william: good evening. i'm william brangham. geoff bennett and amna nawaz are away. on "the newshour" tonight. wikileaks founder julian assange makes a last-ditch attempt to avoid extradition to the united states on spying charges. then, taiwan's top diplomat in washington discusses the island's relations with the u.s., as both confront china. >> we trust that we will continue working closely with the u.s. administration as well as congress so that taiwan can

get, under circumstances, the best defense capabilities. william: and, a look at the presidential race as president biden breaks a fundraising record, and nikki haley tries to gain ground on donald trump ahead of the primary in her home state. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the newshour including kathy and paul anderson and camilla and george smith. >> 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. william: welcome to “the newshour.” president biden says the united states will impose major new sanctions on russia, after the death of opposition leader alexei navalny. officials gave no details today, but the president said the formal announcement will come on friday. navalny reportedly died in an arctic prison last week. his mother appeared in a video today, outside the prison, still

seeking answers and access to his body, and pressing russia's president for action. >> behind me is the ik-3 polar wolf penal colony, where my son alexei navalny died on 16 february. i am turning to you, vladimir putin, the solution to the issue depends only on you. let me finally see my son. i require that alexei's body be immediately given so that i can bury him humanely. william: the kremlin today denied any involvement in navalny's death, or that he was poisoned with a nerve agent. in turn, his widow, yulia navalny, urged european nations to reject the results of putin's expected re-election next month. for his part, putin insisted today that russia will not deploy nuclear weapons in space. he spoke as he met with his defense minister and urged all nations to honor an international ban on deploying nuclear arms in orbit.

u.s. officials say russia has a new, anti-satellite capability, but they've not said if it's nuclear-capable. also in russia, a moscow court refused to release wall street journal reporter evan gershkovich from jail. that's pending his trial on espionage charges, which he denies. russian authorities also detained a dual russian-u.s. citizen on treason charges. she's accused of fundraising to support ukraine's army. the united states vetoed a u.n. security council resolution today that called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in gaza. the vote was 13 to 1 on the measure, which was backed by arab states. u.s. ambassador linda thomas-greenfield said passing it would sabotage negotiations. >> demanding an immediate, unconditional ceasefire without an agreement requiring hamas to release the hostages will not bring about a durable peace. instead, it could extend the fighting between hamas and

israel. william: in northern gaza, the u.n.'s world food program suspended food and aid deliveries, saying drivers faced violence from people swarming the trucks. hamas called the decision a death sentence, and it comes amid reports of people reduced to eating animal feed. a u.n. study found that one in six children under two years of age in gaza, are acutely malnourished. back in this country, two men were charged with murder in the super bowl parade shootings in kansas city. a crowd of fans ran for their lives when an argument turned into gunfire last week. one person was killed, and 22 were injured. two juveniles were charged earlier with gun violations and resisting arrest. the u.s. supreme court has declined a case on diversity in education. parents and students argued that a special northern virginia high school discriminated against asian-americans, in favor of other minorities. a lower court upheld the admissions policy.

the justices also deciding against hearing a religion case, on whether potential jurors may be excluded over their beliefs. a first-of-its-kind federal trial opened today in south carolina, for a hate crime based on gender identity. the defendant is accused of killing a black transgender woman in 2019. prosecutors say he'd been ridiculed for having an affair with the victim. in economic news, there could be a new team in the credit card industry. capital one financial says it will buy discover financial services for $35 billion. if it wins federal approval, the merger would challenge the dominance of visa and mastercard in the credit card industry. and on wall street, tech stocks

dropped, and that pulled the broader market lower. still to come on the newshour. low demand for commerical office space fuels economic fears. a domestic violence call in minnesota that turned deadly sheds light on a growing problem in the u.s. a new exhibit chronicles the rich history of independent black cinema. plus, much more. >> 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. william: a two-day hearing in a london courtoom began today over the fate of julian assange, the founder of wikileaks. at stake -- whether he will be extradited to the united states on espionage charges. his case has reopened debate over whether assange is a journalist and publisher, or something more sinister, and many defending him say free speech and an independent press

