PBS News Hour

AMNA NAWAZ

Good evening. I'm Amna Nawaz. Judy Woodruff is away. On the "NewsHour"

tonight

The invasion intensifies. Russia claims victory in Mariupol, despite pockets of resistance from Ukrainian forces, and stalled evacuations leave civilians caught in the crossfire.

Then

COVID confusion. The Department of Justice appeals a federal judge's ruling to strike down travel mask mandates. We discuss the latest with the White House COVID response coordinator. And culture wars. Florida's Republican led legislature revokes Disney's special tax status after the company oppose the state's new anti-LGBTQ law. All that and more on tonight's "PBS NewsHour." (BREAK)

AMNA NAWAZ

Well, more American weapons will soon be on the way to Ukraine. President Biden made that announcement today, as Ukrainian forces brace for a tough fight with Russia's military across Eastern Ukraine. Biden also announced a new program for Americans to sponsor Ukrainians who want to come to the U.S., part of his commitment to welcome up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees. In the meantime, the Russian siege of Mariupol continues, and new evidence emerged of mass graves outside the nearly flattened city. Special correspondent Willem Marx reports.

WILLEM MARX

After weeks of brutal battles in the besieged city of Mariupol, today, Moscow claimed victory. In a televised meeting of the Kremlin, Russia's defense minister formally declared the long siege a success. SERGEI SHOIGU,

Russian Defense Minister (through translator)

The armed forces of the Russian Federation and the people's militia of the Donetsk People's Republic have liberated Mariupol.

WILLEM MARX

And for the final few Ukrainian forces still fighting and the city's giant

Azovstal steel plant Putin had an ultimatum

Surrender or die. VLADIMIR PUTIN,

Russian President (through translator)

We invite all those who have not yet laid down their arms to do so. Block off this industrial area, so that a fly cannot pass through.

WILLEM MARX

Mariupol's mayor, no longer in the city, responded to Russia's assertion of control. VADYM BOYCHENKO, Mayor of Mariupol,

Ukraine (through translator)

The city was, is, and remains Ukrainian today. So it doesn't matter what statements are made there in Russia.

WILLEM MARX

For the 120,000 Mariupol residents now behind Russian lines, little is left standing. Russian state TV today showed footage of a hospital carved out from the inside. The wards, they say, no longer welcome the living, but the morgue still accepts the city's dead. Satellite imagery released today shows what seems to be a new mass grave just 20 miles west of the city. A senior U.S. defense official has confirmed Mariupol is still not under full Russian control. But Moscow's forces continue to advance south from Izyum into the Donbass region, with others expected to head north from Crimea. Today, the U.S. pledged another $800 million in arms for the fight in the Donbass, including howitzers, unmanned drones and thousands of rounds of ammunition. As Mr. Biden announced the new package, he seemed to address his Russian counterpart, President Putin. JOE BIDEN,

President of the United States

He's betting on Western unity will crack. He's still betting on that. And, once again, we're going to prove him wrong.

WILLEM MARX

Biden also promised an additional half-a-billion dollars to prop up the Ukrainian government, though the International Monetary Fund says Ukraine's stricken economy requires $5 billion a month just to function. In the areas now once more under Ukrainian control, reconstruction costs could be far higher, and rebuilding shattered lives will require more than just money. Two hours east of Kyiv, Volodymyr Kotsyurbiy wants to show us the 100-plus acres of land where he grows sunflowers, as his team tries to repair their tractors after weeks of conflict. So you have had tanks all the way along the edge of this field? Does it make you angry that you had Russian tanks on your land? VOLODYMYR KOTSYURBIY,

Farmer (through translator)

Of course. Of course. This is our land. And they came here to help us and tell us what to do.

WILLEM MARX

Wow. In the days after the invasion of Ukraine, Russian tanks took control of this territory. Since their retreat, locals like Kotsyurbiy have continued to encounter unwelcome reminders of their presence. This crater is about 15 feet wide and it's one of 10 in this single field. As farming communities like this one race to get crops into the soil, they're encountering problems like this they have never faced before. It was Ukrainian rockets that sought to strike Russian armor here. This time, the crater is the only collateral damage in an otherwise deadly conflict. Do you blame Ukrainians or the Russians for the damage to your field?

VOLODYMYR KOTSYURBIY (through translator)

The damage has been done by Russians. If they hadn't come here, we would have been minding our own business and wouldn't have had any problems.

WILLEM MARX

For the local economy to survive, planting season needs to start now. So the craters must be filled with fresh earth fast. In the nearby village of Lukyanivka, the recovery for many residents may not be nearly so rapid, the scars of this new war marking the memorial to the last World War With a peacetime population of around 500, only a few dozen remained when we visited weeks after the retreat of Russian forces but amid the rubble and destruction, signs of springtime renewal, repaired power lines and rising shoots. For 67-year-old Olga Hudin, the road to repair may be long. You can just see the bullet holes everywhere smashing out the glass. All the way through to the kitchen. "Look at the fridge," she tells me. "It's been shot at." How long do you think it will take you to build everything back. OLGA HUDIN,

Lukyanivka Resident (through translator)

To rebuild everything we would need, the fence, the house, the shed, everything, that's about 10 years of saving money to rebuild all of this. The roof has been broken. The fence is gone. The car is gone.

