geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. amna nawaz is on assignment. on "the newshour" tonight, the u.s. supreme court rejects a controversial legal theory that could have thrown the 2024 election into disarray. a newly-released audio recording further complicates former president trump's legal troubles. and, russia drops charges against the mercenary group which rebelled against the kremlin as vladimir putin attempts to project order. >> it's a sign that vladimir putin is still in a deep shock because usuallhe hates to disclose these kind of details. ♪

>> major funding for the pbs has been provided by -- the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions, and friends of the newshour, including kathy and paul anderson, and camilla and george smith. >> pediatric surgeon, volunteer, topiary artist. a raymondjames financial advisor taylor's advice to help you live -- tailors advice to help live your life. ♪ >> the john s. and jane knight foundation. more at kf.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: good evening and welcome to "the newshour." the u.s. supreme court today rejected a controversial legal theory that state legislatures have almost unlimited power to decide the rules for federal elections and draw partisan congressional maps without interference from state courts. the so-called independent state legislature theory regained attention after the 2020 presidential election when then-president donald trump's allies raised it as part of an effort to reverse the election outcome.

chief justice john roberts wrote the opinion for the 6-3 majority in this case known as moore v. harper, which stems from a dispute in north carolina. roberts was joined by justices sonia sotomayor, elena kagan, brett kavanaugh, amy coney barrett, and ketanji brown jackson. neal katyal is the former acting u.s. solicitor general. he argued the case before the court and joins us now with more on the impact of this ruling. thank you for being with us. this case had to do with gerrymandering but how does this ruling as you see it go beyond that and potentially protect the integrity of future election? neal: the facts of this case are limited to gerrymandering, but the holding of the case is a widespread, thorough repudiation of this independent doctrine. that was the doctrine being pushed by the republican party to say for all voting choices, not just redistricting or maps,

but polling places, absentee ballots. the republican party said all of that is up to the state legislature and the state legislature alone, that they could be acting unconstitutionally against their own state constitutions and there would be no check on that. the state courts have no business reviewing that. that is what we argued against. that is what the supreme court in a very strong 6-3 decision said we were right about. ordinary checks and balances. geoff: after the 2020 presidential election, the trump campaign and its allies filed anlost more than 60 lawsuits at the state level aimed at overturning the election outcome. had of this legal theory been legal and actionable back that, what would have been the impact? neal: the 60 cases in the 2020 election that were decided againstrump really do illustrate the dangers of this independt state legislature theory. it would have been most of those cases could have been decided by

courts at all. it would be up to raw political power in what state legislatures want to do without any check or balance. people even tried to do and say to state legislatures that you can throw out the popular vote altogether and install their own votes before the electoral college and send your own votes instead of the popular votes. this was a really radical theory. it was a theory that was defended at the supreme court by none other than john eastman, the architect of a lot of president trump's january 6 policies. i'm very pleased to see the supreme court rejecting it 6-3. to me, this decision is a signal that six justices, a solid six justices will stand against monkeying and games and shenanigans in the 2024 election. geoff: what message does it send that john roberts, the chief

justice, authored the opinion and that two of the justices donald trump nominated joined with the majority in rejecting this legal theory that trump and his allies pushed and promoted? neal: it is a thorough repudiation of the theory. an opinion offered by the chief justice, who is certainly no liberal, joined by justice kavanaugh, not a liberal, joined by amy coney barrett, not a liberal. it is a demonstration that law and our history and our tradition of checks and balances still has resonance. i think this will go down as one of the chief justice's finest opinions, if not his finest. geoff: the court in effectively preserving the status quo today. in your view, is that sufficient? are those good enough guardrails in preventing another well coordinated effort to overturn a future presidential election? neal: no, not at all. the court today took an important step by preserving the

