GEOFF BENNETT: Good evening.

I'm Geoff Bennett.

AMNA NAWAZ: And I'm Amna Nawaz.

On the "News Hour" tonight: Congressional leaders and the Trump administration take steps to quell increasing frustration over the investigation into sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

GEOFF BENNETT: The president of the Philippines visits the White House amid trade tensions and fraying relations with China.

AMNA NAWAZ: And as some anti-abortion rights activists turn their focus to birth control, we examine the facts about contraceptives and how misinformation is rapidly spreading online.

EVELYN KIELTYKA, Maine Family Planning: You hear these wild things.

Birth control methods are one of the most researched hormones in our health care system.

(BREAK) AMNA NAWAZ: Welcome to the "News Hour."

Divisions inside the Republican Party about the Justice Department's investigation into Jeffrey Epstein boiled over on Capitol Hill today.

GEOFF BENNETT: House Speaker Mike Johnson said the House won't take action before leaving town for the August recess at the end of the week.

The controversy is fracturing the party and renewing calls for transparency.

Our congressional correspondent, Lisa Desjardins, has more.

LISA DESJARDINS: At the Capitol, a sudden rush to exit this week.

Speaker Johnson explained why the House is leaving early.

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): There's no purpose for Congress to push an administration to do something that they're already doing.

LISA DESJARDINS: But pledges from President Trump and A.G. Pam Bondi to release more information about Jeffrey Epstein, his alleged sex trafficking organization and his death have yet to be fulfilled, bringing new reminders of Mr. Trump's former friendship with Epstein.

Trump has said he knew nothing of Epstein's alleged crimes.

But this bill from Republican Thomas Massie to release all records while protecting victims' identities would force a tough vote that the White House does not want now.

The issue ground the House Rules Committee to a halt last night after Democrats tried to force a vote on releasing Epstein information.

REP. JIM MCGOVERN (D-MA): Well, we could do it right now.

LISA DESJARDINS: And now the House will leave early for August recess.

REP. THOMAS MASSIE (R-KY): I don't think this issue is going away over August.

LISA DESJARDINS: Massie, known as a sharp thorn in leadership's side, is blunt.

REP. THOMAS MASSIE: I mean, people have wanted these files for years.

And then the president's staff, administration, his own children, his vice president have promised that these files would come out.

And now we're being told it's a hoax?

It just doesn't wash. LISA DESJARDINS: But some like fellow Republican Ralph Norman now say they can wait.

REP. RALPH NORMAN (R-SC): The information will come out.

The Republicans are going to push it.

And it's going to be a good -- what American people will see.

It just takes some time.

But it's going to be out there.

LISA DESJARDINS: Johnson urges trust in the White House with a specific standard for what is released.

REP. MIKE JOHNSON: The president himself has said that he wants maximum transparency and all credible evidence to be turned over to the American public, so that everyone can make their own decisions.

LISA DESJARDINS: Meanwhile: REP. PETE AGUILAR (D-CA): Put up or shut up.

Follow through or don't follow through.

LISA DESJARDINS: Democrats are relentlessly pushing the issue.

REP. TED LIEU (D-CA): We should release Epstein files.

It is what Donald Trump campaigned on.

It's what Attorney General Pam Bondi talked about this February when she said the Epstein client list was -- quote -- "sitting" on her desk right now.

Why don't we have that client list?

LISA DESJARDINS: Amid the debate, some news.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche posted on social media that he intends to interview Epstein's co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, to follow all leads and ask what she knows.

Maxwell's serving a 20-year prison sentence for child sex trafficking and other crimes.

In the Oval Office today, just one reporter asked the president about Epstein.

He said he wasn't aware of the Maxwell interview.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: I didn't know that they were going to do it.

I don't really follow that too much.

LISA DESJARDINS: Instead, Trump repeatedly changed the subject to Democrats, launching into wild accusations about former President Barack Obama.

DONALD TRUMP: He's guilty.

It's not a question.

I like to say, let's give it time.

It's there.

He's guilty.

This was treason.

LISA DESJARDINS: Charging with no proof that Obama conspired to steal past elections.

The man in the Oval Office now, under fire, is again targeting his political rivals, including those past.

For the PBS "News Hour," I'm Lisa Desjardins.

GEOFF BENNETT: And here to discuss the legal implications of all the Jeffrey Epstein developments is Arlo Devlin-Brown.

He's a former federal prosecutor and headed the unit at the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan that later prosecuted Epstein.

Thank you for joining us.

ARLO DEVLIN-BROWN, Former Federal Prosecutor: Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: So the Justice Department said it reached out to Jeffrey Epstein's former associate Ghislaine Maxwell for a meeting amid the administration's handling of the Epstein documents, the backlash to all of it.

What kind of information might she have that didn't come forward in the trial?

ARLO DEVLIN-BROWN: So it's really hard to know.

It could be they're looking to see what information she has.

And I guess also important is what information doesn't she have, since the DOJ is also looking to see if its prior investigation, which found that no other people were responsible for crimes against the victims, to make sure that was complete.

GEOFF BENNETT: Is it in her interest to cooperate?

How might she benefit from this?

ARLO DEVLIN-BROWN: Well, she could benefit two ways.

One is, the DOJ could move to the district court that had overseen her trial and ask that she be resentenced, claiming that she has provided substantial assistance to an investigation.

In that case, it would be totally up to the judge whether to resentence her and how much to adjust the sentence.

She, of course, has another avenue, which is to go through the clemency process and make a request to have her sentence commuted.

And that's obviously entirely within the president's discretion.

GEOFF BENNETT: And if Maxwell doesn't have new information to share, how might that still be valuable to President Trump?

