April 16, 2024 - PBS NewsHour full episode

AMNA NAWAZ: Good evening.

I'm Amna Nawaz in Kyiv, Ukraine.

GEOFF BENNETT: And I am Geoff Bennett.

On the "NewsHour" tonight: The U.S. Supreme Court considers whether a charge of obstructing an official proceeding can be used to prosecute Capitol rioters and former President Donald Trump.

AMNA NAWAZ: Tonight from Ukraine, we look at.. energy system, the impact on its people and the war.

ALINA, Ukraine (through translator): What's going to happen in the city?

Will the rockets come into the city?

Will they hit houses?

What will happen the next day with heat, with water?

GEOFF BENNETT: And House Speaker Mike Johnson's job is in peril again after a second House Republican pushes to oust him over plans to send aid to Ukraine and Israel.

(BREAK) AMNA NAWAZ: Welcome to the "NewsHour."

Here in Ukraine,as leaders await news of additional U.S. aid, Russia's war here has entered a new phase, now attacking Ukraine's energy infrastructure with devastating precision.

But, first, we begin at home, where the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments today in a case about January 6.

GEOFF BENNETT: And those arguments focused on whether part of a federal obstruction .. can be used to prosecute some of the rioters involved in the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The court's ruling could impact hundreds of.. former President Donald Trump.

Kyle Cheney, Politico's senior legal affairs reporter, has been following the January 6 legal fallout and he joins us now.

Kyle, thanks so much for being with us.

We should say, this case was brought by a former Pennsylvania police .. Fischer, who was charged with multiple crimes for pushing his way into the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Walk us through the arguments the justices heard today.

KYLE CHENEY, Senior Legal Affairs Reporter, Politico: So Fischer's challenge to this obstruction law, it's a complicated law, but his argument is simple.

This law was passed after the Enron scandal in 2000.

It was meant to stop people from tampering with evidence in a court-like proceeding or a congressional proceeding, not envisioned to cover the sort of riotous conduct that we saw on January 6.

So he may be culpable for a lot of stuff on January 6, but this obstru.. by the way, has a 20-year maximum sentence, he says that should not apply to him or his fellow rioters.

GEOFF BENNETT: And the Supreme Court's conser.. position.

Help us understand why they seemed dubious .. law.

KYLE CHENEY: So what DOJ essentially has said..

This law was passed by Congress as a catch-all.

It should apply to all kinds of obstructive conduct.

They missed some stuff that Enron was doing.

They wanted to make sure they didn't miss anything again.

So we can sweep in all of this stuff that happened after January 6 as part of that broad umbrella.

And the justices, the conservative justices, in p.. broadly DOJ viewed it.

Could it sweep in all kinds of -- someone who stands up and interrupts the Supreme Court, could that person be charged with a 20-year felony?

And DOJ said, no, no, no, it's much tougher than that.

You have to prove someone had corrupt intent, which is a very difficult thing to prove, that they knew what they were disrupting and did it on purpose.

But the justices seemed to worry about how it could be applied and how widely it could be applied.

GEOFF BENNETT: Meantime, some 350 people hav.. proceeding for their part in the Capitol attack.

More than 100 people have already been convicted and are serving prison sentences.

What might the outcome of the Supreme Court's ruling mean for those cases?

And what might it mean for Donald Trump, who is also charged with the obstruction crime?

KYLE CHENEY: If the Supreme Court rules as narrowly as it might, it could upend all of those cases that we describe, those 350 cases.

I mean, if you have already served your sentence, you're kind of out of luck.

But if you're a serving or about to serve a sentence, it could totally change the game for you and you could be on the hook for misdemeanors, instead of a felony.

As for Donald Trump, the question is, did his actions to send fake electors to Congress count as the same type of obstruction that this law was meant to cover?

So, again, how the justices read that could read the charges against Donald Trump right out of special counsel Jack Smith's case or it could preserve it depending on how narrowly they construe it.

GEOFF BENNETT: So, the special counsel, is .. could upend his federal election subversion case?

KYLE CHENEY: He is.

And he actually previewed his thinking on .. presidential immunity case that's coming up with the justices next week.

But his argument essentially is that, even under the narrowest interpretation that the Supreme Court might take of the obstruction law, Donald Trump's conduct still fits squarely within it because, by sending fake elector certificates to Congress, that's exactly the type of evidence tampering that Congress is worried about when they passed this law in the aftermath of the Enron scandal.

GEOFF BENNETT: Kyle Cheney with Politico, thanks so much for sharing you.. and your insights with us.

We appreciate it.

KYLE CHENEY: Good to be with you, Geoff.

GEOFF BENNETT: In the day's other headlines:.. Donald Trump's criminal hush money trial in New York.

Their selection came on day two of the trial.

Lawyers will resume jury selection Thursday to fill out the 12-person panel.

At one point today, Judge Juan Merchan reprimanded the former president after he could be heard commenting about a juror and gesturing towards her.

In the Middle East, Israel's war cabinet postponed a planned meeting to address any planned response to Iran's weekend attack.

They will reconvene tomorrow.

The delay comes as Western allies discuss new sanctions against Tehran in an effort to dissuade further military escalation.

Today, the Pentagon reaffirmed its support for Israel.

MAJ. GEN. PATRICK RYDER, Pentagon Press Secretary: We.. we will not hesitate to defend Israel and protect our personnel.

Again, we do not want to see a wider regional war.

