amna: good evening. i'm amna nawaz. geoff bennett is away. on the “news hour” tonight, president biden acknowledges mistakes in last week's debate, but insists he will stay in the race for the white house. we report live from london as

exit polls in the united kingdom show voters likely elected a center-left labour government after 14 years of center right conservative rule. and a look back at a supreme court term full of consequential and controversial decisions. >> this court seemed to be very comfortable with the president himself exercising an awful lot of power, perhaps not being as accountable as the founders would have wanted him to be. ♪ >> major funding for the "pbs news hour" 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.

>> carnegie corporation of new york, working to reduce political polarization through philanthropic support for education, democracy, and peace. more information at and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. amna: welcome to the “news hou”" and happy independence day. it's been one week since

president joe biden's performance in the first debate of the 2024 campaign caused a political shockwave. the president says he's staying in the race. but even on this fourth of july holiday, concerns continue to grow inside the democratic party about whether mr. biden is the best person to sit atop the ticket in november. “news hour” political correspondent lisa desjardins has been talking to lawmakers and voters, and she joins me now with the latest. good to see you. so far we have seen two democratic lawmakers come out publicly to publicly call for mr. biden to step aside. the reporting shows that others could be considering that. lisa: the texts and phone calls from democratic lawmakers concerned have not waned in the last week. talking to about a dozen or so house members in particular and top staffers in congress who are democrats the last couple of days i can report there are two movements to write letters asking the president to step aside as a nominee for these are

from two groups trying to form. one, veteran lawmakers who are in safe seats like lloyd doggett. the other is from frontline members who are much more vulnerable who think they will have much more to risk with biden on the ballot. they are trying to move these letters ahead. would they actually publicly call for the president to do this? unclear. they are talking about it. how big are these groups? also unclear. but i can report from having these conversations that we are talking about scores of house democrats who want the president privately to step aside. amna: who's who think they may -- why are they waiting to do so? lisa: one, wording of the letter is difficult especially for front liners. some of those front liners i am told would like a letter that says he has been a good president. they want praise for the president. others are nervous about signing that kind of letter because

president biden may not have won in their district before. wording is one issue. another is the politics. there is a lot of calculation about how do you influence this president? some believe publicly coming out and asking him to step aside is exactly the kind of thing that would have this president feel more embattled and more likely to dig in. there is a discussion about that. then some are worried if they come out publicly there will be retribution later should he win. some are worried if they don't come out publicly now if he loses there could be retribution for missing this moment. amna: how does all of this compared to what you're hearing from voters watching all of this unfold? lisa: there is a complete disconnect. talking to dozens of voters through our project reach out to voters as well as voters in maine, where i just came back from vacation, and voters here in virginia this morning, democratic voters are not just concerned, it is beyond that.

let's take a listen. >> i am feeling panicked. certainly, like, laying in my bed at night, overcome with fear. i do not think that joe biden is the best person to be running in this election. i don't know who that person is. but i don't feel confident in joe biden's ability to win this election, and that makes me very afraid. lisa: are the democrats who still support him? of course there are. but this is the vast majority of the messaging i'm getting, including from this undecided voter who voted for biden in 2020. he said it's well passed time to -- amna: there's been a sense that the white house into campaign have circled the wagons around the do better than first is debate. how is that playing? lisa: this has been a difficult

week for the white house but again and again they have said he is not stepping aside pretty and they have been getting supporters out as we saw last night when governors from across the country came to the white house. three of them came up to the microphone to said they still support the president and that their meeting reinforced that view. then we had a message today from gavin newsom from california. >> there was no one that walked out of that that didn't say we've got your back, mr. president. no one. not one. so again, for all the handwringing, all the navel gazing, it's time to step up and step in. lisa: that is again a disconnect from what i am hearing from democrats in washington who are actually angry. one, the campaign came after them in the last week on them bed wetters. they say that ignores the reality paid they think there is a real political problem for biden and potentially a governing one.

