GEOFF BENNETT: Good evening.

I'm Geoff Bennett.

Amna Nawaz is away.

On the "NewsHour" tonight: Donald Trump says he's the focus of a special counsel investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election, compounding the former president's legal troubles.

The slow pace and minimal gains of Ukraine's counteroffensive against Russia prompt questions about military strategy.

And despite legally owning rights to much of the Colorado River, indigenous tribes in the West are largely cut off from accessing its water.

CRYSTAL TULLEY-CORDOVA, Navajo Nation: We want to be able to have water rights that are secured, that we can be able to develop, to be able to close the clean water access gap.

(BREAK) GEOFF BENNETT: Good evening, and welcome to the "NewsHour."

Former President Donald Trump says he's been notified that he's a target in the special counsel investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, signaling that he's likely to be charged with federal crimes.

In a post on his TRUTH Social account today, the former president said he received the notice Sunday night from special counsel Jack Smith, who is investigating Mr. Trump's actions in the aftermath of the presidential election, including the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Carrie Johnson covers the Justice Department for NPR, and joins us now.

Carrie, thank you for being with us.

Donald Trump said on social media today that he was given what he called a very short four days to report to the grand jury for testimony.

He said he expects to be charged, because such a move -- quote -- "almost always means an arrest and indictment."

Is he right?

What more do we know about this letter?

What are the implications?

CARRIE JOHNSON, NPR: Most of what we know comes from Donald Trump himself.

But, in many cases, targets of federal criminal investigations get an opportunity to present their own evidence to a grand jury before the prosecution asks the grand jurors to go out and indict an individual.

And it appears that's what's taking place here, that Trump's lawyers have gotten notice that Trump, if he wants to, can appear before the grand jury as late as Thursday this week.

Otherwise, the DOJ is going to proceed and perhaps seek a federal criminal indictment of him for charges related to the January 6 insurrection.

Geoff, we don't know exactly what those charges are.

We know the DOJ has been investigating very aggressively these alleged fake slates of electors from seven different swing states that were supposed to replace the legitimate electors that would have cast their ballots for Biden and Harris in 2020.

We also know that DOJ has been investigating fund-raising based on bogus election fraud claims Trump and his affiliates made.

The nature of these exact charges remains unknown for now.

GEOFF BENNETT: Carrie, what's the expectation for how the special counsel would handle both cases, a potential January 6 case, perhaps in Washington, D.C. -- we don't yet know that - - and the classified documents case, which is unfolding right now in Florida?

CARRIE JOHNSON: Remember, when the special counsel, Jack Smith, was appointed last November, he had kind of a two-part mandate.

And those were the two parts.

But Smith largely absorbed ongoing investigations with prosecutors that had been on the job and agents that had been on the job for many months already.

In large part, those same prosecutors and agents will remain on those investigations as the cases potentially go to trial.

So, Jack Smith has enough human beings to do his work in two places at once, both Florida and Washington, D.C.

The scheduling will be a little bit of a complication, as we will learn more about in the coming weeks and months.

GEOFF BENNETT: On the classified documents case, there was a pretrial hearing today where the parties involved discussed the trial date and how sensitive information would be handled.

What did we learn from what transpired today?

CARRIE JOHNSON: You know, lawyers for former President Trump basically wanted Judge Aileen Cannon, a judge that Trump appointed to the bench during his presidency, to wait until after the election, to wait until after November 2024 to hold this trial, whereas prosecutors for Jack Smith, the special counsel, had been raring to go, and they want to go to trial this December.

Judge Cannon didn't make a ruling today from the bench.

She seemed to signal that trial this year was too soon, given the complexities and the volume of classified information in this case.

But she also didn't seem to want to wait until November or December of 2024 or even early 2025 to hold the trial.

So she's going to have to try to find a time next year that things will work out.

GEOFF BENNETT: You mentioned the potential or I guess the active DOJ inquiry into the so-called fake electors scheme.

We learned today that the Michigan attorney general filed charges against 16 people who signed paperwork falsely claiming that Donald Trump had won the 2020 election as part of a scheme to overturn the results.

What more can you tell us about that?

CARRIE JOHNSON: Yes, these are very serious charges against Republican Party activists in the state of Michigan.

They include conspiracy and forgery.

Attorney General Dana Nessel says that these defendants allegedly undermined the integrity of the electoral process and broke state election law by meeting in mid-December 2020 to sign these fake certificates that they later transmitted to the Congress and the National Archives.

And Nessel apparently made a referral to the federal Justice Department of the same conduct last year, but because DOJ hasn't yet acted, she went ahead and did this herself.

We know there are at least two other states who are investigating similar kinds of accusations by these fake slates of electors, so there could be a lot more action to come there too.

GEOFF BENNETT: And lastly, Carrie, shifting our focus back to the legal exposure involving the former president, we have got a presidential election roughly 18 months away.

We have got Donald Trump facing potentially multiple indictments in Fulton County, Georgia, the special counsel indictments, the active cases in New York.

Do you sense -- do you have a sense of how the timing will align here, or is it still too early to tell?

CARRIE JOHNSON: Geoff, this is going to be a massive air traffic control problem for these judges in the federal court system and the state court system.

Trump is scheduled for trial in New York in March 2024 on those alleged hush money payments to Stormy Daniels and accounting allegations regarding those hush money payments.

We do not yet have a trial date as to the Mar-a-Lago classified documents charges.