WILLEM MARX

Much of this destruction was wanton. Tank tracks crushed Olga's car. The local school and church were burned to the ground, even local beehives smashed. But together, as a community with money and materials, Olga says the Russian damage can be restored. Can you ever rebuild the village that was here before?

OLGA HUDIN (through translator)

We will be able. We will be able. I just wish they are gone and never come back here, gone and never come back here. Our people will survive and rebuild everything.

WILLEM MARX

For "PBS NewsHour," I'm Willem Marx in Lukyanivka, Ukraine.

In the days's other news

Winds are expected to intensify as firefighters battle the growing wildfire outside of Flagstaff, Arizona. The so-called Tunnel Fire has forced more than 2,000 residents to evacuate their homes. So far, the blaze has burned over 20,000 acres. That's an area larger than Manhattan. The World Health Organization said today that global COVID-19 cases dropped by nearly a quarter last week. Infections have been declining around the world since the end of March. We will talk with White House COVID response coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha after the news summary. The total number of Americans collecting unemployment aid hit its lowest mark in more than half-a-century, underscoring the robust U.S. job market. The Labor Department reported the number of new jobless claims inched down last week to 184,000. That is down 2,000 from the previous week. Those weekly applications for unemployment aid have remained below pre-pandemic levels. The U.S. Supreme Court today upheld a law that allows Congress to deny disability benefits to residents of Puerto Rico. The court said those supplemental income security payments for the disabled and elderly can be denied because residents of the U.S. territory don't all pay federal taxes. Justice Sonia Sotomayor was the sole dissenting vote. In a separate opinion, the High Court also unanimously sided with a California family seeking the return of a painting by Camille Pissarro confiscated by Nazis during the Holocaust. The case was sent back to a Los Angeles court to decide the matter based on California law. A federal judge has temporarily blocked Kentucky's new abortion law that halted the procedure at the state's two remaining abortion clinics. The measure passed by the state's Republican-controlled legislature bans abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The clinic sought to overturn the law and ask that it be blocked while the legal challenge is pending. The Federal Aviation Administration is reviewing a communications breakdown after a parachute stunt caused panic at the U.S. Capitol last night. The failure to notify U.S. Capitol Police about an airplane carrying U.S. Army Golden Knights to the Washington Nationals' baseball stadium prompted warnings of a probable threat and a brief evacuation at the Capitol complex. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also vowed to launch a congressional review. An explosion at a Shiite Muslim mosque in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif has killed at least 11 people and wounded 40 others. The Islamic State, or ISIS, claimed responsibility for the attack, which comes during the holy month of Ramadan. One local resident described the devastation he witnessed. GHULAM REZA,

Resident of Mazar-e-Sharif (through translator)

The incident that occurred at the mosque was heartbreaking. I was at the market and arrived as fast as I could. Unfortunately, the toll of casualties and injuries are more than our expectations.

AMNA NAWAZ

The mosque explosion was one of a series of attacks across Afghanistan today. A separate blast in northern Kunduz province led to at least 11 more casualties. Violence escalated in the Middle East, as Palestinian militants fired rockets into Southern Israel overnight, while Israeli aircraft bombed targets in Gaza. At Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque, Israeli forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets during dawn prayers. Palestinians threw rocks and Molotov cocktails. Tensions boiled over, as Muslim and Jewish worshipers visited the holy site for Ramadan and Passover. CNN's new streaming service, CNN+, is shutting down just a month after it launched. Its new parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, said it will cease operations on April 30 after struggling to lure subscribers. the network invested millions into the venture to compete with other subscription-based streaming services and attract a younger generation of news consumers. Billionaire Elon Musk says he has secured $46.5 billion in financing to buy social media giant Twitter. He added that he's exploring a tender offer to buy all the platform's common stock at $54.20 a share. A tender offer can be taken directly to the shareholders, bypassing the company board, which had resisted Musk's previous takeover attempt. In economic news, long-term mortgage rates in the U.S. have soared to their highest level in more than a decade. Freddie Mac reported the average rate on a 30-year mortgage rose to 5.11 percent this week from 5 percent last week. And stocks fell sharply on Wall Street today. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 368 points to close at 34793. The Nasdaq fell 278 points. The S&P 500 slipped 66. Still to come on the "NewsHour": Democratic and Republican pollsters discuss what to expect from the upcoming election season; the White House releases a new national strategy to combat the ongoing opioid addiction crisis; an activist gives her Brief But Spectacular take on Asian American representation in media; plus much more. After a judge struck down the federal mask mandate for public transportation, the CDC says it still recommends masking. Yesterday, the Department of Justice appealed that decision. For more on all of this, I'm joined by White House COVID response coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha. Dr. Jha, welcome back to the "NewsHour." Thanks for making the time. So, the judge that struck down that mandate said the CDC was exceeding its authority. As we mentioned, DOJ is now appealing. But if the government loses that appeal, doesn't that kind of shut down the CDC's public health authority and your options in the future? Isn't that -- in your view, is that a risk worth taking? DR. ASHISH JHA,

White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator

Yes, Amna, first of all, thanks for having me back. I think there are a couple of points here that are worth mentioning. First, decisions like how we protect the health of the American people should be decided by public health scientists and our public health agencies like the CDC, and not by a federal judge. In terms of legal strategy and legal issues, the Department of Justice, their lawyers felt very clearly that the CDC had acted within its powers. And that's why they appealed. And the administration and the legal experts around the country are confident that the CDC was acting lawfully and that eventually the CDC will win this case.

