nick: good evening. i'm nick schifrin. geoff bennett is away. tonight on “pbs news weekend,” delicate diplomacy. president biden balances human rights and middle east reality in his first trip to the region. then, disinformation proliferation. how finding accurate facts about abortion has become more difficult in post-roe america. and, our weekend spotlight. geoff bennett talks to afghan war veteran jason kander about coping with post traumatic stress. jason: the clinical social worker at the va said, okay, let me get this straight. you were in the most dangerous place on the planet. you were gone for hours at a time, often just you and a translator, so you had no backup. and you were meeting with people who may want to kill you. and i was like, yeah.

she goes, yeah, that's traumatic. nick: all that and the day's headlines on tonight's "pbs news weekend." >> major funding for the "pbs news weekend" has been provided by. >> for 25 years, consumer cellular has been offering no-contract wireless plans designed to help people do more of what they like. our u.s.-based customer service team can help find a plan that fits you. to learn more, visit consumercellular.tv. >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the "newshour."

this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. nick: we begin tonight in sri lanka, and further fallout after the country's top leadership stepped down yesterday. opposition leaders today huddled to hash out a new government, as the prime minister's private residence remains a smoldering ruin. protestors who stormed there, and the president's residence on saturday -- playing in the pool, using the gym -- vowed to stay put until a new government is installed. in thailand today, u.s. secretary of state antony blinken said the administration will be watching the developments in sri lanka closely. sec. blinken: we would urge the sri lankan parliament to approach this with a commitment to the betterment of the country, not any one political party. nick: secretary blinken will

also visit tokyo tomorrow, to offer condolences following the assassination of former japanese prime minister shinzo abe. today, abe's political legacy remains secure. japanese voters propelled his party, the current ruling party, to a major victory in the upper house of parliament, and a likely increase its majority, according to exit polls. sitting prime minister fumio kishida, an abe protege, called today's elections an example of strength of democracy and free speech, amid tragedy. rescuers today combed through the rubble of an apartment complex in eastern ukraine, after russian rocket fire killed at least 15 people late saturday night. the strikes hit a residential neighborhood of chasiv yar. dozens remain trapped, and so far, oy several have been rescued. the attack is just the latest in a series of russian strikes that have killed more than 50 civiliin the last two weeks. russia continues to claim it only hits targets of military value. former trump advisor steve

bannon is now willing to testify publicly before the january 6 committee. until now, bannon had defied a committee subpoena, and was facing charges of criminal contempt of congress. former president trump cleared the way for his testimony, saying in a letter on saturday that he would waive bannon's executive privilege. in london today, tennis star novak djokovic beat nick kyrgios to win his seventh wimbledon title and 21st grand slam. that is just one behind the all-time leader, rafael nadal, for most career grand slams. kyrgios finished with 30 aces, and despite his loss, called the result the best of his career. finally, the best athletes in women's basketball competed today at the all-star game in chicago, but they began by honoring a player who was not there. >> and, selected as an honorary all-star starter by the wnba, a league mvp and wnba champion, from the phoenix mercury,

brittney griner. nick: brittney griner has been held in russian detention since february. the u.s. says she is wrongfully detained. last week she pled guilty to carrying cannabis oil in her luggage as she arrived in moscow, a charge that could carry a 10-year prison sentence. for the second half of the all star game, every player wore her number, 42. still to come on "pbs news weekend," the rise of misleading and bad information about abortion. and a conversation with afghan war veteran jason kander about post-traumatic stress. nick: this week, president biden makes his first trip to the middle east as president. he'll travel to israel and the occupied west bank, and finally to saudi arabia to meet the king and crown prince. it is delicate diplomacy for an administration hopin lower

gas prices and advance regional cooperation, but that's also promised to make human rights the center of its foreign policy. in today's middle east, the pomp and circumstance is often reserved for this man, saudi crown prince muhammad bin salman. the 36-year-old has been on a regional tour as the man who will be king. he's trying to modernize the kingdom socially, economically, and religiously. but u.s. officials also believe he is the source of the kingdom's suppression. intelligence officials say he's believed to have personally blessed the 2018 murder of journalist jamal khashoggi inside saudi arabia's istanbul consulate. the following year, candidate biden promised punishment. pres. biden: i would make it very clear we were not going to in fact sell more weapons to them. we were going to in fact make them pay the price, and make them in fact the pariah that they are human rights must be the center of our foreign policy.

