wow, you get to watch all your favorite stuff. it's to die for. now you won't miss a thing. this is the way. the xfinity 10g network. made for streaming. ♪ geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i'm amna nawaz, in kyiv, ukraine. on the newshour tonight, allies urge restraint in israel's response to iran's unprecedented weekend attack. geoff: history is made as former president trump's criminal trial for making alleged hush money payments to an adult film actress gets underway in new york. amna: and, our exclusive

interview with ukrainian president volodymyr zelensky, on the war with russia and the uncertainty around united states aid >> i can tell you frankly, without this support, we'll have no chance of winning. ♪ >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by. the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the newshour, including leonard and norma, and judy and peter bloom kovalova foundation. >> you don't need vision to do most things in life. yes, i'm legally blind and yes, i'm responsible for the user interface.

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>> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ geoff: welcome to the newshour. tensions remain high in the middle east as we wait to see if israel responds to iran's barrage of drones and missiles over the weekend. president biden said while the u.s. commitment to israel is unwavering, the administration would not support a retaliatory strike. amna: that's right, geoff. and another country helping for more u.s. support is ukraine. i spoke with ukrainian president

volodymyr zelenskyy to talk about that, its war with russia, and much more. but first, we start in the mideast, where the region is on edge. nick schifrin has our report. nick: at the site of the first ever iranian missile strike on israeli territory, israel's top general warned iran, payback was coming. >> as we look forward, we weigh our steps. and this launch of so many missiles, cruise missiles, and drones onto the territory of the state of israel, will be met with a response. nick: iran's unprecedented attack of more than 300 drones and missiles lit up the sky saturday night and sunday morning across the country. world leaders quickly rallied to israel's defense. but, following u.s. officials' urging israel not to respond to iran militarily, today, a unified european message of restraint. french president emmanuel macron. >> we are going to try to convince israel that we should

not respond by escalating. nick: german foreign minister annalena baerbock. >> israel has won defensively thanks to its strong air defenses. this defensive victory must now be insured diplomatically. nick: and british foreign secretary david cameron. >> our hope is that there won't be a retaliatory response. nick: israel says it blocked iran's ballistic missiles, thanks in part to its air defense system arrow 3, built to counter iranian threats. they also got lucky. two u.s. officials confirm that half of iran's more than 100 ballistic missiles failed in flight. israel's success was also the product of a defensive coalition. when the strikes from iran, and iranian-backed proxies in iraq, syria and yemen, began, the u.s. had already made agreements with arab states including jordan and saudi arabia. the u.s. military says it shot down more than 80 iranian drones. israeli defense minister yoav gallant hopes that sets a diplomatic precedent. >> we have an opportunity to

establish a strategic alliance against this grave threat by iran which is threatening to mount nuclear explosives on these missiles, which could be an extremely grave threat. >> what we've seen is proof of concept that, when the security and strategic concerns of our partners align, they can absolutely work together. nick: dana stroul is the research director and a senior fellow at the washington institute for near east policy, and the former deputy assistant secretary of defense for the middle east. she says the shoot-downs were successful because of regional coordination that, until this weekend, was untested. >> what we saw on saturday night was proof of concept that all of this hard work, the investment in compatible radars, the investments to share classified military information in real time, and the confidence building that it took to create this regional security architecture, actually works. nick: iran's attack on israel was in response to an israeli air strike earlier this month on iran's consulate in damascus,

that killed several top commanders. >> they got what they wanted from the psychological and economic impact of the of the whole world being on edge last week. nick: vali nasr is a professor at the johns hopkins school of advanced international studies. he says even though the attacks failed militarily, iran hopes they prevent future israeli attacks. >> iran's hope is that what what happened last week will make everybody, particularly europeans and americans, think, we don't want to be there again in a week. so that would put pressure on israel. and that pressure is exactly the kind of deterrence that iran was looking for. so it's mainly political gain rather than military gain. nick: but right now, while the world urges restraint, the decision of what to do next is israel's. for the pbs newshour, i'm nick schifrin ♪ stephanie: i'm stephanie sy with

newshour west. here are the latest headlines. house speaker republican mike johnson unveiled a proposal this evening to advance security spending for israel and ukraine. the nearly $100 billion package has been stalled for weeks, as johnson tries to appease hard-line members of his own party who have opposed additional aid for ukraine. iran's weekend attack on israel propelled the speaker's plan. it consists of four separate bills, including aid to allies in asia. the ship that caused last month's baltimore bridge collapse had electrical issues just hours before leaving port, according to the associated press. the news came as the fbi boarded the vessel as part of a criminal probe into events leading up to the collision with the francis scott key bridge. aerial footage showed agents onboard the vessel this morning. the fbi confirmed it carried out a court-approved search, but wouldn't elaborate. the bodies of three workers, -- four workers, killed in the collapse, have been recovered.

