geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i'm amna nawaz. on the "newshour" tonight, india begins its official investigation into the train crash that killed hundreds, a disaster that highlights the country's aging and dangerous rail infrastructure. geoff: journalists at newspapers owned by gannett walk off the job to protest the media company's pay and working conditions. amna: and a small town in texas finds itself embroiled in controversy as national politics fuels local pushback against lgbtq rights. >> literally just children doing crafts and art and having fun and existing, and they still show up to protest just their existence and them gathering. ♪

>> major funding for the "pbs newshour" has been provided by. >> the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the "newshour." >> it was like an a-ha moment. this is what i love doing. early-stage companies have this energy that energizes me. these are people who are trying to change the world. when i volunteer with women entrepreneurs, it's the same thing. i am helping people reach their dreams. i am thriving by helping others, every day. people who know, know bdo. >> the william and flora hewlett

foundation, for more than 50 years advancing ideas and supporting instituations to promote a better world. at hewlett.org. and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. stephanie: i'm stephanie sy with "newshour west." here are the latest headlines. new findings out tonight show the main cause of the climate crisis is rapidly getting worse.

carbon dioxide in the atmosphere hit record levels in the spring, the highest in more than four million years. the national oceanic and atmospheric administration also reports the build-up of the heat-trapping gas is accelerating. this year's rate of increase was one of the largest ever, and due almost entirely to burning fossil fuels. survivors and families in eastern india are demanding answers after a rail disaster that killed 275 people. investigators focused on the cause today as relatives waited for the remains of loved ones. the search for survivors is waning, but the search for answers continues. today, as repair workers dug through the mangled wreckage, investigators launched a two-day probe into what caused one of the deadliest train disasters india has seen in decades. >> the inquiry is underway. we have called all the witnesses for the inquiry, and after it is over, only then we will know

what is the reason for the accident. stephanie: early findings point to a signaling error that led a train to mistakenly switch tracks. officials say a south-bound passenger train collided with a stationary freight train in the eastern district of balasore. that caused several cars to derail, striking a third train speeding by. in the days since, only a fraction of the dead have been identified. a shortage of morgues forced about 100 unclaimed bodies to a hospital in bhubaneswa over 100 miles from the crash site. distraught relatives lined up outside to identify loved ones as their images, barely recognizable, popped up on a tv screen. >> i will die remembering him, i will die here if i don't get his body. i just want to take his dead body and go back home. stephanie: for others, the grief has already begun to set in. 20-year-old bijay lakshmi lost her husband in the crash. unable to speak, her

mother-in-law described her state of shock. >> she is just not in a position to talk. she has not eaten anything, she has not drunk anything, she has not even taken water. it is such a huge calamity, such grief and pain. she got married barely a year ago. stephanie: as families across india mourn, rail operations resume. trains crawled past the crash site, with passengers gazing out at the remains of a tragedy, yet to be explained. india's huge rail network has several hundred accidents every year. in ukraine, a surge in ground assaults by government forces fueled speculation today that a long-expected counter-offensive is beginning. russia's military claimed it repulsed attacks at five points in the donetsk region on sunday. russian video purportedly showed its forces throwing back the attackers. ukraine said its troops were gaining ground, and u.s. officials backed that claim.

the u.s. and india have set out a road map for upgraded military cooperation to counter china and other challenges. defense secretary lloyd austin arrived in new delhi today and held talks on improving defense and security ties over five years. the agreement comes weeks before indian prime minister narendra modi makes a state visit to washington. meantime, the u.s. denounced what it called an unsafe maneuver by a chinese navy ship in the taiwan strait. it happened saturday as an american destroyer and a canadian frigate were transiting the disputed waterway. video taken on board those ships showed the chinese vessel cutting within 150 yards of the u.s. warship. today, the white house condemned the maneuver. >> when you have pieces of metal that size, whether it's in the air or on the sea and they're operating that close together, it wouldn't take much for an error in judgment or a mistake to get made, and somebody could get hurt. and that's just got to be

unacceptable, and it should be unacceptable to them as well. stephanie: this was the latest in a series of incidents between the u.s. and chinese militaries in recent weeks. search teams in davenport, iowa have now recovered the bodies of three men missing in last week's apartment building collapse. the police chief said today there's no indication that anyone else is missing. a large section of the century-old building came down on may 28. today, one of the tenants sued the city and the building's owners, charging they failed to warn of the danger. investigators are focusing on why a small business jet buzzed washington, d.c. sunday before crashing in southwestern virginia. fighter jets were scrambled but they reported the plane's pilot appeared to be unconscious. footage today show the crash site on a heavily wooded mountainside. all four people on board were killed. the biden administration announced 70 million in grants

