wow, you get to watch all your favorite stuff. it's to die for. now you won't miss a thing. this is the way. xfinity internet. made for streaming. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett. on the "news hour" tonight, just as the new school year is getting underway, the nation is rocked by another shooting, this time at a georgia high school. geoff: -- amna: the biden administration accuses russia and other nations of once again meddling in the u.s. presidential race. the new steps that are being taken to counter foreign

interference. >> we have no tolerance for attempts by authoritarian regimes to exploit our democratic system of government. geoff: and kamala harris unveils more of her economic plans --including an incentive for business startups. we delve into the two presidential contenders' plans to boost the u.s. economy. >> major funding for the pbs "news hour" has been provided by. x consumer cellular, this is sam, how can i help you? with consumer cellular you get nationwide coverage with no contract. that is kind of our thing. have a nice day. >> a successful business owner sells his company and restores a

jazz club. at raymondjames get to explore your passions. life, well-planned. ♪ >> the judy and peter boom co. for from date -- peter bloom coble or foundation strengthening democracies at home and abroad, the walton family foundation, looking for solutions to protect water during climate change sosupportr foundation. 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 the contributions to your pbs

station from viewers like you. thank you. amna: welcome to "news hour." the department of justice is warning america's elections are once again under foreign assault. geoff: we start tonight's program in georgia where authorities say a gunman opened fire at i school killing four people, two students and two teachers. at least and nine others were injured. police arrested a student who is the suspect and investigators say they do not yet know a motive. this morning about an hour outside atlanta, all-too-familiar scenes of chaos . ambulances and police cars racing toward apalachee high school in barrow, georgia. helicopter and medevac descended as students saw safety on the football field. all the while, parents worried

sick. >> this is barrow county and stuff like this never happens here. going to school, afterschool, just pray because you never know and stuff like this is going to happen. geoff: nearly 2000 students attend apalachee. the new school year kicked off about a month ago in august. county officials identified the shooter as colt gray, a 14-year-old student at the school. he will be charged with murder as an adult. >> our resource officer engaged him and the shooter quickly realized if he did not give up, that it would end with an officer-involved shooting. geoff: judge smith is the barrow county sheriff. >> this hits home for me. i was born and raised here, went to school in this school system, my kids go to this school system.

i am proud of this school system, but i want to make it very clear that hate will not prevail in this county. geoff: in washington the white house press secretary said president biden had been briefed on the situation and called for action from congress. >> students and teachers deserve to know their schools are safe. they should focus on learning, not lockdowns. geoff: the shooting reverberated on the campaign trail. vice president kamala harris began an event in new hampshire on a solemn note. vp harris: this is a senseless tragedy on top of so many senseless tragedies and it is outrageous that every day in our country in the u.s. that parents have to send their children to school worried about whether or not their child will come home alive. geoff: donald trump writing on his social media platform, our hearts are with the victims and

loved ones of those affect did by the tragic event in winder, georgia. another school shooting, another community in mourning. amna: foreign efforts to interfere with the u.s. presidential election. geoff: in a press conference the u.s. attorney general merrick garland outlined what he called sophisticated disinformation campaigns undertaken by russia and other adversaries promoting lies via fake news outlets and real social media influencers and garland issued this morning -- >> the justice department message is clear, we have no tolerance for attempts by authoritarian regimes to exploit our democratic system of government. we will be relentlessly aggressive in countering and disrupting attempts by russia and iran as well as china or any other foreign maligned actor to

interfere with our elections and undermine our democracy. amna: joining us now from the white house is a spokesman, retired admiral john kirby. thanks for joining us. these efforts are a long way from russian intelligence hacking and dumping emails like they did with the d&c -- dnc in 2016. big picture and briefly, what does this say about how russian interference has evolved over the years. john: they have gotten more sophisticated and organized and have gotten more funding. support at the top of the kremlin. we believe mr. putin is heading these schemes, but they have gotten more clever and unfortunately for them, we have gotten clever, too. we were able to detect and monitor these threats and take action to hold them accountable.

