judy: good evening. i am judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, president biden surveys the damage hurricane fiona inflicted on puerto rico. pres. biden: i am determined to help puerto rico build faster than in the past and stronger and betterrepared in the future. judy: brazil's tends presidential election heads to a second round after neither of the candidates secure the majority of votes. new term. the supreme court is back in session with a list of controversial cases on its docket as the public's trust in the institution hits a historic low. all that and more on tonight's "pbs newshour." ♪

>> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- ♪ >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions and friends of the newshour including leonard and norma and patricia. the foundation. for more than 50 years, advancing ideas and supporting and promoting better world at hewlett.org. ♪

>> 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: residents in southwestern florida continued to struggle today with recovery efforts and, in some cases, getting their basic needs. power is still out to more than half a million homes and businesses in the state. and more than 90 people in florida died in the wake of hurricane ian, according to the latest counts from several news organizations. at the same time, president biden visited puerto rico today to survey the damage there from hurricane fiona. william brangham begins with this report. william: days after one of the strongest storms in u.s. history made landfall, recovery efforts

are still in full force. in places like saint james city, florida, a coastal hub northeast of fort myers, local residents are pitching in on the effort as well. >> we've had people wandering around t streets and we were able to get out to them, get them on the rescues. we get them on helicopters. william: this morning, over 570,000 homes and businesses in florida remained without power. a substantial recovery from the 2.6 million who were in the dark days earlier. in fort myers, where more than 40 people have died, residents collected what was left of their homes, packing up belongings into suitcases and shopping carts. >> the kitchen's gotta come out, the bathrooms all got to come out. it's a complete redo. william: the enormity of their losses starting to sink in. >> i was just devastated seeing what was happening to the property, and to my neighbors' place downstairs, and it was hard to comprehend. william: for some in lee county, home to fort myers, questions remain about why local evacuation orders weren't given

until tuesday. the national hurricane center's earlier forecasts found that lee county was outside the more direct path of the storm, but projected the area could face dangerous storm surges as high as six feet. local officials have repeatedly defended their decision. >> i am confident in our county manager, our leaders, our governor, all of us in law enforcement, that we got that message out at the right time. now, whether people listen to it, we can't force people out of their homes. william: florida governor ron desantis yesterday gave an update on recovery efforts. >> there's more urban search and rescue teams in florida now than in any one place in american history since september 11. and if you think about it, there's been massive events that have happened since september 11. and we have more here. william: beyond florida, ian's wrath continued north to the carolinas, and up to virginia, ooding in over a decade.

for his part, president biden plans to visit florida on wednesday. but first, the president spent the afternoon in puerto rico, surveying damage in the southern part of the island blasted by another hurricane, the category 1 storm, fiona. it touched down on september 18 and killed at least two people, and is estimated to have caused $3 billion in damages. the president announced $60 million in u.s. aid and reiterated that he'd stand behind the island as it rebuilds. pres. biden: we know that the climate crisis and more extreme weather is going to continue to hit this island and hit the united states overall. and as we rebuild, we have to ensure that we build it to last. i want the people of puerto rico to know i'm committed, my entire administration is committed, to standing with you every step of the way, as long as it takes. william: power has been restored

to about 90% of the island, but over 60,000 people still remain without water. the white house said aid will go towards strengthening flood walls and creating a new warning system to ensure the island is better prepared for future storms. and joining me now for the latest on recovery efforts in south florida is pam james. she's an executive producer at public media station wgcu in fort myers, florida. thank you so much for being here. can you give us a sense of how things are in southwest florida right now? pam: sure. right now, it's really overwhelming the amount of damage that we're seeing along the coastlines. it's been described as, you know, a bomb going off on certain parts of, say, fort myers beach, or sabel, or even worse is a small little artistic village called malshej just completely decimated. it doesn't exist anymore. there's so much loss and devastation and people who are now without homes. but then there's this inconsistency because we have the other half of the broadcast

area that was more or less and -- less fazed, i should say, less impacted. there was some wind, there was some water, but there wasn't as much damage, just maybe allows a loss of electricity and water. william: we know that also some of the poorest residents of your area were suffered some of the worst damages and also are most likely to not have flood insurance. how are those residents in particular faring? pam: we have residents on st. james island and there are some other communities that have been hit hardest. and a lot of these people live d in trailers, and of course, many of these people with trailers don't have rental insurance and so it's going to be a challenge, especially down here in fort myers when we are , i think, number one, when it comes to real estate prices that have been just outrageously jacked up. so when you're dealing with suddenly now a loss of housing, this is going to be a huge issue for us for the next year, at