nick: despite those words and warnings, president biden says now is the time to visit saudi arabia to discuss the ongoing truce in yemen. and to increase oil production. the trip will also further integrate israel into the region, two weeks after naftali bennett handed the prime ministership to yair lapid. already, israel, u.s., and arab militaries are working together on a regional air defense alliance, using israeli missile defense technology. the regional cooperation is a product of a common enemy, iran, and its advancing missile technology. it's also the outgrowth of the trump administration's efforts to normalize arab-israeli relations. what biden is not reversing, trump-era policy changes in israel, including the declaration that jewish settlements on the occupied west bank are n a violation of international law. and what it means for the

region, i'm joined by shibley telhami, professor at the university of maryland, and senior fellow at the brookings institution. let's start in the kingdom. in all of his public comments about this trip, president biden has deemphasized the idea of the trip doing about oil or even being about meeting the crown prince, muhammad bin salman. how big of an issue is oil actually for this trip and that meeting with mbs? shibley: obviously the president wants to seeower oil rises and saudi arabia to produce more. but obviously, that would not have necessarily led him to go to saudi arabia. saudi arabia is important, he needs to deal with it, despite all the reservations people have. but going there is a completely different order, and the president himself said he was doing mostly throughout israel, meeting normalization with saudi arabia. and i believe him. they heavily wanted him to do so because it a strategic place for them. nick: you commissioned a poll

asking americans if they support the trip. only 24% say they approve of this trip to israel and saudi arabia. why do you think that number is that case, and ithe number relatively low among democrats? shibley: i think it is partly because saudi arabia and israel are not exactly issues that resonate with the democrats. republicans are not going to approve of anything biden does. obviously he doesn't like the saudi's over human rights issues, and also because they are associated with being pro-trump and an ally of trump and jared kushner. on the israeli side, frankly the democrat constituency is not where the president is. most of them want -- nick: let's talk about palestinians. u.s. officials say they will not be any announcements reversing trump-era policies, for example,

reopening the consulate in jerusalem, or changing trump-era policies on the settlements. what do u think president biden's visit with the palestinian authority president, how will that be received? is a token visit. obviously democrats expect him to nor the palestinian issues. he will probably announce some aid to be palestinians, but he will not announce anything like moving the consulate back to jerusalem, because israelis don't want. is he going to go and express more empathy about the occupation, and is he going to meet with a family of slain american palestinian journalist, as many people have been demanding? that is the question were going to be watching. nick: and each of these trips have actual concrete actions and announcements that come with them. you believe the actions and

decisions that come t of this trip will advance regional cooperation, which is what israel wants, or israel/saudi normalization? shibley: obviously that is the big price but they understand that will not happen this trip. one thing likely to happen is the saudis will announce some measures towards normalization such as possibly missile defens let's be clear, israelis will be the winners here because any signaling from the saudis towards normalization will help them. but think back before our rulers said, they have long thought the shortest path to washington goes through israel. now it is on a whole different order because our rulers believe the israelis who helped bring trump to saudi arabia when he first went on his first international trip, and here, the president of the u.s., a

democrat who does not like trump, did not like the saudis, who called them a pariah, he is going to saudi arabia through israel. that power matters a lot with the israelis. nick: shibley telhami joining us from israel. thank you very much. shibley: my pleasure. nick: since the supreme court overturned roe v. wade, online researchers say disinformation about abortion has flooded websites and social media, and some of that disinformation is influencing policy. misleading and medically inaccurate information even found its way into the dobbs decision. this week i spoke with jenna sherman, program manager and researcher at meedan digital health lab, a technology nonprofit that works to strengthen journalism and digital literacy. jenna sherman, welcome. what was the state of

disinformation about abortion before the dobbs decision? jenna: before the dobbs decision, what we were seeing online was an overwhelming amount of misinformation and disinformation stemming from antiabortion movements. this was primarily really defensive, as they were trying to make their point for why abortion is unethical and immoral, and also dangerous. so a lot of the focus was on drumming up broader support for their movement, while trying to dissuade individual people from actually getting an abortion. one of the main sticking points for them before the dobbs decision was centered around abortion reversal pills, which have not been proven to be safe or effective in clinical trials, and in fact, were stopped in clinical trials because of dangerous hemorrhaging. nick: how has it changed since the dobbs decision? jenna: just in the past couple weeks we have seen the antiabortion miss and

