good evening. i'm william brangham. amna nawaz and geoff bennett are away. on the "newshour" tonight, hunter biden's plea deal unravels over concerns about whether future charges can be brought against the president's son. >> major funding for the "pbs newshour" has been provided by -- the walden family foundation so people and nature can thrive together. supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur

foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. more information at 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. william: welcome to the newshour. a plea agreement that would have kept hunter biden out of prison for tax and gun charges was unexpectedly put on hold today - adding new questions to an already politically divisive deal. laura barron-lopez explains. laura: a tumultuous day in federal court for hunter biden -- after a judge put his guilty plea agreement on hold in wilmington. the legal drama for the president's son, again a subject of fierce debate in washington.

mitch mcconnell to the extent : that it looks like the admin -- administration is treating democrats more favorably than republicans i can understand why , people in the house are upset about it. senator schumer: bottom line this is a prosecution being done , in a fair way by a former trump prosecutor and i have faith in the results. laura: the deal was biden would plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges, in exchange, he would not face prosecution for a felony gun charge provided he , remains drug-free for two years and does not purchase another weapon. but today, biden pleaded not guilty to the two tax charges after district court judge maryellen noreika, a trump-appointee presiding over the case, voiced concerns early about the deal. at the white house, press

secretary karine jean-pierre reaffirmed the president's position. >> hunter biden is a private citizen and this was a personal matter. as we have said, the president, the first lady, they love their son and they support him as he continues to rebuild his life. laura: despite the charges, congressional republicans have accused hunter biden of receiving special treatment from the justice department. >> it sounds like it was rife with all kinds of irregularities. laura: and have targeted his business dealings with some , house republicans weighing an impeachment inquiry into unproven allegations that president biden was involved. >> with each passing day house republicans investigations uncover more and more evidence showing that joe biden not only knew about but was involved in his family's illegal influence peddling scheme. laura: again, those are unfounded. republican attacks on the president and his son will almost certainly ramp up in the aftermath of today's hearing, which left hunter biden's legal future unresolved. to help us understand it all, i'm joined by glenn thrush of

the new york times. he's in wilmington, delaware where he was inside the courtroom. what happened in the it was pre. when you cover a plea deal, the judge tends to go through a list of questions written in advance, but the tenor of the hearing was totally different from the start. the judge in the case seemed utterly skeptical, nearly hostile towards the agreement and attacked two provisions in particular. the first was the gun agreement and the second more ita blankete government granted to hunter biden related to any issues, not just tax and gun that time 2014 through 2019 when he was earning

millions a year working as a consultant for foreign countries and in the throes of a really desperate drug and alcohol addiction. laura: so hunter biden ended up pleading not guilty to those misdemeanor tax charges but he could still end up working out a deal with the justice department. can you walk ustand tghhr incoug the potential felony gun charge? >> i wish i knew. i do not think anyone at this point knows. i think hunter biden is trying to figure out how to pick up the pieces but you are right, the not guilty plea is a placeholder aat could turn into a r theote n ement ifbut at the moment the judge gave them two weeks to essentially overall the plea deal to address particular concerns. one is her level of involvement

at overseeing the gun deal, she thought she was given to big of a role, and rewriting a provision in the immunity agreement, which she wants more narrow so if they are able to come up with an agreement we could be back here in a couple of weeks for what could be a less dramatic version of today's events. laura: the dispute between doj and hunter's lawyers centered on a question over the breadth of the immunity he would or would not get in the deal and about whether or not he could face future criminal charges. how likely do you think additional charges could be down the road if they ultimately come to a deal? >> you are getting at what was probably the most interesting moment in the hearing. the judge asked one of the top prosecutors in delaware whether or not the investigation was ongoing and the prosecution said

categorically, yes. she then asked a series of questions asking hypothetically what were the potential charges that might be looked at and one that she mentioned involved registering as a lobbyist for a foreign country. it is something that has been mentioned as a potential charge that was looked into what it is interesting that the prosecutor did not deny it and indicated that was one of the plea agreement submitted today. laura: and you are referring to the foreign agents registration act. we have any idea if in future dealings, if they have one they will come to, if hunter biden could ultimately face prison time? >> at this point things are up in the air. i would say generally speaking

