GEOFF BENNETT: Good evening.

I'm Geoff Bennett.

Amna Nawaz is away.

On the "News Hour" tonight: European allies forge ahead with their own plans to bring about peace in Ukraine after President Trump's public dispute with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy.

On the eve of President Trump's first address to Congress since returning to the White House, our newest poll reveals most Americans think he's rushing change with little regard for the consequences.

And journalist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa discusses the state of democracy in the U.S. and lessons learned from the autocratic Duterte regime in the Philippines.

MARIA RESSA, CEO, Rappler: You have to decide the world you want to live in.

You have to decide whether rule of law exists.

You cannot normalize impunity.

(BREAK) GEOFF BENNETT: Welcome to the "News Hour."

President Trump today continued his pressure campaign on Ukraine, insinuating that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy should step down if he doesn't want a peace deal.

That follows their unprecedented clash in that Friday Oval Office meeting.

Western leaders have been scrambling to help mend the relationship, but also make plans to maintain support for Ukraine if the U.S. walks away.

Nick Schifrin reports.

NICK SCHIFRIN: In the White House today, President Trump kept up pressure on Ukraine's embattled president.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: I just think you should be more appreciative, because this country has stuck with them through thick and thin.

NICK SCHIFRIN: He was even harsher on TRUTH Social, writing: "America will not put up with it for much longer," a response to this statement by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy yesterday.

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, Ukrainian President (through translator): An agreement to end the war is still very, very far away, and no one has started all these steps yet.

DONALD TRUMP: Maybe somebody doesn't want to make a deal, and if somebody doesn't want to make a deal, I think that person won't be around very long.

That person will not be listened to very long.

You're gambling with the lives of millions of people.

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY: You think... DONALD TRUMP: You're gambling with World War III.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Today's rhetorical criticism highlights the substantive divide during Friday's Oval Office meltdown.

Ukraine doubts the very diplomacy with Putin the U.S. is prioritizing.

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY: What kind of diplomacy, J.D., you are speaking about?

what do you have -- what do you -- what do you mean?

J.D.

VANCE, Vice President of the United States: I'm talking about the kind of diplomacy that's going to end the destruction of your country.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Tonight, Zelenskyy stuck to his guns that diplomacy requires security guarantees.

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY (through translator): The baseline scenario is to hold positions and create conditions for proper diplomacy.

We need peace, real, fair peace, not endless war.

And we need security guarantees.

NICK SCHIFRIN: And the war stops for no politics.

This weekend, a Russian drone struck a residential apartment building in Kharkiv, one of countless Russian attacks on Ukrainian civilian targets.

KEIR STARMER, British Prime Minister: We are at a crossroads in history today.

NICK SCHIFRIN: In London this weekend, Prime Minister Keir Starmer led Zelenskyy and European leaders in an emergency summit that, in Starmer's words, assembled a coalition of the willing.

Europe is developing plans to deploy French, British and perhaps Eastern European troops into Ukraine to help enforce a cease-fire that French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot today said could be for one month and not include ground combat.

JEAN-NOEL BARROT, French Europe and Foreign Affairs Minister (through translator): This cease-fire in the air and at sea and on energy infrastructure will enable us to attest to the good faith of Vladimir Putin when he commits to the cease-fire.

NICK SCHIFRIN: But that's just one possibility, and European forces could not deploy without U.S. logistical and intelligence support.

KEIR STARMER: The discussions we have had today, particularly the coalition of the willing, is on the basis that this is a plan that we will work with, with the U.S. and that it will have U.S. backings.

NICK SCHIFRIN: It's also not clear Ukraine would support a cease-fire before agreed security guarantees.

COL. BOB HAMILTON (RET.

), Foreign Policy Research Institute: Zelenskyy's point was that, unless there are enforceable security guarantees backed by a credible deterrent force on the ground in Ukraine, Putin and Russia cannot be trusted.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Bob Hamilton is the head of Eurasia Research at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, who's visiting Ukraine this week.

COL. BOB HAMILTON: When the survival of your nation is at stake, it's not unreasonable for President Zelenskyy to insist on at least some assurances of security guarantees before he signs up to a cease-fire agreement, particularly one that he's not involved in negotiating.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Ukraine and Europe must also confront the possibility of losing U.S. military assistance.

Ukraine would struggle to replace American air defense and Western artillery.

But with more funding, it could rely more on domestically produced drones that are already causing the majority of Russian casualties.

COL. BOB HAMILTON: If those funds were provided by foreign countries, Ukraine could upscale its defense industrial production fairly quickly to double or triple it if it had the money.

NICK SCHIFRIN: For all the pressure that President Trump and his allies are maintaining on Zelenskyy, today, the president said the economic deal that Zelenskyy was supposed to sign on Friday before the meeting in the Oval Office went off the rails is still alive, depending, Geoff, on what Zelenskyy says and does.

GEOFF BENNETT: Meantime, Nick, what are you learning about what Zelenskyy is discussing with his fellow leaders in Europe?

NICK SCHIFRIN: Zelenskyy spoke to Baltic leaders this afternoon.

And a senior European official who was on that call told me that Zelenskyy sounded contrite about what had happened on Friday, and that he understood he needed to mend the relationship with Donald Trump.

From the Western, European perspective, we heard why in our story right there from Prime Minister Starmer, that European troops could not deploy into Ukraine without U.S. support, intelligence, and logistics.

