william: it evening. i'm william brangham. geoff bennett and amna nawaz are away. on the "newshour" tonight, the department of justice and google make closing arguments in a

landmark trial that could change how we use the internet. then, trump white house communications director hope hicks takes the stand in the former president's hush money trial. and, on "world press freedom day," a palestinian journalist's firsthand account of his family's fight to survive the war in gaza. >> we hear -- we here in gaza suffer that we need our children to have a better future. we don't know if we are going to make it to the morning. ♪ >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by the ongoing support of these institutions, and friends of the newshour, including the robert and virginia schiller foundation. the judy and peter boom: foundation.

on an american cruise line's journey, along the legendary mississippi river, travelers explore civil war battlefields and historic riverside towns. a border fleet of american riverboats, you can -- aboard our fleet of american riverboats, you can explore local was seen -- local cuisine and discover the history of the american mississippi. american cruise lines, proud sponsor of pbs newshour. >> the john s. and james l. knight foundation. mourad kf.org. >> financial professionals are proud to support pbs newshour. more information at let'smakeaplan.org. and with the ongoing support of these individuals

and institutions. and friends of the newshour. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. william: welcome to the newshour. there are signs tonight that high interest rates could finally be slowing u.s. job growth. the labor department reports that employers added a net of 175,000 jobs in april. that was well below expectations. meanwhile, the unemployment rate inched up 0.1% to 3.9%. the federal reserve has said it needs to see a cooling of growth -- and inflation -- before it can cut interest rates.

a sitting member of congress -- texas democrat henry cuellar -- and his wife were arrested today on federal charges of bribery and conspiracy. they're accused of taking nearly $600,000 dollars in bribes from a mexican bank and an oil company controlled by azerbaijan. in return, cuellar allegedly pushed legislation favorable to azerbaijan. the couple denies the charges. in canada, police have arrested three people in the murder of a sikh separatist leader in british columbia last june. the three are indian nationals. prime minister justin trudeau had suggested the indian government was involved in the killing. today, the royal canadian mounted police said they're looking at that possibility. >> this investigation does not end here. we are aware that others may have played a role in this homicide, and we are dedicated to finding and arresting each one of these individuals. william: the indian government has denied involvement.

college campuses across the country were somewhat quieter today after days of protests against the war in gaza. all told, more than 2300 demonstrators have been arrested so far. that includes at least a dozen early today at new york university. after the raid, police stood guard as workers cleaned out the protesters' encampment. a larger campsite had been cleared last month. the protest movement has also spread to universities in the middle east, europe, and beyond. in australia, pro-palestinian protesters are camped at the university of sydney. today, counter-protesters rallied with israeli and australian flags. in paris, french police moved in and cleared out students who had been occupying the prestigious sciences po university. >> i am here because the riot police removed me. but i am here because i want to show my solidarity with the palestinian people, and because

i want this movement to spread to a the campuses. geoff: the australian and french protests were largely peaceful with no reports of arrests. in gaza, a palestinian hospital reported at least seven people were killed in an overnight israeli strike on rafah. daylight revealed what was left of the home that bore the brunt of the attack, near the egyptian border. most of the dead were reported to be children. meantime, a group representing israeli hostages confirmed that a 49-year-old man died during the hamas attack on israel in october, but that his body had not yet been returned. two rockets highlighted trailblazing ventures into space. china set up a robotic craft to bring samples from the far side of the moon. that mission could take two months. in australia, a german company tested a rocket powered by paraffin, an ingredient in campbell wacs. they say this view will could

cut -- this fuel could cut launch costs by half. back in this country, parts of southeastern texas have been inundated after nine inches of rain fell in just 24 hours. some highways and schools around houston were closed. a flood warning is in effect for a large area around the city. the rain came on fast and strong, forcing some to abandon their cars. emergency crews had to carry out water rescues. and officials warned of worse to come along the san jacinto river. >> it is not your typical river flood. i know that. you live around the river -- i know that folks that live along the river, they see this happen all the time. this is not that. this is not what happened in january. this is much worse. william: forecasters predict the flooding will continue through the weekend. the biden administration will make federally subsidized health care available to migrants brought to the u.s. as children

