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tv   PBS News Hour  KQED  June 7, 2024 3:00pm-4:01pm PDT

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♪ geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i'm amna nawaz. the latest jobs report shows an unexpected surge in hiring. we look at how young people are reengage in with the workforce.
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geoff: we take a closer look at donald trump's search for a running mate. who is on the short list? amna: and a theater company that focuses on contemporary issues focuses on public health after the pandemic. >> we look at not just what happened over the last four years but how we ensure it does not happen again. >> major funding for "the pbs newshour" has been provided by the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions and friends of "the newshour," including jim and nancy build there and the rob and nancy schiller foundation, the judy and peter blinkova live foundation, upholding freedom by strengthening democracies at home and abroad.
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>> cunard is a proud supporter of public television. on a voyage with cunard, the world awaits. i world of flavor, diverse destinations, and immersive experiences. a world of leisure and british style, all with cunard's one-star service. >> the john s. and james. knight on dacian, fostering engaged and informed communities. -- foundation, fostering engaged and informed communities. more at kf.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of "the newshour."
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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 publicly apologized today for the months-long delay in getting u.s. military aid to ukraine. his comments came during his visit to france when he also announced a new $225 million secured a package for kyiv. amna: it is the vine administration's sixth round of security assistance for ukraine since the president signed a broader security package in april. the measure also included funds for israel and taiwan and had been held up in congress for six months. in a meeting with ukrainian president of a lot of her zelenskyy in paris today, president biden said he is sorry for the wait.
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>> i apologize for the weeks of not knowing what's going to happen in terms of funding because we had trouble getting the bill we had to pass that had the money in it because some of our very conservative members were holding it up. amna: later, the president paid tribute to the army rangers who stormed the beaches of normandy as he stood on the very cliffs they scaled 80 years ago. he invoked are sacrificed to call for the defense of democracy in the u.s. and abroad. the u.s. military says it has reconnected ap or -- reconnected a pier to deliver eight in gaza that was destroyed last month. it took two months to build and had only been in operation for about a week when it was damaged. u.s. central command says deliveries are expected to resume in the coming days. meanwhile, in central gaza,
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palestinians mourned outside of a hospital after the latest round of deadly israeli airstrikes. health officials say at least 18 people were killed overnight, including 4 children and one woman. supreme court justice clarence thomas has disclosed two luxury trips from 2019 that were partially paid for by republican mega donor harlan crow. justice thomas said the trips to bali, indonesia, and to california's wine country work " inadvertently omitted" from a previous disclosure. the bali trip was part of a report last year that led to renewed focus on the court's ethics. eight of the nine justices provided new disclosures, including tonja brent jackson, who received $900,000 for her upcoming memoir and beyonce tickets, gifted by the singer herself -- including canton g brown jackson -- including ket anji brown jackson.
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the pair are alleged to have been part of an effort to summit the names of fake electors from arizona to congress after the 2020 election in a bid to keep trump in office. joe biden won arizona by more than 10,000 votes. the biden administration is raising fuel economy standards for new cars according to updated rules from the national highway traffic safety administration. light-duty vehicles must meet an average of 50.4 miles per gallon by model year 2031. officials say the rules will save americans more than $23 billion in fuel costs. for passenger cars, this will require an increase in fuel economy but 2% each year starting with 2027 models, and it involves a similar increase for suv's and other like trucks starting in 2029. the new requirements are well below the levels the administration initially proposed last year. the u.s. labor market remains on
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strong footing. new data showed the economy added 272,000 jobs last month, more than expected. hourly wages also rose in may, gaining 4.1% from a year ago. in the meantime, the unemployment rate ticked up to 4%, a level not seen since early 2022. economists say the relatively strong report will likely give the u.s. federal reserve further reason to hold off on cutting interest rates for now. on wall street today, stocks slipped on the heels of those job numbers. the dow jones industrial average dropped 87 points to close just under 38,800. the nasdaq fell nearly 40 points. the s&p 500 finished down nearly six points. and pat sajak's turn as the host of "wheel of fortune" is coming to an end. his final episode airs tonight after 41 years at the helm. the 77-year-old has been a fixture on our television screens through seven presidents and the rise of streaming tv. through it all, he has coolly
