♪ geoff: good evening. on the news hour tonight kamala harris hits the campaign trail with republican liz cheney while donald trump uses increasingly crass rhetoric during his political events.

israel targets banks linked to hezbollah. and an academic initiative works to revive liberal arts as a key part of the college experience. >> i'm not trying to get students away from engineering or business degrees. i'm trying to give them a much more complete education. ♪ announcer: major funding for the pbs news hour has been provided by -- ♪ the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions and friends of the news hour including leonard and norma klorfine and the judy and peter blum kovler foundation. >> two retiring executives

turned their focus to greyhounds giving them a real chance to win. raymond james financial advisor gets to know you, your purpose and the way you give back. life well planned. >> as someone coming out of college, it can be nerve-racking not knowing what to expect. and here i feel like it is so welcoming and such an inclusive place to work. you feel you are valued. announcer: the william and flora hewlett foundation. for more than 50 years advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world at hewlett.org. announcer: and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions -- ♪ ♪

♪ announcer: this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. geoff: wme to the news hour and as we near the two -- the two week mark to election day donald trump traveled to north carolina to see the aftermath of hurricane helene while kamala harris toward swing states alongside liz cheney. we have this report. reporter: the democratic nominee for president campaigned with unlikely company today, republicans. >> this election is representing for the first time probably in recent history a very clear choice and difference between the two nominees. and i think that is what, as

much as anything, is bringing us as americans together. reporter: kamala harris spent the day and moderated conversations with former republican congresswoman liz cheney starting in pennsylvania. >> i worked in countries where people are not free and where they are struggling for their freedom and i know how quickly democracies can unravel. i tell you, again as someone who has seen firsthand how quickly it can happen, that that is what is on the ballot. reporter: it is the latest in a string of unprecedented events that harris has held with unexpected individuals. >> what is at stake in this election is so fundamental that it really does cross partisan lines. reporter: meanwhile governor tim walz spend the morning with the hosts of "the view." >> nothing he is proposing will

help. there is more work to be done. we acknowledge that. i think the vice president's proposals are real. reporter: donald trump was in north carolina to tour storm damage from the recent hurricane. >> it is vital that we not let this hurricane that has taken so much also take your vote. reporter: he repeated baseless claims about the federal government's response to the natural disaster. >> you have heard the same stories that we have heard about fema not doing a good job. reporter: later the former again deployed dark and anti-immigrant rhetoric in greenville, north carolina. >> we are going to take back what is ours. we will end the looting and the ransacking and raping and pillaging. of north carolina and frankly

every other state. reporter: on sunday he scooped french fries and served fast food to staged customers at a pennsylvania mcdonald's. the political stunt comes as donald trump accuses harris without evidence about buying about her college job at a mcdonald's. he again described democrats like adam schiff and nancy pelosi as enemies from within. >> you talk about the enemy of within. the enemy within is a pretty ominous phrase if you are talking about other americans. >> i think it is accurate. when you look at shifty shift, and others, they look like the enemies from within as is nancy pelosi. reporter: it is rhetoric he used against fellow americans on a podcast days earlier. >> adam schiff, these are bad people and sick people. reporter: mike johnson deflected when asked on cnn if his vows to

use the national guard against political enemies was ok. >> what president trump is talking about is they have been attacking him since he came down that escalator. reporter: at a rally on saturday in latrobe, pennsylvania, the hometown of arnold palmer, the former president started to talk about the late golfer's genitalia. >> he told showers with the other pros. reporter: at the same rally, donald trump used an expletive when talking about vice president harris. in an msnbc interview with al sharpton harris said the american people those are better. >> and what you see in my opponent, former president of the united states, really demeans the office and i have

set and i'm clear about this that donald trump should never again stand behind the seal of the president of the united states. he has not earned the right. geoff: turning now to the middle east, israel has launched new attacks in beirut despite the u.s. request to limit strikes on the lebanese capital. the target was a financial organization that israel and the u.s. calls hezbollah's bank. the u.s. is looking into a leaked document revealing israel's preparations for attacking iran. nick schifrin reports. reporter: overnight outside the beirut airport skates, an israeli airstrike. israel ordered the area evacuated before massive airstrikes that destroyed entire buildings. and burned storefronts and

hezbollah stronghold in southern beirut. by day those buildings lay crumbled next to apartment complexes whose sides are now blown out. besides hit from northern lebanon. >> our livelihood is gone. this neighborhood is all civilian. our store is right there and everything is gone. reporter: across the country the targets were a treasury that the u.s. and israel says hezbollah uses to manage finances. >> we struck close to 30 targets across lebanon. hezbollah's financial system which receives funds from iran and provides loans and funds hezbollah's terrorism. >> it is primarily involved in cash and gold.

