captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for sunday may 3rd. after days of unrest, the curfew in baltimore ends. in the midwest, a major outbreak of the avian flu. what it means to you. and in our signature segment, from northern iraq, women taking up the fight against isis. next on pbs newshour weekend. >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we are your

retirement company. additional support is provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. from the tisch wnet studios in lincoln center in new york, hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: good evening. thanks for joining us. national guard troops today began leaving baltimore and the emergency curfew in the city has been lifted. mayor stephanie rawlings-blake broke the news about the end of the curfew in a tweet she sent out this morning. the 10 p.m.-to-5 a.m. curfew had been imposed after rioting broke out following the death in police custody of a 25-year-old african-american man, freddy gray. today, the former governor of maryland, martin o'malley, said the nation needs to stop treating people of color as he put it, "disposable citizens." >> what's happened in baltimore

should be a wake up call for the entire country, what's happened in new york and philadelphia and other cities. we have deep problems as a country and we need deeper understanding if we're going to give our children a better future. >> sreenivasan: o'malley, a democrat, said urban issues would be a key part of his campaign for the presidency and said he would make his announcement in baltimore. vermont senator bernie sanders, who is already challenging hillary clinton for the democratic nomination, today railed about big money's influence in presidential campaigns. when pressed, he did not draw any distinction between his democratic rival and top republican donors. >> you have some concerns about the money raised by the clinton foundation, what are those concerns? >> well its not just the clinton foundation, can a person who is not a billionaire actually win an election in which they're not putting hundreds of millions of dollars into an election? it's not just hillary, it's the koch brothers, it's sheldon adelson. >> you're lumping her in with them-- >> what i am saying is that i get very frightened about the future of american democracy when this becomes a battle

between billionaires. >> sreenivasan: overseas this weekend, the italian coast guard says it has rescued approximately 4,000 people trying to travel by boat from africa to europe. those rescued were taken to lampedusa in italy. jane deith of i.t.v. news has our report. >> reporter: last night, 60 miles off libya. about 200 migrants are thrown a lifeline. they've come from eritrea, sudan and morocco. rescue is noisy, frightening fraught >> calm down. >> reporter: there is exhaustion and euphoria. daylight and another boat packed with people- italy and france have carried out 17 rescue missions in two days-- as people smugglers capitalize on calm seas among 4,000 people rescued there were a number of pregnant

women-- gingerly coming ashore in lampedusa. some made it onto european soil in bare feet. a few of the men spoke about what they've been through. >> my mother died, father died alone in the world - different to explain. >> in libya we were beaten and humiliated. we were on the beach 24 hours without eating. we were so scared we would die at sea. we were really happy when we were rescued. >> sreenivasan: the number of people dying before they make it has soared. in the first four months of last year 96 people died trying to cross the sea. already this year at least 1750 people have lost their lives. and the international organization for migration has

warned 30,000 people could die in 2015. aid agencies blame a decision six months ago to scale down the search and rescue mission, after e.u. members including britain said it was too expensive and only encouraged migrants. but then, last month, more than 800 people died when an overloaded boat capsized. it changed minds and e.u. ministers quickly tripled funding for patrols-- briton has lent boats and search helicopters. united nations officials though, have criticized europe's plan of action as minimalist compared to what they've called the tragedy of epic proportions unfolding in the mediterranean. >> sreenivasan: rescuers found three survivors of last weekend's deadly earthquake were rescued in nepal. authorities said today the three were pulled from rubble in a remote region of the country and flown to kathmandu for treatment. there were conflicting reports whether the rescues occurred today or earlier. the quake was eight days ago. human rights watch has accused

saudi arabia of using cluster bombs in its bombing campaign against pro-iranian rebels in yemen. the bombs, reportedly made in and supplied by the united states, pose a long-term risk to civilians because bomb fragments spread over a wide area and often don't explode immediately. more than 100 countries signed a treaty in 2008 agreeing not to use cluster bombs. the united states and saudi arabia are among the countries that have not signed that agreement. more than 1,000 people have died in fighting in yemen in the past five weeks. in germany today an event attended by both holocaust survivors and some of the american veterans who liberated them from the dachau concentration camp 70 years ago. more than 40,000 people were killed there. german chancellor angela merkel laid a wreath to commemorate the anniversary. >> ( translated ): they all admonish us not to forget. no we will never forget. we'll not forget for the sake of the victims, for our own sakes and for the sakes of future generations. >> sreenivasan: traveling overseas today, secretary of state john kerry sought to reassure israelis that iran will never be allowed to get a nuclear weapon.

