AMNA NAWAZ: Good evening.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

GEOFF BENNETT: And I'm Geoff Bennett.

On the "NewsHour" tonight: Regulators seize First Republic Bank and sell it to J.P. Morgan Chase, as concerns grow about instability in the banking sector.

AMNA NAWAZ: Warring sides in Sudan agree to negotiate, as fighting continues and the capital and the humanitarian crisis reaches a breaking point.

GEOFF BENNETT: And Idaho OB-GYNs navigate a new medical landscape after the passage of one of the nation's strictest abortion bans.

DR. AMELIA HUNTSBERGER, Bonner General: I needed to do what my oath requires me to do, to prioritize the safety of my patient.

And I also knew that I was putting myself at risk of felony charges.

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

An intense manhunt is widening tonight for a Texas gunman who killed five of his neighbors, including a 9-year-old boy, in a rural town north of Houston.

AMNA NAWAZ: The shooting happened late Friday night, yet the FBI says they still have zero leads, leaving the small community and an entire nation on edge.

Stephanie Sy has our report.

STEPHANIE SY: Wilson Garcia's head hung low as he wept.

The gunman who killed his wife and son over the weekend remains at large, potentially still armed and dangerous.

WILSON GARCIA, Father and Husband of Victims (through translator): I'm trying to be strong for my kids.

My daughter, she kind of knows what's going on, but it's difficult when she comes in she starts to ask for mommy and her brother.

STEPHANIE SY: Other children in the home were shielded from the hail of bullets by two women who were killed, five victims in all, including 9-year old Daniel Enrique Laso.

Garcia says he had asked his neighbor to fire rounds in a part of his yard that wouldn't wake his sleeping baby.

Instead, minutes later, the gunman walked up to the family's home in a rural area northeast of Houston, loading up an AR-15-style rifle.

Garcia's wife, Sonia Argentina Guzman, was killed at the front door.

WILSON GARCIA (through translator): He came and shot, without saying anything.

Boom.

And my wife fell.

Then he went inside the house to look for everyone.

STEPHANIE SY: The suspect, 38-year-old Francisco Oropesa, is still on the loose.

The "NewsHour" confirmed that he has been deported multiple times and entered the U.S. illegally.

He has a previous DUI conviction.

The Texas governor offered a $50,000 reward for the fugitive, and the FBI has put up an additional $30,000.

JAMES SMITH, FBI Houston Special Agent: We do not know where he is.

We don't have any tips right now to where he may be.

And that's why we have come up with this reward, so that, hopefully, somebody out there can call us.

STEPHANIE SY: Authorities identify Oropesa through an identity card issued by Mexican authorities to citizens outside the country and through doorbell camera footage.

They have also recovered the AR-15 used in the shootings.

The county sheriff dismissed questions about the victim's immigration status.

GREG CAPERS, San Jacinto County, Texas, Sheriff: I don't care if he was here legally.

I don't care if he was here illegally.

He was in my county.

Five people died in my county, and that is where my heart is, in my county, protecting my people, to the best of our ability.

STEPHANIE SY: The victims were all originally from Honduras.

More than 200 police are going door to door, as the search for the shooter stretches to a third day.

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

GEOFF BENNETT: In the day's other headlines: Federal regulators seized First Republic Bank and sold its deposits to J.P. Morgan Chase.

It's the third midsize U.S. lender to fail in two months.

Its market share plunged last week following a mass exodus of panicked depositors.

Today, a Treasury Department spokesperson insisted that -- quote -- "The banking system remains sound and resilient" and that Americans should feel confident in the safety of their deposits.

Meantime, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is warning, the U.S. could now default on its debt as early as June 1.

That's if Congress doesn't raise or suspend the debt limit before then.

This afternoon, President Biden called all four top congressional leaders to invite them to meet at the White House to discuss the budget on May 9.

Across Ukraine, Russia unleashed a morning volley of missiles which wounded dozens in its second major air assault in three days.

Ukraine's military said it shot down most of the missiles, but in the eastern city of Pavlohrad, strikes turned residential areas until wastelands and left Ukrainians running for their lives.

OLHA LYTVYNENKO, Pavlohrad Resident (through translator): When I saw another flash, I told my husband to get outside.

We were in the corridor when an explosion smashed off two doors.

I ran outside and saw the garage was destroyed.

Everything was on fire.

Glass shards were everywhere.

Had we been outside, we would have been killed.

GEOFF BENNETT: Ukrainian officials said today's attacks targeted the country's power network and left nearly 20,000 people without electricity.

Back in this country, a surge of snowmelt has brought the Mississippi River to peak water levels in the Quad Cities area of the Midwest.

Davenport in Eastern Iowa saw the river crest today at more than 21 feet, a few inches lower than expected.

Officials are optimistic that flood defenses there and in neighboring towns will hold up.

Montana State Representative Zooey Zephyr is suing to be allowed to return to her state's House floor.

Zephyr, a transgender Democrat, was barred last month after protesting a ban on gender-affirming health care for minors.

Republicans say she violated decorum.

In a statement, Zephyr said she was targeted because -- quote -- "I dared to give voice to the values and needs of transgender people like myself."

A judge in Missouri has temporarily blocked unprecedented restrictions on transgender health care from taking effect.

If enacted, anyone seeking gender-affirming treatments, such as hormones and puberty blocking drugs, would be required to undergo 18 months of therapy.

The rule was proposed by the state's Republican attorney general, who faces an ongoing lawsuit over its provisions.

