AMNA NAWAZ: Good evening.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

Geoff Bennett is away.

On the "NewsHour" tonight: A suspect is in custody after two people are killed and six others injured during a shooting on the campus of Florida State University.

The president of the Chicago Federal Reserve on the Trump administration's trade wars and their economic impact.

We speak to a U.S. senator who was denied access to a man deported from his state to El Salvador, while, in Los Angeles, federal immigration agents attempt to enter schools, and the head of that school system speaks out.

ALBERTO CARVALHO, Superintendent, Los Angeles Unified School District: The Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution of our nation extends as a right free public education to every kid regardless of immigration status.

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

We begin tonight with another school shooting in America, this time on the campus of Florida State University in Tallahassee.

Law enforcement officials confirmed two people have been killed, with six more injured.

According to officials, the suspect in custody is a 20-year-old student at the university and the son of a deputy sheriff.

William Brangham has the latest.

WALT MCNEIL, Leon County, Florida, Sheriff: This is obviously a heinous crime.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: This afternoon police said they're trying to piece together why and how the son of a sheriff deputy opened fire at Florida State University.

WALT MCNEIL: Unfortunately, her son had access to one of her weapons, and that was one of the weapons that was found at the scene.

And we will continue that investigation into how that weapon was used.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Hours earlier, authorities rushing towards the scene, students rushing away from the student union center after reports of gunfire just before noon today.

WOMAN: Oh, my gosh.

JOSHUA SIRMANS, Florida State University Student: I'm just sitting down doing my work, and the alarm goes off.

At first, I'm thinking it's just a fire alarm.

It sounds a little different, though, and I'm just hearing, active shooter.

And you kind of just like panic a little bit in the moment, just like, is that real?

You look down your phone, look at the news, and start to process it.

And, damn, people just got shot a couple feet away from you.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Students on campus were told to shelter in place as law enforcement worked to contain the scene.

Students described a sense of terror as the chaos unfolded.

ANNAKA BANASIAK, Florida State University Student: I see these group of girls crying really upset walking back from the student union, told me they heard gunshots.

And they just ran scared for their lives, honestly.

It's really scary.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: In Washington this afternoon, President Trump told reporters that he'd been briefed on the situation.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: It's an active shooter.

Fully briefed as to where we are right now.

It's a shame.

It's a horrible thing.

Horrible that things like this take place.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: For the FSU community, today's shooting brought back awful memories.

In 2014, three people were shot outside the school library.

The university has canceled classes for its more than 40,000 students through the rest of the week and all athletic events through the weekend.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm William Brangham.

AMNA NAWAZ: President Donald Trump today lashed out at Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, pushing for interest rate cuts and saying -- quote - - "Powell's termination cannot come fast enough."

That comes as the Trump administration's tariffs continue to cause global fallout and uncertainty, and Wall Street is reacting.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost more than 500 points today in another big sell-off.

Tech stocks held firmer, with the Nasdaq only falling minimally, and the S&P 500 gained, but also minimally.

Meanwhile, the European Central Bank cut its key interest rate by a quarter-point amid what its president called exceptional uncertainty, all of this as the International Monetary Fund warns, it expects the world's economy to grow slower this year with higher inflation than previously predicted.

For a closer look at all of this now, I'm joined by Austan Goolsbee, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

Welcome back to the "News Hour."

Thanks for being with us.

AUSTAN GOOLSBEE, President, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago: Thank you for having me, Amna.

AMNA NAWAZ: So I want to begin with the latest escalation in what's been President Trump's long-running attacks on Chair Powell.

Here is part of what the president had to say today.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: I don't think he's doing the job.

He's too late, always too late, a little slow, and I'm not happy with him.

I let him know it, and if I want him out, he will be out of there real fast, believe me.

AMNA NAWAZ: So the question is, can the president fire the Federal Reserve chair if he wants to, and are you worried that he will try?

AUSTAN GOOLSBEE: Well, I mean, one of the oldest rules in the book is don't ask legal advice from a guy with an econ Ph.D.

So I don't know the answer to any of that.

What I will say, I, like all economists, virtually unanimous, believe in the importance of monetary independence and that the Fed, by law, has a dual job, maximize employment, stabilize prices, and that's the thing that guides what the Fed's decisions are going to be.

It's got to be based on economic conditions.

We're in an almost unprecedented environment where we're coming into this year and the Q1 of this year, the hard data, quite strong,and now we have added a lot of dirt in the air and I'm out every week talking to businesses here in the Seventh District out in the Midwest, and there's a lot of anxiety that we're turning the page back potentially with the tariffs to something like 2021 and 2022, when inflation was raging out of control, higher than where we wanted it.

And they don't -- they didn't like that movie when they saw it the first time.

They don't -- definitely don't want to go see that movie again.

So I'm just hoping that the conditions warrant whatever changes we need to make and that, if we can get past this period of uncertainty, I still am hopeful that those solid conditions in the hard data can continue, inflation head back to 2 percent, and we maintain solid growth with full employment.