200 year tradition of checks and balances and judicial review over state legislation over elections. but, remember, it was 10 years ago this week the supreme court struck down the key provisions of the voting rights act of the constution -- 1965 voting rights act and saying it was unconstitutional. that really opened the door to a lot of gamesmanship at the state and local level. geoff: neal, thank you for your time as always. we appreciate it. neal: thank you so much for having me. ♪ geoff: in the day's other headlines, a senate report cited sweeping intelligence failures by the fbi and the department of homeland security before the january 6 attack on the u.s. capitol. democrats on the homeland security committee released the findings. they said the agencies ignored

tips and social media posts calling for violence before january 6. and even after the attack began, intelligence officials still played down the threat. in the end, the report concludes the fbi and dhs simply could not conceive the capitol would be overrun. a heat dome scorched texas again today amid warnings that blistering temperatures will invade the midwest and the deep south through july 4. roughly 62 million americans from arizona to the florida panhandle were under heat warnings today. dallas had a forecast high of 110 degrees. meantime, smoke and haze from wildfires in canada covered chicago and much of michigan and triggered air quality alerts. >> it's burning on the eyes and burning in the nose. and i don't think this mask is even strong enough. i have an n-95, but i think i need a better one. geoff: officials say the haze could drift farther south and linger for several days.

the roman catholic bishop of knoxville, tennessee, richard stika, has resigned over allegations he mishandled sexual abuse claims. the vatican had complaints from priests who said the bishop abused his power and protected a seminarian accused of rape. in an interview today, stika denied covering up abuse. in germany, police and prosecutors in cologne searched catholic church properties today in a perjury probe of cardinal rainer woelki, the region's igarchs biweshop t. hrough church offices and woelki's home. they're focused on allegations that he lied in court regarding sexual abuse complaints. >> in terms of content, the main issue in each case is whether cardinal woelki had any knowledge at all, and if so, at what specific point in time of allegations of abuse leveled against two clerics. geoff: the cardinal has denied the allegations. police in the czech republic say they've arrested 14 people and

broken up an international ring of migrant smuggling. police video today showed squads of officers raiding apartments and restraining suspects with handcuffs. the ring allegedly smuggled at least 1000 migrants from turkey to western europe since 2021. a u.s. government watchdog today doubled the estimate of pandemic relief money stolen from two main programs. the inspector general for the small business administration now says the total could top $200 billion. it was meant to aid businesses and workers. other estimates have run even higher. newly-analyzed sales records show a surge of e-cigarette devices onto the u.s. market in the last three years. the associated press reports the number almost tripled to more than 9000. they were mostly unauthorized, disposable vapes from china. that's despite the fda's crackdown on flavors that appeal to minors. on wall street today, encouraging economic reports helped stocks rebound a bit.

the dow jones industrial average gained 212 points to close at 33,926. the nasdaq rose nearly 220 points, more than 1.5%. the s&p 500 was up just over 1%. and, archaeologists at the man ruins of pompeii ce ofene uroncovt ered a sli ciculinary history. italy's culture ministry says they've found a fresco depicting a precursor to pizza. the image appears on the wall of a house dating back 2000 years. it looks like pizza, but it's not since tomatoes and mozzarella weren't yet available. instead, it's said to be a kind of focaccia. >> we are in the atrium of a house that was already partially excavated over 100 years ago. we think this is a kind of sacrificial flatbread, an offering with perhaps a seasoning on it, some spices, some kind of condiment, but also pomegranates and dates. an image that obviously to the

modern observer immediately brings to mind a pizza since we are near naples. geoff: the italian culture minister said pompeii never ceases to amaze. still to come on "the newshour," an aging population poses many challenges for the country's future. the weaponization of deepfake technology to target women. a new book calls for a renewed commitment to american citizenship. and, a city-wide art project hopes to reveal the forgotten history of st. louis. ♪ >> this is the pbs newshour from weta studios in washington and in t west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. geoff: a newly-leaked audio recording appears to show former president donald trump discussing sensitive documents with people who didn't have security clearances during a 2021 meeting in bedminster, new jersey. in this audio first obtained by cnn, the former president seems

to acknowledge he knowingly held onto a document about a potential attack on iran. >> this totally wins my case. it is highly confidential. this is secret information. i think we can probably -- >> we will have to see. >> declassified. as president, i could have declassified it. now, i can't. is that interesting? geoff: the two-minute audio recording could hold key evidence in trump's indictment over his handling of classified information after he left the white house. david n. kelley is the former united states attorney for the southern district of new york and is an experienced trial lawyer and investigator. he joins us now. thank you for being with us. david: thanks. geoff: on this recording which the newshour has not independently verified, donald trump is also heard saying it is so cool, and that the information was classified and

