♪ good evening. i'm amna nawaz. and i'm geoff bennett on the "newshour" tonight. nato promises long-term military aid to ukraine but stops short of announcing a path for membership at the alliance's ongoing summit house republicans interrogate the f-b-i director about claims of bias in the department and investigations into the president's family and. the webb telescope's images of the far reaches of space prompt scientists to reconsider their understanding of the early universe. >> people are really interested in what are the surprises that we're getting out of the webb. the big answers are the first galaxies grew differently than we expected.

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supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation (website is macfound.org) and with the ongoing support of these 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. >> welcome to the newshour president biden is in finland tonight, after an eventful two-day "nato" summit in nearby lithuania. >> finland is the newest member of the trans-atlantic alliance, and mr. biden will celebrate that tomorrow. but there was still much to do on this second day of the "nato" summit, as the alliance expands in the face of russia's ongoing invasion of ukraine. our laura barron-lopez was there. >> you're stuck w us >> a warm moment between wartime

partners after a tense twenty-four hours. >> thank you very much to all these days you are with us, i mean you, and americans, all americans, and congress. >> president joe biden- for the first time publicly hinted that ukraine's nato membership could come sooner than previously thought >> i hope we finally have put to bed the notion about whether or not ukraine is welcome, nato is going to happen, whether we're all moving in the right direction. i think it's just a matter of getting by the next few months here. >> ukrainian president vlodomir zelensky arrived for summit meetings with a softer tone and clear eyed that membership in the midst of war was off the table. >> we hear and understand that we'll have this invitation when security measures will allow. >> he did secure commitments from the u.s. and other group of seven leaders that look ahead - a joint declaration pledged long-term security assistance

designed to help ukraine defend itself against future attacks: >> we're going to help ukraine build a strong, capable defense across land, air and sea - from which we will be a force of stability in the region and deter against any and all threats. >> that announcement helped cool tensions from yesterday when zelenskyy called the absence of a clear timeline for ukraine to join nato 'absurd'. >> morning, morning >> but today zelenskyy greeted nato secretary general jens stoltenberg with a hug the two agreeing the summit sent a clear signal. >> today we meet as equals. i look forward to when we meet as allies. >> i'm confident after the war, ukraine will be in nato. >> "this is truly a historic moment" >> and they gathered for the inaugural meeting of the nato-ukraine council - a new panel designed to grant zelenskyy more power in some nato decisions. [applause] but the war is in its five-hundred-and-fourth day its

toll on ukrainians evident in zelensky's persuasion campaign for weapons. he praised president biden for the decision to send cluster munitions to the front lines. >> and this is about justice: we defend ourselves. we are defending ourselves without using appropriate weapons on the territory of other states. as for the rest of the aid, we need long-range weapons, this deficit hasn't gone away. and i will raise this question. >> while ukraine dominated the agenda in vilnius - the alliance also took steps to fortify its own members' borders. >> "our security is interconnected" >> for the first time since the cold war - they approved new defense plans in case of an attack on nato territory. they reinforced a 2% of gdp defense-spending minimum. so far, just seven of the 31 member countries hit that target. they also hosted indo-pacific leaders to deepen global ties against other adversaries, including china. and saw a deal struck for

sweden's nato membership -- though turkish president recep tayyip erdogan said today his country will not immediately vote on it. >> "now we have a two-month parliamentary vacation our goal is to finish this job as soon as possible." >> "hello lithuania!" >> in a post-summit speech, president biden celebrated nato's unity in downtown vilnius. >> strong alliances. versatile partnerships. common purpose. collective action, to meet our shared challenges. >> continuing the victory lap for nato's expansion - president biden travels to finland tomorrow his first presidential visit to the newest member of the nato alliance. moments before boarding air force one to helsinki, president biden said they accomplished every goal at the summit and that ukraine now understands the

timing of their nato membership is less important than continued military aid, amna?. >> the nato summit began with a tense 24 hours between president biden and zelenskyy that seems to have shifted. what's the status between the two leaders postsummit? >> president zelenskyy went from calling it absurd that there was no clear timelie for them to join nato, also that it was a sign of weakness that would encourage russian aggression. he said that on tuesday, then 24 hours later sitting alongside president biden praised the president as well as americans and president biden also welcomed that praise and said they were standing by ukraine. i spoke to jake sullivan today about all of it and he said president zelenskyy had the right to voice frustration and to say that they wanted