they are concerned about what he will be like in three years. a lot of those house democrats who are -- president biden speaking to abc tomorrow. time is of the essence and this may be the most important interview of his political career. amna: lisa desjardins with the latest on this ongoing story. thank you. ♪ in the day's other headlines, hurricane beryl is now a category two storm, down from a category five, but it remains powerful as it churns towards mexico. at least nine people have been killed across the region. in jamaica, beryl knocked down trees and powerlines, as it brushed the island's southern coast. and in the eastern caribbean, 95% of homes on a pair of islands in st. vincent and the

grenadines have been damaged or destroyed. while in barbados, boats were tossed like toys. sailors say there's likely even more destruction beneath the surf. >> all the vessels in here have damage, all have damage, structural damage, but we got a good few vessels that are under water. we don't know how much the toll is right now, but we estimate about 30 or maybe 40 vessels under the water. amna: the national hurricane center expects beryl to weaken further, but to remain a dangerous hurricane until it reaches mexico's shores tomorrow. southern texas is forecast to see impacts from beryl early next week. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu told president biden today that he's sending a delegation to renew ceasefire talks with hamas. the two spoke by phone after hamas sent a response to a three-phase proposal pushed by the u.s., israel, and other nations. meantime, northern israeli hillsides are ablaze amid heavy rocket fire from hezbollah in

lebanon. the group says it's launched hundreds of projectiles in response to israel's killing of one of its top commanders. at the funeral for mohammad naameh nasser today in beirut, a hezbollah leader vowed that the retaliation will continue. >> the response to the assassination of our dear leader abu naameh began last night, and quickly. the series of responses is targeting new sites the enemy never imagined would be hit. amna: israel has not reported any casualties. the israeli defense forces says it struck back today, hitting hezbollah military structures in southern lebanon. russian president vladimir putin ruled out a cease-fire in ukraine, until kyiv takes steps that are, quote, irreversible and acceptable to the russian federation. putin made the comment in kazakhstan, on the final day of a regional security conference. he also weighed in on the u.s. election, particularly former president trump's repeated claims that, if re-elected, he could end the fighting in

ukraine in a single day. >> the fact that mr. trump declares that he is ready and wants to stop the war in ukraine, we take this quite seriously. i am not, of course, familiar with his possible proposals regarding how he is going to do this. but i have no doubt that he means it sincerely, and we will support it. amna: meantime, ukraine's military said its troops retreated from the outskirts of chasiv yar, a town in the eastern donetsk region. commanders say russia has deployed scorched earth tactics there for months. its fall would put nearby cities in jeopardy and threaten critical ukrainian supply routes. a court in moscow convicted u.s. citizen robert woodland of drug-related charges today. he was sentenced to 12.5 years in prison. woodland, who was born in russia, was in court today to hear his sentence. he's one of a growing number of americans arrested in russia, as relations between the two nations sink to cold war lows.

his lawyers say woodland has been suffering from unspecified mental health issues. they plan to appeal the verdict. the international swimming federation says its executive director has been ordered to testify in a u.s. criminal probe into alleged doping by chinese olympic swimmers. american officials want to know how 23 chinese swimmers were allowed to compete in the 2021 tokyo olympics, despite testing positive for a banned heart medication. it comes just three weeks ahead of the olympic games in paris, where 11 of those same athletes are set to compete. millions across america have been celebrating the july 4 holiday, and it's been a hot one. 134 million people in the south and west have been under heat alerts. that didn't stop the celebrations, of course, with parades and cookouts across the nation. on new york's coney island, the nathan's hot dog eating contest gobbled on today without 16-time

champion joey chestnut, who couldn't compete because of a sponsorship conflict. instead, patrick bertoletti of chicago took the men's title, downing 58 dogs in 10 minutes. and defending women's champion miki sudo retained her crown, eating a women's record of 51 franks. for you salad eaters out there, here's a fun fact, this july 4 also happens to be the 100th birthday of the caesar salad. the culinary staple has its roots not in america, but in tijuana, mexico. that's where in 1924, an italian immigrant named caesar cardini is said to have thrown together some leftover ingredients after his hungry patrons emptied the shelves. the result was the dish that we know and love today. so, something for everyone this july 4. still to come on the “news hour,” billions of dollars in federal pandemic aid for schools helped students catch up academically, but gaps remain.

a look at an effort underway in missouri to enshrine abortion access in the state's constitution. and the climate cost of artificial intelligence and the energy required to power it. >> this is the "pbs news hour" from weta studios in washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. amna: exit polls in the united kingdom show a labour landslide in today's election. with the center-left party winning a massive majority in parliament in the first general election in nearly five years. this video from sky tv shows the results of the exit polls. the conservatives' loss marks the end of 14 years in power, and rishi sunak's prime ministership. labour leader keir starmer will be britain's next prime minister. "news hour" special correspondent malcolm brabant is in london covering the election.

