captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> nawaz: good evening. i'm amna nawaz. judy woodruff is away. on the newshour tonight: high alert. evacuations face new challenges after the deadly attacks in kabul, with fears of more violence as the u.s. completes its withdrawal. then, an uncertain future. the supreme court blocks the latest eviction protections. we break down what that means for renters in need. and, its friday. david brooks and jonathan capehart on the fallout from the u.s. withdrawal from afghanistan, and the latest on the january 6 commission. plus, family ties. we talk to famed actor and director sean penn-- and his daughter, dylan-- on their new film "flag day," and

penn's humanitarian work on th ground in haiti. >> i always think that things can change. certainly there have been, you know-- to say "setbacks" would be an understatement. we're going to have to fight, several steps forward that we take with our haitian partners to get where we're moving forward. all that and more, on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ ♪ >> fidelity wealth management. >> bnsf railway. >> consumer cellular. >> johnson & johnson. >> financial services firm raymond james. >> the john s. and james l.

knight foundation. fostering informed and engaged communities. more at kf.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and friends of the newshour. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcastin and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> nawaz: the death toll in yesterday's suicide bombing at a gate to kabul's airport is now drastically worse. at least 169 afghan civilians were killed, along with 13 u.s. service members. the defense department said today they believe the carnage was the work of one bomber from the islamic state in

afghanistan, not two, as originally reported. meantime, evacuations continue, as the u.s. and allies flew out 12,500 more people today. more than 105,000 people have now been evacuated. again, with the support of the pulitzer center, jane ferguson reports from doha, qatar. >> reporter: a day after yesterday's deadly attack by isis-k near the kabul airport, some afghans attempted to resume daily life, and attended friday prayers. the message from the imam: one of anger at the u.s. >> ( translated ): you have seen the americans, in the past 20 years, that they haven't done any fundamental thing for us to be self-sufficient, while they leave the country. >> reporter: others openly wept outside a hospital, with body bags of victims from the blast. and some buried the dead. >> ( translated ): our hearts are on fire. how long should we lose our

lives and be humiliated? this is really a big loss for all of us. >> reporter: badly injured survivors reflected on what they experienced as they laid in hospital beds. >> ( translated ): it was evening around 5:30 p.m. that the incident took place. as i had fallen in the stream, i thought only i had remained alive, and i saw all the other people were killed. >> reporter: meanwhile, evacuation flights continued out of kabul. satellite images showed heavy traffic around the area. a line of people can be seen on the tarmac heading toward a c-17 transport aircraft. outse the airport, people gathered, despite the risks. >> ( translated ): believe me, i think that explosion will happen in any second or minute, god is witness, but we have lots of challenges in our lives. that is why we take the risk to come here and we overcome fear. >> reporter: but many others are unable to get through roads blocked by the taliban. >> ( translated ): our lives are in danger, and we are not in a

good situation, and the whole world should know about it. >> reporter: today in turkey's capital city, ankara, soldiers disembarked from planes arriving from afghanistan. the taliban had asked turkey for technical support to run the airport after august 31, but turkish president recep erdogan said they will not help unless the taliban agree to a turkish security presence. >> ( translated ): because there is always a possibility of death and such things there. now, in the events yesterday, 72 people died. if we get sucked into this, we cannot explain it, so we do not have a decision on this yet. >> reporter: at the white house, during his meeting with the israeli prime minister naftali bennett, president biden said the u.s. will complete the evacuation. >> the mission there being performed is dangerous, and is now-- has come with significant loss of american personnel. and-- but it's a worthy mission, because they continue to evacuate folks out of that

region. >> reporter: u.s. officials clarified today that there was only one suicide bombing in yesterday's attack, followed by gunfire. pentagon spokesperson john kirby also noted that measures will be taken to evacuate americans after the deadline. >> the u.s. government will pursue a variety of ways to help any americans who want to get out after our military presence at the airport has ended, to be able to help them get out. >> reporter: at a separate briefing, state department spokesperson ned price. >> our military operation will come to an end by august 31. what does not have an expiration date is our commitment to any american, who for whatever reason decides not to take us up on the offer of repatriation now, but who may come to us in days, weeks, months, or years, to say "i want help. i want assistance leaving."

