♪ geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i'm amna nawaz. on "the newshour" tonight... a year after the high court overturned roe v. wade, americans on both sides of the abortion debate reflect on the new legal landscape and how it's affecting their lives. geoff: and surpassing expectations, a section of highway in philadelphia is reopened less than two weeks after it collapsed. alec: i think it's a great example of when there's prioritization and a relaxation of procedure and process, you can actually get things done really quickly in the u.s. amna: and... it's friday. david brooks and jonathan capehart weigh in on the latest candidate to join the republican presidential race, plus the rest of the week's political news.

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this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and contributions to your pbs station by viewers like you. thank you. amna: welcome to the newshour. the u.s. supreme court has reinstated president biden's targeted policy of deporting migrants. it focuses on those posing egregious threats instead of the trump-era policy of rounding up anyone in the u.s. illegally. geoff: eight justices ruled that republican-led states had no legal standing to challenge the new guidelines. beyond that, justice brett kavanaugh wrote that the government "lacks the resources to arrest and prosecute every violator of every law." the court also upheld part of a federal law against encouraging illegal immigration. amna: in the day's other headlines -- for the first time, the justice department charged four chinese companies -- and eight individuals -- with trafficking precursor chemicals for fentanyl. the highly addictive opioid has fueled an epidemic of overdoses.

u.s. officials said the chemicals go to the sinaloa drug cartel in mexico, which sells the finished fentanyl in the u.s. attorney general merrick garland today defended the investigation of hunter biden, the president's son. irs whistleblowers had charged that garland interfered with a probe by the u.s. attorney for delaware. instead, the attorney general said the prosecutor had full authority, and he insisted politics played no role. ag garland: some have chosen to attack the integrity of the justice department and its components and its employees by claiming that we do not treat like cases alike. this constitutes an attack on an institution that is essential to american democracy and essential to the safety of the american people. nothing could be further from the truth. amna: a number of republicans have said the department went easy on hunter biden in a plea deal on gun and tax charges. canada and the u.s. have begun investigations into the titan submersible tragedy.

the vessel imploded during a dive to the titanic wreckage, killing all five people on board. u.s. safety officials announced today the coast guard will investigate. and, canada opened a probe because the support ship was canadian-flagged. pakistan now says some 350 pakistani nationals were on a packed fishing trawler that sank off the coast of greece last week. aerial footage showed the crowded boat before it capsized. a search found 104 survivors and recovered 78 bodies. the rest remain missing. israeli officials today announced the arrests of three settlers suspected of attacking palestinian towns in the occupied west bank. hundreds of israelis have set fire to dozens of homes and cars this week. the rampages began after a palestinian shooting attack killed 4 israelis. rights groups called the arrests a drop ithe ocean, given how many settlers were involved.

monsoon rains in india have forced 14,000 people to take shelter in relief camps. this week's downpours battered low-lying villages in assam state, where the brahmaputra river overflows annually. the deluge has swamped road crossings as villagers brave the floodwaters, desperately trying to salvage whatever is left of their homes. rajbongshi: i have no one to help me. my wife and i are now alone. i am sick and if i go to my house, i will fall in. the flood water has damaged my home and most of my belongings. amna: so far, only one death has been confirmed, but the region is bracing for more torrential rain this weekend. as of tonight, two tropical storms are active in the atlantic ocean, in just the first month of hurricane season. that has not happened since record keeping began in 1851. the storm named bret was in the eastern caribbean today, but it's expected to dissipate.

and, cindy formed in the central atlantic. it's on a path that poses no immediate threat to land. china broke a different kind of record today, for heat. temperatures in beijing topped 104 degrees for a second day for the first time in more than 70 years. children cooled down by eating ice cream, and many people used umbrellas to shield themselves from the sun. but the city went on red alert, highlighting the heat danger. zhang: i'm definitely worried, but i'm still young and can handle it. i hope that older people will go out as little as possible and stay home. the temperature outside is just too hot. it's easy to get heat stroke. amna: forecasters predict the extreme heat could continue for ten days. and, on wall street -- stocks gave more ground, amid simmering concerns about interest rates and economic growth in europe. the dow jones industrial average lost 219 points to close at 33,727. the nasdaq fell 138 points, 1 percent.

the s&p 500 slipped 33 points. still to come on "the newshour"... a wave of anti-trans laws face legal roadblocks... david brooks and jonathan capehart analyze the week in politics... the books that should be on your summer reading list... 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. amna: tomorrow marks one year since the supreme court overturned roe versus wade and ended the constitutional right to an abortion. while some states have expanded access to care, fourteen states have banned abortions in nearly all cases. we spoke to people across the country on each side of the debate about what the past twelve months have been like, and where they go from here. ellisha: my name is ellisha olsen.