highly confidential. how might the special counsel leverage this recording as evidence in the indictment against the former president? david: i think the special counsel would look at this recording as if he's opening a chest and the glow of gold shines on his face when he sees evidence like this. it is really quite a recording. it is principally two things. one, it helps prove one of the overt acts, namely that he showed documents the folks who didn't have clearances. two, it also speaks to his state of mind. it says that he knew that he could not declassify it. he knew he should not be showing it. these are all things that fly in the face of a lot of the public statements he is making, including the one he made today that he did nothing wrong. geoff: the episode is referenced in the special counsel indictment. donald trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. how might a jury react to hearing this audio as opposed to

just reading the transcript in black and white? david: you always like to have something more real-life than just a transcript. having it here -- it is really unlikely that he will testify on his own behalf. i think the government will try to use his recordings to hear his own voice. and not only does it bring more life to the courtroom, but it is a little less cumbersome than having a transcript there and having people read along with it. having the real-life voice there is exponentially better in terms of form of evidence. geoff: donald trump reacted to this lease recording today. here's what he told fox news while speaking in new hampshire. >> wenoth hoax. a i would say election interference more than anything else. everything was fine. we did nothing wrong and everybody knows it. geoff: how do his public

statements in which he often times admits to the thing he's accused of, he often says i took those documents and had every right to take those documents -- how does that complicate his legal case? david: two ways of looking at it. one is to say that he's making a lot of statements that his defense lawyer typically would not like him to make because it flies in the face of the defense they would like to construct. because the other pieces of evidence like this new recording indicated he did know what he was doing was wrong. the other thing -- another way to look at it, maybe from his twisted prism is to think of it in terms of, that he's crazy like a fox or dumb like a fox insofar as he really thought what he was doing was not wrong. the problem with that is under all the circumstances, under all the evidence they will present at trial, that belief, if it was

in fact his belief, is simply not a reasonable belief. geoff: we also know that investigators from special counsel jack smith's office are set to interview the georgia secretary of state about the special counsel probe into efforts to overturn the election. donald trump back in january of 2021 called him and pressed him to find the votes that he needed to turn that state in his favor. help us understand the value that a brad raffensperger has in the special counsel case. david: a couple of different ways. first, he is not someone who can be painted as the defense as having a political ax to grind. more important, whenever you have somebody who is on a recording, to be there live in the courtroom to helping slain the context of the information, to give the background of how you came to have that conversation, and what you may

have done in relation to that conversation is important evidence that bolsters the strength of a pretty damming piece of evidence, or so it would appear. geoff: david, thank you for your time and insight. david: thank you. ♪ geoff: russia's security services said today they'd close the criminal case against those responsible for a stunning but short-lived revolt over the weekend. the leader of the mutiny, meantime, arrived in belarus. and in eastern ukraine, kyiv's offensive continues. but, a devastating russian missile strike hit a shopping center and a restaurant, killing at least people. three lisa desjardins has more. ♪ lisa: at the kremlin today, a grand ceremony of russian president vladimir putin sought to recast the weekend's failed

revolt as a moment of pride. among the hundreds that attended, a strge looking defense minister. his removal had been a key demand of the mutineers. putin praised russian government troops as heroic. >> you defended the constitutional order, lives, security and freedom of our citizens, and saved our motherland. in fact, you stop a civil war. you acted clearly and harmoniously in a difficult situation. lisa: just days earlier, those same government forces allowed the mercenary group to seize the southern city and drive within 125 miles of moscow with little resistance. the lacquer group shot down six russian helicopters and airplanes, and reportedly killed at least a dozen soldiers during the revolt. today, putin's government dropped the charges against the rebels. that in stark contrast to the heavy punishments last year for russians who protested the

kremlin's ukraine warm. the charge for armed mutiny in russia could normally mean up to 20 years behind bars. we spoke to a journalist about the amnesty for the wagner group. >> we see that the criminal charges were dropped, which means he actuay could get back to st. petersburg, and even his company could still operate financial activities uninterrupted. lisa: something else unusual. putin announced his government paid the wagner group over $1 billion, a first admission of the official relationship. >> it is a sign that putin is still in deep shock because usually he hates to disclose this kind of details. lisa: this as alexander lukashenko confirmed today that the man behind the rebellion

arrived there. prigohzn was last seen in russia after lukashenko brokered a deal for him to stand down. now the group may be repositioning with lukashenko saying belarus is open to hiring its forces to instructors. >> there is much talk currently of wagner and we take a pragmatic approach. the commanders come to us and help us, this is experienced. their assault squads are at the forefront. lisa: that prospect of wagner forces and belarus raised alarm in neighboring countries like latvia and lithuania. both call for nato reinforcements on their borders. meanwhile in ukraine, more russian missiles tore into everyday life. this time, hitting a shopping area in eastern ukraine. as russia launches weapons, the u.s. is sending more help. today, pledging an additional

