judy: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the "newshour" tonight, the invasion intensifies. russia conducts missile strikes in several major ukrainian cities in response to this weend's bridge attack. then, the booster campaign. the government worries the effort to vaccinate people against newer covid 19 variants is going too slowly, as public health concerns remain. and the fight to vote. low literacy voters struggle to cast their ballots in the face of a wave of restrictive new voting laws. >> the more barriers that you put in front of people with with reading struggles, the more likely it is that they will avoid voting altogether or perhaps, you know, vote for the

wrong person. judy: 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 clorevine, and koo and patricia yuen. >> actually, you don't need vision to do most things in life. yes, i'm legally blind. and yes, i'm responsible for the user interface. data visualization. if i can see it and understand it quickly, anyone can. it is exciting to be part of a team driving the technology forward.

i think that is the most rewarding thing. >> people who know, know bdo. >> the william and flora hewlett foundation. for more than 50 years, advancing ideas and supporting institutions to prome a 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: it was one of the largest attacks across ukraine since the beginning of the war. dozens of russian ssiles struck civilian targets in multiple ukrainian cities, including the capital kyiv, which suered the worst bloodshed in months. ukraine says at least 14 people were killed and more than 100 wounded. millions of others lost electricity. the kremlin called it retaliation for a weekend explosion on a vital bridge between russia and occupied crimea. nick schifrin begins our coverage. nick: they were killed on the road, as they began their day. they were killed in their cars, as they drove to work during the morning rush hour. and they were killed next to where children once climbed. a playground of giggles, replaced by a city of sirens. around the corner, the victims.

she was too stunned to ask for help, in a park in downtown kyiv that became a center for triage. medics did the best they could to save the injured. but today's wounds didn't only pierce skin. they pierced this city's sense of safety. what were they hit by? beyond the photographers, another apparent target, the glass office building, that a russian rocket transformed into a million flying shards. after a first strike, this girl describes how her hands are shaking. until the next strike hits. also targeted, the city's icons. a bridge made of glass, designed for tourists. nats - going down into shelter @ -- the strikes drove kv underground. olena somyk and her daughter fled here from ukraine's occupied south. >> really i think because they

are -- they want to destroy our people, our infrastructure, everything. nick: ukraine's police said today's attacks did hit 70 infrtructure sites, especially the electricity grid. in total, russian missiles hit at least 19 ukrainian cities, from lviv in the west, to kharkiv in the east, to zaporizhzhia in the southeast. where a russian missile tore this apartment complex, in half. today russian president vladimir putin called the strikes a response to saturday's explosion on the only bridge linking russia with occupied crimea. putin opened it personally in 2019. it was built by a childhood friend, and symbolizes how he runs the country, and his imperial ambition. it also provides vital material to russia's war effort in southern ukraine. today, putin threatened further retaliation. >> if the attempts to carry out terrorist attacks on our territory continue, russia's responses will be tough and proportionate to the level of threats posed to the russian federation.

nick: president biden spoke to ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy by phone, and said the strikes demonstrated the war's "utter brutality." tonight zelensky accused russia of terrorism, and vowed to rebuild everything russia destroyed. >> ukraine cannot be intimidated. it will only unite more. ukraine cannot be stopped. it will only be more convinced terrorists must be neutralized. nick: ukrainians seem to keep the faith in that restoration. in the metro station turned bomb shelter, they sing a song about the spring. even if winter is coming, they believe better days could lie ahead. to discuss today's attacks, i am joined by deputy chief of staff for president zelenskyy in kyiv. thank you, welcome back to the newshour.

what is your response to this widespread attack across the country by russia? igor: it is not the first during the open warfare which they started on that fourth of february. although yes, i can admit this one note -- this was one of the most massive attacks. what is different today is the reaction of ukraine. there is no panic. nick: ukrainian officials have set almost 70 infrastructure sites were targeted, especially the electricity grid. how much damage to critical infrastructure come into the electricity grid, has there been today? igor: some damage has been made. most of the infrastructure is already well repaired. the critical infrastructure, electricity grids, thermal power plants, for the obvious ones. which yes, is testing the ground ahead of the difficult winter which is facing all of us. nick: president putin said this was a response to saturday's