today to eliminate railroad crossings in 32 states. the funds will help build bridges and overpasses. in some places, trains stretching more than two miles can block crossings for hours. an oklahoma state school board approved today what would be the first publicly funded religious school in the u.s. the online catholic charter school would accept k-12 students across the state. oklahoma's attorney general has warned the action violates the state constitution and leaves room for potential legal action. microsoft will pay $20 million to settle federal civil charges that it violated children's privacy. the federal trade commission said the tech company collected children's information without their parents' consent when they signed into the x-box gaming system. a proposed order will limit what data microsoft can collect and retain about children. a former fbi agent who spied for

the soviet union and then russia for 16 years has died. robert hanssen was found unresponsive today in his federal prison cell in colorado. he'd been sentenced in 2002 to life behind bars. hanssen was 79 years old. still to come on the "newshour," tamara keith and amy walter break down the latest gop campaign events in iowa. more republican-led states abandon an election database designed to combat voter fraud. a florida professor breaks the record for days lived underwater. and much more. >> this is the "pbs newshour" from weta studios in washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. geoff: hundreds of journalists employed by gannett, the country's largest newspaper chain, went on strike today. staffers from two dozen newsrooms from california to new

york walked off the job, demanding livable wages and accusing gannett leadership of decimating its newsrooms. we're joined now by steven waldman, chair of the rebuild local news coalition. that's a nonprofit that aims to advance policies to counter the collapse of local news. he's also co-founder of report for america. thanks for being with us. and this walkout, as we mentioned, it includes workers from about two dozen newsrooms, to include the palm beach post, the arizona republic, the austin-american statesman. help us understand the significance of this labor action today. steven: well, this is really just a boiling over of this terrible situation that we're having with the collapse of local news. in general, around the country, we have seen just a very dramatic retraction of newspapers shutting down, reporters being laid off. and gannett has really been right in the center of that. they have shed almost half of the newspaper staff in just two

years. and this is the reporters trying to react as best they can to what's been happening, but it's kind of a reflection of a bigger problem, which is, america's local news system is collapsing. geoff: the newsguild, which represents about 1000 gannett staffers, they sent a letter to gannett shareholders last month urging a no-confidence vote against mike reed, the company's chief executive and chairman. what are the eloyees demanding exactly? steven: well, they want new leadership that would be more likely to invest in newsrooms. they want a strategy and leadership that will reverse the downward trend and reverse the trend of trying to get to financial stability by eliminating reporting jobs. there are gannett papers now that are daily newspapers that have no reporters on them, which is a pretty astonishing thought,

a daily newspaper without any reporters. so it's really gotten that bad, where the basic information that americans need in their communities is in many communities very hard to come by. geoff: when we talk about the collapse of local news, a report last year from medill's local news initiative found that, since the year 2005, the u.s. has lost more than a quarter of its newspapers, and is on track to lose a third by the year 2025. what's lost when we lose local news outlets? steven: we're losing about two newspapers a week currently in this country. and that almost understates the problem, because, in addition to the newspapers that are going out of business, the ones that are still there, you have the ones like in salinas, california, where you have the daily newspaper with no reporters. so those are kind of ghost newspapers. and it's a profound impact on american communities. it's been shown over and over

again that, when local news goes away, you have more corruption, you have higher taxes, you have more polarization. you actually -- it's actually -- this collapse of local news is related to the rise of polarization, because what happens is, that vacuum that's created by the decline of local information gets filled by national cable tv or social media. so it's part of that trend too. so you end up with both of a threat to democracy and its nitty-gritty way of like, you just don't have information about who to vote for, no one's holding the mayor accountable. but it also just leads to the community frays. people don't know each other. people aren't learning about their neighbors. and it contributes to this fragmentation that exists. so it's both the health of the democracy and the health of the community are both drastically harmed by the decline of local news.

geoff: a decline in advertising revenue, a decline in print circulation, that has really hit local newspapers hard. is there a path back to profitability at all for these local news outlets? steven: we're seeing a new local news system growing up that has a real shot. so it's mostly family-owned or locally owned papers, not owned by chains, and nonprofits that have been -- 350 have been created in the last few years. and those two groups have found a formula to get to break-even, not necessarily wild profits like they used to have, but being a strong civic institution. and what that means is that it's not going to be done just through advertising. it has to be a combination of advertising, reader revenue through subscriptions, and probably philanthropy to help meet the -- make the lines meet. and, actually, i would say

probably taxpayer support in some cases is going to be needed to try to help save local news in some places as well. geoff: steven waldman is co-founder of report for america and chair of the rebuild local news coalition. thanks so much for your time. steven: thank you for having me. ♪ amna: the race for the 2024 gop ononnae nopoheli ititicig an os, but three others are waiting in the wings. as laura barron-lopez reports, most of the contenders were making the rounds in iowa this weekend. laura: one potential republican candidate sitting out. gov. sununu: i have made the decision not to run for president on the republican ticket in 2024. laura: chris sununu, a fierce trump critic and the governor of first-in-the-nation primary state new hampshire, choosing not to run against the former president. gov. sununu: if you're not talking in resonance against the cando'idt e tewhnts i'l'yt righw