President Biden welcomed his Philippine counterpart, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., to the White House today amid growing concerns about China's harassment of Philippine ships.

It's the first time a Philippine president has visited Washington in more than 10 years.

The pair agreed to deepen their country's cooperation on trade, investment and security.

JOE BIDEN, President of the United States: And the United States also reminds ironclad in our -- remains ironclad in our commitment to the defense of the Philippines, including the South China Sea, and we're going to continue to support the Philippine's military modernization goals.

GEOFF BENNETT: The visit comes days after the two countries held their largest joint military drills ever in Philippine waters.

A Florida oversight board appointed by Governor Ron DeSantis voted to countersue the Walt Disney Company today.

Last week, Disney filed a lawsuit to stop the governor's takeover of its theme park district, which the entertainment giant controlled for decades.

The feud started last year after Disney opposed a Florida law banning the teaching of sexual orientation and gender identity in schools.

Workers across the globe marked this May Day with rallies and marches.

In Asia, thousands took to the streets demanding better pay.

Nurses in the U.K. protested their wages and working conditions.

But the biggest flash point was in France.

Demonstrators in Southern France torched cars and buildings, while police in Paris used water cannons and tear gas to disperse crowds.

They were protesting against President Macron's new pension reforms.

SOPHIE BINET, General Confederation of Labor (through translator): Anger has never been seen over strong in the country.

This day of mobilization is a stinging denial of the strategy of Emmanuel Macron.

Our determination is intact.

Protests are at a historic level for a May 1 in France.

GEOFF BENNETT: Meantime, the Canadian government reached a deal with federal workers after two weeks of deadlock.

It will raise pay by nearly 13 percent over four years ending the largest public sector strike in that nation's history.

And stocks edged lower on Wall Street today.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 46 points to close at 34052.

The Nasdaq fell 14 points, and the S&P 500 slipped more than a point.

Still to come on the "PBS NewsHour": author E. Jean Carroll returns to the witness stand in the rape trial against former President Donald Trump; a sociologist and trauma expert discusses the culture surrounding guns in America; and Hollywood prepares for a strike that could halt film and TV production.

AMNA NAWAZ: Another major bank failure has shaken the U.S. financial system.

Federal regulators' seizure of First Republic Bank comes less than two months after Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank collapsed.

To help us understand why this happened and the state of the banking industry, I'm joined by Roben Farzad.

He's host of public radio's "Full Disclosure" podcast.

Roben, welcome back.

Always good to see you.

As you well know, as you came on the show to talk about, after those previous bank collapses, some of the biggest banks rushed in to shore up First Republic Bank, $30 billion of a rescue package handed over there.

Why didn't that work?

Why did federal regulators have to step in here?

ROBEN FARZAD, Host, "Full Disclosure": Because it wasn't enough of a firewall.

This is all a confidence game.

And I don't mean that pejoratively.

You could look at this cynically, like all these banks would love to get bank of First Republic's prestige and brand standing and clientele with financial aid from the FDIC or the Fed or anybody else that cares to backstop it.

So, that $30 billion, you can look at as kind of a collective down payment.

Maybe, if Wall Street is saying that we'd like to put in our money and it's not going to be protected above $250,000, in theory, then that would put this story to bed, finally.

But, no, it didn't happen.

They had an earnings call.

They came out.

They kept hemorrhaging deposits.

The stock kept tanking.

And you had an 11th-hour bailout through the entirety of the weekend.

And you see J.P. Morgan emerge victorious.

It shows you how really truly thin the business model of banking is, how much of it ultimately comes down to psychology and confidence.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, as you mentioned, the FDIC took control.

They brokered a sale to J.P. Morgan Chase.

What does this mean for bank deposits?

What does it mean for shareholders?

ROBEN FARZAD: Shareholders are going to get wiped out.

And that's a -- I mean, it's a breathtaking loss.

If you told me at the beginning of the year that First Republic, something was lurking beneath it that was kind of a mundane interest rate risk, that they were getting sandwiched between markdowns on these generous loans that they made and the Fed taking up interest rates, which has been something that the entire economy has had to deal with in whiplashing fashion, I would not have predicted that it would have led to the second largest bank failure in history.

I mean, think about the season of autumn 2008 and spring 2009.

That was subprime.

There was rot everywhere.

There was panic everywhere.

This is not exactly a panicked economy.

Unemployment is close to 3.5 percent.

But there are certain moments where you get complacency in banks.

And if investors jump ship and depositors jump ship, there's only so much you can do without the intervention of the government and other banks.

AMNA NAWAZ: Roben, what does this mean for J.P. Morgan Chase?

I mean, when you look at some of their acquisitions - - here's just a brief list here -- they now include First Republic Bank, Washington Mutual, Bank One, Bear Stearns.

You're talking about further consolidation in a sector that's really dominated by institutions many have deemed too big to fail.

How do you look at that?

ROBEN FARZAD: Gosh.

And even, Amna, if you were to take Bank One, which is very familiar to people in the Midwest, and accordion that out to First USA and all the other various dozens of banks that Bank One have -- has rolled up over the decades, and it's now a footnote in this behemoth of a Wall Street giant.

I think, at last count, it had $2.5 trillion of assets.

Even if it didn't do anything, it was collecting $50 billion in deposits as everybody was leaving these regional banks.

So it has this really unique status, this really unique citizenship.

Too big to fail doesn't even begin to describe it anymore.

If it was Jupiter, it's kind of now the sun.

And I think that's the danger for the Fed, that what do you do if -- J.P. Morgan is the good citizen of Wall Street right now.