there is a strong motive for biden and prosecutors to get a deal done. i think david weiss, the prosecutor in this case, has invested an awful lot of capital . he is a trump appointee and he wants this done with and is currently facing a grilling at the hands of set -- the hands of house and senate republicans so i think he would want to be passed this when he goes on the hill in october and hunter biden, the most emotional part of today was hunter biden talking about his drug and alcohol addiction in the past tense. i think he wants to put his legal problems in the past as well. laura: glenn thrush with the new york times, thank you so much for your reporting. ♪ william: in the days other

headlines interest rates are , headed higher again, as the federal reserve resumes its fight with inflation. after a one-month pause, the central bank raised its benchmark rate by a quarter point today. the fed's inflation target is to percent a year, -- is to percent -- 2% a year but it's still running a point above that range. the heat stayed on "high" today across the american southwest. phoenix has now hit at least 110 degrees for 27 straight days. the strain has broken air conditioning units and even left desert cacti drying up. forecasters say next week may finally bring a bit of relief -- with daytime highs below 110. meanwhile wildfires kept , spreading across southern europe -- claiming more lives, including two in hard-hit on the island of rhodes, firefighters joined with homeowners to help put out flames. but locals said the devastation is immense. >> more than 200,000 acres have

been burned. i believe it is more than one third of the island. it is not only forest areas with virgin forest of several years that was destroyed, biodiversity and life, from herbs to anything you can imagine, and rhodes was famous for all of these. william: in italy, fire cws have battled some 1400 blazes since sunday. at least two people died when their home burned near the airport. a jury in london has acquitted actor kevin spacey on multiple charges of sexual assault. several men had accused him of groping them in incidents dating back over a decade. one accused him of a non-consensual sex act. after the verdict was announced today, spacey spoke to reporters outside the courthouse. kevin spacey: i'm enormously grateful to the jury for having taken the time to examine all of

the evidence and all of the facts carefully before they reached their decision, and i am humbled by the outcome today. william: spacey's career came to a halt in 2017 when the accusations against him emerged at the height of the "me-too" movement. back in this country, 81-year-old mitch mcconnell appeared to freeze up today at a briefing. the kentucky senator began speaking, then stopped mid-sentence, staring straight ahead. colleagues finally helped him move aside, and he returned to his office. minutes later, he came back, said he was fine and took questions. aides said he'd felt lightheaded. mcconnell suffered a concussion earlier this year. seven major car companies have announced they'll build electric vehicle charging stations throughout the u.s. and canada. general motors, stellantis and 5 others pledged today to install 30,000 high-power stations along highways and in cities.

that's nearly double the existing number of outlets in north america. on wall street in the face of , the latest interest rate hike, stocks showed little movement. the dow jones industrial average gained 82 points to close at 35,520. the nasdaq fell 17 points. the s&p 500 was nearly unchanged. irish singer-songwriter sinead o'connor has died. her family announced her passing kte warnning asup a pic fture e john paul ii on "saturday night live". she shot to global fame in 1990, with a cover of the prince ballad "nothing compares to you". ♪ i went to the doctor and guess what he told me he said to come a girl you better try to have fun, no

matter what you do but he's a fool because nothing compares, nothing compares 2 u ♪ ♪ william: sinead o'connor was 56 years old. still to come waters off the ' coast of florida reachtion liho efforts to get insurance companies to cover mental health care. upheaval in israel prompts calls for the u.s. to cut off billions in annual aid. author wes lowery addresses increasing racial violence in>>r from weta studios in washington. william: as heatwaves roll across so much of the world, oceans are also heating up.

