♪ jimmy: think. i am judy woodruff. on the "newshour" tonight -- biden abroad -- the president works to rebuild alliances at the critical nato summit. then -- the climate fight -- the g-7 meeting ends with overtures toward reducing climate change across the planet but few concrete plans to combat the crisis. and -- political stakes -- our politics monday team looks at the biden trip overseas and whether it could help his domestic agenda, plus the tough assignments on vice president harris' plate. plus, leaving afghanistan -- a helicopter pilot finally enters the u.s. after a protracted visa

process as his country's stabilitdeteriorates. >> the withdrawal of u.s. forces from afghanistan is happening so rapidly, the situation for the afghans left behind, still waiting for their visas, is becoming a life-and-death emergency. judy: all of that and more on , tonight's "pbs newshour." ♪ announcer: major funding for the "pbs newshour" has been provided by -- >> before we talk about your investments, what's new? >> audrey's expecting. >> twins. >> grandpants. >> we want to put money aside for them, so change in plans. >> ok. let's see what we can ♪ >> a change of plans. >> mom, are you painting again? >> let me guess.

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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. ♪ judy: president biden is in brussels tonight, trying to reassure nato allies about u.s. support and rally them against russia and china. white house correspondent yamiche alcindor reports from brussels. >> we will now take the founding photo. yamiche: today at the nato summit, president biden got a warm welcome. the overwhelming feeling in the air -- relief. p.m. rutte: i think with joe biden, it's more natal again. p.m. bettel: we know that with the american president now, we have someone who believes in multilateralism. yamiche: after former president donald trump, nato leaders are anxious for stronger relations with the u.s.

trump constantly threatened the alliance, initially declaring it "obsolete." pres. biden: i just want all of europe to know that the united states is there. yamiche: this morning, during a meetinwith nato secretary general jens stoltenberg, president biden tried to put to bed any uneasy feelings. pres. biden: i want to make it clear -- nato is critically important to u.s. interests in and of itself. if there weren't one, we'd have to invent one. yamiche: mr. biden wants nato leaders to instead focus on a host of growing challenges. they include endinthe pandemic, confronting cyberattacks, and climate change, and the threats from russia and china. this afternoon at a press conference, mr. biden doubled down on those goals. pres. biden: the democratic values that undergird our alliance are under increasing pressure both internally and externally. russia and china are both seeking to drive a wedge in our

transit gland. -- transatlantic solidarity. we are seeing an incree in malicious cyber activity, but our alliance is a strong foundation on which we can -- our collective surity and our shared prosperity can continue to be built. yamiche: the president also reaffirmed america's full support for nato's mutual defense clause known as article 5. it says an attack on one member nation is an attack on all. pres. biden: the u.s. commitment to article 5 of the nato treaty is rock solid, unshakeable. it's a sacred commitment. yamiche: early on, former president trump constant criticized article 5, saying america was paying too much for other countries' defense. but the only time nato has ever invoked article 5 came after the september 11 terror attacks on the u.s. nato troops deployed to afghanistan following the u.s. invasion. that nato mission in afghanistan will soon end after president biden ordered the complete withdrawal of u.s. troops there by september.

the move took some u.s. allies by surprise. today, german chancellor angela merkel said the leaders would discuss it. chancellor merkel: we will talk about the afghanistan withdrawal, and i will return to the issue of what we have achieved and learned there and what we need to consider for our future concepts. yamiche: ahead of his meeting with the russian president in geneva this week, president biden is also pressing leaders of the world's democracies to present a united front against autocrats. pres. biden: there's a lot of -- a lot of autocracies that are counting on them being able to move more rapidly and successfully in an ever-complicated world than democracies can. we all concluded we're going to prove them wrong. yamiche: it comes after president putin denied in an nbc news interview that his government had anything to do with ransomware attacks that have targeted u.s. oilfood, and other infrastructure. mr. putin: we have been accused of all kinds of things. election interference, cyberattacks, and so on and so forth. and not once, not once, not one

