♪ >> tonight on pbs news weekend, why car thefts throughout america over the last four years have skyrocketed. then, the effect of racial disparities in financial literacy on america's widening wealth gap. >> what do we see growing up on tv? we see black athletes. in our pop culture, what's cool? we see black rappers.

we don't see black entrepreneurs. that's the psychological shift that has to happen. john: and, newshour's student reporting labs takes a look inside a d.c. community helping foster black-owned businesses. ♪ >> major funding for pbs news weekend has been provided by. >> consumer cellular, this is sam. how may i help you? this is a pocket dial. somebody's pocket, thought i would let you know with consumer cellular you get nationwide coverage with no contract. that is 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 pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ john: good evening, i'm john yang. the biden administration said today it's confident israel will move forward with the patho ending the war in gaza that the president outlined, if hamas agrees to it. prime minister benjamin netanyahu's chief foreign policy advisor said in an interview published today that israel had agreed to the proposal, but he also underscored the israeli position that hamas must be destroyed as "a genocidal terrorist organization" before there can be a permanent ceasefire.

despite that apparent sticking point, white house national security spokesman john kirby sounded optimistic on abc' "this week." >> are we in a situation now where if hamas says yes, then israel is going to say no? >> no. this was an isrli proposal. we have every expectation that if hamas agrees to the proposal, as was transmitted to them, an israeli proposal, then israel would say yes. john: there's pressure on netanyahu from far-right coalition partners who say they'll bring down the government if he goes along with the deal, and from centrists in the emergency wartime government who say they'll end their support if the prime minister doesn't come up with a clear path forward by the end of this week. in an interview that aired today, former president donald trump told fox news he'd be fine if he's sentenced to either house arrest or jail time for his conviction on 34 felony counts. but he said his supporters might not be so accepting. -- so understanding. >> i don't know that the public would stand it, you know? i don't -- i'm not sure the public would stand for it with a

-- >> with a house arrest or -- >> i think, i think it'd be tough for the public to take. you know, at a certain point, there's a breaking point. john: trump is to be sentenced on july 11th, four days before the republican national convention. three people were killed in a pair of overnight shootings in ohio and pennsylvania. police in a pittsburgh suburb say an exchange of gunfire in a bar left two people dead and seven others wounded. and in akron, ohio, police say a shooting at a street party killed one person and injured two dozen others, some othem critically. there've been no arrests yet in either incident. and in france, the skies over normandy were filled with parachutists jumping from vintage planes today, the beginning of a week of commemorations for the 80th anniversary of d-day. some of the ever-dwindling survivors of what's considered the biggest land, sea, and air invasion are gathering for what's likely their last major reunion. still to come on "pbs news weekend," why financial education could be key to closing the racial wealth gap.

and, how a d.c .community is helping black businesses rebound from the pandemic. ♪ >> this is pbs news weekend from weta studios in washington, home of the pbs newshour we can -- weeknights on pbs. john: according to government and insurance industry statistics, while reports of overall property crimes -- that is things like robbery, theft, vandalism and the like -- fell between 2019 and 2022, at the same time, car thefts soared, surpassing a million in 2022 for the first time in 14 years. and in cities like philadelphia, chicago and washington, d.c., more and more of them are headline-grabbing carjackings. alex piquero is a criminology professor at the university of miami, and the former director of the justice department's bureau of justice statistics.

why the big increase in car thefts? >> so thanks for having me, john. so look, i mean, the pandemic is really when we started to see the the upsurge in car thefts. some of that was attributed to the ease of which some kia and hyundai models were able to be broken into and stolen. there were reports of youtube vide and those kinds of things. but you also had a lot of people, you know, having their cars out and about, and a lotf people don't have them locked up. and so what started to happen is because they were quick and easy, not only to steal, they're also valuable for various kinds of parts. and they're easily ash these cars and parts of cars, it's a very quick crime to occur and very, very lucrative. so the chance of finding a stolen car or parts of cars are really, really hard. and it's economically advanced. well, for cash advance people for -- advance-able for individuals who are stealing these kinds of, vehicles and why carjacking? john: so, i mean, philadelphia is reporting a record pace of carjacking in chicago last year, the highest in decades here in washington, more than 400 last year. why are carjackings up?