AMNA NAWAZ: Well, based on where we are right now, because, obviously, Chair Powell referenced this just yesterday, he warned about what he called a challenging scenario ahead as a result of these tariffs.

What exactly is he warning about that could be ahead for the U.S. economy if these tariffs continue where they are and if the 90-day pause on those broader tariffs ends?

AUSTAN GOOLSBEE: Well, I will say the rules forbid me to speak for anyone else on the FOMC besides myself.

I have been saying for months, highlighting, because it was expressed to me by the business leaders in the auto industry and in others, that if tariffs are too large, they will move you in the direction deteriorating both sides of the Fed's mandate, which is to say growth slowing, employment getting worse, while prices are going up.

And that's a very difficult environment because there's not an automatic playbook of what is the Central Bank supposed to do if you're experiencing a stagflationary direction shock that makes both sides worse at the same time.

AMNA NAWAZ: Well, as you have probably also seen, the president's -- a lot of the president's anger towards Mr. Powell centers on this belief that he thinks the Fed isn't doing enough to fortify the economy as the effects of these tariffs take hold.

He points to the European Central Bank's actions.

They have steadily been cutting rates.

So the question is, would cutting rates here in the U.S. help to protect the U.S. economy if there is to be slower economic growth?

AUSTAN GOOLSBEE: Well, as I say, I have been an advocate for some time of the view that it looks like we're at full employment, to me, inflation heading back to our 2 percent goal.

And in an environment like that, it would make sense over the next 12 to 18 months for rates to come down.

What's thrown a big question mark in this is, that might be true for -- if you're just looking at the growth side of the Fed's mandate.

But would the Fed be in the position to be cutting rates if inflation starts rising again significantly?

That's the concern that's expressed by businesspeople.

In the case of Europe, just be a little careful.

They also base their decisions on what the economic conditions are.

Growth has been a lot slower in Europe, as you know.

And there are multiple European countries that are probably already in recession.

So that's not necessarily a perfect indicator for what should happen in the U.S. AMNA NAWAZ: We know that we're about two weeks into this 90-day pause on those broader higher tariffs the Trump administration posed.

If they move forward with these bilateral deals, country-by-country basis, does that take some of the uncertainty out of the forecast?

Does that stabilize things to some degree?

AUSTAN GOOLSBEE: Maybe.

As I say, if you go out and talk to businesspeople on the ground, they're expressing considerable uncertainty and just hesitation to do anything until we have resolved this, as we have seen major Fortune 500 companies putting out earnings guidance with different scenarios, not even just one guidance.

If the tariffs go up, here's what we think will happen.

If the tariffs do not go up, we think something totally different.

In an environment like that, we have just got to get that dust out of the air before it's clear what the path is.

AMNA NAWAZ: Austan Goolsbee, in the 30 seconds I have left, given where we are right now, if nothing changes, does the potential for a recession here in the U.S., in your mind, go up?

AUSTAN GOOLSBEE: There's no doubt that potential for recession, if you just look at private sector forecasters, almost everybody has raised their possibility of recession, the probability that it would happen.

We just don't know how big are the tariffs going to be, how much are they going to increase costs and what will be the retaliatory moves from other countries and how much will that affect us?

So, there's just a lot that we got to keep our eye on.

And, hopefully, we can get back to that solid hard data that we're coming into this period based on.

AMNA NAWAZ: The head of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Austan Goolsbee, joining us.

Thank you for your time.

Good to speak with you.

AUSTAN GOOLSBEE: Thank you.

Great to see you again, Amna.

AMNA NAWAZ: The day's other headlines start in Paris, where delegations from Ukraine and other European countries are trying to push the U.S. to take a tougher stance with Russia.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff sat alongside Ukrainian officials and other European diplomats for the first time.

The parties all spoke as concerns grow about the Trump administration's recent overtures to Moscow.

In Kyiv today, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Mr. Witkoff in particular of -- quote - - "spreading Russian narratives."

Back in Paris, after hours of meetings, French President Emmanuel Macron sought to keep all the parties together.

EMMANUEL MACRON, French President: I see this as a very important occasion to have convergence with our Ukrainian friends and amongst the Europeans, alongside with you, because I think everybody wants to get peace, for sure, and a robust and sustainable peace.

AMNA NAWAZ: All of this unfolded as a massive Russian drone attack hit the Ukrainian city of Dnipro overnight.

Officials there say three people were killed, including a child.

On a visit to Cambodia today, Chinese President Xi Jinping said that country should resist protectionism, in apparent slight against U.S. tariffs.

Cambodia is the last stop on Xi's weeklong tour of Southeast Asia, where he sought to present China as a more stable trading partner than the United States.

Cambodia is a major exporter of clothing to the U.S. and was subject to an import tax of 49 percent before Trump paused many tariffs until July.

For the second time in a year, a federal judge has found search giant Google broke the law to maintain a monopoly online.

This latest antitrust case said that Alphabet, Google's parent company, held an illegal amount of influence over online ad technology.

That follows a separate judge's ruling in August that the company has illegal dominance in online search.

Both judges could force major changes to Google's business.

