GEOFF BENNETT: Good evening.

I'm Geoff Bennett.

Amna Nawaz is away.

On the "NewsHour" tonight: a stunning Oval Office confrontation over President Trump's unfounded claims of white genocide in South Africa.

A look at how the Department of Justice is focusing much of its energy on targeting perceived political enemies.

And Judy Woodruff sits down with a former educator who's aiming to restore dignity to political discourse.

TIM SHRIVER, Co-Creator, The Dignity Index: Americans are widely in agreement on one thing, and that is that we are much too divided to be productive, much too divided to be healthy, much too divided to be optimistic about the future.

(BREAK) GEOFF BENNETT: Welcome to the "News Hour."

A stunning scene unfolded in the Oval Office today, as President Trump met with South Africa's president and unexpectedly played videos that Mr. Trump said proved his allegations that South Africa is committing genocide against white farmers there.

The South African delegation pushed back, denying the debunked claim.

Here's Nick Schifrin.

QUESTION: What would it take for you to be convinced that there's no white genocide in South Africa?

CYRIL RAMAPHOSA, South African President: Well, I can answer that for the president.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Today, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa took a leap of faith.

CYRIL RAMAPHOSA: It will take President Trump listening to the voices of South Africans.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Convinced he could change President Trump's mind on live TV.

CYRIL RAMAPHOSA: It will take President Trump to listen to them.

NICK SCHIFRIN: At first, he was ambushed.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: Turn the lights down and just put this on.

It's right behind you.

NICK SCHIFRIN: President Trump used videos of radical South African politicians calling for racist violence.

MAN: Go after a white man.

NICK SCHIFRIN: And newspaper clips.

DONALD TRUMP: Death.

Death.

Death.

NICK SCHIFRIN: To back up his claim of genocide against white farmers, dozens of whom recently arrived in the U.S. as refugees.

DONALD TRUMP: They're taking people's land away, and in many cases, those people are being executed.

NICK SCHIFRIN: At first, Ramaphosa appealed to facts.

South Africa's Parliament includes small radical parties who aren't in government, and white Afrikaners, an ethnic minority that created and led the now defunct apartheid regime, are being killed alongside Black farmers because of crime, not racism, according to police data.

DONALD TRUMP: When they kill the white farmer, nothing happens to them.

CYRIL RAMAPHOSA: No, there is quite... DONALD TRUMP: Nothing happens to them.

CYRIL RAMAPHOSA: There is criminality in our country.

People who do get killed, unfortunately, through criminal activity are not only white people.

Majority of them are Black people.

NICK SCHIFRIN: At that point, things could have fallen apart, like they did with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

DONALD TRUMP: It's going to be a very hard thing to do business like this.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Zelenskyy left his Oval Office train wreck without the deal he came to sign.

DONALD TRUMP: This is going to be great television, I will say that.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Ramaphosa could have appealed to gifts.

CYRIL RAMAPHOSA: I'm sorry I don't have a plane to give you.

DONALD TRUMP: I wish you did.

I would take it.

NICK SCHIFRIN: But he kept the mood light and brought his own Trump cards, South African golf champion Ernie Els, who's played with Trump.

ERNIE ELS, South African Professional Golfer: There's a lot of coexistence going on and help from a lot of areas.

But we need -- I feel we need the U.S. to push this thing through.

NICK SCHIFRIN: And South Africa's richest man, Johann Rupert.

JOHANN RUPERT, South African Businessman: Remember, sir, you and I lived in New York in the '70s.

We never thought New York would be what it became.

We have got gang warfare, like your M33, what -- with these guys.

We have got equivalents there, but we need your help, sir.

And we need Elon's technology.

NICK SCHIFRIN: South African-born Elon Musk, part of the American delegation, leads satellite Internet provider Starlink.

DONALD TRUMP: You don't want to leave.

(LAUGHTER) NICK SCHIFRIN: And so the tension appeared defused, and President Trump could participate in the South African-led G20 summit, which the U.S. has said it would boycott, Ramaphosa said late today.

CYRIL RAMAPHOSA: There's a firm agreement and undertaking that we're going to continue engaging.

So there's no disengagement.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Ramaphosa called the meeting a - - quote -- "great success" and said the two sides would conduct negotiations over trade and increase U.S. investment to South Africa.

GEOFF BENNETT: A great success.

I mean, the meeting ended more cordially than it started, but did they resolve the fundamental disagreement over white farmers?

NICK SCHIFRIN: No, and it's a great point, Geoff.

I mean, tonight in his press conference, Ramaphosa emphatically said that there is absolutely no genocide happening in South African.

And what's at issue here, just to step back, is a legacy, of course, of apartheid, when the government dispossessed many Black South Africans' land.

For the last 30 years or so, since the end of apartheid, the government has tried to redistribute that land mostly by purchasing land from willing white settlers, but it hasn't solved the problem.

Today, Afrikaners only represent about 7 percent of the population, but own more than half the land in South Africa.

And so a new law is designed to take land from white farmers, basically eminent domain, as we call it here in the U.S., but with what South Africa says are provisions for compensation, for due process.

And as we heard today, Geoff, South Africa's argument is that the violence is not about race.

It affects everyone, really more about class.