>> reporter: still, thousands of afghans who worked for the u.s. fear they will be left behind. one estimate notes at least 250,000 afghans who may be eligible for expedited american visas still remain in afghanistan. the newshour spoke over the phone to one man who worked as a u.s. military interpreter for two years. >> reporter: thousands more are not eligible for special immigrant visas, but are still at risk from the taliban. one man the newshour spoke to worked for foreign n.g.o.'s. that makes him eligible for a special u.s. visa program called priority-2, designated

for afghans at risk because of u.s. affiliation. >> reporter: those who have been able to get out with help from families in other countries find a rare sense of relief. an afghan woman who left afghanistan 12 years ago, and now lives in france, worked tirelessly to get her mother and siblings out. >> ( translated ): as soon as i saw my mother running to me, all this fear fell away. i took her in my arms, and i can feel her warmth. i rediscovered the smell of my mother, and it's something that i had forgotten.

my mother's tears reminded me of the tears she shed when i left afghanistan. it was really moving, a lot of emotions today. >> reporter: a feeling thousands may not experience as the window to leave closes. >> naw: and jane joins me again, from doha. jane good to see you. we know you are now in qatar but l urdz a keeping contact with your connections inning afghanistan. >> reporter: it's not believed eament nah that anyone is able to realistically leave through that airport. the americans have said don't go unless even mairp passport holders it is not clear if they are able to travel to the airport or they have to shelter in place. so that's simply not an option for afghans but even before this blast it was becoming nearly impossible for anybody without a green card or u.s. passport to

get through. we know the traditional overland routes over the country are still being swarmed by people many of those towards pakistan. these are the border posts that people, travel through when there is normal peace aagain the 22 countries. family ties between the two sides or people go for medical treatment or trade. however it's now believed that the taliban has been trying to prevent people leaving that way as well so that journey is perilous, it is not putting off the tens of thousands who are reportedly trying to cross that border, often using smugglers or going across illegally at the moment and braving taliban attacked because -- attacks because people are more determined than ever to escape the violence here. it is also worth pointing out that the airport may reopen. there's obviously huge challenges there but the options for people would be if the airport were to reopen to

commercial air travel, it's unclear how that would happen as we mentioned in the story there, there had been conversations with turkey about trying to secure the airport which airlines would supply in, who would fly in to an airport controlled by the taliban. be could the taliban prove that they can secure it? being would any commercial airlines trust that security? that's going to be something that those who weren't able to make it out overland or on these evacuation flights will have to sit tight and wait for. but if you were fleeing the taliban, you would have to take your chances by hoping that you could slip out of the airport without being caught by any kind of taliban proks t -- bureaucray to come. >>nawaz: jane what about your source necessary kabul, what are they telling you about the atmosphere in that city now? >> reporter: it's deeply fearful. the sheer numbers injured and killed in this bombing is shocking neerch a city where they have experienced attacks before, many especially from

i.s.i.s. i.s.i.s. is basically a group that instills so much fear in afghans because in the last few years we've seen similar attacks. this attk has been particularly shocking at this specific moment the afghanistan's history but the reality is that afghans, especially those living in kabul have been living with intense violence from i.s.i.s. for several years now. i.s.i.s. has been attacking schools, wedding halls, intent on killing civilians is the nature of their kind of attacks. and that's been something that people have been very fearful of and i think because i.s.i.s. ahave now shown this increble show of strength it is increasing people's resolve and fear and resolve to get out of the country and i think that that's not necessarily going to change despite the challenges people face in doing so. amna nawaz jane briefly before we let you go, you mentioned the people you are in touch with. they are tilling you they are still trying to leave the

country is that right? >> reporter: many are still trying to contact me or my colleagues, trying to get out of the country, via flight or should we go to the airport, which gate should we go to, there's been no change. in fact perhaps even an uptick in panic now that people are fearful of some kind of conflict between i.s.i.s. and the taliban or at least the very stheafns any kind of taliban hod hold on the city could begin to be frarnlg i'll and therefore more vacuum could be coming. >>nawaz: jane ferguson reporting to us from qatar. >> nawaz: for more on the evacuation operation in kabul, and the challenges the u.s. military faces in light of yesterday's attacks, we turn retired colonel mark cancian. he had a 38-year career in the marine corps, and was involved in the evacuation of saigon in the early 1970s.

he's now a senior advisor at the center for center for strategic and international studies, a washington think tank. colonel welcome to the newshour and thank you for making the time. a lot of comparisons being made between the way the u.s. left kabul do you see those sameld similarities? >> absolutely. there are a lot of parallels between two evacuations and a few differences. the parallels are that you have the rapid collapse of regimes that the united states had supported for many years with blood and treasure, collapse after the united states withdrew its support. you have these panics, refugees fleeing the capital. you have an evacuation that's allowed by the opposition. and then you have the staging in third country -- third country transit points, before ty reach their final destination. >>nawaz: so there is a more complex sort of system as well. but i wonder you know it was a

