ning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> brangham: good evening. i'm william brangham. judy woodruff is on vacation. on the newshour tonight, president trump pullof the iran nuclear deal-- we get a range of reaions and i sit down with former prime minister of israel ehud barak to discuss what happens next. >> always good to hear a determined leader say the iranians will never get a nuclear weapon but the question remains to what extenthat the optimal way to achieve it. >> brangham: then, new york attorney general eric schneiderman, an outspoken women's rights advocate, abruptly resigns after fourim women accusef 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 who is better. it's almost like a relay race, the goal is to finish together. >> brangham: all that, and more, on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> knowledge, it's where innovation begins. it's what leads us to discoverus and motivateo succeed. it's why we ask the tough questions and what leads us to the answers. at leidos, we're standing behind ose working to improve t world's health, safety, and efficiency. leidos.

>> kevin. >> kevin! >> kevin. >> advice for life. djfe well-planned. learn more at raymes.com. >> babbel. a language app that teaches real-life conversations in a new language. >> consumer cellular. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: wa >> this programade possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> brangham: from nuclear deal the president of the united states has made good on his vow to get out othe 2015 nuclear agreement with iran. nick schifrin begins our

coverage. >> schifrin: today president trump delivered on years of promises to unravel his predecessor's signature foreign policy achievement. >> i am announcing today that the united states will withdraw from the iran nuclear deal. >> schifrin: the president cld have withdrawn gradually, or left ambiguity. but today's action was swift and left no doubt. he reimposed the nuclear-related sanctions the deal lifted, and threatenedore sanctions. >> 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 dates, or nsets, that allow iran to eventually enrich and stockpile uranium, and restrict inspectors. >> this was a one-sided dealul that shave never ever been made.pe it didn't brine, didn't bring calm, and it never will. >> schifrin: but yesterday president hassan rouhani said iran might stay inside the deal if the other signatories europe, o>> ( translated ):ered 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 decision was criticized and relations with iran re welmed in order so save the deal. >> it pair mount that iran doesn't develop nuclear wea

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. offi >> the iran deal was one of the worst and most one-side 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 work. it began in the mid-2000s with so of the most complex sanctions in history that paralyzed iran's economy, and united the u.s., europe, russia anchina. by 2009, president obama offered iran negotiations. state department special advisor dennis ross opened a back channel through oman, taken over

by deputy secretary of state bill burns. after rouhani's 2013 election, the talks accelerated. at the end of 2013, the parts 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 president obama. >> 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 international community promised not to discourage investment in iran, and lifted sanctions andrn retued frozen assets worth t mon $100 billion.

m the last few weeks, french president emmanuron led furious european efforts to save the deal, known by its acronym, the j.c.p.o.a.an >> ( ated ): i always said we should not tear apart the j.c.p.o.a. and have nothing e-se. i think this wouldwould not be the good solution. schifrin: israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu led the international effort against the deal. >> the iran deal, the nuclear de, is based on lies. it is based on iranian lies ande iranian ion. >> schifrin: in the end, trump chose israel's argument, over europe's. >> america will not be heldar hostage to nuclackmail. we will not allow american cities to be threatened wih destruction. >> schifrin: president trump esented iran's nuclear program as continually advancing. but under the deal, iran would

need more than a year to build 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 president obama pointed out today in a rare statement: "the j.c.p.o.a.g is wor that is a view shared by our european allies, independent perts, and the current u.s. secretary of defense. the j.c.p.o.a. is in america'sre in. it has significantly rolled back iran's nuclear program.j. and the p.o.a. is a model for what diplomacy can accomplish." nick, thanks very much for this report. help us understand, what happens with iran no? you featured president rouhanie in yourort saying we're going to try to talk to the europeans to see sa we cany in some version of the deal, 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 deal, work with russia, china, and europe. that's partially about assuaging fears within ian. the economy is struggling. the message is don't fear. don't run on the banks. this isn't a crisis. the other version of this is trying to tap into chinese, european, russian interest in iran, especially china. they've invested a lot of money in iran. china may be willing to put with some u.s. sanctions. the problem with that medium ort lorm, it's a hard argument to make. en investment will go away. banks do what president trump did, and rouhani has promised economic advancement. so that leads to option number two, enrichment, going back to before the jcpoa, enriching to 18%, 19%, bringing dn breakout to about two months or so.