GEOFF BENNETT: And, Nick, when you talk to your sources, when you talk to experts in the field, what are they telling you about what this moment means for the U.S. and South Africa and for the region more broadly?

NICK SCHIFRIN: When you talk to the president's advisers -- he didn't necessarily focus on this today.

When you talk to the president's advisers, they will say that the context is a larger conflict with South Africa.

They talk about a trade deficit that the U.S. has with South Africa.

They talk about South African ties with Moscow and Beijing, and they talk about South Africa's pursuit of Israel, specifically accusation in the International Criminal Court of justice that Israel is committing genocide.

And those larger questions today have not been answered, says Joshua Meservey of the Hudson Institute.

JOSHUA MESERVEY, Hudson Institute: They have pursued Israel at the ICJ.

The South Africans will say they are morally obliged to do this, given their own history.

That sounds great, except when you consider that the South African government and the dominant African National Congress has diplomatically supported some of the most violent and awful regimes in the world.

So there's a very stark double standard that I think is less and less accepted in Washington.

NICK SCHIFRIN: But, Geoff, critics of the president say, President Trump's use of the word genocide, his inviting Afrikaner refugees to come to the United States, while simultaneously blocking African and other refugees from coming to the United States, undermines a sense of national cohesion in South Africa, but also the understanding of the United States across Southern and Central Africa, says Mvemba Phezo Dizolele of CSIS.

MVEMBA PHEZO DIZOLELE, Center for Strategic and International Studies: The U.S. is being seen as a big country with a lot of power that is trying to bully a smaller country for a reason that is more fictional than it is reality, to serve another interest that is non-African.

So, for Africans, when they look at this, they say, if the U.S. can do this to the largest functional economy on the continent, people don't feel particularly a lot of good will towards the U.S., and they're not feeling that the U.S. is really acting as the leader that it ought to be.

NICK SCHIFRIN: And critics, Geoff, say that action, those actions, as seen from the critics of the United States, undermines some of the U.S.' larger strategic goals across Africa, whether that's stability, especially in Central Africa around Sudan, but also U.S. attempts to counter Chinese influence, which has been growing across the continent.

GEOFF BENNETT: Yes.

Nick Schifrin, thanks so much for this reporting.

We appreciate it.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: In the day's other headlines: A federal judge says the Trump administration unquestionably violated a court order when it reportedly shipped a group of migrants en route to South Sudan.

Judge Brian Murphy said the eight men weren't given a chance to object to their deportations.

He also said those officials responsible could face criminal contempt penalties.

Earlier today, immigration officials said the men were afforded due process and remain in U.S. custody, in compliance with court orders, but they offered no details about their whereabouts.

The officials also railed against the judge's demands over their deportation efforts.

MADISON SHEAHAN, Deputy Director, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement: We see activist judges stepping in, in a way that we have never seen before to put criminals first and not the American people.

This judge wants these criminals, these rapists, murderers out on the streets in your communities.

GEOFF BENNETT: The Department of Homeland Security says the deportees were convicted of serious crimes, including murder and sexual assault.

ICE officials said their home countries, which include Myanmar, Laos and Cuba, refused to take them back.

ICE and DHS declined to confirm whether South Sudan was in fact the flight's final destination.

The Pentagon says it has accepted a Boeing 747 from Qatar for President Trump to use as Air Force One.

The Department of Defense says Mr. Trump will start using the plane once it's retrofitted to ensure proper security measures.

Critics, including some Republicans, have raised concerns about the cost of modifying the aircraft.

They also say accepting the jet is a violation of the Constitution's prohibition on foreign gifts.

Boeing has been working on new Air Force One jets for years, but has faced extensive delays.

That's as The New York Times and CNN report the Trump administration first approached Qatar to inquire about acquiring a plane that could be used as Air Force One, contradicting President Trump's claim that Qatar reached out offering it as a free gift to him.

In the Gaza Strip, health officials say Israeli airstrikes killed more than 80 people overnight and into today, including several women and an infant.

That came as the U.N. reported that humanitarian aid still has not reached Gaza's population.

Israel has allowed dozens of aid trucks into Gaza this week after a monthslong blockade.

But the U.N. says most of the vehicles are held up because the designated road is unsafe.

In Gaza City today, Palestinians lined up at a charity kitchen that's running out of food.

People there said they only got watery soup.

SOMAIA ABU AMSHA, Gaza City Resident (through translator): What will the children eat?

Is this what we serve them?

I can't afford to buy rice or pasta for them.

For more than 10 days, I have not brought a single piece of bread home.

GEOFF BENNETT: Meantime, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel probably killed Hamas' de facto leader in Gaza.

Israel had targeted Mohammed Sinwar in a series of strikes in a hospital last week.

Neither side has officially confirmed his death.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has visited that country's Kursk region, the first trip to the border area since Russia claimed it drove Ukrainian forces out last month.

Ukraine's army says its forces still hold a thin line in the region.

Today, Russian state media showed Putin touring a nuclear power plant in Kursk and having tea with Russian volunteers in the region.

The video appeared to be an effort to show that Moscow is in full control of the ongoing conflict.

Ukraine's surprise incursion into Kursk last August was one of its most significant battlefield gains of the war.

Target is warning that sales will slip this year as customers remain worried about the impact of President Trump's tariffs and the broader economy.

