amna: good evening. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett. on the “newshour” tonight, 80 years after the allied invasion, world leaders converge on the beaches of normandy to mark the anniversary of d-day. amna: dozens are killed by an israeli strike on a united nations' school building in gaza as hamas rejects the latest

ceasefire proposal. geoff: and attorney general merrick garland pushes back against republican attacks on the justice department. ♪ >> major funding for the "pbs newshour" has been provided by. ♪ >> moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf. the engine that connects us.

>> carnegie corporation of new york, working to reduce political polarization through philanthropic support for education, democracy, and peace. more information at carnegie.org. and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. geoff: welcome to the “newshour.” president biden is in normandy, france today to mark 80 years

since the d-day landings ushered in the bloody final chapter of world war ii. but today he also pointed to the urgent threats once again raging in europe, this time in ukraine. amna: and while the specter of that brutal war haunts europe now, it was for the hundreds of veterans of the longest day that these ceremonies were most poignant. both mr. biden and french president emmauel macron extolled the uncommon valor of ordinary men and women who accomplished the extraordinary some 80 years ago. today, we are as from d-day as d-day was from the height of the american civil war. but the history made on those bluffs above the wide beaches of normandy feels closer still. here's malcolm brabant, in northern france. malcolm: 80 years ago, these veterans counted their life expectancy in minutes, yet, here they were, back at omaha beach, 100 years old or thereabouts.

among those greeting president biden, who was 18 months old on d-day, was 99-year-old staff sergeant george mullins, of the 101st airborne. he landed on utah beach in a glider and fought through europe for 11 months until he reached hitler's eagle's nest in berchtesgaden, germany. the president drew on the heroism of the greatest generation and the liberation of france, to implicitly warn against the isolationism of donald trump, and send a message to russia's president putin. >> the struggle between a dictatorship and freedom is unending. here in europe we see one stark example. ukraine has been invaded by a tyrant bent on domination. malcolm: the audience was unaware that president zelenskyy

was in normandy. >> you are the savior of the people. yes you are. >> the united states and nato and a coalition of more than 50 countries standing strong with ukraine. we will not walk away. malcolm: invoking the veterans' courage and sacrifice, the president said it would be a betrayal of their example to abandon ukraine. >> remember, the price of unchecked tyranny is the blood of the young and the brave. malcolm: france's president emmanuel macron concentrated on the valor of america's warriors, 11 of whom were awarded the legion of honor, the french equivalent of a knighthood. >> here you come, to join with our own soldiers, and to make france a free nation. and you are back here today, at

home, if i may say. [speaking in french] malcolm: 101-year-old engineer calvin shiner from texas, first invaded italy, then france, carried on through to germany, and in the dying months of the war, he worked on reconstruction. the abiding message from this historic day was that every man had a tale to tell and we have a responsibility to pass it on. this cemetery possesses a story of valor kept secret for decades. here lies sergeant eugene fuller, who tried to neutralize a german howizter shelling allied-held beaches. he hid close by and radioed the gun's position to american planes. their bombs fell short and fuller was killed, a week after he displayed true gallantry during the landings and beyond. as you can see from the gravestone, eugene fuller was

not the sergeant's real name. he took an alias, or a nom de guerre, to protect himself, just in case he was captured by the nazis and tortured. his real name was eugene von kagerer-stein. and the cross on the grave might lead you to believe that he was a christian, but he wasn't. he was an austrian jew who belonged to a secret group of commanders called x troop, made up of scores of jews who escaped from hitler's third reich and sought vengeance. this band of predominantly german and austrian jews was transformed into a fearsome commando unit by captain bryan hilton jones, a tough mountaineer. earlier this week, in north wales, hilton jones' daughter, nerys pipkin, unveiled a plaque commemorating x troop. >> they were selected out of over 350 applicants for their intelligence, their knowledge,

their fluency of german, and their absolute hatred of hitler. >> for men like my father, the motivation was that this was a personal war. malcolm: x trooper peter masters revealed his comrades' exploits in a book called "striking back." his daughter is kim masters, editor at large of the hollywood reporter. >> my father wanted nothing more than to fight germans, and d-day was the big one. malcolm: 80 years ago, on d-day, inspired by the lone piper, bill millins, whose legendary courage was commemorated today, x trooper peter masters waded ashore. he had a bicycle on his back and was ordered to pedal several miles through hostile territory to pegasus bridge, a key allied objective, taken earlier by british paratroopers. >> my father had the hero's story, and it was really important to him to send the message that jews didn't go, as he would put it, like lambs to the slaughter, that they fought back. this group of men in the british