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walked contestants through the hangman-style game with longtime partner vanna white turning the letters. he will be replaced by tv personality ryan seacrest, who makes his debut in timber. on behalf of countless fans across america, i would just like to say, pat, i would like to buy a vowel. still to come, david brooks and jonathan capehart weigh in on the weeks political headlines and college commencement speakers offer words of wisdom to the class of 2024. >> this is "the pbs newshour," from weta studios in washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state diversity. amna: -- arizona state university. amna: the leisure and hospitality sector has been growing at a steady clip and added over 42,000 jobs, and encouraging prospect for teenagers who are looking for a
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job this summer. kane jobs overall have -- teen jobs overall have been making a comeback. the percentage of 16 to 19-year-olds who have a job or were looking for one hit a high of 38% in may. to discuss the rise in teenage employment, i'm joined by an associate professor at northeastern university in the school of public policy and urban affairs. welcome and thanks for joining us. >> dank's for having me. >> other than a dip in the pandemic, teenage -- >> thanks for having me. >> this 38% figure is something we have not seen since 2009. what is behind that? >> exactly. we have been seeing as we are coming out of the pandemic and increase every summer in particular among teenagers aged 16 to 19 where -- with their labor force participation.
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we are seeing rates around 38%, as you mentioned, 4 percentage points higher even than what we saw prior to the pandemic, so this really is evidence of a strong hiring demand that we have seen coming out of the pandemic as well as adults moving into other jobs, freeing up those entry-level positions for younger workers. amna: strong higher demand on one side, but among teens, are these people getting jobs looking for cash or out of necessity? >> it is a combination of both. we have seen entry-level wages rising, which makes them more attractive to young people. at the same time, we have to be honest about the inflationary pressures we have seen on households, particularly low income households where low income youth are contributing to households paying for household bills like rent, utilities, groceries, and also it's of other expenses. at the same time, these opportunities have gotten a little bit better, so it's not
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just dishing out ice cream cones at the local place, but it's also more managerial positions, more positions with responsibility and more interesting kind of jobs then we have seen in the past. amna: for context, i want to point out that these rates are not close to the teenage employment rates we saw among boomers or gen xers, as high as 60% labor participation back then. do you think we are likely to see those nubbers again with gen z? -- do you think we are likely to see those numbers again? >> i don't think so. pretty much every wave of recession we have seen since then, we see those rates drop because youth are typically the last to be hired and first to be fired, but they have never quite recovered back to pre-pandemic levels until now, post-covid. one of the reasons we have been seeing this steady decline in youth employment has been a couple of changes going on in the labor market. a lot of the jobs teenagers used
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to do have been automated or outsourced. think about your blockbuster video store. we don't have those anymore. or those automated grocery checkout lanes that annoy all of us, right? we don't see teenagers staffing those anymore. even if you look around your neighborhood, it's mostly immigrant labor that's growing instead of teenagers. the second thing is employers have become more picky and states have been regulating youth employment more, so we see that you need to have not just a signature from your employer on your work permit, but also in them cases, your school, your physician. also working fewer hours. that just makes other sources of labor more attractive to employers. finally, we see more youth in middle and upper income households doing a lot of other things, right? aside from working that might look good on an application. they are volunteering, traveling, having precollege experiences. i don't think we will quite get back to the levels we saw in the 1970's and 1980's, but i'm really encouraged by the opportunities we have in seeing
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coming out of covid so at least we are getting back to a position where youth who want to work and want to find a job can do so. amna: we are approaching this through an economic lens, but i wonder what this says to you socially. >> i think there has definitely been a bit of a backlash in terms of the college for all mentality. it's great that we have young people going to college in record numbers, but those enrollment rates dipped during the pandemic for a couple of different reasons, including financial constraints, but also recognition that not everybody needs to go to college to have a good paying job or even to contribute to society, so we have seen the rise of vocational technical education. we have seen apprenticeships and see more teenagers coming out of high school and getting some job experience before they decide what they want to do for their careers. i think that combination of learn and earn is a key trend we will see going into the future. amna: fascinating insight, a
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look into who we are right now. thank you so much for your time. >> thanks for having me. geoff: former president trump says he will choose a running mate in the next few weeks and will likely unveil his pick at a major turning point in the campaign. >> i think i will announce who that person is going to be during the convention. i think that is pretty normal. it will be an interesting period of time. geoff: lisa desjardins has been covering the trump campaign. who seems to be under consideration? lisa: this is basically a political reality show from a man who started a reality show -- who starred in a reality show. he is dropping a lot of names. >> tim scott -- he has been much better for me that he was for himself.
