amna: good evening area geoff: on the news hour tonight, highly anticipated peace talks between russia and ukraine fall flat less than two hours in with few signs of progress and both

country'ss president notably absent. amna: as president trump returns from a lavish trap, how the trump family could be profiting. >> it is influencing u.s. foreign policy in is pretty troubling and pretty unusual in american history. geoff: and a medical breakthrough, a baby born with a rare, deadly disorder becomes the first to receive personalized gene editing treatment. ♪ > major funding for the pbs news hour has been provided by -- friends of the news hour. and the robert and virginia schiller foundation. he judy and peter blum kovler foundation, strengthening democracies at home and abroad.

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nd friends of the news hour. ♪ his program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you, thank you. geoff: welcome to the news hour. today, senior russian and ukrainian officials did something they have not done in more than three years, sat across from each other and talked. since their last negotiation, more than one million people have been killed or wounded. amna: the two sides agreed to exchange 1000 prisoners, the war possible largest swap, but beyond that there was no breakthrough and in some respects, they are even further apart than when they first started.

nick schifrin begins our coverage. nick: today in istanbul, foes finally faced each other, senior russian and ukrainian officials have not been this close in nearly 1200 days, but by the end of the meeting they had never been further apart. >> there were a number of things that of course were unacceptable , but we took it with a very calm posture. nick: the last time ukraine and russia negotiated in the exact same location, russia demanded caps on ukraine's military, the ending of western support, the end of ukraine's nato dreams and the dissolution of volodymyr zelenskyy's government. russia reportedly expanded its demands today to include ukrainian withdrawal from four regions under partial russian control. nd buffer zones in other provinces.

russian negotiator vladimir bacsinszky said russia wanted more. >> it was a little bit proper in relation to the realities on the ground. nick: they did agree to the largest prisoner release of the war and they said they would consider a ukrainian request for a zelenskyy-teabag meeting. >> we agreed each side will present its mission and spell it out in detail. nick: but russia continues to reject requests for a 30 day cease-fire. >> you all know how it works. the guns fall silent and then you talk. >> as a rule, as napoleon said, war and negotiations take place simultaneously. nick: zelenskyy and the european coalition of the willing spoke -- pushed back. >> the russian position is clearly unacceptable. >> i don't think putin has

changed his strategic goals and ukraine. he wants demilitarization and zelenskyy gone. nick: the former defense and white house cia analyst now with the center for naval analyses. >> the russians, despite the massive amount of manpower they have, aren't meeting their recruitment goals -- are meeting their recruitment goals so they can stay in the fight longer. they believe they will be able to negotiate from a stronger position because they are winning. nick: those battlefield advances despite enormous losses reinforce putin's belief that he can achieve maximalist goals, but ukraine has adjusted and can likely hold the line against russian troops. >> they are making incremental improvements in their are talks of another offensive coming, more troops. but the ukrainians have learned in some sense from their failed offensive in 2023 how effective these measures can be.

i don't see a big breakthrough coming at any point. nick: and so most likely the two sides will continue to fight and negotiate to a stalemate. for the pbs news hour, i'm nick schifrin. amna: for the state of play, we turn to andrew wyatt, a former state department official who served in the bush and clinton administrations and he is the vice president for studies at the carnegie endowment for international peace. with peace talks wrapping just shy of two hours, no cease-fire, no major breakthroughs. what do you hear? is this progress? andrew: this process is about an audience of one and they are trying to appeal to president trump. the ukrainians have taken a lot of steps to agree to an unconditional 30 day cease-fire, to meet with the russians and to sort of play nicely with this

administration. the russians, who have given no ground and as you heard from nadine -- and as you heard from nick schifrin a moment ago also want to look like they are nice people and that they are serious about peace. they are not and as we heard a moment ago, they think time is on their side. amna: we know vladimir putin was not at the meetings and you heard zelenskyy say putin is not serious about a cease-fire. you agree? andrew: yes. the russians at this point have maximalist goals. those amounts to essentially wiping ukraine off the map. they want ukraine to disappear and to become forcibly reintegrated into russia's orbit. the ukrainians are not in any position where they are desperate for a deal. i think this white house is in part hampered because they have a misunderstanding of where things are on the ground every it they believe ukraine is in a dire situation desperate for a