We don't see conflict with Iran, but we won't hesitate to take necessary actions to protect our forces.

GEOFF BENNETT: U.S. Air Force jets and Navy.. attack on Saturday.

A congressional panel is accusing China of using tax rebates to subsidize the pr.. and export of fentanyl materials.

Lawmakers said in a report today that the incentives only apply to deadly chemicals that are sold outside of China.

At a hearing on Capitol Hill today featuring former Attorney General William Barr and others, committee members lashed out at Beijing.

REP. MIKE GALLAGHER (R-WI): Through its actions, .. Party is telling us that it wants more fentanyl entering our country.

It wants the chaos and devastation that has resulted from this epidemic.

And, yes, that means more dead Americans.

GEOFF BENNETT: Fentanyl is a leading cause of drug overdoses in the U.S., killing an average of 200 Americans each day.

Federal regulators issued new protections today for coal miners against so-called black lung disease.

Mining companies will have to cut workers' exposure to the toxic .. the ailment in half.

In Central Appalachia, one in five minors has black lung disease.

Acting labor Secretary Julie Su said of the federal rule -- quote -- "We're making it clear that no job should be a death sentence."

A federal appeals court has overturned a West Virginia law banning transgender girls from playing on girls' sports teams.

The court found that the law violates Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in schools.

The case was brought on behalf of a 13-year-o.. her from running on her middle school track team.

A Renaissance era landmark in Denmark's capital went up in flames today.

The blaze broke out on the copper roof of Copenhagen's Old Stock Exchange as it was undergoing renovations ahead of its 400th anniversary.

The spire of the structure, which is a twisted sphere of four dragon's tails, collapsed in the fire.

And the city's mayor called the building an.. SOPHIE HAESTORP ANDERSEN (Mayor of Copenhagen, Denmark): I can't put into words what the stock exchange means for us as a building and a symbol for Copenhagen.

The four dragons are a part of our skyline and a lot of people from Copenhagen cycle past it or walk past it every day.

It's a 400-year-old cultural history that has been lost not only in Copenhagen, but also in Denmark.

GEOFF BENNETT: Passersby helped emergency .. inside the famous building.

There were no reported casualties and no word yet on what caused the fire.

The torch for this summer's Paris Olympics was lit at a ceremony.

In Greece today in ancient Olympia, where the Games started an actress playing the role of high priestess set the fire ablaze.

It'll be carried relay-style to Athens and then onwards to France.

The journey will end with the lighting of the Olympic Flame at the Opening Ceremony in Paris on July 26.

On Wall Street today, investors weighed comments from Fed Chair Jerome Powell that persistent inflation will likely delay any rate cuts until later this year.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 63 points to close at 37798.

The Nasdaq gave back 19 points and the S&P 500 lost 10.

And the Library of Congress has added 25 new audio selections to the National Recording Registry.

That means they are -- quote -- "worthy of .. cultural, historical or aesthetic importance.

They include The Notorious B.I.G.

's 1994 album "Ready to Die," Blondie's "Parallel Lines" from 1978, and Gene Autry's Christmas classic "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer."

Also among the entries was ABBA's 1976 classic "Arrival" and their hit "Dancing Queen."

(MUSIC) GEOFF BENNETT: Still to come on the "NewsHour": a look at the worsening humanitarian crisis in Sudan one year after the start of its brutal civil war; the health risks from nearby petrochemical plants for those living and born in Louisiana; and the new film "Civil War" explores what could happen if a divided America goes to war with itself.

AMNA NAWAZ: This year, Russia has launched a series of deliberate and devastating attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure.

Taking advantage of gaps and shortages in Ukraine's air defenses, Russia has systematically targeted nearly every single power plant in this country.

Officials here tell us the last few weeks have been unlike any they have seen before in this war.

An idyllic scene in the city of Ukrainka jus.. just three days earlier is fresh in Gennediy's (ph) mind.

GENNEDIY, Ukraine (through translator): It was about 5:00 a.m. Everybody woke up because it was a massive explosion, and then a few more explosions.

AMNA NAWAZ: The 64-year-old local builder struggles to describe the moment.

GENNEDIY (through translator): You need to hear it to understand it.

You need to live through it.

AMNA NAWAZ: The airstrikes destroyed their target, the Trypilska power.. the country's largest power plants and the main electricity source for three million people in the Kyiv region and surrounding areas.

It's also the center of this city's livelihood.

ALINA, Ukraine (through translator): More than half the city's population works at the power plant.

AMNA NAWAZ: Nineteen-year-old Alina has lived he.. She had a clear view of the attack and aftermath from her window at home.

What did you think when you heard the explosions that night?

ALINA (through translator): What's going to happen in the city?

Will the rockets come into the city?

Will they hit houses?

What will happen the next day with heat, with water?

AMNA NAWAZ: In the early morning hours of April 11, Trypilska was one of multiple power plants hit by the Russians.

That followed a March 29 attack on other power plants, which followed March 22 strikes also targeting Ukraine's energy system.

DMYTRO SAKHARUK, CEO, DTEK: They try, they test, they see the results, and just repeat.

AMNA NAWAZ: Dmytro Sakharuk is executive director of DTEK, Ukraine's largest private energy company.

He says Russia has attacked power plants ear.. DMYTRO SAKHARUK: The efficiency these days, unfortunately, is higher because of Russians develop their skills.

And this is basically the third year of war.