i am a college student and a pro-life activist. this year has honestly been an incredible year working in the pro-life movement, both in my state and on a national level. dr. kumar: my name is dr. bhavik kumar. i'm a family medicine doctor in texas, also an abortion provider, and i'm a board member with physicians for reproductive health. elise: my name is elise. i am 17 years old. theresa: i'm theresa. i'm a mother of two young adult daughters. and the health care issues that are coming to the forefront in idaho are have made us decide that we're going to be moving out of state. elise: when roe versus wade was overturned, i felt very concerned for everyone that was pregnant in the united states and very angry at the government for, like, taking something away that we should always have. denise: i'm denise harley.

as an attorney at alliance defending freedom, leading our life team, i work alongside states and pro-life pregnancy centers and pro-life medical professionals and other advocates and churches to help defend laws that protect life. i believe as a biblical worldview about god creating every single person in the womb with a life and a future and a hope. nancy: my name is nancy davis. i am from baton rouge, louisiana. i've been here my entire life. my initial reaction when roe overturned was i was very upset. you know, it's very, very upsetting that a human right, a fundamental human right, was ultimately taken away from us. ellisha: we got the news and then we immediately rushed to the supreme court. and i just remember it being such an exciting time. you know, there was shock, there is excitement. it's just all of the emotions. there's a lot of hugging and there were tears just because this was something that, you know, we'd been working for for so long.

dr kumar: right away, in the middle of the day, we had to stop care and say that we can no longer care for anybody. we're not sure what that would mean. we have to read the decision, talk to our attorneys. but essentially that day was when any meaningful access to abortion care in texas stopped completely. it was very, very overwhelming and i think just heavy to sit with. denise: on the day of the dobbs oral argument, i was out there on the steps of the supreme court at a rally and speaking. and at the time i was six months pregnant with my daughter, who ended up being born in march. i named her eve, which means life, in hopes that roe be overturned and she was the one that i was holding and nursing when the leak came out. and it was just wonderful to be holding her also on the day that dobbs was decided. and to me, that was just such a simple. nancy: at ten weeks pregnant, we received some very, very, very devastating news about our much-wanted pregnancy. our fetus was actually diagnosed

with acrania. acrania refers to the absence of the skull and some parts of the brain. the doctor advised us that we should terminate. initially, whenever we were denied for the abortion in louisiana, the only thing i could think of was i was carrying my baby to bury my baby. we had to travel to new york city to get the care that we needed. and this was the most difficult part of it. leaving my home, leaving my children behind, you know, and and having to having to address this as well as the trauma i was already dealing with. dr kumar: there's very little that i can do for somebody when i'm telling them to go to another state that they've never been to and to access this care. and it just feels so bewildering, especially when, you know, you can just help them and you've got the skills already to be able to provide them with that care. and you've done that for so long and all of a sudden to state that you have to just go to another state and i can't do

anything. it's extremely overwhelming. i don't think there's any words that really carry the weight of what it really feels like to have to do that over and over again. denise: we've been very busy. we are currently working with probably a dozen to 15 different states on active litigation, where counsel for some of them , cocounsel with some of them, we're the amicus coordinators and consultants for several states in defending their pro-life laws. you know, it probably will take some time for the people of america to sort of get used to this and relearn the fact that, you know, abortion was never a fundamental right. nancy: the laws that are in place, that laws that currently stand, they are controlling our lives. they are controlling other people's lives. and because of this control, it's putting our lives in danger, it's putting our lives at risk, and it's putting our lives at jeopardy. dr kumar: health care providers like me should have these conversations with their patients, sharing facts, sharing information, talking about risks

and benefits, and then we decide together what's best for that person. that person alone is the only person who knows what's best for them, their body, their life. and that's how it is in the rest of medicine, that's how it should be when it comes to abortion care. ellisha: i think when thinking about the abortion laws, especially the ones that have exceptions for rape and incest. one thing that that really just reminds me of is if we make an exception for that, my mom could have been like, i don't see value in this life. my birth mom was raped and conceived me, and then i was brought into my adoptive family at a very young age. the america that we want to see, where no woman is left behind and every child has a chance, isn't going to happen if people like myself, and my friends, don't step up. theresa: my greatest fear about these abortion restrictions in idaho as a mother of two young adult women, as a mother figure to a lot of their friends, is that i'm not going to be able to

