♪ geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i'm amna nawaz. on the “newshour” tonight, in a win for reproductive rights advocates, the supreme court unanimously votes to protect access to the abortion pill mifepristone. geoff: the latest on the war in

ukraine as g7 leaders meet in italy, and announce a deal to use frozen russian assets to support the war-torn country. amna: and a look at the debate surrounding arming teachers as more states pass legislation allowing educators to carry guns on school grounds. ♪ >> major funding for the "pbs newshour" has been provided by. >> 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. >> cunard is a proud supporter of public television. on a voyage with cunard, the world awaits.

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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. amna: welcome to the “newshour”" there was major news out of the supreme court today as a decision came down in a highly anticipated reproductive rights case where the justices protected access to widely used abortion pills. geoff: in a unanimous decision, the court ruled that a group of anti-abortion doctors does not have any legal basis to challenge access to mifepristone, that's one of the two common drugs used in medication abortion. as a result, access to mifepristone will not change. let's bring in our john yang. so this ruling did not address the underlying issues the plaintiffs raised, instead deciding only on standing. the decision was unanimous. was that surprising? john: not entirely. the oral arguments really focused on, did the doctors have

the legal right to sue. in the unanimous opinion today, justice kavanaugh said no, they don't have a direct personal stake in this. because they are antiabortion doctors, because they are morally opposed to abortion, they don't prescribe mifepristone, they don't perform abortion procedures. so what they were challenging was the regulation of other doctors who did, and you cannot do that in our system. geoff: there is another big abortion-related case we are waiting on that has to do with abortion law in idaho. does this ruling in anyway give an indication of what might be to come out of the idaho case? john: not really because it is a totally different question. the question in idaho is whether -- essentially a total ban on abortion. the only exception is to save the life of the mother. weather that violates federal law that says that hospitals have to provide emergency treatment to stabilize a patient, even if it is not saving their life. and in that oral or gimmick they were all sorts of real-world

exames of doctors airlifting patients out of idaho so they could get the medical treatment they needed. geoff: mifepristone remains available to women up to the 10th week of pregnancy. it is still available through the mail. what is next? does this case resolve any of the debate, the lingering fight around abortion pills? john: they did not get in the merits on this one. there are three republican led states, missouri, kansas, and idaho, that want to press this case. that is going to be going on at the district court level. that may take a while to reach the supreme court. then of course there is the comstock act, that 19th-century law that makes it illegal to send materials that could lead to an abortion through the mail. the justice department currently says that does not apply to prescriptions for mifepristone. but antiabortion activists are already talking about trying to use that law to ban medicinal abortions if there is a new trump administration. geoff: john yang, thank you so

much for walking us through all of this. we appreciate it. john: thank you. ♪ amna: in the day's other news, evan gershkovich will stand trial in the russian city of yekaterinburg, where he was arrested more than a year ago. for the first time, russian prosecutors specified the allegations against the wall street journal reporter, accusing him of spying on a military factory for the cia, with, quote, painstaking conspiratorial methods. gershkovich, his employer, and the u.s. government have denied any wrongdoing. it's not clear when the trial will begin. the justice department has found a pattern of civil rights abuse at the phoenix police department. this includes discrimination against black, hispanic, and native american people, and the use of excessive force. in its 126-page report, the department found that officers

use dangerous tactics that lead to force that is unnecessary and unreasonable. the findings come after a nearly three-year investigation into complaints of brutality by city law enforcement. the head of the federal aviation administration said today that his agency was quote, too hands off with going into an in-flight incident in january. the administrator -- testifying to a senate committee today, he admitted the faa was too focused on paperwork audits and not on actual inspections. >> we have changed that approach over the last several months, and those changes are permanent. we have now moved to a more active, comprehensive oversight model, the audit plus inspection approach, which allows the faa to have much better insight into boeing's operations amna: also on capitol hill today, lawmakers in the house grilled microsoft president brad smith on his companies plan to improve its security.