deal and they think the russians could roll over ukraine in short order. both of those unfortunately are not the case. ukraine is in a bad situation, but defense is inherently favored in this war. they have been able to expand defense production capability so drones, artillery, things like that, they can now produce at home. they are seriously in need of continued u.s. military and intelligence support and they also have some niche important requirements for air defense that they can't replace on their own. amna: you heard this audience of one, president trump, say yesterday that nothing is going to happen until he and putin will speak. andrew: the ukrainians are worried that any bilateral agreement between the united states and russia could be rammed down their throat. there is a desire to make sure

that the united states president doesn't sound off on a spontaneous way as we have seen him do in other foreign policy matters. this is a very dangerous, delicate moment for the ukrainians. they don't want to see a peace deal agreed behind their backs. at the same time, donald trump has been bending over backwards to avoid putting blame on putin. so asking for a meeting is just the next sort of way of kicking the can and avoiding the moment of decision that trump had promised us where he said if i can't get this settled within my first 100 days, i'm going to walk away. that is the moment we are waiting for trump to reveal what walking away means. amna: when it comes to the u.s. involvement, i want to share with you something the former u.s. ambassador to ukraine published today in an op-ed in the detroit free press. she said she resigned last month because of trump's foreign policy after serving three years and ukraine. she said, i cannot stand by

while a country is invaded, a democracy bombarded, and children killed with impunity. i believe the only way to secure u.s. interests is to stand up for democracy and stand up against autocrats. peace at any price is not peace at all, it is appeasement. is president trump pursuing a policy of appeasement? andrew: i think he is and the risk of the policy we had in place when donald trump became president focus on unity with the europeans, common cause with the ukrainians and showing the russians that they can't get what they want and we would build leverage over time to get them to see this was a hopeless goal, that they were never going to get ukraine back. at this point, donald trump has cut off military aid for a brief period. he has blown up a lot of relationships with europeans, treating them more as adversaries. those are all making teabag confident that even if the negotiation fails, he still comes out ahead. amna: thank you for your time,

always great to speak with you. ♪ geoff: we start the day's other headlines in the middle east where israel is ramping up military activity. the idf said it struck two houthi places in yemen and struck gossett. israeli officials say it is a pressure campaign to get hamas to release the remaining hostages. as body bags line the ground, palestinians line up to say goodbye. these are just the first bodies recovered from an airstrike today. many more victims are still under the rubble as their loved ones try to dig them out with any tools available. >> there is no equipment. what should we do? geoff: for those who survived,

there was nothing to do but try to escape the next strike. >> where should i go today? there is bombing in west gossett. i go to the south, they kill you and kern units. i go elsewhere, there is bombing. where should i go? geoff: the israeli military has unleashed a deadly barrage across gaza this week, more than 100 killed after days of attacks that killed at least 130 according to the gaza health industry. israel says they are targeting terrorist cells and hamas military infrastructure. on tuesday, netanyahu said idf forces are mobilizing for a larger offensive, saying there will be no way we will stop the war, we are going to the end. after a brief cease-fire earlier this year, the violence has escalated once again with devastating consequences. but it is not just the fighting

that is deadly, israel's ongoing blockade of humanitarian assistance has created a parallel crisis, hunger. >> i have been cooking for people for a year and eight months now. there is real famine over the past three months. geoff: experts warn nearly half a million palestinians are on the brink of starvation. some wait all day for food. once these pots are empty, these children will go hungry. >> i come here from 9:00 a.m. and i went home yesterday without food. today i am going without food. eoff: all this unfolded as trump toured the middle east, notably skipping israel. the president told reporters the palestinians in his words need

help. >> we will see what happens, a lot of good things are going to happen over the next month and we are going to see. we have to help most of all the palestinians, you hear a lot of people are starving on gaza. geoff: satellite imagery shows how devastated rafa was. much of rafa had been reduced to smashed concrete. pictures this week show a barren wasteland. there is no way to know when or if things will improve or how much worse they might get. a transit strike in new jersey forced some 350,000 people to make alternative plans today. [chanting] union members walked off the job at midnight after contract negotiations stalled. new jersey's first man's it -- transit strike in decades. the third largest rail transit system ground to a halt.