what more can you tell us about these results? were they a surprise were to be expected? -- or to be expected? malcolm: people were expecting a substantial labour majority because they have declared they are sick and tired of the conservatives. this has been borne out tonight. these early exit polls are usually extremely accurate and what they are saying is labour will have 410 seats in the 365 seat parliament, giving them a majority of 170 seats. the conservatives have lost 241 seats, which is one of the worst performances in recent history. amna: a landslide victory it seems like. what does that margin of victory mean both for the labour party and how keir starmer's priorities can be put into place? malcolm: this is exactly what he

wanted to be able to do, to be able to carry out all of his legislative programs. he has been vague about some of the things he wanted to do. he now has really no opposition to worry about when it comes to putting through the things he wants to do. that is trying to get growth, stabilizing the economy. he wants to improve the national health service. he wants to set up border controls to stop a new border force to stop all of the boat people coming across from france. he also wants to bring in new teachers and things like that. when he might even do is introduce voting for 16-year-old so that labour can stay in power for generations. certainly there has been a lot of scaremongering by the conservatives about what this will do with such a powerful majority. amna: what about those conservatives? after 14 years in power, where does this leave the conservative

party and rishi sunak? malcolm: they are in total disarray. this is a dreadful performance on their part. they have suffered as a result of there being covid and the war in ukraine, but also at their own irresponsibility of government and incompetence. rishi sunak is thought to be a very nice guy, a technocrat, and pretty competent, but he has not been able to get over the history the people of this country have with the conservatives. after 14 years, people have had enough, even if they don't trust everything keir starmer says, they just want change. they are fed up with the cost of living being abominable. and one of the things that keir starmer is going to do that the conservatives would never do is hit the oil companies with extra revenue with an -- and pour that

into green energy. people just want change. amna: there is another political force at play here, a man named nigel farage, the leader of the right-wing populist party, reform u.k. where did he come out in this race? malcolm: he has done pretty well. we don't know how many votes he has managed to get but he will only get 13 seats in parliament by the looks of things. he is basically setting himself up for five years time. he is going to be a rabble-rouser in parliament, the loudest voice possibly against keir starmer. what he will be trying to do is unite the right-wing behind him. so that in five years time he will be in a position to challenge keir starmer perhaps as prime minister. that will be his main role. i think he will be quite content with what he has got because if he wins his seat in eastern england he will be in parliament

and a thorn in keir starmer's side. amna: malcolm brabant reporting live for us tonight. good to see you. thank you. ♪ the nine justices of the supreme court considered more than 60 cases this term before rendering their final decisions earlier this week. their rulings on abortion access, presidential immunity, and the limits of federal agencies could have long-lasting impacts. they also showcased sharp divides among the justices. i sat down with two supreme court watchers to reflect on this historic term. steve is a professor at georgetown university's law center, and joe is cnn's senior supreme court analyst and author of the book, nonblack robes. welcome to you both.

let's begin with what was easily the court's most anticipated decision on monday, deciding that presidents are entitled some immunity from prosecution. how consequential is that decision, given how it could reshape the presidency? >> consequential for this year, but consequential for many years. this was such a robust reading of executive power. it was a very bold statement by this court, the 6-3 super majority conservative court. it gave us a new insight into the court under john roberts and in terms of going forward it is already affecting prosecutions against former president donald trump and will affect presidential powers and authority down the road. amna: this undeniably leaves us with a more powerful executive after that decision. how does that decision square with the trend you saw from the

justices and how they view the power of executive branch agencies and other decisions? >> it makes sense if you distinguish between the power of the presidency as an institution versus the power of executive branch agencies. this court seems to be very comfortable with the president himself exercising an awful lot of power, perhaps not being as accountable as the founders would've wanted him to be, while still raining in the power of lower-level agencies and the power of congress to even if authorities to those agencies. i actually think it has the same core goal, which is enhancing the power of the presidency, enhancing the role of the courts, and weaken him as much as any -- amna: and the issue of abortion loomed large as well, two years after the dobbs decision overturned the constitutional right to abortions. this court basically punted two

