August 14, 2024 - PBS News Hour full episode

AMNA NAWAZ: Good evening.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

GEOFF BENNETT: And I'm Geoff Bennett.

On the "News Hour" tonight: North Carolina enters the political spotlight, as former President Trump and Vice President Harris both choose the swing state for speeches outlining their economic visions.

AMNA NAWAZ: Judy Woodruff talks economics with J.P. Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, how it's contributed to political polarization, and what can be done to bring Americans back together.

JAMIE DIMON, Chairman, J.P. Morgan Chase: The equal opportunity wasn't there.

Income isn't there.

Hope isn't there.

Health wasn't there.

All of us should look at that and say, what should we do to lift up society?

GEOFF BENNETT: And Ukrainian forces push farther into Russia, despite Vladimir Putin's efforts to counter the now weeklong incursion.

(BREAK) GEOFF BENNETT: Welcome to the "News Hour."

The top issue for many voters, the economy, took center stage today, as former President Donald Trump returned to campaign in a battleground state.

AMNA NAWAZ: His North Carolina rally followed a scattershot news conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate and a meandering conversation with Elon Musk on X in just the last week.

Laura Barron-Lopez has our look tonight at the latest.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Donald Trump back on the campaign trail, trying to get back on message.

The former president rallied in a battleground state for the first time in a week-and-a-half.

DONALD TRUMP, Former President of the United States (R) and Current U.S. Presidential Candidate: Kamala Harris won't end the economic crisis.

She will only make it worse.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: In Asheville, North Carolina this afternoon, he talked about the economy, one of the top issues for voters.

And he slammed his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, for her economic record.

DONALD TRUMP: If Harris wins this election, the result will be a Kamala economic crash, a 1929-style depression, 1929.

When I win the election, we will immediately begin a brand-new Trump economic boom.

It'll be a boom.

We're going to turn this country around so fast.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Notable after the economy today got a bit of good news, inflation falling below 3 percent for the first time since 2021.

But it wasn't all economy, as Trump repeated his list of grievances.

Trump was joined at the rally by far right Republican candidate for governor Mark Robinson, who has previously sparked controversy for his comments on religion, LGBTQ rights and civil rights.

Today, he stuck to the economic theme.

LT. GOV.

MARK ROBINSON (R-NC), Gubernatorial Candidate: What we see here with the weaponization of government, it does not jibe with being able to have a good economy.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Robinson's presence, alongside Trump's recent attacks on Harris, has some Republicans warning the party could alienate voters.

FMR.

GOV.

NIKKI HALEY (R-SC): What Donald Trump needs to do is go out there and campaign every single day, telling the American people exactly what Kamala Harris has said.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Former candidate Nikki Haley and others have criticized Trump for veering away from the issues.

FMR.

GOV.

NIKKI HALEY: The campaign is not going to win talking about crowd sizes.

It's not going to win talking about what race Kamala Harris is.

It's not going to win talking about whether she's dumb.

It's not.

You can't win on those things.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Those GOP alarm bells come as Harris is gaining momentum.

Not only in North Carolina, but in every battleground state but one, according to The Cook Political Report.

Only Nevada shows a Trump lead.

Harris is even tied in Georgia, and in the days leading up to the Democratic National Convention, the Harris wall's ticket closing the enthusiasm gap.

Excitement amongst Democrats and independents for the Harris versus Trump contest has jumped double digits since June, when President Joe Biden was still in the race.

NARRATOR: Being president is about who you fight for, and she's fighting for people like you.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Looking to keep the momentum going, the Harris campaign today announced a $90 million ad buy that will flood the airwaves after the party convention next week.

Also, prominent Republicans, including former elected officials and party leaders, even actor Mark Hamill, held a Republicans for Harris Zoom to rally support.

Organizers said more than 70,000 people joined the call.

SEN. J.D.

VANCE (R-OH), Vice Presidential Candidate: Kamala Harris now is standing here in Michigan asking us for a promotion.

I think it's time to say to Kamala Harris, no thank you.

You are fired.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: And both running mates were on the trail.

In Michigan, Republican V.P.

nominee J.D.

Vance confronted criticisms that Trump has been distracted.

SEN. J.D.

VANCE: I think that Donald Trump has earned the right to run the campaign that he wants to run.

And, look, if you listen to what Donald J. Trump says, if you look at what I say, we are prosecuting the case against Kamala Harris on policy.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: While Tim Walz's, Harris' V.P.

pick, headlines fund-raisers in both Denver and Boston.

Harris herself was off the trail, but plans to lay out her own economic message later this week, just like former President Trump, also in North Carolina.

And for the former president, the specter of his legal battles still clouds his election calendar.

The Manhattan judge who convicted Trump said today that he will not step aside from the case.

And, for now, Trump's sentencing is still set for September 18, just a week after the first presidential debate with Vice President Harris.

For the PBS "News Hour," I'm Laura Barron-Lopez.

GEOFF BENNETT: We start the day's other headlines in the Middle East.

The U.S. says it remains committed to talks to end the fighting in Gaza ahead of negotiations planned for tomorrow in Qatar.

That comes after a top Hamas official said the group was losing faith in the U.S. to mediate a cease-fire.

It's unclear if Hamas will indeed attend the talks in Doha.

Meantime, in Gaza, health officials say Israeli airstrikes killed at least 17 people, while in Beirut, a special envoy for the Biden administration met with Lebanese officials and emphasized the need for a cease-fire in Gaza.

AMOS HOCHSTEIN, White House Special Envoy to Lebanon: There is no more time to waste and there's no more valid excuses from any party for any further delay.

The deal would also help enable a diplomatic resolution here in Lebanon.

And that would prevent an outbreak of a wider war.