army undertook a very hazardous duty. they had a battle to win. i mean, they were fighting not only for the world, but for themselves. malcolm: balcombe in southern england is where fuller lived with his wife and young son, before d-day. villagers are constantly reminded of the horrors of war. their community hall contains unique frescoes depicting the trenches of world war i. in remembrance corner of the parish church, sergeant eugene fuller's true identity can be found. until now his story wasn't common knowledge. but finally, this coming sunday, the congregation will learn that eugen von kageren stein fought back. today's anniversary has been the emotional highlight for thousands of world war ii enthusiasts who've flooded the battlefields with their vintage vehicles and uniforms. but brent mullins, who heads the museum of the american gi in college station, texas, is

troubled by what he perceives as sabre rattling over ukraine. >> it's as if the politicians haven't learned a thing about diplomacy and brinksmanship. and i'm afraid, just like in all the previous wars, the united states is going to be dragged into it. ♪ malcolm: "taps," the bugle call that signals lights out, on a day that will live in the memory for eternity. for the pbs “newshour,” i'm malcolm brabant in normandy. ♪ geoff: in the day's other headlines, communities across

several states are surveying the damage from severe storms and tornadoes that swept through late wednesday. in a suburb of detroit, a tornado that struck without warning killed a toddler when it knocked a large tree into a bedroom. in eastern ohio, a separate twister toppled trees and tore buildings apart. officials there said the damage is unprecedented. >> houses that are missing their roofs, missing walls, some just a complete loss, they're just laying in piles. vehicles being moved to the yard next door, across the street. it is almost like a movie, things that we haven't seen in this town. geoff: and in maryland, a driver caught the moment a twister ripped through an intersection. those storms left a trail of destruction, and injured at least five people. a federal judge ordered steve bannon to report to prison by july 1 to serve a four-month sentence for his contempt of congress conviction. that means the former trump adviser could be behind bars

during a large part of the run-up to the november election. bannon said he would take the case to the supreme court, if needed. he was convicted in 2022 of two misdemeanor counts of contempt of congress, for defying a subpoena from the house committee investigating the january 6 capitol attacks. the jury in hunter biden's criminal trial heard testimony from hallie biden today. she's the widow of hunter biden's late brother, beau biden. hallie and hunter biden were romantically involved after beau's death, and she disposed of the gun at the heart of the case. she told jurors today about hunter biden's drug use, as well as her own. but she said she never saw him using drugs around the time he bought the gun. hunter biden has pleaded not guilty to three felony charges accusing him of failing to disclose drug use when purchasing the weapon in 2018. meantime, president biden said in an interview with abc news that he would not pardon his son if he's convicted. ukrainian drones struck an oil

refinery and fuel depot overnight just inside the russian border. the attacks came as kyiv ramps up strikes inside russia, even as moscow escalates its own offensive on ukraine's northeastern region of kharkiv. president biden, in that same interview with abc news, also said ukraine's use of u.s. weapons would remain limited to defending kharkiv. and he made it clear that russia's capital is off-limits. >> they're authorized to be used in proximity to the border when they're being used on the other side of the border to attack specific targets in ukraine. we are not authorizing strikes 200 miles into russia. we're not authorizing strikes on moscow, on the kremlin. geoff: separately, france is set to provide ukraine with fighter jets to help the country defend itself against russian attacks. voting in the european union's parliamentary elections kicked off today. the dutch were the first of the 27 nation bloc to cast their ballots. exit polls suggest that the anti-immigration party for

freedom is making large gains. far-right movements are expected to perform well across europe. the eu elections are the world's second-biggest democratic exercise, behind only india. nearly 400 million voters will select 720 members of the european parliament. results will be announced on sunday. the european central bank cut its key interest rate for the first time since 2019 today, amid signs that efforts to control inflation have proven successful. the benchmark deposit rate was cut from a record 4%, down to 3.75%. it follows similar moves by canada, switzerland, and sweden. the u.s. federal reserve has been reluctant to cut rates though, with inflation still running above the fed's 2% target. on wall street today, stocks closed mixed. the dow jones industrial average rose nearly 79 points to close at 38,886. the nasdaq fell nearly 15 points. and the s&p 500 ended virtually flat.