during an interview with israeli television, kerry said, quoting now, "we will have the ability to know what they are doing so that we can still stop them if they decided to move to a bomb." israel has sharply criticized the nuclear deal between the world's leading powers and iran. kerry said today there is what he called "hysteria" over the issue. a new report warns that the number of some of the world's largest plant-eating animals-- including elephants, zebras, camels and rhinoceroses-- is rapidly declining. the finding by an international team of 15 scientists said the losses are being driven by hunting and development and are mostly occurring in southeast asia, india and africa. the scientists say some of the herbivores could be gone within 20 years. once that happens, they say, the world will be left with what they call an "empty landscape." and one of the greatest ballerinas of the 20th century has died. maya pleasetskya was with the world-famous bolshoi ballet for 45 years. she was 89.

as we reported yesterday, the nation's largest egg-producing state, iowa, has declared a state of emergency following a major outbreak of the avian flu. millions of chickens and turkeys there and in wisconsin and minnesota have been killed to try to contain the disease. for more about all of this we are joined now via skype from ames, iowa by amy mayer. she is reporter for harvest public media at iowa public radio. >> put this in perspective for us the. how bad is it and how did it get this bad? >> we think at this time approximately 25 percent of the laying hens in iowa have been infected, and significant numbers of the turkeys in iowa as well, as you mentioned iowa is the largest producing state it is the number one state for eggs so this is a significant hit in eggs in iowa, but in terms of the overall marketplace it is not a number that is going to have an impact on availability of eggs at the store.

how it got so big is really something scientists are still struggling with. they thought they had a pretty decent understanding of how this virus could spread but the way it is moving right now has really caused them to rethink some of those ideas they had. >> so if you have 25 percent of your chickens affected, do you have to kill off the other 75 percent in? is the whole flock in danger? >> i don't think anyone would say yet that the whole statewide flock is in danger. when one garm is infected, all of the animals on that, at that site do have to be euthanized if the virus doesn't kill them first and then they monitor daily every other poultry operation and backyard flock and any domesticated birds living outdoor in a ten-kilometer radius from the infected farm. right now, the concerned infections in iowa are concentrated in the northwest part of the state, so there does

still leave a significant part of the state that hasn't yet had infection but they have to monitor very effectively within the ten-kilometer quarantine area. there is currently no infected humans but are people concerned in the disposal of these chick kennels or these turkeys or birds, how do we get rid of them and get rid of them in a safe way? >> that is a big concern, as you mentioned the concern is not right now that there is a problem with human health but there are environmental concerns that need to be considered. there are four basic ways that our department of natural resources have determined the birds can be disposed of. the first would be to come post on sight usually within the enclosure. the second is on sight burial. the third will be incineration that might involve bringing a kiln to the property to burn the birds and the last is take them to a landfill. with each of those there is concern. for example burial you have to be mindful of the water table and how deep you are going to bury the birds to prevent water

pollution. with incineration, obviously they need to be properly air handlers to prevent any sort of air pollution and for example, landfills would mean moving the birds and there is still concern that even from a dead bird the live virus might possibly be able to to be moved because they really haven't identified exactly what the transmission processes are. >> amy mayer a reporter for harvest public media and iowa public radio thanks so much. >> thank you. >> >> sreenivasan: it's been a deadly weekend in the iraqi capital city of baghdad. authorities there say at least 19 people were killed late last evening after two car bombs went off in a shopping district. today, isis claimed responsibility for the attacks. it said they were revenge for a recent government offensive that targeted the extremist group. of course, the battle against isis is raging in many parts of iraq-- even involving all-women combat units. newshour special correspondent martin himel traveled recently to the kurdish autonomous region in the northeast of iraq.

it's home to some of these female fighters. >> reporter: walk along the streets of kurdistan's second largest city, sulaymaniyah, and you'll instantly notice that it looks nothing like most of the images we see coming out of iraq. by all appearances, this oil rich city in northeastern iraq is thriving. shoppers fill the streets without apparent fear of terror bombs, roads into and out of this city of over 800,000 are safe and well maintained. but what is most striking in this overwhelmingly muslim region, is that women enjoy much more freedom than in many other areas throughout the middle east-- even as you'll see later, serving in all-women fighting units taking on isis. >> ( translated ): i am not just doing this to protect myself but also to protect women. >> so we have our own culture and in our culture we respect women a lot more. >> reporter: dr. shaho burahn abdalla lectures at sulaymaniyah university. >> and that allows women to have