time did they bother to produce any kind of evidence or proof. just unfounded accusations. yamiche: u.s. officials say the attacks have been carried out by criminals in russia. today, biden also met with the president of turkey to discuss the future of afghistan, among other topics. for years, relations between the allies have been at a low over president erdogan's anti-democratic moves, over syria and the kurds, and turkish purchases of russian surface-to-air missiles. judy: and yamiche joins me now from brussels. hello, yamiche. as reported, president biden had that news conference delayed. you were there to tell us what the main takeaways were. yamiche: president biden underscored the united states's commitment to nato, in contrast

to president trump, questioned over and over again whether nato should exist, an article 5 says if one member nation is attacked, they are all attacked, and he said it was a sacred obligation. that said, the president still has some disagreements. one is how strong to be against china. also, there is a real question about whether president biden will pull out troops in afghanistan and include leaders in that decision, although some leaders are excited about leaving afghanistan, because they got in because of the u.s.'s attack on 9/11, but the main take away is the president saying america is here and standing strong. judy: there is the meeting that the president has with vladimir putin on wednesday. at this point, what are the main issues that are expected to come up in that conversation? yamiche: well, present biden has

set a number of times about when he to talk about the cyber attacks and the fact that he is going to push the russian president on human rights issues, also talk in nato among some member nations, including angela merkel of germany, that there needs to be a discussion about disinformation campaigns and russia meddling in elections, so there is a lot on the agenda. that said, president biden has also said he is going to give us more details about how he is going to measure success after this meeting, so there is a real question about what are the details that people want to see, especially american citizens who at times have had their lives disrupted because of the russian attacks, these criminal living in russia, but the president has been a bitcoin about that. what he has said is taking a stance about russia, and i should also note that president biden said that every member he has metith, every leader he has met with, has expressed interest in meeting with him, because it was a question about

whether or not the meeting with biden was too premature. judy: as you and i were just discussion, yamiche, vladimir putin has the opportunity to change minds if he wants to. yamiche: this is an opportunity to work out something together, try to find some common ground. that being said, experts i have talked to have said that russia has just been a bad actor on the international scene, and president biden is also doubling down on the idea that he does not trust the russian president, and the white house aides said over and over again that this meeting is happening because of the differences over the differences with russia. judy: yamiche with president biden on this trip. thank you. ♪

vanessa: i am vanessa ruiz. we will return to judy woodruff and the program after the headlines. the united states neared a total of 600,000 deaths from covid-19. the milestone came even as daily deaths have fallen sharply. this evening, congress marked the development of a moment of silence on the east front of the capital. [silence] meanwhile, the national institutes of health said this evening that clinical tribals -- trials show that the novavax vaccine is 90% effective. the maryland-based company said it will seek emergency approval in the u.s. before october. and this evening, representative jerrold nadler, chair of the house judiciary committee, said his committee would investigate the justice department's surveillance of journalists and congressional members during the trump justice department. earlier today, u.s. attorney

general merrick garland promised tighter rules today for obtaining information on members of congress. john demers was the department's top security official during that time, and today, word came that he is resigning, as planned, at month's and. the first extreme heat wave of 2021 has hit the western states, temperatures in phoenix and las vegas hitting into the 110's, with northern states, including montana and wyoming, breaking records. and meanwhile, in texas, officials are asking consumers to reduce their energy consumption to avo emergency as the grid faces record demand this in israel, a new prime june. minister. naftali bennett formally took office, ending benjami netanyahu's 12-year rule. bennett met with his new staff, but netanyahu refused to join in public ceremonies. instead, he vowed his right-wing bloc will oust bennett's fragile coalition.

mr. netanyahu: we have a strong opposition, united, and strong to topple this dangerous left-wing government. it will fall quickly, and i will tell you why. it is impossible to hold a government that has so many contradictions. with such things, one can't keep a government. vanessa: a nuclear power plant is opening safely. they said that the taishan plant might have a radiation leak, and the french company says there has been a performance issue but it remains within safety limits, and back in this country, a chemical plant exploded in northern illinois, touching off a spectacular fire. heavy, black smoke and fireballs erupted throughout the day and consumed the plant near rockton. fire crews pulled back to event polluting a nearby river.