amna: one of these schemes as you put it, let's break it down. the department of justice charged two employees of a russian state controlled, outletrt, saying they poured $10 million to distribute content with hidden russian government messaging. what content are we talking about and where might people have seen that? john: a great example of the messaging was claiming ukraine and the u.s. ago that we all know was conducted by isis. even isis acknowledged they conducted that attack on the concert hall so that was one example. another was continuing to put out information to undermine ukraine's fight for its own democracy and sovereignty so it is messaging propaganda to undermine public support for what ukraine is trying to do to defend itself. and a range of other things

russia wants to do to portray the u.s. as some sorof evil actor in the world. there is a series of initiatives they are undertaking to undermine faith and confidence in democracy writ large and faith and confidence in america's democracy. amna: another related to the department of justice seizing 32 internet domains they say were used to spread russian propaganda with the aim of influencing voters in the u.s. and foreign elections including the u.s. 2024 presidential election. i nt to show the websites were designed to look like u.s. information and news sites like bees that look exactly like washington post articles -- like these, that look exactly like washington post articles. can they be taken down as fast as they are put up? john: we will have conversations with tech companies making sure

they are aware of these threats and actors. we rely on them to take the decisions they deem appropriate to their own policies and procedures but we will keep having that conversation with tech companies. i am glad you mentioned the social design agency. on one hand, they are using rt, a former propaganda outlet, now full on influence organization, to work through funding companies, even a company in the u.s., to get them to push information in the vein of a legitimate media outlet. they are working also at a tactical level with social media influencers, many as the attorney general laid out, are simply made up, fictional personas. but they are going at it from a media outlet perspective and individual social media user perspective. amna: when it comes to

influencing, especially the 2024 election, attorney general garland talked about a preferred outcome. what do you see this russian effort working toward? john: undermining u.s. policies. the kind of policies this administration has been laboring so hard to pursue around the world. shoring up alliances and partnerships in the indo pacific, supporting ukraine. amna: is that to say they are working to undermine the democratic candidate, in this case kamala harris? john: i don't have specific evidence to undermining a particular candidate, but we have seen in the past where mr. putin has shown a proclivity for one rticular candidate, but i do not want to get ahead of where we are right now. we know they are using these tools, this funding, to sow discord and try to increase dis-unity in the u.s.

amna: wouldn't and it help people to spot this evidence if they knew that it leaned one way or the other? john: that is one thing we did today, why the attorney general went public and why we here at the white house laid it out. the aim of educating the american people is to disclose what we are seeing, and the content they are putting out. as i said in my opening statement in the briefing room, you can't just be the government doing this. we need the help of american citizens to bear a hand and carefully and scrupulously look at what you are digesting, the news information online or elsewhere, to try to make sure you're getting the absolute best, credible, most accurate information. amna: it is worth pointing out people start voting in this election very soon, within days. the last day of a voting is over 60 days away.

a lot of this content has had millions of views. are these steps and actions too late to have an impact? john: we certainly hope not. the timing today was driven by the scope of the investigation the attorney general talked about and made it clear it is an ongoing investigation so there may be additional actions, but it was driven by the status of the investigation, that what -- is what was on our minds and as soon as we could package that information and get it to the public domain we wanted to do that. amna: admirable john kirby from the white house, thank you. ♪ stephanie: i'm stephanie with news hour west. here are the latest headlines. in ukraine president volodymyr zelenskyy has accepted the resignation of his foreign minister, dmytro kuleba.

kuleba gave no reason for stepping down. his announcement comes as four other ministers also subtted resignations. it's set to be among the most significant overhauls of zelenskyy's cabinet since the war began. zelenskyy, who was in ireland today, said it was time for a change, as the war against russia drags on. >> i am very grateful to the ministers and the entire cabinet team who worked for ukraine for the sake of ukrainians. today we need new energy. and these steps are connected, they are only connected with strengthening our state in various areas. international politics and diplomacy are no exception. stephanie: in the meantime russian strikes killed at least seven people and injured more than 50 others in the western ukrainian city of lviv -- near the polish border. the long-range russian strikes come just a day after one of the deadliest attacks of the war: a missile attack on a ukrainian military academy that killed more than 50 people.

