July 21, 2023 - PBS NewsHour full episode
07/21/2023 | 56m 42s | Video has closed captioning.
July 21, 2023 - PBS NewsHour full episode
Aired: 07/21/23
Expires: 08/20/23
Problems Playing Video? | Closed Captioning
07/21/2023 | 56m 42s | Video has closed captioning.
July 21, 2023 - PBS NewsHour full episode
Aired: 07/21/23
Expires: 08/20/23
Problems Playing Video? | Closed Captioning
GEOFF BENNETT: Good evening.
I'm Geoff Bennett.
Amna Nawaz is away.
On the "NewsHour" tonight: A federal judge sets a date for the classified documents case against former President Trump in the thick of the 2024 election season.
Our reporter on the ground in Ukraine uncovers evidence that American companies are still supplying parts used in Russia's war effort, despite strict sanctions.
And efforts to monitor sharks in the Northeast are ramped up after a recent wave of encounters.
TOBEY CURTIS, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration: There's new species from down south that typically didn't range as far as New York, but now, because of climate change, they're moving into the area.
(BREAK) GEOFF BENNETT: Good evening, and welcome to the "NewsHour."
A federal judge today ordered that the trial in the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump begin on May 20, 2024.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon rejected the Justice Department's bid to try the case in December, as well as the former president's request for a delay until after the 2024 election.
The trial in Florida is one of many legal obligations Mr. Trump faces going into the 2024 election cycle, including federal and state criminal probes related to efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Let's turn now to former federal prosecutor Jessica Roth, also a professor of law at Cardozo School of Law.
Thank you for being with us.
And what's your assessment of this May 2024 trial date?
Which side does this scheduling benefit, assuming it holds?
JESSICA ROTH, Former Federal Prosecutor: Nobody got exactly what they wanted?
Former President Trump wanted the trial postponed indefinitely.
And so it was a defeat for him in that regard.
But the Department of Justice didn't get what it wanted exactly either.
They wanted to try this case in December.
I think that the May 2024 date is reasonable.
I think that it is consistent with other similar cases.
And I think, just as importantly, the reasoning that the judge explained in her order setting the new schedule was legally sound, given the extent of the discovery and the legal issues that will have to be litigated with respect to the use of classified information.
And I say that because I think it's important in the context of this case.
This judge issued rulings previously in related matters after the search of Mar-a-Lago before the charges were filed that were not legally sound, that were probably reversed by the appellate court, and that strongly suggested that she was showing preferential treatment to former President Trump.
And so I think the fact that the ruling was legally sound, in my opinion, is significant.
The real next test, however, will be whether the judge holds the defense, in particular, to the schedule that she has now set or whether she will let it slip further.
GEOFF BENNETT: Looking at the schedule, this May date falls pretty far into the 2024 election season.
The vast majority of state primaries will be finished by that point.
There will likely be a presumptive Republican nominee by that point, and it could very well be Donald Trump.
How, if at all, could that affect this case?
JESSICA ROTH: Well, the judge reserved judgment on whether she would at some future point take into consideration the status of former President Trump as potentially a future nominee in further scheduling considerations for the trial.
She said she didn't have to address that now for purposes of setting the schedule going forward, but she left open the door such that perhaps, if he is seeming to be the likely nominee at that point, his lawyers could raise the issue of whether or not the election, the campaign schedule out made it a hardship for him to actually have the trial as scheduled in May or would make it hard to seat an unbiased jury.
So it will -- remains to be seen whether or not she would entertain those arguments for a further postponement at that point.
But it's important to note that, if the trial were to slip past the general election, there's a very real prospect that it wouldn't happen at all, because, if former President Trump became president, again, he would likely direct his attorney general to drop the prosecution.
And so there's really a lot at stake for when this trial happens.
If it's postponed and beyond any election, the voters won't have information about whether or not he has been convicted of these very serious charges, which include willful retention of national defense information and obstruction of justice when they cast their vote, if that matters to them, but then also it may impact whether or not he is actually held accountable in a court of law for this conduct at all.
GEOFF BENNETT: Jessica Roth, thanks so much for your insight.
It's always a pleasure to speak with you.
JESSICA ROTH: Thank you.
GEOFF BENNETT: In the day's other headlines: There's still no relief in sight from extreme weather that's plagued much of the nation this month.
Northeastern Ohio was cleaning up today from intense thunderstorms that hit last night.
Winds gusting to 80 miles an hour blew down trees and power lines.
That came as blistering heat kept much of the U.S. and Europe on broil.
Experts warn heat waves will soon dominate at least half the year.
JOHN NAIRN, World Meteorological Organization: We're on trend in seeing a rising global temperatures.
So that will contribute to heat waves increasing in intensity and frequency.
And what also happens is, they spread across the seasons in time.
We have got quite clear indications that they're already growing out in the spring.
It's the area with which we are seeing the strongest growth in heat waves.
GEOFF BENNETT: The U.N. agency says current extreme heat is likely to persist and much of the world through August.
Russian forces kept Ukraine's Odesa region under heavy bombardment today.
Cruise missiles took out farm storage buildings and pounded grain terminals.
On the Black Sea, the Russian Navy practiced firing drills to blockade any Ukrainian grain shipments.
Moscow withdrew this week from a U.N. deal allowing the shipments.
Meantime, Russia's Foreign Ministry said it's ready to consider ways to restore the grain deal in cooperation with Turkey.
SERGEY VERSHININ, Russian Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister (through translator): The format that you propose, a new deal with Turkey, is probably possible, but only after our demands are met.
