message to the members of the haitian community who live in your state and are now incredibly scared? gov. dewine: our message is, you are welcome. we welcome legal immigrants to come to ohio who want to work, who want to raise their families, want to be part of our community. i said that in my last inaugural speech, and i will repeat it again. this is the way we feel. my message to them is you are very welcome in the community. look, there's no doubt, and everybody will say this, that having 15,000 new people in a community over the last three or four years has stretched services, so we are spending time today, with my health director, focusing on how we can continue to give the city and the local community more health in regard to primary care.

we have a real strain on primary care. no one can say they have not been strained, but we are working hard. we are working hard every day, and the local officials are working hard, the mayor is working hard, the school superintendent, to make this work and to move forward. springville has got a great future. amna: that is ohio governor mike dewine joining us tonight. governor, thank you for your time. always good to see you. gov. dewine: thank you. ♪ geoff: mankind has mined the earth's surface for thousands of years, searching for the metals and minerals that have made it possible to build our cities, arm our militaries, and develop new technologies. now there's a furious race to find even more metal that will enable the world's energy

transition away from fossil fuels. and that furious race leads mining operators to hunt for deposits in increasingly remote locations. none more so than the floor of the distant bismarck sea, in papua new guinea, where one company this summer started to dig at what may become the world's first operational deep sea mining site. videographer edward kiernan and special correspondent willem marx travelled there to witness firsthand this extraordinary new industry -- difficult and complex, but also dangerous and controversial. willem: on the island of new ireland, getting out to sea can sometimes prove a struggle. a new jetty's construction, the completion of nearby buildings, remain projects for the future. but beneath these waves, there's a new kind of treasure rush for copper and gold that may one day soon help to fund them. this quiet pebbly beach on a remote pacific archipelago may not look like much, but just over the horizon, a group of sailors and engineers are

engaged in a series of scientific tests. and the wealthy investors behind them hope that one day this lonely beach might become a gateway to a multi-billion dollar industry. a smoke-belching catamaran approaches. our ride across the bismarck sea, named for a long-ago chancellor in germany, which once colonized this region. two hot, rolling hours later, in the distance our destination appears -- the mv coco. prow to stern it measures 270 feet, a triumph of maritime technology now 14,000 miles from home. several stories high, strong thrusters keep this ship entirely stationery for days at a time, 20 miles offshore, and on top of its target site, a mile beneath the surface. owned by a danish firm, o.c.t. offshore, it's been leased and refitted by a company called magellan, with more than a decade of deep sea expertise.

yet journalists have never before been allowed on board to document this kind of work deepsea mining. inside a darkened room, over 12-hour shifts, a pilot and co-pilot steer a remotely-operated vehicle, or rov, far below their cockpit seats. they're supervised by john matheson. we're talking about an rov that's around a mile deep right now? john: yeah. willem: i see 1500 meters there. john: the pressure that's under the weight of the water can be massive. willem: and so what's its job? john: it's basically the eyes, isn't it? so, we are also supplying the power. willem: an umbilical cord and a separate cable connect the surface vessel to both the rov and a 12-ton grabbing mechanism far below. the rov transmits power to the grab and guides its movements as it punches and claws through the seafloor's surface then scoops

up the resulting rocks. it deposits most of these spoils in a nearby stockpile, but twice a day hauls some up to the ship far above, with help from the crew, high up on the bridge, and an operator perched above the vast rear deck, where the enormous winch in perpetual motion is central to this ship's mission. underwater mapping experts monitor what's already been excavated and where, while also planning the next day's digging. these waters hardly seem to challenge the team from magellan, since it sometimes operates at four times these depths.

the relatively calm surface here allow this massive mining experiment to continue, almost uninterrupted, 24/7, for more than two months. how difficult is this kind of work compared to other stuff you've done in the past? john: operationally, it's as easy as we could probably get. but it takes a lot of strain on the rov, i would say. willem: overseeing this operation is james holt, one of two so-called offshore managers aboard the coco. james: we've been given permission to remove 180 tons for sampling process. so you can get a better picture of what's actually down there, what the deposit looks like, how it's placed around. and then hopefully, we'll move forward into the full-on mining permit, where we will be able to develop the whole site. this is a frontier industry and the team onboard the coco are essentially trying out this technique, hoping it will be financially rewarding and environmentally-friendly enough to justify a far larger effort. that would be the first of its kind on earth. as the grab's jaws unlock, out tumbles tons of rock, much of it visibly rich in copper.

