>> volkswagen workers overwhelmingly vote to unionize in a big win for the labor movement. as polls open and a large

selection what is at stake for india and its allies? >> i feel happy after casting the vote. i come here every time and i was waiting for this day because this is in the interest of my nation. >> the israel-hamas war has claimed the lives of more journalists than any conflict in history. what can be done to protect the men and women at the front lines? >> major funding for pbs news weekend has been provided by -- with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions.

and friends of the newshour. this program was made possible by the corporation for broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. john: good evening. a highly unusual bipartisan coalition of the house has been overwhelmingly passed the long-delayed foreign aid package for ukraine, israel and taiwan. on the house floor, democrats stood and cheered while waving ukrainian flags. earlier, lawmakers turned back an amendment from ultra

conservative representative marjorie taylor greene that would have stripped out the $60 billion for the ukraine. house republicans said that border security was more pressing. house speaker mike johnson held a separate vote on a border security bill and it failed to get the support needed to pass. the house approved language that could lead to a ban on tiktok. the entire measure goes to the senate. last night the senate approved a two year extension of a controversial surveillance law that is part of fisa. the 60/34 vote came the minutes after the provision expired. this means the government may continue to collect without a warrant to the communications of foreign targets even when communicating with america. privacy and civil rights advocates have want to the government to get a warrant to do that. and a strike in gaza killed at

least nine people six of them children according to hospital officials. more airstrikes in central gaza killed at least one civilian in a refugee camp. there is an investigation into the overnight explosion at a base used by iranian officials. it came less than a day after a suspected israeli strike near an iranian nuclear site. and former u.s. governor david cryer has died. he was one of the state's most popular politicians. he went undercover to investigate nursing homes and was the chief sponsor of the tax bill of rights. he was a survivor of a heart attack, stroke and covid-19. his son said that he died of natural causes. david pryor was 89 years old. still to come, what is at stake for india and its allies and what can be done to protect journalists reporting on the front lines of deadly conflict?

>> this is pbs news weekend from washington, home of the pbs weeknights on pbs. >> workers at the volkswagen plant at chattanooga, tennessee have overwhelmgly voted to unionize. it gives the uaw a foothold in the least unionized region of the country. reporter noem shriver has covered labor unions for nearly a decade. how big a deal as this? noem: this is a really big deal. the uaw had spent decades failing to organize some of these big plants in the south despite spending millions of dollars and years and years only to have the vote fail and have the election lose and go back to the drawing board. this is a big breakthrough.

john: what is the significance of it? noem: the uaw is involved in a major campaign to try to organize unorganized auto facilities across the country. there are many of them. not just volkswagen but japanese lawmakers like toyota, honda, hyundai, tesla, and general electric vehicle makers. this is a big moment for the industry as we transition to electric vehicles. the uaw is concerned that labor and work standards will collapse and less they can unionize these automakers. this is a big step toward doing that. john: as you mentioned, the uaw has been trying and failing to do this for a while. at this plant, workers twice voted in the past 10 years not to unionize. what was the difference? noem: in the past, there was an

election in 2014 and 2019. the company has pushed back aggressively and when the company has not, the local political leadership has. in 2019, the governor of tennessee came and addressed the workers on the factory floor and told them while unionizing would be a mistake. other politicians told them that they could threaten the ability of the plant to grow in the future and to receive state subsidies. this time the climate was more subdued. the company was tame and let the workers make the decision. the election happened very quickly. it did not give the political establishment as much time to mobilize. there is a general climate that has become more favorable to labor. the support among the public for unions is high, nearly 70%.

john: you mentioned before the vw vote, six southern governors all republicans issued a joint statement saying unionization threatens our jobs and the values that we live by. last night president biden congratulated the vw workers and said there is nothing to fear from american workers using their voice and legal right to form a union. is there a chance it is getting caught up in presidential politics? noem: i don't know about presidential politics because i'm not sure that president trump will try to argue that unions are a mistake, but there is a political residence. southern governors and southern state residents have invested in this idea that american manufacturing should relocate to the south where there are not as many unions, wages are lower and they have more flexibilit without regulation. the uaw and democrats see that as a problem for workers because

you can always threaten to move your company to the south if workers push back too much. the uaw and a lot of left of center politicians think this is really important for restoring leverage, not just to workers in the south but all other parts of the country where manufacturers could threaten to go to the south. john: is there a chance that this could spread to other industries in the south? noem: yeah, i think that there is a good chance. a lot of these communities where the plants are located are pretty small communities. people have relatives and close friends at work at other manufacturers. they tend to draw from a similar labor pool and i think that as one expert told me, there is no greater motivation for trying to unionize than when you see it elsewhere.

