♪ geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i'm amna nawaz. on the "newshour" tonight, india begins its official investigation into the train crash that killed hundreds. a disaster that highlights the country's aging and dangerous rail infrastructure. geoff: journalists at newspapers owned by gannett walk off the job to protest the media company's pay and working conditions. amna: and a small town in texas finds itself embroiled in controversy as national politics fuels local pushback against lgbtq rights. >> literally just children doing crafts and art, and having fun and existing, and they still show up to protest just their existence and them gathering. ♪

>> major funding for the "pbs newshour" has been provided by -- with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the newshour, including leonard and norma clorevine, and koo and patricia yuen. >> it was like an ah ha moment. this is what i love doing. early-stage companies have this energy that energizes me. these are people who are trying to change the world. when i volunteer with women entrepreneurs, it is the same thing. i'm helping people reach their dreams. i'm thriving by helping others every day. people who know, know bdo. >> the william and flora hewlett foundation. for more than 50 years, advancing ideas and supporting

institutions to promote a better world at hewlett.org. ♪ >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. ♪ >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. amna: welcome to the newshour. new findings out tonight show the main cause of the climate crisis is rapidly getting worse. carbon dioxide in the atmosphere

hit record levels in the spring, the highest in more than four million years. geoff: the national oceanic and atmospheric administration also ports the build-up of the heat-trapping gas is accelerating. this year's rate of increase was one of the largest ever, and due almost entirely to burning coal, oil and gas. amna: in the day's other headlines, survivors and families in eastern india are demanding answers after a rail disaster that killed 275 people. investigators focused on the cause today as relatives waited for the remains of loved ones. stephanie sy has our report. stephanie: the search for survivors is waning, but the search for answers continues. today, as repair workers dug through the mangled wreckage, investigators launched a two-day probe into what caused one of the deadliest train disasters india has seen in decades. >> the inquiry is underway. we have called all the witnesses for the inquiry, and after it is

over, only then we will know what is the reason for the accident. stephanie: early findings point to a signaling error that led a train to mistakenly switch tracks. officials say a south-bound passenger train collided with a stationary freight train in the eastern district of balasore. that caused several cars to derail, striking a third train speeding by. in the days since, only a fraction of the dead have been identified. a shortage of morgues forced about 100 unclaimed bodies to a hospital in bhubaneswar, over 100 miles from the crash site. distraught relatives lined up outside to identify loved ones as their images, barely recognizable, popped up on a tv screen. >> i will die remembering him, i will die here if i don't get his body. i just want to take his dead body and go back home. stephanie: for others, the grief has already begun to set in. 20-year-old bijay lakshmi lost her husband in the crash.

unable to speak, her mother-in-law described her state of shock. >> she is just not in a position to talk. she has not eaten anything, she has not drunk anything, she has not even taken water. it is such a huge calamity, such grief and pain. she got married barely a year ago. stephanie: as families across india mourn, rail upper -- operations resume. passengers gazing out at the remains of a tragedy, yet to be explained. for the pbs, i'm stephanie sy. amna: india's huge rail network dates back to the british colonial era and has several hundred accidents every year. in ukraine, a surge in ground assaults by government forces fueled speculation today that a long-expected counter-offensive is finally beginning. russia's military claimed it repulsed attacks at five points in the donetsk region on sunday. russian deo purportedly showed

its forces throwing back the attackers. ukraine said its troops were gaining ground, and u.s. officials backed that claim. the u.s. and india have set out a road map for upgraded military cooperation to counter china and other challenges. defense secretary lloyd austin arrived in new delhi today and held talks on improving defense and security ties over five years. the agreement comes weeks before indian prime minister narendra modi makes a state visit to washington. in the meantime, the u.s. denounced what it called an unsafe maneuver by a chinese navy ship in the taiwan strait. it happened saturday as an american destroyer and a canadian frigate were transiting the disputed waterway. video taken on board those ships showed the chinese vessel cutting within 150 yards of the u.s. warship. today, the white house condemned the maneuver. >> when you have pieces of metal that size, whether it's in the air or on the sea and theya™re -- and they are operating that

close together, it wouldn't take much for an error in judgment or a mistake to get made, and somebody could get hurt. and that's just got to be unacceptable and it should be unacceptable to them as well. amna: this was the latest in a series of incidents between the u.s. and chinese militaries in recent weeks. search teams in davenport, iowa have now recovered the bodies of three men missing in last week's apartment building collapse. the police chief said today there's no indication that anyone else is missing. a large section of the century-old building came down on may 28. today, one of the tenants sued the city and the building's owners, charging they failed to warn anyone of the danger. we separate investigation is focusing on a business judge buzzed washington, d.c. a before crashing in southwestern virginia. fighter jets were scrambled but they reported the plane's pilot appeared to be unconscious. aerial footage showed the crash site on a heavily wooded