this latest haul is photographed, then broken up with a power drill for easier packing and processing. seen in slow motion, this time-consuming process forms part of this feasibility study to determine the most efficient approach to mining such deep sea sites. but the concentration of copper found here will also help decide if such a high-cost operation could be high-reward too. each grab of this material they bring up from the ocean floor weighs several tons, and with the current price of copper and the concentration of the metal they're finding in this ore, you're looking at several thousand dollars right here. you multiply that dozens of times and dozens of grabs each day, and you're suddenly talking about real money. seeking to confirm the copper concentration is paul lahari, one of two onboard geologists from papua new guinea. he pulls out several samples of

the rocks to test inside his makeshift laboratory just yards away. he used a device, called an xrf, that can offer a rough estimate of the metal concentration or grade inside each chunk he's selected. willem: grab 350. that means you've done 350 of these already this trip? paul: that's correct, yes. so basically it's not the number of grabs that come on board, what happens is you also count the number of grabs from excavating site, to stockpile. willem: what are you expecting to find in this rock, and what do you hope to find? paul: well i'm hoping to find if i can get good grades of copper, and if the xrf can detect the gold as well , i think that would be pretty good. willem: the gold? paul: the gold and copper. every one of the 180 tons -- willem: every one of the 180 tons brought on board will eventually be tested back on shore, in australia, to get the most accurate data. another local scientist on board is focused not on the potential wealth this venture might create but the potential harm it may cause. each time the grabbing device heads to the surface with fresh material from the seabed floor,

nicole frani collects data on how this impacts the nearby ocean. she does this in part with a couple dozen tubes lowered hundreds of feet down on yet another winch, designed to sample water at a dozen different depths below the vessel. nicole: it triggers according to the pressures, and once it comes back up, it brings up water samples of each depth, 12 depths, goes back down, on deck, switch it off, put the caps on, then i collect the water quality meter from each of the sample bottles. willem: her major focus is monitoring the cloud of silt that's disturbed from the sea bed, known as the "plume." nicole: we need to know how widely it's spreading out and how it can affect the sea life below. if there's so much plume going around, or if it settles, it may harm the sea life, and the biodiversity underneath. willem: and this kind of data collection is key to the work of

this entire crew. james: the major part of our job here is accurate log keeping of where the samples are coming from, what depth the samples are coming from, how much energy was used to actually produce that sample. and that together with the environmental data, when we pull up the two environmental moorings that we've put in place, which are monitoring, you know, what's going on here all the time, then we'll be able to present a decent case for why we should be allowed to start commercial mining here. willem: that case must be made to papua new guinea's government and local communities. navigating those two challenges that we'll examine in our next reports could make this complex engineering effort onboard seem relatively straightforward. for the pbs newshour, i'm willem marx in the bismarck sea. ♪

geoff: for decades, dr. francis collins has been at the forefront of the world's most advanced biomedical research. he led the human genome project and then went on to become the longest-serving director of the national institutes of health, where he oversaw the country's response to the covid-19 pandemic. collins has since retired but is now drawing on his groundbreaking career to focus on what he sees as the core pillars of wisdom during a time of deep polarization. we sat down recently to discuss his new book, "the road to wisdom: on truth, science, faith, and trust." dr. francis collins, welcome back to the newshour. dr. collins: it's great to be here. and your beautiful space. geoff: thank you. you said your goal in writing this book was to turn the focus away from hyper partisan politics and back to what you see as the most important sources of wisdom -- truth, science, faith, and trust. how did you settle on those four as the most important sources of wisdom?

dr. collins: well, geoff, i spent a lot of time in the public eye, as nih director, and before that, the leader of the human genome project. and i have this vision of how science and truth can bring us into a place of less suffering and more flourishing. but i couldn't help but notice in the last few years that we seem to have kind of lost our way in some of these aspects. we don't seem to agree about what objective truth is all about or even whether there is such a thing. distrust of science has grown, even as science has been delivering some amazing things in the course of the last few years. faith, which ought to be a foundation we could anchor ourselves on at difficult times, seems to have also been readily pushed aside by politics, even in our churches. and a lot of the problem is we haven't really figured out, how do we decide who to trust? how do we anchor ourselves in sources that are actually reliable as opposed to whatever else is coming at us? you put those four together and you've got something pretty reliable, even a road to wisdom,

