AMNA NAWAZ: Good evening.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

GEOFF BENNETT: And I'm Geoff Bennett.

On the "NewsHour" tonight: Former President Trump prepares to appear in court after being indicted for hoarding classified documents, as his supporters rally to his side and Miami police step up security.

AMNA NAWAZ: NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg discusses the Ukrainian counteroffensive and the state of the ongoing war with Russia.

GEOFF BENNETT: And families with transgender children struggle to navigate a wave of anti-trans politics.

MARY, Mother of Leah: It feels like were being pushed out, pushed out of our home, pushed out of our state.

I don't want to feel like we're refugees in our own country.

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

Former President Donald Trump is in Miami tonight ahead of an initial court appearance tomorrow on a raft of federal criminal charges.

All of them relate to his handling of classified documents after he left office.

AMNA NAWAZ: Mr. Trump and his supporters have lambasted the indictment and the Biden Justice Department.

That has officials in Miami bracing for potential trouble at the federal courthouse.

Lisa Desjardins reports.

LISA DESJARDINS: In Miami today, security tape is going up and words of precaution are going out ahead of tomorrow's court appearance by former President Donald Trump.

Mayor Francis Suarez and teams said they are ready for up to 50,000 protesters.

FRANCIS SUAREZ (R), Mayor of Miami, Florida: We hope tomorrow will be peaceful.

We encourage people to be peaceful in them demonstrating how they're -- how they feel.

And we are going to have the adequate forces necessary to ensure that.

LISA DESJARDINS: A thousand miles away, Mr. Trump began his journey to court, boarding a plane in New Jersey en route to Florida.

There, he will face 37 counts on charges he held onto hundreds of classified documents, including top military secrets, after leaving the White House, and that he resisted requests and a subpoena to hand them over.

Friday's detailed indictment included photos of boxes sprawled throughout his Mar-a-Lago home, including in a bathroom, on a ballroom stage, and spilled over a storage room floor.

DONALD TRUMP, Former President of the United States: This is the final battle.

LISA DESJARDINS: This after a weekend of not just denying and blasting the charges, but, in an interview, Trump called for supporters to go to Miami and peacefully protest.

In rallies in North Carolina and Georgia, he urged resolve.

DONALD TRUMP: We don't fold.

We don't fold our tent and go home.

And, again, we want to drain the swamp.

And I'm the only one that's going to do it.

Nobody else is going to do it.

We know the competition.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) DONALD TRUMP: We know it.

Anyone else will be absolutely ripped to shreds.

These are sick, sick, sinister people.

REP. JIM JORDAN (R-OH): This is the most political thing I have ever seen.

LISA DESJARDINS: His supporters and some of his Republican presidential rivals have kept up a drumbeat in Mr. Trump's defense, with some, like key rival Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, choosing not to proclaim Trump innocent, so much as to denounce the Justice Department as corrupt.

GOV.

RON DESANTIS (R-FL), Presidential Candidate: Our founding fathers would have absolutely predicted the weaponization that we have seen with these agencies, particularly justice and FBI, because, when you don't have constitutional accountability, human nature is such that they will abuse their power.

LISA DESJARDINS: But new today, Trump's U.N.

Ambassador Nikki Haley told FOX News that, while she thinks the DOJ has lost all credibility, now, after looking at the details here: NIKKI HALEY (R), Presidential Candidate: If this indictment is true, if what it says is actually the case, President Trump was incredibly reckless with our national security.

LISA DESJARDINS: Sunday, Mr. Trump's own attorney general also rang in on the charges.

WILLIAM BARR, Former U.S. Attorney General: If even half of it is true, then he's toast.

LISA DESJARDINS: Former Justice Department head Bill Barr told FOX News Trump had no right to keep such sensitive records.

WILLIAM BARR: I defend the president on Russiagate.

I stood up and called out Alvin Bragg's politicized hit job.

This is simply not true.

This -- this particular episode of trying to retrieve those documents, the government acted responsibly, and it was Donald J. Trump who acted irresponsibly.

LISA DESJARDINS: But that's not how most Republican voters see it.

A CBS News poll released yesterday found that 76 percent of likely primary voters said they thought Mr. Trump's indictment was only politically motivated.

At the White House, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre again declined to respond to the indictment.

KARINE JEAN-PIERRE, White House Press Secretary: This is a president that respects the rule of law.

This is the president that wants to make sure and has proven that to be in his actions to make sure that the Department of Justice is truly independent, and just not going to speak to the case at all or comment on the case.

LISA DESJARDINS: The attention tomorrow is centers around the federal courthouse in Miami and the former president's court date, when his attorneys have said he will plead not guilty.

AMNA NAWAZ: And Lisa joins us now with more about how Republicans are reacting to the indictment.

Lisa, good to see you.

LISA DESJARDINS: Good to see you.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, tell us, what have we been seeing in the days since the indictment?

LISA DESJARDINS: In the first day since we learned the news of the indictment, but before we actually saw the details, there was a torrent of Republican response, especially from his supporters in Congress.

I want to go through some of the themes that we have heard from Republicans about this indictment.

First of all, you have many who are pushing back at the Department of Justice.

Like, Representative Mike Collins of Georgia, for example, tweeted out this.

He wanted to abolish, he said, the corrupt FBI and Justice Department.

That was sort of on one end of the criticism of DOJ.