in the middle east israel's , operation in the occupied west bank shows no signs of letting up, after more than a week of deadly raids. idf bulldozers pushed through the streets of tulkarm today. palestinian officials say 33 people have been killed so far. israel says most of them were militants. the jenin area has seen the most fatalities-- including a 16-year-old girl who was laid to rest today. her father says she was shot by israeli forces yesterday when she opened a window-curtain during a raid. israel says it's looking into the incident. >> all the neighbors are witnesses. she did not go to the roof, she did not throw a stone, and was not carrying a weapon. she is 16 years old. the only thing she did is she looked from window and the soldier shot her in the forehead. stephanie: in the u.k. investigation into the 2017

grenfell tower disaster found the tragedy was avoidable. in its final report released today, the inquiry found that mistakes from the government, the construction industry and firefighters were to blame. the independent investigation began soon after 72 people were killed when a fire broke out at the apartment block in west london during the early hours of june 14th, 2017. british prime minister keir starmer said his government is sorry for the loss of life, and vowed to act on the report's findings. >> i want to start with an apology on behalf of the british state to each and every one of you and all the families affected by this tragedy. it should never have happened. stephanie: prosecutors are not expected to announce any charges until the end of 2026. a global human rights watchdog has implicated venezuela's security forces in the deadly crackdown on protests following the country's disputed election

in july. in findings released today, human rights watch outlined evidence that linked the country's national guard and police to some of the 24 killings that took place as people protesed the outcome of the vote. president nicolas maduro said the protests were an attempted coup. in an effort to distract from anger over the election maduro , declared on national tv that christmas, is quite literally coming early. >> september is coming and i said, it smells like christmas. that's why this year, in homage to you, in gratitude to you, i'm going to decree christmas starts on october 1 for everyone. christmas is here with peace, happiness, and security. stephanie: in northeastern nigeria, locals say at least 100 villagers were killed when suspected boko haram militants rampaged through their area on motorcyles.

while the death toll is in dispute, local police say more than 50 extremists opened fire on a market and people's homes on sunday night before setting buildings on fire. the radical islamic group has killed thousands of nigerians since launching an insurgency in 2009 that has also displaced more than two million people. the u.s. justice department announced today it is investigating allegations of sexual abuse within two california women's prisons. lawsuits at prisons in chowchilla and chino allege inmates were sexually assualted and forced to perform sexual acts by corrections officers. in april, a federal women's prison known as "the rape club" was closed in california after an ap investigation. an alaska judge struck down a law that limited who could perform abortions in the state just licensed doctors. today's ruling grants planned parenthood's request to allow

physician assistants to perform abortions. this is already allowed in about 20 states. and, there were more victories for team usa at the paralympic games in paris today. oksana masters won her eighth paralympic gold by speeding to victory in the women's para-cycling time trial. in track and field, shot putter noelle malka-maki broke her previous world record with a throw distance of just over 14 meters easily clearing her , path to gold. and, the u.s. women's wheelchair basketball team won a close game against great britain, propelling them to the semi-finals. amna: still to come on "news hour," a contemporary artist takes the old tradition of basket weaving into new directions and a retired scientists shows others how to experience nature without sight. >> this is the pbs "news hour," from weta studios in washington

and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. amna: today in new hampshire vice president kamala harris unveiled more of her economic plans -- proposing tax breaks for new small businesses and a change to the capital gains tax. vp harris: if you earn $1 million a year or more, the tax rate on your long-term capital gains will be 28% under my plan because we know when the government encourages investment, it leads to broad-based economic growth and it creates jobs which makes our economy stronger. amna: that is a smaller increase on investment income tax than what president biden has called for in his latest budget proposal. the economy and inflation are top priorities for voters. on the trail harris and former , president donald trump have highlighted their different approaches if elected in november. our white house correspondent has been covering both candidates' plans and joins us now.

always good to have you here. let's start with vice president harris. walk us through the key points in her economic plans she says will lower costs for everyday americans. laura: in addition to the capital gains tax, she announced a $50,000 tax deduction on expenses for small businesses, an increase in the tax break from $5,000 for startups. she also has a goal of 25 million new business applications in her first term, were she to win. this builds on key proposals she outlined last month that include the construction of 3 million new housing units, $25,000 house payment assistance for first home time buyers, a federal ban on price gouging groceries and raising the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28% and permanently expand the child tax credit to $6,000 for middle and low income

families for the first year of their child's life and made the promise that president biden made, to not raise taxes on people making less than $400,000 a year so ultimately a lot of her proposals are very similar to president biden's. geoff: what about compared -- amna: what about compared to former president trump? laura: trump has claimed he plans to physics -- fix inflation on day one. mr. trump: on my first day back i will sign an executive order directing every agency head to use every tool and authority at their disposal to defeat inflation and bring consumer prices rapidly down. it will be awhole of government effort to raise the standard of living and make american life affordable again. amna: donald trump is provided little specifics as to how he would lower inflation but here's