The Fulton County grand jury in Georgia is aggressively moving, potentially acting as early as August.

No trial date there.

And then, of course, we have got to wait and see what happens in D.C. with this federal January 6 case.

It's possible the former president could be indicted four times this summer alone.

Whether all those cases go to trial before the election seems hard at this point to predict.

GEOFF BENNETT: Carrie Johnson, always a pleasure to speak with you.

Thanks for being with us.

CARRIE JOHNSON: Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: In the day's other headlines: The heat that's been baking a huge swathe of the country set a new record.

Phoenix sweated through a 19th straight day at or above 110 degrees, the longest hot streak ever for a major American city.

With no relief in sight, Salvation Army members in Phoenix have been handing out water and supplies at homeless encampments.

SCOTT JOHNSON, The Salvation Army Southwest Division: People out here are struggling.

And it's important for the Salvation Army to continue to provide this service, because it's lifesaving.

Some ice cold water, a hat, some sunscreen, anything like that is a lifeline for people in need.

GEOFF BENNETT: In the east, search efforts in Pennsylvania continued for a fourth day for two children who were swept away by flash flooding over the weekend.

Meantime, severe heat gripped Southern and Eastern Europe for another day.

Tourists in Italy and Spain braved the blistering temperatures with water and fans.

A U.N. weather agency warned temperatures could hit a record 120 degrees in the days ahead.

And, in China, readings topped 95 degrees in Beijing again today.

That's happened 27 days this year.

In Greece, wildfires intensified overnight after forcing thousands of people to flee on Monday.

Northwest of Athens, high winds fanned the flames up and over hillsides, as tanker planes doused the area with water.

Crews were able to tame one fire after it charred fields and devastated seaside towns.

GIORGOS NIKOLAOU, Greece Resident (through translator): I only have my bathing suit, which I swim in, and this shirt.

I have nothing else.

I don't even have other shoes.

We were here 32 years.

There isn't even a place to sleep.

GEOFF BENNETT: The extreme heat in Southern Europe has only made fire conditions worse by drying out vegetation.

An American soldier is being held in North Korea tonight.

Officials say Private 2nd Class Travis King had been jailed in South Korea on assault charges.

He was being sent home to face military discipline when he escaped.

From there, King made it to Panmunjom, the truce village in the demilitarized zone between the Koreas.

He joined a tour group, then ran across the border.

So far, North Korea has been silent on the incident.

Israelis stepped up their protests today against taking power away from the nation's courts.

Thousands turned out for a so-called day of disruption.

They blocked traffic and set off smoke bombs outside the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.

The bill is slated for a final vote in Israel's Parliament next week.

Amid that unrest, Israel's figurehead President Isaac Herzog assured President Biden that Israeli democracy is strong.

The two met at the White House and discussed the judicial overhaul plan and more.

President Biden said America's friendship with Israel is -- quote -- "simply unbreakable."

Herzog addresses Congress tomorrow.

And on Wall Street, walls stocks moved higher on financial industry profit's and advances in A.I.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 366 points, or 1 percent, to close near 34952.

The Nasdaq rose 108 points.

The S&P 500 added 32 for its best finish since April of last year.

Still to come on the "NewsHour": the president of the actors union, Fran Drescher, on the ongoing strike and the future of Hollywood; the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team gears up to defend their World Cup title; and the first Latino head of the American Academy of Poets works to bring poetry to the people.

A tough and difficult fight, that's how the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Mark Milley, today described Ukraine's effort to retake territory in the east and south.

As William Brangham explains, Ukrainian forces have been slowed by minefields and intense Russian resistance.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Raining from the sky onto Ukrainian ports is what the Russians call revenge.

MAJ. GEN. IGOR KONASHENKOV, Russian Ministry of Defense (through translator): The Russian armed forces delivered a group strike of retribution at facilities where terrorist acts against the Russian Federation were being prepared.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: But Ukraine claims its air defense teams shot down almost all the Russian missiles and drones.

Falling debris did damage some port facilities and people's homes.

In the port city of Odessa, Ukrainian police helped rescue an elderly man injured and trapped underneath rubble.

Russia says they are exacting revenge for the alleged Ukrainian attack on a key bridge that links Russia to annexed Crimea.

And it came a day after Russia suspended a deal that allowed Ukraine to ship vital grain supplies from Odessa to the rest of the world.

Meanwhile, the much larger pushback against Russia's invasion continues with intense fighting along the eastern and southern fronts, as Ukraine tries to retake land occupied by Russia.

Five weeks into its counteroffensive, Ukraine claims to have liberated several villages, including in the east and southeast, but, so far, the gains have been small.

One estimate says that along the 930-mile-long front line, Ukraine has only recaptured about 98 square miles of land.

In an interview on Russian TV yesterday, President Vladimir Putin said Ukraine's advance is failing.

VLADIMIR PUTIN, Russian President (through translator): All attempts by the enemy to break through our defenses have not been successful for the entire time of the offensive.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: And days before, President Zelenskyy acknowledged that Russian resistance was intense.

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, Ukrainian President (through translator): We all need to understand very clearly that Russian forces on our southern and eastern lands are doing everything they can to stop our soldiers.

Everyone who repels enemy attacks, well done.

I am grateful to every one of our soldiers.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Ukrainian soldiers are facing deeply dug-in Russian forces who have constructed and fortified hard-to-overcome obstacles, including these so called dragon teeth barricades and miles of concentrated minefields that Ukraine is painstakingly trying to remove.

