♪ geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. amna: russia bombards cities across ukraine, killing numerous civilians, including children, as ukrainian forces prepare for a major counteroffensive. geoff: federal regulators blame management and oversight failures for the bank collapses that are still rippling through the economy. amna: and... los angeles struggles to provide housing for the tens of thousands of homeless people -- including veterans -- in the city. >> we know what the solutions are. either we get eligibility caps raised so that veterans who are receiving v.a. benefits can qualify or we stop counting v.a. benefits as income. ♪

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to your pbs station by viewers like you. thank you. ♪ amna: welcome to "the newshour." ukrainians woke today to a barrage of deadly strikes in russia's first large-scale air attack in almost two months. geoff: russian missiles and drones rained down on residential areas across the war-torn country. officials said at least 25 people were killed, including three children. the missiles struck as ukrainians slept, miles from the war's frontline. this morning, rescue workers scrambled to search for survivors at a residential building, now reduced to rubble. it was once the home of 58-year-old serhii lubivskyi, who's now grappling with the immeasurable loss. serhii: what can i say? i have no place to live. my neighbours are gone, no one is left. an elderly woman, her daughter and two grandchildren lived on

the ninth floor. they are gone. a man with his son lived on the eighth floor. they are gone. the airstrike targeted the central city of uman, around 130 miles south of kyiv. while ukrainian officials say another strike on nearby dnipro killed a woman and a child. hours after the attacks, russia's defense ministry posted a mocking message on social media, with the words "right on target." and for the first time in nearly two months, explosions rocked the capital kyiv today, leaving debris, but no casualties. ukrainian officials say they shot down the incoming missiles and drones. meanwhile, social media footage showed a minibus ablaze in the russian-held eastern city of donetsk. moscow-appointed officials blamed ukrainian shelling and said it killed 7 civilians. ukraine has vowed to respond to today's russian attacks with "an iron fist." u.s. officials expect kyiv's counteroffensive to come as

early as next week. amna: in the day's other headlines, the u.s. began its overland evacuation of americans trapped by the conflict in sudan. some 300 u.s. citizens were bussed out with armed drone escorts in the first organized u.s. effort to evacuate americans there. that came as explosions battered the capital, even after the army and paramilitary rebels extended their truce. smoke billowed in the skies above khartoum. more than 500 people have been killed in two weeks of clashes. meanwhile, supermarket shelves remain empty as residents brace for what's to come. ahmed: people's minds are now 90 percent worry, they're not thinking except to worry about themselves and their families. food supplies are diminishing and citizens will soon face a famine or at least a crushing food crisis. amna: also today, turkey said one of its evacuation planes was struck by gunfire as it was landing outside of khartoum.

no casualties were reported. tunisian coast guards have retrieved the bodies of 41 drowned migrants. they were recovered off the coast of the port city of sfax. authorities have found more than 200 victims of migrant shipwrecks in tunisian waters over the past ten days. tunisia is struggling to contain a surge of migrants trying to reach italy now that neighboring libya is cracking down on departures from its shores. back in this country, two army helicopters collided in alaska, killing three american soldiers and injuring a fourth. it happened thursday as they were returning from a training flight near healy, northeast of denali national park. it's the second military accident involving apache helicopters in alaska th year. officials are investigating what caused the crash. rapid snowmelt from minnesota has caused water levels along the upper mississippi river to hit near-record highs. in parts of wisconsin and iowa, floodwaters have inundated homes, streets and parks.

farther south, crews built flood walls and other protective barriers. officials say a combination of extreme weather events is to blame. mayor logan: this flood is being primarily fed by the melting of a historic snowpack. the drought of the fall of 2022 has created slack in the system and in the soil for water. rains are coming in from the north, east, south and west. amna: officials in the midwest expect the swollen mississippi river to crest as early as monday. it could take up to 10 days for the water to recede. supreme court justice samuel alito says he has a "pretty good idea" who leaked his draft dobbs opinion last may. the landmark abortion decision overturned roe v. wade. in his first extensive response, he told the wall street journal the leak was meant to intimidate justices, and was "part of an effort to prevent the dobbs draft from becoming the decision

of the court." the court's own investigation failed to identify the culprit. north carolina's state supreme court today threw out a recent ruling that deemed gerrymandering unconstitutional. the reversal is a major win for the republican-controlled legislature, which can now re-draw the state's voting maps in their favor ahead of next year's elections. the court also reinstated a ban on convicted felons voting, and upheld photo i.d. requirements for voters. and, wall street ended this bumpy week of trading on a higher note. the dow jones industrial average gained 272 points to close at 34,098, notching its best monthly gain since january. the nasdaq rose 84 points. and the s&p 500 added 34. still to come on "the newshour"... states become ground zero for the political battles over reproductive rights and trans care... david brooks and jonathan capehart weigh in on the week's political headlines...

