good evening. i'm amna nawaz. geoff bennett is on assignment. on the "newshour" tonight, michael cohen takes the stand in former president trump's criminal hush money trial.

israel marks a somber memorial day as 300,000 gazans flee the fighting in rafah. and,(change title?) we report from michigan on how democrats plan to keep abortion rights front and center in the 2024 election campaign. >> we're not going to let it just be a state issue. we're actually going to organize and mobilize to do the thing we didn't do for 50 years, which is pass a piece of federal legislation to codify roe. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the newshour. >> certified financial planner

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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. amna: welcome to the newshour. on the stand today for the fourth week of testimony in donald trump's hush money trial was the prosecution's star witness, michael cohen. trump's former attorney and fixer implicated trump, testifying that trump directed cohen to pay adult film actress stormy daniels to bury her story on the eve of the 2016 election, and was then involved in the coverup of those payments after he won. william brangham was in court today in new york, and he joins us now. it is fair to say mr. cohen is arguably the most important witness for the manhattan district attorney in this case. this is a man allegedly at the center of the hush-money payments and reimbursements.

what did he testify to today? william: that is right. prosecutors needed michael cohen to do basically two things today. first, as you were describing, establish that donald trump directed michael cohen went to pay stormy daniels to be quiet so that she would not spill her story and hurt trump's chances to win the 2016 election. second, to clearly implicate trump in the scheme, the prosecutors alleged that they cooked up to testify -- to falsify business records and then coverup the repayment of that money that cohen paid to stormy daniels. on those fronts, cohen delivered dry but compelling testimony. amna: mr. cohen has always said all along that mr. trump told him to pay stormy daniels to bury that story. what else did he testify to today that added to that story? william: cohen today really

detailed the elaborate attempts that trump and his associates spent trying to keep stories of extramarital affairs from coming out during 2016 and the run-up to that election. first off, he told more detail about the payments that trump and michael cohen and david packer, the head of the national enquirer, paid to karen mcdougal , 100 $50,000 to get her not to tell her story of having an alleged extramarital affair with the former president. trump was heard again on audiotape today saying that he knew how that payment was meant to go and that he would pay the money and how they would work out the checks. jurors heard that again from the president's mouth. then during the campaign came that infamous "access hollywood" tape. and cohen thus far has explained to the jury just how terrified the campaign was and the chaos that dissent gone on them -- that descended on them when that tape came out, and how they

tried to brush it off as "locker room talk." then, in the midst of that chaos, stormy daniels' story emerges, and cohen testified about talking with donald trump at the time about this stormy daniels story brewing in the background, what do you know about it? trump said it would be a disaster if this got out, how it would hurt him severely with women voters. cohen said trump told him that men would think it is cool, but women are going to hate me. we've got a lot more detail on that front, about how trump directed cohen to pay stormy daniels to bury that story. amna: we all know what happens afterwards. mr. trump goes on to win the election. michael cohen is still owed that $130,000 for the payment to stormy daniels. the core of the prosecution's case is how michael cohen was repaid and how the business

records were falsified to hide their true intent. but what did michael cohen testify to about that? william: this is the core of the case. 34 charges trump is facing a falsify business records is how they repaid michael cohen when that money and how they allegedly falsified those records. cohen was worried and told in great detail about how he was never going to get repaid this money. trump had won the election. cohen was not being given a job in washington as he says he wanted. he was worried he would get left holding the bag for this. he described this one meeting where he blew up at trump's chief financial officer and said look, none of you guys stepped up to pay this money to protect the now president. i am the one that did, and i need to be repaid. he and trump's chief financial officer cooked up that scheme.

the jurors saw this striking document. i want to pull it up. it is a little confusing to understand what is going on, but this paper is a copy of the wire transfer that michael cohen sent to daniels' lawyer. then we see all that handwriting at the bottom. there's a lot of different terms. the details are a little bit byzantine. but in this document, in michael cohen's handwriting and allen weisselberg's handwriting, is exactly how they figured out in that meeting how michael cohen would get repaid. this document so far is the clearest piece of evidence yet of the whole alleged scheme that prosecutors say is going on here. amna: if mr. cohen and mr. weisselberg came up with that scheme, does that say that donald trump approved or knew of that scheme? william: cohen says right after the meeting with weisselberg that he and weisselberg went into trump's office with that document, and cohen said it

