GEOFF BENNETT: Good evening.

I'm Geoff Bennett.

Amna Nawaz is away.

On the "NewsHour" tonight: Ukraine steps up its counteroffensive against Russia amid increasing aerial attacks.

We talk with the United Nations' top humanitarian official about the ongoing conflict.

The Southern Baptist Convention votes to bar female pastors, ejecting multiple member churches in the process.

And scientists issue increasingly dire warnings about warming oceans and the effects of climate change.

KEVIN TRENBERTH, Climate Scientist, National Center for Atmospheric Research: There's been very little indication that all of the actions that governments and people around the world are taking is really endorsing back the amount of emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

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

The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld a decades-old law on adoptions of Native American children.

The 1978 law gives preference to Native American families.

Most tribal groups supported it, but some Republican-led states and white families argued it's illegally based on race.

A seven-justice majority rejected the challenges.

Parts of the Deep South faced severe weather again today after a first round on Wednesday.

Amateur video showed hail pelting parts of Arkansas, while high winds toppled trees elsewhere.

Several tornadoes touched down in Alabama, damaging buildings.

The storms are being followed by a heat wave that could send temperatures to 100 degrees from Texas to Florida.

A tropical cyclone blasted ashore today in Western India and Southern Pakistan.

The storm made landfall in India's Kush district, with winds gusting to nearly 90 miles an hour.

It brought heavy downpours and forced more than 170,000 people to flee coastal areas.

Tides could rise 18 feet in some places.

In Southern Greece, rescuers searched the Mediterranean for a second day after a migrant boat disaster.

Officials have confirmed nearly 80 people drowned, but hundreds more are missing.

The Greek Coast Guard released images of the battered fishing boat before it sank early Wednesday.

Up to 750 people were crammed on board.

Today, opposition leader Alexis Tsipras visited survivors.

He blamed Europe's migration rules for the disaster.

ALEXIS TSIPRAS, Greek Prime Minister (through translator): There are huge political responsibilities with the migration policy that Europe has been following for years, a migration policy that turns the Mediterranean, our seas, into watery graves.

I think it's time to speak the truth, because this policy has to change.

GEOFF BENNETT: Greek authorities also arrested nine of the survivors today, on suspicion that they helped organize the voyage.

The U.S., South Korea and Japan have again condemned North Korea for firing two short-range ballistic missiles today.

They landed in the Sea of Japan.

The launches came after U.S. and South Korean forces completed their latest joint military attacks.

But the North said the drills provoked its actions.

A scathing report from the British Parliament finds former Prime Minister Boris Johnson lied about staff parties during the COVID lockdown.

A committee of lawmakers says that -- quote - - "He misled the House on an issue of the greatest importance, and did so repeatedly."

Johnson resigned from Parliament last week.

The CDC reports a jump in suicides and homicides among the nation's youth during the pandemic.

The suicide rate for adults in their early 20s reached its highest point in more than 50 years.

The homicide rate for older teenagers was the worst it's been in nearly 25 years.

Factors could include depression, lack of mental health services, and a growing number of guns.

President Biden has renewed his push to eliminate hidden junk fees.

He hosted executives from Live Nation, Airbnb, and others today.

The company is committed to showing actual purchases -- purchase prices up front.

JOE BIDEN, President of the United States: I'm asking their competitors to follow suit and adopt an all-in up-front pricing as well.

This is -- this is a win for consumers, in my view, and proof that our crackdown on junk fees has real momentum.

But there's more to do.

GEOFF BENNETT: The president has also called on Congress to pass legislation to end surprise fees.

Retailers and the White House welcomed news today that dockworkers and West Coast port operators have agreed on a tentative contract.

Several work disruptions had snarled operations at 29 ports during more than a year of negotiations.

The new contract promises higher wages for 22,000 workers who handle 40 percent of U.S. imports.

And on Wall Street, stocks moved higher on a broad-based rally.

Major indexes were up more than 1 percent.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 428 points to close at 34408 the Nasdaq rose 156 points.

The S&P 500 added 53.

Still to come on the "NewsHour": we speak to the U.N.'s top humanitarian official about the toll of conflicts around the world; an investigation reveals the rampant environmental and human rights abuses at sea; and we look at the life of actor-turned-politician Glenda Jackson.

The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog visited Europe's largest nuclear plant today near the front lines in Southern Ukraine.

The Zaporizhzhia power plant is under Russian control and uses water from the Dnipro river to cool its reactors.

But a major dam near the plant was destroyed last week, potentially depriving it of that vital water.

Contingency measures to stabilize the plant are under way, while, elsewhere in Ukraine, a major counteroffensive is taking shape.

Emma Murphy of Independent Television News reports from the front lines.

EMMA MURPHY: They didn't start this war, but their hard fight is to end it.

This is Ukraine's counteroffensive, heavy weapons for heavy battles.

Their fight is hard and complicated with what they are fighting with.