explosion on the bridge, linking russia with occupied crimea. the first question is, did ukraine attack the bridge? igor: first of all, this has nothing to do with the response, because this is the first time that he hithe center of kyiv, or other cities in ukraine with missiles. this is definitely not the first time, and up the last time. i would not like to follow this russian narrative of responses and counter responses. when they are not showing that success, you start to use the instruments which the president of russia is using as of now. nick: nonetheless, did ukraine attack the bridge? igor: i don't have any information about any ukrainian attacks. but what we witnessed is something wrong is going in the

crimea occupied territory. nick: do you believe that you could have shot down more of today's russian missiles that struck ukraine if you had gotten air defenses from the west that the west has been promising for months? igor: definitely. 84 -- out of 84 russian cruise missiles which were targeted at ukraine, more than 50 were shut down. imagine if we had at least those systems, which were promised to us, by germany, by the u.s., by some other countries. definitely, we badly need immediate, now, these air defense systems. nick: ukraine has made a lot of battlefield gains over the last few days and weeks. we have talked a lot about the east, especially in harkey. what about the south? it seems ukrainian soldiers have

had more difficulty in the south approaching her song, the city, as russians are well dug in around that city. is it more difficult to achieve the success in the south than it has been in parts of the east? igor: that is partially true. yes, russian armed forces have really strongly fortified themselves in the southern region. that is the main reason. another reason is that the reign is more complicated there. the terrain, you don't have any forests or mountains or whatever. despite that, we are still having quite good success in the curse on region. nick: here in washington, as you know, there is a lot of concern about putin's possibilities for escalation, especially nuclear escalation. we heard president biden last week referred to armageddon. what is your response to that u.s. concern? igor: we share the u.s. concern.

we share the concern of president biden and special forces of the u.s. and other countries. our allies. we share the relevant information. it is important for the countries who are possessing these nuclear weapons to be united, not to allow a single country to possess nuclear weaponry, to threat and to blackmail the international community. because obviously in the case of this weapon, it would be used against ukraine, it will affect not only ukraine. each and everyone should be very serious and think and react, and prevent, and if possible, the use of this. nick: do you think president putin is bluffing? igor: i don't think at this time it is only a bluff. nick: you are concerned about pressure using a nuclear weapon in and around ukraine? igor: unfortunately, everything is possible. nick: igor zhovkva, deputy chief

of staff in president zelenskyy's office, thank you very much. igor: thank you. judy: in the day's other news, new violence erupted in iran amid anti-government protests over the death of a young woman in police custody. gunshots and explosions echoed in online video from sanandaj in the west. activists said security forces killed one man in a nearby village. elsewhere, workers at major iranian refineries joined the protests for the first time. state media in north korea say missile launches in recent days simulated the use of nuclear weapons to "hit and wipe out" south korean and u.s. targets. the north showed images of leader kim jong un watching test -- kim jong-un watching test launches. it said the tests came in reponse to joint u.s. and south korean naval drills.

hurricane julia has left at least 19 dead across central america. the storm struck nicaragua's caribbean coast early sunday. winds of 85 miles an hour and torrents of rain destroyed homes and flooded towns across nicaragua and el salvador. and it raised the threat of mudslides and even worse flooding. >> we are still very concerned with the storm, it was strong, we didn't sleep because we were on alert with the boys, trying to keep things from getting damaged. but honestly, there is not much to do against mother nature. judy: by early today, what's left of the storm crossed into the pacific and moved into guatemala. it's expected to dissipate by tomorrow. cities in northern china are imposing new restrictions after daily covid cases tripled during a week-long holiday. lockdowns began today in fehn'-yahng city and in

shayng'-see province. the capital of inner mongolia also announced restrictions starting tomorrow. back in this country, nury martinez resigned as president of the los angeles city council over racist remarks. the los angeles times had reported on a 2021 recording in which martinez made offensive comments about the black son of a white councilman. she also insulted latinos with darker skin. martinez apologized today. she did not say if she will stay on the council. former federal reserve chair ben bernanke has won a share of this year's nobel prize in economics. he was honored today alo with philip dibbvihg of washington university in st. louis and douglas diamond of the university of chicago. in the early 1980's, the three showed bank failures can trigger economic crises. bernanke says he used those findings at the fed, to fight the great recession of 2008. >> and thinking about these issues made me very determined

to do everything i could, along with my other policymakers, my colleagues, to try to prevent the financial system from melting down. because i strongly believed that if that happened, that would bring down the rest of the economy. judy: as for current conditions, bernanke said he expects inflation and interest rates to come down over time. a major u.s. railroad union has rejected a new contract with freight railroads renewing the possibility of a strike. the brotherhood of maintenance of way employees voted down a tentative deal, citing concerns about paid sick time and job losses. in all, 12 unions have to ratify the contract to prevent a strike after mid-november. and on wall street, stocks started the week on a down note. the dow jones industrial average lost 94 points to close below 29,203. the nasdaq fell 110 points, 1%, to its lowest close since july