the third option is going nuclear, so to speak, kicking out inspectors, leaving the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. this will almost certaiy yield a u.s. and israeli response. iran lagely groups. they could use them to attack u.s. or allied interest. we may see one or a combination of those responses from iran. >> brangham: nick schifrin, thanks a lot. >> thank you. >> brangham: we'll have a full examination of the president's decisionand the reaction to it, after the news summary. in the day's other news, secretary of state mike pompeo headed for north korea, tola finalize aed summit between president trump and kim jong un. he said he also means to push pyongyang release three americans. president trump disclosed pompeo's trip as he announceds the u.s.itting the iran nuclear deal. he 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

korea and japan a future of great prosperity and security sin be achieved for everyone. >> brangham: the pnt also spoke by phone 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 nofor c.i.a. director pressed her case today, ahead of her senate cowirmation hearing tomorro gina haspel made the rounds of more senators. she faces questions about her rolen the interrogations of terror suspects after the 9/11 attacks. meanwhile, republican d burr, the senate intelligence committee chr, rejected democrats' demands for secret records on haspel's career. in armenia, parliament elected opposition leader nikol pashinian toe prime minister, after weeks of unrest. ruling party lawmakers had rejected his initial bid last

week but they reversed themselves to quell mass protests against corruption. thousands of pashinian's supporters, draped in white, cheered and danced in the s capital's centare. back in this country, u.s. senators voiced concn that the army corps of engineers is leaving puerto rico next week, nearly 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 get some 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. >> brangham: officials say power has been restored to about 9 of the island. still, some 22,000 people have g yet their power back. nearly 30,000 nurses, pharmacists and radiologists join against the university of

california today. they're pporting custodians, cafeteria workers and gardeners across the university's 10 campuses, picketg for higher wages. the walkout forced theystem's five medical centers to reschedule thousands of appointments and surgeries. and, wall street had a sluggish day. the dow jones industrial average gained not quite three points to close at 24,360. the nasdaq rose one poin and the s&p 500 slipped a fraction. still to come on the newshour: the world responds-- we talk to a critical senator, hear the state department's view and sito 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. w >> branghareturn now to

our lead story, president trump's decision to withdrawom he iran nuclear deal has drawn praise, and sparked condemnation. one of the critics is democratic a.nator tim kaine of virgi he's a member of the senaten forelations committee and a supporter of the nuclear deal. we spoke a short time ago and ia with his overall reaction. >> well, william, i was very, very disappointed. this is going the make us less safe. it's going the ise the risk of unnecessary war in the middle east, and as a member of the armed services and foreign relations coiittee with a kd in the united states marine corps, i don't think we ought to be undermining diplomacy. i think we ought to be strengthening diplomacy. >> brangham: the president has argued that there were many problems with this deal, tha the nset provisions allowed the restrictions on iran to go away, that the deal es not address iran's development of ballistic missiles, that it doesn't deal with iran' behavior elsewhere in the region. are those not fair criticisms in your mind? there are fir criticisms of

iran, but those aren't good criticisms of the deal. the first sentence of the first paragraph of the deal, william, as you know, ir pledges never to seek to purchase, acquire, oo denuclear weapons. why would the u.s. want to blow up that deal and relaieve in of that obligation? it makes absolutely no sense. and as you know, the secretary of defense, secretary mattis, testified in an open hearing before the armed servicesco ittee that the deal was in america's interest and iran was complying with te deal. so he is ignoring the advice not only of our allies, but even of his own secretary ofense, and i see no advantage to it. >> brangham: i understand the a deal h pledge from iran never to develop them, but as prime minister of israel netanyahu showed last week the iranians at one point did veracy vely try to build a nuclear weapons program, and the president argues they signeis eal in bad faith, you cannot trust them, so that public is meaningless in thieys . >> the reason you do a deal is

