captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. >> sreenivasan: and i'm hari sreenivasan. >> woodruff: on the newshour tonight: senate democrats end a nearly 15-hour filibuster early this morning in a push for gun control, four days after the orlando shooting. >> sreenivasan: also ahead this thursday, we sit down with three survivors of the orlando attack to hear their stories of that harrowing night inside the pulse nightclub. >> woodruff: and, with the olympic games in brazil around the corner, fears of zika grip both athletes and tourists. how residents are reacting. >> ( translated ): if our country is unable support its own people, who are brazilians, who pay taxes, why bring others if you can't even support these people? >> sreenivasan: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour.

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families of the 49 murdered sunday at a gay nightclub. and, he met with police and first responders. afterward, mr. obama and vice president biden left flowers at a makeshift memorial, and spoke with reporters. >> today, once again as has been true too many times before, i held and hugged grieving family members and parents and they asked why does this keep happening? and they pleaded that we do more to stop the carnage. they don't care about the politics. neither do i. >> woodruff: but, a leading republican caused a stir today when he initially charged the president bears the blame for the nightclub killings. arizona senator john mccain told reporters: "barack obama is directly responsible for it"

because his decision to pull all u.s. troops out of iraq led to the rise of isis. later, mccain said he misspoke, and did not mean to imply the president was "personally responsible" for orlando. >> sreenivasan: britain was stunned today, when a member of parliament was shot dead in her own district. labour party m.p. jo cox had campaigned to keep britain in the european union. she was killed in the small town of birstall, near leeds, in northern england. griff witte is london bureau chief for "the washington post," and joins us now. for an american frame of reference, there might be people who think about this like the gabby gifford shooting or attack that happened a few years ago here whom was jo cox? >> jo cox was someone who was widely respected on all sides of the political debate in britain. she was someone who had been a human rights campaigner before she became a member of parliament. she was elected to parliament last year as a member of the center left labour party, and

she as someone with an extraordinarily bright future in politics. david cameron today called her a rising star. >> sreenivasan: and there were several different narratives that were swirling. what happened on the scene around the attack? >> well, what we understand is that jo cox was meeting with constituents at a library in this small town, which is something she does every thursday afternoon, and she was walking out of the building, and she was approached on the side walk by a 52-year-old man who began stabbing her. a passer-bir tried to intervene, tried to stop the attack, and the attacker then pulled out a gun, believed to have been perhaps an antique weapon. firearms are very tightly regulated here in the u.k., and he began the shoot her and shot her at least two two time, perhaps three times. she died about an hour later. >> sreenivasan: keith griffin, -- griffe witte, we also heard the shooter yelled

"britain first," a slogan but also a phrase of the far right. >> it's in the clear this man had any kind of relationship with britain first. it is an organization on the far right of the u.k. it is an anti-immigrant, anti-muslim organization that does provocative actions across the u.k. witnesses have said he yelled "britain first" as he was engaging the attack and afterward. and for that there is speculation he had some kind of political motives. family members, however, say they d't know him to be someone who had any kind of political affiliations at all or strong political views, but they say he was mentally troubled. >> christa: all right. griffe witte of the "washington post" joining us from london. thanks so much. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, search crews in the mediterranean have recovered the cockpit voice recorder from the egyptair plane that crashed last month.

the flight disappeared between crete and the egyptian coast, killing all 66 people on board. investigators say the voice recorder was damaged, but its memory unit is still intact. they're working to see if it sheds light on what caused the crash. >> sreenivasan: in washington, c.i.a. director john brennan warned today that the islamic state group is trying to send operatives into the west to carry out new attacks. brennan told the senate intelligence committee that the militants hope high-profile attacks will compensate for territory they've lost in iraq and syria. >> isil has a large cadre of western fighters who could potentially serve as operatives for attacks in the west. and the group is probably exploring a variety of means for infiltrating operatives into the west, including in refugee flows, smuggling routes and legitimate methods of travel. >> sreenivasan: the gunman in the orlando killings claimed allegiance to the islamic state, but brennan said today the c.i.a. has found no actual connection. >> woodruff: swaths of downtown st. louis had no electrical power, and no air conditioning,

for much of this day, as the heat headed toward 100 degrees. the cause was an overnight fire inside a manhole. last night, smoke could be seen billowing from underground. city hall, courts and other administrative buildings closed for the day. >> sreenivasan: philadelphia is now the first major american city to adopt a tax on carbonated drinks. city council today gave final approval to a levy of 1.5 cents per ounce for sugary and diet sodas. the beverage industry had waged a multi-million-dollar campaign to block the measure. >> woodruff: a late-day rally lifted wall street after five days of losses. the dow jones industrial average gained nearly 93 points to close at 17,733. the nasdaq rose 10 points, and the s&p 500 added six. >> sreenivasan: and, walt disney opened "shanghai disneyland" today-- its first theme park in mainland china. the opening ceremony featured communist party leaders and familiar characters. officials held up the park as a symbol of u.s.-china relations.