mountainside. remanence of the shattered plane littered the ground. all four people on board were killed. the biden administration announced $570 million in grants today to eliminate railroad crossings in 32 states. the funds will help build bridges and overpasses. in some placestrains stretching more than two miles can block crossings for hours. and on wall street, stocks edged lower as economic growth in may fell short of expectations. the dow jones industrial average lost nearly 200 points to close below 33,563. the nasdaq fell 11 points. the s&p 500 was down 8 points. and a former fbi agent who spied for the soviet union and then, -- and then russia for 16 years has died. robert hanssen was found unresponsive today in his federal prison cell in colorado. he'd been sentenced in 2002 to life behind bars. robert hanssen was 79 years old.

still to come on the newshour, tamara keith and amy walter break down the latest gop campaign events in iowa. more republican-led states abandon an election database designed to combat voter fraud. a florida professor breaks the record for days lived underwater. 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: hundreds of journalists employed by gannett, the country's largest newspaper chain, went on strike today. staffers from two dozen newsrooms from california to new york walked off the job, demanding livable wages, and accusing gannett leadership of decimating its newsrooms. we are joined by steven waldman, chair of "the rebuild local news coalition," a non-profit that aims to advance policies to counter the collapse of local

news and co-founder of "report for america." thanks for being with us. this walkout, and includes workers from two dozen newsrooms to include the palm beach post, the arizona republic, the austin american statesman. help us understand the significance of this action today? steven: this is really just a boiling over of this terrible situation we are having with the collapse of local news. in general, around the country, we have seen a dramatic retraction of newspapers shutting down, reporters being laid off, and kennett has been in the center of that. they have shed almost half of the newspaper staff in two years. this is the reporters trying to react as best they can to what is -- what has been happening. it is a reflection of a bigger problem, wages america's local

news system is collapsing. geoff: the news guild, which represents 1000 gannett stafrs, they wrecked they sent a letter to gannett shareholders urging a no-confidence vote against mike reeve, the company's's chief executive and chairman. what are the employees demanding? steven: they want new leadership that would be more likely to invest in and reverse the trend of financial stability by eliminating reporting jobs. there are gannett papers that are daily newspapers that have no reporters in them. which is a pretty astonishing thought. a daily newspaper without any reporters. it has really gotten that bad where the basic information that americans need in their communities is in many

communities, hard to come by. geoff: when we talk about the collapse of local news, a report last year found since the year 2005, the u.s. has lost more than a quarter of its newspapers and is on track to lose one third by the year 2025. what is lost when we lose local news outlets? steven: we are losing two newspapers a week in this country. that almost understates the problem. in addition to the newspapers going out of business, the ones that are still there, you have the ones like in salinas, california where you have the daily newspaper with no reporters. those are ghost newspapers. and it is a profound impact on american communities it has been shown over and over again that when local news was away, you have more corruption, higher taxes, you have more polarization. the collapse of local news is

related to the rise of polarization. what happens is that a vacuum that is created by the decline of local information gets filled by national, cable-tv, or social media. it is part of that trend, too. you end up with both a threat to democracy and its nitty-gritty way of you just don't have information of who to vote for, no one is holding the mayor accountable. but it also leads to the community which phrase. people don't know each other, they are not learning about their neighbors, and it contributes to this fragmentation that exists. the health of the democracy and the community are both drastically harmed by the decline of local news. geoff: a decline in advertising revenue, a decline in print circulation, but has hit local newspapers hard. is there a path back to profitability for these local news outlets? steven: we are seeing a new

local news system growing up that has a real shot. it is mostly family-owned owned or locally owned papers, not owned by chains, and nonprofits, that have been -- 350 have been created in the last few years. those two groups have found a formula to get to breakeven. not necessarily wild prophets like they used to have. being a strong institution. that means it is not going to be done just through advertising. it has to be a combination of advertising, reader revenue through subscriptions, and probably philanthropy, to help make the lines meet. i would say probably taxpayer support in some cases is going to be needed to try to help save local news. geoff: steven waldman is chair of the rebuild local news coalition. thanks so much for your time. steven: thank you for having me.