GEOFF BENNETT: Concerns about a broader conflict were only heightened by the death last month of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in an explosion in Tehran.

Iran has blamed Israel and has vowed to retaliate.

The Taliban marked the third anniversary of its return to power in Afghanistan today.

That included a military parade at the Bagram Air Base, once the center of the American-led war.

Some of the military hardware on display, such as Humvees and tanks, were left behind during the evacuation of U.S. and NATO-led forces back in 2021.

Taliban leaders praised their own achievements, but made no mention of the hardships faced by the population there.

Some Afghans in Kabul addressed those challenges.

AJMAL, Kabul Resident (through translator): There is no work in our country, and many people are unemployed, so they are forced to migrate to Iran and Pakistan.

If there are good job opportunities, no one will want to leave.

GEOFF BENNETT: Aid groups say millions of Afghans are on the brink of hunger and starvation following decades of conflict.

The World Health Organization has declared mpox outbreaks in Africa a global health emergency.

Formerly known as monkeypox, the virus is transmitted through close contact and can cause painful lesions all over the body.

The who says there have been more than 14,000 cases in Africa so far this year, the vast majority of them in Congo.

Scientists are concerned that a new version of the disease may spread more easily.

The WHO director general said today that outbreaks could become a global threat.

TEDROS ADHANOM GHEBREYESUS, WHO Director General: Today, the emergency committee met and advised me that, in its view, the situation constitutes a public emergency of international concern.

It's clear that a coordinated international response is essential to stop these outbreaks and save lives.

GEOFF BENNETT: Western countries have been able to control the spread of mpox with vaccines and treatments, but those have not been readily available in Africa.

The Atlantic storm known as Ernesto has strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane after it pounded the Northeastern Caribbean.

In Puerto Rico floodwaters consumed entire streets, power lines toppled, tangled in knots.

Roughly 700,000 people and more than 20 hospitals were without power today.

Ernesto turned away from the Caribbean today and is expected to intensify as it crosses open waters heading north toward Bermuda.

Expectations are growing that the U.S. Federal Reserve will cut interest rates at its meeting next month after the latest sign that inflation is cooling.

Data from the U.S. Labor Department today shows that consumer prices rose just 2.9 percent in July, compared to the same month last year.

That's the first time inflation dipped below 3 percent since 2021.

President Biden seized on the cooling prices when asked about inflation at the White House today.

QUESTION: Has the U.S. beat inflation, Mr. President?

JOE BIDEN, President of the United States: Yes, yes, yes.

I told you we were going to have a soft landing.

We're going to have a soft landing.

My policies are working.

Start writing that way, OK?

GEOFF BENNETT: Inflation consistently ranks as a top concern for voters.

It's come down significantly from a peak above 9 percent in 2022.

That inflation news helped drive some modest gains on Wall Street today.

The Dow Jones industrial average added 240 points to close just above the 40,000-point level.

The Nasdaq added about five points, so virtually flat.

The S&P 500 ended higher for a fifth straight session.

Still to come on the "News Hour": why Baltimore has been hit especially hard by drug overdoses; new reporting details the perilous journey migrants are making across the land bridge between North and South America; and NASA weighs its options for bringing two stranded astronauts back home.

AMNA NAWAZ: In year three of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Kyiv has, over the last week, flipped the script on Moscow with an audacious incursion into southern Russia, catching Moscow by surprise and sowing chaos.

GEOFF BENNETT: Today, Ukraine said it had blasted its way deeper into the Kursk region of Russia, where it has captured dozens of towns and settlements and taken Russians prisoner.

And the governor of the neighboring Belgorod region declared a state of emergency.

It is the largest cross-border attack since Russia's full-scale invasion and the largest presence of foreign troops in Russia since World War II.

Here's Nick Schifrin.

NICK SCHIFRIN: For nearly two-and-a-half years, Ukraine has struggled on defense.

Today, it's on offense.

For the past week, Ukrainian soldiers have thrown aside Russian President Vladimir Putin's claim the war wouldn't touch Russia.

They have trampled through more than 70 Russian villages, raising Ukrainian flags over small-town administrative buildings and changing Russian spellings into Ukrainian.

The incursion has reached about 18 miles into Russia, what Ukraine says is about 390 square miles.

Ukrainian soldiers show off their operation with video selfies, playing and driving heavy metal.

They advance through territory thinly defended.

But there's been a fight.

Ukrainians pulled the flags off Russian soldiers' helmets they just killed by the side of the road.

And Russian soldiers have been captured and driven back into Ukraine, what President Volodymyr Zelenskyy calls an exchange fund.

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, Ukrainian President (through translator): We have proven once again that we Ukrainians are capable of achieving our goals in any situation, capable of defending our interests and our independence.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Ukraine says this is not an occupation, but its soldiers posted videos in control of a gas facility, even picking up provisions from a Russian grocery store.

None of this territory is particularly important militarily, but the image of Ukrainian soldiers patrolling Russian villages, many emptied after the evacuation of 75,000 residents, is a shock to Russians and a boost to Ukrainian pride and this state TV reporter.

In Moscow, Putin hosted a public forum this week with governors and cut off the Kursk governor as he detailed the size of Ukraine's incursion.

VLADIMIR PUTIN, Russian President (through translator): Alexei, the military will report to us what the width and depth are there.

You tell us about the socioeconomic situation and report on assistance to people.

NICK SCHIFRIN: To try and evict Ukrainian soldiers from Russia, U.S. and Ukrainian officials confirmed that Russia has redeployed some soldiers from inside Ukraine to aid the defense.

But Ukraine had its own redeployment.

U.S. officials confirmed at least some of the soldiers who crossed the border into Russia left the Pokrovsk region, where they were fending off heavy Russian attacks.