The discount retailer also cited the impact of boycotts related to its rolling back of diversity, equity and inclusion policies, or DEI.

The downbeat forecast comes as rival Walmart said it would raise prices to offset the impact of tariffs, which drew the anger of President Trump.

Target's CEO said today that raising prices would be, in his words, the very last resort.

On Wall Street today, stocks tumbled amid worries about the U.S. government's growing debt, among other concerns.

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped more than 800 points on the day.

The Nasdaq fell 270 points.

The S&P 500 also ended sharply lower.

And Congressman Gerry Connolly has died.

REP. GERRY CONNOLLY (D-VA): The hearing will come to order.

GEOFF BENNETT: The Virginia Democrat served in Congress for more than 16 years, most recently as the top Democrat on the powerful House Oversight Committee.

Connolly started in local government before moving to Congress.

He was known for his willingness to engage in spirited debates and was an outspoken critic of President Trump.

Last year, Connolly announced that he had esophageal cancer and later said he planned to retire from Congress.

House colleagues honored his memory today with flowers and a black drape at his committee seat.

Gerry Connolly was 75 years old.

Still to come on the "News Hour": a community reflects on what has and what has not changed in the five years since the murder of George Floyd; meet President Trump's nominee to be the next surgeon general, a wellness influencer and vaccine skeptic; and media mogul Barry Diller reflects on his remarkable journey and surprising personal revelations chronicled in his candid new memoir.

Now to a development in the Trump DOJ's case against Democratic Congresswoman LaMonica McIver of New Jersey, who's been charged with two counts of assault.

It's part of an emerging strategy from the Justice Department, which is undoing Biden era policies and pursuing some of President Trump's perceived political adversaries.

William Brangham has more.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Appearing virtually in her first court appearance since the department brought charges against her this week, Representative McIver was released with out bail today with a hearing set for later this month.

She is charged with assaulting, resisting and impeding an officer after a visit to an immigration detention facility in New Jersey turned into a scuffle.

Members of Congress are permitted to conduct unannounced oversight visits.

So, to discuss this and more, we are joined again by Carrie Johnson.

She is the justice correspondent at NPR.

Carrie, so good to see you, as always.

CARRIE JOHNSON, Justice Correspondent, NPR: Thanks.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: So, about these assault charges against Representative McIver.

She was trying to stop the arrest, she says, of Newark's mayor, who was there also protesting at this ICE detention facility.

She's denied the accusations, said that they're basically trumped-up.

Here's what she said on the cable news this morning.

REP. LAMONICA MCIVER (D-NJ): It's crazy because there's so many other crimes and things to be focused on, and definitely not to be focused on a congresswoman or congressmembers who were there just to do an oversight visit.

We were not there to bust detainees out of prison.

We have heard that come out from the DOJ.

We were there for an oversight visit.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: How unusual is it to prosecute a member of Congress like this?

CARRIE JOHNSON: In my experience, it's very unusual to bring this kind of federal prosecution, serious federal prosecution against a sitting lawmaker for something that doesn't involve financial misconduct, corruption or bribery.

Those kinds of cases are unusual too.

But to charge a lawmaker who says they were engaged in routine oversight as part of their day job with assaulting or impeding a federal agent is a very serious thing.

Representative McIver faces as many as eight years in prison each of these two charges.

She's, of course, denied responsibility.

But it's a big deal even to bring such a case to begin with.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Of course, this occurred at a protest at an immigration detention center, and it certainly seems to be part of this -- both the president's immigration policies and Democrats who are trying to muster a resistance to it.

CARRIE JOHNSON: Yes, I don't think you can untangle the idea that, at first, the U.S. attorney in New Jersey, Alina Habba, who's one of Trump's former personal lawyers, charged the mayor of Newark.

Today, they took back those charges.

And the federal judge allowed the DOJ to take back those charges against Mayor Ras Baraka basically said this was embarrassing.

It's a very serious thing to bring these kinds of charges, and the DOJ needs to do a proper investigation.

This is the same day Representative McIver appeared virtually in court on similar charges.

And her allies say, if she had engaged in such serious misconduct at that ICE facility, why was she allowed later that day or within a few moments to go into the facility and tour it if she was such a danger?

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: In another development, while the president has said there should be investigations into Bruce Springsteen and Oprah Winfrey and Beyonce, the Department of Justice has opened an investigation into Andrew Cuomo, the former New York state governor, over his handling of the pandemic.

What's that investigation all about?

CARRIE JOHNSON: Well, Republicans in Congress had been investigating how Cuomo in New York state handled the pandemic and handled nursing home residents in the pandemic.

Cuomo testified on Capitol Hill.

And, since that time, two different Republicans have sent referrals to the Justice Department, alleging Cuomo made false statements.

Cuomo says he testified truthfully and to the best of his knowledge, but now DOJ seems to be investigating or looking into whether Cuomo misstated or misled lawmakers about his viewing or editing of a report about that topic, senior citizens in nursing homes and -- in the pandemic.

And so it's interesting because this is all happening or coming out about a month before the primary to be the mayor of New York City.

Cuomo is running in that race.

And another person who's running is Eric Adams, the sitting mayor of New York City.

Adams, of course, famously got rid of charges against himself after the DOJ, the new DOJ, in the Trump administration dropped that case.

