amna: i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett. on the newshour tonight, former president trump prepares to appear in court after being indicted for hoarding classified documents as his supporters rally to his side and miami police step up security. amna: nato secretary general jens stoltenberg discusses the ukrainian counteroffensive and the state of the ongoing war with russia. geoff: and families with transgender children struggle to navigate a wave of anti-trans politics. >> it feels ke we're being pushed out, pushed out of our home, pushed out of our state, i don't want to feel like we're refugees in our own country. ♪

>> major funding for the "pbs newshour" has been provided by -- and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the newshour, including leonard and norma clorevine, and koo and patricia yuen. >> 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. geoff: welcome to the newshour. former president donald trump is in miami tonight ahead of an initial court appearance tomorrow on a raft of federal criminal charges. all of them relate to his handling of classified documents

after he left office. amna: mr. trump and his supporters have lambasted the indictment and the biden justice department. that has officials in miami bracing for potential trouble at the federal courthouse. lisa desjardins reports. lisa: in miami today, security tape is going up and words of precaution are going out ahead of tomorrow's court appearance by donald trump. mayor francis suarez and teams that they are ready for up to 50,000 protesters. >> we hope tomorrow will be peaceful. we encourage people to be peaceful in them demonstrating how they feel. and we are going to have the adequate forces necessary to ensure that. lisa: 1000 miles away, mr. trump began his journey to court, boarding a plane in new jersey on route to florida. he will face 37 counts on charges he held onto hundreds of classified documents, including top military secrets, after

leaving the white house. and that he resisted requests and a subpoena to hand them over. friday's detailed indictment included photos of boxes sprawled throughout his mar-a-lago home, including in a bathroom, on a ballroom stage, and spilled over a storage room floor. >> this is the final battle. lisa: this after a weekend of not just denying and blasting the charges, but in an interview, trump called for supporters to go to miami and peacefully protest. . and rallies in north carolina and georgia, he urged resolve. >> we don't fold and go home. again, we want to drain the swamp, and i'm the only one that is going to do it. nobody else is going to do it. we know the competition. we know it. anyone else will be absolutely ripped to shreds. these are sick, sinister people. >> is the most political thing i've ever seen. lisa: his supporters and his republican presidential rivals have capped up a drumbeat in mr.

trump's defense, with some like key rival florida governor ron desantis choosing not to proclaim trump innocent, so much as to denounce the justice department as corrupt. >> our founding fathers would have absolutely predicted the weaponization we have seen with these agencies, particularly justice and fbi. when you don't have constitutional accountability, human nature is such that they will abuse their power. lisa: new today, trump's u.n. ambassador nikki haley told fox news that while she thinks the doj has lost all credibility, now, after looking at the details -- >> that -- if this indictment is true, if whait says is actually the case, president trump was incredibly reckless with our national security. lisa: sunday, mr. trump's's own attorney general in on the charges. >> even half of it is true, then he is coast. lisa: bill barr told fox news trump had no right to keep such sensitive records. >> i defend the president on

pressure gate, i stood up and called out alvin bragg's politicized hit job. this is simply not true. this particular episode of trying to retrieve those documents, the government acted responsibly, and it was donald j. trump who acted irresponsibly. lisa: that is not how most republican voters see it. a cbs news poll released yesterday found 76% of likely primary voters said they thought mr. trump's indictment was only politically motivated. at the white house, press secretary karine jean-pierre declined to respond to the indictment. >> is a president that respect the -- respects the rule of law, who wants to make sure and has proven that to be in his actions to make sure the department of justice is truly independent. not just going to speak to the case at all or comment on the case. lisa: the attention tomorrow centers around the federal courthouse in miami, and the

former president's court date, when his attorneys have said he will plead not guilty. amna: and lisa joins us now with more about how republicans are reacting to the indictment. good to see you. what have you been seeing in the days since the indictment? lisa: in the first day since we learned the news, but before we saw the details, there was a torrent of republican response, especially from his supporters in congrs. i want to go over the things we have heard. you have many who are pushing back at the department of justice like mike collins of georgia, who tweeted out this. he wanted to abolish the corrupt fbi and justice department. that was at one end of the criticism. lisa mclean of michigan, a member of house leadership, wrote the doj has become nothing more than a political weapon. there are others who we have seen republicans say this is hypocritical for the biden administration and a double standard. senator bill haggerty of tennessee wrote, there is a