They improve the technology.

They, I guess, install some more advanced guiding systems.

AMNA NAWAZ: When you say efficiency, you mean they're more efficient at causing more damage to... (CROSSTALK) DMYTRO SAKHARUK: Causing more damage, yes.

AMNA NAWAZ: So far, an estimated 60 percent .. have already been impacted by Russian drones and missiles.

Rolling blackouts have been imposed in several areas.

Everything was different.

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, Ukrainian President: Ev.. Everything was different.

AMNA NAWAZ: President Volodymyr Zelenskyy .. infrastructure is a microcosm of larger battlefield challenges, as they face a critical artillery and air defense shortage.

At the Trypilska plant, he tells us, his forces intercepted seven of 11 Russian missiles, but they were four missiles short of saving the plant.

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY (through translator): When you're running out of missiles, people are dying.

Trypilska is just the most recent small examp.. AMNA NAWAZ: They were four missiles short.

That is what made the difference between protecting that plant and that plant being destroyed.

How often do you find yourself in that situation?

DMYTRO SAKHARUK: I guess, all our plants, we're in the same situation where, partially, the incoming missiles were intercepted and second wave or another part were not, and they just hit the target.

AMNA NAWAZ: Sakharuk now keeps a flak jacket for facility visits.

His teams have been issued the same.

DMYTRO SAKHARUK: Like soldiers, basically.

They have helmets.

They have vests, even some -- some armored .. AMNA NAWAZ: They're like soldiers on their own front line, then?

DMYTRO SAKHARUK: It's -- we call it energy front line.

AMNA NAWAZ: For Alina, who lives on that front line, Russia's mission is clear.

ALINA (through translator): To destroy our nation, to destroy our moral spirit.

But they won't succeed at all.

AMNA NAWAZ: They won't succeed.

Why not?

ALINA (through translator): Because they att.. We are much stronger than them.

We have morals and less fear than them.

AMNA NAWAZ: Gennediy says he was turned away twice from the military recruitment center, past their age 60 cutoff.

GENNEDIY (through translator): When people are dying, when children are dying, women, how could you not be worried?

As a father, I'm worried for my children.

AMNA NAWAZ: This is hard for you to talk about.

GENNEDIY (through translator): Well, you can hear it in my voice.

AMNA NAWAZ: This father is now bracing to send his own son to fight in a war that's already come to their home.

GENNEDIY (through translator): We understand what it's like to be without lights, without water, but we will survive.

They don't understand that.

AMNA NAWAZ: Officials here are scrambling to repair any of the plants that they can and to keep power flowing into people's homes.

But they say, until Ukraine can really defend its skies against those Russian drones and missiles, that no part of the country's critical infrastructure is truly safe -- Geoff.

GEOFF BENNETT: And, Amna, as President Zelenskyy told you in the interview yesterday, Ukraine really needs Congress to approve aid to help fill the gaps in its air defense and replenish its artillery.

What's been the response so far to Speaker Mike Johnson's plan for se.. Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan aid?

AMNA NAWAZ: Yes, Geoff, no direct response to that proposal so far, but sort of an indirect response, if you will, in what's become his nightly address to the nation.

Tonight, Zelenskyy reiterated some of the concerns he's made to us as well about what he sees as a different standard for security for Israel and for Ukraine.

In part, he had this to say.

He said: "The world must ensure true equality in the protection from terror, so, when we face the same terror and the same strikes from missiles and drones, the rules are equal in Ukraine, Europe and other parts of the world."

Now, we know the president told us yesterday he found it strange that Republican lawmakers would separate out that Ukraine aid from the other bills, mainly because he said he got a firm commitment from Speaker Johnson when they spoke directly just a few weeks ago.

But a bit of news from the president's office today.

He is now requesting an urgent meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council.

That's the joint body that was put together last year where NATO leaders and the president of Ukraine can meet to share and talk about shared concerns.

And, of course, that says they're seeking, full membership of NATO.

But we did ask Zelenskyy's office for any additional comment about that aid proposal in the U.S. Congress.

They say no comment for now.

They say they're going to watch how the process unfolds -- Geoff.

GEOFF BENNETT: Amna Nawaz in Kyiv tonight, it's great to see you.

Our thanks to you and the team there.

AMNA NAWAZ: Thanks, Geoff.

GEOFF BENNETT: On Capitol Hill, House Speaker Mike Johnson spent the day juggling his foreign aid priorities for Ukraine and Israel with potential threats to his job from members of his own party.

Lisa Desjardins is here to explain So, Lisa, lots of consequential topics all being debated at once today.

LISA DESJARDINS: That's right.

In the past day, some very significant breaki.. And even by the standards of this Congress, the drama and the stakes for this week are perilously high.

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): Thank you, Mr. Leader.

LISA DESJARDINS: After six cautious months... REP. MIKE JOHNSON: It's a big day on Capitol Hill.

LISA DESJARDINS: ... Mike Johnson is now def.. push to aid Ukraine and Israel.

REP. MIKE JOHNSON: I put out a preliminary plan,.. these matters, from Israel, to Ukraine, to the Indo-Pacific region.

LISA DESJARDINS: It's a big move, with reporters waiting for details, closely watching Johnson's fellow Republicans, after Thomas Massie of Kentucky called for Johnson to resign and said he supports a motion to vacate or oust Johnson introduced by fellow Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene.