mr. wilson: we don't want an environmental nightmare to occur, and the reason that we would cause that is by the use of water streams. so we stopped water operations at this point. we stopped suppression. we felt it was in out best interest to let this product burn off. vanessa: the u.s. senate has narrowly confirmed federal judge ketanji brown jackson to the federal appeals court for washington, d.c. the vote this evening was mostly down party lines. president biden has promised to name a black woman to the u.s. supreme court, and jackson has been mentioned as a leading contender. and speaking of the supreme court, it ruled unanimously today against reduced prison terms for low-level crack cocaine offenses. the justices said convictions for very small amounts of crack do not qualify under a 2018 law. it was aimed at disparities that saw tougher jail terms for crack possession than for powder cocaine and disproportionately affected black defendants. and veteran character actor ned

beatty died in los angeles. his career spanned more than 150 movies, including his role in "deliverance" in 1972. four years later, in "network," he earned an oscar nomination playing a tv executive. ned beatty was 83 years old. well still to come on the , "newshour" - - an afghan pilot finally emigrates to the u.s. as his country's stability deteriorates . the g-7 ends with overtures toward reducing climate change but few concrete plans. our politics monday team looks at the biden trip overseas and whether it could affect his domestic agenda, plus much more. ♪ announcer: this is the "pbs newshour"," from weta studios and in the west from arizona state university.

judy: president biden meets in brussels tomorrow with european union leaders, many of the same men and women whom he met with today at nato headquarters. after the fractious relationship between former president trump and many of those same leaders, mr. biden has been hailed as a fresh start by many of them. but issues remain between the u.s. and europe. nick schifrin explores this moment. nick: judy, that's right. and now we get two views on the state of relations between the united states and europe. jana puglierin is head of the berlin office at the european council on foreign relations. and heather conley heads the europe program at the center for strategic and international studies and was a state department official focused on europe, during the george w. bush administration. thank you very much. welcome to you both to the "newshour." let me start with you. does western europe believe that the united states will remain a reliable partner? >> terribly relieved to have joe

biden as the american president and not donald trump. it feels lik the nightmare is somewhat over, but we do not know how long it will last, so there is a fundamental insecurity in the transatlantic relationship, seen from berlin and europe, whether in four year s' time the united states will have another president, a trumpian president again, and that is a big worry. nick: a response? >> it has increased bipartisanship, just as president biden said. nato represents a key pillar of u.s. national security that should not be a part of contention between a republican and a democrat, so it really is creating that consistency of bipartisanship that allies amplify america's power and amplify our economic prosperity, and until our european

colleagues see us with that credibility and that consistency over several elections, they are not going to fully trust that america as an ally is back to stay, and i think that is really the critical question. nick: let's talk about beyond the alliance. for the first time today, the nato communique said growing chinese influence "presents challenges," and over the weekend, the g-7 called out chinese forced labor, but we know in those conversations, germany, italy, the eu resisted strong language on china. is the transatlantic alliance -- >> for germany, that was a huge issue, to find agreement on china, because from a german perspective, china is not only a rival but a partner, and also, from europe, we feel much more vulnerable when it comes to china and much more dependent,

so the big challenge for the chancellor and the europeans was to find a balance between calling china a rival, having a confrontational stance, but also at the same time emphasizing multilateralism and the need to cooperate with china, and i think that leaders managed to do that quite well. nick: is their agreement between the u.s. and europe, with balance, and there is bipartisanship in washington? >> i think europe has evolved its relationship with china, and you see that in the g-7 statement and, of course, the nato communique, which was actually white tough on china, but in the margins of that communique, french -- which was actually quite tough on china. french president macron talked about the area of responsibility, and you see those tensions play out. we could see china plant more forcibly in tomorrow's

u.s.-european union summit, where china, for europe, china is a really important economic partner, for the united states, as well, but europe does not have the security concerns and interests that the united states does, but where the u.s. guides nato, nato typically follows, and this is a success for president biden and his administration to have such tough language pretty consistently in two major summit statements. nick: talking to european officials here in washington, they are frankly not convinced of the biden administration is truly taking their opinions on board, and they cite more than anything afghanistan, not only the decision to withdraw but to accelerate the withdrawal to july. the european leaders rejected. to european leaders believe the biden administration means it? >> yes, i think so, although the afghanistan decision consultation was a huge blow for