seemed to him like the two had already discussed the plan because trump seemed familiar with the details. but they went over all the details again, how cohen would get repaid in monthly payments plus a bonus, plus some money he owed to a technical services firm, and that in that process, cohen says trump clearly knew what was going on here at approved of the entire planet. this is the essence of the argument, that prosecutors alleged that they falsified these documents to pretend this was all legal fees to michael cohen, because they were trying to cover up that they were hush-money payments. amna: what about tomorrow? what should we expect? william: we are supposed to hear more from michael cohen. there is a more direct examination of him by the prosecutors, and did the cross-examination begins. you and i have discussed this is where michael cohen will get

truly attacked. her member, he is a convicted felon. he has -- remember, he is a convicted felon. he has been accused of lying to congress. he has been accused of election fraud. he has changed his story about trump's role in this alleged scheme multiple times. he has also displayed a clear animus to donald trump and says he relishes the idea that donald trump will end up in prison. all of this is likely to come out as the defense team tries to poke holes in this star witness. we will see that all tomorrow, maybe thursday as well. amna: that is william brangham reporting live from new york. william, thank you. ♪ in the day's other headlines, the u.s. state department says that vladmir putin's appointment of a new defense minister shows his desperation to sustain his invasion of ukraine. on sunday, putin tapped a civilian economist to replace

long-time ally sergei shoigu in the post. on the ground, ukrainian officials say some russian soldiers have advanced across the kharkiv region. farther south, donetsk is also locked in combat. meanwhile, across the russian border in belgorod, the death toll from a building collapse rose to 15 today. russian officials blamed ukrainian shelling. the death toll from ongoing flooding in brazil has risen to 147, with more than 100 people still missing, and over 600,000 in the southern state of rio grande do sul displaced. the downpours have made rescues difficult and left many homes and businesses abandoned. police patrol the flooded streets to prevent looting and robberies. >> [speaking portuguese] translator: since the first days of the floods, we've been patrolling and policing areas

that are difficult to access. only with boats and jet skis is it possible to provide a response in the fight against looting to the population here. amna: the heavy rains began in late april, and have impacted over 2 million people across more than 400 cities. in indonesia, officials say 44 people are confirmed dead after flash floods and landslides over the weekend. monsoon rains on sumatra island sent torrents of mud and cold lava from a local volcano into a river, causing it to overflow. rescuers combed through piles of mud and debris today to search for victims. 15 people are still missing. smoke from wildfires in canada prompted health warnings in parts of the upper midwest. authorities in minnesota issued an air quality alert for the entire state, and warned people to remain indoors until mid-day on monday. a similar alert was issued for northwestern wisconsin. meanwhile, more than 3000 people have evacuated fort nelson, british columbia, as a fire nears the town. fires are also burning in alberta and manitoba provinces.

activists are concerned over the whereabouts of a citizen journalist in china who was due to be released from prison today. zhang zhan was serving a four-year sentence after documenting the first covid lockdowns in the city of wuhan in 2020. monday marked the end of that sentence, but one of her lawyers told reporters that he hasn't heard from zhang or her family. in baltimore, crews have carried out a controlled demolition of the largest remaining section of the francis scott key bridge. it's part of a process they call precision cutting. this allows the steel trusses resting on the dolly container to fall into the water. they'll then be loaded onto barges and carried away. maryland governor wes moore said during a press conference this morning that safety is his top priority. >> we've gotten to this point without a single injury. we plan on continuing this mission without a single injury. that is the standard that we have going forward.

the use of precision cuts will help us to preserve our strong safety record on this mission, and i want to remind everybody just how complicated this mission is. amna: the operation was set to begin on sunday, but was pushed to today because of bad weather. a group of major u.s. airlines is suing the department of transportation over a rule requiring them to clearly disclose added fees. officials say the regulations will help consumers avoid unexpected charges for baggage, flight changes, and other services. but in a statement, the airlines said the biden administration's "attempt to regulate private business operations in a thriving marketplace is beyond its authority." melinda french gates is stepping down from the charitable foundation she created with her former husband, microsoft co-founder bill gates. french gates said that leaving would give her an "additional $12.5 billion to commit to my work on behalf of women and families." the pair divorced in 2021, but continued their philantrhopic work together. and we should note, the gates

foundation is a funder of the newshour. on wall street today, stocks closed with little change, as investors wait for wednesday's reading on inflation. the dow jones industrial average lost 81 points to close at 39,431. the nasdaq rose 47 points. the s&p 500 ended the day virtually flat. still to come on the "newshour," jury selection begins in the federal corruption trial of senator bob menendez. amy walter and tamara keith break down the latest political headlines. advice for families on preventing online sextortion. 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. amna: the united nations says more than 360,000 gazans who have fled to rafah have now been forced to flee again, as israeli