it is possible, by destroying the brick and mortar, entities to destroy a lot of their u.s. dollars. reporter: matt directs the washington's counterterrorism program and is the former deputy assistant secretary for intelligence at treasury. >> the israelis want to make sure that hezbollah cannot finance its terrorist activity and will have difficulty rebuilding itself once the dust settles. reporter: the airstrikes have sparked a humanitarian crisis driving a quarter of the country to flee their homes. >> there is no safe place and they don't know how to cope. reporter: damien is the lebanon emergency team leader for the international rescue committee that says that 90% of the population is unable to meet its basic needs. >> people on the streets will say, we just need a roof. people who had a roof say we need water, food, mattress.

>> are number of civilian casualties have been too high. reporter: even poor -- even before today u.s. officials objected to the size of the destruction. >> our resolution was possible. but it was rejected. the situation has escalated out of control as we feared that it could. reporter: israelis today remain focused on rockets and drones. more than 170 intercepted today including above the heads of mourners that took cover in a cemetery as a buried a man killed this last weekend by a hezbollah strike. and israel is preparing to strike iran for its unprecedented attack of 180 ballistic missiles on october the first. an israeli official tells the

pbs news hour that the is really cabinet has not approved a response but a document posted online reveals u.s. spy satellites picked up indications that israel was preparing for drone covert operations and conducting a second large military exercise. but no indications that israel intends to use a nuclear weapon. u.s. officials say they don't expect additional documents to go public as antony blinken left today for his 11th trip to israel since the october 7 attacks. for the pbs news hour, i'm nick schifrin. ♪ geoff: we start the day's other headlines in new mexico where water levels are starting to receive after a record rainfall left two people dead. national guard officials say more than 300 people have been rescued since saturday with dozens brought to nearby

hospitals with injuries. the national weather service says six inches of rain fell on roswell breaking record set in 1901 which sent -- 1901. they left entire homes submerged. tropical storm oscar battered eastern cuba today as the island deals with an electrical grid failure. oscar made landfall as a category one hurricane in a guantanamo province with winds at 70 miles per hour unleashing up to 20 inches of rain raising concerns about flooding and mudslides. on the others to the island, -- protesters in havana banged pots and pans amidst an ongoing blackout following friday's nationwide power outage. there are concerns that oscar could hurt efforts to get the power back on. the white house has proposed a new rule requiring health insurers to cover

over-the-counter contraceptives and birth control at no cost to patients on type -- on top of prescribed prescriptions. we would include emergency contraceptives as well as over-the-counter birth control. it would not affect those on medicaid. it has a 60 day public comment period before it would be finalized. the white house called birth-control a fundamental right today. >> we have women out there that don't have the preparations they need from their own health care roe v. wade which was the law of the land from was 50 years was stripped away. we have made that commitment from the administration to protect women to do everything we can. geoff: the white house says if approved the new role would increase coverage of contraception for 52 million women of reproductive age that have private health insurance. a bipartisan congressional task force says stunning security failures contributed to the july assassination attempt on former president trump. the house panel drew on

documents and briefings to investigate how a gunman managed to open fire from a rooftop in his rally in butler, pennsylvania. one attendee was killed and two others wounded in the shooting. one report largely blames the secret service saying the events were preventable and should not have happened. a final report is due in december. secretary of defense lloyd austen promised to get ukraine what it needs during an unannounced visit to the country meeting with the president in the capital today. he backed that up with another four hundred million dollars in u.s. military assistance. but he did not address ukraine's request to use western supplied weapons to strike deeper into russia and he offered no hints on whether the u.s. would support zelenskyy's so -- so-called victory plan but instead he urged all parties to stay the course. >> there is no silver bullet. no single capability will turn

the tide. what matters is the way that ukraine fights back. what matters is the combined effects of your military capabilities and what matters is staying focused on what works. geoff: separately voters in ldova narwly approved a referendum to move forward with the european union membership amid accusations that russia tried to interfere with the vote. moldova applied to join the eu shortly after russia's invasion of ukraine in 2022. the man once known as the central part five are suing donald trump for allegedly making defamatory remarks during last month presidential debate. in their federal complaint they wrote that trump falsely stated that plaintiffs killed an individual and pled guilty to the crime. the five were accused of the 1989 rape and beating of a white female jogger in new york's central park. they said their confessions at the time remained under duress