two-tiered justice system on full display. the biden doj berries investigations. here goes into the biden family. this is something going on separately and the house where some house lawmakers are able to see an fbi report that accuses the biden family of bribery. it is unsubstantiated. there was not an investigation. the republicans are raising that as an example of a double standard. we know the fbi is investigating biden in terms of documents. that is ongoing. amna: this is what we have seen publicly in terms of people speaking out. you have been tracking who we have not heard anything from. what stands out? lisa: many republican sources i have talked to are not saying on the record what they are telling me privately. that they were looking at the indictment and we saw a change after the indictment came out. far fewer republicans have been responding at all. let's talk about who in particular has not said anything publicly. how about the top republican in the senate, senator mitch mcconnell. he had an opportunity to speak on the floor, did not talk about

the indictment. some other really significant ones with no public statement yet. look at this, at the top wrote, richard hudson, a member of house leadership. no statement. mike turner, chairman of the house intelligence committee. these are a portent republicans with no statement. amna: when you talk to folks whether they tell you privately or publicly, is there a sense of how republicans see this? will this help them or hurt them? lisa: this remains a divided party. i talked to a rategist who said, they were hoping this could be the thing that pushes president trump end of their party. they are not sure this is enough to derail his supporters. on the other hand, they think once we get in a general election, this is something that could hurt him in the fall. it does seem this is helping former president trump with fundraising. and energizing his supporters. amna: lisa desjardins, covering all of this for us. we will see what happens after tomorrow. good to see you. thank you. lisa: you too.

♪ geoff: in the day's other headlines, thousands of drivers confronted long delays and detours in philadelphia after part of interstate-95 collapsed. an overpass crumbled sunday when a tanker truck wrecked and burned beneath it. today, that section was closed in both directions indefinitely. officials warned it could take several months to repair the main north-south highway on the east coast. >> i 95 stretches from maine to miami. i dare you to find a more densely populated 40 or 50 mile area around 95 than right here where we are standing. so people are going to be impacted from new york city to well south of here. geoff: also today, the pennsylvania state police said authorities are working to identify a body recovered from the wreckage. in ukraine, government forces reported more small gains as a counter-offensive ramps up in

the country's southeast. the military said it has now re-captured the village of storozheve in the donetsk region. it said six other villages have also been retaken. military video showed soldiers unfolding the ukrainian flag amid abandoned russian trucks. their progress was being closely watched at the state department in washington. >> ukraine's success in the counteroffensive would do two things, it would strengthen its position at any negotiating table that emerges. and, it may have the effect as well, of actually causing putin to finally focus on negotiating an end to war that he started. geoff: there were also reports of heavy fighting today elsewhere along the front line in southern ukraine. president den had planned to talk about ukraine with the head of nato today but a root canal intervened. the white house says the president had annitial procedure on sunday, and additional work today. officials postponed the nato meeting until tomorrow.

iran is leaving open the possibility of a prisoner exchange with the u.s. the foreign ministry said today that negotiations are ongoing. a day earlier, iran's supreme leader ayatollah ali khamenei said there's "nothing wrong with restoring a nuclear deal with the west if iran keeps its nuclear infrastructure." the boastful italian billionaire who became a populist political leader silvio berlusconi died today. he had battled leukemia. stephanie sy reports on a career that sharply divided a country. stephanie: on the tv network where he built his own empire, it newscasters fought to hold back tears as they delivered the news. italy's longest-serving prime minister and a powerful media mogul was dead. in his nearly three decades in politics, he polarized the country. but became one of italy's most influential leaders. >> silvio berlusconi was most of

all a fighter. he was a man who never feared to defend his beliefs. >> silvio berlusconi ate his name is a business taken. he built -- and he used that wealth and influence to take power with his boards a italian center-right alliance, berlusconi was first elected as prime minister in 1994, and then again in 2001 and 2008. but he was forced to resign in 2011 after losing a parliamentary majority, and as italy's debt soared. in 2012, he was convicted of tax fraud, and banned from public office for several years. beyond politics, he made headlines for his private life, epitomized by his notorious parties, and a several sex scandals including claims of unlawful sex with a minor.