But Representative Lisa McClain of Michigan - - she's a member of House leadership -- wrote that DOJ has become nothing more than a political weapon.

There are others who -- we have seen Republicans say this is hypocritical for the Biden administration and even say it's a double standard.

For example, Senator Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, he wrote: "There's a two-tiered justice system on full display.

The Biden DOJ buries investigations."

Here, he goes into the Biden family.

Now, this is something that's going on separately in the House, where some House lawmakers were able to see an FBI report that accuses the Biden family of some bribery.

It is unsubstantiated.

There was not an investigation.

But the Republicans are raising that as an example of a double standard.

But we know that the FBI is also investigating Biden in terms of documents, but that that's ongoing right now.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, this is what we have been seeing publicly in terms of people speaking out.

LISA DESJARDINS: Yes.

AMNA NAWAZ: You have also been tracking who we haven't heard anything from.

What stands out to you about that?

LISA DESJARDINS: This is really notable.

Many Republican sources that I have talked to are not saying on the record what they're telling me privately, that they were looking at the indictment, and we saw clearly a change after the indictment come out -- came out.

Far fewer Republicans have been responding at all.

Now, let's talk about who, in particular, has not said anything publicly.

How about the top Republican in the Senate, Senator Mitch McConnell?

He had an opportunity to speak on the floor today, did not talk about the indictment at all.

We know he's been an opponent of President Trump in some ways in the past.

But some other really significant ones with no public statement yet, look at this.

At the top row, Richard Hudson, he is a member of House leadership, no statement yet.

Mike Turner, he is the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

So these are some important Republicans you see with no statement yet.

AMNA NAWAZ: Lisa, when you talk to folks, whether they're telling you privately or publicly, is there a sense of how Republicans see this?

Is something that will help them or hurt them?

LISA DESJARDINS: This remains a divided party.

I just talked to a strategist who said they were hoping that this could be the thing that pushes President Trump out of their party.

They're not sure that this is enough to really derail his supporters.

On the other hand, they think that, once we get into a general election, this is something that could hurt him in the fall.

Right now, it does seem this is helping former President Trump with fund-raising, at least, and with sort of energizing some of his supporters.

AMNA NAWAZ: Lisa Desjardins covering all of this for us.

And, of course, we will see what happens after the arraignment tomorrow as well.

LISA DESJARDINS: That's right.

AMNA NAWAZ: Good to see you Lisa.

Thank you.

LISA DESJARDINS: You too.

GEOFF BENNETT: In the day's other headlines: Thousands of drivers confronted long delays and detours in Philadelphia, after part of Interstate 95 collapsed.

An overpass crumbled Sunday when a tanker truck wrecked and burned beneath it.

Today, that section was closed in both directions indefinitely.

Officials warned it could take several months to repair the main north-south highway on the East Coast.

REP. BRENDAN BOYLE (D-PA): I-95 stretches from Maine to Miami.

I dare you to find a more densely populated 40-or-50 mile area around 95 than right here where we're standing.

So people are going to be impacted from New York City to well south of here.

GEOFF BENNETT: Also today, the Pennsylvania State Police said authorities are working to identify a body recovered from the wreckage.

In Ukraine, government forces reported more small gains as a counteroffensive ramps up in the country's southeast.

The military said it has now recaptured the village of Storozhov in the Donetsk region.

It said six other villages have also been retaken.

Military video showed soldiers unfolding the Ukrainian flag amid abandoned Russian trucks.

Their progress was being closely watched at the State Department in Washington.

ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. Secretary of State: Ukraine's success in the counteroffensive would do two things.

It would strengthen its position at any negotiating table that emerges, and it may have the effect as well of actually causing Putin to finally focus on negotiating an end to the war that he started.

GEOFF BENNETT: There were also reports of heavy fighting today elsewhere along the front line in Southern Ukraine.

President Biden had planned to talk about Ukraine with the head of NATO today, but a root canal intervened.

The White House says the president had an initial procedure on Sunday and additional work today.

Officials postpone the NATO meeting until tomorrow.

Iran is leaving open the possibility of a prisoner exchange with the U.S.

The Foreign Ministry said today that negotiations are ongoing.

A day earlier, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said there's -- quote -- "nothing wrong" with restoring a nuclear deal with the West if Iran keeps its nuclear infrastructure.

The boastful Italian billionaire who became a populist political leader, Silvio Berlusconi, died today.

He had battled leukemia.

Stephanie Sy reports in a career that sharply divided a country.

STEPHANIE SY: On the TV network where he built his own empire, Italian newscasters fought to hold back tears as they delivered the news.

Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's longest-serving prime minister and a powerful media mogul, was dead.

In his nearly three decades in politics, he polarized the country, but became one of Italy's most influential leaders.

GIORGIA MELONI, Italian Prime Minister (through translator): Silvio Berlusconi was most of all a fighter.

He was a man who never feared to defend his beliefs.

STEPHANIE SY: Berlusconi made his name as a business tycoon.

He built a real estate and media empire in the 1970s and 1980s.

And he used that wealth and influence to take power.

With his Forza Italia center-right alliance, Berlusconi was first elected as prime minister in 1994, and then again in 2001 and 2008.

But he was forced to resign in 2011 after losing a parliamentary majority, and as Italy's debt soared.

In 2012, he was convicted of tax fraud and banned from public office for several years.

Beyond politics, he made headlines for his private life, epitomized by his notorious bunga bunga parties, and several sex scandals, including claims of unlawful sex with a minor.