♪ amna: the race for the 2024 gop nomination is heating up. one politician opted out today, but three others are waiting in the wings. as laura barron-lopez reports, most of the contenders were making the rounds in iowa this weekend. laura: one potential republican candidate sitting out. >> i've made the decision not to run for president on the republican ticket in 2024. laura: chris sununu, a fierce trump critic and the governor of first-in-the-nation primary state, new hampshire, choosing not to run against the former president. >> if you're not talking in resonance against the candidate who's right now winning by 20 or 30 points, then you're just potentially auditioning to be on his team. laura: for the gop hopefuls this weekend, an iowa tradition. senator joni ernst's annual roast and ride fundraiser. one of the first 2024 cattle

calls where nearly all the republican candidates made their case to early-state voters. former vice president mike pence teasing his official campaign launch set for later this week. >> i don't have anything to announce today, but i can tell you, when i got time to announce come this wednesday, i'm announcing in iowa. laura: noticeably absent? current poll-leader donald trump. other candidates like former u.n. ambassador nikki haley took aim at the former president, though not by name. >> it's time for a new generational leader. we've got to leave the baggage in the negativity behind. we've got a country to save. laura: a line she repeated during a cnn town hall last night, as she also attacked florida governor ron desantis for spending taxpayer dollars fighting disney. >> all this vendettas stuff? we have been down that road. we can't go down that. laura: back in iowa saturdaya -- saturday, desantis said the gop needs to nominate someone who can win a general election. >> we need to dispense with the

culture of losing that has beset the republican party in recent years. ios shows it can be done. florida shows it can be done. we had red waves in 2020 to the rest of the country not so much. laura: and former arkansas governor asa huchinson, a trump detractor, instead directed his ire to the current president. >> i'm running for president because joe biden's policy are the wrong direction for america. people ask me, what would you do on your first day in office? i'm signing an executive order reversing biden's executive orders. laura: he was not alone. south carolina senator tim scott pitched himself as the best candidate to take on democrats. >> i scare the dickens out of the radical left and joe biden. the proof of my life destroys their lies. laura: for nearly two hours, eight gop hopefuls the stage. though one of the first big multi-candidate events, it will hardly be the last. all the candidates will likely be frequent fliers to the

hawkeye state as they try to gain support and owners to qualify for the first republican primary debate in august. for the pbs, i'm laura barron-lopez. geoff: for more on how the 2024 republican field is shaping up, we turn to our politics monday team. that's amy walter of the cook political report, with amy walter, and tamara keith of npr. hello, hello. let's start our conversation about the 2024 raise with more about the politician says he will not get into this, new hampshire governor chris sununu. he wrote an op-ed which i will read. he says, if trump is the nominee, republicans will lose again as we did in 2018, 2020, and 2022. this is indisputable and i'm not willing to let it happen without a fight. he argues he will have more power and influence as a kingmaker in new hampshire. is he right about that? amy: i do not think so. i think there is about 10% to

15% of the republican electorate interested in a non-trump -- not just a non-trump candidate, but an anti-trump candidate. they appeal to those voters, very narrow. for the rest of republican voters, they are looking for maybe an alternative, maybe 50% to 60% looking for an alternative. . to donald trump they are not looking for an anti-trump. that is why governor sununu had a narrow lane. his ability in new hampshire, i would put a question mark next to in terms of being a kingmaker. in 2022, the candidates he endorsed went on to lose two candidates who filled much more of that trumpy category. geoff: i read analysis this morning that there are basically three lanes to pick up on what amy is talking about. the trump lane, ron desantis lane, and everybody else lane. does it mean for this race to have three more candidates jump

in this week? tamara: one thing that is clear is that donald trump not clear the race -- ranks. he has a lot of people who are looking for a possibility of being the anti-trap or alternative to trump, or the candidate who can the president for eight years and not just four years. and they are all still feeling out exactly how much they draw that contrast. they are all being so careful about it. chris christie, in theory, is careful and might break some glass. but the others are being so careful. as amy says, you can't be anti-trump when he is still this outsized figure in the party, even as he faces -- there was the insurrection and as he faces various investigations. the drama and the chaos that many voters have some reluctance about. it is still him versus the rest

of the field, which is what it ended up being in 2015, 2016. geoff: listening to nikki haley talking about how we have to leave behind that baggage, ron desantis talking about dispensing with the culture of losing. we're talking about donald trump but they are not naming. is that enough? tamara: we are going to find out soon enough. i think they are trying to make the case that hey, look, you can have all of the trumpism that you love, but it can be more effective, either effective in bringing people into the party, or with ron desantis, i will be a culture warrior who is more effective than donald trump. on some of the things like critical race theory, other issues that he has taken on in florida. the thing about -- we all know about politics, you can come up with a great idea and a test tube about what a campaign should be and what the voters want to hear. if they don't really think it is the right message, it is not