berlusconi denied wrongdoing but crassly admitted his pursuit of young women. >> i have always worked with no interruption. if i sometimes see a beautiful girl, as say, better to like girls than to be gay. stephanie: last year, he brought his party back to power by siding with far right brothers of italy, led by prime minister giorgia meloni. he also cultivated relationships with other controversial leaders, including with russian president vladimir putin, a friendship that put him at odds with maloney. a political player until almost the end, he died in a milan hospital this morning where he was being treated for chronic leukemia. silvio berlusconi was 86 years old. for the pbs newshour i am stephanie sy. geoff: a state funeral will be held wednesday in milan. back in this country, a first of its kind trial began in montana, as 16 young plaintiffs pressed for stronger climate action. they range from ages 5 to 22,

and their lawsuit contends montana's ties to fossil fuel will endanger public health for generations to come. dozens of similar lawsuits are pending across the country. the united states will rejoin the u.n. cultural and scientific agency unesco after a 12-year absence. the u.s. was once the agency's biggest funder, but withdrew in 2011 to protest admitting the palestinians as in effect an independent state. american officials say rejoining will help counter china's growing influence. on wall street, stocks rose on hopes that the economy can avoid a recession. the dow jones industrial average gained 189 points to close at 34,066. the nasdaq rose 202 points, 1.5%. the s&p 500 added 40, hitting its highest close in more than a year. and, broadway has bestowed this year's top honors with the 2023 tony awards. the musical-comedy kimberly akimbo won 5 awards last night, including best musical.

tom stoppard's semi-auto-biographical work "leopold-shtadt" took the prize for best play. and non-binary actors won tonys for the first time, j. harrison ghee in "some like it hot," and alex newell in "shucked." still to come on the "newshour," the head of nato discusses the ukrainian counteroffensive against the russian invasion. increasingly severe weather causes major insurance providers to pull coverage in california. and playwright michael r. jackson gives a brief but spectacular take on writing from the inside out. >> this is the pbs newshour from weta studios in washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona ste amna: in the days ae latest indictment of former president trump, violent rhetoric has been escalating in online forums and in far right militia groups. this coupled with heated and combative messaging from trump and his republican allies has

extremism watchers on high alert. following this all closely is jeff charlotte, he is a professor at dartmouth college in his new book "the undertow: scenes from a slow civil war," chronicles the rise of right wing extremism over the last decade. i would like to ask for your help in translating some of the response we have scenes -- seen from some wiccans after the indictment of former president trump. this from a congressman from clay higgins of louisiana. if you look at this tweet,he said "president trump said he has "been summoned to appear at the federal courthouse in miami on tuesday at 3:00 p.m.," is a -- this is a perimeter probe from the passers hold. our potus has this. buckle up. 150 k, know your bridges. that is all." when you read that, can you help us understand, what is he talking about and why did it catch your attention? jeff: because it is such a

specific call to prepare for battle. a perimeter probe, he is saying the oppressors, by which he means he refers to the cabal or the bio town. these are key when on the federal government. he is testing the strength of the real people. our potus, a term he has been using for several years, is the real potus. buckle up, get ready. about 150 k, i had to do research. that is the ratio, the scale of military grade maps. know your bridges. that is militia speak for understand the point of attack, literally. know the bridges that you can seize and hold and stop federal forces from coming in. amna: why is it concerning for you to see ts kind of language? how surprising is it to see this language from a sitting member of congress? jeff: he is not just a sitting member of congress. he has both militia credibility,

and he has been elevated by his party to chair of the border security subcommittee on the homeland security committee. he identifies himself as a member of a militia movement called the 3 percenter. he first did so publicly speaking to a gas lobbyist. he has been doubling down. he has appeared with the oath keepers, whose leader is serving 18 years. since that tweet, he said there are 3% solutions to the indictments. amna: he is not alone in using this military or violent reference in his language. we have had a congressman from arizona who tweeted, we have now reached a war phase. the candidate kari lake was speaking and said, if you want to get to president trump, you have to go through me and 75 million americans like me, and most of us are card-carrying members of the nra. when you listen to all of this, do you believe there is a threat of more political violence

around mr. trump's indictment, or as soon as tomorrow when he is arraigned? jeff: my guess is there will not be a january 6 like event tomorrow in miami, precisely because so many militia members had been arrested. they are afraid of infiltration, at the fbi. they have moved to a different kind of action. the other risk is the way this language incites those whom we think of as lone wolves. the mass shooters who manifesto after manifesto refer to this political rhetoric and tl each other to go forward, carry the fight on. amna: tell me about that. from what we know about how this rise of domestic extremism has occurred, it does not seem like it takes elarate planning. it is often an individual with a set of grievances who is motivated by language like this. is that what we are seeing as the trend? jeff: yeah, but i would question the individual. when you look at the manifestos,