and for spacex today, it was the fourth time's the charm, as its starship rocket completed its first successful test-flight. three prior attempts ended in explosions. the world's biggest and most powerful rocket blasted off from texas early this morning. the hour-long flight ended with a successful splashdown in the indian ocean. nasa has ordered two starships for moon-landing missions planned for later this decade. spacex hopes to use them to transport tourists to the moon and eventually mars. separately, boeing's starliner capsule docked with the international space station today, after a brief delay due to thruster problems. that means there are now two u.s.-made crew spacecraft docked at the iss, boeing's starliner, and the spacex dragon capsule endeavour. still to come on the “newshour”" the neighbor at the heart of justice alito's flag controversy accuses him of lying about what happened. the author of a new book discusses his chronicling the allied invasion of normandy through oral history.

and a public artist captures time and place in his sculptures. >> this is the "pbs newshour" from weta studios in washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. amna: today, israeli missiles struck a u.n. school building, where displaced palestinians have been sheltering since the october 7 attack. israel says it killed hamas militants there. but palestinians in the building say the victims were mostly women and children. nick schifrin has our story, and a warning, some of the images in this piece are disturbing. nick: the classroom, that became a shelter, is now shattered. two israeli munitions hit their target, a room designed for the displaced, where they slept. and where many have lived for months. outside the local hospital, a mother's grief.

frial zedan lost her 17-year-old son mahmoud. >> there's nothing here but people, just people trying to live. why are you doing this to us? nick: mahmoud's sister, seham, is inconsolable. >> why would they bomb the school? why would they bomb any school? where do we go? there's no place to go to where they don't drop missiles down on us. where do we go? nick: in another family too young to understand why. old enough to mourn. palestinian health officials affiliated with hamas say a dozen victims were women and children. but the israeli military said, and informed the u.s. in a private briefing, that the classroom had been taken over by 20 to 30 hamas and palestinian islamic jihad militants who participated in the october 7 terrorist attacks, planned quote, imminent attacks, and

turned the three classrooms in the u.n. school into their command and control. israel said it dropped small bombs, that did not damage nearby rooms, or kill civilians. in a briefing, the rear admiral displayed the names of hamas members who'd been killed. >> hamas hopes the international law and public sympathy will provide a shield for their military activities, which is why they systematically operate from schools, u.n. facilities, hospitals, and mosques. nick: today, state department spokesman matt miller called on israel to be transparent. >> even if the intent is what the idf has said publicly, that they were trying to use a precision strike just to target 20 to 30 militants, if you have seen 14 children die in that strike, that shows that something went wrong. that said, these are all facts that need to be verified. nick: back in the hospital, samia al-maqadmeh cradles her son imad, who was rescued from the rubble. >> what did we do?

there are no armed people in the school. there are children who play, like us. children. why did they bomb us? i want to know why. where should we go? nick: israel said it has struck five u.n. facilities being used by hamas as a shield in the last month alone. the u.n. said today that since the war began, 180 of its buildings have been struck, killing more than 450 of the displaced. amna: this leads us all to wonder what is the status of the cease-fire talks? i know you have been reporting on those previously that in the first phase it would halt war for six weeks, released 30 or so hostages. where those talks? nick: officials told me that qatari and egyptian mediators have met with hamas in the last 24 hours. the administration official i spoke to called the talks constructive and say formal response to the israel-backed president biden announced plan could come in the next few days. but behind the scenes diplomats from the region and analysts are very pessimistic, in part

because of the public statements both sides are making. hamas continues to demand the transition in that three-phase plan from phase one to phase two including permanent guaranteed cease-fire is something of course we have been talking about hamas has been demanding for a long time. the deal only has an israeli commitment to maintain a temporary cease-fire. on the others, israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu continues to say his demand is the quote, elimination of hamas. so the public divide continues. but a u.n. diplomat tells me both sides appear to be more interested in blaming the other side for a failure in the talks than actually making any progress. and some u.s. officials are increasingly worried that netanyahu wants wthe -- wants the war to continue until the u.s. elections because he believes he can get a better deal under a president trump. but the u.s. is continuing to

try to keep diplomatic pressure today. the white house released a statement from 16 countries, many of whose citizens are still hostages. quote, there is time to lose. we call on hamas to close this agreement and begin the process of releasing our citizens. the u.s. is also trying to get through a u.n. security council resolution that would back these principles and the hostage deal, but it is not clear israel is behind those either. amna: nick schifrin, thank you as always for your reporting. nick: thank you. ♪ amna: for months, former president donald trump and his allies have claimed without evidence that the biden administration has weaponized the department of justice to pursue prosecutions against him for purely political reasons. but as laura barron-lopez explains, the presumptive republican nominee has also

