AMNA NAWAZ: Good evening.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

GEOFF BENNETT: And I'm Geoff Bennett.

On the "News Hour" tonight: The Justice Department and the U.S.

attorney leading the case against former FBI Director James Comey face heightened scrutiny for their handling of the indictment.

AMNA NAWAZ: President Trump fosters public and private investment between the U.S.

and Saudi Arabia, including a rare earths deal to counter China.

GEOFF BENNETT: And state bans on abortion pills give rise to underground networks.

ASHABA, Teacher: Because I have daughters, because I have friends, because I have loved ones that I want to see safe, and I know I cannot wait on a system that does not and has not cared for us.

(BREAK) AMNA NAWAZ: Welcome to the "News Hour."

President Trump is expected to sign a bill requiring the Justice Department to release its files on the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The Senate forwarded the measure to the White House today, only days after Mr.

Trump withdrew his opposition.

GEOFF BENNETT: Attorney General Pam Bondi today sidestepped questions about releasing the documents, saying only that she would follow the law.

PAM BONDI, U.S.

Attorney General: We will continue to follow the law with maximum transparency while protecting victims.

GEOFF BENNETT: In more fallout related to the Epstein case, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers resigned from the board of directors at OpenAI days after Congress released documents that showed Summers shared a close relationship with Epstein.

The DOJ, meantime, is facing more scrutiny over the handling of its case against former FBI Director James Comey.

I spoke earlier about both developments with Josh Gerstein, senior legal affairs reporter for Politico.

Josh Gerstein, welcome back to the "News Hour."

JOSH GERSTEIN, Politico: Good to be with you.

GEOFF BENNETT: So to refresh memories, James Comey is accused of lying during a 2020 congressional hearing about whether he authorized leaks to the press.

He has pleaded not guilty.

But, today, Lindsey Halligan, President Trump's handpicked U.S.

attorney, admitted the full grand jury didn't see the final indictment handed up against James Comey.

Tell us more about that.

JOSH GERSTEIN: Right.

Well, this was something of a surprise turn during the hearing.

We expected it to focus primarily on whether this was a vindictive, selective prosecution case against Comey brought at President Trump's insistence.

But at a certain point, it turned sharply, and the judge became very focused on this issue of whether the final indictment of Comey, which was a two-count indictment, instead of the three counts that Halligan originally proposed, ever went before the full grand jury.

It sounds like it was sort of modified after the grand jury voted on the first indictment and then prepared in Halligan's office and taken directly to the judge by the foreperson of the grand jury without that paper ever traveling into the grand jury room.

GEOFF BENNETT: Has something like that ever happened before?

JOSH GERSTEIN: There have sometimes been cases where prosecutors modify an indictment or retype an indictment after it is handed up.

It's not a common thing.

Sometimes, the judge will request a permission to make sort of clerical or technical adjustments to the indictment.

But there's no indication that that happened here.

And the signals seem to be that this might be the result of inexperience on Halligan's part, since he's never prosecuted a case before, and, frankly, because the prospect of a federal grand jury turning down even part of an indictment is a very, very rare event.

GEOFF BENNETT: Is this enough to get the Comey case dismissed?

JOSH GERSTEIN: So the judge didn't really say that, although he did ask three or four times about this, saying it was important to him to be sort of crystal clear on whether that final indictment paper had gone before the full grand jury.

So he seemed to be heading in that direction.

He told both sides he wanted them to file legal briefs on this issue or addressing this question over the course of this week.

And it sounds like he may well consider throwing the case out on that basis, even though this is not a motion that the defense has formally put in front of him, at least not yet.

GEOFF BENNETT: Let's shift our focus now to the Epstein files.

The measure that Congress passed, as you know, requires the Justice Department to release the additional files, all the files, within 30 days.

Are we expecting the DOJ to comply with that?

JOSH GERSTEIN: If all means each and every one of the files, Geoff, I don't think DOJ is going to comply with that.

Certainly, the law does allow for victim information to be withheld.

But I think the key question here is, the law also has a provision that says materials that could impact an ongoing investigation don't need to be released.

And we already heard from Attorney General Pam Bondi that she considers the investigation that President Trump ordered up just a few days ago, saying he wanted high-profile Democrats like Bill Clinton investigated for their contacts with Epstein, she's assigned that to the federal prosecutor in Manhattan.

And she described that today as an ongoing probe.

That limits the information the Justice Department can release.

And so I wouldn't be at all surprised if that is used as a mechanism to hold back some of the files at that 30-day deadline.

What's curious about that, of course, is that doesn't talk about holding back any materials that pertain to Trump, because Trump naturally did not encourage an investigation of himself.

And so it would be a strange result here if any Trump-related information in the files becomes public and those about his perceived Democratic enemies stays under wraps.

GEOFF BENNETT: And we should say there's no evidence of criminal wrongdoing by Clinton or Trump in connection to their previous ties to Jeffrey Epstein.

Stepping back, though, what do the Comey case and the fight over these Epstein files tell us about how the Justice Department is operating under this administration?

JOSH GERSTEIN: Well, it tells us just how heavily the president's role here in the Justice Department is being felt and being carried out.

I mean, in both cases, we see the president's instructions being treated as essentially marching orders for prosecutors.

In court today, the prosecutors defending the Comey case tried to suggest that it was not brought at the president's instruction.

But it was quite clear in the message that the president sent just a couple of days before the actual indictment that he wanted to see Comey charged.