and their convictions were vacated into thousand two. a trump spokesperson called the lawsuit frivolous. on wall street stocks ended mixed following last week's strong gains. the dow jones industrial average snapped a three session winning streak giving back 350 points. the nasdaq gained 50 points to start the weekend the s&p shed about 10 points, small loss there. president biden presented the latest national metals of arts at the white house today. it is the highest award from the government for the arts. missy elliott, ending a manziel, queen latifah, spike lee, ken burns and steven spielberg. esther biden hosted a reception for those recipients -- mr. biden hosted a reception for those recipients. still to come on the news hour,

elon musk's massive effort to elect donald trump and dean influence over the government agencies that regulate his companies. tamara keith and amy walter break down the latest political headlines. and the widow of alexei navalny act discuss his posthumous bio. announcer: this is the pbs news hour from w eta in washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. geoff: the world's richest man, elon musk is now a powerful mega donor for donald trump. he is using his vast resources to campaign for him in pennsylvania and taking aggressive measures for mr. trump in other key battleground states. some of the moves are raising major legal and ethical concerns. bill young are entrepreneur -- billionaire entrepreneur elon musk is unveiling a new tactic

pledging to randomly award $1 million to registered swing state voters daily through election day. the catch, sign a petition for his pro-trump political action committee. the petition is in support of the first and second amendments. >> it is very straightforward. you don't even have to vote. you just have to sign a petition saying you believe in the constitution. reporter: his political action committee has already committed to the campaign. some experts say his latest effort could be illegal because federal law prohibits accepting payment in exchange for voter registration or voting. but elon musk and his allies argued there is an important distinction. payments and voter status are not directly linked. they say voter registration is merely a prerequisite to signing the petition. josh shapiro on sunday called it deeply concerning. >> elon musk has a right to

express his views. i don't deny him that right. when you start to flow this kind of money and politics, it raises serious questions that folks may want to take a look at. >> might they be illegal, yes or no? >> it is something law enforcement could take a look at. geoff: it is not clear if federal officials are looking into the payments. in campaign appearances and online elon musk has spread widespread claims. donald trump has already offered him a key opponent if reelected. >> the suggestion of elon musk -- i will create a government efficiency commission along with a performance audit of the entire federal government and making recommendations for drastic reforms. and elon musk, because he is a very busy, has agreed to head the task force. geoff: let's bring in new york

times investigative reporter dave and who has been closely following elon musk, his connections with donald trump and business contracts with the federal government. thank you for joining us. before we delve into elon musk's clinical leanings, help us understand the degree that his empire is entangled with the federal government. reporter: it is hard to overstate how entangled elon musk is with the federal government. there are two dimensions. the federal government is a customer of his. nasa and the defense department pay billions of dollars a year to spacex to launch their satellites, people and rockets. there are 300 contractors in the federal government in elon musk's companies alone. and he fights with the federal government all of the time. regulators are checking on his companies making sure they live up to his promises and he doesn't like that.

he complains about the regulators. there is a good side and a bad side. geoff: elon musk is pouring millions of dollars into donald trump's reelection effort. why is the connection between elon musk's business interests and donald trump's electoral success come election day? >> what elon musk has done is prodded donald trump to say that if trump is elected he will name elon musk to the head of a government efficiency commission. the commission would have the responsibility to recommend big cuts. why does that matter for elon? now the people died overseeing him, the agencies that do, he will flip the relationship and now he oversees then and he can decide how much of budget will be. you are in a situation where the people that are supposed to keep tabs on elon musk and his

companies, he will have a position of power over them. how will he use that power? and even if he doesn't use it explicitly, how will it scare the regulators? geoff: u.n. your colleagues reported that two of his companies -- you and your colleagues report that two of his companies --. how did the federal government become so dependent on elon musk's companies over the years? >> most of that is the story about spacex. it is good at what it does. it shoots rockets into the air more often, more safely and effectively than any of its rivals. spacex through its own sheer skill has managed to take over the space launch business. that means that for nasa, spacex dictates to nasa. the defense department is in