if you don't trust somebody, you want to get inspections. that's what this deal got us that we never had before and iran n doesn't have tolow inspections. that was the core of secretary the deal allowed significant inspections of iran's nuclear capacity. of course in the past they were seeking nuclear weapons. that's why we did the deal to begin. with we did it to top theirap nuclear wes program, and even the israeli security officials and mossad intelligence officials when i go to the region and meet with them, they say iran has been complying with the deal. we should focus our energy and attention on the thran is doing wrong. we gave the white house sanctions authority nearly a year ago to take stiff action against iranian violatioof missile program rules and violations of human rights provisions. the white house has chosen not to use those sanctions tools and instead they're blowing up th 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 going tolt be diffibecause the reason that sanctions bite is it's the global community is with us. but here we have our alies, germany, france, britain, urging us to stay in the del. we have the international atomic energy agency saying that iranm is cying with the deal. the sanctionse bitrd if the world is unified, but now the president has driven a wed between us and our european allies in the guise of what he would call america first. what he's really pitchinis america alone, and america being alone without allies working hand in hand with us on an issue like this does not make us stronger. it makes us weaker. >> brangham: as you heard, th president today said secretary

of state mike pompeo is on his way to north korea right now to start these initial talks for that nuclear deal. potential nuclear deal. do you believe wha president did today helps or hurts our negotiating position with the north koreans? >> i think it hurts our position with the north koreans. i'm glad we're having this dialogue. i think dialogue is preferable toot havinglogue, but the message to the north koreans is this: if you do a deal with the united states, and ven if the international community and all the age nncies sayth korea is complying with the deal, the u.s. is not a reliable partner and will back out of it. with respect to the iran deal, we should keep the focus on iranian behavior and misbehavior, but what president has done, he's now turned the focus on america's good faith in keeping a deal that's being complied with. i think that will reduce theke hood of north korea feeling confident enough they could agree to a deal with the united states.

>> brangham: do you have a sense what the iraare going to do? presidenrouhani said heould like to stay in the deal with the european, perhaps china andu russiathere also seemed to be a hint that they might perhaps put in place the ability to start up teir program again. what is your sense of what they're going to do next? >> i'm not for sure, but here's what my gut tells me: i think they will probably try to work together with the europeanes alrussia, and china to continue to comply with some aspects of the deal so those nations will help them ecoomically. byg that they'll effectively drive a wedge between the unit 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 them sayde, well, pre trump is out of the deal. we don't have to do the rigorous inspections that the deal requires.

i think you'll start to see them aling back on alowing inspections, even if they don't immediately start up activity to develop plutonium or uranium. >> brangham: senator tim kaine ofu virginia, thank ry much. >> absolutely. >> brangham: now we get a perspective from wthin the trump administration. andrew peek is deputy assistant secretary of state for te middle east. welcome to the news hour. >> thanks so much. >> brangham: so all of our allies in ths deal counseled wthe president not to dohat he did today. they said, the deal is working. it may be im ierfect, but its keeping iran further from a nuclear weapon than they were before. are they wrong? >> you know, i think we've beern g for our allies with months to communicate our concerns about the deal. i was encouraged that in that process that we all agree on how acute the issue is, the raw iraniai problem sets. s encouraged also by president macron's statement after his visit as well as his

