AMNA NAWAZ: Good evening.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

GEOFF BENNETT: And I'm Geoff Bennett.

On the "NewsHour" tonight: More outdoor events are canceled and millions of Americans are warned to stay indoors, as Eastern states are blanketed by smoke from Canadian wildfires.

AMNA NAWAZ: President Biden meets with the prime minister of the United Kingdom amid challenges on Ukraine, artificial intelligence, and a host of other matters.

GEOFF BENNETT: And the head of UNICEF on the devastating impact wars are having on children around the world.

CATHERINE RUSSELL, Executive Director, UNICEF: There are about 400 million children living in some situation of conflict, so it is a staggering problem for children in so many parts of the world.

(BREAK) GEOFF BENNETT: Welcome to the "NewsHour."

A heavy pall of polluted air still blankets much of the Eastern U.S. tonight.

It may not dissipate for days, as fires in Canada send vast curtains of smoke drifting south.

AMNA NAWAZ: The bad air has officials warning, in effect, that breathing can be hazardous to your health.

It's also scrambling schedules, from airports to schools to the White House.

Stephanie Sy has our report.

STEPHANIE SY: A huge swathe of the country spent another day shrouded in haze.

This morning, smoke still obscured parts of the Manhattan skyline.

JOHN CHAN, New York City Resident: The smoke obliterated the island yesterday.

So, it is obviously not a passing phase of wind changes, but it's serious pollution in the air.

STEPHANIE SY: As hundreds of wildfires rage out of control in Canada, winds have carried the smoke farther south, all the way to Raleigh, North Carolina, which woke up to hazy skies.

And in the nation's capital, a blanket of smoke lay over the White House, blurring the Washington Monument in the distance.

White House officials postponed today's outdoor Pride celebration until Saturday.

Millions of people were under hazardous air quality advisory today from the Northeast to the South and parts of the Midwest.

Authorities advised people to stay indoors, especially young children, the elderly, and those with respiratory issues.

Allergy and immunology specialist Dr. Purvi Parikh described the health risks.

DR. PURVI PARIKH, Allergy and Asthma Network: Wildfire smoke has particulate matter.

It's very, very small.

And that small particulate matter can really get lodged deep into your lungs.

So it can cause a lot more lung damage in the short term and long term.

And in addition to these particles, wildfire smoke has a variety of gases too that can be harmful to breathe in.

STEPHANIE SY: New York state is making a million N95 masks available to the public, including 400,000 for New York City.

MAN: Just want to make sure that we are being a safe as we can to protect our health.

STEPHANIE SY: The city's mayor, Eric Adams, has gone door to door disturbing masks to residents.

He says the worst of the air may be behind the city.

ERIC ADAMS (D), Mayor of New York: The smoke models are not indicating another large plume over the city, so there is a chance for significant improvement by tomorrow morning and throughout the day tomorrow.

STEPHANIE SY: Even so, New York City announced public schools will teach remotely tomorrow.

Meantime, poor visibility prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to cancel or delay flights into New York area airports and Philadelphia's international airport.

The dangerous air quality also canceled or postponed more sporting events, from racing at Belmont Park in New York to the Washington Nationals' home baseball game.

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy says the harmful impact of the fires is further proof we must do more to tackle the climate crisis.

GOV.

PHIL MURPHY (D-NJ): Climate change is here.

And, unfortunately, this is our reality.

That disturbing orange haze in the sky, the smell of smoke and that burning in our throats, those are clear warning signs that the status quo cannot continue.

STEPHANIE SY: Paul Ullrich, a professor of regional climate modeling at U.C.

Davis, agrees.

PAUL ULLRICH, University of California, Davis: We are experiencing warmer conditions and more extremes every year.

We have some manifestation of that, whether it be an extreme tropical cyclone, an extreme wildfire, tornado outbreaks or other forms of extreme weather.

So the evidence is continuing to pile up that we are having a clear impact on the climate system, and, as a consequence, the climate system is having an impact on us.

STEPHANIE SY: With more than 400 wildfires still burning in Canada, forecasters worn the smoke could linger over the Eastern U.S. through the weekend.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Stephanie Sy.

GEOFF BENNETT: In the day's other news: Ukraine charged that Russian shelling disrupted rescue efforts for victims of the dam collapse.

The attacks struck in and around the southern city of Kherson.

Stark new drone footage today shows the catastrophic flooding that's killed at least 14 people and forced more than 4,000 others to flee.

ROZA, Kherson Evacuee (through translator): I live on the third floor.

The water covers the ground floor.

This morning, when it was up to my knees, I was afraid that, if it rises even more, I will not be able to leave at all.

That's why I decided to evacuate.

GEOFF BENNETT: Meantime, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy toured the flooded Western bank of the Dnipro River.

He called for a swift global response.

The Biden administration today dismissed reports that Cuba may let China set up an electronic eavesdropping base on the island.

The Wall Street Journal and others reported the facility could gather intelligence on military bases across the Southeastern U.S.

Both the White House and the Pentagon challenged the reports.

BRIG.

GEN. PATRICK RYDER, Pentagon Press Secretary: I can tell you, based on the information we have, that that is not accurate, that we are not aware of China and Cuba developing any type of spy station.

