A majority of americans, 60 , depending on when you measure and how you measure will , experience poverty at some point in their lifetime. Announcer major funding for the pbs newshour been provided by the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. And friends of the newshour including leonard and Norma Klorfine and judy and peter blum kovler. Actually, you do not need vision to do most things in life. Yes, i am legally blind and yes, i am responsible for the user interface. Data visualization, if i can see it and understand it quickly, anyone can. It is exciting to be a part of the team driving the technology forward. I think that is the most rewarding thing. People know, know bdo. Two retiring executives turned their focus to the greyhounds giving these raised dogs a chance to win. A raymondjames Financial Advisor gets to know you, your purpose and how you give back. Life well planned. Announcer the william and flora hewlett foundation. For more than 50 years advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world at hewlett. Org. And with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Amna welcome to the newshour. The u. S. Supreme court ruled unanimously today that the 14th amendment does not allow individual states to remove former President Donald Trump from their ballots. Geoff in an unsigned opinion, the court said only that congress, not states, can disqualify president ial candidates under the constitutions socalled insurrection clause. The former president celebrated the decision. Essentially, you cannot take somebody out of a race because an opponent would like to have it that way. And it has nothing to do with the fact that its the leading candidate. Whether it was the leading candidate or a candidate that was well down on the totem pole, you cannot take somebody out of a race. Geoff and William Brangham joins us now. So, william, the court was unequivocal. States do not have the power to remove federal candidates from the ballot under the insurrection clause. Help us understand how the justices arrived at this ruling. William remember, geoff, this came out of a group of Republican Voters in colorado saying that january 6, to their mind, was clearly an insurrection, and that donald trump was the cheerleader of that insurrection. And they cited this section 3 of the 14th amendment, which is, as you mentioned, the insurrection clause. And it argues that, if you have sworn an oath to uphold the constitution and then you engage in an insurrection after the fact, you cant hold office again. And so they appealed that all the way to the Colorado StateSupreme Court, and they won. And donald trump was ruled that he has to be taken off the republican primary ballot. The Supreme Court is what, they overturned that today. And they basically said, you cannot have a system where a lot of different states are making this decision, because it would simply be a sort of ad hoc statebystate basis. In their ruling, they said for the reasons given, responsibility for enforcing section 3 against federal officeholders and candidates rests with congress and not the states. The judgment of the colorado Supreme Court therefore cannot stand. it said states can choose to withhold and withdraw state candidates, not federal candidates. Geoff so, tomorrow is super tuesday. Colorado is one of the many States Holding a primary tomorrow, but the impact of this decision sweeps far beyond colorado. Isnt that right . William thats exactly right. Trump will be on the ballot in colorado. They printed the ballots already and thought, ok, if the ruling comes in the other direction, those votes just wont get counted. That doesnt matter now. As you mentioned, there are over 30 states that were examining some kind of a challenge on 14th amendment grounds to pull donald trump off their ballots. All of those go away now. Trump will be on the ballot in all the states. Geoff how did the court deal with a specific question of whether donald trump is an insurrectionist . William they didnt. They didnt bring it up in the hearing last month. They didnt bring it up in this ruling. There was some disagreement in the ruling today as to who gets to make that decision and when they make the decision. The four female justices, it was interesting how it split on gender lines here, all four female justices said that the ruling that states shouldnt be able to make this decision should have stood. But kagan, sotomayor and Justice Jackson all took issue with the further breadth of this ruling, which they argue made it much harder to actually enforce section 3, saying that congress has to write a particular statute in order to enforce a part of the constitution. Its very unusual. These three justices wrote that the other justices crafted this ruling to insulate themselves and donald trump. Im going to read a little bit of what they said. They wrote, quote, the majority announces novel rules for how that enforcement must operate. It reaches out to decide section 3 questions not before us and to foreclose future efforts to disqualify a president ial candidate under that provision. In a sensitive case crying out for judicial restraint, it abandons that course. they are clearly not happy with this, something to remember when we see all these headlines that this was a unanimous ruling. Geoff and separately, william, allen weisselberg, who is one of Donald Trumps longestserving associates, he pleaded guilty today to perjury . Bring us up to speed on that case. William thats right. Weisselberg was for almost 50 years Donald Trumps chief financial guy. He got his start as fred trumps, Donald Trumps fathers bookkeeper. He admitted that he lied under oath as part of, he lied to investigators and on