it's valued at $5.5 billion. still to come on the newshour, a senator's 15-hour filibuster-- could it change the gun control debate? making economic sense of britain's vote to leave or stay in the e.u. the navy's new approach to p.t.s.d. first-hand accounts from survivors of the orlando shooting, and much more. >> woodruff: the debate over gun control took center stage in the u.s. senate for nearly 15 hours as democrats pushed for votes on measures they say could prevent another mass shooting. >> woodruff: senate minority leader harry reid confirmed this morning that republicans will allow votes on gun-control amendments to a larger, money bill. but, he complained, it's not at all clear they can pass.

>> republicans must join us for those measures to pass. but that won't happen if republicans continue to take their orders-- and i mean orders-- from the national rifle association and the gun owners of america. >> woodruff: majority leader mitch mcconnell had a ready answer: that democrats played politics yesterday while the f.b.i. briefed senators on orlando. >> senate republicans attended, and asked serious questions. a significant group of senate democrats skipped it. skipped the briefing altogether. for a campaign talk-a-thon out here on the senate floor, which also prevented us from going forward on the bill. >> woodruff: connecticut democrat chris murphy spearheaded the filibuster that ran nearly 15 hours, until early this morning. he evoked the 2012 massacre at a school in newtown, connecticut, and a teacher who shielded a child:

>> it takes courage to look into the eye of a shooter, instead of running, wrapping your arms around a six year old boy and accepting death as a trade for a little boy under your charge. that, then ask yourself, what can you do to make sure that orlando or sandy hook never, ever happens again? >> woodruff: murphy wants a vote on barring gun sales to those on a terror watch-list. he drew support from a number of fellow democrats. republican pat toomey of pennsylvania also spoke up: >> i'm of the view that it's time to get something done here. what i think we need to do here is do everything we can to make sure that terrorists are not able to buy guns, at least not

legally. but we also need to have a meaningful mechanism for people to challenge their status on that list, and that's what we haven't put together here. >> woodruff: a g.o.p. alternative calls not for barring gun sales, but delaying them by 72 hours, for anyone on the watch list. >> woodruff: this afternoon, the senate's number-two republican, john cornyn, said the senate will vote on four gun-related measures on monday. joining me now is one of the more than 20 democratic senators who took part in last night's filibuster, senator al franken of minnesota. senar, thank you for joining us. given the implaquable opposition of virtually every republican in the senate, what do you think this filibuster accomplished? >> well, i hope it changed the conversation in light of the just horrific events in orlando, the worst mass shooting in our country's history.

chris murphy represented newtown when he was in the house of representatives and said how difficult it is for him to talk to the families of the kids who died there in that shooting and tell them that four years later nothing has happened. and i think that... i commend chris murphy for doing this. and i think it changed the conversation. and that's why we're having these votes. we're going to have these votes on monday. and i think anything that we can do to stop one of these events is a good thing. and dianne feinstein is putting forward a bill that will take people who are on the terror watch list and make it so they're not able to buy a gun. and chris murphy has offered legislation to close the

loopholes, the background checks at gun shows and online because anyone who is on the terror watch list, they get turned down at a gun store, they can just right now go online or go to a gun show. and we've got to do everything we can to prevent something like this happening. we're not going to get all of them, but any one that we can stop, we must do. >> woodruff: senator, i'm sure you know republicans are arguing... they've got their own arguments on every one of these proposals. on the terror watch list proposal, they still think since... or they argue that buying a gun is a constitutional right, and even for someone who is on a terror watch list, maybe there's a short delay, but you still have to give that person an opportunity to buy a gun at some point. >> well, you know, we should be talking about how to do this,