Separately, I would say that the relationship those two countries share is something that we continuously monitor.

GEOFF BENNETT: Cuba called the reports unfounded.

The Journal account said China had agreed in principle to pay Cuba several billion dollars to let it establish the spying post.

Taiwan scrambled fighter jets today as dozens of Chinese warplanes flew near the self-ruled island.

Taipei said 37 Chinese aircraft entered a defense zone that it monitors, crossing the southwest corner.

They included nuclear-capable bombers.

It was China's latest mass flight into the defense zone in recent years.

Beijing claims Taiwan as its own.

In France, a man with a knife stabbed four young children and two adults at a public playground in the Alps.

The children, 22 months to 3 years old, were critically wounded.

It happened in a lakeside town south of Geneva.

Emergency workers cordoned off the park and local residents expressed shock.

ROBERT, Resident of Annecy, France (through translator): It will take time until parents again take their children to playgrounds, since I think the trauma will stay forever in the town of Annecy.

Everyone expects this to happen in big cities, like Marseille, Paris, or Lyon, but now the target will be places where no one expects it, to put fear into people.

GEOFF BENNETT: Police arrested a 31-year-old Syrian refugee as the attacker.

A local prosecutor said his motive was unclear, but did not appear to be terrorism.

Back in this country, the U.S. House of Representatives shut down, as a Republican revolt blocked any action.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy called off the week's remaining sessions as he tries to end a standoff with hard-line party conservatives.

The rebellion focuses on budget compromises in the debt ceiling deal.

And, on Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average gained 168 points to close at 33833.

The Nasdaq rose 133 points, or 1 percent.

The S&P 500 added 26 points and entered bull market territory, 20 percent above its low last fall.

Still to come on the "NewsHour": the U.S. Supreme Court forces Alabama to redraw congressional districts that advocates say discriminate against Black voters; we look at the cultural and political influence of the late Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson; and legendary Broadway composer John Kander on his latest musical that's a love letter to New York.

AMNA NAWAZ: President Biden hosted the British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, today at the White House.

It was Sunak's first Oval Office visit since taking office last fall.

The two leaders discussed continued support for Ukraine and the potential threats posed by artificial intelligence.

Our White House correspondent, Laura Barron-Lopez, was there in the room.

She is here now to discuss it all.

Good to see you, Laura.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Good to be here.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, we know military aid to Ukraine was a top agenda item in that meeting.

All of that was unfolding as there is now a very public rift among Republicans on Capitol Hill about whether or not to continue supporting and providing additional support for Ukraine.

Did the two leaders address that at all?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: They did talk about that.

So, as you know, Amna, this meeting was happening as Ukraine's counteroffensive began in earnest.

And Britain's prime minister talked repeatedly about what Britain has done to date, specifically that they have helped Ukraine train troops, that they are one of the most helpful European nations in terms of giving Ukraine aid.

But, as you noted, this is happening as Republicans on the Hill are very split about whether or not they want to vote in support of more aid to Ukraine.

President Biden was asked about his confidence in whether or not he has the votes for more aid.

JOE BIDEN, President of the United States: I believe we will have the funding necessary to support Ukraine as long as it takes.

And I believe that we're going to -- that that support will be real, even though there are -- you hear some voices today on Capitol Hill about whether or not we should continue to support Ukraine.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: So, President Biden there voicing a lot of confidence.

That also is in addition to the fact that Prime Minister Sunak visited the Hill this week.

He met with congressional leaders, Republican and Democrats.

And he also spoke to some chairs on committees about the need for more U.S. aid to Ukraine.

And at that press conference, Amna, he specifically said that U.S. resources, U.S. aid to the Ukraine is -- quote -- "a decisive contribution" that helps democracy prevail.

AMNA NAWAZ: Prime Minister Sunak also made artificial intelligence, or A.I., a key part of this visit.

You had a chance to ask him a question.

You asked him about how to responsibly regulate the technology.

What did he say?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: He dodged a little bit, Amna.

He didn't quite give specifics about how exactly the U.K. or the U.S. would regulate this technology.

And he acknowledged on one hand that it brings benefits to the economy, to the society.

He also acknowledged the very grave dangers that A.I.

poses.

And he appears to want to create a governing body around A.I.

He announced in this press conference that he is going to be holding a global A.I.

summit later this year in the U.K. President Biden also, though, added a little bit of specifics, saying that he thinks that there's some potential for the administration to look at how watermarks on everything produced by A.I.

could potentially be a part of this.

And we spoke to an expert about whether or not that's a real possibility.

And they said that it really isn't, given the fact that this software is out there so much that it can be essentially manipulated by a lot of people that have access to it.

AMNA NAWAZ: A lot of shared concerns on the A.I.

front, for sure.

You also had a chance to ask President Biden a question.

And he made some news when you asked him about the ramping up of Republican attacks on LGBTQ rights here.

What did he say?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: So, I mentioned to the president that, across Republican states in this country, there are bans being passed on gender-affirming care.

I also noted the protests that are occurring in states like California, anti-LGBTQ -- anti-LGBTQ protests.

And I told President Biden about the parents of a transgender girl in Texas that I recently interviewed and their fears and their -- the fact that they are considering that they may need to move not just out of Texas, but also out of the country.