disinformation grow much more. cadets become a lot more targeted -- it has become a lot more targeted and angry. people who might still be considering getting an abortion or might who have access to one some of the angles being used now are targeting chemical abortion, as they are calling it, which is another phrase for medication abortion. trying to convince people that it is unsafe, which is not true. another main point there sticking on is really pushing against what they are calling abortion tourism, which is a really flippant and pejorative way to describe somebody who has no other choice but to give up a lot of money, time, and resources to access care they need outside of state. nick: is there also disinformation as far as you can tell spread by those who advocate for federally protected abortion rights? jenna: since the decision, pro-choice activists and people who believe in the right to federally protected abortion

have turned to social media to try and sprea tips for people on how to access abortions safely, when in reality it is not always safe methods that they are promoting. so, one of the big narratives circulating right now from the road choice individuals is that there are herbal remedies and natural foods that can induce an abortion. this is also not scientifically proven or safe, and can lead to really severe health consequences, depending on the herb or food. nick: we mentioned this at the top, but what disinformation ended up inside the dobbs decision? jenna: there are claims in the dobbs decision that abortion is a barbaric practice, that abortion is bad for maternal health, that abortion is dangerous, that fetuses can feel pain before the third trimester, and that abortion promotes discrimination. all of these are untrue, and are the same narratives being

spouted by antiabortion individuals and larger movements online. nick: some of those are certainly falls, but some of those could be considered subjective, right? by people who are against federally protective abortion rights. jenna: those that i just listed are all objectively false. we know that maternal health is protected, in many ways, by access to abortion. this is backed by a number of medical and public health organizations, including the cdc. there are of course opinions in the dobbs decision throughout that are subjective, and that really depend on the logic that you are taking and your value system underlying. nick and finally, as best as you can tell, are technology companies doing ough to combat disinformation? jenna: the short answer is absolutely not. we have seen how they were able to mobilize for covid, and while health information policies among platforms are still

relatively new, most of the past five or six years, we he not seen them take action sufficiently in regards to other health topics. this is a really urgent need right now, because so many more people are turning to the internet to find information about abortion, and so many people are coming across it unwillingly because it is so highly discussed online right now. nick: jenna sherman, thank you very much. jenna: thank you. nick: finally tonight, our weekend spotlight. jason kander is a veteran of the war in afghanistan, and a once rising star in the democratic party. geoff bennett recently sat down with him to talk about how politics and post traumatic stress changed his life. geoff: jason kander is an afghanistan war veteran, former missouri secretary of state, and a once future starf the

democratic party. even former president barack obama said as much. but in 2018, he dropped out in the home stretch of a race for mayor of kansas city that he was widely expected to win. revealing his ears long struggle with ptsd and his plan to seek treatment. jason kander has now written an unflinching new memoir detailing his personal journey, called, invisible storm, a soldier's memoir of politics and ptsd. jason kander, thank you so much for being with us. in your new memoir, it is extraordinarily brave in that it is is that family honest -- exceptionally honest. detail what transpired on october 1, 2018. you walk into the kansas city v.a. medical center, and you unload on the psychiatrist all of this stuff you have been dealing with, that you had been hiding for years. persistent anger, even suicidal ideation.

what was the tipping point for you? what got you to the point where you had to tell someone that you needed help? jason: it had been building up for 11 years, and in the months i found out before i went to the v.a. it felt like while i had been getting worse for a long time, i seemed to be getting worse faster, and it scared me. and i was having these suicidal thoughts, but i also knew that i did not want to want to kill myself. so i called the v.a. veterans crisis line, and i remember calling in sort of a mindset that was real sheepish, like kind of an imposter syndrome feeling like they are going to tell me keep this channellear, there are people who really need help. and what happened instead was one of the first questions i got was the woman on the other end asked me if i had suicidal thoughts. this was a couple nights before i showed up at the v.a. and i had never said this out loud to anybody other than my wife but i said yes, and i got

really emotional, and she proceeded to ask me some questions about my service and about what i had experienced and what my symptoms were now. and it dawned on me during this conversation that from the tone of her voice, she did not sound like i sounded any differently to her than anybody else she talked to in that shift or a net job and i realized i am just like all the other veterans who need help. geoff: that is really striking because as you detail in the book as part of your journey, you had played this comparison game. when you were in afghanistan, you are not shot at, you are not in a firefight, you did not get captured, so you felt you were not deserving of treatment, and that you did not have the right to feel that you did. how did you, over time, come to realize the way that you were feeling, the trauma you experienced, was valid? jason: i did not get to the point where i felt like it was valid in treatment until i was actually at the v.a. talking to a clinical social worker and explaining, actually answering