they oftentimes cut and paste from the previous one, they refer to the previous one, they say this is part of a long struggle. they see themselves as soldiers in a war. then you have other people like general mike flynn, who may be in a mainstream world is considered ridiculous, but still holds his status as trump's first national security advisor and a man we may see in power again if trump returns calling for open war. amna: would it take to stamp out this rhetoric? all of this in support of former president trump. if he were to come out and unequivocally say, there is no room for political violence in this country, with that end it? jeff: no. after seven years, are we really expecting that to happen? maybe now -- i don't think it would. the movement goes trumpism is bigger than trump. he has made himself the martyr of the movement. but the movement in the minds of

men like clay higgins and those who even see trump as soft for not going into open combat, is larger than him. the anger that trump invokes, he is trying to keep up. in a saturday night speech, he says, either we did -- they destroy us or we destroy them. i don't think he is speaking metaphorically. amna: for those who believe in small d democratic ideals, what is the appropriate way to handle these ideas of metta -- of political violence? do we echo five m by covering them? jeff: pretending they are not there is not going to work. it is a big part of the american landscape. we can't fat -- we can't fact check a myth, but we can interpret it. we can say, here is what is happening and how we organize. the other thing we can do is support the rule of law. what is happening tomorrow in miami is the most important part of this work. we proceed with the work of democracy. we proceed with the work of the

rule of law. those of us in the press pay attention, interpret, and call out what it is. we have to get away from saying, this is not conservative rhetoric. this is fascist rhetoric. this is violent rhetoric. and we have to name it as such. amna: that is jeff sharlet, professor at dart meant college -- dartmouth college. thank you for your time. jeff: thank you. ♪ geoff: president biden will meet with outgoing nato secretary-general jens stoltenberg tomorrow. they are expected to discuss russia's ongoing invasion of ukraine, and efforts to persuade fellow nato member turkey to back off blocking sweden from joining the alliance. stoltenberg's tenure as nato leader ends in september, and a number of countries are competing for who will replace him. joining us now is the nato secretary-genel, jens stoltenberg.

thank you for being with us. >> thank you for having me. geoff: ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy has been imploring native leaders to put ukraine on a concrete path to membership. he has said he would not. next month at the nato summit without a clear signal about ukraine becoming a full member of that alliance. since there is no consensus among member nations on this matter, what are you prepared to give ukraine? what promise, what kind of commitment? sec. gen. stoltenberg: first and foremost, the most important thing that will happen at the nato summit in july is that nato allies will express strong support to ukraine. not only words, but in deeds. because nato allies will make new announcements of significant military support to ukraine and to promise to sustain and step

it up. because we will make it possible to support ukraine as long as it takes. then on the issue of membership, yes, there are consultations going on among allies. and we have not concluded them. it is too early to figure out the outcome. but allies agree on a lot. . we agree that nato is open, as we have demonstrated with sweden for new members. we agree that ukraine will become a member of this alliance. this has stated many times by nato. and at the summit last year. and we agree it is for ukraine and nato allies to decide whether the time is right. it is not for russia. i am confident that at the nato summit, there will be a strong message on ukraine, because we need to stand by ukraine. geoff: you are saying you are confident that ukraine will become a full member of the

alliance, how do you respond to what president zelenskyy told the wall street journal? he said how many lives of ukrainians are worth "ukraine will be in nato after this war"? how do you respond to that? sec. gen. stoltenberg: i understand he is pushing for a clear timable for nato membership. at the same time, i believe it is not possible to give precise dates when we are in the midst of a war. and i think also, all allies will express the most urgent talks now are to ensure that ukraine pervades as a servant independent -- a independent nation. because unless ukraine prevails, then there is no membership to be discussed at all. because they are only a servant in the democratic crane -- ukraine that can become a nato member.

i think you will agree on a multiyear program for how to ensure the transition of the ukrainian armed forces from the soviet standards, doctrines, to nato standards and doctrines and to make sure that they are operable within nato. geoff: ukraine long anticipated counteroffensive is underway. in nato's view, what does a cousin -- a successful counteroffensive look like? sec. gen. stoltenberg: the aim is to liberate ukrainian land and to send the message to moscow that they will not win on the battlefield. russia will not achieve its goals. and at some stage, russia needs to realize they have to sit down and negotiate it, a lasting peace for ukraine. it is encouraging toee that the ukrainians are making progress. but of course, wars are

unpredictable. it is not possible now to say when and how the war will end, and of course to predict the outcome of this offensive. geoff: ukraine says success is taking back that donetsk in crimea. is nato prepared to support ukraine not far? sec. gen. stoltenberg: we support ukraine because we need to remember that this is a war of aggression. russia has invaded another country, violated international law, by sending hundreds of thousands of soldiers, and armor and missiles against a sovereign country in europe. nato allies, the director of self defense is enshrined in that. what nato allies do is we support ukrainian upholding that right. that does not make nato a partner to the conflict. we will support ukraine for as