troops attack sectors of the city in a bid to rout hamas. also in rafah today, the first foreign u.n. staffer was killed by israeli troops. more than 100 palestinian u.n. staff have been killed since october 7. nick schifrin has our report. nick: a city teeming with the displaced has now been deserted. gazans are now packing everything their cars or bikes can carry and fleeing again. this woman is among the last to leave. >> i don't have a choice, like everyone else. everyone left, so i am doing the same. what should i do, stay alone? i am scared to. nick: many have been -- nick: many have been displaced at the beach. meet this family. this is their third home since the war began. their children have kept their

smile, but their mother has vanished. >> i can't find a tent to set up for me and my children. they are suffering underneath the sun. the heat has burned them and they are ill. nick: israel is ordering rafah evacuated because the idf says hamas's final four battalions fight from there, including last weekend which killed four israeli soldiers and blocked humanitarian aid. >> let's make it clear, if we don't destroy the last four battalions of hamas in rafah, we will have lost the war. nick: now israel has launched new raids on what he calls hamas terrorist infrastructure in central and northern gaza, areas israel long ago cleared. >> we are seeing a sorcerer's apprentice type dynamic. they have devolved into smaller guerrilla teams and do not require any command control. -- centralized command control.

nick: this general is now with commanders for israel's security. he says in command centers, hamas is able to reconstitute because there was no one there to stop them. >> israel has not created an alternative, so there is no alternative there, and hamas is exploiting the vacuum. nick: national security advisor jake sullivan said israel must look beyond individual military victories to find a political strategy. >> there needs to be more attention on peace lest we end up in a circumstance where israel conducts a military operation, kills a bunch of hamas guys, also it's hard to listen -- also creates harm to innocent civilians caught in the crossfire, and terrorists, back, as we have seen in other places. we want to avoid that outcome. >> the idf has said for months now, tell us what it is you want to achieve in gaza. what is the political outcome you envision is that we know what to pursue. so as the cheshire cat said, if

you don't tell me where you want to go, i can't tell you how to get there. nick: but the strategic debates feel detached from the trauma. today is israel's memorial day, more raw than ever, especially at the sight of the worst single attack of the worst terrorist attack in the country's history, the nova music festival. >> sad. the sky is crying with us. the rain was all around. i feel very sick. what happened here in this place, in this area. nick: today, prime minister benjamin netanyahu said the soldiers who died fighting died for an existential cause. >> it is us or them. israel or the monsters of hamas. it's existence, freedom,

security, and prosperity, or ray-ban enslavement. we are determined to win this fight, but the price we are paying is happy. nick: the war is heavy for everyone looking for light to pierce the darkness. for the pbs newshour, i'm nick schifrin. ♪ amna: jury selection began today as democratic senator bob menendez is set to become the first sitting senator ever tried for conspiracy to act as a foreign agent. the case is expected to last several weeks. lisa desjardins previews what's to come. >> in manhattan today, a powerful new jersey senator arrived to face everyday new yorkers who will decide his fate. the start of jury selection is the start of democrat bob

menendez's second bribery trial in seven years. the senior senator was accustomed to calling the shots from his perch atop the senate foreign relations committee. he stepped down as chair when charges came last fall. but menendez refuses to resign from office. >> i recognize this will be the biggest fight yet, but as i have stated throughout this whole process, i firmly believe that when all the facts are presented, not only will i be exonerated, but i still will be new jersey's senior senator. lisa: the lawmaker is charged with becoming a lawbreaker accused of taking bribes to help individual businessmen as well as egypt and cotter -- qatar, and then greasing billions in weapons and other deals, passing along information, and pressuring officials. >> my office remains firmly committed to rooting out public corruption without fear or favor and without any regard to partisan politics.

lisa: prosecutors say they found what menendez and his wife got in exchange -- a mercedes convertible, and inside their house, gold bars worth $100,000 -- and wads totaling more than 480,000 dollars in cash. sen. menendez: for 30 years, i have withdrawn thousands of dollars in cash from my personal savings account, which i have kept for emergencies and because of the history of my family facing confiscation in cuba. lisa: prosecutors paint menendez's wife nadine as as a critical go-between. but menedez' court filings have hinted he may try to pin all the blame on her. her trial is set for july. two businessman charged will be tried alongside the senator. all four defendants have pleaded not guilty. they may have been friends, but menendez is expected to stress they were also constituents. >> you cannot prosecute a lawnmower care -- prosecute a lawmaker for talking on the floor and for acting as a lawmaker, including helping constituents. lisa: jonathan salant covered

menendez as the washington correspondent for a group of new jersey papers for nearly a decade, including the senator's last trial. sen. menendez: to those who are digging my political grave so that they could jump into my seat, i know who you are and i won't forget you. lisa: menendez survived another bribery case in 2017. prosecutors alleged that he took nearly a million dollars worth of gift in exchange for helping a friend's business. the doj did not retry the case >> i just did not see the smoking gun. lisa: salant says in this case, there is a change in jersey political circles. >> it was outrageous enough that the delegation called his resignation. the governor called for his resignation. so this goes, in the opinion of those folks, goes beyond normal, rough and tough new jersey politics. lisa: congressman andy kim is the prohibitive favorite to win new jersey's democratic primary this june. menendez is sitting out that race, but could run as an independent in november.