Ukraine is also trying to bring the fight into Russia with long-range drones.

Today, Ukraine said it had launched its largest drone strike yet deep into Russia.

One target was this Russian air base before and after the strike.

To discuss the incursion into Kursk and the overall state of the war, we turn to Michael Kofman, senior fellow in the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a think tank in Washington, D.C. Michael Kofman, thanks very much.

Welcome back to the "News Hour."

What's significance does this incursion have, do you believe, on the wider war?

MICHAEL KOFMAN, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace: Nick, it's a very significant development and it's already significantly lifted the morale of Ukrainian troops and changed the prevailing narrative, which is that the war has been on a negative trajectory.

But we're still fairly on into the Ukrainian operation.

This incursion has been going on for over a week.

And it's clearly a fairly sizable operation, in terms of the forces that the Ukrainian military has committed.

And they met with initial success and were able to break through Russian forces early on when they entered Kursk.

NICK SCHIFRIN: So let me -- we will go into the military details of what's happening in Kursk, but let me just ask strategically also what's the political impact on President Putin himself or the overall narrative that comes out of the Kremlin?

MICHAEL KOFMAN: Well, obviously, the incursion into Kursk with the Ukrainian forces now being on Russian territory is deeply embarrassing for the Kremlin.

And even though the Russian military is still continuing to try to advance across the front line in Ukraine, Kursk now is front and center stage, and it's, of course, going to change the external perceptions of many of the other countries looking at this war.

I think Russian leadership was trying to portray a huge degree of confidence prior to the Ukrainian offensive, thinking that there was essentially maybe no way they could lose.

But this has the potential to really change potentially their perspectives and those of others.

NICK SCHIFRIN: So, zooming back into Kursk, why do you believe the Ukrainians have had some success?

Why was this area apparently so thinly defended?

MICHAEL KOFMAN: So it's clear that the Russian leadership didn't anticipate an attack across the border into their own territory.

The Ukrainian military first encountered border guards who were surprised and Russian conscripts who weren't well-prepared or equipped to fight them.

And after the initial breakthrough, they had to some extent the run of the place for the first couple of days.

The Russian military has taken a long time to deploy reserves to the area.

And, typically, Russian military does not do well in a very dynamic situation.

NICK SCHIFRIN: So what are the Russian military reserves who are there trying to do, presumably stop the Ukrainians?

But Putin will have to evict these Ukrainians.

How difficult will that be?

MICHAEL KOFMAN: Well, first, it's still not clear what the goal of the Ukrainian military operation is.

I think they hope that Russian military will divert a lot of their forces from their current offensive in Ukraine in order to try to counter this incursion.

So far, the Russian military has pulled some forces from the front line in Ukraine.

Unfortunately, it's not the areas where they were conducting offensives.

Those are still ongoing.

Now, the Ukraine advance has slowed down significantly after the first couple of days, although it is still making progress.

The Russian military is trying to counter it and trying to stabilize the front.

They still have not been able to do that.

The Ukrainian military is pouring more forces into this operation and taking more troops off of the front lines in Ukraine in order to try to push and expand in the Kursk region.

NICK SCHIFRIN: On the flip side, as I reported earlier, Ukraine itself decided to redeploy some of its troops from Ukraine, including around the Pokrovsk area, where it's fighting quite pitched battles with Russia, move them into Russia.

Is there any risk to Ukraine's effort inside its own country?

MICHAEL KOFMAN: So there is a risk.

An operation like this actually comes with significant risk of overextension.

The Ukrainian military took some of its better troops, thinned out its defensive lines in Donetsk, other parts of the country, in order to conduct this operation.

Ukraine does not have a substantial advantage in reserves or manpower.

Now, there is an upshot, and it's clear that they can achieve some significant gains potentially.

But there is also significant downside and risk.

With thinned-out lines, the Russian military is making advances towards Pokrovsk and the other parts of Ukraine.

And a lot depends on what happens both in Kursk and in the coming days with Russian force deployment.

So, if the Russian military is able to stabilize this offensive without having to pull a substantial amount of forces from their operations in the rest of Ukraine, then this offensive might end up being a lot less successful than initially hoped for.

It still remains to be seen.

NICK SCHIFRIN: A U.S. official confirms to me that Ukraine is using American weapons systems inside of Russia.

How significant is that?

MICHAEL KOFMAN: So it's good Ukraine is operating Western equipment, Western vehicles, and has even been conducting HIMARS strikes inside the Kursk region against Russian reserves.

And it seems to have basically a degree of tacit acceptance, if not support, from Western countries to do that.

I think it's a notable development, since Ukraine has been for a long time pushing for exchange in policy and a greater tolerance and essentially greater freedom to be able to employ Western equipment and Western capabilities, not just in defense of its own territory, but in being able to take the fight to Russia.

NICK SCHIFRIN: And finally, Michael Kofman, I mentioned before what Ukraine called its largest long-range drone strike into Russia, hitting four Russian airfields.

How significant are these long-range drone strikes that Ukraine is able to do now that it wasn't able to do at the beginning of the war?

MICHAEL KOFMAN: It's a notable development, because Russia has had the advantage in long-range strike capability attacking Ukrainian infrastructure for the better part of this war.

But over the past year, Ukraine has significantly increased its production of long-range strike drones, has been concentrating them in these types of strikes and ensuring that actually it may now hold the advantage not in overall strike capabilities, certainly not compared to the number of cruise missiles the Russian military can fire, but compared to the number of drones that the Russian forces use.

Ukraine is starting to steadily overtake them in the size of overall strikes and is only set to expand those types of attacks in Russia, essentially retaliating and having a degree of ability to inflict damage on Russian air bases or Russian infrastructure.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Michael Kofman, thanks very much.