Ukraine is asking for more U.S.-made tools for this job such as mine-clearing line charges, or MCLCs, and Bangalore explosives, which are used to detonate them.

GEN. MARK MILLEY, Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff: The casualties that the Ukrainians are suffering on this offensive are not so much from Russian airpower.

They are from minefields.

That's what the coalition is trying to provide them, additional mine-clearing MCLCs, line charges, Bangalores, that sort of thing, in order to continue to work their way through the minefields.

So, I'm confident that they can do this.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Last week, the U.S. also started sending the Ukrainians cluster munitions, controversial weapons that can rain down multiple smaller bomblets over a wide area.

But the U.S. has thus far not agreed to give Ukraine long-range missiles like those that France and Britain are already supplying.

So, while the debate in the West continues over how best to help the Ukrainians in their fight, the Ukrainian soldiers on the front lines have to make do with what they have today.

SOLDIER (through translator): We shot at enemy positions so they don't accumulate their forces and think about doing something evil.

We try to destroy as many enemies as we can.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: So, for more on the Ukrainian offensive and its prospects for success, we get two views.

Retired Colonel Gary Espinas spent 26 years in the Army focused on field artillery, and he was director for Russia and the Black Sea in the office of the secretary of defense.

He's now a professor at the Naval Academy.

And Kimberly Kagan is the founder and president of the Institute for the Study of War, which is nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization.

Thank you to you both for being here.

Gary Espinas, to you first.

We are several weeks, as we have been reporting, into Ukraine's counteroffensive.

How would you assess that that effort is going?

COL. GARY ESPINAS (RET.

), Former U.S. Army Foreign Area Officer: Well, I think it's clear that there has been a slowdown in the counteroffensive, but that shouldn't be a surprise, I think, to anyone.

I mean, look, this is a nation at war.

And wars are characterized by tactical advances and defeats.

And you throw in there a whole lot of uncertainty, something that the Prussian military theorist Carl von Clausewitz called the fog of war.

And so it's not only the Ukrainians that have been preparing for the camera offensive, but the Russians have been preparing for that as well.

And so they have had several months to dig in.

They're highly entrenched.

You have got this 900-mile battle line at the front there.

And in some cases, you have got minefields that are going back 10 kilometers or more.

And so this is what the Ukrainians are having to contend with.

So it's no surprise, I think, certainly to the Ukrainians, nor to any of us who have been watching this, that we're not probably - - given the circumstances that the Ukrainians are faced with, probably not going to see, at least in the near term, a decisive penetration, a decisive victory.

This is not going to be a D-Day kind of penetration, in my opinion, anytime soon.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: And, Kimberly Kagan, the same question to you.

How do you characterize how the counteroffensive is going?

KIMBERLY KAGAN, President, Institute for the Study of War: Gary characterized this very well.

The Ukrainians began their counteroffensive only five weeks ago.

They have been making adjustments and how they execute their tactics in order to adjust to the minefields and the Russian defenses of their prepared positions.

And the Ukrainians are probing along the line to find weak spots in those Russian defenses.

What we're observing is that the Ukrainians are probing along the south, and they are also probing in the east around the flanks of Bakhmut.

And in the east, where the Russians do not have dug-in, prepared defensive positions right behind them, the Ukrainians are making gates.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: And, Gary, help us understand that -- the strategy that Kimberly is describing there.

Is the idea that the Ukrainians keep probing to try to find a weakness and then punch through that and send troops into that opening?

Is that the plan here?

COL. GARY ESPINAS: The Ukrainians are having to walk a very fine line between minimizing their losses and then exploiting the vulnerability and -- to their advantage, of course.

Of course, there are limitations, given their current operation, and having to contend with minefields and dug in Russia and enemy troops.

So that really limits their freedom of maneuver.

And so that's the challenge, I think, that they're being faced with right now.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: And, Kimberly, the -- you both have mentioned the difficulty that the Ukrainians are having with these minefields, which we have seen reporting of, are incredibly concentrated, enormous amounts of mines across the battlefield.

We heard Milley talks about this as being a very difficult issue for them as well.

Do you think the U.S. and the West ought to be doing more to speed the mine-clearing equipment to the Ukrainians?

KIMBERLY KAGAN: Yes, I do.

The West should be equipping the Ukrainians to make as many decisive gains as they can.

And the mine-clearing equipment that the United States is providing will materially affect whether the Ukrainians can actually move forward, punch through, and create a very serious dilemma for the Russians in that line.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Gary Espinas, we have talked a lot during this invasion of some weapons, some development being a -- quote, unquote - - "game-changer" for the Ukrainians.

Do you think that there is something that the West could realistically provide to the Ukrainians that would be that?

Is there something that they need that we could get to them that would make a big difference?

COL. GARY ESPINAS: I'm very skeptical about the term game-changer.

There's no kind of magic pill that's going to win the war overnight for Ukraine.

I think the approach that the United States and the West have taken is the right one.

And it's, we are kind of step by step day by day assessing how we can best support the Ukrainians.

And I think that's what we have been doing.

I think that's the more sensible approach.

And I think we should also be very clear that, as I said, there's no magic bullet, no one key weapon system.

At the end of the day, what really counts, I think, are the intangibles.

And when we talk about the Ukrainians' morale and motivation, that, I think, means a lot more than anything, at the end of the day.

And, in fact, what we can provide in terms of security assistance are those kinds of key enablers.