author judy blume pushes back on efforts to ban her books... plus much more. >> this is "the pbs newshour" from weta studios in washington, and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. geoff: the federal reserve today issued a stinging report about the multiple failures that lead to the historic collapse of silicon valley bank last month. as william brangham reports, the main targets of the report? the fed's own regulators. william: the federal reserves' report says silicon valley bank collapsed because of a textbook case of mismanagement by bank executives, but it was especially critical of its own regulators, alleging they missed clear danger signs as the bank ballooned in size, and acted much too slowly on the problems they did identify. for more on this regulatory autopsy, we're joined by economics reporter jeanna

smialek. she covers the federal reserve for "the new york times." thank you for being here. before we get to how regulators failed, can you remind us of what mistakes the executives at silicon valley bank did that basically imperiled of the entire banking system? jeanna: they made two big gets of mistakes. the first is they had a huge trunk of their deposit days in really big deposits over the $250,000 limit the government insurers. that meant they were much more likely to pull that money out. mistake number two is a made essentially was a bet that interest lights would stay low for a really long time. they invested in securities at a gated on that and when that didn't happen, when the fed instead raised interest rates to control inflation, the bank was

facing big losses. that combination of decisions is pretty fatal for this bank because when the bank was facing big losses, nervous depositors took the money and ran. william: touching on the report that came out today, federal regulators, who are supposed to have a eyes on this particular bank and looking out for the exact things you are describing, seemed to drop the ball. what did the report say they failed to do? jeanna: a whole range of failures. i think it really boiled down to failing to recognize the full extent of the programs and failing to follow up on the programs that were recognized. if the supervisors at the san francisco fed were aware of some of these issues, and they pointed them. what they did not do is act decisively enough to get the management at the bank to deal with the problems to make them go away and take care of them before they became lethal to the institution. the fed report was very critical

of the fed itself for failing to achieve that goal of making the institution safer. william: is it clearer from the report -- wasn't a lack of will to act, a lack of authority to step in and say there are multiple fires going on and we need to put these out? jeanna: that's a great question. i think it was actually some mixture. what we saw under the trump administration over the last few years was a shift in tone around how banks ought to be supervised, how they ought to be regulated. this was a bank of the sort of size that it did not apply to be at what we call a midsized arranged, regulations had become less onerous and that probably mattered in this case. the other thing that mattered was i think on the ground supervision. the supervisors for whatever reason did not feel empowered to say this is a problem, we need to deal with it now.

and the regulations themselves were not nimble enough to allow them to address this in a rapid and forceful way. i think we will see a lot of changes on the way that banks are seen on a day-to-day basis and the way they are regulated, coming out of this. william: the feds oversight chief who drafted much of this report calls for some of these reforms you're talking about. what does he want to see done and how likely are those to be implemented? jeanna: i think it was a very ambitious was -- wishlist he put out. but the fed has had a lot of discussion when it comes to the things he wants to see. he would like the fed to reconsider how it is overseeing banks that have more than $100 billion in assets. the fed has wide discussions to take a closer look at those banks. it will take a couple of years but is likely we will see some changes. similarly, it seems like supervisors are in for a more aggressive approach to banks

going forward. stress tests, the annual health checkups the banks get, could get another look. i think it will be a vast array of changes and we got a lot of emails from lobbyists this afternoon expressing stress at these changes. it seems like these could be pretty real. william: in the last 30 seconds i want to ask you about this other bank in northern california, first republic bank. a lot of concerns about this bank cratering, its stock has dropped i think 97% over the year, over 40% i think today. what is going on with that bank? jeanna: that bank is clearly on its last legs. it's in a lot of trouble and has been in a lot of trouble. we've been laying the will they come along today when the bank will go into receivership. it could be imminent that the government takes over the bank any minute. it is an open question with the timing will be but it seems like

