>> on the newshour tonight, nato promises long term military aid to ukraine but stop short in announcing a path for membership at the alliance's ongoing summit. >> house republicans interrogate the fbi director about claims of bias in the department and investigations into the president's family. >> the web telescopes images of the far reaches of space from scientists to consider their understanding of the early universe. >> people are interested in the surprises we are getting out of the web. the answers are the first galaxies grew differently than we expected.

♪ >> major funding for the pbs newshour been provided by. ♪ >> moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. the walton family foundation. working for solutions to protect water during climate change so people and nature can thri together. supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur

foundation. 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 on the second day of the nato summit as dthe alliance expands in the face of russia's ongoing invasion of ukrine. our laura barron-lopez was there. >> we are not going anywhere. you are stuck with 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 and nato is going to happen. i think it is just a matter of cutting 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. >> what we hear and understand that we will 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 are going to help ukraine build a strong capable defense , across land, air and sea, ba.4's 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. 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 am confident after the war, ukraine will be in nido. >> this is truly a historic moment. >> and they gathered for the inaugural meeting of the nato ukraine counsel. a new panel designed to grant zelenskyy more power in some nato decisions. [applause] but the war is in its 504th 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 has not gone away and i will raise this question. >> while ukraine dominated the agenda, the alliance also took steps to fortify its own members' borders. >> our security is interconnected. >> for the first time since the cold war, the 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 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 they needed to at the summit and that ukraine now

understands it is more important for them to get military aid then to be concerned about the timing of their nato membership. >> the nato summit began with a tense 24 hours between president biden and zelenskyy that seems to have shifted. what is the status of the relationship between the two leaders postsummit? >> that is right. president zelenskyy went from calling it absurd that there was no clear timeline for them to join nato, also that it was a sign of weakness that would encourage russian aggression. he said that on tuesday and then about 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 todaye oue 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 the u.s. for d edanskg init agap thwi atn in their one-on-one. it was significant the president appeared to float that as an option. all of this is with an eye toward the 75th annual summit

next year in washington, d.c. where the nato members to be checking in on ukraine status on reforms. but 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. good to see you. ♪ >> in the days 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% rate in may but still above the federal

reserve 2% target. inflation at the retail level peaked in june of last year, at an annual rate of 9%. 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 facing 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 is 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 it 34,347. the nasdaq rose 158 points. the s&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 bands. 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 w eta studios in washington and in the west from the walter

cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. >> >> 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 is 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 an 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 ukraine 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 ukraine not only today and tomorrow as long as this war goes on but after that to make sure the war never resumes. finally, an important indication that the issue of nato membership is no longer a question of whether but a question of when and how. how do you bring in a country that is in the middle of a war with contested borders into a security alliance? that is now on the agenda and as president biden said hopefully under the next few months we are going to find out how we are going to do that and that is a major step. i think president 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 another significant summit move in president erdogan's movement to allow sweden to join nato. that is to ensure they get the f-16s they wanted. help us understand what happened here. >> reading his mind is difficult. he likes attention. he certainly has got it once again. he does this all the time. he goes to the brink of a summit to make sure the turks -- to make sure everyone knows the turks are 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. third, he did get the f-16s. it looks like the discussions between the united states and turkey on selling those f-16s are proceeding.

congress is moving forward with providing the f-16s as long as turkey commits not to use them against greece or cyprus and i noted president erdogan said he would not do that. i think he has got a lot for what he wanted but the most important thing, sweden is going to be a member of nato and that is how it should be. >> as my colleague reported earlier 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? >> it is significant. nato is relearning its muscle memory what it means to be a military alliance. these plans, one for the northern region and one for the central region and 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 an excel spreadsheet with 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 have not been able to do it or 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 less than a minute left but i have to ask you of course -- ukraine dominated the

summit. they are 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 and trained by western countries and have a 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. >> is the former u.s. ambassador to nato and now president on the chicago council of global affairs. good to see you. >> thank you. ♪ >> the director of the fbi sat

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

traditional catholics. the director said that was a single office and not what the fbi intended. one of the heated exchanges came around a pennsylvania man who was arrested and charged after he protested or was standing outside of an abortion clinic. when he was arrested, his lawyer said he was willing to voluntarily come in but 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. >> i'm not going to second-guess the judgment of the career agents on the ground who made the determination. >> but your job is to review what they are doing. 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. >> you don't believe -- you don't believe the fbi agent's were a part of storming a gentleman's home in suburban philadelphia.