And so it's sort of a cloud that's hanging over almost everything the Justice Department does in high-profile cases now, whether this is something that they have just decided on their own to pursue or whether they're carrying out the president's orders.

And if the latter is the case, certainly, judges and magistrates across the country are going to take a much stricter view of these cases and I think probably have a jaundiced eye as to whether they should go forward.

GEOFF BENNETT: Josh Gerstein, senior legal affairs reporter for Politico.

Josh, our thanks to you, as always.

JOSH GERSTEIN: Thank you.

AMNA NAWAZ: President Trump and Mohammed bin Salman concluded the Saudi crown prince's visit to the U.S.

today by speaking to more than 400 business leaders.

Beyond a defense agreement and talk of the kingdom's human rights record, the visit focused on joint U.S.-Saudi adventures, including extracting Saudi minerals critical to everything from fighter jets to cell phones, and helping Saudi Arabia build a civilian nuclear program.

Nick Schifrin is here to discuss that now.

So, Nick, let's begin with that deal over rare earth minerals.

Why is that so important?

NICK SCHIFRIN: You just said it, Amna.

These rare earth minerals and magnets that are produced by them go into everything, from electric vehicles to the world's most advanced fighter jet, the F-35.

And Saudi Arabia says that it has the fourth most valuable deposit of rare earth in the world.

But, right now, China has a near monopoly on what are known as heavy rare earths.

They do 90 percent of the processing, and China produces 93 percent of all those earth magnets that are required for high-end manufacturing.

So the U.S.

and Saudi Arabia have agreed that an American company, MP Materials, whose biggest shareholder right now is the U.S.

government, in fact, will own just about half of a rare earth refinery in Saudi Arabia.

The U.S.

and Saudi will mine and process the rare earths, and then that will go to the U.S., Saudi, and its allies in order to produce those magnets.

In the long run, the idea here is to reduce U.S., reduce Western reliance on China, because we saw China withhold some of those rare earth magnets in the conversations with President Trump this year.

It also taps into something that Saudi officials say, that they are looking for the next big oil giant, like Aramco, and that it might be there in rare earths.

So take a listen to Gracelin Baskaran of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

GRACELIN BASKARAN, Center for Strategic and International Studies: Saudi Arabia is absolutely emerging as one of the biggest mineral superpowers.

What we see here is actually one of the biggest heavy rare earth deposits in the world.

And given that Saudi did have Aramco, it has a lot of the infrastructure needed to become a minerals production and processing superpower.

And, again, remember that the U.S.-Saudi relationship was built on natural resources.

It was the oil for security agreement.

So what we see of that is just the next era of that, going from oil to mineral.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Of course, the Trump administration has focused on rare earth minerals well beyond Saudi Arabia.

It has made deals with Japan and Australia.

There's a huge push to compete with China.

But, Amna, one study says that, even though the West is trying to make these strides on rare earth minerals, the West will still rely on China for 90 percent of heavy rare earths past 2030.

AMNA NAWAZ: Ninety percent.

Meanwhile, there's another agreement on nuclear power technology.

What has the U.S.

agreed to there?

NICK SCHIFRIN: So, the secretary of energy, Chris Wright, announced this today.

He had a signing ceremony with his counterpart and said that two countries have completed negotiations on civil nuclear cooperation.

And on FOX News, Wright described this deal exclusively as helping Saudi Arabia diversify its energy products, its energy sources by building a nuclear power plant.

CHRIS WRIGHT, U.S.

Energy Secretary: This is just for civil nuclear construction of a power plant, American technology, American companies to build a very large nuclear power plant in Saudi Arabia.

It's not about enrichment.

It's not about anything related to weapons.

It's just about generating electricity, secure, reliable, affordable electricity.

NICK SCHIFRIN: So you heard Wright say that it's not about enrichment, it's not about weapons.

But the negotiations that have led to this have very much been about enrichment, about Saudi Arabia's desire to make nuclear fuel perhaps inside Saudi Arabia.

Saudi officials say that they have 7 percent of the world's uranium and in fact it's colocated with all those rare earths that we were just talking about, and that asking the kingdom to mine uranium in addition to those rare earths would kind of -- without enriching, without creating the nuclear fuel, would be kind of like asking Saudi Arabia to get all of the oil out of the sand many years ago without refining the oil.

That's the kind of deal that they're trying to get.

But the community that's been focused on nonproliferation has had their concerns about Saudi Arabia.

They have been concerned that Saudi Arabia has resisted some of the monitoring and inspections that would go along with this kind of agreement.

And, frankly, they have been concerned about Saudi intentions all along.

So take a listen to Henry Sokolski with the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center.

HENRY SOKOLSKI, Executive Director, Nonproliferation Policy Education Center: They want a bomb option.

I think they have been very clear privately to various contractors that I have been in contact over the years that that's the bottom line.

I think that's the reason they have been insistent about getting enrichment, when it doesn't make economic or practical sense.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Saudi officials insist they are not after a bomb and actually trust in U.S.

nuclear umbrella, they don't want their own nuclear weapon.

Nonetheless, Energy Secretary Wright said that today's deal has what he called -- quote -- "bilateral safeguard agreements."

He hasn't spelled that out.

One solution here, Amna, that I'm told is that American companies could do the enrichment inside the United States, and Saudi Arabia thinks that might be more economically viable than doing the enrichment in Saudi Arabia.

AMNA NAWAZ: Meanwhile, interestingly, we heard President Trump say that the crown prince had actually pushed him on the issue of Sudan during this visit.

What do we know about what was behind that crown prince's message?