$500 million in military aid. for the pbs newshour, i'm lisa desjardins. ♪ geoff: new numbers from the census bureau show the u.s. population is older than it's ever been, with the nation's median age over 38. william brangham explains how an older america could pose significant challenges for the economy, workforce, and social programs in the years to come. william: between 2021 and 2022, nearly every state in the u.s. saw its population's median age go up. in about a third of states, more than half of the population is older than 40. maine had the highest median age of 44.8 years and utah is our youngest state with a median age of 31.9 years. as the share of older americans continues to rise, the need for benefits and assistance from medicare and social security

will grow. at the same time, an aging workforce could cause worker shortages in the years to come. joining us to discuss the implications of this shift is philip bump. he's a national columnist for "the washington post" and author of "the aftermath: the last days of the baby boom and the future of power in america." also joining us is wendy edelberg. she's director of the hamilton project at brookings. she's a former chief economist for the congressional budget office. thank you both so much for being here. wendy, to you first. the median age in the country is 38. back in 1980, it was 30. what is the main reason why this trendline is taking upwards? wendy: two main effects. one is that we have improvements in mortality rates. we are living to older and older ages and that is only good news.

but we also, like many countries across the globe have declining fertility rates. we are getting hit on both sides. william: do you know why we are having fewer kids in general? wendy: there seems to be a trend that goes along with countries as they get richer. it is not in and of itself a worrying development. it is absolutely true we are on track for slower labor force growth. half the pace of growth than recent decades. but, we are also a country that is greatly valued by immigrants. there are immigrants from all over the world who desperately want to come to the united states. we have a very simple way of boosting our population growth if that comes a priority for us. william: philip you mentioned in your book and your column this is not just all americans amicans gettg older.

can you explain both of that, the demographic reality and the implications? philip: one of the reasons the united states is getting older is we have this massive surge in births in 1946 and 1954 that we call the baby boom. this massive influx of americans all in the same age range. the size changed over time because immigration laws were loosened, and of course, because people die over time. this is a continuation of the pattern we saw with the baby boom in the 1940's. a big cluster of people all in the same age group that are reaching age milestones together. when you think about the year, 1957, you get 2022 for their retirement age. the baby boom was a very heavily white generation. immigration was restricted by law about a century ago, and that lifted after the baby boom was over. that led to a very white population.

what we see when we look at the population today is that older americans are disproportionately white. the youngest americans are about half nonwhite. about half of them are black, hispanic or asian. older americans, that is not the case. that overlaps with a lot of the political and cultural trends we have seen. william: wendy, as you were touching before, a lot of potential implications here. one of them seems that programs like medicare and social security require a larger pool at the bottom to feed a relatively smaller pool at the top. does that mean for us policy was, if we are seeing this aging population? wendy: payroll taxes as a share of the whole economy have been roughly flat for decades and are on track to remain flat over the next decades. but at the same time, our spending on social security, ignoring the fact that the trust funds will get exhausted in

about the next decade, social security benefits are projected to increase by 50% relative to its share in previous decades. and medicare, health care spending on the elderly, is projected to double. the challenge here is that largely cause of our aging population, but also because of increases in health care costs, we have very significant increases and benefits the horizon, but we have not planned for those with increases in taxes. william: hearing what wendy is describing, that the demographic reality and the cost going upward, what do the policymakers have to address that? philip: it depends on a number of factors. it depends on the willingness of policymakers to raise taxes, decrease spending, reduce the amount of benefits people are receiving, which will cause a lot of political backlash if they choose to do so. it depends how money people are paying into the system.