least. william: i know that there's an issue brewing on what's known as pine island, which is a small barrier island off the coast. redents there apparently complaining that they were not getting enough relief and local officials saying that it's just so difficult to get there that they should try to get off the island. can you tell us what's happening there? william: absolutely. so pine island is like sanibel, which is a barrier island to our southwest coast, and the only way to get on island other than by boat is bridge and as the only landline or the tether that is between the barrier island and our mainland. and hurricane ian just kind of took out both those bridges.so yeah, so these people were stranded on their islands if they don't have boats. and so the challenge is, is that electricity is out, water's out. and so the government officials are trying to get recovery efforts to them on island.

but it's been challenging because a lot of the residents don't want to leave. pine island is definitely a blue collar agricultural island. and so these people were very independent minded and didn't want to leave the island when it was time to go. but then now they don't want to leave the island now that they need to have some of those rescue efforts taken care of. there are people who just want to stay and secure their, their livelihoods there. william: we hope those cut off communities do make it through okay. that is pam james, executive producer at wgcu public media station. thanks so much for being here. pam: tnks for having me. william: hurricane ian has also impacted health care facilities across the state, making it very difficult for medically vulnerable people to get the care they need. for more on that, i'm joined by tom carter. he's the president and executive director of health care ready, which is a nonprofit that

coordinates public, private, and government responses to disasters. he joins me from just outside a sheltein fort myers. tom cotter, thank you so much for being here. i know that there is a lot of need among a lot of different people in florida right now. but on the health care side that you particularly focus on, can you give us a sense of what you're hearing from people? what are the most acute needs right now? william: well, right now, people are either in shelters or trying to rebuild their homes. and that has been all disasters. the people with hypertension still have hypertension. the people who go to dialysis still need to go to dialysis. and making sure that that supply chain and that access to health care is available to the people who need it most is our number one objective right now. and that's all complicated by the impact of hurricane ian on the regular infrastructure around here, power and water. william: so what is it that is -- is it that those people can't get to the facilities because

the roads are impassable or those facilities themselves were damaged? where is the hang up? tom: well, right now, all of the health care facilities, all of the pharmacies, dialysis centers, are all working very hard to open back up. but it's really tough if you don't have grid electricity and you need to run a generator, you need to have fuel for that. it needs to not break down. and so there's a lot there. the roads and infrastructure for travel are relatively okay, give or take. but the biggest challenge right now is just having these are companies that are trying to get back up and running to provide the service. it's tough without any support from the grid or from the water. it's it's doubly so for hospitals and other clinics because they rely on enormous quantities of water to provide health care services. william: and so with regards to what your organization does, what kinds of help are you providing while you're there? tom: right now, we're talking to private sector businesses that

provide. -- private sector businesses that that are working to get up and running, getting them what they need in terms of generators, other supplies, even staffing. it is an issue because the people in this area that work at cvs, that work at walgreens, that provide nursing care, they were all impacted by this storm, too. so trying to meet all of the needs of that to get this infrastructure back up and running. in addition to that, working with all of the ngo's in the area. heart to heart international -- heart to heart, international project hope, americares to make sure we're matching needs to resources as they become available. so really tackling this from every angle. william: and do you have a sense of when some of those issues will start to be resolved? tom: they're being resolved very quickly in the surrounding areas of lee county. right now, i drove through naples, florida, where i was pretty shocked to see pharmacies open. gas availability looked good.

but in the hardest hit places, that's where we're very concerned. places, pine island, sanibel island. ere'people out there who need health care and are either still there or have become recently homeless. and that that is a challenge unto itself to figure out how we can provide some stability, as you know, as an entity for their health and well-being. william: tom cotter of health care ready. thank you so much for being here and good luck with your work down there. >> i am stephanie sy with newshour west. wall street notched its best day since july as bond yields tumbled on some weak economic data. the major stock indexes rose more than 2.5%. the dow jones industrial average soared 765 points to close at 29,491. the nasdaq climbed 240 points.

