john: tonight on pbs news weekend, a neconservative economic school of thought that will have an advocate in the new trump white house. then, what the new administration could mean for veterans and current members of the military. and a massachusetts studio that

showcases the work of artists with disabilities. >> people within the disability community want to see that. they want to see that people like them are creating art and that that art is valuable. >> major funding for pbs news weekend has been this is sam. how may i help you? this is a pocket dial. would let you know that with consumer cellular you get nationwide coverage with no contract. that's kind of our thing. have a nice day. >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the news hour.

this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. john: good evening. i'm john yang. there were more deadly israeli air strikes in lebanon and northern gaza today, as the world waits see what the close relationship between president-elect trump and prime minister benjamin netanyahu means for middle east peace. in lebanon, at least 23 people are dead, including children, after israel hit a village north of beirut, far from known hezbollah operations centers. later, israel's new defense minister declared that his country had defeated hezbollah. and in northern gaza, at least 17 people are dead following a strike in jabaliya.

health officials say a home sheltering displaced people was hit. the idf says it was targeting a hamas militant site. in a call two days after the election, president-elect trump urged russian president vladimir putin not to escalate the war in ukine. that's according to the washington post. today, russia and ukraine traded drone attacks. ukraine launched a major barrage on the moscow suburbs. and in the ukrainian city of odesa, officials said russia launched a record 145 drones. there was a magnitude 6.8 earthquake this morning in the caribbean sea off southern cuba. it comes just days after a late season hurricane pummeled the island, once again knocking its power grid offline. so far, no injuries have been reported. president-elect trump has been declared the winner in arizona, the final state to be called. he has more than 52% of the vote there. when president biden won it in 2020, it was the first time it was in the democratic column since 1996.

meanwhile, control of the house is still undecided. with 19 races still to be called, republicans are just five seats away from the 218 needed for a majority. and judith jamison has died. the internationally acclaimed dancer became artistic director of the alvin ailey dance company. jamison began studying ballet at a young age. she was spotted by the legendary agnes de mille in the early 1960's, a time when there were virtually no opportunities for black ballerinas. in 2010, jamison told pbs news hour she never let opportunity pass her by. >> when the curtain goes up, you go for it with excellence, with confidence. i mean, the curtain goes up on your life every day. you open your eyes, and your curtain is up. john: judith jamison was 81 years old. and from the ballet studio to the fasttrack, nascar great bobby allison has died.

he won the daytona 500 three times, was the 1983 nascar champion and is in the nascar hall of fame. bobby allison was 86 years old. still to come on pbs news weekend, what mr. trump's win could mean for military members and veterans. and a massachusetts studio that showcases artists with disabilities. >> this is pbs news weekend from the david m room it's nine studio from weta in washington, home of the pbs news hour, weeknights on pbs. john: vice president elect jd vance is an advocate of a new school of conservative economic thought. it challenges orthodox republican stands on taxes, regulation and free markets. and says that tax policy and other government intervention should be used to promote the social conservative goals of stronger families, communities and industry. in a new york times op-ed this weekend, a leading proponent of what's being called the "new right" advises president-elect trump not to "huddle with his supporters at mar-a-largo and

then see how much of their agenda he can advance" and should instead consider other ideas and "take the road less traveled." oren cass wrote that op-ed. he's founder and chief economist at a think tank called american compass and author of a book called "the once and future worker: a vision for the renewal of work in america." tuesday's exit polls shows there was broad unhappiness with the economy, the wayhings were going. two thirds of the voters described the economy as not so good or poor, and 70% of them voted for mr. trump. what do you think they were voting for? what changes do you think they were voting for? oren: well, i think they were voting against what we've done in this country for 20 or 25 years now, except during mr. trump's first term, which is basically just focus on this idea that all people want is cheap stuff. so the more we do globalization and move our jobs to china, the more we have an open border and

bring in low-wage migrant workers, the better off we will be and we will see high gdp numbers and the stock market will go up and everything will be great. and the reality is that for most people, that has been a catastrophic failure. and i think that explains a lot of trump's popularity, and i think a lot of his bestdeas on trade, on immigration, potentially on education and family policy are ones that could really push in a better direction. john: and as i understand it, you advocate using tax increases in some cases and using other government regulation to achieve those goals. so what is your general view of the role of government in the economy? oren: i should say i don't like tax increases, but i think we have to be realistic when we have a $2 trillion deficit that the solution is probably not going to be entirely spending cuts, and we also have to understand that the, the recent