This gun is from the 1980s, the ammunition from the 1950s.

It is unreliable and the fix is rudimentary.

How important is this counteroffensive?

OLEKSANDR, Senior Officer, 57th Brigade (through translator): It is very, very important, because we need to liberate the occupied territory of Ukraine, so civilians under Russian occupation can be brought back to Ukraine.

EMMA MURPHY: They hide their treasure well, then make its presence felt.

They're using heavy artillery like this to break down Russian infantry positions over the ridge just beyond there.

This counteroffensive will not be fast.

It will be slow, grinding and a fight for every single meter.

ITV News spent two days on the front line with Ukrainian forces.

Were they all soldiers or volunteers?

MAN: Different.

Different.

EMMA MURPHY: Different.

An army made up of professional soldiers and civilians who've become fighters.

Through fields reminiscent of battles past, they showed us the technology that has changed the way of warfare.

Drones have been absolutely crucial to the way this war has been waged.

And they will be even more important in the counteroffensive.

The unit commander tells me the drones allow them to find Russian positions up to two miles, then strike their men and their machinery.

They move on foot because vehicles are a target.

At the forward command base, the drones and artillery a coordinated.

What happens here drives the counteroffensive.

This base is very close to the fighting, and missiles fly above them continually.

Sergei explains how he receives information on the targets from the drone teams and coordinates the firing units.

And where is that place there?

Is that... SERGIE, Ukrainian Soldier: It's Bakhmut.

EMMA MURPHY: Bakhmut, right.

On the armored wall amid all the technology, someone has hung a Ukrainian prayer for soldiers.

They all pray for an end to this war, and know their work might hasten.

As we speak, another hit is called for.

Here, they are able to see the results of their work, watching the strikes in real time.

But Russia has the same power to survey an attack, so elaborate trenches lead to the Western weaponry so crucial to Ukraine's survival, pieces like this provided by Poland seven months ago.

They go out to fire, but there's a problem.

A Russian drone has been spotted.

Breaking cover risks being hit.

They pull back below the camouflage and hope.

While they wait for safer skies, they explain how they work and sleep in their position for days.

The Ukrainians won't say how many soldiers they have lost, but it's thought to be close to 20,000.

Every soldier knows the counterassault is much more dangerous than defense.

"This gun helps us slowly get back our land," Alexei says, but insists there's still a need for more weaponry and ammunition.

When finally the drone seems to be gone, they prepare to break cover once more.

They know after firing, it can be less than five minutes for the Russians to identify their position and hit back.

They have lost many colleagues that way, a note to take shelter.

Later, the commander sums up the mood of his troops.

OLEKSANDR (through translator): We are all trying our best, and we want all of this to finish as soon as possible.

We are doing everything to achieve it.

EMMA MURPHY: The counteroffensive won't end this war, but it will certainly shape the future of it.

GEOFF BENNETT: In Ukraine, floodwaters are receding more than a week after the destruction of a major dam that severely inundated surrounding towns.

But the damage is evolving into a long-term environmental and humanitarian disaster, with far-reaching consequences.

Thousands of people have been displaced, hundreds of thousands left without normal access to drinking water, and Ukraine fears losing millions of tons of crops.

Martin Griffiths is the humanitarian affairs chief for the United Nations and joins us now to talk about the relief effort in Ukraine and in other parts of the world.

Thank you for being with us.

The scale of destruction following that dam collapse is enormous, some 700,000 people without access to drinking water.

How is your team on the ground addressing the immense challenge of providing humanitarian aid to those affected?

MARTIN GRIFFITHS, U.N. Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator: Well, right now, we're reaching about 200,000 people.

And we do this through a whole series of daily convoys, delivering aid, but also helping evacuation for those that need to leave.

We're very worried about the secondary consequences, which you have been mentioning; 700,000 people have been robbed of safe drinking water as a result of that catastrophe.

GEOFF BENNETT: Last week, Ukraine's President Zelenskyy, as I'm sure you know, said he was - - quote -- "shocked" at what he called the initial failure of the U.N. and the Red Cross to help after the dam was destroyed.

How do you respond to that criticism?

MARTIN GRIFFITHS: Well, I respond by saying that I completely understand his frustration.

And it's a frustration which comes from a leader who has enormous empathy with his people.

It's true that response to sudden disasters like that, whether it's a dam blown up or an earthquake, as we saw in Syria and Turkey recently, getting aid to the people immediately is sometimes a frustration.

But we were there later that day.

And, as I say, we have reached 200,000 people so far.

GEOFF BENNETT: Ukraine says that Russia is shelling boats trying to evacuate residents from inundated areas.

There are documented instances of Russian officials shutting down routes to affected areas and, in some cases, blocking volunteers who try to deliver help.

As you see it, is Russia actively sabotaging the relief effort?

MARTIN GRIFFITHS: I don't know the answer to that question.

What I do know is that we are seeking access to the other side of the river, to the side which is under Russian occupation.