Prosecutors argue Alphabet should sell its Google ad manager.

The company will be back in court next week about the potential sale of its Chrome browser, among other changes.

And are we alone in the universe?

Astronomers say they have found evidence of a chemical on a far away planet that could be the strongest sign yet of life beyond our solar system.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge analyzed data from the James Webb Space Telescope, peering many trillions of miles away from earth toward a planet called K2-18b.

There, they say there are signs of atmospheric compounds that are only produced on Earth by living organisms like phytoplankton.

It also potentially suggests a global ocean covered surface, much like our planet.

Still, many scientists say this is not nearly enough to prove the existence of life elsewhere.

More work will be needed to confirm the findings.

Still to come on the "News Hour": Israel deepens its assault on Gaza, blocking aid and conducting deadly strikes across the region; we examine meme coins, the cryptocurrency that can start as a joke, but often end up as a scam; and an exhibition showcases and artists' illustrations that bring buildings to life.

The lead Hamas negotiator for cease-fire talks late today offered a deal to swap all hostages held in Gaza for an agreed-upon number of Palestinians jailed in Israel as part of a larger agreement to end the war.

The offer came after Hamas reportedly rejected the latest Israeli proposal for an exchange and cease-fire.

In the meantime, Israeli airstrikes overnight killed at least 27 Palestinians, including 15 children, as the lack of aid into the enclave threatens hundreds of thousands.

Nick Schifrin reports.

And a warning: Images in this story are disturbing.

NICK SCHIFRIN: In Gaza, war spares no one.

Too young to comprehend yet forced to suffer its cruelty, the Abu Amsha brothers were injured in last week's strike on Gaza City's Shujaiya neighborhood.

Israel said the target was a senior Hamas commander.

Palestinian officials say 30 people died, including eight children, many from the Abu Amsha family.

WOMAN (through interpreter): I got a call that my daughter-in-law's home was hit.

Why?

Everyone in that building was women and children, all women and children.

I came out here to find them all martyred.

And that's not including those that are still under the rubble.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Amidst that rubble, rescue workers dig for survivors, some pinned down by thousands of pounds of collapsed concrete, but mostly the victims were buried in their homes.

In Central Gaza on Sunday, Ibrahim Abu Muhadi lost six sons.

The family says an Israeli airstrike hit their car.

Israel says it targeted a Hamas commander.

IBRAHIM ABU MUHADI, Father of Children Killed in Strike (through interpreter): They were civilians.

A 10-year-old boy went out to help his brothers, so that they could get food to eat in the shadow of this siege.

For what sin were they killed?

NICK SCHIFRIN: And once again, even the homes for healing have become targets, including this makeshift field hospital struck Tuesday in the so-called safer humanitarian zone of Al-Mawasi.

And last weekend, the target was Gaza City's last fully functional hospital bombed in an Israeli airstrike, survivors rushed out by loved ones.

And rescue workers searched the devastation by flashlight.

Israel said Hamas used the hospital as a command-and-control center.

By dawn, the destruction on full display.

Somewhere in here among the patients were three daughters of Khalil Masoud Mostafa Bakr.

KHALIL MASOUD MOSTAFA BAKR, Survivor, Baptist Hospital Strikes (through interpreter): We got a warning to evacuate the hospital.

We started running to the front of this area, and they started hitting the hospital.

Imminent death makes you lose your mind.

My daughter, who lost her leg, spends all day yelling.

My other daughter had surgery today for her arm.

What's the future?

Where should I take them?

NICK SCHIFRIN: There are few options.

And since the war restarted, over 500,000 have been again displaced.

Israel says its strategy has been not only military maneuvers, but seizing and holding territory.

Israel never left the Philadelphi Corridor along the Egypt border, or a buffer zone around the Strip.

Since the war restarted, it expanded that buffer zone from hundreds of feet to nearly a mile, recaptured the Netzarim Corridor that bisects Gaza with an 18-mile security zone around it.

Israel's also created what it calls the Morag Corridor, named after an ancient Jewish settlement, and connected it to a security zone that includes all of Rafah.

Israel's believed to control nearly one-third of Gaza.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, Israeli Prime Minister (through interpreter): Last night in the Gaza Strip, we switched gears.

The IDF is seizing territory, striking the terrorists and destroying the infrastructure, because we are now dividing the Strip and increasing the pressure step by step so that they will give us our hostages.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Hamas is still holding 59 hostages, two dozen or so believed to be alive.

Israel and the U.S. rewrote a January cease-fire deal and want Hamas to release all of the hostages now.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: Yes, we're trying to get the hostages out, we got quite a few of them out, but it's a long process.

It shouldn't be that long.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Alongside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week, President Trump reiterated his desire for U.S. control of Gaza.

DONALD TRUMP: Having a peace force like the United States there controlling and owning the Gaza Strip would be a good thing.

And if you take the people, the Palestinians, and move them around to different countries, and you have plenty of countries that will do that, and you really have a freedom zone, a zone where people aren't going to be killed every day.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Israel's strategy has also included stopping all aid from entering Gaza for more than six weeks.