is also at stake. >> this will likely be julian assange's last chance to avoid facing prosecutors in the united states. his two-day hearing got underway today at london's royal courts of justice. assange's lawyers are battling to block extradition, which they insist is politically motivated. american prosecutors want the wikileaks founder to stand trial on 17 charges of espionage and one charge for computer misuse for releasing huge troves of classified u.s. military and diplomatic documents back in 2010. >> it is clear that it will shape an understanding of what the past six years of war has been like, and that the course of the war needs to change. the manner in which it needs to change is not yet clear. william: they say the australian citizen conspired with u.s. army

intelligence analyst chelsea manning to steal military files and diplomatic cables. the justice department is also separately investigating whether assange has ties to the russian government, especially after wikileaks published internal emails from the democratic party that were stolen by the russians during the 2016 election. today, assange's wife stella compared his case to that of russian opposition leader alexei navalny, who died in a russian prison last week. >> it's an attack on all journalists all over the world. it's an attack on the truth. and it's an attack on the public's right to know. julian is a political prisoner, and his life is at risk. what happened to navalny can happen to julian. william: assange's legal troubles also include his arrest by british authorities in 2010, after two women in sweden accused him of rape and sexual

assault. two years later, he jumped bail and sequestered himself at the ecuadorian embassy in london, where he stayed around the clock for seven years. >> as wikileaks stands under threat so does the freedom of expression and the health of all our societies. william: the tiny ecuadorian mission eventually evicted him in 2019. and british police immediately arrested him for his bail violation years before. he's been held in a maximum security prison in london ever since. assange's supporters rallied outside the court today, demanding his release, and hailing him as a whistleblower who exposed u.s. military wrongdoings in the wars in iraq and afghanistan. >> assange for us, for me, is a hero. he's an advocate for truth, peace, justice. it's really important that he's free, not just for journalism, but for everyone that's actually walking this planet. his work affects us because he's exposing injustices throughout

the world. william: should the british court reject his appeal, assange could be sent to the u.s. immediately to stand trial. if convicted, he faces up to 175 years in prison. for a closer look at julian assange's appeal and the u.s. effort to prosecute him we get two views. carrie decell is a senior staff attorney at the knight first amendment institute. her litigation focuses on freedom of speech on social media and digital-age threats to freedom of the press. and jamil jaffer, he's a former senior counsel for the house intelligence committee who also served in the justice department's national security division during the george w. bush administration. thank you both so much for being here. as i mentioned in that set up there, assigned could be pacing as facing 175 years if he were convicted on all these charges. do you think you should face prosecution here in the united states? >> no, i don't.

i think regardless of whether or not the u.k. courts decide to extradite him to the united states, the u.s. justice department should drop these charges. they are direct ret to press freedom because they could be brought against any national security reporter worst -- worth their salt. william: is he a journalist, is he a publisher, as his defenders allege? >> these charges have not been brought ever against anyone in the united states because julian assange has never been a journalist, he has been a hacker his entire life. he doesn't try to protect the innocent. in fact, all of his stories have resulted in more journalist and human rights activists being under threat abroad than ever before. it's his stories that put legitimate journalists at risk. william: what do you make of that, that there is a distinction that in one case he helped someone hacked into a

computer, that is what a normal national security reporter would do. >> that may be right, but that is one count of of an 18 count indictment. the justice department could have left the charges that that one count, but they filed an indictment adding 17 counts under the espionage act, and the charges under the espionage act over things that typical journalist engage in everyday, soliciting information from confidential sources, obtaining that information, and then publishing it. so regardless of whether or not assange -- qualifies as a journalist, these charges could be brought against your average journalist. william: your take on this distinction between being a journalist and a hacker, does he follow under the first amendment in any way? >> he is not a u.s. citizen, he

is being brought here and prosecuted here and presumably those rights will apply once he is here in our courts. even if we apply the first amendment to him, he doesn't do the things you would expect a journalist to do. he doesn't comply with journalistic ethics or abide by these things. he was behaving poorly while in the embassy. even if you put aside all the hacking charges, journalists don't normally solicit classified information. if they receive it, sometimes they will publish it, but even when they publish it, they take efforts to redact it and protect sources, he did not do any of that because he is not a real, legitimate journalists. the idea that this prosecution was undermined any journalist rights just makes no sense to me. william: i'm sure you share this concern that many of his supporters and his lawyers have,