If they are met, we're ready to consider any options.
We're ready to consider any variations of a deal that would continue grain supplies to world markets, both grains and fertilizers.
GEOFF BENNETT: In New York today, the U.N.'s humanitarian aid chief warned that blockading grain exports from Ukraine means millions of people in developing countries will go hungry.
Back in this country, lawmakers in Alabama have refused to create a second-majority Black congressional district.
That move defies an order from the U.S. Supreme Court to redraw their congressional map to give Black voters more of a say in elections.
The state's new voting map will likely face a new round of legal challenges.
Several major tech companies have agreed to abide by new artificial intelligence safeguards.
President Biden met with executives of Amazon, Google, Meta and others today on the new standards.
They include watermarking manipulated content, among other things.
For now, the safeguards are voluntary.
And stocks were mixed on Wall Street today.
The Dow Jones industrial average gained two points to close it 35228.
The Nasdaq fell 30 points.
The S&P 500 added a point.
And soccer great Lionel Messi will make his American debut tonight with his new team, Inter Miami of Major League soccer.
They will face off against Mexico City's Cruz Azul in a tournament.
Messi had his first training season with his new teammates on Tuesday.
The World Cup champion for Argentina has a contract that will pay him more than a million dollars per match.
And still to come on the "NewsHour": an investigation finds sexual assault claims against immigration officials are routinely ignored; Jonathan Capehart and Gary Abernathy weigh in on the week's political headlines; director Christopher Nolan discusses his new film about the father of the atomic bomb; and we remember the life and legendary career of singer Tony Bennett.
Again today, Ukraine suffered a barrage of Russian missile strikes, part of a deadly summer of attacks.
But as "NewsHour" special correspondent Simon Ostrovsky has discovered, many of the Russian-made cruise missiles wouldn't be able to find their targets without the help of American companies.
His investigation is supported by the Pulitzer Center.
SIMON OSTROVSKY: In a village about 25 miles north of the Western Ukrainian city of Khmelnytskyi, Ukrainian military officers show us the remains of a recent Russian missile strike against their country.
It's a scene that's become all too familiar in over 500 days of Russia's full-scale war.
This guided Kh-101 missile didn't hurt anyone.
It was shot down by one of the Western air defense systems donated to Ukraine in recent months.
These officers' job is to collect the fragments and bring them back to the capital for analysis.
They have granted "NewsHour" unprecedented access to film their work, so we can find out for ourselves where the components that help these missiles find their targets come from.
So this looks like it might be part of the flight control unit.
This will be really interesting to get a closer look at once it's brought back to the laboratory and cleaned up a little bit, because it's motherboards like these that we often find Western-made microchips in.
This is Iryna Nikitska.
She runs a hospital lab on the other side of Ukraine in President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's hometown of Kryvyi Rih.
Last month, she lost the thing most dear to her in a Russian missile strike.
IRYNA NIKITSKA, Mother (through translator): I had an only daughter.
She lived.
I raised her.
I educated her.
They took away my meaning of life.
SIMON OSTROVSKY: On June 12, a barrage of missiles, including Kh-101s, rained down on the city, hitting this apartment building, where Simon Ostrovsky's daughter Oksenia Epelman (ph), and her daughter's husband, David Epelman, slept.
IRYNA NIKITSKA (through translator): When the neighbors were escaping, everyone knocked on the door of their apartment.
But the door was jammed.
And they could hear Oksenia screaming: "David, David."
And then they heard nothing.
And that was it.
SIMON OSTROVSKY: A total of 13 people were killed in the attack.
IRYNA NIKITSKA (through translator): As a mother, I blame myself.
A mother's mission is to keep her safe.
Why didn't I feel in my heart that there was danger?
SIMON OSTROVSKY: You can't blame yourself.
Russia's ability to fire long-range missiles that Ukraine has brought the terror of war to cities far from fighting, regularly triggering air raid sirens that shake the calm of otherwise peaceful cities.
One of the most commonly used is the airplane-launched Kh-101, designed originally by Russian aerospace firm MKB Raduga to carry tactical nukes, but now fitted with a conventional warhead and an upgraded guidance system.
When Russia fires the Kh-101s at densely populated cities like Kryvyi Rih, it may be committing a war crime.
But does blame for such attacks end there?
Ukrainian officials increasingly believe the companies whose components are being found in numerous Russian missiles need to be held to account too.
MAN (through translator): This is the factory identifier.
The 315 is characteristic of Kh-101s.
SIMON OSTROVSKY: We're at a secret location in Kyiv where technicians analyzed weapons recovered from the battlefield.
The fragments from the Kh-101 that crashed in Khmelnytskyi have been brought here.
They have cut the flight control unit out of this section.
And we're going to take a look at what they found inside.
If you look at the outer casing of the flight control unit from this Kh-101 missile, then you see Russian writing, Russian parts all over it.
It looks like a Russian computer.
But once you open it up and start looking at the motherboards that are hidden inside, put it underneath the electronic microscope, then you start to see what the brains of this machine are actually made of.
And it's full of American components.
MAN (through translator): If we look here, we see imported components and not a single domestically made one.
This is Altera.
This is analog devices, Texas Instruments.
SIMON OSTROVSKY: In this instrument alone, we found products made by five American companies, the most recently manufactured of which is this Xilinx Spartan-6 microchip made by Santa Clara, California-based AMD in 2020.
The company told "NewsHour" it had no record of the sale of the chip and suspected the markings on it may have been altered.