It's left many Gazans hungry and desperate and spiked prices of food in the market so it's unaffordable to most families, who are increasingly restricted to cooking with canned beans and vegetables.

The U.N. warns, children and infants are at great risk and face growing malnutrition.

And because of a lack of clean water, they also face disease.

Wafaa Ghaban is a displaced mother of five sheltering in a Gaza City tent camp whose toddler fell ill. WAFAA GHABAN, Displaced Gazan (through interpreter): My son is sick from the environment and the pollution we have been living in.

He had diarrhea and a fever all night.

We want a better life than this.

Our kids want to live.

Their childhoods have been taken from them.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Twenty-eight-year-old Amani Ma'Rouf is a pregnant mother of three.

She comes here, a trash-riddled camp, to try and find water and food.

She and her children don't even have a tent to sleep in.

AMANI MA'ROUF, Displaced Gazan (through interpreter): There are flies and mice and creatures, and the kids can't fall asleep.

I'm in my eighth month of pregnancy, and I have three children, and we're not able to properly eat or drink.

The simplest thing we need is food, and I can't guarantee that for my children.

We're not even living in a tent, but besides a tent on the street near garbage.

NICK SCHIFRIN: U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called conditions in Gaza unsustainable.

ANTONIO GUTERRES, United Nations Secretary-General: As aid has dried up, the floodgates of horror have reopened.

Gaza is a killing field, and civilians are in an endless death slope.

NICK SCHIFRIN: But Israel says Hamas has been stealing the aid, and an Israeli official tells PBS News' cutting aid off restricts Hamas' ability to raise funds and pay its fighters.

As Defense Minister Israel Katz wrote yesterday: "Stopping humanitarian aid undermines Hamas' control over the population, and we will create a new infrastructure for distribution of aid through civilian companies in the future."

Creating an alternative to Hamas is also the goal of new unprecedented anti-Hamas protests.

They began last month and restarted this week.

A man we will call Said is an anti-Hamas protester who asks we conceal his identity.

"SAID," Anti-Hamas Protester (through interpreter): A lot of people who believed in Hamas finally realized that it's not a resistance group that aims to protect or bring any rights to the Palestinian people and that all it cares about is itself, its own fate, and the future of the group, regardless of how many civilian lives are being lost for no reason in this war.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Members of Hamas have killed their critics.

Why are you, why are so many others right now willing to take that risk and criticize Hamas publicly?

"SAID" (through interpreter): Because this stems from a moral and humanitarian duty for our people.

We have the responsibility to speak up.

It is illogical and not acceptable to remain silent out of fear of Hamas' terrorism.

If we all remain silent today, we are helping the propaganda promoted by the Israeli right-wing that says that all Gazans are Hamas.

Therefore, we speak.

We shout.

We ask all Gazans to get out and say we are not Hamas.

Hamas is a terrorist organization.

NICK SCHIFRIN: But there's no sign Hamas is listening to its Palestinian critics.

And Israel vows to continue fighting, so the deprivation, the damage, and the suffering will go on.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Nick Schifrin.

AMNA NAWAZ: A federal appeals court offered a scathing rebuke today of the Trump administration's handling of the deportation of a Maryland resident to a mega-prison in El Salvador.

The unanimous three-judge panel called the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia -- quote -- "shocking," writing -- quote -- "The government is asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process that is the foundation of our constitutional order."

The court also upheld a lower court's order that Trump officials can be called to testify in the case.

Maryland Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen traveled to El Salvador to meet with government officials and push for the release of Mr. Abrego Garcia, but he was denied access to the prison.

He joins me now from El Salvador.

Senator, welcome back to the "News Hour."

Thanks for joining us.

SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D-MD): It's good to be with you.

AMNA NAWAZ: So you went there with the intention of meeting with Mr. Abrego Garcia.

What were you told about why you would not be able to do so?

SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN: Well, you're right.

I went with the intention of two issues.

One was to ask for him to release him, but the other was to see him.

And, today, I traveled to CECOT, which is the notorious prison where he's been stashed, and about three kilometers out I was stopped by soldiers, who prevented me from going any further and said they'd been ordered to not allow me to go visit with him.

AMNA NAWAZ: And have you been able to get any kind of update on Mr. Garcia's condition or whether he's had access to lawyers since he's been deported, anything like that?

SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN: I have not.

And that is one of the big, big issues here, because he's not had any ability to connect with his family, with his wife, with his mom, or with his lawyers.

There's been absolutely zero communication.

I asked the American Embassy here whether they'd made inquiries on his behalf, and they said that they had not been giving any such direction from the Trump administration to inquire about his well-being.

AMNA NAWAZ: So we saw the Salvadoran president, Nayib Bukele, in the White House meeting with President Trump basically saying he's not going to return Mr. Garcia to the U.S. You said that you met with the Salvadoran vice president, Felix Ulloa, who said that their government is unable to release Mr. Garcia.

What reasons did he give you?

What did you take away from your meeting with him about why the Salvadoran government is taking this stance?

SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN: Well, I told the vice president that right now El Salvador was complicit in this illegal abduction and stashing of Mr. Abrego Garcia in this prison in El Salvador, and that they should release him.

The response was what you heard from the president of El Salvador in the Oval Office, which is they can't smuggle Abrego Garcia into the United States.

And I said, well, wait a minute, we're not asking you to smuggle him back in the United States.

We're simply asking you as a sovereign country to open the gates and let him go.

After all, Attorney General Pam Bondi said at one point that they would send an airplane, but that they needed -- they, the administration, needed El Salvador to release him.

So that's why I asked the vice president simply to release him from the prison.

He's illegally detained there, and they should not be complicit in this.

AMNA NAWAZ: So I guess the real question here, Senator, is, if the Salvadorans won't release him and the U.S. government does not seem to be working to release him or bring him back, what more can be done?

What else can you do from your position?

SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN: Well, I think more pressure and more of a spotlight can have an impact over time, because I think it's unsustainable for both the Trump administration to continue to thumb its nose at the U.S. courts, especially in light of the Fourth Circuit opinion upholding the district judge, and of course, the 9-0 decision by the Supreme Court.

It is unsustainable, I think, for El Salvador to say, look, we don't know anything about why we're holding him, other than the fact that the United States government is paying us up to $15 million to hold him and others.

And I think, over time, that that position will be unsustainable.

I will say, back at home, I'm certainly not going to support any taxpayer dollars going to El Salvador so that they can continue to illegally detain a resident of Maryland.

AMNA NAWAZ: As you likely know, Senator, also back here at home, after the Trump administration admitted that they had mistakenly deported Mr. Garcia, this week, they have been releasing a lot of information about the background of his case, including this message from Homeland Security.

It was titled: "The real story.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia is an MS-13 gang member with a history of violence."

They lay out details of his 2019 arrest.

They share excerpts of documents that they say prove his gang connection.

They argue at the end of that he belongs -- quote -- "behind bars and off American soil."

What's your response to that?

SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN: My response to that is that the place to submit that evidence is the actual court, the federal court, not in the court of public opinion, because when they went before the federal district court judge, the judge said that they did not provide ample evidence to make their MS-13 claim.

So go into court.

That's the proper forum for bringing these claims, for bringing these charges, but they didn't do that.

Instead, they abducted him and sent him to this prison in El Salvador.

Look, I'm not vouching for any kind of particular facts.

That's up for the court to decide.

What I'm doing for - - doing is vouching for due process, which is what the Fourth Circuit just said the Trump administration is violating in such an extraordinary way, because, if we allow the Trump administration to violate due process rights in this case, you can be sure it will not be the last.

AMNA NAWAZ: Senator, you have probably also seen this week the president has floated the idea of deporting American citizens to other nations and other prisons.

He said he's looking into it.

It's something that he wants to do.

And in the court order today, this issue was addressed.

The judge wrote -- quote -- "If today the executive claims the right to deport without due process and in disregard of court orders, what assurance will there be tomorrow that it will not deport American citizens and then disclaim responsibility to bring them home?"

Do you, Senator, see a connection between this idea of deporting American citizens and this case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia?

SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN: Yes, because they both have to do with people's due process rights.

And as the Fourth Circuit pointed out today, when you violate Abrego Garcia's due process rights, it's a short path to tyranny, essentially, if you allow that to happen, because next we're violating everybody else's due process, right?

So the heart of this is the fact that the Trump administration thinks that it can ignore the law, ignore judges.

They admitted in federal court that they had made a mistake in this case.

But instead of fixing the mistake, what did they do?

They fired the lawyer, they put him on administrative leave and reprimanded him for telling the truth.

So this is why this is such a danger to all of us.

And that's what the Fourth Circuit said so strongly in their opinion today.

AMNA NAWAZ: That is Maryland's Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen joining us tonight from El Salvador.

Senator, thank you for your time.

We appreciate it.

SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN: Thank you.

AMNA NAWAZ: Officers with the Department of Homeland Security recently attempted to enter elementary schools in Los Angeles, but were not allowed in.

Agents claimed to have been conducting a welfare check, not an immigration enforcement action.

School administrators say DHS lied about having permission from caregivers to speak to students.

The agency told the "News Hour" -- quote -- "Any assertions that officers lied are false."

Laura Barron-Lopez has our report.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Amna, the move by immigration officers at the second largest school district in the country has sparked new fears for families, teachers and administrators.

It comes after President Trump rescinded a longstanding policy designating schools, churches and hospitals as protected areas from immigration enforcement actions.

I'm joined now by the superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, Alberto Carvalho.

Superintendent, thank you so much for joining the "News Hour."

Starting with these attempts by federal agents to enter two elementary schools last week, they were looking for five students in first through sixth grade.

What can you tell us about what happened and why were these students and these particular schools targeted?

ALBERTO CARVALHO, Superintendent, Los Angeles Unified School District: Thank you very much for the opportunity.

All I can tell you is that teams of four agents showed up at two different schools two hours apart.

We, in fact, believe that these individuals belong to the same team.