which is that he would have a very difficult time getting a fair trial in the u.s. do you believe that's the case? >> i am a u.s. lawyer and a practice in u.s. courts, and i still believe that u.s. courts can proceed to a fair trial, but that said, there are a lot of circumstances around this particular prosecution that are terribly concerning. this really is the first prosecution of a publisher of information under the espionage act, regardless of whether or not he qualifies as a journalist. there are a lot of open questions to court will have to address if he is successfully extradited here. the biggest to my mind is whether or not there first amendment limits on his and other publishers potential liability for publishing truthful information on matters of clear public concern, when it comes to the espionage act. william: we should remind her

audience it back in 2019, the obama administration was presented with this option of prosecuting assange and they chose not to. >> i'm not exactly sure why they decline prosecution at the time. the trump administration has brought the charges in the indictment. the biden administration, that most of the people in the justice department and the secured counsel served and in the prior obama administration, including merrick garland, president obama and the attorney general, matt olson was head of the national counterterrorism center. the same people who are prosecuting assange today served in similar or related positions back in the obama administration as well. william: what would you argue there, the administration back then you believe made the right call, why do you think they changed course now? >> as reported at the time,

apparently the obama administration was really concerned about its own ability to draw a line between assange and journalists, when it comes to what they intended to prosecute him for in this instance. the trump administration clearly made a different decision. probably not least because the trump administration was not at all concerned about jeopardizing freedom of the press and in fact, was excited, i think, about the possibility of putting the press on notice. i think it is a typical justice department practice of maintaining prosecutions that a previous administration filed, really for the appearance of impartiality. i think in this case, however, the charges should not have been brought by the trump administration, and the obama administration was right not to bring those very same charges when and had the opportunity to. so i think this justice department should drop those charges. william: what do you make of the

separate allegations that are made that assange has some unhealthy connection to russia, that he has served as a far too willing conduit for those stolen emails back in 2016? >> we have seen that play out in real time, during that particular incident, and many times as well where it appears that assange has a somewhat inappropriate relationship with the russian regime. it's hard to know exactly how those ties play out. it's not surprising in the context of what we seen the russians do in terms of election misinformation and disinformation and their efforts to manipulate western audiences. at the end of the day, what julian assange is accused of doing, if he is found guilty, is prosecutable and punishable and has been since 1917. william: what happens next?

let's say he is extradited or the court rules against him and says he could be. does he have another outlet for appeal? >> in the united kingdom, my understanding is you would have to go to the european court of human rights and you might be put on a plane in the meantime to the united states. certainly within the u.s. you would have the opportunity to argue that he should not be held criminally liable for publishing information, truthful information on matters of clear public concern. the supreme court has held that the first amendment strongly protects that kind of publication. it has not done so in this particular context, but assange and his lawyers would make that as defense for this that's these charges. william: thank you both for being here. ♪

william: this week tensions have increased in the taiwan strait, following incidents near an island involving the chinese and taiwanese coast guards. it's happening at a sensitive moment, in between taiwan's recent election and the upcoming inauguration of a new president. nick schifrin speaks to taiwan's new representative in washington, for his first broadcast interview. nick: more than any single issue, taiwan has long been at the center of tension between the united states and beijing. last month, taiwan elected lai ching-te, known as william lai, as president. it is an unprecedented third straight presidential victory for the democratic progressive party, or dpp. beijing calls lai a separatist whose election could trigger war. but publicly, lai has insisted his policy is to retain the status quo. to discuss these issues, and the wider relations among taiwan, china and the u.s., we welcome

alexander yui, taiwan's top diplomat to the united states. let's begin some recent chinese nationals died when their boat capsized what was being chased about one mile from a taiwanese island. today, taiwan drove away a chinese coast guard boat after yesterday the chinese coast guard boded a taiwanese tourist boat. what is your concern that these incidents could escalate? >> we have always strived for the status quo in the taiwan straits. the incident you just mentioned is a concerning trend that is happening. they are the ones who are changing the status quo changing all these incidents. talk about redlines, saying you shouldn't cross a redline because this is a fundamental. but they are the ones changing the redlines. they draw the redlines constantly on a different line. that is a concerning trend. nick: there is also diplomatic