really going anywhere. it is pretty clear, there is some fatigue with donald trump from voters. does not mean they don't like him anymore. but is the fatigue about may the chaos, the divisions, the things he helped to sew, if they can keep that needle threaded, they might be able to convince voters who like donald trump to pick somebody else as the nominee. geoff: looking ahead, the republican national committee have announced the first 2024 republican presidential primary debate. they have also outlined the qualifying criteria. candidates have to register at least 1% in three national polls. they also need at least 40,000 donors with at least 200 donors per state in 20 plus states. candidates also have to pledge, agreement to support the eventual party nominee. dust donald trump participate --

does donald trump participate? >> and do some only chris christie who says he would not support donald trump as president, does he sign on to the pledge? this pledge is bigger than just that. it also includes agreements to share data and voter file information with the rnc. there is kind of a lot at stake for these candidates in making that decision. as it was in the past, will donald trump show up? this is a question that is frequently asked and he loves having asked. and he did not show up this weekend in iowa. will that affect them negatively? or does it make him look like the big guy who does not need to show up? if he appears on a stage with a minibus full of other candidates, which is what we are headed towards, does that make him look small when he is still -- many people in the republican party call him the president of the united states, not the former president.

does appearing on a debate stage bust his mystique of being a winner? and is he willing to do that? geoff: these rules are more stringent than what democrats were required of their candidates back in 2020. what is the rnc trying to achieve? amy: i think they would like to have as narrow of a stage as possible, in order to make it an interesting debate. you want to have the people on stage who have a reasonable chance of breaking through. the other thing we know about candidates who today are polling in low numbers, some of those candidates break through that we did not expect. i don't think pete buttigieg early on was expected to do as well as he did. or some of the other candidates in the past two started off at a low number. i think tim is right. it is not so much can they hit the thresholds, most of these candidates are hitting 1% in the national polls. they know how to get these donors.

the question will be, does donald trump show up? that is thing. geoff: can we draw on your white house report -- white house reporting? ? what is the word from the biden white house? what argument do they intend to make? tamara: they are making an argument that the president made in the oval office address on friday night, which is that here is a president who can get a big bipartisan deals done, that america needs to be less divided and he is a messenger of that less divided america. that same speech also included him going after -- he did not use maga republicans, but he meant it, going after republicans and policies he disagrees with. saying, these are not the republicans i can work with that i used to work with that i knew from the senate. notably, his campaign, don't expect to see big campaign rallies or big events anytime soon. he is the president of the united states, and his campaign is very few people, being

scaffolded by the democratic national committee. they are not acting like they have a primary, because they are not quite to have debates. geoff: tamara keith and amy walter, thank you both. ♪ amna: in texas, lgbtq rights are under attack everywhere from the halls of the capitol to the streets of small towns. on friday, republican governor greg abbott signed into law a ban on gender affirming care for minors. republican lawmakers have also targeted drag performers. laura barron-lopez is back, with her report from one texas town where a fight over drag has exposed deep divisions. laura: once a month in taylor, texas, lgbtq families and supporters gather to make art, watch movies, and show off their

talents. it is a space for members of the taylor pride group to connect. but wherever they go -- the taylor area ministerial alliance follows. >> you know you know that and you suppress that truth. laura: known here as tama, they protest these events, in their words, to evangelize. and so they have. every month, since denise rogers, who founded taylor pride in 2020. >> we are just trying to exist. they show up wherever we are every time. literally just children doing crafts and art and having fun and existing, and they still show up to protest just their existence and then gathering. laura: veterans and other groups stand guard outside the events. the taylor police are stationed nearby to keep the peace. >> taylor is changing in a big way. it is easy now to say that taylor pride is part of the problem, because we are probably

the most noticeable change right now. >> taylor is a typical rural community in a lot of ways. but has changed a lot, i would say, recently. laura: jeff ribble is a pastor at the christ fellowship church and a member of tama. unapologetic about his anti-lgbtq beliefs. >> shouldn't those kids have a place to be able to be who they are and express their identity? >> i'm not saying they should not. when i go to an event whether it is the pride event in june or to the library, i'm not out there because i hate anybody. i'm out there because i actually love them. and the reason i'm out there, in love, is because i actually believe what the scripture says. that those lifestyles are opposed to god, they are deemed by god, and those who practice those lifestyles will experience how one day.