help them get health care when they need it. and to have people make blanket statements about how abortion is wrong and it's murder without having any understanding of any of the nuance of what that position looks like in the real world is very frustrating. amna: president biden marked the one-year anniversary of the fall of roe today by signing an executive order aimed at protecting and expandingccess to contraceptives. rallying supporters and activists today, the president said reproductive health care is under attack. pres. biden: the right to use birth control. you ever think we'd be arguing about that? they're not stopping here. make no mistake, this election is about freedom on the ballot once again. amna: our white house correspondent laura barrón lópez has been following all of this. what exactly does this executive order do? laura: when the dobbs decision

came down, there's thomas wrote a concurring opinion and in it he said the supreme court's are recent consider -- should recent center the decision that established the right to privacy to use contraceptives. that's how the white house has framed this announcement, to protect access to that. president biden is directing agencies to consider new guidance and rules that would do a number of things. first, they would ensure private insurance covers all forms of contraception. it would expand access to emergency access -- emergency contraception, and increase availability generally at federally supported health care clinics. president biden has, since his senate days, along with the help of his sister, framed access to contraception and abortion as a fundamental right to privacy. amna: in the year since roe was

overturned, president biden and his ministration have taken a number of steps. where does this fit? laura: this is the third executive action president biden has issued since the dobbs decision last year. all three have been on reproductive health care access. the first was july 8, 2022, about two weeks after the dobbs decision. it expanded access to abortion pills and encouraged free legal representation for doctors and patients. the second was august 3 last year and that allowed assistance for women traveling out of state for health care and supported providers navigating the new restrictions. in addition to that, the justice department is fighting in the courts to protect access to abortion core, most notably you've covered the ongoing case around mifepristone. the white house expressed this

week a lot of confidence in the ability to win that case. amna: in 2022 in the midterm elections, we saw how abortion access were a mobilizing force for democratic voters in particular. when you talked to sources on the biting campaign today, do they think this will be the same -- biden campaign today, do they think it will be the same story in 2024? laura: the short answer is yes. the policy advisor for the white house spoke to reporters and she said the white house doesn't see this issue dissipating at all. some of the confidence comes from events like today, the faith and freedom coalition, or a number of gop candidates said over and over again they were happy with the dobbs decision and they support some form of a national ban on abortion. the campaign said they will be highlighting voices like some of the ones we just heard, like nancy, who said she had to leave louisiana and go to new york to

get health care. they also told me to expect vice president harris to be the leading voice. they expect her to be the most prolific campaigner on this issue. they said president biden will be talking about it but she will be the leader. amna: laura, thank you for your reporting. ♪ geoff: traffic is moving again on a stretch of i-95 that collapsed less than two weeks ago in philadelphia, and reopened today. it's been rebuilt on a quick timeline that few thought was possible, and may be a reminder of how much and how quickly infrastructure projects can be accomplished. gov. shapiro: we showed the nation what philadelphia and pennsylvania are all about. geoff: from the beginning, the reconstruction of 6 lanes of i-95 has beaten deadlines. after a truck carrying gasoline

flipped and caught fire on a highway exit two weeks ago, causing part of the bridge to collapse, officials estimated it would take months to repair it. philadelphians braced for a summer of traffic slowdowns, and officials warned of supply chain disruptions from trucks diverted from a stretch of interstate that supported 160,000 vehicles a day on average. but within days, the old bridge had been demolished, a contractor hired, union crews worked in shifts, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. and a livestream of the around-the-clock effort to rebuild the roadway had become a local sensation. gov. shapiro: i must confess, i'm completely addicted to the livestream. i put up on my phone, my ipad when i'm in the truck. i look at it first thing in the morning, at night. geoff: instead of building a permanent bridge, the gap was backfilled with material made from recycled glass, manufactured and supplied by a company in nearby delaware county. michael: the design is very, very simple, actually. it's a series of retaining

walls. and filling it with soil like you would with a sandbox. geoff: michael chajes is professor of civil and environmental engineering at the university of delaware, who is not involved in the rebuilding project. michael: in this case, they're using actually a very that's about one sixth the weight of a normal fill. you know, in the bridge community, whether you're building a permanent bridge or a temporary structure, it's designed to the same standards. so the public should not be concerned that that that this is not being built to the same level of safety that any roadway would be. geoff: a six lane roadway has been put on top of the backfill so crews can start work on a permanent bridge while traffic flows. when that part is done, the temporary roadway will be removed and the bridge completed. michael: think it's, you know, a brilliant solution. it's going to get six lanes up immediately. obviously, it's going to cost , it's costing something to do this. but if you look at the cost of delayed traffic for every day for for 160,000 vehicles, that's

