The case for themselves as alternatives to the absent leading candidate president donald trump. Amna thousands of Ethnic Armenians flee after Azerbaijani Forces take control of the breakaway republic of karabakh. That is a classic genocide condition. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by. Pediatric surgeon, volunteer, topiary artist. A Raymond JamesFinancial Advisor taylors advice to help you live your life. Life well planned. The candida fund committed to advancing Restorative Justice and leading forward through investments in transformative leaders and ideas. Carnegie corporation of new york, supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement , and the advancements of International Peace and security at carnegie. 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 news hour. Federal workers were put on notice today that a shutdown is imminent. Millions of Government Employees and active duty military members could stop being paid in just 3 days time. Geoff the u. S. Senate has been working in a bipartisan manner to prevent a shutdown but the holdup is with House Republicans, some of whom are refusing to support any shortterm measure that would buy congress more time to act. Congressional correspondent Lisa Desjardins is on capitol hill following all the twists and turns. Lisa, congress has less than three days to reach a deal. The house and senate appear to be moving different directions. This deadline is quite serious and approaching more quickly now. However things at the capitol are becoming more complicated and it feels as if slowing down. Lets talk about the senate, which has a compromised idea. However a single senator, rand paul of kentucky, is saying he will not allow that to proceed any more quickly than according to senate rules because he objects to ukraine funding in that bill. What that means is we are on track for the senate to be able to vote on its compromised spending plan no sooner than monday. Lets review where we are. Shut down would start for most Government Agencies sunday morning at 12 01 just after midnight on sunday morning. We know the house, the senate is on track to have a vote no sooner than monday and the house we do not know what their plan is. We are waiting to see if Kevin Mccarthy has said he would have one. He wanted to have a vote tomorrow but we are waiting to see. There are so many details up in the air but think in terms of two pivot points. Tonight the house of representatives will try to pass a yearlong funding bill, possibly two. That will be a test of if republicans can agree on anything in the house. The other pivot point is saturday when some senators are going to try to amend the Senate Bipartisan deal. That may be changing. We will see how many votes there are on saturday. We will see if the deadline itself makes the senate move a little more quickly. Geoff you mentioned ukraine funding. Remind us what other issues are at play. Amna ukraine funding reporter ukraine funding has been a major issue but we are seeing republicans talk more about border security. Initially the reason we were not able to see spending bills pass in the house and the reason we got to this point was overspending amounts. Holdouts saying there had to be lower spending levels. Even lower than republicans agreed to a few months ago. That was the reason we got here but now we are hearing republicans say we also have been concerned about border security. We want more provisions in any kind of temporary deal. We are hearing that conversation among Senate Republicans as well. Thats what i mean by saying this is more complicated, not less, as we get toward the shutdown. Geoff there was other news on capitol hill. You attended the first House Republican impeachment inquiry. Reporter that is right. For months House Republicans have been investigating the biden family. Today that entered a new phase. The committee of oversight and accountability will come to order. Reporter in a relatively small hearing room Big Questions and profound politics. The American People demand accountability for this culture of corruption. Reporter for republicans, led by House Oversight chairman james comer, the top question is whether they will move to impeach president joe biden. In a 30page memo released last night, republicans outlined their accusation, writing they have evidence suggesting, that President Biden knew of, participated and profited from his familys International Business activities. In other words, the suggestion is influence peddling. As we all know, the bidens had nothing to sell except the brand, which was joe biden. Hunter biden sold the brand well, making the biden family millions from china and elsewhere. Reporter republicans are looking at millions of dollars made by hunter biden, the president s son, and james biden, his brother, especially in 2019 and 2020 for consulting with foreign businesses, including in ukraine and china. They have charts of Shell Companies, and spoke of texts and phone calls between biden family members. But in all of that, democrats repeatedly pointed out there is no direct evidence of payments to or influence peddling by joe biden. If the republicans had a smoking gun or even a dripping water pistol they would be presenting it today. But theyve got nothing on joe biden. Reporter republican witnesses were broad experts in law and investigation and they raised broad questions. Forensic accountant bruce dubinsky. Why were members of the biden family and Close Business Associates receiving millions of dollars