The matter was so scandalous, so controversial that more than a dozen career prosecutors resigned over it.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Right, another extraordinary case in the department.

Thirdly, the Department of Justice is also going to drop these police reform agreements -- they're known as consent decrees -- in Minneapolis and Louisville.

These are consent decrees that were signed after investigations into the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.

The DOJ is also dismissing lawsuits against those cities, said they're going to drop several other probes.

What's happening with those?

CARRIE JOHNSON: Yes, Harmeet Dhillon, who is now in charge of the Civil Rights Division at the Justice Department, says she doesn't want the federal government micromanaging how state and local police do their job.

She says these consent degrees and investigations are very expensive for states and locals and that they often know what's best in terms of setting law enforcement priorities.

She's dropping these cases against Louisville and against Minneapolis, only a few days, of course, before the anniversary, the fifth anniversary of the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.

But Dhillon says the timing is not because of that anniversary, but because she had some court deadlines this week.

She says that they will continue to prosecute individual bad actor police officers if and when they come across those cases.

But she seems to think that these consent degrees take too much time, cost too much money and divert from other priorities she wants to advance.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: And has that been a criticism that the police departments themselves -- they entered into these agreements, but have they argued that these somehow hamstring their ability to be police officers?

CARRIE JOHNSON: Some police departments have resisted, as have some state and local governments, because this is an expensive process.

But some independent authorities and analysts like the Council on Criminal Justice have said they have studied some of these agreements.

They do find that litigation costs for these places are lower because police are behaving better in a lot of cases.

And the numbers of stops and frisk and unconstitutional practices by police have gone down in some of these places.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Lastly, the Justice Department is also focusing on the issue of diversity.

The DOJ said it was going to open an investigation into the city of Chicago.

Briefly, what is going on there?

What are they alleging?

CARRIE JOHNSON: Mayor Brandon Johnson in Chicago made some recent remarks about hiring people perhaps on the basis of ethnicity or race.

And Harmeet Dhillon in the Civil Rights Division at DOJ are not pleased with that.

They want to investigate whether that was an unlawful situation that the mayor of Chicago admitted to.

He says they're going after him because they don't like his priorities and because he's a political adversary and outspoken critic of the administration.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Carrie Johnson, so many different threads you're helping us disentangle here.

Thank you so much.

CARRIE JOHNSON: My pleasure.

GEOFF BENNETT: As we just heard, the Trump administration is walking away from police reform settlements in two major cities just days before the anniversary of George Floyd's murder.

It's also closing investigations in six other places, including Phoenix, Memphis, and Oklahoma City.

It was the death of George Floyd five years ago that sparked intense protests, with calls for racial justice and police reform around the country.

Special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro reports on what's changed and what hasn't for our ongoing series Race Matters.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: On a sunny Saturday in Minneapolis, community members tend to the intersection where George Floyd drew his last breath.

WOMAN: Every time I pick up my brush.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: They apply fresh paint to the faded list of names of people killed by police.

For half-a-decade now, George Floyd Square has sat as a memorial, mostly untouched, flowers, stuffed animals, and art surrounding the spot where Floyd died, the abandoned gas station across the street, the raised fist sculpture at 38th Street and Chicago Avenue.

Five years on, the future of this intersection remains unsettled.

A key question is whether automobiles should still be allowed through it.

It's a matter of balancing the needs and especially the security of residents, of businesses, and of the visitors coming to the memorial.

JEANELLE AUSTIN, Rise and Remember: We can't make the street infrastructure the highest priority and the determination of wellness and the determination of healing.

EDWIN REED, Sincere Detailing Pros: They have ruined all these businesses here with all this barricade and this blockage and all this stuff that they are putting up in the street.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Opinions about this square, much like the opinions about Minneapolis' progress since 2020, are mixed.

At first, there were pledges to defund the police, billions of dollars for racial justice work, including from Minneapolis-based Target, convictions of the officers involved in Floyd's death, state and federal consent degrees to reform the Minneapolis Police Department.

But since then, the winds have shifted.

Crime spiked in Minneapolis.

More than a third of the city's officers left the force.

Storefronts remain empty.

Property values have dropped.

Businesses, including Target, ended their DEI efforts, and today's announcement that the Justice Department is moving to end its consent decree with Minneapolis is only the latest in several moves across the country.

Florida passed a law restricting police civilian review boards.

Louisiana made it harder to sue officers.

Cities like Portland and Los Angeles restored police funding that was cut after Floyd was killed.

And Washington, D.C., increased punishment for a range of crimes.

ANGELA HARRELSON, George Floyd's Aunt: What happened in 2020 after my nephew was killed, it rocked the country.

It shook the system, but it didn't break the system.

What we need is the system to be broken.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: George Floyd's aunt, Angela Harrelson, co-chairs Rise and Remember, the nonprofit dedicated to Floyd's memory.

ANGELA HARRELSON: I don't allow anyone to tell me that we're not going forward.

When this happened 2020, it hit at a raw core of the human beings' hearts.

Do you really think that's going to change after five years?

No.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Harrelson says the institutions now pulling back from reform efforts were never truly committed.

ANGELA HARRELSON: Corporations, all types of people, in the beginning, they jumped on board and became part of the movement, but they did not become the movement.

The most important thing is, when the cameras stop, who's there?