He is the heir apparent to J. Pierpont Morgan from 120 years ago.

But what happens?

How do you get your arms around a J.P. Morgan or any if it's too-big-to-fail kin if anything like this were to happen there?

And I think that that's something that, broadly, regulators in this economy have punted on.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, if you take a step back now, three of the four largest bank failures in U.S. history have happened in the last two months now.

J.P. Morgan Chase's CEO, Jamie Dimon, said today, this part of the crisis is over.

Is it?

Is this the last domino to fall?

ROBEN FARZAD: You know, this is a problem that -- if you have this echo chamber on Twitter, and if you have investors selling something, and it forces management to step up and say, we're good, we're good, but we're not going to take calls on an earnings call.

Depositors ultimately have the deciding vote.

If they pull their money, then the FDIC comes in, and it has to size up the situation and bring in other pillars of support.

Brand management is only so valuable in banking, when it's up to the quality of your deposits and your loans.

And as we have learned really painfully this year, that can be pretty ephemeral.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, Roben, in the 30 seconds or so we have left, how should depositors look at this?

Should consumers be worried?

ROBEN FARZAD: Scrutinize your $250,000 max, which, by the way, the FDIC has some papers out saying that maybe we need to reconsider it.

What used to be $100,000 insurance max, I mean, inflation has eaten away at that.

You have small businesses that need to have hundreds of thousands of dollars on hand for working capital.

I predict that Congress and the FDIC are going to come in for higher insurance limits.

But it pays, really, truly, to read the fine print in the meantime.

AMNA NAWAZ: That is Roben Farzad, host of public radio's "Full Disclosure" podcast.

Roben, thank you.

Always good to see you.

ROBEN FARZAD: Thank you, Amna.

GEOFF BENNETT: Sudan's military today agreed to send a representative to potential negotiations 16 days after an eruption of violence that has killed more than 500 people.

The street-to-street fighting and a humanitarian crisis has forced millions to flee their homes.

Nick Schifrin reports on the conditions and the U.S. evacuation of hundreds of American citizens since Friday.

NICK SCHIFRIN: In Saudi Arabia's Red Sea port of Jeddah, the USS Brunswick helped deliver salvation for hundreds of American citizens.

Their journey took days through desperation and destruction.

Most evacuees are on their own.

DR. MOHAMED EISA, Sudanese American Physicians Association: We saw going through all these roads dead bodies on the sides.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Dr. Mohamed Eisa is an obstetrician-gynecologist resident in Pittsburgh whose daughter is American.

He returned to his native Sudan to help bury his father and ended up caught in the crossfire of two factions that turned Khartoum into a war zone.

He escaped the violence a week ago for a five-day journey to Port Sudan and Jeddah.

DR. MOHAMED EISA: The worst part of it was the checkpoints at gunpoint that we were manually searched a couple of times.

Some of them were extremely friendly, extremely nice.

And some of them, you could see that they could flip at any point and basically pull the trigger.

So -- and that's why -- and that was a scary part, Nick, that you could tell there isn't any sort of pattern to this.

There isn't sort of instructions about how to deal with the innocent people.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Those checkpoints are run by the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, who are currently fighting the Sudanese military for control of the country.

They have accelerated an already dire humanitarian crisis.

Millions of Sudanese are short of water, food and electricity.

And the medical system is on the verge of collapse.

Last week, artillery hit this hospital lobby and wounded 13.

DR. MOHAMED EISA: More than two-thirds of the hospitals are completely out of service for various reasons, whether they were bombarded, whether they were attacked, or they run out of medical supplies, or they -- even they run out of medical personnel.

If you escape getting a bullet, or if you escape getting a missile in your house, you will die from a medical problem that might not be even related to the war that's happening in the streets of Khartoum right now.

NICK SCHIFRIN: This weekend, the International Committee of the Red Cross delivered eight tons of mostly medical supplies to Port Sudan.

But the violence is so intense, the supplies can't move forward to the front lines, spokeswoman Alyona Synenko told us today from Nairobi.

ALYONA SYNENKO, International Committee of the Red Cross: We also have the general state of lawlessness with looting that is becoming widespread.

And it is extremely difficult and volatile security environment for our teams to be working in.

NICK SCHIFRIN: One of the hospitals in need is Khartoum's Al Nada.

The general manager told "PBS NewsHour," so many other facilities had been destroyed, they're performing 10 times their normal number of C-sections.

DR. MOHAMED EISA: In this particular institution, just the first day, we received about five babies that were sick.

Some of them, unfortunately, didn't make it, extremely difficult for the families to see the -- just the newly born babies just dying in front of their eyes because of the lack of basic medical needs.

NICK SCHIFRIN: One of those providing for those needs was Dr. Bushra Sulieman.

That's him on the left with Dr. Eisa.

He's an American gastroenterologist who flew to Sudan from his Iowa home to train Sudanese students and treat patients.

DR. MOHAMED EISA: Bushra was a hero, simply.

Bushra was a hero.

I don't think there are any -- enough words to describe Bushra and what he was doing in Sudan.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Dr. Sulieman remained in Khartoum, despite the violence, despite the risk to himself, to treat some of the thousands of those wounded by war.

How did he die?

DR. MOHAMED EISA: I think that was the -- that's the most difficult part of it.

He was stabbed to death, unfortunately, from a group of unknown people, that we believe the reason behind that was just -- unfortunately just robbery.

Sudan has not just last Bushra, but Sudan has lost thousands of patients that he was taking care of, lost hundreds of students Bushra was teaching, medical professionals.