tweet today about wanting to work with us to fnd a more comprehensive deal. so the takeaway should be that we all agree on this problem, we just occasionally 't see eye to eye on the way forward. but i have ever confidence that this will help us get to a better, more comprehensive dea that addresses all of iran's behavior. >> even with the administration, secretary of defense jim mattis said he read the deal three times over. he felt the inspections on iran were onerous. he felt that it was in our national interest to stay in the deal, and yet the president did the opposite. why is that? >> gosh, i think... i'll let the secretary of defense speak for himself. i hink the administration's position is, as i've just said, you know, i think we sa the deal as mitigating ouri ablity to counter effectively the totality of iran's behavior, particularly its power projection in the middle east and its support of proxies while at best delaying iran's path to

a nuclear weapon, not eliminating. >> brangham: explain about how these sanctions will work.ll there e sanctions on particular parts of iran's economy. the president said with regards ionother nations that any nat that helped iran in its quest for nuke her weapons could also be strongly sand.ctio what does that mean? >> well, so the way this is going to work is thentities and sectors that do business with iran or that are part of iran wll be slowly redesignated after 90 or 1 days. that is time enough to allow those entities doing business with iran to draw downpour thir investments. we have no des tireo affect entities other than iranian ones. you know, the u.s. has had secondary sanctions as part of its iran policy since the late '90s the purpose is to discourage investment in prblematic iranian entities or entities

that allow iran to domatthe region and conduct totality o its nefarious activoies. the way get that reduced investment is a process, an it agement,e process of eng induce. s, and occasionally little prods. >> brangham: the presidentes belie can renegotiate this deal, the things that have bothered him all along, that some of the restrictions have sunset clauses, that iran is developing ballistic missiles, theta tau are doing all of these things in thon that the administration is not fond of. all of our allies who helped negotiate this deal in the first place said that putng those elements in the deal was not going to work. why does the president berea t thse will work now? >> well, i think the president's view is that when the deal was gotiated, we were at a place of intense pressure on iran. we had a t of leverage.

we hadprecedented 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 could have gotten more out of it. i think by reimposing some of these sanctions and working with our partners we'll get to a place where we can that. >> brangham: what about the criticism that this jeopardizes n,r credibility as nathat our word can't be taken. mike pompeo is on his way to north korea. he's probably there right nowst, ting negotiations with the north koreans about their nuclear program. if the nortkoreans are looking at what the president has done and torn up this existing deal, why this they believe, why would they believe we could hold ourwo on this one? >> i think two things. one is i would say that it should be no surprise to our partners and othteer stathat there was deep bipartisan concern about the iran deal whee it wasotiated. this was not a

republican-democrat thing. this was not a tump administration versus other republican thing. this was a position shared by virtually every republican primary ndidate. hence the deal was submitted. the deal was nevmier subed to the senate as a treaty because of that bipartisan concern. so i think today's actions reflect and that concern reflected i think the problems in the deal.ng >> bm: doesn't this possibly... if the north koreans are lo america signed this deal with iran. now a new president comes in and tears it up, why should ey trust what the president says will be honored? >> because i think they can be for sure he wants a good deal, just not a 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 little better than we did. >> brangham:ndrew peek, thank you very much for coming

out. >> thanks so much. >> brangham: now, for another voice on the fraught process of trying to avoid new wars in the midd east. ehud barak was prime minister of israel from 1999 to 2001, and has served in many other senior sitions in israel's government, most recently as defense minister. his political career followed three decades of service in israel's military. first as a special-forces 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.ni mr. prime er, welcome. we will get to the book in a moment, but first, let's just talk a little bit about today's news. can you tell me your reaction to deciding to pull out of the nuclear deal? >> the speech was good and coherent, and it's always good to hear a determined leader say the iranians will never get a

nuclear weapon. but the question remains to what extend is the optimal way to achieve it. the fact that america pulls out doesn't cancel the deal. it's there. the europes 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 far east or somewhere who can --. >> brangham: work arnd it. >> yeah, go around it some the question is, what is the best way.ir thnians, they are bad guys. they develop missiles, but that's out of the agreement. they spread terror all aound the region, including in the golan heights.at part of the agreement. that's not part of the agreement. soyrobably the better wa would have been to approach those wh are willing and establish a new