REP. THOMAS MASSIE (R-KY): I'm not going to call.. that he -- if it is called, there will be a lot of people who vote for it.

LISA DESJARDINS: Massie says Johnson is helping Democrats.

But, today, most House Republicans, even rebellious types, backed Johnson as speaker.

REP. RALPH NORMAN (R-SC): I respect Thomas, but ..

The last thing this country needs is to thro.. REP. MARC MOLINARO (R-NY): It's a total waste of .. REP.

TROY NEHLS (R-TX): If we're going to identif.. but you have to have a solution.

So, who?

Who we going to put in there, then?

LISA DESJARDINS: As Republicans flirt again with chaos, alli.. Israel is on alert after weathering an extensive attack from Iran.

And Ukraine is getting outshot by Russia sometimes 10-1.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told our Amna Nawaz that U.S. aid is a must.

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, Ukrainian President (through translator): I can tell you, frankly, without this support, we will have no chance of winning.

MAN: On this vote, the yeas are 70.

LISA DESJARDINS: That aid has been paralyzed after the Senate overwhelmingly passed $95 billion worth in February.

That large Senate bill has funds for Ukraine, Israel, the Indo-Pacific, and humanitarian aid, but it's unpopular with House Republicans.

Instead, Johnson would pass four separate bills that seem to add up to roughly the same amount, but with more loans and less grants to Ukraine, also included legislation about TikTok and humanitarian aid, though the amount for that isn't clear.

In this blur, Johnson is direct about his job.

He's not resigning.

REP. MIKE JOHNSON: We're going to work this out.

LISA DESJARDINS: But it's not clear who or .. resolve will not backfire.

REP. MIKE JOHNSON: We are in unprecedented times,.. We are in dangerous times.

This has been articulated here, around the world and here at home.

We need steady leadership.

We need steady hands at the wheel.

LISA DESJARDINS: Last week, a former Republican House member told us Speaker .. someone standing in a dike, trying to keep it upright.

Tonight, he is feverishly meeting with House Republicans, calling them and hoping, Geoff, frankly, to avoid another internal disaster.

GEOFF BENNETT: Wow.

Well, let's start, Lisa, with Ukraine aid, .. been saying, if the House speaker just brings this bill to the floor, it will pass.

Is that still the case?

LISA DESJARDINS: Unclear.

But I will say it wasn't even for sure that he would bring this to the ..

This has been an indecisive speaker.

This is the defining moment of his speakership so far, but he does major hurdles in all of these bills.

Let's go through some of the challenges that.. First of all, there are some Republicans who oppose all funding to Ukraine.

I am told many of them, when they were in their districts last week, heard that from constituents.

Also, there are some who want more oversight.. willing to give on Israel.

Now, there are some in both parties that would like conditions on Israeli aid.

That is very complicated.

And then we have the border, yet another simple, not-at-all simple issue.

Some Republicans are demanding that there be border security elements in these bills before they can vote for any of this.

So, essentially, Johnson has two options now, trying to get all this passed this week.

The easy way, which would be with House Republican support, get all this onto the floor, get some amendments, have some debate.

But Republicans may not even agree with that.

So then he's got the hard way.

He needs two-thirds vote of the House, which woul..

If he includes Democrats to pass these things, then his speakership is on the line.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, how close is he right now to being ousted?

LISA DESJARDINS: That's the right question.

Incredibly close.

By my count, knowing just the two who suppor.. him, 215 votes potentially to oust him.

Just one vote.

And I know at least one Republican who is .. Now, one of the issues here, of course, is Marjorie Taylor Greene.

I just spoke with her a short time ago.

My sense is that she is not ready to pull this trigger this week.

She is trying to push this off.

That can change any day.

Now, if they do put this motion to vacate on the floor, as you well know, someone that can save Speaker Johnson, House Democrats.

However, a theory running around now is, House Democrats also potentially, if the math works out, have the power to install Hakeem Jeffries as the speaker of the House.

I asked them about this today.

And they said, essentially, if they have the ability to do it, they very well may.

REP. PETE AGUILAR (D-CA): Look, I think -- I feel.. Caucus that we want Hakeem Jeffries to be speaker.

Whether that happens in this calendar year or in January, that's the focus.

Mathematically, it's possible.

LISA DESJARDINS: This is some high-level game theory in a way.

I don't know if you have heard of the prisoner's dilemma.

There's a reality show called "The Prisoners."

Who do you trust?

Who is lying?

Who wants to make deals with who?

It is not clear right now.

The difference with this high-level game theory, however, of course, .. high for this country, for Ukraine, and for Republicans.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, let's talk about this unprecedented impeachment trial of DHS Secretary Mayorkas.

What was significant here, and what was really just politic.. LISA DESJARDINS: There was a great deal of showmanship today, and we will start with that.

This was part of pomp and circumstances.

This is part of the mechanics of how impeachm..

This is the first impeachment of a sitting Cabinet secretary in our nation's history.

So, we saw the 11 Republicans in the House walk over those articles of impeachment today to the House.

There they are, the 11 members.

You might see Marjorie Taylor Greene, the .. She's the one who's led this effort against Secretary Mayorkas.

But there really was no action today, other than the reading of those articles.

To remind our viewers, there are two articles of impeachment here.

The first from House Republicans is charging the secretary with refusal to comply with the law.

The second is breach of public trust.

We have talked about those here on air before.

The Biden administration and Democrats, as well as a couple of Republicans, say, these are political, that there is no proof, that this is a Cabinet secretary doing his job.

