laura: tonight on pbs news weekend, ahead of tonight's 96th annual academy awards, the role and recognition of women both in front of and behind the camera. then, a new book re-examines the relationship between saddam hussein and the u.s., across four administrations.

steve: saddam's contribution to the origins of the war has been missing from our own reckoning. and for once, we have the opportunity with these new materials to really expand our sense of where this tragedy came from. laura: and what's behind the recent push for legislation that gives fetuses the legal rights of a person. >> major funding for pbs news weekend has been provided by -- >> consumer cellular. this is sam. how may i help you? this is pocket dial. >> you get nationwide coverage with no contract and that is kind of our thing. >> have a nice day. >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and

institutions. and friends of the newshour. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your p station from viewers like you. thank you. laura: good evening, i'm laura barron-lopez. john yang is away. today, talks aimed at securing a six-week ceasefire in gaza remain stalled, as efforts to increase aid deliveries by sea moved ahead at a crawling pace. a u.s. army ship full of equipment to build a temporary pier off gaza's coast for delivering aid is enroute to the mediterranean. construction of the pier is

expected to take weeks. another ship full of aid is still waiting in cyprus. as the civilian death toll in gaza climbs, president biden stepped up his public criticism of israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu in an interview on msnbc. pres. biden: he must pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost as a consequence of the actions taken. he's hurting -- in my view, he's hurting israel more than helping israel by making the rest of the world -- it's contrary to what israel stands for. laura: biden also said an israeli military operation into the southern city of rafah would cross a "red line", but add that the u.s. would continue sending weapons shipments to israel. alabama senator katie britt responded to criticisms today about a misleading story she told in her republican response to president biden's state of the union address. in criticizing biden's border policies, britt talked about meeting a woman who had been sex trafficked at age 12. in rlity, the trafficking

occured outside of the u.s., decades ago. britt appeared on "fox news sunday." >> to be clear, the story that you relate is not something that's happened under the biden administration, that particular person? >> i'm -- well, i very -- i very clearly said, i spoke to a woman who told me about when she was trafficked, when she was 12. so i didn't say a teenager, i didn't say a young woman, a grown woman, a woman, when she was trafficked when she was 12. laura: senator britt's office confirmed on saturday that she was speaking about a woman who had been sexually abused in mexico from 2004 to 2008. and, in haiti, the u.s. military airlifted non-essential embassy personnel t of the capital port-au-prince overnight, and added u.s. forces to bolster security as escalating gang violence threatens to bring down the government. the caribbean nation is under a state of emergency. thousands of haitians have been

forced from their homes in the unrest. and, efforts to assemble a foreign armed force to aid haitian police have been unsuccessful so far. still to come on "pbs news weekend", a new examination of the relationship between the u.s. and saddam hussein. and the conservative push to give fetuses legal rights. >> this is pbsews weekend from weta studios, weeknights on pbs. laura: tonight's 96th academy awards will honor the most acclaimed films of 2023, a year that could be considered a milestone for women in film. women filmmakers set a record in the best picture category, including greta gerwig's barbie, which is the highest-grossing film ever directed by a woman. but the past year, punctuated by months of strikes in hollywood,

also highlighted the ongoing struggles in diversity, equal pay, and equal opportunities for women. rebecca sun is senior editor of diversity and inclusion for the hollywood reporter. rebecca, this year, a record-breaking three films directed by women are nominated for best picture. is this a sign of progress or an outlier? rebecca: a sign of progress but with a huge caveat. people are recognizing movies directed by women is worthy of best picture nominations. it must be noted only one of those women was nominated herself for best director so that is where the big caveat comes in and people are loving the overall result and not really giving credit to the person who is most responsible for that success. laura: speaking of these directors, last year, no female directors were nominated for best director. this year, we have one for directing anatomy of a fall. what does that say about the recognition of women in major