Microchips manufactured after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine started have also turned up in Kh-101s, like these Zilog processors made in March of 2022 and recovered from a missile shut down in the city of Dnipro in March of 2023.
YANTAR, Ukraine (through translator): Russia lost the microelectronics war, and this is how it's trying to get by.
It may be getting these microchips through contraband.
It might be tapping stockpiles it already has.
But think about it.
All of the mathematics of this missile are in one computer.
And without one little microchip, they couldn't assemble it.
SIMON OSTROVSKY: It's clear that they have been able to assemble it, even though sanctions have been in place against the Russian arms industry for almost a decade.
I asked Olexandra Vasylenko, the director general for economic diplomacy and sanctions policy at Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, what the U.S. and its allies were doing wrong.
OLEXANDRA VASYLENKO, Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (through translator): They are really cautious with their dialogue, and they are really cautious was enforcement.
And business should be explained, what will be the punishment if they will circumvent or not comply with the sanctions?
And, definitely, we see that there is a lack of this conversation.
SIMON OSTROVSKY: James Byrne, a director at the Royal United Services Institute in London and one of the authors of a report on the Russian defense industry's reliance on imported semiconductors, echoed the Ukrainian view that there was a little obvious enforcement of Russia sanctions.
JAMES BYRNE, Royal United Services Institute: I don't believe there has been any such action.
We did have huge fines on some of the large financial institutions.
And they were ultimately for essentially practices, failures in due diligence.
So it's certainly a possibility that something like this could happen, particularly if it's - - if it continues or if it emerges that some companies really didn't follow any sort of due diligence.
SIMON OSTROVSKY: According to Russian state procurement records obtained by "NewsHour," the Kh-101's onboard computer is made by Russian computer maker Korund-M at a cost of around $9,000 each.
Moscow's Central Research Institute of Automation and Hydraulics purchased 20 of the units in 2019.
MAN (through translator): The Central Research Institute of Automation and Hydraulics is a leading company in Russia in the field of air and ground-launched cruise missile manufacturing.
SIMON OSTROVSKY: We sent pictures of the microchips we found to their American manufacturers to ask them who they were sold to in order to try to expose Korund-M's supply chain.
But none of the companies were willing or able to provide the information.
NARRATOR: At Texas Instruments, we're much more than one of the world's leading semiconductor providers.
SIMON OSTROVSKY: This isn't entirely surprising.
American technology giant Texas Instruments, whose components are turning up in multiple weapons platforms used by Russia, including the missile we saw, voted down a proposal to report internally on misuse of their company's product at its annual shareholders meeting in April.
RICH TEMPLETON, Chairman, Texas Instruments: The board of directors recommends to vote against this proposal.
SIMON OSTROVSKY: That's Texas Instruments chairman Rich Templeton.
His board of directors recommended to vote against the proposal because of a belief that the company already had a sufficiently robust compliance system in place and -- quote -- "Complete traceability and prevention of product misuse is unachievable."
And not only do they not know where their parts are going.
It sounds like they don't want to know.
JAMES BYRNE: Building compliance teams, tracing supply chains can increase the costs and the burden on some of these manufacturers.
But I think that really is something that a lot of manufacturers and companies should look very closely at, because these components are still ending up in Russian weapons platforms.
SIMON OSTROVSKY: Texas Instruments told "NewsHour" it complies with the law and doesn't support or condone the use of its products and -- quote - - "applications for which they weren't designed."
In the meantime, Iryna consoles herself with the thought that accountability will eventually come to the people who made the missile that killed her daughter.
IRYNA NIKITSKA (through translator): The people who do this, they must understand that innocent people are killed by the missiles they make.
No, I'm not filled with hate.
I just believe that people who bring evil will get what they deserve.
SIMON OSTROVSKY: Not everyone in Ukraine is as patient as Iryna.
Demands for companies to take more responsibility and the U.S. authorities to go after those that don't are only going to grow louder as the civilian death toll grows bigger.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Simon Ostrovsky in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine.
GEOFF BENNETT: Immensely invisible.
A new investigation by the Pulitzer Prize-winning organization Futuro Investigates and Latino USA shines a light on allegations of sexual abuse and assaults filed by migrants in U.S. immigration detention facilities.
"NewsHour" producer Zeba Warsi teamed up with Futuro Investigates and has been reporting on this story since 2021.
We spoke earlier this week.
Zeba, it's good to see you.
ZEBA WARSI: It's good to see you, Geoff.
Thank you for having me.
GEOFF BENNETT: So tell us about this investigation into allegations of sexual abuse filed by migrants in immigration detention facilities.
What did you find?
ZEBA WARSI: What struck me the most was the spirit of three women of color, immigrants who are held in detention centers, and how they came forward to speak about the abuse that they faced.
They spoke about sexual voyeurism, open showers.
They also talked about how they were assaulted by a medical professional while they were held in one of these facilities.
Here's an excerpt of what they have told me.
MARLISSA, Survivor: In the country, you never had to worry about voyeurism or none of that.
You never had to worry about sharing no shower and like none of that.
And then I came to Glades, and I was like, what?
You used see the shadow, the shadowing of, like, their heads.
You could see it was a male.
QUESTION: And how often did this happen?
MARLISSA: Like, every day.
They never fixed the issue.
VIVIANA, Survivor (through translator): He tells me to lower my pants and he placed the stethoscope there.
He was saying like: "Good, good."
And he's doing like strange gestures, like dirty.
He was smiling and looking at me.
I was quiet the whole time.
For a moment, I was staring off into space and thinking, my God, what is happening?