i believe that. laura: both ribble and rogers have put down roots in this railroad town, home to 17,000 people. it is growing rapidly, with the construction of a major samsung plant and rising costs in nearby austin driving families out of the city. families like alicia markham. she left austin for taylor into any 14. earlier this year, she opened a restaurant. she believes most of the community supports taylor's lgbtq residence. >> i think we should be all-inclusive here as a business owner here, my first and foremost mission is to serve the community in every sense of the word. and that means all of the community. laura: the road, and hallock and salazar runs a hot dog stand with her husband. she was born and raised in taylor, and worries some newcomers are forcing the city too far left. what do you think about the lgbtq community in taylor? >> very progressive.

i love their commitment. the only thing is i don't want to be pushed onto people that are not in that lifestyle. laura: some taylor residents point to a single event when they describe the divisions, the town christmas parade, which has come down this street for decades. that is put taylor on the front line of the war on lgbtq rights. in 2021, for the first time, the line of christmas floats main -- on main street included one from taylor pride, which carried drag queens. one of the performers was held alicia inspire. >> we were cheered and clapped for the entire parade. i felt like everyone enjoyed it. we did not hear any kind of backlash at all, until the following year. it's like it exploded all over facebook out of nowhere. ura: that explosion happened in the months leading up to the 2022 christmas parade. tam,a, which put on the parade

with the city, did not want any float with the drag queens. >> drag queens in a christmas float is not consistent with christianity as we believe it. last year, in the entry forms, we simply made a notation that said, all entries must conform with traditional family and biblical values. that created a firestorm. laura: residents like angelica salazar agreed with the exclusion of drag performers from the parade. >> i would say keep the drag queens out of it, because i equate drag queens with strippers. and keep it age-appropriate. go ahead, have your float like everybody else has their float. but keep the drag queens out of it. stepped in when they found out tam i changed the rules to exclude taylor pride. >> given we are a community that is very open and welcoming, our parade at its best includes people from throughout the community, we were put into a

difficult situation to make a call on how we would handle the parade. we did not want to disrupt their parade, but we did not want to be discriminatory and excluding those who wanted to participate in the parade as they had in the past. laura: last year, there were two back-to-back parades. one sponsored by the city that included taylor pride's float with drag queens. and one sponsored by tama that didn't. it was a short-term, local solution. as the tax on drag performers increase, fueled by republicans on the national stage. >> florida is where woke goes to die. >> we have had enough of drag queens gyrating in front of children. >>, which taxpayer money should go to fund drag queen story hours on military bases? laura: the agenda has taken hold in texas. >> i am speaking in opposition to sv 12. laura: or a ban on drag performances in front of kids

were among the dozens of anti-lgbtq bills introduced by republicans the session. >> drag shows are sexually explicit and exposes kids to sexuality and identity that should be resolved -- reserved for adults. laura: opponents say drag is an art form and parents should decide what is appropriate for their kids. ultimately, the explicit reference to drag is removed from the legislation due to fear of legal challenges. >> even though it does not specifically say drag anymore, it is still going to be a tool that can be used to target drag queens and the lgbtq community as a whole. these people can try to get us to go into our closets and tone ourselves down. and to be considered to be normal. but queer people have been around since the beginning of humankind and we are not going anywhere. laura: last month, officials approved the city's first-ever policy for events like parades.

it says come events cosponsored by the city must align with taylor's mission and vision, which means they will effectively be open to everyone. what do you think of a christmas parade in 2023 will look like? >> i think the city will have a christmas parade and will be inclusive of all groups. we would love for tama to be involved in that as well. laura: that may be wishful thinking. >> i would like to see a tama parade with biblical values. what the city does apart from that is their business. laura: denise rogers says what is happening in taylor and across texas is about more than parades. >> is really about eradicating an entire class of people. laura: and, she says, the rising ltd -- lgbtq efforts in red states across the country are being felt by lgbtq youth. >> they are feeling less

supportive, feeling like there are less resources. we worry about that. the kind of help they are reaching out for, we have a lot of scared youth for short. laura: rogers says that is why taylor pride will not stop holding events. even as people challenging their very existence stand at the door. for the pbs newshour, i am laura barron-lopez in taylor, texas. ♪ amna: a new investigative report reveals the roots of a growing movement to unravel a critical election integrity tool. the tool is called eric or the electronic registration information nter. simply it checks voter registration rolls from participating states against databases from other agencies, like social security or a state dmv. that helps states keep track of voters who passed away, or moved into or out of the state,