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i watched his campaign, and he does not like talking about himself, but, boy, does he talk about trump. doug burgum has been incredible. the country is lucky to have him. you could take people like ben carson, people like marco rubio, j.d. vance. there are so many -- elise is doing a fantastic job. lisa called at least a phonic air. -- lisa: elise stefanik there. my reporting is that the trump campaign has asked these eight people for paperwork to try and vet them to be potential vice presidential running mates. as you will notice, most of these are current lawmakers. i want to highlight 4 of them in particular, the 4 in the top row.
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these 4, my understanding is, are the ones getting the most attention in the trump campaign right now, but here is the thing -- it is donald trump. he wants everyone to keep testing, including the people in the mix. he likes that. that is part of the point of this. really, no decision made, so that means anybody could still be the selection. geoff: how are donald trump in the campaign trying to arrive at this decision? what are they looking at in particular? lisa: the former president says he wants someone who would be a good president. he said that in interviews, but when you talk to his team, number one after that is loyalty. no surprise. the situation with mike pence, where mike pence stood up for the duly elected coming into office president biden and rejected what president trump wanted him to do is key in trump's mind. he wants someone who will be loyalty -- loyal to him. he is doing something nontraditional. he is not thinking in terms of
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which parts of the base can he animate, which again was part of the reason mike pence was brought on. trump and his campaign are not worried about the base. one thing they are thinking about in terms of electoral strategy is someone who will have a good matchup with vice president kamala harris in a debate and in general. they think she is the weaker part of the biden-harris campaign and they want to expose that. this is what they are thinking about, but in general, part of it is the casting aspect. he wants someone that looks good beside him and who has a name that looks good beside his. at least a phonic -- at least stuff on it -- elise stefanik, having an long last name might be a disadvantage. since early may, we have seen a parade of candidates attending trump events. there was a fundraiser at mar-a-lago in early may where we saw marco rubio show up. we have seen candidates who now we know are candidates go to trump cases in new york, for
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example. those kinds of things have been standing out. it is an open competition, and that aspect in some ways is something historians say is novel. we have not seen this in a while. we spoke to an expert in the vice presidency who says this is raising a lot of questions about how this will work. geoff: one of the ideas walter mondale had was that the role of the vice president should be in part to talk truth to power, to tell the president thinks he or she did not want to hear. yet, if you have a process that encourages people to be obsequious, it really undercuts that important purpose of the vice presidency as it has developed and evolved. lisa: while this whole thing is speculation, this is in a way why we are focused on this right now. if you pay attention to what some of these candidates for vice president are saying, they are talking about their loyalty
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to trump in ways differing with himself in the past on important issues, including if the 2020 election. when some of these candidates were asked about what they think about our democracy and specifically about this coming election, if they think that it will be secure and also the past election. >> i think donald trump will be the victory, and if it is a free and fair election, i think every republican will enthusiastically accept results, and again, i think the results will show that donald trump has been elected president. >> will you accept election results of 2024 no matter what happens, senator? >> no matter what happens? no, if it is an unfair election -- >> no matter who wins. >> the democrats are the ones that have opposed every republican victory since 2000. every single one. you're asking the wrong person. >> he says and i agree that the election was not fair, that it was rigged in many ways with
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democratic states and cities changing election law and election practices up to the last minute. >> had you been vice president on january 6, 2021, what would you have done? >> i stood up for the constitution -- >> what would you have done if you were vice president? >> i would not have done what mike pence did. i do not think that was the right approach. >> these are very important public signals they are sending to trump. >> --geoff: what is the timeline for this decision. lisa: we are used to some really strange calendars the last couple of years. this is another one. today, june 7, that is where we will start, and let's talk about the next big event for the republican party, july 15. that is the republican convention in milwaukee. that is 38 days. if the former president announces his nominee then at the convention, let's look at what is ahead. those two dates you will see in yellow, those are the potential vice presidential debates.
