>> brangham: on this edition for sunday, october 25th: rain-soaked texas contends with flash floods. president obama wants american school kids to spend less time taking standardized tests. and the president of honduras talks to us about the surge of domestic violence in his country. next on pbs newshour weekend. >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: lewis b. and louise hirschfeld cullman. bernard and irene schwartz. judy and josh weston. the cheryl and philip milstein family. sue and edgar wachenheim, iii. 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 has been 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 at lincoln center in new york, >> brangham: good evening, i'm william brangham. hari sreenivasan is on assignment. a major rainstorm has dumped a foot of water on parts of texas and is now moving east. houston received nine inches of rain in the past day, causing flooding and numerous roads closures. the houston fire department rescued 28 motorists stranded by high waters. the storm system has poured on southeast texas since friday, along with the remnants of hurricane patricia. authorities say one san antonio man remains missing after being swept away by flood waters while walking his dog. as the storms move east into louisiana, weather forecasters say some areas around new orleans and baton rouge could get up to eight inches of rain

through tomorrow. the leaders of eleven european nations gathered in brussels today for another summit to deal with the unending flow of migrants and refugees. the prime minister of slovenia, which has seen 60,000 arrivals in the past 10 days--since hungary blocked its common border-- said the 28-member european union won't survive unless it finds a solution to this problem. the united nations high commissioner for refugees is calling on the e.u. to devise a new system to register and screen migrants when they first arrive. croatia's prime minister today said greece needs to assert greater control of the waters between its islands and turkey. migrants, now held in border camps, commonly cross the aegean sea to greece from turkey, after fleeing conflicts in syria, iraq, and afghanistan. since september, nearly 250,000 migrants and refugees have passed through central europe, russia is calling for new elections in syria to help bring an end to syria's civil war, which is now in its fifth year. today, in the syrian capital of damascus, president bashar al- assad told a visiting russian

delegation he would go along with elections after what he called, quote, "terrorist organizations" are eradicated. one russian lawmaker at the meeting today said assad is ready to include quote "reasonable, patriotic opposition forces" in those new elections. >> the first aim, the struggle and victory over the terrorism, and after that the elections, parliamentary or presidential elections. but first of all we must do, reach peaceful, peace on syrian land. >> brangham: and a clarification: on yesterday's program, we said russian foreign minister sergey lavrov had said russian warplanes would support the free syrian army -- a rebel group -- against president assad. while lavrov did say russia would support the rebels, that support is intended for the effort against isis. elsewhere in the middle east, palestinian leaders are expressing skepticism about a plan to ease tensions in jerusalem. the plan, announced yesterday by israel, jordan and u.s. secretary of state john kerry, would install surveillance

cameras around jerusalem's al- aqsa mosque, known as "haram al sharif" to muslims and "the temple mount" to jews. palestinian foreign minister riyad al-maliki said today the cameras are a quote "new trap" to arrest muslims. but israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu said the goal is to retain the status quo for both muslim worshippers and visitors and to thwart any attacks. already, israeli soldiers are checking i.d.'s at entrances to the holy site. the measures follow a month of violence. today in the city of hebron, israeli soldiers shot and killed a palestinian woman who they said drew a knife and approached them. >> brangham: president obama and the federal department of education are calling on states to cut back on standardized tests in schools. u.s. school kids from pre-k through 12th grade, on average, take eight standardized tests every year. that's almost one test a month during the school year.

in a facebook video yesterday, the president said teachers have told him the pressure to teach to those tests, quote: "takes the joy out of teaching and learning." his administration has now released a "testing action plan" with new guidelines. for more insight on that, i'm joined by kate zernike of the new york times. >> so this is a pretty big statement from the president on this very contentious issue, why is he coming out now? >> well, i think they wanted to get past the spring testing the push last year, or this year, but i think also there was a report coming out from council of grade city schools which is a coalition of 20 urban school district and they generally have been protesting but the superintendent set out to find out how many tests the kids are taking and the report came out saturday with the they are justs you said, you know, eight test as year, there are just so many, so many different tests, a lot of these tests are not only onerous but kind of point less and purposeless and not tied to what we want them to be tied to, learning in the classroom. >> brangham: so the president acknowledges maybe we are

testing kids too much, even aj knowledge aj knowledge his administration may be part of the problem. what is he proposing as a possible solution to that a?. i think what will jump out to people is he wants a cap on the time spent on testing so no more than two percent of classroom time should be spent on testing and that is a reduction from what the council of grade school found but they are proposing things like, saying no teacher should be evaluated solely on tests, no child should be, no child from high school graduation or any cutoff should be attached solely to a test so that is a big deal, big proponents of testing that got us in trouble, they wanted testing the problem is we started tying it too to too many things, teachers won't get tenure if they don't pass the test or the kids, or kids won't graduate from high school if they don't pass the tests. >> brangham: 0 so the advocates of testing say, okay maybe a little bit of reform is usefuuseful but don't throw they out with the bath water. >> absolutely, this is a 15 year approach, before this is