two others are presumed dead. the weapons supervisor on the set of the movie "rust" was sentenced to 18 months in prison today. in march, a court in new mexico found hannah gutierrez-reed guilty of involuntary manslaughter. she was accused of loading a live round into a gun actor alec baldwin was using that accidentally killed cinematographer halyna hutchins in 2021. baldwin's own involuntary manslaughter trial begins in july. the supreme court is allowing a louisiana policeman to move forward with a lawsuit against a black lives matter activist. the unnamed officer is suing the organizer of the protest, deray mckesson, for negligence, after he was struck by an object during a 2016 protest in baton rouge. civil rights groups warn the case threatens the right to protest. separately, the justices decided to allow idaho to enforce a ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth. the order lets the state put in place a 2023 law that would

punish doctors with up to 10 years in prison if they provide puberty blockers to minors. opponents have warned that the law could increase suicide rates among teens. international donors today pledged more than $2.1 billion in aid for sudan, during a conference in paris led by french president emmanuel macron. today marks the one-year anniversary of a war that has pushed the country to the brink of famine. >> today, from this mobilisation, all of our presence, it sends a clear message to the belligerents. we are making a solemn appeal out of respect for international humanitarian rights and for the protection of the civil population. stephanie: macron added that the funds will go towards food, water, medicine and other urgent needs. in australia, a bishop and several churchgoers were stabbed during a church service, and a 15-year-old male has been arrested. authorities are treating it as

religiously motivated and are treating it as terrorism. worshippers at christ the good shepherd church in sydney were able to overpower the attacker. none of the injuries were life-threatening. outside the church, police in riot gear worked to subdue crowds who had gathered at the scene. >> a number of houses have been damaged, they've broken into in a number of houses to gain weapons to throw at the police. they're throwing weapons and items at the church itself. it was obviously people who wanted to get access to the young person who has caused the injuries to their clergy people. stephanie: monday night's attack comes after a separate stabbing incident this weekend at a mall in sydney killed six people. tesla is laying off more than 10 percent of its global workforce in a bid to cut costs. that's about 14,000 employees. the electric vehicle maker posted dismal first-quarter sales, amid growing competition. price cuts also failed to lure buyers. tesla shares have lost about a third of their value so far this year. today, of course, is tax day, the deadline for filing 2023

returns for many of us, and that includes the president and first lady. based on their publically available returns, the bidens made nearly $620,000 last year. they paid $146,629 in federal income tax, at a tax rate of 23.7%. still to come on the "newshour", ukraine's president zelenskyy talks to amna about ukraine's need for equipment and ammunition in the ongoing war against russia on this april 15th, a comparison of the tax policies proposed by 2024 presidential candidates biden and trump. and tamara keith and amy walter break down the latest political headlines. ♪ >> this is the pbs newshour from weta studios in washington mend in the west, from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. amna: we sat down with president zelensky earlier today here in

kyiv, to discuss the challenges he's facing on multiple fronts. right now there have been critical shortages of munitions and manpower. russia is ramping up its attacks and of course there is uncertainty around the future of u.s. aid. on the heels of iran's attack on israel, zelensky says it's clear this is not just a critical time for his nation, but for the world. president zelenskyy, welcome. thanks for hosting us here. >> thank you so much for coming. amna: i want to ask about iran's attack on israel. you condemned the attack immediately. you said it should serve as what -- a wake-up call to the free world. who do you think needs that wake-up call and what kind of action do you hope that elicits? >> first, i believe this is a signal to all the leaders of the world. surely, france, jordan, the u.k. and the u.s. have responded in support of the protection of israel and this is a serious defense shield for israel, which is important.