And we, in seeking the understanding of the Russian Federation, as well as, of course, Ukraine, to enable us to do that, and we're standing by ready to cross that river, because we haven't had access to the many, many thousands of people across that front, across the line of conflict.

GEOFF BENNETT: Do you expect that will change?

Last week, as I understand it, you met with Russia's U.N. ambassador to talk about this?

MARTIN GRIFFITHS: Yes, I did.

And it was a useful conversation.

And we have subsequently put into play what we call a humanitarian notification system.

And we have notified the two -- the Russian Federation and Ukraine of our plan, and we're seeking their reaction to it as we speak.

And I hope it works.

I hope we're able to do it.

GEOFF BENNETT: There's also, of course, the domino effect of these floods.

It has inundated agricultural areas, which means that there will be a likely much lower grain export, which will lead to higher prices around the globe and less for people to eat.

How is the U.N. planning to confront that specific challenge?

MARTIN GRIFFITHS: We have an operation in the Black Sea to take Ukrainian grain across the Black Sea and out to the world.

I worry a lot about the effect on global food prices and, as much as anything, on global food availability.

We will see the extent of that damage as the waters recede.

It is a catastrophe for the world.

GEOFF BENNETT: A question about that grain deal.

President Putin said that he is thinking about walking away from that deal when it expires next month.

How real is that possibility?

And what might convince him to stay?

MARTIN GRIFFITHS: My response would be, that is, don't let the Black Sea initiative fail, because the needs of the people in the global South, the needs of global food security are as keen now as ever.

And, as you know, there will be a visit of six heads of state of African countries to Kyiv and to the Russian Federation in the next few days.

They will be making that message very, very clear.

GEOFF BENNETT: As you mentioned those African countries, let's shift our focus to Sudan, because more than half of that population stands in dire need of humanitarian assistance.

Large parts of the country remain inaccessible to aid.

Millions of people have been confined to their homes.

What kind of challenge does the crisis in Sudan present to the U.N.?

MARTIN GRIFFITHS: I think it's massive.

There's nowhere in the world that I'm more worried than I am today about Sudan.

There are just shy of nine million people in Darfur who need humanitarian aid and who have not received any aid, since the two months of this particular conflict.

We have been trying to get aid in there, whether from across the border in Chad or from the Eastern Sudan, and we have failed to get the necessary assurances from the two militaries to allow it to deliver safely.

That's an extraordinary priority for all of us.

Just under half-a-million people have left Sudan in these 10 weeks to find safety in the neighboring countries, many of those countries fragile themselves.

So, I'm very worried about how it's evolving.

And we look to see the African Union, of course, take a lead in actually bringing a resolved end to the conflict as soon as possible.

GEOFF BENNETT: The Taliban has banned most women from working for national and international NGOs.

That has affected the delivery of aid across that country.

Last time we spoke with you on this program, you said the Taliban was working on guidelines to allow women to get back to work.

It's now been six months.

Has there been any progress?

MARTIN GRIFFITHS: We haven't seen the guidelines.

That's for sure.

Promises don't allow women to work.

We need to see a reality that needs to change.

And those edicts need to be revoked.

What we're doing at the moment, Geoff, in Afghanistan is to work for women, with women through principally Afghan NGOs, of course, because of the exemptions and exceptions and permissions that we can obtain from the Taliban, both nationally and regionally.

An exception doesn't prove the rule.

An exception still means that women and girls in Afghanistan are a repressed minority or, indeed, majority.

We need to see some sort of a viability of the reentry into the life of the country.

And that will also mean that the international community can engage to give the people of Afghanistan a proper chance, not just through humanitarian aid, but through the help for the economy, help to counterterrorism, all the aspects which make the safety of Afghanistan important for all of us.

GEOFF BENNETT: As we wrap up our conversation, I read where you once said humanitarians want to be driven out of business by the resolution of conflicts.

But it strikes me that the work that you and your team do is now needed more than ever.

How do you see it?

MARTIN GRIFFITHS: It's terrifying.

We have this under-$60 billion program around the world this year.

We will probably get half of that funded.

It's increasing enormously.

We have 340 million people around the world who need humanitarian aid.

That's equivalent to the third largest country in the world without its population.

And what's needed is for people to stop thinking that war solves the problems of their state.

The people need to understand that casual acts of violence have long-term consequences.

We say that because we're there in those front lines, Geoff, that you mentioned, but everybody knows this be true.

This is a common message for all of us.

GEOFF BENNETT: Martin Griffiths is the humanitarian affairs chief for the United Nations.

Thank you for your time.

MARTIN GRIFFITHS: Thanks very much.

GEOFF BENNETT: The Southern Baptist Convention, the nation's largest Protestant denomination, has moved dramatically to bar women from holding leadership roles in its churches.

The organization voted overwhelmingly yesterday to finalize the expulsion of two churches for having female pastors.