norma indebted to spacex and is a huge customer because it shoots up its body satellites and because bass likes -- and because spacex's starling provides incredible satellite service around the world. those agencies alone, nasa and the defense department, account for a huge part of that spending. geoff: it sounds like even if there were federal officials and lawmakers that view elon musk as an unreliable or problematic partner, even if there was a will to roll back some of that dependence, there isn't a way to do that, at least not yet. >> elon musk has said if kamala harris is elected i will lose my contracts. that won't happen. nasa and the defense department are dependent on spacex. and boeing, we have seen its veiled attempt to rescue its own astronauts from space, -- we

have seen its failed attempts to rescue its own astronauts from spe. geoff: there is a lot of attention around the legality of the cash incentives that elon musk is offering to swing state voters that sign his petition. what questions does it raise for you as you do your reporting on elon musk and these perceived conflicts of interest? >> the question for me is if this is effectively biding a vote. is he paying you to some -- is he paying you to vote? legally it seems he is just paying you to sign the petition. that is probably legal. but if it becomes a way to incentivize you to vote for donald trump, that is illegal. the enforcement mechanisms though are so weak that if it is a borderline case, i doubt anything happens. geoff: thank you for being with

us, david from the new york times. >> thank you. . ♪ geoff: elon musk's political efforts are one high-profile effort by trump allies. on that and what else to watch for with just two weeks remaining until election day, i'm joined by amy walter and tamara keith of npr. the trump campaign has outsourced some of its get out the vote effort to third party super pac's including elon musk's. the pitch seems to be reporting from reuters that the elon musk pack is having trouble hitting doorknocking goals and some canvasers have lied about the number of voters they have contacted.

that seems problematic for the trump campaign to have these outside groups doing this crucial work. >> and a lot of these people are very good at getting attention. but we don't know is whether they are very good at a ground game. the one case study we have of a campaign saying, i'm going to farm it out and we will have a super c do it and we will focus on the things we can focus on -- that was ron desantis. it was a disaster. it was not a good case study in what you want to do. there is a very open question about whether these efforts will work or wheth elon musk is proving himself very good at burning millions of dollars. and we won't really know until the election. the other thing i would say that is a counterbalance is that there are a lot of people that believe, including democrats,

that donald trump doesn't need a ground game because he is his own ground game. his voters are so motivated they will crawl over glass to vote for him and you don't need a big doorknocking effort to get to them. geoff: and that is a lesson of 2016, that donald trump can win with a disorganized campaign. >> and even 2020 the polling suggested he was not going to hit the numbers he came up with. the reason we are paying attention to the ground game is not just because the race is close but because the kinds of voters that he does best with are the kinds that don't show up traditionally to vote. and they are harder to know not just who they are but how to motivate them. traditional doorknocking or sending or putting pieces of mail -- they don't necessarily respond to the same messages that your voter who turns out

for every election will respond to. that takes a level of sophisticated targeting and messaging that you don't put together on the fly. do i think that if donald trump loses it is because he outsourced his ground game? i do not. geoff: the harris campaign is going all in trying to reach out to those to satisfy disaffected republicans. what are you seeing on the ground and what does this suggest about their strategy? >> i was traveling with harris all weekend. she is making a concerted effort to speak to what you would say are nikki haley republicans. this is an ongoing effort including today with stops in all three of the blue walled states doing events in suburbs targeted at college-educated voters, republicans, those that would have been republicans if it weren't trump and trying to convince them to get over their

discomfort and support her. the reason the campaign is putting so much effort into this which in theory, in a normal year would feel like a long or and offed her thought is out vice president harris, they are concerned she may not do as well with black voters, particularly black men or latino voters and that donald trump is making some inroads into the traditional democratic base. what they are trying to do is run up the numbers in the suburbs where donald trump has struggled. there were tens of thousands of voters that voted for nikki haley after she dropped out. >> in chester county where the campaign was today with liz cheney this morning, after the nikki haley campaign was over, there was still a primary in pennsylvania and she got about 10,000 votes in chester county.