israel by itself wouldn't be able to protect against such a numerous, powerful strike. here, definitely, they used air defense and aviation, many things that frankly, ukraine is lacking. this is a demonstration of allies not on paper, but in the air. not on paper, but on the ground, in action. this is an important signal to everyone. ukraine defends its sky by itself. definitely, we have allies who supply us with equipment and we do have a deficit, but the most important thing is that israel was not defending by itself. there was the protection of allies. if not for that protection, today we would have bloodshed and much more death. amna: you are saying it sent a signal to see the allies come together, the u.s. a u.k. and france and jordan along with israel, repelling hundreds of drones and missiles launched on israel that day. and in your joint address to the nation, you said the whole world saw what real defense is, the

whole world saw israel was not alone in this defense. do you think the same message is being sent to the world about ukraine? >> i will give you one example. a very simple example. a power plant, electricity in the kyiv region depends on it. 11 missiles were headed towards it. the first seven, we took down. four destroyed the plant because we had zero missiles. we ran out of missiles. when someone says our allies can't provide weapons, or they can't be in ukraine because that would be perceived as engaging nato in war, after yesterday's attack i want to ask, is israel part of nato or not? here is the answer. israel is not a nato country. nato allies have been defending israel. they showed the iranian forces that israel was not alone.

and this is a lesson. this is a response to anyone on any continent who says you need to assist ukraine carefully. so you don't engage other countries in the war. amna: you said if the u.s. congress doesn't approve the aid it is currently considering, which is some $60 billion held up by republican lawmakers, you said if that doesn't move forward, ukraine will lose the war. if the aid does not move forward, how long do your troops have? is it a matter of weeks or months? could they sustain a spring russian offensive? >> i can tell you without this support we will have no chance of winning. you need to be much stronger than your enemy. today, our artillery shell ratio is one to 10. can we hold our ground? no. in any case, with these statistics they will be pushing us back every day. to defend 100% of what is in our control, we need to go from one to compare numbers. 10 to 10.

amna: does the $60 billion potentially, does that help you to essentially strengthen your defensive strategy or does it help you actually break the russian defenses? what is the plan to use the aid in a way that could actually change the dynamics of the war? >> it is a lot to preserve ourselves. it is very difficult for us. we are fighting a large army. they don't care about their soldiers lives. they aren't training them. they are not as trained as our soldiers, but there is a lot of them. they have an unlimited number of people and a lot of shells. they used thousands of drones against us. we please, how can you fight against these thousands if you don't have weapons to take them down? they have aircraft taking off from crimea and engaging us at a distance of 300 kilometers. it could be over 400, 500 kilometers depending on how deep they are targeting. how can we destroy those? the plan is simple.

it is very clear. it exists. there is a specific weapon we need to advance. there is a specific weapon to defend the skies. this plan exists. besides, all the partners have it in their hands. this is the plan for what we really need. amna: mr. president, the u.s. -- there are those who say the u.s. and the west armed ukraine, trained ukraine for a counteroffensive that was largely seen as a failure because you were unable to dislodge russians from territory. they don't believe additional aid would actually allow you to break through russian defenses. it would as you say, help you preserve and protect where you are now. if it is this hard to get aid through the u.s. congress right now, what leads you to believe it would be any easier next year, especially if mr. trump was reelected? >> we don't think it will be easier for us. we are fighting. we aren't thinking about next year. we are thinking about tomorrow.

our goals are much more about real life. we need to live tomorrow. what is going to happen next year? frankly speaking, nobody knows because we don't understand what support ukraine will have. what other explosions and wars might be happening in the world? what will happen in the u.s. congress? they might make a decision and i hope they are listening and will make a decision in the near days or weeks but not longer, and a positive decision. but we don't know what is going to happen. we are just saying, at least give us and you will receive some share of the air fleet. some percentage of what russia is using against you. how can you have aircraft 1-30, artillery 1-10? how can we wage a war like this? we are not asking for missiles for 2000 or kilometers. 3000nothing like that. nobody is asking for 500 or 300 aircraft like russia. in fact russia is using 300 aircraft just in ukraine.

amna: as you know, the republican house speaker mike johnson has said he is likely to move forward this week to approve aid for israel, but it is unclear if aid for ukraine will be part of that effort or not. >> it is strange. amna: why is it strange? >> it means this is not about security. it's pure politics, and it is a disgrace for the world and a disgrace for democracy. for those who only speak of democracy, it is just talk. amna: why is it a disgrace? why do you use that word? >> if congress will deny the -- divide this assistance after everything that happened, will divide it into israeli and ukrainian, it means this is a matter of elections in the united states. it is a matter of politics and when the world is saying how could iran strike israel, so now we need to support only israel and forget what is happening in ukraine? this is pure politics.