And I asked the president why he thought this was happening and what he would say to that family.

JOE BIDEN: When we finish this, you can give me the number of that family, and I will call them, let them know that the president and this administration has their back.

Our fight is far, far from over, because we have some hysterical and, I would argue, prejudiced people who are engaged in all what you see going on around the country.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: That's some of the harshest comments you have heard from the president to date about anti-transgender efforts.

His administration also announced some actions that they're taking today, including a new Education Department official who will be helping communities that are confronting book bans about gender identity.

AMNA NAWAZ: Great questions in the room.

Great reporting, as always.

Our White House correspondent, Laura Barron-Lopez, thank you, LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: The U.S. Supreme Court today struck down Republican-drawn congressional districts in Alabama that civil rights activists say discriminated against Black voters.

The ruling was a surprising departure from court opinions over the past decade narrowing the scope of the Voting Rights Act.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion and was joined by the three liberal justices, as well as conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

To help us understand the significance of all this, we're joined by "NewsHour" Supreme Court analyst Marcia Coyle and redistricting expert David Wasserman of The Cook Political Report With Amy Walter.

With a welcome to you both, Marcia, we will start with you.

The chief justice in the opinion wrote that there were legitimate concerns that the Voting Rights Act -- quote -- "may impermissibly elevate race and the allocation of political power within the states," but he added: "Our opinion today does not diminish or disregard these concerns.

It simply holds that a faithful application of our precedents and a fair reading of the record before us do not bear them out here."

What is the court saying with this ruling?

MARCIA COYLE: I think the chief justice is saying that the majority is aware that, whenever you deal with racial classifications, whether it's in redistricting or in other contexts, there is that concern that race may dominate.

And so he's reassuring everyone that there really is a totality-of-circumstances test for Section 2, and that the court's precedents in this area have imposed limitations that protect against race actually dominating in redistricting.

And that has been the case for some 40 years.

Section 2 claims, he pointed out, are extremely hard to win in federal courts, and they haven't been winning.

So, he's saying that there are safeguards here, but he is aware that they're dealing with race.

GEOFF BENNETT: And, David, this ruling was seen as a surprise, given, one, the conservative makeup of this court, and, two, the ways in which the court, as we mentioned, in previous rulings has really hollowed out the Voting Rights Act.

The NAACP Legal Defense Fund, an attorney with that organization, argued the case before the court.

And in a statement today: "The organization said this decision is a clear message to lawmakers that their responsibility has not changed.

They must ensure that voters of color are not denied an opportunity to participate in the electoral process."

Is that how you see it?

What are your takeaways from this ruling?

DAVID WASSERMAN, The Cook Political Report: I am somewhat surprised.

I can't say I'm shocked, because the initial decision by the federal court panel to strike down Alabama's congressional map was handed down by two Trump appointees on that panel.

But, look, at once, this is an application of longtime precedent, but it's also a sea change politically, because Alabama's only had one Black-majority district since 1992.

And it was only in the last decade that Black Democratic politicians and other Democrats began to question this kind of configuration of districts.

Now we're likely to see additional or proportional maps enacted in Louisiana as well.

There will be cases that play out in Georgia, potentially South Carolina, Texas, that could net Democrats an additional two to four seats in the House.

And that could put them in closer contention for House control, given how narrow Republicans' margin is today.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, let's talk more about that, because we have a map that shows the number of states where their congressional districts are now being litigated.

And this decision is going to force many of these states, it will force every state, really, to think about how they redraw congressional lines in areas that have a significant Black population.

Is that right?

DAVID WASSERMAN: Well, not just Black voters, but Hispanic voters in some cases as well.

Keep in mind that Republicans thought they had a bit of an insurance policy heading into 2024 in the House, because they captured control of the North Carolina Supreme Court, which has cleared the path for the Republican legislature there to re-gerrymander the state's boundaries in a way that could net Republicans an additional three seats.

This ruling offsets that, and it could actually impact Republicans' thinking in North Carolina and make them more risk-averse to a -- the threat of a Voting Rights Act lawsuit.

And that could force them to draw a less ambitious plan.

At the same time, New York Democrats believe that the judiciary in that state has turned in their favor.

And some of them are pushing to redraw the state's political boundaries in a way that's advantageous to Democrats.

We could see a net benefit in redistricting for Democrats prior to the 2024 election.

And that's quite different from what we thought would be the case a couple months ago.

GEOFF BENNETT: Marcia, looking at this ruling, what should we see as the significance, if at all, of Chief Justice John Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh siding with the liberals?

MARCIA COYLE: I wasn't surprised the chief justice ended up in the majority or even that he wrote it, because he has been out front on all of the court's major race-related decisions, not just the redistricting context.

Justice Kavanaugh, he hedged a bit in that stay decision last year, so we weren't really sure where he would come out.

But I think the chief justice's ability to put together majorities in closely contested cases really does seem to hinge more and more on whether Justice Kavanaugh will join him in taking either a more restrained opinion than the other conservatives in the majority or just to join with the court's three liberal justices.

So, it's that sort of plan perhaps for the future that Kavanaugh becomes the median justice and the key to whether Roberts can get what he wants when faced with five conservatives who may not want to go along with him.