first republic is clearly headed for some kind of big change. i think the bank has a lot of problems. it has seen a huge deposit outflow in the last two or three weeks and it probably will not be able to weather that. a developing story. william: thank you so much. jeanna: thank you. ♪ amna: the airstrikes on ukraine today hit as nato and the u.s. said this week they had sent ukraine 98 percent of the vehicles promised to kyiv. they are designed to be ready for ukraine's highly anticipated upcoming counteroffensive, as nick schifrin discusses with the head of ukraine's military intelligence. ♪ nick: they're the tools of ukrainian liberation -- newly arrived western armored vehicles, seen in ukrainian

defense ministry videos. ukraine has received nearly heomoo a40 h sav00e e been,0 trr what's expected to be one of the war's most pivotal moments. gen. budanov: of course, the counter offensive has a very important meaning for ukraine and for the future of ukraine, because its main goal is to liberate the occupied territories. nick: general kyrylo budanov is the head of ukraine's military intelligence. he spoke to us from kyiv earlier this week. gen. budanov: the liberation of our temporarily occupied territory is the top priority for our country. nick: the 37-year-old is former special forces, one of the country's youngest ever generals, but considered one its most influenti. he's survived multiple assassination attempts, and lives in his office. he's in the middle of negotiations to release prisoners from russia, attends soldiers' funerals, and knows much more than he reveals, especially about the upcoming counteroffensive.

when i talk to u.s. officials here, they just describe that even if you can't re-seize all of the territory occupied by russia, they hope that at least you can create some local advantages along the front lines to a point where you can be in a position where you can threaten russian supply lines in crimea and deep in the donbas. does that kind of goal make sense? gen. budanov:i share that opinion absolutely. nick: could you say when you believe ground conditions favor the offense? gen. budanov: in the near future, everybody will see the expected results. nick: budanov's expertise is foreign intelligence, as in russia. russia blames budanov personally for explosions in occupied crimea, and inside russia. but ukraine doesn't claim official responsibility for these attacks, and is restricted by the u.s. from using american weapons beyond its borders. do you believe you're hindered by the u.s. insistence that u.s. weapons not be used to attack inside russia? gen. budanov: absolutely not.

and we do not need weapons from the americans or anyone else to get to the russians. we have enough ukrainian means and weapons to do this. any perpetrator that committed any war crimes or crimes against humanity in ukraine or even very egregious crimes like the group rape, or killing of civilians and children, will be found and eliminated in any part of the world. nick: the u.s. says ukraine has killed or wounded more than 200,000 russian service members, and military contractors. and now western officials say russia is trying to find 400,000 recruits, including with a new ad. you're a real man, it says. be one by becoming a soldier. have you seen any evidence that russia can actually field the troops that it wants? gen. budanov: in theory, they can recruit 400,000 people. they're still mobilizing 20,000 to 22,000 recruits monthly. so as of now, they have mobilized roughly 120,000 additional troops.

moreover, they are actively recruiting paramilitary units, as well as the new private military companies such as redut or gazprom, the gas company. there are a lot of them. and right now they want to have all of them united by creating an umbrella organization russian volunteer corps that will gather all of the paramilitary and private military groups, and place them under single command of the russian general staff. nick: so far, there's been no evidence, at least from where we're sitting here, that the russians have managed a unified command. is that how you see it? gen. budanov: that's exactly what i'm telling you, they want to create this umbrella organization that will be directing and commanding all of these paramilitary units. because obviously right now there is no unity. nick: for months, the war's epicenter has been bakhmut. ukraine has sacrificed dearly to hold the city, as i saw in february. have you lost men? have you lost friends?

>> we've all lost someone in this war. and keep losing. that's how it goes. this is war. you can't do anything about it. but these are all losses that cannot be prevented. they just happen, because people kill people. that's it. nick: multiple u.s. officials in the intelligence community and in the military told me that they raised the possibility that bakhmut was not worth defending, raising the possibility that the ukrainian military should go back up to the high ground towards sloviansk and kramatorsk. why do you think you ignored that advice? why is bakhmut so important? gen. budanov: i personally do not accept these recommendations because we're talking about our people and our cities, and losing even an inch of our land is a big tragedy. nick: bakhmut has become a symbol of determination for both sides, far above its military

importance. but ukraine sees s you've said that russia understands it can't drag out this war. you've even predicted that russia will collapse. many of the people i speak to here believe that's frankly overly optimistic and that the war is more likely to last for years. are they wrong? gen. budanov: i can just say one thing: that time will show. i stand by my position. nick: general budanov, thank you very much. ♪geoff: on any given night there are more than 65,000 homeless people living in los angeles. there is not enough affordable housing, and even when there is, some people struggle to get into those units, including veterans on disability. stephanie sy looks at some of the obstacles leading to l.a.'s homeless population, the largest in the country.