that comes after china-linked hackers stole 60,000 state department emails by breaking into microsoft's systems last summer. smith took responsibility for the attack, and said the company is working on reducing its engineering presence in china. u.s. officials granted the makah tribe in washington state a waiver to hunt gray whales today. the decision paves the way for what would be the tribe's first permitted hunt since 1999. the makah had hunted whales for hundreds of years, but quit in the early 20th century after commercial whaling shrank populations. the tribe has spent more than two decades trying to resume the practice. even with the waiver, the makah will still need a permit, which could take months. and animal rights groups could challenge the decision in court. tropical downpours pounded southern florida for a third day in a row today, adding to the already life-threatening floods in the area. parts of miami have seen more than 20 inches of rain since tuesday. the nonstop precipitation has

turned roads into rivers, submerging vehicles, and strandingdrivers. aerial footage early today showed entire neighborhoods under water. long-time residents of hollandale beach north of miami say they've never seen anything like it. >> 13 years, there's been storms, there's been rain, heavy rain. but never, never like this. this is extreme. this is a little bit too much. we was not expecting this. amna: the severe weather comes at the start of what's expected to be an extraordinary hurricane season. weather officials say la niña conditions are likely to form this summer, which typically lead to more hurricanes forming in the atlantic. the head of the senate judiciary committee said today that supreme court justice clarence thomas took three undisclosed trips on a private jet provided by a republican megadonor. the flights took place between 2017 and 2021. the committee notes that these trips were not included in an amendment filed last week to thomas's 2019 financial disclosure. in a statement, committee

chairman dick durbin said this new information, quote, makes it crystal clear that the highest court needs an enforceable code of conduct, because its members continue to choose not to meet the moment. president biden will nominate christy goldsmith romero as the new head of the federal deposit insurance corporation. goldsmith romero is a longtime federal financial regulator who currently serves at the commodity futures trading commission. if confirmed by the senate banking committee, she would replace martin gruenberg, who agreed to resign last month after reports of workplace harassment and abuse at the agency. new data out today shows signs of cooling in the u.s. economy. the producer price index, which monitors prices before they reach consumers, dropped last month by its largest amount since october. and the number of americans filing for unemployment benefits climbed to a 10-month high. treasury secretary janet yellen said on cnbc this morning that this latest data shows the economy is settling into a more natural rhythm.

>> the labor market has become a little less hot, a little bit more normal. and so, the labor market now is resembling what it looked like pre-pandemic. wages are increasing, but at a slower rate. and so, that doesn't really look like it's a threat to inflation. amna: the latest readings come a day after the fed signaled it would only lower interest rates once this year. that's down from an earlier projection of three cuts. on wall street today, stocks were largely unchanged. the dow jones industrial average lost 65 points to close at 38,647. the nasdaq notched its fourth straight record close, adding 59 points. the s&p 500 also ended at a new high. still to come on the “newshour”" former president trump returns to capitol hill for the first time since the january 6 insurrection to meet with republican lawmakers. lifelong gop supporters use a down ballot race in pennsylvania

to voice disapproval of the extremism they see in their party. and oscar-winning director and artist steve mcqueen discusses his new immersive exhibit. >> 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. geoff: president biden signed a defense pact today with ukraine on the sidelines of the g7 meeting in italy. the group of seven major industrialized powers also agreed on a plan to take russian assets held in europe and use that money to aid ukraine in its fight against russia's invasion. here's nick schifrin. nick: another day, another direct russian hit on a ukrainian apartment in kharkiv. but this day proved different. a man buried alive was saved,

providing hope to a country struggling to hold the line. and so it was 2000 miles away, a security agreement gave ukraine's leader hope u.s. support would hold. >> our goal is to tend to ukraine's credible defense and deterrence capabilities for the long-term. >> this is a truly historic day. and we have signed the strongest agreement between ukraine and the u.s. since our independence. nick: today's u.s.-ukraine bilateral security agreement commits the u.s. for 10 years to, quote, support ukraine's efforts to win today's war and deter future russian military aggression, with weapons, intelligence sharing, and long-term training, as well as joint weapons production. nowhere has the risk to ukraine, and the importance of western support, been more pronounced than in kharkiv. >> just a few weeks ago, the center of vovchansk along the

kharkiv-russia border, had been gutted, at risk of occupation. now, u.s. and ukrainian officials say newly arrived western ammunition, and permissions to fire u.s. weapons into russia, allowed ukraine to hold the line. secretary of defense lloyd austin at nato today. >> what i see is a slowing of the russians' advance and a stabilizing of that particular piece of the front. nick: above the summit today, skydivers leaped to the waiting leaders of the world's largest democracies. they are collectively supporting ukraine today. but they know long-term u.s. support could be a leap of faith, because former and would-be president trump has vowed to end the war in ukraine and questioned ongoing u.s. military assistance. today, zelensky said no matter the president, he had faith in the american people. >> it seems to me that no matter who the nation chooses, if the people are with us, any leader will be with us in the struggle