pressure, after the election, trading recognition of taipei for beijing, 10 countries have switched from taipei to beijing during the term of the president. why do you believe taiwan is losing so many? >> it was punishment to the tommy's people for choosing the candidate they did not like. but we will not challenge and race on dollar diplomacy. they promise a lot of benefits, a windfall of economic benefits, airports, roadways, housing, etc. but in most of the cases, they

go unanswered after they switch sides. nick: beijing has adjusted a flight path closer to the median line of the taiwan strait, essentially normalizing the fight of chinese civilian aircraft closer to taiwan. why is that so concerning? >> first of all, their measure was unilateral. the way they consulted with taiwan back in 2015 when it was established, it increased the dangers of national security for us because planes are flying closer to taiwan, but also increases danger for civilian people because they are encroaching on our airspace, and they should've consulted with us first. nick: i have a question about whether taiwan trust the united states. poll shows the trust has dropped from 45% to 34%. of course we are all watching, where congress has not been able to send mostly to ukraine and

also to taiwan in israel, that the administration has promise, and the leading republican candidate is vowing that he will not standby promises to nato. do you trust tt in the future, the u.s. will stand by whatever promises it makes to taiwan? >> the recent definition, whenever people talk about taiwan-u.s. relations, the most often used charmed is rocksolid. i will say the support we get from the united states is bipartisan and is very heartwarming that congress has passed over 60 resolutions or acts in favor of taiwan. the u.s. has its elections in november, and we are trustful that whoever wins the election, the new administration, this bipartisan support for taiwan

will continue to be. so we trust we will continue irking closely with the u.s. administration as well as congress so tell one can get the best defense capabilities as possible. nick: if ukraine is -- loses to russia or is forced to cede territory -- >> that's wanted vince of ukraine against russia is so important for countries to make sure ukraine is able to defend itself. facing aggression from authoritarian regimes, the crimea incident into any 14, not much was done and pressure you check -- attacked ukraine two years ago.

at the security forum, he mentioned if you want peace and stability in the taiwan straits, you should follow our one china principle and except that taiwan is part of us. this sounds very much like munich in 1938, when hitler's said want peace and stability in my region, then the land is mine. isn't it the same thing they are saying? nick: that the u.s. is acting in the correct way to prevent war? >> we are very heartened and appreciative that every time the u.s. leader says there are other leaders from -- that meet with the leadership, they insist the peace and stability of the

taiwan strait is necessary and they are against the unilateral change in the status quo by means of military aggression and economic portion. nick: but they also assure beijing that they will not support taiwan. >> people and taiwan are not talking about independence now. you go to taiwan, no one is talking about independence. we are already a sovereign entity in the nation, so there is no talk about independence because we already are. as i mentioned on another occasion, if we talk about independence, it means right now we are subordinate to some other entity, which we are not. in 2021, she mentioned we will insist on rejecting any attempt to encroach are annexed taiwan from china, and the insistence

that the future ofr taiwano will be determined byc the people of taiwan. that is the line we follow. nick: thank you very much. ♪ william: former u.n. ambassador nikki haley today vowed to stay in the republican primary, even if she loses saturday's vote in her home state of south carolina. haley's decision comes despite not winning a single primary race thus far, and as president biden's campaign prepares for an expected rematch with former president trump. to discuss that and other news in the 2024 election, i'm joined by our political correspondent lisa desjardins. so hatley doubled down on this idea that she is in, no matter

what. what is her strategy here, what is her plan? lisa: she declared this her state of the race speech. i want to read some remarks i thought were striking. she said, she will campaign every day until the last person votes. that is june 4 in the republican primary. she was passionate and defiant and spoke for 25 minutes. her argument in some ways is the same. she is saying much of this country does not want a biden-trump rematch. there were many sharp barbs at president trump, who she said has been a disaster and she called on other republicans saying they have not been honest about him. >> i feel no need to kiss the ring. [applause] and i have no fear of trump's retribution.