The U.S. officials who are in favor of maintaining support for Ukraine had hoped that that economic deal would be signed on Friday as a way to convince the skeptical President Trump not only to continue support for Ukraine, but even invest in Ukraine's drone industry, which, as we said, is super important.

So whether he's willing to do that, whether, frankly, President Trump is willing to keep the same number of U.S. troops in Europe, well, all of that tonight, Geoff, lies in the balance.

GEOFF BENNETT: Nick Schifrin, thank you.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: We start today's other headlines with wildfires in North and South Carolina.

Lighter winds are helping crews fight the blazes that caused evacuations over the weekend.

Officials in South Carolina banned almost all outdoor fires today, including campfires, after the state's governor declared a state of emergency yesterday.

In North Carolina, the state's Forest Service reported more than 200 wildfires today, though most of them were small.

Officials across the region warned of poor air quality because of smoke from the blazes.

Authorities have not said what caused the fires, and there have been no reported injuries.

In Illinois, the man accused of killing seven people and injuring dozens more at a July 4 parade in 2022 pleaded guilty today; 24-year-old Robert Crimo III withdrew his earlier plea of not guilty just minutes before his trial was set to start.

He faced 21 counts of first-degree murder.

Survivors of the mass shooting in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park said they were stunned by today's developments.

ASHBEY BEASLEY, Shooting Survivor: It was a shock to hear the words that he was changing his plea.

I think, every single time I see him, it's stressful.

I think it's upsetting for everyone in our community.

And I think just knowing that this is this plea has been entered and we will not have to see him again is what we all need to move on.

GEOFF BENNETT: A law firm representing dozens of survivors says efforts to pursue civil justice continue.

That includes suing the gunmaker of the semiautomatic rifle used in the shooting.

Sentencing for Crimo is scheduled for late April.

He's almost certain to spend life behind bars.

Pope Francis suffered a new breathing crisis today.

The Vatican says the 88-year-old pontiff was put back on noninvasive mechanical ventilation after suffering two new episodes of acute respiratory failure.

Pope Francis has been in a Rome hospital since February 14 with a complex respiratory infection and pneumonia.

The Vatican says he remained alert and cooperated with medical personnel today, but that his outlook remains guarded.

This has been his longest absence from public life in his 12-year papacy.

In the Middle East, cease-fire negotiations between Israel and Hamas are at a standstill after phase one of the truce expired over the weekend.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pushing for what he says is a U.S.-backed plan that would extend the cease-fire through Ramadan and Passover.

But Hamas accused Israel of trying to sabotage the existing agreement after it halted all food, fuel, and other aid into Gaza.

Humanitarian groups, as well as key mediators Qatar and Egypt, condemned the move.

Meantime, in Israel, one man was killed and four others injured in a stabbing attack in the northern city of Haifa.

Police say the suspected assailant was an Arab citizen of Israel who was later killed by a security guard.

Police in Germany say at least two people are dead after a driver rammed a car into a crowd of people today in the city of Mannheim.

That's about 400 miles southwest of Berlin.

Emergency crews rushed to a pedestrian street in the city center around noon, when many workers were on their lunch breaks.

Authorities say a 40-year-old German citizen is in custody.

They did not immediately call the ramming an attack, though cars have been used as weapons in Germany several times in recent months.

On Wall Street today, stocks sank after President Trump said that 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico will indeed take effect tomorrow, declaring there is -- quote -- "no room for delay."

The Dow Jones industrial average lost nearly 650 points on the day.

The Nasdaq dropped nearly 500 points.

And the S&P 500 posted its biggest loss since December.

And, in Washington, D.C., teammates, family members, and U.S. figure skating stars have been honoring the victims of January's midair collision near Reagan National Airport.

GEOFF BENNETT: Among the performers at yesterday's event was Maxim Naumov, who wept on his knees following a moving tribute to his parents, who died in the crash.

Others included men's world champion Ilia Malinin and national women's champion Amber Glenn, who also broke down after her performance; 28 of the crash victims were members of the figure skating community.

The event's host says the benefit raised nearly $1.2 million to support families of those lost.

Still to come on the "News Hour": Amy Walter and Tamara Keith break down the latest political headlines; a lunar lander successfully touches down, in a new feat for privatized space exploration; and the notable moments from last night's Academy Awards.

As President Trump gets ready to address Congress for the first time since reentering the Oval Office, our latest PBS News/NPR/Marist poll offers a new look at what the American public thinks about the actions his administration has taken in these first 43 days.

Lisa Desjardins is at the super screen to walk us through the numbers.

Hey there, Lisa.

LISA DESJARDINS: Hi.

GEOFF BENNETT: All right, so, big picture.

What do the American people think about the president and the changes he's making?

LISA DESJARDINS: Let's start with that top figure, the approval rating.

Where are Americans that we asked about that right now?

Forty-five percent approve of the job Donald Trump is doing as president so far.

I'm going to write that number down.

I want you to remember that 45 percent.

Now, more Americans disapprove, but just barely.

Why is this 45 number significant?

This is Trump's approval rating up and down over time.

Here we are right now at 45 percent.

This is the largest approval rating he has experienced in office as president, much higher than where he ended during his first term.

Now, another thing we asked folks about, all of these actions that Trump is taking, do you think that they are for the good mostly or not for the good, for the bad, for this country?

Did they make things better or worse?