rounds of tax cuts, they didn't havehe benefits that were promised, and the reason they didn't have those benefits is because our problem in our economy isn't that corporate profits are not high enough. our problem is that we don't have the right set of incentives. we don't have the things that earn the most money also being things that create good jobs , that build a stronger economy. and so if you have a situation where the most profitable activities are offshoring, or speculating on wall street, or, you know, building another app in silicon valley, there's no economic theory that says that's going to work for the american people. and so i think we do need to use tax policy. we do need to use regulation. to try to bring those interests back into alignment. john: let me ask you some specifics. president-elect trump through the campaign talked about cutting taxes practically wherever he went, exempting taxes on tip income, exempting social security payments, lowering the corporate tax rate. what do you think of those things?

oren: i think we have today in politics where both candidates go around talking about how they're just going to cut everybody's taxes, and of course everybody likes a tax cut, but i don't think those are the things that are going to turn our economy in a much better direction. obviously he emphasized tariffs a lot. obviously he emphasized enforcing our immigration laws and making sure that jobs are going to people who are here legally and american citizens. those kinds of policies are the ones that are actually going to, i think, create the right incentives so that if, if you want to make an investment in this country, if you want to make a profit, you have to figure out how to do it with american workers and by making american workers more productive. john: talk about american workers on immigration. what would a new right immigration policy look like? oren: well, step one is enforcement. we have to actually enforce the law. i think the lawlessness that we have seen is incredibly

unbecoming to a great nation, frankly, and that's something that unfortunately the biden and harris administration got entirely wrong and that trump did much better on in his first term and he's obviously committed to this time as well. once you actually have control of the situation, i think what we need to focus on is saying, look, immigration can be a wonderful thing for the nation, for the economy, but at the low end of the labor market where we already have seen, you know, a lot of people struggling to make ends meet to support families, bringing in lots more workers to compete in that low end of the market is just not a good idea. it's not good for the workers who are here. and so i think we should aim to have much lower levels of immigration. and if we want to have immigration, it should be immigration into the high end of the labor market, you know, folks who are going to be competing with those who are already paid very well and and are doing just fine in our economy. john: the vice president elect , as you reference, has been talking about these things for quite a while. now that he's vice president,

now that he's in the white house, what are your hopes may be and expectations of these views taking hold? oren: well, i think it's a wonderful step forward for the republican party and the conservative movement and ultimately for the united states to have somebody like him in that role. one of the best ways to measure how far the conservative movement has come is to look at the distance from mike pence to jd vance. that sort of captures what is going on in the party. and so to have somebody who i think really understands these issues so well, can articulate the principles behind them so well. and then as he's already shown in his short time in the senate, is very good at translating them into actual policy. it's not just rhetoric, it's actual policy that has the prospect to really benefit workers and their families, and so my hope is that he has a lo of influence in the

administration's priorities and that he has the opportunity to pursue some of these things that really matter a lot to him. john: oren cass of the american compass. thank you very much. oren: thank you for having me. john: on veterans day tomorrow, the nation will honor those who've served in america's armed forces. tonight, ali rogin looks at what a second trump administration could have in store for them and for current servicemembers. ali: the full extent of president trump's plans for the pentagon and department of veterans affairs is not entirely clear, but he's likely to reverse some of the biden administration's policies while reinstating others from his first term. leo shane iii is deputy editor of military times and has been covering it all. leo, thank you so much for being here. so remind us, what were president trump's priorities as it relates to veterans affairs during h first term? leo: yeah, he had two really

big, big ideas that he pushed there. the first one was the idea of expanding choice, expanding options for veterans and where they could go for medical care. this is the community care program where veterans can go to private sector doctors and get medical appointments, get things taken care of. the other one was the idea of accountability. that's -- this gets into the trump you're fired speeches there. he felt that there were too many va employees who were underperforming, passed some laws tt made it easier for them to be fired. since then, those laws have been challenged in court. they've been challenged by the unions. they haven't largely been successful. when he comes back in, if he's looking at broader federal employee programs of where he can cull people or find ways to make them more accountable, we may see a resurgence of that again as well. ali: on the issue of health care, do you anticipate that he's going to wk to expand access to those private health care options? leo: yeah, i think this is going to be a major thing that comes up again here because we've already seen it from some of the republicans on capitol hill. there is a real push on this issue of privatization versus choice versus community care. you know, the folks who support this say this is expanding choice. this is giving folks more options and it's giving veterans better health care outcome