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Minneapolis has seen some public safety reforms.

Its court-enforced agreement with the state put limits on traffic stops, use of force and emphasized de-escalation.

The city has tried to expand non-police services, though with mixed results.

Unarmed responders are now sent to about a 10th of 911 calls.

Also, police use of force incidents declined from 4,300 in 2021 to less than 2,400 last year.

How would you assess where the city is today five years later, broadly speaking, the city of Minneapolis?

TODDRICK BARNETTE, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Community Safety Commissioner: We're in a better place than we were in 2020.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Todd Barnette was named Minneapolis community safety commissioner in 2023.

He says the MPD, while still short-staffed, has seen a gradual rebound in hiring.

And he says the city will move forward with its reforms, no matter what the Trump administration does.

But when asked about the many residents across the city who are unsatisfied: TODDRICK BARNETTE: Then we're not doing a good job showing them all the positive things that we're doing, not just for the police department, but change for the city.

I hear them and love to sit down and talk about why they think that, because there's a lot of change happening, and it's good.

MEDARIA ARRADONDO, Former Minneapolis, Minnesota, Police Chief: You know, I used to work out of this building.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Medaria Arradondo, a Minneapolis native and 30-year veteran of the MPD, was chief in 2020.

He says there's been incremental progress over the past five years.

His new book, "Chief Rondo: Securing Justice for the Murder of George Floyd," offers his account of what transpired in the days, weeks and months after the killing, including the burning of the Third Precinct.

MEDARIA ARRADONDO: With the crowd in the thousands, hearing, intermittent gunfire, Target has been looted, my number one focus at that point was no more funerals.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: To some, Floyd's killing stemmed from a toxic culture that persisted within the MPD.

Others pointed to a failure of leadership.

Do you feel personally responsible for anything that led up to that event?

MEDARIA ARRADONDO: I don't feel personally responsible for what former Officer Derek Chauvin did to Mr. Floyd.

At the end of the day, you're leading people.

And you're leading people who come from an imperfect society.

And you have to do all you can to hopefully vet to make sure that the people who are wearing that badge at the end of the day have good character.

If you would have told me that anyone wearing that uniform would have been capable of what occurred that evening on May 25, 2020, I would have told you, no way.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Arradondo says he's also surprised at the growing questions around the circumstances of George Floyd's death.

Many in right-wing circles now cast doubt about the cause of death, pointing to his drug use, even though testimony at Derek Chauvin's trial ruled out an overdose.

They have criticized the cases against the officers involved, and some have even called on President Trump to pardon Chauvin.

MEDARIA ARRADONDO: To create this other universe of opinion, I think it's very damaging, and I think it's dangerous.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Chris Madel is a lawyer in Minneapolis who's represented police officers.

He doesn't support a pardon for Derek Chauvin, but says: CHRIS MADEL, Attorney: You cannot have a fair trial when you are having the venue of that trial in the exact same location where there was rioting, where there was looting.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Madel says that changes in Minneapolis over the past five years have been -- quote -- "dramatic."

And he argues the city's reforms make it harder for law enforcement to do their job.

CHRIS MADEL: When you really need a police officer in order to intervene and help you, the last thing I want them thinking about is some suit sitting high up in an ivory tower second-guessing their decisions.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Madel represented a State Trooper who was charged with murder after fatally shooting a Black driver in 2023.

The charges were dismissed when the county attorney concluded she could not prove the use of force was unauthorized.

Her dismissal announcement said -- quote -- "While we can hope that it will never happen again, until we address the reasons that Black men end up shot by police, it will."

CHRIS MADEL: A lot of that narrative around race is not meant to cure.

It's meant to divide.

It's meant to get votes.

It's meant to get clicks.

It's not meant to actually solve any problems.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Back at George Floyd Square, Angela Harrelson can't help but think about her nephew these days.

ANGELA HARRELSON: You can't put a start date on grief or mourning and you can't put an expiration date on it.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Harrelson remains optimistic that meaningful change is possible in the city where her nephew lost his life.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Fred de Sam Lazaro in Minneapolis.

GEOFF BENNETT: Fred's reporting is a partnership with the Under-Told Stories Project at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota.

The White House is expected to release a report tomorrow about potential contributing factors of childhood diseases.

It's leading to renewed questions about the so-called make America healthy again, or MAHA, agenda championed by President Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Another voice central to the MAHA movement is Dr. Casey Means, President Trump's new pick to serve as surgeon general after he withdrew his first nominee.

Ali Rogin takes a closer look at Means' background and policies she would push for if confirmed.

ALI ROGIN: Though she's been nominated by President Trump to be U.S. surgeon general, Casey Means prefers to call herself a metabolic health evangelist, a physician turned wellness influencer with hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.

A hero of the so-called MAHA movement, make America healthy again, Means has close ties to HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. She was a close adviser last year during his presidential run.

In announcing her nomination, Mr. Trump said: "Casey has impeccable MAHA credentials."

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: Bobby really thought she was good.

I don't know her.

I listened to the recommendation of Bobby.

I met her yesterday and once before.

She's a very outstanding person, a great academic, actually.

So I think she will be great.

DR. CASEY MEANS, U.S.

Surgeon General Nominee: It's kind of the best part, right?

ALI ROGIN: But Means has no government experience and is not a practicing doctor.