When we asked that question, 45 percent, that same number, said, we think these actions make things better in this country.

Now, it's not a coincidence that those numbers are the same; 45 percent generally like the job he's doing, think it's for the better.

What's being driven -- what's driving that is a single force, Republicans.

Of those who -- when we ask people who they think - - if Trump is doing a better job, 88 percent of Republicans think what Trump is doing is for the better for this country, versus just 12 percent of Democrats.

These two groups live in completely different worlds, almost different planets.

Independents, a minority of them also believe Trump is doing a better job.

It is Republicans who are really pushing Trump's numbers to go higher right now.

Now, at the same time, this poll was taken before the confrontation in the Oval Office with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but Lee Miringoff with the Marist poll says what Trump is doing is he's flooding the zone with controversial action.

LEE MIRINGOFF, Director, Marist Institute for Public Opinion: We're just seeing a lot of things happening with little time for the public to digest.

The net effect of it all is there's a sense on the part of the public that some things are moving just a little too fast and they're not totally convinced that things are moving in the right direction.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, let's talk about the pace of change because the president has signed something like 76 executive orders.

He's fired thousands of federal workers, slashed and frozen government spending.

What are people saying about that?

LISA DESJARDINS: Right.

We wanted to get deeper into these unprecedented actions.

And we asked, do you think President Trump is rushing things, not considering the consequences, or are his actions something that need to happen in order to get government on track?

Here's how people answered that question.

Most people, 56 percent, said they think Trump is rushing, he's not considering the impact of his actions.

That's the majority.

However, it is a significant group, 43 percent in our poll, who said they think what Trump is doing is necessary to keeping government on track.

Our producer Matt Loffman called some of the people who answered our poll.

One of them was a Republican in Texas who told us he does think he likes what Trump is doing on immigration, but also in general.

GILBERT, Republican From Texas: He's trying to keep his promises.

We have to correct the destruction that has happened to our country and society over the last four years.

You cannot turn all the years of damage in one or two or three or four months.

It takes -- it's much easier to destroy things than build them.

LISA DESJARDINS: What about all those cuts, the cuts to federal funding and all the mass layoffs?

We asked people about that as well.

We saw a similar figure here.

Most people, 55 percent, said all of these cuts are doing more harm than good.

Now, this is the number Trump really has to watch as far as the future goes and Republicans.

We spoke to an independent voter in Michigan who said -- and he works in general contracting for the government, said what he's experienced in this first month, he's seen just chaos.

J.K., Independent From Michigan: Everything is going at breakneck speed to dismantle a system that's been standing tall and working for the American people for decades.

They're performing surgery with a sword and a blindfold.

And they're just moving at this breakneck, chaotic speed.

And it's unnecessary.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, how do those polled view Elon Musk, who is in many ways the face of the Trump administration effort to scale back the size of government and fire federal workers?

LISA DESJARDINS: Right, holding the sword.

Now, how -- what's the approval rating look like for him?

Thirty-nine percent.

Of course, that is lower than Trump's approval rating of 45.

But what we have seen in the past month or so, two months, Republicans are warming up to him more, not Democrats or independents.

GEOFF BENNETT: And, Lisa, we saw some Republican members of Congress in recent weeks face a real onslaught of anger from their constituents in those town hall meetings.

How are those polled?

How do they view Congress and our system of checks and balances?

LISA DESJARDINS: This is now a question at American dinner tables.

How is the Constitution holding up?

So we did ask, do you think checks and balances, that system, is working now?

Right, today, 56 percent in the last week or so believe, no, our checks and balances system is not working.

But what is dramatic here is what a change this is from December, when we asked the same question.

Look at this.

In December, 66 percent, two-thirds, said, yes, checks and balances, it's holding up.

But that is a complete flip now, where a majority of Americans say, no, we don't think checks and balances are holding up.

We spoke to an independent voter in Texas, who told us she has a message for her Republican congressman on how they should handle and work with Donald Trump.

TANYA, Independent From Texas: They should be taking him to task and they should be calling amongst themselves and start voting on things and start taking control of the things they actually have control of.

But everybody's too afraid of offending a constituent that they're just letting him run amuck, because they're also afraid of him and that they won't get voted in again.

LISA DESJARDINS: One last important and unusual question that we asked, do you think Donald Trump will abide by court orders?

Will he follow the law?

Right now, Geoff, a majority of Americans, 58 percent, incredibly, believe that the current president of the United States will not follow the law and abide by court rulings -- Geoff.

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

LISA DESJARDINS: You're welcome.

GEOFF BENNETT: And you can read more details from our poll.

That's at PBS.org/NewsHour.

And for more on the latest political news, including the fallout from President Trump's meeting with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy and analysis of that PBS News poll, we're joined now by Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report With Amy Walter, and Tamara Keith, NPR senior White House correspondent.

With a welcome to you both.

All right, Tam, so according to this PBS News/NPR/Marist poll, Americans are divided about President Trump's job performance.

And in this latest poll, 56 percent of Americans say the president is rushing to make change without considering the impact of his decisions.

That includes two-thirds of independents and 11 percent of Trump voters.

What stands out to you about this?

TAMARA KEITH, National Public Radio: The two-thirds of independents, because independent voters are sort of the canary in the coal mine for approval of what the president is doing.

And when you are winning independents as president, you're doing well.