europeans. but there is huge willingness to work with the biden administration, to make the transatlantic relationship prosper again, and also, yes, we know that we have, basically, this chance now to make it work and to prove to the american people that europeans are good allies and that the biden approach to this is better than the trump approach. nick: officials not interested in talking about an alliance of democracies. they are interested in finding shared agenda items. is there a shared agenda? >> there is, and you will see that play out again at the nato summit, tomorrow at the u.s.-eu summit. europe has its own view of its priorities and its agenda, and it once the united states to take that into consideration, and the u.s. wts them to move closer, and that is the question. how do you find those areas

where there is intersection, and the s. is used to leading, informing allies, not necessarily consulting them, and french president macron said leadership is about partnership, and we do have to form a long-term partnership and invt in our allies so they can come to our point of view, not inform them and push them into an agenda item that they are going to be very reluctant to implement, in any event. nick: one last point of friction, trade pre-of the uss pushed a button on pause and tariffs, but the biden administration has not lifted steel, aluminum tariffs. how much trade friction is there? there is friction. the tariffs will be lifted, and i think we were hoping for a be steps to, yes, move closer to getting rid of the tariffs --

hoping for baby steps. that is the european approach. nick: baby steps? >> europe has been surprised that the biden administration has not been more forceful to making those adjustments to the trade agenda. they wonder if america first and buy america are really that differen so would be very important in tomorrow's u.s.-eu summit to take away some of those tariffs that are quite punitive and get back on the same page, particularly vis-a-vis china, technology, and trade, so i think it is surprising that the biden administration has been so slow. nick: thank you very much to you both. >> thank you. ♪ judy: the united states will soon be leaving afghanistan. its scheduled september troop withdrawal could be complete as soon as next month.

during 20 years of american fighting, thousands of afghans have worked for and with the united states. now, as the u.s. departs, many of those afghans are in profound danger. earlier this year, special correspondent jane ferguson introduced us to a decorated afghan helicopter pilot whose life was in danger. now, she has an update on s story and a look at the larger plight of those fighting not to be left behind. jane: they look like any other family arriving into new york's kennedy airport, but they are not. they have escaped a hellish threat to their lives. and this precious moment has taken months of dangerous, exhausting waiting and hoping and praying. naiem: at this moment, i am very happy. i am very happy. today is the day that i am going to start a new life, so everything is very, very good for us. jane: we first met major naiem asadi in his native afghanistan

in january. he was living in hiding in kabul, marked for death by the taliban and threatened with arrest by the afghan government for trying to leave the country for america while in the military. ♪ asadi was granted a rare, specialist humanitarian visa last fall after his career as a helicopter pilot drew public attention to his proficiency at killing taliban fighters anhis endeavors to save downed american pilots. his visa was cancelled by the pentagon in november, leaving him and his family in limbo for six months. american human rights lawyer kimberley motely took on his case and got the visa reinstated. >> welcome to america. jane: she arrived with naiem and his wife and five year old daughter, having traveled to kabul to escort them to the us, and make sure they made it through immigration. naiem: yes, she understands that security situation is not good in afghanistan. she took that

risk, and she came to afghanistan and took us up from a scanner stand sely and peacefully. jane: motley lived in afghanistan for years, often working pro-bono for women who needed legal representation. on this trip back, she was struck by the fear gripping the capital as american troops rush to leave. >> everyone is terrified afghans, many americans and , foreigners, they are confused as to why america is leaving afghanistan. jane and speaking of that : rapidity, from a legal standpoint is it unrealistic to get visas processed in time before america leaves? >> i think it is irresponsible and unrealistic, yes. jane: how many lawyers will it take to get people here? >> it's going to take a lot of lawyers. jane few have the opportunity : asadi had, or the legal support. other afghans who help u.s. forces as interpreters have been waiting for years to be issued visas to the u.s. under the special immigration visa or siv program, reducing to a trickle the lucky ones who make it through. right now there are 18,000 , applications backlogged, not including family members.