nobody cares how many people are dying in ukraine every day. they only care about approval ratings. that is what it is about. they are forgetting dead people don't care about ratings. if ukraine falls and there is a war in other nato member countries, and there will be a war, u.s. soldiers will be defending and dying. that is what it is going to be. people in congress need to think twice about pushing political matters with regards to support in ukraine and vote to support all of the countries whose lives depend on it. amna: have you spoken directly to house speaker johnson? >> twice. i talked to him last year. i was visiting the united states, specifically i had a meeting with the speaker, the president and congress. then we had a meeting behind closed doors. they agreed 100%, those at the meeting. they said there will be support, believe us, by the end of the year. we had a conversation with the speaker over the phone and he told me he fully supports

ukraine receiving this support. he said yes, of course he supported giving aid, this package. the decision of congress to ukraine is very important. what is very important? a lot of them, the congressman, i spoke to them and they said to me, ukraine will get. the question is, in days, weeks? after that, months, etc. one important moment, when i spoke with a team of congressman, they said maybe it will be not cheap money. maybe it will be structured as a loan. amna: you are open to that? >> i said it doesn't matter for us. for today. we wanted another way to get this money last year.

but for today, it doesn't matter. we need to survive and we need to defend our people, and that is why the ball is on your field. please, just make a decision. amna: what about the role of former president trump? it is an election year. he has enormous influence over the republican, where opposition to the aid lies. he has criticized u.s. aid to ukraine. do you believe the former president is standing in the way of you getting the aid you seek? >> i'm very careful about this because voices from inside the circle, someone during the elections, i think it is a big question of whether it is true or not. i will believe the united states will not stop support and we will be allies and the policy of the president, if the president changes, that is for the americans to decide, but the policy of the president will not change as it relates to ukraine. that is important to us.

amna: russia has a population advantage. they clearly have an artillery advantage. russia right now has you outmanned, outgunned and they believe they can outlast you and western attention. is it time to think about negotiating a settlement? >> we have offered the peace formula to the world. currently, there are already first steps with specifics. in june there will be a peace summit in switzerland and we will prepare and elaborate on the plan to end the war. the summit will take place without russia, for russia not to block the plan. currently russia wants to destroy us all. currently, russia wants no negotiations. that is why the initiative should come from ukraine, the country that wants to end the war in a fair peace. amna: given the conditions, the challenges you face, uncertainty of foreign aid, advancing

russian forces, your critical shortages, a major mobilization shortage and a shift in global landscape in which you and ukraine are moving further down the agenda, some would say those are impossible odds to overcome. if you don't start to negotiate now, won't conditions get worse? >> i'm ready to negotiate now with you or with such people who really want peace. you understand? amna: not with russia. >> he doesn't want. especially putin. all their narratives, the documents from our intelligence, what they discuss about, we have it from our intelligence, from the united states. they know everything. so we understand he is not ready for any negotiations. he doesn't want. he is not interested. for him, this is not victory. he needs victory and for him, victory is to destroy ukraine. how would you like us to talk to a person who is willing to kill

you, simply kill you? he is saying either you are part of russia or we will destroy you all. there are voices from the west saying we are afraid. what will happen to russia if russia loses? are they not afraid we are dying here every day? but they are very afraid there will be some kind of danger, some kind of migration crisis? what will happen? maybe china will be very strong and if russia panics and has a revolution, china will capture part of the territory of russia. so everyone is afraid. god forbid china would be strong. god forbid there would be no putin. and many countries. what will happen to russia's nuclear weapons? as of now, the west controls nuclear weapons so that is what i'm talking about. all of those voices, all of those messages, all of this is the disgrace i was talking about. amna: you have said this is not just a fight for ukraine's future but for democracy's

future. that includes the future of your own children, your daughter, your son. he is now 11 years old. i know you are separated from them but when you do speak to them, what do they ask you about this war and what you tell them? >> i sometimes look at our children, not only my own but the children of those families at war and the children currently in ukraine. i think they know all the answers and frankly, if they would be answering your questions today, who knows? maybe they would be wiser. they are very grown-up. they have been through a lot. they understand everything and they know everything. when they ask questions, they still ask in a childlike way. it is not a question of when the war will end. they understand it depends on many factors and it is not a question of whether you are and -- ukraine will be able to withstand this fight. they know it depends on many things but ukraine will

definitely withstand. they are very strong. i would say they are much more confident than some of our partners. sometimes they ask, when can we live together again, dad? amna: do your children ever worry you might not survive the war? >> i think they worry. they worry a lot. well, it's war. what else can i say? i think words don't matter as much. you need to hug them tight. for children, words aren't important. it is important for them to feel you are there, not over the phone but in person. amna: president volodymyr zelenskyy, thank you for your time, sir. >> thank you very much. thank you that you are here. amna: the streets tonight in rainy kyiv tonight are quiet and empty, with a curfew still in