-- the so-called "dreamers." under a directive announced today, some 100,000 are expected to enroll for coverage under the affordable care act next year. enrollment opens november 1. and on wall street, stocks rose on hopes that slower job growth will prompt the federal reserve to cut interest rates. the dow jones industrial average gained 450 points to close at 38,675. the nasdaq rose 315 points -- 2%. the s&p 500 added 63. still to come on the newshour, a look at the terrorist threat posed by a resurgent isis in syria. david brooks and jonathan capehart weigh in on the week's headlines. and vietnamese-americans on the gulf coast share tributes to home and community. >> this is the pbs newshour. from weta studios in washington and from the west at the walter cronkite school of journalism at

arizona state university. william: one of former president trump's most senior aides took the stand today during his hush money trial in new york. hope hicks served as mr. trump's press secretary during the 2016 campaign and was his white house communications director. on the stand, she detailed how trump and his inner circle handled the revelations about alleged extramarital affairs, and the payments made to bury those stories. andrea bernstein is covering the former president's legal battles for npr, and was in the courthouse today. she joins us now. so nice to see you again. during the prosecution's questioning today, they delved into what happened in the campaign when the infamous access hollywood tape drop. what did we learn from hope hicks about that today? andrea: she was the first and -- the person to first hear about that from "the washington post"

in the story they were about to run. there was an email where she was sent by campaign leadership and email that said deny, deny, deny. she laughed because she did not think it would be able to do that. she went upstairs and there was a campaign brain trust preparing tro for the debate. he asked what they were talking about, and when they learned about the tape, he said, that does not sound like something i would say, but obviously it was. william: that story is being told to jurors because it helps set the template for how the campaign didn't have to go into panic mode and then stormy daniels' story becomes even more fraught for them. what did we learn from her about that revelation? andrea: the campaign settles on saying that it was locker room talk, and trump actually apologized. there was video of him in the courtroom of him apologizing.

it was played twice today. but over the next two weeks, all these allegations come up, and it's the friday before the election and "the washington journal" since hope hicks and email about this story they were planning to run about this emailed we had been hearing so much with karen mcdougal and the national enquirer, the former playboy model, to keep her story quiet. they also talk about stormy daniels. hicks goes to three people involved, david packer, the former publisher of "the national enquirer," trump the candidate, and michael cohen. they all tell her there is nothing to the story. she goes to "the wall street journal" and says to them it is absolutely untrue, which of course is not the case, as jurors have heard last week from david packer himself. william: what achieve detail about cohen's subsequent negotiations with stormy daniels? andrea: she did not know a lot about it, but there was interesting testimony about how the story breaks.

trump was in the white house and michael cohen, the wall street journal reporters do another story over a year later, they detail everything regarding stormy daniels. trump tells her that michael cohen did this on his own out of the goodness of his heart. the prosecution asked, does that sound like the michael cohen no? -- the michael cohen when you know? she basically said no, she did not know him to be a charitable person. she basically sniffed out the story but left the white house not long after. she went to fox news after coming back to the white house to work for trump in 2020. william: what did trump's legal team do? how do they handle a witness like her? this is someone very close to the former president. andrea: her testimony was clear. she seemed to have recall about all kinds of events. it was the beginning of her cross-examination, which was

brief, and the defense was trying to suggest it was her job to try to influence the media coverage. that is what campaigns do, that she was so concerned about malani, talked about trump telling her to block his paper delivery at the residence, but at the very beginning of her testimony, when she was talking about about her early work for the trump organization, she became overwhelmed. she started to cry. she had to take a break. it just seemed a lot for this former for this former aide -- extremely loyal -- to be testifying at the criminal trial of her former boss. william: andrea, thank you so much as always. andrea: thank you. william: a landmark anti-trust trial between the department of justice and google is coming to an end, with both parties delivering closing arguments. as stephanie sy explains, google

is accused of monopolizing the internet search market, sidelining competitors, and harming consumers. stephanie: william, the justice department claims that google struck illegal deals with companies like apple, paying them billions of dollars to be the default search engine on phones and other devices, and crowding out competition. google argues it has the best search engine, and that's why consumers choose it. the decision on this case may not only change the way google does business, it could lead to a breakup of the company. for more, i'm joined by rebecca allensworth, who teaches contract and antitrust law at vanderbilt law school. rebecca, it is great to have you with us on the newshour. first, set the stage for us-the -- for us, because the justice department's under both former president trump and now president biden have been trying to rein in tech monopolies in various cases brought against