translating into a more accurate and up to date list of eligible voters. npr's miles parks has covered election security for years. he joins me now to unpack what he found and the potential impact on voter rolls across the country. good to see you. this system is created to improve the accuracy of voter rolls to help prevent voter fraud. do we know if it was working? miles: i think election officials, both democrats and republicans say it was. i had been covering voting for almost six years. . and never heard anyone criticize eric until last year. the program in 2021 caught more than 3 million records that were out of date for people that moved states. amna: and support on both sides of the aisle. there were as many as 33 member states in the district of columbia taking part, and then an exodus of sorts began. your team uncovered video of one official in louisiana, the secretary of state in january of

2022 announcing at an event louisiana would be quitting the program. here is that moment. >> this week, i signed a letter, a senate letter to the election registration information. to spending louisiana's participation in that program. -- suspending louisiana's participation in that program. amna: the applause that struck me. how do people know about this program? why did they care and why did they want to be out of it? miles: i was struck because i thought i was the only person who knew what eric was. you have this room full of people who were passionate about it. a week before that event, a far right website called the gateway pundit started writing articles about eric, saying it was a left-wing conspiracy to help democrats steal elections. none of that was true, but it started moving towards becoming a pressure campaign where we saw it start on this fringe website

make its way to these local integrity groups that have popped up since 2020, all over the country and found its way to state lawmakers, to state election officials, their emails, phone calls. we saw this entire pressure campaign build around e.r.i.c. until a number of states thought it was untenable. amna: how did it spread so quickly? who was talking about it and how many more groups like that one are there out there? miles: our investigations centered on a key trump ally, a very influential attorney republican electionos hgho thata she used to spread anti-eric misinformation. she runs a coalition of grassroots groups all over the country and she was telling all of these people, go to your state lawmakers. tell them to withdraw from e.r.i.c. she and a lot of the people in this world are claiming victory. amna: when you look at the map,

we mentioned there were 33 states and the district of columbia taking part in this e.r.i.c. program. and you see the member states at some point. we will show you the eight states that have since left. iowa, missouri, ohio, louisiana, virginia, florida, and alabama, all republican led. this program works when states take part in it. what are we talking about in terms of potential impact when states leave the program? miles: what we are talking about is less efficient and less secure elections. that is what every election official has told me. over time, if you have slight inaccuracies in your voter rolls, it will not be the next day after a staples out. and it means is over it can mean longer lines at precincts because they are less targeted for where people are living. it can mean election mail which can be information, mail ballots getting sent to the wrong places, which can be a security

issue as well as inefficiency. taxpayer dollars are going to pay for mail not being received by voters. there are all these different downstream he -- downstream effects from having less accurate voter rolls. the election experts i talked to were as concerned about what this says about the power of the election to noun movement in this country. we have seen this growing group of people motivated by former president trump to push these ideas that the 2020 election was stolen. we have not seen them get a lot of victories in terms of policy. we have not seen a lot of states go back to hand counting ballots, or get rid of mail voting or early voting. this is something that they planted their flag on last year and we are seeing states respond. amna: is it fair to say, and people should go to the website to read your report for the incredible reporting, these are groups arguing they want to prevent voter fraud? they want to protect election integrity. it seems like by leaving this program, they are doing the opposite.

miles: that is the common through-line with a lot of the election denial movement. pushing for policies in the name of election integrity that are acally hurting election integrity. and infant hand counting ballots, something that is a big priority. we know from research that hand counting ballots is a much less accurate way than using machines to count them. amna: is it fair to say that we will see other states leaving? miles: it is very possible. texas looks like they are up next. amna: miles parks of npr, fantastic reporting. thank you for joining us. miles: thank you for having me. geoff: and we'll be back shortly to hear from a professor about why he's living underwater. amna: but first, take a moment to hear from your local pbs station. it's a chance to offer your support, which helps keep programs like ours on the air.

