william: good evening. i'm william brangham. amna nawaz and geoff bennett are away. on the “newshour” tonight, hamas and israel trade ceasefire claims, as israel launches a targeted operation in parts of rafah, and demands tens of thousands leave the crowded city.

then, new witnesses in donald trump's hush money trial in new york detail the payments at the very heart of the case. and basketball star brittney griner opens up about her arrest and imprisonment in russia. >> it was really hard not being able to play, not knowing what was to come, if i would ever pick up a basketball professionally again. it was devastating to me to think about. ♪ >> major funding for the "pbs newshour" has been provided by. the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions, and friends of the "newshour," including leonard and norma klorfine, and the judy and peter blum kovler foundation.

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foundation, for more than 50 years advancing ideas and supporting instituations to promote a better world. at hewlett.org. and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. william: it is a delicate and momentous moment in the middle east. the israeli military tonight says it has launched a new operation into parts of rafah in southern gaza.

at the same time, the israeli government says it's continuing negotiations to reach a ceasefire in its war on hamas, in exchange for the release of israeli hostages. it has been a day with fast moving, competing headlines, and painfully nick schifrin is here -- thankfully, nick schifrin is here to break it all down. nick: the headline tonight is negotiations continue but what got us here is not a straight line. late last week mediators offered hamas with the u.s. called a quote extraordinary generous a quote extraordinary generous proposal approved by israel. that would be a period of calm for 40 days. hamas would release 43 hostages, israel would release some 700 palestinian detainees. and after those releases, gazans would have freedom of movement within gaza and the sides would discuss a permanent cease-fire and withdrawal of troops from gaza. earlier today hamas released a statement of its quote, approval

of an magician and qatari proposal. israeli officials quickly told me that hamas had not approved anything, or what it had approved was not the deal on the table. the reality is somewhere in the middle. u.s. officials confirm that hamas responded to the proposal, did not accept anything. at the same time their response is being called positive by regional officials i spoke to. we don't have the exact details of how hamas asking for the proposal to be changed. we know the israeli war cabinet released a statement about what hamas said today and that statement is quote, although the hamas proposal is far from israel's position, israel will send a delegation of working level mediators to exhaust the possibility of reaching an agreement under conditions acceptable to israel. so, i israel has neither accepted nor denied hamas's proposal today, and so the negotiations continue. william: meanwhile, israel has always been talking about going into rafah.

what is the latest on that? nick: the war cabinet also said it would continue military operations in rafah to quote, exert military pressure on hamas . there's early reports that israeli ground troops including tanks have crossed from israel towards rafah. israeli officials tell me this is a quote, targeted operation designed to keep the negotiations pressure on hamas. this is not the rafah operation that you and i and u.s. officials and israeli officials have been talking about that israel says is required to kill the last four battalions of hamas, and about a few thousand fighters that are part of that. the u.s. continues to reject that idea for a rafah operation, as john kirby said today. >> we've been very clear that we don't support a major ground operation in rafah, operations in general that put at greater risk the more than a million people that are sheltering there. nick: asked if israel had

presented the administration a comprehensive plan to evacuate so many people from rafah and assault the city, kirby had a one-word answer. no. william: meanwhile, the fate of this hostage deal seems intertwined with what could or could not unfold in rafah. why is this such a delicate moment? nick: on the diplomatic front it is critical because he was officials say cease-fire, and therefore no rafah operation, would unlock some regional goals they have including saudi normalization. today saudi arabia release date -- released a pointed statement saying any operation in rafah would -- a rafah operation could also lead the u.s. to impose restrictions on weapons to israel. on the humanitarian front, u.s. officials say any operation in rafah would make it impossible to deliver enough aid to more than one million people who are taking shelter there, many of whom have been displaced multiple times.

this morning they evacuated with everything they could carry, after the israeli army dropped leaflets from the sky urging 100,000 gazans in eastern rafah to flee to al mawasi, already a tent city. >> if the offensive is to happen, you know, it's going to be catastrophic. nick: moses kondowe is the gaza team lead of international humanitarian organization project hope. he spoke to us last week from rafah. of 1.2 million displaced in the city, half are kids. and 1 in 5 children are malnourished. >> i see people who are in fear. what i see, especially in the morning, long, winding queues where people will be jostling to, you know, to get the limited available water. nick: the u.n. says in northern gaza, famine is imminent. but this weekend, world food program executive director cindy mccain went further. >> there is famine, full-blown

