captioning sponsored by p newshourroductions, llc >> rangham: good evening. i'm william brangham. .dy woodruff is on vacati on the newshour tonight, president trump pulls out of the ir nuclear deal-- we get a range of reactions and i sit down with foer prime minister of israel ehud barak to discuss what happens next. >> always good to hear a determined leader say iranians will never get nuclear weapon but the question remains to what extent was that the optimal way to achieve it. >> brangham: then, n york attorney general eric schneiderman, an outspoken women's rights advocate, abruptly resigns after fourwo n accuse him of physical assault. and, diversifying america's m.d.'s-- how one university is leading the way in growing the next generation of african- american doctors.

>> we do not compete to say whob ter. it's almost like a relay race, the goal is to finish together. >> brangham: all that, and more, on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major unding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> knowledge, it's where innovation begins. it's what leads us to discovery and motivates us to succeed. it's why we ask the tough questions and whe leads us to swers. at leidos, we're standing behind those working to improve the world's health, safety, and efficiency. leidos.

>> kevin. >> kevin! >> kevin. >> advice for life. life well-planned.mo lear at raymondjames.com. >> babbel. a language app that teaches real-life conversations in a new language. >> consumer cellular. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcastibg. and by conions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> brangham: from nuclear dealo toal. the president of the united states has made good on his vow ar get out of the 2015 nuc agreement with iran. nick schifrin begins our

coverage. >> schifrin: today presidentde trumvered on years of promises to unravel his predecessor's signature foreign policy achievement. >> im announcing today that the united states will withdraw from the iran nuclear deal. >> schifrin: theresident could have withdrawn gradually, or left ambiguity. but today's action was swift and o ftt.do nub he reimposed the nuclear-related sanctions the deal lifted, and threatened more sanction >> we will be instituting the highest level of economic sanctions. any nation that helps iran in its quest for nuclear weapons could also be strongly sanctioned with the united states. >> schifrin: president trump cited long-standing criticisms: the deal doesn't restrict iranian support of proxies such as hezbollah, which the u.s. calls a terrorist group. the deal doesn't restrict iran's ability to develop ballistic missiles that can reach israel.

and the deal includes expiry lodates, or sunsets, that iran to eventually enrich and stockpile uranium, and restrict inspectors. >> this was a one-sided deal that should have never ever been made. it didn't bring peace, didn't bring calm, and it never will. >> schifrin: butesterday president hassan rouhani said iran might stay inside the deal if the other signatories europe, >> ( translated ): i ordered the atomic energy agency to be ready for action if needed so that if necessary we can begin our industrial enrichment without any limitations. >> reporter: trump's decisionze was critiand relations with iran were welcomed in order to save the deal. >> it is pair mount that iran doesn't develop nuclear weapons

the european union is determined to preserve this. >> schifrin: for president for years he's maligned the deal, as candidate-- >> never, ever, ever in my life have i seen any transaction so incompetently negotiated as our deal with iran. and i mean never. >> schifrin: and after taking office. >> the iran deal was one of the worst and most one-sid transactions the united states has ever entered into. frankly, that deal is an embarrassment to the united states. >> schifrin: but for the deal's negotiators, it was a hard- fought culmination of a decade of work.eg it in the mid-2000s with some of the most complex sanctions in hiszery that parairan's economy, and united the u.s., europe, russia and china. by 2009, president obama offered iran negotiations. state department special advisor dennis ross opened a back chanerl through oman, taken ov

by deputy secretary of state bill burns after rouhani's 2013 election, the talks accelerated. at the end of 2013, the parties signed an interim agreement, and by 2015, more than 10 years after this process started, they signed the joint comprehensive plan of action, praised by presidenobama. >> every pathway to a nuclear weapon is cut off. and the inspection and transparency regime necessary to verify that objective will be put in place. >> today could have been the end of hope on this issue. but now, we are starting a new chapter of hope. >> schifrin: the deal froze iran's nuclear program, allowed unprecedented inspections, and iran promised never to "seek, develop, or acquire any nuclear weapons." in return, the internationalis community pr not to discourage investment in iran, and lifted sanctions and returned frozen assets worth more than $100 billion.