But, at the end of the day, it's the Ukrainians who are going to get themselves across the finish line.

And we're positioned, I think, well, to support that.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Kimberly, if the Americans were doing this, or a similarly well-equipped force, they wouldn't be trying to put troops directly on the front line, right?

They would be doing weeks of bombing behind the Russian front lines before they activated this way; isn't that right?

KIMBERLY KAGAN: Yes, it is.

The United States would also have, with it, close air support and attack helicopters to help make it easier for our ground troops to advance.

And the United States also has air assault troops who can actually come in behind the lines and help meet up with troops that are advancing.

So Ukraine does not have any of this.

And the United States, therefore, needs to be patient with the amount of time that it is taking for Ukrainians to make advances, and recognize that it is important to compare the Ukrainians to their capabilities and to the Russians, not to the United States of America.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: I mean, Gary, given what Kimberly is saying, are we potentially asking too much of the Ukrainians to fight a ground war in a way very differently than we would?

COL. GARY ESPINAS: No, I don't.

I think the Ukrainians are certainly in a different position from the United States.

And I completely agree with Kimberly that the United States has the kind of combat power that the Ukrainians do not have.

An advantage that the Ukrainians do have, however, specifically over the Russians, is, look, they have been in the process of military and defense reform even well before this current war.

It's an effort that the United States, that Great Britain and Canada, as well as other European partners, have been involved with since back to 2014.

And I think we're seeing, despite their relative weakness, I guess you could say vis-a-vis combat power, they're able to make up for that with some kind of initiative and the kind of training that's now being brought to bear that we are not seeing from the Russian side that is completely inept, led by poor leadership and they're poorly trained.

So I think, at the end of the day, what the Ukrainians lack, they will make up for in their cunning.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: All right, Gary Espinas and Kimberly Kagan, thank you both so much.

KIMBERLY KAGAN: Thank you.

COL. GARY ESPINAS: Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: A little known fact about the Colorado River is that American Indian tribes own rights to about a quarter of the river.

In reality, for most tribes, there are only paper rights, not amounting to water they can actually use.

Now, as a megadrought afflicts the Colorado and other watersheds in the West, Stephanie Sy reports on the opportunities and obstacles ahead.

STEPHANIE SY: In the vast Gila River Valley south of Phoenix, Ramona Button and her husband, Terry, inspect acres of thriving crops.

Ramona left her nursing career decades ago to carry on a tribal tradition and become a farmer.

Now her heirloom tepary beans can be found at stores and restaurants around the region.

RAMONA BUTTON, Ramona Farms: The people here knew the white tepary bean, so they were very grateful that we brought it back.

STEPHANIE SY: The beans came back when the water came back.

But that took more than 100 years.

In the late 19th century, upstream users had diverted the Gila River to the point that it no longer flowed on the reservation.

Did you feel like the Gila River was stolen from the tribes here?

RAMONA BUTTON: Well, what I was told by my parents, it was taken, cut off by a dam.

And, so, many people starved to death.

I guess you would say, in the taking of it all, yes, it was stolen.

STEPHANIE SY: Her late father, who she describes as a seer, promised the land would one day be green again.

And, today, it is.

RAMONA BUTTON: I remember my dad's words: "Bring back all the foods that you were raised on."

TERRY BUTTON, Ramona Farms: It wasn't overnight.

It was a long process.

It took until just now.

We're within the last three years of finally finishing the delivery system to bring these waters to these lands.

STEPHANIE SY: The water and the canals that deliver it to growers like Ramona would not have been possible without a landmark settlement in 2004 that gave the Gila River Indian Community its water back.

One of the largest Indian water settlements in American history, the agreement granted the community a whopping 653,500 acre feet of water annually.

That is more than a quarter of the amount all of metropolitan Phoenix uses in a year.

The community also received hundreds of millions of dollars for water infrastructure.

DAVID DEJONG, Director, Pima-Maricopa Irrigation Project: All of the construction that you see here, some 216 miles of canal, having been lined or pipe, all of that is emanating from the community's water settlement.

STEPHANIE SY: David DeJong is the director of the Pima-Maricopa Irrigation Project in the community and a historian who has written on tribal water issues for decades.

DAVID DEJONG: The federal government finally made right by providing funds for the community to bring its water home and restore its agricultural economy.

STEPHANIE SY: Rodney Lewis, the tribal attorney who fought for the water rights settlement, is the late father of the tribe's current governor, Stephen Roe Lewis.

GOV.

STEPHEN ROE LEWIS, Gila River Indian Community: The senior water rights versus the... STEPHANIE SY: Building on his father's legacy means conserving the water, so he takes particular pride in this water recharge station.

It allows the tribe to bank water they don't use.

It's the only place where you can still see a slice of the Gila River on the reservation.

GOV.

STEPHEN ROE LEWIS: We have returned part of the flow of the Gila River through this area.

And it's become a riparian wetlands area that we're just so, so proud of.

We have over 100 species of birds.

When we brought the water back, it was almost like the land healed itself.

STEPHANIE SY: With the Gila River no longer the reservation's main water source, the settlement granted the tribe a big chunk of Arizona's Colorado River allocation.

In fact, the tribe of 21,000 members is the largest single entitlement holder on the Colorado River in the state.

It is a reversal of fortune that few other Native American tribes have achieved.

The much larger Navajo Nation is far from settling its water claims.

Never mind farming.