i'm not looking for anything from him. my own political future is of zero concern. lisa: the trump team sit out a memo saying in their view, the campaign will in saturday. haley says the opposite. when will it end, is a question everyone wants to know. i spoke to asa hutchinson who has now endorsed her. he said there are some pragmatic concerns here for her. >> you don't have to win, but you have to show that you're mounting a significant challenge. then that takes you to super tuesday, and you have to have a strong enough showing in south carolina to showcase to the donors that, you've got a shot at this and that you can turn this around. lisa: haiti right now is running all fuel from august when she had those big debate moments and she brought in a lot of money. she needs to keep doing that to really keep going.

meanwhile, as those who are subprogram know, i worked in south carolina politics for a while, and i spoke to many of my sources down there. they do see perhaps a way she can make up a little bit of ground and close the gap. what everyone is saying to me, including our team on the ground , they say there is a real lack of enthusiasm. they were at a trump event today and they had 70 or 80 people to great him. low turnout is good for haley on saturday. william: asa hutchinson mentioned that money is reticle. where do the candidates stand on that front now? lisa: president biden had some record-setting numbers. his campaign said they raised $42 million in january, a record for a democrat at this time of year. starting with republicans, haley and trump, the last figures we had from both campaigns were at the end of last year. haiti with $14 million, trump with $33 million on hand.

the equivalent for joe biden end of last year was $46 million. so that is good news for democrats. we have not heardbout trump's latest figures, which makes you question how well he is doing with that. another factor for trump, two major packs supporting him reported that they actually spent $55 million in legal fees for him, and that is before his trials really start, his criminal trials, i should say. william: campaign dollars are great news for biden, but they can't really buy votes dollars. what do we know about how he is doing with those actual voters? lisa: his approval rating is around the same, around 40%. there is still a disconnect where the economy, employment is doing well, wall street is doing well, inflation is getting a little bit better. a poll from monmouth university talked about this issue with president biden, asking, should

he get credit for the economic upturn? 36% say no, no credit at all president biden for the economic upturn. you look at who gives him credit and who doesn't, it is 50-50, which is remarkable when you see a lot of the economic numbers. another statistic that caught our attention, has your family benefited from this upturn? look at this, about a third of the country say they have benefited, but two thirds of the country say they still have not benefited. maybe the question is and how much have you benefited, but who? the folks who said they did not benefit much at all, the significant difference was folks earning under $50,000. traditional democrats are just not seeing any gain. william: lisa desjardins, thank you, as always. ♪

william: in recent weeks, federal regulators have signalled concern about one financial sector in america that could spell economic trouble, commercial real estate. decreased demand for offices coupled with high interest rates have put some serious pressure on lease holders, and smaller banks in particular. economics correspondent paul solman reports from san francisco. paul: what some folks consider america's ticking financial time bomb: empty office buildings. nancy: commercial real estate is the big problem across the country, really. paul real estate economist nancy : wallace. nancy: and obviously san francisco, the problems are really significant. paul: especially in san francisco, which the new york times just called the most empty downtown in america. how empty are the office buildings? jesse: about 33, 35% vacant. paul developer jesse blout. : compared to what?

>> natural vacancy rate is 10 to 15%. nancy: they are literally not paying their mortgages. paul: bad enough, but there are also another trillion dollars in mortgages that need to be refinanced this year and next. and so -- nancy: if interest rates don't come down, those mortgages would be nearly impossible to refinance. and so we will see another wave of water called maturity defaults, of people being unable to refinance. paul: and that would wipe out the owners, leaving downtown san francisco, and similar cities more hollowed out, shades of the great financial crash of 2008. and thus investor and depositor fears, in san francisco and, in the past few weeks, all around the country, triggered by losses at new york community bank, which announced it will try to reduce its commercial real estate loans. but to some folks, like developer blout, the current crisis in san francisco at least

actually seems like an opportunity. jesse: we've never seen prices like this. we started our business after -- at the start of the great recession in 2009, 2010. and that was a historic buying opportunity. paul: this moment, even more historic. so blout's firm, strada, which moved into this 18-story building in 2022, bought it a month ago, for a song. jesse: 70% discount off of what it was valued just five years ago. paul: okay, a pricey song: $67 million. still, 30 cents on the dollar. jesse: san francisco is still one of the best cities in the country. it's the center of artificial intelligence. so there is more office jobs in san francisco than there ever were. paul: so the office is fairly empty here. and yet i see all that traffic on your bridge. jesse: it's picked up quite a bit. we're not unlike most companies in san francisco these days, where we tend to let people work from home on mondays and fridays, and then everybody's