place. but as president zelensky and i left the interview and walked through the halls of the residential -- presidential complex, he remembered back to the days when russian forces tried to take this same city in the early days of their fullscale invasion in 2022. he said that that was before he knew how long the war would last, before tens of thousands of ukrainians had been killed. and before the future of his nation was this uncertain. all of that, the president told me, feels like a lifetime ago. geoff? geoff: you and our team have been on the ground for several days now. tell us what else you are working on. amna: in the days ahead, we will be making a trip to the city of kharkiv, which has been relentlessly pummeled by russian forces. we will talk to residents about how they have been adapting to life under that assault and what they can do to protect themselves. we are taking a closer look at ukraine's critical infrastructure and energy, which has been targeted in a way we haven't seen before by russian

forces, with much more aggression and precision than we have seen at any other point in the war. we will talk to young ukrainians. president zelenskyy lowered the draft age from 27 to 25. many more thousands of young ukrainians could be called to join the fight. we will talk to them to get their take. geoff: on the nevada's in -- amna nawaz in kyiv tonight. thank you. ♪ geoff: former president donald trump's first criminal trial started today in new york city. it's the first of four criminal indictments mr. trump is facing. it's an historic moment, the first criminal trial of any former president. he faces 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up an alleged extramarital affair that surfaced during his 2016 campaign.

mr. trump cast himself as under attack, calling the trial a quote, "political persecution." joining us now from new york is our william brangham, who has been covering the former president's legal cases. william, jury selection started this afternoon but only after a good deal of sparring over various motions. walk us through what happened. >> the day started with a lot of conversation about the gag order placed on donald trump by the judge and whether trump violated it today or over the past weekend. it is important to remember, i cannot think of a criminal defendant in recent legal history who has so aggressively and sometimes violently gone after the judges and prosecutors overseeing the cases that he is in the middle of. in this case, donald trump has gone after the judge, particularly his adult daughter, quite a bit. he has argued because she worked

for a democratic organization, the judge should recuse himself from the case. that is not happening but the judge put a gag order on trump in march, expanded it last week but still, today donald trump was posting videos were one of his supporters went after the judges wife. over the weekend, at a rally, donald trump went after one of the key witnesses, michael cohen, his former lawyer. prosecutors argue that trump is violating the gag order and the judge may want to issue penalties, perhaps $1000 per violation, whether that is a social media posting or something he says in front of a camera. the judge says in about 10 days he will hold a hearing to go over the allegations. geoff: there was additional debate today over what testimony the jury should be able to hear. what was decided? >> the jury will not hear anything about the dozens of

women who allege donald trump sexually harassed or sexually assaulted them over the years. prosecutors wanted to introduce that and the judge said no, that was hearsay and gossip and he wouldn't allow that. the jury will hear a good deal of testimony about what is known as his catch and kill scheme, and that is the mechanism where the publisher of the national enquirer and michael cohen and allegedly donald trump built a system so if people came forward during the 2016 campaign and made allegations about donald trump, they would pay those people, catch their story and kill them so they would not go forward and not get into the public. none of those are being charged in this case. the stormy daniels hush money allegations are the only thing at issue here. but prosecutors want to set up that there was a recurring pattern of trump and his associates to build a mechanism to squash cases.

the jury will hear about a former playboy model who during the 2016 campaign came forward to say i have had a relationship with donald trump in the past and the jury will hear something about that. geoff: close to 100 people were asked to be jurors in the case. given the historic nature of it and all of the attention, how do they go about finding the final 12? >> legal analysts argued this is one of the most critical parts of any case, deciding who are those people that will sit in the jury box and hear the evidence? the judge, as judges often do, as -- has argued he will go about it the old-fashioned way. he will ask everyone if they can put their biases aside and be impartial, listen to the evidence and make a judgment. today, there were 94, 96 people brought in as potential jurors. all along the judge said, "if

anybody argues that they can't listen to the evidence and be impartial, i'm going to let them go." shockingly, 50 people raised their hands today and said, i cannot listen to the evidence for whatever reason. they didn't give any reason for this. they have been excused. the people who made it through the initial vetting process have been going through this 42 question questionnaire that asks things about where they live, their level of education, what kind of work they do and things like what kind of media do you listen to? have you ever been to a trump rally? have you ever belonged to an organization that was anti-trump? are you a member of qanon or antifa? things that might get at whether they have a clear political bias in all of this. one of the tricky parts that jurors, that the prosecution and the defense have to be on guard for is anyone that might, in the process, not be totally honest and who might want to be on th