which is not just knowledge, it's also understanding. it's a moral framework. but our road to wisdom right now feels like it's got a whole lot of bumps. and i've hit a few myself. i want to be clear about this. i'm on this road, too, and occasionally i find myself in the ditch. but it feels like we really need to re anchor ourselves in those four things -- truth, science, faith, and trust -- so that we have a better chance to move our society forward. because i think we'd all agree, it's not looking so good right now, with all the polarization and the cynicism and the hyper partisanship. geoff: on the topic of faith. this is a central theme in the book, the compatibility, as you see it, of science and faith. you present a harmony between the two, which is interesting because the common perception is that faith and science are inherently incompatible. dr. collins: mm-hmm. that is a common perception. it's unfortunate that it is, and it's a fairly recent american

emphasis that was not always so. people doing science in the 16th and 17th century were almost all believers who saw science as a means of investigating god's creation and being able to be even more worshipful as a result. but somehow, in our culture, we have the idea that science and faith are in some sort of irreconcilable conflict. i did not grow up a person of faith. i became a christian at age 27, and people said, well, you're a scientist. your head's going to blow up, because these things are just not going to work out together. i have never encountered a situation where i see it that way. science is great at answering those "how?" questions, and if you want to know how something in nature works, you science. but if you want to know why, why am i here? why is there something instead of nothing? science doesn't have much to say there. faith has a lot to say. geoff: well, you write about your personal journey in the book. you say that you once thought atheism was the only rational option for a thinking person. what for you changed? dr. collins: i really had to look at what my basis was for

that claim, because i hadn't spent much time investigating it. and the more i began to look at how people have stepped into belief instead of atheism, i realized there's a lot of rational arguments there that i had ignored. the whole argument about the fact that there is something instead of nothing. there was the big bang out of nothingness. a universe was created, a universe that follows exquisite mathematical laws and has fine tuning in those laws to make it interesting for something to happen. you can't look at that and not marvel at it and not come to the conclusion. seems like there's an intelligence behind all of this. an amazing physicist, mathematician. but then i also had to struggle with the moral of good and evil. for an atheist who is really strict about their atheism, and that's a big problem. is that just something that we've been hoodwinked into by evolutionary constraints, that we think there is such a thing

as good and evil, but there really isn't? i don't know very many people who are comfortable with that. geoff: have your scientific and spiritual worldviews ever clashed? dr. collins: not in a way that i couldn't figure out how to resolve. there are certainly times where, on the surface of it, it seems like there is an issue here, and obviously the one that i think causes a lot of trouble for people of faith is origins. where do humans come from? as a scientist, especially one who studies dna, i can tell you that we humans are part of a remarkable tapestry of evolutionary connections between lots of other organisms. we're part of that. we're not separate. and yet, at e same time, genesis one and two talks about the special relationship that god has with his people, between adam and eve. so how do i put that together? i think it's entirely possible to do so if you don't insist upon an ultra-literal reading of certain scriptures like genesis one and two and go back to saint augustine in 400 a.d., and he would have warned us against such literal readings as not

being required by the words of the scripture and potentially putting you in a circumstance of making faith look silly by claiming that one interpretation has to be right and then finding out it doesn't fit. geoff: how has your faith influenced your approach to scientific inquiry? dr. collins: i think it has added a dimension to it. for me, science is and it's a detective story. it's trying to understand how things work. and you do experiments and sometimes they take you down a blind alley and you're like, darn, that wasn't it. and eventually you come up with a solution, and then it's something that's satisfying. it's beautiful. and if you're a scientist who's also a believer, you just got a glimpse of god's mind, in that regard. i think of the laboratory as a cathedral also, and science is kind of a form of worship, if you want to put it in in those terms. geoff: dr. francis collins, the book is "the road to wisdom, untruth, science, faith and trust." thanks so much for being here. we appreciate it. dr. collins: wonderful to be with you.

♪ geoff: and join us again here tomorrow night for the latest on the federal reserve's first expected interest rate cut in four years. and that's the news hour for tonight. i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i'm amna nawaz. on behalf of the entire newshour team, thank you for joining us. >> major funding for the pbs news hour has been provided by -- >> consumer cellular, how may i help you? a pocket dial. well, somebodies pocket, i thought i would let you know, with consumer cellular, you get nationwide coverage with no contract. that is kind of our thing. have a nice day. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.] ♪

>> moving our economy for 160 years, the engine that connects us. ♪ >> carnegie corporation of new york, working to reduce political polarization through education, democracy, and peace. more information at carnegie.org. and with the ongoing support of these institutions. ♪ this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by a contribution to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ >> this is pbs newshour west

from the david rubenstein studio and from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university.

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