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imagine this -- is to trump may nominate someone or at someone as his running mate and then in less than a week, that person would be facing a debate with vice president harris. it is a very tight timeline. while he may have said this is normal, it is unusual. geoff: absolutely. thank you for walking us through this. we appreciate it. lisa: absolutely. amna: here to help us further breakdown vice presidential pix and other happenings of the week, we turn to the analysis of brooks and capehart. great to see you both. let's pick up where lisa left off, shall we? on those potential vice presidential picks, ones being vetted by the trump campaign. if we put that graphic backup so you can look at some of the folks we know they are currently betting. mr. trump has said he may announce at the convention. i want to ask both of you, what
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is it you think former president trump is looking for in a vice president, and who do you think gets the job? >> i will tell you what you should be looking for. i cannot get deep in his mind to tell what he is looking for. if i'm him, i thing i have class warfare down, so j.d. vance out. likability, not much. tim scott in. people are real worried that trump is a little erratic, and i would especially do that -- and i'm a globalist looking at this election these days. the election in india which should have struck fear into everyone in trump world. modi, a strong populist figure, and he looked like he was cruising away and there were also to people who were not picked up in the polling who said we don't want an authoritarian, and i can see that happening here, too. if i'm trump, i'm thinking i want someone that is reassuring to people, and that would be tim scott. amna: interesting.
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what about you? the laughter, ok. >> it's great you are applying a rational basis to talking about trump's vice presidential picks. i go back to the things donald trump cares about. loyalty. someone who will be extremely loyal to him, will do what he says, no matter what the law says apparently, and also someone -- and all of these people have questioned 2020 election results and have also said that they will not say if they will accept the 2024 election results, but the number one thing i'm looking at is something that trump always talks about, and that is how the person looks. it's always about, they are out of central casting. the defense department secretaries got it because they looked like a defense secretary. if i'm looking at these eight people, the person in trump's mind who looks like a vice
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president out of central casting is north dakota's governor. amna: ok. >> but to my mind, i would not be surprised if at least stephan -- elise stefanik is a person he picks. i thought for sure she would have been the next speaker of the house. i thought donald trump would for sure have given her the boost. she has shown she is willing to sell her soul and past beliefs in order to be in maga world. amna: we will see. in the meantime, i want to turn the policy and real-world impact. there was this big executive action announce back president biden on immigration, effectively shutting down the border if the average daily crossings go above 2500. here is how mr. biden announced that action. >> doing nothing is not an option. we have to act. we must act consistently with
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both our law and values, our values as americans. i take these steps today not to walk away from who we are as americans but to make sure we preserve who we are for future generations to come. amna: here now is how president trump described president biden's move at a rally in arizona. >> joe biden's order is pro-invasion, pro-child-trafficking, pro-women-tracking -- trafficking, pro--human-trafficking, pro-drug-dealers, and they bring death and destruction into our country. amna: supporters of the plan say he had to act because congress would not. republicans walked away from a bipartisan plan months ago, but walk us through the political calculus. he took a very tough stance. the threshold is even lower than what was in that bipartisan bill, but he is angering progressives very much in the process. >> the calculation is immigration is and what is
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happening at the border is an issue. it is a political issue. it is a problem. americans across the political spectrum are concerned about what is happening, and the president spends a lot of time, folks in the administration and democrats in the senate, negotiating with one of the most conservative members of the senate, senator langford, to cobble together the most conservative immigration reform bill we have seen in a very long time, and donald trump at the 11th hour picks up the phone -- picks up the phone because on his social media platforms and says, kill the deal, and they kill the deal. you can talk about the politics all day long, but in the end, president biden is looking to get something done and in the absence of a bill from congress, which is what you need because also in that bill was money for border protection, custom and border protection -- that's not there, so the president has got to do something and he is not making anyone happy, which in a lot of ways, if you are not