AMNA NAWAZ

But from a public health perspective, if you don't win, doesn't that limit CDC's authority in the future? DR.

ASHISH JHA

Well, there's no question about it, it is absolutely essential that CDC have this ability, whether it's for the rest of this pandemic or for future health crises. It is essential that CDC have the ability to put in rules that are going to protect the traveling public. They have had that rule for -- that authority for decades. And it's essential that we continue that. That's one of the reasons why the Department of Justice filed this appeal, to preserve that authority for the CDC.

AMNA NAWAZ

OK, so I want to clarify a couple of points, because I think people are unclear about where they could still be required to wear a mask. Obviously, we saw some city officials, like in Philadelphia, reimplemented an indoor mask mandate. Where else might people be required to mask? Can private businesses, for example, require that? DR.

ASHISH JHA

Again, there are some legal issues here. I'm not a legal expert, right? My understanding is, private businesses can require it. Certainly, we're seeing certain cities require it on mass transit. And then, if you take a step back and ask, what does CDC recommend, CDC recommends that, on all public transportation, people should continue masking up. But we are seeing different cities, different communities implement that differently in terms of requirements.

AMNA NAWAZ

So can I ask you about the increase of both cases and hospitalizations we have been seeing in New York? Because they're both far below the January peaks. We should say that, but they are rising quickly. Hospitalizations are up 35 percent over a two-week period, more than 1,400 a day. We have seen New York before be sort of a leading indicator for other urban areas. Do you see that? Do you worry it's a sign of what could come other places? DR.

ASHISH JHA

This is one of the reasons why the CDC scientists thought it was very important to wait an additional 15 days, gather more data, before we made a more -- they made a more durable decision about what to do with the mask mandate. As we look across the country, 30 states are seeing increases in infection. We're starting to see increases in hospitalization. Good news, nothing like the Omicron wave of January, but it clearly bears close watching and close analysis to see where this goes next.

AMNA NAWAZ

It does feel like it's a matter of time, a lot of people are saying, before they get it. Even if you are vaccinated and boosted, so many more people are getting infected. And I hear a lot of questions about long COVID and how much we do not know -- you do not know, rather. If you go to the CDC's Web site, there is, quite frankly, a very long and unhelpfully exhaustive list of symptoms there, things like fatigue and headache and joint pain. The big question is, two years in, why don't we know more about long COVID? DR.

ASHISH JHA

Yes, it's a very important question about long COVID. And we just recently launched -- the president authorized a new set of work that the White House is going to be doing on long COVID. We think this is an important area. There's important questions that we don't know the answers to. To what extent do vaccines protect against long COVID? To what extent do we -- can we use therapies for long COVID? And then, of course, you're right. There are a broad set of symptoms. Some people have some of them. Many have all of them. So we have got to learn more. NIH has gotten involved in starting to create cohorts of people that they're going to track. I suspect we're going to learn a lot more in the months and years ahead. There's no time like now to get going on understanding this condition and figuring out how to help people who suffer from it.

AMNA NAWAZ

Specific to that, there's another concern being raised by a number of doctors about the racial disparities that have played out throughout the pandemic carrying over into long COVID, and, again, having no idea how long that will take. But already knowing Black Americans suffered higher rates of infection, hospitalization and death, there's doctors raising concerns that, again, Black Americans do not have the same access to treatments that are now available, and specifically support for long COVID. So what's the administration doing about that? DR.

ASHISH JHA

Yes, so one of the things this pandemic has taught us is that, when you have a health crisis like this, longstanding systemic inequities in our society are exacerbated. They're identified. They're exacerbated. We have got to continue addressing that. So we have got to take a double-pronged strategy, right? We have got to work on those longstanding systemic inequities and make real progress there. But we also have to really track these things very carefully. So, one of the things we're doing is, on vaccinations, on therapies, we're looking at who's getting them, who's not, what are the barriers, and how do we break down those barriers? It is absolutely essential, as we get these tools that we have, tests, diagnostics, therapies, vaccines, that we're making sure that every American is getting them and that these things are being used equitably across the country.

AMNA NAWAZ

That is Dr. Ashish Jha, White House COVID response coordinator, joining us again tonight. Thank you so much. DR.

ASHISH JHA

Thank you.

AMNA NAWAZ

Well, the Walt Disney company is more than a giant corporation. To many, it has long been synonymous with family entertainment. It's now caught up in a much larger battle in Florida, tied to the country's cultural and political divides, prompted by its opposition to the governor's stance on LGBTQ issues. The state's Republican-led legislature struck back today. John Yang looks at the stakes and the larger context.

JOHN YANG

All is not well in the self proclaimed happiest place on earth, Disney World in Orlando, Florida.

MAN

Thank you Madam Speaker.

JOHN YANG

Today, Florida's Republican controlled House gave final legislative approval to a measure revoking a special tax district that has allowed Disney to self-govern its land. Governor Ron DeSantis has led the push against the California-based entertainment giant. GOV.

RON DESANTIS (R-FL)

This state is governed by the interests of the people of the state of Florida. It is not based on the demands of California corporate executives.