for our freedom. nick: today the world's leading democracies also agreed to an unprecedented step, convert the interest on $280 billion of russian assets currently held in europe into a loan, to help ukraine buy weapons, and repair nearly half a trillion dollars of damage. european commission president ursula von der leyen. >> it's not the european taxpayers that are paying for the damage that putin is causing with this war of aggression, but it is putin. nick: and to discuss that part of the story, how the west is converting frozen russian assets into a loan for ukraine, i turn to adam smith, a partner at gibson, dunn, and crutcher, and a former senior advisor in the treasury department in the obama administration. adam, thank you very much. welcome back. how significant is this announcement today? adam: it is a watershed. quite simply, it could change the nature of sanctions. it could change the nature of the way sovereign powers around the world think about their own assets.

this was a significant issue. it has been thought about since the day after russia invaded ukraine in 2022. and it suggests how difficult it has been for all parties to get around this idea. nick: explain more exactly how it is so existential or so significant. and i guess take us through some of the concerns that european countries had, and in fact, some u.s. officials had initially about making this move. adam: i think there are two concerns. one is perhaps a little less significant than the other print the first is retaliation. if we can do that to russia, russia could do that to us. and that is true, and it is definitely a concern for europeans. it is less of a concern for the u.s. but if russia can do it, others can do it as well, china, india, what have you. the other issue of course is what does it mean systemically. one of the linchpins of global finance is the fact sovereign

assets have historically been invaluable. you cannot go after them. if we are undoing that, so the fact anyone who keeps their assets in the u.s., which many countries do, and if all of a sudden that is a risk because they could theoretically be seized, taken, or otherwise immobilized, that is a significant risk for the way global financial has been structured. nick: the risks presumably still exist today after the announcement. how are the concerns overcome? adam: through a little bit of legal trickery. for the europeans in the u.s. as well, they're are actually not going to be seizing russian assets per se. the $300 billion worth of assets, a tiny portion of which was in the u.s., they are going to use the interest on those assets, $180 billion worth of assets in europe creates

interest, and a smaller amount in the u.s. also has interest. and what they are going to do is use that interest, not the principal but the interest, to collateralize a $50 billion loan to ukraine. it is not only removed from the respective of the principles, but on top of that they are only going to take that if the loan they are giving to ukraine is not repaid. so it is collateral rather than going after a direct seizing of russian assets. nick: there has been a lot of discussion politically in this country whether the u.s. should consider -- continue to send money to ukraine or if it should be structured as a loan for the language today is a $50 billion loan. is that the kind of loan they expect to be paid back? adam: who knows. i certainly don't think that is the idea.

the loan may not be repaid but it may not ever be due. i don't think anyone thinks this. anyone other than russia paying for the funds the west is sending to ukraine. nick: jake sullivan made the point that this is the political agreement by the leaders of the seven largest democracies in the world. what technicalities have to be worked out? adam: just how to move the assets and how to engage with the interest payments. the europeans have already done this in a way for they have $180 billion in an account for the established separate accounts for those interest payments. the u.s. has not done that but they will need to do that and they think they can do that simply with investor action. but then the structural loan that is approved by all parties including ukrainians print then you figure out how to collateralize it by virtue of the assets that are now separated. the interest payment assets have to be separated and tied to whatever loan agreement. nick: another economic move by

the u.s. has been additional sanctions including secondary sanctions on any country or entity helping russia's defense industrial base. that is pointed at china. u.s. officials have said china has set a lot of dual use items and propped up russia's industrial base. how significant is that the u.s. is finally instituting secondary sanctions, really pointed at china and chinese companies? adam: potentially very significant pick this is a continuation that began last year with a new executive order. secondary sanctions issued yesterday are very meaningful with respect to their targeting. but we need to figure out enforcement it is one thing to put people on a sanctions list. it is another thing to make sure people are not dealing -- nick: adam smith, thank you very much. ♪