They -- after being asked by the principals to provide some degree of identification, they did present credentials that identify them as agents of the Department of Homeland Security, which they went to great lengths to actually explain to the principals that they were not with ICE.

The problem began when, number one, they failed to produce a judicial warrant, which we require for any type of access to staff or students in our schools.

And, secondly, they blatantly lied because they conveyed to the principals that they had obtained permission from these children's parents to have access to them in school.

Based on the statement that was released by the Department of Homeland Security after this incident, they actually conveyed that they were there to conduct wellness checks on these children on the basis of their undocumented and unaccompanied status, which contradicts the fact that presumably they would have obtained permission from the parents of these children, which the parents, the guardians, absolutely deny.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: As you said, according to Homeland Security, these were not ICE agents.

They were criminal investigators through the Homeland Security Department and they were conducting wellness checks that they say have nothing to do with immigration enforcement.

But what's your understanding?

And is it typical for wellness checks to be conducted in this way at an elementary school?

ALBERTO CARVALHO: Three quick points.

Number one, there is no evidence that this type of action has been taken in any school across the country.

Secondly, I think we could all accept that one of the safest places for kids in our country happens to be the schoolhouse.

Thirdly, we are well aware of the fact that a number of federal agencies, not just ICE, have agreed to collaborate with ICE for the purpose of immigration actions in our communities.

And then it should also be known to these individuals that we follow very specific legal parameters,number one, the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution of our nation, which extends as a right free public education to every kid, regardless of immigration status, secondly, FERPA, which is a federal law that protects the confidentiality and privacy rights of students and their families, meaning we cannot provide any type of information about these children without a judicial warrant.

And then the most important one for us as educators, in loco parentis, which means, in the absence of a parent, myself as a superintendent, a teacher, a principal, has the responsibility to stand in as that parent in the protection of that child.

That absolutely limits our ability to provide any information or access to any entity, federal or not.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: You have tens of thousands of immigrant students, including thousands of undocumented students.

What are you hearing from teachers, students and their parents at this time?

ALBERTO CARVALHO: From the teachers, righteous indignation, from the parents' fear.

They are conveying to us directly.

And I have spoken with some of the parents, some of the members of the community.

They feel intimidated, they feel fear, they feel anxiety.

And from the students, even though they are not conveying that information to me, particularly elementary-aged kids, I have had conversations with secondary age students, who are telling me that, at the dinner table, they're hearing their parents speak about the fact that one of them may be a citizen of this nation, but the other one is not.

And they fear family separation based on what they hear.

They do not know what tomorrow will be like.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: You talked about the fear that parents are experiencing.

Is this impacting the ability of educators to teach students at your schools?

And are you also seeing some students not attend school out of fear?

ALBERTO CARVALHO: So what we have detected in schools where these types of incidents have happened, as was the case in these two elementary schools, or schools located in areas where it was known that immigration actions took place close to the schools, we have seen some degree of decline in the average daily attendance.

But, amazingly, the community believes that the district is doing all it can to protect students and protect families.

So we have not necessarily seen a significant decline in the average daily attendance for the entire district.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Superintendent, this week, President Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, said that he -- quote -- "absolutely" wants to prosecute sanctuary city leaders who harbor or shield undocumented immigrants and possibly send those officials to prison.

Homan said -- quote -- "It's coming."

What's your response to this?

And what are you advising others across the district?

ALBERTO CARVALHO: Look, as I have said time and time again, I certainly, not that I want to, but I would welcome first a consequence to self, rather than the consequence of the children that we serve.

We are following the law.

We're following the law of the state of California.

We're following the board's policy.

And we are, to the best of our ability, complying with federal guidelines, whether they are constitutional in nature or where they deal directly with the confidentiality of privacy rights of children and their families.

So we believe we are on the right side of law and certainly on the right side of history.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: I want to ask you about your speech last week where you referred to your personal history.

You said, beyond your professional responsibility, you had a -- quote -- "moral responsibility to protect these students."

ALBERTO CARVALHO: I would be the biggest hypocrite in the world, regardless of my position today, if today I did not fight for those who find themselves in the same predicament I faced over 40 years ago, when I arrived in this country at the age of 17 as an undocumented immigrant.

Education made me and saved me.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Superintendent, what compelled you to say that?

ALBERTO CARVALHO: I want people across our communities and across our country to take a look at what an immigrant looks like and to take a look at what education in this great land of ours can do for kids who, despite their circumstances, mature into adults that do right and do good by this country.

I understand that laws are to be followed, but I also must urge people to dig deep inside their hearts and their minds and search and find some degree of decency, justice and compassion for children who, through no mistake of their own find themselves in a crosshairs of policies that are punitive to them.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Superintendent of the L.A. Unified School District Alberto Carvalho, thank you for your time.

ALBERTO CARVALHO: Thank you very much.

AMNA NAWAZ: In the up-and-down world of cryptocurrency, so-called meme coins are perhaps the most bewildering.

The joke-inspired digital currency is all over the Internet, with new tokens popping up every day by the thousands.

The value of some has jumped into the millions of dollars thanks to viral trends or celebrity endorsements, but most never take off, crash or disappear.