a tremendous cost when you put dollars to it. geoff: funds for the roughly $30 million dollar project have so far come from the state and the federal governments. last weekend, president joe biden got an aerial tour of the site and pledged $3 million dollars in immediate emergency funding. pres. biden: i'm directing my team, not figuratively but literally, to move heaven and earth to get it done as soon as humanly possible. geoff: at the same event, governor shapiro dramatically moved up the timeline. gov. shapiro: i can state with confidence that we will have i-95 reopened within the next two weeks. geoff: days later another shift. gov. shapiro: i can confidently state right here, right now, the traffic will be flowing here on i-95 this weekend. geoff: and then today, again, ahead of schedule traffic is flowing. alec: i think it's a great example of when there's prioritization and a relaxation of procedure and process, you can actually get things done really quickly in the u.s. geoff: alec stapp is the

co-founder of institute for progress a nonpartisan research , organization. alec: it is not, you know, the largest infrastructure project ever, but it's also not tiny. it's a six lane highway that they're reopening in less than two weeks. and it shows that governor had a real choice in the matter and was able to actually move things quickly by coordinating with local and federal officials and by, i think, most importantly, prioritizing the outcome, which is getting the road open. -- road open as quickly as possible over the procedure in terms of how it gets done. geoff: stapp says there's lessons to be drawn for other infrastructure projects, including renewable energy, even if what was done in philadelphia is a unique and temporary solution. alec: for larger projects, i'm not saying, yeah, that a power line can be done in two weeks or a subway project can be done in two weeks. but again, to go back to the power lines, it takes us on average more than ten years to build those. i'm saying we could have massive benefits by just cutting that in half. geoff: in philadelphia, governor shapiro celebrated the opening today and took a call from president biden.

but he acknowledged that it wasn't a given workers would hit the deadline. when rain threatened to delay the project yesterday, a jet-engine powered dryer from a nearby nascar raceway was enlisted to be on hand, just in case. >> they said it couldn't be done and today, all of us here together proved them wrong. geoff: while traffic is now moving on the temporary lanes, state officials have not put a timeline on the permanent fix. ♪ amna: the russian mercenary leader yevgeny prigozhin is said to be under investigation by russian intelligence tonight, after claiming that russia's war with ukraine was started under false pretenses by top military officials. prigozhin has thousands of personnel aiding russia's

onslaught in ukraine and he now says russian troops have fired on his forces. there also reports riot police and the national guard are tightening security in moscow tonight. as lindsey hilsum of independent television news tells us ukraine's capital kyiv has , sprung back to life, under the watchful eyes of air defense crews that guard the city. lindsey: every night over kyiv and other cities, air defenses protect ukrainian civilians. every morning in an undisclosed location just outside the capital the radar, guns and controls of a german gephart system are prepared for action. each gun fires 550 rounds per minute. in the last six months, this crew has shot down 4 iranian-made shahid drones and two cruise missiles, preventing death and destruction in the city.

roman: the main advantage of this self-propelled anti-aircraft gun is that it's simple to use, because of the computer system and ease of control. another important thing is that relatively cheap shells can be used to shoot down the very expensive significant targets that our enemy has. lindsey: the ukrainian military celebrated the arrival of two patriot batteries from the u.s. and germany in april. these missiles, by contrast, cost $4 million to fire, but they can shoot down ballistic and hypersonic missiles at long range. last march, we saw the impact of a rocket strike on an apartment block in kyiv. the mayor of the capital vitali klitchko was there... and olha timoschuk, from a neighboring block. olha: it is 50-50, you get hit or not. lindsey: now the block has been

rebuilt, better than before complete with phoenix mural. olha no longer thinks she might have to leave the city. olha: i sleep better at night, sometimes i don't even hear the sirens. i go to sleep and i know that i will wake up in the morning, actually. i believe in that more than i did last year, to be honest. and now it's like, easier. yeah. feels better. lindsey: and what do you feel about the guys who are manning their defenses? olha: oh, they're heroes. lindsey: but last month saw an onslaught. and while 154 missiles were shot down, 18 got through, killing 5 people. the mayor of kyiv is therefore more circumspect. >> yes, of course. blue sky, great weather. summer. it's peaceful atmosphere. but this is an illusion. lindsey: it's an illusion?