auditioning to be on his team. laura: for the gop hopefuls this weekend, an iowa tradition, senator joni ernst's annual roast and ride fund-raiser, one of the first 2024 cattle calls, where nearly all the republican candidates made their case to early state voters. former vice president mike pence teasing his official campaign launch set for later this week. mr. pence: i don't have anything to announce today, but i can tell you, when i have got time to announce, come this wednesday, i'm annocing in iowa. laura: noticeably absent, current poll leader donald trump. other candidat like former u.n. ambassador nikki haley, took aim at the former president, though not by name. ms. haley: it's time for a new generational leader. we have got to leave the baggage and the negativity behind. we have got a country to say. laura: a line she repeated during a cnn town hall last night, as she also attacked florida governor ron desantis for spending taxpayer dollars fighting disney. ms. haley: all this vendetta

stuff, we have been down that road again. we can't go down that. laura: back in iowa saturday, desantis said the gop needs to nominate someone who can win a general election. gov. desantis: we need to dispense with the culture of losing that has beset the republican party in recent years. iowa shows it can be done. florida shows it can be done. we had red waves in 2022, the rest of the country not so much. laura: and former arkansas governor asa hutchinson, a trump detractor, instead directed his ire to the current president. mr. hutchinson: i'm running for president because joe biden's policy are the wrong direction for america. people ask me, what would you do on your first day in office? i will sign an executive order reversing biden's executive orders. laura: he was not alone. south carolina senator tim scott pitched himself as the best candidate to take on democrats. sen. scott: i scare the dickens out of the radical left and joe biden.

the proof of my life destroys their lies. laura: for nearly two hours, eight gop hopefuls took the stage. though one of the first big multi candidate events, it will hardly be the last. all the candidates will likely be frequent fliers to the hawkeye state, as they try to gain support and donors to qualify for the first republican primary debate in august. for the “pbs newshour,” i'm laura barron-lopez. geoff: for more on how the 2024 republican field is shaping up, we turn to our politics monday team. that's amy walter of the cook political report with amy walter and tamara keith of npr. well, hello, hello. tamara: hello. geoff: let's start our conversation about the 2024 race with a bit more about the politician who says he's not going to get into this. that's new hampshire governor chris sununu. he wrote an op-ed for the washington post, part of which i will read. he says this -- “if trump is the nominee, republicans will lose again, just as we did in 2018, 2020 and 2022. this is indisputable and i am not willing to let it happen

without a fight.” he argues that he will have much more power and influence as a kingmaker in new hampshire. is he right about that? amy: well, i do not think so. i think there is about 10% to 15% of the republican electorate that is interested in non-trump candidate -- actually not just a non-trump candidate, but an anti-trump candidate. they appeal to those voters, again, very, very narrow. but for the rest of republican voters, they are looking for maybe an alternative, maybe 50% to 60% looking for an alternative to donald trump. they aren't looking for an anti-trump. that's why governor sununu had such a narrow lane in the very first place. his ability in new hampshire, also, i would put a question mark next to in terms of being a kingmaker. in 2022, the candidates that he endorsed in primaries went on to lose to candidates who filled much more of the trumpy

category. geoff: and, tam, i read some analysis this morning that there are basically three lanes, to pick up on what amy's talking about. that's the trump lane, the ron desantis lane and then the everybody else lane. so what does it mean for this race to have three more candidates jump in this week? tamara: one thing that is very clear is that donald trump did not clear the race. he has a lot of people who are looking for a possibility of being the anti-trump or the alternative to trump or the candidate who can be president for eight years, and not just four years. and they're all still feeling out exactly how much they draw that contrast. and they're all being so careful about it, except chris christie, in theory, is going to get in and not be so careful about it and might break some glass. but the others are being so careful, because, as amy says, you can't be anti-trump, when he is still this outsized figure in

the party, even as he faces, even as there was the insurrection, and even as he faces various investigations, and the drama and the chaos, that many voters have some reluctance about it still him versus the rest of the field, which is exactly what ended up being in 2015-2016. geoff: and listening to nikki haley in iowa talking about, we have to leave behind the baggage and leave behind the negativity, ron desantis talking about dispensing with the culture of losing. amy: right. geoff: you're talking about donald trump, but they're not naming him. amy: without saying -- right, saying donald trump. geoff: i mean, is that going to be enough? is that enough? amy: we're going to find out soon enough, but i think they are trying to make the case that, hey, look, you can have all of the trumpism that you love, but it can be more effective, either effective in bringing people into the party, independent voters we keep losing. or, with ron desantis, i will be a culture warrior who's more effective than donald trump was on some of the things like critical race theory, other issues that he's taken on in florida.