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making anyone happy, baby you have done the right thing. >> how do you see it -- maybe you have done the right thing. amna: how do you see it? >> without controlling the border, americans will turn against immigration, so if you think immigration is good for the country, then you think controlling the border is good for the country. what i have seen is i'm a democrat, i'm not donald trump, but i'm not on the left. i'm striking this sort of central left middle ground, and on many issues, unfortunately, he has not done that. on federal spending, i would say he has not done that. on immigration, he did not do that until this week. at some point, said, there's nothing more i can do, and he was worried about people on the left getting angry with him. now i think he has finally come around because it is just a killer issue for democrats, so i think he is approaching the right policy. i just wish he had said this is my policy as president, to be a
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central left democrat and not a left democrat, and i think he is hurting. sometimes he has done that very clearly but other times not as clearly, and immigration is a big issue. amna: i want to get both of your takes on the hunter biden trial which is underway. charges alleging he lied about his drug addiction when purchasing a weapon in 2018i think it is fair to say it was a tough week for a lot of personal and embarrassing anecdotes from people. beau biden's widow and hunter biden's ex-wife as well. i'm curious about how you both view the place that this trial holds right now in our political and social conversations and what kind of impact it is having on people paying attention. >> the place this trial holds, unfortunately, is latched onto the criminal proceedings of the president. republicans have been trying to make hunter biden an issue for president biden in an an attempt
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to bring him down. what we have in this trial has nothing to do with any kind of policy or any of the other things republicans have been talking about. we are talking about a drug addict who had a very bad problem, lied on some government forms, is being held accountable , and is being held accountable in a court of law where all the messiness is coming out, and i think the one thing that might work to the president and his family's benefit is what they are going through is what millions of american families are going through. in the end, i think we hunter biden court case, this court case will fall into that bucket, and it will be very empathetic. >> i felt sort of dirty following the trial. he is a lost soul. a guy who is in the shadow of his father, in the shadow of his really kind of amazing brother, and he is lost and has a drug
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problem, and it leads you to wonder around the middle of the night trying to get your supply, and it is not pleasant to look at. i just thought this would not have been tried if it was not the sun of the -- the son of the president. i just felt creepy that we are all exposed to this. let him have some dignity. will it affect the election? absolutely not. the conviction of donald trump i don't think has affected the election. amna: we have been marking 80 years since d-day. the president has been using very powerful remarks to remind people about the fights. i'm just wondering how you see those letters. >> the guys we saw on the beach, they lived in the 1920's, people
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lived through the aftermath of world war two. then they lived through the depression and it gets worse in 1970 -- 1937, 1938. they don't want to go out and shoot people and be in an army. they want to have their lives. yet, when history called them, they just came. it was a beautifully altruistic they for americans who lived 3000 miles across the ocean to liberate europe. he cannot help think about the -- about our generations. it is a little haunting. then the parallels with putin are real, and biden did a good job of playing them up and they should be a reminder that sometimes you have to use violence to preserve stability -- preserve civility and democracy. >> i think about bob kagan and
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the book before this latest one. i think the title is "the jungle grows back" and he makes an incredible historical point, and that is these 7, 8 decades of relative peace, particularly in europe, is an historical aberration in that we have been able to maintain the peace because of institutions created with leadership from the united states to be able to maintain the literal order, the small d democratic order. it is all under threat, and it is very easy for the jungle to grow back, meaning without american leadership, nato could go by the wayside. also it's of things that we have taken for granted could just fall apart, and that is so important and that is why what we saw at normandy yesterday was so -- i mean, it brought tears to my eyes to see these veterans, but also to david's point, to see the sacrifices
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they made, particularly the black veterans that were there. this very proud moment as an american. amna: when history called them, they came. always good to see you both. thank you. geoff: actors, experts, and community members are turning to a classic play to address contemporary trauma and tensions from the pandemic. jeffrey brown has this look as part of our new series, art in action. >> yesterday, you said that the water supply was contaminated by impurities in the soil. >> yes, exactly. the source is undoubtedly the toxic swamp. >> a major health crisis has been discovered.