>> it's an illusion. at any moment, we can listen air alarm. bombing alarm. it's mean that every moment every building can be destroyed from russian missiles. lindsey: kyiv is full of outdoor cafes and bars. after the russians were pushed back from the outskirts last spring, many people reverted to their old life, deciding that the odds of being hit by a missile or drone were acceptably small. sometimes it's hard to remember this is a city at war. the contrast with the destruction and relentless fighting in the east is stark. the air defense crews prepare for another night. the safety of the capital's civilians is in their hands. ♪

amna: a raft of anti-lgbtq legislation in mostly republican-led states now faces mounting legal challenges. laura barron lopez takes a look at those cases and their broader implications. laura: 20 states have put into place bans or severe restrictions on transition related medical care for minors. but measures in at least five of those states have now been permanently or temporarily blocked from taking effect. to discuss the legal challenges around these laws and where they go next, we're joined by danielle weatherby, a law professor at the university of arkansas who focuses on lgbtq legal issues. professor weatherby, thank you so much for joining. arkansas was the first state to ban gender affirming medical care for minors. but this week, a federal judge ruled that ban unconstitutional, making it the first ever ruling to overturn such a prohibition. can you explain the judge's determination in this case?

prof. weatherby: absolutely. thank you for having me. it his determination was that act 626 was unconstitutional for three reasons. first, he said that the act violated the equal protection clause to the extent that it discriminated on the basis of facts. he said that it usurped the parental right to make well informed medical determinations on behalf of their minor children. is i s dut e thprghocess atcl iause. and then finally, he said that this act violated physicians , treating physicians' first amendment rights insofar as it prohibited them from consulting with their patients about the gender affirming care. laura: the arkansas attorney general has already said that he is going to appeal the ruling and rejected the scientific consensus that transgender youth benefit from such care. what do you make of that appeal? and is it a matter of inevitability that this is ultimately going to reach the supreme court? prof. weatherby: well, that will

take some time. certainly, the arkansas attorney general has said that he intends to appeal to the eighth circuit court of appeals. and i believe that that is just inevitable. in terms of the medical science, however, the vast majority of experts, including the american medical association, the american pediatrics association, and all of the experts that have weighed in on this subject , unanimously agree that this type of gender affirming care is in a minor's best interest when the minor has been diagnosed with gender dysphoria. and i think that's important to note that judge moody's decision was based on a weighing of the credibility of all that medical science. laura: in florida, a judge struck down the state's prohibition on medicaid coverage for gender affirming care. and in indiana recently, another judge temporarily blocked most of their ban for minors, only allowing the prohibition on surgeries to take effect.

what has been the legal strategy behind these challenges? prof. weatherby: well, it's the strategy that you're seeing from the aclu of arkansas. the allegations that these bans on medical determinations which implicate personal autonomy and human dignity, violate the first amendment of treating physicians and the due process rights of parents and the equal protection rights of these minor patients. this kind of three pronged approach seems to be effective, and that's exactly what we're seeing in the decision out of the florida court that came out yesterday, which was based on equal protection and the one out of arkansas that came out from judge moody. laura: when you look at all of the rulings across these five states, some have been by trump appointed judges to block these portions of these bans from taking effect. do you see a pattern in their decisions? prof. weatherby: not

necessarily. i think the judiciary is nonpartisan. and even though, yes, some of the decisions have come from trump appointees and some have come from appointees by democratic presidents, the judiciary's role is to apply the law and to apply precedent under the principles of stare decisis. some of these rights are well-established, including the right of parents to direct and control the upbringing of their children. and that's what these challenges to these bans implicates. laura: and finally, i just wanted to ask you, do you think that these legal challenges and the ultimate rulings that we've seen so far are going to be impacting the politics of this issue? you've seen some of this play out in arkansas yourself. prof. weatherby: well, these are deeply charged issues and people feel very strongly about them one way or the other. i would note that governor hutchinson, who has put his name

in the hat for presidential candidate, actually initially vetoed this bill when it came out of the arkansas legislature. and it was only passed after the legislature overrode his veto. so i think that candidates on on both sides of the aisle recognize that these issues affecting personal health care decisions are are personal and involve some government overreach when it comes to these transgender health care bans. laura: professor weatherby of the university of arkansas, thank you so much for your time. prof. weatherby: thank you. ♪ geoff: president biden's son strikes a deal to avoid prison. gop presidential candidates embrace abortion restrictions one year after the overturning of roe v. wade. and a report outlines fresh examples of questionable ethics

from the country's most powerful judges. for analysis on this week's news, we turn to brooks and capehart. that's new york times columnist david brooks and jonathan capehart, associate editor for the washington post. good to see you both. we have a lot to talk about, get to it. starting with the 2024 presidential hopefuls in washington for the faith and freedom coalition, one of the largest gatherings of christian political activists coinciding with the one-year anniversary of the supreme court removing the constitutional right to abortion. all of the candidates were emphasizing antiabortion credentials, chief among them mike pence. >> the cause of life is the calling of our time and we must not rest and must not relent until we restore the sanctity of life to the center of american law in every state in this country. geoff: mike pence says he rejects the conventional wisdom that republicans paid a price in