WOMAN

I pledge allegiance...

JOHN YANG

Democrats in the legislature call it political theater, part of the culture wars surrounding the state's recent anti-LGBTQ laws. STATE SEN.

VICTOR TORRES (D-FL)

This bill is a knee-jerk reaction and a political stunt, which is shortsighted and not well-thought-out.

JOHN YANG

The 40-square-mile special Disney self-governing area was created in 1967, just before construction began. It exempts Disney from certain taxes, fees and regulations, minimizing state oversight. The move to revoke the district was triggered by Disney's opposition to a new Florida law limiting what public schools can teach about sexual orientation and gender identity, particularly to younger children. After employees protested Disney's silence with a law was passed, the company said it would cease all political donations in Florida,

pledging

"Our goal as accompany is for this law to be repealed by the legislature or struck down in the courts." DeSantis, a possible 2024 presidential candidate, has slammed Disney as a woke corporation, and is expected to quickly sign the bill. The Walt Disney Company has not yet commented on today's legislation. We're joined by Mark Pinsky. He's the author of "The

Gospel According to Disney

Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust." Mr. Pinsky, thanks for being with us. You have got an interesting perspective. You covered both Orlando, which is the home to Disney World, and Orange County, which is the home to Disneyland, two places where the Walt Disney Company have a lot of influence, a lot of interests. How big a battle does Disney find itself in now with the governor of Florida? MARK PINSKY, Author, "The Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust": I think the battle is much greater than they thought at the outset. I think Disney Chairman Bob Chapek tried to finesse the issue when it happened. And then he had a revolt among his employees, both in Burbank and Orlando. So, he changed course. But Governor DeSantis is not used to being opposed. And he snapped back, and I think a greater reaction, a quicker reaction than anybody really expected.

JOHN YANG

Disney is no stranger to controversy. Your book is about a fight they had in the '90s when they were challenged by Christian conservatives when they announced that their employees would get same-sex benefits. How does this compare?

MARK PINSKY

It's the same issue. It's the same dispute, the same rupture between the corporate culture in Burbank and the political atmosphere in Orlando and Central Florida and in much of the Sun Belt. At the beginning, it looked like -- of the Southern Baptist boycott in the 1990s, it looked like they had a really strong hand. They represented 16 million worshipers, mostly in the Sun Belt. They were later joined by the Assemblies of God, with another four million people. So that's 20 million people. But when it played out, it turned out that the Southern Baptists and other evangelicals couldn't deliver their constituency to support the boycott. And so it slowly fizzled. And, in that case, from the very beginning, Disney executives in Burbank would not give one inch. They didn't buckle under. And they wouldn't even give them an olive branch when the when the Southern Baptist boycott failed.

JOHN YANG

In the '60s and '70s, Disney was criticized for being too conservative, for not being -- for being slow to embrace diversity. Now they're being accused of being woke by the conservatives in Florida. Talk a little bit about how Disney has navigated the political shoals over the years.

MARK PINSKY

Disney has never been a cultural leader, but they have been very sensitive to changes in the culture. And so, for the past 25 or 30 years, since Walt died and his heirs sort of left the leadership of the company, I would date it from when Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg took over. There's been a steady, steady evolution of the portrayal of American values in the Disney content, books, movies, corporate policy. They have embraced diversity. They have embraced various things. And I think that's an irrevocable change that Disney has made.

JOHN YANG

How big a deal is losing this or would losing this special district be for the Disney Company?

MARK PINSKY

No one is exactly sure. I think Disney can accommodate itself to whatever's there. But I think the resistance is more likely to come from Central Florida, from business leaders in Central Florida, who are afraid of killing the goose that laid the golden egg. I think they would like a more gradual change, if there's any change at all. But my suspicion is that getting rid of these special privileges is going to be a lot more difficult in practice than it is in the rhetoric of the governor.

JOHN YANG

Handicap this fight for us, the governor vs. the Walt Disney Company.

MARK PINSKY

On the outset, I think it seems uneven, that the governor seems to have all the power. He has the legislature under his control. He has a certain constituency, a base, a Trump base, that he's reaching out to. But I have to say that governors may come and governors may go, presidents may come and presidents may go, but, in this economy, corporations tend to endure and in the end prevail.

JOHN YANG

Mark Pinsky, author of "The

Gospel According to Disney

Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust," thank you very much.

MARK PINSKY

Thank you for having me.

AMNA NAWAZ

We are just 201 days away from the midterm elections that will determine which party controls the U.S. Congress for the next two years. But the process of deciding who will be on the ballot kicks into high gear in just a matter of weeks, with primary battles in several key states. For a look at what's ahead, we turn now to two party insiders. Faiz Shakir is a Democratic political adviser who was the campaign manager for Bernie Sanders' 2020 presidential campaign. And Glen Bolger is a Republican strategist and co-founder of Public Opinion Strategies, a pollster for many Republican candidates. Welcome to you both. Thanks for being here. Faiz, I want to start with you and something that's been making a lot of headlines recently, which is where President Biden's approval ratings are. And I want to ask you what they mean for other candidates. But let's just take a look at some of those numbers to set the table here. When you look at some of these approval ratings among key groups, since Biden took office to March 2022, we have seen some big drops. He's down 10 points overall. Among people of color, he's down 12 points. Among young Americans, Gen Z and millennials, down 17 points, down 10 points with independents Faiz, how does he get those numbers back up? And, if he can't, how concerned should Democratic candidates be? FAIZ SHAKIR,