GEOFF BENNETT: Marcia Coyle and David Wasserman, our thanks to you both.

DAVID WASSERMAN: Thanks.

MARCIA COYLE: You're welcome.

AMNA NAWAZ: Famed religious broadcaster Pat Robertson has died.

The TV host and one-time presidential candidate left a lifetime of achievements and controversies behind.

Lisa Desjardins has our look at his life and legacy.

PAT ROBERTSON, Host, "The 700 Club": In Jesus' name.

LISA DESJARDINS: A pioneer, Pat Robertson was one of the nation's most prominent televangelists and shaped conservative politics and controversy for decades.

Few people were more influential in the rise of the religious right.

PAT ROBERTSON: Even as the framers of our Constitution gave our forefathers a new land blessed with liberty, I would like for all of us, on this special day, to hold out a new vision for America.

LISA DESJARDINS: Robertson was born in Virginia in 1930 and saw politics early.

His father, a conservative Democrat, spent decades in Congress.

After serving in the Korean War, he went to law school, then a turn.

A religious awakening took him to ministry.

And he uprooted his wife and young family for a leap of faith.

In 1960, he purchased a small TV station in Virginia Beach, saying the lord told him to start the Christian Broadcasting Network, or CBN.

JOHN JESSUP, Christian Broadcasting Network: He was a towering figure.

LISA DESJARDINS: John Jessup is CBN's main anchor today.

ANNOUNCER: "The 700 Club."

LISA DESJARDINS: Where Robertson's "700 Club," named for 700 original pledging viewers, is still the flagship.

Robertson created a global network, but didn't stop there.

He looked to shape minds and in the 1970s founded the private Christian Regent University, as well as a national legal foundation.

JOHN JESSUP: It shows his business acumen, to a certain extent.

He was someone that I would call maybe a serial entrepreneur.

LISA DESJARDINS: But Robertson wanted a wider reach.

ROBERT MACNEIL, Former Anchor, "PBS NewsHour": It's pretty early to be talking presidential politics for 1988.

But the people who do have started including the name of Pat Robertson in the list of possible Republicans.

LISA DESJARDINS: His White House bid was a long shot, but he found his base, Christian conservative voters, and finished second in the Iowa caucuses.

PAT ROBERTSON: I entered the race so I might speak out on great moral issues confronting our nation, and I entered the race to win.

I did not win.

LISA DESJARDINS: Robertson turned his failed presidential campaign into a movement, launching the Christian Coalition, reaching directly to churches.

That reshaped politics in America and was pivotal in the 1994 GOP takeover of the U.S. House.

JON WARD, Chief National Correspondent, Yahoo News: Pat Robertson will as crucial to building the evangelical movement into a political constituency.

LISA DESJARDINS: Jon Ward is chief national correspondent for Yahoo News.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) PAT ROBERTSON: Thank you, and God bless you.

LISA DESJARDINS: He knows Robertson was a figure revered by millions, but he was equally controversial and seen as fueling hatred at times with anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and attacking other religions as demonic.

Robertson implied that Hurricane Katrina was punishment for abortion in America.

And he publicly agreed with the idea that September 11 was God's rebuke for America moving left.

JON WARD: Those comments that he made, I think, came from impart that sense of wanting to be an all-or-nothing type of believer, as well as wanting to interpret -- or just coming from a corner of Christianity where the Bible is interpreted in a quite literal fashion.

LISA DESJARDINS: Robertson also claimed God would intervene after President Donald Trump's 2020 election loss.

PAT ROBERTSON: We declared on this program, and you joined with me, that God almighty was going to do a miracle and stop the theft of our election.

LISA DESJARDINS: But that shifted gears a few weeks later.

PAT ROBERTSON: The president still lives in an alternate reality.

I think it would be well to say, you have had your day and it's time to move on.

LISA DESJARDINS: He was not always predictable, as when he teamed up with Democrat Al Sharpton for a message about climate change.

PAT ROBERTSON: And we strongly disagree.

REV.

AL SHARPTON, Civil Rights Activist: Except on one issue.

Tell them what it is, Reverend Pat.

PAT ROBERTSON: That would be our planet.

LISA DESJARDINS: Robertson stepped down from hosting "The 700 Club" in 2021 after a series of health issues, but he continued to comment on politics and religion until his death.

Pat Robertson was 93 years old.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Lisa Desjardins.

AMNA NAWAZ: A new report released by UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, contains an appalling statistic: Each day, 20 children are killed or maimed in conflicts around the world.

That is since they began recording data in 2005.

A staggering 315,000 grave violations against children have been verified by the U.N. Thousands of children have been abducted, recruited into armed conflicts and subjected to sexual violence in global conflicts over the last two decades.

Now, this is a very tough subject.

And a warning: We should say some viewers may be disturbed by some of the details in the conversation I had earlier about this report with UNICEF's executive director, Catherine Russell.

Help us understand the context here.

How do you gather these numbers?

And are these conservative estimates or worst-case scenarios?

CATHERINE RUSSELL, Executive Director, UNICEF: I think you make such a good point, which is, these are quite conservative estimates.

These are cases of -- where we can actually verify what happened, which means we're sure there are many, many more children who are suffering.