ARLO DEVLIN-BROWN: Well, you could see the Department of Justice taking the position here that they went to this length to interview her.

She didn't have to speak.

She gave them all sorts of information that she knew about and that she credibly said that there were no other people that she was aware of anyway who were responsible for sexual misconduct against the victims.

In that scenario, you could see a situation where the DOJ said, that's extraordinarily helpful to us in light of the public interest in this matter.

And, therefore, we are going to take some action to get you resentenced for.

President Trump could take some action and commute her sentence.

GEOFF BENNETT: Meantime, President Trump called on the attorney general, Pam Bondi, to release what he called pertinent grand jury testimony related to Epstein.

She has taken steps to seek that release.

Is that testimony expected to yield anything new or noteworthy?

ARLO DEVLIN-BROWN: No, I don't think that's going to be helpful.

And the reason is, the only grand jury testimony that would have occurred would have been testimony against the people that the grand jury was being asked to indict.

So it would have been focused on Epstein himself and then Ms. Maxwell.

And, second, it's typically the practice in federal courts for the evidence to be summarized, often by a single witness from law enforcement.

So it's not like you're going to have dozens of people who have testified before those grand juries.

It's maybe even one person.

GEOFF BENNETT: How unusual a move is it to make grand jury testimony public?

ARLO DEVLIN-BROWN: It's very unusual.

There are occasions where the defense counsel seeks it for various reasons relating to their legal situation.

But the government almost always resists those efforts and fights to keep it secret, because one of the things that the DOJ likes to tell witnesses who are appearing in the grand jury is that this is a secret process and can't be revealed to the media or to anyone outside of the court's permission.

GEOFF BENNETT: There are still many files related to the Epstein case that have not been publicly released.

Based on your experience in similar investigations, what kinds of information might be in those files and might the DOJ find a way to release them?

ARLO DEVLIN-BROWN: Yes, so the grand jury testimony or other material that was subpoenaed to the grand jury, that, the DOJ requires a court order to release, and the court may or may not do that.

But there's a host of other material that is not grand jury material.

For example, there were searches of Mr. Epstein's properties that yielded, as we have seen, lots of documents and other material.

The DOJ could release that information if it wanted to, likely without the need for any sort of court authority.

GEOFF BENNETT: Former federal prosecutor Arlo Devlin-Brown, thanks again for being with us.

ARLO DEVLIN-BROWN: Thank you.

AMNA NAWAZ: We start the day's other headlines in Gaza.

The U.N. Human Rights Office says that Israeli forces have killed more than 1,000 Gazans seeking aid since May.

Most deaths have occurred near distribution sites run by an American contractor.

A breakdown in law and order has led to looting, chaos and violence during aid deliveries.

Desperation is mounting amid Israel's near-total blockade of the territory.

Israel accuses Hamas of diverting aid.

Gaza's Hamas-run Health Ministry says 101 people have died in recent days from starvation, including 80 children, some of them infants.

ADHAM AL-SAFADI, Uncle of Infant Who Died of Malnutrition (through translator): The baby was 40 days old.

There are no formula boxes.

A box now costs $100.

We can't afford it, and it's not even available.

The mother can't breast-feed.

There's no food or drinks, so there's no breast milk.

The baby died of malnutrition because his mother had malnutrition.

AMNA NAWAZ: Meantime, Gaza health officials reported at least 25 deaths from Israeli strikes today.

That includes 12 people who were killed when Israeli forces hit tents sheltering displaced people in Gaza City.

The Israeli military says it's not aware of any such strike.

The Trump administration is citing an alleged anti-Israel bias in its decision to once again withdraw the U.S. from the U.N.'s main cultural agency called UNESCO.

In a statement today, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce specifically cited the organization's 2011 decision to admit Palestine as a member state, saying it was -- quote -- "highly problematic, contrary to U.S. policy, and contributed to anti-Israel rhetoric."

The U.S. withdrew from UNESCO under Trump in 2017 for similar reasons, then rejoined during the Biden administration.

Today's decision takes effect in December of next year.

Here at home, the Labor Department is proposing sweeping rollbacks to more than 60 workplace regulations.

They include eliminating minimum wage requirements for home health care workers, protections for migrant farmworkers, and safety protocols for a range of working conditions, including construction sites and mines.

Critics say the changes would put workers in harm's way.

Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer has said the goal is to cut -- quote -- "unnecessary regulations that stifle growth and limit opportunity."

The rules must go through several stages of approval before they can take effect.

Coca-Cola says it's rolling out a new version of coke using real cane sugar following a push by President Trump.

In the U.S., Coke has been sweetened using high-fructose corn syrup since the 1980s.

Some versions already use cane sugar, like the one sold in Mexico.

Last week, President Trump posted online that Coke would be using cane sugar, but the company never confirmed.

Instead, Coca-Cola said the cane sugar version will be added to its overall product line this fall.

Its CEO told investors today -- quote -- "We appreciate the president's enthusiasm for our Coca-Cola brand.

We are definitely looking to use the whole toolkit of available sweetening options."

General Motors posted a 35 percent drop in quarterly profit today dragged down by the impact of President Trump's tariffs.

The automaker said the levies resulted in a $1.1 billion dent in its earnings.

In a letter to shareholders, CEO Mary Barra said: "GM is trying to reduce our tariff exposure, which includes $4 billion of new investment in the U.S." GM is the second automaker this week to say the tariffs are taking a toll.

Yesterday, Jeep maker Stellantis warned of a loss of $2.7 billion in the first half of the year, due at least in part to tariffs.