suggested a second trump term could see an escalation of those prosecutions. laura: amna, donald trump first called for his political enemies to be locked up during his 2016 campaign. now, he's forecasting plans to enact such threats if he returns to the white house. last night, fox news host sean hannity asked mr. trump to respond to criticism that he would seek retribution against his opponents. >> it has to stop, because otherwise, we're not going to have a country. look, when this election is over, based on what they've done, i would have every right to go after them, and it's easy, because it's joe biden and you see all the criminality, all of the money that's going into the family and him. laura: to discuss the rule of law and how a future president trump could upend it, i'm joined by ryan goodman, a professor at nyu law who previously served as special counsel at the department of defense. thank you so much for joining

us. there has been no evidence of president biden weaponizing the justice department. some of these prosecutions we should note our state prosecutions, not federal. what are the implications of trump's comments to fox news? ryan: they are very serious implications because the president of the united states is the commander-in-chief but also the top executive for the justice department. and has enormous power. so this is not just an idle threat. and we know from the first trump administration that he did try to make good on the threats like, for example, asking his attorney general jeff sessions to investigate and prosecute hillary clinton. so it is a very real concern for politicizing and weaponizing the justice department. laura: and when he asked jeff sessions to do that, sessions refused, according to robert mulder's report. so what is to stop president trump from doing that again,

potentially successfully, if he has a second term? ryan: at some level there might be very little to stop president trump from doing that again. we only found out as the public from the mueller report years later what he had tried to do with jeff sessions. even at the time, jeff sessions was recused from the very investigation itself with respect to hillary clinton. trump is saying un-recused yourself and do this. and president trump, according to the new york times, was directing attorney general barr to go after the investigation of the investigators, which ended up with nothing, and it was an embarrassment, no other word for it. when he had a more pliant attorney general. we only discovered that in a new york times 2023 article about how trump had driven them to do that years later. i think the forces that stood up against him in the past are not going to be the same when he has

learned much better about how to utilize the levers of power. laura: he can install loyalists across all of these agencies. i also want to ask you about comments from stephen miller, former senior advisor to then president trump. and he is still close to trump and he said on fox after the new york verdict, is every republican da starting every investigation they need to right now? every facet of republican party politics in power has to be used right now to go toe to toe with marxism and beat these communists, using common slurs that republicans do now for democrats. other trump allies have called for alvin bragg to be jailed. what are they essentially calling for here across the board? ryan: it is quite extraordinary. mr. miller himself i imagine will have a senior position in a second term administration if there is one. they are calling for a statement of attorney generals and local level district attorneys to just

indict people on the basis of politics. it is not as though mr. miller is citing criminality or actual crimes being committed. it is really extraordinary what he is saying rhetorically but i do not think it is pure rhetoric. the comparison with what alvin bragg has done in new york i think is stark. the way i look at the alvin bragg cases is a district attorney, what choice did he have? he was handed basically a case the southern district of new york said michael cohen was guilty of having acted on behalf of individual one, but they had not charged individual one. in the plea agreement michael cohen pleads to falsifying business records as part is the trump organization. so that is a very different crime base that alvin bragg was going off on and what stephen miller is saying is there hardly a word for it other than retribution and political retribution. this is really where he is at. i don't think there is any way

to otherwise interpret his words. laura: there have also been a lot of threats against judges, jurors, law enforcement. from your perspective as someone who served in government, what kind of damage has this already done to the judicial system, and what is at stake for the u.s. justice system in this election? ryan: i think our country is unfortunately entering a very dangerous period in which there are heightened threats of political violence and there have been skyrocketing threats against elected officials as well. and it is extraordinary to see how a former president of the united states has been placed under multiple gag's in order to protect the judiciary jurors and witnesses. and i think he is giving a license to other people to try and do the same. in new york he stopped doing it within surrogates seemed to be picking up the exact messaging that he had instead left to them to do. laura: ryan goodman of nyu law,

thank you for your time. ryan: thank you. ♪ geoff: a former neighbor of supreme court justice samuel alito said that, in her words, at worst, he's just outright lying, about his account of a neighborhood dispute that led to hoisting an upside-down american flag at his virginia home. the inverted flag is associated with the effort to overturn president biden's 2020 eleion win. justice alito has been in the spotlight over flying controversial flags at his homes, as first revealed by reporting from the new york times. our lisa desjardins joins us now. lisa, what's new here in this account? lisa: important details about the timeline is new but i also want to talk about why this matters. justice alito is currently sitting on two cases about january 6, one about former president trump's involvement. these cases could determine a lot about our future here. and also justice alito has