immediate nato membership, but that ultimately it has to be agreed upon by all 31 members of nato. >> tell us more about the next steps for delivering assistance to ukraine. what is the white house doing to help guarantee that assistance in the short-term and long-term? >> in the near term, it's going to be the cluster munitions that we reported on and that zelenskyy also said are something that is very important to ukraine to have right now. president biden again right before he boarded air force one said he was open to potentially sending long-range missiles. that is something that zelenskyy has repeatedly asked for and he asked again at the summit and said he was going to bring it up with president biden during their one-on-one. it was significant that he appeared to float that as an option. all of this is with an eye toward the annual summit next

year in washington, d.c. where the nato members to be checking in on ukraine status on reforms. in the time between now and the next summit, they committed to ukraine that they were going to give them more security assistance on intelligence sharing, military aid, and a host of other aid. >> that is our white house correspondent reporting live from helsinki, finland. thank you. >> in the day's other headlines: inflation in june cooled to its lowest level since early 2021, helped by easing prices on gas, groceries and airline tickets. the labor department reports consumer prices rose 3 percent from a year earlier. that was down from a "4-percent rate" in may but still above the federal reserve's

2-percent target. inflation at the retail level peaked in june of last year, at an annual rate of 9 percent. the flooding that ravaged vermont this week was receding today. in montpelier, the capital, clean-up crews plowed through sludge as cars struggled to maneuver on streets slick with mud. at a briefing, "fema" chief deanne criswell. said it's evidence that climate change is at work and getting worse. >> i have seen an increase in records being broken, records that have stood for decades or even a century. and it's happening over and over again. we have to start to think about what is this going to look like 10 years from now, so we can understand what those risks are going to be, because i think what we're facg today is not what we faced 10 years ago. >> meantime, the national weather service issued a new round of heat alerts to more than *108 million americans today.

forecasts called for the southwest to break temperature records again. the european union's parliament has approved a major climate change bill. it would impose the world's most ambititous climate and bio-diversity targets including restoring at least a fifth of europe's nature areas. today's razor-thin vote highlighted divisions over the plan with conservatives warning it will harm farmers and fuel inflation. "microsoft" reports a "chinese-based hacking group" has breached e-mail accounts linked to government agencies in the u-s and western europe. the company says the intrusions went undetected for a month. the state department says it cannot confirm china was involved, but has no reason to doubt microsoft's claim. beijing dismissed the accusations as "disinformation". north korea is drawing fresh condemnation after firing its first "intercontinental ballistic missile" in three months. it blasted off near pyongyang today and flew for 74 minutes

before landing in the sea of japan. that's the longest "flight time" *yet for a north korean test. south korea's president reacted in lithuania, where he and the japanese prime minister attended the "nato" summit. >> "north korea launched an intercontinental ballistic missile again. this is a threat to peace and stability in the region and the world. it is also a provocation and an obvious violation of u.n. resolutions." >> the north koreans had accused the u-s of sending spy planes into their airspace in recent days, and had threatened retaliation. back in this country: hollywood actors could join *striking *screenwriters in walking out, as a deadline looms at midnight pacific time. the "sag-aftra" actors union agreed to let federal mediators intervene in a final effort to reach an agreement but, they said they're not hopeful. they're demanding better pay and safeguards around studios' usage of artificial intelligence. on wall street: the inflation numbers helped stocks gain a bit more ground. the dow jones industrial average climbed 86 points to close at

34-thousand-347. the nasdaq rose 158 points. the s-and-p 500 added 33 points. and, a passing of note: the czech-born novelist milan kenndera has died in paris, where he lived for decades. his work explored humanity and depicted the struggles of living under totalitarian rule. his best-known work "the unbearable lightness of being" was centered in czechoslovakia after soviet tanks crushed a pro-democracy movement in 1968. milan kenndera was 94 years old. still to come on the "newshour". iowa republicans pass one of the nation's most restrictive abortion bans a podcast examines the ongoing issue of sexual abuse in the substance recovery community and new orleans restaurants recycle oyster shells to help save dwindling coastlines. this is the pbs newshour from

the walter cronkite school. >> we return to the nato summit what was, and wasn't accomplished. we get some prespective now from ivo daalder. he was u.s. ambassador to nato during the obama administration. he's now the president of the chicago council on global affairs. when you look at the summit and what was accomplished, was this a missed opportunity? should the alliance have issued an invitation or at least a timeline or an invitation for ukraine to join? >> i don't think so and it was unrealistic to think it would be an invitation. making it invitation to a country in the middle of war in order to bring it into an alliance that is committed to defending every inch of the territory of all of its members was just not in the cards. it couldn't be expected. what could be expected is a very strong statement and a very strong commitment to move forward with crane on multiple