When independents are moving away from you, that's an indication, because, at this point, partisan views are so set in stone that Republicans will automatically say that Trump is doing great and Democrats will automatically say that he is doing terrible.

So you look to the independents.

And in this case, two-thirds of independents say that the president and DOGE are rushing too much to make change.

That is certainly like a yellow flashing light for the White House.

GEOFF BENNETT: And, Amy, on his handling of the economy, our poll found that 42 percent think President Trump is changing the economy for the better, 46 percent think for the worse.

But perhaps more telling, 56 percent of people expect grocery prices to actually go up over the next six months.

And that's with those extensive tariffs that take effect tomorrow.

You wrote recently about the warning signs for Republicans on the economy.

What are you seeing?

AMY WALTER, The Cook Political Report: Yes, I used the same term that Tam did, which is sort of the flashing yellow lights here for Trump and for Republicans.

Look, we have seen a couple of things in these last few weeks.

The first is a drop in consumer confidence that's being captured in a number of different surveys.

And then we see, like this Marist poll, that the president's overall approval rating on the economy is in more negative territory than positive territory.

And that's not usually where Donald Trump is.

If you go back and you look at the Marist poll from the summer of 2018, which was the last time that this poll asked about these issues while Trump was in office, so there wasn't any data from 2017, but, at this point in 2018, opinions about Trump overall were much lower, opinions about his handling of immigration, his handling of foreign policy much lower than they are now.

But his opinion the economy, how well he was handling the economy, much higher back in 2018 than it is today.

And I think a lot of it is driven by the fact that there are so many voters out there, especially independent voters, who voted for Donald Trump with the really emphasis on his ability to lower prices and to focus on the economy.

And that's one other number that has been showing up.

This one was a CBS poll from this weekend; 80 percent of voters saying inflation is the top issue for me.

And yet only 29 percent think that Donald Trump is focused on that issue.

GEOFF BENNETT: Tam, meantime, it would appear that the fallout from President Zelenskyy's calamitous visit to Washington, that Friday Oval Office meeting, the fallout from that continues to grow.

President Trump and his top advisers continue to criticize Zelenskyy, his outlook on the war, his demeanor.

They're suggesting that he might need to resign.

They're also saying that he doesn't necessarily want peace.

The rhetoric from the White House in many ways mirrors the rhetoric from the Kremlin, trying to paint Zelenskyy, not Putin, as the warmonger.

TAMARA KEITH: Yes.

And President Trump was asked about that today and didn't really engage on the question, despite being asked and hearing the question.

He does not seem to be concerned about Moscow being very happy with the rhetoric coming out of the White House.

But the White House was clearly very happy with how that meeting went, with the blowup, with all of the attention that it generated, because, if they weren't happy with it, we would have seen President Trump.

We would have seen him over the weekend.

We would have seen him today.

But, instead, he has been quiet.

He has not wanted to step on that news cycle.

And then what you have seen is Republican allies of the president going on Sunday shows, otherwise going out and backing him.

And there's a reason for this in part.

The public has gradually over the last several years, in part because of Trump and other Republicans, and in part because Russia has done a decent job of getting its views into the American bloodstream, the American public has really soured on Ukraine in this war.

GEOFF BENNETT: Amy, on that point, I mean, the same partisan attacks that sought to rehabilitate the January 6 rioters, you could argue, could also tear down President Zelenskyy.

How fixed are Americans' views on the war in Ukraine?

AMY WALTER: Well, I agree with Tam that they are really driven by partisanship more than anything else.

So they're fluid in the sense that where partisans go -- partisans will go with wherever their leaders are going.

So, back in 2022, for example, an equal number of Democrats, Republicans, independents supported Ukraine as the war was breaking out.

But as we moved into 2023 and 2024, especially as Trump was critical of Ukraine, was more supportive of Putin, and as then-President Biden going to Ukraine, increasing aid to Ukraine, you saw Democrat support pretty much stay where it was at the beginning, but Republican support crater and independents going down as well.

And so I do think, look, the challenge with foreign policy in general, when it comes to American voters, American voters, some do, but most don't have hard and fixed opinions, especially about the state of the -- where the European line should be drawn or not.

And so they are really following the folks that they trust with -- either within a party or, in many cases, whatever information source they're using to get most of the information and they just will go along with that.

And when that side shifts, they shift with it.

GEOFF BENNETT: Should we expect to hear more from President Trump on this when he addresses the joint session of Congress tomorrow?

What are you watching for?

TAMARA KEITH: Yes.

So I asked the White House for a preview.

They sent me a FOX News exclusive that they had given to FOX.

But, yes, peace around the globe is on the agenda, pushing Congress to pass border security funding and generally pushing Congress to do his agenda, talking about the economy and what he's done.

And also we can expect him to talk about his accomplishments in the first month-and-a-half in office.

This is the way the White House has described it.

You know, I talked to a former White House official from the first administration who said he expects President Trump's message to be, get on board or get out of the way.

GEOFF BENNETT: OK. Tamara Keith and Amy Walter, thanks, as always.

AMY WALTER: You're welcome.

GEOFF BENNETT: Nobel Peace Prize laureate and investigative journalist Maria Ressa has long fought for global press freedom.

Her book "How to Stand Up to a Dictator" detailed her experience running the news site Rappler under the increasingly autocratic regime of President Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines.

She recently sat down with Amna Nawaz to discuss parallels she's seeing between the Philippines and the U.S. under President Trump.