Many of the more than 170,000 tribe members who live on the reservation still have to haul water to their homes.

CRYSTAL TULLEY-CORDOVA, Navajo Nation: Upwards of 40 percent of people within the Navajo Nation don't have running water.

STEPHANIE SY: Crystal Tulley-Cordova is a Navajo hydrologist.

CRYSTAL TULLEY-CORDOVA: You think about it, our sparse population, our rural living.

In addition to that, you include water quality challenges, water production challenges that exist across the Navajo Nation.

STEPHANIE SY: Water scarcity on the vast reservation is getting worse.

CRYSTAL TULLEY-CORDOVA: Primarily, the Navajo Nation historically has used groundwater.

And when you think about climate change impacts on shallow aquifers, they're vulnerable.

Navajo residents are vulnerable.

We want to be able to have water rights that are secured that we can be able to develop to be able to close the clean water access cap.

STEPHANIE SY: With a 17 million-acre reservation that borders the Colorado, the Navajo also have senior river rights.

But that's not the same as having access to water, says Navajo attorney Daniel Cordalis.

DANIEL CORDALIS, Colorado River Sustainability Campaign: So, the odds really have been stacked up against tribes since the outset to actually put this water to use.

STEPHANIE SY: So, you have all these tribes that have rights, and yet a third of the Navajo Nation doesn't have running water.

DANIEL CORDALIS: The existence of these water rights in itself does not actually transform into what we call wet water.

So, a tribe can actually retain the right itself, but not have the ability to use it or to develop it and actually get water to our tribal communities.

STEPHANIE SY: In the most recent blow to the Navajo Nation, the Supreme Court ruled last month against the nation's claim that federal treaty law requires the government to secure water for the Navajos.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh acknowledged in the opinion that allocating water in the arid regions of the American West is often a zero-sum situation.

Nearly everyone is losing water.

The Colorado is overallocated.

Two countries, seven states, 30 tribes, 40 million people rely on its precious waters.

For many tribes in the river basin, water supplies have never seemed less certain.

STEVEN ESCOBAR, Tribal Administrator, Chemehuevi Indian Tribe: Our goal is to do everything we can to start using that water so we have the capability to benefit from it on the reservation.

STEPHANIE SY: Steven Escobar is the tribal administrator of the Chemehuevi Indian Tribe on the California side of Lake Havasu, one of the Colorado River's reservoirs.

They don't have the infrastructure to divert or store all the water they are entitled to, so it just flows downstream.

California is sort of getting your unused water and undeveloped water for free.

STEVEN ESCOBAR: That's exactly what's -- what it is.

They're able to capture it and use it for free.

So, yes, they benefit financially and economically off of our unused water.

And the tribe does not benefit in one bit.

STEPHANIE SY: Escobar wants to be able to lease the tribe's unused allotment.

Governor Lewis is aware of the special position he is in.

The tribe's large allotment gives him outsized power in a time of scarcity and, he says, responsibility.

How big of a challenge now is climate change for your whole vision?

GOV.

STEPHEN ROE LEWIS: Everything were doing is critical at a time where we have to continue to model this good behavior.

When tribes are at the table and making decisions, when we're able to have the resources, we're able to bring very innovative solutions.

STEPHANIE SY: Modeling good behavior has also meant allowing thousands of acres of farmland to go fallow.

The tribe opted to leave over 100,000 acre feet of it's annual Colorado River entitlement in Lake Mead over the next three years.

In exchange, it is getting $233 million from the federal government.

GOV.

STEPHEN ROE LEWIS: That's what our elders expect of us.

That's what we want to teach our youth, is being caretakers, being stewards of the land and the water.

That is how you live in a very beautifully harsh place, is, you work together and you respect each other.

STEPHANIE SY: Respect for the land and cultural renewal are also Terry and Ramona Button's mission.

TERRY BUTTON: It becomes our responsibility to carry it on and apply it and keep the agricultural industry thriving here.

STEPHANIE SY: Do you feel like the wrong has been corrected?

RAMONA BUTTON: Yes, I do.

And we're very grateful that we were part of the system in promoting this and going after our water rights.

STEPHANIE SY: And they are not taking them for granted.

For the "PBS NewsHour" I am Stephanie Sy at the Gila River Indian Community in Sacaton, Arizona.

GEOFF BENNETT: For the first time in 63 years, actors and writers are striking at the same time, bringing Hollywood movie and TV production to a halt.

The Writers Guild has been on strike since may, and SAG-AFTRA, the union representing TV and film actors, joined them last week after negotiations with studios broke off.

Two of the key issues at the center of these strikes, how streaming and artificial intelligence are upending the industry, affecting income and profits.

We should note, the "NewsHour" is in active negotiations with SAG-AFTRA to represent some of the editorial staff.

Broadcast journalists are not covered by the same contract as the actors in SAG-AFTRA currently on strike.

Let's turn now to Fran Drescher, president of SAG-AFTRA, who joins us now.

Welcome to the "NewsHour."

FRAN DRESCHER, President, SAG-AFTRA: Thank you.

Thank you so much.

I am a proud supporter of PBS and very happy to be here.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, we appreciate that.

Major actors guild strikes are fairly rare, especially recently.

And looking back at the contract that was ratified in 2020 by SAG-AFTRA, it was approved by nearly 75 percent of the voting membership.

There were wage increases.

There were improved residuals or continued payments for video streaming.

Fast-forward to the current moment.