MARI, Survivor (through translator): When I was looking at myself in the mirror and battling with myself, I was thinking, I don't deserve to wear these clothes.
And I don't deserve to wear this makeup, because I don't matter.
And I felt immensely invisible.
GEOFF BENNETT: So, Zeba, what facilities in particular emerged as the problems in your investigation?
ZEBA WARSI: The last two women you just heard were held at Stewart County Detention Center in Georgia.
These women have alleged that one male nurse, the same male nurse who was supposed to look after them in the medical clinic inside the facility, assaulted them.
And these are not the only ones who've made this allegation.
There are at least three other women who made similar allegations against the same male nurse.
They complained to ICE about it.
They complained to CoreCivic, which is a private prison company that runs this particular detention facility.
It's been a year this month since they filed their public complaint, and they haven't heard anything back yet.
The other woman that we heard from was detained at Glades County detention facility in Florida.
And she experienced sexual voyeurism.
She experienced cross-gender viewing.
She also experienced harassment by the psychiatrist at that facility, another medical professional.
These women in different facilities don't really know each other.
But what they have told us is strikingly similar.
And beyond these women, at least a dozen immigrants that I have interviewed across the country who have also talked about similar patterns of assault and abuse complaints, of intrusive pat-downs, searchers, complaints of invasive touching of genitals, it also does emerge that this is not a problem which is isolated to one facility or one state.
GEOFF BENNETT: You teamed up with veteran journalist Maria Hinojosa for this investigation, and she talks about how she's been doing this reporting, looking into this problem for more than a decade.
MARIA HINOJOSA, President and Founder, Futuro Media Group: ICE has found new ways to deal with the challenges of people in detention complaining about sexual abuse.
What we were able to uncover is that one of the ways in which they're dealing with this is by transferring people, transferring migrants and refugees from one detention facility to another as a way of addressing or not addressing complaints of sexual abuse and assault in immigrant detention facilities.
GEOFF BENNETT: So your investigation found that ICE transfers detainees who make these complaints.
How does that play out?
ZEBA WARSI: Just, if you may remember, in 2021, there were headlines that came out of Irwin County Detention Center in Georgia.
That is a place where nonconsensual reproductive surgeries were conducted.
That facility have to be shut down after nationwide outrage, congressional hearings.
But what happened to the women who were detained there?
They were not released.
Most of them were transferred from Irwin to Stewart County Detention Center.
But that is the facility in Georgia where Viviana and Mari, the two women -- we have changed their names -- those two women faced alleged assault by that nurse.
Similarly, in the Florida case that we highlight, we had a woman called Melissa who was detained at Glades County Detention Center.
She filed complaints.
Other women filed complaints.
There were many other complaints of abuse apart from sexual abuse that were also raised.
ICE had to shut down that facility.
Women were transferred from Glades to Baker County Detention Center.
And, at Baker, which is the second facility, Marlissa faced similar, if not worse.
Whenever immigrants end up complaining, immigration rights activists say that this has become a consecutive pattern that ICE has adopted of transferring folks from one center to another.
GEOFF BENNETT: Well, on that point, Zeba, what's the -- what's the path forward for these women?
ZEBA WARSI: Geoff, these women are hoping to hear back on their complaints.
We followed up with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which is the law enforcement agency that took up the case and had promised to conduct a thorough investigation.
They said that they have concluded it, the DA's office has it.
The DA's office has not released the conclusion yet.
We have 300 complaints of sexual assault and abuse that have been filed by immigrants across different centers; 60 percent of these complaints have no update on whether an investigation was conducted.
So, the problem that we are highlighting is not only that abuse of immigrants in detention centers is taking place, the fact that it may be happening with impunity, the fact that there is a possible lack of accountability, the fact that most of these cases are not being thoroughly investigated.
And that's what we hope to change.
And that's what we hope will be the outcome of our story.
GEOFF BENNETT: Zeba Warsi, thank you so much for sharing that reporting with us.
ZEBA WARSI: Thank you for having me, Geoff.
GEOFF BENNETT: And you can read more of Zeba's work and find a link to the full podcast "Immensely Invisible" on our Web site.
That's PBS.org/NewsHour.
After a recent spate of shark encounters, New York state is ramping up efforts to monitor the apex predator off the coast of Long Island.
In Massachusetts,experts are raising awareness about the surging population of great white sharks off Cape Cod.
Science correspondent Miles O'Brien has the story.
MILES O'BRIEN: In early July, around 5:00 in the evening off the southern shore of Long Island, New York, 15-year-old Peter Banculli and his friend Joe went out for an evening surf session at Kismet Beach.
The pair were 35 feet from shore, when they noticed the water was extra murky.
PETER BANCULLI JR., Shark Attack Victim: We were bout to catch a wave in.
Then, all of a sudden, like, in a blink of an eye, the shark was just there on my foot, like really, really intense pressure on my foot.
MILES O'BRIEN: Who helped you out?
How did you get to safety?
PETER BANCULLI: My foot was pretty much down the shark's, like, throat, in its mouth.
It was really scary.
I'm trying to wiggle my foot out.
I'm calling my friend for help.
And then eventually got out, ran up to the beach, got a good samaritan, and then called the cops from there.
I thought my foot was gone.
My foot was just all numb.
And I didn't really want to look at it, because I just knew it was bad.
MILES O'BRIEN: Peter was one of at least four people bitten by a shark on July 3 and July 4 off the coast of Long Island.
Each occurred on Fire Island beaches, a 32-mile-long barrier island.