And these grave violations are everything from children who are killed, to seriously injured, to abducted, to sexually violated.

I mean, it's just a horrific list of challenges that children face around the world.

And I have to say, our estimates now are, there about 400 million children who are living in some situation of conflict at this -- even today, as we speak.

So it's a staggering problem for children in so many parts of the world.

AMNA NAWAZ: These do stretch over about 20 years that you looked at.

Have these numbers been getting worse over the years, or have they remained steady?

CATHERINE RUSSELL: You know, somehow, the number of conflicts keeps increasing.

The thing that's gotten the most attention than last year has been the conflict in Ukraine.

But the problem is, none of the conflicts ever really seem to go away.

So we're still looking at challenges in Syria, for example, in Yemen.

These places are persistent challenges.

And children -- in every situation of war, children suffer the most.

I mean, that's just the reality that we -- that we have to deal with.

And some of it is direct suffering, where they're injured directly, land mines, attacks, things like that.

In other cases, they suffer because the systems that they rely on, education, health care, water, are destroyed so often in conflict.

AMNA NAWAZ: Catherine, you yourself have traveled to Ukraine and Syria and Yemen.

Tell us about some of the children you have met and what they're facing there.

CATHERINE RUSSELL: You know, the wonderful thing about it is, almost everywhere I go, I see children who just really desperately want to be children.

And you will see them, and they will they will start playing a game or playing tag with each other.

But I have also seen so many horrific situations and heard so many terrible stories.

I remember one.

I was at a hospital in the Democratic Republic of the Congo where they treat children who - - children and women actually who have suffered some sort of violence typically.

And they have something called fistulas, which is a physical problem that results from very vicious rapes.

And I saw one little girl who was so cute.

She was playing.

I assumed that she was a child of one of the women who was there being treated.

And I talked to the doctor there.

And he said, oh, no, she was -- she was a patient.

He had -- he said, it was one of the hardest things he's ever had to do was really put her back together after she had been just viciously sexually violated.

And you have to wonder, why?

How could anyone do that to a 4-year-old baby?

So I have seen that.

I have seen children in Ukraine who are suffering from the after-effects of the -- sort of the - - just the constant shelling.

I met a family where the son was quite disabled, severely disabled.

And every time those sirens would go off, the alarms would go off, he would completely fall apart.

And so the family, because he was -- he was bigger, even though he was sort of childlike, they couldn't get him into the -- into the bomb shelters.

And so, persistently, the family was, like, just trying so hard to protect this child, this son, but also unable to do that, given what was going on.

So I have seen just countless stories like this.

And it is truly -- it's a situation where you see just how horrific human beings can be to each other, and that, when that happens to children, it's just particularly hard to deal with.

AMNA NAWAZ: Catherine, it's unimaginable what you're describing children are enduring around the world.

As part of your report, you project an alarming funding gap as well, a projected shortfall of $835 million in 2024, nearly a billion dollars by 2026.

What is it those funds go towards?

I mean, in the circumstances, how is it you can support these children, short of ending the war or the conflict?

CATHERINE RUSSELL: Yes.

Well, you put your finger on it, right?

First of all, the worst thing that can happen to children is a war.

Children don't start wars.

They are unable to end wars,.

They just suffer in wars.

So, what we do is, in the context of something that's already terrible, which is what children are facing, we try to help put them back together, in a sense, right?

We give them psychosocial support.

Often, we give them physical medical support, if they have suffered, which many children have.

I mean, I saw one child in Yemen who had lost both his legs.

I mean, it was so -- so sad and so painful to see.

So we help on that side.

We also, importantly, try to make sure these children are still getting educated.

A lot of times, in a conflict, as I said, the services aren't happening.

And so children, in addition to being in the middle of a war, are also not getting an education, which sets them back so far.

So, we provide education services.

We provide water.

We provide sanitation, all the basic needs that we possibly can for children.

But, at the end of the day, once they're in that situation, it's already horrible for them, right?

We're just -- we're trying to make the best of a bad situation and trying to help them recover from a situation that they shouldn't have been in, in the first place.

AMNA NAWAZ: With a growing number of children in these situations, if this kind of support is not provided for them, what do you worry will happen for this generation of children?

CATHERINE RUSSELL: Yes.

Well, you can imagine, I mean, I have seen in some situations what happens.

These children just get lost.

They are not getting educated.

They have terrible physical problems.

A lot of times, they end up -- in many places, it's hard for children who are disabled, whether from war or otherwise, but, when they're disabled in war, they -- a lot of times, they don't - - even as the society starts to come together, these children are often not included in schools and other activities.

It's challenging to raise resources for issues like this, because I think, in a way, the world community looks at it, and they think, well, this is just kind of what happens, and it's not -- these conflicts go on for so long that people kind of tire of it.

And I think it is important to remind the world.

And that's why this report is important to say, don't forget these children.

They are blameless here, and they deserve an opportunity to live a decent life.

And we have to do everything we can to help them.

AMNA NAWAZ: As you have said, children shouldn't pay the price for the wars of adults.

That is Catherine Russell, executive director of UNICEF, joining us tonight.

Catherine, thank you so much.