amna: in his first trip to capitol hill since the january 6 attack, former president donald trump today met behind closed doors with congressional republicans. republicans aimed to use the visit as a display of unity following mr. trump's conviction in his new york hush money case last month. >> we have great unity. we have great common sense. a lot of very smart people in this room and a lot of people that love our country. amna: following the meetings, and a busy day on capitol hill, is john bresnahan, co-founder of punchbowl news. this is a former president who helped to incite a violent insurrection last time he was on capitol hill. many other republican lawmakers he was there with where there that day. how did they receive him today back on capitol hill? john: well, it was interesting because there were two different

meetings pretty he met with house republicans in the morning and that was more of a raucous meeting. and then after there were some news stories about what happened and what he said there, trump seemed to take a more sober and serious approach when he met with senate republicans later in the day. it was fascinating because you had senate minority leader mitch mcconnell who fell out with trump after the election in 2020. he made the serious sin of saying that president biden won the election. trump went on to attack mcconnell for a long time in really derisive terms. he attacked mcconnell's wife in racist terms. today mcconnell and trump shook hands and had a nice conversation. on the house side you had dan newhouse who voted to impeach

trump after the january 6 insurrection. today he attended a trump event. they are battling to reality. he is the nominee, his strength on the party remains. if you want to get along in the republican party you have to bow to trump. and that is the reality they face. amna: i want to ask you about republican senator j.d. vance's move today, pledging to block president biden's judicial nominees and u.s. attorney nominations in what he called his response to the current administration's persecution of former president trump. we have seen previous republican senators block military nominations for months at a time. is this a path republicans want to and are willing to go down again? john: well, this is a little different. what vance and several other senators were saying today is they were going to expand their

blockade against biden nominations. all judicial nominations and nearly all u.s. attorney nominations already have to go through -- they are already filibustered by republicans. those are high-stakes nominations and senate democrats are willing to go to the floor and go through the process. it takes time but they can do it. what vance said today as we are going after even ceremonial nominations like arbor lead to be on the u.n. advisory council. this is a ceremonial position. these are usually things they give deference to each other on. this should sail through unanimously for they say if the democrats want to do this they have to spend time on it. and they're betting that the democrats will not because they are going to try and focus on judicial nominations and other more important nominations. it is just another sign --

again, this is j.d. vance, republican senator from ohio, he is very interested in being a vice president. he is doing this to help himself with trump to help raise his status with trump. and so this is an important thing where he is trying to raise his own profile. that is what he was trying to do. this just shows you how partisan things have gotten in capitol hill. in a presidential election year where the white house is up for grabs, the senate is up for grabs. re-think is a slugfest. amna: i have to ask you about this other move. a democratic bill moved forward to protect ivf nationwide. republicans blocked that except for two republicans who voted in favor of it. senate republicans then went on to sign a letter saying to support ivf and the bill was just too broad. in short, is this still a politically vulnerable issue for

them? john: oh yeah, this is a very serious issue. there was a vote on contraception last week and a vote on ivf today. this is an issue millions of americans, and probably everyone in america knows somebody who has used ivf to help have a kid or children. there is a lot of support for this. republicans have said that they want to enshrine this in the law but they do not want to do what the democrats did. democrats are using this to raise the issue on abortion and contraception and women's rights and that republicans want to march the country backwards and that these show votes are symbolic but they are important and that is why this is an important issue. amna: john bresnahan, always good to see you. thank you. john: thanks. ♪

geoff: in 2020, president biden won pennsylvania by less than two points. for the president, and his republican rival donald trump, winning pennsylvania in november is key to winning the white house. but some lifelong republicans, frustrated by their party's embrace of trump, are getting involved down ballot. our white house correspondent laura barron-lopez has more. laura: in south central pennsylvania, the "newshour" met up with gop voters ready to make a point about the direction of their party. their focus? the race for the 10th congressional district. in an election year, it is not unusual for a group of local republicans to meet up. but these republicans are meeting to help elect a democrat. >> we can't lose our ability to be outraged. we need to be outraged. laura: craig snyder, a republican political organizer in pennsylvania, is gathering other like-minded conservatives. they are fed up with the 2020

election conspiracies and unwavering loyalty to donald trump that have become defining features of their party. to counter the former president they are focusing their sites down ballot. the target? six term pennsylvania congressman scott perry, a faithful trump ally who spread lies that the 2020 election was stolen. >> how can he say that the lawful due process conviction of donald trump was worse for american democracy than the violent mob that stormed our capital, defecated in our capital? laura: their group is hoping to encourage moderate republicans to back the democratic contender. >> the nation is watching this seat. laura: janelle, who until this election cycle was a registered republican and local news anchor. >> when you pay attention to what scott perry has been doing, he is so extreme, he doesn't even vote with his republican colleagues most of the time. laura: payer is an extremist who