Berlusconi denied wrongdoing, but crassly admitted his pursuit of young women.

SILVIO BERLUSCONI, Former Italian Prime Minister (through translator): I have always worked with no interruption.

And if I sometimes see a beautiful girl, I say, better to like girls than to be gay.

STEPHANIE SY: Last year, he brought his party back to power by siding with far right Brothers of Italy, led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

He also cultivated relationships with other controversial leaders, including with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a friendship that put him at odds with Meloni, a political player until almost the end.

He died in a Milan hospital this morning, where he was being treated for chronic leukemia.

Silvio Berlusconi was 86 years old.

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

GEOFF BENNETT: A state funeral will be will be held Wednesday in Milan.

Back in this country, a first-of-its-kind trial started in Montana, as 16 young plaintiffs pressed for stronger climate action.

They range from ages 5 to 22, and their lawsuit contends Montana's ties to fossil fuel will endanger public health for generations to come.

Dozens of similar lawsuits are pending across the country.

The United States will rejoin the U.N. cultural and scientific agency UNESCO after a 12-year absence.

The U.S. was once the agency's biggest funder, but withdrew in 2011 to protest admitting the Palestinians as, in effect, an independent state.

American officials say rejoining will help counter China's growing influence.

And on Wall Street, stocks rose on hopes that the economy can avoid a recession.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 189 points to close at 34066.

The Nasdaq rose 202 points, 1.5 percent.

The S&P 500 added 40, hitting its highest close in more than a year.

And Broadway has bestowed this year's top honors with the 2023 Tony Awards.

The musical comedy "Kimberly Akimbo" when five awards last night, including best musical.

Tom Stoppard's semi-autobiographical work "Leopoldstadt" took the prize for best play.

And nonbinary actors won Tonys for the first time.

J. Harrison Ghee in "Some Like It Hot" and Alex Newell in "Shucked."

Still to come on the "NewsHour": the head of NATO discusses the Ukrainian counteroffensive against the Russian invasion; increasingly severe weather causes major insurance providers to pull coverage in California; and playwright Michael R. Jackson gives a Brief But Spectacular take on writing from the inside out.

AMNA NAWAZ: In the days after the latest indictment of former President Trump, violent rhetoric has been escalating in online forums and in far right militia groups.

This, coupled with heated and combative messaging from Trump and his Republican allies, has extremism -- extremism watchers on high alert.

Following this all of this closely is Jeff Sharlet.

He's a professor at Dartmouth College.

And his new book, "The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War," chronicles the rise of right-wing extremism over the last decade.

Jeff Sharlet, welcome back to the "NewsHour."

I'd like to ask for your help in translating some of the response we have seen from some Republicans after the indictment of former President Trump, this in particular from a congressman, from Clay Higgins of Louisiana.

If you take a look at this tweet, he said this -- quote -- "President Trump said he has been summoned to appear at the federal courthouse in Miami on Tuesday at 3:00 p.m.

This is a perimeter probe from the oppressors.

Hold; rPOTUS has this.

Buckle up.

1/50K.

Know your bridges.

Rock steady calm.

That is all."

Jeff Sharlet, when you read that, can you help us understand, what is he talking about here and why did it catch your attention?

JEFF SHARLET, Author, "The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War": Because it's such a specific call to prepare for battle.

A perimeter probe is -- he is saying that the oppressors, by which he means -- he sometimes refers to the cabal or even Leviathan -- Leviathan - - these are QAnon terms for the federal government - - is testing the strength of the real people; rPOTUS, a term he has been using for several years, is the real POTUS.

He believes Trump is the real president.

Buckle up, obviously, he's get ready.

But 1/50K, I had to do some research.

That's one to 50,000, the ratio -- the scale of military-grade maps.

Know your bridges, I was familiar with, is militia-speak for understand the points of attack, literally know the bridges that you can seize and hold and stop federal forces from coming in.

AMNA NAWAZ: Why?

(CROSSTALK) AMNA NAWAZ: Why is it concerning for you to see this kind of language?

How surprising is it to see this kind of language from a sitting member of Congress?

JEFF SHARLET: Well, he's not just a sitting member of Congress.

He has both militia credibility, and he's also been elevated by his party to a chair of the Border Security Subcommittee on the Homeland Security Committee.

He identifies himself as a member of a militia movement called the 3 Percenters.

He first did so publicly, at least, to speaking to a gas lobbyist.

Since then, he's been doubling down.

He's appeared with the Oath Keepers, whose leader, of course, is now serving 18 years.

And even since that tweet, he said there are 3 percent solutions to the indictments.

AMNA NAWAZ: He's not alone and using some of this military or violent references in his language.

We have had a congressman from Arizona, Andy Biggs, who tweeted: "We have now reached a war phase."

The failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake was speaking recently and said: "If you want to get to President Trump, you're going to have to go through me and 75 million Americans like me, and most of us are card-carrying members of the NRA."

Jeff, when you listen to all of this, do you believe there is a real threat of more political violence around Mr. Trump's indictment or really as soon as tomorrow, when he's arraigned?

JEFF SHARLET: My guess is that there's not going to be a January-like event tomorrow in Miami, precisely because so many militia members, a lot had been arrested.

They're afraid of infiltration.

They're afraid of the FBI.

But they have moved to a different kind of action.