GEOFF BENNETT: Broadway's big night, the Tony Awards, will be held this Sunday.

The new show "New York, New York" is a top contender, nominated in nine categories, including best musical.

The composer of its music, John Kander, is separately being honored with a special award for lifetime achievement in the theater.

Quite a life, extraordinary achievement, which continues.

Jeffrey Brown joined Kander at the piano in his New York, New York, home for our arts and culture series, Canvas.

JEFFREY BROWN: The new Broadway musical "New York, New York," set shortly after World War II, opens with a song called "Cheering For Me Now," in which we meet characters who've come to New York with uncertain futures, but big dreams.

The show is a love letter to a city.

And for its 96-year-old composer, John Kander, it captures the wonder of working with others to create something new.

JOHN KANDER, Composer: I have lived a long time.

And one of the good things I can tell you about living a long time is that you keep finding out things and learning things about not just your own life, about life itself, or what really matters.

And I found myself, at the end of the workshop of "New York, New York," saying to the company, in thanking them, that one of the greatest pleasures in life was making art with your friends.

JEFFREY BROWN: Kander, who grew up in Kansas City, was himself one of those people who came to postwar New York to make it.

He did big time, and it was through the collaborative process, as half of one of musical theater's greatest teams, music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, creators of such blockbusters as "Chicago," which premiered in 1975.

A 1996 revival is now the longest-running show on Broadway.

Another classic, "Cabaret" from 1966, later a film starring Liza Minnelli and Joel Grey.

They wrote 16 Broadway musicals in all and thousands of songs, including a certain anthem that pretty much everyone on the planet must have heard and most can sing along with.

(MUSIC) JEFFREY BROWN: It was originally written for the 1977 film drama "New York, New York" directed by Martin Scorsese.

And, as the story goes, when star Robert De Niro didn't much like the first version Kander and Ebb brought them, the two went off and did what they did best, sat at the piano and got to work.

JOHN KANDER: We went home pissed off.

JEFFREY BROWN: Yes, about -- about what... JOHN KANDER: Yes.

(LAUGHTER) JEFFREY BROWN: That De Niro didn't like your song.

JOHN KANDER: It is true.

And we went into this little room where we work with Freddy and sat down and said, well, let's do it again.

And my hands, while -- probably what we were talking, went... (MUSIC) JOHN KANDER: And with Fred, immediately inside of that vamp is... JEFFREY BROWN: The first... JOHN KANDER: And produced then the very first lines.

JEFFREY BROWN: In fact, Kander says, music is always playing in his head even as we talked.

His job, improvise until he finds the good parts, while Fred Ebb, who died in 2004, was doing the same with an endless string of words.

JOHN KANDER: She could -- and this is brilliant.

Haven't been a lot of people -- I don't know a lot of people who can do this.

He could improvise in rhyme and meter in the same way that I could do... (MUSIC) JOHN KANDER: Without thinking, seemingly without thinking.

JEFFREY BROWN: So, you're writing -- you're improvising at the keyboard and he's improvising with the rhymes in his head.

And, somehow, it comes together.

JOHN KANDER: Right.

It is mysterious, because it's -- I think it is so deeply unconscious for us.

JEFFREY BROWN: The new "New York, New York" musical, directed and choreographed by Susan Stroman, another longtime Kander collaborator, is loosely based on the earlier film, with new characters and storylines.

At its heart, a young musician, played by Colton Ryan who lost his brother in the war, and a singer played by Anna Uzele facing racial discrimination as she struggles for opportunities.

Many of the songs are older ones by Kander and Ebb.

Seven were written with a new partner and friend, contemporary Broadway giant Lin-Manuel Miranda, who joined the cast and production team in a rousing 96th birthday song for Kander.

JOHN KANDER: We have a good time working together, and it reminds me a little bit of Freddy, because he is -- Lin is very fast, and I'm very fast.

JEFFREY BROWN: Fast as, like, the ideas are coming quickly?

JOHN KANDER: Yes, it's -- and, again, the ideas can be terrible.

JEFFREY BROWN: Yes.

JOHN KANDER: And nobody is a bad person because they have it, but so you write it, and then you change it.

JEFFREY BROWN: So, there is a lot of craft to songwriting, right?

JOHN KANDER: Yes.

That is the word.

I think we are all carpenters.

JEFFREY BROWN: Knowing how to put it together.

JOHN KANDER: Yes, it is one thing to want to make art.

It is another to do it, and that is craft.

You get better at it, hopefully, as you work, or not.

The rehearsal room is for me the safest place in the world, because you can do anything.

You can be so terrible.

But it is private.

JEFFREY BROWN: Yes.

JOHN KANDER: And, eventually, you end up in the rehearsal room with something that's as close as you can get to what you intended.

JEFFREY BROWN: Even with "New York, New York" now on Broadway, Kander, who lives with his husband, Albert Stephenson, was about to leave after our talk to join a workshop session for a potential revival of the Kander and Ebb 1990 musical "Kiss of the Spider Woman."

He is very much still at it.

JOHN KANDER: My mother had a great phase, which no -- none of us understood until later in life.

She said, you do the best you can.

A horse can't do any better.

JEFFREY BROWN: A horse can't do any better.

JOHN KANDER: I understand now what that means.