fronts. first of all, to provide new weapons so it can launch the counteroffensive with the full backing of western equipment and that was done by a variety of countries. long-range missiles, cluster munitions and tanks and the like. secondly, a long-term commitment that the united states together with g-7 partners and others are making to the defense and security of crane not on the ukraine not only today but tomorrow and after that to make sure the war never resumes. finally, an important indication that nato membership is no longer a question of whether but when and how. how do you bring in a country that is in the middle of a war with contested borders into the alliance? that is now on the agenda and as president zelenskyy said we will find out how that is done. i think president zelenskyy is

going to kyiv with the backing of the western alliance. that's a good thing, because he needs that in order to win the war. >> there was a significant movement in president erdogan's movement to allow sweden into nato. that's to ensure they get the f-16s they wanted. >> reading his mind is difficult. he likes attention, he certainly got it once again, he does this all the time. he ghosted a brick of a summit to make sure everyone knows their around and playing a big game. secondly, he is realizing with economy in trouble in turkey, he needs western assistance. he needs a good relationship with united states, with the european union. there, he got the f-16s and it looks like the discussions between the united states and turkey on selling those are proceeding. the congress is moving forward

with providing those f-16s as long as turkey commits not to use them against greece or cyprus and president erdogan said he would not do that. i think he's got a lot for what he wanted, but the most important and, sweden is now going to be a member of nato and that's how it should be. >> nato leaders have also for the first time since the end of the cold war they now have an approved military response plan in case any of the nato member nations are attacked. why is that significant? >> nato is relearning its muscle memory what it means to be a military alliance. these plans one for a northern region and one for a central region, one for southern region dictate what forces are necessary to defend every inch of nato territory. it gives an indication to all nato members that says you, germany need to provide 150

tanks in this place and you need to be able to move them there within this timeframe with the kind of ammunition necessary. that's the kind of planning that will go on through the entire alliance. think of it as a spreadsheet the nato countries representing columns and the military capability representing the capabilities. they are now filling in what capabilities are necessary to fill the requirement to defend every inch of nato territory. it emerges and integrates nato defense planning and the investment and resourcing of nato capabilities in a much more significant way. it's what we used to do during the cold war, we just haven't found it necessary to do it until russia decided that it would use force to change borders and that is something nato wants to prevent. >> i have to ask you of course, ukraine dominated the summit. there in the middle of a

counteroffensive. what is your sense of how that is going? >> i think the ukrainians are trying to probe for russian weaknesses so they can concentrate the forces that have been equipped to train by western countries and have it breakthrough. it is probably getting a little bit more difficult than they had anticipated to finding that weakness, but i have no doubt that at some point you will see all of those forces that have been trained and equipped by western countries massing and breaking through russian defenses and making significant difference in where the front lines are going to be drawn. >> ambassador, thank you. >> the director of the fbi sat

on the other side of an interrogation today from members of congress. christopher wray faced some sharp criticism during tod's house judiciary hearing. congressional correspondent lisa desjardins was there and joins us now. republicans grilled the fbi director about the alleged possession of law enforcement agencies against donald trump. tell us about that. >> they were talking about trump and individual americans. as you will hear, there were threats of many different issues that overlapped. when it came to the accusation of weaponization by the fbi, they made a few specific allegations. brought up memos that were predicting -- protecting school boards rather than parents. the doj has denied that was their intent. also a memo from the richmond fbi the targeteddirector ray saa

single office and not what the fbi intended. one of the heated exchanges came around a pennsylvania man who was arrested and charged standing outside of an abortion clinic. his lawyer said he was willing to voluntarily come in the fbi sent over a dozen agents and held him at gunpoint in the morning before his family. the director was asked was that appropriate? wray: i'm not going to second-guess the judgment of the career agents on the ground who made the determination. roy: but your job is to second guess and look at what they're doing, your job is to review what they do, your job is to protect the american people from the tyrannical fbi storming the home of an american family. >> i could not disagree more with your description of the fbi as tyrannical. roy: you don't believe the [cross-talk] or that the agents were a part of storming a gentleman's home in suburban philadelphia.