famine, in the north, and it's moving its way south. nick: today prime minister benjamin netanyahu agreed to a request from president biden to open a key crossing in southern israel which was temporarily closed this weekend because hamas attacked the crossing, disrupting aid into gaza. but u.s. officials say that will reopen basically tonight or tomorrow. william: nick schifrin, thank you so much. we turn now to aaron david miller. he's a senior fellow at the carnegie endowment for international peace, and someone who's played a key role in u.s.-middle east policy for multiple american presidents. great to have you back. what do you make of what transpired? you heard what has been reported, hamas saying yes, we agreed to the deal, israel saying we are not sure what you agreed to. how do you see this? aaron: we went from the top of the mountain briefly to the valley below in about three

hours. my take is very simple. neither side is in a hurry to reach an agreement, but both want to blame the other for restricting them. i think that is what you are seeing play out right now. hamas's proposal, the one they agreed to, is at least 1 the wall street journal is reporting that had terms israel would not accept. and the prime minister is under no pressure -- and frankly, his coalition would be more stable if he did not risk hamas for prisoner exchange. and he is juggling balls, as he usually does. the rafah operation, or some limited operation may or may not go forward in the days and weeks ahead. he is also saying he will send a delegation to continue negotiations on a proposal he is not prepared to accept. and hamas will continue to play this game as well. they do not want to trade any

hostages for anything other than a comprehensive deal which leads to a permanent cease-fire, the withdrawal of israeli forces from gaza, and i suspect the leader ensconced in some tunnel below ground, or maybe even inside surrounded by hostages, plans to survive this and lead hamas in the post-conflict period and play a major role in what transpires in gaza? so, to reach a deal, parties have to be in a hurry. and the only party, understandably to be sure, that is in a hurry is the biden administration. william: the conditions that you are describing are things that no israeli president, let alone bibi netanyahu, could say yes to. aaron: i think that is right. the real question is, is there

any pressure that could be exerted on either party to bring them around to some middle position, which tries to square the circle of conflicting demands and political necessities that both hamas and the netanyahu government and war cabinet are operating under. right now this is the seventh month of the war this week. i don't see any lever right now that could be pulled that could free hostages, deescalate israeli military activity, and surge humanitarian assistance into gaza. that is the real tragedy here. i see no way out of this right now. i wouldescribe it to you as a strategic cul-de-sac with no way out right now. william: given everything you are describing, we know the biden administration has been trying, somewhat fruitlessly, to pressure the israelis on this front. what would you be counseling

them to do? what can they do to move that needle in any way? aaron: all politics is local. tip o'neill was right. i had to keep reminding myself of this every single day since october 7. since october 7 the trajectory of this conflict, the escalation, the de-escalation, the ambitions, the motives, how it is ultimately going to end has basically been dominated by the two noncombatants. this conflict has shown us the limits of great powers capacities to alter the trajectories of two parties who believe they are in an existential conflict. and right now the secretary of state is facing a very important decision this week. he has got to certify that the assurances the you -- the israelis have provided that they

are abiding by international humanitarian law and not obstructing humanitarian assistance into gaza, that the assurances israelis have provided our credible and reliable. there are a lot of people who do not believe that, including many in the democratic party including mainstream democratic senators. what the secretary of state is going to decide is unclear. but that is a potential lever. but even if you pulled that the question is whether or not that is going to change the trajectory of the netanyahu government and i don't think so. william: aaron david miller of the carnegie endowment, thank you so much for being here. aaron: thanks for having me. ♪ william: in the day's other headlines, russia announced drills to simulate the use of battlefield nuclear weapons in its war with ukraine.

it followed french talk of sending its own troops to ukraine, and the uk's approval of ukraine using british weapons to strike inside russia. a kremlin statement on the war games said, we hope that this event will cool down the hotheads in western capitals. but in paris, european union leader ursula von der leyen met with chinese president xi jinping and french president emmanuel macron, and said she hopes china will intervene. >> president xi has played an important role in de-escalating russia's irresponsible nuclear threats, and i'm confident that president xi will continue to do so against the backdrop of the ongoing nuclear threats by russia. william: moscow also called in the british and french ambassadors today and warned them against provocative statements. the u.s. army confirms tonight that an american soldier has been arrested in the russian far east. officials say the unidentified soldier was supposed to be

headed home from deployment in south korea, but was detained thursday in vladivostok, accused of theft. the army has not said whether the service member was considered awol, absent without leave. authorities in southern brazil now say at least 83 people have died following days of heavy rains and flooding, with more than 100 people still missing. the downpours hit the state of rio grande du sol, triggering landslides, road closures, and widespread power blackouts. entire neighborhoods in the city of canoas are under water, with many houses almost completely submerged. some people have resorted to driving power boats through the streets. back in this country, heavy rain across southeastern texas began to taper off, but catastrophic flooding left widespread disruption and closed some schools. people in harris county, around houston, have begun surveying damage and cleaning up. officials today said they'd been fortunate to escape with no fatalities.

