john: tonight on pbs news weekends, a look at the supreme court term that just ended, and what it tells us about the court's future direction. then, a new documentary sheds light on the fast fashion industry and its exploitation of workers and environmental pollution. and, my conversation with chess master and commentator, levy rozman, about the ancient game's booming popularity. >> the entire culture and generation of chess has completely changed. if i brought chess trophies to school, i would get making fun of. that's not a thing anymore. >> major funding for pbs news

weekend has been provided by -- >> helping people communicate and connect. we offer a variety of no contact plans. to learn more, visit consumer cellular.tv. ♪ >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the newshour. ♪ this program was made possible by the corporation of public broadcasting and by contritions to your pbs

station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ john: good evening, i'm john yang. a fourth of july weekend block party in baltimore, maryland late last night ended in chaos and tragedy as gunfire broke out just after midnight. 30 people were shot, at least two of them fatally, some of the wounded are in critical condition. baltimore police say the crime scene is extensive. so far, they've made made no arrests. there was another mass shooting overnight, this one at a wichita, kansas nightclub. nine people were hurt there, seven were shot and two more were trampled in a rush to the exits. according to the gun violence archive, there have been 338 incidents so far this year in which four or more peoplwere shot. that is an average of nearly two a day. across france, a fifth straight night of violent riots over the fatal police shooting of a 17-year-old of north african descent. police said they arrested more

than 700 protesters overnight. it's the worst rioting in france in years. the mayor of a paris suburb says he was the target of an attempted murder. his home was rammed by a flaming car. he was not home, but his wife and one of his children were hurt. french president emmanuel macron has gathered his top ministers this evening to discuss the crisis. and, in ukraine, a barrage of russian drones rained down on kyiv overnight. it was the first drone attack since wagner mercenary chief yevgeny prigozhin's rebellion more than a week ago. no one was hurt and all of the iranian-made drones were shot down. it ended nearly two weeks of relative calm in the capital. there is fierce fighting to the south and east as ukraine wages a counteroffensive. still to come on "pbs news weekend", the real environmental and human cost of fast fashion. and, why chess is surging in popularity among all ages.

>> this is pbs news weekend, home of the pbs newshour nights on pbs. john: the supreme court ended its term this past week with the 6-justice conservative super majority again flexing its muscles to make big changes in law and society, killing race-conscious college admissions, shelving president biden's student loan forgiveness program and siding with an evangelical christian website designer who doesn't want to create websites for same-sex marriages. big, bold steps. but looking at the entire term, there are times the conservative justices made more incremental changes and even made alliances with their liberal colleagues. marcia coyle is the newshour's supreme court analyst. so much of the headlines this term were about justices extracurricular activities. >> that's right. it has not been a particularly

good time for the supreme court. reports on lavish trips taken by justices thomas and alito, the fact that they did not disclose those trips as gifts or transportation roused a lot of interest and dismay, particularly on capitol hill. there was the attempted set -- assassination of justice kavanaugh and protests in front of justices holmes. it was a tough time. all of this came together bringing pressure on the court to adopt and ethics code and do better in terms of disclosures on financial reports and to be more transparent in terms of recusal's. justice thomas was targeted because of his failure to recruits -- recuse himself out of a case in arizona.

i am sure john roberts, who cares very much about the image of the institution, was cringing this summer as this transpired. john: the ideological splits, six conservative justices and three liberalus cases. the distinctions between these sides really came out. >> affirmative action is a good example. even the case about the website designer who claimed her free speech rights were being violated when she wanted to expand her business to wedding and so we really did see some

dramatic differences in how they view the issues that come before them and much as you know, we said a year ago, this is still of even though we're going to talk about maybe some alignments between the sides. this is still a very conservative, aggressive court. john: but we did see cases in which the the some conservative justices sided with the liberal justices to give them a majority. marsha: absolutely. one of the biggest cases involved section to the voting rights act case out of alabama involving redistricting. there was a lot of concern within the civil rights community about this case. the court had already imposed certain restrictions on section two, and there was fear that it would do more damage to section two in this case, but it didn't happen. instead, the chief justice along with justice, kavanaugh joined the left side of the bench and really a very strong affirmation of section two of the voting rights act. john: so much was made in dobbs that the chief justice didn't join them in overturning roe v.