2020. the s&p 500 slipped 27 points. still to come on the newshour, we examine the fraught nature of patrolling speech online. tamara keith and amy walter break down the latest political headlines. the university of california at berkeley repatriates cultural artifacts to a native tribe. plus much more. >> this is the pbs newshour from weta studios in washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. judy: the number of confirmed and reported covid cases in the country are at their lowest point since last spring, and that is welcome news. but the average number of daily deaths associated with covid remains high more than 350 a day. and public health experts are increasingly concerned that too

many americans are missing out on a chance to get new boosters and avoid a worse winter. john yang has the latest. john: judy, new boosters became available around labor day to protect against both the original virus and the now-dominant omicron variant. since then, according to the centers for disease control and prevention, more than 11 and a half million people in the united states have gotten one. but a kaiser family foundation tracking poll late last month, found that half of those surveyed said they had only heard a little or nothing at all about the updated boosters. so what does this mean for the coming winter? dr. peter hotez is dean of the -- is the codirector of the children's hospital for vaccine medicine and dean of the national school of tropical medicine at baylor college of medicine in houston. thank you so much for being with us, coming back on the show. we are heading into the third winter dealing with covid. but this winter, and a lot of

the precautions that had been in place previously are no longer in place, but on the other hand, a lot more people are vaccinated. what are your concerns about this winter? john: -- dr. hotez: we have a good news, not so good news story. the good news is the number of cases is starting to come down, and that is exciting. that allows us to do some things that we have not been able to do in the past. but there is some concerns. the number of cases is going up in france and the u.k. for the last two winters, when we have seen a rise in cases in the u.k. and france, guess what, we start seeing cases first pop up in the northeast and the rest of the country. i think we do have to be concerned about this winter. as you rightly point out, not enough americans are getting this new booster. here is why that is important. number one, the protection against hospitalizations does decline several months after you are out from your last booster. if you are 4, 5 months out --

away from your last booster, the protection against hospitalization can go down from 90% to 40%, 50%. we don't have all of the numbers yet. that is the way it is looking. that is issue number one. issue number two, if we do have another wave, chances are it is going to look mo like this ba.5 current variant than it does the original lineage. by getting the bivalent booster, it is going to pick up your virus neutralizing antibodies and make it more likely that you will respond to whatever variant is coming down the pike. only 11 million americans have gotten it so far, that is only 4% of those eligible. the kaiser family foundation survey says one third of amicans plan to take it. but that is not adequate either. we have a lot of work and advocacy to do over the next few weeks. john: talk about that work ahead. the kaiser family foundation also found that 51% of those surveyed said they had only heard a little or nothing about

this new vaccine. what more needs to be done to get the word out? dr. hotez: a few things. the media has not been covering covid nearly as much, and understandably. but w need to rev that back up and get the word out. we need the white house is to step up and do a press conference. not only with the covid leadership, with dr. ja and elsewhere but we need the president himself to be out there talking about the critical nature of getting boosted. unfortunately, we have this very aggressive anti-vaccine disinformation campaign that has got a lot of bandwidth. and basically trying to make the case that americans don't need the booster, which is absolutely false. that is working against us as well. finding ways to counter what i call anti-vaccine aggression, because that has killed so many americans who have refused to take a covid vaccine, that is going to be paramount. john: talk about the need for president biden to speak out to urge people to get this new

vaccine. the president also said the pandemic is over. once the effect of that -- what is the effect of that on the public health standpoint, on getting people to get the booster? dr. hotez: when the president said that on sunday night on 60 minutes a couple weeks ago, that was kind were gay. that is exactly what you do not want to be saying when you are trying to get the nation to take their booster, take this brand-new bivalent booster. not only that, the other problem is our kids are not getting vaccinated. only one third of kids five to 11 are getting there covid vaccine. we are also underperforming on influenza immunization. one other really important point i have had discussions with the white house about is not enough seniors who do have breakthrough infections are getting paxlovid. the interns are not prescribing paxlovid as much as they should be. that is critically important, because so far, seniors have