GM's shares dropped more than 8 percent on Wall Street today as stocks overall ended mixed.

The Dow Jones industrial average added nearly 200 points on the day.

The Nasdaq lost ground, giving back around 80 points.

The S&P 500 inched to a new all-time high.

And we have a passing of note.

Black Sabbath front man and heavy metal icon Ozzy Osbourne has died.

With his trademark growl on songs like "Iron Man" and "Paranoid," Osbourne brought a sense of darkness and danger that delighted fans and terrified many parents.

The band fired him in 1979 for his wild behavior.

A year later, he began a solo career.

His first two solo albums went multiplatinum with hits like "Crazy Train."

Osbourne was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, once with Sabbath in 2006 and again on his own last year, and then a third act for the man known to many as the prince of darkness.

Osbourne won new fans as the doddering foul-mouthed father in his reality show "The Osbournes," which ran on MTV for four seasons.

In 2020, Osbourne revealed that he had Parkinson's disease.

He played his last show in the U.K. earlier this month.

Ozzy Osbourne was 76 years old.

Still to come on the "NewsHour": Texas legislators seek ways to better protect against future floods; the immigration judge shortage is underscored by the Trump administration's efforts to ramp up deportations; and a playwright discusses his inspiration for his Tony Award-winning family drama, "Purpose."

GEOFF BENNETT: Today, President Trump said he had reached a trade agreement with the Philippines following a White House visit by its president, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. AMNA NAWAZ: He is now the first Southeast Asian leader to visit the Oval Office during Mr. Trump's second term.

The U.S., the Philippines, and other Asian allies are increasing their cooperation to counter what the U.S. calls an expansionist China.

But these partners and allies are also being targeted by U.S. trade policies.

Nick Schifrin has more.

NICK SCHIFRIN: In one of the world's most contested waters, a fierce face-off with China.

Last week, the Philippines Coast Guard intercepted what it called a Chinese spy vessel.

China published this video of what it called Philippines' aggression.

But it has been China flexing its maritime muscles.

Last year, it attacked Filipino ships with water cannons as part of its claims to control nearly the entire South China Sea.

That's a claim contested by over a dozen countries, including by Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. FERDINAND MARCOS JR., President of the Philippines: We are essentially concerned with the defense of our territory and the exercise of our sovereign rights.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Today, at the White House, Marcos envisioned an expanded regional alliance.

FERDINAND MARCOS JR.: We need to do this with our partners.

And, again, our strongest partner has always been the United States.

I present that position very clearly to anyone who has intentions of unilaterally changing the world order.

NICK SCHIFRIN: The Philippines is the U.S.' oldest Pacific ally, and the U.S. is treaty-obligated to come to its defense.

In recent years, that defense relationship has boomed.

U.S. and Philippines troops recently held large exercises that for the first time deployed American anti-ship missiles pointed at waters near Taiwan.

In fact, in recent years, the U.S. has increased its military presence from the Philippines to Japan, including on bases that are closer to Taiwan than they are to the capitals Manila and Tokyo.

The U.S. has prioritized creating multiple regional military alliances willing to confront Beijing together.

That's an effort continued under this Trump administration, which has expanded warnings over Taiwan.

PETE HEGSETH, U.S. Defense Secretary: Any attempt by communist China to conquer Taiwan by force would result in devastating consequences for the Indo-Pacific and the world.

There's no reason to sugarcoat it.

The threat China poses is real and it could be imminent.

We hope not.

But it certainly could be.

NICK SCHIFRIN: But, today, President Trump concentrated on cooperation with China.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: And I don't mind if he gets along with China, because we're getting along with China very well.

We have a very good relationship.

In fact, the magnets, which is a little complex piece of material, but the magnets are coming out very well.

They're sending them in record numbers.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Beijing first withheld rare earth magnet exports, leading almost immediately to Ford temporarily idling some U.S. factories.

A U.S.-China trade truce has restarted the exports, and President Trump today said he'd reached a broad trade agreement with Marcos.

DONALD TRUMP: It's a lot of income coming in for both groups, but I was surprised to see the kind of numbers.

They're very big, and they're going to get bigger under what we're doing and what we're proposing.

NICK SCHIFRIN: President Trump said in a post online this afternoon that Marcos agreed to remove tariffs on all U.S. imports and that the U.S. would impose a 19 percent tariff on Philippines goods.

There's been no confirmation yet from the Philippines.

But that 19 percent is the same percentage the U.S. will impose on Indonesian goods in a new framework deal with that country, also announced today.

For a perspective on the Trump administration's overall approach to Asia, we get two views.

Randall Schriver was assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific affairs during the first Trump administration.

He's now chairman of the Institute for Indo-Pacific Security.

And Lyle Goldstein is the director for Asia engagement at Defense Priorities, a think tank that advocates for a noninterventionist U.S. foreign policy.

He's director of the China Initiative at Brown University.

Thanks very much.

Welcome to both of you.

Randall Schriver, let me start with you.

I just mentioned how the U.S. has expanded defense cooperation across the Pacific, including exercising recently on a base in the Philippines that is basically closer to Taiwan than it is to Manila.

Why is that kind of presence important to U.S. interests and plans in Asia?

RANDALL SCHRIVER, Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indonesia-Pacific Affairs: Well, we're a distant power and we're reliant on friends and allies for access for our forward-deployed forces.

Taiwan is an important country to us, an important relationship for the region.

Any threat to Taiwan, we'd want to at least be positioned to respond to.

Whether or not we do so militarily is a political decision, but we want to be in position, and the Philippines is key to that.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Lyle Goldstein, respond to that.

