captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for saturday, june 4: remembering muhammad ali, as the boxing legend dies at age 74; a week of heavy rains causes flooding in parts of the southwest united states and europe; and, venezuela in crisis, with food and medicine shortages across the 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. the citi foundation. supporting innovation and enabling urban progress. the john and helen glessner family trust.

supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. 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, hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: good evening, and thanks for joining us. muhammad ali called himself "the greatest," and most everyone agreed. the boxer dazzled in the ring, winning olympic gold and the heavyweight title three times, and dominated his sport for two decades. outside the ring, ali was a charismatic personality, a civil rights pioneer, a fighter for his muslim faith, and an anti- war protester later embraced by

presidents. as a sports icon, ali became bigger than babe ruth and as consequential as jackie robinson-- and was one of the most recognizable athletes on the planet. ali, who had suffered from parkinson's disease, died of septic shock due to unspecified natural causes last night at a hospital in phoenix, arizona. his family plans a public funeral next friday in ali's hometown of louisville, kentucky, with former president bill clinton delivering a eulogy. president barack obama, who keeps a pair of ali's boxing gloves in his private study next to the oval office, said muhammad ali became "...a powerful force for peace and reconciliation" who "shook up the world, and the world is better for it." >> reporter: fight night-- miami beach, february 1964. >> clay's jab is stronger than it has been at any point in the fight. >> reporter: cassius clay-- the future muhammad ali-- hammers at sonny liston, heavyweight champion of the world. clay is a decided underdog, but he pounds the champ into

submission in just six rounds. >> at the end of this round, liston's corner will call the doctor to the ring and, over the champion's protest, stop the fight. >> reporter: now, clay is boxing's new heavyweight champion. >> clay is proclaiming, "i am the greatest! i am the king!" >> reporter: just that quickly, a unique figure emerges in american sport, and will go on to become a global icon. >> i am just like oxygen-- all over the world! >> reporter: born january 17, 1942, cassius marcellus clay, jr., grew up in louisville, kentucky. he learned to fight at an early age, seeking vengeance for a stolen bicycle, and he piled up awards as a young boxer. in the 1960 rome olympics, clay stopped a polish fighter to take the light-heavyweight gold. but returning home to segregated

louisville, he was denied service at a whites-only restaurant, and threw his olympic medal into the ohio river. despite that frustration, clay landed a sponsorship deal the same year, and won 19 straight professional bouts. the perfect mark earned him the shot at liston for the heavyweight title, at just 22 years old. >> i whooped him so bad he had to go to the hospital. and i'm still pretty. whatcha going to say about that? huh?! >> reporter: clay was already known as "the louisville lip" for his outlandish self- promotion, even writing lyrics about himself, as rock newman recalled. ♪ this is the legend of cassius clay ♪ the most beautiful fighter in the world today ♪ he talks a great deal, and brags indeed-y ♪ of a muscular punch that's incredibly speed-y ♪ this kid fights great; he's got speed and endurance ♪ but if you sign to fight him, increase your insurance. ahhh, rumble, young man, rumble. >> reporter: newman is an ex- boxing promoter who went on to

host a public tv talk show in washington. >> he was so physically gifted, with blinding, lightning-like speed for a heavyweight fighter. he did most things wrong technically in the ring, but he could get away with it because of his blinding speed and his superior reflexes. >> reporter: clay basked in the boxing spotlight, but he was also undergoing momentous changes outside the ring. earlier, he had met malcolm x, the black nationalist leader and-- at the time-- spokesman for "the nation of islam." after the liston fight, clay officially joined "the nation" and changed his name to cassius "x". soon, the group's leader, elijah muhammad, renamed him again-- as "muhammad ali." >> cassius? >> cassius? >> you know my new name, why do you keep calling me that? >> will your next fight be billed as cassius clay or as muhammad ali? >> muhammad ali! >> on all the fights? >> yes sir! >> reporter: ali's religious conversion and outspoken views made him a lightning rod in the