but the thing about -- we all know around this table, the thing we know about politics is you can come up with a great idea in a test tube about what a campaign should be and what the voters want to hear. but if they don't really think it's the right message, then it's not really going anywhere. it is pretty clear there's some fatigue with donald trump from voters. doesn't mean that they don't like him anymore. but there is the fatigue about, ugh, maybe the chaos and people, the divisions, all the things that he helped to sow that, if they can -- as to tam's point, if they can keep that needle threaded, they might be able to convince voters who liked donald trump to pick somebody else as the nominee. geoff: well, tam, looking ahead a bit, the republican national committee, they have announced the first 2024 republican presidential primary debate. and they have also outlined the qualifying criteria. and so, it's this. candidates have to register at least 1% in three national polls.

they also need at least 40,000 donors with at least 200 donors per state in 20-plus states. and the candidates also have to sign a pledge agreeing to support the eventual party nominee. open question there, does donald trump participate? does he sign on to this pledge? tamara: and does someone like chris christie, who says that he wouldn't support donald trump as president, does he sign on to this pledge? geoff: yes, good point. tamara: and this pledge is bigger than just that. it also includes agreements to share data and voter file information with the rnc. so there is kind of a lot at stake for these candidates in making that decision. i think as, it was in the past, will donald trump show up? i think this is a question that is frequently asked and that he loves having asked. and will -- he didn't show up this weekend in iowa. will that affect him negatively? or does it make him look like the big guy who doesn't need to show up? if he appears on a stage with a minibus full of other

candidates, which is what we're headed towards, then does that make him look small, when he is still -- many people in the publican party call him the president of the united states, not the former president so does appearing on a debate stage bust his mystique of being a winner? and is he willing to do that? geoff: well, amy, these rules are more stringent than what democrats required of their candidates back in 2020. what is the rnc trying to achieve here? amy: well, i think they would like to have as narrow of a stage as possible in order to make it an interesting debate, right? you want to have the people on stage who have a reasonable chance of breaking through. the other thing we know, though, about candidates even who today are polling in very low numbers, some of those candidates break through that we didn't expect. i don't think pete buttigieg early on was expected to do as well as he did, or some of the other candidates in the past who

started off at a very low number. but i think tam is right. it's not so much, can they hit the thresholds, the 1%? most of the these candidates are hitting 1% in the national polls. they are -- they know how to get these donors through targeting. but the question will be, does donald trump show up? that is everything. geoff: can we draw on your white house reporting as we wrap up our conversation here? tamara: yes, please. geoff: what's the word from the biden campaign, the biden white house? what argument did they intend to make moving forward? tamara: they are making an argument that the president made in an oval office address on friday night, which is that here's a president who can get big bipartisan deals done, that america needs to be less divided, and that he is a messenger of that less divided america. that same speech also, though, included him going after -- he didn't use maga republicans, but he meant it -- going after republicans and republican policies that he disagrees with, saying, these are not the republicans i can work with that i used to work with that i knew from the senate.

and i think, notably, his campaign, don't expect to see big campaign rallies or big events anytime soon. he's the president of the united states. and his campaign is very few people being sort of scaffolded by the democratic national committee. and they're not acting like they have a primary, because they're not going to have debates. amy: yeah. geoff: all right, tamara keith and amy walter, thank you both. amy: you're welcome. ♪ amna: in texas, lgbtq rights are under attack everywhere from the halls of the capitol to the streets of small towns. on friday, republican governor greg abbott signed into law a ban on gender-affirming care for minors. republican lawmakers have also targeted drag performers. laura barron-lopez is back with her report from one texas town

where a fight over drag has exposed deep divisions. laura: once a month in taylor, texas, lgbtq families and supporters gather to make art, watch movies, and show off their talents. it is a space for members of the taylor pride group to connect. but wherever they go, the taylor area ministerial alliance follows. >> i know you know that, and you suppress that truth and unrighteousness. laura: known here as tama, the group of orthodox christian churches protest these events, in their words, to evangelize. and so they have, every month, says denise rodgers, who founded taylor pride in 2020. denise: we are just trying to exist and they show up wherever we are every time. literally just children doing crafts and art and having fun and existing, and they still show up to protest just their existence and them gathering. laura: now veterans and other groups stand guard outside the

events. and the taylor police are stationed nearby to keep the peace. denise: taylor is changing in a big way. it is easy right now to say that taylor pride is part of the problem, because i think that we are probably the most noticeable change right now. jeff: taylor is a typical rural community in a lot of ways, but it has changed a lot, i would say, recently. laura: jeff ripple is a pastor at the christ fellowship church and a tama member, unapologetic about his anti-lgbtq beliefs. shouldn't those kids have a place to be able to be who they are and to express their identity? jeff: i'm not saying they should not. when i go to an event, whether it is the pride event in june or whether it's to the library, i'm not out there because i hate anybody. i'm out there because i actually love them. and the reason i'm out there, in love, is because i actually