MICHAEL KOFMAN: Thanks for having me.

AMNA NAWAZ: Illegal border crossings into the United States from Mexico have dropped precipitously in the last few months.

But farther south, hundreds of thousands of migrants are still making dangerous journeys through one of the world's most treacherous jungles.

"The Atlantic"'s September issue, titled "Seventy Miles in Hell" documents migrants' efforts traveling through the Darien Gap, a once-considered-impassable region connecting Central and South America.

Staff writer at "The Atlantic" Caitlin Dickerson made several reporting trips into the jungle following migrants through the crossing.

She joins me now.

Caitlin, welcome back.

Thanks for being with us.

CAITLIN DICKERSON, "The Atlantic": Thanks so much for having me, Amna.

AMNA NAWAZ: So you and photographer Lynsey Addario made a number of trips to the Darien Gap, this deadly, nearly impenetrable jungle that hundreds of thousands of people still walk every single year.

Caitlin, for people who have never been there, will never be able to go there, just describe to us what it was like for you to make that journey, what stood out to you, what stays with you.

CAITLIN DICKERSON: The Darien Gap is this narrow strip of land that extends out of Northern Colombia into Southern Panama.

It's the only way to walk north out of South America.

It's very, very dense.

It's mountainous.

And the list of threats that migrants who make this crossing are facing is very long, everything from flash floods, which are quite common because it rains on a daily basis, to falling.

People have heart attacks from overexertion from the terrain.

There are deadly snakes.

There are jungle cats.

And on top of all of the natural risks, you also have bands of robbers who will attack migrants.

Migrants are very often robbed and, unfortunately, also frequently experience sexual assault on this journey.

So it's grueling.

I mean, that's the only way to put it.

It was certainly the hardest thing I have ever done physically.

I think that is one of things that sticks with me to this day and just the amount of desperation.

People walk into the Darien Gap and it's almost impossible to be fully prepared.

You don't know what you're going to run into.

And so you might run out of water.

You might run out of food, even if you're healthy and you're as prepared as you can possibly be, that this is an incredibly treacherous thing to try to do.

AMNA NAWAZ: And, as you include in your story, according to the United Nations, more than 800,000 people could make that same journey this year.

That would be a more than 50 percent spike over last year's numbers.

Children under the age of 5, like this young girl, this 5-year-old girl named Susej, I believe her name is, that you met along the way.

captured here by photographer Lynsey Addario, comforting her mother in this photo.

Children under 5, Caitlin, are the fastest growing group.

From spending time with these families, just tell us about them, and why are these numbers surging so dramatically now?

CAITLIN DICKERSON: I think the first thing that I heard for most of the parents who had young children with them in the Darien Gap is that they would rather be anywhere else.

So a lot of families, including Susej's -- her name Susie in English - - they had tried resettling first in Chile.

They were originally from Venezuela.

They couldn't make things work there.

And lots of places in Latin America where people might prefer to resettle, their economies were devastated by the pandemic.

And so the Darien Gap is this last resort option.

The smugglers who shepherd people into the Darien Gap do mislead people about what they're in for, make it seem like it's going to be easier.

But most people who show up at the mouth of the jungle with young kids know that they're risking their lives and know that they're risking their children's lives.

AMNA NAWAZ: We know, of course, many of those people are hoping to make it all the way to the United States.

The Biden administration, of course, put tougher border restrictions into place back in early June, severely limiting who can legally enter and claim asylum.

And that has contributed to a dramatic decline at the U.S. southern border.

We went from around 250,000 people apprehended in December to reportedly just 57,000 in July, though official numbers are not yet out.

So, Caitlin, did people you met along the way know about those restrictions?

Had word made it down to them?

CAITLIN DICKERSON: Not at all.

There's so many different factors that come into play here.

But, usually, when people are making the decision to migrate, they're not talking about U.S. policy, because, again, they feel like they're fleeing life-or-death circumstances, which is why they're willing to take risks like crossing the Darien Gap.

The Biden administration's asylum policies have had some impact, I'm sure, as has its pressure on Mexico to crack down and basically intercept people on their way to the United States.

One Biden administration policy that people in the Darien Gap did know about was the CBP One app that's being used to relieve pressure at the border so you can apply for permission to fly to the border and get an interview, rather than having to take a more dangerous option.

And it's all playing a role, but it's not enough to completely eliminate this migration because of the circumstances that people are fleeing.

And so I always caution against saying border crossings are down this month and it's all attributable to a policy that's just come down from the White House.

It's never that simple when it comes to a global issue.

AMNA NAWAZ: It does go back in some ways to this other recent piece you wrote for "The Atlantic" in which you said -- quote -- "Trying to stop migration at the border is like telling someone they can't run a marathon when they're at the finish line.

This was in a piece that was actually entitled, "There's No Such Thing as a Border Czar."

You are referencing there, of course, how Republicans have been labeling Vice President Kamala Harris.

And we should point out she, yes, was not charged with the border, per se, but she was charged with addressing root causes.

It sounds like, from your reporting, the root causes forcing people to leave have only gotten worse over time.

Is that fair?

CAITLIN DICKERSON: It is.

But the answer is a little bit more complicated, in that when the Biden administration came to office and Kamala Harris was given this position, most people crossing the southern U.S. border were coming from Central America.

And so that's where she focused her efforts.

She raised about $5.5 billion in private funds to support more jobs and improved quality of life in Central America.

And migration from Central America is going down.

But the problem is that circumstances have worsened elsewhere.

And so we have increasing numbers of people crossing the border from Venezuela, from China, from Haiti, from Ecuador, from throughout Latin America.