gotten paxlovid, the mortality rate is way down. we have got to get those three messages out. get the bivalent booster, get your kids vaccinated, and take paxlovid if you are fortunate -- unfortunate enough to have breakthrough covid. those are the three most impactful things you can do to keep yourself and family safe, for what is likely to be potentially a very serious wave coming this winter. john: why do you think paxlovid, the antiviral medication, is not being prescribed as much? dr. hotez: it could be that -- there is a few things. one is the reality that there are a lot of drug interactions. internists -- often have to request patients stop their ongoing medication for a few days while taking it. that is complex. second, sometimes, it is covid-19 when it does because a breakthrough infection is not serious immediately, but then it

snowballs on you so you get caught flat-footed. and then, not enough information is out there in the medical community about how this is like saving, even if you have been vaccinated before. unfortunately, there is still this buzz out there that is erroneous, that tries to make the case that may omicron is not as serious as previous virus lineages. it is not the case. if you are under vaccinated, you are at high risk of getting hospitalize from homework -- from omicron and new subvariants. john: class question, we have seen the flu seasonal -- the seasonal flu come back in a big way that it had not been doing the past two years. how big of a complication is that going to be? dr. hotez: absolutely. this is likely because people have not been together, they have been social distancing the last few years and wearing masks. . the flee is way down. now it is in the southern hemisphere. it is coming back with a vengeance over the summer and fall. that sometimes as a predictor of what it will look like in the northern hemisphere.

many of us are predicting a severe flu season. the point is when you get your covid bivalent booster, which you should do asap, by the way, ask the pharmacist to get the flu vaccine in the other arm, now is the time to do it. now it flu activity is starting to rise. . where i am in texas, and in the seven united states. the whole country is going to be lit up, in terms of the flu map, as well as covid over the winter. john: dr. peter hotez, thank you very much. dr. hotez: thank you. ♪ judy: there are questions once again about the future of the social media platform twitter and what it should and should not allow online. specifically, how far should the company go when it comes to permitting free speech? what should be taken down when it comes misinformation? and does the company adequately guard against hate-mongering

speech? william brangham explores some of those questions. william: judy, elon musk's pending ownership of twitter has been driving a lot of these questions recently. musk has said he wants to overturn some of twitter's moderation policies, and allow some suspended users like former president trump to return to the platform. but what is acceptable, and what isn't, and who gets to decide? for example, over the weekend, ye, the artist formerly known as kanye west tweeted a now-deleted antisemeitic comment. his twitter account was locked for violating twitter's policies. will these kinds of bans and blocks continue under new leadership? for more on this, i am joined by charlie wars out, he is the author of the atlantic newsletter "galaxy brain" where he writes about technology, media and politics. what do you make of this kanye west episode? is it that pretty clear cut case

of hateful rhetoric or does it, in your mind, underscore some of e larger issues here? charlie: well, i think it's a great example of some of the policies that twitter has put into place since around 2017. around content moderation around its own rules and code of conduct in terms of use. this is twitter enforcing it rather quickly. i think there is a large consensus that you know that he overstepped the boundaries of what twitter deems as acceptable speech, and they took action. but i think in his broader -- in this broader context, you are looking at the difficulty and the spotlight of content moderation on big platforms like twitter, big social networks. you're not just going to have, you know, trolls harassing people, you're going to have these huge power users who, you know, are in the middle of our public and cultural spotlight,

trying to either press the boundaries or saying, you know, patently unacceptable things and there's going to be all this pressure. so it sort of speaks to the way that these content moderation conversations are not academic. they are real. they are happening all the time. and the stakes are high. william: a lot of the critics of the social media companies, twitter included, argue one that conservatives are discriminated against and that two, the policies are policed in a somewhat willy-nilly fashion. i mean, for example, kanye west gets booted for anti semitism, but the iranian government's twitter account which regularly spouts anti semitism is is alive and well. is there a good faith argument to be made that these policies either -- policies are either discriminatory or not really working currently? charlie: well, i think they're always very difficult to enforce. the hardest part about content moderation is moderating at scale. and there's always going to be lots of pressures from outside organizations.