defended himself as saying his wife hoisted the flag. he said he will not recuse himself. it is solely up to him by the way. and he has said that under the supreme court's ethics code, what matters is that if someone is impartial and able to look at all the circumstances involved, if they think he could be fair than he should not recuse pretty so the circumstances matter because justice alito himself said they would. here's how he described what happened in a letter to did durbin. he wrote, a house on the street displayed a sign attacking my wife personally and a man prorated her in my presence using foul language including what i regard as a vilest epithet that can be addressed to a woman. now, a couple details in this. he said that is why his wife flew this flag, which could be a sign of distress. we know now from the neighbor who was involved that it was actually a woman who used that word about other women. and she says that the timeline was completely wrong. i want to take us through that

timeline now because that is important. it started january 6. that is when we saw upside down flags flying as the stop the steal movement attacked the capitol and moved inside to try and stop the presidential election count. soon after that alito's neighbors put up a sign that said you are complicit. they said it was not just about him but about people in general. alito's family took that as about being about them. january 17 is when we known upside down flag was flying at the alito home. the important piece here is alito said that was flying because of the confrontation. but now we know there is evidence that february 15 is actually when that confrontation happened, after the upside down flag had been flying. here's what that neighbor said to cnn. >> at best he is mistaken, but at worst he is just outright lying. the interaction that happened on february 15 is the one that they're using as an excuse for why they flew the flag.

and i really want to hammer home the fact that that happened on february 15, and their flag went up two or three weeks before that. lisa: so the question is, this sounds like a minor thing but it is a very big deal over exactly why this flag that was about something that attacked our democracy was flying over a supreme court justice's home. geoff: what role does congress have in all this? there are questions over whether or how congress could impose a tougher code of ethics on the supreme court. there are questions about the senate judiciary committee. will they hold a hearing, will they call justice alito or justice roberts to the hill to account for all of this? walk us through all of that. lisa: there are very loud calls from democrats, not just to call the justice, but to subpoena him. i spoke to the head of that committee, dick durbin, and he said the problem is they don't have that power. under the rules of the u.s. senate right now that was agreed to it is closely divided senate,

in order to issue a subpoena, it committee can do it by majority vote they cannot take any action unless at least two republicans come to that meeting. so the thinking is republicans could simply boycott that meeting. it would not happen, they cannot enforce it on the floor, which would also take 60 votes. it is important because constitutional checks and balances is not the balance here. it is senate rules. they could have a hearing and call other people. dick durbin has said he does not think there would be much reason to do that at this point. but he has said he thinks alito should recuse and here is what durbin said this week on the senate floor. >> displaying the upside-down american flag and appeal to heaven flag creates the appearance that justice alito has already aligned himself with the stop the steal campaign. he cannot credibly claim to be an umpire calling balls and strikes in these cases. lisa: durbin's committee is working on an investigation of all supreme court justices.

i am told they had hoped to release it soon but all of this with alito means there is new stuff to investigate. geoff: lisa desjardins, thank you so much. lisa: you are welcome. ♪ amna: as we've noted, today marks the 80th anniversary of d-day. for most, the allied invasion of normandy is an event in history. but a new book transports us back eight decades ago, hearing directly from those who lived history. garrett graff is its author, and i spoke with him recently about, "when the sea came alive." garrett, welcome back to the “newshour.” thanks for being here. garrett: it's a pleasure. amna: so, this is now the work of 18 months that you spent assembling what's the largest, most comprehensive compendium of first person testimonials from this historic day and event. you've compiled oral histories before, like your wonderful book on on 9/11 in particular. why did you think this format was necessary now for this

story? garrett: this is a moment where we have, for all intents and purposes, every first person memory that we are going to have of d-day. and so for me, this was a moment to try to retell the story of d-day in the voices of the participants themselves, as this event slips from memory into history and to try to make it come alive for a new generation that are not as familiar with the story of d-day. amna: "when the sea came alive." tell me where that comes from and why you chose that as the title. garrett: so, the title actually comes from a german defender at omaha beach, and it's his reaction to waking up that morning in the bunker and looking out at, what is all of a sudden to him, this sea packed with the allied ships as the invasion arrives off the coast of normandy. and i think to me, what the

title captures in some ways is the audacity of this operation. this is in many ways, i think, the most audacious human endeavor we have ever seen and probably may ever see in the rest of history as well. a allied combatants on the move, on d-day, the largest armada in the history of the world. 7000 ships crossing the channel overnight. and completely surprising the germans. the right up until the last minute, the secrecy of this event holds. amna: there are stories from voices who are forever etched in history, churchill, eisenhower, and the likes. but honestly, some of the most compelling lines in stories come from people whose names we've never heard of before. there's private first class george alex, who is a paratrooper, dropped into normandy just six hours ahead of the invasion. you quote him here in that moment saying, yes, i was afraid. i was 19 years old and i was afraid. and there's sergeant allan anderson, and he shares this