The U.S. sees the region as needing to expand its presence, especially to be in position in case the political decision is made to defend Taiwan.

What's your response to that?

LYLE GOLDSTEIN, Director of Asia Engagement, Defense Priorities: Yes, what I see, Nick, is something very dangerous.

To me, we have been quite focused on the South China Sea issue and some bullying going on, mostly regarding fishing issues or oil exploration in the South China Sea.

But this increasing inclination to tie the south -- the Philippines into the Taiwan issue, I think, is very, very dangerous.

And I think we have seen a steady uptick in -- since that's been going on, in Philippines-China relations, which are really very dicey.

So is the Taiwan Strait situation.

I'm urging Washington decision-makers to act with the utmost caution here.

This is extremely dangerous, Nick.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Randall Schriver, is it dangerous to expand cooperation with the Philippines with the context of what you and I were talking about, Taiwan?

RANDALL SCHRIVER: Well, I think it needs to be done with a degree of deftness.

But I believe that these moves are actually helping deterrence and helping stabilize the situation.

To do nothing, I think, is actually the real risk because I think China's ambitions are quite significant here.

And we want to be able to be able to keep peace and stability in the free and open order in the region.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Lyle Goldstein, take that on again, doing nothing or at least doing less than what multiple administrations have done would reduce deterrence.

LYLE GOLDSTEIN: Yes, we're not advocating for doing nothing.

Of course, we think that Philippines is a value treaty ally, and we support various cooperative actions with the Philippines.

It's just we think it's critically important that they have a kind of defensive character that is -- that we should make our alliance with the Philippines very much in the spirit of defensive defense, not, that is to say, leaning into the Taiwan situation.

Mr. Schriver just characterized Taiwan as a country.

And that reflects a kind of big misperception in Washington, D.C., it seems to me.

We -- our official policy is that there is a One China policy.

We do not recognize China -- Taiwan as a country.

And, therefore, it seems to me we had better be very cautious here.

And the situation across the Taiwan Strait is getting more and more tense.

I'm of the view -- I'm a defense analyst -- of the military balance -- there is no military balance.

China has vast military superiority against Taiwan and against the Philippines.

So we had better not get our servicemen into a situation which is effectively mission impossible.

Bridge Colby alluded to this when he said that -- what was it he said?

This is probably not viable.

In part, what he was saying was, it's just -- Taiwan is just not defensible.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Randy Schriver, is there a misperception in Washington, D.C., about Taiwan?

And is it mission: impossible to defend Taiwan?

RANDALL SCHRIVER: On the first, there may be among some.

I certainly don't have any misperception.

I have traveled there quite a bit.

And to the untrained eye, it looks awful like a country with a president, its own currency, its own military, its own defined geography.

And it is recognized by at least a dozen countries in the world right now.

So I use the phrase that I think is appropriate.

Is it indefensible?

Well, that's actually not what Bridge Colby is saying, and that's not what the Department of Defense interim national defense strategy says.

But it does require taking certain moves, certain cooperative activities with our partners and allies, certain things in our own force modernization plans.

And, look, Taiwan is tough.

It's 80 nautical miles of water, mountainous, inhospitable terrain, unfavorable sea conditions for most of the year, unfavorable ports for embarkation.

This is a tough target for a military that hasn't seen combat since 1979.

So I don't think it's indefensible.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Lyle Goldstein, let me just clarify.

Bridge Colby, who we're talking about now, is the number three in the Pentagon, the undersecretary of defense for policy.

And the national defense strategy that Randy Schriver just brought up does use unprecedented language on Taiwan in the context of making sure that the U.S. focus on China.

And the language includes that the U.S. needs to prevent a fait accompli takeover by Beijing of Taiwan.

Is that kind of focus on Taiwan, is -- do you think, is that wise?

LYLE GOLDSTEIN: No, it's not wise.

I mean, Colby's language there and his confirmation hearing was a considerable walk-back from his book-, where he had kind of outlined a more kind of, let's say, a larger view of our interests.

He seems to have rethought it wisely.

Now, I mean, if we listen to President Trump here, you would see he didn't mention the South China Sea.

He didn't mention going to war over rocks or reefs.

He said nothing about the Taiwan Strait or the Luzon Strait.

So he's focused on commerce and... NICK SCHIFRIN: Luzon Strait in North Philippines.

LYLE GOLDSTEIN: Right.

And all of his statements on Taiwan have tended to be extremely cautious, which is in my view very wise.

He has definitely taken a different approach, say, than President Biden, who I think four times said that we would definitely defend Taiwan.

He -- President Trump very clearly stated otherwise.

And in Secretary of Defense Hegseth's remarks, he made it very clear that, sure, U.S. forces should get ready for a bad day in the Western Pacific.

But he also said it's not his call to make and that whether we would actually do this remains unknown.

I and many others are -- who look at the military balance are suggesting this could be a terrible catastrophe, not only with nuclear overtones, but a recent Washington simulation of this suggested that we would lose two aircraft carriers within the first week.

Just imagine that.

That's thousands of Americans lost, devastating loss.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Lyle Goldstein, sorry.

Randy Schriver, I only have about 30 seconds left.

So just take last word here.

Does the president's targeting U.S. allies and partners when it comes to tariffs, could that undermine an overall strategy in Asia?

RANDALL SCHRIVER: I am concerned about that.

I think the Defense Department and national security officials that are looking at defense issues think they can be siloed.

But I'm concerned that most of what our Asian partners and allies are worried about it.

And what they're focused on is the tariffs and the trade tensions.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Lyle Goldstein, very quickly, you as well.

Are you worried about these trade and tariffs interrupting the overall strategy?