in the last few weeks, frenchid prt emmanuel macron led furious european efforts to save the deal, known by its acronym,. thp.o.a. >> ( translated ): i always said we shoulnot tear apart the j.c.p.o.a. and have nothing else. i think this would be-- would not be the good solu >> schifrin: israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu led the international effort against the deal. >> the iran deal, the nuclearn deal, is basedes. it is based on iranian lies and iranian deception. >> schifrin: in the end, trump chose israel's argument, over europe's. >> america wilstnot be held e to nuclear blackmail. we will not allow american cities to be theatened wit destruction. >> schifrin: president trump presented iran's nuclear program as continually advancing. but under the deal, iran would

need more than a year touild a bomb, compared to two months before the deal. the international atomic energy agency has confirmed on 10 occasions that iran was complying with the deal. that's what former predent obama pointed out today in a rare statement: "the j.c.p.o.a. is working. that is a view shared by our european allies, independent experts, and the current u.s. secretary of defense. the j.c.p.o.a. is in america's interest. itol has significantlyd back iran's nuclear program. and the j.c.p.o.a. is a model for at diplomacy can accomplish." nick, thanks very much for this report. help us understand, what happeni wian now? you featured president rouhani your report saying we're going to try to talk to the europeans to see if we can say in some version of thdeal, but he also seemed to warn that if in a couple book we decide this isn't going well, we might reengage our nuclear facilities.

>> reporter: right. they have a couple options. one is stay in the de wrk with russia, china,u and erope. that's partially about assuaging fears within iran. the economy is struggling. the message is don't fear. don't run on the banks.is sn't a crisis. the other version of this is trying to tap into chnese, european, russian interest in iran, especially chi. they've invested a lot of money in iran. china may be willi to put up with some u.s. sanctions. the problem with that medium or long term, it's a hard argument to make. en investment will go away. banks do whaprident trump did, and rouhani has prosed economic advancement. so that leads to option number two, enrichment, going back to before the jcpoa, enriching to 18%, 19%, bringing down breakout to about two months or so.

the third option is going nuclear, so to speak, kicking out inspectors, leaving the nuclear no-proliferation treaty. this will almost certainly yield a u.s. and israeli response. iran largely groups.th they could usm to attack u.s. or allied interest. we may see one or a combination of those responses from iran. >> brangham: nick schifri thanks a lot. >> thank you. >>rangham: we'll have a fu examination of the president's decision, and the reaction to it, after the news summary. in the day's other news, secretary of state mike pomp headed for north korea, to finalize a planned summit between president trump and kim jo un. he said he also means to push pyongyang to release three americans. prtresidenp disclosed pompeo's trip as he announced the u.s. is quitting the iran nuclear deal. said that action will not threaten the kim meeting. >> plans are being made; relationships are building. hopefully a deal will happen and with the help of china, south

rea and japan a future of great prosperity and security can be achieved for everyone. >> brangham: the president also spoke by pne today with chinese president xi jinping. that came as xi met with kim jong-un in southern china. the chinese quoted kim as saying the north does not need nuclear weapons, if, in his words, a "relevant party" drops its "hostile policy and security threats." president trump's nominee for c.i.a. director prsed her case ngday, ahead of her senate confirmation hea tomorrow gina haspel made the rounds of more senators. e faces questions about her role in the interrogations of terror suspects after the 9/11 tacks. meanwhile, republican richard burr, the senate intelligence committee chair, rejecte democrats' demands for secret records on haspel's career. in armenia, parliament elected opposition leader nikol stpashinian to be prime mi, after weeks of unrest.aw ruling partykers had rejected his initial bid last

week but they reversedlv them to quell mass protests against corruption. thousands of pashian's supporters, draped in white, cheered and danced in thepi l's center square. back in this country, u.s. senato voiced concern that the army corps of engineers is leaving puerto rico next week, near eight months after hurricane "maria." the u.s. territory's state-owned utility will take over restoring power, despite facing bankruptcy and corruption allegations. at a senate hearing today, the agency's new c.e.o. said his work force will do their best. >> it's going to be a challenge. and we're probably going to geto help via the fema for that. but our people feel they are ready. and fema is going to give us some additional augmentation as we go through that transition. b ngham: officials say power has been restored to about 95% of the island.om still,22,000 people have yet to get their power back.nu nearly 30,00es, pharmacists and radiologists joined a three-day strike

against the university of california today. they're supporting custodians, casteria workers and garden across the university's 10 campuses, picketing for higher wages. the walkout forced the system's five medical centers to reschedule thousands of appointments and surgeries. l street had a sluggish day. the dow jones industrial averagt gained not quiee points to close at 24,360. the nasdaq rose one point, and the s&p 500 slipped a fraction. still to come on the newshour: the world responds-- we talk tor ical senator, hear the state department's view and sit down with a former israeli prime minister. new york's attorney general, seen as a leader in the #me-too movement, now accused of abuse himself, plus, much more. >> brangham: we return now to