>> that happens of course because of our first responders, but also because of individuals in the community who heeded our warnings and who took responsible steps in evacuating themselves and their families. william: one death was reported in johnson county, texas, a four-year-old boy was killed when flood waters swept away the car he was in. boeing's first manned space flight, on its starliner capsule, is set for launch later tonight, heading to the international space station. the craft is set to lift off from kennedy space center in florida, with two astronauts on board. they'll return to earth after a week. a successful flight could help boeing begin catching up to rival space-x. the pulitzer prizes for 2023 have been announced. they include the public service award to pro-publica, for reporting on billionaires giving gifts and travel to u.s. supreme court justices. the associated press won the feature photography prize.

its work chronicled migrants traveling from as far as colombia, to the u.s. southern border. the prize for fiction went to "night watch" by jayne anne phillips, a novel set in west virginia, after the civil war. and on wall street, stocks added to last week's gains on some fresh corporate earnings reports. the dow jones industrial average gained 176 points to close at 38,852. the nasdaq rose 193 points. the s&p 500 added 53. still to come on the "newshour," as more colleges cancel graduation ceremonies, a look at how universities are handling campus protests. a new study finds hormone replacement therapy is safe and effective. and tamara keith and amy walter break down the latest political headlines. >> this is the "pbs newshour" from weta studios in washington and in the west from the walter

cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. william: on the stand today in new york city were two former employees of the trump organization. they were involved in the payments that are at the center of the charges filed against the former president in his hush money trial. jeffrey mcconney and deborah tarasoff helped reimburse mr. trump's former attorney, michael cohen, for the payments cohen made to adult film actress stormy daniels during the final days of the 2016 campaign. the former president also received another fine and a tough warning from the judge in this case, who again said if trump continues to violate the court's gag order, he could face jail time. ximena bustillo is covering the trial for npr, and joins us now. so nice to see you again. today we heard from these two former financial officers of the trump organization who were part

of paying and accounting of these payments to michael cohen. what did we learn today from their testimony? ximena: the former and current employees of the trump organization detailed step-by-step the process for reviewing vouchers, invoices, and ultimately cutting checks at the trump organization. we looked at almost all, if not all of the 34 business records the prosecution is alleging that the trump organization and tmp himself falsified in order to hide the actual reason why he was issuing these payments to then-trump lawyer and fixer michael cohen. they really went through the process of how the check gets cut, how it got signed by trump himself, and that was a very lengthy process we went through with both of them. william: we have heard previous testimony that donald trump was aware of payments that were made directly to women to keep their stories quiet.

did we get any closer to understanding what trump did or did not know about these alleged repayments of some of that money to michael cohen? ximena: today we did learn that trump himself was responsible for signing these checks. the defense is still trying to create distance between trump and the actual reason the checks were cashed to michael cohen when in the first place come asking the witnesses whether or not they got direct direction from trump to issue these pay stubs some of them said no, that came from other direction. and also saying getting these kind of directions was not necessarily out of the ordinary. we are still connecting the dots in terms of how much trump new come at one point he was involved, and what direction and strings he were pulling. those are still questions the prosecution these to fully answer. william: separately this day began with the judge finding that donald trump had again violated the gag order and fined

him another $1000, and said next time if you violate this again, i could potentially sends you to jail. i take it trump also said in between court he would welcome something like that. he would be honored, or something, to go to jail. what had trump done that set him off? ximena: last week the prosecution took issue with four statements trump had made a few weeks ago and ultimately the judge issued a violation on one of the statements and that was the statement trump had made in an interview where he accused the jury of being quote, 95% democrat. the judge himself said the statement was concerning to him and any inference or character judgment on the jury. judge marchand is very protective of this jury. they are supposed to be anonymous and he has taken a lot of steps to make sure they are safe and protected from any intimidation or threats.