the union says it wants better pay, but state officials say it would bankrupt new jersey transit. >> it is frankly a mess of their own making and it is a slap in the face of every commuter and worker who relies on nj transit. the stance we are taking to get a fair deal for workers and not blow up nj transit's finances is a central tenant in fixing nj transit. geoff: union leadership says their members are among the lowest paid in the country and they are not the problem. >> if the little extra we are asking for is causing bankruptcy, there are bigger problems than us. geoff: the next talks are scheduled for sunday with federal mediators with the hopes of reaching a deal before the monday commute. a group of conservative republican lawmakers a blocked president trump's so-called big, beautiful bill. by a vote of 16-21, the house budget committee declined to move forward with the massive

tackett -- package of tax breaks , spending priorities, and budget cuts. the republicans are joint democrats want more spending cuts, including cuts to medicaid. earlier, president trump posted that republicans must unite to bill on trump social. -- true social. president trump said former fbi director james comey called for his assassination in a since deleted instagram post. combing shared a picture of seashells to form the numbers 86 and 47. 86 is a slang term that means get rid of something, according to merriam-webster. trump is the 47th president. james comey said the connection never occurred to me, but i oppose violence of any kind. president trump fired james comey during his first term. the supreme court said the trump

administration has failed to provide evidence for the deportation of abrego garcia, which they admitted was an administrative era -- error. >> bring him home! geoff: abrego garcia's supporters rallied outside the courtroom in maryland. the trump administration argues that details about his case are protected state secrets. the judge called the case "an exercise in utter frustration." the new jersey man convicted of stabbing author salman rushdie received a 25 year sentence for the stabbing that left salman rushdie blind in one eye. a jury found him guilty earlier this year. rushdie submitted a statement to the court saying he still has nightmares about the incident.

the man will next face a federal trial on terrorism related charges, which is expected to focus on his motives for the attack. there is a developing story in new orleans where this afternoon police officials said that 10 inmates who escaped from jail today may have had help from the inside. the associated press obtained this photo showing the hole through which they escaped from the orleans justice center. louisiana state police released this image showing one of the escapees being recaptured in the city's famous french quarter. as of this afternoon, nine inmates remain at large. officials warn they may be armed and dangerous and ask people to call 911 if they see them. on wall street today, stocks ended higher as investors brushed off a report that showed consumer confidence at a three year low. the dow jones added more than 300 points on the day, the nasdaq rose nearly 100 point, the s&p 500 also ended the week on solid footing. after the closing bell, moody's

downgraded the credit rating of the u.s., stripping it of its perfect aaa status. in a statement, they blamed "successive u.s. administrations and congress for failing to agree on measures to trim the deficit." moody's was the last of the three major agencies to cut the rating, which the u.s. that held for more than a century. still to come, a personalized gene editing treatment appears to have saved a baby born with a rare disorder. david and jonathan break down this week's political headlines. in his new book, the idea of a chosen family and unexpected acts of kindness. >> this is the pbs news hour from the david m rubenstein studio and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. amna: president trump is on his way back from visiting three middle eastern nations where the

trump family has deep business ties. geoff: over the past month, billions of dollars have poured into trump family companies. reviving a debate about whether his financial windfalls are influencing government policy. laura has a look. >> on the first foreign trip of his second term, president trump is once again paying special attention to the middle east. >> i'm honored to be the first american president ever to officially visit your great country. laura: it is a region where his political and personal interests increasingly overlap. >> i thing it is a great gesture from qatar, i appreciate it very much. . laura: the presidents meetings and qatar come days after saying he would accept a major gift from the country. a major luxury jet to replace air force one. >> i would never be the person to turn down that offer. i could be a stupid person and