and content moderation is, even though we don't like to talk about it this way, it frequently does have ideological components to it. and that's what makes it difficult. it is part of this political conversation. i do want to say, ough, to push back a little, you know, there's this idea that it is content moderation has harmed conservatives, or is unfairly biased towards conservatives, i want to be very clear that, a lot of the work looking into this and looking into the enforcement also shows that conservative politicians and shock jocks and potential candidates are pushing the boundaries a lot more with what is acceptable spch. they are the ones who are trying to draw big tech companies into the spirit because in all honesty, a lot of times, getting their content moderated by a big tech company, is almost the goal, because then they could say they've been censored. it's very good for their sort of culture war. william: right.

it's that "i'm going to work the refs" as much as i possibly can. i mean, let's say that musk does take over twitter and does loosen some of the rains. you touched on this earlier. but do you think a more loose and open twitter is a net positive, net negative for our body politic? charlie: well, i want to i want to be clear that we have seen so far from elon musk is incredibly shallow idea of what content moderation is. and just the challenge of it. back last april when he was floating this idea, he spoke with a couple of people he gave -- he gave a ted talk in vancouver. and he was floating these ideas that have either already been tried by twitter, or ideas that, people who have tried them have realized patently don't work. he seems to be sort of coming at this issue, the way that a lot of the tech platform founders

came at it back in 2004, 2005, 2006. this really permissive idea of speech that didn't really take into account the fact that you know, you're going to be dealing with political entities. you might be dealing with terroristic entities. you might be dealing with you know, inauthentic, bot campaigns. there is just so much to this. and he's sort of coming at it sort of wide eyed and very confidently saying i've had a lot of success in one realm of the tech industry and surely it will translate into this realm and i don't think that's true. william: are there good examples, when you look out there on the landscape of social media platforms, that you think do a good job of both keeping a healthy debate going while keeping the hateful, awful stuff at bay? charlie: i think reddit is a platform that initially really struggled with their sense of moderation, but has found a good middle ground. they have community moderators who sort of keep their communities in check and set

their own standards. and then read it -- and then r eddit will come in, if things get out of hand or if a communities you know, hateful rhetoric is spreads to another community. they have done a lot of work kicking off communities that are toxic, and i think this is an important about the internet, point. which is that every community, every forum whether large or small, relies on moderators, they set the standards for discourse there and they make it a space that people want to be in. william: charlie warzel writes "the galaxy brain" newsletter, thank you so much for being here. charlie: thanks for having me. ♪ judy: as americans begin to cast ballots in the midterms, voters who struggle to read will confront an election system that relies on literacy. experts estimate that roughly 1 in five americans, including those with disabilities and who have not learned english, struggle to read in this

country. laura baran lopez has more. laura: literacy tests targeting black voters have long been part of america's history, though no longer legal, new voting restrictions implemented since 2020 are creating new barriers to the ballot box for voters with low literacy. aliya swaby is a reporr with propublica south unit, whose article entitled the fight against an age old effort to block americans from voting, dives into these new laws and she joins me now. requiring literacy tests to vote are illegal now. but are these new laws limiting access to the ballot effectively modern day literacy tests? aliyya: that's exactly right. so these new laws are limiting the assistance that voters who struggle to read can receive at the ballot box. and that assistance is really crucial for them to be able to vote and also for them to be able to vote correctly and for

the candidate that they actually want to vote for. laura: i want to break down some of those laws further. florida passed one that extended "no solicitation zones outside voting precincts to 150 feet." texas now requires more paperwork for those assisting voters and increases penalties for helping voters who don't meet certain qualifications. georgia now restricts who can send and return absentee ballots, cutting absentee voting time windows. and arizona imposed a shorter time window to fix a ballot if it's missing a signature from five days after the election date to election day. so can you explain for us how these laws are creatg obstacles for people who struggle to read? aliyya: [16:39:19]experts have -- aliyya: experts have told us basically that any laws that limit assistance are laws that could impact or deter a vote who struggles to read. the more barriers that you put in front of people with with

reading struggles, the more likely it is that they will avoid voting altogether or perhaps vote for the wrong person. some of these these laws in in limiting assistance also make it harder for someone to get help actually reading the ballot. and if you think about it, for someone who doesn't struggle to read, it's an easy process. but everything in the process of voting basically involves reading. laura: i also wanted to ask you, how are low literacy voters preparing for this year's elections? aliyya: i think there are very few resources that are available that actually specifically focus on voters with reading struggles. there is one in particular, we interviewed a woman who runs who helps to run it named faye holmes, who is based in california. and she struggled to read until her 40's.