jury, but because they have made up their minds, they want to either prosecute or exonerate donald trump. that is something that they will be watching for. jury selection, they didn't pick any jurors today. could be another couple weeks before the jury is seated. geoff: william brangham in new york city tonight. thank you, william. ♪ geoff: as we have said, it is tax day, and millions of people are filing last minute. what many people may not know is that the clock is ticking on some potentially big changes due in a year that will be decided by the outcome of the 2024 election. lisa desjardins has a closer look at what's at stake. lisa: back in 2017, then-president donald trump and the republican led congress enacted sweeping reform, cutting

taxes across the board for most individuals and corporations. but most of those tax cuts are set to expire next year. that means whoever wins the november election will directly confront whether to extend those cuts, or let taxes go up to earlier levels. trump and president joe biden share some common ground here. both would keep cuts in place for households making under $400,000 annually, but they have very different visions. beyond that. trump would keep all individual and corporate cuts. president biden would like to raise the corporate rate from 21% to 28%, and biden's plan would bump up high income earners from 37% to 39.6%. richard rubin from the wall street journal tracks this, and he joins me now. richard, no one better to help us through this. and can you set the table here? these plans mean that for most of us, there would be no change if either president gets what they want. but can you help us understand that income group, and why, politically, both candidates want to protect it?

>> i mean, people don't like to pay more, right? so people are wanting to keep the tax rates they're used to. these tax cuts have been in place since 2017, and most of us don't really think about comparing what we might pay in 2026 to what we paid in 2016. it's really about what you're paying now versus what you might pay next year, or the year after. and so both parties, particularly president biden is really trying to reassure taxpayers that from middle class households, people making under $400,000 that that's not where he wants to raise taxes. and so that is leaving the core of this debate at people making more than that, which is, you know, maybe 3% of people, but there's a lot of money up there. lisa: let's talk about those differences here. this is a lot of money we're talking about. ultimately, all of these tax cuts, $6 trillion in revenue. so president biden, he wants to raise on higher income earners and corporations. why does he

argue that that's a good idea? >> he says, look, there's a couple issues he's trying to address. he's trying to address budget deficits. he's trying to address new programs on things like childcare, paid leave that he wants to put in place. they restore the expanded child tax credit that was in place in 2021, and he's looking for ways to pay for those things, and his argument is that it's more fair, better to take money from those people at the top and that the 2017 tax cuts were too tilted towards those people. and so that's really his argument, is that you can achieve a lot of those aims by just taxing people at the very top. lisa: now to former president trump. you and i both know covering congress that there is an anti debt movement that just is seething right now among republicans on capitol hill. but nonetheless, they are still pro tax cut, and those things don't actually work together. how does former president trump argue that we should continue these

tax cuts in full despite the rising tidal wave of red ink? >> they make two points. one is to look at the economic growth that happened in 2018 and 2019 after these tax cuts were put in place. they are enacted in 2017 and 2018 and 2019 were strong years for the economy in terms of wages, in terms of just the overall growth and investment that we saw. you can't attribute all of that to the tax cuts, but probably some of it. the other point that they'll argue for is that the issue on debt and deficits is spending, not taxes. now they're really both two sides of the same coin. there's deficits are the difference between how much we collect as a government and how much we spend. but they argue that the real focus should be on the spending side and that economic damage comes if you raise taxes, and so those are those core philosophies that we've heard from the two parties for many years now, and you're going to hear that throughout the campaign and then depending on who wins, you will hear that again throughout 2025, debating what to do about these tax cuts? and this big, you know, $6

trillion difference between where the two parties are. lisa: did i hear you correctly that there is mixed evidence on what tax cut to do for the economy? >> i think you know, it really depends. i think there are some tax cuts that economists would say in general can spur some growth. so some of the pieces of the 2017 tax cut that made it easier and more profitable for companies to invest had some growth effects. other things don't necessarily have big growth effects. in general, when you hear someone claiming that tax cuts have some sort of outsized effect on growth, take that with a grain of salt. there are -- taxes matter. but maybe not as much as you might think, is one way of thinking about that. lisa: something else we should talk about in this room is the child tax credit and estimated 16 million low income families would really get a boost from that. there is a bipartisan framework potentially, but it hasn't gone that far. is there a chance of congress passing that this year? what do you think? >> so there's this bipartisan bill that came out of the house