A single American diplomat or official can't change circumstances abroad on their own.

But I think the changing dynamic underscores just how tough this is.

You focus your efforts in one place, and then they get more difficult in another.

AMNA NAWAZ: That's Caitlin Dickerson of "The Atlantic."

Her cover story "Seventy Miles in Hell" is out now.

Caitlin, thank you so much for joining us.

Good to speak with you.

CAITLIN DICKERSON: Thank you for having me.

GEOFF BENNETT: More than 100,000 Americans are dying from drug overdoses every year, largely from the synthetic opioid fentanyl.

But in recent years, no city has been hit as hard as Baltimore when it comes to overdose deaths.

Special correspondent Christopher Booker takes a look at why.

It's part of our ongoing series America Addicted.

DONNA BRUCE, Founder, DBU Inc.: You have my number, right?

WOMAN: Got it.

DONNA BRUCE: Got it.

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: In this West Baltimore neighborhood, everyone seems to know Donna Bruce.

DONNA BRUCE: You be careful out here.

You got Narcan?

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: After years of battling drug addiction, Bruce is now in recovery, but she still remembers just how tough this life can be.

DONNA BRUCE: Because we got to give them some resources, so they can get to housing and stuff like that.

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: Today, she runs a nonprofit that provides support to families who have lost loved ones to overdose.

And she helps those still struggling with addiction connect to social services and find treatment, a process that often starts with some basic questions.

DONNA BRUCE: Why are you here?

How did you end up here?

Like, what can we do to help you today, right?

And those are the questions that stimulate relationships with people that be open and say, OK, listen, yes, I do, get high.

Put your hands on your eyes.

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: On the day we joined her, Bruce had come with her 7-year-old granddaughter, Cassidy.

DONNA BRUCE: I got a big surprise to show you.

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: She wanted her to see a new street sign named in honor of her son, Devon Wellington, Cassidy's father.

DONNA BRUCE: Devon Wellington's Way.

Wow.

Look at that.

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: It was here in the summer of 2021 that the 32-year-old died from a drug overdose.

DONNA BRUCE: I will never forget.

I couldn't help my own son.

MONA SETHERLY, Mother: OK, it's right up here.

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: Just a few miles away, Mona Setherly is also going back to where tragedy struck.

MONA SETHERLY: He was funny and he always seemed happy.

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: Setherly's 43-year-old son, Bruce, was found dead from an overdose at this abandoned Baltimore row house in 2022.

The last time she saw her son, he told her that he was headed to an addiction treatment program.

MONA SETHERLY: He left.

I gave him a hug.

We were OK. And that's the last conversation I had.

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: She says her son had likely been dead for about a month before his body was discovered.

MONA SETHERLY: He left February 15.

And that's the day I feel like he died, because I never heard from him again.

And I wasn't worried about it because I thought he went to rehab.

And people kept asking me, have you heard from him?

Have you heard from him?

And I'm like, no, no, I'm sure he's fine, though.

I'm sure he's fine.

And then after 30 days, I called the police.

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: While the city has long struggled with addiction, the arrival of the synthetic opioid fentanyl hit Baltimore particularly hard.

Up to 50 times more potent than heroin, in the past six years, almost 6,000 people have died from an overdose, an average of three people every day.

NICK THIEME, The Baltimore Banner: No major American city has had a drug overdose crisis as severe as Baltimore's today.

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: Alissa Zhu and Nick Thieme are reporters for The Baltimore Banner.

ALISSA ZHU, The Baltimore Banner: They will have someone speak around 12:15.

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: For the last two years, they have been investigating the city's overdose crisis in collaboration with The New York Times.

ALISSA ZHU: Something that we have just heard over and over again is that every day we get a homicide tally, but we don't get the same for overdoses.

And, numerically, it is a far greater problem.

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: But getting that data wasn't easy.

In 2022, after months of repeated requests for the city's autopsy reports, The Banner sued the state's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

In January, a judge ruled in their favor.

ALISSA ZHU: We knew that these were public records and the public should know what's happening in the city in terms of overdose deaths.

NICK THIEME: From the moment that data ended up on my computer, we started investigating.

And you look at it, and, I mean, the entire city is colored with overdose deaths.

Blocks in some of the poorer parts of Southwest Baltimore have lost upwards of 8 and 9 percent of their population to fatal overdose.

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: They're reporting found that overdoses began spiking in Baltimore about a decade ago, as fentanyl ravaged the city grappling with multiple challenges, including gun violence and later the pandemic.

They also found that one demographic has been hit especially hard, older Black men, who make up just 7 percent of the city's population, but account for nearly a third of all overdoses.

NICK THIEME: They die at higher rates from overdose than they did from COVID at the height of the pandemic, from all cancers put together.

There is nothing statistically that kills this group of people more than fatal overdose.

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: How does the city respond to your reporting?

ALISSA ZHU: They were very defensive.

They called our reporting misguided victim-blaming.

And they were saying that our reporting should have focused on opioid manufacturers' role in all of this because they are currently litigating against pharmaceutical companies.

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: This summer, Baltimore has reached $90 million in settlement agreements, the first with pharmaceutical giant Allergan and just last week was CVS for their roles in the city's overdose crisis.

And a September trial is set for several other defendants, including Walgreens and Johnson & Johnson.

Citing the litigation, Baltimore's Mayor Brandon Scott declined our interview request, but his office provided the "News Hour" with this statement.

"For years, manufacturers and distributors of prescription opioids targeted Baltimore with hundreds of millions of prescription opioid pills.

This reporting faults the city for its efforts to clean up the mess these companies made."

MARK CONWAY, Baltimore City Councilman: I think we need to understand the problem.