surface temperatures in many oceans are right now breaking historical records, including in the atlantic, where these warmer waters threaten ocean life and coral reefs. for example, off the coast of southern florida, surface water temperatures have topped a shocking 100 degrees fahrenheit, triggering a sudden, massive bleaching event on some coral reefs. to help us understand more about what's happening and what can be done, we're joined by katey les-neski. she studies the coral reefs at the florida keys national marine sanctuary for the national oceanic and atmospheric administration. it is so good to have you on the newshour. i know you have been diving in some of the reefs recently and i cannot imagine what it is like to swim in water that warm. can you tell us a little bit about what you have been seeing on the reefs? >> yes. thank you for having me to talk about this important issue. i have been out over the last several days on immediately when

you jump into the water, it feels like you are in a hot tub. fortunately the water is in the low 90's. that 100 degrees temperature was taken in a shallow landlocked area but temperature records are still being shattered and that directly impacts all of the amazing life we have, including coral reefs and what i am seeing now are stark white corals going under -- which are undergoing bleaching, which can lead to their immediate death. william: does that mean the corals cannot recover? >> they recover from bleaching. bleaching can be caused by a number of different factors where environmental conditions are not quite right. the most well-known reason is increasing temperatures on if conditions do not concern -- do

not return to a preferable state on the water doesn't cool off the coral reefs can die from the bleached state in days or weeks. and once they die, there are other reef organisms that would settle on the skeleton and take up space in the coral tissue would not be able to grow back. william: for people who have only seen coral reefs and photographs, they are extraordinary to look at. can you remind us why they are so valuable in the ocean ecosystem? >> they provide a wide number of benefits. ecological and environmental. from the ecological standpoint, over 25% of the world's species depend on coral reefs at some point in their life. sea turtles, sharks, lobster,

game fish. florida alone depends on reefs for tourism and other valuable parts of the reefs. the ecology and economics are closely intertwined. william: is there anything you have been seeing that gives you hope that there might be some solution, some way out of this? >> i have been diving on some of the deeper reefs that still show signs of resistance to bleaching and those depth pockets can almost serve as a refuge. there are other individuals at other sites, these other shallow reefs that look quite healthy, that tells us something about the genetic diversity and unique genetics that these corals could contribute to bleaching

resistance so we will be looking at the deeper reefs and tracking those reef individuals is much as we can in the future. william: as someone who studies these, what is it like personally for you to see the temperatures go up and go in and see the direct impacts? that has to be difficult to witness. >> it has been very difficult for me and many colleagues who not only have this as part of our day-to-day job but it is something many of us spend time enjoying even on the weekends and what we have made our career out of. we did not expect to see this much bleaching occurred this early in the season. these predictions seem to change by the day based on how rampant the widespread heatwave is as well as prolonged ocean temperatures and we are already seeing hundreds of corals dying across the florida keys so every

day we are holding our breath and we will see what tomorrow brings. william: thank you so much for being here. >> thank you, william. now the latest in the federal reserve campaign to raise interest rates and bring down inflation. that effort is almost a year and a half old. at the same time, jay powell wants to tame inflation without tipping the economy into a recession, which is a tall order . our correspondent helps us unpack the thinking behind the feds move. >> inflation has moderated

somewhat but getting it back down to 2% has a long way to go. reporter: a long way to go, despite signs that inflation is ebbing. >> rental inflation, the cost of housing, which was rising very rapidly in the course of 2021, 2022, is now reversing. reporter: and even wages are moderating, says analyst ed al-hussainy. >> wage growth as well peaked about a year ago, it's decelerating, it's not decelerating as fast as inflation, but it is decelerating. people have come back into the labor force from the sidelines, particularly women. so the size of the pool of people available to work is higher today than it was in 2019, and that's taking a lot of pressure off of wages and therefore inflation that's related to services that is connected to the labor market. reporter: no wonder, then, that