judge marchand has also said $1000 is the max penalty that can be issued per violation. last week we also saw a different set of gag order violations totaling $9,000 per it this time it was only $1000. judge merchan said he is aware that for someone like donald trump and who is wealthy the fine might not be enough to deter future violations or future breaking of the gag order. so that is where the punishment and threat of jail time comes into play and that is something the judge threatened before. but this morning he was very pointed. he did not even really talk about the order on the stand and instead took his time to tell former president donald trump that if he were to violate this order again or continue to do so he will take the necessary steps and maybe even resource to jail. william: ximena bustillo of npr, thank you so much.

ximena: thank you. ♪ william: as the school year nears its end, there are still many protests about gaza on campuses nationwide. while many are peaceful, tensions on campuses remain. columbia university today cancelled its main graduation ceremony, saying it'll hold individual ones instead for each school. this week, we'll continue to hear a range of opinions on these protests, on free speech, and on concerns over student safety. today, lisa desjardins looks at how schools have viewed protests in the past, and how they're approaching them now. lisa: william, some universities have explicitly promoted their own history with nonviolent protest in recent years. but as colleges are grappling with the balance of free speech, civil disobedience and concerns over student safety, there's been a wave of arrests and a crackdown on many campuses.

we've heard some college officials argue these measures are necessary and overdue, while protesters and some faculty say it's been too harsh in some cases. tyler austin harper wrote about this for the atlantic. he's an assistant professor of environmental studies at bates college and joins me now. you are looking squarely at universities and arguing that their own rhetoric is part of this. and you wrote that quote, the same colleges that appeal to students by promoting opportunities for engagement and activism are now suspending them. and they're calling the cops. what do you mean by hypocrisy here? tyler: yeah, so a lot of the universities that we have seen, um, have especially draconian measures with student protesters either suspending them or, in some cases, calling the police, are often the same universities that like to champion their history of past protests. so, cornell, columbia, emory, for example, all the way to brag about their history of radical student activism in the vietnam

war era. cornell actively celebrates an armetakeover of a campus building in 1969. they did a year's worth of programming for it in the 50th anniversary. likewise, columbia celebrates its student protests from 1968, which involved the takeover of a campus building that was recently taken over by protesters again. and yet now they, you know, after bragging about this history, they want to crack down on contemporary protesters at this very moment, which seems to me deeply hypocritical. lisa: another example i know you highlighted this weekend was at the university of virginia even as police were moving in on protesters, the university was holding a symposium of its own massive resistance in the past. how do you know you're not cherry picking these specific examples from these universities? when you talk to student and faculties there, do they say that this was part of their motivation for going to campus?

tyler: oh, yeah, absolutely. i talked to a number of current faculty students, incoming students, and really across the board from incoming to current undergrads to graduate students, and places like cornell and colombia. they said, this part of the brand, this is part of of why i came here. one person i talked to a faculty member, um, in the wake of the nypd arrest at columbia actually asked his students. you know is is this something that attracted you to this campus, and he told me that overwhelmingly, his students in class said, you know, they think protest is part of colombia's brand, and they actively market it to them. i would also point out that at a series of recent admitted student day events. the the university has been communicating with students by saying, you know, you might see protests on campus, but you should understand this as part of our proud legacy of student activism. so even after the nypd is called columbia is still boasting about its, you know, legacy of protest incoming students. this is a sentiment that i really heard across the board and that you can also see and how how the university communicates.

lisa: you're talking about a hypocrisy you see here, but at the same time we know on some campuses, there has been evidence of real anti-semitism. other universities are saying they are nervous that there could be some, even if there isn't evidence. how do you draw the line, when should universities draw a line and actually step up against protests? tyler: yeah, you know, i think it's a complicated question on that relates in part to the first amendment. there's definitely language being used that i find, you know, inappropriate. and then there's definitely some language being used that is plainly anti-semitic. i think it's relatively part of the fringe of these protests rather than the center of it. but the unfortunate reality or the you know, whatever your perspective is. the reality is that the first amendment protects hateful speech. and the relevant question is to whether or not the universities -- if they've they've moved themselves out of the territory of protected speech by breaking the law. and that's a complicated question. one thing that first amendment

experts i spoke to reiterated time and again is that where the university seem to be running afoul is rather than targeting specific protesters who might be engaging in kinds of speech that is not protected, just removing those students, they're doing broad crackdowns on these protests, so they're infringing on the rights of some students who are engaged in lawful speech that is protected by the first amendment, and these universities are curtailing their speech rights on the grounds that a smaller subset of students might be breaking the rules in some way. lisa: you seem to be saying here, universities have told students and actually have benefited from this idea that we advocate for protests. we advocate for activism. yet here they are, as you see it, repressing that kind of activism. conservatives for a long time have said universities have lost their way into a land of liberal nonsense that's misguided. is this an area where someone like you on the left might agree with conservatives that universities are losing their mooring?