pennsylvania has a closed primary so only republicans could vote in that primary. theoretically there is 10,000 votes for somebody -- and the harris campaign obviously hoping it is them, to pick up in the state decided by 60,000 or 80,000 votes. geoff: while i have you here, can we look at the latest poll? this is the washington post poll of likely voters in battleground states. this shows a slight harris lead. how does the campaign feel about a poll like this? >> i think they feel about this like they do about all polls. the way she has been saying it is that this race is close. they acknowledge it is close and it will take a lot of work to make it better than close for them. and she has said they are

running like underdogs. either you are running scared or stupid and they would rather run scared. what they love to have better poll numbers? of course they would. but, this race has been incredibly stable. we are talking about all of these movements within the margin of error. they are statistically not significant. geoff: when you dig deep into these numbers and other poles, -- and other polls, what do you see 15 days out? >> it is a question -- who are the undecided voters? overwhelmingly they are younger, a more diverse group of voters. they tend to be more heavily female and on paper they would look like democrats accept they are also attending to be more economically sensitive a

worried about the economy. which is why when you see the harris had running the most, it is talking about the economy, the middle class economy and calling out donald trump for being for billionaires and not regular people. she has a lot of different messages to different groups but if you are talking about who are the last bastion of swing voters, undecided voters, the economy and being able to sell her on the economy or less than donald trump's advantage on that is really the key they believe. geoff: you are with the harris campaign in nebraska's second congressional district to reiterate how closely this election is >> this is known as the blue or purple dot. of the swing states, if harris were to win the blue wall of michigan, pennsylvania and wisconsin machine would be at

260 nine electoral votes, one shy of what is needed to win the presidency. and that is where omaha comes in. the harris campaign ground game -- they have three offices there. there is also a competitive house race there. but they have volunteers -- i was watching them phone bank and they were chasi ballots. and there is also a kind of quirky grassroots effort that has sprung up with people putting blue dots in their yards , more than 10,000 signs have been made, many with blue spray paint, and republicans responding with red pac-man things to eat the blue dot and also a big red state of nebraska. it is fun to see a place where they believe their vote matters and they are incredibly politically engaged and it is not super toxic. geoff: tamara keith and amy walter, thank you both so much.

online on tiktok, lisa desjardins has been counting down to election day giving us a fun and insightful fact each day. reporter: only 15 people have become president after being vice president. ♪ ♪ geoff: call it the death of the humanities -- that has been a leading story at colleges for the last decade and numbers bear it out. humanities enrollment overall is down by almost a fifth but there is another story to be told and jeffrey brown traveled to purdue university to take a look for our higher education series, "rethinking college." reporter: most people would lie to you if given the opportunity so there is nothing wrong with you lying to them first. welcome to the machiavelli and

school of management. today's prompt is passages from "the prince." >> men are wretched creatures. reporter: a classic text, small discussion groups and back and forth debate about today's world. >> who would argue that argument? >> it is saying you have to expect that you were going to be the sucker. reporter: a philosophy professor working with freshman business and marketing majors like savannah. >> he really pushes us. he says -- why? come up with clear arguments to defend our reasoning. reporter: the course is part of cornerstone, a general education program that injects liberal arts into all realms of the freshman academic experience. >> it is about understanding your humanity, cultivating your inner life. reporter: this history professor

runs cornerstone. >> i defined it as giving students that are not liberal arts majors a more holistic education that includes courses that will have them read classic texts, have them experience the arts. reporter: purdue is one of the countries leading universities for engineering and other stem fields. proud to showcase its more than two dozen astronaut graduates including neil armstrong. it is also experiencing its version of a national trend that saw the number of humanities graduates fall by nearly a third in the decade before the pandemic. >> between 2010 and 2015 the college of liberal arts lost 20% of its credit hours. reporter: david took over as dean of produce college of liberal arts in 2015. >> i can show you some projections that by 2024 there

would be no students left. reporter: the reasons why are complex and debated. the shock of the 2008 financial crisis, the higher cost of college, shifted technology seen as better for job prospects and a devaluing of the idea of a canon of great books. it struck at the heart of what colleges are for. >> once you get to a point where some of the domains which gave rise to the modern research university are weathered or nonexistent, i think we have lost what it means to actually have university. reporter: the answer here is cornerstone which begins with a two semester slate of classes that replaced written and oral communication requirements for a. the strategy -- to integrate the liberal arts into the overall curriculum rather than standing or falling apart.