And to that point, what did Secretary Mayorkas say today?

He was on Capitol Hill in a budget hearing, did not talk about impeachment.

Instead, what we heard from Secretary Mayorkas today was that he has an agency that needs more resources and that he needs more guidance from Congress over how to secure the border.

GEOFF BENNETT: And that's in that immigration bill that Democrats pushed that Republicans ultimately blocked.

Many of us remember covering that Trump impeachment trial, both of them.

How will this be different from the Trump trials?

LISA DESJARDINS: It will be faster.

This is what we expect tomorrow.

The Senate will convene shortly after lunchtime.

They are required to do that.

After that, the rules of impeachment are not really spelled out in the Constitution.

There are just nine pages of impeachment rules.

We think this could just be a matter of hours tomorrow, but we will watch it closely.

GEOFF BENNETT: Lisa Desjardins, our thanks to you, as always.

LISA DESJARDINS: You're welcome.

GEOFF BENNETT: This week is the one-year anniversary of the war in Sudan.

What started as an internal power struggle has now forced more than eight million people to flee their homes.

Sixteen million are facing hunger and even famine, and tens of thousands have been killed.

Sudan shares borders with seven countries and the Red Sea, and the U.S. warns the conflict could destabilize the entire region.

Nick Schifrin, in collaboration with the North African media company Ayen, starts our coverage as seen from a refugee camp in Chad.

NICK SCHIFRIN: In the windblown Sahara Desert, children of war line up for a plate of food.

These families are stalked by hunger and haunted by horror.

WOMAN (through translator): My family is poor.

We are innocent.

And we don't have anything.

They came to us with weapons drawn.

We could not do anything.

NICK SCHIFRIN: She spoke to our collaborator of media company A.. She escaped Sudan's West Darfur, the scene of what the U.S. calls crimes against humanity.

She has lived here for 11 months.

WOMAN (through translator): A dark-tinted car came by and kidnapped my sister and I.

They beat us in our stomachs.

I was in a lot of pain from the beating, that I didn't even know where I was.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Hers is a story all too common in this civil war that turned residential blocks into battlegrounds.

It's a power struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces, or SAF, which the U.S. is accused of war crimes, and, on the other side, the rebel paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, accused by the U.S. of ethnic cleansing, accused of killing her brothers and scarring her for life.

WOMAN (through translator): They took me to a ..

They raped me and then threw me out naked.

My family thought I was dead, but they found me naked and they took me home.

My brothers were also killed.

There was nothing else to do but come to Chad.

NICK SCHIFRIN: She's had two surgeries and battles physical and mental trauma.

The U.N. says rape has been used as a weapon of war.

And, for far too many victims, there is little support.

WOMAN (through translator): I'm depressed and completely shattered mentally.

I need a psychologist, or at least to change my environment to forget what happened to me, because, every time I remember what happened, I get panic attacks.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Inside Sudan, more than six million have fled their homes, including to this camp in the northeast.

For 10-year-old Manasa Sheikh Bashir, there are moments of distraction and even joy.

For her brothers, boys get to be boys.

But the parents are not all right.

Maysaa and Bashir fear the future and are scarred by the past.

BASHIR AL-SHEIKH, Displaced in Sudan (through translator): The children were frightened by any sound, and they would hide under the bed.

They were terrified, and I would hug them at night to comfort them.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Maysaa fled her home while pregnant.

MAYSAA ABDEL MONEIM, Displaced in Sudan (through translator): There was no medical treatment.

I was not able to test my blood for so many days.

I did not know if the baby inside me was alive or dead.

NICK SCHIFRIN: They are twice displaced.

All they can hope now is to protect their children and provide as best they can.

The U.N. warns that, in Sudan, water and food are so scarce, hundreds of thousands of children could die just in the next few months.

This weekend, donor countries pledged $2.1 billion to help Sudan, but that's half of what's needed.

The U.S. delegation was co-led by U.S. Specia.. TOM PERRIELLO, U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan: It is absolutely urgent for the international community to increase its attention on Sudan and its contributions on the humanitarian side.

And we are seeing thousands and thousands .. saying that their primary motivation right now is finding food.

We need this conference, but we also need it to not just be one day on the anniversary.

We need the world to continue paying attention and pressuring the actors until we get a peace deal and ensure that humanitarian access can reach all Sudanese people.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Congressional officials who were recently on a trip to the region tell me that there's a shortage of food in the camps and that it's so bad, if you don't get more funding, the food will actually run out by the end of the month.

Is that what you see?

TOM PERRIELLO: That's correct.

We have seen inside the actors, including .. looted all of the storage of food.

So there's no resiliency inside, where people are at an incredible level of fragility in what they face, in addition to the violence and the horrors particularly being conducted against women.

When they get out, we need them to at least.. of at least three meals a day.

And we're not meeting that standard.

The United States will have given over a billion dollars now since the war began.

And the rest of the world has just not stepped up.

NICK SCHIFRIN: You mentioned some of the actions that the Rapid Support Forces have taken inside Sudan.

The U.S. has said that the Sudanese Armed Fo.. the border.

Bottom line, are both sides right now using.. TOM PERRIELLO: Absolutely.

Both sides are violating all of the basic norms of international humanitarian law.

It's about not attacking humanitarian workers and convoys or politicizing aid delivery.