turmoil of 1960s america, but his boxing dominance continued. in 1965, he faced off against liston again, in lewiston, maine. this time, the fight lasted less than two minutes. as liston lay on the mat, ali stood over him, taunting him, in what became an iconic image. questions swirled about whether liston threw the fight, but ali waved aside all doubts, with what became his signature phrase: >> look at that beautiful face, fella. ain't that beautiful? float like a butterfly, sting like a bee, that's what i'm saying. >> reporter: then, as ali entered his prime, the escalating war in vietnam confronted him with an entirely different opponent-- the united states government. he was drafted in 1967, but claimed conscientious objector status. >> why should me and other so- called negroes go 10,000 miles away from here in america to drop bombs and bullets on other innocent brown people who've never bothered us?

i will say directly, no i will not go. >> reporter: the justice department ruled the objection was political, not religious, and ali was stripped of his title, and did not fight again for three and a half years. he also faced a potential prison term, but remained free on appeal. >> i don't worry about jail. i believe in allah. i believe in elijah muhammad as the messenger of god and many great men have to go to jail and so i don't pay no attention to it. if the time comes, i'll just have to go. >> reporter: by 1970, with the anti-war movement at a crescendo, boxing authorities allowed ali to return to the ring. that set up a match with the man who'd claimed the heavyweight title in his absence-- joe frazier. their bout at madison square garden in march 1971 was billed as "the fight of the century," but the long layoff had robbed ali of his speed.

>> muhammad ali has never taken such a battering. >> reporter: frazier kept the title after 15 grueling rounds. within months, though, ali scored a major legal victory when the u.s. supreme court upheld his conscientious objector claim, and wiped away his prison sentence. freed of all obstacles, he launched a rise back to boxing prominence, culminating in kinshasa, zaire, 1974, and the fight dubbed "the rumble in the jungle." ali faced the younger, hard- hitting george foreman, who had beaten frazier. >> round 1: the heavyweight championship of the world at stake. >> reporter: this time, he used a strategy he named "rope-a- dope" to wear out foreman. >> the punches aren't doing any damage, though! >> reporter: it worked. late in the 8th round, ali landed a combination that sent foreman to the mat, and once again, he was champion. >> i told you, all of my critics, i told you all that i was the greatest of all time when i beat sonny liston.

i told you today i'm still the greatest of all time. >> reporter: less than a year later, in the philippines, ali was back in the ring with frazier for the rematch called the "thrilla in manila." this time, the champion took a beating, but finally won on a technical knockout in 14 rounds. after that, ali lost the heavyweight championship to leon spinks in february 1978, then reclaimed it one more time, before losing his final fight in 1981. he retired from boxing at the age of 39 with a record of 56-5. poet and author nikki giovanni knew ali well: >> ali was not a politician, he had no ambition in that way. he was an athlete and he shown all the athletes-- he was an athlete, who said, "no, it doesn't matter what you all think about me or what you say. it doesn't matter, your praise. i need to stand for something." and he's done that. >> reporter: three years into retirement, ali revealed he had parkinson's disease.

but he stayed active, despite his symptoms. >> thank all of you for your support and following me over the years in boxing. >> reporter: in 1990, he visited iraq to help win the release of 14 u.s. hostages from saddam hussein. six years later, he took center stage once again, lighting the olympic flame at the summer games in atlanta, amid a sea of flashbulbs. and in 2005, president george w. bush awarded him the medal of freedom. even in old age, muhammad ali remained a larger-than-life figure, as the subject of movies and documentaries, commercials and posters. these days, his legacy lives on, in gyms around the country, among young fighters and their trainers. >> first thing your coaches tell you about him and start looking at his skill and to try to pick up things in the ring, but there was more to ali more than just

boxing-- people love him and make movies of him. it's for a reason. >> the name itself is synonymous with boxing. ali-- boxing. boxing-- ali. and i doubt very seriously in our lifetime that we will ever see another one like him. >> sreenivasan: to discuss the life and times of muhammad ali"" sports illustrated" writer tim layden joins me now from hartford, connecticut. layden wrote the last "sports illustrated" cover story on ali, published last year. ali will appear on the magazine's cover for the 40th time next week. tim, you had the the good fortune of meeting him notoo long ago. is it possible to overestimate the impact muhammad ali had? >> i think back to when i saw him, which was in october, in