Democratic Strategist

Well, he's been dealt to a series of tough cards. And I understand that the legislative agenda has been stalemated, often by corporate Democrats who have stood in his way. He's got some foreign policy crises to deal with. I think that the struggle for him is that, for some of these young people who got involved in politics, they had some high ambitions of what could get done. And, obviously, some of those things are not going to happen. But they still want to see a president who's fighting for them, who's animating the fight, who's wielding authority and power in as aggressive as way as possible. And I think that that's where sometimes they - - people are getting, I think, depressed that, is the president kind of going to bat for the working class, taking on corporate power, taking on corporate Democrats where they stand in his way? And I think this is -- the White House has often tried to have a return to normalcy, a turn away from Trump, and they have not wanted to kind of engage in the heated battles that I think sometimes is required, not all the times. But, sometimes, you do have to pick a fight, and you have to show that you really are animated by fighting for working-class people.

AMNA NAWAZ

So, Glen, obviously, the White House says there's time before the midterms, we're going to show people we're doing the work, especially on the economy, which we know is a top issue for both Democrats and Republicans. If people see the work getting done, if things start to improve when it comes to cost of living and so on, and people feel better about the economy, is that a tougher argument for Republicans? GLEN BOLGER,

Republican Strategist and Pollster

Look, that's an unlikely, very unlikely scenario. The last time you the party in the White House - - in control of the West White House didn't get spanked and midterm election was 2002, and largely because of what had happened on September 11, 2001. It's too late for the White House and the Democratic Party to turn things around for this election. Every four years going into the midterm,

you hear the same thing

Oh, we have got time. We can turn it around. But it never gets turned around in time. It certainly -- look, what happens in 2022 is not a predictor for 2024. There's plenty of elections -- Barack Obama's reelection in 2012, after getting spanked in 2010, is pretty strong evidence of that, Bill Clinton in 1996, after getting spanked in 1994. So, look, independents are who decides elections, especially wave elections. And when there's a wave election, 2018, voting against Republicans and Donald Trump, independents went double digits for the Democratic Party. In 2014 and 2010, they went double digits for the Republican Party. Right now -- and I understand what my counterpart is saying about disaffected Democratic base progressives, but the real problem the Democrats have is, they have lost the trust of independent voters. And you're not going to get it back between now and November.

AMNA NAWAZ

Well, let me ask you about November, and those looming midterms. If history is a guide, it will likely be good for Republicans. They need a net gain of five seats if they're going to win back control of the House. But I want you both to take a listen to what the NRCC chair, Tom Emmer, said about his predictions back in January. Take a listen. REP.

TOM EMMER (R-MN)

We're going to make sure that we work hard over the next nine to 10 months and make that a reality, a Republican majority in the House. And if we do our job, John, I believe we will have a Republican majority in the Senate again as well.

AMNA NAWAZ

So, Glen, do you agree with that? Both chambers are up for grabs by the Republicans?

GLEN BOLGER

Well, I think House is all but a done deal. I mean, people still have to vote, but that's highly likely. I think the Senate is likely. But there's certainly an easier path for the Democrats to retain control of the Senate than there is for them to retain control of the House, even though the Senate is 50/50. Just the state landscape is not as promising for Republicans as it will be, for example, in 2024. So I think it's more likely than not that Republicans take control of the Senate. But I'm not as -- quite as wildly optimistic as I am about the House.

AMNA NAWAZ

Faiz, what about you? You agree with that?

FAIZ SHAKIR

Well, the question is just how many -- how much turnout do Democrats get? And if we can increase turnout, we can mitigate some of the things that Glen is talking about. I think my view would be, right now, elections are always about choices. And you have to make clear that, what is the choice? What is on the Republican agenda? Right now, most of the Republicans are running on no agenda, right? They'd rather not talk about agenda. You heard Senator Mitch McConnell say that. Like, this is just a verdict on Joe Biden. I think it's the obligation of Democrats to both say, here's what we're for, what we have put on the table. We wanted to reduce prescription drugs. We wanted to make the wealthy pay their fair share. We wanted to expand Medicare, but there were certain people who stood in our way, namely, Republicans, and look at their agenda offered by Rick Scott that wants to cut Social Security, cut Medicare, increase taxes on working-class Americans. It is one that is completely not responsive to the wealth and income inequality that we see in America. They would do nothing to confront corporate power. And I think that those arguments would have resonance with independent voters, with young voters. But we do have to crystallize those choices. Otherwise, if this just becomes a referendum on Biden, I think it goes in the direction that Glen's talking about.

AMNA NAWAZ

Well, Faiz, we have already seen some Democratic candidates making a little bit of distance between themselves and the president. Specifically, I'm thinking about issues like immigration, where you have seen Democratic senators who are going to face voters in November criticizing some of the policies. Are we going to see more of that?