democrats face longer odds to keep the senate if new jersey becomes a battleground, but for menendez, much more than his political future is on the line . if convicted, he could face a sentence of over 200 years. for the pbs newshour, i'm lisa desjardins. ♪ amna: since the fall of roe v. wade, republicans have banned abortion in 14 states, and restricted it in more. but when given the chance, voters have overwhelmingly supported ballot initiatives to protect access to the procedure. this election year, abortion will again be a defining issue. laura barron-lopez reports from the battleground of michigan, where democrats plan to keep reproductive health care front and center. >> got it? great job.

laura: it raised in a deeply religious and conservative household, annie sharkus stayed out of politics, until, the supreme court overturned roe v. wade. annie: i gathered signatures, we, you know, organized like a rally. i gave a speech at one. i started going to like coffee hours and things like that with our local politicians and just getting more involved. i didn't want my kids to look back at this point in time and say like, okay, well, what did you do? and i couldn't tell them that i did nothing. laura: now abortion access is protected in michigan, but voters are still thinking about it. even though it's not on the ballot in michigan this time around, do you still think that it is a top issue for a lot of voters? annie: even if we're not worried about it in our state in particular, yeah, it's definitely something that people are using to gauge how they're voting. laura: the stay-at-home mom of two, who lives in the suburbs of detroit, isn't excited to vote for joe biden. but annie thinks he will ultimately make access to

abortion safer. annie: so with voting for joe biden, it is hard. because i'm not a single issue voter. i don't specifically identify as democrat or republican. while i will vote for him, i wish that there was another option. laura: do you think that you could ever vote republican again? annie: i don't think that i would with the current direction that the republican party is going. i am so far from identifying with what they want to happen, that i don't see it ever happening. laura: congresswoman elissa slotkin wants to keep women like annie squarely in the democratic column. her message to voters, abortion will always be on the ballot. rep. slotkin: the other side has made this a central issue for them for 50 years. their actions speak louder than words, their actions are currently like, as we speak,

trying to threaten a woman's right to choose, and people see that. laura: when voters turned out for abortion rights in michigan in 2022, it was a victory for democrats. in 2024, they're trying to replicate that success here and in states across the country. slotkin, now running for the u.s. senate, is one of many down-ballot democratic candidates trying to maintain urgency. rep. slotkin: i think also we have to understand that most people see this as a kitchen table issue. a decision about whether to have a child or not is the most profound kitchen table issue that we have. it's not separate from inflation. it's not separate from the economy. it's like your whole family trajectory. laura: what happened in michigan became a blueprint for how to organize around abortion effectively. ohio followed suit in 2023. now the right to an abortion will be on the ballot this november in three states

including florida, which currently bans any kind of termination after six weeks of pregnancy. and similar initiatives could end up on the ballot in up to nine other states this year, including the battlegrounds of arizona and nevada. back in michigan, state activists like shanay watson-whittaker - who works for the non-profit reproductive freedom for all -- were instrumental in mobilizing voters in 2022. two years later, she's sharing that strategy. shanay: michigan, for a lot of folks, has been like a north star. we specifically and intentionally had conversations with black clergy, with clergy from other denominations, sat them down and talked about reproductive freedom. what people forget are that clergy are humans. they've experienced loss, miscarriage, they've had abortions. we believe in in god and we believe in jesus. and at the same time, we believe that government should not interfere with a woman's right to choose. laura: meanwhile, republicans, who cheered the supreme court's reversal of roe, are struggling

to find their footing. in march, the presumptive gop nominee, donald trump, spoke favorably of a 15-week abortion ban nationwide. pres. trump: but people are really, even hard-liners are agreeing, seems to be, 15 weeks seems to be a number that people are agreeing at. laura: then, last month, he flip-flopped, saying states could decide for themselves. pres. trump: from a legal standpoint, the states will determined by vote or legislation or perhaps both, and whatever they decide must be the law of the land, in this case, the law of the state. laura: still, some top republicans in congress support the national 15-week ban, and measures that would make it a crime to transport minors across state lines for an abortion without parental consent. pres. trump: thank you, wisconsin. laura: more recently, trump told time magazine, he'd allow states to both monitor pregnancies and prosecute those who violate abortion bans. >> republicans keep handing