>> if you think you're just going to build a program and they will come, you are wrong. you have to take over environments and we do it with great books which we call transformative texts. reporter: shakespeare and homer as well as others. more than 100 liberal arts professors choose from an ever evolving list of more than 200 authors spanning the ancient world to modern-day come across continents, genders and races. students attend theater and music performances and take classes with actors and also act out some of their own work based on text they are reading. >> i call this court to order. reporter: including a trial of victor frankenstein from mary shelley's novel. in 2017 the pilot program comprised more than 100 students and now there are more than 5000

taking cornerstone classes. >> it was so different. reporter: students like nathaniel dixon studying neurobiology but find something different here in terms of class size and approach. >> i was really worried at first. being a stem major -- but being here now it is so great. we are doing plato readings and it is one of the first times i found a lot of joy in my reading. reporter: in what sense? >> my professor pushes the idea that what we are reading can be applied to us. and it is about finding that what is in the reading can be applied to you in the grand scheme. reporter: other schools are paying attention and cornerstone-based programs are spreading to more than 70 colleges across the country. that includes community colleges come home to more than 40% of

all undergraduates. >> historically, there has not been a lot of thoughts about what that experience in general education at community colleges should really be. reporter: government and humanities professor set out to change that at austin community college in texas with a seminar called the great questions -- a general education requirement class and he sees a benefit that goes beyond the individual students. >> you have people from all different places in life. older people, younger people. people that want nothing to do with politics and those that won't shut up about it. it is the only time they will get that experience. and if they don't get it at community colleges, they are not going to get it at other places. reporter: you make an implicit argument that it benefits them. >> i think it benefits them and us, representative democracy,

which has at its core the requirement that we are able to talk to each other across differences that matter. reporter: all of this raises a further question -- while cornerstone might be good for the stem students, does it foster and preserve the liberal arts disciplines themselves? i'd purdue university the hope is that students exposed to transformative text will want more and the university offers a cornerstone certificate as a kind of minor. the success has allowed purdue to hire more than 100 liberal arts faculty bucking trends elsewhere. the new hires are required to teach at least half their courses in the cornerstone program. >> in fact we now have more philosophers than we did 10 years ago. there is conflict in that. the philosophy department does not want to cede the

teaching commitments of their faculty pulled away from their core discipline. we are trying to find a middle ground where we can have a robust philosophy department engaged in serious philosophical scholarship as well as working to serve the broader student population. reporter: and what does serving students mean to melinda? >> i'm not trying to get students away from engineering or business degrees. i'm trying to give them a much more complete education while they are here at purdue. i often look at my students thinking, your life will be filled with crucial choices. will you make the right ones? and if you don't know anything about the world or yourself or others, how can you? reporter: as the famous greek inscriptio, know thyself. for the pbs news hour, i'm jeffrey brown at purdue

university in west lafayette, indiana. ♪ geoff: in february alexei navalny died in a russian president -- prison camp. he was putin's most prominent critic who evolved into a political threat to his near quarter-century rule. he survived a poisoning by russian operatives in the summer of 2020 but insisted on returning to his fight in his nation. his memoir will be published tomorrow posthumously shepherded by his wife who has taken on his mantle of political leadership. he wrote all recovering from the poisoning and later, syrup tisha slate, in prison. -- and later in prison. >> thank you for being here and

welcome to the "newshour." as we sit here and speak now, it has been eight months since your husband died. how are you doing? >> everything has changed in my life. this work on the book and all of the meetings, the conferences -- they give me a power. it is very much different than eight months ago. reporter: it gives you a power -- >> to continue his fight and to continue to do things to keep his legacy and to continue to keep the memory about him in people's minds. everything of this is very important to me. reporter: there was one moment that really stood out to millions of people which was when you returned to russia in

january, 2021, after he had been recovering in germany after nearly dying from being poisoned by russian agents. and you and he walked through the terminal after you landed and he was immediately rested -- immediately arrested. did you know at that moment that that may be the last time you were together? >> i did not think about that at that moment. i knew that we were going to our homeland. we wanted to go there and i knew it was important for my husband to come back to russia to show he is not afraid. to show and encourage his supporters not to be afraid. i knew that it was very important for him and i knew that it would be dangerous. but, i knew that he would never do it in another way. reporter: he began writing this

as he recovered and the german hospital but he continued to write during his time in prison. why was it so important do you think to him to continue to write in this way, to make sure that these words got out? >> you are right. he started to write in germany and continued to write in prison. he wasn't allowed to have a notebook and a pen for more than one hour a day. reporter: he wrote this in one hour increments. >> yes. and even the last month, even less. but still we are very lucky to get some of his prison diaries. no one knows how many were lost. because after his death, no personal belongings were given back to us. reporter: do you think there