very different time obviously. we have so much more visibility from firsthand account and social media videos and so on to what is unfolding on the ground. how does that change the evacuation? >> one big difference is that they've been able to do a lot of the screening on the ground at the airport that couldn't be done in 1975 on the ships where i was. we just had -- we searched the refugees for weapons but we couldn't decide whether they could come to the united states or what their final disposition would be. they went to transit camps for that. technology allows us to do a lot of that on the ground and that speeds up the process. >>nawaz: and the technology gives us as i mentioned more insight into it as well. you heard the president say they are committed to evacuations through the 31st. after the attacks yesterday walk us through some of the nitty-gritty. how does that work on the ground, especially when it seems

like airport transit was the main challenge. >> well, i.s.i.s. okay doesn't have the ability to shut down the airport. united states can cotinue its flights. i.s.i.s. doesn't have the numbers or the heavy beenary to shut down the airport. but there's tremendous risk along the perimeter where the afghans are congregating. there is a lot oof talk about another possible attack and that's a tremendous risk. this is a very different situation from the taliban. the taliban do have the ability to shut down the airport if they wanted to do that and that is why the united states is paying close attention and coordinating closely with the taliban. >>nawaz: colonel what did you think of the decision to try to evacuate more people presumably the longer the u.s. stays, the more of a target they are in these last few days. did you agree with that decision? >> i think we have to get people out to the maximum extent we can. it looks lie we'll get almost

all of the americans out. there will probably be a few for one reason or another decline to leave. same thing happened in south vietnam. we want to get as many people out that worked with us that we could. we saw in south vietnam the terrible things that happened to those people who stayed. one thing that the united states learned from the experience in south vietnam and also the in iraq was the importance of getting started early with these special visas. i think they've made progress there, we've made a commitment to theseeople and we need to stay as long as we can to get them out. >>nawaz: you say as long you can but just a few das ago before that horrific attack, there was a growing chorus who said, we need to extend that list, even if we had four or five more days we could get out tens of thousands of more war time allies. do you think there is any possibility that happens now? >> i have tremendous sympathy for people who are waiting and

are these groups that americans are working with. i don't see any way we can go past august 31st without the taliban agreeing to it and they seem pretty clear they're not going to agree with it. they've captured a ah an gier military's worth of equipment, they could stop us easily if they wanted to. there has been talk earlier in the program about, you know, perhaps some ways of moving people out after the united states leaves, with its military presence maybe something working through the turks, maybe some chartered airlines or aircraft something like that, that's possible. but there's no question we're going to see some of the terrible scenes that we saw in south vietnam that is refugees fleeing and under terrible circumstances in vietnam. of course these were the boat people. i think you're going to see the same thing with afghans. >>nawaz: colonel in the minute we have left we know the threat still exists on the ground of course.

does another tack change attack change there situation for us? >> i.s.i.s. doesn't have the ability to stop the flights, i think another attack on the ground would be a terrible tragedy but the necessity of getting people out is so great that the evacuation will continue. >>nawaz: that is retired u.s. marine colonel mark cancian joining us. thank you so much for your time. >>ing thanks for having me on the show. >> nawaz: in the day's other news, the biden administration says half of american adolescents ages 12 to 17 have now gotten at least one shot of a covid-19 vaccine. that comes as a judge in florida ruled that school districts in the state can impose mask mandates in the classroom as the delta variant surges. the decision reverses an executive order from governor

rodesantis banning such mandates. meanwhile, president biden said federal health authorities are weighing whether to approve giving adults covid vaccine booster shots sooner than eight months after full vaccination, as was previously announced. the u.s. intelligence community remains divided on the origins of the coronavirus. they released a report today that refuted the theory that the virus was created as a biological weapon, and, they concluded that china didn't know about the virus before the onset of the pandemic. analysts believe the virus was first exposed to humans in november of 2019, but they still don't know how a human first came into contact with it. president den hosted new israeli prime minister naftali bennett at the white house today. the meeting was postponed from yesterday after the terror attack at the kabul airport. in the oval office, the two talked about preventing iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. president biden said he wanted to restart talks with tehran, but did not give specifics. >> we also are going to discuss

the threat from iran, and our commitment to ensure iran never develops any nuclear weapon. but we're putting diplomacy first, and we'll see where that takes us. but, if diplomacy fails, we're ready to turn to other options. >> nawaz: the two leaders also discussed the israeli- palestinian conflict, among other topics. tropical storm ida meanwhile strengthened into a hurricane today, and is on a collision course with the u.s. gulf coast. the storm system moved over western cuba with maximum sustained winds of 80 miles an hour. it is forecast to become a major hurricane on its way toward louisiana this weekend. the mayor of new orleans urged residents to get out of harm's way. >> all areas outside of our levee protection system, definitely mandatory evacuation. if you have any medical needs or wish to voluntarily evacuate on your own, now is the time to start that. >> nawaz: the storm is forecast