trouble, they said, sort of leaving the court at this time. what does this look like after the term? >> i think most people would agree that the chief justice seemed to regain, if not control, more influence, but largely because he was able to bring along justice kavanaugh and the other three justices on the left. whether that's going to hold in future cases, so much depends on the cases that are on the docket and what they choose to take and they had been choosing to take some very controversial, divisive cases so i think we will have to wait and see. but for this past term that just ended, the chief justice's sort of preference to move incrementally, although his critics might call it faux judicial restraint i think that , was the phrase justice scalia used once, he was able to do so

in certain key areas. john: this was the first term for justice brown jackson. what do we learn about her from watching her this term? >> she is a voice to be reckoned with. she may not have the votes, but she will be heard her very first week on the term on the court in the alabama redistricting case. she just sort of sent a shot across the bow with the bench to justice thomas and she has called herself an originalist, and she made it clear that she did not see a colorblind constitution, which has been justice thomas's sort of mantra for decades now. she asks a lot of questions and i think you can attribute some of it to the fact that she was a trial judge for eight years, she managed a courtroom. to do that, you can't be a shrinking violet, and she clearly isn't. john: court is a way the summer and they will be back the first monday in october. they have already taken some cases. what are they?

>> i think the one that will get a lot of attention is rahimi versus the united states. that's the case that asks whether the federal law that prohibits someone who's a subject to a domestic violence restraining order can have a gun . the lower federal appellate court struck down that provision and the u.s. came to the supreme court with an appeal. and there's been a lot of trouble in the lower courts trying to apply justice thomas's standard under the second amendment for when gun restrictions can pass constitutional muster. i think the court took this because it knows that and it might have to provide a little more guidance on what to do with it. john: they handed the new rule down two years ago in the bruin case. >> they did. and also then there are a couple of cases that will be very important.

the consumer finance protection bureau, there's a challenge to that. that could pretty much ended the ureau. and then the court is also going to look at an old doctrine that it's called the chevron doctrine about giving federal courts giving deference to agency decisions when they are trying to interpret an ambiguous statute they are trying to enforce. that could have huge ramifications for federal regulation. john: marcia coyle, thank you very much. >> my pleasure, john. john: it's easy to see the allure of fast fashion -- affordable, trendy clothes that land in stores as soon as the style is in vogue. the industry is valued at over one hu$ndred billion and these brands are particularly popular with young consumers. but the industry is under scrutiny for poor working conditions and using cheap textiles that end up in landfills after only a few wears.

ali rogin tells us how chinese company shein, one of the fastest-growing fast fashion brands in the world, is trying to repair its public image, and the reaction to it. reporter: recently, shein invited a group of influencers from the video sharing app tiktok on a paid trip to its so-called innovation factory in guangzhou, china. the influencers posted glowingly about the company and the factory's conditions. but that is just one of the company's 6000 factories and its test factories. in other facilities, -- 6000 factories and test factories. in other facilities shein has , faced accusations of worker abuse and of using materials linked to uyghur slave labor. the company denies this. journalist iman amrani investigated shein in the documentary inside the shein machine.exhausted.

reporter: and iman amrani joins me now. iman, thank you so much for joining us. iman, tell us more about the accusations that shein faces. >> we discovered that they were people who were working 18 hour days, which is against the law in china. it's also against shein's code of conduct. people were given one day off a month and many people came to the factory anlived nearby in these kind of dormitories, which meant they couldn't visit their families and they couldn't go back home very easily or they would have their paid docked. there were other concerns about the fact that the environment was very pressured because because the production level is so high and so fast. they have to make so many items of clothing and they have to work on commission. so it means that it's a very, very stressful environment to work in and not one that i think most people would want to work

in. >> let's talk about the relationship between shein and tiktok and other social media influencers. there's a very symbiotic relationship here. but tell us about how the compy has used these individuals to promote themselves. >> well, shein as a brand doesn't really have a face, as it were. so the influences that it partners with become the face of the brand. so they partner sometimes with micro-influencers, which are influencers with around 10,000 followers or less, who generate trust with their followers because it's a small community of followers. they feel very connected to those influences. but the inuencers who went on this trip, some of them have half a million or a million followers. so they really work with influencers across the spectrum, hoping that they will advertise to consumers that will spend money with them. reporter: and now tell us a little bit more about the backlash that's happened to these influencers that went on this trip. it seems that the conditions that they spotlight in the videos that they produced in the content that came out from the trip was very different from the conditions that you and your colleagues on covered in your documentary. >> yes. well, i was quite surprised when i saw the vide that were posted by these influences, because i have seen the undercover footage that our journalist found. and it was interesting that when these influencers, when they were describing themselves as investigative journalists jokingly and saying that they