related courses to abortion medication and access to emergency abortions. joan: the first one, the one that ensured women would still have access to mifepristone, the abortion medication, that was a logical outcome when they said the anti-edge -- antiabortion physicians who did not even engage in any abortion or prescription of this drug, they did not have legal standing. that they could not bring the case. the case from idaho involving the ability to get emergency abortions for women who had complications in pregnancies, that was a surprise. it was a surprise even the way the justices took it. they allowed this idaho law, a complete ban to take effect. they sidestepped that with an unusual compromise in the end, but i think the compromise they had saying they would put it off for a while, they should not have granted in the first place, they should not have reached out. i think it just showed that they

are chomping at the bit to have another bite at a case that could really diminish access to abortion, what is left of it after they rolled back constitutional abortion rights. amna: you have noted in your analysis that when the justices were not unanimous in their decisions we often see the this 6-3 split, clearly along ideological lines. what does that say to you about the evolution of this roberts court? steve: what is striking is remember, the justices are choosing virtually all of the cases. it is not like this is a random cross-section of cases from lower courts. with the idaho abortion case shows is the six conservative justices know what they wanted to and are taking the cases where they are going to be able to stake out what are really in the main ideological positions that are going to provoke the dissents of the three democratic appointees. we should not be surprised by that but it is striking there

were twice as many of those 6-3 ideological splits this year.as last terms . the court is taking whatever the courts want to take even if in some cases they are coming to regret that down the road. amna: i want to ask about the tone we have seen in the dissents from the liberal justices. what do you make of that? we have seen strong language. joan: certainly stronger language and it was escalating. it had been building on the part of the three justices. the anger, the passion, and i felt like i was hearing some of the earlier dissents, it revealed what was to come. they are not able to make any kind of inroads. the six justice conservative majority is flexing its muscle. steve and i have observed there is such a difference between a five justice conservative majority and six, because they have wiggle room. someone can drop off and they can still be pretty bold in

where they are going towards the right. amna: we should also note this is a court that has faced the same decline in public trust that all other american institutions have seen. there is a more than 30 point drop any supreme court favorable rating since 1987, that was as of summer of 2023. then we saw a slew of reports, many from propublica, raising questions about ethics concerns. the court adopted an ethics code late last year, but how do you look at that? can they win back the public trust? steve: yes, they can. i don't know anything the court has done the last couple of weeks has been in any way taking steps in that direction. it's really striking when joan mentioned the voices of the three liberal dissenters, we have also heard the emerging voice of justice amy coney barrett. she is marking a position in between herself and the other conservative justices where i think she actually is perhaps the most cognizant of the need to not look like they are

jumping the gun. in the colorado ballot disqualification case, she wrote specifically about what message the court was sending to the american people. she seems worried about that. the problem is there are now six and so one is not enough. the fact that chief justice roberts has gone more over to the thomas-alit-gorsuch wing is why we are going to see this credibility gap grow. amna: how would you briefly describe the impact of some of their decisions and how you look ahead to the next term? joan: where it was a turning point is in the immunity decision. the justice's regard for the presidency and the regard for themselves. even though they certainly protected the executive branch much more than any court ever has in american history. also it leads to the court itself, what are or are not official acts.

we talk about the imperial presidency. there was a certain imperial oomph with the justices differ the judiciary. also for john roberts. steve mentioned amy coney barrett is a little more in the center than how we would have regarded john roberts once upon a time. john roberts in this immunity case against protections for environment for labor, for public health, he has shown himself to be much more vigorous in moving to the right and enforcing a certain kind of conservative agenda he started his career with in washington when he first worked for the reagan administration. amna: what are you looking for in the next term? steve: there is no question this terms of the most aggressive restructuring of the government since 1937 when we had a slew of supreme court decisions that helped set the stage for the modern administration state.

whether that restructuring is going to be a good thing in the long term very much remains to be seen. early returns are not inspiring. looking ahead to next term they know as much as anyone there is election coming in november. how we are talking and looking at the supreme court next year will depend a heck of a lot on who wins in november and whether we have a second trump administration, read the question is how much will that court stand up to a president trump, or joe biden or another democrat wins in november, and we have more of the same. that is very much all to play for. the problem is that the real watchword, the real take away is all of these decisions in the accumulative is going to destabilize the law and the power of the federal government and in the long term it is about the imperial judiciary and how much more judges will be deciding features of our everyday lives. amna: steve vladeck and joan biskupic, thank you so much.