jordan: the gentleman's time has expired, witness can respond, and then we'll move on to the next witness. wray: respectfully, they did not storm his house, they came to his door, they knocked on his door, and identified themself. they asked him to exit. he did without incident. >> that was a classic example of what he did. he never lost his cool in this hearing. anna kratz did do some defense work for him accusing republicans of being political. >> what about the ways that the fbi's using data? >> this was a fascinating part of the hearing and of increasing importance. democrats raised their concern that the fbi and other agencies have been collecting data on americans. they asked what the fbi has done with that data. republicans chimed in, they raised a recent court filing that found the fbi was inappropriate in fact broke the rules of how it was using

wiretaps warrantless in some cases after january 6. and cases the director said he was not to get into specifics for legal reasons or it was just too complicated to get into. the republicans also raised this case, bank of america. they showed this email the fbi used to get a wide range of data from anyone who had a data transaction or had purchased a weapon in the entire country in six months previously. republican said that is an example of a very wide fbi search of what information they think should be private. the director cap reiterating the fbi does not break the law. >> hovering over all of this are threats by republicans on the committee to defund the fbi entirely. that,?

>> hovering over all of this is the fbi's reputation and future. some have said they would like to defund the fbi but they did not say that today to his face. the closest they said today was jim jordan raised the idea that the fbi should not get payment for its new headquarters. the director said any defunding of the fbi would be catastrophic on a range of issues and threats facing the country right now. >> what else stood out to you? >> one point was that for the first half, i didn't hear much about too big fbi cases involving hunter biden or former president donald trump. it was about other specifics, rudder american concerns. -- broader american concerns. he was asked about the greater threats that he sees including china. here's what he said. >> there is no country, none that presentes a broader more

comphrehensive threat ot our ideas, our innovation our economic security than the chinese government and the chinese communist party and in many ways, it represents i think the definfing threat of our era. >> that was a standout quote. it changed how we were reporting the segment with you. it shows how much the fbis working on the pressures on them right now even as the director is facing short political questions. >> thank you as always. lawmakers in iowa passed a bill late last night that would ban most abortions in the state after six weeks. iowa is the latest in a series of republican-led states to pass abortion restrictions since the u.s. supreme court overturned roe v. wade last year. iowa governor kim reylds is expected to sign the bill into

law on friday. joining us now to discuss the nation's patchwork of abortion laws is erin murphy, des moines bureau chief for the gazette and sarah varney, senior correspondent for kff health news. iowa republicans passed this late last night. here is a portion of the hours of debate. >> this bill ensures the right to life is protected. the most fundamental human rights enshrined in our constitutions. neither the u.s. constitution nor the iowa state constitution -- reproductive freedom. we find is truth. those are nothing more than terms used in advocating for the willingness to kill a baby through all nine months of pregnancy. >> abortions have always happen it will happened. the question is will they be safe and legal?

if they are not, women will be harmed. some may die. i guarantee you would not want me flying your plan. i'm not a licensed pilot. were drilling on your teeth because i never went to dental school. we citizen politicians should know our place and it's not in the exam room. >> abortion in iowa had been legal for up to 20 weeks of pregnancy. how did lawmakers arrive at this legislation? >> this is the second attempt to pass this what they call the fetal heartbeat bill. it's what a lot of people believe can be detected at six weeks. they pass a very similar bill in 2018. and governor reynolds signed it into law then it was

immediately blocked by the courts. and stayed that way until after the iowa us supreme courts in 2022. delivered rulings that sort of reset the legal landscape of abortion obviously the us supreme court being the repeal of roe versus wade there was very similar ruling at the almost the exact same time by the iowa supreme court. once that kind of reset the legal landscape here the governor apps in state courts to reinstate that 2018 law. just this past month, the iowa supreme court declined to do that in a split decision. and so republican legislators went back to work called the special session to once again pass this law with the expectation that it will get back to the iowa supreme court again and under new kind of legal, you know, arena will be approved this time will be considered

constitutional by the state supreme court. that's the goal of state house republicans. >> how have advocates on both sides of this issue reacted to the iowa state legislature now passing this six week abortion ban. >> well, what i can tell you is just yesterday during the special session, a lot of the iowa capitol it was a pretty remarkable scene. i have been covering the capitol for 10 years. and i can only think of one other instance that even comes close to what i saw yesterday. just 1000s of people at the capitol, the vast vast majority of which were abortions right advocates there were you know, the the so called pro life the anti abortion crowd as well. they were there demonstrating as well but far far outnumbered by the abortion rights people demonstrated long and loud they were there for six or seven hours of the day. it was it was pretty remarkable and and we've seen public polling in iowa that shows a majority of iowans support abortion being legal in some or most cases. so it'll be