tyler: yeah, i agree with part of what conservatives are saying. conservatives are saying that universities have become too political and administrations have become too political. i think that's correct. i think universities like the university of chicago, which have stricter regulations around you know, university speech political speech from university administrators. they've hand handled recent events a bit better and whether the storm better where i think conservatives get things wrong is by arguing that universities are hotbeds of, you know, far left indoctrination. and if you look at many of the universities like princeton, penn, columbia, et cetera, that are at the center of these events, those are universities that overwhelmingly are sending people to big tech jobs, to finance, to consulting, et cetera. so if these are places that are trying to indoctrinate far left marxists, they're doing a very bad job. but i do think conservatives are onto something with the the question about the politicalization of universities. i think they're they're right in that limited sense. lisa: tyler austin harper. it is a complicated conversation, and we thank you for joining us for it. tyler: absolutely. thank you so much for having me. ♪

william: two years after she was first detained in russia, brittney griner is sharing new details about her time in prison and the fight to free her. it is all in her new book, "comi ng home," out tomorrow. amna nawaz recently caught up with griner for a rare tv interview. amna: for basketball superstar brittney griner, better known as bg, the court has always been a safe space. brittney: even walking in, the smell of the of the floor and the hardwood, it was just -- it just felt natural. it felt home. it felt like the beginning of basketball for me. amna: born and raised in houston, texas, griner was a breakout star at baylor university.

dunking her way to fame, and a pro career with the phoenix mercury, six wnba all-star appearances, and two olympic gold medals. but for griner, standing tall at 6'8", meant standing out. you talk so openly, so honestly in your book about what it took to get you comfortable in your own skin. you wrote, when you're born in a body like mine, a part of you dies every day. with every mean comment and lingering stare. you're the biggest person in the room. but you're also the loneliest. did basketball help with that? brittney: basketball definitely helped. it gave me a purpose. it gave me an outlet too. when i'm frustrated, it gave me somewhere to go and channel that energy in a positive way. and it gave me camaraderie as well. like, my teammates, my coaches. that sense of feeling wanted from the fans. all that helped me.

once i started playing basketball, it just it really changed my life. amna: basketball took her overseas, like many women players, for a second job during the wnba off-season. since 2014, griner played for european powerhouse team ummc ekaterinburg in russia. you really loved playing in russia. tell me why. brittney: i did. i mean one, the pay gap is, it's pretty big, you know, from here to overseas and, you know, just feeling value like that meant a lot to me. and then just how they treated us, our safety, the way we flew, where we stayed at, i mean, we stayed at the best, best hotels. we flew on private jets and we really felt like professional athletes. amna: how different was that to how you were treated here in the states? brittney: definitely different. you know, you might catch me on united or southwest or delta flight. maybe middle row. it just depends.

i was definitely overseas because that's where i was able to make a living from my family. >> the state department says it is aware of an american citizen in moscow. amna: everything changed in 2022. on february 17, as she returned to russia to re-join her team, griner was detained at sheremetyevo airport outside of moscow when vape cartridges with less than a gram of hashish oil, illegal in russia, were found in her luggage. griner has a prescription for medical marijuana in the u.s. but forgot to remove the cartridges while packing in a rush. amna: you almost didn't make that flight. you were running late. you lost your phone. you got held up. missed your connection. does any part of you look back on that day now and think, gosh, if only i'd done x? if only i'd done y? brittney: every single part. every single part of it.

amna: has that guilt gone away? brittney: i think it's always going to be there a little bit. and that's just my character. that's who i am. amna: why? brittney: it's on me. as much as everything was an accident and not intended, it's on me. it was my fault. there was so many signs. and i really wanted to stay back, honestly. but my dad, if you finish what you start, and we were right in -- we were basically going to win the russian league as well, like we have in the past for many years. so i wanted to finish that chapter completely. amna: instead a new surreal chapter in her life began. detention in russian prison. her face and story splashed across international headlines. and robbed of the one safe space she'd always had. when you weren't able to play, what did that feel like? brittney: that was hard.