democrats this issue every election cycle. it never seems to be out of the political picture. laura: nolan finley is the conservative opinion editor at "the detroit news." what exactly would you like to see either the presidential nominee, donald trump, lay out or other republicans across the board in terms of the specific policy? nolan: i would like him to stay away from the federal policy. i think that's what's the point of the dobbs ruling. but i think the nikki haley, solution of let's all sit down and find out where we can agree in terms of a point in the pregnancy where we're going to say you've had time to make your choice. laura: whether it's six, 15 weeks? nolan: 15, maybe 20, somewhere in that range where people can settle and say this is fair. this allows people time to make their decision. this allows you to deal with

rape and incest, etc., but it also prevents, you know, something i think most people would be opposed to, and that is abortion in the last month or so of pregnancy. laura: for voters we spoke to in lansing, they're heeding calls that abortion is an issue to turn out for in november. matt: michigan voters, they recognize that this is an issue that goes beyond the borders of the state of michigan. >> i think we have all found out that we cannot rest on our laurels, that we must come out and vote for the right people. laura: ultimately, roe was a wake up call for democrats like congresswoman slotkin, one that she says exposed her party's complacency. rep. slotkin: i think we let ourselves get comfortable that we didn't believe the other side when they said, we're coming for roe v. wade and we want to overturn it. we saw all that happening, but we just had a failure of

imagination. but what i want to do is say publicly to the whole country that we have a ten year plan to get back to a federal right to an abortion. we're not going to let it just be a state issue. we're actually going to organize and mobilize to do the thing we didn't do for 50 years, which is pass a piece of federal legislation to codify roe. laura: the results in november could determine if slotkin's plans takes 10 years or another 50. for the pbs newshour, i'm laura barron-lopez in michigan. ♪ amna: war roils on in the middle east, challenging president biden back home. and a criminal trial rolls on in new york, with former president donald trump at its center. here to analyze the events through a political lens, i'm joined by our politics monday duo, amy walter of the cook political report with amy walter, and tamera keith of npr. great to see you both as always.

let's pick up where laura's piece left off. we know democrats are leaning heavily into abortion rights in michigan. she can is just one of a few battleground states we are keeping a close -- michigan is just one of a few battleground states we are keeping a close eye on. in october of last year, the new york times poll showed that mr. trump led in six battleground states. these are numbers from may of this year that shows that the race is largely unchanged when it comes to those six states -- arizona, georgia, michigan, nevada, pennsylvania. wisconsin is the only one that leans toward president biden at this time. how does the biden team look at that trend, and how are they going to tackle that? >> i was talking to people today from the biden universe, and they say things are stuck. the poles have not moved. they are not freaking out about it. they believe they have an entire campaign to run.

i think if we are looking at holes that look like that in october, they should be freaking out. but right now, we are six months out. based on conversations i've had with voters, this is backed up, that we feel like a lot has happened and there has been so much politics happening. people who don't want to think about politics also happen to be undecided voters and swing voters and, like people who may not be likely voters, but who i get picked up in paul's. -= -- in polls. those people are not following every twist and turn, every economic indicator, othis trial president trump is facing. they are just not tuned in. the biden campaign has spent a lot of money on ads. it seems like a lot. but compared to what they are going to spend, it is minuscule. amna: how do you look at that trend over the last six months? amy: it is a race that we feel

like this race has been going on forever. most regular voters are not going to start really tuning in until we get to the fall. one thing notable in these polls , the reason people are talking about these, it's specifically because they are not national polls. these are the polls of the states. this is how you can get elected president. you can win the popular vote, you've got to win but to 70 electoral votes -- the 200 70 electoral votes to win the presidency. this is the thing we are going to be watching when we talk about trends, the real erosion of support from biden among voters of color. this is the reason that he is doing worse, biden is doing worse in places like arizona, nevada, and georgia, where voters of color, especially hispanic and african-american, make up such a significant share of the vote. in a state like wisconsin,

overwhelmingly white, there has not been much movement -- as much movement against biden. that is the question, can trump really hit these what would be in some cases a historic high for a republican among some of these groups? are we seeing a real realignment, or is this a moment in time where you have a lot of people who are kind of checked out, disappointed in both candidates, especially disappointed as the woman who, in lisa's peace pointed out is voting for joe biden but not enthusiastically. amna: with young voters and their move away from president biden, however, many of them are driving the protest votes we saw during the primary season. how do you see that playing out, especially given the fact that mr. biden has turned toward tough language, saying he could withhold some weapons from israel? does that matter to those voters? amy: it is unclear, because tam

