good evening and welcome. on the newshour tonight, former president trump travels to new york and a hush money case. amna: and assassinated in a st. petersburg test bay. -- cap a. geoff: a sharply divided 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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2016 election. to shed light on what comes next, i'm joined here with our white house correspondent, laura barron-lopez. laura, good to see you. laura: good to be here. amna: it is historic. it is unprecedented, the first former president in the u.s. to be indicted. but what do we expect to see tomorrow? laura: so, tonight, he will be staying at trump tower, as we know. and then, morrow, when he heads to the courthouse, he is going to be booked, fingerprinted. we don't know if there is going to be a mug shot. there is a possibility there. and then, immediately after that, rather than being held in a cell, which is typical for someone being indicted and going to the courthouse, he will then be transported to the courtroom, and then the indictment will be unsealed, and his the charges will be read to him and everyone in the courtroom. now, what we don't know is if media outlets are going to get access to that courtroom as it's going on. and, if not, then what we can expect is for the indictment to be made public once the former president is in that courtroom. amna: we know mr. trump has previously called on his supporters to protest if he were

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

return to mar-a-lago and give some remarks after he's arraigned. amna: laura, we should be specific and clear here. 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: so, in addition to this investigation well, first, actually, let's count this investigation, so the manhattan district attorney's investigation into hush money payments that were allegedly made to adult film star stormy daniels. there's also 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's potential efforts to overturn the 2020 election there. and then, again, also the special counsel in the justice department is investigating the classified documents that were found at mar-a-lago. now, we should note that the wall street journal, excuse me, the washington post reported

that the jtice department has found more evidence of possible obstruction by trump. and what we're talking about there is actions that the former president took to potentially block the return of these classified documents. now, another thing we're also watching in regards to the manhattan district attorney's hush money payments investigation is, when we see the charges tomorrow, whether or not the manhattan da is just going to be solely focused on the payments made to stormy daniels or also to playboy model karen mcdougal. amna: things we're going to be waiting and seeing. a lot we don't yet know. we're going to watch and report as we do. laura barron-lopez, thank you. stephanie: i'm step xi would newshour west. there are the days 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 damage 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. a federal judge efforts to halt work on the willow oil project in alaska. today's ruling allows construction for drilling on the states north slope to continue our legal challenges by tribal and environmental groups are result. last month the biden administration approved the project. white had officials say they oppose an opec plan to cut oil production by more than a merrill bear -- million barrels a day beginning in may. the price of oil spiked 5.5 percent today after saudi arabia and other producers announced the move. pentagon officials say they're 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 wt 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 site we took measures and put into place measures that limited the additive value that the balloon could collect on. stephanie: the balloon was eventually shut down off the u.s. atlantic coast. workers at t passport office in britain launched a five-week strike today, demanding better pay amid surging inflation. about 1,000 people 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 france, 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 have become a nuisance and have caused hundreds of accidents.

the virginia teacher who was shot and seriously wounded by a six year old student in january filed a lawsuit seeking $40 million in damages from school officials. she is accusing school administrators of gross negligence. in a retrial, a federal jury ordered tesla today to pay more than $3 million to a black former employee who claimed racial harassment occurred at the fremont, california lent. owen diaz was awarded 137 million dollars in a previous trial but a judge slashed it to $15 million, which he rejected. he accused tesla of failing to act when he repeatedly reported the use of racial slurs and scrawled swastikas to his managers. nasa named the four astronauts slated to fly around the moon sometime next year. the artemis 2 crewncludes the first woman and the first person of color to go on a lunar mission. the three americans and one canadian were introduced to the

-- today in houston. their mission will be nasa's first crewed voyage to the moon in 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. stephanie: the artemis program aims to land them on the lunar surface as early as 2025. and louisiana state university celebrated today after winning its first ncaa women's basketball championship. the tigers and their coach, kim mulkey, claimed the title sunday in dallas, beating iowa 102-85. angel reese was named the most outstanding player. and still to come on the "pbs newshour": chicago sees record early voter turnout ahead of a contentious run-off election for mayor. the former president of iraq reflects on the u.s. invasion