what we know about his policy. laura: he said he wants to cut taxes for corporations, lowering the rate from 21% 15%, eliminate taxes on tips and social security benefits, institute a 10% attorney percent tariffs on all foreign goods with an extra focus on china with 60% on chinese imports and wants to make 2017 tax cuts permanent which saw the corporate rate be implemented at 21% and individual tax cuts across all learners, especially top earners. those will expire next year, so he wants to make them permanent. amna: big picture when you compare the harris vision and the trump vision, what are the key differences? laura: the biggest differences are on housing, taxes, tariffs and mass deportation of migrants proposals in terms of how it will impact the economy. we spoke to multiple economists including the chief economist at

moody's and he joked that you put 10 economists in the room and they will come out with 20 opinions. overall he cited warnings from 16 nobel laureate economists, saying that trump's plans would increase inflation and that is also what moody's found. >> i think president trump's policies would lead to a diminished economy. not a recession, but a diminished economy, slower growth, higher unemployment, higher inflation and higher deficits and debt. if you're a high income household, high net worth household, you'll certainly do better under president trump. but i think if you're a kind of a middle income american, your lower and lower income american. you'll do better under president harris. laura: one of the similarities he said is that proposal to eliminate taxes on tips that both have said they want to do but a lot of the economist say people who rely on tips do not pay that much in taxes to begin

with so they question the impact and the attitudes of the candidates are different on the economy. trump's campaign arguing his is about a less globalized approach, and that he wants to promote investment. harris is more focused on the middle class, specifically parents and housing. amna: as you talk to the experts and they look at both proposals, what could be the biggest impacts? laura: one proposal multiple economists raised was trump's plan for mass deportations of millions of undocumented migrants. jd vance is running mate has said that plan is there housing plan, that u.s. citizens are fighting for housing with u.s. migrants and deporting millions of migrants could make housing more affordable. we spoke to an economist at the conservative american enterprise institute and he said that would be detrimental to the economy. >> what that would do is remove hundreds of thousands, maybe

even more of undocumented workers from workplaces. when you walk into the grocery store, the price of fresh produce would go up, the price of a hotel room, a restaurant bill would go up. may be the price of home construction. laura: he said the way to fix the housing crisis is to build more homes but also when it comes to impacts on the nonpartisan model, it found trump's proposals increased the national debt more than $5 trillion over 10 years. by comparison harris' plan would add over $1 trillion over the same amount of time. amna: when you talk to voters, what do they think? laura: it is consistently the top issue for voters across the spectrum. a poll found gen z voters said

inflation and housing is their top issue. we spoke to voters in pennsylvania and wisconsin. one who voted for trump twice says he feels trump says whatever people want to hear and does not like his proposal on tariffs. we also spoke to one who voted for trump in 2020, but is disenchanted with him now and says he is not necessarily a fan of either candidate's policies and feels trump's are too vague while harris' federal ban on price gouging is something he is skeptical about. amna: great reporting, thank you. geoff: today's justice department indictment about russian disinformation come two months before election day.

moscow's attempts to interfere in u.s. and other elections are nothing new, though their tactics and strategy are constantly evolving. before today's announcement, special correspondent simon ostrovsky recently sat down with an investigative journalist who's spent years uncovering russian operations about yet another effort to sow doubt and chaos this time using artificial , intelligence. reporter: russia's foreign intelligence service has a new plan to influence western countries in this election year. russia's cia, which goes by its initials, too, svr, plans to use artificial intelligence to mask a sophisticated effort to interfere in a third-straight u.s. presidential election. first, a quick tour of 20. mr. trump: russia, if you're listening, i hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. reporter: russian intelligence packed the democratic national committee and hillary clinton's

campaign chair. thousands of emails were then dumped in a coordinated fashion to influence the race. and that's not to mention the operations of russian troll farms that created thousands of digital sock puppet soldiers to repeat and repeat and repeat messages that boosted donald trump at hillary clinton's expense. >> they've declared war, full scale hot war information war on the rest of the world. reporter: the man who helped uncover this new effort is christo grozev, an investigative journalist who's unmasked many russian intelligence operations. perhaps most famously he found , the operatives who poisoned the late russian opposition leader alexei navalny in 2020 - and helped navalny - who died in a russian prison this past confront one of his assailants. february, reporter: you have discovered a program that the russian security services are trying to develop. what is this program about? >> we go back to the mailbox