say no. laura: but the jet, worth an estimated $400 million, has set off ethical and legal alarm bells. >> it is entirely unprecedented. i'm certainly not aware of any kind of gift from a foreign nation that is even in the ballpark of this. laura: noah bookbinder is the president of citizens for responsibility and ethics. he is a former attorney for the justice department. questions about trump's use of the plane after he leaves office misses the larger conflict. >> some of these transactions made turn out to be just on the right side of the law. some of them may well end up violating the constitution. but even where there is technical legality, where you have a senior government official getting personal benefits from people who have every reason to want to

influence their policy decisions , that is inherently corrupt. geoff: trump placed his business interests in a trust controlled by donald trump, jr. rather than a blind trust most modern presidents. it is just a latest series of actions that flout ethics norms or enrich the trump family. their budding cryptocurrency empire is at the top of the list with some analysis estimating the president's crypto holdings now represent roughly 40% of his net worth. >> i believe the crypto world is going to take over. i think it is going to change our modern financial system. aura: at a recent auction of his cryptocurrency, bidders spent nearly $150 million on a meme going, typically endorsed by celebrities or inspired by a viral trend. the top 200 20 bidders got a

private gala with president trump at his golf course outside washington dc the top 25 will receive even more exclusive access to the president including a special vip tour of the white house. >> the profits from it go in large part to donald trump. both when the value of the coin goes up, but also there are transaction costs that he profits from when people buy and sell these coins. laura: according to recent estimates, the trump family and its partners have made some $320 million in trading fees since his meme going launched. four months into his second term, trump and his family are rapidly finding new ways to potentially profit off the presidency. if foreign governments or wealthy individuals want to curry favor, there are four main avenues to do it, cryptocurrency, new real estate deals, trump media which runs truth social, or direct payments at social clubs, hotels, and golf courses run by the trump family. in addition to the presidents

meme going, eric and donald trump, jr. alongside the son of trump's middle east envoy are leading the crypto firm known as world liberty financial. >> modernly finance is broken. when they came after our family, we begin the most canceled people in the world all because we were associated with politics in the united states. laura: the firm recently developed a stable coin, a cryptocurrency that maintains a constant price of one dollar and is meant to replace traditional money. that trump family crypto business got a $2 billion infusion from the government of the united arab emirates, a deal that will make the trump family tens of millions of dollars per year from the investment. >> it is impossible for us to know if it is influencing u.s. policy and that is pretty troubling and pretty unusual in american history that we even have this question. laura: eric lipton covers the president's business dealings for the new york times. he says the crypto transactions

make his first term conflicts appear small. >> it is not just millions or hundreds of thousands, we are talking billions of dollars that involve foreign governments, really enormous in scale to people buying martinis at the trump hotel in d.c. are going to mar-a-lago. laura: all of this comes as the trump administration has rolled back crypto regulations. meanwhile, trump's first international trip happens to be in the same region that the trump is planning to build an 80-floor hotel and residential tower. >> we are going to build the crown jewel and everyone will know what is trump international hotel. that is trump. laura: and a new luxury property in qatar. he may not be technically running his companies, but he is the financial beneficiary, said lipton. outside of these real estate projects, money is flowing in other ways. >> it is hard to keep track of all of the various moneymaking ventures that the trump family is currently involved in that benefit in many cases president

trump himself. there is his son who is selling $500,000 a head private memberships at a new club that will open in washington, d.c. laura: that new club is called the executive branch and will give paying tech and business moguls private face time trump administration officials in d.c.'s georgetown neighborhood. the white house says everything is aboveboard. >> it is frankly ridiculous anyone in this room would suggest president trump is doing anything for his own benefit. laura: richard paynter who served as chief white house ethics lawyer under george w. bush said trump may not be breaking criminal conflict of interest laws. >> it would be a crime for an executive branch official to participate in the regulation of cryptocurrency while holding cryptocurrency assets in investments on a trading platform for cryptocurrency, but that criminal statute does not apply to the president of the united states. laura: but painter says trump is