here. if you were here tomorrow you couldn't find a seat. paul some see a building half : empty -- blout, half full, and betting on a return to work from work. having paid only 30 cents on the dollar, he had money to fill it up. what are you going to do to get them back? jesse: we're going to spend some money. a million bucks just for the window washing equipment. it's all about creating new experiences for the tenants and giving people a reason to come to work. call: -- paul: including a roof-top common area, with a view. jesse: we're going to upgrade all of the pavings and all the railings and everything and put in some beautiful plantings, places to sit. paul: so blout thinks he's buying at the bottom of the so-called real estate cycle. that is, too little office space means soaring rents, prompting a building boom, financed with debt. eventually, there's a glut, your tenants skedaddle, especially this time, thanks to covid. your rents can't cover your costs.

nancy: then you foreclose or you sell your property at a third of its market value and the cycle starts again. paul: but meanwhile, what happens to those holding the commercial real estate loans, many of them regional banks without much of a capital cushion. what do they do to keep afloat? jesse: a lot of them now are working with their borrowers to not take back the keys, in their so-called, you know, pretend and extend. paul: pretend and extend. pretend that it's worth more than it is until such time as it comes back. jesse: and everyone's hoping that rates come down and and more people come back to work. paul: and extend is, hey, you can pay us off over a longer period of time so you don't have to give us back the keys. jesse: correct. paul: to be fair, many of san francisco's office towers are financed by huge banks like wells fargo, which can afford bigger losses. but they too do so-called loan restructuring, aka: pretend and extend.

ed obuchowski and wendy ross founded and run the community bank of san francisco. so, i asked, is pretend and extend an accurate description? ed: it is accurate. and, if there's a challenge, i think it's incumbent on both parties to try to work it out. paul: so it's just a question of terminology. i mean, pretend and extend or. ed: or working collaboratively and taking the long term view to work out of the loan. tarel coleman -- paul: now, their bank makes commercial real estate loans. so is it in trouble, maybe even headed for collapse like nearby silicon valley bank and first republic no so long ago. ed: it's not had a major impact with us. >> no, they say. we lend modestly. charge a bit more. pays depositor a bit less. but you thank your lucky stars that you're not a bank that put money into fancy downtown real estate. ed: sometimes small is good. paul: was that your thinking? going in that small is good in that you wouldn't get stuck with

properties that might plummet in value? wendy: our core is community banking, if you will. and so it's always going to be the type of lending where we have a loan, but also a personal guarantee, and with guarantor support, we can look at the other assets of the person behind the property, if you will. and that kind of just goes back to the core community banking people. it's a people business. paul: isn't a big problem elsewhere in the country among regional banks, that if the value of what's on their books, the collateral of the commercial real estate has gone down a lot, that they're not going to be able to lend locally. ed: it just has a negative knock on effect over there because they're working through challenges there. it's hard to shift even psychologically from workout mode to new business development mode. paul: or perhaps even survive. so much depends, then, on whether workers return to their offices, as jesse blout is

pretty much demanding, 3 days a week. and of course whether interest rates come down. fed chair jerome powell is holding off on rate cuts for now. how worried is he willing to admit he is about commercial loans scott pelley asked him recently on 60 minutes. jerome powell: we looked at the larger banks' balance sheets, and it appears to be a manageable problem. there's some smaller and regional banks that have concentrated exposures in these areas that are challenged. paul: but of course, how can the head of the fed say there is a crisis, or even could be? >> okay, you'd like a bottom line, right: on powell's prognosis, blout's investment, san francisco's future, commercialeal estate and its lenders? well, time will tell is such a cliche, you can't sign off that way anymore. but let's face it, time will tell, at least till the next real estate cycle. so, we hope to see you then. paul solman, for the pbs newshour, back home from san

francisco. ♪ william: a shooting outside of minneapolis over the weekend is putting the spotlight once again on domestic violence. police responded to a domestic-abuse call, and discovered a man armed with multiple guns who barricaded himself, seven children and other family members inside his home. he killed two police officers and a paramedic, before turning a gun on himself. the gunman was not legally allowed to own guns because of a previous assault conviction, and he reportedly had been accused of domestic abuse. to better understand how what happened fits into this broader national picture, we're joined by rachel louise snyder. she's been covering domestic violence for 15 years, and is the author of the memoir “women we buried, women we burned.”