♪ geoff: for those staying with us, we take a second look at a key part of florida's economy, oranges. this year, the state is proejcted to have a particularly bad citrus harvest. in this story that originally aired on pbs news weekend, william brangham examines what's driving this decline, and how it threatens a way of life for many floridians. william: in central florida, orange groves stretch for as far as the eye can see. what's not so visible is the disease that's slowing killing one of this state's biggest industries. so, if i didn't know better, i would look at this and think, like, oh, this looks like you've got a lot of fruit. the tree looks pretty decent to me. >> it looks like a lot of fruit because you don't know how much fruit should be on the tree. and so, it's not- these trees

are suffering. they are not generating an economic crop. william: frank hunt is a third generation citrus grower. his grandfather, deeley, started the hunt brothers family business in lake wales, florida a century ago. all that fruit that's dropped, that's waste. >> yeah, that's waste. you can't do anything with it. probably 50% to 60% of the crop that was set ultimately dropped on the ground before it's harvested. william: an insect-borne bacteria has infected virtually every orange tree in his groves. >> you know, some trees take a little longer than others to die, but we're basically fighting a losing battle, trying to sustain the tree. the plastic bins would be set on the conveyor. william: for the hunt brothers business, it has had a devastating impact. so this would have been full with oranges. >> full conveyor. full conveyor. william: millions of oranges were processed, sorted and shipped from this packing house. so, if i had been here at its peak, like, what would this have sounded like or looked like? >> we wouldn't have been talking right here, because the machinery is such that you would

have the conveyors running in all that. where we're standing actually was the packing area. reporter: this year, florida projects its orange harvest will -- you have got got a couple of cobwebs here. >> well, this is the first time i've walked back here in a while. so, if we start crying, ya'll forgive me. william: this year, florida projects its orange harvest will be the lowest since the 1930s. >> i look back to when i first started working citrus in 2004. florida produced over 220 million boxes of oranges. william: michael rogers is the director of the university of florida's citrus research and education center. >> fast forward 20 years and we can't produce enough oranges. we are down to 60 million bucks crop, from 220 million down to 16 million. william: while several factors are to blame for this crisis, hurricanes ian and nicole damaged a lot of trees when they

tore through florida last year, rogers says the main issue is this blight, which is known as citrus greening disease. it is spread by tiny insects, known as psyllids. while nearly impossible to see with the naked eye, their impact has been catastrophic. >> pretty much all the trees and commercial groves now in florida are infected with this disease. the ones that are not were planted yesterday, is what i tell people. because it doesn't take long for them to become infected. william: the disease slowly kills the roots, which starves the tree of nutrients. it often changes the color and ruins the taste of the fruit. that is if the fruit doesn't fall from the limb first, far too early to be harvested. >> before you see any symptoms of this disease in the plant, we will lose 30% to 40% of the root system. the leaves start to get these mottled appearances. they don't look nice, dark green, they look weak and stunted. >> a day without orange juice is like a day without sunshine. william: since the vast majority of florida's oranges are squeezed into juice, this disease has also squeezed wallets.

orange juice is just the latest staple to slam inflation-weary consumers. whether its fresh-squeezed or concentrated, retail prices have hit record highs for both. >> it is blueberry puree -- >> citrus greening has also hit smaller growers especially hard. >> most all of your mom and pop, i would say, farmers that had 10, 20, 40, 80 acres, they're very few and far between. william: archie ritch runs this general store in haines city, florida, selling his fruit into his freshly squeezed juice directly to customers. on top of citrus greening, last year's hurricanes left him with his worst orange harvest since he started here in 1992. five years from now, 10 years from now, are you still growing citrus in florida? >> it's hard for me to imagine florida without having citrus. i don't think it'll ever get back to where it was. >> this threat, we've never dealt with anything this severe

of this capacity where it has just brought our industry basically to its knees. william: brenda eubanks-burnette runs the florida citrus hall of fame. she has been involved in the industry since 1981, when she was named florida's citrus queen. once a queen, always a queen. william: i don't think i've ever interviewed a queen before. eubanks-burnette says citrus has always been a part of the state's dna and she remains optimistic about the future. >> we're seeing people investing back into the industry. so hopefully it's not something that's going to be completely going away. but there were some sometimes and we did not think that we were going to have an industry here in florida. william: back at the university of florida's citrus research facility, several solutions are being tested. one is growing trees under these gigantic protective canopies -- they are covered with a mesh that's fine enough to block the insects, but still allow rain and sunshine in. another is developing new, blight-resistant varieties of

citrus trees. >> there's a lot of things that we can do that are short term fixes to try to keep these trees healthy. but ultimately, the solution is going to come in the form of a new variety, a new citrus plant variety that's resistant to disease, whether it be through conventional breeding or genetic modification. william: but today, there is still no cure. and many of these solutions are not affordable for growers like frank hunt. but he's not giving up. hunt says he is passing is 4000 acres onto his son. >> the question would be is, is there anything for the generation after that? i don't know. and i don't know whathat will look like. william: it's a question many people here in florida are now asking. for pbs news weekend, i am william brangham in lake wales, florida.