FAIZ SHAKIR

Yes, I mean, it's natural that, in each of these races, particularly when you have a head of the party that's struggling a little bit politically, as Joe Biden is, that each of the candidates can try to distinguish themselves. And part of the ways they distinguish themselves is sometimes to say, here's where I'm different from the head of the party. That's -- in my mind, that's fine and appropriate. I would ask them to pick fights that are very popular, like, instead of trying to run away from the most -- the popular agenda. I mean, we -- the things that have failed, right, that Democrats haven't yet gotten across the finish line, are incredibly popular, and Joe Manchin, Senator Sinema, and others stood in the way. That would have been cutting prescription drug prices. That would have been making the wealthy pay their fair share. If you go out and talk about raising the minimum wage to a living wage, those are really popular items. And I think it really also makes the case, by the way, that that agenda still can get done. If you put more people in the Senate, we can move the needle on this agenda. You put more people in the House, we can move the needle on this. The problem for the president was that he had basically 95 percent-plus of the Democratic Party, but not 100. So let's give him some more support. And I think -- I do think that those issues still play very well for us and should be talked about.

AMNA NAWAZ

Glen, I will give you the last word here. You're giving a couple of lines of advice to a Republican candidate out there who's in a crowded primary. What do you tell them? What do they do?

GLEN BOLGER

Look, crowded primaries are pretty - - pretty much a crapshoot. It's a roll of the dice. So, what you have to do is get your name I.D. up. You have to get your favorables up. And, if need be, you got to create some elbow room, a little bit of space between yourself and your opponents, because -- and, by the way, one of the reasons that Republican primaries are so crowded this year is, a lot -- people see a lot opportunities. When things are bad, like in 2018, you don't get that many candidates running. Here, Republicans, just like in 1994 and 2010, they look and see, oh, this is a very good year to win. I mean, candidates aren't stupid, even if you disagree with some of the things they say or a lot of things they say. They know what a good political year looks like and what a bad one looks like. This one is still looking good. So there are a lot. That's why so many candidates are running and it's crowded primaries.

AMNA NAWAZ

And just over 200 days to go until those midterm elections and a lot of primaries before then. Glen Bolger, Faiz Shakir, thank you so much for your time.

FAIZ SHAKIR

Thank you.

AMNA NAWAZ

Returning to our lead story tonight, Russian forces have killed civilians across Ukraine, sparking global outrage and accusations that Russia is committing war crimes, even genocide. The barbarity is evident in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, which was liberated three weeks ago, and now a grim accounting is beginning. Special correspondent Simon Ostrovsky and videographer Yegor Troyanovsky returned to Bucha to investigate.

And just a warning

Some images in this report are disturbing.

SIMON OSTROVSKY

The cemetery in Bucha. Bodies are brought here one after the other, some dug out of a mass grave to be buried a second time, others collected from the street, found where they lay, after Russian forces retreated from this area at the end of March. So far, 358 bodies, mostly civilian, have been recovered in the small suburb of the capital, Kyiv, which has been become synonymous with Russia's brutal campaign to subjugate Ukraine by any means necessary. OLHA KOSYANCHUK,

Widow (through translator)

Damn the occupants. May every single one of them die. May their disgusting country cease to exist. Animals!

SIMON OSTROVSKY

Olha Kosyanchuk is laying her husband, Anatoly, to rest.

OLHA KOSYANCHUK (through translator)

He had only one day left until this 57th birthday and the liberation of Bucha.

SIMON OSTROVSKY

The last time she saw him, he had dug some potatoes out of his garden to take them to a distribution point to be shared with his neighbors, a final act of kindness that would result in his brutal murder.

OLHA KOSYANCHUK (through translator)

They questioned him about something. Then they led him away to an unknown location. No one saw him after that. They smashed his head with a heavy blunt object.

SIMON OSTROVSKY

Just about a mile away, next to a yet-unfinished cathedral, Ukrainian investigators continue to painstakingly exhume the mass burial site that was created by locals, who did what they could to collect bodies from the streets while the Russians were still here. Each one is bagged before being taken to a morgue for identification and establishment of cause of death. Close to 120 were temporarily interred here. Bucha's mayor has said one in five citizens who remained in the city died during the Russian occupation of the town. Ruslan Kravchenko is Bucha's chief prosecutor. He told "NewsHour," investigators here want to establish the names of specific soldiers who were behind the killings and to find out who gave the orders to target civilians. RUSLAN KRAVCHENKO,

Head of Bucha Prosecution Team (through translator)

The evidence shows that people were simply shot for being local residents and Ukrainians. The Russian military did not care whether they spoke in Russian or Ukrainian. Russian troops and an armored personnel carrier shot up a vehicle with a mother and two children, 4- and 11-year-olds, while they were trying to escape. The car caught on fire. And the mother and two children were burned. The evidence we have collected so far confirms war crimes. And we are gathering evidence that points to genocide. But, for the moment, I can say confidently that the Russian troops specifically located in Bucha were simply killing local residents.

SIMON OSTROVSKY

Proving genocide won't be easy. Wayne Jordash is a British lawyer who's consulting Ukraine's prosecutor's office in an effort to bring a case against Russia to an international criminal proceeding. WAYNE JORDASH,

Global Rights Compliance (through translator)

as Far as I'm aware, what they want to achieve is to make sure that the links, if they exist, are drawn right up to the top leadership and political leadership of Russia, i.e., Putin, ultimately. And so what's needed is to investigate what's happening on the ground, but also then to show the links upwards the command chain.