it was really hard not being able to play, not knowing what was to come, if i would ever pick up a basketball professionally again. it was devastating to me to think about. >> bg took the time to write president biden. amna: back home, her devastated wife, cherelle, led the charge to free bg. working with her teammates, her agent, lindsay kagawa coles, and an army rallying behind the "we are bg" hashtag. you write that the campaign had to make me visible in a world where black women are often ignored or demeaned, had to make me relatable. yes, i'm black, gay, a female baller. but when people saw my face and heard my story, we needed them to say, hey, she's me. were you worried about being able to do that? brittney: definitely. i mean, in a world where you judge by just appearance and or maybe what a certain group has

done or someone has wronged them so they condemn everyone that looks like them. i was definitely worried. i was definitely worried about the public opinion and how people would react. amna: griner, meanwhile, could do nothing but wait and survive. brittney: it makes you not want to fight. it makes you kind of give up hope. i mean, you're already like, i'm sitting in court and i'm trying to plead, but i'm already locked up. i'm already in a cage. i talked about being feeling like a zoo animal, you know, especially how the guards would come and just open the little peep hole to see me. and i hear the snickering going down the hallway. i was a spectacle. amna: the feeling of feeling like they're all watching you, like you are a spectacle, was that something you'd ever felt before? brittney: definitely. growing up, i definitely felt like a spectacle. i remember in junior high, you know, the girls coming up to me and literally talking to somebody else, touch my chest and say, oh, see, she's not really a real girl. she has no chest. like, listen to her voice. so i've always been that

spectacle of pointing and looking at. it was already a depressing and challenging time, and it just made it even worse. amna: you were detained on february 17. it was on february 24 that russia invaded ukraine. do you believe that you were being held as a bargaining chip? brittney: 100%. there's no doubt in my mind that once they knew who i was and they had me, i'm your value target. i am your bargaining chip. i didn't feel like i was human anymore. like i didn't feel like my life was mine. it was in someone else's hands. it was in other people's hands. it's a feeling that i never want to feel ever again. amna: where do you go in your head in those moments? what do you tell yourself? what do you do? brittney: i did a lot of gazing out of the windows to the point where i could, like, make the bars disappear and i would just see land. because that's my sanctuary. i love being in nature. once i got to the penal colony to go outside, whoa.

right outside the cell, walking to the workstation, just admiring the distance behind the walls, behind everything. did a lot of looking up at the birds. amna: what did you think when you saw those birds outside the cell? brittney: it must be nice to be able to fly away. william: a russian court eventually sentenced griner to nine years in prison. in part two of our interview tomorrow, she shares the grueling conditions inside a notorious russian labor camp, the moment she'll never forget once she was freed, and what life ahead looks like for her and her wife, cherelle. that's part two of amna's conversation with brittney griner, tomorrow night on the "newshour." ♪ menopause can be a long, brutal, and sometimes debilitating

condition for many women. and according to a new analysis published in the medical journal jama, it's time to reconsider hormone therapy as an important treatment. stephanie sy has our look. stephanie: women in the throes of menopause know the transition is anything but fun. the symptoms can include hot flashes, irritability, migraines, and changes in sexual desire and function. hormone replacement therapy has ebbed and flowed in its popularity over three decades, with a mixed picture of its risks and benefits. this new review of long-running data suggests that for women in early menopause, the benefits of hormone replacement therapy do outweigh the risks. for a closer look at the evidence, i'm joined by dr. lauren streicher. she's a clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at northwestern university's feinberg school of medicine. dr., thank you so much for joining us. in the early 2000's, there was a

lot of fear that started to emerge around hormone replacement therapy's correlation with breast cancer and other diseases. can you put into context how disruptive those findings were for womens' health and how this new study fits in to our understanding of safety today? dr. streicher: what happened 22 years ago when the whi was first released was a huge deal because it was terrifying for the millions of women who had been taking hormone therapy thinking not only would relieve their menopause symptoms but that it might also help in terms of prevention of chronic diseases. and with done -- and within one day people were flushing their home own therapy down the toilet out of fear this hormone therapy that had been recommended by their doctors was going to give them breast cancer, heart disease, blood clots, and this completely change the trajectory of not only women's attitudes about hormone therapy, but doctor's attitudes. just to be clear, this is not a new study.

