amna: good evening. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett. former president donald trump travels to new york ahead of his tuesday arraignment in a hush money case as is other legal trouble summer. amna: a pro-russian blogger who is outspoken in his hostility toward ukraine is assassinated in a st. petersburg cafe. geoff: wisconsin voters prepare to decide the balance of power of the state supreme court in a sharply divded election with national implications. >> in the last decade or so, wisconsin has felt like it is the ground zero for a lot of the issues that we have in american politics.

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working for solutions to protect water during climate change so people and nature can thrive together. soup did the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at mac found.org. and with the ongoing support of these institutions. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and i contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. geoff: welcome to the newshour. in what will be an historic 24 hours, former president donald trump has returned to new york city ahead of his first appearance in a manhattan courtroom tomorrow. amna: mr. trump has been indicted on multiple charges connected to hush money payments

he allegedly made ahead of the 2016 election. to shed light on what comes next, i'm here with our white house correspondent laura barron-lopez. good to see you. it is historic. it is unprecedented, the first former president in the u.s. to be indicted. a what do we expect to see tomorrow? laura: tonight, he will be staying at trump tower and tomorrow and he heads to the courthouse, he will be booked, finger printed. we don't know if there is going to be a mug shot. there's a possibility there. immediately after that, rather than being held in a cell which is typical for someone being indicted, he will be transported to the courtroom and then the indictment will be unsealed and the charges will be read to him and everyone in the courtroom. what don't know is if media outlets are going to get access to that courtroom as it is going on. if not, what we can expect is for the indictment to made -- to be made public once the former president is in that courtroom.

amna: we know mr. trump has called on his supporters if he is indicted. laura: we are expecting some protests because congress one marjorie taylor greene, a self-described christian nationalist, who has downplayed the violence of the january 6 insurrection has called on followers to join her across from the courthouse to protest this indictment and support the former president. the new york city mayor, eric adams, had this warning today for her. >> have no specific threats, people like marjorie taylor greene, who is known to spread misinformation and hate speech, she stated she is coming to town. while you are in town, be on your best behavior. laura: in addition to that, the commissioner for the police department said right now there are no credible or specific threats to the city, but that they are on alert and working with national and local law

enforcement. in addition to that, tomorrow, we are expecting the former president to return to mar-a-lago and give some remarks after he is arraigned. amna: we should be specific and clear -- this is one investigation into former president trump. there are other ongoing investigations that could come with charges of their own. remind us the details of those. laura: in addition to this investigation -- first, let's count this investigation -- the manhattan district attorney's investigation to hush money payments allegedly made to adult film star stormy daniels. there is a fulton county investigation in georgia into election interference in 2020. the department of justice special counsel is investigating the january 6 insurrection and the former president potential efforts to overturn the 2020 election there. and then the special counsel in the justice department is investigating the classified documents that were found at mar-a-lago. we should note the wall street journal -- i'm sorry, the

washington post reported that justice department has found more evidence of possible obstruction by trump. but we are talking about their's actions the former president took to potentially block the return of these classified documents. another thing we are watching in regards to the men has to it -- manhattan district attorney investigation is when we see the charges tomorrow, whether or not the manhattan d.a. is going to be totally focused on the payments made to stormy daniels or also to playboy model karen mcdougal. amna: a lot we don't yet know. we will watch and report as we do. thank you. geoff: in the day's other headlines: the death toll has reached at least 32 in an onslaught of tornadoes that struck the south, midwest and the mid-atlantic

over the weekend. aerials from little rock, arkansas show the wide extent of the damage from a friday night storm. tornadoes destroyed homes and businesses in 11 states -- as far east as delaware. enter officials say they are still analyzing whether a chinese spy balloon sent intelligence back to beijing in early february. reports today said the balloon made repeated passes over military sites on the u.s. mainland and transmitted data in real-time. a pentagon official did not directly confirm or deny the accounts. >> i think what we said at the very beginning still holds true to today. as soon as we realized that they were collecting intelligence and hovering over our sensitive sites, we took measures and put into place measures that limited the additive value that the balloon could collect on. geoff: the balloon was eventually shot down off the u.s. atlantic coast. the fbi is examining sensors recovered from the wreckage. workers at the passport office