our lead story, president trump's decision to withdraw from the iran nuclear deal has drawn praise, and sparked condemnation. one of the critics is democratic senator tim kaine of virginia.he a member of the senate foreign relations committee and a supporter of the nuclear deale we s short time ago and i began with his overall reaction. >> well, william, i was very, very disappointe this is going the make us less safe. it's going the raise the risk of unnecessary war in the mid east, and as a member of the armed services and foreign relations committee with a kid in the uted states marine corps, i don't think we ought to t undermining diplomacy. i think we ougbe strengthening diplomacy. >> brangham: the president hase argued that were many problems with this deal, that the sunset provisions allowedti the restrs on iran to go away, that the deal does not address iran's development of llistic missiles, that it doesn't deal with iran's behavior elsewhere in theon re are those not fair criticisms in your mind? >> there are fair cricis of

iran, but those aren't good criticisms of the deal. the first sentence of the fist paragraph of the deal, william, as you know, iran pledges never to srk to puchase, acquire, or develop nuclear weapons. why wo bd the u.s. want tolow up that deal and relieve iran of it makes absolutely no sense. and as you know, the secretary pf defense, secretary mattis, testified in ann hearing before the armed services committee that the deal was in america's interest and iran was complying with the deal. so he is igeoring th advice not only of our allies, but even ofs his owretary of defense, and i see no advantage tit. >> brangham: i understand the deal had a pledge from irnean r to develop them, but as prime minister of israel netanyahu showed last week the iranians at one point did very actively try to build a nuclear weapons program, and the gnedident argues they s this deal in bad faith, you cannot trust them, so that public is meaningless in is eyes. >> the reason you do a deal is

if you don't trust somebody, yot want to inspections. that's what this deal got us that we never had beore and iran now doesn't have to allow inspectie s. that was tre of secretary mattis' argument. the deal allowed significant inspections of iran's nuclearty capa of course in the past they were seeking nucleaweapons. that's why we did the deal to begin. with we did it to top their clear weapons program, and even the israeli security officials and mossad in glligence officials when to the region and meet with them, they say iran has been complying with the deal. we should focus our energy andn attent the things iran is doing wrong. we gave the white house sanctions authority nearly a year ago to take stiff action against irian violation of missile program rules and violatiori of humaghts provisions. the white house has chosen not to use thonsse sanctools and instead they're blowing up the one deal that the iaea, our

allies, and our secretary of defense says is actually working. >> brangham: the president argues that he can renegotiate this deal, that iran is financially weak enough, that these new sanctions will bite, and that he can strike a new deal, a better deal. you don't seem to think that's possible. >> well, i think it's goi dng to fficult, because the reason that sanctions bite is it's the usobal community is wit but here we have our allies,y, germrance, britain, urging us to stay in the deal. we have the international atomic energy agency saying that ira is complying with the deal. the sanctionste hard if the world is unified, but now the president has dren a wedge between us and our european allies in the guise of what he would call america first. what he's really pitching is america malone, anderica being alone without allies working hand in hand with us onn issue like this does not make us stronger. it makes us weaker. >> brangham: as u heard, the president today said secretary

of state mike pompeo is on his way to north koreright now to start these initial talks for that nuclear deal. potential nuclear deal.l do you bve what the president did today helps or hurts our negotiating positionth with north koreans? >> i think it hurts our position with the north koreans. i'm glad we're having this i think dialogue is preferable to not having dialogue, but the message to the north koreans is this: if you do a deal with thet united s, and even if the international community and all the agncs say north korea is complying with the deal, the u.s. is not a reliable patner and will back out of it. with respect to the iran deal, we should ep the fos on iranian behavior and misbehavior, but what the president has done, he's now usrned the focon america's good faith in keeping a deal that's being complied with. i thinthat wilreduce the likelihood of north korea feeling confident enough they could agree to a deal with the united states.

>> brangham: do you have a t sense wh iranians are going to do? president rouhani sad he would like to stay in the deal with the european, perhaps china and russia, but there also seemed to be a hint that theyight perhaps put in place the ability to start up their program again. what is your sense of wht they're going to do next? >> i'm not for sure, but here's eat my gut tlls me: i think they will probably try to work together with the europe allies, russia, and china to continue to comply with some aspects of the deal so those nations will help them economically. by doing that thell effectively drive a wedge between the united states and our european ally, which is a problem. but what i also expect iran to do is because the deal involves them agreeing to some very specific and heightened inspections, i think you'll see th say, wel, president trump is out of the deal. we don't have to do the rigou inspections that the deal requires.