did much more than just vote to overturn the 2020 election results. >> when votes are accepted under unconstitutional means without fair and equal protection for all, the only result can be an illegitimate outcome. illegitimate. laura: in the lead up to january 6, perry repeatedly pushed for trump to install a fellow election denier as acting attorney general, and was investigated for his efforts to subvert the 2020 election. >> as you will see, representative carey contacted the white house in the weeks after january 6 to seek a presidential pardon. multiple other republican congressmen also sought presidential pardons for their roles in attempting to overturn the 2020 election. laura: last december perry was ordered to turn over more than 1600 text messages, emails, and other communications to federal prosecutors investigating trump's attempt to block the peaceful transfer of power.

snyder hopes that voters see -- voters in this district voted for donald trump in 2020. they consistently have voted for scott perry. what makes you think this time could be any different? >> this is not some member of the aoc squad coming into imposed progression is him on central pennsylvania. this is a moderate who easily, in earlier time, not that long ago, could have run as a republican. we know there are enough republicans in this district to split their tickets because josh shapiro are governor carried this district against another extremist maga candidate. shapiro carried this district but 12%. >> i began my career in ronald reagan. laura: but perry supporters, like this longtime republican operative, are confident perry

will survive. >> he mirrors the attitudes and opinions of the district. his military service, and his conservative values, all really work. >> we have encountered people who call themselves lifelong republicans who say part of why they are not supporting scott perry this time around is because of his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, his involvement in january 6. >> the whole thing around january 6 is in my judgment merely a talking point. not anything that has real grounding. because if it was a significant factor it would have showed two years ago and it clearly did not. there have been folks who said we are not for the republican candidate who are republicans for as long as i remember. they were against ronald reagan and george bush. now they are against donald trump and scott perry. but in the 10th district, donald trump is going to do very well and scott perry is going to do

extremely well. laura: trump loyalists might have history on their side, but the ground here could be shifting. according to a recent poll conducted between late may and early june, perry and trump were leading their respective races. until a jury convicted the former president on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. support for both candidates dropped. perry's seven-point lead fell to one point, a statistical dead heat. the republicans we spoke to voted for perry in the past, but now see him as an extension of pro-trump extremism. beyond january 6, some criticized perry's votes against funding for ukraine, israel, and keeping the government open. >> they are tired of people who will not cross the aisle, and they are tired of people who are so far one way or the other that they cannot see any other point of view. and that sums up scott perry. >> those extreme positions are

out of step with where i am and i think with where many people in this area. and i don't see that changing in the future. so i think we need to have a change in our representative. >> we are trying to get 20,000 votes. laura: snyder hopes his fight convinces more republicans to reject the man who he feels made his party unrecognizable. >> sometimes if you can draw people to come out to vote for somebody in a lower office, a down ballot office, that once they have made that decision, they will carry the same sort of principles up the ballot as well. if we can highly motivate people to vote against perry, they may well decide that they cannot at the same time vote for trump. we just have to give them information structure, tell them other republicans are doing this, that they are not becoming progressive democrats by casting this vote. laura: but in a district that voted for trump by four points

in 2020, that could be a tall order. despite various attempts, scott perry did not sit down with us for an interview, but we asked his campaign about the concerns raised by some republican voters in his district. his campaign spokesperson said in a statement to "newshour" that, quote, despite being targeted by dc's radical left groups time and time again, the voters will again support him this november because they know his track record and that scott perry is working tirelessly for them. geoff: thank you for that reporting. i want to shift our focus and ask you about some news you broke earlier today about an executive action that president biden is expected to take very soon. laura: next tuesday the white house is going to hold an event that is marking the 12th anniversary of the obama-era dream program, protecting migrants who were brought to the u.s. as children. six sources told me that they expect the white house, that the president is going to announce