I think the other risk is the way that this language insults -- incites those whom we think of as lone wolves, the mass shooters, who, manifesto after manifesto, refer to this kind of political rhetoric and tell each other to go forward, to carry the fight on.

AMNA NAWAZ: Tell me more about that.

From what we know about how this rise of domestic extremism has occurred, it doesn't seem like it takes elaborate planning or a lot of group effort.

As you mentioned, it's often an individual with a set of grievances who is motivated in some way by language like this.

Is that what we're seeing is the trend?

JEFF SHARLET: Yes, although I would question the sort of individual.

When you look at the manifestos of so many of the politically motivated mass killers, they oftentimes cut and paste from the previous one.

They refer to the previous one.

They say that this is part of a long struggle.

They see themselves as soldiers in a war.

And, of course, then you have got other people by General Mike Flynn, who, maybe in mainstream world, is considered ridiculous, but still holds his status as Trump's first national security adviser and as a man we may see in power again if Trump returns, calling for open war.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, what would it take to stamp out this kind of rhetoric?

All of it is being done in defensive and in support of, at this moment, former President Trump.

If he were to come out and unequivocally say, there's no room for political violence in this country, would that end it?

JEFF SHARLET: No.

And, after seven years, are we really expecting that to happen?

Maybe -- maybe now, this is Trump's presidential moment at last.

I don't think it would, though,because the movement goes -- Trumpism is bigger than Trump.

Trump is the avatar, and he's made himself the martyr of the movement.

But the movement, in the minds of men like Clay Higgins, in the minds of those who even see Trump as soft for not going into open combat, is larger than them.

The anger, the anger that Trump invokes -- he's trying to keep up.

In a Saturday night speech, he says: Either they destroy us or we destroy them.

And I don't think he's speaking metaphorically anymore.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, for those who believe in small-D democratic ideals, what's the appropriate way to handle these calls for political violence?

Do we in the media risk amplifying them by covering them at all?

JEFF SHARLET: I think we can't -- we -- look, pretending they're not there isn't going to work.

It's a big part of the American landscape.

What we can do, we can't fact-check a myth.

This is an argument that I made.

We can't fact-check a myth, but we can interpret it.

And we can say, here's what's happening.

And here's how we organize.

The other thing we can do, of course, is support the rule of law.

What's happening in Miami tomorrow is the most important part of this work.

We proceed with the work of democracy.

We proceed with the work of rule of law, and those of us in the press, pay attention, interpret, and call out what it is.

We have got to get away from saying -- this is not conservative rhetoric.

This is -- and I will use the F-word -- this is fascist rhetoric.

This is violent rhetoric.

And we have got to name it as such.

AMNA NAWAZ: That is Jeff Sharlet, professor at Dartmouth College and author of the book "The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War," joining us tonight.

Thank you for your time.

JEFF SHARLET: Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: President Biden will meet without going NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg tomorrow.

They're expected to discuss Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine and efforts to persuade fellow NATO member Turkey to back off blocking Sweden from joining the alliance.

Stoltenberg's tenure as NATO leader ends in September.

And a number of countries are competing for who will replace him.

Joining us now is the NATO Secretary-General, Jens Stoltenberg.

Thank you for being with us.

JENS STOLTENBERG, NATO Secretary-General: Thanks so much for having me.

GEOFF BENNETT: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been imploring NATO leaders to put Ukraine on a concrete path to membership.

He has said that he would not appear next month at the NATO summit without a clear signal about Ukraine becoming a full member of that alliance.

Since there is no consensus among member nations on this matter.

What are you prepared to give Ukraine?

What sort of promise, what kind of commitment?

JENS STOLTENBERG: So, first and foremost, the most important thing that will happen at the NATO summit in Vilnius in July is that NATO allies will express strong support to Ukraine, not only words, but also in deeds, because I'm absolutely certain that our NATO allies will make new announcements of significant military support to Ukraine and to promise to sustain and step that up, because we will make absolutely clear that we are there to support Ukraine for as long as it takes.

Then, on the issue of membership, yes, there are consultations going on among allies, and we have not concluded them.

It's too early to preempt the concrete outcome, but allies agree on a lot.

We agree that NATO's door is open, as we have demonstrated with Finland and Sweden for new members.

We also agree that Ukraine will become a member of this alliance.

This has been stated many times by NATO, last time at a summit last year.

And then, thirdly, we agree that it's for Ukraine and the 31 NATO allies to decide when the time is right for Ukraine to become a member.

It's not for Russia.

Russia doesn't have a veto.

So I'm confident that, at the NATO summit, there will be a strong message on Ukraine, because we need to stand by Ukraine.

GEOFF BENNETT: When you say you're confident that Ukraine will become a full member of the alliance, how do you respond to what President Zelenskyy told The Wall Street Journal?

He said: "How many lives of Ukrainians are worth the phrase Ukraine will be in NATO after this war, after it's safe?"

How do you respond to that?

JENS STOLTENBERG: Well, I understand that he's pushing for a clear timetable for NATO membership.

At the same time, I believe it's not possible to give precise dates when we are in the midst of a war.

And I think also that all allies will also very clearly express that the most urgent task now is to ensure that Ukraine prevails as a sovereign, independent nation, if we need to provide more military support, because, unless Ukraine prevails, then there's no membership to be discussed at all, because it's only a sovereign, independent, democratic Ukraine that can become a NATO member.