This is an absolutely horrific treatment of civilians, and the most fragile civilians, in a situation by both sides.

We do expect both sides to obey international humanitarian law.

And these are their own people, the Sudanese people, that they are starving as a mechanism of war.

NICK SCHIFRIN: The U.S. ambassador to the .. about the possibility of a Security Council resolution that would guarantee food deliveries into Sudan, much like the Security Council created in Syria.

But do you also believe there should be discussion about protecting food convoys inside Sudan with some kind of peacekeeping or even military force?

TOM PERRIELLO: At this point, we need to be considering all options.

This is a situation of life and death for millions and millions of Sudanese.

It's the largest displacement crisis in the world.

The United Nations, along with ourselves and our partners, particularly our African partners across the region and the African Union, need to be thinking about all options that will solve the humanitarian crisis.

And, also, we need the war to end, which is the biggest threat to the humanitarian situation.

There's a huge amount of consensus among the Sudanese about the urgency of ending the war, wanting a unified, integrated military that's accountable to the people, a return to that constitutional transition that began just five years ago last week and really inspired the world.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Let's talk about the diplomac.. Do you fear that the leaders could decide it is more profitable for them to keep fighting than make peace?

TOM PERRIELLO: The one thing that everyone .. is on a trajectory that ensures everybody loses.

This is a situation in which we are going from a two-sided war to one that is actually increasing in terms of kinetic activity.

We're seeing more of the ethnic militias coming in, some of which had stayed neutral.

Some of those have dynamics with neighboring countries.

This is on a path right now, not just to famine, but to a failed state, to a regionalized and factionalized conflict.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Do you have the tools that yo..

I'm thinking not only of what we talked about before about a way to protect some of those convoys, but also a way to perhaps even threaten leaders that they will be held accountable for their war crimes.

TOM PERRIELLO: Well, as you know, the United.. both sides of this, not just individuals who've committed atrocities and fueled the war, but banks and other institutions that have been part of that.

That's certainly an option.

We have to expand those sanctions and also .. expanding those sanctions.

But we are, again, needing to look at all options on the table, including .. that you mentioned, for getting to a deal.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Peace talks are supposed to resume imminently in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Have the Saudis agreed to a date?

TOM PERRIELLO: They have agreed to host the talks and to having key partners there that have not been part of the past.

They have not yet set a date.

We're hoping that's coming soon.

And, right now, I do think we are seeing a significant shift in the po.. actors in the region, who may not have been as motivated as we were by the atrocities, by the horrible treatment of women and these crises.

But for those who only care about stability, this is now a time we're seeing much greater engagement from key actors.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Have you sent a message to those countries, including the .. if we approach famine this summer, which is a real possibility, that that will be their responsibility?

TOM PERRIELLO: We have repeatedly been in co.. the region.

And I think part of the message too is, this.. a two-sided war inside Sudan to something that could become a regional war in a failed state.

But this is also a strategic failure being .. coming in, including foreign fighters being counted on the RSF side.

This is not a good outcome for anyone who cares about stability in the region.

NICK SCHIFRIN: And is that the risk, a more factionalized conflict, one that produces even more refugees and threatens the stability of the region?

TOM PERRIELLO: It's not just a risk.

It's a certainty if we don't change course.

We hope we're building some momentum with Paris, with some of the initiatives of Egypt and others.

We hope that will come together with talks ..

The Sudanese people deserve their future back.

And we don't have much time to get to that outcome.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Tom Perriello, special envoy for Sudan, thank you very much.

TOM PERRIELLO: Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: About a fifth of America's total petrochemical production is concentrated on a stretch of land along the Mississippi River in Southeastern Louisiana.

Those facilities provide many of the essentials of modern life, plastics, fertilizer, and even medical equipment.

But that production also comes with serious risks.

The area has also long been known as Cancer Alley because of the high rates of cancer among people who live near those plants.

As William Brangham reports, a new study now documents how those risks may fall on the next generation as well.

TEESHA, Mother: All right.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Not long ago, Teesha couldn't imagine making memories like th.. son, Cairo (ph).

TEESHA: You sharing with mommy?

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: He was born prematurely, almost.. pounds.

He had to live in this incubator, had a slow.. entirely.

TEESHA: My first time seeing him after birth,.. And I was like, oh, my God, he's so peaceful.

And I took a picture.

And, seconds later, his alarms went off.

He had stopped breathing.

And -- and, of course, just me being new to the experience, it was very overwhelming.

There we go.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Teesha, who asked we not use .. lived in Louisiana's St. John the Baptist Parish most of her life.

The community sits within an 85-mile stretch of land that's home to some 200 fossil fuel and petrochemical operations.

TEESHA: Growing up, we knew nothing about how those things were affecting .. You know, you just had asthma, you just had eczema.

You just had all of these other different issues.

Your grandmother had cancer,a lot of people, women I know with fertility issues, a lot of women I know trying to get pregnant and can't, or experiencing a lot of miscarriages or early births.

And we just thought that that was normal life.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Last month, researchers at Tulane University found that, in Louisiana's most polluted areas, pregnant women had a 25 percent higher risk of low birth weights and a 36 percent higher risk of premature births.

Prematurity is the leading cause of death among infants in the U.S. Black and low-income women in those areas face the highest risks.

KIMBERLY TERRELL, Tulane Environmental Law Clinic: It's a wake-up call in terms of how we think about the consequences of industrial pollution.