to strike new orleans on sunday, on the 16th anniversary hurricane katrina. in california, authorities ordered more emergency evacuations for residents in the lake tahoe resort region, as the caldor fire threatened its shores. firefighters fought back flames in the mountains southwest of the tahoe basin, while thick layers of haze and smoke suffocated parts of northern california. the caldor fire isne of more than 90 wildfires burning throughout the western u.s. the texas house easily passed a restrictive new voting rights bill today, after months of protests by state democrats. the republican legislation would ban all-night and drive-thru voting, and empower poll watchers, among other things. the bill now gs back to the state senate, to either pass the house version or reconcile their differences in a conference committee. the man who assassinated former u.s. senator robert f. kennedy, sirhan sirhan, has been granted parole after 53 years in a california prison. two of kennedy's sons argued

for the 77-year-old's release, saying they believed his remorse. sirhan killed kennedy in 1968 at a los angeles hotel, just after kennedy won the california democratic presidential primary. it is now up to the governor to approve his release. the federal reserve will begin to taper off some of its economic stimulus later this year, as the pandemic recession improves. chairman jerome powell made that announcement today, but said it will only do so as long as the hiring market continues to strengthen. powell also said the current spike in inflation will pass. but, the fed will continue to monitor the delta variant's economic impact. >> with vaccinations rising, schools reopening, and enhanced unemployment benefits ending, some factors that may be holding back job seekers are likely fading. while the delta variant presents a near-term risk, the prospects are good for continued progress toward maximum employment. >> nawaz: the federal reserve plans to hold off on raising interest rates until after the

economy reaches full employment. word of the fed's plans pushed stocks higher on wall street today. the dow jones industrial average surged 243 points to close at 35,456. the nasdaq jumped 184 points, and the s&p 500 added 39. and, apple will now let developers of iphone apps email users directly about cheaper ways to pay for subscriptions and content. the agreement is part of a preliminary settlement in a lawsuit over apple's commission system. in some cases, the company charged commissions as high as 30% for in-app payments, which developers said stifled competition. still to come on the newshour: what the supreme court's latest decision means for those facing evictions. david brooks and jonathan capehart on the fallout from the kabul attack. what events and athletes to watch at the tokyo paralympics. plus, much more.

>> nawaz: the supreme court has ended the biden administration's covid-related ban on evictions, siding with landlords who said e eviction moratorium puts them at risk of irreparable harm. congress has authorized some $46 billion in rental assistance in separate relief packages. but, as stephanie sy reports, just a fraction of that has been distributed, and now many renters may be in trouble. >> sy: that's right, amna. just about 11%-- or $5 billion-- of that federal aid actually has been distributed by state and local governments, months after congress approved it. and people need that aid. census estimates show that as many as 1.2 million households say they are "very likely" to face eviction in the next two months. overall, more than eight million people say they are behind on their rent.

kristen randall has a first-hand view of all of this, as a court- mandated officer tasked with enforcing evictions in tucson, arizona. constable randall, thank you very much for joining the newshour. i understand soon after last night's supreme court decision you started getting calls immediately from landlords. tell us about that and how you responded. >> hi, thank you for having me. i did immediately receive calls. we found out pretty late last night about the decision from the supreme court, and i received four phone calls and three text messages before 8 a.m. this morning from landlords who wanted to immediately enforce evictions against recently delayed families who had been seeking rental assistance. >> reporter: we know that a lot of small landlords have been squeezed during the pandemic but let's talk about the renters. what's been your approach to evacuations -- evictions during did pandemic? >> during the pandemic i've been

very close to approach families prior to the actual eviction. to see if they had a plan, to see if they did qualify for the cdc order. that proactive approach did mean that we were able to work with families and with landlords to get rental assistance out maybe a little bit sooner than some of the other counties. >> reporter: and yet there are still a lot of people nationally who have reported they have applied for rental assistance, they're not getting . now that you the eviction moratorium has been lifted what are those families to do? what are you advising? >> i'm advising families to immediately call the agency that has been handling their rental assistance application and to find out where tat application is in the prcess and get a time line. this way, they can go and have a very open dialogue with their plald, about that -- landlord, about that rental assistance application and let them know maybe you have three, four, five weeks to wait but that money will come through ando potentiallily get a volunteer dri delay by the landlord so they can stay housed.