so good to have you on the program. i want to just run through some pretty jarring statistics we recently pulled from the cdc. this says that over half the women murdered in the u.s. are murdered by a male intimate partner. overall, a third of women in america and a quarter of men report suffering severe violence from intimate partners. i also stand -- understand that these numbers have been rising in recent years. do we know why that is? rachel: i think there's macro levels and micro levels. on the micro level, women are not staying in bad marriages, and we are better at gathering statistics. that's a very simplistic view. but also, guns are far more prevalent and they are used obviously for homicide, but they are used as threats, as coercion. and i think that men also

probably feel like they are losing ground. also, there is a way to read those statistics as positive, in that we have more resources now to help poor people. so there is a sense in which the better the resources are, the more people are going to be able to come forward. that in itself is a good thing. but it is baffling, because you think the more we know, the more we should be able to prevent it, and that doesn't seem to be the case. william: doe know how much the pandemic exacerbated domestic violence in america? rachel: that's an interesting question, because in the very getting of the pandemic, rates to domestic violence hotlines went way down. that was really disturbing sign, because what it meant was that victims were unable to access resources and unable to make those calls. once things loosened up a little

bit, after the first couple of months, rates of calls to hotlines shot up in record numbers, really all across the world. i think coming out of the pandemic, there's a lot of it back -- exacerbating causes that are not in and of themselves enough to make somebody violent, but could trigger an already tense situation. those are things like economic factors, addiction, and all that , all those kind of social ills have presented parallel to domestic violence. william: with regard to the minnesota case, we should say that that case is still being investigated, we don't really know the details of it. if that nexus is so clear and it is illegal to possess a gun if you have a restraining order against you, why is this so hard to enforce? why is that not protecting more women? rachel: that is a question that

i bang my head against the wall asking. the simple answer is, you could have a law, but that doesn't mean it's going to be enforced. and has to be enforced. i should say there is a supreme court case addressing this right now, we are waiting on the decision. but right now, as you say, there is a federal law banning domestic -- domestic abusers are anyone charged with a violent criminal act from owning guns, but those guns have to be collected by police officers or whoever. in the case of minnesota, that men had an arsenal. if you go around and ask jurisdictions why they don't enforce that, you will get a huge array of reasons. everything from, that is that person's recreation, so you take the guns away, you're taking away their recreation. obviously the second amendment has a place there. we have the right to arm ourselves to the teeth.

police chiefs say we would love to enforce them but we don't have a place to hold these arsenals of thousands of guns. and you look at a state like california that has enforce that, you see gun charges and homicides go way down. it is just mind-boggling. statistically, almost any way you look at it, if you take the guns, the rates of homicide and suicide and all other gun crimes go down. but we just impede don't enforce it. william: you touched on the supreme court case. can you remind us what is at stake in that case? rachel: essentially a whether or not, a not very good guy had access to guns and then had his guns taken away from him when he got charges. he is in prison now, but his attorneys have filed suit saying he has a right to the second amendment, regardless. they are essentially deciding,

does someone who has a criminal charge have a constitutional right to the second amendment? those of us o are really familiar with the stats are living in a kind of terror that the supreme court will rule that they somehow maintain that constitutional right, even though they have proven themselves to be a danger to their community. william: rachel louise snyder, thanks for being here, we appreciate your insights. rachel: thank you for having me. ♪ william: film buffs will frequently cite citizen kane or gone with the wind as early classics, but a new exhibit at the detroit institute of arts, seeks to showcase lesser-known black filmmakers and actors who have a rich history of their own. jeffrey brown has the story for our arts and culture series, canvas.