stephanie: on the sprawling 388-acre campus of the west los angeles v.a., daughter with palm trees, a construction boom underway. three new buildings have gone up this year to provide qualified veterans low-income housing. 63-year old jack vicente has been settled in his gleaming new studio apartment for a month. the army vet was working as a bellman at a hotel when he suffered a back injury and was let go from his job. jack: and that's what led to me being pretty much homeless for the next four or five months until i was able to go to the v.a. and the v.a. helped me get into a lovely, secure place like this. in my opinion, the promise that they made when i joined up. they're really keeping their word now. stephanie: but there are other veterans who feel the opposite. where are you living now? lavon: right there. stephanie: 36-year old lavon

johnson, an army veteran lives right outside the v.a. campus in a tent. he was living in one of these tiny shelters on the v.a. campus, but he says it caught fire and he was removed from the temporary housing program. johnson has been chronically homeless for more than a decade. even as new apartment buildings co-opt on -- go up on the v.a. campus, he is locked out. you applied to stay at one of these buildings and you were rejected? lavon: yes. stephanie: why? lavon: my annual income was too much by $200. stephanie: johnson's income is actually his monthly disability check. while deployed in iraq with the first cavalry division he says his unit was hit by a rocket. lavon: i get shot back, i land on my feet then i fall over. i remember falling over, hit my head, and it was just blank after that. stephanie: due to a diagnosis of

serious mental illness, he receives full compensation of over $4000 a month. so you would think that would be enough to rent an apartment here? lavon: not in california. plus, i have bills and other projects i have to pay off every month, too, so all my money is gone. i don't have anything for myself for the month. it's a vicious cycle. stephanie: johnson falls into a category of veterans who stand on a so-called benefits cliff. he gets so much in disability compensation that other essentials, like housing, fall off. it is estimated 8000 homeless veterans around the country may lose out on low-income housing opportunities because their benefits put them over income caps. keith: this particular building has very strict eligibility criteria. stephanie: we met keith harris, who oversees the v.a. efforts to house homeless veterans in la, in one of the shiny new apartments on campus. a veteran has to be at least 62 and make under $42,000 a year to qualify to live in this building. keith: we know what the

solutions are. either we get eligibility caps raised so that veterans who are receiving v.a. benefits can qualify or stop counting v.a. benefits as income. stephanie: harris says another problem is that other dedicated housing lies in parts of la where many unhoused vets don't want to live, so they don't use the affordable housing vouchers that are available to them. keith: there are close to 50 buildings. there are a couple hundred vacancies in those buildings. stephanie: why are there vacancies? keith: it's maddening. i want to acknowledge it's very frustrating. you've got thousands of homeless veterans. you've got hundreds of vacant units. you've got thousands of unused vouchers. the biggest problem filling those is one of location. many of those are far away from the medical center. stephanie: and the medical center is located on the westside of los angeles where the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment is more than $3000 a month. a housing voucher or disability check doesn't go far here.

keith: there simply are not enough units for everybody who needs one, much less could afford one. stephanie: as challenging as it is to build affordable housing on the v.a. campus, it is more onerous elsewhere in los angeles. from historically discriminatory zoning laws to community resistance, it's often an uphill battle. few know that better than dora leong gallo, the head of a community of friends, which has been providing housing for people with mental health disorders for 35 years. just like some veterans with disabilities, some people with serious mental illnesses in the general population benefit from having support services where they live. a quarter of la's homeless population has these disorders. dora: the concept was to build apartment communities where people had a lease and that there would be services onsite in the buildings to help ensure that people had the services they need to live independently. stephanie: leong gallo walks us

through the lengthy process of developing what's called ra: the first thing we have to do is find property. stephanie: that's also the first roadblock. dora: because we're kind of restricted in where we can build apartment buildings, it drives the cost higher as well because we are all competing for the same limited land. stephanie: according to one study, more than 70-percent of residential areas in the los angeles area are zoned for single family homes, a planning policy that has roots in racial discrimination. dora: simultaneously, we are looking for financing. stephanie: that's the next roadblock. a nonprofit has to compete for funding from various sources, all with different requirements, restrictions, and timelines. dora: and along the same time we are also meeting with the community. stephanie: and that, many housing developers say, is one of the biggest roadblocks. even while californians have approved measures to increase