in britain launched a five-week strike today -- demanding better pay amid surging inflation. about a thousand pople walked off the job as travelers prepare for the busy summer travel season. it's the latest in a string of public sector strikes across the u.k. in paris, the wheels have come off a popular transit option. parisians voted overwhelmingly on sunday to ban rented e-scooters. commuters and tourists have been able to pick up the scooters and drop them off anywhere. but city officials say they've become a nuisance and have caused hundreds of accidents. back in this country, nasa named the four astronauts slated to fly around the room sometime next year. the crew includes the first woman in first person of color to go on a lunar mission. the three americans and one canadian were introduced to the public today in houston. their mission will be nasa's first crude voyage to the moon and more than 50 years. >> we need to celebrate this moment in human history, because

artemis ii is more than a mission to the moon and back. it's more than a mission that has to happen before we send people to the surface of the moon. it is the next step on the journey that gets humanity to mars. geoff: president biden called the four crew members on sunday and thanked them f their service. the artemis program aims to land them on the lunar surface as early as 2025. a potentially ground-breaking lawsuit is going forward against a college campus shutdown during the pandemic. a federal judge has now ruled that a student suit against the university of delaware will be a class action. more than 17,000 undergraduates were enrolled at the school when in-person classes were halted 3 years ago. the students want partial refunds of tuition. the price of oil spiked 5.5% today after saudi arabia and other producers announced plans to scale back output. they say the cut of more than a million barrels a day will begin in may. white house officials say they

opposed the move -- and made that clear to the saudis. on wall street -- those higher oil prices boosted energy stocks and offset losses in tech shares. the dow jones industrial average gained 327 points, 1%, to close at 33,601. the nasdaq fell 32 points. the s&p 500 added 15. and, louisana state university celebrated today after winning its first ncaa women's basketball champshiohip. the tigers and their coach kim mulkey claimed the title sunday in dallas, beating iowa, 102 to 85. angel reese was named the most outstanding player. still to come on the "newshour" -- chicago sees record early voter turnout ahead of a contentious runoff election for mayor the former president of iraq reflects on the u.s. invasion twenty years later a new exhibit by artist kehinde wiley focuses on grief and asks "whose lives have value."

>> this is the pbs newshour from w eta studios in washington and in the less from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. amna: it's the highest profile killing of a supporter of russia's war in ukraine. this weekend a pro-war blogger died in an explosion at a cafe in st. petersburg. russian authorities blamed ukraine and have arrested an anti-war activist, but as nick schifrin reports, the cafe's owner, a well known putin ally. says the plot is thicker. >> in front of his own photo, vladern tatarsky accepted his trojan horse - a bust of himself. moments after this was filmed, the bust exploded, and destroyed the cafe leaving his dead body, and a mangled mess. tatarsky was a well known blogger and advocate for russia's war in ukraine. he was actually ukrainian born, a furniture maker turned convicted bank robber turned ultranationalist influencer

who's shown off the kremlin to his 560,000 followers. >> we will defeat everyone, we will kill everyone, we will rob everyone we need, everything will be as we like. >> russia blamed this woman - anti-war activist darya trepova, who brought the bust to the cafe, in video posted by a russian news outlet. russian authorities accused her of acting on behalf of ukrainian intelligence. but the cafe's owner, begs to differ. yevegeny prigozhin was once known as putin's chef, who owned a catering service, that catered to the kremlin. but he's emerged from the shadows to help fund and fuel the war, as the chief financier of the wagner paramilitary group. he personally recruited tens of thousands of soldiers, many from russian prisons, and sent them into hell. bakhmut once had a population of 75,000. today, russia destroyed it, and called it victory. wagner has lead the fighting --

and dying. prigozhin posted this photo. the us says more than 30-thousand wagner soldiers have been wound or killed. last night prigozhin posted this video and claimed wagner seized bakhmut's center. the flag, says to the memory of vladern tatarsky. prigozhin, like tatarsky, is a pardoned former convict who became a prominent ultranationalist. and prigozhin had given his cafe to tatarsky's group. but today prigozhin posted an audio message, saying the explosion, wasn't caused by ukraine's government. >> i would notlame the kyiv regime for these actions. i think there is a group of radicals who hardly have any connections to the government. >> some russian government officials claimed the woman arrested in tatarsky's death worked with russian opposition leader aleksei navalny's organization; he is currently in russiaprison. neither navalny nor his group have ever had any connection to violence in russia. to explore the implications of the bombing, we turn to candace rondeaux, a senior director at