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water in a local spot is contaminated. the public must be told or should it? >> we must bury it for the good of the people. >> at stake, public health and democracy itself. >> this play is about a public health catastrophe in the late 19 -- 19 century. it creates a context where we can talk about not just what happened over the last four years but how we ensure that it does not happen again. >> let's do the first couple pages. >> the founder and artistic director of theater of war productions turns to classic place to explore and spur discussion of contemporary issues and trauma. >> he has the thousand-yard stare. >> we watched in 2010 as he used greek tragedy that still speaks to the rise in suicide rates of
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today's military. in 2016 at a missouri community 20 part after the killing of a young black man michael brown in "antigone in ferguson." >> because there is nothing shameful in loyalty to a brother . >> i see it as mediation, these ancient text we perform. they create a kind of vocabulary for people to talk about hard things. >> now a pandemic that took over one million lives alone, masks weaponized, public health officials threatened. piercing through the lens of an enduring 19th-century play, "an enemy of the people," by henrik ibsen, about a doctor who wants to protect his community. >> they will all have my back if things get ugly.
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>> but who in the process reveals his own biases and becomes both hero and enemy. it was presented recently in what was referred to as a temple of experts, the national academy of sciences in washington, d.c. >> this might just do nobody any good. >> known for such films as "good night and good luck" and for the blockbuster bourne movies. >> he's a hero. he can be a civil servant, and dr., and do no harm, and that is what he is trying not to do. >> you are calling him a hero, but then in the play, you see him as an enemy. did that resonate for the way you see things today? >> yeah. yeah. in a word, yeah.
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there are so many more issues than just him being an enemy. it's about the press, the media, the money, the politics of the situation. it goes without saying how present those things are in our lives today. >> actor frankie faison, best known from "the wire" and the hannibal lector films has joined many theater of war projects over the years. >> i get to join amazing texts, scripts that are just brilliant. no pressure to worry about critics being on top of us. it's the sharing, and we share this information and through that sharing, it opens up a conversation with the audience that just blows our mind. >> this audience included many in the public health community. several of whom took part in the performance from the audience.
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the director of the johns hopkins berman institute, here playing a drunken citizen. >> i don't think we all appreciated that public health officials would be attacked. but here's ibsen, who wrote a play in 1882, writing about exactly that. >> there's a twist. the health experts play average citizens angry about the upheaval to their lives that the doctor is proposing. >> we are taking the position of shutting down the experts, so it is a bit of a turning of the tables. >> how does that feel? >> it feels uncomfortable. i think that is the point. >> the first full-time director of the nih office of success on women's health has been through such battles. to her, dr. stockman was right in his science but wrong in his interaction with her community, insulting the townspeople for not recognizing his expertise or
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following his demands. >> how in god's name can it ever be right for the wise to be ruled over by fools? >> i was really concerned when i was reading the script of this play and some of dr. stockman's comments about the lower class, the poor, the dirty, and i was thinking that what we are really focusing on today in public health is being able to interact with the community, getting the community involved with what we are doing. >> still, she says the tension hits home. >> he is not write in that she is not right in everything he says, but don't you want to listen to the truth? >> during the pandemic, which this play residence so deeply with, there was such certainty in the way people spoke, that they planted the seeds of the automatic response when people speak from such certainty of how do you know what you're talking
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about? i know i did not know what i was seeing. i saw the front line. i was going on average to 10 to 13 cardiac arrest a day. how did they know? >> former nih director francis collins. >> i'm always looking to find a healer. i always feel like there ought to be one always. i did not find one in this play. >> a local business owner. >> but how do you gain back the trust of officials and government and people that are in charge that you believed in the beginning? >> and members of the audience. >> as much as we want a hero, heroes do not monopolize truth, t. >> the idea of learning how to trust each other again, which means learning how to love each other again, and recognizing
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that that will involve humidity, people recognizing they are wrong. >> i was struck by the absence of independent press in this play. a free press is essential to a democratic society. >> ultimately, just as in real life, the public have crisis in the play becomes a test of democracy itself. >> i think the core critique is not the public health. it is -- can this kind of democracy work? we are entering 2024 with a giant crowd seen with people screaming at a stage and chanting vile things that someone who is trying to help them, who then chants vile things back at them. it seems like a good place to start for this election year and to be framing conversations. >> theater of war productions took "an enemy of the people" to audiences in rural ohio. next up, outdoors.