It's part of our new series On Democracy, which focuses on the laws, institutions and norms that have shaped this country and the challenges they face today.

AMNA NAWAZ: Maria, welcome back to the "News Hour."

Thank you so much for joining us.

MARIA RESSA, CEO, Rappler: Thanks for having me.

AMNA NAWAZ: So there's been a lot of concerns you have seen about President Trump's continuing attacks on the press and concerns about a loss of press freedom.

I want you to start by just comparing what you lived through, what you documented, what you covered under Duterte with what we have seen in the first several weeks of this second Trump administration so far.

MARIA RESSA: It's exactly what we have lived through, except accelerated.

It's incredible how fast it's going.

And part of that is organization, right?

But what we did in the Philippines is, within six months -- the Constitution of the Philippines is patterned after the United States.

We have three branches of government and a powerful executive.

But within six months of the election of Rodrigo Duterte, of him taking office, all of the checks and balances had collapsed.

He was an all-powerful - - the most powerful leader the country had ever known.

And critical to that, crucial to that is silencing the press and the justice system, the court system, right, because -- and I think that's what we're beginning to see right now.

AMNA NAWAZ: Let me ask you about a few individual things we have seen.

You have obviously seen the president go after specific news networks.

He's also opened a probe into PBS, we should note.

He's also blocked access for the Associated Press, known as the AP, for their refusal to call it just the Gulf of America, as he wants.

They call it the Gulf of Mexico and say he wants to change the name.

Now, the AP, we should note, serves thousands of news organizations.

They have a reporter in every single statehouse in America, hundreds of countries -- rather, over 100 countries across the world.

What does it say to you that he's going after the AP?

What's at stake in their lawsuit against the president here?

MARIA RESSA: It's not just press freedom that's at stake, right?

And, again, let me ground it first in what happened in the Philippines.

Our president then went after the largest newspaper, the largest television station, and then online.

We were the largest.

We were number three.

But go big, go fast, take them down quickly, make an example.

I was the example of a journalist.

I had had, oh, my gosh, a long career.

I had headed the largest network in the Philippines after almost 20 years with CNN.

And then, when the charges came -- so first social media, the attacks came bottom up.

You say a lie a million times, it becomes a fact.

And it was that journalist equals criminal.

Two years before I was actually arrested, they trended that, the network that was created online, so the propaganda.

Then, a year later, we had the first criminal charges, 21 of them, and then, by two years later, by 2019, I was arrested.

And then it was 10 criminal charges in a little over a year.

Look, what you're seeing is death by 1,000 cuts of democracy.

This is exactly what I had written about in the book.

And, originally, I was speaking to Filipinos, but it is a cautionary tale for every democracy, where technology is the spark that allows populism to become authoritarianism and to shift over.

I think we're seeing this now.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, if the press is under attack here, Maria, as an observer watching this all unfold, what do you make of the way that the press has responded, in particular, the fact that there's been a major news organization in ABC that's already settled a lawsuit with the president?

It's reported that CBS would likely do the same.

What do you make of that?

MARIA RESSA: Don't voluntarily give up your rights, right?

I mean, again, in -- I will give you our example in the Philippines, where the first newspaper gave up -- the television station gave up largest - - it lost its franchise or license to operate.

And guess what?

It never regained it even after the time of Duterte.

Little Rappler with, about 100, 120 people, we stood up.

And it was difficult.

It was frightening, but we're still here, right?

A point in time when I faced over a century in jail, but I'm still here.

And, after 2021, I had lost some of my rights.

I wasn't allowed to travel, for example, but now here I am.

I'm in New York City teaching at Colombia University, right?

So I guess what I'm saying is, hold the line is the phrase we use, because it's connected to the rights that you deserve as a citizen.

And if you do not hold the line at this crucial moment -- this is the moment when you are strongest -- it will only - - you will only get weaker over time.

And it isn't just the journalists, because journalists are the front lines in this, but the question is to every single citizen in America.

It's the question I threw in the book, how to stand up to a dictator.

And that question is simple.

What are you willing to sacrifice for the truth?

Because if you don't have facts, you cannot -- and I have said this over and over since 2016.

Without facts, you can't have truth.

Without truth, you can't have trust.

Without these, we have no shared reality.

You can't solve any problem, let alone existential ones like climate change.

You can't have journalism.

You can't have democracy.

And in a system like that, only a dictatorship wins.

AMNA NAWAZ: Maria, you're drawing the comparisons here based on your lived experience, of course, but there are folks who will say, look, the U.S. is not the Philippines.

Trump is not Duterte.

Our democracy is not the same as the one that you lived in.

What do you say to that, the idea that this is somehow immune, our system, from the same things that the Philippines fell prey to?

MARIA RESSA: I think I have two -- two ways to respond to that.

The first is, it isn't just the Philippines.

There is a dictator's playbook, and you can look first at Russia, actually, even before that, Turkey, Hungary, Russia, right, with Putin taking office.

And the first step is really to get elected, once you're elected, to crush the systems of checks and balances, and then replace them with your own -- we're starting to call them the broligarchy, because it's far more potent, the tech guys are more potent than just normal oligarchies.

This is political largess, political patronage.

You have to decide the world you want to live in.

You have to decide whether rule of law exists.

You cannot normalize impunity.

And if you don't, over time, we normalize that and you lose more and more of your rights.