happening, there was at that lot of kids, particularly in urban schools, who were not learning anything, and so, not learning -- not learning is worse but there is no accountability and no standards and passing them from grade to frayed so this is an effort to make sure we had some accountability, this is a $600 billion industry, public school in america, it is reasonable to expect at that we would want with some accountability but the problem is, as in many things the pendulum swung too far. >> brangham: this is obviously a huge contentious issue across the country, a lot of parents and school districts have been in a real uproar over this testing, do you think this effort by the president, this initiative is going to put -- is going to satisfy the critics? you know, i really don't think it is, i think a lot of people are saying this is too little too late. you know,, the question really has been in suburban districts where people felt schools are fine, why is there this push? we are doing everything fine, this is not our problem. the optout movement we have seen has largely been in suburban districts and we have seen very few optouts in urban districts, i think the problem is going to

say we want this cap on testing but what kind of tests will we be allowed to use, there is always a problem, school in this country ask a local tradition, so the affiliation to where us this test or you shouldn't use this test, that is the problem we are going to see again as people will call it a federal takeover. >> brangham: all right, kate zernike of "the new york times", thank you so much. >> >> brangham: today at the vatican, pope francis closed a three-week-long meeting of catholic bishops focused on the church's position on family issues. the bishops expressed a more tolerant view toward divorced catholics, but blocked any reconsideration of the church's stance on gay marriage. in comments widely seen as critical of church leaders, the pope said in part, quote: joining me now via skype from rome is philip pullella.

he's the vatican correspondent for reuters. >> brangham: philip pullella, this seems to be a very contentious meeting these last few weeks, explain what is going on there. >> well, for the last two weeks the bishops were discussing, bishops from around the world, about 270 of them plus another 50 or 60 delegates and observers were discussing family issues. they discussed a whole range of issues, but the key, the two key elements that emerge as the most contentious was how the church could be more merciful to those catholics who are divorced, the church does not recognize divorce and then remarried outside of the church without having a church annulment. now, a good number of them want to return to the church completely willing to be allowed to receive communion. but as things stand now, they can only receive communion if they abstain from sex with their new partner. otherwise, they are considered to be an adultress relationship.

now there has been a lot of controversy about that, and a lot of requests, particularly from the german bishops and other bishops conferences in europe, and even one or two bishops in the states, so the proposal was to allow local bishops or a confessor to decide together with the catholic on a case-by-case basis whether he or she feels that in good conscience they can go to communion. now, this was approved as a possibility by the synod that has to be developed a bit but this is clearly a victory for the progressives who wanted this to be, who wanted this to be bobble. but we will see what the pope decides himself when he writes his own document. >> brangham: on the issue of homosexuality there was no movement. >> yes. they would have wanted more withinning language on homosexuals, the church teaches that homosexual tendencies are

not -- the, not sinful but the homosexual acts are, that will not change in the foreseeable future, but what progressives wanted is more welcoming language calling homosexuals our brothers, our sisters, our colleagues, a, and perhaps even some language that said positive aspects to it like gay relationship can be seen in a loving, lasting relationship, that this issue was so contentious the last time the synod met a year ago where some of the very, very progressive language was absolutely thrown out by the synod, that this time they decided just to sidestep that issue almost totally and the only mention of homosexuality is how to -- how to deal with a homosexual who is part of your family in a loving relationship, et cetera. but it restated the church's position that a homosexual marriage, a homosexual relationship cannot be considered in any way even

remotely, excuse me, comparable to a marriage between a man and a woman. so the issue has been side-stepped completely. >> brangham: all right, philip pullella, thank you very much for joining us. >> thank you very much. >> >> brangham: a wave of immigrants to the u.s. from central america, particularly el salvador, guatemala, and honduras, has been fueled in the past year by a surge of violence in those countries. in honduras, the largely drug- and-gang-related violence has been accompanied by a surge in violence against women. as we reported in last night's program, advocates say a woman is murdered in honduras every thirteen hours, and that honduran courts rarely resolve most domestic abuse complaints. in tonight's signature segment, special correspondent john carlos frey asks the president of honduras what is being done to stop the violence. and a warning, this report contains some violent images.