belonging to a senior intelligence officer working under cover of a commercial company in russia. and that mailbox contained initially reports that criticized the handling of the global propaganda effort by russia, saying, we are losing to the west, the ukrainians. everybody loves ukraine and hates russia. we have to change something about this. they decided to use ai and use all kind of new methods to make it indistinguishable from the regular flow of information we are getting. reporter: we know russia has been trying to pit western societies against themselves, at least since the 2016 election. what is different about this new effort you have discovered? >> they will infiltrate western organizations, some of them, even those in defense of western values. they will infiltrate pro-ukrainian organizations and within those organizations, create disruption. they will make unreasonable demands of western leaders, making western societies tired and get annoyed with these

ukrainian demands in quotation marks. they will no longer defend russia, they will this cause disruption within western societies. reporter: they will no longer try to convince our society that russia is great, they will just use various different methods to make us angry at each other, angry at our allies, angry at ukraine. >> that is exactly so. that is both bad news and good news. the good news part of it is that they realize that the ship has sailed on trying to convince the rest of the world that russia is a power for good. reporter: who is taking the lead on this project? >> this is the foreign intelligence service of russia, svr. and it appears that they -- svr. they are criticizing other agencies and proposed to the kremlin, let us take care of this, we know how to do it better. and initially we thought this may be just one proposal that may not have been accepted, but follow-up documents that we found, show us that the program has been approved, recruitment

has started and there is even a document to the head of the svr, naryshkin, which, instructs him to allocate particular people to this program who will work under the cover of kremlin officials. reporter: is there anything you can tell me about how you got this information? >> since the war started the source of data from russian databases has become both harder to get and easier to get. harder, because there's a lot of clamp down on data providers and easier because there are so many whistleblowers and hacktivists, actually, russian hackers who go and hack mailboxes of government officials. the latter is what happened with us right now. the name of the author of the program is mikhail kolesov and interestingly, he admits to being a high level svr officer in his own cv that i've made available to you. reporter: in his resume. >> in his resume. reporter: incredible. kolesov's resume states that he's worked for the foreign intelligence service of russia since 2001 and oversees 40 agents. he lists among his achievements the roll-out of 1,500 propaganda

campaigns that supported achieving russia's goals in the international arena. he also boasts of receiving a medal in 2019 for developing new sources of information for the country's top leadership. grozev was also able to obtain kolesov's id badge from an email attachment, revealing the svr agent's face for the first time. >> notably he has two different resumes in his mailbox. one for the common people like you and us, and for the real buses he actually admits to having worked for the last 19 years as a senior officer in the svr, and the svr officer who is delegated to this program was seconded to this program and travels around the world. his name is andrei shcherbakov, and he has a diplomatic passport, and we expect he will be able to travel to, western europe and the united states. maybe not after this program. reporter: i read in one of the documents that you got access to that they plan on actually hijacking our personal

communication devices. what does that mean? >> they plan to do insertion of advertising hidden as news and bombard the target population with ang that may be misconstrued as news but in fact advertising content. they plan to disguise that on a person-to-person level as if it is content from their favorite, news sites. we haven't seen that in action, but it's an intent and they claim they've developed the technology to do that. they're very explicit that they're not going to use russia related platforms, or even separate platforms. they are going to infiltrate the platform that the target already uses. and that is what sounds scary. if they've developed anything like that, then we would not know that one sentence from what we read in the new york times, for example, has been altered just for you as a reader to mislead you in what the content, the meaning of the article is. reporter: than the target is you and i and the general public.