with president biden's decision to withdraw all american forces from the country completely, those applicants risk being left behind. the taliban is on the doorstep of kabul, and they have anyone who helped or worked with the u.s. well within their sites. the withdwal of u.s. forces from afghanistan is happening so rapidly, the situation for the afghans left behind,till waiting for visas, is becoming a life-and-death emergency. the campaign here in washington, d.c., to get them out of there before the taliban is coming is intensifying. a bipartisan group of lawmakers has been pushing for years to get more siv's issued and faster.. senator jeanne shaheen is a senior member of the senate foreign relation committee. she worked closely with the late senator john mccain on the issue and is leading urgent efforts now. senator: it is the right thing to do. its the moral thing to do. and it's in america's interests, long term.

jane: the 18,000 applicants waiting in line for u.s. visas was the number before the full american withdrawal was announced. senator: we assume that numbe will go up, that does not include families, so this is an issue that republicans and democrats have worked together on, with the white house a couple of weeks ago to talk about things that we could do that may need to be changed in the law to expedite those visa applications, and so, we are working on that. we hope to have some legislation that can move very quickly. jane: beyond the moral argument to take care of those who took care of americans on the battlefield is the wider strategic case to be made. can the american military be seen abandoning its partners so publicly? senator: i think it says to our allies into those people who want to work with us, "can you trust the united states?" it raises the question in their minds. i am old enough to remember when

we pulled out of vietnam and the helicopters taking off with vietnamese who had helped us holding on because they knew what was going to happen to them, and then, of course, migration from all of those who had helped americans and what happened. so i do not want to see that happen again in afghanistan. jane: the shadow of vietnam has been hanging over the war in afghanistan for years. few parallels are as stark as the impossible task of getting out without abandoning local partners to an advancing enemy. in 1975, although many were left behind, over 100,000 vietnamese who had worked with the u.s. were evacuated to the american island of guam in the western pacific. once there, and safe, they were housed in camps until their visas were processed and they could settle in the u.s. that's exactly what a number of lawmakers are now pushing for, saying the plan to process the afghan visas at the embassy in kabul will never be fast enough,

and the interpreters and their families need to be immediately evacuated to a safe place for processing, even suggesting guam as the place to do it. on june 4, a bipartisan group of congressmen and women wrote a letter to the white house, stating, "the current siv process will not work. it is clear that the process will not be rectified in time to help the over 18,000 applicants who need visas before our withdrawal. our bipartisan working group has concluded that we must evacuate our afghan friends and allies immediately. 46 years ago, president ford formed an inter-agency task force is to handle the mass evacuations and allocated over $300 million to fund the efforts. today, the pentagon has drawn up plans for the evacuation of afghan interpreters and their families. but they it needs the approval from president biden to act on them. congressman: if we abandon them, we are signing their death warrants.

jane: last week in a tense , exchange with texas republican congressman mike mccaul, secretary of state anthony blinken did not answer questions about whether president biden would give the nod to an evacuation, insisting instead that there is time to process the visas inside afghanistan. secretary: the embassy is staying. our programs are staying. we are working to make sure our partners today. we are building all of that up, so i would not necessary -- necessarily equate the departure of our forces in july, august, or by early september with some kind of immediate deterioration in the situation. jane: others strongly disagree. interpreters and servicemembers in afghanistan right now are being targeted and killed by the taliban. afghans already here, argue there is no time. janis: if they do it, they should do it right now. if they want to start the evacuation, it is the time right now to do it. if you want to start speeding up the process, do it right now. do not wait until tomorrow. jane: janis shinwari was a translator working with american forces in afghanistan before he

moved here. he cofounded "no one left behind," an organization that helps afghans get on their feet when they arrive here. these days, he fields desperate calls for help from interpreters living in hiding, waiting for visas they fear will not come. >> most of them have already lost their jobs per they are begging for their lives. jane: one former interpreter, now hiding in kabul, says he was injured while working with u.s. troops in kandahar. >> if someone knows about me, that i worked for the u.s. several years, and i also got wounded, they will kill me. jane: with the taliban advancing in the country and assassinating , the government has shown it is incapable of keeping their citizens safe. >> they are getting stronger, and they have a lot of sources now, everywhere.