if we bring a bunch of immigrants -- we have seen this strain on the number of people being hired. whenever started researching my book in 2021, we are going to be gasping for jobs to people to fill these jobs in short order. again, we have seen this pattern. over the course of the beginning, when the baby boom first emerged, we have to build a bunch of schools. luckily, we were able to accommodate it. now, the baby boom is having to compete for power and resources with another comparably sized generation, millennials. we see there is additional political tension for the baby boom generation at this moment when they have reached a stage that it was foreseeable, but causing a lot of strain. william: wendy, the tensions that philip is describing are not easily remedied. addressing medicare and social security are third rails of american politics. immigration is right behind that. what do you see as the most

likely things policymakers will do to try to address this? wendy: because of the way we have organized the social security program and the medicare program as trust funds, these will become very politically salient over the next several years. so, because we are spending out more in social security benefits and in medicare benefits, particularly hospital insurance benefits, because we are spending on more than we are taking in on taxes, the trust fund for social security is projected to run out of money by 2031. and the medicare hospital insurance trust fund soon thereafter. what that will mean is under current law, if there are no changes, then the social security benefits would be constrained by how many taxes -- how big the tax revenues are that are coming in. we only taken about 75% in taxes for the benefits that go out. without any change in law, you

are talking about an across-the-board cut in social security benefits of 25%. talk about third rails. that will never happen. so, that will be a strong impetus for policymakers to act. william: one of the things you both have touched on is the idea of bringing in more immigrants to add to that workforce, to create more payroll taxes to help fulfill these gaps. again, you cover national politics as closely as anybody. how likely do you think this issue will help be a lever to true immigration reform in this country? philip: it depends what you mean by true immigration. it is certainly the case that both parties have a vested interest in changing the system and away they might not have previously. the republican party is very heavily old. there are a lot of old americans that are members of the republican party more than the democratic party. hey, we need to cut what they call entitlements. there is no longer the same push within the republican party now

that a third of the republican party will be the age of 65. these things are shifting. i think it will be the case as well that the republican party may be increasingly open to the idea of reforming immigration in a way that makes it sustainable to be able to pay out social security benefits. now, they can be the competing in the party and it needs to be resolved. this is the moment of flux. it is caused largely by the baby boomers having reached this age, but a moment influx where the party's positions may change. william: philip, wendy, thank you both for being here. >> thank you. ♪ geoff: fears of artificial intelligence's rapid rise often overlook the devastating and more immediate impact of this tech on women. that's the focus of laura barron

lopez's conversation tonight. laura: for years, women have faced sexual harassment online, and with the rise of artificial intelligence, it's only getting worse. deepfakes, which use a.i. to create manipulated but hyper-realistic images and videos of real people in fake situations, are routinely used against women. a 2019 study revealed that a staggering 96% of all deepfake videos were non-consensual pornography. our guest nina jankowicz is a disinformation researcher and the author of two books on the subject. she ran the biden administration's disinformation governance board before it was dissolved after intense republican pressure. she's also the target of deepfake pornographic videos, an experience she wrote about this week in "the atlantic." thank you for being here. you are now the target of the very thing you researched, disinformation. for more than a year, you have been experiencing online

harassment. what has that experience been like to find yourself in multiple pornographic deepfake videos? nina: some people might be surprised to find out that it didn't shock me. i have written about this and online abuse for many years. frankly, i was surprised it took me this long to find these videos. i got a google alert a couple weeks ago when i woke up in the morning, basically tracking news mentions of me. there was a deepfake porn website that tagged me and my image. there were a couple of videos on there. frankly, it is not even in the top 10 worst things that have happened to me over the past year plus. that kind of gives you a picture of what it has been like to be the face of a nationwide harassment campaign. laura: what has the impact been on your career him this online harassment? nina: it's exhausting. that's exactly the point. the point is to make you not want to speak out, to make you not want to stand up to the truth.

to just retreat into anonymity online. i think that is something i have pushed back against. i know there are women that look up to me. there are women who i don't want to have to go through this in the future. so, i am making a point of drawing attention to this despicable behavior, whether it is deepfake porn, violent threats, or the incessant harassment that women like me are on the receiving end of. i had to get a restraining order against a stalker. i have been named in extraneous lawsuits. it has taken a lot of time, and frankly, taken away from the work i would like to be doing, working on disinformation related to national security. but i will not give up or stay silent. laura: women like hillary clinton and greta thunberg have been subjects of these deepfake pornographic videos. when you recently researched one well-known website where people post these videos, you found there was only one video of

former president donald trump. but, pages of videos, sexually explicitly depicting his wife and daughter. are women the usual targets of these deepfake pornographic videos? nina: that is an important point to make. these models are trained on women's bodies. so even if you feed a male image into the face swap tools that exist, it will not work as well because they have been created by men for the purpose of either demeaning women or easuring themselves. it does not work as well on men's bodies and that is why we see that 96% figure of nonconsensual pornographic videos of women. laura: a.i. has made these videos more convincing, but even poorly edited videos known as cheapfakes can prove equally damaging. what is the motive here? nina: i think the motive is to demean and discredit women in the public eye.