an executive action that will shield certain undocumented migrants at that event. that expected executive action is going to specifically apply to undocumented spouses of u.s. citizens, will protect them from deportation, give them access to work permits, and likely ease their pathway to citizenship. sources also told me that those undocumented spouses that this executive action is expected to apply to would have had to be in the u.s. for five to 10 years to receive this benefit. this could also potentially protect some daca recipients, providing some of them some work visas. geoff: how many people overall would potentially be affected? laura: it is estimated one point one million people could benefit but sources close to the white house expect the executive action to be much more narrow in scope and it could affect around 500,000 instead of the 1.1

million. and i should add that a white house official told me there is no final decision made. this is still fluid. but sources close to the white house really expect that come tuesday, the president is going to announce protections for undocumented spouses of u.s. citizens. geoff: this could be -- i have to underscore could -- this could be the biggest relief program since daca. what is the expected political impact? laura: daca came out in june 2012, president obama's reelection year. he won reelection that year. but polling shows 74% of voters support this kind of relief for undocumented spouses of u.s. citizens. latino voters in battleground states who are currently not supporting president biden, moved towards supporting him by double digits when they find out that he is considering this type of relief for undocumented

spouses. and again, multiple sources also told me that president biden's campaign and the white house is well aware of this data. so this is something that they are keeley keeping -- they are clearly keeping in mind. geoff: laura barron-lopez, thank you very much for this terrific reporting. laura: thank you. ♪ amna: over the past decade, the number of school mass shootings has increased, leaving school officials across the country struggling with questions of how to best protect students and staff and secure campuses. this past year, a number of states have either approved or are considering new measures that would allow a teacher to carry a gun in the classroom. polls show that the majority of americans don't favor arming teachers, but there are varying views among parents, teachers, and educators.

we're going to hear some of them now,efore stephanie sy talks to an expert in school security. >> i'm ileana gonzalez and i live in austin, texas. i've been a teacher for 22 years. thinking that people charged with loving and caring and guiding children would also be the people charged with shooting and killing the same child who might walk into their classroom one day, it's ludicrous. i can't begin to imagine the day that i would be prepared to kill one of my own students. i just can't. >> my name is jan, and i live in oregon. with all the school shootings that are going on, i think that having armed staff could be an additional layer of protection to the kids. >> i know that my armed staff makes me extremely nervous. it seems counterproductive for

the goal of making sure that schools feel safe, especially considering that, like, statistics around people using guns in self-defense are very underwhelming. >> my son is 16, goes to public school, and i don't think it should be required. i think that's really an unfair thing to ask a teacher to take on. but setting that aside, if you're a teacher, an administrator, and as long as you have the board's approval, i think it should be ok. >> if we're gonna pull out a wand, yeah, i want legislation that improves the conditions around gun ownership and accessibility to gun ownership. period. end of story. teaching is a crazy, hard profession. it is super stressful. it's underpaid. it's taxing. you are emotionally exhausted. you are physically exhausted at the end of the day. i can't imagine also being

combat trained and having to find the wherewithal to manage yourself in a combat setting. >> there are procedures and protocols at schools right now, since we live in a rural area where we have no local police force, we have to call and get a dispatch to come down. so it's a half hour before we have anybody here. there is state police in the area, too, but it's gonna take a while. so i think there would be a good thing for us to have in our schools. >> so many of us use students, our own kids, the idea of having to shoot a child -- i would be very shocked to see the teacher, administrator who would be willing to do that. >> maybe a license isn't enough. maybe they need to go through another sort of training that's specific to school. and when you should when you

shouldn't, that kind of thing. >> there's also the logistical component involved in what it would take to actually arm teachers. it would be an expense, not just in terms of the firearm. but the amount of training that would also need to be paid for, but also just the time investment. >> i do feel like most people, staff, students, families, would be extremely uncomfortable with the idea of admin or staff at school being armed. and being like, the first line of defense against a school shooter. the reckoning that a lot of us have kind of come to terms with as teachers is like we don't really know what the solution is, at all. that's kind of what makes it really scary. stephanie: in recent months, tennessee and iowa have joined more than two thirds of states that allow teachers to carry guns in public schools when permitted by their school districts. there are 16 states, plus the

district of columbia that have laws that prohibit teachers from carrying guns at school for more -- at school. for more on the implications of these policies, i'm joined by kenneth trump, president of national school safety and security services. you are a school safety consultant. you have testified before congress. putting aside the fact that the powerful nra lobby is behind arming teachers at schools, is there a valid argument that arming teachers may deter school shootings? kenneth: well, we find that the vast majority of teachers wanna be armed with technology and textbooks, but not firearms. and in those states that have authorized it, there's a big difference between authorizing it, making it legal to do it ,versus those that have actually taken up the law and decided to actually do so. we're finding a very small number of school districts and states are allowing that to happen. it's just not something that's