jane: spies. >> yes. spies. they have spies in r army, police, nds, civilian, everywhere. and, yes. you cannot hide if you work for americans. that is why they are targeting those people in kabul. jane: almost as soon as this war began, how to get out of it became a massive foreign policy challenge. the possible collapse of the afghan government, a taliban victory, and the human cost of abandoning america's allies there have outlasted three administrations. the biden white house now faces growing pressure to prove it won't oversee a withdrawal marked by a growg sense of betrayal. for the "pbs newshour"," i am jane ferguson in washington. ♪

judy: the g7 meeting that just concluded in eope focused on many different challenges, including the growing threat from climate change. western leaders pledged to reduce their use of coal, lower their overall emissions, and help nations most impacted by climate change. william brangham examines how much difference those steps will make. william: that is right, judy. amid these promises, the flashing, red warning signs of the impacts of climate change are coming fast and furiously. the american west is baking suffering through a historically , long megadrought that threatens water supplies for millions and could trigger a punishing wildfire season. in antarctica, the protective barrier in front of one of the continent's biggest glaciers is disintegrating at a quicker pace than before, which could eventually cause enormous sea-level rise. and our carbon emissions, the main driver of climate change, are building up in the atmosphere more than ever before

in human history. given all of this are western , leaders' promises to address this crisis enough? for a reality check on that, i am joined now by rachel kyte. she is the dean of the fletcher school at tufts university. she worked at the world bank on sustainable development and previously served as special representative to the u.n. secretary general on sustainable energy. dean kyte, thank you. they are going to cut their climate emissions and get to zero by 2050. do you think they are going to meet those pledges, and are those pledges enough? dean: well, the short answer is they have to. if we are going to sustain the kind of prosperity that we are used to, the 2050 commitment is really about putting our economy in balance with the chemistry of the planet, working back, the

leading, rich countries of the world, the g7. they really have to cut their emissions over the next decade, so that means carbon rising -- that means decarbonizing, green energy, etc.. there is no reason we cannot do that. we have a lot of technology. there is plenty of finance in the system, but they are quite wasteful with it, and we have a lot of inertia in our system, and really what i think the world is looking to for the g7 is a really bold commitment that they will lead by example from the front and that they would generate extraordinary amounts of resources to help other countries who did not cause the problem come along, as well. william: we will touch on that, but the opponents of action say what about china. china has now knocked us off the throne as the world' is leading

emitter, and cna has also made some serious pledges to cut their emissions, but they also burn mountains of coal to fuel their economy. do you think they would join in these pledges, and will they meet them? dean: china has already pledged to be at net zero but by 2060, and others expect a commitment to reach zero by 2015. -- 2050. it is a race, ut everyone has to go over the finish line. there is no winner of this race unless we all win. the diplomat activity happening between the u.s. and china and the european union and china is about getting china to stop financing: overseas and to move away from coal itself domestically. that is made easier when the west says, "we are completely out of coal, ourselves," so i think everybody is in the race.

william: part of the race is to keep the planet warming from 1.5 degrees initially, celsius. can you explain why that target was set and what it means if we go past that. dean: in paris, they agreed in 2015 the world needed to stop warming beyond 1.5 degrees. there was a scientific study that showed that actually 1.5 degrees was going to be where we needed to be if we were going to prevent catastrophic climate impacts, so these signs would indicate we need to be more aggressive than we thought we would need to be in paris, and we have to do it quickly. that is really where the push is coming from, because as countries commit, as others commit, the question is, is this verified by science? is your commitment in-line with science? any company that comes out with a big piece of rhetoric about how they want to reach net zero has to be able to explain how

they are doing that in line with the science. william: that is, as you pointed out, the pitfall. we have spoken loftily about our ambitions. what giv you the confidence this will be diffent? dean: because i think we he the largest part of the world's gross domestic prodt involved, china, the european union, and the united states, all committing to this target mid century. we have other emitters and countries like indonesia and south africa, saying, "we are in this race, too, but we nd help." we have low income countries, desperately feeling the impacts of climate change, as well as trying to recover from the economic impact of the pandemic, so they want to be clean, too. it is not that these countries want to have cities where the cannot breathe or agricultural systems that cannot produce the food because of changing weather

patterns, so they want to do it. we are all involved. we are all in the boat. you do not stay alive in the boat if one and goes under, and the others do not. which countries need to do whatever they need to do for themselves for their own processes and their own domestic economies, and we have to help everyone else come along as quickly as possible, too. william: lastly, in the last seconds we have come of body administration is setting big emissions reductions, but some environmental groups are worried. they look at the biden administration support for certain gas projects and talk of taking major parts of the climate policy out of the infrastructure bill that is currently churning through congress right now. how do you rate the biden administration approach so far? dean: it has been in office for, what, six months and had an extraordinary catch up to do, and then to create credibility