i think you'll start to see them scaling back on allowing inspections, even if ty don't immediately start up activity to develop plutonium or ura.ni >> brangham: senator tim kaine of virginia, thank you very much. >> abs bolutely. ngham: now we get a perspective from within the trump administration. andrew peek is deputy assistant secretary state for the middle east. welcome to the news hour. >> thanks so much. >> brangham: so all of our allies in this deal counseled the president not to do what he did tod,y. they she deal is working. it may be imperfect, but it is keeping iran further from a nuclear weapon than they were before. are they wrg? >> you know, i think we've been working for our allies with months to communicate our concerns about the deal. i was encouraged that ithat process that we all agree on how acute the issue ishe raw iranian problem sets. i was encouraged also by president macron's statement after his visit as well as his

tweet today about wanting to work with us to find a more comprehensive deal. so the takeaway should be that we all agr on this problem, we just occasionally don't see eye to eye on the wayrdor but i have ever confidence that this will help us get to better, more comprehensive deal that addresses all of iran's behavior. >> even with the administrofion, secretarefense jim mattis said he read the deal three times over. he felt the inspections on iran were onerous. he felt that it was in or national interest to stay in the deal, and yet the president didp thsite. why is that? >> gosh, i think... i'll let the secretary of defense speak for himself. i think the administration's position i as i've just said, you know, i think we saw the deal as mitigating our ability to counter effectively the totality of iran's behavior, particularly its power projecon in the middle eas and its support of proxies while at best delaying iran's path t

a nuclear weapon, not eliminating. >> brangham: explain about how these sanctions will work. there will be sanctions on particular parts of iran's economy. the president said with regards to other nations that any tion that helped iran in its quest for nuke her weapons could also be strongly sanctioned. what does that mean? >> well, soythe wa this is going to work is the entitiesd ctors that do business with iran or that are part of iran wilbe slowly redesignated after 90r 100 days. that is time enough to allow those entities doing business with iran to draw doour their investments. we have no desire to affecti en other than iranian ones. you know, the u.s. has had secondary sanctions as part of its iran policy since the lat '90s. the purpose is to discourageme inve in problematic iranian entities or entities

that allow iran to doinate the region and conduct totality of its nefarious activities. the way you get that reduced investment is a process, an it iterative process of engagement, induce. s, and occasionally little prods. >> brangham: the president believes he can renegotiate this deal, the things that have bothered him all along, that some of the restrictions have sunset clauses, that iran is developing bal mlistssiles, theta tau are doing all of these things in the region that the administration is not fond of. all of our allies who helped negotiate this deal in the first place said that tting those elements in the deal was not going to work. why does the president be that those will work now? >> well, i think the president's view is that when the deal was negotiated, we were at a place of intense pressure on iran. we had a lot of leverage.

we had unprecedented national and international sanctions on the regime. we gave up too much for far too little. i think he's said it again and again. i was a bad deal. we cld have gotten more out of it. i think by reimposing someof these sanctions and working with our partners we'll get to a place where we can do that. >> brangha what about the criticism that this jeopardizes our credibility as nation, that our word can't be taken. mike pompeo is on his way to north korea. ,e's probably there right now starting negotiations with the north koreans about their nuclear program. the north koreans ar looking at what the president has done and torn up this existing deal, why this they believe, why would they believe we could hold our word on this one? >> i think two things. one is i would say that it should be no surprise to our partners and other states that there was deep bipartisan concern about the iran deal wh was negotiated.

this was not a republican-democrat thing. this was not a trump administration versus other republican thing. this was a position shared by virtually every republican primary cante. hence the deal was submitted. the deal was never submitted to the senate as a treaty because of that bipartisan concern.o so i thinkday's actions reflect -- and that concern reflected i think the problems in the dea >> brangham: doesn't this possibly... if the north koreans are looking at this , america signed this deal with iran. now a new president comes in and tears it up, why should they trust what thewiresident says be honored? >> because i think they can be for sure he wants a good deaotl, just bad deal. i think the iranians are going to take that away also. i think that has been a hallmark of his since day one. he's willing to negotiate, but he just wants to do a littlean better te did. >> brangham: andrew peek, thank you veryouuch for coming

>> thanks so much. >> brangham: now, for another voice on the fraught process of trying to avoid new wars in the middle east. ehud barak was prime minister of israel from 1999 to 2001, and has served in many oer senior positions in israel's government, most recently as defense minister. his political reer followed three decades of service in israel's military. first as a specialorces commando, and rising to become the military's senior-most officer. he's chronicled his life, and the birth of his nation, in a new autobiography called "my country, my life: fighting for israel, searching for peace." i spoke with ehud barak earlier today. . prime minister, welcome. we will get to the book in a moment, but first, let's just n lk a little bit about today's news. u tell me your reaction to president trump deciding to pull out of the d nucleal? >> the speech was good and coherent, and it's always good to hear a determined leader say the iranians will never gt a

nuclear weapon. but the question reoains, t what extend is the optimal way to achieve it. ehe fact that ameca pulls out doesn't cancel tdeal. it's there. the europeans will stay. everyone will stay. and probably some multinationals will feel more constrained in making deals, but, you know, some of them might find companies in the faeast or somewhere who can --. >> brangm: work around it. >> yeah, go around it some the question is, what is the best way. the iranians, they are bad guys. they develop missiles, but that's out of the agreement. they spread terror all around the region, incding in the golan heights. that's part of the agreement. that's not part of the agreement.e so probably ttter way would have been to approach those who ablish a newand est