She did graduate from Stanford Medical School in 2014, but dropped out of her residency program several years later because she came to view the health care system as exploitative.

DR. CASEY MEANS: It's not an overstatement to say that I learned virtually nothing at Stanford Medical School about the tens of thousands of scientific papers that elucidate these root causes of why American health is plummeting and how environmental factors are causing it.

VANI HARI, Blogger, Food Babe: People are really drawn to her and her message, and that's why she has so many followers and why she has a voice online.

ALI ROGIN: Vani Hari is a food activist who has built a community through her popular Food Babe Web site.

She has known Casey Means for years and says Means wants Americans to become the CEOs of their own health.

VANI HARI: Many of the chronic diseases that we're facing in this country can be reversed with lifestyle changes.

And this is what Americans need to hear and have guidance on, which is something that we have not gotten from our government agencies.

ALI ROGIN: But Means' nomination to one of the most visible public health roles in the country has spurred a vigorous debate.

DR. CASEY MEANS: You want to get the most diversity of color possible in your diet.

WILL STONE, NPR: She doesn't have a kind of scalable leadership experience in public health, and that is such a big part of the job.

ALI ROGIN: Will Stone covers health care policy for National Public Radio.

WILL STONE: If you speak to former surgeon generals, they will say they don't think she's qualified because she does not have the kind of robust clinical experience that you would typically expect in the nation's top doctor, basically.

ALI ROGIN: Along with her brother, Calley, who is a top adviser to Kennedy at HHS, Means wrote a bestselling book last year called "Good Energy," which argues that -- quote -- "metabolic dysfunction" due to poor diets and sedentary lifestyles is the root cause of chronic diseases.

She's endorsed the health benefits of raw milk and says birth control pills are overprescribed and signal a disrespect of life.

Means has gained prominence with appearances on high-profile podcasts with Joe Rogan and Tucker Carlson, decrying the influence of big pharma.

DR. CASEY MEANS: These subtle insidious forces that are creating slow, progressive illness starting now in fetal life that allow patients to be profitable and on the pharma treadmill for their entire lives.

They make us sick, but they don't kill us, and then we are drugged for life.

VANI HARI: We need to tell people the truth about why we are so sick and what's been done to our food.

ALI ROGIN: Means' views on many health issues closely align with Kennedys on food safety and environmental toxins.

She's also questioned some vaccine policies, calling the vaccine schedule for children insane and calling vaccine mandates criminal.

DR. CASEY MEANS: I bet that one vaccine probably isn't causing autism, but what about the 20 that they're getting before 18 months?

ALI ROGIN: Means' nomination has drawn criticism not just from the medical community, but also from conservative Trump allies.

Far right activist Laura Loomer ridiculed her on social media as a total crackpot who uses shrooms as plant medicine and talks to trees.

And Kennedy's former running mate, Nicole Shanahan, has also come out against Means' nomination.

WILL STONE: So much of this position is about messaging.

Even though she may not be able to shape policy in really strong ways, she can certainly trumpet certain ideas, as she does already pretty effectively on social media.

And there are concerns that some of those -- that some of that messaging will not be evidence-based and will actually be harmful for public health.

ALI ROGIN: But Vani Hari says Means' training in the medical establishment and her advocacy outside of it shows that she has expertise and credibility.

VANI HARI: This is the basis of her story.

This is what's made her such a courageous leader to give away such a prestigious career.

The make America healthy again movement is broader than just vaccines.

It's about food, it's about toxins, it's about other pharmaceuticals, it's about lifestyle interventions.

And so we need someone with a broad perspective about how to address each one of these topics.

And Casey represents that.

ALI ROGIN: The U.S. surgeon general is not required to be a practicing physician, only that they have -- quote -- "specialized training or significant experience in public health programs."

Means' nomination must be confirmed by the Senate.

A hearing date has not yet been set.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Ali Rogin.

GEOFF BENNETT: Barry Diller has been a major force in American entertainment and business for more than half-a-century.

He helped reshape television decades ago by creating ABC's groundbreaking "Movie of the Week," went on to lead Paramount Pictures during a golden era of blockbuster filmmaking, and later launched the FOX Broadcasting Company, disrupting the TV landscape yet again.

Today, his digital empire spans travel, home services, and online dating with companies you know, like Expedia, Angi, and Match under his umbrella.

He's also known for his longtime marriage to fashion icon Diane Von Furstenberg.

I recently spoke with Diller about his remarkable journey and the surprising personal revelations in his candid new memoir, "Who Knew."

Barry Diller, welcome to the "News Hour."

BARRY DILLER, Author, "Who Knew": Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: This memoir, some 10 years in the making, spans decades of your life at the center of entertainment and media.

What compelled you to write this book now?

BARRY DILLER: It's not now.

I have been writing it forever, what seems like endlessly forever.

But it's really because I thought, I know something of my whole life has been involved in telling stories.

And I thought, this is just a good story if I can tell it and if I could tell it true.

So that's why I tried to do it, and probably didn't even commit to publishing it until fairly recently.

I thought I'd maybe never publish it.

But here it is.

GEOFF BENNETT: Really?

Why is that, the idea of never publishing it?

BARRY DILLER: Well, my wife, who's been her brand for her whole life, said, this is going to be enormously exposing.