NICK SCHIFRIN: So, Sudan has been driven by horrific violence for many years, but there's been an explosion of violence especially just in the last few weeks.

Here is some of it.

We're blurring it, it's so horrific.

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, has been committing what the U.S.

has labeled as genocide against non-Arabs in El Fasher in North Darfur.

Thousands perhaps, tens of thousands are feared dead.

Beyond the humanitarian issues, Amna, Saudi Arabia has been very concerned that Sudan could spread, that instability in Sudan could invite terrorism into the region.

And MBS pushed President Trump to confront this crisis, as Trump himself said today.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: His Majesty would like me to do something very powerful having to do with Sudan.

It was not on my charts to be involved in that.

I thought it was just something that was crazy and out of control.

But I just see how important that is to you and to a lot of your friends in the room, Sudan.

And we're going to start working on Sudan.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Saudi Arabia wants to see President Trump impose secondary sanctions on the United Arab Emirates, one of the RSF's most important external factors, and the RSF itself be labeled a foreign terrorist organization.

AMNA NAWAZ: All right, Nick Schifrin, thanks, as always.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: We start today's other headlines in Ukraine, where a massive Russian drone and missile barrage killed at least 25 people overnight, including three children.

Two apartment blocks collapsed in the attack on the Western city of Chernobyl.

At least two dozen people are still unaccounted for.

Meantime, in Turkey, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with Turkey's president today, with both leaders expressing their commitment to a peaceful settlement to the war.

Turkey has strong ties to Russia, and Zelenskyy is hoping that President Erdogan can help convince Russia to end the fighting.

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, Ukrainian President (through translator): We talked substantively about the situation in diplomacy.

There is no alternative to peace.

Russia must understand that there can be no reward for waging war and committing killings.

GEOFF BENNETT: Also today, the Trump administration has dispatched Army Secretary Dan Driscoll to Kyiv.

A defense official tells the "News Hour" that it's a diplomatic mission, not a military trip, and that he will also speak with Russian officials.

It comes amid reports that the U.S.

and Russia are hammering out a proposal for ending the war without the involvement of Ukraine.

Israel's military stepped up its strikes on Southern Lebanon today as it targets what it says are Hezbollah weapons storage facilities.

Israel says Hezbollah fighters are regrouping in the area, but to not provide evidence.

The group says it has abided by the terms of a cease-fire that require Hezbollah to end its military presence along their shared border.

The attacks come a day after an Israeli airstrike killed 13 people at a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon.

It was the deadliest incident since the cease-fire started a year ago.

In North Carolina, federal immigration agents have expanded their operations to include the state's capital, Raleigh.

WOMAN: They just keep going into this job site, this building site in downtown Cary, and just keep pulling people out and putting them in that car.

GEOFF BENNETT: Cell phone footage captured federal agents arresting multiple people at a construction site Tuesday in a Raleigh suburb.

Meantime, in Charlotte, Homeland Security officials said today that more than 250 people have been arrested since an operation started there last weekend.

That's about double the figure from earlier this week.

Onlookers at a shopping mall yesterday described one such arrest.

MIRIAM GUZZARDI, Charlotte, North Carolina, Resident: When we got here, he was on the ground, and they had their rifles pointed at him.

And he was just screaming for help.

GEOFF BENNETT: North Carolina has become the latest focus of the Trump administration's crackdown on illegal immigration following similar enforcement efforts in cities like Los Angeles and Chicago.

Federal officials have provided few details on those arrested.

The U.S.

trade deficit dropped sharply in August, as President Trump's global tariffs took effect.

The Commerce Department reported a 24 percent fall in what the U.S.

bought from other countries compared to what it sold.

It's one of the first concrete examples of the economic impact of the Trump global tariffs, which took effect on August 7.

Today's report was delayed by more than seven weeks because of the government shutdown.

A.I.

giant Nvidia posted quarterly results this afternoon that surged past expectations.

The company generated $57 billion in quarterly revenue and provided stronger-than-expected sales guidance.

The results came after the closing bell on Wall Street and are expected to ease concerns about an A.I.

bubble.

Ahead of those results, stocks posted modest gains.

The Dow Jones industrial average added nearly 50 points.

The Nasdaq rose around 130 points.

The S&P 500 ended the day with a gain of about 25 points.

And Roger Federer is heading to the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

The body's honorary president, Kim Clijsters, told the tennis legend via video link in his first year of eligibility.

KIM CLIJSTERS, Honorary President, International Tennis Hall of Fame: It is my great honor to officially let that you are going to be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2026.

GEOFF BENNETT: Federer was the first man to win 20 Grand Slam championships, racking up eight Wimbledon titles and five consecutive U.S.

Open wins.

He called it a tremendous honor.

Curacao is now the smallest country by population to ever qualify for a World Cup.

The island nation's team held Jamaica to a draw yesterday to advance to the tournament.

Curacao is an autonomous Dutch territory of just 156,000 people.

So that meant the team relied heavily on players born and raised in the Netherlands.

They take the record from Iceland and its 350,000 people, which made the World Cup back in 2018.

(CHEERING) GEOFF BENNETT: Fans celebrated the achievement in Curacao's capital last night, saying their time had come.

MAN: Yes, I think we deserve this.

And then we are now going directly to the World Cup with our players.

It's time to celebrate for us right now.

(CHEERING) GEOFF BENNETT: And Haiti's soccer fans also have reason to celebrate.

Their team is heading to the World Cup after beating Nicaragua yesterday.