forum to come and convince iran to do more. >> brangham: you mean to negotiate some aspect? >> no, not because the deal. the deal is there. i thought it's a bad deal when it was made. but once it was signed, it became a matter fact. in a way we don't have the spend too much wrrying about the situation, because once the american president announced thatemerica is out of the, so that's a new fact. the most we can say that we hope now that he ght be able to convince the other participants of the deal, the other participants in the deal to move together with him. i doubt it. >> brangham: let's shift a little bit to your coudentry's ings with iran in syria. as you well know, iran has been builng up a miitary presence in syria. israel has been pushing back on that. this keeps escalating. do you have a sense that israel and iran are goi to come to a

more overt conflict in syria? >> i hope not. i'm convincedit's not eded. israel is a strong pow. we should be self-confident enough to, first of all, hit any iranian deployment in syria.d in this regwould say if you have to shoot, shoot. don't talk. that was said in a famous movie. having said that, the developments are disturbing, especially the effort to upgrade the accuracy of the 140,000 rockets and missiles which hezbollah has in l, eband many of them cover most of israel. so basically it's a real challenge, and we will keep acting against it. i don't think that we have to talk so much. feel that there's more deterrent in keeping some aspect of our operations as a sot of

mystery. so basically it seems that the meblic aspect of it sells more than the dic needs of this or other nature. but israel says so clearly, we have to win any war. each and every war we have. our enemies have to win only one. israel develvoped, adanced, and became stronger during the interval between wars. we don't have any interest in accelerateing toward war, but we have the maksure that we win one if it is imposed upon us. >> sreenivasan:>> brangham: lett your wonderful autobiography. you tell the story of your own life, an you tell the story of your country. you obviously were born before

israel was born. you grew up. t you weere at the creation of so many pivotal moment.l' s in isrhistory. and i'm just curious, at the time, were you aware of t sense of mission? because now, as you look back on you life, it certsnly se that you feel that sense of real's purpose, but at the time, did it feel that way to you? >> i felt very clearly, even at the age of six, that we are pa of age huround movement, the war, declaration of independence. i was already reading a newspaper. it was clear that something dramatic that never happened is happening in from the of our eyes. later on i also witssed the many of the events. i remember fighting in sinai during '57 exactly 50 years agoh an news reached us that we took over the camp. you cannot -- i never put

feeling. i never even had a bar mitzvah, but i was deeply proved. so i was aw at this time of the importance of the event. i was not awafre usually the importance of myself in it. >> brangham: the othing that really comes through in your book is that israel continues and must find some resolution to how it dls wi the palestinians. as you well know, the governmen in isrs very much right now a fortress israel position. do you have any sense of hope that the resolution with the palestinians will come? >> yeah, of course. pe. i'm quite confident it will happen. you know, the government of israel, it's a freely elected government. it's my government, as well. but the dispute about what good for the country, especially the last three years. with bibi more and more diving

into this mind seth of extreme pessimism and anxiety and self-victimizing mood, which is quite a goorecipe for practical domestic politics, but poit's a veror one for statesmanship. i think that we are heading beyond these daily events. we are heading into the election, which is clearly wrong. the intention of this government led and directed by extreme right is to torpedo any possibility of separation or disengagement between uand the palestinians. this leads us bayically into one state named israel covering the whole area from the mediterranean to the river jordan. bu means because we are 10 million people there, 6.5d million jews 6.5 million arabs --. >> brangham: the democrats are not in your favor.

>> it'non-democratic. based on our successes, you know, the most successful national fortress of the 20th century, we hava huge amount of achievement, but based on these achievements, we are the strongest country and we can take our faith in our hands. i am not caring about the palestinians. i am caring abut our own identity, future, and security. and our interest demands that we will disengage from the palestiniansdelineate a line within which we'll have all of our security interests, most of the settlers, and untilly jewish majority for generations to come. i always used to kwo robert frost saying,"good fences make good neighbors." we need it in the middle east. never lose the focus on theob ctive and on the understanding whether it takes time, more or less time.

we will ultimately reach a normal situation in the middle east. >> brangham: the book is "my country, my life: fighting for israel, searching for peace." former prime minier ehud barak, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> brangham: stay with us, coming up on the newshour: the number of black men going to medical school is dropping. how one university is trying toe rse the trend. and, an author asks, are we too worrout living longer, instead of living betternn now to a sg story about s legations of physical abuse by a public figure when outspoken in the me-too moment. last night, the "new yorker"co published the ts of women who said they were assaulted by new york state attorney general eric sneiderman. he's well-known for his enlitics and his work, including advocating for who have been sexually abused.