>> reporter: but last summer an isis invasion came very close to destroying all these achievements in kurdistan's autonomous region. isis pushed to within thirty miles of the capital irbil. during this offensive, they took hostages, and raped and sold into slavery thousands of women. now kurdish women, who are part of what's known as the pkk militia are fighting back. 27-year-old berytan is one of them. >> ( translated ): as a woman when you take your rifle, go out, and get ready to fight against them- even if you dont kill them-- you are fighting against their mentality. >> reporter: we met berytan after driving a hundred miles from sulaymaniyah into more central iraq.

security is so precarious we had to change cars three times to get there, fearful one of the drivers might betray us to try to collect the $80,000 reward isis offers for the capture of an american journalist. en route, it became clear how fluid the battlefields can be. the kurdish fighters, for example, command this main highway but isis positions are just 400 yards away at that hill top. >> isis is over there. >> reporter: the lines are porous and can be crossed by mistake. once we get there, berytan is showing newly arrived women soldiers the front line-- the villages across the field are under isis control. >> ( translated ): as you know i am a sniper. in the last battle, i killed

three of them and injured one. this was in the last operation. >> reporter: the gunfights occur regularly. even so, the women fighters stand above the protective bulldozed berms to see the enemy. >> ( translated ): those houses that you see are under isis control, but when we start our operation, we will control them. >> reporter: isis warriors believe if they die in battle, they receive the 72 virgins of paradise, but if they are killed at the hands of female fighters, they go straight to hell. what do you think of an enemy >> ( translated ): when i fight against them, i feel stronger empowered because when they see women, they go weak at the knees. because according to their belief, they must not be killed by a women. when they see us, they prefer to

run away not to be killed by us. >> reporter: the stakes are very high. if you get caught they will make you into a sex slave. you would be raped. how does that make you feel? >> ( translated ): we say that we have the power and morale to go and rescue those women. at the same time, we will kill ourselves, not let them capture us, not to face the same situation. i am not the only one who thinks like that. all our women fighters will not surrender. >> when you look at the founding charter of the p.k.k., it's about kurdish and female emancipation. same thing is true for the p.y.d., the kurds in syria. they've institutionalized a different role for women than we see in the arab parts of iraq and syria. >> reporter: david phillips of columbia university is an expert on kurdish affairs. he served as a policy advisor under presidents clinton, bush

and obama and has recently written, "the kurdish spring: a new map of the middle east." he says the united states was slow to recognize the threat last summer after isis seized territory in iraq and syria and believes the united states should supply more weapons to the kurds, including the p.k.k.'s female units. women fighters accounted for 40% of all kurdish fighters battling isis in the border town of kobani. >> reporter: the kurds are the point of the spear fighting against isis in all of the countries in the middle east. and the struggle against isis is an ideological struggle of those that share western values of pluralism and tolerance against those who are fundamentally intolerant and seek to kill their adversaries. >> reporter: but supporting the kurdish fighters is a complicated decision for american policy makers, because for decades kurds seeking their own homeland have launched attacks in turkey, prompting the united states to brand the p.k.k. as a terrorist

organization. the u.s. now risks alienating turkey if it supplies heavy weaponry to the p.k.k., including its battle-tested women fighters. >> some of them are widowed from turkish military operations in the southeast. others are just committed to the kurdish cause and have taken up arms because there's been no political recourse for them in turkey. it's a continuation of the p.k.k.'s mobile approach to fighting for kurdish rights wherever kurds are oppressed. not only in turkey but in syria iraq and iran. >> reporter: but now, kurds face a much more serious existential challenge: containing isis and it's extraordinarily harsh treatment of women. and so these women fighters have decided to devote their lives to confronting the threat. all have agreed not to marry or to have children. their fighting unit becomes