LYLE GOLDSTEIN: No, I'm not.

I think some winds of change are blowing across the region.

All countries, including ours, are rightly more focused on commerce.

Let's try to decrease the dangers throughout the region.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Lyle Goldstein, Randy Schriver, thanks very much to you both.

RANDALL SCHRIVER: Thank you.

LYLE GOLDSTEIN: Thanks very much.

AMNA NAWAZ: As cleanup operations from the catastrophic flooding continue in Texas, state lawmakers are currently holding a special session, in part to address the tragedy that killed at least 135 people.

GEOFF BENNETT: Three people in Kerr County remain missing.

That's down from 100 just last week.

Local officials say many who were initially reported missing have since been found safe.

As William Brangham reports, volunteers have been crucial to the ongoing recovery efforts, while larger questions of accountability linger.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The debris is still slowly being removed along the Guadalupe River, and the many volunteers who rushed here are helping residents cope in ways both big and small.

GREG ADKINS, Flood Victim: Just tons of people helping out.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Homeowner Greg Adkins, whose home was badly damaged, has literally been surrounded by fellow Texans coming to lend a hand.

Adkins had no flood insurance.

GREG ADKINS: All of these volunteers, like Danny and his crew, coming down from Texarkana.

We got people coming.

I had another guy that's a remediation-restoration expert out of North Texas, up north of Dallas.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: It's too early to know what rebuilding will look like across Texas Hill Country now that the threat from massive flooding is apparent to everyone.

But in the short term, those volunteers offer hope, comfort, and relief.

One local effort tries to find and return people's precious belongings.

When such items are found, photos are posted to this Facebook group, everything from stuffed animals, car keys, photographs, even beloved pets, sometimes leading to heartfelt reunions.

WOMAN: Is this your baby?

WOMAN: She is.

WOMAN: Oh.

WOMAN: Hi, baby.

GIRL: Hi, mommy.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Even far from Texas, volunteers are stepping up.

This pet shelter in Chicago took in dozens of dogs from Texas.

CELENE MIELCAREK, PAWS Chicago: We're really happy to be able to help support the area by freeing up really needed space in their shelters so that they are able to open their shelters for displaced pets.

PAT GREEN, Musician: I'm trying to keep things a little bit upbeat because I haven't been upbeat for a while.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Back in Texas, country singer Pat Green, whose younger brother John died, along with several members of his extended family, held a benefit concert raising more than a million for flood relief.

PAT GREEN: One of my favorite memories of my brother John at Billy Bob's was that every time we played Billy Bob's, me and the band would walk off stage and there would be no beer left.

Nobody gets mad about a little beer drinking.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: But many questions remain about this tragic event, like why the floodwaters seemingly caught so many people off guard.

Why hadn't better warning systems been deployed?

LUCIO VASQUEZ, The Texas Newsroom: We at The Texas Newsroom reviewed transmissions, emergency transmissions from that night.

Volunteer firefighters asked for alerts to be sent out around 4:30 or so in the morning.

But despite those requests, there were some delays.

I can tell you, I have seen a lot of destruction.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Lucio Vasquez is a reporter for The Texas Newsroom.

LUCIO VASQUEZ: I think they said this special authorization needed to be granted before those alerts could be sent, those potentially lifesaving alerts.

And so there were some delays there.

After the alerts were sent out, there were also some sporadic and inconsistent messaging, just in terms of who got the messages.

We spoke with some people who said that they didn't even get messages at all.

Some people got messages around 10:00 a.m., which, at that point, the water had already risen 10, 20 feet.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Texas lawmakers have now started a special legislative session called by Republican Governor Greg Abbott, in part to examine disaster preparedness.

Over the coming weeks, the legislature will consider proposals to strengthen emergency communications in flood-prone areas, provide relief funding for recovery efforts, streamline regulations to improve preparedness, as well as whether to improve early warning systems.

LUCIO VASQUEZ: Can we invest more money in warning systems?

Can we potentially put sirens along the Guadalupe River to siren off whenever a flood happens again?

And so these are the focuses that are going to be touched on.

RACHEL HOGAN CARR, Executive Director, Nurture Nature Center: We have a responsibility to our communities to think about the worst-case scenario now ahead of time and to look at areas outside of our floodplains that could be affected and figure out who's living there and ask ourselves, how do we reach them if something happens?

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Rachel Hogan Carr researches disasters.

She's the executive director of the Nurture Nature Center, a nonprofit focused on public communication about flood risk.

RACHEL HOGAN CARR: In coastal communities, there's tremendous infrastructure forewarning for hurricanes, for coastal flooding, for storm surge, and communities are highly aware of their risk and they're highly publicized.

In inland community, where the events can be less frequent or have not happened for decades and decades, there's a lot less consciousness in the community.

And so warning systems are generally less well-developed.

They're less well-financed.

Oftentimes, in smaller communities, there are volunteer services and emergency management, people who are charged with delivering those warning systems.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: As state lawmakers discuss how to prevent the next tragedy, the victims of this one are coming home; 8-year-old Virginia Hollis died at Camp Mystic.

Her body was driven to her hometown of Bellville, Texas, in a solemn procession, town after town along the route offering a Texas-size goodbye.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm William Brangham.

AMNA NAWAZ: A key part of the Trump administration's hard-line immigration agenda is to deport immigrants without legal status more quickly.

But there's a massive backlog in immigration courts.

And the Justice Department has fired or not renewed the contracts of dozens of judges who decide whether individuals should be allowed to remain in the U.S. Ximena Bustillo covers immigration policy for NPR, and she joins me now.

Welcome to the "News Hour."