on their agenda. look, if we're talking about arming teachers and support staff, we're talking about tasking them with performing a public safety function. we would want a trained, certified public safety professional, a police officer, to take on that role, just like we want a trained certified teacher to teach in the classroom. we wouldn't take a police officer off the street at midnight shift in the back alley, give them a couple of dozen hours of training and say, you're now a second grade teacher. enjoy the rest of your career. stephanie: so, are you saying that the policy is hard to implement, but not necessarily ineffective or bad policy? kenneth: well, it is a bad policy, in my opinion, because it's a high risk, high liability proposition. and the key is just what you said, implementation. if you listen to the voices of those teachers, they've brought out some really important issues of implementation. not just the law, but how would it work in a school in a day to day basis?

the one powerful statement about, you're asking me to take a kid that i love, support, nurture, and feel like the parent during the school day and then say that i have to turn around and shoot and kill them? there's a psychological piece to this because training someone for a couple dozen hours on how to shoot, clean, and holster the gun is a lot less than what we require of our trained public safety professionals out in the community or police officers with use of force continuum. shoot, don't shoot. what's the scenario? how do you gauge the situation? how are you evaluating it? what intermittent steps can you take to deescalated without having to immediately turn to the firearm? and then just how would it work during the day? where are the teachers going to store their guns? who's going to have access to those? and lastly, who's gonna be managing all this? the principal is now the de facto police chief in addition to the principal to make sure the teachers have the current certification, the right firearm, the right

qualifications and training, the right type of ammunition, that they're carrying it right, procedures for disciplinary? you start getting into the weeds and it and it's a really big task in addition to being educators and administrators during the day that really goes beyond a reality of fidelity of implementation if somebody picks that up, so there's a lot more than saying you can do it. the question is, how would you do it? and i say it's very problematic. stephanie: on the other extreme, ken, you have these states that have issued blanket bans prohibiting teachers from carrying firearms in their school. is that good policy? because in that piece you also heard from that rural teacher who said the police are half an hour away. and proponents of arming teachers say, shouldn't that teacher have the right to carry a gun for her own self defense and to defend her students? kenneth: that's one of the biggest argument, is comes from rural areas where you have small or sometimes, very, very tiny police departments that are far, far away.

my answer to that is that we have school resource officer programs, police officers in school. if it's that big of a priority to have an armed presence on campus, then invest your district resources. many states now actually put on additional levies that where voters can vote to determine if they want to pay additional cost, and bring yourself a dedicated full time officer for your school or school district on a day to day basis who will be there. put your money into that priority, but do it right. you can't have it both ways. think about it. we're asking in many school communities today, it's a very contentious issue of having police in school period, especially after the murder of george floyd. i think there are very conflicting messages. i think the argument for having an armed presence on campus is a training commission certified police officer with the

appropriate model, the right officer and the additional training. if you're going to do it, do it right. stephanie: kenneth trump, a school safety consultant. thanks so much for joining the "newshour." kenneth: thanks for having me, stephanie. ♪ geoff: in 2022, steve mcqueen, british-born son of caribbean immigrants, was knighted for his work as a filmmaker and artist, the two worlds in which he's achieved commercial and critical success. his latest work takes his art in yet another new direction. jeffrey brown recently joined mcqueen for a look for our arts and culture series, canvas. jeffrey: an enormous hall, bathed in slowly shifting colors, filled with improvised music created by bass instruments. it can feel like walking through

a strange city or dreamscape. like scenes from the pandemic. or being inside an immense abstract painting. steve: it's a space to reflect. it's not a mirror. it's a space where things are bouncing off you as a viewer and you can expand it into something more because so many things come into your head. the fact that you bring in history, you bring your past into that space and you are engaged in that moment. jeffrey: so i'm part of this art? steve: how can you not be? how can you not be? jeffrey: steve mcqueen is best-known for his films. he's the academy-award winning director of 2013's "12 years a slave." earlier movies, including "hunger." more recently, the "small axe" series. and the documentary "occupied city," about amsterdam during world war ii.