brought up a good point about what the biden campaign is doing. in this "new york times" poll, when they asked voters who would is doing a better job or would do a better job on the conflict, donald trump was leading by almost 15 points. what the biden campaign would say is, did these voters know what trump's position on this issue is, especially if you are more supportive of the palestinian side and the fact that donald trump has and neighborly close ally of netanyahu's? probably not something they know at this point. tamera: just to add to that, on tiktok and various other media platforms, there is a lot of talk that under donald trump there were no wars, everything is fine, but under joe biden there are wars. we can fact-check the but jesus out of that, but we will not. but because that perception is out there, particularly among

young voters, that and also feed into this. more broadly, i would say that there was this harvard youth poll that over samples young people, a poll of people under 30 years old. it asked what their top issues are in this election and pitted different issues against each other and rank them based on which issues come up at the top. it is the economy. it is the cost of living. it is student loans and guns. and then you go down to number 14, you go way, way, way down on the list and that is where you get gaza as a voting issue. the reality is that people are complicated. they have a lot of things they care about. there are some people who care very passionately about what is happening in gaza. there are a lot of people who care a bit but care more about other things. i am not saying that president biden is doing particularly well among young will who care a lot about the economy or cost of

living either. >> you mentioned the criminal trial of donald trump that continues to unfold in new york. liam reported on that earlier. we have seen mr. trump continue to attack those involved in it and especially undermining the judicial system. it feeds his narrative. it feels like preparing voters for a possible guilty verdict here. >> he has been preparing his voters, his base to distressed anything that he says to distressed. stressed this process, don'tr to trust that jury, they are liberals, don't trust the judge. there is a lot of bad -- there is a lot of that out there. the bigger question is how much this is going to register. the trial has not changed anything. will a verdict change things? lacks or has been nothing really new that has come out of this trial that, at least people who have been following it closely would say this is new don' know.n we are getting. i think voters, if there is a conviction, it may take a while

for it to actually seep into the way they think about voting in this election. right now, it is a data point. right now especially it is a hypothetical, but let's say there is a conviction. as we get closer to the election, the question becomes how much does the biden campaign lean into that issue. right now they have been very quiet about this, and who gets to set the narrative about what this is? now, donald trump is setting the narrative about this trial. it is corrupt, unfair, political. there has not been a whole lot of narrative from the other side, certainly not from the biden campaign, but not from democrats either. amna: it is notable that this may be the last trial president trump faces before people start voting. amna: it is good to see you both. >> thank you. ♪

amna: fbi field offices across the country have reported an increase in youth sextortion cases, where sexually explicit content is used as blackmail. stephanie sy reports on the concerning trend and preventive efforts to protect minors. stephanie: social media has become fertile ground for scammers to target young people, and in some cases the consequences have been deadly. >> in a two year period between october 2021 to march 2023, the fbi received over 13,000 reports of online financial sextortion of minors. it impacted 12,600 victims and led to at least 20 suicides. [gfx] fbi special agent emily steele from the phoenix field office with more on what the dangers of sextortion are and what parents can do to prevent it.

thank you for joining us. first of all, give me a sense of how prevalent this crime has become, and why the fbi is especially concerned about young people. emily: this crime has become significantly more prevalent especially with younger children's access to technology. so whether it be receiving an ipad or a chromebook from school that has internet connection, or even just availability of getting on a parent's phone and using social media, kids are learning younger and younger how to navigate through the internet and online social media world. and that's creating more victims for predators. >> okay, so this is happening, i understand, through social media. how exactly are these people luring children in through these platforms? how does it work? >> it can be described in a long or short process, but the short process is children are vulnerable, and children are everywhere online and not using proper security techniques on their social media. so, say, for instance, they have

an instagram, it's not set to private and anyone can follow them and see what they're doing on their day-to-day activity. so if a child posts on their instagram story, for instance, that they're in school and they're taking pictures with their friends, well, then a predator instantly knows that this is a minor because they are in school. from there, it can be as easy as sending a direct message and complimenting the minor or pretending to be a minor from the opposite sex and asking for nude photos. and unfortunately, it happens very quickly. it's not a long process or a long drawn out relationship. it can happen in a matter of minutes that they are convincing these children to send nude or explicit photos and videos of themselves. >> so it's an adult that's often pretending to be a child and there's no way for the kid to know that. and then they get the kid to send some sort of nude compromising photo to them. and then what do they do? >> there are two situations that can happen. i like to kind of separate two