this is not new data. this is a new statement about old data from a study which quite frankly it was poorly designed from the get go, using hormone therapy that is no longer even prescribed most experts. stephanie: to be clear, the whi is the women's health initiative. this is a large sample of women you are talking about and this new analysis looks at this old data. so let's break this down. when does a woman know when she may benefit from hormone replacement therapy and when might it not be a good idea? dr. streicher: that is actually a complicated question. we are really looking at two groups of symptoms. we are looking at the short-term issues. the hot flashes, brain fog, moodiness, insomnia. we are also looking at big picture, long-term issues. not only prevention of chronic diseases such as heart disease which is the number one thing that kills women, but things like different cancers,

cognitive function down the road, joint pain, sexual function. in terms of which woman would benefit, clearly the group that is going to benefit at the onset of menopause are the women who are having these severe symptoms, particularly hot flashes and insomnia. and there is this idea that hot flashes are not harmful. carry fan, you will get through it. first of all we know they last an average of seven to 10 years and hot flashes are correlated with heart disease and other serious long-term medical issues. so, clearly women that are having these symptoms early in menopause are candidates for hormone therapy. but the bigger question is what about the long-term? and when we look at bone health specifically this is a big deal. women die from osteoporosis and so they may not have any symptoms of bone loss during menopause.

but they are starting to lose bone. and we know from this whi data that women who start their home own therapy in that golden period of time between 50 and 60 have a 33% decreased risk of fracture. but the minute they go off of hormone therapy they start to lose bone again. so we are not just talking about short-term hormone therapy. we are talking about long-term hormone therapy, quite frankly, lifelong hormone therapy, to prevent those kind of long-term problems which cause women to not only have a significant decrease in quality of life, but also length of life. stephanie: what about women that do need to be concerned about any potential risks with this therapy? i am thinking of specifically breast cancer survivors. dr. streicher: there are two groups of women when we are talking about breast cancer specifically. there are women concerned about getting breast cancer, and then there are the women who already have a breast cancer diagnosis.

so let's first talk about women who are concerned about getting breast cancer. what we know -- and this is not controversial, not only from whi data but many subsequent studies, is that women who take estrogen alone have a decrease, a decrease, a 20% decrease in getting breast cancer. we also know that women who have breast cancer who are taking hormone therapy at the time they are taking breast cancer have a 40% decreased risk of dying from breast cancer. so, estrogen is protective. and this is the message that is not getting out, both from women talking to other women, but also really problematically, by clinicians. phoenicians are not advising patients to take hormone therapy, they are not comfortable with it. most physicians frankly were not trained in hormone therapy because they trained after the whi.

stephanie: dr. lauren streicher, a continuing conversation we will have to have. from northwestern university, thank you so much. dr. streicher: thank you. ♪ william: it's already shaping up to be a busy political week as republicans navigate the fallout from controversial remarks made by former president trump at a fundraising dinner over the weekend. meanwhile, six months out from the election, president biden continues to deal with a jaded electorate as he wrestles with the political ramifications of the war in gaza. following this all closely is our politics monday duo, amy walter of the cook political report with amy walter, and tamara keith of npr. so nice to see you both. happy monday. six months out, as i just mentioned, from this election. this weekend, donald trump was at this campaign event and he

made these comments where he basically equated the biden white house with the nazis, saying that they are running a quote, gestapo administration. this is obviously just the latest in a long history of trump saying things like this. but one of his fellow republicans, one who is vying to be the number two on the trump ticket, north dakota governor doug burgum of, came out and defended john ultram. -- defended trump. >> the majority of americans feel like the trial that he's in right now is politically motivated. and if it was anybody else, this trial wouldn't even be happening. so i understand that he feels like that he's being unfairly treated. william: feeling like the trial is unfair is equivalent to being part of the nazi secret police? >> first let's talk about the majority of americans, as the governor said, feel that this is unfair. which according to the most recent poll, that is not true. 54% thought it's fair.