In other words, if you're writing a show, you do the best you can, sometimes without thinking of the ramifications.

JEFFREY BROWN: You are 96 and still working.

What is the secret?

JOHN KANDER: Well, are you supposed to stop doing the things that give you pleasure?

Who wrote that rule?

JEFFREY BROWN: No one wrote that rule, certainly not for John Kander.

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

(LAUGHTER) GEOFF BENNETT: Wow.

AMNA NAWAZ: And we will be back shortly with some words of advice from college graduation speakers.

GEOFF BENNETT: But, first, take a moment to hear from your local PBS station.

It's a chance to offer your support, which helps keep programs like this one on the air.

AMNA NAWAZ: For those of you staying with us, we revisit a piece of complicated medical history.

Special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro has our encore report from Alabama's capital of Montgomery.

It is part of his series Agents For Change.

MICHELLE BROWDER, Artist: Welcome to more than a tour.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: For some years, Michelle Browder has conducted trolley tours of Montgomery.

MICHELLE BROWDER: This is her apartment.

So I would invite you to get out.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: From Rosa Parks' home to the bus depot that is now the Freedom Rides Museum.

MICHELLE BROWDER: This is where they were beaten and bludgeoned right here.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Alabama's capital is a living history museum of the civil rights era, with so many iconic events, people, and places.

But, for Browder, artist by training, activist by leaning, there is one chapter of an earlier history that she is working to rewrite.

It has manifested in a monument on the capitol grounds to James Marion Sims.

He was a physician who practiced here in the 1840s, developing tools for pelvic exams and a technique to suture vaginal tears called fistulas.

To Michelle Browder, that is only half the story.

There is nothing on the monument now that says anything about the women that he worked on.

MICHELLE BROWDER: Oh, absolutely not, nothing of these 11 enslaved girls of African dissent that were tortured, mutilated without anesthesia, nothing that talks about what they contributed, forcibly, of course, FRED DE SAM LAZARO: No mention of them either in a well-known paintings immortalizing Sims as the father of modern gynecology.

Michelle Browder first saw it as an art student three decades ago.

MICHELLE BROWDER: I was triggered.

From there, I promised myself that, one day, I will change that narrative.

Got the welding station.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: A promise renewed years later when she moved to Montgomery and discovered the statue at the capitol.

MICHELLE BROWDER: I was horrified.

I still am.

If he's the father of gynecology, the father of modern gynecology, then they are the mothers?

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Browder decided she'd do something about it.

Relying heavily on Sims' own notes, she focused on the only three women actually named in his writings.

That is a lot of welding and sculpting.

How many people doing this?

MICHELLE BROWDER: Fifteen volunteers.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Today, about a mile from the Sims monument are soaring wrought iron tributes to the women she calls the mothers of gynecology, Anarcha, Betsey, and Lucy.

MICHELLE BROWDER: They didn't have autonomy, so it just makes sense for them not to have arms and feet.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: The young woman endured months of trial and error as Sims honed his technique to repair their fistulas.

The humiliating vaginal injury usually caused by obstructed labor renders women incontinent and unable to bear children.

MICHELLE BROWDER: If you see around her legs there, that wire represents the silk suture, sutures that he used to basically torture them.

And then of course, Betsey, her crown is made up of the speculum.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: And tell us the significance of the flower and its place.

MICHELLE BROWDER: Yes.

So, throughout all of the trauma, something came out of it that's been useful for women suffering from this condition.

LAUREN MARCELLE, Artist: The first time that I ever viewed the monument, I cried.

And I didn't know exactly why.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Lauren Marcelle and Alana Taylor are local artists and recent transplants to Montgomery.

They were on the day's tour.

ALANA TAYLOR, Artist: just seeing that work erected in such a way as a healing device was beautiful.

LAUREN MARCELLE: The only thing that differentiates us from these women is time.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: There was no such thing as informed consent from patients or subjects in experimental medical trials in Marion Sims' day.

The only consent that mattered had to come from slaveholders, who had a keen economic interest in the health of their workers and, because these were young women, a particular interest in their reproductive health, especially so after the transatlantic slave trade was abolished.

MICHELLE BROWDER: If it's outlawed in 1808, that we cannot go back and traffic folks from Africa, then where are we getting these people?

From the neighborhood?

Breeding plantations.

Breeding.

DEIRDRE COOPER OWENS, University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Black women's -- their wombs are the engines that maintained the institution of slavery.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Deirdre Cooper Owens is a medical historian and author.

As for anesthesia, she says, it was not commonly used in Sims' day.

But his reason for avoiding it rested on a widely held stereotype, that Black people do not feel pain, something contradicted, she says, in his own work.

DEIRDRE COOPER OWENS: I call it racial cognitive dissonance.

He holds on to the ideologies or sets of beliefs that are swirling in the 19th century, that Black people are somehow different than white people biologically.

But he will write: This patient lost sense of herself and struggled violently as we had to restrain her during surgery.

Why would you need to restrain a Black patient who is insensible to pain?

DR. LATOYA CLARK, Jackson Hospital: And you look at today, but even with all the advancements that we have, that African American women tend to have higher mortality and morbidity, and I think it's just a trickle down from the -- from the troubles that our ancestors had to endure.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: LaToya Clark, a Montgomery obstetrician-gynecologist, says anti-Black stereotypes have endured through the years.