interesting to see as this law presumably plays out in the courts. we've already just recently here are the legal challenges been injured already into this new law before it's even signed. into law by governor reynolds tomorrow. so this will go through the courts and he can then it will be interesting to see how the public reacts this time around and whether it affects the elections in 2024. >> sarah varney abortion is banned in almost all cases in most of the states bordering iowa but abortion is protected legally in illinois and minnesota, two states that are led by democrats, how might those states become destinations for iowa women seeking abortions, and how are those states preparing? >> well, we actually have a lot of examples of what happens when a state essentially passes a ban like this. we just happened in georgia recently. we have a map actually we can put up that was done by my kfs colleagues and the women's health team and you can really see this sort of sea of red. and you can see what

happens now with iowa. as you mentioned, we imagined that women will go to minnesota and illinois. one of the things that we've seen really is a lot of confusion about what's legal so women even showing up at clinics in minnesota or illinois saying to obgyn you know, i need an abortion. i know it's illegal and the staff of the clinics having to tell these women that no actually here you know you're safe, it's legal. the other thing we're really seeing now is a delay in the procedures. so women who may have been able to get an abortion that you know, seven or eight weeks now it's a 10 or 12 or 13 weeks at higher risk in their pregnancy. the other thing we're really seeing too and this will affect these women in iowa is no miscarriage as we talked about other times on the show is incredibly common and and a non viable pregnancy. so when iowa when this it goes into effect in iowa, it will not just impact women who wants it and early unintended pregnancies, but also women with

intended pregnancies that are not progressing. so we've seen this in many, many cases women in wisconsin having to go to illinois when their fetus is not developing a skull for instance, or has no kidneys. and it's quite traumatic for these patients having to travel. the other thing that we're gonna see we're already starting to see is far more women actually giving birth to children that they did not intend to have. so there's some statistical modeling out of texas recently. that found after sb eight went into effect, which was the six week ban in texas, that there's about 10,000 additional force births that were estimated there. just one thing to note though, for women in iowa and elsewhere is that medication abortion remains legal. depends on sort of how and where you get it. there's groups like eight access that are continuing to mail a medication abortion into states, even where it's technically illegal. >> we have seen how the anti abortion movement has really

shifted to the state level after the supreme court overturned roe. what can you tell us about the legal challenges to some of these state bans to include iowa >> well i mean, we've seen quite a number of successes from the anti abortion groups recently. one thing i will mention though, is just yesterday, a group of advocates in idaho filed a lawsuit against idaho's teen abortion travel ban. so this is a travel ban that went into effect on may 5, we did a news hour segment about it if anyone wants to go back and watch it. but these groups who largely work with men who are victims of domestic violence and sexual violence, there's also an abortion fund involved. they filed in federal court yesterday, a lawsuit saying that it's infringes on the interstate right to the right to interested travel, and in third infringes on the first amendment right to free speech, saying that this law essentially chills speech around abortion. the supreme court has held that money's given to support speech also should be protected by free speech or by the first amendment

rather. so this is a new challenge against this teen travel ban. and there's many state legislatures, republican led state legislatures that are looking at doing this type of teen travel ban because we've seen you know a we've seen model legislation come from the right to life committee, which is one of the largest anti abortion groups in the country that is essentially really looking at how can they limit travel outside of the states for women under 18. and for adults as well. >> our thanks to you both. >> today marks one year since the world first started seeing spectaculr images of the cosmos thatere captured by the powerful james webb telescope. but as science correspondent miles o'brien tells us, getting

those images, including the newest one released today of dozens of stars being formed, is only part of the important work being done by the ten billion dollar telescope. >> for the james webb space telescope, the hits just keep coming - one riveting image after another from the far reaches of the universe, to planets right here in our own solar system. we got our first taste a year ago - and the images did not disappoint. the carina nebula. stephan's quintet. and - spectacularly - this so-called deep field image, showing thousands of galaxies stretching into the distant universe. >> how much stunning science was in there as well? john mather: well, we're still working out the details of what all those mean. >> that's nasa astrophysicist john mather. he's been a senior scientist on webb since its inception back in the mid-1990's. john mather: i think the people

are really interested in what are the surprises that we're getting out of the webb. first, they want to see the beautiful pictures and be told what those pictures are about. and then they said, well, what's new? what did you find out that we didn't know before? and of course, the big answers are the first galaxies grew differently than we expected and we don't know why their predictions were wrong. >> webb is shedding light on the big answers because it is uniquely capable of seeing them. it operates in the infrared wavelength. invisible to human eyes, this part of the spectrum is the only way to see the most distant objects in space that are moving away from us as the universe expands. before webb launched, astronomers used near infrared instruments aboard the hubble space telescope to see galaxies that date to about half billion years after the big bang. but webb can see a few hundred million years further back in time. astronomers hoped they might catch glimpses of the universe before stars and