but talking about a three-day delay i don't think makes sense. the gao just came out with a report that says that people on the no-fly list, 91% of them were able to buy guns at gun stores. the ones that were turned down, they weren't denied because they're on the terror watch list. they were denied for some other reason. we have to make sure that people who should not have guns do not have guns. that is a priority. and, yes, if you want to adjudicate somebody who is wrongly on the list, that should be done, but it shouldn't be done in three days. >> woodruff: senator, what makes you think compromise can be worked out now when even when the democrats were in the majority in the senate after the newtown school shooting, they were not able to enact significant legislation on guns? >> one, we came very close then. and two, i think this terror

watch list is a different issue. and i think that what we saw in this filibuster last night and the reaction of people around the country, i think that my republican colleagues who are certainly up for reelection, you see it with donald trump, whose response to this has been, you know, in many ways terrible, is seeing... he's running for president. he sees that, you know, 80% of republicans are for these measures, and some 87% of the american people are for that. so i hope that my colleagues understand that this is just the right thing to do and that they will not give into the pressure from the nra. >> woodruff: even if the senate were the pass new language, senator, we have every

expectation that the house would not. so is this just then an exercise in what? >> this is an exercise in trying to prevent these from happening. that's what this is. and there has been movement on this issue because of this horrific event. and i believe that's being felt in the senate and in the house. >> woodruff: so you do believe next week we may see one or more of these proposals pass the senate? >> i hope some i don't know what senator cornyn's proposal. is i don't know what senator grassley's proposal is. but you'll notice we are getting proposals from them now. now, they may be like we've seen before, with poison pills or something like that, but i think the conversation has changed in the wake of this horrific event.

>> woodruff: senator al franken of minnesota, we thank you very much. >> thank you, judy. >> sreenivasan: as we heard, britain was stunned today by the killing of a member of parliament. jo cox was a strong supporter of saying the country should stay in the european union. in one week britain votes on that very question. both sides in the argument suspended their campaigns today out of respect. before the latest, our economics correspondent paul solman was in oxford hearing the arguments. tonight, the case for leaving the e.u. it's part of his "making sense" series, which appears every thursday on the newshour.

>> reporter: the oxford union, perhaps the world's most famous debating society. >> mr. president, i am delighted to be here at the oxford union, the pinnacle of university debating in england. >> reporter: capping off the spring term last week, the year's most hotly anticipated debate: the "e.u. referendum," better known as brexit, "british exit" from the european union-- coming up for a real vote one week from today. >> we have a long and illustrious tradition of democratic self government, we are as entitled to rule ourselves as the people of the united states of america. this is your birthright, this is your heritage, this is your future, reclaim it and vote leave. (applause)

>> let's make the case for immigration as a sign of success of this country and let's celebrate this magnificent achievement of those who've come. >> reporter: this is mansfield, one of oxford's 38 colleges, where some 400 of oxford's 22,000 students live and learn. mansfield is known for its non- conformity-- its openness to students from all countries and classes, not just from upper crust prep schools. small wonder its faculty want to remain in the e.u.. >> sometimes i talk to my colleagues over lunch and they cannot imagine that anybody would vote leave. >> reporter: but at the entry point to mansfield, terry greenwood, who helps run the porter's lodge, will vote to vamoose. >> i have no confidence in the basic ability or competence of anybody in the european parliament, whatever. >> reporter: but it's going to cost the united kingdom to leave the union, is it not? >> so what? we should be in charge of our own country. we, not some unelected parliament. you wouldn't have your next door neighbor come in and tell you what to eat at your table. well that's precisely what the

european union is telling us to do. it's telling us how to conduct our lives. >> reporter: somerville is one of oxford's first colleges to admit women, in 1879. indira gandhi lived and learned here; so did margaret thatcher. the faculty want to stay in europe, but olga smith, a so- called "scout" who helps keep house for the current head of college, does not. >> well, i think we've lost control of the borders. >> reporter: do you think that the people who are coming in are driving down wages? >> the wages and unemployment, yeah. yes, cos, there's a lot more foreign people doing all that-- doing all sorts of jobs. >> i feel that we should leave. >> reporter: david townsend is assistant gardener. >> i've always regarded myself as english first, then british. i've never regarded myself as european. as an island nation, i think