That's Saddleback Church in Southern California and Fern Creek Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky.

Before the vote, Rick Warren, the retired founding pastor of Saddleback, one of the biggest and most prominent churches in the country, tried making a case for unity to those attending the annual meeting in New Orleans by focusing on the faith's message.

RICK WARREN, Founding Pastor, Saddleback Church: Now, the Baptist faith and message is 4,032 words.

Saddleback disagrees with one word.

That's 99.9999999999999 in agreement.

Isn't that close enough?

GEOFF BENNETT: But his plea was unsuccessful.

Let's dig deeper into the impact with someone directly affected by it, the Reverend Linda Barnes Popham.

She's led Fern Creek Baptist Church for over 30 years.

Thank you for being with us.

REV.

LINDA BARNES POPHAM, Pastor, Fern Creek Baptist Church: You're so welcome.

Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: And, as we mentioned, the vote by the Southern Baptist Convention was overwhelming.

Members voted by a ratio of 9-1 to expel your church and Saddleback.

And Albert Mohler, who is president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, he explained his opposition to female pastors this way: ALBERT MOHLER, President, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary: It's a matter of biblical commitment, a commitment to the scripture that unequivocally, we believe, limits the office of pastor to men.

It is an issue of biblical authority.

GEOFF BENNETT: And there are other SBC members who note that the Roman Catholic Church also does not allow women to serve as pastors or priests.

How do you respond to that, that this is a matter of biblical integrity?

REV.

LINDA BARNES POPHAM: I certainly believe it's a matter of biblical integrity.

However, I also know that the spirit gives illumination to our hearts and minds, and we're able to interpret the Scripture through the Holy Spirit's leading.

I believe that the Bible is God's perfect word.

I believe every word in the Bible, but there are passages such as those in 1st Timothy, in Corinthians that our church would interpret differently than Albert Mohler interprets them and, obviously, the majority of the people who attend a convention meeting interpret them.

GEOFF BENNETT: Why did you want to maintain your membership?

There are any number of Baptist churches that are thriving that aren't affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention.

What significance did membership hold for you and your congregation?

REV.

LINDA BARNES POPHAM: It's been like family for all of these many years.

And we're heavily involved in the Woman's Missionary Union in Southern Baptist life.

And we like partnering.

We like the evangelistic zeal of the Southern Baptist Convention.

We like partnering in missions.

And so, therefore, we have continued, even though we have not agreed on everything.

There are many things in which I disagree with different leaders and different pastors.

But I just believe that we're supposed to be under this great umbrella together, because we agree that Jesus Christ is lord, and he's the reason we're here in the first place, to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

And we ought to be able to be partners together in that.

That should not at all divide us.

But, instead, the Bible has been used like a weapon of some of these folks, a weapon against those of us who believe it as strongly as they do.

We just interpret it differently.

GEOFF BENNETT: On that point, do you see a political aspect to this?

Because there are people who point to what they see as the internal politics, that this vote came on the heels of a devastating report of sexual abuse within the SBC by male church leaders.

And, more broadly, there is a wing of the Southern Baptist Convention that wants to reverse what it sees as a liberal drift.

REV.

LINDA BARNES POPHAM: Oh, I wholeheartedly agree that there are internal political maneuverings, deeds done in darkness, in which we won't really understand.

The reason I believe that is, two years ago, only two years ago, the Credentials Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention deemed us in friendly cooperation with the convention.

And what happened in two years?

How could, two years ago, many of the same committee members want to keep us and then, two years after that, decide that we are no longer in friendly cooperation?

And they let me know then by their spokesperson we were in friendlier cooperation with the Southern Baptist Convention and with the Baptist faith and message than many, many of the other churches.

So, what changed?

Of course, there are some kind of political maneuverings going on.

GEOFF BENNETT: As I understand it, after you spoke on the floor at the annual meeting, a woman from Texas brought her daughter over to you, and the daughter was weeping.

I wonder if you can share that story.

REV.

LINDA BARNES POPHAM: Oh, wow, what a poignant moment.

The child came over.

I had never seen this girl she comes to me and is sobbing.

I took her in my arms.

And she said: "I'm Lottie.

I'm 14 years old.

And at age 11, I knew God called me into ministry.

What can I do?

I don't have a place to serve."

And her family, her parents are heavily steeped in Southern Baptist life, just like we were here.

So what's that child going to do?

We promised little Lottie that, when she graduates from high school, she can come here as one of our interns, and we will help to mentor her, as well as having her wonderful parents that we just met who will mentor her as well.

But we're happy to do that.

And wherever we might be as a church at that time, I'm sure we will embrace little Lottie.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, how do you feel on a personal level -- you have been affiliated with Fern Creek for some 40 years, you have been serving as pastor for more than 30 years - - to have fellow faith leaders reject you, when you, I imagine, believe in your heart that you were following a calling?

How does that feel?

REV.

LINDA BARNES POPHAM: It is hurtful.

