as laura barron-lopez reports, most of the contenders were making the rounds in iowa this weekend. a: one potential republican candidate sitting out. gov. sununu: i have made the decision not to run for president on the republican ticket in 2024. laura: chris sununu, a fierce trump critic and the governor of first-in-the-nation primary state new hampshire, choosing not to run against the former president. gov. sununu: if you're not talking in resonance against the cando'idt e tewhnts i'l'yt righw auditioning to be on his team. laura: for the gop hopefuls this weekend, an iowa tradition, senator joni ernst's annual roast and ride fund-raiser, one of the first 2024 cattle calls, where nearly all the republican candidates made their case to early state voters. former vice president mike pence teasing his official campaign launch set for later this week. mr. pence: i don't have anything to announce today, but i can tell you, when i have got time to announce, come this wednesday, i'm annocing in iowa. laura: noticeably absent, current poll leader donald trump. other candidat like former

i'm laura barron-lopez. our country is in uncharted territory. after former president donald trump became the first former american president to be charged with federal crimes. the justice department unsealed its indictment against trump charging him with 37 felony counts relating to his handling of classified information. those counts range from violating the espionage act to obstructing justice. and the allegations are stunning. among them trump stored boxes of classified documents in a ballroom and a bathroom. he acknowledged to mara lago guest that is he had classified document and note his ability to declassify them and he told his attorney to hide the documents. they have been investigating trump for nearly seven months and he spoke about it today. >> we have one set of laws to this country and they apply to everyone. laura: trump will go present himself in front of a judge and will plead not guilty. we have hugo lowell, heather caygle, devlin barrett and ed o'keefe. thanks to you all for being here to

laura barron-lopez has more. chris christie hasn't been shy about his soured feelings for donald trump. fmr. gov. christie: donald trump is a tv star, nothing more, nothing less. if we put him back in the white house, the reruns will be worse than the original show was. laura: the former two-term governor from new jersey officially kicks off his bid for president in new hampshire, the same state where he finished in sixth place in the 2016 republican primary and within 24 hours dropped his first bid for the presidency. then and now, he positioned himself as a no-holds-barred candidate, leaning into the tough-talking reputation he built his governor, but for roughly two decades, christie considered trump a friend and advised him throughout his 2016 campaign and presidency. fmr. gov. christie: i am proud to be here to endorse donald trump for president of the united states. laura: after serving in trump's administration as chair of the opioid and drug abuse commission, christie broke with him in 2020, as trump spre

laura barron lopez takes a look at those cases and their broader implications. e put into place bans or severe restrictions on transition related medical care for minors. but measures in at least five of those states have now been permanently or temporarily blocked from taking effect. to discuss the legal challenges around these laws and where they go next, we're joined by danielle weatherby, a law professor at the university of arkansas who focuses on lgbtq legal issues. professor weatherby, thank you so much for joining. arkansas was the first state to ban gender affirming medical care for minors. but this week, a federal judge ruled that ban unconstitutional, making it the first ever ruling to overturn such a prohibition. can you explain the judge's determination in this case? prof. weatherby: absolutely. thank you for having me. it his determination was that act 626 was unconstitutional for three reasons. first, he said that the act violated the equal protection clause to the extent that it discriminated on the basis of facts. he said that it usurped the pare

laura barron-lopez reports on why the doj charged mr.g of classified material, but not others, like hillary clinton, joe biden, and mike pence. >> this is the most political thing i've ever seen. laura: in response to the federal indictment of donald trump -- >> isre a dferentnd for a democrat secretary of state versus a former republican president? i think there needs to be one standard of justice. laura: republicans are attacking the justice system. >> the ridiculous and baseless indictment of me by the binding administration's weaponized department of injustice will go down as one of the most horrific abuses of power. laura: the justice department charged trump with 37 felonies, including 31 counts under the espionage act for knowingly retaining national defense documents after repeatedly being asked to have them over. >> joe biden has classified documents, he mishandled them as vice president. laura: republicans are crying hypocrisy. gop primary voters agreed. three quarters say the prosecution is politically motivated. according to