What happened?

Why was now the right moment to go out on strike?

FRAN DRESCHER: Well, I mean, look, I wasn't in leadership then.

I don't know whether I would have been so quick to agree with that contract.

But I think that, at some point, you reach a crossroads.

The saturation of streaming and how it's impacted our industry is exponential.

And it's really disemboweled the old business model, which is the one that, let's say, for example, "The Nanny" flourished in.

And everybody up and down the ladder benefited by it and made money off of it.

To this day, they continue to get money from it.

But that is not the case anymore with streaming.

And all the programs that are made for the streaming channel, you exist in a box, in a vacuum, and there's no tail of revenue.

And our revenue sharing that was established in 1963, or 1960, when we had the big strike with the WGA, and Ronald Reagan was president of SAG, that business model was predicated off of television that ran as long as there were eyeballs and ad dollars.

So, longevity was the name of the game.

And that made sense.

But now longevity is not the name of the game.

Seasons are very short, three to four, maybe, and then it's over.

GEOFF BENNETT: Using your example, when you were starring in "The Nanny," that was a season that started typically in September.

It ran through May.

It was 22 to 24 episodes a season.

Now, on streaming, to your point, a show is lucky if they have 10 episodes a season and they're really lucky if they get a second season.

So what does that mean in terms of take-home pay?

FRAN DRESCHER: You can't make a living.

The economics have been changed so dramatically that we have to move over into the pocket where the money is.

We have to follow the money.

But even within the old structure, even within people working in these limited series, they don't want to raise minimums.

So they're expecting my members who earn minimums on their performance to earn less than they did in real money in 2020 all the way through to 2026.

They refuse to give us what the economy demands.

Most other labor unions get cost-of-living raises.

GEOFF BENNETT: We should say we requested interviews with studio heads and with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents film and production companies, all of whom declined.

But they did provide a statement, part of which reads this way: "The deal that SAG-AFTRA walked away from on July 12 is worth more than $1 billion in wage increases, pension and health contributions and residual increases and includes first-of-their-kind protections over its three-year term, including expressly with respect to A.I.," or artificial intelligence.

Why was this deal, as you see it, insufficient?

What more are you asking for?

FRAN DRESCHER: First of all, don't believe a word of that.

That's the first thing.

The second thing is, because the real question is, you know, those CEOs are making $78,000 a day.

And the majority of my members, like nine out of 10 of them, can't even qualify for health benefits that have a threshold of $26,000 a year.

Why would we go on strike if it was such a fantastic deal?

Do you think we enjoy being out of work?

Don't believe a word that they say.

When they offer us a deal, and they say that a background person will get paid for one day is work, we will scan their bodies, and then we can use their likeness in perpetuity, what is going to happen to that background person?

He's out of work.

He's been replaced by A.I.

That is unacceptable.

That's a deal-breaker.

GEOFF BENNETT: You know the position of the studio chiefs, to include Bob Iger, CEO of Disney, which owns ABC, a number of cable networks and streaming platforms.

He makes the case that the union isn't being realistic.

And he does have a point that the business has changed.

Linear TV is flatlining.

Streaming platforms are not profitable across the board.

Viewership habits have changed.

And so what do you -- what do you say to that underlying argument, setting aside the messenger, but the underlying message?

FRAN DRESCHER: First of all, how do you insult me by saying they're not profitable when you're sitting there making $50 million a year?

Where does that money come from?

Who is -- there are people way at the top that are getting richer and richer and richer, and the first place that they look to squeeze is my members.

That's wrong.

They have to change their culture.

They have to start thinking we're in partnership with these people.

GEOFF BENNETT: Most SAG-AFTRA members, as you mentioned, don't make enough money to meet the SAG-AFTRA threshold to qualify for health insurance.

Given that, how long can these folks stay out on the picket lines?

How long will this go?

FRAN DRESCHER: You know, they're the ones that gave a historic strike authorization vote, 97.91 percent.

That's how upset they are.

That's how marginalized they feel and disrespected.

Listen, most of my members are used to working other jobs.

And if we have to, we will.

I don't know what they're going to do without us, but we could survive without them if we have to, because, at some point, you have to say no.

GEOFF BENNETT: Fran Drescher is the president of SAG-AFTRA.

Thank you so much for your time and for your insights.

We appreciate it.

FRAN DRESCHER: Thank you.

My pleasure.

GEOFF BENNETT: The U.S. women's soccer team is hoping to win its fifth World Cup this summer and its third straight title, something no team, men's or women's, has done before.

Despite being the favorite, the U.S. squad has a tough road ahead in the tournament that kicks off this week in Australia and New Zealand.

As Amna Nawaz found out when she spoke with some of the players, they're not taking anything for granted.

WOMAN: And the whole world is wondering, what's it going to take to stop this U.S. team?

MAN: Easy.

love.

We mark Alex.

MAN: What about Rose?

MAN: Or Trinity?

WOMAN: Or bloody Rapinoe?

AMNA NAWAZ: The U.S. is ready, in forward Megan Rapinoe's words, to show up and show out in the upcoming women's World Cup.

And they know they have a target on their backs.

MEGAN RAPINOE, U.S. Women's Soccer Player: You didn't see it when we walked in?

Still there.

Always there.

AMNA NAWAZ: Before heading to the other side of the world, Rapinoe and her teammates spoke with us and other reporters about returning to one of the biggest sporting events on the planet.