XIMENA BUSTILLO, NPR: Thank you.

AMNA NAWAZ: So what do we know about what's behind the firing and the nonrenewals of these dozens of immigration judges?

XIMENA BUSTILLO: So, last week, the Justice Department decided to not renew the contracts of 17 immigration judges scattered across the country in states like Massachusetts, Illinois, Texas.

This continues the pattern of firing immigration judges as they reach their two-year probationary mark.

So, in total, about 65 immigration judges have received an e-mail that tells them that the attorney general has decided to not keep them on beyond their two-year mark.

Immigration judges are not like a lot of other judges within the judiciary branch that we normally talk about, think about them a little bit more like civil servants.

They work under the Justice Department, and technically are a bit more at will.

AMNA NAWAZ: And is there any concern that there's something political about these firings or nonrenewals?

XIMENA BUSTILLO: Democrats have raised a lot of concern, particularly with this administration's approach to dismissing so many judges.

So, again, that number is up to about 65.

During the last administration, the Biden administration, there were a few firings, I want to say about six, in the early years of the Biden administration.

And Republicans raised much concern with the Biden administration's approach to sending those judges home after their two-year mark.

But, of course, we have far surpassed that number at this point.

And, in total, about 100 judges have left the bench.

The ones that were not receiving that e-mail, some of them have decided to take the so-called fork in the road.

That's the voluntary resignation program that the Trump administration is using to reduce the size of the federal government.

AMNA NAWAZ: And just clarify for us briefly, who exactly is going to these immigration courts?

And if the judges aren't there, as many judges aren't there, what's the impact on their cases?

XIMENA BUSTILLO: So immigration court is the place where people go to legally seek reasons to not face a final deportation order.

Many of these are going to be asylum-seeking requests.

And so that is one of the many places where immigrants are able to say that they should not be deported because of specific reasons, including seeking asylum.

Without these judges, we see the cases continue to backlog.

There is already a nearly four million case backlog in immigration court, in part because there just are not simply enough judges to move through them quickly enough.

AMNA NAWAZ: Also related to President Trump's broader deportation efforts, you were reporting this week on the Department of Homeland Security preparing to use military bases in New Jersey and Indiana to detain people accused of being here illegally.

How will that work?

And what does this say to you about the relationship between the president's immigration agenda and the use of the military?

XIMENA BUSTILLO: The military has been a huge asset to this administration since the early weeks, when an emergency declaration was declared saying that there is an invasion at the southern border.

And that is what unlocks a lot of resources, particularly from the Pentagon, to a separate agency, the Homeland Security Department.

What occurred last week was the Pentagon approved a new request from the Department of Homeland Security to do two things, open up its access at a National Guard base in Indiana and its access to use an Air Force base in New Jersey to detain migrants.

There are other bases that have been approved for this kind of a request across the country.

So this expands the use of military bases as detention centers, but also to utilize them to facilitate deportations out of the country.

The other thing that they approved was doubling the space at the Guantanamo Bay Naval facility that we have seen this administration also use.

They have generally been able to only put about 200 people there at a time.

That will now increase to 400.

AMNA NAWAZ: Ximena, I want to ask you, six months into President Trump's second term, we have seen the rhetoric when it comes to deportations that they are targeting the worst of the worst.

And there are certainly people who are being detained and deported who have violent criminal histories.

But what do we know about the facts around that in terms of most of the people who are being detained and slated for deportation?

XIMENA BUSTILLO: According to the data that's publicly available by the Department of Homeland Security, about 70 percent of people who are in immigration detention generally have been arrested and are in immigration detention broadly were without criminal convictions.

That is a very clear distinction to make.

And that data also accounts for some of the numbers of the start of the fiscal year, which, of course, were at the end of 2024.

Now, of course, that's still going through a lot of process.

There's a lot of changing numbers and data, but we have seen this administration scale up its ability to increase its arrests across the board.

AMNA NAWAZ: NPR's Ximena Bustillo, thank you so much for joining us.

Appreciate it.

XIMENA BUSTILLO: Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: The birth control pill is one of the most common forms of contraception in the U.S., but in recent years claims of side effects have filled social media platforms, often fueled by influencers promoting misinformation.

Last night, we brought you a story about some of that misinformation and how contraception is being targeted as part of a larger anti-abortion movement.

Tonight, we take a step back to delve into the science behind birth control.

Special correspondent Sarah Varney reports for our series The Next Frontier.

SARAH VARNEY: Hormonal contraception has been around for decades.

In 1960, the FDA first approved the birth control pill and it quickly became a revolutionary invention.

WOMAN: I want the freedom to choose my own lifestyle.

ELAINE TYLER MAY, Author, "America and the Pill": This coincided with the feminist movement, and so very quickly the oral contraceptive became associated with the ability of women to control their own fertility.

SARAH VARNEY: Since the original pill, other types of contraception have been developed, from implants to shots to intrauterine devices, or IUDs, all of which are safe and effective.

But in recent years, with the rise of social media, more and more influencers are posting content that questions their safety.

WOMAN: Here are 14 ways that the contraceptive pill robs us of our health.

SARAH VARNEY: Some people have focused their videos on claims that birth control has affected their mental health.

WOMAN: So the side effects while I was on it were completely terrible, depression, anxiety, panic attacks.

SARAH VARNEY: While others say it's unnatural.

WOMAN: Birth control actually depletes your gut of essential vitamins, minerals and your good gut bacteria.

SARAH VARNEY: There are even videos with unfounded claims that it alters romantic and sexual attraction.

WOMAN: Younger age groups of women, like, they seem to go for girlier, more feminine men.