potentially violating a part of the constitution known as the emoluments clause. >> foreign governments will always seek to try to influence the united states and our public officials. if foreign governments can do business deals with the united states, private business deals, they could easily corrupt our government. that is the danger we face today , as much as we faced it at the time of the founding of the country. laura: the founding fathers concerned elected officials could profit from leadership wrote a clause that prohibited the nation's leaders from accepting gifts, titles, and funds from foreign governments. republican lawmakers have largely brushed aside trump's overseas business deals and his growing cryptocurrency empire. >> looked, there are authorities , ethics rules, i'm not an expert in that, whatever president trump is doing is out in the open, they are not trying to conceal anything. laura: as for the luxury debt,

some of trump's top allies were less forgiving. >> taking gifts from those who support hamas and others is not america first. you need to stop. >> accountability of the president will conquer --come from congress or not come from congress. laura: so far, the republican-controlled congress has shown no oversight to president trump's businesses. >> this does have consequences. when we face serious problems as a society, will those problems be resolved by our government or will government officials simply focus on making money for themselves? laura: it is a question ethics lawyers and watchdogs continue to ask as trump and his family stand to make billions from his presidency. ♪

geoff: let's turn to a promising medical breakthrough, doctors announcing they have treated a newborn baby with a rare genetic disease using the world's first personalized gene editing treatment. >> in the arms of his parents, kj looks much like any happy, healthy nine month old baby. is parents were initially given alarming news. >> one of the doctors said we know there is something wrong, but the best place to be is next door. >> doctor said he had a rare genetic disease known as cps one. it affects one in 1.3 million babies, but the disease caused by dna meant that he could not

process ammonia. the choices were stark. >> our child is sick. we either have to give a liver transplant or give him this medicine that has never been given to anybody before. what an impossible decision to make. >> doctors told him they could rely a new experimental procedure. doctors used the gene editing technology known as crispr to isolate that mutation. chrisr technology -- crispr was used as a gps to fix one errant letter of about 3 billion in his dna. one of the leaders of the team -- >> we knew that every day that passed there was a risk that he

could have neurologic injury from an elevated ammonia episode. we knew we had to work quickly to try to get a solution for him. >> kj responded well and after follow-up treatments, doctors say he has made significant progress. >> we have been operating in fight or flight for so long, that positive things to look forward to, we kind of were just like let's get him to this. now, we are planning for him to come home. geoff: for more on this treatment and its potential, we are joined by dr. peter marks who oversaw gene therapy treatment and vaccine safety and approval for the fda before he left in march. thanks for coming in. >> thanks so much. geoff: explain a bit more about what doctors were able to accomplish. how begin deal is this? >> i thing it is a pretty big deal because they were able to go from making a diagnosis remarkably rapidly using genetic

sequencing to get a genetic sequence that rapidly at reasonably low cost and then taking that sequence and making a medicine within a matter of weeks to be able to treat a child before they suffered the consequences of a potentially life ending disease. really a tour de force of molecular medicine. geoff: a tour de force. can this be scaled? can this be used to treat other things? >> i think this can be scaled. it may take time to get there. by scaling it, we may be able to treat a lot of cases like this where there is one individual affected by a very bad disease, but we will also be able to scale this up to deal with other diseases which are more common. things like sickle cell disease, etc. this approach of being able to have a gene editor given directly to someone may really bring down the cost and the

complexity of gene therapy so it can be applied much more broadly in the united states and globally. geoff: you have worked in this field for a while. what are the caveats and limitations? >> this is not going to be able to be applied immediately to every genetic disease. there are challenges people are getting to do the work done. getting these gene editor's the brain. they may be a little bit more difficult. but i think we will get there. some of the challenges will take a little more time to overcome. i think the scale up, the technology will be important. another piece will be the education necessary so that people can have the acceptance over the fact that these are remarkably good technologies which can really potentially positively impact human health and away we haven't seen previously.