And, also, Sudan lost a big part of the humanitarian work Bushra was doing.

Sudan just simply lost a nation.

NICK SCHIFRIN: And for so many Sudanese, there is no warship coming to the rescue, no sanctuary, when even those who heal become the targets.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Nick Schifrin.

AMNA NAWAZ: In Manhattan, the cross-examination continues of E. Jean Carroll.

The magazine columnist has accused former President Donald Trump of raping her in a department store in the mid 1990s.

She testified again today after the judge rejected a request from Trump's attorneys to declare a mistrial.

The civil trial being -- is being closely watched, not only because of the high-profile defendant, but for what it could mean for illegal accountability in cases of sexual violence.

Among those watching is Laura Beth Nielsen.

She's professor of sociology at Northwestern University and an attorney and researcher with the American Bar Foundation.

Professor Nielsen, welcome.

And thanks for joining us.

As I know you have been watching the trial, you saw last week the detailed testimony from E. Jean Carroll questioned by her own lawyer.

As part of that cross-examination, they have been asking why Carroll decided to sue Trump in the first place and not former CBS head Les Moonves, who Carroll has also previously said sexually assaulted her.

Carroll answered in this way, saying: "He, Les Moonves, didn't call me names.

He didn't grind my face into the mud like Donald Trump did."

Professor Nielsen, Trump's attorneys have seemed to be implying she's chasing money, chasing book sales, chasing fame.

What do you make of that defense strategy?

LAURA BETH NIELSEN, Northwestern University: Well, I think it's a very common defense strategy to question the motives of someone who's making a sexual assault allegation.

And this is an effective way of bringing up the kind of rape myths or scripts that we all have in our mind about rape and that we see in the media over and over again, right?

It couldn't have been -- it couldn't have really happened.

If it happened in this case, why didn't you do something in this other case?

But, in fact, the harms associated with each sexual assault that someone suffers are unique.

And her decision to hold one person accountable and not another is her decision.

AMNA NAWAZ: There's another line of questioning getting a lot of attention from one of the defense attorneys, a man named Joe Tacopina, specific to her assault.

Last week, there was this exchange in which Tacopina asked her about during the assault - - quote -- "You never screamed for help?"

Carroll answered -- quote -- "You can't beat up on me for not screaming.

I'm telling you, he raped me whether I screamed or not."

In today's cross-examination, Tacopina asked why Carroll never filed a police report.

She said: "Mr. Tacopina, I was born in 1943.

I'm a member of the silent generation.

Women like me were taught and trained to keep our chins up and to not complain.

Women my age were not ever trained to call the police.

I would never call the police about something I'm ashamed of.

I thought it was my fault."

I wonder what you thought about that line of questioning and how Carroll handled it.

LAURA BETH NIELSEN: Rape is the most underreported crime that we know of.

And this is agreed on by social scientists, medical doctors and the law enforcement.

If you look at the number of reported rapes versus the number that you -- that you get when you ask women and people of gender minorities whether or not they have suffered a sexual assault, there's a vast Gulf.

So it's very common not to report due to shame, fear of not being believed, thinking that their name is going to get dragged through the mud in this way.

And while she's certainly correct that there was more of a taboo for women of her generation, it's not that that's solved now.

These problems still exist.

Rape remains underreported.

And I wouldn't want people to go away thinking, well, that's that generation and we have progressed mightily.

This is still a problem, the underreporting of sexual assault and attempted sexual assault.

AMNA NAWAZ: In terms of how these exchanges are resonating with a jury, though, I wonder how you look at that.

Is there is there a -- quote, unquote -- "normal behavior 'that someone in a jury hearing these exchanges could compare Carroll's behavior too?

LAURA BETH NIELSEN: Well, unfortunately, a lot of what the defense is trying to do is going to resonate, because these are the rape myths that we have heard over and over in our lifetimes.

It's hard to know.

And we should say that we're basing this on reporting from the courtroom, right?

We're not sort of hearing the tone.

And we're not able to look at the jurors and see how they're responding.

But I do think it will resonate.

And yet, at the same time, there is a recognition that the law is taking this claim seriously, that sexual assault is harmful enough, it's pervasive enough that we, even this -- much later than the allegations are for, we still want to try to remedy the situation.

AMNA NAWAZ: This trial... LAURA BETH NIELSEN: It's good for people to see them taking -- the law taking this seriously.

AMNA NAWAZ: Yes.

Well, to that point, it's obviously getting a lot of attention, this specific trial, because we're talking about a former president on trial for rape.

But, more broadly, what is at stake here when it comes to limits or a greater ability of the courts for some kind of accountability in these cases?

LAURA BETH NIELSEN: Well, I think we're seeing a slow, but steady progress on believing women, even when they're accusing very high-powered people, like the president of the United States, the president of a movie studio, and so on.

We have seen the fall of marital rape exemptions.

We have seen rape shield laws, all designed to protect accusers.

And I think, given the #MeToo movement, lots more people know someone who had been the victim, their daughter, their sister, someone.

And this is really -- some people are going to read this as a reason not to report and a reason to stay silent, because it's really hard to make a claim like this.

Look what's happening.

But I think it's also raising the idea that the law takes this seriously.

The law is beginning to appreciate what happens for sexual violence survivors.

They don't report right away, and they suffer long-term damage.

AMNA NAWAZ: That is Laura Beth Nielsen, professor of sociology at Northwestern University, and an attorney and researcher with the American Bar Foundation.

Professor Nielsen, thank you for joining us.