>> reporter: now from whe you sit do you have any leniency that you can give, once a court has said, this tenant can be evicted, do you have any discretion on deciding whether to give somebody the 15 minutes to gather their things and leave their apartment or to decide to give them more time? >> so in arizona, we heve very little discretion. but we do have a little bit. this is why i like to go ahead of the eviction to make contact with families, so that they have a little bit more time but once we get there, once we get that order in we maybe have a few days. >> reporter: what are you expecting to happen now conestablishing? will you seed a -- constable? do you have a flood of evictions you 92ed to enforce? >> we are expecting a giant number of evictions to come in in the next weeks and months. we have been preparing for the the -- last few months so we are hoping this will mitigate that. >> reporter: you were facing

many families for eviction, in your job. your approach ask to warn them before they face eviction notices. when you think of that in can you describe an example of a family that illustrates the challenge during the pandemic to stay in housing? >> i have a family right now, where the mother is going through cancer treatments. she filed for eviction prevention assistance about four weeks ago. she is still waiting on her application to be completed. and her landlord is one of the landlords whcalled me this morning to see if we could go ahead with the eviction right away. i am concerned that she has nowhere to go since the shelters are largely full and there are not a lot of resources out there for families right nop about we're going to do the best we can but i'm really concerned about where her people are going go o. >> reporter: tucson is among one of the cities in the country that does have a high rate of evictions. is part of the problem here just

enough affordable housing and do you have that concern that some people will end up homeless after you enforce those evictions? >> so tucson especially has a real issue with available housing right now. there's waiting lists for units, that's what we're seeing. so when a family ask evicted findg housing for them to go to is especially difficult and now that they have an eviction on their record it will be even more challenging. i'm very concerned that a lot of families will be going to the streets homeless. >> reporter: kristen randall an elected constable in tucson arizona, tha you so much for joining the newshour with your perspective. >> thank you so much. >> nawaz: and now to the analysis of brooks and capehart. that's "new york times" columnist david brooks, and jonathan capehart, columnist for

the "washington post." welcome to you both. good to see you. >> nice to see you toop. >>nawaz: in real life. david what a week. what a week. all the highs, heroic efforts, over 100,000 people evacuated, the deadly attacks pungt weight waiting this week in kabul, after the lost of 13 service members' lives. what do you make abo how he's handling this moment of his presidentialcy? >> brooks: i think very poorly. i thought the decision to leave was a mistake, and we invited the downfall. if sad thing to me is one of the good things that has happened in the middle east in the last several years is people have taken a look at the taliban and they hate it a survey of 11 countries, muslim countries, only 13% have positive view of the taliban. they see its doans work in iran and across the region. in the time that liberal

democracy is getting some momentum and theocracy is taking some belows, we -- blows, we see question trying our -- the people who helped us, and we're doing it in a most symbolic way. i think a lot of people look at it in a certain way and think that's what national decline looks like. >>nawaz: jonathan when you look at where the american public is going into the announcement that the u.s. would be withdrawing, back in april, across the united states 69% of americans in april said we support the american troops leaving. if you look at a recent update to that august, 21st to the 24th, that can fell into 47%. what do those numbers say to you? >> capehart: absolutely, if you look at that poll, the numbers were way down from where they were in april. over the last nine days that number has ticked up.

it was at 38% when morning consult first started polling people right when the withdrawal was happening. it's ticked up 38 to 45% and now this new poll that is it up to 47%. generally speaking when morning consult asked the folks surveyed, do you 74th withdrawal? this 47% says do you support withdrawal if it still means that the taliban takes over? that being said, as i said last week and it still holds firm this week. president biden is where the american people are. the american people, for a very long time, have wanted to get out of afghanistan. they wanted to be done with the war, and a peephole that was released last week after we were on showed that 62% of the american people surveyed didn't think that the war in afghanistan was, quote, woth fighting. so the withdrawal hasn't gone

very well. but withdrawing from a war that you weren't winning, that you lost, to expect it to go well, i think is to be overly idealistic. that's not to denigrate anything that has happened in kabul, both to the 13 service members who's lost their lives, the afghans who were caught in the blast, but can the american people wanted out of this and the president is listening to them. >>nawaz: david let me get your actions to that. given that everyone has said yes, starting wars is very easy, ending them is difficult, it would have been chaotic regardless you still believe america shouldn't be leaving at this point? >> brooks: it's too late, we talked about it weeks ago and i thought over the last year we had 2500 people in there, they weren't in combat rolls, we hadn't had a combat fatality for a year or more. and we and our allies were

providing a measure of stability for afghanistan. you ju tried to live another day, s the afghans can decide their own future. we've learned over the last 20 years we can't decide anybody's future for them, we can't invade and tell them this is the kind of government you're going to have but the afghans can create their own future if they have a ground of stability. they have now one of the worst can are jeedges in the world, can i thought this whereas an eent chattel that was to be avoided with minimal cost. >>nawaz: odors many trying to give refugees out and of course two people from across the aisle, you have a number of republicans speak egg critically about the president's leadership or lack thereof, they say, everyone from senator ben sass to senator ted cruz and former