as john yang tells us, less than three hours later, he resigned. a ofrning: the violent natur this story may make it unsuitable for some viewers. >> yang: william, the four wome whose experienre reported by the new yorker all had romantic relationships or encounters with schneiderman. all told of abusive or controlling behavior, including being slapped-- some so hard they sought medical attention. ronan farrow, who won a pulitzer prize earlier this year for exposing the decades-long predatory behavior of movie producer harvey weinstein, broke this story, along with his "new yorker" colleague ja mayer. ronan, thanks for joining us. the headline in the "new yorker" article was "physical abuse," but it was more than that. tell us what these men wer saying their experiences were. >> it's good to be here. these allegations are incredibly serious, jinn. we're taabout women independently of each other recounting nearly ideerntical pa of slapping, hitting,

chokin of course, eric schneidermanla championed legon specifically targeting choking. and these women independently recounted that he wa fact, engaging in that behavior. one important point i want th make is that they anticipated that he would claim this was consensual role playing. and they to a one went to pains to clarify that that is not what they are alleging. this was, as one woman in the sty put it, not "50 shades of gray." this is not a gray area at a in the minds of these women they gave no indication of con ses. in one case there was no romantic relationship at all. this was a former colleague, a prominent attorneyand he, according to her story, came on the her at a party and when she rebuffed him he began calling her really horrific epithets an slapped her across the face hard enough to leave the mark the next day. we saw picmatures of thatrk.

yang: schneiderman put out a letter to the new yorker saying, "i have engaged in role-playing and other consensual activity. one."e not assaulted any you say there were threats by schneiderman. >> many of these w dmenescribed a pattern of threats and specifically threats using the power of schneiderman's office. he would talk about his ability to track people to, wiretap people. an the words of one wom recalling an interaction with him, he said, "i am the law." and, you know, obviously i caveat that with, you know, maybe that was a joke ins mind, but i can say these women took commentses like that to be a reat. >> brangham:>> yang: and also ye about his role as attorney general and sort of championing the me to moement. a couple of the women in the story said that that actually played a role inir thehinking of whether or not they were going to say anything.

>> for all of these women, as is the case for survivors ofme ic violence and sexual violence in general, this was a painful process that took a long all of men were reluctant e me. initially to speak, although they didell friends and oter people at the time when we spoke to those people who corrorated ese stories, but in terms of reporting this, many of them hesitated. there are a variety of reasons for that, certainly his power, the fact that they werem frightened of physically but also in terms of his ability to retaliate, a also thetalked to friends who said he's doing too much good in the democratic party. do you want to remove him from this office? none of them were motivated by wanting to see eric schneiderman go dow they were motivated by wanting to help other women. and i think upon sesing hi statements championing the "me too" movement and talking about women's rights, many of them felt the hypocrisy was too much to bare anthat it was time fr them to speak in case it might

protect the next woman who comes along. >> yang: also another com tn thre these women's stories was the use of alcohol and tranquilizers. >> there is ahread running through this of substance abuse. many women described how out ofe controould become, especially under the influence of a whole lot of drinking, you know, at least oneem alleged drunk driving, which schneiderman denies. you know, it seems that this behavior was entwined with andex erbated by those substances. >> yang: were you strprised the swiftness of his fall, how quickly he resigned last nig >> it's not for me to predict or guess at what will happen to people's careers after a story like this. you know, my job was a veowry nawhich was to meticulously report out this story and interrogate these aims and regard them with scepticism but also really listen to what these women had to say. and i'll tell you, very perhapsedly it became apparent

how serious these claims were and also how the heavily corroborated they were. we had documentation, medical records, witnesses, pictures that we reviewed. so in light of that, you know, i ohink it is heartening that it started a cnversation very fast and that there was an impact very fast. >> yang: ronan farrow of "the new yorker," thank you very much. >> thanks, joh good to be here. >> brangham: its graduation season, and we continue iaw with our spseries about rethinking college. this year, we're focused on innovative programs helping loer-income students climb ladder of college and economic stability. tonight, hari sreeniva reports from new orleans about one university that rs a cure for a lack of diversity in medicine. it's part of our weekl education segment, "making the grade." >> let's start with glycolysis.