we appreciate it. joan: thank you. steve: thank you. ♪ amna: it's well known that there were some big gaps in student learning tied to school shutdowns during the pandemic and difficult transitions with hybrid classes. but a big question remains, how much did federal aid help students recover from those academic losses? we now have some answers from new research and jeffrey brown dives into the latest. jeffrey: a pair of new studies show that the $190 billion the federal government gave in pandemic aid for schools help students catch up academically, but big gaps remain. here to tell us about them is laura meckler, national education writer for the washington post. thank you for joining us. in general terms, first, we did see some gains, even if moderate. tell us about it.

laura: yes. we did see some gains. there were deep losses from the pandemic between 2019 and 2022, and we just saw those were across the board, rich districts, poor districts, but especially poor districts saw, big, steep losses. but we did start to see some improvement between 2022 and spring of 2023. we don't yet have the results from this last testing in spring 2024, so we don't know. but obviously, people are hoping that they'll see continued improvement then. but as of what we know right now, kids are still behind. jeffrey: so that's a lot of money to spend. what kind of specific steps made the most difference? do we know? laura: well, unfortunately, we don't really know because they wanted that money out the door and there were very few strings attached. districts were not required to say how they were spending the money and districts used it for a wide range of purposes. now, let's remember that in the spring of 2021 when this money was first allocated, people were talking about reopening schools, and there was money spent on nurses. there was money spent on covid

testing, on ventilation systems. some school districts used money for facilities improvements, but then it became clearer pretty quickly it became clear that really the biggest problems american schools were facing was this loss of learning, this academic regression. so there was definitely money spent on tutoring on some summer programs on additional staff to help, maybe put another teacher in the room to go around and help kids who are struggling with a problem. jeffrey: now, my understanding is that poorer districts got more of the aid. did differences show up between poorer and better off school systems? laura: yeah, they did. and even more interestingly enough that with among poor districts, some poor districts got more money than others due to a quirk in the formula that they used in distributing this aid. so researchers were able to really look and see what impact did the aid have. now everybody improved, but was it that they were gonna improve

anyway, or do we credit this federal money? and what they were able to determine was that for every $1000 that was spent per pupil they saw about 3% of a grade improvement. so, is that a lot or a little? i guess it kind of depends on whether you're feeling like this glass is, you know, 3% full or maybe 50% empty, but they did, in fact, have an impact. jeffrey: and to be clear, when you talk about great improvement, we're talking about math or reading scores, that kind of thing? laura: yeah, so that's in math scores. we're looking at math in particular. what we found was that there was a drop in student test scores between 2019 and 2022 of about half a grade in math. so students lost about half a grades' worth of learning in math. and so they needed to catch up by quite a bit because you need to learn the new material for the next year that you're in school plus what you lost from the previous year, so that was a huge challenge. if you're thinking about, say, a 50% loss of a half a grade, you

know, for every $1000 spent, 3% improvement. so if you spent, say, $8000 per student in this pandemic aid, you would get maybe a quarter of a grade improvement. jeffrey: now this federal funding is coming to an end soon, right? what happens then? what are you hearing from schools themselves? laura: districts do have to spend the money by this fall. and there are a lot of concerns about cutbacks that will come with that. some districts are intent on trying to maintain as much of the new interventions that they put in place as possible. but in other places they are definitely facing cuts. for instance, in the city of cleveland, they developed a robust summer program that served more than 5000 kids a year for the last few years, but this summer, they only have about half that many enrolled because they just don't have funding for the full program. jeffrey: so just summing up as we end here, with all the talk about these gaps and the losses and studies like this, how much do we know at this point? laura: well, you know, we know a good bit. we know that the losses were steep.

we know that the comeback is underway, but we just don't know how far we've gotten yet, and one thing i'll be looking for and a lot of people will be looking for is what were those test scores this last spring, just a couple months ago. how much of an improvement did we see? did we see another big jump like we did from 2022 to 2023? or did the pace of improvement lag? so i think that there's still a bit that we don't know. but we certainly know that the american education system has been trying to make up for these deep losses. and now that the money is gone, we'll just have to see, will there be further sliding or will they find a way to continue helping kids catch up to where they're supposed to be? jeffrey: all right, laura meckler of the washington post. thank you very much. laura: thanks so much for having me. ♪ amna: in missouri, abortion was