>> the gentleman's time has expired. >> respectfully, they did not storm his house. they came to his door. they knocked on his door and identified himself. 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. democrats did some defense work for him charging republicans of being political in their tax. >> what about the ways that the fbi was using data? >> this was a fascinating part of the hearing and of increasing importance. democrats raised their concern th ww kw t 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 and broke the rules of how it was using

wiretaps warrantless in some cases after january 6. in both of these instances, the director said he was either not going to get into specifics for legal rsons, ongoing cases or he said it was too complicated to get into. the republicans also raised this case of a wide-ranging voluntary data asked. the bank of america of america. republican showed this email the fbi used to try to get a wide range of data from everyone who had a transaction with a bank of america card between january 5 and sixth in 2021 or anyone who had purchased a weapon potentially in the entire country in the 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 himself cap to 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. did that come up today? >> hovering over all of this is

the fbi's reputation and future. indeed, some members who have said otherwise that they would like to defund the fbi did not say that to the directors face. the closest they came today was jim jordan who said 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? >> there were some surprising points. for the first half, i did not hear much about two big fbi cases. the involving hunter biden or one former president donald trump. it was about other specifics broader american concerns. ,the fbi director was asked about the greater threats he sees. in particular he was asked about china. here's what he said. >> there is no country, none that presents a broader more comprehensive threat to 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 defining threat of our era. >> that was a standout quote. it changed how we were reporting the segment with you. it shows how much the fbi is working on the pressures on them right now even as the director is facing very sharp political questions. >> lisa, thanks as always. >> you're welcome. ♪ >> 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 last year. iowa governor kim reynolds 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. as we mentioned 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 right that is enshrined in our state and federal constitutions. neither the u.s. constitution nor the iowa state constitution provides any right to reproductive freedom. when we weighed past the pretty words surrounding reproductive freedom and women's right to choose, what we find is the 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 ed and will happen. 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 what me flying your airplane. i am not a licensed pilot. or drilling on your teeth because i never went to dental school. we citizen politicians should know our place and it is not in the exam room. >> so abortion in iowa had been legal for up to 20 weeks of pregnancy. how did lawmakers arrive at this legislation? >> so this is actually iowa republicans second attempt to pass what they call the fetal heart bill as you noted what a lot of people believe can be detected at six weeks of pregnancy so very early. often before the woman is aware she is pregnant. they passed a very similar bill in 2018 and been a reynolds signed it into law diane

governor reynolds signed it into law then it was immediately blocked by the courts. and stayed that way until after the iowa and u.s. 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 -- a lot of people came to the iowa capital. it was a pretty remarkable e.sc .n hayveeai rs and i can only think of one other instance that even comes close to what i saw yesterday. just thousands of people at the capitol, the vast vast majority of which were abortions right advocates. there were the so-called pro-life antiabortion crowd as well. they were there dems ridding as well but far far outnumbered by the abortion rights people . they demonstrated long and loud . they were there for six or seven hours of the day. 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 will be interesting to see as this law presumably plays out in the courts. we have already just recently heard there are legal challenges already to this new law before it is even signed. 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 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. this happened in georgia recently. we have a map actually we can t up by my colleagues and the women's health team and you can really see this sort of sea of red. and you can see what you happens with iowa.

as you mentioned, we imagined that women will go to minnesota and ellen neu. -- in 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 ob/gyn's 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 is 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 and at higher risk in their pregnancy. the other thing we're really seeing too and this will affect these women in iowa is miscarriage is incredibly common and nonviable pregnancies. when this goes into effect in iowa it will not just impact women who want to end early unintended pregnancies but women with intended pregnancies that