>> reporter: in 2009, a coup brought down the elected president of honduras. for the past six years, instability, poverty, and gang- and drug-related crime have plagued this central american nation of eight million people. in 2012, honduras had the most murders per capita of any country in the world 90 homicides for every 100,000. stopping the violence is the top priority of 46-year-old president juan orlando hernandez, who was elected in 2013 and took office last year. i sat down with him at his office in the nation's capital, tegucigalpa. >> ( translated ): we unfortunately come from being the most violent country on the face of the earth as consequence of drug trafficking that is produced in south america and is consumed in north america. >> reporter: formerly head of the honduran legislature, president hernandez has deployed the military police nationwide to combat and arrest drug gangs as a first step in stemming the violence.

>> ( translated ): so we began there, extraditing drug traffickers, prosecuting gangs, local and external traffickers. >> reporter: president hernandez says those actions have tamped down the violence. the murder rate here has modestly declined in the past two years. still, last summer, gang-related violence was part of the reason tens of thousands of hondurans, many of them women and children, tried to flee to the united states. >> ( translated ): the number of children migrating has decreased dramatically in comparison with the rest of the northern triangle of central america. honduras has been most effective in that. but we have begun to work because we accept that it's not just the responsibility of the government but also all hondurans. >> reporter: president hernandez is also trying to address a growing problem in honduras: domestic violence against women. 30% of honduran women say they've been abused, and the murder rate among women more than doubled from 2005 through 2013. >> ( translated ): we are

committed, particularly in the case of women who are often the victims of these conflicts between the gangs, and those gangs in turn have connections to drug trafficking. we're also working on aspects of prevention, in the schools and churches, with art and culture. it's a complete program, and it will take time. >> reporter: as an example, president hernandez points to a policing project with greater community outreach near the nation's second largest city, san pedro sula, partially funded by the united states. a vanderbilt university study last year found the program has reduced crime and increased public trust in the police. still, the president has faced weekly protests over government corruption considered endemic here -- and concerns that money meant to aid the honduran people is getting siphoned off by corrupt officials. i asked the president about those corruption allegations, particularly that money meant to help battered women isn't reaching victims. it stops with the government. even aid that may come through this country. >> ( translated ): our

administration decided to launch a campaign even before taking office, not just to patch up laws passed by previous congresses, but also to implement programs that will provide transparency and put up a full frontal assault against corruption. >> reporter: but the president's critics say despite those efforts, little is being done to address the epidemic of domestic violence. anna cruz manages a privately- financed shelter for abused honduran women, providing services, she says, the government does not, including helping victims file criminal complaints. >> ( translated ): honduras doesn't care about women's issues. so like in our case, we do not receive any assistance from the government. >> reporter: cruz houses a dozen women at a time, but she says at least 200 women in the capital need a safe place to hide from their abusers. >> ( translated ): the government should inject money for programs against violence instead of just military men on the street everywhere. all that money spent on the military should be spent on violence prevention programs. >> reporter: for more than 30

years, gladys lanza has run an organization dedicated to ending violence against women in honduras. she says domestic violence is as much a cultural problem as a policy issue. >> ( translated ): it's a macho, patriarchal mindset that puts women into a kind of second class. you go to the authorities and they say, but more men are murdered than women. and then you have to wait for an investigation. >> reporter: lanza says she is hopeful for change, but the continuing violence is still motivating women to leave honduras with their children. >> ( translated ): the majority of the women left precisely because they were fleeing violence -- the violence in their homes with their partners; the violence in the community with authorities, with gangs in their neighborhoods, and even contract killings. there are so many areas of violence in which we women live. >> reporter: maria mercedes bustillos is the country's special prosecutor for the protection of women. appointed by president hernandez, she's critical of the government's approach to stopping gender-based violence.

>> ( translated ): what happens to a victim who is suffering extreme poverty on top of the beatings, the injuries, the confinement, the isolation, the manipulation? what happens? you have a person unable to change her life and overcome on her own, unable to provide food for her children. there has to be a system to empower her, to make the decision to get away from the violence. >> reporter: i asked president hernandez why the country has so few places for women to seek refuge. >> ( translated ): we have a couple of pilot programs at the national or central government level. we're working with municipal governments in the case of women, children and adolescents. i believe we've found the formula, and how to produce that on a larger scale is coming next. >> reporter: is it the government's responsibility, the honduran government's responsibility, to stem the violence and to protect women? >> ( translated ): yes, of course. it is the responsibility of the government and society as a whole. it's an issue that concerns us all. that's the awareness we're trying to create in the honduran people.