different sextorters. the first one is going to be the money hungry sextorter. typically that's going to be an individual from overseas. we see a lot of african countries, specifically coming out of nigeria, that there are these huge schemes to target children because they're vulnerable and scared. so once an individual receives the nude photo, they then tell the child that, hey, i'm not who you thought i was, you better send me $50 or i'm gonna send this photo to everyone on your followers. and what this individual has done is they have already screenshotted who this kid is following. so it doesn't even matter if the kid blocks them, they still have access to all that. so that's kind of the first type of predator who, if they can do this to 10 kids and five of those 10 kids send them $50, it's a pretty easy payday for them. the other side of it is an individual who is asking for this type of content simply because it's a child. they are attracted to children,

they are attracted to that type of content, and it's not just a get rich quick scheme. so it's two very different mindsets, but both of those categories fall under sextortion. stephanie: is it boys and girls, agents still being equally targeted? are there certain age groups they're targeting? emily: so it is both boys and girls. we have seen a rise in the amount of male or boy victims in the last few years, but it is still largely female. typically what we're seeing is boys, the ages are between 14 and 17 and girls are a little younger. the female victims are we're seeing anywhere from 12 to 17. and i've had a victim as young as seven be targeted for sex extortion. it can really be any minor that has access to the internet, but it is both boys and girls. stephanie: and you mentioned instagram. what are the other platforms that people need to be aware of? and is it also true that sometimes the predators can get to kids via games such as roblox?

emily: yes, so roblox is one of the major platforms that we see victims come from. actually, my seven-year-old victim that i just talked about, that started on roblox and the individual was paying this seven -year-old in robux to send him stuff on snapchat. so you have roblox, you have snapchat, you have instagram, and then discord. discord is also a big one. discord is an application on the phone, or you can access it from just a regular computer and it is big in the gaming world. a lot of them like to get on discord get in these gaming rooms to talk about the game. these predators know that these kids do this and they will jump into these rooms and catch them that way as well. stephanie: i know that you yourself as an fbi special agent have been going out to schools to try to educate parents and students. what is the one most tangible thing that a parent or educator can do to protect their kids from this?

emily: specifically on the parent side, i always say the parent pays for the phone. you should know what is on that phone. and that includes knowing the pin to the phone as well as knowing the passwords for accounts. if the child is starting to act off or weird or extremely attached to their phone and they can't leave it for even a second, it's not a bad idea to be able to go in and see what's going on, see what is on their phone that they are so scared to leave behind. so i think if i had to pick one, just one measure to take, it would be having access to your children's social media and knowing what applications do they have. do they have snapchat? do they have instagram? just checking that every once in a while. stephanie: agent emily steele with the phoenix field office of the fbi. thank you so much for joining us. emily: thank you. amna: an unfinished love story. a story of the love of two people for one another, and for

their country. the new book is by an author well-known to newshour audiences, doris kearns goodwin. she spoke recently to jeffrey brown for our arts and culture series, "canvas." >> in the past, region, ideology -- jeffrey: doris kearns goodwin, presidential historian and commentator extraordinaire -- for years bringing the past into the present on the newshour and other programs. a delightful and delighted presence late night. and that mark of true celebrity, on "the simpsons." most of all, pulitzer prize-winning author of bestselling biographies of lyndon johnson, teddy and franklin roosevelt, abraham lincoln, presidents she's thought of as my guys, alive research and writing. doris: my kids remember when i

was in the room once, they heard me talking to franklin and eleanor and wanting them to get closer to each other. they wondered, what is going on in that room? but i couldn't get any answers from those guys. but now this was my guy. jeffrey: this was your guy. doris: this was my guy, 42 years. jeffrey: her latest subject, her real guy, richard goodwin, who as a young man was near the center of political triumphs and tragedies in the 1960's. a speechwriter and advisor to john f kennedy, with his promise of a "new frontier", and a call on young people to help change the world. to lyndon johnson, helping name and shape the great society social programs to fight poverty and discrimination. and to robert f. kennedy, before he was gunned down while campaigning for the presidency in 1968. when dick goodwin turned 80, he decided it was finally time to look at the hundreds of boxes of documents and memorabilia he'd saved from that time, and write of those years. and he and doris took on their final project together. part way in, in 2018, goodwin