And for somebody who's been kind of private his whole life, why would you want to do this?

Maybe you should do this after you're dead.

I said, well, guess what?

After I'm dead, I really won't have anything to do with it.

And I'd rather have some agency here.

GEOFF BENNETT: You know, in the beginning of the book, you really recount your rise from the mailroom at William Morris to reshaping, ultimately, Hollywood and digital media.

At ABC, you pioneered the highly successful "Movie of the Week," then later created the even more successful TV miniseries.

You had these landmark events like "Roots," this TV series that half of the country tuned into.

That era of mass media dominance doesn't exist anymore.

What have we lost in this fragmented algorithm-driven media landscape?

BARRY DILLER: We have lost that you had almost an entire country at -- watching one thing at one time.

So if it was either wonderful or terrible or something terribly newsy happened or whatever, the next day, that was the conversation of the day.

And so it was enormously community-building.

It is where kind of mass culture got cultured, educated.

And so I think now we have so many options -- and that's not a bad thing.

But for that - - for having those options, we kind of give up a kind of central gathering place.

And that, I think, is a shame.

GEOFF BENNETT: Now our gathering place is on the Internet.

I mean, you were one of the first old-school media moguls to embrace the digital era.

What did you see early on that others didn't?

BARRY DILLER: Well, again, my life is serendipity, luck, and however you want to define it, which is that I was able in '92 - - this is three years before the Internet.

I came upon a Home Shopping Network.

I only knew screens to tell stories.

I saw screens being used in this primitive convergence of televisions and telephones and computers.

I saw that screens could be interactive.

And that was a true, a big-time word, epiphany.

And it -- I didn't know what to do with it then, but I knew that something was going to change, so, great, good luck to be prepared and have some feeling in my fingertips when in three years along comes the Internet and interactivity is the revolution of the time.

GEOFF BENNETT: This idea of good luck, this idea of serendipity, is that the through line that connects all of your successes?

BARRY DILLER: Yes, yes, for me.

I absolutely believe that.

And it is true, of course.

It is what you make of serendipity, but, nevertheless, I do think I had a remarkable string of inexplicable things that you could never have predicted.

That gave me these extraordinary opportunities.

GEOFF BENNETT: You said earlier that your wife, Diane Von Furstenberg, mentioned that writing a memoir like this would be exposing, because in this memoir, you share your journey of coming out later in life, even though you say you knew early on that you were gay.

What was the emotional turning point that made you ready to speak open to me about your sexuality?

BARRY DILLER: First of all, if I was in a closet, it was the most brightly lit closet in existence with a big glass door.

The only thing I did not do is make declarations.

Everyone in and around and way beyond my own life knew about my life.

I just didn't make declarations.

And, of course, I wish I had had the courage to do so at that time, when it was relevant 40 years ago in this long life.

And so, when I wrote the book, I mean, it wasn't like I thought -- I didn't ever realize, because I'm somewhat dim and naive in certain ways.

I thought that this was -- kind of everybody knew and title of my book "Who Knew."

I thought this was not some big deal.

But if I wanted to write this book, I knew I just had to tell my story true.

And that's what I tried to do.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, in the book you describe your wife as your bedrock.

How did you reconcile your private and public lives?

BARRY DILLER: I don't know that I have ever reconciled anything.

I just do one idiot step in front of another.

But I don't think there is any reconciliation.

And there's no contradiction either.

This is not a plea for everyone to go out and read it.

But the only way I can explain it is the way I did.

GEOFF BENNETT: Barry Diller.

The book is "Who Knew."

Thanks again for speaking with me.

I appreciate it.

BARRY DILLER: Happy to.

GEOFF BENNETT: As partisan battles play out here in Washington, Judy Woodruff introduces us now to someone working to bridge America's divides by placing dignity at the heart of conversations between everyday citizens.

It's part of her series America at a Crossroads.

TIM SHRIVER, Co-Creator, The Dignity Index: Americans are widely in agreement on one thing, and that is that we're much too divided to be productive, much too divided to be healthy, much too divided to be optimistic about the future.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Tim Shriver is a long time disability rights advocate... TIM SHRIVER: We don't ask for pity for our athletes.

We ask for a change of heart from the world.

JUDY WOODRUFF: ... who for decades has led the International Special Olympics, an organization his mother, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, founded in 1968.

His father, Sargent Shriver, oversaw the creation of the Peace Corps.

And his uncles President John F. Kennedy and Senators Robert Kennedy and Ted Kennedy, were all iconic figures of the Democratic Party of earlier eras.

TIM SHRIVER: Obsessed with this idea of, is there a gradient?

JUDY WOODRUFF: But, today, Shriver is focused on a pervasive problem that he argues goes beyond party politics, a problem he looks to ordinary Americans to help solve.

TIM SHRIVER: We have a new issue.

And that is how we treat each other.

And if we don't solve that issue, I'm afraid, Judy, that the country will continue to find itself less happy, more lonely, and less effective at doing the things America's always been great at, which is leading the world with freedom and optimism and hope and practical idealism that makes things happen.

JUDY WOODRUFF: But this country's been through division.

JUDY WOODRUFF: I mean, we have been - - Civil War a long time ago... JUDY WOODRUFF: ... Vietnam, our whole civil rights -- the ongoing debates over race.