louisville. his wife, lonnie, gave me some access to muhammad in order to write the for i did in "sports illustrated," and at that point, really, i view ali's influence over the course of his life through the prism of the people that met with him that night. it was a small group of people at a private function that were allowed to meet with him, and they were of all ages, both genders, many different races. and everybody was moved to some emotional level that you wouldn't normally see-- tears, laughter, just to see the way that he touched people at the age of 74 at the time, and it was just overwhelming. and to think that, really, he had been out of the public eye for 20 years at that point, really, even longer-- 32 since he had been diagnosed with parkinson's. i found it hard to wrap my arm around it that night and that is a small microcosm of what his life has been. >> sreenivasan: what is it about him that has made people across generation look up to him as a hero?

>> i think that he is to people almost depends on who that person is and how old that person is and when that person came into contact with ali, either personally or just through images on a television screen or somewhere else. i think, obviously, to a generation of boxing fans in the 6060s and 70s, he's one of the greatest athletes in history. to the african american community of the 60s, he is a representation of the social battle that they were involved in at the time, and are still involved in today. to people that are attuned to political society in america, his stance against the vietnam war at that same time was hugely significant, and eventually confirmed by the suprem supremet of america. and then i think as ali got older-- and, obviously, was in an immense battle with parkinson's disease, and yet refused to surrender to it-- i think that people became empathet toik what he was doing

and admiring of his crowrnlg and his-- courage, and his dignity in the faceave debilitating ill thans in many way he's brought upon himself for the courage for which he cheered for him in the ring. i think it comes down to who you are and when you new ali. that's why he touched so many people. >> sreenivasan: there's a younger generation of people who probably only know this guy as the one who lit that olympic torch. the types of stances and positions he took at the time that he took them, it's almost unimaginable to think of an athlete that is that dominant sports today, with all of the corporate backing that might come with it and all of the money, taking huge positions on socially controversial issues of the day. >> it's almost impossible to convey that to an audience of young people who might be fans of a cam newton or stephpositive kurri, or lebron james to make

them understand how much muhammad ali put at risk in the 1960s, not only by refusing induction into the selective service but by qerkz to the nation of islam, to the muslim state. at the time that was a hugely unpopular stance as well. he enjoyed fame and celebrity and money and he put those things at risk. for the modern athlete, really, it is about their performance on the field but every bit as much it's about furthering and buttressing the brand that their name represents. and, obviously, any controversial position is going to put that at risk, and they would never do that. >> sreenivasan: tom layden of "sports illustrated" joining us from hartford, connecticut, today, thanks so much. >> you're welcome. >> sreenivasan: the pentagon said today nine soldiers died when a vehicle carrying them in flooded waters outside food hood, texas overturned in a stream on thursday. at least seven other people have died as torrential rains deluged hundreds of homes in central

texas during the past week. overseas, after a week of heavy rains, parts of germany, romania, and belgium are all experiencing heavy flooding. the seine river peaked at 20 feet above normal before starting to go down today. the floods closed streets, train stations, and popular attractions in paris, while flood waters in central france washed up against the walls of this 500-year-old castle in the loire valley. the federal rail administration says there is no evidence of any oil leaking into the columbia river, near portland, oregon, where a 96-car train carrying crude oil from north dakota derailed yesterday. but the director of washington state's department of ecology says it is investigating a small oil sheen on the river. overnight, fire crews extinguished the blaze that began after 11 cars of the union pacific train derailed, in the first major oil train accident in the u.s. this year. authorities today were expected to lift the evacuation order for a quarter mile around the accident site. defense secretary ash carter