the consumer price index was up just 3% in june. a year ago, it was a bracing 9.1% >> the june cpi report, of course, was welcome, but it's only one report one month's data. inflation has proved repeatedly has proved stronger than we and other forecast forecasters have expected and at some point that may change. we may -- we have to be ready to follow the data and given how far we have come we can afford , to be a little patient as well as resolute as we let this unfold. >> we are not sure that the inflation story is finished. and we're not sure that higher inflation is not being embedded in the economy, in the psychology of people's everyday decision-making. reporter: in short, our inflation expectations, as shoppers, as worrsal, colyrored. >> for the fed, that inflation psychology is a very important

element of inflation dynamics. if we believe that the fed is going to control inflation, then that that gives rise to behavior, that reinforces those that low inflation, we stop raising prices. companies stop raising prices, people stop demanding cost of living increases. and that in turn helps sort of lock in lower inflation. reporter: so the fed thinks it's doing its duty, trying to discourage us from spending in order to slow down economic activity says former fed , official krishna guha. >> the fed has promised to deliver 2% inflation. now, that doesn't mean they have to be inflation nutcases and crash the economy to get inflation back to two at the very earliest opportunity. but they do need to seriously commit to get it there over the next few years. reporter: to maintain credibility. but guha admits prices rose for reasons that had nothing to do with the fed. >> the big forces that drove inflation higher were coming obviously from fundamental shocks to the economy.

reporter: the forces you've heard here and elsewhere beaten drum-like -- covid, supply chains, ukraine, corporate opportunism, stimulus checks. >> a big part of the process by which inflation hopefully eventually returns to target is just that those big shocks dissipate anthd diocnsslioat >> the mystery is whether the fed had anything to do with it. reporter: even so, the fed is using the standby arrow in its quiver, targeting higher interest rates, even at the risk of recession, to hit the to present inflation. >> think about the problem the fed is trying to solve is this. let's pick a number for inflation that will be immaterial to people's everyday

decision making, to how they bargain for wages, how they make consumption and purchasing decisions around large items like cars or homes. they settle on 2%. does the fed have the luxury to reexamine the target in today's environment? categorically, no. reporter: is this likely to be the last fed rate hike for a while? >> the fed's tightening cycle is coming to an end. they are very likely to pause in the course of the next several meetings. and that's a world away from where they were 6 to 12 months ago. reporter: for his part, powell was noncommittal about what the fed might do at the next meeting. >> in september, we will look at additional job reports. cpi reports, lots of activity data, and that is what we are going to look at. it is really dependent so much on data and we just don't have it yet. reporter: but by september, they will. for the pbs newshour, paul solman. ♪ william: president biden has been hitting the road to sell his economic record, emphasizing pocketbook and consumer issues,

including a new rule this week to crack down on insurers for inadequate coverage of mental health care. but his agenda also faces some headwinds. the federal reserve's decision to hike interest rates again today is a sign that the battle against inflation isn't over. and yesterday a federal judge blocked a key part of the president's immigration licy. to talk about all of this, we're joined by neera tanden, the president's domestic policy adviser. thank you for being back on the news hour. yesterday the judge ruled a key part of bidens asylum policy was unlawful and this came after complaints that the policy was cruel and version of the trump policy. how much does this ruling constrain your ability to deal with the order?

-- border? tanden: as you know in the ruling itself, the judge stayed his own order. so it's really important for people to understand that the rules the president has been put in place are operational. and we have seen a large scale decline in border crossings since the implementation of this rule. the rule is working effectively to get better control of the border. and that is part of the argument that we are making. the department of justice has issued a statement saying how confident they are in the process, how confident they are that we will win on appeal. and what's really most important for people to remember is that this rule has really helped stabilize the border and as a central part of ensuring that we have stable immigration policies. william: all right, turning to some of the pocketbook issues, yesterday, the administration rolled out a proposal to pressure health insurance companies to do a better job of covering mental health care. what is the evidence as you see it that they are not living up to that right now? tanden: well, according to various studies, people who have insurance are paying out of