And what you emit today affects the health of somebody who's going to be born in six months or nine months, right?

It's not decades from now.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Kimberly Terrell is a staff scientist at Tulane's Environmen.. and was lead author of the study.

KIMBERLY TERRELL: What was really surprising was the proportion of adverse .. that could be attributed to pollution exposure in Louisiana.

So, our study suggests that a third of the cases of low birth weight and about half the cases of preterm birth in the state can be linked to pollution exposure.

STATE SEN. EDDIE LAMBERT (R-LA): The Mississippi River.. grain elevators, because they are truly the gateway to the world.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Louisiana Republican state Senator Eddie Lambert chairs the Environmental Quality Committee, which oversees the agency that regulates the chemical industry.

I'm sure your committee has seen the number of studies that have linked living in these areas to disproportionately high negative health outcomes.

You don't accept that as a premise?

STATE SEN. EDDIE LAMBERT: I don't accept that as a comp..

I mean, there may be some correlations.

I mean, I'm going to tell you, let's start looking vaccines.

We have had an explosion of vaccines in the last 20, 30 years.

Now you have autism.

Is there a connection there?

I don't know.

There's a lot of people who think they are.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: There's a lot of people who think there ar.. that they are connected.

STATE SEN. EDDIE LAMBERT: And that may be the same thing.. plants.

There's circumstantial evidence that's there.

But you know what?

Let's really dig down and see, what is the -- wha.. WILLIAM BRANGHAM: He says there are other reasons women in these areas may be experiencing poor birth outcomes.

STATE SEN. EDDIE LAMBERT: Is it economically depressed, their health?

What kind of prenatal care are they doing?

I mean, there's all kind of factors.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: But Terrell argues, those factors were accounted for in her study, and they aren't exclusive.

KIMBERLY TERRELL: They are compounding.

It doesn't make sense to say, well, we're just going to ignore pollution and focus on poverty or health care access.

If we know pollution is a risk factor -- and we do.

We absolutely know that pollution is linked to low birth weight and preterm birth across the board.

Why aren't we addressing that?

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: You think, on balance, right .. of economic development versus protecting people's health?

STATE SEN. EDDIE LAMBERT: We could probably be doing a ..

I would like to see no pollution.

That's a perfect scenario.

Now, how much of a negative impact there is?

I don't know.

But I know they also bring a lot of things .. Would it not be for the chemical industries, especially fertilizer, you could not support the world's population.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: A recent report from Human.. Louisiana department of environmental quality, or LDEQ, has repeatedly failed to enforce the minimum standard set by the federal government and to protect the environment and human health.

And Terrell says that agency still hasn't acknowledged the racial disparities in who gets exposed to pollution.

From 2019 to 2021, the department allowed industrial emissions of pollution that were seven to 21 times higher in mostly Black communities compared to mostly white ones.

In an e-mail to the "NewsHour," the department declined to comment.

KIMBERLY TERRELL: I think the key is that the DEQ needs to take an unbiased approach to environmental justice analysis in its permitting decisions.

And what that means is, when a facility wants to build a new plant in a community of color, DEQ needs to say, OK, what's the existing burden of pollution here?

And is this community overburdened?

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Two years ago, the Environmental Protection Agency opened up a civil rights investigation looking at whether state regulators here in Louisiana were allowing oil and gas and petrochemical companies to build and pollute in a way that disproportionately harms Black communities.

In response, Louisiana's then-attorney general.. and the agency dropped the investigation.

The EPA declined to comment, citing pending litigation.

ASHLEY GAIGNARD, Rural Roots Louisiana: We're going to focus on mitigation with climate change.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: In Ascension Parish, anothe.. plants, Ashley Gaignard is counting on a younger generation to enact change.

She founded the organization Rural Roots Louisiana to teach kids about environmental issues.

ASHLEY GAIGNARD: That creates another generation of awareness.

It preserves our land.

It sustains what we have, because, if we don't start .. to buy out every piece of clean property that they can.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: All three of Gaignard's children were born premature and with low birth weights.

She says, at the time, she didn't connect her baby.. when she was pregnant.

ASHLEY GAIGNARD: My son born with an undevelo.. all his life.

And to have a kid get told he can't take rec.. in the air and methyl ethylene in the air and benzene in the air, and all of those chemicals have effects on your respiratory system, you get angry.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Back in St. John the Baptist Parish, Teesha says, even now, she worries about how the air could be harming her son.

If you could, would you move far away from here?

Is that something you have thought about?

TEESHA: It's something that I thought about, but I love here.

I don't want to be anywhere else.

I want to be home, and I want my baby to know home and love home the way that I do.

So what do you do when you need to be home, and home is, unfortunately, where the problem is?

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: For the "PBS NewsHour," I'.. GEOFF BENNETT: The new film "Civil War" is stirring debate and provoking conversation about where a divided nation could lead.

It topped the domestic box office this weekend with a nearly $26 million opening, the biggest ever for its independent production company, A24 Studios.

Jeffrey Brown talks to the film's director as part of our arts and culture series, Canvas.

ACTRESS: Nineteen states.

JEFFREY BROWN: The time, the near future.

The place, the Eastern part of the United States, now a battle zone of armies, militias, armed individuals guarding their property.

ACTOR: You don't know what side they're fighting for.

ACTOR: Someone's trying to kill us.

We are trying to kill them.

JEFFREY BROWN: We don't know why this is happening, what factors brought the country to the brink.