believe what the scripture says, that those lifestyles are opposed to god, they are deemed sinful by god, and those who practice those lifestyles will experience hell one day. i mean, i believe that. laura: both ripple and rodgers have put down roots in this railroad town, home to 17,000 people. it is growing rapidly, with the construction of a major samsung plant and rising costs in nearby austin driving families out of the city, families like alecia marcum's. she left austin for taylor in 2014 and earlier this year opened a restaurant. she believes most of the community supports taylor's lgbtq residents. alecia: i think that we should be all-inclusive here. as a business owner here, my first and foremost mission is to serve the community in every sense of the word. and that means all of the community. laura: up the road, angelica salazar runs a hot dog stand

with her husband. she was born and raised in taylor and worries some newcomers are forcing the city too far left. so, what do you think about the lgbtq community in taylor? angelica: they're very progressive. i love their commitment. the only thing is, i don't want to be pushed onto people that are not in that lifestyle. laura: some taylor residents point to a single event when they describe the divisions here, the town christmas parade, which has come down this street for decades. that, they say, is what put taylor on the front line of the war on lgbtq rights. in 2021, for the first time, the line of christmas floats on main street included one from taylor pride, which carried drag queens. one of the performers was felicia enspire. felicia: we were cheered and clapped for the entire parade. i felt like everyone enjoyed it. we didn't hear any kind of

backlash at all, until the following year, and it's like it exploded all over facebook out of nowhere. laura: that explosion happened in the months leading up to the 2022 christmas parade. tama, which put on the parade with the city, didn't want any float with drag queens. jeff: drag queens in a christmas float is not consistent with forms, we simply made a notation that said all entries must conform with traditional family and biblue vics.al and that created a firestorm. laura: residents like angelica salazar agreed with the exclusion of drag performers from the parade. angelica: i would say keep the drag queens out of it because i equate drag queens with strippers, and keep it age-appropriate. go ahead, have your float like everybody else has their float,

but keep the drag queens out of it. laura: the city and mayor brandt rydell stepped in when they found out tama changed the rules to exclude taylor pride. brandt: given that we're a community that is very open and welcome, embracing -- in fact, our parade at its best includes people from throughout the community -- we were put into a difficult situation there to make a call on how we're going to handle the parade. so we did not want to disrupt their parade, but, then again, we did not want to be discriminatory and excluding those who wanted to participate in the parade as they had in the past. laura: so, last year, there were two back-to-back parades, one sponsored by the city that included taylor pride's float with drag queens, and one sponsored by tama that didn't. it was a short-term local solution, as attacks on drag performers have increased, fueled by republicans on the national stage. gov. desantis: florida is where woke goes to die. rep. greene: we have had enough of drag queens gyrating in front of children. rep. gaetz: how much taxpayer

money should go to fund drag queen story hours on military bases? laura: the agenda has taken hold in texas. brigitte: my name is brigitte bandit, and i'm speaking in opposition to sb-12. laura: where a ban on drag performances in front of kids was among the dozens of anti-lgbtq bills introduced by republicans this session. state sen. hughes: drag shows are sexually explicit and expose children to issues of sexuality and identity that should be reserved for adults. laura: opponents a drag is an art form, not overtly sexual, and that parents should decide what's appropriate for their kids. ultimately, the explicit reference to drag was removed from the legislation due to fear of legal challenges. felicia: even though it doesn't specifically say drag anymore, it's still going to be a tool that can be used to target drag queens and the lgbt community as a whole. these people can try to get us to go back into our closets and tone ourselves down or act and

behave differently than what they consider to be normal and everything, but queer people have been around since the beginning of humankind, and we're not going anywhere. laura: last month, taylor officials approved the city's first ever policy for events like parades. it says, “events co-sponsored by the city must align with taylor's mission and vision,” which means they will effectively be open to everyone. so what do you think a christmas parade in 2023 will look like? brandt: i think the city will have a christmas parade, and we will be inclusive of all groups that want to participate. and we would love for tama to be involved in that as well. laura: t jeff: i would like to see a tama parade with biblical values. what the city does apart from that is their business. laura: but denise rodgers says what's happening in taylor and across texas is about more than parades. denise: it's really about eradicating an entire class of people.