But I have to say, there's some righteous indignation in here too because of the hypocrisy that I feel like is going on.

The same people who have told me to my face, so many of those, what an exemplary church, and we wish other Southern Baptist churches were like you, I have heard that so many times over the years, that I didn't even think that this time would ever come in Southern Baptists life, because we're very evangelical.

We're mission-minded.

We're conservative.

And I just didn't think it would happen to us.

GEOFF BENNETT: What message do you think this vote sends to women who serve in leadership roles throughout the church, whether it's leading the music ministry or the youth ministry, running Sunday school?

REV.

LINDA BARNES POPHAM: I think it says, women, go somewhere else.

Find a place of service outside of this denomination.

We really don't want to deal with you.

But the message that I want to give to the world really is about Jesus Christ, that Jesus Christ is lord.

And let's do that together, male and female, and sons and daughters are prophesying.

And let's do that together in partnership.

And I do believe that Jesus would say to those, woe to you.

I think he would sadly say, woe to you, scribes and pharisees and teachers that the law, you hypocrites.

You are not majoring on the right things.

You have departed from the most important things.

You have neglected the things that God wants you to be doing.

I think it's just a sad day.

GEOFF BENNETT: Linda Barnes Popham is pastor at Fern Creek Baptist Church.

Pastor Linda, thanks so much for your time.

REV.

LINDA BARNES POPHAM: Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: The ocean is rapidly heating up, hitting record-breaking levels.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, better known as NOAA, reported this week that ocean surface temperatures spiked in April and May to the highest levels recorded since the 1950s.

This could have dangerous consequences for aquatic life, hurricane activity and global weather patterns.

To better understand what's happening, Amna spoke recently with Kevin Trenberth, a distinguished scholar at the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

AMNA NAWAZ: Kevin Trenberth, welcome back to the "NewsHour."

And thanks for joining us for.

So, those temperature increases have a lot of folks very concerned.

And charts like this one that -- this is from a retired math professor named Eliot Jacobson - - have gone viral.

This one shows mean temperatures from 1982 to 2023 in the North Atlantic Sea.

That red line that is way above all the other lines is 2023.

Should that increase concern us?

KEVIN TRENBERTH, Climate Scientist, National Center for Atmospheric Research: Oh, indeed.

And, of course, it's not just the North Atlantic.

It's all around the world at the moment.

AMNA NAWAZ: And tell us why.

Why are we seeing those increases?

And what should we understand about them?

KEVIN TRENBERTH: We have written reports every year for a number of years now.

And the oceans as a whole for the top two kilometers of the ocean is -- are the warmest on record.

2022 is the warmest year on record.

2021 was the warmest year before that.

2020 was the warmest year before that.

So, global warming is clearly happening.

The other thing which is playing a major role at the moment is that, over the past three years, we have had La Nina conditions, relatively cool conditions from the dateline to the Americas in the Tropical Pacific Ocean.

Now we are into El Nino conditions, rather warm conditions.

There is a pronounced warming off the west coast of South America, Peru and Ecuador, that is disrupting the fisheries and so on there.

And it has warmed across all of that sector there, so that the oceans, the sea surface temperature now as a whole is the warmest on record and has been April, May and into June.

And we're running two-tenths of a degree Celsius above anything prior to that and substantially above the long-term average.

AMNA NAWAZ: So let's talk about one of the impacts of that.

What do those two conditions coming together mean right now as we're moving into hurricane season, in particular, where you have an El Nino event is under way and the warming of the ocean temperatures?

What does that mean?

KEVIN TRENBERTH: Yes.

It means that, along with the general weather that goes on, there are hot spots in the ocean that are becoming increasingly intense and frequent.

And those hot spots tend to attract a lot of weather activity above them, convection of different kinds.

Small-scale storms, they intensify.

Tropical cyclones or hurricanes that are in that area, they move around naturally.

And so it's a little difficult to say exactly where these spots are going to be.

But the fact that they are occurring more and more is a part of this overall global warming signature that we have.

And they have real consequences in many ways.

AMNA NAWAZ: What about the impact of those warmer waters on aquatic life?

I'm sure you saw there were some pictures that got a lot of attention recently showing thousands of dead fish washing ashore along the Texas Gulf Coast in recent days.

How much of that is attributed to those warmer waters?

KEVIN TRENBERTH: Well, with global warming, the -- over 90 percent of the excess energy which is being generated every day goes into the oceans.

And on the -- in the oceans, it warms from the top down.

And that means there's warm water sitting on top of cold water, which is a very stable configuration.

So, one of the things we have been able to document is that the oceans are becoming more stratified.

That means that the natural exchanges of air of all kinds, including carbon dioxide and oxygen, going into the ocean are a bit less than they used to be.

Now, in general, this is overcome by wave actions, so buy all sorts of disturbances in the atmosphere, but in conditions where there are no waves, where there's no wind to speak of.