forum to come and convince iran to do more. >> brangham: you mean to renegotiate some aspect? >> no, not bealause the d. the deal is there. i thought it's a bad deal when it was made. but once it was signed, it became matter of fact. in a way we don't have the spend too mucngh worrbout the situation, because once the american president announced that america is out of the deal, so that's a new fact. the most we ca say thatwe hope now that he might be able to convince the other participants of the dea the other participants in the deal to move togethub with him. i it. >> brangham: let's shift a little bit to your country'sir dealings wit in syria. as you well know, iran has been building up ae military prsence in syria. israel has been pushing back on that. this keeps escalatine do you h sense that israel and iran are going to come to a

more ove conflict in syria? >> i hope not. i'm convinced it's not needed. israel is a strong power. we should be self-confident enough to, first of all, hit any iranian deployment in syria. in this regard i would say if you have tohoot, shoot. don't talk. that was said in a famous mo having said that, the developments are disturbing, especially the effort to upgrade the accuracy of the 140,000ro ets and missiles which hezbollah has in lebanon, and 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.a i feel tt there's more deterrent in keeping some aspec of our operations as a sorof

mystery. so basically it seems that e public aspect of it sells more than the domestic needs of this orther nature. but israel says so clearly, we have to win any w.ar each and every war we have. our enemies have to win only one. israel developed, advanced, and became stronger during the interval between wars. we don't have any interest in accelerateing toward war, but we have the make sure that we wi one if it is imposed upon us.> >> sreenivasanrangham: let's tat 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. you were there at the creation of so many pivotal moment. s in israel's history. and i'm just curious, at the time, were you aware of the sense of mission? because now, as you look back on you life, it certainly seems that you feel that sense of real's purpose, but at the time, diy it feel that wa you? >> i felt very clearly, even at the age of , that we are part of a huge ground movement, the war, declaration of independence. i was already reading ape news it was clear that something dramatic that never happened is happening in from the of our eyes. later on i also witnessed the many of the events. i remember fighting in sinai during '57 exactly 50 years ago, and the 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 deey proved. so i was aware at this time of the importance of the event. i was not aware usually of the importance of mself in it. >> brangham: the other thing that really comes through in yourook is that israel continues and must find some resolution to how it deals with the palanesti as you well know, the government in israel has very much rightno a fortress israel position. do you have any sense of hopeh thate resolution with the palestinians will come? >> yeauh, of corse. hope. 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 aboutgo whaod for the country, especially the last tee yers. with bibi more and more divingmi

into thi seth of extreme pessimism and anxiety and self-victimizing mood, which is quite a good recipe for practical domesc politics, but it's a very poor one for statesmanshi i think that we are heading beyond these daily events. we are heading into the election, which is clearly wrong. the tention of this government led and directed by extreme right is to torpedo any possibility of separation or disengagement between us and the palestinians. this leads us bayically into one state named israel coving the whole area from the mediterranean to the river jordan. but that means because we are 10 million people there, 6.5 miion jews and 6.5 million arabs --. >> brangham: the democrats are not in your favor.

>> it's non-democratic. based on our successes, you know, the most successful national fortress of the 20th century, we have a 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 abut the palestinians. i am caring about our own idtity, future, and seurity. and our interest demands that we will disengage from the palestinians, delineate line within which we'll have all of our security interestsmost of the settlers, and untilly jewish majority for generions to come. i always used to kwo robert frost saying, "god fences make good neighbors." we need it in the middle east. never lose the focus on thed objective the understanding whether it takes time, more or less time.