I also expect that we will agree a multiyear plan, program for how to ensure the transition of the Ukrainian armed forces from the old Soviet standards, doctrines to modern NATO standards and doctrines, and to ensure that they are fully interoperable with NATO and that will also move them closer to membership.

GEOFF BENNETT: Ukraine's long-anticipated counteroffensive is now under way.

In NATO's view, what does a successful counteroffensive look like?

What's the metric of success?

JENS STOLTENBERG: Well, the aim is, of course, to liberate Ukrainian land and to send a message to Moscow that they will not win on the battlefield, Russia will not achieve its goals.

And, at some stage, Russia needs to realize it has to sit down and negotiate a just and lasting peace for Ukraine.

It is encouraging to see that the Ukrainians are making progress, but, of course, wars are unpredictable.

So it's not possible now to say when and how the war will end and, of course, to predict the exact outcome of this offensive.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, Ukraine says success is taking back the Donbass and Crimea.

Is NATO prepared to support Ukraine that far?

JENS STOLTENBERG: So, we support Ukraine because we need to remember that this is -- what this is.

This is a war aggression.

Russia has invaded another country.

It violated international law by sending in tens of hundreds of thousands of soldiers and armor and missiles against a sovereign country in Europe.

NATO allies -- the right for self-defense is enshrined in the U.N. Charter.

And what NATO allies do is that we support Ukraine in upholding that right.

That doesn't make NATO a party to the conflict.

And we will support Ukraine for as long as it takes.

GEOFF BENNETT: China has remained conspicuously close to Russia as this war has progressed.

How is the alliance planning to confront the challenges posed by Beijing?

JENS STOLTENBERG: It demonstrates that security is not regional anymore.

It is global.

What happens in Europe matters for Asia, and what happens in Asia matters for Europe.

NATO will remain an alliance of North America and Europe, but this region, North America and Europe, faces global threats, and that includes the fact that China is investing more and more in advanced military capabilities, nuclear weapons, and also trying to threaten neighbors around the world.

So, this -- and then, of course, the fact that China and Russia are coming closer and closer,they just conducted a big naval exercise together.

We see more Russian and Chinese joint naval and air patrols.

This makes it just more important that NATO's alliance also addresses the challenges to our security posed by China and that we -- we stand together in addressing also the security consequences of China.

GEOFF BENNETT: To your point about the region facing persistent threats, what about Sweden?

What are the prospects for Sweden to join the alliance?

You were just at Erdogan's inauguration, one of the few Western leaders to go there.

You met with him.

Will Turkey allow Sweden to become a member of NATO by next month's summit?

JENS STOLTENBERG: I'm confident that Sweden will become a full member.

And it's possible that that can happen by the NATO summit in Vilnius next month, but I cannot guarantee that.

What I can say is that I met President Erdogan recently in connection with the inauguration.

We had a very good meeting.

And we agreed to convene what we call the Permanent Mechanism, which was something we established last year between Finland, Sweden and Turkey.

They're actually meeting this week in Turkey with NATO to address the differences that still exist to ensure that we make progress on making Sweden a full member of our alliance.

Sweden has come a long way, because all allies invited them also Turkey last year at our summit in Madrid.

And, since then, they have obtained a status that makes them now integrating more and more into NATO structure and at the NATO table.

But we need full ratification.

And we're working hard to make that happen as soon as possible.

GEOFF BENNETT: In the 30 seconds we have left, we should note that you have led NATO since 2014.

You have, in the past, extended your term.

If you're asked to extend your term yet again, will you?

JENS STOLTENBERG: I'm absolutely confident that this great alliance will be able to find a great successor.

And my focus now is on leading the alliance until my tenure ends this fall.

We're in midst of a war in Europe.

And I'm focused on that.

And then I'm confident that the 30 allies, 31 allies, will find a successor to replace me.

GEOFF BENNETT: I hear your confidence, but I didn't hear a no.

JENS STOLTENBERG: No, but, I mean, I have no other plans than to end my tenure as secretary-general.

I have been extended three times already.

I'm here now.

The plan was to be here for four years.

I have been there for nine years.

So, I think the good thing for everyone is now to have another person at the helm of the alliance.

My focus is on being here, leading the alliance until there's new person in place.

GEOFF BENNETT: Jens Stoltenberg is the NATO secretary-general.

Thanks for your time this evening.

We appreciate it.

JENS STOLTENBERG: Thank you so much.

AMNA NAWAZ: The smoky air that shut down so much outdoor activity in the Northeast last week was a sobering reminder of the widespread impacts of wildfires and climate change.

There's been a different kind of impact in California as well, one that's also partially tied to wildfires.

William Brangham focuses on that part of the story and what it could mean for insurance in the Golden State.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: For years, State Farm has been the largest provider of homeowners insurance in California, but it recently announced it will no longer sell new homeowners policies in the state.

It said this move was driven by the high cost of construction and the growing risks from catastrophes like wildfires.

State Farm's move followed a similar one by Allstate insurance and other pullbacks from insurers like Chubb and American International Group, who decided not to renew some existing policies.

So, what does this mean for homeowners and other businesses in a state with increasing risks from wildfire and other extreme climate-driven events?

Michael Wara is a lawyer and senior fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University.

Michael, thank you so much for being here.

Can you tell us a little bit more about what's driving this move by the insurance companies?

I mean, they cited these two risks, the increasing risk of fires burning structures and then the increased cost of building or rebuilding those structures.

What else is there?