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

the supreme court overturned roe. what can you tell us about the legal challenges to some of the state bans to include iowa? >> we have seen quite a number of successes from the antiabortion 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 women who are victims of domestic violence and sexual violence. there is also an abortion fund involved. they filed in federal court yesterday a lawsuit saying this infringes on the interstate right -- right to interstate travel and infringes on the first amendment right to free speech saying this law chills speech around abortion. the supreme court has held money 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 team travel ban. there are many state legislators, republican state legislatures looking at doing this type of travel ban because we have seen model legislation come from the right to life committee which is one of the largest antiabortion groups in the country that is looking at how can they limit travel outside of the states for women under 18 and for adults as well. >> senior correspondent for k ff health news and every murphy is chief of the kids that. thanks to you both. ♪ >> today marks one year since the world first started seeing spectaculr images of the cosmos that were 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 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. stefan'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 as well? >> we are still working out the details of what all of those mean. >> that is nesn astrophysicist john mather. he has been a senior scientist on webb since its inception back in the mid-1990's.

>> i think the people are interested in what are the surprises we are 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 is new, what did you find out that we did not 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.

>> and yet, we see galaxies already exist at that time. >> marc postman is interim deputy director at the space telescope science institute in baltimore. >> it does not refute the bank cosmology -- 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 a couple 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 uranus. point,>> i have to say the word "spectroscopy," because that's what these science observations were all about. have some images and they are 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 different compounds found here on this planet. for astronomers spectrograph is , a worth a thousand pictures. >> we are seeing evidence of chemistry that we had hypothesized they are like textbook examples of chemistry of ethane and methane and acetylene and all this interesting dynamical stuff in the atmosphere of uranus. that is very interesting because that is new chemistry that we hadn't thought about. >> still, heidi hammel will confess to being wowed by a great image. >> this is not processed at all. >> how many filters? is it always three? >> this picture only had two.

>> in modesto, california, i sat down with someone who makes the visual magic happen. judy schmidt describes herself as a celestial artist. >> how many images would you say you have processed over the years? >> hundreds. >> she is a stay-at-home mom with a background in graphic design. over the years she has made a hobby out of processing and color correcting astronomy images in her home office. posting her work on flickr and twitter. you're trying to let us see something we cannot see, right? that's hard. >> yes, but there is a natural order of wavelengths. so even though it is infrared, i'm still using the same 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 in the red.

>> among her most celebrated work, hubble images of the comet shoemaker-levy 9 impacting jupiter in 1994. so when webb scientists pulled down fresh images of jupiter, heidi hammel gave schimdt a crack at those too. >> 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. >> so you are like the dean of the citizen science image processors at this point and do you imagine quitting? are you going to keep going? >> i don't think it will ever end as long as there are space telescopes in the sky. >> but there is little concern space telescopes will fade away. this is a special place if you care about astronomy and space telescopes. >> absolutely. 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. >> 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 is happening 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 between -- hopes to launch by 2026. there's no doubt they have a tough act to follow. for the pbs newshour, i miles o'brien in greenbelt, maryland. ♪

>> 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 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 did not 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? >> it refers to the 12 steps of

alcoholics anonymous. it is kind of a euphemism on those 12 steps as the step that comes after it and what it means is 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 it can become rob a medic as there is a really difficult power differential. there is someone who has more footing underneath them and a person in early recovery, that is an extremely vulnerable time. consent is tricky. i should say if you've never heard this phrase before, it is likely you are not in recovery because people in recovery will tell you this is the most common thing. i had someone tell me they heard it first in the 70's and the history of addiction treatment. you will see it with the adoption of alcoholics anonymous. it has been around but a lot of us have not been paying enough attention to see it. >> let's talk about the man at

the center of the allegation in your podcast. he is the ceo of one of the largest addiction recovery systems in the northeast. tell us about his story. >> he started his company at a time when new hampshire many states but especially in new hampshire, we'd desperately needed help. he started with one small sober home. he grew that company to one of the biggest providers of substance use disorder treatment in new england. the pope really believed in our rn -- eric spofford, was the first person he'd call if he had questions about the opioid crisis. eric offered not just a story people wanted to rally behind but a company he said was doing things right. i think we have a tape from eric talking in training video he made for staff how different his company just 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 we put clients over profits consistently and we care about the people we serve. >> as i learned through three years of reporting, there was an other story going on here. >> let's talk about that private story happening behind closed doors that contrasted with the public image you talked about. >> so originally i did a story about a covid outbreak at one of eric's facilities in december of 2020. i got a tip soon after eric was facing multiple allegations of sexual misconduct and he was paying women to keep them silent about these allegations. obviously that is a stunning email to get and i started aching around and one woman i heard from -- we referred to her as elizabeth. elizabeth told me she was a client of one of eric's