funding to address homelessness, not in my backyard attitudes have blocked or delayed many projects. dora: when you don't allow this type of housing to be built, then people are forced to live further away. people are forced to live in their cars. stephanie: 70-year-old wallace richardson had been living out of his truck for more than a year when he was linked up with one of the 50 buildings developed by a community of friends. he's been in his silverlake apartment for more than a decade. one of his last jobs was with americorps. wallace: during the time that i was an outreach worker, you know, i got a firsthand look at myself. i thought that i was mentally sane, but i wasn't, you know, i had issues. and the issues i had was coming up from being abused as a child. stephanie: what has it been like to have this stable housing for the last ten years? wallace: it has made all the difference in the world.

in fact, it has saved my life because i was on a downhill spiral. stephanie: back near the va campus, lavon johnson is still waiting for his lifejacket and he's losing his patience. lavon: i can't sit still knowing that people like me are getting screwed over by them, blatantly. stephanie: he's part of a recent lawsuit that accuses the v.a. of not providing enough affordable housing to the neediest veterans. the plaintiffs demand 3500 permanent supportive units on or near the v.a. campus. my understanding is there are lawsuits going back to 2011 saying why isn't the v.a. doing more to house homeless veterans here? why now? why just in the last couple of years? keith: the draft master plan was put into place as part of resolving the first lawsuit. and it had a very aggressive timeline on the units that would be built. turned out very unrealistically. stephanie: the v.a. realized

recently that if sites were prepared ahead of time for developers they could speed up , the process. they've already spent $70 million on things like leveling land and adding underground utilities to make sites build ready. keith: that's why it looks like a rush. this is the way it should have been happening all along. stephanie: the agency is aiming to complete 1200 units by 2030. whether one of those units is in lavon johnson's future remains in doubt. for the pbs newshour, i'm stephanie sy in los angeles. ♪ geoff: two republican-led state legislatures. two strict anti-abortion bills rejected. in both cases, republican members helped feed the measures by one-vote margins. in south carolina, five women in the state senate, three republicans, a democrat and an

independent, joined forces to block a near-total abortion ban. republican senator sandy senn argued her gop colleagues were blindly following the majority leader. >> the only thing we can do when you all, you men in the chamber, metaphorically keep slapping women by raising abortion again and again and again is for us to slap you back with our words. geoff: and independent senator mia mccloud, a sexual assault survivor, expressed frustration that she had to share such personal details to convince her male colleagues to vote no. >> just as rape is about power and control, so is this total ban. and those who continue to push legislation like this are raping us again. with their indifference. geoff: and in nebraska a 6-week

, ban was defeated by an 80-year-old man. a pro-life republican man abstained over his concerns the restrictions went too far. in both south carolina and nebraska, abortion remains legal for now until 22 weeks of pregnancy. and it's not just abortion that's become a flashpoint at the state level. battles are also raging over transgender rights. the washington post reports that more than 400 anti-trans bills have been filed in the first four months of this year, higher than the past four years combined. in kansas yesterday, republican lawmakers overrode the governor's veto and approved a bill that prevents trans people from using a bathroom or a locker room associated with their gender identity. that even applies to crisis centers for domestic violence and rape. montana became the latest state to ban gender affirming care for trans youth today. republican governor signed the legislation that will go into effect in october. and in missouri, a state judge is set to weigh in on monday on new rules from the state's attorney general that would ban

the same kind of care for youth and adults. communities correspondent gabrielle hayes is covering that and joins me now. gabby, help us understand what the missouri ag is trying to do. gabrielle: essentially andrew bailey said he would be in plummeting emergency rules that would restrict a person's access to gender affirming care. those rules include different regulations such as a person would have to receive 18 months of therapy before they would have access to that care. when he announces he said he was doing it to protect children but organizations that advocate for those looking for this care, for the trans and algae q community say it is not only drastic and unprecedented but also a dangerous move. i spoke to planned parenthood earlier today. they provide gender affirming