GEORGE GORMAN, Regional Director, Long Island State Parks: It is a concern.
MILES O'BRIEN: George Gorman is regional director for Long Island State Parks.
GEORGE GORMAN: Prior to five years ago, never would have thought you would see a shark.
Now, I started my career many, many years ago, and there would be a shark report every maybe two, three years.
But that was it.
MILES O'BRIEN: Due to a steady increase in shark activity, New York Governor Kathy Hochul increased surveillance across Long Island beaches, providing more watercrafts and drones to be on the lookout for sharks and funding to cover the cost of training.
GOV.
KATHY HOCHUL (D-NY): Giving the lessons of last summer and seeing the change in sharks' behavior, we knew early on before the season even started we had to take preemptive steps.
MILES O'BRIEN: As beachgoers flock to the white sand, sharks too are swimming off the coast of New York's most popular beaches.
At least one beach delayed opening on July 4 after drones spotted dozens of sand sharks off the coast.
With drones to make sharks easier to spot, lifeguards had more time to clear the water after a sighting.
Cary Epstein is a lifeguard supervisor at Jones Beach State Park in Nassau County.
CARY EPSTEIN, Lifeguard Supervisor, Jones Beach State Park: When you're up in an elevated lifeguard station or a lifeguard stand, you can see up, and you can see out, but you can't see straight down.
MILES O'BRIEN: While all this causes alarm, those who study sharks say they are likely making a mistake if they bite.
TOBEY CURTIS, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration: People are not on the menu.
A shark is not interested in interacting with people or biting people.
We mainly think that this is a result of the sharks' natural food, mainly baitfish, generally being closer to beaches, where there's a lot of people in the water.
It's a very unusual dynamic where the shark food is so close to shore, but it's not unusual at all that there are sharks in New York.
MILES O'BRIEN: Tobey Curtis is a fishery management specialist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
He says warming waters are leading sharks to expand their horizons.
TOBEY CURTIS: Most of the sharks up in New York are smaller individuals.
Also, what's happening in New York is that there's new species from down south that typically didn't range as far as New York, things like spinner sharks and blacktip sharks.
These are species that generally remained south of New York waters, but now, because of climate change, they're moving into the area.
And, likewise, some species are moving further north.
MILES O'BRIEN: As beachgoers in New York remain on alert, larger great whites are surging off the coast of Cape Cod, swimming in the shallows.
To raise awareness of the increased population there, Atlantic White Shark Conservancy developed a Sharktivity app, where users can record and log shark sightings and encounters.
But why has Cape Cod quickly become one of the largest hot spots for great whites in the world?
BRYAN LEGARE, Center for Coastal Studies: Globally, we're losing sharks, we're losing habitat, we're losing these critical creatures in the different ecosystems.
In the U.S. waters on the East Coast, we have got a little bit of a different story.
MILES O'BRIEN: Bryan Legare is a seascape ecologist for the Center for Coastal Studies.
He says there are more great whites in these shallow waters because there are more seals there, one of their favorite meals.
BRYAN LEGARE: Seals, we almost hunted them to extinction up until the 1960s.
And with protection in Massachusetts and then federally in -- with the Marine Mammal Protection Act, it's taken about 50 years to recover that population.
MILES O'BRIEN: Sharks are necessary to maintain healthy biodiversity in our oceans, and encounters overall are decreasing.
According to the Florida Museum of Natural History's International Shark File, in 2022, the U.S. saw 41 unprovoked shark attacks, one of which was fatal.
That's down from 47 attacks in 21.
But if you find yourself face to face with a shark: TOBEY CURTIS: Most of the time, sharks, they will bite a person, they will realize they have made a mistake.
This is not their normal food.
They let go and swim off.
But if that's not the case, it's best to fight back, hit the shark on the nose or the eyes.
Those are very sensitive areas.
MILES O'BRIEN: Peter Banculli's left him with a broken foot, fractured in three places, and a torn Achilles.
He hopes to get back on the board in weeks.
I'm curious what mom and dad think about this.
PETER BANCULLI SR., Father: There's waves today, but his foot is in a cast?
I would say, let's go, you know?
MILES O'BRIEN: Kelly, how about you?
Are you ready to let these two go hang 10?
KELLY BANCULLI, Mother So, I have a very large fear of the water to begin with.
So this has deepens my fear.
But as a mom, I feel that the best way to overcome his fear is to get back on that board and continue to surf.
We live on a beautiful island.
We should be able to share the water together.
MILES O'BRIEN: Something Peter can't wait to do again.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Miles O'Brien.
GEOFF BENNETT: Now, to further discuss how investigations into the former president are affecting the 2024 presidential race and more, we turn to the analysis of Capehart and Abernathy.
That's Jonathan Capehart, associate editor for The Washington Post, and Gary Abernathy, So, the classified documents case against Donald Trump now has a trial date.
As we reported, the federal judge in that case ordered it to start as early as May 20, 2024.
Jonathan, what do you make of this potential scenario where Donald Trump could potentially be the presumptive Republican nominee and he's also facing a criminal trial?
This mid-May date is after most of the primaries, and it's before the nominating conventions.
JONATHAN CAPEHART: Right.
Well, I have baked that in.
I thought from the very beginning that there would be no distinction between Donald Trump's campaign appearances and Donald Trump's going in for his various court appearances for the various trials that he's a part of.
And so all I know is this.
I am glad that there is a date set, that there is a date set before the general election, assuming he is the Republican nominee for president.