It'll be the first time Haiti will play in the tournament since it was held in West Germany back in 1974.

Still to come on the "News Hour": a new PBS News poll shows Democrats with an edge ahead of next year's midterm elections;the benefits and risks of more artificial intelligence being used in K-12 education; and a new exhibition showcases the pioneering work of fashion designer Andrew Gn.

AMNA NAWAZ: With the midterm elections now less than a year away, a new PBS News/NPR/Marist poll has signs of hope for Democrats and a few red flags for Republicans.

So what is resonating with voters?

NPR senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro is here to break down the numbers.

Good to see you.

DOMENICO MONTANARO, Political Editor, NPR: Hey.

Good to see you.

AMNA NAWAZ: Let's jump in.

So Democrats came off some big election wins in New Jersey, in New York City, in Virginia a couple of weeks ago.

It seems like they have an advantage.

Midterms are still a long way off.

But what does the poll show?

DOMENICO MONTANARO: And in a lot of places across the country, up and down the ballot really.

And I think that what this poll shows is that Democrats have a huge advantage right now.

And the real issue is because of affordability.

But what the poll shows is, by 55-41 margin, Democrats -- people say that they would pick a Democrat in their district if the midterm elections were held today.

Now, why is that important?

It's a plus-14 advantage on what's known as the congressional ballot.

When you have that large of a lead, it is really indicative of a potential wave.

I mean, if you look back to 2022, for example, Democrats had only between an average of zero to four points.

They lost nine seats.

In 2018, Democrats had an advantage between six and 12 points in our poll.

And they obviously won big, 40-seat advantage.

Now, most people don't expect that we're going to see a wave of that kind next year, but right now starts out with Democrats with a big advantage.

And a big piece of that is because of independents and how they have slid away.

I mean, a 61-28 percent margin, independents say that they would pick a Democrat.

These are major red flags and warning signs for the Republican Party right now.

AMNA NAWAZ: And we know a lot can happen in the next year, but that also includes whatever happens on this redistricting front.

We have seen efforts by President Trump and the Republicans, counterefforts by the Democrats in California.

This is all tied up in the courts right now.

But does any of this make the Democratic polling advantage moot?

DOMENICO MONTANARO: You know, it depends on how this winds up shaking out.

But, frankly, we're seeing some evidence in the past week or so that this could boomerang on Republicans potentially.

Trump wanted to get five seats out of Texas.

A court this week said that Texas' maps got to go back to the drawing board.

Now, eventually, they might get what they want, but they're also banking a lot on Latinos in South Texas having moved toward Donald Trump.

And what we're seeing in our polling, in the elections is that Latinos have really slid away from Donald Trump and Republicans.

They moved over because of affordability.

And what we're hearing from a lot of those voters is that they don't feel that Trump has done enough to address lowering costs and that they are upset with how he's approached deportations in this country, feeling like they were OK with deporting criminals, but not OK with deporting people in their communities in the same way that they see it being conducted.

And like we have talked about, prices are the real issue, right?

I mean, when you look at the issues inside our poll, 57 percent say that lowering prices should be the administration's top priority.

Nothing else comes close.

You can see there immigration 16 percent in second, and even a plurality of Republicans there say that lowering prices should beat Trump's top priority.

AMNA NAWAZ: Meanwhile, if you look at the Republican Party, we have seen some rifts.

We have been covering Marjorie Taylor Greene's break with the president, him calling her a traitor.

But how are Americans looking at the president's performance right now?

DOMENICO MONTANARO: Yes, I think that this is a huge reason why maybe there's an opening for other Republicans to show some independence.

I think they're going to be watching what happens with Marjorie Taylor Greene to see if she suffers any political consequences, as Trump says that she will.

If she doesn't, I wonder what that's going to mean as Trump continues to look further and further like a lame-duck and is on the wrong side of these issues.

In the polling here, only 39 percent say that they approve of the job that Trump is doing.

And when you look inside the numbers, only 24 percent of independents approve of the job he's doing.

Now, the other number, as you see, nine in 10 Republicans still sticking with the president.

So it continues to put Republican candidates in a vice, because we're seeing that, when Trump is not on the ballot, Republican MAGA base voters don't necessarily show up.

We heard from a lot of Republican voters in this poll who said that they are pro-Trump, but they're not necessarily voting for Republican candidates.

That is a real problem for them because they need to be able to show some independence from Trump to be able to say -- to appeal to those crossover voters and to independents, but they can't alienate the base.

AMNA NAWAZ: Can I ask you quickly about one more thing we saw in here?

Some bigger frustrations among American voters with political institutions and beyond.

What do you take away from that?

DOMENICO MONTANARO: People don't like anything.

If you look at what they think about the confidence in institutions, really bad numbers here for almost everybody, including us in the media, by the way.

Only 25 percent approve of what we're doing.

AMNA NAWAZ: Full results, of course, always available online.

Domenico Montanaro, NPR, always good to see you.

Thank you.

DOMENICO MONTANARO: Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: Today, medication abortions account for more than 60 percent of all abortions in the U.S., up from a quarter a decade ago.

But in the aftermath of the reversal of Roe v. Wade, abortion pills are now banned in at least 14 states.

Special correspondent Sarah Varney reports on the resulting rise of underground networks operating outside the legal system to help people access abortion medication.

And a note, some of the people featured in this story agreed to speak with the "News Hour" under the condition that we conceal their identities to minimize the legal and personal risks they face.

SARAH VARNEY: It's graduation day on the West Side of Chicago.