these powerful companies, but this was the first to go to trial last fall. what was the most compelling testimony you heard on both sides of this? >> nhs could not get past these de facto exclusive deals that google had with apple and with android. i think that is really strong. i think the best testimony on googles side is the idea that google is a great product, we all sort of prefer it if we were given a choice. when exactly does the government one, a choice screen where we are all just going to click google anyway? those were the strongest arguments i heard. stephanie: you have big tech giants out here testifying as well as smaller tech companies that say they are closing out. what has stood out to you about these last arguments and what the district judge in the case,

amit mehta, said? >> he seems skeptical that google is not a monopolist. the government has to do two things, show google has monopoly power and show that they used bad acts or exclusionary conduct to maintain that power. my belief about the merits of this case is that google is definitely a monopolist, and mehta thinks that too. he was skeptical of arguments where you go to expedia to search for a travel opportunity. he said that is not the same thing. he has tipped his hand a little bit in that department. he seemed more even in the way he was talking about the bad acts or the exclusionary behavior, but he did say the big question, which is if defaults don't matter and if competition is just a click away, why are you, google, play -- paying apple $23 million a year to be

that default? stephanie: google has light, 90% of the search market as a result. this is considered a test case over whether u.s. antitrust law can address the novel problems presented by new technologies. how hard is it to win these types of anti-trust cases, and has the law evolved enough to deal with the rapid developments in tech? >> these cases are very hard to win. antitrust law has evolved to be very unfriendly for plaintiffs, including the government. but i do think antitrust law is up to this. this is very analogous in some ways to the microsoft case, the biggest tech monopolization case before this one, from the late 1990's. all along, since the passage of the sherman act, there have been network industries, industries like the railroads where you have to kind of treat the whole thing has a thing of value to consumers, that you want something big and networked, you

don't want to break it up. we have some good caselaw that would be applicable to this dispute. but like all antitrust cases, this one is hard to win. stephanie: this has been called the biggest anti-trust case in the u.s. in a quarter century, but depending on how the judge rules, it may have no effect or it could lead to major changes if he rules against google, or it could just lead to the status quo. rebecca: i think it is unlikely to lead to a breakup. it is possible the government will ask that, but i do not think they are likely to get it. if they get it, they are likely -- if they do win, they are likely to say google will not enjoy this default status on our devices. the question then comes, ok, if there is a choice screen, will consumers really switch away? will competition be possible? alice seems hard to believe that you and i would choose someone other than google, it appears google is worried about that, to

the tune of $23 million a year in the case of apple. it could lead to opening of competition. we will have to see. stephanie: rebecca allensworth of vanderbilt law school. thank you. rebecca: thank you. ♪ william: today is world press freedom day. the committee to protect journalists says some two dozen journalists have been killed so far this year, the majority dying in gaza. at least 97 journalists and military workers have been killed in gaza and lebanon since the start of the war, making this by far the deadliest conflict by reporters in recent memory. we wanted to give you a look at the life of our own journalist in gaza, sean's of a. he has been filming in gaza since the october 7 terrorist

attacks. here is nick schifrin. nick: gaza today is defined by destruction, death, and displacement. and gaza producer and cameraman shams odeh has documented-and -- documented and experienced all three. >> there is a lot of people killed here in this place in rafah. this is my tent, my bed, and my kitchen. nick: today, this is his canvas home, where the war forced him and his family to flee in december. they live underneath the constant sound of israeli drones, in emirati tents, part of a tent city in deir al balah. one of tens of thousands of displaced families, finding a way to live. 4 year old kareem leads a gaggle of grandchildren. the youngest, one-year-old rose, sleeps with a prized possession. their mother, diana, is shams' eldest child. >> my message to the world is we are humans. we are not numbers. we deserve to live a better life such as any person in the world. so we all here evacuated our

homes. nick: in november, even after an initial displacement, they had a real roof over their heads near nuseirat. a madhouse of extended cousins lived in a house shams built himself. with benjamin netanyahu's televised speeches, and diana odeh's deferred dreams. >> we here in gaza suffer that we need our children to have a better future. i want my kid karim to be a doctor in the future, but we don't know if we are going to make til to the morning. nick: but the children now know things they should never have to know. >> my son karem even knows if this bomb, if this bomb is dangerous or not, he tells me, mom, it's far away, it's far away, it's not beside us. nick: but one day it was beside them, and shams' house is now reduced to rubble. where grandkids once played, debris and devastation. >> i chose to live here far away from troubles, far away from