says the u.s. will maintain and even expand its military footprint in the asia-pacific, and that the u.s. will continue to guarantee security in the region. speaking at an international security conference in singapore today, carter called on china to join what he dubbed a" principled security network," but he also criticized china for building up its military reach on islands in the south china sea. >> as a result, china's actions in the south china sea are isolating it, at a time when the entire region is coming together and networking. unfortunately, if these actions continue, china could end up erecting a great wall of self- isolation. >> sreenivasan: a top chinese official said any attempts to isolate china would fail, and the u.s. should scale back its" provocative" military exercises and patrols. pope francis is taking action to hold bishops more accountable for punishing pedophile priests. today, the pope issued a decree that bishops who mishandle sex abuse complaints by catholic parishioners could be removed

from their posts. in proclaiming the new policy, the pope abandoned an idea of a vatican tribunal to handle instances of cover-up or negligence, which he had proposed only last year. the head of "snap," the main group for u.s. victims of priest sex abuse, says he's "highly skeptical" the decree will work, because it's just another" untested" process. he called on the church simply to turn over records of priest sex abuse to law enforcement officials. see how muhammad ali is being remembered across the globe with tributes from president obama, mike tyson, and others. visit us online at www.pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: venezuela has the world's largest reserves of oil, but with the price of oil in a free fall, the country's economy is shrinking, and the south american nation of 30 million people is suffering from severe shortages of food, consumer goods, and services like hospital care. some critics say venezuela's problems stem from socialist policies and want a referendum

to remove president nicholas maduro from office." new york times" reporter nicholas casey is based in the venezuelan capital of caracas, but today he joins me here in the studio to discuss the crisis. first of all, let's give some people in the audience a kind of snapshot of what day-to-day life is like there in som. in some of your stories you have kind of painted it in a society that is losing the rule of law. >> it is. if you go outside in any neighborhood, any city or town in venezuela now, you're going to see huge lines of people trying to get food. there are people lining up starting at 5:00 a.m. in the morning to try to find food. venezuela doesn't have any lights right now, because there's very little electricity. big parts of caracas don't have water in it anymore. many of the most basic government services have suddenly vanished. >> sreenivasan: so caracas-- we're talking about a major metro city on the planet. when you talk about thousands of people without water what, are they doing?

where do they get it? i mean, water and food are things that you need to live. >> people are basically figuring out how to hack this country, and people are becoming, like, increasingly creative as to how to get around things right now. to find basic medicines that the point, because you don't have them in many hospitals or pharmacies, people are trying to search for them from black market dealers who are putting up signs in hospitals saying, "if you call me, i can give you a good price for antibiotics." that's what it's coming to. >> sreenivasan: one of the stories that you filed that was probably the hard toast see was what it looks like inside a hospital. i mean, wasn't through pretty much hallways that look like a war zone. >> it does, and i've been to report in war zones like gaza, and haven't seen a place that looked quite like that. look, in the middle east, when there is a war going on, there are a lot of aid organizations that are trying to fill in some of these dpaps. in venezuela, the government has

said there's no problem, so people who are trying to bring in medicines are being told no. and these hospitals, they look like-- they look like hell on earth, basically. you're seeing people on gurneys and on the floor and blood. one of the hospitals that we went to, there had been a number of newborn infant who had died the day before when there was also a power outage. the doctors had to try to use, you know, their hands and, like, give respiration to a number of babies that were on ventilators. there was one hospital that we went to where the surgeons had told us because there was no water in the hospital, their pump system had broken, that they were having to use seltzer water between surgeries t surgen their hands is there is there a concern that venezuela could be a total failed state, there could be civil unrest? >> that's the reason yet u.s., the o.a.s., now, a growing number of countries are saying

that venezuela needs to do something because when you have these large lines of people gathered every day for food, you don't have many steps from that to having a mob that's angry and that is the basis for civil unrest. and it's a huge concern right now of what might happen this year. >> sreenivasan: nicholas casey of the "new york times," thanks so much for joining us. >> thanks. >> sreenivasan: finally, in the french open, women's singles final today, top-seeded serena williams was upset by fourth-seed garbine rauza of spain. in the men's doubles final, americans bob and mike bryan were denied a 17th grand slam trophy. they lost to a spanish duoin three set.

the brian brothers still have one more win than other teams in history. i'm hari sreenivasan, good night. 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. the citi foundation. supporting innovation and enabling urban progress. the john and helen glessner family trust. supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. 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.

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