could be more of his words or writing? >> everything was taken by police. i'm sure we will never get anything of reporter: his personal belongings. reporter:he was known to the world as vladimir putin's fiercest and most prominent critic and a political opponent and an unflinching voice against the forces of corruption. i was struck in reading this by how funny he was. by his sense of humor. was not always there? >> it is one of the parts of him which i liked a lot. he was really very funny. i'm happy this book was written so and even in english you can feel how funny he was. the reason i think people loved him so much and supported him so much and why he became a leader

of the opposition. he was very ordinary. reporter: you made each other laugh. >> a lot. reporter: there is a real love story in these pages and there is a moment he shares about the first time he saw you when you lock eyes and he writes in the book that he says to himself at that moment, this is the one. this is the girl i will marry. you remember that moment differently? >> i remember it differently. reporter: what is your memory? >> i liked him a lot. he was very funny from the first day. he was very clever. i did not have such thoughts like he will be my husband one day. reporter: when did you realize? >> when he proposed. reporter: not before then? >> that is what i remember. [laughter] reporter: he did not arrive at

his political views on an impulse. he goes into great detail and great historic detail in the book about why he came to believe what he did and why he came to distrust the system and challenge the system. and this surprised me -- he offers the chernobyl nuclear disaster as an example from his youth. why was that so formative? >> part of his family lived in chernobyl. it was obvious for him that parents discuss one thing at home and then he would turn on the tv and there was other news. reporter: the idea of officials that lie to his people -- he comes back to that again and again in the book. was not the source of his dedication to his work? >> i don't think it is about lies. it is about corruption.

at about these people not serving their country or their people. they are serving their own interests. reporter: if it is so deeply entrenched, can it ever be changed? >> of course it can be changed one day. it is a difficult process when you are living under tierney and there is a dictatorship in russia. reporter: there is an obvious question -- especially as you are raising your kids and considering your lives ahead. a lot of people will wonder, why did you go back and why did you stay? they do ever think, we should not go back? >> i knew if we would stay in exile, he would not be happy. reporter: but he may have been safe. >> that is true. reporter: it was worth it to you

even after he nearly lost his life and the target on his back you still felt it was worth it to go back to russia. >> now it is a difficult question but at that moment i knew he would not change his mind and he would come back. reporter: knowing what you know about vladimir putin, do you believe he would have your husband poisoned in prison? >> of course i'm sure he did. reporter: what does justice look like for you if that is the case? >> there are two things which i would love to see. vladimir putin in a russian prison like my husband was. and the second is that russia will become normal, democratic country. about which my husband so dreamed. reporter: do you see that happening knowing where the opposition movement is right now

, knowing your husband is no longer there to lead it, how do you see it happening now? >> it is very important to believe. it is very important like my husband said to not give out. just to do anything you can do every day. reporter: what role do you see for yourself in that? >> it doesn't matter about role. i would like to come back home to russia. i would love to live in russia. i never dreamed to leave somewhere else. reporter: the opposition in russia suffered a blow with the loss of your husband and there are reports of it being fractured. when you look at the opposition, where do you see signs of hope? >> everywhere. i think we all the time, every day need to keep our hope and all of these people inside russia who are against lead merv

putin's regime -- against putin's regime, they understand it could take a long time but still, we just need to do anything every day. reporter: just visiting your husband's grave is an act of resistance. what do people do or say when they visit? >> there are a lot of fresh flowers still after eight months have passed. some people say that he has changed their mind. they believed in politics and in politicians in russia again. i hope to come back to russia one day and the first thing which i'm going to do is to go to the cemetery. reporter: thank you so much for speaking with us today. we appreciate it. ♪

♪ geoff: there is a lot more online right now including a look at how the cherokee nation is finding solutions for a lack of affordable housing and that is at pbs.org/news hour and that is the news hour for tonight. i'm geoff bennett, for all of us here at the news hour, thank you for spending part of your evening with us. announcer: major funding for the pbs news hour has been provided by -- on an american cruise lines's journey, travelers experience the maritime heritage and culture of the maine coast and new england islands. our fleet of small cruise ships explore american landscapes, seaside villages, and historic harbors where you can experience local customs and cuisine. american cruise lines, proud sponsor of pbs news hour.

♪ announcer: 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. with the ongoing support of these institutions -- ♪ this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your public pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] ♪

♪

♪ hello, everyone, and welcome to "amanpour & co." here's what's coming up. >> it's a major achievement. and it opens a major opportunity for progress. >> with hamas leader dead, is an end to the war in gaza any closer? i asked