the midterms for the supreme court overturning roe. you heard him saying there should be restrictions in every day. how might that play politically? jonathan: it played well in that room and it will play well among republican primary voters for sure, but it is political death in the general election. you can look at the midterm elections to see that is the case, even before the midterm elections. the vote in ruby red kansas, people came out in support of abortion rights. wisconsin state supreme court justice seat decided on the issue of abortion. a new pull out from nbc news on the one-year anniversary of the owner turning of roe said 61% of the american people disapprove of it being overturned. i believe the former vice president firmly believes in his gut what he is saying but the american people have shown time

and again in the last year that they don't like what the supreme court has done. geoff: how do you see it? in ohio, governor mike dewine signed a six week abortion ban and got reelected handily. same thing in georgia. david: the most amazing thing in the past year since dobbs was how it has affected the number of abortions in the country. they went down a little, and in march of 2023, there were more abortions performed. it had this rare effect on actual behavior. i think it's possible for people to get reelected because i think for a lot of independent voters is not a deciding issue. i suspect that will probably be true in the presidential elections. nonetheless, the evidence is incontrovertible, the country has shifted sharply to the left on abortion. if u.s. people which trimester,

and all of the three different trimesters, more people think it should be legal. the majority feel constricted by the new laws put on the states and it has caused them to move left. geoff: abortion is a major topic at this faith and freedom coalition, and so too are the culture wars, with republicans promising to fight what they call woke beliefs. here is ron desantis. >> my pledge is this: we will fight the woke in the schools. we will fight the woke in the corporations. we will fight the woke in the halls of government. we will never, ever surrender to the woke mob. we are going to leave woke ideology in the dustbin of history where it belongs. geoff: when governor desantis says we will fight woke, what is he really saying? jonathan: i don't know. i'm being serious. i would love for the governor to define woke. what does it mean to him?

because to me and millions of other americans, when republicans start spouting about woke this and that, it's usually something that an aggrieved person on the right usually doesn't like about what is happening in the country. oh, i don't know, about african americans wanting the fullness of american history being taught in schools or lgbtq+ americans wanting to be able to have their kids go to school and be able to talk about what did they do that weekend without getting their teacher or themselves in trouble. those are just two examples. if governor desantis wants to have that -- we will meet them on the beaches or whatever, fine. do that to the republican faithful. but then explain to the nation what exactly do you mean and how will you implement that as president? geoff: to that point, i was speaking with a republican

strategist who said the political utility of woke is it is whatever you want it to be and whatever the listener hears. is it effective politically? david: yes and no. desantis is quoting churchill. it is offensive, churchill was talking about the nazis. it is just an offensive rhetorical device. i hate how the word woke has stood in for all of this. if you want to say the educational schools were people get trained are not representative of the country and the curriculums are not representative of a lot of conservative families, i would agree with that. that would be a way to say they are spreading a version of american history which is exclusively between oppressor

and oppressed groups. i think part of american history is, but there are a lot of stories i would want to see represented. that speech i just gave, if i gave it on the presidential stump, everyone would fall asleep. but i find the use of the word woke offensive, but if they want to say something wrong with the way education has evolved, i think that's a reasonable argument. geoff: let's talk about the latest development in the hunter biden legal drama. the attorney general today forcefully rejected allegations from congressional republicans and an irs whistleblower that can -- that political considerations affect of investigation into hunter biden. what is your assessment of the plea deal in the way republicans are targeting hunter biden as a proxy for joe biden? jonathan: umm... we talked about this earlier, i was asked, is this justice? how do you -- what does that

mean in this case? to me, a special counsel was appointed. that person is someone who was appointed by president trump and given unbelievable power in terms of investigating into all sorts of stuff and this is what he came up with. two minor tax charges something involving a gun charge. meanwhile you got house republicans and chairman comber, who keeps talking about whistleblowers but hasn't talked to them in three years. there seem to be a lot of people pumping up smoke about hunter biden and not coming up with anything. in a lot of ways i think it is unseemly. fine, you want to go after the president and use his son as proxy, ok, that's the nature of politics these days. but we're talking about the son of a president who was an addict and went through really hard times and did some really stupid things.