MICHAEL WARA, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment: Well, I think what's driving a lot of this instability in the insurance market really has to do with the rapidly changing risk of wildfire interacting with a regulatory system which, by design, changes quite slowly and allows -- in particular, allows price increases that occur very slowly.

And so we sort of have a lag.

And the challenge layered on top of that has been, as everyone has experienced, increasing inflation, and, in California, particularly increasing costs for construction.

So, the insurers are stuck between quickly increasing risk and slowly increasing allowed insurance pricing.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: So, you mean that if the insurers were really treating this as the cost of doing business, they might increase rates more rapidly than the state allows by law?

MICHAEL WARA: That's right.

I think many of the insurers have been slowly increasing rates, since catastrophic fires that your viewers may remember occurred in 2017 and 2018, the Napa, Sonoma, fires, and then the Camp Fire after that.

That really reset insurers' vision of what kinds of catastrophes were really possible in the state of California.

And that increased risk needs to be priced into rates eventually.

The California insurance regulatory system allows for very slow adjustment in prices, and doesn't allow currently for insurers to price in the risk of climate change as it is today.

The prices are set by looking backwards at the risk as it has been over the last two decades.

And that just means a slower pace of adjustment.

And that's leading to real problems for the industry.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: And so what does this mean for homeowners and people who want to buy or sell a house in California?

I mean, this is not something you can really dispense with.

MICHAEL WARA: For the last several years, it's been getting harder and harder to find the sort of standard insurance product, especially for homes in high-risk areas in the state of California.

So it's made it harder to buy and sell homes.

People that have policies have mostly been able to keep them, but a small set of existing policyholders have also lost their what's called admitted lines.

That's the standard homeowners insurance product admitted lines coverage, and had to go to the insurer of last resort, which is called the FAIR Plan in California.

And having to be insured by the FAIR Plan implies much higher costs.

And it can also be more challenging, just in general to get coverage.

But what's happened recently is that some of the largest insurers are deciding that they don't want to sell new policies, not just to people that live in high-risk areas, but anyone in California.

They're essentially trying to reduce their overall exposure to the state as a whole.

And that's a major change.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Right, major change indeed.

I have long heard environmentalists and other climate risk modelers say that insurance can be a useful tool for trying to get people to live in safer areas and avoid riskier areas, and to get policymakers to focus on the risks of climate change.

Is that, in part, what is happening here?

MICHAEL WARA: Well, California has been a leader in investing in wildfire risk reduction, and over the last several years.

And I think we deserve credit, and that the state policymakers that have led that effort deserve a lot of credit for that.

But we still have much more to do.

I don't think we're at the point yet where anyone would ask people to leave their homes because of wildfire risk.

But the reality is that it is getting more expensive to live in riskier places in California.

And at the margin, that may induce some people to leave those places.

It may make it less -- it may make the homes in those places slightly less valuable.

There's some developing evidence that that is occurring in California as well.

But I think we're far from a place where we would, say, walk away from a community.

And I think there's a lot more to do to reduce risk in and around communities in California before we would take that rather drastic step.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: What do you see as the trajectory going forward here?

I mean, you have got this -- you were describing a regulatory issue here that needs to be addressed.

But do you think that costs are going to keep going up and it's going to become tighter and tighter for homeowners going forward?

MICHAEL WARA: I do think that insurance costs overall in California are going to continue to increase.

We're still adjusting to the emergence of this catastrophic risk of wildfire in California.

And the insurance system is not fully adjusted to that risk yet.

So, we should expect prices to increase now, it's important for your viewers to understand that in -- home insurance costs in California are actually relatively low, still, by national standards.

And that's because of the tight regulatory framework we have here.

So, we're going to need to allow prices to adjust gradually upward in a way that doesn't cause shocks for homeowners and household budgets, but that does reflect the growing risks we face in the state.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: All right, Michael Wara of the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University, thank you so much for being here.

MICHAEL WARA: Thanks for having me on.

I really appreciate the opportunity.

GEOFF BENNETT: Earlier this month, Texas joined 19 other states that banned transition-related care for minors.

Laura Barron-Lopez recently spent time in Texas to learn more about the law and spoke to one family grappling with what's next.

You should know this story includes discussions about suicide and depression.

LEAH, 12 Years Old: We're just like a real family.

We love to party.

(LAUGHTER) LEAH: We're just as normal as all the other families, and just lots of people think otherwise.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Meet Leah.

She's a 12-year-old who likes to play soccer and skateboard.

She lives in the Austin, Texas, area with her parents, John and Mary.

We aren't showing their faces and have changed their names for this story, because families like theirs are increasingly under threat.

Leah is a trans girl.

She started coming out to her family two years ago, first as a gay boy.

MARY, Mother of Leah: She was very much starting to talk more and more about how she was feeling and how she just didn't feel like she was in the right body.

And we were seeing it start to take its toll on her mental health.

There was just one night where everything just kind of came pouring out of her.

And she was just saying: "I don't know.

I don't know why I'm feeling like this.

I don't know what else to do."

We were sitting on the floor in her room and she was just sobbing in my lap.

And I just said: "Hey, Leah, what if I just told you can wake up tomorrow" -- sorry... LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: It's OK. MARY: ... "and be who you are?

": JOHN, Father of Leah: And that moment, tears in her eyes, frowning, when she realized: "Oh, I can."