care in our state and they say though the attorney general has argued this is not a ban, that any rule or regulation that makes it significantly harder for an individual to get care is considered a ban. geoff: these rules are being challenged as we speak as i understand it. where do things stand? gabrielle: aclu legal, lambda legal and other organizations filed petitions hoping for a restraining order. that was earlier this week. on wednesday a judge halted the regulations from going into effect on thursday but it only lasts until monday. the judges says they would like to hear more from both sides. we are told we should get some type of judgment or ruling by 5:00 p.m. monday, which would be may 1. geoff: how are advocates and folks you've encountered in the course of your reporting responding to all of this? gabrielle: that's a good

question. one of the things i've been told a lot is organizations across our state have been thinking about this for a while. when the attorney general announced this would happen, they were already implementing, having things in place. planned parenthood clinics for r affirming care on the missouri and illinois side of the state line. they told me the clinics were full and they had to open up 200 extra appointments. also we hear from organizations such as promo, the executive director told me that what they want people to understand is they are trying to answer questions to those that would be most affected by this and make sure they know what is going on. further, they want people to understand there are actual human beings behind the policies and regulations that are being

challenged right now and so that's what they are hoping people consider as they work to bring care and resources to people across our state. until then, we will keep our eye on this as we await a decision by monday's deadline. geoff: gabby, thanks so much. ♪ amna: we turn to the analysis of brooks and capehart. that's new york times columnist david brooks and jonathan capehart, associate editor for the washington post. this week so the end of probably the worst kept secret in all of washington it is fair to say. pridbide oicy anunci his reelection campaign. we should note this comes as the latest newshour/npr poll shows his approval rating at about 41%.

david, once upon a time there was a thing called an announcement bounce, you see your numbers go up a little bit. will we see that or are these times different? david: i would bet my bottom dollar we do not. he has been around 41, 42, 43 for the longest time. to my view, he's passed a lot of legislation. when you look at the polls, it is sobering for anyone in the biden camp. presidential approvals are a good predictor for where the vote will end up and it is true that barack obama at this stage had another four points decline. he didn't rise at the end of his term. it is possible. joe biden is just not where he should be to have an easy reelects. when you look at him running head-to-head with donald trump, pretty much dead even. for all that's happened to donald trump the last couple of years, he is still end -- and now. amna: he's passed a lot of

legislation and i was surprised in that video we didn't hear a lot about it. should he be talking more about what he's gotten done? jonathan: this is the opening video. do you want it to be a couple of minutes or an hour long special? [laughter] he will be talking about his record down the road. that opening video is about making the case and the rationale for the candidacy in the same way he did for years to the day earlier. it's about the battle for the soul of america with the tagline of let's finish the job. meaning he started with the tiki torch guys from charlottesville and started now with the insurrection on january 6. finish the job, restore the soul of the country and then finish the job in terms of the things he's trying to get done. the pushback about polls being a predictor of what will happen to the president, we just have the ultimate whole in the midterm elections where the president's

approval rating was stuck in the low 40's, some in the high 30's. people predicting 60 republican seats in the house and maybe taking over the senate and none of that happened. i think that's because the american people were able to do a couple of things -- more than a couple of things at the same time. they blame the president because he's the president but they also see what the big issues are. i think the biggest poll more than a year out will be november 2024. geoff: when people had to the -- amna: when people had to the voting booth. back to the soul of the nation. this moment is different than 2020, the eminence he of the threat to democracy, the chaos of the trump years, the thick of the pandemic. we are not there anymore. does that message still resonate? david: i still think it's the core message and i love the phrasing, it suggests that a miracle has a moral essence. and that is under threat. in my view it's under threat

from a moralistic realism not only of trump trumpism, -- trump trumpism, the idea that you just take care of yourself. it is a lot of the philosophy of the trump worldview. it's like we can't help ukrainians, we have to take care of ourselves. i think biden's worldview was very different, that we have to be a good country, good at defending democracy, good on race, good unfairness, good to the marginalized. unlike other presidential elections there is a contest between a moral vision and a moral realism. i think he is right to highlight that. amna: one about the role vice president harris will play? jonathan: this is where, to take the baton from david, this is where vice president harris is at her best. i think probably twof the

darkly best things to happen to her, adopts decision, because she went right out there and started talking about freedom and liberty for women and their choices about their own health care, and then if you tie in tennessee. the killing of tyre nichols, where she spoke at the funeral, off-the-cuff, no notes. more importantly when she went on a surprise trip to nashville and met with the tennessee three and gave a barnburner of a 20 minute speech -- not a campaign speech, but a speech where the subtext was the soul of america. it was really about freedom and liberty and the ability of the american people to send people to state legislatures in order for their voices to be heard and it is antidemocratic and not right to silence those voices. you must watch that speech. if you want to see the real, true, harris and what drives her and her values, that is it.