But I'm also happy and glad that there is a date set, because, no matter what happens to Donald Trump in terms of the 2024 presidential - - Republican presidential nomination, Donald Trump is now going to be held publicly accountable through a trial for his role, assuming, again, that there is indeed -- well, in the documents case, he will be held accountable for withholding, taking classified documents, including nuclear secrets.
This is very, very serious, and I'm glad he's going to be held accountable for it.
GEOFF BENNETT: Gary, Donald Trump faces as many as six criminal and civil cases in this election cycle.
Doesn't this, in some ways, incentivize his Republican rivals to stay in this race longer than they might be inclined to or could have the support to, because they're waiting for a potential Donald Trump candidacy collapse?
GARY ABERNATHY, The Washington Post: Well, as we have seen so far, every time he's indicted, it just makes him stronger.
So if there are six indictments, how strong is that going to him?
Because it seems to rally the Republicans around him more and more.
And I think his opponents, except for Chris Christie maybe, are not taking the right tack.
They're kind of still defending Trump and complaining about these charges, at the same time that they're trying to run against Trump.
That doesn't make a lot of sense.
But the trial date is an interesting timing.
I think that you're also looking at another indictment possibly on the January 6 issue, which I thought the documents indictment was a mistake, not because he didn't do anything wrong, but because I just think it's going to be bad for the country.
And I think there's obviously, I think, going to be an indictment come on his actions on January 6, which I also think is going to be a mistake, because... GEOFF BENNETT: Really?
Why?
GARY ABERNATHY: Well, because here's the thing, Geoff.
Is it going to be -- it's going to -- I think you don't have to just prove that Donald Trump tried to reverse an election result.
But, in essence, they have got to prove he tried to basically overthrow a duly elected government.
And I think you get into issues of free speech, into just going down a road that I don't think is going to be healthy for the country to have to have this debate while Donald Trump is probably going to be your nominee, your Republican nominee, for president.
GEOFF BENNETT: Jonathan, I suspect you see this matter differently, as we await... JONATHAN CAPEHART: Oh... GEOFF BENNETT: ... a potential indictment from the special counsel on Donald Trump's role in January 6.
JONATHAN CAPEHART: Oh, absolutely.
I disagree wholeheartedly with Gary.
To not hold Donald Trump -- to not indict Donald Trump in the classified documents case or potentially, as we might -- as we will find out next week, in the January 6 investigation of the special counsel is to not hold him accountable.
It is not a mistake to hold the person who was the leader of the country, the occupant of the Oval Office, it is not a mistake to hold him accountable for taking classified documents, and not just one or two.
I saw -- there's a report out there that there are 1,500 pages, some including the most sensitive secrets of this nation, including nuclear secrets.
He must be held accountable for that, and I'm glad he was indicted for that.
And, next week or down the road, we will find out what special counsel Jack Smith is going to do in terms of an indictment of Donald Trump related to January 6.
And if an indictment comes down, it is good for the country, because the country needs to hear this.
The country needs to see this.
And the signal needs to be sent to any Donald Trump wannabes either in this race or in future generations that if you try to overthrow or overturn a free and fair election, you will be held accountable.
It might not be the next day or months down the road, but you will be held accountable in a court of law by a jury of your peers.
GARY ABERNATHY: I think, though, Jonathan and Geoff, it also has the effect of perpetuating the cycle of retribution.
We see that going on right now in Congress.
We see that going on with the Jim Jordan, James Comer Weaponization of Government investigation.
You went after Trump, so we're going to go after Biden.
We're going to go after -- it just -- someone needs to end this.
And, hopefully, as I have argued, it needs to be the voters that end this.
When you can just -- what makes Trump stronger all the time is this notion that it plays into his complaint that there's a deep state conspiracy out to get me.
And this is just going to perpetuate that and reinforce that idea.
GEOFF BENNETT: Well, on that point, the former president seems to be getting some backup from his Republican rivals on the trail.
Here's how a couple of them, at least, responded to the news that Donald Trump received this target letter from the special counsel related to the January 6 investigation.
GOV.
RON DESANTIS (R-FL), Presidential Candidate: I think it was shown how he was in the White House and didn't do anything while things were going on.
He should have come out more forcefully, of course that.
But to try to criminalize that, that's a different issue entirely.
And I think that we want to be in a situation where you don't have one side just constantly trying to put the other side in jail.
MIKE PENCE (R), Presidential Candidate: With regard to the prospect of an indictment, I hope it doesn't come to that.
The -- I'm not convinced that the president acting on the bad advice of a group of crank lawyers that came into the White House in the days before January 6 is actually criminal.
GEOFF BENNETT: Jonathan, taking what the former Vice President Mike Pence, had to say, given that he was targeted by Donald Trump and his supporters on January 6, he, of all of the Republican candidates, would be able to draw the strongest, the biggest contrast on that particular issue.
And yet he chooses not to.
JONATHAN CAPEHART: Yes, and he chooses not to, and it's shameful.
His life was in danger that day; 535 members of Congress, their lives were in danger that day.
The fact that the only person in the Republican race right now is Governor Chris Christie who is willing to say things as the way they are just shows how far the Republican Party has fallen.
I'm old enough to remember Donald Trump on the campaign trail in 2016 saying it would be a mistake for the American people to vote for someone who's under a federal investigation.
Donald Trump now has two criminal indictments, maybe others coming down the road, and yet he's got a party that is circling the wagons around him, including a guy whose own life was threatened by it.
It's unbelievably shameful, unbelievably shameful.
And one thing about what Gary said about, let's end this cycle of retribution, the retribution started with Donald Trump.