the stand, as part of this big sweeping civil fraud trial that just socked donald trump with nearly halfabillion dollars in fines. In that ruling, the civil fraud ruling, the judge in that case ruled that weisselberg was central to all of the different fraudulent things that donald trump got up to, banned him from serving as a financial officer, said hes got to pay back half the 2 million severance that donald trump gave him when he was walking out the door. So now that hes pled guilty to perjury, he could spend a couple of months in prison. Notably, in this case, and, all along, and this has been an incredible frustration to prosecutors in this case, weisselberg has never implicated donald trump in any wrongdoing. Geoff all right, William Brangham, thank you so much for all of that reporting this evening. We appreciate it. William thanks, geoff. Stephanie here are the latest headlines. The biggest blizzard in the west so far this winter has moved on after dumping mountains of snow in the sierra nevada. But another, more moderate storm, is piling on. A new round of snow is blanketing the mountains of northern california, even as residents struggle to dig out from an epic dayslong blizzard. Hurricaneforce winds whipped up snow squalls in the sierra nevada, where some communities were buried under more than seven feet of snow. Snowplow driver Kyle Frankland says his equipment is wearing out. The snow is wet underneath and theres about a foot of fresh snow in truckee here, and its been hectic. I have broken a lot of parts. Stephanie of course, theres also the fun part. Our dogs are having a blast. Our neighbors are having fun. Everybodys snowmobiling and skiing in the streets. Stephanie the storm closed ski resorts, but diehard skiers werent deterred. The storm has been pretty crazy. I have mostly just been hanging out inside. But, today, were going to go ski some mellow tree lines and hopefully avoid the avalanches. Stephanie after a weekend spent closed, interstate 80 outside lake tahoe reopened today to all but big rig trucks. An avalanche also briefly closed a separate highway into tahoe. Truckee Business Owner kevin dupui saw only a trickle of customers. Business has been pretty slow, considering all the roads were shut down and some of the hills were shut down, but we totally get it, because the roads havent been that safe, so dont really want people driving around. Stephanie utility crews have been working to restore power to thousands of businesses and residents. Meanwhile, in the texas panhandle, its fire, not ice, thats the problem. The largest wildfire in the States History continues to rage, fueled by strong winds. The Smokehouse Creek fire is 15 contained. Its one of a cluster of blazes that have already burned some 1,900 square miles around amarillo. The u. S. Supreme court today temporarily blocked a texas law that would allow the state to arrest and deport migrants who enter the u. S. Illegally. The Biden Administration is challenging the law, claiming it interferes with federal law and international affairs. It was set to take effect on saturday. A Massachusetts AirNational Guardsmen pleaded guilty today to leaking highly classified military documents online. The 22 year old agreed to serve a maximum of nearly 17 years in federal prison. After the hearing in boston, federal prosecutors said they hope the case and the plea deal send a message. Jack to shara will never get a snippet of a piece of classified information for the rest of his life. The message goes out to anyone who may be tempted to violate, that there are serious consequences. Stephanie he posted topics on the social media platform discord. The state Department Urged americans today to leave haiti as heavily armed gangs attacked the Main International airport. Late sunday the haitian government declared an after gangs freed thousands of prison inmates, leaving burning tires and open prison doors in their wake. Police said an overnight curfew could help them recapture the escapees. In iran results from fridays election show hardliners kept control of parliament but turnout was just 41 , the lowest since the revolution of 1979. It was in part due to an opposition boycott. Still, officials rejected american criticism of how the election was conducted. If u. S. Government officials are concerned about democracies and votes of nations, they should first find a fix for their own country and the health of the election system itself as we are seeing strange stories and every u. S. Election. Stephanie the election was the first since protest rocked rocked the country a year ago. Lawmakers in france voted overwhelmingly to enshrine abortion rights into the national constitution. President Emmanuel Macron pushed for that after the u. S. Supreme court overturned abortion rights in america. Abortion has been legal in france since 1975 and is widely supported. The European Union has find apple nearly 2 billion dollars for antitrust violations involving music streaming. The blocks that apple has illegally barred spotify and other rivals from telling users they can save money on subscriptions outside the iphone system. For decades apple has restricted music streaming developers from informing their consumers about cheaper options available outside of the app. This is illegal. It has impacted millions of european consumers. Stephanie apple disputed the finding and said it will appeal the decision. Back in this country, jetblue and Spirits Airlines scrapped plans for a merger valued at 3. 