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: Last month, Baltimore Councilman Mark Conway, who chairs the city's Public Safety Committee, planned a public hearing looking into what The Banner's investigation found.

MARK CONWAY: We, as public officials, need as much information as possible in order to be effective on the changing nature of drug overdoses.

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: But just hours before Conway's hearing was scheduled to start, it was abruptly canceled.

Baltimore's mayor said a public hearing could endanger the city's litigation against opioid manufacturers.

MARK CONWAY: For the City Council not to be briefed and not to have transparent, open conversations about what we're dealing with because of pending litigation, I think is a mistake, because we have decisions that we should be considering right now.

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: While the litigation continues, many Baltimore families are still coming to grips with all that's been lost.

MONA SETHERLY: I never thought he was dead.

I never, ever thought that.

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: When Mona Setherly finally got an update on her son, Bruce, it was the kind of news that no mother wants to hear.

MONA SETHERLY: When they found him, the police called and said: "Can I come over?"

And I was like: "Sure, " He didn't even tell me.

He just sat down and I sat down, and I was like, I could see.

I knew.

I said: "Don't - - please don't tell me that."

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: Today, she wears a necklace that her son was wearing at the time of his death and tries to remember the good times.

MONA SETHERLY: We did so many things that I am so grateful for.

And he made me so happy.

I wanted a lot more years, but you have got to be grateful for the time that you're given.

DONNA BRUCE: So this is Devon Wellington's Way.

You can come here whenever you want and see your daddy street named after him, all right?

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: Donna Bruce is now using her son's death to try to reach as many people as she can before it's too late.

DONNA BRUCE: My son had to die for me to live, as if he understood that this was part of my assignment for Cassidy.

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Christopher Booker in Baltimore.

GEOFF BENNETT: NASA and Boeing are grappling with how best to bring two U.S. astronauts back to Earth.

Originally planned to last just eight days, leaks and other technical issues suffered by Boeing's Starliner spacecraft on its way to the International Space Station have delayed the planned return flight by more than two months.

And that has left its two astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, stuck in space.

To help us understand what it all means, we're joined now by our science and aviation correspondent, Miles O'Brien.

Miles, it's always great to see you.

So what went wrong with the Starliner?

MILES O'BRIEN: Well, there were signs of trouble from the get-go, Geoff.

There were helium leaks on the launchpad.

NASA and Boeing huddled.

It would have required a significant delay, a rollback to the hangar to do the work to try to fix those leaks.

Helium is a very difficult thing to track down.

But they still decided to launch.

In retrospect, maybe that wasn't a great idea because once they got in orbit, the helium leaks persisted.

And then as they approached the docking phase at the International Space Station, seven thrusters, which guide it, the capsule, through the void of space, failed inexplicably.

And so at the bottom of the ledger here, the engineers are scratching their heads still.

They don't know if the helium leak is linked to the failed thrusters.

They don't know the root cause.

They have been testing hardware on the ground, throwing switches remotely in space, and they still don't understand it.

And that's what has given them great pause on whether to put those two astronauts into Starliner and have them return to Earth in it.

GEOFF BENNETT: So, one backup option, as I understand it, is that they could hitch a ride on a SpaceX craft.

But that wouldn't be until next year.

Is that right?

MILES O'BRIEN: Well, here's how this goes.

The SpaceX Crew-9 mission was scheduled to launch on Sunday with four astronauts -- two astronauts and two cosmonauts aboard.

And that has been delayed.

It's quite possible the scenario could play out where two of those individuals, we don't know who, will be told to sit it out, stay home, the SpaceX comes up to the International Space Station carrying the spacesuits required, and two empty seats, which Butch and Suni would take home.

But, in order to do that without disrupting things too much, they would essentially be drafted onto that crew and would be absorbed as part of that crew, and thus would stay up there until February, as the two astronauts who remain on the ground would have.

GEOFF BENNETT: So we should say that Williams and Wilmore, these are two veteran space explorers.

Has NASA said anything about how the two of them are faring, how they're holding up, and if they have enough supplies to sustain being up there for months longer?

MILES O'BRIEN: Well, the space station is pretty well stocked, but I should point out, Geoff, that they -- at the last minute, they put in a urine-water recycling system inside the Starliner capsule, which had failed, and they asked Butch and Suni, would you mind not bringing any additional clothing?

And so where they would have had their suitcases, this urine recycler sits, and so they're up there with one set of clothes.

Now, there's a cupboard full of clothing there, so they are doing OK, and there's plenty of food and everything else.

There's no reason to be concerned about them on the station.

GEOFF BENNETT: What's this all mean for Boeing, Miles, and Boeing's relationship with NASA?

MILES O'BRIEN: Well, Boeing's relationship with NASA goes right back to the beginning.

If you look at its predecessor organizations, the company built the Mercury and Gemini capsules, the Apollo capsules, the Saturn V rocket, the space shuttle orbiter, and, for that matter, the space station itself.

So it's hard to imagine them reaching some kind of separation or divorce down the road.

But this is a serious setback.

And NASA wanted to have two operative spacecraft from two separate contractors to get to low-Earth orbit, and right now they can only rely on SpaceX.

GEOFF BENNETT: So, at this point, it's safe to say we don't precisely know when these two astronauts will be able to return home?

MILES O'BRIEN: I suspect, this time next week, toward the end of next week, we're going to know.

And NASA is going to continue looking at this.

They're going to create some 3-D modeling of these valves that are failing, trying to fully understand it.

But, at this juncture, it's going to be hard for them to develop the confidence they need to strap those two astronauts in.

Boeing insists that the tests have been done and the spacecraft is safe.

But all of the people making the decision here, NASA and Boeing, lived through the tragedy of the Columbia loss more than 20 years ago now.