now, 46% think it is unfair, so there are a lot of people who think the way the north dakota governor does. but if we think that this candidate trump or a trump 2.0 president is going to look any different than the candidate we have known from 2016, or the person who was president for four years, you are going to be sorely mistaken. this is the reality. this is just who donald trump is, how he is going to operate, how he is going to speak and behave. what we are seeing again as well, doug burgum reportedly on the shortlist to be a vice presidential candidate is that loyalty to donald trump is always important in a trump 2.0. it will be very top priority in picking who is around him. and so will talked about what are the constraints or restraints or guardrails around a truck presidency for things he

says or does,, who will rein him in and stand up and say no in the way that vice president mike pence did. these folks are not saying -- i am pretty good with the way that trump is going to operate. tamara: right now we are in the audition phase of the vice presidential pick contest. or, like an episode of the bachelor or something. they have this event in palm beach, they brought all of these potential vice presidential picks in, and then many of them went out on the sunday shows and what they had to do was show their loyalty to former president trump as amy said, he does not want another vice president who will be loyal to him only up until when it matters and when the constitution is on the line. he wants someone who will go out there and tie themselves in knots, like senator tim scott

did on meet the press, tie themselves in knots to stick with trump's reality, even if it is not true. william: let's take a look at what tim scott had to say, because he was asked if you will accept the election results regardless of who wins. >> senator, do you commit to accepting the election results of 2024, bottom line? >> at the end of the day, the 47th president united states will president donald trump, and i'm excited to get back to low inflation, low unemployment. >> senator, yes or no, yes or no, will you accept the election results of 2024 no matter who wins? >> that is my statement. william: she went back and forth on this multiple times. >> this is relevant because former president trump is still dying the -- is still denying the results of the last election. he is saying i won, when he did not.

so it is entirely relevant whether you will accept the results of the 2024 election. he also said in that time interview that came out last week that he does not think there will be violence or any issues as long as the election is fair. but at the same time he is saying the last election, which was fair, was not. william: fair meaning, "i won." amy, biden has polling showing not great news for his campaign. a majority of the u.s. adult, 54% disapprove of biden's performance. that is a 3% jump since march. that is within the margin of error but it is his worst rating since 2019. how panicked should that campaign be? amy: he is deeply unpopular, but he is not that much more unpopular than donald trump is. and the poll you are citing, donald trump's overall approval

rating is 42%, the president being at 40%. where we sit right now is really fascinating. it feels like this campaign has been going on for about 100 years, because it basically has. we are rerunning 2020. but the focus right now is on joe biden, he's the president now. four years ago it was donald trump. if the question is, which president do you think did a better job in his first term, right now trump is winning that argument. you see in poll after poll, who do you think did a better job on the economy, whose policies have helped you the most, trump is beating biden on those metrics. but if you talk about a campaign that is about the future, that is the conversation we have not really gotten into yet. even the tim scott interview,

you hear the surrogates as well as donald trump talk a lot about, remember back to the days, let's bring us back to those days of four years ago when inflation was low. remember, remember how great those times work. it is up to the biden campaign to make the case, not so much to fight about whether those times were great but to talk about the next four years and what an administration of biden's would look like and compare that to donald trump's. tamara: which is why the biden campaign continues to highlight all the things trump says, like the gestapo comments and everything else he has said, while also really trying to amplify what he is saying he would do. and in particular on abortion rights, where he is trying not to say what he would do. and on any number of policy matters. in that time magazine interview, again, where he talked about wanting to round up migrants. william: deploy the military

inside the u.s. tamara: yes. then he was asked, oh, the military being used on civilians? and he said, no, they are not civilians. which is a pretty significant departure from norms. amy: the case has not really been prosecuted yet. believe it or not, we are -- if you think six months is a short or long time from now. most normal voters think we are a long way away from the election. william: we have not dialed in yet. amy: yeah. and both candidates soon enough will be on the airwaves making their case to voters. theoretically there will be debates between these candidates, where the differences between the two will become more of the conversation. william: theoretically on those debates. so nice to see you both. thank you. ♪

and join us again here tomorrow night, for a look at the debate surrounding language and free speech on college campuses driven by the protests against the war in gaza. that's the "newshour" for tonight. i'm william brangham. on behalf of the entire "newshour" team, thank you for joining us. >> major funding for the "pbs newshour" has been provided by. >> on an american cruise line's journey, along the colombia and snake rivers, travelers retrace the route forged by lewis and clark more than 200 years ago. american cruise line's fleet of modern riverboats travel through american landscapes to historic landmarks, where you can experience local customs and cuisine. american cruise lines, proud sponsor of "pbs newshour."

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wow, you get to watch all your favorite stuff. it's to die for. now you won't miss a thing. this is the way. xfinity internet. made for streaming. hello, everyone. welcome to "amanpour & company." here's what's coming up. as protests ripple through universities across the globe, i asked northwestern's president michael schill about how