And I believe that's what happened in the Gulf.

In the Gulf, it can also be complicated by nutrient runoff, some pollution in the Gulf itself.

Those conditions come together and create anoxic conditions, no oxygen for the fish.

And so you have this big die-off.

AMNA NAWAZ: And so, Kevin, big picture, when people see these increases in temperatures and it catches their attention, causes concerns, they see global sea and air temperatures are at record highs for this time of year, what should they understand about that?

How much of that is attributed to climate change?

And do we expect that increase to continue?

KEVIN TRENBERTH: The first part of the year is going to hold it down.

So 2023 may not quite be the warmest year on record.

At the moment, I think that's really held by 2016.

But it'll be close.

And it could well be.

But 2024 certainly is looking as though it's going to be the warmest year on record.

And part of this is El Nino.

But, certainly, the relentless increases in temperatures around the world are related to the global warming problem that we have, to climate change.

AMNA NAWAZ: And do these increases say to you in any way that the rate of climate change is accelerating?

That's the other concern we have heard.

KEVIN TRENBERTH: It is indeed the case that the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere continues to go up, and it continues to go up at close to record levels.

There's been very little indication that all of the actions that governments and people around the world are taking is really knocking back the amount of emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

This is really the bottom line as to how the atmosphere is changing.

And carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas.

It produces global warming.

AMNA NAWAZ: That is Kevin Trenberth, distinguished scholar at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, joining us tonight.

Thank you for your time.

KEVIN TRENBERTH: You're most welcome.

GEOFF BENNETT: Now to a different and darker story of humans and the high seas.

The world's oceans are in many ways, lawless places, where piracy, overfishing, toxic waste, dumping, and even murder are routine.

William Brangham has this look at the outlaw oceans and a case of cold-blooded killings on the water.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: It all started with a lost cell phone found in the back of a taxicab in Fiji.

And on that phone was cell phone video filmed on a ship in the Indian Ocean and showing what clearly seemed to be a series of cold-blooded murders.

Tracing that crime, who the victims were, who the killers were, and who in the end was responsible has been the work of a journalistic collaborative called The Outlaw Ocean Project.

Let's see an excerpt from their story reported by the group's head, Ian Urbina.

And a warning: What you're about to see is disturbing.

IAN URBINA, The Outlaw Ocean Project: A 10 minute slow-motion slaughter caught on camera.

The footage had gone viral.

Interpol had come to me, as this is exactly the sort of brutality at sea I report on.

I could tell the capsized boat was a traditional East African dhow while the shooting is being ordered in Chinese.

The circumstances surrounding these killings have remained a mystery.

No one even reported the incident, and no one was doing anything about it.

How could such a crime happen and remain untouched?

What made offshore violence different and near impossible to solve?

A breakthrough came from a private open-source intelligence company called Trygg Mat Tracking.

I contacted them and asked to help investigate this crime, since virtually no one else in the world was doing so.

DUNCAN COPELAND, Executive Director, Trygg Mat Tracking: My name is Duncan Copeland.

I'm the executive director of Trygg Mat Tracking, commonly known as TMT.

What we did was, we pieced together, from the very grainy and very shaky footage, different areas of the vessel.

We then ran a comparison through our systems.

And, in the end, we looked at over 3,000 photos of around 300 vessels.

And, luckily, we were able to hit on two vessels that match enough of the features and one, in particular, that had a fairly high confidence level.

And that boat was a vessel called the Ping Shin No.

101.

So, Taiwan was the flag state, but it also been licensed by Seychelles for some time to operate in their waters.

IAN URBINA: It's a complex picture, ships that belong to one country and who fly the flag of another with an international crew.

The Ping Shin No.

101 belonged to Taiwan, one of the largest fleets in the world.

It had a Chinese captain, a boson and deckhands from a half-dozen different countries.

It was part of a notorious scofflaw fleet operating under other national flags that allowed it to breach international fishing laws with regular impunity.

It was already under the E.U.

's yellow card system for violations and aggression to smaller artisanal vessels.

Operating in a pack, the Ping Shin 101 had all the advantages over that patch of ocean.

A small dhow didn't stand a chance.

In collaboration with TMT, my staff combed thousands of Facebook pages and open-source images, and we were able to identify the culprits, if not the cause, of the killing.

DUNCAN COPELAND: This was not a piracy attack.

In this case, the crew interviews seemed to indicate that this had been taken to a whole other level by this particular captain, and that he had become very aggressive and very confrontational with other vessels that might be fishing in the region that he wanted to target.

IAN URBINA: The captain not only ordered the security guards to fire, but at one point actually took the weapon and fired it himself.

It was certainly more than the four people killed that you see on camera that died that day.

And, more likely, it was closer to 10 or 15.

What became obvious to me is that were it not for a killing caught on a cell phone camera left carelessly in a taxi in Fiji, no one anywhere would have known that this had taken place.