were speaking to these workers who seemed very happy but also didn't seem to be making many items of clothing. it looked like a showroom to me, the place that they were taken to. and as you have said in the introduction, there are many, many suppliers that make clothes so i don't think it's actually very honest to try and portray this one factory as being a place where the clothes that people buy on the website are coming from. reporter: is it your understanding that other fast fashion companies also engage in these sort of tactics, or is shein a bit of an outlier? >> i would say that many, many clothing companies are engaging in similar tactics, but not to the extent that they are. they outstrip all other fast fashion brands. it is the biggest fast fashion brand in the world. it has more google searches than nike, for example. and i think that the point about the focus on shein is because it is the biggest, it sets the tone . if it is engaging in really aggressive ways of making clothes and marketing to people, then other companies and other brands are going to feel like they need to compete with that by doing the same thing.

reporter: the influencers themselves have come under a lot of criticism for going on this trip, for accepting ein's spin without really challenging it. what do you make of that criticism? >> i think it is really unfair for the criticisms to be laid at the feet of the influencers. the responsibility is with t brand and as i say, the brand doesn't have a face, so the influencers become the face of the brand and you end up with people arguing about the influences and forgetting about the bigger picture here, which is about what the brand's practices are like. and i think it's also unfair to put influencers in this position. there is a reason why they don't invite journalists to come and have a tour of the factories. they invite influencers who operate in a cloud ecomy. they are people, young people, who are aspirational. they want to be seen to be fashionable and to seem to be be seen to be in demand. they've been flown out to china.

although i do think that now they've definitely had a backlash. and i think that we need to take a step back from that and keep focusing on the brand. reporter: in deploying this trip, they have come under criticism for only seeming to recruit influencers that represent that represent marginalized often communities, including a plus sized influencer influencers of color. what do you make of that criticism? what do you make of that observation? >> well, i couldn't directly speak to what their intentions were, but i would say having looked at the way that they market generally and doing all the research that i have done, i think that they are very savvy about audiences. they know that young people are more into accessibility in fashion and they want representation. and i also think that by using minority influences or people who are underrepresented in the fashion industry, it means that we kind of have these arguments. we talk about the fact that it is difficult to buy clothes that fit plus size women, but that isn't the focus. and the focus here is about the practices. and yes, all women should be able to buy clothes that make them feel comfortable, but it shouldn't be at the expense of people who are working in factories and having to make those clothes.

reporter: journalist iman amrani, the documentarian behind inside the shein machine, untold. thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you for having me. john: in our weekend spotlight is a centuries-old game that's enjoying new popularity with young people. it's chess. after the 2020 netflix drama "the queen's gambit," the game saw its biggest boon in the united states since american bobby fischer won the 1972 world chess championship. chess club memberships are soaring, and earlier this year, chess.com servers overloaded when it had the most active users ever. the renewed interest has created demand for other online content. levy rozman is one of those providing it. his youtube channel, gotham chess, has the most subscribers of any youtube chess channel. and his new book, "how to win at chess: the ultimate guide for beginners and beyond" is out this fall.

levy, you are an international master. what does that mean? >> international master is the second highest title you can have in the chess world. and i guess internationally, for lack of a better word. the title above mine is grandmaster, which is the title that everyone aspires to. i stopped at international master because i frankly never even thought i would get it. so when i got it, it was a huge adrenaline dump for me and i was very happily going back to my university studies. john: how did you get involved in chess? what was the appeal? >> both my mom and dad are from the former soviet union. so it's ingrained there in the culture for sure. and there's a very funny story. my parents were trying to sign me up for after school classes when i was five. my mom said chess.