What do you see today that makes you look at this question of how we treat each other?

TIM SHRIVER: Well, I think there's a couple of factors that are new.

The first is social media, especially for - - social media for our young people.

Young people are picking up their phones and they're seeing it.

He's disgusting.

She's a jerk.

What an idiot.

And all the name-calling and the relentless surround sound of contempt, it has a corrosive effect not just on our political debates, but on the mental health of our country, and especially of our young people.

I think the second thing that's different is the virulence of our disagreements in the past have been serious and painful and destructive.

There's no question about that.

But what we seem always to have had is this sense in which the American spirit would somehow get us through.

Today, that optimism has receded.

And now we're looking at a situation where people think the division is not just about a policy issue or about a cultural issue, but it's about us.

It's -- we're in an us-versus-them country, an us-or-them country.

And that level of despair about our capacity to solve problems and heal is what leads to increases in violence, the risk of family division, mine included, that have been torn apart by this level of contempt, this surround sound of judgment and dehumanization.

So we have had tough times in the past, but this is our time.

JUDY WOODRUFF: In 2022, Shriver helped launch The Dignity Index, a method of evaluating language that on one end of the spectrum shows contempt for others and on the other affirms their value as a person.

TIM SHRIVER: What is contempt?

Contempt is othering.

Contempt is, you're too different.

JUDY WOODRUFF: He's since been touring the country, sharing it with politicians, businesses, houses of worship, and schools, trying to create a culture of dignity that can eventually impact our national dialogue.

TIM SHRIVER: At the bottom is a 1, which is I treat you with such dehumanizing hatred that I think you should be killed even, and then you move gradually up the scale of less and less contempt.

Maybe I just think you're morally evil.

Maybe I think I'm just better than you.

And then you get up, and I think I want to listen to you, and then even higher, I want to explore where we agree and maybe even where we disagree.

I want to be open to change.

And at the highest levels of dignity -- you see this in great leaders in our own country -- no matter what, even after horrific violence, I want you to know I will treat you with dignity.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Who do you want to adopt the index?

TIM SHRIVER: In the best of all worlds, I think we'd have political leaders who'd say look, as we have a few, who've said, I'm going to take a pledge and make sure my political speech is what they call 5 or up.

And we now have schools that are teaching what they go 5 and up on The Dignity Index.

In this school, we're asking, when you disagree, whether it's on the playground or in the lunchroom or in the classroom, when you disagree, use 5 and up language.

And fifth and sixth graders can learn this.

So it's not complex.

It just takes a little will.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Can it have an impact and effect, though, when the voice is coming from Washington, D.C., which are in the news all day long every day on virtually every channel, every platform you can turn to, are mostly negative and contemptuous?

JUDY WOODRUFF: How do you make a difference when that's most of what people are seeing in the news?

TIM SHRIVER: So, look, it's a social change challenge.

I'm not going to deny it'll be a heck of a lot easier if we had political leaders who seized the moment.

And I want to say, if a political leader is watching this, you can win by treating the other side with dignity.

You will see your constituents, I believe, respond to this.

We have seen this in spots.

Look at Governor Shapiro, governor's mansion firebombed by someone motivated by political hatred, driven surely by political rhetoric.

So here we have an attempt on the governor's life and his family, an attempt to destroy state property, to destroy human life.

And how does he respond?

I want to continue to bring all faith traditions into the governors' residence, and Republicans rushing to join him in that statement of solidarity around these things.

So, when we see these things, we can't shrug them off and say, well, the real power comes from being hateful.

The real power comes from treating people with dignity.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So you're not just up against political leaders in Washington.

You're up against an entire social media culture that feeds on and promotes... TIM SHRIVER: Yes.

Yes.

That's right.

JUDY WOODRUFF: ... ugly language, anonymous, so much of it anonymous.

JUDY WOODRUFF: People can say anything they want, the uglier, the better, the meaner, the better.

JUDY WOODRUFF: How do you even begin to stand up to that?

TIM SHRIVER: I mean, Americans are free still, and we're free to choose.

And no one's forcing anyone to use that kind of rhetoric.

No one's forcing anyone to dehumanize anybody else.

We got to make some choices, and we got to invite people to recognize the severity of this challenge in this moment.

We don't have a country in 25 years if we stay on this path.

Many people say we almost don't have a country already.

I'm not willing to stand by and not give it my best.

And I know there are hundreds of millions of Americans who also would like the moment to be called into a different way of thinking about it.

But it's going to be tough and we're going to have to make change.

My uncle President Kennedy famously said, we're going to go to the moon not because it's easy, because it's hard.

JOHN F. KENNEDY, Former President of the United States: Because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because... TIM SHRIVER: So, yes, this is going to be hard.

But our country depends on it.

I mean, look, what's the alternative?

Let's just say I love my country and I just hate everybody in it?

The best of the American spirit always says there's something new to be done here.

There's something new to be done here.

This is not acceptable.

JUDY WOODRUFF: For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Judy Woodruff in Washington.

GEOFF BENNETT: And there's a lot more online right now, including a look at who should get a COVID vaccine according to the new FDA recommendations.

That's at PBS.org/NewsHour.

And that is the "News Hour" for tonight.

I'm Geoff Bennett.

For all of us here at the "PBS News Hour," thanks for spending part of your evening with us.