That is -- there's a reason.

Birth control does that to your brain.

SARAH VARNEY: But these claims are not rooted in science, say experts and scholars.

EVELYN KIELTYKA, Maine Family Planning: You hear these wild things.

Birth control methods are one of the most researched hormones in our health care system.

SARAH VARNEY: So let's take a step back and start with how contraception actually works.

In the U.S., about 25 percent of women between the ages of 15 and 44 who use contraception take the birth control pill.

The pill is available in different combinations of hormones, but they work the same way, by preventing a woman's ovaries from releasing an egg each month.

The pill also thickens her cervical mucus, essentially creating a barrier so that sperm are blocked from entering the uterus.

The hormones in the pill can also thin the uterine lining, making it less likely that a fertilized egg will implant, which is when pregnancy begins.

Accounting for missed or forgotten pills, the birth control pill is about 93 percent effective.

Then, there are IUDs, T-shaped devices inserted in the uterus that prevent fertilization.

The hormonal IUD thickens mucus found in the cervix, and the copper IUD disrupts the sperm's movement.

IUDs are one of the most effective forms of pregnancy prevention, about 99 percent.

They can remain in place for three to 10 years, and like all hormonal birth control, once removed, do not affect a woman's future fertility.

EVELYN KIELTYKA: You will be able to get pregnant.

All methods, when you stop a method, you will return to your fertility just like you have before you started that method.

SARAH VARNEY: Some of the women posting online say they're frustrated that doctors don't believe their complaints, while others share examples of bad reactions they have experienced while on birth control, many of which are exceedingly rare.

WOMAN: Story time on how my birth control almost caused me to lose my eyesight.

That's right, my eyesight.

EMILY PFENDER, University of Pennsylvania: What we find is that personal experiences, crying, talking about a really difficult experience, receive significantly higher engagement on social media in comparison to videos and creators that are not doing those things.

SARAH VARNEY: Mild side effects from birth control do happen, from nausea to bleeding between periods, but they ultimately vary person to person.

And clinicians say it's crucial to speak with your provider about what will work best for you.

EVELYN KIELTYKA: It's a very individualized personal choice.

A lot of times, folks say, I heard this or I heard that.

And I really said, well, let's talk about you, because you're the one taking it.

Your body's unique.

We're all -- and how you might respond to a contraceptive method could be totally different from, say, someone who's told you a story.

SARAH VARNEY: Experts also say there is no definitive evidence that any form of birth control causes depression.

And only one method, a hormonal shot, has been found to cause minor weight gain.

Choosing to stop birth control does not lead to infertility.

But many videos highlight possible side effects with little to no context.

EMILY PFENDER: They pull out the FDA insert from their birth control prescription and jokingly talk about how it's so big that they could use it as a blanket to take a nap.

Very, very rare side effects are being talked about as common side effects.

SARAH VARNEY: The rise of influencers giving advice about hormonal birth control concerns those tracking this content.

CHRIS CHOGLUECK, New Mexico Tech: People are making money off of spreading this information as well, especially.

When these individuals have no medical sort of expertise, when they don't have scientific credentials, it's especially worrisome that they're able to build up any sort of career or any sort of like professional clout, because these individuals very likely shouldn't be trusted.

WOMAN: My new budget-friendly program, the 45-day hormone reset, is now live.

To learn more, you can go here.

SARAH VARNEY: In some cases, creators even preface that they are not anti-birth control, but still broadcast their experiences to hundreds of thousands of followers.

WOMAN: I know it actually works and can help you go from pain to power in just three cycles.

SARAH VARNEY: But misleading claims about health effects aren't the only source of misinformation on hormonal birth control.

(CHANTING) SARAH VARNEY: Over the years, conservative Christian and anti-abortion groups have targeted birth control pills, implants, patches, shots, and Plan B.

That's an emergency contraception that contains a hormone that delays or stops ovulation.

It's most effective at preventing pregnancy up to 72 hours after a missed birth control pill, a condom mishap, or unprotected sex.

One formulation can work up to five days to prevent pregnancy.

Despite that medical consensus, activists have flooded social media, falsely equating emergency contraception with abortion.

WOMAN: It can prevent the implantation of a new human being into the uterine lining, because it causes bleeding.

SARAH VARNEY: This argument stems from outdated labeling on the Plan B packaging, which said that the pill might prevent implantation of a fertilized egg.

But, in reality: EVELYN KIELTYKA: By suppressing ovulation, there's simply no egg to be implanted.

It's been well-studied.

If you already are pregnant and you take emergency contraception, it will not dislodge that implantation.

You are pregnant, hard stop.

No amount of E.C.

is going to disrupt that.

SARAH VARNEY: Experts who monitor contraception misinformation worry the endless TikTok's and Instagram posts are convincing people to avoid it altogether.

And they're concerned it will stifle scientific research aimed at improving birth control for everyone.

WOMAN: All the birth control is poison.

Why are they so quick to want to put you on birth control, but they don't even teach you where your womb is?

CHRIS CHOGLUECK: I think the existence of these side effects isn't evidence that these contraceptives aren't safe, but they might be evidence that we want to develop even safer means of contraception for everybody.

SARAH VARNEY: For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Sarah Varney.

AMNA NAWAZ: It's been quite a few months for 40-year-old writer Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, with his play "Purpose" winning both the Pulitzer Prize for drama and Tony Award for best play.

Senior arts correspondent Jeffrey Brown talked with him recently at Broadway's Hayes Theater for our arts and culture series, Canvas.

ACTRESS: Somebody hurry up and bless this food.

JEFFREY BROWN: A dinner with the Jasper family.