pocket. in fact, if you have insurance, you are more than twice as likely to pay out-of-pocket for mental health care compared to physical health care. and we know that americans who are insured are paying billions of dollars a year for mental health care. that is not supposed to be. over 15 years ago, the congress passed on a bipartisan basis the mental hrih eaeatyllpademanded that mental health care is is treated like physical health care by the healthcare system. but what we've seen over the last several years is that there are tactics and perhaps even evasions of the system. insurance companies have mental health providers in their network, but they're just too few of them. so people have to wait years to get access to therapy that is covered, or there are prior

authorizations, hurdles that people have to go to to access mental health care and sometimes, the reimbursement level is different for mental health care for doctors, for a psychiatrist reimbursement level is lower for them than for physical physicians or doctors who are helping with physical care. all of that contributes to a system where it's just much harder to get covered care from mental health care than physical care, and that is why the president acted. william: one of the things and you touched on this and health insurers make this argument and certainly there is evidence that this is the case as well, i've seen this in my own reporting, that even if you do have coverage, that finding a provider to care for you is very, very difficult. isn't that an equally problematic part of this issue? tanden: well, all of these issues interact. let me explain how. if you are a psychiatrist and you get a lower level of reimbursement from the insurers

than physicians, sometimes you're going to think that it's more difficult to take to be in an insurance system and maybe you'll just go the route of only having people pay out of pocket. but the number of people who can really pay out-of-pocket are very few. what we find is that when reimbursement levels are the same, when insurance systems are trying to ensure that they have enough providers, that that actually creates an incentive structure for more people to be providing this kind of care. so it is absolutely the case that we need more mental health providers, but we also need insurance systems to partner and support in solving this problem by ensuring they are providing enough mental health therapists physicians who can provide mental health care, mental health providers in their networks to people can access care. william: turning to the broader economy, as you know, the fed

raised interest rates again, which makes borrowing money more costly. one in three americans right now believe that president biden is not doing enough to address the economic concerns. what is the administration doing about that? tanden: the president has been laser focused on ensuring that we were doing everything we can to lower costs. i work on health care policy for the president. we have a robust agenda of lowering prescription drug costs . medicare will be negotiating drug prices for the first time that will lower drug costs. we should also recognize that inflation has adjusted. it has decreased every month for the last year. that doesn't mean our work is done, there's plenty more work to do, but we should recognize that this economy has created 13 million more jobs, inflation is declining, and we've also created an economy where we have amongst the lowest unemployment

rates in recent history. so there is work to do on lowering costs, but we also recognize that this is a strong and stable economy that's really growing from the middle out and the bottom. william: thank you so much for being here. ♪ william: this month, a russian veto at the united nations security council led to the closure of a u.n. operated border crossing that supplied vital humanitarian aid to rebel-held parts of northwest syria. the syrian regime said all deliveries will be cooridnated through damascus and not the u.n.. but with this closure, more than 4 million syrians -- most of whom are internally displaced -- have lost access to crucial manita in a city in northwest

syria, an entire generation born into war. children who have only known life in this camp have learned to live with the bare minimum. at this camp, one man feeds his children what little he can. they dip bread in oil, six of them eating from a single plate. they have not had meat, fruits, or vegetables for months. >> there are no opportunities for us to work. there is nothing. my children are malnourished. my baby needs protein. reporter: the closure of the border crossing will block it aid to his camp and that amounts to a death sentence, he said. >> the closure will cause us to suffocate and starve to death. the camps depend on you when aid

and closing the crossing means killing us. reporter: next door, one man tries to cool his tent with water. it is over 100 degrees on most summer days and his youngest child cannot bear it. >> there is no water. look at this dilapidated tent and our conditions. the picture speaks louder than words. reporter: once known as the capital of the syrian revolution, the area has long been reduced to rubble by the syrian dictator. and now they face another battle, keeping children alive. >> no one looks at our situation and no one helps. we depend on aid from the u.n.. now it is cut off. if it continues, life will stop. this is a food war. reporter: this crossing was the last remaining humanitarian corridor that closed earlier