roles in hollywood? what that >> point of equilibrium -- >> what that says is you're still dependent on that specific crop of films year-to-year, on a number of factors. were not at a point where just like with men, you can say, this year, four or five men were nominated for director. you don't say things like that because it is sort of a given. we are still seeing that this is vastly the exception and not the rule. laura: a recent report out of ucla found that films with diverse casts received the highest median global box office earnings across last year's top films and audiences of color flocked to opening weekends for 14 out of the top 20 films. is hollywood responding to this in any way? rebecca: not in a way that is commensurate to what we are seeing. it's been known for years and years that moviegoing audiences, in other words, the american

population, is growing more raally diverse and yet i do think that conventional wisdom in hollywood, the decisions made by those who are at the very top, they are still thinking of white audiences as sort of the norm and that anything that appeals to everybody else as niche. whenever they make a phone that is targeted towards "diverse" audiences, that is seen as a niche film and not a wide release. so there's quite a ways to go despite what the audiences are saying. laura: films like barbie and the little mermaid, which both had female leads, were among the top 10 highest grossing films last year. but does that mean that that type of success actually translates into more opportunities for women? rebecca: i think it has the potential to translate but only if you are taking the correct to go in messages. for example, when barbie hit huge on opening weekend, there

were a few thing pieces that said this means hollywood should make more movies about toys, not more movies that are driven by and about women so it really, really does depend on, you know, what you believe is the moral of the story. i mean, i think with barbie and the little mermaid, are you just saying i guess women are going to movies now? or are you saying, i guess everybody likes seeing movies about female characters. those are two completely different takeaway statements. laura: what about unequal pay? actors who is in the oscar-nominated film the color purple spoke about how women, especially black women, are treated in hollywood. women are paid fractions of what their male counterparts are paid. rebecca: that problem is as pervasive in hollywood as it is in every other industry in this society. the only difference is that the entertainment industry is a lot

more visible but still, what she was talking about is she's not comparing her salary to that of teachers who are chronically underpaid and part of a different conversation. she's talking about her salary compared to men who have had a commensurate level of experience and a commensurate level of a compliment in the industry. when you look at that, the numbers do not lie. women in hollywood, including famous women in hollywood, are still underpaid compared to men and that is exacerbated even further when you are talking about women of color. laura: were there any films this year directed by women, produced women or that had female leads that went under the radar but that are worth watching question what --worth watching? rebecca: it is not completely under the radar. she is a first-time filemaker and has an extensive playwriting background. it is a subtle piece of work. it is a small, quiet movie. it has been nominated for best picture. it might take a while for people

to discover it so i hope they do sooner than later. laura: rebecca sun, thankou for your time. rebecca: thank you so much. ♪ laura: in 2003, the u.s. invasion of iraq was based on the allegation that the country's long-time dictator, saddam hussein, had weapons of mass destruction. the failure to find these weapons prompted intense scrutiny of the decision to go to war over two decades ago. in his new book, author steve call poured over hundreds of audio tapes and transcripts, many previously unreleased, of saddam hussein's internal meetings, to uncover his view on the tumultuous relationship with the united states. nick schifrin recently sat down with call. nick: the u.s. relationship with saddam hussein evolved dramatically across the decades from the 1980s, when the u.s. aided his regime, to the 90s, when the u.s. sought to contain him and dismantle his program of weapons of mass destruction. and, of course, after nine over

-- 9/11, the u.s. invasion and his death in 2006. using previously unreleased materials, the achilles trap, saddam hussein, the cia, and the origins of america's invasion of iraq tells the story of how saddam hussein and four successive u.s. administrations repeatedly misinterpreted each other. the author is steve coll. steve coll, thank you very much. you write that this book, in part, is about the u.s. failure to comprehend saddam hussein. and you write that u.s. thinking was often wrong, distorted, and incomplete. how so? steve: well, saddam's motives confounded us. they also confounded many of his own generals and his neighbors. but he took actions that just didn't fit into western logic and analysis. and so the u.s., particularly after the war to expel him from kuwait, just assumed the worst. and in fact, he was making very complicated decisions on the basis of a calculation that we didn't really understand. nick: and that was mutual. you write how saddam hussein misinterpreted, and had,