20 years later a new exhibit by artist kehinde wiley focuses on grief and asks whose lives have value. amna: is the highest. 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. nick: in front of his own photo, vladlen 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 advoca 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. nick: russia blamed this woman, anti-war activist daria 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. yevgeny 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 has destroyed it and calls it victory. wagner has lead the fighting and dying. prigozhin posted this photo. the u.s. says more than 30,000 wagner soldiers have been wounded or killed. last night, prigozhin claimed wagner had seized bakhm's center. the flag, says to the memory of vladlen tatarsky. prigozhin, like tatarsky, is a pardoned former convict who became a prominent ulanationalist. 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 not blame the kyiv regime for these actions. i think there is a group of radicals who hardly have any connections to the government. nick: some russian government officials claimed the woman arrested in tatarsky's death worked wh russian opposition leader alexey navalny's

organization. he is currently in russian prison. and neither navalny nor his group have ever had any connection to violence in russia. to explore the implications of this bombing, we turn to candace rondeaux, a senior director at new america, a washington, d.c. based think tank. she's written extensively about the wagner group, and its leader, yevgeny prigozhin. candace rondeaux, welcome to the newshour. thank you very much. tell us more about who was tatarsky was why his death is so significant. >> vladlen tatarsky was probably one of the most prolific military bloggers, pro-russian military bloggers, on the social media channels that are popular with russian speakers. he had a huge following. it was sometime around 2017-2018 that he became very popular for starting a social media vertical called reverse side of the medal, which ibasically a mouthpiece and kind of a soapbox r some of the most extreme

ultranationalist elements of russia's right-wing. and, in particular, reverse side of the medal is a kind of cultural hub for the wagner group and russian mercenaries and soldiers of fortune. nick: and so fast-forward to the full-scale invasion. he is one of the most prominent bloggers not only advocating for the war, but, in fact, pushing the military and the government for more war. candace: the one thing to understand about tatarsky and reverse side of the medal is that job number one was to stoke passion for war. job number two was to make sure that that passion could be converted into the mobilization of forces on the sly, on the stealth. and he succeeded in doing that by kind of selling the wagner group brand, stealthy, shadowy, high-risk covert operators, masked men doing daring things in donbass. and he did that very well by

actually cultivating relationships with real-world wagner group fighters and bringing them onto his youtube channel, doing short videos and telegram. and he basically grew the brand through that social media channel. but, also, in st. petersburg, he was kind of becoming like a cafe influencer. that's why the street food no. 1 restaurant was hit. essentially, yevgeny prigozhin had given it to tatarsky as kind of like a headquarters for this cultural move of ultranationalist, pro-war sentiment to be mobilized not just on media channels, but also in real life. nick: and this was an only as you have pointed out, prigozhin's cafe. this was a neighborhood seen as prigozhin's turf. how much of this is about sending a message, as faas we can tell, to prigozhin's himself. candace: that restaurant is just five blocks, not even three blocks from yevgeny prigozhin's very first high-style restaurant. it's called the old customs house.

i mean, it was a big mafia hang out, a big hangout 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 yevgeny prigozhin's playground and turf and headquarters for the better part of 30 years now. and so striking there really sends a message not just to prigozhin, but to all the people who are sort of involved in his business enterprises, that they better stay on watch. nick: you point out how long prigozhin goes back with putin. but, more recently, he's been fighting with some of the senior russian defense officials, sergei shoigu, the defense minister, the equivalent of their chief of staff, valery gerasimov, has he's accused both of them actually killing wagner soldiers in ukraine. and there's yet again today another gap between what prigozhin is saying and the kremlin talking points. what's behind that divide? candace: you know, it's very hard with yevgeny prigozhin to discern how much is theater and