and now she works for an organization called keys to community that helps people with reading struggles, understand the voting process better. and so if you if you live in a place where those resources exist, you can prepare and move forward with the resources you need. but i think otherwise, it's a challenge. you know, i think a lot of people are might be staying at home and not voting at all. laura: there was a subject of your article, olivia coley pearson, who is from coffee county, georgia. georgia is a swing state. she was charged twice for assisting people who have difficulty reading and assisting them when they voted. can you tell me what happened to her case? aliyya: a lot of the people that she helps are afraid to vote. they see what happened to her and they see it as well if you are a city commissioner who has been criminally charged for using this this legal right to to help people to vote, what is going to happen to me as someone who is not in a position of power, someone who struggles to

read, will i be criminally charged as well? will i be getting in trouble for exercising this legal right? and olivia pearson has been trying to convince them that, you still should be exercising this. but as you can understand, it's a challenge. in south georgia. and it is a challenge across the country. laura: your analysis shows that "if low literacy counties had turnout similar to high literacy counties, they could have added up to about 7 million votes to the national total." aliyya: that's a really poignant piece of information to think about when we think about the impact of voter suppression on voter turnout and the fact that that many votes could potentially be recovered. it means that there's there's a significant change that could potentially be made by allowing more people to be able to exercise their right to vote. laura: we will be tracking these

new election laws closely and the impact of them. alicia swaby, thank you so much for your time. aliyya: thank you. judy: with just four weeks until election day, one republican senator is drawing fierce condemnation for racist rhetoric. and president biden is gearing up for a trip out west making his pitch to voters and owners in the final campaign stretch. for analysis of it all, i am joined as we are each monday by amy walter of the cook political report with amy walter, and tamera keith of npr. hello to both of you. in case you have not checked the calendar, to -- after tomorrow, four weeks until election day, november 8. >> i was not paying attention at all. ank you. judy: i know you weren't. because of that, we went to mark this occasion i asking each one

of you where does this race stand? the republicans have been confident that they will pick up the house. the senate and the balance. what does it look like? amy: this looks like typical midterm election. you have a president where that president's party has the house in the senate. it is hard to keep those traditionally. the president, not particularly popular. that usually draws the party down. and the party does lose seats in the house and senate, probably uses the senate and house. exec. we are noticing this year is that it is not just all about joe biden and democrats. it is also about the former president, donald trump, and it is about the historic decision this june made by the supreme court to overturn the roe v. wade decision. the way i talk about this is, it is as if the winds are still blowing at republicans backs.

it is not that the winds change directions. it is not that we went from an election that is bad for democrats to win that is great. the wind is not quite as strong at the backs of republicans, or interface of democrats. thanks in part to the fact that we are talking a lot about issues like abortion, donald trump, that motivate the democratic base, and the fact that republicans nominated a number of candidates, especially at the senate level, who are very flawed. and structurally, democrats, in the senate but also in the house, there are not that many very difficult, vulnerable seats. that has also helped democrats. i still give republicans the advantage. but it is just not as significant as it was earlier in the year, or even before the summer. judy: what would you add to that? tamara: i think i have said this before, but if you go back a few

months. before the dobbs decision on abortion, all of the signals were pointing in one direction. those signals were all pointing it to it being a difficult year for democrats. since then, there are a lot of mixed signals. where democrats are having pretty good fundraising. where republicans are facing these challenges with candidates, for instance. and a republican i spoke with who is working to get republicans elected in the house, a top-level person, said the dobbs decision absolutely has made a difference, because in swing disc -- swing districts, voters tend to be pro-choice. however, he also added that they also still really care and rank as high on their list of issues the economy and crime. and you see republicans hammering the message of crime. judy: no question. i just came back from wisconsin where you see that all over the airwaves.

you brought up, -- whatever you brought up, it makes me want to ask you, tam, about the fact that president biden is hittg the campaign trail. he is making a swing this week out west. what is behind that? tamara: i will say that we were expecting the president's travel schedule to really kick into gear earlier this year. and he had a covid, and things got delayed, and he had rebound covid. the travel has been slow to get going. but that is not the only thing affecting this travel schedule. there are not a lot of places where he can go and stand side-by-side with one of the democratic candidates, and actually help. what we have seen a lot of, and we will see with this coming west coast swing, is that he is doing a lot of closed-door fundraisers where there are not cameras in the room, where he is able to meet with democratic donors, raising a lot of money, and as i said, democratic