what david said about the president, at to that what i just set about vice president harris and you have a formidable ticket going into 2024. amna: she was tethered to the senate for so long, having to be the tiebreaker. we are seeing her out and about more now. jonathan: right, between being freed to having to cast a tiebreak vote but also the pandemic, i think those things stunted her ability to get out and really own the job. amna: this week we also saw a mt powerful conservative platform in the country, primetime host tucker cared fm fox. what does this mean? david: foxes and entertainment network but also a company. executives don't like it when you annoy them over and over and over again. one has a sense that he was sending emails, internal fights and squabbles, he was going further than they were comfortable with. one thing we know about fox is

it is bigger than any person on fox, they got rid of bill o'reilly and megyn kelly, they will get rid of you if you think you're bigger than fox. it was a very bold move, their viewership has fallen by half. i was shocked, i thought they would never do it but tucker has successfully built a successful thing of doing what he does. they decided business over pleasure. amna: were you shocked? jonathan: i was shocked at some leave because you get to the lever of tucker or o'reilly and you think they are untouchable i went point that at which point the company says you are more of a liability than we care to deal with. what impact will tucker's firing and disappearance from fox have on the republican party? will they stand on their own feet and start articulating a vision for the party into the country that is independent of tucker carlson an fox?

i don't know if they know how to do that anymore. amna: to someone else step into that role? we have to point out that the lie of the 2020 election being stolen, tucker carlson was one of the leading voices in that. david: he was following the audience not leadingiew. t he saw with the audience wanted, he brought it to fox and he represents one version of the republican future, which is a pure populist vision. he was very against hedge funds and corporations, big tech. he takes social conservatism and anticorporate populism and that's one version of the republican future. i think the audience will be there and if the audience is there, tucker will be on another network and whoever steps in to be the new tucker will probably be there as well. amna: we have a minute and a half left. jonathan, on the white house perspective, we now have when it comes to the debt ceiling debate come of the opening salvo from house republicans. the spending plan that speaker

mccarthy has wrangled his conference to get behind. what do you make of the way president biden is saying no negotiations? jonathan: i think the president's right. in a perfect world, the president presents his budget, which he did last month. the speaker of the house presents his budget, which he has yet to do. instead he has passed by two votes a spending plan that holds the debt ceiling hostage in order to get it done. what should be happening is dual track conversations -a clean debt ceiling bill while at the same time the president with his budget and the speaker with republican budget, hammering out all the things they want to do, and that's not happening. i think the president is saying i'm ready to negotiate when you want to negotiate a budget but i will not negotiate the debt ceiling. david: i think the biden people

thought mccarthy could never do this. they thought they would be too many dissenters and mccarthy pulled it off. republicans have leverage on the debt ceiling and that's we've got to meet them. amna: we will be speaking about this a lot more i am sure. thank you so much. ♪ geoff: a new film, "are you there, god? it's me, margaret" is once again shining a spotlight on judy blume, author of the original novel for young readers, and many other books that deal with issues of sexuality and adolescence rarely found elsewhere when blume was writing. the books endeared her to generations of readers, but also brought contention, including bans, that are once again front and center. jeffrey brown has part two of his report from florida, for our arts and culture series, canvas.

judy: i love petting my books. jeffery: in 2023, at age 85, judy blume is a bookstore owner in key west, florida. in 1970, she was a restless suburban new jersey wife and mother, when are you there, god? it's me, margaret came out, featuring an 11 year old protagonist concerned with getting her first period and developing breasts. the book would change blume's life. judy: i was a young writer, and a new, new writer. i was young in my life experiences. i may have been almost 30 when i wrote the book, and i had two kids, i was married, and i was supposed to be grown up. but really i was still growing up. when that book came out, i was so naïve i think that i didn't even know to be anxious over reviews. i learned that. jeffery: what about the subject matter? were you anxious over putting

that into the world? judy: i was not. maybe the publisher was. [laughter] jeffery: many books later, and some 90 million copies sold in 32 languages, blume and her publishers have done just fine. judy: did you know there is a movie? jeffery: but it began, she says, with a simple, and for so many readers, relatable feeling. judy: i was really writing it from what i remembered, from what i knew to be true. i wanted to be normal. it's not that i wanted to be big or strong or anything. i wanted to know that i was normal. that was the big thing. jeffery: just normal. judy: normal would have been good. jeffery: normal would have been good, yeah. her books for middle grade and young adults made 'normal' the inner realities and confusions of her characters and her readers. she also wrote books, including the 'fudge' series, for younger children, and novels for adults, including wifey, about an unhappy suburban housewife, not unlike judy blume herself in her