then how much is real. but it has been clear over the last, i'd say, nine months or so, since the battle of bakhmut began in ukraine, that he finds himself at the front lines of basically a meat grinder. and there's been a lot of complaints about sort of shell hunger, that is to say, not enough ammunition, not enough shells to go around for the artillery that's required to beat back the ukrainian counteroffensive in bakhmut. and he's become increasingly louder and louder. and he's had the backing of hundreds of thousands of followers on channs like the one that vladlen tatarsky used to run. and so that's kind of given him a sort of sense of confidence. he's biting the hand that feeds him, basically. at the same time, he also seems to have a political strategy, one in which he understands that, the minute the battle of bakhmut falls one way or the other, his utility, politically and militarily, is vastly diminished. and so, in a way, the peacocking

that you see online, the constant sort of stream of invective towards shoigu, as wells gerasimov, all of that is also a part of a larger design to insulate himself from the potential that he becomes expendable. but i think this message today with the bombing of tatarsky is to say, indeed, you are expendable, mr. prigozhin, and you better be on watch. nick: candace rondeaux, thank you very much. candace: thank you. geoff: tomorrow, voters in wisconsin will decide the balancof 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 against sweeping the badger state. this time around, though, the race isn't for congress, governor, or the presidency. it's for the state supreme court. this election is officially nonpartisan. neither of the candidates will have a d or an r next to their names on the ballot. but given the deep divide here, and the fact that the state supreme court will play a role in deciding the future of everything from abortion, to redistricting, to election laws in wisconsin, voter interest is high and politics has 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 -- against conservative daniel kelly, 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. 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. charlie sykes is a longtime political commentator in wisconsin. once a conservative talk show host, he founded the center-right news and opinion site the bulwark. charlie sykes: good morning, and welcome to the bulwark podcast. i think at, in the last decade or so, wisconsin has ft 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 foreshadowed here in wisconsin. >> it's really scary, because

there's so much on the line. judy: twenty-five-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. 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. sydney: 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? >> it looks like me moving. judy: whe 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. janet: that should be the woman's right to make the reproductive health decision, period. 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. daniel kelly: this is the problem that you have when you have a candidate who does nothing but talk about her personal politics. narrator: 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. narrator: a long history of letting dangerous criminals back into our streets. >> directly 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 have seen violent person's who are living a lifestyle over many, many years and sometimes decades of violence. and that has to be addressed. judy: boom line, post says he believes protasiewicz is too progressive. gary: our country is going into such a liberal pathway that it's almost gone too far. and i think janet protasiewicz is more of a liberal steering it still in that direction.

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. narrator: kelly advised trump operatives as special counsel to overturn the will the people. judy: the race has already drawn record-breaking millions in ad spending. daniel kelly: i will always protect the rule of law. charlie sykes: 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 republicans and a democratic governor. nothing is going to happen. nothing is going to change. so everything shifts to the supreme court. and no one is 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, effectely 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. charlie: one of the things that, as i look back on it, at a certain point, our politics becomes about the fight. the fight becomes about the fight. it becomes about us vs. them. the actual policy matters less than beating the other guy. man: ninety days to win elections. judy: in the years since act 10, wisconsin's statewide elections have flipped back and forth, many by razor-thin margins. wolf blitzer, cnn anchor: donald trump will carry the state of wisconsin: and, in 2016, donald trump defied the polls to win the state by less than 25,000 votes, a victory that was key to

handing him the presidency. charlie: we thought that 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 have seen, as soon as donald trump nailed down the nomination, the centrifugal forces, the gravitational pull of partisan loyalty was very, very intense. and that took a lot of us by surprise. but, in retrospect, you look back and you see that these divisions, this sense of us vs. 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 to overturn the election results reached the state supreme court, which rejected the lawsuit by just one vote. thirty-seven-year-old green bay resident jon mckinney grew up in seven-year-old 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, takg over controlling the various levers of government. and they don't really care about kind of the foundations of what so when it comes their ideology is. there are other races on the ballot that i will be voting for. but after reading about the two candidates, i don't feel like i can vote for eitheof them. it builds our community. judy: mckinney says 's seen politics in wisconsin become more tribal. he's concerned about the lack of any substante conversations around policy differences, which has led to the atmosphere surrounding tomorrow's election. jon mckinney: i'm absolutely disgusted by it.