>> you should all be in jail. laura: and she says the rising anti-lgbtq efforts in red states across the country are being acutely felt by lgbtq youth. denise: they're feeling less supported. they're feeling that there's less resources. and we worry about that. the kind of help they're reaching out for is -- we have a lot of scared youth, for sure. laura: rodgers says that's why taylor pride won't stop holding events. >> good job, buddy. laura: even as people challenging their very existence stand at the door. for the “pbs newshour,” i'm laura barron-lopez in taylor, texas. ♪ amna: a new investigative report reveals the roots of a growing movement to unravel a critical election integrity tool. the tool is called eric, or the

electronic registration information center. simply, it checks voter registration rolls from participating states against databases from other agencies, like social security or a state dmv. that helps states keep track of voters who passed away, or moved into or out of state, translating into a more accurate and up to date list of eligible voters. npr's miles parks has covered election security for years. he joins me now to unpack what he found and the potential impact on voter rolls across the country. good to see you. this system was created to improve the accuracy of voter rolls, to help prevent voter fraud. do we know if it was working? miles: election officials, both democrats and republicans, say it was. i had been covering voting for six years and i never heard anyone to size it until last year. in 2021, they caught more than 3 million records that were out of date for people who moved states. amna: and support on both sides of the aisle.

there were as many as 33 member states in the district of columbia taking part at some point. and an exodus of some sort happened. the secretary of state announcing that louisiana would be quitting the program. here is that moment. >> sent a letter to the election registration information tool. suspending louisiana's participation in that program. amna: miles, it's the applause that struck me in this clip. how did people know about this program? why did they care and why did they want to be out of it? miles: when i watched that clip, i was struck, because i thought i was the only person who knew what eric was. and then you have got this roomful of people who are super passionate about it. it's important to note, a week before that event, a far-right website called the gateway pundit started writing articles

about eric, saying, basically, it was a left-wing conspiracy to help democrats steal elections. none of that was true. but it started moving towards becoming a pressure campaign over the last year, where we saw it start on this fringe far-right website, make its way to all of these local -- like that video shows, local integrity groups that have popped up since 2020 all over the country, and found its way to state lawmakers, to state election officials, to their e-mails, to their phone calls. we just saw this entire pressure campaign built around eric until clearly a number of states thought it was untenable. amna: how did it spread so quickly? like, who was talking about it? and how many more groups like that one are there out there? miles: well, so our investigation centered on a key trump ally named cleta mitchell. you might remember her. she is a very influential attorney, republican election attorney, who now hosts a podcast about voting that she used to spread a lot of anti-eric misinformation. she also runs a coalition of these sorts of grassroots groups

all over the country. and she was basically telling all these people, go to your state lawmakers, tell them to withdraw from eric. and now she and a lot of the people in this world are claiming victory. amna: so, when you look at the map, right, we mentioned there were some 33 states in the district of columbia at some point taking part in this eric program. and you see they're highlighted there, the member states at some point. next, we're going to show you the eight states that have since left -- iowa, missouri, ohio, louisiana, west virginia, virginia, florida, and alabama, all republican-led, we should point out. this program works when states take part in it, right? so what are we talking about in terms of potential impact when states leave the program? miles: i mean, what we're talking about is less efficient and less secure elections. that's what every election official has told me. that's what every election expert has told me. so, over time, if you have slight inaccuracies in your voter rolls, it's not going to be the next day after a state pulls out, the entire election system is just going to collapse.

what it means is, over time, it can mean longer lines at precincts because they're less targeted for where people are actually living. it can mean election mail, which can be information, it can be mail ballots, getting sent to the wrong places, which can be a security issue, as well as in inefficiency. taxpayer dollars are going to pay for mail that is not being received by voters. so there's all these different downstream effects from having less accurate voter rolls. but the election experts i talked to were just as concerned about what this says about the power of the election denial movement in this country. we have seen this growing group of people motivated by former president trump to push these ideas that the 2020 election was stolen. we have not seen them get a lot of victories in terms of policy. we haven't seen a lot of states go back to hand-counting ballots or anything, or get rid of mail voting or early voting, other things that these people want. but this is something that they kind of planted their flag on last year, and we're seeing states respond.

amna: is it fair to say -- and people should go to the web site and read your full report for all the incredible reporting you have done -- these are groups that are arguing they want to prevent voter fraud. they want to protect election integrity. by your reporting, it seems like, by leaving this program, ey're actually doing the opposite. miles: and that's really the common through line with a lot of the election denial movement, frankly, is pushing for policies in the name of election integrity that are actually hurting election integrity. i mentioned hand-counting ballots is something that is a big priority for a lot of these people. we know from research that hand-counting ballots is a much less accurate way than using machines to count them. amna: miles parks, is it fair to say we will see other states leaving as well? miles: it's very possible. texas looks like they're up next. amna: all right, we will continue to follow it all. miles parks of npr, fantastic reporting. thank you for joining us to talk about it. miles: thanks for having me. ♪