geoff: are there ethical questions or potential questions about this type of treatment being available to people who are affluent or who have good private insurance while others would have to be the left to fend for themselves? >> i think that is an important discussion to be had in one of the reasons why this technology is so exciting to me is that it has the potential to bring down the cost of gene therapy, which people know that the gene therapies are in millions of dollars, so i whole order of magnitude. the next step will be into the hundreds of thousands of dollars and then hopefully into the tens of thousands of dollars. it could be a huge game changer because we could see these types of gene therapy making their way into low and middle income countries where they could essentially leapfrog care and help people with sickle cell disease where right now there is nothing for them. geoff: to what degree is the administration's cuts to medical research and funding limit the potential? >> hopefully, it is not going to

a whole lot. i think it is going to be a challenge if we don't maintain leadership in this area. it will be taken over by other countries. i think there are plenty of other countries looking at this technology realizing it's intentional and they will move forward with it. right now the u.s. has had tremendous leadership in this area. one of the people who discovered this technology and put it forward and the people who have brought it forward located in california and at m.i.t., they have really helped us stay in a leadership position in the u.s.. if we see that, i suspect others will move it forward. geoff: an exciting advancement, thanks for coming in. >> thank you so much. ♪ mna: for more on the president's trip to the middle east and political headlines

here at home, we turn to new york times columnist david brooks and jonathan cape are,, associate editor for the washington post. let's jump right in. he president's first foreign trip to the middle east, saudi arabia, qatar, united arab emirates. all places the trump family has deep business ties. we saw some investment deals time, meeting with the new syrian leader, a man the u.s. has previously called the terrorist, nuclear talks continue. what did you take away? >> i thought the first story was the slip-up on iran. trump was the guy who walked away from the iran nuclear deal, saying no deal. now he is back into the deal business. i happen to think this is the right move. iran is much weaker than they were even five years ago. israel has taken out hamas and hezbollah. the economy is much weaker, the saudi's are much stronger, so they are much more inclined to

do a deal than they were at any time in the last 15 years. i'm glad trump is exploring this. the second big thing on the trip was the riyadh speech. that was a speech in which he opined his foreign policy. all of american history postwar is we care about democracy, we don't like it if you are murdering journalists, we don't like that stuff. that was partly politics, but also who we are as americans, like we do have a moral foreign policy. the two key pieces of the trump speech is we are not going to tell you how to run the country, if you want to blow off some journalists he don't lie, that it's yours. and the second is we are not in the nation business anymore. that is a pretty sharp reversal of what had been a bipartisan foreign policy for years. we will see if it is right, whether we should be tolerant of

dictators and we will see whether americans can stomach it. we define our natural identity because of how we see ourselves acting in the world and if would become a moralists, that will shift how americans think of their own country. laura: what do you make of it? >> i look at the trip is an old western, the good come of the bad, and the ugly. david talked about the good, the flip on iran. talking to the new leader of syria and ending the sanctions to give that new regime a leg up. the bad being what you were just talking about in terms of the president's speech and then the ugly. you would be a stupid person if you didn't accept a free plane. the idea that the president of the united states is going to take a hand-me-down plan, a 13-year-old plane from a foreign country, just on its face is horrendous. yet he is insisting on it. ven though there are some

objectively good things on the trip, it has been overshadowed by the plane from qatar. but also to laura's huge story, interwoven in there's these deals that the trump family is mixed into completely. amna: we know we will continue to cover all of those stories as they unfold. in related headlines, you were tracking the supreme court hearing arguments on birthright citizenship. the supreme court unanimously affirmed at 125 years ago. congress codified at 100 years ago. we end this week that the department of homeland security is considering backing a reality show in which immigrants compete for citizenship. i should note laura spoke to the producer who said it is not like we picked people against each other, we are celebrating their journeys, people in the process, but someone has a chance to win getting to the front of the line.