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in new york's times square on amna: we will be back shortly with some of the best advice given by politicians, actors, and even members of "the newshour" team to the class of 2020 42 commencement addresses around the country. geoff: but first, take a moment to hear from your local pbs stations. it is a chance to offer your support which helps to keep programs like "the newshour" on the air. amna: for those of you staying with us, in the summer of 2022, historic flooding in eastern kentucky devastated an important cultural hub for the region that is home to big large section of
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appalachia's culture and history. >> not like what i remember. >> a lot different. >> it is a center for cultural preservation not struggling to preserve itself. apple shop in whitesburg, kentucky. the operations director recalls the mess of water and mud he found when he first entered after the floods. critics -- >> it was hard to reconcile what i was seeing with what i was supposed to be seeing. >> most of its 55-year history is building sites and sounds of the history of appalachia, first in film, extending to radio theater, a music station and music classes. all while building a one-of-a-kind archive that
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documented everything from music to mining. the central idea -- to allow the people of the region to tell their own stories, the good as well as the hardships. >> i did not know you could do journalism in your own community. i did not know you could tell a story in your small town. >> johnson runs the huge media program, the same program that first brought her in the door. >> when we were flooded, it took out the bridge to our community, so we did not have cell phone or internet or water or a way out. i just kept thinking, i hope they realize why i'm not at work. i did not even know apple shop was underwater. seeing underwater was like seeing such a pivotal place, like i homeplace being lost. >> one response, do what they have always done. after this happened, your instinct as a filmmaker was, we have to document this? >> there was a period we had to make sure everyone was ok.
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when we got together, we were like we need to share this story. >> he was part of the team documenting the toll the flood took on their community. but building back has not been easy. apple shop, which always relied on a mix of funding sources, has been forced to ramp up funding raising -- fundraising efforts since the flood. >> the high watermark was almost up to my shoulder, so everything to our theater, radio broadcast booth, everything was underwater. >> the building is now quite literally a shell of its former self. its location on the floodplain means it will need to find a new home. the radio station operates out of an rv parked outside.
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theater productions are on pause, and the staff relocated to a temporary office 14 miles away. >> this is the archive, so this is the door to the archive back there now. >> most concerning, even irreplaceable, is the film, video, and audio archive. >> everything, reel to reel films, audios negatives, everyone is a story. this is some type of event, concert, it looks like. just a whole treasure trove of appalachian culture that was knocked around and inundated with floodwater. some of these cameras were found miles downstream. >> we spend a lot of time talking about how climate change
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could impact our future. we spend time hearing about are thinking about how climate change is impacting our past. >> for jennifer grimaud of, what happened as part of a larger problem. >> all of those things are not just impacting our land and ability to thrive tomorrow, they are impacting memories and these really important sites that help us connect with prior generations. >> more than 9000 recordings from apple shop's collection in its cold storage facility free of charge to prevent further degradation. i also developed a cleaning process, so far tested on a handful of videotapes. including this unedited interview from the famed documentary, stranger with a camera, about a canadian filmmaker killed by a property owner while roaming in kentucky in 1967. >> he turned and said, what are you doing?