it's inborn, i think. >> reporter: but the brexit vote isn't just a class conflict: town against gown. consider this excerpt from a feature film gone viral making the case for leaving. >> we the people are being cajoled, frightened, and bullied into surrendering our democracy and freedom. this film is a rallying cry. we must fight for our independence, for the right to determine ourselves the laws under which we live, and for the freedom to shape our own future. >> reporter: the politician often compared to donald trump here, former london mayor boris johnson, makes the economic case for leaving, mocking previous >> why are we sending 10 billion pounds a year net to brussels, some of which is spent my friends, you know, some of which is spent on spanish bullfighting? >> reporter: and though almost half of oxford students are foreign-born, a few are pushing brexit vigorously. harrison edmonds is one of their leaders. >> for britain to be viable in

the future economically has to be where the market is and the market increasingly of the next century is not going to be in europe, it's going to be in asia. it's going to be in america. it's going to be in south america. it's not going to be in europe and that's where we need to be looking, outside of the european union for those markets. >> reporter: meanwhile, says peter saville, commonwealth nations like australia or india become second-class trading partners. >> if trade agreements localize to one area, that is effectively a protection racket. they disadvantage the world community towards the european one, that accident of geography. >> reporter: but this is a protectionism racket. not a protection racket. protection racket is when you extort somebody because you're going to hurt them. if they don't do what you say. >> the president of the if you're a member of the club, and you vote to leave that club and that club threatens you to stay inside, that's not a group of friends. that is a protection racket. >> reporter: and in the end, says oliver shore, the e.u. will come round and trade with the u.k. anyway.

>> can you really see angela merkel going to all the german car manufacturers and saying" look, you're going to have to cut your jobs because britain's been bad and we're going to have to put big tariffs up and stop you selling cars to britain and even though i'm a very unpopular prime minister in germany at the moment i'm going to become even more unpopular by cutting manufacturing jobs." >> reporter: but the nub of the argument, says sam slater, is sovereignty. >> a big point is about british elected- elected -- representatives making our own laws; not the un-elected commission and handed down laws to the kind of elected european parliament who kind of give them an agreement and then maybe become law. it's rubbish. >> reporter: case in point: a scottish tax passed a few years ago, in part to combat alcoholism. >> it was passed by the scottish parliament which is elected by the scottish people and they have a mandate to pass laws and it was blocked. it was blocked by the european union because of this technical standards directive. what has it got to do with the other 27 member states what scottish people want to do in

their own country. it's a disgrace. it's an utter disgrace. >> reporter: well, disgrace or not, scottish voters turn out to be strongly in favor of remaining. and we'll explore that side of the debate-- to remain-- in our next piece. until then, reporting from oxford, england, this is economics correspondent paul solman. >> woodruff: now, to a major change being made by the u.s. navy that will affect servicemen suffering from one of the unseen wounds of war. john yang has that. >> yang: the wars in iraq and afghanistan have killed thousands of american servicemen and maimed and injured tens of thousands more, but some wounds are not as easily seen or identified. post traumatic stress disorder or p.t.s.d. afflicts as much as one-fifth of iraq and afghanistan veterans in any

given year. compounding the affliction, personnel who were kicked out of the military because of erratic behavior caused by p.t.s.d., by traumatic brain injury called t.b.i., or by other mental health conditions often lose their benefits, including access to veterans' health care. but that will now change for at least one of the services. navy personnel, sailors and marines under a new policy enacted by navy secretary ray mavis. secretary mavis joins us now. thank you for joining us. >> glad to be here. >> yang: tell us what this new policy is and why you made this change. >> the policy that we had been operating under was if somebody committed misconduct, the erratic behavior you were talking about, that talk preference over everything else in terms of a discharge. so people would get dischargeed with discharges that didn't give them any benefits when they left. what we've done with policy that

i just signed was to say, if you're being administratively discharged for some misconduct, we're going to take a look to see if you've got a diagnoseable condition to, see if you have p.t.s.d., to see if you've got traumatic brain injury, and then that will factor in. you'll still be discharged, but you'll be discharged with benefits, with help that we're going to recognize the reason for this erratic behavior and give you help after you leave the military. and it's not just for combat injuries, combat wounds, it's also for things like sexual assault that is often followed by p.t.s.d. >> yang: just to be clear, you say this conduct took precedence. in other words, it didn't matter the misconduct may have had an underlying cause. >> the only thing that was looked at was the misconduct. and the discharge was based on that misconduct without cause,

without p.t.s.d. evaluation, without t.b.i. evaluation. and the awful thing was when people left under this circumstance, they got no benefits. so they couldn't get into veterans' health care. they couldn't get the assistance they needed to deal with p.t.s.d. or to deal with traumatic brain injury. it was a pure policy issue. and this is not just for people being discharged now, not just for active duty people. if you're a veteran, and you were discharged and got bad paper and so you're not getting any benefits and you believe that it was caused by in some way or another p.t.s.d. or traumatic brain injury, come back. we'll take another look at it. we'll take another run at the determination of the discharge. if it is found by that, you will be able to get your benefits even if you've been discharged for a while.