people are often afraid to do it but when they see proof of concept they start to see it as possible. you can see how it could trickle out to other industries. john: thank you very much. noem: thanks for having me. ♪ ♪ johnin india, the world's largest election is underway. the prime minister is favored to win a third term but his consolidation of power and crackdown on dissent have some questioning his commitment to democratic values. from the state in the south to the st bengal in the piste, voter -- east, voters are casting ballots. >> i feel very happy after casting the boat. i come every time and i was waiting for this day because it is in the interest of my nation.

>> the prime minister and his bjp party are favored to win a third term. he is touting himself as the driver behind the rising economy. that brings the support of the business elite while generous welfare programs appealed to the impoverished majority. there is also hindu nationalism. it has emboldened them to attack minority muslims and christians. >> the first thing i came to vote for was to have a country without religious disharmony. we all come to vote, hindus, muslims, christians. this unity should grow. john: modi's critics point to rising unemployment and a gap between the rich and the poor. the national congress party governed india for decades. the coalition is led by rahul

gandhi. the great-grandson of indian prime minister's. his motive say he is using it for political ends, target aid corruption investigations and putting others in prison. staging an election with nearly one billion eligible voters is a massive undertaking. about one million polling pces and 12 million election workers. every voter must be within two kilometers of a polling station. to set them up the officials track over rough and mountainous terrain and over rivers. as the first phase of voting began on friday, lines were long despite a summer heat wave. >> everyone feels very hot. the sunlight is harsh. despite the harsh conditions, we are coming to vote. >> if the new government is able to solve unemployment it will be good. >> i want the new government to

be devoted to the service of the nation. the poor, the common man. >> voting will take six weeks so results will not be known until june 4. earlier i spoke with a professor of indian politics at georgetown university's school of foreign service. i ask in the issues on voters minds. >> many of the issues are of in the world when you have a democratic election. jobs are the number one concern. the economy shows signs of improving at the macro level but at the individual level, the less skilled level and rural population, job distress remains high. there are concerns for food inflation and food insecurity. the ruling party is projecting an image of success in transforming the india of the past to a global player and partner of thenited states and asking voters to continue

trusting them to lead them to a higher status with an advanced democracy. the question for the opposition is whether they can get voters to vote on issues of increased religious intoleran. >> you mentioned unemployment in the gap between the rich and the poor. if this were an american president, this would be trouble. why is mr. modi so far ahead? >> he has done an incredible job of managing the narrative. while john's and rising inequality are things that voters have expressed concerned about, they also have a narrative that the economy has taken a wild change and is headed in the right direction under his leadership. a large part of it is that the opposition does not seem to offer a very credible alternative. maybe it is that they don't

think the others would do any better. john: you mentioned israel's relationship with -- india's relationship with the united states. what is at stake? >> india has emerged as a major partner for the united states economically. then you have china, which for both the bump and -- in the trump and biden administration have emerged as a single greatest threat to the united states. india has different logic which is that this is a way to have a major democratic partner in the region that can balance an aggressive china. what is at stake? do we have the bat ght on india? we will india be the region? it would be awkward and embarrassing for an american president that is invested in india to see india backslide into autocracy. one could argue that in the long

run america's credibility when it comes to talking about issues of democracy and human rights is also at stake. india is a large part of that global narrative. john: you talk about a democracy in india but freedom house rates india is only partly free. leading up to the elections, his opponents say that modi has gone afr the opposition using the tools of government. how committed do you see mr. modi to democratic values? >> he is a committed electoral democrat. the election will be free and fair. in spite of the incredible logistic -- logistical challenges of holdinthe election for 950 million eligible voters.