banned almost immediately after roe v. wade was overturned. now, two years later, there's an effort to enshrine abortion access in the state's constitution, by putting it on the ballot this election cycle. i recently spoke to our communities correspondent gabrielle hays in st. louis. great to see you help us understand here, any two years since dobbs was overturned, what has that meant for people in misery and providers in the surrounding areas? gabrielle: a lot of what we know about how this has impacted misery and what this looks like form was very comes from the data and information we are able to gather from other states who are monitoring how many people are coming from states with more extreme bands such as missouri. how those folks are being impacted. we got some data from hope clinic this week. that clinic is located in illinois across the river from st. louis. and providers tell us that 80%

of the patients they are seeing are coming from states with more extreme bands. they say they are seeing patients coming from 28 different states across the country. five countries from around the world. we were able to speak to julie burkart in hope clinic was able to paint the picture for what this impact looks like for patients coming to their clinic for care. >> oftentimes they have to bring their children. because they don't have childcare or don't feel that they can disclose to people why they would maybe need to leave their children for a day or two. people go to great lengths to get rides from friends, to get a bus ticket, to get on a plane. gabrielle: she explained for a bit of context that just last month alone, 48% of the patients that they saw she says came from the state of missouri.

amna: we did see in other states like michigan and ohio in reaction to the overturning of roe v. wade, people launching successful ballot initiatives where voters get to decide on abortion access in their own states. tell us about the effort in misery. -- in missouri. gabrielle: there is an effort currently unfolding here in missouri. missourians for constitutional freedom launched a campaign in hopes to get abortion on the ballot this fall. advocates who work with that campaign tell us they were able to get the amount of signatures, twice as many in order to get on the ballot. we were able to talk to attorney for the aclu and who also works on the campaign to explain to us what getting abortion on the ballot could mean for the state of missouri. >> missouri is unique in the sense that we are going to show states across the country that regardless of the political dynamics in their state, folks

are with you. it is not a decision that is main on a political party or who is at the top of the ticket in your estate. this is an issue that is very personal, and we know that missourians are with us. gabrielle: she pointed out specifically that the impact would be substantial given, as i stated earlier, that missouri outlawed abortion so quickly after dobbs and as one of the more stricter bands. amna: and we know there is a republican majority in the missouri state legislature. has there been any pushback to that effort? gabrielle: there definitely has been but a little context is important. we saw state republican legislators putting forth legislation this year in hopes to make it harder to amend the state constitution. i had some republicans telling me earlier this year they felt it was too easy for people to be able to change the state's

constitution. now, that bill did not go very far, but when we talk about this in terms of abortion specifically being on the ballot, legislators have taken to social media. republicans encouraging people to not sign the petition back when signatures were being collected. encouraging people to what they call declined to sign. and so we have seen a little bit of that. earlier this week i spoke to united states senator josh hawley who spoke to me a little about this issue and he told me though he is pro-life, he told me that people should be able to vote if it gets to that point and gets on the ballot. he essentially said people should have the opportunity to debate on it if that is what they want to do. amna: what about some context here? what are we seeing nationwide on this issue? his abortion on the ballot in other states? gabrielle: it definitely is.

this is something we are learning more about this week. for little bit of context, we know that at least six states will have some type of abortion access language on the ballot this fall. that is states like nevada and florida. but we also know at least five other states have some sort of pending ballot measures that we are waiting to see if they make it on the ballot. those are states like missouri but also arizona. we got news this week that both arizona and nebraska, that organizers and advocates say they have submitted and they have enough signatures, in some cases twice as many, to be able to get on the ballot. so we are just waiting to see, for missouri specifically, advocates tell us they believe whether or not it should make it on the ballot in august. amna: that is our communities correspondent in st. louis gabrielle hays.

thank you, good to see you. gabrielle: thank you. ♪ amna: google announced this week it is well-behind on a pledge to all but eliminate its net carbon emissions by 2030. its emissions are actually up nearly 50% since 2019. one factor: artificial intelligence and the energy required to power it via the company's massive data centers. as economics correspondent paul solman reports, the ai arms race has experts worried about its climate consequences. paul: by now you have probably seen chatgpt, which economist simon johnson prompted to substitute for me in a recent story. >> good evening. i am reporting on a compelling new analysis stirring debate in economic circles. paul: now meet mary, a chatbot

avatar companion created recently for us on the app replica. she is connected to chatgpt, but can also flirt on her own. >> are you always this irresistible? paul: and finally, here is 3d micah. >> [indiscernible] >> virtue need not stem from deeper philosophies or moral systems. paul: and micah is also hooked up to chatgpt. how quickly can't amica respond? 15 milliseconds. >>but how much energy does it take to make that process work from chatgpt to a robot and back ? paul: a whole lot. that poses a threat. >> what i am most worried about