Despite dozens of witnesses and troves of evidence, violent crimes occur regularly and with full impunity, because the work force that operates in this space is poor, invisible, and has no leverage with the law.

It also occurs because there's no requirement under maritime law to report it, no central database for logging crimes, and flag registries don't want investigations that may require them to actually do something about it, because the legalities of doing so are complex and costly.

The old saying is, crime is only countered as much as it is counted.

And, at that sea, that's not much.

There are no skid marks on the outlaw ocean.

Here, bodies and evidence simply sink beneath the waves.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: And joining me now is journalist Ian Urbina, head of The Outlaw Ocean Project.

You and I talked eight years ago at this very table about this case that you document in this piece.

Back then, the video had just recently come to light.

You detail this somewhat in your piece, but tell us a little bit more about why it took so long to get to the bottom of this.

IAN URBINA: Yes.

I mean, it's just shocking reality of crimes that sea that, typically, there isn't interest from governments or law enforcement.

Partially, that's it's a difficult place to investigate, and evidence is sparse, the jurisdiction and who has the right to investigate and what to do with that evidence, if you can find it.

And, in this case, we had the evidence of cell phone footage, but it wasn't clear when, where and who were the culprits and the victims.

So, for all these reasons, no government wanted to touch it.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: And you don't have any reason to believe that this is a one-off, isolated case.

IAN URBINA: Unfortunately not.

I mean, you hear when you talk with deckhands from distant water fishing vessels about egregious crimes.

The U.N. in 2009 did a deep investigation of deckhands on the South China Sea and found that 49 percent of deckhands had witnessed murder of other crew on board the ships they have worked.

So this is not... WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Almost half.

IAN URBINA: That's right.

This is not unusual.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: You do a whole series of investigative reports in this project.

And one of them, it's touched on in this, and you seem to be getting at the same, is that many of these workers on the high seas are basically indentured or slave-like.

Again, how does that circumstance come to be?

IAN URBINA: So, distant water fishing in general is a high-labor, low-profit industry.

Most middle-class First World countries do not want to work those jobs.

And so recruitment of deckhand tends to focus on the global South.

The manning agency or employment agencies tend to recruit inland, often illiterate, very poor workers.

Indonesia, Philippines are big producers of labor.

These folks get recruited onto the vessels, and then spend two years at sea, sometimes upwards of three.

And, often, they're debt-bonded, in the sense that they get recruited, they don't have any money, they don't have the funds to make that trip.

So they accrue a debt with the trafficker.

And that debt is handed over to the captain, and then they have to work to pay off that debt.

And that's the debt bondage.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: And obviously, no unions, no polices, no one, no H.R.

departments to be going to.

IAN URBINA: Quite right.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Another one of the episodes in your series features what's called the Magic Pipe.

Can you explain what that is and why shipping companies use that?

IAN URBINA: The Magic Pipe is -- it's usually a four-or-five-meter-long tube that connects the storage container that holds the dirtiest waste on shipping vessels that you're supposed to carry, and then unload when you get into port.

And it's costly and time-consuming for large ships to do it the right way, the legal way.

So the solution is, you want a Magic Pipe that goes underneath the ship and disappears - - that's what magic -- this sludge, this oil into the ocean.

And it's easy to get away with it because no one's out there looking for it.

So, oil spills are bad, but intentional spilling is much worse.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: And this is -- your report documents how, because there is no overarching governing authority that's able to sort of enforce any of these rules, that that's why these things just go on.

Is there any push to try to create some form of more efficient jurisdiction and enforce these types of laws, or not?

IAN URBINA: So, the notion of having a international police force, Blue Helmets of the high seas, some -- is not one that carries much traction, especially in this day and age.

So there isn't really a push for that.

There are alternate efforts.

So all these ships at some point have to come to land.

And so they're entering ports.

Those nations, if they want, can sign on to various agreements that say, essentially, when any ship comes into your port, you're going to check for these things.

And there are other decentralized tactics, like using satellites to monitor where ships are going and what they're up to, and then applying pressure to the market players, the companies that benefit from these vessels, and saying, you're associated with crimes.

Are you OK with that?

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: All right, it is called The Outlaw Ocean Project.

Ian Urbina, good to see you.

IAN URBINA: Thanks for having me.

GEOFF BENNETT: British actor Glenda Jackson has died at the age of 87.

The two-time Oscar winner had a 23-year second act as a member of British Parliament.

She later returned to the stage, winning a Tony in 2018 for her role in "Three Tall Women."

Jeffrey Brown sat down with Jackson that year to talk about both of her remarkable careers.

As we mark her passing, here's a look back at that conversation.

JEFFREY BROWN: It was quite a return.

After 23 years away from the theater, Glenda Jackson took to the stage of London's Old Vic in 2016 in Shakespeare's "King Lear" playing Lear.

GLENDA JACKSON, Actress and Politician: That's one of the endearing things about the theater.

I can put it into a kind of immediate context.