new america, a washington dc based think tank. she's written extensively about the wagner group, and it's leader yevgeny prigozhin. welcome to the newshour. think you very much. tell us more about who this was and why his death is significant. guest: he was probably one of the most prolific pro-russian military bloggers on the social media channels popular with russian speakers. he had a huge following, sometime around 2017, 2018, he became popular for starting a social mediaertical called reverse cyber metal, which is basically a mouthpiece and soapbox for somof the most extreme ultranationalist element of russia's right. in particular, it is a cultural hub for the waggoner group and russian mercenaries and soldiers

of fortune. >> fast-forward to the full-scale invasion and he's one of the most prominent bloggers not only advocating for the war but pushing the military and government for more work. guest: one thing to understand about tarski and the river side of the metal isob number one is to stoke passion for war. job number two was to make sure that passion could be converted in the mobilization of forces the sly, on the stealth. he succeeded in doing that by selling the wagoner group rand, stealth -- wagoner group band -- brand. masked men doing daring things in don boss. he did that very well by cultivating relationships with real-world wagner group

fighters, doing short videos and basically grew the brand through that social media channel. also in st. petersburg, he was becoming a cafe influencer. that is why the street food number one restaurant was hit, essentially he had given it as a headquarters for this cultural move of ultranationalist, pro-war sentiment to be mobilized not just on media channels but in real life. >> this wasn't only his cafe, this was a neighborhood scene as his tf. how much of ts is about sending a message? guest: that restaurant is just five blocks, not even, three blocks from his high style restaurant called the old customs house. it was a big mafia hang out, a big hang out for vladimir putin back in the day when he was deputy mayor in st. petersburg. that whole block, that whole

little area where this bombing occurred has been basically his turf and headquarters for the better part of 30 years now. striking there sends a message not just to him but the people involved in his business enterprises that they better stay on watch. >> you think out how long he has be with them but he's recently been fighting with the defense minister and equivalent of his chief of staff. he's a clues -- accuse them of killing wagner soldiers in ukraine and there's other gap between what prigozhin is saying and the kremlin talking points. guest: it is hard to determine how much is theater and how much israel, but it has been clear over the last nine months or so, since the battle of buck mood began in ukraine, he finds

himself at the front lines of a meatgrinder. there's been a lot of complaints about shell hunger -- not enough ammunition, not enough shells to go around for the artillery required to beat back the ukrainian counter offensive. he has become increasingly louder and louder and he has had the backing of hundreds of thousands of followers on channels like the one tart tarski use to run. that has given him a sense of confidence. he's biting the hand that feeds them. at the same time, he also seems to have a political strategy. one in which he understands the minute the battle falls one way or the other, his utility politically and militarily is vastly diminished. so, in a way, the p caulking that you see online, the constant stream of invective,

all of that is part of a larger design to insulate himself from the potential he becomes expendable. but i think this message today with the bombing is you are expendable mr. prigozhin and you should be on watch. >> thank you very much. geoff: tomorrow, voters in wisconsin will decide the balance of the state supreme court in the most expensive judicial election in history. judy woodruff recently traveled to wisconsin to see how the state's sharp political divides are shaping what could be the most important election of 2023. it's part of her series "america at a crossroads". judy: after a long winter, small signs of spring in the upper midwest. but as wisconsin thaws, the

bitter winds of politics are again sweeping the badger state. this time around, though, the race isn't for congress, goveor, or the presidency. it's for the state supreme court. this election is officially nonpartisan: neither of the candidates has a 'd' or and 'r' next to their name on the ballot. but given the deep divide here and the state supreme court's likely role in deciding the future of everything from abortion rights to redistricting to election laws in wisconsin voter interest is high and politics have been infused from the start. >> we cannot take our foot off the pedal for a second! judy: the election pits liberal milwaukee county judge janet protasiewicz >> she's a threat to our liberties. judy: against a former state supreme court justice who lost reelection in 2020.