SIMON OSTROVSKY

That's because genocide, which is often thought of as a crime of mass killing, is actually defined by proving the intent to destroy in whole or in part a group, such as a nation or an ethnicity.

WAYNE JORDASH

I have seen massive attacks on civilian infrastructure, which, according to witnesses, is also matched by massive attacks on civilians themselves. That's the first obvious pattern. And much of that, from what I have seen, does not seem to be connected to military targets. I have seen basements which appear to show signs of people being detained there and tortured there. I have seen mass graves which seem to suggest that scores, if not hundreds of civilians have been killed and buried, again, without any obvious military connection. I mean, these speak to me, obviously, as patterns which you ordinarily would see in crimes against humanity. And I think, in Bucha, what we see perhaps is even a movement from crimes against humanity to potentially genocide.

MAN (through translator)

A car drove by. Did you see it? A car, one armored vehicle and two people out of the brush, civilian.

SIMON OSTROVSKY

Unverified radio intercepts of Russian troops communications released by Ukraine's security service could be an early indicator that orders were given to target civilians.

MAN (through translator)

(EXPLETIVE DELETED) waste to them all for (EXPLETIVE DELETED) sake. Copy. This whole village is full of civilians. If there are civilians (EXPLETIVE DELETED) waste to them all. Did you get that? Yes. Copy.

RUSLAN KRAVCHENKO (through translator)

Right now, the security service of Ukraine, military intelligence of the Defense Ministry and other operational divisions of various law enforcement agencies are working to collect evidence, telephone communications, conducting signals intelligence, confirming everything, all the tapped calls, as well as using other investigative methods to find evidence of the orders that were given.

SIMON OSTROVSKY

And what kind of things are they saying?

Regarding the killing of civilians

Everyone shoot everything. Kill everyone you see. Many of the shot-up cars have signs that say children on them. This did not seem to stop the Russian soldiers.

SIMON OSTROVSKY

Investigators have also started to piece together a picture of which Russian units were operating in the area during the occupation. According to Kravchenko, they are the 64th Motorized Rifles from Khabarovsk in Russia's far east, the 155th Marines Brigade from the Russian Pacific Fleet, and a yet unidentified unit of Russia's National Guard. Aside from the widespread and seemingly random killings of civilians in Bucha, "NewsHour" has also witnessed evidence of the targeting of men of military age for questioning and execution by Russian forces. On April 3, our team was present as volunteers bagged the bodies of a group of eight men at an apparent kill site behind an office building. We'd come back here because we were quite rushed when we arrived on the first day. And we want to see if there are any clues as to who the Russians were who were using this building as their base to see if we can try to link them to these killings. Two of the bodies had their hands tied behind their backs, indicating they were restrained prior to their deaths. All of the men were shot directly in the head or chest, suggesting execution. Other journalists discovered similar sites in other parts of the city. We spoke with Sergey, a resident who lives in a house across the street. He didn't want us to use his last name. SERGEY,

Bucha Resident (through translator)

I saw two bodies, one on the sidewalk here and another on Gagarin Street around the corner.

SIMON OSTROVSKY

He told us Russian soldiers rounded up over 100 residents from around the neighborhood and forced them to stand for hours in front of the building, before ordering them into a bomb shelter below. Some were separated from the main group.

SERGEY (through translator)

There were three people dressed down to their pants in front of the front door closer to the road. Their torsos were bare, and they were on their knees. This one at the end had a serious hematoma in the area of his heart. I was told they were shot to death on March 6.

SIMON OSTROVSKY

It seems only a matter of time before suspects in the war crimes investigation of Bucha are named. But whether justice is ultimately served to the hundreds of victims and their families will depend on the course of the war in Ukraine, which is far from over. For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Simon Ostrovsky in Bucha.

AMNA NAWAZ

And the "NewsHour"s coverage of the war in Ukraine is supported in partnership with the Pulitzer Center. While the country is still wrestling with the COVID-19 pandemic, deaths from drug overdoses have been spiking and are expected to top 100,000 for 2021. Today, the White House released its plan to address the crisis. William Brangham gets an initial assessment.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM

The administration is promoting what's known as harm reduction, which is a suite of practices to make drug use safer and less deadly. It wants to expand access to needle exchanges, to the overdose reversal drug naloxone and to fentanyl test strips, so people know what they're actually consuming. The plan also calls for expanded drug treatment and cracking down on drug trafficking. So, will this make an actual dent in the crisis? To help explain that, I'm joined by Dr. Andrew Kolodny. He studies opioid policy at the Heller School at Brandeis University. Dr. Kolodny, great to have you back on the "NewsHour." The administration is now very publicly saying, we are getting behind harm reduction as a strategy. Do those practices work? And does this plan do enough to implement those strategies? DR. ANDREW KOLODNY,

Brandeis University

So, harm reduction approaches do work. And making clean syringes available to injection drug users is a proven way to reduce injection-related infectious diseases. It's a positive, important public health intervention. Making naloxone for reversing an opioid overdose more available, when opioid overdoses has become the leading cause of accidental death in the United States, is also something that makes sense. It's really a no-brainer. We should make sure that naloxone is available just about anywhere that people could potentially overdose from an opioid. But will these approaches make a significant dent in the dramatic increase we have seen in overdose deaths? I don't think so. I think they will help. I think naloxone will save lives, and we should do it. But to really see deaths start to come down, there are other approaches that we should be moving further on.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM

Such as? DR.