we will ultimately reach a normal situation in the middle east. >> brangham: the bk is "my country, my life: fighting for israel, searching for peace." former prime minister ehud barak, thank you very much. >> thank yo >> brangham: stay with us, coming up on the newshour: o the numberf black men going to medical school is dropping. how one university is trying tor reverse thd. ngd, an author asks, are we too worried about lionger, instead of living better? now to a stunning stort allegations of physical abuse by a puic figure who's been outspoken in the me-too moment. last nightthe "new yorker" published the accounts of women who said they were assaulted byt new york stateney general eric schneiderman. he's well-known for his politics and his work, including adcating for women who hav been sexually abused.

as john yang tells us, less than three hours later, he resigned. a warning: theiolent nature of this story may make it unsuitable for some viewers. >> yang: william, the four women whose experiences were 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 jane 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 women were saying their experiences were. >> it's good to be here. these allegations are incdiy serious, john. we're talking about women independently of each other recounting nearly identical patterns of slapping, hitting,

choking. of course, eric schneiderman specifically targeting choking. and these women independently recound that he was, in fact, engaging in that behavior. one important point i want thes makehat they anticipated that he would claim this was consensual role playing. and they to a one went to painso larify that that is not what they are alleging. this was, as one woman in the story put it,ot0 shades of gray." this is not a gray area at all m in tnds of these women they gave no indication of con sets. in one case there was no romantic relationship at all. this was a former colleague, a prominent attorney, and he, according to her story, came on the her at a paty and when she rebuffed him he began calling her really horrific epithets and slapped her across the face hard enough to leave the mark the next day. we saw pictures of that mark. s

>> yanhneiderman put out a letter to the new yorker saying, "i have engaged inng role-pland other consensual activity. i have not assaulted anysae." yo there were threats by schneiderman. >> many of these women described a pattern of threats and specifically threats using the power of's schneidermffice. he would talk about his ability to track people to, wiretap people. in the words of one womanca ing 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 in his mind, but i can say these women took commentses like that to be a threat. >> brangham:>> yang: and also ye about his role as attorney general and sort of championing the me too movement. a couple of the women in the story said that that actually played a role inheir thnking of whether or not they were going to say anything.

>> for all ofheseen, as is the case for survivors of domestic violence and sexual violence in general, this was a painful process that k a long time. all of the women were reluctant initially to speak, although they did tell friends and other people at the time when we spoke to those people who corroboratei these st, but in terms of reporting this, many of them hee tated. there variety of reasons for that, certainly his power, the fact that they were ightened of him physically but also in terms of his ability to retaliate, and alsedo they ta to friends who said he's doing too much good in the democratict do you want to remove him from this office? none of them were motivated by thnting to see eric schneiderman go down. were motivated by wanting to help other women. and i think upon seeing his statements champioe ng the too" movement and talking about women's rights, many of them felt the hypocrisy wasoo much to bare and that it was time for them to speak in case it might

protect the next woman who comes along. >> yang: also another common thread to these women's stories was the use of alcohol and tranquilizers. >> there iad a thunning through this of substance abuse. d ny women described how out of control he wocome, especially under the influence of a whole lot of drinking, you know, at least one of them alleged drunk driving, which schneiderman denies.u ow, it seems that this behavior was entwined with andby exacerbatehose substances. >> yang: were you surprised at the swiftness of his fall, how quickly he resigned last night?s >> iot for me to predict or guess at what will hapen to people's careers after a story like this. you knw, my job was a very narrow, which was to meticulously report out this story and interrogate rhese claims agard them with scepticism but also really listen to what these women had to say. and i'll tell you, very rhapsedly it became apparent

how serious these claims were and also how the heavily corroborated they were. we had documentation, medical w recordtnesses, pictures that we reviewed. so in light of that, you know, i think it is heartening that it started a conversation very fast and that there was an impactry fast. >> yang: ronan farrow of "ther new ker," thank you very much. >> thanks, john. good to be here. >> brangham: its graduation season, and we continue now with our special series about rethinking college. this year, we're focused on ginnovative programs help lower-income students climb the ladder of college and economic stability. tonight, hari sreenivasan reports from new orleans about one univsity that offers a cure for a lack of diversi in medicine. it's part of our weekly education segment, "making the grade." >> let's start with glycolysis.