>> brangham: how does the danger in honduras compare to the rest of the world? view our interactive map... online at pbs.org/newshour. >> brangham: a new exhibit of paintings at the museum of fine arts in boston shows that dutch masters like rembrandt and vermeer understood income inequality, even in 17th century. jared bowen from wgbh reports. >> reporter: class distinctions at the museum of fine arts is the first show ever to look at the dutch masters for how they looked at society. the economic divide couldn't be any deeper says curator ronni baer. tell me about, well, in this case, this poor little boy. >> this is a very small panel, which you'll notice his sock has a hole in it; he's very disheveled. his clothes are not all of a piece. one feels a kind of sympathy to him. but he's slouched over. his legs are splayed.

>> reporter: well, this is obviously a staggering contrast to what we just saw. >> exactly. >> reporter: who is this? >> he was a textile merchant. he's depicted a little bit from below, so that it even increases his imposing stature. and he's shown with this sword and this great curtain behind him as though he were an aristocratic, almost kingly like figure. >> reporter: such is the life both lived and contrived. the wealthy, baer says, were innately image conscious. there was drive to convey health, bounty and prestige. certainly the case of this textile merchant and his wife. >> he went to van der helst, the most fashionable and successful portrait painter at the time, and had him portray them. it's almost like an ad: this is the source of his money. >> reporter: some of the works require decoding. the show features two exceedingly rare vermeer loans.

they merely suggest wealth rather than swim in it. >> the fact that this woman is writing a letter already indicates her social status, that she's wealthy enough to have the leisure to read and write and that she's educated enough to know how to read and write. the male counterpart to her in this show is an astronomer, or astrologer, and it's a rare painting of a man by vermeer. and he's an amateur; he is doing this as a pastime, as a intellectual pursuit that really only the wealthy could have done. >> reporter: just as he is today, rembrandt was highly sought after-even by the middle class. a shipbuilder and his wife commissioned this portrait on loan from queen elizabeth ii. >> the flesh tones, which are not melded in any way. you just have successive splashes of color, but your eye somehow does that work, and it

makes him very lively looking. so the brushwork is great. >> reporter: they were upper middle class-a contrast to the baker, tradesmen and women tending to business in their more modest homes. and then there were the indigent-crowded, struggling. both these paintings and table settings give a glimpse of how much life varied between the classes. how luxury turned practical. the show ends with a meeting of the classes. >> the classes met everywhere: they met on the ice, they met on ferry boats, they met outside the city walls. but it's where they met and could not cross that's most poignant-at the door. >> the itinerate musicians don't get the white that the wealthy people get, and they are painted in drab colors, and they are painted much more broadly and brushily. it's an astounding thing. >> reporter: and where the classes remain most distinct.

>> brangham: since the taliban was ousted from power 14 years ago, afghanistan's government has taken steps to improve the status of women, including in education. the newshour's megan thompson reports on an advancement in that effort. >> reporter: 28 students at kabul university filed in for a first-of-its-kind class for afghanistan. it is the introductory course in a new master's degree program in gender and women's studies, in a country that has long struggled to provide equal rights to women. when the taliban seized power in 1996, the hard-line islamist regime banned women and girls from going to school, having jobs outside the home, or even stepping out in public without being covered head-to-toe in a burqa. after the u.s.-led invasion

post 9/11 toppled the taliban in 2001, afghanistan's new constitution guaranteed women's rights. there's been progress, but many afghan women remain marginalized, and violence against women has been on the rise. still, while millions of afghan girls and women have gone back to school, their access to higher education remains limited. one islamic studies professor at kabul university disapproves of the new women's studies program there, because, he said, women are not, in fact, equal to men. students in the two-year program hope to change those beliefs. >> ( translated ): this gender program is really needed in afghanistan, because many women do not know about their rights, so through this program, we can make women aware of their rights, which enables them to work and study in this society, and we also want to tell women that you are not only made for housework. >> reporter: the university expects these empowered graduate students to spread that message beyond these classroom walls.

tomorrow's newshour our culture at risk series looks at the restoration of paintings and sculptures at a world famous ins zoo nut florence, italy, that is all for this edition of the pbs newshour weekend, hari sreenivasan will be back next weekend, the i am william brangham, i will be back next week. thank you. >> captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by:

lewis b. and louise hirschfeld cullman. bernard and irene schwartz. judy and josh weston. the cheryl and philip milstein family. sue and edgar wachenheim, iii. 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 has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

announcer: "truly ca" presented in association with... cal humanities. next, on "truly ca"... when a brother is faced with an unthinkable choice... bill: we got to pray about this, linda. i said, "manny's done something terrible." announcer: ...a complicated situation spirals out of control. bill: well, the cops did not deliberately lie to me. announcer: and it becomes increasingly unclear who is to blame. bill: the marines salute my brother, manny, the condemned. announcer: next, "last day of freedom." bill: we all got blood on our hands now. ♪