Gathered with family and friends, these women are celebrating their new lives as doulas.

Soon, they will spread out across the country to support people through pregnancy and childbirth.

WOMAN: Welcome home, doulas.

(CHEERING) SARAH VARNEY: But many of these doulas will also go on to help women end their pregnancies.

ASHABA, Teacher: They stand firm in the right of a person to give birth, to not give birth.

SARAH VARNEY: Their teacher, who goes by Ashaba (ph) to protect her identity, is part of an underground network.

She helps people in states where abortion is illegal get access to abortion medication.

ASHABA: I would just be like, hey, do you want to learn about abortion care?

SARAH VARNEY: To women in the South?

ASHABA: Yes, my neighbors, my friends, and they were like, yes.

They're crazy enough just like me.

(LAUGHTER) SARAH VARNEY: Ashaba says this word-of-mouth network stretches south from Illinois to Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana.

ASHABA: I will put any of the information that they need or medicines that they need in here.

SARAH VARNEY: Equipped with pills and herbal remedies, Ashaba drives once a month through the south, delivering abortion supplies to fellow doulas, who give them to women in need.

Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, demand has skyrocketed.

ASHABA: I just get up early in the morning and I drive straight through.

SARAH VARNEY: Ashaba says the network is helping women control their own bodies in a country that has not always allowed for that.

ASHABA: Abortion is a decision between a woman and herself, right?

When we go into the doctors, especially as Black women, indigenous women, we're not often heard.

SARAH VARNEY: But anti-abortion activists argue that women can't safely manage an abortion at home without a doctor.

JOHN SEAGO, President, Texas Right to Life: We couldn't have anticipated kind of the volume of orders, over 19,000 orders of abortion pills coming from Texas.

SARAH VARNEY: This year, Texas lawmakers took new steps to shut down the flow of abortion pills into and around the state.

JOHN SEAGO: This is a little bit more than just going to another state to buy a substance that is illegal here in Texas, right?

Texas has a state interest in protecting its citizens from the violence of abortion, both the mother and the child.

SARAH VARNEY: President of Texas right to life John Seago helped push for the law that will soon allow private citizens to sue anyone who distributes abortion pills to Texas residents.

JOHN SEAGO: I mean, this is getting pills in two little bags without medical instructions, without any oversight from a medical professional, without any accountability for follow-up care, or making sure that the drugs didn't have any adverse reactions to the patient.

It is too dangerous for women and their children for us to just kind of accept as the new norm.

ASHABA: I think it's been misguided that we are doing it with coat hangers or some other mechanism that is harmful to people.

By all the mechanisms that we use, it has been safe.

We haven't lost anybody yet.

SARAH VARNEY: Abortion pills are used widely across the globe.

In the U.S., six out of 10 women end a pregnancy using the medication.

And decades of research show the risk of major complications from taking abortion pills is 0.4 percent, safer than commonly used drugs like penicillin, Tylenol, or Viagra.

Still, in the states where these underground networks operate, what they are doing is against the law.

What's your understanding of the risk you're taking?

ASHABA: I understand that I can go to jail.

I understand that everything that I have worked for can be taken away.

SARAH VARNEY: And why?

Why are you willing to make that bet?

ASHABA: Because I have daughters, because I have friends, because I have loved ones that I want to see safe, and I know I cannot wait on a system that does not and has not cared for us.

MAN: Senator Pressley.

SARAH VARNEY: Last year, lawmakers in Louisiana reclassified mifepristone and misoprostol as controlled substances.

Having these drugs without a valid prescription now carries a prison sentence up to 10 years in the state.

But the way the networks are set up has made it difficult for law enforcement to disrupt them, says Elisa Wells.

ELISA WELLS, Co-Founder and Access Director, Plan C: They are operating outside of the formal regulatory system.

And so while they may be targeted, it's harder, we think, to shut them down.

SARAH VARNEY: Wells is the co-founder of PlanCPills.org.

The nonprofit provides information and education for accessing abortion pills at home.

ELISA WELLS: The community networks are a really unique form of access to abortion right now in the U.S., and it's a model that has been taken from other countries.

SARAH VARNEY: She says the underground networks were inspired by similar efforts in Mexico and Poland and are carrying on the legacy of groups like the Jane Collective, which helped women end their pregnancies when abortion was illegal in most parts of the U.S.

ELISA WELLS: I think it goes way back, even before the Janes to the whole history of midwifery and how women have taken care of each other and how women who were enslaved helped each other, using the Cotton Route itself, ironically, to help each other not be pregnant, often with the offspring of their oppressors.

SARAH VARNEY: In another corner of the South, a group of health care workers has launched their own network.

Even before the federal right to abortion was struck down, people around here had to drive two to three hours to reach an abortion clinic.

M, Health Care Worker: Being able to get an abortion by mail that you can do in your home is a real moment for poor folks.

It kind of puts the power in their hands.

SARAH VARNEY: M and E, who use initials to remain anonymous, started this network together.

They mail pills within their home state, and to avoid detection, they send the medication without packaging in a plain envelope.

E, Health Care Worker: I think people are concerned about what they're receiving is more often concerned whether it's real than whether it's dangerous.

M: That's how much risk these people are already in with a pregnancy that they don't want.

SARAH VARNEY: M and E say they know the risk they and the people they're helping are taking.

But, so far, there have been no known arrests in their state.

They're confident in how they have built the network.

They use encrypted messaging apps, get abortion pills from trusted sources.

M: And we sort of have this motto that we're going to move at the speed of trust.