Even today, she notes, studies find many providers believe African Americans feel less pain, that their complaints are exaggerated.

The flip side, she says, is deep distrust of the health care system.

Do you have patients who actively want to see you because they think you're more culturally competent, because they think that you would better understand their predicament?

DR. LATOYA CLARK: Yes, I have had numerous patients I'd say that: I have seen a man gynecologist all my life, and now I want to see a female gynecologist, or I wanted to come to an Afro-American gynecologist.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: For Michelle Browder, the next step in reframing Sims' legacy is quite literally, a mural based on that fateful painting, this time with Sims on the operating table.

It will be installed in a new Mothers of Gynecology Center she's opening in a downtown Montgomery building that's brimming with history and irony.

MICHELLE BROWDER: This is the site of the Negro women's hospital.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: The very sited, it turns out, where J. Marion Sims experimented on his enslaved patients.

When they weren't on the table, she says, these women became skilled surgical attendants, nursing women through their ordeals.

And tell us your grand plan for this space now.

MICHELLE BROWDER: Prenatal care for women, upstairs, a teaching clinic, with the hopes of teaching empathy, dignity and respect.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Browder says she's faced occasional pushback in this deep red state, where Sims is revered for work that was indeed groundbreaking.

MICHELLE BROWDER: I have had some doctors say that I'm actually trying to stain this man's reputation who's actually done something good, he was a man of his time.

In any case, whether or not he was a man of his time, then his time was barbaric, and, therefore, he was barbaric.

So let's start there, and then seek out ways to help and repair what is broken.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: And then there have been moments of grace, notably after she explained her plans for the new center to the white owners of the building.

MICHELLE BROWDER: She says: "Oh, Michelle," just little Ms. Gone With the Wind.

She was like: "We're just so proud of you.

And if you're going to do all of that, we're going to let you have that building for $35,000."

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Not what you expected.

MICHELLE BROWDER: Just don't judge the book by the cover.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Fred de Sam Lazaro in Montgomery, Alabama.

GEOFF BENNETT: It is graduation season, and that means politicians, actors, and even someone from the "NewsHour" you might recognize are imparting sage advice and encouragement to college graduates around the country.

Here are some of the life lessons this year's commencement speakers passed on to 2023 graduates JOE BIDEN, President of the United States: A few classes once in every several generations enters at a point in our history where it actually has a chance to change the trajectory of the country.

You face that inflection point today, and I know you will meet the moment.

I just think about the many ways you already have.

PATTON OSWALT, Comedian and Actor: Everything extraordinary in my life came from the wandering.

And that's not to say I didn't work hard and that you shouldn't work hard, but don't work hard to acquire things.

Work hard, so that you can buy yourself the time to wander easy.

Use whatever skills you have to carve out days of randomness and adventure.

KETANJI BROWN JACKSON, U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice: When you find yourself in unfamiliar situations, taking on new responsibilities, perhaps under challenging circumstances, find a way to do that thing outside of the law that grounds you, whether it's ultimate Frisbee or painting or going to the theater.

OKSANA MARKAROVA, Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States: Love is always about taking action, not just words.

Love is always about support and help.

Never ask yourself, shall I help?

Ask yourself, how can I help?

MAE JEMISON, Former NASA Astronaut: Happy is not something that is given to us by others.

It is a choice that we get to make every day, so why I ask you to look up.

Look up at the sky, the clouds beyond the sun, the moon, the stars, when you need to recharge your spirit.

Let the gravity of Earth give you a warm hug when you're feeling low.

AMNA NAWAZ: I know hope can feel like a really wishy-washy word, right?

It's all rainbows and butterflies and big dreams.

But I'm here to tell you, it is not.

Hope is a verb.

Hope is strength.

Hope is resilience.

I see it every day in the stories I cover, in all parts of the world, in every corner of this country, in moments where all seems lost.

Hope is the bridge between what is and what will be.

FMR.

REP. LIZ CHENEY (R-WY): When the path ahead is obscured and unclear, you can find your way by resolving to do the next right thing.

And you will... (APPLAUSE) FMR.

REP. LIZ CHENEY: And you will almost always know what that is.

There was a small voice inside telling you.

It is your conscience.

Listen to it.

JUAN MANUEL SANTOS, Former Colombian President: For the sake of this world, become peacemakers.

It is better to be at peace than to prove to anyone that you are right.

Work with peace in your heart.

Find peace in your soul, and everything else will follow.

ANGELA BASSETT, Actress: It's your time now to leave this home and to begin to create a life that you will call your own.

It's all part of carving out your individual paths as purposeful, whole human beings.

So now, if someone says to you that you are doing too much, you tell them, I am just getting started.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) ANGELA BASSETT: Thank you again for this tremendous honor, and congratulations.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) GEOFF BENNETT: Online, you can also hear from students who are graduating high from school about their hopes for the future.

That's at PBS.org/NewsHour.

AMNA NAWAZ: And that is the "NewsHour" for tonight.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

GEOFF BENNETT: And I'm Geoff Bennett.

Thanks for spending part of your evening with us.