tomorrow's winner could cast the tie-breaking vote on an evenly split court. i'm judy woodruff. so i wanted to hear from voters in this sharply divided state, at a time of growing partisanship -- not just here, but in courts across the country. >> we've never seen anything quite like this. judy: charlie sykes is a longtime political commentator in wisconsin. once a conservative talk sho host, he founded the center-right news and opinion site, “the bulwark.” >> good morning, welcome to the bulwark podcast, it is monday. i think that in the last decade or so, wisconsin has felt like it is the ground zero for a lot of the issues that we have in american politics. and maybe the polarization that we see nationally was was foreshadowed here in wisconsin. >> it's really scary because there's so much on the line. judy: 25-year-old sydney lee has lived in milwaukee her whole life. she's been canvassing and making

calls in support of protasiewicz. >> we have a lot of issues that are becoming partisan, but really they're human issues. and human issues should never be a partisan thing. and because it is so polarizing, we need somebody who's equitable and janet is equitable. judy: among those 'human' issues, lee says, are lgbtq and abortion rights especially after the u.s. supreme court's overturning of roe v. wade last year. >> i'm a black queer woman and i want to make sure that i can marry who i want to marry one day. i want to make sure that if i need to have an abortion or if i need a medical procedure, that i shouldn't need clearance for it to do something that's for my choice of my body. like i should be able to make decisions for myself. judy: what does your future look like if justice kelly is the winner, what does your future look like? >> it looks like me moving. judy: while protasiewicz hasn't

declared how she'd rule if wisconsin's 1849 ban on abortion made its way to the state's high court, she has been clear on what she calls her “values.” >> that should be the woman's right to make the reproductive health decision. if my opponent is elected, i can tell you with 100% certainty that 1849 abortion ban will stay on the books. judy: kelly has downplayed his own past statements opposing abortion and the endorsements he's received from anti-abortion groups. instead he criticizes his opponent for openly discussing her views. >> this is the problem that you have when you have a candidate who does nothing but talk about her personal politics. >> judges who put their own agenda above the law. judy: kelly and his supporters have also tried to paint protasiewicz as weak on crime, for sentences she handed down as a judge in milwaukee county. >> a long history of letting dangerous criminals back into our streets, directl undermining the work of our officers and putting your family at risk.

judy: that charge, which protasiewicz disputes, has influenced retired milwaukee police officer gary post to vote for kelly. >> definitely there should be leniency. however, what i have seen far too much is where i've seen violent persons who are living a lifestyle over many, many years and sometimes decades of violence. that has to be addressed. >> our country is going into such a liberal pathway that it's almost gone too far. and i think we need to kind of steer more into the midline of things. and i think that janet protasiewicz is more of a liberal passing it, it would be -- judy: but protasiewicz has called dan kelly extreme, criticizing his work for the republican party and his role in a fake electors scheme after president trump lost wisconsin in 2020.

>> kelly advised trump operatives as special counsel to overturn the will of the people . judy: the race has already drawn record-breaking millions in ad spending. >> this is one of those cases where the hype is not overstated, because here in wisconsin, everything is at stake. we now have extreme partisanship, but we also have gridlock between a legislature dominated by repubcans and a democratic governor. nothing is going to happen. nothing's going to change. so everything shifts to the supreme court. no one's making any pretense that this is anything other than partisan. so it's going to be hard to go back to a 'we ought to elect judges based on their credentials or their judicial temperament. that era seems to have been beaten to death with hammers. judy: charlie sykes traces much of the polarization in wisconsin back over a decade, to then-governor scott walker's “act 10” a measure that, among other things, effectively ended collective bargaining for the

state's public employees. it sparked months of intense protests at the state capitol -- and exposed divisions still seen today. >> one of the things that, as i look back on it, realize that at a certain point, our politics becomes about the fight. the fight becomes about the fight, it becomes about us versus them. the actual policy matters less than beating the other guy. and -- judy: in the years since act 10, wisconsin's statewide elections have flipped back and forth many by razor thin margins. >> donald trump will carry the state of wisconsin judy: and in 2016, donald trump defied the polls to win the state by less than 25-thousand votes a victory that was key to handing him the presidency. >> we thought that, you know, the republican party in wisconsin was people like paul ryan. it was people like reince

priebus. it was not people from the maga world. however, as we've seen, as soon as donald trump nailed down the nomination, the centrifugal forces, the gravitational pull of partisan loyalties was very, very intense. and that took a lot of us by surprise. in retrospect, you look back and you see that these divisions, this sense of us versus them, was a preexisting condition here that trump was able to exploit and take advantage of. judy: in 2020, fortunes shifted: president biden narrowly won wisconsin. but an attempt by president trump toverturn the election results reached the state supreme court - which rejected the lawsuit by just one vote. 37-year-old green bay resident jon mckinney grew up in a conservative household and long considered himself a republican. but mckinney, who volunteers at this boat shop, teaching craftsmanship skills to kids, says that changed with the 2016 election. >> as soon as donald trump became president, i mean, the