and the s&p 500 added 93. it was commissioned after several players came forward with their own claims or the report names several high-ranking officials who failed to take action. it also calls for better vetting of coaches and timely investigations. opening statements began today in the federal trial of oath keepers founder stewart rhodes and four other people for their roles in the capitol insurrection. prosecutors accused rhodes of plotting an "armed rebellion" to stop the transfer of presidential power. rhodes and his associates face several felony charges, including seditious conspiracy. north korea launched a ballistic missile over japan into the pacific ocean and prompted an

alert in northeastern japan to evacuate buildings. tokyo condemned the launch and called for international cooperation. the launch is the latest north korean weapons test after the u.s. and south korea held joint my fire military exercises in august. an indonesian police chief and nine other elite officers were removed from their posts for their role in a stampede at a soccer match that left at least 125 people dead in malang. 18 other oicers are under investigation. panic erupted in the stadium saturday as police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd after the home team lost. most of the victims were trampled to death. the team's head coach called it unacceptable. >> we just hope that this incident will become a starting point for a new era of indonesian and global football. stop all of this. the result of a match is not worth paying for with people's lives. >> mourners laid out flower

petals as a tribute to the victims. it was one of the deadliest stadium disasters in the world. meanwhile, matches have been suspended until the investigation is complete. ukrainian forces gained more ground in the south and east of their country today, ramping up the pressure on invading russians. the russian military acknowledged ukraine's advances in the strategic southern region of kherson, which president vladimir putin illegally annexed last week. meanwhile, in moscow, russia's lower house rubber stamped a resolution to annex that and three other ukrainian regis. brazil is preparing for a runoff election later this month after no candidate won sunday's presidential election outright. former leftist president luiz inacio lula da silva came in first with 48% of the vote. he will face off against right-wing incumbent president jair bolsonaro, who won 43%, far better than polls predicted. we'll have more after the news summary. the british government reversed

course and decided to scrap an income tax cut plan for the rich. the proposal had triggered financial market turmoil and caused the british pound to plunge to record lows. the government has now vowed to move forward on the rest of its tax-cutting stimulus package. this year's nobel prize in medicine went to a swedish scientist for his discoveries in human evolution. svante paabo's work gave key insights into the human immune system and what makes it unique compared to our extinct relatives, the neanderthals. paabo celebrated his win with colleagues today in leipzig, germany, and spoke of the moment he heard the news. >> i initially thought it was a joke actually, that it was my research group who made an elaborate joke, but then it sounded a little too convincing, but it was hard to digest immediately. >> paabo is the son of another nobel prize winner in medicine. it's the eighth time that a child of a nobel laureate has

also won a nobel prize. and, a passing to note. native american activist and actress sacheen littlefeather died of breast cancer yesterday in california. she stood in for marlon brando, in declining an oscar for the movie "the godfather" in 1973. she wore a buckskin dress to protest hollywood's portrayal of native americans, drawing boos from the audience. in august, the academy of motion picture arts and sciences apologized for her mistreatment. sacheen littlefeather was 75 years old. still to come on the "newshour," the supreme court faces questions about its legitimacy as it begins a new session. how consulting firm mckinsey has influenced companies and governments behind the scenes for decades. amy walter and tamara keith discuss the most heated political campaigns one month ahead of the midterms. and much more. ♪ >> this is the pbs newshour from

w eta studios in washington and from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. judy: four more weeks of a bruising campaign began in braziloday, after none of the candidates won 50% of the vote in sunday's first round of the presidential election. current president jair bolsonaro outperformed polls that showed him losing badly to his leftist rival, former president luis inazio "lula" da silva. in partnership with the pulitzer center, special correspondent jane ferguson reports from sao paulo, as the country enrs a new period of uncertainty. jane: as the results came in, supporters of the former president, lula da silva, were jubilant. in the end, lula got the most votes, but not over the 50% needed to win outright. brazilians will head back to the

polls at the end of this month for a runoff. >> it was really close, but we believe in turning votes, we believe in lula, we believe it is possible to win. we need this. jane: the left-wing head of the worker's party was president from 2003 to 2011. >> i've never won an election in the first round. i've won all of them in the second round. all of them. here in the second round, what's important is the chance to think thoroughly on what you propose for society. jane: current president, right-wing populist jair bolsonaro, continued his campaign rhetoric, arguing he is a last defense against growing socialism in the region. >> what worries me is brazil losing its freedom, brazil following steps to the left, in the same path as venezuela, argentina, colombia, chile and nicaragua. that's what i worry about, where the first victim is the freedom of the people. jane: on the streets of sao paulo, bolsonaro supporters were

more subdued, but adamant he will remain in office. >> there's a second round and we must work. it will be the truth against the lies. god against corruption. freedom of jair bolsonaro against the censorship of lula. >> the mood here amongst lula supporters is absolutely jubilant. this has turned into a street party. but it's important to remember this is not an outright victory. bolsonaro is still very much so in this race. jane: more so than predicted by polls, some of which placed bolsonaro behind lula by as many as 14 percentage points. in the end, it was a much tighter race. his levels of support, says brazilian journalist and political columnist patricia campos mello, were underestimated. >> we realized the brazilian population is, you know, much more conservative than we all imagine. jane: beyond the presidential race, bolsonaro's party won the greatest share of seats in congress. >> if bolsonaro gets elected,