long as it takes. geoff: china has remained conspicuously close to russia as this war has progressed. how has the alliance planted to confront the challenges posed by beijing? sec. gen. stoltenberg: it demonstrates that security is not regional anymore. it is global. what happens in europe matters for asia. what happens in asia matters for europe. nato will remain an alliance of north america and europe. this region of north america and europe faces global threats, and that includes the fact that china is investing more and more in advanced military capabilities, nuclear weapons, and also trying to frighten neighbors around the world. and then the fact that china and russia are coming closer and closer. they just conducted a big nato exercise together. we see more russia and chinese

joint naval and air patrols. this makes it more important as a nato alliance as it addresses the challenges, by china. and that we stand together in addressing the security consequences of china. geoff: to your point about the region facing persistent threats, what about sweden? one of the prospects for sweden to join the alliance? you were at erdogan's and aguirre show. you met with him. will turkey allow sweden to become a member of nato by next month's summit? sec. gen. stoltenberg: i'm confident sweden will become a full member. and it is possible that can happen by the nato summit next month. but i cannot guarantee that. what can say is that i met someone recently in connection with the inauguration. we had a very good meeting. we agreed to convene what we call a permanent mechanism,

which is something we established last year between finland, sweden, and turkey care they are meeting this week in turkey. with nato. to address the differences that still exist, to ensure that we make progress on making sweden a full member of our alliance. sweden has come a long way. because we invited them in madrid. since then, they have obtained a status that makes them integrating more structure and at the nato table, but need full ratification. we are working hard to make that happen as soon as possible. geoff: we should note that you have led nato since 2014. you have in the past extended your term. if you are asked to extend your term yet again, will you? sec. gen. stoltenberg: i'm absolutely confident that this great alliance will be able to find a great successor.

and my focus now is on leading the alliance until my 10 year ends this fall. i'm focused on that. and i'm confident the 31 allies will find a successor to replace me. geoff: i hear your confidence but i did not hear a "no." sec. gen. stoltenberg: i know all the plans -- i don't know of all the plans. to end my tenure, i have been extended three times, the plan was to be here for four years. i've been here for nine years. i think the good thing for everyone now is to have another person at the helm of the alliance. . might this -- my focus is on being here, leading the alliance until this new person is in place. geoff: jens stoltenberg is the nato secretary general p things for your time. we appreciate it. sec. gen. stoltenberg: thank you so much. ♪

amna: the smoky air that shut down so much outdoor activity in the northeast last week was a sobering reminder of the widespread impacts of wildfires and climate change. there's been a different kind of impact in california as well, one that's also partially tied to wildfires. william brangham focuses on that part of the story and what it could mean for insurance in the golden state. william: for years, state farm has been the largest provider of homeowners insurance in california. but it recently announced it will no longer sell new homeowners policies in the state. it said the move was driven by the high cost of construction, and the growing risks from catastrophes like wildfires. state farm's move followed a similar one by allstate insurance, and other pullbacks from insurers like chubb and american international group, who decided not to renew some existing policies. so what does this mean for

homeowners and other businesses in a state with increasing risks from wildfire and other extreme climate driven events? michael wara is a lawyer and senior fellow at the woods institute for the environment at stanford university. thank you so much for being here. can you tell us more about what is driving this move by the insurance companies? they cited these two risks, the increasing risk of fires burning structures, and the increased cost of building or rebuilding those structures. what else is there? michael: i think what is driving a lot of this instability in the insurance market has to do with the rapidly changing risk of wildfire interacting with a regulatory system, which by design, changes quite slowly. in particular, and allows price increases that occur very slowly. we have a lag, and the challenge layered on top of that has been, as everyone has experienced,

increasing inflation. in california, particularly increasing costs for construction. the insurers are stuck between quickly increasing risk, and slowly increasing allowed insurance pricing. geoff: you mean if the insurers were really treating this as the cost of doing business, they might increase rates more rapidly than the state allows by law? william: that's right -- william: that's right. many insurers have slowly been increasing rates since catastrophic fires that occurred in 2017 and 2018. . the napa, so -- sonoma fire, in the campfire after that. that reset insurers vision of what kind of catastrophes were really possible in the state of california. that increased risk needs to be priced into rates eventually. the california insurance regulatory system allows for