xavier university, 18-year-old chris webb leads a biology review the night before a major test.ea >> all youy need to know. >> sreenivasan: webb is helping fellow freshman who, like him, are enroed 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 of xavier, an historically black college in the heart of news. orlean >> what do you think of aerobice iration? >> sreenivasan: students quiz each other on material from tough ience classes, the kind of courses that often weed out ememedical students. >> i don't want o do better than me, but when they do, that just makes me realize, okay, this competiti is really rious. while we're having fun with it, it's also very real. >> sreenivasan: with a student population of only 3,000, xavier university manages to graduate more africanmericans who go on to become medical doctors than any other undergraduate institution in the country, including ivy leagues colleges and elite publicniversities.

that number is even more striking given a drop in blacko males applyingdical schools. according to a recent report from the association of american medical colleges, fewer black males are applying to medical schools now than in 1978. reynold verret ixavier's president. >> we do not compete to say who i better. it's almost like a relay race, the goto finish together. so our students are truly embracing and encouraging each other to achieve. >> sreenivasan: that turns onra its headtional pre-med programs. >> oh, yes, it does, it does. >> sreenivasan: which is 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 out there together. >> sreenivasan: call it competitive collaboration. ad of student advising quo vadis webster. >> at some schools you say, "look to your left, look to yout righs person may not be here." he, we say, "look to your left, look to your right, you better help the person next toha you so tt we can all make it."

>> sreenivasan: the intensesi giudent ad starts early. incoming freshman crafting medical school applications even befo undergraduate.ay as an >> before clses start, we go er a different aspect of the process of preparing a competitive application to medical school. >> sreenivas: you're starting before they actually walk in the door. >> have to. you ne six semesters at least, because that's six semesters before you apply. yoseneed every last one of t semesters and summers to put into making yourself a competitive application. >> sreenivasan: thpremed program also relies heavily on tutoring by upperclassmen. bradley dunn, says hcould 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, jeez. >> sreenivasan: dunn believes students helping students co ss in part frred 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 as aople, and together, we'r unit. and i'm actually taking pride in that blackness. >> sreenivasan: race is also an important factor for chris webb, who chose xavier over full scholarships to other vanderbilt and tulane. >> seeing people that look like me, and getting to med school, and through med school, motivates me more competing with people that are like me. >> sreenivasan: one of tse role models is dr. ryan jupiterr jupiter isident doctor in the emergency department of new orleans university medical center. an xavier alcani, he visits us regularly to tell students his own story as the first in his famy 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 black 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 people who 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. >> sreivasan: when we met 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. have you been mistaken for someth >> all the time.octor? it happens. i don't or would like to think it's not intentional, but it's veryouare thatan walk into a room as a patient, and when you see a black, african-american male with dreads in his hair and, you know, that this is my doctor until you formally introduce yourself. or, you look at the comments,

"nurse," or "can you get this for me," or "are you here to the room," so to speak. those things have all, have all happened. >> sreenivasan: students at xaer hope to change those stereotypes. >> we all recognize that people don't truly see us for who we are. we use that to motivate ourselves, and to try to show orople we're a lot more than what you take us >> as african-americans, we're known to be great in sports, but we can be so much grea other areas, and i just feel like we need to be more represented. >> sreevasan: there is a bright spot for minority trends in the field. the number of black women applying to medical school is on the rise. >> black women have thing to prove. >> sreenivasan: xavier sophomore rachels hitchens has already been accepted into the university of rochester medical school. >> we've been obctified 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 sa black women like myself. >> sreenivasan: and like hitchens, the students we spoke to at this small new orleans college had big plans. >> i want be an orthopedic surgeon. >> i want to be a pediatric cardiologist.t >> i w be a rural family practice physician. >> sreenivasan: pavingay for another generation of african american doctors. re new orleans for the pbs newshour, i'm hariivasan. >> brangham: finally tonight, a new bookhat examines our society's obsession with wellness and ling long. its a book that suggests we might be better off cepting the inevitable. jeffrey brown has this latest edition to the newshour bookshf. >> brown: when is a medical procedure e best approach and when counterprodtive? 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 certainties of modern life. it's called "natural causes." barbara ehrenreich is author of more than a dozen books including her bestselling look at the working poor "nickel and dimed."e ins 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 >> well when i started this, as i was observing for years, how inople my age and quite a bit younger were spemore and more time on their bodies. or their "mind bodies" to put it fashionably. and then the big time filler fo a older people: preventive tests. you're spending so much time prolonging it prolongingryour life, org to prolong it, that you don't have much time to live it. >> brown: you're not denying that these are some procedures and screening tests can save lives are you?