But here's a positive note.

Rodrigo Duterte's term ended.

He had one six-year term.

He did try to extend.

And perhaps if the military had supported him, I wouldn't be here.

But we now have another president and those 10 criminal cases that I have had, I have now won eight of those 10 and two left.

I still have to ask the Supreme Court for approval to travel, but we're here.

It's alarming to see it happening all over again.

AMNA NAWAZ: We should point out, Maria, that the majority of Americans say they don't even trust the media right now, that we have seen a decline in that trust over years.

And many people like to see the president go after the press in the way that he does.

They will hear this conversation and say, good, I'm glad he's doing what he's doing.

What has the independent press ever done for me?

What would you say to them?

MARIA RESSA: The role of journalists in a country, in a democracy like the Philippines, like the United States is to hold power to account.

and I believe that is why -- I mean, you're not going to have an influencer or a content creator stand up to a dictator.

You're not going to have someone have a set of principles, of standards and ethics that actually pushes against their own self-interest.

We're seeing all of these begin to fall.

But here's the thing.

Part of what triggered that is the technology, the public information ecosystem we live in.

Journalists and news organizations have been under attack from the very beginning.

So your lack of faith in that is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

You lose journalism the way we practice it, you lose democracy.

AMNA NAWAZ: Maria Ressa, always such a pleasure to speak with you.

Thank you so much for making the time.

GEOFF BENNETT: NASA's partnership with the private sector took another key step forward this weekend with a successful moon landing.

MAN: We're on the moon.

GEOFF BENNETT: The Blue Ghost lunar lander measuring only about six-by-11-feet stuck the landing safely early Sunday, making it the first commercial spacecraft to do so after others tried, but crashed or tipped over once they got to the moon.

Blue Ghost is built by the private company Firefly Aerospace.

It's carrying a number of experiments for NASA and is part of a larger effort to have private companies make deliveries for larger missions.

Miles O'Brien joins us now.

Miles, it's always great to see you.

So what is the significance of this Blue Ghost landing?

MILES O'BRIEN: Well, Geoff, it's a big accomplishment for a small private enterprise to land on the moon.

This is not easy stuff.

As they say, rocket science is hard.

This is part of the overall Artemis program and is truly a highlight in a program which is facing a lot of trouble.

Artemis, of course, is the return to the moon campaign over several years.

These missions, and this is one of about 11 or so in the coming years, are designed to scout out the surface, determine the radiation environment, try to figure out what to do about that difficult lunar dust, which can be very sticky and sharp, and also learn how to navigate and land successfully.

They were able, interestingly, to use the Earth-based GPS system to get a fix.

So that actually portends well for navigating in the future, so a glimmer of hope in an otherwise troubled program.

GEOFF BENNETT: A glimmer of hope indeed.

How much of a boost is this for Artemis?

MILES O'BRIEN: Well, it helps.

And it puts Artemis in people's minds.

But at the center of Artemis is a giant what some might call white elephant of a rocket.

It's now coming in at about $90 billion.

I'm talking about the Space Launch System.

And it's had a very long and slow and continually delayed effort to get into space.

At this point, NASA is projecting a moon landing in 2027.

But that's probably pretty optimistic.

So this is a program that is looking like it is a ripe target for the DOGE world.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, it raises the question, what is Elon Musk's stance on Artemis, especially since he has his own private spaceflight company, SpaceX?

MILES O'BRIEN: He's not a big fan.

But, interestingly, he does have a key part to play in Artemis.

His Starship is -- would be modified and used to actually do the last bit and land on the lunar surface.

But the space launch system itself, he's described as inefficient, a jobs program, not a results program.

And he said he wants to go straight to Mars,the moon is a distraction.

So that lends itself to a lot of speculation right now that Artemis could very well be on the chopping block.

But we will have to wait and see.

The future administrator, the potential administrator, I guess we would expect him to be the administrator, Jared Isaacman, the billionaire who is slated to do that, has hearings.

And at that time, we will hear a little bit more about his thoughts on it.

But he also calls it a very expensive way to go.

So we will see what happens.

But this could be -- these missions, these CLPS missions, could be the real highlight of Artemis when all is said and done.

GEOFF BENNETT: Miles, is that a widely held view that Artemis is inefficient?

I mean, is this program really in trouble?

MILES O'BRIEN: Well, when you look at a rocket that is that far over budget and that delayed, and the key point here, Geoff, is that the rocket they're building is based on old shuttle and basically Saturn V technology.

It goes back many decades.

It was supposed to be faster and cheaper.

But what they're building is turning out to be very expensive, and it is single-use.

And of course, what SpaceX and Elon Musk have been focused on all this time are reusable rockets.

And that obviously over time drives down the cost tremendously of getting to space.

And that Starship, although it's not flown a perfect mission yet, has flown about a half-a-dozen times.

And it flies a lot cheaper than the Space Launch System, which right now is - - it's unclear when it will fly next.

GEOFF BENNETT: Miles O'Brien, our thanks to you, as always.

MILES O'BRIEN: You're welcome, Geoff.

GEOFF BENNETT: And we will be back shortly with a look at last night's Oscars.

But, first, take a moment to hear from your local PBS station.

It's a chance to offer your support, which helps to keep programs like this one on the air.

For those of you staying with us, we take a second look now at efforts to fill millions of manufacturing jobs that are expected to open up in the next decade as workers retire.