>> the target is the general public on a mass but custom, custom made scale. they specifically talk about using ai to customize the message based on the biases and preferences of each individual user. while before they could not do that even with a troll farm run by prigozhun's st. petersburg of 10,000 people, because you can only customize 10,000, targets. now with ai, you can do that to tens of millions of people. reporter: the documents hacked describe an ambitious plan to shake the main adversary, the west, to its foundations by influencing key figures with the disinformation techniques. the text reads it is proposed that the theme of our campaign in countries of the main adversary be the stimulation of fear in recipients, the strongest emotion in human psychology.” >> the same team from russia's foreign intelligence behind its global program is doing specific

head jobs on enemies of the russian state. these go under the cover program name ice pick because that is what -- program name ledorub, which means ice pick, because ice pick is what stalin organized the assassination of trotsky within the last century. there is no doubt that this is the meaning of this character assassination tool. reporter: it seems they are more targeted in sending disinformation to key individuals. reporter: they want to make it somebody no one wants to engage with on a day-to-day basis. reporter: the program goals are broader than regular kremlin opponents and is one more thing for u.s. news consumers to watch for as the election approaches. for the pbs newshour, i'm simon ostrovsky in new york.

amna: the ancient native tradition of weaving baskets is now grabbing the attention of the contemporary art world-with -- world, with artist taking the one form in new directions. jeffrey brown takes us to maine for our arts and culture series, canvas. >> that one right there is a large, healthy brown ash. see how healthy it looks compared to the white? jeffrey: a walk in the woods near his eddington, maine home with jeremy frey, in search of brown ash trees, whose pliable wood has made them so valued in the wabanaki indian basket making tradition for centuries and for frey today. jeremy: that is a perfect basket tree. see how straight it is, no knots , no branches. i will make a basket of it someday. jeffrey: these days the fruits of frey's work can be found in very different settings, art museums. in a first major survey titled “woven” at the portland museum of art, as well as in the

llections of leading institutions including new york's metropolitan museum. baskets of different sizes, shapes, patterns, colors, made over the last 20 years featuring , innovations and refinements frey introduced such as fine weaves and double-walled baskets one within another. ,jeremy: if you duck way down, there is color under their you can never see. i did that just for me. jeffrey: all of it building on centuries of knowledge and craft. jeremy: weaving is so simple, it is up, down, over and under. a simple binary process. how do you make that more? jeffrey: the making of baskets, weaving, has been going on for a long, long time all over the world. you like being part of that history? jeremy: i do. i had a thought the other day that in thousands or tens of thousands of years of nearly every culture in the world doing

this, no one's ever done what i have done. jeffrey: frey refers to the baskets as woven sculptures and for this exhibition he's also played with form in new ways: creating flat prince, a kind of basket vortex that spirals into the wall and a video capturing the making and fiery loss of a basket. jeremy: i have this duality going, i want to exist as a contemporary artist, but also have a native side to me that is always going to be present. and this work comes directly from that. it is like balancing that, doing that in a respectful way is important, but also stating, this is me. jeffrey: a member of the passamaquoddy nation, frey grew up on the indian township reservation near maine's border with canada. he can trace basket making back seven generations in his family in his studio there are baskets made by his grandfather. but frey himself didn't come to it until his twenties when he sought to get past a rough time

of drug use that had begun in his teens. drug abuse would lead to the loss of many of his friends. his mother, also a basketmaker, suggested he take up weaving, to keep focused and busy. jeremy: i just needed to and i reset my life. and i remember it being very frustrating. it was probably partially what i was going through, but also just trying to learn these techniques. and you know, the tension of the wood tends to want to spring apart at times. jeffrey: kind of a metaphor for life when you tell me what you were going through at the time. jeremy: yeah. and challenging myself at the same time. i didn't know it at the time, but i think the act of weaving kind of helped save my life. jeffrey: he learned traditional techniques and then began developing his own, every basket a result of weeks and months of work, pounding, spraying, scraping, splitting, gauging,

cutting, dying, weaving. in addition to ash, he works with sweetgrass, for braiding -- braiding, cedar park, and porcupine quills for the tops of baskets. all of it he's gathered or harvested himself. why is it important to do it this way, come into the woods, find the exact right? jeremy: some people buy their materials. but for me, i find that when you harvest your own material, there is something spiritual about that. beyond that, you get the exact quality you want. it's having that connection. it's part of basketry. jeffrey: he learned first from elders, including members of the maine indians basket makers alliance a group intent on , preserving and furthering the craft. he began taking his work to craft markets and fairs, gaining attention and winning prizes,