is we are building in a norm is infrastructure for artificial intelligence that is extremely energy and water intensive without looking at the very real downsides in terms of the climate impacts. paul: like more brownouts in texas, wildfires in california, stronger hurricanes in the gulf, 126 degrees in delhi this sp ring. it is centers have already been burgeoning -- >> then we suddenly had cryptocurrency mining adding a lot on top of that. paul: this amsterdam-based data scientist. as the value of cryptocurrency has multiplied, so have the data centers, like those that mine bitcoin in cheap energy havens like plattsburgh, new york. >> this will use as much power as my health does in a month. >> ai might be going in the exact same director --

direction. paul: and it will not to stress the electricity grid. >> these use gpu's that produce enormous heat. the water to cool these gpu chips is freshwater, often coming from exactly the same reserves used for drinking water. >> these are basically customer deployments. whether running critical infrastructure and applications. paul: bill runs the data centers in silicon valley for a company which operates 260 of the nearly 11,000 centers operating worldwide. the company leases space to firms like at&t and google cloud to run servers that power their cloud and ai operations. and they are expanding. this is where ai-like processors would go? >> correct. this is a high density deployment liquid cool. we are taking the building's chilled water, it comes into here.

each one of these goes to an actual chip on a customer server. there's nozzles where there is a little ancillary to that connects to the server. cools the cchips. the hot air comes back, gets cooled, and that is how we can provide liquid cooling for the higher density ai tech deployments. paul: this silicon valley complex alone features 345,000 square feet of servers, thousands of them operating 24/7. the company's global energy budget as of last year, the same as 750,000 u.s. homes. >> we have had estimates from 2% to 8%. 2% is around the same energy budget as the netherlands. paul: and if that doubles in two years? >> we could see the energy budget be as high as the country

of japan. paul: even now a data center complex in iowa operated by meta uses as much power per year and 7 million laptops running eight hours a day. >> we are in the very early days of ai. paul: but as ai taketh away, it might also giveth. >> what we don't know yet for example is what will be the benefits to society from an energy perspective. paul: such as? >> air canada is a customer and we are able to optimize their flight pathways and save fuel. a lot of focus is on how much energy ai will use. but the energy consumed in training these large language models is not lost. you can think of it as stored energy. once these models are trained,

if they are retained, they can be used over and over again. >> there are some signs that give me hope. paul: even kate crawford degrees. >> researchers -- in particular what are called small language models, models that use much less data and therefore less energy. we are also starting to see regulators pay attention. we have cerner -- we have seen the first bill looking at the ai environmental impacts. >> they are providing half a megawatt of power. when the solar panels are active we are not pulling from the local utility source. paul: these panels fuel 3% of the facility so far. but with solar capacity doubling every three years, maybe this guy is the limit. >> ultimately i think it will be very net positive. paul: this techno-optimist puts

his faith in ai itself. >> a much earlier version 10 years ago figured out how to save power by 15%. in the ongoing week by week operation of the data center. if we are generating ai they can help us with this kind of thing, sure, it takes a bunch of electricity to train, but then it helps us figure out how to operate our electrical grids much better. that is already line of sight today. i think the electricity worry is a red hearing -- red herring. paul: but near-term. >> it is inevitable we are going to see price increases if we have these sorts of pressures on the electrical grid. paul: and so the age-old horse race between the cost of new technology and its benefits. in the case of ai perhaps, to solve the problems it creates, or not so much. paul solman in silicon valley. ♪

amna: the american flag is one of the world's most recognizable symbols, but the responses it provokes are anything but uniform. a museum exhibit in arkansas explores how such a universal symbol can send so many different messages. in this encore report, ali rogin paid a visit for our arts and culture series, canvas. ali: it flies over the halls of justice. it's used to mark a solemn sacrifice. and it's wrapped around shoulders in celebration. it's present at the proudest and the darkest moments in the nation's history. the flag represents america. but it can't represent all the experiences of those who claim it as their own. that's the idea behind the exhibit "flagged for discussion," at the crystal bridges museum of american art in bentonville, arkansas. >> every object here reflects the artist's personal

relationship or connection to the flag. ali: curator larissa randall came up with the idea for the exhibit while perusing items in the museum's permanent collection. there were so many depictions of the american flag, but each was so different. like this norman rockwell portrait of rosie the riveter, quite literally eating hitler's lunch. or this wood carving by leroy almon, making clear that the transatlantic slave trade also took place under the flag's auspices. or "ward," by george tooker, in which the flag provides little comfort to ailing patients. >> i was struck by how artists from across time, across walks of life, of various backgrounds, all used the flag to comment on issues that are important to them. >> this is a flag, mexico and the u.s. as one. but it's bigger than that. it's, can't we get along? ali: for artist consuelo jimenez underwood, the flag is both message and medium. underwood was born in sacramento, california.