You work with people, you may not see them for decades, you bump into them in the street, and it's as though you have just walked out to the same coffee bar.

You know, there's no time gap.

JEFFREY BROWN: Now 82, Jackson is back on Broadway for the first time since 1988, starring with Laurie Metcalf and Alison Pill in Edward Albee's "Three Tall Women."

It's a play about memory and aging that appealed to Jackson partly because of its strong female roles, something she says is a rarity.

We talked recently at the famed Sardi's Restaurant in Times Square.

GLENDA JACKSON: It has been my experience, ever since I first walked onto a stage and got paid for it, that contemporary dramatists find women really, really boring.

We are never, or hardly ever, the kind of dramatic engine of what they are writing.

JEFFREY BROWN: Why do you think that that's been the case?

GLENDA JACKSON: You're a man.

You tell me.

Why do men, who are in the main still the majority of contemporary dramatists, find us so boring?

They just don't seem to think that being a woman is either interesting or dramatic or challenging or dangerous, or any of the things that any woman in the world knows our lives can and not infrequently are.

JEFFREY BROWN: And has this been a problem for you in your career in finding roles that you like?

GLENDA JACKSON: Well, of course it's a problem.

JEFFREY BROWN: Yes.

GLENDA JACKSON: And it's a problem that doesn't seem to have changed.

That is bemusing to me, because it hasn't shifted in all the years that I was in the theater, and now I am back in it.

JEFFREY BROWN: It's hard to imagine anyone finding Glenda Jackson boring.

Beginning in the 1960s, Jackson was a prominent presence on stage and screen on both sides of the Atlantic.

GLENDA JACKSON: I could never love you.

JEFFREY BROWN: She reached wide fame in the 1969 film "Women in Love," for which she won her first Academy Award for best actress.

Her performances, often playing strong, dynamic women, continued to win acclaim and awards, including two Emmys for the 1971 BBC series "Elizabeth R," which aired on public television's "Masterpiece Theatre."

She won a second Oscar for the 1973 film "A Touch of Class."

But in 1988, Jackson, a longtime critic of the government of conservative British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, left acting for what would become a decades-long political career as a Labor Party member of the British Parliament.

GLENDA JACKSON: By far, the most dramatic and heinous demonstration of Thatcherism was where every single shop doorway, every single night, became the bedroom, the living room, the bathroom for the homeless.

JEFFREY BROWN: When you left acting, was it because you had done enough or had enough?

GLENDA JACKSON: Good heavens, no.

JEFFREY BROWN: No.

GLENDA JACKSON: My country was being destroyed.

Anything I could do that was legal to get Margaret Thatcher out, and her government out, I was prepared to have a go at, and because everything I had been taught to regard as vices, she told me were virtues.

Greed wasn't greed.

It was doughty independence.

Selfishness wasn't selfishness.

It was taking care of your immediate responsibilities.

JEFFREY BROWN: Did you come to feel that you accomplished something meaningful as a politician?

Was it... GLENDA JACKSON: Not as an individual, because the idea that you have individual power in that sense is actually not true.

You have clear responsibilities towards your own constituents and your own constituency.

And that was for me the most interesting part of it.

But, yes, we did make changes.

But then, of course, along came the Iraq War, and it went boom, like that, as far as I was concerned.

JEFFREY BROWN: One issue she championed, women's rights in the home and workplace.

I asked if she was surprised by the force of the MeToo movement now.

GLENDA JACKSON: What surprises me is that people are surprised.

I mean, in my country, for example, two women die every week at the hands of their partner, not infrequently male, usually, invariably male, every week.

Now, that's not on the front pages of our newspapers every week.

So this sudden almost cataclysm of surprise, shock, horror, how could this have happened, I don't buy it.

I mean, people are deluding themselves.

I mean, we fail to acknowledge it, we fail to really work to eradicate it, and it -- it takes more than just being shocked to eradicate it.

JEFFREY BROWN: So, for you personally, do you have any regrets about having taken the time away from acting to be a politician?

GLENDA JACKSON: No.

JEFFREY BROWN: No.

GLENDA JACKSON: I mean, it is an inordinate privilege to be a member of Parliament.

I mean, people give you their trust, and they also give you what I regard as their most valuable right in a sense, their vote.

And that is a very humbling and privileged experience to have.

JEFFREY BROWN: So, now that you're back, do you plan to continue acting?

GLENDA JACKSON: Well, I would hope to.

Yes.

I mean yes.

It's one of the things that have been and is at the moment very central and essential in my life, if the work is that exciting and daunting as I have been privileged to experience over the past couple of years.

JEFFREY BROWN: For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Jeffrey Brown on Broadway in New York.

GEOFF BENNETT: And that is the "NewsHour" for tonight.

Join us again here tomorrow night, when we will speak with Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who jumped into the Republican presidential race this week.

I'm Geoff Bennett.

Amna is back tomorrow.

Thanks for spending part of your evening with us.