you know, supreme court justices, i look at as kind of last line of defense. lawmakers make laws. judges make sure that those laws are legal. they abide by our constitution. and, in this race, 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 to courts? and i think the answer is no. judy: harvard professor maya sen researches american law and politics. her 2020 book, "the judicial tug of war," explored how politicians and ideology have shaped the u.s. court system. in the 1980s, sen says, politicians began to realize the importance of courts in achieving policy goals, particularly with the rise of abortion that the anti-abortion movement. that trend continued in the decades that followed, highlighted by the supreme court's decision in bush v. gore. maya sen: after that point, every nomination onto something like the u.s. supreme rose

dramatically in importance. so, it's really been over the last 20, 25 years where we have 2020 had this, like, partisan climate. examples research and that's is 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. maya sen: as the other bnches of power, like the congress and the presidency, as they become increasingly gridlocked because of partisan conflict, that leaves the courts as being particularly important for things that many americans care about, like abortion and gun rights and civil rights and religious liberties. judy woodruff: in fact, a poll hold from the nonpartisan pew research center found that, after the u.s. supreme court what was 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. maya sen: 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 will 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 some of that is less inclined to follow them. judy: some of that skepticism is already weighing on wisconsin voters like jon mckinney in green bay. jon mckinney: you always want to think the person elected is doing what they believe is right. but there will always be a question of, was it the special interest money that was that was donated? are they returning a favor? judy: charlie sykes sees this moment as particularly painful for his home state. charlie: wisconsin has a long tradition of being a laboratory of democracy. and now to see us falling into this hole, it's disturbing, because it feels as if

dysfunction is the new normal, and no one knows where it's going. here in wisconsin, these are decent people. people who actually care about their neighbors. and so you just have to have a confidence in the underlying decency of people becoming disgusted with what's happening with politics. pbs newshour nine judy woodruff 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 ance 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 nine candidates, including incumbent mayor lori lightfoot. the twcandidates offer a stark choice for voters as they weigh issues such as crime, public safety and education.

following this all closely is wttw chicago pbs reporter heather cheron heather, thanks for being with us. so, we have got brandon johnson, this progressive cook county commissioner, running against the moderate former chicago public schools chief paul vallas. help uunderstand how this race in many ways illustrates the broader divides within the democratic party. heather: well, you have somebody like brandon johon, who really comes out of the movement launched by senator bernie sanders to be a more progressive alternative in the national democratic party. brandon johnson has really picked up that mantle, while paul vallas got his start under former mayor richard m. daley, and is really looking to draw support from people who draw remember his work, as you said, as head of the chicago public schools, but also somebody who's vowing to be tough on crime. as you know, chigo, along with you will most major cities, has yet to sort of 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. very geoff: well, let's talk more about that, because, as you point out, crime was a major issue in the first mayoral election back in februy. what issues are driving or in animating this run-off race? heather: well, paul vallas says that the biggest iss is the need to get more chicago police officers on the city streets. and he has vowed to do that as quickly and efficiently as possible. but brandon johnson sees what work more ails chicago as sort of 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 really than a decade in chicago, and embracing a policy known in chicago as treatment, not the law trauma, which really