LAURA BETH NIELSEN: Thanks for having me.

GEOFF BENNETT: The mass shooting in Texas this weekend is yet another stark reminder of the pervasiveness of guns in American society.

There are hundreds of millions of firearms in circulation across the U.S. A new book explores some of the forces behind that saturation and the political culture that goes with it.

Here's William Brangham.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Back in 2020, a year of a global pandemic and ongoing social unrest, millions of Americans bought guns, including nearly eight-and-a-half-million who had never purchased a firearm before.

A new book focuses on the people who sold all those weapons and the role that they play in American society and politics.

It's called "Merchants of the Right: Gun Sellers and the Crisis of American Democracy."

And it's by University of Arizona sociologist Jennifer Carlson, who we talked with last year for our "NewsHour" documentary "Ricochet."

Dr. Carlson, so good to have you back on the news.

Your book documents this remarkable surge of people who purchased guns during this stretch of 2020.

And before we get to the central point about the gun sellers, can you just tell us a little bit about who was it that was buying all those weapons?

JENNIFER CARLSON, University of Arizona: Thank you so much for having me on the program.

Yes, most definitely, in 2020, there was a massive surge in gun purchasing.

And while there was still the sort of typical gun buyer, in terms of demographic profile of being a white conservative man who is married, owns multiple guns, in fact, what we saw during 2020 and into 2021 was a shift in that -- in that profile.

So, people who had never bought a gun, who had never considered buying a gun were suddenly lining up at gun stores and clearing the shelves.

You had people who were not just first-time gun buyers, but racialized minorities, women, members of the LGBTQ community, and even liberals.

And so all of those groups were sort of coming in to gun stores, trying to figure out, according to the conversations that I was having with gun sellers, what to do in this moment of just profound uncertainty and insecurity.

And so what they came up with was, buy a gun.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: One of the most interesting things, I think, in your book is the -- is the reaction of the different gun sellers you spoke with to this sudden new population of gun buyers, people who are not traditionally their customers.

Can you explain a little bit about how they viewed the -- that new customer base?

JENNIFER CARLSON: I think that there was definitely a lot of glee, excitement, enthusiasm about these new gun buyers.

They saw it as a vindication of the appeal of gun rights as a basic human right, as something that transcends demographics, as something that anybody could turn to for safety and security.

Of course, there was a limit to that.

And the limit was the liberal gun buyer.

They would come down and say, yes, but I'm a little bit -- in so many words, I'm concerned about the liberals.

Are they just going to be an irresponsible gun owner?

Are they going to understand the politics that they're signing up for?

And so there was an interesting sort of bait and switch in terms of how they understood these -- these new gun buyers as, you know, very much embracing the diversity, but also really drilling down on the partisanship.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Every one of the gun sellers you spoke to seemed to say that politics was inextricable from their professions, and that you wrote early on in the book that gun sellers sell guns, but they also build political culture.

Can you explain a little bit about that?

JENNIFER CARLSON: So, absolutely, gun sellers use the point of sale as a way to instruct especially first-time gun buyers about what it means to have gun regulations.

So, one of the things that they often brought up, especially the gun sellers in states where there were waiting periods, that people would come in wanting their gun immediately, feeling - - and we can all go back to that sense of urgency, like, I need my toilet paper, I need my -- and gun sellers would say, this is what gun control is.

And so they actually used it as a way to sort of instruct these first-time gun buyers.

There were also very explicit examples that gun sellers told me about where one gun seller actually talked about this.

He described him as a kid, which he obviously wasn't a kid if he was purchasing a gun from a licensed dealer -- came in with a Bernie Sanders shirt.

And this gun seller told me how, basically, he had to politically reeducate this buyer.

So there was definitely this sense that they were not just selling guns, that they were the front line of a particular political culture.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: You don't necessarily deal with this in your book, but I wonder, given the ongoing gun tragedies we see of the murder rate with guns, the mass shootings, these shoot-first, ask-questions-later accidents we have been seeing recently, how do you imagine that gun sellers see themselves in the midst of that crisis?

Do they see themselves as a part of that, a cause of that, an antidote to that?

How do they -- how do they wrestle with that?

JENNIFER CARLSON: I think one of the reasons that this has -- is so intractable and that we are in this sort of mutually exclusive debate that doesn't seem to ever go anywhere is because we have actually created a society in which guns are the only answer.

So, when we look back at the decades of defunding of social welfare, when we look at the defunding of the mental health care system, when we look at the recent data that's coming out on mortality rates among Americans, we very clearly can see that there is not a social safety net in this country.

And so when you -- all of those things wither away and fray and you're left with a firearm, it becomes very difficult to imagine things beyond the firearm as solutions.

When I interviewed gun sellers and ask them about gun sales, and who were you selling to, but also, who were you not selling to, gun sellers were pretty inquisitive in terms of, why are you buying this gun?

What do you want to do with it?

What's your level of training?

And so I think that there is a big emphasis on firearm safety and responsibility.

The thing, though, is that it's not something that they want to see involving gun law.

They don't want the government to mandate that.

This is not an anti-gun book.

This is not a book that's -- actually, the conclusions talk a lot about the new gun buyers of 2020 and 2021 and what they might mean in terms of the politics of the U.S.

But what it is, is a book that asks us to think beyond guns as the sole solution to how we think about ourselves as citizens and how we think about ourselves as members of society together.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: All right, the book is "Merchants of the Right: Gun Sellers and the Crisis of American Democracy.

Jennifer Carlson, thank you so much for being here.