30's. and 2015's in the unlikely event, which she called her final book. maybe so, but blume, happily married for 35 years to her third husband, george cooper, is suddenly in the midst of a mini renaissance, with the new film version of margaret, an upcoming series, based on forever, her novel of teenage lovers, and two more in development adapted from her novel from adults, summer sisters, and the fudge series. there's also a documentary on her life, judy blume forever, that features celebrity and other women talking of the impact blume had on their lives. over the years, blume has received thousands of letters from young people looking to her as someone they could confide in. judy: dear judy, i am in fifth grade and developing. jeffery: it brought her joy and friendships but more. judy: it was a huge responsibility. jeffery: you felt it?

judy: yeah, i did, especially, you know, for all the kids who really needed to let out some kind of serious thing that was going on in their lives. i went to a therapist and i said, you have to help me here because i want to save this one and this one into this one. i have to save them. jeffery: you felt personally you had to save them. judy: yes i did. she said to me, your job isn't to save them. your job is to be a friend that they can trust and you're there for them. that's what you can do. but also we talked about how to, you know, try and get professional help for the ones who really needed it. to provide phone numbers and everything. it was very tough. jeffery: of course, it wasn't all about traumas. in 2004, i spoke to blume after she'd been honored by the national book foundation for her distinguished contribution to american letters.

you read a very funny letter at the book awards. someone asked you to send, what was it, the facts of life? judy: please send me the facts of life in number order. i love that. i'm still trying to figure that out. what is the number order? jeffery: a more serious issue blume is still dealing with: actions to ban books by her and others. according to the free speech advocacy group, pen america, several of blume's books were banned last fall in school districts in texas, pennsylvania, utah and here in florida. her book, forever, has been on the american library associations' list of the 100 most frequently challenged books since 1990. it's a battle she's fought since the 1980's and the rise of the christian right. judy: it was pretty bad then. but nothing like what's going on now. there are people in power who want to control everything.

jeffery: she is fiercely critical of florida governor ron desantis and new requirements to review books based on a state list of guidelines. critics say this has led to removal of books focused on gender identity, sex and race. one florida bill would prevent the teaching of, or by some interpretations even talking about, menstruation before the sixth grade, even though studies show many girls have periods earlier. on twitter, referring to her beloved 1970's novel, blume wrote: sorry, margaret. your reaction to this bill? judy: cuckoo. impossible. disgusting. fascist. i don't know. all of those words and many many more. i hear there are groups around here, and they will say -- this is what i think, this is what i've read -- that we want to protect our children. we don't want them to read

anything that isn't nice. we don't want them, you know, everything should have a happy ending. we don't want, basically we don't want them to think. we don't want them to ask questions. you know, we just want their lives to be perfect. well, that's not possible, because lives are not perfect and kids have a lot going on. and you can't control that. you cannot control that. jeffery: her solution, as always -- books and more books. what gave her life as a child, writer n boorewner. one thing judy blume has never liked talking about, her legacy. too high-falutin' for her, perhaps. but amid this later in life re-blooming, she had an answer. judy: i want a stone that says are you there god, it is me

judy. [laughter] but legacy, having touched lives, i guess. jeffery: that's a pretty big thing. judy: that's a legacy. jeffery: for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown in key west, florida. amna: great interview with a living legend. be sure to tune into washington week later tonight, hosted by our colleague laura barone lopez. geoff: and watch pbs news weekend tomorrow for a look at the teacher shortage in rural america. that is the newshour for tonight. amna: thank you for joining us. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- ♪

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♪ >> hello, everyone. and welcome to "amanpour and company." here's what's coming up. >> it was simply outrageous he got picked up during his job. >> as america's biggest newspapers call for the release of evan gershkovich, jailed by russia, i asked has boss, am a talker, -- emma tucker, what it will take to free him. and i will speak to the daughter of the movement's imprisons a leader. also ahead -- >> these are kids who are in meatpacking plants. >> putting children to work. we will ask washington post reporter jacob bogage why they want to relax child labor laws.