So just what is a meme coin?

Economics correspondent Paul Solman explains.

VIC LARANJA, Crypto Content Creator: I will break down the three most common meme coin trading scenarios.

PAUL SOLMAN: Curious about meme coins?

Just check out some how-to's on YouTube.

MAN: In this video, I am going to take you behind the scenes as I trade meme coins.

MAN: Eight meme coin under $1 that I believe have huge potential in 2025.

MAN: If I don't make $1,000 trading crypto memes in the next 24 hours, I'm going to give this $10,000 Rolex to one of you.

PAUL SOLMAN: More than 40,000 meme coins are created online per day inspired by online memes, or trending events.

The most valuable meme coin?

Dogecoin.

Touted by Elon Musk, it has a total market value of more than $20 billion.

ZEKE FAUX, Author, "Number Go Up": It was created more than 10 years ago by someone who was trying to parody the kind of get-rich-quick attitude that he felt was already prevalent in cryptocurrencies.

PAUL SOLMAN: So says, investigative reporter Zeke Faux, a joke.

ZEKE FAUX: People liked the joke and then signaled their liking of the joke by buying Dogecoin.

When Elon Musk started talking about the joke, that really got it going for a while.

People became familiar with this idea that Internet jokes could become vehicles for gambling.

PAUL SOLMAN: Fun gambling, says MIT's Neha Narula, who teaches and consults on crypto.

NEHA NARULA, Digital Currency Initiative Director, MIT Media Lab: I would almost think of it more like a game than a joke.

Like, people are just enjoying owning these things, playing with these things, buying them, selling them.

They think they are funny.

ZEKE FAUX: Ooh, isn't it funny, they said fart?

PAUL SOLMAN: Fartcoin?

ZEKE FAUX: Yes, billions of dollars of trading in Fartcoin.

PAUL SOLMAN: Faux once asked a meme coin traitor if he bought the tokens because of the humor.

Faux read us the response.

ZEKE FAUX: He said: "Ninety-nine percent of the time, the memes aren't funny at all, which is what is funny.

The fact that they are not funny is what's funny.

Fartcoin, it's so (EXPLETIVE DELETED) stupid, that is why it is good."

It is like this nihilistic gambling game.

PAUL SOLMAN: But in one case, the nihilistic game became real like tragedy.

VIC LARANJA: A meme coin trader was live on Twitter and he took his own life on livestream and then asked people to make a meme coin out of it.

There is a lot of volatility.

PAUL SOLMAN: Vic Laranja, a meme coin trader and crypto content creator, says he did not buy Dogecoin, but another that was connected to it.

VIC LARANJA: It was called Life, and it was called Life: The Most Valuable Currency.

So, there was a lot of really good, and almost religion and God-centered tokens that night because people were really kind of mourning what just happened because it was pretty heavy.

PAUL SOLMAN: Now, tragedy is not a common meme coin inspiration, but trends sure are.

ZEKE FAUX: When someone announces a new meme coin, what people are evaluating is, who is behind this and how much attention will they be able to garner?

PAUL SOLMAN: Molly White is a crypto researcher.

MOLLY WHITE, Crypto Researcher and Software Engineer: People are constantly trying to find the next big meme coin and buy it early enough that they get in before other people do so that, when other people start to pile in and the price goes up, they can sell off the tokens they purchased.

PAUL SOLMAN: Like the official Trump Coin that debuted January 17, soared to over $73, but has since fallen by more than 80 percent.

In February, the $Libra meme coin shot up from pennies to dollars when endorsed by Argentina's President Javier Milei, then crashed back down to pennies within hours.

Milei is now under investigation because investors suspect a rug pull.

MOLLY WHITE: It is very common in the meme world going to someone launched a rug meme coin into a rug pull, which is where the creator of the token suddenly takes off with all the money.

PAUL SOLMAN: Now, since all transactions are publicly logged on what is called the blockchain, investors can see which accounts or wallets or buying he coins early.

But if you are self-dealing token developer planning, say, a rug pull, you can bundle.

VIC LARANJA: When you deploy the token, you buy a ton of the supply automatically.

But they are split up between 100 different wallets.

So instead of 50 percent of supply going to one wallet, you now have 1 percent of the supply going to 50 wallets that are all completely disconnected and it is all algorithmic.

And in one button you can sell them all.

PAUL SOLMAN: Since timing is obviously key, some meme coin investors use software to help them get in early.

VIC LARANJA: Twitter trackers.

What that does is, it follows a list of accounts, hundreds of accounts on Twitter and puts it on one feed and any updates from those accounts in real time you get only those accounts.

And we use Twitter trackers to be totally up-to-date with news so we know if a big viral thing is going to happen.

Elon Musk changes his profile photo.

That photo went to $100 million market cap.

PAUL SOLMAN: In December, Musk changed his X name to Kekius Maximus.

That's the name of a coin based on the right-wing meme Pepe the Frog.

That sparked a 4800 percent surge in its price.

And in March, Musk posted a photo of his DOGE office setup featuring a Kekius Maximus portrait, which again sent the price soaring.