We just see and feel what it could be like if America really was at war with itself.

JESSE PLEMONS, Actor: What kind of American are you?

JEFFREY BROWN: British director and writer Alex Garland.

ALEX GARLAND, Director: I took on the subject because I had a set of anxieties and worries, and I wanted to join the conversation surrounding those anxieties and hopefully contribute to it.

JEFFREY BROWN: And those anxieties, those fe.. ALEX GARLAND: I would define them as a real concern about the power and growth of extremist thinking within your country, my country, and many European countries.

The essence of the film in political terms is absolutely extremist versus centrist, yes.

It is, what happens when extremists are not limited in their journey?

JEFFREY BROWN: Garland's chief protagonists, a group of journalists, led by a veteran war photographer played by Kirsten Dunst, familiar with covering horror elsewhere in the world, but now seeing it at home.

KIRSTEN DUNST, Actress: Every time I survive.. home: Don't do this.

But here we are.

JEFFREY BROWN: As they travel behind the lines of an invasion by the so-called Western Forces of California and Texas, attacking Washington, D.C., where the president, played by Nick Offerman, has just taken a third term.

NICK OFFERMAN, Actor: Citizens of America.

JEFFREY BROWN: Who's good or bad, right or wrong, right or left?

We don't really know.

This is a kind of warning, but it's for us to fill in the det..

The details, the politics are less important than just putting us in this place?

ALEX GARLAND: I would question your use of the word politics, because the use you are using of politics is a politics which is defined by left and right.

And the one I'm talking about is not left versus right.

It's extremist versus centrist.

JEFFREY BROWN: For you, this is a political film?

ALEX GARLAND: For me, it categorically is a political film.

It's just not choosing a politics of left and right.

I think that, if I sat down and asked somebody, why might your country or my country disintegrate into a state of civil war, they would know the answers.

I don't need to spell them out.

Those answers surround us.

So, I felt it would be not just patronizing, but redundant, to spell it out.

JEFFREY BROWN: And that means, in this case, putting us into this position that we can recognize all these places and some of these people perhaps, then letting us figure out what's going on?

ALEX GARLAND: Exactly, yes, exactly, which, .. in the film, which is to do with the press.

In a way, it is trying to take a certain kind of leading bias out of the film and making the film function like reporters, and then it is showing as its protagonist reporters.

JEFFREY BROWN: Reporters wrestling with getting a story at all costs, with the ethics of portraying violence in the form of compelling, even beautiful imagery.

KIRSTEN DUNST: Once you start asking yourself those questions, you can't stop.

So we don't ask.

We record, so other people ask.

Want to be a journalist?

That's the job.

STEPHEN MCKINLEY HENDERSON, Actor: Hey, Lee.

KIRSTEN DUNST: What?

STEPHEN MCKINLEY HENDERSON: Back off.

KIRSTEN DUNST: What am I saying that's wrong?

STEPHEN MCKINLEY HENDERSON: I'm not saying it's wrong.

She's just shook up.

JEFFREY BROWN: Issues Garland himself had to confront.

What were the key decisions in your thinking about what to show, what not to show, how much to give, how much not to sensationalize?

ALEX GARLAND: I hope it hasn't really sensationalized anything.

I would argue it has not.

Film is traditionally -- for a long time has been incredibly concerned with spelling everything out for an audience, and not leaving things up to the audience, in terms of their own decision-making processes or their personal responses.

I just choose to make films where I assume a certain level of interest in the audience in asking questions, thinking about the answers, posing them in the way they want to pose them, and coming to their own conclusions.

And I don't object to that.

I encourage it.

I like it.

JEFFREY BROWN: Garland is nothing if not amb.. intelligence and what it means to be alive in 2014's "Ex Machina" and toxic masculinity in the film "Men" in 2022.

Reactions to "Civil War" have included questioning the ethics of even making a film like this that might itself further promote violence or division.

Garland says he can't predict any such response, but: ALEX GARLAND: I do know that silencing people also leads to trouble, that there is -- there's an issue to do with the freezing out of opinions in a public space and the shouting down of opinions within a public space that is its own sort of problem.

So we're not living in a perfect world where every decision could be made with exact prediction of how it will work out.

What we're living in a world is where we have to think and act like adults and understand the messy, confusing state and do the best we can with it.

ACTOR: Are you guys aware there's like a pretty huge civil war going on all across America?

ACTRESS: Oh, sure, but we just try to stay out.

JEFFREY BROWN: So what do you hope people take away from this film?

ALEX GARLAND: In my dream scenario, which I'm aware will probably not exist, they would see it as a kind of treatise against extremist thinking.

I hope they find it thought-provoking in a way that is interesting.

They may be provoked in other ways.

It might make them angry.

That's part of the risk one takes.

There's a complicated thing there within cinema is that films often exist really to please people.

I do not want to make people angry, but I do.. JEFFREY BROWN: Box office results, so far, at least, suggest audiences are coming to civil war on Garland's terms.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Jeffrey Brown.

ACTOR: God bless America.

GEOFF BENNETT: And that's the "NewsHour" for tonight.

I'm Geoff Bennett.

AMNA NAWAZ: And I'm Amna Nawaz.

We will be back here tomorrow night with a report from the Ukrainian city of Khark.. which has been under relentless Russian assault and is now bracing for more in this third year of war.

For now, on behalf of the entire "NewsHour" team, thank you for ..