And no one wants to repeat that.

No one wants to make a decision when the hardware is sort of screaming out to you saying, something's wrong, but they don't know just what it is.

GEOFF BENNETT: Miles O'Brien, thanks, as always.

Appreciate it.

MILES O'BRIEN: You're welcome, Geoff.

AMNA NAWAZ: Many U.S. corporations are navigating a divisive political climate on a range of issues that impact their businesses, from trade to diversity to immigration.

GEOFF BENNETT: The CEO of the country's largest bank, Jamie Dimon of J.P. Morgan Chase, has been speaking out about it.

Judy Woodruff spoke with him in Bentonville, Arkansas, for her series America at a Crossroads.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Every summer for the past 14 years, Jamie Dimon has spent a week traveling through different parts of the country on his annual bus tour... (CHEERING) (APPLAUSE) JUDY WOODRUFF: ... visiting bank branches like this one opened just last year in Bentonville, Arkansas, meeting with employees and clients and asking and answering questions.

Dimon is one of the most powerful figures on Wall Street at the helm of J.P. Morgan Chase for the past 20 years.

And every year, he writes a letter to shareholders outlining his top concerns, including on issues beyond his immediate role as a banker, things like education, DEI, and the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.

With former President Trump charging the U.S. economy is shattered, Dimon's view is striking.

JAMIE DIMON, Chairman, J.P. Morgan Chase: It is the most prosperous, most innovative, best economy the world has ever seen.

This world of ours lifted billions of people out of poverty.

There are negatives.

We should focus on that.

But to give you some -- a couple of focal points, European GDP per person was very close to ours something like 20 years ago.

It's now like 65 percent of ours.

So, when you compare us to the rest of the Western world, quite good.

And we need to continue to do that.

And I think we could continue to do that.

JUDY WOODRUFF: You wrote in your letter to shareholders in the spring about our, you called it, polarized electorate.

And you said we need to find ways to put aside our differences.

Why do we find ourselves in this situation?

JAMIE DIMON: I will give you my theory and a bunch of things that caused it.

We had this financial crisis that hurt a lot of people, discredited a lot of Wall Street, and that, I think was part of it.

If you look at the income levels in America, we had very slow growth for 20 years.

And then if you look at the bottom 20 percent, they didn't have a pay increase for 20 or 30 years, OK?

So, and those are people making less than $20 an hour.

They also have worse health, less insurance.

They're dying 10 years younger, but their schools are failing in a lot of cases, rural schools or inner-city high schools, not all of them.

But a lot of them, 50 percent of the kids don't graduate.

So the equal opportunity wasn't there.

Income isn't there.

Hope isn't there.

Health wasn't there.

All of us should look at that and say, what should we do to lift up society?

Then I also think there's that, and then there's also this constant degrading of fellow Americans because of what they believe.

They don't believe what you believe, they're bad people, they're immoral people.

I think we should stop insulting each other.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Dimon recently wrote an opinion piece for The Washington Post aimed at the next American president, stressing the need for national unity and equal opportunity for all, warning that the American dream is disappearing for many because opportunity is not shared equally.

And so what's the solution?

JAMIE DIMON: I will give you a bunch right here.

Earned Income Tax Credit, OK?

Right now, if you're a single mother with two children making $14,000 a year, the government gives you $6,000.

A lot of people don't avail themselves of this because they may not know about it.

I would get rid of the child requirement.

I would make the benefit $10,000, so that anyone working would make $24,000.

That money would go to the families.

It would go into their communities.

It would be spent the way they think it should be spent without government interference.

I think it'd be exceptional.

And jobs create dignity.

So you incent jobs, jobs create dignity, jobs create better outcomes for families, less crime, less drugs, and you would incent people back in the work force.

If I was the federal government, I would tell every high school -- I'd start in the high schools and community colleges -- that we want to measure you on the outcomes.

How many kids get jobs making $40,000, $50,000, $60,000, $70,000?

And that would incent them to, locally, what do we need to get jobs, coding, automotive, aviation, program management, financial management, compliance?

It is doable, because I can point out tons of schools and tons of communities that actually do something like that.

JUDY WOODRUFF: We talked about income disparities, how people in the top 1 percent of income brackets earn over 100 times more than those in the bottom 20 percent.

Some people are going to listen to what you're saying and have the view that the big financial powerhouses in this country have played a role in continuing and exacerbating our divide.

What role has the private sector played and the financial sector played in creating this inequality that we live in right now?

JAMIE DIMON: I think there -- obviously, there are good companies and bad companies and good politicians and bad politicians.

And are there examples where they are the ones who made it worse in some cases?

Sure.

Have they abused their position or regulated -- sure.

Has something taken place?

But most of the banks I know have special programs for minority mortgages, vets.

We have programs to hire disabled.

And all these things work.

So a lot of companies, they try to do their part.

They can't do the part that government needs to do.

We can help.

And when you get -- there are examples where I call up CEOs and I tell them they should be embarrassed about what they did.

So there is truth that they aren't always perfect.

I think a lot of companies, when they go to Washington, D.C., they should worry more about what's good for the country than what's good for their company.

That's true for a lot of special interest groups.

But I have to be very clear.

It's not enough, if the federal government doesn't do its part, because you're really push -- sometimes, you're pushing the rock uphill.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And how do you get the federal government to do that... JAMIE DIMON: You got to... (CROSSTALK) JUDY WOODRUFF: ...

When the two parties are at each other's throats on so many issues right now?

JAMIE DIMON: Yes, but they came together for the infrastructure bill.

They come together for certain things.

And that is work.

I mean, that is hard work, but I tell people don't get frustrated.

Just do it.