president trump. is this fair, politics or what do you they're from them? >> brooks: i think it's both. the criticism of the policy and withdrawal are completely fair donald trump and kevin mcthy said we shouldn't take a lot of refugees and ben sass says, yes we need to take these people. these people are working closely with americans in afghanistan. you have to get embedded, they have the portunity to do arm in the wos possible way and then if we let them in there is another vetting process. these are people we owe who made a moral commitment to us who we are in danger of question trying and republicans decide to play the immigration issue. it is a way trumpian politics has taken over, i'm glad to say that most republicans and 79% of republican voters want to take these people in but there's that

trumpian wing that they are a bunch of criminals and terrorists. is. >>nawaz: jonathan, there is divide within the republican people about how to treat the refugees, we know it's coming. what does that mean? can. >> capehart: it means the david's point there is a can sliver of trump's party that is dealing with racism, let's be blunt about it. people who are domg this country who helped us in the most incredible way who sought to work with american service members in the service of democracy. and so this party that used to be all about, you know, american strength and american exceptionalism, now wants to shut the door on people who have shown themselves to be exceptional, in standing up for democracy, in their own country, working with us. it's racist, it's d xenophobic.

but not surprising. >>nawaz: looking into the january 6th assault on the capital, made a swreepg request for all kinds of expansive records, seven different agencies including, and i'll quote from this, communications within and among the white house and executive branch agencies, leading up to and on that day. what does this tell us all these many months later after the assaulted about where they are going? >> >> capehart: it says this is a serious investigation that they are looking around every corner under every stone to find out how i was possible that american democracy was brought to the brink. how close can it came to being completely destroyed. how close we came to having a coup. and we need to know how involved was the former if the. how involved was the house minority leader.

how involved was the congressman from ohio. yes, get the records. yes, get all the puzzle pieces and yes, put those puzzle pieces together. so we can see what the story is. so that we can know how to prevent this or at least try to prevent what happened on january 6th from happening again. >>nawaz: david the big lie as we call it now that the election was stolen, that prprintprecipitated that assaul, currently there are 75 states that nearly ten months right now after the election they still have ongoing or trying to begin audits of the election results there, that's arizona, michigan, pennsylvania, wisconsin and georgia. what does that tell you about the potential impact of whatever this commission ends up doing? >> brooks: well first on these investigations it's now the way you prove you're a republican cool kid is say the georgia advocate was fake. you don't need any dpacts or anything, you just say that, it's like weerg prada bag, i don'know ifrada bag is still

cool. i'm still in 1992. but so that's just like now the entry way into serious republicanism. as for the investigation i'm a little dubious, i'm glad they're look for all the communications between them and donald trump, i'll i'm a little dubious that the trump administration leaked is a bad, and b, they said it out loud so they would have said it in the public. i was speaking to a very senior military guy and he said, when all the different people came in different entrances had at the same time, to me that's coordinated. i'd want to know if that's true. that investigation seems serious enough maybe we'll find out about that when we find out. >>nawaz: there was movement on capitol hill, the house did pass that voting rights bill, compare that and its chances in the senate which we probably can say are slim to what you're

seeing at the state level where there are still a number of efforts to restrict voting rights. >> capehart: particularly in texas they are moving full steam ahead in trying to restrict voters rights,ing passed in the house, fine, nancy pelosi has a very slim majority but able to get it through. now it goes to the senate where its fate is the same as for the people act. unless thsenate decides to reform the filibuster rules for voting rights legislation, john lewis voting rights advancement act isn't going anywhere, the for the people act isn't going anywhere and if we're talking about saving our democracy i think it's imperative, absolutely imperative that democrats figure out a way to get those two pieces of legislation passed. because if they don't then more states are going to restrict e right to vote and then the democracy, as we know it and the participation of ery american

who wants to participate, who wants to vote, will be suppressed and we won't have a real american democracy anymore. >>nawaz: the story will be probably need to pay much more attention than we do and i thank you for raising that today. jonathan capehart, david brooks, so good to see you both. >> brooks: you too. >> nawaz: well, the tokyo paralympic games kicked off this past tuesday with-- for the first time-- a prime-time slot on american network television. as william brangham reports, it's part of the increasing interest and growth in these games. >> brangham: that's right. in addition to tv coverage, the games have the largest number of athletes competing, including record numbers of women and l.g.b.t.q. athletes. at the opening ceremony, the refugee paralympic team led the

parade of over 4,400 athletes. but, like at the olympic games earlier this month, because of the pandemic, there were no spectators allowed in the stands. motoko rich is the "new york times" bureau chief, and she joins me now. motoko rich, great to have you on the newshour. tokyo just shifted from hosting the olympic games to now the paralympic games, and as i was describing, there does seem to be this growing interest in these games in particular. do you have a sense of why that is? what-- what do you attribute that to? >> i think it's a lot of things. i mean, certainly here in japan, it's the second paralympics. back in 1964, when tokyo hosted the olympics, that was only the second time that there was a paralympics that was paired with the olympics, and it was in tokyo. so, i think there's a long history here. i think there's been a very concerted effort. the organizers have kept saying, if the paralympics are not successful, then we can't say that the overall olympics have been successful. sothere have been a lot of advertisements, and so,