he's going to be unstoppable. we've seen this with other leaders in other countries who get reelected because he's going to have -- congress is going to be highly supportive of him. jane: the current president has refused to say if he would accept the results of the presidential election if he loses. for months, he has called the electoral system corrupted against him. a narrow loss in the run-off may make it easier for him to contest results. >> we know that's going to happen if he loses. and this is going to be a very difficult institutional shock because we have half the country who really support president bolsonaro, and they believe this narrative that he has been sowing doubts about the elections for years. if he ends up losing in the second round, after showing that all the polls were wrong, it's going to be very hard to convince peoe that the elections were clean. jane: brazilians have faced

months of divisive, polarized political campaigning , unprecedented in their democratic history. sunday's election results proved just how narrowly split the country is politically. and opened the door for one more month of fiery campaigning. judy: and jane joins me now from sao paulo. hello, jane. as you reported, bolsonaro beat the projections. he had more followers then were expected. what is his appeal to them? tamara: -- jane: his appeal seems to be holding beyond the projections and beyond any predictions. it is a right wing populist one. he has had a message from the start that is appealing to the evangelicals across the country. gun ownership, land rights for private property and for big business as well as nationalism and that is very much holding here. his communication has been

particularly sophisticated and successful. he bypassed a lot of the mainstream media and gone straight onto streaming platforms and messaging to reach his audience so that in many ways has not been very clearly helpful to the pollsters in terms of trying to gauge his support. it seems that that support is holding much stronger than anyone predicted. judy: we know there were other candidates in the race and the runoff. their support is surely going to fall away. that is about 10% of the vote. what is the sense of where their support is going to go? jane: 10% of the vote has been divided amongst other candidates. one of them -- she is considered center-right. it is not clear where her votes will go. you have gomez. he is considered slightly more leftist. neither of those candidates who got most of the remaining votes have said who they are going to back but they are obviously in a

particularly powerful position here. they could influence the end result, causing these two very extreme, polarized candidates temper their message somewhat and come in perhaps a little from the very far that for lula and tempora little bit of bolsonaro's messaging but we will see which way they decide to run in the next month as the campaigning continues ahead of october 30. judy: for sure and i know we will be watching this in the weeks to come. jane ferguson reporting from sao paulo on brazils election. thank you, jane. tamara: thank you. -- jane: thank you. ♪ judy: the supreme court kicked off its first day of the new term with fresh arguments and a new face. to unpack today and all that's to come, we turn now to our

regular court watcher, marcia coyle, chief washington correspondent for the national law journal, and josh gerstein, politico's senior legal affairs reporter. welcome to you both. it is so great to have you. so much to ask you about. let's start with the new person on the court. tonja brown jackson. this is the first case she is hearing. we have just a bit of an excerpt, audio excerpt, of her questioning as the justices heard the arguments. we are going to listen to that and come back to you. jackson: did they see the property? i understood in the pictures, that you could tell that at least part of it was a wetland by looking at is so. schiff: i believe mr. fletcher was referring to after the initial work had been done, and the pictures show that there is water on the property, but that doesn't show how it was before. but if i could back though to the question of the jurisdiction. jackson: but, you keep talking about notice, and fair notice, and property owners not being able to tell or know about this issue. judy: not being shy.

she is right in there with questions. how did she do? marcia: i think she did very well. she had a tendency to dominate the questioning and i think that is just a function of being new until you get a sense of your colleagues and how and when they like to ask questions. there is really two general approaches new justices take at their first oral argument. they are either cautious, hang back, or they jump in full throated like she did. in a way, she reminded me of justice sowing us on a mayor when she's -- sonya so to mayor -- sotomayor. she reminds me of the legislative history and congress's intent hind the statute that was befe the court. judy: josh, what was your take? josh: she was certainly very vocal. she may have spoken and

questioned more than any other justice at least during that first section of the arguments. she was very well-informed. she reminded me a little bit of her predecessor, justice breyer, in this question she cap bringing up about congressional purpose and congressional intent but there was no question she intended to come out of the gate very strong to indicate that she is not going to be some sort of shrinking violet on the court. judy: she wasn't holding back. let's talk about what the case was today. it was about the clean water act. in a nutshell, what was the argument? what is the significance? marcia: it is very significant because of how the justices to decide what kind of test to use to determine whether wetlands are part of the waters of the united states can really affect how broadly the clean water act can be used to ensure water quality in a lot of different types of water bodies so there