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i looked at him and saw blood spurting out the side of the chest. >> we did not know what was on those reels are those negatives, and now as we begin to get those digitized and they are coming back to us, some of this material we are seeing for the first time. >> the effort to save the archive and revive not only cultural gyms, but also significant personal histories. frank came upon a box containing will johnson's notes and materials from her very first student film. >> i said, how did that survive? he said it was on a higher shelf, and then i cried because i said, those more important things should have been on a higher shelf. it was just amazing to see and felt so good to see that survive everything. >> what else will survive and
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what of the organization itself? roger may looks to the long history of this region. >> i'm confident we will figure out how to adapt, just like folks in communities like this have for generations. through natural disasters, through the boom and bust of the coal industry. we have figured out ways to stay and adapt. geoff: despite heightened tensions on many college campuses this year, it is still graduation season, and that means politicians, actors, and even members of "the newshour" team have been sharing advice to graduates across the country. here are some of the life lessons this year's commencement speakers passed onto the class of 2024. >> i have never seen this many
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young people so thrilled to be on a jumbotron. >> i want to create a world where if aliens came to visit, they would not look around and go back home and say there's no sign of intelligent life on earth. make decisions in the interest of our health, our wealth, our security so that subsequent generations can look back on you, on us, and be proud of the decisions we have made and not ashamed of them. >> give your friends grace, your parents grace coup are all out there. your future partners grace, your current partners grace, and most importantly, give yourself grace in these moments. you are all already resilient. >> you don't need to wait for anyone else to show up. when you see a need, when you see an injustice, a way the world can be better, use the unique gifts and talents you
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have to serve the world. we don't know what will happen, but we guarantee nothing will change if we don't try. >> i would suggest that instead of defining yourself by your career, that you choose to define yourself by things that are entirely in your control. your love for your family. your friendships, your faith. your service to others. >> in times of uncertainty and discomfort, choosing optimism and humor can change your whole mood in an instant. more importantly, it can lift an entire group. the effect you have on others is one of your most moving gifts. your impact on the world comes from small moments like that one, simple daily choices integrated over a lifetime. >> we don't know where or what the day will bring you or when. we also know we don't walk alone . we have been a beneficiary of
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the compassion, the family, the friends, even strength to know how much the compassion matters. >> in every relationship, in every negotiation, in order to move forward and accomplish anything meaningful, someone lowers their shield first, brings down their ego, the defense mechanism, then others follow. let that person be you. >> choose honor over hypocrisy, virtue over vulgarity, discipline over dissipation, character over cleverness, sacrifice over self-indulgence. >> what a wise person says is the least of that which they give. what gets communicated is their way of being in the world in the smallest gestures and the daily acts of integrity and kindness. we grow by imitating people we
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admire just as they grew by imitating a person they admire. >> when i was growing up, shame and fear was all around me. we had to dress a certain way, laugh a certain way. it was always, "just be normal, jennifer," and i heard that so many times. don't run from yourself like i did. you will lose decades. i promise you i did. choose radical self acceptance and compassion. >> life is like a movie. it is filled with plot twis, unexpected turns, and plenty of drama. whatever path you have chosen, seek out the details that add color, pattern, and texture to your stories. embrace your uniqueness, and trust your voice. continue to be unapologetically
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yourselves, and in the words of queen ramonda, show them who you are. >> life is not linear. you will experience detours on your journey, but just because something does not happen how and when you want it to, it does not mean give up hope. it does not mean it's a failure. instead, embrace it as a gateway to infinite possibilities. >> you are not an untested bunch. you have proven yourselves time and again. you have risen to the challenges presented, and now, it is time for you to rise again. >> this is not a finish line. this is the starting line. thank you. [cheers and applause] ♪
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amna: remember, there is much more online, including our weekly digital show that takes a look this week at a big year in global elections as half of the world's population votes in 2024. that is online now on our youtube page. geoff: be sure to tune in tonight for a special edition of "washington week" about america's rising tensions with china, russia, and iran. amna: and on pbs news week and, as temperatures rise around the world, many schools in the u.s. are struggling to keep classroom school, putting students' learning and health at risk. that is "the newshour" for tonight. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett. thanks for spending part of your evening with us. have a great weekend. >> major funding for "the pbs newshour" has been provided by
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-- and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions and friends of "the newshour," including kathy and paul anderson and camilla and george smith. the walton family foundation, working for solutions to protect water during climate change, so people and nature can thrive together. >> the william and flora hewlett foundation. for more than 50 years, advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world. at hewlett.org. and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of "the newshour."
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this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.] ♪
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wow, you get to watch all your favorite stuff. it's to die for. now you won't miss a thing. this is the way. xfinity internet. made for streaming. hello, everyone, and welcome to "amanpour & company." here's what's coming up. 80 years since d-day, we reflect on the legacy of that turning point and on the brave young