JENNIFER CARLSON: Thank you for having me.

AMNA NAWAZ: Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year, 14 states have banned abortions in nearly all cases.

Many maternal health doctors say state abortion bans are untenable for them and their patients.

From Tennessee to Texas to Idaho, OB-GYNs are beginning to pack up and leave.

In a segment co-produced with the "PBS NewsHour," KFF Health News correspondent Sarah Varney reports on this growing crisis.

SARAH VARNEY: Over beers at a local Sandpoint, Idaho, brewery, residents held a wake of sorts... WOMAN: My fellow doctors, my nurse anesthetist, you have been a family to me for 14 years.

SARAH VARNEY: ... to mourn the closure of the labor and delivery ward at Bonner General, the city's only hospital.

The hospital in part blamed Idaho's legal and political climate.

Quote: "Highly respected, talented physicians are leaving.

Recruiting replacements will be extraordinarily difficult."

The closure comes just eight months after Idaho's abortion ban went into effect.

Except in cases of police-reported rape and incest, physicians can only perform the procedure to -- quote -- "prevent the death of a pregnant woman."

DR. AMELIA HUNTSBERGER, Bonner General: One of the most strict fans across the country.

SARAH VARNEY: Dr. AMELIA HUNTSBERGER has delivered babies and treated miscarriages at Bonner General for more than a decade.

But soon after abortion became illegal here, she saw a patient with a ruptured ectopic pregnancy, a fertilized egg that grows outside the uterus.

DR. AMELIA HUNTSBERGER: We needed to move quickly to stabilize her and save a life.

When I got to the operating room and I removed the ectopic pregnancy, which at that point was problematic legally, I knew that I needed to do what my oath requires me to do, to prioritize the safety of my patient.

And I also knew that I was putting myself, theoretically, potentially, at risk of felony charges, which would have a minimum of two years in jail, loss of my medical license for six months.

SARAH VARNEY: Dr. Huntsberger and her family have decided to leave Idaho.

DR. AMELIA HUNTSBERGER: This isn't a safe place to practice medicine anymore.

SARAH VARNEY: The law has since been amended to allow for terminating ectopic or molar pregnancies, a rare complication caused by an unusual growth of cells.

But Dr. Huntsberger says it still doesn't account for many common pregnancy complications that can escalate quickly.

DR. AMELIA HUNTSBERGER: For instance, there's something called an inevitable abortion, meaning the cervix is open, the pregnancy is going to pass, but has not yet.

You could have a woman bleeding heavily, and yet there still might be a heartbeat.

When is it OK for me to act?

Can I just say this, without treatment, is really, really risking her life and I should act now?

Or do I wait until she bleeds out?

Do I wait until we do CPR?

When is it that I can intervene?

How close to death does she need to be before I take care of her in the way that I trained for years to know how to do?

STATE REP. MARK SAUTER (R-ID): Hope is kind of at the base with those mountains, the mountains with snow on them.

SARAH VARNEY: OK. State Representative Mark Sauter, a Republican, lives in Sandpoint.

He says he hadn't thought much about the abortion ban.

STATE REP. MARK SAUTER: It really wasn't high on my radar, other than I'm a pro-life guy, and I ran that way, but I didn't see it as it had a real - - having a real big community impact.

SARAH VARNEY: Then he started talking with local doctors, including Amelia Huntsberger.

What I'm wondering is, for you personally, did you think about abortion as it relates to obstetric care for pregnant women?

STATE REP. MARK SAUTER: No, I don't think I -- it's like anything.

You get exposed to something and, all of a sudden, you go, wow, there's a different way to look at this.

You know, what are we going to do about all this?

So, is Bonner the canary in a cold line in the coal mine?

STATE REP. MARK SAUTER: It could be.

SARAH VARNEY: With Sandpoint's maternity ward closing, Representative Sauter supported a bill that would have allowed doctors to terminate pregnancies to protect a woman's health, not just prevent her death.

But that effort was shot down by other Republicans.

STATE REP. JULIANNE YOUNG (R-ID): The list was endless when we began considering the conditions that could fall under that language.

We want to make sure that health of the mother doesn't become so broad that everything becomes an exception to take the life of a potential child.

DR. AMELIA HUNTSBERGER: I think it sends a really powerful message to the citizens of Idaho, that the legislature doesn't think that the protection of the health of pregnant patients is important.

SARAH VARNEY: Far to the south, in Boise, Dr. Lauren Miller resigned from her position at Idaho's largest hospital last month.

She's been forced to send patients out of state to end dangerous pregnancies, including a woman with a serious kidney disease.

DR. LAUREN MILLER, Maternal Fetal Medicine Specialist, St. Luke's: I could very easily have taken care of that patient, along with my partners.

We have the team on the ground.

We have the kidney specialists.

We have the intensive care unit.

But, instead, she had to leave her family and fly several more hours away to receive care in an expeditious time frame.

It's just not what we signed up to do.

SARAH VARNEY: You have been working under this, these laws for many months now.

Why now?

Why did you decide to resign?

DR. LAUREN MILLER: Yes, it's no one single factor.

It's kind of the conglomeration of all of the legislation that has been passed this session.

SARAH VARNEY: On top of the abortion ban she blames lawmakers for failing to extend postpartum Medicaid coverage and failing to reauthorize a committee of experts that investigates pregnancy-related deaths.

A recent survey found that about 40 percent of Idaho's OB-GYNs are considering leaving the state.

That will affect women who rely on OB-GYNs for routine and urgent gynecological care unrelated to pregnancy, like menstrual disorders, endometriosis, and pelvic pain.