ANDREW KOLODNY

Such as making treatment much more easily available. The vast majority of deaths are occurring in people who are opioid-addicted, not all of the deaths. We have seen a sharp increase in young recreational drug users because the supply is so dangerous. Young people who might not be addicted are dying of overdoses. And those deaths are significant, and they're increasing. But the vast majority of deaths occur in people with opioid addiction, which is a preventable, treatable condition. And we need to be doing more to both prevent it and treat it. If we want to see deaths start to come down significantly in the short run, people who are opioid-addicted need access to effective treatment. And that treatment has to be easy to obtain and essentially free. It has to be easier to get treatment, particularly with a medicine called buprenorphine, than it is to find a bag of heroin or fentanyl.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM

But do we have enough beds, enough practitioners, enough buprenorphine to stem this crisis? I mean, the administration says they want to double treatment admissions in just a few years. Even if that was possible, do we have enough people to man those beds and to treat all of those people? DR.

ANDREW KOLODNY

We may have enough beds. There are a lot of rehab beds in the United States. But rehab isn't really what we need. We need outpatient treatment programs where somebody can walk right in, and that same day get started with effective treatment. We really need to build a system that doesn't exist yet.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM

I want to ask you about the criticism. Conservatives have often said that they're not fans of harm reduction. They think of it as enabling drug use. And they argue that interdiction at the southern border is what has got to be priority number one. What do you make of those arguments? DR.

ANDREW KOLODNY

Yes, it's not an either/or. And I think conservatives, if they take a close look at the harm reduction interventions that are being put forward, like making naloxone more available to prevent an overdose or making clean syringes available to prevent injection-related infectious diseases, I think most conservatives will agree these are important interventions. We should, though, also be thinking about trying to keep fentanyl from coming into the country. Interdiction efforts do make sense. There is a role for law enforcement. But the law enforcement efforts only really work if you're also making treatment much easier for people to get. What you need to do is everything we can so that heroin and fentanyl is made more expensive on the black market, harder to obtain, and treatment is essentially free and easy to get. And if you can do that, if you can make it harder for people to keep using and easier for people to access effective treatment, more people will seek treatment. I think there are many who are under the impression that heroin users are choosing an alternative lifestyle or maybe they're enjoying their drug use. They're not. Their quality of life is very poor. These are individuals who are suffering and generally want treatment. It's just that the treatment has been too difficult to access.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM

Dr. Andrew Kolodny of Brandeis University, always good to see you. Thank you very much. DR.

ANDREW KOLODNY

Thank you.

AMNA NAWAZ

Michelle Sugihara is the executive director at CAPE. That's the Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment and has long been a champion for Asian representation both on and off the screen. Tonight, as part of our arts and culture series, Canvas, Michelle shares her Brief But Spectacular take on changing the world through stories. MICHELLE SUGIHARA, Executive Director,

CAPE

I think what is so powerful about media is that it touches everybody, and it is one of the most pervasive and quickest ways to change perception, which in turn changes reality. Growing up as a Japanese-American in Honolulu, Hawaii, I really did not think very much about race at all, to be honest. And it really was not until I came to California for college that I started to learn more about it. Eighty percent of media consumed worldwide is produced and created in America. And so that means Hollywood has a profound responsibility. And one of the problems with the stereotypes is that people eventually become flattened. They are only seen as that stereotype. So, it's the stereotype of the model minority, which is the stereotype of Asian Americans being the smart, hardworking, nerdy, and the other stereotype we face is that of the perpetual foreigner. The problem with a stereotype is when it is used to make the character the butt of the joke. The more that we have those types of caricatures, it becomes easier to harm people. There's a reason that propaganda during wartime uses the same tactics of dehumanizing people, so that it's easier to hurt them because you don't see them as fully human. It's really important to be conscious about the choices that you're making and the media that you're consuming. And, also, it's about celebrating and pushing the envelope for more stories, different stories. We would love to see more stories about Asian joy and stories about Asian love and hot Asian American men. Like, there are so many other stories that have yet to be told that -- they're starting to get told now. I think we believe that narrative and stories can change the world. We started with writers because representation starts on the page. And then, five years ago, we looked at the other end of the spectrum, which is executives, because inclusion starts with the gatekeepers. And then the final piece of it is to promote and celebrate the films that get made. So everything that we do on our program side is very strategic. And we look at where we can push the levers the most, for the most impacts. It's really important for Asian Americans to be in the rooms where the decisions are made, because we need to be telling our own stories and the stories about our communities, stories for everyone by us. My name is Michelle Sugihara, and this is my Brief But Spectacular take on changing the world through stories.

AMNA NAWAZ

Watch more Brief But Spectacular videos online at PBS.org/NewsHour/Brief. Also online, we take a look at the new Medicaid extension that guarantees access to postpartum health care for residents of some states, giving new parents a lifeline to care during that vulnerable period after a baby is born. You can see that online at PBS.org/NewsHour. And that is the "NewsHour" for tonight. I'm Amna Nawaz. Join us online and again here tomorrow evening. For all of us at the "PBS NewsHour," thank you for joining us, please stay safe, and we'll see you soon.