MEGAN RAPINOE: I can't believe we're back at the World Cup again.

It's kind of crazy.

This is the best moment, well, of all of our career.

Alex said it.

It's like it never gets old.

There's always something incredibly special about being able to compete at the very highest level.

AMNA NAWAZ: That sentiment was clear from the players' reactions when they were told they made the roster, from Kelley O'Hara's stream of tears.

KELLEY O'HARA, U.S. Women's Soccer Player: I don't take it for granted.

I love the sport so much.

I love this team so much.

And you can tell that from my reaction, for sure.

AMNA NAWAZ: To a flute celebration by defender Crystal Dunn.

CRYSTAL DUNN, U.S. Women's Soccer Player: It doesn't matter if this is your second, your third, your fourth.

I think every moment is -- that you get this call is incredible, and you embrace it.

AMNA NAWAZ: The 23-player roster includes longtime veterans like O'Hara, Rapinoe, and Alex Morgan, all playing in their fourth World Cup.

But a number of players who helped bring the trophy home in 2019 are sitting out because of injuries, including forward Mallory Swanson and defender Becky Sauerbrunn.

That, combined with a disappointing bronze medal finish at the last Olympics, prompted head coach Vlatko Andonovski to bring in new blood.

Over half of this year's squad, 14 players, have never played in a World Cup before.

Coach Andonovski says he's not worried about the inexperience.

VLATKO ANDONOVSKI, Coach, U.S. Women's National Team: In fact, I'm excited about the energy and enthusiasm that the young players bring, the intensity and the drive as well.

Actually, I think that that will be one of our advantages.

AMNA NAWAZ: It will also be Andonovski's first World Cup after he replaced Jill Ellis back in October of 2019.

The Macedonian-American coach is no stranger to the game and the pressure that comes with it.

He played for European clubs and in American indoor leagues before coaching in the National Women's Soccer League.

In the coming weeks, there is only one goal on his mind.

VLATKO ANDONOVSKI: Would I be happy with anything short of a third straight win?

No, absolutely not.

(LAUGHTER) AMNA NAWAZ: To have the best chances of earning that coveted prize, the younger players tell us they are soaking up all the wisdom they can from the veterans.

Twenty-two-year-old Trinity Rodman.

TRINITY RODMAN, U.S. Women's Soccer Player: Cancel the outside noise out and stay in your bubble.

AMNA NAWAZ: Eighteen-year-old Alyssa Thompson, the team's youngest member.

ALYSSA THOMPSON, U.S. Women's Soccer Player: I went to Lindsey for, like, what to have her travel and stuff, because I did not know.

And I'm gone for two months, and I don't know how to pack for two months.

So, she just helped me a lot with that.

SOPHIA SMITH, U.S. Women's Soccer Player: I'm a pretty chill person.

AMNA NAWAZ: But 23-year-old Sophia Smith is not following all of the advice.

SOPHIA SMITH: Talking to some of the older girls, like, people just delete social media in general going into a World Cup, because everyone is talking about it, good and bad.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, are you going to delete your social media or you will be Gramming and tweeting?

SOPHIA SMITH: Well, I say that now, but, like, it's hard for me to delete social media.

So we will see.

Probably Twitter.

Twitter's bad.

I will probably keep Instagram.

KELLEY O'HARA: It is wild that there are players on the scene that were not alive for the '99 World Cup.

It's like I don't think that's sunken for me yet.

AMNA NAWAZ: 1999 was the year the U.S. hosted the World Cup and won for a second time, bringing with it iconic images and creating a tradition that players like O'Hara have built on ever since.

KELLEY O'HARA: We do have such a rich history and just trying to convey that to the younger players.

And I think that they know it.

But going to a World Cup really, really helps you feel that.

AMNA NAWAZ: What is this team up against?

CLAIRE WATKINS, Just Women's Sports: The most competitive World Cup that we're ever going to see.

AMNA NAWAZ: Claire Watkins from the media company Just Women's Sports says, even though the U.S. has long dominated the world stage, their opposition is catching up.

CLAIRE WATKINS: We have seen great strides worldwide just in the sport in women's soccer in support on the federation level and on the club level.

And so in some ways, some of those advantages have disappeared in a way for the U.S., but in a way that I think is very exciting even for them, because they're looking forward to kind of playing the best of the best.

AMNA NAWAZ: Who are some of the other toughest teams the U.S. has to beat?

CLAIRE WATKINS: Oh, goodness.

Brazil is going to be fantastic.

You have got England trying to do the back-to-back from the Euros.

Germany is very strong.

We all know Spain has very, very good players.

But what's really exciting is, it's more like there's no team that's going to be overwhelmed.

There's no team that's going to be overrun.

AMNA NAWAZ: As for injuries on the U.S. side, Watkins points out that all players are putting more wear and tear on their bodies with the rise of women's club teams around the world.

So other nations have also had to rethink their rosters.

CLAIRE WATKINS: No team is perfect.

No team had a perfect run-up.

No team is not dealing with injuries.

No team has form issues or positional imbalances.

Every team has like a superpower, but they also have an Achilles' heel.

AMNA NAWAZ: With no team having a lock on the trophy, this is poised to be the most watched women's World Cup ever.

Organizers are hoping to attract a record two billion viewers worldwide.

And ticket sales, already topping one million, could make it the most attended women's sporting event in history.

It also comes on the heels of last year's historic equal pay settlement with U.S. soccer.