her mother was third-generation mexican-american, and her father was part of the bracero program, which allowed mexican seasonal workers to come to the united states during both world wars. her piece at crystal bridges is called "home of the brave." it combines the american and mexican flags, evoking the strong ties between the two countries, but also the deep divides. >> i feel that the threads can join not just fabric, but people. and that's where i came in. i wanted to do something about the division between our countries, mexico and u.s. for me, that line is very arbitrary. ali: like many children of migrants at the time, underwood grew up picking crops with her family, taxing her small body. but with the help of her parents, she nurtured her spirit and mind. >> i learned how to appreciate the little that i had from my dad.

it was the hottest, picking tomatoes in sacramento valley at 110 degrees, it was hard. and he would sing and everybody would listen because he had a beautiful voice. the other magic that happened in those fields in those earlier years were the book vans, that came to the fields for us kids that would miss school the first two months and the last two months of the school year. and i would just i made a promise to myself because i'm getting behind, i swear i will not read fiction. i'm only going to read biography, science, real stuff so that i can make up for the knowledge that i'm losing. ali: america allowed children like underwood to labor alongside adults, a practice that continues, illegally, today. but as underwood sees it, america also allowed her to thrive. >> i lived under the u.s. flag. and i knew if i got an education i could move up the socio economic. so, consuelo, don't cry. you'll be the first of 11 of 12 to get that high school

education. ali: she finds inspiration in the methods of the indigenous huichol people of mexico, from whom she is descended. her flag rests on a backdrop of intricate indigenous designs. >> underneath is a really important history that, don't forget, it's the shoulders that we stand on. ali: her flag features raw materials like plastic and barbed wires. safety pins hold the two flags' loose threads together. >> this flag is in disarray because it's not perfect, but it's beautiful because the land that it waves over is wonderful. ali: what does it mean to you to have this work in conversation with the other pieces in this exhibit? >> it really is wonderful. i feel like crystal bridges is embodying the best of these artworks that make you jump. go, oh my god, i've never seen something like that.

>> i would see this project as successful if someone left thinking about the flag in a different way than they walked in. ali: that's the exhibit's other common thread, each piece's ability to provoke deeper thought. >> it makes me proud. it makes me also thoughtful of our history and how far we've come in expanding our civil rights. >> as my cap shows, i was in the service in the army. so the flag to me is the flag. freedom, because that's what i went in for, to fight for. >> it is kind of twisted now. how free are we really, when you really think about it? >> some people might look at the u.s. flag and see unity or fear or harmony or freedom. and whatever people see i think is valid, but also is worth investigating. whose freedom are we talking about here, and how, as we move forward as a country, what do we

want this to sort of represent for us now? ali: "flagged for discussion" doesn't answer those questions, but it starts the conversation. the "pbs news hour," i'm ali rogin in bentonville, arkansas. ♪ amna: and before we go, a reminder to stick around for pbs's very own july 4 concert. a capitol fourth features performances from musical guests and fireworks from the nation's capitol. that's tonight on pbs. check your local listings. remember, there's a lot more online at pbs.org/newshour, including a live stream of tonight's capitol fourth concert and fireworks. and that's the “news hour” for tonight. i'm amna nawaz. on behalf of the entire “news hour” team, thank you for joining us, and happy fourth. >> major funding for the "pbs news hour" has been provided by.

the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions, and friends of the "news hour," including leonard and norma klorfine, and the judy and peter blum kovler foundation. the ford foundation, working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide. and with the ongoing support of these institutions. and friends of the "news hour." 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.] >> you're watching pbs.

♪♪ -"cook's country" is about more than just getting dinner on the table. we're also fascinated by the people and stories behind the dishes. we go inside kitchens in every corner of the country to learn how real people cook, and we look back through time to see how history influences the way we eat today.