awareness has grown. and i think there's a bit more coverage, has been prime-time coverage of the event. so it's definitely sort of out there in the ether in a way that it might not have been before. >> brangham: and are there particular athletes or events that you've been paying attention to? >> well, i've spent a lot of time at the pool watching abbas karimi. he was one of the flag bearers for the paralympic refugee team. he was born without arms. and as it happens at the moment, he's the onlyafghan athlete here, because the athletes from afghanistan cannot safely leave kabul to fly to tokyo. we've been told that they have actually been evacuated, but we don't know exactly where they are. and we haven't-- we don't even know whether they're going to make it to the games. there's still a possibility that one or both of them that were on the delegation could make it to compete, but at the moment, they're not here. and so, he's the only one. so, he swam today in the butterfly. he did really well in his heat. he set a personal best. and then in the final, he came

in eighth. >> brangham: but he still has another shot, i guess, next week. >> yeah, he does. he's going to be swimming the backstroke on monday. >> brangham: you wrote a beautiful profile of him and his journey to getting to tokyo in the "times" recently. i'm just curious, how does someone living in four different refugee camps train for this kind of competition? >> i think, i mean, he has more determination than in someone that i've ever met or talked to. he was very, very focused on the swimming. so, as soon ase got to the refugee camps-- he'd already won a national championship in afghanistan when he left, just at age 16. so as soon as he got to turkey, he started talking to people, and i guess the folks at the refugee camps connected him with a coach, and he was willing to ride a bus one hour each way just to get one hour of swim- time in. and he did that during covid in oregon as well. you know, drove with a coach for an hour and a half just to get 45 minutes in, this very determined fellow.

brangham: of course, a really remarkable story of that guy. so what other events are you are you paying particular attention to? >> well, this is my first paralympics, so i'm kind of interested in everything. but i went to a wheelchair rugby the other day, because the japan team is very good and is expected to medal. and so i watched them play the danish team, and they were, in fact, remarkable. and, sort of learning the rules of wheelchair rugby, which is different. i mean, it has some resemblanc to rugby, but it also has elements from other games. and it's also about a point system, depending on the disability of the players. so it's really fascinating to watch and i'm hoping to go see more matches. >> brangham: and how did the japanese team do? >> they won quite handily. and so they-- they have got a couple more matches before the final, i think is on sunday. >> brangham: covid-19 obviously hung enormously over the olympic games, and now, it's not like the pandemic has disappeared in tokyo, or in japan more broadly. is it still casting-- i don't know if a "pall" is the wrong word, but is it still casting a shadow over these mes? >> i would say a pretty huge shadowactually. just today, for the very first time, japan hit-- i mean,

relative to other countries, that probably sounds quite small, but it's a record high of 2,000 ses of people who are severe enough to warrant intubation or being admitted to an i.c.u. so, that's a very worrying number that-- that's been going up, the whole time that the games have been in town, including the olympics. and tokyo's hospitals are overburdened. it's now getting to the point where they're saying that if you try to get into an ambulance, even for a non-covid illness, they might not be able to find you a hospital bed. they are trying to ramp up vaccinations, but just this morning, they opened a mass site for people, young people tget vaccinated-- people were lining up at 1:00 a.m. in the morning and couldn't get in. it was sold. so i don't even know what the word would be. but they were out of vaccine by 7:30 in the morning. and so they're trying to set up a lottery. so it's-- it's been very difficult. >> brangham: motoko rich, tokyo bureau chief for the "new york times," thank you so much for your time. >> thank you for having me.

>> nawaz: finally tonight, jeffrey brown talks to sean penn and his daughter, dylan, about real-life family ties, and those on-screen, in their new film "flag day." they also discuss sean penn's relief work, as he's on the ground in haiti this week. it's part of our arts and culture series, "canvas." >> what do you do for a living? you know what i do for a living. i'm an entrepreneur. >> brown: it's a story of a girl growing up with a charismatic con-man of a father. "flag day" is based on the memoir "flim-flam man" by jonalist jennifer vogel, about loving, leaving, and coming to terms with her criminal dad, john vogel. >> the suspect has been identified as john vogel, the second largest counterfeiter in u.s. history. >> brown: and when sean penn first read the script years ago and considered directing the film, he immediately saw his choice to play "jennifer": his own daughter, dylan, then just 15.