>> yang: any idea how many men and women that could affect? >> the estimates on traumatic brain injury are 46,000 sailors, 49,000 marines. that's a lot of people. it's hard to know in terms of why people were discharged, what kind of discharges they got, this sort of thing. it's hard to know how many are going to fit in under, that but it's clearly not just a few people. >> yang: do you think enough is being done for sailors and marines to recognize on the commanders' part to, recognize when behavior may be because of p.t.s.d. or traumatic brain injury? >> i think we're making progress on that. the other part of this policy is that if you're going to be discharged and there's a possibility you'll be discharged without benefits, that discharge decision was moved way up in the chain of command. it has to be done by an admiral or a general or a flag officer instead of where it used to be a unit commander, which would be

lieutenant colonel, colonel, somewhere around in there. >> yang: mr. secretary, do you think the other services will follow your lead on this? >> well, i certainly hope so. and we've had some talks with the other services on how we implemented this and what the new policy is. so this is the right thing to do. >> yang: let me ask you one more question about an issue facing the modern military. the pentagon just recently had their l.g.b.t. pride event. secretary carter said last year that he was looking to change the policy to allow transgender people to serve in the military. that new policy was due five months ago. can you give us any insight into what the issues are that are holding this up? >> i know that the process is ongoing. we've participated in the process in terms of transgender. and i think that from secretary carter's memo, when he set this out, it's not if but when. it's not if but how.

we expected the policy before now, but things take a while sometimes. >> yang: very good. secretary ray mavis, thank you for being with us. >> appreciate it, john. >> sreenivasan: stay with us, coming up on the newshour: a u.n. official explains why it's so hard to solve the refugee crisis. brazil combats mosquitoes, and zika, ahead of the summer olympics. and a muslim-american breaks down stereotypes-- with comedy. but first, as families in orlando were preparing to bury the first victims of the mass shooting, the president spoke today of grief beyond description. many in the community are mourning for sons, daughters, family and friends who were just in their twenties and thirties. we spent much of this past day listening to what survivors and members of the community had to say. william brangham has the story.

>> brangham: the president and vice president's visit today come as the people of orlando are finding different ways of coping and trying to recover from this massacre. >> i think it means a lot 6 it shows that the nation is watching. i think that's the idealism at that point, that he's taken time, the president has taken time to let everybody know that, hey, he feels for them and he's watching. >> brangham: but for others, especially those who witnessed the attacks firsthand inside the pulse nightclub, ceremonies and visits can only do so much. jeanette mccoy drove to the club saturday night and was inside with her friends when the shooting began. another friend shielded mccoy, taking a gunshot to the back and allowing her to escape. she says her grief has made it hard to sleep. >> we lost so many people. we lost a part of us. people don't realize. there's people who were dead, but the ones that survived, we

can't hold a service for our heads. >> brangham: this man can't escape the images of what he saw when he escaped the club. >> i can hear people moaning. i could hear people screaming for help. when they came and got us, we had to physically walk by the dead bodies. >> brangham: mccoy says she believes the police waited too long to rush in, which allowed it to become a hostage situation. >> through all of this that was going on, the gunshots did not stop. i'm yelling at the cops and telling them it made no sense. it's one individual. how it is that there are hundreds of cops out there and no one is going in? >> brangham: but others believe officials did the best they could and know is the time to focus on the future. don price is helping the city of orlando establish a permanent memorial here in greenwood cemetery. the city is offering free burial plots for any of the victims. >> a lot of these victims are not staying in orlando. they're being sent home to puerto rico, they're going to

mexico. they're going to the dominican republic, new jersey, all around. their friend and family base is still here in orlando. so we need a place that the community can come and grieve. >> brangham: d'angelo scott was dancing that night at pulse, too, but he left just before the attacks began. six of his friends died that night. he says the so-called pulse family, the whole l.g.b.t. community, must come together to heal and to lead by example for the rest of the city. >> we're going to get through this. we don't really have a choice. i was like, the pulse family is what built the overall pulse family, which is the family in the community. so we have to make sure that we fix ourselves so that the rest of us, the rest of the city, you know, can look up to us for support. >> brangham: that's right. you don't have a choice. >> kwre7, otherwise they win. we can't let them win. >> brangham: for the pbs "newshour," i'm william brangham.