Rapinoe, who has announced she will retire soon after the World Cup, says that makes this tournament particularly important for women's sports.

MEGAN RAPINOE: It feels like this is like a paradigm shift or a moment we will look back to and say, like, nothing was ever the same after this women's World Cup and what we're going to be able to do.

And I just think it's going to be an incredible event.

And I think everybody is thankfully pushing in the same direction now, and sky's the limit from here.

AMNA NAWAZ: The United States' first game is Friday, when they will square off against Vietnam.

GEOFF BENNETT: Founded in 1934, the Academy of American Poets is one of the nation's leading literary organizations and the largest funder of poets.

Its new leader wants to emphasize and expand the linguistic diversity of poetry and boost interest in poetry by average Americans.

Jeffrey Brown reports for our arts and culture series, Canvas.

JEFFREY BROWN: Ricardo Alberto Maldonado in English: RICARDO ALBERTO MALDONADO, President, Academy of American Poets: I find myself on my feet with 15 leaves.

Everything carries its own light on the walls.

JEFFREY BROWN: And in Spanish man.

The Puerto Rican-born-and-raised, New York-based poet embraces the bounty and diversity of languages in his own life and work.

And now he has an opportunity to spread the word and words more widely, as the new head of the Academy of American Poets.

RICARDO ALBERTO MALDONADO: I want to be intentional as an administrator who is also a poet, who understands what it means to write in more than one language.

We are in a unique position to reflect the diversity of the poetry field and the readers of poetry across America and across the world.

JEFFREY BROWN: At 42, Maldonado has known the thrill of seeing and hearing his work in exciting ways, including set to music and performed at the opening of the Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center in New York last year.

He has had an influential poetry platform as head of the prestigious program at New York's 92nd Street Y, on one occasion breaking into song.

But he first came to poetry as a teenager in Puerto Rico through mourning the loss of his father.

RICARDO ALBERTO MALDONADO: Poetry came to me when I needed it.

And... JEFFREY BROWN: Meaning what?

RICARDO ALBERTO MALDONADO: My father had died, and I felt very much alone, even though I was supported by my family.

But I felt like there were things I did not understand.

My teacher gave me "To an Athlete Dying Young" by A.E.

Housman.

JEFFREY BROWN: Yes, a famous poem.

RICARDO ALBERTO MALDONADO: Very famous poem.

JEFFREY BROWN: Yes.

It's also one of more than 2,500 poems that are part of the academy's popular 10-year-old digital series Poem a Day, which highlights new work by contemporary poets.

It is received its received by more than 330,000 daily subscribers and read by tens of thousands more every year.

The academy also offers a K-12 education program, including the Teach This Poem series, the Poem in Your Pocket Day, when people of all ages read, share, post, create art using poetry.

And it gives $1.3 million a year to poets through prizes and fellowships.

Maldonado has taught literature in high schools in both Puerto Rico and New York.

He first wrote his poetry in English.

But watching from afar the devastation in his homeland by Hurricane Maria in 2017 changed his life.

RICARDO ALBERTO MALDONADO: I wanted to write poems that would make my world legible to my family in Puerto Rico.

I felt like I had to speak to them to say, if nothing, you are not alone, and I am living with you even from afar.

JEFFREY BROWN: And that had to be in Spanish?

RICARDO ALBERTO MALDONADO: It felt like it had to be in Spanish.

And since then, I have realized that my poems in Spanish have a deeper resonance that they would ordinarily in English.

They just strike something very important within me that I cannot define.

JEFFREY BROWN: His bilingual book of poems is titled "The Life Assignment," many poems in English, others in Spanish, only some translated to both.

One important audience, his young nephews in Puerto Rico, who were excited to read recently of his appointment to head the academy.

In his new position, he says, he wants to champion and celebrate the linguistic diversity of the country, through translation, grants and other programs.

He himself is part of a group creating a bilingual archive of Puerto Rican poets and poetry.

You are the first Latino to head this organization.

RICARDO ALBERTO MALDONADO: Exactly.

JEFFREY BROWN: What's the significance for you?

RICARDO ALBERTO MALDONADO: When I was a kid, I never knew I would occupy a space like this.

I knew that poetry meant something to me.

What I'm hoping is, 10 years from now, a young Puerto Rican poet on the island or somewhere else knows that this is a possibility, that living a life with and through poetry is an honorable way of engaging with the world.

JEFFREY BROWN: That young person could come to poetry in new ways, as Maldonado himself has.

RICARDO ALBERTO MALDONADO: It is often that I go to Twitter to find a new poet or a new poem.

Many of my friends find themselves sharing screenshots of the most recent poem they fell in love with.

They embrace the limitations of a platform as a kind of invitation.

A poem can exist within the limits of Twitter.

A poem can exist within the visual limits of other platforms, such as Instagram or TikTok.

JEFFREY BROWN: So, you are bullish on poetry?

RICARDO ALBERTO MALDONADO: Absolutely.

Absolutely.

JEFFREY BROWN: I guess you have to be in your position.

RICARDO ALBERTO MALDONADO: Or as a human being, or as a former teacher, or as a poet myself too.

JEFFREY BROWN: All right, Ricardo Maldonado, congratulations on this.

And thank you very much.

RICARDO ALBERTO MALDONADO: Muchas gracias.

GEOFF BENNETT: And that's the "NewsHour" for tonight.

I'm Geoff Bennett.

Thanks for spending part of your evening with us.