of payments from foreign entities and individuals . What services, if any, were being provided . Reporter he concluded. Much more information is still needed in order to be able to answer these questions. Reporter none said theyve seen enough to add up to a crime. Law professor and conservative commentator jonathan turley. This is a question of an impeachment inquiry. It is not a vote on articles of impeachment. In fact, i do not believe the Current Evidence would support articles of impeachment. This is the first step in an inquiry initiated by House SpeakerKevin Mccarthy earlier this month under pressure from hard right members of the house. Republicans argue there is a real concern about the biden family democrats have fired back, charging this is an attempt to distract from the criminal charges now against former president donald trump. And making a point in this hearing by reversing their laptops to show ticking clocks that a shutdown is just two days away. Why in the hell are we playing this game . Why dont we be honest . If this was so important it could wait. This is whats important, protecting this government and protecting the people who pay taxes here. But we want to play games with all of this. Reporter democrats sole witness law professor Michael Gerhardt stressed the stakes. An impeachment inquiry is deadly serious. It is again just about the most serious thing any House Committee ever undertakes. Reporter republicans expect more impeachment hearings as soon as next month. Today speaking with House Republicans there is divide. Some say these hearings were necessary but i spoke to more than one House Republican who said it was an embarrassment. They are concerned about the evidence, and perhaps this hearing should have waited. Geoff lets turn now to our White House Correspondent laura barronlopez here with us in studio. We heard in leases report the gop witnesses said there is no evidence to support articles of impeachment. How is the white house responding to this hours long hearing today . That fact, that the republican witnesses said there is no evidence, is exactly what the white house is seizing on. They put out statements quoting republican witnesses saying there is no evidence for impeachment. They also had their own shutdown clock. They issued a statement every 30 minutes as the hearing was playing out over the course of the day to say there is only this many hours left before a shutdown occurs and essentially highlighting and focusing on the fact that House Republicans have been unable to come to an agreement amongst themselves on how to fund the government and the impact that would have on Food Assistance programs, on payments to active duty military members, and the like across the board. That is what the white house is focusing on. President biden was in arizona paying tribute to his late friend gop senator john mccain. It gave President Biden a chance to talk about what he sees as the threats to democracy. Reporter this speech in arizona, President Biden specifically gave his most detailed remarks to date about what he sees as a present and clear threat from not just donald trump, but also from other republican candidates running for the president ial nomination. He focused on the fact that a number of those candidates including trump have said they want to overhaul the federal agencies, that if they were to have the presidency, the Overall Office the oval office, that they want to got federal agencies and install loyalists across the different departments, specifically the justice department. The president said this is not normal, this is something americans need to Pay Attention to. Seizing power, concentrating power, attempting to abuse power, inciting violence against those who keep america safe. Weaponizing against the very soul of who we are as americans. This is a threat to the brick and mortar of our democratic institutions. It is also a threat to the character of our nation. Reporter those are some of the most specific remarks the president has given to say if republicans were to take power, take the presidency in 2024, the federal agencies you have known since americas existence would not exist. He talked a lot about john mccain, the late senator, and really struck this contrast to say that john mccain was a republican who was willing to put the Country First and was willing to call out what he saw as wrongdoing, was willing to stand up to donald trump. He does not see that anymore amongst republicans. He also addressed the fact that no republicans or a majority of republicans have remained silent after the former president issued a death threat suggesting general mark milley, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, should be executed. Geoff should we expect to hear more about this from President Biden . Reporter we will. This is the fourth threat the president has given on threats to democracy and the campaign has made clear this is something hes going to be talking about aggressively heading into the election cycle. Amna for more perspective on the legal basis for the inquiry we are joined by frank bowman. Professor emeritus at the university of Missouri School of law and author of the high crimes and misdemeanors, a history of impeachment for the age of trump. Welcome and thanks for joining us. I want to begin with your reaction to the impeachment hearing today. What were the Key Takeaways for you . What new information did you learn . Prof. Bowman very little. No impeachment inquiry should begin unless there is significant