>> sreenivan: on the campus of xavier university, 18-year-old chris webb leads a biology review the night befora major test. >> all you really need to know. >> sreivasan: webb is helping fellow freshman who, like him, are enrolled in a rigorous pre- medical program. >> i want them to do as best as they can. >> sreenivasan: the scene is familiar one on the campus ofto xavier, an hcally black college in the heart of new orleans. >> what do you think of aerobic respiration? >> sreenivasan: students quiz each other on material from tough science classe kind of courses that often weed out premedical students.on >> i want them to do better than me, but when they do, that just makes me realize, okay, th competition is really serious. while we're having fun with it, it's also very real. >> sreenivasan: with a student o pulation of only 3,000, xavier university managesaduate more african americans who go on to become medical doctors than any other undergraduate institution in the country, including ivy leagues colleges and ite public universities.

that number is even more striking given a ds p in black maplying to medical schools. according to a recent port from the association of american medical colleges, fewer black males are applying to medical schools now than in 1978. reold verret is xavier's president. >> we do not compete to say who is better. it's almost like a relay race, the goal is to finish together. so our students are truly embraging and encog each other to achieve. >> sreenivasan: that turns on its head traditional pre-med programs. >> oh, yes, it does, it does. >> sreenivasan: which look to the left, look to the right. >> one of you is gone, yes. we want to get through because the competition is actually after we leave xavier, not here. the point is to get outhere together. >> sreenivasan: call it competitive collaboration. head of student advising quo vadis webster. >> at some schools you say, "look to your left, look to your right, this person may not be here." here, we say, "look to your left, look to your right, you better help the person next to you so that we can all make it."

>> sreenivasan: the intense student advising starts early. incoming freshman begin crafting medical school applications even before their first day as an undergraduate. >> before classes start, we go over a different aspect of thepr ess of preparing a competitive application to medical school. >> sreenivasan: you're starting before they actually walk in the door. have to. t you need six semesters aleast, because that's six semesters t fore you apply. you need every le of those semesters and summers to put into making yourself a competitive application. >> sreenivasan: the premed program also relies heavily on tutoring by upperclassn. bradley nn, says he could not have made it through his first semester without the free tutoring center. dunn's student tutor, chinyere jones. >> basically whenever he had a break he was in the tutoring center.. i was like, je >> sreenivasan: dunn believes students helping students comes in part from shared experiences about race.

>> they understand the plight of african americans. it's more relatable, and it's more intimate, and we all know the pitfalls that we may face ae people, and er, we're a unit. and i'm actually taking pride in that blackness. >> sreenivasan: race is also an important factor for chris webb, who chose xavier ovefull holarships to other universities, including vanderbilt and tulane. >> seeing people tha like me, and getting to med school, and through med school, it motivates me more competing with people that are like me. >> sreenivan: one of those role models is dr. ryan jupiter. piter is a resident doctor in the emergency department of new orleans university medical center. an xavier alumni, he visits campus regularly to tell students his own story as the first in his family to go to college. >> i wanted to make sure that i could look like i do and still be able to become what i want to be.

>> sreenivasan: how important is that? do you think that young ack men don't see that enough? >> definitely. i don't think they do at all. it's also a long journey, and when you see other peoplwho put in the time and the work and see the results of it, then it kind of helps with the long struggle that it takes. >> sreenivasan: whenmet dr. jupiter, he had his monogrammed jacket on, which he took off for our interview. but he explained how he normally wears the jacket in the hospital because it is one more visual cue to patients that he is a physician, something he says people don't always expect from a young black male. ave you been mistaken for something other thoctor? >> all the time. it happens. i don't think it's ional, or would like to think it's not intentional, that you can walk into a room as a patient, and when you see a ack, african-american male with dreads in his hair and, yo knat this is my doctor until you formally introduce yourself. or, you look at the comments,

"nurse," or "can you get this o r me," or "are you here to clean the room," speak. those things have all, have all happened. >> sreenivasan: students atha xavier hope toe those stereotypes. >> we all recognize that people don't truly see us for who we are. we use that to motivatend ourselves,o try to show people we're a lot more than what you take us for. >> as african-americans, we're known to be great in sports, but we can be so much greater in other areas, and i just feel like we need to be mor represented. >> sreenivasan: there is a bright spot for minority trends in the field. the number of black women applying to medical school is on the omse. >> blaen have something to prove. >> sreenivasan: xavier sophomore rachels hihens has already been accepted into the university of rochesr medical school. >> we've been objectified for so many years. we have to prove that we can be more than video dancers, we can actually use our brain and i think that's the motivating

force that's deep down within so many black women like myself. >> sreenivasan: and like hitchens, the students we spoke to at this small new orleans college had big plans. >> i want to be an orthopedic surgeon. >> i want to be a pediatri cardiologist. >> i want to be a rural family practice physician.an >> sreenivpaving the way for another generation of african american doctors. in new orleans for the pbs, newshom hari sreenivasan. >> brangham: finally tonight, a new book that examines society's obsession with weness and living long. its a book that suggests we might beetter off accepting the inevitable. jeffrey brown has this latest edition to the newshour bookshelf. >> brown: when is a medical procedure the best approach and when counterproductive? how much time should we spend in the gym or fixating on the latest diet for healthier living? a new book calls into question a