their family. why do it? >> if you want to protect yourself and live free, you can't reach it in our traditional marriages. the slavery begins in the family. when you follow the mentality that you should marry at a certain age and have children you then choose to live in a cage. i didn't want to belong to anyone and i shared this directly with my family and also with my friends. >> reporter: in many ways, berytan and these fighters feel they are married to the fate of their people. isis is determined to destroy their society. now, they hope america will supply the heavy weapons to help these fighters defend their homeland. >> sreenivasan: a survey published friday showed that a large percent of women soldiers who reported unwanted sexual advances said they faced retaliation. for more about this, we are joined from washington by tom vandenbrook. he is a reporter for "usa

today." >> so what were the numbers? what were the women saying happened? >> well, harry of those reporting sexual assault in the military ranks it was 62 percent of the women said they received some form of retaliation after making those reports. >> so to put this in context the number of reported cases has gone down right? >> that's right. i mean well, actually the prevalence of cases. so the ones they estimate have gone down too, about 20,000. and that is 27 percent decrease from 2012. the actual folks coming forward and reporting that has gone up and this year by 11 percent to 6,000 cases. the military perceives that to be progress in people feel comfortable number enough to come forward and report a sexual assault. >> they took steps over the last year to make it easier to report but if women come forward through the easier channels but still face retaliation at higher rates would that have a chilling effect? >> you would think so. i think that would be a major

problem for them. again, if you are talking about 6,000 reports and an estimate of 20,000 instances of this, you are still having less than a third of the people reporting the crime. >> are there any protections in place, like whistle-blower protections if this were to happen in the private sector and you turn in your boss for illegal activities or sexual harassment, there are pretty tried and true ways where you can be protected. is that also the case in the military? >> sure. there are plenty of protections but you still -- some women, the majority of people, according to that have been retaliated against it is a social problem they are being excluded from activities, from parties, things that may seem somewhat trivial when i mention them but not really because if you are excluded from this sort of family, it can hurt your advancement and certainly make the workplace hostile. >> and there was also some information that came out in one of these reports about men who were -- who had sort of harassment or sexual assault happen to them but thousand they

perceived it was very different. explain that. >> that's a big problem for them, hari. >> a lot of the men don't perceive what happened to them which is true of sexual assault, as an assault or a crime. most often they view it as some sort of strange initiation right or harassment, so, so they are not reporting it and it is a big issue for the military. >> so what does the pentagon do about all of this? >> more and more education, i guess. that's the main thing they are trying to do to get this across that these sorts of things are, you know, no longer acceptable -- not that they ever really were. i tawj talked a to a marine officer who said this is not acceptable in any sense, was they need to drive the point home to the young soldiers and marines. >> tom vanden brook of usa today, thank you so much. >> thank you, hari. >> >> visit us online at pbs.org/newshour.

>> >> sreenivasan: among the thousands who died during the recent earthquake in nepal were westerners who had traveled there to try to climb mount everest and their local guides. how will the natural disaster affect the sometimes dangerous business of climbing? the newshour spoke recently with grayson schaffer, a senior editor for outside magazine. >> this year on the south side of mount everest 350 show up. probably open any given year 100 to 150 will summit the mountain, in order to support those people, you will have two to three support people for every person who is a commercial client trying to climb the mountain and a lot of people who try it are not world class athletes, i mean these are doctor and lawyers and people who say up in many cases for years to make one attempt at their dream, but in years past most of the dead even in the base camp avalanche were locals

werewere these ice fall doctors and sherpas who were there to help out westerners get up the mountain. >> each year it seems everest something people don't expect. three years ago there was the fight between sherpas and some professionals european al pinnists last year there was the avalanche off ever everest west shoulder that killed 16 local workers and was the worst everest disaster in history and there was a question what could possibly go i don't think this year. i think people were finally expected that it would settle down and that teams would be able to climb the mountain without having any kind of major calamities, and then you get, you know the worst natural disaster in the country's history. so i think that, you know, you could say that the mountain is getting more dangerous. i think what they have had is three years of really bad luck. when you get to next year i can almost guarantee that the commercial climbing season will go back to business as usual.

>> some more news before we leave you don't. americans overwhelmingly agree that there will be more racial unrest this summer. this according to a new wall street journal abc survey but blacks and whites are sharply divided about the cause of the recent disturbances. and protest over alleged police brutality about minorities in israel. ethiopians hurl rocks and bottles at police who tried to use stun stun guns to get them to disperse. it was triggered by an beating of an ethiopian. >> now an epic work of art. we profile the migration series. that's all for now. i am hari sreenivasan. have a good night. >>

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