was a lot of discussion about what the lower federal appellate court's test was and the sackett family that brought the case of the supreme crt, they are asking for a test that really would allow them to build their family home on the lot that the government has said is a wetland and they cannot do that so i thought the justices, at the very end, were really suggling with some sort of middle ground here. between what the family was arguing and what the government wants the court to do. judy: this is the first day of the term. it has been anticipated in so many ways not only because it is an injustice but because we are seeing tensions in the core and public trust of this court at almost historically low levels. josh: there has been an unusual exchange in the last few weeks. during the summertime, the justices go to their vacation

homes and so forth. some of them teach in europe but we have seen this unusual back and forth that has developed over the last couple of months, chiefly led by justice kagan, who has come out in a series of speaking appearances and said that she thinks some of the court's recent decisions have given people reason to think that the court is deciding cases in an unprincipled way. she suggested may be a political way or with an eye to achieving a certain outcome. this produced a rebuttable from chief justice john roberts and gestures sam alito who pushed back against that. the chief justice in particular seemed kind of unhappy earlier in the month about this whole exchange and kagan's criticism without directly going after her. judy: he has been speaking about it without going after an individual justice but making it clear he's not comfortable with it. all this happens as we are heading into a term with a long

list of contentious, controversial cases. name just a few of the ones you are watching. marcia: i think if you defined last term by the abortion ruling, i think this term may be defined by what the justices do with cases involving race. i'm watching two cases involving harvard college and others involving university of north carolina in which the court is being asked to overrule a nearly 20-year-old president of the court that allows higher education institutions to consider race as one factor in the admissions policies. there's also a very important voting rights act case that will be argued tomorrow morning and that comes out of alabama and involves the only part of the voting rights act that is left because the supreme court in 2013 gutted another important part of the voting rights act. this time, section two.

voting rights advocates are very concerned about what the court will do to that section in this case which involves alabama's 2021 congressional map in which a lower court found it violated the voting rights act because it diluted the votes of black alabamians. judy: it will be argued tomorrow morning and it has the potential to play into this perception out there that the court is more political than it has ever been. josh: we are looking at a 6-3 conservative court with three justices appointed by president trump. it's not terribly surprising they would have a different perspective on some of these issues but they keep turning to these cases such as the abortion case that was decided last term. there is another case coming up this term involving state legislatures and how much power they should have perhaps potentially unchecked power over

voting and voting rights issues and these are all areas where the conservatives are preparing to really show their muscle i think on some of these subjects. marcia: it's important to also note that for the most part, the court has almost absolute discretion in choosing the cases that it will hear to decide. it only takes four votes to grant review but you do need five for a majority. we now have a conservative majority that has 16 eight. the court in a sense has reached out for some of these cases where there is no conflict in the lower courts. the affirmative-action case is a od example. it has been quiet for years. judy: which makes it appear that the court is looking. -- looking to make waves, if you will, with the decisions that are coming. josh: that's right. we even see the justices now in opinions suggest that litigants come forward and bring some of these controversial issues back to the core and indeed, that has

happened on several occasions in the last couple of years. judy: do you see from any direction an effort by the court, other than remarks by the chief justice, to try to head off the impression that the court is moving in a very politicized or political direction? marcia: i think the only way we can tell will be how they decide thcases of this term, whether they will go big or they will attempt to find some narrow rulings. the chief justice generally prefers to move a little more incrementally than his five conservative colleagues so i do not know that i can say now that we are going to see any real concern for that. we should listen for the opinions that, and probably the dissents that give us some sense of what is happening inside the court. judy: the wording of their opinions. marcia: exactly. judy: we can tell a lot from that.

thank you both. marcia: it's a pleasure, judy. josh: thank you, judy. ♪ judy: now, a new book attempts to shed light on an extremely influential but little understood organization, the consulting firm, mckinsey & company. amna nawaz got an exclusive first look. amna: when tiffany glover was around 18-years-old, the natchitoches, louisiana resident had her first menthol cigarettes. tiffany: honestly, it made it easier to smoke. it masked the taste, the harshness of the smoke on my lungs. amna: now 45, glover looks back and recalls learning about menthols from the ubiquitous ads she saw in black publications like ebony and jet magazines. tiffany: those magazines were full of menthol cigatte ads.