>> woodruff: people seeking safety in europe are now sailing the western mediterranean, after turkey and the european union struck a deal to stem the refugee flow. the results have been deadly: more than 1,000 people have drowned just in the past several weeks. and both here and abroad, the debate about their fate rages on. for an update, gwen ifill spoke this week with amin awad, the director middle east and north africa for the u.n. refugee agency, u.n.h.c.r. mr. awad, welcome. on this program we have seen the terrible stories of the hundreds of thousands of refugees coming, especially from the middle east and africa, trying to get to greece, trying to get to turkey, trying to get into europe. has that problem, has it gotten worse or gotten better since this whole crisis began? >> i think this problem of

migrants and refugees is persisting. i wouldn't say it's getting better or getting worse simply because of conditions that people are fleeing are getting worse. the serious situation is not better than it was before. in syria, the hostilities ended and as a result people are fleeing. the impoverishment that people are fleeing subsaharan africa continue to persist. there isn't a south-north collaboration as used to be before. people are pleaing niger, where there is poverty. and they seek opportunity, new places, markets and labor and mobility. and some of them are fleeing conflict, coming from east africa, the horn of africa, or the center of africa or the

western part of africa. so the root causes for flight are still there, and the world has to come up with more mechanisms and better mechanisms to settle these conflicts of poverty. >> ifill: so the root causes are still there, but the welcome mat is not there anymore. in fact, it's certainly not there in turkey and it's certainly not there in germany like it once was. so how does that affect the flow? >> the flow will persist. people will continue to try to make it to safety to, make it to better place, to try to find opportunity. if the welcoming mat is not there, then it ought to be. investment in the communities where conflicts are and where poverty is and try to stem the flow in a more dynamic and cooperative manner, but you also have to uphold all international instrument, the international protection, the national refugee

hall, the international human rights law. we have to because that's what makes the world order. >> ifill: in this country we're having a big presidential debate which circles around in part what we should be... how many refugees we should be accepting, and in europe, the vote about whether to exit the european union to some degree also centers around that. doesn't ma make your task an uphill one? >> it does in a way, but on the other hand, i think there are also more people facing consequences or outfits, policy, think tanks, politicians, parliamentarians and congressmen or senators who know, and they can differentiate between the political hype and the xenophobia and the real issues. there's a difference between terror, they're fleeing terror,

radical groups and they're looking for saint. they should not be the people to blame. >> ifill: that's exactly the point, but people say refugees themselves could be spreading the terror. that's the fear. >> well, there are no guarantees for us to really think this is really the truth. nor if you look at history of the refugees during the last 200 years, that they have been carrying out attacks. it never happened. >> ifill: it never happened. in order for this to work you need some financial resources. many nations have pledged financial resources to this cause. have they fulfilled those promises? >> london conference, february initiative by the u.k. and by norway, kuwait and others, pledges were made in good faith, but they are not made. >> ifill: how much money are we talking about? >> $12 billion. >> ifill: and how much was -- >> $2.5.

>> ifill: $2.5 instead of $12. >> the resources have to be there. the other problem is protracted conflicts. they have been open so long like never we have seen before. 60 million people displaced. a lot of protracted situations, they could not find solutions. i think there ought to be a new model, an approach to bring the east and the west together to make sure that conflicts are solved. if conflicts are not solved, the world will be an unruly place, a dangerous place like never before. >> ifill: that's one end of... that's the source of the flood of migrants. what about what happens on the other end, people who fear that their economies will be adversely affected, that their jobs will be taken? >> stabilize the world. find solutions to natural disasters, conflicts, don't leave protracted situation, open conflicts. we have yemen, syria, south

sudan, places in central africa. >> ifill: do you see progress toward that? >> we haven't seen. more and more people flee. this is a threat against our very stable planet. it is a threat to international security. >> ifill: amin awad, director of the middle east and north africa bureau of the u.n.h.c.r. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> sreenivasan: several athletes have decided not to attend the summer olympics in rio de janeiro this august; some male competitors have taken the precaution of freezing their sperm in advance of going. the reason: zika. brazil has been severely affected by the virus, shown to cause birth defects. there have even been calls among some in the international community to move the games.