this month after russia vetoed a u.n. security council resolution, which many syrians in the region. >> the syrian regime and russians have used the food weapon for years. you should not wait until you see people dying of hunger. reporter: now the syrian regime wants to control the aid delivery through damascus. charles lister is the director of the syria -- >> they have spent 12 years gassing and killing hundreds of thousands of syrians and now they get to claim they are willing to open a border crossing. the rate of humanitarian aid

provision will collapse significantly. reporter: he says an average of 12,000 aid trucks past two the crossing each year but since 2021, only a total of 150 two trucks have delivered aid. 74 a year. >> the regime in most cases just refuses to allow aid and there are towns and cities where people are eating mud and grass because they have nothing. in the historical cases where the regime allowed smallmoun at in, they would put shards of glass inside flower were bird feces inside baby formula. reporter: the closure will have a devastating effect on the health care system.

an february earthquakes destroyed medical facilities, killed staff, and damaged equipment. now with the border crossing closed, more than half of the remaining hospitals are at risk of shutting down. >> it will lead to great damage of the health sector and closure of these facilities. we are headed towards a major health disaster. reporter: it would compound an already dire humanitarian crisis in until the international community comes up with a solution, millions of displaced syrians are looking at a grim future.

william: israel's current political turmoil, driven by the most far-right government in that nation's history, has renewed the debate over america's financial assistance to that country. the u.s. has been a supporter of israel since its creation in 1948, and has given it significant aid since the u.s.-brokered peace deal between israel and egypt in 1979. israel receives more military aid from the u.s. each year than any other country, $3.8 billion. however, there are some calls to revisit that. injogeusorg wdi. ino shs tusdc administration. he's now a professor at princeton university. dennis ross has also served in democratic and republican administrations as a middle east peace envoy. he is a counselor at the washington institute for near east policy.

thank you both. you have long argued that the u.s. should revisit the issue of aid to israel. why? >> israel is a mature country with a mature economy. stronger than japan. it does not need the u.s. military assistance. and this has nothing to do with the current crisis in israel. it is not punitive. it's a way to make the relationship sound and on much better footing than it currently is. when i argued for is to substitute for the military assistance to agreements between our countries. one that would effectively give israel access to american technology in access to israeli technology, and to set up a joint mechanism so we can build technology together. that would be a far better way than the dependency relationship

we have established over the years. william: daniel, would you like to see that happen immediately? >> no, that's not realistic. we have to do this through agreements and it would have to be phased out. we have experience phasing out assistance programs with israel, which we did in the 1990's. i think it would take five or more years to work out the agreements i am calling for and i think it is better for both our countries, that is really military industry would grow as a result of it and there would not be a shadow hanging over our relationship that somehow we could exercise pressures. we do not do that anyway and this would remove that possibility. william: dennis, went to make of the argument? >> i think there's a lot of logic to what dan is saying. my concern would be the message

it sends now. in the current environment i'm concerned it would be seen as punitive and miss read by the iranians and hezbollah. if it appears the united states is announcing it will put off military assistance to israel i think it sends the message that this is the time to increase pressure they have on israel and it sends a message to others in the region. there are those who have heard american psides whoay commitment to israel is ironclad . so now it looks like we are saying we are going to cut off talid tmit'rys not what dan is saying but many will interpret

it that way and i am afraid you have others who look to us for security but will be questioning because they now believe we are pulling out of the region. if you say a commitment that is ironclad is one in which we will reduce assistance, i suspect it tends to validate the view we are withdrawing from the region. dan, what about that point? the u.s. changing its ironclad commitment to israel, that it sends a message to israel's enemies that could be genuinely destabilizing? >> i think it is a strawman argument to say this will be misinterpreted because it has to flow from the agreement coming u tfrd niheesstboteth oatur coo approach this maturely and

realistically and in fact there are voices in israel today, including some of the right-wing press, who make the same argument. they make it for different reasons. they want to be out from under the possibility of american pressure, but the argument resonates in both countries so i do not think it should be taken seriously that people will misinterpreted. there is strength in the relationship with congress, in public opinion, and that is not going to change at all. we support israel in the u.n. and in so many ways in our bilateral relationship that the bilateral set of agreements that replaces this artificial aid i think will actually be seen as strengthening the relationship between our two countries and i think that is the way it can be perceived as long as both of us agree on it. william: dennis, what do you see