party was foreign to me. they're too focused on power, seats, taking over, you know, controlling the various levers of government. and they don't really care about, you know, kind of the foundations of what their ideology is. judy: so when it comes to the state supreme court race -- >> there are other races on the ballot i will be voting for. but after reading about the two candidates, i don't feel like i can build -- i can vote for either of them. judy: mckinney says he's seen politics in wisconsin become more tribal. he's concerned about the lack of any substantive conversations around policy differences which has led to the atmosphere surrounding tomorrow's election. >> i'm absolutely disgusted by it. you know, supreme court justices i look at as kind of lasline of defense. lawmakers make laws. judges make sure that those laws are legal. they abide by our constitution.

and in this race, it's you know, it's it's a circus. >> if it wasn't important, would political leaders go to such great lengths to try to secure their preferred candidates on the courts? and i think the answer is no. judy: her 2020 book “the -- her 2020 book “the judicial tug of war” explored how politicians and ideology have shaped the u.s. court system. in the 1980's, sen says, politicians began to realize the importance of courts in achieving policy goals particularly with the rise of the anti-abortion movement. that trend continued in the decades that followed highlighted by the supreme court's decision in bush v. gore. >> after that point, every nomination onto something like the us supreme court and even state court seats rose dramatically in importance. so it's really been over the last 20, 25 years where we've had this partisan climate and that's just increased over time.

judy: for example, sen's research has shown that federal judges appointed by president trump are more conservative than those named by president george w. bush. and as in wisconsin, with polarization, comes a heightened role for the courts. >> as the other branches of power, the, you know, the congress and the presidency, as they become increasingly gridlocked because of partisan conflict, that leaves the courts as bng particularly important for things that many americans care about, like abortion and gun rights and civil rights and religious liberties. judy: in fact, a recent poll from the nonpartisan pew research center found that, after the u.s. supreme court overturned roe v. wade, americans' view of the high court hit its lowest favorability rating in years and the partisan divide in those views grew wider than at any point in decades. >> people are very deferential to courts. they will follow court rulings. but the more that they perceive the courts as being driven by politics and not

by law, the more skeptical they'll be of the court's legitimacy. and so the natural extension of that is that they might be more skeptical of the rulings themselves and they might be less inclined to follow them. judy: some of that skepticism is already weighing on wisconsin voters like jon mckinney in green bay. judy: -- >> you know, if we get a contentious vote, if, you know, either one of them when we have a contentious vote, it is always want to think the person elected is doing what they believe is right. but there'll always be a question of, you -- are they doing a favor. judy: charlie sykes sees this moment as particularly painful for his home state: >> wisconsin has a long -- no one knows where it's going. these are decent people. these are people who actually care about their neighbors, so

you just have to have a confidence in the underlying decency of people becoming disgusted with what's happening with our politics, but i'm not sure we are there yet. judy: for the pbs newshour i'm judy woodruff in milwaukee. geoff: chicago voters head to the polls tomorrow for a final chance to cast ballots in the mayor's race county commissioner brandon johnson is facing off against former chicago public schools ceo paul vallas both of them beat a crowded field of 9 candidates including incumbent mayor lori lightfoot, the two candidates offer a stark choice for voters as they weigh issues like crime, public safety and education. following this all closely is wttw chicago pbs reporter, heather cherone. thank you for being with us. we've got brandon johnson, this

progressive cook county commissioner running against the moderate former chicago public schools chief, paul vallas. help us understand how this race in many ways illustrates the broader divides in the democratic party. guest: you have somebody like brandon johnson who comes out of the movement launched by senator bernie sanders to be a more progressive alternative in the national democratic party. brandon johnson has picked up that mantle while paul vallas got his start under former mayor richard m daily and is really looking to draw support from people who remember his work as head of the chicago public schools, but also somebody vowing to be tough on crime. chicago along with most major cities has yet to see a return to the crime and public safety levels that existed before the pandemic and both paul vallas and brandon johnson are offering two very different solutions. geoff: let's talk more about