but he first made his name in the 1990's for his art. and at the dia beacon museum, a converted nabisco box factory on the hudson river in beacon, new york, he once again straddles both worlds. steve: i always equate art as poetry and film as the yarn, as a novel. using the same tools, doing virtually the same thing but doing it differently. jeffrey: you're not interested in labels, if i ask you, do you see yourself as an artist or as a filmmaker? steve: i do stuff. jeffrey: i do stuff? steve: i do stuff. no, i'm very privileged to do stuff, and i work very hard because i know i'm privileged. i'm allowed to do stuff in order to sort of have an understanding or have some kind of feeling of what work could be. jeffrey: most of his previous artworks are video installations, shown here in

still photos, and use recognizable images. the installation at dia beacon, titled "bass," in a 30,000 square foot basement space, is perhaps his most abstract work yet. one chief material -- light, a longtime fascination for mcqueen. here he has 60 light boxes subtly change color through the spectrum every 28 minutes. steve: the whole idea of the intensity of light, which makes color and the whole idea of what we see in our perceptions and so forth and whatnot. and i was just interested in having -- i wanted it all, i wanted the color to encapsulate everything. and of course -- jeffrey: when you say you wanted it all, you mean all of the light, all of the changes? steve: everything that surrounds us.

again, it's a kind of dawn to dusk thing. you want to sort of embrace it, but of course it's impossible. but light is the thing which can sort of, in some ways, illustrate that. jeffrey: the light and colors bring out the space in new ways, the cracks in the old floors, the surfaces of pillars, the history of what was once a place of work and workers. mcqueen's other main material here -- sound. improvised music, filling the space from three speaker stacks, by five musicians from different parts of the african diaspora who play different kinds of electric and acoustic bass instruments. they got together to record this three hour-plus soundtrack in the exhibition space. steve: it's the sort of base of most music. it's the backbone. but i wanted to bring that thing which is usually in the background, into the foreground and have, you know, five bassists.

jeffrey: in fact, while this may be an abstract, image-free work, mcqueen began it with his own narrative in mind, a story of trauma, of limbo and passage, the so-called middle passage, the transatlantic voyage that brought enslaved africans to the americas. including the voyages of his own family, from africa to the caribbean to england. steve: i was thinking about how black people are post-apocalyptic people. jeffrey: post-apocalyptic? steve: in the sense that we've had to invent and reinvent ourselves. this transatlantic crossing, you know, the sort of middle passage, just a space of limbo, as it were, and therefore what that journey entails. but also, the horrors of it, but also sort of what was positive about it in some way. i mean, nothing was positive, but at the same time, how people survived it. i mean, i'm here sitting with you, opposite you, as an example of that survival. jeffrey: but mcqueen wants us to take our own walk and bring our feelings and history to the experience. dia art foundation curator donna de salvo worked with him on this commission, a partnership with a

swiss museum. >> i think it's also about what art can do, you know? the experience. and i kind of like that there's, in a way, not this standard image that you might imagine would be. because there's an openness to that. i mean actually, in its way, it's very much about the viewer and what they want to bring in. you're not told what to do, you're not told what to think, you're not told how to move. but there are conditions that are created here, inevitably, by the artist that he wants you to have an experience with and respond to. jeffrey: mcqueen puts it this way. steve: everyone tries to cling onto narrative because it's almost like the safety rails in a swimming pool. i'm floating, i don't know what to do, dah dah dah dah. jeffrey: it helps us find our way. steve: yes, but you have to feel comfortable with floating because you can actually float. let go, unclutch, feel it, relax, lay into it, feel what you feel. i feel that is sort of the key to experiencing the work. things emerge. heavy stuff emerges.

jeffrey: "bass" remains on view into april of next year. steve mcqueen's next work, a dramatic film set amid the london blitz in world war ii. for the "pbs newshour," i'm jeffrey brown at dia beacon in beacon, new york. ♪ amna: remember, there's more online, including our communities correspondent adam kemp's look at how oklahoma researchers are trying to send severe weather alerts in more languages. geoff: and join us again here tomorrow night, when david brooks and e.j. dionne weigh in on the week's political headlines. and that's the "newshour" 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.

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hello, everyone, and welcome to "amanpour and company." here's what's coming up. >> we are playing russian roulette with our planet. >> hotter and hotter. as climate records continue to shatter, i speak to professor leah stokes, and writer george packer, who is just back from scorchin