because they can go see whoever they want. they can see the doctor down the street anytime they want if v.a. will pay for it. the critics say this is tsourcing what va's responsibility should be. it's their job to take care of veterans. it's their job to make sure they're recognizing problems like ptsd, burn pit illnesses. and those are things that specialized va doctors are going to do a better job than a community doctor might be able to do. so they've said that pushing too much of that into the community is really just funneling federal money to private sector doctors. ali: how widely used is that program now? if it does expand, are more veterans likely to take advantage of it? leo: yeah, it's a pretty big program right now. in 2023, it was 40% of all va medical appointments were sent out into the community. so a lot of veterans are comfortable with this. and v.a. has said it is a key point. you know, democratic administrations say this is a key point we want to keep in terms of making sure that veterans can go to those doctors for routine appointments. what they don't want is for veterans to geall of their care outside of va. they really want to be able to keep tabs on them, not in a big

brother sort of way, but to be able to say, hey, you know what? -- you know, what kind of problems are you having? here's the other resources you have. a community care doctor might not know about the benefits that you're eligible for. ali: right. the issue of veterans disability ratings, this is the system by which it's determined how much disability compensation veterans receive. and the heritage foundation, the conservative think tank which put out the project 2025 blueprint, which of course the trump campaign distanced itself from, has recommended reassessing those ratings. what might that look like? leo: it's hard to say. this is not a popular idea with a lot of the lawmakers, conservative lawmakers on capitol hill. this is a real third rail in the veterans community, because if you're talking about clawing back any money from disabled veterans, not a very popular position. but there has been a lot of talk about has the disability system just become too generous? this a situation where veterans don't really have to show that it's service connected, that they're getting higher disability levels and higher payouts based on injuries that maybe aren't as debilitating as what we've seen in the past. so there is some chatter about

this. i don't anticipate this really getting too far again because of the political touchiness of the whole thing. i think the bigger switch won't be policy. i think it will be sort of attitude towards that and maybe just not the encouragement that we've seen or even discouragement to veterans to go out and get those disability benefits. ali: the trump campaign also talks a lot about issues they characterize as woke military policies, including supporting members of the military who seek abortions, allowing transgender members to serve openly. how might a trump administration 2.0 address some of these issues ? leo: yeah, i thi the abortion issue is going to be a big one for both the dod and the va, and they both have fairly generous policies that have come under the biden administration. for the defense department, they allow travel stipends and time off for service members who need to travel across state lines to get abortion services. for va, they're actually offering abortions at va facilities, some in states where it is outlawed. and they have said it's on

federal land, we are not held responsible to state laws. i can't imagine the trump administration or anybody that he puts in either of the secretary jobs will support that. the transgender issue we will have to see. trump, while he was in office the first time, banned the recruiting and the enlisting of transgender individuals into the military. didn't kick out folks who were in the ranks already but would not let new ones join. would not be a surprise to see him put that back in place. conservatives for a while have complained about va efforts to move towards providing gender confirmation surgeries, gender reassignment surgeries. so i think those folks are going to see, if not a reduction in the services they get, at least no improvements in the next four years. ali: the trump administration also, the first one, prioritized prevention of veteran suicides. what do you anticipate is going to happen in the second term? leo: yeah, and this has been one of the bipartisan issues across administrations. everyone has tried to help with this issue of veterans suicide. we're still losing about 17 veterans a day, according to the

latest statistics released by va. i think this will still be a top clinical priority for a trump administration. but i do think that the approach will be different. with democrats, it's been very focused on programs and approaches that have real empirical evidence behind them, really show reductions in suicide or improvements in mental health. we've heard a lot from conservatives on capitol hill that say they feel like that's overly restrictive and they want to reach out to more faith-based groups, more community-based groups, basically give grants to folks that might not have the scientific proof that they're working, buthey feel like they're working. ali: leo shane roman numeral, deputy editor of the military times, thanks so much for coming in and breaking this down for us. leo: thank you. john: as major american museums re-examine their collections to ensure diversity and inclusion, there's a growing realization that they need more art by people with disabilities. special correspondent jared

bowen of gbh in boston takes us to a massachusetts organization that's been celebrating that work for half a century. jared: around 8:30 every weekday morning, artists begin arriving at vinfen's gateway arts in brookline, massachusetts. heading upstairs to studios where they paint, leave textiles, or mold ceramics. this is their job. >> every day i make all kinds of artwork includinthis embroidery of my house i used to live in. jared: mimi clark has worked at gateway arts for six years. a ready supply of colorful threads at her fingertips, she's honed her skills in both fiber arts and puppetry, where she's developed a series called the bernie and tulip monster show. >> it makes me feel so proud. and i am inspired, as my two favorite puppeteers jim henson and mr. rogers. jared: one of the nation's oldest institutions of its kind, vinfen's gateway arts recently