that. crime was a major issue in the first mayoral election in february. what issues are driving or animating this runoff race? guest: paul vallas says the biggest issue is the need to get more chicago police officers on the city streets. he has vowed to do that as quickly and efficiently as possible. rendon johnson sees what ails chicago as a more complicated problem and is promising a more holistic approach by funding anti-violence efforts, reopening public mental health clinics that have been closed for more than a decade in chicago and embracing a policy known as treatment, not trauma, which seeks to put the onus on preventing crime as opposed to enforcing the law and responding to it afterwards. the choice facing chicago voters is really, really clear and that is part of the reason why it's

the closest mayoral contest in 40 years, not since 1983 have we see a mayoral contest go down to the wire like this. geoff: we know from following your reporting that there is a racial dynamic at play. how is that evident in this runoff? guest: it is a cliche to say the only issue in chicago politics is race, but there is a germ of truth in that as well. s thonly white candidate to run to unseat mayor lori lightfoot, the first gay and black woman to be elected chicago mayor. brandon johnson is black and he is hoping he will win the wards on the south and west side that voted to put lightfoot in first place in the first round of voting. he hopes combiningse votes with progressive votes from progressive latino and white voters will be enough to get him over 50%. while paul vallas is hoping to capitalize on people in the

black community who do want to see more police officers on their street because we know those neighborhoods are among the most violent in chicago. two very different approaches exacerbated by the fact that this whole race has pitted a white man against a black man really for the first time since 1983. geoff: but, if anything, will the outcome of this race tell us about what democrats are seeking in terms of leadership? guest: whatever the result is, it will be used as one of the first examples of what could happen in the 2024 elections. if brandon johnson wins, you will see progressive politicians like bernie sanders say this is the way progressive candidates can win in a time of high crime and backlash from more conservative voters, not just those in the republican but those in the democratic party. if paul vallas wins, you will

see people say joe biden, if he is going to run for reelection and win a second term, we'll have to take a more moderate approach to not only issues of policing and crime but also the so-called culture war issues to tacked to a more middle ground position. neither of those takes will be exactly right because chicago is an idiosyncratic city that has its own issues. that is how it will be read nationally, even though there are other issues. geoff: heather, thank you so much. guest: thanks ray much. amna: this coming sunday will mark 20 years since american troops captured baghdad,fter a swift and seemingly conclusive

victory over iraqi forces. but that victory was a mirage - years of blood and terror remained for both iraq and the u.s. before the establishment of a fragile democracy. now, special correspondent simona foltyn speaks with a leader within that democracy over these decades for his views 20 years later. >> at his residence in iraqi kurdistan, we meet dr. barham saleh. the kurdish veteran politician served as iraq's president from 2018 until 2022. it was a tense period that shook the foundations of iraq's post-2003 political order. large scale anti-government protests called for sweeping reforms. at the same time, the country risked turning into a battleground between us forces and iran-aligned actors as the two sides attacked each other on iraqi soil.

i sat down with saleh to discuss the legacy of the us invasion, the state of iraq's democracy today and the country's importance for regional stability. dr. barham saleh, thank you for speaking to the pbs newshour. >> thank you for having me. >> 20 years have passed since the united states invaded iraq based on false intelligence, but it did remove a brutal dictatorship. from the iraqi perspective today. w it the right thing to do? >> for us, the issue was getting rid of saddam hussein. saddam hussein was a brutal dictator, a tyranny that has really gripped this country, committed genocide against its own people, used chemical weapons and weapons of mass destruction to exterminate the kurds, many, many other iraqis in southern iraq a elsewhere have been committed to mass graves, a regime that has committed wars of aggression. a country that was kunder sanctions. r us, war was not the best option. we would have rather done it ourselves. we would have rather been able to topple saddam

hussein using our own means. so for us, the american led intervention meant a great opportunity to get rid of this regime and allow the polity of iraq to move on and hopefully develop a functioning democracy in the heart of the islamic middle east. if you ask me and ask other iraqis, and no doubt outsiders, we will all have to acknowledge this hasot been achieved the way we hoped to. >> one of the main challenges iraq faces today is rampant corruption. >> yes. >> would you say this is a direct result of the political order the united states helped install? and to what extent do you thk the united states bears the responsibility versus the iraqi elite? >> i definitely agree with you that corruption is truly a problem many mistakes happen in the process for administering iraq's transition, of which the americans can speak to their responsibility but certainly from our side, the