geoff: we will be back shortly to hear from a professor about why he is living underwater. amna: first, take a momento arm heit is a chance to offer yr support which helps keep programs like ours on the air. ♪ geoff: for those of you staying with us, we take a key look at a sickened part of florida's economy. they are expected to have an especially bad citrus harvest on the story that originally aired on pbs news weekend, william brangham looks at how this threatens a way of life for many floridians. william: central florida, orange groves as far as the eye can see. it is not so visible is the disease that is slowly killing one of the state's biggest industries. if i did not know better i would

look at this and think this looks like you have a lot of fruit, the tree looks pretty decent to me. >> it looks like a lot of fruit because you don't know how much fruit should be on the tree. these trees are suffering. they are not generating an economic crop. william: frank is a third-generation citrus grower. his grandfather started the hunt brothers family business in florida a century ago. all that fruit that dropped his waist? >> it is waste. 50% to 60% of the crop ultimately drops on the ground before it is harvested. william: an insect borne bacteria has affected virtually every orange tree in his groves. >> some trees take longer than others to die but we are basically fighting a losing battle. william: further business, it has had a devastating impact. so this would have been loaded with oranges? >> full conveyor. william: millions of oranges

were processed, sorted, and shipped from this packinghouse. if i had been here at its peak, what would this have sounded like or look like? >> we would not be talking because the machinery is such that he would have the conveyors running. where we are standing was actually the packing area. william: last year the conveyor belts were turned off, doors shuttered, and 50 workers lost their jobs. you have a couple of cobwebs here. >> this is the first time i have walked back here in a while. we start crying, y'all forgive me. william: this year florida projects its orange harvest will be the lowest since the 1930's. >> i look back to when i first started working in citrus in 2004. florida produced over 220 million boxes of oranges. william: michael rogers is the director of the university of florida's citrus research and education center. >> fast forward 20 years and we cannot produce enough oranges.

we are down to a 16 million box crop. william: while several factors are to blame, hurricanes damaged a lot of trees when they tore through florida last year. rogers says the main issue is citrus greening disea insects. while nearly impossible to see with the naked eye, their impact has been catastrophic. >> pretty much all the trees now are infected with this disease. the ones that are not were planted yesterday because it does not take long for them to become infected. william: the disease slowly kills the roots, which starves the tree of nutrients. it often changes the color and ruins the taste of the fruit. that is if the fruit doesn't fall from the limb first, far too early to be harvested. >> before you see any symptoms

of this disease in the plant, we will lose 30% to 40% of the root system. the leaves start to get these mottled appearances. they don't look nice, dark green, they look weak and stunted. >> a day without orange juice is like a day without sunshine. william: since the vast marity of florida's oranges are squeezed into juice, this disease haalso squeezed wallets. orange juice is just the latest staple to slam inflation-weary consumers. whether it's fresh-squeezed or concentrated, retail prices have hit record highs for both. >> it is blueberry puree. william: citrus greening has also hit smaller growers especially hard. >> most all of your mom and pop, i would say, farmers that had 10, 20, 40, 80 acres, they're very few and far between. william: archie ritch runs this general store in haines city, florida, selling his fruit into his freshly squeezed juice directly to customers. on top of citrus greening, last year's hurricanes left him with his worst orange harvest since he started here in 1992. five years from now, 10 years

from now, are you still growing citrus in florida? >> it's hard for me to imagine florida without having citrus. i don't think it'll ever get back to where it was. >> this threat, we've never dealt with anything this severe, of this capacity, where it has just brought our industry basically to its knees. william: brenda eubanks-burnette runs the florida citrus hall of fame. she has been involved in the industry since 1981, when she was named florida's citrus queen. >> once a queen, always a queen. william: i don't think i've ever interviewed a queen before. eubanks-burnette says citrus has always been a part of the state's dna and she remains optimistic about the future. >> we're seeing people investing back into the industry. so hopefully it's not something that's going to be completely going away. but there were some times and we did not think that we were going to have an industry here in florida. william: back at the university of florida's citrus research facility, several solutions are being tested.

one is growing trees under these gigantic protective canopies. they are covered with a mesh that's fine enough to block the insects, but still allow rain and sunshine in. another is developing new, blight-resistant varieties of citrus trees. >> there's a lot of things that we can do that are short term fixes to try to keep these trees healthy. but ultimately, the solution is going to come in the form of a new variety, a new citrus plant variety that's resistant to disease, whether it be through conventional breeding or genetic modification. william: but today, there is still no cure. and many of these solutions are not affordable for growers like frank hunt. but he's not giving up. hunt says he is passing is 4000 acres onto his son. >> the question would be is, is there anything for the generation after that? and i don't know. and i don't know what that will look like. william: it's a question many people here in florida are now asking.