just the way we are talking about who gets to be american right now, david, how are you looking at this? >> a couple things, we have birthright citizenship in this country since the 14th amendment. european countries, asian countries, african companies by and large -- african countries by large should not. they tend to be in the americas. we saw ourselves as a certain type of country, we welcome a lot of people and kids are born here and we say, welcome, you are one of us. that again is a long-standing tradition of america and a certain conception of what america was. you go to non-birthright citizenship, which will not happen because it is majorly unconstitutional, you are looking at a european style conservatism, not an american-style. that is trump really breaking with a lot of traditions here. i was struck by brett kavanaugh asking the solicitor general,

suppose a baby is born, what is going to happen to that baby without birthright citizenship? the solicitor general said, i don't know. you think you would have a plan for that. on the game show where the reality show, i have to confess i have never seen a reality show in my life. amna: you have never seen a single reality show in my life? >> i haven't seen the housewives of bethesda, maryland. i haven't seen love is blind. i did not see dynasty. [laughter] i'm bad with emotional drama. [laughter] but if we are going to be in reality television land, i frankly and this is counterintuitive i would be ok if americans saw it immigrants are really like and immigrants are not rapists and gang members and the guy who has allegedly conceived of the show is an immigrant and if americans could see a naturalization ceremony,

that would do a lot to improve how americans think of their administration? amna: what do you think? >> i have been to a naturalization ceremony and it is one of the most beautiful things i have seen. however, this producer proposed to this during the tail end of the obama administration. this is not something that has popped up just for the trump administration. you can't think about that television show without thinking about it in the context we are living in, which is why i thick a lot of people were thinking, a hunger games for immigration? just because of how cruel the trump administration, how cruelly the trump administration has treated immigrants, treated migrants. i have watched reality television shows. one, rupaul's drag race. [laughter] which is a fabulous reality show. but i think where we are right now, as wonderful as it would be for the american people to see immigrants who want to be in this country and do these

competitions, i don't think if this producer ends up having conversations with the dhs secretary in the trump administration, what things they would want put into the show that would make it just demeaning. i just think having read the interview that laura did with the producer, it strikes me that the guy has not read the room. he doesn't i think fully appreciate why his idea has hit like a lead balloon. amna: the homeland security spokesperson said it is in early stages of vetting and the secretary has not seen or signed off on it. meanwhile, i'm dying to get your takes on this other story. three were reported earlier on the former fbi director james comey posting this image, seashells arranged 86 47. trump is the 47th president, 86

is short for getting rid of something. comey said he didn't realize. what did you think when you saw this. >> i didn't know what it was and i have since learned a lot more about diner slang. [laughter] apparently when you were out of something, you were out 86. when there was a pretty girl at a table, it was 89. [laughter] he is a very earnest, intellectual guy. he is not an instagram memester. i assume it would not have occurred them to do violence. i assume his conception of 86 is from the diner or some other era, where it means, let's get rid of this. or we are out of this.

he is not the first person to have sent really stupid texts. in retrospect it was kind of stupid, but i would be shocked if there is evidence he meant actual violence. >> i agree with that. i just thought it was boneheaded. in our business, any time i put anything on social media, i mentally go through all sorts of permutations. how will this be read? what will people think? what is in the photo? the idea that the former fbi director didn't put those numbers together and say, maybe i shouldn't do that. i have to factor in one more thing. james comey does indeed have a book coming out on may 20, the same day as mine. i'm not jealous. what are we doing right now, we are talking about james comey. so from selling a book

perspective and i don't know. if this was some part of -- part of some master plan to sell a book. i think the timing is very interesting. amna: this is why i wanted to talk to both of you. >> follow jonathan's instagram -- social media tonight. >> watch rupaul's drag race. [laughter] amna: thank you both so much. ♪ eoff: he is a writer who draws deeply from personal experience to explore the wider story of working-class america. in his latest novel, ocean vuong blends grief, healing, and resilience. jeffrey brown sits down for our altar -- arts and culture series canvas. >> there is something connected to the brain with them way the

hand moves. when you are writing by hand, every sentence takes about 10-15 seconds longer. >> he transcribes it to time writer. ocean vuong takes a long way in. his latest novel, the emperor of gladness, is a meditation on pain, acts of kindness, and the history that has shaped him personally. >> i have always been fixated on kindness without power. there are some new people in america who don't have the means to alter each other's lives, the communities i grew up with, working-class poor folks, who don't have money or position or the needs to rescue each other. -- means to rescue each other. > an immigrant from vietnam, he spent most of his childhood in a working class community in