The grin, it went from ear to ear, like immediately.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: John and Mary took Leah to Walmart to pick out new clothes.

LEAH: For so long, I wasn't being me.

And when I was able to just go through and get what I really wanted, wearing what I wanted, it just felt like I was so much more free.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: As Leah began to socially transition, wearing dresses and using her new name, her family became acutely aware of the world around them.

JOHN: If politics were out, wouldn't even be an issue.

This is Leah.

And we were just living our lives.

She's just doing her thing.

But politics, laws, ignorance has created the environment that we're in, and that we have to worry about all this stuff wherever we go.

DONALD TRUMP, Former President of the United States: The left-wing gender insanity being pushed on our children is an act of child abuse.

MICHAEL KNOWLES, Conservative Commentator: Transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely.

(APPLAUSE) REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): Free to kick the biological men out of the women's sports.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Leah's played soccer since she was 3.

It's her favorite sport.

But after her transition, she was dropped from the co-ed team.

She wanted to play with girls, but worried it would be too much of a fight.

And Leah just wanted to play.

So she joined the boys team.

She struggled, hearing the wrong pronouns at every practice.

LEAH: I just have always loved soccer.

I feel like that was kind of my escape.

And now it feels like I'm trying to escape from that now.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: In the months after Leah's social transition, she and her family started thinking about the medical treatments that could help make her body match her gender identity.

Since doctors say those treatments shouldn't begin before puberty, Leah would have to wait.

But her parents agreed to move forward when the time was right.

JOHN: We had our own fears of what a transition was like.

What is that going to do?

I mean, we would sit here day after day and just questions and research and figure stuff out.

The last two years, if you ask me if her as a 12-year-old can understand and wrap her head around what's going on and what she thinks she wants, damn right she does, because she's put more work in the last two years than most adults do in their whole lifetime, mentally speaking.

LEAH: Just being able to be me is really important to me, and it makes me feel great.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Gender-affirming care is endorsed by every major American medical association, and they say this treatment is safe and can be lifesaving.

Roughly 1.4 percent of U.S. youth, some 300,000, identify as transgender.

Each can take a slightly different path in their medical treatment or none at all.

Guidelines say care begins with a mental health evaluation.

From there, a young person can take reversible medication to pause puberty.

It gives the person time to consider the next step, either continue with puberty in their gender assigned at birth or receive hormones to make their body match their gender identity.

Those lead to some more permanent changes, like a lower voice or facial hair in transgender boys and breast development in transgender girls.

And, finally, there's surgery, which is rare for minors.

DR. JASON RAFFERTY, American Academy of Pediatrics: This medicine that we practice is incredibly individualized and nuanced.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Dr. Jason Rafferty is a pediatrician and child psychiatrist who wrote the American Academy of Pediatrics' policy statement supporting gender-affirming care.

DR. JASON RAFFERTY: What we see is that, starting with the social affirmation of creating a safe space and allowing people to express who they are, that it can really decrease and even normalize rates of depression, as well as suicidality.

We know that, in terms of medical interventions, that using puberty blockers appropriately, and even when using gender-affirming hormones appropriately, that, similarly, it can decrease negative mental health outcomes.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Despite that, Republican politicians with an eye toward 2024 continue to question rights for trans youth.

NIKKI HALEY (R), Presidential Candidate: How are we supposed to get our girls used to the fact that biological boys are in their locker rooms, and then we wonder why a third of our teenage girls seriously contemplated suicide last year?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: There's no evidence to support that connection.

In fact, it's transgender youth who faced consistently higher rates of depression and are about twice as likely as their peers to attempt suicide.

Republicans have also vilified doctors for providing gender-affirming care.

GOV.

RON DESANTIS (R-FL), Presidential Candidate: They will say it's health care to cut off the private parts of a 14- or 15-year-old?

That is not health care.

That is mutilation.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: How common is gender reassignment surgery on those under the age of 18?

DR. JASON RAFFERTY: Not very common at all.

It is really rare and it's the exception at this point to the rules and, for the most part, the guidelines that are in place.

Still, the issue has animated Republicans in states like Texas, who ordered child abuse investigations into parents of trans youth and made outlawing all medical treatments for trans minors a priority.

The American Civil Liberties Union tracked more than 50 bills targeting the rights of LGBTQ people in Texas this legislative session, more than any other state.

But perhaps no bill drew as much backlash as the one banning gender-affirming care for minors.

Despite trans advocates flooding the halls and chambers of the Texas Capitol for weeks, Governor Greg Abbott signed the bill into law on June 2.

It revokes the licenses of doctors who provide gender-affirming medical care to minors and requires anyone currently on treatment to be weaned off.

Republican Representative Tom Oliverson, an anesthesiologist who ushered the bill through the Texas House, rejects the medical establishment's consensus on gender-affirming care.

There are some estimated 30,000 kids in Texas between the age of 13 and 17 who identify as transgender.

What is your message to them?

STATE REP. TOM OLIVERSON (R-TX): My message to them is that we want you to get the mental health treatments that you need.

We want you to go through this process with therapists and counselors, figure out who you are.

And when you are an adult, you can make decisions for yourself.

We don't allow children in Texas to get tattoos.

We don't allow children in Texas to sign medical consents.

We don't allow children in Texas to drive.

It seems somewhat absurd to me that we would take a child's word for who they think they're going to be at age 30 at age 11.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Dr. Joshua Safer leads the Mount Sinai Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery in New York.