very slow adjustment in prices. it does not allow, currently, for insurers to price in the risk of climate change as it is today. the prices are set by looking backwards at the risk as it has been over the last two decades. that means a slower pace of adjustment. that is leading to real problems for the industry. william: what does this mean for homeowners and people who want to buy or sell a house in california? this is not something you can dispense with. michael: the last several years, it has been getting harder and harder to find the standard insurance product, especially for homes in high-risk areas in california. it has made it harder to buy and sell homes. people that have policies have mostly been able to get them, but a small set of existing policy upholders have lost what is called their admitted lines. the standard homeowners insurance product. they had to go to the insurer of

the last resort. it implies higher costs, and i can also be more challenging just in general to get coverage. what has happened recently is the larger insurers are deciding they don't want to sell new policies not just to people who live in high-risk areas but to anyone in california. they are trying to reduce their overall exposure to the state as a whole. . that is a major change. william: major change indeed. i have long heard environmentalists and other climate risk modelers say that insurance can be a useful tool for trying to get people to live in safer areas and avoid risk areas and good policymakers to focus on the risk of climate change. is that in part what is happening here? michael: california has been a leader in investing in wildfire risk reduction. and i think we deserve credit in

that the state makers deserve a lot of credit. but we still have much more to do. i don't think we are at the point yet where anyone would ask people to leave their homes because of wildfire risk. but the reality is that it is getting more expensive to live in riskier places in california. the margin, that may induce some people to leave those places. it may make it less -- it may make the home in those places less valuable. there are some developing evidence that that is occurring in california. i think we are far from a place where we would say walk away from a community, and i think there is a lot more to do to reduce risk in and around communities in california before we would take that drastic step. william: what do you see as the trajectory going forward? you were describing a regulatory issue here that needs to be addressed. do you think costs will keep going up and it will become

tighter and tighter for homeowners going forward? michael: i do think insurance costs overall in california will continue to increase. we are still adjusting to the emergence of this catastrophic risk of wildfire in california. in the insurance system is not fully adjusted to that risk yet. we should expect prices to increase. it is important for viewers to understand that home insurance costs in california are relatively low by national standards. that is because of the tight regulatory framework we have. we are going to need to allow prices to adjust gradually upward in a way that does not cause shocks for homeowners and household budgets. but that does reflect the growing risks we face in the state. william: the woods institute for the environment at stanford university, thank you for being here. michael: thank you for having me on. appreciate the opportunity. ♪

geoff: earlier this month, texas joint 19 other states that band transition related care for minors. lorber owned lopez spent time in texas to learn more about the law, and spoke to one family grappling with what is next. this story includes discussion about suicide and depression. >> we are like a family. we love to party. we're just as normal as all the other families and just a lot of people think otherwise. laura: meet leah. she's a 12-year-old who likes to play soccer and skateboard. she lives in the austin, texas, area with her parents, john and mary. we aren't showing their faces and have changed their names for this story because families like theirs are increasingly under threat. leah is a trans girl. she started coming out to her family two years ago, first as a gay boy. >> she was very much starting to talk more and more about how she was feeling and how she just

didn't feel like she was in the right body. we were seeing it start to take its toll on her mental health. there was just one night where everything just kind of came pouring out of her and she was just saying, i don't know. i don't know why i'm feeling like this. i don't know what else to do. we were sitting on the floor in her room and she was just sobbing in my lab. and i just said, hey leah, or leah -- sorry, i said, what if i just told you you can wake up tomorrow and you can be who you are. >> and that moment, literally, like tears in her eyes, frowning. and literally in that moment, as soon as she said that, her face, when she realized, i can? it just i mean, the grin went from ear to ear, like immediately. laura: john and mary took leah to wal-mart to pick ounew clothes. >> for so long, i wasn't being me. and when i was able to just go through and get what i really

wanted, wearing what i wanted, it just felt like i was so much more free. laura: as leah began to socially transition, wearing dresses and using her new name, her family came acutely aware of the world around them. >> if politics were out, wouldn't even be an issue. this is just leah. she plays soccer and we were just living our life. but she's doing her thing. but politics, laws, ignorance has brought has created the environment that we're in and that we have to worry about all this stuff wherever we go. >> the left wing gender insanity being pushed on our children is an act of child abuse. >> transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely. >> we are going to kick the biological men out of the women's sports. laura: leah's played soccer since she was three. it's her farite sport. but after her transition, she was dropped from the co-ed team. she wanted to play with girls, but worried it would be too much of a fight. and leah just wanted to play. so she joined the boys team. she struggled, hearing the wrong pronouns at every practice. >> i've always loved soccer.