misaligned, perceptions about what the cia was doing. how so? steve: well, he saw the cia as omniscient, and he had long experience with their involvement in changes of government in iraq. and he saw them around every corner and thought, for example, that they knew that he didn't have weapons of mass destruction. and so he interpreted the accusation that he did as just a game. and his comments to his comrades when he was talking to them in private was, there's no reason for us to play this game. we, are not going to be rewarded by being honest or cooperative. so let's maintain our pride and defy them. nick: you document how the reagan administration decided to help him, writing at one point that by 1983, it had lashed itself to an ambitious dictator. how did that effort go, and how did saddam hussein's own perception of u.s. assistance evolve? steve: well, our objective was

to help him avoid losing the war he had started with iran, and we feared that he might and that ayatollah khomeini would expand the iranian revolution into baghdad. so we started providing him with secret intelligence to give him a military advantage. he alwayregarded this help with suspicion, and he thought we were playing a double game, and we assured him for several years that he was wrong. and then in 1986, he wasn't wrong, he was't wrong. and the iran-contra scandal demonstrated that, at least for a short time, the reagan administration had played both sides. and there are these wonderful tapes. after the scandal is revealed, where he says to his comrades, i told you so. and what's important about it is that this conviction that there was a conspiracy between the united states, israel and iran

against him persisted well into the 90s. and so later, as he's talking to his colleagues about whether to cooperate, he refers back to iran-contra and says, just remember, what was revealed then remains the case now. and so we should be careful. ns: how did saddam hussein undergo what you describe as the, quote, stunning transformation from tenuous ameran ally to mortal enemy. steve: by invading and occupying kuwait, an innocent neighbor with no defenses that a country he decided essentially, in the aftermath of his very expensive war with iran, that he needed kuwait's wealth, to reconstruct iraq. and he ended up in a dispute with the kuwaiti royal family and then decided basically to sack the country. of course, george h.w. bush organized an international military coalition to successfully expel him from kuwait, but he survived in power. and that became the unfinished business of the 1990s that george w bush inherited on nine 9/11. nick: what did you discover about why saddam hussein essentially destroyed his weapons of mass destruction program after the gulf war, but then was reluctant to allow u.n. weapons inspectors to be able to confirm that fact?

steve: in the summer of 1991, he more or less secretly destroyed his chemical and biological stocks and the infrastructure of his nuclear weapons program. but then he failed to keep any records. he failed to tell the truth about what he had done. he lied about the history of the program, and he didn't really come clean for 4 or 5 years, creating the impression that he was hiding, a secret weapons program. and that uncertainty persisted right through to the end. why? partly, i think he didn't want to appear weak in front of his enemies. he didn't want to appear weak in front of his own generals, because he feared a coup attempt. he didn't want to be humiliated. and he also concluded that honesty wouldn't pay. ght.out this, he might be because as, madeleine albright announced in 1997 the real underlying policy of the sanctions he was trying to escape was not just his disarmament, but his replacement. nick: the third area that you

write about, of course, is after 9/11. and you point out in the days after 9/11, he made no attempt to separate himself from osama bin laden and said publicly, the us quote is reaping the thorns its leaders have planted. explain that. steve: he was obliviouto his own vulnerability after 9/11. and like a lot of people in the arab world, he thought that the united states, deserved a little bit of taste of, the kind of rebound of its foreign policy. and so he became this kind of pundit in his meetings with his own cabinet and with visitors continually talking abou america's failures in the world and the consequences of 9/11. at the same time, he really was slow to pick up on the possibility that he would be targeted in retaliation for 9/11. and he he would say, of course, i had nothing to do with osama bin laden. i'm against islamists of that type. but he didn't recognize that he was already in the crosshairs. nick: and finally, this is not about ukraine, about the middle east, it's a different topic than you've written out before.