including in 2011 best in show at the renowned santa fe indian market. and then the art world, eager to expand its boundaries of contemporary art, began to take notice. the portland museum of art's ramey mize is co-curator of this show. >> baskets of this kind were seen within the dichotomy, and that sort of perceived hierarchy of art and craft, art versus craft. so much of what jeremy frey is doing is attuning people to the extraordinary vision and genius behind these works that absolutely deserves to be considered within a quote unquote, fine art context, but not abandoning the incredible craft roots and processes that bring it to life. jeffrey: but even as basketry begins to reach new and growing museum audiences, it faces an existential threat from the emerald ash borer, an invasive beetle that is decimating north america's ash trees. jeremy: as what i'm doing as an

artist peaks, i'm going to lose the material to actually do it. you can tell the same story with another material but it won't be , the same story. you can still make the image look similar, but it doesn't have the history, it doesn't have the cultural significance. the material isn't going to necessarily behave the same way. jeffrey: for now, frey is harvesting more trees than he needs and storing them against a grim future, while also enjoying the attention he's getting in what he admits is a very unexpected, even surreal present including the packed opening for , this exhibition. jeremy: it was intense, overwhelming. it still does not feel like it happened. at the end of the day, i just feel like a guy in his studio making baskets. so, yeah, it's pretty cool. jeffrey: the next stop for jeremy frey's exhibition, “woven,” is at the art institute of chicago, where it opens october 26. for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown in portland and eddington, maine.

amna: and we'll be back shortly with a story of a retired scientist who started guiding a unique nature walk after losing his sight. geoff: but first, take a moment to hear from your local pbs station. it's a chance to offer your support which helps to keep , programs like "news hour" on the air. for those of you staying with us, ask many preteens what is at the top of their wish list and there was a good chance the answer will be skincare. in this encore report, special correspondent and washington post columnist catherine rampell explores the growing market and concerns around this boom. reporter: one of emma's must

have skin products is glow recipe toner. >> it smells really good. reporter: yeah, sort of rudy. her preferred body butter, sol de janeiro. >> this is a creamy consistency. reporter: in her skincare fridge. >> i like this sleeping mask. reporter: and for lip care, butter balm. scott does a multistep skincare routine every morning and evening. >> in the morning i do a face wash, toner, moisturizer, elf tinted spf. reporter: move over, barbie. today's tweens are obsessed with skincare, typically marketed to older, wealthier clientele. between's spent $2.5 billion on facial skincare, an increase of

20%, more than double the average. this is her skincare crew, a group of friends and skincare enthusiasts who meet daily, usually online, to bond over their beauty's regime. the girls parents are still getting up to speed. >> i don't use a whole lot of anything so it has been eye-opening for me. reporter: amy scott is am a' --emma's mother. >> sometimes i get her left overs so i have started using a moisturizer she turned me onto. reporter: she did not like it? >> no, she was just sick of using it. she is always looking for the newest thing. >> get ready or -- with me for the day. first i will use bronzer and then the oil. reporter: youtube and tiktok, skinfluencer content. >> i use a little of this

paula's choice moisturizer. reporter: get ready with me videos of step-by-step routines. >> it makes my skin feels so good. reporter: unboxing videos and pr hauls showcase the latest products. >> look how this box opens. reporter: she sees this person as being this product, i have to try that, it is very expensive. it is trying to say, let's talk about this. is it really worth it? reporter: the most popular place to shop for skincare, sephora. >> we need to say -- see if they have the newest body cream. >> this one i watch goes to sephora a lot. she will buy all these products. reporter: how much has emma spent this year? >> it has to be hundreds. reporter: we tagged along with a

skincare crew on a visit as they browsed, tested, counted their money, and spent. amy scott insists emma uses her own money or gift cards from her birthday and other holidays. while this trend is good for sephora, others are not totally sold. >> we are seeing 10 euros girls bringing in a shopping bag of their twelve-step routine in the morning and 10 step routine at night. reporter: she is a dermatologist in manhattan. >> they say, i want beautiful, flawless skin. i am looking at them thinking, you already have that. there are few times in life it will be more beautiful. >> have to keep those wrinkles away. reporter: she blames influencers for convincing teens they need lotions and potions and anti-aging agents like retinal that can be harmful to young skin. >> ever since i started using my