the videos of me were actually posted on a website for deepfake porn. it is not like they are mixed in for the real porn. even so, the idea is to humiliate me. to show me in an instance in which it would be extremely private. this is entirely the point. the cheapfakes as well. meant to cast doubt on somebody's integrity. meant to say that they are not fit for public office or public life. laura: you have spent a lot of time on these forums where you can actually see, watch the people interact better posng these deepfake videos. what did you see? nina: the men are concerned about their own privacy. that i want to be found out by making these videos, but not concerned about the privacy of the women they are making videos of. they say if you are a public figure, if your images out there, they have the right to make this "art" as they call it. i don't believe it is art to put

somebody in an image they have not consented to. laura: what recourse do women have that find themselves in these pornographic deepfake videos and have there been any instances of the people posting these being held accountable? nina: there's a patchwork of state-level laws in the united states that do hold the distributors of deepfake pornography to account, if you can find out who they are. that is very difficult to do. when a woman like me finds herself in a deepfake video, you have to see if you can find out who it is. if they happen to be in your state and jurisdiction, you might be able to ring them to account in civil court. if they are out-of-state or out of the country, you really don't have any recourse. that is why i am hoping that legislators, rather than waxed poetic of the threats of a.i. we might see in the future, look at the threat that is facing us today and ruining many women's lives. laura: you are on the disinformation government board for the biden administration, that was under the homeland

security department. but it only survived about, what, three weeks and ultimately it was totally killed due to republican outcry over what they said was a tax on freedom of expression and freedom of speech. did the administration make a mistake by dissolving that board? nina: i absolutely believe they made a mistake by dissolving the board. i will push back a little bit. it was not republican outcry. it was lies and disinformation about the board and me and my positions on how to fight disinformation. people said i would be censoring american speech. i would never do any such thing. i stood up my entire career for people under real freedom of expression threats in places like russia, ukraine. i would have never taken a job that had anything to do with censorship. it has been proven that the board never had anything to do, nor any capacity to do anything with censorship. laura: you are at a point where you are addressing policymakers using words, "i beg them," that

before they stopped to -- act to stop greater existential threats that they first stopped the men who were using a.i. to discredit and humiliate women. what do you think it will take for lawmakers to actually regulate this? nina: i wish i knew. i would ask the lawmakers who are stalling on this and saying this is just a women's issue, or it is one we will deal with when we think about the broader a.i. threat to think of your wife, your daughter, your sister, your mom in this situation. that is a little bit trite. we should not have to ask for our basic human rights and privacy to be respected just by men thinking of the women in their lives. if that is what it takes, i hope they do it because i think if they saw any of those women in their lives and that private situation for anybody on the internet to see, they might think of it differently. this is a democratic issue that affects women's political participation and it is something we will definitely see

nations like russia and china and iran using against female officials in the united states because it works. laura: nina, thank you for joining and for sharing your personal experience. nina: thank you for having me. ♪ geoff: we hear often hear deep -- we often hear deep concerns about the state of american democracy, but a new book provides some optimistic advice and answers. "the bill of obligations: the 10 habits of good citizens" argues democracy works best when citizens recognize not just their rights, but also their duties. amna spoke with its author, richard haass, a veteran diplomat and outgoing president of the council on foreign relations. amna: welcome back to "the newshour." thanks for joining us. richard: great to be with you. amna: so you write in this book, the greatest threat to america right now comes from within, as you say, from political

divisions that for only the second time in u.s. history have raised doubts about the future of american democracy and even the united states itself. you cite january 6 as proof of that. and as you know, a lot of people said, you know what? yes, january 6 was terrible, but the system held, democracy survived. so, why are you still worried? richard: well, just because democracy survived that day, it doesn't mean we have the luxury of being sanguine. this is a country where it's all too easy to imagine frequent, widespread, politically-inspired violence. our political institutions still are not really working as intended. we can't pass much of the legislation we need in this country. we can't meet many of our domestic challenges. we are as polarized as we've ever been as a society. and i'm not predicting the worst. i'm simply saying no one can be confident that the best will happen, that we're somehow out of the woods. so, we ought to be worried and we ought to do something about it. amna: do you think the idea of american exceptionalism in some way prevents most americans from seeing our democracy as vulnerable in any way?