hartford, connecticut, much like where he set his novel, a fictional new england town called gladness, where his young protagonist is shaped by the 2008 financial meltdown and the ongoing opioid epidemic. >> i saw the opioid epidemic before it was the convenient term by politicians. i saw lunch ladies overdose overnight. your friend's mom. everyday americans who lost themselves to this drug so quickly. it is kind of this pharmaceutical slaughter. hey were so ashamed of it. >> he tapped into another form of americana, working in fast forward restaurants, which he experienced. for him, part of the illusion of the american dream, one offering a different kind of family. >> we truly didn't cook anything. we were one giant microwave.

but we presented our food as if it was home-cooked. > that is the myth of it. fast food, but made by grandma and the back. [laughter] >> a lot of this country is founded on the nuclear family. one alternative to that is the found family, the chosen family. there is a sector i wanted to tack into which was the circumstantial family, the family at work. the family cobbled together during the shift. there is an intimacy and bond and kinship that corrodes ideology. we all have different politics. >> where we all come from and how we got here is a longtime obsession. the subject of his poetry in two volumes, night sky with exit

wounds and time as a mother, and an earlier mother, on earth we are briefly gorgeous. he is often tackling the feeling of being an outsider, queer, an immigrant, and caught and tragic history, as he put it. descended from a vietnamese grandmother. how much does that past history live on in a young man living in hartford, connecticut? >> it definitely doesn't leave us. history is something that we passed through. it is almost like this web, like a fighters web. -- spiders web. you pass through the spiders web . i have been made by history. suffering is diverse in this one, i say. >> but sometimes you bring it to

the surface in different ways. >> es, because we don't get to choose. we don't get to choose whether we are victims or not. we do get to choose whether we live in victimhood. i think for me, being a writer, creating stories is a way of me saying, i'm that mark in my history, but there is also no solution to my history. there is no easy way to say the vietnam war cost millions of vietnamese lives, thousands of american soldiers who did not want to fight, drafted against their will. et, i owe my life to such a black page in history. >> many readers especially in this moment. well he didn't set out to become a public voice, he finds himself settling into that role.

you are representing people and you are speaking for people whether you like it or not. >> whether you like it or not. so you have to put care and concern into the words. i thought, that is what i have been doing anyway as a writer. who wakes up and decides to maneuver one of the smallest, fragile mediums in our species as letters around the smallest, fragile forms of a poem. who does that without care? writing is an active care. >> doesn't change the way you feel about yourself as a writer? > the desire underneath all of this. it is a question in my life, trying to understand why there is so much suffering in our life as people and yet why is there so much beauty?

why do we suffer so much and yet have the capacity to recognize the beauty and wonder in the world. i don't know the answer. > for the pbs news hour, i'm jeffrey brown in new york. ♪ geoff: be sure to watch washington week tonight, jeffrey goldberg and the panel will discuss to resident -- president trump's transactional approach to diplomacy. amna: on pbs news weekend, we explore how to navigate financial uncertainty as consumer confidence since to a record low and that is the news hour for tonight. geoff: for all of us here at the pbs news hour, thanks for spending part of your evening with us and have a great again. >> major funding for the pbs

news hour has been provided by -- the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions and friends of the news hour including kathy and paul anderson and camilla and george smith. the walton family foundation, working for solutions to protect water during climate change so people can thrive together. >> certified professionals are committed to acting in their clients' best interest. >> she rediscovers her grand mother's artistry and creates a trust to keep her craft alive. a raymondjames-- >> the john s and james l knight foundation, fostering an informed and engaged communities. ♪

> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. nd friends of the news hour. ♪ this was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions from viewers like you. ♪ ♪

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hello, everyone, and welcome to "amanpour and company." here's what's coming up. putin is a no-show at peace talks, as president zelenskyy dismisses the russian delegation as phony. i ask his former foreign minister where ukraine goes next. then, president trump says nothing's goin