There are a lot of parts of my job I don't like either, but I have to do them.

JUDY WOODRUFF: You -- in your column, you also -- you talked about reducing the debt.

You talked about encouraging investment, which you just referred to, lowering inequality, strengthening the military.

How do you do all that and bring the debt down?

JAMIE DIMON: I think it's doable.

I would spend the money that helped make it a better country.

So, some of it is infrastructure, Earned Income Tax Credits, military.

I would have a competitive international tax system.

And then there might - - and then I would maximize growth.

And, remember, growth isn't just about all that.

It's also about faster permitting.

And then you will have a little bit of deficit.

And you would maybe just raise taxes a little bit, like the Warren Buffett type of rule.

I would do that.

And we would be fine.

JUDY WOODRUFF: The Buffett rule states that no household earning over $1 million should pay a smaller share of their income in taxes than middle-class families.

We are in the middle of a presidential campaign.

Do you think, because of that, things could get worse, or could they get better?

What do you think?

JAMIE DIMON: Well, I'm hoping not.

I -- look, I don't know.

And I hope both presidential candidates realize that jazzing up and making the American people angry is not a good thing to do.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And yet that language persists on the campaign trail.

GOV.

TIM WALZ (D-MN), Vice Presidential Candidate: You know it.

You feel it.

These guys are creepy and, yes, just weird as hell.

That's what you see.

(CHEERING) (APPLAUSE) GOV.

TIM WALZ: That's what you see.

JUDY WOODRUFF: But much of the vitriol is coming from Donald Trump.

DONALD TRUMP, Former President of the United States (R) and Current U.S. Presidential Candidate: So now we have a new victim to defeat, lyin' Kamala Harris, lyin', L-Y-I-N apostrophe.

(BOOING) JUDY WOODRUFF: Do you think it's time for people like you to say to him and to others, let's stop this?

JAMIE DIMON: I don't like any of that stuff.

I'm not going to talk about particular people.

I personally don't like it.

And I don't think it works.

And I think when you -- even use the term MAGA, you're insulting 74 million voters.

But they have different views and different opinions.

But if you look, just take a step back.

Be honest.

He's kind of right about NATO, kind of right about immigration.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Early this year, in an interview with CNBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Dimon says he was trying to make that point when he lauded some of Trump's policies on immigration, China and NATO.

JAMIE DIMON: And that's why they're voting for him.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Some took that as a signal of support for Trump, but Dimon says it was a warning to Democrats.

JAMIE DIMON: I think this -- this negative talk about MAGA is going to hurt Biden's election campaign.

I blame myself.

I didn't say it artfully.

But I was making the same point that I made in my op-ed, that 74 million people voted Republican and they voted because they thought that there was partial truth that immigration was a problem, which I agree with, that China was a problem, which I agree with, that NATO was a problem.

Not leaving NATO.

I don't want to leave NATO.

I'm a strong supporter of NATO and our military allies.

But I said he's right about -- partially about NATO.

I should have said partially about the funding of NATO.

I was only making a point that people are voting for different reasons, and that we -- they should stop insulting MAGA.

JUDY WOODRUFF: In his April letter to shareholders, Dimon called for strengthening diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, even as many DEI policies are on the chopping block in more than 30 states and as other corporations pull back.

I mean, you're saying all this at a time when we're hearing a lot of ugly language about DEI, people -- that's a -- that's become a pejorative term.

JAMIE DIMON: I don't think most people are against when you say diversity, reaching out to different communities and doing a better job.

And the word equity means equal opportunity.

If you mean the word equity means equal outcomes, I'm against that too.

That simply won't work.

And so I understand the pushback.

When it comes to all of these things, J.P. Morgan, we know we want to do.

We do it our way.

We think about it.

We're human beings.

We take care of our people.

We take care of our communities.

We're going to try to help lift up parts of society.

And most of that's for profit, just like a lot of the companies, they also sell goods and services to low-income people too.

JUDY WOODRUFF: As for the major party presidential nominees, Dimon knows them both.

In 2012, he engaged in tense negotiations with then-California Attorney General Kamala Harris over a multibillion-dollar settlement related to homeowners hurt by predatory lenders, including J.P. Morgan Chase.

More recently, former President Trump suggested Dimon could serve as his Treasury secretary in his next administration, but then quickly dispelled that idea.

Whomever wins in November, Dimon says he's hopeful the country will find a way forward.

Given all this, I mean, given this polarized atmosphere, can the United States move ahead on the great challenges facing this country in this next administration?

JAMIE DIMON: I believe it will and that some -- it may -- it will be a president or a leader or someone else who just -- kind of just bends that curve a little bit, and does it respectfully.

Remember, Abe Lincoln -- I think it was one of those famous quotes where Abe Lincoln said -- someone said: "Mr. Lincoln, God's on our side."

And he said: "No, son, let's hope we're on God's side."

There was a little humility within Abe Lincoln, one of our greatest presidents.

And so things come along where people change.

And it might be the leader -- it might be a leader himself who changes.

They realize that they're going the wrong direction, and they have to go in a different direction.

And so let's all hope.

I'm an optimist by nature.

And I think, when Warren Buffett talks about the great resiliency of America, I believe that.

Something will change it somewhere.

And, sometimes, you have to go through difficult times to do it.

JUDY WOODRUFF: For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Judy Woodruff in Bentonville, Arkansas.

GEOFF BENNETT: There's a lot more online, including a look at where Vice President Kamala Harris stands on reproductive rights issues.

That's on our Instagram account.

AMNA NAWAZ: And that is the "News Hour" for tonight.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

GEOFF BENNETT: And I'm Geoff Bennett.

For all of us here at the "PBS News Hour," thanks for spending part of your evening with us.