idea of elections early on and with a weak state, abundant resources, primarily revenues coming from oil and other resources that were easily accessed, has made corruption far more rampant. and today if you ask me of what is the number one priority for iraq to survive for it to be able to move forward is to really tackle this issue of chronic corruption, which has become the political economy of the country. corruption allows armed groups, outlaw groups to be sustained, allows extremism to be sustained, allows conflict to be sustained. the scale of the problem is very huge, partly because there is a lot of international complicity allowing stolen assets to end up in the banking sectors of many countries. so we need to get together to really take this on. >> many iraqis today, including young people who never lived

under saddam, are once again yearning for a strong man. it shows to some extent the disillusionment with this young democracy. does that worry you? >> loo we have to acknowledge in 2003, when saddam hussein was overthrown, the expectation, the hope, the wish was to see a functioning democracy, that the end will put iraq at peace with itself and at peace with its neighbors. and i'm not one of those who say everything was bad. but also let us look at the context of things. we have had changes of government six times. six prime ministers, four presidents. and we're talking about the heart of the islamic middle east. and what we saw in the protest movement in 2019, when young iraqis from all regions of iraq came out to the street demanding a change, demanding their homeland back. that was quite a profound statement about the liveliness of the society and the.

>> but they failed. >> let me tell you something. they changed the government. they changed the elections law. and i'm not saying that the protest movement delivered. no, but this is a polity that is happening back and forth. there's a huge struggle, this struggle over iraq, domestically matters. it's amazing consequence for every community of this country is of amazing consequence to the entire neighborhood. >> saddam was a brutal dictator, but he was to some extent also a bulwark against external influence and today, iraq has become a battlefield of sorts for regional interests. you have dozens of turkish bases here in iraqi kurdistan. you had just a few months ago the iranian government shelling opposition groups and of course, we all remember when the united states assassinated iranian general qassem suleimani, as well as an iraqi leader on iraqi soil. so what can be done to strengthen iraq's sovereignty? >> i will tell you something. i challenge the premise of your question. saddam hussein is the person leader who enabled

foreign intervention in iraq. the agreement with the turks by which the turks are allowed to come inside iraq was done under saddam hussein by the fact that he committed the crimes he committed against the kurds the kurds were reliant on iranian support and syrian support and outside support in order to survive. the same with shia opposition groups. so basically, seriously, this notion that he was a bulwark? >> but you would agree there is more intervention in iraq today than there was back then. >> but by the way, i'm not saying there are no and regional and international intervention. of course it is. and it's quite clear nobody can deny this. turkish basis to many in this country. yes, iranian presence inside iraq and its influence is real. but i think you will be seeing more and more assertion of iraqi sovereignty. and i say to our neighbors, all our neighbors, including the arabs, including the iranians and the turks, if they want iraq to be viable an not a threat to you, state to state relations, a sovereign state to a state, cause otherwise, if you get too

involved, this is a precursor for the intervention of others and this quagmire of iraq from their perspective, nobody gets out of it free. >> u.s. policy on the middle east is very much centered around iran and american desire to reduce iranian influence in the region. do you sometimes feel that iraq is caught in the middle and that its interests are drowned out by geopolitical conflict? >> iraq is definitely caught in in the middle. iraq is very much a key area for regional balances and dynamics, has always been will always remain is of consequence to everybody. this place where everybody has viewed as a threat and that they had to dominate in order to prevent the others from dominating - let it turn it into a bridge// we need partnership with the united states iraq will always need good relations with its neighbors and certainly with iran. but at the end of the day, a

state to state relationship, because otherwise if any regional actor dominates the others will be getting in. and this instead of being an opportunity for all, it becomes a quagmire for all. this has been the history of the country. thank you very much for speaking to the pbs newshour. geoff: kinde wiley is best-known for his distinctive portrait of barack obama becoming the first black artist to paint a presidential portrait. but wiley has spent *most of his career painting vibrant portrayals of everyday african-american men and women. a new exhibition of his work focuses on grief and mourning. and also ask whose lives have value.