died after a brief bout with cancer. doris: i was helping him in those first years to write a book in his voice. and then when he died, i had to figure out what to do. and we had gone through many of the boxes, but there was much more left to be done. and i realized finally, when i came to the decision that i needed to keep the promise i made to him that i'd finish it, it had to be in my voice, not his. and i had to be an historian as well as a biographer of him. and it had to be about the 1960s as well as our personal life. jeffrey: the result, "an unfinished love story," part history of a political era, part story of a long and loving marriage. a key figure they shared, though a key figure they shared, though not at the same time ,lyndon johnson. dick goodwin had come to believe that lbj's continuation of the vietnam war derailed much of the good achieved in domestic programs and civil rights progress. he left the white house in 1965 and went on to work with johnson's political nemesis, robert kennedy. for her part, doris worked directly with lbj in his final

period in office, and later assisted him with his memoirs. husband and wife had argued for decades about this giant in american history and their own lives. going through the boxes led to a kind of unexpected and, again, deeply personal resolution. doris: after we were going through the selma part of it, he went upstairs and he said, 'oh my god, i'm feeling affection for the old guy again." and it really healed him in those last years of his life. there was something about going through these boxes that, for me, i felt as long as we had more boxes to go through, that he'd keep on living and we'd have our story together. there were still hundreds of boxes left that had to do with the rest of his life. and i remember he one time said, who do you think will win, the boxes were made. -- the boxes or me? especially as he got cancer in that last year. but it gave him a sense of purpose, a joy of waking up in the mornings. and more importantly, he began to remember that what he had one, what lbj had done, what the

great society had done, was permanent, so that there had been achievements that he could be proud of. and he didn't have to feel that sadness about what might have been. what was was pretty amazing. jeffrey: anyone who has been in a long-term relationship, there is a point where you might wonder, how well do i actually know that person? now you had the chance to kind of go back and excavate as a historian. were you surprised? doris: i think what i really always wanted to know was, what was he like when he was a young man. because i, i was 12 years younger than him, so i didn't know him. what i have fallen in love with you? he would say to me, i don't know. he wouldn't talk that much about it. but when i got these letters and diaries and journals, then i was able to understand it and, just as you say, excavate who he was. and i really did like the man that i found. i would have been smitten with him way back then. jeffrey: doris continues to weigh in on american politics,

then and now. when she refers to an unfinished love story, she also means the one she and her husband had for their country. how worried are you now and how worried was dick and would he be now? doris: you know, the interesting thing is, one of the things he wrote shortly after we started going through the boxes, he went over to his study and he came back with a little thing he wrote in which he was talking about american history, and he talked about the fact that every change that has come in america has come from the ground up. and somehow those changes made our country better. and he ended up saying america is not as fragile as it seems. and i think that was his overwhelming feeling. and i believe it's mine too. jeffrey: that's more hopeful than a lot of people feel right now. we are stronger than we think. doris: you know, one of the things about history is that it gives you a sense of perspective and solace and really, lessons. all the people i've studied lived through really hard times. they had the same anxiety we have. but somehow i take solace from thinking those were really, really tough times, maybe even

tougher than the time we're living through now. i think when put to the test, the american people will come through. jeffrey: "i tried to outrun grief in the months after dick's death," doris writes in an epilogue. one solace, donating their vast collection of books to the local library in concord, massachusetts, which created the "goodwin forum" as a community space for reading and public lectures and talks. but the first couple of years, she says, were really hard. doris: after a while, i realized that by doing the book, i kept his memory alive rather than talking only about the grief. i heard his voice. he was back, he was back with me. if i have any kind of hope for the book itself, it's that, don't wait until the person dies before you go through their memorabilia. talk to your parents or grandparents about their memories and whatever their memorabilia they have, because that's the way people live on through the stories that somebody tells to the next generation. and those stories keep that person alive. so i'd like to believe that i've kept dick alive. he's certainly kept alive for me, and maybe for a lot of people now who will read this, they'll know what a great character he was. jeffrey: the book is "an

unfinished love story." doris kearns goodwin, nice to talk to you, thank you so much. doris: thank you so much. ♪ amna: and join us again here tomorrow night, for more on white house steps targeting chinese electric vehicles to protect american automakers. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm amna nawaz. on behalf of the entire newshour team, thank you for joining us. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- >> cfp professionals are committed to acting in their clients' best interest. more information at letsmakeaplan.org. cunard is a proud supporter of public television. on a voyage with cunard, the

world awaits. a world of flavor, diverse destinations, and immersive experiences. a world of leisure, and british style. all with cunard's white start service. -- white star service. >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org. and with the ongoing support of these 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.

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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. xfinity internet. made for streaming. - hello everyone and welcome to "amanpour & company." here's what's coming up. [children shouting] desperation in gaza, with more than half a million people on the brink of famine. unrwa chief philippe lazzarini joins me from jerusalem amid damning allegations over his agency