>> when you ke a well person like myself and say now we have to test you for thisancer that cancer and the other thing. then i began to rebel, in my own case. >> brown: so i mean this is to some degree a personal issue for you and you write about it that you hit a point where realized the news are kind of a provocative term. you re 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 tsd cancer i would not go through the treatm i've been there done that wouldn't do it. i'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 terbly unhealthy. >> brown: and so therefore it means that you're not going to worry you worry so much or work hard. you also talk about still going to the 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. but the reason i do it, 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 thei' treadmil live for three more minutes at the end of my life. no. s >> brown: so y other people doing the opposite making it too much like work. >> they are very anx you know the a lot of anxiety .out keeping it up or dyi >> 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 dies. we don't control obviously everything like the pollutants in the air we're breathing, or the water we're drinking. but i've heard so many of these self-help books on "successful aging." and they say it's up to you and if you start being frail or disabled or something as you age. that's your own damn fault. and no, i said that it's going to happen. >> brown: it's not as it's not as up to us as we think. b ause we're going to die. and you die no matter what you

do. yocannot head that off. and i would like i would like it if we have more of a conversation about that because that is a big taboo subject. >> brown: some of these things w rom reading earlier books, some 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 cls and the elite. you know if you're an ordinary worker, wellness means one thing. i really think we have rethink our priorities in this country as a country where we ha everything of the insured people. and then at the other end of the social spectrum have had children die because their d rents can't afford a dentist

to pull an infecoth. >> brown: the new book is "natural causes." barbara ehrenreich, thank you very much. >> my plsure. >> brangham: later tonight on pbs, "frontline" presents "myanmar's killing fields." in it, secret foage and first- hand accounts shed new light on the violence against the rohingya people. >> under international pressure, the myanmar military would eventually conduct an internaln. investig 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. t i mes is not counterinsurgency. gounterinsurgency means yo

after the specific units that are involved.ci but rounding ulians burning their houses s the thats of children and rapi pregnant women and then disemboweling them. i mean how on earth is that counterinsurgency? these are not sporadic acts. these are organized we thought through.rl clit didn't seem to be an operation that was put together at t last moment. 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 william brangham join us on-line and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at tws pbs ur, thank you, and goodnight. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:

>> babbel. a language app that tehes real-life conversations in a new language, like spanish, french, o >> the forundation. working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in educatenn, democratic gement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongopport of these institutions and individuals.

>> 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 newshour productio, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

phil rosenthal: whoa! this is not my life! this is too cool for me! i'm going to barcelona. (fireworks exploding) not only does this city never sleep, it really knows how to eat. it's a search for the best tapas. o that'sne of the most delicious things i ever ate in my life. and one of nature's greatest gifts: jamón. they don't even see that i'm eating half of it as i go. l e best this wonderful, one-of-a-kind city has to offer. whoo! next on... rosenthal: there were things i never tasted growing up, f like food with avor. in our house, meat was a punishment. when i went into the real world, i was like a man coming out of the desert. then i started writing comedy and traveling to other lands to ea