And ending the cycle would be surrender.
It would be surrender to authoritarian forces trying to take over our democracy.
GARY ABERNATHY: Well, let me say what Donald Trump did on January 6 -- and I have said everything he did after losing that election to deny losing that election has been bad for this country and bad for democracy.
But being bad for democracy, bad for the country is not the same as being criminal.
And I think there's just -- it's bad for this country to try to -- when you're the Biden DOJ, going after your primary political opponent has a very bad look to it.
GEOFF BENNETT: We have a couple of minutes left.
And I want to raise the trip that the vice president, Kamala Harris, made to Florida today.
It was a last-minute trip, and she was tackling changes to the state's education standards that appear to play down the horrors of slavery.
The Florida Board of Education voted this week to approve revised Black history curriculum that includes instruction how slaves actually benefited from slavery because they learned some skills.
I see you shaking your head.
GARY ABERNATHY: Yes.
Yes, it's ridiculous.
I don't know what the fear is of teaching Black history, of teaching the horrors of slavery, of teaching what a horrible chapter in our history was.
There's nothing to be afraid of with that teaching.
It's -- you know what?
We have downplayed it too much in the past.
And it's absolutely -- I'm going to agree with Kamala Harris, in a rare instance, this time on what she's saying.
And I have never understood what DeSantis' problem is or anyone else with teaching accurate history about the horrors of slavery in this country.
GEOFF BENNETT: Jonathan, how do you see it?
And tell me more about the vice president's role in tackling cultural issues, to include this, abortion and so on.
JONATHAN CAPEHART: Wow.
Well, Gary and I are in 100 percent alignment on this.
(LAUGHTER) JONATHAN CAPEHART: Why are we afraid to talk about the nuances and complexities of our history, of American history, of Black history?
The vice president going down to Florida, going right into the heart of the matter to talk about this is a great thing, because she is uniquely qualified to talk about this, as the first Black woman, the first South Asian American to hold the office of vice president.
When she speaks about issues of race, when she speaks about issues of culture, when she speaks about issues of choice, she is speaking from the heart.
And that is the most genuine she can be.
And it is an asset to the Biden/Harris ticket as they go into a presidential election in '24 where those issues are going to be paramount.
GEOFF BENNETT: Jonathan Capehart and Gary Abernathy, quite a conversation on this Friday evening.
Thank you both.
Have a good one.
GARY ABERNATHY: Thank you.
(LAUGHTER) JONATHAN CAPEHART: Thanks, Geoff.
GEOFF BENNETT: Robert Oppenheimer was one of this country's greatest scientists, father of the atomic bomb, a victim of the McCarthy witch-hunts, one complicated and fascinating man.
And he's now the subject of a new film by director Christopher Nolan.
Jeffrey Brown spoke to Nolan earlier this week for our arts and culture series, Canvas.
JEFFREY BROWN: Played by actor Cillian Murphy, Robert Oppenheimer comes to very large life in a film that is star-studded and action-packed.
But for director Christopher Nolan, it was the internal human conflict at its core that first grabbed him.
CHRISTOPHER NOLAN, Director, "Oppenheimer": It's genuinely the most dramatic story I know of, that I have ever encountered, either fiction or real life.
So, to me, taking on this person who changed the world irrevocably, I really warmed to the challenge of trying to jump into his head.
JEFFREY BROWN: I understand you even wrote the script in the first person?
CHRISTOPHER NOLAN: Instead of saying, Oppenheimer comes into the room, sits down at his desk, it says: I came into the room.
I sat down at my desk.
I felt that, that way, we'd be on a journey with Oppenheimer's story towards understanding, rather than judgment.
JEFFREY BROWN: Nolan based his drama on "American Prometheus," the 2006 Pulitzer Prize-winning biography by Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin, highlighting the ethical choices that played out in the very real time of World War II, with unknowable consequences on the ground and in the atmosphere, here between Oppenheimer and Albert Einstein.
TOM CONTI, Actor: What do you take it to mean?
CILLIAN MURPHY, Actor: Neutrons smash into nucleus, releasing neutrons to smash into other nuclei, criticality, point of no return, massive explosive force.
But, this time, the chain reaction doesn't stop.
TOM CONTI: It would ignite the atmosphere.
CILLIAN MURPHY: If we detonate an atomic device, we might start a chain reaction that destroys the world.
CHRISTOPHER NOLAN: I wanted to put the audience in the position of scientists asked by their government, by the military to help in a race against the Nazis to unleash the power of the atom.
And that's where the ethics come in, is in a situation where you truly have no choice, because you can't allow the Nazis to have a nuclear bomb, or be the first to have a nuclear bomb.
What then are your responsibilities as a scientist for something that was necessary and consequences that are, whether unintended or not, perhaps inevitable?
But in bringing this thing into the world, it raises all kinds of thorny questions about the responsibility of the creators for the technology that they unleash on the world.
JEFFREY BROWN: At 52, the British-born, L.A.-based Nolan is a powerhouse in his world, with blockbuster hits like "Inception" and "Interstellar" that bend time and space, "The Dark Knight" trilogy that reimagined the Batman superhero classic, and the historical epic "Dunkirk."
His films have grossed some $5 billion worldwide.
In "Oppenheimer," he took on new cinematic challenges, foregoing computer generated imagery, filming all the effects, using newly developed black and white, as well as color IMAX film, even in extreme closeups of characters faces.
The look and experience you're giving us, are they as important to you as the story, or do they somehow go hand in hand?