for the “pbs newshour,” i'm laura barron-lopez.es away, in fargo, north dakota, governor doug burgum also launched his campaign. lisa desjardins reports on his record. gov. burgum: frankly, big cities can use more ideas and more values from small towns right now. [cheering and applause] lisa: north dakota governor doug burgum's presidential pitch is about his roots, far from washington. gov. burgum: our whole town was about taking care of each other, about helping those in need, about neighbor helping neighbor. every small town in america is like that. lisa: in the 1980's, he took a chance, mortgaging his family grain farm to launch great plains software. that gamble paid off. he sold the company in the 1990's to microsoft for $1.1 billion. >> republican doug burgum. lisa: in 2016, he tried a new career, entering the governor's race with no political experience. he easily beat an establishment candidate and won reelection four years later. energy policy, including drilling, is a focus for burgum. he's accused the biden administrati

for more on this developing story, i'm joined by newshour's white house correspondent laura barron-lopez. laura, good evening. i know that the details are still sketchy, that the indictment is still under seal. but what is being reported so far? laura: right now the special counsel's office has not confirmed this indictment. we should note that. they have told me not to expect anything from them tonight. but the newshour has confirmed from a source with direct knowledge is that the former president has been instructed to go to a miami courthouse on tuesday at 3:00 p.m. we have not confirmed all of the specific charges that are related to this but multiple outlets are saying that the president is being charged with seven counts and that they are related to his retention of classified documents. we are talking about the willful retention of national defense documents. that is related to the espionage act. i spoke to a former pentagon special counsel just now who said the reason those charges are being brought in florida, as multiple outlets are reporting, rather than in d.c. is because the

that's the focus of laura barron lopez's conversation tonight. men have faced sexual harassment online, and with the rise of artificial intelligence, it's only getting worse. deepfakes, which use a.i. to create manipulated but hyper-realistic images and videos of real people in fake situations, are routinely used against women. a 2019 study revealed that a staggering 96% of all deepfake videos were non-consensual pornography. our guest nina jankowicz is a disinformation researcher and the author of two books on the subject. she ran the biden administration's disinformation governance board before it was dissolved after intense republican pressure. she's also the target of deepfake pornographic videos, an experience she wrote about this week in "the atlantic." thank you for being here. you are now the target of the very thing you researched, disinformation. for more than a year, you have been experiencing online harassment. what has that experience been like to find yourself in multiple pornographic deepfake videos? nina: some people might be surpr

laura barron-lopez has more. ulti-billion dollar deal between trump, the government of oman and a saudi firm will develop a luxury complex, according to a new new york times report. and the project is raising serious ethical questions. joining me now is eric lipton of the new york times. he's investigated trump family international deals since 2016. eric, thanks so much for joining. you have traveled overseas to investigte this, and you report that this deal is unlike any international deal so far that the trump family has signed. why? eric: in this case, instead of simply having their name so to help increase the value of a golf course or condos, they are actually in business with the government of oman. the government of oman owns the land and is going to be taking a cut of the profits from this deal. so they are now a part of a government entity that is doing this multimillion dollar project that has a 30 year contract with the trump family. it is not only for their name, they will be reviewing the hotel design

laura barron-lopez has our latest conversation on that subject. he federal government gave schools $190 billion to help them re-open, recover and respond to the impacts of the pandemic. that aid can be used for tutoring, adding teachers, summer learning and other ways of helping. some of that money has been spent for those purposes, but fears remain about the long-term impact of learning loss from remote schooling. alec macgillis has been reporting on efforts to deal with this, including in richmond, virginia, as part of a joint story for the new yorker and propublica. he joins me now. you have reporteextensively on the magnitude of learning loss including in richmond, virginia, as well as other places across the country. how big is that gap and is it among all students? >> the gap's just enormous. i mean, it's really kind of hard for us to comprehend just how enormous this gap is. i've talked to a lot of experts in this field, and they're just completely alarmed by how enormous the achievement gap has gotten, the disparities that have gotten in th

laura barron-lopez takes a deeper look at the former president's legal battle. n the 2021 recording, which the "newshour" has not independently verified, trump says the document details a potential attack on iran. retained the sensitive document after leaving the white house, represenng a potentially significant piece of the justice department's investigation into the former president. joining me now to discuss is oona hathaway, a professor at yale law school and former special counsel at the pentagon. thank you so much for joining us. the reporting purportedly shows mr. trump knowing that the document he kept was classified. how significant is that? oona: it is very significant. for at least two reasons. first, it makes clear that contrary to his claims he did not declassify or ev think he declassified everything before he left office. one thing he said was he did not unlawfully retain classified documents because he just declassified everything before he took it away to mar-a-lago. this reporting makes clear that he knows at least in some of the documents he re