militant places. i chose this place to live in peace, me and my kids. nick: this house was his life's work, his family's safe haven. >> my dream was that everyone -- israelis, palestinians -- who live near each other with peace, with love. and this bloody war must end, must end, because of our kids and their kids, for a good future for them. we must teach them how to love each other. nick: love might feel lost in khan younis, once home to half a million people, where today houses are flattened like pancakes and apartment blocks are cut into carcasses, including one more odeh family home. >> this is the last home that

my family owned in all of the gaza strip, after destroying my apartment in north gaza and my house in nuseirat camp. nick: the israeli military says it does not target journalists, and blames hamas for the death of gaza civilians. >> hamas places its weapons, its terrorists in hospitals, schools, mosques and throughout civilian areas. they do this in order to win immunity and to maximize civilian casualties. nick: as for shams, he will keep working and trying to protect his family, including the newest members. but he couldn't protect everyone. they were playing here, spend their life here. nick: but he couldn't protect everyone. 31 of his extended family have been killed. >> this is shams odeh. journalist shams odeh, spend his life as a peaceful person. but this is what happened to me. hardly we can find food. hardly we can have money.

but this will not stop our hope. we love you all and i will keep love you all. nick: for the pbs newshour, i'm nick schifrin. ♪ william: it's been five years since the islamic state, or isis, was defeated the u.s.-led military campaign in syria. -- defeated by a u.s.-led military campaign in syria. but today, nearly 10,000 isis fighters remain jailed inside syrian detention centers. human rights groups call conditions in the prisons abusive, and local authorities warn they are a breeding ground for radicalization and could help spark an isis revival. special correspondent leila molana-allen travelled to northeast syria to meet high security prisoners, and the regional forces that are still battling isis.

reporter: the horrors of isis, a threat long past, the world believed. isis' devastating attack on moscow came out of the blue. but for the middle eastern governments & aliens have been warning -- and it civilians who have been warning for months, it was all but inevitable. here in syria, where isis fighters are locked up in jails and tens of thousands more families languish in displacement camps, the syrian democratic forces have been begging their western allies to address the growing threat. >> [speaking another language] translator: the international community thinks isis has been defeated and there is no risk for them. this kind of thinking has given a chance for isis to reorganize themselves. they began a new strategy to start again. reporter: the vast desert is one of syria's moon most deadly

areas. isis controlled this territory for several years. the rugged open terrain makes it easy for militants to conceal weapons and fighters, harassed local farmers for money, and plan operations. we are on a patrol through the largest desert area leading up to the iraqi border. there are many villages here who still support isis. whenever there is a -- when ever there was an alert, commanders get out to speak about isis. many support isis, others are terrorized by them. they are trying to cash threats and eliminate them before they can carry out an attack, and to remind everyone who is in charge here. this commander knows the danger. he was permanently maimed in a 2016 isis explosion. >> our goal is to track down isis sleeper cells who are attacking and carrying out suicide bombings. we have done a lot of military

operations in this area, but still they are reorganizing themselves. leila: with so much ground to cover in such a high threat level, more and more militants are slipping to the net. prison break two years ago was staged from these sprawling sands. dozens of superglue ash dozens of sleeper cells attacked using armed rocks. a dozen prisoners would escape and never be captured, and 120 civilians were killed. the attack ended after 10 days, only thanks to coalition airstrikes. local authorities warn they could not defeat another escape attempt alone if u.s. forces leave syria. >> we were given where access to speak with a high-security prisoner before the moscow attack. he has been 20 up with islamist missions to fight islamic ideologies since he traveled to pakistan to support osama bin laden in the 1990's.

originally jordanian, the rest of his family are american citizens, and he claims he traveled to the u.s. regularly on visas until the mid to thousands. in syria, he signed up with isis as a suicide bomber but was captured. >> i was waiting for my time. it did not happen. outside this present, if i am able to make every minute a martyrdom, i would do it. >> but he was at the forefront of the prison break, handing weapons to other inmates. prisoners managed to sneak in mobile phones to receive instructions from attackers outside. >> the plan was when we hear the bomb, we have to break the walls and just break out. like, 15 or 20 minutes on the we were taking control of the whole prison. leila: authorities here would not let us see inside the cells,

but the prisoners allegedly live in bad conditions, with many suffering from tuberculosis. but that lack of oversight also allows them to continue their radicalization, operating a mini tablet exotic state -- islamic state undefeated. leila: inside the prison -- >> inside the prison, we were still implement an sharia. we would rather die than live this kind of life. leila: but the prisoners as they will keep trying to break out until they succeed. you told me you want any opportunity to fight america, to fight this government. how and why could you possibly be released? >> it does not matter how long we stay in prison. we are not going to change it. leila: the prison was destroyed and the prisoners are now housed in a new facility, but the attacks showed that keeping so many dangerous militants in these conditions with limited security forces is unsustainable.