galaxies formed. marc postman: and yet we see galaxies already exist at that time. >> marc postman is interim deputy director at the space telescope science institute in baltimore. marc postman: it doesn't refute big bang cosmology or say we have to start from scratch. but what it does say is we do have to learn new ways of getting stars and galaxies to assemble very quickly after the big bang within within a couple of hundred million years. >> but the most interesting findings for astronomers don't come from the eye-candy the rest of us gobble up. case in point - uranus. heidi hammel: i have to say the word "spectroscopy," because that's what these science observations were all about. we have some images and they're fine, but the spectroscopy blew us away. >> heidi hammel is a scientist on the webb team who focuses on

solar system observations. webb's science instruments generate "spectroscopy" data that astronomers use to study the chemical composition of objects in space. if we were to train one on earth, we would detect the different compounds found here on this planet. for astronomers, a spectrograph is worth a thousand pictures. heidi hammel: we are seeingevidence of chemistry that we had hypothesized. they're like laboratory textbook examples of chemistry of ethane and methane and acetylene and all this interesting dynamical stuff in the atmosphere of uranus. and that is very interesting because that's new chemistry that we hadn't thought about. >> still, heidi hammel will confess to being wowed by a great image. miles o'brien: this is not processed at all. judy schmidt: and then you i believe this has how many? miles o'brien: how many filters? three. and is it always three? judy schmidt: this is only this picture. i only had two

>> in modesto, california i sat down with someone who helps make the visual magic happen. judy schmidt describes herself as a celestial artist. miles o'brien: how many, how many images would you say you have processed over the years? judy schmidt: oh, god. give or take hundreds. hundreds. >> she's a stay-at-home mom with a background in graphic design. 15 over the years, she's made a color-correcting astronomy images in her home office - posting her work on flickr and twitter. miles o'brien: well, you're trying to let us see something we can't see, right? that's hard. judy schmidt: yes, but there's a natural order of wavelengths. so even though. it's infrared. i'm still using the same, i guess, formula to put together an image where the shortest wavelengths will be represented by blue, and then the medium wavelengths get represented by green, and then the longest been in the red.

>> among her most celebrated work:hubble images of the comet shoemaker-levy 9 impacting jupiter in 14. so when webb scientists pulled down fresh images of jupiter, heidi hammel gave schimdt a crack at those too. judy schmidt: i just thought it was very fun and something to do with my life. and if i can make some astronomers day by showing interest in their work and making a pretty image out of it, then i thought that was awesome too. miles o'brien: so you're like you're like the dean of the citizen science image processors at this point. and do you do you imagine quitting? are you going to keep going? judy schmidt: i don't feel like it will ever end as long as there's space telescopes in the sky. >> but there's little concern space telescopes will fade away. and this is a special place if you care about astronomy and space telescopes. right? julie mcenery: this is where some of the most important observatories of our time have been put together, assembled,

tested and made ready to go into space. >> i caught a glimpse of nasa's next flagship observatory under assembly at the goddard space flight center in greenbelt, maryland. julie mcenery is the senior project scientist on the nancy grace roman space telescope. julie mcenery: so if you were to compare us to webb. webb will look at a small region of the sky with exquisite sensitivity and sharpness, and it can tell you what's happening, you know, right at the beginning, right at the earliest times in our universe. what roman will do will tell you what happened between then and now. >> the team hopes to launch by 2026. there is no doubt they have a tough act to follow.

>> new hampshire's largest "substance abuse treatment network" has helped tens of thousands of drug users loosen addiction's hold over their lives. but a three-year investigation undertaken by a local journalist uncovered evidence that the group's founder took advantage of his position and the vulnerability of his patients and staff. ali rogin has that conversation and a warning elements of this discussion could be disturbing for some viewers. >> new hampshire public radio investigative reporter lauren choolijian recently released the 13th step, chronicling her reporting over the last few years. but the story didn't end with publication as choolijian found, reporting on the alleged abuses left her, her family and her news organization vulnerable as well. lauren, thank you so much for joining us. let's first talk about the name of your podcast, the 13th step. what does that refer to? >> well, it refers to the 12

steps of alcoholics anonymous. it's kind of a euphemism on those 12 steps as the step that comes after it. and basically what it means is that people who have later sobriety, who have been through the program, have years or months of sobriety, are then insert verb here, preying on or flirting with or trying to start a relationship with someone who is in earlier sobriety. now our podcast digs into the times where that is very unwanted and very problematic. and the reason why it can be problematic is because there's a really, really difficult power differential there. here's someone who has more footing underneath them and a person in early recovery. i mean, that's an extremely vulnerable time. and so consent is really tricky. and i should say, like if you've never heard this phrase before, it's likely that you're not in recovery because people in recovery will tell you this is just the most common thing. i had someone tell me that they heard it first in the seventies in the history of addiction treatment. you'll see it right there with the adoption of alcoholics anonymous. it's a thing that has been around, but just a lot of us haven't been paying enough attention to see it.