i'm having a hard time raising that to the level of a twice impeached, now twice criminally indicted former president who we really should be talking about and asking republicans why don't you talk about him and what's going on with him? because there are national security implications that are at stake. now with hunter biden, not with all the stuff we seen the last few years, come on. geoff: the way republicans tell it, president biden has been complicit in a years long scheme of hunter biden to profit off the family name. they have yet to provide evidence to support that. yet hunter biden has forged business dealings that raise questions about whether he is trying to cash in on excess to his father. republicans have opened that up for political attack. talk to me about the effectiveness of that strategy. david: i think it's worth

investigating. the irs investigator released hunter biden going to a chinese official saying i am sitting with my father and if you don't send the money there will be a world of hurt. was joe biden actually sitting there? i kind of doubt it. it seems worth investigating. the texting i think -- tax thing i think is more serious. the gun thing is what it is. i think it was appropriate for there to be no jail time, that is normal for these cases. influence peddling, i doubt joe biden is involved. but hunter biden was playing on the family name and that what's at message deserves to be looked at. geoff: i want to end with reporting this past week that supreme court justice samuel alito did not disclose a luxury trip he took with a hedge fund ilion air. is this the tipping point where

we might see the supreme court enact some serious ethics reform? jonathan: i would hope so. i would hope chief justice roberts takes this really seriously. if we get one more story about justices thomas or alito or another justice on the court, not only will congress start moving, but public sentiment against the court will move even faster against it. david: i think this is more serious than thomas, because with thomas there was no quid pro quo. but in this case it was, alito was a major figure in a ruling. it involved a lot of money. that makes you feel very uncomfortable. he should have at least disclose the relationship before ruling. roberts in the past has gestured toward openness to reform and i think he now has an invitation to change the rules geoff: thank

you both. ♪ amna: it's summertime and the reading is easy. at least, we hope you will get the time to enjoy books during vacation and travel. here to help: jeffrey brown speaks to two big-time readers who offer some guidance. it's part oour arts and culture series, canvas. jeffrey: we look at some of the many books out or soon out for your summer reading pleasure with maureen corrigan, book critic for npr's fresh air, and gilbert cruz, books editor at the new york times. it's nice to see both of you. gilbert, i'm going to start with you. a couple of summer books, however you want to define those. why don't you start us off? gilbert: so there are two books i want to start off with. the first is called the five star weekend. it's by an author named ellen hildebrand, and she's a summer staple. this is a woman, an author who has written almost 30 books, most of which are set on nantucket island.

she's a perennial bestseller. this one involves a recently widowed food blogger who brings a bunch of friends together on nantucket to sort of help her heal. i've read many of these books. i've read one a summer for the past many summers, and they all share similar themes and similar dynamics, and they're quite entertaining. and i'm looking forward to reading this one very much on my vacation soon. another book i'm looking forward to this summer is crook manifesto by colson whitehead. many of your viewers probably know colson whitehead's name. he's a two time pulitzer winner. he's won for very serious books about the black experience in america, underground railroad and the nickel boys. but he's worked across many genres, and he has written a heist novel. and this is a sequel to that heist novel, harlem shuffle, which came out a couple of years ago. that novel was set in 1960s harlem, and this one is set in 1970s harlem. and if you know anything about new york in the 1970s, it was a

grimy place, a dangerous place, but it was also a very exciting place. so i'm looking forward to seeing how colson whitehead sort of tackles that time period. jeffrey: ok. maureen corrigan. maureen: one novel that that i think really is perfect for summer is alberto luis urrea's novel goodnight irene. usually he's writing about issues of the u.s.-mexican border. but here he's drawing on a story that derives from his mother's experiences during world war ii. she was a volunteer with the red cross. she was a so-called donut dolly. she and another woman rode around in a truck delivering coffee and donuts to servicemen. i had no idea -- my dad was in world war ii, and i had no idea that these women did more than just meet soldiers at the railroad station. his mother followed patton's army behind the lines in battle of the bulge.

i mean, so we're we're kind of getting a herman wouk type big history, but also with a lot of twists and turns and very affecting. so goodnight irene is one of my recommendations. and then, lorrie moore's i am homeless if this is not my home. lorrie moore, there's nobody like her, the way she plays with language, her kind of warm but absurdist view of of life. she's telling a double story here. one is a story set in the 19th century, and it has something to do with abraham lincoln. so anybody who's read george saunders, lincoln in the bardo, this kind of has that feel to it. and then the other story she's telling is very up to the minute about a young man who's lost his lover. and it plays into that fantasy of if only i had a few more hours with this person i've loved. and they go on a road trip together. he and his dead lover.