for "pbs news weekend," i am william brangham in lake wales, florida. ♪ amna: living under the sea is, for some, a nightmare, but, for others, it's an important undertaking to see what oceanic pressure does to the human body. our digital anchor, nicole ellis, spoke to one such person who's staying 22 feet below the surface of a lagoon in key largo, florida. he's already long outlasted a previous record for living underwater and hopes to make it to 100 days. nicole: a professor at the university of south florida has been living underwater without depressurization for over 75 days and plans to stay a little while longer. joe dituri, also known as dr. deep sea online, joins me now to discuss his journey and research under the sea.

so, this isn't your first time tackling something like this. what motivated you to do it this time? dr. dituri: oh, interesting question. what motivated me to do this? i would say it's the culmination of so far my life's work. and this is basically just the pointy end of the spear. we took all the 28 years of navy experience, the phd in biomedical engineering, the zest for life and desire to explore, and we threw it all together, and we're like, what happens to the human body when you leave it in an isolated, confined, extreme environment? we will find out. nicole: what do you miss most about being on land? or what have you grown to appreciate more? dr. dituri: oh, well, two things very much so. tactile. there's lack of tactile function here, the high-fives, the handshakes, the hugs. there's not a lot of that going on down here. and the second thing, which was a little bit surprising to me, the sunlight winds up being something that you really need.

you really do need it. and i miss that. and i forget how much i'm driven by the sun. nicole: this is obviously dedicated to and in homage to science. and what are some of the scientific findings and things that you hope to accomplish through your research? dr. dituri: my desire is to give a broader understanding to the world of the mechanism of action of hyperbaric medicine, such that we can apply it across a broad spectrum of things that are happening, like anti-aging for our aging population to increase their vitality and health, including crohn's, ulcerative colitis, including a lot of things like traumatic brain injury. nicole: what is hyperbaric medicine? and how does this contribute to our understanding of how this could help resolve different issues like traumatic brain injuries? dr. dituri: terrific question. yeah, hyper means more than. baric means pressure. so all we are doing is hyperbaric medicine.

all this is, is pressurizing somebody in -- with either oxygen or without oxygen. so here i am underwater for 100 days. and so far, my oxidative stress is cut by two-thirds. every single inflammatory marker in my body is cut by half. and these are preliminary results, mind you. they're only the first phase of them. we have more blood work to do. we have about 200 more blood, urine and saliva tests to do. nicole: so you have been down there for a while now. what does a typical day look like for you? dr. dituri: i wake up at probably around 4:30, 5:00 in the morning. i have always been an early riser. i come in, i have a couple of cups of coffee, because guess what, science does not happen without coffee. bottom line is, i will eat a bunch of eggs in the morning, i will do my checks, figure out all the science that i have to do for the day, and mix it in with whatever interview i happen to have or whatever outreach i have for the kids. mesh all that together, you wind up having about six hours' worth

of science, about two or three hours worth of outreach, and about two or three hours worth of interviews or getting in line. and then i always go for a dive. once a day, i get out of this habitat, go swim around the lagoon. yesterday, i found a seahorse. it was great. the day before that, oh, a manatee was in the lagoon, and i got some great video of the manatee. nicole: as a fellow diver, i am so envious. but as you have mentioned, this is for a purpose. and i'm curious to hear from you what you want the world to take away from what you're doing. dr. dituri: we have a reefold purpose. first, i want to find out what happens to the human in the isolated, confined, extreme environment. the second part is, we're reaching out to the kids. and when you speak with the kids about science, technology, engineering, and math, they're all high school, grade school kids. and, at first, they're all frumpy, and they're sitting down. but i tell you, by the end of the hour-long lecture, they're hanging on their seat and they're like, don't go, don't go. i have one more question. so we're getting them.

but -- and the third and final thing is, we're talking to experts. 60% to 70% of the world's oxygen comes from the ocean, and we should start taking better care of it. and then i share that with the kids. and we just raise awareness. and it is world oceans week coming up. nicole: would you do this again? dr. dituri: absolutely. not tomorrow, but i would do it again. [laughter] nicole: dr. dituri, thank you so much for joining me. for the “pbs newshour,” i'm nicole ellis. amna: i hope he makes it to 100 days. geoff: his enthusiasm is infectious. amna: it is. good luck to him. remember, there is more online, including a look at how the congressional deal to raise the debt ceiling will impact federal student loan repayments. geoff: and that is the "newshour" for tonight. i'm geoff bennett. amna: i am amna nawaz. on behalf of the entire "newshour" team, thank you for joining us.

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introducing a technological achievement so advanced... it rivals the moon landing. wow! ok. rude. that's one small step for man.

one giant leap for mankind. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -today on "america's test kitchen," keith makes julia pasta cacio e uova. adam reviews the best chef's knives under $75. dan makes orecchiette with broccoli rabe and sausage. it's all coming up right here on "america's test kitchen." ♪♪