There's no official nationwide count yet, but OB-GYNs and maternal fetal medicine specialists from states across the country where abortion is criminalized are beginning to relocate to places like Washington state.

Here in Seattle, physicians can care for patients without fear of prosecution.

DR. SARAH VILLARREAL, University of Washington School of Medicine: Is there anyone that you're worried about on the afternoon schedule?

SARAH VARNEY: Dr. Sarah Villarreal is an OB-GYN who moved to Washington state last summer from Texas.

There, she had to practice under a state law that allows private citizens to file civil lawsuits and earn at least $10,000 against anyone who aids or abets an abortion.

In Texas, performing an abortion is a felony punishable by up to life in prison.

DR. SARAH VILLARREAL: Even if we do nothing, even if someone just accused me of breaking the law, and I had not actually done anything wrong, I could still have to go through the court system and go to court.

SARAH VARNEY: She says there's an atmosphere of fear and distrust at many Texas hospitals.

DR. SARAH VILLARREAL: I had a patient who I saw in the emergency room who was actively having a miscarriage, and the fetus still had a heartbeat.

And it was a desired pregnancy.

But, at that point, she was losing a lot of blood, to the point that we were worried that it was going to be threatening to her life.

She was trying to figure out if me, as the provider, was going to report her for -- if she did decide that she wanted to do a D&C procedure to save her life over the life of her fetus versus asking me questions about her own health care.

SARAH VARNEY: Even medical students are beginning to change their plans.

This year, applicants to OB-GYN residency programs decreased by 10.5 percent in states with total abortion bans.

And those pursuing other disciplines are taking notice too.

Kathryn Tiger and Allie Ward, first-year medical students in Moscow, Idaho, are planning to become surgeons.

They spoke to "NewsHour" in their personal capacities.

Do you imagine yourselves ever being able to work here in Idaho?

KATHRYN TIGER, Medical Student: I personally don't.

And I wouldn't feel safe here as a provider and I wouldn't feel safe here as a patient.

SARAH VARNEY: So you're not planning on pursuing OB-GYN?

Why do you think that these laws will affect you?

ALLIE WARD, Medical Student: Medicine in general is such an interdisciplinary capacity, and you have to be able to refer and collaborate.

It's terrifying to think that I wouldn't be able to refer a patient who was seeking care or even just education to a colleague of mine that I trusted because of the laws in place.

DR. AMELIA HUNTSBERGER: How far can you throw it?

SARAH VARNEY: Back in Sandpoint, Dr. Amelia Huntsberger and her family are saying their goodbyes to Idaho.

DR. AMELIA HUNTSBERGER: And so it's heartbreaking to me to think about what it will mean for a woman experiencing a pregnancy crisis,a pregnancy complication, an emergency who will now be many miles away from an OB-GYN, many miles away from a facility that has the staff to stabilize her.

SARAH VARNEY: Sandpoint isn't the only city in Idaho to lose a labor and delivery ward.

A hospital in Emmett north of Boise recently announced that it too will stop providing services for expecting mothers.

For the "PBS NewsHour" and KFF Health News, I'm Sarah Varney in Sandpoint, Idaho.

GEOFF BENNETT: At midnight Pacific time, the current contract between Hollywood writers and major studios will expire, potentially affecting over 800,000 jobs.

That's if last-minute negotiations break down and a strike begins.

More than 11,000 Hollywood TV and film writers are likely to walk off the job today.

The immediate impact?

America's, favorite late-night programing, including "Jimmy Kimmel Live" and "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon," will be dark.

Writers Guild of America officials are demanding higher wages and better working conditions.

They say many of their concerns stem from the industry's greater emphasis on streaming.

The last time WGA members traded their pens for picket lines was 15 years ago.

The guild essentially shut down Hollywood for 100 days, having crippling effects on the industry and the communities that support it.

What's different now?

Some strikers say their focus is not only on current conditions, but the future of the profession.

The Writers Guild is using this video to rally members.

TIAN JUN GU, Writer: The greatest challenge, I would say, is probably finding consistent paying jobs.

And I think it's changed a lot more since I was coming up, just the amount of free work that you have to do on the TV development side.

GEOFF BENNETT: And the role of artificial intelligence is a new concern for Hollywood writers and actors.

JASON BATEMAN, Actor and Director: Yes.

No, I'm not interested in directly a (EXPLETIVE DELETED) movie that a robot writes.

No.

GEOFF BENNETT: Speaking to his audience earlier this month, late-night host Seth Meyers shared his thoughts on the looming strike.

SETH MEYERS, Host, "Late Night With Seth Meyers": I also feel very strongly that what the writers are asking for is not unreasonable.

And as a proud member of the guild, I'm very grateful that there's an organization that looks out for the best interests of writers.

GEOFF BENNETT: As Writers Guild members tried to secure their place and the industry's future.

And joining us now to add some context is Anousha Sakoui, who reports on the entertainment industry and labor issues in Hollywood for The Los Angeles Times.

Thanks for being with us.

And, Anousha, as you well know, for decades and decades, TV writers could depend on a broadcast TV season that started in September and ended in May, roughly nine months of work spent producing anywhere between 22 to 24 episodes.

How has the shift to streaming up ended that model and really affected writers' compensation?

ANOUSHA SAKOUI, The Los Angeles Times: There are several ways that it's affected compensation.

And one of the ways you sort of highlighting there is that streaming companies have increasingly moved towards shorter seasons of shows.