treatment centers in the day after she left she started receiving illicit pictures on snapchat from eric. >> i knew in my court it was not right because i know the ceo but treatment center i left 24 hours ago she not be setting the pictures of his -- he should not be sending me pictures of his -- even a year later. i wanted a roof over my head, food in my tummy. i wanted to feel safe so i knew not to share it. >> i heard from an employee, a former employee of eric's who said she also received the snapshots while she was working for him and he sexually assaulted her in the office in the middle of the workday. i found additional allocations and it goes to show there was a lot more habitat -- goes to show there is a lot more happening. we had him on as an expert source during some of the hardest times of the opioid crisis. there was a lot of digging i needed to do to find out what was going on here.

>> let's talk about some of the underlying reasons for what makes this particular cohort so vulnerable. >> i think a lot of the times when we talk about active addiction or addiction, substance use disorder, think about active addiction but we don't talk as often about once the substance has ended, it does not mean your brain is back to normal and everything is fine. you're basically finding out who you are all over again. have an understanding of consent when you are still rebuilding your life and try to figure out the next phase and a healthier phase of your life, it is extremely difficult. aa or the 12 steps of alcoholics anonymous, while they have benefited and helped millions of people and i learned through my reporting they can be easily exploited because of the with the program is built. i spoke with a writer who has a book called quit like a woman. >> shut up. follow the rules. don't complain. do your work. all of that which when you take that and extrapolate that into

the entire system, you understand why people with addictions are treated as inhumanely as they are treated and not trusted at are perfect victims. perfect victims. >> eric spofford has denied the allegations against him. but i do want to ask about the retaliation you and your family and your coworkers have come under as a result of your reporting. tell us about that. >> we published some of the allegations as a new story and ashley and a month after the story came out my parents 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 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 captured i house also was vandalized and my parents home was vandalized

again. same thing at my parents house. the c-word, on the garage, brick or rock thrown at 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 did not know what really had happened or why but my instinct was it was in response to the reporting. i have never in my 10 plus years in this field faced anything like that and it was -- it has been quite difficult. >> podcast is the 13th step. it is a riveting listen. thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you so much. >> we should add that 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 sense dismissed

defamation suit he filed and in hpr, his attorneys wrote this. quote, from top to bottom both , the article and the podcast falsely state and imply that eric sexually harassed one woman and sexually herrera -- sexually assaulted two others. each nhpr defendant knew or recklessly disregaed that these♪ >> in the last century, more than 2000 square miles of louisiana's coastline have been lost to the sea. tribal lands in the state's southeast are among the most effective. as our new orleans core 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 nonprofit coalition to restore coastal louisiana and use recycled oyster shells from local restaurants to build artificial reefs. >> they are helping us to try to save what we want to save. it makes you feel so good to see that people do care. that they are not just here to see what is happening.

they are 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 have withstood hurricane ida in 2021 and slowed shoreline erosion by as much as 50%. >> we take a product that used to get sent to the landfill but is very useful in slowing coastal wind 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 organically. >> life begins to grow on them. maybe oysters are attracted to be a wood -- to 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 disappealine. in all, 13 million pounds of rehoringshells have been recycl 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 he 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 is really cool to know they are going right back to the water to help the oyster lifestyle. it gets really easy 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 are 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 in new orleans 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 7:00 p.m. eastern on our website, pbs.org/newshour or on our youtube page. >> 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. have a great evening. >> major funding has been provided by the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions and friends of the newshour. including jim and nancy build mary and kathy and paul anderson. >> for 25 years, consumer cellular's goal has been to provide will -- wireless service that helps people come to kate and connect. the offer a variety of no contract plans and our team can help find one that fits you. to learn more visit consumer cellular.tv. >> 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 your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ >>

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