>> yeah. so there's a double ged sword of that. we don't have really good national level data on carjackings, because individual police departments, some of them will code them as a separate carjacking category. others will code them as other kinds of crime types. but again, you know, vehicles are extremely profitable for offenders. so you can easily steal them. you can easily put them on a ship. you can easily put them in an 18 wheeler and you can easily strip their parts down, and sell them really, really quickly. the thing with a lot of these offenses is that they occur at nighttime, and they occur in dimly lit places. so the ease of which that kind of crime type can occur is what i think has fueled the increases that we're seeing in certain cities around the united states. john: anecdotally, we're also seeing reports of of cars taken in carjackings not ending up in top shops, -- chop shops being, you know, chopped up for their parts, but being found later,

being found out of gas or being found disabled. is that a change? >> yeah. you know, it's really interesting. there's some anecdotal reports, john, that a lot of the carjacking events that occur, they're used in other crime types, and so they're stolen for ease of getting away with something else that the individual does, and then they just leave them on the side. so there are reports of those, as well. and there's always going to be, you know, part of the carjacking that we know, we know as well, is, you know, kind of joyriding, except it's done with a weapon. and so there's all kinds of different, quote-unquote, "types" of carjackings. and there are, i think, combining some motives, and the reasons why they're being used in crime types, they're kind of coalescing right now in many cities around the united states. john: there's also anecdotal reports that a lot of these carjackings are being done by young people, teenagers and even pre-teens. what do you make of that? >> yeah. you know, there are reports of that. john, i'm not sure i wouldang my hat on that. those reports come from a limited number of police departments

but again, also what we see on media and social media, there is always an element of age, i.e. youthful offenders engaging in motor vehicle theft and carjacking. so i'm not necessarily surprised in understanding or knowing that that's what we're seeing the pre-teen and earlier kids. that worries me a lot more, because that's a very early age to start getting into very serious kinds of personal crimes, like carjacking. so that's something we really need to watch closely in most cities in the u.s. john: are there things that law enforcement can do to combat this? >> yeah, i think there are things that law enforcement can do, and things that law enforcement can't do. so number one, they can't be everywhere. remember, police departments are stretched thin already. there's homicide units, there are gang units, there are drug units. and the crime of carjacking is something that, it's hard to pinpoint in certain parts of town, or this, that, and the other. so there's an element of of cops not being able to be every single place. but we do know that there's a lot of investigatory work that

police agencies do, a lot of which you and i will never know about. so they do have a lot of social network analysis. individuals involved in carjacking, john, are also likely involved in other kinds of crimes. and so they're putting all this intelligence together, but independent of law enforcement. things that people can do is, they can make sure their cars are locked. they can make sure that their cars are parked near lighted places. they can make sure that if they're out at night, that they are cognizant of their surroundings, people around them, cars around them. so it really involves both people doing what all they can do, and the police doing what they can do. a lot of what they're going to be doing is kind of investigatory, behind the scenes work. john: alex of the university of miami, thank you very much. >> my pleasure. ♪ john: a recent pl by the website marketwatch found that 65% of those surveyed said their

personal finances are their biggest source of stress. knowing how to budget and save money are skill that can help, but not everyone is taught how to manage their money. only 25 states require high school students to take a personal finance class in order to graduate, and schools with predominantly black and brown students are less likely to offer those courses. laura burrell lopez reports on how younger generations are working to improve their financial literacy and help close the wealth gap. it's part of our ongoing coverage of race matters. laura: in the u.s., the racial wealth gap is stark. according to the brookings institute, the median wealth for a white household is $188,200, nearly eight times more than the average black household, which is just over $24,000. and experts predict that without improved financial literacy, that gap will only grow. we spoke with black americans about the obstacles they faced on

their journey to financial success. charles: my name is charles winfrey. i'm a freshman business finance major here at morehouse college. capricia: my name is capricia sampson. i'm from paterson, new jersey. i'm 27 years old and i started my career as a business consultant in tech. alyssa: my name is alyssa cabezas. i am originally from vicksburg, mississippi. i am 23 years old, and i currently work at jp morgan doing commercial banking. capricia: i grew up in a two parent household with four siblings, and was introduced to money in a way where my parents really wanted to instill the importance of financial literacy and also just education and hard work. so my dad, at some point, he was like, you need to learn the value of a dollar. and with that, he gave me an allowance for doing chores around the house. every two weeks. charles: my family comes from finance, so i was really had that exposure early on. so a lot of, money finance business talks. alyssa: i am a first-generation