So, if something like "Bridgerton" has only eight -- its first season that had only eight episodes.

So, the writers have the opportunity only of working on a shorter number of episodes.

So, especially if they're paid per episode, that diminishes how much they're paid.

And if they're paid weekly, the WGA has said that some writers are working as few as 14 weeks on these shows, whereas, as you said, sometimes they were working as much as 10 in the sort of days of yore, when broadcast networks dominated.

So that's just one way.

GEOFF BENNETT: And what about the residuals?

Because writers say they're concerned about that issue too.

ANOUSHA SAKOUI: Every time a show is sort of re-aired, these used to be huge amounts of money for writers and could sustain them for the down, leaner years between shows that they worked on.

Now, in the age of streaming, what they're finding and arguing is that they're not paid as much.

Some of these streamers get discounts in terms of how much they pay compared to others, depending on the number of subscribers they have.

So they're generally finding that these royalties or residuals aren't seeing them through the leaner times in the way that they could have done when most of their content was on broadcast.

GEOFF BENNETT: I was talking with a TV executive over the weekend who made the point that the writers have legitimate concerns, but that the timing could not be worse.

Right now, pain is being felt across the board.

And many of these media companies and tech companies that use the writers, they have seen their stock prices drop.

They are cutting costs.

They are laying people off.

What's the argument that the companies are making in these talks?

ANOUSHA SAKOUI: Yes, I mean, it's an interesting point, because there's apparently never a good time to be making these kinds of asks.

I mean, the writers are asking for a package of increases and improvements that are valued at around $600 million a year.

But they come at a time when studios are being hit with restructuring and layoffs.

Disney, for example, is laying off thousands of people.

They're investing less in production and in content.

But the writers argue that the studios remain profitable compared to recent years, and they're still looking to invest something like $19 billion in streaming in 2023.

We have also seen headlines about, like, Apple and Amazon wanting to dedicate a lot more money towards street towards stream -- towards releasing the movies in theaters, for example, so expanding their content dedication, if you like.

So, there, writers are arguing that, actually, studios are in a good state to pay them what they want.

GEOFF BENNETT: How are writers thinking about the threats posed by artificial intelligence?

Right now, the A.I.

tools that you could use to write a script or write a screenplay, they're pretty rudimentary, but that technology is advancing at a fairly alarming rate.

ANOUSHA SAKOUI: I think there's a really interesting echo to like the 2007-2008 strike, when technology, when it was streaming, was a very big issue.

And the writers went on strike to effectively get access to payment compensation for their content on streaming.

Today, they're trying to get ahead of a new technological advancement, which is artificial intelligence.

And there's a huge amount of concern that this new technology will be used to put them out of jobs, basically.

So, the WGA has effectively put in its demands and as a part of this negotiation that's going on, they have asked for regulating A.I.

and how it's used in writing, and to put limits on it.

GEOFF BENNETT: What would a strike mean for TV viewers, Anousha?

ANOUSHA SAKOUI: Right.

Well, that's going to be an interesting question to see how it pans out.

If it happens, we believe that the first shows that will be impacted on late-night, which is filmed live and is WGA-covered work.

So expect to not see your favorite late night show host.

Seth Meyers has already addressed, that he might not be on TV this coming week.

So there's that.

And then, also, new seasons of your favorite shows that might have premiered in the fall might get delayed if their production had not wrapped by the time of the strike.

GEOFF BENNETT: Anousha Sakoui of The Los Angeles Times, thanks so much for sharing your reporting with us.

ANOUSHA SAKOUI: Thank you.

AMNA NAWAZ: With the use of streaming and social media apps, Arabic music is breaking through to new audiences.

"PBS NewsHour"'s Deema Zein spoke to two experts on what this moment means for the music world and the Arab community.

DEEMA ZEIN: So, back in the day, we'd hear Arabic beads or Arabic words and phrases like inshallah and habibi being used in Western pop songs and Western songs in general.

Do you think this has helped or hindered the movement?

DANNY HAJJAR, Music Writer: When Drake says "Habibti, please" and like does that whole thin, yes, is it corny?

Is it cheesy?

Is he playing on a little bit of a -- is he trying to take advantage of a trend?

Yes, all of those things.

It does move the needle though when the biggest artist in the world is trying to speak Arabic, albeit very butchered.

Like, that is a big thing.

And I think it's a huge deal when you see artists like Nicki Minaj, like Maluma collaborate with a Lebanese pop star Myriam Fares.

I think it's a big deal when you see a deejay like Marshmello collaborate with another Lebanese icon, Nancy Ajram.

Everything that's happening right now are little pieces of the larger puzzle.

DEEMA ZEIN: Can we touch a bit about the right people being on top or at the front?

Why is that important?

PHILIPPE MANASSEH, Co-Founder, Laylit: What ends up happening a lot, it ends up being labeled.

And big festivals end up deciding who is going to be at the forefront of this particular movement.

I think, as long as we have both, like, big mainstream artists and a thriving underground, that's the only way for the scene to actually grow, because the underground is where everything brews.

It's where all the ideas brew.

And they trickle down and get diluted at the top, at the end.

But, for that to happen, the underground needs to continuously be renewed.

GEOFF BENNETT: And you can find that full interview online at PBS.org/NewsHour.

AMNA NAWAZ: And join us again here tomorrow night for a report on an effort to raise graduation rates at historically Black colleges and universities.

And that is the "NewsHour" for tonight.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

GEOFF BENNETT: And I'm Geoff Bennett.

Thanks for being with us.

Have a good weekend or good -- good evening.