about preparing for the invasion. he said, quote, the army was prepared to accept 100% casualties for the first 24 hours. it was interesting that we all turned around and looked at each other and said, well, it's tough that you have to go. how did these men and the testimonials that you read from them think about their place in an operation of that kind of scale and scope as you described? garrett: we look back and we view d-day as this amazing, historic triumph of heroism and courage and bravery. when you hear from the soldiers crossing the channel on the night of june 5, the paratroopers flying across the channel that night, there's not a lot of heroism or bravery or courage that they're feeling in that moment. you know, they're lonely. they're scared. they're wondering if they're going to make it through to the end of the next day. amna: there's a story you tell about a man named waverly woodson junior, who was a black medic on omaha beach. why is his story important here?

garrett: waverly woodson, is, to me, one of the most fascinating characters of this book. he is a medic with the only black combat unit that lands on d-day, and is wounded before he even gets to shore and spends 30 hours on omaha beach treating the wounded before he is evacuated himself. he's one of what turns out to be a small handful of black soldiers in world war ii who are considered for the medal of honor. but amid the systemic racism of the segregated military in that moment, not a single black soldier in world war ii receives the medal of honor. and it's only been this week for the 80th anniversary that he has been awarded a very long overdue distinguished service cross, which is the nation's second highest award for combat valor. amna: garrett, it's also astonishing to weigh what this entire generation, the greatest

generation, carried with them for 80 years and in many cases, never talked about. there was one line from a member of the third canadian division, a lieutenant reg weeks, who you quote in here. he says, the thing i remember is that the people who had not been killed, the people who had gone ashore ahead of me, there was a look in their eye which i have never seen repeated under any circumstances. this is not a generation known for talking openly about this, right? garrett: when you go back through the history and the archives, so much of these oral histories were actually gathered between the 40th and the 50th anniversaries of d-day, 1984, 1994, which was the moment that i think the nation, thanks in part to ronald reagan's famous speech at pointe du hoc in 1984, really reckoned with the legacy that this generation delivered for us, the way that these people, these 19 year olds, these 21, 22-year-old sergeants leading them into battle, saved democracy. amna: there is a parallel a lot of people see between that time

in history and what we're living through now. did you see any of those parallels through what you researched, or did the people you talked to see that? garrett: absolutely. i thought a lot about, in researching and writing and editing this book, this modern moment and, both in terms of what's going on in europe, and the fight that europe is in right now about the future of european democracy, and then also our fight here at home. and this is a year that we're going to spend a lot of this year talking about what america is and what it isn't. and i think one of the ways that we can define that is what america is willing to fight for. amna: the author is garrett graff. the book is "when the sea came alive," an oral history of d-day. garrett, thank you so much for being here. garrett: my pleasure. ♪ geoff: it has been said that

public art is a reflection of how we see the world, the artist's response to our time and place. tonight, pamela watts of rhode island pbs weekly introduces us to an artist who has often combined those concepts, literally. the story is part of our arts and culture series, canvas. pamela: time, flies. for tens of thousands of drivers who travel every day on route 95 in providence, you can't miss the mischievous worker about to roll a clock right off the roof of the former brown and sharpe manufacturing company. "foundry clock man" is just one of the whimsical works of modern metal art created by contemporary sculptor peter diepenbrock. >> the sort of metaphor of it is why is time so dominating in our lives? time is totally dominating. you think about how we are obsessed with time of day, seasons, retirement, there's all these ways of dividing life up into time chunks.

it's a rejection of that. pamela: diepenbrock constructs most of his stainless steel pieces here in his home studio in jamestown. his is a curiosity shop of fanciful, quirky objects, hand-crafted items, as well as many maquettes, artists' preliminary models. diepenbrock's recent piece of public art is a almost 10 foot tall rabbit springing to life. >> the gesture is kind of a skating, flying bunny, which is sort of inspiring, hopefully to young people to live lightly in your own life. pamela: it's called ostara. translation, a celebration of new beginnings. >> life is so serious right now. the world is in such crisis, it seems like everywhere you look that we could use a little more humor and a little less dark subject matter.