proof the president did engage in some sort of wrongdoing and that has been the case in every prior president ial impeachment. The difficulty for the republicans is on the one hand, they have the advantage of dealing with hunter biden, the president s son. The uncontested point everyone can agree on is that hunter biden has spent his entire life in the profession of being the son of joe biden. He has gained a lot of advantages in terms of getting jobs and later in life, inducing people to invest in his companies by virtue of the fact his last name is biden. No doubt about that. But that is not a crime even as to hunter biden. It is certainly not an Impeachable Offense for joe biden without a good deal more. The problem is republicans launched this investigation without any material evidence that President Biden has done anything that is criminal or impeachable. It is worth remembering, we do not come into this inquiry about hunter and his relationship with his father a new as if this was a new thing. This has been investigated by multiple authorities since 2018. The trump appointed u. S. Attorney in delaware has been investigating since then. The Senate Committee investigated biden and maries mom in 2020 biden and burisma in 2020. So far although we still know hunter biden has been trading on his fathers name, they have no evidence. Amna let me ask if i may. Even republicans will say yes, this is a factfinding mission, we believe we have more questions. Where there is smoke there is fire. They say these hearings are a means to get to some of that specific evidence you are saying they have not shown yet. Could it be as a result of these hearings they do uncover that . Prof. Bowman sure, in theory. But it is profoundly unlikely. Given the exhaustive investigations by republicans over the past five years, the very same transactions that have failed to produce the evidence they say they are looking for, the republican legislators who corresponded were quoted saying we need more, to take the step of the impeachment inquiry, they are right and Nothing Happened today that dispelled that concern. Amna what are the possible outcomes from this hearing . They could move forward with articles of impeachment or it could be they reach the end of the hearings and say never mind, nothing to see here . Prof. Bowman sure. One is disposed to suspect the purpose of these hearings is not an ultimate impeachment, but simply to keep the name hunter biden in the News Associated with his father, to maintain thus position maintain thus suspicion that something is amiss and carry the public concern forward into an election year. Perhaps i am wrong. Perhaps everything the republicans are doing is being done in good faith. But one has to doubt that is the case given the doubts that are being expressed through this process even by members of their own party. Amna we have heard about the arguments laid out. The overarching idea of influence peddling. The idea of Shell Companies being created as well. From a legal perspective, what is the bar republicans have to meet from your expertise and your view . Prof. Bowman they want to try to show that joe biden committed an Impeachable Offense. They want to show corruption. Today they adopted the phrase influence peddling. That is a favorite of professor turley. It sounds bad and broadly it is bad generically but if you want to make an Impeachable Offense of it you have to show someone in public office, in this case President Biden, actually offered or gave or performed some sort of official action or at least intimated he would engage in some official action in response for payments either to himself or someone else. And there is no evidence of that at all. They are going to have to show that. Maybe they can. Maybe some smoking gun will emerge. But at this point, there is no indication. And it is telling i think that they began this hearing, this momentous process, with no evidence. Amna that is Professor Emeritus at the university of Missouri School of law, frank bowman, joining us tonight. Thank you so much, good to speak with you. Prof. Bowman thank you. Amna the pentagon confirmed and american soldier who ran away to north korea has returned to the United States. North korea sent king to china where he was handed over to u. S. Authorities. Nato secretarygeneral yen stoltenberg urged the allies to provide ukraine with more air defense systems. Stoltenberg visited kyiv to meet with president volodymyr zelenskyy. He said the stronger ukraine gets, the sooner russias aggression will end. Meantime, russian drones attacked the mykolaiv and odesa regions in ukraine, as well as the kirovohrad area. There were no reported casualties. For the second time in less than a month a major storm is pounding central greece. Authorities say hundreds of people have been evacuated from the region, and most of the city of volos is without power. Debris clogged an Overflowing River today, and water gushed into the citys streets. Many of the flood victims blamed government mismanagement. We couldnt believe our eyes, what we were seeing. In last two weeks they came only four or five days to clear the debris from the river from the previous catastrophe. At about 5 00, the river was blocked up again from debris under the bridge. That earlier storm killed 16 people in greece and caused more than 2 billion in damage. Scientists sounded an alarm today on rapidly melting glaciers caused by recordlow snowfall and extreme summer heat. A new report said swiss glaciers have lost 10 of their i