SARAH VARNEY: How are you kind of staying ahead of the shifting legal framework at the national level?

M: We, I think, just make it a practice to be ready to pivot.

If you're trying to stand up straight with your knees locked on a surfboard, you're going to fall off.

But if you're loose and you're ready for the wave, then you have a better chance of staying on the board.

SARAH VARNEY: There are about five members in the group, but they can serve up to 100 people a month.

We asked M to read some of the messages women wrote to her.

M: "I'm needing help with an unplanned pregnancy because I'm financially and emotionally unable to give them what they deserve.

Please consider this is the first time I have ever asked for help with a situation of this caliber."

This one says: "Hello.

I was given this e-mail from a friend because I was needing some help with abortion pills, and I can't afford literally anything right now.

Thank you in advance, even if it's just for your time."

SARAH VARNEY: E says they built the network to make sure they can help women for years to come.

E: You know, there's been times when there's been weather events and someone else in the network couldn't mail and other people pick it up.

And I think a lot of us are focused on building resiliency into our work, so that, when something happens, we have the ability to take a beat and figure it out.

M: We want to be like a coyote.

A coyote can just survive in a worksite that is building on top of its former habitat.

ASHABA: You know, growing out here will be the herbs for abortion care.

SARAH VARNEY: After making the long drive from Chicago, Ashaba shows us around her Louisiana home that will soon become a safe place where women can self-manage in abortion.

ASHABA: We have been planted in so many other places that, if one of us falls, the whole network doesn't fall.

There's other people that are still capable and able to provide services.

SARAH VARNEY: And she says her network will keep on adapting.

For "PBS News Hour," I'm Sarah Varney in Louisiana.

AMNA NAWAZ: Artificial intelligence is rapidly being integrated into many facets of life, including in America's classrooms.

As more school districts integrate A.I.

into learning, Stephanie Sy looks at its growing impact in K-12 education and the warning signs around its use.

STEPHANIE SY: Amna, parents and teachers are still trying to get a handle on students' use of social media, and now they're being forced to grapple with A.I.

too.

A recent survey from the RAND Corporation found more than half of U.S.

students are using A.I.

for school, an increase of 15 percentage points this year compared to just two years ago.

At the same time, 61 percent of parents believe A.I.

will harm students' critical thinking compared to just 22 percent of school district leaders.

All of this as A.I.

juggernaut OpenAI gets even more embedded into the business of American education.

Today, it announced a new partnership with school districts across the country.

The company says it is giving roughly 400,000 K-12 educators free access to a version of ChatGPT through the next academic year.

Let's start by hearing from some parents and teachers grappling with the onset of A.I.

in schools.

L.C.

CARTER, Parent: Hi, my name is L.C.

Carter.

My daughter is in the ninth grade and she's 14 years old.

I use A.I.

every single day.

Of course, I know that they're using A.I.

as well.

But she has expressed that she uses it to mostly just kind of help guide her in her writing assignments to make sure that her argument is present, that it's cogent.

CHRYSTAL JEAN, Teacher: I'm Chrystal Jean, and I'm a teacher.

Being in this profession for as long as I have, change is always there.

And A.I.

is just another change.

It's not going anywhere.

SARAH RIVLIN, Parent: I'm Sarah and I have a child in 12th grade.

The superintendent of Houston Independent School District, where my child goes, is a big fan of A.I., and it's taking the place of teachers' ability to write curriculum and experts' ability to write curriculum.

MATT WALTON, Teacher: I'm Matt Walton.

I am a technology and engineering education teacher in Henrico County, which is located just outside of Richmond, Virginia.

To be honest, I think we're - - as a society in America, we're kind of behind the eight ball a little bit when it comes to artificial intelligence and teaching it to our high school students.

CHRIS HAMATAKE, Parent: My name is Chris Hamatake.

I have three kids in K-12 schools.

I have got a fourth grader, a ninth grader and an 11th grader.

If my kids are going to use A.I., I want them to know the kind of questions to ask to figure out, is this an accurate response from A.I.?

Can I trust this?

And how do I prove that it's accurate or not?

CHRYSTAL JEAN: There have been times when students have tried to pass off an A.I.

generation as their work.

And when it's been flagged and I have tried to have a conversation with the student, rarely have they been able to put thought into their -- into their verbalization.

MATT WALTON: I'm an AP computer science teacher, and there's a unit on artificial intelligence in there.

We do talk about the language models out there, such as ChatGPT and Gemini and Microsoft Copilot.

But I also asked my students to investigate artificial intelligence that goes beyond the classroom walls.

For example, how is the A.I.

going to be used in health care?

L.C.

CARTER: It is going to change our ability to critically think about things.

But it's also the future.

Like, it's here.

It's here to stay.

It's being integrated into every electronic device and software that you can imagine.

So I think that we have to embrace it.

And we just got to be careful because I do think the critical thinking part of it, it is altering our ability to think for ourselves.

CHRYSTAL JEAN: Whooo's Reading is a reading log platform that I have been dabbling with and having the students use.

And the writing prompts are A.I.

generated, where you can keep track of the minutes that you read.

And so it's very personalized.

And then you can lower the reading level.

You can put the grade level of the student, if they're seventh grade, but their reading level is, say, third grade.

SARAH RIVLIN: I have heard a lot of people say, oh, it's an aid to students.

It helps them.

But if you're using A.I.

to help you organize your paper or to help you come up with ideas or to help you strategize for your paper, you're not learning how to do that yourself.