8 billion dollars. A federal judge had blocked the plan in january, saying it violated antitrust law. The away to form the fifth largest carrier in the nation. Still to israelis who live near the gaza border return home for the First Time Since hamas october 7 attack. President ial candidates make their last push to voters before super tuesday. And much more. Announcer this is the pbs newshour from weta studios in washington and in the west from the Walter Cronkite school of journalism at Arizona State university. Geoff today it came without the authorization of israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu and negotiations over possible deal that would release israeli hostages. Nick schifrin is following all of this and joins us now. Lets start with negotiations in cairo. What do we know about how they are progressing, based on your reporting . Nick publicly, both sides are sticking to their longstanding combative positions. Israel didnt even send its negotiators to cairo to be part of these negotiations. And hamas says it demands a permanent ceasefire, something that israel has rejected out of hand. But u. S. Officials tell me the negotiations continue, and they have made progress with the idea of having some kind of deal before next week, before ramadan begins. U. S. Officials tell me israel has agreed to the outline of a deal that would pause the war for six weeks and release 35 to 40 hostages in the first round. Israel would release palestinian detainees, and israel would allow increased humanitarian aid into gaza. Now, there are two major sticking points at this point, geoff. Hamas refuses to hand over the names of those 35 to 40 hostages they would release in the first round. And israel is pushing back on hamas demands on specifically which palestinian detainees they want released. U. S. Officials do believe that the Decision Point at this point really rests in the hands of hamas. Meantime, of course, the humanitarian crisis in gaza continues. Those u. S. Airdrops we saw right there beginning this weekend will continue. And u. S. Officials say theyre considering other means to deliver aid, including through a Northern Point into gaza using private security firms, even, geoff, by the sea. Geoff yes. Lets talk more about the u. S. Approach, because we mentioned this meeting that happened today between the israeli Opposition Leader benny gantz and the Vice President , kamala harris. Help us understand what led to it and what they actually discussed. Nick yes, u. S. Officials tell me that gantz requested this trip. And the people who met gantz today tell me that hes likely here really just to check out where the u. S. Stands on all of the issues that israel is dealing with, especially with gaza and the region. And the u. S. Priorities, according to kamala harris, who spoke to reporters earlier today, are aid to gaza and the hostage deal. Kamala harris, Vice President of the United States far too many palestinian civilians, innocent civilians have been killed. We need to get more aid in. We need to get the hostages out. And that remains our position. And i will tell you that it is important that we all understand that theyre, were in a window of time right now where we can actually get a hostage deal done. We all want this conflict to end as soon as possible, and how it does matters. Nick administration, Administration Officials tell me that harris is trying to pressure both hamas and israel to make that deal before ramadan begins. As for gantz, he is leading in israeli polls right now. A and he said over the last few months that perhaps he would be willing to take steps that would bring down the israeli government. But those people i spoke to who spoke to gantz earlier today say hes actually less interested in that and is more interested in trying to get a deal with netanyahu to have an election by the fall. Geoff separately, the u. N. Today released a report about Sexual Violence on october 7. What did it say . Nick yes, this report is horrific. It concluded that there is, quote, clear and convincing information that Sexual Violence, including rape, sexualized torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment has been committed against hostages. and that echoes, of course, what israel has been saying happened by hamas militants on october the 7th in israel. But the report also concludes this, that there are, quote, reasonable grounds to believe that such violence may be ongoing to those hostages in gaza right now. Israel certainly believes that to be the case. And israeli officials believe that that may be one of the reasons why hamas is resisting releasing some of the female hostages. Geoff wow. Inside Southern Gaza near israel much of life has been paused, but you have more of the story. We filmed in the largest city in southern israel, nearest gaza, on october the 7th, hamas killed at least 50 civilians and 20 police officers. Now the government is facilitating families to return and restarting schools. And a warning some of the images in our report are disturbing to watch. In sderots hamakif haklali amit secondary school, its the first day of school for the second time this year. For five months, all of these students and their families have been displaced. And so todays a reunion for boys who can be boys again, including joseph hi. I am very, very, very excited to see the new school year. Im not so excited to see the teachers. Nick those teachers feel being here is their duty, and mali nesimpour brings additional responsibilities, her two youngest children. She doesnt have childcare, but she felt she had to be here, as we talked about before she returned. Mali nesimpour, teacher i must go do my job. I have responsibility to my students. Nick she made those students responsible for one homework assignment, create cards of the Israeli Soldiers whove died since october the 7th and the words they lived by. Love everyone. Love every people. Nick ilan