and the people in the ads looked like they were having the time of their lives. amna: those images were in stark contrast to what glover saw in real life. tiffany: this is a picture of my mother. amna: when she was just a teenager, her mother died from lung cancer at the age of 48 after decades of smoking. tiffany: she went from being a vibrant teacher that was in the prime of her career to she couldn't even get out of bed. i wish that earlier we could have known and been nest about the dangers of smoking, because maybe that would have prevented my mother from smoking. >> there is a definite, significant health hazard associated with cigarette smoking. amna: it was way back in 1964, that the u.s. surgeon general first concluded in a report to congress that cigarettes cause cancer and other diseases. but it wasn't until decades later, in 2006, that cigarette companies were found guilty in federal court of misleading the public about the dangers of smoking.

and until very recently, the tobao industry still marketed its products with the help of the consulting firm mckinsey. >> for all these years, they've been, you know, helping all the major cigarette companies sell more cigarettes, when 480,000 people are dying every year. after smoking had been banished from restaurants, offices, and yet as recently as the last few years, and in fact, until last year, mckinsey was working for these companies. amna: in their new book, "when mckinsey comes to town," new york times investigative reporters walt bogdanich and michael forsythe take a rare look into the cloistered company that for 96 years has advised the world's most profitable firms and powerful governments, making recommendations on things like maintenance schedules, salaries, marketing, regulations, and more. and yet, for the most part, has remained out of public view. we stopped by mckinsey's headquarters at three world trade center, in lower

manhattan. amna: it's such a powerful company, and yet you'd never know they were here. there's not a single mckinsey sign anywhere. why is that? walt: they don't want anyone to know anything about them. they want everything done in secret. and if that includes where they work, so be it. mike: and that's a cultural reason, a corporate cultural reason. they always put the client first, is their their mantra. and they take a step back. they work behind the scenes. they let the client take credit when things go well and they let the client take credit when things go badly as well. amna: for years now, forsythe and bogdanich have reported on mckinsey's work behind the scenes, examining its contract with immigration enforcement during president trump's family separation policy, its work for the oil and gas industries, even as it pledged to address climate change, its guidance to adversarial governments in saudi arabia and ukraine, and to state-owned firms in russia and china, how it helped to juice

opioid sales for purdue pharmaceuticals and johnson & johnson at the height of the addiction epidemic, and conflicts of interest along the way, advising both u.s. regulators like the fda, and the companies it regulated. what pattern did you see emerge over those years that said to you, this all needs to be pulled together in a book? what's the common thread of all the stories? walt: secrecy. power. unaccountability. and that draws investigative reporters, you know, everywhere. and that's what interested us. mike: finding out about the reach of the company around the world, some of the harm that they've done to people around the world, whether in the united states or elsewhere through their work, was very compelling. amna: over nearly a century of work, mckinsey, they argue, has been instrumental in shaping parts of american society, from off-shoring to securitized debt to ceo compensation. walt: one issue that is really

troubling in this country, i think everyone would agree, is inequality. and mckinsey has contributed mightily to that. going back, for instance, to 1950, when one of their consultants decided to look at how much executives were making versus how much the workers were making. and he concluded that, well, the workers are catching up. so maybe the corporations ought to figure out ways to pay the leaders more. every year, they built on that more and more and more and executives -- that the gap between what the leaders were making of corporations and the workers kept growing and growing and growing over the years. amna: overseas, their reporting found, some of mckinsey's work was at odds with u.s. government interests. >> in one instance, they were working for a company called china communications construction company. and this is the company that did a lot of work building the islands in the south china sea, these artificial islands that

china is militarizing and is making the south china sea into basically what could become a chinese lake. this is, you know, very much a problem for u.s. foreign policy, for the u.s. navy. yet at the same time, mckinsey's also been doing consulting work for the pentagon and for the u.s. navy. amna: the private firm, which takes in an estimated $10 billion in revenue annually, has always been a pipeline for prestige and power, amonits alumni are transportation secretary pete buttigieg, arkansas senator tom cotton, outgoing facebook executive sheryl sandberg, and many more at the highest levels of private and public sectors in the u.s. and globally. as well as their children. mckinsey recruits heavily from the ivy league, promising not only lucrative careers, but the chance to make a difference. >> your team can take on some of the worlds challenges.