my dad said, "art, he's too crazy for chess." and it turns out that my mom was actually right because i was i became completely obsessed with the game. but i ran from art class. and that basically was it. john: we talked a little bit about about "the queen's gambit," but it's still becoming more and more popular. >> yeah. so the first one was queen's gambit, and i was involved in chess professionally before the queen's gambit. but in 2020, queen's gambit happened, and right aroundhat time i had decided to make content full time. so that meant youtube videos, some live streaming. but it wasn't a big deal until queen's gambit came. my view count on youtube went fr about 70,000 in a 48 hour window to a million, and that just kept happening because somebody would watch the queen's gambit trailer. and on the sidebar it would say how to play the queen's gambit by gotham chess. a video that i made with a little potato over webcam never thought much of, but it just blew up. and i mean it. itas sky high all of 2021. it took a dip. then in 2022, we had the cheating scandal, which you can make a story on on its own about. and now it's skewed to the younger audience through short form content. so i'm talking about tiktok, youtube shorts, instagram reels,

bite sized chess content, not 30 minute chess content, which got popular 2021, 2022. now you can just scroll in your phone and you learn something about chess in 30 seconds, and then you go try it against the friend. so the entire culture and generation of chess has completely changed. i usedo be embarrassed bringing chess trophies to school. i would get made fun of. that's not a thing anymore. on the airport coming here, a group of seventh graders recognize me, and i've never seen kids that excited. john: most people say the big boom is in middle school and high school. why that age group? why do you think that is? >> definitely recently that that has been the age group. but over the last few years it's been people who learned it in childhood, didn't play it for 30, 40 years, and they're now playing it again, reconnecting with a relative. it goes across generations. the young audience really enjoys it because they enjoy a gaming period. , there is something different about chess. it's not just the one on one game where you mash a controller or learn some little trick. there has never been a better time to learn the game, whether online or print. it useto be really hard to access this information.

you could watch something for 60 seconds, go try it. and you are like i'm the smart , one in the friend group now, at least until the next person learn something. john: you talk about playing online. i've seen people or i know people who, if they're the two chess players in the same room and there's a board set up, they'd rather play on their phone against each other than sit down and play the game. why do you think that is? >> well, i suppose it's also just a microcosm of general society, if you will. i mean, we're just a bit too comfortable on our phones nowadays. i got to tell you, i enjoy playing speed games way more on my phone than i do live at parties or in tournaments. it's like three minute games. one minute games. i'm a monster on my phone. put me in front of a person, there's psychology, there's nerves. you you don't see the squares the same way you do. thlast three years, you likely got into chess online. you didn't get into chess at your local club. so people are having a little bit of a tough time moving that skill to irl, but it's still very popular. a lot of chess clubs at pubs,

libraries, schools. so we'll get there. john: irl, in real life. >> in real life. yes. [laughter] apologies, creators, terminology. you have to mash everything into acronyms. john: a lot of pro athletes are talking about playing chess. joe burrow, the cincinnati bengals quarterback who went to the super bowl, keeps a chessboard by his locker. he says it helps him read defenses on the football field. are there other things that that you can take or that help if you learn to play chess that you can take irl, in real life? >> i think it's mildly overblown, but yes, i way to say more and more other endeavors like boxing because you have to , prepare for the opposition. your opponent has tendencies, positions they like to get to, whether they use the left or the right, southpaw, orthodox. but the same goes for football formations, i would imagine. i don't know a huge amount about football specifically, but basketball, w do you break down a defense? and a lot of athletes do like chess and for good reason, because it does get your brain

thinking in a much more "if this than this, well, then i'll do this." kind of a way. but the short answer is yes, i think there's a lot of overlap between athletics and kind of this forward thinking in chess. john: your book is subtitled "the ultimate guide for beginners and beyond." who do you think would would most benefit from the book, a beginner or someone who's sort of trying to move up to the next level? >> over the years i have probably been asked this question a 1000 times. i just want a book. give me a good book. there is no good one answer. there doesn't have to be one answer. but i decided to write this book so you could read it 15 minutes before bed while laying on the couch while relaxing. you don't need a physical board to guide you along. but the book guides you by the arm through all things chess. and i think it's a really refreshing read because a lot of chess books that were purchased

by people, myself included, are hard to finish. you need the board. you need hours of practice. they skip from one diagram to the second, and six moves happened. and if you're not at that level, it's very difficult to read. so just like chess has had a revolution in online and digital content this was my idea with , the book. i'm not dumbing down the subject. i think i'm just making it a bit more refreshing. john: levy rozman, thank you very much. >> thank you. ♪ john: and that is pbs news weekend for this sunday. i'm john yang. for all of my colleagues, thanks for joining us. have a good, safe 4th of july. ♪ >> major funding has been provided by -- >> consumer cellular offers no contract plans designed to help people do more of what they like. our customer service team can help find the plan that fits you.

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