i felt like that was my escape. now it feels like i'm trying to escape from that now. laura: in the months after leah's social transition, she and her family started thinking about the medical treatments that could help make her body match her gender identity. since doctors say those treatments shouldn't begin before puberty, leah would have to wait. but her parents agreed to move forward when the time was right. >> we had our own fears of what a transition was like, what it -- we would sit here day after day and just questions and research and figure stuff out. the last two years, if you asked me her as a 12-year-old can understand of wrap her head around what's going on and what she thinks she wants, she does. because she's put more work in the last two years than most adults do in their whole lifetimementally speaking. >> just being able to be me is really important to me and it makes me feel great.

laura: gender affirming care is endorsed by every major american medical association and they say this treatment is safe and can be life-saving. roughly 1.4% of u.s. youth, some 300,000, identify as transgender. each can take a slightly different path in their medical treatment, or none at all. guidelines say care begins with a mental health evaluation. from there, a young person can take reversible medication to pause puberty. it gives the person time to consider the next step. either continue with puberty in their gender assigned at birth or receive hormones to make their body match their gender identity. those lead to some more permanent changes, like a lower voice or facial hair in transgender boys, and breast development in transgender girls. and finally, there's surgery. which is rare for minors. >> this medicine that we practice is incredibly individualized and nuanced. laura: doctor jason rafferty is

a pediatrician and child psychiatrist who wrote the american academy of pediatrics policy statement supporting gender-affirming care. >> what we see is that starting with the social affirmation of creating a safe space and allowing people to express who they are, it can decrease and normalize rates of depression as well as suicidality. we know that if there are medical interventions that use puberty blockers appropriately and even when using gender affirming hormones appropriately, that similarly it can decrease negative mental health outcomes. laura: despite that, republican politicians with an eye toward 2024 continue to question rights for trans youth. >> how are we supposed to get our girls used to the fact that biological boys are in their locker rooms? and then we wonder why a third of our teenage girls seriously contemplated suicide last year? laura: there's no evidence to support that connection. in fact, it's transgender youth

who face consistently higher rates of depression and are about twice as likely as their peers to attempt suicide. republicans have also vilified doctors for providing gender affirming care. >> they'll say it's health care to cut off the private parts of a 14 or 15-year-old? that is not health care. that is mutilation. how common is gender reassignment surgery on those under the age of 18? >> not very common at all. it is really rare and it is the exception at this point to the rules. and for the most part, to the guidelines that are in place. laura: still, the issue has animated republicans in states like texas, who have ordered a child abuse investigations into parents of trans youth and made outlawing all medical treatments for trans youth a priority. the american civil liberties union tracked more than 50 bills targeting the rights of lgbtq people in texas this legislative session, more than any other state. but perhaps no bill drew as much backlash as the one banning gender affirming care for minors.

despite trans advocates flooding the halls and chambers of the texas capitol for weeks, to -- governor greg abbott signed the bill into law june 2. it revokes the licenses of doctors who provide gender-affirming medical care to minors, and requires anyone currently on treatment to be weaned off. republican representative tom oliverson, an anesthesiologist who ushered the bill sb-14 through the texas house, rejects the medical establishment's consensus on gender affirming care. there are some estimated 30,000 kids in texas between the age of 13 and 17 who identify as transgender. what is your message to them? >> my message to them is that we want you to get the mental health treatments that you need. we want you to go through this process with therapists and counselors, figure out who you are, and when you are an adult, you can make decisions for

yourself. we don't allow children in texas to get tattoos. we don't allow children in texas to sign medical consents. we don't allow children in texas to drive. it seems somewhat absurd to me that we would take a child's word for who they think they're going to be at age 30, at age 11, and make permanent changes -- at age 11. reporter: doctor joshua safer leads the mount sinai center for transgender medicine and surgery in new york. >> when people wonder why the medical establishment has not thought of simply counseling people with deal with dealing and treating this as a mental health condition, the short answer is the medical establishment already thought that and spent decades thinking that and acting that. and that's what has not worked. laura: doctor michelle forcier is a professor of pediatrics at brown university. >> if i had a 10-year-old or eight-year-old who told me their ear hurt, i wouldn't look at them and say, you're only eight or 10, you don't know if your ear hurts, right? it's important that we listen to kids. again, doesn't mean that a kid says i'm trans, and 2 hours