college student. i'm also a first-generation high school graduate. and when i stepped into spelman, everybody was like, so financially literate. girls was talking about how, like, all their parents had trust funds set up for them, and that's how they pay for school. i'm like, i was working for $7.25 at 18. so being in that environment, that's what really exposed me to wanting to know more about fincial literacy. capricia: and the challenges of being able to grow wealth as a black person in america is really the proportion of wealth. as you know, for every dollar a black person makes, it's not in comparison to what white people make in this country. alyssa: one of the things that we need to work on in our community is like just being more intentional, methodical about how you use your money. but in order for that to happen, we also have to be in a position where we ar't just trying to survive and like, just make it day to day. charles: what do we see? growing up on tv, we see black athletes in the in our pop culture. what's cool? we see black rappers, we see black

-- we don't see black entrepreneurs. that's the psychological shift that has to happen. alyssa: once you like help our generation understand financial literacy, then they'll be able to do it for that generation. and it'll really, like revolutionize the trajectory of what it means to be like a black person with money. capricia: what i'm seeing now is that we are in this financial revolution where people actually are being excited and taking ownership of understanding how to maximize their income, and also what it looks like to grow and to have ownership, which are things that weren't necessarily our story, in history. laura: joining me now to talk about the importance of financial literacy is robert smith, philanthropist and ceo of the private equity firm vista equity partners. robert: thank you. it's my pleasure. laura: what do you make of the current state of financial literacy in the black community? robert: there are a number of challenges. some of them are systemic. and some of them are

personal. the systemic ones, our access to capital, access to enablement. and then, you know, the personal side is, you know, financial literacy and understanding how, you know, utilization of the capital constructs here in the u.s. can enable an improvement of their condition in their lives. and we've just found that those two areas are areas that require some focus. and frankly, some resources and capability to enable the community to actually continue to excel and to accelerate further to make up the gap in this, this wealth gap that we've seen for decades. laura: why is there such a low level of financial literacy in the black community, and what are the factors contributing to it? robert: knowledge and information, you know, for so long. you know, there, was just lack of access to information. you know, i am the first generation to go to these desegregated schols and where you are now enabled to participate in, hear information about everything from, you know,

educational systems to investing to, you know, how do you actually improve your condition? by buying houses, borrowing money, all those sorts of things. you know, my parents generation was really the first generation that had access, to pension plans, in the african-american community. and, you know, understanding the importance of being able to, to work and retire and in some cases use that ability to, to enable your children to not go -- 10 now -- 10 now go to school, to borrow money against a house so that they can get educated and move that next generation for. laura: student loan debt is, you know, is a significant barrier to financial success for many americans. in 2019 you paid off student loans for an entire graduating class at morehouse college, the historically black university. why did you decide to do that? robert: you know, they had already bet on themselves, which is very important. you know, from my perspective, you know, they were at the point of graduation taking out the student loans. and i really started to evaluate, you know, if i were going to do something to help these students, what is the best thing?

you can write a scholarship to school. but i want to actually reward people who had already done the work, had already bet on themselves. and so that's why i did it in that fashion. about 60% of the wealth generated in african-american communities goes towards servicing student loan debt. and i just thought that was just unconscionable in many respects. look, it's important that these children get educated. it's important that we give them the opportunities to improve their condition in life. but i think it's also important they have an ability to create their own personal wealth and wealth for their families. laura: there are other initiatives supported by corporations that address these kinds of financial inequities. and you've reached a number of -- you have backed a number of them. how can corporate america help in closing the racial wealth gap, and does it actually want to? robert: one of the things, that i did coming out of the pandemic and the murder of george floyd was form the southern communities initiative, which was a consortium of companies to address some of these, you know, these these issues. specifically for communities of color in the south where almost 50% of black

americans live. and we've identified, in essence, six, communities as atlanta, birmingham, charlotte, houston, memphis and new orleans. and what we're looking at to do in offering corporate and philanthropic organizations are measured and vetted, shovel ready ways for them to help fulfill, not only their pledges, but some of the racial wealth gaps and opportunity gaps that exist. many of them, are looking for ways to do it and looking for ways that are reliable. we've built out what we'll call the the infrastructure so that you can now drive if you want to drive capital, to improve the condition in the banking infrastructure and a healthcare infrastructure or the, you know, things for, you know, food disparity issues. so that's been one of the most important parts of this is actually vetting and pulling together the systems and the infrastructure and the partnerships so that people have reliable places to put their capital. laura: if you had two pieces of advice for people to get on the road to financial literacy, what would it be? robert: first, get up to speed and understand, what is financial litecy for your family?