mike: this is very attractive to idealistic young students. you know, if they don't want to go work for goldman sachs, if they don't want to go work for morgan stanley, where it's all about money, here's a chance for em to work for a very prestigious organization that .hey can actually do some good that's that's the pitch, at least. unfortunately, when a lot of these students get hired by mckinsey and start working there, they're disabused of that and are often working for things that have absolutely nothing to do with these lofty goals. amna: in a statement to the newshour, mckinsey said the book, "fundamentally misrepresents their firm and their work," adding, "when we have made mistakes, we acknowledged them and made changes," including ending all tobacco-related work last year, and a new client selection policy they call "more rigorous than any other in our industry." they point to their work helping to scale up global ventilator production and covid-19 vaccines, decarbonizing power generation and carbon removal investments, and supporting refugees and rebuilding in

ukraine. and they note among their past clients is the authors' own employer, the new york times. are there more times that they live up to those values that they don't? i mean, are the stories you're reporting the exception or the rule? walt: they're the exception, but an important exception in much the same way that when the planes crash, that's an exception because most planes are safe. but it's behooves us to look into incidents where people are harmed. and that's what we're doing. we're not saying mackenzie is responsible for all the evils in the world. no, they're not. they do good things. they work for nonprofit groups, but that's the side that they want people to know about. we thought it was our responsibility to bring more accountability to this incredibly powerful company. amna: how do you hold a firm like mckinsey accountable, though? i mean, to be fair, they don't make cigarettes. they don't manufacture the opioids. how do you hold them accountable?

mike: for us as journalists? the way we would hold them accountable is to just tell the world what they do. and that's what we've been doing for years now. and i think there is more awareness now about mckinsey. and i hope this book allows more people to to read about them. -- people to read about them. >> we want people to know how this company affects their lives, how it affects their children, how it affects them and how it affects their future, and how it impacts one of the worst problems in america today, which is inequality, which is a problem that is really eating at the soul of this country. mike: you know, the billy joel song goes, you know, "we didn't start the fire" and mckenzie didn't start the fire, but they fanned the flames on so many issues that are so important to americans today, whether it's offshoring, you know, the securitization of assets that led the global financial crisis, managed care system and increasing health care costs,

the opioid epidemic, tobacco, all these issues are so important to americans. if you understand mckenzie and understand the story of mckenzie, you do understand a little bit more the story of america in the recent 70 years or so. amna: that's a story bogdanich and forsythe will continue to tell. for the pbs newshour, i'm amna nawaz in new york. ♪ judy: it's shaping up to be a busy week in politics as midterm races intensify and president biden travels to survey hurricane damage. laura barron lopez has more. laura: after visiting puerto rico today, president biden plans to travel more hurricane-damaged communities in florida later this week. meanwhile, lawmakers have left the capitol and are launching their final midterm messages in new campaign ads. to talk about the political implications of all this, i'm joined by our politics monday

duo, amy walter of the cook political report with amy walter and tamara keith of npr. thank you,adies, for joining us. president biden was in puerto rico today and is going to florida later this week and florida is poised to receive biions of dollars of disaster relief and that has led to some accusations against ron desantis d senator arco rubio, -- marco rubio, because they voted against disaster relief. is this impacting voters at all in terms of their perceptions of the republicans of florida? amy: that's right. at this moment of time, in the immediate aftermath of this hurricane and the cleanup that is going to be needed after, voters in the state are looking to governor desantis and their senators for the amount of help they can give them and they want to see their elected officials focus almost exclusively on what they can do to help, not getting in political fights or losing

their focus on what is immediately in front of them. i think on the question of whether these sorts of issues, this hypocrisy, did you vote against giving money to one part of the country while asking the country to give money to you, marco rubio was saying i voted plenty of times to give money to other communities hit natural disasters but these bills have to be clean. they cannot have add-ons. one person's add-on of course doesn't look like a clean bill and it might be somebody else's lifeline in a another district or part of -- in another district or part of the country. this is the dance that becomes challenging when trying to pass these sorts of bills in washington because what is a disaster? it may look obvious in some places and it is a little bit more challenging in others. >> we don't know yet if governor desantis and president biden

will appear together but looking at the broader midterm math, democrats are hammering the abortion rights issue across the country and abigail just launched an ad featuring a rape victim in her race. >> at the age of 17, i was raped. it was devastating. she said women cannot get pregnant from rape because it is not happening organically. that made me sick. laura: as you know, th is about defying the odds of history for democrats because typically, the party in charge of the white house loses the midterms. is this abortion rights issue giving them a chance? tamara: it is certainly something they are putting their money behind. a way to know whether a politician or a party think that a message is working is to look where that money is flowing and in the last couple of months sie the decision, it has grown as time has gone on. democrats are putting more and