>> now, let's talk about one of the main characters of this podcast. although he doesn't participate himself, it's eric spafford, who is the ceo of one of the largest addiction systems recovery systems in the united states. >> he started with one small sober home. grew that company to, like you say, one of the bigges providers of substance use disorder treatment in new england. and not only did he do it, but people really believed in him. our governor says that he, eric spofford, was the first person he'd call if he had questions about the opioid crisis. and we were desperate for help. and eric offered not just a story that people wanted to rally behind, but a company that he said really was doing things right. i think we have a little tape from eric talking

about in a training video that he made for staff, how different his company, which is called granite recovery centers, was supposed to be. >> this company really focuses and operates on integrity. we pride ourselves on doing the right thing. we have always held the high standard of doing the right thing. in a time where addiction treatment, not everybody that does this work is doing the right thing. and and we put clients over profits consistently and we care about the people we serve. >> but as i learned through my now three years of reporting, there was a very much another story going on here. >> and let's talk about that private story that was happening behind closed doors that really contrasted with the public image that you just talked about. >> yes. so originally, ali, i did a story about a covid outbreak at one of eric's facilities. this was in december of 2020, where a lot of us, i'm sure you included, were doing coverage of our big outbreak stories of covid. and as i say, this was a big provider of treatment in new hampshire. and so it was a big story. and i got a tip soon after that that eric had been sexually had was facing multiple allegations of sexual misconduct and that he was paying women to keep them

silent about these allegations. obviously, that's a stunning email to get. and i started digging around and soon enough i found and corroborated multiple allegations of sexual misconduct that involved eric. one of the first ones i found we allowed a lot of these women to be anonymous because so many of them were afraid of retaliation from eric. and so one woman i heard from, we referred to her as elizabeth. elizabeth told me that she was a client of one of eric's treatment centers. and the day after she left, she started receiving explicit pictures on snapchat from eric. >> i heard from another the said he sexually assaulted her in the office in the middle of a work day. it goes to show you there was a lot more happening than the public story. we had him on as an expert source during some of the hardest times of the opioid crisis. i knew there was a lot of digging i needed to do to find out what was going on.

>> let's talk about some of the underlying reasons for what makes this cohort vulnerable. >> a lot of times only talk about addiction, we think about active addiction. we think about how vulnerable the time it is when you're using. but we don't talk as often about once that substance has ended, it doesn't mean like, okay, your brain's back to normal and everything's fine. your life is back in order. you're basically finding out who you are all over again. it's an extremely vulnerable time. and in those early days of sobriety, or like i said, at 13 stepping, it's a common thing. and so to be have an understanding of consent when you're still rebuilding your life and trying to figure out the next phase in a healthier phase of your life, it's extremely difficult. i spoke with a woman holly here's a little bit of what

holly said. >> "shut up, follow the rules. don't complain. you know, like, do your work, keep yourself you know, all of that, which is when you take that and extrapolate that into, like, the entire system, you understand why people with addictions are treated as inhumanely as they're treated and not trusted and are perfect victims. perfect victims." >> eric spofford has denied the allegations against him. but i do want to ask about the retaliation that you and your family and your coworkers have come under as a result of your reporting. tell us about that. >> we published some of these allegations as a news story initially and a month after that news story came out. my parent's home was vandalized, the c-word spray painted on the garage door. a rock through the window. and when i called my boss to tell him what had happened at my mom and dad's house, he said, oh my god, lauren, that happened to my house. and then i later find out it happened at a house i used to rent. about a month later, we did have security camera footage. capture that.