richard: it's interesting. it might be that or simply momentum. here we are, three years away from marking the 250th anniversary of the declaration of independence, and my guess is most americans take it fo' alwaa democracy. they also, i think, in many cases, don't study it. we don't teach civics in our schools or if we offer it it's , not required. you can graduate from virtually any college in america not having read the constution or the declaration of independence or the the federalist papers, or knowing what citizenship requires, what the country requires of its citizens. so, my sense is americans aren't really alert as much as they should and could be to the danger that we're in. amna: you write about the idea of citizenship and say it should be expanded. you say we've been overly focused on rights and you lay out obligations you believe we should adopt and adhere to instead. why are these important? richard: because a rights-based democracy is important as rights are won't simply be enough.

think about it. a woman's right to an abortion versus the rights of the unborn. how do we navigate that? someone's right to bear arms pursuant to the second amendment. someone else's right to public safety. how do we navigate that? so, rights alone are not enough. we need to think about obligations, the obligations each of us has to one another. what you and i have to one another. so, we need to begin to re-imagine citizenship as a coin. one side is rights, but the other side must be our obligations. amna: let's get into a few examples here. one of the obligations you've laid out is to remain civil. i don't need to tell you about the state of our political discourse these days. how do you even begin to adopt and to enforce that kind of

on january 6 believed they were doing just that, and many thought that their violence was justified. are you worried that we will see more and an increase in political violence ahead? richard: i am worried. i spent years as the u.s. envoy to northern ireland. the three decades of political violence there known as the troubles. we could have a version of it here, particularly given how prevalent guns are here. but let me quote ronald reagan here, and i think it was his farewell address. the former president said it's not enough to be a patriot.

we need informed patriotism. we need americans to understand why certain actions are consistent with patriotism or why other actions are not. so, motives alone are not enough. we need americans to be informed about what makes this democracy so special, what it takes to protect it, why it's worth protecting. amna: richard, as we speak, you are stepping down as president of the council on foreign relations. after 20 years at the helm, you have seen democracies rise and fall. are you optimistic that american democracy will survive? richard: i'm optimistic. i wouldn't be writing this book. on the other hand, i'm not sanguine. i think we need to worry. look, right now, we live in a world where one democracy, ukraine, is being threatened from without by invasion. the much bigger problem historically for democracies is corrosion and erosion from within. that is a challenge. that's the challenge facing the united states. as big as china and russia and north korea and iran are as

challenges to the united states as threats, we are the biggest threat to ourselves. the good news is we have the potential to fix it. amna: the book is "the bill of obligations: the 10 habits of good citizens." the author is richard haass. richard, thank you. good to speak with you. richard: thank you. ♪ geoff: a public art exhibition explores art as a way of uncovering hidden history and addressing contemporary urban life. jeffrey brown traveled to st. louis for our arts and culture series, canvas. >> right now, we are in somebody's living room or kitchen. we are in the neighborhood but you have to use your imagination. jeffrey: not far from downtown st. louis, its famed arch in the distance, the old buildings are gone. this was the site of an historic and vibrant black neighborhood called mill creek valley, razed in the name of urban renewal in

the late 1950's. now, it's memorialized in a large public installation titled "pillars of the valley." each pillar holding an hourglass shape signifying the passage and loss of time and people. >> like pillars of the community. jeffrey: with inscribed quotations from some of those who once lived here, their names and occupations nearby. it's the work of 38-year-old st. louis artist damon davis. >> i'm a kid that grew up in st. louis, so i've been in this area my entire life, in st. louis, east st. louis, and i had never heard about this. and i thought i had a very good grasp on black history, specifically where i was from. jeffrey: so you're thinking, why don't i know about this? >> yeah. and i want to make sure no other kid, ever, that never happens again. jeffrey: weeks earlier, this was the site of the opening of an ambitious city-wide public art exhibition of which the pillars are part, titled "counterpublic." 30 artists were commissioned to create works along a six-mile axis from the city's south to