more money into ads with this abortion messaging. many of their negative campaign ads about the republican opponents in particular focus on abortion rights andhey have also tried to expand it to say that this is about freedom and democratic ideals and brought into it out beyond the abortion issue. the reason they are doing this is because young voters, female voters, there are a lot of voters who are deeply concerned by the decision, by what they have seen following it. democratic campaigns are investing in this. a couple of special elections led them to believe that this is an issue that will work for them. is it enough? i don't know that it is enough to overcome all of the other fundamental challenges that democrats face in this cycle including economic concerns and just the fundamentals of a midterm when the president is in power and is not super popular, but an

analysis from data shows that about 20% of all spending right now is on these abortion-related ads from democrats. laura: speaking of the economy, that was the issue it looked like republicans would be running full steam ahead on. they are now focusing in states like wisconsin and pennsylvania along crime and immigration. in pennsylvania, the republican senate candidate there has a new ad out on drugs and crime. >> john fetterman supports decriminalizing dgerous drugs like fentanyl and heroin. federman supports creating heroin injection sites in our neighborhoods. >> federman's ideas are radical, deadly, and wrong. giving attacks easy access to drugs is not the answer. -- addicts easy access to drugs is not the answer. >> so the challenge in a place like pennsylvania for both of

the candidates, because this is an open eat, they were having to define themselves. these are two people who are not sitting incumbent. for dr. oz, his challenge, a lot of it was in the primary. a lot of conservative voters did not know anything about dr. oz. they did not trust him. he was not originally from pennsylvania. he seemed like somebody, because of what his past profession was, which was being on tv, hanging out with people like oprah, being part of the hollywood set, that maybe he was not there kind of conservative. he had to bring them back in. what he needs to do right now is pick it more towards the general election and bring in swing voters. john fetterman has done a great job up until this point of defining himself as not your sort of typical democrat, not your typical politicn. you can see he has sweatshirt and the cargo pants and the tattoos, but that is his

uniform. his record while he has been in office has been much more liberal than the state itself and it gives republicans the opportunity to cast him as out of step on this issue. throwing out the term abortion or throwing out the term crime isn't going to work in every race. not every candidate is going to be able to be easily labeled as out of step or to the extreme come out of the mainstream on those issues but some candidates, like we saw in the abortion at, have said -- ad, have said things that put them out of the mainstream. some candidates have called in the past for a decriminalization of some smaller -- small amounts of drugs. he has a record on those issues. that may play better in a place like pennsylvania than it would just bringing this issue up against another candate who

may not have any relationship with these issues. laura: federman supports decriminalizing drugs which is very different from legalization and he casts it as a public health versus prosecution issue but i want to also get to former president donald trump and something that he did on friday which was -- we covered a lot about the growing violent rhetoric among the republican party and on friday, former president trump attacked mitch mcconnell. in his post on truth social, trump's said mcconnell "has a death wish and must immediately seek help and advice from his china loving wife." today, liz cheney said that rhetoric like that can cause violence. she also called it racist. the vast majority of republicans have not condemned this. so what does this silence among the gop say about the party

today? tamara: this is pretty classic silence. when trump has tweeted things in the past, now he puts it out on truth social, he goes up to the line, crosses the line, does things and says things that put republicans in a terrible position, and then they say, i have not seen the tweet. it is a pretty standard pattern of trying to wish it away where the republican party knows that he is this powerful figure. he is the republican front runner until something changes for 2024 and he is -- endorsements are needed and he's outdoing rallies and yet he is a very difficult problem for republicans in terms of wanting to lead or being able to say we have moved on. they cannot say we have moved on. amy: totally agree with this and i think what we are going to find is the more that donald trump is in the news, the better democrats feel. laura: thank you so much for your time. judy: with that, that is the

newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, please stay safe, and we'll see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- >> for 25 years, consumer cellular's goal has been to provide cellular service. we offer a variety of plans and our customer service team can find one that fits you. to learn more, visit consumercellular.tv. ♪ >> the kendeda fund, committed to advancing restorative justice and meaningful work through investments in transformative leaders and ideas. more at candidafund.org. supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a peaceful world.

more information at 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. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.] >> this is the pbs newshour, from weta studios in washinon and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. ♪ ♪ >>

♪♪ -"cook's country" is about more than just getting dinner on the table. we're also fascinated by the people and stories behind the dishes. we go inside kitchens in every corner of the country to learn how real people cook, and we look back through time to see how history influences the way we eat today. we bring that inspiration back to our test kitchen so we can share it with you. this is "cook's country." ♪♪ today on "cook's country," ashley makes bridget seafood fra diavolo. i share the story behind the name fra diavolo. jack has tips on when to splurge at the grocery store. and christie makes salmon piccata. that's all right here on "cook's country."