there are thousands of isis linked prisoners being held here in a city of fewer than 450,000 people. many of those jails are in residential areas. the one just behind me, which holds some of the most dangerous captured ida's -- isis fighters is just meters from a busy shopping street and children playing. mohamed lives on this street. he knows just how real that threat is. his young family was at home when the shooting began. then banging on the front door. >> one of them was pointing a gun. the others walked in. they were all dressed in prison uniforms. in the clashes and shooting started. they killed my cousin. they shot him in his head here and it came out from the other side. leila: escaped fighters occupied homes, taking residence hostage as grenades reigned down over the narrow streets. beheading several residents that did not obey them. the hohman's five-year-old son has not slept through the night since. >> my son calls, daddy, it's

isis, in his sleep. daddy, will isis escape? will they come again? what have these children done to live this horror? out for bid they flee the prison again, what will happen to people -- god for bid they flee the prison again, what will happen to people? leila: there are 10,000 estimated isis fighters is still active in the area, and that number is growing. online, isis leaders have called on reporters. former u.s. army -- a former u.s. army colonel was the coalition spokesperson in iraq and syria at the height of the battle to defeat isis. for him, northeast of syria and overflowing jails are a ticking time bomb. --northeastern syria overflowing jails are a ticking time bomb. >> the world does not want to deal with these detainees. biden has followed the policy of the previous administration where nobody wants to talk much

about syria. the american public in particular does not hear much about isis until there is something like a massive attack that happened in russia. it is important, though, for the world to pay attention to isis. there are wealthy individuals who support isis's ideology. the scale and type of attacks that they conduct do not require a lot of money. but they are able to get a large effect out of them by having these attacks in highly visible places and recording the attacks and sharing it as propaganda that is designed to inspire other members of isis, designed to inspire potential recruits. leila: officials here are threatening to carry out their own trials if an international tribunal is not established, but in reality, do not have the jurisdiction to try many of these prisoners.

fighters sit and wait, plotting their escape, and the group's return to power. >> we have to fight to the last drop of our blood. we are insisting now to fight to america and all that is fighting with you. until it is either us or you guys. leila: for the pbs newshour, i am leila malan allen -- leila molana-allen. ♪ william: as protests on the war in gaza grew on college campuses this week, we also got the clearest vision yet for what former president trump might do with a second term. that brings us to the analysis of brooks and capehart. that's new york times columnist david brooks and jonathan capehart, associate editor for "the washington post."

so good to have you both here. david joining us from chicago. sorry to see you stuck in a television set. jonathan, to you first, on these protests we saw growing across college campuses around the country, calls for divestment, some clashes, police being sent in in some cases, what do you make of this growing protest movement? jonathan: one, what we are seeing is the passion of the students and the passion of the community around these universities over the issue of what is happening in gaza. remember, these protests started happening because of humanitarian crises in gaza. my big question is, with these demonstrations and protests continue after graduation and after school is out? what i am looking at his colleges are convening spaces, but what happens when you lose your convening space? will these demonstrations happen once all the students go back home?

that is thone thing i am wondering. also, we have seen a proliferation of these demonstrations over the past week, and i wonder if it is because a lot of the demonstrators on campuses you have not gone on record, they are going on record to show no, we have something to say about this, we are taking a stand. so maybe by this time next week were in a couple of weeks, i wonder if we are going to see the same level of intensity among young people on this issue. william: david, we saw that president biden was asked about whether these protests and the message of those protests were going to change his views on policy vis-a-vis israel and gaza. he said it was not. we have also seen this bipartisan passage of a law, of a bill clarifying what is antisemitism formally, i guess so that schools that don't punish it overtly could be punished themselves. do you think there will be