and galvanize the world into an extraordinary effort to help all other countries, as well, so it has to do both, and the rest of the world is watching closely. the u.s. world understands how the u.s. senate wor more than they wanted or needed to before, and you can see the biden administration fingerprints over the g7 communique. there are a lot of important voting blocks in there, but i think we need rich countries to really lead from the front. this is not a question anybody needs to be shy. we have to find a way to live on the planner altogether. william: all right, rachel kyte from tufts university, thank you for being here. dean: thank you. ♪ judy: with president biden talking national security, climate change and more with leaders abroad, how could his performance affect his packed legislative agenda at home?

here to analyze that and more are tamara keith of npr. and lisa lerer of "the new york times." amy walter is away. thank you. tam, i'm going to start with you. how different are these trips than the ones we saw president trump met, and if seen as a success, could this translate into something? tamara: so i was on former president trump's international trip, when he went to nato, and there was this big question, will he or will he not reaffirmed the u.s. commitment with the treaty, and he never said the words, and that was just one encapsulation of the drama that swirled around every trip he made to an international summit. it was very different with biden. his first words almost when he

got to nato was to say, "we are totally solid. the u.s. is all in on article 5. " in terms of whether this will translate domestically, foreign trips, international relations are part of a critical part of the presidency. it is one of the most powerful parts of the american presidency, and yet, it does not necessarily get a lot of benefit back home. one sort of funny thing is that "build back better" is his infrastructure initiative. well, he has exported the terminology, and now, the g7 leaders are talking about a "build back better" world. judy: so, lisa, how do you see this, and this question as to whether it could have any bearing on what he is trying to do here at home? a lot of challenges. lisa: well, i think the jury is still out, because the stressful part of the trip is is meeting

with putin. republicans i have talked to, strategists, say they are already planning on casting president biden as weak, seeing th as a strategy that could work for them during the midterms. if the meeting does not go well, if he does not show strength, that will play into the republican political tactics in some ways, and i do think a failure there could make you have a little more juice in these negotiations with the infrastructure bill back here that are going on in congress. of course, even if that meeting with putin is a great success, negotiations are really hard. not only does he have to win over 10% of the republicans, he also needs to keep his left flank, who would like to see a much bigr bill. climate change, much more spending on board. it is just a really delicate line to walk. i think like a failure abroad would certainly hurthat ability. i am not sure success, given how hard those negotiations are,

would help him that much. judy: you are both right. we have several days to go. we have got the big meeting with vladimir putin. tam, i want to turn to something you happen covering in the last few days, and that is vice president kamala harris, some of the agenda. you were with her in south america. president biden has asked her to try to deal with the immigration issue. what do you see there? how is she handling that challenge? tamara: part of her struggle on that trip was defining her role, which goes to the very beginning of her being given this assignment. her assignment was not the border. it was the root causes in central america, but she had difficulty explaining that, in particular in this high-stakes interview with lester holt on nbc, and it sort of hung over her trip. art challenge is that the president is republican opponents have found that she is

a much easier target than president bidehimself. president biden is a known brand. he has been around forever. vice president harris is much less well-known, and now, she has returned to the u.s., and she is working on trying to juice vaccinations and get those numbers up. it is a goal, a 70 percent goal, that they may not necessarily meet by the president's july 4 deadline, and she is also working on ving rights. that was something during her trip to mexico, she was very passionate about her concerns about voting rights. legislatively, that looks like that is going to be a challenge in congress, too, but she is starting to use the bully pulpit, and we will see her starting tomorrow meeting with texas legislators, who pushed back on an effort there. so she has a very large and broad play. judy: at a tough one.