number of seeming certnties of modern life. it's called "tural causes." barbara ehrenreich is author of more than a dozen booksst including her lling look at the working poor "nickel and dimed." she joins me now. and welcome to you. >> thank you. >> brown: you are hitting at some, some big things, the presumed science of medicine today, the culture of health. in broad terms what do you see going on? >> well when i started this, as i was observing for years, how people my age and quite a bit younger were spending more and more time on their bodies. or their "mind bodies" to put it fashionably.an then the big time filler for a lot of older people:ti prev tests. you're spending so much time prolonging it prolonging your life, or trying to prolong it, e at you don't have much t live it. >> brown: u're not denying that these are some procedures and screening tests can save

lives are you? >> when you take a well personel like mand say now we have to test you for this cancer that cancer and the other thing. then i began to rebel, in my own case. >> brown: so i mean this is tors some degree a al issue for you and you write about it that you hit a point where you realized the news are nd of a provocative term. you were old enough to die. explain what you meant. right, that's right. you know it in fact if you were tested now and told it i had cancer i would not go through the treatments. i've been there done that wouldn't do it. m old enough to die. and i'm old enough to keep eating putting butter on my bread and other things that some people think are terribly unhealthy. >> brown: and so therefore it means that you're not going to worry you worry so much orork hard. you also talk about still goingo he gym right which is a big part of our culture these days and you've been part of that. >> i'm very much a part of it. d but the reasonit, is that

if i don't do it i don't feel good and i get cranky. so it's not that i think well if i put 30 minutes in on the treadmill i'll live for three more minutes at the end of my fe. no. >> brown: so you see other people doing the opposite making it too much like work. >> they are very anxious. you know the a lot of anxiety about keeping it up or dying. >> brown: you're trying to reframe the questions we should ask ourselves. >> some of the changes we need are not in ourselves in our own bodies. we don't control obviously evything like the pollutan in the a we're breathing, or the water we'rdrinking. but i've heard so many of these self-help books on "successful aging." and they say it's up tyou and if you start being frail or disabled or something as you age. that's your own damn fault. and no, i said that oing to happen. >> brown: it's not as it's not as up to us as we think. >> because we're going to die. and you die no matter what you

do.th you cannot hea off. and i would like i would like it if we have more of a conversation about that becaus that is a big taboo subject. >> brown: some of these things i know from reading earlier bookso of these things go to longtime concerns for your rights, issues of class. who gets who can afford some of the outcomes that are so much in our society today. >> yeah, and i think this book is about the huge differences between the working class and the elite.u ow if you're an ordinary worker, wellness means one thing. i really think we have to rethink our priorities in this country as a country where we have this over testing and everything of the insured people.th an at the other end of the tcial spectrum we have had children die becauir parents can't afford a dentist

to pull an infected tooth. >> brown: the new book is s."tural cau barbara ehrenreich, thank you very much. >> my pleasure. >> brangham: later tonight on pbs, "frontline" presents "myanmar's killing fields." in it, secret footage and first- hand accounts shed new light on the violence against the rohingya people. >> under international pressure, the myanmar military would eventually conduct an internal investigation. it concluded there was no rape no burning and no killing of civilians by its soldiers. they maintain that the campaign was a counterinsurgency clearance operation against bengali terrorists. >> rubbish. i mean this is not counterinsurgency. counterinsurgency means you go

after the specific units that are involved. but rounding up civilians burning their houses slicing the throats of children and raping pregnant women and then disemboweling them. i mean how on eartriis that counurgency? ese are not sporadic act these are organized well thought throug clearly it didn't seem to be an .peration that was put together at the last mome there is some designed to do is this was a textbook case of ethnic cleansing. >> brangham: "frontline" airs tonight at 10:00 p.m. eastern, 9:00 central on most pbs stations. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm willm brangham. join us on-line and again here tomorrow evening. of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, and goodnight. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:

>> babbel. a languagepp that teaches real-life conversations in a new language, like spanish, french, > the ford foundation. working with visionaries on the frontlines owosocial change dwide. >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and arsecurity. atgie.org. h >> and we ongoing support of these institutions and indivials.

>> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newsho productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

tukufu: we're the history detectives, and we're going to investigate some untold stories from america's past. gwen: in this episode, we discover if long hidden poems carved on the walls of a bleak island prison were written by this young woman's ancestors. wes: "i suffered misery on the ship "and sadness in the wooden building unconscious tears wet my lapel." tukufu: i find out how a treasure trove of papers belonging to the legendary abolitionist john brown ended up in a garage in sacramento. this is a personal letter from john brown written five years before harper's ferry. gwen: and what's this tranquil japaneshouse