pamela: constructing these structures has allowed him to be the architect of his own career. >> at the core of it is, i love making stuff. and so it's kind like, well, what could i make today? pamela: a native californian, diepenbrock discovered that love of making stuff in his father's woodshop at age five. and continued when he graduated from rhode island school of design, risd, in the mid 1980's. he has been successfully self-employed ever since. he has a cottage industry of metal tabletop giftware, all with humorous personalities. but in 2002, diprenbrok's art took a serious turn. >> a friend stopped by and said, peter, do you know about the 9/11 memorial competition? and i applied to that and won the competition. and that is what started the public art practice. pamela: as you first enter the rhode island state house, you pass diepenbrock's prestigious commission. he had only five months to

create it. >> the reference was 9/11, so there's nine layers of glass, and then the 11 is represented by what looks like the towers. but if you just see them graphically, 9/11 is embedded three dimensionally. it was going to weigh 4000 pounds and they had to reinforce the structure of the state house from below. it was intense. i mean, i can't even tell you how intense it was. pamela: another of his heavy metal sculptures can be found on the university of rhode island campus. torsion iii twists like the curl of an ocean wave. one of his recent works is drawing the public's eye in a new direction. this aerial mobile is the centerpiece of the lobby at hasbro children's hospital. >> the idea was to kind of create this arrangement of floating discs of glass and

color that would turn and project those colors all around the room in slow motion. pamela: like a rainbow. >> yeah, or a disco ball, but with little less jazzy. and the idea being recognizing that it's a high stress environment. if there's a metaphor there, it would be, what would healing look like? pamela: these days he's been trying his hand at plexiglass kinetics, how a piece revolves, has motion, movement, and balance. a work in progress? >> yeah, i don't think it's working. pamela: outside his studio are sculptures privately commissioned or just free form pieces. each with a story that he hopes will bring a community together. >> what i do love about public art as a category is it demands the whole spectrum. so you have to be able to write about it, you have to be able to speak about it, you have to be able to represent it and model. you have to transition it, you have to translate it, engineer it, actually build it as a

complete piece that's going to last for a couple hundred years. pamela: for the "pbs newshour," i'm pamela watts in jamestown, rhode island. ♪ amna: and we'll be back shortly for a brief but spectacular take on how to create cultures of growth. geoff: but first, take a moment to hear from your local pbs station. it's a chance to offer your support, which helps keep programs like the “newshour” on the air. ♪ amna: for those of you staying with us, the on again, off again diplomatic relations between the u.s. and cuba have made it much harder for cuban musicians to travel to the u.s. for this summer's music festivals. special correspondent mike cerre reports from havana in this encore report for our arts and culture series, canvas.

mike: since the broad-based success of the 1999 "buena vista social club" film and album celebrating cuban musicians, there has been a succession of virtuoso, cuban musicians like roberto fonseca, who have regularly played major music festivals and venues throughout the u.s. >> the united states is a great and important platform for young musicians. mike: but changes in u.s. visa procedures are making it more difficult for this current generation of cuban musicians, like rodrigo garcia ameneiros and his wife tania haase solarzano. they've spent much of the past year trying to get visas to play at festivals and schools in the united states they've been invited to. >> we don't have a guarantee, and we are trying to but, yes, it's hard to process.

mike: like most cuban jazz musicians, rodrigo and tania are classically trained graduates of cuba's national music schools they attended from elementary school through college. they've spent the majority of their lives preparing for professional music careers and joining the ranks of cuba's world class musicians. >> eight years or 10, we start in the school, like a career. at that age you are not thinking of a career, but we had that -- >> opportunity. >> opportunity, yeah. but also, like, a responsibility. mike: during the last week of the trump administration in 2020, the u.s. shut down its embassy in havana, accusing cuba of state supported terrorism. since then, most cuban musicians now have to travel to a third country with a u.s. embassy just to apply for a visa. >> it's devastating. emotionally and otherwise. the toll is at so many levels.

mike: immigration attorney bill martinez helped get the original buena vista social club musicians into the u.s. for their celebrated carnegie hall debut in 1998. he continues helping them and other cuban musicians work through their visa application nightmares. >> the big change is that administrative processing, which happens after the consular interviews, is causing long delays and sometimes resulting in the cancellation of tours. mike: and is it predictable? do you know when you apply for a visa, how long it's going to take? >> you can never know. it's absolutely unpredictable. mike: at this year's annual havana international jazz festival, held every january, for showcasing cuban and other international artists, american music promoters were struggling to book cuban performers for their upcoming festivals due to visa issues. >> you have to have the visa in order to get the booking.