in some cases, it might be gaining some independence, through somenvestments for your, you know, for your retirement. in this case, it might be, you know, buying a house, investing in stocks, investing in bonds, and really understanding how to do that. in the second, which enables you to do the first, frankly, is, you know, i think you got to go call on your congresspeople to get them to ensure that your community and your businesses all have access to broadband and the internet. i mean, that is now the, you know, purveyor of of information and insights. and we've just found o many communities of color actually don't have access to that level of service that enables you to, you know, teach, educate and, and train. and so those are the two things that i would point to is important for, depending upon how far away you are from getting on the road to financial literacy to, to, to really embark upon. laura: philanthropist and entrepreneur robert smith, thank you for your time. robert: thank you laura. ♪

john: four years ago, black-owned businesses were among the hardest hit by the disruption of the pandemic. many of them have rebounded, and in one retail space in washington d.c., supporting local black entrepreneurs has been a key mission. from the newshour's student reporting labs journalism training program, morgan hawkins has the story. >> we are a tribe here, like a black wall street tribe. morgan: sycamore and oak in southeast washington, d.c. is a retail village showcasing 12 black-owned businesses, ranging from a food market and art boutique to a gym. it also serves as a community space that supports black entrepreneurs through training and mentorship. >> sycamore and oak habeen an incredible resource for myself and for my business. coming in here as a small business, it has been an incubator space where we learn all the professional

things. morgan: this retail village opened in june of 2023, one of many black-owned businesses to open in the past few years. according to the census' annual busiss survey, the number of majority black-owned businesses has grown by nearly 30% since 2017. but black entrepreneurs still face struggles, according to bridget weston, the ceo of score, a nonprofit free mentor and educator for small businesses. >> from what i can see in my role, talking with black entrepreneurs across the country ,nfortunately a lot of the challenges they see as entrepreneurs throughout the nation are the same that they face throughout the nation because of systemic issues that persist. morgan: according to the national bureau of economic research, during the first months of the covid-19 pandemic, black-owned businesses closed at a higher rate than any other race. >> specifically, black entrepreneurs had bigger problems with the lack of childcare. they had more

challenges with people, either themselves, their family, or their staff being affected by covid 19. and unfortunately, they also had less access to the funds that were available to them to help their businesses survive during the pandemic. morgan: however, black entrepreneurship has come back at a higher rate than before the pandemic, according to the washington post. back at sycamore and oak in washington, d.c., joe houston has opened a gym that promotes holistic wellness. >> we talk about nutrition a lot, and nutrition is highly important. morgan: most people who live in the area around sycamore and oak are black. these neighborhoods tend to be farther from a full service grocery store or commercial gym than anywhere else in washington, d.c. >> this facility is my first ever brick and mortar, and super excited and grateful for it. and being consistent, being around a lot of different business owners is great. you know, especially business owners of color that come from where i come from.

morgan: those who work at this retail village say that this business community helps with the wellbeing of customersand -- customers and the well-being of each other. >> i hope that black entrepreneurs know that they have a space within each other and within the tribe to thrive. they keep me sharp. they're making sure that i'm working at my highest potential. and i'm grateful for that morgan: for the pbs newshour student reporting labs, i'm morgan hawkins in washington, d.c. ♪ john: that is pbs news week for this sunday. i'm john yang. for all of my colleagues, thanks for joining us. have a good week. >> major funding for pbs news weekend has been provided by. ♪ and with the ongoing support o

these individuals and institutions. ♪ this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions tyour pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.]

buongiorno. i'm rick steves. today, we're heading off on a very special adventure, traveling to some of my favorite corners of italy. this special is called the heart of italy, and you're about to see y. i'll be with you during each break, sharing special tips on traveling smartly as together we celebrate the value of public broadcasting in our communities. as you enjoy these travels, think of the value