that question you just asked, which is why didn't you think you should have come in here before. i was explaining, yeah, my job was to go out and meet with people as an intelligence officer who might be bad guys who want to kill me, but i couldn't know that but i had to go into the meetings, get the information, and come out. but i had friends who were in firefight. the movies had told me that is what combat was, what i did wasn't. and the clinical social worker at the v.a. said, okay, let me get this straight. you were in the most dangerous place on the planet. you were gone for hours at a time, often just you and a translator, so basically by yourself. nobody knew who you were, so you had no backup. and you were meeting with people who may want to kill you. and i was like, yeah. she goes, yeah, that's traumatic. also, that is combat. geoff: after your military tour you started your political career. in the back of your head you were always thinking, things will get better when i win. then once you won a race or two, the goalposts shifted. i think a lot of people can

connect with that, that they threw themselves into work and the ambition and success can mask a lot. jason: io think that is a relatable part. i was seeking redemption and at the same time i was seeking to run away from my trauma through accomplishment and success, and i really believed that if i did enough, if i did enough for other people, if i accomplished enough, that that would fill up the hole in inside me. i thought if i could get elected president, then i can make a huge difference and save the world, that is what i need to do. but over time i eventually realized that there was always something on the horizon. if i do this, i will feel better when, but it never worked. i got addicted to it and eventually my tolerance got higher and higher, and i needed more of it and none of it was working. geoff: tell me about your wife, diana, because her insights are included in this book. it is hard enough to be a military spouse. it is hard enough to be the spouse of a politician. and she is both of those things.

she talks about how she experienced secondary ptsd by being your wife. jason: yeah. i was a real joy, i was the gift that kept ging for a while there. it was really important for us that people understand the effects such as secondary ptsd that can exist for people who are close to or whoever loved ones with ptsd, because we didn't even find out about that until i was in therapy and they said diana should see somebody as well. we have been together since wehe were 17 and i would tell her re-think. so she is half awake and as she would put it, it was horrible story time. that combined with my hypervigilant, my feeling that the world is a very dangerous

place and we needed to secure everything and control things, after a while that seeps into you even if you didn't experience the underlying trauma and you can end up in the same boat as the same person with ptsd, and that is what happened with diana and she had to get her own treatment as well. geoff: you said in the book is the question you get askedost is if you are going to resurrect your political career. you provide an answer to that in the book. what do you think you can? do you think by coming forward and being so candid about your experiences that you could run for office again? jason: i think probably so, yeah. i will let people read the book to find my longer answer about whether i want to, and if i will, that kind of thing. but in a lot of ways i feel like so much more capable to do anything that i did before i got treatment. but i also want to be clear that i still feel very involved in public service. i'm an activist at times, but the expansion of the --

my royalties from the book go to that cause. but i actually think i have had a much greater impact on the world in a positive way since leaving any pursuit for a particular office. so, do i think i could do it? sure. i guess i have just gotten to the point in my life where i don't really do anything because i think i should, i do uff because i think it is important and because that is what i want to do. and i would just say i think we need in all respects in our leadershipnd public life, it would be great if we had people who had dealt with their stuff. if you are leaving -- leading an officer for people or if you are leading a state, it doesn't matter. geoff: thank you so much for your time. jason: thank you for having me. nick: an important, candid conversation and a realization that those suffering from ptsd are not alone. and that is our chauffeur tonight. i'm nick schifrin. for all of us at “pbs news weekend,” i hope you had a good

day. thanks for watching. have a good night. >> major funding for "pbs news weekend" has been provided by. and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning performeby the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.] >> you're watching pbs.

buongiorno. i'm rick steves. today, we're heading off on a very special adventure, traveling to some of my favorite corners of italy. this special is called the heart of italy, and you're about to see y. i'll be with you during each break, sharing special tips on traveling smartly as together we celebrate the value of public broadcasting in our communities. as you enjoy these travels, think of the value of public television to bring us the wonders of our world. now, let's enjoy some dolce vita in the heart of italy. [ ♪♪♪ ]