that would expand the child tax credit, not as large as it was in 2021 or as large as biden wants, but would really be a boost for those low income families, particularly with multiple children. right now, that looks really stalled in the senate. and if anything we should take from that a lesson about how difficult 2025 will be. this is something that is a bipartisan bill that got 357 votes in the house. nothing gets 357 votes in the house, and it's jammed up in the senate, with republicans saying they want changes. so if something that's got that much agreement in the house can't get through the senate, and it's you know this big, what happens when you're dealing with something much larger in 2025? lisa: i want to ask about the irs in general. they say they are struggling for resources and they can't collect all the taxes they think are out there. what is the state of the agency? >> i think just like the tax rates, it depends on what happens in this election. the -- they got the $80 billion

in 2022 and congress took back $21 billion so the irs is going ahead with its plans to expand customer service, beefing up enforcement but that takes a while to hire and train and audit. it is really about whether they will run out of expansion money sooner than they planned. the next president will have decisions to make about how much further we take the expansion of the irs, whether to keep putting more money in their or start paring back the expansion the president and the democratic congress put in place. lisa: all right, richard rubin of the wall street journal and friend of anyone who wants to understand taxes. thank you for joining us. >> thank you. ♪ geoff: from the conflict in the middle east to mr. trump's first day in court as a criminal defendant, let's discuss the political implications with amy walter of "the cook political

report with amy walter," and tamara keith of npr. good to see you both. there has been some news as we have been on the air about u.s. foreign aid. house speaker mike johnson shared with house republican colleagues in a private meeting his plan to put on the floor the foreign aid package after months of delay. he is calling for separate votes on aid to ukraine, aid to israel and aid to taiwan and a fourth vote on the forced sale of tiktok. is this something the white house can get behind? >> the white house said before johnson presented the plan, this is not the fastest way to get something to the president's desk that would help israel and ukraine. because the senate has already passed a bill, it is a bill that includes all of these things together and the way this works is if the house is able, and that is a big if, if the house is able to pass these bills separately it would go to the

senate, where they would have to pass the bills separately. it is unclear that the senate can pass those bills separately. the white house argument, as it has been for months, is that fine, whatever, but please, let's do this package we have been asking for. i think since august? it has been a long time. geoff: that's right, since the fall at least. today donald trump became the first former president ever to stand trial for alleged criminal wrongdoing. we have seen how he has used court appearances to really boost his political standing. he has used them as campaign appearances. does this change, will persuade-able independent voters see him differently now that the trial is underway? >> this is the billion dollar question. of course, the idea that a former president is on trial, who is now the presumptive nominee, would seem to be a problem for the candidate and a general election when voters pay

attention. the question for the biden campaign is, how much do we lean into this? right now, it seems to me the answer is we are not going to. we are going to let it speak for itself. the photos and sketches of trump sitting in court, and use the opportunity with trump in court to press our advantage as the incumbent president. the president is going to pennsylvania for the next couple days. we will hear a lot about not trump's trials but about the economy. and it seems to me that the biden campaign's challenge is not so much highlighting what they already know to be weaknesses of trump, but really trying to make smaller trump's advantage of the issue of inflation and the economy. and whether that works or not is a big question. i talked to at least one democrat who thinks that yes, it

is fine to have a split screen but at some point, democrats and the biden campaign need to tell voters why these matter. just allowing the pictures to go out, and the way the media describes it, isn't enough. democrats need to control some part of the narrative. geoff: to the point of the perceived split screen, president biden was in scranton was talking about trump's tax plan and how it would benefit the wealthiest americans. does that campaign, does the white house feel they need to lean in more? >> when you try to ask them about trump's trial, run and the other direction. they don't want to lean in on this. they have some challenges in place. one is that trump is calling these bidens trials, this is biden's trial. president biden has absolutely nothing to do with this. this is a state case, not a federal case. president biden has made it clear he doesn't want to interfere in prosecutorial decisions.