celebrated its 50th anniversary. it was founded in the 1970s when state-run institutions for people with disabilities were shuttered. gateway opened to fill the vacuum, creating a space for people to either grow their artistic talent or tap into latent skills they didn't even know they had. >> we have people with down syndrome, people on the spectrum. we have a head injury, people who are blind, legally blind, legally deaf. we have people with psychiatric diagnosis. jared: who, when they begin work at gateway, collaborate with facilitators who coach, coax and encourage their artistic endeavors. bil thibodeau is the artistic director. >> these people wouldn't have as much chance to get out into the art world on their own. it's hard enough for people graduating from art school to do that as well. so if we can get them a foot in

the door and help them as much as we can to be part of the art world, i believe that's important to us and them, especially them. >> kinof an old town. it's like it's supposed to be a germanic village. jared: painter chuck johnston is one of gateway's 98 artists. once finished in the studio, their work may be shown downstairs in the organization's gallery, offered for sale in its shop, or even published. johnston's latest volume is his take on television's the golden girls. >> it's like to put a spin on making it look more animated. yeah, the golden girls, like, i mean i did that one, but as soon as i finished that, it's like man, i just wish betty white could have had that one. jared: historically, one place work by artists like johnston and clark has been omitted is muses. recently though, some of the country's largest have begun a course correction. at boston's museum of fine arts it's begun with tours highlighting the work of

disabled artists in its collection, both contemporary and well-known figures whose disabilities are often only a footnote in their biographies. like frida kahlo, whose late career paintings were made while she was confined to her bed. and edward manet, who had a nerve disorder that often left him unable to walk or stand upright. >> people within the disability community want to see that. they want to see that people like them are creating art and that that art is valuable. jared: jessica doonan is the manager of accessibility at the museum of fine arts, boston. she says it's imperative that museums become more expansive in collecting contemporary artists with disabilities as well. last october, san francisco's museum of modern art acquired some 150 works of art by artists with developmental disabilities from three west coast organizations with missions like gateway's. if their art is absent from museum walls, says doonan, so are their stories. >> art is such a universal language. it is able to convey things that

so few words are able to do. and particularly for people with disabilities, for whom communicating with the rest of the world is particularly challenging, the opportunity to create art and communicate in that manner is so critical. jared: and helps break down notions that artist with disabilities somehow don't merit a place on gallery walls. >> we've had an exhibition once here where there were our artists alongside some mainstream boston artists in one exhibition. and people were walking around saying, well, who did this one? and we say, it doesn't matter. we would tell them, it doesn't matter, it's art. jared: for pbs news weekend, i'm jared bowen in brookline, massachusetts. ♪

john: finally tonight, if you're in the market for some rare presidential memorabilia, and you've got deep pockets, have we got an auction for you. this is one of the rarest american flags in existence. >> april 14, 1865. john: and it's about to go on the auction block. >> certainly among the marquee optionis this really quite significant flag that draped the coffin of president lincoln following his tragic assassination, as the coffin was loaded onto a train in washington and then embarked on a historic run from washington to philadelphia to new york city, on to other stops as it made its way to springfield, illinois, where the president was buried. john: april 14, 1865. the civil war had ended just days before. a war-weary abraham lincoln went to ford's theater in washington to see a popular comedy of the

day, "our american cousin." as the audience reacted to one of the play's biggest laugh lines, aor john wilkes booth entered the presidential box and shot lincoln in the head. items related to lincoln's assassination are so rare, they tend to sell for high prices. a wanted poster for booth sold for more than $160,000. a pair of tickets for that performance, over $260,000. even scraps of bloody fabric from the dress worn by an actress in the cast that night have commaed top dollar. >> when you have something that's completely unique in, in all the world, how do you guess what it may be worth? john: top estimated price -- $1.2 million. the guernsey's auction in new york later this month includes other presidential artifacts, some never before seen in public. there's a lock of george washington's hair. >> it was first given to a family friend of the washingtons, and then their descendants kept a record of it

very religiously through the generations. john: and portraits of franklin and eleanor roosevelt, and jackie kennedy on her wedding day. john: and that is pbs news weekend for this sunday. i'm john yang. for all of my colleagues, thanks for joining us. and to all those who've worn the nation to a vs uniform, thanks for your service. have a good week. >> major funding for pbs news weekend has been provided by -- and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by

contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

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