mom's retinol i swear i am aging backwards. i look so young. >> they talk to me about what they think is going on with their skin. it is dr. tiktok instead of dr. google. reporter: greenfield said it is not just young girls who think they need extensive skincare. >> i have adolescent boys asking me about botox. reporter: really? what do dell them -- what do you tell them? >> you don't need botox. i also tell the girls, you have perfect skin, i can't help you. >> i think it is mostly being part of the new trend. reporter: but a psychotherapist says the high cost can be a stressor. >> it is a huge issue because a lot of parents can't afford this and the kids feel like, i can't keep up with my friends. reporter: post-pandemic between's --tweens are hyper

aware of how they look on camera. >> i think now with social media and the pressure kids are constantly feeling with products they are seeing, how people are looking, the airbrushing, there is so much pressure on kids to look a certain way. reporter: emma scott says her prepping routine is just a hobby. >> doing it with my friends, it is really fun and relaxing. i can sit here and watch a movie and have a face mask on and do that fun stuff. reporter: amy makes sure her daughter carefully weighs each purchase. >> she will say i want to see what this is or by it. why would you want to buy it? because so-and-so has it. that is no reason to buy something. reporter: dr. greenfield admits there are some benefits to the skincare craze. >> it is wonderful from my perspective that people are thinking about their skin and taking its health seriously, more so than we used to, but it

is important to strike a balance. if their goal is to have healthy skin, it is about a cleanser, moisturizer and sunscreen. you don't need more than that. reporter: despite what you might hear from dr. tiktok. i'm catherine rampell in greensboro, north carolina. ♪ amna: finally tonight, to a man who has found meaning in darkness. in this story, from kpbs' kori suzuki and carolyn cor-ellis, we visit the tijuana river estuary in southern california where a volunteer is leading a tour that encourages visitors to experience nature a little differently. >> good question. >> this is lemonadeberry.

the reason i know is because its leaves are thick and leathery, almost like the tongue of a leather shoe. i have learned to identify almost 40 plants by touch and smell. >> here we go. my name is ron peterson. i am 73 years old, i am a retired scientist and engineer. i live here in imperial beach, and i am blind. we are here at the tijuana estuary. this is one of my homes away from home. there are several nature walks and bird walks. one of those nature walks is mine. i am the docent for this nature walk called the eye-opening experience without sight where a , blind person leads a nature walk and introduces visitors to the native plants with the emphasis on the other four senses besides sight.

let's start over here with a special plant. everyone take a whiff and tell me what you think. >> i don't love it. >> most people don't care for it. this plant is called bladder pod and i think you can tell why. one reason i know this is buckwheat -- i have worked here as a volunteer for about nine years planting native plants and clearing trails. but five years ago, things went south for me, glaucoma, i lost my vision and i could not work here anymore, could not do the things i was doing. a couple years ago the idea came along that since i had already learned many of these plants by site, -- sight, i could learn

these plants by touch and smell, and share that with people. it is the wonderful feel and special smells and even sounds. come closer. the shape of these leaves, if there is a strong breeze they'll , vibrate a little bit. it's really an aerodynamics thing. that vibration causes the tree to shimmer or some people murmur, in a breeze. feel this and smell this wonderful plants. the thing about giving to others is, not only is it a good thing to do, it is the right thing to do. also, it takes the focus off of yourself. you don't feel sorry for yourself. it has helped me to, to wake up with a smile on my face, to wake up looking forward to the day,

feeling like i accomplished something at the end of each day, that i did something for someone besides me. amna: that is the "news hour" for tonight area i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett, thanks for spending part of your evening with us. >> major funding for the pbs news hour provided by -- >> on an american cruz line --cruise line journey, travelers retrace the route forged by lewis and clarke more than 400 years ago. american cruise lines travel through historical landmarks where you can experience local customs and cuisine. american cruise lines, proud sponsor of pbs "news hour."

>> the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions and friends of the news hour including jim and nancy bildner and the robert and virginia shiller foundation. 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 for the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

♪ >> this is pbs news hour west from weta studios in washington and our bureau at the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. ♪

wow, you get to watch all your favorite stuff. it's to die for. now you won't miss a thing. this is the way. xfinity internet. made for streaming. >> hi, i'm rick steves. thanks for joining us. to showcase the beauties of public television, we've put together a little festival of clips showing europe at play. in the next half hour, we'll experience festive europe. from prancing horses to well-trained sheepdogs to street parties in paris, it's hands-on travel today as europe embraces life with gusto, inspiring us to get the most out of our lives as well. our first festival is in spain. the festival of san fermin