as the principal benefit of this aid? israel is a wealthy country and militarily very strong and do not necessarily see -- debt -- do not necessarily see this assistant so what is the benefit? >> we have benefited a great deal from a lot of the developments israel has made because of our security assistance. we have benefited from issues to helping as early iron dome and help by helping to finance israel's development of the air missile armed helping finance development of iron beam which is a laser defensive system. much of the equipment we provide israel that they improve on and security systems end up bending -- end up benefiting us as well so there is a benefit to this. i do not dispute the idea that there could be an agreement that faces out over time.

my concern is that in the current setting and context that dan might feel it will not be misinterpreted but i think many critics of israel are not supporters of israel and do not believe israel has the right to self-defense who will seize upon this and i think you have to be careful how you present it. looking at iran and hezbollah, hezbollah's behavior over the last several months are demonstrating they are becoming less risk-averse and there is greatilmournd a it appears as ie u.s. is stepping away from israel i think it will feed the perception and make things less stable. william: daniel, let's say enough people hear your argument and want to bring it up. do you believe that politically in america right now that this could ever get traction? it's hard to think of a more bipartisan issue that holds republicans and democrats together than the support of israel.

several years ago over 300 members of the house signed a letter saying we will always stand by israel. do you think this has any realistic chance of actually coming to fruition? >> i would argue strongly against the u.s. undertaking this unilaterally. it is predicated on the u.s. and israel beginning a very deep discussion of whether or not the agreements i indicated could not only substitute for the military assistance, which accounts for a very small part of israel's gdp, less than 1%, but rather whether or not the benefits that can accrue from the technology gains we accomplish together and access to technology both of us would have from each other's scientific community would far outweigh the particular dollars involved. william: daniel and dennis,

thank you so much for being here. ♪ on our bookshelf tonight, pulitzer prize winning journalist wesley lowery examines the pattern of racist violence that follows racial progress in america, including the recent white supremacist violence that surged following barack obama's presidency. lowery recently sat down with geoff bennett to discuss his findings, which he details in his new book, "american whitelash: a changing nation and the cost of progress." reporter: wesley lowery joins us now. welcome back to the newshour. in the book, you look at how and why racist violence has spiked since the election of barack obama. and you write, “the election of a esk blt idprnodienhet d us

racist past, rather, it let us down a perilous path and into a decade and a half and counting of explicit racial thrashing.” pick it up from there. >> think about what we've seen in the time since president obama's election. the rise of a nativist movement hyper-concerned with immigration and refugees that vowed to ban muslims from coming into the country and ultimately was able to elect president trump. we've seen a rise of a civil rights movement of young, energetic, diverse activists attempting to push the country forward on various issues of justice and to push the country beyond perhaps what it imagined it might be willing to consider not that long ago. so we've been in this era where following a black president, we have now been locked even further into the conversations about race and racial justice across the country. one of the thing that's also true, right, we still live in a majority white country and we've seen in the polling that in the years since barack obama's election, white americans have become increasingly racially anxious, concerned.

by the end of the obama presidency, 55% of white americans say that they believe they are racially discriminated against so the essence of having , one black guy run the country meant that all the white people thought they were now racial minorities and facing systemic discrimination. that speaks to a changing nature of our politics. and then there are people out there, other movements, people who really are avowed white supremacists who look at this and smile. the idea that so many americans would be so anxious, so concerned that these things would be in the forefront this way, they think they can use that to recruit and ultimately we end up seeing a lot of vitst olng baceimi com btted people who join those movements. reporter: in the book, you also capture the stories of people who fell prey to this racist violence. what stories stood out to you? >> i think a lot about the story of marcelo lucero, who was an ecuadorian immigrant who was murdered in long island not long after barack obama was elected, days after the election prior to the inauguration.