amna: living under the sea is, for some, a nightmare, but for others, it's an important undertaking to see what oceanic pressure does to the human body. our digital anchor nicole ellis spoke to one such person who is staying 22 feet below the surface of a lagoon in key largo, florida. he's already long outlasted a previous record for living underwater and hopes to make it to 100 days. >> a professor has been living underwater without depressurization for over 75 days and plans to stay a little longer. joe did tori, also known as dr. deep-sea online, joins me to discuss his journey and research under the sea. this is not your first time tackling something like this. what motivated you to do it this time? >> interesting. would say it is i would say it is the culmination of my life

work. this is the pointy end of this beer. we took all the 28 years of navy experience, biomedical engineering, the zest for life and desire to explore, and we threw it all together and we were like, what happens to the human body when you leave it in an extreme environment? we will find out. nicole: what do you miss most about being on land? or what have you grown to appreciate more? >> two things very much so. tactile. there is lack of tactile function. the high-fives, handshakes, hugs, there is not a lot of that going on down here. the second thing, which was a little bit surprising to me, the sunlight winds up being something that you really need. you really do need it. and i miss that. i forget how much i am driven by the sun. nicole: this is obviously dedicated and an amash to science. what are some of the scientific

findings and things you hope to accomplish thrgh your research? >> my desire is to give a broader understanding to the world of the mechanism of action of hyperbaric medicine, such that we can apply it across a spectrum of things that are happening. like antiaging for our aging on -- aging population. including crohn's, all sorts of colitis, including things like traumac brain injury. nicole: what is hyperbaric medicine and how does this contribute to our understanding of how this could help resolve different issues like traumatic brain injuries? >> terrific question. hyper means more than. barrack means pressure. all we are doing is hyperbaric medicine. all of this is is pressurizing somebody, with oxygen or without oxygen. here i am underwater for 100 days. so far, my oxidative stretch is cut by two thirds.

every single inflammatory marker in my body is cut by half. these are preliminary results. only the first phase of them. we have more blood work to do. we have about 200 more blood, urine, and saliva tests. >> you have been down there for a while. what does a typical day look like for you? >> i wake up probably around 4:30 a.m., i have always been an early riser, i come in, have a couple cups of coffee. because science does not happen without coffee. i will eat a bunch of eggs in the morning, i will do my checks, figure out all the science i have to do for the day. mix it in with whatever interview i happen to have, for whatever outreach i have for the kids. mesh all that together, you have about six hours worth of science, two or three hours worth of outreach, in two or three hours of interviews are getting in line. then i go for a dive once a day. i go swim around the lagoon. yesterday, i found a seahorse.

it was great. the day before that, a manatee was in the lagoon. i got great video of the manatee. nicole: as a fellow diver, i am so envious. as you mentioned, this is for a purpose. i'm curious to hear from you what to take away -- want the world to take away from this? >> i want to find out what happens to the human in extreme environments. the second part is we are reaching out to the kids. when you speak with the kids about science, technology, engineering, and math, they are all high school, grade school kids. at first, they are sitting down, but i tell you, by the end of the hour-long lecture, they are hanging on their seat. they are like, i have one more question! the third and final thing is we are talking to experts. 60% to 70% of the world's oxygen comes from the ocean. we should start taking better care of it. then i share that with the kids and we raise awareness.

it is world oceans week coming up. nicole: would you do this again? >> absolutely. not tomorrow. but i would do it again. [laughter] nicole: thank you so much for joining me. for the pbs newshour, i am nicole ellis. amna: i hope he makes it to 100 days. geoff: his enthusiasm is infectious. amna: good luck to him. there is more online, including a look at how the congressional deal to raise the debt ceiling will impact federal student loan repayments. geoff: that is the newshour for tonight. i'm geoff bennett. amna: i am amna nawaz. on behalf of the nucera team, thank you for joining us. >> major funding for the "pbs newshour" has been provided by -- ♪ >> cunard is a proud supporter of public television. on a voyage with cunard, the world awaits. a world of flavor. diverse destinations. and immersive experiences.

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♪ >> hello. welcome to "amanpour & company." here's what's coming up. >> there is no question, russia is worse today than its invasion of ukraine. >> the u.s. secretary of state calls putin's war against ukraine a strategic failure. i asked the finnish foreign minister how joining nato is infecting finland, and how finland is changing nato. and troubling signs of democratic backsliding in guatemala. its most prominent journalist is in jail. today, a plea for justice from his son, jose carlos zamora. >> it's not an issue of deat