seeks to put the onus on preventing crime, as opposed to sort of enforcing the law and responding to it afterwards. the choice facing chicago voters is really, really clear. and i think that's part of the reason why it is the closest mayoral contest in0 years. not since 1983 have we seen a mayoral contest go down to the wire like this. geoff: we also know from following your reporting that there is a racial dynamic at play here too. how is that evident in this run-off? heather: well, it's a cliche to say that the only issue in chicago politics is race, but there's a germ of truth in that as well. paul vallas was the only white like candidate to run to unseat mayor lori lightfoot, who was the first gay and the first black woman to be elected chicago mayor. brandon johnson is black. and he is hoping that he will win the wards on the south on the west side that voted to put lightfoot in first place in the first round of voting. he hopes that combining those votes with progressive votes

from progressive latino and white voters will be enough to where get hiover 50 percent, real whereas paul vallas is really hoping to capitalize on people in the black community who do want to see more police officers on their street, because, of course, we know that those neighborhoods are among the most violent in chicago. but, again, two very different approaches, as exacerbated by the fact that this whole sort of race has sort of pitted a white man against a black man, really for the first time, again, since 1983. geoff: heather, what, if anything, will the outcome of this race tell us about what democrats are seeking in terms of leadership? heather: well, whatever the result is, it will be used as sort of one of the first examples of what could happen in 20 the 2024 elections. when you're going if brandon the way johnson wins, you're going to 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 party, but also those in the democratic party. if paul vallas wins, you will see people say that joe biden, if he's going to run for reelection, and then win a second term, will have to sort of take a more moderate apoach to not only issues of policing and crime, but also sort of the so-called culture war issues, to tack to a more middle ground position. neither of those takes, i think, will be exactly right, because right chicago is an idiosyncratic city that sort of has its own issues. but that, i think, is how it read will be read nationally, though there are even though other there are of course, other dominated issues besides crime and violence, even though that's dominated motivating people to go to the polls tomorrow. geoff: heather cherone with wttw chicago pbs. heather, thanks so much.

♪ amna: this coming sunday will here this coming sunday will mark 20 years since american troops captured baghdad, after a swift and seemingly colusive 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 hiviews 20 years later. simona: at his residence in iraqi kurdistan, we meet dr. rham salih. 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 turni into a battleground between u.s. forces and iran-aligned actors as the two sides attacked each other on iraqi soil. i sat down with salih to discuss the legacy of the u.s. invasion, the state of iraq's democracy today and the country's importance for regional stability. dr. barham salih, thank you for speaking to the "pbs newshour.” >> thank you for having me. simona: twenty 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, was it the right thing to do? barham salih: 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 and elsewhere have been committed to mass graves, a regime that has committed wars of aggression, a country that

was under sanctions. for 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, well, we will all have to acknowledge this has not been achieved the way weoped to. simona: one of the main challenges iraq faces today is rampant corruption. barham salih: yes. simona: would you say this is a direct result of the political order the united states helped install? and to what extent do you think the united states bears the responsibility, vs. the iraqi elite?

>> i definitely agree with you that corruption is truly a problem. many mistakes happened in the process for administering iraq's transition, of which the americans can spk 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 what is the number one priority for iraq for it 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. simona: many iraqis today, including young people who never lived under saddam, are once again yearning for a stronan. it shows to some extent the disillusionment with this young democracy. does that worry you? >> look, we have to acknowledge, in 2003, when saddam hussein was overthrown, the expectation, the hope, the wish was to see a functioning democracy that at the end would put iraq at peace wi itself and at peace with its neighbors. and i'm not one of those who say everytng 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. six 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 society. >> 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. it's amazing consequence to the entire neighborhood. simona: ddam 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 qasem soleimani, as well as an iraqi leader on iri 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 peon, the leader who enabled foreign intervention in iraq. the agreement with the turks by which the turks arallowed 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, that's not -- >> simona: but you would agree there is more intervention in iraq today than there was back then? >> i'm not saying there are no and regional and international intervention. of course there is. it's quite clear. nobody can deny this. turkish bases are too 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 and not a threat to you, state-to-state relations, a sovereign state to a state, because, otherwise, if you get too involved, this is a precursor for the intervention of others. and this quagmire of iraq, from their perspectiv nobody gets all out of it free. simona: 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 the middle. iraq is very much a key area for regional balances and dynamics, has always bn, 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 d of the day, a state-to-state relationship, because, otherwise, if any regional actor dominates the others will be getting in. anthis, instead of being an opportunity for all, it becomes a quagmire for all. this has been the history of the country. simona: dr. barham salih, thank you very much for speaking to the "pbs newshour.” >> thank you, simona. geoff: kehinde 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 life career painting vibrant portrayals of everyday aican american men and women. a new exhibition of his work