continued political reverberations from these protests? david: i think big time. in the 1960's, ronald reagan ran for governor, running against the berkeley protests. richard nixon ran for president running against the protests. it is not so much the protests, it is the violence that surrounds them. i am teaching at the university of chicago this term, and a couple thousand yards from here, the cam and is there, and the university had a clear policy, we express your right -- we support your right to express point of view, but we are not going to let you disrupt campus, disrupt learning. today the president sit on an email to everybody in the community saying we celebrate the right to make your statements. unfortunately, the students have been disruptive, they have torn down israeli signs, silenced speakers. they have interfered with learning in the campus. he sent out this ominous email. here are pretty tame compared to

other places, so when americans support is free speech. what they do not support is what looks like anarchy. i think if the protests continue to fear in the direction they are veering, you could see serious repercussions, which is why biden is speaking, why chuck schumer is speaking to distance themselves from what the protesters do. william: a lot of critics of these protests say it is all anti-semitism, a hot stew of aunt height really biased. i was at the nyu protest this week -- a hot stew of anti-israeli bias. i was at the nyu protest this week, and there is some of that, but many students are despairing over what is happening in gaza. how is it that people who care deeply about this issue can protest and not risk being branded as anti-semites? jonathan: there is anti-semitism, but you also said anti-israeli. william: i am even conflating it myself here. jonathan: exactly, and that is

the issue. it is possible to criticize the government of israel, the state of israel, the prime minister of israel, the policies, his actions without veering into ugly anti-semitism. if you don't like what prime minister benjamin netanyahu is doing and gaza, not allowing humanitarian aid to go through, that is a legitimate criticism, but to then go into all the ugliness, some of the ugliness we have heard, that is not ok. i do not understand why it is so hard to state your objections without being bigoted about it. william: i would like to pivot david. david, time magazine published this really remarkable story about donald trump. it was called "if he wins" and was based on two interviews with trump and a series of interviews with his associates. it lays out a series of ideas that trump wants to enact or would consider enacting in his

second term. i'm going to put up a list of some of the things. it involves monitoring women's pregnancies, perhaps deploying the u.s. military inside the united states to round up migrants, building large migrant detention camps, firing u.s. attorneys who do not prosecute cases at trump's direction. i know some of these things we have heard from donald trump before, but i wonder, when you see them all together like that, what do you make of this portrait of a possible second trump administration? david: i am reminded of the first tr of administration when you could not believe your mind could get more -- the first trump administration where you cannot leave your mind could get more mind boggled than it already was. this was a truly mind-boggling interview. the republican party used to to want to restrict the power of the state, and this is a radical desire to expand the power of the presidency. the idea that we are going to have the national guard rounding up immigrant families that have been here for years and

deporting them, those images will get ugly. the idea of president trump sort of saying you are going to prosecute this, it is unprecedented. it is just one mind-boggling thing after the other. gutting the treasury department, gutting the justice department. early it was trump giving him permission to be completely unleashed. we forget that he was a little surrounded by mature republicans in the first term, and now he is saying no more of that, i'm going to do what i want. this time, if reelected, he will have a cabinet of trumpians, which he did not have been 2017. it was a display of radical authoritarianism, which he is proud of. william: how did you see it? jonathan: in the run-up to this "time" interview, we had been hearing from him of some of these things on the campaign trail, but before we heard from senior advisers of his, say at

project 2025, going on the record -- william: this is the heritage foundation documents for how a second trump administration might unfold. jonathan: right, and they are pulling in these resumes and types of people they will have at the ready as a turnkey operation for the next republican president, who they think will be donald trump. those are the people talking about this. what was interesting about the "time" magazine interview and also the interview with the milwaukee journal sentinel is that trump is the one going on the record in a nerve with a reporter saying yeah, i am going to use the national guard and deploy them to american cities. yeah, we are going to round up millions of undocumented migrants and put them in prisons on the border. yeah, we are going to do all these things. it was most telling to me among many things in the interview -- what was most chilling to me among many things in the interview was my have always known about project 2025, but

what i did not know was that project 2025 is one of four out there right now -- four groups out there right planning for a trump 2.0 administration, taking on various aspects so that if he does indeed win in november, maybe by 1:00 p.m. on january 20, 2025, he will be able to get a whole lot of things done because they will have figured out where the guardrails are, how to remove them, how to remove the people who would stand in the way of things they want to do. william: can that "time magazine" piece, specifically talking about the upending of the department of justice, the reporter quoted one judge saying, look, those guardrails we are talking about are still there. if he tried to fire u.s. attorneys that did not heed his calls to prosecute his political enemies, there would be a public