its north. much of it running along jefferson avenue, a main thoroughfare. there are small pieces, such as sculptures by matthew angelo harrison at the george b. vashon museum of african-american history. and very large works, including torkwase dyson's "bird and lava" in st. louis place park, with sound inspired by scott joplin, the ragtime composer who lived and worked in the city for several years. a video by an artist who goes by the name "x" projected onto the bluff of a mississippi river industrial zone. wind chimes, by raven chacon, paraded through city streets and then hung in benton park. a mural titled "justice" by simiya sudduth, based on a tarot card. and much more. "counterpublic" artistic director james mcanally. >> we talk about this as a civic exhibition, in particular because we're really trying to think about where does art connect with social change, where does it connect with the

city itself? this was a moment where across our country, monuments were being taken down and recontextualized, and this question of how are we telling history in public was really on people's minds. and so, we took that up as our mission. jeffrey: as a starting point, mcanally writes in the catalog, "st. louis is, for better and worse, at the crux of american history." the gateway to the west, based on ideas of manifest destiny and realities of indian annihilation and removal. a long history of racial discrimination and violence, up to the 2014 killing of michael brown by police officer and the ferguson protests and riots that followed. >> in st. louis, 10 children -- jeffrey: divisions and tensions continue. and just a few days after our visit, a downtown shooting that left 10 injured and one dead. >> art can't exist in a silo in a city like st. louis, that's

very clear, especially public art where immeately you're talking about public safety. immediately you're talking about land ownership or gentrification. kind of the changes of the city itself become part of the art and we wanted to be very intentional and say, like, we think that we can do this better. jeffrey: one example still in progress when we visited, renowned architect david adjaye, designer of the national museum of african-american history and culture in washington, is erecting a sculpture of earth walls that will enhance the grounds of the griot museum in the north of the city. another theme, uncovering past history, captured in a work next to sugloaf mound, considered the oldest human-made structure is, the last remnantou l of a s once-thriving culture. above, billboards created by "counterpublic" artists. below, an installation titled "wayback" by artist anita fields. with a soundtrack by her musician son, nokosee.

fields is a member of the osage nation, whose people once lived in this area before being removed to oklahoma, where fields grew up and lives. >> you know, it's a very complex history that we have in this area of removal, of erasure, of ideas behind manifest destiny and western movement, and how that affected as as osage people, our culture, all aspects of being osage. jeffrey: her response, 40 colorful platforms, adorned with ribbons and iconography. structures she remembers from her own youth used for family and ceremonial gatherings, symbols of a continuous culture. >> i thought, why not initiate, you know, a series of platforms where we can put them in a situation where people in this area can come and also sit here and enjoy, but also think about the history of this place. jeffrey: does it in that sense, reclaim that history or bring

forward that history for you? >> yes, that is my hope. we are actually coming, making our way back. you know, there's a double meaning there. so, by having this installation with these platforms, we are making our way back to this, to our, part of our ancestral homeland. jeffrey: a way back, but also, the organizers of "counterpublic" hope, a way forward. some of the art works are ephemeral, including an opening day jeep parade of sights and sounds through city neighborhoods. but, others will remain. and damon davis' "pillars of the valley" will continue to grow, as new sculptures stretch along a mile-long greenway. for davis, it is also a statement for the local art scene. >> people consider us a flyover spot. we don't get the type of respect that many of the coastal cities get when it comes to art and creation. so, i really like the idea of people being able to stay home

and the world coming to us and the idea of public art and what it can do to change the civic makeup of a city in a positive way is, it's just outstanding. i haven't heard of anything like that, like this, happening at home here. jeffrey: now, it is happening here. for "the pbs newshour," i'm jeffrey brown in st. louis. geoff: and that's "the newshour" for tonight. don't forget, there is more online. amna got a sneak peek ahead of the u.s. women's world cup and caught up with members of the team. a behind-the-scenes look is now on our instagram. i'm geoff bennett. thanks for spending part of your evening with us. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- >> for 25 years, consumer cellular has been offering no contract plans designed to help people do more of what they like. our customer service team can help find a plan that fits you. to learn more, visit consumercellular.tv. ♪

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♪ hello, everyone, and welcome to "amanpour and company." here's what's coming up -- survived, but weakened. vladimir putin remains in power after the aborted mutiny that actually stunned the world. what should the u.s. do? former nato ambassador kurt volker joins us, and we get the view from russia, with writer and great granddaughter of nikita khrushchev. then -- >> can ukraine capitalize on this chaotic moment? i ask the former defense minister and current adviser of the ukrainian government. plus -- >> i was struck by -- i was struck by the chaos. >> dexter filkins tells walter ice actson