>> i think it was the "truth machine" aspect of dylan's nature. she's not someone who tells you what she's thinking. she just thinks the thought. which translates very well to an actress, to what acting is and what makes us want to watch and consider what's going on inside. >> brown: the problem? dylan-- whose mother is another well-known actor, robin wright-- originally had other ideas. >> i think i partly rejected the idea of acting for so long because i didn't want to follow in their footsteps. i nted to be in film, but i always wanted to be behind the camera. >> brown: years later, though-- now 30-- she felt ready to take on the role of jennifer, with her father as both director and co-star. >> i felt similarly to her, in her pursuit of finding her own identity, away from her past, separate from her father, her mother. and then also coming to this reconciliation, acceptance of the fact that your parents, your

past is a part of your identity. >> brown: you had to do some emotionally difficult scenes, right? was that easier or harder having family right there? >> i think it definitely made it easier. i did not expect that. but it was definitely catharti to say the least. >> brown: a family tradition continues. sean penn's father, leo, who died in 1998, was a director. his mother, eileen ryan, is an actress. >> is that my daughter in there? >> i'm harvey milk, and i'm here to recruit you. >> brown: he's a two-time oscar winner as best actor, for "mystic river" in 2003, and "milk" in 2008. his directing credits include 2007's "into the wild." "flag day" is another tightly-

wound and taut human drama, increasingly rare in big-screen theaters. you continue to make these smaller, character-driven films. is there still a place for the films you want to make? >> right now, you've caught me at a moment where i'm just really grateful to have this one get a life in the theater before it goes into the box. it certainly has become, we all know, much more difficult for films that have-- you know, if they break the "three thought" rule. if there's more than three thoughts, you're going to have a tough time getting it distributed in the movie theater. >> brown: the "three thought" rule-- that's not many thoughts for a two-hour film. >> see most things on the big screen these days, and you'll see what i'm talking about. >> brown: but are people ready to go to the movies? penn says he doesn't know. he's asked that only those vaccinated attend. what he does believe-- something important is being lost in the move to streaming at

home on the small screen. >> because it's not just about the big screen, right? it's about making the effort to go that makes it special. it's very difficult now, because for me, to get a sense of that which is "special," because, you know, it's as though the town square is open for everyone to speak, but therefore everyone is there and it's too loud to hear anything. they're all speaking and nobody's being heard. it's just very different from that which i fell in love with in the movie theaters of my youth. >> brown: dylan, what do you think about that? because you're of a younger generation that might determine which way things go. >> when he talks about it like this, it feels-- i feel the romance of what going to a movie theater is, and i really miss that experience. so, being in a theater now, vaccinated, and, like he said,

sharing the experience with strangers, i think is a really-- that's theower of filmmaking. >> brown: soon after our talk, sean penn left for haiti, where core, the disaster relief group he co-founded, has worked since the 2010 earthquake. in the wake of a devastating new quake, core is working with the ministry of public works to clear roads and get supplies and medical teams to hardest-hit areas. i asked penn about the prospects for a country facing political upheaval as well. >> i always think that things can change. certainly there have been, you know-- to say "setbacks" would be an understatement. we're going to have to fight, several steps forward that we take with our haitian partners to get where we're moving forward, of moments that we had in the past and where it's slipped away again, either by living or spiritual devils. by that i mean the living devils

that create these man-made problems, and the spiritual ones that create the natural disasters. 74 of four locations in haiti south while operating 23 covid vaccination sites across the country. for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown. for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown. >> nawaz: and on the newshour online right now, hospitals in louisiana are in a state of crisis amid staff shortages and rising covid cases. in a state where only 40% of residents are fully vaccinated, health care workers are stretched thin. see how hospital workers in the state are faring, at www.pbs.org/newshour. and, stay with pbs tonight. yamiche alcindor explores the fallout from the chaotic exit in afghanistan. jane ferguson joins the panel tonight on "washington week." and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm amna nawaz. join us online, and again here on monday evening. for all of us at the

pbs newshour, please have a great weekend. thank you, please stay safe, and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> fidelity wealth management. >> consumer cellular. >> johnson & johnson. >> bnsf railway. >> financial services firm raymond james. >> the william and flora hewlett foundation. for more than 50 years, advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world. at www.hewlett.org. >> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems-- skollfoundation.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions

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[dratic music] - hello, everyone. and welcome to amanpour & company. here's what's coming up. - we need to provide action and we need to do it now. because time is running out. - [christiane] torrential rain in china, raging wildfires in north amica and russia, cataclysmic floods in europe. i asked the us presidential climate envoy john kerry what needs to happen right now to reverse climate change and environmentalist katharine wilkinson about how to change reluctant hearts and minds. then, victims of vaccine inequity, kenyan reporter larry madowo on the price paid by his family for being born in the wrong place. and michel martin speaks to james talarico. a runaway texas democrat fighting to protect voting rights.