The sector is also supposed to add more jobs with help from federal subsidies.

So where will the needed workers come from?

Well, how about some two-year colleges like Cincinnati State?

Our economics correspondent, Paul Solman, paid a visit in search of hope for the future.

ZANE DECKER, Cincinnati State Technical and Community College: It had to have three wheels.

It had to be a gas motor, and it has to have a wheelie bar, because these things do wheelies.

PAUL SOLMAN: We used to say when I was a kid, cool as a moose.

Not exactly your grandparents' shop class here at Cincinnati State Technical and Community College.

ZANE DECKER: The students have two semesters to design and build this.

Semester one, they design everything you're sitting on.

PAUL SOLMAN: Zane Decker now runs part of the program he himself recently graduated from, teaching skills much in demand these days.

ZANE DECKER: And let's go ahead and look at the simulation and see how it looks.

PAUL SOLMAN: Schools like Cincinnati State are key training grounds to prepare students for manufacturing jobs for which there just aren't enough workers these days, like at GE Aviation, a partner to this program.

The job gap is especially important here in Ohio.

America's third most manufacturing-heavy state.

ZANE DECKER: Demand is just skyrocketing for this.

And if you went back 20 years ago, there wasn't as much demand as there is today.

ANDREW LAKES, College Student: That tool right there is called an eighth-inch ball mill.

PAUL SOLMAN: Demand for the likes of 20-year-old Andrew Lakes.

ANDREW LAKES: And it turns that software into G-code.

And this is what G-code is right now.

And it's reading all those lines of code.

And that line of code tells us what that tool is going to do.

PAUL SOLMAN: Which is?

ANDREW LAKES: I'm building a pocket knife handle.

PAUL SOLMAN: A pocket knife handle?

ANDREW LAKES: Yes, as you can see right here, I have a few prototypes, right now working on my finishing product.

PAUL SOLMAN: So this is -- you -- your finger goes there?

Is that... ANDREW LAKES: Yes.

PAUL SOLMAN: His first foray, a flop.

ANDREW LAKES: Here, you can say I went a little too deep.

PAUL SOLMAN: Right over there, huh?

ANDREW LAKES: Ended up breaking a tool.

PAUL SOLMAN: You broke a tool?

ANDREW LAKES: Yes, I broke the tool.

PAUL SOLMAN: Is that humiliating or... ANDREW LAKES: Yes, a little bit, but you learn from your mistakes and you learn to move on and what to do better next time.

PAUL SOLMAN: Rather more challenging, a working race buggy.

This is last year's model.

AMY GUTMANN FUENTES, College Student: Next year's car, which is what I'm working on and is what I'm designing, is going to be so small that it's going to be able to fit inside of this car.

PAUL SOLMAN: Amy Gutmann Fuentes, also a student here.

And you're going to build the whole thing?

AMY GUTMANN FUENTES: Yes.

PAUL SOLMAN: And then what do you do with it?

AMY GUTMANN FUENTES: Then we will race it.

PAUL SOLMAN: In the spring at college Baja competitions like this one.

And how do you expect to do with one of these things in the spring?

AMY GUTMANN FUENTES: I think we're going to crush it because we're one of two or three community colleges that compete alongside these major universities with huge budgets, and we have done pretty well.

So I think this new car is going to be, like, the best.

PAUL SOLMAN: Baja racers and knife handles are just a few lures for students to attend this program and acquire skills for America's supposed manufacturing renaissance.

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. President: We're going to launch a historic buildup of American manufacturing muscle and might.

PAUL SOLMAN: But there's a big problem.

What we hear, what we read is that there's a real shortage of people going into manufacturing, while lots of people are retiring from manufacturing.

ZANE DECKER: Yes.

PAUL SOLMAN: Not the case?

ZANE DECKER: It's absolutely the case.

We have all these people retiring that have the skills.

We have got this younger generation that there's a big skills gap, where we need to get this younger generation to replace these people who are retiring.

PAUL SOLMAN: Where better to get the skill than at America's community colleges, where nearly nine million students pay a tiny fraction the cost of a four-year degree?

And how much does it cost to be here?

ANDREW LAKES: For me, it costs about three grand a semester.

PAUL SOLMAN: For a job that pays?

ANDREW LAKES: After I graduate, I'm expected to make about $26 to $27 on the hour.

PAUL SOLMAN: So $26, $27 an hour, $50,000, $60,000 a year, right?

ANDREW LAKES: Roughly, yes.

PAUL SOLMAN: And for around here, that's good money?

ANDREW LAKES: Yes, especially for someone my age.

PAUL SOLMAN: Especially for starting pay in Ohio.

MONICA POSEY, President, Cincinnati State Technical and Community College: We really emphasize preparing students for the work force of the future, because our job is to meet the needs of the local economy.

PAUL SOLMAN: Monica Posey, president of Cincinnati State.

MONICA POSEY: Eighty-five to 90 percent of our students stay in this area and work.

And we have great partnership with employers and they tell us what they need, what we should be investing in, what we should do.

PAUL SOLMAN: But -- and here's the crux of this story -- Zane Decker's classes are undersubscribed, cutting-edge skills, good jobs, lack of workers nationwide, and yet not enough young people in the pipeline.

How many of you think that people like yourselves aren't here because manufacturing is uncool?

Uncool?

No?

Because it's too hard?

Really, almost everybody.

Because they just don't know about it?