[laughter] jeffrey: sounds very uplifting for summer. gilbert. does your reading change during the summer or do you turn to other genres, other things that you want -- give us a couple of other picks. gilbert: i love the horror genre. and there's a young author, a mexican-canadian author named silvia moreno-garcia, who has a new book out this year called silver nitrate. she said some wonderful titles the past couple of years. the daughter of dr. moreau, a very big one in 2020, was mexican gothic, and this one is set in the 1990s mexico city film scene. it stars a sound editor, her best friend who is a soap opera actor, and this cult horror director that they come across who believes he's been cursed by a piece of film that a nazi occultist sort of handled. it's it's spooky and it's scary, but it's also set in mexico city. so you have both the cool and the hot. it's something that i'm looking

forward to checking out this summer. jeffrey: you know, maureen, you've both mentioned some big name authors. colson whitehead. we heard lorrie moore. i noticed. i don't know if this is different, but there seem to be a number of novels coming out by some well-known names. and paszek, -- ann patchett, isabel allende. any that you want to tell us about? maureen: you know, i'm looking forward -- who could not to and patchett's tom lake in which she kind of plays with chekhov's three sisters. these are three sisters who isolate at a family cherry orchard during the pandemic. so there's. there's that. richard ford. he's bringing his frank bascombe novels to a close with a fifth novel called be mine. what an achievement. i love richard ford. i love his writing. and to think that he's sort of saying farewell to this character whose life has followed his own through the

seasons of his own life is really touching. i'm also looking forward to james mcbride, the heaven and earth grocery store. he too is so wonderful at combining social commentary. this novel is set in the 1970s in pottstown, pennsylvania, a jewish and african-american community. but the body is found under the floor of a building site. so that's something i'm really looking forward to. it does seem as though more big name authors like colson whitehead, too, are now publishing in the summer. summary used to be -- summer used to be more lighter fare, but i'm happy to see that. jeffrey: let me ask you with both of you, one final thing. a lot of us, a lot of people use the summer to reread an old favorite or perhaps a classic. i don't know if either of you do that. gilbert, is there anything that you want to go back to? gilbert: i wish i could say that

there was. in this job, i feel incredibly guilty if i'm going back and rereading books. jeffrey: oh, you're not allowed to anymore. gilbert: no, it's in the contract. but there are classics that i have not read. it embarrasses me to say so. so is this the summer that i finally get to bleak house by charles dickens? is this the summer when i finally get to the house of mirth? i don't know. you know, hope springs eternal. i'm hoping this might be the one. jeffrey: maureen, you have one or two? maureen: yeah. this is a big year for willa cather. we're celebrating the 150th anniversary of her birth. this year a lost lady celebrates 100 years of its publication that was made into a film in the thirties with barbara stanwyck. and cather hated the film so much she wrote a clause into her will -- no more films of any of my novels. jeffrey: i've heard that from other novelists who don't like what happened. maureen: but i've been rereading

cather, one of ours, her novel about world war one and a lost lady. and, you know, as a native new yorker, i came late to cather. but these novels of of the great plains are really spectacular. jeffrey: that's great. some old books and some new books. maureen corrigan, gilbert cruz, thank you both very much. amna: you can find the full list of book recommendations online at pbs.org/newshour. geoff: be sure to tune into washington week later tonight right here on pbs, hosted tonight by our own william brangham as his panel of reporters discusses the week in politics. that's at 8:00 p.m. eastern here on pbs. amna: later still on pbs, tune into amanpour and company to see christiane's interview with former president barack obama. geoff: there's also pbs news weekend tomorrow for a look at how rising rents, inflation and unaffordable housing are affecting some americans. and that is "the newshour." i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i'm amna nawaz. on behalf of the entire "newshour" team, have a great

weekend. >> major funding for "the pbs newshour" has been provided by -- ♪ >> moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. ♪ >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions, and friends of "the newshour," including kathy and paul anderson and camilla and george smith. the walton family foundation, working for solutions to protect water during climate change so people and nature can thrive together. the william and flora hewlett foundation.

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♪ hello and welcome to "amanpour & company." here's what's cong up. >> things are never going to be as clean as you like because the world is complicated. >> former u.s. president barack obama sits down for an exclusive interview with christiane amanpour. she joins us from athens with the headlines. then, indian prime minister narendra modi meets with president biden in the white house. we get the latest on the state visit with veteran journalist and india watcher bobby ghosh. plus, western officials fear the ukrainian counteroffensive is off to a bumpy start. historian margaret macmillan joins me to discuss what world war i can teach us about today's warfare. also ahead. >> exercise is hands down the

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