. >> our colleague and white house correspondent laura barron-lopez is moderating tonight. what can we expect? >> i will be speaking with some of d.c.'s sharpest reporters about the historic indictment of former president trump and what it means for our country and the 2020 for political landscape. >> look forward to that. thank you. watch pbs news week and tomorrow for a look at what you need to know about tics and the spread of lyme disease this summer. >> remember, there is more on line including a story about a group of cyclists from the cherokee nation taking on a grueling seven-state journey across the trail of tears to reclaim their own history. that's at pbs.org/newshour. >> before we go, some good news. we want to welcome a new member of the "newshour" family. nick schifrin is now the proud father of isabel who was born at 8 pounds, 12 ounces. nick tells us isabel, his wife, and her new big brother are all doing well, albeit with maybe a little less sleep. thanks, and welcome to the world, isabel. >> absolutely. >> have a great weekend. >> major funding for "the pb

our white house correspondent, laura barron-lopez, was there, and joins us now.y aid to ukraine was a top agenda item that eating. there is no a very public rift among republicans on capitol hill about whether or not to continue supporting providing additional super eight -- support for ukraine. correspondent: they did talk about that. this meeting was have been as ukraine's counteroffensive begin in earnest, and britain's prime minister talked with ridley about what britain has done to date, specifically they have helped ukraine train troops, they are one of the most helpful european nations in terms of giving ukraine aid, but this is happening as republicans on the hill are very split about whether or not they want to vote in support of more aid to ukraine. president biden was asked about his confidence and whether or not he has the votes were more aid. pres. biden: i believe we will have the funding necessary to support ukraine as long as it takes, and i believe that we are going -- that support will be real, even though you hear some voices today on capitol h

laura: fhebs newshour, i am laura barron-lopez in texas. ♪ amna: michael r.litzer and tony award winning playwright and composer. tonight, he shares his brief but spectacular view as part of our arts and culture series canvas. >> when i sit down to write, my ultimate goal is to find the truth. and to figure out how to harness that truth in a way that the audience that i don't know will be able to perceive and feel. a strange loop began as a monologue that i started writing shortly after i graduated from undergrad. living in jamaica, queens, this is around 2002, 2003, i still hadn't really fully found my voice. i was still in the process of discovery. i didn't know how i was gonna pay any of my bills. i just was trying to figure out where my place in the world would be sort of personally and artistically. i just started writing this kind of thinly veiled personal monologue that was just about a young black gay man walking around new york wondering, my i usher is the protagonist of a strange loop and he is writing a musical about someone named usher who is writ

for the pbs newshour, i'm laura barron-lopez in oakland, california. ♪ geoff: it's another summer ofblockbusters returning to theater, and some comedy and horror indie films too. but will that combination be enough to finally draw people back to theaters? jeffrey brown zooms in with two film critics for our arts and culture series, canvas. jeffery: as always, there are way too many movies out or out soon for us to cover, but we'll offer a few suggestions. with the help of anne hornaday, chief film critic of the washington post and aisha , harris, host of npr's pop culture happy hour and author of the new book, wannabe: reckonings with the pop culture that shapes me. nice to see both of you. aisha, congratulations on your book. let me start with you. a couple of the big blockbusters, this is the season, right? so what's coming that you're looking forward to? aisha: i think the blockbuster that i'm most excited about is barbie, which is directed by greta gerwig and it is ip. , it's a franchise. i know a lot of us critics, including myself, are a little over the franchise-ification of e

laura barron lopez, greene is upset. beyond calling her a little bitch.d at me. i'm just quoting congresswomen. greene is upset with boebert because she claims congresswoman boebert stole marjorie taylor greene's impeachment resolution and reintroduced it with her name on it. what do you make of this all? >> it does wreak of middle school or high school. it's essentially them taking very online tactics into real life and just they're constantly seeking attention. both of these members have been that way since they've entered office. you know, it's something -- the impeachmt resolutions themselves are not something that speaker mccarthy supports at this point right now. he doesn't want to bring these to the floor. but marjorie taylor greene and lauren boebert clearly want to in a way outextreme each other, and we've seen that from the beginning, since they've joined the house. i think that really it's just, you know, creating another distraction that ultimate ly shows that speaker mccarthy has a lot of difficulty keeping his members in line. >> and i remem