later, they get hormones. it means that we respect kids as individuals. laura: we asked oliverson about leah. one of the kids that we have spoken to was in such pain watching what was happening and what was unfolding in texas because they live in texas, they said i don't get why they all hate me. they don't know me. what do you say to that kid? >> well, i mean, obviously, i want that kid to get some mental health treatment. laura: they've been going through mental health treatment for a long time. >> good. that is the appropriate treatment for mental health conditions. childhood, it can be tough sometimes. i remember being an adolescent, that's a tough time to figure out who you are and how you sort of fit into that collective of humanity. laura: leah is now in puberty. since the new texas law takes effect on september 1st, her family's been forced to consider drastic steps to access puberty blockers. >> after our last doctor's

visit, we were feeling rushed by the law. we were like, ok, if we do this, we have to go back in august. so maybe she can get the puberty blockers starting before september 1. it was like this anxiety. it was like, if we don't do this now, what are we going to do? laura: john and mary are now looking at providers in new mexico. >> it feels like we're being pushed out, pushed out of our home, pushed out of our state, pushed out of our jobs. if we go somewhere, what happens next? and i don't want to feel like we are constantly on the run. i don't want to feel like we're refugees in our own country. laura: the thought of leaving is what weighs heaviest on leah. >> we just have our whole life here. and the last thing i want to do would be to have to move. laura: last week, i asked president biden about leah's family. they are afraid. they are considering leaving not just their state, but the country. sir, why do you think this is

-- what do you say to the parents like the ones i spoke to, who are contemplating leaving the country because they don't feel safe anymore? pres. biden: first of all, maybe quietly when we finish this, you can give me the number of that family, and i will call them and let them know that the president and this administration has their back. and i mean that. >> hearing that was like, finally, with all of the negative hate speech we are hearing, you are actually hearing something positive. laura: despite the reassurance, leah's family is still grappling with what is happening in texas. >> once as a parent, you have been in a place where you have heard your child say that they do not want to live, seeing the things we have seen her do to herself, we will do anything to never be back there. anything. i don't see how that can be considered child abuse.

we are saving her. we're saving her life. laura: fhebs newshour, i am laura barron-lopez in texas. ♪ amna: michael r. jackson is a pulitzer and tony award winning playwright and composer. tonight, he shares his brief but spectacular view as part of our arts and culture series canvas. >> when i sit down to write, my ultimate goal is to find the truth. and to figure out how to harness that truth in a way that the audience that i don't know will be able to perceive and feel. a strange loop began as a monologue that i started writing shortly after i graduated from undergrad. living in jamaica, queens, this

is around 2002, 2003, i still hadn't really fully found my voice. i was still in the process of discovery. i didn't know how i was gonna pay any of my bills. i just was trying to figure out where my place in the world would be sort of personally and artistically. i just started writing this kind of thinly veiled personal monologue that was just about a young black gay man walking around new york wondering, my i usher is the protagonist of a strange loop and he is writing a musical about someone named usher who is writing a musical about someone named usher who is writing a musical about someone named usher ad infinitum. my experience has aligned with usher in a lot of basic ways in that i am a fat black gay man. i have had struggles with my family over my sexuality in the past, but our stories are also different in that usher is eternally 25 years old going on 26. i have gotten older. i'm 42 years old. from the start of the monologue

to broadway with a strange loop was 18 years. my perspective on a strange loop changed in a lot of ways over the years because sort of as i evolved, the pc evolved. i often talk about how a strange loop for some people is a window, and for other people it's a mirror because there are those who watch the story of a strange loop and they see themselves in it. for other people, they're not that. they're not gay, they're not queer, they're not any of the things that usher is on the outside, but internally they feel a kinship with him. and for those people, they're peering through a window. and both of those experiences live alongside each other and actually feed each other. my hopes for the theater and film space is that people start in their art and in the work that is being produced, looking more inward and being a little bit more rigorous with themselves and more truthful. i hope that we get to a point

where that is more celebrated and that that is more commonplace. my name is michael r. jackson and this is my brief but spectacular take on writing from the inside out. amna: that is the newshour for tonight. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: i'm geoff bennett. have a good evening. >> 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. a world of entertainment. and british style. all with cunard's white star service.

>> architect. beekeeper. mentor. a raymondjames financial advisor tailors advice to help you live your life. life well planned. >> the kendeda fund. committed to advancing restorative justice and meaningful work through investments in transformative leaders and ideas. more at kendedafund.org. supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org . and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.] >> you're watching pbs.

hello, everyone, and welcome to amanpour & company. here is what is coming up. under water and under rubble, russia shells rescue efforts around the breached ukrainian dam. i asked john kirby about breakthroughs on the battlefield. donald trump gets closer to joining a club of other former world leaders held to account by their own justice systems. i just want the best for the party and ultimately the country. >> that sounded like a pretty confident stump eech. why are you doing