fundraising is doing pretty darn well. he has a fundraiser with nancy pelosi in los angeles later this week, with the democratic congressional campaign committee. what we don't know is whether he will be appearing with candidates in california who are in difficult races, whether he will be appearing with a candidate in oregon who is having a difficult race. he is going to colorado where the senate races closer than people were expecting. amy: this is another interesting thing about this election. so many democrats that tam mentioned, part of the reason they are in competitive races, that they are not falling behind, republicans, is that they areolling better than the president in these districts. normally, what you see is a president with approval ratings as low as this president really does drag. it is like an anchor pulling down the candidates of that president's party. in this case, they have been

able to rise above it. applicants still believe if they can -- they have a month more to go to try to link democratic candidates with the president to try to pull them closer together. but it is a reason why these democratic candidates don't want to give the president time in their state on a rally stage where they are actually able to make that direct link. like see, this person is a biden democrat. judy: the other person who has been out on the trail is the former president, donald trump. he was in nevada this weekend, and so was the president -- the senator for alabama, tommy tuberville who has bn criticized before now for escalating rhetoric on crime, tying it to race. here is what he said this weekend. sen. tuberville: some people say they are soft on crime. no, they are pro-crime. they want crime. they want crime because they

want to take over what you've got. . they want to control what you have. they want reparation because they think the people that do the crime are owed that. judy: he is talking about democrats and clearly referring to black americans. tamara: indeed. there is no getting around the fact that that is a racist statement. the idea that only black people commit crime, or something. which is patently untrue. just very much untrue. but what i will say is that the republican effort to tie democrats to crime, to say that democrats want crime or are soft on crime, want to lenience on criminals, that is very much on message with the republican campaigns. there is a huge amount of spending on crime related advertising. priority -- they are tracking ad

spending, digital ad spending, from both parties. what they told me this week is that 70% of the digital ads, these are targeted ads being running, are about crime on the republican side. only 15% about the economy. if you want to know where they think their winning messages, look at where they are spending their money. judy: a statement like this, does it make a difference in how people vote? amy: this is at a rally with folks who are firm, true believers of donald trump. i also think we are living in a time where the consequences for what would have been considered outrageous behavior don't come to pass. that we have candidates saying and doing things that, again, in previous years, either voters would have kicked them out, or the party leadership would have said, that's not ok. we don't do that. there is no reason for folks to not do that, because actually,

the incentive structure now rewards people who are the most outrageous, say the most outrageous things, and i think it goes back to 2016. so many politicians look at donald trump and say, he won after the access hollywood tape. if he can do that, so can i, so can that person. it is up to voters to say, actually, i know i am tied to my party, i know maybe i don't like the other party very much, i can ke a difference here by saying, i'm not going to stick with my party, and i'm going to go choose the other side. judy: i think it is important for us to point to these statements when they take place. it reminds them what kind of discussions are happening out there. amy walter, tamera keith, thank you both. ♪ judy: the looting and excavation

of -- excavating of native american grades and sites. the collecting, studying and exhibiting of human remains and sacred objects. this has been a source of bitter relations between many american cultural institutions and native tribes, even as laws and practices have begun to change. jeffrey brown reports from berkeley, california, for our arts and culture series, canvas. >> we start off with our most traditional food, which is black oak acorn soup. jeffrey: it was a meal of the past. >> this is a food that has sustained our ohlone people for thousands upon thousands of years. jeffrey: and present. >> cowgirl creamery triple-cream cheese. jeffrey: this was a special gathering of the new "cafe ohl one" just outside the anthropology museum at the university of california,

berkeley. the space is now called "ottoy" which means "to amend or repair" in the chochenyo language, and this was a celebration for co-founder vincent medina and other members of his ohlone tribe. but also something more. >> when i was a child, i remember first hearing about our ancestors that were being held here at this university. jeffrey: just days before, medina spoke of the deep historical trauma that gives the location of his new cafe such meaning now. >> i remember there was an elder that was there who was just pointing her finger. i could never forget that. and she said that the university of california, berkeley, is holding onto thousands of our ancestors that they had removed from their cemeteries. jeffrey: the actual remains. >> yes. and i remember that elder told me, i must have been 10 or 11 years old at the time, and she said, there is nothing that we could do about it right now. jeffrey: recent dna studies suggest ohlone people have lived in what is now the san francisco bay area for at least 2000 years