DR. JOSHUA SAFER, Mount Sinai Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery: When people wonder why the medical establishment has not thought of simply counseling people, treating this as a mental health condition, the short answer is, the medical establishment already thought that and spent decades thinking that and acting that.

And that's what has not worked.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Dr. Michelle Forcier is a professor of pediatrics at Brown University.

DR. MICHELLE FORCIER, Brown University: If I had a 10-year-old or an 8-year-old who told me their ear hurt, I wouldn't look at them and say you're only 8 or 10.

You don't know if your hurts, right?

It's important that we listen to kids.

It doesn't mean that a kid says, "I'm trans," and two hours later they get hormones.

It means that we respect kids as individuals.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: We asked Oliverson about Leah.

One of the kids that we have spoken to was in such pain, watching what was happening and what was unfolding in Texas because they live in Texas, they said: "I don't get why they all hate me.

They don't know me."

What do you say to that kid?

STATE REP. TOM OLIVERSON: Well, I mean, obviously I want that kid to get some mental health treatment, so that... LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: They have been going through mental health treatment for a long time.

STATE REP. TOM OLIVERSON: Well, good.

Good.

I mean, that is the appropriate treatment for mental health conditions.

And so I think, childhood, it can be tough sometimes.

I remember being an adolescent.

That's a tough time to figure out who you are and how you sort of fit into that collective of humanity.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Leah is now in puberty.

Since the new Texas law takes effect on September 1, her family's been forced to consider drastic steps to access puberty blockers.

MARY: After our last doctor's visit, we were feeling rushed by the law and were just like, OK, OK, if we do this, we have to go back in August.

So, maybe she can get the puberty blockers starting before September 1.

And it was just this, like, anxiety and this, like, if we don't do this now, what are we going to do?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: John and Mary are now looking at providers in New Mexico.

MARY: It feels like were being pushed out, pushed out of our home, pushed out of our state, pushed out of our jobs.

Like, if we go somewhere, what happens next?

And I don't want to feel like we're constantly on the run.

I don't want to feel like we're refugees in our own country.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: The thought of leaving is what weighs heaviest on Leah.

LEAH: We just have our whole life here.

And the last thing I want to do would be have to move.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Last week, I asked President Biden about Leah's family.

They're afraid.

They are considering leaving not just their state, but the country.

Sir, what do you say to parents like the ones that I spoke to who are contemplating leaving the country because they don't feel safe anymore?

JOE BIDEN, President of the United States: First of all, maybe quietly, when we finish this, you can give me the number of that family, and I will call them, let them know that the president and this administration has their back.

And I mean that.

JOHN: Hearing that was like, oh, finally, we -- with all the negative hate speech that we're hearing, you're actually hearing something positive.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Despite the reassurance, Leah's family is still grappling with what's happening in Texas.

MARY: Once, as a parent, you have been in a place where you have heard your child say that they do not want to live, seen the things we have seen her do to herself, we will do anything to never be back there, anything.

I don't see how that can be considered child abuse.

We're saving her.

We're saving her life.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Laura Barron-Lopez in Texas.

AMNA NAWAZ: Michael R. Jackson is a Pulitzer- and Tony Award-winning playwright and composer.

Tonight, he shares his Brief But Spectacular view, as part of our arts and culture series, Canvas.

MICHAEL R. JACKSON, Playwright and Composer: When I sit down to write, my ultimate goal is to find the truth and to figure out how to harness that truth in a way that the audience that I don't know will be able to perceive and to feel.

"A Strange Loop" began as a monologue that I started writing shortly after I graduated from undergrad living in Jamaica, Queens.

This was around 2002, 2003.

I still hadn't really fully found my voice.

I was still in the process of discovery.

I didn't know how I was going to pay any of my bills.

I just was trying to figure out where my place in the world would be sort of personally and artistically.

I just started writing this kind of thinly veiled personal monologue that was just about a young Black gay man walking around New York wondering why life is so terrible.

Usher is the protagonist of "A Strange Loop."

And he is writing a musical about someone named Usher, who is writing a musical out someone named Usher, who is writing a musical about someone Usher, ad infinitum.

My experience has aligned with Usher in a lot of basic ways, in that I am a fat Black gay man, and I have had struggles with my family over my sexuality in the past.

But our stories are also different, in that Usher is eternally 25 years old, going on 26.

I have gotten older.

I'm 42 years old.

From the start of the monologue to Broadway with "A Strange Loop" was 18 years.

My perspective on "A Strange Loop" changed in a lot of ways over the years, because sort of, as I evolved, the piece evolved.

I often talk about how "A Strange Loop" for some people is a window and for other people it's a mirror, because there are those who watch the story of "A Strange Loop," and they see themselves in it.

For other people, they're not fat, they're not gay, they're not queer, they're not any of the things that Usher is on the outside, but, internally, they feel a kinship with him.

And for those people, they're peering through a window.

And both of those experiences live alongside each other and actually feed each other.

My hopes for the theater and film space is that people start in their art and in the work that has been produced looking more inward and being a little bit more rigorous with themselves and more truthful.

I hope that we get to a point where that is more celebrated and that that is more commonplace.

My name is Michael R. Jackson, and this is my Brief But Spectacular take on writing from the inside out.

AMNA NAWAZ: And that is the "NewsHour" for tonight.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

GEOFF BENNETT: And I'm Geoff Bennett.

Have a good evening.