That too.

I put the same questions to the teacher, Zane Decker.

ZANE DECKER: We have got to work on changing and really having people realize that, if you look around the shop, it's not all that dirty.

People are out there challenging themselves.

They're spending half the time on the computer, half the time on the shop floor.

I think if we can show young people that this is a viable career and the training is available for it, we can fill that gap.

PAUL SOLMAN: But we're not.

We're nowhere near there yet, right?

ZANE DECKER: Yes, we're not there yet.

I think a lot of it is just the stigma around this field and getting people to realize that it's a much nicer job than it used to be 50 years ago.

PAUL SOLMAN: And, as President Monica Posey says, Cincinnati State gets federal and state funding to do so.

MONICA POSEY: We're recruiting and we're doing everything we can to invest in it, but we also know that we need to recast manufacturing in terms of student and families, their attitude about the industry.

PAUL SOLMAN: But still not an easy sell, even with incentives like this one, which literally anybody can drive, and, if you spend four semesters here while prepping to propel America's proposed manufacturing future, you can even build.

For the "PBS News Hour," Paul Solman, risking my neck to amuse you in Cincinnati, Ohio.

GEOFF BENNETT: The small budget indie flick "Anora" was the biggest winner at last night's Academy Awards.

It won five Oscars, including for best picture, best director, and best actress.

Mikey Madison won for her portrayal of the title character, becoming one of the youngest to win in that latter category.

Stephanie Sy has more for our arts and culture series, Canvas.

STEPHANIE SY: "Anora" tells the story of a New York sex worker who falls in love with the son of a wealthy Russian oligarch.

Produced with just $6 million, the film was directed, written, edited and produced by Sean Baker, who swept those categories and is now tied with Walt Disney for the most Oscars won in a single night.

For more on Sean Baker's sweep and other highlights from the Oscars, I'm joined by Justin Chang, a film critic at "The New Yorker" who also reviews movies for NPR's "Fresh Air."

Justin, welcome back to the "News Hour."

So what did you think of the Oscars this year, and, in particular, the success of "Anora," which, as I understand it, takes on a marginalized community, and at least I have read destigmatizes and humanizes sex work?

JUSTIN CHANG, "The New Yorker": Yes, thank you, Stephanie.

It absolutely does that.

And this is something that has been very meaningful to Sean Baker throughout his career.

He has repeatedly and consistently made really interesting, smart movies about sex worker characters, "Starlet," "Tangerine," "Red Rocket."

And so he is not a filmmaker many of us critics who have been championing his great work for many years who necessarily was inevitably in line for an Oscar win.

So it's really gratifying that he won, that a movie as strong as "Anora" winning five Oscars, and in all those categories that you mentioned, winning four Oscars for Baker alone and best actress for Mikey Madison, it's pretty remarkable.

I also think that many of us feel this is one of the better outcomes to a very long, fraught and controversy-plagued season that we are all extremely happy is over.

STEPHANIE SY: Justin, this isn't the first time in recent years we have seen a small-budget indie film win best picture.

And we also saw multiple wins, including best actor, go to "The Brutalist" starring Adrien Brody.

What has changed in the academy to bring these films to the forefront?

JUSTIN CHANG: I think that the academy is becoming a more diverse membership, a more international membership, due to concerted efforts to diversify its ranks.

It's a younger group, a more globally minded group.

Many members now live outside the U.S. And I think their taste has actually become more sophisticated.

This is not the first time, as you say, Stephanie, that an independent low-budget film has won best picture.

And I think that both "Anora" and "The Brutalist" speak to the high regard for these movies, even if they aren't setting the box office on fire.

Both movies made for $10 million or less, as the filmmakers have been drawing attention to.

Both movies have grossed about $40 million worldwide.

It's a very good thing that the Academy is able to separate big hits from excellent movies.

And that's why I'm very grateful that "Wicked" did not win best picture last night, one of a few reasons, actually.

STEPHANIE SY: That would have been a much more traditional choice, in a sense.

Speaking of that, I want to talk about best documentary feature, which went to "No Other Land."

That chronicles Israeli demolitions of Palestinian homes in the West Bank.

Even in Hollywood, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been a third rail.

And this film doesn't even have a U.S. distributor.

What statement did the academy send with this award?

JUSTIN CHANG: I think it was a brilliant choice of a brilliant movie for this award.

It is pretty unheard of for a movie that has had trouble securing U.S. distribution to be even in contention, serious contention, for an Oscar.

And I hope it speaks to Hollywood, and not just Hollywood, but just the -- throughout the industry, throughout the country a willingness to look certain realities of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the face, which is what this movie bravely does.

And so I really applaud the choice.

I think Yuval Abraham and Basel Adra gave the best, most important, most searingly political speech of the night.

And I hope that "No Other Land" is as widely seen as it deserves to be.

STEPHANIE SY: Justin Chang, the film critic at "The New Yorker."

Thanks so much for sharing your take with us, Justin.

JUSTIN CHANG: Thank you for having me, Stephanie.

Always a pleasure.

GEOFF BENNETT: Be sure to join us tomorrow night.

We will be here with live coverage and analysis of President Trump's address to a joint session of Congress.

That starts at 9:00 p.m. Eastern.

And that is the "News Hour" for tonight.

I'm Geoff Bennett.

For all of us here at the "PBS News Hour," thanks for spending part of your evening with us.