but the world health organization, or w.h.o., now says it's safe. newshour producer jon gerberg and npr's lulu garcia-navarro report now on brazilian reaction to the controversy. >> amendoim! >> hey man, what's up! >> reporter: paulo cesar viera, known by his nickname peanut, is something of a celebrity in his favela or informal settlement of rocinha. >> i feel proud. i am from here but i am so proud because since kids, i always dreamed to see my favela up. >> reporter: a community leader and tour guide, he had hoped that the coming olympics would be the next step in improving the lives of everyday brazilians. but then zika happened. >> the zika virus and its potentially devastating consequences continue to spread. >> growing fears now among olympic athletes and fans worldwide over the looming threat of the zika virus.

>> we already have a pandemic on our hands. what could happen? >> reporter: brazil is the epicenter of the mosquito born zika virus. in advance of the rio games, olympic organizers and local authorities have been spraying facilities and struggling to assure the world that it is safe for athletes and tourists to come here. a group of international media, which included pbs newshour, was invited to film health inspectors in rio's jacarepagua neighborhood last week. mosquito eradication measures like these have been taking place across the city. at the local health clinic, doctors told us that zika is a much smaller problem right now. >> ( translated ): in the summer months we had more zika cases, because we have more mosquitoes. we had around 10 cases per week. now we've seen a decline. currently we have about one case every 15 days, very little. >> reporter: even though they are called the summer games, they will be taking place in south america's winter, which is

typically cooler with fewer mosquitoes. one local resident told us that he's actually worried about what other diseases tourists and athletes could bring, as zika actually was discovered in the forests of uganda. >> ( translated ): so paulo jozze thinks that actually the brazilians are the victims here. he points out that the zika virus actually arrived in brazil from outside of the country. >> reporter: but zika has overshadowed the run-up to the olympics here. 234 scientists and global health experts recently wrote a letter to the w.h.o. calling for the games in rio to be cancelled postponed or even moved. an unnecessary risk is posed when 500,000 foreign tourists from all countries attend the games, potentially acquire that strain, and return home to places where it can become endemic," it read. but rio's mayor eduardo paes, insisted that the seasonal decrease in mosquitoes would keep the epidemic at bay. >> this will not be a problem for the games. obviously if you're a pregnant

woman, you need to take more care of it. but come to rio. this will not be a problem. i'm sure that in one year time, if you come back here, we'll say 'ok, there was no zika during rio games.' >> reporter: olympics spokesman mario andrada echoed that sentiment saying the olympic venues were undergoing daily mosquito inspections. >> we are 100% sure that our tourists, our athletes, our guests will be safe in rio. and we do the best to protect them. >> reporter: the world health organization or w.h.o. has agreed and says there is no reason to move the games. its issued a series of guidelines for those coming to rio. they include warnings to pregnant women and sexually active men. more controversially however, the w.h.o. initially advised foreign tourists to "avoid visiting impoverished and over- crowded areas in cities and towns with no piped water and poor sanitation." >> it is in the poorer, impoverished areas where you're

more likely to find still water or stagnant water that has collected rainwater or whatever is being kept. it is really just looking at what factors help drive the higher mosquito density, the probability of getting bitten by mosquitoes. and that will be higher in those areas. >> reporter: but some experts disagree. the threat of mosquitoes breeding in dirty, stagnant water is real. but the aedes egypti mosquito which spreads zika and dengue, among other diseases, likes to breed next to clean water. biologist claudia codecço is wih brazil's largest scientific research center. she also says in rio rich and poor live side by side and mosquitoes don't respect class boundaries. >> we know from many studies that the mosquitoes can breed in any type of environment. so this is not a particular problem of poor areas. it can actually breed in any type of environment.