jeffrey: regeneration, a silent film released in 1923, was a romance set in the south seas, featuring an all-black cast. it's just one of more than 500 so-called race films produced for black audiences between 1915 and 1950. rhea: there was an african american sort of cultural production, folks working in front of and behind the camera that were using the tools of modern technology to create these visual stories. this is a parallel history which has been overlooked, but yet still has been critical to the ways in which we understand film history. jeffrey: co-curators rhea combs and doris berger uncovered this parallel history of black film in an exhibit originally presented at the academy museum in los angeles, now at the detroit institute of arts. covering the first 73 years of black cinema, the exhibit takes its name from that 1923 silent-era film, which survives

only in a heavily-damaged, 11-minute fragment. eliot willhelm is the dia's film curator. elliot: we can see a portion of what it was, but we can also see in a physical way, the neglect and the decay that happened to the film. and in a way, it's a metaphor for what the exhibition is about. the erasure of the past. jeffrey: on display, surviving evidence of this overlooked history, documents, costumes, film clips, and vivid posters, like this, for the 1939 film, reform school. >> what is really stunning to us all is louise beavers is mostly known in hollywood films, in supporting characters. hollywood offered black actors and actresses most often butlers and mammy roles. but in this film, she's not playing a supporting character, but the main character. she is the star of the film. she is the boss of the prison

and would like to see a prison reform. a very topical story to this day. >> it means to change from bad to good, to make better morally. jeffrey: “reform school,” in fact, was released the same year as two film classics: “gone with the wind” and “the wizard of oz,” but was long believed to be lost. now it, along with three others, has been fully restored and is part of “regeneration” accompanying screening series. >> we can wax poetic about films like gone with the win, but at the same time we had other works taking place like reform school. the films highlight that african-american experiences are not a singular story. jeffrey: the exhibition does reckon with the pervasive racial stereotypes in early films, including the minstrel performances of bert williams, who starred in the unreleased lime kiln field day, the earliest surviving feature film with an all-blk cast.

the exhibit juxtaposes its film artifacts with the work of contemporary artists, here kara walker taking on harriet beecher stowe's “uncle tom's cabin”, which also became a 1903 film. rhea: she is providing us another way to look at this work. she's interrogating it. she's challenging it. jeffrey: the early cinema section of regeneration ends in 1915, the year a technically-innovative, but deeply racist film was released. >> just seeing in person this invitation to the white house for the premiere of birth of a nation is really emotional for me. jeffrey: danielle eliska, a detroit-based filmmaker visiting inspiration for her own work among the hard truths of history on display. danielle: but if i could take anything from this particular film is that it has such a wide impact on people and made them do things, and i've just think

about my own films and how i can utilize my films to, in a positive way, to impact my people. jeffrey: long ago the power of , films drew in madeline anderson. madeline: we went to the movies practically every week. and i saw that there was something wrong with this picture. because black people were always presented in pejorative ways. they were always lazy. not too smart. happy to do anything that their masters said. and at first it made me angry. and then it made me sad. and then as i grew older, it made me want to do something about it. jeffrey: and that made you want to become a filmmaker yourself. maline: exactly.

jeffrey: at 96, anderson is believed to be the only surviving filmmaker featured in regeneration, through her 1970 documentary i am somebody, about black nurses in south carolina trying to unionize. >> we want to be recognized. not because of our race, but because we are human beings. >> and i myself being a working mother and black woman, identified so closely with them. they were my sisters. jeffrey: anderson has made a career working in television and on films. madeline: i wanted to be a filmmaker to show the achievements of black people, and i also wanted to work in the struggle for equality for my people. and that's what i've done. all of my life. i've been an activist filmmaker. jeffrey: and she's still at it, about to go into post-production on a film about her own life. >> despite so many structural challenges, so many, you know, people still felt compelled and they still felt inspired to do this work.

jeffrey: i am somebody is prominently featured in the final chapter of the exhibit, alongside the likes of melvin van peebles and gordon parks. taken as a whole, the hope is this showcase of black film history up to 1971, will celebrate it in new ways. for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown. william: that's the newshour for tonight. i'm william brangham. on behalf of the entire newshour team, thank you for joining us. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- ♪ >> consumer cellular, this is sam. how matt help you? >> this is a pocket now. well, somebody's pocket. with consumer cellular, you get nationwide coverage with no contract. that's kind of our thing. have a nice day. >> cunard is a proud supporter of public television.

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