it's like a double edge sword, which comes first, the chicken or the egg? mike: kevin ball and lonnie smith represent jazz festivals in north carolina and texas. rodrigo's uncle and teacher, pianist aldo lopez gavilan, started playing major summer music festivals like this one in napa valley in 2017, after the obama administration started normalizing relations and travel protocols with cuba. but most of them were reversed by his successor, and the biden administration has done little to lift the new restrictions during an election year. >> if you call me tomorrow and tell me, can you be in san francisco next week to work? of course not. we have to do it with a lot of time. mike: while they waited indefinitely for their visas, american audiences could only see them perform in old havana's tourist restaurants, which have also been impacted by the added

u.s. restrictions on americans and foreigners traveling to cuba. their band is paid in cash, and in meals, which have become even more valuable this year due to the government's latest round of food price hikes and rationing. >> we know of cases of musicians going out of the country, not because they don't want to be here, because it's pretty hard to get a job. mike: most of the cast for last year's off-broadway musical revival of the buena vista social club film were cuban musicians who had previously left their country for professional reasons. according to the u.s. customs and border patrol, nearly a half a million cubans are believed to have migrated to the u.s. in just the last two years due to their declining local economy. >> but our proposal at this moment is to live here in cuba

and to go and just return at the end. i think that's about love to the family, to our home, and also to our country. mike: as headliners at this year's havana jazz festival, rodrigo's mother and tania's extended music families joined them on stage to honor cuba's rich musical history and culture they are dedicated to preserving. >> this concert is about the history of the country, talking about loss. how we suffer sometimes with immigration. it's a place to be happy and also to cry together. >> we are always hoping that it will be better for all of us. >> i mean, i think that the restrictions are just stopping the interchange between one and the other people. a lot of culture is being stopped.

mike: after intensive lobbying by festival promoters and government officials on both sides of the process, rodrigo and tania received educational and cultural visas to salvage some of their american invitations. as long as they don't get paid to perform in the u.s. for the "pbs newshour," i'm mike cerre in havana, cuba. ♪ amna: professor mary c. murphy is a social psychologist whose new book, "cultures of growth," explores what specific traits can make individuals, and teams successful. tonight, in this encore broadcast, murphy shares her brief but spectacular take on how to create cultures of growth. mary: cultures of genius are really problematic. if you google the word "genius," you're going to see a lot of einstein.

you might see some thomas edison or a steve jobs. you might even see elon musk. they're all white, they're all male. you don't see women. you don't see people of color, lgbtqia people. you don't see people with disabilities. and so, what we see over and over is that these cultures of genius really focus on who fits that narrow mold. and it has consequences. i grew up in san antonio, texas, as part of a bicultural, hispanic working class family. i think that in american culture we all like to think that we are independent agents, but i think we under-appreciate how much the world shapes us, and how much the cues in the environment tell us, are we valued? are we respected? do we have what it takes or don't we? and we all have the power to create these environments around us. and we have to do that. as a researcher, i focus on how our environment and the cues within them shape our

motivation, and our engagement. and i figure out how we can recreate these environments. the fixed mindset holds that talent and ability and intelligence are relatively fixed traits. you either have them or you don't. you're a math person or you're not, you're acreative person or you're not. and the growth mindset is often seen as the opposite. it holds that we have universal potential. the book i wrote is called "cultures of growth." the work that we've been doing has really shown us that mindset is not just a quality of our minds. it's also a feature of groups, teams, schools, and companies, and that when we can build these inclusive cultures of growth, we will create environments where everyone thrives. how i know i'm in a strong culture of growth is that i see people collaborating, and they're excited when new and novel and innovative ideas come from anywhere. sometimes all it takes is for other people to see who we really are and what we're capable of.

my name is mary murphy, and this is my brief but spectacular take on how we create cultures of growth. amna: and you can watch more brief but spectacular videos online at pbs.org/newshour/brief. geoff: and that's the “newshou”" for tonight. i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i'm amna nawaz. on behalf of the entire “newshour” team, thank you for joining us. >> major funding for the "pbs newshour" has been provided by. the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions, and friends of the "newshour," including leonard and norma klorfine, and the judy and peter blum kovler foundation. >> a law partner rediscovers her grandmother's artistry and creates a trust to keep the craft alive. a raymondjames financial advisor gets to know you, your passions, and the way you enrich your community. life well planned.

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♪ hello, everyone, and welcome to "amanpour and company." here's what's coming up. >> there is a world wide migrant crisis, and if the united states doesn't secure our border, there's no limit to the number of people who may try to come here. >> biden takes executive action on the border. we delve into what it means for people there and for election year politics. then