and one of the things i think about him is because as much as this book talks about the rise that comes following barack obama's election, i tried to be careful and to be clear that barack obama inherits a set of issues that were already at play. you see marcelo lucero, who comes to this country with his brother, to seek freedom and seek liberty. and ultimately at a time when people in that part of the country were very anxious that their property values might fall because of immigration. and that competition for resources. local politicians big game began adapting really dehumanizing rhetoric. so much so that the local high school kids started going out seeking immigrants to attack and beat up. one night they found marcelo lucero, and so, so much of this book is about what our role is. those of us in the public square, public officials, and our role in acknowledging that when we allow dehumanizing rhetoric to take over our politics, the result is that people are dehumanized and some people among us stop treating

those people as humans. reporter: the federal government, as you well know, has warned about this. both the dhs and fbi have warned about the increased activity and recruitment among white supremacist groups, among right wing militia groups. tell me more about how this threat has proliferated in this social media age, in this age where people feel emboldened to say things they wouldn't say and do things they wouldn't normally otherwise, and how is the federal government confronting the challenge? >> of course. we have seen an unquestionable rise. we've seen the fbi director and dhs come out and say that currently the biggest terroristic threat to the united states of america is from white supremacist terror and domestic terror, not foreign or islamic terrorism. and those threats can be difficult and have been difficult to grapple with, in part because of our first amendment concerns that might not exist in a more international context, in part because there is a hesitance sometimes and a desire not to label people who might fall in a certain side of the political spectrum as potentially dangerous. and so we've seen this kind of

time and time again where law enforcement has been hesitant to aggressively combat and disrupt such movements and such spaces. increasingly, we now see people gathering in online spaces, that these are not hierarchical, big organizations in most cases, but rather the white supremacist movement has adopted what one of its leaders called leaderless resistance, this idea of they're going to put out all this propaganda, they're going to make it available on the internet, and enough aggrieved people will locate and find it and know what to do. and we've seen this over and over and over again. in charleston dylann roof starts , googling for information about black on white crime because he's been following media coverage of trayvon martin's death. and that leads him to these dark corners of the internet that proselytize about the violent threat that black people present to white people and the violent threat that immigration presents to the "white race," because,

again, we know that race is not biological that way. and before long, he's writing a manifesto where he's talking about the, quote, jewish problem and he's walking into a black church and massacring people. and so, so much of this movement today is about using these online spaces to proselytize and radicalize without ever having to give direct marching orders. reporter: what sparked your interest in this? what motivated you to write this book? >> my first book was about the rise of black lives matter as a movement, and as 2016 gave way to 2017, i was thinking a lot about what does it mean to be a writer and a journalist who looks at issues of race and justice. and increasingly, we were seeing these cases and these incidents of people being attacked, or the expression explicitly of these white supremacist ideas that had been socially taboo previously, that there was a clear emboldenedment of this movement because our politics was playing footsie with it, that we're seeing white supremacists gather

in d.c. around the inauguration, we're seeing a muslim woman being attacked on a train in portland, we're seeing the shootings and in pittsburgh and buffalo and el paso. and so i thought that it was important to use whatever talent or space or resources i had to try to tell some of those stories to record them for history, but then also to try to put them in concert with each other, to explain, you know, if we're living in a moment of increased racial grievance in this space, we should understand it, because if we understand it, perhaps we can do something to combat it. reporter: the book is "american whitelash: a changing nation and the cost of progress." already, a new york times best seller. congratulations. >> thank you so much. ♪ william: remember, there's more online, including a look at who is most vulnerable to extreme at, and tips for stayinge . that is that pbs.org/newshour.

and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm william brangham. on behalf of the entire newshour team, thank you so much for joining us. >> major funding for the "pbs newshour" has been provided by -- and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the newshour, including jim and nancy bildner, and kathy and paul anderson. >> we offer a variety of no contract plans and our u.s.-based customer service team can find one that fits you. to learn more, visit consumercellular.tv. >> the ford foundation. working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide. and with the ongoing support of these institutions. ♪

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