voting rights are a part of it. she was in south carolina today, lisa, talking about it, and i want to use that to segue to something else going on in north carolina, which is a republican congressman who surprised a lot of people, tom rice. he was voting to impeach president trump in his role in the january 6 takeover of the capitol, and he is getting a lot of flak, and another is concern on if he can win reelection. he has been in his district. what is it like working with him and these republicans who stood up to former president trump? lisa: it is not pretty and not easy. the impeachment, as some republican strategists have called them, they took the tough road in some cases. the support for former president trump has become the litmus test in that party, as if republicans

believe the election was fairly decided or if they buy into these claims that biden is an illegitimate president. we know that a lot of republicans do. about two thirds of the parties say they have questions about the 2020 elections. those are questions that trump is very eager to stoke. i can tell you, i spent a lot of time talking last week to republican voters and republican activists, local party officials, and the thing that comes up time and time again is not the response to covid or the economy. it is the 2020 election and the role that former president trump should play in the party, so i think it is a tough road for republicans who broke with the former president. i think they will have a lot of work to do. i do not even know if they will be able to accomplish that. it depends on how the next year plays out. it is also report to remember that former president trump has a lot riding on these midterms. it would be a real test of history, whether the people who sided with him, if they are

eventually successful, i think a lot of republicans will be looking at that to gauge how strong former president trump remains and what his future could look like. judy: and, tam, the kind of flk, -- flak, if you will, is a message to other republicans about thinking about whether they should put any distance between themselves and former president trump. tamara: when it comes to former president trump and the republican party, there is basically no room for a republican elected official who separates themselves from president trump. maybe with cable tv hits, but in terms of their political future, there is a long line of our retiring or are primary -- the republicans who stood up to president trump tend not to be elected republicans for all that

much longer. judy: well, we will continue to watch that unfold, because even though those midterms are november of next year, they are on a lot of people's minds. tamara, lisa, thank you both. we appreciate it. >> you are welcome. ♪ judyquiara alegria hudes is a pulitzer prize-winning playwright who's also known for her collaboration with lin-manuel miranda on the tony award-winning musical "in the heights," just released in a film version. now, hudes has written a deeply personal memoir called "my broken language" about navigating life as the daughter of a puerto rican mother and jewish father in west philaelphia. for us, she has this brief but spectacular take on unearthing family stories.

it's part of our arts and culture series "canvas." >> i have said that the story of my family is the story of america. i got to read about some of them. some of those books were assigned to me in high school, but my job, as i became a young woman and a young artist, was to learn about this nation, including my own history, which i had never read. it was never assigned to me. ♪ when i decided to really start writing, i wanted to interview my elders and my relatives. one of the first place i wrote, i remember, was about puerto rican men serving in the united states military, so i went to an interview of a marine who served

in vietnam, and i was so nervous to interview him, because we never speak of that. there are some things we do not talk about. hope the eagles have a good game. i asked him the question, and the tears started flowing, and what i have learned is people want to tell their stories, and their stories are incredible. they just want to know someone is listening. a week later, i called him to say thank you, and he said i have not felt this light in years. the stuff that interests me is the stuff that deals with the struggle and the joy and where those two things meet, say to my cousin, to say to my motr, my sister, my aunt, i want to write about that thing that hurts, and that thing that hurts might be illiteracy in our family.

in my mind, when i had already got my yale acceptance letter, to discover that a lot of my family elders were illiterate. i did not know. "in the heights," i cowrote it with lin-manuel miranda, and he wrote the music and lyrics. this was like writing my life story in a fictional way. lynn manwell -- lin-manuel was about the stories he grew up on, and it naturally became a story, not with one clear protagonist or love story, which is more typical in a musical, but actually the whole cmunity. when i was sitting still in my 20's in a broadway theater in the audience, watching the

audience watch my musical, "in the heights, and what it was a bit of an out of body experience. i would get a bit anxious and look around. that is me. that is my story. and those anchors. back to reality where people would could see theiroved ones and be uplifted. my name is quiara hudees, and this is my brief but spectacular take on unearthing family stories. judy: such an inspiration for all of. you can watch all our brief but spectacular episodes at pbs.org/newshour/ brief. and that is the "newshour" for tonight. join us tomorrow. for all of us, stay safe. we will see you soon. >> major funding for the "pbs newshour" has been provided by

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catherine t macarthur foundation. for information, macfound.org. and with the ongoing support of these 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. ♪ ♪ this is "pbs newshour west" from weta studios in washington and from our bureau at the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. ♪

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