ACTOR: Heavenly father.

JEFFREY BROWN: It brings out a few issues.

ACTOR: I don't know why I thought.

Go ahead.

Go ahead.

JEFFREY BROWN: Some minor tensions.

ACTOR: No, son, why don't you go on ahead?

You are, apparently, the guest of honor.

ACTOR: No, father, that was just me on autopilot.

You are the head of this family.

(LAUGHTER) ACTOR: Buckle up.

JEFFREY BROWN: Now the play "Purpose" is bringing Branden Jacobs-Jenkins some major honors.

BRANDEN JACOBS-JENKINS, Playwright: It's very surreal, though, because I turn around and it's my name and then Pulitzer Prize for drama.

It's just ridiculous.

JEFFREY BROWN: But it's real.

BRANDEN JACOBS-JENKINS: It's real.

No, it's happening.

It's here all the time.

Even when I'm not here, this is here, apparently.

I'm someone who have always loved the theater.

I have been going to theaters since I was single digits.

And it's been the source of so much revelation and warmth and comfort and learning in my life.

And all I really want to do is honor the theater's power to do that.

JEFFREY BROWN: "Purpose" was originally commissioned by and performed at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre, renowned for its ensemble acting, much on display here.

ACTRESS: I'm going to need you to give me what I want.

JEFFREY BROWN: And it's directed by famed actress Phylicia Rashad, making her Broadway directing debut.

It introduces us to a prominent Black family led by a now aging civil rights icon whose time has passed and whose disappointment in his two sons is openly shown.

But there's plenty of anger and hypocrisy to go around, as well as a fierce love, with each family member experiencing a crisis of purpose.

BRANDEN JACOBS-JENKINS: I like to think about what it would mean to have a crisis of purpose.

What does that feel like for people?

Would it force you to do or be or act in some way that was outside of yourself?

JEFFREY BROWN: What do you mean you like to think about that?

Because that gives you a way into characters.

BRANDEN JACOBS-JENKINS: Yes, totally.

I mean, yes, I mean, all you're doing, I think, is trying to build people, build these illusions of people that actors will inhabit and you want to build them with as much specificity and kind of novelty as you can.

JEFFREY BROWN: Jacobs-Jenkins' plays often explore American identity through a lens of race, family and history.

"Appropriate" about a dysfunctional white family facing secrets of its racist past won three Tonys last year.

"Purpose" takes the classic theme of theater going back to Greek tragedy, the powerful family torn apart, and sets it in our world.

BRANDEN JACOBS-JENKINS: I was interested in kind of picking that thread up in this contemporary moment, because, historically, you don't see a lot of representation of Black folks in those spaces ever.

I think there's a really strong tradition of looking at the working class, looking at the - - August Wilson did a whole encyclopedia of this for us in the 20th century, Lorraine Hansberry.

And I just felt like there was something worth exploring about the rest of that forest.

JEFFREY BROWN: But that forest is one very funny place.

Actress Kara Young also won a Tony for her performance as Aziza, an outsider her with her own secret, here just realizing whose home she's in.

KARA YOUNG, Actress: You said your daddy was some sort of reverend, but not like this kind of reverend, not like a I organized marches reverend, not like I used to kick it with Rosa Parks reverend, not like an MLK shrine in the living room reverend.

KARA YOUNG: And did his son go to jail?

Wait, that's your brother?

Wait.

Oh, my God.

Oh, my God.

BRANDEN JACOBS-JENKINS: The power of any sort of storytelling is about giving people the widest experience of emotions possible in a very contained moment.

So I do recognize it's very funny.

I like that it's funny.

I like an audience laughing because I think it's an audience telling you they're listening.

They feel connected and they open up.

But also I do think it's about those swerves into -- that's just to me the experience of life is the laughter and the pain.

And if you can kind of capture that for an audience, you bring them very close to an idea of what life is.

ACTOR: Aziza here is a friend of Nazareth's.

ACTRESS: Is that so?

ACTOR: A special friend.

JEFFREY BROWN: And then there's that dinner scene, which starts innocently, but where all the family secrets eventually come spinning out of control.

ACTRESS: Well welcome, Aziza.

Beware.

JEFFREY BROWN: What is it about the dinner table?

BRANDEN JACOBS-JENKINS: Totally.

I mean, it's a really -- I thought a lot about this, because, yes, that dinner table scene does seem to be like a thing, which I love.

I wonder if it's because everybody has the same need.

JEFFREY BROWN: What, like to eat or to drink?

BRANDEN JACOBS-JENKINS: Yes, we're all hungry.

So, it's like you're all you're all at the table because you're hungry and that's why you stay at the table.

So much drama is like, why do they stay in the room?

Why do they stay in this fight?

A dinner table is pretty functional.

Everyone's kind of hungry.

And that's enough.

JEFFREY BROWN: It's a family story, but also a larger American story.

Jacobs-Jenkins says he wanted the grounding of the civil rights movement and its achievements in order to raise questions about attempts to roll them back, where we are now and how we got here.

That, he says, is part of his purpose.

BRANDEN JACOBS-JENKINS: I really do see myself in the tradition of playwrights, which is someone who volunteered to hold a mirror up to the audience that came up to see it and gave people a space in which to exercise their emotional life, to kind of hear and debate and can feel their values, the social values.

JEFFREY BROWN: "Purpose" runs through August 31.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Jeffrey Brown on Broadway.

GEOFF BENNETT: And that is the "News Hour" for tonight.

I'm Geoff Bennett.

AMNA NAWAZ: And I'm Amna Nawaz.

On behalf of the entire "News Hour" team, thank you for joining us.