however, because that is out there, because trump makes these accusations, the biden campaign and the biden white house don't want to do anything to make it look like they are interfering in any way. so that is a challenge. but the other thing to think about, there is a split screen but is it really a split screen or are all screens focused on the trump trial? if a president holds three rallies in pennsylvania and nobody puts it on television or the front page, is it really happening? this is a challenge president biden has had for a long time, which is that he ran on being boring. he has succeeded. the challenge is that he isn't really getting much attention. people aren't seeing him. when the biggest question voters have about him is, is he vital? does he have what it takes to run a campaign and be president again? he needs people to see him do it. geoff: president biden and his senior advisers are highly concerned that an israeli

response to iran's attack on israel could lead to a regional war with catastrophic consequences. looking at this through a political lens, does this take some of the pressure off president biden as it relates to the humanitarian crisis in gaza? the focus for now is on iran. >> doesn't seem like it will. the frustration that many within biden's party have, those on the left, is all about gaza and the situation is not getting any better. whatever happened with iran and the retaliation with that, or the support some may feel for israel now that it is being attacked by iran, is not going to make up for what is happening in gaza. i don't think that helps him. the other question is, if this does go into a broader middle east conflict, this has implications not just for geopolitics and the danger there, but also, what it means for americans at home.

higher gas prices going into an election year, not particularly something a sitting president wants to deal with. even these votes on the house floor, if they do come to pass, you will see once again that split within the democratic party between those who think israel doesn't need much more, they have gotten enough from us and we need to put more humanitarian aid into gaza, also sending a message that many democrats are saying to netanyahu, it is not ok what he is doing and one way to send that message is not giving them more aid. geoff: thank you so much. ♪ geoff: yuval noah harari is a professor of history who is renowned for his broad and thought-provoking perspectives on human history. harari, who is the bestselling

author of "sapiens," recently released a new volume of this work, called "unstoppable us," for younger readers. tonight, he gives his brief but spectacular take on what its means to be human. >> i think it's more difficult to write for kids than for adults. when you write about complicated stuff, and you are actually not sure what you want to say, then with adults, you can just cover yourself by talking with these very long, complicated sentences. with kids, it doesn't work. you need to speak very clearly. and for that, you really need to think deeply to know what do you actually want to say. when i was a kid, i asked these big questions about life. i mean, what are we doing here? what is this all about? and i think what struck me the most is not that the adults often had no answers, it was that they were not concerned about the fact that they really

don't understand the world. in a way, i wrote "unstoppable us" to answer at least some of the questions that really bothered me when i was 10 or 12. how did we get here? if you look at any major human achievement, it is always based on large scale cooperation. you want to build pyramids, you want to fly to the moon, you want to create an atom bomb, you want to build a health care system -- you always need thousands of people cooperating together. and we are the only mammals that can do that. how do we do that? by inventing and believing fictional stories. you can't do that with chimps. humans, unfortunately, are, you know, we are very smart. but despite our wisdom, we keep doing some very stupid things. we know that nuclear weapons could destroy the whole of human civilization. we know that now artificial intelligence can escape our control, and yet we keep on producing it.

the three, i think, biggest challenges that face humankind today in the 21st century are ecological collapse, disruptive technologies, like artificial intelligence, and the threat of nuclear war. the one thing everybody needs to know about a.i. is that it's the first technology in history that can make decisions by itself, and can create new ideas by itself. it's often compared to previous technological breakthroughs, like the printing press or the atom bomb. it's completely different. printing presses could not decide what book to print. atom bombs could not decide by themselves which cities to destroy. but a.i. can do that. the dedication of the book says that our ancestors made the world what it is, and we can now decide what it will become. the main message of the book, and also in the title "unstoppable us,"is that humans, all humans, are the most

powerful entity on the planet and we should own it. we should acknowledge our immense power, because only then we can also take responsibility for what we are doing with this power. my name is yuval noah harari, and this is my brief but spectacular take on what it means to be human. geoff: you can find additional brief but specatular episodes online at pbs.org/newshour/brief. there is a lot more online, including a look at the strides made registering voters and strengthening election safeguards in the swing state of michigan that is on our website, pbs.org/newshour. amna: and join us again tomorrow night, for our next report from here in ukraine. we will take a look at russia's intensifying attacks on ukraine's energy system. the impact that is having on the ukrainian people and the war. and that is the newshour for tonight. from kyiv, i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett,

for all of us here at the pbs newshour, thanks for joining us and have a good evening. >> major funding for the pbs newshour been provided by. ♪ >> on an american cruise line's journey, along the columbia and snake rivers, travelers retrace the route forged by lewis and clark more than 200 years ago. american cruise lines modern riverboats travel american landscapes to historic landmarks, where you can experience local customs and cuisine. american cruise lines, proud sponsor of pbs newshour. >> certified financial planner professionals are proud to support pbs newshour. cfp nationals are committed to acting in clients best interest. more information at let's make a plan.org. >> the kendeda fund. committed to restorative justice and meaningful work.

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