CHRISTOPHER NOLAN: Well, to me, they absolutely go hand in hand.
Cinema is this fusion of sound, images, music, humanity, shift in perspective, from the subjective to the objective.
I like to shoot celluloid film because it's still the closest analogy to the way the eye sees.
It's the highest-quality imaging format if you're shooting large format film.
So, even when it came to things like Oppenheimer's visualizations of atoms, the quantum world, and the thread of that that had to run through to its ultimate expression in the atomic bomb itself, I wanted those to be analog.
I wanted those to be real things we photographed.
JEFFREY BROWN: The first atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, ending the war, though debate has continued whether Japan was already set to surrender.
The final death toll, uncertain as well, was at least 200,000.
Oppenheimer was left a public hero, a world-famous figure, but one racked with doubts about what he and his colleagues had done.
He would argue against the creation of the even more powerful hydrogen bomb and, amid the toxic Cold War brew of the 1950s, see his loyalty challenged, and, in a final humiliation, have his security clearance revoked.
Nolan is well aware of contemporary resonances, including the advent of A.I., a potentially world-changing technology unleashed without an understanding of potential consequences.
Do you worry that history is repeating itself?
CHRISTOPHER NOLAN: I take some comfort in learning that the leading A.I.
researchers literally refer to this moment right now as their Oppenheimer moment.
They're looking to his story for some kind of guidance about the role and responsibility of the creator of a piece of technology.
But, of course, as a filmmaker, not as a documentary maker, and not as a politician, I'm making a dramatic experience for the audience.
I'm trying to give them a thrill ride.
It's weird to use the word entertainment in relation to a story that's so serious, but entertainment in cinema is about engagement with a story.
And my job as a filmmaker is to -- is to pull the audience in for this very, very dramatic story.
And I think it raises a lot of relevant and troubling questions.
But it doesn't provide any easy answers.
JEFFREY BROWN: "Oppenheimer" is a -- it's a huge story.
It's a hugely important story.
It's a three-hour film.
You're an ambitious storyteller, filmmaker, an ambitious man?
CHRISTOPHER NOLAN: The thing I love about the movies, the thing I love about the cinema screen is, movies can literally be anything, any kind of story.
And, certainly, there's always been an understanding in the history of movies that this kind of story can be told on this scale for an audience.
Am I ambitious to sort of go ahead and do that?
I mean, yes, certainly.
But, also, history is on my side, in terms of, there are a lot of great examples of movies that we love that are more serious, do present a different type of entertainment.
It's a tricky word, as I say.
I prefer to say engagement.
But that's what we're doing.
We're telling a very big, very important story using the tools to put it on the biggest screen possible.
JEFFREY BROWN: Robert Oppenheimer died in 1967 at age 62.
Christopher Nolan is now telling his story in theaters worldwide.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Jeffrey Brown in New York.
GEOFF BENNETT: Finally, tonight, remembering Tony Bennett, one of the greatest singers of American standards.
Bennett died today at the age of 96, following a seven-decade-long career.
He recorded more than 70 albums and won 19 Grammys, picking up most of those after he turned 60.
After serving as a combat infantryman in World War II who helped liberate a concentration camp, Tony Bennett came back to New York in 1946, and was signed by Columbia Records in 1950.
But it wasn't until the 1960s when he truly broke through as a major star, after becoming known for his signature song, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco."
(MUSIC) GEOFF BENNETT: In the decades that followed, he devoted much of his career to singing in the works of Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, George Gershwin, and others, along with jazz standards, which he often referred to as the great American songbook.
More recently, he was known for his duets with contemporary artists and a long collaboration with Lady Gaga that led to albums and concerts.
Tony Bennett was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2016.
But he performed even after that.
Jeffrey Brown sat down with him back in 2014.
He asked him how he got started, and about his love for jazz.
TONY BENNETT, Singer: My father died when I was 10 years old.
And all my relatives, aunt, uncles, nieces, nephews, they would come over every Sunday.
And my brother, my sister and myself would entertain them.
They would make a circle around us.
And it was just at the time, being 10 years old, I was saying, what am I going to do in life?
Who is -- is anybody ever going to know me or anything like that?
And my family would say, we like the way you sing and we like the way you paint those flowers.
So they created a passion in me of always trying to improve.
And here I am, 88, and I'm still working and trying to get better and better at what I'm doing.
JEFFREY BROWN: You still feel that, right?
TONY BENNETT: Oh, absolutely.
JEFFREY BROWN: I mean, you remember that young guy first starting to sing, and then here you are, still singing.
TONY BENNETT: Well, I was blessed under the G.I.
Bill of Rights when I came out of the service and the war.
I joined the American Theatre Wing.
And it was a great source, that they allowed us to continue school that we missed during the war.
The main thing I that learned from them was to always stay with quality, never compromise.
You know, don't just try and get a hit record.
Let's do something's that is going to last.
JEFFREY BROWN: He told me he's especially eager to help keep the jazz music he loves alive.
And that, too, ties into the new work with Lady Gaga.
TONY BENNETT: It's the only great art form that's ever been created in the United States, by African-Americans in New Orleans.
They invented it, to improvise, elongated improvisation.
And it's a wonderful art.
So, that's the reason I did the album with Lady Gaga, to reach that young audience that she has.
And for the first time in their life, they hear wonderful songs that swing and last forever.
They're great American songs that were done in the '20s and '30s.
GEOFF BENNETT: He was one of a kind.
And that is the "NewsHour" for tonight.
I'm Geoff Bennett.
Have a great weekend.