CHRIS HAMATAKE: I don't necessarily have a problem with that being introduced into the classroom setting, as long as teachers are able to take the role of the supervisor, the fact-checker with it.

And that can be hard because we ask a lot of our teachers anyway.

And I don't know if they have the bandwidth for that.

STEPHANIE SY: I'm joined now by Justin Reich, the director of the Teaching Systems Lab at MIT.

He's also the author of "Failure to Disrupt: Why Technology Alone Can't Transform Education."

Justin, thanks so much for joining us.

You heard the anxiety, the opportunities, the uncertainty associated with this technology.

Your research has really been focusing on this, in particular with K-12 education.

How prevalent is this technology right now in schools?

And what are the disruptions we're seeing from it, for better or worse, at this point?

JUSTIN REICH, Teaching Systems Lab Director, MIT: Well, as you said at the top of your piece, I was co-author on that RAND paper which showed that about half of teachers and about half of students most recently reported using A.I.

and that number continues to grow.

It's much higher in secondary school, middle and high school than it is in elementary school.

The enormous concern that educators have is that, when students are using A.I.

to do their work, they're not thinking, they're not struggling, and they're not learning.

Some of that looks like cheating.

Some of that is a very sort of classic case of a student taking work from somewhere else and representing it as their own.

But in other cases, it's more subtle problems, where students are using machines to produce work and they're not doing the thinking and struggle that they need to do, as many of your guests articulated, in order to be able to learn.

Teachers and students are also excited about the fact that these tools are for sure going to empower human beings to do all kinds of new things.

And so we want to find ways of navigating the opportunities they present also with some real immediate concerns that teachers, in particular, I think, feel quite earnestly.

STEPHANIE SY: Now, and you have OpenAI now freely giving it to thousands of teachers, saying ChatGPT will enable teachers to be better at their jobs.

We spoke to the superintendent, Justin, of a large diverse school district in Virginia who is part of this new initiative.

Here's what she said.

LATANYA MCDADE, Superintendent, Prince William County, Virginia, Public Schools: It's a very diverse system with diverse needs.

What that means is, is heavier demand placed on our teachers, because our educators are the ones that have to differentiate lessons, look at data across multiple content areas for multiple students.

And that can be a heavy tax on time.

So when I think about what's possible with OpenAI, with ChatGPT for teachers, it really can go a long way in helping supplement what our teachers are doing in the classroom every day, removing some of the barriers of time and the burden of time for teachers to do some of the manual, more administrative things that actually ChatGPT for teachers could do for them.

STEPHANIE SY: Justin, that all sounds pretty great.

I mean, you're a former high schoolteacher yourself.

How do you see that balance between the promise that A.I.

will supplement what teachers do, increase their bandwidth, versus replace what they do and maybe even suck up more of their bandwidth?

JUSTIN REICH: There were technologists in the middle of the 20th century that made a very similar argument when they invented a machine called the Scantron machine, which was the first machine that was able to automatically score multiple choice items.

And they made a very similar kind of argument that this is going to save teachers tons of time, that there's going to be all kinds of new assessment possibilities, teachers will be able to focus on the most important things.

And I think most teachers looking back on the Scantron machine would not say, wow, multiple choice items have saved us so much time.

So sometimes, when we aim for efficiency, we don't necessarily get efficiency.

We actually get a system that is targeted at something different.

So I think we should be very cautious about that risk.

There are more contemporary examples too.

Probably the most important thing is, if we are saving teachers time, that only matters if the learning afterwards is actually better.

So,if teachers are using ChatGPT to make new materials, but those new materials don't help students learn as well as the materials that teachers were creating, then if we're saving time, at the cost of learning, that's not an advantage.

STEPHANIE SY: I want to follow up.

Prince William County, where that superintendent we interviewed is from, is one of those school districts that has a high number of disadvantaged students and English as a second language learners.

That brings up one of the chronic problems that A.I.

presumably might solve, which is how to make sure students aren't left behind.

How do you see generative A.I.

's potential for helping or harming equity in American education?

JUSTIN REICH: So, again, the argument that new technologies will disproportionately benefit students furthest from opportunity is now over a century old.

When radio was first introduced, it was argued that, with radio, the underprivileged school would become the privileged one, that elite lectures could be broadcast into the homes of lower-income students.

And radio did not bring equality.

Personal computers did not bring equality.

The Web didn't bring equality.

New technologies typically disproportionately benefit the affluent.

They benefit people with the financial, social, and technical capital to take advantage of new innovations.

So it is certainly admirable to try to use these new technologies to close equity gaps.

But, over and over again, what we see with many generations of new technologies and education systems is that they really more accelerate opportunities for the affluent than they create opportunities for low-income students.

What makes more equitable educational environments are social movements that provide more resources to families, to students, to teachers, to schools, so that they can do a better job and have more resources to educate young people furthest from opportunity.

STEPHANIE SY: Finally, Justin, how much are educators handing over to tech companies when they adopt these technologies?

And what kind of policies should be put in place, as ed tech gains such wide purchase in the American education landscape?

JUSTIN REICH: Well, I think school district leaders should constantly remember that, for organizations like OpenAI, giving away ChatGPT is a customer acquisition strategy.

These companies are trying to build brand affinity and make students customers for life.

And our public school system should be very careful about how we invite any kind of company into what we take as a public good and as a good that students can't refuse.

I think there are some districts that are exploring questions like, should students and families be able to refuse, be able to say, actually, I don't want my students introduced to those tools, and how would they logistically work with that and how would that work?