why this topic? why this book? steve: well, i hope that enough time has passed that this momentous event in american post-cold war life, the iraq war, probably the biggest pivot point that we experienced as a nation, after the fall of the berlin wall, that we could think in a different and larger way about its origins. because saddam's contribution to the origins of the war has been missing from our own reckoning. and for once, we have the opportunity with these new materials to really expand our sense of where this tragedy came from. ns: the book is called the achilles trap saddam hussein, the cia, and the origins of america's invasion of iraq. steve coll, thank you very much. steve: nick. great to be with you. ♪ laura: last month, the all-republican alabama supreme court ruled that embryos created using invitro fertilization are legally children, and have what's known as "personhood." the decision caused clinics across the state to halt all services, fearing potential prosecution for destroyed

embryos. after weeks of backlash, republican alabama governor kay ivey signed a bill on wednesday that gives i-v-f providers and patients immunity from criminal charges. but the new legislation did not clarify whether frozen embryos will still have the same rights as people. recently, john yang spoke to julie f. kay, a human rights attorney who defends reproductive rights in cases around the world. john: this was ruled by many in the antiabortion movement but it was quickly followed by lawmakers in alabama, many of them opponents of abortion, pressing for legislation that would a protect in vitro fertilization from this ruling. what does that say about the attitude of the antiabortion movement towards this issue? >> it says that this is an election year and they realize in antiabortion position is

wildly unpopular with voters. about 70% of the country right now supports the roe v. wade framework and as whave seen in individualized, a portion is a key -- abortion is a key hockey issue in many families so some of these legislators are trying to peel off is deserving of reproductive health care by saying that ivf, yes, that is a good thing but if you are going to make decisions about abortion or contraception or even miscarriage management,e are going to take that decision away from you and put it in the hands of antiabortion folks and politicians. john: explain how fetal personhood affects in vitro fertilization and other reproductive health treatments. >> fetal personhood is what we have seen in other countries such as ireland that have a constitutional provision that equated the uorn with the mother or pregnant person and really what it does is try to hold a person's life at the same level as something that is

either a fertilized aorta even before implantation and an embryo and this is really about control. it's about who gets to decide whether, when, and with whom someone gets to have a child or not so what we are seeing here is really an attempt to broaden the tiabortion position to control not just abortion but also contraception, ivf, and a whole host of some of the most fundamental human rights decisions that women make. john: these other states that have similar laws, do they have protections or carveouts for ivf and other reproductive health issues? >> the issue of whether ivf is banned or not is fairly new and it is not something that expected to those of us w have been working in the field for a long time but it has kind of come upon us like gangbusters in the push roe v. wade landscape. how different states handle this both in the legislative arena as well as what public officials are saying as far as aiding and abetting of abortion in criminalization of how women get treated in fertility clinics or

emergency rooms were reproductive health care generally is really unknown right now and we are seeing is that more and more women are choosing to have medication abortions than ever before and right now, that is the most popular method of abortion in this country and telemedicine, virtual visits with your provider, they are up to 1/5 of the abortions in the country so we are seeing this real uptick in people taking charge of their own medical dision-making and abortion rights through this new and safe method of abortion and at the same time as antiabortion state officials are really expending more and more every day what they are trying to do to control reproductive rights in this country. john: you say this has come out like gangbusters since roe was overturned. what do you think the effect will be in other states that tend to not favor abortion, to oppose abortion rights? >> we are going to see some

copycats of antiabortion politicians and state officials and fervently trying to either erase access to ivf, stem cell research, contraceptives, a whole host of things, while at the same time the antiabortion movement is split because some abortion opponents would not go that far or if they would, they are not going to do it in an election yr. we have seen states trying to criminalize the abortion and miscarriage management medication and overall, it has become a political football because they do not have the majority of americans who want to ban abortion rights so they are doing what they can through judicial maneuvers and messing with ballot initiative is to really take away the rights that people want. john: thank you very much. >> thank you. ♪ laura: and that is our program for tonight.

for all of my colleagues, thanks for joining us. >> major funding for pbs news weekend has been provided by -- and with the ongoing support of these individuals and in commissions. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.] >>

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