uproar, quitting, revolt, basically. do you believe that is true? do you believe those guardrails are there and are strong enough? david: i have some doubt. i think there would be a lot of quitting. there would be a lot of people of iegrity who would not tolerate this. but the sad fact is, and you look at the polling, there was a lot more desire -- when you look at the polling, there is a lot more desire for, authoritarianism is a strong word, but there is more desire for people to break the rules to get things done. there was a desire for frequent roosevelt to act as a dictator. but there is always a constituency, this is an x really messed up country, we need a guide to take control, and if he needs -- an extremely messed up country, we need a guy to take control, and if he breaks rules along the way, so be it. william: david brooks and

jonathan capehart, thank you. ♪ the 2 million vietnamese americans in this country often find their stories are still told through the lens of the vietnam war, which ended almost 50 years ago. but as i learned on a recent trip to the gulf coast, a new generation is trying to tell a different story, about their lives today. it's part of our arts and culture series, "canvas." for artist christian dinh, almost everything he makes contains a tribute to home and community. at the ohr-o'keefe museum of art in biloxi, mississippi, dinh's memories of growing up in a large vietnamese-american family are embedded in his ceramic work. like this porcelain vase, where he inscribed his grandmother's recipe for steamed fish. >> my favorite out of the directions is towards the end, when she explains, you'll know when the fish is ready when the eyeballs turn white.

i remember her telling me that, and i was just like, what does that mean? can you give me a temperature or something else? reporter: or this enormous rice bowl, a giant replica of the small, plastic "longevity" bowls that are ubiquitous on family tables. >> these, in a way, these plastic wares are the fine china of asian-american culture. so i wanted to emphasize that one by its size. just making it a more monumental, piece, scaling it up, and then two by changing it back into its original material, which is ceramics. reporter: in another series, dinh reimagines the white display hands that are typically seen in vietnamese-american nail salons. he casts them in porcelain, an homage to his people's success in that industry. >> the nail salon series was a project that i started in 2020, really around the height of the asian hate crimes.

i knew i wanted to make this body of work to counteract all of the negative energy and stereotypes going on. over the decades, they have really turned that industry into a multibillion-dollar industry. besides the monetary figures, i kind of see it as this beacon of success that trickles down to the entire vietnamese american community that can be celebrated. william: the writings and the symbols that we see on there, what are those? christian: on each set of hands are my different ideas of success within the community. it can be as simple as having a meal with your family, cooking, setting the table. that is what i am getting at with the work, though i am coming from my own background, my own experience of vietnamese culture, it's not too different from any other cultures. always look at the work as not necessarily being vietnamese or

asian, but it's it's american work just as much. william: as the child of immigrants, raised in the u.s., dinh wanted to expand what it means to be vietnamese-american today. christian: when you hear stories about the vietnamese community, it usually revolves around the war. that is kind of where it ends. the word is not defined these people. -- does not define these people. is very important for them in their lives and what they've experienced, but they've also experience a whole new life, established a whole new community here in the united states. william: about an hour and a half west from biloxi, many forged that community here in new orleans. for decades the city's village de l'est neighborhood has been home to several thousand vietnamese-americans, including cyndi nguyen. >> people came down to new orleans because of the weather, because of the possibility of working immediately, because of the gulf. many of these immigrants were fishermen by trade.

william: nguyen and her family came to new orleans as part of that wave of refugees fleeing the chaos after the fall of saigon in 1975. she too planted roots in america, becoming the first asian-american to serve on the new orleans city council. >> my father say, well, we're going to new orleans. where is new orleans? well, that's where all the vietnamese people are going to. well, how did you know this? well, we just got word. so we moved to new orleans, where we saw people that looked like us. it was definitely comforting, especially in a new country. william: but just 30 years later, many of those immigrants had to flee their homes again when hurricane katrina drove them away. >> we had a lot of conversation with many of our residents, and they said, well, when katrina hit, it was just kind of like, where am i going to go? this is the only home i know. william: but in a show of resilience, nguyen says her community was one of the first to return, and among the fastest to rebuild. five years later, another blow.