jeffrey brown traveled to san francisco for our arts and culture series, canvas. >> a monumtal painting, 25 fe long. a young black man twisted in a colorful floral field. a contemporary image of grief and death that also evokes the history of image making itself. >> there's a tradition and i love the tradition of painting that comes from western europe. i've spent much of my life learning it and trying to master it. and in a lot of that stuff i see sadness, but i also see dignity and respect. i see people lking at the life of christ or the life of a fallen soldier and valuing their lives so much to make really great, beautiful works of art out of it. i wanted to use that language and turn it towards people who look like me. >> the exhibition “an archeology , of silence” at san francisco's de young museum dramatic in its scale and lighting presents paintings and sculptures, 25 works in all, that use the iconography of art history to

expose violence against black 10blby16aril msc ie ntpto enaurw large painting of a contemporary woman. the pain, but also the passion and power so often captured in the history of western religious art and portraiture. >> i'm telling a story about a group of people who for centuries have been ignored and forgotten. and i'm using the language of the epic, the heroic, even the elegiac, the sort of sadness that surrounds a lot of these big monuments, to be able to make someone fl special again, to make someone feel fully formed, mourned after. i don't

know is it a sad show or is there something here that says that there's a bit of growth and a bit of light in the midst of all this sadness? >> i wonder myself. what do you see? you are the crater here. >> that's right. i guess what i'm doing is creating a provocation. >> today one of the worls most celebrated artists in part for for his 2018 portrait of barack obama the 46-year old wiley grew up in southentral los angeles, one of six children raised by his mother, freddie mae wiley. he credits her and public, tuition-free art programs (including one that sent him to russia at age 12) for both encouraging his talents and allowing him to first see famed artworks of the past. after graduating from the san francisco art institute and yale's master of fine arts program, he quickly became an art-world star, known for putting ordinary black men and women into the 'historical'

frame, often finding his 'models' through what he calls “street-casting” approaching people on the street to ask if he can paint them. wiley spent much of the pandemic in senegal, where he's established a studio and arts residency program. the works in “an archeology of silence” were mostly painted there, using local residents as models. . >> the whole point here, i suppose, is domination, that the painting dominates, that it subsumes you, it consumes you. >> one thing he was concerned with here: heroic scale. but also: the small details of a life. >> it's about every small detail that goes into a person's day to day, how they adorn themselves in the morning and how they dress themselves. and this is simply slowing down and paying attention to every single detail of a life, every single crease and fold of a

hand, every single hair follicle. precious. >> again, wiley has in mind old masters paintings. >> look at old dutch paintings and those collars and all of this. but really what you are looking at are powerful men who wanted to be seen powerful, and go the best artists of their generation to make that happen. i want to be the best artist of my generation. i'm working my ass off to technically get there but also to scour the world and find interesting subject matter. and i think the subject matter that most interests me is the story of people who were oftentimes ignored. (and you don't have to go far and wide to find that. all you have to do is slow down and look around you.) >> wiley has also taken this idea into the very public realm of monuments but his hero on horseback is a contemporary african american man wearing nikes. “rumors of war” was first

shown in new york's times square, before being given a permanent home in richmond, virginia, near that city's famed but controversial confederate monuments. >> i remember looking at some of those confederatsculptures down in virginia and being absolutely, number one, horrified. number two, enthralled. and number three, inspired. >> inspired to do what? >> inspired to have my response to it, inspired to be able to hack that language of power and control, that language of domination and, and terror. sheer terror. >> take what you see there and -- >> deconstructed. shoot it out in a different form. shoot out in a loving form. shoot it out in a way that says, 'there's got to be more than this.' >> he's created a new version of

this in his current show: a huge bronze horse, but this time with a fallen black rider. it is all part of playing with past, present stereotypes and , realities. you referred to yourself as a trickster? >> i think every artist is in a way. a type of alchemy, if it were. as though we know the received world, the one that we're handed, where black men are seen as antisocial, a propensity towards sports, a hyper sexuality. and then we take these monstrous images and we breathe life into them. we try to create something that's actually, that's a bit tricky, a bit magical. it's an unfortunate state of affairs in which creating a corrective lens for the world you occupy is the magic but i think that's where . we are. >> kehinde wiley's exhibition “an archeology of silence” is up through october 15th.

for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown at the de young museum in san francisco. geoff: there is a lot more online at pbs.org/newshour, including how the high cost of prison burdens incarcerated people leave after their release. geoff: -- amna: and join us again here tomorrow night, where we will have the latest on the arraignment of former president trump in new york. and that's the newshour for tonight. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been funded by -- >> we offer a variety of no contract plans and our u.s. based customer service team can find one that fits you. visit consumer cellular. tv.

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