my house also was vandalized and my parent's home was vandalized again. same thing at my parents house, the c-word, on the garage, brick or rock throwing out the window. but at my house, a brick was thrown through this like big, beautiful picture window in my living room. and the words just the beginning were spray painted under my house. it was obviously a pretty harrowing thing at the time. you know, i didn't know what really had happened or why, but my instinct was that it was in response to the reporting. i've never in my ten plus years in this field faced anything like that. and it was it was it has been quite difficult. >> the podcast is the 13th step. it is a riveting listen, lauren, choolijian, thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you so much. >> federal prosecutors have charged three men with alleged ties to spofford in connection with the vandalism. spofford did not respond to our multiple reqests for comment. but in a since-dismissed defamation suit he filed against

choolijian and n-h-p-r his attorneys wrote: "from top to bottom, both the article and the podcast falsely state and imply that eric sexually harassed one woman and sexually assaulted two others. each nhpr defendant knew or recklessly disregarded that these claims were false." >> in the last century, more than two thousand square miles of louisiana's coastline have been lost to the sea. tribal lands in the state's southeast are among the most affected. as our new orleans communities correspondent roby chavez reports, one volunteer-led effort is gaining attention in the fight against coastal erosion with an unlikely tool: recycled oyster shells.

>> a boat ride through the marshes of southeastern louisiana is a painful reminder of the state's quickly-disappearing coastline. it's a swathe of land that includes important cultural sites. trees anchor tribal mounds here older than stonehenge. by some estimates, the state is losing at least two mounds per year. theresa dardar is a member of the pointe-au-chien indian tribe. for years she felt helpless watching parts of the tribe's sacred land fall in the water. to help protect the land from rapid erosion, the tribe partnered with the non-profit, coalition to restore coastal louisiana, and use recycled oyster shells from local restaurants to build artificial reefs. >> "they're helping us to try to save what we want to save. it makes you feel so good that people do care. that they're not just here to see what's

happening, you know they're here because they care" >> the coalition used nearly 400 tons of shells to create oyster reefs that now cover 800 feet of coastline near the tribal mounds. so far, their project is working. the coalition's reefs withstood hurricane ida in 2021 and slowed shoreline erosion by as much as 50 percent. >> "we take a product that used to get sent to the landfill, but is very useful in slowing coastal land loss. and we put it back into the water where it belongs." >> james karst works with the coalition. he says the artificial reefs are designed to mimic nature, providing coastal protection for years to come. "once these reefs are in place, tell us what happens to them just organically?" >> life begins to th ogremn . the old oyster shells and they attach to them and they begin to grow. and that is why they are

considered to be living shorelines to me, it is sort of the ultimate sustainable seafood it's really a win-win-win because oysters also filter the water. they can help to minimize storm surge during hurricanes and tropical storms, and they slow the rate of erosion by a significant amount." >> in one of the largest shell recycling programs in the nation, the coalition has so far built five oyster reefs protecting 8,000 feet of disappearing shoreline. in all, 13 million pounds of shells have been recycled. louisiana is the nation's top oyster producer, and nearly 50 restaurants now participate in the recycling program that keeps their oysters out of landfills. james clesi is the co-owner of clesi's seafood restaurant and says signing up for the program was a no-brainer. >> we go through a lot of oysters, i want to say, you

know, thousands and thousands of pounds and it's really cool to know that they're going right back to the water to help the oyster lifestyle it gets really easy just to order the oysters, cook them, shuck them, serve them, and not really know where they came from. and it gave us an opportunity for us to learn the whole lifecycle of the oyster, how important it is to the louisiana coastline and the way of life for everybody that lives down there. >> back on the water theresa dardar and her husband donald know the oyster reefs won't be a cure all. they're also fighting to backfill oil and gas exploration canals that cut into the marsh. but for now, it no longer feels like they are alone in the fight. for the pbs newshour i'm roby chavez. >> join us online right now to watch the 15th annual congressional women's softball game, where members of congress take on the press, whose team features our own lisa desjardins, amy walter and tamara keith.

watch starting at 7 pm eastern on our website - pbs.org/newshour - or on youtube. >> and join us again here tomorrow night, for more on the writer's strike and potential actors strike in hollywood. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm amna nawaz. and i'm goeff bennett. >> major funding has been provided by the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions and friends of the newshour. the ford foundation working with visionaries on the front lines

of social change worldwide. 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 the pbs station i viewers like you. thank you. ♪

>> hello, everyone, and welcome to amanpour & company. here's what's cong up. >> the summit is an historic summit >> the doors open to sweden as nato leaders meet, with the crucial summit kicking off, i'm joined by the u.s. ambassador to the alliance, julian smith. then. israelis take to the street to oppose controversial judicial rerms. i speak to a real mark elite, the former labor politician and high-tech entrepreneur. and a world on the move, as migration numbers surge, how can humanity adapt? i ask alexander betts, who heads up the refugee study center at oxford university. also ahead. >> i think it was a great position to sort of observe