but also has the opposition had a level playing field and getting its message out to the citizens of the country to say, we are an incredible alternative. there are some concerns. the media does not offer criticism on the modi government's record, and the opposition feels between the arrest ofeaders in the use of tax authorities to free the assets of the opposition parties, that the playing field has not been as level as we would like. that is raise concerns for international observers of the election. john: how worrying is the religious violence we have seen recently? >> tremendously concerning. india's great contribution to democracy over the last 70 years has been the model of a multiethnic, multireligious country that manages to still have peaceful elections on a regular basis. any encroachment of religious tension and religious violence

into the public domain is sad but also makes me worry aut what the future might hold. there has been a rising authoritarianism that has been manifested by the bjp. there are open appeals on the grounds of religion. prime minister modi pointed to build a massive temple in the center to create fanfare. one that saw a political figure crossing the line to religious authority in a way we have not seen before. there are attacks on muslim and christian minorities in india. there is a reason to be worried about rising violence and increased impunity on the part of religious vigilantes who act boldly to attack anyone who they don't see as conforming to their vision of what india is.

a world in which 200 million muslims and other minorities are worried that at any given moment they might be attacked without any protection of the state machinery or judicial system. one in which those citizens become second-class citizens in their own country. that is not what we imagine for functioning democracy. john: thank you very much. ♪ ♪ john: the israel hamas war is inflicting a devastating toll on civilians. tens of thousands of palestinians and more than 1000 israelis have been killed since september. among them are journalists. a media report says it is the deadliest conflict for journalists since they began

tracking. >> reporting from war zones has always been risky. experts say it has never been more dangerous. at least 97 reporters, 92 of them palestinian, have been killed since the start of the war. dozens more have been arrested, injured or vanished. jodi thank you so much for being heree, tell us what it is like for palestinian journalists on the ground in gaza. >> it is difficult for journalists in gaza to do their jobs. it has been seven months of war when they have not been able to leave. no one has been able to get in. they are bearing the brunt of the reporting. they are living the war. bombings, attacks. in some cases journalists have been deliberately targeted. that creates extraordinarily difficult conditions.

shortages of fuel and food. equipment is beginning to degrade. it is becoming harder to report out from gaza. >> you mentioned that there is evidence that some of these journalists were deliberately targeted. tell us about that. >> in at least three cases journalists have been targeted. the reuters journalist was killed on the border with lebanon. there were several independent reports that he was quite clear that he was a journalist and was visible as a journalist. there was the incident of journalists traveling in a car. they were alleged to be terrorists but we have seen no credible evidence for that. there have been other cases where it is not probable that generalists -- journalists would be critically targeted. >> what would cpj like to see in

seeking accountability for the journalist deaths at the hands of israel and hamas? >> we would like to see investigations into all of the killings of journalists. we continue to stress that journalists are civilians and should never be targeted. we want to call for international access to gaza. important that we have that foreign media able to get in to get a picture of what is happening inside gaza. >> on that issue of international access, israel has only allowed entry by international journalists in controlled situations and the bulk of reporting has been done by palestinian journalists and citizen journalists. why is it so important that international journalists have full access to war zones? >> it is important that we have international dia in any war.

that is a way to be able to demonstrate and to verify the information that is being gathered by local reporters. whenever you have only local reporters, one side proclaims those journalists are unreliable. domestic reporters might have biases. having international media from a number of organizations allows us to verify and corroborate the material being shed by local journalists. the attacks that we've seen on journalists, communication blackouts, some of the legislation israel has passed giving it the power to ban foreign media outlets that the prime minister has said he would use against outlets like al jazeera. all of those speak to an environment in which the freedom of the press is curtailed. those are the actions of a dictatorship not a democracy. >> what procedures would you

like to see implemented tod to protect journalists a better? >> we have seen calls for humanitarian cease-fire. we think it is important that equipment be allowed into gaza so that journalists can replace damaged equipment. we want to see personal protective equipment. the flak jackets that you see with the press written on them. none of that material has been allowed in to keep journalists safe. it is important that we allow them to speak out. >> why is it so important that a free and safe press exist? >> we always say that truth is the first casualty in war. it is important that we have journalists to provide the information so that members of the public have the information that we need to live our everyday lives. while of that information is what journalists are providing day in and day out.

it is vital for us because we want to live in free and democratic societies. >> thank you so much. ♪ ♪ john: now online, how restoration efforts he and indonesia are saving coral reefs that could store those ecosystems. all of that and more is on our website pbs.org/newshour. tomorrow we find out how a preme court case on laws limiting homeless encampments could reshape policy around the country. i am john yang. see you tomorrow. >> major funding for pbs news weekend has been provided by --

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