Probably, the other thing that school districts really need to keep in mind is that this free technology they're getting is venture capital-subsidized technology.

This is like the Uber rides you used to get for $8 across town.

One day, the investors will want their money back.

And when that day comes, we may find that the consumer experience of these tools gets much, much worse, that either they become more expensive or they have more advertisements, more sponsored content, all kinds of things that maybe we really don't want happening inside of our schools.

So school district leaders making these big purchases or these big acceptances of free resources from schools really need to think carefully, not only about the decisions they're making now, but what they may be locking themselves into for the future.

STEPHANIE SY: Just so much to talk about when it comes to this topic, and we will continue to explore a lot of these A.I.

issues down the line.

For now, we will have to leave it there.

Justin Reich, director of the Teaching Systems Lab at MIT, thank you for joining us.

JUSTIN REICH: It's been a great pleasure.

AMNA NAWAZ: And we will continue our look at A.I.

's role in education next week with a report on its use and regulation at the college level.

That's part of our special series Rethinking College next Tuesday.

GEOFF BENNETT: Andrew Gn, the pioneering Singaporean fashion designer known for his exacting eye and uncompromising craftsmanship, is the subject of a sweeping new retrospective at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts.

Jared Bowen of GBH Boston takes us there for our arts and culture series, Canvas.

JARED BOWEN: To enter the House of Andrew Gn is to find a feast of flourishes, capes ornamented with sumptuous embroidery, gowns sculpted into singular forms that radiate a splendor of color rivaling any springtime garden.

Beauty has long been the fashion designer's inspiration, but he can even find it in ruins.

ANDREW GN, Fashion Designer and Visual Artist: It was a collection inspired by a Venetian palazzo, but not just a normal Venetian palazzo, but a decaying Venetian palazzo which was sinking.

JARED BOWEN: This is the designer taking stock of his decades in design before he closed shop in 2023.

Over nearly 30 years in his Paris atelier, Gn produced 80 collections and some 10,000 ensembles.

The most glam now filled galleries at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, where a retrospective of his career is now on view.

ANDREW GN: Beauty is really the motto of my life, in my personal life, in my professional life.

I really live for beauty.

JARED BOWEN: Over his lengthy career, Gn became renowned for his demi-couture, implying the rigors of rarefied haute couture design to clothing customized for a ready-to-wear audience, and with material and craftsmanship, he says, that has always been uncompromising.

ANDREW GN: I would like to stress the fact that we design every single element on our garments.

We design a textile, so be it printed, woven, embroidered, the buttons, the buckles.

JARED BOWEN: Why is that important to you?

ANDREW GN: That is important because I'm a perfectionist.

PETRA SLINKARD, Chief Curator, Peabody Essex Museum: Because his focus is so much on the tradition, it almost makes the clothes all that much more modern.

JARED BOWEN: Petra Slinkard curated the show, the first to examine Gn's legacy, which itself is built on firsts.

In 1997, he was the first Singaporean designer admitted to Paris Fashion Week, the industry's prestigious first look at what top designers are presenting.

PETRA SLINKARD: He stands apart as one who has been able, I think, to introduce elements of Southeast Asia into high fashion and into global fashion.

JARED BOWEN: Art and antiques fill Gn's Paris apartment, just as they did his childhood home, which brimmed with pieces collected by his parents on world travels.

It fueled the way he would ultimately define fashion, as did everything from the paintings of Monet to the vibe of turn-of-the-century Vienna.

PETRA SLINKARD: He's very, very visual, and throughout the exhibition we have included collages that are his own, and so you could sort of see him mapping out these visual cues that he's sort of mashing together.

JARED BOWEN: Gn's designs have become red carpet staples for a parade of celebrities and even royalty, most notably when Princess Catherine wore one of his designs to her first Trooping the Colour ceremony as the princess of Wales.

It was a stunning moment for the designer, especially given that another royal has always been a queen of inspiration.

I understand that Queen Elizabeth was a muse of sorts to you.

ANDREW GN: A muse, yes.

(LAUGHTER) ANDREW GN: She's actually quite eccentric, because no one does that sort of things anymore, a bright mustard yellow suit with matching hats.

And I see that as something appropriate, but yet there's something really edgy about it.

JARED BOWEN: Not to mention a valuable lesson.

To what degree have you created drama?

(LAUGHTER) ANDREW GN: All the time and every day, and I think that it brings a sensation to you.

You're shocked.

You are -- it's exaggerated.

It brings your attention to what you have created.

JARED BOWEN: But that has all wound down now.

Gn closed his fashion house two years ago, leaving behind the churn of the Parisian fashion scene, where he says the pressures of launching a new collection every three months was grueling.

ANDREW GN: It's like launching an album or a new movie.

JARED BOWEN: That took its toll.

ANDREW GN: I had an open-heart surgery in 2015, and I had a stroke in 2021.

And I think I was saying to myself, 30 years is enough of that fashion system and schedule.

JARED BOWEN: But his intention, he says, even as the house of Gn has gone dark, was to always have his pieces live on, to be the antithesis of fast fashion so readily consumed and discarded.

ANDREW GN: My goal has always been creating really beautiful and well-crafted clothings that a woman could keep in a wardrobe for years.

Eventually, she could pass it down to the next generation.

And we call them heritage pieces.

JARED BOWEN: That are ready to wear and of distinctly personal vintage.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Jared Bowen in Salem, Massachusetts.

AMNA NAWAZ: And that is the "News Hour" for tonight.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

GEOFF BENNETT: And I'm Geoff Bennett.

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