focuses on grief and mourning and also asks, whose lives have also value? why jeffrey brown traveled to is san francisco for our arts and culture series, canvas. jeffrey: a monumental painting, 25-feet-long, a young black man, limbs twisted, lying amid in a colorful floral field, a contemporary image of grief and death that also evokes the history of image-making itself. kehinde wiley, artist: there's a tradition, and i love the tradition of painting that comes from western europe. have 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 looking 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. jeffrey: the exhibition an

archaeology of silence at san francisco's de young museum, dramatic in its scale and lighting, presents paintings and sculptures, 25 works in all, we that use the iconography of art history to expose violence against black men and women today. an ancient sculpture, the dying gaul. from 200 b.c. now a young man in a hoodie taking his last breaths. the virgin martyr st. cecilia, a 1610 marble sculpture, now transformed by wiley into a large painting of a contemrary woman, the pain, but also the passion and power, so often captured in the history of western religious art and portraiture. kehinde: 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 feel 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? you jeffrey: well, i wonder myself. what do you see? you are the creator here. kehinde: that's right. that's right. i guess what i'm doing is, i'm creating a provocation. jeffrey: today one of the world's most celebrated artists in part for his 2018 portrait of barack obama, the 46-year old wiley grew up in south central los angeles, one of six children raed 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, goals what he calls streetasting, 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 archaeology of silence were mostly painted there, using local residents as models. kehinde wiley: the whole point here, i suppose, is domination, that the painting dominates, that it subsumes you, it consumes you. your jeffrey: one thing he was concerned with here, heroic scale, but also the small details of a life.

kehinde: 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. jeffrey: again, wiley has in mind old masters' paintings. kehinde wiley: 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 got the best artists of their generation to make that happen. i want to be the best artist of my generation. i'm working my -- 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 are 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.

jeffrey: 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. his 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. kehinde: i remember looking at some of those confederate sculptures down in virginia and being absolutely, number one, horrified, number two, enthralled, and, number three, jeffrey: inspired to do what? kehinde: inspired to have my response to it, inspired to be able to hack that language of power and control, that language of domination and terror, real, sheer terror. jeffrey: take what you see there and?

kehinde: deconstruct it. 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. jeffrey: 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 and present, stereotypes and realities. you referred to yourself as a trickster? so kehinde: i think every artist is in a way. it's 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 hypersexuality. and then we take these monstrous images and we breathe life into them. we try to create something that's actual, something 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. asbut i think that's where we are. jeffrey: kehinde wiley's exhibition an archaeology of silence is up through october 15. for the "pbs newshour," i'm jeffrey brown at the de young museum in san francisco. ♪ geoff: there and there is a lot more online at pbs.org/newshour/ including how burdens incarcerated people even after their release. amna: join us again here tomorrow night when we will have the latest on the arraignment of former president trump in new york. and that is the newshour for tonight. geoff: thanks for spending part of your evening with us. have a great evening. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- >> to any five years, consumer cellular's goal has been to help

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this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning peormed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.] >> this is pbs newshour west, from weta judeo's in washington and from our bureau at the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. ♪ >> you're watching pbs.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -today on "americs test kitchen," we're making our favorite egg dishes from around the world. dan makes julia turkish çilbir. adam reviews sponge holders. becky makes bridget xihóngshi chao jidàn. and keith makes julia matzo brei. it's all coming up right here on "america's test kitchen."