the b.p. oil spill devastated the gulf's fishing industry and the livelihoods of many vietnamese-american shrimpers. but again, nguyen says, there was rebirth, a shift to farming in community-owned cooperatives like this. >> it's something to do with resilience and community. it's something to do with family. it's something to do with love. those are the big things. i happened to tell them through a vietnamese american lens, but they're themes that we all relate to in some kind of way. william: vietnamese-american composer dylan tran's first instrument was an old hand-me-down guitar passed from older brothers. but it was working in his father's laundromat where he was first inspired to weave his family's heritage into his own work. >> it was a couple of years after my dad had passed, and i was working at the laundromat that he owned, sitting in his office, smelling his smell. and while i was in there, i would be listening to, classical, traditional

vietnamese music. i had my manuscript paper. and in between mopping the floor and cleaning out the dryers and everything, i would go to the office and just transcribe, and i would write down everything i was hearing and try to get it as close as i possibly could. ♪ william: those ideas were central to his string quartet composition called "number one on viet themes." it became the score for the documentary "uncle, at sea" about the struggles of a gulf-coast vietnamese-american fisherman. and it was later performed at the ogden museum of southern art in new orleans. >> i cried countless times throughout it and afterwards thinking about it, because the response from the vietnamese community was, it just felt so huge. people who just heard about it on the street or saw a poster in a cafe and were just excited to see part of their culture

presented in this way. when i write music that is influenced by, you know, my vietnamese-ness, it's to express myself and it's to connect with other people who share that. and anyone is welcome to come and enjoy that, but it's, it's something that i do for us. it's something i do for us. william: and while this younger generation innovates, the timeless theme of resilience is threaded through their work. threaded through their work. this afternoon, president biden bestowed presidential medal of freedom. today's 19 recipients hail from nearly all corners of american life, from actors to astronauts to activists, like opal lee,

known as the grandmother of juneteenth. and to athletes like katie ledecky, the most decorated female swimmer of all time. at the white house, mr. biden called them all the "pinnacle of leadership in their fields." pres. biden: 61 years ago, president kennedy established the presidential medal of freedom to recognize "any person who has made an especially meritorious contribution to the security of national and national interests of the united states or world peace, cultural or other significant public, public or private endeavors." today we have another extraordinary honor to bestow on the nation's highest civilian honors of 19 incredible people whose relentless curiosity, inventiveness, ingenuity and hope have kept faith in a better tomorrow. william: it also included a number of high-profile politicians -- south carolina representative jim clyburn, anformer house speaker nancy pelosi, among others.

biden also acknowledged former vice president al gore, acknowledging his handling of a controversial presidential election. pres. biden: after winning the popular vote, he challenged the election for the sake of unity and our trust in our institutions. that is amazing to me what you did, al. history is going to remember you for many reasons. among them will be your honesty, your integrity, and the legacy of your services. thank you. [applause] william: three metals were given posthumously -- to medgar evers, and fought segregation in mississippi in the 1960's, to frank lautenberg, new jersey's

longest serving senator, and to jim for thorpe, a multisport phenom and the first native american to win an olympic gold medal. this week, our digital show dives into the war in gaza and how the ongoing conflict is playing out in the u.s. as protests have grown across college campuses. you can find that on our youtube channel. be sure to tune into "washington week with the atlantic" tonight, where jeffrey goldberg and his panel examine president biden's efforts to navigate the fallout of the israel-hamas war. and on pbs news weekend, what the pullout of american troops from chad and niger could mean for security in the african region. and before we go, we want to say goodbye to a dear colleague who's leaving us today. alexis cox has been with the newshour for 24 years. she started as a production assistant, and with her sharp writing and gentle, unflappable spirit, soon became an essential part of our newsroom.

she's helped shape our coverage of a quarter century of breaking news. she has been a mentor to many, a friend to all, and always a first-rate journalist. alexis, on behalf of all of us at the newshour, thank you. we will miss you enormously. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm william brangham. thank you for joining us. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- >> i-- it was an aha moment. this is what i love doing. emerging companies have an energy that energizes me. these are people trying to change the world. and i volunteer with women entrepreneurs, it is the same thing. i am helping people achieve their dreams. i am thriving by helping others every day. who know no bdo -- people who know know bdo.

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♪ hello, everyone, and welcome to "amanpour & company." here's what's coming up. ucla becomes the latest university to allow law enforcement to clear the student protesters. u.s. senat