, part of a long history of once-thriving california tribes decimated and marked by genocide, discrimnation and -- discrimination and exclusion. the university sitting on ohlone land, is part of that history too. like research institutions elsewhere, it's scholars such as famed anthropologist alfred kroeber, long collected, studied and exhibited native remains and artifacts. >> it was kind of routine professional practice. but they only took certain people. they weren't taking -- there's not large collections of early pioneers. there's sort of this collection of people from marginalized communities. the disenfranchised. it is part of a larger context of scientific racism in the field and in many fields in biomedicine and in anthropology. jeffrey: sabrina agarwal is a bio-archeologist and professor of anthropology at berkeley. she studied and trained under the old system, but is now part

of a new movement in her field which she refers to as restorative justice. >> you have to change professional practice and institutional policies and process, which is what we have done. jeffrey: the native american graves and protection and repatriation act, or nagpra, was signed into federal law in 1990, to govern the handling and, in many cases, return of human remains, sacred objects and other cultural patrimony. but it applies only to federally-recognized tribes, leaving out many smaller ones. california has had its own version on the books since 2001. but native tribes have long complained of being ignored and confronted with barriers. what items count as sacred, for example, into decides? -- and who decides? and of scientific scholarship being privileged over tribal knowledge, which was often passed down in an oral tradition. ohlone elder andrew galvan, who himself became a curator at aold

-- at old mission dolores in san francisco, has fought this system for decades. >> over time, i did find some researchers that were very honest and very sincere. and yes, there can be many things that i learned from research. but the way the collections were treated, the way they were stored. whereas, nothing against students, but a 19-year-old undergrad could have access to the skeletal remains of our ancestors for his or her research, and we couldn't even see them. jeffrey: as recently as 2020, a california nagpra audit strongly criticized uc berkeley, even as compared with other california universities, for failing to return many of the thousands of items it continues to hold. including remains in storage cabinets on campus. but change is now happening. one small sign, under new collection guidelines, we were not permitted to show the physical holdings, as we might

have in the past. sabrina agarwal, who now heads berkeley's nagpra campus committee, charged with implementing the law, adds this. >> i think we have had a shift in realizing we are not the experts. it is the people whose history that we are interested in, which are the experts. and if they are still alive they are the pple we need to learn from and listen to. jeffrey: one notable repatriation occurred earlier this year. the return of remains of at least 20 members of the northern california wiyot tribe, victims of an 1860 massacre. ted hernandez is the tribea™s -- the tribe's historic preservation officer. >> it was important, because to have our ancestors in boxes where they did not belong, and we knew they were from the massacre, that they needed to come home and they need to be with their families in the sacred sites that we keep secret for the tribe.

your family is not connected unless you are altogether. in our culture, family is you need -- is unity. that's what keeps us strong, that's what keeps us bonded together. jeffrey: a large storage facility near berkeleya™s campus contains thousands of native artifacts still to be resolved. now classified as sacred, the university no longer displays them publicly. we were given permission by the wiyot tribe to film these baskets. after the critical 2020 audit, tom torma, a non-native who previously worked with the wiyot tribe to get its remains returned from berkeley, was hired by the university to hel it facilit ate future returns for all tribes. he has been on both, once opposing sides. now he believes working together. >>hat's a real sea change, that active encouragement and actively seeking to repatriate. my mandate from the university is to get all the ancestors home. as opposed to "keep as many as

we can." and that is a massive seachange. jeffrey: some, like andrew galvan, remain skeptical. >> it still to me feels just the same, lipservice. we want to give you these things back, but we can't. because. jeffrey: it still feels that way. >> it still feels that way. jeffrey: by all accounts, the process is just beginning. last year, alfred kroeber's name was removed from the anthropology building. one symbolic gesture. another, perhaps, the new cafe next door. but for co-founder vincent medina, who also now works with the university as an outside meer of its repatriation committee, symbolic change is important too. >> what its going to be doing right here on campus is to be a constant reminder that the ohlone people, that we are still here. that our culture is beautiful, that our culture is valuable. that it is not something of the past, it is something of the present as well.

jeffrey: for the pbs newshour, i am jeffrey brown on the campus of the university of california, berkeley. judy: so important to understand that this is going on. thank you. on the newshour online right now, more than half of the fifty u.s. states require voters to register before election day. you can find the final registration deadline for your state and learn more on our instagram account. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us on-line 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 wireless service to help people communicate and connect. we offer a variety of no contract plans and our u.s.-based customer service team can help find one that fits you. to learn more, visit consumercellular.tv. >> the kendeda fund.

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