All such moves are tracked by traders like Laranja.

VIC LARANJA: This is an evolving game.

Every week is different.

This week is different than last week and the week before that completely different.

So I think it's just staying on top of it and seeing opportunities.

I will share with you the exact tools that the 1 percent of meme coin traders always use.

PAUL SOLMAN: Laranja shares what he's investing in with his half-a-million Internet followers.

Do you see people becoming addicted to this kind of gambler?

VIC LARANJA: Yes.

Yes, I do.

Like, the stimulation is crazy.

You could do it 24/7.

There's a lot of nights where I just stay up way too late and me and the chat are trading together.

It's definitely borderline addicting.

PAUL SOLMAN: Are you addicted?

VIC LARANJA: I play the game strategically.

I understand what I'm doing and how it affects my business.

My business is to be a part of this community.

I'm strategic.

PAUL SOLMAN: Well, that's what a lot of gamblers think.

(LAUGHTER) PAUL SOLMAN: A lot of addicted gamblers.

VIC LARANJA: OK, but are those gamblers, do they have 500,000 followers talking about gambling?

PAUL SOLMAN: No.

VIC LARANJA: Are they making six figures a month from sponsorships and referrals?

PAUL SOLMAN: No, they aren't.

As in a casino, meme coin traders are gambling, pure and simple, for better or worse.

For the "PBS News Hour," still resisting the fear of missing out, Paul Solman.

AMNA NAWAZ: For more than 50 years, architectural illustrator Frank Costantino has been bringing buildings to life with his meticulously hand-drawn project designs.

Special correspondent Jared Bowen of GBH Boston takes us through a new exhibition of Costantino's work at one of Boston's most storied institutions.

It's part of our arts and culture series, Canvas.

JARED BOWEN: From afar, city buildings can stand as hulking towers of glass, steel and stone.

But, up close, they pulse with daily life.

And for decades in Boston, artist Frank Costantino has been the man to give them the look of life.

FRANK COSTANTINO, Artist: So these were freehand sketches done right on the spot.

JARED BOWEN: Costantino has long been a man architects of commission to transform their clinical architectural designs into colorful, humming, atmospheric visions.

And in an era when most of these illustrations are rendered on computers, his have always been done by hand.

FRANK COSTANTINO: Hand-drawing is a discipline that derives from the early Renaissance and the early Renaissance development of perspective and the obsession that they had in developing these systems.

LAUREN GRAVES, Associate Curator, Boston Athenaeum: You see graphite pencil.

And, incredibly, he's able to show glass and sort of translucency through graphite pencil, which is -- it like, blows my mind, really.

JARED BOWEN: Lauren Graves is the curator of the exhibition Visionary Projects, highlighting Costantino's projects throughout Boston and New England.

From hotel plans to parks, convention centers to concert halls, his drawings in graphite watercolor and colored pencil imagine new buildings and ways to revive old ones.

LAUREN GRAVES: The old statehouse, you really are able to see the flags really blowing in the wind.

You can imagine it to be this kind of blustering day.

So this is a sort of classic New England summertime day, and all of these small little traits, schoolchildren reenacting the Boston Massacre here, and then also British troops dressed in the sort of 18th century garb, intermixing with people in contemporary dress.

JARED BOWEN: Graves says the works can read as portraits.

They teem with life and light and movement.

LAUREN GRAVES: He absolutely approaches each building as a person and uses little and big tools to kind of make that personality shine, signs of seasons, signs of time, such as shadow, so all of these kind of additional characteristics that surround the building, almost like a person in an old master's painting that has a book by them.

JARED BOWEN: Costantino says his work is deeply rooted in art history.

His greatest influences are also some of the most moody landscape painters of the last few centuries, JMW Turner, Winslow Homer, and John Singer Sargent.

FRANK COSTANTINO: In studying their techniques of watercolor, that in turn informed my handling of the watercolor, how I would apply it with a freshness, with a confidence, lucidity, transparency.

Then there's the poetic side of it that comes with an evening view or a certain type of architecture.

JARED BOWEN: History courses through Costantino's work, not to mention its surroundings.

This exhibition about buildings is in one of the city's most historic, the Boston Athenaeum.

Founded in 1807, it houses a vast collection of the nation's literary and artistic treasures, including George Washington's private library.

Both the Athenaeum and Costantino are mindful of their place creating the new amid the old, says Lauren Graves.

LAUREN GRAVES: I don't think that any image or any work in this exhibition, except for maybe a few, don't have people.

So he shows Boston as extremely activated, a city that is for the people and a city that is continuing on to hope for a future.

I don't know if the Esplanade ever really looks like this necessarily, but you're able to kind of remember and dream for a better future that you're a part of.

JARED BOWEN: You have spent so much time looking at this city.

In decades of work, how do you describe the Boston you know?

FRANK COSTANTINO: It's an evolving city.

It's an evolving city.

It's an evolving city that's come about with a lot of care.

JARED BOWEN: For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Jared Bowen in Boston.

AMNA NAWAZ: And that is the "News Hour" for tonight.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

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