>> reporter: the concern among some in brazil is that telling people disease and the favelas are connected could prove unnecessarily harmful to poor and struggling communities which are already stigmatized. peanut, our host in rocinha, is among those worried. the sprawling informal settlement is the largest in rio de janeiro, home to tens of thousands of people. and he was hoping to introduce tourists to his favela. >> people in other countries have totally bad information about us. you know. it's important we take them and they see the reality of favela. >> reporter: and what is the reality? >> the reality is the people! >> reporter: peanut showed us an herb called arruda which has a pungent smell, which he buys from local vendors and wears to ward off the mosquitoes. with regard to his tourism business, he says his hopes are not high. he blames what he calls propaganda in the international

press. >> i hope many tourists come. but i don't believe it much. because they have very strong propaganda all over the world: 'don't come to rio! don't come to colombia! don't come this! don't come to south america because they have zika. >> reporter: he says his own message is very different. >> come to the olympics. come to the favela. and have a good time. i know nothing bad will happen with you. >> reporter: but not everyone is so sure, including those who have dealt with the virus's most harmful effects. pollyana rabello's son, luiz philipe, was born with zika related microcephaly-- a condition where children are born with small heads because the brain is underdeveloped. she says many mothers who've had children with congenital zika syndrome in brazil have been getting little government financial or medical help, despite many promises.

>> ( translated ): if our country is unable support its own people, who are brazilians, who pay taxes, why bring others if you can't even support these people? zika hasn't gone away. it is here. and if it happened to us, it can happen to many more people. i think the games should not happen. i think this money they are investing in the olympics should be invested in the health, and well-being of the brazilian population. >> reporter: a desperately needed investment, in the lives of the people who will still have to grapple with zika when the olympics are just a memory. for the pbs newshour, i'm lulu garcia-navarro of npr, rio. >> sreenivasan: tune in tomorrow, local residents on the murky waters behind brazil's pollution. >> woodruff: now to another in

our brief but spectacuar series. comedian negin farsad describes how she uses comedy to fight bigotry. her latest book, "how to make white people laugh," was released earlier this month. >> well, i'm an iranian american muslim lady, and as such growing up i didn't really have any icons to look up to. i yearned to be mexican because there were so many mexicans in our schools and they had icons like cesar chavez and everyone could say their names like aralia and rodrigo. with me they were just like, megan, megrime. i grew up in palm springs, california, and palm springs is a really weird place. it's simultaneously like one of the top five retirement communities and one of the top five gay cities in california. it's the kind of place where you'll see people dancing to

lady gaga while adjusting their catheters. one of the main problems of being a muzz in today's world is people immediately conflate that with terrorism and violence. i'm like 5'3" and a half, and i dress like a cartoon character. i ended up getting a master's degree in african american studies. i was the only non-black person in the department. the purple represents all the black students, and the non-purple part is the me. people were sort of like, it's weird, don't you have your own people? and i would be like, how could you say that? ly fight for african american rights whenever and wherever. i have a different world backpack. i'm about the change my name to tyler perry presents. at a certain point i realized, you know, this is well after 9/11, that like i do have my own people, islamophobia is on the rise, and there's something i can do about it. comedy but about stuff that mattered and has some kind of social impact. i wrote a musical called the israeli palestinian conflict: a

romantic comedy. i made a future documentary comedy called the muslims are coming. i basically rounded up a bunch of muslim-american comedians in a non-violent way and we went around the country to places like tennessee and alabama and georgia and places where they love the -easies, and we did these stand-up shows. "how to make white people laugh" is a memoir meets social justice comedy manifesto. i talk about being iranian. i talk about islamophobia. i talk about xenophobia. i talk about being a brown lady dating online. there are some earth shattering chapters like the one called immigrants spit out more patriotic babies. my parents are immigrants and they raised like an uber do,y patriot who had a giant american flag in her bedroom all growing up. that's how in love with the country i was raised to be. so i feel like every time i take the stage, i have to announce to everybody, hey, i'm an iranian-american-muslim-female, like all of you, just to calm people down. i know that you know that this

is not the normal package for a comedian, and it's going to be okay. my name is negin farsad, and this is my brief but spectacular take on being an iranian american muslim female comedian lady. >> woodruff: you can watch more episodes of our brief but spectacular series on our website, pbs.org/newshour/brief. also online, lone wolf terror but a new computer algorithm may help. by charting pro-isis groups on social media, scientists found it could predict when a real- life attack occurs, even without explicit messages. all that and more is on our web site, pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm hari sreenivasan. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. join us online, and again here tomorrow evening, with mark shields and david brooks. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:

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